CORDELIA: (chanting) Vanu'esh. Katahn darh'im. Vajra'ha'esh. Vanu'esh. Katahn darh'im. Vajra'ha'esh. (etc)

(Connor watches Cordelia chant, then goes into the next room, squats besides the girl, who wakes)

CONNOR: It's okay. I'm not gonna hurt you.

VIRGIN: (cowering) Please...

CONNOR: Brought you some water.

VIRGIN: (crying) I gotta get home. My mom's gonna be so mad.

CONNOR: (softly) I'm sorry.

VIRGIN: (weeping) I won't tell anyone, I promise. Please, just let me go.

DARLA: Listen.

CONNOR: Somebody there?

DARLA: I've always been here... close to your heart. After all... (steps from shadows) isn't that where a mother belongs?

(... commercial ...)

DARLA: The Powers have sent me to give you a message.

CONNOR: You can't be my mother.

DARLA: I have her memories, her feelings. Isn't that what makes a person who they are?

VIRGIN: Let me go, please... (softly sobbing)

DARLA: I know that sound, the look in her eyes, the smell of fear. I've nurtured it a thousand times in all the people that I've murdered.

CONNOR: My mother's dead.

(the girl looks up at the nonsequitar. She's not hearing Darla.)

DARLA: And I'll always be a part of you. You shared your soul with me once when you were growing inside of me when I'd lost my own. You brought light to my shadow, filled my heart with joy and love. I'd never felt so close to any living thing as I did to my beautiful boy.

CONNOR: Why'd you leave me? Did you hate me that much?

DARLA: Baby, no. I wanted to be with you more than anything.

CONNOR: You killed yourself. I wasn't even born yet. And you—

DARLA: —did what I had to. My life for yours. I did so many terrible things, Connor, so much destruction, so much pain. You were the one good thing I ever did. The only good thing. I'd die every day for the rest of eternity for you. And this... (gestures to the virgin girl) is how you repay me?

CONNOR: You don't understand. We need her for our baby to keep it safe.

DARLA: By anointing it in the blood of an innocent? You really think that safety can be plucked from the arms of an evil deed?

CONNOR: Good, evil. They're just words.

DARLA: Don't let this happen, Connor. Don't let my death mean nothing.

(...)

CONNOR: They hate us... because we're special.

VIRGIN: (crying, pleading) I don't hate you. Please.

DARLA: They're scared because of what you've done not because of what you are.

CONNOR: They wanted to kill me when I was still inside of you.

DARLA: But that changed when they saw you, held you in their arms, felt the warmth of your skin, the goodness in your heart.

CONNOR: And it will happen again when they hold my child. It's the only way.

DARLA: You have a choice, Connor. That is something more precious then you'll ever know.

CONNOR: What choice? They're hunting us like animals!

DARLA: Because you're acting like one. As a vampire I killed without mercy or remorse because I didn't have a soul. What's your excuse?

CONNOR: You think I wanna do this?

DARLA: Then don't.

CONNOR: (nearly in tears) I have to.

DARLA: Why? (gestures to Cordelia in the next room) Because she told you? There are things happening, Connor, things that I can't— (sigh) It has to be your choice. You can stop this.

CONNOR: Her blood for our baby's. It's fair, isn't it?

VIRGIN: (weeping) Please, I wanna go home.

CONNOR: (yelling) Shut up!

DARLA: This isn't you, Connor.

CONNOR: You've been gone a long time, Mom. How would you know?

DARLA: Because we shared a soul. I feel the pain, the anger, the hurt, like it were my own. But most of all, I feel the good in you and no matter how much you're beaten or twisted or lied to, it's still there in your heart. I know it, and deep down, you know it, too.

(...)

CONNOR: (moves to untie the girl) Shhhhh. Shhh. It's okay.

DARLA: You're all right now. Everything's going to be all right.

CORDELIA: (walks into the room) What are you doing?

CONNOR: (frozen) Nothing. I, uh—

CORDELIA: It's time. Take her in the other room.

DARLA: Listen to your heart.

CONNOR: (to Cordelia) She didn't do anything. We should let her go.

CORDELIA: No we shouldn't. We need her, Connor. Our baby—

CONNOR: Shouldn't be anointed with innocent blood.

CORDELIA: (angrily) Anointed? Who's been filling your head with big, confusing words.

CONNOR: Just been thinking about it.

CORDELIA: Or, maybe... a little birdie's been pecking at you behind my back.

DARLA: (to Connor) She'll lie to you.

CORDELIA: You know how much they love to use the magic, Connor. A spell for this, a spell for that.

DARLA: Close her out, baby.

CORDELIA: Whatever you're hearing, whatever you think you're seeing—it's a trick.

DARLA: Don't let her in.

CORDELIA: It's Angel.

DARLA: No.

CORDELIA: Trying to turn you against me with a cheap vision of— (looks to where Darla's standing) Darla.

CONNOR: (to Cordelia) You can see her?

CORDELIA: I see the lies.

DARLA: Connor, listen to me.

CORDELIA: It's not her.

DARLA: You have to let her go.

CORDELIA: It's your father. This is how much he hates you.

DARLA: I love you. Please.

CORDELIA: Torturing you with this sad imitation of your dead mother.

DARLA: (crying) Don't let her do this.

CORDELIA: (pushing) Are you going to let them do this to us? Are you going to let them kill our baby?

DARLA: Connor, listen to me...

CONNOR: (yelling, crying) You are not my mother!

(Connor grabs the virgin girl by her bound hands and drags her into the other room.)

VIRGIN: (weeping) No.

(he drags her into the circle. Cordelia raises a butcher's knife. The girl suddenly looks like Darla)

DARLA: Please, don't do this Connor. Don't—

(Cordy murders the girl, splattering blood on Connor's face)

CORDELIA: There. That wasn't so hard, was it?

(... commercial ...)

CORDELIA: Connor, we have to do this while it's fresh. Vanu'esh. Katahn darh'im. Vajra'ha'esh. Vanu'esh. Katahn darh'im. Vajra'ha'esh. ...darh'im...

(Connor dips his hand in the girl's blood. Cordy pulls back her shirt, revealing her belly)

CORDELIA: Do it, Connor. (panting) Do it now. (panting) Do it now.

(Connor presses his bloody palm to Cordelia's belly. She screams. The building starts to shake around them.)

• Cordelia & Connor

written by: Steven S. DeKnight; Original transcript by CariCranberry. Edited and formatted for this site by me.. Full transcript at:
http://www.buffyworld.com/angel/season4/transcripts/83_tran.php