7.22

Episode 7.22

"Boca del Infierno"

co-authored by: silver and Doyle

written: December 5th, 2002

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We open at the Bicentennial Celebration. More officers join the throng of fighting in front of the dais. At the center, Buffy and Angel work as a team to fend off their attackers. Buffy spies a sudden opening, saying over her shoulder: �I�d like to introduce an idea. Let�s get the hell out of here!� Angel hears and follows her after one final kick to a charging cop. They run across the field, easily outdistancing their merely human pursuers. The camera zooms in on Buffy, running hard and fast, and there�s a fiercely focused expression on her face. Scene change: We�re suddenly in a forest. The subtitles tell us the year is 1803 as we hear the labored breathing of someone running through the woods. We cut to Isabella, la asesina, running. She�s wearing the same focused expression. She jumps over logs and dodges trees, keeping to an overgrown path. She runs past the camera. Moments later, Marguese appears behind her, running to keep up, but trying to be stealthy so she doesn�t hear him. There�s an eerie wailing sound out in the forest, and the boy is distracted. Ahead of him he can see Isabella running straight on, not diverted, and he follows. In the distance, we hear chanting: one word over and over again, but it�s too hard to make out. Isabella suddenly stops, walking along the path, eyes everywhere. She emerges from the path directly in front of the cave opening. It seems to be glowing from within. Pausing only to take a deep breath, she enters.

Cut to the Sunnydale P.D. The door in the basement room is flung open, and the irate Commissioner shoves Xander through the doorway. Xander stumbles and falls, but doesn�t appear to be as disoriented as he was, and manages to bring his hands up to prevent his face from hitting the floor. Behind the Commissioner, the First Evil comes in, affecting a leisurely stroll. Her composure seems to have slipped a little, however, after her confrontation with the slayer. The Commissioner is red-faced, raising his voice when he reminds her of the risk she just took. The First ignores him, bending down to look at Xander, eye to eye. She asks him what he thought he was doing. Xander has trouble meeting her eyes; his personality seems to be resurfacing a little. He asks her in response what she�s done to him. The Commissioner looks worried. �I thought you said he was totally under your control?� The First, annoyed, stands straight again and says that he is. There�s no way out for him, now, but the human spirit is surprisingly resilient. �It�s time to quit pussyfooting around,� she says, and then without warning turns and launches herself at Xander.

He screams in pain and terror as she morphs in midair into a dark, shimmering mass. It lands on his body and begins absorbing into him. Xander continues screaming as it penetrates him. He writhes, fighting the force now within him, and the Commissioner watches in horrified fascination as Xander flops around on the floor in agony. Just as suddenly as it started, it ends. Xander is silent and apparently unconscious. The Commissioner, hesitant, steps forward to peer down at Xander�s body. He jerks back with a gasp when Xander suddenly opens his eyes and smiles, pleased. He gets up and flexes his hands a few times, looking at them as if he�s never seen them before. He notices a mirror on the wall by the door and walks slowly over to it. Peering into the mirror, Xander touches his face experimentally. He�s no longer smiling, but looks triumphant. �Oh yeah,� he says in a sinister voice, �I�m bad.�

Opening Credits.

Summers house. Upstairs, Tara sways, woozy. Giles steadies her, asking if she�s all right. She is, but the scorching spell she used to fend off the attacking officers has sapped her of power, especially after using a lot of energy maintaining the bubble-shield spell. Giles helps her sit down. Having arrived at the tail end of the fight, Grant looks confused. �Spell?� he asks, �are you telling me you�re a witch?� Cordelia says that Tara is a good witch, like Willow. At the redhead�s name, Tara stiffens. �Willow,� she says, turning to Giles. �If they attacked us here...� Giles realizes that there may have been a simultaneous attempt on Willow and grabs the phone as Grant says, surprised, �Willow�s a witch, too?� Cordelia observes him skeptically. �You�ve accepted vampires, demons and slayers, but one bitty little spell and you�re freaked?� Grant just stares back at her, bemused, until Wesley hisses at them. He�s heard something. A moment later they all hear the front door slam, and feet stomping quickly up the stairs. Grant levels his gun on the doorway, and Wesley grips his sword, backing away from the door. Everyone relaxes a moment later when Buffy storms through the doorway, followed closely by Angel. The slayer is disheveled, and Grant quickly holsters his weapon. He says he heard over the radio she was in a fight at the celebration. Buffy confirms this, saying that the rogue cops he came here to expose are into heavier stuff than corruption, but her attention is on her friends. She ascertains that everyone is all right, then notices people missing.

�Where�s Dawn?� she demands. Tara tiredly tells her that they got a phone call just before they were attacked, and Dawn ran out. Tara thinks it might have been... Just then Giles thanks whoever he�s talking to and hangs up the phone. He turns back to the room at large and says Willow is missing. According to hospital staff, the room is a shambles and the pregnant witch is nowhere to be found, but an intern saw her earlier in the hallway with another girl. He recognized her as the patient who was there in a coma recently. �So where are they now?� Buffy asks.

