Summaries
Summaries for each issue of the Season Eight series. Please realize that there will
be spoilers! Seriously, they're summaries - spoilers abound, totally unmarked.
Read at your own risk.The Long Way Home, Pt IV
In the labs of the military organization, Warren and Amy hold Willow captive, and Warren
explains how he survived. He tells Willow that Amy had been watching Willow, and thus began
watching over Warren, whom she saved with magick after Willow went dark and skinned him. He
also tells Willow that the spell placed on her after her first kiss with Kennedy was also
a collaboration between him and Amy, and as he begins to cut her eye with a scalpel, he
asks Willow if she is "bored now".In Scotland, Dawn is frustrated with Willow's kidnapping, and injurs herself taking out her frustration on a cliff wall. She tells Buffy that she knows she can't help, and that she trusts Buffy to bring Willow back, but that she has to, because Willow is "like a mom" to her. Buffy relays this in a conversation to Xander, as they wait for the mystics to work their magic and re-open the portal Willow and Amy escaped through. Xander tells Buffy to find a Slayer partner for this mission, and that he will wait back and HQ and act as her eyes and ears, because they can't screw up rescuing Willow.
In the labs, Warren tortures Willow, who can't escape her bonds, which feed off her magickal energy. To save herself from the pain, Willow asks and is granted refuge by spirits of some kind, who save her from her agony by "reforumlating its presentation." They tell Willow that they cannot save her, but that they can keep her from her pain until she is rescued or dead. They tell her that Warren is lobotomizing her, and ask if she has a plan. In the meantime, Amy keeps the government men out of the lab, assuring them that Buffy will come after Willow, which they are prepared for, and that Willow belongs to her boyfriend.
In Scotland, Buffy chooses one of her best Slayers, Satsu, to be her Slaying partner for the mission. Satsu feels unworthy of Buffy's confidence, but the other Slayers reassure her, telling her not to embarass them. As they prepare to leave, Buffy advises Satsu to kill any demon she sees, and wound any human. The portal begins to open, and Xander gives Buffy parting combat advice, and tells her to bring back a witch.
As the portal opens, the government organization waiting for Buffy fires a large beam of laser-like magick through the opening, which is promptly returned to them via a mirror placed by Xander and the Scotland Slayers. Buffy and Satsu easily take on what remains of the government's forces, and Buffy corners an officer, telling him that the only person in the complex powerful enough to heal all of the soliders they've injured is Willow. He gives them her location, and Buffy and Satsu head out. Xander, watching via satellite, informs Buffy that they are only two miles south of Sunnydale, and Buffy reflects ironically the she did want to go home.
Buffy and Satsu meet a powered-up Amy at the entrance to the lab that Willow is being held in, and Buffy motions Satsu away so that she can fight Amy alone. In Willow's haven, a spirit tells her that her body is almost dead, and that she cannot come back from a natural death. When it asks if she is afraid, Willow tells her that Buffy is always with her, and Buffy, fighting Amy, begins speaking for Willow. Buffy's eyes go dark as Willow's magick inhabits her. Amy tells Buffy that she doesn't have an ounce of Willow's strength, and Buffy replies that it doesn't matter, because she's seen Amy's dreamspace, and knows what she is afraid of. Buffy/Willow projects a holographic image of Amy's mother, and when Amy drops her guard, Satsu pelts her (and the door) with a grenade.
Buffy and Satsu burst into the lab, interrupting Warren's work. Warren and Amy escape into a portal, leaving Willow, Satsu, and a confused Buffy behind. Buffy frees Willow from her restraints, and is relieved to find Willow unharmed. As they pass through the compound on their way back to the portal to Scotland, Buffy notices a door marked "30", and remembers the three X's from her dreams. She bursts through the door to find Ethan lying on the ground with his brains splattered against the wall. The scarred General from the previous Issues aims his gun at Buffy, but Buffy smacks it away. She tells Willow to heal the soldiers to find out who else they have in the cells, but the General assures Buffy that the only person who could have helped them was Rayne.
As she throws him to the ground, Buffy sees his scar, and the General tells her that "Twilight" is coming for her. He calls her Slayers "monsterous spawn", and tells Buffy that they've upset the balance, and that he will not sit by and let them create a "master race". Buffy tells him that she thinks he hates her Slayers because they are powerful women, and the General replies that it is not only men who believe the Slayers should be wiped out. He tells Buffy that her Slayers are demons, and that, if they finish with the demons, the Slayers will decide the world still isn't the way they want it, and will continue to hunt because the demon inside them will tell them to "slay" no matter what.
He tells Buffy that it is no longer Slayers vs. demons, it is the Slayers vs. the world; the human race. Buffy is suprised for a moment, but then, after four panels of thought, says "'kay".