After their exploration of the complex under the frat house, things in Sunnydale quieted down again. The school year ended and Faith started spending time in L.A., hunting vampires there. Which is how she met Charles Gunn.
Faith had been working her way thru L.A. Between the reverse engineered shield device she wore and her pulse pistol, there was little she encountered that posed much of a challenge to her. Then she met Charles Gunn and discovered an entirely different kind of challenge. Faith had come to a new neighborhood, one that reminded her of where she'd come from before her Watcher, Diana Dormer, had found her and she became a Slayer. She saw a confrontation between a group of humans lead by a tall, nicely built, black man and a group of vampires and realized from the way the vampires were talking, that the man had earned himself a reputation fighting vampires. When the two groups attacked each other, she approached the vampire group from the back and helped. Once the vampires were all dust, the group noticed her.
"Yo, white girl, don't you know you can get yourself into a whole lot of trouble hanging out in a neighborhood like this?"
"Who am I supposed to be worried about, the vampires or the black guys, cause personally, I think the vampires are something we should all be worried about. You, not so much."
"How long you known vampires exist?" One of the guys asked.
"Since I was fifteen, you?"
"Since I was twelve." The bald guy leading the group said. "Cops don't bother with our neighborhood, so we gotta take care of ourselves."
"Yeah, seems that way, pretty much everywhere I go, too. I'm originally from Boston, a neighborhood alot like this one. More recently, I've been part of a crew cleaning up Sunnydale, which is now so clean, it's boring. So I've been spending some time in L.A."
"Sunnydale? I've heard rumors of it being a demon paradise, but no one knows why."
"Because there's a literal doorway to a Hell under the town. Mayor created it on purpose so he could feed people to demons and vampires and get some kinda reward from it. The crew I run with, before I got to town, figured out what he was up and took him out. Made it much easier to clean Sunny D up."
"What kind of gun were you using? I ain't never seen anything like that."
"Some of our crew are what you could call inventors, they've got a little more in the way of resources then you do. Instead of tricking out a truck, which I gotta say, good job to, they were able to come up with stuff like this gun and an energy shield, that keeps people safe. In fact, they patented them and now the military is interested in exploring uses for them."
"You think you could get us some?"
"It would take some time, there's only a couple of our crew that can make them. But I know they'd be willing to try. The whole point is to help. You look like you're holding your own here but an advantage can get you ahead of the game."
"It sure could. Girl, this is just might be the beginning of a beautiful friendship."
In time, Alexander and his group were able to supply Gunn and his crew with better weapons and their own protective shields. Faith began to spend more and more time in L.A. and it really came as no surprise to anyone when she finally admitted that she and Charles Gunn were together. Although he was told the secrets of the Sunnydale crew by Alexander and understanding their need for secrecy and knowing without them and their help, his crew wouldn't have the chance they did now, he voluntarily kept their secret, even from his own sister.
And then a little Irishman found Gunn and Faith and told them he got visions from the Powers. Suspicious, Faith and Gunn took him to Sunnydale, where Alexander scanned him.
"Brachens and Half - Brachen are non violent toward humans. Your visions are naturally occurring, they don't come from anyone. My scanner shows the mechanism in your brain that makes it possible. It's damaged, that's why you have pain whenever you see something." Alexander told him. "But I can do something about that." And to Doyle's amazement, Alexander's hand glowed and he held it to Doyle's head. "There, all healed. You should have no more pain with your visions. But if you're seeing people in trouble, then those people need to be helped."
"So, he's not someone we need to worry about?" Gunn asked, eyeing Doyle, still a bit suspicious. He'd never met a demon that wasn't a problem.
"Worst thing you can say about Brachens is that it looks like they drink too much, but that's just because they need alcohol as a digestive aid." Alexander told him. "In fact, they aren't actually demons at all. My scan of him shows no demonic aspect. I suspect they're probably aliens. Their ancestors probably got stranded here and they needed to blend in and survive. They had no interest in hurting people and just kept a low profile. Eventually, they just forgot where they came from and got labeled demons."
"Aliens? Huh, well as long as you're not trying to kill me or mine, I ain't got no problem with you and yours." Gunn told Doyle. "And Alex is right, if your visions show people getting hurt, then we've got to help them. We'll just tell my crew, you're a seer, most of 'em will buy it and the rest will when they see the proof. Just tell me or Faith, when you've got one of these visions, we'll take care of it."