At Castle Dracula, Xander doesn’t say anything else as Dracula escorts him and Dawn inside the fortress. Dawn can’t help but stare at everything when she walks in to the opulent rooms. A small, purple-skinned minion is busy, dusting, cleaning and pouring drinks.

Dracula gestures around the room and speaks to them loudly, every bit the showman, his arms waving enthusiastically around. “Forgive the mess. I’ve just held the traditional Tuesday evening orgy and it was fantastic fun. Fantastic fun! You remember the late night orgies?” He turns to Xander, who goes bright red.

“Wait, what? Wait… No. I think I would have remembered a ‘fantastic orgy.’”

Dracula smiles at his former manservant’s discomfort, but can’t resist riling him some more. “Ah, yes,” he says, as if only now remembering. “We started those after you left. How sad you had to miss them. And really, it is such a pity you don’t visit more. The Weird Sisters are becoming quite bored with Butterfield, aren’t they Butterfield?”

The little purple guy barely looks up at his master, just continues what he’s cleaning. “Yawningly so, but as manservant it is my duty. If only there were another to share the burden.”

Out of earshot, Butterfield turns to Dracula, whispering. “I think he believes it, Master!”

“Begone, worm.” Dracula almost physically pushes his minion from the room and then turns back to Dawn and Xander.

“Excuse Butterfield. He has the next orgy to prepare for.”

As Dracula deals with Butterfield, Xander looks at Dawn, his tone serious. “Dawn, if I act funny, it goes back to the first time we met, when he put me under mental control.”

She smiles at him. “I know, Xander. I was there. Well, not there, there. My actual physical existence started right after. But the spell that created me also gave me a whole history as Buffy’s sister. So, I remember all that stuff too, not just the time in Japan.”

Suddenly, Dracula is behind them, his voice loud. It makes Dawn jump slightly. “I have no memory of… wait… I do recall a frail child who cowered and trembled like a fearful rabbit.” He looks at Xander and then to Dawn, and finally back to Xander. “No, that was you.”

Xander turns, already angry with himself. “Really? Again with the passive-aggressive snark? I thought we were past that!”

Dawn is sitting now on a high chair, watching the two bicker. “I show you all the respect due a minion who can’t be bothered to answer his Master’s letters.”

“You don’t have email, let alone Skype! You won’t get a cell phone! No one writes letters anymore!”

Dracula turns from facing the valley outside and swishes his cape for dramatic effect. “I do,” he roars. “With a quill pen and Higgins Eternal ink, in painstaking calligraphy. And what do I receive in return? Nothing! I will not be ignored! I am darkness made flesh! I am the Lord of the Night! I am Dracula!”

As he finishes his words, lightning streaks across the sky, making Dawn jump yet again! “Whoa,” she whispers when the thunder rumbles.

Xander rolls his eyes and looks at her. “He doesn’t control the lightning. He just senses it coming. He’s not Thor.”

Dracula turns back to Xander, a look of irritation on his face. “Oh, just tell the world. I don’t know you anymore.”

Xander is just as irritated. “Can we do this some other time? There’s a crisis.”

“Of course. Why else would you bother visiting?” Xander points his finger in the count’s face for a moment. “Have you been gambling away your powers to other vampires again?”

Dracula scoffs. “Don’t be ridiculous. The last incident taught me quite definitively that Orientals cannot be trusted.”

Dawn, hearing every word, grumbles at him. “Lovely. I’m so glad it taught you to be a racist instead of not to gamble.”

Xander turns Dracula away from Dawn before the vampire can respond to her insult. He tells him that there are vampires who can do the same as him. And more. “It’s like they’re Instagram and you’re Polaroid.” He looks at Dracula, waiting to explain his words, but Dracula ignores him.

“I understand your references. I just find them too vulgar to dignify with a response.”

Xander gestures at him. “They turned into wolves and bees and night panthers. Right in the middle of the day.”

Dracula stops now. He opens his eyes and looks at Xander, asks him to repeat himself. “They changed shape in the sunlight?”

Xander nods to him and it’s then that Dracula’s face changes. He’s not irritated now. He’s angry. “I can’t change shape in the sunlight,” he moans, not realising how petty he sounds. He turns to Xander, a look of intensity on his face. He barks an order at him.

“Have your child bride pack my trunk. This bears investigation.”

