Transcript
OMFG with an emphasis on the F! I loved this issue! Yes, it's because Bangel is my OTP, and they're having crazy monkey sex the entire issue. And it's hot. (Though I also love how deep we're getting into slayer lore.)
The way the issue lays out, it's basically a long discussion between Giles, Faith, Willow, Xander, and Dawn interspersed with images of Buffy and Angel f%&@#g (really rather graphic). Rather than a summary, I transcribed the text of most of the Scoobie conversation. This is as much for myself as for those who want a rundown, as I think it will be easier to understand without interspersed panels of Angel/Buffy nakedness. I'll summarize the first few pages, then get on to the meat of it:
Dawn, Xander, Willow, Satsu, Amy, Warren, and the General burst into Twilight's HQ to find Giles, Andrew, and a severely injured Faith. Everyone gets updated that Twilight is Angel. Willow does a spell to locate Buffy and Angel but tells the others that they probably don't want to see what those two are up to right now. The world vibrates for a moment, and Faith's powers are returned. She confronts Giles about his discussion with Angel in the last issue and demands to know what's going on.
Giles: You have to understand -- even among Watchers, the last time they thought this was happening -- back in the 1680s -- thirty Watchers took their own lives in fear.
Willow: Giles, if you know something -- !
Giles: But don't you see? No one knows anything. It - it's just a Watcher myth...a fairy tale.
Xander: We've got werewolves and centaurs --
Dawn: Centaurettes!
Xander: -- the point is, even when it comes to the dark, scary ones...how much more can you shock us with a fairytale?
Satsu:(Looking at ipad-like device, glimpse of naked Buffy and Angel on the screen) Radar says they're not moving, but they're picking up speed, as if -- (expletive) Dawn, you're in charge. I'm done. (stalks out)
Andrew: Was that them? (Please don't tell me that was them.) It's ruining everything for me.
Faith: I got my powers back. I'm strong again.
Giles: It's--it's--it's everything they warned -- the universe...the universe is answering.
Xander: Giles, you have zero seconds to tell me what the hell this has to do with the universe!
Giles: Think of how the world works...nature isn't wasteful. It doesn't put anything in the ecosystem that it doesn't need. If one side feeds too much, smaller animals lose food and the entire ecosystem collapses. (point illustrated with panels of bats feeding on flies) It's no different with a slayer. Think of waht keeps the vampire population in check. You've heard it before, yes...? Demon blood created the first vampires...but soon after the creatures appeared...
Willow: Into every generation a slayer is born.
Giles: Precisely. Wherever a vampire, there would always be a slayer. Generation after generation, the battle would be fought. And lost. And lost again. (several panels of slayers fighting vampires throughout the ages, and mostly losing) But the balance would always be kept.
Willow: Actually, when you say it like that, it sounds like a really bad plan.
Dawn: (reading from computer) Guys, we've got cyclones reported in six...seven...eight countries
Xander: It is a really bad plan! Thousands of vampires versus one slayer? How fair is that?
Giles: It's not fair. But the greatest battles are never fair. Think of the balance.
Dawn: (reading from computer) Earth temperature just went up 0.9 degrees in the northern hemispheres.
Andrew: (reading from second computer) Rosby waves -- whatever they are -- are churning four percent faster in every ocean.
Giles: However much Buffy and Angel might love or miss each other what Buffy's experiencing now is the pull of something far more ancient, far more powerful, and far more destructive than anyone in this omniverse has ever felt before. If the universe is smart enought to create vampires and slayers to balance each other out, isn't it also possible that, well, that the universe is also smart enough to have a far bigger plan for them?
more reports of natural disasters around the world
Xander: That's the universe's grand plan? Giving Buffy super-powers so she can have desiny sex?
Giles: You're not listening. These abilities she's displaying, they're an evolution. A protection for what's to come. Indeed, my predecessors, the cultists who took their own lives, they called it the next step up the metaphysical ladder.
Willow: Giles, you're scaring me.
Giles: We need to be scared. That's they they only whisper about it Willow. This isn't just the Earth's reaction. It's how the Earth gives birth to a new reality. For thousands of years, the universe has been watching -- waiting to find one slayer, just one, who measures up to the test. Century after century, they all meet the same fate. Until Buffy Summers came along and did the one thing that no slayer -- no slayer in history -- has done before.
Willow: She shared the power.
Giles: She didn't just share it Willow. With you, and the power of the scythe, she created it. She gave this world a new breed. A new evolution. (panel of the slayer army) And this is the universe's reward. The power that will let her reach the next step on the ladder -- the power to survive the twilight.
Warren: That' fine, but what about Angel? No offense -- (and by the way, I hate you all) -- but why's Angel get a reward?
Willow: Because he's the yin to her yang.
Warren: Now there's the fantasy.
Willow: It's not a fantasy and everyone knows it. Giles said the universe was smart. So think how it's being -- Angel's the piece we were missing. Sure Buffy shared her power, but when it came to her place in the slayer history books -- I'm pretty sure that's not the only thing she was the first to do. (panel of Angel and Buffy having sex in space, yes, space)
Dawn: I can't find them on radar anymore. They're moving too fast.
Amy: I checked. They're not on this plane of existence. I think, don't ask me how, but -- can they be moving through time?
panel of Buffy and Spike facing something together with the caption "soon", panel of Buffy getting her bump in power with caption “three days ago”
Willow: Oh goddess..
Xander: What?
Willow: Think about it. She should be staking him right now. She did it once to save the world. Now the world won't let her. It isn't just reacting to what they're doing...it's urging them on. It'a all part of it. What's been, what's to come--or might not come...Think of Buffy's truest loves. )(panel of Angel and Spike) Vampires--humans infected by demons. Just like slayers. Buffy's meant to make that connection. That's the universe's grand plan.
Giles: Yes. They are the best of their kind...The first of a new kind. And when they truly become? We humans won't matter at all. And do you understand how quickly the ancient demons and magicks will come pouring back in?
panel of hundreds of demons entering our universe through a portal
Amy: (using magic to see the arriving demon hordes) --I'm showing a dimensional rift -- Hey, people-I-want-to-kill! It's raining demons!
Faith: Giles, when you were talking with Angel, he said...in Germany...in England -- he said you were searching for something.
Giles: I-I was -- there are rumors of a totem, and item that could stop them if they grew too powerful. I know it sounds horrible, but that's what I was searchign for -- I needed to know how to kill a god. (panel of the scythe) But look around. It's too late now -- Twilight is here.
Buffy awakens fully clothed (which she has not yet been this entire issue), in decidedly un-Buffy like clothes. Angel is in very un-Angel like clothes. They are in a quasi-alien or fantasy landscape.
Buffy: Um. Where are we? (And why'm I dressed?)
Angel: Buff..did you--? How'd we--? Wait. Is this--? It is, isn't it? It took the two of us--
Buffy: Angel. English. Please.
Angel: Don't you see? To -- if we pierced the final wall -- the keys were us!
Buffy: The keys to what?
Angel: To everything. Look around. They said it didn't exist. But it does. It always has. And now it's ours. Here we are Buffy. Welcome to Twilight.
The End
