CHAPTER 11
"Rupert-kun?"
"Yes?"
"I've been thinking a lot about this battle, and I must say, I'm having my doubts."
"Your doubts?"
"Yes."
"Why?"
"I've begun to forget what we're even fighting for. I haven't actually been back to my world since that encounter with the enemy, so what shape is our world even in? Is it even worth fighting for?"
"I'm, afraid I don't understand."
"If I could travel through time I would, but I cannot. When we left the world, it had just been hurled into oblivion, into darkness, into pure evil."
"I thought you were evil?"
"I suppose I am."
"Then why does it matter to you?"
"Many reasons, done of them obvious."
"Name one."
"Variety."
"Variety?"
"Certainly. I'm obviously not pure evil, and neither is my Mistress and neither is the Lord of Nightmares, and we are all equally irritated by the monotony of pure evil."
"Any others?"
"Let's see…career opportunities."
"You're pulling my leg."
"I wouldn't dream of it! My work is not nine-to-five-cubicle-three-I-like-my-coffee-BLACK kind of work. I do many, many things, and one is observe and interact with Lina. She's an interesting girl, you know. And more than that. Much more. Well, a world of pure evil demons and mazoku is one I would not have Lina return to, so I am forced to discard that option as part of my working day."
"Is that all?"
"No."
"What else then?"
"Sore wa himitsu desu."
Giles rose from the concrete wall he and Xellos had been sitting on while they oversaw the training Buffy's and Lina's gang were enduring. Giles stretched. "Well tell us if you're about to back out because we're hardly about to risk our necks if you're all running scared."
Xellos too dismounted the wall and cracked his knuckles. "Really, Rupert-kun, you're putting words into my mouth. Home sweet home or not, my Mistress' life is at stake, and frankly I would rather risk yours than hers. No offence, I hope?"
"None taken." Giles stared silently and Buffy, who appeared to be in mortal combat with the tall blond boy who he vaguely remembered, was called Gourry. "Tell me honestly, does this Lina of yours really know magic?"
"I never lie." Xellos said seriously. "I never tell the full truth and I never make promises but I never lie."
Giles observed Willow, who had been standing dejectedly off to the side, as she approached him and the priest.
"Mr. Xellos, can you actually tell me what we're up against? I mean, I know you said the goddess, or whatever she is, but what else? I mean, I think there's a safe consensus from our group to keep out of deity's way, but we're going to have to fight something, and we need to know what. Otherwise…"
Xellos paused thoughtfully. "I had hoped that someone would ask me that…one of you, of course. Lina and her friends are better prepared and equipped. I shall summarize and inform you that you too are at risk, Yanagi-chan."
Willow ignored what was apparently her new pet name. "I'm at risk? Why?"
"She'll take everyone she can. Everyone with a great deal of strength or an iota of magic in their cells and she will take them, and they will be her army."
Willow was definitely humbled. She tried to grin it off. "Compared to a goddess I guess I don't even have a iota of magic in my cells." She muttered.
Xellos' eyes twitched open again. "You shouldn't compare yourself to Deep Sea Dolphin. Can I compare myself to Mother Theresa? Certainly not. Can I compare myself to the Lord of Nightmares? Preposterous! Am I comparable to Ted Bundy? Let us hope I am not! Judging yourself by comparison is a waste of time, and we can't afford that."
Willow nodded dumbly.
"Besides," Xellos added, "While you do not possess her power, she doesn't possess your heart."
Willow's frown turned upside down into a huge, sugary grin.
Xellos frowned. "I am simply stating an observation, so run along."
Willow followed instructions well, toddling back to Xander and Cordelia and informing them on the latest update on the danger factor.
An hour later there was a meeting of the minds (and in some cases, just the bodies) held back at the library.
Lina took the floor right away. "I would like to being by assessing our assets, if that's alright?" No one threw anything at her, so she continued. "Zelgadis is the most powerful sorcerer here, other than Xellos. He's skilled with black magic and astral magic is his specialty. Amelia has fabulous expertise with white magic, defensive and healing. Naga…" she paused, clearing her throat, "Naga actually brings a number of skills to the table. First and foremost, she is a first-rate diversion and distraction to the enemy. Aside from physical…er, characteristics, her ability to conjure, or lack there of it would prove of a major diversion in our favor. Other than that she is decent with black magic and Amelia tells me she's an expert with white magic."
"It isn't true!" Naga exploded. "I don't even KNOW that girl!"
Amelia stood atop her chair, hands on waist, chest protruding. "Gracia, I'm surprised at your modesty! Only now, after ten years of training do my skills with white magic measure up to yours!" She turned to Lina. "Don't let her be silly. She ne-san is an excellent asset to the team!"
"Thank you." Lina rolled her eyes. "If I may continue, Gourry has no magical ability, but does possess the Hikari no Ken, which is a very good thing."
No one bothered to ask exactly what a Hikari no ken was, and they nodded numbly and allowed Lina to continue.
"Next we have Buffy, who's actually an excellent asset. Her fighting skills are impeccable and her strength far surpasses normal men. Giles, although not possessing at powers abnormal to human condition, is great because of his experience with fighting and strategizing." Lina let out an exaggerated sigh. "If I haven't called your name, could you please stand up one at a time and tell us what potential value you have to the team."
Willow stood up very slowly and clutched the dusty tabletop. She shot an uncomfortable look at Buffy and Buffy reciprocated. "I…well, you see, I'm Wiccan, and so I can do….there are things that a Wiccan person can…there are other powers in the world that…"
"She has pretty amazing powers and would be a huge help in the effort."
Buffy searched for the origin of the voice. "ANGEL!"
Angel strode purposefully towards the conference table. "Planning a war without me?"
"How did you-?"
Angel's hands closed gently over Buffy's. "You think you always have to tell me what's going on in your life?"
Buffy was speechless until Lina hollered for the meeting to continue.
"Now," Lina said, impatiently, "We haven't actually discussed any strategies for dealing with Deep Sea Dolphin, and I would like to begin by saying-."
And then the roof collapsed.
Buffy pushed some loose drywall off of her back and managed to pull herself awkwardly to her feet. Willow followed in suite and was able to help Xander out from a pile of significantly heavier rubble with only minor nicks and bruises. Amelia was levitating in the lotus position beside Zelgadis, who seemed to be the only one more concerned with the cause of cave-in than its aftermath. Naga and Cordelia seemed to be helping each other get the dust out of their leather and faux fur jackets. Gourry was fishing himself out from under two tables, a pillar and a large bookshelf and appeared to be in perfectly fine working order. Angel was busy directing a look of acute terror at a splinter of wood that would serve as quite an excellent stake, which had imbedded itself in the a crumbling drywall only a couple of inches from his head. Giles' glasses were smashed and he shook his head as though the ceiling had collapsed on purpose, despite years of care and affection. Xellos stood in the center of the chaos, looking this way and that in a less-than-skillful attempt to appear concerned and confused.
