Chapter Four: The Hunter
Or Sleepless in Los Angeles

_ _ _ _ _



Faith walked downed the sidewalk at three am, constantly looking around. She'd done well for
herself in the past month. There had been close to $50,000 in the bag Raven had given her at the diner. She
had used it to buy a beat-up old Chevy Nova and had driven to LA, then found herself a cheap apartment.

She'd spent the last month wandering the streets, doing what she did best; kill vampires. She
didn't know what else to do with herself. The instructions Raven had given her were so vague that she had
no idea where to begin.

""Find the Bard' he says," Faith said to herself. "No, I don't know who this person is or what they
look like, but find the Bard. Like how genius?" She sighed. This felt like a waste of time to her. She'd be
better off in Sunnydale, doing..."

"Doing what?" She growled out loud. "Fighting with Buffy again? Like that'd solve anything."
She pressed her hand on her stomach briefly, over the still itching scar that had been left from Buffy
driving her own knife into her gut.

Faith continued her grumbling as she walked up the steps into her apartment building. She dug her
keys out of her jean pocket and slipped them into the lock, opening the door. She walked inside and
slammed the door shut behind her. She reached for the light switch and flipped the lights on.

Raven was sitting on her cheap couch. He was dressed in black as usual, trench coat and all. His
eyes were still hidden behind the sunglasses. He sat, looking at Faith, hands resting on the head of his cane.

"How did you get in here?" Faith asked angrily. Raven smiled thinly.

"There are very few places I can't go if I wish it," he said softly. Faith frowned and walked into
the living room. She sat down in a chair opposite from the couch.

"What do you want?" she asked.

"Same thing I wanted when I healed your wounds. Find the Bard," Raven said, calmly. Faith
snorted.

"That's all well and good, but you haven't exactly told me how to do that" she said. "What is a
Bard anyway?"

"A Bard is a person who creates magic with music," Raven said softly.

"Oh that helps," Faith said sarcastically. Raven laughed.

"I enjoy your openness, Faith." Raven said. "I have been told on good authority that you will lead
me to this Bard."

"Why do you need to find him so bad?" Faith asked. Raven sighed, the smile vanishing completely
from his face.

"A prophecy. A rather important one," he said quietly. He shook his head.
"It's not important right now. I'll tell you the whole story eventually." Faith nodded. She figured she
wouldn't get anymore out of him at the moment.

Raven stared at Faith silently for a few moments. She looked back at him, growing uncomfortable
the longer the silence lasted. Raven at last sighed, and reached up, removing his sunglasses, revealing a pair
of dark, crystal blue eyes.

"You, uhm, have nice eyes," Faith said. She felt foolish, she sounded like a stupid schoolgirl.
Raven smiled slightly again.

"Thank you. Usually when people comment on my eyes, it's to tell me they want to rip them out,"
he said, in an amused tone. Faith laughed. Raven watched her, smiling.

"Keep looking for the Bard," Raven said, before slipping the sunglasses back on his face. He
stood, and walked over to the door, opening it and walking outside. Faith sat silently, watching as the door
closed behind him.

"Who the hell is that guy?" she asked the empty room.

_ _ _ _ _

Buffy leaned against the wall of Giles' apartment, staring at Jason, who was leaning back on the
cough, a pained look on his face. Jason's T-shirt was ripped and shredded from where the shotgun shell had
hit him, the skin underneath was still red and raw, but looked to be healing rapidly.

Chelle was sitting next to Jason on the couch. Xander sat in a chair he had pulled from the kitchen;
Oz and Willow sat in a recliner together. Giles stood in the doorway that led to the kitchen, watching the
entire room. Buffy took a deep breath and spoke up.

"You died," Buffy said, speaking toward Jason. He shrugged.

"It happens," he said, before he started coughing. Everyone watched him as he bent over,
coughing hard until a handful of black, metal pellets spewed from his mouth and hit the ground. He sat up,
wiping his mouth with the back of his hand.

"Sorry about that," he said. "Been awhile since I've had to cough up shotgun pellets."

"You plan on explaining this anytime soon? What are you?" Buffy asked in a firm tone.

"I'm a demon hunter. I told you that," Jason replied, a wry smile on his face. Chelle turned and
punched him in the shoulder.

