For the Love of Evil
A Snake to Kill, a Snake to Heal
By: Kiavie Willowroot

Lina hovered over Amelia worriedly.

Zelgadis had carried her to the lower decks, resting her on Filia's bed. He kept stroking the hair at her face, frowning to himself. Gourry had checked the ship to see if there was a doctor anywhere, and Shyphiel went to tend to Xelloss.

You care about her more than you would like to admit... Lina thought to herself.

Amelia was getting worst, that much was apparent, her skin was so pale she looked like she had never seen the sun. Vincent walked up behind Lina.

"Excuse me...how do you know that name?" He asked quietly.

Lina turned slowly to him "So...you don't remember. But you recognize the name, eh?"

Vincent nodded. "My mother found me when I was a new born baby. She said I was wearing this locket which had a name on it," He indicated the silver chain around his neck. "But she thought that name was ugly, so she named me something else." He stood quietly for a moment. "I'm going to get something to eat. I'm hungry." He opened the door and walked off.

"Unnnggghhhh." Lina heard a familiar hung over moan that she had not heard in years comming from outside the room. Lina burst through the door to behold her old friend and rival.

"NAGA! What the hell are you doing here?"

"Huh? Lina! Oh, trying to get away from that nutcase witch town! They didn't like what I was wearing, of all the nerve."

"Oh, Naga, it's great that you are here! You need to heal my friend!"

Naga quirked and eyebrow. "Lina...you can do it yourself, I'm sure."

Lina shook her head, knowing she was going to have this rubbed in her face later. "No, my, and a few others, have our powers taken away. She'll die without help, Naga!"

Knowing this wasn't time for boasting or belittling Lina's confidence, Naga stepped into the room and looked at the black haired girl.

Buh-dump...buh-dump...

Naga could hear her heart beat. She dove out of the room and looked around frantically.

Lina chased her down and caught her. "Naga, what the hell are you doing? I thought you were going to help!"

"No..Lina you don't understand...."

"Is it that time of the month?"

"No.."

"Then you are right, I DON'T KNOW WHAT THE HELL IS WRONG WITH YOU! But if you don't save that girl, I will never forgive you. That man in their holding will go beyond not forgiving you and will kill you, that I can assure you, Naga."

"Can you help her?" Zelgadis asked, comming out of the room. "If you can, I'll pay you anything. Name your price..."

Lina looked at Zelgadis startled, then to Naga, and was in for an even bigger surprise.

".....I'll help her. No need to pay me." Naga walked in quietly.

"No pay? YOU turned down money?" Lina stared incrediously.

Zelgadis stepped beside Lina, leaning down to whisper a question to her. "How do you know her?"

"She's my old traveling compainion. Before I met any of you, she was the person who I worked with as a Sorcress for Hire...though often times we were competitors also."

Zelgadis nodded and pulled another chair up to Amelia's bedside, since Naga took posession of his. Naga was brushing her hair out of Amelia's face and smiling sadly.

"Naga...what's with you?" Lina asked, senseing the discomfort and sadness eminating from her old friend/rival.

"You'll see Lina." Naga began murmering the recovery spell. Her hands glowed, the glowing sinking into the princess' body and spreading. The color immediatly began to return to Amelia's face. Zelgadis let out a greatful sigh and watched the princess.

Her fingers twitched.

"I really must be going Lina..." Naga stood up and made her move to get away, but Lina held on to her. "What is it Naga? Why does Amelia scare you?"

"Sis?" Amelia said weakly, looking at Naga with wide eyes.

"Hey, brat. You've grown." Naga said, smiling at her.

Amelia's eyes began to tear up. "Onee-san!" She tried to get up, but was still a little weak.

"WHAT?" Lina exclaimed. "You two? Th...th...that....that...w..wou...would me..mean...t..." Lina was totally shocked as she pointed to Naga stuttering.

"That I am also known as the Princess of Salliun, Gracia. But to you I am still Naga. Keep it that way." She walked up to Amelia. "Wow...you are really big!" Her eyes drifted a little downword to Amelia's chest. "Ha! See that mom gave you her blessing also."

Amelia looked down at her chest and blushed, draping her arms over it in an attemp to hide it. "Um...where have you been?"

Naga asked at the same time: "What have you been up to?"

Lina left the room, with Zelgadis behind her. She closed the door. "That...was weird."

"What was?" Gourry asked quizzically as he walked around the corner. "Sorry Lina. There was no doctor...how is Amelia?"

"She's fine, Gourry. A friend of mine healed her." She said in an absent tone. " I never thought those two were sister...but it makes sense. They both have a very small grip on reality, totally filled with self confidence, and their own sense of warped justice. And they even look alike. How come I never saw it before?" Lina walked past Gourry keeping herself in deep thought.

