"Previously on "Buffy the Vampire Slayer":" " I'm Faith." " I'd say there's a new slayer in town." " You don't get it." "You killed a man." " No, you don't get it." "I don't care." "She's unstable, Buffy." "You sent your boy to kill me." "He's dust." "I guess that means you have a job opening." "How'd you like to get your hands on the Books of Ascension?" "Have you got the books?" " What's this Ascension mean?" " Mayor Wilkins is over 100." "He's not human." "Nothing can harm me until the Ascension." "We've a rogue slayer on our hands." "That's dangerous." "There's a word for people like you, Faith:" "loser." "No one can stop the Ascension." "Mayor's got it wired, B." "He built this town for demons to feed on and on graduation day he'll be paid." "Stick around." "All right." "You can open them up now." "Fab." "What's the occasion?" "Faith." "As if I need a reason to show you my affection, or appreciation for running a small errand at the airport." "Airport?" "What's next?" "Want me to help a buddy of yours move a sofa?" "This isn't a free ride, young lady." "I'm beginning to think somebody's getting a little spoiled." " Maybe I should take this back." " Sorry." " Sir." " That's my girl." "Another cookie?" "Now, a package is arriving tomorrow night." "Something - and I can't stress this enough - crucially important to my Ascension." "Without it..." "Well, what would Toll House cookies be without the chocolate chips?" "A pretty darn big disappointment, I can tell you." "Open your present." "There." "That look on your face is my reward." " This is a thing of beauty, boss." " Well, it cost a pretty penny." "So, you just take good care of it." "And you be careful not to put somebody's eye out with that thing." "Until I tell you to." "Any particular eyes in mind?" "Sorry, honey." "That's OK." "There's something you don't see every day." " Unless, of course, you're me." " That was bracing." " Wanna do another sweep?" " It's what I live for." "Sad to say." " You too tired?" " No." "It's just..." "D'you get the feeling that we're kind of in a rut?" " A rut?" " You never take me any place new." "What about that fire demon nest in the cave by the beach?" "I thought that was a nice change of pace." "So this is our future?" "This is how we're gonna spend our nights when I'm 50 and you're the same age you are now?" " Let's just get you to 50." " Likin' that plan." "Buffy?" "When were you gonna tell me?" "All right." "Busted." "I didn't think you'd miss them." "You were accepted to Northwestern University?" "Honey, I am so proud of you." "That's wonderful." "Right." "It's wonderful." "I mean, it's not cheap, but I know we can make it work if your father pitches in." "Not that Northwestern is your only option." "It's a great school though." "I am so proud of you." " You said that before." " And will again soon." "Mom, you know that I can't..." "I just can't decide on the school right now." "I mean, I wanna sleep on it, mull it over." "Raise 'em up my inner flagpole." "See which one I salute." "I know, sweetheart." "I'm just so pleased that you have so many choices." "Your Aunt Arlene and her family are in Illinois." "I've got to call and tell them." " Buffy?" " I know." "You're proud of me." "Don't forget to put my earrings back in my dresser before you go out." "Arlene?" "Hi, it's Joyce." "How you doin'?" "You are never gonna believe where Buffy got accepted to school." " Here you go." " Thanks." " OK, what's in the bag?" " My lunch." " Is that the new drug lingo?" " No, it's my lunch." "Sit up straight." " Sounds like your mom's in a state of denial." " More like a continent." " She just has to realise that I can't go away." " Well, maybe not now, but soon." "Maybe." "Or maybe I, too, hail from denial land." "Faith's turn to the dark side of the force put the kibosh on any away plans for me." "UC Sunnydale." "At least I got in." "I can't believe you got into Oxford." " It's pretty exciting." " Get into some deep academia there." " That's where they make Gileses." " I know." "I could learn and have scones." "Although, I don't know how I feel about going to school in a foreign county." ""Everything in life is foreign territory."" "Kerouac." "He's my teacher." " The open road: my school." " Making the open dumpster your cafeteria?" " Go ahead, mock me." " I think she just did." "We