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Date Posted: 13:15:46 04/06/03 Sun
Author: Kashmanik
Subject: Here's the episode:
In reply to:
Kashmanik - email it to me ASAP
's message, "CRUMPTET, I STILL DONT HAVE YOUR EPISODE. DUE TO BE POSTED TODAY." on 12:54:07 04/06/03 Sun
Episode 8.06 - The Lonely One
By crumpet, crumpet@thejunkbox.com
The camera opens on a dark alleyway; it's been raining, and the screen gives the time as 1518 - Arévalo, Spain. Suddenly, a man runs out of a narrow passage gasping and clutching his neck, and hurries towards the cobblestone street beyond, murmuring and crossing himself. The sounds of a fight can be heard as the camera pans down.
In a tight passage between two buildings, the girl we've known as Raven is fighting a ragged-looking vampire. She punches and kicks and dodges his blows with ease despite layers of heavy skirts. Her long black hair is tied back in a low ponytail; she's dressed well but not elaborately. The vampire is clearly not much of a challenge for her; she looks bored and annoyed, and after blocking one last punch she swiftly throws the vamp against a wall and stakes him neatly through the heart. As the vamp dusts, we discover a well-dressed man in his late 30's leaning against the wall beside her.
Brushing himself off with a clear look of distaste, the man turns to the Slayer.
(In Spanish, with subtitles…)
Watcher: As I was saying, Isabella….
Isabella: It has nothing to do with me, Don Benito. Political maneuvering is your job; killing the demons is mine. I don't care what the Inquisition is doing here as long as they stay out of my way.
Isabella smiles at Benito in apology and adjusts his lacy collar, teasing him about how much he likes getting dressed up for fancy parties with the Jesuits but that he doesn't need to be so formal with her. Benito still looks serious, and walks out into the alley with a hand under her arm, trying to make her listen to his arguments.
As they approach the street, a gang of 7 vampires steps around the corner to block their path. Several of the vampires are carrying large clubs or swords, and they lunge at Isabella as she begins to attack. The fight is chaotic; 4 vampires try to surround the slayer and gain the upper hand. She fights them off with wide roundhouse kicks and tosses one vamp into another. On the other side of the alley, Benito is using his walking stick with surprising skill to fend off the two vamps attacking him. He is quick and unafraid, parrying and lunging, but as he moves to stake the vampire in front of him, a third vamp throws a sack over his head from behind. Benito struggles, but can't overpower the three vampires shoving him towards the street. As Isabella dusts the last vamp next to her, she turns to see a black coach disappearing into the darkness; she's alone in the alley as the rain begins to pour.
[Opening Credits]
Giles is pacing in Buffy's living room, flipping through an old volume and staring at the ceiling in distraction. Buffy, Xander, Willow, Dawn and Anya are propped around the room looking equally frustrated, glaring at the stacks of books in front of them.
Giles: I don't know what to tell you Buffy. The Watcher's Diaries are usually very thorough, but they are not immune to the upheavals of the world. The Inquisition accounts for a number of omissions and discrepancies in the Council's records, it was bloody — inconvenient!
Buffy: So what's the deal? I thought the Church would be all down with vampire slaying. You know, killing the demons, ridding the world of evil, all that good holy….stuff.
Giles: It's not that simple. The Church in the middle ages was about money and power more than anything else; the Watcher's Council was seen as a threat, not an ally.
Giles continues to explain the intricacies of European politics in the 16th century and the Watcher's Council's need for secrecy. Anya makes a snarky comment about how girls back then were always falling for the lame "I'm in a secret society" pickup line, and that she cursed her share of Templars and Holy Roman whatchamajiggies. Dawn gets excited at the mention of secret societies, and says that she thought the Watcher's Council was more like the UN or something, not a secret club. Giles tells her that in the Middle Ages there were lots of secret societies all over Europe, each with it's own religious or political agenda; the Watcher's Council simply adopted a suitably clever Latin nickname and tried to blend in with the rest of the secret society crowd.
