7.9

Episode 7.9

"Death"

written by: A. Jean Clayton a.k.a. silver

January 10th, 2002

Previously, on Buffy the Vampire Slayer:

Buffy joined the S.P.D. Grant removed evidence from a crime scene as Tara voiceovers that she saw him take a pendant off of the slain witch. Shots of Buffy fighting the Nacht demons as Grant voiceovers that something seems �off� about Sunnydale. Grant turned the pendant in to the Captain, who later smashed it with a hammer, releasing a reddish haze. Xander and Anya told the gang that Anya was pregnant. Buffy and Spike fought some people in cloaks who were trying to perform a ritual using a book with a symbol on its cover, and Spike identified Buffy�s captain as their leader. Buffy and Grant witnessed the captain get killed by some demons down on the dock, fighting over a mysterious crate. The Commissioner voiceovers that he�ll be taking over the Captain�s position indefinitely. Buffy and Spike�s bodies got switched by the men in cloaks, and Buffy got them switched back by using a flamethrower on the cloaked guy holding a stone with runes on it.

* * *

The episode opens with the gang in the Magic Box. Anya finishes waiting on the final customer as Willow and Tara prepare to try a new spell. Tara explains to Xander and Buffy at the center table that it�s a transference spell, and that it�s a modification of sorts of a locator spell. The theory behind it is that since Buffy�s switched bodies twice in the past few years, it might come in handy to have a spell they can cast to find the right person in each body, just in case something like that ever happens again. She goes on to say that Willow played around with it a little, and enhanced the spell so that it would not only find out who was really in which body, but also hopefully switch the bodies back again, should it be necessary. Xander wonders why anyone would have wanted to switch Buffy and Spike�s bodies to begin with, and Anya � finished with the customer � walks up and thinks it might have been an attempt on Buffy�s life. She points out that it would be easier to dust the slayer in an unfamiliar vampire body than it would be to track down the super-strength human Buffy. Buffy snarks that five more minutes in Spike�s body, and she would have staked herself.

The customer walks out, and Anya goes to lock the door as Willow and Tara prepare to do the spell. Xander asks what they�re planning on transferring to test the spell, and Willow says first she�ll just switch him and Buffy, and then switch them back. Everyone else, especially Buffy and Xander, reacts negatively to the idea, and Willow reluctantly says they can try a practical application of it, which would work just as well. She reverses the spell and makes a round candle disappear, and then reappear inside a crystal ball. They then use it to take the candle back out of the crystal ball, without damaging either item. The spell is a success.

Later, Buffy is walking toward home in the dark. She cuts through the cemetery, but then stops suddenly and looks around quizzically. She looks confused as she tries to figure out why she stopped, but can�t and starts on her way again. Only a few feet later she stops again, this time with the sense that she�s being watched. She braces for a fight, and spins around with a punch when she hears a step behind her. A hand catches her fist, and she ceases her assault suddenly when she realizes who it is........Angel.

Opening Credits.

In the coffee shop, Angel tells Buffy he�s come to warn her that something big is about to go down in Sunnydale. When Buffy asks how he knows, he replies that Cordelia had a vision about it. She reminds him that he�s supposed to just call her about these things, but in all seriousness he tells her this is too important. Something big is about to happen, he says. Something too dangerous to just leave to chance, and he had to come to see if he could help stop it. Buffy accepts that, and asks him what Cordelia saw. Angel takes out a sheet of paper, upon which is drawn a symbol. He says it all revolves around this marking. Buffy furrows her brow and says she�s seen it before. She flashes back to the book the guys in cloaks were carrying when they tried to do a ritual with the little boy. She tells Angel about the book, and it�s his turn to look confused. He says that Cordelia saw it on a pendant in her vision. Buffy remembers the pendant that Grant removed from the dead witch, and mentions it to Angel, but says that it was turned in as police evidence, and she never saw it. Angel says that they have to find out if it�s the pendant Cordelia saw in her vision, and they get up to go to the Police Station.

