Chapter 6
Giza, Ejypt
June 3rd, 2002
"Oh, isn't it beautiful! Like the cover of a movie or a storybook!"
Mother and son stood upon a sandy rise, invisible to the humans working on the ruins below. Filia's eyes glistened above her smile, and her hands clutched together as she sighed, long blonde braid flowing out of her ivory robes.
Val shook his head underneath his turban and adjusted the backpack on his shoulders. "Yeah, Mom. It's great." Wish we could go by a mall or something so I could check out the girls.
"And look at the river!" she gasped, "it's so romantic! I can just imagine the uncountable number of lovers that have walked along its shores since the world was born!"
Val rolled his eyes. "Where's Xellos?" he asked suspiciously. "He said he was going to change into a more appropriate outfit, but I wonder . . ." He's just trying to torture me by leaving me with her at her worst.
"Hey everybody," Xellos appeared before them, "I'm Indiana Jones!"
Filia dropped to the sand, "Whah!"
Val skeptically studied the monster's outfit of brown fedora and leather jacket. "Where'd you get the whip?" he cracked a sideways grin.
"That's a secret! C'mon," Xellos spread his arms, chuckling, "Isn't it authentic?!"
Spitting out sand, Filia pulled herself up and shook out her white robes, eyes glaring daggers. "Don't you ever stop playing around?" she grumbled. "Jeeze, just rub in our faces the fact that you don't get sunburnt."
"Okay!" he smirked with closed eyes. "And look, the whip really works!"
Val shook his head and turned away from the monster's gleeful practice with the rawhide. "You two will never grow up."
Filia, meanwhile, was glaring scornfully at the happy Mazoku. "Think your jeans could be any tighter? You know there aren't any cute little Laura Crofts down there to flirt with, so why not drop the act?"
Xellos blinked at her with mock-confusion, then flashed to standing inches from her and snapped open her robes while she screeched. "Tiny shorts, tank top, hair in a braid," he looked her up and down, ". . . Laura, I've found you!"
Chortling wildly, Xellos threw off her robe, tossed her into the air and caught her in his arms. "Let's go, Laura-baby!"
"Let me go, you-"
Sand blew threw the space the three had previously occupied.
(-(-o-)-)
Valgaav looked forlornly around the torch-lit room. "Why can't I have a Laura Croft?"
"Valgaav!" his mother reproached while she struggled in Xellos' arms, "how could you! And you, Mazoku, let me GO!"
Xellos grinned, "But you're so cute! OW!"
"Ha!" Filia tightened her grip on his ponytail. "Now let me go, or I'll tug harder!"
"Fine!"
He disappeared.
"WHAAH!" Thunk. Filia rubbed her back and moaned from the hard ground. "That hurt, you!"
With a sigh, Val studied the walls. "Why are there burning torches? This is part of the ruins that the humans can't even get into."
"Why," Xellos appeared beside him, still Indiana Jones, "because of me, of course. I took a little more time than usual to set this up for us before hand."
"Great," Val said wearily. "Okay, let's get this over with."
(-(-o-)-)
"Isn't it precious?" Filia cooed over a diamond and emerald necklace, easily worth five million dollars.
"Yes," Xellos quipped, "it would look lovely on you, but there's a curse on it," he informed her from the other side of the room.
Filia gasped and almost dropped the piece. "A curse! You can't be serious!"
"Too serious," he grinned, "you take it, and you'll get really sick for a few months, then probably die." The smile fell. "Lose it."
She pouted, "You're so mean!" and replaced the necklace sadly. "Can't you get rid of the curse or something?"
Rolling his eyes, Xellos continued past the treasure room, torch in hand. "Drop the cute act, too; that may work on security guards, but not on me."
Fuming, Filia caught up with the demon and her son, arms crossed beneath her breasts. "I was doing nothing of the sort!" she grumbled, "and I DON'T look like Laura Croft . . ."
"Mom, that's a complement, just take it and be quiet," Val called back, studying the walls with his torch. "Hey, Xellos, do you think there are any traps like in those movies?"
