Season 8
VOLUME 1: THE LONG WAY HOME
Buffy and her squad go into a building to take down some monsters while keeping in contact with Xander at headquarters in Scotland. The slayer population has grown and they have found and recruited about 1,800. Even Buffy herself has two doubles floating around: underground and in Italy. When they find the victims, they look more like willing sacrifices. They find a symbol on one that they hope can identify what group they belong to. Back at headquarters, Buffy visits her sister, Dawn, who has become a giant. Dawn refuses to talk to anyone but Willow (who they haven’t heard from in a while). The American government see the slayers as a threat. They hope to use Amy and her boyfriend to take them down
Giles, Buffy, and Andrew all have separate groups of slayers that they are training. The government is watching them. Some higher up officer wants to blow up slayer headquarters, but agrees to give Amy a shot at destroying Buffy first. Xander finds Amy over Buffy, trying to stab her. They have protection over Buffy, but it doesn’t protect her from the spell that Amy cast. The lead slayer is in a nightmare sleep and can only be waken up by true love’s kiss. Amy thinks that she is unstoppable as zombies climb up the walls of headquarters, but Willow shows up to challenge her.
The slayers fight off the zombies while Willow and Dawn take Amy out of the fight. Xander fills Willow in on what happened to Buffy, who is walking through her dream landscape with Ethan Rayne looking for important information about Amy. Willow says there is someone that is in love with Buffy that can break the spell. She instructs everyone to keep their eyes shut and they next thing they know, Buffy is awake. Willow tries to trace where Amy teleported from while her and Buffy catch up. Amy wakes up and sucks Willow through a portal. Buffy tries to follow, but is unable. Willow is being held by Amy and Warren (who is still skinless).
Warren starts giving Willow a lobotomy. Dawn freaks out about loosing Willow while Xander organizes the needed people for a rescue. Buffy chooses Satsu to go with her and the other girls are jealous. When the portal is reopened, the Initiative-like agency fires a laser weapon. Xander was prepared for an attack and reflects it with a mirror. Buffy and Satsu go through and fight their way to Willow. Buffy is able to use a little magic against Amy and shows her how she is like her mother. Amy and Warren are able to escape. They grab Willow and start to head out when Buffy recognizes numbers from her dream landscape. She goes to open a door marked 30, but Ethan is already dead. The man in there with the corpse is from Twilight and says the slayers are unnatural and now at war with the entire human race.
A girl sits with her friends complaining about detention when the calling hits her like a punch to the face. She starts training and gets the “So you’re a slayer” speech from Giles. She is the trainee that watches out for the other slayers. They disguise her as Buffy and send her (literally) underground to fight the demon population that is planning an uprising. It is the hope that she can distract them and keep them from coming to the surface. She sends her fairy friend for help, knowing that she might not survive the next step, which she doesn’t. Slayers and fairies come flying in from above.
VOLUME 2: NO FUTURE FOR YOU
Faith is in Cleveland watching over the hell-mouth. Robin gives her a call to let her know that there are some kids that lost their parents to a vampire nest. She goes to the location, but finds out that the kids are also vampires. She slays them all and comes home to find Giles asking her to take part on a special mission. Genevieve is a slayer that will bring the apocalypse if she isn’t killed soon. She has a warlock, Roden, on her side and they have been kidnapping girls (one a slayer) for her to hunt and kill. Giles trains Faith as best he can to infiltrate her fancy dress party so she can kill her. Faith gets the accent down, but has trouble with the rest of British upper class culture.
Dawn talks with Willow about how she became a giant. She insists that Kenny, her thricewise boyfriend, didn’t do it. They are interrupted by Renee being sent by Buffy for technical help. Faith goes to the fancy dress party with the intention of killing Genevieve, but she ends up getting nervous once she is there. She goes outside to smoke and calm her nerves and Genevieve joins her. She goes to pull a dagger from her up-do, but is attacked by Roden’s gargoyles. She defeats them both and passes out. When she wakes up, Genevieve tells her that she is a slayer. She wants them to work together to take down Buffy.
Giles tries to get a hold of Faith to extract her from Genevieve’s place. She wakes up and Genevieve explains that she is going to kill Buffy so that she can take over as queen. Buffy is talking to Willow as the witch updates their tech. Suddenly, Roden whisks Buffy to Genevieve so that the princess can kill her. Just as Buffy is about to take out Genevieve, Faith tackles her long nemesis and they go out the window and into the pool. Buffy immediately assumes that Faith has gone bad. Willow is able to get Buffy back to headquarters. Genevieve is ready to attack Faith for betraying her.
