act 3
Cut To:
Ext.
Cleveland Alley – Night
2005
Barely able to stay upright, Kennedy and Faith stood toe-to-toe now and swung at the same time. Kennedy fell to the ground in a solid thump, while Faith stumbled backward, saved only by the wall from falling over. Kennedy looked like she was trying to rise, but couldn’t. Faith looked over at Heli, who stood with a slight grin that resembled more a look of amazement and shock than amusement.
“Get her to a doctor,” Faith said. “That’s my last official order.”
Faith half walked and half stumbled down the alley until she made it back to the main street. She stood for a moment, hanging on the corner of the building as if getting her breath, before she slipped out of sight. Once she was gone, Heli came over to help get Kennedy to her feet.
After the young slayer was upright, Heli tried to offer her shoulder to help her walk, but Kennedy pushed her away.
“Son of a bitch,” Kennedy grumbled, as she, too, began to limp to the end of the street unassisted.
Heli chased after her. “I thought we were chasing Skye Talisker,” she said. “What was that?”
“That was Faith quitting,” Kennedy said. “Right when we need her most, she…” Kennedy stumbled and almost fell again, but Heli moved quickly and caught her. Kennedy tried to shake Heli off. “I don’t need any help.”
“Yes, you do,” Heli insisted. Kennedy was no longer in any position to argue and gave in, leaning into Heli’s shoulder. The two girls made it out of the alley and onto the main street. The old Council headquarters was visible a couple of blocks up. They continued to limp forward, Kennedy hanging heavily onto the other girl.
“Kennedy,” Heli said with a grunt, “I know you and Faith are close, but this was bound to happen eventually. It’s who she is. The going gets tough and she runs away.”
“She’s better than that now,” Kennedy said, stoically limping forward. “If she’d just let me talk to her…”
“You can’t escape your true nature,” Heli replied. Kennedy tried to look at her, but her eye was nearly swollen shut. “You know, if Faith leaves, you’ll be put in charge. Are you ready for that?”
“I think about it sometimes,” Kennedy rasped. The two girls stopped at a crosswalk, waiting for the light to change from red to white. “I think about…if something happened to her, if it all came down to me, what would I do?”
“Why are you telling me this?” Heli asked.
“Sometimes I just need a shoulder to lean on,” Kennedy quipped. The light changed and they moved forward again.
“Honestly, I thought you two were going to kill each other,” Heli said.
“You’re joking, right?” Kennedy asked. She saw the look on Heli’s face. “You’re not joking? Heli, I couldn’t. Never. But Faith…”
“Faith’s killed people before,” Heli pointed out.
Kennedy nodded. “I know. Maybe that’s what scares me, that if she runs away now, she’ll just…go back to that place again.”
The two women were getting close to the front steps of Council headquarters.
“Maybe what scares you is that you see the same things in yourself,” Heli said.
Kennedy grit her teeth. “What…the hell?”
“Faith, Mia, Willow,” Heli explained, “you surround yourself with people who are in touch with their own dark side. Maybe that’s because you’re worried about your own.”
They had made it to the door. Kennedy extricated herself from Heli and spent a moment with her hands on her knees, catching her breath. “Heli,” she panted. “You’re a great slayer. Stick to that. You’ve got a lot to learn about people.” She straightened up and put a hand on the door handle. “I think the healing’s kicking in. I’ll be alright.”
Heli watched through the glass front doors as Kennedy limped away into the lobby.
Cut To:
Int.
Council Van – Tokyo Street – Night
The traffic wasn’t quite as horrible, and so the Council van was moving along at a pretty good clip. Kennedy’s eyes were fixed out the window.
“Nozomi and her girls are gonna try and meet up with us,” Mia said, as the Japanese girl she had been talking to ducked her head out of the front seat of the van. “Rowena doesn’t want to slow the rest of us down.”
Kadin sat behind Kennedy, who was once again in the passenger seat as Mia drove.
“Do we have any idea what this chick wants?” Kadin asked. Kennedy was still staring out the window. “I mean, I haven’t been in the big meetings lately. Does anyone really know why she’s doing this? At all?”
