Slayers Resurrection
Part II
A.N.: Oki-doki!! Sorry for my short little snippet of a note last time, but I was so tired. I just wanted to finish and SLEEP!! But now I'm done. Whoppeee. And I've slept. Okay, yeah, now that there has been sleeping, I can tell you that this chapter has taken forever because a. it's long, at least kinda long, b. because I have been sleep-deprieved and writing papers and taking exams all week, and c. because It just TOOK FOREVER. That's how it was. But now it's done, and I'm so happy about my little baby . . . . ( . . . . I love it. . . .Okay. I'm done. But thanks to the PERSON, as in ONE, who has reviewed. I appreciate it. And I don't really mind not getting other reviews. They're just nice.
Okay, so here we go:
Chapter Three
When Lina woke up, she lay with her eyes closed, relishing the warmth around her. The yellow glow behind her eyelids told her it was morning, she could feel Gordon's cat, Ginger, resting on her arm. She could hear, distantly, Gordon himself singing softly as he prepared breakfast. Carefully, she blinked her eyes up, unwilling.
The ceiling was red, changing the early sunlight to orange. She sighed as it came into focus, shattering her illusions. It was the soft canvass of the tent that she and Ami and Zel had bought near the airport in Albuquerque or whatever that damn city had been called, shortly after their plane had landed. What she had thought was Ginger was actually Ami's arm sprawled across her. Lina sighed. These early morning fantasies had become a ritual for her. It took a while, after she woke up, before she remembered there were things she would rather forget, took a while for her to forget she wasn't in paradise.
Sighing, she sat up. Next to her, Ami was still sound asleep, her knees pulled up, in a fetal position. Lina smiled, a soft, motherly, but sad smile. She remembered Amelia. She missed her. On her other side, Zel had rolled up, in typically, neat Zel-fashion, his sleeping bag. He was already up, apparently. The closed space of the tent smelt of sweat and bodies, and also faintly of smoke. The body heat from the three of them had kept it warm, and now the sunlight was making it almost unbearable. Lina stood.
She had slept in the clothes she would wear today, and had worn yesterday, so there was no changing to be done. She was in an uncomfortable, crouched position, but she still looked back, a habitual glance to check and make sure that everything was as it should be. Ami, missing her presence, had rolled over, and now made a soft, discontented noise. She looked child-like when she slept, so innocent. Lina sighed, again. It was amazing that anything looked innocent to her anymore.
She crawled out of the tent. The moment the flap was open, she was met with a harsh blast of cold wind. She, only wearing a tee-shirt and jeans, shivered, all hints of drowsiness blown away. Her mind began to work quickly, as it had started to do ever since she became a sorceress again. The wind was cold, it was winter, probably it would warm during the day, though. The sky was cloudless, which was good, no rain. The air was heavy with smoke; it made her eyes water. It was coming from behind the tent. Zel must be cooking breakfast. The trees around them were far away that she would see anyone that had been hiding come out while they were still far enough away to attack. She could hear no cars, which meant it was still very early morning. The ground beneath her feet was dry and dusty, she shifted her feet. Some of the loose earth came up and hit her in eyes. They started to tear heavily. When she had blinked them away, she was sure of the safety of her spot. She moved toward Zel, breakfast sounded wonderful.
He looked up as she approached, but said nothing. She, too, was silent. He went back to heating the canned foods in their frying pan. Lina settled down near him, the wind at her back, to watch the sun rising. She could hear Zel softly stirring the warming soup with the lid of the can. The traveling kettle began to sing, warmed by the hot rocks. It was only then that the first word was spoken. "Coffee?"
"No, thanks." She kept her back to him, listening as he rummaged about in the worn duffle for the coffee grounds that they had been using for the past week.
"This'll be crap", he said, almost to himself. She made a guttural sound in agreement. That had been why she had refused it. It was so weak. "Hey, Mel?"
"Yeah?" She didn't even try to correct the name he used, or wonder why she had responded to it, why she felt it still owned her.