Giles: The costumes were quite amusing, really….
With a serious look, Giles sets his book down on the table. He tells the gang that he's remembered something that might be useful from a text at the Magic Box, and hurries out to do more research. Buffy sighs and gets up from the couch, saying that she needs to patrol.
Out in the cemetery, the camera pans down as Buffy checks for fresh graves and peers around for something to fight. It's unusually quiet, and Spike startles her when he pops out from behind a large monument.
Spike: No sign of our renegade vampire slayer tonight, then?
Buffy: Nope. I think Faith's skipped town for a couple of days…
Spike raises his eyebrows, and Buffy looks embarrassed as she realizes he wasn't talking about Faith.
Spike: Nice to see that you two have worked out your differences…
Buffy changes the subject by telling Spike that Giles has had them all in full-on research mode for the last few days, trying to find out everything they can about Raven. Buffy says they've only found a few details, nothing really helpful - she was called at the age of 16, she was active as a Slayer for at least a year in the early 1500's, she and her Watcher worked in a number of cities in Spain and maintained multiple identities (Spike: "Smart"), then they both disappeared.
Buffy: There's only one mention of the fact that she was sired — in, like, a footnote somewhere. Otherwise we'd have no idea who she was. It took them years to figure out what happened because her Watcher completely vanished.
Cut to the door of the Magic Box, where Giles is coming out with several old books under his arm. Raven moves out of the shadows and addresses him with a cold smile.
Raven: Mr. Giles. So nice to make your acquaintance…..
COMMERCIAL BREAK. Buy more stuff!
The camera opens to reveal a large underground sanctuary lit by torches and candles. There are no seats, but at one end a large altar holds various herbs, bowls and other tools for majick. From the unseen recesses of the sanctuary comes low, melodic chanting.
In front of the altar, Benito is standing with his hands bound behind his back. He looks a little bruised and shaken, but he is not seriously hurt nor is he afraid. In front of him are three Inquisitors in elaborate robes and ritualistic masks; the one in the middle wears dark crimson and is obviously the most powerful of the three.
(In Spanish, with subtitles)
Cardinal: Don Benito. I'm so sorry to have brought you here this way. Normally I prefer to make my guests as comfortable as possible…(he punches Benito in the stomach hard)…but tonight is somewhat special.
Benito (with effort): I am always happy to oblige you, your holiness. Though I must say, I never thought red was your best color.
Benito's unwelcome fashion critique earns him a powerful kick from one of the priests.
Cardinal: You are, I'm sure, quite surprised by all of this.
Benito: Not in the least. My witty conversation and brilliant anecdotes are always in demand by the best society. You do me a great honor.
Cardinal (casually): I wouldn't be so flippant if I were you. Your darling Slayer isn't going to save you this time.
Benito begins to look uneasy.
Cardinal: Oh yes, the Slayer. We know all about her, don't we? The one girl in all the world chosen to stand against the vampires, to fight the forces of darkness. Good versus evil, right over wrong. She is called, she fights, she dies…usually…
Benito's face slowly takes on a look of horror.
Cardinal: But your Slayer is special, isn't she? I'm sure you knew that. My order has spent centuries waiting for her arrival. The prophecies…they are quite specific.
Benito: Your prophecies are blasphemy!
Cardinal (with a surprised look): Ah? So you know of us? I am impressed.
Several vampires in brown robes move out of the shadows and surround Benito.
Cardinal: Immortality is a gift, Don Benito, a gift bestowed upon creatures cast out of God's sight. They are loathsome, damned, unholy…their resurrection is a mockery of our blessed Christ. (He walks around the robed vampires, unafraid) A world of possibility, soaked in vileness…until now.
Benito, struggling: You will not have her!
Cardinal, smiling: Just watch.
