~Disclaimer. I don't own Slayers. If I did, I'd be making new seasons instead of fanfics.

A/N: I called her Renee because it means "reborn." Nifty, ne? Anyway, on with Chapter 2!



Ten years later. (Gee, I wonder what's gonna happen?)

A little Midnight blue haired boy glared across the table at his twin brother, who mirrored his expression. "It's your turn," the first boy said. "No kidding," the second snapped. "My, my, aren't we cranky today? Have you eaten lately, Grau?"The first queried. Grau glared at his identical twin. "I suppose not, then," the first boy chuckled, "take your turn." Grau moved the piece over, and looked at his twin. "Check. I win, Grou." Grou sweat dropped. He'd overlooked that move. "So you have...hmmm...what'cha wanna do now?" Grau leaned forward and reached for the pieces. "Why does this table have to be so big?? I can barely reach the middle!!" he whined. Grou climbed up to the tabletop and pushed the pieces toward his twin. "This table is made for adults, not 8-year-olds."

As Grau swept the pieces into their satin bag he glanced at the clock. "Grou, it's time to go; Lord Dynast said that we should leave around noon, and it's 11:45, that's close enough. "'Kay," Grou replied. The two of them summoned their staffs to them and teleported to the Throne Room. "My Lord, we are leaving now. Do you have any further orders?" Grou asked. Grausherra glanced up at them from his scrying glass. "No, nothing has changed. Proceed as planned. That is all." Grau grinned, "Alright, then. We're off!!"

The two of them vanished in a whirl of midnight blue. The Dynast grinned down at the image in the glass. Soon. Very soon, he'd reclaim what is his.

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On a grassy hilltop near the town of Rygana, two young boys materialized out of thin air. Casting a quick glance about, they determined that no one had seen them materialize. After quickly scanning the Astral Plane, they were satisfied that no one had followed them. They made a brief moment of eye contact and started toward the town.

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Renee Batai froze. 'That presence again...' she thought. "Renee, what's wrong?" one of her friends asked. "N-nothing. It's nothing," she responded. 'What is it? And why does it feel so familiar?' she thought. It felt like someone she knew well, but no matter how hard she strained her memory, she couldn't put her finger on exactly who, even though she felt like she really should. It was eerie. Sometimes she felt like someone was watching her, but that had a different feel to her. She felt as she ought to remember what that was too. But she never could. She'd clear her mind and concentrate for hours, but always in vain.

Those presences had cloaked themselves efficiently. She felt that if she could learn some stronger magic, she'd be able to track it down. To do that she'd have to travel north, past where the Barrier used to be. She used to ask about just what the "barrier" was, but her teachers said she'd learn about it when she was older. Here she was, age fifteen, and they still wouldn't talk about it. Every time she'd try to broach the subject of going north, her parents would obstanately refuse to even talk about it, like there was some horrible demon waiting up there to devour unwitting travelers. Her mind flashed over to the childhood tales of demons bent on destroying the world who could kill a human just by thinking about it. She shivered. There was no way that such creatures could possibly exist. Every teenager with coherent thought knew that that stuff was just to scare small, dumb children. A small voice in the back of her head, however, was saying just the opposite. The presence, no, presences, was coming closer. There were two of them? Renee concentrated for a moment. She had never noticed before, but there were two. The presences were nearly identical, but there were distinctly two.

"Have you heard about those monsters that have been attacking nearby villages?" That comment snapped Renee out of her reverie. "Monsters?" she asked. "Yeah," her friend said, "big, ugly disfigured things. They appear out of nowhere and just destroy the town and kill as many villagers as they can. And you know the strangest part?" The girl began to speak with more confidence now that she had the whole group's attention. "What?" a boy asked. "Well," she continued, "they say that swords and other mundane weapons have absolutely no effect on them. It's like they're just images and the real monster is elsewhere. You can stab it, or slice it in half, and it just regenerates, no problem." A chill went up Renee's spine. "Isn't that scary? If one was to attack us, we'd be defenseless. There'd be nothing we could do," the girl said. "There's gotta be a way to kill it," the boy said, "I bet you have to use magic. We could just kill it with a fireball."