Cut to Willow and Dawn. Dawn is supporting the witch, who is limping and walking only with great effort. She grits her teeth past the pain, saying she can't go any further. Dawn says they can make it if they get a cab. She tries to hail one that passes by, but it careens past them unstopping. Willow points out the bedlam around them, saying that no one will stop. As she talks, another pedestrian is attacked by a vampire. There's nothing they can do to help, however, due to Willow's condition. Dawn doesn't want to leave her alone, and realizes they need to get to some kind of shelter NOW. She looks around, realizes where they are. �Okay,� she says to Willow, steering her down another street, �I know where we can go.� Cut to the interior of a bar. Various patrons - human and demon alike - are sitting at the bar and in booths. All look up when the door opens and Dawn leads Willow in, the witch�s arm slung across her neck to help support her. Willow is still wearing her hospital gown, and looks exhausted. �Willy!� Dawn calls out. At the bar, Willy looks up from where he was shining the bar with a rag.

Interior, Grant�s house. The door opens to Grant�s key, and everyone files in. Buffy is in the middle of worrying about Dawn and Willow, but surprisingly it�s Tara who says they�ll be okay. They�re not at the hospital, and the unconscious nurse was found, so they know they got away. Buffy says they�ve got to find out where they are, but Wesley says there are bigger things for them to worry about right now. He pulls the Watcher�s Diary he and Cordelia recovered from the museum out of his pocket. From the doorway, Angel clears his throat. Everyone turns to find him lurking in the doorway, unable to enter. Buffy realizes and turns to Grant, telling him to invite Angel in. Grant obviously thinks Angel�s a bit strange, but Buffy explains that he can�t come in without the invitation, and only Grant can give it since it�s his house. Grant looks dubious. Cordelia, exasperated, says �Look, just invite him in! There�s nothing weird about having to invite someone in because he can�t do so without your invitation. There�s nothing weird about it! No explanation needed.� Grant continues to look suspicious, but invites Angel in, and the vampire steps over the threshold. Taking pity on her partner, Buffy explains, nodding toward Angel. �Vampire.� At his alarmed expression, she hastens to explain that Angel�s a good vampire. Grant didn�t think such a thing existed. Buffy looks at Angel with a slight smile on her face. �Only one,� she says. Thinking for a moment, she amends it. �Maybe two. Make it one and a half.�

Realizing that everyone is milling around his apartment, Grant recovers his manners and offers coffee. Giles would like some tea, so Grant heads to the kitchen to boil some water. Meanwhile, Wesley has been scanning the diary. He skims through the entries, noting how the killings were becoming more frequent and violent, and how evil seemed to be migrating in to the settlement. As Grant comes to the doorway from the kitchen, Wesley reads aloud a passage written by Isabella�s Watcher, and everyone listens to a dead man�s fear that his slayer is not the one prophesized in the legend. Wesley gets to the last entry, stopping when he realizes it was written just after Isabella�s death. He gets excited, hoping the Watcher detailed how the slayer was able to defeat the First. He has a little trouble translating the Watcher�s Spanish, but the gist of the entry says the slayer was able to defeat the First only by sacrificing herself. �The spell bound el Primer to Isabella; when she died, it had to go with her.� The camera cuts to a close-up of Buffy�s face at this news, then Giles, Angel and Grant. Buffy reveals nothing, but the others all show concern. Wesley goes on to read that because el Primer was not killed in human form, it will be able to rise again. Into the tense silence after Wesley stops speaking, Buffy says they have to find that spell. Everyone is clearly worried about the idea, realizing that it could mean Buffy will die. Giles begins to warn Buffy that it�s not the way to permanently kill the First, but Buffy interrupts him, saying seriously that if worse comes to worse she may need to know.

From the kitchen, the whistle on the tea kettle goes off and Buffy looks up to see Grant in the doorway, looking uncomfortable. He quickly averts his gaze, then turns around and goes into the kitchen to finish the tea. She gets up and follows him. From the window where he is keeping watch, Angel watches, bothered partly by the knowledge that Buffy is willing to sacrifice herself to kill the First, partly jealous of Grant�s role in her life. Shaking it off, he turns back to the window. In the kitchen, Buffy asks Grant if he�s okay. He says he is, but then admits that he�s stunned by everything he�s learned today. She was right, it�s all way bigger than his corruption deal. This is serious stuff. Buffy could die. Buffy cracks that it wouldn�t be the first time. Or hell, even the second. Grant is still surprised that she seems to be willing to sacrifice herself, but Buffy says simply that this is what she does. She turns the tables on him, asking if he�d put himself in danger if he thought it would save her life. Grant says of course he would, she�s his partner. Buffy nods, saying that that�s what it�s like for her and the rest of the world. She�s bound to it, responsible for it. She�d die to protect it.

Cut to the First, who is currently wearing a rather worn-looking Xander suit. It / he turns away from the mirror, saying �See? I told you I was in control of him.� The Commissioner sees, and asks if everything is ready. The First Evil / Xander says it is, and that before dawn, the slayer will come to it. Suddenly Xander sways, and then shimmers. He seems to melt and falls away from the original form of the First, that of Jenny Calendar. She remains standing, smiling cruelly as he falls to the floor, unconscious again. She finishes her sentence, saying that she can feel the evil out there, and soon � like her � they�ll have the run of the dimension.

Cut to the evil vamps and demons and so forth in question, out in the town plundering and pillaging. Several humans walking along a sidewalk are ambushed and carried off, out on Main Street a pack of demons loot the stores. Cut to Fence in his pawnshop. He�s behind the counter fidgeting with something that we can�t see. A particularly loud crashing sound from outside finally cuts through the fog of concentration he�s in, and he looks up, startled. He goes to the window and looks out, his face revealing no expression as he watches a store across from his get set on fire. As the flames rise higher, the light from them flickers across his face before he pulls the shade down and returns behind the counter.

