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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
- 7
- 8
- 9
Fiction Title:
Blacklust: Demon Hunter

Rating: PG-13

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...and the Knight maybe
one or two others you won't see in the shows, 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: Help! I really am along for the ride
just like you guys reading. Also, be
ready for a bit more confusion here toward the end...and damn are things mixed
up!

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

Blacklust: Demon Hunter

What
Goes Around...

or

If You Weren't Lost Before...

It had been
a few hours since Giles had managed to remove the crossbow bolt from Raven--the
hospital's mention had sent the young man into a fit--so that was the only
other option. So far both he and Spike
were still unconscious. They had been
separated of course, for safety's sake but the sun would be rising
shortly. As it was the weekend, no students
would likely be at the school yet they would have to put Spike somewhere out of
the sun's reach. He still had not
healed.

Buffy was
watching the vampire closely, keeping silent while Willow was again wiping
Raven's face with a damp cloth. He had a
fever, but there was still time left before Giles would resort to the hospital
despite what the young man had said. As
it was, he, Cordelia, and his visiting colleague Professor Matthews sat at a
table with the files open before them and the dagger glistening on the table
beside it. All information on a knight
named Meleagant had been gathered but cast no light on the situation.

Modern
movies cast the character into the role of a black knight fighting to take over
Camelot from King Arthur. History--or
legend depending on which you believed--stated much the same. However Meleagant
was real and was a knight, but that was all they gathered. Buffy had said Raven referred to being chased
for centuries. There was plenty of
information being gathered alright, but none of it was leading anywhere.

Willow had
found Raven's address and they had left a message on the answering machine for
his parents, but they probably would not come until morning, when they woke to
receive it. What was odd was that Raven
had a virtually empty file on record. It
gave a short list of schools he had been to, a few comments on excelling in
various classes, black marks for dressing against various codes, but no
relatives other than Mr. and Mrs. Knightshade themselves. It had not even had the first names of his
parents.

A groan
made Giles look up and Willow spoke an instant later, sounding excited and
worried at once. "Hey, hey, he's
waking up."

They all
moved toward Raven with the exception of Buffy, who remained near Spike with a
stake at the ready. Willow removed the
damp cloth, hot from the fever, as Raven stirred. Something had to have pulled because his
breath caught and he froze. After a
moment, his eyes opened, fever-bright but coherent... and yellow.
Giles raised one brow as Willow and Cordelia gasped. It was not a pair of human eyes they saw, but
the dark eyes of a raven.

"I'm
guessing... you want... ow... answers."

"Yes,"
said Giles with slight surprise.
"That would be very nice indeed."

Raven
turned his head away for a moment to take in his surroundings. Frowning faintly, he nodded before looking
back to Giles with those odd eyes.
"Okay. First...someone's
gotta... get to Xander's... get the
Dream Catcher."

"Dream
Catcher?"

Eyes
sliding closed, Raven just nodded, voice fading slightly. "Yeah... get it... bring it here... and
hurry..."

Willow
leaned in to check him. "He's out
again."

"Very
well, I believe it would be prudent if we did as he requested. Willow, would you see to it? And on your way, drop by and see if his
parents are up yet and can come down.
Just try to keep my car in one piece."

"Sure." Willow was up and moving quickly. She did kind of like Raven, despite his
creepiness and the chance he might just be another baddie. The fact her boyfriend was a wolf three days
of the month kinda helped with that--and she went to check Oz before heading
out of the school and toward Giles' car.

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

Getting the
Dream Catcher had been easy, if you did not count the fact that the thing was
glowing a faint blue and pulsing. She
had decided not to touch it, but wrapped it in a pillowcase to take with
her. It was finding Raven's house that
was the hard part. The car seemed to
always wind up turned around. Finally,
she pulled over and parked against a curb before climbing out to walk. The sun was beginning to rise so the sky was
light. She had doubled back once before
the burning orb peeked over the horizon and she found herself suddenly right in
front of the house.

Halting, she
frowned. A moment ago, that house had
been 419, not 413. But glancing around,
she found she was several houses down from that number. This was giving her one of those not-nice
creepy feelings, but she had to get this over with. She moved onto the porch and was raising her
hand to knock when the door swung open and she found herself facing a rather
handsome Native American man. He was
older than Raven, but there was a definite family resemblance.