Back at the Summers house, the research party has devolved into desperate Googling for a lead. Dawn takes over from an exhausted Willow, and happily announces that she's got it - she's found Raven's Livejournal. She reads an entry that begins with some Tool lyrics and quickly devolves into Anne Rice slash fic, until Willow takes the laptop away from her and shuts the screen down.
Buffy and Spike come back from patrol, looking frustrated. Buffy wants to know what they've found out, and Xander admits that so far, all they've got are pages from a roleplaying manual and pictures of naked goth girls. Anya gives him a dirty look, and Xander stammers, "Just kidding."
Buffy wants to know what Giles brought back, and Willow tells her that he never showed up — they figured he caught up with her on patrol. Everyone looks worried, and Buffy announces, "We find him. Now."
COMMERCIAL BREAK - Windex makes it shine!
Outside the Magic Box, the gang watches as Willow passes Buffy an enchanted golden crystal; it's glowing and floating above Buffy's hand.
Willow: Just follow this. It's attracted to Giles-yness.
Buffy: Are you sure it's not just gonna lead me to a library?
Willow smiles.
Buffy: You guys stay here and try to figure out what Giles was looking for. Spike and I will do search and rescue.
Dawn: Maybe it's no big deal, right? Maybe he just decided to go out…you know, for ice cream or something?
Xander: At midnight. In the middle of doing research. With Miss Molotov USA running around? I don't think so, Dawnie…
Willow: Do you really think its Raven?
Buffy nods, looking serious.
Willow: I don't get it… Buffy. [Scene cuts away as the voiceover continues] Kidnapping Giles…it just seems kinda…
Raven: Boring…blah blah vampires, blah blah Slayer, blah blah Watchers Council most glorious and on high…….you guys even make the exciting parts sound dull.
The camera moves past a wall to reveal Giles in a chair by a small kitchen table. His wrists are bound behind him and he's beginning to regain consciousness. The apartment is small but cozy, and obviously not a vampire's lair. There are some old maps on the walls and a great number of books on unmatched shelves. Raven has her feet propped up on the table, which is covered with the files and papers Giles retrieved from the Magic Box. She's flipping through several aged pieces of parchment, annoyed.
Giles (ignoring her comment): I don't suppose you have a pot of tea or a bit of brandy. Lovely headache you've given me.
Raven (happily distracted): I think the professor's taste ran more towards vodka (there's a shot of the dead apartment owner in a recliner in the next room); you're out of luck.
Giles: It would seem.
Raven: Yeah, well, don't get too sad about it. (Moving around close to Giles, threatening). Your luck's about to get a whole lot worse.
Cut to Spike and Buffy, approaching an old stucco apartment complex. Willow's crystal suddenly goes dark and Buffy wonders what that means. As they walk into the courtyard, three of Raven's henchvamps attack from the darkness.
Buffy: Oh great, the welcoming committee.
Spike and Buffy begin taking out the vamps as two more come around the corner. Buffy punches one vamp and kicks another, as Spike grapples with the third vampire before staking him with a wide swing. The fight continues as the camera cuts back to Raven and Giles.
She's obviously been working Giles over. His glasses are gone, and there's a new trail of blood on the side of his face. Raven is still making threats, demanding more information, convinced Giles is holding something back.
Giles (with effort): I already told you…everything you want…is in the files.
Raven: Hardly, Mr. Giles. (Morphing into vamp face.) But if I can't have what I want, I'll settle for what I can get.
A small robed figure enters a cloister through a back gate and carefully makes its way towards an arched breezeway. Grabbing a torch from a bracket, the figure winds through austere hallways and down a long flight of steps. At the bottom of the stairs, chanting can be heard in the distance as Isabella pulls the cowl back from her face and raises her stake.
Slipping around the corner, she enters the sanctuary. At the far end she sees Benito, alone, slumped on the floor against the front of the altar, his hands still bound. She suppresses a small jolt of empathy, and peers through the darkness before moving towards him.
