A tense conversation is unfolding in the apartment of Buffy Summers. Giles wants to write in the Vampyr book – a rule creating a permanent portal between Earth and the realm of the Fae Folk — a realm he’s clearly grown fond of. Buffy doesn’t like it.

“And it could undermine everything we’ve done to protect Earth. It could make other barriers weaker — in the middle of all these demon invasions!”

Giles stands there, a red flower tucked behind his floppy brown hair and a scowl painted behind his glasses. A member of the Fae sits beside him on the couch, smiling at him constantly. The former librarian insists the portals are being opened by the Mistress and the Soul Glutton. The Sculptor is already dead, and the final battle may be brutal. He needs his magic at full strength — and, he adds, leaning into the Fae beside him, he seems to be progressing faster with their help.

Buffy isn’t convinced. She thinks he just wants to canoodle with his girlfriend.

Giles looks up at her, anger rising.

“How dare you. I have put up with your ridiculous and, quite frankly, interminable romantic misadventures for years! Now I’ve finally found someone who judges me solely on the content of my character, and you have the gall to undermine it?”

His outburst takes Buffy by surprise. His Fae companion — whom he calls Sundrop — tells him his aura is not pleasant when he’s angry. It’s gone a bit red. He apologises to her, but not to Buffy. The youngsters make a swift exit, slamming the door in Buffy’s face.

A while later, in Spike’s apartment across the hall, Buffy asks — again — if she’s being too harsh.

“Am I being selfish because the idea of underage Giles and some Dark Crystal-looking chick sucking face creeps me out?”

Spike looks at her. She stammers.

“It totally creeps me out, FYI.”

Spike frowns and takes a seat beside her.

“Ain’t really our business, is it?” And if it makes her feel better, he adds, Fae Folk don’t kiss the way humans do.

Buffy sighs. You think I’m unreasonable too?

But Spike shakes his head. He’s 100% with her on the portal thing.

“But I do think you may be taking this harder than you should — because the band finally got back together, after being scattered for so long, and now it’s not some cosmic evil tearing us apart.”

He looks at her, quietly.

“It’s life. And there ain’t a blessed thing you can punch to stop that happening.”

In the next room, Xander sits on his bed, a cat nestled in his lap. Anya has her head sticking through the wall. She’s eavesdropping on Buffy and Spike — and relaying what she thinks is gossip back to an uninterested Xander.

“See? This is what happens when people don’t come out and say what they’re thinking. It’s always worse. With Dawn spending so much time at school and Willow with her girlfriend, Buffy should be able to lean on Spike, but instead…”

Xander interrupts her soap-opera-style commentary. He has to talk to her about something.

Anya stops and looks at him, transparent arms folded.

“Okay. Nothing good ever followed those four words. I’d think you were breaking up with me, if we were together and I was, you know, alive.”

Xander looks down at the floor. Anya’s ghost grows angry.

“Are you breaking up with me?”

Xander doesn’t shake his head or shrug. He tells her he’s been discussing her with his therapist.

Anya’s voice rises a decibel or three.

“Your therapist? Oh, that’s brilliant! He must think you’re crazy! You watch — the men with giant nets are going to come and haul you off to the lunatic asylum.”

Xander denies it. Dr Mike thinks he’s using Anya as a crutch — a way to avoid the outside world. While Anya is grateful he’s seeking help, she points out that Dr Mike is an expert on emotions, not ghosts.

Looking down, avoiding her gaze, Xander sighs. He whispers, quietly.

“You’re not a ghost. I mean, if you are, you’re not the ghost of Anya.”

He braces himself for the volume that doesn’t come. When he opens his eye, he sees Anya looking at him — a scared look on her see-through features.

“What? Why would you say that? That’s ridiculous. The cats can see me!”

To prove her point, she waves her hand. Two of the kittens chase her wildly across the bed.

Xander isn’t denying she exists. Just what — or who — she is. Anya reminds him of the psychic they were fighting at the time: hardly reliable source material. But Xander still avoids her gaze.

“When I heard it, I realised I already knew. You’re a lot like Anya. But there’s something not quite right. Things with you are easier than they ever were with Anya.”

The ghost moves closer. She stutters.

“Th-That’s because you’re not being the jerk you used to be. You’ve matured. A little. Or I have.”

