Sat on the wooden floor in her apartment, surrounded by old papers and musty books, Buffy Summers sighs as she puts down a parchment scroll. She turns to the twelve-year-old boy at her side, flustered. “Giles. This ‘Archaeus’ monster… Are we up against an Old One?”

Rupert Giles looks up at her, adjusts his glasses on his nose. He tells her that Archaeus is not an Old One — he, unlike them, is a demon lord, and as such can be killed. But he has also revealed himself at the same time as the Sculptor, the Mistress and the Soul Glutton. Which he knows, surely, cannot be coincidental.

Across the room, leaning against a wall, Spike looks decidedly nervous, asking Xander what happened the last time Buffy and Angel were together. Apart from the sex. He doesn’t want to hear about that.

Dawn reminds him that Spike and Buffy are together now and she was possessed by something that Dawn still doesn’t quite understand. Besides: Buffy is Spike’s. The vampire smiles at Dawn: he doesn’t own Buffy, he says. No one does. If they did, she wouldn’t be her.

Xander thinks he has nothing to worry about — unlike him. The last time he saw Angel he was planting a punch on his face. Dawn is surprised that was him. Xander tells them that his anger issues came out that day, but it wasn’t the start. According to his therapist, his anger issues go back to his rubbish upbringing and he had to deal. Dawn is surprised to hear that he’s been in therapy and praises him for their new honesty policy. Things are much better between them now. Xander doesn’t agree.

Finally, despite Giles’ objections, Spike has had enough. His patience is gone. He starts to head for the door, telling everyone else that he can do anything Angel can. Buffy stops him, asks if he has a minute.

“I know. I’m acting like a prat. But the history between you two — the last time you saw each other…” Buffy interrupts him. She was possessed by a cosmic force that wanted them to change the universe with fate and destiny. And even with all of that in front of her, she still said no. She still walked away.

She places her hands on either side of his face. “Angel is a part of my past,” she tells him. “Who I am now, you’re part of that. Him showing up isn’t going to change anything, okay?” She kisses him, a smile on her lips. It’s a soft kiss that would have made the vampire blush if his blood was circulating. He promises he’ll shut up about it. Dawn is impressed by how Buffy handled that — she’s covering her nerves well.

She tells her sister that she loved Angel. Fought him, killed him, hated him and now… now, she doesn’t know what she feels, not after Twilight. And that scares her most of all.

Their musings are interrupted: Willow has arrived, with Angel right behind her.

He awkwardly says hi. There’s silence. He turns, sees Buffy and she walks towards him, hands extended. He extends his hand to shake it. Both confused, they both stop and settle on a hug.

He asks to speak with Buffy alone for a minute. In Willow’s room, he paces, anxious. He tells Buffy that he’ll leave if it’s too difficult for her. He did kill Giles. Buffy reminds him that he also brought him back.

Angel feels bad that he’s stuck as a child and the consequences of his actions. He apologises, tells her he’s spent a lot of time thinking. Buffy tells him that his apology is worth more than he thinks. She wasn’t sure how she’d feel when he walked through the door.

She acknowledges that their lives are complicated, but there’s more good than bad — and for now, that’s enough. They can work together as a team.

At least she hopes so. They exit the bedroom, nearly colliding with Spike, who tries to hide the fact he was listening at the door. Angel tells her that he just wanted to clear the air. Buffy agrees, telling him that a lot has happened since they last saw each other — and links hands with Spike as she does so. Spike grins awkwardly, with a hint of smugness on his face. Angel looks at their hands.

For a moment, he says nothing, but then he charges. “Seriously? We’re about to go to war,” he yells at Spike. “And you blindside me with this, just to score some cheap points…”

Spike is incensed — he wanted to tell his grandsire over the phone! It was Buffy who told him it needed to be done face-to-face. Buffy sighs. She thought it was the mature thing to do.

Spike scoffs. “Yes, because this crew is an endless font of maturity.”

Angel rolls his eyes. “It doesn’t matter,” he says, grimly. “We’ve got more important things to worry about.” Buffy tries to stop him as he goes to leave the room, but he turns back to her, his eyes cold. “I said: it’s fine.”

