Zel: begrudgingly Hello, my name is Zelgadis Greywyrs. A typical manic depressant human-turned-chimera by my grandfather/greatgrandfather Rezo the Red Priest. In trying to find my cure I have unknowingly transported myself to the mysterious world of El Hazard without a means of return home. What is going to happen to me in this unpredictable place?

"Afura!" Makoto called to his friend as she slowly floated down to the palace grounds. He and Princess Rune were going on a walk, holding hands tenderly. They made a very happy couple. "What brings you here?"

Afura lowered her head. "You were right, Makoto. It is possible for Ifurita to be good. I'm sorry I ever doubted you."

"What happened?" Afura had never acted this way before, so Makoto was very worried that something significant happened. Actually, he wasn't worried at what happened as much as why he, the main character of El Hazard, had not known it had happened until just recently. "Is everything alright?"

Afura sighed, then told everything she knew about it. "Alielle came to my shrine with this strange blue man. It looked like he was made of stone." Well, not everything. Makoto and Princess Rune didn't need to know that Afura fainted when she first saw Zel. "And suddenly, Ifurita came by, looking like she wanted to fight. Zelgadis-"

"Zelgadis?!? That name sounds familiar!" Makoto exclaimed. He then noticed the look Afura was giving him for interrupting her story. He quickly shut up so she could finish.

"Zelgadis started chanting something, but I was too busy trying to plan my first move against Ifurita to pay attention. All I remember was that when he shouted 'Ra Tilt', Ifurita was engulfed in this giant pillar of blue light. She screamed in pain, and that's when I truly saw Ifurita the person and not the demon god of legend."

Princess Rune decided to say something so that it didn't seem like she was only there for eye candy. That really was her only reason for existance at the moment, but she didn't know that. "And where is Ifurita now? Did this Zelgadis destroy her once and for all?" Rune was still afraid that Makoto might decide he loves this Ifurita more then he loves her.

"No, when his attack stopped, Ifurita became lifeless and fell on me. Zelgadis got her off me by winding her up again, and she has been calling him master ever since." As an afterthought, Afura added, "And his first order for her was to blow up a mountain."

Princess Rune was stunned to learn that yet another mountain was destroyed by this foul creature. She couldn't speak a word. Afura was done talking for now, but Makoto waited a few seconds just to be absolutely certain of this.

"Yes, I'm pretty sure I remember hearing about Zelgadis before. Was he by any chance looking for a cure?"

Afura, always keen to know the strengths and weaknesses of any potential enemy (so she can write it down in a book in case someone else needs to know), nodded. "Now that you mention it, yes he did. How do you know about this Zelgadis?"

Makoto tries his best to explain, deciding to not mention television. that would make his story even longer. "Well, back on my world, most people think life there is so boring that they make up stories about what they think other worlds might be like. Mostly these stories are purely for entertainment, and focus on a certain group of people who are brought together by fate to save their world from whatever endangers it at the time. Zelgadis was a person in one of these stories."

Afura wasn't impressed. "So... somehow a make-believe person got out of his little book and now has control over the legendary demon god. Is that what you're trying to tell me?"

Makoto shook his head. "No, I think he came from his world, not a storybook."

Afura was confused. "But you just said that he was a character in a made-up story..."

"Well, all the legends here in El Hazard have a bit of truth to them, right? I mean Miz's fountain of love, the Eye of God, Ifurita, the Snow of Legend... Each one was true. What I'm saying is that instead of having legends of it's own, my world has legends of other worlds. Like I said, people from my world tend to wish they were somewhere else, somewhere where there's adventure and maybe-"

"Aaaaaaaahhhhhhh!!!!!"

"That was Nanami!" Makoto, Rune, and Afura ran in the direction of the scream. When they found her, Nanami was shaking but apparently unharmed. Makoto grabbed her, staring deep into her eyes in order to calm her down enough to talk straight. Rune wasn't too happy with the way it looked, and Afura blushed, wishing she was lucky enough to have Makoto look at her in that way. "Now what happened, Nanami?" He said as he let go, his purpose finished.

"Chico... They took him." Nanami pointed at the sky, but 'they' were already long gone.

"Chico? Who's Chico?" Makoto never was properly introduced to him, so he didn't know.

Princess Rune filled him in. "When me and Nanami were making our escape from Bugrum territory, we ran into one Nanami called Chico. He helped us hide and told the others that we weren't anywhere around. And I think he might have been blushing when he was talking to Nanami, but I'm not sure."

'He was blushing? At me? I never knew it... But that must mean that he... LOVES me???' Nanami realized that now she was blushing. "He came here, and told me about an attempt to kidnap Alielle was foiled by a strange blue man and that Ifurita was sent to spy on them. Then all of a sudden, some more bugrum appeared and grabbed him. They called him a traitor and flew off with him all tied up. We have to save him! El Hazard would have been destroyed if he hadn't helped us escape!"

