On monitors strewn across the face of the Safe Zone camp, Ophelia Reyes, Secretary of the Supernatural, working for the President himself, delivers an update on the current difficulties facing the citizens of not just San Francisco, but communities across America.

“I know this has been a trying time for you. We have always said that this Safe Zone is a temporary measure until we can find a permanent solution that allows supernatural beings to coexist with normal humans. I’m pleased to say we now have that solution. It won’t work for all of you, but for many, it’s the ticket back to a normal life.”

A crowd gathers in the main square of the camp, eager for more information. The camp now resembles a rubbish site rather than a trailer park. Willow and Calliope are among the onlookers, as are Spike and Buffy, holding hands and awaiting the Secretary’s next words with little hope.

“You may be aware that some human magic‑users among you have been released after having their mystic energy drained. We have now developed the means to do this for any supernatural being. Agree to the process — to the removal of what makes you a threat — and you go free. Record expunged, legal status normalised, and with reintegration assistance for those who need it.”

A spider demon yells over the growing masses. “Without magic my anatomy doesn’t work! I’d die!” he shouts, as if the screen can answer him.

“I realise this is not feasible for all,” Reyes says, acknowledging the limits. “Some require magic to function or survive. We are still working on solutions for you. And I understand that it raises questions of identity, culture… in some cases religion. The procedure is strictly voluntary, but we strongly encourage you to give it your most serious consideration.”

Her voice continues, but a few creatures come running to Buffy, desperate to sign up. Buffy tells them to calm down — she knows the same as they do. She takes their names and heads off, leaving Spike to approach Willow.

“You know what that was, don’t you?” she says, turning to the vampire.

“Too right,” he sighs. “That was the carrot. Next up is the stick.”

Later, in their trailer, Spike and Buffy have been joined by Willow. The Slayer hopes reintegration starts soon. People are getting restless. Spike is more worried about them. He doesn’t think they can break out, but the Secretary’s announcement does give Buffy and Willow a way straight out the front gate.

Buffy is adamant she isn’t leaving him. Willow insists they’d be powerless, unable to break Spike or anyone else out — or do anything about what they know or have seen. She looks down at the table, glumly. “My guess is this ‘process’ they’ve developed is a smaller‑scale version of the machine we know they’re working on. Kind of like a field test for the big one. Raise your hand if you don’t think that, sooner or later, they’re just gonna zap the entire country with their de‑magicking ray.”

Nobody raises their hand.

Spike says they can’t do anything from inside the camp. Buffy says that without her powers, she can’t do anything outside either. Spike smiles a small smile at her frustration. “You’re a lot more than your powers, love. The pair of you. I wouldn’t underestimate what you can accomplish… including getting your power back. And I don’t see what other choice we have, unless you’ve got some cunning way to escape you’re not sharing.”

His statement is met with silence. Spike takes a drink from his beer can, satisfied he’s made his point. A noise from outside catches Buffy’s attention: another squabble between the natives. As Buffy heads off in one direction, Willow leaves to talk to the Coven. She has a great deal to decide.

Soon afterwards, less than ten minutes later, the Coven members still inside the Zone congregate by Willow’s trailer. They are horrified by the suggestion that they give up their powers.

“I’m not saying it lightly,” Willow argues gently. “But looking down the road, I think it only gets worse from here… and I want you all safe.”

One member asks her that if the offer is so great, then why doesn’t Willow do it. Sadly, Willow confirms that she very well might. She tells them to sleep on it, but not to take long. The situation will escalate quickly. She turns and goes back inside her trailer, leaving the Coven standing at the entrance, the decision in their hands. Calliope follows Willow inside, closing the door behind her.

“How can you do this? How can you ask us to do this? They’re taking away what connects us to the natural world. What makes us alive. And you want to just submit to it?”

Willow looks up at her, pain on her face. “It’s not that simple. I can’t go into details, but I have a plan. Kind of. I need you to trust me. To believe in me. Can you do that?”

Calliope doesn’t say anything. She does, however, kiss Willow hard on the lips.

Willow is taken by surprise, but after a moment she pushes the other woman away. “It’s not right,” she says. Calliope tells her she intends to break up with her partner outside the Zone — she’s just figuring out how to tell her.

Willow shakes her head. “I’m not sure you should. Not until we get out of here. Which I hope you’re saying you will. When we’re back in the normal world… as normal as this world gets these days… you might feel differently. When you don’t need me anymore.”

Calliope smiles and squeezes Willow’s arm. “Okay. But I promise, I might not need you, but I’ll still want you.”

