Summary For "Potential"

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Previously on Buffy the Vampire Slayer: Dawn sits in destroyed Summers home after seeing Joyce, Buffy telling Spike she believes in him, Bringers grab Spike, the First activates the Ubervamp, Ubie kicks Buffy's ass, SIT's arrival at Summers home, Rona's arrival in Sunnydale, Eve's body is discovered in hotel room, Eve/First is discovered at Summers home, Buffy kicks Ubie's ass for good, Buffy's speech to the troops, Buffy rescues Spike.

Night-time in one of Sunnydale's many graveyards has two SIT's, Rona and Vi (the gal who wears the colorfull beret), lurking about, on the prowl for something. Rona stalks with a stake at the ready, Vi nervously clutches one in both hands. Suddenly out of nowhere Rona is struck down and falls to the ground. Spike, in Vamp face, then snarls and grabs Vi from behind. Vi screams as Spike dips his head to bite, then looks up and, taking off his game face, Spike asks an unseen group "OK? These two are dead... why?" He addresses the two other SIT's (Kennedy and... um... shoot... I'll get her name... Molly!) with Buffy nearby. It's a training session and the two SIT's have kinda failed, but still learned. Rona says they're dead because they're not slayers and Spike wasnt' fighting fair. Vi, still in Spike's behind-the-back grip, agrees that they have learned and hints at being let go from Spike's painful grasp. Spike smirks at her "fair" statement as Buffy chimes in, telling Rona and the others that while they don't have Slayer strength and speed, they have potential and still have inherent gifts. Buffy then asks Rona and Vi what their instincts told them to do. At first Rona says "block his attack" but then after Buffy glares at her, she admits they told her to run, which Vi agrees with. Buffy says then that's what they should have done. Buffy then goes into the Vampire mindset and has Spike attack her, but she easily gains the upper hand, forcing Spike onto the ground and straddling him. Spike winces in pain at the yet to be healed broken ribs which Buffy checks out caringly, a little tenderly. A few subliminal sparks fly. "So... we're supposed to make out with em?" Molly asks. Buffy orders up Molly and Kennedy for the next lesson as Buffy herself tries to shake off the uneasy feelings she and Spike just had.

Opening Credits: Nothing new. Andrew (Tom Lenk) still listed as Guest Star.

In the basement of the Summers home, Buffy paces back and fourth as she hears and sees the giggly SIT's talk girl talk as Dawn watches silently from the stairs. Buffy gets their attention by flinging a large battleaxe at a target in the wall above the SIT's, who immediately are silenced. She gives another rousing speech about how they're all going to die, it's part of being a Slayer, yada yada. Seeing how she's now got their undivided attention, Buffy goes over the latest info. Anya's sources have supposedly hinted that the First is in remission. Rona asks what that means. Buffy says it seems like the First is re-grouping, haiving put a lot of faith in "that Chaka-Kahn thing." "Turok-Han?" Dawn pipes up from the stairs, but she is all but ignored by Buffy, who continues to give another pep-talk/speech about how the SIT's are special, and how even though the First is also re-grouping at the time, they have a purpose, they know why they're there, they're the chosen ones. Finishing her Speech, Buffy heads up the stairs, telling a feeling-ignored Dawn she'd better eat before heading to school on her way past.

Sitting at her work's desk, Buffy talks with Xander on the phone, telling him he's got to be more careful taking a shower in a house full of curious teen girls. She notices a girl, Amanda, approach and waves her over. (Amanda was first seen in "Help" as one of Buffy's first students-to-be-helped.) Before hanging up, Buffy asks if Giles has checked in from picking up another SIT, but he apparently hasn't. Amanda sits and opens up with "Do people ever think you're weird?" She continues to talk about the classic "guys picking on girls to flirt with them" stuff associated with teens, and how she'd like to "pick on him" also. Buffy starts to tell her it's ok, it's normal, but soon her talk dovetails into subliminal talk about mortal enemies getting along and how that can lead to no good (hinting at her relationship with Spike). Amanda looks at a now embarassed Buffy, looking even more confused.

Buffy walks in her front door to hear arguing. Xander and the SIT's are babbling back and fourth as she walks in to find the room a mess! Couch cushions thrown about, a broken bookshelf, etc. Babble-yelling back and fourth until Andrew brings it all to a close, wussilly shouting "Why do we always have to yell?!?" Buffy is disgusted with the mess obviously. Willow walks up behind her. "Hey, look everybody, it's Willow, with a blunt weapon perhaps..." Willow isn't laughing though, and says they have news.

