Scene the school drama department.

School has let out, the halls are empty, save for a few last minute teachers, this girl doing stagecraft, etc. Said girl puts down her hammer, where she was building a flat (no girly painting backdrops for this chica, she is a manly woman, for all of 12 seconds), and walks to the cafeteria, where she rummages through her pockets, discards a piece of lint, counts her change, looks disappointed and settles on something she can afford. She is still plonking coins into the machine when long green arms dangle down to her head from above.

Her body jerks up into the air, a few coins drop around her kicking feet and she screams, but stops thrashing (and screaming) as a loud crack fills the scene.

Buffy and Dawn, crossing the hall outside the cafeteria, headed home (Dawn babbling something about some class that she actually seemed to enjoy), stop when they hear the scream and they both run into the cafeteria with a bang, as the demon looks up from the girl splayed on the ground that it hunches over and hisses at them. Buffy flies into it and kicks the crap out of it, and it seems to move bonelessly fast, shoving her down into Dawn and entangling them in a couple of tables and chairs, near the door they came in by, as it leaps fluidly and turns a corner into the kitchen area. (If this quick dash can be sped up without looking horribly fake, do so, giving the hint that the creature is serpent fast) Buffy gets up as quickly as she can and is off, but when she reaches the kitchen, there is no sign of it.

In the dark somewhere, as she walks by, at about her foot level, something with glowing red eyes watches her sneakers as she moves by and gently hisses...

****************

Scene Buffy's dining room, Willow's at her computer staring at it with a distinct lack of enthusiasm.

Xander enters and her face lights up as she says 'hey!' and he responds 'hey, I brought caffeinated goodness, want some?' as he holds up a can of product placement and tosses it to her before she answer.  She catches the solda and places it next to her computer, responding with an enthusiastic 'ooh, yes, please, I am *so* getting nowhere on this new encryption at the city offices,' squirming slightly as if she has been sitting long enough to be uncomfortable. Xander crosses behind her and rubs her shoulders absently and she leans back towards him with a groan, taking her hands off the keyboard pointedly and placing them on the tabletop as she closes her eyes, centering herself and resting her eyes while surrendering to the backrub. He looks at the computer, eyes furrowed and asks 'So what's up, practicing the computer crime skills or is the new mayor evil too?' He pretends not to notice as she tenses slightly at the word 'crime' but he gives her shoulders a visible squeeze in reassurance and continues rubbing them, and she relaxes again without comment. At that moment Giles and Buffy enter the room, talking (her holding a lollypop), and Dawn trails in a few moments later without fanfare, hands in her pockets, kind of walking in that 'bored now' straight legged posture that teens sometimes affect when they are just tagging along and not part of the action.

Giles - 'well, yes, obviously it could still be in the school, have you managed to find any public record of the building layout Willow?' Willow, with a groan (Xander has removed his hands, but not in a guilty way, casually, nothing to hide here, and is standing behind her looking at Willow with his usual inscrutable 'Xander is thinking' look), 'no, security has gotten way better since the last time I was frolicing through their firewall.' Xander 'um, we need floorplans for the high school?' Buffy 'yeah, there was a murder there last night after classes let out...' Xander (interrupting) 'at Sunnydale High? Hmm, and it's only August, off to an early start this year.' (Buffy glares slightly at Xander for interrupting, but without rancor) Buffy '*as* I was saying, there is some sort of demon in the school, it was kinda green and pretty keen on *not* getting it's ass kicked, it bolted, but there should have been no way it could have gotten around me, so we wanted to check the floorplans to see if it could have crawled into the ceiling or something' Xander nods and nudges Willow, who starts as if she has been thinking of something else 'Can I uh...' he points at the computer 'get in there for a sec' and she just looks at him like he has grown three heads. Willow 'sure' and she gets up and offers him a seat, with fake gravity, as if humoring him, but good-naturedly and clearly watching with curiosity. He plops down and begins slowly keying in some stuff, again with his frowny 'thinking now' look, eyes crosssing the screen in front of him as if he is reading stuff. Willow gives a raised eyebrow and the pursed-lip-moue (sp?) thingie that comprises her patented 'i'm impressed, young jedi' look. Giles has crossed to stand behind Xander next to Willow at this point, with Buffy to one side and Dawn slightly behind her (Buffy and Dawn are generally out of the scene, with Xander center, Giles just off-center and Willow a little more to the side. (In letterbox, all would be in-sceen) Xander looks up and seems to notice for the first time that everyone is looking at him and he doesn't quite flinch, but he is clearly taken aback, he stumbles out 'What? We have all the blueprints and schematics of the stuff we work on, or have maintenance contracts for in an archive, so that we can look stuff up before we actually get to a site, have an idea what we are going to be up against and, y'know' he trails off, clearly having found what he seeks and now paying attention to the screen again.