Willow smiles as Calliope leaves the trailer. Another Coven member comes in as she walks out, catching Willow’s blushing face. She asks when everything happens, if they agree. Willow tells her it’s still to be confirmed and says she’ll be in her bunk.

Days later, on a podium hastily erected outside the Safe Zone, White House Press Secretary Joanna Wise makes a statement to the press. The procedure is now being rolled out and people are beginning to return home to their normal lives. She assures the questioning reporters that all trace of magic has been removed from anyone who underwent the treatment.

One reporter asks to speak to a resident from inside the Zone, but she’s told no — for their own safety. The journalist remains undeterred, continuing with another question: what about the residents who haven’t accepted the procedure? Or those who wouldn’t survive it?

Wise looks sternly at the reporter. “You’re talking about two very different situations. But in both cases, my answer is the same. We’re working very hard on a solution for everyone.”

Inside the Safe Zone’s Administration building, Buffy considers raising her voice at the agents standing in front of her, but out of respect for their history, she decides Riley Finn and his wife Sam are not the real targets of her annoyance. “They brought you here just to twist my arm?”

“We were in the area, but yeah. They really want this to work for everyone who’s eligible.”

“‘Work?’ Riley, they’re talking about taking away my power. As you might recall, I have a lot of enemies — supernatural and otherwise. They come after me, I’d be defenceless.”

Sam turns to Buffy. “‘Normal human’ and ‘defenceless’ aren’t the same thing. You can take self‑defence classes, exercise your Second Amendment rights…”

Buffy interrupts her. “Oh. I’ve still got those? My Fourth Amendment protections against unlawful search and seizure seem kind of creaky right about now.” She pauses. “That’s right, I paid attention in class. Sometimes.”

Riley looks at her with sincerity. “I know what you’re really worried about,” he says, stepping closer. “Spike.”

He assures her that with the majority out of the Zones, the problem of getting the vampire’s blood will get fixed. He’ll make sure Spike gets what he needs. “And I’m working with them on other solutions like — and I know this isn’t ideal for you either — deporting Spike back to England. The point is, we’re trying, and I’m asking you to try too.”

Buffy quiets. Then she tells him she can’t understand how he and Sam are okay with all of this.

Sam tells Buffy that she does have concerns, and she has shared them. “But we’ve also been deployed to San Francisco and too many other scenes like it, on a smaller scale. Rome, last year. Buenos Aires.”

Riley places his hands on both of Buffy’s shoulders in comfort. “I promise you, the people working on this — the vast majority we’ve met — are trying to do the best they can with a bad situation. This is the world we live in now, Buffy. And I’m trying to help you do the best you can in it. Can you trust me on that?”

At the main gate of the compound, Calliope now stands on the other side looking in, a steel fence between her and the still‑contained Willow. Calliope says she feels strange… sad… like she’s lost something, but can’t remember what. Willow apologises and holds her hand through the gate, palm to palm. She lets her magic flow over her skin. The sensation tickles.

Then, with tears in her eyes, Calliope tells Willow she’ll see her soon, and tearfully walks to the bus that will escort her back to the city. Lake Stevens watches Willow, seeing the pain in her face. “Can’t help but notice you didn’t actually say you’d see her. You are going to take the amnesty, aren’t you?”

Willow glares at her ex and doesn’t answer.

That evening, another fight breaks out between residents — this time a wolf and a vampire shaped like a bat. The vampire admonishes the werewolf for agreeing to the procedure. The wolf just wants to be normal again and go home, but the vampire doesn’t agree. He’s betraying his nature and his kind.

Buffy, Scythe strapped to her back, rushes into the melee to break them up. She puts them both on the ground with a kick and a chokehold.

From the floor, shifting into his human form, the vampire snarls at her in disgust. “You can get normalised and blend right in. Life goes on. It’s gulag or worse for the rest of us. And that includes your boyfriend, Slayer. No matter what you tell yourself. Not that it’ll make any difference. When it all goes to Hell, you’re gonna side with your own kind every time. Even when they’re kicking you in the teeth and destroying the ones you say you love.”

His words hit Buffy hard.

Later, walking with Spike and Willow, the vampire tells her she’s doing it. Full stop. “It’s my call,” Buffy says. “And I’m not leaving you.” Besides, wasn’t Spike against the government? She looks to Willow for backup, but Willow isn’t sure she can give it.

“What do they gain by killing us if we’re powerless? We wouldn’t be a threat anymore. They’d have no reason to be concerned about us. And that’s why we’re dragging our feet, isn’t it? We’d be giving up what makes us special.”

She remembers when they relinquished their powers in Tibet. “But there, we knew we had the option of getting them back if we wanted. And when things got tough — when people died, and we needed to be stronger — we did. We tried being normal and it didn’t work. Not for us.”

