7.19

Episode 7.19

"Above or Below"

co-authored by: silver and Doyle

September 6th, 2002

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We open in the basement of the SDPD. The Commissioner is once again in communion with the entity, which has grown to monstrous proportions. The Lieutenant enters and waits respectfully for the Commissioner to rise.

When he does, he beckons the lieutenant near and in a low, excited voice says that it's almost time. The final stage of their master's transformation is nearly upon them. Even as he speaks the insubstantial mists surrounding the entity begin to swirl and take form, and through it can be glimpsed for a moment a huge horned and clawed beast with eyes glowing red, before it begins to take shape. The form caves in on itself, becoming more solid, until it takes the shape of a dark haired, dark-eyed woman in a peach coloured dress. The lieutenant whispers, awe in his voice, and asks why the entity chose this manifestation. The Commissioner replies that this dead woman was the form their master used in its last sojourn on earth.

Opening Credits.

Buffy lies in her bed, shifting uncomfortably, in the throes of a dream. In it, she�s standing at the counter in a fast food restaurant. Back by the grill, Xander whistles as he flips burgers, but there is a demented gleam in his eye. There's a knock on the drive through window and Xander scoops up a bag soaked red from the counter. Buffy stares at the rivulets of blood left behind as he goes to the window and leans out. "Would you like fries with that, little girl?" he asks devilishly. Disturbed, Buffy wanders into the Magic Box to find Anya wrapping a present. Anya looks up cheerily, talking about how she spent so much time on this, and how Xander will be so pleased. Suddenly Buffy brandishes a knife. Looking horrified, she can't stop herself from plunging it into Anya's abdomen. Her friend looks up at her with a pained, betrayed expression before expiring, and Buffy gasps when she looks beyond her slumped form to see Xander watching her with hate in his eyes. Out of the corner of her eye she spies a cloaked figure and whirls toward it, but it scurries out of her line of sight. Bolting upright in bed, she finds Angel standing in her doorway looking uncertain. He says he heard her cry out, and she tells him it was a nightmare. He looks worried at this news, and asks if he can talk to her. Buffy sits up and Angel sits on the bed next to her. They both subtly react to his sudden proximity, and he backs off a bit to avoid making her uncomfortable. Buffy looks a little disappointed but quickly takes control of herself.

Angel tells Buffy that something the padre said made him do some research on the ghostly spanish men that had caused all of the people in Sunnydale to disappear, and what he'd found wasn't good. Buffy asks what he found, and he replies that the hombre de medicine, the doctor, who had come with the original spanish settlers in Sunnydale had kept a series of journals which included all births and deaths in the village. Around two hundred years ago there was an unusual rash of murders, unexplained deaths and the like.

The doctor noted that the legend of El Primer was blamed for the deaths, and the state of unrest in the village. The situation worsened until a final log entry in which the doctor mentions "la asesina" - the slayer - a young woman named Isabella, who fought El Primer and vanquished him at the cost of her own life. There were no more entries after that one. Angel goes on to say that he's searched for more information, but hasn't turned anything up yet.

Buffy looks perplexed. "And this Prima Donna thing..." "El Primer," Angel corrects. "Right," Buffy amends. "It's what the ghosts were trying to keep away by removing all the humans, right? Because humans are the ones who calling it forth?"

Angel confirms this, and then with an air of grave importance asks Buffy if she knows what El Primer means. She doesn't, and he tells her. "The First."

The Sunnydale PD precinct basement. The Commissioner and Lieutenant are looking at the First with varying expressions of awe and glee. The manifestation steps toward them with a smile. "Thanks for conjuring me. I'm going out for a bit. Don't wait up." With that she turns and walks out. The Lieutenant starts to open his mouth to question the First�s actions, but the Commissioner elbows him into silence, growling �Dan�.� Under his breath.

Upstairs, no one sees the First as she walks serenely and silently through the busy station. She pauses at Grant's desk, lingering and looking at him as he crouches to put a file away, then stands to pick up the phone when it rings. He holds the receiver up to his ear and converses - completely oblivious - as the First comes to stand right in front of him, invading his personal space. She looks at him and even strokes his arm, then smiles and then glides away. She walks past a score of unseeing cops going about their business on her way to the front of the building. At booking, two officers have brought in a perp and the First walks right through the man, causing him to shiver violently as she walks out into the night.

