Disclaimer: I. Don't. Own. Slayers. Nor do I own a matching pair of socks. IT'S FRUSTRATING!

Note from Author: This is my first fanfic ever, be gentle! Also I'm going to apologize in advance, my spelling and grammar is not the best, be warned!

This means a future character is talking or whatever.

Chapter 4- The War Council of Hell? Literally?

It felt extremely strange to Filia to be walking in to a large room of monsters, about to witness a war council. Being a priestess, she never attended them for the dragon race, that was something the supreme elders and there priest dealt with. She looked around the room and noticed there weren't very many people in the room.

"Monsters do like to indulge themselves, don't they Mr. Xelloss." Amelia commented looking around at the luxurious looking room. It was decorated in only white, black, and gray. There was not a table with chairs around it, but a large amount of squishy looking pillows for people to sit on. At the end of the room, Zelas, who astral body was fully healed, sat talking to a man with long dark blue hair that was tied in a braid, and a woman with long elegant raven hair.

"Who-" Filia began to asked before Xelloss interrupted her. "The man is Dynast, and the woman is Deep Sea Dolphin." He replied looking at Zelas confused.

"Is it strange for her to be talking to them?" Filia asked curious to his confusion. Xelloss looked at her, and sighed. "You really don't know anything do you?" he stated. Filia's cheeks flushed in anger and was about to argue with him, but instead decided not to give him the satisfaction of her anger. "Ok wise one, please explain why you're confused Zelas is talking to them." She sneered.

Xelloss eyes narrowed, "Lord Beastmaster,-" He said corrected her sharply, proving that he did not agree to her using Zelas name so casually, "May talk with whoever she likes, it would never seem "strange" to me to see her talk to anyone." He said glaring at Filia. "What I find "Strange", is that Zelas is here to talk to them in to first place."

"Why would that be strange?" Amelia asked as she walked over one off the squashy pillows on the floor, trying to touch it with her foot, but, her intangible foot went right through it. She sighed loudly looking at the pillow, then looked up at Zelgadis with sad eyes. "It looks so comfy."

"It is strange,-" Xelloss said, getting the her attention, "Because it takes about a day for someone as strong as my master to heal her astral body, and it hasn't even been an hour and she is perfectly whole."

"Well maybe she is a lot stronger now." Lina suggested who was also trying to touch one of the pillows, unlike her large, blonde companion who tried to actually sit on it. Gourry smiled brightly and said "It is comfortable Amelia!" then when he looked down and noticed half of his body was missing he cried out, "Ahh! It's eating me!"

"No, that's not it." He said inaudibly. He looked around the room and noticed himself talking to the dragon from earlier. This roused his attention. "Oh, this is odd." He said out loud.

"What is that?" Lina asked, pulling the large, blonde swordsman off the floor.

"A war council, for the Mazoku at least, is usually only attained by the five, or in our time, three subordinate of Lord Ruby Eyes, a general or priest is not present for one unless summoned. It is odd that not only are generals and priest present, but lower Mazoku and dragons are at hand as well."

"Lord Beastmaster had four dragons loyal to her at this present time." Nexus replied to him.

"Four?" Filia asked confused. She looked around the room; she only saw Val, herself and the dragon Daemon that was accounted for the dragon race.

"The fourth one is still quite young, and Lord Zelas, for the time being, keeps him occupied with other task instead of having attended a war meeting." Nexus replied.

Filia continued to look around the large room. To the left of her, her future counterpart was already sitting on a pillow, closer to the back of the room. Beside her was Val, all grown up looking handsome and kind. She smiled to herself happy to see the man had been given a second chance. No one else in the room seemed to be familiar, she glanced around. Her eyes ended up falling on the Mazoku Kurokei, who at the time was staring at her future self, who was unaware, still grinning at her.

"Xelloss?" she asked out loud, "Who is Kurokei?"

Xelloss looked at Kurokei, also noticing his fixed stare on future Filia. "He is a lower Mazoku under Lord Beastmaster's rein. He is in charge of gathering information of humans, and researching things for her. He's a bit of a book worm actually." He said quietly.

"This is boring!" Lina began to whine, "Were not learning anything, I want to go home, I want to eat, I want to beat something up!"

