Recap by Lilly

 

Jocasta and Katherine, busy packing the blonde slayer’s belongings for the move into her girlfriend’s quarters, listen to a news broadcast detailing Horatio Tyrell’s sentencing to three consecutive life terms for his part in the Medusa Virus affair five months earlier. He is expected to live out the rest of his life in a prison hospital due to the ravages of the virus. Eris Pantelles and Sean Rayne are still at large.

 

Meanwhile Giles visits Tyrell at the prison hospital, where the former Chairman accuses his successor of being too soft to lead the Council. Sebastian feels that a good leader must retain his humanity and civility rather than give in to becoming a tyrannical egomaniac who believes his own hype. As Giles leaves, Tyrell warns him to never underestimate Eris.

 

At the same time Eris and Sean are setting up a new lab and headquarters.

 

The next morning at Jo’s apartment, the young watcher has enlisted Antonia, Lex, and another couple [John West and his husband Darrin] to help move and unpack her girlfriend’s belongings. While the others worry about Lex, who has been unable to work and is in constant pain since he was infected by the MV virus five months earlier, he is in another part of the apartment secretly taking pain medication.

 

Meanwhile, at the Slayer Command Auditorium, Velika and Katherine are hosting demonstrations by magically-trained slayers [MTs]. Mira is trying to calm a very nervous Livia, who is to be the next MT to "perform". Although she successfully demonstrates magically retrieving a stake after using it, Livia is still not pleased with her performance and leaves the venue abruptly when Mira tries to compliment her. Later the two join their fellow slayers [Janet, Lian, and Damesha] with whom they have vacationed in Hawaii. Livia finds herself teased by her friends about her inability to relax and enjoy herself in the vacation paradise even though she was the object of attention of several hotties (both male and female). Annoyed, she leaves her friends.

 

That afternoon Jocasta visits James, who is progressing very well in setting up Willow-gram’s new programming abilities. But he is upset that he has not yet heard about Anya, who is still in the hands of the feds as part of their investigation of Eris Pantelles. Later he is distressed to find that Anya has been shipped back in pieces, and he blames Giles for letting the federal authorities take her and for not doing enough to get her back.

 

Meanwhile things are not going well with Antonia and Lex. He is reacting badly to her attempts to help him, and he literally drives her out of his apartment. And he takes yet more pain meds. A therapist that Lex is required to see feels that he is not physically or emotionally ready to return to work.

 

Later that evening during a patrol with Mira, Livia finds herself daydreaming and fantasizing about her good friend and fellow slayer. However, reality interrupts when they have rush off to help Janet and Lian battle a monster that Mira explains should not be in this dimension. It seems that Mira has been doing extra research to make up for not being an MT.

 

At the same time that Jo and Katie seem to be having trouble adjusting to living together, Lex leaves a message apologizing to Toni and takes another pain pill. Toni considers talking to her cousin about Lex but decides to take a flight out instead. Lex considers talking to Jo as well, but also changes his mind. Jo and Katie briefly discuss the cousins’ strange phone calls, but things get tense when the slayer suggests that perhaps his recent illness is straining the relationship and the watcher insists that she knows the two better than her girlfriend does.

 

Later that evening, Livia and Mira battle several demons. Livia is distracted when Mira’s demon appears to have the upper hand; as a result, she makes the wrong decision to interfere rather than to call for immediate backup. Finally calling for backup as they are attacked by more demons, Livia uses magic to create a shield until help arrives. She collapses, from the strain of maintaining the barrier, into Mira's arms but immediately orders the other slayer to help the backup and leans back to watch her leave. High above the conflict, a mage watches with interest.

 

Later Velika, John, and Willowgram join the two slayers to discuss the different types of demons [which shouldn’t be in this dimension] that appear to be targeting slayers. They decide that the patrol teams should increase from two to four or more. After the meeting Mira finds Livia tense and very cranky with her.