The costumed Mazoku smiled beneath the fedora and lifted up a finger. "You never know, young Valgaav," he spoke in a mysterious voice. "Deep inside these catacombs we could find anything . . . anything at all!"
Filia stuck out her tongue disgustedly as she followed them. "Yeah, like a lot of mummified corpses. Yuck."
They walked in silence for some time until they entered a wide underground room with pillars and pools of tepid water. In the center of the room, a giant statue of an Ejyptian woman with large wings towered over the desolate area.
Valgaav's eyes widened and he pointed at the statue. "Look, Mom, isn't that cool! C'mon!" he grabbed her hand and dragged her over. "See!"
"Yes, yes!" she laughed, "I see it, Val."
Just then, a rumbling sounded from the hallway they had just left, and mother and son turned to see Xellos standing there behind the doorway, a surprised look on his face. "Oh my!" he said, "What's that?"
Val and Filia started back towards him, the blonde calling, "What's wrong?"
He turned, mock-dismay across his face. "Ahhh!"
In a flash, Xellos was running down the hall, a gigantic boulder following him. "Bwahaha, Filia, help me!"
"WHAT?!"
Val was on the floor laughing again, but he couldn't really help it, it WAS rather funny.
The Mazoku passed the doorway again, this time with the boulder rolling UPhill, crying, "Oh, no, Filia! The boulder's catching up to me! Hahahaha!"
"XELLOS!" An enraged dragoness pulled her mace from her thigh and charged. "How dare you joke at a time like this!"
Xellos dodged by running into the pillar room, and strangely enough the huge stone followed him wherever he went. "Lighten up, Laura!"
"Why YOU!" Her mace swung for his head, but he phased, and she hit the boulder instead, which bounced through a nearby wall with a crash. "Xellos, GET BACK HERE!" she screamed and clenched the weapon tightly.
"Oh, Filia dear," he appeared beside her, then flickered again to stand by a pool, "You're getting violent again! I thought you'd matured more over the centuries!"
Val leaned against the statue of Bastet with a sigh. "The more stressed she is, the more violent." He turned and looked up five yards to the giant face of the cat goddess. "Right, Basty baby? Wish you were sixteen feet shorter and alive." With another put-upon sigh, he looked through the hole Filia had made in the stone wall and began walking towards it, ignoring the two arguing adults.
Poking his head through the large hole, the teal-haired teenager waved his torch around the room. "This looks like a burial chamber," he mused.
"Come back here and TAKE YOUR PUNISHMENT!" echoed behind him.
"Can you use the whip instead?"
Rubbing his eyes, Val shook his turquoise head and entered the chamber. "Can't they flirt when I'm not around?"
"DIRTY TRASH!"
"Now, that really hurts, Filia!"
Val blew on the large sarcophagus and wiped away the dust. "The colors are still so vibrant," he mused to himself.
"You're very sexy when you're trying to kill things!"
"SHADUP and STOP DODGING!"
The young dragon bent down to dust off the small jars too. "This is where they put the body organs. What a strange ritual. Humans sure were odd back then."
A large rock platform along one wall was covered with small clay statues and strewn with jewelry and precious stones. "I wonder if any of these are a Philosopher stone piece."
A flickering caught the corner of Valgaav's eye, and he looked back at the ancient stone casket. I feel really weird all of a sudden. He looked around the room again, always feeling like something was moving in his hind vision.
"YOU FILTHY MAZOKU!"
"Is that all you can come up with?!" an angry Xellos responded.
Valgaav stood resolutely. "Great," he grumbled, walking back out of the chamber into the larger room, "I have to stop this AGAIN."
The sight that greeted him made him groan.
Xellos was popping in and out around Filia, who wildly swept at him with her mace while he spat with narrowed eyes, "Great example of how an adult should behave, Miss Ul Copt!"
"Grr, shut your mouth, you're one to talk!" the blonde swung again.
The demon glared at her before phasing again. "And here I thought you were supposed to be compassionate, not murderous!"
"And here I thought you were supposed to GIVE A DAMN, BLOODY MAZOKU!"