"Uh,
hi... Mr. Knightshade?"

The older
man nodded only once, watching her calmly, waiting as those icy blue eyes
studied her. Willow blushed faintly
before taking a deep breath.

"The
school Librarian, Rupert Giles, called here last night and left a message on
the machine about your son, Raven, being injured and at the school? I came by to see if you'd gotten it and to
take you to the school if you're going to be going, which as he's your son
would be the thing you're going to do anyway but I thought you might like the
ride instead of following me around."

A smile
touched the man's lips before he simply nodded once and turned away for a
moment, leaving the door open. Willow
only had to wait for a minute before Mr. Knightshade emerged with a lovely
middle-aged woman in a long cloudy, gray coat.
Since the morning air was chilly, Willow never questioned it, just
leading them to the car. Oddly, she had
parked across the street from the house and never noticed it.

When all
three were in the vehicle, she headed off for the school. As neither of Raven's parents seemed big on
conversation, she chose to hold her tongue as well. She did find it odd though that neither
seemed worried about Raven at all, not even asking what had happened. Maybe they did not think it was anything
serious. Either way, it was creeping her
out even more. Something about the two
was just off somehow.

Pulling
into the parking lot, the three got out and Willow locked Giles' car up before
heading for the doors, sorting out the key to unlock them. But she came up short when they neared the
doors. A skinny young man with short
sandy-brown hair tinted red in the sunlight was leaning back against the
wall. He was dressed in dark blue denim,
brown cowboy boots, and a faded red shirt.
He had a great tan, though.

"I was
wonderin' when you'd get back. Hey,
brought Raven's folks too. So, going to
unlock the doors, red?"

She did not
like him already, but Willow moved forward to unlock the doors. Mr. and Mrs. Knightshade entered first with
the young man following, leaving Willow to bring up the rear. Once the doors were locked behind them, she
led them toward the library. Entering,
she was surprised to see Raven awake and far more coherent, he was sitting in a
chair, one hand held over his wound. But
when he looked at her, his eyes were still those of a raven.

"Hey,
Grandmother... may I ask your assistance?"

"Grandmother?"
prompted Giles.

Raven just
smiled at him as one would smile at a clueless two-year-old. Mrs. Knightshade
moved forward and crouched beside the young man, reaching out to gently draw
his hands away from the wound at his side.
Studying it, she reached forward, beginning to trace her fingers around
it in a circular pattern before they wove back and forth. Mr. Knightshade was humming under his breath,
though to those assembled, there was a steady beat and ghostly voices raised in
a chant to beating drums and shaking rattles.

For a
moment, all those in the library found themselves somewhere else, somewhere old
under the eye of the sun with clumps of melting snow scattered over bare
ground. Strange huts of hide and bark
rose around in a sort of village, a scattering of tepees and animals encircled
them in an interwoven tangle. There were
men chanting as they beat on drums of hide, raising their voices in a somber
song in a language pieced together from every Native American tribe that had
ever lived.

Before them
a youth clad in black hide pants and moccasins lay upon the ground, black hair
fanning out and arms folded so that the feathers melting down along their
length remained out of the way. He had
the head and shoulders of a raven yet the body of a human, the gaping wound in
his side mirrored that of Raven's own.

Crouched
beside him was an elderly woman with four arms and four legs, fingers having
transformed into slender black digits as a web was woven over the youth's side,
her large black eyes staring unblinking.
A shawl of silken spider's weave was draped over her shoulders, dancing
down her back and winding about her body like a protective blanket.

Standing behind
her was a man that had skin of black with white spots painted everywhere like
stars, the dots sparkling faintly under the sun, while a crescent of pearl
white rested in the center of his forehead, held by braided blue leather. A long blanket fell about him like a
cloak. It was comprised of rainbow
colors, ever-changing and shifting, woven emotions with a cloudy white
mist. His eyes remained icy blue, solid,
as if one was looking into hollows of color and light.

Then
suddenly the vision, if that was what it had been, was gone and they were in
the library. Raven slowly shifted, then
rose. The wound in his side was mostly
closed and the dark-haired woman was placing a folded pad of white against his
side, taping it into place somehow before she rose. Turning, Raven embraced her tightly, smiling
and whispering something near her ear before he faced the staring
audience. As his "mother"
moved toward Buffy, he shrugged and spread his hands.

