Meetings in Sewers

By: Tropicwhale

Disclaimer: Insert a preferred witty saying that basically implies or outright says that that the characters that are portrayed in this fanfic are not my intellectual property and that I am making no money off them. Reader's choice.

Warnings for this chapter: PLOT! ANGST! Well he is at a funeral.

Author Notes: This might be longer than originally planned, the fic not the chapter. It really does depend on how these next two chapters go when my boys are apart. . . Yes they are my boys. . .especially Spike, yum. . .not so much Xander.


Chapter 7:
Funerals for Lovers

Spike had sent me off on a red eye flight to Edinburgh with a transfer on a smaller plane to Inverness and even set me up with a rental car. The vampire has mad travel skills, seriously. He should be like a travel agent or something. Wow, got that weird mental image in my head now. Spike, the bleached bonehead, working phones and travel brochures to wannabe tourists in his leather duster. Weird image, weird, weird, weird image. Actually it's kinda funny. William the Bloody Travel Agent booking flights by nights. I start chuckling and take a sip of my drink to hide my amusement. A slayer walks past me to the entryway and smiles sympathetically. I nod back at her and turn to smile at Willow who is making a beeline for me from the air. From my vantage point on top of the castle wall I can see the bonfire that is Renee's ceremonial send off and not smell the burning flesh of my dead girlfriend. Wow, that was morbid. Cremation is the only sure way that a dead body stays dead in our line of work. Otherwise, they can come back. Just look at Spike and Buffy. Spike as a vampire not his second rising from the dead after he got dusted. I'm really not sure how he came back that time. I haven't been able to weasel it out of him. He's very evasive when he wants to be. Anyway, it's become regulation to burn the bodies of dead slayers so that we don't have undead with slayer strength plus vampire strength roaming around. I just couldn't take standing in the field between Buffy and Willow and watch as they set Renee's body on fire. I just couldn't do it. But it felt like I was betraying her memory by not watching, thus the standing on a parapet and the strong alcoholic drink. "Hey Xander." Willow said as she landed.

"Hey Wills." She gave me a hug which I returned. "Nice wake." It was. There was lots of food and alcohol. I wasn't laying into the food as much as I was the booze. Well, I am a Harris, after all, there's only so many dealing techniques that we can use. I just wish I could get back to Spike . . . Err, I mean Paris which has my girls (and Spike). I really suck at funerals. I can't deal with them. There are all these people who barely knew the deceased coming up to you, hugging and claiming how nice and good that person was. It actually passes for me as a kind of shock. It's like someone takes me out of myself and forces me to watch the event rather than to experience it.

"I tried to make it special. Renee was one of the best."

"Yeah, she was." I agree. Dawn suddenly loomed up over me, leaning on the wall like you would a counter-top. "Hey there, Dawnie. Still a giant or are you just using smoke and mirrors?"

"Still looking for the blood of an Englishman. Sorry 'bout Renee. I knew you guys were close."

"Yeah."

"Did you have sex yet?"

"What?" I think Anya wore off onto Dawn just a little bit.

"Did you have sex with Renee? Or were you waiting for something? Because if you had sex with her then she didn't die a virgin, which is great. But if you didn't then that's okay too because she didn't know what she was missing."

"Dawn." Buffy's stern voice said from behind as she joined us.

"Well, its true." Dawn added before her sister's look shut her up.

"Hi Xander." I got another hug. Buffy, thankfully, didn't try and placidate me with fake statements of how great Renee was.

"I hug you too but, you know, giant." Dawn said. "I'd probably squish you."

"I'm working on it, Dawn." Willow told her.

"I know you are but I still wish I was normal-sized again."

"It's a shame it isn't as easy as asking Kenny to forgive you." I mused aloud, as I turn back to watch the funeral pier burn. There is a moment of silence. I look over at the girls. They're staring at me in shock and dawning happiness. "What did I say?" Dawn's practically bouncing in place and Buffy looks inordinately pleased with me, like a middle school teacher who got a college level answer out of the class clown. "What?" Willow suddenly launched herself at me and hugged me tightly. I stumble back and into the wall behind me. "Gah! What did I say?" Willow detached herself and grinned at me.

"Kenny!" huh?

"Huh?" I don't get it. "I don't get it."

"If we can track down Kenny and Dawn asks his forgiveness and is truly sorry then the thricewise magick should reverse itself." Willow explained. "Why didn't I think of that before? We just assumed that Kenny was a jerk and that Dawn would need outside help but if Kenny is an injured party, no offense Dawn but you did, you know, kinda break his heart, then the magick that a thricewise uses is different, stemming from a place of anger instead of a place of-of-of-um . . ." Willow looked at a loss for a word.

"Mischief?" Buffy offered.

"Mischief! That would work. The magic stems from a place of mischief, really cruel mischief grant you, but mischief nonetheless. So if we can get Kenny out here and face Dawn face to face so she can ask forgiveness then we can break the spell and return Dawn to her normal size!" I followed (sort of).

