It’s nearly nine in the evening. It’s a Tuesday night: student night in the city of San Francisco. Towards the Bay, however, the students of the city are no longer drinking and dancing. They’re running for their lives.

Opposite the fleeing hordes, is the Hotel Luxe, short for luxurious and one of the gleaming five-star palaces in the city.

Minus one star at least, Andrew thinks, as Maloker, reborn in the body of Dracula, self-proclaimed Lord of Darkness, stands before them. He’s grown to a gigantic size, his head now protruding from the roof of the building. That explains the screams outside, Andrew thinks and turns to Xander, who’s still under the thrall of the legendary vampire. Xander stares up as Maloker roars as Buffy Summers, Scythe in hand, stabs at the Old One as quickly as she can. Willow is nearby, magic glittering from her hands. Xander, turning to Giles, looks more confused than before. “Y’know, I was there when we fought Maloker in the Deeper Well. I don’t remember him being this big.”

As rubble falls all around them, the hotel crumbling to pieces, Giles conjures up a quick force field before they’re crushed by the debris. “Maloker is an Old One. He is as large as he wishes to be. The Deeper Well was a confined space, I’d imagine he chose an appropriate scale. There are no restrictions here. And as Dracula is still in the process of transforming into Maloker, he will have much less control over his form.”

He races for the nearest fire exit sign, calling Andrew, Xander and Dawn to follow, while Andrew grips the Vampyr book tightly in his arms. “Hurry! We must get out before the entire building comes down!”

Xander stops mid-run and turns back. “I have to help my Master. That looks painful!”

Dawn stops him, fear on her face, for herself, for the people, and for him. “You can’t help him if you’re smushed! Now come on!”

As they reach outside, Giles turns to Andrew and yells an order at him. “Andrew! It is imperative we write something in the book that will reverse the transformation! I invite any suggestions superior to your last few attempts.”

Andrew screams back at the young mentor, manic in tone. “Negative reinforcement does not help my creativity!”

Xander is looking up at his Master, now looking more like Maloker than himself. A snarky, angry voice from his right gets his attention, but while he’s happy to see his friend, he’s still wary. “Xander! You look marginally less like a drooling idiot than you did five minutes ago. Can you hear me?”

“Oh! Ghost Anya. I haven’t seen you in a while. Where’ve you been?”

If it’s even possible, Anya gets even louder and more shrill. “Here!” she cries, pointing and gesticulating at the chaos around her. “Trying to talk you out of doing something stupid, like, oh, I don’t know, turning Dracula into a gigantic, awesomely powerful elder God!” But someone was too smitten with his ‘Master’ to pay attention! And don’t call me ‘Ghost Anya.’ Do I call you ‘Corporeal Xander?’”

Xander breathes out, as if he’s been waiting to talk. His tone is less cheerful than it was just a moment ago. “Go away! Why are you yelling at me?”

Anya calms down slightly, talks slower now, trying to explain. “Because Dracula’s persona is being overwritten by Maloker’s. His control over you is starting to fade. So you can see me again! And I’m yelling because if you don’t stop this, not only is your precious ‘Master’ going to die, so are all your friends and most of the West Coast! Just for starters.”

Spike and Buffy are standing on Maloker’s shoulder as he towers over San Francisco now. Not paying any attention to the gnats on his torso, he looks around the city and sniffs the air.

“This world has changed. Few Old Ones. More food. I approve.”

Buffy looks at Spike, open to suggestions. “We’re not even a nuisance!” She yells at Willow, who’s floating closer to her position. “Will, tell me you’ve got something!”

Willow sighs and looks at her friend. “I’m throwing a whole spell book at him, but it’s not doing any good! And the bigger he gets, the tougher he gets!”

Spike’s not convinced they’ve scratched the surface. They need more information. “Even Old Ones have weaknesses. Do we know anything about this Maloker bloke?”

Buffy turns to Willow and nods. “Giles probably does!”

Willow smiles, clicks her fingers and makes a sigil with her hands. A green glow appears in front of her, a familiar young form in it’s centre. “Giles! Got any intel on this monster?”

