Rain pelted the young boy. It helped to hide the tears that were running down his cheek. The sight of his father on his knees with his hands tied behind him was source of those tears. The young boy tried to stop the man with the sword, but was pushed away.

"You're the son of a bastard and a bitch," said the man.

He would've struck the boy if the man in the white robes hadn't stopped him. Grunting, the man went back to the job at hand beheading Richard Clarkstone, the traitor.

The blade went up then down slicing through Richard's neck. Energy crackled from Richard's body. It shot from his body and entered the young boy electrocuting him.

"Remember my son, train hard. Never let anyone beat you. Be number one," was the last thing young David Clarkstone remembered about his father.

Scratching of a manhole cover being pushed woke Rath up. A blanket covered him as he laid on a brick floor. Sounds of water running echoed through the sewer tunnels. Shifting his eyes towards a ladder, a basket of food was being lowered. When it rested on the concrete ground, feet followed the ladder rungs down. Susan lifted the basket up and carried it towards him.

How she ever found him was what one could call a miracle? Chances were she used his locater to find him. Looking at his hands, the wrist computer was missing from his left gauntlet. Susan remembered her lesson that she couldn't tell anyone

Placing the basket beside him, she sat down and stared at him.

"Why did you help me?" he asked, "This is conceded treason by the council."

"My loyalty is to you, not them," she answered, "You and Jess got me out of that hell hole, not them."

"Where is he?"

"Is that all you can think about, killing him?"

"Better him then me. Besides this was how we, demon knights lived before the organization."

"Not much of a future."

"Either tell me or I'll found out from someone else."

"He's at pier B-fifty two in a warehouse."

"Thank you. Now go to Victoria, she'll help you."

"She can't"

"Why not?"

Her eyes shifted away.

"Tell me why not, Susan."

"They tried to arrest her. She killed them and got away."

"Wheeler got his way after all."

Pushing the blanket away, he grabbed the bottle from the basket. Standing up, he removed the cork with his teeth, and spat it away. Taking mouthful of the liquor, he sprayed it onto the bandage that was wrapped around his left arm. He poured the whole contents of the bottle over his bare body. Bending his fingers until they looked like claws, Susan thought she heard a snake or maybe a cat as Rath took a long hard breath while bringing his claw like fingers toward him.

Finding a piece of metal, he used to secure the door closed. Two hours passed since the fight in his hideout, and the cops had come and went. They had tried the door finding it locked tighter then a dead mans coffin and left.

Sitting on the wall opposite of Hazara and the healer, Jake enjoyed his cigarette smoke and being. bored stiff out of his mind watching two unconscious women hunters sleep. Having no watch, he guessed it was around midnight on Saturday, maybe Friday. He's been underground for too long.

Letting his mind wander, no surprise, went right to Raven. Whenever he had a moment to relax, even before the warrants were issued, he would just sit and think about her. Her dark complexion, her small, confident smile, and her light scent of lavender. After bit of thinking, he drifted into sleep.

Instead of a dreamless sleep he hoped for, he got a nightmare of being on a world during his first mission after his enhancements. Demons everywhere. The ground soaked red with blood. A small child was screaming as he approached it. He stared at it as it gurgled up blood. The child died a painful death before being given a chance to live. Looking to his left, he saw the child's mother at least the top of her, dead on the ground in a pool of blood. Five feet away from her was the bloody stumps of her bottom half.

Hearing a voice next to him, he saw the father of the child screaming silently at Jake. An explosion of smoke filled the room. It slammed the father into the back wall. Two more bangs rang out. He fell to the ground, another lifeless body. Staring at his left hand, it gripped a smoking gun. His right hand was covered in blood. Stepping outside, he saw the town of bodies everywhere that hadn't been there before. Each had gunshot wounds or stab wounds, most died slowly, and the luck ones were the ones that died quickly.

The dream changed. This time it was Raven covered with red markings like previous dream. She tied to a cross. Her silent face twisted in pain. Bleeding from her wrists into a small bowl resting on the ground. She struggled to no avail.

