Sorry that it took so long to get this one up. I'm afraid the next one won't be up until the 20th. I have canning to do and school starts in another week. I just finished typing this so there are probably a ton of typos, just to warn you.
Stoic, Claddagh, Plato, Belladonna, Kristy Marie, Sarah, pay-day1999, miz, Kilea859, fictionfan, Dark-English-Rose, SerinityRules, Lisette, mia, Bashful C, thank you guys so much for your reviews!
Catlimere, yes Storm is suppose to be claustrophobic, something about being trapped as a child. Buffy won't be, but the coffin thing does appear in this chapter.
Kayla, I have a big scene between Angel and Logan coming up in either the next chapter or the one after. It should be a lot of fun. I haven't decided about Lorne yet, so we'll just have to see.
chelsey, there is some history in the past year between Buffy and Angel that I haven't revealed yet. Don't get me wrong, I love Angel, but I don't particularly like him with Buffy or what he has done to her. There will be some Angel bashing, but nothing huge. Cause I like I said I do love him. Now if I brought Riley in, that would be a completely different story.
Sterling-Ag, thanks for the hints on Kurt's German!
Lora Darcy, I'm glad you liked Fred's reaction. She is one of my favorite characters on that show, kind of like early Willow. Thanks for the help with Kurt's German also!
Lexi, I happen to just be a fan of HP, not a fanatic. My sister thinks I'm insane cause I actually like the movies better than the books. I feel that J.K. Rowling takes a long roundabout time to get to the point. I didn't even think the new book got good until 600 pages in.
boo, don't worry. They'll get on equal footing, just need to give them some time. And I don't really think she is stronger or a better fighter, more like she surprised him during their first fight. Plus the fight hadn't been a short one, it was an hour long.
As always my reviewers are just the best ones out there! I love you all!
Chapter Nine
"Well, if we're done, I'm gonna change to go patrolling," Buffy said as she headed to the door.
"Would it be all right if some us go with you?" Ororo asked.
"Sure 'Ro, I don't care," she answered as she walked out. "Meet at the front door in fifteen."
When Buffy arrived at the door she was surprised at the number of people standing there. All of the x-men were there along with Angel's group. "We can't all go, we'll look too suspicious. And you guys can't wear those," she said, indicating the uniforms most of the x-men were wearing.
"Why not?" Jean asked.
"You look like a gang or something. You need to look normal and you need to be able to move in them."
"Like yours are any better?" Jean scoffed.
Buffy narrowed her eyes. "I've been doing this for over eight years, I think I know how to dress to go slaying."
Logan couldn't help but mentally agree with her as he took in her black leather pants and red baby tee. Her heeled boots gave her a little more height.
"Now go change," Buffy ordered.
He smirked as he watched the other x-men, except Kurt, sullenly leave to change their clothes. He turned his attention back to those remaining when he heard the green skinned demon speak.
"Let me volunteer to stay here."
"That's fine Lorne," Angel said. "But the rest of us should go."
"I doubt you'll be able to talk any of the others out of going," Logan said. "They're too curious."
"Then we'll split up," Buffy said. "We'll cover more ground that way."
"Buffy, since you and Angel are the only ones who will be able to sense the hellmouth, I suggest that you each head up a team," Wesley stated.
"Sounds good to me," Buffy said. "I'll take all the x-men except Scott. He'll help you guys around town," she offered as the others showed up.
"Are we splitting up?" Scott asked.
"Yeah, you're gonna go with Angel's group, the rest of you are with me." She looked over their clothing. "Much better. Now you won't stick out."
"Is there anything we should know before we leave?" Kurt asked.
Buffy sent Angel a look and he nodded. The two began pulling out various stakes they had hidden and passed them out to the x-men.
"A pointy stick?" Jean asked.
"A stake. For a vampire. You can kill it with a wooden stake in the heart, decapitation, or fire."
"What about crosses or holy water?" Kurt asked.
"It'll slow 'em down but won't kill them," she said as a flash of Spike draping himself over a cross popped in her head.
"What about demons?" Logan asked.
"Decapitation is usually best, but you can kill most of them the same way you would kill a human."
"I'm uncomfortable with your use of the word kill," Jean said.
"It's either kill or be killed. Believe me they aren't uncomfortable with killing you," Buffy said flatly. "Any more questions?" When nobody said anything she said, "Then let's go."
They headed to the garage so they could take cars into town.
"I want to start at the factory we were at last night," Buffy told Jean, who was driving.
"Why?" Jean asked.