He paused, she could almost hear him think. "How'd you sleep?" the question sounded lame, it wasn't what he had intended to ask. She sighed.
"Fine. Just fine." They lapsed into silence. The trickle of water as Zel poured it through the filter into the cup was quiet, but they both clung to it, as something to listen to in the empty, empty dessert. Finally, she spoke again. "I didn't dream."
"Really?" he sounded surprised. All three of them had been dreaming consistently since they had started camping.
"Yeah. Nothing." That, in truth, was a lie. She had dreamed, but it was not a dream Zel would be interested in. She had dreamed about camping alone with Gordon, in the wilderness back east. She had dreamed about eating in an old-fashioned restaurant with him. In these dreams, she had been so happy to be with him, to be where she was, that she hadn't noticed crucial details that usually pronounced themselves in her mind, for example, Gordon's long hair, and Zel and Amelia's presence. So she didn't say anything about them. There was silence again.
At last, "I did."
"Really?" they both looked up as Ami walked around the tent, her voice soft in their ears. She was wearing a sweatshirt, and tossed one to Lina, who grabbed it and pulled it on.
"Thanks."
"Welcome." Ami focused on Zel again, the childish light that glowed in her eyes when she looked at him shining through. "What did you dream?"
He took a deep breath, Lina turned around to face them both. "Well", he began, "in the beginning I was alone. I was looking for something, something I wanted desperately. But I couldn't find it. It was making me so angry, I was so frustrated. But then, then I remember I thought I had found something that would help me. They, the people who had it, made me fight someone, and I hated it, but I couldn't and then there was this red glow." He looked embarrassed and turned away. Zel didn't have very good dreams, often all he could tell them come morning was a vauge feeling of longing, and a need to keep looking for something. It annoyed Lina, who could remember so much, and so clearly. But she didn't press it. Zel stood by her, more than Ami did. He had believed her, even before the dreams, the dreams that had haunted all of them for the three weeks they had been in the dessert. Ami had realigned her belief quickly, as quickly as she surpassed the rest of them in the clarity of her images. She could tell them spells, words, effects. She could tell them events, could tell them situations and feelings. She dreamed like it was watching television, with her mental VCR turned to record. Looking at her now, Lina could tell Ami was also unsatisfied with Zel's dream. But she, too, said nothing, but watched him. Lina could feel her stomach turn. How could anyone, even Ami, look at Zel that way? Especially with his peeling skin, which was getting worse and worse. She frowned, frustrated by that. Zel's skin was going faster and faster, he had shown her the blue patches that were forming under it. He had told her about the panic that filled him, how he didn't sleep at night, how he felt like he was constantly running from something. And she sympathized with him, because she felt the panic too.
She shuddered, feeling it grip at her, the fear, irresistible terror that had gripped her since they had come into the dessert. For some reason she felt like they were running out to ftime, but what clock was ticking down? She could almost hear the soft tick-tock as time slipped away, as the urgency increased, but she could not stop it. She had tried, ignoring it, running from it, but it followed her. So now she was cautious. She didn't let Zel or Amelia practice any big spells; she kept everything quiet. So quiet it was silent. But they couldn't hide forever. She, no, they were running out of time.
The air hissed softly from his mouth, running between his teeth. Xellos was frustrated, and his body, his too human body was responding to it. He could feel the headaches before they came, could feel the pressure build up in his nose. He knew the tense feeling in his body, knew by now how his fingernails could dig holes in his palms when he clenched his hands. He knew what the humans complained about now, and he couldn't understand it. The pain was pleasant, it was a soft, buzzing reminder of his immortality, of the fact that even though his body might protest, he was a creature so beyond this world that he could survive any onslaught on this plain.
So he left himself a brief smile, relishing the feeling of power his monstrosity. But then he turned his mind back to problem.