"Enough with the man of mystery bit Jason! Tell them the damn story!" she yelled at him. Jason
sighed, rubbing his shoulder. He looked around to everyone in the room.

"All right then," he started. "My name is Jason Redtree. I'm a demon hunter. I've been doing it for
422 years. For some reason I really don't understand, I can't die. Any damage done to my body that doesn't
destroy it completely, will heal itself."

Jason reached to the collar of his ruined shirt, pulling it down to expose the thin scar that ran all
the way around his throat.

"I got this scar when my head was cut off by the guillotine in 1799," he said, pointing to the scar.
"It took me three weeks to heal this completely, even when a friend sewed my head back onto my body."

"I just want to go one record as saying 'Ouch'," Xander said. Jason laughed.

"Yeah, it did hurt. But I got over it," Jason said. He lit a cigarette with his Zippo and took a long
drag off it.

"How did it happen?" Willow asked quietly. Jason laughed a weak sounding laugh.

"Oh you want that story," he said softly. "Okay, here goes. I was born on a farm outside of London
in 1560. My family was small for the times, just me, my parents, and my little sister Ruth. Simple life
really. I was gonna take over the farm when my dad died." Jason stopped for a moment, taking another drag
off his cigarette before continuing.

"Not long after I turned sixteen, this guy showed up," Jason continued. "Turned out his was my
great-uncle on my mother's side. He was a nasty character, a mage, of a sect called the Nephandi. The
Nephandi are evil, serving demons and other dark creatures. My 'uncle' decided that my family and I
should come live in his castle, and be his servants for awhile. We couldn't go against his wishes. He used
his power to burn the farm to the ground."

"So you went with him," Buffy said. Jason nodded, a grim look on his face.

"We spent two years in his castle," Jason said. "We saw all manner of evil things. We wanted to
get away but couldn't. One day, he had some of his demon servants drag us to his laboratory." He stopped,
staring at his cigarette it burned.

"What happened?" Buffy asked softly. Jason took a deep breath.

"Oh, he sacrificed them," he said. "Cut them to ribbons right in front of me. Part of some ritual to
give him immortality. I got to go last. Tied down on a big stone slab that was soaked with the blood of my
family. Last thing I felt was his knife going into my chest."

"That's horrible," Willow whispered. Jason nodded, then continued.

"I woke up not to long after. I saw the hole in my chest sealing itself," he said. "My guess is he
fucked up the ceremony, and the immortality was given to me. My uncle didn't notice me get up. I grabbed
the knife off the altar and put it right between his eyes." Jason stopped, dropping his cigarette to the floor
where he ground it out with his boot. He stared at the floor silently for a few minutes. Chelle laid a hand on
his shoulder gently.

"You don't have to go on," Buffy said. Jason looked up, shaking his head.

"I wandered around after that, for the better part of a century," Jason continued. "I was in a sort of
rage for that time. I went looking for demons, killing them when I found them, using either spells I stole
from my uncle's library or my bare hands when I had to. If anyone got in my way, I killed them too. All I
wanted was revenge..."

"You're a mage?" Willow asked. Jason shook his head.

"No, I can't make reality dance like Chelle can," Jason said. "I used hedge magic. It backfired on
me as often as it worked."

"Oh," Willow said.

"After about ninety years, I found myself in Japan," Jason went on. "I saw this pretty young
woman fighting a demon. She was as human as the next person but she was putting a real beating on this
thing. I jumped into the fight and managed to get three six-inch claws driven into my chest for my trouble."

"Well, the girl dispatched the demon, and watched in interested as my fatal wounds healed
themselves," Jason said. "She introduced herself to me as Mi Ling. We ended up talking, and I told her my
story. She told me that wandering around in a rage and slaughtering anything I thought was evil was a
quick way to become as evil as what I fought."

"Good advice I'd say," Xander said. Jason shook his head.

"Mi Ling was a Shih," Jason continued. "The Shih are solitary demon hunters that are all over
Asia. They are ordinary humans, which have been trained to use their inner Chi in conjunction with the
martial arts to fight demons. I spent the next thirty-five years learning from her. She taught me how to
control my rage, how to fight, and how to use my own inner power to fight the demons. And I've been
doing that ever since."

Jason leaned back on the couch, the expression on his face blank. Chelle squeezed his shoulder
comfortingly.

"Fascinating story," Giles said softly. Jason shrugged.

