Angel to Darla: "You're gonna be okay."
Darla: "No. No, I don't think so. Once he's gone, I won't be okay. I won't be okay at all. - I don't know what I'll be. - Angel... Our baby is gonna die right here in this alley. - You died in an alley, remember?"
Angel: "I remember."
Darla: "I wanna say I'm sorry. I wanna say it and mean it, but - I can't. - Aren't you gonna tell me it's okay?"
Angel: "No."
Darla: "No? It's really not, is it? We did so many terrible things together. So much destruction, so much - pain. - We can't make up for any of it. You know that, don't you."
Angel after a beat: "Yeah."
Darla: "This child - Angel, it's The One Good Thing We Ever Did Together."
Angel lifts Darla's hand between both of his and pressed it against his lips.
Darla: "The only good thing."
Angel buries his face in his hands, still holding onto Darla's, takes a sobbing breath.
Darla: "You make sure to tell him that."
Darla is holding one of the splinters of wood and buries it in her chest, gasping. Angel lifts his head and stares as Darla turns to dust.
Where Darla was there is now a naked human infant lying in the rain, crying.
Holtz steps into Lorne's bedroom with flames flickering all around him. Lifts his crossbow and looks around.
Angel carefully gathers up the baby.
Holtz steps through the hole in Lorne's wall into the alley. Lifts the crossbow and aims it at Angel as Angel slowly stands up, cradling the crying infant.
Fred hands Angel's jacket back to him and he wraps it around the infant.
Holtz is watching them over his crossbow.
Angel slowly turns his head and sees Holtz.
For a moment they just look at each other.
A Grapplar appears at the mouth of the alley behind. Angel looks from it to the baby (that has quieted down) to Holtz.
Angel's car pulls up behind two Grapplars at the other end of the alley and Wes gets out.
Holtz slowly lowers his crossbow, still looking at Angel cradling the infant against his chest.
After a beat Angel slowly walks past Holtz, Fred clinging to his right arm.
Holtz watches as Angel and Fred pass between the two Grapplars.
Sahjhan: "Do it! Now's your chance. Do it! Finish it while you still can! You can't just let him walk away! Not now! Not after what you swore to me!"
Holtz watches as Fred and Angel get into the car.
Holtz: "I swore that I would show no mercy. (Watches Angel's car drive away)
And I won't."
27 INT. WAREHOUSE SOMEWHERE IN LOS ANGELES - NIGHT
Cordelia's sitting on the floor, chanting in the middle of a circle of lit white candles.
CORDELIA
(chanting) Vanu'esh. Katahn darh'im. Vajra'ha'esh.
Vanu'esh. Katahn darh'im. Vajra'ha'esh.
Connor watches Cordelia chant, then goes into the next room.
Cut to:
28 INT. WAREHOUSE SOMEWHERE IN LOS ANGELES - NIGHT
Connor walks into the room beside where Cordelia is chanting. He looks at the girl he brought there; she's still unconscious, sitting on the floor, leaning her head against the wall.
CORDELIA (O.S.)
(chanting in the other room) Vanu'esh. Katahn darh'im. Vajra'ha'esh.
Vanu'esh. Katahn darh'im. Vajra'ha'esh.
Vanu'esh. Katahn darh'im. Vajra'ha'esh.
The girl wakens and gasps as she sees Connor kneeling in front of her.
CONNOR
It's okay. I'm not gonna hurt you.
VIRGIN
(cowering) Please...
CONNOR
Brought you some water.
VIRGIN
(crying) I gotta get home. My mom's gonna be so mad.
CONNOR
(softly) I'm sorry.
VIRGIN
(weeping) I won't tell anyone, I promise. Please, just let me go.
WOMAN'S VOICE (O.S.)
Listen.
CONNOR
(stands) Somebody there?
WOMAN'S VOICE (O.S.)
I've always been here... close to your heart. After all...
The woman steps out of the shadows to reveal it's Darla. Darla's wearing a simple dress and a white cardigan sweater. Her voice is soft and sweet.
DARLA
(smiling sweetly) ...isn't that where a mother belongs?
Fade to black.
ACT III:
29 INT. WAREHOUSE SOMEWHERE IN LOS ANGELES - NIGHT
Resume. Darla has just appeared to Connor in the room where he is keeping the adolescent girl he abducted. Cordelia is in the next room, chanting. Connor stares at Darla in shock.
