Headhunters

zTiamaTz

=H=H=

HAVE FUN STORMING THE CASTLE

=H=H=

++Xander POV++

I jumped to the side, and scrambled behind the wood pile I had made, before we had to stop using the fireplace. Seeing Miranda nude, and pointing that gun at me had really freaked me out.

I was surprised that she hadn't immediately pulled the trigger. After all she'd done, I figured she really wanted me dead. I pulled the revolver from it's holster, and aimed at our outdoor bathroom.

"Where the fuck is Cordelia?" I expected her to come out shooting, but still, nothing.

I wasn't positive, but from the brief look at the gun I'd gotten, it looked like she had the same kind of pistol Cordy carried. While my rounds did more damage, she could squeeze hers off a hell of a lot faster.

"Come on bitch, make your move!" I wanted to just kill her, but I needed answers.

After getting no response at all, I crept up toward the thing, expecting to be shot at any moment. That's when I noticed a metal rod running from the back of the latrine, it was embedded in the ground at an angle.

I followed the rod, and yanked back the sheet to see the other end was impaled between her shoulder blades. I pulled down the next sheet, and found something similar had been done to her arm so that the pistol was aimed forward. That rod, was embedded in the crate.

It dawned on me just then, this whole 'M' thing had been a smokescreen. Someone had played me, and I'd been chasing the lie for weeks. I felt like a complete asshole, some sick fuck had gotten away with Cordelia, while I was having a stand-off with a corpse.

I walked around the yard, and immediately noticed something, no drag marks. The only spot that was seriously disturbed was at the side of the house. It was probably where they had left the body to grab Cordy.

I found the impression of the rod in the snow on the ground. The snow on the fence had been knocked off in that area. I looked on the other side and saw tracks, along with another imprint of the long metal pieces. What surprised me, were the pieces of Miranda's armor sitting in a pile.

This was scary. Whoever had done this was strong enough to carry a fully-armored woman around with ease. It also meant they had no problem at all undressing a corpse, which was just sick.

This had been planned, they had left the poles there previously because it would have been impossible to handle both Miranda's body and them. Probably when they left the message on the Gears' graves.

Deciding I'd seen enough, I headed back inside. I grabbed the saw rifle and strapped it to my backpack, then I hung Cordy's assault rifle from a strap on my belt. Next I grabbed the shotgun, I'd be carrying that in my hands.

I tried desperately to think of where the hell Cordelia could have been taken, I was hoping I could figure it out before it was too late.

=H=H=

~~Cordelia POV~~

"Wake up."

I shook my head as the raspy voice made me realize I wasn't in bed. I tried to remember what happened, and it came back quickly. Someone had grabbed me while I was on the toilet.

"What the hell is going on?" I tried to get up, but realized it was tied to something, it felt like a wooden table. I didn't have my pants or underwear on, but it didn't feel like anybody had done anything.

I was half-numb, this guy probably carried me through town to God knows where, with my pants around my ankles. He must have cut them off of me, since I could see the tips of my boots.

As I struggled, a dimly lit bulb above me caught my attention, I was surprised for a moment, it was the first sign of power I had seen since Sunnydale.

"You're a real piece of work, making demands in your position." His voice sounded like he needed to clear his throat out with a vacuum hose.

"What do you want?" I asked the voice, as I struggled to get loose. The bindings just got tighter around my wrists and ankles.

I heard him snort at my feeble attempts to get free. "I got what I wanted babe." There was mirth in his voice.

I knew I should have been scared, but instead, I was angry. I had just finished telling Xander I could take care of myself, and I then get kidnapped immediately afterwords.

"Do you have any idea what's going to happen when my boyfriend gets here?" I forced a laugh. "He cuts the heads off of Locust for fun, what the fuck do you think he's going to do to a creep like you?"

"That idiot, the kid who's been chasing shadows for weeks now? Don't make me laugh."

Why would I want to hear him laugh? Ew. "He's not the one that's been hiding behind a dead woman. You're hiding right now, you coward."

"I ain't hiding behind anything." He gave a nasty laugh, before appearing at the edge of the light by my feet. "Miss me bitch?"

I started screaming.

=H=H=

++Xander POV++

I had headed out toward the neighborhood that Miranda's grave was located, the message at the house specifically said we were being watched. I figured there was a chance that the person meant it literally. Right now, it was all I had.

I was two blocks away, when I heard a strange sound, like a giant bird being choked. It was quickly followed by the normal grumbling sounds of the Locust.

