Recap by Lilly

 

Willowgram is scolding Jocasta as she eavesdrops on Katie,  who is training Livia in the use of magic.  Although Katie is quite pleased with Livia’s progress, the dark-haired slayer sees no use in tapping into her magic to float a feather.  She believes that what she needs to do her job is the physical – speed and strength – so that she can be the Council’s “hammer”.  But she agrees to return for another session before she leaves.  After the slayer leaves, Katie and Willowgram tease Jo for snooping.

 

The campaign for the Human Defense Treaty [HDT] contract is in full swing as Lisa Lance conducts an interview with Eris Pantelles, from Hubris Inc., and Colonel John West, from the Watchers Council.  Although Eris is aggressive and on the attack, Colonel West does a good job of representing the Council.  There is also a historical review of the Waxahachie Anomalous Zone, which ends with the announcement that the forthcoming battle for the HDT contract will take place in this most dangerous of places.

 

Later that night, Sean Rayne lures a demon into an alley.  When the demon attempts to attack the elusive Rayne, a huge armored figure appears, and the battle is on.

 

Three days later, Mira, Brianna, and most of the other slayers gather in the rec room to watch the HDT Challenge in the Anomalous Zone [AZ].  Meanwhile, Bob and Charlie are among the many gamblers in Las Vegas who intend on watching and betting on the contest.  They join the population at large who will watch the contest that will determine which corporation will win the privilege of defending them.

 

Meanwhile, at Waxahachie, Texas, the home of the AZ [the urban wasteland of abandoned buildings and roads mixed with forests, mists and strange beings], the representatives of the two competing organizations gather.  At the behest of the American Congress, the Council and Hubris, Inc. will pit their finest champions against each other to determine the winner of the contract.  Livia and the Seraphim suit, which Lex and James have been working on, will battle Dixon Osbourne and the Kerberos suit, developed by Hubris, Inc.  Lex and James feel that Hubris has created the Keberos by stealing the Seraphim’s designs and codes. 

 

While the two men help Livia prepare for the battle and Anyabot continues to annoy everyone [especially the dark-haired slayer] at the Council’s staging area, Jocasta and Katherine visit the competition – Dixon Osbourne, who happens to be the young Watcher’s ex-boyfriend and a former employee of the Council.  He appears to be a cheerful, easy-going, and talkative young man.  He is genuinely friendly with both Jo and Katie and proves himself quite the gentleman when he fires his own technician after the sexist insults slayers.

 

And who else but Lisa Lance is anchoring the exclusive news coverage of the contest for the rights to the Human Defense Treaty, and acting as a betting handicapper.  With 10% of the betting proceeds going directly to funding the fight against the forces of darkness, the slogan of the day is “Place a bet – kill a demon”. 

 

Back at the slayer rec room, while waiting for the competition to begin, the slayers watch the coming attractions trailer of a slayer movie which was inspired by none other than Andrew Wells’ diaries and which details the historic battle between Buffy, Faith, Willow, and the potentials against the Turok-Han,  and the awakening of all potential slayers in 2003.  Unfortunately, as with most things involving Andrew, his view is more than a little skewed or distorted, and the current slayers, especially a newbie name Bunni, are not amused.

 

Meanwhile back at the border of the AZ, Senator Townsend addresses Livia, Dixon, Eris, and Giles as to the goals of the contest.  Not only are they to race across the AZ to penetrate its center and pass through the Heisenberg Breach, but each contestant will also carry a sophisticated sensor designed collect data about the anomaly.  During the Senator’s little speech, Giles and Eris get into a shouting match in front of the TV cameras covering the event, and it is Livia, of all people, who brings things back to order.

 

She and Dixon are ready to go.  The question is – will the two cooperate against what they will encounter in the AZ or will they fight their way through it?

 

As Livia and Dixon enter the AZ, Lisa Lance explains to the wide-ranging audience how her network is about to cover the event, using specially-designed hover-cams designed by Hubris, Inc.  She also has a guest scientist, inter-dimensional physicist, Dr. Elizabeth Burkle explain how the Anomalous Zone came to be.  Apparently, scientists used the Superconducting Super Collider, built in the early 21^st century, and in an attempt to explain the way the universe worked in light of the public revelation of the supernatural, they accidentally punctured the fabric of reality, causing multiple dimensions to overlap and intermix.  Lisa also interviews Robert Lake, the only person known to have survived crossing the AZ.  He assures Lisa and her audience that the competitors will encounter monsters and an ever-changing, hostile environment.