"Because the feeling was stronger there." She paused before asking, "Are you going to question everything I say? Cause I gotta tell ya, it's gonna get old real fast."
"I'm a scientist, I always question things."
"You might want to lighten up. Didn't seeing Angel's true face show you anything?"
"True face?" Ororo asked.
"The demon is his true face, the human one is the mask, to disguise the monster within," she answered quietly.
"What makes Angel different?" Jean asked.
"He has a soul," the blond answered as she turned to look out the window.
"Like that Spike guy?" Ororo asked.
"Not quite. Jean park here somewhere," she said, cutting off further conversation.
They all got out of the car after Jean had parked it. Logan could smell Buffy stretching her senses. He used his own and smelled something strange a couple of blocks down.
"There's a demon up ahead," Buffy said. She turned to face them. "I don't mean to be rude, but I would really prefer it if you didn't do anything to help. I don't know how well you fight and if you use your powers it might distract me."
"What about me?" Logan asked.
"You're fine, I know you can handle yourself. But unless there is more than three, I don't want you guys to help."
"Sounds reasonable," Ororo said.
Buffy flashed her a smile and then headed down the street. She turned down an alley and called out, "Hello! I know you're hiding in here."
A greenish-grey average sized demon stepped out of the deep shadows. Buffy groaned and said, "Great, another one of those." She turned to Logan and said, "Watch out, he has spikes that come out of his arms."
"I take it you've run into his kind before."
"You could say that."
The demon rushed Buffy and she easily ducked under its swing. As she did this, she swung her leg out, knocking the demon of its feet. She heard a skint sound and turned in time to see Logan behead it with his claws.
"That was mildly disappointing," she muttered.
Storm crinkled her nose and asked, "What kind of demon was that?"
"A polgara demon," Buffy said with a shrug. "They're not really known for their intelligence."
"Are all your fights that easy?" Kurt asked as they headed out of the alley.
"I only wish," she replied as she continued to lead them down the street.
Before long, they reached the factory they had been at the night before. Logan fought the urge to snort with laughter as he watched Buffy close her eyes and sink into her slayer powers. She seemed to be using her body like a compass.
After a few moments of orienting herself, she opened her eyes. She pointed behind the factory and said, "It's that way."
They followed her past the factory and into the woods. She led them down a seemingly nonexistent path until they reached a clearing in the woods. She stopped and said, "I think this is where it is. The feeling is the strongest here."
"What feeling?" Jean asked curiously.
"Evil," Buffy answered with a light shiver. She turned to them and said, "Fan out and see if you can find any evidence of people of things lurking around."
They had been looking for about five minutes when Angel's group showed up. Buffy looked at Angel and said, "Lead you here too, huh?"
The tall vampire just nodded his head.
"Did you find any clues?" Wesley asked.
"Nah, we've only been looking for a few minutes."
They all turned to Jean when she asked, "Scott, what are you grinning about?"
Logan looked at the mutant to see a look akin to a child's face on Christmas morning. "Yeah kid. What are you so chipper about?"
Scott excitedly said, "You should see what my beams do to vampires!"
Jean raised an eyebrow and asked, "What?"
"They catch on fire and turn to dust!"
"Sunlight does fuel your powers," Jean said thoughtfully.
"Oh! And sunlight catches vamps on fire. So it makes sense," Fred pointed out.
They all continued their search around the clearing. From one corner Gunn called out, "I found some funky footprints."
Everyone headed over and Logan bent down to inspect the prints. "These didn't come from an animal." He sniffed the area. "Whoever made these were not normal."
Angel looked at him questioningly and Buffy supplied, "He's got heightened senses."
He nodded his head and said, "Oh."
Wesley looked around at the tired faces and said, "I suggest we head back to the mansion. We can return tomorrow during the day to perform the spell."
They all nodded and returned to the cars. Once they were driving back, Buffy asked Jean, "What do you think about vampires and demons now?"
She just shrugged and said, "I don't understand how they're different from mutants, or how we've never come across them before. But I accept the fact that it's more than what science can explain."
Buffy nodded in understanding, knowing that the scientist in her was slowly coming to grips with the slayer's reality.
When they returned to the mansion, Scott left to fill the Professor in on what they had found. Lorne came down to show Angel's group where their rooms were. Buffy and Logan walked together to their rooms.
Buffy stopped him before he entered his room and said, "Wait here for a sec, I have something for you." She then entered her own room then quickly came back out carrying the envelope Fred had given her.