"I am quite sure the reason for this journey will reveal it's self during this meeting." Nexus replied. Filia walked close to where her future self was talking to Val and sat down on the floor. Even though her body didn't need to be sitting, if felt more appropriate. Everyone followed in pursuit sitting around her, except Xelloss who floated in the air nearby grinning to himself.

"Mom, your hair is getting ridiculous." Val pointed out to Filia, who's ponytail slid down over her shoulder and spilled all around her on the floor. "You could cut it three feet and it would still be really long." He suggested.

"I know, it's silly, but I just get so nervous when I think about cutting it." Filia laughed to herself.

"You're not afraid to go at it with Lord Beastmaster, but you're afraid to cut your hair?" Val questioned looking over his mother suspiciously.

"That, and Xelloss once threatened to break all my pottery if I ever cut my hair." She laughed.

"Why would he do that?" he asked confused, looking up at his father figure.

"Well, let's just say he, has a thing for blondes." She smiled to herself. Val rolled his eyes, not wanting to try and understand his "parents" relationship. A young girl who looked like she was in her twenty's walked over to where Filia and Val were sitting and sat next to Filia. She had stacked red hair, with layered bangs. She wore a tight grey top and a pair of shiny black leather pants.

"Good afternoon Miss Filia, Good afternoon Val." The Mazoku girl greeted, smiling at the dragon pair, her dark green eyes gazing at each of them.

"Good afternoon." Filia replied back kindly, as Val smiled at her and said, "Good morning"

"Have you guy's heard what happened?" she asked as she looked at them with wonder. They both shook their heads as they prompted her to tell them. "Well, apparently it's going to be one of the main topics during today's meeting. Some old, crackpot sorcerer was attacked by a Mazoku last week, and the Mazoku never returned. Then, this morning he returned-" she paused dramatically. "His astral body was incased in a golem body shell, which made him unable to return to the astral plane." She explained.

"Somehow, his monster powers were cut off, so he could not phase back to his master, so he traveled by foot till he found a Mazoku to return him home." She finished with relish.

"What happened to the sorcerer?" Filia asked, "Why didn't the Mazoku have him reverse the spell?"

"That is the strangest part." The red-headed Mazoku questioned as she continued . "After the sorcerer cursed the Mazoku, he began to paint."

"Paint?" Val raised an eyebrow in suspension.

"Yes. He began to paint a large hallway with a door at the end, then he magically stepped through it and walked through the painting, opened the door and vanished." she whispered loudly. "Then the painting busted into flames. Leaving no trace of him behind."

"That is really strange." Filia replied.

"So here is what I want to know, how do you seal a Mazoku's energy? Where did the sorcerer go? And can we return the Mazoku back to normal?" She said looking at Val curiously.

"A Mazoku, trapped in a golem shell?" Filia pondered, and then sighed sadly.

"Mom?" Val asked confused.

"It's nothing, just thinking about the past."

"Filia-Chan! Are glum feelings I taste?" Xelloss asked sitting right in front of the dragon grinning widely, he nodded at Dexi as a greeting then focused his attention on Filia. "So what's getting ya down?"

"Have you heard of the Mazoku who-"

"Ah-ha!" Xelloss interrupted her laughing, "Predictable Filia." He smiled brightly. "Yes Beastmaster informed me when I arrived today, and I of course knew that when you heard you would remember a certain stony old friend." He smiled.

"Do you have any thoughts on the situation?" Dexi asked Xelloss inquisitively.

"Oh, I have a few." He said standing up patting Filia on the head lightly.

"Really, what are they?" The redhead asked.

"That's," Xelloss grinned placing his pointer finger in front of his lips. "A secret."

He chortled as he walked up toward the front of the room and sat close to where his master was. Dexi sighed and muttered, "That get's so old."

"Tell me about it." Filia muttered watching the scene in front of her, getting a grin from Xelloss.

"Salvia, what are you doing here?" Dexi asked the short black bobbed haired monster who sat beside her.

The stone eyed Mazoku shrugged and replied, "Apparently Master Zelas decided she wanted me to come to the meeting, she is having Zohr play gatekeeper, I think she is going to assign me to a different job." She said indifferently.

"Oh my. That is a rare oddity." Dexi stated. "Maybe we will work together."

"Joy." The short girl replied.