Leaning forward to get a look at the screen, Giles places his hand on Xanders shoulder absently, as he say, 'a clever idea, very useful.' Xander momentarily looks slightly freaked that Giles' hand is on his shoulder, just a quick dart of the eyes, but goes on clicking keys muttering 'here it is, Sunnydale High' as Willow, with a knowing smile asks 'and whose idea exactly was it to put all these plans on-line?' and Xander gives a 'busted' smirk and admits 'well, mine...'

Giles has apparently noticed his hand on Xanders shoulder at this point, and seems on the verge of pulling it away when Xanders other hand crosses up to give it a little squeeze, acknowledging it's right to be there. Giles looks vaguely uncomfortable, but also relieved and smiles slightly to himself and moves his thumb back and forth in a reassuring gesture, before something on the screen catches their eye and his hand ends up moving anyway to point at something. All business now, Giles 'there, make that... um, can you make that bigger or something?' Willow smiles a little wider, having been smiling at the Giles / Xander hand-interaction during the previous scene (we can't see Buffy or Dawn during it, so Willow is doing reactions), but now she almost chuckles 'zoom in on that' and Giles looks at her in his oh-so-british way and repeats with a dismissing wave towards the computer screen, 'yes, please 'zoom'' (his emphasis on 'zoom' makes it sound like a 'magic' word like presto or poof or abracadabra, and his gesture is timed to occur with the word zoom, like he is conjuring the computer to do something)

Willow, leaning foward also, hands on the side of the table, 'is that some sort of crawlway or something' Xander, frowning, 'nah, ductwork' Buffy, in-scene now and sort of leaning past Giles, 'that light blue line? It runs through the entire school. It would be perfect for our green friend to be getting around unnoticed. Is there any opening in the cafeteria?' Xander, hitting some keys (Giles blinks, apparently whatever he was studying has 'unzoomed'), 'yeah, about three of them actually, but these vents, they aren't big enough for a grown-up.' He looks up with a sideways grin at Buffy, who is standing with her arms crossed in her 'waiting for everyone to figure out what I'm here to punch' posture, looks her up and down (in a non-sexual way) and adds 'not even a Buffy sized grown-up...'

Buffy 'hey!' and she playfully whacks Xander on the shoulder as he smiles. Dawn chooses that moment to state 'um, well maybe I could...' but she doesn't finish before Buffy smiles at her and looks pointedly *up* into her face and states the unnecessary 'Dawn, if *I* can't fit, you're not going to fit, while you weren't looking, you grew up.' Dawn looks chagrined, a little embarassed, and then kinda proud. She stands a little closer to Buffy while Buffy turns back to the screen. Giles - 'ah, well then our demon probably couldn't fit in the ducts either (looks to Buffy) you described it as fairly tall, yes?' Giles eyes slide over a bit behind Buffy as he says 'fairly tall' as Dawn is now standing next to Buffy, kind of hovering and standing on her tippie-toes so that she towers over Buffy, who turns back with an exasperated look (but still not a hostile one) 'Yes, you're taller than me Giant-Woman, enjoy it...' she goes to point at something on the screen, but everyone looks at her oddly as she is pointing with the wet sticky lollypop in her hand (Xander actually pulls back, as there isn't that much room between his face and the computer screen and Willow looks on the verge of saying something about sticky wet candy so close to her computer...) and she absently hands it off to Dawn, who holds it at first like a dead mouse, as Buffy turns back to Giles 'actually it was kinda skinny' she gestures with her now empty hands 'and it looked really flexible. when I kicked it, it had that bendy joint thing' she rotates her arm 'like it didn't have any bones. So I'm thinking the vents would be perfect for it.'