The image of Giles talks quickly, reciting information like a walking, talking encyclopedia. “Maloker is the progenitor of all vampires. He passed many of his qualities to them, as well as his vulnerabilities. Sacred objects, stakes, fire – but they will need to be commensurate with his scale to have any effect.”

Spike sighs and yells louder. He does not consider any of that info useful and it shows in his tone. “Bloody beautiful. Anyone got a spare Redwood? And then how do we shove it in his chest? Can we make the Little Bit a giant again?”

Buffy isn’t paying attention. She’s stopped moving and is staring at a building ahead of Maloker. “Hold on.” Spike looks at Willow and they both follow Buffy’s gaze to a building, tall and, more importantly, with a spire towering into the San Francisco skyline. “I might have a crazy idea.”

Spike scoffs, unable to resist stating the obvious. “The Redwood Investment Group building? It does have the appropriate pointiness, but it doesn’t look to be made of actual wood, does it?”

“No,” Buffy nods. Then she looks at Willow. “But can we make it into a sacred object?”

The witch shrugs. “It’s worth a try. The tough part will be steering him over there.”

Then the image in Willow’s communication mist changes. It’s Dawn, desperate to help. “I heard what Spike said. Can you make me giant?”

Willow doesn’t nod, but she doesn’t shake her head either. She makes a ‘maybe’ look with her face. “Probably. And you have experience fighting as one. But that’s a huge strain on your system, Dawnie. I don’t want to…”

Dawn interrupts her. “Getting stomped is also a strain on my system. And we’re kinda out of options, aren’t we?”

Willow doesn’t need to be more convinced. Her hands start to glow a blue light and as she floats above Dawn, the Summers sister also starts to emanate the same aura. “You talked me into it. Don’t make me regret it.”

Willow races off into the sky, another errand to run before their plan can work. Dawn asks her for another trick as she goes. “Oh, make my clothes big too. I don’t want to flash the whole city!”

Willow does as she asks, but then looks at her seriously. “That’s the least of our worries. If he gets his hands on you, you’re dead. Keep your distance.” She smiles. Concern in her eyes.

As Dawn looks down, she can see the aura glowing more and more powerful around her. Her feet also start growing. And then her arms. Then her legs. And then her neck. She sighs, talking to herself as she grows taller and taller. “I’m getting the feeling I really hated this the last time.”

As Maloker stomps on whatever he can see, he turns when he hears a voice. He finds Dawn in front of him. To her credit, he looks surprised.

“Hey, big boy… Bite me!” Dawn yells at that moment, punching the Old One, but he takes the blow and turns to her.

“Ah. You must be the God who rules this age. The one I will kill to make it mine!”

With that, he rises out of the air and propels himself on the wind towards Dawn, who shrieks to the others, her voice deafening at her current size.

“Oh crap. I was not informed he could fly!”

Buffy and Spike are moving further up towards Maloker’s face now and Buffy issues Spike with an order. “The rodent doesn’t get within two blocks of my sister. Get into position!”

Spike obeys without question, leaping in Dawn’s direction. “On my way!”

On the ground, Xander looks up and sees Dawn zig zagging blows from Maloker, and he can just about make out Buffy and Spike racing up his huge form. “No! Don’t hurt my Master!”

Anya is behind him as he moves closer and closer to the battle. She is still, unsurprisingly, talking. “Damn it, Xander. In a few more minutes he won’t be your Master anymore! Dracula can come back from being staked, remember? But if Maloker consumes him, he’s gone forever.”

She points at him now, showing annoyance when her finger goes through his chest. “I’ve got a bigger worry. That Buffy’s plan won’t solve the problem. You know Dracula better than anyone. It’s up to you to figure out what to write in that book that can end this.”

Xander turns now to look at his ex, confused and unconvinced. “Me? How can I? We should ask Giles, or Willow…”

Anya shakes her head. “Believe me, I know how you feel. It’s nice when someone else tells you what to do. But you can’t run from this, Xander. Not without hurting everyone you say you love: Dracula, Buffy… Dawn…”

Xander stops and looks at her. The way she said the word Dawn has him stunned into silence. He turns towards his friends, Andrew and Giles standing nearby, watching the battle above.