"Brendan...
translated into Little Raven... and not just any raven--THE Raven." Stated Giles as he caught on.

Grinning,
Raven bowed to the librarian. "You
are correct, sir. To the Northern
Pacific tribes, called Raven, known as the Trickster and hailed as the one who
created the people or at the very least brought them into the world and out
from the shell they came in. May I also
introduce Grandmother Spider and... well, I believe that his name was set by
the Grecians as Morpheus, God of Dreams.
He prefers being called thus."

"So,
your secret is finally out, eh, Cousin?"

Spinning,
Raven faced Kyo, who was leaning back against the
librarian's desk with a trademark smirk upon his lips. Everyone had forgotten about him. But the instant Raven saw him, his eyes...
once again cold, hard hazel, narrowed.
Folding his arms across his chest, he studied his "cousin"
closely, kicking things into place within his mind.

"You
know, Kyo, I actually find it funny."

Kyo blinked, smirk fading slightly. "What funny?"

"Let's
start a few centuries ago, shall we? I
happen to take an interest in a certain group of knights destined for
greatness. One or two I decide to give a
little... shall we say, push in the right direction and one stumbles across a
powerful Shaman... or Wizard, if you will.
Next thing I know, the entire ideal of Camelot is threatened by one of
the very knights I gave a push to. It
begins to break up and I cannot tell why.
I attempt to rectify it by tricking Arthur into sleeping with his
half-sister and thus produce an heir... who strangely enough, begins to turn
away from my subtle hints, and it leads to the entire destruction of Camelot
and the death of Arthur."

As he had
been speaking, Raven had drifted closer to Kyo.
The smirk was almost fully gone by then, yet the tan form seemed to be
unaware of the closing proximity.

"Now,
during this process, I decide to give another would-be knight a nudge... and
thus Lancelot goes after Arthur's lady when a certain one-time-mine knight
kidnaps her. Lancelot faces Meleagant
and defeats him, winning back the lady but leaving the defeated knight behind,
at her request rather than kill him.
Now, Camelot falls in the future and not a decade later I have a knight
hunting me down at every turn. I am
limited in what I am able to do because he just appears and continues to appear
wherever I go... and continues to do so for centuries, always swearing I stole
something from him."

Kyo's smirk was gone and his brown eyes were narrowed. Tension was growing in the air as the two
locked gazes and began another battle of wills even as Raven continued to
speak.

"Don't
you find it strange, Cousin, that so many schemes, so many plans, so
many perfectly thought out games were ruined?
Don't you find it funny that the only way a Trickster can be left in the
dark on events is when another Trickster chooses to set his hand into
the mix? Don't you find it funny that
you cannot give solid evidence you were not in the area at
the time of Arthur? Don't you find it a
little bit funny that Meleagant happens to
come here weeks early while you just happen to linger around to pull me
out of danger when he's hunting me down?"

"Sounds
rather convenient to me, and I haven't any idea what's going on," came
from Cordelia.

Raven
smirked but did not look away from Kyo's eyes.
By now, the elder Knightshade... or Morpheus... had stepped forward to
come within reach of Raven, staring at Kyo who was
beginning to squirm a little bit.

"Because
of Meleagant, I had to beg help from Grandmother Spider and plead for it from Morpheus, shortly after we learned that Meleagant was the
Black Knight--and had become that way by accepting a supernatural gift, or
curse depending on how you see it. I
don't enjoy begging. I don't enjoy being
tricked in such a serious way. And I
really don't enjoy being manipulated by the likes of you, Cousin Coyot�."

"You
haven't any proof."

"Actually,
he does, Trickster."

All eyes
turned toward the deep rumble of thunder that was Morpheus' voice. The older man was standing calmly with arms
folded across his chest. Raven frowned,
puzzled, before his eyes widened and he lifted his hand. Sure enough, forgotten on the ring finger of
his right hand, there was the dulled gold form of a "class ring" with
a blood red stone. A grin formed across
Raven's lips before he caressed it. "That's right, I had actually forgotten
about that..."

