[Right, so here is the teaser/prologue. Very short, but aren't prologues like that?

Setting is omewhere between 'Band Candy' and 'Revelations' in season three; after Buffy meets Ripper but before her friends find out Angel is back... Forgive any inconsistencies concerning chronology; I wrote this more to get it out of my head (you should have seen me. I was obsessed for months.) than to make it good. If you spot issues, please tell me.

Happy reading

~ W]

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'Shall we get started,' the masked man drawled, everything in his posture indicating utter boredom, 'or would you prefer to blather at me for another hour or so?'

The demon who was blathering, the obvious ringleader, gave an affected sigh. He touched a massive burnt-orange claw delicately to his temple as though in moral pain. 'Have you no appreciation for the finer things in life?'

'Fine wines, for example? A good cigar? No, not really. I prefer the grittier face of life.'

'I can see that.' Said the demon distastefully, regarding the figure before him. He was, predictably, all in black, cloaked and masked and sporting an array of weapons on his sheath belt. The weapons were all old but not stylishly so, their blades dull and scratched. And his garb, instead of more attractive silk or satin, was crass leather. 'Haven't you got anything with more... class?'

'Course. They're for the big fish.'

Before the demon could even register the insult, he was on them. There were twelve demons altogether, but three of them weren't worth their own hides and crept off into the tunnels to avoid getting skinned. The nine remaining were unused to fighting as a group, resulting in a very haphazard assault, through which the human sliced without effort. Compared with the demons his technique was almost elegant, his sword and dagger working in unison, dancing in and around his opponents like an elf among trolls. He dispatched all within three minutes.

'New record, I should say,' He commented as though on the weather when it was done, wiping the blue fluid from his blades. 'I didn't even break a sweat. Perhaps next time you might choose your minions with a little more care.'

The ringleader was sprawled in the dirt, gasping and clutching his middle. On this particular species, the human knew, this was where the vital organ, the kraa, was located. The demon stared up with nothing less that loathing.

'I wish to know your name.'

'What for? You'll probably die the next minute or so.'

'So that I can set the furies of hell on you.'

The human laughed. 'I like that. My name is Rasgon. I'd ask you yours, but regrettably I

must be elsewhere. Good day.'

'It's not day.' The demon wheezed hatefully, for lack of a better retort. But the human was gone.

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Buffy was making the rounds. Well, more like she was camped out in the cemetery, studying for her SATs by flashlight. It had been a slow night thus far. Usually one dim-witted dead guy or other lurched into view every few minutes – they never seemed to learn – but tonight there had been nothing for several hours. Moreover, her instincts weren't twitching that special twitch that meant something was wrong with the world. It was just an honest, innocent, slow night.

Not that this was any more fun. She was doing the math section in the SAT book, which was nearly as gargantuan as one of Giles's demon tomes, and Buffy was bored out of her mind. She had no idea what half of these questions were asking, and more often than not she couldn't even remember what a given term meant. Number 213 for example:

213. A and B are both positive integers.

(a^1/2 x b^1/3)^6=432. What is ab?

Say what?

It was as she tapped her number two pencil against the page, staring in frustration at question 213, that the first vampire approached. She felt it in her gut long before she heard it, and had back-flipped to the top of the nearest headstone and stabbed it with her number two pencil before the SAT book had time to flop closed.

She looked at the pencil and its nonexistent tip. 'Darn. No more math for me.'

The second and third vampires came at roughly the same time. Sometimes that happened. She fought them off easily, this time with an actual Mr. Pointy, but her gut knew that there were more approaching.

'Man, you guys don't stop coming!' she commented, dusting the third, but by then there were two more to replace it. They seemed to double each time she killed one. Maybe there was a spell thingy going on here, like with Hercules and the big multiheaded snake guy that grew three more heads for every one Hercules sliced.

'Okay. Maybe needing another approach here.' It had been a while since she'd been faced with enough enemies to be forced to retreat, and she didn't like it. But it was so much better to pick them of in small groups and not break a nail than to face a big old mob of them and get all slicey and dicey. Buffy started planning her escape.