Lina erupted from underneath a couple of bookshelves and a lighting fixture. "DID YOU DO THIS?" She glared venom into Xellos' closed eyes.
"Lina-chan, Lina-chan, what would be the point? I am as befuddled as anyone."
"He's lying. Let's kill him." Zel brushed off his linen overcape and stared daggers for Xellos.
"Tut, tut, I never lie."
Lina looked around the room to gather further reaction from the band of victims to shoddy building and construction.
"He…er…doesn't, you know." Giles put in quietly.
Lina growled, but was, for once, speechless.
"If no one else desires my immediate demise, might I suggest we uncover the source of this unlikely calamity?"
The troupe agreed this was the most sensible suggestion the mazoku had made since late that afternoon and followed behind him to the exit, stepping over a good deal of debris, what with broken bookcases, pieces of roof, shards of glass, bits of brick, splinters of wood, pillars and pages. The back door exit to the library swung open as they approached. Exchanging looks varying between, "and out steps the ax-murderer" to "how CLICHÉ!" to "it is a dark and stormy night" to "door? Where are we going? Are we going outside?", the Slayers of varying origins and meanings did something very brave and equally stupid. They actually went outside.
The grounds were deserted. They were encompassed in the silence of an ancient graveyard and all ears strained and rewarded only with a desolate howl of an omnipresent wind. They could hear no animals, no voices, no rushing of cars or honking of horns. The sky was rapidly transforming from an early morning azure into navy night and it swept them up inside itself. Willow's stomach clenched.
"This is it, isn't it?" she whispered softly.
Gentle laughter murmured in her ear, and then filled the sky, trembling them to the earth, turning their insides to ice and making Cordelia ill to her stomach.
"Children." It wasn't a question, or even a statement. It just was. A woman's voice, soft, demure, without emotion and edged with such cold strength it burned into their minds, like a brand.
Lina jerked her head around to look at Zel. The ground had begun to shake, the tremble of an approaching stampede. She saw them then. Legions of creatures, humans and mazoku poured from every angle like frigid water. Pummeling towards them, faster and faster, brandishing anything they could carry and use as a weapon. Gargoyle-like demons flying towards them carrying spears, women with newborn babies brandishing butcher knives, children with rocks and guns, old men with pistols and canes, people who appeared to carry nothing at all but looked on with all the satisfaction of having an army of a thousand of the strongest men behind them.
Lina saw Buffy fall to her knees. She shook Buffy, who looked on, listlessly.
"These aren't vampires. They're children! They're mothers! I can't…"
"That or death! I choose life." Lina looked grimly forward and was unshaken by a badly aimed bullet than missed her head by less than a foot. She stepped forward, begging herself for forgiveness. "DRAGON SLAVE!!!"
A furious beam of light emitted from her open hands, erupting through the mindless army, destroying every being in its path.
Lina panted heavily as Buffy and her gang, confidence renewed, congratulated Lina on not embellishing her abilities with magic in the least.
The dust began to clear. Several people spared by the blast still ambled undauntedly forward, but the trail of bodies and bloodied appendages littered the soccer field. The Slayers stood, words caught in their throats, at the hideousness of the destruction.
Lina choked. "I...I've never killed an innocent…I…there was that time, but I thought I'd never be the same and…L-sama, help me, I…" she bit her lip so hard to stop the tears from forming she coughed on the hollow, pitiless taste of her own blood.
Buffy's eyes widened in fear but Willow looked down at Lina. "You had to do it, or we'd be dead right now." Willow reminded, but the tone of her voice made it clear that her attempts to relieve Lina of the blame and disgrace of murdering innocents for the sake of personal survival made her sick. Lina understood.
A little boy, who seemed to be armed with nothing more than rocks staggered up to them, wobbling under what looked to be a broken leg, and hurled the sharp pebbles at them with all the strength left in his body. When he had exhausted his supply, he charged at them with a small knife he had concealed under his baseball jacket.
He plunged the knife at Zel, drawing nothing more than sparks. He tried again, yielding the same result as the team looked on in horror, unable to decide what to do. The boy kept at it, determined to damage Zel's solid frame. His eyes looked empty.
The sky filled itself once again with the woman's voice, her gentle broken humming of a half-remembered tune. The small child seemed to identify the rest of them for the first time, turning towards Cordelia with his blade, like a zombie. Angel was too quick, hurling the kid to the side, onto the ground. Amelia screamed softly, unable to express herself in words. The little boy sat up, his eyes opened wide and he climbed to his feet to carry out his mission. The bone poking out of his flesh was visible to them now, but they boy appeared unaware, edging swiftly towards them for a second attack.
"What are we going to do?" Willow asked, voice trembling.
"We can't kill him!" Gourry looked around, his eyes filled with terror.
"We can't stand here!" Buffy yelled, fists clenched, knuckles as white as her face.
Zel stepped forward, dark wings sensing the malice in the air with an anguished regret stirring inside of him. "MONO BOLT!!!"
The small boy flew several feet in the air and landed with his limbs and neck contorted in disgusting ways, reminding Lina strongly of a child's marionette. Buffy stepped forward to see what she could do, but even Gourry could tell by the vile sound his body made upon contact with the turf that nothing could be none.
No one could say anything for a moment and no one could even understand how to modify their opinions of Zelgadis in their minds. One fact was glaringly evident, however - what choice had they been given?
"Buffy's eyes were brimming with mournful tears. "His dad probably gave him that jacket, you know. At little league."
Before someone could shriek at her properly to shut up, the omnipotent voice spoke once more.
"Did that bother you?" The soft voice purred over the battlefield.
In response, there was a hysterical and chaotic outbreak of panic among the Slayers and a general consensus was reached that this was scary shit and they really, really didn't want to do it anymore.
Xellos, unnaturally becoming the voice of reason, stepped forward sullenly. "Will you not show yourself, Iruka Shinkai?"
Deep Sea Dolphin's gentle laughter hardened somewhat. "I don't, usually. Few have earned the right to lay their eyes upon me. But in the good name of sportsmanship, I will reveal by physical essence, so that I may not be conceived, as you all lie perishing, as the faceless Dark Lord!"
The piece of sky to the left of the Slayers began spinning madly, like a cyclone beginning to form. Eyes appeared first, infinitely blue eyes with a coldness and odium to them that rivaled anything they could imagine. Gradually, a body began to form from the clouds and dust and ice. Exceptionally tall and slender, and her skin pale as thin ice, she was unadorned, save for some well placed frost-blue coral. Magnificently long and wavy, wet blue hair rippled poetically in the breeze, and Deep Sea Dolphin seemed to levitate in the air on her toes, akin to the posture of a beautiful ballerina.
At their awestruck expressions, Deep Sea Dolphin chuckled softly behind a long, delicate hand. "I know!"