“She’s crazy,” Mia shrugged.
“Doesn’t mean she doesn’t have motivation,” Kadin pointed out. “Back me up here, Ken.”
“She’s going after me,” Kennedy said quietly, still staring out the window at the passing city lights.
“What?” Mia asked as she turned the wheel. “What are you talking about?”
“She wanted Rowena out of the way so she could face me alone,” Kennedy continued. “I don’t know why, but…somehow this is about me.”
“Well, she’s dealing with all of us now,” Kadin assured her. She placed a hand on Kennedy’s shoulder.
Kennedy never moved. She just kept staring out the window.
Cut To:
Int.
Endless Sound Karaoke – Night
The nightclub had emptied around her, but Rowena was still sitting on her stool in the center of a spotlight.
“I should have listened to Willow,” she said, sadness in her voice. “And you should be off doing your vampire nose thing. Isn’t that why we brought you?”
Skye was now sitting at the edge of the stage, her shoes propped up on a table. “Vampire nose thing?” she repeated. “The latest technical term, brought to you by the makers of ‘Vampification’.”
“So you’re just going to stay here and make sarcastic remarks at the expense of the trapped pregnant woman?”
“That’s the plan,” Skye replied, resting her head back on her hands. “And anyway, I’m not leaving you or the baby all alone with a serial killer on the loose. For all we know, that could be what she wants.”
Rowena looked at Skye, surprised by this. “So you’re what, shooting for Godmother?”
“I’ll settle for cool immortal aunt,” Skye said.
Rowena tapped her foot impatiently, fidgeting with her engagement bracelet. “You know what I want to know?” she said. “I want to know why the trap didn’t spring for any of the other bazillion bad Japanese singers who sat down here since she did whatever it is she did to the stage. It couldn’t have activated until I entered the circle. I can’t figure out how she did it.”
“A new feeling, is it?” Skye asked. “Getting out-thought?” For a beat there was silence.
“Yes,” Rowena admitted. “Yes it is. And I don’t like it.”
The front door opened. Skye looked up at Rowena before they both watched a green, horned demon entering deeper into the room.
“I’ll handle this,” Skye said, before she rushed over to meet the intruder. “Sorry pal,” she said, holding her hands up and motioning back to the front door. “We’re closed.”
“I know, Sweetie,” Lorne said in perfect English. “I’m the one who ordered us closed.”
Lorne brushed past Skye and she followed along.
“You’re the owner?” she asked.
“That I am,” he answered. “What’s a vamp doing hanging out with the Watchers Council anyway?”
“I’m…How did you know?” Skye asked. Lorne just gave a wave of his hand over his body from top to bottom. “Well, I’m dating someone there,” Skye explained. “Dawn Summers.”
Lorne rolled his eyes. “Talk about your apples not falling far from the other limbs.” The pair finished their journey over to the stage. “I take a few days off and look what happens,” he said, shaking. He came to a stop in front of the stage looking at Rowena.
“Don’t!” Rowena warned before he could step any closer.
“I know, Princess. They warned me – booby-trapped stage. You’ve got beaucoup trouble up there.”
“Yeah, but do you think you can get me out of it?” Rowena asked.
“Certainly, or dying trying,” he told her. Rowena looked worried. “Not you dying honey, me. Trust me, Willow Rosenberg is not a dame I personally want to piss off. If you don’t make it out of this okay, chances are I might not last long, either, once she finds out. I’ve seen the things our witchy gal can do first hand and I for one am not going there.” Rowena scrunched her eyebrows in curiosity at his words. “Sit tight,” he told her.
“Believe me, I can’t sit any tighter at this point,” she replied.
“Sense of humor,” Lorne said as he grinned. “You’ll need that, ’cause this might take awhile. Be back in a flash.” With this, he darted away.
Cut To:
Ext.
Shinto Shrine Grounds – Night
Heli sat at the base of a squat square pedestal, beneath a small bronze statue of something that looked like a lion but wasn’t, quite. She was turning something over in her hands. It was a bracelet, covered in diamonds. It looked exactly like Rowena’s. Distant lights reflected brightly in its facets.