At the Harris place, Xander and Anya get ready for bed. Xander brushes his teeth as Anya stands before a mirror, trying to detect any change in the size of her belly. She complains that the baby�s not kicking yet; she wants it to kick. Xander finishes and comes into their room smiling. He tells her it�s way too early for kicking; she�s only three months pregnant. Anya says she knows, she�s read all of the books already, but she feels like she should be able to detect its miniscule presence, or something, but she can�t. Xander climbs into bed with her and says that she will; she�s just gotta give it time. They kiss, and go to sleep in each other�s arms.

On their way to the station, Buffy asks what the symbol means, and Angel tells her that Wesley�s researched it, and found that it represents neither good, nor evil, but the balance between the two. It�s very powerful, and when invoked correctly it can be used for great good, or great evil. �The people Cordelia saw using it in her vision looked pretty evil, she said.� Angel says. Buffy snarks back �Which could mean she just didn�t like their shoes.� Angel stops, serious. �No, Buffy. What she saw...she saw evil. Those people, the ones using the symbol. They had no souls. They were human, but soulless. There was something else inside them.� Chilled by his words, Buffy turns and they continue on to the station.

Elsewhere in Sunnydale, a group of cloaked figures stands in a circle in the middle of a large, otherwise empty warehouse. The symbol is drawn inside the circle, on the floor, and the people chant ominously. The symbol starts to glow, and one form steps forward. He gets to his knees, and says that the dark forces have been growing in power. Soon, he says, it will be time. They must begin the ritual. He looks to three separate men, and they each nod, turn and leave the circle.

Commercials.

Spike fights a vamp in the cemetery with Dawn. Spike�s letting Dawn do most of the work, but is clearly there in case she runs into trouble. Dawn needs no help, however, and stakes the vampire in perfect form. Spike grins, and says their training has paid off. Dawn asks if this means they can tell Buffy she�s ready to help patrol and stuff, and Spike quickly loses his grin. �I told you,� he says, �the slayer never finds out I took you out here like this. Not unless you want her to stake me good and proper.� Dawn starts to argue but suddenly Spike hears a noise and motions for Dawn to shut up. She falls silent, and he quickly pulls her into a crouch with him behind a mausoleum, as a man in a cloak runs by. Spike, intent upon following him, instructs Dawn to go home, but she argues and says she can help him. She crosses her arms and refuses to go home. Spike is obviously torn, wanting to keep Dawn out of real danger, but also remembering that the guys in cloaks were responsible for his and Buffy�s body switching awhile back, and wanting to find out what they�re up to now. He finally decides to bring her along, and they take off after the man.

�So if this is the same symbol,� Buffy says to Angel as they approach the station, �Is that good, or bad?� Angel tells Buffy that Cordelia wasn�t sure; it just featured prominently in the vision. He goes on to tell her a bit about the origins of the symbol, and ends with �any witch would recognize it, but most don�t have the power necessary to use it.� Buffy stares at him. �Why didn�t you just tell me that in the first place?�

At Willow and Tara�s, Willow sleepily answers the phone when it rings. Through her half of the conversation we can tell she�s talking to Buffy. She recognizes the symbol Buffy describes to her, and says she even has a book with teachings of the power it invokes. �No,� she says, �It�s not really good or evil, it�s just very powerful. It can be used in very powerful protection spells, but it can also be used for very bad reasons, too. It all depends upon the intent of the user. But you have to be really powerful to be able to use it. Like, I can do stuff, but I can�t use it, I�m not strong enough.� She listens as Buffy gives her the short version of what�s going on, and agrees to meet her at the Magic Box with the book. She hangs up and quietly gets up to get dressed.

Buffy ends the call and hands Angel�s cell phone back to him. �She�ll meet us at the shop,� she says. �But first,� Angel replies, �we�ve got to find this pendant.� Buffy realizes he intends to come into the station with her, and says he can�t. When he wants to know why, she informs him that the place will be swarming with cops, and she�s a cop, and she can�t very well bring a civilian into the evidence locker with her, when she�s not even supposed to be there herself.

