Act 4
Fade In:
Int.
Watchers Council – Hallway – 9:23 a.m.
“Okay,” Kennedy ordered as she marched down the hallway. Vi and Faith were behind her and on either side, “Coven Room, infirmary and the main lobby – those are the places they’re going to try to take. I want a full team of slayers at each one. Heli, take a few slayers to the Coven Room. Vi, you’re with me by the infirmary. Faith, whatever you do, don’t take as many slayers as you think you need to hold them as long as you can in the lobby.”
Faith gave her a smile and nodded. “Yeah, that’ll be the last thing I do.”
Kennedy smiled back, but then her expression turned serious again and she spun around to look at the rest of the group. “Everyone else, I want you in every hallway between the main lobby and the Coven Room. I want every single possible path between the coven room and the main foyer to pass through at least three slayers. Younger slayers, you’re our ambulances. If you see someone go down, I want you to get them to the infirmary.” She stopped before the three teams split off. “Look, I need you to try to remember; we’re dealin’ with slayers here. Misguided, maybe, but they’re still slayers.”
“We know, Ken,” Faith replied. “We’ll try to –”
Kennedy shook her head. “Please do more than try. We got exactly one chance for the coven to pull this off. If they don’t finish the spell, then we don’t get a second chance – there won’t be enough of us left alive to try again.” She paused. “I know that it’s been drilled into us until we’re sick of it that slayers don’t hurt humans, but I think I can pretty much guarantee that they won’t share that particular sentiment,” Kennedy told her. “Try not to hurt anyone, but if you’re in a you-or-them situation…”
Faith’s jaw tightened and she closed her eyes. “I’m not sure about this.”
“Well, I am sure,” Kennedy replied. “None of us like it. But I got the idea that we’re all gonna be doing things we don’t like before the morning’s done.”
“Um, Ken?” Vi spoke up, “I think I’m supposed to be in the Coven Room.”
“What do you mean ‘supposed to be’?” Kennedy asked.
“I mean, if I’m gonna be going back…” Vi attempted to explain.
“Do they need you in the Coven room to perform the spell?” Kennedy asked.
“Well, no,” Vi shook her head.
“Then you’re by the infirmary,” Kennedy replied decisively.
“But I need to –”
“Vi,” Kennedy cut her off, “I’m putting you exactly where I’d put you if we’d never found that body.” She let out a long breath before she continued. “You really think that in this fight, I’d put you anywhere other than near Xander?” Kennedy smiled thinly. “Why do you think I’m gonna be by the infirmary? That’s where you’re going to be.”
Vi looked at her for a moment through suddenly-moist eyes, then turned without a word and disappeared down the hallway.
Cut To:
Int.
Watchers Council – Infirmary Waiting Room – Same Time
“Ro, what do you think you can do here?” Willow gestured at the double doors of the infirmary.
“I’m field-trained in first aid, not to mention years of stitching up a potential after a bad training session,” Rowena said through gritted teeth. “Ipek liked to train hard.”
“Well, when you said that you wouldn’t be on the front lines, I was kinda hoping you meant a little more out-of-the-way-y,” Willow replied. “What are you gonna have to defend yourself with?”
“A team of slayers,” Rowena replied, then added with a one-sided smile, “the best protection a red-headed Wiccan can summon.”
“Yeah, and that’s also exactly what’s going to be beating down your door,” Willow snapped.
“Will…”
“I just don’t want you to get hurt,” Willow added.
“Will, I told you, I want a future with you,” Rowena said, “and if last night is any indication, you want the same. So if that means my standing here will get us that future together, then it’ll take more than one butt-kicking Wiccan to move me.”
Willow frowned. “Just so you know, if you get yourself killed, I’m petitioning that the Council fire you.”
Rowena smiled. “Deal,” she agreed, pulling the redhead into a tight embrace.
Cut To:
Int.
Coven Room – Morning
“Caitlin, right?” Heli held her hand out to the unfamiliar slayer.
The slayer, three hundred years removed from her own time, took the extended hand. “Heli?”