Several demons of various shapes and sizes were spread out through the well-manicured grounds of the shrine. They weren’t milling around aimlessly. They were gathered in small groups. Setting things up.
The largest of the demons, the one Heli had spoken to earlier, walked up the steps to the shrine itself, a rectangular, ornate red and gold building, with a peaked roof.
“I’m already set up in there,” Heli said in an off-hand tone, without looking up. “I wouldn’t go in if I were you.”
The demon stopped in its tracks, looking from the building, to Heli, and back again. “Some nice jewelry you have there,” it said. “Somebody give that to you?”
Heli’s face didn’t move very much, but her eyes smiled. “No. Nothing like that. Actually, I stole it from a friend.”
“Didn’t think you were the greedy type of criminal,” the demon remarked.
“Trust me, I’m not,” Heli replied, her tone suddenly dark. “I replaced it with a fake. Exactly identical, down to the price tag, except the new one contains a tiny sensor. She’ll get the original back, once I’m done with it. I’m not a monster, after all.”
Cut To:
Int.
Council Van – Night
Mia pulled the van over in front of a thin glass building, several stories high, which glowed a different color every few seconds.
“Looks like the roadies got here before us,” Kadin remarked, pointing. Sure enough, there was already a black Council van parked outside the building.
“Try not to call them that to their faces,” Kennedy sighed as she stepped out of the vehicle, slamming the door behind her.
Cut To:
Int.
Second Arcade – Night
Inside the building was another arcade. The floor plan was slightly more open than the previous one they’d been to, but the amount of visual and auditory chaos was roughly equivalent.
Kennedy, Mia and Kadin, led their group of girls into the building and saw Nozomi walking directly toward them, a serious look on her face.
“Ask her how Ro’s doing,” Kennedy told Mia. This earned her a look from Kadin that she failed to notice.
Mia and Nozomi carried on a rapid, business-like conversation in Japanese. After a moment, Mia nodded.
“They’ve found the game in the picture,” she said. Nozomi motioned for them all to follow her.
“All right!” Kadin exclaimed. She raised a hand for a high-five, but found that the others had already left her in the dust.
Nozomi led the group to the foot of an escalator leading to the second floor. She charged up the steps, rather than waiting for the ride to take her to the top.
“I didn’t know you were this fluent in Japanese,” Kennedy said to Mia, as they followed Nozomi up the escalator.
“It’s what my parents spoke at home,” Mia explained. “If I didn’t know what they were saying I would’ve been in major trouble.” She sighed.
“It’s weird, y’know? I hated them after my father kicked me out of the house, after my mother didn’t stop him…but I still miss them. It was over a decade and a half of my life. It’s hard to let go of that.”
“Have you talked to them?” Kennedy asked. “I mean, since the craziness last year, it’d probably be pretty easy for them to figure out where you were and get ahold of you.”
They were at the top of the escalator and began walking to a far corner of the building. Mia shook her head.
“They could be dead, for all I know.”
The conversation effectively ended when Nozomi pointed to the machine. A few other Japanese girls were standing around the machine, while one was in the process of prying a panel off the back of the thing.
Kadin caught up to Kennedy and Mia. “Wow, Super Extra Mondo Dog Typing,” she said. “How do you even play this thing?” There were two keyboards attached to the front of the machine, and two large cartoon dogs on either side, exactly like the one from Heli’s photograph. A sheet of paper taped to the front of the machine read “Out of Order” in Japanese.
“Do we really need to know?” Mia asked.
“When it comes to Heli, you never know,” Kennedy said. “Watch, we’ll have to type two hundred words a minute or the bomb will go off.”
The slayer pried off the panel and stuck her head in the machine, looking for anything suspicious.
“Like Speed on a keyboard,” Mia grinned. Kennedy showed no amusement. Mia turned to Kadin.
“I don’t watch that many movies,” Kadin admitted. Mia huffed and turned back to Kennedy.
“So, what exactly do you see in her again?” she said, poking a thumb back in Kadin’s direction.