She seemed to rearrange herself in the sky, and looked to be sitting primly on some invisible chair of sorts. There was a bemused look to her, and then a soft smile spread slowly across her perfect mouth.
"Why are the sexy ones always uber-bitches?" Xander whispered to Willow.
"I ask that we begin this game properly. There is really something of a procedure to the matters at hand, if you please." She smiled gently.
Buffy's eyes flashed a stony grey and she fell to her side, crumbled in apparent agony.
"Buffy!" Angel yelled, and ran towards her, fear etched deeply in his soul.
Buffy pulled herself from the fetal position in time to plunge a stake hard and deep into his chest. A look of the purest pain and anguish flooded Angel's face and then he disintegrated.
The Slayers looked on in horror, gauging Buffy's reaction of her blunder against the grief they felt for Angel. When they saw Buffy's eyes clearly, it became obvious it was more than a mistake. They were empty and pitiful, like the little boy's, and Giles, Willow, Xander and Cordelia cried out loudly at her. Unmoved by their cries and pleas, Buffy looked to Cordelia, and began to charge at her with the bloody wooden stake. In a state of devastation, Cordelia turned around only in time to meet Buffy's soulless eyes, as the stake was plunged deeply into her chest. Cordelia crumpled violently to the ground, as though the life was immediately quashed from her dying body. Buffy turned, violence scored deeply into her face at her victory, pulled the stake ruthlessly from the chasm of Cordelia's body and turned to Willow.
Willow appeared to stop time with a ghastly choking motion as the brilliant color fell from her eyes and Buffy was flung back ruthlessly. Willow turned her serene gaze to Xander and she licked her lips with relish, throwing her head back in the air.
"Deliver us, deliver us, deliver us the power, the pain, the reality, deliver us the understanding, the strength, our ideals, Deliver US!" Willow spoke swiftly and softly.
Xander began to twitch and seizure madly, uncontrollably, frighteningly. He fell to the ground, nerves convulsing, utterly lifeless.
Buffy had found her way to her feet and was charging towards Willow, stake aimed high, as fast as she could run. Willow turned in time to catch Buffy, and raising her lethal weapon, but Giles caught Willow first. Time ceased as he drove a dagger through Willow's stomach, and she gasped hard and fell to her knees, fighting for life that Deep Sea Dolphin seemed to be tugging on from every cell.
Buffy stumbled at her great speed, tripping over Willow and spearing herself on her own stake. Buffy gagged, coughing blood onto the wet, green grass. Al at once the life was snatched from both bodies and they rolled onto their sides, soaked in lifelessness.
Giles choked loudly, crisply and he felt his nerves collapse in his skin and everything went numb except his head, which pounded as thick blood pulsed painfully through it. Zelgadis looked at Giles and his stomach reeled to realize Giles had not been possessed.
"I…I thought…I thought if I could save one…only if I could save just one…I would…I…Buffy, she's…." Giles shook his head and tears rolled uninhibited down his cheeks; it seemed they would never stop.
"Hmmm…that went much quicker than I would have thought, what do you think?" Deep Sea Dolphin looked down on them drawlingly. "Of course, if you had been real friends, you might have done something. I had sincerely hoped you might have expressed grief of some sort. I like it when humans do that." She inclined her head slowly to the sky, as though soaking in the heat and radiance of some invisible sun.
The Slayers quailed in her malice. Her pale eyes revealed nothing of the loathing and cruelty she possessed, which extended beyond the human imagination.
Xellos shuffled the whimpering Giles back behind the safety of the school doors, eyes fixedly on Deep Sea Dolphin. She beamed back.
"I learned a long time ago that all is fair in war. Apparently Xellas was good enough to teach you that much, Xellos-kun?" Her soft chuckle erupted into wild, penetrating laughter burning into their souls in its insanity. "I also learned that death is pointless if not made a sport of entertainment." Her eyes flashed dangerously. "You help her too much, Xellos-kun. When you die tonight I want you to think of your precious Mistress and the fate she shall soon meet at your failure."
The world around Lina dissolved disgustingly into greys and blues and bruise purples. Naga stood before Lina, alone in this torn world, her blue eyes soft as they caught the redhead's and held them. It was as though Lina could see Naga's conscience drain from her body like a layer of film that blanketed her skin, Naga shed humanity and her eyes bloomed a dull grey, like the boy's. Empty. A thin, lifeless smile passed across her lips and she pulled her sword from its sheath and pointed it to Lina's tiny chest.
"Naga." Lina whispered and she hoped against reason that she would be slain quickly and wouldn't have to open her eyes and bear reality. Not this reality - this was not the real world, the one that she had shared with Naga when she had been younger.
"Lina." Naga's voice was silky and delicate, gentle against the subtle blade she still held to Lina. "We will all die, Lina. Unless you ask Xellos to stop protecting you. Embrace Deep Sea Dolphin. Be her arms and legs, be her weapons. You owe Xellas nothing."
This one truth pulled a taught string in Lina's chest. She did owe Xellas nothing. Why should she save Xellas when she was really just as bad as Deep Sea Dolphin? Maybe worse, Lina wasn't sure she knew the legends well enough to recount now, but they were both insane and manipulating and deserving of each other. At least if she gave herself to Deep Sea Dolphin, she could be with her friends.
Xellos materialized lazily behind Lina, and Naga withdrew her eyes quickly from Lina, slashing her blade away and plunging it deep into Xellos. His image quivered but neither weakened nor became distorted and changed.
"Lina," He spoke, his voice deathly serious, "She is not Naga and she will kill you if you don't kill her."
"What the hell do you think you are talking about?! I'm not going to kill her! I can't! I won't!"
"You have to and you will!" Xellos yelled against the rising white noise around them. "You said it yourself back there! Better to kill than to die!"
"That's not true!" Lina screamed so loudly Naga's cold eyes turned to hers and Xellos' eyes opened just a fragment. "If it's my pain or theirs, my death or theirs I choose my own." Her voice was breaking with exhaustion, with helplessness.
"Noble." Xellos said quietly. "But stupid nonetheless. They will die no matter what. They are already dead now."
"She's not. She's not dead."
"She died when Deep Sea Dolphin took her body. But Iruka didn't take her soul."
Lina shook her head. Naga wasn't trying to hurt her. She wasn't Naga, but she wasn't harming her. "Why didn't you stop it?! She said you're protecting me. Why not them!?"
"I can't. Pointless as well as tiring and in the end you will be stronger."
Blood rushed like thunder to Lina's face and her heart skipped under a gale of cold fury. "You'll burn in hell."
Xellos almost smiled. "Certainly. It is a most obvious destiny."
Naga's empty pupils focused suddenly, her eyes fixing slowly on Lina with renewed purpose. She took her sword in both hands and brought it down swiftly across Lina's chest. Lina jumped back from the blade's edge but not in time as she noticed a large, ruby stain bloom plentifully from her clean white blouse. Naga's eyes gleamed and she brought her sword back to plunge it deeply into Lina's frame but her eyes sprang wide open and her jaw dropped, her limp body falling to the intangible astral floor with an alarming thud.