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Buffy is dreaming. There is a montage of images, some of which we can't make out. We see the faces of demons and vampires, and look into a dark, deep hole in the ground where something stirs and wakens. There is a cave entrance, glowing from within. A wizened old woman stands next to it, looking at Buffy meaningfully. Buffy starts to head for the cave, but it's gone. Instead she watches as the old woman quietly leaves a leather-bound book in a small cabin and retreats. A moment later a man enters the room and finds the book. It is the Spanish doctor, one of the ghosts responsible for the spell that rid Sunnydale of all humans. Just when Buffy is beginning to realize what has happened, how the Spanish Settlers originally found out about the Primer, the scene changes and there's another montage: There is fighting and violence and bloodshed, Buffy fighting some foe, intercut with blindingly quick glimpses of a sun-lit beach and waves crashing on the shore. After several cuts back to the fighting that grow shorter and shorter in length, Buffy stands on the beach looking out to sea when Angel comes up behind her, slipping his arms around her waist. Buffy turns her head up and toward the side, toward Angel. Their lips are mere inches apart as Buffy opens her mouth. Her eyes are closed, her expression full of bliss. �I dreamed this,� she says. Then she opens her eyes in shock. The scene cuts back to the blood. The fighting, the violence. Then Xander is falling into a precipice, his hands reaching out blindly. He calls out Buffy�s name as he falls into the hellish pit with glowing, red hot magma at the bottom. Right before he is enveloped by fiery death, the scene cuts again and Buffy is in a quiet room with Isabella�s Watcher. She recognizes him, says they found his journal. He tells her that the First possessed him. That Isabella had the chance to end it forever by killing the First while it was in human form, but she couldn�t do it. Instead, she used the binding spell to save him and Marguese, sacrificing herself to buy the world some time until the First could try again. Gravely, he tells her that she�ll have to be stronger than his slayer. She�ll have to kill her friend. Buffy firmly says she won�t do it. Then Buffy will die, he says, and the First will come back again. Buffy says she won�t let that happen, either.

Later, having awakened from her brief nap, Buffy walks back into the living room. The others are talking about the First. Tara wonders why it doesn�t just possess Buffy. From the window, Angel suggests that maybe it can�t possess slayers. Wesley wonders if maybe it�s afraid of slayers because of the legend. �Maybe it�s allergic,� Cordelia says, eyes on the monitor of Grant�s computer. Behind her, Wesley and Giles have been guiding her in the search for information on this binding spell. Buffy starts to walk past them, putting her jacket on. Giles asks where she�s going. She replies that while they search, she�s got to go out and try to help people who are defenseless before all of the evil that�s come to Sunnydale. Giles thinks it�s a bad idea to risk herself, so close to the time when the First will start its ritual. Before a Watcher / Slayer feud can break out, Wesley distracts Buffy by saying they�ve found some reference to the binding spell. He reads from the screen a sketchy description of what the slayer must go through to get the spell, ending on the world �trials.� Giles frowns, says he doesn�t know what that means. He turns to see Angel, looking grim. �I do,� the vampire says.

At Willy�s Place, Dawn leads Willow in. The witch is still panting and grimacing from the pain of the labor. Willy objects to Dawn bringing a pregnant woman into his bar, but Dawn asks him if he�s looked outside lately. There�s nowhere else to take her that�s safe. Willy eyes the girls, then his bar full of patrons. Grudgingly, he suggests that the baby-eating demon get lost. With a grunt of annoyance, the large horned demon rises and stalks out. Dawn helps Willow over to the bar, then supports her as she climbs up. Willy, panicked, says she can�t give birth on the BAR! Dawn loses patience and tells him to shut up and help her, or else Spike will give it to him good when he gets back. The threat is enough to cow Willy, but as he helps the witch lie back on the bar he gets more of a view than he bargained for and pulls back, frantically looking somewhere else, anywhere else. �Oh man,� he despairs, �I�ve seen a lot of stuff in this bar. But that just ain�t natural.�

Cut to the First Evil and the Commissioner arriving at the cave we recognize from Buffy�s dreams, and the flashback at the beginning of the episode. A couple cops are dragging Xander. They drop him at the First�s feet, and the Commissioner asks if she�ll be okay there on her own. The First says she will be. She�d be even better if he could somehow manage to get his bungling team of idiot cops to kill the slayer before she could become a real threat. The Commissioner colors, says he�ll take care of it. He turns and leaves. The First looks down at Xander, lying at her feet, saying he looks kinda cute lying there, like a little defenseless kitten.

Back at Grant�s place, Angel hangs up the phone, having written down an address on a slip of paper. He says he spoke to Lorne, who told him that there are portals all over the place. Buffy reflects, �So, you�ve been through these trials?� Angel says he has, and that he can tell her what to expect, but they�d better hurry. Wesley agrees, and they all head out. Outside, it�s sheer bedlam. Demons are running amok, trashing the town and attacking anyone and everyone they see. Buffy and the gang have to fight off more than a few just to get to the cars. Everyone but Grant piles into Angel�s car, the officer gets into his own to follow them. The scene cuts to them arriving at what appears to be a summer home. It seems to be abandoned, and no one stops the gang as it rounds the corner of the house, heading into the back yard. There�s an in-ground swimming pool located there, although there is no water in it. Tara comments that the people who own the home must not have come to Sunnydale yet. Angel gives Buffy some final, last-minute instructions about the trials she�ll soon be facing as they come to a stop at the edge of the pool. They all gather around, and Buffy gives Angel a �what do I do now?� look. He indicates that she has to step off into the empty pool. When Buffy only looks wary, Grant shakes his head, declaring them both nuts. Angel impatiently says that this is the point. It keeps out the faint of heart. Buffy realizes that this may be her only way to save Xander, so she pauses only a moment before taking a breath and stepping off the ledge.

