Disclaimer and Author's Note: I don't own Slayers, even though I reeeeaaally wish I did. Up until now, my muse had abandonned me, and if I was ever inspired to write anything, it never got finished. Finally, I sat down one day to watch the last DVD of Slayers NEXT, because it's my favorite ^^ Then, suddenly, BOOM! It hit me! And this idea came!! And I liked this idea SO much, that I was DETERMINED to finish it, whether my muse wanted me to or not! So, here is the result! Note that lots of these lines were taken directly from the series, and I hope I'm not breaking any laws or anything by doing this. Let me just say that it's all for fun, and I'm just a fan wanting to write a ficcie. So, enjoy.
SPOILER WARNING: LOTS OF THIS STUFF ACTUALLY DOES HAPPEN IN THE SERIES, OR IS VERY CLOSE TO WHAT ACTUALLY HAPPENS. IF YOU HAVEN'T SEEN THE LAST SIX OR SEVEN EPISODES OF NEXT, YOU MIGHT NOT WANT TO READ THIS AND SPOIL EVERYTHING.
...§...§...
When momentous events in history take place, several different paths can be taken, and different outcomes are possible. Lina Inverse was showed an alternate past, one that could have happened, but didn't, when she had cast the Giga Slave for the first time. A spell such as that could have many different effects on the world, or even just on certain people.
There are other events that have happened in the recent past that could have turned out much differently. This is just one of them. Lina Inverse, Gourry Gabriev, Zelgadis Greywords, Amelia Wil Tesla Seyruun, Martina Zoana Mel Navratilova, Xellos Metallium, and the little boy have just arrived in the Katahto Mountains. They've already met with Milgasia, and he's agreed to take Lina Inverse to see the true Claire Bible. This is where events start to change.
...§...§...
Milgasia reached out for Lina's hand. "Come with me," he said. "Here it is."
Lina looked around wildly. "Huh ?What? Where? I don't see it!" All she could see was the large cliff face they were walking against, and a wide flat area littered with large rock outcroppings here and there. Nothing that looked even remotely like a Claire Bible.
With a half smile, Milgasia placed his other hand against the flat of the cliff surface, and a whirling distortion of color appeared in the solid rock. "It is through here," he explained.
"Oh," Lina said. "All right." She started to take Milgasia's hand, but an explosion on the ground to one side of them stopped her. Everyone turned to see what had caused the explosion. "Saygram!" Lina shouted in shock when she realized who it was they were looking at.
"WAAAAH! It's HIM again!!!" Martina screamed, in tears.
"You thought you could escape me, Lina Inverse?" Saygram asked, pointing a bandaged hand at her.
Lina felt herself automatically in a battle stance. "I nearly killed you last time! You want to face me again?" she demanded. Behind her, she heard the hum of the Sword of Light, and knew that Zelgadis and Amelia would be getting ready to cast spells upon a moment's notice.
Saygram's red eye seemed to shine brighter. "I intend to kill you this time, Lina Inverse."
"I think not," Lina told him forcefully, bringing her hands up to cast a spell.
Without a moment's notice or hesitation, Saygram's eye flashed a brilliantly bright blue. Lina felt a shock of pain run through her, and she was slammed backwards by the force of it, and into the face of the cliff. She fell to the ground, jarring her already pained body. She was nearly unconscious, but could hear her friends calling her name, running over to her. She was aware that she was bleeding badly. And the only thing she could think of was getting to the Claire Bible.
"Lina, answer me!" Gourry shouted, half-holding her. "Lina!"
In a choked voice, Lina said, "Amelia...."
Amelia's breath caught in her throat. "What is it, Lina-san?" she managed to ask, trying to ignore the sight of blood around Lina. She and Zelgadis were both maintaining Recovery spells, hoping it would be enough to help.
"Amelia," Lina said, her eyes unfocusing. "You go.... to the Claire Bible...."
Amelia's eyes widened. "But, Lina-san! You have to! I can't..."
"I'm telling you to," Lina said in as stern a voice she could manage in her condition. "Go, Amelia.... Find out about..... Gaav....." She broke off as she choked a moment, and coughed it out so she could finish. "How to defeat..... high-level mazoku...."