Lina's sword lay imbedded in Naga's swelled breast and Naga's dark blood painted her voluptuous body gruesomely.
Lina's teary eyes froze open and her head snapped up to the unseen sky and an electricity ran through her like a steady stream, covering her inside and out, knowing her. Through her throat, around her quickly beating heart, through her arms down to her fingertips and back down again along her stomach, her back and down each leg, and then it ran back up until it stopped, resting powerfully in her mind.
"Naga." Lina whispered.
"I tried to tell you." Xellos insisted, his voice unraised and yet somehow audible against the rising din. "They want to be with you. They refuse to hurt you. When you destroy their bodies, their souls are free to be with you. To become part of yours."
Lina's breath caught in her throat and her heart paused. Naga was a part of her? Was it better to kill then? No, Lina resigned, she hated herself so much she couldn't think properly.
The greyish world around her melted into a beige one, smeared with rank plum. A girl stood before her once more, donning a lavender sundress, her deep wine colored hair standing out against it. Her eyes stood out a bleached granite color against her tanned skin and wide eyes. They had seen hope once. They had seen truth once.
"Lina-chan." Amelia's soulless eyes flickered into the sorceress's own.
"No." Lina muttered, pushing herself against the farthest boundary of her dimensional cage. "Not Amelia. Will I have to kill them all? No. No. No. No."
"Hai, Lina-chan. If you want to fight us, you will have to kill us all. But you can be with us if you want. Will you kill a little princess for Beastmaster? Does she matter that much to you?"
Lina's mind reeled. Beastmaster meant nothing to her. Why was she doing this? To survive wasn't enough anymore. Life without Naga and Gourry and Amelia wasn't good enough. Without Zel, there was no point.
"FIREBALL!" Amelia called, her palm opening to Lina's chest. Lina was pinned against the dimensional wall she already backed against, captured by the heat, the pain searing against the wound to her chest and the deeper wound inside her.
"Why do you torture yourself?" Xellos' disembodied voice questioned her from all around her.
"Why do you torture me?" Lina screamed, burnt and broken and alone with Iruka's slave.
"I don't. I don't try." He corrected quietly. "You torture her, you know?"
"Deep Sea Dolphin?"
"Amelia. She can see you. She can hear you. She can feel her arms moving to kill you. She can feel herself hating you. She can hear herself praying to the Lord of Nightmares that you will kill her so she doesn't live her life as Iruka's mindless puppet. Her tool, where she is used to kill and maim and hurt and is trapped inside herself. She can hear herself wondering why you won't kill her."
Lina felt her knees give out in spite of her desperation to live. Her heart rose to her throat and her stomach sank below the ground. How could she put anyone through that pain? Was Xellos trying to convince her she was a horrible person?
"There is a word." Xellos whispered lightly as Amelia's pointed forefinger came to rest of Lina's forehead. "Mercy."
A primal part of Lina understood the word before Xellos had said it. She raised her head, eyes wide, tears magnifying her distorted world. "LAGUNA. BLADE."
For an instant she felt arms from behind her gather her energy in their palms and tailor it into the subtle blade. She saw the power thrust itself deep inside the princess, destroying her body, shattering the girl's very bones.
She felt the same lightening enter her body rigidly. It explored her with both pain and passion, with wisdom and curiosity and came to rest peacefully in part of her mind.
Amelia.
"Two down, Lina. But neither of us is giving it our one hundred percent, are we? No, I didn't think so. Does it get harder Lina? Would they have struck you down in cold blood? Would you forgive them? But then, it's different with you. You at least are doing it for a noble cause. Xellas will be so grateful."
Lina stared up at the quickly dissolving realm around her, one that stank of blood and bone and even death. "I don't fight for Beastmaster! I fight for them!" She screamed into the hurricane winds that smothered both her breath and voice.
The same choked colors and abused yellows and purples painted a small sphere of existence around her. As though he had always been there, a tall, blonde swordsman seemed to form out of the mist that hung grudgingly in the air around both him and Lina. She knew he would be there, knew what she was expected to do and still her blood ached as it pulsed through her. She watched with growing terror as his eyes shadowed over, becoming empty of the kindness she had known of Gourry and saw it replaced with cold, hateful fury.
Gourry reached smoothly, wordlessly for the Hikari No Ken, not needing to call forth the light from it as the blade shone through the gloom with startling brilliance. He stood, sword poised to strike, motionless as though he were daring her to attack.
Lina spoke softly, knowing Gourry couldn't hear her; here, she spoke only to Deep Sea Dolphin. "I don't care anymore. You know I can strike him down easily with magic. I just don't care."
"Were it that simple, Lina." Gourry's deep voice resonated a sinister mind that Gourry could never have possessed. "Will you strike him down with magic? Will you kill him at twenty paces? Was there ever a time you knew Gourry that he wasn't precious to you? Do what you will, cowardly sorceress."
Xellos' voice was distant but distinct against the fury of Deep Sea Dolphin's crazed imagination. "Lina-chan, if you fall for her mind tricks, perhaps you are cowardly. She will destroy you if you do not destroy her first."
"Shut up!" Lina shouted at the disembodied Xellos. "I know the rules! Stupid mazoku! I'll kill her on my own terms."
Her eyes shifted from the bubble-shaped sky above her to Gourry. Not Gourry, Lina told herself. Gourry will be with me when I get rid of her. She shut her eyes for a moment, savoring her breath as it filled her lungs painfully. This isn't the end, Gourry, she promised him silently.
In a flash of adrenaline and desperation, Lina dove forward with dangerous and unexpected speed. She shoved her elbow hard against Gourry's stomach, catching him by surprise. Gourry doubled over, evil eyes wide and Lina took advantage, raising her foot abruptly to kick the Hikari No Ken from the swordsman's hands. The sword clattered to the ground, blade shimmering before winking out completely. Lina dove for the hilt, sliding onto the ground as she clasped it tightly in her hand. Gourry was quick, diving and landing on her, crushing her breath from her body and cracking several of her ribs. Lina winced in pain and Gourry reached for the hilt of his blade but Lina balled her legs up tightly beneath his chest and gathering every once of strength, kicked out her legs, propelling Gourry through the air and onto his back. Lina rose quickly to stand before him.
"Light, Come Forth!" She cried and the blade materialized once more. Lina hesitated only a moment before tightening her grip and plunging it into her friend's exposed chest. "I'm sorry." She whispered softly.
Suddenly, she flung her head back in shock as a mind-numbing awareness passed through her like a lightening bolt. It wracked her body, joining the others in the recesses of Lina's mind. "Gourry."
A man in black leather pants and a jacket stood before her in a state of grim nothingness, his satiny black wings unfolded to catch the wind.
"Zelgadis!" Lina cried.