“Andrew give me the book.” His friend hands the volume over and he puts it firmly under his arm. He turns and runs towards the fight scene. “Let’s haul our butts over to that building. Good or bad, this is going to end here.”

Above Xander, Maloker speeds towards Dawn, letting the entire city know his intentions as he yells loudly. “I hunger!”

Dawn finds it difficult to avoid the demon, the buildings all around her and, to make matters worse, she can’t see her friends. Avoiding news choppers is also becoming an issue. “End of the line! Where’s Willow?”

Willow comes towards her, a tiny dot in Dawn’s large eyeline. She’s carrying a rather frantic Priest, in full Sunday best regalia. He’s barely keeping still. Willow apologises for being late and then looks down at the preacher in her arms. “Here! Sorry! Go to it, Father…”

The priest looks down at the building, not knowing exactly what the red head is asking. “There’s normally a bit of a ceremony…”

Willow doesn’t have time to be particularly pleasant. “No offence, but I’m a Jewish Wiccan, and we’re all about to die!”

Seeing Maloker speed towards the building, Willow is relieved as the Father begins to bless the building below. “Bless this building and all who use it…”

The demon bellows louder, and comes even closer. “Giant vampire coming right at us!” she yells at the preacher. He looks in Maloker’s direction then finishes his brief ceremony without taking a breath.

“We ask your blessing through Christ, our Lord, Amen!”

Buffy and Spike, now atop the spire, wait for Maloker to reach Dawn. As the younger Summers starts to panic, Buffy and Spike both leap and, in a feat that Dawn can barely believe, they land directly on Maloker’s raised vampire bumps. Buffy yells down at him, Scythe in hand: “DON’T YOU TOUCH MY SISTER!” and, without waiting, plunges the Scythe straight into the demon’s eye while Spike takes a stake to the other.

The demon shrieks, pulling his claws up to his eyes in agony, Buffy and Spike racing further up the Old One’s head.

As the demon flails around panicking, Buffy yells her command. “NOW!”

On cue, Dawn pushes Maloker from behind and tips him toward the spire of the Redwood building. It impales him in his chest and for a moment nothing seems to happen.

Dawn watches in awe for a moment as the Old One writhes on the spire. But it’s too late for him, Buffy can tell by looking, and, within a few minutes, Maloker melts into dust, green mist now coalescing around the building.

Dawn suddenly raises her hands to her head and calls to Willow. “I… don’t feel so good.”

Buffy yells her sister’s name from the spire as Dawn shrinks back towards the ground, back to her normal size. Willow floats down and, with no effort and a lightness that surprises Dawn when she feels her, lowers her down to safety.

As Willow lands, she turns to Dawn, making sure she can stand up. “I’m okay. I just got dizzy…”

Buffy and Spike now come back down to the street level, Buffy’s concern showing in her voice. “What happened?”

Dawn shrugs and then looks at Willow. “Head rush. I’m fine now.”

“Like I said, with this raw, new magic, being that big is a strain on the system. No more giant-size escapades for you, young lady.” Willow sounds like she’s joking, but she’s deadly serious. Dawn doesn’t mind at all.

Spike is the first to look up into the night sky, calming now and quiet, and dares to ask the rest of the team. “So did we win?”

Buffy turns to an alley next to the hotel. “I think we’re about to find out.”

Willow turns to the religious man, apologises for scaring him, but suggests he leave, quickly. “Thanks for your help, Father… But you might want to head for higher ground.”

Dracula slinks out of the alley way, trying to look powerful, but he’s clearly still hurting. He’s naked, screeching at Buffy and can barely stand up. “That would be good advice,” he tells them, backing up Willow’s words. “I thank you. That was agony. And I fear, I fear I am about to endure it again.” He looks at Buffy, sincerity in his eyes.

He drops to his knees in front of Buffy and, surprisingly, begs her. “You must kill me. Decapitation… then burn the head and body separately. It is the only way.”

“Don’t have to tell me twice.” Spike gets immediately giddy at the thought. Dawn shakes her head though.

“Do we have to?”

Buffy looks at Dracula and then back at her friends. “I’m not even sure it’ll work. That wouldn’t kill an Old One, and he’s already at least partly one.”