Her eyes watering, Amelia shook her head, and started to protest. Milgasia stopped her by grabbing her arm, and giving her a sharp look. "If Lina has told you to go, then we must go."
Amelia looked down at Lina, who was on the brink of consciousness, then back up at Milgasia. "Okay," she said in a determined, if shaky voice. She allowed herself to be hauled to her feet and led back to the warped space in the cliff by Milgasia. She looked over her shoulder, and saw Gourry standing protectively in front of Lina, the Sword of Light drawn. Zelgadis was still casting his Recovery spell. Martina and the little boy were off somewhere, hiding. Saygram was looking ready to fight with Gourry, but Xellos stepped in, saying, "I'll be the one you fight, Saygram-san!" The two of them then seemed to disappear into nothing more than flashes of light and dark.
"Quickly," Milgasia said insistently. Amelia reverted her attention back to him, and nodded. His hand still in a tight grip on her arm, Milgasia stepped through the distorted space. Amelia closed her eyes as she was taken through, wondering why, of all people, Lina had chosen her to go to the Claire Bible. Surely Zelgadis would have been a better choice? But, no, Lina had picked her, Amelia, to go. And go she would. Amelia hoped that Lina would be okay.
...§...§...
Gourry was back on his knees beside Lina, watching Zelgadis cast his healing spell, and wishing he could do more to help. But with Xellos and Saygram now off in the Astral Plane fighting (they weren't even flashes of light anymore) and Zelgadis being the only one of them who knew how to use magic, there wasn't anything he could do. Tense with apprehension, Gourry looked around for Martina and the little boy. He found Martina curled up behind a rock outcrop, the boy right by her.
Gourry's wandering eye also caught something else. Something very unusual. Two balls, one red, one gray, about the size of a soccer ball appeared out of nowhere. The balls started hovering above them, making weird humming noises.
"Zel.... What are those?" Gourry asked, pointing to the spheres.
Zelgadis looked up, and said, "I don't know. A souvenir from Saygram, maybe?"
"I guess we have to fight them?" Gourry wondered, drawing his sword again.
"Maybe," Zelgadis agreed. "You'll have to do the fighting, Gourry. I have to finish this Recovery spell, and Martina's no help."
Gourry grinned reassuringly. "I can handle this." He stood up and glared at the colored spheres. He would protect Lina from anything that threatened to hurt her.
...§...§...
Amelia looked around, her eyes wide with wonder. She and Milgasia were inside another dimension, full of bright colors and warped shapes. It was almost hypnotizing the way the colors swirled around them. They didn't seem to be standing on a floor, either. Instead, it was almost like they were floating in the middle of everything. It would have almost been creepy if it wasn't so beautiful.
"Keep close to me," Milgasia said, breaking the silence. "This place is a natural labyrinth. One wrong step, and you could be lost wandering through here for eternity."
"Really??" Amelia cried, her hands balled up by her face. Suddenly, the place didn't seem as pretty anymore.
Milgasia started walking. "You should be fine if you don't stray from my lead."
Amelia was quickly walking as close behind Milgasia as she could without stepping on his heels. "Oh, you don't have to worry about that," she said with a nervous laugh. "I don't want to get lost for eternity!" Besides, she thought, Lina-san would never forgive me if I didn't get the information from the Claire Bible.
...§...§...
Zelgadis had to stop the Recovery spell once again on a split second's notice, and throw up a shield spell. The spheres were turning out to be more trouble than either he or Gourry had predicted. The red one kept firing off hundreds of Flare Arrows at a time, and the gray one would always jump in to keep Gourry from hitting the red one. It was a good technique on their part, but in the case of Gourry and Zelgadis, it wasn't so great. Gourry was hard-pressed to keep from getting blasted by the spells, and was very frustrated with not being able to damage either of them, even with the Sword of Light.
Gourry jumped up, yelling, ready to slash the red sphere. At the last minute, however, the ball changed colors!! It was then the gray sphere, and easily shielded against Gourry's attack. Gourry fell back down to the ground, somehow managing to keep his balance.