"Rupert-kun?"
"Yes?"
"I've been thinking a lot about this battle, and I must say, I'm having my doubts."
"Your doubts?"
"Yes."
"Why?"
"I've begun to forget what we're even fighting for. I haven't actually been back to my world since that encounter with the enemy, so what shape is our world even in? Is it even worth fighting for?"
"I'm, afraid I don't understand."
"If I could travel through time I would, but I cannot. When we left the world, it had just been hurled into oblivion, into darkness, into pure evil."
"I thought you were evil?"
"I suppose I am."
"Then why does it matter to you?"
"Many reasons, done of them obvious."
"Name one."
"Variety."
"Variety?"
"Certainly. I'm obviously not pure evil, and neither is my Mistress and neither is the Lord of Nightmares, and we are all equally irritated by the monotony of pure evil."
"Any others?"
"Let's see…career opportunities."
"You're pulling my leg."
"I wouldn't dream of it! My work is not nine-to-five-cubicle-three-I-like-my-coffee-BLACK kind of work. I do many, many things, and one is observe and interact with Lina. She's an interesting girl, you know. And more than that. Much more. Well, a world of pure evil demons and mazoku is one I would not have Lina return to, so I am forced to discard that option as part of my working day."
"Is that all?"
"No."
"What else then?"
"Sore wa himitsu desu."
Giles rose from the concrete wall he and Xellos had been sitting on while they oversaw the training Buffy's and Lina's gang were enduring. Giles stretched. "Well tell us if you're about to back out because we're hardly about to risk our necks if you're all running scared."
Xellos too dismounted the wall and cracked his knuckles. "Really, Rupert-kun, you're putting words into my mouth. Home sweet home or not, my Mistress' life is at stake, and frankly I would rather risk yours than hers. No offence, I hope?"
"None taken." Giles stared silently and Buffy, who appeared to be in mortal combat with the tall blond boy who he vaguely remembered, was called Gourry. "Tell me honestly, does this Lina of yours really know magic?"
"I never lie." Xellos said seriously. "I never tell the full truth and I never make promises but I never lie."
Giles observed Willow, who had been standing dejectedly off to the side, as she approached him and the priest.
"Mr. Xellos, can you actually tell me what we're up against? I mean, I know you said the goddess, or whatever she is, but what else? I mean, I think there's a safe consensus from our group to keep out of deity's way, but we're going to have to fight something, and we need to know what. Otherwise…"
Xellos paused thoughtfully. "I had hoped that someone would ask me that…one of you, of course. Lina and her friends are better prepared and equipped. I shall summarize and inform you that you too are at risk, Yanagi-chan."
Willow ignored what was apparently her new pet name. "I'm at risk? Why?"
"She'll take everyone she can. Everyone with a great deal of strength or an iota of magic in their cells and she will take them, and they will be her army."
Willow was definitely humbled. She tried to grin it off. "Compared to a goddess I guess I don't even have a iota of magic in my cells." She muttered.
Xellos' eyes twitched open again. "You shouldn't compare yourself to Deep Sea Dolphin. Can I compare myself to Mother Theresa? Certainly not. Can I compare myself to the Lord of Nightmares? Preposterous! Am I comparable to Ted Bundy? Let us hope I am not! Judging yourself by comparison is a waste of time, and we can't afford that."
Willow nodded dumbly.
"Besides," Xellos added, "While you do not possess her power, she doesn't possess your heart."
Willow's frown turned upside down into a huge, sugary grin.
Xellos frowned. "I am simply stating an observation, so run along."
Willow followed instructions well, toddling back to Xander and Cordelia and informing them on the latest update on the danger factor.
An hour later there was a meeting of the minds (and in some cases, just the bodies) held back at the library.
Lina took the floor right away. "I would like to being by assessing our assets, if that's alright?" No one threw anything at her, so she continued. "Zelgadis is the most powerful sorcerer here, other than Xellos. He's skilled with black magic and astral magic is his specialty. Amelia has fabulous expertise with white magic, defensive and healing. Naga…" she paused, clearing her throat, "Naga actually brings a number of skills to the table. First and foremost, she is a first-rate diversion and distraction to the enemy. Aside from physical…er, characteristics, her ability to conjure, or lack there of it would prove of a major diversion in our favor. Other than that she is decent with black magic and Amelia tells me she's an expert with white magic."
"It isn't true!" Naga exploded. "I don't even KNOW that girl!"
Amelia stood atop her chair, hands on waist, chest protruding. "Gracia, I'm surprised at your modesty! Only now, after ten years of training do my skills with white magic measure up to yours!" She turned to Lina. "Don't let her be silly. She ne-san is an excellent asset to the team!"
"Thank you." Lina rolled her eyes. "If I may continue, Gourry has no magical ability, but does possess the Hikari no Ken, which is a very good thing."
No one bothered to ask exactly what a Hikari no ken was, and they nodded numbly and allowed Lina to continue.
"Next we have Buffy, who's actually an excellent asset. Her fighting skills are impeccable and her strength far surpasses normal men. Giles, although not possessing at powers abnormal to human condition, is great because of his experience with fighting and strategizing." Lina let out an exaggerated sigh. "If I haven't called your name, could you please stand up one at a time and tell us what potential value you have to the team."
Willow stood up very slowly and clutched the dusty tabletop. She shot an uncomfortable look at Buffy and Buffy reciprocated. "I…well, you see, I'm Wiccan, and so I can do….there are things that a Wiccan person can…there are other powers in the world that…"
"She has pretty amazing powers and would be a huge help in the effort."
Buffy searched for the origin of the voice. "ANGEL!"
Angel strode purposefully towards the conference table. "Planning a war without me?"
"How did you-?"
Angel's hands closed gently over Buffy's. "You think you always have to tell me what's going on in your life?"
Buffy was speechless until Lina hollered for the meeting to continue.
"Now," Lina said, impatiently, "We haven't actually discussed any strategies for dealing with Deep Sea Dolphin, and I would like to begin by saying-."
And then the roof collapsed.
Buffy pushed some loose drywall off of her back and managed to pull herself awkwardly to her feet. Willow followed in suite and was able to help Xander out from a pile of significantly heavier rubble with only minor nicks and bruises. Amelia was levitating in the lotus position beside Zelgadis, who seemed to be the only one more concerned with the cause of cave-in than its aftermath. Naga and Cordelia seemed to be helping each other get the dust out of their leather and faux fur jackets. Gourry was fishing himself out from under two tables, a pillar and a large bookshelf and appeared to be in perfectly fine working order. Angel was busy directing a look of acute terror at a splinter of wood that would serve as quite an excellent stake, which had imbedded itself in the a crumbling drywall only a couple of inches from his head. Giles' glasses were smashed and he shook his head as though the ceiling had collapsed on purpose, despite years of care and affection. Xellos stood in the center of the chaos, looking this way and that in a less-than-skillful attempt to appear concerned and confused.
