Act III: Scene 1.

Cut to Buffy and Slayers out in the city. Shot of downtown New York, pans down to follow Buffy and the group of Slayers.

SHANNON: Oh, let’s stop here!

COLLEEN: Yeah! I need new clothes.

(The girls all bound into the shop, Buffy the last to go in. She looks around first before entering the shop, actually smiling a bit. She looks around at the Slayers, and smiles more genuinely.)

KENNEDY: I saw that.

(Buffy turns to her and smiles.)

BUFFY: I told you I wanted to be tourist gal too.

(Kennedy smiles at her, then goes to join the other slayers. Buffy walks around the store, looking at things and holding some things up to herself. The other slayers can be heard chattering and laughing away in the background. She picks out a few things to try on, and heads to the dressing room. Inside the dressing room, she hears the Slayers better. Buffy tries on the shirt, listening in on the conversation.)

SHANNON: (off camera): More shoes?

COLLEEN: (off camera): You can never have too many cute pairs of boots.

CARIDAD: (off camera): You’re going to drown in all those shoes.

(Hearing this hits Buffy nearly physically, as she flashes to a sleeping Spike. “I’m drowning in footwear!” The flashes continue, short flashes of Spike from the time they first met in the alley to them holding hands before he died. She leans back against the dressing room’s wall, her smile dying immediately. She gets a sad look in her eyes, hugs her arms to her chest, and looks down. After a long moment, camera panning back, she hears Kennedy.)

KENNEDY: Buffy? You gonna buy that stuff? We want to go!

BUFFY: (voice a little wavery) I’m coming. Just...give me a minute.

Act III: Scene 2

Cut to Library.

ANDREW: Well...I mean, it always works in the comics...

WILLOW: Comics? Andrew, come on, we really need something here, not comic book stuff.

(Andrew looks up.)

ANDREW: You know, comics have always copied reality. Haven’t you ever seen Unbreakable? (Willow gives him a hard look) Just hear me out! In Anime and Manga...(off their blank look) Japanese comics, it’s always in there...and it’s a real thing. I even saw one once. It’s a talisman. (He smiles) In this one movie, they put it on dead body’s foreheads and they’d hop around as zombies and...

WILLOW: The point?

ANDREW: You have no culture. The point is that these Japanese talismans can help us. There are types that can be used as like, spirit wards. So we can like, trap the ghosts, you know, put them on the doors and walls and stuff so they can’t come in.

(Willow thought about that.)

WILLOW: You can get these talismans?

ANDREW: I can make them.

(Willow’s eyes widen.)

WILLOW: Really? I’m not sure it’s such a good idea...

ANDREW: Well you said non-magic was what we were going for, and this is more spiritual than magic. It’s just paper and ink.

DAWN: Do you know Japanese?

ANDREW: Well, not technically... (brightens) but I do watch a lot of Anime! I had the subtitled collection of Dragon Ball Z...

WILLOW: Andrew...

ANDREW: Just let me try, ok? I’m pretty sure it’ll work.

DAWN: What if the ghosts can’t read Japanese?

ANDREW: Um. It doesn’t matter?

(The girls give him a look, but don’t argue anymore. He hops up and starts looking for books. Willow suddenly frowns at her laptop.)

WILLOW: Hey, that’s weird.

(Dawn looks up.)

DAWN: What is?

(Willow motions, and the two teenagers go to stand behind her, looking over her shoulder. What’s seen on the computer screen is an aerial shot of the city. She points to a building in the foreground. There’s an obvious huge symbol drawn into the brickwork of the building.)

WILLOW: That’s our building.

DAWN: What’s that symbol mean?

(Willow frowned deeply.)

WILLOW: I know I’ve seen it somewhere before...Dawnie, what did you find out about the family?

(Dawn sits back down.)

DAWN: Not a lot. They were really eccentric, and kept to themselves. Oh yeah and they were disgustingly rich. Y'know, Cordy before the IRS came rich.

WILLOW: Does it say they were into the occult?

DAWN: Not really. Nothing specific was said, at any rate. Just that they were really reclusive, and their biggest project was that building, the K. Swanson Building. But hey, wealthy weirdo’s? With big symbols on their building? I’d say that it’s not a bad guess that they were all Adams Family.

ANDREW: I liked the Adams Family. Cousin It was–

(Dawn cuts him off.)

