Written and Directed by: Joss Whedon

Transcribed by: AleXander Thompson for Psyche's Transcripts

Copyright © 1998 Alexander Thompson

Disclaimer

I do not own the characters in this story, nor do I own any rights to the television show "Buffy the Vampire Slayer". They were created by Joss Whedon and belong to him, Mutant Enemy, Sandollar Television, Kuzui Enterprises, 20th Century Fox Television and the WB Television Network.

This is not a novelization or a script. It is a straightforward and dry transcript of the episode "Becoming," part 1. It also includes descriptions of the settings, action scenes and camera movements where I felt they were needed.

I made every effort to accurately transcribe the dialogue from this episode. If you notice anything that is transcribed incorrectly, please let me know and I will post an update. rev 98.10.09

This episode was originally broadcast on May 12, 1998.

Teaser

In every generation there is a Chosen One. She alone will stand against the vampires, the demons and the forces of darkness. She is the Slayer.

A town square in Galway, Ireland, 1753. The camera looks straight down from above onto the cobblestones. A lone rider on his horse passes underneath, and the camera follows them past a well as Whistler narrates.

Whistler: There's moments in your life that make you, that set the course of who you're gonna be. Sometimes they're little, subtle moments. Sometimes... they're not. I'll show you what I mean.

The horseman continues past a tavern on the far side of the square. The door opens, and a young drunk Angel, at the time still human and known as Liam, and his drunk friend are thrown out.

Liam: (with an Irish accent) We'll be back when we've found a bit more cash money! Keep the girls warm!

The tavern proprietor slams the door shut, and Angel pounds on it a couple of times.

Liam's friend: (moans) Let's go.

Liam staggers back over to him and puts his arm around him. They begin to walk with a definite sway in their step.

Liam: Come on. We'll sneak in and take some of me father's silver. He'll never miss it. He eats with his hands, the pig.

His friend is too drunk to go on, and faints dead away, falling out of Liam's arm to the pavement. Liam looks down at him.

Liam: Ah. Why don't you rest right here.

He takes a look around and spots a noble lady in a fancy period dress standing in an alley beyond an archway. The woman gives a slight backward glance to be sure she has his attention, and starts to walk further into the alley, disappearing around a corner from Liam's view. He follows her. Cut to the alley. The woman continues her slow pace and looks up when Liam comes through the archway and begins to speak. As she gets closer to the camera it becomes clear that the woman is Darla. Her long curly blonde hair is very nicely coiffed.

Liam: So, I'd ask myself... What's a lady of your station doing alone in an alley with the reputation that this one has?

Darla: (still facing away) Maybe she's lonely.

Liam: In that case, I'd offer myself as escort to protect you from harm and to while away the dull hours.

Darla: You're very gracious.

Liam: Hm. It's often been said.

Darla: (turns to face him) Are you certain you're up to the challenge?

Liam: (approaches her) Milady, you'll find that with the exception of an honest day's work, there's no challenge I'm not prepared to face.

He stops in front of her and looks into her eyes.

Liam: Oh... But you're a pretty thing. Where are you from?

Darla: (smiles) Around. Everywhere.

Liam: I never been anywhere myself. Always wanted to see the world, but...

Darla: I could show you. (smiles)

Liam: Could you, then?

Darla: Things you've never seen, never even heard of.

Liam: Sounds exciting.

Darla: It is. And frightening.

Liam: I'm not afraid. Show me. Show me your world.

Darla: (closes her eyes) Close your eyes.

Liam follows her example. The camera follows her hand as she puts it on his shoulder, and continues up to show her face vamped out. She smiles, lets out a low growl and opens wide as she leans in to bite him. When he feels the pain his eyes open wide, and he gasps. He can't keep steady, and sinks to his knees. Darla lets go of her bite, revealing his bloody neck, and stands up straight. She lifts her hand to her chest and draws a sharp fingernail across the skin above her breasts, allowing blood to trickle out. She grabs him by the back of the neck and pulls him in to her bosom so that his lips fall directly onto the cut, forcing him to taste of her blood. He puts his arms around her and drinks. Cut to the cemetery in Sunnydale, 1998. Angelus walks through carefully and quietly while watching Buffy fight a pair of vampires nearby. He sees her kick one and then the other, and then continues on to a better vantage point. One of the vampires rushes Buffy, and she flips him over onto his back.