"And she's sure?" Buffy asks Willow, who had just talked to her Coven and found that there is another SIT in Sunnydale, only this one has been there the whole time! Buffy, Willow, Anya, Andrew, Dawn, and Xander all sit around the dining room table, discussing the surpising news. Buffy says she was going to take "the girls" out on a little expedition that evening, but now re-thinks doing so with another potential to be found. Willow tells her to still take the girls out for their training while she will do a locator-type spell to find the new SIT.

Later, in the kitchen, Molly, Rona, and Vi are playing with various weapons on the counter as Dawn walks in and lightly tells them to stop pointing the weapons in her direction. The three SIT's continue to talk as Kennedy walks in, asking if they're ready? Dawn feels left out as she asks about their little trip. Vi corrects her, telling her it's an "Outing." Kennedy is stoked, saying they might get to kill something this trip. Dawn tries to join the discussion saying she's killed things before, but in walks Buffy with Andrew following behind, practically begging to go along on the outing. Buffy tells him no. Andrew thinks it's because they think he's evil. Buffy corrects him saying he's not evil, but evil latches onto him. Spike walks in and now that everyone is gathered, they head out, grabbing weapons off the table and leaving a disheartened Dawn and Andrew behind. "You wanna play Dragonballs-Z?" Andrew asks a hurt Dawn.

In the living room, Willow assembles some spell components as Dawn and Andrew look on (playing with a snake-skin, Andrew makes an off-color remark about how it would be neat if people wriggled out of their skin. The look on Willow's face is not exactly happy). Dawn asks if this potential might go to Sunnydale High. Willow says probably, she should be about the right age. Dawn starts going over some of her classmates, saying that a "margo" in her biology class wouldn't make a good SIT because she feignted during a fetal pig dissection. Dawn then asks how the spell will work. Willow explains that she'll create a glowey ball of light which will track the potential and bathe them in an aura. She has a map of Sunnydale to help them track the spell and hotfoot it if necessary.

Now infront of the fireplace, Willow tosses some spell components into the roaring fire, saying mystical spell-stuff. She last tosses an egg in, announcing "and my spell is done" and suddenly the room is beset by stench! Willow, Xander, Anya, and Dawn all get to their feet with icky-faces on, waving away the smell, as a golden globe of light starts to swirl and float in the room, wavering back and fourth. They notice it's not doing anything except just wavering in mid air and after some jibes from Anya, Willow apologizes for the failed spell. Dawn heads to the front door to air the place out from the stench and moments later the golden glow rushes towards her, hitting her in the chest and sending her flying into the door hard! It looks as if it went right through her, and it left Dawns chest and stomach glowing just a little as Xander and Willow look on. "I think it worked!" Willow says, wide-eyed

Commercial Break: Got some stink and you want it to not-stink? Try the new non-stank stink stuff! Sure, it smells bad, but not as bad as that spell you just cast!

Dawn collapses against the door, dazed, as Xander rushes to help her. She gets up a little shaken, and a little freaked, wondering if the spell turned out wrong. Xander is excited and in shock and Anya chimes in "wow, it's like one second you were this klutzy teenager with fake memories and a history of cleptomania and then suddenly, you're a hero... a hero with a much abbreviated life span." Dawn sits on the couch, trying to collect herself, as Xander, Willow, and Anya continue their "wow, you're a potential" spiel. Dawn starts to pace the room as Willow remembers that she and Buffy share the same blood. Willow says they've got to call Buffy and tell her, but Xander reminds her that Buffy didn't bring her cell phone. Dawn, still pacing, wants to know what's going to happen with her life. Willow says she's probably going to start training with Buffy and the other potentials. Anya mentions that they've also got to protect her from the Bringers.

In walks Andrew, wondering when they're gonna replace the microwave as he wants to make popcorn, when he sees that something is up and asks. "Dawns gonna be a Slayer" Anya says. "Holy crap! Plucked from an ordinary life, handed a destiny..." Andrew starts, before being cut off by Xander "Say Skywalker and I smack you..." Andrew asks if Buffy knows, but Xander says no, which has Dawn tell them that she doesn't want Buffy to know just yet. Dawn then mentions her vision of Joyce from earlier and says that Buffy may not be so happy to hear such news. Dawn needs to gather her thoughts and heads up to her room as the remaining Scoobies start talking about Dawn's new revelations (during which Andrew says gives a "blossoming womanhood" metaphor, and Xander now offers to pay him to talk about Star Wars). Anya takes up a more negative view, saying that this has simply bought Dawn an early death.

