Trapped in Stone! What's the Real Reason?
The statue girl regarded the trio skeptically. Now that she was no longer made of stone, she actually had some color to her. Her hair was jet black and extended to the small of her back. Her vest was navy blue, and her blouse a faint violet. She wore lighter blue travelling pants and black boots. "Okay, who are you guys, and how did you get down here? Did my sister send you, or are you just more of those people?" she asked warily. Her only reply was a few blank looks. She scratched her head. "Look, at least say something, so I can make sure we're all speaking the same language here."
Sylphiel held out the silver ribbon. "Um, are you mad at me because I took this? Sorry, I thought you were just a statue...."
The girl cautiously took the ribbon, looking confused. "Statue? What do you mean stat....?" Her eyes widened, like she had just realized something. "Oh hell." She tied the ribbon around her wrist for safekeeping, then began patting and looking through her vest pockets. "Knowing sis, she probably left me... a-ha!" she exclaimed, triumphantly pulling a folded piece of paper out of her pocket. Lina, Zelgadis, and Sylphiel simply looked on, completely lost.
"Pardon me," said Lina. "But do you think you could explain who you are and why you were sealed in stone down here?"
The girl waved her hand, reading the note. "Shush. This is more important." Lina was somewhat taken aback as the girl read down the note, looking decidedly unimpressed. "'So sorry, dear sister,'" she read aloud, sounding rather bored with the note. "'This was done for your own protection', yadda yadda. 'The following are instructions on how to'...." She raised an eyebrow and shook her head. "Hmm..." She read the rest of the note in silence, until she got to the end. "'P.S. Since you're reading this note, it obviously means that someone released you, so please do yourself a favor by eliminating them.'" She gave the note a flat look for a few moments, while Lina, Zel, and Sylphiel assumed a defensive stance.
"Why kill us?" said Sylphiel. "This was all just an accident."
The girl shrugged indifferently. "Accident shmaccident. You're trespassing, and now you must face... the consequences," she finished darkly, lowering her head. The other three backed away, not terribly sure what that comment implied. The girl stood motionless, glaring at them for a moment.
And a moment longer.
And a moment longer.
"Crap," she said, finally. "You're not going to make this easy on me, are you?"
"If 'this' involves trying to kill us, you can bet your butt we're not going to make it easy on you," replied Lina, who cupped her hands to prepare a fireball if things got ugly.
The girl looked at the note flatly again, then back at Lina's group, then back at the note. "'Do yourself a favor by eliminating them'," she read again. "Sis, what were you ON when you wrote this? 'Eliminate them'. Yuh-huh, right. With WHAT, pray tell? I'm not exactly Miss Mighty here." She glanced at the books on the desk. "Those're no help." Then to a pile of cinderblocks in the corner. "Like I could lift those." Then to the ribbon on her wrist. "Yeah, right." Then to the broken weapons. "Why do we even have those?" Finally, her eyes rested on something promising. She smirked smugly and glanced back at Lina's group, who had stopped paying attention to her a few minutes ago and were currently chatting amongst themselves.
"We need to track down whatever asylum lost this one," Zelgadis muttered.
The statue girl snorted and proclaimed, "Okay, I've delayed the inevitable long enough, but now you shall face the wrath of..." Lina, Zelgadis, and Sylphiel snapped out of their conversation and looked warily at her. "The wrath of..." she continued, stretching out her arm to grab the object she had in mind. Finally, her fingertips came in contact with it, and she sneered. "Feel the wrath of... the CHAIR!" she exclaimed, lifting the menacing piece of furniture over her head.
Lina smacked her forehead. "No wonder they kept her sealed up. Fireball," she announced halfheartedly. She sent the ball of flame flying, and the chair that had once threatened their lives lived no more.
The girl dropped the pile of ash and shook her head. "Well, she can't say I didn't try. Oh well, guess I can't kill you now. It would just be a hassle, anyway. Besides, judging by what the rest of that letter said, sis wasn't really in her right mind when she left instructions. Anyway, you three don't look very suspicious."
Lina eyed Zelgadis at the "don't look very suspicious" comment. She shrugged. "Ah well, maybe this kid has a higher tolerance for people who are different." Zel didn't respond.
