Rule of ThreeTeaser

Story by Gelfling21Written by Gelfling21 (with additional writing by CN Winters)

Directed and Produced by Gelfling21 and CN WintersSounds by CSR

Edited by DragonWriter17Art Direction by Robert Kidman

Artists – CN Winters, Zahir al Daoud, Sway, Humaira, Robert Kidman and Elif  

 Fade In:Int.Slayer Dorm Room – Morning

The room was dark. Only the faint silhouette of the screen of laptop could be seen. The soft tap-tap-tap of typing on a keyboard was the only sound.

Voiceover, Young Girl typing: "To: Slayerson@yahoo.com. From: Sheena2@clevelandcouncil.org. Subject: Hi Norm!"

Cut To:Ext.Council Grounds – Same Time

In the over-bright morning light, dead brown grass glistened with a heavy winter frost.

Cut To:Int.Slayer Dorm Room – Same Time

Voiceover, Young Girl typing: "I finally got to see the new Potter movie last night. Robin took me."

Cut To:Ext.Council Grounds – Same Time

A pair of girls’ sneakers crunched through the frosted grass of the Council grounds.

Voiceover, Young Girl typing: "I think he was a little bored. Or maybe he was just in a bad mood again, he was pretty quiet."

Cut To:Ext.Council Grounds – Near The Thicket – Same Time

Just above the sneakers, a girl’s hands came into view as she bent over.

Voiceover, Young Girl typing: "Kinda hard to tell with him these days but he seems to be doing better with his leg. Or lack of leg. Anyway, he walks pretty good by himself now. You can hardly notice. And your mom, well birth mom, seems in a better mood lately. By the way, what do you call Faith? Sometimes we call her slave driver but that’s just between us, okay?[g]"

In the girl’s left hand was a small, dark garbage bag. In her right hand, she held a beat-up, yellow plastic bowl filled with something that looked like leftover scraps of steak or beef.

Voiceover, Young Girl typing: "I know you can’t leave the house yet..."

The right hand hesitated for a moment, then set the bowl on the ground.

Voiceover, Young Girl typing: "...but Andrew told me about a place that sells bootleg copies of all kinds of stuff."

With her left hand, she placed the garbage bag completely over her right hand and extended her arm out past the bowl, using the bag as a glove.

Voiceover, Young Girl typing: "I gave him some of my Christmas money, and he’s gonna see if they have "Goblet of Fire," and if they do, he’s buying it for me so I can send it to you. I know it might not be the most honest thing in the world, but you should be able to see it too."

There was something embedded into the frozen ground that was undistinguishable until she pulled it up with her bag-protected right hand.

Voiceover, Young Girl typing: "Just be sure to save it so we can watch it when I come down there."

The frozen object made a ripping sound as it came up. It was the torn body of a possum.

Voiceover, Young Girl typing: "Hope it’s warm in Atlanta. I’m freezin’ my slayer butt off up here."

Quickly, with her left hand, she pulled the sides of the garbage bag around the dead carcass. Both hands tied off the bag.

Voiceover, Young Girl typing: "See ya. Gotta go strap on the feedbag and take care of my new pet project outside."

The tapping on the keyboard stopped. After a few mouse clicks came the sound of the laptop lid closing.

The girl’s hands disappeared as she stood. Her sneakers stood motionless on the grass for a long moment before moving out of sight. The sound of footfalls crunching on the frosty grass slowly faded into silence.

A few beats later, a heavy pair of men’s leather boots came and stood right where the girl had been. Jeans-clad legs bent at the knees as the man squatted, resting his arms on the top of his thighs and folding his hands neatly.

He reached out with his right hand, and with one finger on the rim of the bowl, he tipped it toward himself to peer into it. Then he lifted his finger off, allowing the bowl to rock back into a level position on the frozen ground. He hesitated a few seconds. His hands disappeared as he straightened and walked away, leaving behind the bowl of food scraps.

Fade Out.

 

End of Teaser

Act OneStarring:

Elijah Wood as Jeff and Lacey Chabert as Skye 

Guest Starring: Amanda Tapping as Dr. Wagner, Steffani Brass as Shannon, Robin Sachs as

Ethan Rayne and Robert Picardo as Dr.Miller.  

Fade In:Int.Small Shack – Moments Later

Brilliant white light flooded and then receded to show the interior of a small shack. Inside was a group of conjurors: two witches, a warlock, a chaos demon, and an eye-less demon from an unknown dimension.

They held fast and chanted as the glow became brighter and brighter and brighter still.

They traded nervous glances as the light became dense, no longer transparent but seemingly solid and larger in size. Their voices began to drop off oddly. Within seconds, all of them were unnaturally still with fixed gazes – all with eyes, that is. Their mouths began to tremble or contort, and a couple of them drooled long cords of saliva from their lips.

They stood rooted to their spots, their bodies beginning to tremble.

The blazing glow, now an orb of incredible density and brightness, began to burn their eyes – except for the one who had none to begin with – and they cried out in unison as they squeezed their lids shut. Their bodies started to shake violently, though they seemed glued in their places. As the light intensified, the conjurors who had shut their eyes found that they could see the room right through their tightly-shut lids.

The demon without eyes stood dead, killed silently in his place. His skin had been seared off his flesh. His frame held fast for a moment, upright and

inanimate like a store mannequin. But his once-golden flesh was now cooked purple, and his melted internal organs began running down the insides of his legs. His body collapsed suddenly downward onto his feet.

One of the witches opened her mouth in a silent scream, looking frighteningly like a famous painting. The others present underwent similar agonies.

Their task, their lives, their names were now forgotten. All awareness, sense, and thought were blasted from them as their very cells became part of a dance of charged particles.

And then, in an instant, there was only quiet, and the five were no more.

Cut To:Int.Giles and Becca’s House – Kitchen – Same Time

Giles sighed heavily as he rubbed his head, entering the back door of the kitchen.

"How was your walk?" Becca asked as she walked in from the living room.

"Hmm?" He turned, wincing, to face his wife.

"What is it?" Becca asked. She placed a cooling hand on his forehead. "Are your calves bothering you again? Dr. Miller told you not to walk too far." She smiled. He only looked up weakly at her. "Rupert, you don’t look well."

From the nursery, Baby Elizabeth began to make fussing noises.

"Why don’t you sit down?" Becca said. "I’ll get you some Tylenol and make you some tea in a minute."

He nodded meekly, as if his head and stomach were conspiring to make him violently ill.

Becca returned with both Elizabeth and the pain pills. With practiced skill, she managed to cradle the baby in her arms, open the bottle, and spill out two white caplets into her palm.

"Here you go," she said, holding them out.

Giles reached for them.

"Rupert! Where did you go on your walk?" she gently chided. "Your boots are caked with mud." She bounced Elizabeth lightly in her arms. "Look," she said to the cooing baby, "Daddy’s all dirty."

Becca’s smile began to slip away when Giles didn’t so much as grin at the comment. Becca quickly put Elizabeth down in her playpen and turned to face Giles with a look of alarm.

Cut To:Int.Small Shack – Moments Later

The man in the center of the small, bare room huddled over his own knees. Having accomplished its task of delivering him there, the light faded quickly, leaving him stark naked and curled in a ball over his own feet, arms about legs and face pressed down hard onto his knees. His haunches hovered a mere inch above the wooden floor and shook with cold. He drew a sudden breath, hard and ragged, as though he had not breathed in eons.

Cut To:Int.Giles and Becca’s House – Kitchen – Same Time

"Rupert!" Becca called out to her husband, whose sudden, gasping breath startled both her and Elizabeth into silence.

Giles shuddered.

"I’m calling the hospital," she said as she ran over to the phone.

Giles let his breath out again, shuddering. Picking up on her parents’ emotions, the baby began to cry, and Becca kept the phone to her ear as she walked back over.

"Rupert!"

"Becca..." Giles furrowed his brow and inhaled unevenly.

"Rupert, what is it? What’s wrong?"

Giles looked up dazedly at her and then at the baby.

"The baby’s crying," he said distantly.

"I know, but she’s fine in her pen." Becca cupped his chin in her hand and tilted his face up toward her. He blinked at her. "What’s happening? What’s wrong?" she said with quiet dread.

Elizabeth too became unnaturally quiet again, almost as though she herself was waiting for an answer.

Giles searched Becca’s eyes for a moment, then forced some even breaths. He looked as if he were about to speak, but didn’t.

"Rupert, please. Answer me." Her gaze stayed on Giles as she began to talk into the phone. "Yes, I think my husband is having another heart attack, maybe a stroke… He’s having difficulty breathing and speaking… No, he’s awake in a chair. Please get someone here now," she added in a demand filled with both fright and anger at the same time.

He stood, shook his head, and the strange malady seemed to fade fast. He walked over to the playpen. He reached his hand out and laid it on Elizabeth’s head, smiling at her gently.

"There now," Giles told the baby. She made a sudden, happy noise at him.

"He’s standing now, but please send someone. Yes, that’s the address. Thank you." Becca hung up and walked over to her husband, who stood over the pen still smiling at his daughter. "Rupert," Becca called gently. "Are you all right?"

"Yes," he told her as though he had much more to say. "I’m fine. Just a little...dizzy spell. Need more sleep."

Becca looked sternly at him, but he said no more and started tickling the baby on the cheek. Elizabeth gurgled in joy.

Cut To:Int.Small Shack – Same Time

The man’s eyes began to focus on his surroundings, and he let his gaze stray from wall to floor to wall again, staring in wonder at the strange images around him.

There were drawings on the floor – a circle that looked like it was made of string and stone, and the image of a large casting bowl just within the circle, all drawn in a strange silhouette. A mortar and pestle had been drawn on the

floor outside the circle. In one spot, he saw what appeared to be a realistic image of a candle – so finely wrought that he could tell where wax had dripped and could even make out the density of the lumpier drippings.

He drew a startled breath.

With great effort, he uncurled his body and pushed himself up, standing on weak legs. Swaying a bit from side to side, he began turning slowly, studying the strange markings on all the surfaces of the small room.

The ghastly images of those who had brought him back into his natural world and the tools of their efforts were etched into the walls and floorboards in photo-negative: two witches, a warlock who had been covered in flowing robes and scarves, a chaos demon, and a shape he did not know – a demon adept – all were preserved in perverse still-life. Nothing else had been touched beyond the vaporized conjurors’ irradiated images.

He turned again, slowly and deliberately, taking in everything a second time, then stopped. He breathed deeply and let his shoulders droop a bit.

"Bugger," Ethan Rayne said aloud to the shadow mages. "No scotch."

Cut To:Int.Watchers Council – Junior Dormitory – Same Time

Shannon entered the dormitory in a hurry, having missed breakfast and about to miss the first bell for class. She ran to her footlocker and opened it to get her books, then stopped. Slowly, she lowered the lid and looked over the top of the locker.

Across her bed, and on the floor on either side, was scattered her small collection of baseball cards. She turned quickly to the dresser and saw a few cards that remained there, askew now, where she had neatly piled them. It was plain that someone had swept them off the dresser and across the floor and bed.

Shannon stood and looked over at Lorinda’s bed and dresser, her eyes narrow slits of anger.

Cut To:Ext.Council Grounds – Near The Thicket – Same Time

Wild eyes shined in the darkness of the shadows. Steam rose in steady puffs, rhythmically obscuring the face of the creature.

The eyes shot forward in a blur, leaving behind barely stirring branches as snow silently fell. The quiet was suddenly marred by the sound of an animal’s death scream, then tearing and ripping. After a few moments, the silence returned. A dead and rent rabbit lay still upon the frozen ground.

Then came the sounds of something being choked down intermingled with snarling and snorting. The next noise was that of feet lightly crunching through the snow and branches rustling in the thicket.

The yellow bowl that had been left behind earlier in the day was now empty. But whatever ate from it was now deep within the woods.

Cut To:Int.Watchers Council – Rowena’s Office – Same Time

Rowena was sitting behind her desk looking at the contents of a manila folder when there was a knock at her door.

"Come in," she answered without looking up.

A young man in his early twenties walked inside.

"Mr. Wood thought you might like to know," he said as he walked over.

"Know what?" she asked, taking the piece of paper he held out for her.

"Paramedics were called to this location a few moments ago. Unresponsive male, shortness of breath."

Rowena examined the page, and her eyes suddenly widened.

"Thanks Jimmy," she told him with a nod as she began to dial the phone.

He reciprocated and then walked from the room.

"Kennedy," she began. "I need you to get to Giles’s house immediately."

Cut To:Int.Watchers Council – Willow’s Classroom – A Short While Later

Willow stopped and watched as Shannon nearly crashed through the classroom door. The young slayer looked directly at Lorinda, who was absently chewing some gum and looking bored.

Shannon glared at her. Lorinda smiled slightly.

"Shannon!" Willow said. "This is the third time this week you’re late."

"Overslept," Shannon said darkly.

"Well, I’ll talk to Dawn. Maybe you need to cut back on a couple of nights of patrolling." Shannon turned her stare towards Willow. Willow opened her mouth to say something, then seemed to think better of it. "Just take a seat," she said, more gently. "Open your book to page...259. We’re talking about the first Coven to make a pact with the Watchers Council..."

Shannon sat down heavily in her seat and angrily plopped her books and laptop on her desk. She found her Honnegar’s History of Magic book and opened it. She noticed something odd about the pages as she flipped through them. Some seemed stuck together and lumpy. She pulled one pair apart and discovered a sticky, stringy mess of well-chewed bubble gum between the pages. Gum had been interspersed throughout the book.

Willow had turned to the whiteboard and was writing some notes for the class to copy. Shannon seized the opportunity to spin around in her chair and give Lorinda a look of hatred.

Lorinda looked back blandly at Shannon, then blew and popped a bubble at her.

Cut To:Int.Giles and Becca’s House – Moments Later

Becca stood with the phone to her ear as she held Elizabeth. "Stubborn man that I love won’t go with the paramedics…Yes, yes I will…Thanks for calling, Rowena. See you in a while."

After Becca hung up, she walked over to the paramedics while she patted Elizabeth on the back, the baby looking out over her shoulder.

"Are you certain you don’t want to go?" Becca asked Giles as the paramedics began to re-pack their equipment.

"Yes. Yes I am. As certain as I am of anything."

One of the paramedics turned to Becca. "If he doesn’t come back with us, I’d suggest he see a doctor as soon as possible."

"You hear that? You’re going to see Dr. Miller," Becca told Giles. He opened his mouth to speak, but she cut him off. "You might have had a stroke, so he is going to check you out. Case closed."

Giles was shaking his head at her, but she ignored him and walked the paramedic team to the door. "Thank you," she told him. "I’ll be certain he gets in to see someone."

"Have a good day, ma’am," the paramedic said before motioning his partner to leave.

"You too. Thanks again," Becca replied as she shut the door and walked back into the living room.

"It was no stroke," Giles began once they were alone. "Nor anything else like that. Becca, when we fought the Presidium, I knew the instant Ethan disappeared into Vor – knew he was gone. I also knew he wasn’t dead, even though I no longer had a sense of his presence."

"A sense of—"

"And I know that that little episode I just had in the kitchen was very likely what Ethan was feeling on his return to this dimension."

"Return? You’re saying Ethan is back?"

Giles nodded minutely.

"You’re telling me that Ethan is back and you – sensed it – what was happening to – do you mean to say that Willow was right all this time? That you and Ethan share some kind of link or..."

"It’s very simple," he explained quickly as he dialed Willow’s pager. "Ethan and I were close. And involved in magicks – deep magicks, some very dark. We came together as friends and mages. I don’t know how to explain it but…he’s here, somewhere."

"Definitely a stroke," Becca muttered.

Giles sighed. "It was not a stroke. Please, believe me. After the debacle with Eyghon and Randall’s death, I came to my better sense and left it all – and Ethan – far behind. But the magicks we used, not just on others but on each other, they left a sort of – what would you call it – a residue, let’s say."

"No. Let’s say a link or force. Residue is something you find in your bathtub."

"Becca. Really, there is no link or force holding us together. We’re not living in one of Andrew’s sci-fi movies, you know?"

"After that little speech, you coulda surprised me," she replied. Giles once again sighed. "Just promise me you’ll see Dr. Miller. That’s all I ask, okay?"

Just then there was a knock at the door, and Becca walked over and opened it to find Kennedy standing there.

"Have you convinced him yet?" she quipped.

Becca smiled and called over her shoulder. "Cavalry’s here to collect you. Get your coat." She motioned Kennedy inside and shut the door behind her. "How did you know?"

"Ro called over the radio, said I might have to use force to get him over to the Council," she said as she extended her arms while cracking her knuckles. Giles walked around the corner with a slight grin. "Come on," she said, balling her hands into fists. "I know I can take ya. Think of all those practices where I beat you up," she said, making a jab toward him but purposely missing.

Giles’s grin widened. "This really isn’t necessary," he told her.

Becca was going to say something, but Kennedy put a hand on her shoulder and took a step closer to him.

"Ya got two choices," Kennedy said, stuffing her hands in her back pocket. "You walk out of here with me, or I carry you out. Again, your choice."

Giles folded his arms across his chest. "And if I say no," he asked with a growing smile.

"Then I just have to resort to plan C," Kennedy replied.

"Which is?" Giles asked.

"Begging and guilt," Kennedy said. "Please come with me," she said sincerely, the humor now gone from her face. "If these two ladies aren’t enough reason to go, then come back for my sake and for other people at the Council who love you too. If it was something serious, then Dr. Miller might be able to help, and if it’s not, then you guys can visit everyone while you’re there. It’s a win-win situation. So what do you say? We’ll all grab lunch or something. I’ll even treat."

Giles grinned. "Give us a few moments to get Elizabeth dressed," he answered.

"Take your time," Kennedy said.

As Giles walked toward the closet, Becca mouthed a ‘thank you’ to Kennedy. The slayer simply nodded her ‘welcome’ in return.

Cut To:Int.Watchers Council – Outside Willow’s Classroom – Later That Day

"Hey, Will," Xander called out over the crush of students in the corridor. She turned to him, rubbing her forehead and grimacing in pain as he approached. "Disturbance in the Force?" he asked, noting her discomfort.

Willow smiled painfully back at him. "No, the classroom," she answered, motioning inside. Xander looked around her and saw a sullen Shannon seated off to one side, scraping something off the pages of one of her books.

"She’s turning into a handful, isn’t she?" he said.

Willow turned and called out to the girl, "Okay, Shannon, you can go on to your next class. And if Mrs. Monahan wants to know why you’re late, you tell her I’ll come by to talk to her this afternoon."

Shannon abruptly stopped what she was doing, closed her book, scooped it up with the rest of her things, and hurried from the room. She said nothing on her way out and plowed between Willow and Xander like a linebacker, her books clutched close to her ribs.

"I have to talk to Dawn about that girl," Willow sighed.

"Yeah, Will, uh, later for that, okay? Did you get Ro’s page?"

"Yes, but I almost had to break up a fistfight in there, so I didn’t call her back."

Xander held up a hand. "Everything is cool now, but the paramedics were called to Giles’s house." Willow’s face still registered fear. "He’s okay now. He was having trouble breathing, so Becca called 911. Robin, sharp tack that he is, noticed the call was Giles’s house and gave Ro the message. To make a long story short – too late I know – Kennedy went and got Giles. Dr. Miller said everything’s fine. But Giles wants us in the Coven Room. He’s waiting now, as a matter of fact."

"The Coven Room?"

"Yeah, he didn’t say what it’s about," Xander explained as he and Willow walked down the now-empty hallway. "So who was mixing it up in class today?"

"Three guesses," Willow said.

"And the first two are Shannon and Lorinda."

"Gotta get up real early to fool you."

"That’s what they tell me." Xander chuckled as they made their way to the Coven Room.

Cut To:Ext.Small Shack – Moments Later

Ethan shivered, hidden from view under a heavy, damp tarp that also concealed a great deal of firewood. Three men were searching inside the small shack where he had been brought back by the conjurors. The men were talking in stunned voices. He couldn’t make out their language, but it sounded Slavic.

The men exited the small building and began to lift and slap at the edges of the tarp. Ethan held his breath. One of them was within a footfall of him

when another of the men on the opposite side of the tarp called out to the other two.

There was more talking and then some laughter before Ethan heard the unmistakable slosh of heavy liquid. Nearly flattening himself on the ground, he peered out from under the tarp to see one of the men enter the shack with a red and yellow plastic container. After a few seconds, the man came out again and splashed more liquid all around the exterior of the building. Then, another of them stuffed the top of the container with a handkerchief and set it ablaze with a couple of flicks of a cigarette lighter. The gas container was flung; the Molotov cocktail sailed into the shack.

Flames burst out of the doorway and burned fast and wildly, with a great many cracks and pops. Within a moment or two, sparks began to fly out from the walls and ceiling as the little shed became engulfed in flames. One of the windows blew out violently from the surge of intense heat.

A shard of glass sliced through the air and impaled Ethan’s right foot. He bit down on his own tongue to keep from screaming in pain; the shard had gone deep. A gush of blood from his tongue ran down his throat and threatened to choke him as his foot bled heavily onto the muddy earth.

Another spray of sparks and embers shot from the building and ignited a piece of firewood sticking out from underneath the tarp mere inches from Ethan.

