BtVS: Just Another Day - 6.18 Down To The Wire
I would just like to point out that this is the antepenultimate episode of Buffy, which I have been running for two and a half years. Holy crap.
Previous episode here.
After responding to a knock on their door and discovering a vampirized Marty standing on the doorstep, saying he has a message from Jack, the vague possibility of negotiations or at least an explanation has been stifled by the sudden appearance of a crack in the earth and tentacles emerging from it. As Marty tries ineffectually to get inside the house, the Slayer fragments batten down the hatches and decide that rather than fighting said tentacles, they're just going to abandon ship for the time being. Everybody dashes for the back door while Marty leaps across the chasm and runs away in the opposite direction, dodging a bunch of grasping tentacles as he goes. The Slayer fragments get a safe distance between themselves and the tentacles, then discuss what to do next. Nobody really understands what just happened; the fact that the tentacles seemed just as eager to get Marty as they did to get the Slayer fragments, which implies that Jack's goals and Alerion's goals aren't exactly the same, but nobody is quite sure how. The idea that Jack would want to make a deal with them is also somewhat disturbing; what could he possibly want from them that they'd be willing to give? Unable to come up with any answers, the Slayer fragments decide not to worry about that for now and focus on the goal of figuring out how to get into Alerion's dimension to get Jack's soul.
The first step in that process, of course, is teaching Jake how to use the Edge of Twilight. At this point, the Slayer fragments realize for the first time that by cutting into Alerion's dimension they will essentially be creating a Hellmouth, and since they may not be able to close up the hole when they're done they decide that they'd better do this in a place that neither they nor anyone in Teffelsburg will care very much about if it ends up getting irrevocably tainted. Therefore, they decide to hole up in Yuk Fu Chinese Restaurant, reasoning that nobody will care very much if a restaurant that's notorious for giving people food poisoning ends up with a Hellmouth inside of it.
While the Slayer fragments are settling into their new temporary home, Jake hears a voice in his head. It's Sybil, telling him that she is ready to begin his training with the Edge of Twilight. Jake says he's ready to start as well, and promptly goes limp as his soul projects into Sybil's dimension for the lesson. (The rest of the Slayer fragments, naturally, waste no time in balancing packets of soy sauce on his prone body and putting his hand in a bowl of water. Meanwhile, Jake is meeting up with Sybil in the spirit realm and assuring her that yes, he really does want to learn how to use the Edge of Twilight in order to help Jack. Sybil asks Jake to give her the Edge, which she uses to write his full name in letters of blue fire - a trick which impresses Jake quite a lot, so much that he asks to learn to do it. But that's not what Sybil is here to teach Jake how to do, no matter how annoying he may get as he asks for her help.[1]
Sybil explains that in order to use the Edge of Twilight properly, the wielder must be completely devoted to its use. The more the wielder devotes him- or herself, the easier it is to use the Edge. But in order to use the Edge at all, at least one mark of devotion is required - using the Edge to cut away the wielder's own name. Sybil explains that Sybil is not her true name, anymore than Cerberath or the Patchwork King was the real name of the person from whom the Slayer fragments obtained the Edge, or that Tran was Jake's true name. If Jake wishes to wield the Edge, as they could, he will have to use it first of all to cut away his own name and adopt a title in his place. Jake wasn't expecting this at all, but after a moment he settles upon Shinobi as his new title, and carefully uses the Edge to cut away the letters of his own name. Sybil looks on approvingly and tells Shinobi that he has now earned the right to use the Edge - although if he wants to wield it with any sort of effectiveness, he is probably going to have to find some other parts of himself to cut away as well. Memories, skills, knowledges, even body parts - all of these things must be sacrificed in order to gain more skill with the Edge itself. Shinobi does not exactly jump at the chance to do this, but thanks Sybil anyway.
Sybil then tells Shinobi an important piece of information with regards to the group's plans for the Edge. It seems that since holes are already opening from Alerion's dimension into the physical world, this means that someone or something in the physical world is serving as a focus for the energy that is allowing those holes to be opened. If the Slayer fragments can find the source of that energy and use the Edge on it to cut a hole into Alerion's dimension, it will be safest for everyone involved and also create a hole that will automatically close up when the Slayer fragments are finished with their mission. Shinobi tells Sybil that she's going to have to tell this to Ally in person, because he's afraid that he'll forget it. He then returns to the physical world, where he is quite frustrated upon learning that he's wet himself in his soul's absence.