Princess Rune had noticed Nanami's blushing. Personally she didn't care what her subjects might think if a human girl and some rebel bugrum started a romance. What mattered was that there was potential for this threat to her happiness to be eliminated for good. She wasn't sure Makoto would stay by her side forever, but she did know was that he probably wouldn't hit on a girl that's clearly in love with someone else, even if that someone was a bugrum. "Nanami's right. His assistance was crucial in getting to the Eye of God before Jinnai's carelessness and obsession with power destroyed El Hazard. It is my duty as a Princess to show my kingdom's gratitude for those with the courage to do what's right, especailly when they are surrounded by those who would pressure them to do evil. We cannot turn our backs to him in his hour of need. We must do what is just and rescue him from the evil clutches of the Bugrum Empire!"

Though nowhere near as good as one of Princess Amelia's Justice speeches, it is well recieved. Something Amelia's speeches seem to be unable to obtain. "Afura, will you aid us in this rescue mission?"

Afura thought about this. Before, she would have said no, because all of her training told her to do so. Guilt had caused her to break the rules and cross the River of God once before, and as a result she also played a key role in saving the world. Now that she had a history of breaking rules, she found it easier to break it again this second time around. "Of course. I'll head over to Shayla-Shayla and get her to come along as well." With that Afura took to the air once again.

Makoto did his best to contribute. "And I'll speak to Miz and Mr. Fujisawa. Hopefully he's too busy getting over his hangover to be drunk at the moment." He knew he was kidding himself, Mr. Fujisawa is far more likly to cure a hangover with more booze then by trying to sober up. But they would still need those two in order to try anything against the Bugrum.

"Oh, no Makoto. I need you to help me make my special box lunches for the trip. Princess Rune can ask for Miz and Mr. Fujisawa to help us just as easily as you can." Grabbing him by the arm, she dragged him off to do just that.

* * * * *

"It-It's all rubble..." Amelia said as she looked at what once was Zelgadis' castle. "How could anybody survive such destruction?" She started to cry for her lost love. A true love that was unJustly denied the eternal happiness it was promised. Love that proved too strong to be bound in this mortal world for any length of time.

Lina tried to comfort Amelia, who was somehow causing the narration to do the justice speeches for her. "Zelgadis is still alive, Amelia. I just know it. We'll find him, you'll see."

"You really think so?" Amelia gave Lina her cutest-looking face, hoping that not even SHE could lie to a face like that.

Then Gourry, who wasn't looking at Amelia or Lina at the time spoke up. "Of course Zelgadis survived this. He's made of stone, after all." Gourry was convieniently forgetting that the castle was also made of stone. "He probably just got up and walked away after the castle stopped falling down on him."

Lina smacked him for this slight oversight, but then stopped. "I guess Gourry's right... I've seen Zelgadis survive things that you wouldn't expect anyone less then a Mazoku to. Something like this is actually rather pathetic conpared to what Zelgadis has been hit with on our travels..." Lina was beginning to realize that something was very wrong with this picture. And to think it took Gourry to push her in the right direction. "Quick, Amelia. Tell me exactly, word-for-word, what Xellos told you about Zelgadis. It might have a clue to what really happened here."

Amelia was confused. "What about what he told YOU about Zelgadis, Lina?"

Lina shook her head. "All he told me and Gourry was that he was as good as dead. While that does confirm the fact that Zel isn't really dead, it doesn't give us anything to go on to figure out where Zel actually is."

Amelia lowered her head. "He said that Zel had some sort of magical accident and was no longer on this world."

"I see... That means only one thing." Lina went into that accurately-guessing-the-villan's-plan pose. "Zelgadis decided to look for his cure on other worlds. I remember when the overworld gods went back to their world, and the spell involved didn't destroy the area where they were. That means Zel's castle was destroyed afterwards."

"Afterwards? But why..." Then Amelia remembered how Xellos told her that he was at the castle both before and 'after' the castle was destroyed. "Xellos did this to it. He was the only one who could have."

"Exactly what I suspected. And that means that the only way to go the world where Zelgadis went is to use whatever Zelgadis had to do it. He must have destroyed the castle to get rid of that thing, whatever it was. If we're lucky, enough of it survived his attack to figure out how to get Zelgadis back here."

Amelia pulled out a pickaxe from the usual places that their capes somehow contain objects like Lina's 5.5 million gold piece collection of valuable items that she used to purchase those demon's blood talismen. "What are you two waiting for? Let's search for Zel's ticket home!"

Xellos watched from his tree and chuckled to himself. "Those fools... Maybe they figured out my secret, but do they honestly think I'd botch a job? But knowing them it'll be some time before they finally figure that out. I won't get any yummy emotions from them until then, so I'll go have fun somewhere else!" He then vanishes, leaving the trio to hope for the best.