A/N: Ahh……Such a boring summer.  No choice but to stay home and slave away in front of the computer writing.  Oh don't mind me.. I enjoy writing, sure…..but lack of sleep and constant typing and daydreaming can be quite draining.  Ah well.  The only real reason I write for fun, is to make at least one person laugh, or at least smile because of something I wrote.  If I've done that, my mission is accomplished.  On with the next chapter ^_^. (Seriously!)

P.S. I probably shouldn't tell you this, since it'll spoil part of my story (not that it matters; it'll come out this chapter anyway) but if you read my first Slayers fanfic "Inner Beings", you can find out more about Kollina.  Heh, if you look carefully, it'll even show who Sallis really is and someone else who's going to come into the picture very soon.  Okay!  That's all I wanted to say.  Savor, Read, Laugh, Enjoy!

Disclaimer:  Let's see…what was it?  Oh!  I don't own anything that isn't mine to own.

Choices!  The Twisted Proposition!

            The one presumed to be Zelas innocently asked, "Why, hello there!  What brings you two to this island?"

            Lina sweatdropped.  By now, Lina had assumed that Zelas at least knew why they were here.  Also, Lina hadn't expected to see a Mazoku Lord so cheerful in greeting trespassers.  Then again, this /was/ the Mazoku Lord that created /Xellos/ as her General and Priest. . .

            Lina shook her head quickly to disperse any lingering thoughts.  Gathering her courage she stared straight at Zelas' eyes and declared hotly, "I'm here for my daughter – Liona Inverse!  Where is she?!"

            Zelas playfully smacked a vertical fist into her right hand and exclaimed, "Who..?  Oh!  You mean, Li-chan?  But we were having so much /fun/ together!  Ah well.  Li-chan!  You have a visitor!"

            Zelas' voice echoed through the virtually empty room.  A few seconds passed before a strangely serious but childish voice answered from somewhat far away, "Coming, Zelas-sama!"

            Lina and Gourry immediately recognized the voice but were surprised to hear none of the usual slurring in her voice.  About a minute passed before they heard the rapid speeding of boots just outside in the hallway.  The sound was getting louder with every second until the doors banged open, revealing a much taller, but still toddler, Liona.

            Her clothes had changed to black pants, a black shirt, and a black cape – all trimmed with gold. Her height, hair length, and eye color were the biggest changes, however.  She looked to be about the size of a normal five-year-old (I'm estimating something like 36-40 inches tall) as opposed to her stunted two-year old form (a mere 18 inches).  Before she had first been taken away, her longest strand of hair had barely been 3 inches.  Now, her hair was down to her shoulders in a way not unlike Xellos.  Finally, Liona's eyes had been an innocent sapphire blue when she was first kidnapped, but now it was a blood-red shade combined with mazoku-slitted eyes.  Not only that – she had a weapon at her side.  From their current angle, Lina couldn't tell what it was, but she didn't like the looks of it.

            Zelas started to speak again, now directed towards the latest arrival.  "Li-chan!  So glad you could make it in such record timing.  Come on over here and sit on my lap."  Zelas lightly tapped on her knee.

            Without a second thought, Liona skipped the length of the room happily, and without even the remotest signs of remembering, or even noticing, her parents, jumped up on Zelas' lap just after doing a half-twirl so that she faced the same direction as Zelas.  Quite comfortably, Liona leaned back into Zelas' buxom bosoms.  Either Zelas was used to this behavior or she was perfectly comfortable with this, because she didn't to anything to stop her.  Instead, she introduced Lina and Gourry to Liona- as if it were the first time they had met, or they were at a pretend tea party.

            "Li-chan, these are the guests I was talking about.  Liona, this is – excuse me, your names?"

            Without even considering the possible consequences, Gourry piped up.  "I'm Gourry Gabriev and this is Lina Inverse! (They kept the same names even though they're married because 1. It sounds better and 2. Lina has a little thing called pride and she's touchy about name changes as well as nicknames)  Hiya Liona!"

            Liona blinked and cocked her head in that same old innocent way.  She finally nodded and smiled.  "Nice to meet you.  I'm Liona!"