 

The cameras show Livia and Dixon in their first encounter with the inhabitants of the AZ.  Two very different species are doing battle with each other until they spot the two intruders and turn their attention to them.  Both Livia and Dixon begin to wreak havoc but sustain damage themselves.

 

While watching the confrontation and the betting odds on the vid screen, Jo and Katie discuss Dixon.  Jo tells her girlfriend that the young man is totally competitive, extremely resourceful, and needs to win at all costs, which worries her because she knows Livia is all those things as well.  She explains that she and Osbourne broke up because they had grown apart in many ways but have remained friends, which causes the blonde slayer to regret not being able to remain friends with Trent.  It seems that Dixon left the Council and joined Hubris when he found out that the Seraphim suit, whose prototype he had been testing, would only be worn by slayers in combat, leaving him out of the picture.

 

Later in the AZ, Dixon suggests that they avoid any additional contact with anything else they might encounter since they have already used up so much ammunition and their suits have sustained quite a bit of damage.  Livia believes that taking out the leader of any group of demons demoralizes the others.  They discuss their different perspectives regarding Dixon leaving the Council.  Livia believes that he left because he couldn’t get his way in using the suit, while Osbourne says that he left an organization which was in disarray and in which slayers could never see beyond their own “chosen-ness”.  Deciding not to work together any longer, the two competitors attack each other.

 

In a hotel room in Cleveland, Sean Rayne and Horatio Tyrell watch and discuss the current fight between the contestants.  When they realize that neither combatant is willing to kill the other, Tyrell takes matters into his own and calls Eris, who orders her staff to increase the adrenal stimulants that are being fed to Dixon.  These drugs are meant to make him stronger, more violent, and more dangerous – but at what price?

 

Back in the AZ, the battle continues as both suits are badly damaged, and their wearers have sustained numerous injuries.  The slayer taunts the young man as she attacks, but he turns the tables with a blast of sound from his suit that which causes Livia both pain and loss of balance.  He continues to pound the slayer as he explains that the drugs which he has been taking and which are now being fed through the suit have made him a part of Kerberos, not just its wearer. 

 

As he prepares to use the suit’s technology to destroy the injured slayer, the news cameras get ready for the best shots of Livia’s demise.  The slayers in the rec room are stunned at the turn of events that have put their leader in such peril.  And while Jo is in shock that her ex-boyfriend could be so ruthless, James, Lex and Willowgram go into action to help Livia. 

 

As Dixon starts to bring his mechanical arm down to crush the currently helpless slayer, he suddenly begins a glorious version of the Hokey Pokey.  That’s right – he went from merciless killer to a contestant in “Dancing with the Stars” meets “American Idol” in an instant.  And who was his dancing and singing partner? None other than the ever-popular “mighty metal-muscled” Willowgram!  As the stunned viewing public [Rayne, Tyrell, Eris, Jo, Katie, Gyles, the slayers in the rec room, the gambler in Las Vegas, and others] as well as Livia stare at the hysterical sight in disbelief, it appears that Willowgram with the help of Lex and James have taken the Kerberos from Hubris control.  Although only a temporary rescue, it gives the slayer time to recuperate.  Willowgram explains that Hubris has been using drugs to control Osbourne, but she loses control of the Kerberos-clad man when he knocks Livia out and jets off towards the forest and their final goal.

 

The two competitors – now each on their own – continue their strenuous trek, fighting and dodging monsters, demons, and the oppressive terrain as they approach their goal, still under the glare of the news hover-cams.  Dixon finds himself injured, bleeding, and about to be clobbered by a stone demon when suddenly an angel [a seraphim] swoops down to save him only to find herself knocked unconscious by a boulder. 

 

Meanwhile, Bunni loudly berates Livia for going back for Dixon instead of completing the contest.  When Mira defends her best friend, tempers flare, and a fight breaks out among the slayers in the rec room.