"It looks like they even have the ability to change colors," Zelgadis said grumpily. "At this rate..."
Zelgadis was cut off as the red sphere came streaking towards them. "Gourry!" he called as a warning. Gourry turned around just in time, and swung at the sphere with his sword. Just before impact, the red sphere changed to gray again, and was just knocked back.
"Come on!" Gourry shouted in frustration, watching the spheres as they circled around them.
Zelgadis looked back down at Lina, still casting his spell. She'd stopped bleeding, and she should come around soon. Then the three of them would all be able to attack. Zelgadis looked up at Gourry again, and saw the swordsman's gaze drifting over to Lina more and more often. It wasn't surprising that Gourry would be worried, but he couldn't be distracted while fighting these things. Zelgadis wished the Recovery spell would hurry up already. He also couldn't help but think of how Amelia was getting on, and what was happening with her.
...§...§...
"Still," Milgasia said, once again breaking a long silence that had settled down over them. "I know why Xellos put such faith in Lina Inverse."
"But, really, Milgasia-san," Amelia said. "Lina-san isn't even a longtime acquaintance with Xellos-san like you are."
Milgasia stopped, mid-step. "Acquaintance..." he murmured, almost too quietly for Amelia to hear. He turned to stare sternly at Amelia. "Why do you think I bothered to take a human this far? It's because I'm afraid. Afraid of Xellos." Milgasia then gave her a look, the likes of which Amelia had never received before. "Never challenge a mazoku," he told her, his voice strong and steady. "There is nothing more reckless than to do so."
Amelia crossed her arms. "Some people can be reckless, you know," she said in defense of Lina.
"Like Lina-san?" a familiar voice asked.
"Auntie Aqua?" Amelia asked, looking down at the short old lady, whom she knew to be the remains of the Water Dragon King.
"Speaking of which," Auntie Aqua said, looking around. "Where is Lina-san?"
Amelia's eyes dropped to the ground, and filled slightly with the shimmer of tears. "She's hurt. It was Saygram. She told me to come in here and get some information from the Claire Bible."
Auntie Aqua nodded slowly. "I see," she said. "Well, in that case, I'd better let you see it, then."
"It's here?" Amelia asked, looking around. She didn't see anything different, just the swirling colors and shapes surrounding them like before.
Auntie Aqua raised her walking stick, and brought it down sharply. "Now!" she called. Upon her word, a small blue-green ball appeared, floating in the air inside a web of magic circles. "Go ahead, Amelia-san," Auntie Aqua said with a grin.
Slowly, Amelia walked over to the sphere. "This is the.... Claire Bible?" she asked in disbelief, looking down at the small globe. She looked over to Milgasia, who nodded. Amelia gulped, and then turned back to the Claire Bible. Her hand slowly raised, and she placed it on the smooth surface of the ball.
Next thing Amelia knew, she was standing in a very strange place. Another dimension? Everything was white, with the exception of some strange black blobs all around her. She looked around, confused.
"Human," a deep voice asked from seemingly all around her, echoing drastically. "Human, what do you wish to know?"
"You're the Claire Bible?" Amelia asked, covering her mouth when she realized how loud she seemed to speak because of the echo.
"I am the remaining memories of the Water Dragon King. A flood of infinite knowledge," the voice said. "I am known as the Claire Bible. What else do you wish to know?"
Amelia took a deep breath. "I need to know why Demon Dragon King Gaav turned against the mazoku," she said.
"Very well," was the answer. Not two seconds after she heard that, a bright light flashed in front of her eyes. Amelia's hands went to up block the light, but it soon went away, and a strange image filled her mind. There was a red dragon, reared back in anger, along with a blue dragon, as fierce as the red. They began fighting, using powerful laser breath attacks. "It was 1000 years ago, during the War of the Monsters' Fall," the voice said. "The Water Dragon King, defeated by both the Dark Lord and Gaav, used the last bit of his power to imprison the Dark Lord and to seal Gaav into a human body.
"By having him reborn into a human body, he hoped to rob him of his powers as a mazoku. However, as he was reborn into human form over and over, Gaav's soul merged with the human one, and he turned against the mazoku."
