For some reason, this redundant little top part seems to be the hardest part of the story to write… I ought to just stick to the usual disclaimer. I don't own anything regarding Slayers- I'm just a crazy fan, writing and writing this fictional story into the ground. Goodness, I do keep going in circles… please enjoy, though!

25- Enigmas? The final mysteries need solving…

Lina opened her eyes and blinked in confusion.

"We're… we're… back at the house?"

"Well, I figured that this is where you'd want to go." Xellos offered with a shrug.

"How did you know we were staying here?" Zelgadis demanded.

Xellos just winked. "Call it a 'lucky guess."

"In other words, that's a secret, right?"

"Oh, you do know me so well!"

Lina jumped up, waving her arms to try and draw attention. "Wait, wait! I still am not sure exactly what's going on! Did Marielle just fire you for taking our side, Xellos?" Lina asked.

"Well, technically, she fired me for much more reason than that- something that's going to be very unpleasant to have to explain to Lord Beastmaster…" Xellos replied.

"So you screwed up your mission big time, huh Xellos?"

"Not necessarily, Miss Lina. There's far more to it than that." Xellos took a step back. "Now, if you'll excuse me, I'd better be going-"

"Wait! Xellos! Where do you think you're going?"

Xellos stopped and sighed, crossing his arms. "Zelgadis, for someone who hates me so much, you always seem to be unhappy whenever I leave."

"That's because you leave us with more questions than we had before! What was with that huge exchange between you and Marielle? What in the world is she anyway?"

"I'm sorry, but I can't divulge any more information than I have already. You already know too much." Xellos paused. "Or… to be more precise, you know just enough. Farewell, then, for now! I'm sure that I'll see you all again very soon!"

The group stared as Xellos disappeared.

"What in the world does it mean, that we know… 'just enough?" Lina murmured. "I don't get it…"

"I think… perhaps he's encouraging us to do a little bit more digging." Zelgadis offered.

"Digging?"

"Trying to find out everything we can. He's saying that the information we have has piqued our interest, and now we won't stop until we can figure everything out- which is what he seems to want."

"He is awfully good at giving us clues and asking us to fill in the bigger picture." Lina nodded.

"Huh? What bigger picture...?"

"Pokota!" Naga gasped with a smile. "You're awake! Oh, I was so worried!"

Pokota still wasn't totally awake, and it took him a moment to examine his surroundings. When he realised that he didn't know where they were, he wasn't exactly happy about it.

"N-Naga, you idiot! What did you do? You could have killed me, for goodness' sake!"

Naga whimpered. "B-but Pokota buddy... I saved you..."

"For once, Naga's right, Pokota. Give her a break." Zelgadis scolded.

"What do you mean by 'for once?" Naga demanded.

"Mister Pokota! You're okay!" Amelia seemed to have snapped to attention as soon as she'd opened her eyes.

"A-Amelia? Zelgadis? And... Lina and Gourry?" Pokota was beyond confused. "Where in the world are we? Why are you all here? What's Naga doing with that bird?"

The raven gave a cry and stretched its wings."

"You're not in the mansion anymore- all thanks to Gourry and me." Lina declared proudly.

"I think the rest of us could have managed without your blackmail, Lina." Zelgadis added.

"No, you couldn't. Not easily, anyhow." Lina responded curtly. "But enough about that. Will someone please tell me what happened between Xellos and Marielle? Why did she fire him? And what was wrong with her sister?"

"Well, it seems as though Marielle was only pretending to be in the dark about Xellos being a Mazoku. Jetta seemed really surprised about it, though. Marielle said that she'd known about it all along, while Jetta was just screaming 'it's not possible' over and over... Marielle got mad at her and pushed her off the balcony with magic. Amelia tried to save her, but it took Xellos to actually catch her. Then he scolded Marielle, saying something about their 'most important subject' or something..."

"Their what?" Lina gasped. "Their subject?"

"That's what they said, alright." Naga gave a nod.

"Lina, what's the matter?" Gourry asked.

"You idiot! You of all people should know! This goes against what we'd discussed!"

Gourry blinked for a moment. "...which was...?"

Lina slapped her forehead in exasperation. "About Marielle being a doppelganger!"

"A what?" Naga asked.

"You mean like a copy?" Pokota asked.

"Precisely. Gourry and I had entertained the idea that perhaps Marielle was nothing but Jetta's copy. You see, while we were at the party, we'd stepped out on the balcony to get a bit of fresh air, and we met Marielle's sister... n-not Jetta, but the one in the photo- the one that died of smallpox eleven years ago."

