The thing about the Slayer organisation is that we’re not just co-workers.

Someone is rushing down the hall, urgently.

We’re family.

That someone is Andrew Wells. He nearly collides with two Slayers in a corridor.

The bonds between us are tight and unbreakable. You hurt one of us, you hurt us all.

Andrew, this time, collides with two Slayers, rushing past, apologising in his haste.

It’s like our guiding principal. Nothing comes between us.

“Andrew, if you slam that door one more time I will make you eat it,” Buffy states, as Willow tells her off for her harsh words and obvious bad-moodiness. Xander asks Andrew to forgive their fearless leader – she’s more stressed about Harmony and her crusade to legitimise vampires than she’d admit. Andrew doesn’t let Buffy’s comment dampen his spirits. He’s bouncing up and down on the spot. He has a lead on Rogue Slayer, the gun-toting Simone Dofler. Buffy has been waiting for this confrontation and asks him how he found her. He said it wasn’t kind of him. It was her lieutenant Nisha. Andrew monitors certain demonic hot spots, and Nisha apparently got too close to a Ragna Spider demon. Just outside Milan. There are also reports of Simone and her Slayers roaming the Milan countryside, forcing people out of their homes. He also points out that if they’re going to move, they had better haul it: the Ragna Demons only keep their prey alive for a certain amount of time.

Buffy is keen, commanding Xander and Willow to watch the rest of the team ,whilst she and Andrew go to Milan to rescue Nisha and confront Simone. Xander stops her as she settles on her plan and takes her to one side. “You sure about this? Hours and hours. With Andrew?” Andrew is busy, preparing a road-trip. Buffy looks at him and then back at Xander. “Come on! He’s matured. I can absolutely handle him.”

A short while later, barely an hour into their flight, and Buffy has crept into silence, unable to get a word in! From Star Wars to Smurfs, from Dungeons and Dragons, Terminator, and Heath Ledger. From Superman vs. Jedi, Jem and the Holograms – he talks about a list of pop-culture subjects and, throughout it all, Buffy has no response. From the plane, to the train, to the car afterwards, Andrew continues, finally beginning a lecture on James Bond.

Buffy tells him to stop. She heard him mention Daniel Craig. She knows Daniel Craig. She likes Daniel Craig. She can talk about Daniel Craig.

She looks at him and excitedly starts talking about the actor and how he plays 007 so well. Buffy mentions his swimming trunks and Andrew sheepishly turns away, saying he has no comment on those. Buffy is happy though – they’re ‘geek-bonding’ – until he brings up Pierce Brosnan and she mentions Mrs. Doubtfire. That dampens the entire conversation back to a halt.

They park their rental car, near some woodland. Andrew’s readings show that the Ragna Demon is close by. Buffy thinks it’s off that Simone would start acting up now, just when vampires are the nation’s favourite obsession. Andrew says it’s not really a surprise. She’s taken advantage of people’s fear and is exploiting it. She’s a bully – and he had his fair share of experience with bullies growing up. Buffy notices his sad tone. Before she can say anything, his readings lead them to a clearing and their target.

It’s a web made out of scrap metal. That’s what Ragna Demons use for their webs, Andrew explains. Nisha is encased in a force field at the top of the structure, a snare designed to trap prey. Nisha is not pleased to see Andrew or Buffy, but despite her bad attitude, she asks them to please get her out before the demon returns.

Buffy turns around to find a large, black spider approaching, at least the size of the car they left beyond. It’s red eyes flickering, it’s jaw mandibles clear as day. Nisha blames Andrew for getting her into this mess, but Buffy says that if Andrew hadn’t known about this through his tracking, she’d be dead. Nisha scoffs at her: Ragna Demons have been completely extinct since the eighteenth century. But someone had the idea to recombine their DNA in an attempt to recreate the species.

From the look on Nisha’s face, Buffy turns around, slowly, to Andrew.

She lets the field off, releasing Nisha. Andrew suggests they get Nisha back to headquarters, but Buffy calls him out. “You bred a demon and lied to me.”

Andrew claims that he didn’t lie. He said Nisha was in a Ragna trap. He just left the part out about where it came from.

Before Buffy can say anything else, and just as Andrew tries to warn her, Simone appears, punching Buffy to the ground.

Buffy gets up and suggests they take this out of the area, before the spider comes back. But Simone is happy where she is. The difference between them, Simone says, pulling out a gun, is that she, unlike Buffy, actually constitutes a threat. Buffy says the gun won’t have a chance to be used, but Simone fires it at the Ragna. The demon roars, and before Buffy can react, Simone and Nisha vanish in a poof of smoke, taking the demon with them.

Buffy and Andrew are left atop the structure and have to climb down. As they do, Andrew is accused of creating the demon, just to go after Simone. He tells Buffy that he just wanted to catch her and the Ragna demon was all he could get in a hurry. Buffy insists that he should have come to her, but Andrew feels since Simone was in his Squad, he is responsible for her betrayal. He was Simone’s Watcher. And being her Watcher, being a part of the Slayer Organisation, he finally feels that he has earned the trust of Buffy and her friends. Buffy says that he has, but as Andrew hangs his head, he admits that that is why he’s scared.

“I’ve never had this before. With anyone. Now that I know what it feels like, I didn’t want it to get taken away. I didn’t want you to lose faith in me.” Buffy tells him that losing a psycho Slayer isn’t the way for her to lose faith in him – lying to her is.

Andrew knows that Simone will use the spider to attack civilians, but he has equipped it with an isotope that he can track: it’s on an island, near the coast.