DARLA (O.S.)
The Powers have sent me to give you a message.
CONNOR
You can't be my mother.
DARLA
(softly) I have her memories, her feelings. Isn't that what makes a person who they are?
VIRGIN
(weeping in the corner) Let me go, please... (softly sobbing)
DARLA
(walks toward the virgin girl) I know that sound, the look in her eyes, the smell of fear. (kneels beside the girl) I've nurtured it a thousand times (looks at Connor) in all the people that I've murdered.
CONNOR
My mother's dead. (the girl looks up at Connor)
DARLA
(stands) And I'll always be a part of you. You shared your soul with me once when you were growing inside of me when I'd lost my own. You brought light to my shadow, filled my heart with joy and love. I'd never felt so close to any living thing as I did to my beautiful boy.
CONNOR
Why'd you leave me? (scoffs) Did you hate me that much?
DARLA
Baby, no. I wanted to be with you more than anything.
CONNOR
You killed yourself. I wasn't even born yet. And you—
DARLA
—did what I had to. My life for yours. I did so many terrible things, Connor, so much destruction, so much pain. You were the one good thing I ever did. The only good thing. I'd die every day for the rest of eternity for you. And this... (gestures to the virgin girl) is how you repay me?
CONNOR
(walks away) You don't understand. (turns toward Darla) We need her for our baby to keep it safe.
DARLA
By anointing it in the blood of an innocent? You really think that safety can be plucked from the arms of an evil deed?
CONNOR
Good, evil. They're just words.
DARLA
(shakes her head) Don't let this happen, Connor. Don't let my death mean nothing.
Cut to:
30 INT. LOBBY AT HOTEL/ANGEL INVESTIGATIONS - NIGHT
Angel and gang are interviewing Skip about Cordelia.
SKIP
You really think it matters? I mean, nothing I tell you is gonna change what's gonna happen.
ANGEL
Cut the gloom and doom. What's taken over Cordy?
SKIP
Something beyond your comprehension. To give it voice would rend your feeble brain into a quivering mass of—
ANGEL
(looks to Fred) Fred, infinite agony. (walks away)
Fred stands, holding open a book.
SKIP
OK, you got me. It doesn't even have a name.
GUNN
Then what do you call it?
SKIP
Oh, Master or "Hey."
LORNE
Unspeakable horror for real this time.
ANGEL
Ah, it doesn't make sense. Cordy was made a higher being because she proved herself to the Powers by bearing their visions. This thing couldn't have—
WESLEY
Unless it maneuvered her to inherit the visions in the first place.
SKIP
Uh, oh. Better step on it. The rubes are catching up.
ANGEL
It wasn't just her ascension. Everything that's happened to Cordy in the past few years—all of it—was planned.
SKIP
You really think it stops with her, amigo? You have any concept of how many lines have to intersect in order for a thing like this to play out? How many events have to be nudged in just the right direction? (looks at Lorne) Leaving Pylea. (looks at Gunn) Your sister. (looks at Fred) Opening the wrong book. (looks at Wesley) Sleeping with the enemy. (beat) Gosh, (chuckles) I love a story with scope.
GUNN
No way. We make our own choices.
SKIP
Yeah, sure. Cheese sandwich here, uh, when to floss. But the big stuff, like two vampires squeezing out a kid?
ANGEL
Connor.
WESLEY
An impossible birth to make one possible.
SKIP
That's what the kid was designed for.
LORNE
(chuckles) To sleep with mother love?
ANGEL
To create a vessel.
SKIP
Look out. The monkey's thinking again.
ANGEL
Being inside a human makes it vulnerable, doesn't it? That's why it had to stay hidden. Why it needed to create something stronger to pour itself into.
GUNN
Wait. So the big nasty inside of Cordy is going to give birth... to itself?
SKIP
Circle of life. It's a beautiful thing.
ANGEL
How do we stop it?
SKIP
That's the easy part, slick. All you gotta do is find Cordelia and chop her head off.
ANGEL
Has to be another way.
SKIP
Sure. Stab her in the heart, kidney, couple pokes in the lung—
ANGEL
A way that won't kill Cordy in the process.
SKIP
Takes a whole lot of cramming to get that much sweetness into a human. It's in every hair, every cell, every molecule of Cordelia's body and it ain't letting go 'til it got a brand new bag.
