An update from me? No, I'm sure you must just be imagining it...

I was sitting on the front steps, my head held in my hands and Gourry gently massaging my shoulders.

"Um... that isn't normal, is it, Mrs. Gabriev?"

I growled out a "call me Lina" and leaned back into Gourry's arms to stifle a protest. He loved it when people referred to me as "Mrs. Gabriev." I was still having trouble reconciling my identity as "Lina the bandit-slayer" to plain old "Mrs. Gabriev," though. I didn't want to keep my maiden name or anything, but "Lina Inverse" was known everywhere-- Lina Gabriev just recently came into existence.

In some ways I welcomed the lack of notoriety. People didn't run away when they heard my name anymore, and most people didn't connect the petite redhead Lina Inverse with the petite redhead Lina Gabriev. Then again... I hadn't been recognized as Nina Inertz. I suppose I shouldn't count on the publics' analytical skills.

"What's going on, Lina? You're not acting like yourself," Gourry glanced down at me with those big, worried eyes, and I felt the truth tumbling out of my mouth even as I tried to repress it.

"I'm not sure, but I think it has something to do with that spell," I admitted.

"It has everything to do with that spell, Lina Inverse."

Gourry had already pulled his sword from his sheath, Alphonse was in a fighting stance, and Edward had slapped his hands together (for what reason, I have no idea), but I continued to sit calmly.

Honestly, I was wondering when he would show up.

"It's Lina Gabriev now, Xelloss. I would have thought you'd been told already... You always did seem to be well-informed."

Xelloss chuckled from his perch in midair, his eyes closed and his lips curved into a deceivingly friendly smile. "Ah, yes, now that you mention it, I do seem to recall a rumor that you two had finally tied the knot. Congratulations, congratulations!"

I waved my hand to the others, trying to calm them down and get them to lower their weapons. "What are you doing here, Xelloss? Don't tell me it was to bring me a wedding gift because, I hate to tell you, but you're about a year too late."

There was the sound of a heavy thud and a pained growl before Edward hissed, "I hate to interrupt the friendly banter but would you mind explaining why and how a man is floating in midair in front of Winry's house?"

Oh, yeah. Flying mazoku probably wasn't as commonplace in this world as it was in mine.

"I think that, maybe, you should be a little more discreet," I shrugged, as though the matter were out of my hands.

Xelloss heaved an exaggerated sigh and made a show of slowly lowering himself to the ground. "If I must, I must."

We all stood there a moment, seemingly waiting for someone else to continue on a line of conversation, hopefully completely irrelevant from our current circumstances. But somehow it seemed impossible to query Alphonse on his taste in recreational reading, so I turned back to Xelloss instead.

"So, to what do we owe this displeasure?" I smiled sweetly.

"You mean you aren't happy to see me? And here I thought I would bring you good news and I would get a little kiss on the cheek," he actually pouted.

I ignored the fiery blush rising on my cheeks and instead asked, "Good news?"

The damned mazoku tilted his head to the side, as though listening to music no one else could hear. "Well... some good news, some not so good news."

"Will you just get to the point?" I was startled when Edward spoke—when a mazoku as powerful as Xelloss stood in front of you, you tended to be a little distracted.

"Oh my!" Xelloss laughed, scratching the back of his neck (seemingly embarrassed), "I'm very much reminded of the way you used to be, Lina!"

I would have hit the damned priest, except that something about his terminology bothered me. "What do you mean by used to be?"

I must have hit the nail on the head, because those narrowed eyes turned immediately back to me, a disturbing smile playing across his lips and an even more disturbing chuckle rising out of his throat.

"Xelloss?"

Gourry had moved as close to me as he could, pressing his entire front against my back, his hands a comforting weight on my shoulders. I could feel the tension radiating off of him, and yet somehow just his presence seemed to calm my racing heart. Why couldn't I do the same for him? Why could I only seem to receive comfort, and never reciprocate? Why couldn't I be as good to Gourry as he was to me? Not for the first time, I wondered why the hell he was with me in the first place. I could only hope that I could do better for our child.

"Why are you here, Xelloss?" Gourry asked, the dangerous part of him leaking into his voice, making the question sound more like a growl.

I had a sudden thought then, and before Xelloss could answer Gourry's question I asked one of my own. "How are you here?"

Xelloss looked at me as though I had finally said something interesting. "I'm a mazoku, Lina, a very powerful one at that," he was going into "lecture" mode, and I could tell a long explanation was on the way.

"You already know that I live, my real body lives, on a different plane of existence. If it's so easy for me to travel between the Astral Plane and the human world, is it really that difficult to believe that I can travel between human worlds with relative ease, as well?"

Well, when he put it that way.

"Which also explains how you came to be here," Xelloss continued. "The Chaos spell that you so wonderfully mangled was a spell that separated the physical body on a cellular level... you should literally have been able to tear your opponent apart, not limb from limb but atom from atom."

I felt a chill run down my spine. Is that what I had been trying to do?

"So when the spell backfired...?" I hedged, not quite sure I wanted the answer.

"You and your friends were split apart!" he laughed, as though it were funny. It probably was to him.

I tried to process the information Xelloss had given me. I had performed the Chaos Spell incorrectly—the Chaos Spell that had the ability to rip the physical body apart into millions and millions of pieces, and it had backfired onto all of us. The only question left was--

"Why aren't we dead?" Gourry asked, his voice thoughtful, as though he hadn't really meant to speak aloud.

I expected Xelloss' lecture to continue, but he only stood there, looking as lost as the rest of us. "Honestly," he finally said, "I have no idea. My best guess would have to be that either some kind of transportation spell was performed simultaneously, or someone performed a summoning spell in which you happened to fit the criteria."

"But then why all of us?" I asked, "Why not just me?"

Xelloss shrugged again, "Why did the spell backfire onto all of you, rather than just the one who cast it?" he shook his head, as though chastising me, "Magic isn't science, Lina."

I slumped once again to the porch steps, a weight lifted from my shoulders and worries twice as heavy weighing in my mind. So we knew how we had come to be here. I could easily find out if Amelia or Zel had cast a transportation spell, but if they hadn't... who had summoned me, and for what purpose?

"So, what now?" Gourry asked no one in particular.

"Hmmm," Xelloss whistled happily, without a care in the world, "Do you suppose your hosts might have room for one additional guest?"

"Why?" I muttered tiredly, "Just go back to the astral plane while you're waiting to bother us again. Why should it be any different than usual?"

"Well," the damned priest's tone didn't waver, "It seems as though I'm unable to return to the astral plane. In fact, I'd say that I'm stuck here just as much as you are!"

Before I could process what Xelloss had just told me I felt Gourry lean over me, using his hand to tilt my chin so I would look at him.

"Gourry?"

"Try one of your spells, Lina," he said, softly—fearfully.

If Xelloss couldn't use his magic...

Without asking him to, Gourry snatched Xelloss' cape and hid us beneath it, creating a deep and perpetual darkness. He knew which spell would decide our fate.

"Lighting," I muttered.

We waited a moment, but darkness continued to surround us, and I could feel it constricting around my heart just as strongly as Gourry's arms crushed my body to his.

Author's Notes:

Yes, I know it's short. I'm sorry it took me so long to get out such a frickin' short chapter.

Honestly, where the hell does time go?

Please review... it'd make me super-duper waaay happy.