 

The next morning Lex, who has run out of pain medication, attempts to refill his prescription before it is due. Being unsuccessful, Lex seeks to distract himself from his pain by helping James with his attempt to repair Anya.

 

John and Willowgram update Jocasta concerning the attacks on the slayers. When the hologram blips out for a while, Jo takes the opportunity to talk to her assistant about the fact that Katie’s move into her apartment has not gone as smoothly as she had expected. He feels that part of the problem may be that Jo keeps thinking of it as "her" apartment rather than "their" home. At that exact moment Katie is talking to Brianna about how Jo seems to be obsessively compulsive over her space.

 

Later at Gray Sector after Katie and Livia finish meditating and Mira arrives, Katie joins Giles and Jo to review the latest facts regarding the ambushes – they are aimed at the slayers, they are only occurring in Cleveland, the Hellmouth doesn’t seem to be the source or reason, the demons don’t belong to this dimension, and it would appear that someone has called them in for this specific purpose. Suddenly Velika sends out an alert about a major incident in progress. The three slayers and the young watcher rush off to find a pitched battle with an unknown species of acid-spewing hellhounds, in which some slayers – including a seraphim – already there are badly injured, unconscious, or dead. Katherine, Jocasta, Livia, and the other MTs provide their shielding spell to protect the seraphims so that they can fire on the demons. Then Livia and Mira rush to the top of a building where the mysterious mage blasts Mira with a bolt of energy that knocks her off the roof. Before Livia can cast a spell against the mage, he hits her with an invisible wall and attacks her with magic lightning bugs that seriously injure her while he makes his escape.

 

After the dark-haired slayer recovers from the mage’s attack and finds Mira safe, she insists on blaming herself for letting him escape and refuses to be calmed down by her friend.

 

Later that night while Jocasta, Katherine and Willowgram are researching the evening’s events in Jo’s apartment, they discuss the fact that Livia is not handling her magic well despite her talent. Katie regrets not being able to get the other slayer to talk to her about it. When Jo says that it is good to talk and bad to keep things bottled up, Willowgram leaves them in an obvious attempt to allow the two to talk about their own problems. They do. Jo admits that she has been selfish in asking Katie to move in to make a home with her and then going all possessive. Katie admits that she should have talked to Jo about where to put her things. They kiss and make up.

 

However, Lex is not having any success in dealing with his problems. He is furious that Antonia has gone on a flight without telling him. He has run out of pain meds and is unable to hack into the infirmary patient database in his attempt to get more.

 

Meanwhile back at Eris’ new lab, the mage reports that he is continuing to weaken and distract the slayers and that the MTs’ magic can be easily handled.

 

The next morning Antonia visits Jocasta to discuss her problem with Lex. At the same time Giles and James are arguing over the Chairman’s belief that the young man is neglecting his duties due to his attempts to repair Anya. James is still angry at Giles for allowing the federal authorities to take and dismantle the his personal assistant whom he insists does ten times the work of anyone else in his unit [all this in front of his very quiet staff]. After the Chairman demands his report by noon and storms out, James packs up Anya and leaves the lab.

 

Later that morning Velika holds a meeting to update all the slayers on the attacks and surmises that the assaults might be a vendetta against the Council and slayers or some type of diversionary tactic. While she fully mobilizes all active slayers to be on alert, Jocasta, Katherine, Livia, and Mira are in the Gray Sector Lab using magic in an attempt to track down the mage. During the locator spell that the girls are attempting, Katherine [the focus of spell] is attacked by the mage and almost killed. The others disrupt the spell in order to save the blonde slayer from the mage’s spectral self before she can zero in on even a general location, and despite Katie's protestations, Jo uses her "resolve face" to make sure that her girlfriend is checked out by Dr. McClelland, who determines that she will be fine after some rest.

