Once Upon a Time

by Hotaru

Disclaimer: Not mine... but if anyone wants to donate them to me... I'd be most glad! *grin*

Chapter 14

The two weeks passed rapidly for the two teenagers. But not rapidly enough that they had no time to pracitce and increase their skills. A lot can happen in two weeks, after all.

At the end of the first week, Merlina and Xellos made their way back to Zephyria. They had practiced all that they could and now, they could only wait and gather more information concerning the meeting. During that time, many things had occured.

For example, Xellos gained access to Merlina's copious notes on magic of all types and had eagerly read through most of her scrawls. Merlina let him read and learn. After all, the more he knew, the better off they'd be. Besides, he really wanted to learn how to make better talismans. In her eyes, he relied too much on his talismans, but she couldn't deny that they were very well done and that they helped. A lot.

"What are you looking for?" asked Merlina at times as she curiously watched him read through the manuscripts.

"Sore wa himitsu desu." said Xellos, parroting back at her that phrase he loved so much. Well, not loved... perhaps... tolerated. Well, whatever his sentiments toward that phrase, Lina seemed to crack up whenever he said it to her. "Actually, I'm just trying to learn everything I can." He grinned at her and she grinned back.

Finally, though, the day of the meeting had come.

They woke up early and had a good breakfast. The past two weeks had fixed them up a bit, and although for most people, two weeks of workout wasn't enough to change anything, two weeks of continous physical and magical work out had quickened their speed and increased their stamina by quite a bit.

"You know, it's amazing that we've learned so much in two weeks." said Xellos. He was taking a slight pause in eating. Merlina could tell that he was nervous. He had ordered less food today. Some part of her wondered at their switched roles. Once upon a time, some time ago, she would be the one eating so much. Now,... she was changed, and Xellos was too. In her eyes, he had changed for the best. Gone was the shy, unsure and pompous idiot he used to be. In his place was a young man radiating confidence in himself. He wasn't as prejudiced and he had seen more of the world than he ever thought he would. She smiled. Oh, and he looked cuter. Of course. That went without saying. And then, she paid attention to what he was saying to stop her train of thought. "I can't help but wonder... they will have trained also."

"They are powerful," said Merlina. "And I don't doubt that they are stronger than we know. Even when I was with Merlin and Mesphisel, they never showed me their true power. But they were strong enough without showing off."

"So how are we supposed to win them?" asked Xellos. "I mean... maybe if we teamed up, we might have a chance taking care of either the Priest or the General. But... there are also Dragons involved."

"We will have to attack them one by one, obviously." said Merlina. "The purpose of attending this meeting is not to break it up and fight. It's to know what is happening. I can't help but think that both sides are lying through their teeth. Peace between Dragons and Demons. Yeah right. Give me a break! I'm feeling that there will be an ambush. But we're fast, and we work well together. We can hit them in the confusion. Or we can wait for them to disperse and finish their 'peace' talks. I don't know. I'm not even sure what the point to all this is. All I know is that Zellas is out there looking for me." 'And that this is going to involve you.' she thought to herself. She had been trying to figure out what Xellos's mother's part in all this was.

"Makes sense." said Xellos. He paid for their food. "Let's go." He gripped his black staff. The one that Lina had given him so long ago. It had not been chipped or nicked. He had asked her what type of material it was made off, but she had smiled and said that it was a secret. So he now just used it and was glad for such a strong weapon.

*****

'There they are.' They subconciously thought the same thing.

The two teens crawled quietly through the forests and got as close as they dared to the meeting place. The woods had become strangely silent, with no bird singing and no woodland critters moving. Which meant that they had to be even more silent.

In the clearing, there were few creatures. It was just a meeting. Each side had few people. However, from the Mazoku, only the General and the Priest were there. From the dragon side, there were two dragon elders, followed by their retinue of priests and warriors.

"What is the purpose of calling this meeting?" asked Merlin. Mesphisel didn't like to talk much. Which was just fine be Merlin. He liked to talk. It put people... off.

"To negotiate the new terms of peace." said one of the Dragon elders. Merlina recognized him. He was one of the dragon elders who had tried to sentance her. She smiled. She could feel the tension in the air.

"Our mistress, Beastmaster Zelas, will hear your additions." said Merlin. He looked bored.

"We wish for Zelas to retreat totally from the mortal world." said the Dragon elder. He raised his hand and brought it down, pointing at Merlin. "We will no longer deal with you!" A spell gathered at his fingers and shot out at Merlin.