Giles can’t get through Roden’s barrier. He picks up his cell for Willow, but is surprised to have Buffy yelling at him for working with Faith behind her back. Meanwhile, Faith is fighting for her life. She defeats Genevieve by accidentally killing her. Roden offers to work with Faith to take down Buffy, but Faith refuses. He tries to kill her, but Giles comes to her rescue. He kills Roden and offers Faith her ticket out of the world of slayers. Faith isn’t quite ready to retire and decides she wants to work with the “bad girls.” Giles wants to partner up with her, as they both have a bit of a dark side. Lieutenant Molter goes to inform Twilight that his plan to kill Buffy was a failure. He explains that he was hoping they would start the war themselves, but his main goal is to end the age of magic.
Xander helps out Dawn by having her things enlarged until Willow can shrink her back down to size. She admits that she slept with her boyfriend’s bad-boy roommate and that is why he turned her into a giant. Willow takes Buffy to the lair of Sephrilian. A girl named Robin stands outside of the house to mind the unstable reality inside. They find the demon in question, and he shows each other their transgressions (Buffy robbing a bank and Willow making time with a demon). He then shows them that Buffy will be betrayed by someone close to her. She wonders if it is Willow, but Willow points out that she already betrayed her by bringing her back to life. Buffy kills the demon and they go their separate ways after the reality collapses.
VOLUME 3: WOLVES AT THE GATE
Buffy feels like she has created a sister-hood of slayers that she can’t be a part of. Xander finds a vampire nest to help her feel better. She takes Satsu with her. When they arrive, Buffy admits that she knows Satsu is in love with her. As they fight the vampires, she goes on to tell Satsu that people that love her usually die. Twilight shows up and Buffy starts fighting him. He suggests that maybe she messed up the balance by bringing out all the slayers. His intention is to take away her moral superiority. Back at headquarters, Buffy wonders if he is right.
Xander goes to see Renee while she is on guard duty. She thinks that he was sent to babysit her, but he asks her on a date. They see wolves at the gate and have to inform people. Willow brings Andrew to headquarters. Buffy sleeps with Satsu. They discuss what it will mean in the morning (just a great night) and decide to keep it secret. That is when everyone starts coming in to let Buffy know what is going on. They are being attacked by vampires that can shift between vampire, animals, and fog. They get the scythe and Buffy worries that they know Willow used it in the spell to wake up all the potential slayers. Xander takes Renee with him to visit Dracula.
Buffy’s tech team is able to locate the vampires in Tokyo with the help of a slayer there. They get ready to depart. Dracula seems depressed until Xander arrives. He admits that he lost his powers to some oriental vampires while gambling. He is infuriated and ready to go to Tokyo to get them back. Willow talks to Satsu about her night with Buffy and how the slayer shouldn’t get her hopes up. The vampires are able to complete a successful beta test to turn the Japanese slayer, Aiko into a normal girl before they kill her.
When the slayers arrive in Japan, they find Aiko strung up on a building with “welcome” written in her blood. Renee is used as bait to track down one of the vampires. Willow is able to capture and contain him. They are able to get the location of the other vampires and Buffy kills him. Xander tries to call it their first date, but she refuses to let him off the hook and kisses him. Buffy tries to convince Satsu to stay behind to guard the rest of their defenses. Satsu refuses to listen to the order. Willow brings in giant Dawn as a distraction while they go to get the scythe. However, it is a trap and Renee is killed.
The slayers surround Xander to protect him as he goes to Renee. Dracula says that he needs Willow to defeat the vampires. Buffy leaves Satsu in charge and jumps out the window to interfere in Willow’s fight with the other witch. Buffy stabs her and Willow changes the sidewalk into water so they aren’t splattered from the fall. Dawn is neutralized by a mechanical version of herself with a tail. Andrew coaches her into defeating it by decapitation. Satsu gets the scythe and Willow and Buffy save her from falling off of the building top where the lens is located. The witch is able to take away the vampire’s special powers and deactivate the lens. Dracula reigns terror and takes out the Japanese vampire leader, waiting to let Xander finish him with his sword. Buffy tells the other slayers to take out all of the vampires while she goes to comfort Xander. After the battle, Satsu tells Buffy that she wants to stay in Japan to train the slayers there. Willow is with the goddess that she cheated on Kennedy with. Xander spreads Renee’s ashes and says goodbye to Dracula.