Val rushed towards them, Things are really getting out of hand! and shouted into the air, "STOP!"
They both paused and stared.
"CUT! - IT! - OUT!" Val screamed, glaring at the both of them. "This is ridiculous. One day you're friends, the next you hate each other! It's making me SICK!"
Filia dropped her mace and fell to her knees. "Valgaav," she breathed, eyes watering. "I'm so sorry. You're right."
Xellos clenched his fists, amethyst eyes tight, then seemed to swallow the anger, or at least repress it. "True enough," he smiled fakely. "We DO have a mission to accomplish."
The lanky teen stood in the resulting quiet and watched, pained, as his mother cried silently. "Um, Xellos, there's a weird feeling to that room," he pointed, "why don't you . . ."
Nodding, the violet-haired man headed towards the large crevice, glancing back once before he entered, then walking out of sight.
"Mom," Valgaav said, sitting next to the blonde, "it's okay."
"No, I ruined everything!" she sobbed against his robes. "I broke a huge hole in the pyramid, and completely lost my temper. I'm a horrible mother!"
He held her close to him and squeezed tightly. "That's not true, Ma!" he whispered. "You're a great mother, and I love you!"
"I love you, Val," she cried, "my dear baby. I don't want you to have to be the mature one, but it just always seems to turn out that way."
"It's okay, Mom," the young man pressed his head against her own and gently embraced her. "Everything will be alright. I promise."
(-(-o-)-)
Xellos, letting himself float, crossed his legs and held his head in his hands. Though mostly whispered, he could easily hear the words Filia and Val exchanged, and the sound of her crying stung.
Breathing raggedly into his palms, the plum-locked Mazoku tried to speed the absorption of Filia's anger, determined to get past it. But the high still trilled through his body like electricity, making his senses sharper without him even trying.
Which made it quite easy to feel the raw power throbbing through the room, raw power radiating from the sarcophagus . . . and a tiny, seemingly empty corner, covered in dirt.
(-(-o-)-)
Valgaav and Filia looked up when Xellos returned, an odd luminance to his violet eyes. "Everyone."
"What?" Val asked. "Did you find out why it felt so strange?"
Xellos nodded, distracted. "There's a strong . . . collection, I guess, of power in that room. Somehow . . . a fragment found its way here."
The two dragons gasped and stood, Filia slower than Val, who started forward. "Does that mean that I felt the stone?" he wondered.
"No," the demon shook his head with a faint grin, his flaxen, orchid-stained hair swaying. "The stone's magic is less noticeable. What you felt was the room itself. Pretty strange coincidence, that a powerful magical stone would be in a powerful magical room, hmm?" He tipped his fedora with a smile.
Val inhaled and looked to his mother, who beamed weakly back. "Yeah, that is pretty weird. Well, let's go."
(-(-o-)-)
They knelt around the tiny stone, Val between the two combatants who now ignored each other. I wonder if I'll survive this little vacation, he mused, then said, "So, who should carry it."
"Filia,"—-"Me," came the instant replies, and both dragon and demon looked at each other, then away.
"Well," Val smirked, "as long as we all agree." With one hand, he picked up the stone gingerly . . . and gasped at the power he felt from it. "Whoa, yeah, definitely Mom's department," he dropped it into her hand. "Way too tempting to take over the world or something with that thing."
Xellos stood and turned away from them. "Exactly," he murmured.
Blinking her luminous blue eyes, Filia looked at his back, then down at the stone in her hand. "Wow. I feel like taking over the world!"
The guys began to sweat. "Uh, Filia?" Xellos asked, turning.
She smiled sweetly. "Just kidding!"
THUNK.
(-(-o-)-)
Filia sighed as she lowered herself into the hot tub and closed her eyes.
Their rooms were actually one large suite with three bedrooms, each with their own bath. In between was a spacious kitchenette and living room, and a chamber with a fairly large whirlpool and many exotic plants.