While Shinobi was gone, Ally and Teresa have been discussing their need to put together an army. Ally thinks they should start by getting Angela, Jonah, and their group of demon-hunting types back to Teffelsburg, and suggests that Teresa might want to teleport them there; however, Teresa and Angela don't exactly have a history of being friendly with one another, and Teresa only agrees to bring Angela back on the condition that she be allowed to teleport Angela into one of the rifts that leads to Alerion's dimension. Ally is not very happy with this, and welcomes Jake's return as a distraction from the argument. However, the distraction proves to be more permanent than expected when the Slayer fragments learn that not only has Jake abandoned his name, he's done it so completely that he can no longer hear his own name when it's spoken or even read it when it's written down! He insists upon being called Shinobi, which the others reluctantly agree to do. He then tells Ally that she needs to talk to Sybil, so Ally projects in and hears Sybil tell her what she just told Jake. Ally is happy to learn about the possibility of using the Edge in a way that will be less destructive - but not so happy when she returns to her body to find that Teresa and the others have boxed her in with dozens of restaurant menus after she specifically told them not to mess around with her body while she was gone.
With Ally back and the whole business of Shinobi more or less accepted by the rest of the group, the Slayer fragments return to talking about their as-yet-nonexistent army. After mentioning that they're in a lot of danger if tentacles keep coming at them or find out where they're hiding, the Slayer fragments hear a knock on the door and nervously answer it with their weapons out. But it's neither a tentacle nor one of Jack's messengers - it's Louie. He bursts into Yuk Fu and starts ranting about how the Slayer fragments need to "gather all of the Soviet Israelites, Marx's chosen people" in order to ensure that their home stays defended. Louie is clearly behind the army idea, and agrees to help the Slayer fragments out by keeping an eye on the disparate groups they're planning to bring together. But before the Slayer fragments go, Louie says that he has one more message to send to them, which is perhaps even less immediately comprehensible:
"Listen, man, I'll tell you the secret THEY don't want you to know. Capitalist tyrannies, they're all the same, all of them. All of them want to drag you down, and strangle you, and make you forget you're walking on God's good earth under a Marxist-Leninist sky. Even the greatest prison is made of stones, man, and in the Book it was said that the very stones shall cry out. Because the stone that the builders rejected has become the OPPRESSOR'S corner stone, but is the heart a heart of stone? Can you get blood from a stone, or tears? Revolution, man! REVOLUTION! A house divided against itself cannot stand, and so Capitalism, the great devourer, will be OVERTHROWN by those it has devoured! You know it, man, you know it. It's in the history, it's in the book, it's written in the blood of those who the LORD hath already cast down!"
The Slayer fragments have pretty much no idea what that means, but with Louie around to keep an eye on Yuk Fu, they feel more confident setting out in search of backup. After a conversation about who they know and what those people can offer them, it's settled that Shinobi will once again take on the persona of the Saltbringer to convince the P'Flug to help, Teresa will speak with the Initiative agents in Teffelsburg, Simon will track down Anthony and the remainder of his group in New Hampshire with a little help from Teresa's teleporting, Joey will call Owen and ask for the werewolves' help, and Ally will get in touch with Angela, Jonah, and their group. The Slayer fragments then go their separate ways, hoping their connections will pay off.
Bearing plenty of salt shakers and salt packets from Yuk Fu, Shinobi marches confidently into the P'flug village. Although some of the P'flug seem to have skipped town already, many have remained, and they rejoice resoundingly when they look upon the face of the Saltbringer once more. Shinobi allows the P'flug to believe that he is their messiah returned, and tells them that he needs their help in defeating a great evil that is threatening the entire world as they know it. The P'flug don't need much convicing, and send about 100 of their warriors along with Shinobi, which forms a good and substantial base for the army.