            Lina was too shocked to speak, which was a rare thing for her.  Liona acted as if they were complete strangers to her.  As Lina thought about it more, she realized that having lived with Mazoku for at least a week was bound to produce some changes in Liona… but to a point that she didn't even recognize her own parents?  Maybe Lina took Liona's precocious nature for granted.  She was well aware that most two-year-olds didn't have the same fluent vocal skills as Liona, and that she was well ahead of her years.  On the other hand, her father /was/ Gourry, the brainless jellyfish (-_-°), so maybe this was actually a trait that she picked up from him. . . Yes, that must be it, Lina theorized.  Dumb Gourry and his uncanny forgetfulness. . . (Obviously, this whole paragraph was from Lina's point of view)

            With a sigh, Lina looked up at Liona.  In a kindly voice that Lina usually only talked with to kids or kindly elders, Lina gently commanded Liona, "Come on Liona.  Let's go home."

            Liona seemed to have been a bit surprised by this statement.  "But. . . I /am/ home."

            Now it was Lina's turn to be surprised again.  She felt her annoyed anger start to rise to the surface, but she fought to keep it down, at least, for now.  Before she could speak again, Gourry chose to inform Liona.  "Liona-chan, we're your real parents.  Your home is with us.  Don't you remember us?"

            Liona blinked again.  Lina took another try at convincing her.  "Yeah, if it weren't for us, you wouldn't be alive.  Heck, if it weren't for us, you wouldn't be /here/ period."

            Liona blinked and looked up at Zelas.  She had raised an eyebrow as if saying she couldn't tell her if they were telling the truth or not.  Liona turned once more to her "guests".

            Slowly, she asked, "How can you be so sure?  I've lived here as long as I can remember. (Note this statement-important for this chapter)"

            Gourry answered in a kind but almost exasperated tone, "How?  You're our one and only daughter!  How could we /not/ be sure?"

            While Gourry had been answering, Lina had been rummaging in her cape for something.  She finally found what she was looking for and held it up for them to see.  It was the thing that she had picked up back on the mainland, where she had met the reformed Liona.  The thing in question looked like it was a locket.  On the front was a small engraving of a white dragon (A Chinese version of a dragon but completely white) crystallized in tiny, sparkling diamonds.  Behind the dragon was a circular navy blue background.  This blue background was surrounded by a ring of thin and small sapphire crystals, which was finally surrounded by a gold ring about twice as thick and solid gold.  The "locket" was strung onto a flexible silver chain.  Lina slowly pressed the dragon and the locket popped open.  Inside, there was a crystal ball inscription.  It actually resembled a small mirror.  So there was writing large enough to read, but the inscription was too long to fit easily inside the locket, so if you moved it steadily right as you read it, you could see the inscription move left, revealing more writing.  Lina read out the inscription just as a voice, her voice, was projected from the locket itself, repeating the exact same words.

            "I, Lina Inverse, give this to my one and only daughter, so that she may be forever protected in times of dire need.  From mother to daughter, I give this medallion so that she will be protected by me even when I am no longer able to help her."

            The room was deadly silent for several moments.  Finally, Liona answered in an almost cold tone, "That doesn't prove anything; you could have tampered with it before."

            Lina closed her eyes and smiled.  She looked up at Liona as she closed the medallion.  "You're right.  It doesn't exactly have a unquestionably true light to it, does it?  You're a smart girl, you know that, Liona?"

            Since Liona really was Lina's daughter, she couldn't help but perk up at that.  Liona watched as the medallion glittered in Lina's hand.

            "Yes, I know.  (Caught on to Lina's traits rather quickly, didn't she?)  I also know that that medallion must be worth a lot."

            Lina slightly raised an eyebrow and smiled again.  "Of course it is.  It's a family heirloom to boot."

            "Hmm…..Can I have it?  I may not know you, but I know I like things that glitter."

            Lina smirked subconsciously.  She had her.

            "Of course you can have it, but as you know, nothing in this world is free.  You can have it as long as you come with me back home.  To /our/ home back on the mainland."

            Liona was torn between decisions.  She liked Zelas a lot, and they had a lot of fun together.  Then this lady came out of nowhere and is saying that she's my mom?  And that blonde haired guy is my dad?  But there was the fact that Uncle Xellos had given her a special whip all her own and had taught her how to use it.  Then again, there was the prospect of getting that neat medallion whatchamacallit that just seemed to be calling out to her, as if it had been a part of her that was taken away, and was now yearning to come back.  Then /again/ this was the only place that she knew of that she could actually call /home/.  But, then /again/ she had never been allowed outside the castle walls.  This was most frustrating decision.  Liona finally came up with an idea.  She'd let someone /else/ decide how to handle it.

            Of course, she asked the one closest to her at the moment – Zelas.  Liona looked up at her and asked, "Zelas-sama?  What do you think I should do?"