Before
anything else could happen, there was a deafening crash from outside. It sounded like something slamming into the
doors, then the bang of doors hitting walls.
The unmistakable clop-clop of hooves approaching rose. Raven paled before Morpheus caught his
shoulder and gave him a pull away from the library doors. Kyo likewise leapt away from them an instant
before they exploded inward under the charger's hooves. The Black Knight entered on foot as his steed
snorted and stamped in the hall outside.

"I
told ya he'd be here!" called Kyo, pointing.

Hazel eyes
shifting into a blazing green, Raven snarled at his fellow Trickster before
backing up. Giles, Professor Matthews,
and the others had fallen back, crouched down and just watching. Buffy skidded into view, having taken Grandmother
Spider back to see to Spike. Meleagant however ignored them, sending a look at Kyo
before facing Raven and Morpheus.
Bringing the black blade up, its serrated edges sparkling, he pointed to
Raven.

This time,
Raven rolled his eyes and moved forward around his "father" to stand
in full view.

"Will
you return what you stole from me?"

"Look,
Tin Man, I didn't take it. Ask
him!" Raven pointed at Kyo. "He's just as much a thief in the night
as me!"

"I
will not fall for your deceptions again, Raven!"

Groaning,
Raven held up his hands as the knight began to approach. Meleagant halted
slightly, perhaps puzzled. During that
split second, Raven reached to give the ring a twist around his finger,
muttering something. Meleagant started
forward once more and the young man gave a sharp punch at the air, though the
knight was still too far away to hit.
"Then at least listen to this!"

From the
stone, a bright light blazed, before a black cloud edged in gold sparks poured
from the stone. The ring jerked and
reformed into an older one, the gold band blackened where it wove in serpentine
vines about his finger, holding a rounded red garnet like a large drop of
blood. When the cloud cleared, it had
condensed into the shape of a tall form in golden armor with red and black
details, as form-fitting as the Black Knight's own armor and seeming to be its equal.

"Meleagant... you remember Mordred, don't you?"

The golden
knight turned his head slightly, glancing around before studying Raven then the
black knight. Kyo growled from the
corner and hissed, "I thought I had Arthur kill you, brat."

"That
was what I wanted you to think, Kyo. You
really think I would let one of mine reach an end such as that?" commented
Raven.

"Prince
Mordred?"

Bowing, the
gold knight reached down to draw his own sword, the blade singing as it was
unsheathed and allowed to breathe. Giles
caught his breath, Professor Matthews breathed out, "Excalibur..."

"His
father's legacy to him. They spread the
story that it was returned to the Lady of the Lake, misdirection for those who
would search for it in all the wrong places.
You have any idea how many deities, spirits or other creatures that
could have endangered or ticked off?"

Morpheus was watching the two knights circling one
another. He paused to glance over as
Grandmother Spider appeared, a form shrouded by her coat accompanying her. Their eyes met and they nodded as one before
focusing. The library jerked, casting
those standing to the ground before the environment changed in a swirl of smoke
and a wailing flute. This time, everyone
was truly in another place with a full moon overhead and a circle of stones
forming the room they were within.

"Stonehenge?"

Raven,
picking himself up, shook his head in response to the question. "Nope, not really... but that Stone Ring
is a nice little replica of this place."

The others
were getting to their feet and William slid the coat loaned to him off with a
slightly shy smile of thanks. He almost
hesitantly joined the others as the knights also rose, ignoring their
surroundings to again circle. Kyo
grumbled as he dusted himself off and leaned back against a pillar of carved
stone, apparently unconcerned about the shift and trap he had somehow fallen
into.

"Okay,
anyone else think this is all going a bit too fast for us?" growled Buffy.

Raven
glanced over at them before moving to Willow.
With a smirk, he reached out to pluck the pillowcase-wrapped Dream Catcher
from her grasp and move back to his spot.
Untangling it from the wrapping, he held it quite gently in his
hands. Caressing the blue hide of the
ring, he offered it to his "mother" respectfully.

Taking it,
the woman eyed the pulsing glow before reaching to the heart and plucking at
one of the threads there. It began to
unravel under her skilled hands. At
last, only the ring itself remained as the threads melted into it. Without hesitating, she grasped it in her
hands and shattered it. In the flash of
pure white light edged in blue, Xander appeared--nude--and looking quite lost.

Snickering,
Raven cleared his throat to draw attention as the cloudy gray-white coat was
draped about the confused young man.