"Wait; if she died, then how did you-"

"It was her ghost." Gourry said. "She looked so much like Marielle that Lina tried to grab her, and ended up passing right through her."

Amelia shuddered. "How horrifying."

"She was horrified." Lina replied. "She was in so much pain because of what her sister is doing..."

"I wish I could have helped her to move on." Amelia sighed.

"I really don't think that she can move on until this whole mess with Marielle is resolved." Lina shrugged. "And... well... Gourry and I kind of promised her that we would do that."

"So, that means that, even though Amelia and I have gotten out of the mansion, it isn't over yet." Pokota added.

"What a pain." Naga sighed, running her hand through her hair in exasperation.

"Well, I don't think we would have stopped at this point anyway." Zelgadis pointed out. "Xellos made sure of that. He gave us just enough information to keep us involved. He knows that we won't back down now; not when we're this close."

Lina paused. "But Zel... you... will you be able to..."

"Amelia knows of a certain book, that she thinks is in the library here at this house, which can stabilize an object that is being torn apart by entropic forces. If she can find it, then maybe..."

Amelia grasped his hand tightly. "No 'maybes.' We will find it." she stated. "I know we will."

"I wish I had your confidence..." Zelgadis sighed.

"I wish I had her enthusiasm. I'm tired." Naga yawned. "Can we go to sleep and discuss this in the morning?"

"Well, I, for one, know that I won't be able to get any sleep until I know what we're going to be doing tomorrow." Lina pointed out. "So you can go to bed, but I'm staying up and making some plans."

"I think plans would be good for all of us." Amelia nodded.

"I can make everyone some coffee, and we can talk things over in the library." Zelgadis offered.

"Coffee sounds quite nice right about now..." Naga yawned again.

"Besides," Lina sighed. "we've got to figure out some sort of plan."

Lina gripped the coffee mug in her hands anxiously. Zelgadis finished handing them out to everyone, and Naga took a big gulp of hers. "Wow, Zelgadis! This is really good! You make coffee like a pro!"

"I had a friend who taught me well." Zelgadis chuckled, looking somewhat happy for the first time in a while.

"Well, thanks to your friend, we can be awake enough to figure out what we're doing." Lina commented. "I guess we've got no choice at this point but to go back to Marielle's mansion."

"Not recklessly, though." Zelgadis added. "We need to do what you mentioned before- the digging part."

"Ah, right." Lina nodded.

"I can help. I'm pretty handy with a shovel." Gourry volunteered.

Lina laughed. "Nice try, Gourry, but we're being serious here. Take your jokes somewhere else."

Gourry just smiled, happy that Lina had correctly interpreted it as a joke. "Well, then what do you think we should do?"

"...I don't know..."

"Well, I need to find that book." Amelia said, setting her mug aside and walking over to a bookshelf.

"Are you just going to search blindly? This is a big library." Lina asked.

"I have some idea of where it might be- I'll check in the obvious locations first." Amelia replied. "You guys keep talking."

"Fine, fine..."

"Naga, perhaps it's a good thing that you rescued that raven after all..." Zelgadis murmured thoughtfully.

"So you're finally accepting him as a valuable member of the group?" Naga seemed excited as she stroked the bird's feathers.

"Well, if he can give us information about Marielle..."

"The bird can't even talk." Pokota spat. "He's not going to help us."

"Now is not the time to vent your jealously, Pokota." Lina chided.

"Jealously?" Pokota jumped up and perched on Lina's head. "What are you talking about?"

"Well, now that Naga is fawning all over him and not you-"

"Th-that has nothing to do with anything!" Pokota stammered. "Focus, Lina! You're the one who needs to quit cracking jokes with your boyfriend!"

Lina grabbed Pokota by the ears. "He is not my boyfriend, he is my fiancé, and his jokes have nothing to do with this!"

"Fiancé?" Amelia perked up from across the room. "When was this decided?"

"Oh, here and there..." Lina's voice trailed off.

"Come to think of it, were you wearing that ring before you went to the party?" Naga asked, leaning over to get a better look at Lina's hand. "I don't remember that."

"Um... no. Gourry got it at the market the other day, and he gave it to me at the party." she admitted.

"I thought it would look nice on her." Gourry smiled brightly.

"So, when you say he gave it to you at the party, do you mean that he just gave it to you, or that he formally gave it to you, on one knee and everything?" Naga asked curiously.

