Act 1

 

Guest Starring:
Becky Wahlstrom as Julia, Sophia Loren as Rosa, Rowan Atkinson as Nikki’s Watcher, Kel Mitchell as young Robin Wood and Norika Fujiwara as Mia

 

Fade In:
Ext.
City Street – Night

Boston 1998

Chris and Juda looked very tired. They had been running for at least a mile now, and their pursuer showed no signs of letting up. Their faces reflected the pain every time their feet pounded against the street, but they pushed on out of pure fear and adrenaline.

Judas smacked Chris’s arm, pointing to his right at an upcoming alley. Chris nodded his head and followed Judas, periodically checking behind them to see if he could see their pursuer. For the moment, it seemed as if they were alone, but that triumphant feeling quickly faded away when Chris ran into a chain link fence almost as soon as he turned down the alley with Judas.

“Great! Nice detour, man!” Chris shouted as he looked toward the opening of the alley.

“Think we can jump it?” Judas asked, his voice shaking from nerves.

“Yeah,” Chris responded. “But do you think it’ll help? She’ll just jump it too!”

“I don’t know,” Judas shouted back. “You’re the one that wanted to come into her territory!”

“I didn’t know it was her territory,” Chris argued. “You didn’t have to –”

“Shh!” Judas interrupted as he peered toward the opening. “Do you hear anything?”

A long moment passed before Chris and Judas smiled at each other. “Guess we lost her…” Chris laughed.

A shadow suddenly covered them and they whipped their heads toward the opening of the alley. Faith smiled at them before bringing up her hand and waving a stake.

“Guess again, boys.”

Before Chris and Judas could react, Faith threw her stake, straight as an arrow. It hit Judas right in the heart.

His face quickly shifted to its vampire form before he dusted, the stake clattered to the ground. Chris looked down at the pile of dust blowing away in the stale city win before he grabbed the fence and began to climb. Faith was there in an instant, however, and she pulled Chris to the ground.

Faith straddled him and punched him in the face. He morphed and growled, and in response Faith smiled and began to hit him continuously. She showed no signs of letting up until she heard a throat being cleared behind her. She cursed under her breath before reaching for her fallen stake and plunging it into Chris’s heart.

 

Faith turned around and glared at her Watcher.

“Sloppy,” Rosa simply said in an Italian accent.

“What else is new?” Faith replied before getting up. “Everything is sloppy to you.”

“Would you like to explain to me what you were doing?” Rosa asked, still looking disapprovingly at Faith. “The first staking was supremely executed, but the second…”

Faith sighed. “Hey, job’s done, watcher lady,” Faith told Rosa. “I slayed, you watched, and the vamps are dust in the wind.” Faith thought for a second before she chuckled to herself. “Huh, get it? ‘Dust in the Wind?’ Kansas?”

“What I get is that you need a lot more discipline,” Rosa responded. “This isn’t a game, Faith. There are rules for a reason.”

“Yeah, they’re made to be broken,” Faith responded, before picking up her stake and shoving it into her coat. “You can’t tame a wild child. It’s what I am, lady, and it’s what I’ll always be.”

Fade In:
Ext.
City Street – Night

Present Day

Upon their leader’s request, all the girls lowered their weapons and watched. Faith’s feet were planted, her arms raised in a fighting stance as she eyed the girl. The leader walked a little closer and held up her hands as a sign of peace.

“Relax, we don’t hurt our own kind,” the girl told Faith. “Nice fighting, by the way. Looks like we found another one, girls!”

“Another what?” Faith asked, still confused. “And what the hell is going on? Who are you?”

“Name’s Julia,” she replied. “And these are my girls.”

Faith lowered her fists, but still looked ready for an attack. She decided that Julia and the girls didn’t appear to be a threat right now, but Faith didn’t want to take any chances.

“Faith,” she told Julia. “Now, you wanna get to the ‘what the hell’s going on’ part?”

“Well, we’re not that different from you,” Julia explained. “Stronger, faster and able to kill vampires. Obviously you came prepared,” she said motioning, to the stake Faith possessed. “We just…there were a few of us that didn’t have a place to call home, then a couple months back we got these powers. The more time we spent on the streets, the more girls we found who could do what we do.”

Faith furrowed her brow as she tried to put the pieces together in her mind. She snapped her fingers as the answer came to her and said, “You’re slayers…but why couldn’t Red pick up on –?”

Julia arched an eyebrow. “What’s a Slayer?” she interrupted.

Faith began to grin. “Let me show you.”