One of the men said something and began to pull the tarp off the woodpile. The others waved him off casually, and they began to leave. Ethan waited until they were far enough away before he dragged himself out from under the tarp and around the other side of the burning shed. Bleeding, cut, and now singed on the inside of one thigh, he moved painfully along on the ground trying to find refuge.

There was a grassy area and some heavy bushes not far from the shack. He headed there.

Cut To:Int.Watchers Council – Coven Room – Same Time

"So," Giles said to Willow, "you can transport us all back then? In one shot?"

Before she could answer, Xander said, "Wait a minute. Not that I don’t trust a feeling, but that’s not much to go on. Especially if it’s Ethan."

"And what if it’s not?" Willow asked.

"It is," Giles said calmly.

Willow and Xander traded a look.

"Look, I prefer not to have either of you tag along, truth be told. If anything is wrong with him, he may be a bit difficult, and I’d never forgive myself for putting you in harm’s way."

"That’s a new one," Xander said with a snort.

"He’s in trouble," Giles said with certainty. "And Ethan in trouble can be extremely dangerous, unbelievably unpredictable, and well...frankly also quite vulnerable. Helping him may take more than just me, so..."

"We’ll help, of course," Willow said, and Xander nodded. "But what if it’s not Ethan and just a trap? I mean, who brought him back? It sure wasn’t anyone we know. We’ve been trying for months."

"And what if it is Ethan? Maybe he got himself back, and he’s just looking for some attention?" Xander said sourly. "Wouldn’t be the first time he’s sucked you into some game of his."

"He’s always looking for attention," Giles said evenly, "but this time he needs attention, which is quite a different turn. Are you both with me? I can go with only one if either of you would rather remain behind," he said, looking squarely at Xander.

"No, we’re with you," Xander answered soundly.

"Right then, let’s be off. Willow, I’ve already done a locator spell, but you’d best do one yourself."

"What about Becca and Elizabeth? Kennedy said they came too. They should be at the dining room with Faith," Xander added.

"I’ll leave a note," Giles said. Willow and Xander looked at Giles disapprovingly. "Please, I don’t have time for a debate. Not with her or you."

Willow’s expression softened first. "Okay, Giles. You write. Xander, when he’s done, have someone take it to the dining hall. I’ll get everything together."

Cut To:Int.Watchers Council – Study Hall – Moments Later

The study hall was filled with students, some intent on studying, others on talking, and still others on combing their hair and painting their fingernails. Two or three were talking quietly and chewing gum, and another girl was flipping idly through a fashion magazine.

Voiceover, Shannon typing: "To: Slayerson@yahoo.com. From: Sheena2@clevelandcouncil.org. Subject: Hi Again!"

"Hi Norm. Got to see him this morning. Well, not all of him. Just two black eyes staring at me. I think he’s been nervous about coming out in the open lately. Don’t know why."

Unfazed by the activity around her, Shannon typed away on her laptop.

Voiceover, Shannon typing: "Can’t wait to visit. Got something really great to show you that my grandfather left me. Nobody knows, not even my parents, and I’m only telling you. You’re gonna freak, but I’m keeping it until I find out how much it’s—"

"Hi," Dawn said, quietly.

Shannon suddenly stopped typing and closed her laptop quickly. She looked up, unsmiling, at Dawn.

"I’m springing you from this joint," Dawn smiled. "C’mon."

Shannon’s look turned resentful. She hesitated a moment and then scooped up her books, papers, and laptop. Dawn’s smile remained, but began to look forced. She slowly turned and walked toward the door.

Shannon followed, far behind. As Shannon walked between the rows of desks, Lorinda casually stretched her arms above her head and her legs out across the narrow aisle, forcing Shannon to either stop or step over them. Shannon stopped and glanced back at the study-hall teacher, who was busy grading papers. She looked at the doorway; Dawn had already exited.

Lorinda stared at Shannon, daring her to pass. The room began to quiet as the students realized there was a standoff between the two girls. Shannon turned to go back up the aisle and take another route from the classroom. As soon as she did, another slayer – one of Shannon’s friends, CeCe – put her legs out across the aisle, too, and laughed silently. Shannon was snared.

She gave Lorinda a hard look and prepared to drop her heavy books on the girl’s legs.

"Shannon?" Dawn’s voice startled the students.

Both Lorinda and CeCe pulled their legs in quickly.

Dawn stood in the doorway at an angle and only saw Shannon staring Lorinda down. "Shannon!"

Shannon walked slowly past Lorinda, staring hard at her until she was past her. Then she proceeded to the door and Dawn.

"What was all that in there?" Dawn asked after they had walked a little way in silence.

"Nothin’."

"That was quite a look Lorinda got for nothin’," Dawn pressed. "Want to tell me abou—"

"No. I don’t want to tell anybody anything. What do you want me for? Am I in trouble again?"

Dawn stopped and opened her mouth once, then closed it. "No. Not again. Just – Willow told me you had a little incident with Lorinda in class today."

Shannon snorted and looked away.

"And I thought, well, maybe it’d make you feel better to take a walk and talk about it a little. I remember when I was in school, there was this one girl who always used to call me—"

"Look. Thanks. I appreciate your taking an interest," Shannon told her abruptly. "But I don’t need any help. I can handle my own stuff. Y’know?"

"I know," Dawn said. "You’re a slayer, and slayers are really great...stuff-handlers. But even slayers need help someti—"

"NO! I don’t want your help! I don’t want anyone’s help! Okay? Leave me alone."

"Shannon, if I’m going to be your wa—"

"You are not my watcher! Not EVER!"

Shannon turned to run down the corridor and bumped hard into a tall figure.

"Whoa!" the man’s deep voice cried in surprise as Shannon’s books tumbled to the floor. She immediately held out two steadying hands, taking the man by both arms and holding him upright with slayer strength. She looked up to see Robin looking down sternly at her.

Cut To:Ext.Small Shack – Moments Later

Xander teetered one way then the other. Willow put a hand out to steady him. "I think we left my stomach back in Cleveland," he said.

"Shh!" Giles cautioned. "We don’t know who else might be about...nor quite where to look," he realized.

"Giles," Willow said, "I’ll just do another locator spell. And where exactly are we?" She looked around, taking in the smoldering remains of what looked like a tool shed, a badly burned tarp, and a smoking pile of half-burned firewood beneath it.

"Uh...guys..." Xander began.

"I think, from the look of it," Giles replied, "that we may be in Europe..."

"Uh...hey..."

"Eastern Europe, perhaps..."

"Will, Giles..."

"Judging from the general terrain and—"

"And the naked guy standing near the bushes?" Xander said.

Willow and Giles turned to look in the direction Xander was facing, just in time to see Ethan crumple and fall to the ground.

Cut To:Ext.Watchers Council – Same Time

Shannon burst from the building at a dead run and tore across the field before Dawn had reached the doorway.

"Shannon! Shannon!"

"Let her go," Robin said, coming up slowly behind her.

Dawn said nothing but watched Shannon disappear over the rise on a course toward the woods. Finally, she turned to Robin and held up her hands in frustration.

"Her watcher died," Robin said sympathetically. "Her new best friend, Norman, had to leave, and she hasn’t seen him in months. Her grandfather died over Christmas from a heart attack, and Lorinda is getting to her more easily."

"And I don’t know all this?" Dawn asked. "What are you saying?"

"That having her start a new slayer-watcher relationship now is hard enough. I wouldn’t complicate it by forcing a new friendship on her as well. Even Giles didn’t try to be Buffy’s friend."

Dawn’s mouth opened, and her expression grew dark. Then she thought a moment and sighed. "So what do I do?"

"Give her some space. You’re trying too hard." He smiled at Dawn. "You want to be the best watcher you can be for her. She’s going to need that and more from you. And you’ll get there. Just don’t crowd her so much. Put enough space between you, and she’ll be coming to you before you know it."

"You really should be doing this," Dawn said dejectedly. "She likes you better, she responds to you better, she listens to you. She should have what’s best for her. And if it’s not me, then I’ll be the first to say I shouldn’t have been chosen for the job."

Robin chuckled gently and nodded. "That’s exactly why you were," he told her.

Cut To:Ext.Council Grounds – Near The Thicket – Moments Later

Shannon ran and ran, but slowed as she approached her destination – the thicket outside the wood. She loped along and eventually pulled up near the yellow plastic bowl. She walked in a circle until she caught her breath and then shivered. She had no coat on.

Shannon sat down next to the empty bowl and leaned back against a large boundary–marking boulder left by the property’s former owners. She breathed in the icy air and let it out in great breaths. Then she saw the dead carcass of the rabbit a few feet from the bowl.

"Ohhh..." she groaned aloud. "You gotta stop doing that!" Nothing stirred around her. Even the wind was still. "I’ll try to bring you more food..." she said, almost inaudibly.

Suddenly, she went on alert. Something made her nerves tense up. She looked toward the thicket. "Hey," she said quietly, slowly. "How are you?"

Silence answered.

"It’s okay, I’m not coming in," she said conversationally. "You know, you gotta stop killing so much. I’ve been bringing you as much food as I can without making them suspicious, and besides, you’re not even killing to eat. You’re just – leavin’ ’em all shredded all over the place. If you keep on doing this, they’re gonna figure out that there’s really no more Shadow Demons. And then they’re gonna hunt for you." She sighed and shivered. "I can protect you," she said more quietly, "but not from all of them. So please...stop killing everything, and I promise to bring you more food."

Shannon quieted for few moments and shivered some more against the cold. And then she saw them: two dark eyes, hollow and fixed, staring directly at her from just within the brambles of the thicket.

"Hi," she said gently. "I knew you were there. Don’t you want to come out anymore?" She smiled and looked calmly back at the dark eyes. After many long minutes had passed, the eyes suddenly disappeared as the branches danced and rustled.

She waited a few more moments, got to her feet, and picked up the yellow bowl. "See you tomorrow," she said quietly and walked back to the Council.

Cut To:Ext.Bushes Near Small Shack – Same Time

"He’s in really bad shape," Xander said as he and Giles half-lifted Ethan off the ground.

Giles rested Ethan against Xander then took his own coat off and draped it over the injured mage. "Get us back to the Council, Willow," he said.

Willow nodded and began to work on the teleportation.

Giles felt the headiness and nausea that usually accompanied the time-space transfer and spoke to Xander sluggishly. "We shouldn’t tarry here. Whoever did this – brought him back and caused all this injury – is not

anyone we want to be encountering. Especially since we don’t quite know where we—"

Cut To:Int.Watchers Council – Coven Room – Same Time

"—are." Giles shook his head as he found himself and the others on the floor in the Coven Room.

Xander stood up and shook off some of his own wooziness. "You okay?" he asked Giles, who remained on the floor holding Ethan.

"Yes, yes. Fine. Help me get him to Doctor Miller. Uh, just a moment." He fumbled inside the coat still draped over Ethan, who now moaned in semi-conscious pain.

Giles found his cell phone and hastily turned it on. He hit the key for Becca, and while Xander and Willow propped Ethan into a sitting position, he spoke into the phone. "Yes, we’re back. We’re all right, though Ethan’s a bit worse for wear. No, no, not life threatening, but not good, either. We’re taking him to the infirmary. Don’t worry anymore. We’re all absolutely fine."

There was a pause, and then in a very gentle and affectionate tone, Giles said quietly, "Yes, I do, too. Both of you. I'll see you shortly." He snapped the cell phone shut and looked over to see Willow and Xander smiling at him.

"Makes you feel all warm and fuzzy," Willow said as Xander grinned in agreement.

"Ohhh..." Ethan groaned. "You have no idea," he said groggily, "just how warm and fuzzy he is...or where..." Ethan’s head lolled to one side, then dropped down.

"Well," Willow said, looking at Giles, "to hell and back and all banged up, but he still doesn’t miss a beat, does he?"

"I’ll hate myself for saying so," Giles replied as he and Xander lifted Ethan, "but I’d be disappointed in him if he did."

Willow turned to Giles. "Where are we going to keep him after he gets up and about? We've got the guest quarters here," she offered. "I don't think he'll be a threat."

"I agree," Giles answered. "And he's welcome to stay with me and Becca, if he likes."

"Staying with the old folks at home," Ethan said mustering a grin. "Now there entails some possibilities."

Giles rolled his eyes. "We'll just have a place at both and he can pick and choose." Ethan looked like he was going to say something and Giles held up his hand. "Please, not another word. You need your rest...and we already need a rest from you."

Willow leaned over and took Ethan's hand in hers. 

"I searched for, ya know? Days, weeks, months even," she told him. 

Ethan gently squeezed Willow's hand. "At least someone here missed me," he said casting a look over to Giles. 

"Bloody hell," Giles sighed. 

Cut To:Ext.Watchers Council – Junior Dormitory – Moments Later

Shannon returned to the Council dormitory instead of classes. She entered the room she shared with the other girls in her section and looked immediately at her dresser. Her baseball cards were still stacked where she had left them after picking them all up earlier in the morning. She put them quickly into a zip-lock bag and brought them to her footlocker.

As Shannon opened the locker, a thought occurred to her. Moving a few things around until she reached the bottom, she uncovered an old, wooden cigar box with a tiny metal latch. The smell of tobacco, her grandfather’s blend, still emanated from it. She opened it up.

Inside was a variety of items: a small, pearl-handled pocket-knife; an old, wooden poker chip strung on a long, brown cord; an age-worn deck of Bicycle playing cards; a yellowed and brittle letter from 1948; and a single card with a baseball player’s image on it.

Shannon sighed in relief to find the box and its contents intact. She looked at everything in turn. She opened the knife and tested it on one of her hairs – still razor-sharp. She shuffled the deck of cards smoothly and effortlessly then glanced at the letter. It was addressed to "Momma and Daddy" and announced that their son was coming home from the war; it was signed by Shannon’s grandfather.

She picked up the old poker chip by its cord and watched it turn one way and the other as it dangled before her. She frowned at it before setting it aside.

Finally, she lifted the baseball card out of the box. She had looked at it many times since her grandmother had given the cigar box to her at her grandfather’s funeral. "These were your granddad’s things that he wanted you to have," her grandmother had told her. "Probably not worth much if you ask me, but still, he wanted you to have them."

Shannon held the Mickey Mantle baseball card in front of her. It was like new. She turned it over and inspected it, even though she had memorized practically all the stats on the back. Then she put it carefully back in the box with the other items – save one – closed the box and hid it well below everything else in her footlocker.

Standing up, she again held up the poker chip on its cord. "Well," she said aloud to her departed grandfather, "if everyone around here can believe in magic, I can believe in your good luck charm." She put the poker chip on around her neck, closed the footlocker, and went around to the side of her bed where she sat, then lay down, then curled up to rest before her patrol that evening.

Cut To:Int.Watchers Council – Infirmary – That Night

"He’s stabilized, but we’ll have to keep an eye on that foot," Doctor Miller said, indicating the sleeping Ethan. "How are you doing?" he asked Giles with a hint of concern.

"Fine. Is there anything else you can tell us?" Giles asked.

"That was quite a piece of glass he had lodged in there. But it’s that second-degree burn on the inner thigh that’s going to cause him the most discomfort. It’s in a hell of a spot. It’ll heal, but he’s going to feel it for a good while."

Giles nodded. "How much longer will he be out?"

"For the rest of the night, I hope. I gave him something to make him sleep and a low dose of morphine."

"Well, please let me know as soon as he wakes up. Willow and I both agree he’s not an immediate danger to anyone. At least, not magically. I can’t vouch for anyone’s safety if he starts talking."

"Ah! Mr. Giles. Speaking of magic," Dr. Miller began, "I did want to show you something. They’re odd markings, and I wouldn’t even have noticed them

myself. But the nurse was assisting in cleaning him up, and she saw them. Here, give me a hand, and we’ll turn him on his side."

Willow looked on as Doctor Miller and Giles rolled Ethan onto his left side and steadied him there. The doctor parted the hospital gown. Willow drew a quick breath. From the base of Ethan’s neck to the end of his tail-bone and across the entire surface of his back were black symbols and rune-like markings.

"I made an examination of them," Doctor Miller said. "I had hoped they were nothing more than a fancy set of tattoos, but they’re actually almost embossed or etched—"

"No," Giles said. "Those aren’t tattoos."

The doctor looked at Giles for a moment. "You’ve seen these marks before?" he asked.

"Not these ones, no," Giles replied, tracing the main set of markings with his first and second fingertips. "But I’m quite familiar with the marks of demons, witches, and...other things."

"Does this mean he’s under someone’s power?" the doctor asked, sounding a bit nervous. "Someone evil?"

Giles was looking grimly at the marks, his hand having come to rest at the small of Ethan’s back.

"Mr. Giles?"

Giles looked up. He sighed at the frightened medic. "Well, even if he is, he’s safe here," he said, lowering Ethan into his original position. "And so are we. Willow’s protection spell over him will prevent him from any hostile threat."

"What if it’s something her protection spell can’t recognize?" Doctor Miller asked bluntly.

"Well, not to worry. Contrary to what it may seem, I have a great deal of control over Ethan."

Willow snorted and looked away, smirking.

"I’ve just never bothered exerting it," Giles finished with a sidelong look her.

A commotion from the outer office caught everyone’s attention. The nurse came into the infirmary ahead of Kennedy and then Vi, who carried a limp and groaning slayer in her arms. One of the girl’s arms flopped against Vi’s hip. Her other arm was bent and her hand clutched to her chest.

"Shannon!" Willow cried. "What happened? Ken?"

"Vampire bite," Kennedy answered. "Bad one, almost sucked her dry."

"Bring her this way," Doctor Miller led Vi into the emergency area.

"Let’s prep a transfusion," Doctor Miller told the nurse.

"Kennedy," Giles called the slayer off to the side. Willow came up alongside. "How did this happen?"

"She wasn’t paying attention. She hasn’t been lately, y’know? I’ve been on her case for a couple of weeks – she just doesn’t think! I give an order, and she’s all ‘yes ma’am’ and then goes and does something else. Like tonight. I told them to buddy up, cubs with senior slayers. Her buddy turned around, and the next thing she knows, Shannon’s gone." Kennedy stopped and shook her head.

Giles motioned the two women outside the door, allowing the doctor and nurse to do their work.

"Who was her buddy?" Willow asked.

Ken nodded toward Vi, who stood looking worriedly on as Dr. Miller and the nurse tended the young girl.

"Where did this happen?" Giles asked.

"Near the woods," Kennedy answered. "We found another couple of dead animal carcasses all torn up over the past day or so. They seemed to lead to or from the woods, so we spread out in that area. Then Shannon split from Vi and – I don’t think she even had a chance to scream. It’s like that vamp caught her completely by surprise. She was damn lucky that Vi found her while the vamp was still in the act of feeding or she’d be—"

"The vampire was staked?" Giles cut off her comment.

"Yeah. Must’ve been newly risen, he was full of dirt, Vi told me."

Vi came out of the room and joined them quietly.

"You okay?" Willow asked.

She nodded.

"It wasn’t your fault," Kennedy said. "You know she’s been all over the place lately. She was just lucky it was you she buddied with. Anyone else probably wouldn’t have found her as fast or handled it as well."

Willow patted Vi earnestly on the arm.

"I’d like to stay put and make sure she’s all right," Vi told Kennedy.

Kennedy nodded. "Yeah. Yeah, I think this put enough of a scare into everyone else to keep ’em in line and on their toes tonight. Stay here and keep me posted. And let Dawn know what happened."

As they spoke, Dr. Miller began to prep Shannon for a blood transfusion. Her shirt had been replaced by a jonnycoat.

"What on earth is this?" Dr. Miller asked, prying the moaning girl’s hand from her chest. She clutched something that hung from her neck tightly in her fist. Uncurling her fingers with effort, he saw an odd pendant – an old, wooden poker chip. "Nurse," he called, and the woman lifted the cord from around Shannon’s neck. "I’ll put it back on her when we’re done," she told the doctor. He nodded and started the transfusion.

Cut To: Int. Dr. Wagner’s Office – Evening

Dr. Wagner sat behind her desk as a vampire stood to her left. On the other side of the desk, directly across from Dr. Wagner sat Skye looking impatient.

“Our master is not pleased,” Dr. Wagner began. Skye simply rolled her eyes. “This is serious young lady,” she chastised.

“I stopped being a young lady when my sire over there turned me,” she said, pointing to the man at Wagner’s left.

Wagner ignored her remark. “We specifically asked you to not bring attention to yourself, and what do you do? You blow up an apartment building!”

Skye chuckled. “You gotta give me points for creativity.” When Wagner didn’t share in her amusement, she added, “Besides, what was I gonna do, huh? Suck her dry and toss her in a dumpster? People saw me leave that bar with her. It had to look like a suicide.”

“That is no excuse!” Wagner shouted.  

“The hell it’s not!” Skye countered, jumping to her feet. “You left me with no way to feed, and despite what he might think,” she said, pitching a thumb in the vampire’s direction, “human blood isn’t all that tasty. In fact, it’s downright gross. So how on earth am I supposed to eat, huh? Go to pet store to buy puppies instead? Do that enough and people will start to think I’m Cruella Deville but I won’t have a nice dog coat to show off.”

“We can provide you with blood if you give us the information we need.”