bohemian types have always been persecuted." "Well, sure." "You're all so weird." "I think it's neat, you doin' the backpack, trail mix, "Happy Wanderer" thing." "I'm aware it scores high on the hokey meter." "But it'll help me to find myself." "And we'll lose you." "Everyone's a winner." "Well, look who just popped open a fresh can of venom." " Hear about Willow gettin' into Oxnard?" " Oxford." "And MIT and Yale, and every other college on the face of the planet, as in your face, I rub it." "Oxford?" "Whoopee." "Four years in tea-bag central." "Sounds thrilling." "MIT is a Clearasil ad and Yale is a dumping ground for those who didn't get into Harvard." "I got into Harvard." "Know where you're going so we can start calculating minimum safe distance?" " None of your business." "Not near you losers." " Don't forget to breathe between insults." "I'm sorry, Buffy." "This conversation is reserved for those who actually have a future." " An angry young woman." " She was just being Cordelia." "Only more so." " Don't pay any attention." " She's got a chip goin'." " Maybe if you didn't goad her so much." " Can't help it." "It's my nature." "Maybe you need a better nature." " I don't understand." " I can't talk any slower, Wes." "I wanna leave." " What, now?" " No, not now." "After I graduate." "College?" "But you're a slayer." "Yeah." "I'm also a person." "You can't just define me by my slayerness." "That's something-ism." " Buffy, we've talked about you going away..." " I got into Northwestern." " That's wonderful news." "Good for you." " All right, everyone." "Monsters, demons, world in peril?" " I bet they have all that stuff in Illinois." " You cannot leave Sunnydale." "With the power invested in me by the Council, I forbid it." "Oh, yes, that should settle it." "With Faith gone bad and the Ascension coming up..." "I know it's complicated." "I am aware that my graduation may be posthumous." "But what if I stop the Ascension?" "What if I capture Faith?" " I hope you will." " If I do that, then all you have to do is kill the unholy forces through midterms, and I'll be back for homecoming and every school break after that." " At least think about it." " If circumstances were different..." " I'll make them different." " What?" "I'm tired of waiting for the Mayor's move, while we just count down to Ascension Day." " Let's take the fight to him." " No." "No." "Much too reckless." "We're at a disadvantage." "We know nothing about the Mayor's Ascension." "She's right." "Time's running out." "We need to take the offensive." "What's your plan?" "I gotta have a plan?" "Really?" "I can't just be proactive with pep?" "If you want to take the fight to them, the first step is to find out what they're up to." "I actually knew that." "I thought you meant a more specific plan with maps." "Great." "We'll find out what they're up to." " Is he in the car?" " No." "I'll take you to him." "The Mayor was supposed to be here in person with the money." "Well, the price just went up." "I don't like surprises." "Surprise." " You killed him." " You the narrator?" "Get the keys to the cuffs." "Nothin'." "That won't cut through steel." "No." "It'll cut through bone." "There it is." "What happened to the courier?" "I was supposed to pay him." "I made him an offer he couldn't survive." "You are one heck of a girl." "You know that?" "I mean, jeez, the initiative, the skill." " Go on." "Go on." " I will." "You know, if Buffy..." "Hey, hey, hey, hey!" "If Buffy said she wanted to switch to our side," "I'd say "No, thanks, sister." "I got all the slayer one man could ever need."" " What?" " Nothing." "It's cos I used the B word, huh?" "Don't tell me you're still sore about that Angel/Buffy thing." "No, I'm over it." "She can have him." "Better believe she can." "She deserves that poor excuse for a creature of the night." "You, on the other hand, can do better." "Don't do that." "So?" "What's in the box?" "Box of Gavrok." "It houses a demonic energy which His Honour needs to eat come A-Day." " What's that?" " Maps and stuff." "Plans for City Hall." "They were in the water and power mainframe." "The box is being kept under guard on the top floor." "There." "It's all I could get out of my informant before he forced me to introduce him to Mr Pointy." " Well, here's what I think we should do." " We'll go through