Chapter Eighteen: Child
The Temple had a hundred large steps leading up to golden double doors which stood twelve feet high.
"Wow! It's bigger up close," Gourry said in awe.
Lina tapped her foot, "You can open it anytime you want, Gourry."
"Oh. Sorry. It's just so big," Gourry went over to the Temple doors.
"Whoopie. It's a big building surrounded by a river of smelly dead people with icky puke-scented grass. Can we move
along, please?!" Lina crossed her arms.
"There's no doorknobs."
"Then push them, you big wimp! What kind of swordsman are you?"
Gourry pushed with all his might, "They won't budge."
"'They won't budge,'" Lina mimicked, "That's why you keep pushing!"
"Lina, these doors will not move no matter how long I push at them."
"Oh! I'll push them!" Lina walked over, roughly pushed Gourry aside (nearly knocking him off the platform and to
his untimely demise) and pushed. And pushed. And pushed.
"They won't move, will they, Lina?" Gourry mocked, "You just wouldn't believe me."
"Oh, SHUT UP! Man, what's wrong with these doors!" Lina yelled, with a good, swift kick to the doors, which were as
hard as Zel's chimerical body, "OW!"
"I'll try," Amelia suggested and she went over to the doors. It felt like pushing a stone wall; they would never
move no matter how hard any of them pushed.
"Why don't we all try it at the same time?" Lina proposed. They all pushed at the doors, which remained shut.
"AAA! What is up with these doors! Open! Open, open, open!" Lina hopped up and down.
"Lina, calm down. We'll get in somehow," Gourry leaned against the wall surrounding the doors.
Zel looked up at the doors and went up to tap at it. It swung open.
"Hey, Zel opened the doors. Good job," Gourry patted Zel on the head.
"Only because we loosened the doors up," Lina mumbled.
Gourry and Amelia went in first with Zel and Lina tagging behind. Amelia let out a scream of terror. Zel and
Lina ran in to see what had happened.
The inside of the Temple was round and small. In the center was an uninteresting altar which was clean of blood
stains or nicks. The room was lit by some unknown force, not candles or lanterns in sight, and the gray stone looked drab
and weary.
Of course, Amelia was not terribly frightened by dreary altars nor humdrum walls. On the walls were two figures hung
up by wires. The wires went up into what seemed like a trap doors for the room above. Apparently, Amelia's presence had
disturbed the traps and launched the figures down.
On Amelia's left side was Zelgadis as he appeared to them. His skin was stone and rocks framed his eyes,
cheekbones and chin. He was wearing practically nothing, only a strip of beige cloth to preserve his dignity. His
eyes were open but they were glazed over. If he was alive, he certainty would be the last to know.
Behind the altar, right in front of Amelia, was another human-like Zelgadis, only it had great speckled wings. The
wings were open and the one wing was as long as both of Gourry's arms. Feathers from the wings fluttered about the
chamber, caused by, most likely, the body's drop from the trap door above. The winged Zelgadis also wore next to
nothing, only had a loincloth to keep his manhood safe from prying eyes. The eyes were also glazed over and he appeared
quite dead. If he wasn't, he kept staring at Amelia and she didn't like that at all.
"He's staring at me!" Amelia hid behind Gourry's bulk.
"I doubt he's staring at anything. I wish it'd blink though. It's starting to creep me out as well," He turned to
Lina behind him, "You think he's dead?"
"Most likely but where did it come from?"
Amelia answered, "The trap door. They came swooping down when I walked in!"
"I didn't mean that! I meant, how did they get in the trap doors in the first place?"
"So, are they puppets or something like those dolls at that guy's house that we went to with Xellos?" Gourry asked.
"You mean, where we all nearly got turned into dolls? Maybe. They're not doing anything, if they can do anything.
I mean, they're hung up with wires," Lina sighed, "Personally, they look better inanimate to me. Probably just
here to scare us." Lina stretched, "Let's go out and see if there's a back way in... huh?"
There was suddenly no door where there once were doors. "Where's the doors go?!" Lina demanded, pounding at the
solid wall.
"We're trapped inside!" Amelia cried, pounding at the wall as well.
Gourry took their shoulders and walked them away from the wall to the altar, "Guys, calm down. There
must be a way to another room. Look at this place, it's much too small for such a large building and obviously, there's a
second floor because the puppet Zels' wires have to come from somewhere. So, we need to calm down and let Lina
think."
"Wait a minute! Why do _I_ have to think of something?!"
"Because I haven't a clue either!" Gourry rubbed the back of his neck.
"Great, you're a big help, Gourry," Lina whispered to herself.
Zel looked at the chimera Zel, "#Who is that?#"
Amelia walked over, trying not to notice the chimera's perpetual stare, "That's you when we first met you."
"#Why do I look so funny?#"
"Your skin is made of stone. You spend all your energy looking for a cure for your condition. It makes you very
sad."
"#No kidding. I should be sad. It is really icky looking.#"
"That's not very nice to say about yourself!"
"What are you two talking about," Lina asked, sitting beside the altar base.
"I was explaining why Mister Zelgadis looks like that and he just insulted himself. I think he looks fine, Master
Zelgadis, so you better apologize to yourself. Wait, that sounded really weird."