Cut to the park. We get a POV from someone walking along the path, seeing what they�re seeing. To one side of the path is a park bench, upon which a homeless man is sleeping. At first his slumber is untroubled, but as the view remains on him his brow furrows and he begins to jerk. Whatever he�s dreaming becomes increasingly more distressing and violent, and the man starts sweating, twisting and trying to wake up but he can�t. He cries out in his sleep, but as the camera viewpoint pans around the park bench we see that there is no one to hear him�no one but the two Bringers standing above his thrashing body.

Commercials.

Buffy, Tara, Willow and Angel are in the living room at the Summers House. Angel has just finished telling the others what "El Primer" means. Willow asks if they're sure this is THE first they're talking about? As in the first evil? Angel confirms it, relying on the journal from original spanish settlers' doctor's journal. He also remembers the legend the young spanish ghost mentioned, and seems intrigued by it. He wants to learn more. But for now, Tara wants to know what the First wants. "Evil - duh!" Willow says almost nastily. At Tara's wounded look she immediately apologizes, looking unnerved and confused. Buffy smooths it over by saying that whatever the First wants, it's obviously not going to be good. Angel remembers his first encounter with the First, and says that it appeared to be really focused on him killing Buffy. "But I couldn't," he says. He and the slayer exchange a meaningful look before she grimaces. "Ooh yay, someone ELSE trying to kill me." Willow gets back on track by asking how they stop it, and Buffy tells her about how the Bringers invade a victim's dreams. They also have a physical form, and wherever they are it causes everything around them to die. Buffy goes on to say that they can somehow maybe find them this way, and kill them before they can do any damage.

Angel looks pained, and relates how the Bringers torture their victims with images from your past. People who have reasons to hate you and hurt you. Everyone looks at him sympathetically, and he looks away. Buffy reflects upon her own recent nightmare. Taking charge, she starts assigning jobs. Angel thinks the legend might be important, so she tells him to try and find out what he can. To Willow and Tara she assigns the job of finding out where the Bringers might be holed up. When Willow asks what Buffy's going to do, the slayer reminds her that with the Bringers last time came the First. It's out there somewhere, and she hopes to find it.

Cut to the street in front of the Espresso Pump. The First glides along looking ethereal and deadly, and receives the occasional sidelong glance from those who pass by her. Her attention is caught by a dog on the sidewalk and she steps closer. The dog stops wagging its tail as she approaches and crinches back, baring its teeth and growling. The First smiles coldly at it, and its growl turns into a whimper. It backs away from her and she watches avidly as its owner comes out of the Espresso Pump onto the sidewalk. Suddenly vicious, the dog launches itself at its master and sinks its teeth into the man's leg. The First smiles in sinister satisfaction and turns away. As she does so, she walks right into the path of an oncoming car which squeals to a stop. An angry horn blares at her, and she glares at the driver through the windshield. The woman behind the wheel swallows, her expression suddenly changing, now on edge. When the First drifts off again the woman sits there for a moment fuming; guns the engine. Down the street we can see a movie has gotten out, and the woman's suddenly maniacal eyes fix on the pedestrians as she revs the engine some more. Finally she lets off the brake and squeals toward the helpless people on the street. The focus remains on the First's wicked glee as we first hear several screams, and then a crash.

Back at the Summers House it is peaceful and quiet in comparison...until Dawn comes home. Tara - who had been leaning over Willow's shoulder as the red-head was going through magic books - straightens and asks how the studying went at Janice's. Dawn says fine, and Willow looks up sternly, asking if Josh was there. Dawn says that he was, but at their twin looks of disaproval she defends herself by saying she hasn't reneged on her promise to Buffy; nor does she plan to. She'll be more careful but they can't expect her to stop seeing him, because she won't. She really likes him.

Dawn starts to head upstairs - saying she's got a test in the morning and she wants to get a good sleep - but then stops when she realizes Buffy is missing. She asks where her sister is, and Willow and Tara exchange a look, as if trying to decide how much to tell the girl. Willow finally steps forward and says that something's come up, and Buffy's out trying to take care of it. In the meantime...she warns Dawn that if she has any nightmares or anything to come and get her immediately. Dawn is less than thrilled at the prospect this new trouble that might give her nightmares, but eventually shrugs and goes upstairs. She passes by Angel in Joyce�s old room, researching.