While Giles angrily discovers that James has left his lab without completing the report he had requested and Antonia returns to Lex’s apartment to discover him gone, the two men who have been working on Anya find that her personality has been altered more seriously than they suspected. Antonia arrives at James’ quarters looking for Lex. While the two are trying to talk through their problems, however, he collapses causing the others to call for an ambulance.

 

That same afternoon Eris and Sean arrive at the Watcher’s Council under an invisibility spell, and after some irresistible fun taken by Rayne, they head to a restricted area in the basement.

 

Early that evening during their patrol, Livia suggests that Mira have a quick dinner while she runs some errands and that they catch up later. Mira has had enough of her friend’s strange behavior and follows her back to Gray Sector Lab, where she finds the MT slayer preparing to cast the locator spell, by herself, that almost killed Katie. When Mira confronts her and tries to stop her, Livia asks for her help instead. Though the girl dismisses the idea since she is not an MT, Livia insists that Mira is the only one she would want as her anchor. Livia is obviously very talented in magic as she easily slips into the spell and manages to locate the mage, despite his attack before she passes out.

 

While Jocasta and Katherine are at the infirmary where Antonia is telling them that Lex is in withdrawal from the overuse of pain meds, they receive word that the mage has been located at "the Powerhouse". The two join Brianna and other slayers fighting demons sent against them by the mage. She tells them that the MT’s can’t bring down the barrier that he has set up around the Powerhouse where he is hiding. Jocasta, Damesha, and Jordyn focus their magic through Katie while Brianna [non-MT] protects them from the attacking demons. Once the barrier is breached, the five go into the Powerhouse to find the mage while the other slayers continue battling the demons outside. Once they find the mage, Jo and Katie trade magic blows with him and drive him to the roof where Natalie [in the seraphim suit] takes him down.

 

Back at the Gray Sector Conference Room, Livia and Mira join Velika [who reprimands Livia for trying the spell without Jo and Katie and Mira for letting her], Jocasta, Katherine and Giles to discuss their capture of the mage. However they get a surprise when they try to summon Willowgram to join them – she’s been kidnapped!!

 

Although kidnapped, Willow can communicate with the Scoobies through her mobile emitter. She advises the group that her kidnappers are Pantelles and Rayne. It appears that the deadly duo want the Progenitor File [containing all of the Council’s secret records and all the forbidden knowledge that they don’t want falling into the wrong hands], and Rayne is going to battle the security program to get in. Meanwhile back at the Gray Sector Conference room, James has been brought in to help John attempt to retrieve Willowgram. As Willowgram battles Rayne, she can still communicate with the Scoobies as they desperately try to locate her.

 

The former watcher straps himself into a modified chair with a computer and hooks himself up with cables so that he can be sucked into the virtual interface to begin his assault on Willow’s security levels that will allow him into the Progenitor File, a process which will destroy the hologram’s personality. He enters the first security level and reaches what appears to be the old 20^th century

Sunnydale High School Library and defeats a young T-shirt and denim-overall-clad Willow by toppling a bookcase on her, at which point she disappears. Meanwhile back at Gray Sector, Willowgram screams in pain as she feels Rayne break through the first security level. James swears he will not lose another friend. Rayne then attacks the second security level and battles a college-aged Willow while James manages to set up a visual interface so that the Council group can watch the battle. Unfortunately what they see is Sean Rayne getting past the second security level as Willow blinks away when he stabs her.

 

It is decided that the only way to save Willowgram is to find her. James attempts to locate her while Velika mobilizes the slayers. Despite her injuries, Livia insists on leading Mira and Katherine in the field to affect a rescue.

 

Meanwhile Rayne enters the third security level and finds himself in Glory’s luxury apartment facing black-eyed Wicca Willow. The two cast spells at each other until the former watcher gains the upper hand and strangles this Willow out of existence. The Scoobies understand that she is running out of time unless they can rescue her quickly. Jo suddenly realizes that Eris is probably using one of the warehouses originally utilized for the 314 project. As they try to narrow down the search, Velika sends the slayer teams to cover as many of the warehouses as possible.