"I got an idea!" Lina slammed her fist into her palm, "the trap doors must go somewhere, right? So, we can climb
on to the altar and climb up to the second floor through the doors."
"That could work," Gourry said, looking up through the doors.
"You mean, we have to crawl over the Mister Zelgadises?"
"Yeah, you big baby. They're not going to bite you and it's the only plan I've got!" Lina grabbed Amelia's hand and
wrapped her other arm around Zel's waist. Gourry tested the altar to see if it could hold at least his weight. It
supported him and he helped the others up. Lina put down Zel. Before they could figure out escape routes, they heard
a blast of air below them. The top of the altar lifted up, heading towards the rock ceiling.
"Oh no! It'll squish us to death!" Lina held up her hands to make the top not bash her head in immediately.
"Please, don't let this top kill us!" Amelia prayed.
She got her wish. The top stopped before Gourry's head could be smashed to itty-bitty pieces but it also dissolved
under them. They fell into the hole provided by the altar and into the darkness.
*** ***
No one could clearly recall how far or how long they fell but eventually they reached the bottom of what appeared
to be a giant well. The water reached only Zel's hips and was tepid. They surprisingly didn't break any bones or even
bruise themselves even though they had fallen at a dangerous speed.
Before they could investigate their new surroundings, the wall pulled at the Adults of the groups. They were like
nails to a super magnet. The force lifted them up out of the water and on to the wall. They could not even wriggle, only
their heads remained free for movement. Zel remained in his spot, untouched.
"What is going on?!" Lina demanded. A woman laughed. "Who was that? Show yourself!"
"Okay, I will," The woman materialized. It was the blonde woman at the inn. She had no wings but her green eyes
betrayed her in an instant. Her white dress showed no seams, it simply existed. The water did not even touch the dress'
hem, although it was submerged.
"Who are you? What do you want?"
The woman laughed again, "Nothing now. You already given me what I wanted. My dear Prince, Zelgadis." She bent
down to his height, "And how are you, my darling?"
"I want to go home."
"Hey!" Gourry tried to point but couldn't and gave up, "I can understand him!"
Lina nodded, "Me too! But how?"
"This chamber translates his tongue for your unworthy ears to comprehend," The woman answered and turned back to
Zel, "You say you want to go home, my sweet?"
"Yes."
"Well, I can not return you to that sty you call Millay but I can deliver you to my home. Would you like that?"
"No."
The woman shot straight up in shock. This was clearly not the answer she was expecting, "What do you mean 'no'?"
"I want my mama and papa! I want my family!"
"But I am your family..." she started.
"No, you are not. You are some strange woman in a creepy building."
"Zelgadis, your words wound me in my very heart. I am your aunt, on your mother's side. My name is Ursula, I'm
your mother's eldest sister."
"I have never heard of you."
"Well, we didn't get along very well..."
"Why not?"
"Well, sisters never get along very well as a rule..."
"That is a very stupid rule."
Ursula was obviously very annoyed at Zel's questions, "Goddess of Death, what is up with this child? He shouldn't
be resisting like this!" She thought.
"Did you do this to me?"
The question took her aback, "What do you mean, my precious?"
"Why are there other mes up in that the small chamber? Where did they come from?"
"No harm in telling him the truth," Ursula thought. She answered, "Yes, I did do that but I only did it because you
were unhappy, Zelgadis," She moved towards him, he moved away from her, "You don't know what you were like before.
You were miserable, searching for a cure that didn't exist. No home, no family, no future. I had to save you from that
life. It was my DUTY as your aunt to save you from yourself. You were about to take your own life when I arrived. What a
waste of someone so full of promise. I had to do it because I love you." Okay, she embellished herself a little but that
wasn't important.
"You say you changed me to save me, right?"
"Of course!" Now he was acting more to her liking.
"Then why did you go through all the trouble of splitting me up, locking the other bits in a Temple and
making me come here when you could have just taken me to your home?"
"But then you have had all those terrible memories!" Actually, the real reason was Rezo had tampered too much
with Zel's body which made him unacceptable as one of them but that was besides the point. No reason for him to know all
that.
"You are lying! You are an evil person! I am not going with you anywhere!" Zel screamed and clutched at the wall.
Ursula howled in rage, "You wicked child!" Ursula then struck him across his face. He was knocked unconscious.
Ursula would have taken Zel right then and there but she felt an unexpected ripple. "What was that?"
*** ***
Zel stood in a place he secretly called, "Swirly Blue Mist Place". In front of him was the chimera Zelgadis
sitting with his heads and arms crossed over his knees. Behind the sitting Zel was a human Zel with speckled wings
looking decidedly bored.
"Where am I?" Little Zel asked the other Zels.
The winged Zel replied in a monotone voice, "In the space between each side of Zelgadis Greywords. The line
between Angel, Chimera and Human; Adult and Child; Real and Nonexistent..."
"I think he gets it," The chimera interrupted. He put his arms behind him, from there, they supported him.
"How did I get here?"
"You were knocked out," the chimera replied.
"What are we going to do?" Little Zel asked the party. They shrugged, "We have to do SOMETHING!"
"Not necessarily," The Angel replied in that same monotone voice.
"Yes, we do! What's wrong with you people?"
"Why not just let her take you? I was going nowhere anyway," The chimera sighed.