“Hey!” Kadin protested.
“I’m just joking,” Mia told her with a grin. “Kinda,” she muttered.
The girl behind the game machine pulled back and shook her head negatively.
Mia spoke to Nozomi. “They’ve examined this thing inside and out,” Mia translated, “and they can’t find anything. You think it’s a dead end?”
Kennedy groaned and ran a hand over her face. “I-I’m sorry. I don’t know. Maybe…Maybe we should go over the photographs again, look for another lead?” She sounded tired.
“No,” Kadin said. Kennedy looked at her, surprised. “No, I think they were just looking in the wrong place.” She walked over to the machine and easily pulled the “Out of Order” sign off the screen. She turned the sheet of paper over and sighed.
Kadin held up the other side of the paper, which showed a simple wooden arch in front of an elaborate Shinto temple.
“Does this mean anything to anybody?” Kadin asked.
Immediately a clamor arose from several of the Japanese girls. There was much nodding and pointing.
“I’ll take that as a yes.” Kadin walked over and handed the picture to Kennedy.
Kennedy stared at the image, mixed emotions showing through in her eyes.
Cut To:
Ext.
Watchers Council – Grounds – Day
“It’s true we’re investigating the bombing in Tokyo, and it is true that two slayers from our Tokyo branch are dead,” Faith told the crowd of reporters who surrounded her. Her tone was a little bit harried. A forest of microphones pointed at her face. “They’re separate things. I can’t tell you if they’re related, ’cause we don’t know yet.” She raised her hands to try to stem the subsequent barrage of questions. “That’s all the info I’ve got right now, okay?”
The tinny sound of punk rock came from somewhere. Faith reached inside her jacket and pulled out her cell phone. She checked the screen and looked back up at the reporters.
“Sorry, guys, I have to actually go do my job now.” Faith pushed her way out of the mass of press, putting her phone to her ear as she did so. “Hey Blondie.”
Cut To:
Int.
Endless Sound Karaoke – Night
“Hi Faith,” Rowena said. She was still sitting on her stool in the center of the karaoke stage. Skye was across the room, rummaging around behind the bar. Lorne spoke to her from the other side. Skye smiled and nodded. Lorne blew her a kiss, but before he could say anything else, two workers in uniforms tapped him on the shoulder and they began to talk.
Cut To:
Ext.
Watchers Council – Grounds – Day
Faith walked toward the front entrance to Council Headquarters. She looked around briefly to make sure there were no reporters within reasonable listening distance. Still, when she spoke, she lowered her voice.
“Are you okay?” she asked. “What the hell’s going on over there?”
Cut To:
Int.
Endless Sound Karaoke – Night
“Well, right now, Skye’s over by the bar making a…” She put her hand over the phone and called over to Skye. “What are you making?”
“Sex on the Beach,” Skye called back. “And a Sea Breeze for Lorne.”
“Sex on the Beach,” Rowena told Faith. “I’m sitting here, trapped in a five-foot-wide circle.”
Cut To:
Int.
Watchers Council – Lobby – Day
Faith walked through the front door of the Council. “Red is freaking out something fierce, which I guess is pretty much five by five for her. You guys have been really weird lately, ya know that?”
Cut To:
Int.
Endless Sound Karaoke – Night
“Haven’t noticed,” Rowena told her, lying badly. She moved on quickly. “The rest of the gang is heading to some kind of temple. Kennedy’s hoping they’ll find Heli there.”
“I just wish I could be there,” Faith said.
“Kennedy can take care of herself and the team,” Rowena said. “Not to mention that she has Mia and Kadin and Nozomi and a whole bunch of other girls backing her up.” She sighed. “Not to be self-centered, but I, on the other hand, am stuck here, totally bored. I still don’t know how Heli managed this one. The owner showed up and told me they can probably get me out of here if they dismantle the stage, but everything’s so stretched here that probably won’t be for a couple of hours, which I think was really what Heli wanted all along.”
Cut To:
Int.
Watchers Council – Lobby – Day
Faith grinned, leaning back on the reception desk just inside the entrance. “Congrats, Ro. The bitch is scared of you.”
