"Give her to me." Amelia whispered as she turned and slid to the floor, a million questions flooding through her mind. On the one hand it was usually harmless if a baby was born with the cord wrapped around their neck. But every so often it meant there was a major problem. And given that the birth had happened so rapidly, Amelia feared that her daughter had gone into distress and had been forced to make an abrupt entrance into the world. And if that was the case, then the clock was ticking.
Naga handed the baby over, and with trembling hands Amelia unwound the cord from her neck. Then she started massaging the baby as the door opened and two women rushed in. "My goodness!" exclaimed Karina, one of the new wet nurses.
"I've got this." Penelope, the other wet nurse, said as she knelt down and picked up the baby and started wiping her mouth as Naga knelt beside Amelia and wrapped an arm around her. When Amelia had hired Penelope she had specifically liked that she was competent in white healing magic. While this was usually Amelia's specialty as well, as it was, she was so panicked she was terrified her efforts would hurt more than help!
Within moments her daughter's cries pierced the air, and Amelia dissolved into tears of relief as Karina got on her other side and put a hand on her shoulder. "There now, she sounds strong and healthy."
Penelope pulled a fresh towel from her apron and wrapped the baby up and then placed her in Amelia's arms. "I think she's beautiful like her mother." She commented.
Amelia took a few moments to gaze at her. She had a wonderful head of thick black hair and dark blue eyes. "Hello, Justina. You gave me such a fright!" She gave a nervous laugh, but the truth was she was still shaking so much she feared she would drop her. Still, she couldn't let go, though she looked up at the wet nurses, "How did you know to check on me?"
"Duke Zelgadis asked us to check in on you every so often." Penelope explained as she started to feel along Amelia's stomach.
"He did!?" Amelia exclaimed, pleasantly surprised to hear about Zel's thoughtfulness.
"Yeah, he was worried because you were so upset." Karina said, "He wanted to make sure someone was at hand if you needed to talk or went into labor. I still can't fathom…When we last looked in an hour ago everything seemed fine."
"She came really, really fast." Amelia explained, and then she looked beside her at Naga, "I don't know what I would have done if you hadn't helped!"
Naga still looked a little green around the gills, but she nonetheless pulled Amelia to her and gently rubbed the top of her head, "Hey, what sort of big sister would I be if I weren't here when you need me? I will always be there for you!"
Justina yawned, and Naga sighed, "And now that's she's cleaned up a little, she is rather cute. Look at what you did!"
Amelia wanted to feel some sense of accomplishment. But the truth was that she had felt entirely at the mercy of forces beyond her control. How could someone who had given Mazoku a beating have been so thoroughly trammeled by every day occurrences such as pregnancy and childbirth? Still, she was used to putting on a brave face. Somehow she even managed to smile as she flashed Naga the victory signal.
"I'm not going anywhere." Luna said as she calmly unsheathed her sword while keeping her eye on Xellos. "Give him back, and I'll let you walk out of here alive."
Thankfully, Lina decided, the crystals must have been doing their job if Xellos was not able to disappear into the astral plane with him. Gourry released his grip on Lina's hand as he stood up and drew his sword, moving into a triangular position with Luna as Leia started chanting from the doorway. Lina frantically tried to strategize. Xellos couldn't easily leave. At the same time Luna and Gourry would have to attack him without hurting the baby, meaning they would have to hold back.
But before she could give it much more thought the contraction built again. She tried not to cry out, but she couldn't help but moan as Xellos suddenly threw a black corkscrew of energy at the wall, pulverizing part of it. Lina's heart leapt as she realized that he intended to escape through it as Luna and Gourry raised their arms to protect themselves from the rubble that flew. Faster than Lina could comprehend, Xellos managed to pick up some large pieces of stone and hurled them both at Luna and Gourry as he turned to flee.
As Gourry bisected the rubble with the Blast Sword, Luna channeled her will to blow the stone into dust, Lina had only one thought. Stall. Fighting against the vulnerability she felt, she yelled, "You don't want the second one?"
Xellos paused, and her son screamed with a strength that surprised Lina as he turned and reached for her. Lina couldn't mask the pain she was feeling on so many levels as Xellos stared at her, and it took everything within her not to flinch. She never liked to be seen as weak and hurting. "Second one?" Xellos asked as he stared at her piercingly.