When she hits, she rolls automatically, absorbing the impact. Instead of being on the floor of the swimming pool, however, when she looks up she sees that she is somehow now in a gently-lit parlor. A voice surprises her from behind and she whirls, only to be confronted by...a man in a butler�s outfit. �Welcome,� he says.

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Buffy comments on the d�cor, but the man is unruffled by her sarcasm and she cuts to the chase. She says she�s here for the binding spell. The man says if she knows what she wants, and she knew how to get here, then she must know what she has to go through to get the spell. Buffy does, and starts rattling them off. Before she even finishes describing the first trial that Angel went through the man starts shaking his head. He realizes now that she�s already been coached on what to expect, but it will do her no good. The trials are different for everyone. Because she�s a slayer, naturally the strength of her opponents would have to be upped, so it would be a fair fight. Buffy picks up on the plural. �Opponents?� she asks warily. She steps hesitantly through the doorway the butler indicates, and notes a form walking toward her out of the shadows. When it comes into the light we can see who it is plainly, and the recognition that flashes across Buffy�s face is instantaneous. It�s the Master.

At Willy�s, Willow relaxes, exhausted, after another contraction fades. She looks around and notices that all of the patrons of the bar have left. She wonders where they all went, and Willy confides that even demons can�t stomach a birth. Willy�s hovering, making a pest out of himself, and Dawn irritably orders him to go boil some water, or something. He asks what it�s for, and Dawn confesses that she�s not sure...but that�s what they always send people on tv to do when they�re getting in the way. Dawn appears surprisingly good at coaching Willow through her breathing exercises, and when the witch asks her how she knows so much about labor Dawn reveals that she used to watch a lot of E.R. when George Clooney was on it. Just then Willow bears down under the pain of another contraction, and with a sudden POOF! One of the barstools turns into a raccoon.

Cut to the gang topside at the pool. Giles, concerned, asks how long this will take. Not knowing that Buffy�s trials are already differing from his own, Angel says it shouldn�t take long. Grant is still incredulous that they�re all letting Buffy do this. He points out that if she fails, she dies. If she manages to live through the trials, all it will gain her is access to a spell that will ensure her death as well. Is that what they all want? It�s not, but Wesley points out that this is what Buffy may have to do to save the world. Tara gently reminds everyone that it�s not the first time. Grant shakes his head...he�s had a lot to absorb all at once, and he is only now beginning to grasp Buffy�s importance. �She�ll be okay,� Angel says, as if he needs to convince himself. �She�ll get through it. She�s gotten through worse than this.�

Down in the room off the parlor, Buffy has gotten hold of a sword that had been hanging on the wall, and uses it to lop off the Master�s head. There�s a moment of silence after he falls to the ground, dead, and Buffy expresses surprise that he didn�t dust. A beat later the Master�s body dissolves and seeps through the floor, vanishing. Buffy suddenly looks up when she hears a step, right into the eyes of Angelus. The vampire swaggers into the room, a smug, confident grin on his face. �Hello, Lover,� he says, his eyes mocking her. Buffy sighs. �Been here, done this,� she says, and in one swift move impales Angelus through the chest with the sword. His eyes go wide, and he falls to his knees, dissolving before he even hits the floor. Having pulled the sword out, Buffy stands there alone again. She speaks to the empty room. �This is it? This is my trial? You�re trying to win with people I�ve already beaten? Good plan, Jeeves.� We see her face as she watches her next adversary approach, and it�s a mixture of annoyance, amusement and determination. �Mayor Wilkins. Didn�t I blow you up once already?�

Cut to topside: The gang is still waiting for Buffy, but they�re no longer alone. They�ve run out of luck in avoiding the melee of violence that has gripped the town, and a large group of demons stumble across the small group of mostly humans out in the open. Fighting ensues, and despite their best intentions, the members of the Scooby gang get separated from one another. Each manages to subdue or kill their attacker, but on the cusp of victory another group of aggressors surround the gang...and this time they�re humans. The police have found them.

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Back at the bar, Willow�s powers have gotten totally out of control because of the pregnancy. The place is beginning to look like a pet store, and several bar stools have been turned into shrubbery. Willy is dismayed. Willow apologizes, but she can�t help it. Dawn is still trying to deal with the labor. In between helping Willow with her breathing exercises, Dawn hopes everyone else is okay. Willow says she�s sure they�ll be all right, but she�s obviously worried, too. There�s another contraction.

Cut back to the gang, fighting the cops. For a moment it almost looks as if they might persevere, but then the Commissioner is in the thick of things, directing the assault. His corrupted cops quickly surround the Scooby Gang. Tara starts to mutter a spell under her breath.

Back down in the room off the parlor, Buffy delivers the final blow to Glory, slicing her in half with the sword. Glory looks down at the damage before looking back up at Buffy in astonished rage. �You ruined my dress!� she shouts, and then her torso slides off her lower body and thumps to the ground heavily before dissolving. Buffy addresses the empty room again. �Do we really have to go through them all? I�m getting seriously bored, here. Also I�m kind of on a schedule.� Behind her, the butler walks into the room. He agrees that this level is too easy for her, and welcomes her to level two: �Let�s see if your mind is as quick as your reflexes in battle.� Buffy pales.