Buffy: Nice try.

The other one comes at her again with a swing. She ducks it and punches him in the face, in the gut and again in the face. He falls to the ground, dazed. The first one comes at her again with a kick, but she blocks it with her arm, backhand punches him in the face, jabs him in the gut and grabs his arm, twisting it up high and forcing him to his knees in pain. Angelus looks on from behind a tree and smiles. The second vampire gets back up and rushes her. Without letting go of the first one she cleanly jams her stake into the other one's chest, and he crumbles into ashes. Angelus can't help but snicker. Buffy turns her attention back to the one she's holding and punches him in the face, making him roll away.

Buffy: I want you to get a message to Angel for me. Tell him I'm done waiting. I'm taking the fight to him.

Angelus smiles as he listens.

Buffy: You got that? Need me to write it down for you?

The vampire gets up and charges her. She grabs him and pulls him around and down to the ground, and immediately plunges her stake home. He bursts into ashes.

Buffy: Alright, I'll tell him myself.

She gets up and walks over behind a gravestone, where she reaches down to help someone up.

Xander: (moans) I'm good. Don't worry about me. (rubs his neck)

Buffy: You know, you don't have to patrol with me.

Xander: (indicates the pile of ash) I had that guy under control until he resorted to fisticuffs. (cranes his neck) Oh! What is that, um... five vampires in three nights?

Buffy: Yep. But no Angel.

Xander: Are you, uh, really that anxious to come up against him?

Buffy: I want it over with.

Xander: (nods) I hear that.

Buffy: Oh, we better go. (exhales) I haven't even started studying for finals yet. (starts to go)

Xander: (joins her) Oh, yeah, finals! Why didn't you let me die?

Buffy: Ah, look on the bright side. It'll all be over soon.

They leave the cemetery under the watchful eyes of Angelus.

Angelus: Yes, my love. It will.

He smirks and turns to leave the other way.

Opening credits roll. Buffy's theme plays.

Act One

The research lab at the Sunnydale Museum of Natural History. The camera pans across a large rectangular chunk of rock over to a technician. She is carefully cleaning off a section of the rock. She lets a jet of compressed air blow away some dust. A moment later she lets another jet go, and then reaches up with a brush and runs it across the rock. Dr. Doug Perren, one of the museum curators, comes over to check her progress.

Doug: Careful, now. (points) Concentrate in this area. (watches her work a moment) There you go.

The door opens behind him, and he turns to see Giles come in.

Giles: Hello?

Doug: (comes to greet him) Rupert Giles?

Giles: Yes.

Doug: Doug Perren. (shakes his hand) Thanks for coming.

Giles: Oh, not at all. It's... flattered to be asked.

Doug: I spoke with Lou Tabor at the Washington Institute, and he told me we had the best authority on obscure relics right here in Sunnydale.

Giles: Oh... (laughs) He may have, uh, exaggerated a little. (sees the obelisk) Ah, is this the...

Doug: This is our baby. (they approach it) Construction workers dug it up outside of town. Don't have a clue what it is. Any ideas?

Giles: (touches and looks at the rock) A few. None I'd care to share until I can verify. (notices the runes on it) You have, uh, carbon dated it? (inspects the writings)

Doug: The results'll be back in a couple of days. I'll go out on a limb and say old.

Giles: (smirks) Um, yes, it, it certainly... (picks up a jar and a scraper) predates any, uh... settlements we've read about. (points) Um, may, may I?

Doug: Yeah. Sure.

Giles leans in and begins to scrape at the corner of the obelisk, catching the debris in the jar. He digs into an apparent groove. A few scrapes later he stops and taps the scraper clean on the jar.

Giles: I assume you've, uh, you haven't tried to open it.

Doug: Open it?

He leans over to see what Giles has discovered.