It's so nice to live in luxury. Xellos sure is richer than I am. Not that she didn't have her own share of wealth, but the Mazoku hadn't just saved, he'd invested and bought stock in companies as well. Add that to dabbling in politics, and he certainly didn't want for anything.
"Mind if I join you?" spoke an unusually grave tenor voice.
Filia flinched from surprise and looked up. "No . . . I guess not."
The dark haired monster had let his hair down and was wearing spandex black swimming shorts. He seemed much less embarrassed about partial nudity than he'd been yesterday. Filia couldn't help flicking her eyes across what she rarely saw as he entered the water.
"Now who's a pervert," he joked quietly, serious purple eyes on her own.
"I was NOT being perverted," she informed him coldly, touching the bun on the top of her head as an excuse to do something.
Fortunately, Valgaav chose this point to open the door and poke his head in.
"Uh, see you later, guys," he spoke quickly. "I'll be back in a few hours."
"Where are you going?" Filia asked, "it's nearly nine!"
Valgaav's yellow eyes darted to either side of him, then studied the ceiling. "Uh . . . sightseeing."
Leaning back in the water, Xellos chuckled, "Oh, I know where you're going, and it's not to see the wonders of Ejypt."
The boy growled. "Xellos, can it. Bye Mom!"
"Uh, stay out of trouble!" she called after him, then turned to glare at Xellos. "What did you mean by THAT, Xellos?"
His amethyst cat-eyes blinked lazily as he sighed with melodrama. "Oh, Ancient Dragons grow up so fast . . ."
Rolling her eyes, Filia crossed her arms over her pink bikini top. "You can't be insinuating that he's out to pick up women?"
"Why not?" Xellos inhaled and exhaled slowly as he sank deeper into the water, "he's a handsome young man, and he's been so busy with school and work he hasn't made himself time for the fairer sex."
Her brows rose as her eyes narrowed. "So why don't you go with him, Mazoku?"
Xellos' mouth hardened, but he laughed, "Oh, he wouldn't want an old man like me with him. I'd chase away all the girls!"
"You don't look that old," she announced. "Barely passed two thousand years, I'd guess. Not even thirty-five by human standards."
Shrugging, the monster brushed off the estimate. "Maybe, maybe not."
They sat in silence, Filia running her hands over the water.
Finally, Xellos spoke up. "Congratulations. Half our work is over."
"Why congratulate me?" she wondered.
He laid one leg over the other and leaned an elbow on his knee. "If you hadn't knocked that boulder into the wall, we'd never have found that room, I bet. It had thick walls and no entrance."
The blonde lowered her azure eyes, feeling his gaze on her. "Oh."
This is getting us nowhere, Xellos sighed and studied his companion as he rested his chin in his hand. What should I do?
Maybe if he just kept talking about things, she'd open up. Or snap. Either was preferable to this.
"Hellmaster Zelas sent me a letter this morning."
She perked up quick, cerulean eyes quite aware. "Really? What about?"
He smiled at the way her body curved in the bikini, then met her eyes. "She wanted me to know she was still supporting us, even if she couldn't go public with it. She also wanted to warn me that the newly appointed Hellmaster Vesshan was very upset when his lackey was killed trying to murder you."
The dragon woman opened her mouth, then closed it again. "Oh. You're not in trouble, are you?"
"No," he looked past her, "but she said that the rumors are getting worse. Some Mazoku think I'm betraying them by helping you." His eyes found hers again and pinned them. "The Hellmasters definitely do."
Her sapphire eyes widened and she pulled her knees to her chest. "What about Zelas? Is she mad?"
He looked down and grinned, recalling the letter. "No, actually. She doesn't think you would turn me against all the other monsters, or that I would let you. She also doesn't think your involvement with me will damage my loyalties." His eyes met hers and he tried not to blush. "She, um, said that for me to be happy, I could . . . 'keep' you."
She frowned and flushed angrily. "Like I'm some pet-"
"Filia, don't get mad," he interrupted quickly, "I thought it might upset you, but doesn't it make you feel better, too?"
Filia gazed into his purple feline eyes and blinked. "I . . . yes, it does." Her anger melted into the water, and she sighed. "But . . ."
