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Blacklust: Demon Hunter	By : BurneHazard Category: -Buffy the Vampire Slayer > Slash - Male/Male Views: 3260 -:- Recommendations : 0 -:- Currently Reading : 0
Disclaimer: I do not own Buffy the Vampire Slayer (BtVS), nor any of the characters from it. I do not make any money from the writing of this story.

Chapter List
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Fiction Title:
Blacklust: Demon Hunter

Rating: PG for now

Fandom: Buffy; The Vampire Slayer

Pairings: Guess...this is a Marty
Stue

Disclaimer: I do not own any of
these characters but for myself, aka Raven and parents so I am only borrowing
the rest. No
stealing/borrowing/kidnapping me for any reason without forewarning and request
of my permission, understood? I am
having non-profit fun is all...or attempting to. Oh, and this Spike has no bloody chip in his
head. That whole thing and loving Buffy made
me loose all interest in the shows in the first place. Bloody wankers.

Note: I have done extensive
research on Arthurian legends and finally decided to combine all results into
one for the basis of this story since all findings said different things. Also, despite my ATTEMPT (~glares at the
internet~) at finding out anything on how Native Americans actually make Dream
Catchers and the full story behind them (I only remember a few bits and pieces
learned from one in South Dakota) I am altering the making of one into my own
method thus it will not be the actual way of making them.

~`~`~`~`~`~`~`~`~`~`~`~`~`~`

Blacklust: Demon Hunter

A
Raven by any Other Name

or

Awakening the Darkness

A few weeks
later, Willow was spending a night late in the library while Giles was in
another part of the school tending to some business. All during that time, she had taken every
moment possible to try and find any hint as to the strange symbol on Raven's
book. Nothing more had turned up
anywhere but that one reference on the first evening. Even Xander, who
had pitched in once he knew what was going on, was coming up with nothing and
his frustration was showing.

Of course,
it might also have been because there had been several strange occurrences
lately. There was nothing way out of the
ordinary but something that was just enough off the beaten track to cause even Cordelia to notice.
Granted, nights out hunting baddies were still normal, but even the air
seemed...odd somehow. Willow was
actually beginning to think she would go crazy or grow white hair before she
found any answers to the problem.

"Well,
jot down another dead end here. We've
had to have gone through almost every book in this place by now as well as a
few hundred in the town library. And I
really haven't a clue as to what exactly we're looking for anyway. Any luck with you, Will?"

Sighing,
Willow straightened and shook her head, pushing her own book away. Rubbing her eyes, she glared toward the
computer. The internet had come up worse
than blank, it had given her runarounds worse than...well, maybe a roller
coaster. And they had nothing else
available to look through.

"Pizza?"

"Why, Xan? That was the
last book we had to look through.
Nothing, from everything here, we found nothing."

"Well,
kiddies, perhaps you've been looking in the wrong places."

Willow
squeaked and jumped while Xander tensed. Sure enough, the owner to that cool British
drawl stood or rather leaned against the foot of a bookcase with arms folded
across his chest. Golden blond hair,
high cheekbones, piercing eyes, black leather jacket, blood red shirt, faded
blue jeans; there was no mistaking him.

"Spike! Don't do that!"

The vampire
just smirked, allowing sharp white teeth to be seen.

"Now,
what's this about you two driving yourselves batty about something you can't
find?"

Xander's eyes narrowed.

"Oh,
nothing much. Just the whole, something weird's going on and we can't be left entirely clueless
even if it is probably just a little thing syndrome."

"Funny,
mate. Maybe you do have a sense of humor
after all."

Giles
returned just about then but only eyed the blond vampire hard over the edges of
his glasses as he moved over to Willow.
A book that looked even older than the ancient texts the Watcher kept
under lock and key was open in one hand as he moved over to the table to place
it down.

"I
think I might have found something on what you're searching for. Now here, it has a brief description of
crests from various myths and legends, Arthurian being among them. The material itself is really rather
fascinating though, I'm afraid I have no idea what I would be looking for since
only you two seem to have noticed the book you described. This Raven fellow hasn't come into the library
once as of yet."

Smiling
shyly, Willow leaned forward to begin looking through the old pages with care,
studying the faded ink making the various crests, seals and insignias into
images. Giles moved to pour himself a
cup of coffee while Xander left his seat to slide
over and read with Willow. Spike
however, moved to begin looking at the discarded books, trying to seem less
than interested despite the curiosity rising as he saw the various titles.