I ducked behind a car, sitting parallel to the sidewalk, and thought about using the grenade. Unfortunately, I was close enough to where I thought Cordy might be that I didn't want to tip her kidnapper off.

Instead, I kept the shotgun ready. The sounds continued getting closer, for some reason, they creeped me out. Regardless, I decided I wasn't going to shoot unless they found me.

As they passed by, one of the bird-sounding things must have sensed something, it took several swings at the car, making it rock violently with every hit. I could hear it's claws scraping against the metal, then, the attack suddenly stopped.

One of the Locust goons started grunting loudly at whatever it was. I waited, ready to start shooting, but they started down the street once again.

I peeked up over the trunk when they got far enough away. I saw two Drones, with a Helmet in the rear. The Drones were holding poles attached to these two huge things in front of them.

They were easily as tall as a Butcher, with long, heavily muscled arms, and huge claws. They had tubes sticking out of their backs, that hung almost to the ground. It was like the Drone's were walking a pair of dogs.

I didn't have time to worry about them though, I had to find Cordelia.

After a few more minutes, I finally made it to the street, and tried to figure out which house they could be in. Other then the one we had kept Miranda's body in, none had any tracks leading to their doors. I stood there, wondering what to do now, I was at a dead end.

=H=H=

~~Cordelia POV~~

"Not pretty enough for you?" He asked mockingly.

I stared at his face, the left side of it, along with his neck looked melted. The blond hair on the right side of his head was wild and dirty. He was huge too, at least as big as First Sergeant Rodriguez had been.

"What do you-"

"Shut up!" He slapped me across the face. "You left me out in the street for the fucking Locust!"

He came further into the light and I saw he was wearing Gear armor. It was blackened and scorched, his left arm was in a similar condition as his face.

"What are you talking about? I've never seen you before."

"Bullshit! I watched you walk by me all those times with your fucking funeral dirges!" He slammed his palms down on the table. "Too ugly for you to bother with you whore?"

I glared up at him. "I'm nobody's whore, mister skin condition."

This guy was absolutely crazy, I could feel his spittle hitting my legs as he continued on his rant. He pulled out a knife, and started jabbing it in my direction with every word.

Seeing this, I decided to reason with him. "I didn't have a chance to save anyone, all I was able to do was bury the four Gears we found, that's it."

"You cared more about some spic Sergeant, and a couple-a privates then you did me!" He finished his diatribe by driving the knife down into the table between my ankles.

A whimper escaped my lips. Please Xander, get here soon.

=H=H=

++Xander POV++

Panic had now set in, I'd come here on a hunch, and nothing else. Now that it wasn't working out, all I could think of was Cordelia dying, or worse somewhere, wondering why I hadn't come to save her.

I had acted like a fucking idiot, letting some crazy's messages drive me over the edge. Everything Cordy and I had built was coming down, all because of some message left on an alley wall.

"The alleys." The son of a bitch must have been using the alleys to get around. That's why we'd had such a hard time tracking him, we had blindly stuck to the streets, without a second thought.

I raced down the street, deciding to start on the opposite side of the block from the grave. I turned right, around a rickety fence, and almost ran right into a group of Locust coming in the opposite direction.

We all stood there for a second, staring at each other in shock.

"Hominid" One of them rumbled, as it pointed at me stupidly.

I pulled the trigger, hoping I'd hit one of them. I worked the lever as I ran to the right, and took a shot at the fence, hoping that would do for what I had in mind. As bullets started chasing me, I dove through the damaged wood.

Even though it was rotten, I could feel it tearing at my clothes. When I hit the ground short, I realized I was stuck. My legs were still outside the fence, when I looked back, I saw Cordy's rifle was hooked on one of the boards.

I pulled as hard as I could on the strap, and finally broke free. Unfortunately, I felt a bullet hit the back of my left calf as I yanked my legs through. I scrambled toward the house, and I quickly put my back against the wall.

It had happened so fast, I wasn't sure how many there were, or if I had hit any of them. Worst of all, I'd lost any chance of stealth.

I yanked the grenade from the strap on my belt, from careful practice, I'd found how easily these things could be your best friend, or worst nightmare.

It had two settings 'G' for grenade, and 'P' for proximity. 'G' made them work just like the ones from home, only they were swung from a chain. 'P' meant I could use the spikes studded on it to embed it into a wall. Then I just had to wait for a Locust to kill himself when he got too close.

