Summary For "Empty Places"

A man flips a closed sign over on his business. The street is crowded with vehicles and people leaving town. Buffy walks down the street. Clem talks to her from a red car. He asks her if she believes the traffic jam. Buffy says something about the craziness. She asks Clem what he's up to. He says he's getting out of town. Things are going bad in town. This time the bad thing in town feels more powerful than before. He doesn't think anyone can stop it. Then he changes his opinion and says she can stop it, he's sure she can. He rambles for awhile, trying to take his foot out of his mouth, then he tells her maybe she should get out of town this time. Buffy agrees that maybe she should. Clem tells her to take care of herself. She says she will. They wave, the traffic starts to move and Clem drives away.

Roll Credits.

Giles and Willow pretend to be INTERPOL inspectors talking to a cop. The cops drag a crazy man past them, he's saying from beneath you it devours. The cop starts to pick through their cover story, Willow and Giles bolt. Willow says she wants to get back to Xander. Two more cops approach the cop they were talking to, hand him a bulletin on an escaped fugitive.

At the hospital, Buffy is explaining to Xander about his face being bruised or something, everything the doctor told her. Xander says he keeps expecting his senses to improve by fifty percent. Buffy says she has to go. She thanks Willow for a file she hands her. Willow says she thought they were going to hang together. Xander tells her it's okay, he'll see her later, with depth perception. Buffy leaves. Willow tries to make him feel better. They both joke, they end up crying.

In the basement Anya is giving the SIT's a lecture on Ubervamps. She's been gathering information from her old contacts. Andrew draws pictures on the whiteboard to go along with Anya's lecture. She says that they can kill an ubervamp with a stake through the heart, Andrew misspells stake as steak on the whiteboard, tries to fix it. Anya says staking them is a little bit like driving a piece of wood through solid steel, but they're all super strong so it should be all right. She's greeted with silence. She rambles on, the SIT's ask her what the point is, they're all feeling fairly hopeless. Anya says she doesn't want to be there either, she'd rather be at the bedside of her one eyed ex fiancé. Not that that's very comfortable either, especially after the uncomfortable conversation they had over on Spike's cot after their extremely hot breakup sex. Andrew writes about the breakup sex on the whiteboard. The scene cuts with Anya still babbling on and on.

Kennedy walks into the kitchen where Faith is sitting eating. Faith asks her why she's not down at Hogwart's. Kennedy says something about Anya rambling about Xander. Faith says when Anya starts that, Faith just reminds her that she had Xander first and it shuts her right up. They discuss how no one knows anything about Caleb. Buffy comes in, the file Willow handed to her has Caleb information. Dawn and that ugly SIT enter the room, the file sasys that Caleb is an ex con or something like that. Faith makes a comment about him being able to kill an SIT with one punch. There's silence. Buffy asks why the SIT's aren't in the basement listening to Anya. They say they should be and leave the room. Buffy tells Faith to get started with the research, she leaves the room too, Faith opens the file, begins to read.

Buffy goes to the school, she's looking at a picture of her and Willow and Xander. Caleb walks in and insults her.

Caleb starts to talk to Buffy about how they took religion out of the schools. He says he will do whatever he is asked to. Buffy tells him if he goes near Xander again she'll kill him. Caleb throws a table across the room. He gets real close to her. Tells her that there's big changes a comin and she can be a part of them. He asks her why she resists. She tells him she's just stubborn. She hits him. Caleb says he's going to enjoy taming her. He grabs her by the throat, throws her through the door into the hall. Buffy lies flat on her face unconscious, Caleb leaves.

Giles and Dawn are in the kitchen, Andrew comes running in complaining that the SIT ate his last hot pocket. Dawn and Giles ignore Andrew they're looking at a detail on a picture. The go into the living room with the rest of the SIT's. Giles sends Kennedy to get Spike. Spike comes upstairs, Giles tells Spike he has a mission for him. Spike is mistrustful, says Giles' missions sometimes end with him almost getting killed. Giles tells him to take someone with him. They suggest he take Andrew. Andrew looks afraid. Dawn says he is always complaining about not getting out of the house. Spike isn't happy about it, but he and Andrew leave together. Faith tries to cheer up the SIT's, her reassurances don't work. Next scene Faith, Dawn and the SIT's are all at the Bronze dancing.

Buffy walks in to the house, Giles asks her if she's hurt. Buffy says Caleb attacked her. Giles tells her he sent Spike to do some investigating. Buffy is not happy with him, he sent away the only person she has to watch her back. Buffy asks where everyone is. Giles says he thought it was a good idea to send them all to the Bronze. Buffy heads out the door.

