"Give her room," Zelgadis commanded as Gourry laid the fainted Zelgadis Look Alike on the floor.
"Her?" Lina asked.
"You didn't notice, Lina? She said her name was Zelda."
Lina shook her head, "So? She said her parents couldn't tell the difference."
"Zelda was her mother's name. Zelgadis was my father's name. Amelia, give her a healing spell."
Amelia nodded, murmuring the words of the spell then holding her hands over Zelda's head. Lina put her hand on her hip. "Do you know what happened?"
"I can give a fair guess," Zelgadis replied, folding his arms. "Rezo was looking into alternate dimensions, he once said something about it to me, but only in passing. I think in her world, he managed to make a spell that would send someone into another dimension."
"But why would he send you...er her?" Lina asked.
"Because, Rezo had always known I was going to kill him someday for what he did to me, he must have felt threatened by her enough to want her out of the way." Zelgadis slowly paced around the room as he spoke.
Lina put a hand to her chin, "I see..."
"I'm hungry." Lina sprang upon Gourry, beating the crap out of him for not paying attention.
Finally, Lina settled down and smoothed the wrinkles out of her shirt, "We'll camp here tonight. Zel, you take care of... your double here."
Zelgadis nodded, "Gourry, help me?" the blonde swordsman nodded and caught up Zelda's arms, her male self catching her feet. Amelia wrapped the Chimera woman's cape over her stomach to keep the men from tripping over it.
* * *
Zelda slowly woke, realizing that she was laying on the bench in Mistwatch, "It was a dream," she said, sitting up. "Damn crazy dream..." she shook her head and pushed the blanket off her, glancing at the window. "Damn! Almost afternoon?! They're all going to think I'm lazy now and I'll never get their respect back." She got to her feet, reaching for her sword to put it on her belt. Her hand closed over nothing.
Looking, she saw that it was not where she normally put it. Her eyes narrowed and she got up, looking around the empty room. "I've still got my spells," she muttered and pulled her cape on.
Slamming open the door, she stalked down the stairs, her mask covering the lower portion of her face. She could smell something cooking. Something wasn't right. Things looked different. There were leaves on the stairs, blown in seemingly overnight. She briskly walked into the main hall, expecting to find Zolf and Rodimus playing a game of poker.
She tripped on her own foot on the last stair, falling flat on her face. "Oh ...by... L-sama...." she said softly from the floor.
"She's awake," the man in beige said with slight amusement. He and the blue-eyed girl were sitting where Zolf and Rodimus should have been, the man teaching the girl to play poker. The Leo-girl and Glory-man were fighting, or more like, the Leo-girl was bashing the Glory-man's brains out, yelling at him about being an idiot.
All motion stopped when the man in beige spoke and they all stared at Zelda, her staring back at them. Finally, Zelda collected herself, getting to her feet, "Fallen into the hands of the enemy... you can't kill me unless you have the Sword of Light," she said, lifting her chin.
"We don't intend to kill you." The man in beige got to his feet. Zelda watched as a male version of herself walked toward her, holding her sword, an exact copy of it hanging from his belt. "Rezo has transported you into a different dimension where you are me."
Zelda was silent for a long moment, staring at his face, into his eyes. Finally, she took her sword from him and tied it to her belt. "So if we're the same, how do I get back to my world to kill him?"
The man in beige shrugged, "I don't know."
"Tch, of course you wouldn't," Zelda said and got a smirk in return. "No! I didn't mean it that way! Damn..." He laughed softly at her.
"Come join our card game?" he offered.
"Fine," Zelda muttered, going over to where she'd sat so many times before.
"I'm Zelgadis," he said as he dealt her in.
"Zelda, though... I have the feeling I said too much last night," Zelda replied, spreading her hand in front of her.
"You weren't feeling well," Zelgadis replied.
"NO GOURRY! THAT'S MINE!"
"But you weren't eating it!"
"Jellyfish brains! I'm going to have to teach you a lesson you'll never forget! FIREBALL!"
Zelda winced, looking back. "They're always like that," Zelgadis said softly.
"Makes me wonder what they're like in my world..." Zelda replied.
"Who are they in your world?" the blue-eyed girl asked, looking up at Zelda.
"Leo Inverse, the supposed greatest black sorcerer in the world, the most girly looking boy in the known universe, and Glory Gabriev, some island yokel who thinks girls can become traveling mercenaries, even if she is pretty good with a sword."
Zelgadis chuckled softly, "Meet Lina Inverse, the supposedly greatest sorceress in the world. The girl who defeated a piece of Shabranigdo, blasted Zanafar reborn, hosted the Lord of Nightmares to vaporize Hellmaster Phibbrizo, lived after fighting Gaav the Demon Dragon King, and gave the final strike to the Overworld beast-demon Darkstar combined with Vorphied and an ancient dragon named Valgaav reborn as a Mazoku in Gaav's command."
Zelda stared at Zelgadis. "That's not possible," she said coolly, though there was more then a hint of doubt in her eyes.
"I was there," he replied just as coolly, playing his turn.
"So was I!" the girl said.
"And who are you?" Zelda asked, fixing the girl with a stare that could possibly freeze alcohol.
"I'm princess Amelia Wil Tessa Seyruun," she said, "I fight with Ms. Lina to spread Justice!"
Zelda winced. "That's where I've seen you before."
"So who am I in your world?" Amelia asked.
"Prince Andrew Wil Terre Seyruun, self proclaimed warrior of Justice at the tender age of thirteen," Zelda replied, playing her turn absently.