I jammed it against the corner of the house, I needed to get inside and I wanted to buy myself some time if the door was locked. Normally I'd kick it in, but that wasn't an option here.

I worked the lever again, and shot off the lock and knob on the door. Shortly after I got inside, the grenade went off, I covered my face as I felt small bits of debris hit my body. I looked over to the corner and saw a basketball-sized hole there now.

I made my way to the stairs, and took them as fast as I could. I was hoping that I'd taken out more then one of them already. Using the banister at the top for cover, I took the time to reload my shotgun.

Once I finished, I checked my leg. The metal strip in the back of the boot had done it's job, there was blood, and it obviously hurt, but I could still walk on it. Now, I waited to see what would come through the door.

=H=H=

~~Cordelia POV~~

This idiot had been making accusations, and threatening me for five minutes now, the worst part, was he'd been stroking my right leg the whole time. The burned hand kept getting higher with each pass, and at that point, I figured a distraction was definitely in order.

"Just who the hell are you?" I demanded, figuring I had nothing to lose.

He stopped dead. He turned to me with a twisted smile on his lips. "I'm sorry? Didn't I introduce myself?"

I wasn't exactly enthused by that smile, but at least he'd stopped touching me. I decided to go with it. "No, you didn't."

"Well, I could have done that a month ago, but you decided to leave me in the street for the fucking horde!"

He just kept repeating this same crap over and over. "If I passed right by you all those times, why didn't you just yell?"

"Take a good look bitch!" He leaned over the table towards me. "A fucking Flame Boomer burned me!"

"How exactly is that my fault, huh psycho?"

I could tell he didn't like that name one bit, so I decided to press my luck.

"That's right, psycho. I'm going to keep calling you that, until you give me some freaking answers."

He pried the knife loose from the table and approached me. "The name is Mongo." He then slammed the knife down next to my head.

I flinched as the knife cut into my ear, and yanked some hair out of my head. I refused to cry though, I didn't want to give the son of a bitch any satisfaction.

"Mongo?" I replied with a painful laugh. "I bet you were real popular in school with that name." I knew it would piss him off, but if he was assaulting me, he wasn't trying to molest me.

"Oh I see, I'm going to have to teach you about the chain of command. Just like I did with Corporal Murphy."

"What do you mean?" I wasn't sure I wanted the answer.

Mongo gave that nasty smile again. "That sterile bitch went against orders." He pantomimed a female voice. "But Lieutenant, those Stranded might need help."

No, that wasn't creepy at all.

There was a muffled thud somewhere outside. Almost immediately, Mongo moved away from the light.

I tried to crane my neck to keep track of where he had gone.

"It sounds like that shit-head boyfriend of yours is smarter then I thought."

"You're a fucking dead man, you know that right?" I asked him confidently.

He re-appeared out of the darkness, his hand gripped my jaw. It was the burned one, and it smelled nasty.

The stupid smile was gone. Mongo shoved my head down on the table, his face followed until we were practically nose to nose.

"If he does make it here, I'm gonna make him watch. Just like you made me watch you walk away."

=H=H=

++Xander POV++

I groaned at the sound of them kicking in the back door to avoid anymore potential grenades, of course, they had to go and get smart today of all days.

The Locust were tearing the rooms back there apart looking for me, so I pointed the shotgun over the railing, straight down. There was a door next to the stairs, and I figured they'd be coming through it soon enough.

I heard a door being opened somewhere, I couldn't tell where they were coming from though. I was really missing Cordy's help now.

"Moo-ving" One of them announced.

A Helmet appeared from the right side, heading toward the entrance way I had come through. I fired at him, but he barely seemed to notice. As I brought another shell in, he fired back at me, the banister and railing were being chewed apart.

I quickly moved to my right to get behind a wall, I fired another shot at him when he started to reload. He didn't even bother to stop what he was doing.

"What the-" It suddenly hit me, the pellets couldn't penetrate the armor at this distance.

As more shots came in my direction, I threw the shotgun aside, and yanked my saw rifle free of the straps. I knew this thing would put him down, I just needed to wait for him to reload again.

The shooting stopped, and I peeked around the corner to fire. When I did, I saw another Locust with a grenade in his hand. I got up and started to run down the hallway, hearing the grenade bounce off the wall, and then hit the ground.

Two beeps, and the grenade exploded as I dove into the bedroom at the end of the hallway. I felt several sharp pains in my back and legs, and knew I'd been hit with shrapnel.

