Chapter Four: Let There Be Lina…or not.

'Lina…'

Lina Gabriev opened her eyes slowly. She was standing in complete darkness, a complete and utter void. A void of, well… voidness. There wasn't anything there, but a small sound.

Footsteps, getting closer. Lina's muscles tensed.

'Who's there?' she asked. In the direction of the footsteps, there was a pinprick of golden light that quickly grew bigger, exploding in front of Lina's eyes.

'Uh-' the mother mumbled, covering her eyes.

'I am blacker that the blackest pitch-'

Lina's eyes widened as she slower her hand ,wincing again in the bright light, though it slowly ebbed away.

'Deeper than the deepest night. I am the golden light that shines upon the sea of chaos. I am-'

'-the Lord of Nightmares.' Lina breathed, as vibrant gold reflected off body parts, and the final excess light gave away. The entity itself gave off it's own light, and took the form of-

'Me?'

The Lord of Nightmares smiled quickly.

'Once I have taken some form, it is easier to appear to a mortal in that form. Your race finds it easier to deal with one who is of a physical appearance.'

'Where am I?' Lina asked, accepting this situation with the unquestioning air that comes with all dreams. Dreams?

'This is a dream, Lina.' The Lord of Nightmares said. 'And I have appeared to you because I ask a favour of you.'

'Well, I'm flattered.' Lina grinned, putting her hands on her hips. 'What is it? Do you want me to save the world? Again?'

'Yes.'

There was a small silence, and Lina got a hold on herself.

'Get straight to the point, don't you? All right, what does this involve?'

'Did you notice L'risia was acting rather strangely recently?'

'L'ri?' Lina repeated, scratching her head. L'risia… one of the three Priestesses of Chaos that the Lord of Nightmares created… for some reason.  They could cross dimensions as easily as most people could walk and possessed the same power as the Ancient Dragons, of darkness and light. Chaos magic. L'risia had chosen to stay in this world, unlike her two best friends, the other priestesses. Lina had never asked the girl why she stayed, but L'risia had hinted she had something of a Guardian role over the world. Like a permanently summoned Lord of Nightmares, except with half the power.

'Well, she was acting a bit weird, yeah. Like she hadn't had enough sleep or something. Is that what you mean?'

'Yes, it is. It appears she told you nothing, then. That's good.'

'HOW IS IT GOOD?!'

'Calm yourself Lina.' The Lord of Nightmares said, and never explained what she had meant. 'As usual this quest involves high-level danger and knowing this world, quite a lot of random stupidity, anthropomorphic personifications, the probability of skipping dimensions is quite high and it'll probably take about two months to sort the whole mess out. We need powers of light and darkness and your group seem to fit into this quite well.'

'Powers of light and dark?' Lina murmured. Well… she was a dark sorceress, and Gourry had –or used to, anyway- the sword of Light. Zelgadis was not the most cheerful of people and Amelia tested the limits of the state at times. Xelloss… well, he went without saying, just like Filia.

'I see.' She murmured.

'But.' The Lord of Nightmares supplied.

'Huh?'

'The next word you were going to say was "but".'

'Yeah, well, the thing is… my powers waned when I become a mother, and I'm out of practice… the fact is that all of us are. Oh, and Gourry and I are going on our second honeymoon soon and the others are coming over for a reuniting-thing for the first week…'

'And the role of looking after the world doesn't really appeal to you anymore.' The Lord of Nightmares said, in summary. Lina's smile was slow and sweet, the kind of smile she'd never worn before ten years ago.

'Yeah… I guess.' There was a small silence. 'But I think I can recommend some people who'll meet your criteria.' She grinned a grin she'd been using most of her life. Most people close to her ran when she wore it.

'Oh really.' The Lord of Nightmares said, though she already knew what the woman was going to suggest.

'What?!'

Roudy bounced up and down.

'Yay! Val's going to look after us while mum and dad are away!'

'Now wait a second Lina, mum-' Val started. Roudy and Rina both turned big watery eyes on the boy, who hesitated.

'Y-You don't want to spend time with us, V-Val?' Rina stammered, crystal salt waters trickling down her cheeks.

'Ah-' Val managed.

'Of course, L'risia's been notified as well.' Lina said cheerfully. Val vaguely wondered later how exactly Lina had managed to get a hold of L'risia, since no one had known where she was for the last few months. Still his mood lightened a bit. He looked back at the children, who were threatening to burst into wails of anguish.

Xelloss sniggered as the boy slumped in his chair.

'Oh all right. I guess I don't have a choice.'

