The Man and His God

 

INT. FRED'S APARTMENT - NIGHT 
Wesley and Illyria continue their conversation in the dark room.

WESLEY (standing, excited) 
You could go anywhere, 

you could leave --

ILLYRIA 
That's not possible.

WESLEY 
Of course it's possible. 
Are you telling me the great Illyria, 

idol of millions, was limited 

to one small dimension?

ILLYRIA 
I traveled all of them 

as I pleased --
I walked worlds of smoke and 

half-truths, intangible. 

(turns away) Worlds of torment 
and of unnamable beauty. 
(looks into the mirror, Wesley's reflection over her shoulder) 
Opaline towers as high as small moons. 
Glaciers that rippled with insensate lust. 
And one world with nothing but shrimp. 
I tired of that one quickly.

WESLEY 
Then why stay in This World? 
Surely there's a world more appealing -- 
-- maybe not the shrimp one --
-- but one where you'd be welcome 

like you never will be here. 
Why don't you go? 
You can go. Why don't you go?
(Illyria snaps, grabbing Wesley 

by the throat and staring at him angrily. 
She lets him go, tossing him aside 

as she starts gasping for air.

ILLYRIA (breathing hard) 
It's too small. It's too small. I can't breathe. 
(pacing, panicked, in a circle) 
I can't live with these walls. I can't breathe. 

There's no room for anything real.

WESLEY 
It's all right.

ILLYRIA (glares at Wesley) 
I should gut you 

where you stand. 

You challenged me. 
There's not enough space 

to open my jaws. 
My face is not my face. 

I don't know what 

it will say....

(panting)
WESLEY 
Illyria... come with me.

Illyria starts to calm down 

and her panting slows.



EXT. ROOFTOP - NIGHT 
Illyria and Wesley are standing on the rooftop. 
She's got her head leaned all the way back, staring skyward.
WESLEY 
Are you all right?
ILLYRIA 
I breathe easier.
WESLEY 
The walls don't press in as hard 

when you can't see them.

ILLYRIA 
But they're still here.

WESLEY 
Yes.

ILLYRIA 
All I am is what I am. I lived 7 lives at once. 
I was Power and the ecstasy of Death. 
I was God TO a God. (looks down) 
Now... I'm trapped... on a roof. 
Just one roof... in this 

time and this place, 
with an unstable human who 

drinks too much whiskey 

and called Me A Smurf. 
(Wesley chuckles) 
You don't worship 

Me at all, do you?

WESLEY 
And you really can't leave.

ILLYRIA 
I... don't know. (looks up) 
And I fear in any other dimension 

in this form I'd be but prey to 

those I knew.  (hangs her head) 
I reek of Humanity.

WESLEY 
Don't flatter yourself.

ILLYRIA 

(looking over the skyline) 
Your World is so small. 
And yet you box yourselves 

in rooms even smaller. 
You shut yourselves inside... 
in rooms, in routines.

WESLEY 
There are things worse than walls. 
Terrible... and beautiful. 

If we look at them for too long 

they will burn right through us. 
Truths we couldn't bear. 

Not every day.

ILLYRIA (sighs) 

We are so weak.
WESLEY 
Yes. Yes, we are.