"We can't give up on myself! Or ourselves. Or ourself. Whatever! Anyway, we can't give up!" Little Zel commanded.
Chimera Zel leaned forward towards Little Zel and clapped his hands, "Good speech, Robin Hood. There's nothing
to be done. There is nothing out there for us or me or whatever," the chimera stood up.
"But Mama and Papa would be really upset."
"Mother and Father left us without a thought! I am not doing them any favors!" Then Little Zel pushed Chimera Zel
off his feet.
He climbed on to his chest and screamed in his face, "NO! They did not leave you without a thought! They loved us
no matter what happened! That's why they'll be sad because two-thirds of me is gone and I'm not Zelgadis without you
two!" Little Zel got off Chimera Zel and stood up proudly, "And you say you have nothing but you do! You have friends!
You're not dead yet and you're still young enough to start a new life! And who says there's no cure?! Of course there is,
you just have to look for it!" Little Zel's face was turning red from the excursion.
"It's not just that," Chimera Zel started, "I hurt! I don't want to go on anymore! I'm tired!"
"There's always tomorrow! Don't you understand? You've have good times too if you try to remember them once in a
while! It's always darkest before the dawn, you just have to wait out the darkness for a little longer! Good people
always win in the end, always!"
"Besides," the Angel Zel cut in, "there is no guarantee that wherever Ursula is taking us is any good for us."
"Exactly. What will become of Zelgadis Greywords? We won't exist anymore! Everything we have earned will turn to
dust! Our life will be meaningless!" Little Zel added, "We have to fight back. It's the only chance you'll get your
happiness back."
The chimera's eyes shone with renewed hope but quickly dimmed, "But how will we stop her?"
"We have to fight her together like we always have!"
*** ***
Time in the subconscious world moves at a different pace than the real world and Ursula had barely finished her
sentence before the Zels agreed on fighting back.
The Temple rumbled and Ursula fell down into the water that refused to soak her dress. Zel glowed and reached his
arms up to heaven. They could hear wires snapping and with a mighty swoop, the two "puppets" flew down and merged with
Zelgadis.
The full-grown, glowing Zelgadis' blue eyes opened and an inner light of defiance shone through them like the sun.
The energy crackled the water and lightly shocked Ursula's flesh.
"How? HOW?" Ursula screamed in terror but then smiled, "Well, now you're useless to me. I can now kill you since
you obviously not going to be a very good candidate for Princehood. So much like your father you are!" She stood up
and laughed wholeheartedly, "I'll give you the first blow. I am not afraid of you! There is nothing you can do!"
Zel's voice echoed through the extent of the area.
"Source of all souls which dwell in eternal and
infinite.
Everlasting flame of blue..."
"The Ra-Tilt?! You need to do better than that!" Ursula laughed but stopped when the echo had a woman's voice,
"Everlasting flame of blue..."
"NO! Not you! How can you be here? You're dead!"
In unison, the voices finished the spell,
"... let the power hidden in my soul
be called forth from the Infinite
...RA-TILT!"
Over Ursula's screaming, the woman's voice continued to respond, "Yes, you are quite right. He resembles his father
very much!"
The Temple rumbled and shook violently. Ursula dissolved before their eyes. Before they had time to
comment, Lina, Gourry and Amelia were released from the wall and a gate opened, flushing them and the water all out.
Zelgadis fainted as the gate opened but arms shot out from the wall and caught him, "I have you, my love." The arms
dragged him through the wall and disappeared.
*** ***
When Gourry gained consciousness, he was holding Lina in his arms and floating down a river. He was relieved to
notice that there were no undead people in the water. He reached his hand down into the water and realized that he
could stop and not drown himself. He flipped to a sitting position and grabbed Amelia, who was floating past him. He
knocked on Lina's head until she mumbled, "What are you doing, Jellyfish?"
"Knocking you on the head to make you wake up." Lina opened her eyes and yelped when she realized he was holding
her. She jumped out of his arms and into the river.
"AAA! It's cold!"
"I was about to warn you but you didn't give me a chance." Gourry answered while Amelia murmured, "What's
going on?"
"We're in a river and it's cold!" Lina screeched, "AND my pants are ruined! The pants make the whole costume work!
What am I going to do?"
Amelia opened her eyes and saw she was being held by the waist by Gourry, "You can put me down now."
"Okay," Gourry promptly dropped her into the water with a big splash which also soaked Gourry, "Oops."
"It's cold! And where's Mister Zelgadis?"
"Right here."
They all turned towards the direction of the voice. A purple-haired woman with big blue eyes was stroking an
unconscious Zelgadis' hair. She smiled, "Do you realize how stupid you look?"
Lina stood up, water running down her "ruined" pants, and shook a fist at her, "Look! I have had enough with you
creepy women that never seem to get wet! What do you all want with Zel?"
"Hey! Weren't you the screaming lady in the mirror?!" Gourry shouted excitedly, "Ha! I remembered something,
Lina!"
"This is a red-letter day. I'll mark it down when I find a calendar. But, that's not the point!" Lina continued,
"Who are you?"
"I am Victoria Greywords."
Crickets chirped nearby. The wind rustled through the trees.
"Zelgadis' mother," Victoria added.
"OOHH!" The group said.
"Was Miss Ursula really your sister?" Amelia asked, marching out of the water and shaking off the excess water
from the outside of her boots. The other two followed and did similar actions.