Lina erupted from underneath a couple of bookshelves and a lighting fixture. "DID YOU DO THIS?" She glared venom into Xellos' closed eyes.
"Lina-chan, Lina-chan, what would be the point? I am as befuddled as anyone."
"He's lying. Let's kill him." Zel brushed off his linen overcape and stared daggers for Xellos.
"Tut, tut, I never lie."
Lina looked around the room to gather further reaction from the band of victims to shoddy building and construction.
"He…er…doesn't, you know." Giles put in quietly.
Lina growled, but was, for once, speechless.
"If no one else desires my immediate demise, might I suggest we uncover the source of this unlikely calamity?"
The troupe agreed this was the most sensible suggestion the mazoku had made since late that afternoon and followed behind him to the exit, stepping over a good deal of debris, what with broken bookcases, pieces of roof, shards of glass, bits of brick, splinters of wood, pillars and pages. The back door exit to the library swung open as they approached. Exchanging looks varying between, "and out steps the ax-murderer" to "how CLICHÉ!" to "it is a dark and stormy night" to "door? Where are we going? Are we going outside?", the Slayers of varying origins and meanings did something very brave and equally stupid. They actually went outside.
The grounds were deserted. They were encompassed in the silence of an ancient graveyard and all ears strained and rewarded only with a desolate howl of an omnipresent wind. They could hear no animals, no voices, no rushing of cars or honking of horns. The sky was rapidly transforming from an early morning azure into navy night and it swept them up inside itself. Willow's stomach clenched.
"This is it, isn't it?" she whispered softly.
Gentle laughter murmured in her ear, and then filled the sky, trembling them to the earth, turning their insides to ice and making Cordelia ill to her stomach.
"Children." It wasn't a question, or even a statement. It just was. A woman's voice, soft, demure, without emotion and edged with such cold strength it burned into their minds, like a brand.
Lina jerked her head around to look at Zel. The ground had begun to shake, the tremble of an approaching stampede. She saw them then. Legions of creatures, humans and mazoku poured from every angle like frigid water. Pummeling towards them, faster and faster, brandishing anything they could carry and use as a weapon. Gargoyle-like demons flying towards them carrying spears, women with newborn babies brandishing butcher knives, children with rocks and guns, old men with pistols and canes, people who appeared to carry nothing at all but looked on with all the satisfaction of having an army of a thousand of the strongest men behind them.
Lina saw Buffy fall to her knees. She shook Buffy, who looked on, listlessly.
"These aren't vampires. They're children! They're mothers! I can't…"
"That or death! I choose life." Lina looked grimly forward and was unshaken by a badly aimed bullet than missed her head by less than a foot. She stepped forward, begging herself for forgiveness. "DRAGON SLAVE!!!"
A furious beam of light emitted from her open hands, erupting through the mindless army, destroying every being in its path.
Lina panted heavily as Buffy and her gang, confidence renewed, congratulated Lina on not embellishing her abilities with magic in the least.
The dust began to clear. Several people spared by the blast still ambled undauntedly forward, but the trail of bodies and bloodied appendages littered the soccer field. The Slayers stood, words caught in their throats, at the hideousness of the destruction.
Lina choked. "I...I've never killed an innocent…I…there was that time, but I thought I'd never be the same and…L-sama, help me, I…" she bit her lip so hard to stop the tears from forming she coughed on the hollow, pitiless taste of her own blood.
Buffy's eyes widened in fear but Willow looked down at Lina. "You had to do it, or we'd be dead right now." Willow reminded, but the tone of her voice made it clear that her attempts to relieve Lina of the blame and disgrace of murdering innocents for the sake of personal survival made her sick. Lina understood.
A little boy, who seemed to be armed with nothing more than rocks staggered up to them, wobbling under what looked to be a broken leg, and hurled the sharp pebbles at them with all the strength left in his body. When he had exhausted his supply, he charged at them with a small knife he had concealed under his baseball jacket.
He plunged the knife at Zel, drawing nothing more than sparks. He tried again, yielding the same result as the team looked on in horror, unable to decide what to do. The boy kept at it, determined to damage Zel's solid frame. His eyes looked empty.
The sky filled itself once again with the woman's voice, her gentle broken humming of a half-remembered tune. The small child seemed to identify the rest of them for the first time, turning towards Cordelia with his blade, like a zombie. Angel was too quick, hurling the kid to the side, onto the ground. Amelia screamed softly, unable to express herself in words. The little boy sat up, his eyes opened wide and he climbed to his feet to carry out his mission. The bone poking out of his flesh was visible to them now, but they boy appeared unaware, edging swiftly towards them for a second attack.
"What are we going to do?" Willow asked, voice trembling.
"We can't kill him!" Gourry looked around, his eyes filled with terror.
"We can't stand here!" Buffy yelled, fists clenched, knuckles as white as her face.
Zel stepped forward, dark wings sensing the malice in the air with an anguished regret stirring inside of him. "MONO BOLT!!!"
The small boy flew several feet in the air and landed with his limbs and neck contorted in disgusting ways, reminding Lina strongly of a child's marionette. Buffy stepped forward to see what she could do, but even Gourry could tell by the vile sound his body made upon contact with the turf that nothing could be none.
No one could say anything for a moment and no one could even understand how to modify their opinions of Zelgadis in their minds. One fact was glaringly evident, however - what choice had they been given?
"Buffy's eyes were brimming with mournful tears. "His dad probably gave him that jacket, you know. At little league."
Before someone could shriek at her properly to shut up, the omnipotent voice spoke once more.
"Did that bother you?" The soft voice purred over the battlefield.
In response, there was a hysterical and chaotic outbreak of panic among the Slayers and a general consensus was reached that this was scary shit and they really, really didn't want to do it anymore.
Xellos, unnaturally becoming the voice of reason, stepped forward sullenly. "Will you not show yourself, Iruka Shinkai?"
Deep Sea Dolphin's gentle laughter hardened somewhat. "I don't, usually. Few have earned the right to lay their eyes upon me. But in the good name of sportsmanship, I will reveal by physical essence, so that I may not be conceived, as you all lie perishing, as the faceless Dark Lord!"
The piece of sky to the left of the Slayers began spinning madly, like a cyclone beginning to form. Eyes appeared first, infinitely blue eyes with a coldness and odium to them that rivaled anything they could imagine. Gradually, a body began to form from the clouds and dust and ice. Exceptionally tall and slender, and her skin pale as thin ice, she was unadorned, save for some well placed frost-blue coral. Magnificently long and wavy, wet blue hair rippled poetically in the breeze, and Deep Sea Dolphin seemed to levitate in the air on her toes, akin to the posture of a beautiful ballerina.
At their awestruck expressions, Deep Sea Dolphin chuckled softly behind a long, delicate hand. "I know!"