VOLUME 4: TIME OF YOUR LIFE
Willow has a source that tells her that the scythe is in New York, which confuses the slayers considering Buffy has the scythe. Dawn yells from out in the woods and Buffy, Xander, and Willow run to her, having some trouble finding her. They discover that she has three temporary enchantments. She has transformed into the second, a centaur. Buffy and Willow meet Kennedy and her team in New York. Willow explains that there is a time paradox that they are on the edge of. Buffy is ready to go when she is exchanged for a demon. She arrives two centuries into the future where a girl seems to know who she is (and that she is supposed to be long dead) but thinks she is a demon.
Something hits the tower of slayer headquarters. Xander goes in and sends everyone out of the building. He is trapped by demons made of green flames, but Dawn comes in to save him. Melaka lives in the future. She is half a vampire slayer, but her twin brother, Harth, got all of her slayer memories. Once she and Buffy realize they are on the same side, they go to see Melaka’s boss, Gunther (who lives in a huge fish tank with the top serving as a floor). He tells her that her brother is up to something with the witch, Dark Hope, who has lived for centuries. Harth wants to hurt his sister because it is the only thing he loves. Willow is the dark witch everyone has been talking about. Back in the present, Willow needs to keep the demon that was sent to replace Buffy to make sure they can get her back.
Buffy reads through the watcher’s journals since her time, but doesn’t find anything about her army of slayers. Willow has trouble getting to her demon fling and source of information. Once she is there, the demon tells her that she will have an opportunity to get Buffy that night, but she must not look. Dawn and Xander run into some tree-like demons in the woods, but decide they don’t mind their threats as what they were running from is scarier. Harth goes to visit Gunther and sends vampires into his water tank. Buffy and Melaka steal a car so that they can sneak into the uppers to take out vampires in a “hospital.” Buffy wants to find the source of the issues, but Melaka jumps right into the fray. She meets future Willow, who turns her against Buffy. When Melaka gets back to her house where Buffy is talking to her older sister, she knocks out the slayer from the past.
Melaka has Buffy tied up, and then all of their enemies start showing up. Willow comes along to tell Melaka that if Buffy returns to her own time, their present will disappear. Harth hears this and wonders who Willow is lying to. Buffy is freed by Melaka’s pet and starts heading for where the time rift will open. Dawn, Xander, and the woodland demons start fighting off Amy’s horde of green-fire demons. They remaining slayers come along with the wican division to make them solid and then kill them. Buffy fights Melaka to get to where she needs to be Willow comes along to stand in the way when the rift opens. Buffy kills her and then her own time’s Willow grabs her and pulls her through. Amy and Warren argue over their failure. Riley tells Twilight that he had a secret meeting with Buffy in New York. Melaka and her sister are grateful that they weren’t wiped out when Buffy returned to her own time.
Xander goes to wake up Buffy because she is filthy from slaying and laying in his bed. She drifts off as he is talking and she dreams about how life was in high school. She misses the simpler times, but is glad that her friends haven’t changed and they are still like family. She knows she can’t change the past, and trying to change the future can lead to more disasters.
VOLUME 5: PREDATORS AND PREY
Harmony gets her own reality TV show through MTV. A random girl was in an all female gang and tells them that she wants out. The girls get ready to beat her up, but she turns into a slayer. Andrew finds her to tell her about her powers, but she has no interest in joining another girl-gang. While getting her gang tattoo covered, Harmony comes into the tattoo parlor with her crew. The girl asks to talk with Harmony, and a camera man invites her to a party they are filming later. She goes and is able to make a stake to attack Harmony, who quickly realizes she is a slayer. Harmony tries to get away, but ends up killing the girl on TV. Her ratings go up and her show is saved from cancellation.
Satsu is running her own cell in Japan. They are taking down demons that are running around town when Kennedy drops in for an evaluation on the newest slayer leader. They get rid of the demon and find a stuffed cat with vampires fangs that are all the rage now that Harmony’s show has gotten so popular. In the night, the stuffed animal crawls down Satsu’s throat and takes over her body. The other slayers realize that she is acting funny and are able to extract it. They find out that the rest of the toys are being shipped to Scotland to go after Buffy. They find the boat that is shipping them and start taking them out. Satsu lights a flare to signal her submarine to shoot a torpedo. The boat explodes and the stuffed cats go up in flames. They report to Buffy. She tells them that the slayers are going to have to lay low until they can prove that they are the good guys.