Lina Inverse, in her equally annoying reincarnated form, and those little insects that followed her around constantly, were gone. Nothing. Nada. Zip. They didn't show up on the astral plain at all, there was no trace of their existence beyond the other pitiful other humans that swarmed like so many ants under the feet of superior beings, good only for a little torture before they were thrown away, worthless as dolls. But it made it so hard to find one, there were so many of them. Now that he actually wanted to find some, three of them, there seemed too many, and nowhere to begin.
Which brought him back to the problem, he needed to find them. His mistress wished it. He had to find them, so that he and could use them to awaken the Master, and rank the highest with him in the new order that would dawn across the earth.
Xellos hissed again, his mind retreating into the astral plain to continue the search.
The pain was exquisite, soft and delicate, it reached out to him, jarring his conscious presence with sharp, blurring strokes. Phib grinned, he felt drunk with it, surrounded by it, he had become one with this pain that was an eternity. Smiling foolishly, he reached for the knife on the floor, where it had fallen when he had dropped it. He twisted it in his hands, so that it caught the light in every place where it wasn't caked with blood. His blood.
Now holding it securely at the handle, he brought it down to his forearm again, and lightly started to draw, handling it like a pencil. Blood immediately welled up where he touched it, filling the trenches in his skin with crimson rivers that drip-dropped to the floor. He almost felt like laughing, watching its progress down his arm through clouded vision.
He had discovered this way of feeding himself shortly after possessing this body. The feeling had immediately entranced him, never before had agony been so close, so personal, so wonderful before, in any of his existences. It filled him like no other suffering ever had. It was ecstasy.
He grinned dizzily, squeezing his arm, making sharp bursts of hurt dance up his nerves, and into his brain. He felt the still-human part of it respond with emotions of pure anguish, and he felt his demon side devour them. He knew that he was pushing himself to the edge of fainting, that he was only holding to consciousness by a thread. He really shouldn't pass out, he thought, because that would put him out of action for a while, and he couldn't have that. Also, his 'mother' might find him and take him to the hospital, and then he might have to be taken to what humans called a shrink. Phib smiled. As if anyone on this plain could even touch him.
Well, yes. One could. And that thought sent Phib glowering. As the most powerful Mazoku under Lord Ruby Eye, he enjoyed privileges that others didn't. And so he had been the first, though certainly not the last, to sense her presence in this world. He had, during one of his pain-clouded sessions, even seen her, the pale, childlike form she had taken, with stark, bright, red hair, and shining violet eyes. And some insensible part of him had been flattered, somehow, that they had chosen similar forms for possession. The rest of him, as he had decided to abandon the search for Lina Inverse and pursue, instead, this girl child, had been frightened.
And it takes a lot to frighten Mazoku.
Ami waited till Zel had finished his story, before she broke in with her own dream. While she waited, she fidgeted. His dreams were so boring and so abstract, they made her half-crazy. She hated having to sit through them, and hated herself for hating it. Mel, or Lina, or whoever she was did it, so why couldn't Ami? It made her so frustrated to pretend to be interested, as her mind wandered off to her own visions of the night before.
She had seen herself, crouching, with Zelgadis behind her, wearing what she had come to be familiar with as the clothing of her past life. They had been speaking, a spell, a powerful spell that shook her mind. It was, undoubtedly, the most powerful spell she had ever remembered. She suspected, or hoped, that it was more powerful than the Dragon Slave, the spell that Mel had remembered on the beach that day. That would put Mel and Ami on equal footing, which Ami had been hoping for that since the night on the airplane, when she had been allowed to glimpse the friendship that Amelia had shared with Lina Inverse. Equal footing, after all, was the only situation in which friends could be born.
Closing her eyes, briefly, she tried to recall the words . . . Ra Tilt . . .
"Ra Tilt?"
Zel looked up. "What was that, Ami?"
She met his eyes, and for a moment, was Amelia again. "Ra Tilt", she spoke softly, but with the firmness that comes with certainty. "The Ra Tilt".
Next to her, Lina stiffened. "What? What did you say?" The readhead's voice was low and dangerous.
