Author Notes: cool! More reviews! Yay! I love reviews ^_^ anyway. I'm trying to establish some sort of plot midst the insanity here, people! Hope it works!

Disclaimer: I don't own slayers blah blah blah, you know the drill. L'ri, Cleo and Kai'ila are creations of my own warped imagination though so hands off. No touchie!

Lina-tachi near a fork in the road. Actually, one side was blocked off so they really had no alternative but to take the left side- but I needed a sentence to start the story.

However- this is Lina Inverse we are discussing. And, in the words of Xelloss before he was smeared across the canyon wall like vegemite on toast,

'If Lina-chan wants to take one road, she will TAKE that road no matter if there was a five-course meal and a pile of treasure behind her.'

(as the author I doubt this but it sounds like the dumb comment Xelloss would make)

So, as the situation was, Lina's friends hid behind a boulder with their fingers in their ears and armed with sunglasses and army hats.

'DRAGON-SLAVE!'

Lina brushed off her hands and peeked over the top of the boulder.

'You can come out now.'

'I don't see why we couldn't have taken the OTHER path, Lina-san.' L'risia said.

'There's a town closer on this side,' Lina said, and went starry-eyed. 'With food, and real beds-'

'Shopping?' Cleo said hopefully. L'risia rolled her eyes at her friend.

'Probably, Cleo, but you spent all the money in the last town we stopped at remember?'

'I found some more.' Cleo said vaguely with a wave of her hand as the group continued on their way, kicking aside remaining pebbles. L'risia's grey eyes narrowed at the blonde and Kai'ila said suspiciously,

'Where?'

'Oh, you know, lying around.' Cleo said, the realisation dawning on her it was probably not an intelligent diversion line.

'WHERE was it lying around?'

'Uh-in the-bank-'

L'risia disappeared with a growl. 'I'll be back with a sword for you as well, Kai'ila.'

'Right. HOW MUCH DID YOU TAKE?'

'Not much!'

'Yeah right. L'ri?'

L'risia appeared a little way up the road and waited until the group caught up.

'It's very unjust of you to go around taking other people's money, Miss Cleo-' Amelia was saying. L'risia looked amused at Cleo's pained expression.

'Tell you what Cleo. We'll let Amelia give you lessons about borrowing money for the rest of the way, and you can go shopping, otherwise we'll tie you to the bed in the next in and wave the latest surf shoes in your face.'

Cleo snorted.

'Please, Princess, continue.'

'Do I want to know where Cleo went?' Val asked at the table that night. L'risia was sitting on the chandelier a little to the left of the table, and looked down, shaking her head.

'It's late-night shopping, Val.'

'Oh.'

L'risia turned her attention back to the grey box she had on her lap.

'What's that L'ri-san?'

'Er- you wouldn't understand, I'm afraid Amelia.'

Amelia pouted. 'Try me!'

'Its- not something from this world, princess.'

Xelloss floated up and looked over L'risia's shoulder. He tapped it.

'I've seen one of these; Zelas has one by her chair. She said it's from a world on a parallel-plane to this, a bit like this world-but different.'

'Ye-es.' L'risia said reluctantly, looking at Kai'ila, who smacked her forehead. 'Ah-'

'IT'S A COMPUTER!' Xelloss shouted gleefully, yanking it from her hands.

'Give that back you-you fruitcake!' shouted L'risia. 'I haven't saved it yet!'

'Saved what, this?' Xelloss looked at the writing on the blue-tinted screen. His eyes widened (they opened) and were dragged to the end of the sentence. Suddenly the Trickster Priest fell out of the air and landed cross-legged on the ground, reading furiously.

'He can read.' Observed Zelgadis rather nastily. L'risia looked completely mortified.

'GIVE IT BACK!'

Xelloss waved a hand vaguely and caught the mace Filia swung at him easily, pulled it out of her grip and gave it to Kai'ila without looking up.

'Eh?'

'Look after this-' he said abstractedly.  Kai'ila blinked at the Mazoku and then at L'risia.

'That must be a really good story.'

'Of course he thinks it is. He's one of the bloody main characters.'

The next morning, Cleo still hadn't returned. This was, as L'risia put it, rather worrying since she was unsupervised and tended to act irresponsibly with alcohol.

'I'm sure she can look after herself.' Amelia said. Kai'ila snorted over her cup of tea.

'YOU'VE never seen her drunk.'

'Yeah- one time she got so drunk she was staggering around singing the theme song to star wars-' Val stopped. L'risia dropped her cup of coffee. Xelloss dramatically spat out the bacon he had taken from Lina's plate. Zel's blue eyes widened, while Lina and Amelia just stared at the dragon, mouths open, along with his mother.

'YOU REMEMBER THAT!?' Kai'ila shouted. 'THAT WAS MILLENIA AGO!'

'Er- seems like yesterday-' Val said, trailing off. Filia blinked at him.

'….' Zel managed.

L'risia disappeared.

'Where'd she go?'

'Probably to ask Mother what the hell is going on.'

'Mother?' Xelloss asked, looking amused. 'If mine is Zelas than your is-'

'L-SAMA!'