"Yes and no. I was adopted so she is not my birth sister but she was my sister in my adopted family."
As she spoke, a hand materialized behind her.
"Victoria, look out!" Lina said but it was too late, the hand grabbed Victoria's neck and the hand's owner was
revealed. It was Ursula, back from the dead.
"She's still alive!" Amelia shrieked.
"You fool! You thought a Double Ra-Tilt would kill me?!" She rasped, looking like hell.
"No, actually, I didn't. It slowed you down though," she smiled.
"Yeah, it did," Ursula agreed quietly but added louder, "But it won't work a second time! You and your bastard
prince will suffer for what you..."
"Excuse me?" A monotone voice from behind asked. Ursula spun around, "Yes, Aurelia, what is it?"
"I told the Representatives what you had been doing here. They asked, I told, simple as that. You and Zoe both
knew Zelgadis was a closed case. He's mortal and that's that. He's not worth our time and energy. They sent me here
to tell you to drop it," Aurelia shrugged.
"You little...!"
"I'm telling you. I offered no information to them, they asked me and it is a sin to lie to the Representatives.
I'd hurry home."
Ursula tore at her hair but she phased out.
"That was a good line, Aurelia. Thank you," Victoria said.
Aurelia looked blankly at her, "I wasn't lying. They really do know what they did. It was a mistake in the first
place to tell me anything about their plans."
Victoria's face scrunched up, "Um... how long did they know about this?"
"A little before you begged for Ursula's mercy. I was sent to guide you to the Transportation Room."
"You mean...?"
"They know how you and your friends broke in? Yes. They actually made sure no one would be around to stop you. Good
day to you, Victoria. Good day to your son's friends as well." She vanished in a puff of wind.
"That was weird," Lina commented.
"I must ask you a favor. Please, don't tell Zelgadis of what happened to him. He must never know!" Victoria lay
Zelgadis on the healthy grass, "I will send you to Aca where you can get a boat home to Saillune or Hayla or wherever you
want to go." With that, she clapped her hands and the groupvanished from the island of Mead.
*** ***
Zel saw sky. The sky rocked closer and farther away. He smelled sea water and shot up. He shouldn't be here. There
was no possible explanation why he was in an inn one minute and on a ship another minute. He was placed beside a lean-to
on the ship (probably containing the stairs leading to the bowels of the ship) and he could hear his friends talking.
"I was about to kill myself just a minute ago. How did I get here?" Zel wondered, feeling a little disoriented.
Gourry noticed him first and tapped the girls' shoulders. The girls' had a look of fear but Gourry just smiled and
said, "Hey! You okay now?"
"'Okay now'?" Zel asked, then thought, "Is he referring to my near-suicide?"
"I meant, you know, 'with us' now?"
"With you?"
Gourry went to him, "You've been out for weeks! You fell into some sort of trance in the inn near Saillune. Your
eyes were all fogged over and you just kept walking forward, no matter what was in the way," Gourry paused for
confirmation from the girls. They nodded slowly, "And you kept repeating, 'Mead. Must go to Mead.' So when we figured
out you meant the island Mead. You didn't sleep the entire time we traveled to get you there. When we got there, we
didn't have any idea why you wanted to go to such a place but we figured your sub-conscious wanted something. So, we
hung around with you for half a day while you circled the island. Then you said, 'All done' and fell down, asleep."
"I don't remember any of this."
"Well, anyway, we carried you to Aca and got you on a boat and now you're okay again!" Gourry sat down beside Zel.
He cocked his head, "So, what's so special about Mead?"
Zel shook his head, "Beats me."
"Must have not been very important then," Gourry decided.
The End
Author's Notes: Wow! It's finally over! I spent an entire year working on this fic! Before I explain everything, I
want to say some thank-yous.
First, I thank the creator of Slayers (I am not going to attempt screwing up his name) for creating such a cool
show!
I also want to thank my Traditional Mailing List (linagourry list) for giving me feedback. I especially want
to thank Pairaka for helping me out with Gourry's characterization.
I really want to thank Naisumi for liking the entire thing and stressing "details, details, details!" I succeeded
in making her feel ill during Chapter 17. And she was eating noodles!
And, of course, all of you for reading this fic.
Okay, you're asking, "Why does this fic exist?" It has many origins. Long ago, I started writing a fic called, "The
Stone Branch" which purpose was to explain Zel's family. I dropped the fic (so don't bother hunting it out) but I used
some of the ideas (Man in the Stone Mask came from Stone Branch as well).
But "Inner Child" did not really come to life until I bought "Celtic Women II". There were songs in there that I
felt related to Zel's past (or my perception of it.) One song especially called out to me. For some reason, I
imagined a young Zel singing it.
At first, I wanted to write a fic based on that one song but then I thought, "But how
could I explain why this was going on?" So, I thought of Zel turning into a child. Then I asked, "But why?" To make a
long story short, this monster of a fic was born. I started out thinking this would be six chapters, tops. I never
imagined it would turn into the 18 chapter epic you just read.
Never again will I get mad at authors for not updating their stories fast enough. Writing is hard!
Yes, it ate my life, but now it's out there and I'm proud of it. Thank you for reading my fic. Tell me what you
thought at destinyplot@lycos.com.