She seemed to rearrange herself in the sky, and looked to be sitting primly on some invisible chair of sorts. There was a bemused look to her, and then a soft smile spread slowly across her perfect mouth.
"Why are the sexy ones always uber-bitches?" Xander whispered to Willow.
"I ask that we begin this game properly. There is really something of a procedure to the matters at hand, if you please." She smiled gently.
Buffy's eyes flashed a stony grey and she fell to her side, crumbled in apparent agony.
"Buffy!" Angel yelled, and ran towards her, fear etched deeply in his soul.
Buffy pulled herself from the fetal position in time to plunge a stake hard and deep into his chest. A look of the purest pain and anguish flooded Angel's face and then he disintegrated.
The Slayers looked on in horror, gauging Buffy's reaction of her blunder against the grief they felt for Angel. When they saw Buffy's eyes clearly, it became obvious it was more than a mistake. They were empty and pitiful, like the little boy's, and Giles, Willow, Xander and Cordelia cried out loudly at her. Unmoved by their cries and pleas, Buffy looked to Cordelia, and began to charge at her with the bloody wooden stake. In a state of devastation, Cordelia turned around only in time to meet Buffy's soulless eyes, as the stake was plunged deeply into her chest. Cordelia crumpled violently to the ground, as though the life was immediately quashed from her dying body. Buffy turned, violence scored deeply into her face at her victory, pulled the stake ruthlessly from the chasm of Cordelia's body and turned to Willow.
Willow appeared to stop time with a ghastly choking motion as the brilliant color fell from her eyes and Buffy was flung back ruthlessly. Willow turned her serene gaze to Xander and she licked her lips with relish, throwing her head back in the air.
"Deliver us, deliver us, deliver us the power, the pain, the reality, deliver us the understanding, the strength, our ideals, Deliver US!" Willow spoke swiftly and softly.
Xander began to twitch and seizure madly, uncontrollably, frighteningly. He fell to the ground, nerves convulsing, utterly lifeless.
Buffy had found her way to her feet and was charging towards Willow, stake aimed high, as fast as she could run. Willow turned in time to catch Buffy, and raising her lethal weapon, but Giles caught Willow first. Time ceased as he drove a dagger through Willow's stomach, and she gasped hard and fell to her knees, fighting for life that Deep Sea Dolphin seemed to be tugging on from every cell.
Buffy stumbled at her great speed, tripping over Willow and spearing herself on her own stake. Buffy gagged, coughing blood onto the wet, green grass. Al at once the life was snatched from both bodies and they rolled onto their sides, soaked in lifelessness.
Giles choked loudly, crisply and he felt his nerves collapse in his skin and everything went numb except his head, which pounded as thick blood pulsed painfully through it. Zelgadis looked at Giles and his stomach reeled to realize Giles had not been possessed.
"I…I thought…I thought if I could save one…only if I could save just one…I would…I…Buffy, she's…." Giles shook his head and tears rolled uninhibited down his cheeks; it seemed they would never stop.
"Hmmm…that went much quicker than I would have thought, what do you think?" Deep Sea Dolphin looked down on them drawlingly. "Of course, if you had been real friends, you might have done something. I had sincerely hoped you might have expressed grief of some sort. I like it when humans do that." She inclined her head slowly to the sky, as though soaking in the heat and radiance of some invisible sun.
The Slayers quailed in her malice. Her pale eyes revealed nothing of the loathing and cruelty she possessed, which extended beyond the human imagination.
Xellos shuffled the whimpering Giles back behind the safety of the school doors, eyes fixedly on Deep Sea Dolphin. She beamed back.
"I learned a long time ago that all is fair in war. Apparently Xellas was good enough to teach you that much, Xellos-kun?" Her soft chuckle erupted into wild, penetrating laughter burning into their souls in its insanity. "I also learned that death is pointless if not made a sport of entertainment." Her eyes flashed dangerously. "You help her too much, Xellos-kun. When you die tonight I want you to think of your precious Mistress and the fate she shall soon meet at your failure."
The world around Lina dissolved disgustingly into greys and blues and bruise purples. Naga stood before Lina, alone in this torn world, her blue eyes soft as they caught the redhead's and held them. It was as though Lina could see Naga's conscience drain from her body like a layer of film that blanketed her skin, Naga shed humanity and her eyes bloomed a dull grey, like the boy's. Empty. A thin, lifeless smile passed across her lips and she pulled her sword from its sheath and pointed it to Lina's tiny chest.
"Naga." Lina whispered and she hoped against reason that she would be slain quickly and wouldn't have to open her eyes and bear reality. Not this reality - this was not the real world, the one that she had shared with Naga when she had been younger.
"Lina." Naga's voice was silky and delicate, gentle against the subtle blade she still held to Lina. "We will all die, Lina. Unless you ask Xellos to stop protecting you. Embrace Deep Sea Dolphin. Be her arms and legs, be her weapons. You owe Xellas nothing."
This one truth pulled a taught string in Lina's chest. She did owe Xellas nothing. Why should she save Xellas when she was really just as bad as Deep Sea Dolphin? Maybe worse, Lina wasn't sure she knew the legends well enough to recount now, but they were both insane and manipulating and deserving of each other. At least if she gave herself to Deep Sea Dolphin, she could be with her friends.
Xellos materialized lazily behind Lina, and Naga withdrew her eyes quickly from Lina, slashing her blade away and plunging it deep into Xellos. His image quivered but neither weakened nor became distorted and changed.
"Lina," He spoke, his voice deathly serious, "She is not Naga and she will kill you if you don't kill her."
"What the hell do you think you are talking about?! I'm not going to kill her! I can't! I won't!"
"You have to and you will!" Xellos yelled against the rising white noise around them. "You said it yourself back there! Better to kill than to die!"
"That's not true!" Lina screamed so loudly Naga's cold eyes turned to hers and Xellos' eyes opened just a fragment. "If it's my pain or theirs, my death or theirs I choose my own." Her voice was breaking with exhaustion, with helplessness.
"Noble." Xellos said quietly. "But stupid nonetheless. They will die no matter what. They are already dead now."
"She's not. She's not dead."
"She died when Deep Sea Dolphin took her body. But Iruka didn't take her soul."
Lina shook her head. Naga wasn't trying to hurt her. She wasn't Naga, but she wasn't harming her. "Why didn't you stop it?! She said you're protecting me. Why not them!?"
"I can't. Pointless as well as tiring and in the end you will be stronger."
Blood rushed like thunder to Lina's face and her heart skipped under a gale of cold fury. "You'll burn in hell."
Xellos almost smiled. "Certainly. It is a most obvious destiny."
Naga's empty pupils focused suddenly, her eyes fixing slowly on Lina with renewed purpose. She took her sword in both hands and brought it down swiftly across Lina's chest. Lina jumped back from the blade's edge but not in time as she noticed a large, ruby stain bloom plentifully from her clean white blouse. Naga's eyes gleamed and she brought her sword back to plunge it deeply into Lina's frame but her eyes sprang wide open and her jaw dropped, her limp body falling to the intangible astral floor with an alarming thud.