"I think I am going to have a talk with Vincent." Lina pounded into the dining area of the ship, and found Vincent right off the bat, eating a bowl of noodles. She sat down next to him and placed her chin in her elbow. "Do you have dreams?"

"Nani?" He asked, arching an eyebrow.

"Do you have dreams that are kinda odd." Lina asked, remembering something about Xelloss remembering them though dreams. Then the thought of Xelloss sparked an idea.

"Well, yes." He said carefully.

"Come on, then, I need you to meet one of my friends." She took his hand and without waiting for a response pulled him around until they came into Xelloss' room. Lina pointed at Xelloss.

"Does he look familiar?" She asked.

Vincent frowned. "I know that I don't like him."

Lina smiled. "There's a start." She shuffled around through Xelloss paintings, hoping that maybe he painted..."A ha!" She pulled out the canvas, looking at the mostly done painting. "How about this?"

It was a painting of Gaav.

Vincent blinked and gently took the painting into his hands, examining the face, the hair..."He's.." He took his index finger and traced the face slowly. "I know him. How do I know him...?"

Lina knew it was working. she dug through the paintings and pulled out a picture of Filia. "And this one?"

He snatched it out of her hand and looked it over. "Mm..." He did the same tracing thing. "Something is not right...her ears...they're not pointed..."

Lina grinned. Oh yeah, the wheel was turning. She dug through more portaits, until she found a very good one. "Here..." She handed it to him.

It was a very detailed painting of Valgarv, his winds half spread and sitting on a rock with a moon behind him. "Me..this is me." Vincent placed his hand on one of the wings. "Me..."

Lina flashed a victory sign at Zelgadis. "I'm just glad we didn't have to use Shyphiel! She doesn't like to do it."

Lina dug in pile and pulled out a portrait of a woman with a little blonde child on her lap. The same woman from the other portrait.

Vincent gently took the painting, looking at it with wide eyes. "Filia mama..." Suddenly his eyes closed and snapped open as he dropped the picture. "Where is Filia mama?" He stood looked around the room expceting to see her.

"She's not here Val." Lina said, trying to calm him down.

He turned to stare at the redhead. "Lina...?"

"Yep, in the flesh. And you look pretty confused. I'm just glad that you are nice." Lina said cheerfully, pretty confident that, with his experiance with Filia and not being a mazoku, chances where he wouldn't try to kill them.

Val sat down in a chair, looking at Zelgadis and Gourry, who stood behind the sorceress. "Why am I here? What happened?"

"First, what would you like us to call you." Lina asked.

"What?"

"Well...you've been called Vincent, Valtreia and Valgarv. Which is it now?"

"......Just call me Val. I think that's best. Where is Filia?" He narrowed his eyes, suspecting something was up.

Shyphiel walked in, striding slowly. "Oh! Vincent! You're here...." She was startled by the look on his face.

"Call me Val, Shyphiel."

"Uhhhh...sure...Val...I just came in to check on Xelloss san. I'll be needing that chair please." Shyphiel nodded to him as he stood and offered her the chair.

"What's with him?" Val growled, indicating Xelloss.

"Coma. Be easy, Val. The same thing happened to him. He's been a human for twenty some odd years. Trust me, he did not like remembering who he was. Shyphiel said that his mind was on the verge of collapse before Filia hit him, it would have happened eventually. In short, Filia and Xelloss where taken from us, somehow, as well as yourself, sent "back in time" I suppose as human babies and lived your lives as humans...what Dolphin is up to completely is beyond me though. Well, Xelloss and Filia I guess ended growing up together, and getting married."

Shyphiel took Xelloss' temperature, checked his reflexes, and washed his face with a washcloth.

"Nani?" Val asked, his eyes growing large.

Lina held her hand up to stop him. "That's not all. They have a daughter, named Tsunami, who was kidnapped by Dynast. Filia, after having hre memories returned and flipping out, smashed Xelloss with a hammer, thinking this was all a trick made by him. The impact caused him to fall into a coma and shortly thereafter Filia was also kidnapped, but by Dolphin. So when Xelloss wakes up he's going to be really pissed off for a good reason so DON'T provoke him Val." Lina finished the sentence with a level stare at the former mazoku/ancient dragon's direction.

He responded with a stare of his own.

"Hm?" Shyphiel made a sudden startled noise, her back becomming ridged for a moment. "Xelloss-san?" He touched his forehead and brushed his bangs back with her cool hand.

"Nani?" Lina asked quietly, hoping, yet dreading, that maybe he was comming to.