 

At the same time Rayne arrives at the fourth security level in the old magic shop where he encounters Dark Willow, and they attempt to beat each other to death. As dark witch prepares to throw a fireball at Sean, he manages to deflect it back to her and she explodes. He has breached yet another level, and Willowgram is fading fast with only two more levels to go before she blinks out of existence completely. Jocasta promises that she will not to let it happen just as James zeros in on the location. And it turns out to be Livia’s location – so the girls go into action. As Rayne is resting before attacking the next level, Eris detects the slayers entering their location. He insists that she jack up the medical support so that he can rush through the next two levels. Meanwhile Eris prepares their escape transport and three giant security robots to welcome the three slayers. The sixth, and penultimate, security level finds Rayne facing a very confident red-haired Willow in the huge dream arena of Vor, and they begin hurling powerful lighting-like blasts at each other. Again although this Willow appears to be on the verge of defeating Rayne, he recovers in time to destroy her.

 

Jo urges Katie to hurry as Willowgram is close to extinction. But the slayer and her two companions are battling the three bots. Together using magic, slayer strength and experience, as well as a lot of improvisation, they destroy their opponents.

 

Rayne has reached the final level where he finds a much older Willow sitting by a lakeshore in front of a boathouse. She is calm, showing no emotion, as she warns the man, whom she calls by name, that he doesn’t belong or deserve to be there, and that having promised to protect the world she will stop him. He freaks out that she knows who he is and cannot understand when she tells him that some battles are not won by brute strength but by love and devotion. When he attacks, she simply raises her hand and shoots a beam of white light at him.

 

Meanwhile Eris abandons Rayne and escapes in the transport just as the three slayers reach the lab to find him still attached to the equipment and in convulsions. Katherine stops Livia from trashing the equipment and instead fiercely pulls the cables attached to his helmet.

 

Back at the conference room Willow finally opens her eyes to everyone’s relief. Her first words are "He didn’t know the passwords". Apparently before her death, the original Willow had a seventh level placed into the system with two specific passwords, which the old Willow hinted at during her confrontation with Rayne. Willowgram refuses to reveal the passwords to the Scoobies but tells Jo that with some soul searching she might just figure it out. Jo lets the slayers know that they have been successful in saving Willow.

 

Later that night Veronica meets Sebastian in Rayne’s hospital room. He is in a coma – an apparent result of his attack on Willow and Katie’s removing him from the equipment. The two Councilors argue over their former friend. Veronica doesn’t feel they should give up on him. Giles appears to feels that it is indeed time to give up on the traitor. He leaves her at the unconscious man’s bedside.

 

Jocasta and Katherine, in bed the next morning, are discussing the previous evening's adventure. Jo is grateful to the slayer and her companions for saving Willow and asks the blonde how difficult it was to pull Rayne from the machine. Katie hesitates and explains that it was not physically difficult to do especially since it had to be done but regrets the condition her actions left him in. Jo insists that Rayne is the only one responsible for his condition and that Katie probably saved not only Willow but possibly her former watcher as well since he couldn’t figure out the passwords. Katie isn’t completely convinced, so her girlfriend consoles her and indicates that her latest obsession may be determining what the passwords are.

 

Meanwhile, Antonia arrives at Lex's hospital room with a gift of doughnuts, which he believes is just what the doctor ordered [or should have]. They talk and come to an understanding about dealing with Lex's problem.

 

At that exact moment James is unsuccessfully trying to remind Anya about their past together, but she continues to act oddly. Sadly he promises to fix her.

 

Finally at the same time Livia is in her quarters, still wearing the previous night’s clothes, obviously having been drinking alone all night. She looks at pictures of her recent Hawaiian vacation and stops at one of Mira. She smiles, then starts to broods and tosses the picture aside and sadly retreats to her bedroom.

 

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