Author's Note: At long last I'm branching out into characters that I'm not going to kill off imminently.

"Now today class we'll be learning about fighting in the real world, which means none of that fancy kung fu nonsense we're all so fond of. Sadly we are missing most of the perennial favourites, the pool table, the broken beer bottle and, of course, the lamppost. There are however still things we can do. Now if Holly would be so kind as to assist me..." Shadow directed to an enraptured prison as Holly stepped towards him, only struggling lightly as he grabbed her by the hair, twisted his wrist to firm up the grip then drove her face repeatedly into the wall before letting go, blood pouring from her nose.

"Now in those rare cases where a wall isn't available the floor works just as well, although you do have to bring them to the floor first. Remember to twist your wrist to get your fingers firmly entrenched into the hair." Shadow explained as Holly glared up at him, her nose already healed.

"Now in the interests of fairness and retribution I think it's only fair that Holly give the next demonstration."

The watching inmates chuckled slightly, Shadow had been right about one thing, most of them had never got beyond the martial arts stage of fighting, which was fine when the other person was trying to use martial arts as well, and utterly useless when they were trying to brain you with an eight ball.

Shadow lay down on the floor as Holly got on top of him and began her demonstration.

"At extreme close quarters everything is a weapon, biting can be very effective for example." Shadow let out a pained yelp as Holly sunk her teeth into his shoulder before continuing her speech. "The throat or the face are particularly painful and in the case of the throat potentially lethal. Nails can also be used effectively, remember pain is very effective, the body's natural reaction is to try and get away from it." Holly scratched a few deep gouges into Shadow's face, her eyes afire with amusement.

With some difficulty Shadow pushed her off of him and got back to his feet.

"Now considering any further demonstrations are likely to have me or Holly do some permanent damage to each other I think I'll just explain the rest. One popular method when your opponent is down is to stamp on their fingers, while this isn't quite as effective as a strangle or armlock it is a lot quicker and can break or dislocate the fingers. That is the general idea here, improvising. Now I want you all to pair up and practice, and please try not to kill each other." Shadow finished his explanation.

As the fighting erupted Shadow walked over to one of the few seats, miraculously unobstructed by the beginnings of the brawl. Holly joined him momentarily.

"I thought that went well." he remarked as he watched Nite slam Nyx face first into the wall.

"Did you have to slam me into the wall quite that hard?" Holly asked, more for the sake of repartee than any actual grievance.

"Is that a trick question?"

"Maybe."

Shadow let out a light chuckle. "Rumour has it we've got two new prisoners coming in today, what've you heard off the guards?"

"Political prisoners apparently."

Shadow's laugh was utterly humourless. "I doubt they would be put in here if they were just political prisoners. What else did you hear?"

Holly nodded, taking a brief glance at the brawl before speaking. "Pair of slayers, real bigshots only overshadowed by your dashing self."

"Got to be more than just slayers to get into this place, gotta be real good to get a ticket here." Shadow pointed out, trying to recline into the seat and failing utterly as the failed to budge in inch, not surprising seeing as it was thick steel with the bottom cemented to the floor.

Holly smiled. "What happened to the cold, cynical, ruthless bastard I fell in love with?"

"He found inner peace."

"Think Rose is going to schedule one of those stupid introductions meetings she loves so much?" Holly asked, guessing the answer but doublechecking with the one person in the prison with a close insight into the head Reaper's mind.

"Almost definitely, a small one though. She never brings out the full welcome wagon for slayers, likely just us, Nite, Switchblade and Cobra. With a psychic on hand in case one of us drops our guard."

"Planning to drop your guard? I hear the last one's still recovering." Holly giggled.

"Nah, it's annoying though. Psycho's doing a lecture on the combat applications of telepathy." Shadow complained with regret.

"I'm sure you'll cope. Honestly, you're like a hippo staking it's territory sometimes."

"Hello, my name is Nite and I'm a political dissident."

"My name is Switchblade and I killed a load of Reapers."

"My name is Cobra and I'm here because the bastards were afraid of what I could do."

"I'm Shadow and as you already know, I'm all of the above."

"My name is Holly and I'm an ex-Reaper."

From the corner The Rose smirked as the five of them glared at her, if there weren't rifles levelled at them they would be on her in a second.

"I'm The Cat and this here is-"

"Redfern, John Redfern."

"We were part of the militant arm of Daybreak." Rashel finished.

Shadow yawned before piping up insolently, "Ok, we're all introduced. Can you lock us back up, I'm bored."

The Rose scowled. "Take them back down."

They all got up and headed for the door when Shadow felt a near crushing grip on his shoulder.

"But not you. I think you and I should have another of our little talks." Her grin could only be described as predatory.

Author's Note: Going to be two weeks until the next update. Or in other words the next update will be on the first of September. This is to allow a huge update across nearly all fics in an attempt to get 500 readers in a single day. As always please R&R.