the skylight." "I'll take Angel." " Agreed." " There's a fire ladder on the east side here." " Yes, fine." "But we still need to consider..." " It won't be enough to simply have the box." "Right." "We have to destroy it - not just physically, ritually." "With some black magic." "Hang on." "We don't know what such a ritual requires." "I think the Breath of the Atropyx is standard for this sort of thing." "Fairly simple recipe." " Xander." " I know." "I'm Ingredient-Gettin' Guy." "All right." "Stop." "I demand everyone stop this instant." "I'm in charge here." "And I say this is all moving much too fast." "We need time to analyse the situation and devise a proper and strategic stratagem." "Wes, hop on the train or get off the tracks." "The Mayor will most assuredly have supernatural safeguards protecting the box." "We all forgot about that, did we?" "Looks like a job for Wiccan Girl." "What do you say?" "Big-time danger." " Hey, I eat danger for breakfast." " But panics in the face of breakfast foods." "Let's get to work." "I have a theory." "Your snide remarks earlier?" "I'm guessing grapes a little on the sour side." "Didn't get into any schools." "The grades were there, but, ooh, if it weren't for that pesky interview." "The admissions department decided they'd reached their superficial-princess quotas." "And once again the gold medal in the Being Wrong event goes to Xander "I'm as stupid as I look" Harris." "Read 'em and weep, creep." "USC, Colorado State," "Duke and Columbia." "Wow." "These are great colleges." "I'm guessing they must have seen a different side of your father's money." " Go away." " Sure." "I have to go back to helping to save some lives." "Cary on." "I know that you have some important accessorising to do." "Now, remember: if anything should go awry, Wesley and I will create a diversion." "Let's synchronise our watches." "I have 21:4..." " Yes." "Typical." " We could just count." "One-1,000, two-1,000." "Be careful." "All of you." "Tea?" " You got the goods?" " Yeah." "Essence of toad." "Twice-blessed sage." " Or maybe that's the toad." " We better be sure." " Destroying this box is a delicate operation." " Then they shouldn't leave it in our hands." "Well, Will laid it out for us pretty well." "Wow." "She even drew helpful diagrams." "That's the pedestal." "And the ingredients." "And us." "See, there's you, there's me." "How can you tell which is which?" "They both look stick-figurey to me." " Well, this one's me with the little guitar." " Gotcha." " Yeah." "Nobody like my Will." " No, sir, there is not." "OK." "Toad me." "Thanks." " Oh, yeah." "I'm bad." " Four stars, Will." " Now get goin'." " I'm gone." "Got it." " Angel?" " It's jammed." "I'd like very much to come up now, please." " Angel." " I know." "Don't suppose you wanna help me down?" "Didn't think so." "Well, this is very unfortunate." "I just had this conference room redecorated, for Pete's sake." "At taxpayers' expense." "And, oh, yeah, they've got my box." "Yeah, they do." "But lookee what we got." "How did you guys let this...?" " How did this happen?" " They thought she stayed with you." "They must have grabbed her when she hit the ground." "Buffy, I'm sorry." "Look, it's nobody's fault, OK?" "We just need to focus and deal." "Oz, I swear I won't let them hurt her." " We go back." "Full-on assault." " They'll kill her." " We're assuming they haven't already?" " No." "No, they know what she means to us." "She's too valuable as long as we still have the box." "We trade." " We can't." " It's the safest plan." "It's the only way, right?" "It might well be." " We arrange a meeting." " This box must be destroyed." " I need a volunteer to hit Wesley." " Giles, you know I'm right." " Wanna duck and cover at this point?" " Dammit, you listen to me." "This box is the key to the Mayor's Ascension." "Thousands of lives depend upon our getting rid of it." "Now, I want to help Willow as much as the rest of you, but we will find another way." "There is no other way." "You are the one who said take the fight to the Mayor." "You were right." "This is the town's best hope of survival." "It's your chance to get out." "You think I care about that?" "Are you made of human parts?" " All right." "Let's deal with this rationally." " Are you taking his side?" "Listen to you people." "You'd sacrifice