The boat ride to the island is quiet. Buffy and Andrew don’t speak a word. As they arrive at their island destination, the beauty of the place belies it’s threat. As they dock their boat, a young girl approaches them, telling them that they’re not supposed to be here. They taught her in school here, until the angry woman came. She came to the island and declared it was hers and told everyone here they’d have to move. She says her grandmother said no and was hurt by the angry woman, and most of the people fled, apart from those who simply had no where else to go. Buffy tells the young girl that she is going to talk to the angry woman. “She can’t just take your home,” she assures the child. “Someone needs to explain that to her.”

Resolutely, she gets up and silently walks onwards. Simone has truly done a number of the island: gang signs are everywhere, cars are wrecked on the street, shops have been looted… she’s made herself comfortable. They arrive almost at the centre of town, and find the opera house. Andrew confirms that the Ragna signal is coming from inside.

As they creep towards the opera house, Andrew suddenly stops in front of Buffy. “Can I just point out that I was just trying to do the right thing.” Buffy says they haven’t the time to talk about this, and boy, can he pick his moments, but Andrew says he’s worried they’re going to die and he needs to get something out; he’s told her everything he thinks she needs to know from him, except that having met Angel, he prefers Spike and that even though everyone else hated her hair when she cut it, he kinda liked it. There. That’s it.

With that, he enters the room. They don’t even have time to turn on the lights: they’re in an auditorium, Simone is adorning a throne in the centre of the stage, Slayers gathered in the audience seats, loaded with ammo, toting guns and ready to fight. Simone tells them how nice it is that they’ve come to join them: she knew nothing could stop the “great and powerful Buffy from riding up on her great steed. Or, as the case may be, her pathetic lap dog.” She tells Buffy that she couldn’t resist coming for her, because she has her muscle with her.

Buffy simply wants the Ragna, but Simone tells her former leader that she actually doesn’t want to fight her. She actually admires Buffy, except she’s outdated. As far as she sees there are now two kinds of people in the world: the ones who fear the Slayers and are against them, and the ones who will try to be stupid and try to take them out. She doesn’t have much use for either.

Buffy chides her: “And you think the answer is to take over an island?”

Simone says that powerful leaders annex things and she has claimed this island as Slayer territory. She can launch her own attacks from here and bring their oppressors to their knees. They can be agents of fear and change.

Buffy says that that is not what she stands for, but Simone just wants the spider so she can breed it, make more: weapons for her cause. When Buffy objects, saying innocents would die, Simone doesn’t care: as far as she’s concerned there’s no such thing. She also knows that Buffy will try to stop her. Simone has another offer, however. She’ll get on with what she needs to do, she won’t bother Buffy – as long as she gets to keep Andrew! She really wants revenge on him for being her Watcher, and does not have his best interests at heart, openly admitting it: “I want my payback.”

Buffy is steadfast. You’re not taking him. She launches into the Slayers around her, grabbing a blade and striking, Simone catching her thrust. As the two begin a sword fight, Simone tells her Slayers to back off: Buffy is hers. Using her skills, Buffy leaps towards the chandelier on the ceiling, bringing it down on Simone and gaining the upper hand. However, by the time Buffy retrieves her blade and aims it at Simone’s throat, Simone has a firearm in her hand – and it’s aimed at Buffy.

Despite her continued threats, Buffy continues to tell her that she’s not having Andrew. Held by one of the Slayers, Andrew reaches for Buffy, telling her that the demon is what matters – he’ll stay behind, but Buffy is adamant: Simone has it twisted, making Andrew think its his fault, but it’s not. Andrew begins to tell her that ‘the needs of the many outweigh…’ – but Buffy cuts him off – she’s been friends with Xander long enough – she knows that quote! She turns to Simone: “Keep the demon, don’t keep the demon. I don’t care. I’ll find a way to stop you. But Andrew comes with me. I don’t walk away from my people. Because that is who I am.”

Simone tells her that’s a shame, especially since Buffy’s totally outnumbered, but a voice from the side of the auditorium stops her: the Italian Squad, Andrew’s Slayers, have arrived in the nick of time, weapons trained on Simone and her followers. They will be taking Buffy and Andrew – on Mr. Harris’ orders. Buffy orders them to start clearing the island, but the Slayers say they shouldn’t: the numbers and weapons are too high against them. Buffy remembers her promise to the little girl and curses herself. Damn it. “Fine. You can keep the island.” She snatches Simone’s gun from her hand and then levels it straight at the head of the Slayer holding Andrew.

“Now give me back my nerd.”

She commands Andrew to get his squad out of there and prepares to fire the gun. Simone tells her that she thought she hated guns, but as she fires the weapon, Buffy tells Simone that the gun isn’t for her. She shoots the lock keeping the Ragna demon prisoner. Simone wanted the spider, she can have her. As Simone and her Slayers back away from the Ragna, Buffy leaves. She approaches the little girl as soon as she’s on the boat, heading away from the island. She tells her that she knows its not fair, but they’ll be safer somewhere else for now.

Later, Buffy approaches a sullen Andrew. She tells him he is allowed a night off. He tells her that he’s busy researching the Ragna, just in case Simone manages to wrangle her and send more against them. Buffy is not concerned. She closes the door, and approaches him softly.

“Look, Andrew. You were willing to sacrifice yourself to save innocent people. For a greater good. That’s huge for you and you should be proud.”

He looks up, still quiet, still upset. He can barely look Buffy in the eyes. “But you were right. I lied to you.”

Buffy turns to go out the room. “Yeah, you’re part of the family. Get used to screwing up for good reasons. It’s what we do. Swing by when you’ve got the specs written up. We’ll take a look,” she says, and walks out the door with a smile.

As Andrew turns back to his work, a realisation dawns on him. What did she just say? He smiles, sweetly. “I’m part of the family?”

Basking in the acknowledgement, Andrew gets on with his research with renewed commitment – to his family.