“Did you stop to think when planning this little ‘get someone inside’ operation that you might have overlooked one important detail?”

“And what’s that?” Wagner asked.

“I don’t want to help you,” Skye said with a chuckle. “And you know what, I’m not gonna help you.”

“So you’ll side with the Council then? You somehow managed to lose your soul but keep your conscience?” Wagner asked incredulously.

“Listen close…You two took my soul, took my life and everything I had planned for my future in one swoop. I didn’t ask for this undead existence. And as for a conscience, no I don’t have one, thanks to you guys. But I do, however, have a mind. So this isn’t about picking sides. Truth be told, they’re just as incompetent as you folks are here. No, what I’m doing is ignoring everyone else from here on out, everyone except me. I’m gonna go where my desires take me.”

Skye got up and began to walk from the room.

“We can take away the glamour,” Dr. Wagner mentioned casually. “She would find out then. In fact, they all will eventually. And then what?”

Skye turned around. “At this point, lady, I don’t give a damn. Do what you think you have to because nobody owns me.” She began to make her way from the room again when Dr. Wagner called out again.

“We can take Dawn away then,” she added.

Skye’s angry face morphed in vamp form for a moment, but she took a deep breath and returned to her human form. She slowly turned around and walked back to Dr. Wagner’s desk, putting both palms flat against it.

“If you, or anyone you know, so much as touches a hair on her head…”

“Yes?” Dr. Wagner asked smugly.

Without warning Skye picked up a pencil from the desk and hurled it at the man standing at the edge of the desk. The projectile pierced his heart and instantly turned her sire to dust. Dr. Wagner’s eyes went wide, and Skye pulled the doctor’s face inches away from hers and finished with, “You’ll meet the same fate as him but it won’t be near as quick. Do we understand each other?”

Dr. Wagner didn’t answer, and Skye simply pushed her face away as she started to walk to the door once more.

“This is your last chance. They’ll never let you stay once I remove the glamour,” Dr. Wagner warned in a faltering voice. “What will you do then?”

Skye continued to walk but spoke over her shoulder. “Then I’d better make my departure worth it.”

Fade Out.

End of Act One

Act Two  

Fade In:Int.

Watchers Council – Workout Room – The Next Morning

"Look," Robin said, exasperated, "it wasn’t like she was trying to get out of patrol. She probably got a little distracted by something. She has every intention of doing her best."

"You don’t speak for Shannon," Kennedy answered him. "Dawn’s her Watcher."

"Watcher-In-Training."

"And Dawn agrees that she should be suspended."

Robin pressed his lips tightly together and shook his head slowly.

"And even if Dawn didn’t agree," Kennedy continued, "I’d still put her on suspension. It’s a team effort, Robin. One of my girls gets in trouble, we all answer the call. But we all stay out of trouble – we don’t go looking for it."

"Cut her some slack," Robin said sharply. "She’s had a lot happen to her in one year and a lot of loss. And none of you seem to notice that Lorinda’s been on her case twenty-four-seven. I don’t see any team coming to her aid on that."

"She’s a slayer, she’s gotta be able to take on a snot-nosed bully."

"It’s not about taking on a bully!" Robin’s voice rose.

"Hey!" Kennedy shot back, then added sarcastically, "Slayer hearing – you don’t have to yell."

Robin glared at her. "It’s not about the bully," he said with quiet intensity. "It’s about the truth that bully hammers home."

"Huh?" Kennedy looked at him, genuinely confused.

"Shannon’s been taking a lot of grief from Lorinda and that bunch. Besides their tactics, they make remarks about her upbringing, her home life, her family, and—"

"So Shannon was born to white trash. Doesn’t mean she is white trash."

Robin laughed in bitter disbelief. "You’re just as bad," he said. "Her family’s poor and not well educated. But they drove all the way here from Nebraska

when her watcher was killed. They cared enough about her to come here and take her back home for her grandfather’s funeral—"

"Okay, okay, they’re nice folks. Big-hearted. Salt of the earth. Great. But Shannon is not that. Shannon is a slayer – a damn good one. She’s got the potential to be outstanding, first class – maybe as good as Buffy or Faith..."

"Or you?" Robin muttered.

"What?"

"What happened to your slayer hearing?"

Kennedy huffed at him. "Listen, she’s got it in her to be an incredible slayer. But she’s not gonna make it on my watch if she keeps disobeying and getting herself in trouble and not paying for it. What if Vi hadn’t found her or what if one of the other girls had gone in to help and gotten hurt too, what would you say about that? Would you say, ‘oh let’s give Shannie a little break, Lorinda called her a name today’? Give me a break, Robin."

"No, Ken. You give Shannon the break."

Kennedy squared against him and said quietly, "I gave her a break by letting her come out on patrol last night after she cut classes for most of the day. And then she got in trouble with a simple vampire staking. She’s letting her emotions and her anger distract her. And that almost killed her. You want to be the one to tell her grieving parents she died because you thought she should get a break?"

Robin’s dark eyes held Kennedy’s for only a moment before he looked down.

"I’ve talked to grieving parents, Kennedy. How many have you spoken to?" Kennedy said nothing and turned away, so Robin continued. "And I’m telling you, right now, if you don’t help this girl the way I’m suggesting, I’ll be talking with Shannon’s parents real soon. But then again, maybe I’ll have you do it since you obviously know it all."

Without another word he turned slowly and left the slayer in the workout room. Kennedy watched him until he had gone through the door, then turned away as the door clanked shut.

Cut To:Int.Giles and Becca’s House – Kitchen – Same Time

"Okay, spill it," Becca said as she fed the baby. "Rupert?"

"Hmm? Yes? What?"

Becca wiped her forehead with the back of her hand and then cleaned the mushy mess from the baby’s chin. "Are you worried about Ethan or Shannon or both?"

Giles looked seriously at her then folded his hands on the kitchen table. "It’s not worry – it’s more like..."

"Being on alert?" Becca asked.

Giles shut his mouth tightly and nodded.

"Those markings on Ethan’s back are really bothering you, aren’t they?"

"Yes. But it’s more than that. It was just far too easy to get Ethan back once we found him."

"Do you think it’s not Ethan?"

Giles shook his head. "No, it’s Ethan. It’s definitely Ethan."

"It could be a trick," Becca offered. "You told me how good the First was at impersonating others, and there was that Faithbot from Vor last year."

"Dr. Miller has ruled out both…But I don’t think Ethan’s being used by some power – at least not at this juncture," Giles continued, thinking out loud.

Baby Elizabeth dribbled orange-colored apricots back down her chin and waved her arms up and down.

"So maybe those markings were put on him while he was in Vor, but they don’t mean anything here in this dimension," Becca said.

"I’d like to believe that, I truly would. But I’m more inclined to think that those markings signify domination by an other-worldly power who may actually be waiting for the right time to...spring a trap or launch some sort of evil."

"Then we should keep Ethan under wraps until—"

"Until what?" Giles asked. "Until the mountains fall and the seas dry up? Until he is a very old man and has forgotten what the world looks like?" He shook his head at her. "There’s no telling how long the force that made those marks will lie dormant. He and I and the others who raised Eyghon carried

his mark for twenty years before anything happened. Are we to hold Ethan here for years – or indefinitely?"

"I didn’t mean we should keep him captive. He’s been building a friendship with Willow. I mean, maybe we should keep him close to us for a while..."

Cut To:Int.Watchers Council – Willow’s Classroom – Early Morning

"Dawnie!"

"Hi Will." Dawn walked up to the front of the empty classroom and sat in the first seat, front and center.

"Didn’t get enough school? Need some extra learnin’?" Willow smiled at her from behind her desk.

"No, plenty of school – too much, even. But extra learnin’? Yeah, I think I could use some."

Willow put her lesson plan book aside. "What’s up?"

"Well," Dawn replied, "obviously not me and not my slayer, either. We’re both kinda down. Will...what was it like? For you, I mean? Being Buffy’s best friend? Did she ever, like, go to you for advice instead of Giles? Or did you just go and give her advice whenever you—"

"Whoa, whoa! No one gave Buffy advice. Not if they wanted to keep all their limbs." She laughed. Her laughter faded quickly as she saw Dawn’s downcast expression. "Having a hard time with Shannon, huh?"

"See!" Dawn said. "I knew you’d understand—"

"Hold on," Willow said. "Everyone’s having a problem with Shannon, lately. Sorry, you’re not special."

"Well, shouldn’t I be? I mean, I’m her Watcher and—"

"Dawnie, being her watcher doesn’t make you and Shannon best buds."

"I get that. That’s why I’m asking you about what it was like for you and Buffy. I mean, Buffy had you and Xander – and even Mom – when she couldn’t go to Giles with stuff. But Shannon’s parents aren’t here, her mom doesn’t really get the slayer thing, she’s not part of any crowd, her only friend is Norman and that’s by e-mail – and I’d punch Lorinda in the nose for

her myself if I thought that would help!"

"Dawnie!"

"Well, who does she have to go to when it’s really obvious she doesn’t feel comfortable going to her watcher? It’s not like she has any friends in her section. And the senior slayers like her, but they’re years older, so she doesn’t really fit in with them either. So who’s she got, Will? And don’t say Robin."

"No," Willow sighed. "Ro’s planning to tell Robin to back off a little where Shannon’s concerned."

Dawn looked surprised. "Why?"

"He and Ken got into an argument. He tried to convince her to take Shannon off suspension."

"He can’t do that! Ken and I discussed that, and we both decided she should be on suspension for—"

Willow waved her hand. "I know, I know. And you’re right. She should be, and she is, completely on suspension from patrol for the next three weeks. Not to mention one week’s worth of after-school cleaning for cutting classes yesterday."

"He thinks he knows so much," Dawn said irritably. "If he hadn’t butted in our conversation in the hall yesterday, she probably wouldn’t have run off and missed the rest of the school day."

"So it was Robin who made her run out of the building?" Willow asked skeptically.

"Well, maybe I had something to do with it, too. Will—"

"Dawn, don’t worry so much about who she has to talk to. If you’re going to be her watcher, the first thing you have to learn is to stand back and just...watch. She’ll come to you when it’s time. Don’t try to rush it. Okay? Just be ready when she finally does come to you."

"How?"

Willow looked at her and smiled softly. "Well...you remember how Buffy was with you when you were growing up?" she asked gently.

"Yeah..." Dawn said.

"Not like that," Willow suggested with a rueful smile. "Let her breathe on her own now and then."

Cut To:Int.Xander’s Apartment – Living Room – Same Time

Xander yawned and rubbed his face as he walked to the door. The hard knocking started up again. "Hrrrmmm," he grumbled.

Giles stood impatiently as the locks were thrown and the door opened revealing a disheveled Xander in his undershorts.

"My god," Giles deadpanned, "you look awful."

"Huh?" Xander’s half-closed eyes opened a bit wider. He touched his face with both hands, then looked down at himself as Giles walked past him into the apartment.

"Xander."

Xander turned around. "Huh?"

"I know you’ve probably got a lot to take care of today, but I was wondering if you would mind accompanying me on a little...excursion this morning."

Xander squinted at Giles, yawned, then grunted. He walked past Giles and sat heavily down on the couch. He leaned back against it and let his head fall all the way back over the top. Chin towards the ceiling, he asked, "Where?"

"Well, our first stop is the armory. I – I’d like us to bring some...small... weaponry with us."

"Weapons..."

"And it would be very helpful if you could please meet me there as quickly as possible – say ten minutes? Fifteen, if you like..."

"Ten minutes..."

Giles waited a beat then added, "Xander, no one knows about this. I’d like to keep that way."

"No...one..."

"See you in ten minutes."

"Ten..."

Giles got up and left the apartment quietly. The door shut with a click.

Xander started with a snort. "Huh?!"

Cut To:Int.Watchers Council – Infirmary Recovery Room – Minutes Later

"Willow, Dawn, good morning!" Dr. Miller greeted the two women. "Here to see our two patients?"

"How are they?" Willow asked.

"Well," he said as he led them into the recovery room, "I still have Mr. Rayne under sedation. He’ll come out of it in a little while."

Ethan lay, pale and thin, in the bed before them. "Shannon is in the far room, on the left. She’s weak and tired more than anything else. She woke up this morning, first thing, which is a good sign."

"Oh," Dawn said. "Is she awake now? I’d like to see her."

"Actually, she just dozed off again a few moments ago. I’d prefer it that she isn’t wakened right away."

"Was anyone with her? The nurse – was she around when Shannon woke up?"

"No," Doctor Miller replied. "Not the nurse. But Robin Wood was here. He came in late last night when he heard about the attack. Sent Vi off and stayed by Shannon’s side all night long. Are you all right, Dawn?"

"Yeah," Dawn said irritably. "Great."

"Thanks, Doctor Miller," Willow said.

The doctor nodded and left the room.

"C’mon, Dawnie," Willow put her arm around Dawn’s shoulders, "I’ll buy you a cup of—"

Cut To:Ext.Council Grounds – Same Time

"Coffee."

"Hmm?" Giles asked as he and Xander picked their way carefully across the frozen grounds of the Council.

"I wish I’d brought a thermos of coffee." Xander’s words came out on heavy breaths of steam. He looked around as though just noticing he was outdoors. It was a gray winter’s day; clouds obscured the morning stars.

Xander carried a tranquilizer gun, and Giles held a carbine rifle and a bowl filled with red, raw hamburger that was already developing a coating of ice crystals. The two men looked out in opposite directions in the sallow light of early morning.

"So...unless we’re going to a picnic," Xander said, indicating the bowl of hamburger, "I’m gonna assume that stuff is bait for whatever it is we’re after."

"Your assumption is correct."

"Great. Carnivorous, must-be-tranquilized-or-killed thingamajig on the loose. That is what we’re hunting right?"

"To be honest, I don’t know what we’re hunting. And I much prefer to think of this as a search more than a hunt."

"Well that clears everything up."

"Xander, the dead carcasses that began turning up...they don’t quite follow the same killing pattern as the ones the Shadow Demons were responsible for, do they?"

"Yeah, we’ve been scratching our heads over that one. Faith says maybe another Vor-demon is in the area, left over from—"

"After all this time has passed?" Giles asked. "I don’t think so."

Xander glanced at Giles and waited for him to continue.

"I’ve seen bowls of food left out near the wood on my walks. At first I thought one of the girls was feeding a stray cat or dog or something. But a couple of times I also saw fresh kill near the food. A squirrel once and an opossum,

both of which had been ripped apart, but uneaten. So, I began to do a little surveillance around the area. Yesterday, early in the morning, I saw Shannon place food in a bowl out by the thicket at the edge of the wood. Then she pulled up and discarded a dead animal carcass."

Xander stopped abruptly. "But why would she want to feed a beast from Vor?" he asked Giles’s back. "And clean up after it?" Giles stopped and turned back to him. "I mean," Xander said, "no pun intended, but that’d be one hell of a pet."

"But you see, I really don’t think it’s anything from Vor."

"That doesn’t make me feel any better."

"Suppose you are a young girl with unique powers that must be kept secret."

"Okay, it’s a stretch," Xander said with a slight grin. "But I’m with ya."

"You’re away from home and friendless, the others who share your powers are not amenable to having you in their midst. Your one confidant, your watcher, was killed protecting you. You’re given a new watcher whom you don’t want while another you do want is re-directed elsewhere. A close family member dies over what are supposed to be the happiest holidays of the year, and all this while you do a hazardous job which could end your life in an instant. You are barely thirteen. A fairly lonely existence, wouldn’t you say?"

"Give it to me straight, Giles. I can take it," Xander quipped.

"But you do see where I’m going with this?" Giles asked. "Shannon’s found something. Some animal or creature that’s probably as lonely and angry as she is."

"And she’s identifying with it."

"And growing very fond of it, I assume," Giles said. "It was in this area that the vampire caught up with her."

"Wait – you mean she’s feeding a vampire?"

Giles gave him a look.

"Okay, sorry I asked. But you think she slipped away from Vi and was heading here last night to check on her little...Chia Pet?"

"Oddly put, but essentially correct."

"‘Yes’ woulda done it," Xander said. "So. We’re gonna hunt it down. Look, don’t get me wrong, but if this is the thing leaving dead animals all over the place, then it needs to be killed before it starts killing something or someone bigger. But how do we do that without hurting Shannon?"

Giles sighed. "We’ve both known many slayers – some up to the task and some not. But there are those few who understand right away that their own internal struggle is far worse than the one at the end of a stake, that the human struggle is the true test of their strength. Buffy understood that. And in a less positive way, so did Faith."

"And so does Shannon," Xander said quietly. "This’ll be a hard lesson for her."

"One of many," Giles said frankly.

They walked on in silence.

Cut To:Int.Watchers Council – Infirmary Recovery Room – Moments Later

Ethan’s eyes fluttered open. He stared up blankly at a white ceiling and heard a woman’s disembodied voice calling from a distance, "Mr. Rayne?" He closed his eyes.

When Ethan opened them again, he looked from side to side. A machine on his left was beeping annoyingly. Medical tubing ran from poles to his arms, and he sensed bandages on his foot and felt a terrible pain along his right inner thigh. He took one deep breath to clear his head and immediately coughed.

On the sound, Shannon looked over from her own bed and got up on her elbows. She felt a little dizzy and knit her brows together for a moment until it passed. Then she looked at Ethan again.

"Hey."

Ethan blinked.

"Hey. Are you awake again?"

Ethan lay very still. He shifted his eyes to the right, took in the little girl in the other bed, then looked up at the ceiling again.

"Hey. I’m Shannon."

"Well," Ethan croaked out. Then, purposefully, he drawled, "Heyyyyy..."

Shannon looked at him curiously. "Do you, like, know where you are?"

Again, he looked towards her, taking in the young face, blue eyes, and long hair.

"Like, Heaven?" he sneered through the pain.

Shannon giggled in spite of herself.

"Is something funny?" he asked irritably of the ceiling.

"I’m Shannon. We met before. You’re Ethan. Ethan Rayne."

"Oh thank you," he deadpanned, "I’d forgotten."

"Wow, sarcasm. They said you were full of it. You don’t remember me, do you?"

"And who...who are you again?" Ethan asked, turning his head stiffly.

"Shannon. Shannon Mathewson."

"And why should I remember you?"

"You were here when – when the Fire Eater..."

"Ah, yes. That." He waited a beat and added, "Killed my dog."

"Yeah. And...my watcher."

"So, you’re a slayer."

"Now I am. When the Fire Eater killed Peter – he was my watcher – I was really just a scared kid."

"And now we’re all grown up and fearless, are we?" Ethan attempted a half-smirk, which turned into an immediate grimace of pain.

Shannon said nothing for a moment but watched the sorcerer twist himself to get comfortable. "Do you want me to call Dr. Miller?"

Ethan shot her a disdainful glance.

She shrugged. "Guess not."

Ethan closed his eyes and tried to fall back asleep as Shannon looked on. After a moment, he said, "And is there a reason for you to stare at me?" His eyes still closed, he continued, "Oh, I’ve got it. The Fire Eater killed your watcher. And it’s all my fault. Right?"

"What?"

"Oh, don’t spare my feelings, I’m sure the whole Council blames me for it. Or at the very least, Ripper – uh, Mr. Giles – does."

Shannon shook her head. "No," she said. "Nobody blames you at all. How could anyone blame you? You helped destroy it. You and your dog... Rupert." She hesitated, but getting no reaction from him, she continued. "And he...helped me, too...he..."

Ethan lay quiet, eyes still shut. "Oh, just forget it," he heard the girl say.

Ethan opened his eyes then and turned his head toward her once more. Now it was she who stared straight up at the ceiling. He looked at her hard. "I do know you," he said slowly. "Your watcher was killed protecting you from the Fire Eater. You went berserk! They had to strap you down in order to give you something to calm you, but you still got off a good one on that Nurse Ratchet, or whatever her name is. And Rupert calmed you down in his doggie way by bringing you...what was it, some stuffed toy or—"

"It was a white rabbit, a stuffed Easter Bunny. I still have it."

"How touching."

Shannon turned her head toward Ethan and shot him a dirty look.

"Oh goody," he said, "I’ve made a new friend. And at my age – imagine!"

"Why would anyone want to be your friend?" Shannon muttered.

"Oh, I have my charms. And what about you? Any friends? Any charms? So far, I see evidence of neither."

"You talk like Giles," Shannon sneered.

"Oh!" Ethan half-shrieked with a smirk. "Cruel child. I’m stricken."

Shannon turned her head towards him again, prepared to say something very rude, then saw that he was half-smiling up at the ceiling. "You... should be ‘stricken,’" she tested.

"I have been," Ethan smiled more broadly. "Many times. And by meaner little slayers than you."

"Like who?" Shannon lifted herself on one elbow and turned toward him.

Ethan glanced left and right and then looked fully at her. "Like," he said in a whisper, "Buffy."

"Buffy? Why did Buffy hit you?"

"She’s a beast."

"No she’s not."

"Have you met her?"

"Well, yeah, we’ve all met her. But I don’t really know her that well."

"Believe me, you don’t want to."

"But she saved the wor—"

"Oh come on!" Ethan tossed his head back and forth on the pillow. Then lowering his voice again, he said, "It was the witch that did it. It was all the witch. The Little Red Witch. First, she resurrected the Slayer. Then, when the First came along, she called all the potential slayers into full slayer-hood. It was magic, not some hormonally unbalanced bi – uh, Buffy – who saved the world."