After teleporting Simon to New Hampshire and arranging for him to call her when he's tracked Anthony down, Teresa heads over to the Initiative base to ask for their help. Once the Initiative identifies Teresa as a friend of Jake's (well, Shinobi's, now), they are receptive to the need to band together to stop Alerion. Although the Initiativs is going to need some time to prepare for a battle of that scale, they send a few soldiers back to Yuk Fu with Teresa as a show of good faith. They also loan some walkie-talkies to the Slayer fragments, thereby getting rid of the need for unreliable cell phones.
Joey's contact with Owen, however, is considerably less simple. He calls a number that Tyler tracked down and gets in touch with Owen, but has a hard time convincing Owen to help. Although Owen says that he respects the problems that the Slayer fragments are having and their need for success, Joey is asking Owen to send everyone that he can spare and Owen feels uncomfortable leaving behind people who are old, sick, weak, pregnant, or otherwise unable to defend themselves. Ultimately, Owen agrees to send his fighters to Teffelsburg on the condition that Joey and the other Slayer fragments find somebody else who can come to their new home in southern Ohio and watch over the members of Owen's family who can't defend themselves.
At first, Joey is excited because he went to college in Ohio and thinks he may be able to exploit some of his contacts in the state, but he soon realizes that nobody he knows is really the sort of person who'd be capable of defending a bunch of werewolves. So he finds Ally and asks for her input. Since Ally has had no trouble at all summoning up an air spirit and paying it with cockroaches from the Yuk Fu kitchen so that it will carry a request for help to Angela and Jonah, wherever they may be, she agrees to help Joey brainstorm some ideas. The trouble is that they need to come up with somebody who owes them a favor, yet won't be the sort of firepower they'd rather apply toward the fight against Alerion. After a while, Ally remembers that the local guardian spirit of Stoneport which the Slayer fragments freed from Alerion's bondage nearly a year ago once said that if the Slayer fragments ever needed its help, all they had to do was ask. Perhaps this could be an opportunity to call in that favor.
By now, Jake has returned with the P'flug and Teresa has returned with the Initiative, so Ally and Joey slip away from the wild P'flug party that is beginning to break out and ask Teresa to teleport them to Stoneport. Just as Teresa was, Ally and Joey are surprised by how little Stoneport has been touched by Alerion's influence in comparison to Teffelsburg. The two of them go to the graveyard where Ally summoned the spirit before, and Ally chants long into the night while Joey grabs some sleep under a tree. Finally, just as the sun is rising, the local spirit appears. It is receptive to Ally and Joey's request for help, and agrees to send a portion of its energy to Ohio to watch over Owen's family. Joey calls Owen, who confirms that the spirit has appeared, and says that he and his fighters will arrive in a day or two.
Although Ally is exhausted, Joey says that he wants to stop off at a nearby grocery store to replenish the Slayer fragments' provisions, and Ally has to agree that this is a pretty good idea. While shopping, both Ally and Joey notice a very unpleasant smell emanating from Joey. At first, they both think it can be attributed to spending the night sleeping in a graveyard, but this theory is disproven when Joey notices that the skin on his hands and feet is beginning to rot away! Joey is horrified to realize that when Osiris told him that he didn't have forever left to live, it was much shorter than Joey was anticipating. Ally doesn't know what to say about any of this, and is desperately in need of sleep, so she tells Joey to ask Teresa about it because she needs some sleep.
When Teresa brings Ally and Joey back to Teffelsburg, Joey does just that - but Teresa doesn't have much more insight into the problem than Joey does. While the two of them are brainstorming possible explanations, however, Joey realizes something he didn't think of before. Osiris mentioned only that somebody needed Joey's aid and protection in the physical world, and that Joey was the only one who could protect that person. Joey assumed that Osiris was talking about Kirsten, but the god never mentioned Kirsten's name, nor did he ever even specify a gender or any other characteristics of the person to be protected. Teresa tells Joey to think about whether there's anyone else who needs protecting in his life, and Joey immediately thinks of Felipe, the crippled baseball player who he promised to help a long time ago but never really delivered on his promise. So it's off to Felipe's apartment to see if he's the one behind this.
