"You know, Zel-s...Zelda... I knew all along," Rodimus said softly as they sat in the main hall of Mistwatch, waiting for Lina, Gourry, and Amelia to return from blasting bandits. They could hear the fireballs and terrified screams from where they were sitting sharing a late lunch.
Zelda lifted her eyes from picking at her smoked meat. "You were pretty good at acting though," Rodimus continued. "I only found out because I ..." he coughed, "Remember when I walked in on you bathing?" Zelda blushed deeply. "That's when I suspected anyway.. I didn't see anything, it was just the way you swept up your cloak that reminded me of a girl... Then I started watching for other things."
Zolf was staring at the one he'd called 'Zel-sama' for so long, still somewhat in shock. "I can see why you hid it though," Rodimus continued, "Dilgier would never have followed a woman and neither would have a lot of the other men. Besides, you would have had Noonsa on you in seconds." Lina came in through the door, then, having just Rei Winged back from the bandit hide out.
"EeEEW! Noonsa the fishman?!" Lina exclaimed, overhearing their conversation, or at least part of it. "Zelgadis! I STILL can't believe you let that disgusting thing kiss me!"
Zelgadis's soft laughter echoed through the main hall, "I thought it was rather funny."
"You WOULD!" she snapped.
"Get any good treasure?" Zelgadis changed the subject.
"OUUU! Yes!" she pulled something out of her cloak, "I even saved this neat pendant for you!" she tossed it to him. Zelgadis caught it deftly, looking at the ruby set into gold with a gold chain. "I could feel the power on it, but I don't know what it does so you can have it. But if it does something neat like throws fireballs I want it back."
"Whatever Lina," Zelgadis replied, brushing past her, looking somewhat annoyed.
Zelda glowered, "If she starts to treat me like that, I'm going to slit her throat in the night," she muttered under her breath.
"I HEARD THAT!" Lina turned, pointing at Zelgadis, "You did NOT just say I had breasts the size of my brain! YOU'RE GONNA PAY FOR THAT!" she shrieked, throwing a fireball at him. He dodged, "Hey! No fair! Stand still so I can hit you!" Again Zelgadis dodged, bounding away from every fireball.
Zelda got to her feet, stalking toward Lina and reaching out, grabbing the much shorter girl's hair, yanking her around, "Would you stop that before this whole place falls down on top of us!" She shook Lina then let the girl go. "Just LOOK at the support beams of the ceiling! They're NOT going to withstand an attack!"
Lina looked upward, seeing that Zelda was right but then glared at the Chimera girl. "Touch me again and I'll Dragon Slave you to oblivion."
Rodimus and Zolf stood, "Do that, and we'll have to do something about it," Zolf said firmly, crossing his arms on his chest.
"Then Gourry would be in on it and with Gourry, Amelia, am I the only one who's sane around here?" Zelgadis asked, sitting in one of the high windows, looking down at them with a slight smirk.
"As I recall, YOU started her throwing fireballs," Zelda snapped back at him.
"Mr. Zelgadis, Ms. Zelda, please stop arguing! It's not good to argue with yourself!" Amelia blinked a few times at what she'd just said, having heard what was going on when she and Gourry walked though the large rotted doors of the keep.
"Of course it is!" Xelloss interrupted, off to the side, sitting on the floor, his staff tucked under one arm and drinking tea from a cup and saucer that appeared from nowhere.
Zelda stood with her eyes closed for a long moment before stalking past Lina and out the door. "Hey! Where are you going?!" Lina yelled but didn't get a reply.
"She's just going to go sit somewhere, Lina, let her be," Zelgadis called down from his perch, one foot hanging off the edge, his back against the wall his other knee pulled near his chest, arm loosely placed on it. "I'm sure you'd be upset too."
Lina glowered, "Well you tell her to keep her hands off me."
"I'm not her master, I'm only myself. I'll warn her, but I won't keep her from doing what she wants," Zelgadis told the redhead.
"Well you're useless!"
"Not as useless as Xelloss in the kitchen," Zelgadis replied calmly with a slight smirk.
"Maa, I have to agree with him!" Xelloss answered, his eyes closed and smirking as well. A fireball blasted the place he was sitting just after he disappeared once more.
