"Acid?" Rose guessed.

"Holy water," Xander replied, "though it may as well be acid to him. Would you mind chopping off his limbs? We don't need them and it'll be easier to bury his screaming torso without them."

"Won't that kill him?" she asked curiously, wondering if she was supposed to be playing good cop or bad cop in this scenario.

The vampire fell silent, staring at Xander in horror.

"It's a blood demon possessing a corpse, they aren't dead till they're dusted and as long as we don't destroy the heart or cut off his head he'll be fine," Xander assured her.

"That's not fine!" the vampire squealed.

"It's fine for our purposes," Xander casually 'assured' him. "Your choices are pretty much give us the information and die now or be tortured for the information and then buried where no one will even find your limbless torso, slowly starving into insanity until the sun shifts into a red giant and swallows the Earth."

"Won't someone eventually find it?" Rose asked curiously, trying to think of where they could bury a body so it wouldn't be found for that long a period of time.

"Archaeologists are always finding century old stuff just a couple of feet below the surface," Xander explained, "so if I cover him in enough plastic so he can't make noise or move I can dispose of him in one of the underground rivers when I visit Carlsbad Caverns in New Mexico. That will put him below the water table so he will never be found, ever."

"You're a monster," Simon said in horror, his vampiric senses telling him the young man was completely serious.

Xander burst into laughter until he had to wipe tears from his eyes at the irony of a vampire calling him a monster.

"How would that work on a regenerator?" she asked curiously.

"Depends on the type of regeneration," Xander replied. "If he needs to eat to grow things back he'd die, especially if he needs oxygen, but if he can do without oxygen and grow things back without needing food to fuel it we're looking at a couple of decades to dig his way out at best and much less if he gets lucky and finds a cave system or something."

"Rose Wilson, I go by Ravager in costume," she introduced herself, impressed by his ruthlessness and offering her hand.

"Alexander Harris," he said, shaking her hand and finding she had a grip like Buffy, probably indicating superhuman strength, "my friends call me Xander."

"Xander Harris?!" the vampire exclaimed, even more terrified than he had been. "F-from Sun-Sunnydale?"

"You've heard of me?" Xander asked, a bit surprised.

"Y-Yeah," the vampire agreed with a shudder. "I'll take the quick death after telling you everything I know, please!"

"What kind of rep do you have?" Ravager asked.

Xander shrugged. "I have no idea, there are very few vampires I've talked to that didn't get dusted."

"You faced the Scourge of Europe," Simon said.

"Oh, yeah, I wasn't allowed to dust them," Xander said with a frown. "Buffy had a thing for Angelus and Spike made a deal for himself and Dru, but we did get Darla." His grin was vicious.

"Please ask me questions and then dust me," the vampire begged.

"Where are the children and what kind of defenses do you have?" Rose demanded.

Simon almost tripped over his own tongue telling them everything he knew, while Xander retrieved his dagger from Marc's chest.

Ten Minutes Later...

"And that is everything I know," Simon swore.

"Quick death it is then," Xander said, a wooden stake sliding out of his sleeve and into his hand which he offered to Rose. "Do you want to do the honors? You'll want to pull your sword out so it doesn't dust with him."

"That's a work of art," the vampire said as he stared at the stake thinking about how much time and effort the man had to have put into creating what was essentially a disposable item that would dust a single vampire. "The stories are true... You live to do nothing but kill us... Your greatest joy in life is to bring us death!"

"A bit of an overreaction," Xander said, a bit offended.

Rose yanked the sword out with her left hand as she stabbed forward with the right, spearing the vampire in the heart who immediately turned to ash. "Huh, never seen that before." She offered the stake to Xander.

"Surprised it didn't dust with him," Xander said, sliding it up his sleeve.

"Several vampires, half a dozen humans, and a pair of... Polgara," she carefully pronounced the demon's name. "I need more information if we're going to pull this off."

"Not a problem," Xander said, "I have extensive knowledge on vampires and how to kill them as well as a demonologist's guide to explain what Polgaras are and the best way to put them down."