"That’s not the story I heard."

"Of course not, you live in Slayer Central. But where I come from, we know who turned the tide with the First. We know who could have destroyed the world herself in spite of the slayer’s efforts to stop her. Nothing trumps magic, dear girl. Not slayer’s strength nor watcher’s wiles. Remember that. Nothing."

"Except love?"

Ethan looked at her in earnest. "Why do you say that?"

"Because Xander was the one who stopped Willow from destroying the world. And it was their friendship – their...uh, love...as friends – that made Willow stop."

Ethan made as if to say something, then stopped and closed his mouth tightly.

Shannon saw that the half-mocking, half-playful look had left his face and he now regarded her seriously. She looked away self-consciously, then lowered herself quickly onto her back again. "Geez," she said, "I really hate being in bed like this. I really hate this whole place, y’know."

Ethan turned his own head toward the ceiling again, and the smirk returned to his face. "Would you like me to conjure a stuffed rabbit for you? Or how about a duckie? Then you mightn’t be so blue."

"No," Shannon said flatly. She was very quiet for a few moments.

Ethan had begun to doze again when she brought him back to full alertness. "There’s – there might be something else, though," she said.

He opened his eyes.

"Maybe," she said. "If you – if you’d maybe, sorta, consider it."

"Well," Ethan smiled, intrigued, as he turned to look at her again. "Maybe I would. What is it? Money? No. No – shoes! Women love shoes. I’m not good at clothing, though, I should warn you. Once conjured myself a pair of Italian loafers – genuine brushed leather and quite becoming – but the ruddy left one kept tapping at odd moments. Couldn’t control it. I’d be standing on queue or sitting to dine or some such thing, and the bloody shoe would just begin to toe-tap. Finally had to—"

"Not money, not shoes or clothes or – or anything like that," Shannon said. "Willow won’t do it. And Jeff could, but he wouldn’t either, and they’d both tell Dawn if I asked and – and I just don’t know how or I’d do it myself, and even if I did, I don’t have any magic skills and—"

"See here," Ethan said. "Lower your voice and look at me."

Shannon turned her head to him.

"What is it you want me to conjure?"

Shannon stared at him hard, squinting at him.

Ethan rolled his eyes. "You can size me up all the live-long day, but it won’t get you what you want. So out with it then." He smiled slowly and conspiratorially. "What does the Little Blue Slayer want from the Big, Bad Sorcerer?"

Cut To:Ext.Council Grounds – Near The Thicket – Same Time

They were hidden off to one side near the thicket, watching the hamburger in the bowl freeze. Nothing stirred except the ice-coated branches of some thick, bare bushes as a slight, arctic breeze blew past.

Xander shivered and hugged himself for warmth. "So, what do you think?" he asked.

Giles frowned, casting his eyes left and right. "I think we’ll not find it unless we delve into the woods."

"I knew you were gonna say that," Xander groaned.

Giles began walking toward the thicket.

"Hey, Giles, wait a minute."

Giles turned as Xander strode up to him. "Let’s think about this for a second, several even. Beast from Vor – or some other hell – with verrrrry sharp teeth for tearing up animals and eating raw meat, hides in woods where no one can get him. Her. It. Whatever."

"Your point?"

Xander ignored the comment and continued his scenario. "Old – no offense – ex-Watcher with bad heart goes out with young, handsome carpenter to hunt dangerous Maybe-Vor-Thing with what? A dart-gun and a target rifle? I say, ‘Save a bullet – bring a slayer’."

"We’re here now. Let’s go," Giles said and began to break through the thicket.

Xander looked after him incredulously. "Giles! This isn’t my idea of a good, sane plan."

Giles disappeared from sight. His voice floated out to Xander. "Are you coming?"

Cut To:Ext.Council Grounds – Center of the Woods – Seconds Later

A few moments later, Xander pushed through the thicket and found Giles waiting for him and looking off into the depths of the woods.

"You’ve probably scared the bloody thing off," Giles chided. "How can anyone make so much noise moving over the ground without a tractor?"

"I work the wood, I don’t walk through it," Xander muttered as he looked around. The woods lay all about them, and the thicket was now behind them. Xander looked up and saw that even the bare branches of some of the trees still created enough of a canopy to shroud them in near- darkness and almost total silence.

"You’d never know the city limits of Cleveland is just outside all of this," Xander whispered as though not to disturb anything.

"Don’t worry," Giles said, hiding amusement at Xander’s uneasiness. "I was a crack shot with firearms in my youth." He walked further into the woods.

Xander followed. "Yeah," he muttered nervously, "back in the 1800’s."

"I heard that."

They hadn’t gone very far before the thicket disappeared from view in the gloom. Xander stopped, and in a normal voice that sounded like a shout in the silence, he said definitively, "You really don’t think this creature is supernatural, do you?"

Giles shook his head. "I suspect it’s something earth-born and feral. I believe it may be a coyote or—"

Giles was interrupted by a low, menacing snarl. It was coming from alongside him. Xander, on the other side of him, heard it, too. He peered slowly around Giles toward the sound.

Giles saw Xander blink and then squint at something. Xander raised the tranquilizer gun carefully. "Do you have it?" Giles whispered.

The snarl grew in intensity.

"Don’t mo—"

Suddenly, something shot out of the woods so fast that Xander didn’t have time to adjust his aim. The beast leaped and crashed into Giles at chest-height, and the carbine discharged, sending an errant shot into the air. Giles cried out as he fell into Xander, and the two of them landed hard on the frozen ground. Xander’s hand hit a sharp rock, and the tranquilizer gun was dislodged and skidded away on the icy surface.

The beast was on Giles, snarling and viciously biting, and Xander was pinned beneath them both. Xander heard Giles scream and flailed his right arm hopelessly toward the tranquilizer gun, which was far out of reach.

Suddenly, his hand struck the sharp rock again. He cupped it in his palm and with all his might pulled and pushed and rocked it out of its frozen bed. He fumbled it in his hand, turning it point-out. Grasping it tightly, he swung it up in a wide arc and with his entire arm brought the point to bear against the side of the beast’s head as the creature tore deeply into Giles’s shoulder with its teeth. Again and again Xander hit it, until dollops of blood hit him in the face.

Giles struggled with the beast, pulling out handfuls of matted fur and grunting and crying out as the creature tore through his coat and into layers of skin and flesh.

With a growl of his own, Xander drove the pointed rock hard against the beast again. It cried out in pain, released Giles, and before either man realized, had retreated into the woods, bounding quickly away into darkness.

"Unnnnnhh..." Giles groaned, rolling off Xander and onto his left side.

"Giles! Giles!" Xander got quickly to his knees and took stock of the older man’s condition. Wordlessly, he pulled Giles into a sitting position, then took off his own coat and covered Giles’s shoulders. Then he stripped off his sweatshirt and his shirt beneath it as well as his belt. Within minutes, Giles had a makeshift bandage and sling made from Xander’s shirt and belt. Xander quickly pulled his sweatshirt back on and picked up the two guns. Then he bent down and put Giles’s arm about his neck and lifted him up.

Giles wobbled a bit, then steadied. Xander looked over his shoulder to see if the beast was coming back. "Can you walk?"

"I don’t seem injured beyond my shoulder. I’m a bit shaken, but no more immobile than one would expe—"

"Again, ‘Yes’ woulda done it," Xander said softly, clutching Giles to him and gripping his wrist tightly. "Let’s get outta here." Xander half-carried Giles from the wood and back into the thicket. A few yards in, Xander heard a

rustle somewhere close behind him, and he softly swore. "Go!" he said, pushing Giles headlong through the thicket.

Giles, propelled forward on Xander’s shove, stumbled through the several remaining feet of thicket and onto open ground. He fell hard on both knees and broke his fall with one hand just as the report from the carbine cut through the air.

Giles gathered his legs beneath him and turned, half sitting on the ground. "Xander! Xander, answer me! Xander! Are you all right?" He held his breath, but no other sound reached him.

He heard the rustle and snapping of branches and twigs and looked anxiously around for something he could use to strike the beast. But then Xander emerged from the twisted mass of vines, a little out of breath and looking stunned. "I missed it," he said.

Both men regarded one another quietly. Then Giles asked, "Did you get a good look at it?"

Xander shook his head. "All I saw were teeth. Long, yellow teeth and the blackest mouth I’ve ever seen."

Giles shook his head and looked down. "I doubt it will follow us out into the open, especially in daylight," he said.

Xander looked around. The sallow glow of dawn had given way to gray-white winter daylight. "We’re not sticking around to find out," Xander said as he bent over and helped Giles back onto his feet. The two made their way quickly and silently from the thicket and back toward the Council.

Cut To:Int.Watchers Council – Infirmary Recovery Room – Same Time

"So, you’ll think about it?" Shannon asked, trying to sound casual.

"No."

Shannon’s eyes darkened, and she scowled. "Okay," she said, "How much?"

"Well, well. Aren’t we the little business monkey?"

"How much? Fifty? A hundred?"

Ethan gave her a baleful look. "You insult me."

"A thoooooouuuusand?" Shannon mocked.

"Hmm...insult me further."

"You don’t think I can pay you."

"Now you really insult me. I know you can’t. My services come at a dear price. Dear girl."

"How much?"

"More than your child’s allowance can cover even if you were to pay me it every week for a lifetime. Specialized work, you know."

"Tell me."

"Your family is filthy rich, then?"

Shannon huffed out a laugh.

"Planning to knock over a bank? May I suggest something in a black spandex ski mask and leotard."

"I – I can pay you. I have something. Something worth a lot of money."

"What is it?"

"Not now. Not here." Shannon fell silent.

"And a woman of intrigue, to boot."

"Who’s intriguing?" Willow asked as she entered the bright recovery room with a book and a laptop computer in her hands. "How are you two feeling today?"

Ethan and Shannon held their gazes for a beat before Shannon looked over at Willow.

"Hi. Can I get out of here now?" she asked brusquely.

Cut To:Ext.Council Grounds – Same Time

Giles and Xander huffed along toward the Council building. "You know," Xander said, "there was something else."

"Eh? What, what else?" Giles asked as Xander hastened them both along.

"Besides the teeth, I mean," he huffed in the cold air. "Eyes." Xander swallowed. "Two of the blackest eyes I’ve ever seen. Like...like black holes. Wild and black and like..."

"Hell?" Giles offered.

Xander shook his head.

"Ah," Giles said. "Like Willow, when she—"

"No," Xander said, as though the thought hadn’t occurred to him. "Like... Buffy’s eyes – that night – when we first found her. After Willow brought her back." Xander breathed heavily and slowed their pace a bit. "Crazed," he continued more quietly. "Scared. Un-trusting. Ready to fight anything. It was like looking into Buffy’s eyes that night, and I—" He stopped altogether and looked at Giles. "I couldn’t – I guess I turned the gun away just as I pulled the trigger."

Giles regarded Xander closely for a moment.

"Sorry," Xander said.

"For what? Having compassion, even for something that strikes out and maims?"

"No," Xander said, moving them forward again. "For letting compassion get in the way of destroying something completely evil."

Giles regarded him seriously then said, "Don’t be so hard on yourself. I’ve been doing just that with Ethan for decades now. And look at him – he’s nearly developed a conscience. In another thirty or so years, he may almost have been worth the effort."

Xander let out a laugh and resumed their trek toward the Council. The slayer on grounds patrol saw their approach as they crested the rise and immediately ran out to help, calling for assistance on her two-way radio.

Cut To:Int.Watchers Council – Infirmary Recovery Room – Same Time

"Can I?" Shannon asked the redhead, repeating her request. "I feel fine. Besides I gotta do something impor—"

"Not until Dr. Miller clears you," Willow said. "Which shouldn’t be too long; you look pretty perky."

Shannon made a face and looked away. Willow glanced quickly at Ethan, whose face was unreadable.

"Dawn’s coming down to tutor you today, so I thought I’d bring your History of Magic textbook and—"

"Where’s Robin?" Shannon cut her off curtly. "Robin’s my tutor when I get behind."

"I know," Willow said firmly, "but he has an appointment for a fitting for a new prosthetic, so Dawn’s taking the session for him. Is that a problem?"

"Doctor Miller!" Xander’s voice boomed through the infirmary. All three turned their heads toward the sound.

"Yes," they heard the doctor call back, "we got the call – we’re setting up for him in here. Come quickly."

"I’ll be right back!" Willow told Ethan and Shannon as she deposited the book and laptop on the bedside cart and left the room.

The nurse appeared in the doorway and began to hurriedly pull the curtains around the two beds.

"Nurse, would you mind terribly handing me that bathrobe and pulling this center curtain between us?" Ethan asked politely. "I’d like to get up."

"I’m sorry, Mr. Rayne, but you’re not supposed to be out of bed," the nurse replied.

"Oh," Ethan said, with a casual wave of his hand, "I don’t think it would be a problem, do you?"

The nurse’s expression turned blank, then slightly puzzled. "I – don’t think – it would be a problem," she said vaguely and took the gray, terry bathrobe from the chair. She walked, uncertainly, between the two beds and, to Shannon’s amazement, pulled the curtain abruptly between them. Shannon sat upright and heard Ethan saying ‘yes’ and ‘thank you’ from the other side of the curtain. Then he dismissed the nurse, who left the room quietly.

Shannon stared hard at the curtain. Suddenly, Ethan appeared from around the other side wearing the long, gray robe. She smiled in amazement. "Show me how to do that!" she said.

"What? Put on a bathrobe?" Ethan smiled. He put a finger to his lips and limped very slowly out of the room.

No sooner had he left than Shannon threw off her covers and nearly jumped out of bed. She walked to the locker and found her jeans. She had only gotten one leg in when the nurse reappeared. "And where do you think you’re going?" the nurse asked.

Shannon waved her hand at the nurse just as she had seen Ethan do. "It really doesn’t matter, does it?" she asked the nurse, imitating his inflection.

The nurse’s expression turned puzzled for a moment. Then she said, "It most certainly does. And you’re going right back into bed!"

Shannon groaned.

Cut To:Int.Watchers Council – Infirmary Triage Room – Same Time

"Did you see it?" Willow asked as Doctor Miller left the room to get some cauterizing materials.

"Just teeth, and a lot of hair," Xander said. "And eyes like—" He cut himself off as Ethan limped into the room.

Everyone looked at him. "Here I am!" he proclaimed cheerily. "What can I do? Pass the hors d’oeuvres tray?"

Giles looked haggardly at Xander. "Take me back to the woods," he said.

Ethan’s eyes sparkled playfully in spite of the pain he felt as he hobbled around to face Giles. He peered closely at Giles’s ashen face and then at the torn shoulder. His smile faded. "Here now, what’s all this?"

Giles looked at him sideways as Ethan pulled the blood-soaked shirt away from the shoulder. Xander moved toward the sorcerer, but Giles stopped him with a quick look.

Ethan stared at the shredded flesh for several seconds, his face serious. "Well," he began slowly. Then he smiled quickly and said, "You still enjoy a good, hard bite, I see. That little woman of yours is quite the hellcat."

"Leave him alone," Xander said.

"Yeah," Willow chimed in to stop the confrontation. "You should be in bed. I’m calling the nurse."

"It’s all right," Giles said quietly. "There’s not much more damage he can do to me than he’s done befo – OH!"

Ethan had cupped his hand over the bloody, shredded shoulder. "Oh Ripper, really...don’t be such a nancy."

Xander looked at Willow. "What’s he doing?"

"Ethan," Giles rasped, "you’re not to use any magic in this—"

"Oh. So you’d rather explain this mangled shoulder to the little wifey, eh?"

"Ethan..."

"Look," Ethan said seriously, "I won’t do a total restore. I’ll leave you with a few scratches so she still has something to yell at you for, yet you won’t have to lie to her about being attacked. She’ll be relieved you’re all right, maybe even give you a nice tumble as a reward. I’m doing you a favor!"

Giles looked at him angrily. "We have hard and fast rules here," he began as Ethan crossed his arms, "about using healing spells."

Ethan eyes twinkled. "Just the way you like it."

Giles started to list to one side. Ethan caught him by the side of the neck with one hand and steadied him. They could hear the doctor’s footsteps approaching.

"Now listen, mate," Ethan said quietly. "I can do this before that quack of a doctor returns, and by tonight you’ll be tossing little what’s-her-name in the air. Or, I can leave you in his hands to have your veins burnt shut and your shoulder stitched to your neck. Which will it be, which will it be...?"

Giles looked away, his eyes beginning to lose focus.

Ethan brought his face very near. "I’ll give you a lolly if you promise not to cry..."

Giles looked up confusedly at him. Then he half-smiled and nodded his head.

Ethan’s own smile dissipated, and without further fanfare he reached his hand forward, grasped Giles’s injured shoulder, and concentrated. Within a fraction of a second, his eyes darkened and his veins stood out fully on his face. The change was so abrupt that Willow took a step back in surprise.

"What the – ?" Xander began. But before he could finish, Ethan’s face returned to normal, and the sorcerer slipped his hand from Giles’s shoulder. Ethan, drained from the exertion, teetered a little and blinked a few times.

Doctor Miller re-entered the room.

"All right, Mr. Giles, let’s look at that shoulder." He saw Ethan. "What are you doing out of bed? Nurse!" He walked around Ethan angrily and began to look over Giles’s wound. "What! How?" Doctor Miller ran his hand over Giles’s shoulder and walked around behind him. "This shoulder was a mess. How – ?"

Ethan raised his hand with some effort and waved it awkwardly at the doctor. "Oh, you know how id iz wi’ some wounds," he said woozily. "A li’l blood makes sem seem...so mush worse, don’t shoo thing?"

The doctor opened his mouth to speak, appeared confused, then looked at Giles. "Well, Mr. Giles," he said, "a little blood...can make them seem... so much worse...This isn’t too bad." He shook his head and blinked. Then he took Giles’s arm and flexed it. "Hurt? Not much, hmm? Good. I don’t need to make any stitches. I’ll have the nurse apply a good, strong antiseptic and put a bandage on it for you." He turned to leave, then looked back at Giles again. "You really are a bleeder," he said, shaking his head.

Giles nodded in thanks.

"Mr. Rayne, you need to be off that leg."

Ethan swayed left then right. "Jus swut I was sinking," he said and promptly passed out on the floor.

Cut To:Ext.Council Grounds – Center of the Woods – Moments Later

In the woods, beneath a pile of bramble was a dark opening to a den. Large drops of blood were spattered about on the icy ground and on the gnarled mass of

branches. From inside the den came the sound of rustling and scratching and the unmistakable whimpers of pain and distress.

Suddenly, an unearthly wail emerged from the deep stillness.

Fade Out.

 

 

End of Act Two

Act Three 

Fade In:Int.Watchers Council – Junior Dormitory – Two Days Later

Voiceover, Shannon typing: "To: Slayerson@yahoo.com. From: Sheena2@clevelandcouncil.org. Subject: Red.

Hi Norm! They let me come back to the dorm last night. Said the vampire bite was almost all healed. Good thing, because you-know-who’s probably real hungry by now ’cause I couldn’t go out there yesterday. I didn’t see him this morning, but there was a dead squirrel on the ground. I left him some extra food."

Shannon was sitting in a sweatshirt, jeans, and muddy running shoes alongside her bed. The bed was neat but behind her the floor had a small pile of worn-out clothes, most of them slightly too small for her. She frowned at everything. She got back up and walked over to the piles. 

Voiceover, Shannon typing: "This vampire bite really itches. And I can’t hide it ’cause it’s high up. Hope the scar’s gone by the time I visit you, or your family’s gonna freak."

She put her right foot behind her left shoe and slid it off. She did the same to her right shoe.

Voiceover, Shannon typing: "You know who’s here?"

She took a shoebox from under her bed and opened it to reveal two cheap, red-glitter strapped stilettos. She took them out of the box...

Voiceover, Shannon typing: "Ethan Rayne."

...and dropped them on the floor.

Voiceover, Shannon typing: "I don’t think I can bring what I was gonna show you when I visit. See, Ethan may do a job for me. And I’m gonna need to use it for the money to pay him."

She slipped the red shoes on her feet without removing her white gym socks.

Voiceover, Shannon typing: "But he says can’t do anything until he feels a little better because he just got out of Vor and his powers are kinda weak from it."

She pawed through the clothes on the bed until she found a red, spaghetti-strap tank top with a golf-ball sized, black lacey rose placed low in the cleft. Taking that and a black, rayon mini-skirt, she wobbled on the red, spiked heels – which were half obscured by the cuffs of her jeans – to the full-length mirror and held the tank top and skirt in front of her.

"You look stupid, you know." Lorinda’s voice carried over from the doorway.

Shannon ignored her.

"I said, you look pretty stupid standing there like that. Why don’t you put them on?" Lorinda continued as she came up alongside Shannon. She looked at the other girl’s image in the mirror. "Unless you plan to wear them over your ratty clothes."

Shannon turned her head and stared dangerously at Lorinda.

Lorinda blinked and took a step back. Then she quickly smirked and walked away. "But that wouldn’t surprise me," she tossed over her shoulder.