* * *
Zelda was sitting on a branch of a tree definitely that had grown during the two years that Zelgadis hadn't been to Mistwatch. Her right foot was hanging off the side of the branch, her other knee tucked near her chest, arm loosely resting on it. She had her head leaned back against the trunk of the tree, staring up at the branches. She'd worked hard on clearing her mind, finally calming herself. She hated being sixteen and female. Mood swings sucked, periods sucked, everything sucked.
She heard the crunch of leaves under booted feet, recognized the stride and weight as Zolf. She sighed. "If we ever get back... would you keep my secret?" she asked without preamble.
Zolf stood beneath her tree, looking up at her. "I would, Zel-sama, I would follow you to the death and keep any secrets you decided to tell me."
Zelda slowly turned her head to look down at him. "I would ask why, but it just might be looking a gift horse in the mouth," she said wryly.
The wizard smiled slightly, "Its called Friendship, Zel-sama... Zelda... You're still the same person, even if you're not what I thought you were. You're still the same half-kid that Rod and I taught poker to. You're a good leader, no matter what."
Zelda moved, straddling the branch, her hands flat on its wide surface, her hair glinting in the light of the setting sun. "Thanks," she said softly, "I'll try my best to be worthy of that kind of thing."
Zolf shook his head, "You already are," he said gently. "Though... it's going to be hard to adjust to thinking of you as a 'she'." Zelda laughed softly.
"Then don't. I only told you because you would have been told by that damn Leo Look Alike," Zelda shook her head, her usual stoic expression returning.
"Try and cheer up, your other self has managed well enough," Zolf pointed out.
Zelda's slit eyes focused on the wizard once again, "But he doesn't have a cure either. I can tell he's not happy. He might look like he is, but he's not." Zolf nodded, having to agree with her, simply because he'd seen it as well. "I'll try though... If I don't completely lose my temper with that damn Inverse."
Zolf leaned against the tree, sharing silence with her for a time. "I have to admit... you are a good actor." Zelda smiled, closing her eyes.
* * *
Night fell and Zelda finally returned to find the Slayers plus Rodimus and Zolf having dinner. Lina and Gourry were fighting one another for various pieces while Zelgadis was sitting beside Amelia on the other side of the fire from Lina and Gourry. "Here, Mr. Zelgadis, this is a good piece," Amelia was saying as she put a piece of meat on his plate with her chopsticks.
"Thank you," Zelgadis replied, embarrassed because Rodimus and Zolf were staring at him.
Zelda sat on his other side, across from Rodimus, giving her double a long look then shrugged. When he wasn't looking, she stole his roll and chewed on it thoughtfully. "Hey! That was mine," Zelgadis frowned at her.
"Its Unjust to steal from people," Amelia said, raising her chopsticks.
"Even from yourself?" Zelda asked, putting a kink in the princess's hose.
"Well.... you're not in the same body so it would technically be stealing from someone else," Amelia replied then watched in dismay as Zelgadis swiped something from Zelda's plate.
"All's fair at the dinner table, just look at them," Zelda pointed her pinky at Lina and Gourry.
"Just because they have no manners doesn't mean that you two have to start doing it as well!" Amelia sniffed.
Zelgadis sniggered, putting his face in his hands, "Amelia- how many times have YOU fought Lina over the last meatball?"
"That was in self defense! Besides... it was after we were stranded on a ship with no food for seven days!" Amelia exclaimed.
"Stranded on a ship for seven days? I have GOT to hear about this..." Zelda murmured, looking at Zelgadis and Amelia.
The princess pondered a moment, "Well, it started when this pillar of light showed up far out at sea. It was really far off, but we could still see it. Then we found out that the Mazoku Barrier had fallen so my father, Crown Prince Phillionel got together the leaders of all the other countries around to make a fleet of ships to sail beyond the desert to the south," Amelia started.
"Then I got a letter from some strange person named Filia Ul Copt, wanting to meet me," Lina continued, having fended Gourry off and knocked him out for the hour.
They continued, the story going from one prospective to another as the speaker changed. It took half the night to retell the tale of DarkStar's defeat and by that time Zelda had thought she'd gone into shock.