Topside. Giles � arms held up like the others in the face of all of the guns aimed at them - manages to run into Tara, interrupting her spell. He says quietly they can�t draw any more attention to Buffy�s location than they already have. Also, Grant has managed to evade the entrapment, and they shouldn�t ruin his chances. Tara desists, and the gang is rounded up and put into the police units. From the other side of the fence on the far side of the yard, Grant watches in silent frustration, but realizes someone�s got to be there when Buffy comes out, if only to tell her what happened.

Below, it�s a more serious Buffy that enters the third and final room. The second trial has obviously taken its toll on her; she looks tired and worried. �Note to self,� she mutters as she enters a dimly lit room with rock walls, �when this is all over, go back to school.� As she advances, the door behind her fades away and is replaced by more rock wall. She is now in a cave. Suddenly before her is the First. Xander is at her feet, shivering and delirious. Buffy goes very still, saying this isn�t real. She still has to face the third trial. The First smiles wickedly and says this is the third trial. She�s so glad Buffy passed the first two, she�s been waiting for her. It can end here, she says, if Buffy will sacrifice herself. �Or,� the First gives her the option, �You can do what everyone�s been telling you is the right thing, and kill your friend. So what�ll it be? His life...or yours?� Buffy takes a deep breath, taking in Xander�s quaking form. Pity crosses her face, and she looks up at the First with a sadness lingering in her eyes that turns to steely resolve. �This isn�t real,� she repeats firmly. She says the First just wants her to * think* it is. Thinking this, no matter what she chooses would be a losing option, and she�s too smart for that.

It�s the right answer, and Jeeves arrives to congratulate her. He asks that she choose her prize, and she demands the binding spell. He holds out his hand, and with a flick of the wrist he�s suddenly holding a parchment, rolled up in a scroll. He begins to hold it out to her, but hesitates. Buffy reaches for it, but he pulls it back slightly, asking if she�s sure she wants it. Buffy is, and impatiently tells him to hand over the scroll, or she�ll hand over his ass, after it�s thoroughly kicked. Jeeves says he�s only asking because if there was ever a slayer who had the makings to defeat the First Evil, it might be Buffy. She asks why, and he says she�s different from the others. Has she never wondered why every foe she�s faced has ultimately been vanquished? Why she�s been brought back from the dead, twice? Has she never wondered how it was that she helped to change the destinies of two vampires? Or if there might be something even bigger and more important in store for her? Buffy is overwhelmed by what he�s suggesting, but is in too much of a hurry. She holds out her hand again for the scroll.

Cut to Fence in his pawnshop. He�s still behind the counter, and we can finally see that he�s doing some sort of spell involving a pendant similar to the one originally destroyed by Captain Penderghast. The symbol that graces the pendant is also drawn on the wall in front of him, and there�s a bowl of mysterious liquids simmering on the counter. Suddenly his door crashes in, though, and he looks up in fearful anger. The fear melts away after a moment, and annoyance grips him. �What the hell do you want?� he says.

Back at Willy�s, the entire establishment has been turned into an indoor forest. Woodland creatures pick their way around Dawn and Willy, while a couple elk nibble on the bark from some trees that used to be support beams. Willow�s labor is progressing as quickly as the changes in the bar, and Dawn asks Willy for a towel. Thinking mostly about avoiding looking at the pregnant witch, Willy hands her his bar rag. Dawn snaps at him to get something clean and he scurries off.

Back in the realm of the trials, Buffy has opened the scroll and is now reading the spell to herself. Jeeves looks on, until a displacement next to him gets his attention. It widens into a hole, swirls a little, and then coalesces into the form of the First Evil. Buffy looks sharply at Jeeves, wondering if this is another part of the trials, but the butler looks just as surprised to see the First as Buffy is. He says she shouldn�t have been able to gain access to this realm, but the First says she�s breaking out all over, as of tonight. She wanted to extend her invitation to Buffy personally, she says, and tells her to meet her. �You know where,� she smiles. Jeeves sniffs, clearly offended at the First�s presence. The First threatens him, saying he�s not as safe as he thinks he is, here. To prove it, she interrupts the butler�s high-handed diatribe by punching him in the stomach. Through the stomach, rather. Her fist erupts from his back, glistening darkly with sticky red blood. Ropes of it drop from her hand and splatter to the floor. Buffy watches in shock as Jeeves� eyes go wide and he falls forward, dropping to the ground, dead. The First shakes off the excess blood and turns to Buffy. �Don�t keep me waiting,� she commands, and then vanishes.

Topside, Grant is still cautiously watching from behind the fence when Buffy climbs out of the empty pool. Without a backwards glance, the slayer takes off at a full run for the woods. Grant calls after her, but she doesn�t hear him. He lopes to where she climbed out of the pool and picks up a piece of paper she dropped. Glancing down at it, he shoves it in his pocket before running after her.