'Well- yeah.' Kai'ila said, looking at their expressions. 'What?! We told you before! Can we go find Cleo now?'

They found her. Well- technically, the entire city found her before they did. They just went in the opposite direction in which they were running- it was a bit like looking for Lina Inverse.

'Look for the destruction and listen for screams.' Zelgadis snickered, and ducked a fireball.

'HEY! CLEO!' yelled Xelloss as they neared a smoking crater. 'You alive?' he asked quite cheerfully.

'Yes!'

Cleo wandered out of the dust. 'Oh its you.' She said, looking thrilled. (not)

'Listen we have a problem. And his name is Casper.'

'The Friendly Ghost?'

'This one, though I wish he were dead- he is far from it and also definitely not-'

They all ducked a sheet of fire as it scythed over their heads.

'Friendly?' L'risia suggested.

'Yeah.'

'This wouldn't be Caspnast…?'

'You got it.'

L'risia rasied an eyebrow. 'Dynast's priest? I thought he was dead!'

'So did I, you can imagine my shock when he tapped me on the shoulder and then tried to kill me.'

'Hardly.'

Cleo snorted. 'I didn't actually know it was him.'

'Who else is there?' a curious voice asked. Cleo rolled her eyes. L'risia rolled up her sleeves and pulled a baseball cap out of nowhere. Her clothes changed to blue jeans and a black t-shirt, a blue and white over shirt and green half-gloves. Kai'ila groaned.

'L'risia-'

'I'm on a high.' Her friend grinned, pulling out a red-and-white ball.

'What's that?'

L'risia looked at Val and then the ball in her hand. 'Well- it's supposed to be a Pokeball but since I doubt a Pokemon would be any use against Casper, then it's bottled magic.'

She threw the ball. A young man strode out of the smoke and caught it, looking at it.

'Nothing happened.' Xelloss stated.

'Uh, L'risia?' Zel asked. Kai'ila and Cleo dropped to the drop, fingers in their ears. Gourry, showing an amazing grasp of the situation, grabbed Lina and pulled her down, and Amelia yelled.

'GET DOWN!'

Suddenly a mechanical-L'ri-voice shouted, "RA-TILT!"

BOOM.

Filia coughed the sand out of her mouth and let someone help her up.

'All right Fi-chan?'

'NAMAGOMI!' shrieked the dragon, snatching her hand out of his and smashing him with her mace.

'What was that for?' Cleo asked her, picking herself up, 'he didn't do anything Filia.'

'He-he-he TOUCHED me-'

'Argh-' Cleo groaned in exasperation.

'How did you DO that?' Lina asked L'ri, her eyes starry with all the thoughts that a postponed and bottled spell could have the potential to DO-

'HEY!'

They looked at the youth, his face blackened and he looked REALLY pissed off. He lunged at L'risia.

'Yike.' The girl whimpered, and instinct took over the priestess, forcing her to bring what she had in her hands up and down. There was a splintering crack.

'MY LAPTOP!' she wailed, looking at it. 

She glared at the young man at her feet, and a fire lit her eyes as Cleo and Kai'ila gasped in shock. Kai'ila fumbled through the green electronic-thingys that make the computers work.

'No-' she whimpered. 'IT WAS GETTING TO THE BEST PART YOU BASTARD!'

Cleo lifted the boy up by one finger and drew her right fist back to punch him.

'HOLD IT.' Xelloss ordered, taking him out of her hands.

'Eh?'

'This ones mine. I WAS IN THE MIDDLE OF A FIGHT IN THAT STORY!' he wailed, anime-tears streaming out of his eyes. 'IT WAS SO HEART-WRENCHING!!'

'What was?'

'In the middle of a fearsome battle and leaving the main characters half dead and wounded, the author chose to leave the end of the chapter hanging as Xelloss and Filia, forced to fight for the same reason stood up to face their mutual enemy, how in one hand had the power to crush them like the broken glass of a wine goblet-' Xelloss wailed dramatically, sniffing. As one, Lina, Gourry, Zel, Filia and Amelia looked at L'risia.

'That wasn't quite it, actually.' She said, rubbing her head in an embarrassed sort of way. 'Get on with it, Xelloss.'

He stopped crying. 'Oh, right-' he grinned his best fruitcake grin at the scowling Casper.

'Hello. My name is Xelloss, the Trickster Priest.'

'I'm Caspnast, Priest of Dynast and sent to destroy you.' Caper said, wrenching himself out of the trickster's deadly grip around his throat and taking up a fighting stance.

'How original.' Commented L'risia.

'Yeah.' Cleo struck a dramatic pose. 'I am the Great and Wonderful Cleo, Queen of Good Fashion Sense and General-All-Around Cool Chic!'

'Modest, too.'

'No one asked you, Zel.'

'AND I am the beautiful and famous Lina Inverse!'

Casper blinked. 'Who?'

'Uh-oh-' Filia said as Lina's eyes glowed scarlet with fury, little veins popping all over her forehead. 'Er- why don't we introduce everyone else?' she said, and muttered to Val, 'go find some water would you Val?'

'Sure.' He trotted off.