Confused, Ami turned to her. What was going on? "The Ra Tilt. It's a spell I just remembered." Why was Lina looking at her like that, her eyes glinting dangerously red in the sunlight, her mouth set in a angry glare.
"Yeah", Zel said, quickly jumping in, trying to appease Lina, "I remember it too." He looked at Ami with fear in his eyes, not knowing what was going on with his best friend. Ami realized, with a quick fluttering in her heart, that he was afraid for her. She stared at him, lost in the depths of his too-blue eyes, feeling lightheaded and like she had sat up too quickly.
It was probably this momentary hesitation that sent them all into temporary- hell.
Lina grabbed her wrist in one, quick, painful moment, twisting it around and back and down. "Shut up." The words were quiet, and harsh and hissed between her teeth. Ami could have dealt with it if she had shouted, she could have dealt with it if Lina and screamed them. But the quietness was too much. It was the softness of death. "Shut up right now or I'll kill you. Don't touch that spell! Don't!!!" She wasn't shouting, not even yet, but there was quiet, fearful urgency in her voice.
Zelgadis jumped to his feet. "Mel!" He shouted, grabbing Lina's hand which only made Ami's hurt worse. "Take your hands off her!!! She's not doing anything wrong!!"
Lina looked frightened, let go, then she screamed "You've Damned Us ALL TO HELL!!!!!" Ami watched her disappearing back as it faded away.
Zel turned to look at her, his face registering shock at the way Lina had acted. Ami couldn't blame him; she was shocked too. What could have caused her to act that way?
Then she turned to Zel, realizing, in one moment, that he might actually be more impressed then Lina by the spell. For as long as she could remember, she had loved him, and now she could show him that she wasn't just some poor girl, she could show him that she was good too, that she could do spells, could remember them. A spell he had taught her. A spell he would want to know again.
"Do you want to try it?" she asked, shyly, blushing and smiling.
Zel looked at her, then smiled back. "Sure. Lets."
Ami reached deep into her memory, into her brain, where the Ra Tilt waited, seductively powerful. Reaching out fingers of her soul, she touched it, and was overwhelmed by it. The one part of her mind that managed to keep separate of the strength running through her was shocked at the lack of words, but then that mind was touched, and she was nothing but the spell, the bright, beautiful spell.
She held out her hands, feeling her mind running up and down the connection between this world and the world of spirits. Shudurring, she felt words come to her. Ra Tilt . . . Ra Tilt . . It streamed into her mind. She was barely aware of her physical body shouting "RA TILT!!!", barely aware of the stream of blue energy rushing from her finger tips, barely aware of anything, until she was aware that she was fainting.
And the power was over.
He felt it, it was there. They were finally showing themselves. Only for a second, a being on the astral plane raised itself far above the level of normal humans. For a brief moment, he was shaken with a powerful blue blast, a human spell. It could only be them.
The mazoku Gaav, the demon dragon king leisurely stretched. This body, that of the famous detective Rex Draconis was hardly necessary any more, but he would keep it, for old times sake. After all, it resembled, at least a little bit, the body he had taken when he had appeared before Lina Inverse and her little friends in his previous life. She would recognize him. That was good. He wanted her to recognize him, wanted to reap fear and terror from her when she saw him, before he corrupted her.
After all, when she was corrupted, she would never fear again.
He stood, then walked hurriedly toward the front desk. He could not move this body through the plane it felt most natural in, or else he, and it, would die. This partial mortality was really starting to bother him.
"Aaah, well" he said, softly to himself, "When the Lord is once again in command, I'm sure he will do something about that."
But his self-engaged dependence on his body didn't really bother him that much. He had found them.
A.N.: about the revision: according to ROBIN who is decidedly POOPY, Zel was acting out of character in this chapter. Which was actually true. But HEY, what's a poor girl to do? *sniff* SO, I rewrote it, at great personally expense (not really) and I wrote it and it was very disagreeable. . . . no, not really. Thanks a ton, Robin, u da best!!!!!!!! (Except when u tell me to revise my work!!!!!)
