Thank you for coming. And correct me if I'm wrong, but the role of a psychic is to be psychic. To predict the future, so that Wolfram and Hart doesn't find itself in this kind of predicament.
BPBald psychic
I can't apologize enough, sir.
You're right. You can't. [Laughs] But I'm not without compassion. I'm gonna give you a chance to save your job - and your skin.
[Bald psychic smiles relieved, then frowns and leans in a bit closer to Linwood.]
BPBald psychic
No, you're not. You're gonna have me killed.
[Puts a hand on his shoulder.] Now, why couldn't you have had that kind of foresight when we needed it?
[Someone puts a plastic bag over the bald guy's head from behind and pulls him away from Linwood.]
Human as is in humanoid? As in cannibalistic humanoid underground dwellers?
No - human as in - a boy.
A boy. A boy. You're carrying a boy.
Gonna have a son. I'm gonna have a son.
Guys. As fascinating as an ultra-sound image of an unborn child may appear...
Me. A father. To a son. You know what that means?
We're surrounded by vampires?
[He trails off as he looks away from the monitor for the first time and notices the vampires lining the teaching gallery above them and the back wall of the room.]
Oh. We are surrounded by vampires.
Hey, I'm all for being idolized, but what the hell is going on?
To protect the miracle child.
Protect? Ah, that's good. We're all here for the same thing.
[The guy with the sword that Lilah called earlier suddenly jumps through one of the glass windows above, dressed like a ninja and holding the sword in front of him, screaming 'die!' The miracle child worshipping vampires jump on him en masse, and he goes down with a strangled scream. We hear a crunch and someone gulping down liquid.]
As it has been prophesied by our great potentate Ul-thar, we vow our lives to protect this special child.
[aside to Darla] You hear that? Our kid. Special.
Now let us kill the humans so we may use their blood to nourish the mother and her miracle child.
[smiling] Guess I'm getting dinner after all.
Darla, you might wanna join the fight.
Sorry, darling. I'm gonna have to be Switzerland and sit this one out. Now, you did say you were just gonna kill the humans, right?
Yes, just the humans. Then we will nourish you, slice you open, wear your entrails as a belt and consume your eyeballs before we worship the miracle child.
Gunn, you and I can hold them off for as long as we can. The rest of you, get Darla to the car.
Oh, I'd rather stay and fight. Show these youngsters a thing or two about real carnage.
That's thoughtful, but, you know, you should go.
Charles, do you have an extra dagger I could borrow?
[Gunn pulls out a dagger and hands it to her.]
No my count of three. One, two...
[Fred holds the dagger against Darla's belly.]
You freaks make one move and I'll slice the miracle kid into triplets.
It's always the quiet ones.
[quietly to Darla] They don't know the knife can't hurt the baby.
[smiling] They do now. Vampires have great hearing.
[Darla is still in the back of the car. Wesley is sitting on the trunk facing Fred, standing behind the car. Gunn is sitting on the side of the passenger door. Cordelia starts the car.]
It's been six and a half.
It probably wouldn't hurt to wait another minute, right? I mean, what's the worst thing that could happen in another minute? [Darla lets out a blood-curdling scream.] Ask a stupid question...
Her water's broken. This is for real. There should be a blanket in the trunk.
What are we gonna do? Deliver the kid right here? Shouldn't we go somewhere?
[Gunn gets the blanket out of the trunk and he and Wesley help a screaming Darla to lie down in the back seat while the camera pulls up to give us an overhead view of them.]
That's the tragic beauty of a cosmic convergence. I- I mean, he just plays his own small part. He comes here looking for Angel and Darla, and in the process ends up finding Angel's unborn child. Who, as it turns out, wasn't evil at all as we feared, but was actually meant to be some sort of Messianic figure. But Holtz kills it before it's even born, and his vengeance somehow triggers the end of the world! (pause, off everyone's looks) Or not. It could go either way. Have you thought of a name yet?
[Angel is still held motionless by the metal grips while Holts admires one of Angel's swords.]
You're still human. How'd you manage this?