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It�s 1803. Isabella guardedly enters the cavern. From the shadows, the First�s voice tauntingly welcomes her. Over on the floor, not quite conscious, is Isabella�s Watcher. She starts to run to him, but the floor between them crumbles away and the slayer teeters on the edge of the precipice. She regains her balance and pulls back just in time to keep from falling in. She swears that she�s going to kill the First, even if she has to die trying. The First suddenly appears, no longer in the shadows, asking even if she has to kill her Watcher? Isabella boldly says the First isn�t going to get the chance to use him; he won�t become her receptacle. She�s prepared to fight. Just then, however, she spies Marguese, who has snuck in after her. She yells for him to get out, but he wants to help her. He foolishly attacks the First Evil and is thrown back. Isabella rushes forward, bringing the battle to the First to distract it from Marguese. It�s a hasty and badly thought-out maneuver, because it�s just the advantage the First needed. All it needs is a way to kill her before Isabella can bind it. Isabella quickly starts losing, though she shouts over her shoulder for Marguese to get the watcher out. Marguese is stricken at the thought that his rash attack put Isabella in a poor position. He runs to the Watcher, who is coming to. Isabella continues to fight bravely, but she is outmatched by the First Evil that ever was. Before Marguese can get the Watcher out, Isabella finally stumbles, losing to the First. She�s down, but not defeated. As her last resort, she pulls out the parchment upon which is written the spell she needs to stop the First for as long as she can. She recites the spell, and as a purple haze surrounds her and the First, binding them together, the First screams in rage. Obviously against its will, it dissolves into the gelatinous mass and absorbs into the slayer. It seems to be fighting her from within as she stands, but the slayer has strength enough for this, and after a final, meaningful glance at her Watcher and Marguese, flings herself into the pit.

Back in 2003: Buffy runs through the woods, remembering bits and pieces in flashes of her dreams. She can hear what sounds like a tribal beat, but she�s not sure if it�s really there or if it�s in her head. She also hears one word, repeated over and over, but this time she can recognize it. �First, First, First,� it says. With a quick end to the beat, Buffy arrives at the mouth of the cavern in suddenly dead silence. The cave is glowing red from within. Hesitantly, on guard, Buffy enters. In a d�j� vu scene, the First�s voice welcomes Buffy from out of the shadows. Buffy is scornful of the First�s parlor tricks. But then she sees Xander, over on the floor against the wall, and her concern for him makes her rush forward without thinking. Suddenly the ground opens up between them, though, and she is barely able to haul herself away from the edge without falling in. Like Isabella, Buffy realizes that the First is trying a last ditch effort to kill her before the mortal combat that will come during the ritual. Instead of rushing right into the fight like her predecessor did, though, Buffy instead figures it all out: how the First is afraid of the slayer because of the legend. She knows that Buffy is the only thing that can beat her, so she�s trying every cowardly way she can think of to kill her before the main event. She remembers all the attempts on her life from this season, and accuses the First of being behind all of it. The First flushes unpleasantly at being called a coward, but admits that she tried repeatedly to have the slayer killed. Rather than being ashamed of it, she seems to regain her bravado and tells Buffy that she�s nothing special. She�s no legend. She�ll die just like every slayer before her. Buffy remembers the words of the butler after she triumphed at her trials, and has an epiphany. �I am the one,� she says finally, quietly, truly believing it now, �who will beat you.� They start to fight. The moves are blindingly fast; it�s hard to keep up with who�s punching who. What moves are being blocked and which ones are getting through. As they apply brains and pure strength against each other, Xander regains consciousness and looks up through bleary eyes to see the fighting. From his perspective, he sees Buffy and Jenny Calendar fighting, then Buffy and the form of Anya. Then Jenny again. Finally, though, he seems to shake off his fog and come back to some semblance of himself. He starts to push himself to his hands and knees, saying Buffy�s name in a question.

Buffy is actually holding her own against the First until Grant stumbles into the cavern, disrupting her stride. She stumbles when she sees him, and the First presses her advantage. Seeing his partner in trouble, Grant levels the gun he�s had drawn from the moment he entered the cave and fires at the First several times. The First jerks briefly from each hit, reflexively letting Buffy go. It doesn�t hurt her, however, and she turns to advance menacingly on Grant. He stands his ground and empties his clip into the First, but it does no good. When she reaches him she backhands him viciously, and he goes flying across the room to land next to Xander. Before she can go after him again, though, Buffy pulls her around from behind and delivers a powerful roundhouse. The First recoils, almost goes down. Buffy kicks and punches in a flurry of violence, and the First can�t seem to get far enough away to avoid the onslaught. In desperation, the First suddenly shivers, and the movement spreads like a ripple over her until she morphs into the quivering, gelatinous mass, which dives into Xander. A new, evil gleam in his eye, Xander laughs maniacally at the two humans and bounds off through a tunnel at the back of the cavern. Buffy starts after him, ordering Grant to go back. He says no way. He doesn�t take orders from a rookie, and besides...she�s his partner. He�s in this with her �till the end. On that note, they head off after Xander together.

Cut to the rest of the gang at the P.D., getting manhandled out of the cars by the large group of malevolent officers. Cordelia bitterly complains that she�s never liked evil cops, and these guys are no exception. Can they fight back, now? Giles looks around, noting that they�re no longer going to give away Buffy or Grant�s positions, and if they don�t fight back they�ll surely end up dead, so...yes. On his last word he headbutts the officer nearest him, sparking a wave of violence as the rest of the Scooby Gang starts fighting back. Their moves are limited, as they�re all bound by handcuffs behind their backs, but Angel does manage to bite a couple cops before he�s subdued. Giles is nearly shot, but Tara quickly shuts her eyes and chants under her breath, and the bullet slows to a stop before him before dropping harmlessly to the ground. The move earns her a shove to the ground, and the rest of the gang crowds in around her as they are once again surrounded by the cops. The Commissioner watches from the fringe of the crowd with satisfaction...until he is pulled backward. Surprise registers briefly on his face before he is tugged offscreen by a black-clad arm. Suddenly we hear sucking sounds, and the shot cuts to...Spike! He�s holding the Commissioner immobile, draining him of blood. Finished, he throws the Commissioner�s corpse to the ground and snarls at the remaining policemen before charging.