See you later (but in a different fic)!
The Temple had a hundred large steps leading up to golden double doors which stood twelve feet high.
"Wow! It's bigger up close," Gourry said in awe.
Lina tapped her foot, "You can open it anytime you want, Gourry."
"Oh. Sorry. It's just so big," Gourry went over to the Temple doors.
"Whoopie. It's a big building surrounded by a river of smelly dead people with icky puke-scented grass. Can we move
along, please?!" Lina crossed her arms.
"There's no doorknobs."
"Then push them, you big wimp! What kind of swordsman are you?"
Gourry pushed with all his might, "They won't budge."
"'They won't budge,'" Lina mimicked, "That's why you keep pushing!"
"Lina, these doors will not move no matter how long I push at them."
"Oh! I'll push them!" Lina walked over, roughly pushed Gourry aside (nearly knocking him off the platform and to
his untimely demise) and pushed. And pushed. And pushed.
"They won't move, will they, Lina?" Gourry mocked, "You just wouldn't believe me."
"Oh, SHUT UP! Man, what's wrong with these doors!" Lina yelled, with a good, swift kick to the doors, which were as
hard as Zel's chimerical body, "OW!"
"I'll try," Amelia suggested and she went over to the doors. It felt like pushing a stone wall; they would never
move no matter how hard any of them pushed.
"Why don't we all try it at the same time?" Lina proposed. They all pushed at the doors, which remained shut.
"AAA! What is up with these doors! Open! Open, open, open!" Lina hopped up and down.
"Lina, calm down. We'll get in somehow," Gourry leaned against the wall surrounding the doors.
Zel looked up at the doors and went up to tap at it. It swung open.
"Hey, Zel opened the doors. Good job," Gourry patted Zel on the head.
"Only because we loosened the doors up," Lina mumbled.
Gourry and Amelia went in first with Zel and Lina tagging behind. Amelia let out a scream of terror. Zel and
Lina ran in to see what had happened.
The inside of the Temple was round and small. In the center was an uninteresting altar which was clean of blood
stains or nicks. The room was lit by some unknown force, not candles or lanterns in sight, and the gray stone looked drab
and weary.
Of course, Amelia was not terribly frightened by dreary altars nor humdrum walls. On the walls were two figures hung
up by wires. The wires went up into what seemed like a trap doors for the room above. Apparently, Amelia's presence had
disturbed the traps and launched the figures down.
On Amelia's left side was Zelgadis as he appeared to them. His skin was stone and rocks framed his eyes,
cheekbones and chin. He was wearing practically nothing, only a strip of beige cloth to preserve his dignity. His
eyes were open but they were glazed over. If he was alive, he certainty would be the last to know.
Behind the altar, right in front of Amelia, was another human-like Zelgadis, only it had great speckled wings. The
wings were open and the one wing was as long as both of Gourry's arms. Feathers from the wings fluttered about the
chamber, caused by, most likely, the body's drop from the trap door above. The winged Zelgadis also wore next to
nothing, only had a loincloth to keep his manhood safe from prying eyes. The eyes were also glazed over and he appeared
quite dead. If he wasn't, he kept staring at Amelia and she didn't like that at all.
"He's staring at me!" Amelia hid behind Gourry's bulk.
"I doubt he's staring at anything. I wish it'd blink though. It's starting to creep me out as well," He turned to
Lina behind him, "You think he's dead?"
"Most likely but where did it come from?"
Amelia answered, "The trap door. They came swooping down when I walked in!"
"I didn't mean that! I meant, how did they get in the trap doors in the first place?"
"So, are they puppets or something like those dolls at that guy's house that we went to with Xellos?" Gourry asked.
"You mean, where we all nearly got turned into dolls? Maybe. They're not doing anything, if they can do anything.
I mean, they're hung up with wires," Lina sighed, "Personally, they look better inanimate to me. Probably just
here to scare us." Lina stretched, "Let's go out and see if there's a back way in... huh?"
There was suddenly no door where there once were doors. "Where's the doors go?!" Lina demanded, pounding at the
solid wall.
"We're trapped inside!" Amelia cried, pounding at the wall as well.
Gourry took their shoulders and walked them away from the wall to the altar, "Guys, calm down. There
must be a way to another room. Look at this place, it's much too small for such a large building and obviously, there's a
second floor because the puppet Zels' wires have to come from somewhere. So, we need to calm down and let Lina
think."
"Wait a minute! Why do _I_ have to think of something?!"
"Because I haven't a clue either!" Gourry rubbed the back of his neck.
"Great, you're a big help, Gourry," Lina whispered to herself.
Zel looked at the chimera Zel, "#Who is that?#"
Amelia walked over, trying not to notice the chimera's perpetual stare, "That's you when we first met you."
"#Why do I look so funny?#"
"Your skin is made of stone. You spend all your energy looking for a cure for your condition. It makes you very
sad."
"#No kidding. I should be sad. It is really icky looking.#"
"That's not very nice to say about yourself!"
"What are you two talking about," Lina asked, sitting beside the altar base.
"I was explaining why Mister Zelgadis looks like that and he just insulted himself. I think he looks fine, Master
Zelgadis, so you better apologize to yourself. Wait, that sounded really weird."
"I got an idea!" Lina slammed her fist into her palm, "the trap doors must go somewhere, right? So, we can climb
on to the altar and climb up to the second floor through the doors."