Shannon continued to stare at the other slayer until the girl disappeared into the bathroom and the door clicked shut. Then she hiked up her pants legs, pulled her sweatshirt sleeves up to her shoulders, and once again held up the skirt and tank top in front of her.

She gazed again into the mirror and pushed one hip out. She almost lost her balance in the red spiked heels, wobbled a bit, then settled. With her head cocked to one side and her hip thrown out, she extended one hand and looked herself straight in the reflection. In a husky, nearly-thirteen-year-old voice, she said, "Hello, Mr. and Mrs. Hansen. Thank you for having me. May I see Norman now?"

One of her pants legs fell down to her ankle.

"Hey, Shannie!" A small group of slayers came into the dorm room.

"Nice outfit, Shannie. For a freak show."

Shannon lowered the tank top and the skirt.

"Or a hooker."

"Or a vampire date."

"Wal-Mart have a clearance sale?" All the girls laughed.

Shannon’s eyes grew dark, and her hands balled into a fist, crushing the red and black fabrics.

"She can’t afford Wal-Mart. She gets her clothes out of the Goodwill bin on—"

Lorinda came out of the bathroom. "Knock it off," she said bossily. "It’s not nice to make fun of poor people. They can’t help it if their family’s too stupid to make ends meet."

Shannon moved quickly toward them, wobbled, then stopped, the red shoes making it almost impossible to walk.

The girls giggled as Shannon wobbled her way darkly back to her bed. She tossed the skirt and tank top disgustedly onto the pile of clothes.

"Hey, look what my parents sent me for Christmas," Lorinda said. The girls, taking no more notice, went off to Lorinda’s area.

Shannon reached angrily down behind herself while lifting up her right foot in order to take off one shoe. She balanced on one foot for a second, but as her

fingers grasped the heel-strap, she wobbled uncontrollably on the other red-glittered pump. Her awkward movements caught the attention of the girls, who turned in time to see a surprised Shannon fall over and disappear from sight behind the far side of her bed. They heard a sharp thud.

For a moment there was total silence. Then the girls all bellowed at once in laughter, and a couple of them applauded.

"Shut up, shut up," Lorinda said, smiling broadly. "Hey Shannie, you okay?" There was no answer. "Hey, Shannie, whatsamatter?" Lorinda pressed. "You didn’t stake yourself on those shoes, did you?"

"I think she’s crying," one of the other girls whispered to another uneasily.

"Who has the answers for the English homework?" Lorinda asked, purposefully changing the subject. "Cindy? You’re good at English. C’mon, I can copy ’em at breakfast."

The girls left in a cacophony of comments and taunts, but none crossed over to see if Shannon was all right.

On the other side of the bed, Shannon sat on the floor, rubbing one of her ankles. A look of anger and hurt was on her face.

Voiceover, Shannon typing: "You know, Norm..."

She held up the left red shoe. The heel was broken at the base. It was hanging, literally, by a fibrous thread.

Voiceover, Shannon typing: "...I think I hate the color red."

She tossed the shoe toward at the head of her bunk. The shoe sailed into the Cleveland Indians wastebasket with a dull thunk.

Cut To:Int.Giles and Becca’s House – Library – Same Time

"What is it saying?" Ethan asked as though affronted.

"She," Becca said pointedly, "is saying hello."

"And how precisely can you tell that? I’m conversant in several demonic languages, and I’ve never encountered such incomprehensible drivel in my life."

Becca took the baby from Giles’s arms, hugged her to her shoulder, and began to pat the infant’s back.

"Now why on earth are you beating it?" Ethan demanded. "Did it swear?"

Giles bowed his head to hide a small smile.

The baby burped loudly.

"Oh, I see. You’ve taught it a trick. Amazing. Truly. What do you call it?"

"Elizabeth," Becca answered, annoyed.

"He meant the trick," Giles said without thinking.

Becca gave her husband a dirty look and said, "I’ll be in the nursery if you need me." She began to walk away, but on his hang-dog look, she stopped, turned, and walked back to him. Leaning over, she kissed Giles lightly on the forehead.

"Oh, none for me, thanks," Ethan said.

Becca turned to Ethan, looking as if she were going to say something rude. Then she shot Giles a you-deal-with-him look and left the room.

Ethan watched Becca’s departure, and Giles watched Ethan. The sorcerer turned with puzzled amusement on his face.

"What on earth were you thinking, old man?" he asked Giles honestly.

Giles regarded him skeptically for a moment, then chuckled.

"What’s funny?" Ethan asked.

"You," Giles said. "You pick up a stray dog on the streets and raise it like a child, mourn its death to the point of distraction, and break one of the most sacred trusts of magic by resurrecting it, but you can’t even begin to understand the want of a child."

"Oh, I can understand wanting one just fine. It’s actually having one that throws me."

"You wouldn’t say that if you had one."

"What are you suggesting?"

"Nothing, really. Just that you might – well, someday, I mean – for god’s sake, Ethan, did it never cross your mind to settle down and start a family?"

Ethan stared blankly at Giles.

"It’s quite a wonderful experience," Giles picked up. "Nothing compares."

Ethan squinted at him.

"But all you’ve ever known about having someone who depends upon you and looks to you for love was—"

"Besides you, Lady Lovelust?"

"That dog of yours," Giles finished, ignoring the remark. "Ethan...what finally did become of the poor beast?" he asked quietly.

"I don’t know. We were separated when I got trapped in Vor. He got left behind here – in this world."

Giles sat back and regarded Ethan carefully.

"Don’t take that tone with me," Ethan said irritably.

"I didn’t say anything."

"I can hear you thinking."

"I wasn’t thinking!"

"You’re always thinking."

"And you never do."

"And what would you have me think?"

"What do you think I’d have you think?"

"That I should have left the bloody beast in the ground to rot."

"That’s not what I was thinking."

"Yes it was."

"No it wasn’t."

"Was."

"Wasn’t." Giles crossed his arms. "I wasn’t thinking ‘r-o-t.’ More like ‘R.I.P.’ – if you take my meaning."

Ethan scowled and got up from the table. He walked to the stove, where Becca had left a steaming tea kettle, and began to fix himself a cup.

"So..." Giles picked up quietly, "where do you think he is now?"

"I really don't know."

"You must."

"Must I?"

"Do you really want me to believe you have no link whatsoever to him?"

Ethan turned and shot him a cold look. "Not anymore. I severed all links – human and non-human – as completely as possible as soon as I realized I wasn’t leaving that hell. Though, I couldn’t sever everything entirely."

"Yes," Giles said, "I know."

"So," Ethan continued, turning back to the stove. "I haven’t the slightest idea where he might be. Or even if he might be."

"I think I do."

Ethan stopped ministering to his tea and stood very still. Giles saw him straighten a little. "Tell me," Ethan said quietly.

Cut To:Int.Watchers Council – Rowena’s Office – Same Time

"Robin, this isn’t about your ability to be a watcher," Rowena said. "You know that. It’s really about providing the best possible match for Shannon. She’s had a lot of male influence in her life, and there’s nothing wrong with that, certainly. But, we think it would be good for her to have a more structured and positive female influence – especially at her age."

"Ro," Robin said, looking at her indignantly, "for crying out loud, I was a school principal – a damn good one. Do you know how many kids I’ve mentored – male and female – who were Shannon’s age?"

"I know you’ve got a wealth of experience with kids, " Rowena said. "But there are limitations to what you can do now – real, measurable, physical limitations. And I’m sorry. But if you had to help her get out of a situation, do you really think you could be as effective as..."

Robin looked hard at her, daring her to continue.

"...someone without a disability? And what about Peter’s death? You know how traumatic it is for a slayer to lose her watcher. And Peter died for Shannon. Tell me I’m not alone in thinking it would be better for her to switch to a female watcher until she’s had time to come to grips with that."

Robin swung his head away. "You know I can’t argue with any of that," he said.

"Fine, but I’m not looking for an argument, Robin. I’m looking for your help where it’s needed most."

The intercom buzzer sounded. "Ro, it’s Xander. I was supposed to see you about a half hour ago?"

"Yes, Xander, I’m sorry. Give me just a couple of more minutes." She clicked off the intercom. "Robin. You can make a real difference in Shannon’s future. She’ll listen to you. I know you’ve tried to give some advice to Dawn, and I think it was good advice. Maybe you could continue to do that – use your experience to guide and mentor Dawn and your rapport with Shannon to encourage her to give Dawn a chance."

Robin turned away and shook his head. "Yeah," he said resignedly. "I’ll take care of it."

He left without another word, letting the door swing softly shut after him. Rowena stared at it a moment. She hit the intercom button. "Come in, Xander," she said.

Cut To:Ext.Council Grounds – Late Morning

Ethan stood outside, his back against the cold brick-and-mortar of the Council building. He brought a lit cigarette to his lips and took a slow drag,

lost in thought as his eyes took in the sloping rise of the grounds and trees beyond. Absently, he exhaled a long puff of smoke.

"Uh, hi."

He started and turned his head to see Shannon standing by him.

"Well," he said, grim-faced, then with a twist of a smile, he added, "Well, well. The Little Blue Slayer. Come to make me an offer, have you?"

"I told you I’d bring it."

Ethan looked around as Shannon reached into her coat pocket. He held his hand up, stopping her. "Not here," he hissed. "Follow me."

They walked toward the rise, crested it, then dipped down below sight on the far side of it before Ethan spoke again. Stopping, he held out his hand. "Let me see it."

Shannon looked at him, hesitating for a moment.

"Well, if you don’t want the job done..."

She reached into her coat pocket. Carefully, under Ethan’s amused stare, she pulled out something she had covered in a little plastic cover and held it out to him.

"And this is worth...money?" Ethan said as he took it from her hand.

"I think it’s worth maybe a couple of thousand dollars. Maybe even three or four. It’s real old – 1952, see? And it’s in real good condition."

"A baseball card. How utterly American."

"It’s Mickey Mantle."

Ethan’s smirk faded a bit as he looked at it closely. "And perhaps just valuable enough to make the job worthwhile." He looked hard at Shannon. "I’ll see what it fetches."

"If not, you give that back to me," Shannon said, standing her ground.

"My dear girl," Ethan’s tone was cold, "I’ve done a lot of...things in my life. But I’ve never taken payment without doing the job. Mind you, if you don’t get the desired result – if your watcher’s resurrection fails – I still keep the

cash because I will have done the work. If I don’t begin the work, then you’ll get your precious ‘Mickey’ back."

"I don’t want Mickey back. I want Peter back. That’s all. Just Peter."

Ethan broke into a sudden smile. "Well, then, you’re lucky I came back from Vor when I did," he said, pocketing the card.

Shannon frowned, thinking.

"What? Have I offended you – finally?" Ethan smirked.

Shannon brightened. "No...No! You’re right. You’re like, totally right. It’s...maybe it does work..."

Ethan watched her as she reached up to her neck and tugged at a worn brown leather cord. "What have you got?" he smiled.

She pulled the cord out completely, and Ethan saw an old wooden poker chip attached to it. "It was my grandfather’s," she said. "It was his lucky charm. He won it in World War II off a guy in a poker game – it was the guy’s lucky chip – and then the guy’s leg got blown off the very next day. And then there was this battle, and there was a grenade that went off, and everybody around my grandfather was killed – but not my grandfather. When he got back from the war, he bought a farm real cheap ’cause the land was so bad no one wanted it, and then all of a sudden things started growing on it." Shannon stopped. Ethan was smirking at her. "You don’t believe me, do you?" she asked, her face angry.

"Oh I believe you completely," he told her. "It’s luck I don’t believe in. There’s no such thing as luck," he said with a hollow tone. Then, in a low whisper he added, "Just magic."

"You’re wrong. The other night, when the vampire attacked me, I was lucky because Vi found me in time. And you’re here, and that’s lucky because you’re just the person I need to get Peter back. And the Mickey Mantle card – that’s lucky ’cause now I can pay you to do it. Just like you brought back Rupert."

Ethan’s smile tightened a bit on the mention of the dog’s name.

"Oh. I uh..." Shannon looked away, shamefaced. "I’m sorry, I...I didn’t mean to mention..."

"Let me see that," Ethan said abruptly and held out his hand to her.

She looked at him blankly a moment, then said, "Oh, yeah. Here." She lifted the chip, still strung about her neck, and placed it on his palm.

Ethan took the old wooden piece between his thumb and first two fingers. He held it tightly and regarded it silently.

Shannon watched his eyes as they seemed to grow a bit dark. She grew uneasy in the silence. Just as nervousness was about to make her pull the chip away, Ethan looked at her and brightly said, "Well, it doesn’t feel terribly lucky. Let’s see what the next few days bring, eh?"

Shannon quickly tucked the chip inside her coat. "I – I gotta go," she said. "You gonna tell me when you do it?"

Ethan smiled, not warmly. "You’ll be the first to know," he said.

She looked at him, her blue eyes wide. Then without another word, she turned and half-ran back up the rise and toward the Council building.

Cut To:Int.Watchers Council – Rowena’s Office – Same Time

"Xander, I don’t want to send out any Black Ops," Rowena said. "And besides, for whatever reason, Giles has specifically asked me not to hunt for it for a day or two."

"It’s been a day or two. All bets are off as far as I’m concerned."

Rowena regarded him for moment. "Why are you suddenly so intent on us finding and destroying it?" she asked.

Xander looked back at her. "It was…" He looked away. "There was something so – bad – in its eyes. Not bad like evil, but bad like…wrong." He struggled for an explanation that wouldn’t come. "Whatever it is, Ro, it – it needs to die. It needs to."

Rowena looked at him thoughtfully for a moment. Slowly, she reached her hand out, hesitated, then quickly hit the intercom button.

"Kennedy," came the swift response from the slayer.

"Ken, Xander is here in the office with me. I wonder if you could come in?"

Cut To:Int.Watchers Council – English Class – Moments Later

"Shannon!" The entire class turned and looked at her. "Do you realize that you’re twenty minutes late for class?" Mrs. Monahan demanded.

"Yeah."

The class erupted in laughter.

"See me at the end of the period. Now take your seat and answer the quiz on the board. Bring it straight up to me when you’ve finished. Everyone else, log onto the online unit you were working on yesterday. If you’re finished with unit five, raise your hand and I’ll come around to check your work…"

Shannon walked slowly toward her seat. Lorinda seemed not to be paying her any mind. But as she approached, Lorinda turned and shot a spitball squarely at her. Shannon watched as the spitball, merely inches from her, somehow missed her completely and shot past to bounce off the corner of CeCe’s right eye. CeCe shrieked. Mrs. Monahan turned quickly to see CeCe holding her eye and bellowing in pain.

Amidst the noise and confusion that followed, Mrs. Monahan determined that CeCe’s eye was hurt, but not seriously, and asked for a volunteer to escort her to the infirmary.

"I’ll do it, Mrs. Monahan," Lorinda said, standing. Lorinda began to turn CeCe toward the door. As she and CeCe turned, Lorinda stepped on the stray spitball, and her foot slid out from under her. She landed with a loud whomp on her butt.

Too stunned to join her classmates in the laughter that followed, Shannon just reached down in wonder and clasped the wooden poker chip firmly in her hand, then smiled.

Cut To:Ext.Council Grounds – Den in Center of Woods – Same Time

Puffs of thick steam pulsed on the sound of wheezing and ragged snarls. A large and shadowy form lay heaving, on its side, unable to move or even to distinguish its own den. Its eyes, wide open, stared blankly out. Its lathered

tongue had lolled onto the floor of broken twigs, dead leaves and dirt. Hot saliva had turned the mix into a muddy mess.

Its body shuddered in pain. While dreaming, it scratched and pawed at its infected ear until the ear exploded and the vile liquid leaked out. But it could not move and now could not even wake from its exhausted stupor. It shivered with the chills of a fever, unaware of its own pained cries. Its eyelids fluttered, and it tumbled into black.

Cut To:Ext.Watchers Council – Same Time

Giles waited several minutes, looking around one corner of the building and then the other before deciding to walk out toward the woods. He crested the rise and finally saw Ethan standing and stamping to keep warm, a cigarette hanging carelessly out of the corner of his mouth. Giles could smell the acrid smoke in spite of the distance between them.

He adjusted the tranquilizer gun slung over his shoulder and picked his way carefully down the slippery slope. When he neared Ethan, he saw that the mage was not just cold, but shivering badly. Giles reached into his deep overcoat pocket and pulled out a flask. He handed it to Ethan. The sorcerer took the cigarette from his mouth, snatched the flask, unscrewed the top, and took a big gulp.

He made a face at Giles. "That’s not your best!" he said, handing the flask back.

Giles smirked and reached for the flask. "If you don’t want anymore..."

Ethan pulled it away, took another swallow, and grimaced. He handed the flask back.

"Are you sure you’re up to this?" Giles asked. "Doctor Miller said—"

"When did Doctor Miller become our nanny?" Ethan replied. "If you didn’t want me to come out here, you should never have told me in the first place."

Giles shrugged and nodded in agreement.

"Here. Give it here," Ethan said, grabbing the flask again and taking another noisy gulp. Giles took the flask back, capped it tightly, and returned it to his coat pocket.

"Are you planning to shoot something?" Ethan asked, indicating the tranquilizer gun.

"You if you become annoying. Oh. Wait a minute..." he said, and with a dangerous look on his face, he raised the gun, pointing it squarely at Ethan’s chest.

Ethan laughed as he spread his arms wide. "Go ’head, then," he said, the cigarette once more dangling from his lips, "but you’ll never again be offered one of these fine Turkish smokes."

Giles lowered the gun slowly. He squinted narrowly at Ethan, then grinned. "Thought I recognized the sm – hold on – where did you get those?" he asked. "You haven’t been anywhere but right here, and those are..."

"Bloody hell, Ripper...you’re like an old crone. Have to know everything. Can’t just enjoy a simple pleasure." Giles looked sternly at him. Ethan laughed. "Actually, mate, I pinched them from your humidor. Surprised to see you still have one." Still smiling, Ethan reached inside his coat and pulled out a simple silver cigarette case.

Giles looked accusingly at him.

"What?" Ethan said. "I couldn’t very well just put them in my pocket." He opened it, and Giles saw the finely rolled, unfiltered cigarettes an adept had recently presented to him as a gift. "Besides," Ethan said," it pains me to see you with this poor excuse for a case. Really, old man, could you have found something less aesthetic?"

He looked disgustedly at Ethan. "Thief," he said flatly.

"Not stealing if you take what isn’t wanted. Oh come on, Dr. Nanny say you can’t have them, is that it? Here..." Ethan took one cigarette from the case, popped it between his own lips, lit it with his own half-smoked cigarette, and held it out to Giles. "Here’s to your health," he sneered, "mental and otherwise."

Giles looked at the offered cigarette then glanced at Ethan. Giles took it and brought it his lips where he took a dainty drag from it, letting the smoke curl around in his mouth before inhaling it. Then he let it out on an easy breath and smiled. "That’s, well...very good, actually. Haven’t had one of those in years."

"Decades, I’ll wager."

"You ready?"

Ethan hesitated. He looked out across the grounds, away to the trees that marked the entry to their search.

"Ethan?"

The sorcerer turned to Giles and looked the tranquilizer gun up and down. "Will that kill him?" Ethan asked.

Giles took another drag from the cigarette. "No," he said quietly. "That’s up to you to do."

Ethan’s eyes widened, and then he looked away, troubled. He stood, unmoving, for a moment, then felt Giles’s hand lightly rest on his shoulder.

"Let’s go," Giles said softly.

Ethan felt the hand slide off his shoulder and heard Giles’s footsteps crunching along the frosted ground. He didn’t stir until Giles had walked many yards beyond him toward the woods.

Cut To:Int.Dawn’s Apartment – Early Afternoon

"Hi Dawn," Shannon said seriously. "I’m here for my remedials."

Dawn opened the door wide. "Uh...cool. Let’s work in the kitchen. Would you – I have some leftover pizza in the fridge – if you want some."

Shannon looked at her expressionlessly. "Okay."

Dawn watched the young slayer set her books and laptop down on the kitchen table.

Shannon stopped what she was doing and said, "Oh. Do you want me to like, set the table?"

"Um...no," Dawn replied. "No, I’ll do it. You go ahead and open your books."

Shannon got down to business as Dawn pulled a couple of slices of anchovy pizza from the refrigerator. She prepared to set them in the microwave.

"I like it cold," Shannon said sharply.

Dawn stopped and put the plate on the table along with two glasses and a bottle of cola. Shannon was logging onto her laptop and already had her work out in front of her.

"So..." Dawn began cautiously, "this is a double study hall?"

"Yep."

"And uh...everything’s okay today? School good? Other kids...treating you all right?"

"Sure. No problem."

"Well. All right. Great. Let’s see what you’ve got..."

Shannon opened her notebook to her half-finished math homework. "I don’t get how to do this one," she said, not looking at Dawn or the homework.

Dawn looked down and realized it was an algebraic problem. "Oh great," she said. "I’m not sure I do either."

Shannon made a face.

"But I seem to remember something my algebra teacher told me about this kind of example," she said, surprised at herself. "Here, we need to figure out what ‘x’ is. And – and we have clues. Like this..."

She began to explain the problem to Shannon, slowly at first, and then in a rush as vivid memories of things she had never paid attention to in high school algebra came flooding back in detail.