DAWN: Oh...but I DID find out who the girl you saw was. The girl, on the rooftop? Apparently she was a daughter of the family...she killed herself when she was... (looks at her book) twenty three.

WILLOW: Oh...that’s...really horrible.

DAWN: Yeah, glad I didn’t have to see it.

ANDREW: I wonder why she did it?

DAWN: I don’t know, but it says here that after the suicide the family fortune went all downhill and stuff, which is why Riley and company got to buy the place. But it’s been on the market for, like ever. Gee, I wonder why no one wanted to buy it?

WILLOW: (still frowning at the picture of the building) The first symbol here is for containment. Pretty standard stuff. This one is for Entropy...which would explain why the building needs to be rebuilt every ten years. (Looks up at blank faces) Entropy is like...the theory that everything has energy that breaks down. Like things rust and deteriorate and stuff. It also has to do with probability...it’s hard to explain.

ANDREW: Why would you put that on a building? If I were going to put symbols on a building I’d put big dragon calling symbols or oh! The bat signal! Or we could change it! Do Slayers have a symbol? They should. Like, a crossed stake and a fang or something. Then we could put it on the building and be like, superhero central like the big 4 on top of the Fantastic Four's building!

WILLOW: (ignores most of what Andrew's said) Anyways. I don’t know why anyone would put a symbol like that on a building. I wouldn’t if I were building something. But it doesn’t explain these other symbols...

DAWN: What other symbols?

(Willow frowns, shaking her head, then gets up, looking for a book. She pulls it down and flips through it for a few moments. She stops on a page and looks confused.)

WILLOW: O-KAY...

DAWN: Find what you’re looking for?

(Willow nods, and brings the book over to the table. She puts it down, and the symbol is seen.)

WILLOW: It’s a Spirit Draw. It’s supposed to call in spirits from the surrounding areas...(shakes her head) but that doesn’t make any sense! Why would you want to in the first place, and second, this would need to be powered up by something...it wouldn’t just work on it’s own.

ANDREW: Cool! It’s just like Ghostbusters! That had the crazy building that was a big spook central! I wonder if we’re connected to demon dimensions and–

WILLOW: Andrew, work on the talismans.

(Andrew sits down, looking sullen.)

ANDREW: I was just saying...

DAWN: Well don’t say, do. Show us these talisman things are going to work.

(Andrew set to work on the books he’d gotten out, and went to get some blank paper to write on. Willow sat back.)

WILLOW: Ok. As far as I can tell, this is what the building does. It calls spirits from the surrounding area, and keeps them there with the combined symbols. I guess the entropy one would be for the more likely probability that the spirits would be caught, and since entropy is ultimately about the degradation of a system, it’s kinda perfect for it. Sort of Death in a symbol. Wow. Whoever built this must have been either–

ANDREW: A certified genius or an authentic wacko? (He says hopefully)

(Dawn groans.)

DAWN: Enough with the Ghostbusters stuff! We are very well aware of just how much it’s like our situation. Except without the scientists. We should have scientists. And no funniness. Big lack o funny here.

ANDREW: I thought it was funny.

WILLOW: Ok, Ghostbusters quote aside...yes. The person was into some serious stuff. Since...well, apparently it works.

DAWN: You said it had to be powered. (Willow nods) What’s powering it now?

WILLOW: I don’t know.

DAWN: Well it’s had to be recent, since I didn’t find anything having to do with even a bump in the night about the building. No one’s complained of ghosts. Just the ever needing to be fixed building.

(Andrew glanced up from carefully drawing on a sheet of paper, copying out of a book.)

ANDREW: Maybe it was your spell, Willow.

(Willow thought.)

WILLOW: It started before then, though. We’ll figure it out. Let’s just see if these things work.

DAWN: And hey, maybe they won’t come back.

WILLOW: We could hope.


Act III: Scene 3.

(Cut to outside of the building. Willow, Andrew and Dawn walk up the steps, Andrew holding onto a thick pile of papers. They walk inside, and Andrew slaps one up on the door, Dawn pulling out tape to hold it up.)

ANDREW: One down...

(Willow stumbles and leans heavily against the wall. Andrew and Dawn turn to look at her, and their eyes widen. Shot of Willow, the tendrils now visibly coming off of her in waves.)

DAWN: Willow!

(Willow collapses, and Andrew sets the talismans down, he and Dawn running to help her up.)

WILLOW: G-get me outside...