Groaning, I got to my feet, and I took cover against the wall next to the door. The shotgun had been destroyed when I'd had to leave it behind, so I gripped the assault rifle tightly as I heard several pairs of feet come stomping up the stairs.

=H=H=

~~Cordelia POV~~

"I watched for hours as you Stranded fucks walked right by me!" Mongo pulled away, and started pacing back and forth.

I closed my eyes, scared now. He had made his intentions perfectly clear to me. He'd said Xander was close by, but was he even still alive?

"I am a Lieutenant for the COG you fucking traitor!"

This was going nowhere, I didn't know when, or if Xander was going to show up at this point. It wasn't that I didn't think he was doing everything he could, but it was obvious something bad had happened.

"I'm not part of the COG, how can I be a traitor?" I knew I needed to keep him talking, and maybe buy some time.

He stopped his pacing and sneered at me. "You're a human, if you aren't supporting the COG, you're the enemy."

Another thud sounded from somewhere, not as loud as the last.

"Sounds like your boy still has some life in him." Mongo said with a chuckle.

"If he's close enough that we can hear a fight, that means he's coming for you." I told him with a note of satisfaction.

"That idiot thought a dead woman was out to get him." He replied dismissively.

"If you'd seen the things he had, you wouldn't think so." The longer I could keep him talking, the better.

"But here you are, he cared more about that worthless cunt then you."

"That's a lie!"

"Really?" He asked with a twisted grin. "Then why is it he visited that grave, even found a bunch of fake flowers for it. Stupid kid made it so easy."

"Xander was trying to find you, that was just a place he stopped along the way."

"Xander?" He snorted. "I can't believe that's his real name, sounds like a pussy to me."

"He's more of a man then you are, you hid behind Corporal Murphy, even dug up her grave you sick bastard." I told him, cursing myself for giving this maniac any kind of ammo against us.

"I'm sure pussy-boy loved his surprise then."

"What surprise?" I asked, not really sure I wanted to know.

=H=H=

++Xander POV++

I stood, half-covered by the door frame, ready to fire at whatever showed it's ugly face. A Helmet was the first up the stairs, I stitched him from thigh to chest. He hadn't even fallen yet, when a revolver was pointed around the corner, and it fired.

I ducked back as the bullet flew past my right shoulder, barely missing me. I decided to return the favor, placing the barrel against the door frame I fired back. I wasn't sure if I'd hit anything, but it wasn't like I had much choice.

As I started to reload, I heard at least one of them rush down the hallway towards me. I tried to slam the clip in, but missed in my haste. A Mohawk cleared the door, and I dropped the clip. Deciding I didn't have time to pick it up, I swung the rifle like a bat, catching him on the back as he started to turn toward me.

I could feel the teeth of the saw tear into his unprotected shoulder as he fell to his hands and knees. I bent down to pick up the clip again, only to hear another set of footsteps approaching the room. Fuck it. I turned on the saw, and watched as one of those grenade guys entered the doorway.

I brought it down on his right arm, just above the elbow. Grenade quickly drop his shotgun with a howl of pain. He suddenly kicked out, catching me in the stomach, sending me flying across the room, and I hit the foot of the bed with a grunt.

I looked up at the Grenade from the floor. His right arm was hanging by a few bits of flesh and muscle, and he looked pissed. He stared at me, as he used his left hand to casually yank the now useless arm free.

Oh yeah, he was pissed.

=H=H=

~~Cordelia POV~~

"What fucking surprise?" I asked again when he didn't answer.

Mongo continued to ignore me, and walked over to what could be a desk. He stood there for several minutes before he picked something up. I couldn't really tell what it was in the dim light, and that had me worried.

"I want to introduce you to something, this is a Lancer." He held up a gun I hadn't seen before. It sort of looked like the chainsaw gun, but it had a big knife on it instead. "I killed a lot of UIR, and Locust pricks with this rifle, I've heard the COG might even bring it back."

After giving it a once-over, he placed it back on the desk, and picked up a chainsaw gun. "This is the newest version, that bayonet just couldn't pierce the Locust armor very well. But this thing'll pretty much cut through anything."

I couldn't help but shiver, where was he going with this?

Mongo came around the table to my left. "Whadaya say we test it out?" He said flatly, as he started the motor.

=H=H=

++Xander POV++

Grenade started toward me, his arm still in hand. I finally remembered Cordy's rifle, hanging from my belt. Considering I'd been shot because of it, I should have remembered sooner.

I released the strap, and raised the gun to fire. Mohawk decided right then to get to his feet, still holding that revolver. I turned toward him, and managed to fire six rounds into his chest, before I was overtaken by Grenade.