She turns to Buffy, wrapping her shawl tighter around her in the cold moonlight. “We always tell Xander and Dawn that they’re just as valuable and important as the rest of us. But we don’t want to be like them.”

Buffy shuts her down. Dawn and Xander are valuable, and being a Slayer has caused her nothing but problems.

Willow tells her it also gave her confidence, friends, and purpose. “Magic’s caused me problems too. But when you get right down to it, I don’t want to go back to being who I was before I had it any more than you want to go back to being a cheerleader obsessed with clothes and shoes.”

Buffy is stunned. “Is that what you think I was like before?” she asks, slightly wounded.

“To be fair,” Spike teases, “you’re still a bit obsessed with clothes and shoes.”

Buffy shoots him a look over her shoulder. “Warming up to the idea of leaving you now.”

Willow tells them she doesn’t like the plan at all — she’s just facing the facts. “Even with all our power, there’s nothing we can do from in here. But if we give it up, we at least have a shot. We just have to believe in ourselves — who we are without all the bells and whistles. Which I admit is scary as hell.”

She looks out over the valley before them. “I’m taking the deal,” she announces. “If you don’t, maybe I can figure out a way to get you both out. Whatever you decide, I’ll understand.”

And with that — as if needing to use it all before she loses it — Willow encases herself in a yellow ethereal glow and propels herself into the air. Buffy and Spike look at each other as they watch her float away, not saying anything, searching for answers in each other’s silence.

As they enter their trailer, Spike tells Buffy he can look after himself. “You afraid of what’ll happen to me if you leave… or what’ll happen to us?”

Buffy looks back at him with a smile. “Listen to me, William Pratt. If we break up, it’ll be over something a lot worse than not seeing each other for a couple of weeks. Like your soap operas.”

“A couple of weeks? That’s all you need to plan the great escape?”

Buffy nods. “At the outside. I’m kind of awesome like that.”

Spike pulls her close, arms around her, hand at the small of her back. “Then you’re going.”

Buffy shushes him. It’s all for tomorrow. “For now… pan over to the fireplace,” she says suggestively.

Spike reminds her they don’t have one.

“Do you want to get lucky or not?”

The next morning, by the front gate, Spike has a hoodie up to protect him from the warm sun. Willow tells him to call them — they’ll worry until he does. Spike nods and has a request. “Make sure Harris hasn’t let the cats get too fat. He’s useless against their manipulations.”

Buffy pulls him close and whispers his name, but he tells her she’s doing the right thing. “Don’t give me a thought.”

“Yeah, not going to happen.”

He looks down at her, squinting in the sunlight. “I love you,” he tells her tenderly. She goes to answer him, but he shushes her with a gloved finger to her lips. “Tell me when we see each other again,” he whispers.

Then he pulls her close. Buffy’s eyes tear up and she hopes he doesn’t see.

In the Administration building, Willow and Buffy enter a clean, white room, very much like a laboratory. A machine in the centre is attached to a green glowing globe above it. There are screens on each side of the device for a handprint.

Willow asks if the machine will conduct the procedure on them both at the same time. The technician nods and smiles, asking them to place their hands on the panel.

“Does it hurt?” Buffy asks, but the doctor shakes her head. “Your physiology is human, so it should be painless. Hold there a moment.”

A bright orange glow fills the room, centring on the globe. A beep echoes throughout the room and the glow stops abruptly, the machine returning to its original green colour. The technician doesn’t look at them. “That’s it. You can step out now. The detectors around the door will confirm the process worked.”

Walking outside, Buffy asks Willow how she feels.

“Hollow,” the witch responds.

“I sort of know what you mean. Like I had a sad dream I can’t really remember. But physically, I don’t feel all that different.”

A voice from behind her gets her attention. It’s Jordan the Slayer. She has the Scythe in her hands. She throws it at Buffy. “Don’t forget this.”

Buffy catches the weapon, but the sheer weight of it knocks her to the ground.

Jordan and the other Slayers chuckle. “Bus leaves in five. Take care of yourself, Chosen One.” She emphasises the last words with a taunting tone.

Willow bends down and helps Buffy up. “You okay?”

“Fine,” Buffy says, dusting off her knees. “Just took me by surprise how heavy it is.”

Approaching the bus, Willow suggests they get going. Buffy agrees. “Hey. We’re out. We’re free. We’ll be fine.”

She looks back at the front gate and slowly gets on the bus. She whispers to herself, trying to believe her own words. “We’ll all be just fine.”

As the bus pulls away, Spike stands at the gate alone as it departs. Once it’s gone, he looks despondently around him and slowly walks back to his trailer, alone.