"JAKE!"

Snapping back awake, his senses were on full alert. Fighting the rage that built up during the nightmare, he saw that the both females were awake. Hazara stared at him while the other seemed to be looking through something.

Blinking as the rage calmed down in his mind, his nose detected burning flesh. staring at his fingers being burnt by the cigarette that he didn't dropped while asleep. Putting it out, his healing factor removed the burn.

Giving a lopsided grin to Hazara, who was still staring at him, "Breakfast ready yet?"

Hazara rolled her eyes as the healer snap her head around. Seeing Jake was awake, she smiled.

"About time, we've been awake for about three hours. You got anything to eat in this bag?"

She was looking through his duffel bag. Standing up, he walked over to her.

Finding piece of my equipment scattered around her, "That personal's stuff and I don't like it when people look through and make a mess with my stuff, miss…"

"Altair," she said with an apologetic smile, "and sorry, I didn't mean to look through it, but the two of us have no money and we didn't want to wake you to ask if we were going to eat."

Standing up, Hazara walked towards Jake.

Placing her hand on his shoulder, "She means that she doesn't want me going out and stealing anything, so she wanted to look through your bag because she was complaining of being hungry."

Nodding, he looked back at Altair.

"Don't worry, I've got a place we can lie low until we meet up with the others," placing his gear back into the bag.

"What is all this stuff anyway?" asked Altair.

"Being that I'm trained SWAT, we are taught to keep our weapons, ammo and gear close by. Most kept their gear in the back of a car, but me, I keep mine close by in case I need to grab and run."

Five minutes later, the duffle was full again. He kept his extra pair of sunglasses out when we got out of the tunnel.

"All right ladies, lets move," he said unbarring the door.

Altair left without saying anything, but Hazara touched his shoulder, "You might have earned some respect from me, but don't call me a lady, makes me sound stuck up"

He nodded as they left.

Carrying a paper bag, Susan walked towards door of her apartment with her keys out to unlock it.

"Hello, little Suzie."

Looking up, there was Kenaz standing on the stairs staring down at her. Dropping the bag, she unlocked the door. Getting in, she relocked it. The sounds of Kenaz's footsteps filtered through the door and they were getting closer. Reaching the phone, the door shattered from Kenaz kicking it.

She tied dialing, but her fingers kept hitting the wrong sequence of numbers. Grabbing her by the neck, Kenaz took the receiver from her and shattered it by slamming against the phone.

"We're going for a little road trip," he said, "To get to know each other better," dragging her out of the apartment.

Down the stairs towards the front door, he forced her into a van. Her hands and legs were tied together. A hood was placed over her head.

Walking for about five minutes, they reached the entrance of the tunnel. Stopping long enough for Altair to her retrieve weapons that she used or dropped when she crossed paths with the scout demons. Turned out there were about a dozen rather then the four he killed with his shotgun. Her weapons consisted of throwing stars and a pair of knives with spiked front guards.

"Hold up," he said causing the females to stare at him, "Can you stick to roof tops?" asking Hazara.

She gave him a questioning look.

"Ok, stick to the roof tops, and no it isn't cause of the bridle. We need someone to be a watchful eye," putting down his bag, "You know Morse code?"

She should, it was apart of basic. And again, she just answer with a look.

"Ok, ok, just making sure," pulling out a pair of radio's and hands free set pieces, "You sense any demons or see any of the Titans or other hunter, tap it out in Morse, I'll give order what to do then."

Nodding, she took the radio, putting the earpiece in her ear and securing the radio in her sash. Handing her the shotgun, it would be a very large mistake if anyone saw a man with a shotgun walking in the street and called the cops. Hazara seemed to be on the same page since she took it without asking. He placed the web belt along with his handguns in the bag for the same reason.

"Ok," slipping the bag onto his shoulder, "we're heading to a bar called Scraps. I helped the owners daughter and he doesn't give a rat's ass about cops so we'll be fine. It's about two blocks east, so we should be there in no time."