Part II
A.N.: Oki-doki!! Sorry for my short little snippet of a note last time, but I was so tired. I just wanted to finish and SLEEP!! But now I'm done. Whoppeee. And I've slept. Okay, yeah, now that there has been sleeping, I can tell you that this chapter has taken forever because a. it's long, at least kinda long, b. because I have been sleep-deprieved and writing papers and taking exams all week, and c. because It just TOOK FOREVER. That's how it was. But now it's done, and I'm so happy about my little baby . . . . ( . . . . I love it. . . .Okay. I'm done. But thanks to the PERSON, as in ONE, who has reviewed. I appreciate it. And I don't really mind not getting other reviews. They're just nice.
Okay, so here we go:
Chapter Three
When Lina woke up, she lay with her eyes closed, relishing the warmth around her. The yellow glow behind her eyelids told her it was morning, she could feel Gordon's cat, Ginger, resting on her arm. She could hear, distantly, Gordon himself singing softly as he prepared breakfast. Carefully, she blinked her eyes up, unwilling.
The ceiling was red, changing the early sunlight to orange. She sighed as it came into focus, shattering her illusions. It was the soft canvass of the tent that she and Ami and Zel had bought near the airport in Albuquerque or whatever that damn city had been called, shortly after their plane had landed. What she had thought was Ginger was actually Ami's arm sprawled across her. Lina sighed. These early morning fantasies had become a ritual for her. It took a while, after she woke up, before she remembered there were things she would rather forget, took a while for her to forget she wasn't in paradise.
Sighing, she sat up. Next to her, Ami was still sound asleep, her knees pulled up, in a fetal position. Lina smiled, a soft, motherly, but sad smile. She remembered Amelia. She missed her. On her other side, Zel had rolled up, in typically, neat Zel-fashion, his sleeping bag. He was already up, apparently. The closed space of the tent smelt of sweat and bodies, and also faintly of smoke. The body heat from the three of them had kept it warm, and now the sunlight was making it almost unbearable. Lina stood.
She had slept in the clothes she would wear today, and had worn yesterday, so there was no changing to be done. She was in an uncomfortable, crouched position, but she still looked back, a habitual glance to check and make sure that everything was as it should be. Ami, missing her presence, had rolled over, and now made a soft, discontented noise. She looked child-like when she slept, so innocent. Lina sighed, again. It was amazing that anything looked innocent to her anymore.
She crawled out of the tent. The moment the flap was open, she was met with a harsh blast of cold wind. She, only wearing a tee-shirt and jeans, shivered, all hints of drowsiness blown away. Her mind began to work quickly, as it had started to do ever since she became a sorceress again. The wind was cold, it was winter, probably it would warm during the day, though. The sky was cloudless, which was good, no rain. The air was heavy with smoke; it made her eyes water. It was coming from behind the tent. Zel must be cooking breakfast. The trees around them were far away that she would see anyone that had been hiding come out while they were still far enough away to attack. She could hear no cars, which meant it was still very early morning. The ground beneath her feet was dry and dusty, she shifted her feet. Some of the loose earth came up and hit her in eyes. They started to tear heavily. When she had blinked them away, she was sure of the safety of her spot. She moved toward Zel, breakfast sounded wonderful.
He looked up as she approached, but said nothing. She, too, was silent. He went back to heating the canned foods in their frying pan. Lina settled down near him, the wind at her back, to watch the sun rising. She could hear Zel softly stirring the warming soup with the lid of the can. The traveling kettle began to sing, warmed by the hot rocks. It was only then that the first word was spoken. "Coffee?"
"No, thanks." She kept her back to him, listening as he rummaged about in the worn duffle for the coffee grounds that they had been using for the past week.
"This'll be crap", he said, almost to himself. She made a guttural sound in agreement. That had been why she had refused it. It was so weak. "Hey, Mel?"
"Yeah?" She didn't even try to correct the name he used, or wonder why she had responded to it, why she felt it still owned her.