"You've been teaching me Shih techniques," Buffy said. Jason nodded, then laid his head on
Chelle's shoulder.

"Yes," he said. "I knew Callista was planning on killing you. I knew you'd need help. So I came,
to teach you what I knew. To fight along with you. Because things are going to get real bad here."

"How so?" Buffy asked.

"The Sabbat are planning to attack Los Angeles. They want to take the city," Jason said. "It's the
only major city in the western world that isn't under the control of either the Sabbat or the Camarilla."

"I thought you said the sects had control of all the major cities," Giles said, worry in his voice.

"Except LA," Jason said. "Around the end of World War Two, a group of Anarchs overthrew the
Camarilla prince of the city, and declared LA the Anarch Free States. The Sabbat tried to take the city
before, in 1965. They failed miserably. This time, they plan on using Sunnydale as a base of operations.
They think they can gain power from the Hellmouth."

"How do you know all this?" Buffy asked.

"Callista told me last year," Jason said quietly.

"Why would she tell you that?" Xander asked.

"I was sleeping with her at the time. She told me a lot of things," Jason said. Buffy's jaw dropped
in shock.

"You slept with that bitch?" she asked. Jason sighed.

"I used her to get close to her sire, an ancient vampire named Portyuos," he said. "He was
powerful, and very evil. He liked to do horrible things to small children. I did what I had to do to get close
enough to kill him. I'm not proud of it, but I don't owe you or anyone else any apologies for it."

"I see," Buffy said.

"This is interesting and stuff, but it is getting late," Oz spoke up for the first time. "Willow is half
asleep."

"No I'm not..." Willow started to say, before it was cut off by a yawn.

"Yes, it is late," Giles said. "Why don't we all come back tomorrow and discuss what to do next."
The group nodded, and started heading for the door, Oz supporting the half-asleep Willow. Buffy and Jason
were the last to get to the door. Buffy turned around, and looked at Jason.

"I can see why you didn't want to tell me that story. I'm sorry," she said quietly. Jason looked at
her, and nodded.

"No big deal. You had no reason to trust me," he said. He gave her a half-hearted smile, then
moved past her and into the night.

_ _ _ _ _

Willow found herself standing in the endless flower field once again. She knew she was dreaming
this time, and was curious as why she was here again. She looked down, and was glad to see she wasn't
naked this time, instead she was wearing a thin, white robe.

"Hello Willow," a female voice that seemed to come from nowhere said.

"Orchid?" Willow said.

"Yes, you remember me," Orchid said happily. Willow smiled in spite of herself.

"You were hard to forget. I'm dreaming again, right?" Willow asked.

"Yes," Orchid said, her voice suddenly serious. "I brought you here because time is getting short.
You are going to have to wake up soon, or your friends will die."

"What?" Willow asked in confusion. "What do you mean my friend will die?"

Orchid didn't reply, but four items appeared in front of Willow, floating in mid-air. The first was a
sword, the second a book, the third a laptop computer, the fourth an intricate carving of a bird made of
onyx.

"What are these for?" Willow asked, still confused.

"A glimpse Willow, of your future," Orchid replied. "They all represent things that will help you.
Some of them you will use, some of them others will use, and some of them will use you."

Willow reached forward silently, reaching for the sword. She didn't understand any of this, didn't
understand why she was reaching for the sword. As her hand wrapped around the hilt, all of the items
vanished. A loud crack of thunder broke the sky at that moment.

Willow looked up to see storm clouds rapidly filling the sky. The wind picked up, sending flower
petals flying into the air. Rain and thunder began to fall from the sky.

"The storm will help you Willow," Orchid said. At that moment, Oz's van stopped, causing
Willow to jerk forward, waking up. She looked around, and saw that they were outside her house.

"You okay?" Oz asked. She blinked at him, then shook her head.

"Weird dreams," she said. She smiled, and leans across the seat, wrapping her arms around Oz's
neck. He smiled at her.

"Thanks for the ride home," she said, and then she kissed him.

_ _ _ _ _

Raven sat, on a large throne made of pure onyx, at one end of a massive stone hall. He was staring
into the large sapphire that was held by the silver dragon's claw on the head of his cane. As he stared at it, a
large smile broke out on his face.

"She found the Hunter," he said quietly.

End of Chapter Four