"I'm sixteen now," Amelia said. "I just had my birthday. Daddy threw a costume party for me so Zelgadis could come."
Zelgadis and Zelda exchanged a long look. "Dear Cephied," Zelda muttered. "I'm really starting to fear what would have become of me..." She shook her head, "What about the man?"
"That's Gourry Gabriev, ex-current wielder of the Sword of Light. He let the Overworlders have it after we defeated DarkStar. I still don't know why," Zelgadis said. "It would have come in handy."
"Maa, maa! TWO of you, Zelgadis? Have you been copying yourself without us knowing?"
Zelda jumped to her feet, dashing away and pointing her sword firmly at the purple haired priest. "Where the hell did you come from?"
The man opened one eye, smirking, "That- is a secret," he said.
"Answer to your question, Zelda, that is Xelloss, Mazoku General-Priest of Greater Beastmaster." Zelda's sword tip dipped a moment as she almost fell on her face.
"WHAT?!"
"Xelloss!" Lina exclaimed, jumping on the priest's back and wrapping her arms around his neck so tight to choke him. "Nice to see you!"
"Lina-san! Why are you choking me! I've done nothing!" he exclaimed.
"Oh- I just know that you're going to do something, so this is in advance." Lina slipped off his back and looked at the cards Zelda had scattered. "Hey- all four kings and ace of diamonds!" she said.
Zelgadis tossed his cards down, "She wins."
Amelia pouted, "I haven't won once yet!"
"Don't worry, you just started learning."
Zelda was about to say something when the air rippled, coming from the dining room. Two voices screaming in unison, from pain, extreme pain. Zelda jumped over Amelia easily and dashed toward the dining room, everyone else behind her. Coming to a dead stop in the doorway, Zelda stared at what a flickering scene of Rezo chanting a spell, Eris standing off to the side once again. In the center of the circle were Zolf and Rodimus. The spell finished with a thunderclap, leaving the wizard and weapons master crumpled on the floor.
Zelda hurried over, casting a healing spell on the wizard first, simply because he was the first one she reached. "Damn Rezo," she muttered under her breath. Zolf opened his eyes and blinked.
"Zel-sama, you're alright!" he gripped her arm as his worry over his lord eased. Zelda flashed a brief smile and cast the healing spell on Rodimus.
"Of course I am. You might want to brace yourself for a bit of a shock though," she replied softly. Her back was blocking the view of the Slayers standing in the door still. "You're not where you think you are. This is a whole new world where I already exist."
Zelgadis slowly paced forward past Lina. "I am Zelgadis," he said softly and Zelda stood, the difference was somewhat obvious. He was taller then her. "You won't be meeting yourselves here, however. They were killed. That, however, is a long story. That has lasted two years for me."
"You're... two years older then Zel-sama?" Zolf asked, pulling the bandages off his face.
"Yes. ...Zel-sama is around sixteen where I am eighteen," Zelgadis explained.
"How did you get Rezo to cast the spell again?" Zelda asked, helping Rodimus to stand.
"He asked us last night if we wanted to join you. Of course we said yes. You're our lord," Rodimus said, his icy blue eyes staring at her.
Zelda blushed, "Please... I- I'm flattered and all, but- I- I didn't exactly lie, but I never set any of you straight... I'm ... not a boy..."
"What?!" Zolf asked, staggering back. Rodimus didn't look so shaken.
"I never was, never will be. Please, just call me Zelda," she continued to blush.
"This is all well and fine, but I really have the feeling something bad is going to happen," Lina interrupted.
They all looked at the redheaded sorceress, "And how do you figure that, Ms. Lina?" Amelia asked, eyes wide.
"Because... Rezo of that world has a way to send people here. He might be thinking about sending Shabranigdo here when he's resurrected... Even worse, Shabranigdo sends himself after he's destroyed that world."
"Shit," Zelgadis said softly, "Too bad YOU blew Rezo's laboratory into dust, Lina, otherwise, we could have gone there..."
"I did NOT blow it into dust! That was Kopii Rezo and Zanafar's fault! Then it was Phibbrizo's fault after that!" Lina retorted, about to bash Zelgadis's head.
"It doesn't matter who blew it up, what matters is that it's gone," Zelda pointed out.
Lina rubbed her forehead, "Maaan! This sucks, I already can barely handle one manic-depressive Chimera, now I've got two!"
Zelgadis put his hand on Zelda's wrist as she went to cut Lina's head off. "Lina, don't be so rude," he chided her. "Go find some bandits to blow up, I'm sure you'll feel better after that."
Lina smiled suddenly, "Oh that's a good idea Zel!" she skipped off. Gourry scratched his head.
"Isn't that... Glory Gabriev?" Zolf asked.
"No... that's Gourry Gabriev. Everything seems to be switched around here. I'm male here, Leo's female, but you really couldn't tell the difference in the first place, Glory's male, and Prince Andrew is now Princess Amelia."
Amelia blinked a few times, "Are you really Mr. Zelgadis's old friends?" she asked.
Zelgadis sighed, "No Amelia, they're Zelda's old friends, they don't know me even if I have the same past as Zelda. Go help Gourry, Amelia." The princess pouted a little but scampered off after the blonde swordsman. "And just when I thought I'd gotten over your deaths you show up again," Zelgadis muttered, stalking away.
Zelda rubbed the back of her neck, "Am I really manic-depressive?" she asked rhetorically.