"Surprise. It's twins." Lina said, "You have one, we have the other, and we're not letting you get the second one so easily. I assume you want both. Two humans with fragments of the Lord of Nightmares in their soul."
"Don't use that name so casually!" he hissed.
Lina grinned at him sardonically as she realized that now they had each other backed into a corner, but she couldn't maintain it as the urge to push rose again. Luna spoke then, thankfully drawing attention away from her. "Perhaps it's time we negotiate a truce."
"What grounds could we possibly agree on?" Xellos replied, raising his voice to be heard about the crying infant.
"We could shut down this school, for instance, if you give him back to his mother and stay away from them." Luna suggested.
"How can we trust that you'd follow through?"
"That's always the risk, isn't it?" Luna replied.
But then a new cry pierced the air as the second baby greeted the world. Somehow the baby in Xellos's arms seemed to realize his twin was close by, and he grew even more agitated and let out a cry of pure longing. Sylphiel moved to shield the second baby, and Gourry moved in front of her to block Xellos from reaching them as he assumed a defensive stance. The knowledge that they were at a stalemate permeated the air. No one wanted to harm either of the babies, but fighting in such close quarters practically guaranteed that they were at risk for being hurt.
Lina started to fear that Xellos would decide to leave without the second one and come back later when her son turned back to face Xellos as he glowed golden bright and hollered with rage. Lina felt a ray of hope light within her as Xellos started to shout out in pain, and incredibly, the right side of his body where he held her son started to resemble something like paper when red hot embers were placed on it. As Xellos seemed to burn, Lina started chanting.
Xellos turned, and Lina feared she wouldn't be fast enough as it was obvious he was going to try to escape through the hole in the wall. She rapidly yelled, "Ray Freeze!" and quickly directed the magical energy to encase her son. Once he was secure she started to pull him back to her. While it was a Holy Magic spell, Lina wasn't sure how well it would work against a Mazoku, and sure enough Xellos, despite his injuries, somehow managed to grab the baby and fight the pull of her spell.
"We won't let you leave with him!" Leia yelled, and then she added her own Ray Freeze spell to the mix and Gourry charged forward, confident that the women would keep the baby safe with their spell if he attacked.
Xellos's eyes widened, and just as Gourry reached him he let go of the baby and escaped through the wall. Gourry looked through it as Leia let her spell die and Lina drew her son back to her. Trusting that her son would recognize her and wouldn't do whatever he had done to Xellos to her, Lina wrapped her arms around him once he reached her, and he turned and buried his face into her chest as he continued to cry. But he wasn't glowing. Sylphiel quietly put the second baby in her arms beside him, and Lina watched in amazement as they turned towards each other and wrapped their arms around the other as they settled down and stopped crying.
"You have a daughter." Sylphiel announced., and to Lina's amazement she realized that with everything going on she hadn't thought to wonder.
"A son and a daughter." Lina said as the resentment she had felt vanished as she looked at them, nestled contentedly together, so peaceful and quiet after everything that had happened, and then she dissolved into tears.
Gourry backed away from the wall and stated, "He's gone."
Still, as he walked away and towards Lina, Luna moved to keep watch. Just in case. As Gourry reached the bed Lina looked at Sylphiel and said, "Please tell me there's not a third!"
Sylphiel smiled a little as she felt along Lina's abdomen, "Looks like it's empty now."
Lina leaned back against the pillows in relief as Gourry came up beside them. "Wow." He said as his eyes welled, "They are two peas in a pod, aren't they?"
Lina gave a sound that was both a laugh and a cry, "They likely have a bond we can't even begin to understand."
"And he took Xellos down. When he wasn't even an hour old." Gourry said wondrously as he knelt by the bed and wrapped an arm around Lina.
"Talk about powerful." Lina mused, "And scary. What happens to us if he doesn't want to take a bath?"
"Whoa, what happened here?" Naga asked as she breezed in.
"Where did she come from?" Leia asked.
Lina, meanwhile, pounced, "We were attacked! Where have you been!? You were my secret ace!"
"Amelia went into labor, so I was stuck delivering her."
"What!?" Lina and Sylphiel exclaimed at the same time. And Lina continued, "Oh god! Tell me Amelia's okay!"
"Of course she's okay! It's me you should be worried about! That was really gross!"
"Please tell me she's not alone." Sylphiel said.