Doug: Ah, I'll be damned. I figured it was solid. What do you think is in there?

Giles: (staring intently) I don't know.

Doug: Well... I guess we won't know until we open it up.

Giles: (considers) Yes, but could I ask, um... would you wait? I, uh... I'd like to work on translating the text. It-it-it might give us an indication of... what we'll find inside.

Doug: You don't want to be surprised?

Giles: A-as a rule, no.

Doug: Alright. You're the expert. But I'm pretty damn curious, though.

Giles: (removes his glasses) Yes. Yes, so am I.

Cut to the cafeteria at Sunnydale High. The camera focuses on two fish sticks that Xander is holding, one with a toothpick stuck through the middle. He plays with them like puppets, moving the one with the toothpick around.

Xander: Tell Angel I'm gonna kill him! No, wait. I'm gonna kill you!

He starts to repeatedly stab the toothpick into the other fish stick. The camera pulls back and up to his face.

Xander: Die! Die! Die!

He makes an anguished face and lets the fish stick fall.

Xander: Aah! (makes a thudding noise) (squeals) Mother! (smiles)

Cordelia: Is that it?

Xander: Yeah. That's it. (chuckles) Scene! (grins)

Cut to Willow, Oz and Buffy at the opposite side of the table. Willow is sitting on Oz's lap.

Buffy: That's exactly how it happened.

Oz: Well, I thought it was riveting. Uh, I was a little unclear about some of the themes.

Buffy: The theme is Angel's too much of a coward to take me on face-to-face.

Xander: (still playing with the fish sticks) And the other theme was 'Buy American', but it, uh, got kind of buried.

Willow: (to Buffy) Do you think you're ready to fight Angel?

Buffy: I wish people would stop asking me that. Yes, I'm ready. I'm also willing and able. Just the one test I might actually pass.

Willow: Don't say that! You're gonna pass everything. I will get you through this semester if I have to sweat blood.

Xander: Do you think you're likely to? 'Cause I'd like to be elsewhere.

Willow: It was only metaphor blood.

Oz: I think you'd sweat cute blood.

Willow: (gives Oz a smile) (to Buffy) Sixth period, after my computer class, we'll rock on chemistry.

Buffy: Ready to rock.

Cordelia: Boy, Willow, you've really got the teaching bug: taking over computer class, tutoring...

Willow: (smiles widely) I love it. I really do.

Cordelia: I think it's great to do that before you go out and fail in the real world. That way you're not falling back on something. You're falling... well, forward.

Xander: (rolls his eyes) And almost sixty-five percent of that was actual compliment. Is that a personal best?

Cordelia: Gee, Xander, what are you gonna teach when you fail in life? Advanced loser-being?

Xander: I will teach... (with a French accent) zee Language of Love! (reaches for her)

Cordelia: (fights him off) Don't touch me! You have fish hands!

Snyder comes into the cafeteria behind them.

Xander: Come, let me caress you!

Cordelia: Stop it!

Xander: Let me in!

Cordelia: No! (laughs) Don't!

Snyder: That's enough of that. (to Willow) And you! Are we having a chair shortage?

Willow: I didn't read anything about... Oh. (slides off of Oz's lap and into her chair) I get it.

Snyder: These public displays of affection are not acceptable in my school. This isn't an orgy, people. It's a classroom.

Buffy: Yeah! Where they teach lunch.

Snyder: (glares at her) Just give me a reason to kick you out, Summers. Just give me a reason. (walks off)

Cordelia: How about because you're a tiny, impotent Nazi with a bug up his butt the size of an emu?

Buffy: Sums it up.

Cordelia: Don't you think?

Willow: (smiles) (to Buffy) Do you wanna come by my house tonight and study, too?

Buffy: Maybe. I-I do have to patrol.

Willow: Again? Do you really expect Angel to turn up tonight?

Buffy: No, I don't expect him to. But that's usually when he does.