The four continue to talk about Dawn downstairs as Dawn listens from her upstairs room. Dawn is trying to grasp this new life she's been given. She measures herself in a mirror for a moment "I'm chosen" she mumbles as she tries to like the idea, but words from Willow downstairs bring her back to Earth, saying that she's not handling it well cowering up in her room. The scoobies come to the conclusion downstairs that they should take it slow and not rush her. Dawn doesn't hear this last bit clearly though. She can't take all the talk about her and climbs out her bedroom window.

And it seems the first stop on the SIT's outing is a bar! "Best damn field trip I ever took!" Kennedy says, but Vi notices a difference and loudly announces that it's a demon bar! Various demons look at the group as one of them recongizes Spike. The demon thanks him for bringing snacks, but Spike tells him to bug off or he'll lose his privates. Spike then says "nice job of blending in girls." to which Rona asks how much blending in a bunch of 15 year olds in a demon bar can do? Buffy says usually when they come to a place like this they want to be scene, make their presence known... "or have a stiff drink?" Molly asks? Buffy backtracks a little, especially after they ask if she drinks, then she sounds prudish, then... after a while, Buffy tells them to go for it and the girls get excited. "Down all the Yack-urine snapps and Pigs-blood spritzers you like!" Of course the girls are not so excited now. Buffy says if she comes there it's usually because she has to wring information out of something large and scary and all of them hate the Slayer...

"Buffy? Girl, how you been?!?" Clem greets Buffy and both exchange hugs. "Yeah, he's ripping her throat right out" Kennedy quips. Clem small chats with her before she takes him aside for just a moment out of earshot of the SIT's. They return and Clem introduces himself and says "So... you girls are gonna deal with demons, huh? Just lemmie tell ya this..." he leans in as if to huddle, all lean in with him, then, from a behind POV we see Clem do a Beetlegueise imitation, with antennai and large, second ears and everything shooting out of his face. All the SIT's are freaked! "I could use a shot of that Yak-urine right about now" says Vi.

Dawn walks alone down a night-time Sunnydale street, arms crossed, deep in thought, when she comes across Amanda headed in the opposite direction. Both exchange nervous plesantries before Amanda asks if Dawn is ok? Dawn says she's fine, just needed to think, as she notices Amanda brush her hair out of her face and it reveals a large cut in her forehead. Dawn now asks Amanda if she's ok and Amanda, not noticing the scar before, is a little nervous and shaken, not knowing what to say. Dawn is caring and asks further, even to Amanda's saying that she probably won't believe her. Amanda tells that she was at school late for swing choir and having ripped her uniform, she went to home ec to sew it up. Even later, everyone had since left and the place was spooky when this guy or "thing" attacked her and scratched her. Dawn asks further and wonders if this "thing" scratched her with it's teeth? "Was it real? Was it really a Vampire?" Amanda asks. Dawn of course comforts her and says she believes her. Amanda says after a brief struggle it hit it's head and she trapped it in a room at the school, and she thought about maybe getting Buffy because she's heard that she deals with this kind of thing and can help. Dawn says that they can't get a hold of Buffy, but they can handle it themselves.

"whew! I think I strained something... maybe something I'll need later in life." says Dawn, crawing in a window of a dark Sunnydale High classroom. Amanda tells Dawn the Vampire's trapped upstairs, then asks if Dawn is ok? Dawn says she's fine, but it's obvious she's very jumpy and nervous. Amanda asks if the scratch will turn her into a Vampire, but Dawn says no and tells her why (must drink of a vampire, yada yada). Amanda wonderis if they really have to kill the vampire, thinking instead of letting it loose in the gym so it can take out the marching band who look down on Swing Choir. Dawn gives her a little troubled look and they continue towards the vampire.

The halls are dark and spooky when the come to the door that holds the vampire. It's still in tact. Dawn opens the door (which isn't locked???) and they look in on an empty classroom. "I thought you said it was locked?" Dawn asks. Amanda says it was. Both are confused by where the vampire is. "Amanda, it got out" Dawn anounces, not knowing that the vampire is hiding in the alcove above the doorway, game face on and snarling, ready to strike...

Commercial Break: Windex makes it SHINE!

Dawn and Amanda look at the empty room when suddenly the vampire drops! The two girls take off down the hallway with the vampire in pursuit. Coming to locked doors, Vampire bearing down on them, Dawn smashes open a fire extinguisher alcove and, after struggling to try to use the fire extinguisher the RIGHT way, she belts the vampire with it twice, sending it reeling, as the two girls take off again.