"No, she's with the wet nurses. Mother and baby are fine. I have a niece!" Naga announced as she walked over to the bed and peered at the babies, "Whoa! Twins!"
Sylphiel started a healing spell, but if there was any pain, Lina couldn't feel it as she gazed at the pair. "I guess I know where my red highlights went." Lina commented as she admired her daughter's red gold hair.
"They do say a girl steals her mother's beauty." Naga quipped.
"What are you implying!?" Lina yelled.
"Hey! Don't be ungrateful! I'm the one who made sure that the crystals were replaced." Naga said.
"What?" Lina replied.
"That Mazoku you wanted me to track. He took the crystals and replaced them with fakes." Naga explained. "I found the extras you had and put them in place and reactivated the circle."
Gourry looked at Lina and stroked her hair, and then Lina sighed, "Thanks, Naga. We owe you one. Truly."
Naga laughed, and the babies shuddered and started crying. Lina sighed, and wondered if she could get them both latched on at once. But then Luna asked, "So what are you going to call them?"
Lina and Gourry exchanged a sheepish look with each other, and Gourry scratched his head nervously as they both said, "You know, we never did get around to figuring that out."
"What's this?" Han asked a group of students who were looking over a paper.
"A list with the bets." Indiana said casually.
"What bets?" Han replied, and at the tone in his voice several students stiffened nervously, obviously wondering if they were about to get into trouble.
"You know, who will pop first, whether it will be a boy or a girl, date and time." Adora listed.
Han's eyes widened disapprovingly as his lip trembled, and Maeve hurriedly said, "We didn't know we weren't allowed to bet!"
"That's not it at all!" Han boomed, "How come I didn't know about this?"
"Huh?"
"Is it too late to put a bet on whether it's a boy or a girl? How much money are we talking about?"
The sound of Naga's laughter rang through the hallway. "I'd hoped to never hear that sound again!" Bruce said.
Several other students wondered where she'd come from as Zel, Moe and Rick came to the front of the group to see what was causing all of the commotion. As Naga came into view, Rick blushed and turned away as Moe's jaw dropped. "Who is she?" he asked, his eyes alight as a warm glow seemed to encompass him.
But then Naga locked eyes on Zelgadis, who tensed as she raised her arms wide, obviously to embrace him. Oh no! Zelgadis thought as Naga pulled him into a huge bear hug "Congrats, Brother! You are a daddy!"
"What?" Zelgadis said as he wondered if he'd heard what she'd said correctly, "What do you mean?"
"My sister Amelia just broke the world record for speediest delivery ever!" Naga announced proudly as she let Zelgadis go and clasped him on the back while Phil broke to the front of the group and everyone started talking excitedly, "I delivered her myself! She's upstairs with your beautiful little daughter."
Zelgadis gasped, "Oh my…a girl! Is Amelia okay?"
"Considering what she's been through. Go up and see for yourself, things seem quiet for the moment."
Zelgadis cheered in delight as he reached forward and gave Naga a hug, much to the surprise of everyone in the room who knew the former chimera well. "Thank you for being there with her!" he said as he quickly kissed her on the cheek. Naga looked rather smug as he let go and raced up the stairs.
"Gracia!" Phil boomed as he walked up to Naga, arms open wide.
Naga glared at him, and the joviality that permeated the room seemed to freeze. "Naga." He corrected, and then she shook her head and sighed as he continued to stand there, his arms wide open.
People started murmuring to each other as Naga stared at Phil distastefully while he continued to stand there, grinning like an idiot. At last she took a few steps forward and gave him the quickest, most dutiful hug imaginable, "Father." She said stiffly as she pulled away as quickly as she could.
"Our Amelia was so scared you wouldn't be here!" Phil said, and if he was shaken by Naga's coldness, he did not show it. "I'm glad you could make it."
"Go up and meet your granddaughter." Naga ordered as she looked at her nails.
"We'll talk later." Phil said, and Naga snorted in response as he followed Zelgadis up the stairs.
Han carefully approached Naga and quietly asked, "Any word on how things are going with Lina?"
"Oh, she had twins." Naga announced.
"What!?" Han replied.
"I thought she looked very big, especially since it was her first time." Maeve said, and several of the students voiced their agreement.
"But no one placed a bet on twins!" Indiana said as he looked at the list. "Please tell me that it's two boys, I'd put a bet on a boy!"
"One of each. A boy and a girl." Naga said as Indiana swore and clenched his fist, "Some Mazoku attacked but they chased him away."
