See first chapter for disclaimers.

AUTHOR'S NOTE: Thanks to Storyseeker for beta-reading this. As usual, if you have any comments or preferences, please don't be shy. RandR.

PREVIOUSLY: Star Trek: TNG

Rights and Wrongs

Xander ducked away from the scaly thing with the vicious claws, barely avoiding getting gored before jumping forward and shoving his sword through the thing's neck. He wasn't sure what they were, aside from ugly and vicious with sharp claws and way too many teeth, but they were turning the small farming town he and Faith had appeared in into their own all you can eat buffet.

Winning a bit of breathing room by stepping inside another monster's guard and stabbing it in the gut, he looked for Faith. She was surrounded, and he started to move to assist, but it proved unnecessary.

Leaping high, she kicked the largest in the face, using him as a spring board to launch herself over the creature opposite, slashing its head nearly in half as she left the circle. She came down outside the circle and killed two more as they spun to face her.

She's not surrounded. Xander smirked, remembering an old joke. She's in a target rich environment.

He helped nonetheless by killing the one she'd kicked in the head. He then developed his own problems, forced to retreat as three more came out of a side street, drawn by the sounds of the fight. He chose the one on the left and put that one between himself and the others. This allowed him to deal with them one at a time instead of being surrounded and dogpiled.

He successfully killed the first, and to his surprise, the remaining two came at him one at a time. His luck didn't last, though. He'd attracted the attention of three of the things that had been ganging up on Faith. They were almost on top of him by the time he'd finished with the last of his attackers. He managed to block and dodge, but the sword he'd gotten on their last stop was knocked out of his hands. He ran, looking for something useful. When he spotted his new weapon, he almost gave himself a dope slap. "Why didn't I think of this before?"

Snatching up the keys from the outstretched hand of a middle-aged corpse, he jumped behind the wheel of the man's car and started the engine, after he'd double-checked the backseat to make sure nothing was hiding there. No way was he going to become a horror movie cliché.

Making a tight U-turn, and offering silent apology to the car's previous owner as he accidentally ran over the body, he aimed at the nearest cluster of monsters and floored the accelerator.

The next 10 minutes were spent happily running over monsters before they learned to stay out of his way. Thankfully, the creatures weren't very bright or they would have learned to dodge much quicker.

Faith gave him a cheery wave as he passed by her looking for more demonic pedestrians. He didn't actually know that they were demons, as he'd never seen anything quite like them before. Could be monsters, or aliens, or for all he knew, the dominant species on this version of Earth who were cleaning up a human infestation. The last seemed unlikely, but he'd seen weirder things during their unwanted road trip.

Whistling cheerfully, he went up on the sidewalk outside the bank to take out two more of the whatever-they-were. It was at this point, that reinforcements arrived. Several dozen of the things came seemingly out of nowhere. It hadn't been clear how the monsters had arrived in town, and it still wasn't. Xander hadn't seen any signs of a portal, a spaceship, or even a tour bus advertising discount rates to people eaters, but whatever their source, more had arrived.

He considered plowing through them, then thought better of it. It might be time to just get Faith and get out. On the heels of that thought, came an explosion that sent quite a few of the monsters flying. Xander looked around to see that the monsters weren't the only ones who'd gotten reinforcements.

A force of heavily armed men and women in vaguely familiar blue and white uniforms were taking advantage of the initial attack to contain and exterminate the monsters. They were led by a familiar figure in red and gold armor.

Xander pulled over and turned off the engine. Faith joined him as he got out of the car. "Well," she commented. "That settles where we are. Even I recognize him."

"More or less." Xander agreed. "Now the only question is when are we?"

"Does it matter?" Faith asked. "Aren't they the good guys?"

"Depends on when we arrived and in what version of Earth. Could be evil opposites or something. Could be…" He shrugged. "Let's find out."

They didn't have long to wait. Claws and fangs were of limited use against energy weapons. In short order, the fight was over and the armored man and several high-ranking individuals in blue uniforms were standing in front of them.

"You two did good work today." The tin man congratulated them. "I was able to watch part of it through the traffic and security cameras around town. Holding them here until we could arrive was impressive." He glanced at Xander. "I can tell you're not enhanced, just well-trained." He looked at Faith. "You, on the other hand, exhibit enhanced strength and reflexes."

"So?" Faith asked, not sure where this was leading, but getting a bad feeling about the way they were eyeing her.

"We've confirmed, sir." A uniformed man carrying a tablet stepped up. "Neither one of them is registered."

"Registered?" Faith asked, sounding a bit peeved at the assessing way they were eyeing her. "As what? What's this about?"

"We're new around here." Xander cut in. "We've been traveling between dimensions for a while now."

"We'll let it slide," the armored man said generously. "But you need to register. Then you can start doing some real good with your abilities."

"What makes you think I'm not doing good with 'em now?" Faith eyed the vaguely hostile looking men surrounding them.

"Because you're not wearing a leash." Xander told her, catching on. "I know when we are now. We've arrived right after Tony started wiping his ass with the constitution."