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: Cape High (book series)

Comparative Demonology

"So… He's a nice guy?" Faith sounded hesitant, possibly incredulous. Their latest stop seemed to be a sword & sorcery fantasy land. Not the first or even the most interesting one they'd seen, but there were bound to be differences in the customs, monsters, magic, etc. They had appeared on the road not far from a large town and headed for the gates, where they gained entry by claiming to be wandering adventurers who had had some bad luck. Sticking to a basically true story made remembering fake covers, when they needed them, much easier. They had asked around and learned the basics fairly easily. Meeting the head of the local Magical union or whatever it was called, Faith didn't bother remembering, had seemed a good way to find out why they were there. They hadn't expected this, though.

"Yeah. I know what most people think, but it's true." The cat-girl was firm on that point, despite the rather ugly 'necklace' she was wearing. The head of the local Mages' Association, a rather pretty lavender-haired woman sitting beside Faith in a local tavern, also looked dubious. "He's promised to help me with…a problem I have." The Association leader's eyes narrowed thoughtfully at this. Xander saw and wondered about it, but Faith didn't notice the by-play.

"I've never met a demon lord who could be called nice." Faith shook her head.

"Met many demon lords?" Distracted, the sorceress turned her dubious gaze on the slayer.

"One or two." Faith allowed. "And a few who came close to qualifying."

"Sometimes," Xander broke in, "it's just a powerful wizard who's inflated his rep. Usually, though, that kind of guy has habits that would impress a demon." When the woman still looked dubious, Xander shrugged. "We travel between worlds and see a lot of strange things."

"I've never heard of people who could travel between worlds as easily as you seem to."

"Not really our choice." Faith grimaced. "We don't do the moving, and if I ever meet the one doing it..." She trailed off, grumbling.

"'There are more things in Heaven and Earth than are dreamed of in your philosophy.'" He quoted. It seemed apt. The sorceress raised an eyebrow, but then shrugged and moved on.

"You think he might not be a demon lord?" She asked instead.

Xander shrugged. "No idea, since we haven't met him, but like Faith said, never met one that could be called nice. I suppose," he thought a moment, "D'Hofryn would come closest."

"I've never heard of him."

The cat-girl also looked curious.

"Count your blessings," Faith muttered.

"He's the head of the Order of Vengeance Demons. Don't ask." Xander raised a hand as the sorceress opened her mouth. "You'll sleep better. Thing is, he's always polite and he has a sense of humor. Those are qualities you don't normally find in a demon lord, but then again, demons tend to have really different values and outlooks. D'Hofryn would sometimes find it amusing to set a summoner on fire." The locals at the table blanched. "But he was always polite about it."

"Different values," the cat-girl murmured, shaking her head. Understandably, she looked a bit rattled.

"Then there was the Lord of the Dance." Xander said thoughtfully, and winced at the memory of how that whole mess had come about. They all stared at him, wondering at the pained expression, and Faith started to speak. "Not the scary one, just a demon. He had this magic that made people break into song and dance at random about whatever they were thinking at the time. That got really awkward."

"That doesn't sound so bad," the cat-girl offered.

"Well aside from people randomly revealing their deepest darkest to anyone close enough to catch the show, if the emotion ran too high, the singer would catch fire."

"Ouch." The cat-girl winced, reflecting that she really had gotten the best of the lot.

"Yep." Faith agreed. She looked at her partner, suddenly recalling a few things she had heard about him and his life in Sunnydale. "Haven't you dated a demon or two?" Object lessons were always useful, and needling Xander could be fun too.

"I have," Xander sighed. "Met what I thought was a very pretty young lady once, helped her out at a market. We went to dinner, had a good time, then she thanked me for the fun evening and tried to sacrifice me to her master." The locals stared at him incredulously. They seemed to do that a lot, the Slayer noted. "Like I said, different values. A lot of demons don't see the way they treat mortal creatures as cruel, though there are quite a few that do and enjoy it. Many just don't see us as people. You can have a certain fondness for a barnyard animal and still have no qualms about eating it."