(They bring her out onto the steps, and Willow sits heavily against them.)

ANDREW: What were you leaking?

DAWN: Are you ok? Should we bring you to the hospital?

(Willow shakes her head.)

WILLOW: No...I’ll be ok...just go finish putting up the talismans, ok?

(Dawn and Andrew hesitate, and then leave to do so. Willow sits on the steps, leaning forward to put her head in her hands. The ghost cat comes out of the building and sits next to her, meowing forlornly. Willow reaches out to pet it. Buffy walks up a few moments later.)

BUFFY: Will?

(Willow glances up, and Buffy rushes over to her.)

BUFFY: Willow what’s wrong?

WILLOW: Well...funny, that. You know our ghost problems? I think we’ve figured them out.

BUFFY: Willow...why don’t you tell me later...you look really sick. Let’s get you upstairs so you can lie down. Plus, ghost cats on the front steps is a bad idea. The neighbors’ll talk. Now come on--

WILLOW: No! That’s a bad plan! We researched the building today...and there’s ghost draws on it and stuff, and I think I’m powering it.

(Buffy raises an eyebrow.)

BUFFY: You’re what?

WILLOW: You know I’ve been sick? Well I think it’s the building doing it to me. I fainted last night after trying a spell. When we were researching I felt fine, then we got here, and all this weird stuff was being sucked out of me.

BUFFY: (frowns) What kind of stuff?

WILLOW: My power, I think...I can feel it now. That it’s drained. Or at least it’s partly drained...I got out as fast as I could.

BUFFY: Where are Dawn and Andrew?

WILLOW: Trying to put up talismans. Where are the others?

BUFFY: Still out sight seeing. I’d had enough for one day.

WILLOW: Well...why don’t you go help Dawn and Andrew? They’ve got a whole lot of talismans to put up.

(Cut to long hallway shot of Andrew and Dawn, gazing down the hall as ghosts walk around again. They’re much more solid looking than last time, and there are so many it looks like a crowd.)

DAWN: I think we’re a little late.

ANDREW: Um...

(Andrew holds up a talisman to one wall, and Dawn puts the tape to hold it there. Suddenly, the ghosts going in that direction stop, and no one comes out of that wall again.)

DAWN: Well...that did something.

ANDREW: Wow! It worked!

DAWN: You said you were sure!

ANDREW: No, I said they should work.

(Andrew slaps another talisman on the next wall, and Dawn tapes it up. Now they are stuck staring at the ghosts trapped in the hallway. Then ghosts start coming out of the doors, and everyone turns to look at them.)

DAWN: Oh this can’t be good. I liked it a whole lot better when they were ignoring us!

ANDREW: We need to put them on the doors too I guess...

DAWN: Well let’s hurry!

(They run down the hall, trying to avoid the ghosts, but not doing it. Wind blows up the hall, scattering half of the printed talismans on the floor, and they scramble to finish putting them up on the doors. They get done, and stare, up the hallway. There are fewer, but there are still some trapped in the hallway.)

DAWN: I think I’ve discovered a flaw with the plan.

ANDREW: Yeah?

DAWN: Yeah. It doesn’t get rid of the ghosts, it just stops them wandering around!!

ANDREW: Maybe if we herded them all into one room?

DAWN: Maybe...

(Buffy peeks down the hall from the other end.)

BUFFY: Dawn!

DAWN: Buffy! Is Willow ok?

BUFFY: Yeah, but she thinks she’s powering the Spook Machine.

DAWN: Oh...that makes sense then.

ANDREW: We still have other floors to put the talismans on.

BUFFY: Why don’t you two do that. God...these guys look a lot more solid today...good thing it’s business hours and most people aren’t home.

(Xander walks out into the hallway then, still covered in grime. Buffy runs up.)

BUFFY: Xander! Are you ok?

XANDER: I’ve just seen the scariest thing.

BUFFY: Ghosts?

XANDER: Miss Parker’s sink. Never ask me about old women and shoehorns. Hey...who’re all these....oh dear god there’s ghosts again.

BUFFY: Thank you, Captain Obvious. Come on!

(Buffy and Xander head towards Dawn and Andrew. Dawn thrusts a handful of talismans at Buffy, and a roll of tape.)

BUFFY: We’ll get the next floor up, you guys start at the top and work your way down.

(Shots of the two teams dodging ghosts, running after papers, and getting set back by more spooks. Shot of the four of them walking back outside, all disheveled. They plop down next to Willow.)