“You know that’s not true. Maybe you’re another ghost who thinks she’s Anya. Maybe you’re — I don’t know — a supernatural creature drawn to people who are messed up in the head. But this — it’s bad for both of us.”

He looks her directly in the eyes.

“I’m avoiding life by staying up here with you. Even worse — whoever you really are, I’m not letting you be that. The real Anya. She was always herself. Always true to herself.”

He looks away now.

“I can’t keep doing this to you. Or her.”

Anya steps back.

“Well, that’s great for you!” she yells. “You can talk to other people, but no one else can see me! I’m stuck with you!”

Xander gets up and walks away. Dr Mike said he should ignore her — as if she’s not there. It may help her figure out why she’s here. And that’s what he’s going to do.

“I’m sorry,” he says, sadly, as he walks away from her.

But the ghost is not so easily swayed.

“You can’t be serious! Don’t you think I’d have done that already if I could? You think you’re so fascinating I’m compelled to hover around your sad, pathetic life? You think what you were doing was selfish? This! This is the Sistine Chapel of selfishness!”

Xander sits on the bed, games console in hand. He doesn’t say anything. Doesn’t look at her. Doesn’t acknowledge Anya screaming at him from the other side of the bed.

“Xander, you can’t do this to me! I’m already so lonely! Xander, please!”

She begs him now — and a tear falls down his cheek.

Sitting quietly on Spike’s bed in the next room, Buffy’s thoughts are interrupted by an astral image of D’Hoffryn. To his credit, he apologises for the intrusion — but he’s engaged demon forces with the Council, specifically an army from a Hell dimension called the Hell of Screams.

While he’s holding them off, he’s also located the Soul Glutton and the Mistress — along with the energies of the Restless Door.

He tells the Slayer she and their allies will find them at the Black Diamond Mines, in Antioch National Park.

A quick magical detour later, and Buffy and the Scoobies gather.

“Okay,” Buffy says, looking around. “The gang’s all here. I have to admit, I’m kind of amazed. We’ve been after these guys for a long time. They’re slippery — and they have a magic doorway to anywhere. So we have to play this right.”

Andrew, Spike, Xander, Willow, Giles and Dawn listen to her orders intently.

Willow mentions that Lake is standing by with her soldiers as back-up. Buffy’s glad of the response — if the targets think they’re onto them, they want them thinking they can win.

Andrew questions whether they can beat them. Especially the Soul Glutton.

Giles says they have to make the demon lords expend as much energy as possible in battle — weaken them through attrition.

“It will be a challenge,” Giles says, after sketching out a plan for the Mistress as well. “But we can defeat them — if we fight intelligently, as a cohesive unit.”

As the group enter the park, they travel through a tunnel lit by lanterns in the ceiling. Anya, hovering alongside Xander, says it reminds her of where she died beneath Sunnydale. She finds time to complain too.

“After you left me at the altar! And always stole the covers! And asked me to dress up in that ridiculous Catwoman suit to keep the spark alive!”

Xander continues to block her out.

As Andrew uses his tech to track the Soul Glutton, he pauses. The slime is everywhere. The more souls the Glutton consumes, the bigger he gets. They have no idea that the cavern wall they’re leaning against is part of the Soul Glutton’s leg.

He is all around them.

Willow barely raises a force field in time to protect the group. Buffy swings her Scythe, checking with Giles whether the Soul Glutton’s head is the best place to strike — but before Giles can respond, he’s snapped up in a slimy tentacle, dragged aside by the Mistress.

“Well, aren’t you adorable?” she shrieks in that wet, dripping tone. “I could just eat you up!”

As the others rush to their friend’s aid, the Mistress spots Spike and Xander and licks her lips.

“Oooh, the ones that got away! Come to Mama, boys!”

In the midst of battle, Andrew notices something else. A portal has been opened to the Hell of Screams — and an invading demon army is minutes away from entering their dimension. As Dawn and Andrew try to destroy the force field protecting the Restless Door, Andrew reminds them that only one portal can be maintained by the artefact at any one time — which means D’Hoffryn is on his way to back them.

The Mistress is unconcerned. On the other side of the cavern, she finally has Spike and Xander wrapped in her clutches.

“Oh, the demons of the Screaming Hell will keep them occupied a few moments more. And I’ve cast spells preventing anyone from teleporting directly into these caves. By the time your allies arrive, we’ll be gone. As will you!”