Out in the town Buffy is searching for signs of the First. When she hears sirens she's sure she's found her sign, and she follows the sound to an ambulance pulling up in front of the Sun Cinema. She runs up as an EMT is loading an injured pedestrian onto the gurney. There are a couple of other ambulances going through the same motions behind them. She wants to know what happened and the EMT looks up and startles her by addressing her by name. He says he figured she'd show up eventually. Buffy looks flabbergasted, and the EMT introduces himself as Wendell. Buffy looks blank and Wendell reminds her that he graduated with her from Sunnydale High. At her further confusion he reminds her of the time he opened his schoolbook to find spiders crawling all over him. This finally jogs Buffy's memory, and she asks him what he meant by wondering when she'd show up. "Come on, Buffy," he says with a tentative smile. "The whole class ended up knowing who you were. I know what you do. And did you think with all the ambulances you chase that none of us has ever seen you?"

Buffy shakes off this new discovery, remembering she's there for a reason. She asks him again what happened and he fills her in on the sudden insanity that seemed to grip everyone on the block. Not insanity, Buffy looks like she's thinking...evil. Her suspicions are confirmed when Wendell says this is the fourth call he's gotten tonight of this nature. She asks him if anyone saw anything unusual, but before he can even answer another EMT tells Wendell to shut up, she could be a reporter. In response Buffy whips out her police badge and flashes it. The other EMT immediately shuts up and reports that the woman he just pulled out of the car was ranting about a dark haired woman in a beige colored dress. He says he'd pass it off as ramblings, but he heard some witnesses discussing her, too. They said there was something off about her. "Which way did she go?" Buffy wants to know. The EMT points her toward the residential district and when Buffy heads in that direction she knows she's on the right trail...when she sees the street soaked with blood beneath her feet, and the trail of carnage to follow. Buffy runs.

Commercials.

Buffy follows the trail toward the residential district, becoming anxious when she finds herself heading toward her own home. Looking around warily, she quickly goes inside. Her worries appear unfounded as Willow and Tara look up from the dining room table. When she asks how far they've gotten, both the witches have a glum look on their faces. Buffy asks "What is it?" and Tara admits they've been unable to find anything solid that would lead them to where the bringers are hiding out. The only info they've been able to find is pretty vague and doesn't make a lot of sense. Willow says sorry to Buffy but Buffy acts cool with it and says they'll just have to keep trying. Angel appears from the kitchen and suggests they turn on the tv incase there are any reports of anything "unnatural� going on. Willow gets up and turns on the tv. He asks Buffy if they should just go out looking for any places where all the foliage has died. > Buffy indicates in a minute. Clearly she's still on edge about the First, and she wants to check on Dawn. She heads upstairs and finds her sister - ready for bed - looking out the window into the night. She doesn't turn when Buffy enters the room, but asks if she thinks Spike will ever come back. Buffy says she doesn't know, but she hopes so.

Suddenly we cut to the same scene through the window from outside, and the camera pans down to the ground, where the First is looking up with an expression of rapture on her face. Inside, downstairs, Angel leans against the doorway between the foyer and the dining room, scanning the book in his hands. As he goes on about what he may be on to, Willow nods and appears to be listening, but there's something off about her expression. After a moment she looks up past Angel's shoulder, but says nothing as we suddenly see Tara behind him with a stake. Sensing something, Angel looks up and follows Willow's line of sight. He quickly ducks out of the way just as Tara thrusts with the stake. It strikes the doorjam, splintering uselessly.

Upstairs, Dawn seems saddened and Buffy forgets about her search for the First for a moment as she steps closer to comfort her sister. Suddenly Dawn whirls, smashing a glass jar from her vanity against the side of Buffy's head. Buffy falls back, totally unprepared for the attack. Dawn goes after her.