But before she can reach Benito, Isabella is attacked by 5 vampires that emerge from the shadows, dressed in a uniform and armed for battle. As she fights them off, the chanting grows faster and more urgent, but she remains focused on her attackers. She's a good fighter, quick and methodical; after several minutes she finishes the vamps and rushes to Benito's side.
By now the chanting is so loud she must shout to be heard.
(In Spanish, with subtitles)
Isabella: Don Benito! (shaking him) Don Benito! We have to get out of here!
Benito stirs and moans, but doesn't wake. Isabella leans down closer, untying his hands and putting a slender arm under his shoulders for support.
Isabella (determined, but sad): You are not leaving me; I won't have it.
Benito's arm moves unsteadily onto Isabella's shoulder for support, and she pulls him upright with a fierce look of hope. Then Benito's arm tightens around Isabella's throat, and she gasps in surprise as he pulls her backwards. As the camera pulls back, we see Benito in full vamp face, leaning in close to Isabella's ear. "No, my little blackbird…it's you who won't be leaving," he whispers, before plunging his teeth into her neck.
COMMERCIAL BREAK: Moments like these are priceless!
Buffy and Spike are mopping up the last of the hench vamps; Buffy stakes the last one and turns to survey the courtyard. She motions Spike to take the building to the right, as she heads towards the vine-covered archway to the left.
The camera follows Buffy as she climbs several open flights of stairs; she pauses at a landing and listens before climbing further. She slowly makes her way up, until at the end of the third story breezeway Buffy sees light spilling out from under the door. She raises her stake…
…and from the inside of the professor's apartment the door bursts open. The recliner is empty and the apartment is quiet.
Buffy moves further into the apartment; Giles' chair is also empty and the table has been cleared. As she enters the kitchen, a hand suddenly grabs her by the shoulder from behind, and we see Giles, neatly combed and cleaned up, looking at Buffy with an odd expression, until his face relaxes and he is Giles, completely.
Giles: I was just on my way out.
Buffy: Well, glad I got here just in the nick of time.
Buffy and Giles walk up the street in the dark towards Casa Summers as Giles finishes explaining his kidnapping adventure. Buffy assumes Raven wanted to know about their plans, to know if they'd found her weakness yet. Giles explains it was something entirely different.
Giles: She wanted to know about her Watcher, the one who disappeared. It seems he was also her sire…
Buffy looks speechless.
Giles: He was captured and turned by the Alcántara, a military society in service to the Inquisition. Rumors say that the order had a set of mysterious prophesies regarding the purification of the vampire race, but they've been lost for centuries, if they ever existed at all.
Buffy: Her Watcher….so that explains it.
Giles (looking uncomfortable): Yes yes….it explains a great many things. My being alive, for example.
Buffy: So you didn't….
Giles: What? Fight her off? Give in to the torture? Become a vampire myself?
Giles stops on the sidewalk and gives Buffy a serious look. Around them, rain begins to fall.
Giles: Raven is not a normal vampire, Buffy, in any sense. She's stronger, smarter, more skilled and adaptable….but also vulnerable in a very human way. Her Watcher meant a great deal to her; both as a Slayer and a vampire. She let me go, even though I couldn't tell her what happened to him after the night she died. I think deep down, some part of her remains Isabella, the Slayer.
Buffy: All these years….[Scene cuts away to an alley where rain is pouring]…how much could be left?
In the alley, Raven/Isabella leans against an abandoned building, her bloody fists against the wall above her head, crying.
The end.
*****
Love this ep, very well thought out. Only problem I can see is that there is no mention of the discovery in 8x05 that Giles killed Ben. You think we should just leave that for Ep7?
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I think a scene should be added...maybe towards the end -- Faithsguy *looking for continuity*, 16:16:37 04/06/03 Sun
I just think that after three years not playing on the Ben thing wouldnt be cool, maybe just a small scene or something...
