Author's note: I do not own the characters that will be used in this story. Added to that is the fact that I'm not sure I know everything about the characters in question. What I do know is what I remember from watching the videos for Slayers and El Hazard, and even then Slayers was just a rental. This must be noted, in case some hardcore fan of either series deems this work worth reading and notices things that I made up don't exactly match up with whatever official manga there may be. But I digress. That point of this is not to explain why this might not be the greatest story you've ever read, but to point out that someone else created these characters. This is being written for fun, not profit, so hopefully not knowing who made these characters won't matter.

And now on with the story!!!

Zelgadis: "Um... Demonheart?"

Demonheart (my pen name, in case you didn't check the byline when you decided to read the story): "What is it?"

Zelgadis: "Do I really have to do this bit?" Points to a portion of the intended script

Me: "I'm basing the El Hazard aspect of this story from The Wanderers. Makoto never had any trouble saying that bit at the start of each episode, even though it got old really fast to see it so many times."

Zel: "Just because you told those hardcore fans you don't know everything about the characters doesn't mean you can do whatever you want to us."

Me: "But I also can't ignore the fact that you will be in El Hazard for most of this story. When in Rome, do as the Romans do, and all that stuff. Besides, this adventure will give you a vacation from Amelia for quite some time. Is this really worse then she is?"

Zel: grumble "Oh, all right. You have me there. Just get this over with."

Finally... Now we can get to the... looking around for other complainers story.

A dark figure slowly walks towards a castle. It is raining as it does for every foreboding castle scene, and the occasional lightning bolt tries to put some action into the scene, seeing as the figure is walking too slowly and dispondantly to provide any on it's own. This, of course, is only making Zelgadis look more depressing.

He goes in, and collapses on the floor exhausted. His journey back home has been very hard on him, especially since he had sworn to himself that he wouldn't return home since running out of here with Lina long ago until he found his cure. So much for that promise. Everywhere he looked either didn't have it or had Xellos destroy it before he could find out if it didn't have it. Speaking of that damn Mazoku...

"Hello, Zelgadis! Why so blue?" Xel called out, "Oh wait... You're ALWAYS blue!" Xellos chuckled at his little joke.

"Xellos... How nice of you to come and try to cheer me up." He said it sarcasticly, knowing full well that if anything, he was here for a snack. Or to try to drag Zel on yet another of Lina's adventures. But as far as he knew, there wern't any other powerful Mazoku lords around for Lina to kill except beastmaster. While it was possible that Xellos had plans to continue climbing up the ladder of power, he doubted Xellos was ready to execute them this soon.

"Exactly right, my good friend! I feel so bad that you've given up hope on ever finding your cure, and feel that it is entirely my fault. So I came to give you words of encouragement."

Zel stood up, and went over to a chair. It wasn't polite to lie around on the floor when you had guests, now is it? "Really... And what makes you think it's your fault that I gave up hope?" He would have asked what the words of encouragement were, but had a pretty good idea of what the answer would be.

Xellos scratched his head innocently. "Well, there were all those copies of your cure I destroyed..." He also expected something that didn't happen, and looked very stupid when he used his vanishing trick to move about 4 feet to his left for no apparent reason.

"I knew that already... You don't seem like the person to do things like burn up books for no reason. Lina needed my help to fight all those guys you wanted her to kill and I wouldn't have given it if I was cured."

Xellos smiled, thinging this was just what he needed to trick Zel into another journey. As much as he liked a depressed chimera, a chimera searching everywhere for a cure was so much more chaotic and fun. Besides, having too much of a single flavor of negative energy might upset his stomach.

"I didn't destroy all the kopiis of your cure that were made..." He said, in all honesty. He intentionally said it in this way because he was trying to make a joke. However, Zelgadis didn't catch the joke, or take the bait.

"Of course you didn't. I know you... You might not have destroyed all the copies of the cure, but that doesn't mean that someone else didn't do it for you. If anything, you trashed all but one and Lina recently Dragon Slaved the last. Like I said, you don't do anything without a reason. Unfortunately, I've reconized the pattern and I'm not falling for it anymore. Go do your tricks on someone who doesn't have the control I do. Filia would be a good choice, unless you and her..." That last bit finally had the effect that was desired from it.

Xellos growled. "What... Did... You... Say? How DARE you insinuate that anything is going on between me and her!!! If she was here, she'd-"

"Do what? Hit me with mace-sama? Since when did a famous Mazoku like you need to hide behind his woman?"

"She is NOT my woman!!!!" Xellos screamed as loudly as he could.

"Rejected you, did she? Well, I guess it's kinda hard to forgive someone who murdered so many of her people."

"I don't have to take this..." Xellos turns to leave, too mad to remember that he can just teleport away. "Sheesh, you try to be nice to the guy and this is the thanks you get..." he mutters.

"You know, Xellos... I DO feel all cheered up! Thanks a lot!" Zel calls out just before Xellos remembers.