"I'm listening," he prompted her.
She forced a smile. "You're being really serious tonight," she deflected the conversation.
The straight-haired Mazoku nodded, eyes never leaving her own. "I'm really worried tonight. That's why."
"Oh." She looked away and took a breath, fear and anger swirling. "Well, I'm feeling tired, so . . ." she began to stand.
He grabbed her arm suddenly and pulled her back, a terrifying, determined expression on his face. "No, we're going to talk about this!"
"I don't want to!" she yelled, and tried to kick him.
"Too bad."
Xellos wrapped his arms around her tight, careful not to hurt her, and flared evil. —You WILL talk to me, woman,— he thought to her, —even if I have to do it this way!—
—Why? Why should I talk to you after what you did?!— her voice in his head demanded, and she phased out of his grasp.
Damn, he cursed as she appeared back in the water. "What did I do?" he asked, though he was pretty certain he knew the answer.
She looked away and glared at the wall, a few wisps of golden hair slipping out of the bun. "Flirting with that flight attendant! Thinking you were so wonderful!"
"It's none of your concern who I flirt with, Filia," he informed her hotly, Though I WAS trying to get you jealous.
Glaring at him, she fumed, "Then at least do it on your own time, when I'm not around! That was so embarrassing, right there in public, you smearing on the charm!"
"What about you and that guard, Miss High and Mighty?!" he snapped back. "That was pretty sickening, too."
The blonde gaped at him. "I was just doing that to keep them from taking my mace, I'll have you know!"
He rolled his eyes, "Right."
A sudden knowing smile appeared on the blonde's face. "I understand. You're jealous!"
"That's ridiculous," he stated, voice hard and eyes worse. "There's nothing for me to be jealous about."
Her aqua eyes narrowed as she spat, "Liar! You just don't want to admit that you can't stand seeing me treat any other guy nicer than I treat you!"
"Fine!" he yelled back, enraged, "BE an egomaniac. I don't care!"
She teleported out of the water and onto the tile nearby. "Good!" With an angry glare, she snapped a towel up from a nearby chair and cinched it around her chest violently. "Then stop BOTHERING ME!!"
(-(-o-)-)
This was bad. Really, really bad.
He could hear her bawling through the walls, but the feelings he sensed were ten times—no, a hundred times worse.
Xellos sighed and tried to sink further into the bed, tried to stop existing. It didn't work.
He just seemed to keep hurting her . . . no, they kept hurting each other. But they couldn't keep away, they was like insects drawn to fire.
Rolling onto his back, Xellos looked up at the ceiling, purple eyes contemplative.
It wasn't as if he hadn't tried the first couple hundred years. At first, he'd thought she was just an amusement, someone he could easily torment. But he eventually realized the compulsion to be with her. He'd attempted staying away for her sake, too, just coming around to eavesdrop on conversations she had with Val, but . . . well, more than a few times, she admitted to missing him, and it seemed needless torture to hurt them both by staying away.
But now they were hurting each other even more than when they had hated each other, because now they truly cared.
If it weren't for Valgaav's protectiveness, he mused, she might have forgotten about the flight attendant. Not that there was any reason she should, he admitted to himself.
"Liar!" he heard his memory repeat, "You just don't want to admit . . ."
Xellos sat up, chin in his palm. "She's right. I really am jealous."
It was worse than bad. It was terrifying.
(-(-o-)-)
Filia almost didn't hear the knocking, she was crying so loudly. When the noise came again, louder, she looked up at the door and swallowed another sob, angrily shouting, "Why bother knocking, it never stopped you before!"
She fell back onto the bed as she heard the door creak open and soft footsteps on the carpet. She didn't bother looking up, though . . . she could feel the evil and knew it was him.
"Filia?" His nasal voice actually sounded worried and concerned.
What a laugh, she told herself bitterly, refusing to respond.
The bed sunk slightly from his weight and she felt the roughness of jeans against her leg. Breathing in, she could smell his unique male scent beneath the fragrance of shampoo and soap. He couldn't have been too upset, he took a shower! Filia started to cry again.