The girl sat on one of the shelves and looked at them intently, like parent waiting to hear a child's excuse for breaking a lamp. "Anyway, now that that's all cleared up, I'm curious to know how you got down here. Your intentions may have been benign, but you've broken and entered nonetheless."
"We... opened the doors and went down the stairs," Lina stated obviously.
The statue girl nodded. "And?"
"And what? That's all there was to it," Lina replied.
The girl looked confused. "You mean... you didn't run into any of the traps? You weren't stopped by any barrier spells? No illusionary passages?"
"Lina actually went so far as to go around looking for those," Zel said, dryly. "But this lab is about as uneventful as a deserted street."
"But.... if the wards are gone, then....." she whispered. She leapt off the shelf and ran up the stairs.
"Whoa, wait a sec!" Lina shouted, hot in pursuit. She soon realized, however, that running up an endless flight of stairs was extremely tiring. A Raywing spell solved that problem, and it quickly closed the gap between her and the fleeing girl. Lina caught up to her and grabbed her by the shoulders. "Hold it!" she commanded.
The girl tried to squirm free. "Let me go!" she shouted. "You have no reason to detain me, and I just want to check something!"
Lina had the girl pinned to the wall. "I'm not letting you go anywhere until you explain some things. Like who you are and why you were sealed down in that lab."
"Believe me, it's best for you if you not know anything about me or my situation," the girl said, her cheek pressed against the stairwell wall. "But my name's Sonjia, okay? And if you must know something, I was sealed down there for protection. At least that's what my sister said."
Lina smirked and chuckled. "What kind of protection? Protect you from the rest of the world... or the rest of the world from you?" The last thing she needed right now was to release some rampaging demon.
Sonjia narrowed her eyes and looked Lina straight in the face. "Bite me."
Something about that completely shocked Lina, as she lost her grip and fell down a few stairs, allowing Sonjia to make her escape. Zel and Sylphiel finally caught up to her at that point.
"Lina? What's wrong? What happened?" Zel asked.
"Violet eyes," Lina whispered. "She's got violet, slit-pupiled eyes...... Like a Mazoku."
Sonjia reached the top of the stairs, panting. She had no clue as to what had just spooked the orange-haired sorceress, whom she had heard referred to as "Lina". But she took that chance to make her escape. "Sorry about that, Lina, but you've got no right to ask information from me," she said to herself. "And there's something I've just gotta know." However, finding that out wasn't going to be easy, as she realized she was standing at the bottom of a 20-foot hole.
"Well, this is definitely different from what I remember." She dug her hands into the side of the hole and proceeded to climb. The ground was extremely loose, however, and it took all her strength to keep herself from slipping. "What I wouldn't give right now for a little Levitation," she muttered as she reached for the top.
Lina and company got to the top of the stairs just in time to see Sonjia's feet disappear over the top of the hole. "Come on!" said Lina, snapping a Levitation spell in place. "There's something weird about that girl, and I want to know what she thinks she's up to." It was Lina's experience that told her to let sleeping dogs lie. Anyone or anything sealed up like that usually had a really good reason to be. And she really didn't feel like being held responsible if this Sonjia girl ended up blowing up the world or turning everyone into chickens or something.
When Lina got out of the hole, however, she discovered that her culprit hadn't gone too far. In fact, Sonjia was standing right at the edge of the hole, completely still and stark white from shock. "Wh.... When did this happen?" she uttered. She was gazing out upon the pieces of houses strewn about, and the hundreds of workers working to rebuild them.
"Oh, I should have known," said Sylphiel. "It must be a shock to you seeing the city destroyed like this. But we're making good progress rebuilding."
Sonjia turned and looked at Sylphiel. "RE-building? As in building again? How long ago was it first built?"
Sylphiel thought a moment. "I believe it was first established shortly after the Mazoku War ended, about a thousand years ago. Why do you ask?"
Sonjia gulped. "Cuz the last time I went down into that lab, there was no city here..."
"Whoa! Wait a sec!" said Lina. "You mean to tell me that you've been sealed in that lab for over a thousand years?"