In the company of several Initiative agents, Joey enters Felipe's apartment and soon finds Felipe holed up in a corner. Felipe explains without prompting that he is flat broke and unable to get out of Teffelsburg, so when he saw Joey's death in a vision, he knew what he had to do. Using some voodoo that his Mexican grandmother taught him, Felipe brought Joey back from the dead as a sort of helper zombie. Joey is now between a rock and a hard place, because as soon as he brings Felipe to real safety, he'll die - but if he doesn't help Felipe, his body will rot away and leave him as a restless spirit. For now, Joey manages to convince Felipe that the fight against Alerion is currently more important, but promises to fulfill his duty to Felipe as soon as Alerion is defeated and face the fate he has earned. Toward that end, Joey takes Felipe back to Yuk Fu with him so that Felipe will at least be safe for the time being.
With Ally asleep and Joey dealing with the Felipe situation, it falls to Teresa and Shinobi to decide what to do next. Since the Slayer fragments still don't know what's causing all of the cracks to Alerion's dimension to open up, and thus don't know what or who they need to cut into with the Edge to open the safest entrance in order to retrieve Jack's soul, Teresa decides that it makes sense to track the cracks and see if they can figure out the source of the cracks. Unable to find any sort of pattern in where or when the cracks are opening, Teresa suggests checking out the convention center where Alerion originally came into the world during the Slayer fragments' high school reunion. There, they have better luck; Teresa notices one of Jack's footprints in a flowerbed and then sees it split open into a crack from which tentacles emerge. It would seem that the gate to Alerion's dimension is, in fact, Jack.
Teresa and Shinobi gather the rest of the Slayer fragments together and tell them what they've found. Together, the Slayer fragments start combing all of Jack's favorite hangouts, using the Alerion-detecting candle spell to tell if they're on the right track. Eventually, they locate Jack, hiding out in the sewers underneath the Sundown Lanes, with a huge chasm between him and the Slayer fragments. They ask him about the deal he was proposing earlier. Jack tells the Slayer fragments that he has something they want - another Slayer fragment - and that he wants to get rid of it, while the Slayer fragments have the means via the Edge of Twilight to get rid of the fragment. If the Slayer fragments will use the Edge to cut the Slayer fragment out of Jack prior to taking on Alerion, it'll help them in the same way that it did when Chris channeled his Slayer fragment into everybody, possibly giving them the edge that they need. With the Slayer fragment gone, it won't matter if Jack's soul is restored. After that, he will get as far away from Teffelsburg as he can, and not trouble the Slayer fragments again.
The Slayer fragments don't really know what to say to that, so Ally says they're going to need a few days to let Jake - excuse me, Shinobi - get better with the Edge. Jack agrees to that, and Teresa gives him her cell phone so that they can get in contact with him later. Then, the Slayer fragments hear the sound of a lot of people approaching, and Jack turns invisible and runs off, leaving the Slayer fragments to face down a huge force of Alerion's footsoldiers on their own. The Slayer fragments prepare to fight...but then, there's the sound of battle cries coming from behind Alerion's army and an enormous force of faeries rides in behind them, taking Alerion's army completely by surprise as they start lopping off heads and stabbing demons left and right while letting out joyful and exuberant shouts.[2]
When Alerion's army has fled in confusion, the commander of the faerie force approaches the Slayer fragments and explains that despite the Slayer fragments' past history with the faeries, when they saw their heroes suffering on the scrying pool they had to help in any way that they could. The faeries' help will be appreciated, however, many of the knights are quite out of shape and will require training before they can be really effective. Nevertheless, the Slayer fragments are glad to get further assistance and take the faeries back to Yuk Fu with them.
On the walk back to their base of operations, the Slayer fragments come up with a plan. As luck would have it, Jack's desired deal will make it easier for the Slayer fragments to tell him they're cutting the Slayer fragment out of him, but really cut the gate instead. The Slayer fragments will then enter Alerion's dimension and retrieve and restore Jack's soul, hopefully ending this evil Jack business once and for all. But until then, the Slayer fragments have almost 48 hours before Owen and the werewolves show up to complete the defenses that will remain behind in Teffelsburg. So cue the '80s music with inspiring power chords; the Slayer fragments are putting their allies through boot camp.
1 - Me, OOC: She writes your name in fiery letters using the Edge.
Jake: Cool! Show me how to do it.
Sybil: This is not the purpose for which the Edge should be used.
Jake: But you just did it!
Sybil: That's because I needed you to show you the first step.
Jake: What? Writing my name in fiery letters?