            Gourry was amazed that Lina had used her own faults on her daughter, and that it seemed to be working.  However, both of their spirits sunk the second that Liona decided to ask /Zelas/ to decide.

            Zelas looked down at Liona.  She then looked at Lina and Gourry's worried expression.  She grinned as she suggested to Liona, "Why not battle Miss Lina for the stakes?  If they were to win, they could take you home and if you win, you can have the medallion and stay here."

            Quite clueless as Gourry at his weakest moment, Liona hastily agreed.  "Did you hear that?  We'll fight for my home and MY medallion."

            Lina and Gourry was starting to panic.  They were under no circumstances planning to so much as fight their own beloved toddler of a daughter.  With a slight grimace quickly replaced with a smile, Lina answered.  "How about this, I'll give you the medallion now, and we'll work out your home after that, okay?"

            Completely clueless, Liona replied with a quick "Okay!" before jumping off Zelas' lap and running over to where Lina and Gourry were.  Lina and Gourry both kneeled down so that they were eye level with her.  Lina unclasped the medallion and clasped it back on around Liona's neck.  When she finished, she withdrew her hands and watched as Liona's eyes glittered with greedy happiness and she fingered her "new" medallion.  Once more a naïve little girl, Liona threw her arms around Lina's neck and exclaimed, "Thanks!  I love it!"

            Lina smiled as she hugged Liona back.  "I'm glad you like it.  SLEEPING."

            Liona instantly fell asleep mid-hug.  As Lina watched Liona's sleeping face up close, she realized something suddenly.  Carefully, she handed Liona to Gourry and confronted Zelas once more.

            "Why did you do it?"

            "Do what?"

            "Cast that enchantment on Liona."

            Suddenly, Kollina's voice rang through the air.  "Whoever said, Zelas-san did it?"

            Lina whirled around as Kollina appeared several feet off the ground, somewhat in the shadows.  As they watched, Kollina softly levitated to the ground.

            "As much as I would have /loved/ Liona to show you how much her fighting has improved (nothing to expertise with her whip), I must congratulate you on a first-class persuasive argument with your daughter."

            "Wait a minute."  Lina's mind put two-and-two together.  "/You/ were the one who did this to Liona?"

            Kollina put on a sly smile as she answered, "Define what you mean by 'this'."

            Lina felt her annoyance tolerance level higher.  "I mean 'this' as in putting an illusion spell on her so that she only looks like a mazoku, putting a memory block so that she doesn't remember us at all, and finally raising the accuracy of her speech and raising the power behind her aura.

            Kollina raised her eyebrows in seemingly amazed amusement.  "You got all that after meeting with her for half an hour? (Time goes by very quickly)"  Kollina shook her head and mockingly sighed.  "I would have that you figured it out quicker, but I suppose my powers were a bit too hidden.  Alright – you got me.  I did all that, yes."

            Gourry asked the question before Lina had the chance.  "Why?"

            Kollina smirked as she conjured up her floating cushion.  She sat on it and answered, "Well, I wanted to get you attention."

            A stressmark appeared on Lina's head.  "You already /had/ our attention.  Now I demand that you undo everything you did on Liona!"

            Kollina had conjured up a teacup of Seyruun tea and was sipping peacefully while Lina was talking.  This added another stressmark to Lina's head.  Kollina raised her eyes to look at Lina and mock-pouted.  "What do I get if I do it?"

            Lina was immediately suspicious.  "What do you want?"

            Kollina looked up as she counted off her fingers.  "Well, I'd /love/ a lot of things.  Like a promotion, or the ability to travel between planes, or . . ."

            ". . . or the ability to keep your big mouth shut?"

            Lina, Kollina, Zelas, and Gourry all jumped when they heard someone else speak.  They looked toward the doorway, where Sallis was leaning against the frame of the door, a slightly angered but confident smirk on her face.

            "Sallis?!  When did you get here? And where are the others?" Lina exclaimed.

            Sallis turned to Lina and smiled.  "Don't worry, as far as I know, they're all okay.  They're all resting now."  Sallis turned to Kollina with a disappointing look.  They had a short telepathic conversation.

            "What are you doing here?"

            "Isn't it obvious?  Her Majesty sent me to keep you in check.  She thinks you let on too much too early."

            "She didn't like the present I sent her from my trip to Dilss?"

            "She liked that just fine, but She's disappointed in you."

            "Uh oh…"

            "Yeah uh oh.  She said if you don't bring back someone new, she's going to demote you and take matters into her own hands."

