Disclaimer and copyright: Buffy belongs to Joss Whedon, Mutant Enemy
Inc., and Warner Bros.
Logan/Wolverine belongs to Marvel.
Kai belongs to Kaylee, and you don't mess with her.
No one is making any money, so don't sue, please.

Ok, that's out of the way.  This is my first and was written for fun,
not accuracy, so please be kind.  This would not be possible without the
collaborative efforts of Kaylee and Shera.
Much credit goes to them.

If you happen to like it, let me know.  Please do not archive without my
permission, though.
If you don't happen to like it, have a nice day and read something
else.  :-)

_________________________________

X-Slayer
Chapter 1

Rain.   Rain so hard she couldn't see a thing but waves of water dancing
in front of her.  She had managed to curl up into a small rocky
depression and utilize her brand new plastic poncho, but dry wasn't a
fully operative term here as the mist from the rain seeped into every
little nook and cranny.  Now, of course, she wished she had spent a few
extra dollars and gotten the good poncho, but the only reason she had
purchased this one was because the salesman had pressed her.  She hated
being wrong.

Having nothing to do, she stared out at the mesmerizing sheets of water
falling through the pine trees before her.  The hypnotic sound and
vision made her mind wander to how she got here.  The bus trip had been
a hard, emotional trip.  Every time she closed her eyes she saw Angel
holding his stomach, blood leaking through his fingers, as one hand
began to reach for her.  She saw the love turn to confusion and hurt as
he was sucked from this world and her.  Remembering the look on his face
she would experience a deep pain in her heart, and the hot,
uncontrollable tears would begin.  To lose him was to save the world.
Somehow now that didn't help.  Angel was a vampire; she was a vampire
slayer.  Slayers don't love vampires, but she loved Angel.  This
wrongness seeming so right only made her hurt more deeply.

Knowing the scene that would play behind her eyelids when closed, she
did everything she could to keep her eyes open.  When open she would see
her friends sitting in the library waiting for her.  She saw the pain
and confusion on their faces as they wondered where she was.  By now she
knew what Willow had done in bringing back Angel's soul, and that it had
not been done to hurt her, but to help her best friend.  Even though his
soul had been given to him right before she had to kill him, she knew
Willow had tried, not just to stop his evil, but to bring back her
love.  This knowledge did nothing to help her pain, but it left no
enmity towards her old friend.

She saw her mother looking out the window of her house, tears running
down her face, wondering what she had done.  Walking out the door on her
mom had been an easy decision, but knowing her mother didn't understand
who and what her daughter was had made it difficult to walk away.  She
didn't know if her mother would ever accept what she had learned about
her daughter that night, even in the face of all she had witnessed.

The pain was beginning in her heart again as her mind wondered over
these last few days, and the pain that made her leave town.  On a whim
she had decided to get off the bus in Colorado and visit the Rockies.
Hoping that the beauty and solitude would allow her to deal with her
memories.  She slowly noticed the rain had tapered off to sporadic
dripping from the pine trees and decided to try her new gear before it
became dark.

Slowly uncurling from her niche, she stood up and stretched.  She saw
the sunlight begin to dance across the next peak, as the rain clouds
seemed to quickly run away.  The beauty of the moment was noted as she
breathed in some of the cleanest air she had ever smelled, but it was
wasted, as her heart was not open to beauty right now.  She wasn't sure
if her heart could ever receive any good feeling again.

Reaching down she grabbed the new tent.  The salesman had said it was
easy to set up, and was all weather.  "Right," she said out-loud.  Well,
he had been right about the rain.  She figured she would give him the
benefit of the doubt.  This concluded, the construction began.  Holding
the rods in one hand, she eyed the instruction sheet.  Once the art of
threading the assembled rods through the eyelets in the tent was
mastered, then the trust that the rods could really bend that far
without snapping came into play.  Eyeing the forming product, she
doubted it would ever look like the one in the shop had, but she
continued.  Slowly it took shape, at least one that looked right.  As
she pinned it down and stood up, her mouth curved into a small smile of
triumph.  "Challenge number one down.  Now let's see about some chow."

Out came the meager mountain food.  Not much, but adequate for an
appetite that was barely existent.  As it began to darken, she cast
around for dry wood for a fire.  The spot she had ended up choosing as a
camping site turned out to be quite nice, despite her lack of camping
experience.  She had stayed near the depression that had sheltered her,
and it was part of a larger stone face that ran up about twenty feet,
and continued on in large pine trees.  This wall blocked most of the
cool breeze and gave her a small sense of comfort, having her back
against a solid wall.  All other sides were open for about ten feet as
the pine trees again began.  It was a small, comfy clearing, and finding
wood nearby wasn't difficult as the trees had sheltered much of what lay
under their heavy branches.

A collection of wood in tow, she lit her fire-starter stick and piled on
the wood.  As the smoke rose up in her eyes, choking her until she
backed up, she realized she might have put a bit much wood on the fire.
Squinting her eyes, she carefully pulled away much of what she had
brought and piled it nearby.  As her eyes stopped watering, she realized
she had definitely picked up a new scent, and not a designer one.
"Great," was all she muttered as she thought about hot showers, and how
far away she was from them and civilization.

As the darkness deepened she crawled into her tent and got ready for
bed.  The sleeping bag wasn't huge, but was "guaranteed" to keep her
warm.  After zipping herself in, she thought maybe she should remember
to thank the salesman on the way back down.  So far he was three for
three.  Not bad she thought as she drifted off quickly into a quiet
sleep.  The hike up the mountain today had proven to be better than
medication in getting her to sleep, and for this she was thankful.