"That could work," Gourry said, looking up through the doors.
"You mean, we have to crawl over the Mister Zelgadises?"
"Yeah, you big baby. They're not going to bite you and it's the only plan I've got!" Lina grabbed Amelia's hand and
wrapped her other arm around Zel's waist. Gourry tested the altar to see if it could hold at least his weight. It
supported him and he helped the others up. Lina put down Zel. Before they could figure out escape routes, they heard
a blast of air below them. The top of the altar lifted up, heading towards the rock ceiling.
"Oh no! It'll squish us to death!" Lina held up her hands to make the top not bash her head in immediately.
"Please, don't let this top kill us!" Amelia prayed.
She got her wish. The top stopped before Gourry's head could be smashed to itty-bitty pieces but it also dissolved
under them. They fell into the hole provided by the altar and into the darkness.
*** ***
No one could clearly recall how far or how long they fell but eventually they reached the bottom of what appeared
to be a giant well. The water reached only Zel's hips and was tepid. They surprisingly didn't break any bones or even
bruise themselves even though they had fallen at a dangerous speed.
Before they could investigate their new surroundings, the wall pulled at the Adults of the groups. They were like
nails to a super magnet. The force lifted them up out of the water and on to the wall. They could not even wriggle, only
their heads remained free for movement. Zel remained in his spot, untouched.
"What is going on?!" Lina demanded. A woman laughed. "Who was that? Show yourself!"
"Okay, I will," The woman materialized. It was the blonde woman at the inn. She had no wings but her green eyes
betrayed her in an instant. Her white dress showed no seams, it simply existed. The water did not even touch the dress'
hem, although it was submerged.
"Who are you? What do you want?"
The woman laughed again, "Nothing now. You already given me what I wanted. My dear Prince, Zelgadis." She bent
down to his height, "And how are you, my darling?"
"I want to go home."
"Hey!" Gourry tried to point but couldn't and gave up, "I can understand him!"
Lina nodded, "Me too! But how?"
"This chamber translates his tongue for your unworthy ears to comprehend," The woman answered and turned back to
Zel, "You say you want to go home, my sweet?"
"Yes."
"Well, I can not return you to that sty you call Millay but I can deliver you to my home. Would you like that?"
"No."
The woman shot straight up in shock. This was clearly not the answer she was expecting, "What do you mean 'no'?"
"I want my mama and papa! I want my family!"
"But I am your family..." she started.
"No, you are not. You are some strange woman in a creepy building."
"Zelgadis, your words wound me in my very heart. I am your aunt, on your mother's side. My name is Ursula, I'm
your mother's eldest sister."
"I have never heard of you."
"Well, we didn't get along very well..."
"Why not?"
"Well, sisters never get along very well as a rule..."
"That is a very stupid rule."
Ursula was obviously very annoyed at Zel's questions, "Goddess of Death, what is up with this child? He shouldn't
be resisting like this!" She thought.
"Did you do this to me?"
The question took her aback, "What do you mean, my precious?"
"Why are there other mes up in that the small chamber? Where did they come from?"
"No harm in telling him the truth," Ursula thought. She answered, "Yes, I did do that but I only did it because you
were unhappy, Zelgadis," She moved towards him, he moved away from her, "You don't know what you were like before.
You were miserable, searching for a cure that didn't exist. No home, no family, no future. I had to save you from that
life. It was my DUTY as your aunt to save you from yourself. You were about to take your own life when I arrived. What a
waste of someone so full of promise. I had to do it because I love you." Okay, she embellished herself a little but that
wasn't important.
"You say you changed me to save me, right?"
"Of course!" Now he was acting more to her liking.
"Then why did you go through all the trouble of splitting me up, locking the other bits in a Temple and
making me come here when you could have just taken me to your home?"
"But then you have had all those terrible memories!" Actually, the real reason was Rezo had tampered too much
with Zel's body which made him unacceptable as one of them but that was besides the point. No reason for him to know all
that.
"You are lying! You are an evil person! I am not going with you anywhere!" Zel screamed and clutched at the wall.
Ursula howled in rage, "You wicked child!" Ursula then struck him across his face. He was knocked unconscious.
Ursula would have taken Zel right then and there but she felt an unexpected ripple. "What was that?"
*** ***
Zel stood in a place he secretly called, "Swirly Blue Mist Place". In front of him was the chimera Zelgadis
sitting with his heads and arms crossed over his knees. Behind the sitting Zel was a human Zel with speckled wings
looking decidedly bored.
"Where am I?" Little Zel asked the other Zels.
The winged Zel replied in a monotone voice, "In the space between each side of Zelgadis Greywords. The line
between Angel, Chimera and Human; Adult and Child; Real and Nonexistent..."
"I think he gets it," The chimera interrupted. He put his arms behind him, from there, they supported him.
"How did I get here?"
"You were knocked out," the chimera replied.
"What are we going to do?" Little Zel asked the party. They shrugged, "We have to do SOMETHING!"
"Not necessarily," The Angel replied in that same monotone voice.
"Yes, we do! What's wrong with you people?"
"Why not just let her take you? I was going nowhere anyway," The chimera sighed.
"We can't give up on myself! Or ourselves. Or ourself. Whatever! Anyway, we can't give up!" Little Zel commanded.