"How utterly boring," said Merlin. He waved his hands in a dismissing manner and blew the spell to the side, nearly hitting the place where the two were. Fortunately, the noice of the blast masked their exclamations. "But it is interesting, we don't want you around either." Mesphisel snapped his fingers and a huge blast hit the dragon's retinue. There were a few screams as the priests and warriors hurriedly raised shields, looking like soap bubbles in the morning light.

"Yo, Lina?" asked Xellos as he got closer to her. "Mind if I call you that? Anyway,... what should we do now?"

"Um... I'd rather not." said Merlina. "That's what Merlin would call me. And..." She eyed the fight. The Mazoku and the Dragons were fighting with all their might. Each group had been planning an ambush, but neither seemed to have thought that the other team wanted an ambush also.

Mesphisel moved eratically and no dragon was sure of where he was going to appear. Merlin remained stationary, his red eyes glowing. With a simple motion of his hands, individual dragons combusted with no warning. Although there were only two Mazoku as opposed to many, many dragons, the fight was even. For every dragon Merlin blew up or Mesphisel slashed, two more came to replace it.

"You fight who you wish to." said Merlina finally. She had an odd glimmer to her eye. "I'm going to fight Merlin. If you can, see if you can keep them off my back."

"Merlina, it really isn't too wise to.." started Xellos, but she had joined the fray.

Merlin was bored. So he randomly chose two dragons that Mesphisel was fighting and slashed them apart with a flick of his wrist. Mesphisel glared at him before going after the next few. Suddenly, an attack came seemingly out of nowhere and almost hit him. 'Stupid dragons,' he thought, before he batted it away. Immediatly, another blast came at him from behind.

"What?" he asked as he barely dodged it. He extended his senses trying to see who was attacking him. The dragon elder took advantage of his slight confusion and fired of more blasts at him. To his surprise, one of the blasts hit something before getting to him. There was an exclamation, and Merlina appeared out of nowhere and fell down.

"Stupid dragon, watch where you throw those things!" she yelled at him before taking out her staff and running at Merlin.

"Lina..." said Merlin, he dodged another blast by phasing out of the way and appearing beside her. "May I ask what you are doing here, young lady?"

"AAAh!" exclaimed Merlina as she swung her staff and hit him in the gut accidentally. Then she narrowed her eyes. "Don't call me Lina, you monster!" She gathered her power, focusing it into her staff and shot it out. Merlin was forced to dodge again.

"I take it you're not glad to see me, are you?" he asked. He cast another ball of fire at the dragon elder.

"Focus on me!" cried Merlina.

"You know I don't want to fight you." said Merlin. He materialized his own staff.

"I don't care!" shouted Merlina. "You have a lot to answer for!" She focused and teleported right behind him, a ball of ice forming in her hand. She twirled the staff, trying to knock him off his feet. He jumped and just as Merlina threw the ball of fire, he teleported out of the way, hitting the dragon elder behind him.

"Stop running away!" she screamed and then teleported to appear before him again.

"I'd love to play, Lina-chan." said Merlin. "But I have a mission to do. And well... you used to know the importance of missions."

"You're leaving me no choice." said Merlina. She reached within herself and drew out even more power into the staff. "Fight me!" She twirled the staff around and the power flew out like spears of light. Merline dodged a few of them, but one passed through his cloak, another burned his shoe and the third hit his hand.

"Merlina! Watch out!" Merlina turned to the voice and eyes widened as she saw the dragon flying at them.

*****

A few moments ago, one of the dragon elders realized who the girl was.

"It's the Mazoku brat!" he said, surprised. He motioned for a few of his warriors. "Get her. She's one of them also."

"But she's just a slip of a girl!" said one of them.

"She was sentanced, and escaped. We will not let her escape again." said the elder. They nodded, and flew up to her.

"Stop right there!" said a masculine voice. Xellos threw up a wind attack and knocked them off course. "Leave her alone. You guys, will deal with me."

"Hey, you're the child of Kyuzan..." one of them said.

"We can't attack him..." said the other. They tried to fly around him, but Xellos wouldn't let them ignore him. He flew to one of them and shot a bolt of black magic into his stomach while whipping his staff around rapping the other on the head.

"You know, he's annoying." said one of them.

"We can always say we hurt him in self-defence." said the other.

"Which would be true..." said the first one. And both turned on him and began attacking him in earnest. Xellos gritted his teeth as they both materialised their swords and flew at him from opposite sides. He flew out of the way and they veered to follow him. He ducked under one sword swing and brought his staff to knock aside the thrust from in front. He tightened his lips and threw out a clear crystal.

