Anywhere But Here
We've concluded Faith's arc and are back in Buffyland full-time with a little adventure/fact-finding mission of Willow and Buffy's.
We start with a fantasy about being anywhere but here, their old game from high school days. Probably suggested by Willow to get Buffy's mind off of being so far above the ground. She's on a beach with Daniel Craig, in desperate need of sunblock. Willow claims it's a bit generic, but Buffy can't concentrate while riding on Willow's back through the air trying to find something they can't teleport to.
Xander is giving Dawn a gift. The Wiccans bigged up her stuff so she has a change of clothes now. She's so excited she dumps Xander in her giant suitcase with the clothes.
Willow's fantasy is of Tina Fey. They're stuck in a ski lodge and need to stay warm. Buffy asks her again about Kennedy. Willow says it's a fantasy game with no significant others allowed. Buffy talks about not seeing her much or Will for that matter. And they arrive...
...at the Lair of Sephrilian, who walks between worlds. His house is TARDIS-like, he has a female minder to watcher over the unstable reality field he creates. Buffy doesn't know how Willow knows all this stuff. We'll find out later.
The Minder is Robin, who Willow meets later on but doesn't know now or something timey-wimey. They're there to consult I guess. Robin tries not to be gloomy. Tells Buffy the important this is to rescue the prince. Hunh? We also find out Minders are chosen, they don't volunteer to go slowly nuts watching over this thing. Buffy's pretty peppy (or nervous?) enjoying Will's company and making jokes about time loops.
Dawn is enjoying her clean-smelling clothes. Xander is swimming in lacy underthings (foreshadowing) when he finds a picture of Dawn and Kenny.
We're back in the game, and Buffy is enjoying the company of Little Women Christian Bale and Reign of Fire Christian Bale in some gothic ballroom, plotting an escape. Buffy assures Willow she likes Kennedy, thinking Willow is keeping them apart, wondering where they went anyway and what's up with Will generally. She's doing all the talking.
They're interrupted by a giant claw attached to a creepy-looking demon with faces on its tail and lots of teeth that must be Sephrilian. Buffy asks for help, saying he's demon elite or Tichajt, and knows the future. "You know where we are heading. The imbalance between our worlds is going to rain destruction on all our heads." Visions of Beljoxa's Eye swimming in my brain. He prophesies the end "...of the struggle, of the hellmouths...the final triumph of the base humans over the demons. It's your life's goal achieved, Slayer. The death of magic." We'll definitely have to come back here later.
Dawn looks at the picture of Kenny and says it's all her fault. Xander says guys suck. Dawn tells him she didn't sleep with Kenny. She slept with his roommate.
Sephrilian says all human beings can comprehend are the lies they tell to avoid reality, then opens the faces on his tail and show them their secrets. We see a squad of slayers led by Buffy stealing gold and gems from a Swiss bank. That's how she was able to bankroll her organization. Buffy says it's a victimless crime and it's only money. Willow says, "Money changes everything. This is where it all starts, Buffy. What your enemies saw." She calls it the first domino leading to Twilight.
Then we see Willow getting up close and naked with a green snake goddess type woman. Much more on this to come.
Dawn flashes back to her own secret, Nick. She says she cheated and is a skank and deserves what she got from it. She wanted to tell Willow, thought she could, but couldn't. Xander compares Nick to Parker and says all Dawn is guilty of is being a cliche. Then claims he's special because Dawn opened up to him. Too true.
Robin shows up with Buffy and Willow somewhere neither of them recognize. It's a domed stone structure with a cracked red egg. There's fog on the ground and Buffy is lying there, crying and injured. Robin claims what happens here is "betrayal. The closest, the most unexpected." Then Robin leaves because they're about to cause a disruption. Buffy immediately asks Willow if it's her.
Willow says she won't betray her more than she has, and we get the story behind her taking Kennedy and running. Flashback to Kennedy fighting with Willow about why she's keeping her away from Buffy, is she ashamed of her?
We find out Kennedy sort of died once for Willow, and that Will went away for 6-months to presumably learn naughty things from snake goddess. More on that in the Willow one-shot.
Willow says it's not about shame, but when she saw Warren again, she realized it was about Tara. Her and Tara were happy when Buffy died. And so was Buffy. But Willow brought her back anyway, and that led to Tara's death. She's talking both to Kennedy in the flashback and Buffy in reality now. "I chose to put Tara in a bullet's path. I chose you (Buffy) over her." She can't do that again.
Sephrilian pops back up with his faces. He says all of them are there for you to see, but humans hide so many of their own. Buffy and Willow can't look at each other now. Buffy is so not in the mood for Sephrilian to gloat about welcoming the coming war or threatening to expose their weaknesses to other demons. Neither is Willow. Buffy takes the fire Willow gives her and uses it to slay Sephrilian. The place explodes. Robin keeps shielded. She's glad to have some time off, and she doesn't remember what happened there. Apparently it was only a projection of her, so their secrets are safely hidden.
Buffy, looking sad, calls what happened demons playing games. Will looks guilty. They head off separately.
Man, that's rough. I get Willow's point, but poor Buffy. She didn't ask for, well, any of that. Harsh.
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