Heli nodded. “Don’t suppose you have any input as to how to deal with these people when they come, do you?”
Caitlin gave a bit of a chuckle, then looked over at Heli. “Considering that they kicked our butts three hundred years from now, my advice might not be the best thing to take.”
Heli’s eyebrows arched as she contemplated the younger slayer’s words. “Good point,” she said finally.
“You scared?” Caitlin asked.
Heli nodded.
“Me too.”
Cut To:
Int.
Watchers Council – Lobby – Same Time
Faith stood in the middle of the lobby, spinning around. Slayers stood at every entrance and every path from the room.
“We’re ready,” she whispered, even though nobody was close enough to hear her.
Cut To:
Int.
Watchers Council – Hallway – Same Time
Vi reached behind her back, producing a pair of short cylindrical objects. With a snap of her wrist, they telescoped outward approximately eighteen inches.
Kennedy stood next to her, her jaw clenched. Every muscle in her body was tense as she waited for the onslaught.
Cut To:
Int.
Watchers Council – Infirmary – Same Time
“You ready?” Robin asked.
Rowena nodded, then stopped and shook her head. “No,” she admitted. She looked up at Robin. “If…If they can’t be saved, you know what to do, right?”
“Give them morphine for the pain, mark a ‘D’ on their forehead,” Robin replied.
Rowena nodded. “We won’t be able to save everyone.”
“I know,” Robin said quietly.
“But do what you can.”
“I will,” Robin promised.
“And Robin?”
“Yeah?”
Rowena paused for a moment. “If I don’t make it…Promise you’ll look after Willow and the Council.”
At first Robin didn’t answer. “I promise,” he said in a soft, yet sincere, voice.
Cut To:
Int.
Watchers Council – Coven Room – Minutes Later
The nine witches sat in a circle, their eyes closed and hands joined.
“How long?” Willow asked.
“Five minutes,” Gaiden replied.
Cut To:
Int.
Watchers Council – Hallway – Same Time
Skye stood casually, her hands clasped behind her back. Marissa stood to her right, a policeman’s baton behind her left arm.
“Just so you know,” Marissa said, “if you turn on us, I’ll stake you myself.”
“I know, Ms. Shoot First,” Skye replied, “but have you considered that this is pretty much a lose-lose scenario for me?”
“What?”
“Well, we lose, and they stake me. We win, and you’ll probably stake me sooner or later anyway,” she shrugged. “So, you know, staking? Not exactly the threat you think it is.”
“I’m just saying…”
“You know, I haven’t had any slayer blood in months,” Skye commented idly. “Could be useful under circumstances like this.”
“Your morbid side chose a great time to assert itself,” Marissa told her, her features scrunching.
“Actually,” Skye replied quietly, “I think it chose the perfect time.”
Cut To:
Int.
Watchers Council – Hallway Outside Infirmary – Same Time
Vi and Kennedy both stood guard over the entrance to the infirmary, muscles tensed, waiting for the first sign of their opponent’s arrival.
Cut To:
Int.
Watchers Council – Coven Room – Minutes Later
In unison, the witches closed their eyes. The air almost seemed to buzz with electricity as they joined hands, each member of the Coven displaying an expression of intense concentration.
Cut To:
Int.
Watchers Council – Lobby – Same Time
At first, the change was subtle. The air in the center of the lobby almost seemed to ripple, as if a stone had been tossed into a pond.
Then it was brutally ripped open.
Cut To:
Int.
Watchers Council – Hallway Outside Infirmary – Same Time
In the middle of the hallway, a second portal began to open. Kennedy and Vi brought their hands up in a guard position.
“Crap,” Kennedy muttered, “they’re coming right here.”
Cut To:
Int.
Watchers Council – Outside Coven Room – Same Time
“Poika ita sotkea!” Heli exclaimed, as she jumped backwards from the blinding flash of light. She quickly glanced to her right, seeing a second portal forming down the hall, in the direction of the infirmary. Turning to her left, she could see a third appearing just in front of the two slayers standing in the middle of the hallway.
“They’re everywhere,” she whispered.
Cut To:
Int.