Cut to an abbey in London, 1860. Cut inside the nave. Monks are chanting. Drusilla walks behind the pews toward the confession booths. Before going in she faces the altar, kneels and crosses herself. She looks up briefly before getting back to her feet and going into one of the booths. As she steps in through the curtain an arm juts out of the adjacent one where the priest waits, and muffled noises and struggling can be heard. The arm gets pulled back in as quickly as it appeared. Cut inside the confessional. Drusilla sits down and pulls the scarf from her head.

Drusilla: Bless me, Father, for I have sinned.

In the next booth Angelus is caught by surprise, and drops the dead priest.

Drusilla: It's been two days since my last confession. (waits for an answer) Father?

Angelus: (goes along with it) That's not very long.

Drusilla: (with a trembling voice) Oh, Father, I'm so afraid.

Angelus: The Lord is very forgiving. Tell me your sins.

Drusilla: I had... (breathes deeply) I've been seeing again, Father. Yesterday, the men were going to work in the mine. I had... (shakes) a terrible fright. (draws a frightened breath) My stomach all (draws another) tied up, and I saw this horrible... crash. (calms a bit) My mummy said to keep my peace, it didn't mean nothing. But this morning... they had a cave-in. Two men died.

Angelus: Go on.

Drusilla: Me mum says... I'm cursed. (exhales) My seeing things is an affront to the Lord, (inhales sharply) that only he's supposed to see anything before it happens. (inhales, sobs) But I don't mean to, Father, I swear! (inhales) I swear! (begins to cry) I try to be pure in his sight. (sobs) I don't want to be an evil thing.

Angelus: Oh, hush, child. The Lord has a plan for all creatures. Even a Devil child like you.

Drusilla: (taken aback) A Devil?

Angelus: Yes! You're a spawn of Satan. All the Hail Marys in the world aren't going to help. The Lord will use you and smite you down. He's like that.

Drusilla: (frightened) What can I do?

Angelus: Fulfill his plan, child. Be evil. Just give in.

Drusilla: No! (sobs) I want to be good. (sobs) I want to be pure.

Angelus: We all do, at first. The world doesn't work that way.

Drusilla: Father... I beg you... Please... Please, help me.

Angelus: Very well. Ten Our Fathers and an Act of Contrition. Does that sound good?

Drusilla: (relieved) Yes. (exhales) Yes, Father. Thank you.

Angelus: The pleasure was mine. And my child... (raises his hand to the lattice between them)

Drusilla: Yes?

Angelus: (stares at her) God is watching you.

Cut to the atrium at Angelus' mansion, 1998. Drusilla comes down the stairs to the garden below. There Spike sits in his wheelchair and reads the newspaper.

Spike: Nice walk, pet?

Drusilla: (holds her tummy as though sick) I met an old man. Didn't like him. He got stuck in my teeth. (licks her fingers) (faces Spike) But then the Moon started whispering to me... (closes her eyes and leans her head back) All sorts of dreadful things.

Angelus walks into the Garden behind Spike.

Angelus: Well, what did it say?

Spike: Oh. Look who's awake.

Angelus bumps Spike's head with his fist as he walks past him.

Angelus: What did the Moon tell you? (walks around Dru) Did you have a vision? Is something coming?

Drusilla: Oh, yeah. (whispers) Something terrible. Psst, psst, psst, psst, psst, psst...

Angelus: Where?

Drusilla: At the museum. A tomb... (smiles) with a surprise inside.

Angelus: (holds his hand up to her head) You can see all that in your head?

Spike: No, you ninny. She read it in the morning paper. (hands over the paper)

Angelus: (takes the paper and looks) Oh, my.

The headline of the Sunnydale Press reads 'Mysterious Obelisk Unearthed'. The article's subtitle reads 'Excavators Discover Ancient Artifact'.

Drusilla: That's what's been whispering to me. Sh.

Angelus: Oh, yeah. (to Drusilla) Don't worry, though. Soon it'll stop. (to Spike) Soon it'll scream.

He smiles over at Spike. Drusilla waves her head around open-mouthed and playfully snaps at Angelus' cheek. Cut to the computer science classroom after school. Willow is tutoring Buffy in chemistry. Buffy gives up in frustration and slaps down her pencil.