She slowly looked at Rodimus and Zolf, "I....think it would be a good thing to just give up on getting the Orihalcon statue. Leo Inverse can HAVE it!"
"You're still after that old thing?" Zelgadis asked, blinking at her, "Whatever you do, don't let Zolf try to cast Dragon Slave on Shabranigdo. It doesn't work. You need the sword of light and for Leo to cast Giga Slave to kill that piece."
"Are you sure my other self should cast Giga Slave? Maybe we should all go there and beat up Rezo before he resurrects the Dark Lord?" Lina said.
"Who?" Gourry asked.
Zelda cringed, "There's already a 'Gourry' there, Lina, are you sure you could handle TWO of him?"
Lina flipped her hand a little, "Oh sure, sure! No problem there!"
"The question, I think, is weather WE can handle two Lina's," Zelgadis muttered. "Can any restaurant in that world handle two Lina's as WELL as two Gourry's? Somehow, I don't think so."
"So we leave Gourry here!" Lina said then got glared at by Gourry.
"You're not leaving me anywhere! I'm your protector, remember?!" Zelgadis burst out laughing, as did Amelia. "What'd I say?" Gourry asked, confused then got hit.
"Since WHEN do YOU remember ANYTHING! Jellyfish brains!" Lina shouted, pounding her fist into his arm. He got off easy that time. Zelda exchanged a look with Zolf and Rodimus. "I say we go into the room where you guys appeared and see if there's still some sort of portal back to your world." Zelda reluctantly nodded, getting to her feet, the others followed suit. She certainly wasn't expecting to find anything and wasn't looking forward to trying to figure out the spell Rezo had used and recasting it.
They made their way down the dark hall to the dining room. Lifting her light spell high, Zelda looked over the room. "I really don't think-" she stopped when she saw a glimmer in the middle of the room. "Perhaps..." she murmured. It had seemed like such a slim chance when Lina had suggested it, but somehow it was there.
Lina peered carefully at the place in the air that was shimmering, occasionally crackling with magic energy. "I thought so. The space here has been ripped open and now the barrier is weak, all we have to do is cut it back open."
"And how are you going to do that?" Zelda asked, "Use the Sword of Light, which you seemed to have lost to the Overworlders?" Zelda was not being sarcastic; she was absolutely serious. She got glared at anyway.
"Lord of the dreams that terrify, sword of the cold and dark, free yourself from the heaven's bonds," Lina began softly, "Become one with my body, one with my power, and let us walk the path to destruction together." Zelda backed up from the redhead, watching as she lifted her hands up, her demons blood talisman glowing brightly. "Power that can smash even the souls of the Gods." Lina paused a moment, letting everyone back out of the space just in front of her, "Ragna BLADE!" She let the magic course though her, forming a blade made of black lightening that struggled in her hands as she lifted the huge weapon up and back, slashing though the space in front of her. The blade sizzled, cutting beyond the glimmer in the air and through the wall behind.
The wall shook and dirt sifted down from above. A rumble sounded from far above. "Shit! The whole place is going to crumble now!" Zelda shrieked.
"Then go through quick!" Lina called rather merrily as she dashed through the glowing opening. Zelda felt someone grab her hand and caught sight of Zolf in front of her before they ran though, emerging on the other side.
They were back in the dining room, but this one was not collapsing on top of them. Amelia coughed and wiped the dust from her face, or tried to. Zelgadis offered her a kerchief from his pocket. The otherworld dining room crashed into rubble, possibly taking the entire abandoned keep with it. A puff of dust came though the portal, covering them all with dust once again.
There was a crash as the dining room door burst inward, "Who's in here?!" shouted Dilgier as he strode in.
"Well, well, well, I hadn't thought Rezo was dumb enough to put YOU in charge," Zelda commented, seeing the shock on the disgusting beast's face.
"But- Rezo said- he said you were dead!" Dilgier exclaimed, backing up.
"Obviously I'm not, so report, Dilgier," Zelda snapped, one hand resting on her hip.
"We- I- sent berserks and trolls after Leo Inverse but he defeated them." He folded his green furred ears back, "I'm sorry Zel-sama." It was obvious he wasn't really that sorry for failing Zelda.
