Shadow
[S5.8 : W/T.17]
 
Written by David Fury 

Your One-Stop Spot to Shop

Hardly any W/T this ep, just the gals being one (or two) of the gang.

INT. THE MAGIC BOX - MORNING

CLOSE ON YELLOW PAGES AD: "THE MAGIC BOX" is printed across an artist's rendering of the shop's storefront. Explosion balloons scattered about the ad read: "Crystals!" "Potions!" "Death Charms!" "Lollipops for the kids!" And below, it reads: "Your One-Stop Spot To Shop for Lots of New Age and Occult Items," a line read aloud by:

TARA (O.S.)
(reading)
Your One-Stop Spot to Shop for
Lots of New-Age and Occult Items."

ANGLE ON TARA and GILES standing at the counter, looking at the open phone book. Tara looks up at him.

TARA
Catchy.

GILES
Think so?

TARA
Uh huh. In a... hard to say sorta
way. But, I think it's great.

Giles eyes the ad with concern.

ANGLE ON WILLOW, XANDER and ANYA entering the store (devoid of customers as it's before business hours).

XANDER
Just saying I think it's rude.

WILLOW
Wouldn't call it "rude..."

XANDER
Rude-ish. Rude-esque? Whatever
you want to call it, when a person
makes a "Destroy All Vampires"
date, it's simple courtesy to wait
for your co-destroyers. Am I
right, Giles?

ON GILES, still scrutinizing his ad.

GILES
I'm almost certain you're not.
Though, to be fair, I haven't been
listening.

TARA
The new phone book's in with
Mr. Giles' ad.

Willow and Anya move to take a look. Xander doesn't care as he's mid-ranty.

WILLOW
Ooh. Nice.

ANYA
Yay. Am I mentioned?

GILES
Not as such.

Xander sidles up to Giles.

XANDER
Okay, we were supposed to meet up
with Riley this morning to take on
a nest o'vamps holed up in tomb.
So we get there and guess what?
Tell him, Will.

WILLOW
Tomb go boom.

XANDER
Yep, Captain America blowed it up
real good. All by his lone wolf
lonesome.

GILES
Hmm. Rather reckless of him.

XANDER
I'd say very rather.

GILES
All that aside, I should think you'd be
pleased to avoid the confrontation.

ANYA
That's what I've been saying. I mean,
I, for one, wasn't looking forward to
starting my day with a slaughter.
(thoughtfully, pleased with herself)
Which, really, just goes to show how
much I've grown.

GILES
In any event, since you're all here,
Tara and I could use some help
researching Buffy's mystery woman.

The others sit down and pull books toward them.

XANDER
(sarcastic)
Oh, yeah, this has been fruitful.
Trying to look up something you
never saw and don't know the name
of.

ANYA
Just do what I do - Flip through
pages and look busy.

WILLOW
It'd just be nice if we knew where
she was - where she's hiding out.

XANDER
No doubt lurking around some
sewer, condemned church or rat-
infested warehouse. You know, the
usual haunts....

Xander, Willow and Tara are at the table, perusing the reference books. Giles is at the cash register. Anya tends to a CUSTOMER in the B.G., and a couple of OTHER CUSTOMERS mill about.

WILLOW
It feels like we're going around in
circles.

XANDER
Our circles are going around in circles.
We got dizzy circles here, Giles.

A customer approaches Giles with a small statue. Giles rings it up.

GILES
(to customer)
Ahh. Weeping Buddha... Deeply
mystical. And it makes a lovely
paperweight.

TARA
Maybe... She isn't in the books.

The others look at her.

WILLOW
What do you mean?

TARA
I mean, what if she's not a demon.
Or sorceress or spirit or whatever
these books cover... What if
she's something else altogether.

Giles is handing the customer his change.

GILES
(to customer)
Thank you, come again.
(to Tara)
Something new, you mean.

The customer exits.

TARA
Something old. So old it predates the
written word.

WILLOW
Giles. The Dagon's Sphere. You said it
was created to repel...

GILES
(finishes the thought)
"That which cannot be named."

WILLOW
'Cause, I'm thinking, maybe she...

GILES
Predates language itself.

XANDER
(slamming a tome shut)
Hey, if it means I don't have to read
any more, woo and, might I add, a big hoo.

Giles has turned away from the cash register to talk to the others...

GILES
If Tara's right, then we're blind.
There's no way for us to determine
her moves, her habits.
(he turns back,
thinking)
Where she'll turn up nex--

Giles finds himself face to face with

GLORY. Who stands waiting at the register.

GILES
Oh. I beg your--

GLORY
Yuh-huh. I want these.

She holds up two items: an ANCIENT STONE FRAGMENT with a few indecipherable MARKINGS on it, and a garish, OVERSIZED GREEN JEWELED CHARM (Khul's Amulet) from a broken necklace.

Giles looks at the items, starts ringing them up.

GILES
(to Glory)
Of course. Did you find everything
alright?

GLORY
No problemo.

GILES
Good. Your change... your copy
of the receipt... and thank you.

Giles watches Glory exit with her purchase for a brief moment. Then, turning back to the others...

