"Hello everyone, my name is Alexander Harris, but you can call me Xander," he introduced himself to the room full of law enforcement officers. "I'm here to tell you about things that someone should have informed you of but for some reason didn't."

"Not sure who dropped the ball on this one," Detective Miller said, "who all actually knows all that much about the undead?"

"Quite a few people," Xander said. "There are actually organizations who have been around for centuries that deal with them. Why they didn't inform you? Your guess is as good as mine, but I suspect they just want to feel special and they have their heads up their ass."

There were quite a few chuckles from the audience at that.

"As police officers, you see more of the city than just about anyone, which means once you know the signs, you'll be able to easily locate and identify vampires," Xander said and waited for the usual side glances and scoffs of disbelief to fade before getting into the subject of his lecture.

Half an hour later

It hadn't take much, just a few still shots from the publicly available report on Sunnydale by the Justice League and all disbelief had faded away like a snowflake in the summer heat. After that, everyone had become more focused on the topic and took a lot of notes as they dug deep into Xander's knowledge base on the topic of undead in general and vampires in particular.

He had a wealth of personal knowledge on the subject which he was happy to share, though he was a little unsure on why some of his funniest anecdotes got shudders while he laughed about them.

"Excuse me," a red haired detective requested, passing Xander a half dozen photos. "This may not be your area of expertise as I doubt it's undead related, but for the past decade in Jump City once a year a small number of young women go missing. The timing was always the same, the tenth of October until three years ago when it switched to the sixth of June."

Xander nodded and paged through the photos while listening, stopping at a familiar blonde's face.

"These women were all reported missing recently," the detective continued. "Do you think it might be occult related?"

"The tenth day of the tenth month... Several years ago." Xander groaned. "Do you have a branch of the Delta Zeta Kappa fraternity in Jump City?"

"I'll have to check, but it's likely," he replied. "They're connected?"

"Yeah," Xander agreed. "Several years ago we had to infiltrate the fraternity and kill a massive snake demon they were sacrificing girls to, for money and protection. At the time he required the sacrifices on the tenth day of the tenth month, but if they re-summoned him it probably changed the contract they had with him."

"Johnson, get a warrant," Detective Miller ordered. "If they're here, they'll be on the college campus, fraternity row."

"What's the snake thing you had to kill and what do we need to kill it?" Miller asked.

"Bludgeoning followed by beheading," Xander replied, "it's not a particularly hard demon to kill. Bullets won't do much unless they are large caliber. A grenade or two however would completely ruin its day. It looks like a snake man with a snake tail for the lower half."

"I can make that happen," Detective Miller said, before calling over a dozen police officers and sending them off on assorted tasks.

"Do you really think the police can handle it?" the red haired detective asked.

"Yeah, it just takes massive physical trauma to put down," Xander replied, "something the police are more than equipped to handle."

"That's good to hear," the detective said. "Well, looks like the lecture is over."

"And I can sneak away without doing paperwork, excellent," Xander said, quickly collecting his notes.

The station was a madhouse as he slipped out and hopped in his car, happy everyone was too busy to notice him.

"I really 'w' word that I had a better memory," Xander complained, as he recalled reading up on the demon later in Giles' books but not a lot of details.

"I wonder if he's in one of the books I have," Xander muttered to himself as he drove, wondering if he should just grab a motel room and call it a night early as while it was still early, he didn't really feel like doing anything fun until he knew the girls were safe.

"I can't believe Harmony got kidnapped just days after graduation," he complained to himself as he searched for a motel, eventually finding one and grabbing a room on the bottom floor so he could avoid stairs.

Ten minutes later...

"Machida," Xander said. "I was way off. I knew it wasn't Matilda." He continued reading. "Yeah, no new info except for an allergy to corn stalks. I have no idea what to do with that information."

In the background the room's TV played the local news with the volume on low, that Xander occasionally glanced at, wondering if he should get a cell phone so he could leave a number for police to call him at.

Curiosity satisfied and with nothing more he could tell the police that would be useful, Xander decided to brave the book on Enochian runes once more.

"Still not sure if it's journey, travel, or location," Xander complained as he went over the third rune he'd been working on.

Going over his notes he still couldn't figure out which name suited it best and briefly wondered if he could use it to track down Harmony. It required a strong emotional connection to the target and he was pretty sure he didn't have any great affection for the girl.

Really, the one word that came to mind when he thought of Harmony was annoying. Sure, she was beautiful and could inspire some lust, which he was almost positive wasn't an emotion you could use with angelic runes, but knowing her as he did it was all buried under how annoying she had always been.

The only time he hadn't found her annoying was while they'd been preparing for graduation. With her own life on the line and a clear understanding of what they were facing, she had buckled down and learned whatever he could teach her.

It had actually been rather gratifying and he'd been proud of her.

Xander laid down on the bed and closed his eyes, trying to recall every single positive interaction with the girl. He recalled times when she'd looked him over thoughtfully... Okay, lustfully, until she'd realized who she'd been ogling and gotten embarrassed.

Yeah, annoyance was the strongest emotion by far. No matter how he tried to frame his memories of the girl, annoyance just leapt right in!

"Well... Nothing said it had to be a positive emotion," he told himself, concentrating on how annoying she could be to him. He built the rune up in his mind, a simple arrangement of six Vs in all directions, overlapping one another as they were laid down clockwise starting with an upside down V.

