Good Friday

Pictures of eras throughout history flash across a screen as a voice reads from the Familia Zolorum. The voice describes the nature of the two priestesses: one a shape shifter, and the other able to bend minds to her will.

* * *

Geoff and Chase are in one of the lesser-used chemistry labs on campus. In front of them on a gurney is a very dead demon - Raveena secured the corpse for Gabe, who needs the heart for a spell, which is where Geoff and Chase come in. Geoff is performing the "surgery" while Chase hangs out and makes small talk. The heart makes it in to a jar of formaldehyde as Geoff "casually" asks about Chase's Thanksgiving plans and ends up being invited to visit her grandmother's ranch (and horses) in Colorado. As Geoff starts to screw the lid on the jar, his fingers slip on some errant demon goop running down the side, and the jar smashes to the floor. "Just once, I wish I could make it through a day without screwing up," he mutters. He and Chase try to contain the damage and salvage the heart, as they risk the wrath of Raveena if she finds out they botched it. After all, Gabe didn't say it had to be intact ? and is he really going to be able to tell, anyway??

* * *

Deaver is sitting in Nikki's living room, buried in the Familia Zolorum. Nikki comes in with a pitcher of sangria, hungry for some attention. Despite Deaver's obvious distraction, she sits in his lap to tell him how happy she is with him. He tries to pay attention to her but is obviously still absorbed by his studies. Nikki gives a slightly neglected smile and then leaves him to continue his research.

* * *

Prague, 1942. A swank club in the heart of the city, with jazz pulsing in the background. At a table we see two beautiful (and very Aryan) blonde women wearing swastikas on their arms, involved in casual conversation.

[Jen inserts brilliantly executed scene here.]

* * *

Raveena, Gabe, Deaver, and Chase are standing in a cemetery on top of a hill, old tombs and markers scattered around them in the dark night. A hand rises from the earth, and Raveena pulls the vampire out of the ground, staking it easily. Four more vampires approach, rising out of the darkness. Chase, Gabe, and Deaver move to put their backs to the perimeter wall and target a single vampire. Raveena pulls out a crossbow and fires at the nearest vampire, hitting it (of course). The vamp engaged with the hapless trio grapples Gabe and takes a big ol' bite out of his neck. Chase swings her sword at him and misses - Deaver hits with his sword but doesn't make a huge impression. Gabe is quickly drained like a Slurpee on a hot summer day. As he falls to the ground ? he wakes up gasping in the night, the dream vivid in his mind. It didn't feel like a dream, but rather some kind of premonition. Disturbed, he makes coffee. With rum. A lot of it.

[French Revolution story here? It was a commercial break in the notes.]

Unable to get back to sleep, Gabe stares unseeing until dawn, nursing his Jamaican Coffee. Disheveled and disturbed, he goes through the motions of real life up until lunchtime, when he meets up with the gang as usual. Chase comments on his harried appearance, and Gabe regales his friends with the details of his strange dream. Raveena looks greatly disturbed by his revelation, and admits that she too has had the exact same dream. She had it for the first time the night she arrived in McKennitt, before she even met any of the gang. She tells them the sequence of events: the hand rising out of the ground, the vamps that just keep coming, killing everyone off but her, and finally this big guy at the end with an equally big sword who beheads her every time, like the end level of a video game; she hasn't told anyone about it because she is so frustrated at being unable to defeat the vampire. Theories go back and forth between the lunch bunch about the nature of the dream: a warning, a prophecy, a priestess screwing with them. Geoff is a little grumpy that he doesn't appear in this dream, as he damn well intends to be there with them at the end of all of this. Raveena and Chase make halfhearted attempts to smooth his ruffled feathers, and the group tries to figure out how to proceed. Gabe decides to do some research to see if there is a spell that will allow them all to enter the same dream, and in the event that he doesn't find anything, the crew agrees to meet up in the morning and try to locate the graveyard using the few clues they have from the dream.

* * *

Gabe is successful in his search for a dream spell, so the group gathers in Nikki's living room to sleep and, perchance, to dream. Raveena tries to talk Geoff out of coming with them, saying that they need someone to keep watch [and as usual, she is oh so convincing]. She doesn't want to add any new elements that could affect the dream. They argue, and a tense silence falls. Nikki points out again that they could just avoid the cemetery altogether, and goes to make a sangria nightcap. Raveena finally relents, and the group decides they will all go except Nikki.

Gabe tries to act confident about the spell, casually adding ingredients to a bowl. He lights incense, and the group falls asleep almost immediately, despite the early hour. ?

* * *

Raveena, Gabe, Deaver, and Chase are standing in a cemetery on top of a hill, old tombs and markers scattered around them in the dark night (Geoff is not with them). They are relieved to note that they are all armed with their weapons of choice. Looking quickly out into the distance, Chase manages to determine from the landscape that they are in the hills not far to the northwest of McKennitt. The tombstones surrounding them are old and worn, with most dating from the 1600s. A hand rises from the earth, and Raveena pulls the vampire out of the ground, staking it easily. Four more vampires approach, rising out of the darkness. The gang makes a conscious effort to advance as a group, and they move towards the mausoleum to meet the oncoming vamps. Sticking together, the group manages to dispatch the vamps with only mild injury to themselves [read: Raveena].