Slowly, carefully, Zelgadis counts to ten, taking a deep breath between each number. Taking one last breath after reaching ten, he lets loose the standard giant sweatdrop. "I thought he'd never leave..." No longer pretending to be either depressed or cheered up, he runs to the backpack he left behind when he collapsed.

Quickly, Zel pulls out a book with runes covering the outside as well as the inside, where Zel suspects there are spells that might be his cure. He doesn't really know for sure. The reason for the lack of knowledge is the fact that he found it when travelling with Xellos. He had managed to hide to book without Xellos knowing it existed. He was determined to learn the contents of this book, and to do that he had to wait until he was certain Xellos wouldn't be around to burn it. Now Xellos was furious with Zel, and most likely going to get Amelia to come over and bother him. Maybe Lina would be dragged here as well. But that wouldn't matter. By the time he got them here to raise hell Zel would know if he found his cure or had to keep searching. Only a baka like Xellos would ever really believe that he's ever give up on his cure, the only thing that gives his life meaning.

Book in hand, he heads over to the desk in his room. Placing it on the table, he opens the book and begins to read. Like the ones that Xellos burned on him, it started with worthless spells. But that was how all these beginner's books started. They introduce the beginner with easy stuff that even someone a close second to Gourry in stupidity could manage to cast. Because there were only so many easy spells, the only way for each newbie edition to sell was for it to feature a 'specialty' spell that was harder then the others but still learnable if you had enough talent to mess around with magic. Zel shuddered at a thought that crossed his mind. Lina's Giga Slave... What if she had learned that from the first magic book she studied from? And if the person was stupid enough to specialize his/her newbie book with the Giga Slave, how many other of these books were floating around? Even one extra Giga Slave book caused the risk that someone might try to cast it. The risk that they couldn't control the power of L-sama, and end up destroying the world.

Zelgadis brushed that thought aside. He gets depressed enough on his own to get panic attacks over things so inconcieveable... As he continues his reading, he eventually finds where they hid the specialty spell for this book. They have to hide it so that a newbie mage can't walk into the store and quickly learn a new 'specialty' spell for free. The specialty spell in this particular book is called 'God's Eye', and promises travel to another world that the book calls El Hazard. Zel thinks it's a stupid name for a world, but the promise of interworld travel opens new doors to him in terms of finding his cure. Now he has roughly twice the number of locations to search for it. Some people would consider this a needle in the haystack and give up, but Zelgadis was actually a very enthusiastic optimist. It wasn't his fault that the best thing that could happen to him in some situations was a quick death.

"Besides," he told himself, "If my fear that someone will try to cast the Giga Slave comes true, I'll be in El Hazard safe and sound. And even if it turns out that my only hope for a cure is destroyed with the rest of the world, so will Xellos and that annoying Princess of Justice Amelia! Not that she doesn't have anything that interests me, but I just hate it when a girl assumes that her love for someone is returned in equal amounts. If they can't listen to reason there's no hope for them..."

And so Zelgadis wastes no time in casting God's Eye. If I had the time or even the desire to do so, I might just sit here for hours on end and try to come up with a proper incantation for this made-up spell. But as it is, I'll just leave this bit as is unless someone decides to write the incantation for me. When Zel competed the spell, the eye blinked.

A short while later, back at the entrance, Xellos appears in a very cheerful mood. "Very clever of you, Zelgadis!! You had me completely fooled for a minute that you'd ever REALLY give up on your cure. But fun's over, tell me what your plan is." He looks around - no Zel. "He must really be desparate to do whatever it is he needs to do. Probably something that requires absolute concentration... I'll just check to see how he's doing!" He starts to warp around, checking every room one by one. He could just use his powers to locate Zel, but is quite enjoying himself with this game of hide and seek. Besides, natural laws of the universe state that this method will ensure that he locates Zel when it is most inconvienient for Zel to be found. Eventually Xellos gets to Zel's room, and notices the open book just before he moves to the next room.

"And what's this? A diary of his deepest, most secret thoughts by any chance? I'm sure he won't mind if I make sure he spelled the words right..." He approaches the book, stopping when he can see the words clearly enough to snoop. "Nope, just a spell to send the caster to the world of El Hazard... But it seems rather useless to have this spell around, seeing as it does nothing to bring you back..."

Then he realized something. Zel must have cast the spell, and is now trapped in that world. Trying to get back here would be even harder then finding his cure. And all Xellos had to do was trash the book and nobody could come in with the return spell and rescue him. "Oh, why not destroy the entire castle along with it? That way, Lina and the others will think he just had a magical accident and blow himself to smithereens. And while the blowing up is wrong, the accident isn't! I can cling to my claim of complete honesty!"

Now outside the castle and quite a large distance above it, Xellos begins to charge up the intense blast he plans to use to aid the Seyruun Roads & Highways Commission in the construction of a road right through Zelgadis' castle. Ok, they don't have any such plans to have a road constructed there, but Xellos could easily get them to if he thought of the idea. As it flies down as beautifully and destructively as a meteorite, Xellos give out a maniacal laugh.