Back down in the living room, both witches have teamed up against Angel. He looks cornered, clearly not wanting to injure them, but it's obvious now that they're trying to kill *him*. Tara is now armed with a cross, and she guards Willow as the redhead starts to utter a spell. She dramatically reaches the climax of the spell and waits expectantly as a large swirling, malevolent-looking cloud begins to swirl above the vampire. Lightning strikes inside the cloud and as it grows Angel starts to look really worried, as the witches watch avidly, smiling. Just when it looks as if the cloud is about to swallow Angel whole, it suddenly fizzles and dies. Disappointed, Tara turns to Willow. "I thought your powers were done being affected by the pregnancy?"

Taking advantage of the distraction, Angel bats the cross aside and as gently as he can knocks Tara out by shoving her head back against the doorjamb.

She falls to the floor and Angel goes after Willow next. Upstairs, Buffy is being pinned by Dawn, who is now holding a pair of scissors downward, attempting to stab Buffy. Buffy - bleeding from the head - tries to keep this from happening while simultaneously attempting not to hurt her sister. Finally she kicks her off, but Dawn goes flying backward, hitting the vanity and falling to the floor, unconscious. Almost immediately she begins convulsing, twisting and turning and crying out. Buffy attempts to restrain her just as Angel comes running in. He helps her and - when Buffy asks what's wrong with Dawn - tells her that the First must be near. Willow and Tara were effected, too. He had to subdue them.

They realize that the Bringers are torturing Dawn now, and that she can't get out of the dream since she was knocked out. Buffy says she has to help her. She needs to be asleep, like right now. She looks at Angel, and he understands. "Find the Bringers," Buffy tells him, and he promises that he will. Then we are seeing through Buffy�s POV as he takes a swing and suddenly the screen goes black.

Commercials.

Angel runs down the stairs, grabbing his coat on his way out the door. He's almost over the thresh hold when he remembers. "Weapons," he says, and heads into the living room. He hurries over to the weapons chest and is picking out weapons when the news report on the television catches his attention. He turns, hands full of axe and crossbow, and listens as the anchorman reports on a homeless man found dead earlier. According to the report, the coroner had as yet been unable to determine an official cause of death. The anchorman changes tones and segues into the next story by saying that Park Officials have no comment on the death, and still intend to hold the Sunnydale BiCentennial Celebration in that very section, despite recent failed attempts to revive the area's plant life.

Up in Dawn's room, the slayer and her sister both lie unconscious on the floor. Dawn cries out and Buffy twitches in response. The camera pans in on her. Suddenly there's a flash, and we're inside her dream. She's in what looks like an underground boiler room fallen into disrepair. There are big pipes along the walls and floor; the air is hot and filled with steam. Buffy hears a shrill scream and starts running toward the sound.

She rounds a corner and suddenly she's not in a boiler room anymore, she's back up on top of the catwalk, watching a mirror image of herself taunt Dawn for letting her die. Dawn sobs as the false Buffy looks disappointed and sad, and walks off the catwalk. True Buffy starts forward, but then halts again when Joyce appears. Dawn is at first ecstatic to see their mother, but then Joyce haunts Dawn by saying that she's not her real daughter. She never really was, but she took care of her anyway. And where did it get her? She's dead now, and Dawn continues to live, and it's not fair. Dawn's not even real. Dawn cries, and Buffy instantly moves forward to help her. From the shadows a Bringer attacks her...Dawn was the bait that lured Buffy into the dream; right where the Bringers wanted her.

Cut to the park: we focus on the path as we hear an offscreen squeal of tires and then a car door slam. Angel runs on screen and into the park, still carrying an axe and a crossbow. He quickly makes his way along the path to the section where the homeless man was found dead. There's still yellow police tape up around the scene and Angel tears through it impatiently, searching for clues. He delves off the path and through a clump of bushes before he finds what he's looking for: a clearing where the grass is all dead.