The crunch of the lollypop makes them all turn and Dawn has bitten it in half and is chewing merrily. Buffy just stares at her and sort of gestures with her hand, palm up, and says 'uuh!' (loosely translated, 'that was MY lollypop!') with a pouty face and Dawn 'what? You gave it to me.' she looks snarky for a second, 'You want it back?' she starts to open her mouth and stick her candy colored tongue out and Buffy raises her hands and recoils 'Gross! No!' and they both laugh.

Willow looking wistful at all this interaction going on between Giles and Xander and Buffy and Dawn and looking a little left-out, 'ok, so we can't go in the vents to get the monster, so we have to find a way to get it to come out of the vents to us.' Everyone stops and looks to her, some expectantly, Xander almost uncomfortably supportively, so that she has to look away from him and visibly gather her strength 'So, um, maybe we could smoke it out or something, put something, um, smoky, in the air-ducts and it might come out for fresh air?'

Buffy, chirpily 'and then I kick it's ass. Sounds like a plan. I like plans that end with me kicking ass.' Smiles all around, everyone but Dawn, who still is looking a little left out, since everyone else has had a moment or an idea or something to contribute and her big contribution was being taller than Buffy and eating her lollypop.

****************

Scene Sunnydale High, night, empty corridors, Buffy, Willow, Dawn and Xander walk down the halls, Xander stage-whispering 'shh, be vewy, vewy quiet, I'm hunting... um, skinny green monster-demon-things' to looks of annoyance and amusement from the others. Buffy corrects, 'Sumara demon, Giles said.' Xander and Willow are each holding a bundle (or backpack, in Willows case) full of old clothing, Dawn is holding a slender sword (same one from Grave), Buffy appears unarmed, Xander has a leather strap across his chest, but instead of a bookbag, it is attached to his semi-trademark axe.

Buffy 'let's split up, cover more ground.' Willow looks somewhat apprehensive and Buffy, strangely clueful, notices and says 'in pairs, Willow and Xander in team one, Dawn and me in team two.' Dawn 'hey! You just don't want me in Xander's team cause...' and she suddenly stops talking as she realizes that her sister is giving her a 'finish this sentence and DIE' look. Willow hands her backpack to Dawn and Dawn stares at her uncomprehending for a second before muttering 'oh, for the fires, duh. thanks.' Dawn and Willow don't make eye-contact in this scene, or, ever in this episode, really, this is just the time it is most noticeable.

Xander, past master of pointedly ignoring comments like this from 15 years with Willow, turns to Willow 'you hear that, *we're* team one, oh yeah.' and as he gets a faint smile from her, they walk off together down the hall.

As Buffy and Dawn head in the other direction, Dawn 'wow, you are such a bad influence, I didn't think I'd be starting fires in the new school until at least October...'

****************

Scene a basement, Buffy is pulling clothes from the backpack and drops a green bodice to the ground and steps back 'god, this was Taras...' (bodice is from OM,WF, from 'Under Your Spell' in the park). Dawn looks sad and after standing like a prat for an awkward moment, moves over to Buffy and gives her a stiff hug, as if trying to comfort her, while also looking askance at the bodice on the ground (and very pointedly not treading on it). Boo-hoo. Buffy pulls herself together, and begins shoving the clothing, very pointedly without looking at it, into the vent. We don't see them start the fire, because starting fires in school is bad, kids. Cut to smoke coming out of a vent elsewhere, and the sound of a demon scurrying in the vents, scene of red eyes in the smoke, moving quickly towards the camera in the center of one of the pipes, with smoke filling in around it.