"Uh... well..." Lina stammered. "Formally... You see, we were faced with some serious issues that we'd just discovered, and it was pretty heavy stuff... so the tension had to be broken somehow."

"But with a marriage proposal?" Zelgadis asked.

"Gourry is one-of-a-kind." Lina chuckled slightly.

"She told me to surprise her." Gourry added. "And it certainly did, especially after all that talk of Shabranigdo-whatever-he's-called.

The room suddenly went quiet.

"Sh-Shabranigdo...?" Pokota stammered.

"Oh... yeah... we probably should have mentioned that." Lina chuckled nervously. "You see, we found that jar, and judging by all the clues we found, we have a hunch of what might be contained in it."

"But you're not saying that it might be-"

"Shabranigdo? ...maybe..." Lina sighed.

"What brought you to this conclusion?" Zelgadis asked.

"Well, first of all, do remember that little exchange we had with Xellos two weeks ago? He asked us over and over to think about what the original Hellmaster's Jar did. You see, not only did it contain the should of Rezo, but it was also successful in containing the soul of the Demon Lord. Plus..." Lina's voice trailed off. "...I opened the jar, and had a very... adverse reaction to it."

"An adverse reaction?" Zelgadis asked. "What sort of adverse reaction?"

"I... don't want to talk about it..."

"That's silly! You have to tell us, otherwise we might never get things figured out, and-"

"She SAID that she didn't want to talk about it, Naga!" The whole group stared for a moment, surprised by Gourry's outburst. The swordsman shrank back slightly, lowering his voice. "...and, quite frankly, I don't want to talk about it either..."

"It was pretty distinct, anyway." Lina eventually said. "And, the thing is, I'm really not sure what to make of it. If it really is some portion of Shabranigdo's power sealed within the jar, then what is Marielle using it for, and why? Where in the world might she have gotten it?"

"From Rezo, perhaps?" Zelgadis ventured. "She did mention that Rezo and Jetta had met once, and that Jetta was the one who had designed the replica jars."

"Miss Marielle mentioned that she had never met Rezo herself. Do you think that she is using Jetta for her knowledge, then?"

"Wait, Marielle said what?" Lina asked. "That's not possible! Didn't the old man in Belz say that Rezo was the one to cure the remaining twin of smallpox? Marielle had to have met Rezo in that case!"

"Unless Marielle isn't the twin from the story..." Zelgadis mused, thinking over the implications of what he'd just said.

"But she looks exactly like the girls in the picture..." Naga pointed out.

"So does Jetta- just older." Lina added. "I figure that, if they were around 9 or so when that picture was taken, and it was 11 years ago, then the surviving twin ought to be around 20 or so... which Jetta looks to be."

"So you think she is the one twin who survived?" Zelgadis asked.

"But then what's up with Marielle?" Naga asked. "She must have some sort of connection to the twins."

"I'm a little lost..." Amelia spoke up.

"Here," Lina began, pulling out the picture of the twins that they had been given. "we were given this by a man who used to work for the Arcarti family. He said that they were twins, and one died of smallpox about 11 years ago. The other ran away from home, and..."

"So have we established which of them is the original twin?" Zelgadis asked.

"I think it must be Jetta. Gourry and I found a room with a bunch of family portraits, and there was no sign of an older sister anywhere. The family had an older boy, the twins, and then a younger boy." Lina replied.

"So where does Miss Marielle come in?" Amelia spoke up.

Lina gave a sigh. "Well, that's the question we have to ask ourselves."

There was a long moment of silence.

"Honestly..." Zelgadis began, "I don't really see what we're supposed to do besides fighting Marielle and putting a stop to her experiments."

"Do we really want to fight against someone we don't really understand?" Lina asked. "We still don't truly know what we're up against."

"And how are we supposed to figure it out?" Zelgadis replied. "I don't have the time to be going on a long information search..."

"Not without this, you mean?" Amelia piped up, holding up a book triumphantly.

Zelgadis was on his feet in a split second. "Wh-what? You found it?"

"I told you it was here." Amelia smiled brightly. "Now there's nothing to worry about!"

"...unless the spell doesn't work." Zelgadis finished.

"Or we all die fighting Marielle." Lina added.

"You're not allowed to do that." Gourry scolded. "You can't die on me before we get married."

Lina chuckled. "Don't worry about that, Gourry. Besides, Amelia is a priestess, so she could marry us on the battlefield if worst comes to worst, right?"