"Yay?" I asked. Willow rolled her eyes at me.

"Yay." She confirmed. I allowed it to process a little more. Dawn asks Kenny to forgive her and then she can return to normal size. OH I get it!

"YAY! That's great!" I grinned at my girls. Willow nodded.

"And we couldn't have figured it out if not for you, Xander." Willow beamed some more at me. If her grin got any bigger then her face would split. It was contagious. I grinned back at her. Buffy grinned. Dawn grinned. We were grinning fools. Like we had been hit by Joker's laughing gas.

"Yay for me, then. Never say that the Xan-man didn't have the answers cause I do." I bounce a little. I felt lighter from being with my friends. We all worked better together. I missed them. Don't get me wrong, Paris is great, the city of lights and love. Not to mention Patricia, Emma, Kenya, and Alex had so much potential as slayers that I can see them leading squads of their own soon enough and then there was Spike. My happiness faded a little. I feel a little guilty not telling the girls that our favorite platinum-headed, leather-clad vampire was back from the dust. But Spike was right. Wow, never thought I'd say that. Spike was right. The girls probably couldn't handle that. I could barely handle it. Besides, Spike wanted to remain a hero in their eyes. I could tell that he still holds a torch for Buffy but seems convinced that she had moved on from whatever place it was that made her be with him. Maybe she had. She never did feel the way about him that he did about her. It was weird. Spike was being all noble and self-effacing. That didn't seem like him. When someone mentioned Spike, the thing that popped into my head wasn't Clark Kent it was Oliver Green, maybe Tony Stark, stratch that definately Tony Stark. It was the guy who took the credit and the rewards that came with being a white hat not the guy that was a hero because it was the right thing to do. Come to think of it, Spike was being extraordinarily . . .well . . .sweet since we ran into him in the sewers. By the way, the Parisian sewers systems? They stink. They stink like a gym locker in a boys' locker room that has a dirty jockstrap, gym shorts, socks, and a moldy ham and cheese sandwich in it that was forgotten over the summer break. Ew, right? What you mean Spike already mentioned it? Oh. In the first chapter? Oops. Hey, what does he say about me? Nothing bad I hope. What you mean what do I mean? I'm curious, is all. He's, well, Spike. I am not obsessive! I'm not. Anyway, I'm going with ignoring you now and focusing on my friends. This is me ignore you. So there! Why are the girls staring at me weird?

"Xander, you okay?" Buffy asked. Uh? Crap, must have spaced.

"Yeah. Fine. I was just . . ." Think, Harris, think. "Thinking about Renee."

"Oh Xander." Willow hugged me again. After a moment, Buffy joined in. Dawn gave me thumbs up overhead.

"So how's Paris?" Dawn asked. "Is it all pretty lights and nummy pastries?" I smile up at her.

"Don't know." I told her. "Most of the demon population in Paris is in its catacombs and sewers." Sewers like the one, by the way Dawn, where I discovered Spike isn't dust. I added in my mind. Ooo, look! It's my old pal Guilt! Hiya, Guilt, no I can't tell the girls about Spike because I promised not to. "So not so much seeing the ville des lumières with the Xan-man." The girls stared at me. What did I say?

"Xander" Buffy said slowly. "Did you just speak French?" What? A guy can't live in Paris without picking up some of the local language? I can speak Swahili and Portuguese as well. Even managed to pick up a little Scottish curses while living here in Scotland. What's the big deal? But fortunately, before I started to babble out a Spike rant about being well-traveled and blow my little secret I was saved. By a slayer. Yay.

"Mister Harris?" A short brunette said from the entryway that lead into the castle. I sighed.

"How many times to I have to say 'Xander, call me Xander' before it sinks in?" The girl smiled.

"Approximately four hundred fifty two times. You're at one hundred seven." She snipped back.

"What do you need Clara?" I ask. Clara was on Renee's squad. Smart girl, had a head for strategy.

"The squad and I were wondering if we could talk to you?" I then noticed that there were five other girls were hovering in the stairwell. Squads are generally seven slayers but it takes time and effort to get group chemistry right, which is why the Paris squad is so small. I'm trying to get the initial four up to par before introducing new members. The old Paris squad was wiped out by a Big Bad about eighteen months ago which is why the four that I got are so green and also why I'm the one training them. They need to get up to par and fast. The only way to do that is if they have an expert, namely yours truly, working with them. Renee's squad was handpicked and included some of our oldest slayers, and by oldest I do mean oldest. Renee was 20 when she died. The youngest of the group is Clara who is seventeen and who was one of the first slayers to join Buffy's army after we left Sunnydale. My girls; Willow, Buffy, and Dawn, smiled at her and made themselves scarce by having Willow and Buffy climb onto Dawn's hand and ride away on her. Renee's squad waited until they were out of earshot before filing in one by one; first Clara, then Shauna, Katie, Nevada, Darla, and finally Allyson.