Buffy: Waah! This doesn't make any sense. (pouts at Willow)

Willow: Well, sure it does. See... (takes the paper and looks) Oh, no, this doesn't make any sense.

Buffy: (shrugs) It's senseless. (plays with her pencil)

Willow: (encouragingly) It is, but at least you know that, so you're learning. (looks at the problem more closely)

Buffy: Yay me. Well, it doesn't matter anyway. I mean, when in the real world am I ever gonna need chemistry or history or math or the English language?

Willow: (shoots Buffy a glance) Okay. I see your problem.

Buffy: I'm a moron?

Willow: (gives Buffy a look) Will you stop that? You're not stupid! You've just had a lot on your mind. You can learn this real easily, but if you're just gonna give up, then don't waste my time.

Buffy: (impressed) Wow. You really *are* a good teacher. (smiles)

Willow: Okay. Look at this. A covalent bond, which means these two atoms are linked by this...

Buffy puts her pencil down on her open book, and it rolls off of the desk and into the space between it and the filing cabinet next to it.

Buffy: Ohh! (moans) Hold that thought.

She reaches down and in with her fingers, and pulls the pencil out. In the process she bumps the disk with the pencil so it now leans against the desk instead of the cabinet.

Buffy: (sits back up) Okay. I'm Learn Girl.

Willow: Okay. (points to the paper) So, see here...

Buffy: (has an epiphany) Deja vu.

Willow: Really?

Buffy: Yeah. I have this perfect memory of the pencil and...

She drops the pencil onto her book again. It rolls off of the desk again, falls and hits the disk. She looks over into the space and sees the disk. She reaches down again for it and her pencil.

Buffy: Oh, hey. (pulls up the disk and pencil) You dropped this.

She hands the unlabeled yellow disk to Willow, who looks at it curiously.

Willow: It's not mine. It might be something of Ms. Calendar's.

She inserts the disk into her laptop's floppy drive.

Buffy: This feels kinda morbid.

Willow: (smiles at Buffy) I've gone through most of her files already.

Buffy: Does that make it *less* morbid or you *really* morbid?

The program on the disk starts up, and the Rumanian text scrolls into the left-hand window.

Willow: (sighs) I had to, to teach her class.

The translation program's percent complete window appears, and the bar begins to zip across the screen.

Buffy: Relax, Will. I was making with the funny.

They both watch as the bar reaches the far side. It disappears, and the English translation scrolls into the right-hand window.

Buffy: (looks closely) Does that say 'restoration'? (keeps reading)

Willow: It's one of her spells, I think. (looks at Buffy) Ms. Calendar wasn't a practicing witch, but she did dabble...

Buffy: (interrupts) Willow... (keeps reading)

Willow looks back at the screen and begins reading more. She quickly realizes what they've found.

Willow: Oh, boy. Oh, boy. Oh, boy.

The camera closes in on Buffy. She has stopped reading, and just looks stunned.

Act Two

The wood in Rumania, 1898. Angelus runs through the trees, panting in his desperation to reach a gypsy camp. Cut to the camp. The camera pans across the dead body of the young Kalderash Gypsy girl that Angelus has recently killed. She is on a table dressed in white and lying on an intricately patterned quilt with candles burning around the perimeter. Members of the clan are laying rose petals on her. The camera continues to pan over to the Elder Woman sitting beneath a tent canopy and chanting over an Orb of Thessela surrounded by candles within a sacred circle. Angelus continues running through the woods as she chants.

Elder Woman: Nici mort, nici de-al fiintei, Te invoc, spirit al trecerii. Reda trupului ce separa omul de animal!

Translation: Neither dead, nor of the living, I invoke you, spirit of the passing. Return to the body what distinguishes Man from the beast!

Angelus breaks through the trees into the clearing of the camp. He trips and falls by the great bonfire raging near the center of the camp.

Elder Woman: Asa sa fie.

Translation: So it shall be.

He gets to his hands and knees and looks over at the Elder Woman, still chanting. Cut to the Elder Woman.

Elder Woman: Utrespur aceastui.

Translation: Restore this one.