Sonjia nodded quietly. "Man, one kick in the butt after another." She sighed and fingered the ribbon still tied around her wrist. "You mentioned that the Mazoku War ended a thousand years ago. Would you happen to know who ended up winning?"
"Uh, it was a stalemate, sort of," said Lina. "Ceipheed broke Shabranigdo into seven pieces and sealed him away, but exhausted his energy in doing so. So, even though the war's over, the world is still in dispute."
"Ah," said Sonjia. "I sure was down there a lot longer than I thought I was. So, now I guess my only problem is that I've spontaneously acquired a thousand-or-so year memory gap." She rubbed her hands together. "And now that I'm back, I guess the first thing to do is hit the history books."
But before any of them could say anything more, the foreman had tracked down his victims, who were once again not working, much to his dissatisfaction. "Okay, so what's your excuse this time?" he grunted, folding his arms across his massive chest. Lina and Zelgadis cowered in fear.
"S... sorry!" said Lina. "We just wanted to check out...."
"I'm not very happy with you guys right now," he boomed, rolling up his sleeve. "And you don't wanna see me mad!" Lina covered her head with her arms to hide from the scary man.
Sonjia, on the other hand, was looking back and forth between Lina and the foreman, completely confused. "So what makes him all high-and-mighty?" she asked. "You sure didn't seem like the cowardly type."
Lina would beat her up for the "cowardly" comment later. First not considering Zelgadis suspicious, and now not being intimidated by the massive hulk of a foreman standing before them? Being sealed in stone for a thousand years must have done something to this girl's sense of perception. "Can't you see?" said Lina. "He's scary!"
Sonjia raised an eyebrow. "I guess the definition of 'scary' has changed in the past thousand years. I don't find him the least bit threatening. And considering my current condition, that's saying a lot."
"But.... he's so..... big!" said Lina.
"Guess the definition of 'big' has changed too," said Sonjia, scratching her head.
The foreman clomped over to her. "You feel like picking a fight, little lady?" he growled, staring her straight in the face.
Sonjia was still decidedly unimpressed. "Go on. Hurt me."
Lina jumped up. "She's nuts! What is she trying to prove by standing up to that guy?" She was beginning to think that maybe this girl was sealed up because she was crazy. If it wasn't that, her bad attitude was a sure second.
Zelgadis jerked on her cape to get her attention. "You said she had Mazoku eyes, right? If she really is Mazoku, what could a guy like that do to her?" he reasoned.
Lina blinked in realization. "I guess you have a point there." She smiled. "But if she is a Mazoku, then I guess she won't mind a fireball for that 'cowardly' remark." She began charging up a ball of flame in her hands.
"And if she isn't Mazoku?" said Zelgadis.
Lina had already released the fireball. "Oops." The fireball went sailing at Sonjia, who was still standing her ground against the massive foreman. At the last second, she sidestepped it, letting the foreman get burned to a crisp.
"Hm, even though it missed, that felt pretty rewarding," said Lina, cracking her knuckles. Zel couldn't help but agree with her on that one. Lina looked back at the charred foreman, only to notice that he was quite a bit shorter now than she remembered. He coughed up a bit of smoke.
"Lina-san, was that really necessary?" he said innocently, in a higher, but immediately recognizable voice. Lina could feel her face burning with anger as she menacingly took a few steps toward him.
"Xellos....."
He immediately found himself in a headlock, experiencing Lina's wrath. "How dare you go around telling me what to do and acting all scary like that!" she growled at him. "I should Dragon Slave you for that!"
"Glad to see you're feeling braver," said Sonjia, off to the side. "Told you he wasn't very impressive."
"Ne, Zelgadis-kun!" Xellos shouted to the sulking chimera. "I rather enjoyed you following my orders for once! You should do it more often!"
"I can't believe I was tricked by that two-faced fruitcake of a Mazoku," Zel grumbled. "By the way," he said, addressing Sonjia, "how were you able to see through his disguise like that?"
She raised an eyebrow disdainfully at him. "It's a secret."
And for Zel, that confirmed it. Sonjia was a Mazoku.