~`~`~`~`~`~`~`~`~`~`~`~`~`~`

Meanwhile,
somewhere across town...

The roar of
an attacking vampire was cut off as a stake drove into his heart hard enough to
reduce him to ash before he even felt the stab of pain. The other Scoobies
were faring rather well though Buffy as usual took on the toughest of vampires,
all in Game Face. It had been a virtual
outbreak as of late and they were left to mop up.

When the
last blood-sucking demon had been put down, the patrollers regrouped. Buffy watched as Oz dusted some of that
greasy ash off his hands while Cordelia was working
on catching her breath. Her shirt had
been torn and she had a nasty scratch on her shoulder, but it had stopped
bleeding already. It did almost seem
unbalanced without either Willow or Xander there, but
also less of a hassle.

"Good,
everyone's okay."

"Okay? You call this okay? This shirt cost me fifty bucks!"

Buffy
rolled her eyes at Cordelia and gave the cemetery a
quick scan. Something was still feeling
a bit off about the place. But other
than the black crow perched on a stone cross on the top of a headstone, there
was little out of place. Wait. Looking again, she studied the bird. It was rather ragged, but bigger than a crow. Then again, it was a big black bird so how
would she know. What drew her was that
it was supposed to be roosting, nesting, whatever they did to sleep. Instead, it was facing them and watching with
brown-yellow eyes.

Just as she
was about to take a closer look, there was a heavy thump that brought Buffy
into a ready stance. Oz and Cordelia likewise tensed, watching the area around
them. Another thump came, then a
jangling clink of metal before a loud snort.
With a cry, the bird suddenly launched off its perch to dive over the
heads of the three. Buffy ducked and spun
only to jerk upright at what the bird had been heading for.

~`~`~`~`~`~`~`~`~`~`~`~`~`~`

"I
found it!"

Willow
moved to point to a faded yet clearly colored coat of arms as Xander and Giles both moved in to look at it. It was a black shield-shaped field, the top
divided by a simple smooth line with red coloring the stripe. Below it was a large blue diamond with a
single black feather resting diagonally across it. Around the shield were woven green vines,
bordering it fully. The writing to the
side was more faded yet leaning closer, Giles read it aloud.

"The
coat of arms worn by the Black Knight of Camelot. It appears there was once a name from the
shadow here, but it is no longer very legible."

"Wait,
are we talking about a black knight as in a villain or good guy?" Xander asked.

"Ah,
good I believe. But the history of the
legends are so varied and many it is almost impossible to differentiate between
what is truth and what is pure fancy."

"That's
not a good thing, right?" Willow had to ask. Spike, sinking down into a chair, listened
intently while choosing to keep his peace for the moment. Giles returned to translating what he read
for the others.

"Set
apart from the multiple portrayals of black knights, he was the only one to
bear this particular coat of arms as his identification. One of Arthur's first and loyalist of
knights, he was once known as the Guardian of the Sacred Spring, sworn to keep
a silver cup from being filled by the water and thus prevent terrible storms
from destroying a peaceful land of which he was the lord and master. In addition to the spring, a nearby tree
supported the shields of all knights who had dared challenge him to
combat. Their swords fashioned the thin
bridge that led from the rocks to the small island of the spring itself as a
wide chasm separated it from the neighboring land."

"A
tree hung with shields and a bridge of swords?
Sounds like my kind of chap."

Spike paid
the three a smirk when they glanced at him, but only Xander
held the glare on the seated vampire as Giles browsed the writing.

"The
knight was undefeated. When Arthur came
along to challenge the Spring's Champion, the Black Knight and Young King were
evenly matched. Ah, heavily wounded,
both were at a standstill until the Knight offered his pledge of loyalty to
Arthur, ending the conflict and thus ensuring his place at the future Round
Table. After the actual...castle of
Camelot was built, Lancelot came and became Arthur's first knight, demoting the
Black Knight to Second. It says something
about the fierce rivalry between them."

Xander finally looked away from Spike and back to the book.

"Mordred is mentioned...things become vague near the end
however. It does suggest that this Black
Knight was in the same manner of league as Merlin and was a key in the downfall
of Camelot itself through Mordred."

"Okay,
so we have a new kid at school that wears black, arrives and leaves everyday by
a black car, carries a book bearing the crest of this Black Knight which he
constantly writes in and bests jocks with just a flick of his wrist. Where can I sign up for this whole Champion
gig?"