Cut To:
Int.
Endless Sound Karaoke – Night
Rowena scoffed. “If I’m so scary, how come I’m the one trapped on stage. It’s like I’m stuck in one of Willow’s nightmares.”
Nearby, Skye settled back into her seat, an elaborate drink in her hand, complete with a little umbrella.
Cut To:
Int.
Watchers Council – Lobby – Day
“Well, you could always sing another song to pass the time,” Faith replied. There was silence on the other end of the line for about three seconds. Then:
“I hate you.”
Faith grinned, then noticed Buffy walking toward her across the lobby, a decidedly angry look on her face. “Gotta go. Stay safe.” She closed her cell phone just as Buffy reached her.
Buffy brandished a blue plastic folder threateningly.
“Do you want to tell me how Kadin Van Helsing managed to stow away on one of our planes without us knowing about it? I thought we were watching her!”
Faith sighed. “We were. She managed to shake her tail.”
Buffy blinked. “Kadin got on the plane by dancing?…Pretend I didn’t say that.”
Faith grinned. “Of course, B. Anyway, Denise said, and I’m quotin’ here, ‘It’s like she had the power to turn herself invisible’.”
“And for all we know, she could,” Buffy said, exasperated. She put her hands on her hips and thought for a moment. “What do we do now?”
Faith shrugged. “Not much we can do. She’s already with them in Japan. We might as well let her help. Those claws of hers might come in handy.”
Buffy frowned. “That’s what I’m worried about.”
Cut To:
Ext.
Outside Shinto Temple – Night
About twenty-five demons of all shapes and sizes stood in the dim light of the courtyard in front of the temple. Heli stood at the top of the steps leading up to the door, pacing like a tiger in a cage, surveying her troops.
“There are twelve slayers on their way here,” she told them, “along with one Kadin Van Helsing, who I’m sure you know, at least by reputation. What I need from you is, put very simply, to delay Miss Van Helsing and eleven of those slayers. If you wish, you can kill any of them.”
She stopped. Her words became more clipped.
“One of the slayers, however, will be allowed to pass. You know who I’m talking about. If she’s killed prematurely, I will be very upset.”
Heli raised an eyebrow, for her a huge display of emotion. Many of the demons shifted their great weight uneasily.
“That is all. Thank you for your assistance.”
Heli turned on her heel and walked into the shrine.
The interior of the temple was as elaborately decorated as the outside. It was lit by several rectangular bronze lamps hanging from the walls. There was no visible sign of any booby traps. The ceiling, held up by an elaborate network of wooden beams, rose to a point above Heli as she walked across the stone floor.
The center of the room she was in was dominated by a stand of several oblong bells of differing sizes. Japanese calligraphy covered many of the wooden surfaces, as well as paper hangings from some of the beams. Heli had set up a simple card table in one corner of the room. On the table a board was set up, with white and black stones arranged in rows on its surface. It was a game of Go.
Heli pulled out one chair and sat down.
“You’re playing against yourself now. You killed all your opponents already?”
Vi sat in the chair across from Heli, hands folded on the table in front of her. She had an impish smile on her face.
Heli didn’t bat an eyelash. “Sometimes it’s more interesting when all the pieces are under my control.”
“I suppose it’s just as well,” Vi sighed. “I never could beat you, anyway. I mean, look at what happened.”
Heli reached out and moved two of the pieces: one black, one white.
“Where are your friends?” Vi asked. “The big, spiny one was kinda cute. I always kinda wondered if you were into that sorta thing.”
Heli didn’t look up from the board. “I told them that I rigged the shrine with booby traps. That should get them to leave us alone here.”
“You never had any trouble with the alone part before,” Vi said. She was silent for several moments as Heli contemplated her next move. Then she said, “You’re not going to win, you know.”
Heli looked up at Vi. “It’s impossible to lose when you’re both white and black.”
She looked down at the board and moved another piece. When she looked back up, the chair across the table was empty.
Cut To:
Ext.