"I..I thought I felt him squeeze my hand." Shyphiel looked at his face closely, examining it to see any form of movement. "Lina san! I think he's waking up!" The shy woman cried out happily.

A light groan excaped his lips as he tossed his head to the side and opened one eye, taking in Shyphiel. "Ung....how long...?" He mumbled, closing his eye from the pain that the dim light caused his weak eyes.

"Almost a week. Not long when compared to a lot of cases of coma out there. You are very lucky." Shyphiel whispered to him, gentley laying her hand on his arm.

"For some reason, I don't feel like a lucky person." He muttered, opening both of his eyes slowly. He turned his head again and saw Lina, and gave her a smile. "Ah, who is AH!" Xelloss suddenly realized that it was Valgarv standing next to the red head. He sat up quickly, in reslut feeling the shape pain of a pulled muscle in his back. He flinched in pain, but kept his eye on the blonde. "What the hell are you doing here?"

"I might ask you the same." Val replied, crossing his arms over his chest and leveling a trademark glare of his at the former mazoku's direction.

"Knock it off, you two. Xelloss, we need to talk." Lina stepped between them, getting ready to sit down when Amelia came in with Naga behind her.

"Ne, Lina san. I think it would be better if Shyphiel and I do the talking. Would you mind leaving the three of us alone?" The princess asked in a polite tone.

Lina got the feeling that this would probably be best. "Alright. I'll just grab something to eat...that is if Gourry and Zelgadis haven't cleaned us out already...or maybe just Gourry." Lina winked at the girl and pounded out, dragging Val and Naga behind her.

"Xelloss san, I chose the two of us to talk to you becasue I feel that we could relate it the best to you, since we have both experianced this." Amelia brought up a chair and sat next to Shyphiel, giving Xelloss a meaningful look.

Shyphiel nodded in sudden understanding of the princesses logic of the choice of the two of them. "Xelloss san, this is difficult, but I am afraid to tell you that Filia and Tsunami are gone."

Amelia, seeing the look on Xelloss face, decided to quickly amend Shyphiel's statment. "They were both kidnapped. They could be alive, but I am not sure considering who took them. Deep Sea Dolphin took Filia, and Dynast took your daughter."

Xelloss sat up slowly, looking at both of them with a dead stare. "So....." Xelloss drifted, not sure of where his thoughts were going.

Shyphiel put her hand on Xelloss' and gave him a sad look. "And I am sorry to tell you this, but..." Shyphiel took a deep breath. "There is no way I could think of someone telling me about my father when it happened except to give it to me simple. So here it is...Marner passed away. Dolphin attacked the ship, and he went overboard. Tsunami just...snapped. She started talking, Xelloss san. She was screaming something about there being no more sadness and Dynast came and took her away. Then right after that Dolphin snatched Filia. I'm really sorry."

Xelloss chose not to look at her when he realized where she was heading, not trusting himself to a calm reaction. He bit his lip and stared at the wall, his mind mostly blank.

Papa....I want some icecream! Icecreamicecreamicecreamicecream....

Allright! Allright! Calm down, or ye gonna pop, boy....

Papa! Filia-chan is picking on me again!

You're the one who brought her home boy!

Nice to see you again papa.

Ha! Like it is ever nice to see you! Troublemaker! How are my girls?.....

Xelloss dropped his head and faced his blankets.

Fi-chan! Stop it! No! Stop! Ha ha ha ha ha ha ha!

But it's fun to tickle you! Maybe I'm not trying hard enough!

Filia! You are so destructive! And emotionally unstable!

Why you....NAMAGOMI! Get back here and take it like a man!

Filia.....I....

I love you too, Xelloss.

He clutched his head, his mind flooding with emotions and images.

"Xelloss san?" He heard both girls ask simotaneously.

Papa! I got it! Tee? Tee?

Yes, I see honey. Let the frog go now.

Papa! Papa! Lookie! Lookie!

No! Tsu-chan don't touch that! It's hot! No! Oh for the love of L-sama....

*silence*

Won't you please say something sweetheart?

"What is going on?" Xelloss whispered so quietly that the girls could not heard him.

Xelloss, become the next general.

Get your vengence.

Save your family.

Restore the order.

"No!" Xelloss cried out. For some reason, he was out of breath. "...*gasp* I.....*gasp*....wont......*gasp*.....I....*gasp*.....wont...." He repeated the same phrase over and over.

Amelia develped a concerned look on her face, but managed to hold back Shyphiel. "No, Shyphiel. this is something personal of his. He wouldn't want comfort. We should leave now." Amelia stood, taking the shy woman's arm and leading her out the door, closing it behind them gentely.