Fifteen minutes ago, before Xander and Renee knocked on the castle door, Dracula, the inspiration behind humanity’s vampire lore, sits on his arm chair in his study. He looks older now: gray, scraggly hair, cracked skin, dark, sullen, surprisingly deep, brown eyes and says, quietly to himself, and not with a small amount of self-pity, that he is so alone.

His manservant, a diminutive purple-skinned demon named Butterfield, tells him that it’s a lovely night outside. The moon is full in the sky; maybe he should get outside? There’s an Albanian boy loose in the hedge maze just waiting to be caught and fed upon. He’s quite frightened – but the Prince of Darkness, sitting on his make-shift throne, expresses no interest. He asks Butterfield to close the curtains – he’s tired of unlife. Butterfield suggests he change, but Dracula is adamant: he quite likes his ripe robe and tells Butterfield to be gone from his sight – the faint smell of vomit and alcohol on his robe is pleasant to him.

At this, Butterfield sheepishly turns to face his master. He tells him that people, such as the other servants, are starting to talk and get concerned. They wonder what has happened to the Dark Lord, the Bringer of Chaos, the Prince of Lies… what has happened to the mighty Dracula? Dracula is starting to get angry repeating himself and goes the window, whiskey in hand, to close the curtains himself. As he does, he sees something approaching the window and immediately, and rather excitedly, tells Butterfield to fetch his razor.

Now, Dracula is his usual, demonic and charming self, young, slender, raven-haired and complete with mesmeric deep eyes. Just as he was when he was last seen in Sunnydale. He directly refers to Xander as his manservant, their past history instantly plunging Xander back to being the ‘butt-monkey’ of the group. Xander asks his ‘master’ for help, however Dracula claims he has no time – the Albanian in the hedge maze needs to be caught, after all, but Xander begs him. Dracula acquiesces: Fine, Xander can come in. His moor, referring to Renee, can wait outside. Xander tells him that she’s not his moor and that’s a horrible thing to say. She is with me, he tells the vampire.

As they enter the castle, Dracula begins to remind Xander of some of his activities since Xander last saw him, prompting Xander to reconsider Renee’s presence, but in the end, the Slayer refuses to leave Xander alone with the Count.

Elsewhere, in Scotland, Andrew has a blackboard set up on the grassy verge outside the Castle and he’s surrounded by Slayers. He’s dressed up in his best Dracula cosplay and is giving the Slayers a history lesson on their new foe: with all the ‘Andrew’ embellishments intact. When one of them asks about Dracula and Xander, Andrew says that they have an unique relationship. At some point, after Sunnydale, whilst grieving for Anya, Xander spent some quality time with the Count, and actually seems to have not only kept in touch with Dracula, but also become a sort of pen pal! After all, Andrew explains, Xander taught Dracula how to ride a motorbike. As he continues with his board, the Slayers actively grade his lecture – this is not the first, or last time, he has done this. His lecture on Krull was particularly bad.

Inside, Buffy is waiting for a connection to come through on the monitor in the Squad Room. They’ve managed to identify the vampires who stole the Scythe. The main vampire is called Toru, and their suspicions were correct: he is in Japan. One of the Slayers based there, a girl name Aiko, spotted him after Buffy put a call out for surveillance. Buffy asks Aiko how she managed to get the intel – but Aiko is in Japan, surrounded by dead demons. She asked about, she states. Buffy is impressed, and tells Aiko to keep watch, but not to engage: she is to wait for Buffy and the rest of her team to get there before engaging. Surveillance only.

Buffy turns to Satsu: “Prep the others.” She wants to be in the air in less than an hour. And she wants all the girls. Satsu questions whether bringing all the Slayers is too much of a risk, but Buffy, rather coldly, dismisses her – she has given her orders and expects them to be followed. She turns to Willow, who’s sat nearby. “Have we heard from Xander? Could he be in trouble?” Willow shrugs: Considering who he’s with, that would depend on how you define the word ‘trouble’.