"What? Don't say that so casually! Is everyone okay?" Han yelled.
"Oh, everyone's fine! I fixed the room so he couldn't easily escape!" Naga said. "I was Lina's ace! Shows how much she trusts me, doesn't it?"
She laughed, and everyone covered their ears, with the exception of Moe, who didn't seem at all turned off by it. Han, meanwhile, asked, "Should we be on alert?"
Naga shrugged, "Who knows? But considering one of the babies attacked him I don't think they'll be trying again any time soon."
"Um," Jean-Luc interjected, "Do you mean to say that a newborn attacked a Mazoku and drove him away?"
"Hard to believe, isn't it?" Naga said, "Lina and everyone else swears it's what happened."
Han looked at Moe and Rick, "I guess with Naga here you three will be fine holding down the fort. Though if what she says it's true we may be safe for the moment. I need to know what's happening."
"We'll be fine." Rick said. "Go see your daughter."
As Han walked off, Jean-Luc said to Indiana, "Are you sure no one predicted twins? I'm sure there was one bet there…"
"No, Dave bet that Princess Amelia would have twins." Indiana grumbled. "No one bet Lady Lina would."
Meanwhile, Moe walked determinedly up to Naga, a big, dopey grin on his face as he held his hand out, "I see introductions are in order. I'm Moe."
Zelgadis raced into their room, and despite Naga's announcement, still could not fully believe it when he saw Amelia laying propped on the pillows and holding a tiny bundle. She looked up at him as he came in and gave him a tired smile, and aside from appearing a bit shaken she otherwise seemed okay. "Oh my…I never would have left if I'd thought…" he said as slowly came in.
"It happened so fast." She said, her voice shaky.
"We stopped by to check in every hour like you asked." Penelope said, "But it happened in under an hour."
"Oh, Amelia." Zelgadis said as he came up to the bed.
"Take her." Amelia said as she handed the baby to him, "I can't stop trembling."
Zelgadis was terrified he would drop her, but took her nonetheless and stared at her. Once he would have felt relief to see that even at this young age it was obvious she resembled her mother and not her grandfather. But he was now simply too relieved that they were both okay that he realized that even were she the ugliest baby in the world she would have had him wrapped around her heart. "We made a beautiful baby, didn't we?" he asked.
Amelia laughed nervously as she wrapped her arms around herself. "Hey," he said as he sat down in the bed beside her and cradled Justina in one arm while putting a hand on Amelia's shoulder, "Are you okay?"
"Fine!" she said, putting on a brave smile. "Justice never left us!"
"Fast labors like what she had are often hard for the mother." Penelope said, "It's okay to admit if you're having a hard time."
"I'm fine!" Amelia snapped, and Zelgadis looked at Penelope for guidance as he wondered how true Amelia's protestations were. Penelope raised her eyebrows at him and seemed to give him an unspoken message on what to do.
He leaned forward and planted a kiss on Amelia's forehead and then on her lips. "You did an incredible job, love." He said.
She reached forward and wrapped her arms around him and dissolved into tears as she buried her head on his shoulder as Phil walked in and asked in his booming voice, "Where's my granddaughter?"
"Right here." Zelgadis said as he pulled away from Amelia, who wiped her eyes. Gingerly Zelgadis handed the baby over and said, "We're calling her Justina."
"What a beautiful name!" Phil exclaimed as he held her.
"Justina Naga Tesla." Amelia said as Zelgadis sat down beside her again and wrapped an arm around her. "I wouldn't have been able to do it without Sis. And then Tesla, after Mommy."
"And I'll just call her Jus!" Phil said as he grinned.
"There." Zelgadis pointed out to Amelia, "You were so worried he would have to leave before she came. Everything's fine. He'll even have a few days with her."
Tears continued to pour from Amelia's eyes as she nodded, alarming Zel. Phil, meanwhile, was so wrapped up with his granddaughter that he merely said, "You get some rest, I'll take care of her for a bit!"
"Do you think they'll attack again?" Leia asked as she stared out the window.
"That's a good question." Lina said as she laid on her side and looked at her son, who was nursing eagerly. Once she had been healed they'd gone ahead and moved back to her room. Staying in a room with a busted wall simply wasn't an option. And while she could have called Moe and Karina to take the babies so she could rest, she couldn't stand the idea of letting either of them out of her sight. How could she have just handed her son over to Xellos? Her first day as a mother and she had endangered his precious life!