Watchers Council – Lobby – Same Time
“Jesus,” Faith whispered, as young women clad in black body suits began pouring from the opening still hanging in mid-air, “how many are there?”
For the briefest of moments, she closed her eyes. They then opened in fierce slits and her jaw tensed as she watched the women advance on her.
“Fire!” she yelled.
From behind her, crossbow bolts flew over her head, striking the first advancing row of slayers. They dropped immediately to the ground.
Faith’s entire body tensed as she watched the women fall.
“Keep shooting!” she yelled. She looked on at the carnage in grim determination, her face pale.
Cut To:
Int.
Watchers Council – Hallway Outside Infirmary – Moments Later
Vi ducked as a punch whistled through the air just above her head; she countered with a snap-kick to the slayer’s midsection. The woman staggered back with the force of the strike, and could not react in time to block the right hook Vi delivered across her left cheekbone. She spun with the force of the blow and slammed into the wall of the hallway. She slid to the linoleum floor, still breathing.
Kennedy’s elbow collided with titanic force with the bridge of another woman’s nose. The woman’s head snapped backwards, and she fell, blood pouring liberally from her nose.
Vi brought her batons up in an X-shape to block a downward swing from a sword. The woman kicked her in her temporarily undefended side. The woman’s kick scored her ribcage a few inches below Vi’s armpit with a loud crunch. Vi dropped to one knee, her breath suddenly coming in labored gasps.
Kennedy looked over at her.
“Vi!” She yelled.
With the baton in her right hand, Vi hooked behind the leg of another slayer who had just kicked her, then slammed the other across her forehead. The woman was knocked unconscious.
“I’m okay. Just a rib,” Vi gasped, unable to breathe properly. She looked up to see the hallway rapidly filling with black-clad slayers.
Cut To:
Int.
Watchers Council – Lobby – Minutes Later
The slayer standing next to Faith dropped, but she didn’t have time to see who it was. She struck at the woman who’d attacked her, trying to beat her into the ground.
“Get her to the infirmary!” she yelled, only seeing out of the corner of her eye as a pair of young slayers advanced to drag her back from the front lines.
Cut To:
Int.
Watchers Council – Infirmary – Minutes Later
“Xander! I need more bandages!” Rowena yelled, as she pressed with her gloved hands against a deep wound in a woman’s shoulder. Blood oozed between her fingers in pulses, pouring down over the woman’s clothing and onto the pristine white sheets.
Xander rushed forward, knocking a metal tray from the counter in the process. It fell to the ground with a loud clatter, sending surgical equipment flying several feet from the impact.
He handed Rowena a sealed package. She pulled her hands from the wound just long enough to tear it open and press the gauze pad it contained against the woman’s shoulder.
Behind them, Dr. Miller tried to safely cut a crossbow bolt out of a woman’s shoulder.
Robin helped lift a woman onto one of the few remaining hospital gurneys. Her eyes were wide as they darted around the room. Crimson blood caked her face and ran into her hair, plastering it against her forehead.
“Am I gonna be okay?” she gasped at Robin. Robin looked down the length of her body. Deep cuts criss-crossed the woman’s abdomen and her blue jeans hung off her legs in bloody shreds. Blood bubbled from her lips as she spoke, and her breathing was shallow and wet, almost as if she were drowning.
Robin smiled down at her. “Just relax,” he said reassuringly. “I’m going to give you something for the pain, and the doctor will be right with you.” He uncapped a syringe and inserted it into the woman’s right arm, pushing the plunger home.
The slayer’s body relaxed and she slumped backwards against the pillow. “Thanks,” she whispered softly.
He pulled out a red marker and marked a “D” on her forehead.
Robin took a series of deep breaths and looked up at the two slayers who had carried her back in.
“Get back to the front lines. There’ll be more like her who need help,” he said.
Cut To:
Int.
Coven room – 10:35 a.m.
A pinpoint of light formed in the center of the seated circle of witches, and slowly began to expand.
Very slowly.
Cut To:
Int.