Sipping tea, Dracula tells Xander he has lost weight. While Xander compliments the tea, Dracula pretends that he’s been happier in recent times, and that Butterfield is sensationally good, if not better than Xander, at his manservant duties. The conversations turns to free-flowing complimentary praise, mostly coming from Xander. Renee finally has enough of the pointlessness and raises her voice – only for Dracula to tell her to watch her tone. Xander finally snaps out of Dracula’s verbal jousting and remembers that they have business to discuss. Dracula is surprised: he expected a social visit. Xander explains about the vampires with mystical powers that stole the Scythe. Dracula says that that is impossible – only he has the mystical powers of transformation. Renee tells him he’s wrong and that it’s more likely he gave his powers to the vampires. Dracula is not amused by this accusation, standing to his feet and starting to lose his temper.

Xander stands up and comes between the warring Vampire and Slayer. He reasons to Dracula that is he’s the only one with these powers, so something else must have happened: how do these Japanese vampires get super powers any other way? Dracula still insists he has nothing to do with anything, but then stops. He asks if the vampires were ‘oriental,’ having caught what Xander said.

He holds his head in his hands. “Oh balls,” he exclaims.

In Japan, specifically Tokyo, hidden amongst the crowd, Toru and his subordinate Raidon are talking about how Kumiko wants the kill.

Toru is unwilling: Kumiko can wait. She can have the body when he’s done. They have tabs on Aiko, and are slowly following her through the crowd, getting closer all the time. They need Kumiko strong for a spell they’re planning. They’re aware that Aiko is watching them as they are watching her. Pulling a red gemstone from his pocket, Toru smiles. “Let’s give her something to see.”

In his castle, Dracula is enraged! He slams open his armoury doors, striding in, Xander and Renee behind him. Dracula explains that some months ago he was in Tibet, where there was copious amounts of rubbing-alcohol consumed and a heated game of pai gow and eventually, Dracula’s winning bet for a motorcycle. It seems that his secrets of transformation were among his betting slips. He’s furious, yelling racial slurs frantically at thin air. Dracula asks Xander if he’s located these vampires. When he’s told that they have, Dracula reaches into an ornate cabinet and reaches inside.

He turns to Xander: “I loathe Buffy Summers, her whole army makes me want to retch, and I’d just as soon see them wiped off the map once and for all. However,” he says, pulling a magnificent sword out if the cabinet, “Nobody steals from Dracula.”

On the plane, Buffy is standing away from the other Slayers, anticipating the fight. Willow has taken the opportunity to have words with Satsu about her night of passion with her friend.

Willow tells her that Buffy is different from them: not just in a straight-way, but also in a General way. She’s the big boss, the one who calls the shots, and Willow doesn’t want Satsu to get her hopes up – Buffy and relationships are not the priority right now. She doesn’t warn Satsu off, but tells her to just be careful. She also wants to know how her friend was in the sack!

In Tokyo, Aiko moves through the shadows, in and out of alley ways, knowing she’s being followed. She finds the red gemstone in the alley, glowing through the dark. As Aiko bends down to pick it up, she’s struck with a blast of mystic energy – from the Slayer Scythe, being wielded by Kumiko! The energy shines through the gem that Aiko picked up and shines brightly into her face.

Toru suddenly appears from the shadows and punches Aiko. She goes flying backwards and, as he picks her up by her throat, she realises that her jaw is broken. The energy – whatever it was – has removed her Slayer powers. She’s now a normal girl again.

Toru taunts her: “I was hoping you could tell me what it feels like to be a regular girl again. It must be terrifying,” he says, as he sinks his fangs into Aiko’s neck. As the Slayer falls to the floor, Toru turns to Raidon – that seems like a successful test, he smiles. Kumiko grins as they agree. This technology works.

And it’s time to take it global.