FRED
What happens to Cordy then?
SKIP
Drained of her life force during labor. Those contractions are a real bitch.
ANGEL
It'll kill her?
SKIP
Or she'll end up a head of cabbage.
WESLEY
What do you wanna do?
SKIP
The only thing you can do. Kill the woman he loves to save the world. Times like this? Really gotta suck being you.
ANGEL
How do I find her? (Skip doesn't answer; Angel walks forward intimidatingly) How?
SKIP
Well, I'd go with the Bu'shundi ritual but, uh, you're gonna need a sacred Hutamin paw for that—
LORNE
Got it. (stands, goes behind the desk)
SKIP
(shocked) What?
LORNE
Cordy—the real Cordy—kept one in her desk drawer.
SKIP
Probably a knock-off. It's not some trinket you'd throw in a desk drawer—
LORNE
(Lorne pulls the item out of Cordelia's desk) She thought it was a back scratcher.
ANGEL
Get started.
SKIP
Wait, wait. Uh, did I say "Bu'shundi "? I meant "Ru'shundi ". It's—it—whole different— (turns around in disgust) Crap.
Cut to:
31 INT. WAREHOUSE SOMEWHERE IN LOS ANGELES - NIGHT
Connor is in the room with the girl he's holding prisoner. The girl is awake now, crying, sitting on the floor. Darla is squatting next to the girl. They both look up at Connor.
CONNOR
They hate us... because we're special.
VIRGIN
(crying, pleading) I don't hate you. Please.
DARLA
They're scared because of what you've done not because of what you are.
CONNOR
They wanted to kill me when I was still inside of you.
DARLA
(stands) But that changed when they saw you, held you in their arms, felt the warmth of your skin, the goodness in your heart.
CONNOR
And it will happen again when they hold my child. (looks at the girl) It's the only way.
DARLA
You have a choice, Connor. That is something more precious then you'll ever know.
CONNOR
What choice? They're hunting us like animals!
DARLA
(walks up to Connor) Because you're acting like one. As a vampire I killed without mercy or remorse because I didn't have a soul. What's your excuse?
CONNOR
(shakes his head) You think I wanna do this?
DARLA
Then don't.
CONNOR
(nearly in tears) I have to.
DARLA
Why? (gestures to Cordelia in the next room) Because she told you? There are things happening, Connor, things that I can't— (sigh) It has to be your choice. You can stop this.
CONNOR
Her blood for our baby's. It's fair, isn't it?
VIRGIN
(weeping) Please, I wanna go home.
CONNOR
(yelling) Shut up!
DARLA
This isn't you, Connor.
CONNOR
You've been gone a long time, Mom. How would you know?
DARLA
Because we shared a soul. I feel the pain, the anger, the hurt, like it were my own. (walks up to Connor, looks him in the eyes) But most of all, I feel the good in you and no matter how much you're beaten or twisted or lied to, it's still there in your heart. I know it, and deep down, you know it, too.
Close-up of Connor's face to show it's tear-streaked as he contemplates the young girl cowering in the corner.
Cut to:
32 INT. LOBBY AT HOTEL/ANGEL INVESTIGATIONS - NIGHT
Fred and Gunn are sitting on the stairs, each on a different step, staring off into the distance.
FRED
What do you think he'll do?
GUNN
What he has to, like he always does.
Show they are staring at Angel.
FRED
Will it make a difference? We really are just pieces being moved around a board.
GUNN
Then we'll kick it over and start a new game. Look, monochrome can yap all he wants about no-name's cosmic plan, but here's a little something I picked up rubbing mojos these past couple of years. The final score can't be rigged. I don't care how many players you grease, that last shot always comes up a question mark. But here's the thing—you never know when you're taking it. It could be when you're duking it out with the Legion of Doom, or just crossing the street deciding where to have brunch. So you just treat it all like it was up to you—the world in the balance—'cause you never know when it is.
FRED
You been practicing that?
GUNN
(smiles) Little bit. (chuckles)
Lorne and Wesley come out of the office.
LORNE
Hug your neighbor, kiddies, we got it.
SKIP
(scoffs) You're all puppets.
WESLEY
Shut up.
FRED
Where is she?
LORNE
(looks at the map) Well, according to the scorch marks, downtown, meat packing district.
ANGEL
(comes out of the office) Good work. (takes the map from Lorne)
GUNN
Lets load up.