            "WHAT?!  Alright alright.  I was just getting to that anyway."

            Out loud once more, Kollina turned to Lina.  "As I was saying, my master would rather have your dear little Liona."

            Gourry, immediately became the protective guardian that he believed himself to be, now for Liona's sake.  "What?  No way!  There's no way that we're giving up Liona!"

            Lina full-heartily agreed.  "That's right!  What's the point of taking the enchantment off if you just go and take her away again.  I might never see her again!"

            Kollina sighed.  Sallis mentally asked her, "Why do I get the feeling that you're going to spill out the whole story just to convince her?"

            Kollina grinned and thought back, "Because that's exactly what I plan to do.  Have a seat?"

            Sallis accepted Kollina's floating cushion in a disgruntled fashion.  She watched from afar how Kollina could possibly explain things now.

            Kollina sighed again and asked if Lina and Gourry wanted to sit as this might take a while.  Feeling rather tired from standing and crouching, they obliged willingly.  Sallis formed a makeshift bed and levitated Liona onto it.  Kollina then moved the inhabited cushions closer to each other and to Zelas (there was no point in hiding it from her after all).  To satisfy Zelas in any case, Sallis summoned up a bottle of Zephilian wine and levitated it to Zelas.  With everything in place, Kollina took a deep breath and began.

            "First off, I might as well explain what my name means.  My name is spelled K-O-L-L-I—N-A.  The first three letters, K, O, L, is really an anagram for my status where I live and work.  I am the one and only 'Knight of L-sama'."

Lina gasped.  She knew what this had to mean.  Gourry, however, needed to have everything broken down for him.

Lina explained her analysis of this first fact.  "My sister is the only Knight of Celphieed, meaning that she works for and can summon power from the Flare Dragon, Celphieed.  So that must mean that Kollina hear works for and can summon power from L-sama, or the Lord of Nightmares."

At this, Gourry's eyes widened immensely as he watched Kollina carefully.

Kollina nodded and continued.  "That's right.  Now you must have heard that L-sama has always felt completely and utterly alone within Herself, or the Sea of Chaos.  Her "children" so to speak, fight with each other with such intensity that they completely forget why and who made it possible for them to create chaos for Her.  Five thousand years ago, I was the first to cross planes and came here.  I already knew and respected the Lord of Nightmares.  I saw that with the highest possible beings, in other words, Celphieed and Shabrinigdo were battling with all their might, with no visible victor seen.  I decided to put a stop to it, so that it wouldn't end up like my last home.

"Well, I summoned power from L-sama herself along with an earnest prayer that she would help me to stop them.  As she told me later, she was very happy that someone had thought of her, so she granted my wish on one condition.  When I had a baby girl, I had to promise that I would leave my family to be with her.  Feeling that that was the best for my new home, I consented.  She granted me power to split Shabrinigdo into seven pieces.  What she neglected to tell me then was that the backlash sent Celphieed to the Sea of Chaos.  Well, before that had happened, they had created their followers to follow in their footsteps, to become rivals to the other forevermore.  This, I could do nothing about, and L-sama was actually pleased with this prospect.  So, I began my life as a human, on this plane.  I had this crazy idea about becoming the first Knight of Celphieed before I had to go, and to my vast surprise and interest, I actually pulled it off.  Yes well, I don't know how, but I ended up mating with a rather handsome sorcerer by the name of Lei Magnus.  By now, 3000 years had passed since I cast that spell.  Being the Knight of Celphieed and casting such a powerful spell that drew power from L-sama really lengthened my life.

"I was a bit miffed when my first child was a girl, because I knew I had to leave.  Lei knew nothing of my promise, but L-sama told me that if I learned to harness my powers quickly, I would be able to come back and visit later on.  It turned out that she had a /lot/ to teach me.  I had learned everything there was to learn during my 3000 years there but I had never even tried to learn Chaos magic.  Well, it just so happened that it took 500 years for me to fully master my powers.  L-sama was rather pleased but I was a bit disgruntled.  So she allowed me to visit Lei.  For some reason, unknown to me, Lei was still alive after all these years and still looked rather young.  Before I left, I had L-sama make a little gift for him – the demon blood talismans.

"He was happy to see me of course, but he seemed different then how I remembered him.  I gave him the talismans and he seemed very interested in them.  It saddened me that I had to leave after just one month, but afterwards, L-sama allowed me to watch the happenings down on this plane.  During my next absence, he had become world famous for his spells using power from the talismans and also because he was a great philosopher."