***************

Scene a hallway. Xander and Willow are walking down it, the backpack is clearly empty and smoke has filled the hall around them. Xander has axe in hand, the strap mysteriously gone away (the new improved strapless axe). He is waving at the smoke with his free hand and Willow is coughing slightly, both are blinking furiously, as the smoke irritates their eyes. Willow 'okay, seeing the flaw in our plan now...' Xander 'yeah, gonna be hard to see it come out of the vents if we can't actually *see* it'

Pause, Willow has clearly had an idea and slows down, Xander gets a pace ahead before noticing and looking back. Xander - 'Are you ok?' Willow - 'umm, I was thinking' she says with obvious hesitation, and at his 'and...' she continues 'there is a... a spell, that could make the smoke pull back from us a bit, nothing dangerous, and I think, I think I can handle it, if you think you can trust me...' she finishes in a rush, desperately at the end, her voice rising. Xander sees her hesitation, her need to know that he is alright with this, he states confidently and seriously to her 'if you can trust me' with 'always have, always will,' then in a lighter tone 'So show me the mojo.'

She draws up a little, confidence somewhat restored, takes a deep breath (chokes back a cough, which brings an embarassing / comforting glance-moment) and begins to chant 'Lucure Incendis Recidit' (or some other latin-esque nonsense). The smoke clears out of the hallway instantly as a breeze seems to stir her hair (and any loose clothing). Typical 'smoke-in-reverse' special effect as the hallway around them clears. Xander is behind Willow and has a look like Wile E Coyote poking a bomb, but he quickly reverts to a broad grin as Willow turns excitedly to him.

'You go with your witchy self' says Xander, hands both on his axe now. She smiles animatedly and says 'It was a spell to clear mist actually, I kind of modified it to work on smoke too. It'll move with us, and it only affects open areas, so the vents are still smoky. If the beastie wants clean air, he's gotta come to us' she finishes with a proud and self-satisfied confidence. (very much old Willow)

They move down the hall.

*****************

Scene theatrical stage, slightly smoky (not nearly so much as the hallway Willow and Xander where checking), Buffy and Dawn enter stage left. A fire alarm begins to sound and both Buffy and Dawn jump with a shriek. Buffy 'I thought we got all of them!' Dawn 'guess not...' Buffy 'great. Now we have 10 minutes tops before the fire department arrives.' Dawn 'here, demon, demon, demon...' Buffy just shakes her head with a 'yeah, that's gonna work' look and begins to walk forward when the green demon leaps at her from behind the curtains and she looks startled long enough to be entangled with it for a moment in the black backstage-curtains. Dawn shouts 'Buffy!' and stands around making 'ooh' noises and flinching as she sees the entangled combatants getting in hits and grunting and growling as they grapple, while she tries to get an angle with her sword on the rolling black-curtain clad tangle of green demony and Buffy parts, but never can quite find the right time to stab without risking stabbing Buffy. Hard to see the demon since it is wrapped in black cloth and tangled with Buffy throughout this scene.

******************

Scene, Buffy's dining room. Giles is poking with one finger at Willows computer, diffidently, displaying the worlds slowest typing style. He looks up, 'oh dear, sumara demons are only found in mated pairs...'

******************

Back in the hallway, Willow and Xander flinch at the sound of the fire alarm, Willow rolling her eyes and they continue to walk with increased haste forward, but hear Dawns scream and start running down the hall towards it, but turn a corner to find a *second* green demon standing equally surprised in front of them. (This demon is out in the open, and looks sort of like Lorne, from Angel, but taller and thinner with dark green skin, mottled with black and yellow spots, bright red eyes and dark yellow claws that cover extend a good inch or two from the tip of the actors fingers and are connected to the last finger joint (so they don't bend when it makes clawing motions, so they actually appear the length of the last finger joint, plus one or two extra inches). If possible, thin it out a little with CGI, unless a really skinny actor is available to play the Sumara demons. A taller thin actor might help to 'stretch' it's appearance. Alternately, try to keep the actor / actress angled to minimize their aspect, making it appear thinner. Makeup to accentuate bony-ness (despite lack of bones) just to scream 'really thin.')

