PART 15

Scene:
Sunnydale, CA. Buffy and Xander are patrolling the park.

Xander: Nothing better than being back in the world of slaying. 

Buffy: I have to admit it was nice break though. At least it was until.. 

Xander: (sadly) Yeah… You saved who you could, Buffy. 

Buffy: I should have been able to save them all. 

(A figure steps out of the shadows and Buffy spins around ready to fight. Her mouth is agape at who she sees.) 

Buffy: You! We killed you! 

???: Did you? Screw-ups happen. 

Buffy: I’ll stop you.

???: No. You won’t. I am going to break you like a porcelain doll. 

(Buffy approaches the figure and stops as she hears a scream. She turns around to see Xander writhing in pain. A spear is impaled in is chest.) 

Xander: Buffy… 

(Buffy runs toward Xander and as she reaches him his body turns to ash. She screams and everything goes dark.) 

Buffy: (wakes up in her own bed) XANDER!!!!! 

(Looking around, the slayer realizes she in her room at the mansion. She’s breathing heavily realizing that wasn’t just a nightmare.) 

Buffy: Oh god. 

______________  

Scene:

The next day. The living room. Jubilee is staring at the tv, her knees pulled up to her chest.  Xander comes in to the room. 

Xander: (offers her a Twinkie from the box he’s holding) You need this. 

Jubilee: (warily) It won’t help. 

Xander: Maybe not. You want to talk? 

Jubilee: To you?? 

Xander: I didn’t think I was that bad. 

Jubilee: You aren’t. I just.. I know Drake. He’s one of my best friends..  We’ve pulled the greatest stunts together. I want to help him, but I’m useless. I’m always so.. useless… 

Xander: You think I’m useful? Buffy only keeps me around because she knows I’d never go away. At least you have powers. 

Jubilee: I’m a just a firecracker. 

Xander: A firecracker that can blow up buildings in Madripor. 

Jubilee: (Perks up a bit) You know about that?

Xander: Hey.. I read my X titles. Although I’ve always liked Spider-Man more. 

Jubilee: Do you think Cat did it to him? 

Xander: No. I don’t think so. Do you? 

Jubilee: Not so much.. I was just mad.. I hate seeing him like this.. 

(She lets out a deep sigh and runs off leaving Xander sitting there. Xander sighs and spots Buffy coming in. She’s pale and looks tired.) 

Xander: (Concerned) Buffy? 

Buffy: Xander.. we have a problem. 

(Buffy fills Xander in about the dream.) 

Xander: I died? 

Buffy: Yes. And I couldn’t do anything.. 

Xander: So whoever this bad guy is, they’ve got a grudge.. Anybody we.. er you.. left alive at home? 

Buffy: Master’s dead, Mayor’s dead. Adam’s dead. Pretty much every big shot we’ve fought is dead. 

Xander: And you couldn’t tell who it was? 

Buffy: I couldn’t see anything. Except.. I did see some kind of black armor. 

Xander: Ares has black armor. Maybe he broke out. 

Buffy: We better find out. 

(Buffy and Xander run off to check and Alli steps out of the opposite doorway. She mulls over the new information and goes back to where she came.)

_________   

Scene:

Silia is sitting in the library flipping idly through a book. Buffy and Xander come in and she barely glances up.

Buffy: Sil?

Xander: We need to ask you something. 

Silia: (She looks up from her book) Ask away. 

Buffy: Is Ares still in that orb? 

Silia: Last I checked. Why? 

(Xander and Buffy recap the dream and Silia listens carefully. She nods and calls the orb back to her.) 

Silia: (Shakes the crystal) Ares? Are you still in there you bad little roach? 

(A small figure is pounding on the glass shouting obscenities at Sil. She tosses the orb to Buffy who catches it.) 

Buffy: (Stares in to the ball) He’s still there. That’s good.. but.. 

Xander: But that means an unnamed killer is around. 

Silia: (Goes back to her book) Sometimes a dream is dream.. no matter how real. 

(Buffy sighs and drags Xander out into the hall.) 

Xander: Hey! What’s with the dragging?  We could have asked her to.. 

Buffy: She dismissed us, Xander. She doesn’t care. 

Xander: She’s a superhero though..

Buffy: A hero who’s been acting funny for several days. I don’t like it. 

Xander: Body snatchers maybe? Pod person? Clone? 

Buffy: (Stares at him) Please. As if. 

Xander: You never know. I mean what do we really know about this Earth? 

Buffy: Come on, we have to figure this out. 

_______________ 

Scene:

A special room in Cat’s lab. It looks like a neat little rec room with couches and chairs and god forbid, inflatable furniture and bean bags. Everyone is in there. Except Silia and of course Ares. 

Terry: Why isn’t Silia in here with us? 

Caitlyn: She’s busy talking to Ashley. She’s our distraction. 

Quinn: Why? 

Allison: Because we think she attacked Iceman. 

Buffy: One flaw with that. She was with Stealth there. (Points) Wasn’t she? 

Stealth: Yes she was. 

Buffy: Besides, no one can be in two places at once. 

Allison: With a spell she can be. And don’t forget she’s a telepath. 

Stealth: That takes concentration. I would have noticed that. 

Allison: Add in like few thousand years training in different bodies and personalities. With that much knowledge I’d think it’d be easy enough to fool a soldier. 

Caitlyn: (Turns to Stealth) What happened when you were talking to her? Did she act funny or anything? 

Stealth: How important is this? 