"...you know, I could!" Amelia laughed in response.

"Of course! Heck, she could probably marry us here, if we wanted! Haha!"

It took Lina a moment to realise that she was the only one laughing.

"...what?"

"That's... actually not a half-bad idea..." Zelgadis murmured.

"We could have the ceremony in the rose garden!" Amelia chimed. "The bushes are in bloom this time of year."

"We could get a cake from that baker you're so friendly with." Naga added. "We'll make a party of it- just us."

"Unless you'd rather have your relatives come." Pokota added. "If so, then maybe-"

"No!"

Heads turned. It was Gourry's second outburst of the night; usually he was so quiet. "...I mean, uh... I'd rather have it with you guys... What do you think, Lina?"

"Huh...?" Lina blinked in confusion. "Y-you guys were serious? I was joking about that."

"Really? I think it might be fun." Pokota replied. "I never thought that I'd see you get married, flatty."

"Hey, now!" Lina growled. "Watch it!"

"Miss Lina, do you really want to go through with this?" Amelia asked. "I think it would be lovely, but if you don't think so..."

Lina wasn't so sure. She knew exactly what response she'd get, but she looked to Gourry to see what he thought. He stared at her with that pleading look that he'd given her earlier that night when he'd given her the ring. She sighed in defeat.

"Oh, why not? We don't have anything better to do tomorrow..."

It was a very casual answer, but it seemed to light up the room. Gourry was suddenly excited, along with Amelia, Naga, and Pokota. Even Zelgadis seemed to be slightly less serious and melancholy than he had been.

"We can have the ceremony right around sunset- that's when the garden will be the most beautiful!" Amelia exclaimed.

"When does the sun set now? Around 8:00 or so?" Lina asked.

"Yeah... I think. Maybe a little later- it's been at least a month after the summer solstice, and considering the latitude..." Zelgadis nodded.

"Then 7:30 is when we should start it." Naga declared. "Oh, this is so exciting! Can I be the maid of honour?"

"Actually, I'd like Amelia for that." Lina admitted.

"But she's the priestess!" Naga whined. "You can't be both the priestess and the maid of honour!"

"Says who?" Pokota asked.

"I don't think we really need to worry about that." Zelgadis replied. "Don't get so worked up."

"Yes; there are lots of other things that we need to worry about tomorrow." Lina nodded. "Like this spell that Amelia has been talking about."

"Tomorrow? Oh, I was going to get started on that tonight-" Amelia began, but Zelgadis interrupted.

"No, Amelia. It's far too late at night, and you've just now managed to get out of that prison of a mansion. Get some rest- it's not like I'm going to die anytime tonight…" his voice trailed off. "…hopefully…"

No one happened to hear the last bit, though.

Naga stepped forward. "He's right, Amelia. Get some rest. You wouldn't want to accidentally misfire the spell or something. Let's go to bed- our room is just the same as It was when we were kids! It'll be just like old times!"

Amelia gave a tired smile. "That sounds nice."

"I could use some sleep, too." Lina yawned. "What do you say, Gourry?" …Gourry?"

…the swordsman was already fast asleep on the couch.

"He's such an idiot…" Lina sighed with a bemused smile.

"I've really missed hanging around with you guys." Pokota laughed.

Lina grabbed a blanket that was lying over the top of one of the armchairs, and draped it over her sleeping companion. "I hope you sleep well on the couch, Gourry." she chuckled, giving him a kiss on the forehead and turning back around.

"Miss Lina, you're just going to leave him there?" Amelia asked.

Lina shrugged. "He'll probably wake up in a few hours and be rather confused, so that will be suitable punishment for falling asleep on us."

"That's a little harsh for the man you're about to marry, don't you think?" Pokota scolded.

"Lina grabbed him by the ears. "On the contrary, my little animal." she began. "I'm training him. If he's going to live with me for the rest of forever, then he needs some preparation."

"No amount of preparation could ready anyone for a curse like that." Pokota scoffed.

"Be quiet, you!" Lina tossed Pokota across the room and into a bookshelf. Naga gasped.

"POKOTA!"

"Yep…" Zelgadis sighed. "Things are getting back to normal around here… right before they get crazy again..."

(Who else votes for a funny, totally non-sappy Lina/Gourry wedding scene? *raises hand* The question is, though, can I trust myself to write it well enough? Ah... I have no self-confidence in that regard...)