Chimera Zel leaned forward towards Little Zel and clapped his hands, "Good speech, Robin Hood. There's nothing
to be done. There is nothing out there for us or me or whatever," the chimera stood up.
"But Mama and Papa would be really upset."
"Mother and Father left us without a thought! I am not doing them any favors!" Then Little Zel pushed Chimera Zel
off his feet.
He climbed on to his chest and screamed in his face, "NO! They did not leave you without a thought! They loved us
no matter what happened! That's why they'll be sad because two-thirds of me is gone and I'm not Zelgadis without you
two!" Little Zel got off Chimera Zel and stood up proudly, "And you say you have nothing but you do! You have friends!
You're not dead yet and you're still young enough to start a new life! And who says there's no cure?! Of course there is,
you just have to look for it!" Little Zel's face was turning red from the excursion.
"It's not just that," Chimera Zel started, "I hurt! I don't want to go on anymore! I'm tired!"
"There's always tomorrow! Don't you understand? You've have good times too if you try to remember them once in a
while! It's always darkest before the dawn, you just have to wait out the darkness for a little longer! Good people
always win in the end, always!"
"Besides," the Angel Zel cut in, "there is no guarantee that wherever Ursula is taking us is any good for us."
"Exactly. What will become of Zelgadis Greywords? We won't exist anymore! Everything we have earned will turn to
dust! Our life will be meaningless!" Little Zel added, "We have to fight back. It's the only chance you'll get your
happiness back."
The chimera's eyes shone with renewed hope but quickly dimmed, "But how will we stop her?"
"We have to fight her together like we always have!"
*** ***
Time in the subconscious world moves at a different pace than the real world and Ursula had barely finished her
sentence before the Zels agreed on fighting back.
The Temple rumbled and Ursula fell down into the water that refused to soak her dress. Zel glowed and reached his
arms up to heaven. They could hear wires snapping and with a mighty swoop, the two "puppets" flew down and merged with
Zelgadis.
The full-grown, glowing Zelgadis' blue eyes opened and an inner light of defiance shone through them like the sun.
The energy crackled the water and lightly shocked Ursula's flesh.
"How? HOW?" Ursula screamed in terror but then smiled, "Well, now you're useless to me. I can now kill you since
you obviously not going to be a very good candidate for Princehood. So much like your father you are!" She stood up
and laughed wholeheartedly, "I'll give you the first blow. I am not afraid of you! There is nothing you can do!"
Zel's voice echoed through the extent of the area.
"Source of all souls which dwell in eternal and
infinite.
Everlasting flame of blue..."
"The Ra-Tilt?! You need to do better than that!" Ursula laughed but stopped when the echo had a woman's voice,
"Everlasting flame of blue..."
"NO! Not you! How can you be here? You're dead!"
In unison, the voices finished the spell,
"... let the power hidden in my soul
be called forth from the Infinite
...RA-TILT!"
Over Ursula's screaming, the woman's voice continued to respond, "Yes, you are quite right. He resembles his father
very much!"
The Temple rumbled and shook violently. Ursula dissolved before their eyes. Before they had time to
comment, Lina, Gourry and Amelia were released from the wall and a gate opened, flushing them and the water all out.
Zelgadis fainted as the gate opened but arms shot out from the wall and caught him, "I have you, my love." The arms
dragged him through the wall and disappeared.
*** ***
When Gourry gained consciousness, he was holding Lina in his arms and floating down a river. He was relieved to
notice that there were no undead people in the water. He reached his hand down into the water and realized that he
could stop and not drown himself. He flipped to a sitting position and grabbed Amelia, who was floating past him. He
knocked on Lina's head until she mumbled, "What are you doing, Jellyfish?"
"Knocking you on the head to make you wake up." Lina opened her eyes and yelped when she realized he was holding
her. She jumped out of his arms and into the river.
"AAA! It's cold!"
"I was about to warn you but you didn't give me a chance." Gourry answered while Amelia murmured, "What's
going on?"
"We're in a river and it's cold!" Lina screeched, "AND my pants are ruined! The pants make the whole costume work!
What am I going to do?"
Amelia opened her eyes and saw she was being held by the waist by Gourry, "You can put me down now."
"Okay," Gourry promptly dropped her into the water with a big splash which also soaked Gourry, "Oops."
"It's cold! And where's Mister Zelgadis?"
"Right here."
They all turned towards the direction of the voice. A purple-haired woman with big blue eyes was stroking an
unconscious Zelgadis' hair. She smiled, "Do you realize how stupid you look?"
Lina stood up, water running down her "ruined" pants, and shook a fist at her, "Look! I have had enough with you
creepy women that never seem to get wet! What do you all want with Zel?"
"Hey! Weren't you the screaming lady in the mirror?!" Gourry shouted excitedly, "Ha! I remembered something,
Lina!"
"This is a red-letter day. I'll mark it down when I find a calendar. But, that's not the point!" Lina continued,
"Who are you?"
"I am Victoria Greywords."
Crickets chirped nearby. The wind rustled through the trees.
"Zelgadis' mother," Victoria added.
"OOHH!" The group said.
"Was Miss Ursula really your sister?" Amelia asked, marching out of the water and shaking off the excess water
from the outside of her boots. The other two followed and did similar actions.