That was when she heard a sword joined the fray. At first her heart leapt, figuring it was Angel, but the sounds of this one's fighting were different. Less chop-and-go, more stay-and-utterly-defeat. The hordes seemed to thin, and after a while Buffy got a fleeting opportunity to see her PA.

Whoa. He moved like a figure skater, or a vampire himself, with a lithe catlike grace, exuding a confidence she'd rarely seen, a confidence that denoted a long familiarity with weapons and his own body. Hard and wiry, his cloak snapping nicely in the air with every move he made, he was the picture of male beauty. She wondered, as she stabbed two vamps at once and used the leverage of the buried stakes to flip herself over their heads and pummel the vamp behind them with her heels, what he looked like under that mask. As it was, all she had to go on was the broadness of his shoulders and his height, and the silver ring that glinted in his left ear.

The two of them made quick work of what remained of the mass of vamps.

'Well, that was fun.' Buffy said cheerfully, brushing vampire dust from her red sweater, and turned to face the newcomer. 'Thanks for –'

He was gone. She smiled. 'Ooh, a mysterious one.'

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'So he rescued you and then just vanished? Like, poof?' Willow repeated excitedly in a stage-whisper; anything lower and she wouldn't have been able to hear herself over all the noise the class was making.

'Major poofing.' Buffy agreed. 'It was kind of hot.'

'Kind of? Kind of?'

'Okay, yeah, it was really hot.'

'I wonder who he is?'

The bell rang for the end of class. Around them, the study hall piled out the door, making even more talk-noise than they had been during the actual period. Which was saying something. But Buffy and Willow took their time, packing up the books they'd neglected in favour of juicy guy gossip.

'I dunno, I've never seen him before.'

'Was he a vampire? Like, a good one? Like Angel?' Willow paused, too late, but Buffy didn't bat an eye.

'No idea. I mean, maybe, I couldn't tell with all the other vamps around. He was really graceful though. As in demigod graceful. I wish I could fight like that.'

Willow made a sigh of appreciation. Buffy smiled at her enthusiasm. In bed last night she'd thought about the mysterious rescuer until she fell asleep, but telling Willow about it gave her a new perspective on him. And he was just as hot from here. Willow bit her lip.

'What?' Buffy asked, giving a smile that was both knowing and permissive.

'Do you think it… might have been Angel?'

'No. Even if… well, even if he could come back.' Buffy shook her head. She'd thought about that too, although then she'd factored in Angel's actually being back. Which she didn't tell Willow. Or anybody. 'First of all, he didn't look like Angel, even with the mega-disguising. He was taller and he had an earring - Angel doesn't - didn't - have piercings. Second, this guy doesn't fight like Angel did. Less chop-and-go, more stay-and-utterly-defeat.' She used the comparison she'd thought of the other night.

'What are you two whispering about?' Giles asked as the pushed through the library doors. He was checking out a pile of books for a couple of freshmen. The pair were feeling each other up right in front of him; Giles looked disgruntled.

'Nothing.' They chorused brightly. Buffy explained, 'Just guy scoping.'

'I see.' Giles made a face, cleaning his glasses with utter Britishness. He watched the couple go with relief. 'I hope you at least got some study in before you hit on this topic.'

'Of course!' Buffy said indignantly. 'I got a lot of that math stuff done last night, I'll have you know. Well, until my pencil broke.'

Giles raised an eyebrow, less with surprise and more you're-gonna-have-to-do-better-than-that.

'I used it on a vampire.'

Willow, who had heard this already, couldn't help laughing again. Giles shook his head, closing the books he'd set out on the table.

'I suppose we'd better forgo demonology for now, then.'

'Really?' Buffy asked excitedly.

'Yes. In favour of SAT study, of course.'

Buffy groaned.

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[There it is, then. Prologue in all its tiny glory. I swear I'm working on the length thing. Next chap in seven days exactly.

Reviews fuel my muse - any takers?]