Shannon, now intent on her homework, paid more attention to her, and within minutes, the tricky math problem was solved.

Shannon huffed at Dawn. "What were you – a geek or something?"

Dawn looked at her indignantly. "I’ll take that as a left-handed compliment. "God," she continued, "I never thought I’d even remember my algebra teacher’s name, let alone what she taught me. I haven’t thought about that stuff in years! And just like that, I remember it! How lucky is that?"

"Yeah..." Shannon said. A slow smile played across her lips as she touched her fingertips to the wooden poker chip beneath her shirt. "Real lucky."

Cut To:Ext.

Council Grounds – Same Time

"We won’t find him, you know," Ethan said as he walked alongside Giles, "as long as he doesn’t want to be found."

"We can do a locator spell."

"No. We can’t."

"We can’t or we won’t?"

"Listen, Ripper, I know you think I made him a familiar. And I’ve told you before, that isn’t true. But I did...charm him a bit. You know, wards and protections. That sort of thing. You won’t find him with a locator spell. And he won’t be detected by someone else’s protection spell, either. Otherwise, the Little Red Witch would have known he’s here. If it is him, of course."

"That’s exactly what you’re here to tell me – whether it’s him or not."

"And if it’s not?" Ethan asked.

"Then we’ve nothing to do but shiver, try not to slip and kill ourselves on this ice, and take a nice, long walk in the below-freezing temperatures."

"You always were up for a ruddy good time, mate."

They trudged on in silence. Soon, they were at the edge of the tree-dotted area that would lead them to the thicket and the woods beyond. Giles took a sudden turn away from Ethan.

"Over here," he said as Ethan followed close behind. "I found this the day after Xander and I were attacked. But I think it was actually done a few days before that, judging from the condition of it."

He brought Ethan around to an evergreen tree and pushed aside low, heavy branches sweeping just above the ground. Beneath them lay the frozen remains of a raccoon. It was clear the animal had struggled violently with whatever had torn it apart – and lost.

Ethan took one step back, staring at the shredded animal. Giles saw him close his left hand into a crooked fist, but said nothing. Ethan turned away and looked into the trees.

"Is that what happened?" Giles asked. "Is that what happened to your hand?"

Ethan glanced quickly down at his left hand.

"Willow noticed it, when you came back to help us fight Vor. She noticed it had been...injured. She mentioned it to me, but I was far too busy at that time to really give it any thought. But when you put your hand on my shoulder the other day, to heal it, I thought ‘well, then, if Doctor Miller stitches me up, no matter how well, my shoulder’ll end up looking like Ethan’s hand’."

Ethan said nothing and continued to stare into the trees.

"What happened, Ethan? Did the dog – did he mangle your hand that way?"

Ethan turned, his face lined and tired. He smiled a little and said, "You never encountered your slayer when she first returned to the living."

"You know I didn’t. You were with me shortly after the call came through."

"And how do you suppose she’d have reacted had you tried to ‘help her’, let’s say?"

Giles looked down and considered it. Then he looked back at Ethan. "How long did it take you to tame him again?" he asked.

Ethan gave him a puzzled half-smile. "Tame?" he asked Giles. Then, his expression unchanged, Ethan began to sing very quietly in a rich, low voice: "If you go out in the wood today, you’re sure of a big surprise."

He turned and headed back in their original direction, toward the deepening trees, as he sang more loudly.

"If you go out in the wood today, you better go in disguise."

Giles bit his lower lip as he watched Ethan picked up a jaunty pace.

"For every bear that ever there was, will gather there for certain because..."

Giles sighed, readjusted the tranquilizer gun on his shoulder, and moved to catch up as Ethan’s voice faded into the distant, dead air.

"Today’s the day the teddy bears have their pi-i-i-ic-nic!"

Cut To:Int.Watchers Council – Conference Room – Same Time

"I tried a locator spell," Willow told Xander, Rowena, Kennedy, and Faith. "But it just didn’t work. I even used the fur that came off Giles’s clothes after the attack and his bloody – as in blood-soaked – shirt. But that just told me where Giles was, so either the creature’s blood wasn’t on him or..."

"...this creature has a ward of protection on itself," Rowena frowned.

"All right," Faith said. "So we’ll place sentries around the perimeter of the woods, and we’ll sweep the entire area. We’ll flush it out, don’t worry. The Black Ops’ll come in handy for this one."

"Well, not if it’s protected," Rowena said. "Will, do you think you could break any protection spell it might have around it?"

"Not without knowing how it was cast."

"But there is a general reversal spell, isn’t there?"

"General, yes. Universal, no. Otherwise, I’d just reverse the last twenty years of my life." They all looked at her balefully. "Joking! Joking!" she said. "I’ll give it a shot. I mean, what could it hurt? But...I don’t think it’s going to work."

"Faith," Rowena said, "how many girls can you give us for this?"

"How many do you want, Blondie? I can put all the girls we have on active duty on it, and some of the inexperienced girls, too. We have a few intermediates who need to go out on an actual assignment. And if this thing is just an animal like Giles thinks, then it should be no problem."

"But we’re not sure it is just an animal. And if it isn’t, we’re risking too much asking untrained girls to fight it."

"Hey, I was untrained, and I fought the First," Kennedy spoke up.

"And most of those who fought with you died in the fight."

Kennedy sighed. "Yeah. Well, okay, I’ll give you everyone on active duty on my team. But Shannon still stays on suspension."

"Agreed," Rowena said. "Willow? Xander?"

"Yup," Xander answered.

"Works for me," Willow replied.

"Draw up a plan," Rowena said. "Maybe we can be finished with this by week’s end."

Cut To:Ext.Council Grounds – Center of the Woods – Same Time

"This is it," Giles said. "This is where it attacked us."

"Yes," Ethan said, looking at the blood frozen in the groundcover of ice. "It went off there." He walked, following the frozen dollops of blood to a denser and darker area. Giles walked close behind him, tranquilizer gun at the ready.

"Every teddy bear whose been good is sure of a treat today," Ethan sang softly as they slowly pushed through the deep woods.

"Ethan..."

"There’s lots of marvelous things to eat and wonderful games to play."

"You’re going to let it know we’re here," Giles warned.

"Believe me, mate, it already knows," Ethan said and picked up the song again.

"Beneath the trees, where nobody sees, they’ll hide and seek as long as they please. ’Cause that’s the way the teddy bears have their pi-i-i-i-ic—"

There was a sudden movement from just ahead of them, and Giles brought the gun up sharply. Ethan raised his right hand to cast a shot of energy at the attacker. They both held as a small rabbit ran for its life from them.

"—nic," Ethan finished, smiling.

"Prat," Giles called him, relieved. "We’ll look a little longer. If it’s alive, it may be injured and might be more deadly. Are you up to it? Magically?"

Ethan considered the question seriously. "No," he said, finally. "Are you?"

"Me? I’ve a bad heart, and my nerves aren’t what they used to be either."

"It’s settled then. We’ll press on."

"Right." Giles smiled.

They moved slowly, pushing aside branches, half-tripping over frozen, rutted terrain, and feeling more cold than when they had begun. They thrashed the undergrowth that hadn’t frozen hard to the ground, hoping to startle the creature from its hiding place. But nothing stirred except them.

"Ethan, what happened to him – the dog – when you resurrected him?"

"He was...out of control. Completely. Crazed. He’d spend hours – days – lunging at me, trying to rip my throat open."

"How did you manage him?"

"Protection around myself and...I just kept talking to him."

"And it worked. I mean, he was quite docile when you brought him—"

"He was spelled. I spelled him to control him, finally. Nothing more than a...a lost mind in a dog’s body. I’d’ve been better off to carry a picture of a dog for all the life that was left in him after I spelled him," Ethan said, his tone turning bitter. "But if I hadn’t spelled him, he’d have done worse than just this." Ethan held up his crooked, scarred, left hand. "Still can’t feel anything from the middle finger on."

"But the spell hasn’t held," Giles said more than asked.

"It stopped holding from time to time," Ethan replied. "Seemed to wear away under – what would you say – the strain? Of all that aggression tearing at it." Ethan stopped and breathed a shivering sigh. "I had to renew the spell on a few occasions, and each time it seemed to be easier for him to tear through." Ethan suddenly stopped.

"What is it?" Giles asked, looking about.

Ethan faced him and with a look of sudden realization asked, "How did you come to figure that these animals were being killed by Rupert?"

"I was there that day. I overheard you talking to him."

"What do you mean?"

"The day that you were shot at. The assassination attempt when you were helping us fight the Fire Eater. The shot that grazed you. You do remember, don’t you?"

"Vor didn’t take my memory," Ethan said. "In fact, it gave me some new ones."

"Well, I stopped by to see you, afterwards, and I let myself in at your door," Giles replied. "You were sitting on the couch and talking to him – to the dog. You told him that if anything happened, he was to return here. ‘They’ll take care of you here,’ I heard you say. The animal killings began not too long after you got lost in Vor. We had a bad bout with some horrible demons that were killing in a similar fashion, tearing up animals. We disposed of those Shadow Demons. And it seemed like the killings had ended. But now I’m not so sure. Now I think that Shannon may have discovered this beast killing small animals – tearing them up much the same as the Shadow Demons would. And I think she began to feed it so that it wouldn’t kill and to discard the carcasses it left from time to time so that no one would know. She didn’t get all of the carcasses, however, and quite frankly, there’s been an increase in their occurrence."

"But two more things happened that convinced me it was your dog," Giles continued. "When it attacked me, I couldn’t make out what had me, but I could feel its general shape and size, and I could feel the heavy, matted coat. I even pulled out long, black hairs from it as I fought it. And Xander, when he faced it the second time, saw a look in its eyes that he described as very much like Buffy’s when she was first resurrected."

Ethan stared off sternly, barely breathing.

"Ethan, this animal is dangerous. It needs to be destroyed."

Ethan remained still.

"You...need to destroy it. It’s suffering. It isn’t fair."

"No. No it isn’t," Ethan spat. He turned and began to walk angrily out of the darkness of the wood, unmindful of the noise he was making. Giles followed close behind, but said nothing until they had come out of the darker recesses and approached the thicket.

"Ethan!" he called.

The sorcerer turned around, his face full of anger.

"Ethan, I can’t hold off the entire Council. They’ll launch a search for him. Today, tomorrow... And when they do, they’ll be on a killing mission."

Ethan turned and began to stalk toward the thicket.

"They’re slayers, Ethan. They’ll show no mercy, and they won’t worry about how cleanly they do it, either. Ethan! "

The sorcerer stopped, and Giles could see puffs of steam as Ethan heaved heavy breaths. "Ethan..." he said firmly, but gently, "you have a choice – a choice for the poor beast. You can leave him to the slayers. Or, you can end his suffering yourself."

Ethan turned his head and looked at Giles. A strange expression came over him as he held Giles’s gaze. "‘Your hands before all others,’ eh?"

Giles winced, but said nothing.

Ethan smiled sadly back at him. "I need a few days."

"We haven’t the luxury of a few days for you to make up your mi—"

"I’m not strong enough!" Ethan almost shouted. "I’m still weak, magically. I’ve tried a couple of simple things, and I’m as adept as ever. Just not up to full strength. I need to be completely recovered. Please."

Giles shouldered the rifle and led the way out of the thicket. He waited until they had crossed the clearing and were out on the open grounds of the property before he took out the flask and opened it once more. He held it out to Ethan, who waved him off. Giles took a swift drink and put the cap back on as Ethan walked past him. He followed a few feet behind Ethan all the way back to the Council building.

Cut To:Int.Watchers Council – Dining Hall – After Supper

The Watchers Council was aglow with a warm, nighttime lamplight. Most of the slayers had already eaten, and Shannon was quietly finishing her meal at a table by herself. Andrew came out of the kitchen, his apron stained and his brow sweaty.

"Hey," he greeted her.

"Hey," she said back.

"I have something for you."

Shannon looked at him questioningly. "You didn’t!" she said. "Did you? You found it? Did you really?"

He grinned at her and held up a DVD with a picture of Harry, Hermione, and Ron and a dragon behind them, visible through the cover. "Andrew! You’re great! This is sooooooo cool. Norm’s gonna freak! You got the new Potter!"

"Shhhhhh!" he said, still smiling at her excitement. "Bootlegs are so illegal. Oh, and here. Here’s your money back."

She looked at him.

"Go on, take it," he said. "Consider it a late Christmas gift from me."

"I – thanks. Really. How did you – ?"

"I have my ways," he said. "Actually, you’re pretty lucky. They’re cracking down real hard. This was the last copy we’ll be seeing in these parts for a while."

Shannon sat back, her mouth open. Then she began to quickly clean up the uneaten half of her chicken and stuffing, putting it into a plastic bag she had with her.

"What are you – ?"

"Gotta go,"’ she said quickly. She swung around in her seat, got up, and clutching the food and the DVD tightly, took a few steps. She stopped and turned. Andrew was staring at her. She walked back to him and, without warning, hugged him hard. Then she was heading away again and out the door.

Andrew watched her go, then put his hands to his ribs. "Owww," he whined.

Cut To:Int.City of Cleveland – Tower City Center Mall – Same Time

Ethan had been standing at the counter for almost half an hour, while the Ultimate Sport Collectibles and Memorabilia shop owner whistled intermittently at the card. Bored, Ethan glanced at a good-looking blonde teenager who was leafing through glossy sports photos in a binder. The boy,

sensing he was being watched, looked up suddenly at Ethan. Ethan stared right back and slowly smiled.

The teen’s face darkened in anger, then turned bright red. Ethan smiled wider.

"Perv," the boy said and walked out of the store. Ethan stared after him, still smiling.

"Rick!" the storeowner called to his assistant. Another teenager, thin and dark-haired, emerged from the back. "Break’s over. I’ll be in the back with this gentleman for a little while. Can you hold the fort?"

"Yeah sure," Rick said and walked behind the counter.

"Mr....?"

"Reginald," Ethan lied.

"Mr. Reginald," the shop owner said as they entered the room. "Nice to meet you." He shook Ethan’s hand and indicated that he sit at a counter cluttered with plastic bags, sealing tape, and other shipping materials.

"Mr. Reginald, I’m not a professional grader, you understand. But I’ve been in this business for over thirty years, and I’ve been a collector since I was nine. I know the real thing when I see it."

Ethan looked blankly back at him and smiled. "Yes, well, what do you think it’s worth?"

"Mr. Reginald, do you mind my asking where you got this?"

"Why, it’s been in my family for years," Ethan lied glibly. "It was handed down to me from a dear old uncle."

"Is he still alive?"

"Oh no. Dead. Dead and gone. Forever."

The shop owner looked at him strangely, but continued. "Exactly what do you know about this card?" he asked Ethan.

"That my dear uncle treasured it and wanted me to have it – as a remembrance. And that the nice man in the sporting goods store on the lower level thought it might be worth a little money."

The shop owner laughed. "Jerry? And how much did he say it was worth?"

"Oh, he said around eighteen to twenty, but I told him that couldn’t be correct. And that is when he suggested I speak to you."

"Well, for once Jerry’s almost right. But eighteen to twenty is for a card that’s only in good condition."

"Oh. Then I suppose the best I could do would be what? Fifty, maybe a hundred dollars?"

"Wha – What? Mr. Reginald, you don’t know anything at all about baseball cards, do you?"

Ethan smiled wanly.

The shop owner took a gooseneck lamp and turned it on above the card. "Look at this," he said. "This is a Topps 1952 #311 Mickey Mantle baseball card in mint condition, with perfect centering and no wear on the corners that I can detect. Whoever owned this card knew what they had and took meticulous care of it. A 1983 reprint of the set this card comes from is now worth about three to five hundred dollars itself. But you’ve got an original Mantle card from one of the original sets from ’52 – the second series print."

The shop owner shook his head in admiration of the card. "You need to get this to a professional grader. There are a couple of companies that’ll do it – PSA and Beckett. I’ll give you their information. They’re more qualified than I am to give you a real accurate assessment, but in the meantime, I’d have this card insured."

Ethan’s eyes sparkled, but his face was unreadable. "So..." he said to the shop owner, "this is worth a little something then."

"Look, get it graded. That’s your best bet. See, this card, non-graded, in merely good condition, could easily be sold for about twenty thousand dollars."

Ethan said nothing for a moment. "And if I get it graded?"

"Well, keep in mind that the company that made this card – Topps – just signed an agreement with the Mantle family. This year, they are issuing new Mantle cards from the family’s photos. That means renewed interest. Add that to the pristine condition of this card..."

"Damn it, man! Tell me what it’s worth!"

The shop owner looked wide-eyed at the angry man.

Ethan’s face softened, and he smiled. "Please..."

"I can’t give you a price. But I can tell you that another one of this exact card was graded in similar condition and sold at auction last year for one hundred and twenty-one thousand dollars."

"One hundred and twenty...did you say thousand?"

"It’s worth the hundred or so bucks to have it professionally graded. I’d really be interested to know what they say. Let me get you the addresses for the grading companies. Wow. I never thought I’d ever hold one of these..."

Cut To:Int.Watchers Council – Slayer Wing – Just After Supper

Shannon crept past the recon area. She had no other choice unless she wanted to exit the far side of the building and run the risk of being seen from the bank of apartment windows on that side. She held the bag of leftover chicken from supper and walked as quietly as she could.

Faith was briefing the patrol unit, and their attention was not on the doorway. Shannon slipped past without being seen or heard. She was nearly to the end of the hall when she heard one of the slayers ask, "So if we find it, we don’t engage if there’s a Black Ops nearby. They’re gonna shoot to kill."

"Right," Faith answered.

"But if we have to engage..."

"...engage it long enough to kill it."

"But I don’t want to kill an animal," one of the others said.

"This isn’t an animal," Faith corrected. "Or if it is, it’s not the kind you bring home. It’s a killing machine, and we’re gonna treat it like one. Let’s review positions. Lucy and Connie are taking their group to the north and east sides of the woods. Vi will have a group stationed south, and west’ll be covered by..."

Shannon’s heart raced. With no more care to be quiet, she ran the remaining few feet to the end of the hallway, turned the corner sharply, and dashed through the building. Within seconds, she was out the door and off over the rise in the bright moonlight.

Fade Out.

End of Act Three

Act FourFade In:Ext.Council Grounds – The Woods – Moments Later

Shannon ran hard, gulping down painful breaths of icy air. She crossed into the glade and made her way to the thicket. Looking around, she spotted the most recent bowl of uneaten food she had left on the ground. She picked it up and flung the contents out, then threw the bowl into the brambles. She unzipped her coat and clutched the wooden poker chip around her neck.

"Please..." she said aloud, "I have to find him."

She struck into the thicket, passed through it quickly, and came out into the woods. Moving without hesitation, she made her way toward the familiar den she had been visiting since September.

"Please, let him be there, let him be there..."

She picked her way expertly, her feet familiar with the terrain, and in a few moments, she arrived at the den. She stood still, listening, and heard the harsh, rattling sound of troubled breathing. She got down on all fours and peered into the den. The stench of blood, urine, and infection made her turn her face and retch.

She peered back in, and slowly the shadowy form of the animal became discernable in the darkened hole. It tried to raise its head to snarl at her but only succeeded in coughing up blood and mucus. Shannon slid in on her stomach. The animal was too weak to move.

"Listen," she said as she opened the plastic bag and removed the tender pieces of chicken, "I know you’re hurt. But you have to eat. You have to get better. They’re gonna come looking for you. You gottta eat this," she said, carefully pushing some chicken toward the animal, "and be quiet – as quiet as you can be."

The animal did quiet, recognizing her voice, but bared its teeth at her just the same. Shannon thought for a moment, then struggled with her coat. She unzipped it completely and, still lying on her stomach in the cramped den, she twisted her arms behind her and worked herself out of it. She shivered only a little. The den was close and almost warm enough. Slowly she brought the coat forward. The animal snarled and tried to snap, but she waited for it to calm and then moved the coat forward a little at a time until she was close enough to drape it over him.

"If you’re well enough to snap at me, you’re well enough to eat," she said firmly and began to push the rest of the chicken toward the animal. The animal stopped snarling, its upper lip trembling above bare, yellow teeth and black gums. Shannon hesitated, swallowed, and pushed the chicken very close to its mouth. Then she slowly drew her hand away and sighed in relief.

"Look, I’ll – I’ll try to bring Ethan. He’ll know what to do. But you gotta eat. Please eat." She looked long and hard at the animal. Slayer senses still on alert, she realized the patrol was approaching the woods. "I have to go," she told the animal as she started to squirm from the den. "I’ll bring Ethan."

Suddenly, she grabbed at the cord around her neck and squirmed back toward the animal. It snarled but did not try to snap at her this time. "It’s okay," she said gently. "It’s okay. I’m not gonna hurt you. It’s really okay..."

Gingerly, she brought the cord with the wooden poker chip over the animal’s neck and took great care in slipping it under its head. She grazed the injured ear and the beast wailed, but it did not bite her. "I’m sorry," she told the panting form as she released the cord. Her grandfather’s lucky wooden poker chip was securely hung around the great animal’s neck. "I didn’t mean to hurt your head," she said. "But you need this old poker chip a lot more than I do." Then, without thinking, she reached out and tenderly stroked the matted fur on the animal’s neck.