"I don't have time for this." he said and chanted a barrier spell through it. The crystal glowed brightly and flew around him, using a modified wind spell. He smiled at their confusion and reached for another talisman. This one was a blood red one. He grinned at them. "Fire!"

The gem ignited and flew from his hands straight at one of them. He sliced it in half with his sword. Xellos smiled and mouthed another spell. The two halves ignited and flew at him again, keeping one of them effectively busy since each time it was sliced, each half regenerated into two crystals. It was a good trick to use when you needed more talismans to sell. He turned to the other dragon, who had decided that the clear gem wasn't going to harm him, and was flying towards Merlina, sword in hand.

"Merlina! Watch out!" Merlina turned to look and dodged the swipe that was supposed to cut off her arm.

"Hey! I thought you said you'd keep 'em off of me!" she said. She appeared beside Xellos.

"How are you?" she asked.

"I'm doing fine. And you? I'm sorry, I was entertaining another." answered Xellos.

"I'm OK. Merlin won't fight me." she said. "And Mesphisel is busy." And she spoke the truth. Merlin, on seeing that Merlina was safe, he went back to tearing apart dragons with his magic.

"How about teaming up with me and finishing the dragon that's coming towards you?" asked Xellos.

"Looks good. I'll deal with Merlin later." She smiled. "Are you sure you're up to it? I mean... I bet you might even know some of them." She dodged a swipe and absentmindedly twirled her staff, hitting him down with the jewel.

"It's been years. 'sides, they are hurting you." said Xellos. He looked at the dragons. "Well, trying to."

"Don't underestimate us." said a voice beside him. A sword came down and clanged against the crystal gem that was still flying around Xellos.

"Go away. You can't win." said Xellos.

"You can't either." said the Dragon as he flew back and fired a lightning bolt at them. Merlina laughed and this time, Xellos and she flew straight at the dragon.

"Time to fight!" she said. The dragon quickly snapped on his own barrier spell just as two bolts of lightning were thrown at him. He laughed. They were only children. They wouldn't even touch him. Right before, he felt two staffs attacking him in tandem. He ducked under one swipe, just to be tripped in mid air by another staff. His barrior spell started to fade and he shot out a blast of fire in desesperation. It completely missed either of the two, but left him completely open. Two blasts of lightning blasted him from opposite directions, causing him to fall. Merlina twirled the staff in her hands and pointed it at his falling form.

"Die." she said simply. A thin black spear of energy flew out and pierced him. She watched with some satisfaction as the dragon died.

"Go ahead." she said to Xellos. "He may be a minor dragon, but his white magic will improve your barrior gem." Xellos looked at the Dragon, an unreadable look on his face.

"We killed him." he said.

"Correction. I killed him. You helped me knock him down. Big difference." said Merlina.

"But..." started Xellos.

"But nothing... he would have killed us if he had his way." she said. She turned around and fired a sickly green blast at another dragon flying towards them. She pursed her lips. More dragons were coming. And while she knew she had enough power to deal with them. She needed to keep an eye on Xellos also. She made up her mind. She grabbed the comatose Xellos and dragged him towards the earth. She grabbed one of his clear crystals and concentrated quickly on it. She didn't have too much time to add the power to the crystal.

Suddenly, she was knocked aside by a blast of white magic. She gasped in pain, the crystal falling to the floor. She looked up and scowled at the lady in front of her.

"What did you do to him?" she asked. Merlina recognized her.

"How do you do, Mrs. Kyuzan?" asked Merlina, a jeer in her voice. "Didn't know you could fight?"

"How dare you turn Xellos on to your side, you filthy Mazoku!" she glared and her lance flared with white magic. Merlina grinned and flipped her staff in a defensive position.

"After you," she said, her eyes narrowing. She didn't honestly want to fight Xellos's mother. But she had to get him awake, and she had to get something done and then go fight her stupid father. Xellos's mother charged at her and swiped at her with her lance. She dodge, teleported behind her and tapped her on the back with her staff.

"Sleep." she said and to her surprise, the spell bounced off, nearly getting her in the process. "What..."