"So, we're dealing with actual demons?" she asked, just to be sure.

"That's what vampires are," Xander said, "demons possessing corpses, but yeah the Polgaras are also demons, but thankfully not pure blood demons or name rank, just your run of the mill minion types."

"Never heard of a demon being referred to as run of the mill," Rose said, shaking her head.

"I'd really like to say the same, but it is what it is," Xander said with a shrug.

"Give me a minute to take his head," Rose said, "my clients like to have proof the job is done."

"Wouldn't the hands be better for that?" Xander asked. "I mean, getting his fingerprints to compare is easier than using dental records, not to mention easier to cart around."

Rose considered that. "You are a very practical guy," she said. "I'll have to offer that in future, but for now the contract calls for his head, and I'll add the hands as a freebie."

She made several quick swipes with her blade, removing the head and hands of her target which she set aside to allow the blood to drain so it would drip less in the container.

"Are you going to allow your hate to blind you and rush off to kill the vampires when we arrive?" she asked as she wiped her sword off on the body. "I need to know if you're reliable or I should just count on you as a distraction. The amount of fear that vampire was showing suggests the latter."

Xander snickered. "While I do want to genocide the entire species, I'll kill far more training others in what to look for and how to kill them than doing it all myself."

"I'll learn whatever you'd care to teach me in the next hour while we prepare," she told him.

"Vampires have five times the strength and speed a person their size should possess..." Xander began.

0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0

"The Polgaras are going to be tough to take on two on one," Rose said as she read over the entry.

"Not if you shoot them in the head," Xander replied as he signaled for a left turn and waited for the light to change.

"Seems a bit lazy," she said with a frown.

"Well, if you must engage them in hand to hand," Xander said, a bit amused at how much Ravager reminded him of a Slayer, "they rely on hand attacks and probably ignore their legs since they have the whole spring loaded spike thing, so simply hamstring one and make the other one chase you. By the time the first one heals, you'll have killed the second, that way you can fight them both one on one."

"And if they stay together, guarding their injured friend?" she asked doubtfully.

"They're demons and ones from a rather stupid species of demon, they are susceptible to the seven deadly sins more than most humans are," Xander explained. "Wrath makes it really easy to provoke them."

"Dealt with them before?" she guessed.

"No, it's just basic demonology 101," Xander replied. "Demons are more susceptible to their base instincts and will seek to use whatever ability or mutation they have even when it'd be better not to."

"And if they turn out to be smarter than expected?"

"Shoot them in the head," Xander replied with a shrug. "Also, avoid getting any of their blood on you, some demons can pass on aspects of their species to you and it's generally ones you won't like."

"Do vamps do that?"

"I don't know," Xander said with a frown. "I generally don't injure them."

"Ashes don't bleed," she said, finding amusement in how clueless he seemed to be on why vampires would fear him.

"Another good reason to stake them as quickly as possible," Xander said.

"Pull in there," she said, pointing to a three-story parking garage. "Done any wire work?"

"Unless you are talking about home maintenance, I'm going to guess no," Xander said as he pulled a ticket from the machine and the gate went up.

"I was planning to rappel to the roof of the warehouse from the parking structure so we could enter through the roof and get a good look at where everyone is and what the patrols are like," she explained.

Xander parked his car on the second floor. "Sounds like a good plan, but I'd probably give you away."

"What training do you have?" she asked.

"None," Xander replied, "but I've spent just about the whole of high school fighting vampires and demons so I picked things up."

"How are you still alive?" Rose asked in disbelief.

"No clue," Xander said with a shrug. "I've just had a lot of experience killing things that were stronger and faster than me as well as more skilled."

"Super powers?" she asked.

"None to speak of," Xander said. "I'm learning a little magic, but it's still in the early stages."

"You took out Marc easy enough and that vampire was terrified of you," she said thoughtfully. "I suppose experience really is the best teacher."

"It really is, at least for me," Xander agreed.

"So what was your plan for handling this?" she asked.