Watchers Council – Outside Coven Room – Same Time
Heli grasped the slayer in front of her by the wrists and pulled her forwards, and off balance. Simultaneously, she kicked the woman in the abdomen. Then she lashed out, striking another woman across the jaw.
Caitlin swung a small baton across the jaw of another slayer. Another two grabbed her by the arms, slamming her into the wall, while a third started mercilessly beating her.
“Ai paska,” Heli growled, as she turned just in time to be tackled to the ground. She slammed backwards into the Coven Room. The blond-haired slayer who had tackled her gripped her hair, slamming her head again and again into the hard tile floor.
Cut To:
Int.
Watchers Council – Hallway – Minutes Later
Skye gripped the slayer’s arms, stopping the stake they held just before it penetrated her breastbone. She shifted her hands to the left, freeing her right fist to deliver a right hook across the slayer’s jaw. She stunned the girl just long enough to allow her brow to furrow and her canines to extend. She rushed forward, bit the slayer deeply in the neck, then allowed her opponent to drop unceremoniously to the ground.
She looked up at the next slayer, who backed up a step at the sight of the vampire.
“Now,” Skye whispered ominously, “you’re in trouble.”
Cut To:
Int.
Watchers Council – Kitchen – Same Time
Andrew twisted the knob on the gas range to maximum, and the slayer standing in front of it immediately jumped away from it as flames leapt from the stove. He then gripped the handle on the heavy metal door of the refrigerator and swung it open as hard as he could, striking the slayer in the face. Finally he swung a cast-iron skillet over his head, knocking the woman unconscious.
Andrew stood triumphantly over the woman’s prone form and thrust a finger in her direction. “Nobody,” he yelled, “beats me in the kitchen.”
The frying pan in Tracey’s hand struck another slayer in the jaw, sending her flying over the kitchen counter. She then pulled away, winding up for another swing.
On her backswing, the frying pan hit Andrew in the back of the head and he dropped, unconscious, next to the slayer he’d just bested.
Tracey looked down at him and winced sympathetically. “Ooh, sorry,” she whispered to him.
Cut To:
Int.
Watchers Council – Outside infirmary – Minutes Later
The unending onslaught forced Kennedy and Vi backwards. They had given up the possibility of gaining any ground, and focused instead upon delaying the invading slayers overrunning the infirmary as long as they possibly could.
Vi quickly looked over at Kennedy. Her left eye was almost swollen shut, and blood trickled out of the corner of her mouth. The slayers looked at each other and, in that instant, Kennedy gave the tiniest shake of her head.
Vi’s jaw clenched as she launched herself at the oncoming slayers with renewed determination.
Cut To:
Int.
watchers Council – Infirmary – Same Time
Rowena slipped a needle into a slayer’s arm, closing her eyes as she dosed the woman.
“We’re going to need more morphine.” She looked up at Xander.
Xander was standing stiffly next to her, staring vacantly at the opposite wall.
“Xander? Wake up. I need your help,” she said tightly.
As if he hadn’t heard her, he turned towards the infirmary door and strode out of the room.
Cut To:
Int.
Watchers Council – Outside Infirmary – Same Time
Xander burst out through the infirmary doors and shoved Vi to her right.
Vi automatically spun around, prepared to strike at a new attacker. Then she froze in shock as she saw a crossbow bolt embedded in the center of Xander’s chest, a rapidly-expanding crimson circle around the point of impact.
Xander dropped to his knees, then flopped lifelessly onto his right side. He rolled almost lazily onto his back, staring sightlessly at the ceiling of the hallway.
Cut To:
Int.
Watchers Council – Hallway – Same Time
Skye lashed out at the nearest slayer and delivered a kick to her left knee, which bent backwards with a sickening crackle. She then spun around, backhanding the slayer across the jaw.
“Now that’s a pick-me-up,” she said triumphantly.
Cut To:
Int.
Watchers Council – Lobby – Same Time
Faith glanced to her left just in time to deflect what would have been a lethal attack from a sword. Her elbow slammed into the wielder’s nose, forcing her to release the weapon. Newly-armed, Faith slashed the weapon across the Slayer’s thigh, dropping her to the ground.
