The Long Way Home, Part One

"The Long Way Home" was the first story from the Buffy the Vampire Slayer Season Eight.

Synopsis
Buffy Summers is leading a squad of Slayers—including three named Leah, Rowena, and Satsu—in a raid on a large, dilapidated church protected by a force field. She reveals that there are at least 1800 Slayers now active, 500 of whom are working with the Scooby Gang spread over ten squads, and that there are two Slayers posing as decoys of herself lest she become an easy target; one literally underground and another in Rome publicly partying and dating the Immortal. Working with Xander, who is running things at Slayer headquarters in Scotland (Buffy refers to him as a Watcher despite his objections) with a team of computer workers, psychics and mystics, including a Slayer named Renee, Buffy and her squad find three monstrous demons surrounded by a trio of dead bodies.

After slaying the demons, one of whom Buffy impales through the head with a crucifix, the Slayers investigate the bodies. Each one has an odd symbol cut into their chest, and Buffy finds automatic weapons, which leads her to believe that the victims came looking for a fight. Buffy tells Xander to send a copy of the symbol to Giles, when another Slayer finds the machine that generated the force field, also presumably belonging to the victims. We get a glimpse of someone—just boots and cape revealed—floating above the church watching the Slayers.

In Sunnydale, General Voll of the United States Army surveys the crater left after the collapse of the Hellmouth, calling the Slayers a threat to the United States government and likening their squads to terrorist cells. A government expedition is being led sixty feet under the Hellmouth, but is cut short when one of the exploratory members encounters something.

Back in Scotland, Buffy and Xander try to puzzle out the meaning of the occult symbol; Xander calls it a "guy with a monocle frowning," while Buffy opts for "a beautiful sunset." Xander mentions to Buffy that she must talk to Dawn, so reluctantly she visits her sister, who is now giant-size and living in the basement of the headquarters. Buffy believes that her size was caused by Dawn losing her virginity to her ex-boyfriend Kenny, who was a Thricewise (the meaning of the terminology is unspecified). However, Dawn won't divulge anything to Buffy, instead preferring to talk to Willow when Willow returns.

After a brief, bitter feud, during which Buffy mentions that Dawn should be at Berkeley, Buffy goes outside to reflect. She reveals that she and Dawn haven't gotten along since the Hellmouth was closed and all of the Potential Slayers were activated, and that she misses her mom, her home, the gang, churros, and sex.

At a government facility, General Voll is shown an unrevealed creature captured from the Hellmouth (the "boyfriend" of the explorer's attacker), whom he meets with disgust. General Voll is then informed of the attacker, whose first words to the explorer were reportedly, "I'm gonna help you kill her." In return for her help, she requests access to all of the government's magical hardware and a weapons lab for her "boyfriend." If they succeed in taking down Buffy, she wants release and full immunity for the both of them, as well as plentiful amounts of cheese. General Voll queries about the subject's identity, and she is revealed to be Amy Madison.