Fade In:
Int.
Watchers Council – Lounge – Same night

Andrew was on duty at the phones for the night, so Giles, Becca, Willow, Rowena and Xander had control of the TV in the lounge. Giles and Becca sat closely and comfortably together, while Rowena sat in between Willow and Xander on the couch. They were checking the evening news when Becca spoke up during a commercial.

“Oh, Rupert, you were supposed to remind me to tell everyone,” Becca said as she looked across the room at Willow, Rowena and Xander. “I’m organizing another set for a couple nights from now. You should all come, like before.”

“That sounds like a brilliant idea, Becca,” Rowena responded. “Thank you for inviting us. It’ll be nice to have something to look forward to.”

“Yeah, and I’ll actually get a chance to hear you sing,” Xander added.

“You already heard her sing. My birthday, remember?” Willow added.

“Yeah, but I didn’t know she was Becca then. Now I can be more critical,” he told Becca with a wink. “But I’m sure you’ll do great. Giles talks about it all the time.”

“Do you, Rupert?” Becca asked.

Giles turned a little red and smiled nervously before glaring at Xander. “You know, I am glad Xander’s back, but sometimes his honesty reminds me of how annoying he is.”

“I live to serve,” Xander nodded proudly.

While this exchange took place, Willow bit her lip and looked over at Rowena, who seemed excited about the idea. When she noticed Willow staring, Rowena looked the witch’s way and smiled politely. Willow smiled back nervously for a split second, then turned her attention back toward the TV.

Robin entered the room and greeted everyone, then asked, “Anyone know where Faith is?”

“Patrol!” Willow blurted out quickly. Seeing the raised eyebrows around her at her sudden outburst, she tried to explain. “She’s out…on patrol…is what she told me.”

“Hmm,” he muttered as Becca looked over at Willow with a knowing grin. Willow winked at her before Robin continued. “You know, she’s been going out earlier. Is there anything going down that I should know about?”

“Maybe she wants to be…” Willow trailed off, trying to think of a good word to get Robin to think everything was normal. “Thorough?”

“Oh really?” Robin asked. “According to the reports, her kill ratio has really dropped in the last couple of months. It doesn’t make sense, more patrol but less results.”

Willow nervously licked her lips. “Well, uh, you know, with the Presidium thing going on maybe the demons are just laying extra low right now,” the witch offered.

Robin shrugged and took a seat to watch TV with everyone else. Before he had a chance to get comfortable, however, Kennedy came into the room in a rush.

“Faith’s back,” she informed them. “And she’s bringing a…friend.”

“Friend?” Robin echoed.

“Yeah,” Kennedy nodded. “Of the new recruit variety.”

She nodded toward the door before she headed to the main entrance of the Council. Everyone followed suit, but Willow looked over to Giles. He shrugged and muttered to himself, “A slayer?”

Faith came in and held the door open for Julia. The girl took her time entering the Council, her movements wary and cautious.

“You always put your guard up when you come into warm, fancy buildings?” Faith joked, but her smile faded when she saw Julia wasn’t amused. “Okay…never mind.”

Soon the gang walked up to Faith, who met them halfway, leaving Julia a few steps behind. “She’s a little defensive, so…” Faith warned before Giles stepped toward the girl.

“Hello, my name is Rupert Giles, head of the Watcher’s Council,” he extended his hand, but Julia just stared at it, then crossed her arms over her chest. Giles smiled politely before he continued. “And you are?”

“Her name’s Julia,” Faith announced after Julia didn’t answer Giles’s question. Faith walked over to stand next to Julia, crossing her own arms in apparent solidarity. “She doesn’t really know about the whole slayer/watcher deal, so your status doesn’t really mean jack to her.”

“Nice to know,” Giles replied dryly.

“She’s like me,” Faith tried explaining. “You know…dark, wild, and any other evil synonym you can think up.”

“I’m not evil,” Julia protested.

“You’re not tame either,” Faith responded. “This place is safe, like I was telling you. You still get to do your job but you get food too, a roof over your head, warmth…”

Julia kept up her defenses and merely shrugged. “I was out at sch…patrol,” Faith covered up as she almost slipped. “And I ran into Julia and her…friends.”

“They’re my gang,” Julia corrected in an annoyed tone. “And you were coming out of that night school place.”

Willow’s eyes went wide and Becca tried to hide the smile that spread across her face. Faith looked over at Robin, however, whose interest was piqued at Julia’s words.

“Public building,” Faith covered with a laugh. “Vamps can go in there and I was tracking one when I saw these girls. Now, Kennedy’s gonna give you a tour of the slayer facilities.”

Kennedy tried to hide her disappointment and looked over to Rowena, as if hoping for a means of escape. Instead, her watcher just nodded, and Kennedy waved for Julia to follow her. Julia hesitated and mirrored Kennedy by looking over to Faith for approval, before following Kennedy toward the gym. Once they were gone, Faith sighed, “She’s fun, ain’t she?”