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Any chance you could... -- Sgt. Rock, 16:16:54 04/06/03 Sun
Add in what I asked for about Raven kidnapping a couple of people, a white male and an asian female. They could just be unconscious in the apartment where Giles wakes up after being kidnapped but gone by the time Buffy gets there.
It's not 100% necessary to my ep, but it would make it better if this was in there.
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Oh and... -- Sgt. Rock, 16:17:41 04/06/03 Sun
Loved the ep!
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Yeah, this is a good backstory ep. Right up there with FFL and Selfless -- anyas_butt_monkey, 17:56:11 04/06/03 Sun
Crumpet has e-mailed me the episode, I'll add in the bits you guys want me to. But first I have to check with her, make sure it's ok...
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Hey - don't go stealing my thunder! :-) -- Kashmanik, 17:57:16 04/06/03 Sun
I just said I would add those bits - you ain't the bossman now mister! :-)
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Fine, fine....just pointing out crumpet sent it me too :) -- anyas_butt_monkey, 17:59:42 04/06/03 Sun
Oh, and soz I didnt text back, but I was at work....we were really busy, I only got home 20 minutes ago!! And boom, straight online....its like an addiction :)
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Really busy? On a Sunday?! :-) -- Kashmanik, 18:03:01 04/06/03 Sun
Wow, Bournemouthers like their pizza huh? :-)
I've got work tonight *groan* so I'll probably be texting you from sheer boredom. Working with the evil Shrek lookalike I told you about. :-(
If you want ABM, you do the additions, I'll check 'em over when I get back from work, then I'll post it. OK?
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Why don't you take some arsenic? -- anyas_butt_monkey, 18:08:21 04/06/03 Sun
Feed it to the evil Shrek-a-like manager? He'd never suspect you...
Yeh, sure, if you want. I have nothing to do other than avoid doing some mock exams....
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Good plan. :-) -- Kashmanik, 18:11:09 04/06/03 Sun
More satisfying however would be to inform social services of the scam he's pulling off on his ex-wife, and also to contact F.A.C.T. and tell them about how he's making pirate copies of the stuff in the shop. Now *THAT* would be fun. :-)
Mock exams on a weekend? Oh, as a homework-y type thing? I'd do 'em if I were you, but then again, next week is that last one before the Easter holidays. You can keep fobbing them off with excuses for five days can't you? :-)
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Remind me of the scam....I can't remember anything other than it was evil :) -- anyas_butt_monkey, 18:14:32 04/06/03 Sun
Well, we were meant to do the mock exams in our double lesson on Wednesday, but I wasn't in the mood for school on Wednesday, so I went in on thursday and my teacher (he's really cool) said I could do them over the weekend and give them to him on monday :)
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No, it wasn't evil. It was EEEEEEEVIL. :-) -- Kashmanik, 18:18:29 04/06/03 Sun
He's basically going to fake bankruptcy so that he doesn't have to pay support for his 3-year old son, leaving his ex-wife to pick up all the expenses of raising their child. Nasty guy.
Hmm, not sure what to advise for these exams. Would the teacher believe you if you said you forgot to bring them? That way you could do a bit of them tonight, a bit tomorrow night, and take them in on Tuesday. (Not that Kashy has any experience whatsoever of making up excuses.) :-) What subject are they for anyway?
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Biology. Its not too hard, but its just getting round to doing them :( -- anyas_butt_monkey, 18:21:22 04/06/03 Sun
I have this whole big thing where I try to avoid schoolwork as much as possible....don't wanna get a rep for being studious or anything....
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I'm exactly the same. Keep trying to figure out how people can be so motivated! :-) -- Kashmanik, 18:24:28 04/06/03 Sun
I get the work done, just generally not to deadlines... :-)
Anyway, gotta go get ready for work. Seeya!
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Bye! -- anyas_butt_monkey, 18:26:27 04/06/03 Sun
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