At Anya and Xander�s, a quiet beeping wakes Anya up. She blearily fumbles with the alarm clock for a moment before realizing the sound is coming from the shop�s security beeper over on the dresser. She gets up and picks it up, looking at it briefly before quietly getting her clothes and shoes. Out in the living room, dressed, she scribbles a brief note to Xander and leaves.

Cutting through an alley, Dawn and Spike are still following the trail of the cloaked dude. Dawn tries to contain her excitement, but Spike is clearly having second thoughts about letting her tag along, because the neighborhoods they�ve been going through are getting worse and worse. Luckily, they seem to finally be at the end of their journey, as they see the cloaked man enter a warehouse. Keeping one eye on Dawn, Spike creeps up to the door and opens it a bit to look in. Inside, he sees a whole mass of the cloaked figures preparing for some kind of ritual. He softly shuts the door and silently motions to Dawn that they�re leaving.

Inside the station, Buffy�s surprised to find the everything quiet. Other than the receptionist at the front desk, she sees no one and goes back to the evidence locker unimpeded. Not having a key, she forces the lock on the cage and goes inside. She looks around, seeing a number of other items that look more like mystical objects than contraband, and then she sees a velvet box. She flashes back quickly to seeing Grant from across the street giving the velvet box to the captain, and realizes the pendant must have been inside. She opens the box but it�s empty. Realizing it won�t be anywhere else in the locker, Buffy leaves. She goes outside and starts walking down the front steps, but then runs right into Grant.

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Buffy stumbles, and almost trips but Grant reaches out a hand to steady her. He asks if she�s okay, and Buffy recovers quickly, saying she�s fine. He pulls his hand away from her and Buffy notices it out of the corner of her eye. �What did you do to your hand?� she asks, indicating a bandage on it. Grant almost laughs, and looks slightly embarrassed, saying he�s never been much of a cook, but he�s never tried to fry his own hand before. Buffy smiles distractedly, and scans over Grant�s shoulder for Angel. She doesn�t see him, however, and Grant goes on to ask her what she�s doing there so late on her night off. Buffy decides to be semi-truthful, and says she was looking for him, actually. She wanted to ask him about the pendant he�d taken from the body of the dead witch, and goes on to ask him if there were any markings on it, or a symbol? He wants to know why, and she spontaneously makes up a story about how his ideas about the occult got her interested, and she�d like to learn more. He reminds her that he couldn�t find any information about the pendant, but Buffy continues to press him for the info until he describes the faded symbol on it...which matches Angel�s description. Buffy thanks him and leaves. Grant is left on the front steps looking bewildered.

Around the corner, Angel steps out of an alley as Buffy walks past. Buffy jumps and asks where he was. Angel says he was �around�, and almost nonchalantly asks who �that guy� was...but a faint tinge of jealousy is apparent. Buffy almost smiles and says it was just her partner, Grant. She gets back to business and says he described the pendant for her, and it�s the one Cordelia saw in her vision. But it was missing from the evidence locker, so someone�s already either used it, or destroyed it. Either way, it�s probably bad. Just then Spike comes running up, having been looking for Buffy. Dawn is no longer with him, and he pointedly skips over the fact that she ever was with him as he tells them about the guys in cloaks performing a ritual in the warehouse. He then suddenly seems to realize that Angel�s there, and they immediately start snarking at each other. Buffy interrupts, saying they haven�t got time for this. She asks Spike if he thinks they can take the guys in cloaks, or if they should call in for Scooby gang backup. Spike says that there�s not much that two powerful vampires and a slayer can�t take on together, and they head off toward the warehouse.

Inside the Magic Box, everything is dark and silent. At the front door a key is heard in the lock, and Anya comes in. She looks around warily, and wonders aloud why the cops didn�t meet her there as they�re supposed to when the silent alarm goes off. She walks over to the light switch and turns them on, then quickly goes back behind the counter to check on the register. Satisfied that all of the money is there, she comes back out and looks around to see if anything�s missing. She starts to head toward the back room just as two guys in cloaks come up from the basement, carrying the box Buffy and Spike brought back from the docks when the captain was killed. They look up at her with feverish, maniacal mal-intent, and Anya turns around to run toward the front door. One of them catches her and she falls to the floor, throwing her hands up in front of her face as he raises his hand to strike her. Suddenly he goes flying backward, however, and slams hard against the ladder leading up to the first level. Anya turns on her side and looks up at the front door to see Willow framed in the doorway.