thousands of lives, your families, friends?" "It can all end right here." "We have the means to destroy this box." "Giles, make the phone call." "What are you doing?" "I'm looking for a sucking candy cos my mouth gets dry when I'm nervous or held prisoner against my will." "And suddenly I'm thinking "sucking" isn't a good word to use around vampires." "Hey, did you get permission to eat the hostage?" "I don't think so." "You're gonna be in some trouble when the Mayor..." "Just a little taste." "They're not brain-damaged enough to come back tonight." " Ever had a dog?" " What?" "I did." "Rusty." "Irish setter." "Swell little pooch." "A dog's friendship is stronger than reason, stronger than its sense of self-preservation." "Buffy's like a dog." "And before you can say "Jack Robinson", you'll get to see me kill her like one." "Whoa." "The Books of Ascension," " Check out the bookworm." " Faith." "Anybody with brains, anybody who knew what was gonna happen to her, would try to claw her way out of this place." "But you?" "You just can't stop Nancy Drew-ing, can ya?" "I guess now you know too much, and that kinda just naturally leads to killing'." "Faith, wait." "I wanna talk to you." "Yeah, give me the speech again. "Faith, we're still your friends." "We can help you."" " "It's not too late."" " It's way too late." "You know, it didn't have to be this way, but you made your choice." "I know you had a tough life." "I know that some people think you had a lot of bad breaks." "Well, boo-hoo." "Poor you." "You know, you had a lot more in your life than some people." "I mean, you had friends like Buffy." "Now you have no one." "You were a slayer and now you're nothing." "You're just a big, selfish, worthless waste." "You hurt me." "I hurt you." "I'm just a little more efficient." " And I thought you didn't have a comeback." " You're beggin' for some deep pain." "I'm not afraid of you." "Let's see what we can do about that." "Girls?" "I hope I don't have to separate you two." "Faith, play with your new toy later." "Something's come up." "Faith." "You know I don't like repeating myself." "I got someone." "I got him." "I just received a heck of an interesting phone call." "The whole place is locked down, except for the front." "Yeah." "It gives me that comforting "trapped" feeling." "One way out means one way in." "I wanna see him coming." "I guess they're shy." "I can see all right." "Well, this is exciting, isn't it?" "You know, clandestine meetings by dark of night, exchange of prisoners." "I just..." "I feel like we should all be wearing trench coats." "Let her go." "No." "Not until the box is in my hands." "So you're the little girl that's been causing me all this trouble." "She's pretty, Angel." "A little skinny." "I still don't understand why it couldn't work out with you and my Faith." " Guess you have strange taste in women." " What can I say?" "I like 'em sane." "Angel." "I wish you kids the best, but if you don't mind a bit of fatherly advice," "I just don't see much of a future for you two." "I don't sense a lasting relationship." "Not just because I plan to kill the both of you, but you got a bumpy road ahead." "I don't think we need to talk about this." "God, you kids, you know..." "You don't like to think about the future." "You don't like to make plans." "But unless you want Faith to gut your friend like a sea bass, show respect for your elders." "You're not my elder." "I got a lot of years on you." "That's just one of the things you'll have to deal with." "You're immortal." "She's not." "It's not easy." "I married my Edna Mae in '03 and I was with her right until the end." "Not a pretty picture." "Wrinkled and senile and cursing me for my youth." "It wasn't our happiest time." "And let's forget the fact that any moment of true happiness will turn you evil." "I mean, what kind of a life can you offer her?" "I don't see a lot of Sunday picnics in the offing." "I see skulking in the shadows, hiding from the sun." "She's young." "You wanna keep her from the life she should have until it's passed her by." "By God, I think that's a little selfish." "Is that what you came back from Hell for?" "Is that your greater purpose?" "Make the trade." " Well, that went..." " Nobody moves." "I knew you kids were up to something." " Snyder, get out of here." " You're not giving