Slipping on the sunglasses, they stepped into the hot midday sun.

The removal of the hood allowed Susan's eyes adjust to the sudden change of light. She was tied to a chair. In front of her was Kenaz heating a spoon with the flame of a Bunsen burner.

"Where is he?" asked Kenaz.

"You can't do this to me! What will the council think when they hear how you tortured an observer?"

"True. What do you think, Mr. Williams?"

A thin balding man appeared.

"Mr. Williams happens to be my observer. What are your two cents worth?"

"What torture?"

Smiling, "See. Back to my question, where is he?"

"He's coming to kill you and even the HDC can't save you."

"Really," walking towards her with the spoon in his hand, "Too bad," clasping her jaw, "you won't be able to see it," shoving the hot glowing tip of the spoon into her right eye socket.

Twenty minute to get to the bar plus five for talking with Mitch, the owner of the building. They crashed at a third floor apartment for the tonight and tomorrow night. Jake had to play bouncer for the bar in order to pay for the room.

Hazara and Jake stayed in the apartment while Altair went on patrol. couple of crates and a couch to sleep on was all furniture the apartment had. Jake brought an old shirt from Mitch, who was close to his size, with what was left of his cash.

Jake cleaned his guns while Hazara with her bridle on sat and stared at the fast food in front of her. Jake gave a slight laugh receiving nasty look from her.

Grinning at her, "You going to eat that, or would you prefer to continue with your staring contest?"

Starting to stand up, Jake put his hand up stopping her.

"You can take that bridle off. The poison on your breath no longer affects me, the vents are closed, the doors block closed, and Altair knows to call on the radio when she's coming up stairs. So you might as well take it off and eat."

Thinking for a moment, sighing she removed the bridle from her face. Taking a breath to get the poison in his lungs, building up his immunity when the full hit of her breath kicked in.

She began eating as Jake returned to cleaning his guns. Ten minutes in complete silence.

"What was the reason that the enhancement program was ended so quickly?" she asked.

Without even turning, "The majority of the hunters that went through the procedure weren't just alter physically, but mentally as well," taking a breath, "You know how you face a certain demon, that can make you mad enough to throw you into a rage. Well, most of the hunter that went through the program had theirs unlocked to the point most couldn't control their rage. Some would just pound a concrete wall until their hands were bloody pulps, others would kill anything within sight," taking another breath, "all that couldn't control their rage were sent into exile or killed on the spot, mostly the later. I was one of the luck ones to where I kept control of my rage," rubbing between his knuckles without even realizing it.

His regret was hurting to come out, and he couldn't use them.

"What about that nightmare you had back in the tunnel?" asked Hazara.

"That was nothing just stress from this entire ordeal."

They sensed a high-powered demon nearby. A class 12 at least. Rushing Hazara put her bridle back on as Jake put on his gun belt.

"Go to the roof tops, when the fighting starts, drop down and hit the thing from behind."

Jake didn't see her nod. His ears caught the window sliding open. She was gone.

"She won't mind," grabbing a couple of French Fries from her container.

He rushed out the door.

At Mel's, Rath sat at a booth with Alice sitting across from him.

"Missed you for a few days," remarked Alice playing with her Sunday float.

"Tell me about it and Kenaz."

"Well, the HDC have been rounding up hunters. The knights not leading the round up operations have gone underground or rogue."

"Really? It's not the HDC's job to arrest hunters."

"Well they're doing it and I can't find out where they're holding them."

"Now Kenaz's."

"Want the long or short story."

"Don't make it too long."

"He's one of those knights who got his butt saved when the dual got outlawed. He killed George."

"Already knew that."

"How about Demeter?"

"Didn't know that, but does Jess know?"

"She didn't react when they meet," still playing with her straw, "Know where he is?"

"Yes."

"Going to break some rules?"

"Have to."

"Wish you luck."

"Know you don't, you want me to pay for that Sunday."