Xander shouts back at him in fury. “Hey, she’s street-legal. And she only packs my trunk.” Dawn looks at him with a look of horror in her eyes. She breathes out and gets up from the chair. “Wait. That came out wrong.” But Xander’s explanations are too late for her. She walks towards the front door. “I’ll be in the jet.”

As he watches Dawn leave, Xander hears Dracula shouting from his chambers. “Take special care with my undergarments. If some went missing, I doubt I’d even notice.”

Without another word, Xander starts walking back outside after Dawn. “I’ll be in the jet.”

In San Francisco, in a secluded portion of land somewhere in the Bay area, three vampires have gathered some humans amongst them. The humans are being convinced to let themselves be sired. “We sire you, and you’ll be more powerful than you ever thought possible. Strong, immortal. And you’ll be able to do this!” The vampire transforms into a bat and back again, freaking the humans out.

His comrade turns to him, tells him that his transformations keep scaring off potential siring victims. But it’s no big deal, he declares, saying that they’re hungry and at least they’ll provide a decent meal.

Then a voice from above them catches their attention. Dracula stands there, looking regal and powerful, a sword hanging from his waist, his red-velvet cape blowing in the wind.

“Vermin! You have the temerity not only to steal power that is mine by right of conquest but to grant it to mortals? Kneel before your master and beg forgiveness!”

The young vampires look at him and burst into laughter. “That’s not funny. It’s just sad. He’s like the old lion who doesn’t know his time’s over – until the young lions tear him apart.” With that, the vampires lunge at Dracula.

One grabs him by his cape and slashes at his chest. The Count is genuinely surprised and yells at the youngsters. How dare they lay a hand on the Prince of Darkness!

“Oh, they dare.” Buffy Summers suddenly comes from nowhere, Scythe in hand. “Kids today. No respect.”

She takes out one of the vampires, whilst another transforms into a night panther, and pounces on Dracula. He insists he invented that trick and watches as Buffy moves for the giant bat.

“Things have changed, Slayer. We can take you two relics.”

Buffy looks at him, smiling. “Not likely. But even if you could, we’re not the only relics in town.”

The vampire looks at her and then looks behind her, just in time to see Spike hit his face with his fist. “Your badass intro lines need work, Slayer.”

With Buffy, Spike and Dracula all fighting vampires now, they each pick a target. Buffy tells Spike that coming up with lines to pun with is tricky. Maybe she should get a writer?

Dracula shouts at her, vehemently warning her. “I tried that. He turned my life into bodice-ripping hackwork for repressed Victorian matrons. Never trust a writer.”

The vampires are finally realising that this battle may not be theirs and start to transform to escape. One slips past Buffy and Spike, chuckling. “Try catching mist, losers!”

As he floats into the night air, the mist suddenly starts to flow into a shape. Willow appears and, with magic in her hands, tells the mist what she’s planning. “Mist is a transition state of liquid. A simple transformation spell on some holy water and… voila! Holy mist!”

The mist actually burns in the air and sprinkles down to the Earth like snow. Buffy walks to her side and Willow grins. “And people think witches don’t appreciate science.”

“Uh, Willow. I think mist turning to dust breaks a whole bunch of laws of nature.”

Willow grins and whispers at her. “I won’t tell if you don’t.”

Spike turns to Dracula, who seems to be slightly confused by the burnt mist. “Well, Count? You seen them for yourself. What’s the verdict?”

The count doesn’t look at Spike as he answers. “That you are common and ill mannered. In times past, you would have shown me deference, or you would have been impaled. But, clearly the world I knew, is gone.”

He sighs now and swishes his cloak, scattering the holy mist even more. Without turning to Buffy, he starts to walk towards the city. “Show me to my accommodations. I must think upon this.”

Shortly afterward, Dracula looks across the room he’s in and frowns in disgust. He describes the place as a hovel. Xander says its his home, and Dracula suspects there must be royal chambers for him elsewhere.

Buffy shakes her head. “It’s this or my place. Which has a neighbour who practices his Olivia Newton-John drag show. All day.”

Andrew is suddenly at the door. He’s excited, with a huge grin on his face. He’s also wearing a Count Dracula Halloween costume. He races up to the vampire and, giddily, starts to speak. “You can stay with me, Mr. Tepes. Or is it Mr. Dracul? That was more of a title, right? I’m Andrew Wells. Huge fan. Just a coincidence I wore this today.”

Dracula turns and peers at Andrew, looking him up and down. “You’re cloying, but properly obsequious. And I am in the market for a manservant who appreciates the privilege of the position.” He directs that last one at Xander, who grumbles under his breath. He asks Dracula to stay on topic.

