Who Are You?
[S4.16 : W/T.6]
 

Yours
The Journey to the Nether Realm  

... continued ...

INT. TARA'S DORM ROOM - NIGHT

Tara and Willow enter.

WILLOW
I'm sorry you're feeling blechy. But
we'll get together with Buffy another time, some time soon.
 I really think you'll like her --

TARA
She's not your friend.

WILLOW
I may have overestimated the "you liking her" factor. 
But I wish you'd give her a chance; she's very
important to me.

TARA
No, I mean… I don't think she's…
her.

WILLOW
You lost me.

TARA
A person's energy has a flow, a unity. 
Buffy's was fragmented; it grated, like something forced 
in where it doesn't belong. 
Plus she was kinda mean.

WILLOW
You think Buffy's not herself? 
Like she's possessed or something?

TARA
I'm not sure…

WILLOW
You didn't sense a hyena energy at all did you? 
Hyena possession is just unpleasant.

TARA
Do you have anything of hers?

WILLOW
Of Buffy's? Uh, uh, Ooh! Ah!
This ring.

Tara crosses to her desk, pulls a book out of her drawer.

TARA
There's a way we can…
(flips through book)
… The passage to the nether-realm,
there's a ritual, if you find her there 
you should be able to see…

She reads a moment. 
Willow comes up behind her, looks over her shoulder.

WILLOW
If it'll help Buffy…

Tara turns to her, concerned.

WILLOW (cont'd)
What?

TARA
The nether-realm exists beyond the physical world. 
Accessing it is, it's kind of like astral projection,
it's very intense. I'd have to be
your anchor, keep you on this plane.

WILLOW
I trust you.

TARA
It's not like anything we've ever --

WILLOW
I trust you.

INT. TARA'S DORM ROOM - NIGHT

We see various ANGLES of the girls preparing for the ritual:

WILLOW closing the curtains (shot from outside the window).

TARA lighting a row of candles near the wall.

WILLOW pouring oil from a small earthenware bottle into a shallow 
bowl while Tara reads instructions.

TARA anointing Willow. She puts her thumb in the oil, 
then presses it briefly to Willow's forehead, lips, collarbone.

WILLOW does the same to Tara. As we cut to a:

The girls sit crosslegged, not opposite each other but side by side, facing opposite directions. Each of them has one arm slightly out, is tracing an arc back and forth along the floor as through running their hand through sand. As they do this they whisper:

WILLOW/TARA
The Inward Eye, The Sightless Sea,
Ayala flows through the River in Me…

They continue to do this for a while, both looking straight ahead. 
It begins to affect them physically, sweat beading on their 
faces, breath coming slightly deeper, slightly shallower.

ANGLE: WILLOW'S HAND traces along the carpet -- 
and suddenly leaves behind a trail of light.

From the high view we see both girls are doing it, and that 
the arcs of light are closing around them, 
forming a perfect circle.

The girls stop chanting. They each take the hand closest to 
the other and hold them up, palm to palm. 

Breath still heavy, something clearly coursing through them as the 
hoop of light RISES, passes over them and dissipates, followed by 
another. And another. 

Willow looks over towards Tara, her eyes clouded with sensation. 
She takes a sudden, startled breath and keels backwards, 
a vision gripping her.

INT. GILES' APARTMENT - DAY

Buffy tries to convince Giles that she's herself, even though she's in Faith's body -- Willow and Tara rush in.

She pulls a box out of her purse, opens it to reveal a little ethereal glow sphere. 

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