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Outside the warehouse, Buffy, Angel and Spike creep up to the door. Spike levers it open, and they all look inside. Angel sees all of the figures in cloaks and whispers that Cordelia saw this in her vision. These are the soul-less humans. This is the ritual they�re meant to stop. Buffy starts to go in, but just then she catches site of the faces of some of the people in cloaks, and draws back in confusion and dismay as she realizes they�re cops. She tells Angel and Spike, and Angel muses over the evil cop thing, wondering if they�re zombies. �What?� Buffy asks, confused. �Nothing,� he replies, brushing it off. �Wrong city.� Buffy and Angel are standing right next to each other and they share a brief, terse glance before looking away. Spike notices. �Oh bloody hell,� he mutters. He then tries to get things back on track by pointing out that there are a lot of well-trained humans in there, and if Buffy�s dead set on not killing them, they�d need more help to subdue them all. Buffy remembers that they�re supposed to be meeting Willow at the Magic Box anyway, so she and Angel head there, while Spike runs over to Xander�s to wake him and Anya.

Back inside the Magic Box, Willow uses her powers to levitate the second man and throw him against the same ladder. He falls to the floor on top of the second man and is still. Willow rushes forward to help Anya up, but they�re both knocked to the floor suddenly by a third cloaked man that came up behind Willow. Willow starts to invoke a spell, but the man swiftly kicks her in the head, knocking her out cold. Anya uses the distraction to jump to her feet, and attacks the man, but he throws her back against the counter, and whips out a dagger. Anya trembles as he approaches her menacingly.

Cut to Dawn, pacing around in the living room where Spike left her. She�s clearly annoyed that she�s still considered unfit to help, and eventually gives in to her urge to disobey and go anyway. Locking the door behind her, Dawn leaves.

Back at the Magic Box, Willow regains consciousness to find that the men and the box are gone. She looks around and finds Anya lying on the floor. She turns her over and finds to her horror that Anya�s been stabbed, and is bleeding. She jumps up and runs to get the phone, returning with it even as she dials 911. As she�s talking to the operator, Anya wakes up and starts choking. Willow puts the phone down and tries to help her. She tells Anya that she just called an ambulance, but Anya doesn�t think she�ll be alive when it gets there. And even if she is, she�s worried that the baby won�t make it. Willow, sobbing, tries to assert that Anya will be fine. Anya asks Willow to help her, and Willow asks what she wants her to do.

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Back in the shop, Anya�s clearly fading fast as Willow prepares to do the transference spell. She says she�s not sure this will work; they�ve never tested it on anything living. Anya whispers �try��, and Willow, still crying, closes her eyes and concentrates. She places her hands on Anya�s abdomen, and it glows softly with a golden light. Suddenly they both gasp, and Willow�s eyes widen as the spell works. She pulls back, and the first tears fall from Anya�s eyes as she says that she hadn�t thought she could sense the presence of the baby, but now she knows she was wrong, because she can tell it�s gone. Willow sobs, and Anya looks at her and asks her to tell Xander that she loves him. Willow says she will, and a final silent tear slides down Anya�s face as she closes her eyes.

Outside the Magic Box, Buffy and Angel arrive just as Dawn does. Buffy says Dawn shouldn�t be out this late, but Dawn, a little rebellious, says she can help with whatever it is. Buffy�s arguing gets interrupted when Spike arrives with Xander. Buffy asks where Anya is, and Xander says he found a note when Spike woke him up, saying that the shop beeper had gone off, and she�d gone down to meet the cops. He jokes that they all know how Anya is when it comes to her money, and then notices Angel and asks what deadboy�s doing back in town. Buffy says there�s some big bad evil thing going down, as usual, and Angel came to warn them.

Turning toward the shop, Buffy opens the door and everyone files in...

...only to stop in shock when they see Willow, sobbing, kneeling over Anya, lying dead and bloody on the floor.

...to be continued...

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