A moment later, carrying the Vampyr tome, Giles enters the room and Dracula smiles at him, with another flourish of his cape. “Ah, you’ve prepared me a snack. Good. I am rather peckish.”

Giles ignores the comment. “Enough. He clearly doesn’t know anything. Which means there is only one way he can be of use, so let’s get to it.”

Dracula looks down at Giles, trying to place him. “You’re the Englishman. The Watcher. I recognise the scent of your blood. You’ve shrunk.”

Willow and Giles, their hands both glowing with green magical energy, motion at Dracula, their energy coalescing around the count.

“Xander says you mentioned getting your powers through dark magics. Tell us what, specifically.”

“In the name of Maloker, progenitor of all your kind, we command it. You can neither refuse nor dissemble.”

Dracula stares at them both, unimpressed. “There is no need to be rude. I’m happy to share my secret.” He waves his hands, and Willow and Giles’s energies dissipate. “The spells are mere window dressing. I am Lord of all Vampires because I will it to be so. And it is so because I will it. I am Dracula. Could I be any less?”

Buffy, sitting on the counter top, stares at him in disbelief. “You expect us to believe you got your powers from positive thinking?”

Turning to Giles, Buffy gets herself a soda from the kitchen. “Is what Dracula said possible?”

Giles turns now to the table, the open book in front of him. “Well, at its core, magic is the imposition of one’s will upon reality itself.”

Willow continues his theory. “And if the rituals Dracula used were designed to reinforce and strengthen his willpower…”

Dracula turns to them with a smile and interrupts her. “Bells and whistles, really. Even as a mortal, my will was unrivalled. But yes, you grasp the basics. So clearly, there has to be a connection. Those plebians we encountered could never have achieved what took me decades.”

Giles looks at him and nods briefly. “Not under the old ways. But as I keep having to remind everyone, those laws of magic no longer exist.”

Buffy turns to Giles, trying to figure everything out logically by saying it all aloud: before now, there used to be rules of magic. Then it went blank and now some of the pages have been filled in, and certain information, like the history of the Slayers, is now present. Billy also had a vision of the First Slayer. She wonders if somehow his wish to be a Slayer made that happen. Giles and Dracula both look at each other, pondering.

Andrew, from the other side of the room, asks if all they need to do is make a wish? Spike is the first to say it cannot possibly be that simple. Giles shakes his head. “It’s not as if the established order means nothing. Wishing that chocolate was good for you will not make it so. But to many, Dracula is emblematic of all vampires.”

“Stoker and his damnable book.” Turning to Andrew, Dracula spouts an order. “Manservant, remind me to urinate on his grave.”

When Andrew replies to the vampire with a polite “Yes, Master” Xander gets up, wanting to know when Andrew took his place, but Buffy hasn’t got time for pettiness.

She holds up the Vampyr book, addressing the room. “So vampires wanted to be stronger and, since people already accept Dracula as the model, it was an easy get. Now that we know how they did it, can we undo it?”

Dracula notes that whoever or whatever made the fantasy a reality would have to use a subtle spell, especially one that affects people without them knowing about it. He suggests, that in order to research this, they capture one of the vampires. They can then take it apart, piece by piece, to see how the spell works and learn how to counteract it.

Willow says that the plan might actually work. Spike suggests asking Dowling for leads, as he worked well before. Buffy agrees, but suggest they wait until dark.

“Every moment may count. I’d advise moving right away.” Giles is concerned that time may already be running out. Spike sighs and looks at Dracula. He notes that the sun being up rules them out. Dracula looks bored, but at least believes that Willow and Buffy should be able to catch a vampire by themselves.

As he leaves the room, Dracula tells them that his coffin is calling him. He tells Andrew to have a vein ready for when he awakes. Xander gets between his friend and the vampire.

“Just go to the butchers and get some animal blood. He can’t tell the difference.” But Dracula grins as he walks away, not looking back at Xander as he says he always knew, but never said anything. “I see now that was a mistake, ” He looks briefly at Xander and Dawn. “Lack of communication is poison to any relationship.”

Xander and Dawn both look at each other sadly as he leaves.

As Buffy kicks open a door that she believes leads to a room filled with vampires, she yells at the bloodsuckers to get up against a wall. But when she looks around the room, it’s empty.

“Okay. Update to the Slayer handbook. Vampires who can go out in the sun may not be home during the day.”