Iain, OOC: That's it. You're fired from saving the world.
2 - Some of which may have been, "For the slash!"
Previous episode here.
After responding to a knock on their door and discovering a vampirized Marty standing on the doorstep, saying he has a message from Jack, the vague possibility of negotiations or at least an explanation has been stifled by the sudden appearance of a crack in the earth and tentacles emerging from it. As Marty tries ineffectually to get inside the house, the Slayer fragments batten down the hatches and decide that rather than fighting said tentacles, they're just going to abandon ship for the time being. Everybody dashes for the back door while Marty leaps across the chasm and runs away in the opposite direction, dodging a bunch of grasping tentacles as he goes. The Slayer fragments get a safe distance between themselves and the tentacles, then discuss what to do next. Nobody really understands what just happened; the fact that the tentacles seemed just as eager to get Marty as they did to get the Slayer fragments, which implies that Jack's goals and Alerion's goals aren't exactly the same, but nobody is quite sure how. The idea that Jack would want to make a deal with them is also somewhat disturbing; what could he possibly want from them that they'd be willing to give? Unable to come up with any answers, the Slayer fragments decide not to worry about that for now and focus on the goal of figuring out how to get into Alerion's dimension to get Jack's soul.
The first step in that process, of course, is teaching Jake how to use the Edge of Twilight. At this point, the Slayer fragments realize for the first time that by cutting into Alerion's dimension they will essentially be creating a Hellmouth, and since they may not be able to close up the hole when they're done they decide that they'd better do this in a place that neither they nor anyone in Teffelsburg will care very much about if it ends up getting irrevocably tainted. Therefore, they decide to hole up in Yuk Fu Chinese Restaurant, reasoning that nobody will care very much if a restaurant that's notorious for giving people food poisoning ends up with a Hellmouth inside of it.
While the Slayer fragments are settling into their new temporary home, Jake hears a voice in his head. It's Sybil, telling him that she is ready to begin his training with the Edge of Twilight. Jake says he's ready to start as well, and promptly goes limp as his soul projects into Sybil's dimension for the lesson. (The rest of the Slayer fragments, naturally, waste no time in balancing packets of soy sauce on his prone body and putting his hand in a bowl of water. Meanwhile, Jake is meeting up with Sybil in the spirit realm and assuring her that yes, he really does want to learn how to use the Edge of Twilight in order to help Jack. Sybil asks Jake to give her the Edge, which she uses to write his full name in letters of blue fire - a trick which impresses Jake quite a lot, so much that he asks to learn to do it. But that's not what Sybil is here to teach Jake how to do, no matter how annoying he may get as he asks for her help.[1]
Sybil explains that in order to use the Edge of Twilight properly, the wielder must be completely devoted to its use. The more the wielder devotes him- or herself, the easier it is to use the Edge. But in order to use the Edge at all, at least one mark of devotion is required - using the Edge to cut away the wielder's own name. Sybil explains that Sybil is not her true name, anymore than Cerberath or the Patchwork King was the real name of the person from whom the Slayer fragments obtained the Edge, or that Tran was Jake's true name. If Jake wishes to wield the Edge, as they could, he will have to use it first of all to cut away his own name and adopt a title in his place. Jake wasn't expecting this at all, but after a moment he settles upon Shinobi as his new title, and carefully uses the Edge to cut away the letters of his own name. Sybil looks on approvingly and tells Shinobi that he has now earned the right to use the Edge - although if he wants to wield it with any sort of effectiveness, he is probably going to have to find some other parts of himself to cut away as well. Memories, skills, knowledges, even body parts - all of these things must be sacrificed in order to gain more skill with the Edge itself. Shinobi does not exactly jump at the chance to do this, but thanks Sybil anyway.
Sybil then tells Shinobi an important piece of information with regards to the group's plans for the Edge. It seems that since holes are already opening from Alerion's dimension into the physical world, this means that someone or something in the physical world is serving as a focus for the energy that is allowing those holes to be opened. If the Slayer fragments can find the source of that energy and use the Edge on it to cut a hole into Alerion's dimension, it will be safest for everyone involved and also create a hole that will automatically close up when the Slayer fragments are finished with their mission. Shinobi tells Sybil that she's going to have to tell this to Ally in person, because he's afraid that he'll forget it. He then returns to the physical world, where he is quite frustrated upon learning that he's wet himself in his soul's absence.