'L'risia said she'd finish her work and get back here by tomorrow morning, when the ship leaves.' Lina said, with the cheerfulness of someone who has just sacked a babysitter she despised. 'I expect you to take the children on a decent tour of the country, Val. They get bored easily.'

'Yeah, for your sake kid, don't let them get bored.' Gourry advised, and was slammed into the floor by his still sweetly smiling wife.

'Er… there's something else?' Val asked. Lina's expression was making him nervous.

'Let my kids get hurt and I'll rip out your entrails and tie them around a tree.'

Val's face drained of colour as he looked at Lina's unmoving smile.

'Understood.' He croaked.

'Where is she?' Filia said, looking around. Val sweatdropped as Roudy waved to his parents from his position on the young dragon's shoulders.

'Mum, it's not like I can't take care of myself. L'risia isn't my babysitter, ya know.'

'Yes, but-'

'FI-CHAN! WE'RE GOING TO BE LATE! STOP ACTING LIKE A MOTHER HEN!'

Val sighed as Filia swung around like an avenging angel mace at the ready.

'XELLOSS!'

Val, Rina and Roudy were silent as they waited for the dust to settle, and quietly watched Xelloss get beaten to a pulp on the deck of the ship.

'Well, that worked.' Rina said eventually.

'Yeah. THANKS XELLOSS!'

'No problem.' Xelloss waved back, catching Filia's mace as it came down and standing up, dusting himself off.  He spun, beaming. 'L'risia!'

He caught the startled blue-haired priestess right out of teleport and kissed her full on the mouth.

'XELLOSS!' Filia screamed, the first one to say anything. Val tried to pick his mouth up off the cobbles as L'risia stumbled back a couple of paces when the priest let her go, and teleported next to him. Val caught her around the shoulders.

'You all right?'

'Fine, fine.' L'risia said, pink staining her cheeks. She shook her head. 'Fine.'

'You're still blushing.' Val told her, surprising himself with the harsh note in his voice. L'risia gave no sign she'd heard, and pointed at Xelloss.

'What's gotten into him, anyway?'

'I think he's on a Piss Off Fi-chan crusade.' Val said after a moment's thought. Then he added, 'Again.'

'Oh.'

'Does L'ri like Xelloss?' Rina asked, looking at the two older beings. They stared at the little girl, and burst out laughing.

'Hell no. At least not in the way you mean.' L'risia snickered. Her in love with Xelloss… gods….

'They why are you blushing?'

'Er- when you're older you'll understand.' L'risia said, sweatdropping. Rina pouted.

'L'riiii-'

'Fine.' L'risia said, too embarrassed to say anything aloud, and so bent down to whisper in Rina's ear.

'Oh.' The little girl said. 'Mum said one time she blushed when Xelloss kissed her too. Is that why?'

'I'd place money on it.'

'What'd you say?' Val asked. L'risia gave him a Look until he said,

'I'm not gay, you know. Is he sexy or something?'

'For some reason, yes. Oh, look, the ship is leaving.' L'risia seemed relieved. Val sniggered inside while they waved the ship off. She'd lived for who knows how long and she still got embarrassed about that kind of stuff. Funny. Now he was free to spend two months with her… and the kids, of course.

'Rei-niichan!' Roudy squealed, running up to a tree. L'risia and Val blinked.

'Do you think he ate some of those funny mushrooms we took off him last night?' Val asked. They were three days out of the seaport and heading to Sairaag to visit Sylphiel, whom Roudy had never met and Rina couldn't remember very well. Sylphiel had gone back to help with the rebuilding of the city and as a white priestess, was quite an important figure in the town. As a result she couldn't come to Lina's reunion because of a festival held at this time of year, but she'd promised to come and visit when the group got back.

'No…' L'risia said, wandering over to the tree and looking up into the branches as Roudy waved to nothing. She cast Roudy a curious look before swinging a booted foot at the tree so had it shook.

There was a thump sound, and Val shot back from where he'd been standing, about a foot to L'risia's left. Rei shimmered into visibility, nursing a knee.

'Ow. I think I landed on a rock.'

'You poor hard-done-by soul.' L'risia soothed, patting his head in an overly sarcastic manner before offering him her hand. Rei gripped it and pulled himself up, brushing down his clothes. He looked at Roudy.

'How did you know I was there, Roudy?'

Roudy blinked, taking his thumb out of his mouth.

'You mean… no one else did?'

'Hm.' L'risia murmured, scratching a cheek thoughtfully.