ANGEL
No, you're not coming, any of you. Whatever's taken over Cordy, it's still her inside. She's still our friend. She's still the woman I... I won't let you carry that. I can't.
SKIP
Anybody got a hanky?
Lorne frowns.
FRED
He's really gonna do it. He's gonna kill Cordelia.
WESLEY
He doesn't have a choice.
FRED
Angel, wait! (runs after him, but Angel goes on out the door)
SKIP
Yup, that'll go well.
Cut to:
33 INT. WAREHOUSE SOMEWHERE IN LOS ANGELES - NIGHT
Connor kneels down to untie the bound hands of the virgin girl he's holding captive. Darla stands nearby.
CONNOR
(to the girl) Shhhhh. Shhh. It's okay.
DARLA
You're all right now. Everything's going to be all right.
CORDELIA
(walks into the room) What are you doing?
CONNOR
(frozen) Nothing. I, uh— (stands)
CORDELIA
It's time. Take her in the other room.
DARLA
Listen to your heart.
CONNOR
(to Cordelia) She didn't do anything. We should let her go.
CORDELIA
No we shouldn't. We need her, Connor. Our baby—
CONNOR
Shouldn't be anointed with innocent blood.
CORDELIA
(angrily) Anointed? Who's been filling your head with big, confusing words.
CONNOR
(turns away, paces) Just been thinking about it.
CORDELIA
Or, maybe... a little birdie's been pecking at you behind my back.
DARLA
(to Connor) She'll lie to you.
CORDELIA
You know how much they love to use the magic, Connor. A spell for this, a spell for that.
DARLA
Close her out, baby.
CORDELIA
Whatever you're hearing, whatever you think you're seeing—it's a trick.
DARLA
Don't let her in.
CORDELIA
It's Angel.
DARLA
No.
CORDELIA
Trying to turn you against me with a cheap vision of— (looks to where Darla's standing) Darla.
CONNOR
(to Cordelia) You can see her?
CORDELIA
I see the lies.
DARLA
Connor, listen to me.
CORDELIA
It's not her.
DARLA
You have to let her go.
CORDELIA
It's your father. This is how much he hates you.
DARLA
I love you. Please.
CORDELIA
Torturing you with this sad imitation of your dead mother.
DARLA
(crying) Don't let her do this.
CORDELIA
(pushing) Are you going to let them do this to us? Are you going to let them kill our baby?
DARLA
(desperate) Connor, listen to me...
CONNOR
(yelling, crying) You are not my mother!
Connor grabs the virgin girl by her bound hands and drags her into the other room.
VIRGIN
(weeping) No.
Cut to:
34 INT. WAREHOUSE SOMEWHERE IN LOS ANGELES - NIGHT
Connor puts virgin girl on the ground in the center of the circle where Cordelia was chanting before. The girl looks up to see Cordelia swinging a huge butcher's knife at her head. When the girl looks up at Connor, she has Darla's face now.
DARLA
Please, don't do this Connor. Don't—
Connor just stands there, watching Cordelia murder this girl, listening to the sounds of blood spattering as Cordelia makes the killing blow. The girl collapses in the middle of the circle.
CORDELIA
(remorselessly) There. That wasn't so hard, was it?
Fade to black.
ACT IV:
35 INT. WAREHOUSE SOMEWHERE IN LOS ANGELES - NIGHT
The dead girl lies on the floor outside the circle, covered in blood. Connor stares at her. Cordelia is lying on bedding inside the circle.
CORDELIA
Connor, we have to do this (writhes) while it's fresh. (rolling, grunting)
Connor stares at the girl's body; it stares back at her. Her blood is spattered on his face. Connor kneels down, places the palm of his hand in the blood pooling around the girl. He then stands and walks up to Cordelia.
CORDELIA
(chanting, writhing) Vanu'esh. Katahn darh'im. Vajra'ha'esh.
Closeup of Connor's bloody palm as he walks to Cordelia.
CORDELIA
(chanting, weakly) Vanu'esh. Katahn darh'im. Vajra'ha'esh. ...darh'im...
Connor stands over Cordelia, staring at her. She pulls up her shirt to reveal the bare skin of her swollen belly.
CORDELIA
Do it, Connor. (panting) Do it now. (panting) Do it now.
Connor presses his bloody palm to Cordelia's belly. She screams. The building starts to shake around them.
Cut to:
