"The Wren"

Story by: Jet Wolf, Novareinna and Ultrace
Written by: Novareinna and Jet Wolf

Premiering: Tuesday, 26 October 2004, 8pm EST

Next week, on an all-new episode of The Chosen ...

A shot of the Scoobies on the back porch of their home. Buffy is standing almost at attention,
watching something in the distance. Suddenly, Giles squints and rubs his eyes.
Giles: Did you see that?
Buffy tenses.
Buffy: She's gonna fall.
As they run toward something, there's a flash of white.

Dawn's a stranger in a strange land.

The flash fades away to reveal Dawn lying flat on her back in a wooded area. She winces as she sits up.
Flash. Dawn looks around. She's completely alone.
Flash. Dawn hears the sound of a bird singing in the distance. Her head jerks toward the sound, and she follows it.
Flash. A sign reading "This way to the Renaissance Festival". Dawn looks in the direction it's pointing.
Flash. Curiously, Dawn moves underneath a huge stone rampart, entering a bustling
courtyard filled with shops and crowds of people, all in archaic period costumes.

It's unfamiliar territory with a few familiar faces.

A series of quick cuts: Buffy standing proud in a suit of golden armor. Giles looking up from a clipboard. Xander, without eye patch, wearing leather workman's clothes. Dawn's friends, all in fancy dresses, sitting at a picnic table. Willow meditating in a grassy clearing. Faith in dark leather armor facing off against Kennedy in gleaming chainmail. Tara, smiling, in a long flowing gown.

Another flash. A platinum-blond mercenary. He grins mischievously. Fade to black.
Fade from black to Dawn's surprised face. Fade to black.
Voice (V.O.): Hey! No getting in without a ticket!
Dawn (V.O.): A- Anya?

Can Dawn unravel the mystery before it's too late?

A series of quick shots:
Knights in fierce battle, swords clanging against swords.
A shot of faint torches only barely visible admist a sea of blackness.
Buffy, armored, looking grim as she throws a dagger to a two-eyed Xander. He catches it and turns to face something unseen.
The torches in the darkness. Closer now. Chanting.
Willow and Tara, their hands clenched together, incanting in unison as magickal energy crackles and swirls around them.
Faint figures visible now, emerging from the darkness.
Dawn, desperately climbing up a tree, trying to get away from something when her attention is diverted.
She stops climbing and looks down, her expression becoming one of horror.
Dawn (V.O.) No!!

The Chosen: A Buffy Virtual Season 8. Because the story's not done yet.