Disclaimer: I don't own any of the characters in this fiction, I keep forgetting who does, but I know that it isn't me. I don't get money or whatsoever for writing this (who DOES NEways?)
~ ~ * ~ ~
Note: Okay, point one: I never saw an episode of Slayers before I wrote this, so please don't go nagging on the fact that nothing is right.
Point two: there's an OOC alert in this, due to point one.
Point 3: most of this is description of photos, so don't expect much action or whatsoever. It just popped up in my mind and I wanted to write it down.
Photos
By Isabel
Lina pulled herself back on her feet, looking at her opponent, the last piece of Shabranigdo in this world. She gritted her teeth.
'I destroyed 6 already! Then what the hell is going wrong here?'
So far, nothing had gone as she planned it, something had made the darklord stronger than she had thought, and she eventually had told the others to get cover.
"Okay, time to end this now."
She raised her hands and started chanting the spell for the Giga Slave, the spell she used tho kill of the other pieces of Shabranigdo. Then, something went terribly wrong, she wasn't halfway through the spell when Shabranigdo attacked. She could feel the dark energy striking into her, throwing her back. The beginning of the Giga Slave wavered and faded out.
'NO!'
***
Lina opened her eyes, and expected to see the sky, but instead, saw a ceiling.
"What the hell?"
She sat up, and found out that she had been lying on a couch in a large room. She scratched the back of her head and looked around.
"Where am I?"
She stood up from the couch when her stomach notified her of being empty. She patted her belly.
"Okay, where-ever I am, there has to be food, and maybe gold too."
So she walked out of the room on the hunt for food and treasure. She passed several rooms, all furnished simple but classy, and stopped when something shiny caught her eye. Suspecting it to be worthy she raced into the room, to be confronted with a wall filled with photos.
"Photos..? Only photos? What is that to m- huh?"
She stepped closer to the wall to look at a certain photo.
"But…"
The photo showed her, sitting on Gourry's shoulder, throwing a fist in the air and winking at the camera. She gulped, she didn't recall a photo like that being taken. Her eyes moved upwards, to the photo above it. Gourry, Zelgadiss and herself, with white hair. The first time she had used the Giga Slave. With a rapid beating hearth she looked at the other photos on the wall, most of them showing people and events she was familiar with.
Herself and Gourry fighting over the last chickenleg, Zelgadiss casting Ra Tilt, herself again, this time whacking Gourry over the head with her bunny slipper, Amelia holding a justice speech.
A small smile spread over her face when she spotted a photo of herself and Naga, casting spells. She took a couple of steps back, to see that the complete (and pretty large) wall was covered with photos, each of them neatly in a shining frame. More of to the left she discovered slightly different photos. She felt her face turning red at the photo of herself, at the age of 6, wearing a pink dress. She had hated that thing, but she had to wear it for her birthday.
She raised an eyebrow at the photo next to it. it showed 2 girls, one older than the other and both wearing royal dresses, playing with dolls on a grass field. One was a younger Amelia, while the older one unmistakably was a young Naga.
'Or should we say Gracia from now on?'
Lina thought about this while watching at the other photos. One was of all the Mazoku lords, sitting together on the grass, looking like they were having a heyday. Another one showed Xellos winking and shaking his finger at the camera. Valgaav and Xellos fighting, Dynast and Sheera waving. One very chaotic photo of Zellas, Dynast, Phibrizo, Xellos, and Sheera running away from Barney the purple dinosaur, followed by a photo of the 5 of them catching their breath while leaning against the haunted house.
A photo of Rezo and Eris, a young Amelia riding the merry-go-round, a photo of herself casting a Dragon Slave. After a while Lina started to notice that some of the events on the photos were out of the ordinary. At least, she could have sworn that Filia would rather die than pose for a photo with Sheera. She also wouldn't have thought that there was a way on earth that Valgaav and Xellos would be photographed with their arms around each other's shoulder like a pair of brothers.
She stopped and frowned at a photo which was slightly larger than the rest, and in a different frame.
The photo was impossible, the whole concept just was impossible. On the photo was taken somewhere near a lake, on a sunny day. She saw herself, wearing a swimming suit, winking at the camera while being held by Gourry, who was wearing swimming shorts and a T-shirt. Amelia and Naga (Gracia?), in bikinis, sitting infront of them, Amelia flashing a V-sign. Somewhere on the left were Rezo (still wearing robes, gods, he must have been melting) with Eris in a dress and a human Zelgadiss, wearing cut-off jeans and a shirt. Lina's eyes flashed over the picture, everyone who had meant something in her life was on it. A man with red eyes and a T-shirt reading "Hell Raiser" grinned at the camera, while a man next to him, wearing a similar shirt, only with the text "Peace" gave a gentle smile.
'Shabranigdo and Ceipheed.'
Lina had no idea where she had gained that knowledge, but she just knew that those 2 men were gods. On the right she saw Valgaav sitting in the grass with Filia and Xellos, non of the 3 showing any signs of being un-human and smiling at the camera. Luna was standing next to Gourry, eyes still hidden under the bangs of her hair. The 5 mazoku lords, Dolphin and Zellas leaning on each others shoulders, Garv serving as a support for Dynast (who looked like he was having a bad case of combined sunburn and sunstroke) while laying one hand on Phibrizos head (who didn't look too pleased).
Linas eyes looked over the photo again, and again, and again. It was an impossible, happy groupshot of herself, her friends, her enemies and everyone in between who had played a part in her life. She looked at the wall again. So many photos, photos that couldn't be taken, that shouldn't exist.
'Who could have made them?'
Lina had just asked herself that question, followed by an immediate answer, when she felt the hairs on her neck standing on end.
"That was taken in a time you can't remember anymore. It's a shame so many of you ended up as enemies, I really liked you as a group."
Lina slowly turned around, to see what she had expected to see. A woman was sitting on a chair, her long golden hair touching the ground.
"The Lord of Nightmares…"
"Lina Inverse."
Something suddenly surfaced in Linas mind.
"But that means I'm…Oh no! Gourry, Amelia, Zel! What happened to them?!"
She was about to panic when L-sama spoke again.
"They're all here and they are fine."
"But, but, Shabranigdo"
"They're all right. So are you, ne?"
"Well I guess so…"
Lina looked at herself, everything seemed to be in place. She wanted to ask where her friends were when her stomach yelled its displeasure out. Lina turned red and sweatdropped.
"Ehm, L-sama, is there by any chance something to eat?"
L-sama smiled at her and stood up.
"Of course. Come, we'll meet your friends at the diner table, we have to talk about what's going to happen next."
Lina followed the Lord of Nightmares to the door and paused a moment to look back at the wall and the pictures.
"Come, Lina, you will have a lot of time to look at them later."
Lina nodded and walked out of the room when a question sprang into mind.
"Hey, what happened to Shabranigdo?!"
The end!
Yes I know it sucks…you don't have to look at me like that, now go away, go read a good fanfic somewhere else