Street Near Shrine – Night
There was a patch in the northern part of the city where the buildings stopped for a little while and made room for a tree-dotted green lawn. At this time of night, it swirled with thin trails of mist.
The Council vans pulled to a stop on the street outside the lawn. Kennedy stepped out of the passenger side door of one of them. She firmly set both feet on the ground. It was a little windy, so she brushed the hair out of her eyes.
On the opposite side of the vehicle, Mia and Kadin stepped out into the street.
“We should scope out the site,” Kadin said, “keep a few girls on the…”
“We need to talk about Kennedy,” Mia said suddenly.
Kadin blinked a few times as three Japanese girls climbed out of the back of the van. “I’m not sure this is the best time.”
Mia made an annoyed noise in her throat. “I’m not saying we need to have some heart-to-heart about your relationship. I get it, okay. I don’t want it, but I get it. I mean about Kennedy right now. I think this stuff with Heli…I don’t know, but I’ve never seen Ken like this. Have you?”
Kadin shook her head. “No. I can’t say that I understand Ken all the time, what makes her tick. It’s part of what makes the whole thing interesting.”
There was a small smile on Mia’s face. “Yeah.” A moment later, she shook her head. “Look, just…let’s both try and keep an eye on her.”
Kennedy had walked over to Nozomi’s van and found the lead Tokyo slayer.
“Did you bring them?” she asked. Nozomi shook her head, uncomprehending.
Kennedy raised the thumb and pointed the index finger on one of her hands. “Bang, bang. Y’know?”
Nozomi nodded and opened the back of her van. Kennedy inspected the contents.
“Okay,” she nodded. She noticed Mia and Kadin walking up to the group. “Tell them to pass ’em out. We go in hard, but we go in smart. She planned this. Watch for traps. Watch for…” she stopped, brushed her hair out of her eyes again. “Just tell them to be careful. Please.”
Cut To:
Int.
Endless Sound Karaoke – Night
Skye banged a fist on the Karaoke machine attached to one side of the stage. She looked at the LED display for a moment and then gave Rowena a grin and a thumbs up.
“Do I have to?” Rowena asked sheepishly from her stool. She held the microphone in her hand again.
“Look, I picked the song,” Skye said, “so there shouldn’t be any more secret messages. Besides, what else are you gonna do for the next couple hours, sit there and sulk?”
Rowena stared at her. “Why are you being so nice to me?”
Skye shrugged. “Weren’t for you, they woulda staked me long ago. Besides, I have to be nice to somebody occasionally, or else I’ll be out of practice when I have to fake it.”
The music started, piano at first. Rowena sighed and looked up at the monitor. Her voice was a breathy alto.
“Your subtleties, they strangle me. I can’t explain myself at all.” She glanced at Skye, who gave her an encouraging nod. Her singing gained confidence as she continued. “And all the wants, and all the needs, all I don’t want to need at all.”
Cut To:
Ext.
Shinto Shrine Grounds – Same Time
V.O., Rowena: “The walls start breathing. My mind’s unweaving. Maybe it’s best you leave me alone.”
Kennedy, Mia, Kadin and Nozomi led their platoon of slayers across the lawn. Many of them held handguns at the ready. Mia was a notable exception. The place seemed to be empty. Then a fountain of dirt exploded into the air and one of the Japanese girls screamed.
V.O., Rowena: “A weight is lifted. On this evening, I give the final blow.”
“Bakuhatsubutsu!” One of her companions yelled.
Subtitled: “Mines!”
“Oh, hell,” Mia swore under her breath.
Then there was a mighty bellow from somewhere and there were demons everywhere.
Cut To:
Int.
Shinto Shrine – Same Time
V.O., Rowena: “When darkness turns to light, it ends tonight. It ends tonight.”
As the sounds of the battle outside filtered into the shrine itself, Heli almost smiled. Almost. She moved one of the black pieces on the board and then picked up one of the white pieces and set it aside.
Cut To:
Ext.
Shinto Shrine Grounds – Same Time
V.O., Rowena: The guitar kicked in, as well as a string section. “A falling star. Least I fall alone. I can’t explain what you can’t explain.”
