Renee isn’t sure what’s happening. Oh God. Oh no. So stupid. What’s rule number one, Renee? She doesn’t feel the Scythe being removed from her chest – Don’t fall. There are so many of them. She sees Xander, everything fading around him. I can’t hear what he’s saying. Where’d my voice go? Xander. Xander. Xander. I’m not ready. I hope he knows. I never got to tell him.

With that, Renee is gone. Xander has rushed to her side, yelling her name, tears starting to stream because he knows it’s too late. Buffy orders the Slayers to flank around Xander, but Dracula orders her aside. “Get your witch,” he growls at her. “I can stop them, but I need your witch!” Buffy can barely hear him, the battle being raged aggressively all around them. She refuses to leave Xander alone, but Dracula snarls at her, fangs bared.

“He is not alone.” Following this proclamation, Dracula leaps into the fray, taking on half a dozen vampires, slicing through them, a master at what he does. It would almost be impressive if not for the blood. Buffy orders Satsu to take command – she has to find Willow.

Willow is crashing into a nearby building, powerful magics coursing through the air, as Kumiko prepares another blast. She tells Willow that she’s been watching her for quite some time, or did Willow think that she was Saga Vasuki’s only student? The mention of the name distracts Willow, but Kumiko grabs onto her, claiming that they speak the same language. Willow is pleased – she needs to take a look inside. Eyes glowing, Willow raises her hands to Kumiko’s head and enters her mind.

Inside, she sees an image of the green–skinned woman, with a tail instead of legs. This is Saga Vasuki, Willow’s guide. She speaks through Willow’s connection to Kumiko: “Darling Willow. Did you really think I could not find you? Did you think you could hide from what you are? Or what’s to come?” Willow sees violent, apocalyptic images, seemingly of the future, and blacks out under the pressure. Kumiko tells her to stay awake as they plummet to the ground. “You’ll miss the best part.”

Kumiko is taken unawares, by Buffy, who has jumped from the top floor of the Ashikaga building, stake in hand, and hoped for the best. She lands exactly where she wanted, driving her stake straight into Kumiko’s back as they fall. Kumiko survives the staking and races away to recover, leaving Buffy and a barely-conscious Willow falling to their deaths.

Inside the building, the Slayers are being forced back by sheer numbers. As their commander, Rowena, yells at them to fall back, Dawn slams her foot in their path – “We don’t run. We’re taking that building,” she declares, and the Slayers prepare to regroup and rally forth again. Suddenly, without warning, Dawn is punched in the face. What?

As she looks up, she can’t believe what hit her: the vampires have created a giant robotic girl, who looks similar to Dawn. A mecha-Dawn – complete with Godzilla-esque tail. As it roars at Dawn, Toru, watching from the rooftops, turns to Raidon. “There’s something you don’t see every day,” he states.

He turns to his vampire army, who are surrounding the giant red lens that will project the anti-Slayer spell around the globe. With Kumiko missing, Toru insists on performing the spell himself and begins to chant the incantation, raising the Scythe towards the lens. He asks one of his technicians what the noise that suddenly surrounds them is. The technician insists it’s the lens moving into position, but Toru says that it sounds more like screaming.

The screaming is coming from his own vampires, being slaughtered by a very angry Dracula, who’s now fought his way through, slaughtering on his way up to the top of the building. He tackles Toru, who drops the Scythe. He yells at the Slayers, and Satsu dives for the weapon, reclaiming it for the Slayers. Unfortunately, Satsu has misjudged her leap, and despite grabbing the Scythe, is now plummeting to her death!

Buffy and Willow are on the ground, climbing out of a makeshift pool, that Willow created by transmogrifying the sidewalk to water. They spot Satsu falling through the air, Willow sarcastically calling her Buffy’s girlfriend. Buffy denies it, but Willow tells her to be careful with her. Buffy knows what she means. Willow abruptly tells her that she, by the way, has never even had so much of an iota of attraction for her best friend. Just to make it perfectly clear. In fact, Buffy’s not even on her list. Buffy is annoyed – then, if that’s the case, Willow is not on her list either, which is full of distinguished women, like Judi Dench. Willow stops her; she has the visual and they should probably catch Satsu now. Buffy watches as Satsu continues to fall. “I was just thinking that.”

On the rooftop, Raidon is panicking and calling in reinforcements. Buffy, Willow and Satsu float onto the rooftop, Buffy heading straight for Toru. Dracula calls Willow to his side and hands her his sword. He says it’s an ancient relic, bound to demon spirit as the Scythe is to the Slayers. Using a reverse incantation on it through the lens would remove the vampire’s powers. Willow asks why he can’t do the spell, but he simply tells her that he can’t, because he’s ‘one of the vampires.’

