Chapter 8: Hey! He can't die, we like him, sort of.

Amelia blinked at her sister, biting her lip.

"Are you sure you can't do anything, Gra- Nahga, I mean?" Nahga shook her head.

"I told you, I specialize in shamanistic, not white." She tossed her head, "Besides, I'm sorry, but I don't know why you're helping this character. He follows you around, annoys you, doesn't help you at all, most especially when you need it, and he seems like a jerk to boot." Amelia blinked at her.

"Well, yes, all that is true, but.." Amelia thought. She blinked. She turned to Lina, who was still poring over her BIG OL' BOOK, "Hey Miss Lina. Why are we helping Xelloss?" she asked. Lina looked up from her book.

"Mmm? Oh, I don't know. Because he would do the same to us, if it happened to be advantageous to him." She said. Amelia thought about that..

"Oh? You're probably right." she said, "Finding anything?" She asked. Lina blinked, and whapped the book with the back of her hand.

"No." she said flatly, "Right when it gets to the good part, the part that might actually help us.. They switch authors on me!" She said, pounding the big ol' book in exasperation. Amelia sweatdropped.

"Miss Lina, I would have more respect for the dead if I were you.. You haven't had the best luck with ghosts." she murmured. Lina's eyes widened, she growled, blushed, and then buried her face in the book. Gourry was standing out in a flower-filled field, and sniffing the fresh, crisp air. Silphiel blinked up at him.

"Gourry-sama.. What are you thinking about?" she asked. He looked down at her, eyes wide in the 'Gourry Huh' position. He smiled.

"I don't know. How nice it is today. How cool the breeze is.. How there are fifty bandits coming this way.." Silphiel facefaulted.

"Nan da?" she said. Gourry looked across the field, where a bunch of very not nice-looking fellows had just arrived, and were glaring in their direction. Pissily, I might add.. "Should we go?" Silphiel asked urgently. Gourry shrugged.

"Naw.. I can take care of them." He said, drawing his sword. Silphiel blinked, frightened. He glanced at her. "You stay back." He said. The bandits, being really, really stupid, ran up screaming,

"FOR THE REVOLUTION!!!!" Gourry smiled, and yelled with equal ferocity,

"HIKARI O!!!!" The bandits stopped in their tracks. Gourry, not one to give up on opportunity, ran up, and sliced them all up.. Ok.. They weren't dead.. But they were hurting. Meanwhile, in the deep forest, perched on a tree, stood a sinisterly smiling figure..

*Hmm.. Impressive.* he thought, *Then again, I was told he was impressive. However. He may be a burden to my plans.. I might have to.. eliminate him.* He hopped down from the tree. Gourry cocked his head,

"Trouble coming." He warned vaguely. Silphiel glanced at him, eyes frightened, and then nodded, and stepped back. Gourry frowned, and as he did, the sword of light flared

"Where are you?" he shouted angrily. The figure clad in darkness seemingly appeared from nowhere. Gourry crouched and brandished his sword, "Who are you?" he asked. The dark figure smiled. He was tall, though not quite as tall as Gourry himself. Gourry estimated him to be a little shorter than Zel. His clothes reminded Gourry vaguely of Vrumugan's, though more flashy, and naught but his smile and a shock of dark hair showed beneath the cloak. Gourry frowned. The figure smiled,

"Ah. Gabriev." He said. Gourry was taken off guard, but only momentarily. He growled.

"How do you know my name?" he said through gritted teeth. The figure smiled,

"I have my sources." he said, "Those are questions that will all be answered in time.." Suddenly, his eyes snapped to the place where Silphiel hid. He smiled, and suddenly he was there. He took Silphiel by the chin. He smiled at her, and she winced, "Lovely, you are. Just lovely. There was another, lovely like you.. Of course.. She didn't feel as good as you do." He smiled, "You make me tingle." He said in a dark voice. Silphiel winced away from the tone in his voice. Gourry's eyes widened,

"You leave her alone!" he shouted. He swung the sword, and the energy rippled menacingly, waving towards the figure. He smiled.

"Very impressive. Perhaps you won't be as easy as I thought. Ah, well, it would tip off the others if I killed you now anyway. Besides.." he said, kissing Silphiel lightly on the cheek, "Torturing you like this is so much more fun." He grinned, "But I have no time for this. I must watch myself." he said. He smiled, and turned, pointing a finger at Gourry, cocking it back like a gun, "Die." And just like that he was gone. Silphiel shuddered.