He paused, she could almost hear him think. "How'd you sleep?" the question sounded lame, it wasn't what he had intended to ask. She sighed.
"Fine. Just fine." They lapsed into silence. The trickle of water as Zel poured it through the filter into the cup was quiet, but they both clung to it, as something to listen to in the empty, empty dessert. Finally, she spoke again. "I didn't dream."
"Really?" he sounded surprised. All three of them had been dreaming consistently since they had started camping.
"Yeah. Nothing." That, in truth, was a lie. She had dreamed, but it was not a dream Zel would be interested in. She had dreamed about camping alone with Gordon, in the wilderness back east. She had dreamed about eating in an old-fashioned restaurant with him. In these dreams, she had been so happy to be with him, to be where she was, that she hadn't noticed crucial details that usually pronounced themselves in her mind, for example, Gordon's long hair, and Zel and Amelia's presence. So she didn't say anything about them. There was silence again.
At last, "I did."
"Really?" they both looked up as Ami walked around the tent, her voice soft in their ears. She was wearing a sweatshirt, and tossed one to Lina, who grabbed it and pulled it on.
"Thanks."
"Welcome." Ami focused on Zel again, the childish light that glowed in her eyes when she looked at him shining through. "What did you dream?"
He took a deep breath, Lina turned around to face them both. "Well", he began, "in the beginning I was alone. I was looking for something, something I wanted desperately. But I couldn't find it. It was making me so angry, I was so frustrated. But then, then I remember I thought I had found something that would help me. They, the people who had it, made me fight someone, and I hated it, but I couldn't and then there was this red glow." He looked embarrassed and turned away. Zel didn't have very good dreams, often all he could tell them come morning was a vauge feeling of longing, and a need to keep looking for something. It annoyed Lina, who could remember so much, and so clearly. But she didn't press it. Zel stood by her, more than Ami did. He had believed her, even before the dreams, the dreams that had haunted all of them for the three weeks they had been in the dessert. Ami had realigned her belief quickly, as quickly as she surpassed the rest of them in the clarity of her images. She could tell them spells, words, effects. She could tell them events, could tell them situations and feelings. She dreamed like it was watching television, with her mental VCR turned to record. Looking at her now, Lina could tell Ami was also unsatisfied with Zel's dream. But she, too, said nothing, but watched him. Lina could feel her stomach turn. How could anyone, even Ami, look at Zel that way? Especially with his peeling skin, which was getting worse and worse. She frowned, frustrated by that. Zel's skin was going faster and faster, he had shown her the blue patches that were forming under it. He had told her about the panic that filled him, how he didn't sleep at night, how he felt like he was constantly running from something. And she sympathized with him, because she felt the panic too.
She shuddered, feeling it grip at her, the fear, irresistible terror that had gripped her since they had come into the dessert. For some reason she felt like they were running out to ftime, but what clock was ticking down? She could almost hear the soft tick-tock as time slipped away, as the urgency increased, but she could not stop it. She had tried, ignoring it, running from it, but it followed her. So now she was cautious. She didn't let Zel or Amelia practice any big spells; she kept everything quiet. So quiet it was silent. But they couldn't hide forever. She, no, they were running out of time.
The air hissed softly from his mouth, running between his teeth. Xellos was frustrated, and his body, his too human body was responding to it. He could feel the headaches before they came, could feel the pressure build up in his nose. He knew the tense feeling in his body, knew by now how his fingernails could dig holes in his palms when he clenched his hands. He knew what the humans complained about now, and he couldn't understand it. The pain was pleasant, it was a soft, buzzing reminder of his immortality, of the fact that even though his body might protest, he was a creature so beyond this world that he could survive any onslaught on this plain.
So he left himself a brief smile, relishing the feeling of power his monstrosity. But then he turned his mind back to problem.
