Prologue

Ari: Okay, before the pitchforks and torches come out, Ari has a reason for not writing fanfiction in forever! ...But she can't remember it now so please don't hurt me! -cowers-

Err... Anyway, Ari randomly decided to finish up this fic (so she could start on the sequel she's dying for) and... writer's block hit. So yeah, time to re-do the whole thing xD

Disclaimer: Like all fanfic writers, I wish to death I owned Slayers (I could make some fun changes) but that is not the case, and I make no profit from writing stories, except maybe the confidence in myself that people give me when they review

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"Cedrick!" The silver-haired girl looked torn, as if fighting the urge to panic and faint and the same time, and yet somehow, the expression not at all altering the inhuman beauty of her, the sharp elfin features unchanged, the only evidence of her stress being her amethyst eyes, which, oddly, were glassy.

The man she was facing, who just so happened to be named Cedrick, ignored her. His face was dark with remembered pain, the agony of it tearing his normally handsome features into a mask of hatred and perceived slight. His silver hair, alike almost to mocking his sister's except for a brown tint, flowed about him as he bent ever so slightly into a crouch, with a movement so smooth nothing human could have duplicated it with the careless grace that he had employed in his every move.

Watching quietly, without her usual quips that she usually threw at her opponents, Lina Inverse began to be very afraid. In the corner of her eye, she noticed the few not stunned by the fighter moving into position, most notably Zelgadis and Xellos. Her fear was not abated by the fact she noticed the mazoku's eyes were open.

Cedrick was still, neither of his hands going towards the sword on his hip, or any of the daggers probably hidden on his person, and if she had not been a bit to worried about dying, the sorceress probably would have joked about the Salinian paranoia. Not in such a mood, Lina quickly glanced at the one ally who might have had a hope at defeating him, but no, Rhianna still stood there, stricken, probably not even noticing that her brother was hostile, so shocked she was to see him.

Abruptly, Zelgadis rushed him, in a vain hope to catch the killer by surprise, and sadly, he was not disappointed. At the very last second, he tore his gaze from the sorceress and in a lightning fast movement, his sword was drawn, and Zelgadis was skidding backward, repelled by a simple parry of his sword. The chimera swore and leapt to his, shaking his arm slightly, as if to get rid of the burning sensation. Impossibly, the crystal floor was not at all scratched, the rough stone wall not at all dented from the man of stone's hit.

With a growl more fitting to his animal counterpart, Cedrick, his hair, not even slightly tousled by Zelgadis's attack, straightened and stalked toward Lina, murder evident in his eyes. the slight tapping her jeweled slippers made on the floor was all the warning they got as she surprised every being around her by running in front of Lina, spreading her arms in a feeble attempt to stop him.

And, miraculously, he stopped, quickly determining the distance between his sister, himself, and his prey. "Move, Rhianna." The growl of his tone did not at all mask the musical tone of his voice, yet it somehow fit him, the similar sharp, beautiful feature completely suited to the beauty of his voice.

Only the slightest trembling of her lips gave away how her emotions opposed facing the twin she thought dead for so many years. Her expression, once torn, was now resolute. "Kill me first."

His yellow feline eyes widened ever so slightly; killing Lina Inverse was his perceived duty, his sister, however, a completely other matter. "Be reasonable."

"I am just that."

"Rhianna," Alarm was now quite evident in both his expression and tone. "You can't- How- SHE is destined to kill you!"

All in the room inhaled abruptly. Only Rhianna remained calm, not giving even the slightest hint that he had said something remotely alarming. "So? I'm already dying. Everyone knows that."

Anger crossed his handsome features, and by the expression on his face, anyone spectating could, and would, assume that everyone had know- but him. "What?!"

Rhianna made the slightest movement, a toss of her hair, and for an instant, his intended prey, her expression in actuality one of severe alarm, seemed to take on one of triumph before his eyes, and without thinking, in reaction, he whipped out a knife and threw it.

Her immortal amethyst eyes widened ever so slightly in pain as the dagger embedded itself in her stomach, but as she grasped the wound and blood began to flow through her fingers, Rhianna Saline serenely closed her eyes. And died.

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Ari: Okay, WOOT... :)