Willow looks around and actually compliments the vampire’s style. Must be something to do with not blacking out windows, she jokes. Buffy realises that the vampires couldn’t have gone far and suggests they try to trail them.

They leave the building, Buffy jumping from the third floor window and landing effortlessly on a tram as Willow floats towards her. She tells Buffy that things seemed polite between her and Dowling, fishing for more information. Buffy turns to her and only half-smiles.

“I told him it was safer if we keep things professional. He agreed.”

“Jerk,” Willow responds.

“Right?” Buffy replies, grinning. She changes the subject now, asking Willow if, now that magic is back, she’s going to try to contact her snake lady. Willow looks slightly guiltily at her. “In theory. I’ve been avoiding it. The way we left things was kind of weird. I don’t think she appreciated me choosing you guys over her.”

Buffy tells her that she, at least, appreciates her choice.

Willow has picked some red flowers as the tram has sped past a window box, and has neatly placed them in Buffy’s hair as they’ve been talking. Swinging off the tram, Buffy grabs a lamppost and swings around until she lands on a store front and sits. Willow soon joins her.

“We’re hopeless, aren’t we? It’s just not fair to expect anyone to put up with our crazy-pants lives.”

Willow agrees with her. “But that’s what friends are for. The people who aren’t in your life because they’re related or hot for you. They just love you.”

“We might actually be okay, huh?” Buffy says, as she wraps her arms around Willow and pulls her into a hug. “Horny and frustrated, but okay.”

Willow smiles for a moment and then her face turns serious. “I thought if anyone had a chance, it was Xander and Dawnie. What’s going on with them?”

Buffy looks at her and shrugs. She shares Willow’s concerns. “I wish I knew. I think they wish they knew.”

With Buffy and Willow searching for a vampire to capture, Xander and Dawn remain seated on the couch. They don’t look at each other. They haven’t said a word. Xander isn’t sure whether it’s because they’re not sure what to say, or if it’s the amazingly strange sight in front of them.

Xander crouches forward, quietly, to Giles, who’s sitting cross-legged on the floor, hands moving excitedly and his voice getting louder as he talks to the screen in frustration. He’s holding a console controller.

“See, Giles?” Xander asks, pointing at the screen. “I always said video games were more interesting than magic books.”

“I am simply taking a break. I find myself easily distracted,” the teen says, not taking his eyes off the screen, concentration in his face. “This relaxes me.”

Xander puts his hand on Giles’s shoulder, points at the screen again. “Rob that hooker. You need money.”

Giles does not turn once more. “I will do no such thing. I am a gentleman.”

Xander loses it slightly, shouting and moving forward. “No, you’re a pimp and a mobster! It’s a game! Shoot those cops!”

He tries to take the controller from Giles’s hand, annoyed at his friend’s inexperience, but Giles shouts back at him. “Don’t touch it! You’ll make me crash!”

Dawn snaps forward herself now, irritation in her voice. “Xander, let the actual kid play.” She realises too late how harsh she sounded. But Xander gets the point. He looks at her, questioningly. “Bad Xander?”

“Bad Xander,” she smiles. But as soon as the smile hits, they turn away from each other, uncomfortable. Xander eventually brings the discussion to the subject of them. He asks what she was about to tell him in Transylvania, before Dracula interrupted. If she would like, she could tell him now. She smiles, and turns slowly, preparing to talk.

Unfortunately, as she turns and he smiles at her, the front door to the apartment slams open and the Prince of Darkness walks into the room, swishing his cape yet again. He signals his arrival with a yell at the pair.

“Tremble mortals! For night has fallen, and Dracula walks abroad among men!” An out of breath Andrew appears behind him, looking at Xander. “Xander, you have my admiration,” Andrew tells his friend. “Someone is high maintenance.”

Xander tells him that his manservant duties were done while under hypnosis, so for him it was easier. Dracula scoffs at this, stating that he can only manipulate people if they are weak-minded or if, deep down, they really want it. He believes Xander was both.

Giles puts down the game controller now and is once again reaching for the Vampyr book. “Are you all determined to infuriate me?” he asks without looking at them. “Can I at least get back to work in peace?”

Dracula tells him that there is no need. He asks if the book is the original Vampyr book, the first one ever, designed to note the rules and laws of magic. Giles confirms that it is.

Giles states that it was originally a book on the undead, but over time the book grew and grew. Dracula tells him that the power inside also became more powerful over time, as did it’s knowledge. In theory, he says, it’s supposed to be the definite guide to the use of magic on Earth. Giles scoffs at the vampire, asking him if he knows anything they don’t already know.