A pained look from Dracula and a cry from his lips, gets their attention. His face is starting to transform, again. “Hurry, you fools!”

“I got this.” Buffy looks at him, asks him if he’s sure. She agrees to kill him, preparing the Scythe and swinging it around her head. She waits for the whistle, but Xander’s voice interrupts her.

“No.” Giles and Andrew are with him, and Dawn’s relieved that he’s still got the Vampyr book. “I do.”

Dracula, now back to looking like a large bat is on his knees, holding his stomach in pain. He looks at Xander, pleading to his former Manservant. “Your loyalty is touching, but unnecessary. I release you from your servitude. It would mean a great deal to me, if you be the one to put an end to this.”

He even reaches out to Xander, who smiles at his Master and opens the book. “Sure.”

He picks up the quill, surprising Dracula, and starts to read what he’s writing out loud. “”Dracula’s awesome willpower gave him the strength to fight off Maloker, and give up the new powers he’d acquired.””

Within an instant, Dracula is, seemingly, back to his annoying, young and snarky self. “Yes, of course. That was easy. Why didn’t you do it before?”

But Xander hasn’t finished yet. He ignores Dracula and writes another sentence in the book. “”Everyone Dracula had power over, also found themselves free.””

Not impressed by that one, Dracula grumbles and turns to Xander. “I could just mesmerise you again.”

Xander shakes his head, looking into the Count’s eyes. “But you won’t. You can’t force someone to care about you. It doesn’t mean anything if it’s fake.” He briefly looks towards Dawn.

Dracula doesn’t have an answer for him. He looks around at the others, making no attempt to cover his nudity. “I find this city less than hospitable. I shall be returning home, forthwith.” He turns to Xander, a look of fear in his eyes. “I take it we will not be seeing each other again?”

Xander looks at him and grins. “Sure we will. But we’ll hang out like normal people. Well, sort of normal people. Or, in your case, former people.”

“You say that, but I only hear from you when you want something.”

“Hey, I’m not saying I’m perfect. But dude, get a smartphone! Have Butterfield teach you how to Skype. I’ll keep in touch. I promise.”

This seems acceptable to Dracula, who this time, rather than snark something inappropriate, extends his hand to his friend. “I will miss you, Manser…” He stops, catches himself. Smiling, he nods. “Xander.”

“Me too, Mas… Buddy. When I get a chance I’ll come visit. We can break out the motorcycles, do an Easy Rider across Transylvania.”

Dracula seems slightly excited about this, and, rather than explain more to anyone else, decides to take his leave.

He clicks his fingers and his body starts to become transparent. Soon, he’s mist and he glares at Buffy before his head is the last thing to disappear. “A last word of warning: exercise care with that book. It is a singularly dangerous thing. You have an unmatched opportunity to chart the course of the future, or bring untold disaster on us all. And you’ve just seen in which direction the odds are stacked.”

His words hang in the night air ominously, but Buffy doesn’t care. For now, it’s time to go home.

Later, the Vampyr book sits in the middle of the dining room table in Xander and Dawn’s apartment. The group sit around the table, beverages in hand, staring at the book. Buffy is the first to break the silence. “We can’t just, like, put it on a shelf?”

Giles tuts and sighs, not for the first time in the last twenty minutes. If Buffy didn’t know better, she’d say he was actually bored. “We’ve been over this. If we don’t write the new rules of magic, they will take shape according to the wishes of others. Dangerous others.”

She shrugs and looks at him, gesturing at him with her hands. “Well, then, you should do it.”

“Were I my old self, perhaps. But as I am experiencing physical withdrawal after a few hours away from Pimp Slap IV, I may not be the most mature choice.”

Buffy considers what he’s said, mostly about the game and then turns. “Then, Willow..”

Willow doesn’t even offer a suggestion. She waves her arms in a negative fashion. “Sure, give power over magic to a recovering magic addict. What could go wrong?”

Buffy is determined to find a solution. “How about the Watcher’s Council?”

Another shake of Giles’s head. “What little remains of it is in disarray.”

Buffy sits back in her chair and folds her arms. “Well, there’s got to be someone who can handle this.”

