Wolves at the Gate, Part IV

Plot

The vampires’ headquarters / the Ashikaga building:

Frozen, the friends realise that they have walked into the vampires’ trap. Renee is still thinking about it too. She scolds herself for not paying attention. She sees Xander coming towards her and, in the background, the Slayers fighting the wolves/vampires. Everything slowly fades for her. She wants to say something but cannot. Xander is with her, but she cannot hear what he is saying. She is not ready to go yet; she has not told him… she hopes he knows…

Xander kneels crying beside Renee and holds her in his arms while the battle rages around them.

Buffy calls to the others to protect Xander. Dracula calls to Buffy that he can stop them, but he needs the witch – Willow – for it. Buffy is to fetch her. She does not want to go and leave Xander alone. He is not alone, Dracula promises, transforms and throws himself back into the fight.

Buffy runs off towards where Willow was just a moment ago and calls to Satsu that she is in command here now – Satsu is startled and wants to know where Buffy is going. Just to get Willow.

Buffy is at the open window and sees Willow and the witch Kumiko in the middle of their magical fight – on their way down the side of the tower block!

Kumiko introduces herself to Willow before hurling her against the building’s facade. Kumiko has followed Willow’s development as a witch. Kumiko and Willow had the same “teacher” – the snake demoness Saga Vasuki (from issue 10, remember?), so magically speaking they speak the same language. Fine, then let Kumiko talk, says Willow – she grips Kumiko’s temples and makes a kind of connection.

Willow sees a vision of a city (New York, if you ask me), fire, the Scythe and the snake demoness, who has a message for Willow: did she think she could hide from her, or from what she is, or from what is coming?

“Goddess,” Willow thinks, before the connection breaks and she loses consciousness, just as Kumiko attacks her again.

Meanwhile Buffy stands at the open window with a dagger in her hand and her eyes closed. She tells herself over and over that it is just like a diving board. Then she jumps after them.

Willow should not faint on her, Kumiko says contemptuously, or she will miss the best part.

Buffy hits Kumiko in mid-fall and drives the dagger into her back. Buffy grabs Willow – noting in passing that this is not like a diving board after all. She screams at Willow to wake up, because she needs her here!

Down below, the vampires are fighting the Slayers. Leah orders them to fall back, because there are simply too many vampires. Dawn tramples one of the vampires; she has no intention of giving up. Toru and his vampire buddy Raidon stand on the roof of the tower block watching everything. They have a problem – but only until Dawn sees what is waiting at the intersection: that is where the “countermeasures” come in.

Dawn orders the attack on the vampires’ building, because Buffy needs their support. For a moment she is not paying attention and takes a blow to the face that knocks her to the ground. The Slayers look up in alarm. A Mecha-Dawn – a robot that roughly looks like Dawn and is just as big – stands among them. Then it attacks Dawn again.

On the roof, Raidon and Toru watch everything. They see that the Slayers are now close enough within range of the red lens. Since Kumiko is not responding, Toru wants to initiate the spell. He tells Raidon to “power up” the lens. The vampire stands with the Scythe in front of the activated lens and speaks a spell.

Raidon follows everything from a kind of control room. He wonders what that noise in the background is – and he does not mean the sounds of the lens booting up but the screams.

The Slayers have meanwhile reached the roof and are fighting the vampires there. Dracula knocks Toru away from the lens and calls to the girls to get the Scythe, which flies off in a high arc.

Satsu runs, jumps and catches the Scythe in mid-air. Then she realises that in doing so she has jumped off the roof and says: “Hell.”

Meanwhile Buffy and Willow climb out of a pool – Willow simply turned the street into one so they could fall into it.

As the two wring the water out of their clothes and hair, they look up and see Satsu falling towards them.

Isn’t that Buffy’s girlfriend, Willow asks. She is not “her girlfriend”, Buffy makes clear. Whatever… Buffy should go easy on her anyway, because her “sisters” are dear to her heart. Buffy knows that.

The two are still looking up. Casually Willow says that she never wanted to sleep with Buffy. Buffy has no idea what Willow is talking about. About the fact that she did not decide to try a little “experiment” with Willow, because it would not have worked – Buffy is not even on her list.

What list, Buffy asks – she has a list?!

Yes, she does, and Buffy is not on it.

Fine, then Willow is not on hers either.

Good, Willow would not want to be.

Of course she would! It is a very important list with people like… er… Judi Dench and Eleanor Roosevelt…

Yes, Willow can imagine…

And other people! Those are just examples that come to mind right now!

Maybe they should rescue Satsu, Willow suggests. Yes, Buffy was just thinking that too.

On the roof, Raidon radios the team below: they have lost the Scythe and need support!