He clubbed me across my left shoulder with the arm, sending my flying sideways onto the bed. In the process, I lost another assault rifle. Before I could react, Grenade dropped his arm, and grabbed me by the ankle. Once again, I was airborne.

When I hit the wall, my back slammed into something, hard. I screamed in pain, as I slid to the floor, looking up, I saw I'd hit the doorknob to a closet.

Grenade was bent down, trying to pry the revolver from the Mohawk's dying hands. As I got to my feet and pulled the combat knife out, I could see he was still struggling, trying to get the gun loose with only one hand.

With a yell, I grabbed the big Locust by the shoulder and jammed the knife into his back. Quickly pulling out, I stabbed Grenade four more times, before he managed to break free.

I had definitely hurt him, just not badly enough. As he turned, I lunged in, and slammed it into his stomach. In response, he punched me in the face, leaving me once again with my back to the wall.

My head was swimming, I knew I couldn't take another shot like that. As Grenade advanced on me with a very noticeable limp, I decided I'd need a bigger knife in the future. That was if I still had one.

=H=H=

~~Cordelia POV~~

I started to scream as the spinning blades came down toward me, I fought against the ropes to pull as far from it as I could.

"I'd hold still, don't wanna get cut now do ya?"

The saw chewed into the table next to my arm, I quickly realized he was tracing along my body. I was using all my strength to stay away, but I was starting to waver, the ropes were cutting into my wrists and ankles.

He suddenly stopped, I was guessing Mongo had run out of table. Unfortunately, I couldn't tell because the only thing I could see besides my boobs, were my boots. He revved the chainsaw as he walked past my head, stopping when he was to my right.

He looked like he was going to start on the other side, I couldn't take it anymore, I'd had enough of his games.

"Either you tell me why you're really doing this, or let me go." I demanded.

He stopped the saw and stared at me, a frown on his face.

"I'm sick of your lies, you were more interested in letting that kid get in your pants then helping a COG officer. Now you're gonna pay for your desertion."

"You're out of your freakin' mind!"

"If you had picked me up, I wouldn't have been burned by that Flame Boomer!" He screamed as he brought his fist down on my thigh, causing me to yelp.

"You asshole, you can't even get your story straight. Now which is it?"

Mongo glared down at me. "I was gonna take it easy on you at first." He made his way to the far end of the table, and the saw came back to life.

"What the hell does that mean?"

"It's pretty clear you just want to get to the fun stuff." He replied, as he brought the rifle down, I could feel the vibrations run up and down my body, as it cut into the table between my legs.

I begged him to stop, I had never been so afraid in my life.

"You like this bitch?" He screamed at me as he continued. "This is what you get for siding with the fucking Horde!"

I could feel the table starting to wobble, as more sections were removed, I was afraid the table would collapse, and the saw would slip. My screaming stopped though, when there was the sound of a door being busted open.

Mongo turned toward the door, chainsaw at the ready.

"Xander I'm here!" I screamed, happy he had finally made it.

More lights came on in the room, blinding me. I could hear a machine running somewhere, and I wondered if that's how they got the light bulb to work.

"What the fuck are you doing here?"

I finally opened my eyes again, and my heart sank when I realized it wasn't Xander. Instead, there was another Gear standing in the doorway.

=H=H=

++Xander POV++

I kicked out as the big Locust neared me, but it didn't even slow him. Grenade reached down, and grabbed me by the throat. Effortlessly, he picked me up, and slammed me against the wall. With just one arm, he was stronger then I was.

I was at least a foot off the ground, and even with both hands, I couldn't break his grip. He gave me a pointy-toothed grin, and I couldn't help but think how much he reminded me of Killer Croc from the Batman comics.

Those thoughts didn't last long, once I realized, I was running out of air. Since I was out of ideas, I decided to try a new tactic, I kicked him in the balls.

Grenade gave a deep groan as he let me go and held himself. I hit the floor, gasping for air, and thanking God this idiot hadn't worn more then a pair of pants. Knowing I didn't have long, I ignored my sore throat, and grabbed his ankles.

With a lot of effort, I pulled them out from under him, and watched as he slammed onto his back. Scrambling forward, I put both of my knees on his remaining arm, and started to punch him in the face. Even as I pounded on him, he was starting to get back to his feet.

Seeing that beating him wasn't going to work, I jammed both of my thumbs into his eye sockets. I shook off the weird feeling of Déjà vu I got, and pressed them as deeply as I could into his head.