"I figured you'd be able to tap into the cameras for recon and I'd be able to cause enough of a commotion to have them overlook you sneaking in and taking out the Polgaras," Xander replied. "But I'm new to anything remotely resembling proper planning so I'm following your lead here."

She nodded thoughtfully. "The cameras aren't likely to cover the areas we need to have eyes on, as they aren't trying to watch themselves."

"Hadn't thought of that," Xander admitted.

"So, I'll walk you through the wire work and we'll enter through the roof. I'll take a quick look around and then we'll hit the targets closest to our objective so they can't use them as hostages while luring in the others so we can take them out safely."

"Much better than my plan," Xander said, "let's do it."

They got out of the car, Xander grabbing his shield from behind his seat.

"Thor?" Rose asked, recognizing the symbol.

"Stole it from a museum while dealing with cultists, the symbol works just as well as a crucifix on vampires," Xander replied.

"And the teeth?" she asked, noting a few human teeth embedded in the edge of the shield.

"Knew I forgot to do something," Xander muttered, "The edge also works very well against humans."

"Surprised you don't also carry a warhammer," she said.

Xander picked up the warhammer from the floorboard. "Probably too bulky for wire work, but it also works well on just about everything." He returned it to the floorboard.

"I'm almost tempted to simply kick in the front doors to see you wield that, but let's stick to the plan for now," she said, deciding she was definitely going to have one of the people that owed her favors in the spy community run a background check on him later.

Xander followed her to the third floor overlooking the warehouse where she pulled a pneumatic gun from her belt and shot a wire into the roof of the building, tying it off to the bumper of a black SUV.

"The wire is rated for over three hundred pounds and at an angle where your own body weight will let you all but glide down it as long as you don't panic and choke up," she explained, taking a small, wheeled device about the size of a pencil case out of a pouch. "Squeeze to slow down, and it'll bring you to a complete stop within five feet. Can you handle it?"

Xander accepted the device and nodded. "Looks easy enough." He ignored the little voice in his head telling him this was a bad idea as he had absolutely no idea what he was doing and had only seen this sort of thing in movies staring cat burglars.

"You go first and I'll follow," she told him.

Xander nodded and clipped the device in place as he forced himself to breathe slowly, memories of paratrooper training that he'd never received flitting through his mind as he focused on his goal, trusting in the equipment to carry him through. Loosely wrapping his hands around the device he slid off the edge of the building with his eyes focused on the opposing roof, wind ruffling his hair as he sailed across the air between the two buildings. He tightened his grip as he got within two body lengths of the landing point and smoothly came to a stop, his feet touching down on the slanted roof with barely a thump.

He turned around, feeling quite proud of himself only to stare in disbelief as Ravager simply stepped on the wire and surfed down it like she was riding an escalator.

She stepped off the wire, landing on the roof with all the noise of a falling leaf, a small smirk on her face at his stunned expression. "It gets easier the more you do it," she whispered smugly. "Now, let's find a good entry point."

Typing By: Abyssal Angel

Beta By: Abyssal Angel, Mist of Shadows, and Kyrin Fireheart

TN: "Wouldn't the hands be better for that?" Xander asked.

"No actually," Abyssal Angel explained, "While it eases identification, fingerprints aren't perfect, ironically enough, and to top it off, it leaves a bit of leeway for false kills, while the head is almost always a guaranteed death. You can survive without a hand. Without your head? Not likely. If your assassin brings you the hands, there's always that tiny bit of wiggle room in that they only successfully cut off the hand, or betrayed you in some fashion, getting their money and leaving an enemy at your back. Best to get the head and have that certainty. Now, head and hands? That's just good service."

AN: Dental X-Rays weren't created for identification purposes, are harder to check and are easier to fake.

TN2: I'd honestly hope that the client would recognize someone they put a hit on, but that aside, wouldn't it be best to test DNA if it's that much in question whether it is the real target or not?

AN2: I can easily find dozens of people who look alike, that's why we use fingerprints also the face distorts after death making identification harder. Yes, DNA evidence is the best way to test, however fingerprints are quick, easy, and designed to be used for identification.