orders, young lady." "I suppose you're gonna tell me I won't find drugs in this box." " Wait." " Principal Snyder?" " I think we have a problem." " Mr Mayor." "I had no idea you..." " I'm terribly sorry." " No, it's I who should apologise." "I mean, coming down here at night." "What must you be thinking?" "But, you see, I just needed to..." "No, don't do that." " Oh, God." " Where'd it go?" "Get the door open." "No." "You can't let that thing out of here." " I still wanna know where it went." " Listen." "Boss." "I wouldn't leave that open." "No." " Is that all of 'em?" " Not really." "There's about 5O billion of these happy little critters in here." "Would you like to see?" "Raise your hand if you're invulnerable." "Faith, let's go." "Faith." "Snyder, you alive in there?" "You." "All of you." "Why couldn't you be dealing drugs like normal people?" "Well, that went swimmingly." "We did all right." "So Faith said "I'm gonna beat you up" and I'm all "I'm not afraid."" "Then she had the knife, which was less fun." "Then I told her "Buffy was your friend..."" "Yes, this is fascinating, but just to get back to the point." "You actually had your hands on the Books of Ascension?" "Volumes one through five." "Is there anything that you can remember that could be of use to us?" "Anything at all?" "Well, I was in a hurry, and what I did read was kind of involved - if you ask me, way overwritten." "Actually, there were a few pages that were interesting, but I couldn't read them fully." "See what you can make of them." "This is your night for suave, Will." "You should get captured more often." "No, thank you." "Well, let's hope there's something useful in those pages." "The Mayor has the Box of Gavrok." "And, as of now, we are right back where we started." "Wouldn't you say?" "Deep thoughts?" "Deep and meaningful." "As in?" "As in, I'm never getting out of here." "I kept thinking "If I stop the Mayor..."" "I was kidding myself." "And there's always gonna be something." "I'm a Sunnydale girl." "No other choice." "It must be tough." "I mean, here I am, I can do anything I want." "I can go to any college in the county." "Four or five in Europe, if I want." " Tell me you're going somewhere with this." " No." "I'm not going anywhere." "UC Sunnydale?" " I will be matriculating with the class of 2003." " Are you serious?" "Say, isn't that where you're going?" "I can't believe it." "Are you serious?" "Wait." "What am I saying?" "You can't." " What do you mean, I can't?" " I won't let you." "Of the two people here, which is the boss of me?" " There are better schools." " Sunnydale's not bad." "And I can design my own curriculum." "OK, well, there are safer schools." "There are safer prisons." " I can't let you stay because of me." " Actually, this isn't about you." "Although I'm fond - don't get me wrong - of you." "The other night, you know, being captured and all, facing off with Faith, things just kinda got clear." "I mean, you've been fighting evil here for three years." "And I've helped some." "And now we're supposed to decide what we wanna do with our lives." "And I just realised that's what I wanna do - fight evil, help people." "I mean, I think it's worth doing." "And I don't think you do it because you have to." "It's a good fight, Buffy, and I want in." "I kinda love you." "Besides, I have a shot at being a bad-ass Wicca." "And what better place to learn?" "I feel the need for more sugar than I can handle." " Mochas?" " Yes, please." "It's weird." "You look at something and think you know exactly what you're seeing, and... and then you find out it's something else." " Neat, huh?" " Sometimes it is." "Chase, your break's been over for ten minutes." "I still need you to re-stock the shelves and sweep out the storage room." "Let's go." "It's gonna be fun." "Will and I are gonna go on Saturday and look at the campus." "I'm hoping that Mom'll let me live there." "It's too far to come home every night." "Plus, the whole lack-of-cool factor." "Either way, I'll be close to your place." "I don't know what the Mayor was talking about." " How could he know anything about us?" " Well, he's evil." "Big time." "He doesn't know what a lasting relationship is." "No." "Probably the only lasting relationship he's ever had is with evil." "Yeah." "Big, stupid, evil guy." "We'll be OK." "We will."