"That's how they see us?" The cat-girl seemed to find the notion extremely upsetting. Xander hoped she didn't have any romantic notions about the demon that she had gotten herself into trouble over.

"Not all." Xander assured her, knowing he had to be fair even if it would probably be safer to sour her on the demon lord under discussion. "We've never met this guy of yours, but the slave collar makes me dubious."

"He didn't do that deliberately," the sorceress allowed. "She," she nodded to the cat-girl, "and her friend surprised him with their summoning and reflected the magic of the enslavement ritual back at them on instinct, apparently. At least, that was how he described it, and I find I believe him."

"They set out to summon a demon lord and didn't take enough precautions." He saw the look on the cat-girl's face. "You weren't trying to summon a demon lord. What were you trying to summon?"

"Ah. Well…"

Xander barely managed not to face-palm. "Never mind. Just try to learn from your mistake and be glad you got the chance to."

The head of the Mage's Association nodded seriously. "Agreed. Summoning a creature more powerful than you have previously managed is not something that should be taken lightly. You were very lucky. He is, after all, willing to help find a way to release you and Shera." She paused, looking thoughtful. "He also seems quite content to stick around and explore what is, to him, a new world. He even takes quests from the Adventurers Guild."

"So, he's treating it like a holiday and playing tourist?" Faith blinked slowly a couple of times. "Weird."

"I can't argue with that." the sorceress agreed. "His behavior is decidedly atypical for a demon lord."

"How did you get away from the demon that wanted to sacrifice you?" The cat-girl seemed anxious to change the subject. Xander couldn't tell if she was rethinking her relationship with her summons, as the question distracted him.

"Well." Xander thought a moment. "My friend Will and I had this method of sending each other coded signals." That was true enough without trying to explain cell telephones. "We had several different codes, including one that meant 'date's going really well, don't wait up' and another that meant 'captured by monster, help.'"

"That happened often enough that you had a signal for it?" The sorceress looked slightly alarmed at the idea. "What kind of place did you live?"

Xander frowned. "My home town had its problems, but you live next to a place called the Man-Eating Woods. Why do you stay?"

"Apologies." The sorceress dipped her head, feeling contrite. "It was not meant as a criticism."

"So, your friend recognized the code and came to rescue you?" the cat-girl asked, trying to move past the awkwardness. "Sounds like you have some good friends."

"I do." He nodded, smiling as his thoughts drifted to Willow and Buffy. "But…um…" Xander hesitated a moment, then sighed. "I sent the first one before I knew what she was. Will told me later that she couldn't remember which was which, but… Well, she knew my dating history."

Faith burst out laughing.

Xander ignored her, used to his partner finding amusement in the mess his life had been back in those days. He freely admitted that he'd done a lot of dumb things, but she didn't have to enjoy it quite that much. He never brought up her time working for the mayor after all.

His thoughts on the subject were interrupted by a man in a robe, one that marked him as part of the local Mage Association. He was breathing heavily and looked very upset. He began to argue with the lavender-haired sorceress. Apparently, she had fired him over something he'd done.

She remained calm, but he grew increasingly agitated until he drew a strange looking dagger. The weapon looked decidedly demonic. Xander started to rise, Faith already on her feet, but the cat-girl acted first. She summoned a serpent made of shadow and sent it to bind the man. It was too slow.

"He stabbed himself?" Faith asked, confused. She took a step back at the unpleasant sound coming from the body. The human skin and clothing fell away, revealing one of the ugliest brutes the two demon hunters had seen in a while.

"I thought that human would never shut up." He turned to the lavender-haired sorceress and addressed her. The dialogue was brief and didn't make much sense to them until it got to the part about killing her.

"Time to go to work," Faith muttered. Drawing a throwing-knife she'd picked up on one of the other fantasy worlds they had visited, she let fly, only to have it bounce off the skin of the creature's throat. It looked vaguely amused.

