Save the World
Rating: T
Summery: They were all so busy with their own lives they didn't even notice that Zel was jut plain crazy. And that he was going to destroy them all unless Lina stopped him. For once and for all. Warning, character death.
Characters/Pairings: Zelgadis, Lina/Gourry, vague Zel/Amelia, you need a magnifying glass to see it.
Comments: Based heavily on JoIsBishMyoga's 'Project'. You could call this something of a sequel. Sort of. With the exception of the comment Xellos makes there about the lack of eternal servitude in Zel's little project. Warning, character death. A tad melodramatic.
Spoilers: None really.
"Zelgadis will inflict such wonderful horrors upon the world when he blooms."
(Project~ by JoIsBishMyoga~Slayers fanfic)
There was the light of magic streaming from the windows of the tower.
"He's already started." Amelia said her voice very small.
Lina sighed as she regarded the tower. "You know what this means."
Amelia's face crumpled into grief, but she nodded. "I-I'll go around back, through the back door."
"Gourry, you should go with her."
"Sure Lina."
"You know what to do, right? In case I can't…"
A heavy hand settled on her shoulder. "We've got you're back. Just in case." Gourry said. "You better go, before it's too late."
And then Gourry was gone with Amelia, all the comfort he offered gone away with him.
Lina shivered and wrapped her arms around herself. They had to stop him. She knew that, but it didn't mean she liked what she, they, were going to have to do.
She had to do it, though. Her was her job over the years did seem to be to save the world, after all. Though this time there would be no last minute gambling it all on a ridiculously powerful spell, this time it would be…
She shook her head. No. If she stopped to think about it it wouldn't work.
So she flung open the door of the tower and walked in.
Not ten steps into the massive room she was frozen to the spot by what she saw. And it wasn't the sight of a roaring, furious Shabranigdo (was that really Shabranigdo? He looked smaller than she remembered) inside the circle of ruins that made her freeze. She'd defeated a shard of Shabranigdo once, she'd fought Dark Star, she'd raised two kids, and it took more than one restrained Dark Lord to surprise Lina Inverse.
Zelgadis had turned at the sound of her boot heels, loud on the stone floor, behind him. When he saw her he smiled, a warm, happy smile and spread his arms to her. That was what froze her, him.
He was human.
No more stone skin, no more wire hair, no more dark scowl, he was all pink flesh and soft hair and the wide grin. "Well?" he asked impatiently when she stood staring a moment too long. "What do you think?"
"Oh, Zel…" she breathed. "You really did it."
"At last, I found a way to turn myself back."
"You were really stupid enough to make a deal with Shabranigdo."
His smile didn't flicker an iota. "He gave my old body back."
"Shabranigdo is going to try to destroy the world if you let him out of there! How could you even wake that monster?" she demanded. "People are going to die if you do this."
He shrugged those now so human shoulders casually. "I don't care." he said.
And there it was, the light of madness in his eyes. How long had it been there? How long had they not noticed it? How long had they been too busy with their own lives to notice the growing insanity as Zel became more and more desperate to find his cure.
They hadn't even realized each failed idea, each dead end, each false lead brought him closer and closer to loosing that thin edge of control he had. That brought him closer to what he was now. Zel was one of the good guys, one of them; he wasn't supposed to be able to do something like this.
"You're really going to release him?" she asked, knowing the answer.
"Of course, those were the terms of the exchange."
She sighed, tired to her bones and sick, sick with the knowledge of what she had to do. "You didn't come up to this all on your own, but Zel…" she moved forward, toward him.
He was still smiling, still holding his arms out to her and she reached out to put a hand on his arm, surprised, in spite of herself, at the feeling of warm flesh instead of warm stone under her fingers. "I'm sorry I let it come to this." she cupped his cheek in her hand. "I'm so sorry, Zel."
He laughed, "Lina, what on earth are you apologizing for I have everything I ever---"
With the hand that wasn't on his cheek she drove the dagger between his ribs. It was almost too easy. And almost too hard at the same time.
"But… why…?" he was frowning at her, even with blood dripping down her hands, he still had time to frown at her. "If you kill me… Shabranigdo will be released anyway…"
"No." she said. "Amelia's on the other side of the circle. By now she'll have finished the banishing spell. Shabranigdo is going back to sleep under the ice."
A shudder ran through him and he staggered. She couldn't help but grab his arms to keep him from falling. She could feel the strength going from him and when he began to slump she carefully eased him down to the floor, his shoulders propped on her knees.
There was too much blood on the floor for even the strongest healing spell to fix, even if she wanted to try. And he wasn't warm anymore; he was very, very cold.
"I'm sorry Zel." she whispered as his eyes began to cloud. "I had to save the world."
The corner of his mouth quirked up in something like a smile and, just for a moment, the old Zelgadis peeked through. "I knew… you'd stop me…" he said.
And then he was dead.
Shabranigdo gave a bellow of frustration and then faded away, back to the ice where he slept.
Visible now Amelia stood across the circle, her hands extended in front of herself from canceling the spell, her eyes screwed shut but tears still were leaking from their corners.
Gourry patted her comfortingly on the shoulder, and then made his way around the circle to kneel at his wife's side.
"I killed him." Lina said.
"You had to." he told her. He reached out and closed Zelgadis' blank eyes. "He was… he wasn't himself."
"So you put him down." A voice said from a few steps away. "Well, there is nothing to do with the insane ones but that."
Lina didn't even look up from the body. "Where are you, Xellos? I know you're around here somewhere."
The priest materialized, grinning, "You called for little old me?"
"You did this to him." Lina gritted out.
"Me?" Xellos put a hand to his chest, the picture of innocence. "I did nothing. Well, maybe a whisper here, a suggestion there, but really it was all the three of you. Honestly, I can't take full credit."
"Us?" Amelia, who had made her way across to them and she was glaring hostilely at Xellos but there was a flicker of uncertainty under it. "We're at fault for… this?"
"Why yes, oh busy princess of her realm. And you two," he turned his wicked smile on Lina and Gourry, "The equally busy and self absorbed newlyweds." he laughed. "You never even noticed him slipping farther and farther into despair, did you? It was simplicity itself to give him that little extra push to make him follow his in his Great Grandfather's footsteps. Even if it didn't come to the end I was expecting… well, it was an amusing little exercise all the same. Especially," his smile inched wider as he looked at Lina, "with such delicious fury from you, Lina Inverse."
"Fireball!"
But, of course, Xellos was gone before the spell had even left her hand, though his cackles of laughter lingered long on the air after him.
Which left them alone, with the body, in the tower that stank of failure and despair.
End