/Why was I so slow?/ I wonder /My stone body could have offered some protection, at least form the bullets./ She is fading fast. Amelia sets up a medical station, her magical reserves are spent. She tends to Lina's wounds while I depart to the astral plane via a magic circle. After some search, I locate her power signature, but her life force is slipping slowly away, I can feel it ebb slowly from her presence. She is too weak to even project a visible entity. I call to her with my mind, but.. There is no answer, only silence.
Frantically, I confess, in hope that somehow this would give her the strength to go on. "Lina, please, don't go, I know I might have been cruel or harsh but... Lina! Please, for my sake, survive. Please, I love you, don't die! Lina!!!"
Her weak life force grows slightly, almost undetectably stronger. "Koiboto, Ai Shiteru, Shinu na! Ore no kokoro, tamashii!!!" A hand appears out of the darkness and I pull Lina out of the murkiness. "Thank God!"
"And I you, Zelgadis." she murmurs.
She... She does? /This is no time to elate, Zel/ I rush to her side, embrace her, cradle her in
my arms**, sending all my strength, all my love, through our bond. It is too much after a while,
and I collapse.