While Shinobi was gone, Ally and Teresa have been discussing their need to put together an army. Ally thinks they should start by getting Angela, Jonah, and their group of demon-hunting types back to Teffelsburg, and suggests that Teresa might want to teleport them there; however, Teresa and Angela don't exactly have a history of being friendly with one another, and Teresa only agrees to bring Angela back on the condition that she be allowed to teleport Angela into one of the rifts that leads to Alerion's dimension. Ally is not very happy with this, and welcomes Jake's return as a distraction from the argument. However, the distraction proves to be more permanent than expected when the Slayer fragments learn that not only has Jake abandoned his name, he's done it so completely that he can no longer hear his own name when it's spoken or even read it when it's written down! He insists upon being called Shinobi, which the others reluctantly agree to do. He then tells Ally that she needs to talk to Sybil, so Ally projects in and hears Sybil tell her what she just told Jake. Ally is happy to learn about the possibility of using the Edge in a way that will be less destructive - but not so happy when she returns to her body to find that Teresa and the others have boxed her in with dozens of restaurant menus after she specifically told them not to mess around with her body while she was gone.
With Ally back and the whole business of Shinobi more or less accepted by the rest of the group, the Slayer fragments return to talking about their as-yet-nonexistent army. After mentioning that they're in a lot of danger if tentacles keep coming at them or find out where they're hiding, the Slayer fragments hear a knock on the door and nervously answer it with their weapons out. But it's neither a tentacle nor one of Jack's messengers - it's Louie. He bursts into Yuk Fu and starts ranting about how the Slayer fragments need to "gather all of the Soviet Israelites, Marx's chosen people" in order to ensure that their home stays defended. Louie is clearly behind the army idea, and agrees to help the Slayer fragments out by keeping an eye on the disparate groups they're planning to bring together. But before the Slayer fragments go, Louie says that he has one more message to send to them, which is perhaps even less immediately comprehensible:
"Listen, man, I'll tell you the secret THEY don't want you to know. Capitalist tyrannies, they're all the same, all of them. All of them want to drag you down, and strangle you, and make you forget you're walking on God's good earth under a Marxist-Leninist sky. Even the greatest prison is made of stones, man, and in the Book it was said that the very stones shall cry out. Because the stone that the builders rejected has become the OPPRESSOR'S corner stone, but is the heart a heart of stone? Can you get blood from a stone, or tears? Revolution, man! REVOLUTION! A house divided against itself cannot stand, and so Capitalism, the great devourer, will be OVERTHROWN by those it has devoured! You know it, man, you know it. It's in the history, it's in the book, it's written in the blood of those who the LORD hath already cast down!"
The Slayer fragments have pretty much no idea what that means, but with Louie around to keep an eye on Yuk Fu, they feel more confident setting out in search of backup. After a conversation about who they know and what those people can offer them, it's settled that Shinobi will once again take on the persona of the Saltbringer to convince the P'Flug to help, Teresa will speak with the Initiative agents in Teffelsburg, Simon will track down Anthony and the remainder of his group in New Hampshire with a little help from Teresa's teleporting, Joey will call Owen and ask for the werewolves' help, and Ally will get in touch with Angela, Jonah, and their group. The Slayer fragments then go their separate ways, hoping their connections will pay off.
Bearing plenty of salt shakers and salt packets from Yuk Fu, Shinobi marches confidently into the P'flug village. Although some of the P'flug seem to have skipped town already, many have remained, and they rejoice resoundingly when they look upon the face of the Saltbringer once more. Shinobi allows the P'flug to believe that he is their messiah returned, and tells them that he needs their help in defeating a great evil that is threatening the entire world as they know it. The P'flug don't need much convicing, and send about 100 of their warriors along with Shinobi, which forms a good and substantial base for the army.
After teleporting Simon to New Hampshire and arranging for him to call her when he's tracked Anthony down, Teresa heads over to the Initiative base to ask for their help. Once the Initiative identifies Teresa as a friend of Jake's (well, Shinobi's, now), they are receptive to the need to band together to stop Alerion. Although the Initiativs is going to need some time to prepare for a battle of that scale, they send a few soldiers back to Yuk Fu with Teresa as a show of good faith. They also loan some walkie-talkies to the Slayer fragments, thereby getting rid of the need for unreliable cell phones.