~`~`~`~`~`~`~`~`~`~`~`~`~`~`

When the
first zombie attacked, it went for Cordelia. As Oz spun to help her out, the rest of them
actually swarmed Buffy. More equipped
for vampires this night, she still faced the undead things down. Another couple of the things had turned to
assist the first with the other two. But
what concerned Buffy was the one who brought them, even if he was pretty hard
to miss even as dark as it was.

The giant
black horse helped. It looked like solid
muscle, long mane and tail, covered in black leather and armor with fringes
about its hooves. Glowing red eyes set
in a ghostly white-splattered face also helped her keep track of the
beast. Upon its back, the guy in full
black armor and matching chain mail was also hard to miss. Since when did knights on horses start
touring the Hell Mouth anyway? As she
decapitated another zombie and pulled one off Cordelia's
back, she risked looking at him.

He was just
sitting there however, black shield resting on one arm, the other gauntlet
loosely holding the reins on the pommel of the saddle, and that bird nowhere in
sight while the breeze made the deep blue and green plume of the helmet shiver
slightly. Buffy was not getting a good
vibe from the whole thing as her fist struck a partially rotted yet thankfully
almost mummy-like chest, but it wasn't the whole 'once you're worn down I'm
going to attack' vibe either.

At last,
all walking-dead creatures were down on the ground, still moving but not
getting up very fast. That left the
mounted knight and the three people on the ground to face him. Oz and Cordelia
slowly moved up behind Buffy as the first zombie began to rise once more.

"Please
don't hesitate to correct me if I'm wrong but are we or are we not in trouble
here?" asked Oz.

~`~`~`~`~`~`~`~`~`~`~`~`~`~`

"Xander, I'm afraid that when anything concerns either a
darkness associated being of any sort the entire idea bound with them is that
they are not benefited with what they have due to their winning
personalities."

"But I
thought you said that this guy wasn't necessarily associated with the
baddies?" Willow asked.

"Listen,
lass."

Again Spike
had managed to draw their attention to him as he sat sprawled in the chair, one
leg hanging over the arm and staring toward them.

"There's
not one mention of a bloody Black Knight that keeps the bloke in with the good
guys. And if you're all going to be
goin' after this one Ripper called the Black Knight, I doubt he'd be the sort ta bake you all cookies and give ya lemonade in the
shade."

Giles
sighed before straightening and turning away rather than rise to the
"pet" name Spike insisted on calling him by. The vampire noted it and let it slide as Xander also straightened and began to pace.

"Okay,
so then why does Raven have a book with this guy's crest on it?"

"Well,
maybe he's just a bloomin' fan of the guy."

Willow
shook her head.

"No,
you see we tried to find the crest all over.
In fact it's taken us weeks to find even one sighting of it after the
first suggestion in another book that it was linked to Arthurian times. Wasn't anywhere online either and that's even
more odd than usual."

Spike
however, shifted to sit up, appearing mildly interested.

"Raven? Who is he anyway? Going to be a new member of the gang is
he?"

Xander snorted.

"The
guy's only said maybe twenty words to us total since the first day of
school. Getting anything out of him is a
lot like talking to a corpse in the morgue...but that if he does respond, his
voice is a whole lot nicer than anything that might answer you in the
dead-room. That is...I mean..."

Spike just
grinned while both Willow and Giles stared at Xander
openly. Blushing, the dark haired man
looked down. Well, it really was not
like it was the first time he had ever run on without watching what he said.

"He's
a new student then?"

Willow
nodded. "Yeah, new but, a bit
strange though safe. Not like the other
two who decided Cordelia would make a nice trophy all
stuffed and mounted like."

"I'd
like to meet him, maybe take him out for a bite."

"NO!"

"I
meant a bite to eat, love. Just because
I wasn't chipped like the others doesn't mean I plan on letting the whole ruddy
world know that fact. Anyway, maybe I
can get a few answers for you two since you haven't been having any luck."

Xander was suddenly feeling...well, a bit ticked. But as he opened his mouth to reply, the
library door opened to let in none other than Mr. Brown himself. The English and Lit teacher halted,
apparently surprised to see the three "students" in the library at
this hour before his gaze fell upon Giles.

"Mr.
Giles, I was grading papers when I realized that I had misplaced a copy of the
literature assignment. I couldn't find
it in my room so thought maybe they would have one extra here."