'Of course how rude-' Xelloss sighed, and waved a hand at his companions. 'Do excuse my terrible behaviour, Casper. This is Zelgadis- resident stone-boy, Princess Amelia Will Tesla Sailunne, Champion of Justice' he couldn't keep the snicker out of his voice. Casper sniggered.

'Go on, I'd like to know what names to put on your gravestones. With the exception of you, Xelloss.'

'Why thank you Casper.' Xelloss said, but his purple eyes opened and narrowed dangerously. 'The tall dumb blonde warrior is Gourry, and the red-haired mage you were introduced to before is indeed the famous Lina Inverse, one of the main people responsible for the downfall of Copy Rezo, Gaav and Darkstar-'

'Er- about Gaav-' Amelia said. '-it was really the Hellmaster-'

Xelloss shrugged. 'And the other three are-

'Kai'ila.' Kai'ila grinned. 'Almost as unbearably cheerful as Amelia.'

Casper groaned at the thought.

'Cleo has- already introduced herself, and the one groaning over the grey box you smashed is-'

'I SMASHED?!?!' Casper demanded.

'My computer-' L'risia was heard moaning. Cleo rolled her eyes.

'Her name is L'risia, Resident author and anime nut.'

Val came back and dumped the water of a still-raging Lina. Her face went from scarlet to hot pink, although you couldn't see it though the steam for a while.

'BRAM BLAZER!' shouted her voice, and the spell had no effect whatsoever on Casper, whom it hit. He blinked.

'Oh.' Was all he said. 'My clothes are all dusty-'

Kai'ila looked at him, narrowing her green eyes. This boy was Dynast's priest- where was the general? Still, they were Mazoku- they never worked together if they could help it.

Dynast's priest was actually quite good looking and looked a bit like his boss. He had messy brown hair and brown eyes, and was quite tall. He wore navy blue combat pants and a brownish-red short-sleeved tunic, matching boots and had his hands stuck into his pockets. L'risia, who had changed back into her normal clothes picked up the pieces of her computer.

'Can you fix it?' Gourry asked.

'No.'

'Are you sure?'

'Absolutely, Gourry-san.'

'Aw- that's a shame.'

'Yes. It is.'

Controlled anger was building up inside the priestess very, very quickly. Kai'ila finished her assessment of Casper, before Cleo's mind-voice spoke in her head.

Can you do it?

Do what? Kai'ila replied silently, though she had a feeling she knew what her friend meant.

That Mazoku-binding spell.

Well- I think so but-'

Do it, L'risia's own telepathic message cut it. She sounded mad as hell. The priestesses' telepathic links were different to normal. Usually they would expose all emotions to the people receiving the message, but this link was different, a separate radio station, so to speak. It was a very finely tuned radio, and the three could control just how much they let on.

I was just thinking up a really good ending.

Kai'ila nodded.

'Xelloss, would you step aside for a minute?'

'Eh? Kai'ila?' he asked as she pushed him aside and fixed Casper with a steady green gaze.

'Hi!' she said cheerfully, her hands behind her back as she chanted the spell in her mind.

By Your power

Fill my hands with light…

'Hello.' Casper said, looking at her curiously. 'You wish to fight me?'

'Not really,' she said cheerfully.

Let me bind the darkness

And restrain it from the night…

'What do you plan to do then?'

'I was going to ask you whether you'd like to come with us, actually.'

Through the nightmarish rule

That you have over this earth-

L'risia had a vengeful smile on her face and Cleo smiled angelically as Xelloss, Filia, Lina, Amelia and Zel all started shouting at Kai'ila. Suddenly Filia stopped, noticing the glowing ball of swirling black and white light in Kai'ila's cupped hands behind her back. Xelloss could feel the dark power swirling in an invisible cloud around the girl.

'What?' Casper laughed, dark power forming in his own hands. 'Foolish girl!'

'Maybe.'

Guide my hand to bind him

And chain him for Your mirth-

'About now-' murmured L'risia as Zel and Amelia and Lina fell silent. Gourry shut up as well.

'What're you up to?' Casper asked suddenly. L'risia and Cleo nodded to each other and sent their power to their friend, who used it to force up the aura of swirling black and white lights.

'MAZOKU BIND!'

'WHAT?!' shouted Filia, Zelgadis, Xelloss, Lina and Amelia. Gourry didn't get it. Casper screamed.

A few seconds later after considerable surprise, agony and fireworks added for dramatic effect by Cleo-

Casper fell down gasping on the dirt road, blood he wasn't supposed to have streaking his face and body.

'Help him up, someone.' Kai'ila said, slumping to the ground. Val was the first to move from where he'd been standing behind L'risia. Slowly he and Zel pulled the gasping Mazoku to his feet. He looked into Kai'ila's green eyes.

'What- did you do-'

'I cut off your Lord's power. For now, you're almost human.'

'….bloody hell.' Val murmured.

***Well? What did you think?! This is a longer chapter, I know ^_^ but its to make up for the chapters I won't really have time to write for the next week people…gomen!! Exams, you know how it is- tragic.

Luv the reviews people!

Ja ne

Star-chan.