Cut to Willy�s. The pregnant witch�s powers have wreaked complete havoc on the bar by now: it�s a virtual forest with animals creating new trails and building nests and drinking from the stream that now runs through the center of the bar. Willow pushes at Dawn�s urging, gripping Willy�s arm tightly. Suddenly Dawn looks excited. �I can see the head!� she shouts.

Cut back to Buffy and Grant, pursuing the First Evil through the tunnels. Grant�s gun is drawn, and they�re watching each other�s back as they delve deeper into the darkness. Suddenly it starts to lighten a little, again, and they come out into a larger space. Buffy grimly recognizes their surroundings: the old, burned-out high school. Specifically, in the old, burned-out library, over top the Hellmouth. She�s dismayed. Grant has no idea what�s wrong, and Buffy tells him that things just got even worse. Across the room, on the other side of the rubble covering the Hellmouth, the First Evil is prepared to begin the ritual. Drawn on the rubble is the symbol from the pendant, and Buffy remembers that the symbol itself isn�t good or evil, but it strengthens power. Buffy vaults over the rubble between them and tries to speak to Xander. The First is thoroughly in control, however, and beats her down when she foolishly gets too close. She is cruel to Buffy without killing her, and tears come to the slayer�s eyes as she realizes that some of the things the First is saying might actually be Xander. She visibly chooses to believe that it�s another tactic of the First�s to defeat her, and tries to get past it. She gains her footing once again and berates the First, saying that this �sucking the world into hell� idea is so pass�, it�s been tried several times before. Xander / The First corrects her, saying �Oh no...this time I�m bringing hell to me.� Pausing the ritual for a moment, the First confronts Buffy again. �You think the evil in this world is bad?� she says, �You haven�t seen anything yet.� She resumes, and Buff rushes in to attack, not wanting to hurt Xander, but unwilling and unable to just stand by and watch this happen, either. She still has hope of somehow getting Xander out before he can become the First�s receptacle.

Cut to in front of the Police Department. Spike has joined the Scooby Gang in the fight against the corrupt cops. Tara uses her magic to release all of the handcuffs, and it�s once again a fair fight. Confronted with a witch and two vampires, some of the cops turn to run.

Back in the old library, the First is beating Buffy savagely. Grant runs toward them as Buffy tries to scoot away from the evil inhabiting the body of one of her best friends. Her retreat puts her on top of the rubble atop the Hellmouth, and suddenly the First can�t seem to come forward anymore...almost as if there�s a forcefield protecting the slayer there. Cut to Fence in his shop, sweating profusely and chanting over the pendant. It�s his spell that�s protecting Buffy. Using the quick reprieve to her advantage, Buffy surprises the First by rebounding out of the safe area and knocking her to the ground. She delivers a number of hard punches before she is thrown off, landing across the room. She sits up just in time to watch in horror as Grant rushes forward to hit the First, earning a blast of power that devastates him. Her partner cries out and falls to the floor, wounded critically. Buffy is shocked to see a gaping wound in his gut, and he holds his hands there as if to contain his insides. Despairing, Buffy is nevertheless spurned by furious rage, and she attacks the First again. At first they are evenly matched, due to Buffy�s fury, but the First has had eons of practice and quickly begins to win. Buffy eventually falls beneath fists and boots, becoming slippery with her own blood. At the final, climactic moment, the First grabs up a large rock from the pile of rubble sealing the Hellmouth. The movement dislodges the other stones, and the tenuous seal crumbles and falls into the pit, leaving the Hellmouth gaping open. In a rage, the First holds the rock high above her head, glaring in furious triumph down at Buffy through Xander�s eyes. Buffy can do nothing but stare helplessly up at her friend, waiting for the swift, violent end.

The tableau remains frozen for a moment, and then a moment longer. Xander�s arms tremble, as the First continues to hold the rock above his head. There appears to be a battle going on in Xander�s body between the First, and Xander himself. The First tries to bring the rock smashing down on Buffy�s head, but Xander resists, finally hurling the rock far into one end of the room. He pants, breathing heavily. Suddenly he starts shaking, the seizure sending him to the ground. The First pools out of him, coalescing into the familiar form of Jenny Calendar. Xander falls to the ground without her support. His body bears the physical bruises of his fight with Buffy, but the First is weakened. So is Buffy, and the two stare at each other evaluatingly over the open pit of the Hellmouth. The First eventually gives an angry smile, reminding Buffy that while she may have saved Xander, the First can only be killed in human form. So while Buffy may have won this round, the First can come back and finish the job in a hundred years. Two hundred. Long after Buffy is gone.

