"Jack I've changed… I no longer fear the jungle and the part I wanted to keep within me I've embraced…"

Before she could carry on he asked "The vampire?"

"No the slayer and the vampire… Jack the slayer is strong and if I ever became weak enough it would take control of me and hunt then kill anything evil even if it is a person with a soul and if I got hungry it would mix with the vampire in me and kill for food. I always pushed it to the far deep end of my soul but when I was on my own I realised it is a part of me therefore I should embrace it."

-- Flashback --

Melinda was hunting boar again when all of a sudden it felt like she was watching herself hunt it rather than her actually hunting it.

When she awoke from the 'dream' she looked to the boar to see it practically ripped apart it wasn't a dream

No it wasn't

Who are you?

I am apart of you

Which part?

The Slayer

How can you be the slayer… you… you practically ripped the animal apart

You left it too long to feed and became weak, so I took over and fed

Fed! It looks like predators ripped it to shreds

We are the predator not the prey

I know that but you could have just killed it quickly then feed off it rather than prolonging its pain

It is an animal therefore lower than us

Doesn't mean you can kill it like you did and it may be lower than us although I don't think animals are but that doesn't mean you can choose how it dies

Would you rather if it was the vampire in you that fed?

No

It would have fed of a human maybe even Sawyer, Claire or Jack

It would have hurt them first…

Don't start being weak it's very unbecoming of a slayer

Even Slayer's have weaknesses and so do Vampires

If you don't want to hurt them then don't care for them

I can't stop now that I already care for them

Don't say I didn't warn you

Melinda walked 'home' while saying "I can't believe I just had bloody a conversation with my slayer side in my head."

-- End of Flashback --

"And I did Embrace it Jack. Now I feel stronger than I ever have, it made me see sense and now I know I shouldn't come to care for people as I will only get them hurt."

Jack's hands never let her go "If you never care for people you will never be the protector you can be." He brought her to him in a hug then carried on "By caring for people you become more of a protector because you have me people to behind you every step of the way."

Don't listen to him

Jack's right I should never stop caring about people otherwise I will become what the watchers council want even when they have no power over me.

Melinda pulled back from the hug and looked at his hands Melinda then looked into his eyes and admitted "You're right." Sighing Melinda carried on "But… but I still shouldn't have kissed you Jack, I may like you a lot and want to kiss you but what life would I be giving you I am an immortal and you are a mortal. While I am doomed to walk this earth till the day I am killed you can die of natural causes such as old age. Who would I be if I kissed you again…"

The next thing she knew was that Jack kissed her "I should be able to choose don't you think."

Melinda nodded but still turned away from him "Give me some time to think about this Jack and Jack you should think about what you would be getting yourself into."

Melinda did take time to think over the situation but when she came to a decision she avoided Jack like you would the plague.

Days passed and Melinda knew her decision was one sided as it should be his as well but she knew Jack's future was not the future that she had, he is a healer not a fighter well not 100 anyway so Melinda made the decision that they should not be together and her decision would lead to heartbreak but she did not know this.

Day 46 on the island quickly became Day 48 the day that Sawyer, Jin and Michael came back to the camp. Melinda instantly became worried about Sawyer and made sure he was alright but by doing this she made herself bump into Jack.

"Melinda just go you can't help." Melinda expected this behaviour for avoiding him but it still hurt like hell and she should know she had been to a hell dimension once in her life thankfully she was only there for a day in earth time otherwise she would have been there for years.

Mind you it wasn't the worst hell dimension she could have been sent to. She was there for five years but since it was the worst five years of her life excluding Jumanji she never added it to her years of age.

Jumanji wasn't the only place that Melinda tried to forget or where she learnt to fight for in both places you fought for your life every day.

-- Flashback -- Hell Dimension - Cruentus Somnus (Latin for Bloody Sleep) --

All Melinda could hear was screams when she awoke from her unconscious state. When she opened her eyes she found she was in a cell of some sort but it wasn't long for her to figure out why there was screams as she looked beyond the bars of her cell she saw flames holding many people who all looked as if they where sleeping but looking closer she could see they where wide awake.

What she also noticed was as soon as the fires burnt their flesh it healed just for it to be repeated over and over again.

Then she saw people being bled dry then their blood carried to a fiery pit which then created the flames that tortured the ones held by them.

Running up to the bars Melinda used some of her strength to bend the bars to find she couldn't so she did what she rarely did she used all her strength, all her strength combined bent the bars quickly giving her enough room to escape from her cell.

-- Day 1085 in the Hell Dimension --

In ten days Melinda would have been in the dimension for 3 years. Not long after her escape did she get caught again but as the demons did not know how she escaped they put her in a cell again. Then the real torture began, she had done to her what she had seen on her first day and many more types of torture they used in that Hell Dimension.

Melinda had killed many of its demons in the time she had been there and many more died before she became free from the Hellish place. The amount of times Melinda had to fight for her life taught her many things in both combat and how to keep her mind blocked from demons who could originally get into it.

It may have been hell for Melinda but it did help her train to be what she was destined to be and that was a warrior who would protect the innocent and defeat the forces of evil.