"I'm sorry, Filia," his tenor voice said calmly. "You were right."
She continued weeping into the coverlet.
"I am jealous."
"What?!" Filia pulled herself up to stare at him and choked back a few sobs.
Xellos sat beside her, wearing a deathmetal t-shirt and black jeans, purple hair slightly disheveled and stringy with a bit of dampness. He attempted to smile, but his violet eyes seemed nervous. "I thought about it . . ." he began, "and I realized that . . . I'm not sure how you would treat me," his gaze dropped from her face, "if you started dating someone."
Staring with shock, she opened her mouth, then seemed to change her mind. "But," she finally said, "why would I treat you differently?"
His grin softened his sharp features. "You'd have someone to love and to love you, and I'd just be a threat." She tried to speak, but he snapped, "I know how this works, Filia, I may be a Mazoku but I have a definite male essence. Even if he were the most liberal, open-minded person in the world, he'd still feel threatened by my being your friend. He couldn't help it. I know I would be threatened."
Filia glared at him. "That's utterly ridiculous! I would never let anyone keep me from my friends!"
Xellos chuckled, masking his relief, "Well, you ARE very commanding, Filia dear, but you can't deny that you wouldn't want to spend more time with the man you loved."
She bent her blonde head and sighed, eyes unfocused. "But I'd still spend a lot of time with you and Valgaav."
Crossing his legs on the bed, Xellos laughed slightly, eyes closed as he faked a smile. "Valgaav's your SON, Filia."
"And you're . . ." she faltered.
"Not related?"
She glared at his flippancy, then brightened. "Of course! From now on, you're his godfather, and no one can force you out of this family, dammit!"
Xellos blinked and smiled with surprised pleasure, "Why, thank you, Filia," expertly hiding his embarrassment. "That means a lot to me."
She frowned at him out of anger at just about everything, then sighed and glared at the floor, golden locks framing her face. "Well . . . okay then."
Giving her a tiny smile, Xellos stood up from the bed and leaned on a tall bedpost. "It's getting late, though. I'll see you in the morning. Oh, and don't forget to put a shield around the stone!"
"But-"
With a wink, Xellos disappeared.
Filia stood as the trickster vanished, eyes narrowing. "That . . . grr." Sighing, she gave up and sat back down on the bed.
This relationship is getting more and more unusual, she mused, wrinkling up her nose at the chlorine smell wafting from her.
She stood and went over to the pouch she'd bought for the stone fragment. If someone had asked me five hundred years ago if I would ever make Xellos my son's godfather let alone my best friend, I would have told them they were insane to even suggest it, she thought as she cast a spell on the stone so that if it were moved, she would know right away, then grabbed a towel. But now . . . I'm friends with a Mazoku. The very Mazoku that killed off most of my race.
She shed her clothes and turned on the shower. But Val is right . . . it WAS a war. In wars, people die. The Mazoku lost, after all. As I recall, dragons killed just as many or more than the monsters killed.
The hot water felt wonderful, but it couldn't sooth her mind. What's wrong with me? The fact that I'm friends with him . . . or the fact that I can't accept it?
She gazed passed the tile, passed the hotel . . . passed the world. "Does it really matter?" she whispered aloud.
The hissing water continued to fall.
With a deep sigh, Filia began to wash her long, saffron hair. I've grown a lot in the past centuries . . . so has Xellos. We've realized that despite what our societies have told us, neither of us are purely good or evil. I know that Mazoku can do good, and Ryuuzoku can do evil, just as easily as the opposite. She rinsed her hair and grabbed a bar of soap. So why am I having such sudden doubts about this?
Shaking her head slowly, Filia tried to reason with herself as she bathed. Of course I'll be having doubts, it's against the brainwashing I was put through for hundreds of years. But I CAN break past that . . .
A deeper, muffled part of herself whispered, But what if it's all lies? What if Xellos really is just using me?
She blinked, then took a haggard breath. That's it. That's why I'm so worried, so tense lately.
For all I know, it's all a lie.
