Sailoon Reflections
"Hey Xenith, you don't have a hole in your stomach anymore," Gourry shouted. Xenith looked down and shrugged, she'd been fed enough to "heal" it for a while, but it had been producing such wonderful meals.
"Well if Amelia wasn't going to let me..." she blinked as she noticed something he had said. There was a flicker of something that she thought might have been amusement, but this was Gourry, most things amused him to some degree. Xenith thought that might be one of the benefits to ignorance. "Hey...you called me Xenith!"
"Isn't that your name?" Gourry scratched his head in confusion.
"But you've BEEN calling me Lina," Xenith was confused.
"Oh...she was a...friend of mine," Gourry said sadly. "You know that you remind me a lot of her?" Xenith gritted her teeth and growled.
"How could you forget that I AM...err..I mean...WAS.." Xenith growled. ~He FORGOT about me!~ Xenith ruthlessly buried the mazoku urge to rip Gourry to shreds.
"Gotcha..." Gourry smiled at her. Xenith looked at him blankly for a moment, before narrowing her eyes.
"Don't DO that!" she shouted. "I could have KILLED you for forgetting me!"
"No you couldn't," Gourry said.confidently. "You never even kill all the bandits you fight. I don't know why you want to call yourself Xenith, but you're still Lina." Xenith stared at him quietly for a moment.
"Gourry, I want to show you something," she said quietly.
"Okay, sure," Gourry shrugged as Xenith reached out to take his hand. The world flickered out around them and then returned, Gourry recognized when of the thick forests that surrounded the capital city of Sailoon. "What are we doing out here?"
Xenith didn't even bother to walk, she teleported to top of a gentle rise and silently beckoned for Gourry to follow. As he topped the rise she merely pointed down to what had been a bandit camp. Gourry didn't particularly see anything surprising about the scene of carnage down there. At least not yet.
"So, I've seen you destroy other bandit groups," he said unconcerned.
"Notice anything about the remains, Gourry?" Xenith asked.
"Yeah, no smoke, no burns," he shrugged. "What kind of magic did you use?"
"I didn't use magic," Xenith answered. "Or much in the way of mazoku powers. I fought."
"Why'd you do that?" Gourry asked. "Wouldn't it be easier to just blow them to pieces."
"Its over too fast, hope dies, and they stop caring enough to produce ANY emotions," Xenith said, looking for something in particular. "You know, like burnt food, you can only eat a part of it. The feeding is so much better when they think they can win."
"Okay, so you were eating then," Gourry shrugged, he didn't really understand this whole feed on emotions thing, but it still was a still a necessity thing. Xenith stopped in front of a tree and nodded.
"Here it is," she said, and gestured to the tree as she unblocked his view. A body was tied to the tree, he had seen it before but not this close. "He was nearly the last, I took my time with him."
The man had been killed slowly and very painfully. Not Lina's flash fry method, this man had been tortured. Looking at Xenith he could tell she wasn't worried about the man's death or even his manner of death. Of course Lina had never particularly cared about killing if she had to, but she had limits. Still, what seemed to be worrying Xenith the most was Gourry's response to this.
"There are three more bodies in the forest," Xenith explained. "I let them escape for a little hunting after I took apart their friend. Would Lina do this?" Gourry examined the corpse a little closer and noted the glints of gold here and there. Looking about he saw treasure lying in a number of places.
"What about all this gold?" Gourry asked. Xenith stared at him confused and then looked around.
"Never really thought about it," she shrugged. "I guess the stuff could be useful sometime though." That, more than anything else, convinced Gourry of the possibility that her protests were accurate, that she wasn't Lina. He looked at her cautiously, as if appraising her anew. Xenith slumped.
"You understand now, don't you," Xenith whispered.
"Yeah, I think I do," Gourry said. Xenith sighed and turned around, the wings grew out of her back and furled at fully. Her skin took on an alabaster paleness as she grew a few more inches. The "clothes" warped to accomdate the new flesh, as she reabsorbed the energy construct short sword into her body as a whole.