Joey's contact with Owen, however, is considerably less simple. He calls a number that Tyler tracked down and gets in touch with Owen, but has a hard time convincing Owen to help. Although Owen says that he respects the problems that the Slayer fragments are having and their need for success, Joey is asking Owen to send everyone that he can spare and Owen feels uncomfortable leaving behind people who are old, sick, weak, pregnant, or otherwise unable to defend themselves. Ultimately, Owen agrees to send his fighters to Teffelsburg on the condition that Joey and the other Slayer fragments find somebody else who can come to their new home in southern Ohio and watch over the members of Owen's family who can't defend themselves.
At first, Joey is excited because he went to college in Ohio and thinks he may be able to exploit some of his contacts in the state, but he soon realizes that nobody he knows is really the sort of person who'd be capable of defending a bunch of werewolves. So he finds Ally and asks for her input. Since Ally has had no trouble at all summoning up an air spirit and paying it with cockroaches from the Yuk Fu kitchen so that it will carry a request for help to Angela and Jonah, wherever they may be, she agrees to help Joey brainstorm some ideas. The trouble is that they need to come up with somebody who owes them a favor, yet won't be the sort of firepower they'd rather apply toward the fight against Alerion. After a while, Ally remembers that the local guardian spirit of Stoneport which the Slayer fragments freed from Alerion's bondage nearly a year ago once said that if the Slayer fragments ever needed its help, all they had to do was ask. Perhaps this could be an opportunity to call in that favor.
By now, Jake has returned with the P'flug and Teresa has returned with the Initiative, so Ally and Joey slip away from the wild P'flug party that is beginning to break out and ask Teresa to teleport them to Stoneport. Just as Teresa was, Ally and Joey are surprised by how little Stoneport has been touched by Alerion's influence in comparison to Teffelsburg. The two of them go to the graveyard where Ally summoned the spirit before, and Ally chants long into the night while Joey grabs some sleep under a tree. Finally, just as the sun is rising, the local spirit appears. It is receptive to Ally and Joey's request for help, and agrees to send a portion of its energy to Ohio to watch over Owen's family. Joey calls Owen, who confirms that the spirit has appeared, and says that he and his fighters will arrive in a day or two.
Although Ally is exhausted, Joey says that he wants to stop off at a nearby grocery store to replenish the Slayer fragments' provisions, and Ally has to agree that this is a pretty good idea. While shopping, both Ally and Joey notice a very unpleasant smell emanating from Joey. At first, they both think it can be attributed to spending the night sleeping in a graveyard, but this theory is disproven when Joey notices that the skin on his hands and feet is beginning to rot away! Joey is horrified to realize that when Osiris told him that he didn't have forever left to live, it was much shorter than Joey was anticipating. Ally doesn't know what to say about any of this, and is desperately in need of sleep, so she tells Joey to ask Teresa about it because she needs some sleep.
When Teresa brings Ally and Joey back to Teffelsburg, Joey does just that - but Teresa doesn't have much more insight into the problem than Joey does. While the two of them are brainstorming possible explanations, however, Joey realizes something he didn't think of before. Osiris mentioned only that somebody needed Joey's aid and protection in the physical world, and that Joey was the only one who could protect that person. Joey assumed that Osiris was talking about Kirsten, but the god never mentioned Kirsten's name, nor did he ever even specify a gender or any other characteristics of the person to be protected. Teresa tells Joey to think about whether there's anyone else who needs protecting in his life, and Joey immediately thinks of Felipe, the crippled baseball player who he promised to help a long time ago but never really delivered on his promise. So it's off to Felipe's apartment to see if he's the one behind this.
In the company of several Initiative agents, Joey enters Felipe's apartment and soon finds Felipe holed up in a corner. Felipe explains without prompting that he is flat broke and unable to get out of Teffelsburg, so when he saw Joey's death in a vision, he knew what he had to do. Using some voodoo that his Mexican grandmother taught him, Felipe brought Joey back from the dead as a sort of helper zombie. Joey is now between a rock and a hard place, because as soon as he brings Felipe to real safety, he'll die - but if he doesn't help Felipe, his body will rot away and leave him as a restless spirit. For now, Joey manages to convince Felipe that the fight against Alerion is currently more important, but promises to fulfill his duty to Felipe as soon as Alerion is defeated and face the fate he has earned. Toward that end, Joey takes Felipe back to Yuk Fu with him so that Felipe will at least be safe for the time being.