"Meleagant did kidnap Xander... in body. But you see, I'd already taken him. He's one of my Chosen, a group of people that
are considered to fit with my power, able to align themselves with me and use
various skills. Tricksters. I've been gathering them since the first
Trickster War, and I'm not the only one.
Coyot� here, Loki, and multiple other Tricksters have been doing the
same all over the world. The more Chosen
we get and mark, the stronger we become.
It was a way that others could keep us busy and out of the really Big
Trouble."

Morpheus spoke up next, waving Raven off toward the two
knights who had crossed swords once or twice, testing one another.

"Tricksters
such as those here are dangerous, because humans are so full of deception,
malice and general mischief... they are among the strongest supernatural forces
there are. Unlike others however, there
are only a set number of Tricksters to regulate all that power. So, they have to be closely watched and controlled. Raven is one of the few who actually learned
a lesson or two along the way, and that is one of the reasons both Grandmother
Spider and myself accepted his pleas for assistance when he learned Meleagant
was after him... and not by any fault of Raven's own for once."

Giles was
piecing things together even as he looked over to where the gold and black
knights were beginning to clash in earnest.
Raven and Kyo were standing opposite one another, backs against
differently carved pillars, watching their Champions fighting.

"That
makes sense in a way I suppose. Sort of
like how the amount of worshipers supposedly strengthen the congregation and
thus the one they pray to."

"Exactly,"
Grandmother Spider's tone was gentle.
"And believe it or not, Raven has a larger, stronger gathering
dedicated to him than the other Tricksters.
It leaves him a target. Ever
since Loki landed a lucky blow that blocked out much of Raven's memory, he has
been vulnerable. That is another reason
why we chose to aid him. Of the
Tricksters, he is also the most responsible... he actually gives his Chosen
their own choice to be bound to him or not.
This Xander boy was one of the few exceptions, simply because somehow
Meleagant broke in before Raven could ask and to save Xander, he had to bind
him without actual consent."

Silence
fell. Well, silence but for the ringing
of swords. Buffy was watching the fight
closely, frowning and apparently lost within her own world. A cold wind was rising, making Raven's hair
dance and ruffling Kyo's own hair, making him seem scruffier somehow. Willow was relentlessly questioning a subdued
William, and Cordelia was just staring at Giles,
Professor Matthews, Morpheus and Grandmother Spider. At last, Xander spoke up, clutching the coat
close.

"Ah,
excuse me. So, um, short version of
what's been going on here please, and why I'm without any clothes?"

Grandmother
Spider chuckled softly. "Raven came
to you in your dreams by using the Dream Catcher I made for you with threads of
Morpheus' power. I did not look at your
dreams very closely, but Meleagant, the black knight you see out there,
interrupted you two before Raven could ask if you would be another of his
Chosen. He was forced to bind you to him
without your prior consent to save your life.
He placed a mark on you, then locked you within the Dream Catcher itself,
letting only your body free. Meleagant
took your body trying to get Raven to surrender to him. When I broke the Dream Catcher, you were
restored and appeared here. I'm afraid a
few days have passed since you were trapped."

"Oh,
then that would explain the tattoo on my hip."

"You
gotta tattoo, Xan?" Willow piped up.

Blushing,
he moved the coat aside slightly to reveal his right hip. A neat tattoo of a black dream catcher rested
there, three black feathers falling from the bottom.

Smiling, Morpheus nodded.
"That would be our combined mark.
You cannot see Raven's own just yet, but that should change in a few
days to be just a single black feather."

"Pardon
me." The two elders turned to look
to Giles patiently. "I do believe I
understand what Raven has been doing, and assuming that Coyote has been doing
the same. However, I am still confused
about why those two knights are mixed up so deeply within it and what exactly
is taking place out there."

"Why
don't you ask the third Trickster among us, Rupert?"

Professor
Matthews chuckled, shaking his head slowly.
Slowly, the brunette's hair lightened, bleaching into a platinum blond,
wild with scattered smears and streaks of color. His formerly well-fleshed appearance melted
away to leave another slender young man with far sharper features and wild blue
eyes shot through with violet. His
clothes also shifted, their glamour fading to reveal hides and furs of the
ancient Norse. Before them, stood Loki.
- 7
- 8
- 9
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Blacklust: Demon Hunter