Gourry ran up to her, sheathing his sword. He sneered, "I think we should go back, Silphiel, looks like this place has gotten too dangerous." he said, shielding her with his strong arms and guiding her back to the others.

"Hey! Here's something.." Lina said, face still buried in the book, "Looks like during the War of the Monster's Fall, ten thousand years ago, this same thing was used by the golden dragons, in an effort to combat the mazoku." She said. She glanced at Xelloss, as if wanting it confirmed. Xelloss nodded,

"Yes, that's true. I remember. A rather interesting story, actually.. It seems that a lesser demon servant of Dynast and the general of Deep-Sea Dolphin joined forces for a brief time, to create a creature which would spread among the ranks of the golden dragon, letting fear infect them and causing them to be disheartened." Amelia blinked.

"That's horrible! It's like.."

"Guerrilla warfare." Gracia finished. There was a glint in her eye which none of them had ever before seen.. It was the glint of pure blood lust, probably at the memory of some long-ago battle. Nahga shivered violently. Amelia placed a hand on her sister's shoulder. Xelloss glanced at them out of the corner of his eye, and continued.

"Well, it seems that when they released it among the ranks, it decided that it would be more prosperous if it instead infected the much more easily infested mazoku dragons. After that failed experiment, the golds discovered the dragon symbiotes, and used them to their advantage, killing the dragons and harnessing the poison. Obviously, Dinas and Aqualine were put to death immediately, and measures were taken to get rid of the poison.." he sobered, "However.. We lost more than I can say in that folly. And we never found a cure. After the war, we never had need to. The symbiote was never encountered again, since then." He sighed, "If only we had thought to find it, just in case. But. We were busy." He said, almost as if giving an excuse. Lina sniffed,

"Well, shoulda is not helping us right now. Why don't we try the best alternative. Lana!" Lina called. Lana walked up.

"Yes, Miss Lina?" she asked.

"In a few days, you're probably going to have to perform that holy cleansing thing on Xelloss.." Xelloss sat up.

"WHAT?" he said, "That would kill me!" he said. Lina shook her head.

"No. Not if you were human. You said you were getting your powers taken away, and that you would become human. Correct?"

"Right.. But not after a lot of pain and suf-"

"And that means that you won't be weak against Lana-chan's magic, correct?"

"Well, yeah, but.."

"So then, everything's Ok, right?" Lina said crossing her arms, "I don't see a problem." She said. Xelloss opened his eyes, and they were cracking and sparking.

"But.. If I am human, I can never become a mazoku again. Not even if I was killed and resurrected by my mistress, the white magic will have corrupted my body too much. And, that means in the end that my mistress will send someone to kill me, and create a new Xelloss Metallium, instilling that Xelloss with all my memories, but the ones that were counterproductive. Not a good way to go. I am eternally grateful to my mistress, but she may demote me for dying on her." Lina put her book aside, staring at him with hard eyes.

"Look, Xelloss Metallium. If you want to die a horrible painful death, with all the weakness, and all the hallucinations, and all that fun stuff. Then you go for it. But. If you want to live, even a very short life, you will let us do what we can. And fight. It's the least you can do for all of us who are stupidly helping you." She said. Gourry ran in.

"We met up with some bandits, but I took care of them." He said, panting, "But I don't think we're safe here anymore. You wanna get a move on?" he asked. Lina looked at all the faces around her, and nodded.

"Sounds like a decent plan to me." she said, slinging her big ol' book into the giant bag, and throwing it to Amelia. Amelia staggered under the weight, and then Gracia and Nahga ran up, maneuvering their bodies so as to bear some of the weight. Amelia smiled in relief.

Zel, who had been leaning on a tree the entire time, stood up, and put his hands on his hips.

"All right.. We can go." He said. He sighed, his mind still assimilating everything he had heard. As he walked, he thought about it. It seemed to Zel that Xelloss was frightened.. And though he thought that usually that would make him pleased, even a little smug, all it did was frighten him more. It also seemed to him that Lina didn't realize that when Lana performed that spell, that she would become infected with the power draining creature. He must have been looking at her funny, because she slowed her pace to talk to him.

"You are thinking something bad about me, I can tell.." she said, making a motion as if to tweak him on the nose. He shook his head.

"No. I just wanted to know if you realized that when Lana performs that spell." Lina looked down with momentary recognition. He knew she knew. She shook her head.