Lina Inverse, in her equally annoying reincarnated form, and those little insects that followed her around constantly, were gone. Nothing. Nada. Zip. They didn't show up on the astral plain at all, there was no trace of their existence beyond the other pitiful other humans that swarmed like so many ants under the feet of superior beings, good only for a little torture before they were thrown away, worthless as dolls. But it made it so hard to find one, there were so many of them. Now that he actually wanted to find some, three of them, there seemed too many, and nowhere to begin.
Which brought him back to the problem, he needed to find them. His mistress wished it. He had to find them, so that he and could use them to awaken the Master, and rank the highest with him in the new order that would dawn across the earth.
Xellos hissed again, his mind retreating into the astral plain to continue the search.
The pain was exquisite, soft and delicate, it reached out to him, jarring his conscious presence with sharp, blurring strokes. Phib grinned, he felt drunk with it, surrounded by it, he had become one with this pain that was an eternity. Smiling foolishly, he reached for the knife on the floor, where it had fallen when he had dropped it. He twisted it in his hands, so that it caught the light in every place where it wasn't caked with blood. His blood.
Now holding it securely at the handle, he brought it down to his forearm again, and lightly started to draw, handling it like a pencil. Blood immediately welled up where he touched it, filling the trenches in his skin with crimson rivers that drip-dropped to the floor. He almost felt like laughing, watching its progress down his arm through clouded vision.
He had discovered this way of feeding himself shortly after possessing this body. The feeling had immediately entranced him, never before had agony been so close, so personal, so wonderful before, in any of his existences. It filled him like no other suffering ever had. It was ecstasy.
He grinned dizzily, squeezing his arm, making sharp bursts of hurt dance up his nerves, and into his brain. He felt the still-human part of it respond with emotions of pure anguish, and he felt his demon side devour them. He knew that he was pushing himself to the edge of fainting, that he was only holding to consciousness by a thread. He really shouldn't pass out, he thought, because that would put him out of action for a while, and he couldn't have that. Also, his 'mother' might find him and take him to the hospital, and then he might have to be taken to what humans called a shrink. Phib smiled. As if anyone on this plain could even touch him.
Well, yes. One could. And that thought sent Phib glowering. As the most powerful Mazoku under Lord Ruby Eye, he enjoyed privileges that others didn't. And so he had been the first, though certainly not the last, to sense her presence in this world. He had, during one of his pain-clouded sessions, even seen her, the pale, childlike form she had taken, with stark, bright, red hair, and shining violet eyes. And some insensible part of him had been flattered, somehow, that they had chosen similar forms for possession. The rest of him, as he had decided to abandon the search for Lina Inverse and pursue, instead, this girl child, had been frightened.
And it takes a lot to frighten Mazoku.
Ami waited till Zel had finished his story, before she broke in with her own dream. While she waited, she fidgeted. His dreams were so boring and so abstract, they made her half-crazy. She hated having to sit through them, and hated herself for hating it. Mel, or Lina, or whoever she was did it, so why couldn't Ami? It made her so frustrated to pretend to be interested, as her mind wandered off to her own visions of the night before.
She had seen herself, crouching, with Zelgadis behind her, wearing what she had come to be familiar with as the clothing of her past life. They had been speaking, a spell, a powerful spell that shook her mind. It was, undoubtedly, the most powerful spell she had ever remembered. She suspected, or hoped, that it was more powerful than the Dragon Slave, the spell that Mel had remembered on the beach that day. That would put Mel and Ami on equal footing, which Ami had been hoping for that since the night on the airplane, when she had been allowed to glimpse the friendship that Amelia had shared with Lina Inverse. Equal footing, after all, was the only situation in which friends could be born.
Closing her eyes, briefly, she tried to recall the words . . . Ra Tilt . . .
"Ra Tilt?"
Zel looked up. "What was that, Ami?"
She met his eyes, and for a moment, was Amelia again. "Ra Tilt", she spoke softly, but with the firmness that comes with certainty. "The Ra Tilt".
Next to her, Lina stiffened. "What? What did you say?" The readhead's voice was low and dangerous.