"Given what happened, they'll likely have to regroup and rethink their plan." Luna said contemplatively. "And likely they'll wait for us to have our guard down."
"Damn." Lina said as she watched as Gourry paced the room with their daughter. "So that means it's coming, but we have no idea when."
Someone knocked at the door, and Lina wondered for a moment at what to say, but then decided that with the way the baby was placed it was unlikely that if it was a man at the door he would even realize she was nursing. "Come in." she said.
"Hey sweetie," Han said as he came in, "I heard it was a double surprise!"
Lina smiled as Gourry walked over to him and presented the girl to him, "Your first granddaughter."
Han took her and smiled, "She looks like the girls when they were newborns."
"Doesn't she?" Leia asked as she wrapped an arm around him and they gazed at her.
Gourry went and sat behind Lina and started stroking her back as Leia looked at Luna and said, "You still have some explaining to do."
Luna sighed and threw her hands up in surrender, "Very well. Back when the Eternal Queen and I started tossing around the idea of Lina having a child with a fragment of the Lord of Nightmares, I just thought it would be a rare opportunity and to just have one would be a waste. I'd heard about this potion that resulted in having twins, but I wasn't sure about just testing it on Lina, especially with the stakes so high. So I tested it on myself first."
"What?" Lina said, her voice low.
"And since it worked so well I found a chocolatier willing to incorporate it into a special order and gave it to you as a wedding gift."
"Who gave you permission to…" Lina started.
"Before you get so worked up," Luna said coldly, "Tell me which one you would like the give up."
Lina turned bright red as she said, "That's not exactly fair!"
"I'm waiting." Luna said.
Lina huffed, and then asked, "So how come you didn't bother to tell me?"
"So you could get attached to both of them before you chewed me out about it." Luna explained, "It would have been much harder to defuse your anger if you didn't know them."
"Oh, you…" Lina seethed.
"And hey, the element of surprise was an unexpected bonus." Luna said.
"If I'd not had a contraction right then, I likely wouldn't have so carelessly handed him over to Xellos in the first place!" Lina countered, and then to her alarm found that she was on the verge of tears.
"Luna should have told you." Gourry said as he rubbed her back. "Just because everything worked out doesn't mean her actions were okay."
"Everything done to advance the cause of Ceiphied is okay and justified!" Luna said with conviction as she clasped her fist. "I'll give you some time for this to sink in. Check to make sure everything downstairs is fine."
Lina wanted to tell her that perhaps she should just stay away for awhile as she left. But just then the boy sighed and stopped nursing, nestling contentedly against her breast, and Lina couldn't help but smile as she reached out to stroke his soft hair. She had never felt anything so soft before! Her annoyance with feeling like Luna's tool warred with the overpowering feelings of love that were growing for her babies. And in this case, the latter was definitely winning.
"What are you calling them?" Han asked.
"Good question, they've been keeping us in suspense." Leia said.
Lina looked up at Gourry and said, "I think, given that he gave Xellos a good lickin' when he was just a few minutes old, a grandiose name is in order?"
"These two do seem to be very special." Gourry agreed. "John and Mary just won't do."
"Right then," Lina said as she gently put her finger on her son's tiny nose, "You, sir, shall be known as Midas Inverse."
Han brought over the girl and laid her in the bed beside her brother, and Lina was surprised as she turned to look at her, her eyes bright and golden, and started smacking her lips. Leia laughed as she observed the obvious signs of a hungry baby and stated, "You might want to switch sides."
"Right," Lina said as she reached over and picked her up, "Aurelia Inverse shall not be kept from her dinner."
AN: Um, I meant to give people only a little fright last week with Amelia's baby and didn't realize people would conclude that she was stillborn. Oops! I ended up leaving ya'll with more of a cliffhanger than I was expecting to. The cord being wrapped around the neck is one of those things that looks very scary but is rather common and usually doesn't impact the baby whatsoever. The baby gets oxygen through the cord until it takes its first breath so it wasn't at risk of suffocating, and the blood vessels in their necks are stretchy to withstand the pressure of the cord. Now if the cord is knotted or otherwise impaired and the flow of oxygen and nutrients obstructed then you've got a big emergency. Anyway, I worked hard to get this out fast to make up for it. Enjoy!