The whole room now goes silent. The Scoobies stare at each other, all not sure who needs to speak next. Giles breaks the silence, asking about Faith. Angel tells him that she sends her best, but Giles doesn’t seem convinced: it’s clear that he would have liked to see her.

Xander brings up Spike’s dreams of killing people — or rather Archaeus killing people. Angel agrees about the dreams — he’s had them too. Specifically dreams about nuns. Spike thinks that since they have souls, there’s a target on their back — they can fight Archaeus’ control. Angel thinks together, they can turn that link against their progenitor. Find out exactly what he’s after. Buffy grins and points the way to the sharp implements she calls weapons. But Giles stops them: perhaps Archaeus’ plan is to deliberately draw Angel and Spike out? Perhaps they should remain behind.

Angel and Spike, agreeing for the first time since he walked in, both say no at the same time.

As the group try to figure out where the demon will be, Angel suggests looking underground, but there’s a huge crash from the corridor outside the apartment. A large, spiny-tailed demon comes with spikes jutting from where his claws should be. It’s green and skitters along the walls of the hallway. Its spikes jut out at the group, Buffy smashing Angel to the ground as a spike heads for his head. Willow ignites a blast of flame at the creature, which it deftly avoids with its agility.

It slices Willow across her arm and she screams, falling backwards against the wall as the demon skitters up onto the ceiling, hissing. Giles notices the wound — Willow has been poisoned. He’ll need time to summon an antidote.

Buffy tells him to do it, as she swings the Scythe, the familiar whistle combing through the air. More spikes jut out from the demon, hitting Angel and Spike. Xander yells from his doorway, telling Giles that the demon shouldn’t get inside due to the protective spells around the apartments — which clearly don’t apply to hallways.

Angel tells Spike that the others need cover. Spike says no — they’re going to rip the bugger to shreds.

As Buffy swings her blade, she says that the bones on the creature make it feel like she’s hitting a solid wall. The demon uses his tail, brushes both Slayer and Angel to one side. As they both recover, the sting in the creature’s claws scrapes Angel’s back, drawing blood.

Spike draws the creature away from the other two. Angel apologises to Buffy: he’s rusty. Buffy smiles. Time to shake that off. They move as one, heading for the demon as Spike holds him by its throat, as it thrashes wildly. Its carapace is too hard for them to crack.

Remembering the spells around the apartments, Angel tells Buffy to draw it near. Buffy stands by the apartment’s door, taunts the creature after her. It roars a silent scream as its jaws snap at her and it moves, with immense speed, towards the Slayer. Buffy ducks as it hits, the creature throwing itself into the apartment door’s threshold, where it’s instantly engulfed in flame.

An arrow from Dawn’s crossbow strikes the burning demon, who’s flailing around the apartment now, on fire, but still not dead. Angel, Buffy and Spike enter behind it. “It’s dead,” Angel says. Buffy smiles. “It just doesn’t know it yet.” Spike stands at her other side. “Lucky, we’re in an educating mood.”

The trio move as one, Buffy trapping the demon by its tail, impaling it to the floor with the Scythe. In tandem, Angel and Spike swing their swords towards the demon’s neck.

Xander and Dawn are sprayed by demon blood where they’re standing.

Spike is not impressed. He compares themselves to the Three Stooges. Buffy says they’ll improve their coordination in time. Angel says they just need practice.

Willow, walking into the room, still leaning on Giles, tells them they’re going to have plenty of practice. The antivenom Giles cooked up is slowly working and the witch wants to analyse the demon’s body before it burns completely. Giles identifies it as a Morituri demon — bred for suicide missions.

Angel knows of them — and knows they only work for others in internal conflicts. They shouldn’t be in this dimension. Giles realises instantly what it means: Archaeus must control a portal from his dimension to ours. Buffy thought that was impossible, but Giles reminds her that it’s not — just less accessible. It makes sense: Archaeus controls the portal and that’s why the other demons have been appearing. He’s gathering power.

Buffy turns and addresses the room. “He wanted our attention. He wanted us to come after him. Now he’s gonna learn something that rewriting the rules of magic has taught us…”

“You better be real careful what you wish for.”