A voice from the living area doesn’t introduce itself, but Buffy remembers that sardonic droning anywhere. “Indeed there is. You may recall I have a Council of my own.”

Buffy sighs before she even turns to the demon lord. “D’Hoffryn?”

Xander is just as stunned. “D’Hoffryn?” he whispers quietly.

Anya turns to him, voice normal. “I don’t think he can see me, any more than the others. He stopped being the boss of me a long time ago.”

D’Hoffryn hears Xander’s mention of his name and when he glides over to Xander, Anya moves to D’Hoffryn’s side. Xander brings up something relevant to disguise Anya. “Uh, I thought your Illuminati of Magic Big Shots got eaten by Maloker.”

“Yes. A crisis you instigated. But I am reforming the Council.”

Anya is waving her hands through D’Hoffryn, as well as anything else around her, proving her point to Xander. She giggles at D’Hoffryn. “See? Nothing.”

The demon lord approaches the table and, as he speaks directly to the Slayer, he has the cheek to levitate the book towards his hands. “We have the requisite power, experience and wisdom to shape the laws of the new era. We shall gladly relieve you of your burden.”

Buffy gets out of her chair, the seat making a screech due to her speed. She grabs the book and pulls it back, stopping D’Hoffryn’s spell. “Y’know what? No. I don’t think I want a vengeance demon making the rules. Or any of the whack jobs you hang out with.”

“You have just admitted you do not trust yourself with the responsibility.”

“I don’t. But you know who I do trust?” She looks at D’Hoffryn and then gestures to her family in the room.

“Us. All of us. Together. I want the best people I know doing this. And lucky me, here they all are. We’ve got this. If you think you can take the book from us, you’re welcome to try.”

D’Hoffryn realises he has no chance of changing her mind, but feels that, at least, the Magic Council should be involved somewhere. “You will heed our counsel, at least?”

“What, like lobbyists? Sure, advise away. No promises. We’ll listen though.”

D’Hoffryn considers this and nods. “This is acceptable. We certainly have enough other matters to concern us.”

Before D’Hoffryn can teleport away, Xander coughs and raises his hand. Speaking quietly, aware of how strange his request sounds, he hopes the others are too distracted to notice. “Um, if that’s settled, could I talk to D’Hoffryn a second? It’s about Anya.”

Buffy, thankfully, feels the urge to hit something. “Gotcha. We’ll give you some space. Spike, wanna go out on patrol?”

Spike smiles at her. “Why not? Been almost two hours since I stabbed something.”

Outside the apartment, D’Hoffryn doesn’t break his stride as he walks away from Xander, who struggles to keep up. He nervously tells D’Hoffryn about his ghost. “So I’ve kind of been seeing Anya. Her ghost, I guess? I’m not sure why. Neither is she.”

Anya is not impressed. “Oh sure. Just tell him all our business.”

“I was wondering if you have any insight?”

D’Hoffryn turns to Xander, with affection in his eyes as he reminds himself. “Anyanka was the finest of my corps of vengeance demons. Her wrath, her creativity. She was as a daughter to me. If you see her, I envy you.”

Anya beams at this, delighted at the memories. “Awww!”

“But I have no answers. She renounced the power I granted her. Died bravely as a human. She should have gone to her reward. If her spirit is trapped on this plane, I would help release her. I shall investigate. In the meantime, consider that you may simply be going mad.”

With that final word of worry, Xander watches him go, evaporating into thin air. Anya, from behind him, once again tells him that she was right.

“What did I say? Now, stop worrying about your dead girlfriends, put on your big-boy pants and talk to the live one.” From her look, Xander stares in through the open apartment door. Dawn is sitting, in silence, on the couch.

A few minutes later, Xander and Dawn sit on the end of their bed in their bedroom. Neither looks at each other, or wants to start the conversation. Dawn eventually starts. “So…”

“So.”

Xander finally decides that the situation has to change and cannot be avoided. He turns to his side to look at Dawn “Look all this stuff with Dracula… He’s not a bad guy, for a soulless undead monster. But he lies to everyone, even himself. I don’t want to be like that. I don’t want us to be like that.”