"Don't underestimate me girl. I'm years ahead of you." said Mrs. Kyuzan and she turned around and tried to pierce her heart with the tip. Merlina leaned back and kicked up her legs to intercept the lance. While on her hands, she concentrated and kicked the lance out of the lady's hands. As it fell, she grabbed it and threw it at the dragoness, nailing her cloak to the ground with her own weapon. She twirled her own staff and rapped her on the head to get her to go out cold. She succeeded. Magic was all well and good, but there were times when the mundane ways worked just as well. She finished charging up the crystal and chanted a barrier spell through it and threw it at Xellos. He seemed to be starting to get his wits about him.

"Xellos, keep alert!" she shouted before she flew off and tried to get to Merlin to fight him again. Once again, the dragons got in her way. She glared at them.

"Mazoku, you are being arrested for attempting to summon another Mazoku and for the murdering of a dragon. Also, you have attacked a high priestess. Your crimes will be answered for."

"Ah, stuff it!" said Merlina. She grinned and teleported around them and began blasting them. She teleported again as various forms of magic flew at her. She sighed and took out one of her own gems. Xellos had taught her the value of a gem well placed. It was just that Xellos used too many of them. She smiled and cast it. It was snow white and she put it before her. Their magic attacks hit it and the crystal absorbed it, getting darker and darker in the process. She took out her staff again and flew into the fray. She shoved her staff into one dragon's gut and then grabbed his leg, twirling him around and throwing him at his companions. Everytime a magic attack was thrown at her, she concentrated and brought the crystal before her to absorb the magic. It was tiring to have to control it like this, but she wanted it to absorb as much as she could. Which is why she magically controlled it instead of just flying all around her with a circular wind spell. She smiled as it got even darker. She gasped as a she dodged a sword slice just a bit to slow and got a cut on her arm. She gritted her teeth and shot out a flare arrow in response. He dodged and the dragon behind her was about to stab her when it exploded. Merlina had no time to figure out what had happened but decided that her crystal was ready. She grabbed it from the air and threw it into the dragons.

"Crystal burst!" she screamed, and all the stored up energy exploded, breaking her crystal in the process. The burst scattered the dragons, heavily wounding all of them, and killing a few.

"Nice job." said a voice behind her. She turned around and glared at Merlin.

"I'm still mad at you, you know." she said. She took out yet another crystal and cast barrier on it. With that she flew at him again.

"What, no thank you? I'm sure I raised you with more manners than this, Lina-chan!" he said cheerfully. "Besides, had I not detonated that dragon just then, you wouldn't have been able to cast that pretty Crystal thing."

"You didn't raise me at all!" she said. She swiped at him with her staff.

"And besides, it's not nice to attack to me with my own staff." said Merlin. He tried to wrench it from her grasp.

"It's mine. And keep your hands off it!" she said as she twisted it out of the way and then hid it. Her hand went to her belt and drew out her sword.

"The Sword of Light, huh?" asked Merlin, a smile tugging at his lips. "Your mother sure prepared you well."

"And speaking about her... why did you leave us?" The blade of light shot out and tried to chop off his leg.

"Now, now... Lina-chan. I can't tell you everything. We Mazoku can't just do whatever we want, you know..." he said. He dodged another blow. "Let out all that anger, Lina-chan. It's not good to have it all cooped up inside of you."

Merlina shrieked with anger and this time, began to fight in serious. She teleported behind him and launched a blast of energy at his back. He launched his own attack that cancelled her first blast, but she was moving in already, her sword ready to slice off his arm. He sighed and made a great show of firing two rapid blasts of fire at her. She teleported out of the way, but instead of appearing behind as she usually did, she appeared in the same place she vanished, catching him off guard. He hastily teleported out of the way, but she cut his cloak.

*****

Mesphisel looked coldly at the rest of the dragons. Sure, there were quite a few of them, but not even sheer numbers were enough to beat him. What they needed was skill, and they were pathetically weak before him. He launched himself at another dragon and his twin Mazoku daggers in his hand glinted. They were big, but he was fast, and made quick work of him, slicing him into ribbons. The dragons didn't seem to want to fight anymore, which was boring, so he sent them a last gift. The earth under him shook as his blast cleared the air of the leftover dragons.

Then he turned to look at his..... niece.... and his 'brother' fight. He didn't understand him. He knew Merlin could quiet quickly eradicate her, and he could tell that Merlina wasn't using all her power even though she was angry. Humans... were stupid. Why was Merlin showing such a human trait?

*****

Xellos finally came across his senses as he realized that his mother was out cold on the floor. He quickly gathered his wits and cast a Recovery on his mother. Her eyes fluttered and then she opened them fully.

"Oh, Xellos!" she cried. "You're OK! For a while I thought you had betrayed your race!"