"What kind of job would you like to do Salvia?" Filia asked looking over Sal, noticing her change of clothes. She was now wearing a dark green turtleneck, and red jumper. Sal looked out thoughtfully then replied, "Anything that causes bleeding would be fine." She replied in a monotone voice. Filia laughed weakly and turned her attention to the rising Mazoku lords.

"Fellow Mazoku, and "Guest"-" Dynast said in aversion, "Let us began today's meeting swiftly, so we might end quickly." He stated vigorously in a deep voice. "As before, the search for Domink is abysmal, He is still working behind the scenes, and won't show himself." Dynast said in irritation. "The holy capital Seyruun is still impenetrable as ever, and King Dorian Wil Eldoran Seyruun continues to expand his territory to accommodate all of the filthy humans seeking refuge from the war."

"Now on to things that actually got accomplished. The Mazoku have fully infiltrated the Katart Mountains and captured at least twenty of the Dimos dragons, due to some mishaps, most escaped before questioning, but the rest were dealt with." He grinned.

Simultaneously both present and future Filia's let out a quiet hiss.

Dynast hateful eye looked at Filia for a short second then decided she wasn't worthy of his attention. He sat down looking bored and on edge at the same time, and in his absences, Deep Sea Dolphin stood up in his place.

"The search for the next piece of our lord is not been successful, we of the demon sea, do not believe it has been born on to this plane as of yet. The same goes for the Knight of Cepheid." Lord Dolphin said, crossing her long elegant arms. "That is all I have to say."

The room felt dead silent as Zelas stood, her long orange curls hanging down her back. Her golden Mazoku eyes stared at nothing particular, as she brought a cigarette to her lips, after taking a deep drag; she pushed the smoke out of her astral body. "A wonderfully chaotic thing has beheld the monster race today." She spoke.

"The Mazoku Rufus, who was under Dynast, has been sealed inside a shell, and can no longer access any of his Mazoku powers. The Priest and Generals of, Dynast, Dolphin and I are going to be looking into a way to reverse this, in hope to defend from it in the future." She said inhaling her cigarette once more.

"Also, we have all agreed we will be sending a representative party to the Dragon temples, to negotiate with the dragon race, for a way to help our search of Domink, and a way to return Rufus to his original form. The ones we had selected, was Filia, of the Golds, Salvia, Daemon and Kurokei who are all under me." She informed.

"Now, the open meeting is over, I would like only the priest and generals of myself and my comrades to remain." She dismissed everyone.

Filia rose, her face pale, and excused herself out of the room, followed by her son. (And the invisible party)

"Amazing." Lina said stretching her intangible legs, "To seal a Mazoku in a shell to where they can't escape, that's some pretty serious stuff." She grinned with a glint in her eye.

"Oh Miss Lina, I hope you're not cooking some kind of evil plan in that warped brain of yours." Xelloss said happily.

"This lead could turn out promising." Zelgadis said, as upbeat as possible for him.

"Yes Mr. Zelgadis, keep your hopes up!" Amelia said grinning broadly. "To think Seyruun is still a kingdom of hope and justice brings tears to my eyes!" she choked up.

Lina grinned to herself thinking of the possibilities of what she just learned, till her gaze fell on her partners puzzled face. "Hey Gourry, what is wrong?"

Gourry looked at her in pain, "I was just thinking," he started, "Whoa buddy, don't hurt yourself!" Lina replied in concern. "Filia, is going to talk to the Dragon race, for the monster race." He said trying to put his thoughts in to words.

"Yeah?" Lina replied not sure where he was going with this.

"Is that a good thing or bad thing?"

Lina looked at her companion with a thoughtful expression, and then looked over to Filia and Xelloss, who both looked at her with mixed emotions.

"Well-" She began scratching her head. "It's good for us at least, if she finds a way to heal that Rufus guy, and we can use it one Zelgadis." She decided.

"Yeah!" Gourry agreed.

Filia watched as they shoved the idea out of their heads, feeling betrayed by HERSELF of all people. Xelloss, unnerved by her state, said to only her, "Oh dear, my race is in trouble if we have to rely on a violent dragon to help us." He grinned. Filia didn't even get upset; she turned and faced him looking him straight in the face.

"Xelloss, do you believe any of this?" she asked him. Xelloss opened one eye and stared at her. "No. None of it."

For some reason his reply wasn't want she wanted, nor was the question what she really wanted to ask.