'I thought invisibility spells were near impossible for humans to do.' Val said, raising an eyebrow at Rei. As the boy turned around to grin mischievously, the wind caught his mop of electric-blue hair. Val's eyes narrowed. The tips of the kid's ears were pointed.

'Really?' the boy asked. 'I didn't know that.'

Val was disturbingly reminded of Xelloss, except as far as he knew Xelloss had only ever lied outright when he'd told Lina she could trust him.

'Uh-huh.' He said. A sweatdrop slid down L'risia's forehead.

'Anyway, let's get going.' She said. Rei nodded, marching ahead in a rather stupid manner with the children, raising clouds of dust.

'Off to save the world! Again!'

'What?'

'Really?'

'Huh?'

'Oh shit…' L'risia muttered, covered her face with her hand as Val looked at her.

'What saving the world?'

'Oh, she hasn't told you?' Rei asked, before L'risia could say anything. The priestess didn't bother teleporting and clobbering him over the head, because then Val would really know something was up and keep at it until she told him anyway.

'Tell us what?'

'We're the Lord of Nightmare's crack team!' Rei said, striking a pose L'risia related rather disturbingly to the symptoms of watching way too much Magical Anime Girl shows. 'Since Lina and her pals are retired, so to speak, we must carry on the sacred tradition and save the world from an evil that does not discriminate!'

'….' L'risia muttered, as Val stared at Rei and then her.

'L'ri…um…'

Rei continued.

'From beyond the Gates of the Death is came, seeking blood and chaos! In this world founded upon Chaos, it knows it has the best chance! With the Mazoku clan weakened and the dragon, it is up to us to defend the legacy!'

'What legacy?' L'risia muttered.

'Dunno, but it sounded good.'

'Will you two please explain what the hell is going on?'

'So We're the new… Slayers?'

'You could put it like that.' Rei grinned. 'Except we know what's going on fairly early in the story, is all.' Val glared at him.

'Okay, another question… what the hell are you?'

'Ooh, you're sharp.' Rei grinned, showing fangs.

'Actually you weren't being very discreet.' L'risia muttered. 'Perhaps I'd better explain. You know Fibrizo was knocked off, right, and before him was Gaav.'

'Yeah…'

'And a few years back, Dynast was killed.'

'Yeah…'

'I'm their replacement!' Rei announced. Val stared.

'You're.. three Dark Lords? Including the Hellmaster? All in one?'

'Well, I'm not them, but I have their powers, yes.' Rei said, and winced as L'risia shoved his head into the dirt.

'Actually he's not that powerful yet; he's still learning. He's only about three years old so the Lord of Nightmares is feeding him his powers slowly as he gets used to them. He's still more powerful than you or I, though.'

'What about Xelloss? When he's a Mazoku.'

'Definitely.'

Val stared at the maliciously grinning Rei.

'…whoa.'

'Amazing, aren't I?' Rei grinned. This time both Val and L'risia shoved him into the ground.

'Shut it, rabbit boy.'

'Rabbit?' Val asked, wondering about the connotations.

'Yeah.' L'risia said. 'In case you haven't noticed sex is all he thinks about, and when he's acting cute he grows bunny ears. You'll see what I mean if he sticks around.'

'I don't even like rabbits.' Rei muttered, pouting and hugging his knees. A pair of long, sandy-coloured rabbit ears waved on his head. Rina squealed, going sparkly-eyes.

'That's so adorable!' she giggled, stroking them. Rei sighed miserably.

'Stop being melodramatic.'

'Yes ma'am.'

'So we have to save the world from something. And you don't know what it is except it's throwing everything off?'

'Yeah.'

'Well, that explains your bad mood recently. Overwork?'

'You have no idea.' L'risia muttered, as Roudy rested his head on her lap, yawning sleepily.

' 'm tired, neechan.' He mumbled. L'risia stroked his hair away from his eyes. The children didn't really seem to be grasping the situation, which was fine by her.

'Go to sleep then.' She told Roudy. 'I'm sorry you three got dragged in, Val, but it seemed the Lord of Nightmares thought us best and Lina volunteered us.'

'Rei too?'

'Well, no.' L'risia admitted. 'His involvement is compulsory and voluntary.'

'What?'

'I want to do it.' Rei translated. 'But I have to anyway.'

'Oh. Great.'

'You don't like me much, do you?'

'Not really, no.'

'You realise I know why, even if you don't. You're jealous!'

'What?! Why would I be jealous!'

Rei giggled. L'risia sweatdropped as Val calmly grabbed him around the neck and started cutting off his air. This was going to be… interesting…