He lifted his head up so fast that she didn’t have time to think. She pulled her hand back just in time and felt teeth graze the backs of her fingers.

Shannon wasted no more time in squirming out of the den and heading back to the Council, avoiding the slayer patrol that was moving toward the area.

In the den, the animal smelled the food on the ground. It opened its mouth and lapped at the chicken with its long tongue. Catching a piece, it wolfed it down without a single chew. It did this every few minutes until all of the chicken was gone. Then it shuddered and curled up under the heavy woolen coat and, hidden completely from sight, it fell into exhausted sleep.

Cut To:Int.Watchers Council – Library – A Short Time Later

Robin yawned and stretched. He rubbed his eyes and looked out the library window onto the ice-encrusted grounds that glistened in the moonlight. A shadow seemed to move in the distance, and he rubbed his eyes again. The shadow was getting closer. He watched until he realized it was one of the girls. He was about to call in an alert when he recognized Shannon coming in toward the Council. As quickly as he could, he got to his feet and hurried down to the ground floor.

Cut To:Ext.Watchers Council – Same Time

Shannon swiped her card-key, and the corner door opened. She quickly shut it behind her and started swiftly down the hallway toward the apartments.

"Shannon."

She stopped at the sound of Robin’s voice. She turned to face him as he limped up to her.

"What are you doing out – where’s your coat?"

"I – "

Robin stepped closer, concerned. "Are you okay? You look like you’ve been in a fight or..."

Shannon looked down at her filthy clothes and absently touched her hair. "I thought I dropped something, and I went outside to look for it," she lied as a brown, crinkled leaf fell from her hair. "Guess I forgot to put on my coat," she shrugged, smiling at him.

"Did you forget to tell your watcher, too?"

"He isn’t here ye – oh. You mean Dawn." She smiled and held her hands out. They were muddy and scraped.

"What’s going on, Shannon?" Robin asked quietly.

Shannon thought fast. "I – I just hate being suspended, you know? I wanted to see where the patrol was going tonight, and I just went outside and followed them for a while. Sorta hid. But it’s cold. So I came back."

Robin looked at her.

"You don’t believe me, do you?"

"Why don’t we go talk to Dawn. She’s—"

"She’s not my watcher," Shannon snarled. "And neither are you! No one is. Peter is my watcher!"

"Shannon..."

"Peter’ll always be my watcher!" She turned and started down the hall.

"And I’ll always be your friend. And friends help each other."

Shannon slowed and stopped. She half turned and looked back at him uncertainly.

"Let me help you, Shannon."

But Shannon set her face, turned on her heel, and walked off down the hallway and out of sight.

Cut To:Int.Watchers Council – Ethan’s Guest Quarters – Later

Ethan stood with his back to the full-length mirror on his bedroom door. In his right hand he had a hand-held mirror, which he tilted at various angles in order to see the markings on his back that he’d gotten from Vor. He frowned at them and brought his left hand up and over his right shoulder, feeling the beveled quality of them.

A sudden series of knocks startled him into dropping the mirror. It landed softly on the carpet.

He called out, "Who is it?"

"Shannon."

"Who?"

There was a sigh from the other side and then, "The Little Blue Slayer?"

"Oh – uh, just a minute, please."

He put on pajamas and slippers and a long bathrobe. When he finally opened the door, Shannon was sitting on the floor with her back to the wall picking dirt out from under her fingernails. She didn’t acknowledge Ethan.

Ethan smiled slightly and looked out across the hall. "Oh, she’s gone," he said blandly and began to close the door.

The slayer stopped the door’s progress with her hand. "Ha-ha, real funny," she said, getting up and walking into the living room.

Ethan left the door open and stood by it, arms folded.

"I have to talk to you," she said, seriously. She ran her hand along the top of the couch and sat down.

"Change your mind about our agreement?" Ethan asked.

She looked over at the end table and saw the Mickey Mantle card on it. Ethan walked over to the opposite end of the couch. "You still have it?" Shannon asked him. "I thought you were gonna sell it for the money to--"

"I agreed to do the job in exchange for the card and what it could fetch me. I’ll cash it in after the work’s done. If it’s done."

"But you said—"

"I said I would reimburse you or give you the card back if the work wasn’t done. I said I don’t take payment for things I don’t do. How on earth do you think I’ve managed to live so long in the circles I frequent? Good diet and exercise?"

Shannon looked wistfully at the card, then shook her head.

"And now that we’ve cleared all that up," Ethan said, taking her by the arm and making her stand, "thank you for stopping by and please let’s not do it again."

She pulled her arm away. "Wait! When you do it – when you bring Peter back – will he...?" She swallowed and tried again. "Will he be like...?"

"Will he be like what?" Ethan asked.

She didn’t reply.

"Samantha," he began.

"Shannon."

"Right. Do you know what it means to resurrect someone?"

"Yeah." He simply looked at her. Shannon sighed heavily. "It means you bring someone back to life."

"Back to life...now that’s an interesting turn of phrase, isn’t it? Back to life? Actually, a resurrection is more like bringing life into a dead body. Now, you might think that would be very specialized work, wouldn’t you?"

Shannon rolled her eyes.

"Good. I see you’re following me. And sometimes, Sharon—"

"Shannon."

"Sometimes..." He knelt down in front of her until he looked directly into her eyes. His face was set and serious. "...sometimes, even the best of us get it wrong."

"Like with—"

"Don’t," he said sharply, bringing his hand up, "mention Buffy. Willow Rosenberg is a very adept witch, but her success in resurrecting the Slayer was beginner’s luck and not the act of a skilled and practiced—"

"But you said before that there’s no such thing as luck – only magic."

"True," Ethan said, sitting back on his heels. "And there are always risks with magic. No matter how innocuous or simple a spell or charm may be."

She looked at him, not understanding.

"Listen, you know the Wiccan Rede. It’s that sort of—"

"What?"

"The Wiccan Rede."

"So what if they read? What does that have to do with—?"

Ethan groaned. "Don’t they teach you anything besides pop-goes-the-vampire in this place? The Wiccan Rede is a – well it’s a belief that what you impose on the universe comes back to you."

"Oh! I know what you’re talking about. Willow was telling us something about it in class. It’s kinda like ‘what goes around comes around.’ Right?"

Ethan stared at her for a moment then chuckled earnestly. "Couldn’t have said it better myself."

"Do you think that’s true?" Shannon asked. "That what goes around does come around? That people really get what they have coming to them?"

"I certainly hope not."

"But then where does luck come in?"

"Luck – there is no such—"

"Yeah. Yeah there is. That card proves it!" She pointed at the Mantle baseball card.

"Tell me," he said smoothly, "where did you find it anyway?"

"Didn’t find it. It was my grandfather’s. He passed it down to me when he died...this Christmas."

"I see. And he got it...?"

"He won it from a guy in a poker game. He was wearing his lucky poker chip, and that’s how he won the card. He used to show me the card when we’d go visit him, and he said one day it would belong to me."

"It doesn’t any more, now, does it?" Ethan asked.

Shannon turned her head away and blinked rapidly several times.

Ethan rolled his eyes. "Bugger," he muttered and produced something with a wave of his hand. Shannon looked over and saw him approach her holding out a gaudy handkerchief of purple, red, and gold. "Now, now," he said flatly. "Dry your tears."

"I’m not cry—" Shannon no sooner opened her mouth to speak than the conjured handkerchief flew up and covered her entire face. She grabbed it to remove it, but it was as though it were glued tightly to her skin.

"Hnnnff!" her muffled cry came from behind the smothering cloth. She began to tear at it, but it wouldn’t budge or rip.

"Hold on!" Ethan said, getting to his feet.

Shannon stood up and began to move about, struggling with the handkerchief. Unable to see through it, she stepped awkwardly to her right and upset an open bottle of scotch on the end table.

Ethan watched with dread as the bottle tipped over and the liquid gold spilled from it. The first splash missed the baseball card, but the scotch was now running toward it. Ethan rushed past the young slayer and scooped the card off the end table just as the scotch ran over the spot.

He slipped the card into his bathrobe pocket. "Hold still, stop mucking about!" he growled and grabbed Shannon’s arm. Quickly he waved his hand, and the handkerchief disappeared in a puff of noxious smoke.

Shannon coughed and gave him an angry glare.

"What? I told you I was no good at clothes," he said.

"Or accessories," Shannon shot back.

"And where was your lucky poker chip then, eh?" he smiled, having scored the last point.

Shannon looked guiltily up at him. "I – it’s – I don’t – "

Ethan peered at her as his smile faded. He looked at her neck and saw that the brown cord was no longer around it. Lifting his dark eyes to hers again, he asked, threateningly, "Where?" She looked down and didn’t answer. He grabbed her arm again. "What have you done with it?"

"I – I loaned it to someone. I came her to tell you that I gave it to—"

"You stupid girl!" Ethan cried, glaring at her. Shannon blinked, stunned.

Ethan let go of her arm and collected himself. "Whom," he said with quiet intensity, "did you give it to?"

Cut To:

Int.Watchers Council – Infirmary – A Short Time Later

The emergency door to the infirmary crashed open as the stretcher, pushed by two slayers, rolled through it squeakily. Doctor Miller had turned on some of the lights, and he and the nurse were preparing for the worst.

"Hurry up!" Kennedy barked as the slayers rolled the injured slayer quickly into the triage area.

"My god," Doctor Miller whispered as he saw the damage to the throat of the girl on the stretcher.

"No pulse, Doctor," the nurse said.

Doctor Miller began CPR on the hurt slayer. After a few moments without success, he pulled out the paddles, and the nurse turned on the machine.

"Clear!" he called and pressed the paddles to the girl’s chest. The limp body jumped as the current surged through it. "Again," he told the nurse. "Clear!" And again the body jumped.

"C’mon, Connie," Kennedy said as she and the others watched from the windows. "C’mon!"

"Clear!"

But the heart monitor still showed a flat line.

Cut To:Int.Watchers Council Lobby – Same Time

"So then I placed a charm on that old poker piece of hers," Ethan was explaining as Giles looked out into the living room at Shannon. She sat on the couch looking nervously about.

"You put a charm on—"

"It’ll wear off, eventually. It’s fairly harmless. But it works like this: if you have desires, it fulfills a few random ones. Makes it seem like luck. Otherwise, that poker chip is just a useless—"

"And now she’s gone and given it to the dog!" Giles glared at Ethan.

"Look, she already said she gave it to him because he’s hurt. She didn’t know the piece was charmed, and I doubt she’d have given it to him if she did know."

"You think I’m angry with her?" Giles said.

Suddenly, Shannon stood in the doorway of the kitchen, looking pale and scared. "Do you mean anything I want to happen does because of a charm you put on my grandfather’s lucky poker chip?"

The two men turned sharply towards her. "Yes," Ethan explained. "A random selection of the wearer’s conscious desires. All that luck you think you’ve been having is just a manifesta – uh, the ‘coming true’ of some of your simple desires."

"When you asked to see it, that’s when you did it," Shannon said, realizing. "You held onto it and looked at it, and that’s when you put the charm on it. But it’s mine. It only works for me, right?"

"Only as long as you wear it. Technically, it works for the wearer. So if you give it to someone else, then some of the things they desire..."

"Dammit, Ethan!" Giles said under his breath.

"I didn’t tell her she should give it away!" Ethan looked helplessly into Giles’s angry face. "Who would have thought she’d do something like that?"

Giles glared at him for moment. "Of course, Ethan," he hissed. "You’re right. Who would have thought. Shannon, can you lead us to the animal – to its hiding place or right to him?"

Shannon looked down. "Yes, but—"

"Good. I’ll call Rowena and—"

"No." Ethan’s tone was hard. "I’m not prepared to take this on tonight."

"No one’s asking you to," Giles said curtly. "In fact, you’d better stay out of it."

"You can’t kill him," Shannon said softly. "He’s hurt. He’s hungry, and he needs help. If we can just catch him and put him somewhere...maybe we could build a dog kennel for him. Then I could see him and—"

"Shannon," Giles said, firmly, "the animal’s a killer. He’s going after bigger prey. And now that he’s got Ethan’s charm, anything his injured animal psyche desires will happen."

"Not anything," Ethan protested. "I charmed it so that only random desires would come to fruition. Not all."

Giles looked at him angrily.

"I get it," Shannon said. "Only some stuff would happen because if all the stuff I wanted came true, it wouldn’t seem like luck."

"Shannon, go into the living room with Becca, will you?" Giles said.

"C’mon, Shannon, let’s go look in on the baby. She’s getting big, you know..." Becca led the girl out of the kitchen. Shannon looked back over her shoulder at Ethan, who gave her a reassuring look in return.

"Why?" Giles asked bluntly.

"Because...the child was forlorn, Ripper. She was alone, troubled. She reminded me a bit of y—" Giles glare cut Ethan’s remark off. "Look," Ethan continued, "she needed to believe in that stupid poker chip. In something magical. A little bit of glimmer in that wretched slayer’s life she’s leading."

"And thanks to you she’ll have far less glimmer and a lot more wretchedness." Giles moved toward the intercom.

"What are you going to do?" Ethan asked.

Giles hit the button on the phone, and a vexed Rowena answered. "Rowena, Giles here. I have to ask you to call in whatever slayers you have out tonight and to call a meeting of the Council heads. I’ll explain when—"

Cut To:Int.Watchers Council – Rowena’s Office – Same Time

"Giles, I’ve already called them in," Rowena said hurriedly. "One of them’s in emergency right now – Connie. She had her throat torn open by the beast. She’s alive, but barely. They’re going to have to airlift her to University Hospital. I’ve just been on the phone with the police and told them to give us

twenty-four hours to track it and kill it before they send anyone in. Giles, I have to go. Let’s meet in the conference room in – one hour." Cut To:Int.Watchers Council Lobby – Same Time

"I’ll be there," Giles answered. He turned to Ethan. "Who would have thought," he said disgustedly to the sorcerer.

Cut To:Ext.Council Grounds – Later That Night

The hunting party was small. Shannon, wearing a borrowed coat that hung well past her hands and knees, and Ethan were in the lead. "You can’t let them hurt him," she said quietly. "He’s not as bad as he was before. I can talk to him and he listens and he doesn’t attack me. I can train him for you. I know I can. They don’t have to kill him..."

Giles walked not two paces behind them, grim-faced as he listened to the girl’s pleas to the sorcerer.

"Remember what we spoke about?" Ethan asked her quietly. "That sometimes a resurrection doesn’t work out right?"

"Yes."

"Well, I lied to you. It practically never does."

Giles, surprised, listened more intently.

"But he’s just scared," Shannon said. "He’s not evil."

"Oh, it’s nothing to do with good or evil. Nor with what you or I want."

Shannon drew a sharp breath. "Please, Ethan. Don’t let them hurt him."

He looked down at her, into her blue eyes. "Don’t worry," he said. "I won’t. I’ll not let them touch a hair."

A worried look crossed Giles’s face as they walked down the far side of the rise.

Willow, Xander, and Vi followed a few yards behind.

"So," Xander said, "in addition to the lucky charm around its neck, the dog’s got Ethan’s protection spells on him?"

"You got it," Willow said.

"Great. Say, can you put your protections around us?" he indicated himself and Vi.

"Nope." Willow smiled. "Already did."

A small contingent of Black Ops, led by Kennedy and Faith, followed no more than a few steps behind them. Kennedy led the way, as Faith looked sharply about while the Black Ops team chattered behind her.

"...right through the heart. That way, the head’s intact."

"Why do you want the head intact?"

"So I can mount it in my room, dummy..."

"Hey," Faith said, getting their attention. "We’ve already got a girl in the hospital because of this thing. Cut the jokes and look sharp."

Cut to:Ext.Council Grounds – Den in Center of Woods – Moments later

They stood around the empty den as Kennedy fished out the soiled coat from inside. "This yours?" she asked Shannon sternly.

Shannon nodded.

"I thought you said it was hurt and sick," Vi said.

"He is – or he was. I mean, he couldn’t move or breathe very well. I gave him some food. Some chicken..."

They were all staring at her, except for Ethan. He looked in all directions. "It’s the charm," he said. "The desire for wellness. Probably brought about a speedy recovery. Or at least, enough of one so that he could regain his mobility."

"That doesn’t make me happy," Faith said. "All right, fan out. The first sign of him, you blow the whistle if you’re not carrying." She looked at Ethan and

Shannon, the only members of the party besides Willow who didn’t have any firearms.

"I’ll be with them," Giles said.

"You know how to use one of those things?" Kennedy nodded skeptically toward the hunting rifle in Giles’s hands.

"He’s a crack shot," Ethan said absently. "About as good as any of them," he motioned his head toward the Black Ops. Kennedy made a face at him, but he wasn’t paying any attention to her.

"All right," Faith said, "let’s move."

The Black Ops broke up into groups of three: one led by Kennedy and Faith, one by Vi and Xander, and two others led by senior members of the unit. Willow struck out on her own.

Giles, Ethan, and Shannon soon found themselves standing alone near the den. Ethan looked around at the ground and then sat down against a large tree.

"What are you doing?" Shannon asked.

"Waiting."

"He’s not gonna come out. Not with everyone looking for him."

"He will. You’ll see. He’ll come to me."

Giles looked down at him, searchingly.

"Put the gun down, mate."

"I’ll do no such thing. If you can’t manage him magically, you’ll feel damn fortunate that I’ve got—" He cut himself off. "Did you hear that?"

Ethan stood back up. "Rupert?" There was no other sound in the dark woods. "This could take a while," Ethan said and resumed his place at the base of the tree.

Cut To:Ext.Council Grounds – Somewhere in the Woods – Same Time

"There!" the slayer cried as the other pulled her rifle into position. The animal stood, head down low and teeth bared, about twenty feet from them. The slayer took careful aim and fired.

Cut To:Ext.Council Grounds – Den in Center of Woods – Same Time

The sound of the shot cut through the night, and Shannon, huddled against the tree with Ethan, stood up quickly, her face grim. Sounds of yelling and then a whistle pierced the air from the northeast point of the woods. Shannon began to run toward the sounds, but Giles had already moved to her and caught her by the back of the over-large coat.

She turned to him. "You can’t keep me here," she said.

"And you can’t help me with him if you leave," Ethan said from where he sat. "Do you really think there’d be all that caterwauling if they’d killed him?"

In few moments the yelling died down, and several shots were fired from the north. More shrill whistles and more excited voices pierced the cold, night air. Kennedy’s voice crackled on Giles’s radio. "Giles!"

"Yes, go ahead."

"He’s north of your position and heading your way. He’s been fired on twice, just a few minutes ago at close range. But we can’t hit him. He bit and dragged Jenna about thirty yards before he let go. And Karen’s leg’s been chewed pretty bad. I’ve sent them back with a couple of the others."

"It’s the charm or the protection spell," Giles said. "That’s why you can’t hit him. How fast do you think he’s moving?"

"Real fast."

"Ken!" Faith’s voice cut in, "I’m on my way, but you’re closer!"

"Almost there!" Kennedy responded.

Giles could hear the sounds of branches breaking as Kennedy raced through the woods.

Rowena’s voice cut in from the Council. "Giles, get you and your team out of there now!"

Giles looked up. "Too late," he said quietly.

There before them stood the hairy, black beast, its dark eyes wild with rage and pain, its infected ear swollen and deformed, and its black, heavy coat ragged and matted. Saliva drooled in long strands from its mouth, and it rocked back and forth a little as it heaved with the effort of breathing.

Ethan stood slowly. Shannon began to move toward the animal.

It lunged forward as Giles raised his gun.

Ethan put his hand out, and Giles hesitated as the animal stopped in its tracks and snarled viciously at the three. It bounced forward a few feet on stiff legs, snapping and half barking-half wheezing, its hackles up and madness in its eyes.

"It’s okay," Shannon said shakily. Ethan looked down at her, then back at the animal. "It’s okay," she said again, more calmly. "I – I brought you some more food."

The animal held its ground, snarling, but no longer about to charge. Shannon reached into the oversized coat pocket and brought out a Pop Tart, the only thing she could lay her hands on quickly before they came out to the woods.

"Here," she said as she moved forward to offer it to him.

Giles’s eyes grew wide, but Shannon, with practiced moves, took a dainty step forward and laid the Pop Tart on the ground. Then she backed up to stand beside Ethan.

"Giles! Are you there?" Rowena’s voice sounded from the radio. The animal turned and growled deeply at Giles and began to move menacingly in toward him.

"Rupert."

Giles looked to his right at Ethan, but realized the mage was calling the beast, not him. The animal stopped for second or two, then moved toward Giles again.

"Rupert. Stay." Ethan’s voice was calm, almost serene.

"Ro," Kennedy’s voice carried on the intercom and from within the trees nearby. "I’m here with them – oh damn."

Xander and Vi along with their company arrived as Rowena demanded to know what was happening.

"Ro, shut up," Kennedy whispered. "You’re not helping. Just be quiet, okay?" The radio went immediately silent.

The animal backed up, away from the semi-circle of hunters. One of the Black Ops took aim from the side. Shannon opened her mouth to cry out, but Ethan flicked a finger in her direction, and the rifle was knocked from the surprised girl’s hands.

The animal snarled and snapped at the suddenness of it.