FE/Buffy and Caleb talk about Buffy. Caleb says she's right where they want her, all they need to do is give her a real nice nudge.

At the Bronze, Faith takes an alcoholic drink away from the ugly SIT because she's only 17. Faith starts to drink, the cops come in and tell her they have an outstanding warrant against her. Faith resists. They swarm her, grab her, drag her outside. Faith tells them she's not going back to jail, she hits one of them, turns to go back in, the door to the Bronze closes. Faith turns, the cops pull guns on her and ask her who said anything about jail.

Faith fights off the cops. We see the SIT's are locked inside, the cops won't let them out. Faith is on the ground, being beaten by the police. Inside the SIT's and Dawn attack the other cops, the get outside just as Faith knocks out the last of the cops. They all emerge into the alley just as Buffy shows up. Buffy asks them what they're doing. Faith says she's blowing off some steam. Buffy sends everyone but Faith home. She tells Faith what she did was wrong, these girls are all drunk, they're not safe. Faith says they gotta get down and dirty, how else are they gonna learn, Buffy starts to walk away, Faith asks her how safe the girls were at the vineyard. Buffy turns, comes back, punches Faith, Faith gets up off the ground, rubbing his face.

Spike and Andrew have a conversation about cooking on the motorbike on the way to wherever they're going. Spike gives Andrew cooking advice, then tells him if he tells anyone they had this conversation he'll bite him. Andrew agrees to stay quiet.

Faith is sitting on the porch, Wood approaches from behind. He asks her who beat her up. She says most of the bruises are from cops, she points at her cheek and tells him that this one is from someone who just thinks she's a cop. Wood asks her why she didn't fight back. Faith says it wasn't the right thing to do. Faith and Wood talk, Wood tells her things about her, Faith returns the favor by telling him maybe he has bigger issues with B than he's letting on. Wood looks confused, his cover's blown, Faith says she reads people too. Headlights sweep across her face. She says "Xander's home."

Spike and Andrew go into a church or something of the sort. A man attacks. Spike beats the man down, he has a symbol burnt into the side of his face.

Willow and Anya lead Xander into the house. He's a bit stunned all the SIT's are gathered to welcome him home. They apologize for not having a better welcoming party. He say's it's good. Buffy walks in, she tells them they're going back to the vineyard.

Andrew attempts to play good cop bad cop with the man with the symbol burned into his face, the man is a priest. Spike stops Andrew from interrogating, he's very bad at it. The priest tells the story willingly. He says that Caleb gave him the mark. That he killed everyone else in the church. The priest leads them into a room where Caleb stayed. On the wall is an inscription that says It is for her alone to wield.

Buffy tries to talk the SIT's into going back to the vineyard. She tells them that if there wasn't something important there, they wouldn't be guarding it. Faith asks why they should go in without proof. Faith says she's not going back without proof. Buffy asks Faith who's side she's on. Wood says he believes Faith had the floor. Giles says Faith has a point. It's a big risk to take. Buffy says that's what she does, she makes big decisions. Buffy asks if they don't trust her. Giles says that's not the issue, she doesn't trust them. Everyone starts to turn on Buffy. Even Willow. Anya asks Buffy if she thinks she's better than all of them. If because she came into the world with all these powers she thinks she's better than them. But what if she isn't. She has the powers but she never earned them. The SIT's accuse her of being reckless. Xander says he doesn't want to go back, the price he paid was too high. Buffy says this isn't a democracy, she's the boss. Kennedy says that Faith is a slayer too, maybe they should take a vote and see if Faith should lead for awhile. Faith says this isn't what she wanted. Buffy verbally attacks Faith for taking the SIT's out and winning them over by getting them drunk and baking cookies with them. Faith counters with, and doing unimportant things like learning their names. Faith says she doesn't want to lead but she's not so sure Buffy's thinking the right way anymore. Buffy says Faith just wants to take over her job. Faith says she just wants to beat the bad guys. Dawn comes over and tells Buffy she loves her, and they have to be together on this, and Buffy has to leave. Buffy goes out the door. One of the SIT's says ding dong the witch is dead, Dawn tells her to shut up. Faith follows Buffy out of the door, tries to stop her. Buffy tells her to not be afraid to lead them. Whether she wants it or not, their lives are in her hands. Faith nods silently, turns and goes into the house.

Buffy cries as she walks down the stairs and onto the sidewalk.

The End.