Caitlyn: (Her eyes narrow and she gives him a rare but extremely stern and serious look) Very. Remember the other day at dinner I mentioned something about ‘that time of year’? (Continues as every one nods or mumbles yes type things) Well.. about two years ago.. Silia tried to kill everyone. (She ignores the surprised and shocked looks) Now share. 

Stealth: She came on to me. When I fended her off she created this black fireball and then she vanished. 

Caitlyn: (Her eyes wide) She didn’t follow through on the attack? Thank god. 

Buffy: Why? 

Allison: A black flame from her is like instant death. It’ll turn whatever it touches to ash. She NEVER uses it. Not even on machines or demons. See when she uses it; she like loses a part of her soul or something. 

(Everyone stares in shock) 

Jubilee: We’ve been living with a mega powerful psycho??!! 

Allison: No no.. It’s not like that. It only happened once and it wasn’t her fault. See her magic and her big ole power boost are chaotic in nature. Long story short, her being new to the whole power thing at the time, the chaotic pull just well.. kicked her butt. She managed to fight off the darkness I guess you could say, and everything was cool. 

Caitlyn: Until Alli here brought to my attention she and Jubilee cast a spell. 

Xander: What kind of spell? 

Jubilee: It was Alli’s idea! It was some stupid love spell. 

Xander: (Groans) I hate love spells. 

Allison: (Looks at the ground) It.. wasn’t a love spell. See for what we were doing I assumed the love was there. So I used um.. (thinks) It was something like a hidden nature spell. The hidden side of someone would take control and everything dandy. 

Terry: And it obviously backfired. (Insert sarcasm) Nice job Alli. 

Allison: (Bitchy tone) Shut up you bat clone wannabe. 

Quinn: Who was the spell for? 

Caitlyn: It doesn’t matter. What matters is reversing it. 

Jubilee: Well most of us are superheroes; I say we just take her down. 

Quinn: Jubilee, we can’t really do that. 

Jubilee: Why not? 

Caitlyn: I need her to reverse what she did to Iceman. She probably did it telepathically, and she is the only telepath here. We’re going to need cannon fodder to disable her so we can reverse the spell. 

Stealth: I can try and keep her busy. 

Caitlyn: I don’t know…. I mean.. I could give your armor back.. But she might decide to kill you. 

Stealth: I know what cannon fodder means. 

Buffy: I got it! (She holds up Ares’ orb, which she’s been carrying around) How about him? 

Terry: Oh that’s real smart. Which Silia do you think he’ll like better? The good one or the psycho who wants to kill and destroy? 

Xander: We don’t really have a choice here. I say we take Ares out. He might want pay back for the little trap thing. 

(Everyone argues but slowly agree to it. Buffy shakes the orb a few times as stares at it.) 

Buffy: How do we get him out? 

__________________  

Scene:

Ancient Greece. Ares is looking at the remains of one of his temples. 

Ares: WHO DID THIS?!! 

???: I did. 

(Ares spins around to see Callisto in her old armor) 

Ares: You? How c.. 

Callisto: Easily. You’ve been replaced Ares. The old gods have fallen and I’m the new God of War. 

Ares: You lie! Xena wouldn’t have allowed it. 

Callisto: Xena is dead. Gabrielle killed her. (Grins) It was such a shame really. A little accident. Poor Xena didn’t know what hit her. (Starts cackling) 

(Ares gets ready to attack when another person arrives) 

Hercules: What’s go..Ares? 

Ares: Hello, Brother. 

Hercules: We thought you were dead. 

Ares: You wish. 

Hercules: (Turns to Callisto) Leave. Now. 

Callisto: (Glares but nods) Fine. (Stares at Ares) Another time. 

Ares: Since when does she leave with out putting up a fight? 

Hercules: Since I became King of the Gods. 

Ares: (is caught in a fit of laughter) You?!  (He stops laughing as he sees the serious look on Hercules face.) This.. can’t be right. 

Hercules: I’m afraid it is.

(Hercules claps his hands and three unknown gods appear. They grab Ares and chain him up.) 

Ares: What?? Let go of me! You can’t do this! 

Hercules: My Queen has insisted you be apprehended. I agree. We can’t have you trying to ruin the way things are now. 

Ares: You bastard! You … 

(A woman steps forward and drapes herself onto Hercules. Her hair is a bright shade of blue and cut short and sleek. Her skin is as white as snow and she has a small blue tattoo that looks like 3 curved, upside-down, triangles under her right eye. She’s dressed in a pink sleeveless dress with slits at both sides showing off more leg then needed, matching thigh high boots, and a long black cape/cloak that seems to have a life of its own. ) 

Queen:  My king.. we should strip him of his powers. 

Hercules: (nods his head slowly) He would be less troublesome that way.. 

Ares: Oh come on! You have got to be kidding me! (he waves a hand at the new queen) Who the hell is she? She looks like a freaking colorblind mime! 

Hercules: (his brow crinkles in bewilderment) A what? 

(The Queen glares at Ares and steps forward. She points at him and electricity crackles around her hand. Her eyes narrow in anger and lightning flies from her fingertips. Ares dives and hits the ground. As the Queen tries for another shot, the place begins to shake.) 

Queen: (frantic) No! Not now! Damn! (She wraps her cloak around her and she disappears as she pulls it tight.) 

Ares: (looks around and notices he’s suddenly alone) What in Hades? 

(Another quake starts and there’s a bright flash. Ares closes his eyes to shield himself. He opens them as the light fades and is greeted by the familiar faces of the house.) 

Buffy: Welcome back, Ares. We have a job for you.

Get me away from here before I go insane!