Roaring in pain, Grenade threw me off of him like I was nothing. As I hit the same wall for a third time, he got back to his feet. His arm reaching out, trying to get a hold of me again. Now, it was personal.

If it weren't for the fact that I needed to find Cordy, I could have tortured this son of a bitch for hours. Instead, I simply tripped him. When he fell on his stomach, I brought my boot down on his head, after three more stomps, I heard a crunch, and I was satisfied.

After giving Mohawk a kick to make sure he was dead too, I grabbed several guns and stuffed them into a backpack, there was no time to be fancy now. Hefting the chainsaw gun, I left the room, and hoped there were no more Locust waiting for me.

I saw the Helmet that I had shot first, lying on his back. I could hear him trying desperately to continue breathing. I figured I'd give him a taste of Sunnydale, so I took one of the broken wood posts that had held up the railing, and stabbed it into his chest.

I made my way downstairs, and I knew I was hurting real bad. If Cordy and I got out of this, we were definitely taking some time off. I was really missing her right now.

After making my way out of the house, I got into the backyard without a problem. As I opened the gate to the alley, I peeked my head out to make sure there were no surprises. Seeing none, I continued my search.

=H=H=

~~Cordelia POV~~

"There's a big Locust fight going on down the street! Is it the Lambent?" The Gear asked fearfully, as he took a few steps into the room, holding a shotgun.

I could see he had a mop of Brown hair, and a baby face. He was smaller then Mongo, more like Hall or Sanders. I also doubted he was more then a year or two older then me.

"Help me, please!" I screamed at the young Gear.

He finally seemed to notice me and his eyes widened.

"Shut up you traitor." Mongo growled before giving me a hard slap on the thigh.

"Wha-What's going on here Lieutenant?" The kid stammered, blushing as he realized I was half-nude.

"He's crazy!" I brought my head up as far as I could to look at him. "Please-"

Before I could even flinch away, Mongo punched me in the jaw. With nowhere else for my head to go, the back of my skull slammed onto the table. Tiny bits of light flashed across my eyes.

"Didn't I order you to stay in the warehouse Private?" Mongo demanded.

"Yes sir. I uh... I-" The young soldier stuttered.

"You want to get ambushed and dragged off like Murphy did?"

"No..." He tried to keep his attention on the Lieutenant, but he kept glancing over at me.

"What was that Perth?" Mongo demanded.

The Private's eyes instantly snapped back to him. "No sir." He replied firmly.

"Good. There's a man heading this way to retrieve this traitor. He, and this bitch are the one's that left me to die in the street."

"That's a lie!" I cut in, not believing what I was hearing. "We never even-"

"Shut up!" Mongo screamed, as he punched me once again.

I cried out in pain and my mouth started to fill with blood.

"Stranded trash." He muttered, before turning back to the Gear. "They pretended to need First Sergeant Rodriguez's help, and then cut our men down from behind."

Tears stung my eyes as I turned towards Private Perth. "Please, help me." I whispered.

"Lieutenant Dawson, sir, shouldn't we turn them over to the COG then?" He asked hesitantly.

"Absolutely not, they won't be arriving for over a month. Are we going to waste supplies on murderers and thieves?"

"No sir. It's just... I don't think-"

"Private." Mongo interrupted, clearly unhappy.

"Y-yes sir?"

"I am not First Sergeant Rodriguez. I don't give a fuck what you think." Mongo walked over to the Private and grabbed him by the top of his chest plate. He yanked the kid forward, until they were nose to nose. "Now I want that man found and killed, are we clear?"

"Yes sir." Perth replied, obviously intimidated.

"Good." He snarled, before shoving him backwards several steps.

He looked over at me. "What about-"

"Get the fuck out of my sight!"

Perth flinched, before saluting and reluctantly headed back toward the door.

I watched as my best chance to get out of this left. He walked through the doorway and I heard a yell. Seconds later, he reappeared, doubled over.

There was a rumbling sound and then the kid started screaming. I watched in horror as a saw came plunging through his left shoulder, and down through his chest.

Blood sprayed everywhere and mercifully, the screaming finally stopped. As the young Gear fell to the floor, I saw who had killed him. Standing there in the doorway, was a blood-covered Xander.

He stared Mongo down, his saw gun was pointed at the big man. "You're 'M'." Xander said simply as he came into the room.

=H=H=

A/N: Locust:

Leashed thing - Sire

=H=H=

END