"The Vampire is an animal... sometimes they run in packs, sometimes they run alone" Buffy begins her "class" to the SIT's by showing them a dark, dingy, dank cript by flashlight. They look around, disgusted, and even Spike comments that the place is lacking in style. Buffy brings up that vampires can live anywhere, but the animal inside is always the same. Molly asks where Spike lived. He tells them he lived in a crypt but it was much more posh. "comfy" chimes in Buffy, which Kennedy questions. "Moving on..." Buffy continues, she tells them to split up and look around the place, looking for clues that vampires might have been there. After a few moments, Rona and Molly say they've found a body. Upon investigating and checking the face down body, Buffy says it's not a body, it's leftovers. As she rises from a crowch, the "body" slowly rises also, snarling in Vamp face.

Dawn and Amanda continue to run down the darkened hallways, checking classroom doors here and there. They end up in a chemestry lab and barricade the door with a shelving unit. Resting against it, Amanda asks if they're safe, just as the door and barricade are bashed, startling both girls. We hear Buffy's voiceover start on this scene and continue with her own "No one's safe...

"... not here, not ever." Buffy squares off against the newly arisen vampire. Kennedy says he was dead a minute ago. "That was a minute ago. Now, he's the enemy" Buffy says as she punches the vampire, starting the fight.

"Listen, we're gonna get out of this, both of us" Dawn says, trying to reassure Amanda as the Vampire continues to bash at the door/barricade. Dawn says she's got a plan. "You can't think too much" says Buffy's voiceover.

"... reacting is better. Could be the difference between staying alive and that other thing." Buffy attacks the vampire as the others watch. The vampire kicks and knocks the stake from Buffy's hand, but she continues to kick and punch. Kennedy starts forward to help, but Spike holds her back.

The vamp continues to bash at the door as Dawn says she has a plan. Turns out her plan entails getting up away from the door. Both girls get up and back away from the door as the Vampire enters, snarling up a storm. It dives to attack...

Buffy slams her fist into the vampire, sending it flat on it's back. she then wrestles with it's legs as she explains to her class "The question is never whaddya think, it's whaddya know. You've gotta know, cause if you don't... if you make one mistake..."

"It' takes just one vampire to kill you, so know your environment. Know what's around you and know how to use it..." Buffy's voiceover continues over Dawn's battle with her vampire. As Buffy's instructions ring out, Dawn seems to do everything... wrong. Buffy says make every blow count, Dawn swings with a flagpole and misses continuously. Buffy says improvise with what's around you, Dawn throws harmless flasks and test tubes at the Vampire. Soon, Dawn is pinned to the ground with Amanda cowering in the corner.

In the midst of the battle, Buffy picks up her stake and continues to fight her vampire, giving her lesson-speech the entire time. She punches the vamp back when suddenly she ends with "So right now what do you know? The only thing you know for sure is... you got me." With that, she holds the stake up, and... drops it. It clatters to the ground as she spins and heads for the crypt door. She and Spike (who already exited) close the crypt doors, locking the 4 SIT's in! The four terrified girls look on as the vampire, snarling and smirking, looks at them and advances...

Willow knocks on Dawn's bedroom door, asking her to open up. Anya wants to kick the door in, thinking it would be funny, but Xander checks the doorknob. Not locked. They enter to find the room empty, the window open. "Crap." says Willow. "Double crap." says Anya. Xander says they gotta find her fast. Willow says she can do a quick locator spell, and she'll try and find Buffy too.

Pinned below the Vampire, Dawn struggles and screams for Amanda's help, but Amanda is too shaken and in shock to help. Just as the vamp is about to bite Dawn, the windows of the classroom smash open! Three figures come bounding in the room! Surprised, the vampire is distracted enough for Dawn to kick him off. The three figures are Bringers! And they march in and quickly grab hold of... Amanda! "No! you don't want her!" Dawn shouts, but suddenly confusion hits her. "you want me" she says timidly. Amanda is terrified in the Bringer's grasp as the truth starts to "dawn" on young Summers (sorry, couldn't resist the pun).

Commercial Break: The Buffy Season 3 DVD's! They have Spike on one of the disks! Even though he's only in one show... hey, it's Spike! Never mind Giles or Cordelia... it's SPIKE!