Renee frowned. She had been reading all the books on magic she could get her hands on, which wasn't very many, in hopes of finding a good spell. From what they'd said, it sounded like the monster could use magic, and it had to be somewhat high if it could regenerate. She doubted a volley of fireballs, let alone one, could scratch it, and that was the strongest offensive spell the people in this village could use.

As if on cue, screaming could be heard from the village square. The group rushed forward, only to find two of afore mentioned monsters contentedly destroying the village square and killing people. "..."was all they could say. The monsters looked up at the group of teenagers. "We found the one the Dynast has been searching for. Kill her," one of the monsters ordered the other. Said "other" chuckled evilly. "With pleasure" Cries of "eew! They can talk!" and "WHAT did it say?!?" could be heard before the teens decided to turn tail and run. 'Shit,' Renee mentally cursed, 'what do those things want? Who are they after?' She shunted those thoughts to the side and concentrated on running as fast as she could.



Grau and Grou were leisurely looking around the village for their "little sister to be,"

Sherra's reincarnation, when they heard the screaming. A wave of fear and intense pain, followed by panicky terror hit them. "Well," Grou said to his brother, "what will your excuse for being cranky be now that we've had a chance to eat?" "I sense other Mazoku here..." was Grau's response. "...You're right...why would they... be... here...oh no..." The two of them came to the same conclusion simultaneously. "Sherra-chan!!" They quickly teleported over to the source of the pain and anguish.



They teleported into one of the few trees left standing. They quickly found the Mazoku, and Sherra not long after. One of them was trying to kill her. "Oh, no you don't," Grou hissed as he teleported to her and teleported her out of there. Needless to say, the girl was surprised and scared senseless. "Wha-"she said, but was cut off when Grou teleported again when the demon had tried to attack again. 'What a moron,' Grou thought, 'he has no idea who he's up against.' "Who are you?" the mazoku demanded, irritated at how easily Grou was evading his every attack. It never occurred to it that maybe, just maybe, it should scan the astral plane for its new opponents' power signatures. While Grou was getting Sherra out of the way, Grau was busily casting a spell:

"Supreme King of the frozen soul

Grant me the power of your icy rage.

Dynast Breath."

At the last two words, ice shot out of his staff and encased the two demons in an icy prison. Grau held the ice for a few seconds, then swung his staff, causing the ice to shatter into a billion sparkling shards, taking the mazoku with it. "Well, that's that," Grau announced. He turned toward his brother and called out, "Heeey!! Are you two okay?"

"We're fine!!" Grou yelled back. Renee (also known as Sherra, if you haven't already figured it out) looked from Grau to Grou. She was visibly shaken. 'How did they DO that? What kind of a spell was that? How did he teleport like that?' she thought. Those two presences from before belonged to these two. She looked at them again. Their faces seemed familiar somehow, but she couldn't remember from where. "Who the hell are you?" she demanded. Grau and Grou sweatdropped. "Well, that's a long story..." Grou began.

For the next hour or so, Grou and Grau explained as much to Renee as they cared to, which was pretty much everything. They just left out things that would be a little over her head at the moment, and things they were not at liberty to say. "Wait a minute," she said. "You're saying that I was reincarnated? Who was I before? And who is that Dynast person that those things mentioned?" The twins glanced uncomfortably at each other.

Sitting in the ruins of the village, Renee looked around. "Hey...where is everyone?" She abruptly asked. Grau and Grou looked around. "I'd say that they're either dead or running from the village as fast as they can screaming bloody murder all the way," Grau said.

"If you'd like," Grou began, " we can try to break the seal on your memories. I doubt anyone would be able to shatter it, but we can try to crack it a little, and the memories from before should surface a little. What do you think? Do you want to try it?" Renee frowned. She was anxious to find out what this was all about, but something was bothering her. "Will it hurt?" she asked. "I believe not." Grau replied. Renee paused. Something told her she could trust them. "Alright, then! Let's do this!" Grau and Grou grinned at each other. The first part of their mission was a success.

(All done. No more for this chapter. ^_^)