| abstract | - He growls and lunges at her, and she looks surprised that her line didn't have more of an effect. Xander and Oz move in to assist. Oz, however, has a little trouble getting the wood out of his pants (well, you know), and the vamp takes the opportunity to do a cool backflip over Xander. The vamp runs. Dramatic music swells as Oz narrows his eyes and readies himself for a long-distance staking -- but his arm is like a wet noodle, and the stake bounces harmlessly off a trashcan. ("That really never works.") Xander wonders at the vamp's acrobatics. Oz suddenly recognizes the vamp as Andy Hoelich from the gymnastics team. Xander, fuming, chastises Willow for her cheesy line, but she defensively points out that Buffy always has a quip ready. Xander misses her punnage, and Willow admonishes him for breaking the "past-tense rule." Right, right; Buffy's due back any moment now. The gang speculates on Buffy's return as the camera pans out. Buffy is standing on the beach, close to sunset. A pair of arms encircle her; it's Angel. "I'll never leave. Not even if you kill me". Buffy wakes up. She walks to the window, and the camera pans out to reveal a street that's definitely on the wrong side of the tracks. In the morning, Buffy -- in pigtails and a checkered uniform -- waits on a young couple who are canoodling. The girl is vampire-wannabe Chantarelle (from "Lie to Me"), only looking much more like a Street Urchin. The lovers have matching tattoos that, when placed together, form a heart with their names on them: "Rickie" and "Lily." After reading Buffy's name tag, which says "ANNE", Lily wonders if they've someplace before. Buffy, realizing she's just been made, asks another waitress to cover for her. Meanwhile, Sunnydale High is rebooting for the new year. Oz was supposed to go to summer school but forgot, so he's repeating senior year (lucky us). Xander and Cordelia initially look happy to see each other again, but each is waiting for the other to make the first move. After some fumbled dialogue, they dart off in opposite directions. Giles continues his search to find Buffy. He gets off the phone and announces that he has a lead -- a report of a young girl fighting vampires in Oakland. This is apparently not the first such lead they've had. Xander suspects they won't find Buffy until she wants to be found. Night. Buffy walks back from work. Lily calls to her, "Buffy?" Buffy stops in her tracks. Lily asks if Buffy recognizes her, and promises that she didn't tell anyone Buffy's identity. We learn for sure that Lily is homeless, and Buffy reveals that Anne is her middle name. Lily says that she's always changing her name; Chanterelle was part of her "exotic phase." Buffy informs her that chanterelle is a mushroom. Lily looks alarmed, and Buffy backpedals by telling her that it's an "exotic mushroom." Ah well. Inevitably, Lily asks Buffy for some cash, but an old man shambles in between them. He creepily says, "I'm no one," and wanders out into the street before freezing like a deer in the headlights. Since he's actually in the headlights, Buffy races out and pushes him to safety, and gets hit by an SUV for her trouble. A crowd forms around Buffy, but she recovers and quickly runs off. Rounding a corner, she runs right into a missionary, knocking a bunch of flyers out of his hand. As they gather the flyers up, he introduces himself as "Ken." He inquires after her well-being, and PSAs about kids on the street. He gives Buffy a flyer for a halfway house called "Family Home." Giles returns from his false lead ("Bunch of school kids in heavy mascara") to visit with Joyce. She opens the door expectantly, but is disappointed to see him. She's afraid to leave the house in case Buffy calls or shows up. Giles tells Joyce that she shouldn't blame herself for Buffy's departure, but Joyce turns it around: "I blame you." Ooph. Lily finds Buffy at the diner. She tells Buffy that Rickie has disappeared, and begs her for help. Cut to a blood bank, where Lily exposits that she and Rickie Lily and Ricky went there the day before to score money (and cookies). Buffy asks a large female doctor if Rickie has been in in the last day. Negative. As they leave, the ominous music of "I'm Not Telling The Whole Story" plays of the doc's face. Out in the street, Buffy finds the man whose life she saved the previous night lying dead in the gutter, having drunk drain cleaner. She kneels and turns his arm over, and finds the "Lily" tattoo. Buffy concludes that Rickie has somehow been "drained" of his youth. Lily waits nervously at Buffy's apartment. Buffy enters, and breaks the news about Rickie. Lily doesn't take it very well, accusing Buffy of maybe bringing a monster that caused this. Lily runs outside, straight into the arms of Ken. He invites her to come to Family Home, telling her that Rickie has already joined them. Meanwhile at the blood bank, Buffy interrogates the doctor from earlier, who pleads that she just forwards "them" the names of the "healthy ones.". Cut to Ken preparing Lily, who's now wearing a smock, for a ceremony called a "Cleansing." Ken instructs Lily to kneel in front of an ink-black, rectangular pool. He explains that the pool is to "wash away the past." With motor oil? Meanwhile, Buffy's at the Family Home door, asking some goon if she can join up ("You know, I just -- I woke up, and I looked in the mirror and I thought, 'Hey! What's with all the sin?'"). When that doesn't work, she kicks the door open and finds Ken in the cleansing room -- just in time for the tar to suck Lily into the pool. Buffy tries to follow, but Ken tangles her up and they both fall in, right through the black pool and into a hellish-looking forge. Young men and women, all dressed in the same style of smock as Lily, working as slaves. Some are being whipped by demon guards. Ken reveals himself as a demon of some sort with a human face glued on, and sends his guards after the girls. The two are quickly caught and told that they will be living there for as long as they can serve as useful slaves. Time moves much more quickly in their current reality, which is why Rickie aged so many years while no time had passed on Earth. Buffy, Lily, and several other kids are brought before a demon guard for orientation. He barks at the kids, "YOU ARE NO ONE NOW." Right. Let's practice. Demon Guard asks a boy at one end of the line who he is. The boy stammers, "Aaron." Wrong answer. Guard clocks him with a club. Buffy seems to steel herself at that. Lily's next in line: she cheeps, "No one!" Ding ding ding! You've been voted Most Likely Not To Get Clocked On The Head By A Demon Guard! Then it's Buffy's turn: He tries to beat her down, but she makes short work of the three guards, and instructs the kids to follow her. Time for the fight. Buffy is kicking demon ass and taking demon names. Aww yeah, who's no one now? Lily shepherds the kids out; they reach a large iron gate gate, which Buffy lifts up with slayer strength. The kids go under it, and Buffy starts to go herself when Ken tackles her from behind. He bowls her over, and the gate crashes down, impaling him through both legs. The kids are escaping upward through the portal. Buffy picks up a spiked club and approaches Ken. She rains the club down on his head. Lily is still trying to figure out the joke. Buffy's apartment. She offers to give Lily the tour, but only take two steps before announcing, "This concludes our tour." Buffy says the rent is paid up for the next three weeks, and that Lily can take over her shifts at the diner. Lily regards Buffy's diner uniform, and asks for permission to be "Anne". Buffy smiles her assent. Back at home, Joyce hesitantly answers the door again. She opens the door to find her daughter on the front steps. After a few moments, they hug.
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