Kollina took a long sip from her cup of tea before starting again.  During this period, Gourry just had to ask, "Wow, you look really young for someone who's 5000 years old."

Kollina smiled at this, but Lina reached over and bonked him on the head.  Kollina continued, "Thank you, Gourry.  Now, this was about 250 years before the Kouma war.  Ah, the War of the Monster's Fall.  That's what really surprised me.  My own mate a vessel for one of the pieces of Shabrinigdo, someone I had helped put away.  But L-sama didn't want me to interfere so we watched as a war began.  It lasted rather short in my mind, but it was actually a 12 year long war.  Well, it ended rather interestingly.  Would you care to tell the tale, /Sallis/?"

Sallis simply took a long sip from the tea cup that she had conjured up and replied with a simple, "No.  It's not my tale to tell."

"It is partly."

"You like to talk so much, why don't you tell it?  You already relived your life's story."

Lina and Zelas sweatdropped at their subtle argument.  One was 5000 years old and who knows how old the other was.

"Fine.  Zelas would know this story as well.  Mazolina, a friend of ours, was the general for the Chaos Dragon Gaav.  During a mission about 1000 years ago, she just happened to capture, of all beings, a dragon's heart.  In other words, she discovered that a golden dragon had fallen in love with her.  You see, though Mazoku are technically not supposed to be able to love, some are able to feel all emotions, and they are able to mate.  Erm…"

Kollina hesitated as if she was unsure whether or not to continue.  She glanced at Sallis who was starting to turn red, but hid it by taking a large gulp of tea.  Kollina let out a long breath.  Quite suddenly she felt the astral plane shift and someone enter the plane they were currently on.  Kollina winced as she felt her spine tingle…painfully.  Out of nowhere, another person appeared behind her and whacked the back of her head so hard that Kollina's face went smack into the tea, spilling it everywhere.  With a soft grumble, Kollina rubbed the back of her head ruefully while she waved her other hand over the mess, allowing it to disappear from view.

"That hurts you know."

"Good."

Zelas uneasily coughed while holding back laughter and asked, "Excuse me, but who are you?"

The newest arrival was a fiery redhead with a blood red tunic and pants with golden trim, as well as a black cape.  The female smirked.

"Me?  The name's Mazolina.  Unfortunately, I'm a friend of Miss Motormouth here.  I came with a message.  L-sama says to just cut to the chase and I say don't you dare tell that story when there are other people around."

Kollina chose to be sarcastic.  "What's the point of telling it if there isn't anyone to tell?"

Mazolina bit back.  "That's exactly it; don't tell anyone that story /ever/ period.

Kollina put her hands up in defense and readily agreed.  "Alright alright.  So in the end, Mazolina and *ahem* Angelina here came to join us in the Sea of Chaos.  Now then.  Down to business.  Since the Hellmaster incident, L-sama has been quite taken with you.  She was amazed, no, /amused/ that the person that you chose over the whole world, chose to rather die than live without you.  Unfortunately, he came too early for L-sama to offer the proposition to you, so she decided that if you had a kid with that same person, and the first was a girl, she'd send me down to get you.  That was her original plan, but when Liona-chan was actually born, she found that she had a curious liking to her, so instead, L-sama decided that she wanted to adopt Liona as her own, in the Sea of Chaos.  So it's up to you really.  If Liona-chan goes, we'll train together and she'll return as the strongest person in all four worlds including the Mazoku and Dragons.  On the other hand, if you go, I'll break the enchantment and Liona will live her life here while you train and become stronger than humanly possible.  Oh, did I mention that we have to destroy your body so that you'll be allowed to go there?  So, what do you say, Lina?"

            Lina looked from Liona, to Kollina, to Gourry, to Liona again and finally down at her hands on her lap.  She opened her mouth to give her answer.

A/N: Oh jeez.  Look what I've gone and done.  It's the same thing as with the end of Slayers Next; Lina chose to sacrifice herself and possibly the whole world to save Gourry from death.  Now, she has to choose from sacrificing herself to let Liona live a normal life.  As a plus side, Lina will be super extra strong when she returns, but in exchange, she won't be able to see anyone other than Mazolina, Kollina, "Angelina", and L-sama herself until her training is done.  Kollina just said that she spent 500 years training after already living 3000 years.  Oo0 she's super old huh? Ah well.  What do you think she'll choose?  Ja ne!   Don't forget to review!

Note to Filing_Sloth: See?  They aren't the same person, but you were close. ^_^