Dracula turns to the group and speaks clearly to the room. “We have seen that as new laws of magic are created, they appear in the book. Might words written into the book now become the new laws of magic?”

The room falls silent. Giles says that it may not work like that, but Dawn asks if it’s worth a try? “Certainly not,” Giles tells her quickly, shaking his head. “What Dracula posits is an attempt to forcibly manipulate the laws of magic. This, inevitably, leads to disaster.”

Dracula grins down at Giles. He says he’d be happy to test the theory and puts his hands out, asking Giles for the book. The former Watcher turns however, pulling the book to his chest tightly.

“You are a selfish, narcissistic megalomaniac. That alone is reason to ensure you never lay your hands on this book. That you are a soulless undead monster only bolsters my determination.”

Dracula looks down on him, a faint smile appearing thinly on his lips. “I might find that insulting. Were I in the habit of asking permission from livestock.” He grins evilly at Giles, enough for the teen to get slightly nervous. He steps back a moment and begins to conjure a spell in his hands.

But, suddenly, before Giles can get more than a word out, he’s struck across the head from behind, his glasses falling to the carpet, followed by his unconscious form. Xander stands behind him.

Dawn yells at him in confusion and races to Giles. She asks what Xander is doing, and Andrew yells at her: “He’s in the clutches of Dracula!”

Dracula turns to Andrew and smiles. “My manservant understands that his master knows best.” He picks up the Vampyr book from the floor, where Giles dropped it, and steps over the boy’s body as he heads for the window and the fire escape.

The noise brings Spike, half asleep, into the room, and Andrew wastes no time in telling his ally that they’ve been betrayed. Dracula turns to Spike, shouts an order at him. He tells him to stop, but Spike is unaffected by the hypnosis. He tells Dracula that he’s been waiting for this and, as the Dark Lord swings with his cutlass, Spike dodges it, attempting to kick the book free of Dracula.

Andrew and Dawn are still by the couch and she reaches under a pillow, grabbing a stake. She tells Andrew that they need to stop Dracula. If he turns into mist, however, he won’t be able to grab the book. Andrew agrees, but as she raises the stake, she’s stopped by the tall form of Xander, towering over her. He looks her dead in the eyes, but she finds nothing in his that she recognises.

“Back. None may threaten my Master and live.” His tone is cold and monotonous. He seems completely gone. Dawn gets up, wants to slap him back to normal, and shouts at him to snap out of the thrall. She tells him that Dracula needs to be stopped and that if he’s going to try and stop her, then he’ll have to put her down. When she looks in Xander’s eyes, he starts to stammer, unable to complete the sentence. He shakes on the spot for a moment.

Behind Dawn however, Spike gains a momentary moment of victory over Dracula, punching him in the face and watching as the Dark Lord collides with a wall. Xander yells for his master in concern and grabs Spike from behind.

Spike struggles in Xander’s grip, trying not to hurt him, but Dracula takes advantage of the surprise and pierces his blade straight through Spike’s stomach. As the vampire falls to the floor, blood staining through his white shirt, Andrew calls his name, while Dracula turns to Dawn, who is rushing him with her stake.

He barely moves and grabs Dawn by the throat. She drops her stake and is lifted up into the air, unable to scream or breathe. She looks at Xander and he whispers her name when he sees her there.

Dracula however, throws Dawn aside, like a rag doll. He tells Xander that he will not kill his friends, as a special favour to his manservant. Xander looks as Dawn lands with a thud. Dracula moves to the window, summoning Xander to his side.

Andrew reaches Dawn, checks she’s okay and begs her to stop Xander. She turns to him as Xander puts one leg out of the window and screams at him. “Xander, I love you.”

Xander stops, turns to her and looks at her, straight in the eyes, for the first time in weeks. “No, you don’t,” he says and he pulls himself out onto the fire escape.

Dracula transforms into a bat, and uses his claws to grab Xander. He wraps his tail around the Vampyr book and flies into the night sky, carrying Xander along with him.

“I am here, Master,” Xander tells Dracula as they leave. “My loyalty is unswerving.”

A few minutes later, Buffy and Willow come bursting into the apartment, along with a captive vampire, chained by magic.

Buffy looks around, sees Andrew picking Giles off the floor and sees Dawn, crying, on the couch. She turns to Willow and then back to Andrew.

“Holy crap!” she declares. “What happened?”