Something clicked as he visualized the completed rune and he knew its name... Pilgrimage.

There was a brief feeling of satisfaction before he was buried under a flood of annoyance and the realization that he had to find her. It was no longer a choice, the rune he'd constructed in his mind was almost visible in the air and it demanded he go.

"Fucking Harmony," Xander grumbled as he got up, retrieved his dagger and a couple of stakes that he secreted on his person before snatching up the books he'd been reading and heading for his car.

0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0

"And this is where we hang out when not patrolling or while waiting to be called to action," Beastboy said.

Buffy smiled and looked around the 'livingroom' of the Titan's Tower. "This looks so much better than where we hung out between disasters."

"And that was?" Raven asked curiously.

"Sunnydale High School library, directly over the Hellmouth," Buffy replied. "My Watcher used being the High School librarian to cover for us meeting there at all hours."

"That does sound like a drag," Cyborg said, "at least here we can watch movies or play video games while waiting for the latest disaster."

"The blue shell is a formidable weapon," Starfire said solemnly, the orange skinned alien princess floating half a foot off the ground.

"Mario Cart?" Beastboy asked with a grin.

"Mario Cart," Cyborg agreed. "I'll set it up for six players!"

"Five," Raven said, "I need to meditate. I can sense something off in the city."

"Visions?" Buffy guessed. At Raven's curious look she explained, "I get Slayer dreams, which while hard to figure out at least offer a clue as to what the next demon of the week is."

"Sounds handy," Raven replied. "No, I just meditate to clear my mind and try to feel the emotional currents of the city. If I'm lucky I can often sense trouble spots that way."

"Sounds more handy than precognitive dreams that really only make sense in hindsight," Buffy told her, getting a small smile from the gothic teen before her shadow rose up and swallowed her.

"That just looks so wigsome," Buffy said, "useful and I really wish I could do it, but wigsome."

"You'd be amazed at what you can get used to," Robin told her as they all settled on the couch to play.

"I really wouldn't," Buffy told him with a grin as the race started.

Halfway through the first lap with Buffy in the lead Raven returned, phasing up through the floor in front of the five.

"I've got half a dozen terrified and panicking young women surrounded by well over two dozen lustful and arrogant young men," Raven announced. "We've got to move now!"

Controllers had gone flying as she'd surprised them but they'd all jumped to their feet.

"Titan's Go!" Robin called out, pausing to address Buffy, "Sorry, you've got to hang back here on this one, we haven't got authorization to bring you along until after you've gone through training."

"I... understand," Buffy said, collapsing back on the sofa. "Kick them a few times for me, alright?"

"You know it," Cyborg promised, giving her a high five.

"Many kicks will be given for their actions," Starfire swore before the team ran from the room.

Buffy retrieved a controller and changed the game setting. "Hope Xander's having more fun on his trip than I am," the Slayer said, wondering if he would call what she was feeling some variation of cockblocked because it had been several days since she'd gotten to fight... and she was feeling a tad pent up.

0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0

Xander could feel the pull in his chest, pulsing with his heartbeat... It was every bit as annoying as Harmony was. That was probably ironic or fitting or something, Xander absently decided as he spotted the Jump City cultural museum and knew that was where the girl was.

"Don't be the white couple in a horror movie," he reminded himself and looked around for a payphone, spotting a row of them currently located near the bus stop that would presumably allow the peasants to see all the culture the rich folks who funded the museum would allow them to experience.

He hopped out of his car, leaving the engine running, and lifted the receiver. "And we have dial tone," he said in relief, quickly dialing 911. "Hello 911? This is Alexander Harris, I gave the lecture on supernatural creatures. I located at least one of the missing girls, she's in the Jump City cultural museum. Backup would be appreciated, but I've got to go kick in the door and fight a snake demon now. Warrants not needed since I'm breaking and entering so the police can just use the excuse that they were investigating a break in. Got it? Great! Love you, bye!"

Jumping back in the car, Xander quickly drove across the large parking lot to the front doors. The lot was completely empty and if not for the pull in his chest by the pilgrimage rune he'd have doubted anyone was there.

He parked right in front of the glass doors on the sidewalk and turned off the ignition. He could faintly hear chanting coming from inside. "I am so far over my head it's not even funny," he muttered before getting out of the car and rechecking his weapons, the pull of the rune getting stronger.

"It's just a bunch of frat boys... and one large demon," he told himself, as he checked the glass doors and finding them locked, really wishing Buffy was with him.

He slammed the pommel of his dagger into the glass which shattered and rained down on the ground with a lot less noise than he'd expected. It did make the chanting a lot easier to hear he noticed as he hurried inside, glass crunching under his boots.

"Okay, a dozen or so frat boys… that I can't stake," he cursed to himself as he realized this was going to be even more difficult than he thought. "Maybe some blunt trauma to slow them down until the cops arrive?"

He passed through a Norse exhibit as he followed the rune, pausing to take in the various displays before snatching up a small shield for his left arm and a short handled warhammer.

A girl's panicked scream sounded out and Xander broke into a run.

He burst into a circular room lit by torches and moonlight streaming in from the skylight, perfectly displaying a number of robed figures, a number of restrained young women, and one very large snake demon with a very large mouth opened wide to swallow one of the girls whole.

Xander let the hammer fly.

Typing By: Abyssal Angel

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