RENEE

By: Tezza1502

Disclaimer: 'Buffy the Vampire Slayer, BtVS: Season Eight', it's characters or it's stories do not in any way belong to me, nor do I seek or am I making any monetary profit from this fanfiction. It is Joss Whedon, Mutant Enemy, the WB, Dark Horse Comics, plus various other people and business entities. I also don't own any of the other copywrited series' mentioned in this fic. So there.

Notes: This one came about after I read Issue No:15 of BtVS: Season 8. There was a character in it called Renee, who was in the process of becoming Xander's girlfriend when she was killed. Being a bit of a Xander fan, I was annoyed that yet again, The Powers That Be (Joss and Co.) decided to keep my favourite character miserable.

As to where this came from, I dunno. I've been suffering through some major work-related writer's block, and this was the first thing that has come to me in ages. So I went with the flow.

(To everyone who has been waiting for an update on my 'Love Hina' stories, please be patient a bit longer. Pretty please. Writing them at the moment is akin to trying to pass a water buffalo through my sphincter, horns and all!)

I guess… I felt that she deserved a back-story. So I decided to make one up. The how's and why's of those two getting together leading up to Issue 15.

It's a little outside my usual genre. Anime is more my normal forte, along with the odd side trip into Harry Potter. Plus, it's somewhat more experimental than my other stuff. And about ninety percent of it is in the First Person Perspective. So if that annoys you, it's best if you turn back now.

Set after Issue 15 of 'Buffy the Vampire Slayer: Season Eight'. So if you haven't read the comic, this will make absolutely no sense whatsoever. Be prepared, it gets kinda sad. Character Death. Eventually. In Chapter 5.

CHAPTER 1

SOMEWHERE ELSE…

"Hey there." The young woman looked up suddenly.

She had been lost in thought, staring at her reflection in a small pond in the local park. Two young women were looking at her with kind expressions, and she felt the negative emotions she had been experiencing lighten slightly in response. "You just got in, right?" The slightly taller one asked sympathetically.

"Um, yeah." She replied hesitantly as the others split up and took up position on either side of her. "I'm, uh, still getting the hang of things."

"Yes, it can be like that at first." The one closer to her height commented. "I remember being very surprised when I arrived."

"No kidding." Her companion chuckled. "If I recall correctly, there was a lot of screaming and foot stamping involved." She sniggered at her friends responding glare.

"Like you were any better." The other sniffed condescendingly. "I believe the screech you let out is still echoing around the upper levels." Before the sniping match escalated, the sad woman asked something.

"Um…why are you talking to me?"

The other two broke off their glowering contest to look at the person between them.

"Well we kinda heard about you, and…" One started.

"…and we figured you might want to talk about it.After all, if anyone knows what you're going through right now, it'd be us."The other continued. "And hey, you ended up here. If you'd gone to the other place, you would have been stuck for eternity amongst the women who have tried to eat him instead."

"…oh." The woman thought about that for a while. Taking a deep breath, she began talking…

Hi. My name is Renee. And I'm a Slayer.

Heh, sounds like I'm standing up at an A.A. meeting, doesn't it?

Um, I'm the last of five children. (My mom wanted a girl, an' she wasn't gonna give up 'till she got one. Pity I turned out more butch than the rest of 'em combined.)

My dad's a Ranger in the U.S. Army. He's very good at what he does, so he's served in plenty of places. Which means we didn't really get to know him until I was in my teens. Kinda sucked, but hey, what can you do? We got along well enough, though, and I was never ashamed of him.

Lets see…

Other than dad being gone for months at a time, my childhood…in fact my whole life up until it happened was pretty standard.

I went through school, got good enough grades to score a scholarship to our local university, managed to get over my partying phase in time to not screw up my chances of graduating, had a couple of boyfriends during all this.

Y'know, normal.

Then I hit twenty-two. And for my birthday, I got an upgrade. The whole Slayer thing kicked in. I didn't find out the reason's why this was happening to me until about a month afterwards, when a strange red-head called Willow Rosenberg and her snooty partner appeared on my family's doorstep out of the blue. All I knew at the time was that suddenly I could easily beat the crap out of my brothers, and bench-press my dad. Considering that he's six foot tall, weighs one hundred kilo's and most of that is pure muscle an' attitude, it was a surprising development for us all.

Within a couple of weeks of that happening, me and my family were attacked by these weirdly dressed guys with stitches over their eyes. I don't know how they managed to get around like that, but it didn't really slow them down.

Unfortunately for them, they were picking on a family that had a proud history of serving in the armed forces. I told you about my dad already. My two oldest brothers had joined up as soon as they were able, with the other two seriously thinking about it. Plus, we had all been taking self-defence courses since we could walk. Dad wanted his kids to be able to take care of themselves when he wasn't around. And we all knew how to use guns.

Suffice to say, the ten Bringers, as I later found out they were called, didn't stand an ice cube's chance in hell against six people who were armed and willing.

It was after the police had been and gone that Willow and Kennedy turned up. After managing to convince my parents that they weren't nutters, or reporters, they set about explaining the real reasons behind why my family had just been attacked, and what was happening to me. It was a lot to take in. Still is, sometimes. I had been chosen to become a warrior of the light, to fight and kill the things that go bump in the night.

I think those two were used to being laughed at.

However, when they started going on about the nightmares, (which I hadn't told anyone about.) and Kennedy showed off a few moves, they started winning a few converts. Me in particular. Willow magically levitating my car helped, too.

Which, of course, led to the next question; what now?

The answer; an all expenses paid trip to Scotland to learn and adapt to my new abilities.

It was a hard decision, to be sure. And I really didn't know what I was letting myself in for. But I thought, 'If I don't like it, I'll just quit!' And if what those two were saying was true, then it needed doing. Besides, it was a free trip to the other side of the world. At least I'd get the chance to travel.

Hard to believe I was still so stupid and naive at that age.

Notes: Yep! That's it for chapter one. Short and sweet. (Heck, the whole story is only about ten thousand words long, broken up into five chapters.)

The next one will be up in a couple of days. 'Till then. T