She licks her lips as Xander’s head moves closer to her mouth.

Needing a lift, Giles magically sends Buffy up towards the Soul Glutton’s head. She uses the Scythe as a climbing pick, and the Soul Glutton roars as the blade drives into the side of his skull.

At the same time, Giles uses more magic to release Spike and Xander from the Mistress and her hypnotic song.

The pair, freed, turn as one and plunge their weapons into the Mistress — who gurgles like a dam bursting.

Across the cavern, the Soul Glutton yells at Buffy, thrashing wildly to dislodge her and the Scythe. She sees the cavern beginning to collapse around them. Spotting Dawn about to be struck by debris, Buffy pulls the Scythe from the sticky flesh and drops to the ground, saving her sister and moving her out of harm’s way.

“You all right?”

“No sweat. I’ve got my big sister looking out for me.”

Her words are heard by the Soul Glutton.

“Sister? The child is your kin!”

He rages now, moving towards Dawn and binding her in a bright, blue glow.

“You have family. A Slayer murdered my family. But at last — AT LAST — I will have my revenge. Watch, Slayer. Watch and weep as I devour the soul of your sister!”

The blue glow intensifies. Dawn, trapped in the Soul Glutton’s giant hand, screams.

Buffy, on the ground, yells out in horror. Spike and Xander rush to her side.

But the Soul Glutton doesn’t gloat. He stops. He begins to shrink — his blue spark now a murky green swirl.

“What is happening?” he cries.

He shrinks down to an average humanoid size and drops Dawn in the process.

Recovering slowly and crawling to the Mistress’ side, the Soul Glutton rasps.

“A most cunning trap. The girl is not a true child — but the fabled Key, incarnated in human form. Her soul is unique. Powerful. Deadly like poison.”

He turns to Buffy, a grin forming on what passes for his mouth.

“Still, you could not have been certain she’d survive.” He rasps again. “Using your sister as bait. I commend your ruthlessness, Slayer.”

Dawn looks at Buffy, who shrugs.

“Lucky accident. But I’m not going to complain. I like him better fun size.”

Her fist tightens around the Scythe.

She marches towards the demon lords, beaten.

“Thousands of people died because of you and your portals. It’s over. You’re over.”

But the Mistress waves her hand. An energy barrier rises between the Scoobies and the villains, as Willow tries to dispel it with magic.

The Mistress turns to the Soul Glutton.

“We cannot win this battle — nor escape with the Restless Door. Even if we flee through it, our trail will be fresh enough for the Council to follow. So I decree that, if we can’t have it, no one can. What say you, Glutton?”

Raising his trident, the Glutton sneers.

“Agreed, my lady.”

He brings the trident down onto the box with a slam — and the box explodes with golden light, destroyed.

For a moment, nobody moves.

Xander thanks them for solving the problem, but Giles tells him he’s wrong. Pointing to the other side of the cavern, he reveals the portal to the Hell dimension is still open — and the horde on the other side is heading their way.

Willow tries to close the portal, but instead of shrinking, it expands. As the Mistress and the Soul Glutton slink away, the slippery water demon can’t help but taunt the witch.

“And in the absence of the Restless Door, it will continue to do so until this world and that world are joined. Quite a quandary, hmm?”

She makes reference to the Anharran Horde about to invade.

“Known for feasting on the still-living flesh of all they encounter.”

She chuckles as she slinks from view.

“Good luck with all that, dearies.”

As the horde comes dangerously closer, Xander yells for someone to magic the portal closed. But Giles has more bad news — the portal was opened from the other side. To close it, someone must do so from within the Hell dimension.

Buffy suggests they go through and Willow portals them back. Not a problem, she thinks.

But Willow corrects her — they themselves wrote in the Vampyr book that travel between dimensions is difficult. She wouldn’t be able to get them back.

The realisation hits them all. If they go through the portal, they’ll be trapped in the Hell dimension — with no way home.

Giles thinks for a moment.

“And that’s if we could even determine how to seal it. It’s not as if there’s a…”

He looks at Dawn.

“…Key.”

“You can’t be serious,” Buffy says, loudly.

Xander says no.

Spike adds, “Hell, no.”

Dawn, oblivious to the conversation, stops as she realises the entire Scooby Gang is around her — staring.

“Um… Why is everybody looking at me?”