"Yes and no. I was adopted so she is not my birth sister but she was my sister in my adopted family."
As she spoke, a hand materialized behind her.
"Victoria, look out!" Lina said but it was too late, the hand grabbed Victoria's neck and the hand's owner was
revealed. It was Ursula, back from the dead.
"She's still alive!" Amelia shrieked.
"You fool! You thought a Double Ra-Tilt would kill me?!" She rasped, looking like hell.
"No, actually, I didn't. It slowed you down though," she smiled.
"Yeah, it did," Ursula agreed quietly but added louder, "But it won't work a second time! You and your bastard
prince will suffer for what you..."
"Excuse me?" A monotone voice from behind asked. Ursula spun around, "Yes, Aurelia, what is it?"
"I told the Representatives what you had been doing here. They asked, I told, simple as that. You and Zoe both
knew Zelgadis was a closed case. He's mortal and that's that. He's not worth our time and energy. They sent me here
to tell you to drop it," Aurelia shrugged.
"You little...!"
"I'm telling you. I offered no information to them, they asked me and it is a sin to lie to the Representatives.
I'd hurry home."
Ursula tore at her hair but she phased out.
"That was a good line, Aurelia. Thank you," Victoria said.
Aurelia looked blankly at her, "I wasn't lying. They really do know what they did. It was a mistake in the first
place to tell me anything about their plans."
Victoria's face scrunched up, "Um... how long did they know about this?"
"A little before you begged for Ursula's mercy. I was sent to guide you to the Transportation Room."
"You mean...?"
"They know how you and your friends broke in? Yes. They actually made sure no one would be around to stop you. Good
day to you, Victoria. Good day to your son's friends as well." She vanished in a puff of wind.
"That was weird," Lina commented.
"I must ask you a favor. Please, don't tell Zelgadis of what happened to him. He must never know!" Victoria lay
Zelgadis on the healthy grass, "I will send you to Aca where you can get a boat home to Saillune or Hayla or wherever you
want to go." With that, she clapped her hands and the groupvanished from the island of Mead.
*** ***
Zel saw sky. The sky rocked closer and farther away. He smelled sea water and shot up. He shouldn't be here. There
was no possible explanation why he was in an inn one minute and on a ship another minute. He was placed beside a lean-to
on the ship (probably containing the stairs leading to the bowels of the ship) and he could hear his friends talking.
"I was about to kill myself just a minute ago. How did I get here?" Zel wondered, feeling a little disoriented.
Gourry noticed him first and tapped the girls' shoulders. The girls' had a look of fear but Gourry just smiled and
said, "Hey! You okay now?"
"'Okay now'?" Zel asked, then thought, "Is he referring to my near-suicide?"
"I meant, you know, 'with us' now?"
"With you?"
Gourry went to him, "You've been out for weeks! You fell into some sort of trance in the inn near Saillune. Your
eyes were all fogged over and you just kept walking forward, no matter what was in the way," Gourry paused for
confirmation from the girls. They nodded slowly, "And you kept repeating, 'Mead. Must go to Mead.' So when we figured
out you meant the island Mead. You didn't sleep the entire time we traveled to get you there. When we got there, we
didn't have any idea why you wanted to go to such a place but we figured your sub-conscious wanted something. So, we
hung around with you for half a day while you circled the island. Then you said, 'All done' and fell down, asleep."
"I don't remember any of this."
"Well, anyway, we carried you to Aca and got you on a boat and now you're okay again!" Gourry sat down beside Zel.
He cocked his head, "So, what's so special about Mead?"
Zel shook his head, "Beats me."
"Must have not been very important then," Gourry decided.
The End
Author's Notes: Wow! It's finally over! I spent an entire year working on this fic! Before I explain everything, I
want to say some thank-yous.
First, I thank the creator of Slayers (I am not going to attempt screwing up his name) for creating such a cool
show!
I also want to thank my Traditional Mailing List (linagourry list) for giving me feedback. I especially want
to thank Pairaka for helping me out with Gourry's characterization.
I really want to thank Naisumi for liking the entire thing and stressing "details, details, details!" I succeeded
in making her feel ill during Chapter 17. And she was eating noodles!
And, of course, all of you for reading this fic.
Okay, you're asking, "Why does this fic exist?" It has many origins. Long ago, I started writing a fic called, "The
Stone Branch" which purpose was to explain Zel's family. I dropped the fic (so don't bother hunting it out) but I used
some of the ideas (Man in the Stone Mask came from Stone Branch as well).
But "Inner Child" did not really come to life until I bought "Celtic Women II". There were songs in there that I
felt related to Zel's past (or my perception of it.) One song especially called out to me. For some reason, I
imagined a young Zel singing it.
At first, I wanted to write a fic based on that one song but then I thought, "But how
could I explain why this was going on?" So, I thought of Zel turning into a child. Then I asked, "But why?" To make a
long story short, this monster of a fic was born. I started out thinking this would be six chapters, tops. I never
imagined it would turn into the 18 chapter epic you just read.
Never again will I get mad at authors for not updating their stories fast enough. Writing is hard!
Yes, it ate my life, but now it's out there and I'm proud of it. Thank you for reading my fic. Tell me what you
thought at destinyplot@lycos.com.
See you later (but in a different fic)!