With Ally asleep and Joey dealing with the Felipe situation, it falls to Teresa and Shinobi to decide what to do next. Since the Slayer fragments still don't know what's causing all of the cracks to Alerion's dimension to open up, and thus don't know what or who they need to cut into with the Edge to open the safest entrance in order to retrieve Jack's soul, Teresa decides that it makes sense to track the cracks and see if they can figure out the source of the cracks. Unable to find any sort of pattern in where or when the cracks are opening, Teresa suggests checking out the convention center where Alerion originally came into the world during the Slayer fragments' high school reunion. There, they have better luck; Teresa notices one of Jack's footprints in a flowerbed and then sees it split open into a crack from which tentacles emerge. It would seem that the gate to Alerion's dimension is, in fact, Jack.
Teresa and Shinobi gather the rest of the Slayer fragments together and tell them what they've found. Together, the Slayer fragments start combing all of Jack's favorite hangouts, using the Alerion-detecting candle spell to tell if they're on the right track. Eventually, they locate Jack, hiding out in the sewers underneath the Sundown Lanes, with a huge chasm between him and the Slayer fragments. They ask him about the deal he was proposing earlier. Jack tells the Slayer fragments that he has something they want - another Slayer fragment - and that he wants to get rid of it, while the Slayer fragments have the means via the Edge of Twilight to get rid of the fragment. If the Slayer fragments will use the Edge to cut the Slayer fragment out of Jack prior to taking on Alerion, it'll help them in the same way that it did when Chris channeled his Slayer fragment into everybody, possibly giving them the edge that they need. With the Slayer fragment gone, it won't matter if Jack's soul is restored. After that, he will get as far away from Teffelsburg as he can, and not trouble the Slayer fragments again.
The Slayer fragments don't really know what to say to that, so Ally says they're going to need a few days to let Jake - excuse me, Shinobi - get better with the Edge. Jack agrees to that, and Teresa gives him her cell phone so that they can get in contact with him later. Then, the Slayer fragments hear the sound of a lot of people approaching, and Jack turns invisible and runs off, leaving the Slayer fragments to face down a huge force of Alerion's footsoldiers on their own. The Slayer fragments prepare to fight...but then, there's the sound of battle cries coming from behind Alerion's army and an enormous force of faeries rides in behind them, taking Alerion's army completely by surprise as they start lopping off heads and stabbing demons left and right while letting out joyful and exuberant shouts.[2]
When Alerion's army has fled in confusion, the commander of the faerie force approaches the Slayer fragments and explains that despite the Slayer fragments' past history with the faeries, when they saw their heroes suffering on the scrying pool they had to help in any way that they could. The faeries' help will be appreciated, however, many of the knights are quite out of shape and will require training before they can be really effective. Nevertheless, the Slayer fragments are glad to get further assistance and take the faeries back to Yuk Fu with them.
On the walk back to their base of operations, the Slayer fragments come up with a plan. As luck would have it, Jack's desired deal will make it easier for the Slayer fragments to tell him they're cutting the Slayer fragment out of him, but really cut the gate instead. The Slayer fragments will then enter Alerion's dimension and retrieve and restore Jack's soul, hopefully ending this evil Jack business once and for all. But until then, the Slayer fragments have almost 48 hours before Owen and the werewolves show up to complete the defenses that will remain behind in Teffelsburg. So cue the '80s music with inspiring power chords; the Slayer fragments are putting their allies through boot camp.
1 - Me, OOC: She writes your name in fiery letters using the Edge.
Jake: Cool! Show me how to do it.
Sybil: This is not the purpose for which the Edge should be used.
Jake: But you just did it!
Sybil: That's because I needed you to show you the first step.
Jake: What? Writing my name in fiery letters?
Iain, OOC: That's it. You're fired from saving the world.
2 - Some of which may have been, "For the slash!"