WILLOW: Did it work?

ANDREW: Yes! The ghosts are now contained.

BUFFY: However, they’re just contained wherever the were trapped, so I’d have to say that it was a big non-success in dealing with the problem.

WILLOW: Oh...guys, the problem is me.

DAWN: Isn’t there some way we could destroy the symbol?

ANDREW: Don’t you know never to go destroying powerful symbols? Haven’t you seen any movies?

DAWN: (sarcastic) Not many, I’ve been busy fighting for the forces of good for a few years; I’m a bit behind.

XANDER: I’m lost.

WILLOW: Basically our building was built to be a spirit magnet, and now I’m powering it.

XANDER: Oh. (Beat) Well stop it.

WILLOW: I wish I could...I’ve been thinking and this is what I think happened. I got here, and the symbol started...um...taking power from me.

BUFFY: All by itself?

(Willow shrugged.)

ANDREW: Wait a minute. (Everyone looks at him) You haven’t been doing magic.

WILLOW: I haven’t had time to sort of slowly reintroduce myself to it.

ANDREW: But you’re really powerful! I mean, you just radiate with the witch stuff.

BUFFY: Point?

ANDREW: Well...you can’t have that much power and not do anything with it. Where’s it supposed to go? Maybe Willow’s like...like leaking it.

XANDER: A leaky bucket o power?

(Willow nods slowly.)

WILLOW: You know, Andrew, that would make sense...I think. Maybe that’s why it started at first, and now that I’ve gone and woken it up, it’s actively drawing off of me.

DAWN: So what do we do about it?

(Willow looks down again.)

WILLOW: I don’t know.

XANDER: Well, we have to do something...

BUFFY: Yeah, and soon, we can’t bring her back inside until she’s non leaky.

ANDREW: I’ve got an idea.


Act III: Scene 4

(Cut to Library. Xander, Andrew, Willow, and Dawn are at the table, researching. Buffy stands to the side, on the phone.)

BUFFY: Hello, Giles...what, who's this? Claudia? Oh, so he found you huh...this is Buffy speaking...well, welcome to the club...now, could you put him on? It's urgent...

WILLOW: This is a horrible idea.

ANDREW: Well, it’s all I can think of, and I don’t see any of you coming up with anything better.

XANDER: Maybe it’ll be sexy, Will!

(Willow gives him a dirty look.)

BUFFY: We’re looking, Will. (To the phone) Thank God. No, no end of the world thingy just Willow power drain stuff and mystical symbolly junk on our building. (Pause) No, I don’t know why this always happens to us. We’re just unlucky. Now what should we do?

(Camera pans back to the group, Buffy speaking softly in the background. Dawn tosses her book down.)

DAWN: Well, I’m not finding anything. Did you know that every book I’ve looked at says that destroying the Spirit Draw symbol will lead to horrible soul rending death?

ANDREW: I told you we can’t destroy the symbol.

XANDER: (mocking) I told you we can’t destroy the symbol. (Normal) Just because it works for D&D doesn’t mean it works for reality.

(Buffy walks back to the table.)

BUFFY: Well, apart from this time, apparently. (Sigh) Giles says a big resounding no to destroying the symbol on the building. If we did, it’s hello to painful–

DAWN: Soul-rending death?

BUFFY: That about covers it.

(Willow drops her forehead with a clunk onto the table.)

WILLOW: But I don’t want to do it!

BUFFY: Giles said it was the best idea, Will. But on the up side, it’ll not only prevent mystical power sucky building things, but it’ll stop anything from sucking your power by force. It’ll be like a gate thing. You can open it to flow your juice out but no juice will be sucking it and I think I should stop right there.

XANDER: A water dam of power would have been better, Buff.

ANDREW: Found it!

(Xander and Buffy lean over to look at the open book.)

XANDER: That’s it?

BUFFY: Well that’s not bad, Will, and hey, Chinese symbols are all the rage.

ANDREW: Japanese!

BUFFY: Whatever.

XANDER: Come on, Willow, At least look at it.

(Willow looks over reluctantly. Andrew pushes the book over to her. Shot of a picture of another paper talisman, with intricate Japanese lettering on it. Willow considers, and then drops her head onto the book.)

WILLOW: But I don’t WANT a tattoo!!

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Season 8, Scattered OUT NOW! by me!