As Willow floats higher up towards the lens, she begins to chant her spell. Toru is desperate to stop her, but it’s too late, and the spell activates, travelling through the sword, into the lens and then outward. The city is enveloped in a  blinding white light. This levels the playing field as Buffy yells triumphantly to the Slayers – they’re vampires, we’re vampire slayers. Time to do what we do.

Dawn is still wrestling with the robot duplicate of herself. It’s trying to talk like her, but Dawn, biting the robotic mech, is not amused in the slightest. Suddenly, a voice comes through on the comms device in Dawn’s ear – it’s Andrew, watching from the roof top. He gives her detailed instructions of where the brain is inside of the mech – and says decapitation should disable it.

Dawn is unsure of his plan, but Andrew responds happily: “Hi. Have you met me? My giant-sized teammate is fighting a mechanised version of herself on the streets of downtown Tokyo – I’ve been preparing for this day my entire life!” Dawn, his enthusiasm convincing her of his plan – and still arguing with the robot, who claims they cry a lot – reaches over and yanks the head off the mech.

On the rooftop, the vampires are losing their ground. Raidon grabs Buffy by the throat and growls at her, furious. “I bet you taste sweet Slayer.” As he goes to bite Buffy, Satsu comes up behind him, staking him and telling him that ‘he has no idea’ how sweet Buffy tastes – and immediately regrets the joke. Dracula yells for his sword back, which Willow obliges – but Toru catches it.

He raises the sword, planning to kill Dracula with his own blade. Dracula smiles as Toru says he can now be killed just like an ordinary vampire, and he’ll be the one to do it. He’s nothing but a relic and an old man. As he strikes however, Dracula is too quick for him: “I was never an ordinary vampire. I’ve killed more men than God’s plagues combined. And that was before I started eating people for fun. The fields of Europe used to stream with the blood of my enemies. The vampire is the least of your concerns. It’s the old man, you need to be worried about.”

By the time Dracula has finished, Toru lies on the ground, both of his arms having been sliced off. He tells Dracula to finish him – he can’t leave him like this – but Dracula says that it’s not his place to kill Toru. He turns, and hands the ancient sword to Xander, who promptly, without saying anything, decapitates Toru. Rowena contacts Buffy over her comms: the vampires are either dust or running. Buffy tells her to chase them – there are to be no prisoners. Kill every single one of them, she coldly states. Satsu doesn’t need telling twice, corralling the girls and moving out.

Buffy walks silently to Xander, who drops to his knees in front of her as she crouches down to comfort him.

A short while later, Dracula is dressed up to leave. He approaches an unshaven Xander, looking endlessly out of the Slayer compound. He hasn’t said a word since they came back from the city. He walks over to Xander and asks if he would like some assistance with his ceremony before he leaves. Xander says no. He wants to do it himself. Dracula turns to leave, saying “Goodbye manservant.”

As he walks away, without turning to look at him, Xander speaks, his tone threatening. “If you ever call me ‘manservant’ again, I’ll kill you in your sleep.” Dracula considers this. “Very well then. Perhaps you’re right. Something like ‘minion,’ or lackey’ then? ‘Houseboy’?” Xander continues to reject his suggestions as he walks away.

In Buffy’s room, Satsu is sat down. She thought that after their night together, everything would be fine, but it’s not fine. She doesn’t think she can be around Buffy. Buffy says that she’ll keep her distance, but is she making things awkward? Satsu admits that yes, she is, but not on purpose. It’s because Satsu is in love with her, and she needs to not be. And she can’t do that being on Buffy’s team. She would like to stay in Japan, where they’re going to need a leader. Just like Buffy said. She’s asking for a promotion.

Buffy warns her it’s a lot of work, but Satsu is ready: she won’t let her down. Buffy says that she knows she won’t. Satsu looks at her, and softly tells her that the other night was one of the best nights of her life. Buffy agrees. Hers too. Buffy asks what happens now – do they just go their separate ways? Satsu suggests they could save their goodbye for tomorrow, and pulls Buffy into a kiss.

On his ship, leaving port, Dracula tells the human sailors to get some sleep. They have a long journey back to Transylvania, and it’ll be a cold one. He will stand watch while they go below and find what warmth they can.

Elsewhere, Willow begins to commune with Saga Vasuki – she needs to know what the future brings.

In her room, Buffy and Satsu give into their passion.

Outside, Xander pours Renee’s ashes from an urn. And just like Dracula, he’ll stand there to keep watch. Alone.