The glowing Orb suddenly gets very bright for an instant, and then goes dark. Cut to Angelus. His eyes grow bright for a moment, then return to normal, his soul now restored. An elder man of the clan steps up to him as he sits back on his ankles.

Gypsy Man: It hurts, yes? Good. It will hurt more.

Angel: (confused) Where am I? (pants hard)

Gypsy Man: You don't remember... everything you've done for a hundred years. In a moment, you will. The face of everyone you killed... our daughter's face... they will haunt you, and you will know what true suffering is.

Angel: (still not understanding) Killed? I, I don't...

Slowly the memories come back to him: all the people in Budapest after the earthquake that he and Darla killed for their blood; all the people he's turned into demons; the gypsy girl that proved to be his downfall.

Angel: No...

He looks down away from the man and begins to sob.

Angel: No... No... No...

He bends down to the ground in sorrow and grief. Cut to the library at Sunnydale High School, 1998. Xander and Cordelia are sitting at the table. Giles walks up to Buffy and Willow.

Giles: What are you saying?

Buffy: The curse. (holds out a printout) This is it.

Willow: Looks like Ms. Calendar was trying to replicate the original curse. To restore Angel's soul again.

Giles: (takes the printout, stares at it) She said it couldn't be done.

Buffy: Well, she tried anyway. And it looks like it might have worked.

Xander: So he killed her... before she could tell anyone about it. What a prince, huh? (looks away)

Cordelia: This is good, right? I mean, we can curse him again.

Buffy paces, thinking.

Giles: Um, well, this, um... certainly points the way, but... the ritual itself requires a greater knowledge of the black arts than I, I, I can claim.

Willow: Well, I've been going through her files and, and researching the black arts, for fun, or educational fun, and I may be able to work this.

Giles: (very concerned) W-Willow... channeling... such potent magicks through yourself, it could open a door that you may not be able to close.

Buffy: I don't want you putting yourself in any danger, Will.

Willow: And I don't want danger. Big 'no' to danger, but I may be the best person to do this.

Xander: Hi! For those of you who have just tuned in, (gets up) everyone here is a crazy person. (walks to the end of the table) So this spell might restore Angel's humanity? Well, here's an interesting angle. (harshly) Who cares?

Buffy: I care.

Xander: (not surprised) Is that right.

Giles: Let's not lose our perspective here, Xander.

Willow looks at Xander, disbelieving what she's hearing from him.

Xander: (standing his ground) I'm Perspective Guy. Angel's a killer.

Willow: Xander...

Buffy: It's not that simple.

Xander: (disgusted) What? All is forgiven? I can't believe you people!

Cordelia: (gets up) Xander has a point.

Xander: (to Cordelia, in a raised voice) You know, just for once, I wish you'd support me, and I realize right now that you were, and I'm embarrassed, so I'm gonna get back to the point, (to the others) which is that Angel needs to die.

Giles: Curing Angel seems to have been Jenny's last wish.

Xander: Yeah? Well, Jenny's dead.

Giles: (approaches Xander angrily) Don't you *ever* speak of her in that tone again!

Xander: (yells back) Can't you hear what I'm saying?

They begin to argue heatedly. Buffy rushes over and gets between them.

Buffy: Stop it! Stop it!

They all shut up and glare at each other for a moment. Buffy turns away and goes over to Willow, very upset. Giles paces away, also very upset.

Willow: (quietly) What do you wanna do?

Buffy: (sighs) (quietly) I-I don't know. What happened to Angel wasn't his fault.

Xander: Yeah, but what happened to Ms. Calendar is.

Buffy and Willow stare at him in disbelief.

Xander: (very coldly) You can paint this any way you want. But the way I see it is that you wanna forget all about Ms. Calendar's murder so you can get your boyfriend back.

Buffy refuses to listen to any more of this, and walks out of the library. Willow and Giles just stare at Xander in surprise and shock. He walks back to his chair at the table. Cut to the museum research lab. Dr. Perren is going over his notes when he hears some whispering coming from behind him. He turns around to look, but no one's there.

Doug: Hello?