"What..." asked Xellos. She got up and then glared at the sky, seeing Merlina attacking the dragons.

"Come, Xellos. We must put an end to this Mazoku menace."

"What...?" asked Xellos as she dragged him along.

"Those three Mazoku must be exterminated. That way, Zelas will be weak. With Zelas weak, we can cripple her, and our Lord Ceipheed will triumph!"

"But mother! That's my friend!" he said. He shook his hand out of her grasp. "I'm not going to hurt her. You can try if you want, but I'm not helping you." He saw Merlina break her crystal and eradicating the dragons attacking her in the process. Now, she was fighting Merlin. And if she wanted even a chance at pinning him down, she would need his help.

"Xellos!" shouted his mother. He turned around.

"What?" he asked.

"What are you planning to do? You're going to team up with a half mazoku half human creature? She is way below your station and we are fighting against her." said his mother, looking angrily at her son.

"I told you mom, she's my friend." he said. "I can't leave her. And I'd appreciate if you talked about her with just a little more respect."

"She will die anyway." said the mother. "She is stupid to try to take the mazoku by herself. However, she is doing her job well. She will tire him out and then when he kills her, we'll make our move and kill him. Or else, while they are busy fighting, when they aren't paying attention to us, we will shoot both of them down." She made a motion, and a few white archers appeared from the foliage, magically enhanced bows and arrows in their hands.

"No!"

"What?" asked the mother this time.

"I said no!" said Xellos angrily. "If you want to shoot at her, you'll have to take the risk of shooting me also." He took out a green crystal and cast it at the archers. A wind spell burst around them, causing gales that shook the branches and the archers found out that they couldn't aim and fight with such a strong wind at the same time. He then flew up to meet Merlina. His mother looked up at him, a heartbroken look on her face which soon hardened to anger. She saw that the source of the wind came from the gem and tried to get to it to break it up or to deactivate it. Finally, she lost patience and threw her lance at the gem. It bounced harmlessly off the surface of the crystal. She gritted her teeth. She called to one of the archers.

"Go to the temple and request back up." she said. "We have them here. And they aren't paying attention to us. We will never have such an opportunity again. The general and priest of Zelas will die, today!"

*****

Mesphisel was bored. He knew that Merlin liked his fun, and that if anyone got in his way, he'd get angry. But he was really drawing this out. So he decided to go back to Zelas and tell her that their mission had been accomplished. He looked at the clearing, a satisfied look on his face. It would take some time for the Dragons to be able to recuperate their troops, especially when all these were dead. A cold smile graced his angular face and he vanished, but not before he sent Merlin a quick note.

"Hurry it up, will you?"

*****

Xellos raced to help Merlina. To his senses, it seemed as if the other Mazoku had vanished. Not one to complain when things turned out their way, he readied his own staff and took out his clear barrior gem. Merlina had added power to it. He had been too shocked with death to be able to refine the blood and add it into his gem. And Merlina had done it for him. Well, this time, he was ready to fight. They were a team, and he'd make sure that he pulled his weight.

Merlina had stopped in mid air, her face slightly red from the exertion. She had tried to not exert herself and had teleported only short distances and sparingly. Mostly, she relied on quick reflexes and her barrier gem. She felt Xellos flying up to her and smiled. Finally,... he was out of his shock. She hoped.

She felt something shift behind her and she took her sword and turned to face whatever it was. Seeing the magic come to her, she used her sword to slice it away. But Merlin had vanished again. She concentrated on trying to find his astral precense.

She saw Xellos flying up and he took his place behind her, back to back.

"Glad to see you could make it." said Merlina as she held her sword defensively before her.

"Sorry about that." said Xellos sheepishly. "However, I am not missing this fight for anything in the world."

"How's your mother?" asked Merlina. There was no sign of Merlin, and she was starting to get worried.

"She'll get over it." said Xellos. He looked at Merlina, who had looked back at him. "I decided that I can't just leave you. We've been together for the longest time, you know."

"Thanks." said Merlina, a small smile on her face. Then it hardened. "Now, heads up. He's coming!" With that, she handed him her staff. "Use this. It'll be more useful." She gave him a quick smile before her eyes hardened to face what was coming.

End Chapter 14

Thanks for hanging in there. There's either one or two more chapters left. Don't worry. I'm planning on making sure all the small details are dealt with. As usual, comments and criticism is appreciated. Hang in there! We're almost done! Oh, and to my faithful readers, thanks. And to A Nobody, you're not one. You made my day! Arigato!

Hotaru