*CRACK*
Ravager stared in disbelief for a moment at the hole that had just swallowed her partner before her training kicked in and she quickly rushed over.
She winced as she saw him sprawled out on the ground on top of a body, positioned so awkwardly that there was no way he was going to be able to put up a defense from the half dozen men quickly surrounding him.
'This situation cannot get any worse,' she thought to herself then watched Xander awkwardly reach for the shield on his back with what was an obviously injured limb, wincing and accidentally baring his throat to one of the approaching vamps who leapt forward in a blur of speed... Only to turn to dust as a stake she hadn't even seen him reach for pierced its heart.
All traces of injury and hesitation vanished as the shield came off his back, he smoothly rose to his feet, and another vamp became dust as they stood there gawking.
The dusting of the second vampire broke them from their trance and while the vampires facing his shield winced back like he was shining a spotlight in their face, the ones on the other side were unaffected and one landed a solid blow that he barely managed to get his right arm up to take that she could all but feel, causing him to spin around.
But as he spun the shield came up and the edge took a vampire right in the throat, beheading it like he'd used an axe.
Ravager cursed herself for watching and quickly dropped through the hole as he slammed the face of the shield into another vampire and it screamed, smoke rising from its flesh like it'd been burned.
Using the body Xander had fallen on as a cushion, she drew both her swords and gutted one of the remaining vamps, causing it to clutch its stomach and allowing her to easily behead it, before stabbing another in the leg while Xander staked the screamer.
The last vampire standing tried to run, but a thrown knife took it in the spine and it fell to the floor of the warehouse with smoke rising from the wound, screaming in pain.
Ravager rushed over and beheaded it, the knife falling to the ground as the vampire turned to ash. "Must you make them scream?" she asked dryly, beginning to understand why vampires feared him.
The silver blade flew to Xander's hand and he slid it into a sheath on his back, looking more than a little amused. "I don't have to..." he admitted with a shrug as he rolled his right shoulder and checked his arm to make sure it was okay.
"There were only supposed to be three vampires," she said with a frown.
"These were all minion level vampires," Xander said, "fledges at best. I'm guessing all the humans were turned. Vamps aren't the best at controlling their hunger so we're looking at nine vamps and two Polgara."
"What about the kids?" she asked.
"Vampires don't turn children, so if they're alive they'll be fine, if maybe a bit low on blood," he explained with a frown. "The humans were here more as extra hands and a food supply than security."
"So three vamps and two Polgara remaining," she said.
"Two vamps," Xander corrected her, gesturing to the body they'd used as a landing pad, "that one's not going anywhere for a while unless someone feeds him. Also I don't think they turned them all at once, since that would deplete their food supply, so there's probably a pair of corpses still waiting to turn."
"Are you sure?"
"No, but the timing sounds right," Xander replied. "Simon knew he'd be leaving them guarding the merchandise for several days without hunting and his answer was technically true, there were half a dozen humans and several vamps when he left."
"Devious bastard," she hissed.
"Demonic bastard," Xander replied with a shrug. "Even when telling the truth they lie."
"I can see why you hate them," she said.
"That's just the tip of the iceberg," Xander said, looking around the warehouse which was poorly lit and filled with massive stacks of crates, so basically just like all the warehouses he'd been in before.
"Meow!"
"Why are there baskets of kittens on the table?" Ravager asked, looking at the scattered cards and guessing they'd dropped in on a poker game, but drawing a blank on the kittens.
"They use them as poker chips and snacks," Xander replied.
"And I hate them just a little bit more now," she decided.
"I know the feeling," he said. "Do you want to sneak up on the Polgaras or just fight them head to head?"
"Head to head or I might as well just shoot them," she replied.
Xander drew in a deep breath. "Get your scaly asses over here and fight!" he called out loudly.
Ravager just turned and stared at him as there came a pair of angry roars from one end of the warehouse.
"Seriously?" she asked in a flat tone.
Xander shrugged. "You don't want to ambush them and this way they can't ambush you."
"That actually makes sense and I don't like what that says about my sanity," she admitted, limbering up her shoulders and cracking her neck.
Two massive, nine feet tall, grayish scaled Polgaras, growling something in their demonic language stomped down the aisle towards them, when they were a dozen feet away Xander called out, "Which one of you is stronger? She doesn't fight weaklings."
The two demons paused and started arguing with one another until a fight broke out and one managed to knock the other unconscious, the body falling to the floor with a loud thud.
The remaining one beat its chest and declared something loudly which neither of the two humans understood, not speaking Polgara.
"He's the strongest," Xander told her, "he's earned the right to fight you." He gave the demon an approving nod and stepped back.
"Completely insane," she muttered as she drew her swords and attacked, the demon deflecting her strikes with the bone skewers that sprang from the underside of its wrists.
Xander watched as she fought, flowing from one move to another, deflecting each attack rather than meeting it head on like Buffy would have and occasionally sneaking an attack through its defense which, while they never cut very deep, did make the demon bleed.
After a couple of minutes the downed Polgara began to stir and Xander, knowing he probably couldn't kill it with what he had on him, came up with what he felt was a reasonable plan. He circled around the fight and helped it to its feet. "Tough luck buddy, but your pal proved he was stronger," Xander told the recovering demon as he helped him to a chair.
The demon growled out something and Xander tried to distract it, praying it was stupid and hungry enough to fall for it since the species had to eat multiple times a day so it was probably always at least a little hungry.
