Disclaimer: The title came from Disney's 'The Hunchback of Notre-Dame', so I don't own it, 'Buffy the Vampire Slayer' and 'Angel' came from Joss Whedon, so I don't own them, and 'Charmed' came from Constance M. Burge, so that's not mine either.

Anyway, enjoy.

Feedback: It's here to be read; let me know that it has been

Girl version of Chandler: Well, this chapter focuses more on Angel and Cole, but Spike, if all goes well, will have a larger role in the next one, I promise you that.

Aussiehottiemjm: Yeah, I know, but it all adds up, doesn't it; Piper and Buffy are the 'field leaders' of the groups, Doyle and Phoebe both have visions, and so on and so forth.

Gregdoreza: Oh, they'll be a few demonic problems, yes, but it won't be quite what you're expecting; did nobody remember that there wasn't a 'Professor Delgado' in the Initiative we saw in the TV show…?

Mysticallove: You asked, and I have answered

Jedi-Princess: Well, I can't say which of those two options it's going to be, but trust me, things are going to be interesting…

JitterBug: Sorry it took so long; things keep coming up

wackycavegirl: I do what I can, my dear; things just keep coming up

What Makes a Monster?

As soon as Angel saw the red demon that was his opponent, he was ready for action. He didn't know why he was fighting this guy, he didn't know what their captors thought they could learn from it, he wasn't even sure how he had the bad luck to end up in a cell with one of history's most dangerous demons, a demon whose name was known even by normal humans…

All he knew was that, if he could help it, Belthazor would never kill another innocent again.

He charged forward, tensing himself to spring aside at a moment's notice, and, before Belthazor could react, he'd lashed out with a powerful blow that sent the demon assassin flying back into the wall with a sickening crunch.

Belthazor could only wince as he struck the wall and felt something jolt in his back, although it didn't appear to have done any truly serious damage to him.

He really wasn't looking forward to this fight; he may have been one of the best assassins the Source ever had, but in a straight fight with this kind of vampire, his above-average strength would never suffice to hold back his opponent.

Even a rookie vampire like the kind he'd taken out in the graveyard earlier would have been able to overpower him in a fair fight…

Then Belthazor chuckled.

Who said it has to be fair? he asked himself, as he got back to his feet and looked at Angel. If this was genuinely a test, he was prepared to bet that whoever had kidnapped them both had restored his ability to use energy balls…

He raised his hand and (To his relief) launched an energy ball at Angelus, throwing the vampire back with a smoking hole in the front of his shirt; evidently, their captors wanted this battle to be everything it could be.

As soon as his chest had stopped smarting from the force of the blow, Angel was back on his feet, diving to the ground in a desperate bid to avoid another energy ball from Belthazor. As Belthazor launched ever more energy balls at him, he continued to duck and weave away from them at the last minute, using his superior agility to always remain one step ahead of his opponent's magical weapons while, at the same time, he gradually advanced towards the demon, just waiting for the chance to get within striking distance of his adversary.

Then, just as he was within a couple of metres of the red-skinned demon, Belthazor stopped launching energy balls at him and dived towards him, striking him in the face with a powerful punch, throwing Angel back mainly due to him being caught off-guard by the blow rather than its physical force.

As Angel hit the ground, he noticed a red trickle out of the corner of his left eye; the force of the blow must have cut his forehead, or maybe he'd hit something as he landed and hadn't noticed over his surprise at being punched.

"You ready to give up yet, Angelus?" Belthazor asked the vampire, smiling slightly as Angelus rose back to his feet, blood trickling down from a cut over his eye as he looked back at Belthazor.

Angelus growled back at Belthazor, his eyes flashing with a golden gleam that made him look even more demonic than originally.

"I'll quit when you're dead, Belthazor," he said, growling. "And trust me… after everything you've done, I'll be looking forward to it."

Belthazor smiled slightly as he raised his hand and pulled up another energy ball.

"Oh, trust me, I know exactly how you feel," he said, already wondering if he'd really got that many people angry when he defected to the side of Good; he'd known the Source and other demons of his ilk hadn't liked it, obviously, but vampires?

He'd made more enemies than he'd thought…

Then he narrowed his eyes, as Phoebe's face flashed across his mind.

But it's worth it, he thought to himself; he may not agree with Cole on everything, but their love of Phoebe was one thing they were both certain about; they wouldn't give it up for anything.

He launched the energy ball at Angelus, who just narrowly managed to dodge it by diving off to one side, and the battle was on again.

"Interesting," Professor Walsh said, as she watched the vampire/demon showdown on a screen in front of her, linked up to one of the few cameras they had in the training room; she'd been watching the fight since it started, and was currently enjoying every minute of it.

"What is?" Spiner asked, looking over at her superior curiously; she and Professor Delgado were the only other two members of the Initiative watching the fight at present, since they were the only ones who actually knew that there was anything odd about the two combatants in the first place.

"The fact that their fighting styles are so different, I'd guess," Delgado said, looking at Walsh for confirmation and continuing when she nodded. "After all, they were somehow both in a position to get this… boost, for lack of a better term… and yet, in combat, they both depend on different abilities to tackle their opponents. So, if they're so different…"

He trailed off, looking at Spiner inquiringly. Spiner had never been good at answering questions under pressure, but she had a go anyway.

"Um… how did they get that 'boost' out of every other major demon and vampire out there, if they appear to have so little in common?" she asked.

"Correct," Walsh said, as she turned back to study the screen. "It's intriguing, really; maybe these abominations have more imagination then we thought, if they're prepared to diversify a bit…"

As Angel dived away from another energy ball that came within a hair's breadth of burning his coat, he looked up at Belthazor with a smile on his face.

"You're getting better, Belthy," he said mockingly. "Another hour or so and you'll have started to singe me a bit."

"Yeah, well, you're not exactly getting in close yourself, are you, Angelus?" Belthazor pointed out. "I mean, we've been doing this for a while now, and so far I'm the only one of us who's actually managed to draw blood; you haven't even gotten in close after that first punch!"

"Oh really?" Angel asked, smiling slightly at the demon's ignorance. "Care to place a bet on that?"

Then he dived towards Belthazor, grabbing the demon by the shoulders and pinning him to the ground as his nails dug deeply into Belthazor's arm. Despite being dead, his hair and nails still needed to be cut on occasion (He'd always been a bit puzzled by that; how could anything on him be growing if he was technically dead), and he'd not had the chance to do his nails recently, so they were long enough to get a decent grip on a bit of flesh on Belthazor's lower forearm, draw blood from where they met even his demonic skin…

And tear off a hunk of flesh.

"AARRGGHH!" Belthazor roared, and Angel instantly found himself with an energy ball in his chest, throwing him back towards a nearby wall, the chunk of Belthazor's flesh still clutched in his hand...

Then he struck something near the ceiling that shattered, and then he found himself lying on the floor.

Leaping to his feet, he glanced upwards and saw that he'd apparently destroyed a camera that must have been monitoring the battle between him and Belthazor; he'd been too distracted earlier to notice it.

He turned to face Belthazor, raised a hand to discard the piece of flesh still in his right hand…

And he stared at it.

The blood was red?

But Belthazor's kind of demon was supposed to have black blood, if they had blood at all…

He looked back up at his opponent who had only just raised an energy ball to hurl at him, and decided to take advantage of the momentary pause in the fight.

"Is there a reason your blood's red?"