Dawn Summers follows her Slayer, Rona Wayne, down the darkened London streets, holding a large Cross and a notebook. There is a pen stuck behind her ear and she looks around, trying to make it a point not to listen to Rona's recent complaints.

Rona, deep down, is a nice enough girl. She had been many things in her life before becoming a Slayer: popular, sweet, funny, and a Varsity athlete, excelling at swimming and softball. However, when the Bringers, humans who had given themselves over to the First Evil, had rooted her out and killed her family, sending her to Sunnydale to fight for her life with the rest of the Potential Slayers at the time. Her attitude greatly changed, growing more and more argumentative as she continued to get hurt and suffer due to her destiny.

In London, though, where Rona has been doing nothing but train under Buffy and Faith, her attitude has changed again. Now that she is not in immediate, constant danger, she's become very vocal on what should or should not occur in the Slayers ranks.

"And it's down right scandalous, Kennedy not sharing the barracks with the rest of us," the African-American continues. "Just because she and the witch are--"

"Are what?" Dawn interrupts. She stares hard at Rona, who seems shocked that Dawn is talking to her like that. "Willow's been through more than you can ever know. Kennedy's helping her get through it without going crazy."

"You mean crazy again, don't you?" Rona demands. "She's worse than keeping Spike around. Using magic gets her all wigged out and evil. And she does it all the time. She puts us all in danger every time she does."

Dawn narrows her eyes. "Oh, so you were tapped to be a Slayer naturally. I'd forgotten."

"What about you? Slayer's sister gets to be a Watcher, despite her age and lack of qualifications?" Rona snaps. "It all stinks of favoritism to me."

Rona is about to say more when a vampire bursts from a nearby alley, forehead ridged and fangs bared. The vampire shoves Rona aside and grabs Dawn. "You children ought to know to be careful at night. You're loud enough to wake the dead!"

Dawn spins around and smashes the cross she's carrying into the vampire's face. Smoke fizzes from where the wood has come into contact with her face and she screams in agony, dropping Dawn and clutching madly at her face. "Stake it, Slayer!" Dawn calls.

Rona is already on her feet, wooden stake in hand. When the vampire turns, still writhing, she stakes it through the heart. When the dust settles, Dawn and Rona look at each other awkwardly.

"Wow, great job, guys," a voice says suddenly. Dawn, recognizing the voice, looks up excitedly to see Clem, a pink, loose-skinned demon who is smiling at them. "You make a really super team."

Rona raises an eyebrow at Dawn, who rushes into Clem's outstretched arms. "You missed the bickering like schoolgirls part."

"I missed a lot, it seems," Clem replies. "Do you know how long it took to figure out where you guys went? No one wanted to tell me, can you believe it?"

"But you're here now. Come with us, I'm sure Buffy and the others are going to be excited about you being here," Dawn says, looking to Rona. "We got one vampire, you think that's quota?"

"No," Rona says simply.

Dawn sighs and shrugs. "All right. Clem, want to come with us? When we're done, we can head back."

"To the new Council?" Clem asks. Rona and Dawn stare at him, dumbfounded. Clem shrugs. "What?"

"How do you know about that?" Rona asks, twirling her stake menacingly. She steps toward Clem but is blocked by Dawn. "He knows something. We have to find out what."

"Spike and I are friends, you know," Clem says pointedly.

Dawn's face pales. "Spike..? He's alive?"

"You didn't know?" Clem is obviously surprised. "He's been in Los Angeles working with Angel."

Dawn's face tenses as she realizes that, with all the contact that has been made with Angel; no one has told her anything. She clenches her fists but forces a smile on her face. "Must have forgotten to mention it. Come on, Rona, we've got patrolling to do."

She storms off into the streets with Rona close behind. Clem shrugs and follows, confused but glad to be back with the fold.

Meanwhile, at HQ, Buffy and Andrew sit at a long table across from a man near to their age. He has short blond hair which is spiked slightly and thin framed glasses over brown eyes. His button up shirt is unbuttoned enough to reveal a clean white t-shirt and he has on a pair of baggy cargo khakis. He smiles tiredly at the pair of them. "Morgan Raymond but folks call me Ray," he stated simply.

"Thanks, Ray, for coming on such short notice," Buffy starts, holding out a hand. "We don't sleep much around here so I called up anyone else who was awake to keep things expedient. I'm Buffy Summers"

Ray nods and shakes Buffy's hand. "Pleased to meet you, Buffy. And it's no trouble. I'm usually up at all hours of the night anyway."

"Bonus points for you, then," Andrew says, grinning oddly. "I'm Andrew Wells."

Ray raises an eyebrow at Andrew's strange expression. "Uh, thanks. Hi."

Buffy rolls her eyes and looks down at her paperwork. "I've got a couple of questions I have to ask everyone so bear with me: how did you hear about us here? You know, Slayers, Watchers, demons, vampires and all that jazz?"

"I come from a long line of Hellhound breeders," Ray replies. He sees the quizzical looks and explains. "About a trillion years ago, my great something or other discovered a group of demon dogs. He caught them and began to breed them, because he was a twisted weirdo, I guess. Later, demons began to take notice and ordered packs of them to slaughter with. Now, my dad and I run the shop, only selling to those interested in preserving the species, not killing others with."

Buffy writes this down quickly. "That doesn't exactly explain how you know about us."

"Oh, yeah," Ray says. "The Council'd been keeping tabs on us, making sure we don't slaughter people with the dogs. I learned a bunch. After we hadn't heard anything from them in a few years, I came here to see what was up. I heard there were Watcher openings and signed up. I don't want to be a dog breeder for the rest of my life, you know?"

"Demon dogs, eh?' Andrew asks. "Is that anything close to demon summoning? Because I--"

"That's enough, Andrew," Buffy interrupts. Andrew pouts but is quiet. "So we know how and we know why you're here. What makes you think you're a good candidate?"

Ray smiles. "I have a lot of background experience with demons. Instead of just knowing 'demons bad, people good', I know that there are gray areas. Not all demons are bad. I'd like to play a sort of devil's advocate to the Council. I know that hadn't been one of the first wave's best features."

"So, you're willing to disagree, even if it's against popular opinion?" Buffy asks.

Ray's smile grows and he leans forward. "I've spent my whole life against popular opinion, Buffy. I'm not afraid of it."