“Or maybe they’re panthers.”

Xander and Renee are atop the battlements of the Slayer Castle HQ, a pair of binoculars in hand, checking signs of movement at their perimeter. She’s spotted something lurking on the boundary and is double checking. Xander tells her, no, it’s definitely wolves. Common among the highlands, but panthers? Not so much. Renee says that he didn’t have to come and check on her. He turns and tells her that he is there to spend time with her – personally. She’s giddy at this, and, as he points out into the Scottish countryside, takes in the view. “Are you kidding me. Look out there – the moon is full, the stars are bright, the fog is particularly fog-tastic… who wants to be alone on a night like this?”

As he speaks, the wolves, a pack of them, edge closer and closer to the Castle entrance.

Elsewhere in the castle, Buffy Summers is decidedly not alone. It’s been a while, but she’s in bed, in post-coital bliss, staring at the ceiling. “Wow,” she sighs breathlessly and turns to Satsu, in the bed next to her. “That was, that was… wow.” Satsu smiles back, and pulls the covers over them both. “Yep, that pretty much covers it.”

Nearby, in the night sky, Willow is approaching her landing position. She’s carrying Andrew Wells, who insists on playing Margot Kidder’s Lois to her Christopher Reeve Superman, quotes from the movie and all. She tells him that he’s not with the screaming, like most people who fly with her, but he’s self medicated with Dramamine. He spots Dawn, sleeping in the barn, legs poking out. She drops him to the ground and asks if he needs the grand tour of the place, but Andrew is heading straight for his room – the Dramamine is making him light headed.

As he retires, Willow is taken by surprise by a unfurling of mist around her. It coalesces into the form of an Asian woman, who grabs Willow by behind, silencing her before she can scream.

On the battlements, the flirting between Renee and Xander continues. He officially, finally, asks her on a date, to which she agrees. Both are pleased to have bridged that gap, but now they have to do something about the wolves – Xander may only have one eye, but he spotted the pack. They wonders who to call. Do they even have zoos in Scotland?
 
In Buffy’s room, her and Satsu are discussing their night of passion. Satsu is curious what this means for them personally – how do they deal tomorrow, especially since Buffy’s not actually into women. Buffy reacts – was she bad? Could Satsu tell? Satsu reassures her, but she just wants clarity.

Buffy smiles. “I had a wonderful night. It’s been a while since I’ve been able to say that. Tomorrow I’m gonna think about what we did. And I’m gonna blush. And I’m going to smile. But I’m not sure we go further than that.” Satsu understands, but it’s clear that she’s disappointed. She gets up to leave, but Buffy asks her to stay until the morning. But one favour: can Satsu keep this between them? She’s not embarrassed, she explains, but she would like her privacy kept.

As she finishes asking, Xander bursts into the room without knocking, talking about the wolf situation. He stops when he realises who Buffy is in bed with. “Merciful Zeus,” he declares. He covers his remaining eye in haste, exclaiming that “I didn’t see anything I swear. Oh my eye, my burning, beautiful eye.” Renee enters the room to find out what he’s shouting about – and is also surprised to find Satsu and Buffy in bed. As both Slayers struggle to hide their modesty – and keep their secret – Andrew walks in! He claims that it may be the Dramamine, but he could swear a pack of wolves just went past him in the hall.

Buffy is appalled that suddenly the entire Slayer circle seems to be walking into her room, while she sits there, naked, covering herself with a sheet. Satsu is mortified. She yells for everyone to get out of her room, Dawn’s face appearing in the window, asking what’s happening – and spotting Satsu. “This isn’t what it looks like!” Buffy yells at her sister, whereas Xander is still in denial. “This is a dream. I’ve had this one before. You’re here, they’re here. I’m just gonna sit in the corner and wait for Willow to arrive.”

As if in response to Xander’s words, Willow then comes crashing through the ceiling! She’s been hit, hard, and struggles to pick herself up off the floor. She looks up at Buffy – “I think we’re under attack,” she weakly states and then asks: “Why are you naked in bed with Satsu?” That does it. Buffy is pissed. Pulling on the last of her clothing, she gets up, determined to take her embarrassment out on something. “Where exactly are these wolves?” she demands.

One of the wolves approaches the armoury door. It transforms into mist and glides under the door, reforming inside as a pale human with long dark hair. He picks up the Scythe as another ‘wolf’ joins him. Their ally has brought down the witch, he says, also saying that they have now engaged the Slayer forces at the perimeter. His superior, the one now holding the Scythe, turns to him – their future is bright.

At that moment, Buffy enters the room. She doesn’t like it when other people touch her stuff. The man holding the weapon playfully pokes at it, which brings a barrel of Buffy down on him. She clobbers him to the ground, and he vamps out. His companion is suddenly a panther. He places the Scythe in the panther’s jaw and tells him to go. He looks down at Buffy on the floor and smiles. He gives her a cute wave as he evaporates into mist and escapes.

The panther runs through the corridors of the castle, avoiding Slayers and leaps from a window, delivering the Scythe to another vampire, the one who attacked Willow. This one is called Kumiko.

Later, Buffy has everyone gathered to discuss what’s just happened. Since when can vampires turn into panthers and wolves and mist? Have they missed something? What’s of bigger concern to Buffy is that they took her Scythe – which means they must know what it does and about the spell that activated the Slayers. If someone reverses that spell, or changes it, the consequences could be severe. They have no choice: they have to go after it.

Xander says that they’ll begin tracking the intruders. How hard can it be, he asks, to find a vampire goth gang in Japan? Willow questions if they even were vampires, since vampires have never been able to transform like that before. Suddenly, Willow and Buffy look at each other, and then directly at Xander. He asks why everyone is staring at him.

Shortly afterwards, in a small copter, Xander and Renee are touching down outside another castle. As they get out, he tells Renee that no matter what happens next, she is to keep an eye on him, as he has a tendency to go weird around the person they’re here to see. Renee is concerned: like, weird how? He doesn’t answer as he knocks on the large oak door in front of him. She repeats her question as the door opens.

Standing there is Dracula. He addresses Xander as his manservant. Xander looks up at Dracula and, calmly, addresses him as ‘Master.’