Andrew has found Simone’s (rouge slayer) second in command, Nisha, trapped by a Ragna demon. Buffy and Andrew go to save her. Nisha points out that Andrew bred the demon to trap Simone, who arrives to get Nisha out of there, as well as the demon via wican teleporting. Andrew is able to track the demon and they find Simone’s lair on an island that she kicked all the locals off of. Buffy and Andrew go in to confront the renegade slayers, but are outnumbered. Andrew’s Italy squad shows up, but Simone has guns. They decide to leave, but Buffy makes sure to get Simone’s gun and uses it to free the Ragna demon as a distraction first.
Faith and Giles find a slayer, Courtney, that left a squad because she thought she was ready to handle the action on her own. She tells them about the Slayer Sanctuary and they decide that they should check it out. When they arrive, Duncan, the only other remaining member of the watcher’s counsel is there. He sends Faith and Courtney to the library to meet the other slayers, but when they arrive, they find a fear demon that keeps the vampires out of the town. Giles realizes this and is in time to save them. Faith kills the demon and the vampires start flooding into the town. She tells the people that if they want to live, they’ll have to fight.
Buffy is worried because Dawn has been missing for a few days. There are vampires ready to attack their new hideout, so they have to deal with that first. Once they see that their squad has everything under control, Buffy and Xander head out to find Dawn. They are followed by a tiny creature that looks like a character from Yellow Submarine. Buffy kicks it and hears it smash a window. They follow the sound to find that Dawn is a doll, trapped by other dolls and their maker. Riley went undercover posing as a college student to help the wicans transport Kenny (Dawn's ex-boyfriend) to Buffy. Kenny sees the doll maker and transforms into his true thricewise form. Dawn is surprised to see him and apologizes, which turns her human. Buffy vows that she will spend more time with her only sister.
VOLUME 6: RETREAT
The whole group reunites at their new hideout. Shortly after, Warren comes to try to trick Andrew. Amy blows his scam and then the slayers are attacked. Willow gets Warren to tell her that Twilight uses their magic as a beacon to find them. Girls are dying, so Buffy decides it is time to retreat. What is left of her army gets into Satsu's submarine. Willow does one last spell to get them to Oz.
Oz explains that he returned to Tibet after he realized that he wasn't able to stay in Sunnydale with Willow. He realized what he has to do to tame the wolf and says that the slayers can do the same, but only if they want it. If they can't do it, they have made his home (including wife and new baby) a target. Meanwhile, Twilight (who seems to know Buffy) is trying to locate the slayers. One of his minions points out a spike and Amy tries to get their location. Luckily for the slayers, they end up in Mongolia.
The slayers are working hard to push their magic out of themselves and into the earth. They even start stripping the submarine to trade for high tech defenses. Some of the slayers seem to be adjusting well, including Faith. However, the leaders (Buffy, Kennedy, and Satsu) seem to be having more trouble. Willow is having the most trouble because she thinks that she is only a witch. Oz hands over his son for her to watch and she realizes that she can have a normal life. Buffy tells Willow that she killed her on her trip to the future. Willow is determined that is no longer their future. Buffy goes to tell Xander how the conversation went and finds him kissing Dawn. Andrew has been watching everyone because he thinks there is a spy among them. He admits this to the group and a cat mysteriously disappears: Amy.
Twilight is coming for the slayer army. Dawn and Xander show the ex-slayers how to fight using human weapons. The attack comes, but they are no match for a real army. Willow tries to recover her magic, but it is gone and will take time to come back. Bay (Oz's wife) is hurt. They bring her in, but don't know if they can help her. Buffy demands to know what really happened to the magic they released into the ground. Bay believes that it goes into the earth, which in their language is named after ancient gods. Buffy and Willow decide that there is probably more to the names than previously believed. They try to read the oldest scrolls available, but are unable. Bay says that if they have any anger, the gods should protect them in exchange for their magic.
The gods start killing everyone without discrimination. As the slayers realize this, Buffy calls them all back into the temple. She realizes that she can't just leave people out there to die, so she sends people out to collect the wounded. She herself goes to get Riley, who has been spying on Twilight for them. They try there best not to draw attention to themselves, but one of the gods picks up Buffy and drops her. When she wakes up, she is floating above the scene.