"Hold your fire," Kennedy ordered quietly as Faith arrived and walked cautiously over to the group.

The animal continued to back up. Suddenly, Willow appeared just behind it. She raised her hands.

"NO!" Ethan cried and sent a blast of energy over the animal’s head. It hit Willow squarely in the chest and knocked her completely off her feet. She landed hard and flat on her back.

"Will!" Xander yelled and ran to her aid as Shannon began to run to the dog. But Giles grabbed Shannon by the arm, holding her back. The animal charged wildly at her.

"Bring him down!" Faith cried. The Black Ops slayers raised their weapons as Shannon broke free of Giles and ran into the middle of the fray.

The guns fired almost in unison.

Ethan took one step forward, his hand high. The bullets all stopped in mid-air around Shannon and suddenly dropped to the ground, thudding and inert.

But the beast had leapt.

"Ru—" But Shannon’s cry was cut off as the great beast’s teeth sank quickly into her throat.

Ethan motioned sharply with his entire arm, but nothing happened as blood spurted from Shannon’s throat. The animal dragged her down and away from the others.

Ethan tried again to fling energy toward the animal. Again, he failed, his powers drained. Shannon gurgled as the animal pinned her to the ground and began to dance wildly around her, his teeth still clenching her throat.

A look of horror on his face, Ethan charged forward before the others could move and grabbed the animal from behind, grappling with it. Finally, he managed to slip his arm around the animal’s shaggy throat and pulled it back in a chokehold. Slayer hands joined the effort as the Black Ops abandoned their rifles, opting for brute strength against the beast. Ethan took advantage of the help and pried the animal’s mouth open, releasing Shannon. She rolled on the ground, clutching her throat.

"Get her home!" Kennedy shouted, and two of the girls began to lift her up. She punched one of them and elbowed the other hard, then gained her feet.

"Get out! Get out!" Ethan yelled at the Black Ops, and they backed off. He pulled back hard on the animal, and it turned on him savagely, knocking him off his feet and onto his back. He wrestled with it as it bit and squirmed and made its way to the base of Ethan’s throat.

Giles, aiming with great care, began to squeeze the trigger on his rifle, then stopped. The animal had stopped fighting. It seemed to have lapsed into exhaustion. Ethan took it by either side of the head.

Shannon, still holding her throat, rasped "Ruper—"

A sudden crack cut her off. Rupert the Dog went limp in Ethan Rayne’s arms.

"No," Shannon rasped once.

All was still as Ethan lifted himself into a sitting position, the dog cradled in his arms.

Shannon looked at him, unbelievingly.

"Take her home," Faith said softly to Kennedy.

"All right," Kennedy said to the slayers, "let’s go. We’re done." She walked up to Shannon and put a hand on the girl’s shoulder. "C’mon, you’re hurt."

Shannon ignored her and walked to Ethan. He held the dog’s muzzle tightly against his chest. The dog’s slack jaw and tongue hung oddly down, and the matted fur looked dead and straw-like.

Shannon stared at the sorcerer as he rocked the dead dog back and forth in his arms – its neck having been snapped cleanly.

"You said," she choked out, "you said you wouldn’t let anyone hurt him. You said. You promised."

"I said they won’t hurt him. And I’ve kept my promise," Ethan answered quietly, staring vacantly.

Shannon shook her head, stunned.

"C’mon," Kennedy said gently and put her hand on the girl’s shoulder. "Let’s go home. C’mon, little maggot..."

Shannon looked searchingly into the elder slayer’s eyes. Kennedy slipped her arm around Shannon’s shoulder and led her and the rest of the team back to the Council.

"Willow? Answer me!" Rowena’s voice called over.

Faith, Xander, and a slightly woozy Willow, leaning on him for support, watched as Giles knelt down close beside Ethan and the dog. Giles leaned slowly in until his arm rested against Ethan’s. He looked down at the limp dog and said nothing.

"I’m okay," Willow replied. "We’re heading back now."

Ethan, eyes still vacant, said quietly, "Kept my promise. My hands before all others."

Giles looked at him then and put an arm around his shoulders.

Fade Out.

Fade In:Int.Watchers Council – Junior Dormitory – A Few Days Later

Shannon was lying on her stomach across her bed, typing an e-mail on her laptop. There was a bandage around her neck where the dog had bitten her.

Voiceover, Shannon typing: "To: Slayerson@yahoo.com. From: Sheena2@clevelandcouncil.org. Subject: Can’t Wait.

"Hi, Norm! I can’t wait to get down to Atlanta. I don’t know why they’re even letting me come down to visit you after everything that happened, but they are."

She stopped and touched the bandage around her neck, then continued typing.

Voiceover, Shannon typing: "Dawn found my grandfather’s lucky poker chip. Robin said she looked for it every day all this week out on her hands and knees. She finally found it under the leaves and stuff where Ethan killed Rupert. If I ever see Ethan again, I’ll kill him. But not before he does the job I asked him to. Anyway, Robin says I should thank Dawn, watcher or not, for finding my grandfather’s chip. So, I guess I’ll go and do that tonight. Talk to you later."

Shannon clicked Send and waited a moment. Satisfied the e-mail had gone, she closed her laptop and got up off the bed. As she turned to leave the dorm room, Lorinda and a few of the other slayers came in. Some of the girls cast nervous glances at one another when they saw Shannon. One of them shyly called out, "Hey, Shannon." She merely stared at them as though they were of no more importance to her than insects.

"What are you looking at, dog-girl?" Lorinda smiled, meanly.

Shannon took a step forward, calmly.

"Oh..." Lorinda whined, "please don’t kill my dog. He’s the only friend I have in the world." She laughed, not noticing Shannon continuing to approach, slowly and quietly.

"Hey Lorinda, let it go, ‘kay?" one of the girls said, almost inaudibly. A couple of the girls stared at her, then looked back at Lorinda.

Lorinda spun on the girl. "You a dog-girl, too?" she demanded. She grabbed the girl’s book and held it up. "Wanna play fetch?" She brought her arm back in order to throw the book. Just as she was about to bring her arm forward, someone’s hand grasped her wrist. Lorinda turned and found herself staring straight into Shannon’s eyes.

Shannon’s face was calm, her steady gaze unemotional. Lorinda blinked in surprise; there was no fear in Shannon’s eyes. Shannon took the book out of Lorinda’s hand and gave it back to the quiet little slayer who had stood up for her. The girl came forward and took her book back, but instead of returning to the group, she stood beside Shannon. Shannon, her other hand still around Lorinda’s wrist, continued to stare at the bully.

Then Shannon said quietly, "You’re going to be late for class, ‘Rindy.’ Better get going." A couple of the girls snickered and echoed, "Rindy!" but quieted as Shannon turned her gaze on them.

Another of the slayers stepped forward. "Hey, Shannon – um, I’m sorry about what happened to your dog – I mean, Ethan’s dog – or – anyway... sorry."

"Yeah, me too," said another and another and another, as Lorinda looked on in disbelief.

"Well I’m not!" Lorinda spat. "He got what he deserved." She stared back hatefully at Shannon.

Shannon looked blandly at her. "And someday, so will you," Shannon said and smiled very faintly as though she’d already seen it happen. "Thanks, guys," Shannon said to the slayers who now rallied around her.

"You going to class?" one of the girls asked.

"Yeah," Shannon replied.

"Well, come on with us, we’re on our way, too."

Shannon nodded and went to pick up her books and laptop from her bed. Lorinda began to move toward Shannon, her hand balled in a fist, and suddenly found herself tripping over one of the other slayer’s feet. She fell to the ground hard, the wind knocked out of her, as the slayer who tripped her said, "Oops."

The other girls laughed at Lorinda as Shannon approached again. Lorinda felt herself being pulled up by someone. She stood, facing Shannon again, and pulled her arm out of Shannon’s grasp.

"You oughta watch your step, Rindy, " one of the girls mocked.

Shannon sighed. "She’s okay," she said quietly, and the girls’ laughter quickly faded. "You coming to class?" she asked Lorinda, inviting her.

Lorinda looked around angrily at all the girls. Some were smirking at her. A couple looked at her in disgust. One or two even seemed sorry for her. Lorinda’s face turned beet red, and she pushed her way through the group and out the door. It swung hard and bounced against the wall.

"Don’t mind her, Shannie," one of the slayers said. "Hey, did anybody do that essay for Monahan’s class yet..."

Shannon left the dorm with the others as they chattered about the pressing issues of the school day.

Cut To:

Int.Giles and Becca’s House – Elizabeth’s Room – A Few Days Later

The baby was quiet and looking up at the ceiling as the dancing lights sparkled and glowed all about her in the room. Long strands of color, like wisps of smoke – blue, green, red, and violet – undulated in and out of her crib. She made delighted sounds at them.

"If you go out in the woods today," Ethan sang to her, unsmiling and slowly and barely above a whisper. "You’d better not go alone. It’s lovely out in the woods today, but safer to stay at home..."

The baby drooled at him from her crib.

"Oh!" Becca said from the doorway. "What on earth...?" Her voice trailed off as she watched the rainbow lights shifting and glowing and radiating throughout her daughter’s nursery like an aurora borealis.

The corners of Ethan’s mouth curled just a little, a shade of a smile. "It’s something I used to do for Ripper. It used to cheer him up. And calm him down. Most times, made him randy as hell." He smiled slightly.

"Then you’ll have to teach it to me," she said, smiling gently back at him. Ethan said nothing but waved his hand. The colored lights dimmed slowly and went out. "Giles is in the living room," Becca told him, "waiting for you."

"Right."

Cut To:Int.Giles and Becca’s House – Living Room – A Few Days Later

Ethan walked quietly into the living room, where Giles was sitting on the couch. Two glasses of scotch were set out on the coffee table. Ethan sat down and ignored the drinks.

"You’re leaving soon."

"Today."

"You don’t have to go, you know?"

Ethan looked over at Giles and smiled sadly.

"Yes. Yes I do," he said. "For a while. Until you get too comfortable without me," his voice faded along with his smile.

"Ethan, you did what you had to. He had her by the throat, he’d have killed her."

"Yes," Ethan agreed and went silent.

"Have you spoken to Shannon at all?" Giles asked.

Becca came out of the nursery and stood in the doorway, unnoticed by the two men.

"She isn’t listening to anything I have to say. She threatened to kill me. Said we’d see if magic trumps slayer’s strength one day."

"She’s just a child, Ethan. She’ll realize soon enough that you saved her life and that you had to kill the dog."

"Ripper..." Ethan looked at him, surprised and amused, even through his sadness. "Are you actually defending me?"

Giles smiled and bowed his head. "It’s a dirty job," he said, looking back up at Ethan. "But one of us has to do it. And since you won’t... Besides, hating you has become rather tedious. Shannon’s got more energy for that than I do these days."

"You know, Ripper, she doesn’t hate me because I killed Rupert. She hates me because I deceived her. Not once, but twice. First I charmed her poker chip. And then I told her I wouldn’t let anyone touch the dog. I took away what little faith she had in—"

"You took away her delusion that luck would see her through her life. And you brought the animal peace with mercy that could only have come from you."

"Is that what you tell yourself about Randall?"

Giles caught his breath.

Becca watched intently from the doorway. She was about to move forward when Ethan spoke again.

"Would you like to know how I got the markings on my back?" Ethan asked suddenly.

Giles nodded and waited silently for Ethan to continue.

"In Vor," he began slowly, "they – they made me relive my life. All of it. Then, they told me I could change it all – every last minute of it – for a price, if I wanted. I agreed. So they sent me back to relive it again." He trembled a little.

"And I did change it, Ripper. I changed everything – I left home sooner, found you earlier on, stopped us both from doing some of the awful, hurtful things we did."

"And Eyghon...never happened. Never. Randall was still alive, and Diedre and Philip and Charles. And you and I, we never parted. And you had your Slayer, and I had the Little Red Witch, and we were a team like no other. And there was Rupert, too, when that Christmas came round, and I made sure that I found him once again. He was alive and whole, and he never met the Fire Eater."

"I’m not certain I understand," Giles said.

Ethan swallowed hard, and his mouth worked a little before he spoke again. "And then they asked me to do the thing they wanted in return. I did it, according to our agreement. As soon as I’d finished, they showed me that everything had been a lie." He shuddered. "They lied to get what they wanted from me. I hadn’t changed anything about my life at all. And they made me relive it as it truly happened all over again. That’s when the marks started appearing – one by one, after each of the things I’d done that I was sorry for and that I – " Ethan’s voice broke, "would never be able to change."

Giles peered at him, but Ethan was looking straight ahead.

"You know...when I pulled Rupert off of Shannon," he said hoarsely, "when he was on me and about to rip my throat open, he breathed in and – I think he caught the scent of me, fully."

Giles saw Ethan's eyes fill with tears.

"And I – I think he remembered who I was, suddenly, because he – he stopped fighting. I felt him relax as though – before I – snapped his – " Ethan broke off and shuddered as tears began to run down his face. "I think he – knew who I was," he said, allowing sobs to shake him.

"I think you’re right, Ethan. I think he knew that you’d make all the pain disappear. I think he knew you’d make everything all right again."

"It was my one chance to set something right..." Ethan’s breath escaped on silent sobs, and his shoulders shook. He opened his mouth a couple of times, struggling for words. Finally he said in a worn and weary tone, "I’m sorry,

Ripper. I’m sorry for all of it. All of it..."

"I’m sorry, too, mate," Giles said raggedly, tears forming in his own eyes.

Becca watched as Giles brought his arm up and slung it around Ethan’s neck. Then he brought his other hand up and clasped Ethan’s shoulder. They sat for some minutes that way as Ethan fought to gain his composure.

Finally, Ethan said, "Bloody hell" and laughed ruefully through his sobs as he stood up. "Why do I suddenly feel like I’m seventeen sodding years old again?"

Giles smiled at him gently. "I think because that was the last time you cried in my arms," he said, pulling Ethan in against his shoulder and resting his forehead against his friend’s.

Cut To:Int.Watchers Council – Dining Hall – Mid-Morning

Dawn sat blowing her nose into a napkin. Her head cold was no better than it had been since the day before when she finally found Shannon’s lucky poker chip in the woods. She blinked her itchy eyes as one of the junior slayers walked past her table. "Lorinda?"

"What? I have a pass!" Lorinda said, holding up the wooden pass from study hall. Dawn nodded, too miserable to inquire further.

Lorinda sat heavily down and leafed angrily through one of her textbooks. A few other slayers – all seniors – sat at various tables around the cafeteria studying quietly.

Lorinda looked at them all in turn and then noticed that Ethan Rayne had come in and was joining Dawn at her table. She squinted at them, heard Shannon’s name, and saw Ethan hold an envelope out to Dawn.

He said something else to Dawn, who nodded seriously as he put the envelope on the table in front of her. Then he quietly left. A fit of coughing seized Dawn, and she got up and shuffled miserably into the serving area, leaving the envelope unattended.

Lorinda looked quickly around and saw her chance. She too walked toward the serving area. But as she reached Dawn’s table, she let her pencil fall to the floor. She bent down to pick it up, and as she did, she put her hand on the envelope and slipped it from the table.

When Dawn returned from the serving area with a steamy cup of tea with honey, she found the envelope right where she had left it. She picked it up and looked at it as she sipped her tea. Shannon’s name was written on it in Ethan’s neat script, and the flap had not been sealed. She opened the flap, about to look inside to see what Ethan had left Shannon, but then closed it up.

Cut To:Int.Watchers Council – Girls’ Bathroom at Dining Hall – Continuous

Lorinda scoped out the girls’ bathroom. No one was there, even though a cloud of cigarette smoke hung in the air. She entered one of the stalls, closed the door, and reached into her pocket for the thing she had taken from the envelope Ethan left for Shannon. It was a baseball card encased in a protective plastic cover. She looked at the picture and the name: Mickey Mantle.

She removed the plastic cover and tossed it on the bathroom floor. Then, reaching into her pocket, Lorinda pulled out a cigarette lighter. She hesitated for a moment, thinking.

Then she held the card above the toilet, clicked her cigarette lighter, and slowly lowered the card to the flame. She watched, unsmiling, as Mickey Mantle blackened and burned and turned to ash before her. One pristine corner of the card was all that remained, and that she dropped into the toilet, watching it swirl and spiral downward as it was flushed away.

Cut To:Int.Dawn’s Apartment – Living Room – That Night

Dawn sat on her couch, bundled in pajamas and a bathrobe. She sneezed at the T.V. set and blew her red nose in yet another tissue. A knock came at the door. She got up and shuffled over, in fluffy pink slippers, to answer it.

"Hey."

"Oh. Shannon."

"Can I – are you busy? I can come back later if you don’t feel well..."

"No," Dawn said, disinterestedly. "Come in. I have something for you."

Shannon followed her in. "But, Robin brought my grandfather’s poker chip to me and – I – I just wanted to – to say – "

Dawn waited, but Shannon said nothing more. She looked at the girl.

"I – uh, thank you. For finding it."

"You’re welcome."

There was a momentary silence.

"Here," Dawn said, and she walked to the coffee table. She picked up the envelope Ethan had given her in the cafeteria. "Ethan asked me – " She stopped when she saw Shannon’s face grow dark. "He asked me to give this to you. He said it was important for you to have it."

Shannon looked away at first as though she wouldn’t take the envelope. Then she raised her hand and took it. She didn’t open it. "Guess I’ll go," she said quietly.

Dawn watched her as she began to leave the room. Suddenly, Shannon turned and asked, "Hey – uh, do you, like – have any of that anchovy pizza left?"

Dawn’s eyes opened wide. "No..." she said. "Gross if I did."

"Oh. Okay, well, I guess I’d better—"

"But we can order one," Dawn said uncertainly. Shannon did not look at her. "They deliver if we get a large," she continued.

Shannon looked away.

"But," Dawn said offhandedly, "if you have to be somewhere..."

"No. I mean. Okay. So...can we like, get some Coke, too?"

Dawn smiled and nodded. As she got the phone book and called the pizza place, Shannon sat off to the side and opened the envelope. While she placed the pizza order, Dawn saw Shannon reading the note Ethan had left in the envelope.

Shannon sat, re-reading the note, when Dawn finally hung up the phone. "Okay," Dawn said, "I ordered a large with extra ’chovies and cheese. Think you can handle it?"

Shannon blinked and gave Dawn a strange look. Then she answered, quietly, "I’m a slayer. I can handle – any – "

Suddenly, Shannon’s eyes filled with tears, and her mouth curved down.

Before Dawn knew it, Shannon was sitting, with the note crunched up in her fist, sobbing inconsolably. Dawn walked to the girl easily and knelt down in front of her. She put her arms around Shannon and laid her head next to the slayer’s. She stroked Shannon’s hair gently. "It’s all right," she crooned. "It’s all right now..."

Cut To:Int.Giles and Becca’s House – Living Room – Later That Night

"Dawn, what a surprise. And at this hour..." Giles said as he opened the door wider. Becca came up behind him, yawning, and looked out the door at Dawn.

"Yeah, sorry about that," she said taking off her coat, "but I need to talk to you about Shannon and Ethan."

"Dear lord, is Shannon all right?"

"She’s fine. She’s in my apartment, sound asleep."

"She is?" Becca said, surprised.

"Yeah, she came to see me tonight. She – she got a little upset. She was crying. This whole thing with Ethan and the dog."

"She came to you?" Giles asked.

"Yes."

"And cried right in front of you?"

"Yeah, but I – "

"But that’s wonderful!" Giles grinned at her. "That is, it’s a good start, it shows she’s accepting you."

"Well, that’s not what’s bothering me. It’s – Ethan left this for her." She handed Giles the envelope with Shannon’s name on it.

Giles frowned.

"And I gave it to her tonight. She read it and started crying and asked me if this was all Ethan left, and I told her yes. Then she said that he lied about ‘Mickey’ – whoever that is – and had a good laugh at her expense. She’s really upset, says she’ll kill him if he ever comes back."

"I doubt very seriously she would ever carry out such a threat," Giles said. "And who in heaven’s name is Mickey?"

"Maybe it was her name for Rupert? Anyway, I couldn’t get anything else out of her. But she’s completely wiped, and I’m worried about her. So I took that when she fell asleep, and I don’t want her to have it back. I’ll tell her I threw it out with the empty pizza box. Why have a bad reminder hanging around?"

"Yes. I see your point," Giles said as he took looked down at the envelope. "I’ll keep it in confidence. It may be of importance in the future."

"You know, I knew Ethan was a – jerk. But this just kinda takes the cake. You know?"

Giles frowned and nodded silently.

"Well, sorry to bother you so late. I gotta go. Gotta get back – to my slayer." She smiled as she slipped her coat back on. 

Giles smiled back at her and bid her goodnight.

"What did Ethan leave for Shannon?" Becca asked, coming up alongside him as he read the note. He looked sadly at her, pulled her to him, and kissed her head as she quietly read:

Bide the Wiccan Law ye must,

In perfect love and perfect trust.

Eight words the Wiccan Rede fulfill:

An’ ye harm none, do what ye will.

 

What ye send forth comes back to thee,

So ever mind the law of three.

Follow this with mind and heart;

Merry ye meet and merry ye part.

 

Fade Out.

End of Rule of Three