Xander, raising axe, 'aaah' surprised, Green Demon, raising arms, equally surprised 'Urr' before both recover their bearings and the demon moves in and begins to claw at Xander, deftly avoiding his axe strikes. Behind Xander, Willow shouts 'Invocere Tempestas!' and the smoke seems to return down the hall behind Willow. Xander and the demon are now struggling (he has blocked a swipe with his axe, but it is now struggling with him for control of the axe, and seems to be winning, swinging him around with some ease). The smoke rushes down the hall in a plume, like a freight train from behind Willow, and Xander, and rushes over them with a fierce gritty wind, blowing them both forward a step, but striking the demon right in the face, causing it to lose it's grip on the axe and recoil backwards. Xander regains his balance first, and plunges his axe into the demons chest. The smoke has rushed on past them, and both Willow and Xander are covered in soot now (as well as a light dusting around the hallway). Willow rushes up behind Xander and grabs him, and they hug briefly (his hug being one-handed, as he is still holding his axe, which apparently didn't get stuck in the demon's chest).

Suddenly both remembering Buffy and Dawn, they turn and run down the hall.

(For total camp, consider Willow pulling out a pair of fluffy earmuffs for herself and / or Xander at this moment. The idea of Xander with an axe, wrestling with a demon in the hall of school, while wearing fluffy pink bunny earmuffs, does have a sadistic appeal...)

*******************

Fire alarm still wailing, but not loud enough to be annoying (no matter how unrealistic that is).

Buffy rolls out from the tangle and is now pummeling the entangled demon with her fists, like a 'pillow party' hellmouth style. Dawn is just watching, looking kind of bored. 'Um. Buffy?' pummel, pummel, pummel 'Buffy?' pummel some more 'What Dawn?' kick 'Need help?' one last kick 'Nah' Buffy walks over to Dawn and looks at the sword 'Can I borrow that for a second? I'll give it right back' Dawn looks resigned and hands it over. Buffy turns to the demon, which has just gotten up and shredded the remains of the curtain that were entangling it in time to see Buffy in front of it, ramming a sword into its chest 'Shows over, go home.' She returns and goes to hand the sword, which now has a black ichor on the blade, to Dawn, who takes it with an 'ew, when you borrow someones sword and kill something with it, you're supposed to clean it before returning it...' Buffy looks at her. Dawn, unfazed continues. 'No really, it's a rule, I saw it in the Slayers handbook.' (she folds her arms and looks adamant.)

Willow and Xander rush through the door at the same time, kind of stumbling into each other as they stop sharply. Xander 'um, here to save you, just in the nick of too late...' Willow looks annoyed at the wailing fire alarm and holds up car keys, 'we can save you a walk home tho!' chirpily.

An additional ringing sound from behind Dawn turns out to be a cell-phone in the presumably now-empty backpack that Willow gave her. She figures it out, picks it up and looks at it to see who's calling then holds it to her head and kind of shouts (fire alarm still in the background) 'Yeah?' 'Ok, um, that's good to know.' She looks at Xander, still holding a bloody axe. 'Yeah, we'll keep an eye out, thanks Giles.' she hangs up and as they head out says 'Sumara demons travel in pairs.' and they all chuckle, having figured that out already.

(If the awful earmuffs are included, a reaction shot of from Buffy (incredulous 'what the fuck' look) and Dawn 'oh my god, you two are so cute!' and Buffy, looking annoyed instead of Willow (who would not hear it as bad in this version) adding 'got any for us, so we can match in our fashion disasterness?' would be required here. Naturally Willow and Xander would both go 'huh?' being that they can't hear Dawn or Buffy that well, and would take off the earmuffs embarassedly at this point.)

