Title: Slayers Gateway: Discovery

By: Slayersgrl (slayersgrl@yahoo.com)
Disclaimer: I don't own the Slayers… just borrowing them…

A/N: This is the first in a trilogy I'm working on. Only the first part, Discovery, is done so far… Any feedback is greatly appreciated!

~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~

Meanwhile, Lina had just stepped through the other door. After making her way through the darkness, she found herself in a large open field.

"What the…?" she mumbled out loud. Just then, Xellos appeared beside her. He seemed a little disoriented, even though he was still smiling. "Xellos? Wait… where's Gourry?" Lina looked around, trying to see if he had ended up somewhere else.

"I'm not sure where he is…" Xellos said as he too looked around. "He was actually ahead of me when we went through the door." Then he added, "How did we end up outside? I thought…" But the mysterious priest didn't get to finish his sentence because he suddenly disappeared.

Lina turned around and noticed that she was now alone. "Xellos! Get back here!" When she got no response, she decided to start looking for a way out of the field.

Xellos' was thoroughly surprised when he felt himself being transported somewhere. Out of curiosity, he didn't try to teleport back to Lina. He soon found himself in a large marble throne room. At least, that's what it appeared to be. Xellos walked around examining the sparsely decorated room. Then he sat down on the large throne to wait for whoever had brought him there.

A voice from behind startled him. "You are a strange one indeed…"

"And why do you say that?" Xellos asked. He still couldn't see who was talking to him. Whoever it was still stood behind the throne.

"I can tell you have an old soul. And yet… those you choose to associate with seem like mere children."

Xellos frowned. "I have my reasons."

"Come now. There are no secrets here." As the last sentence was spoken, the owner of the voice stepped into view.

"Gourry?! Amelia?! Zelgadis?! Xellos?! … Adara?" Lina shouted in frustration. "Where is everyone?" She had been walking for a while now, but she still hadn't seen anyone.

Lina sighed. She was worried about the others, but she was especially worried about Gourry. "I hope he's okay." she whispered to herself.

Gourry slowly opened his eyes. "Whoa! What happened?" he asked. Then he glanced around and noticed that something wasn't quite right… After a moment he realized what was wrong. He was floating in the air!

Frantically, he reached out and tried to grab the wall. But it was just out of reach. "If anyone can hear me," Gourry yelled, "get me out of here!"

After a moment, a soft laughter interrupted the silence. "Don't worry. You're not in any danger."

"Huh? Who said that?" Gourry got no response. Then, angrily, he shouted, "What have you done with the others?" Yet again, there was no response. "If you hurt any of them…" he said as he reached for his sword.

"Calm down child! No one has been harmed." Then a slight breeze blew past Gourry. "Besides, even Gornova would have no effect against me."

Then a large gust of wind blew Gourry backward towards the stone wall. But instead of hitting it, he passed through it unharmed. There was a flash of light and then he was standing on solid ground. In fact, he was standing in the middle of a large open field…

Gourry sweatdropped. "I'm so confused…" But his thoughts were interrupted when he heard a familiar voice shouting. He ran towards the sound and saw who it was. "Lina? Hey Lina! I'm over here!" he called out as he kept running towards her.

Lina turned around and glanced in Gourry's direction. However, she had a bewildered look on her face. Then she turned back around and continued walking.

Gourry kept calling out to her but the sorceress didn't seem to hear him. When he finally caught up to her, he reached to grab her shoulder. "Hey Lina. Didn't you hear me?" But she walked right through his hand! As if he wasn't even there…

"What's going?" Gourry thought out loud. Then he ran up in front of Lina. "Lina? Hello?" But this time she walked right through him!

The confused swordsman didn't know what to do. He figured he should at least follow Lina. Even if she didn't know he was there…

Lina had been walking along when she suddenly felt a weird sensation. It was like she was being watched. She turned around to see if someone was behind her, but didn't see anything. There was only grass and sky as far as the eye could see.

So, she kept walking. Suddenly, she felt very cold. Lina shivered slightly and kept walking. "There's something really weird going on here."

"You can say that again!" Gourry muttered beside her. Of course, Lina didn't hear him.

In another place, Xellos was now talking to a mysterious stranger.

"Come now. There are no secrets here." As the last sentence was spoken, the owner of the voice had stepped into view.

Standing before the surprised Mazoku was a beautiful woman. She had long black hair that flowed out behind her. She wore a slim, dark purple dress with a long white cloak. Around her waist she wore a belt with a few keys attached. In her hand she held a long wooden staff with a jewel on the end. But the most startling of the woman's features were her eyes. They seemed to pierce through to the very soul of the priest sitting before her.

But Xellos was determined not to show how he really felt. Instead, he calmly stated, "So, why are you so interested in all my secrets? I'm sure they are of no concern to you." He paused and then opened his eyes. "After all, you are the keeper of this temple. Are you not?"

The woman smiled slightly. "Ah. You are quite perceptive."

Xellos returned to his normal smiling expression. "So, what did you do with the others?"

She didn't respond right away. Instead, she held her staff in front of her. The crystal at the end glowed a dull blue and then a circle of light appeared in the air. It dimmed until Xellos could discern some familiar looking figures.

"Oh, I see." He continued to watch through the glowing orb.

Back in the mirror room, three of the characters were still staring into the depths of one of the mirrors. Suddenly, Zelgadis seemed to wake up from the trance. He shook his head to clear his thoughts and then looked around. He was back where he had started out. "What's going on?" he asked.

Then the chimera noticed the two girls. They were both just standing there. "Oh great…" he muttered. Zel stood there for a moment, trying to figure out what to do. Then he spotted a conveniently placed bucket of water. He ran over, picked it up, and then proceeded to dump it on the head of the royal Princess of Seyruun.

Amelia reacted almost instantaneously. "AHHHHH!" she screamed as she blindly cast a Fireball.

"Amelia! No!" Zel yelled. But it was too late… The fireball exploded in front of him, hurling him into the mirrors behind. However, the spell did manage to awaken the other girl in the room…

"AHHHHH!" Adara screamed as she then fireballed Amelia.

As Zelgadis was caught in the blast, again, he thought to himself, "Why me?"

Gourry glanced over at Lina for what seemed like the hundredth time. "Can't you see me yet?" he asked. There was no response.

Silence followed and then Gourry asked again, "How about now?" No response.

About five minutes later, he was going to ask again when a low rumbling noise interrupted him. Lina seemed to have heard it too because she stopped and appeared to be listening for which direction it was coming from.

The noise got louder until it was almost deafening. Lina and Gourry both held their hands over their ears to lessen the sound. Then, without warning, the ground shook and split open.

Lina was caught off guard and fell through the deep hole.

"Lina!" Gourry shouted as he reached out to catch her. But she fell right through his hands. There was nothing he could do as she disappeared in the darkness.

Xellos was too absorbed in watching the orb to notice that the woman behind him suddenly disappeared.