“Fall back!” she yelled to anyone within earshot.
Cut To:
Int.
watchers Council – Outside Infirmary – Same Time
“Vi!” Kennedy yelled, as she was slammed to the ground near Xander’s body. “I need your help here!”
Vi’s gaze drifted almost lazily upwards from Xander’s face, looking quizzically into Kennedy’s eyes. Her green eyes were almost lifeless as she looked at the other slayer.
Kennedy’s eyes widened.
“Vi, no!”
Vi stood up, idly tossing the two batons in her hands aside, then reached behind her back, producing the two wooden stakes Xander had made for her so long ago.
She stood, walking coldly over to where Kennedy lay, trying to fend off a black-clad woman kneeling over her.
Kennedy reached out to Vi.
“Vi, don’t!” she tried to yell to the red-haired slayer through the vice-like grip around her throat. It came out as something akin to a croak.
Vi gripped the woman under the chin, dragging her off of Kennedy, then the stake in her right hand plunged brutally downward, slamming into the center of the slayer’s chest.
Another slayer gave her a firm kick in the stomach, which she did not even attempt to deflect. She stumbled backwards with the force of the strike, holding her midsection before she again launched herself forward.
Kennedy was still gasping for breath when she looked up to see Vi dancing around another slayer. Her strikes, which had been almost surgical in nature up until that time, became brutal, almost random.
“Hold the infirmary,” Vi told her flatly, just before she disappeared into the crowd of attacking slayers.
Cut To:
Int.
Watchers Council – Coven Room – Minutes Later
The palm of Heli’s right hand slammed upwards, catching the woman straddling her under the chin. She flopped backwards with the force of the blow, allowing Heli to roll to her feet. She crouched, almost cat-like, watching for her opponent to rise.
She’d lost sight of Caitlin, but off to her right, the spell seemed almost to have produced a portal large enough for someone to pass through it.
Cut To:
Int.
Watchers Council – Hallway – Same Time
Marissa’s head snapped backwards as she received an uppercut under the chin. She stumbled, trying to shake her head to clear it.
Skye deflected a second stake, but she was a fraction too slow to deflect the third. It struck her in the center of her back. She looked through the slayer in front of her in stunned shock for a moment before her body disintegrated, raining down on the carpeted floor of the hallway.
Cut To:
Int.
Watchers Council – Infirmary – Same Time
The door to the infirmary exploded inward as Kennedy was forcibly ejected from the hallway. She landed on an occupied gurney, then dropped to the floor. Blood poured freely from a large gash over her right eye. She stood, a little shakily, to face the oncoming army.
Cut To:
Int.
Watchers Council – Kitchen – Same Time
Tracey stood, her back against the refrigerator. The frying pan shook in her hands as a large group of slayers faced her.
One of the women in the lead looked at her quizzically. “You’re not a slayer,” she said tonelessly.
“N- No,” Tracey stammered. “I-I’m a cook.”
The woman backed off.
“Leave her,” she ordered, then led the team out of the kitchen.
Tracey looked on in confusion as they left.
Cut To:
Int.
Watchers Council – Coven Room – Moments Later
Heli stood on her wobbling legs as another wave of slayers threatened to overtake her. Her body heaved with every breath, and her right arm hung at an awkward angle from her shoulder.
She looked at the approaching army with a stoic indifference, “It’s over,” she said. Her hands curled stiffly into fists as she tried to draw herself to her full height.
“Not yet,” Caitlin answered from behind Heli, startling her for a second.
A commotion from behind the encroaching horde drew the attention of its members, and they spun around to look back into the hallway.
Heli looked at them quizzically, not understanding their hesitation for a moment.
She looked over at the portal. It was almost completely opened now. She took a step towards it.
Then she slammed to the ground as she was tackled from behind. A slayer straddled her and pounded on her back and shoulders.
As suddenly as it had begun, the beating ceased, and the slayer abandoned Heli to move back towards the door of the Coven Room.
Heli tried to stand, but for some reason, her legs weren’t functioning properly. Instead, she looked over at the door, trying to use her arms to prop herself up enough that she could see what was happening.