Willow appears in front of him, having flown Buffy and Satsu up and set them down. Buffy has the Scythe in her hand and swings it at the vampire. He dissolves into mist again – that is cheating, Buffy thinks.

Dracula calls Willow over. She is busy with a vampire and does not understand what he wants. Come here, says Dracula. She is to take his sword – it is an ancient relic in which demonic powers are bound, just like in the Scythe.

Dracula tells Willow what to do: send a reverse spell through the portal of the lens to take away the vampires’ special abilities.

Willow stands there with the sword in her hand and just looks at Dracula in alarm – why does he not do it? Because he is one of the vampires… and now go!

The vampires realise what Willow is up to and try to stop her, but it is too late. Willow casts the spell, and the red light of the lens turns into a blazing white that hits the vampires.

Buffy stakes one of the vampires with the shaft of the Scythe. Now the odds are even again, she calls to the Slayers. Time to do their job.

The Mecha-Dawn is still fighting Dawn – reeling off a text that her name is Dawn and she is a teenager… This annoys Dawn enormously, and by the way: why does this thing have a Godzilla tail?

The robot hits Dawn again. She hears Andrew, who wants to help her. He gives her a more or less sensible lecture on mechanical creatures. Dawn does not understand a word – and how does he even know such things? Please, does she not know him, says Andrew. Andrew is thrilled by the fight – he has dreamed of this all his life!

He tells Dawn to simply tear the thing’s head off. When the robot comes out with something about Dawn’s eternal whining and her relationships with boys, Dawn grabs the robot’s head and tears it off.

The fight is still raging on the roof. Raidon calls to the others that they do not have to transform to drink the Slayers’ blood. He attacks Buffy and tries to bite her – she is bound to taste sweet, he speculates. He hears someone say that he has no idea, and then he explodes in a cloud of dust as Satsu stakes him… and she cannot believe she just said that out loud.

Dracula calls to Willow to give him back the sword. She throws it to him, but Toru catches it. He mocks that Dracula is now just a perfectly ordinary vampire, like all of them. Dracula tells the “youngster” that he was never an ordinary vampire! He snatches the sword from him and simply cuts off the vampire’s hands, while explaining everything he did before he even became a vampire – which means it is not even the vampire in Dracula that Toru should be afraid of.

Then Dracula should finish it and not leave him in this state, the bleeding vampire demands.

That is not his job, says Dracula, and looks around.

Xander walks towards him without a word. Dracula gives him his sword. Xander takes it with an empty gaze and destroys Toru.

Leah reports to Buffy that the vampires are running away. Then they should hunt them, Buffy orders; no prisoners, kill them all, she says as she walks over to Xander.

He drops the sword, falls to his knees and clings to Buffy, while Dracula stands beside them.

Meanwhile Satsu takes command and passes the orders on to the Slayers.

Later, at the Slayers’ headquarters in Japan:

Xander, completely wrecked, sits on a bench with an urn, staring into the woods.

Dracula comes to say goodbye. His ship is ready, but perhaps Xander would like some company at the little ceremony?

No, he answers, he wants to do it alone.

Very well, then Dracula says goodbye to his servant. He turns.

Hey… if Dracula ever calls him servant again, Xander will come and kill him in his sleep, he tells him.

Well, perhaps he is right… how about “lackey” or “underling”?

He can forget those too.

“Houseboy”? He will be killed for that too, Dracula realises himself…

Satsu and Buffy sit on the bed in a room.

Satsu thought they could pretend nothing had happened and everything was okay, but it does not work. She does not think she can be near Buffy now.

It is her, isn’t it? Buffy promises she can change; she can be less tempting, in a lesbian sense – and that was the wrong expression just now, she realises. She wants to make it easier for Satsu.

Satsu explains that it is not because of Buffy and what she does or does not do – or maybe it is. She just loves her, and that does not work. But to get over it, she cannot be near Buffy.

So Buffy should leave? Satsu was thinking more of staying in Japan. The girls here need a leader – so she is probably asking for a promotion.

That is a lot of work; the girls need education and training, because most of them are not prepared for what is coming, Buffy warns. Satsu knows, and she will not disappoint Buffy. Buffy knows that.

She kneels beside Satsu and looks at her. She hopes she has not hurt her. Oh no, she is tough, and besides, it was worth it. It was one of the most beautiful nights of her life, she says, smiling at Buffy. For Buffy too, Buffy admits, smiling back.

So, what now? Do they say goodbye and go their separate ways?

Well, says Satsu, she thinks tomorrow is soon enough for goodbye; she leans over to her.

A long, cold journey lies ahead of them. Each in their own way tries to find a little warmth…

Dracula is on his ship. He looks out to sea…

Willow conjures a vision of the snake demoness…

Buffy and Satsu spend one more night together…

…only Xander is alone. He scatters Renee’s ashes in the woods.

To be continued…