Back in the nightmare Dawn screams for Buffy to watch out as two more Bringers attack her from behind. Dawn struggles futilely to free herself from her bonds despite Joyce�s constant litany of faults, as Buffy is nearly tossed off the catwalk. The slayer uses momentum, to swing herself back up, knocking two of the eyeless demons over in the process. She rounds on the third and attacks him ferociously until he backs off and plummets to the ground. Buffy runs toward Dawn. Joyce is still standing there and she temporarily halts Buffy by saying that she can�t protect Dawn. She couldn�t save her own mother from dying. Buffy pauses, pained, but resolves herself and goes around her to Dawn to try and release her. By this time, however, the other two Bringers have recovered. One of them catches her unaware with a metal pipe across the face, and Buffy goes down. She looks up with very real blood on her lip as the third Bringer suddenly comes out of the shadows again. Touching the blood on her lip, she realizes. �So you guys have got a Freddy Krueger thing going on here, huh?� she asks, standing. �You can kill me, but I can�t kill you.� As the Bringers approach Buffy squares off between them and Dawn, prepared to do battle. �Let�s try a little endurance test, shall we?�

Underground. An axe drops down from the clearing above, then a crossbow. Then Angel himself drops down. He scoops up the weapons and holds the crossbow ready as he searches the room he�s entered; we recognize it as the boiler room that Buffy was first in, in the nightmare, but this version of the room is old and disused. There are cobwebs everywhere, and on all sides the room is crumbling into disrepair, letting in dirt and roots. Angel makes his way silently to the far wall, which has a large hole in it. He hesitates on this side of the wall as if listening, then he suddenly goes into game face and rushes through the hole, sending a bolt into the head of one of the Bringers on the other side. Before it even has time to fall Angel has swung the axe and smashed the artifacts on the altar amid the circle of Bringers. The one he shot falls, dead, and the others scatter. With a growl, Angel gives chase.

In the nightmare, the fight rages on. Dawn has by this point been reduced to a non-responsive shell...she's sunk down as far as the shackles will let her and listens numbly to the horrible things the false Joyce continues to tell her. Buffy, meanwhile, is getting the stuffing knocked out of her by the Bringers. Every punch she delivers only delays the inevitable: despite her clever moves she can�t seem to achieve any real damage, and they just keep on coming. Their apparent invulnerability is wearing her down, and she becomes weaker and less agile as the fight continues. She's going to lose.

Under the clearing, two Bringers flee the scene of Angel's destruction, keeping the chant alive between them that is causing Buffy and Dawn to be detained in the nightmare. They hurry along the passageway furtively, hoping to escape. There comes a growl behind them, and they hurry forward only to run directly into Angel, blocking their passage and looking all forbidding and deadly and stuff. "Where you going, guys? Late for the Stevie Wonder revival concert?" The Bringers slowly back away, continuing to chant. Angel finally silences them permanently with a sudden, hard swing of the axe. A moment later both of their heads thump to the floor and roll.

Inside the dream Buffy is on the floor of the catwalk being kicked by the Bringers. They raise her up and move to the edge to throw her off, but suddenly they disappear and she drops again. A moment later the catwalk and the night sky disappear from under and around her, and she's lying on the floor in Dawn's room again. Dawn is lying a few feet away from her. Buffy forces herself to her hands and knees and crawls over to her inert sister. Rolling her over, Buffy discovers that Dawn is still unconscious.

Commercials.

Sunnydale Police Department. The floor is alive with calls; every officer is busy fielding some new problem in response to the carnage out in the city. The camera follows the Commissioner, smiling, down into the basement. He enters the room that until tonight has concealed the First from the world, and finds her standing inside. He's surprised to see her, but covers it well. A moment later the Lieutenant enters as well and, upon seeing the First, asks where she has been. "I was off inspiring evil and violence, hello!" she answers, and looks pointedly at the Commissioner. "Of course," he smooths over, shooting a warning glance at the Lieutenant. He congratulates the First on a successful evening. With every death, with every act of evil, her power will grow.

The First smiles chillingly and says it was fun, but now it's time to get down to business. The time is approaching, and all must be ready. The Commissioner puts on his lackey smile and gestures toward a door in the room. "It is prepared for you," he says. Cut to inside the room behind the door, and we see the door as it opens from the outside. The First stands in the doorway looking down, and the angle slowly rotates until we're looking down at what she is: it's Xander, lying on a cot. He's twitching and shaking from a nightmare. Almost fondly, the First comes to sit next to him and the angle narrows on her fingers as she skims them over his forehead in a caress. Xander moans as the angle widens out again to reveal the form of Anya sitting beside him. She smiles.

End Credits.

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