"Good aim," it rumbled.

Just as it had been enchanted to do, the knife returned to her hand. "Well that didn't work." The creature had already turned toward the sorceress and her attendants, all of whom had stood by silently gaping at the conversation between their boss and the two demon hunters.

When the beast had made its presence known, they'd readied their spells, using the brief distraction Faith had created.

A concentrated attack managed to halt its advance but didn't do much more than annoy it. "Clear out! We'll hold it as long as we can."

There was a general rush for the exits, which the sorceress aided by creating a new one with a gesture. She was the one it wanted, so she would be able to draw it off. Xander and Faith didn't let it pursue immediately, trying several different tactics.

Breaking a bottle of something that smelled strongly of alcohol over the thing's head barely got its attention. Setting the stuff on fire with an oil lamp had been more effective, but not nearly enough. Before it could swat Xander for the affront, Faith shot it in the face with the flare gun she had used to such good effect on the metal man a couple of worlds back.

"Come on. We can't hurt this guy with what we've got."

Xander nodded, and they headed out of the hole created a moment ago. He gestured to the mages who had learned the hard way that they couldn't hurt it either, and they retreated. He spoke to the mages as they fell back.

"Change tactics. Brute force won't work. Try binding or disorienting it instead."

"This is our city," one of them said pompously. "We'll defend it!" He stood his ground, using his most powerful destructive spell against the thing as it emerged, blinking from the wrecked tavern. He died a few seconds later and the rest pulled back, following Xander's advice.

Ropes appeared out of nowhere, but they parted before the thing like cobwebs. The ground under its feet turning to quicksand slowed it down more effectively, but cost the spell caster his life when the man made the mistake of gloating. The balls of darkness the thing used might not actually be bullets, but they did a lot of damage, especially if you weren't wearing any type of armor.

They did their best to manage a fighting retreat, doing whatever came to mind to hurt or at least slow the beast. All too soon, though, they caught up with the sorceress and the cat-girl who were waiting with a blond elf with barely credible…attributes, and a tall white-haired man with black horns.

"You've done well to delay this foolish one as long as you have." The one that Xander assumed to be the demon lord stepped forward. "I'll handle this from here."

The beast caught up with them at that point. "I am almost impressed." He addressed Faith and Xander. "You don't just try the same thing over and over and crumble when it fails. You think and adapt quickly. That's a rare trait in the fighters around here."

"Flattery will get you nowhere." Xander deadpanned.

The white-haired, black-horned man stepped forward. "You insolent beast. You would dare threaten what is mine?"

"Well aren't you a bold little demon?" The beast's tone was condescending. It lashed out with the same spell it had been using since it arrived. It proved worse than useless as the attack was bounced back at him. The purported demon lord hadn't even moved.

"So, this is Diablo," Faith asked the cat-girl who was hiding behind her master. "Your demon lord?"

"That's him." She nodded.

The beast stopped mid-rant and stared. "Diablo? Demon lord?" He considered. "Impossible! You're either lying or mad."

Diablo mocked him, and the beast attacked with a different spell. It proved to be the last thing he did, aside from begging for his life. When the beast was dead, sucked via dark magic into another dimension apparently, the two girls threw themselves at him.

The demon hunters watched in confusion and growing suspicion as the supposed demon lord stuttered briefly before pointing to the collars the two girls wore as if grasping at a lifeline and reminding the affectionate pair that he owned them.

"I was just protecting what is mine. There is nothing more to it." It sounded like sheer bravado to Faith, but the girls accepted it. Then the blond hugged him, pressing her oversized breasts against him.

The demon lord's eyes grew vacant and he rocked back and forth a bit, clearly retreating to his 'happy place.' He almost bounced off the elf's chest and all but staggered toward the cat-girl who looked alarmed as their master knocked himself out on her ribcage. She wasn't nearly as well-endowed as the elf.

"This is a demon lord?" Faith asked incredulously, looking down at the unconscious figure with the silly grin on his face.