Anything she needed to feel safe. The way that man's voice was so cold, his face so expressionless, Buffy wished she still had her army of new Slayers with her. But many had left in the months since that scaled down apocalypse in Sunnydale, so she had to be content with bringing Faith along. "Where the heck we goin' B? We were out kinda late last night and my head hurts like crazy. I mean no offense but I'd take Robin and a warm bed over you and this old crappy car any day, know what I'm sayin'?" Buffy smiled sweetly at her friend and didn't reply. "I'm serious Buff. Where are going at eight in the morning?" "I'm not really sure." "Dammit Buffy! Turn the car around!" "I know where we're going. I just don't know why, not exactly. Last night a man came and said he had something important to tell me. Told me to meet him here." She handed faith the scrap of paper with the address on it. The Slayer glanced at the paper and tossed to the ground, looking disgusted. "Did he say anything about waking me up so damned early?" "Nope, that was my idea. I thought it would be fun. Actually I just wanted to get this over with." "You really are nervous aren't you B?" "Yeah I guess I kinda am. You didn't see this guy though." "Well, is there gonna be a fight?"

Buffy smiled again. "Maybe." Faith grinned at her, suddenly wide awake. "If there's a fight, I forgive you. If there isn't, you're buyin' me breakfast." They drove in silence for the rest of the ride, the early morning traffic floating around them. The traffic lessened as the pulled further and further from the heart of the city. The address was a large, old house complete with ornamental fence and metal gate. Pulling up the old rusted Volvo Giles had bought somewhere along the line next to a gleaming black Monte Carlo, Faith let out a low whistle. "If we kill him, I get to keep his car." They got out of the car and approached the gate, the sounds of birds calling to each other loud in their ears. Buffy pushed at the gate, he had said to meet him in the garden. As she suspected, it swung open with a slight creak. The door, however was locked. "Did he give you a key? Cuz I'm kinda itchin' to kick something." Faith punched the air enthusiastically, a self-mocking smile on her face. "I think we'll all get along better if we don't destroy his property Faith." There was a gate around the side of the house, Buffy walked over to it, peeking into windows as she went. "You need to get your priorities straight missy." Faith grinned again and opened up the gate, jumping into the garden with her hands together, thumb and forefinger making a childish gun. "All right, everybody freeze! This is the police." Her words petered out and her hands fell to her sides as she stared. The man calling himself Cain was indeed in the garden as he'd promised. He was wearing a loose flowing black uniform of some sort; Xander would probably shout out instantly that it was some Oriental uniform associated with martial arts. Perspiration glistened on his bare tanned arms and off his brow. At first glance Buffy thought he was somehow floating. But she quickly realized that he was holding himself up, balancing on a small raised stone by one arm. If he had heard Faith's outburst, he gave no sign of it, and they couldn't tell, he was still wearing those dark glasses. "Buffy, how's he doing that?" Faith whispered, her eyes suddenly a bit frightened. "I don't know. But I'm sure there are plenty of explanations. Maybe he's just really, really, really, fit." "Well he's freakin' me out." Faith picked up a stone from one of the flowerbeds gracing the garden and hurled it at him. The pebble struck him a glancing blow in the elbow, and he gave a grunt of pain, setting his other hand down and propelling himself back to his feet. "I'm glad to see you made it. And this would be Faith. It's a pleasure to meet you. Do you like my garden?" he asked, grabbing a towel from a nearby ornamental wooden post. Buffy took a moment to take in her surroundings. They were in a very large garden, and it looked like a perfect mixture of the Chinese gardens you saw in paintings and Martha Stewart's dream backyard. There were several large trees, and a large variety of flowers just beginning to bloom. There was also a small stream, complete with arching bridge and several posts and stones to add to the effect. "Its beautiful. I didn't think you'd be the gardening type," she said, continuing to marvel at the place. Her mother would love this. "Yeah, its great. Hey, how'd you know my name? You some kind of evil mind reader?" Faith had hardly glanced at the marvels around her, but was staring with a mixture of lust and suspicion at the man across from her. He didn't laugh, didn't smile, his face remained blank, the lenses of his shades making him look like some sort of alien. "I've heard an awful lot about all of you. Everything anyone would tell me in fact. You wouldn't believe how many rumors there are about your particularly talented little group. I've been looking for you for months." Buffy looked harder at this man who had just admitted to following them in a cold, detached monotone that was somehow hollowly melodic. He had dark, tanned skin, and the muscles on his arms were pronounced and powerful. His hair was fairly long by current standards, and was slicked down over his skull by sweat. He was quite a handsome man, but the coldness of his demeanor killed any attraction before it could reach her. He was like an impossibly beautiful statue. "So now you found us. What do you want? Cuz I don't like being followed." Faith obviously didn't understand that this man wasn't in any way aggressive. He was here for a reason, he wanted to talk to them, and he had mentioned the night before that it was important. "I have an offer I'd like to make you. Not just you, your entire gang. I'm on a recruiting mission you might say." He tossed the towel away and sat comfortably on a rock. His movements were both fluid and supple, as if every fiber of body, every muscle was dying to explode into motion. Buffy knew the feeling, but she had never seen it expressed so fluidly, so physically, by anyone before. She answered him quickly before Faith could insult him. "Recruitment? I'd suggest explanations if you want to recruit us."