Dawn looks up at him. Nods. “Neither do I. I’ve just been trying to figure things out.”

Xander looks at her and then down at the floor. “If, you’re breaking up with me… I get it… I boned you twice.” Realising now is not the time to joke, he covers by explaining. “And just to be clear, by ‘boned’ I mean ‘betrayed.’ And look how I just made betrayal seem like a better option.” He gets up and sighs, feeling like he wants the world to swallow him whole now. “This is not going well.”

Dawn justifies his actions for him. “You betrayed Buffy to save me. And everyone’s forgiven you, but you. Sure, it was stupid…”

“I might go with ‘misguided,’ but okay…”

She looks in his eyes, puts her arm on his arm. “Xander, you did it. Out of love. It’s hard to be mad about that. And you couldn’t control Dracula’s power over you. Anyway, you’re free of that.”

“Okay, I’m confused. Are you saying you’re still in love with me?”

“I’m saying it’s as if I never was. I remember our time together. But it’s like a movie that happened to someone else.”

She turns herself now, facing him, pain in her eyes. “When I almost died, my emotions were reset. Back to the factory default settings. I like you, a lot. I think you’re incredibly cute. I love your smile, your sense of humour, how much you care about people. I love so much about you, but I… I don’t love you.”

“Your saying, you’ve mentally gone back to high school?”

“Not quite. It’s hard to explain. I still remember everything since then, but it’s like I never lived through the time when we were falling in love. You’ve got deep, intense emotion for me. And what I have for you, is a silly schoolgirl crush.”

A grin forms on Xander’s face, a joke to lighten the mood. “I could be a schoolgirl.”

Dawn doesn’t laugh. Her expression doesn’t change at all. “Xander…”

He nods and then looks away. “I know. We have to break up.”

“I hate the way that sounds. I just… I need time, Xander. And space. And maybe you do too.”

He looks at her, smiling. He understands. But he still wants her to know how he feels. “Sure. And we’ll both get it. But just so you know, I’m not giving up on us. I love you, Dawn. And I was lucky enough to make you fall in love with me once. If that got erased, I’ll just have to make it happen again.”

Dawn looks at him and smiles. Tears start to fall from her eyes.

For a moment nothing has changed, and Dawn reaches forward and presses her lips to his. She opens her eyes mid-kiss and stares straight into Xander’s open eyes.

He pulls apart, clearly feeling awkward. “It’s okay. Time and space, right?”

“Yeah.” Dawn nods at him, wipes her eyes and then leaves the room.

“Time and space,” she sighs quietly under her breath.

Across from the apartment, Buffy and Spike are looking at the gang from the rooftop. “Gonna be a long road for those two.”

Buffy sees her sister, sitting on her own while Xander does the same in another room. “It’s going to be long for all of us. That damn book. Like things weren’t complicated enough already…”

Spike shrugs. “You heard Goat-Boy. Plenty of folks would love to take it off your hands.”

“Yeah, right. The only worse option than me being in charge of the book is everyone else who wants it. No… I’m done running away from the hard choices. But I can’t even manage my own life. How am I supposed to write the freaking rules of magic?”

Spike turns and tells her that she was right what she said before. They’ll do it together. “All of us. And from where I’m standing, you’ve done a fine job of your life. You lost your mum. Dad’s an idiot. Add to that the hordes of Hell trying to kill you since you were a nipper, and it’s a wonder you’re not in a bloody strait jacket.”

Buffy looks at him, a gentle smirk on her face. “Well, it’s not all bad. I’ve got you guys.”

“My point exactly. We all have two families. The one we’re born into, and the ones we choose. Seems to me you’ve picked a pretty damn good one.”

Buffy looks over at the apartment, watching her friends through the windows. “You might be right about that.”

Spike gets up and helps her to her feet. “Course I am, Slayer. We’ll work it out. If we don’t get slaughtered by the masses of demons who’re gonna want to get their talons on that book.”

Buffy looks at him. They were having such a good conversation. Spike tuts and then sighs, looking at Buffy. “One of these centuries, I’m gonna learn when to bloody shut up.”

Buffy looks at him and grins. “Here’s a hint,” she says, gesturing for him to follow. “Now.”