Confused, Ami turned to her. What was going on? "The Ra Tilt. It's a spell I just remembered." Why was Lina looking at her like that, her eyes glinting dangerously red in the sunlight, her mouth set in a angry glare.
"Yeah", Zel said, quickly jumping in, trying to appease Lina, "I remember it too." He looked at Ami with fear in his eyes, not knowing what was going on with his best friend. Ami realized, with a quick fluttering in her heart, that he was afraid for her. She stared at him, lost in the depths of his too-blue eyes, feeling lightheaded and like she had sat up too quickly.
It was probably this momentary hesitation that sent them all into temporary- hell.
Lina grabbed her wrist in one, quick, painful moment, twisting it around and back and down. "Shut up." The words were quiet, and harsh and hissed between her teeth. Ami could have dealt with it if she had shouted, she could have dealt with it if Lina and screamed them. But the quietness was too much. It was the softness of death. "Shut up right now or I'll kill you. Don't touch that spell! Don't!!!" She wasn't shouting, not even yet, but there was quiet, fearful urgency in her voice.
Zelgadis jumped to his feet. "Mel!" He shouted, grabbing Lina's hand which only made Ami's hurt worse. "Take your hands off her!!! She's not doing anything wrong!!"
Lina looked frightened, let go, then she screamed "You've Damned Us ALL TO HELL!!!!!" Ami watched her disappearing back as it faded away.
Zel turned to look at her, his face registering shock at the way Lina had acted. Ami couldn't blame him; she was shocked too. What could have caused her to act that way?
Then she turned to Zel, realizing, in one moment, that he might actually be more impressed then Lina by the spell. For as long as she could remember, she had loved him, and now she could show him that she wasn't just some poor girl, she could show him that she was good too, that she could do spells, could remember them. A spell he had taught her. A spell he would want to know again.
"Do you want to try it?" she asked, shyly, blushing and smiling.
Zel looked at her, then smiled back. "Sure. Lets."
Ami reached deep into her memory, into her brain, where the Ra Tilt waited, seductively powerful. Reaching out fingers of her soul, she touched it, and was overwhelmed by it. The one part of her mind that managed to keep separate of the strength running through her was shocked at the lack of words, but then that mind was touched, and she was nothing but the spell, the bright, beautiful spell.
She held out her hands, feeling her mind running up and down the connection between this world and the world of spirits. Shudurring, she felt words come to her. Ra Tilt . . . Ra Tilt . . It streamed into her mind. She was barely aware of her physical body shouting "RA TILT!!!", barely aware of the stream of blue energy rushing from her finger tips, barely aware of anything, until she was aware that she was fainting.
And the power was over.
He felt it, it was there. They were finally showing themselves. Only for a second, a being on the astral plane raised itself far above the level of normal humans. For a brief moment, he was shaken with a powerful blue blast, a human spell. It could only be them.
The mazoku Gaav, the demon dragon king leisurely stretched. This body, that of the famous detective Rex Draconis was hardly necessary any more, but he would keep it, for old times sake. After all, it resembled, at least a little bit, the body he had taken when he had appeared before Lina Inverse and her little friends in his previous life. She would recognize him. That was good. He wanted her to recognize him, wanted to reap fear and terror from her when she saw him, before he corrupted her.
After all, when she was corrupted, she would never fear again.
He stood, then walked hurriedly toward the front desk. He could not move this body through the plane it felt most natural in, or else he, and it, would die. This partial mortality was really starting to bother him.
"Aaah, well" he said, softly to himself, "When the Lord is once again in command, I'm sure he will do something about that."
But his self-engaged dependence on his body didn't really bother him that much. He had found them.
A.N.: about the revision: according to ROBIN who is decidedly POOPY, Zel was acting out of character in this chapter. Which was actually true. But HEY, what's a poor girl to do? *sniff* SO, I rewrote it, at great personally expense (not really) and I wrote it and it was very disagreeable. . . . no, not really. Thanks a ton, Robin, u da best!!!!!!!! (Except when u tell me to revise my work!!!!!)