 

Dixon carries the unconscious slayer, while trying to figure out why she would come back for him when she practically had the contest won and after he had repeatedly attempted to kill her.  She comes to and explains that it was probably the result of her “damned conscience” and the fact that the reason for being of all slayers is to protect and rescue.  As they rest, Dixon shares his water with her, and they talk as Livia’s slayer healing slowly starts to set in.  Dixon learns that Hubris caused the nanobot infection of the slayers and finds that he has more in common with Livia than he thought as both were being fed foreign substances without their knowledge by Tyrell and his cohorts.  But Livia tries a little too hard to convince Dixon that he is working for the bad guys and that he should come back to the Council [the good guys].  He decides that Livia is just exhibiting the slayer “chosen-ness” which he blames for driving him out of the Council in the first place – that “better than everyone else” and “never can make a mistake” attitude that he feels watchers and slayers always have .  They get into an argument and while Livia tries but fails to stand up, Dixon resolves to win the contest, not for Hubris, but for himself and for all the “non-Chosen” of the world and leaves her.  As Livia gathers her strength and starts out again, Eris [watching the monitors] depresses a key that causes the news camera hovering closest to the slayer to explode, astonishing all the other viewers.

 

Lex and James try unsuccessfully to regain communications with Livia and the Seraphim suit.  The TV network tries to find the nearest active camera.  While Lisa Lance, along with everyone else, waits to see what has happened, a second trailer for another slayer movie appears on the screen.  Jessica Wells, James’s sister, stars in this movie [the one for which she was doing research in “Duplicity”], and it is much more to the slayers’ liking. 

 

Meanwhile in the AZ, Livia lies still and bleeding.  She hears Katherine’s voice and flashes back to one of their magic training sessions during which they discuss whether a slayer is more than just her weapons, her Seraphim suit, and even her strength.  Katie believes that a slayer has to be more than the physical.  Back to the present, the injured slayer decides that she will not be beaten by a better suit.  She painfully removes her Seraphim suit and collapses again into another flashback which shows us a very young Livia [even then an obvious leader] with other junior slayers who are giving their watcher a hard time.  He urges them to remember to reach down through time to the very source of their power, which is in each of them waiting to be tapped.  Returning from the flashback, Livia manages to rouse herself and scream to the heavens and to anyone or anything who will listen that she will not be stopped.  Turning toward a voice which agrees with her, the stunned dark-haired slayer finds herself facing none other than Buffy Summers.  It appears that Livia has found her inner power.  Reminded by Buffy that a slayer is never alone but has the power and strength of all the slayers that have ever been, Livia rises and resumes her trek across the AZ.

 

Back at the staging area, Lisa Lance, assuming that Livia is out of the picture and that Hubris has won the defense contract, complements Eris.  Other reporters surrounding Giles, Jocasta, and Katherine [who are on their way to the finish line] want to know if the three intend on trying to rescue their slayer or on writing her off as lost.  The Council Chairman advises them that “only fools write off slayers as lost”.

 

As Livia roars through a pack of were-hyenas on her way to the objective, Dixon is fighting a losing battle with a horde of gremlins.  Suddenly, Dixon’s competitor becomes his guardian angel once again as the slayer joins him in his battle against the gremlins.  Eris is stunned; the slayers in the rec room are elated; the gamblers are more interested than ever at the reappearance of the slayer.

 

But then the gremlins are replaced by a huge, winged flame-breathing dragon that is intent on having the duo for dinner.  Too strong and fast for them to fight, Livia decides to divert the dragon’s attentions so that Dixon can escape.  When he is perplexed by her decision to commit what he believes will be suicide and losing the contract to Hubris, she tells him that she is merely doing her job as a slayer – fighting evil and demons, protecting people like him.  She explains that it doesn’t really matter whether the Council or Hubris wins the contract – slayers and watchers will continue to fight evil because it is the fight that is important, not necessarily winning a contract which may very well prove to be too much of a temptation for power anyway.  Then she mentions that Jo once told her the he would never be able to lose to save his life.

 

Whether to prove Jocasta and Livia wrong or to make Jo proud and assure Hubris’s loss or to “out-slay” a slayer, Dix arms an explosive device that has been hidden in the Kerberos suit and prepares to sacrifice himself while taking out the dragon.  Livia knocks him out and takes the bomb so that she can destroy the dragon and get them both out of the AZ. Recalling a training session during which Katie made Livia focus on her ability to sense things, Livia pulls the bomb out of the Kerberos suit, grabs a hover-cam, ties the bomb to it and hurls it into the dragon’s mouth for one heck of a news shot.

 

After the smoke clears and the outcome is finally secure, the intrepid anchor Lisa Lance reports that she had never doubted that the Council would triumph because only “fools [would] write off slayers as lost”.

 

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