Buffy Summers feels a bit nauseous. ‘Love’. He called me ‘love’. She stares dumbfounded at the Englishman who’s just picked her up off the floor of her dreamscape.

Ethan Rayne?

In the flesh, he says, calling her ‘love’ again, explaining it’s a term of endearment. Like ‘pet’. She doesn’t like that one either. “How did you get in my dream?” she asks him. It’s not as if he’s high on her list of fantasies. He says he just hitched a ride – it’s her head. He explains that we’re always dreaming, even when awake. Just a tiny bit of our brains, stirring that brew… the dreams we remember are based on our desires or our fears. For example, he says, and shows her a fantasy she’s recently had about Angel, Spike and a nurse’s uniform. OKAY! I get it. And it was a slow year. Ethan tells her that she’s been trapped here, but not by him. But they do have to move fast – especially as her friends need Buffy’s help outside in the real world. Buffy starts to follow and abruptly asks: “Wait? What’s going on outside?”

In the skies above Scotland, the thunder is rolling and green energies crackle against the sky as Willow and Amy battle each other, both using vast amounts of magical power. Amy doesn’t think much of Willow’s strength. Didn’t you almost destroy the world one time? She’s not impressed. What happened to Willow? Willow allows Amy’s next spell to hit her. The blast explodes into tiny scarabs that crawl around Willow, but she doesn’t flinch. She tells Amy that she’s seen the big picture, but Amy is too self-involved. Willow wasn’t fighting her: she was decoding her magic. With an almighty blast, Willow propels herself upwards, a spell emanating from her. The zombified highlanders stop attacking the Slayers and, all of them, in turn, ask each Slayer to dance!

Xander introduces Willow via the monitors to the Slayers, watching a legend, in absolute awe. Willow says that the light show she’s wielding is a distraction, but Amy also points out that so was her army. She smacks Willow with some sort of energy, and the witch falters.

Inside Buffy’s head, she’s back in the corridors of Sunnydale High. It’s Buffy, sixteen years old again, complaining about French class. Buffy, personally, would like to delete that memory, but Ethan tells her to stop wasting time. Her enemy has opened her flank and part of their memories are filtering through – and it’s a way of defeating her – if they can find the right memory. But there’s bits of Buffy’s memories too.

Outside in the real world, Willow’s eyes go jet black, her hair darkening to match. Dark Willow. She fires the magic back at Amy, who asks her what else she’s got. As Xander asks for a favour on his comms, Dawn comes out of nowhere, and steps on Amy, putting the witch out of the fight. Willow asks immediately how she’s a giant. Dawn says they’ll talk and notices the hair. “Are you evil again?” Willow says it’ll fade – she was just really pissed off. She captures Amy in a force field and lowers her to the castle.

In Buffy’s dreamscape, she’s standing in a hamster wheel. This is what you wanted to show me? Buffy recognises it as Amy’s cage from when she was rat. Ethan says he didn’t know her name, but he sensed her and used his magics to connect with her to get a message out. Buffy looks at Ethan – he’s surrounded by bars, shaped like three X’s. Buffy thinks it’s porn or Vin Diesel, but Ethan tells her that they’re Roman Numerals. XXX. The number 30. He doesn’t know what it means, but tells Buffy to look for it. He also gives her a warning: “Twilight is falling. You’re going to need all the help you can get, pet.”

In Buffy’s room, Willow has examined the Slayer and the spell surrounding her. She tells everyone in the room that the spell can only be broken by someone who truly loves Buffy. Someone in this room has the solution, she says, although they may not even know it. They’re all going to close their eyes to protect that person’s feelings and identity and that person is going to kiss the girl. With their backs turned, Buffy awakes, startled, screaming “Cinnamon buns”. She’s delighted to see Willow.

In England, in a dark and dusty tunnel, Giles is talking to a demon. The demon is not happy. Neither are they, Giles tells him. What is this symbol? The demon is enraged: three of our own killed by the Slayers and you think we carved this symbol into the humans? We were defending ourselves. They lured us out there. Giles realises the symbol was already on the men’s chests when they were alive. He tells the demons that if they learn anything they are to pass the information to him, and he alerts the rest of the team. A short time later, Xander is in touch with Andrew in Italy, telling him to keep an eye out for the symbol. Andrew agrees – it will give him something to do. He’s so bored. Behind him the Slayers are playing strip poker. He assures Xander that he isn’t having any fun.

Xander checks on Renee, injured in the battle with the zombies and she apologises – she thinks that she messed up. Xander looks at her. He taunts her playfully: “One attack by the undead and Renee has to take a nap, ‘Oh, I’m all run through with a broadsword, I have to lie around and heal…’ Back in my day, which was about a week and a half ago, we took our lumps and we got back up and we cried like babies and quit and then put on weight.” None of this is her fault he tells her. Unless Buffy says so. Or someone else qualified. She did her duty, answered the call. She calls him butch. Xander says he almost had a masculine vibe, didn’t she think?

In the castle dungeon, Willow is running a trace spell on Amy: she teleported here from somewhere. Buffy asks her where she’s been, and Willow tells her they’ll get into it later. Buffy asks after Kennedy, and Willow stuns her by casually saying that Kennedy died. Buffy is understandably upset, but Willow shrugs her shush – it was only a mystical thing – she’s fine now, but we needed space. Or she did. Willow always tells that story the wrong way, she says. Willow correctly guesses that Dawn slept with a thricewise. Seconds later, any discomfort the old friends felt after time apart has evaporated and Xander walks into hugs and giggles. He wants in, and the subject turns to who kissed Buffy awake. For a minute, just a minute, it’s like no time has passed. They could have been in the library or at the mall. Regular kids, without a care in the world.

Willow detects a trace from Amy and casts a spell to see where she’s been. They see the underground bunker, almost Initiative-like in it’s appearance, although since it’s underground, they don’t know where it is exactly. Suddenly the image flickers – Willow realises her mistake and Amy’s eyes flash open. It’s a trap and Willow is sucked through the image, now a portal, alongside Amy. Buffy races for the portal, but it closes behind Amy.

Xander screams for the mystics to get down to the dungeon and start tracing where the portal went, and Buffy dusts herself down: they are being played, she says, and she doesn’t like it.

Willow wakes in the underground bunker. She’s strapped down with magical restraints. Amy taunts her from the shadows: “Great big all powerful Earth-Mother witch goddess… and she still falls for the rope-a-dope.” She tells Willow that she was contracted to kill the Slayer, and she’s pretty sure she’ll show up for her friend. But her and Willow, this is personal. And not just for Amy. For her boyfriend too.

The other specimen that was found in the crater speaks from the shadows, a guttural, snarling voice, that sounds human, but like his vocal chords were exposed to air. “I can’t tell you how long I’ve waited for this. Well, I can. To the hour. Killing Buffy Summers is gonna be a party. She’s pissed me off more than a little. But you, Rosenberg… you really got under my skin.”

Standing over her, a long bone saw in his hands, stands Warren Mears, the murderer of Tara Maclay and leader of the Trio – and he’s very much alive. And also very much skinless…