Slayers Forever

Disclaimer: I don't own Slayers. Never have, never will.

Lina stood silently in her room beaming. Her childish features making it appear to be as if she had been given a life time supply of candy. It may appear that way to anyone who knew about her eating habits, then again that was one thing that she was famous for. No. She was happy about something else. Gourry had proposed. She had said yes. It was as simple as that. After being alive for twenty years, she was finally going to get married. She couldn't wait to tell everyone the news. Hopefully her fiancée wouldn't forget. But, knowing him, he would. She wasn't up to making the announcement and having Gourry stand there asking her what she was talking about. So she would wait and see if he could remember it until she decided it was safe to say that she wouldn't embarrass herself.

Lina turned to face the mirror to make sure she looked all right. When she did she gasped. It was not her that she saw. The girl had similar features. She had rich brown hair and green eyes like a jade. Jade. That would be a perfect name for the girl. Unlike Lina, she didn't have as many childish features, yet she didn't look like a woman. Lina looked over the image in the mirror. It moved like a reflection would. She noticed that the girl had some odd tattoo on her left arm. On her pale cheek there rested a scar. It looked so out of place on this perfect creature. Lina stood there, staring at the ghostly image. She couldn't take her eyes away from it. She didn't know the girl, and yet she felt as though she cared about it. No, her. She couldn't call this reflection an 'it'. The image before the young sorceress seemed too real. It's not real. She tried to tell herself. She continued to stand there, transfixed, until Amelia came in telling her that breakfast was ready. The moment the princess came in the image faded away into nothingness. Please come back! Lina's mind screamed. I want to know who you are! But her silent request went unheard and Lina felt as though she would never know the girl's identity or where she came from.

Lina followed Amelia down the stairs to the eating area of the inn. She took a seat at the table and ordered. Gourry didn't appear to remember that he'd proposed the night before. Lina's heart sunk but her face refused to show it. It's a good thing I didn't tell anyone.

" I have found another lead to a cure." Zelgadis spoke up. " If anyone is coming with me I suggest they get their belongings together after breakfast."

" I don't see why you need a cure so badly." Lina whispered. " You have been given elite strength, agility, and hearing. Do you know how many people would kill to have that?"

" You wouldn't understand Lina. You've always been normal. You don't know what it feels like not to fit in." Zelgadis fired back.

" You should try to understand him Miss Lina. You know he's been through a lot." Amelia said. Zelgadis got up from the table and walked out of the inn. The young princess jumped up and ran after him. That was the last time she saw them while she was a pure soul.

"You've seemed upset these past few weeks Lina. Did I do something?" Gourry questioned. He got a fireball as a reply. Lina ran on ahead. Gourry ran after her, but had no luck in finding her. Lina Inverse, enemy of all who lived, had run away.

It had been three months since she had left Gourry. Loneliness had begun to set in. She had spent so much time traveling around people that she had forgotten what it felt like to be away from them. Then again, even when she was with people, she always felt alone. It was because of her secret. The secret nobody but her sister would ever know.

After Lina had left, she decided that she would try to find the girl from the mirror, Jade, as she had come to call her. Lina just couldn't seem to find the girl. No one seemed to know who she was either.

Despair had settled into Lina's heart. She had no travel companions. Lina had made up her mind. She would go back to Zephelia to find Luna, the Knight of Cephied, her older sister. She had an odd feeling of dread in her stomach.

Lina got a room at an inn in the town of Bouros. She put her few belongings away and went to the mirror. The moment she looked she jumped back and screamed. The reflection she saw wasn't Jade, and it wasn't herself. But it is me! Her mind cried. The woman in the mirror had fiery red hair and red eyes. But her right eye was huge and bloodshot. The pupil was a small circle in the center. There was no eyebrow above the eye and there were three slashes through it. Lina quickly went away from the mirror. She spent the night then left in the morning.

Over the next two months there had been a number of disappearances. After about four months they stopped with an estimated total of five hundred people missing. The feeling of dread kept growing.

Lina had begun to feel sluggish whenever she used magic. She was not the only one though. From what she heard, all magic users felt sluggish whenever they used magic.

the mirrors were the first signs

the disappearances were the second

the problems with magic was the third

Soon it became hard too cast powerful spells. Magic-users just couldn't call upon the magic. Things were getting chaotic. Quickly.

Lina got to Zephelia within a week. She went to the restaurant where her sister worked but couldn't find her. Please don't let her have disappeared! Lina checked their home and then went to Cephied's temple. If her sister was there than that meant there was trouble. Lina found Luna in the Great Hall of the temple dressed in her knight outfit. At least her sister hadn't called upon the powers of transformation.

"Luna."

" Yes?" Her sister melodious voice sounded grave and dead.

" Do you know what's going on?" Lina asked her sister.

" I don't. All I know is that whatever this is, it's like nothing we've encountered before." Luna turned to face her younger sister. " Lina, whatever it is, it's draining the magic from everything. In a few months, magic will cease to exist." Lina looked in her sister's eyes and knew that it was true.

" What will we do?"

" You should have some answers Lina. You are, after all, the Chaos Knight."

" You know that I have no training."

" You will need that power soon. We must prepare for whatever this is. Do you know what they are doing?"

" Yes." Lina answered. " They're weakening us. They're trying to leave us defenseless."

To be continued…