On the lawn, chaos reigned. Mia sliced one demon with a sword. Nozomi fired her gun several times into an approaching demon, but it had no effect. She shrugged and re-holstered the gun, then punched the demon in the face.
V.O., Rowena: “You’re finding things that you didn’t know. I look at you with such disdain.
Kennedy and Kadin stood back to back, surrounded by about five demons. They exchanged a brief look, then each launched themselves forward. Kennedy immediately knocked one over with a spin kick and then snap-punched another in the side of the head. Kadin had considerably less success. She was punched in the face and stumbled.
V.O., Rowena: “The walls start breathing. My mind’s unweaving. Maybe it’s best you leave me alone.”
When Kadin looked up again, her eyes were completely black. She shook her head and they shifted back to normal. She attacked again.
Cut To:
Int.
Shinto Shrine – Same Time
V.O., Rowena: “A weight is lifted. On this evening, I give the final blow.”
Heli removed a black piece from her game board and surveyed the remaining pieces. There weren’t many left. In the distance, one could hear the sound of gunshots.
Cut To:
Ext.
Shinto Shrine Grounds – Same Time
V.O., Rowena: The music hit a high note, and Rowena’s voice was surprisingly strong along with it. “When darkness turns to light, it ends tonight. It ends tonight.”
A demon slashed at one of the Japanese slayers with his claws and she stumbled to the ground, clutching her stomach. He went in for the kill, but Mia stuck her sword through his back and he fell like a stone. Mia hunched over to examine the girl, who didn’t look good. Then, without looking over her shoulder, she turned and sliced at another demon, who moved back to avoid the blow.
V.O., Rowena: “Just a little insight won’t make this right. It’s too late to fight. It ends tonight. It ends tonight.”
Kadin pushed back on the demon she was grappling with to give herself a little breathing space. From behind her, Kennedy delivered a kill-shot directly between the demon’s eyes.
Kadin looked around at the battle quickly, then up at the shrine. She turned to Kennedy.
“You go ahead, we’ll hold them off.”
“Kadin…”
V.O.: There was an instrumental section in the music.
“For all we know, she could be using this as a distraction while she escapes,” Kadin said quickly. “Somebody needs to get up there.” She paused. “I think maybe this is your fight, Ken.”
Kennedy put a hand on Kadin’s shoulder, nodded, and took off running towards the Shrine. She made sure to watch for mines on the ground.
Kadin moved towards the nearest demon, who was engaged with one of the Japanese girls. She tapped his shoulder. He turned. She punched him in the face.
Cut To:
Int.
Shinto Shrine – Same Time
V.O., Rowena: “Now I’m on my own side. It’s better than being on your side.”
Heli removed a final stone from the board, then nodded to herself, satisfied with the outcome. She stood up from her chair and stretched her back, hands on hips. Then she took a deep breath.
Cut To:
Int.
Endless Sound Karaoke – Same Time
Rowena’s voice was really soaring. She was on her feet immediately in front of the stool, her eyes fixed on the screen in front of her.
“It’s my fault when you’re blind. It’s better that I see it through your eyes. All these thoughts locked inside. Now you’re the first to know.”
Skye was enraptured, her mouth hanging open. Lorne sat at the bar sipping a Sea Breeze mixed drink, his eyes were fixated on Rowena.
The music cut out, except for a single piano.
“She’s…she’s remarkably good,” Skye muttered.
“Honey, you don’t know the half of it,” Lorne replied, awe in his voice. “She’s the greatest maker of Watchers there ever was.”
Cut To:
Int.
Shinto Shrine – Same Time
Holding her gun out in front of her, Kennedy took a very careful step into the shrine. Her breathing coming in hard gasps, she looked to the left, then to the right.
V.O., Rowena: “When darkness turns to light, it ends tonight. It ends tonight.”
Heli loomed directly above Kennedy, clinging to one of the wooden support beams. She let go and dropped right down on top of Kennedy, who cried out wordlessly. Both women hit the floor hard.
Kennedy’s gun slid away across the floor of the shrine.
Black Out
End of Act Three