His lips twitched a little, perhaps a smile. He stood up. "We can talk later, with the rest of your friends. No point in explaining it more than once." He shifted is posture, his legs sliding apart, his muscles tensing. It suddenly seemed as though his clothes, hanging so loosely off his lean frame, were barely able to contain him, as if he could burst through them at any moment. "First I suggest we get to know each other." His arms came up and he was in a defensive stance, a slight smile at the edge of his lips.
Faith grinned broadly. "I knew we'd get to fight! Buffy, you're still buying me breakfast!" The Slayer lunged forward, a fist whistling through the air towards Cain's head.
He blocked the blow with his forearm and continued to slide the arm in. Before his fist could make contact with her neck, Faith spun inwards, a booted foot lashing out at the same time an elbow screamed towards his nose. He hooked his own foot around hers and simply stepped back, putting up both arms to knock aside her elbow and throwing her off-balance as her stance unexpectedly widened. She pivoted on her back leg and threw her entire weight into him, slamming her shoulder into his chest. Falling backwards, he again wrapped his foot about hers, pulling her down with him. As she fell, his other foot came up and met solidly with her stomach. She grunted and both of them rolled away, jumping to their feet and fell into crouches.
Buffy grinned broadly, she hadn't had a good fight in too long and, she realized, she had missed it. She sprang forward, hoping to catch him off guard. He turned as she neared, ducking even lower and lashing a foot out towards her shins. She jumped over it, lunging through the air, a fist extended towards his face. He reversed his kick, planting both feet out behind him and collapsing on the ground. Buffy tried to stop, but she was flying through space and had no control, and her fist was now directed towards Faith's chest. Faith rolled out of the way and the two Slayers were standing together facing Cain.
All three of them exploded into motion as if on cue. The air was filled with rapid breathing and expulsions of air. The man's hands and legs flashed blindingly, countering the blows from both his opponents. Buffy felt as though she was seeing the same thing at two different speeds. At one level, she was hardly able to follow his movements, but at the same time she saw they were going just in time to block them.
The deadlock ended abruptly. Cain suddenly seemed to burst into a new level of speed. Buffy felt his fists crunching into her body again and again, and saw, as if in slow motion, Faith staggering backwards from the same sort of blows. None of them hit her with much force, he was demonstrating very obviously just what he was capable of without hurting her. Then she suddenly felt his bare feet on her thigh and got a glimpse of his body directly in front of her own. Another foot stepped on her opposite shoulder, a moment of pressure hardly there long enough to register. When she caught a glimpse of him again he was in the midst of a gravity defying back-flip, and for an instant time seemed to stop, he was floating perfectly in the air. Then things seemed to fall back into place, he finished his flip and landed lightly on his feet.
"How did you do that?" Faith wheezed, clutching at her stomach, winded. Buffy agreed, it was quite a trick, but nothing demons weren't capable of, let alone Slayers. She still had her suspicions about this strange man.
"Something I picked up over the past few years." Cain dusted himself off and stepped towards the house. "We'll go and meet your friends now. Give me a few minutes to change." Removing a key from around his neck, he unlocked a door and disappeared into the house. Buffy distinctly heard the sound of the lock clicking shut.
Faith turned to her, grinning breathlessly. "I'm really starting to like that man. What you think Buff? Is he hot or what?" Something in her eyes was very hungry.
"I dunno Faith. There's something about him. We've only been in LA, what five, six days? Maybe there's something in the water, but most people I know can't do what he just did."
"Yeah, he was pretty damn fast. But we coulda taken him, if we'd wanted to." Buffy nodded, but she wasn't too sure.
He reappeared a few moments later, locking the door again behind him. Buffy wasn't sure why he did that, she had glanced through several windows and the rooms had been almost entirely empty. He was wearing a similar dark suit to the one he had had on last night, with a black tie laced with bits of silver fabric. He motioned towards the gate they had entered through, an "after you" shooing motion. They walked around the house and back to the front of the house.
"I'll follow the two of you," he said opening the door to his car.
"Hey! That's such a wicked ride man. Damn sexy. Can I ride with you?" Faith asked, smiling coyly at him.
He shook his head slightly, abruptly, "No," and disappeared behind the wheel of his car.
Swearing, Faith swung the passenger side door of the Volvo open and sat down, slamming the seat shut.
"Still like him?" Buffy couldn't resist, smiling sweetly and settling behind the wheel.
"Shut up Buffy."