Vi was, quite literally, tunneling a path through the women who were storming the Coven Room. She swept them aside almost effortlessly in a single-minded drive to push her way in. Her breathing was shallow, and blood was splattered over her face and clothing. It was impossible to tell how much of that blood was hers.
The attacking women recoiled from the near-animal fury. Vi held a wooden stake in each hand, and dark blood dripped from their points as she stood in the center of their mass, practically daring them to strike.
Heli looked up at her, almost curiously, as if she were looking at a stranger. But her expression wasn’t one of fear, but respect.
Vi stepped over to Heli. “You okay?”
“I didn’t know you had it in you,” Heli said weakly.
“We can’t let you do this,” Caitlin spoke to Vi. “All you have to do is walk away.” She looked down at Heli. “Nobody has to die here.”
“People already have died,” Vi took a step backwards, towards the portal.
“You have no idea,” Caitlin replied, “how true that is.”
“So that’s your solution? Give up?” Vi took another step backwards.
“We’ve been thrown out of Eden. We can’t go back,” Caitlin replied.
Vi frowned. “You’ve been thrown out of Eden. We’ve still got a shot at it.” She spun around and began sprinting to the far end of the Coven Room. Caitlin gave chase.
She raised a crossbow and fired. It struck Dawn in the center of her back.
“Dawn!” Jeff yelled.
The portal started to shimmer, then began to collapse on itself.
With a final vestige of fading strength, Vi threw herself into the void, but Caitlin grabbed her by the ankles, bringing her to the ground.
“This isn’t your fight,” Caitlin told Vi.
Fade to White
Fade In:
Ext.
Dark Alleyway – Three Days Prior
“Oh God.” Fear cut into Vi’s voice as the pair of slayers again shielded their eyes. “Here comes another one.”
“Now would be a good time to run.” Kennedy fought to keep her voice steady while attempting to shake the spots away from her field of vision.
“Run where?” The slightest traces of panic were starting to dance around the edge of Vi’s voice.
She backed away, still blinded from the second arrival. She watched as two globulous dark splotches, one much smaller than the other, converged on each other.
“Can you see anything?” she asked as she stepped backwards.
“No,” Kennedy said, beginning to sound panicked as well.
“Something’s not right.” Vi could hear the two creatures in front of her circling each other. Her body tensed reflexively as she heard the demon attack. When no blow landed, she looked around, still blinded, and confused.
“We’re not the target,” Kennedy’s mind made the elusive connection first.
“Can you see who it is?”
“No,” Kennedy replied, “but they’re buying us some time. Let’s buy them a beer later.”
In her blurred field of view, she watched as the smaller…creature danced around the demon. It struck expertly from close-quarters, holding the demon at bay.
“It’s a slayer,” Kennedy realized, enormous relief spreading across her face.
“Faith? Is that you?” Vi called out.
The figure did not respond. Instead, she took a step towards the creature, but was halted as he held up his immense, four-fingered hand, displaying long claws on each finger. Very deliberately, the slayer standing before him allowed her hands to drop to her side, lowering her defenses. The demon thrust his claws into the center of the slayer’s abdomen, inflicting a wound which would be unavoidably fatal, but not immediately so.
“Faith!” Kennedy screamed, after blood shot across her face and clothes.
As blood poured from the gaping wound, the demon lifted the slayer off the ground. She coughed, sputtering blood from her lips and fighting to retain consciousness.
With the final vestige of fading strength, the slayer reached for the demon’s head and grabbed the horns on either side of it. With a single, brutal motion, twisted it until the hellish creature’s neck broke with a sickening crunch.
Both figures dropped, lifeless, to the ground.
Kennedy and Vi ran forward, rolling the slayer on to her back. Immediately both slayers jumped back from the body, expressions of shock and disbelief on their faces.
Caitlin’s eyes stared lifelessly at the night sky.
Vi frowned, confused. “Who the hell is this?” she asked.
“Never seen her before in my life,” Kennedy answered.
Black Out
End of Foucault’s Pendulum
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