"Of
course, Mr. Brown, this way please."

~`~`~`~`~`~`~`~`~`~`~`~`~`~`

Buffy held
herself ready, even if she was not entirely certain that she could face down
whatever was inside the tin can without the proper weapons. Of course, the rising zombies also held
problems for her and the others. This
time however, they did not attack but began slinking off. The knight moved and the Slayer tensed, only
to watch the clawed gauntlet give a wave that clearly commanded the things to
back off.

Without
warning, they all began to sink into the earth of the cemetery, moaning and
hissing as they did. For a moment, Buffy
could have sworn one of those still mostly-fleshy-whole had said 'Give us the
thief in black' before he slid under.
When her eyes lifted back to the knight...he was simply gone. No horse, no armor, nothing but for a set of
four hoof prints in the ground, smoking as if burned into the grass and earth.

~`~`~`~`~`~`~`~`~`~`~`~`~`~`

Raven
slowly opened his eyes, feeling the world spinning around him. The vertigo made him want to choke and his
stomach rebel, but everything remained whole.
The night air was cool upon the sweat matting his hair to his forehead,
face, neck and along his shoulders and back.
Rolling over, he looked around his room slowly. He was fully dressed, the window was open,
the covers rumpled under him but nothing else.

He
remembered laying down for a nap due to a headache, but nothing else. Well, there had been a dream, a very strange
dream at that. Even as he tried to
capture it, it slipped away and faded.
All he knew was that there had been the sound of horse's hooves and the
clank of metal as always...and the feeling, a great feeling of cold and
darkness so intense it bordered on pain.

Coughing,
trembling from the lingering effects of the nightmare, he pushed himself up and
moved toward the door to his room.
Opening it, he stumbled out into the hall and headed down the stairs,
one pale hand grasping the banister for all he was worth as vertigo again caught
him. The lights were on so his parents
were still up, but he had been having these dream-spells for years, ever since
he was little. It was no longer that big
a thing since even tribal medicine men had found nothing odd.

In the
kitchen, his father was seated at the counter that also served as the morning
table, reading the newspaper. Glancing
over at the older man, Raven swallowed and moved toward the fridge. Something made him pause and glance back at
the other.

"No, I
don't think I want a drink, just...a chocolate shake."

His father
was much the same as he was but with shorter black hair cut in waves over his
head with eyes of icy blue with emerald flecks.
Sharper features only slightly sharpened by time and wrinkles, the tall
man was attractive and his skin was a deep red-tan, hinting at his origin as a
Native American. But, the man simply
nodded even though he had not once spoken aloud and turned back to the paper.

Taking a
covered glass out of the fridge, Raven grabbed a straw and punctured the lid to
begin sipping a pre-made shake. As his
trembling calmed, he sat down on a stool around the corner from his
father. It was not long before his
mother entered. Like the two men sitting
at the counter, she had long black hair though it was held free by two braids
starting at her temples and reaching behind her head before weaving
together. Her eyes were warm brown with
flecks of heated amber and her skin a bit more tan than hinted with red.

"No,
mother, couldn't sleep. Same thing as
last time."

Nodding,
the woman moved toward the living room to pick up her leather work. Taking his shake, Raven followed to find a
spot sitting cross legged on the floor at her feet and facing her. Taking the softened white length of green
wood, he used a fragrant yet natural oil, stroking and rubbing it as he teased
it into a circle. Once it was formed, he
held the two ends up. His mother cut the
branch smoothly, notching it so that the two ends fit together perfectly.

Muttering
softly under his breath, Raven pressed the two ends together, watching them
slide into place and lock as his mother used some rawhide to secure it. Taking the circle, she set it aside and
picked up an older ring fully dried and seasoned with sandal wood oil. Raven accepted it and held it steady as his
mother began to make another Dream Catcher...very special ones that were not
made the traditional Native American way, but held similar properties.

"Hm? Oh, yes, I'm
planning on it. The blue one you
finished this morning is going to be given to Alexander LaVelle
Harris."

Browned
hands continued to move, seeming to darken into something sharper,
blacker...more inhuman as those brown eyes grew darker, bordering on
black. Raven smiled slowly and shrugged.

"It's
as good a place to start as any. Plus,
he strikes me as someone who might just enjoy a Dream Catcher made just for
him."

Like a
ghost, a raven's cry rose in the distance as the two sat working.
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Blacklust: Demon Hunter