Over on the floor, half buried beneath some stones, Grant is still bleeding heavily from the gaping hole in his midsection. He�s half dead, and the knowledge that his wound is mortal is heavy on his face. He shifts slightly, gasping from the pain but forcing himself upright so that he can meet Buffy�s eyes. One of his arms is broken, so he reaches across himself with the other hand to pull the parchment out of his pocket. Buffy�s eyes widen when she sees the scroll, and she shouts �No!� to Grant before picking herself up and running toward him. Grant starts reading the spell, reciting it quickly before Buffy can get to him. The First shrieks at the sound of the first word and scrabbles to get away, but in a dramatic moment Grant says the last line of the spell and the First is sucked toward him. She claws and rakes at the ground beneath her as the power of the spell drags her toward the mortally wounded detective, but she cannot slow its pull. When she reaches Grant, her form melts into him the same way it did into Xander, except this time it isn�t of her own volition. Grant draws a deep breath, energized a bit by the power now within him. He stands up now. He�s not fully in control of himself, but the First doesn�t have him completely either, because it�s weakened. Grant / The First Evil looks at Buffy, a myriad of expressions on his face including sadness and regret. He steps toward the Hellmouth as the ritual is finished, and he becomes the First�s receptacle. Buffy shouts Grant�s name, but he purposely steps over the edge of the Hellmouth, and plummets down, taking the First with him. There�s a not�quite human scream as the First falls to its death, and a moment later a bright, shimmering force shoots up out of the Hellmouth. Buffy jumps back as the scorching flames reach for her, diving for cover next to Xander. She quails under the force of the energy streaming up through the pit, covering her head.

Cut to outside. All over town the demons are screaming and dying and getting sucked out of the dimension simultaneously. Every evil creature is suffering. Cut to in front of the police department. Angel falls to his knees, gasping and clutching at his heart. Back inside, as the power subsides, a faint rumbling begins beneath them. Buffy�s head pops up, and she looks around. The rumbling grows stronger, shaking rocks loose and rattling the foundation of the library. Jumping up quickly, Buffy grabs Xander�s nearly unconscious form and yanks him from the rubble, pulling him out of the wrecked room.

She hauls him out of the school and across the street, turning once she gets there to watch as the decimated school caves in on itself in a thunder of noise and a rain of dust, becoming a giant stone and steel stopper as the Hellmouth swallows itself for good.

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Later, at the hospital, Willow holds the baby. It�s a boy, and Buffy tearfully suggests the name �Makale.� Dawn is proud of herself for delivering the baby on her own. Willy, playing nursemaid, objects. He thinks he helped a lot. Not only did he supply fresh linens, his bar got turned into a game preserve. Tara, Wesley and Cordelia are there, too, and Buffy leaves them all there fussing over the baby. She goes into the hallway, walking a short distance before entering another room. Xander is lying there in his bed, having regained consciousness. Buffy comes to stand beside him, asking how he feels. Xander says not so great...he doesn�t remember much, but he thinks he hurt Buffy. He�s hesitant when he looks at her, but Buffy is reassured to see just Xander behind his eyes again. Haltingly, he says he�s not sure he wants to remember. Buffy understands. It�s an awkward moment, but both seem to want to try and mend things between them. Buffy says she hurt him too, and she�s sorry...sorry for everything. He says he is, too. They�ve obviously got a lot of work to do to repair their friendship, but Buffy wants him to know that when it came down to it, he saved her. She�s alive because of him, because he fought back against the First and wouldn�t let it kill her. He seems to take some comfort from that. Then the camera pans back and leaves the room as Buffy tells him about his son. Xander looks amazed, glad, saddened, and proud all at once.

Out in the hallway again later, Buffy runs into Spike. The vampire looks bemused, standing there in the pristine white hospital in his black duster. Buffy asks him what happened when he went away, and he shrugs. His body language proclaims nothing happened, but his eyes seem lighter. He looks as if a weight has been removed from his shoulders. He finally says that being away didn�t matter. He was still troubled by a consciousness, he still helped people. He�s ruined. Even though he�s complaining about feeling the need to do the right thing, he doesn�t seem all that troubled by it, and Buffy smiles, remembering Jeeves� comment about having changed the destiny of two vampires. Speaking of... She asks Spike if he�s seen Angel, and as he walks out with her he nods, pulling out a cigarette. He says he saw him up on the hill. Buffy thanks him and starts away, turning around after a few steps. �Spike?� she says with a hesitant smile, �I�m glad you�re back.� Spike smiles in response, and nods to her. �Not for long, not right now,� he says, indicating the horizon. �It�s nearly sunrise.� Buffy looks startled, glancing at the horizon and then heading off briskly. Spike watches her go, lighting his cigarette.

At the top of the hill, Angel stands near the edge looking out over the town. In the distance, the sky is brightening as the sun creeps up behind the clouds. Buffy strides up to Angel, grabbing his arm. �Hello?� she says, �Sunrise much? You need to get inside.� Angel doesn�t budge, but looks down at her. He asks her if she remembers the last time they were up here together. She does, and looks uncomfortable about it. She remembers that he came here to kill himself that time, and she clearly looks worried that he�s thinking about it again. He doesn�t seem to notice her concern and goes on. He says it was the First who had driven him here. It had convinced him that all he was good for was killing, and he didn�t want to be that anymore. He wanted to be a better person, but he never thought he could be. It was Buffy who�d changed his mind and given him hope, given him the reason to hold on all this time. Buffy is touched, but still worried about the approaching daylight and tugs on his arm again. Angel still doesn�t move, but pulls Buffy closer to him. He takes one of her hands in both of his and presses it to his chest, right above his heart. Buffy doesn�t understand at first, but then feels the steady beat there, feels the warmth radiating from him, and her face lights up with amazed, delighted understanding. Angel returns her broad smile with a grin of his own, and their eyes meet with an old heat. They take the final step between them, bringing them together as daylight lands on them and Angel doesn�t burn. As the sunlight warms them, they kiss.

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