“Yeah,” Willow agreed. “I thought you said she was a little defensive.”

Cut To:
Int.
Watchers Council – Slayer Gym – Minutes Later

“So, that’s where we all train,” Kennedy said as they left the gym. “Sometimes the watchers will want one-on-one time with their slayer, but if not, Faith and I usually run some drills.”

Julia nodded, though in such a way as to give the impression that she wasn’t really paying attention. “So,” Julia started off. “What do you guys do?”

Kennedy arched an eyebrow before she slowly replied, “I thought you knew what we do. Or, after my little tour, you got a better impression of what we do.”

“No, no, I get it,” Julia corrected. “I’m just wondering if this is it. Slayers here just seem to wake up, eat, train, and then go back to sleep, only to do the same the next day.”

The words impacted Kennedy and she looked as if someone had just punched her in the stomach. “It’s not as mundane as you’re making it sound,” Kennedy said defensively after a beat. “We don’t just kill vamps, you know. We get to tackle some bigger things… and we’ve really done some good here.”

“Well, now you’re talking,” Julia perked up. “You must get a lot of action, right? Being Faith’s second-in-command.”

“Yeah,” Kennedy said quietly as she bowed her head down. “But, you know, you should really talk to Giles about that kind of thing.”

“Oh, come on,” Julia responded. “I don’t want to talk to stuffy old people. I want to talk to girls like me. When was your last big kill?”

Kennedy kept her head down and dug her hands deeper into her pockets. Julia picked up on the brunette’s nervous and agitated body language instantly. “You got in trouble, didn’t you?” Julia asked. Kennedy met the girl’s eyes and stared her down.

“Not your business,” Kennedy told her. “You’ve got questions, the watchers have answers. Talk to Willow or Rowena, they’re not old and stuffy.”

“Okay, bad subject. I get it. I’ll just…go,” Julia shot back before turning her back on Kennedy. “Thanks for the tour, by the way.”

“Hold up,” Kennedy told her. “Let’s go back to the main building first,” she added.

With a careless shrug, Julia followed.

Cut To:
Int.
Watchers Council – Lobby – Same Time

“The two of them?” Willow echoed as her brow furrowed in thought.

“Try two times fourteen,” Faith corrected before pausing. “That’s…28, right? Well, anyway, this was a gang of wild slayers that didn’t even know that they were Chosen. All they knew was that vamps were bad and they were able to kill ’em. That was all they needed.”

“What about the rest?” Giles inquired. “Do you know where they went?”

“I got nada,” Faith told him. “Julia said that she was checkin’ the place out first before I got a chance to tell ’em all who they were.”

“Julia said?” Rowena scoffed. “Someone’s on a major power trip.”

Faith shook her head. “You didn’t see what I saw out there,” she responded. “These girls stopped when Julia told them to. It’s not just a power trip, it’s genuine pull.”

“How’d she get that pull in the first place?” Robin asked.

“We talked on the way over and she said she’d been on the street for her whole life,” Faith explained. “Julia met up with a few girls and they hung out together and then…bam!”

“They got hit with power?” Willow finished sheepishly.

“When you work your mojo, Red, you work it,” Faith confirmed. “Don’t know how they slipped under your witchy radar, but they met other girls and now there’re 20-plus of these wild childs.”

“Do they have any slayer knowledge?” Giles asked. “Do they know anything…whatsoever?”

With a shrug, Faith said, “They know which end of the stake to hold.”

Cut To:
Int.
Watchers Council – Slayer Dorm Hallway – Moments Later

On her way back to her apartment, Kennedy passed by the infirmary. She stopped outside of the door and peeked in through the window. She sighed before looking away, only to find that Andrew was watching her from down the hall.

“You take this way to your room a lot,” Andrew told her.

“Aren’t you supposed to be on phones?” Kennedy responded with a knowing look. Andrew pressed on, however. He walked up and looked through the window at what Kennedy was watching. Through the window he could see one girl, Lori, sleeping peacefully in her bed.

There was a long moment before Andrew said, “You know, she’s doing a lot better. Considering –”

“Considering that I caused her trouble?” Kennedy spat bitterly. “Yeah, she’s doing a lot better…and it’s no thanks to me.”

Without anything else to say, Kennedy pushed by Andrew and headed to her apartment. “I wasn’t going to say that!” he called after her, but there wasn’t much effort behind his statement.

Before she turned the corner, Kennedy looked back down at Andrew and replied, “You didn’t have to.”

Black Out

 

End of Act One