Out of the corner of his eye, Gabe spots another vamp rising up from behind a tombstone. He yells a warning, and tries to throw a spell in his direction, but he bumps into Chase and barely singes the guy with his jet of flame. Raveena gasps and tells the group that this is the one that always kills her ? but not this time. Dispatching the foe, the group keeps moving towards the entrance of the mausoleum in the center of the graveyard. As they round the corner to the front of the structure, there are two more vamps wearing tabards and wielding large swords guarding the gate. Raveena flubs an attack on one of them, but Chase hoists her sword and cleanly (not to mention impressively) beheads him. All banter ceases as the group looks at Chase like she just grew a second head (to replace the one she just removed from someone else). She rolls her shoulders and repeats the performance on the second guard, muttering to herself that she thinks she finally has that move figured out ?

The scoobies enter the crypt, lead by Raveena. They desecrate a few tombs but find nothing of interest. They finally start to explore the back wall, and they find an empty sconce that when pulled downward opens the back wall, revealing a short staircase and a winding tunnel. Chase takes the torch out of the trick sconce and lights it. The group proceeds into the winding passage, which is big enough for them to walk two abreast. They hear the noise of scrabbling claws ahead of them, moving in their direction. They proceed and come face to face with two big, fast hellhounds. They aren't too big and too fast though, because they manage to defeat them. They continue down the passage and see moonlight at the end, signaling an exit to the outside. They emerge from the tunnel behind an outcropping of rock on a flat clearing on the side of a tall hill. They hear voices from the other side of the rocks. Peeking over the top, the group sees four women in robes. Their backs are to the outcropping, and they face a fire. Gabe determines from their chanting that they are in the middle of some kind of summoning ritual. One of them suddenly notices their presence and in a contemptuous voice exclaims, "God, I HATE these people! Come out, we know you're there." She turns around and takes off her hood. It's Strella. The other women turn to face our heroes as well as they emerge from behind the outcropping. The moonlight catches on a DoH drop around the neck of one of the other hooded figures. Strella tells them they're too late to do anything, not that they could. The ground begins to shake. Another of the cloaked figures removes her hood ? and it's Nikki. She calmly tells the stunned scoobies that she thinks its time for them to wake up now.

* * *

[Jennifer enters Nikki's poignant and beautifully written tale of destroyed childhood and intolerance here.]

* * *

The gang awakes with a start, expressions of disbelief on every face as they look around at each other. They can hear Geoff and Nikki joking outside the room. Nikki and Geoff open the living room door, and she is carrying a tray of sangria and some glasses. She looks at their faces one by one. Suddenly the details of Nikki's story from the Familia Zolorum are fleshed out in an instant. They know this story, on a much more personal level. Nikki calmly asks them what they discovered, and if they have questions she may be able to help with. They all refuse to speak to her and refuse to discuss what happened in the dream (much to Geoff's frustration). Gabe tries to get the two of them to leave the room again, but he is unsuccessful. Raveena starts to walk out, completely disgusted with Raveena. Gabe stops her and instead asks that the four dream walkers reconvene at Deaver's apartment to figure out where they stand on what just happened. Nikki looks greatly saddened, and in their minds they dreamers feel a desire to stay here and discuss it ? not a command to stay, but if they're waffling at all ?. But they aren't, so they prepare to leave, and leave Nikki behind. Chase announces she's going in Geoff's car, so he's coming too. Gabe asks that no one discuss what just happened until they reconvene. Chase's temper flares visibly, but she sulks instead of blowing up.

On the trip to Deaver's, Gabe gets out of Deaver's car and walks for part of the way. He casts a locating spell on Geoff just to be sure it's him and not Strella in disguise. Sure enough, the little ball of light heads straight for Deaver's apartment. All is well.

The very quiet quintet meets up chez Deaver. They all confirm that it was Nikki they saw, and that she is one of the priestesses - the mind manipulating empathic. But why hasn't she tried to harm them? What game is she playing? Tired of the subterfuge (and the subtlety), Chase calls Nikki on her cell phone, apologizes for the mass freak out, and asks her to come to Deaver's. She agrees, and they hang up. Once Nikki arrives, Gabe starts to try to question her. Chase [again, subtlety is not her strong point] interrupts and just asks Nikki flat out what it's like being a priestess of Zolor and why she failed to mention this little fact.

Nikki tells them that she genuinely likes them, and that it doesn't have to be this way. She plans to give someone like Kyp to Zolor to tide him over, and then take him elsewhere for a while. Humans hate each other, hate anyone who is different from them; Nikki maintains that Zolor does not create dissention and hatred, but rather finds it amusing and therefore gravitates towards places where it is already going on. Humans are by nature hateful. So Nikki intends to take Zolor somewhere far from McKennitt, and return in a few months to pick her life back up where she left off with Alex, school, and her friends. No one here will be hurt - they will all be safe. Isn't that what they want? It's what she wants. They are nice people, and most of the world is not nice; they bring it all on themselves. The gang tries to explain to Nikki that it isn't that simple ? that killing other people who aren't them doesn't make it okay. But she simply doesn't see it that way. Frustrated, Raveena leaves. Deciding that he conversation is futile and unsure what to do, Chase asks Geoff to take her home. On their way back to his apartment, they make a stop at Nikki's place, as Chase wants to grab the Familia Zolorum so that it is out of Nikki's possession. She can't find the book, either in the safe or in the living room where Deaver was most likely to have it. She calls Deaver's cell and asks without preamble where the book is. He gives her a few locations, but it is not in any of them. She also checks Nikki's room, but to no avail. On the other end of the line, Nikki tells Deaver that he is welcome to continue to read the book when he comes over. But as it pertains to her as well, she has tucked it away. Completely frustrated, Chase hangs up and storms out of the house with Geoff in tow.

FINIS.