"Yes, you'd best be. Leave off Leo Inverse, our target is now Rezo," Zelda said, brushing forward, trailing some rock dust, "And see that my companions have rooms. Mind you, they are guests, not GUESTS." She gave Dilgier a long look and the troll-werewolf nodded meekly.
"Yes Zel-sama," he said, cowed. Once she was out of sight though, he growled.
"Oh boy! Just like old times," Lina exclaimed, drawling Dilgier's attention, "Can't we just kill him and be done?"
"No, Lina, Zel....sama is the one leading these troops, he decides who lives and dies," Zelgadis told the redhead.
Lina frowned, "Fiiine! As long as I get to fry Noonsa though!"
"Still upset that I killed him last time?" Zelgadis asked with a soft laugh, turning his attention to the troll-werewolf. "Dilgier, weren't you ordered to show us to rooms?"
The troll-werewolf slowly backed up, leading them back down the hall to the main room.
"-attempting to resurrect Shabranigdo, which we must stop. He knew that I knew something, that is why he tried to dispose of me as well as Zolf and Rodimus," Zelda was saying from the top of a set of stairs, all her troops gathered below her. "I ask those of you who are brave enough to follow me to step forward. Those who continue to follow Rezo... I will give you one day to get out of my range before I come after you."
The men and beasts gathered looked at each other and finally one man shouted, "I follow Zel-sama, to the end!" More shouts followed and a smile touched Zelda's lips as she looked upon them, she hated to keep the lie, but it was simply too many people who trusted her to reveal that sort of thing to.
Zelda held up her hands for silence, speaking again once she had it, "These are our new allies whom I have met during my time away. Lina Inverse, Princess Amelia Wil Tessa Seyruun, Gourry Gabriev, and.... my other self, Zelgadis." Zelda looked at Zelgadis, exchanging a long glance with them, her eyes narrowing a moment and he shrugged.
* * *
Zelda walked into the tavern she knew Leo Inverse and Glory Gabriev were having breakfast in, her hood pulled low and mask covering her face. She walked directly to the table the two were at, pulled out a chair and sat down as if it were the most natural thing in the world.
Leo put down his plate and eyed what he thought was a man. "What do you want? You didn't bring any of your goons- what're you planning?"
Zelda spread her hands, leaning back in her chair, "Actually, I came to ask you if you wanted to do something that would guarantee that you gain plenty of treasure, fame, and maybe a few useful spells."
Leo tipped his head to the side, looking at Zelda from the corner of his eye, "How do I know you're not lying?"
"Simply because I know a lot of things about you. What you've done in the past, what you will do in the future. We can change the future, you know. It's all within your grasp," Zelda said softly.
"What are you talking about?"
"I'm talking about the Sword of Light and other interesting magical objects. Maybe even Rezo's legacy."
Leo pushed himself forward, hands on the table, "Sword of Light, you say?"
"Yes, I know exactly where it is. You won't even have to sell it to me. Just come with me." Zelda almost held her breath, she hoped Leo would buy this. Leo leaned back in his chair. "I'll buy breakfast, as well as dinner," Zelda threw in the little bonus tidbit she'd been saving.
"You'll...buy breakfast? And Dinner?" Leo got a glint in his eye, "Deal!" he held out his hand. Zelda reluctantly took it.
"I'm glad we came to a deal. The fate of the world balances on the brink of destruction," Zelda said softly.
Leo frowned, "What do you mean?"
"Rezo is going to attempt to-"
"Resurrect Shabranigdo, yes, he told us that YOU were going to do it." Leo crossed his arms, frowning.
Zelda sighed, closing her eyes and shaking her head, "No. His deal with Shabranigdo is that he gets his sight and the Dark Lord gets rebirth, a piece of him, anyway. The part Rezo doesn't know, is that he is blind for a reason. The piece of Shabranigdo he is going to resurrect is sealed in his eyes. When the Dark Lord is reborn, Rezo's body will become that of the Dark Lord's. We have to stop him before this happens, and you are part of the key to stopping him."
Glory scratched the back of her head, "Who's this Shabradingo?" Leo was about to throw something at the blonde but Zelda shook her head.
"No use explaining it to her... I've met someone just like her..."