"Bet you half the kittens on the table she wins," he offered.
The demon looked at the kittens and said something in its growly voice before chuckling.
Ravager sliced somewhere near where its liver would be and the demon threw back its head and howled. Taking advantage of its distraction, she speared it in the throat and ripped the blade out, taking out half its neck and all of its spinal cord as it fell limply to the ground.
"It's all up to you now champ," Xander told the recovering demon, moving aside. "Next one up!" he called out.
The remaining Polgara got to its feet, extended its spikes from its wrists and crossed them in front of itself while growling out a challenge.
Ravager nodded.
*BOOM*
The demon's head exploded and it fell over.
"I thought you wanted to fight it?" Xander asked, surprised.
Ravager holstered her gun. "I may have overestimated my stamina a bit," she said, out of breath.
"Oh," Xander said. "Let's go find you some water and then we'll look for the two corpses and the kids."
"Yeah," she agreed as she made sure her swords were clean with a rag before dropping it on the floor and sheathing them. "That sounds like a good idea."
They found a bathroom near the front office and she vanished into it, leaving him outside to wait for her. Xander kept his eyes peeled, even looking up to make sure nothing was creeping through the rafters.
"That was insane," she said as she came out of the bathroom looking fully recovered. "I can't believe you let me fight that."
"You did great," Xander encouraged her. "Sure you were a little worn out, but the demon is melting into goo even as we speak."
"I was going full bore for over a minute and the fucker was matching me," she said.
"Almost matching you," Xander corrected her. "You took it apart a piece at a time."
"Yeah," she said, a slowly growing smile on her face. "What would you have done if it'd taken me out?" she asked curiously.
"Probably die," Xander admitted. "As I told you, I know next to nothing about Polgaras and from what I saw they are definitely out of my league."
"And you're okay with that?" she asked in disbelief.
Xander shrugged. "If you're afraid of dying, demon hunting isn't for you."
"Or you just might be insane," she pointed out.
"I hunt things where death is the preferred option if they capture you," Xander said, "that ship has sailed."
Muffled sobbing could be heard faintly and the two quickly followed the noise to a nearby office where over a dozen children from as young as nine to the early teens were kept in cages stacked along the wall, obviously kept drugged to prevent problems, though a few were crying in their sleep.
"I'm going to grab the kid and jet," Ravager said softly. "Can you handle this?"
"Yeah, I need to talk to the local police anyway," he replied. "Want me to keep your name out of it or do you want credit?"
"I think... I'll keep quiet on this one," she decided. "The only people who'll know are me, you, and the kid's parents."
Xander nodded. "Yeah, that's not a problem."
Ravager went from cage to cage until she found a young Asian girl and removed the IV from her arm before gently picking her up. "Tip of the iceberg," she quoted Xander.
"Tip of the iceberg," Xander agreed with a sigh.
"Catch," Ravager said, tossing him a wallet.
"My wallet?" Xander asked, confused.
"I needed your banking info," she replied with a smirk as she vanished out the door.
"It's like Faith had a sister," Xander said with a chuckle before going to find a phone.
0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0
The siren of the approaching police car flipped off as it came to a stop in front of the warehouse, the sound of a second one and an ambulance siren audible a couple of blocks away.
A brown suited detective quickly exited the car. "Mr. Harris?" he asked.
"Detective McKay?" Xander replied.
"That's me," the detective said and whipped out his badge.
"All the hostiles I know of have been neutralized and we've got a bunch of drugged kids in cages," Xander told him as a confused patrol officer exited the car. "Probably best to be on the lookout just in case. Follow me."
The two followed him into the warehouse.
"I thought there might be a couple of bodies waiting to turn, but it looks like they were fed to the Polgaras," Xander said. "If you want pictures of the bodies of the Polgaras you'll have to work fast, they're already melting."
"Melting?" the detective asked.
"Vampires dust, Polgaras melt, as do a lot of demons," Xander replied. He led them to the office where the children were being held. "We're going to need trained medical personnel for the kids, they've kept them drugged."
The detective and the officer entered the room and exited a minute later, both cursing under their breath.
"And the people who did this?" the detective demanded, forcing his voice to stay level.
"Not people, vampires," Xander corrected him and gestured for him to follow.
The two paused on seeing the slowly melting corpses of the Polgaras.
"I've never seen anything like this before," the detective admitted.
"Make sure you don't touch any of the fluids," Xander said, "they have a corrupting influence."
"Walk me through the scene," the detective requested.
"Are those kittens?" the police officer asked.
"Demons use them for poker chips," Xander replied. "Stay away from the body over there, he hasn't been dusted yet and is just playing dead. I plan on using him as an object lesson for my lecture."
The vampire stopped pretending to be a corpse and whimpered.
"Relax," Xander told it, "if you cooperate, I promise a quick death."
The two turned to stare at Xander in disbelief.
"Wait until the lecture, it'll all make sense then," Xander said. "I'll also need a couple of pints of blood so he'll be healthy enough to talk."
"This is going to be an interesting report," the officer said.
"Bradly, go handle the new arrivals, make sure they don't mess up my crime scene," Detective McKay said, pulling a micro-recorder out of his pocket. "Okay, let's take it from the top."
Xander nodded. "I was watching a street performance down on the wharf when I noticed a vampire..."
Typing By: Abyssal Angel
Beta By: Abyssal Angel, Mist of Shadows, and Kyrin Fireheart
AN: Okay, had time to touch it up, enjoy!