*********************

Scene - the hallway. Fire department and police personnel are standing over the demon corpse in the hallway and pointedly not looking at it. The new principal stands with them, in casual dress (having been called from home, obviously) and is pointedly looking at the dead demon, which a man in an indistinct uniform (the sort of zip up coverall a garbage collector might wear, but gray and clean) is zipping into a body-bag.

The policeman looks to the principal, who is rubbing his hands on his temple as if trying to massage his brain. 'so, what's the story.' The principal turns, suddenly smooth as ice, 'A wild dog somehow made it into the school, nibbled on some low-hanging electrical wires back-stage and electrocuted itself. Poor thing.' He looks down at the body, being hauled away by a pair of men, with a distinct lack of feeling, and we can see another bag being dragged out the door to the stage by another man, he continues 'The short caused only minor damage, but one of the curtains was smoldering and the smoke alarms went off. I'll have facilities put some sort of protective facing over those wires, to avoid any future incident, for the safety of the students of course.'

The policeman looks at him, nods slowly, and hands him a pad, saying, 'just sign here sir, and we'll be on our way. We'll keep someone here until you've finished airing the place out, I imagine you'll want to stay until the ducts are clear?'

'I'll be fine, you can leave, if your men are done here. I appreciate all of your help.'

The cop looks for a tenth of a second like he might argue, but he shrugs and walks away.

**********************

Scenes - rapidly changing location shots of empty open classrooms, hallways, theatrical rooms, cafeteria, library, etc. The main entrance to the school lit and open (with a little smoke wafting out) despite it being the middle of the night.

Scene - a classroom. The Principal is standing in the room, staring intently, feverishly, at the air slightly in front of and below him (check posture from The Pack to get it right) 'You now how long I've waited? Until you'd stop pretending we aren't attracted...' he moves up as if following someone 'Until Willow'd stop kidding herself, that I'd settle for anyone but you'

Scene - the library. The Principal is standing in the entrance, looking at the desk and swaying slightly with an arm extended and two fingers pointed into the air in front of him. He says softly, in a familiar accent 'Bae, in mae...' and the camera flashes to his other hand at his side, which splays convulsively and then arcs forward in a slashing motion as he re-enacts Drusillas last sight of Kendra.

Scene - a raised balcony. The Principal is standing in a posture of victory facing the air, and his hands move suddenly, pantomiming the murder of Jenny Calender. He watches her unseen corpse fall to the ground and looks up at the camera 'I never get tired of doing that...'

Scene - continues on the raised balcony, extends the Buffy / Jenny Calender scene beyond what was shown in Passions. The Principal, still moving like Angel, all arrogant and loose-limbed, moves fluidly to mime grabbing Jenny from the ground and holding her like a child, with his hand clearly adjusting to support her broken neck in a display of versimitude. He says, in a mocking and light tone, 'No more laying around Jenny, it's your big night. Can't be late to your big date.' He adds a special emphasis to 'late' He looks at the 'body' supposedly in his arms as he walks lightly down the stairs and through the hall. ''Late' for your big date? Get it?' He looks disappointed. 'No sense of humor. You and Rupert must really hit it off.' As he jauntily struts down the hallway, he suddenly shifts his 'burden,' now clearly carrying her like a sack of potatoes thrown over one shoulder, and his other hand making a suggestive squeeze where her buttocks would be, if there were an actual body slung over his shoulder. He leers and begins to whistle as the scene ends with him striding down the hall, camera shot from behind with him walking away with a bounce in his step and an imaginary corpse over his shoulder.

Scene - The Principal stands outside, locking up. He looks up at the building before he turns away and softly speaks, 'So many stories.' and turns and walks away.

*********************

Pad as necessary with pointless scenes of Spike and Clem (and Anya?) playing poker and talking about Africa and lurky demon and souls.