Two Bringers hold a terrified Amanda as a third brandishes their favorite weapon, the ornate dagger. As the third approaches for the kill, Dawn gets up and grabs one of those metal clicky-spark thingys used to ignight gas burners, she ignights one of the chem lab's gas outlets (which I'm guessing she turned on earlier in the fight? I probably missed it) and flame shoots out, blowing the three Bringers and Amanda down. Amanda gets up and takes off out of the room with Dawn and they run down the hallway, Dawn still clutching the flag pole mast. Seeing that they're not being pursued, they stop on a staircase's landing as Amanda asks what those things were. Dawn then lays it out for Amanda, saying that she herself is not special, Amanda is the special one, and this is not her battle. Amanda is still paniced and says she can't do it. At the bottom of the landing arrives Xander, who watches the two girls but doesn't say anything. Dawn says to Amanda that it's her battle and she can do it. Dawn almost ceremoniously passes the flag pole mast to Amanda, who takes it, still not quite sure what to do. Just then, from the hallway, the three Bringers along with the Vampire arrive in pursuit! As they charge down the hallway towards Dawn and Amanda, Xander yells out "Buffy, up here!" as Xander climbs up the stairs. Buffy and Spike soon appear and head up the stairs.

The three Bringers charge Amanda and Dawn, but Amanda, surprising even herself, bats two of them past her, using the mast. Dawn trips the third one. All three go scattering down the stairs, just in time to meet Xander, Buffy, and Spike. The Vampire's turn, he rushes and attacks Amanda, who uses the flag pole mast as a weapon very proficiently! The three Bringers are taken out in due time by Buffy and Spike (I think Xander was somewhere there, too hard to tell). Amanda faces off against the vamp and, jamming the mast in it's chest, she dusts it, then turns towards Buffy and crew, a little shaken "Ok, one minute i'm in Swing Choir, the next... what the hell is going on? You tell me to come see you at practice... turns out a vampire attacks me. Problem. So I go to your house, only when I get there this orange cloud hits me!"

"She was at the front door" mumbles Dawn, dissapointment on her face. Amanda continues her tyrade as Dawn explains to Buffy the orange cloud was Willow's spell and that Amanda is the potential Slayer.

"I'm sure the vampire thought we were, what, like 4 helpless girls" says Rona as the other three SIT's now joined by Amanda, giggle in the Summers living room. Molly, Kennedy, Rona, and Vi talk about their adventure killing the Vampire in the crypt before Kennedy turns to Amanda "So, you took one out solo... what was it like?" Amanda tells that when the vampire attacked her, she felt a kind of charge and somehow knew what to do. Off in the wings, Dawn listens from a distance in a hallway, feeling left out again. From behind come Buffy and Xander. Buffy asks if Dawn is ok. Dawn says she is, and that she's thinking of doing some research on the First to help out. Buffy calls out to the SIT's, asking them downstairs so they can get their newest arrival up to speed. The girls all head off towards the basement, all passing by Dawn without notice, except for a "thank you" type of smile from Amanda.

Dawn quietly sits at a desk and opens some researching books as she then notices Xander is standing behind her. "What's up?" she asks. He approaches her "Ah, I was just thinking about the girls. That's a harsh gig, being a Potential. Just being picked out of a crowd, danger and destiny, plus if you act now, death."

Still a bit down, Dawn says "They can handle it."

"Yeah, they're special. No doubt." Xander says, sitting next to the desk "And the amazing thing is, not one of them will ever know. Not even Buffy."

"Know what?"

"How much harder it is for the rest of us."

"No way, they've got the..."

"Seven years, Dawn. Working with the Slayer, seeing my friends become more and more powerful… a witch, a demon, hell, I could fit Oz in my shaving kit but come the full moon he had wolfy mojo not to be messed with. Powerful, all of them. And I'm the guy who fixes the windows." Xander rises and looks at the windows, starting to feel down himself.

Trying to pick him up a little, she says "You had that sexy army training for a little while,
and, and the windows really did need fixing.."

"I saw what you did last night."

"yeah, I... I guess I sorta lost my head when I thought I was a Slayer."

"You thought you were all special. Miss Sunnydale 2003. And the minute you found out you weren't, you handed the crown over to Amanda without a moment's pause. You
gave her your power"

"The power wasn't mine"

"They'll never know how tough it is, Dawnie. To be the one who isn't chosen; to live so near the spotlight and never step in it. But I know. I see more than anybody realizes, because nobody's watching me. I saw you last night, I see you working here today… You're not special. You're extraordinary." He bends over her and gently kisses her on the forehead as she starts to get a little choked up. He smiles and turns to go.

"Maybe that's your power."

He pauses on his way out "What?"

"Seeing. Knowing."

"Maybe it is"

"Maybe I should get a cape?" Xander smiles at her.

"Cape is good." She smiles back.

"Yeah." He turns and walks out, a little stronger for what he has said. Dawn thinks to herself about his words and their meaning before she turns her attention to the books.

Grrr... Arrrg...

The End