"What's up?" I asked, going for casual , leaning against the parapet. I don't honestly know if I pulled it off.

"Well . . ." Clara looked at her teammates. Shauna picked up the thread.

"Renee had some messages for you." I blink to clear my head.

"Say what now?" I can already feel my body tensing in that familiar fight or flight feeling. I remember Willow telling me in that phone conversation that Renee's last words were about me. But Shauna said some messages, plural. This week had just been too long, what with Spike coming back and Renee dying, seeing these girls was getting dangerously close to being too much for me to handle.

"The night Renee died we found out something that you should know." Shauna said and looked to Darla. Darla sighed. She hated when her teammates looked to her to explain the tough stuff. She was a tough cookie, Darla, and believed in tough love and ripping bandages off fast.

"Okay look there is a Big Bad in Paris and Renee decided, before she died, that the knowledge should be past to you instead of Buffy. I don't know why but it probably has something to do with it would have come to you anyway and also the fact that Renee and Buffy stopped getting along about a week after you left for Paris." That was news.

"Why were they fighting?"

"Because," Darla said, exasperation all over her face and in her voice. "Renee was pissed at how Buffy treated you as just another soldier and Buffy started treating Renee like Renee was acting like she was something special. Normal catfight stuff but enough that Renee didn't trust Buffy about the whole demon in Paris thing. She was going to call you when she got home that night but obviously that didn't work out. So we took it upon ourselves to tell you. Apparently there is this, what was it called?" Darla looked at Clara.

"A Shournlach Demon"

"Yeah, what she said, who is after something that is in Paris, a book. This book is a thing of great power. Suppose to be like the Grimmorie of Morgan Le Fay or something and can summon the end of the world. Twilight is after it and the-" she pointed at her teammate.

"-Shournlach Demon-" Clara interjected.

"Right, is one of his followers. The book needs to get into safe hands and/or destroyed so that Twilight can't get a hold of it."

"How dangerous is this book?" I asked.

"Well, if research serves?" Nevada spoke up. "The last time it was used was at the battle between King Arthur and Mordred. It is said that it ended the age of magic and the occult and ushered in the Dark Ages."

"Which explains why Twilight would want it." Darla added.

"You need to tell Buffy. Now." Okay so I was a little irrationally angry at these girls but can you blame me? I'm so wound up that I need to snap. And not telling Buffy about something that could end the world is right up there on the stupid meter for me.

"No, we can't do that." Allyson, who reminds me so much of young Willow before the magick and the gayness and vampires and Buffy and everything, said with her resolve face on. "Renee was our squad leader. It would dishonor her memory by telling Ms. Summers something that she doesn't need to know. Besides, if we tell her she might mobilize herself and that would draw Twilight's attention. If we can keep the operation as low key as possible, we may be able to destroy the book without Twilight ever realizing it." That made sense.

"Alright, I won't tell Buffy, for now. But the Paris squad isn't ready yet for a big battle so if I catch a hint of Twilight on my turf, I'm telling her everything. Okay?" They nod and start to leave. Clara stopped them.

"Wait, we forgot to tell him what she said." They stopped and looked at her and then at me. Here it was, the moment of truth, Renee's last words. Katie stepped forward. She had been quiet up until this point. Katie was a introverted girl who never said anything until absolutely necessary.

"Renee, right before she, well, you know. She told us to tell you to be happy, to find happiness. She said 'Tell Xander not to be afraid to find happiness. He's going to freak when he hears about this so tell him not to be afraid to look for love again.'." The other girls and I stare at her. "I have an auto-graphic memory. I hear things and can remember them exactly." She shrugged and then gave me a hug. "She was right, you know." She started to cry, it looked like she had been holding herself together until she hugged me. I hugged back. "We need to keep moving forward. It would suck if we all just stopped right here." The other girls all started to give me a group hug. All of them were a little teary-eyed. I think the hug was as much for themselves as it was for me. They all loved Renee like you love an older sister or a team captain. She was a good leader that was easy to follow. She inspired hope and individualism in her teammates that made them the best in the field. She inspired me to be more open with myself. Hey! She was inspirational and I love her. Love, not quite in the past tense yet. She opened my heart back up, something that has been closed off since Anya died. I'm grateful for that. Thank-you Renee. May you rest in peace.


Author Afternotes: I think I need to end it right there. It's a good stopping place. Xander needed to be brought through his grief, I was actually quite afraid that this fic would get stuck in angst and I wouldn't be able to stop it but no it was normal healthy grief. Which is good. Also? I think I accidentally added plot somewhere in this chapter. It is trippy how easy it is to write this thing. It's like its writing itself. Which is a cool feeling by the way. Review now or I'll sic Cordelia and Anya on you.