Slayers: X Generation

Nightmares Part II: The Dark Void

Howling WereWolf: Yuppie!! 2nd chapter up!!!!

Zantos: Finally!!! You've shoved me somewhere in your senseless plot!!!!!

Sean sees veins once again popping all over Howling WereWolf's head. He quickly exits with notes in hand.

Sean: I'll just leave you two alone and read the disclaimer.

DISCLAIMER - I do not own the wonderful Aymes Yume Metallium, Xelloss Metallium and the oh-so-adorable Yume Yuig Metallium. I also do not own Slaal. But YES! Zantos is mine! However, I might be willing to trade him in for any available Trigun Manga. (No ownership rights for Sean the patsy)

Zantos: HEY!!

Sean: ......all the thanks I get......

HW: QUIET! On with the story!

~ * ~ * ~ * ~

Zantos scratched the back of his head and yawned. It was yet another day on Wolf Pack Island. He reached over to the right side of his bed, grabbed his chair and lifted himself in. Normally, he would just cast Levitation, but he did not feel like any magic this early in the morning. He pulled on a light brown shirt and a pair of trousers before he exited the empty room. His gloves and vest could wait.

He pulled himself to a halt in front of the next door, leading to the room shared by Aymes and Xelloss. He thought he had heard something.

Zantos placed an ear closer to the door, and confirmed his suspicions.

Aymes was having nightmares again.

Better wake her before it gets worse. Zantos reached for the door.

"Uncle Zantos, what are you doing?"

Zantos looked behind him at a small girl with a cascading flow of pink hair, long for her age. He smiled at her. "Morning, little Princess. Aren't you an early riser today!"

"Are you going to go in and bother Mommy again?" Little Yume, daughter of Aymes and Xelloss, probed further.

"Bother her? Now why would I do a thing like that?" Zantos put up his most innocent face.

Yume did her best to look solemn. "Mommy doesn't think it is nice of you to bother her."

"Ah. Indeed. It isn't." Zantos picked Yume up and put her on his lap. "But your Daddy says that us Mazoku aren't nice people. Am I right?"

Yume thought for a while. "Yeah. He does."

"Since Mazoku aren't nice people, they would do things that aren't nice, right?"

"Right."

"There you are. It's okay for me to go in. Get it now, little Princess?"

Yume calculated this and nodded. "Yeah.....I think."

"Care to tell me what's going on so early in the morning?" Zantos distracted the little girl from considering it any further.

"Uncle Slaal was eating a rat!" Yume made a face and stuck out her tongue. "Icky!"

Zantos chuckled as he set Yume back on the floor. "Here's your first mission for today: Run along now and get your Daddy here as fast as you can. You up to it?"

"I'm on it!" Yume ran off and out the open door, where Xelloss probably had gone.

Zantos' retained his sunshine face, using it to mask his worry, as he went into the room. He was indeed worried about Aymes. She had been having nightmares for at least a week now, and it wasn't healthy.

Aymes and Xelloss had always been like family to him, and he hated anything bad to happen to either of them.

He went right over to Aymes, who was still in fitful sleep, and held his hand over her face. Guess I'll be using magic so early in the morning after all.

~ * ~ * ~ * ~

Aymes woke to the feel of cold ice on her cheeks. Her eyes snapped open to see Zantos' forever grinning face.

"What are you doing in here?"

"Oh, I'm just serving my role as your personal-but-unofficial gallant wake-up service." Zantos seized his spell and shook her blanket. "Up and at 'em! Everyone is out of bed except you!"

She frowned irritably, her dream having put her in a bad mood. "Well, I don't appreciate your so-called 'gallant wake-up service'. Now get out."

When Zantos didn't move or change his facial expression, it incensed her further. "Come on, Get Out!!"

Zantos looked back at Aymes with a mischievous glint in his eye. "Now now, your Highness." He waved his finger in a mock-reprimanding way. "Short-temperedness not only doesn't suit you, but it is also the very first sign of pregnancy."

Aymes sputtered and went a dark shade of red, promptly loss for words. Zantos had that I'm-full-of-evil-and-I-know-everything grin on his face.

Just in time, Xelloss came in trailed by bouncy little Yume. "I don't think you should be joking about something like that, Zantos."

"Why not?"

"Some readers don't find it funny, and you're giving people the wrong idea."

"Aha."

"Anyway." Xelloss cleared his throat. "Please go out, and do whatever horrible thing you must with your accomplice Slaal. And take Yume with you."

"But Daddy-" Yume started to protest. Zantos scooped her up before she could finish and winked at Xelloss. "Know something? I'm kinda hungry, so I'm outta here! Let's go, Princess!"

With that, Zantos zipped from the room at super-nova speed with Yume riding atop his shoulders ("WHEEEEEEEE!!!!").

Xelloss closed the door after them before turning his attention to his wife. "What's on your mind, Aymes?"

"What do you mean?"

"You've been having that dream again."

Aymes looked up. "You know?"

Xelloss simply nodded in reply. He crossed the room and sat on the bed with Aymes. "You want to talk about it?"

Aymes sighed. Slowly but calmly, she told him all about the dream that had been replaying every night for so long.

~ * ~ * ~ * ~

Cold, empty darkness everywhere.