She held it out to Logan and he asked, "What's this?"
"I know that we didn't find much at Alkali Lake. But I asked Wesley to use their resources to see if he could find anything. This is what they could find."
Logan stared at her in amazement. He couldn't believe that she would go this far out of her way to help someone she had just met several days before.
He reached out with trembling fingers and grasped the envelope. All he could get out was a gruff thank you that was filled with emotion.
Buffy gave him a soft smile and said, "You're welcome." She then went into her room and shut the door.
Later that night Logan sat on his bed staring at the envelope she had given him. He had just gotten out of the shower and he had pulled on a clean pair of sweat pants.
A thought occurred to him, that the reason why he hadn't torn it open to read what was written was because he was afraid. Afraid of who he was. He had spent the better part of the past fifteen years trying to figure out what had happened to him. Now that he was faced with the prospect of the truth, he was afraid.
His first memories were of blood, of him washing the blood off himself. But he didn't know if the blood had belonged to him or someone else. What if he had been selected for the experiment because he was a criminal?
He had never really thought much about who he had been because he had been too busy trying to find out what had happened.
Logan picked up the envelope, stared at it, then dropped it. He ran a hand through his wet, tousled hair and sighed.
What if he had been somebody to be ashamed of? Granted, he hadn't been the model citizen for the past fifteen years. But what if his forgotten past was worse than the one he remembered?
As he reached for the envelope again he heard a soft cry from next door, Buffy's room. He paused with his hand still outstretched and listened closely. He heard another one and sounds of a struggle.
Worried that something might be wrong, he leapt out of bed and exited his room. At Buffy's door he knocked softly and when he received no answer he opened the door to see Buffy in the throws of a nightmare.
He spoke her name and when she didn't respond he crossed the room. He turned on the small lamp sitting on the nightstand and it let off a gentle glow. Logan looked down at Buffy, and she seemed to claw at the air as she whimpered.
Thinking quickly, he grabbed her wrists and pulled her into a sitting position. He sat next to her an shook her gently. Her eyes flew open and searched frantically about the room.
Buffy opened her eyes to see looking at her with a worried expression on his face. Her eyes searched the room, unsure of where she was. When her mind realized she was in her room at Xavier's school her body sagged.
She surprised Logan by throwing her arms around him and holding him tight. Tears came unbidden to her eyes and she couldn't seem to stop them. What was it about this man that made her feel comfortable enough to cry on his shoulder twice in the same number of days?
Once Logan got over his initial shock, he wrapped his own arms around the woman clinging to him. He savored the feeling of her body being held close to his.
After a few minutes, Buffy pulled away and embarrassedly wiped her eyes. "I'm sorry," she said. "I'm not normally this weepy."
"It's ok. Bad nightmare?"
"A real life one." At his raised eyebrow, she clarified. "It wasn't something that could've happened. It was something that did happen."
"You looked like you were clawing at something," he said quietly.
Her face turned a light pink and she ducked her head. "When my friends brought me back the second time they didn't think the spell had worked. I woke up in my coffin. I had to dig my way out."
He just stared at her in horror. To think she clawed her way out of her own grave was a terrifying image. No wonder she had a nightmare about it. All he could think of the say was, "I'm sorry."
She shrugged and said, "It's not your fault, it was theirs. Willow had been messing with magics she shouldn't have." She lifted her head and said, "Thank you for waking me up. That's the first time I've had that one in a while."
They both sat in silence for a few minutes before she said, "It must be all the reminders of my friends that caused it."
Logan asked softly, "Are you all right to go back to sleep?"
"I think so. Have you read the info I gave you yet?" She asked tentatively.
He shook his head and said, "Not yet. Did you read it?"
"No. You have the right to know first and to decide if you want to share or not."
The mutant nodded his head in thanks. Neither noticed the vampire watching them sadly from the shadows of the hallway. Or saw him walk back to his room.
Logan rose from his seat on the bed. "I'll see you in the morning." She nodded her head.
After he closed the door, she turned off her light and her head sunk into her pillow. Buffy closed her eyes and the image of the half-naked Logan appeared. She could still feel his arms wrapped around her and she drifted back to sleep with a small smile on her face.
When Logan got back to his room he looked at the envelope and thought, I've waited fifteen years, what's another night gonna hurt? He then tossed it onto his nightstand and turned off the light.
As he closed his eyes, he could faintly smell Buffy's scent on his skin. It was almost as if she was lying in the bed next to him. The last coherent thought he had before sleep claimed him was that he wished she was there next to him.