[Notes: This is a strange fic. It's a Van Helsing/X-Men-movieverse crossover reincarnation slash fic. There are no original characters, only adapted ones. It's a two parter – the first taking place in the Van Helsing universe, the second in the X-Men. I thought up a theory that ties Gabriel Van Helsing to Logan (hey, same actor!grin) and then my muse hit the ground in a sprint....]

ALPHA/OMEGA

Book One

ONE

Van Helsing shot his partner a look to see if the friar was ready. After five years, the two men had become a team that functioned like a fine Swiss clock. Few words were needed to arrange an ambush for the warlock they hunted.

Carl nodded in answer to the wordless question, pulling a shotgun from under his coat. The friar had become an accomplished field agent over the years, abandoning his bulky robes for simple modern garments covered by a cloak-like coat. He still wore a silver crucifix of the Holy Order, signifying that he was yet officially a holy man, though under Van Helsing's tutelage Carl had become a formidable hunter. The two men were shadows of each other, much alike now in build and skill. Van Helsing still favored black, while Carl clung to the dark browns of the mendicants. Van Helsing still had a bit of the 'kill first, ask questions later' attitude, and Carl could still spend days, even weeks, in a lab developing weapons.

Van Helsing watched as his partner crept silently along the roof of the building, making his way to a good vantage point to lay down hemming gunfire. The Vatican's number one agent smiled to himself as he noted the perfection of the friar's skill. It had taken time, but he'd trained Carl well. At least he broke Carl of the habit of hacking his own hair off. The fairer man's hair now hung almost as long as Van Helsing's, though he wore it pulled back. Carl never understood why the hunter insisted he change his appearance.

For his part, Carl was relieved that they were actually attempting to catch this target. Over the years, he'd nagged Van Helsing into trying more traps and less frontal assaults on targets. The pair performed better now than ever before. It was not long after Transylvania that the Order decided to make Carl a permanent partner to Van Helsing. After Carl developed a werewolf serum from Van Helsing's blood, though Carl claimed the blood had belonged to Velkan Valerious and that he used the properties of anti-toxin formulation to create it, the Order decided that more field work might lead to more innovations, and so hunter and holy man found themselves together more and more often. Eventually, Van Helsing could be found researching in the library on occasion, and Carl carried a pair of pistols with ease. They could read each other's moods, knew each other's weaknesses, such as Van Helsing's new inability to attack dark-haired women even when they were demons, and they tolerated each other's personality quirks with humor.

Reaching the ledge nearest the street, Carl lay down on the shingles and sighted along the shotgun. The weapon, un-enhanced in any way, would lay down a spray of pellet shot. Their plan was for Carl to stop the carriage they expected to come down the street. In the carriage would be the target. When it stopped due to Carl's firing, Van Helsing would swing down and shoot the target with a tranquilizing dart.

Finally, the carriage appeared. Carl open fired. Van Helsing swung down, but to his shock, the carriage was empty. He paused to make sure, only to hear Carl's shout. Ducking, Van Helsing managed to avoid the swiping claws of the hell-beast disguised as the coachman. Hissing, the red-eyed monster made to attack, but at that moment, the point of a silver stake emerged with a spray of black blood from its shoulder. It writhed and howled as Van Helsing drew his Tojo blade and beheaded it. Emitting an acrid smell, the beast disintegrated.

"What is that, nine? Ten?" Carl asked, retrieving the stake and wiping it clean on the carriage's curtains.

"Nine I owe you. Of course, we could say that's one less that you owe me!"

Carl snorted. "I only owe you twelve." Van Helsing grinned at the friar's affronted tone. They kept a running tally of who'd saved whom more, one of their in-jokes. "Besides, I wouldn't have had to save you if you hadn't lost concentration there." He climbed into the carriage and examined it for any clues. "I don't even think he got in!" He jumped out and gave Van Helsing a glare. "What happened?"

The big hunter shrugged. "I was surprised. We rarely miss."

Carl rolled his eyes. "Well, I didn't think this would really work anyway."

"Wait, if it wasn't going to work, why try it?"

This time Carl shrugged. "So when the Cardinal asks 'Did you even try to capture the man?'" Carl imitated the Cardinal's thick accent perfectly. "We can say we tried."

Van Helsing blinked. Sometimes, Carl said things that made him wonder whether this partnership was a good thing. Right now, he wondered what happened to the innocent who'd complained every step of the way and jumped like a rabbit at the slightest noise.

"What?" Carl asked.

"Tell me, did you want it to work?"

Carl looked surprised. "Well, of course I did! Though I rather think a warlock like DeJohns isn't going to repent, really, even if we did capture him, but there's always the hope that he would." He glanced quizzically at Van Helsing as he began to unhitch the pair of horses hooked to the carriage. "What's the matter?"

"I don't know." Van Helsing said, staring at him. They'd become closer than friends, closer than brothers, over the last few years, but sometimes, he sensed a sort of strange moral ambivalence in Carl that Van Helsing couldn't pin down or dismiss. Carl became less chatty, more curt over the years. He still would talk for hours about an invention, but all the complaints and chiding had faded away.

"Are you going to help, or are you going to stand there looking intimidating?" Carl asked with a small smile.

That smirk brought Van Helsing back to himself. The expression was classically 'smug Carl'. Quickly, they mounted the horses and made their way to the mansion the warlock DeJohns had lately inhabited. From one look, they could tell the man had abandoned the place. So, now they had to begin the hunt again. They agreed to wait until morning to question the servants and the neighborhood.