"This is me, Gourry," she said turning back to him, gesturing over one of her horns. Each finger ended in a long, thin black fingernail, more claws than nails actually. "Lina Inverse died, stabbed to death in the street because she got careless. I'm Xenith Metallium, general of the dark-lord Zelas. We should be getting back."
"Xenith," Gourry started seriously. Xenith faced him nervously, keeping her face neutral. She felt the ripple of anxiety as Gourry opened his mouth for his next question. "Did you know that your breasts are bigger in that body?" Xenith face-faulted.
"GOURRY!!!!" she yelled. "How could you think about something like...mmph!?!" She blinked, surprised as Gourry bent down and kissed her. A little probing of his emotions indicated that he was sincere. She returned the kiss and wrapped her arms and wings around him, restraining herself from using her full strength to crush the man. They parted quietly and stared at each other, smiling.
"I'm willing to bet that you're more Lina than you think you are," Gourry said. Xenith kept a cheerful expression on her face, as she answered. He didn't trust her completely, she could feel that, at least she had succeeded in proving that she was different now. Now she had to regain all his trust.
"Come on, let's get back," she said with a smile.
The coronation was subdued, and a little watchful. This was the second coronation the country had had in a little over a year. At least this Queen couldn't possibly be as bad as the Amelia poseur.
At least that was the general consensus, some people were already wondering it their problems under Tes's rule were actually due to Tes. If their were truly two Amelia's then why couldn't one of them arrange all sorts of atrocities under the guise of the real Amelia. Or else, the Queen had realized that the people were going to fight back and arranged a puppet revolution to place a figurehead on the throne.
There was murmur of dissatisfaction running through the crowd. They were willing to give this new ruler a chance, but they were ripe for seeing fault. And now they had a load of self-confidence. After all they had forced Amelia to run, or Tes, or whoever it had been. They could handle Gracia.
The mazoku held back in the shadows of the balcony as the felt this surge of emotions. A mix of hope, fear, joy and caution. They had to admit that it tasted very good. Unfortunately this was not something they were happy about. Sailoon was unstable, and that left some of their plans in danger. The lesser Metalliums knew that much from Zelas's mood, but none of them were yet certain of Juuou-sama's plans.
Zelgadis and Filia saw the mazoku, four of them now, sitting out of the crowd's view with Amelia standing next to Xellos. Gracia was visible on the balcony waving to the crowds as the newly decorated Queen, dressed in proper robes, for the moment at least, and withholding that hideous laugh. Other than her, only Filia, Zelgadis and Gourry could be seen by the crowds below.
As the celebration ended Gracia left to meet with her nobles and find out who could be trusted and who couldn't. Which, in Sailoon usually meant nobody with a title. The slayers had their own meeting.
"I believe Tes is our problem now," Zelgadis said.
"As soon as she shows herself," Xenith grumbled.
"You are going to let that monster run free!?" Filia demanded shocked.
"No, she's right," Amelia said. "How are we going to search a world for a girl that can teleport?"
"Then what ARE we going to do?"
"We're going to watch for her," Xellos said. "And as soon as she makes her move we're going to catch her."
"In the meantime we have our own errands to run," Xenith smiled.
"Oh, and what are we supposed to do in the meantime," Zelgadis asked.
"Yes, well perhaps you could help with one of those errands," Xellos said. "At least Filia could."
"Why would I help your master!?" Filia demanded.
"Xellos wants a meeting with the dragon lords," Xellos said.
"WHAT?!?!"
In another world, another realm. I dark-haired girl with a long scar down her face stood over the site of a past battle. Somebody had died here, somebody powerful. Somebody who's essence remained strong and unbowed. The dead one had held off from reentering the source. She liked that, it meant he was strong.
"Now all I need is a way to bring him back to life," Tes giggled, an innocent enough sound if one didn't know who she was."
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