First, there was one girl in all the world.

For centuries, one girl in each generation, the Slayer, fought the vampires, the demons and the forces of darkness.

Then, there were many.

The Slayer of her era, Buffy Summers, and her friend, the witch Willow Rosenberg, gave the power of the Slayer to every “potential” in the world. Then there were thousands of slayers, overseen in their fight against evil by the reborn Watchers Council.

THE COUNCIL IS UNDER ATTACK.

An assassination attempt on Chairwoman Grace Hatherley was only narrowly foiled by Faith Lehane, leaving Grace shot in the leg. Shortly thereafter, the Council’s Washington, D.C. Branch came under a mysterious assault. All signs point to Zorgy, Empress of Vor, being behind the attacks. But is the Council too divided to respond effectively?

TENSIONS HAVE REACHED A BOILING POINT.

Ongoing disputes between the Council’s three branches, particularly Chairwoman Grace Hatherley and High Priestess Willow, are threatening to tear the organization apart. Meanwhile, Willow’s wife Rowena recently slept with fellow watcher Robin Wood, and a rift has formed between their twins Jen and Alex over Alex’s romantic involvement with freelance slayer Maddie Allen. The crisis is here, and the Council is primed for a…

Schism

 

Fade In:

Int.

Watchers Council – Washington, D.C. Branch – Night

The hallway was mostly dark in the hours of the very early morning as Hannah Bloom walked out of the library of the Washington, D.C. Council Branch, carrying an armful of books and files. As she did so, she passed a security guard watching a video on the computer at his desk. She waved as she passed, then stopped a few steps past and turned back to him.

“Terry…” She hesitated, then asked, “Any update on the Chairwoman?”

“Sounds like she’ll be OK,” he told her with a smile. “They’ve sent her home.”

Hannah let out a breath and nodded, her facial features relaxing. She opened her mouth to say something, but was interrupted when what seemed like every alarm in the building going off at once. Terry spun around, looking frantically at the monitors arranged behind his desk.

She winced as flashing strobe lights came on in the hallway. “Terry, what’s…?”

“It’s probably nothing, ma’am,” he said absently. Then he looked back over his shoulder at her and said, “Just to be safe, though, head to your designated shelter area.”

She looked at him a moment longer, then turned to walk down the hall. She moved slowly at first, then with increasing speed. She turned a corner, and at the end of the ensuing corridor she could see a series of shapes passing hurriedly, lit intermittently by the strobe lights. Then, as she got closer, she could hear noises. Screams. Hannah slowed, hesitating again.

The entire building shook, and Hannah stumbled and dropped the books in her arms. She braced herself against one wall with an arm. The first tremor was closely followed by a second, then a third. The screams coming from the end of the hall grew louder, and then, suddenly, the strobe lights and alarms all shut off simultaneously, along with the rest of the lights.

In the dark, Hannah took a deep breath and seemed to make a decision. She turned around and began to run back the way she had come, one hand trailing along the wall to guide her.

Just as she reached the corner, Terry the security guard rounded it, nearly running her over. Hannah started, then, just for a moment, relaxed. “Terry, thank God, what’s–?”

She cut herself off when she noticed the blood dripping out of one corner of his mouth. Her eyes trailed down and to the four large and deep claw marks across his chest.

“Ru…run. S-save yourself,” he managed. Then he collapsed. She hesitated, seeming conflicted between doing as he ordered or helping him. More sudden screams cemented her decision. She felt the wall and then opened a nearby door. She moved back a few paces to Terry and dragged him by his arms into the empty room. Once he was inside, without further hesitation, Hannah ran…toward the screams.

She turned down one hallway, then another. Several more tremors almost shook her off her feet. Finally, she neared the lobby, where the emergency lights were still on. She saw what might have been half of a body lying limply across the entrance to the front lobby, and again she slowed and hesitated. Then she felt a hand on her shoulder and jumped.

Hannah spun around, startled out her skin. She nearly screamed, but it was strangled by a firm hand clamping over her mouth.

Her slayer, Allie, stood in front of her. Blood poured down half her face from a deep cut on her forehead, and her other arm hung from her side, limp and useless.

“Quiet,” Allie hissed at her wide-eyed watcher in a low voice, then pulled away her hand. “Bunker. Now.”

“Allie, what’s going on? The bunker…what about Ash?”

“Dumbass, listen to me!” Allie’s voice rose, turning into a terrified scream by the end of the sentence. “We’re going to die if we don’t go right now! Move!”

Cut To:

Int.

Watchers Council – Grace’s Apartment – Early Morning

At the sound of a hard knock, Jeff quickly walked over to open the front door of the apartment.

As the door flew back, Grace’s assistant, a short, blonde woman with unkempt hair, entered. She looked decidedly pensive.

“Is Ms. Hatherley here, sir…?”

“Carolyn, what’s wrong?”

“It’s best I speak to both of you,” she replied. “It’s imperative.”

Jeff seemed to sense her distress, but only nodded and began to make his way toward the bedroom. Before he got there, though, he found that Grace was already leaving, making her way to the living room on crutches. “It’s Carolyn,” he told her. “She looks worried.”

When Grace and Jeff came into view, Carolyn didn’t even bother with pleasantries.

“There’s been…sorry, umm…there’s been an…” She steadied herself on the top of the wooden desk beside the door. A picture frame wobbled.

Grace’s eyes darted to it. It housed a photo of herself and Jeff with Casey sandwiched in between, arms wrapped around them both. They were in the crowd at some bar with a band playing in the background.

Grace’s hand crawled up her pajama top to her chest, her fingertips instinctively flicking out to her necklace. “Carolyn, say it.” Her eyes moved back to her assistant.

“There’s been an attack…”

Grace took an unsettled breath. “Here?”

“…on D.C. The Council Branch…in D.C.”

The Chairwoman shakily exhaled, a guilt ridden sense of relief on her face, and then she creased her brow. Quietly and evenly, she said, “What happened?”

“The branch…it’s lost.” Carolyn blew out a short, sharp puff of air.

“Lost?”

“Destroyed. Everyone’s…” She took a deep breath, collecting herself. “The situation is ongoing. It’s my understanding that there’s a holding action going on to try to save who they can. Information is very diff…” She paused and licked her lips. “The branch building is no longer stable, and it appears that the majority of the personnel may be…deceased.”

Grace looked down for a moment, closing her eyes. She ran a hand over her mouth. Then she looked back up, this time at her husband. “OK, I need to be in Ops, but I don’t have these crutches down yet. Do we still have the wheelchair?”

“Yeah, I’ll get it,” he nodded and went into the other room.

Grace turned back to her assistant and said, “Thank you, Carolyn, head to the Command Center. Contact the department heads to come in.” Her voice, however, rang hollow, and her eyes were staring somewhere far beyond the walls of her apartment.

Black Out

 

End of Teaser