VOLUME 7: TWILIGHT
Buffy keeps her new flying ability to herself. She goes to visit Riley, who tells her that he is proud of her. Willow talks with Oz about their group leaving as soon as they can when a mystical force hits her, restoring her powers. She goes after the gods, but has little luck in stopping them. Buffy confronts Xander about her feelings, but he admits that it is too late and he is in love with Dawn. Willow sends a message that she can't stop the gods. Buffy tells her to dig a big hole so they can send them back where they belong. She lets go of her secret and flies off to help Willow. They bury the gods and hope the slayers' powers will return soon.
Buffy and Xander test her new powers while Dawn tries to warn them all that it will come at a price. Buffy does some globe trotting, trying to find Giles. Willow tries to locate Faith, but keeps transporting to places with a bunch of dead slayers. Andrew, Giles, and Faith are trapped in Twilight's headquarters with a death trap machine from a comic book. Willow returns to tell Buffy that she is sucking the power from the slayers that are dying.
Xander gives Buffy a pep talk to get her out of her guilt and back in the game. Twilight holds Giles, Andrew, and Faith. As he talks to them, Giles realizes who he is. Willow is able to lock down on Twilight's location and Buffy takes off. They start fighting and he takes off his mask to reveal Angel. He explains that she is not stealing powers from dead slayers. She is being rewarded because she was willing to tip the scales to help the greater good. He has spent the last year pushing her to become what she needed to be so that they could be together and happy.
Buffy and Angel have sex and ascend to a higher level where they are meant to evolve. Buffy waits for the catch while Angel explains that there isn't one. The sacrifices they were each willing to make was a test that no one was ever able to pass before. They have earned their right to be happy and together. Buffy wants to see her friends and a rift opens. She sees the demons they have unleashed on the lower plane where they are from. She can't leave her friends behind, so she and Angel go to help them out. As they are expecting another wave of demons, Spike shows up.
VOLUME 8: LAST GLEAMING
Angel was told that he was being rewarded. He would have to push her to join him. Spike realized right away that Angel was Twilight. Buffy and Angel fight off the demons in the present. She knows that Spike won't tell her anything if Angel is around, so she sends him away to help slayers around the world. Spike loads everyone into his odd ship and they prepare for their journey, digging for the seed wonder which is the source of all magic, which is held by the Master.
Spike explains that if the seed is destroyed, hell will flow out onto earth and destroy everything. They have to stop the demons from getting to it. Buffy and Angel creating a new universe is what started the reaction. Leaving it unattended could be their downfall. Willow goes to visit the snake demon that was her guide to attaining knowledge about magic. She explains that there is another option that would keep the barrier of hell up, but would also rid the world of any new magic. Buffy and Spike go off to find the seed and fight the Master. Angel goes around the world fighting demons. He is approached by the creature that originally told him about Twilight. This time, it tells him that it can show its true form (lion with wings) because he has officially been born from their new universe.
As the demons come pouring underground to get to the seed, Dawn is hurt. Xander takes her above ground for help. In a medical tent, the general tries to convince Xander that he should join the army. Buffy goes to kill the Master, but Willow stops her, explaining that they want the same things. Buffy finds that she is week when around the seed, so she and Spike get some distance to fight off the approaching demons. Giles sends himself away, knowing he will not be able to keep up with the others. Angel fights off the son he and Buffy created, but is possessed by Twilight. He goes to Buffy to fight her.
Spike tries to help Buffy fight off Angel, but once sunlight is involved, he has to retreat to his bug friends’ ship. Giles helps out the slayers above ground and rounds up some demons that don’t want the apocalypse to come because it would end their time on earth as well. Willow uses the seed to gain power and help fight. Faith gives Giles the scythe to take to Buffy since it is stronger around the seed. Xander tries to talk Giles out of getting between Angel and Buffy. He goes anyway and Angel snaps his neck. Buffy is so distraught that she breaks the seed with the scythe. Everyone feels the affects of loosing the magic as the demons are sucked back into hell.
Buffy is living with Dawn and Xander in San Francisco and dealing with the fallout of her actions. Willow dumps Kennedy because she thinks that the slayer will not want someone who is a hero like her. Giles leaves everything to Faith except the “Vampyre” book he originally shows Buffy when they first meet. Faith is trying to help Angel get back on his feet. Spike tries to give Buffy a pep talk, explaining that no one could have done any better than she did in the situation. Simone is taking out her enemies and her next target is Buffy. The slayer army feels betrayed. They have stopped calling themselves slayers and have it out for Buffy as well. Buffy is going to keep slaying the remaining vampires.