[Holtz puts the sword back into the weapons cabinet.]
So, the question becomes, now that I have you, what's the best way to get her?
Only dark magic could have brought you this far.
She was always the trick, you know, not you. Darla was the unpredictable one.
Was it a demon? Or something else?
[Holtz points a stake at Angel's chest.]
What if I just kill you now? Would she somehow sense it? Would she then come running? [Walks away from Angel] Would that bring her bursting through those doors, I wonder?
Did something come to you, or did you seek it out?
She might show herself in the service of revenge. It can be a powerful motivator.
Yes, it can. What did you have to give up for this second chance?
Give up? [Turns to face Angel] I had nothing to give up. You saw to that.
We took a lot from you, that's true. But we didn't get everything. We couldn't take your soul.
What do you know of a soul?
I know yours will be destroyed if you allow yourself to be used in the service of evil. You're a good man, Holtz. A righteous man. And you're being used for some purpose other than justice.
Could it be you really have changed? I don't remember you ever pleading so cravenly before.
And I remember you used to work with men.
[Holtz hits Angel hard across the face.]
Now it's up to us to protect Angel's unborn child. Darla, we're trying to take you out of here. Relax. The trick is to breathe. Like this.
[Wesley demonstrates short panting breaths]
Heh, heh, heh, hoh, hoh, hoh, heh, heh, heh...
[sits up and sends Wesley, Cordelia, Gunn and Fred all flying backwards, away from the car and morphs into her vampface]
[Cordy, Wes, Fred, and Gunn all sit in the front of the convertible, leaving a very pregnant Darla alone in the back.]
Doesn't anyone wanna sit back here with me?
I promise I won't throw anyone out of the car. Not while it's moving.
It's not that we don't trust you. I mean, we don't trust you, but, the fact is, your water broke all over the back seat.
MMan
What are we going to do?
[Holtz walks over to Sarah and picks her up.]
SSarah
Papa, no! Please, no, papa! Papa, don't. Let me go!
[Holtz caries her over to the door and out onto the roofed porch.]
SSarah
No, papa. Papa, don't!
[Sarah tries to cling to one of the porch's pillars, but Holtz pulls her away and pushes her out into the bright sunlight of the front yard. She turns back to look up at him, morphing into vamp face as she burns up in the direct sunlight. Holtz stays and watches until she's gone then walks back into the house.]
[Darla is standing on top of a building looking over the city below, her hands cradling her pregnant belly.]
You always did love a view.
Look at it. Listen to it. Can you smell it? This world. This horrible world. Why would anyone want to bring a baby into it?
To make it better, maybe?
Or to destroy it finally.
Why is it everyone insists on planning my son's future before he's even born?
[Darla turns and walks past where Angel is standing.]
Alright then, how's this? It doesn't have a future. Not with me.
Angel, I can't have this baby.
I can't let it out. I-I can't.
Okay, not sure you have a lot of choice in the matter...
Look, I know. It wants to come out. I can feel it. It's ready. It's just... I can't let it. I can't let because... because...
Completely. I love it completely. I-I-I don't think I've ever loved anything as much as this life that's inside of me.
Well, you've never *loved* anything, Darla.
That's true. Four hundred years and I never did. Til now. I don't know what to do.
Well, you-you'll do the only thing that you can do. You'll have it. You'll have it and then...
This whole thing is impossible, Darla, but it's happening.
What do I have to offer a child, a human child, besides ugly death?
No. What I do know is that you love this baby, our baby. You've bonded with it. You've spent nine months carrying it, nourishing it...
No. No, I haven't been nourishing it. I haven't given this baby a thing. I'm dead. It's been nourishing me. These feelings that I'm having, they're not mine. They're coming from it.
Of course I do! We both do. Angel, I don't have a soul. It does. And right now that soul is inside of me, but soon, it won't be and then...
I won't be able to love it. I won't even be able to remember that I loved it. [Starts to cry] I want to remember.
[Angel pulls her against him.]
[Angel closes his eyes as he holds a crying Darla.]