"Lana would never agree to it if she thought it was an empty sacrifice." Lina said, "I know that because it's the exact opposite of what I would be thinking. To give myself up for Xelloss? Someone who would be resurrected anyway? What.. I shudder to say the word.. justice is in that?" Zel smiled faintly,

"Just so long as you know you're limitations.." he joked. Lina looked at him, eyes serious.

"Zel. You know how much I care about every person in this motley group? I would do this for any one of you. I mean, I'm doing it for Xelloss, and I don't even like him that much. He creeps me out." Zel nodded.

"I know, Lina. I can see it in your eyes. You were meant to be a leader, but it's getting to be tough, isn't it?" he asked, eyes narrowing. He looked forward, "I know how that is." He said, with a hint of hidden pain in his eyes. Lina squinted at him, mouth halfway open.

"Zel." she said, "You.. You still think about Rodimous and Zolf, don't you?" she asked. Zel turned away. Lina put a hand on his arm, "Zel. That was in the past." She said. Zel turned to her.

"It was my fault.." he said faintly, "I pulled them into it. But. Lina, did I ever tell you how I met them?" Lina shook her head, and Zel went on, "It wasn't just, these are Rezo's helpers, they're now under you. They never trusted Rezo, they trusted me. It was back, right after I was.. cursed." He said, memories taking him into the fading mists of his own past..

"After I was cursed, there was a time when I couldn't talk to anyone. I spent my days in Rezo's lab. It was long after he had left, so I had to stay there with Eris."

"Why are you moping so?" Eris asked, a tinge of irritation in her voice. More irritation about her creation, less irritation about Zelgadis. She frowned, "Go get me the things on this list, perhaps that will help. I can't be bothered to leave my work. Rezo-sama is counting on me.." Zel went cloaked, as he always did.. However, the hometown gang was always stalking around, looking for trouble.

"Hey, what's your problem.. Kid?" one of them said, " Why are you all covered up?" Zel tried to push past him. The punk kid sneered, "trying to get away, huh?" he had asked, and he whipped Zel's cloak off. He gasped, and backed away in horror, and so did the rest of his friends, "You- You're a freak!" he had said. Zel had turned cold eyes to them, and growled, baring his teeth. He tried to draw his sword, before he realized that his reflexes had not completely adapted to his new body yet. The sword flew out, taking his hand with it. The youths stepped back, watching his sword fly into the underbrush and chop up the branches there. They smiled. One of them stepped up to him, and grabbed him by the collar. He went limp.

"Who are you, freak?" the lead boy asked. Zel spat on the ground.

"Zelgadis." he said, "Zelgadis Greywers." A few of the boys crossed themselves. The Lead boy gaped.

"The Red priest's apprentice!" he said, and made the sign against evil. He had only gotten halfway through it when an axe plummeted at his feet. He stepped back with an exclamation of fear. A stocky man with graying brown hair stepped up.

"Do you find joy in bullying the young?" he asked in a gravelly voice. Another man stepped from the bushes, a sorcerer by his looks. He had long blue-green hair.

"Because we don't stand for that." He finished. The boys twitched and ran off, but the Lead boy had a warning for them,

"You don't know who you're saving!" he shouted as he ran. The men turned, but by then, Zel had gotten his cloak back on. The blue-green haired one leaned down.

"You needn't worry, boy, we have seen, and we don't mind. You resemble nothing I have ever seen before, and I like that." Zel covered up his face with his cloak and one hand. The blue-green haired one smiled, "I am Zolf. This is Rodimous. We have no cause, and we wish to take up yours." The memory faded, leaving a pleasant tone in Zel's mind, and he sighed, turning back to Lina, who had a rapt expression on her face.

"They later told me that they had heard of me, and been intrigued. They had sincerely wanted to help me find my cure. You could tell what a fanatical kind of guy Zolf was.. He became that fanatic, about my cure. And when Rezo said that he would help me become cured if I found the philosopher's stone, we all then championed that cause. After I realized he wasn't going to deliver, they stood by me. I feel as if it was my fault that they died." He paused, blushing, "But, I've said too much." He said. Lina shook her head.

"No. Thanks, Zel, now it's easier to remember why I do things like this."

A dark figure in a tree above them shook his head.

*They amuse me. Now I know why I was sent here.. To kill them.* He said. On the ground, Lana shuddered involuntarily, and then smiled weakly at Xelloss, who was leaning against a tree. She sighed,

"Gracia-chan." She said. Gracia left Nahga and Amelia to take care of the burden and walked over to where Xelloss was, slinging him over her shoulder. He smiled weakly, his eyes open to mere slits. Lina bit her lip. This was going to be a hard decision.