The earth and the sky were the same dull color: misty gray.

It was like an abandoned battlefield during the war which eventually led to The Monsters' Fall.

To the daughter of the Beast Master and veteran of that war, this was nothing new.

Aymes could smell the heavy stench of blood that hung in the air.

Making her way around the crumbled remains of a stone monument, she entered the village.

Or what was left of it.

A small feeble cough prompted the presence of residents.

As Aymes' eyes adjusted, about a dozen villagers appeared before her, either limping through debris in search of unknown items or sitting with their backs to whatever large fragment that was smooth and stood upright. It was a very sorry sight.

Then Aymes heard a sob. A small, plaintive cry that would have been missed or ignored by anyone else.

Aymes looked to her right. Squatting with face buried in his hands and head covered with a filthy blanket was a small child, a boy to be exact. His clothes were tattered, torn and stained beyond comprehension, and his blanket appeared to be the only decent covering he had.

Aymes figured that this young one had lost his parents either before or during the chaos that had turned this place upside down. If she had been younger and more on the open road, she wouldn't have cared. But now she was a recent parent to a daughter of her own, and she felt her warm maternal instincts flow through her.

Aymes knelt beside the boy, and gently pulled back the blanket on his head. The boy looked up.

Aymes found herself staring into the hollow black eye sockets of a skull.

Taking a shocked step back, she realized the boy was nothing more than a skeleton covered with cloth.

Aymes turned back to where she had last seen some of the villagers, and what met her eyes were more skeletons, all dry and fairly clean of flesh. Nothing moved, and there was not a living thing in sight.

There was a flash of light, and a person appeared before her. Aymes was unsure if this person was man or woman, or even human to begin with. This stranger donned a dark-colored cloak with the hood covering all facial features apart from the mouth. The hand grasped a magnificent sword, intricate markings drawn permanently onto the blood-covered blade.

"Better be careful."

Aymes ducked just in time as a shining sickle zoomed through the air and nearly claimed the top half of her head. She glared behind her, in the direction where it had headed.

The sickle was now brandished in the hand of yet another person. His hood and long silver hair obscured the view of his own eyes. His lips curled into a mocking smirk on his face.

"I'll be waiting."

Before Aymes could even blink, the cloaked figure had somehow come up closer. This time, he was standing beside the mysterious swordfighter.

The swordfighter slowly raised the sword high in the air, and brought it down again at lightning speed, aimed directly for Aymes.

~ * ~ * ~ * ~

"And then Zantos goes and wakes me up."

Aymes groaned and slumped back. Beneath her spiteful words, she felt a small twinge of gratitude that the boy did what he did. She wasn't all too keen on finding out where that sword would go, or any other probable gruesome details.

"So what do you think, Xelloss?"

"Sounds like a vision to me, Aymes."

Aymes propped herself up. "All right. So now we know what it is, how do we deal with it?"

Xelloss rubbed his chin thoughtfully. "I'm considering a nice little family trip out to that village and check it out. Wherever it is."

~ * ~ * ~ * ~

Slaal looked up from the table. "Morning Princess. Hey Zan. What's happening?"

"Aw, nothing that tastes good." Slaal was visibly less interested. Zantos grinned and leaned on the wooden back of his chair as Yume slid onto his lap. "But spring blossoms are everywhere, the birds are singing and the bees are buzzing. What are you doing?"

Slaal held up a mouse by the tail. "We were having a staring contest. He was winning until you came in."

"You shouldn't play with your food, Man-Trap." Zantos grabbed a doughnut and spun it on his finger before popping it in his mouth.

"Speak for yourself, Horse-Cart." Slaal retorted casually. Yume giggled.

Zantos grinned and held up another doughnut. "You dare mock me, Dracula?"

Slaal raised the squeaking mouse. "Come at me, Spoke-Boy. I fear you not."

"Food fight!" Yume cheered.

Noir flew in and landed on Zantos' head. He cawed a few times, and Zantos translated. "Aymes and Xelloss want us to finish eating and pack it up. We're gonna hit the road soon." With a sigh, he crammed the doughnut down his jaws.

Slaal nodded and upturned the mouse, exposing its underside. He had given up trying to discover how Zantos could understand every word Aymes' raven said a long time ago.

= * =

Howling WereWolf is singing and rocking back and forth while sitting on her desk.

Howling WereWolf: ......I'm a cow. Hear me moo. I look good on a barbecue..... (song not mine, so STAY BACK!!!)

Sean: What's the occasion?

Zantos: Ignore her. She got stressed out and is suffering identity crisis.

Howling WereWolf rocks so hard she falls clear off the desk, but she doesn't stop singing.

Howling WereWolf: .......He said to her, "I'd like a cheeseburger, and I might like a milkshake as well."......... (not mine either, so BACK OFF!!!)

Zantos: Now she's just blabbering.

Sean: ..........Ok.........

Zantos hands Sean a slip of paper.

Zantos: Here. You got another two notes to read. And call the nut wagon while you're up.

NOTICE A - Slaal doesn't really eat rodents. He just drinks their blood, cos' he's the Vampire.

NOTICE B - Ah. Yes. Happiness reigns. This chapter is nice and long, and probably the longest one I'll ever do for quite a while.

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