Lina's sword lay imbedded in Naga's swelled breast and Naga's dark blood painted her voluptuous body gruesomely.
Lina's teary eyes froze open and her head snapped up to the unseen sky and an electricity ran through her like a steady stream, covering her inside and out, knowing her. Through her throat, around her quickly beating heart, through her arms down to her fingertips and back down again along her stomach, her back and down each leg, and then it ran back up until it stopped, resting powerfully in her mind.
"Naga." Lina whispered.
"I tried to tell you." Xellos insisted, his voice unraised and yet somehow audible against the rising din. "They want to be with you. They refuse to hurt you. When you destroy their bodies, their souls are free to be with you. To become part of yours."
Lina's breath caught in her throat and her heart paused. Naga was a part of her? Was it better to kill then? No, Lina resigned, she hated herself so much she couldn't think properly.
The greyish world around her melted into a beige one, smeared with rank plum. A girl stood before her once more, donning a lavender sundress, her deep wine colored hair standing out against it. Her eyes stood out a bleached granite color against her tanned skin and wide eyes. They had seen hope once. They had seen truth once.
"Lina-chan." Amelia's soulless eyes flickered into the sorceress's own.
"No." Lina muttered, pushing herself against the farthest boundary of her dimensional cage. "Not Amelia. Will I have to kill them all? No. No. No. No."
"Hai, Lina-chan. If you want to fight us, you will have to kill us all. But you can be with us if you want. Will you kill a little princess for Beastmaster? Does she matter that much to you?"
Lina's mind reeled. Beastmaster meant nothing to her. Why was she doing this? To survive wasn't enough anymore. Life without Naga and Gourry and Amelia wasn't good enough. Without Zel, there was no point.
"FIREBALL!" Amelia called, her palm opening to Lina's chest. Lina was pinned against the dimensional wall she already backed against, captured by the heat, the pain searing against the wound to her chest and the deeper wound inside her.
"Why do you torture yourself?" Xellos' disembodied voice questioned her from all around her.
"Why do you torture me?" Lina screamed, burnt and broken and alone with Iruka's slave.
"I don't. I don't try." He corrected quietly. "You torture her, you know?"
"Deep Sea Dolphin?"
"Amelia. She can see you. She can hear you. She can feel her arms moving to kill you. She can feel herself hating you. She can hear herself praying to the Lord of Nightmares that you will kill her so she doesn't live her life as Iruka's mindless puppet. Her tool, where she is used to kill and maim and hurt and is trapped inside herself. She can hear herself wondering why you won't kill her."
Lina felt her knees give out in spite of her desperation to live. Her heart rose to her throat and her stomach sank below the ground. How could she put anyone through that pain? Was Xellos trying to convince her she was a horrible person?
"There is a word." Xellos whispered lightly as Amelia's pointed forefinger came to rest of Lina's forehead. "Mercy."
A primal part of Lina understood the word before Xellos had said it. She raised her head, eyes wide, tears magnifying her distorted world. "LAGUNA. BLADE."
For an instant she felt arms from behind her gather her energy in their palms and tailor it into the subtle blade. She saw the power thrust itself deep inside the princess, destroying her body, shattering the girl's very bones.
She felt the same lightening enter her body rigidly. It explored her with both pain and passion, with wisdom and curiosity and came to rest peacefully in part of her mind.
Amelia.
"Two down, Lina. But neither of us is giving it our one hundred percent, are we? No, I didn't think so. Does it get harder Lina? Would they have struck you down in cold blood? Would you forgive them? But then, it's different with you. You at least are doing it for a noble cause. Xellas will be so grateful."
Lina stared up at the quickly dissolving realm around her, one that stank of blood and bone and even death. "I don't fight for Beastmaster! I fight for them!" She screamed into the hurricane winds that smothered both her breath and voice.
The same choked colors and abused yellows and purples painted a small sphere of existence around her. As though he had always been there, a tall, blonde swordsman seemed to form out of the mist that hung grudgingly in the air around both him and Lina. She knew he would be there, knew what she was expected to do and still her blood ached as it pulsed through her. She watched with growing terror as his eyes shadowed over, becoming empty of the kindness she had known of Gourry and saw it replaced with cold, hateful fury.
Gourry reached smoothly, wordlessly for the Hikari No Ken, not needing to call forth the light from it as the blade shone through the gloom with startling brilliance. He stood, sword poised to strike, motionless as though he were daring her to attack.
Lina spoke softly, knowing Gourry couldn't hear her; here, she spoke only to Deep Sea Dolphin. "I don't care anymore. You know I can strike him down easily with magic. I just don't care."
"Were it that simple, Lina." Gourry's deep voice resonated a sinister mind that Gourry could never have possessed. "Will you strike him down with magic? Will you kill him at twenty paces? Was there ever a time you knew Gourry that he wasn't precious to you? Do what you will, cowardly sorceress."
Xellos' voice was distant but distinct against the fury of Deep Sea Dolphin's crazed imagination. "Lina-chan, if you fall for her mind tricks, perhaps you are cowardly. She will destroy you if you do not destroy her first."
"Shut up!" Lina shouted at the disembodied Xellos. "I know the rules! Stupid mazoku! I'll kill her on my own terms."
Her eyes shifted from the bubble-shaped sky above her to Gourry. Not Gourry, Lina told herself. Gourry will be with me when I get rid of her. She shut her eyes for a moment, savoring her breath as it filled her lungs painfully. This isn't the end, Gourry, she promised him silently.
In a flash of adrenaline and desperation, Lina dove forward with dangerous and unexpected speed. She shoved her elbow hard against Gourry's stomach, catching him by surprise. Gourry doubled over, evil eyes wide and Lina took advantage, raising her foot abruptly to kick the Hikari No Ken from the swordsman's hands. The sword clattered to the ground, blade shimmering before winking out completely. Lina dove for the hilt, sliding onto the ground as she clasped it tightly in her hand. Gourry was quick, diving and landing on her, crushing her breath from her body and cracking several of her ribs. Lina winced in pain and Gourry reached for the hilt of his blade but Lina balled her legs up tightly beneath his chest and gathering every once of strength, kicked out her legs, propelling Gourry through the air and onto his back. Lina rose quickly to stand before him.
"Light, Come Forth!" She cried and the blade materialized once more. Lina hesitated only a moment before tightening her grip and plunging it into her friend's exposed chest. "I'm sorry." She whispered softly.
Suddenly, she flung her head back in shock as a mind-numbing awareness passed through her like a lightening bolt. It wracked her body, joining the others in the recesses of Lina's mind. "Gourry."
A man in black leather pants and a jacket stood before her in a state of grim nothingness, his satiny black wings unfolded to catch the wind.
"Zelgadis!" Lina cried.