Amelia tried to take all this in. She knew the Water Dragon King had imprisoned the Dark Lord, but she never knew he'd sealed Gaav into a human body. And then his soul merged with his human soul? Amelia shook her head. There was no way she'd make heads or tails of all this. She'd just tell Lina what the Claire Bible told her.
"Next question," Amelia said, finding her voice again. "How do you defeat a high-level mazoku?"
"To defeat a mazoku," the Claire Bible's deep voice answered. "You must posses an even greater source of power."
Before Amelia could stop herself, she asked, "What sources of power would let you defeat Mazoku Lords?"
Everything around Amelia seemed to turn pitch black. The Claire Bible said, in its monotonous voice, "To defeat a Dark Lord, you must posses the power of the Lord of Nightmares, or the power of Lord Infinity."
"Lord Infinity?" Amelia asked. She'd never heard of that Dark Lord before. Then she shook her head, and decided to wait before asking that question. Lina would first want her to find out how to utilize Lord Infinity's power. "What spell lets you use Lord Infinity's power?" she asked, her voice shaky.
"You cannot use the power of Lord Infinity," the Claire Bible told her. "She grants you possession of her complete power."
Amelia's breath caught. "So, what's the spell you use to be granted that power?" she managed to ask. A Lord whose power you couldn't use by yourself.... Like the Lord of Nightmares. But was this Lord Infinity more powerful even than the Lord of Nightmares? Or not?
The deep voice of the Claire Bible cut through her thoughts. "To call upon Lord Infinity, you must recite the chaos words." Then, before Amelia's eyes, rune words flashed in front of her. They stood out against the blackness, shining like gold. And almost before her consciousness could register it, the rune words disappeared. And somehow.... Amelia knew the spell!
But now that she knew the spell, she wanted to know who Lord Infinity truly was. So she asked, "Tell me all you can about Lord Infinity."
"Very well."
A rushing sound ran through Amelia's head, and suddenly it seemed like she was suspended in space! It was beautiful! There were galaxies and stars surrounding her on every side. She couldn't take the time to just look, however, because the Claire Bible began to speak again.
"Hers is an existence virtually unknown of to this world," the Claire Bible told her. "and much too large to comprehend, but I will tell you what there is to be known." There was a long pause, and for a moment, Amelia was afraid she wouldn't be told about Lord Infinity. But, then... "She is blacker than deepest midnight, and also brighter than the dawn. She is both everything and nothing. She is the creator of peace, and also the true source of chaos. She is the very creator of existence and oblivion. She has dominion over all other Dark Lords. In short, she is Lord Infinity."
Amelia's eyes were wide with shock by the time the Claire Bible had finished it's monologue. "The... the source of chaos?" she asked breathlessly. Without meaning to, she broke the link between the Claire Bible and herself, not wanting to know anything else the Claire Bible might tell her.
She was back in the labyrinth dimension again, with Milgasia and Auntie Aqua. She dropped to her knees. "The source of chaos?" she asked again in disbelief. She turned to face Auntie Aqua, who nodded solemnly. "Then, that spell..." Amelia started, but Milgasia confirmed her unspoken thought with a nod of his head. "I.... I can't ever cast this spell," she said quietly, almost to herself. "And I can't let Lina-san know about it, either.... I can't...."
Milgasia walked over, and helped her to her feet. "We must be going now," he told her, his voice as steady as always. Amelia nodded slowly, and followed Milgasia out of the labyrinth, Auntie Aqua deciding to stay behind with her memories.
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AUTHOR'S NOTE: Yes, that's all for now. I actually have the whole thing typed up, but I have found from past experience that you get more reviews if you put up a fic one chapter at a time. So I will be putting up one chapter every Sunday around noon-ish, Eastern Time. Just to let ya know ^^ Now, once again, I don't own Slayers.... Please don't sue me.... Yadda yadda.... etc... etc... So on and so forth.... Read and review, all! ^___^
BTW: Thanks to Tams (Tamra Chandler) and DS (destructive sorceress) for pre-reading this thing for me. ^^