GILES
She could be anywhere. But if she's as
powerful as Buffy says, I imagine it
won't be long before she makes her
presence known...

ANGLE ON ANYA, at the cash register. She suddenly notices a sales receipt. Immediately, panic sets in as she stares at the receipt, disbelieving.

ANYA
Hey... Hey!! HEY HEY!!!

WIDEN as the Scoobies come over.

GILES
Anya, your "heys" are startling
the customers.

XANDER
And pretty much the state.

ANYA
(to Giles)
You sold someone Khul's amulet AND
a Sobekian Blood Stone.

GILES
Yes, I believe I did.

ANYA
Are you stupid or something?

Giles reacts.

GILES
Allow me to answer that question
with a firing.

XANDER
(to Giles)
She's kidding. Ahn, we talked about
the employee to employer vocabulary
no-nos... That was number five.

ANYA
You never sell those things together!
It's bad news. Don't you know about
the Sobekites?

WILLOW
Ooh. I do. It was an ancient Egyptian
cult heavy into Dark Magic.

TARA
And the Khul's amulet... Wasn't that
a transmogrification conduit?

ANYA
Damn straight.

GILES
Be that as it may, I still don't see any
reason for concern. Sobekian
transmogrification spells have been
lost for thousands of years. And the
young woman I sold them to would
have to be someone of enormous pow--

He stops dead cold as the realization hits him and the others.

WILLOW
Young woman?

GILES
Oh, Dear God...

Well, not all the others:

XANDER
(a half-step behind)
What?

Buffy, her manner extremely intense, is sitting with Giles, Willow, Xander, Tara and Anya. She's told them about Joyce and they all look pretty blown away and worried.

BUFFY
(mid-sentence)
...so I figure there has to be
some kind of mystical cure, right?
A spell or - or a potion or
something. I mean, we have to
look.

WILLOW
We can look - I mean we will - but
I've never seen anything.

GILES
(gently)
The truth is, the mystical and the
medical aren't meant to mix,
Buffy. I'm sorry - but the human
brain is very delicate. Too much
can go wrong.

TARA
Yeah. I've heard stories about people
trying healing spells... If we did
something - it could make things a
lot worse, Buffy.

ANYA
And we've done just about enough
making things worse for one day,
haven't we?

BUFFY
Why? What do you mean?

XANDER
(quickly)
Nothing. Anya broke a... Bippidy
Boppity Boo. A thing. Don't
worry about it.

ANYA
I did not! I-

GILES
Anya. Buffy doesn't need to hear
about your clumsiness right now-

ANYA
My clumsiness? That is so-

Anya finally picks up on the drift. Don't worry Buffy. Oops.

ANYA
-like me. Slippery, slippery
butterfingers.

But Buffy's onto them. Big time.

BUFFY
What happened?

GILES
Nothing to concern you. Now-

BUFFY
(hard)
Giles.

GILES
That demon woman was here. The
one who attacked you.

WILLOW
(too quickly)
It's no biggy. Just got an
amulet and a blood stone.
(off Buffy's look)
Okay. Biggy.

BUFFY
Oh my God. Are you guys okay?
Did anyone get...

She looks around for signs of damage. Sees none.

GILES
No, thankfully, there wasn't any
violence to speak of.

BUFFY
Okay. That's... good. So how'd
she get away with the bad mojo
stuff?

Everyone gets a little quiet as Buffy eyes them expectantly. After a beat...

ANYA
Giles sold it to her.

Giles does a take to Buffy as Buffy looks to him.

GILES
(defensive)
Well, I didn't know it was her.
I mean, how could I?
(then)
If it's any consolation, I may
have overcharged her.

TARA
And - Anya figured out what the
Demon Lady is up to.

ANYA
A few thousand years ago there was
this cult. The Temple of Sobek.

BUFFY
Sobek...

ANYA
Reptile demon. Sobekites were
reptile worshippers.

XANDER
Just once I'd like to run into a
cult of bunny worshippers.

ANYA
(glaring at him)
Great. Thank you very much for
those nightmares.

XANDER
Sorry.

ANYA
Anyway, their high priest Khul had
great, mystic powers. He forged
an Amulet with transmogrifying
crystal.

WILLOW
Transmogrifying is changing a
living thing into a different kind
of thing.

ANYA
Khul and the Sobekites started to
transmogrify a race of reptile
creatures. Different "blood
stones" were created for different
species of reptiles.

GILES
We've managed to decipher the
markings on the blood stone I sol--
(then)
--she left with. "Cobra." She's
going to transmogrify a cobra.

BUFFY
So - she's making a monster. What
for? What does it do?

GILES
That's the part... We're working
on it.

Buffy's expression hardens. Then-

BUFFY
Okay. You keep working on it.
I'll go kill it.

Buffy heads with purpose to the exit.

GILES
Buffy-

BUFFY
I'm going.

XANDER
Buff, this chick creamed you last
time.

BUFFY
I wasn't ready for her last time.
I am now.

WILLOW
But you-

BUFFY
(cuts her off/too
intense)
But what? I can't just sit here,
Willow. I have to do something.

And she's gone. The others share a worried look.

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