Chapter Two: The Slayer

It has been a little over a year since Rinoa Heartilly last spoke with anyone from SeeD, but so much has changed since
then. Shortly after their last reunion, Rinoa was approached by a dark, mysterious man. His name was Merrick, and
he claimed he was her 'Watcher.' He told her that demons had taken a liking to her world, and now it needed a hero,
a slayer. She was to be the first in a long line of powerful women on her planet. Merrick wasn't quite so normal himself.
He was actually dead. A spirit of a watcher from another realm. He told her how he trained slayers, and of one, Buffy,
who is one of the most powerful slayers in any of the realms.

Rinoa trained day and night, cleansing the streets of Timber from all the bad things that lurked, crawled, or brooded.
Some of her adventures had brought her to Esthar, Balamb, Fishermans Horizons, and other places she had been before
with her friends from SeeD. Zone and the rest of The Forest Owls helped out quite a bit, and became a sort of
'Scooby squad' for Rinoa. But soon, something was gonna happen, something big.

Now, Rinoa lay on her bed, crying. She was thinking of her love, Squall. It had been two years since it happened,
but it never got better. If only she had the power then that she had now? Could she have saved him?
Then there was a knock at the door.

"Who is it?" Rinoa replied, wiping her eyes.

"It's Merrick. Rinoa, I just found something about this Master you said the vampires were talking about." Merrick said
from the other side of the door. " Meet me in the Conference room."

Rinoa got off of her bed, and put her hair into a bun. Angelo stood beside her, wagging his tail. She picked him up
and he licked her face.

"At least I still got you, buddy."
***************

"Hey guys!" Quistis said as she waltzed towards Zell and Selphie, who were sitting on a
bench in the main hall.

"Hey Quisty. Where ya' been?" Asked Zell, who had just scarfed down a hot dog.

"Umm, I went into town for some coffee. Hey, guys, umm, Have you heard about those
murders. Y'know, the ones where they turn up missing all their blood?"

"Yeah. Its scary. Like, I feel bad for them. I wish we could do something for them." Selphie
chimed in.

"That's what I'd been thinking too. Guys, you wanna check it out? Re-live our glory days?
minus Squall." Quistis asked.

"But that's kinda scary. What if we get ourselves killed?" Selphie shivered at the thought.

"Dude, that'd be sweet though. I'd love it if we could get Rinoa and Irvine back." Zell said.

"Well, I donno bout Rinoa, But as for Irvine, Lets just say Ive made a few calls..."
***************

Rinoa walked to the conference room, Angelo following her the whole way. She opened the
door and saw the usual. Merrick was sipping some coffee while reading on 'Vampyres.'
Zone was reading a book, though it wasn't a demonic reference. It was actually a comic.
And one surprise...

"Irvine!!!" Rinoa threw her arms in the air and gave him a big hug.

"Hey Rinoa, Hows it goin?" He smiled. "Don't worry, Merrick filled me in on everything.
It actually reminds me of the good ol' days with the others. It's nice to know that you
still fight the good fight."

"It's nice to see you too. So what brings you here?"

"Quistis called me this morning. There are increasing murders in Balamb. The
same things happening in Deling, too. All the attacks seem to leave the victims
drained of blood. Sound familiar?" Irvine explained. Rinoa nodded her head.
"They also speak of a 'Master.'"

"Yes, I just found out a little bit about him. You see," Merrick added. "The Master is
from my homeworld. He was killed by Buffy, the other realms slayer, and his spirit has
been wandering the hell dimensions ever since. It seems the vampires are growing in
numbers because they are preparing an army for the ressurection of the Master. But there
is one thing they need that we won't let them have..."

"What's that?" asked Zone.

"The blood of the slayer."