He gets up and slowly walks over to the obelisk. The whispering gets louder as he nears it. He reaches up to the runes on the face of the rock and touches them. The whispering seems to be coming from inside. He places his hand flat on the face of the rock and stares up at it in amazement. Suddenly Drusilla wraps her hand around his mouth from behind and pulls his head back to expose his neck. She leans in and bites him hard as he struggles to get away. Behind her Angelus and two other vampires approach the obelisk.

Angelus: I'll have one of these to go.

The two vampires walk around the rock with some rope and tools to haul it away.

Angelus: Dru...

She jerks her head up from her victim and turns her eyes toward him, growling and smiling a most evil smile.

Angelus: Save me some.

Cut to Buffy's room at home. She piles a bunch of stakes and crosses into her bag while talking on the phone with Willow.

Buffy: Well, I'll do a couple of sweeps, and then I'll stop by. (listens) Yeah, Xander was pretty much being a... Willow! Where did you learn that word? My God. You kiss your mother with that mouth?

She goes over to her desk while listening to Willow talk some more. She grabs a couple more stakes from the top left drawer.

Buffy: I don't know. I don't know what I wanna do.

At the bottom of the drawer she sees the claddagh ring that Angel gave her, and stares at it sadly for a moment. She reaches in for it and holds it gently with her fingers, remembering.

Buffy: I'll, I'll see you in a little while, okay?

She turns off the phone and sets it down. She holds the ring with both hands again and gazes at the design: two hands for friendship, a crown for loyalty and a heart for love. Cut to the park. Buffy walks through on patrol and heads into some bushes. She stops and jerks her head aside when she hears something snap. Slowly she takes a few more steps to investigate. She hears another sound behind her, and spins around to look. Nothing. Again she takes a couple of steps. Suddenly Kendra comes out of the bushes to stand right behind her. Buffy instantly pivots around with her fist held up, ready to punch. She stays herself when she recognizes the other girl.

Buffy: (exhales) You know, polite people call before they jump out of the bushes and attack you.

Kendra: (in her accent) Just wanted to test your reflexes.

Buffy: How about testing my face-punching? 'Cause I think you'll find it's improved.

Kendra: I was on my way to your house. Saw you walking. Couldn't help meself.

Buffy: (smiles) Which begs the question, and don't think I'm not glad to see you, but, why are you here? (Kendra starts to answer) Oh, wait. No, let me guess. Your watcher informed you (imitating her accent) dat a very dark power is about to rise in Sunnydale.

Kendra: Dat's about it.

Buffy: Great. So, you have any idea what this dark power is?

Cut to the main hall in Angelus' mansion. He and Drusilla walk in across the marble floor to where Spike is sitting in his wheelchair, staring at the obelisk set in front of the huge fireplace.

Spike: (hears them coming) It's a big rock. I can't wait to tell my friends. They don't have a rock this big.

Angelus: Spike, boy, you never did learn your history.

Spike: Let's have a lesson, then.

Angelus: Acathla the demon came forth to swallow the world. (strolls to the obelisk) He was killed by a virtuous knight who pierced the demon's heart before he could draw a breath to perform the act. Acathla turned to stone, as demons sometimes do, and was buried (turns to face Spike) where neither man nor demon would want to look. (starts away from the obelisk) Unless of course they're putting up low-rent housing. Boys...

The two vampires reach up with crowbars and pry open the tomb. The lid crashes to the floor, stirring up plenty of dust. Inside is a tall, horned, stockily built stone demon with a sword protruding from the right side of its chest. Upon seeing him Drusilla closes her eyes, raises her hands to the sides of her head and begins to sway it back and forth.

Drusilla: He fills my head. I can't hear anything else.

Spike: Let me guess. Someone pulls out the sword...

Angelus: Someone worthy...

Spike: Mm. The demon wakes up, and wackiness ensues.

Drusilla: (opens her eyes, lowers her arms) He will swallow the world.

Angelus: And every creature living on this planet will go to Hell.

He walks up to Acathla for a closer look, and turns to face the others.

Angelus: My friends... we're about to make history... end. (smiles evilly)

Part Two