Rezo grunted as he set down the load of firewood he was carrying.  He looked at it with an amused expression on his face.  "Do you think we have enough?" he asked Anita, a wry grin on his face.

Anita giggled as she examined the results of Rezo's labor.  The "firewood" was a single tree, three feet in diameter at its thickest point and ten feet long.  "Rezo, I think this is enough wood to last all winter."  She looked at the doorway skeptically.  "But how are we going to get it in the house?"

"Not a problem" Rezo answered.  He thrust his fingers into the wood effortlessly and lifted the log over his head.  It began to pop and creak as he applied pressure to it and finally broke in half with a thunderous snap.  He grinned at Anita as he quickly broke the log down into more manageable pieces.

Anita watched him, a mixture of awe and mirth on her face.  "You big show off.  How do you do that?"

Rezo thought for a moment.  "I honestly don't know," he finally answered, frowning.  He sat down in the shade of the cabin and sighed loudly,  "There's so much that I don't know about myself."  His expression darkened and he muttered, "It's really quite infuriating."

Anita shook her head.  "Hey, don't worry about it."  Rezo was getting into one of his moods again.  She sat next to him and laid her head on his shoulder.  "Do you remember when we first met?"

Rezo nodded.  "Of course.  It's been three months two weeks, and four days."  He smiled and put his arm around Anita's shoulder.  "Not that I've been keeping track or anything."

Anita smiled.  It seemed like he wasn't feeling as bad as she thought.  "You told me that you were just passing through on your way to the village." 

"That's right."

Anita turned and kissed him on the cheek.  "Why'd you stay?"

Rezo watched the trees sway in the wind for a moment.  "I really love the scenery."  He held up his hands defensively when Anita glared at him.  "Don't hurt me.  I was only joking.  Besides, I did end up going to the village."  He shrugged.  "I just happened to come back here afterwards."

"Why?"

Rezo gazed into her eyes.  He whispered, "You reminded me of someone.  Someone that I was very close to a long time ago."  He sighed.  "It doesn't matter though.  It's all in the past.  The only thing that really matters is here and now."

"Those that forget the mistakes of the past are doomed to repeat them.  Father told me that once."

"Your father says a lot of things Anita", Rezo muttered.  He thought back to the night he had arrived.  Anita knew that he was different, but Don had somehow known that he was a chimera.  He shook his head irritably.  He wasn't a chimera though.  This body was given to him by Ceiphied, wasn't it?  His head began to ache.  Why did everything have to be so confusing?

Anita giggled oblivious to Rezo's growing discomfort.  "He does, doesn't he?  But, I can see his point.  I mean, how can you know where you're going if you don't know where you've been?"  She shook her head and sighed.  "I guess what I'm trying to say is that I wish that you would tell me a little more about yourself."

"I told you that I've been a priest for a few years now", was Rezo's cold response. 

Anita began to feel irritated.  "I know that.  That's all you ever tell me.  What were you like as a child?  Did you always want to be a priest?"  She thought for a second.  "Who were your parents?  Are they still around?"

Zelgadis eyes narrowed.  He gritted his teeth and hissed, "Rezo…"  He picked a stone up off the ground and crushed it to powder.  "Rezo was my only family.  But…"  He closed his eyes and shuddered.

Rezo sighed shakily and continued, "…that's not important.  Anita, can we please drop the subject?" 

Anita muttered, "Rezo.  You didn't like him?  Was he your father?"

"Grandfather", was Rezo's terse reply.  He massaged his temples and struggled to sort his thoughts out.  Was he Rezo or did he hate him?  He muttered, "Not Rezo… Zelgadis.  I hate Zelgadis."

Anita caught the last bit.  "Zelgadis?  Who's that?"

Rezo snapped at Anita, "Never mention that name to me."  He quickly stood and stormed off towards the shed.  He called over his shoulder, "I'm sorry Anita.  I'm not feeling well.  I think I might lie down for a while."

Anita looked worried as she called after Rezo.  "Do you need anything?  I could make you some food or something…"  The sound of the shed door slamming shut was the only response that she received.  Fighting back tears, she ran into the house.

"Damn it!" Rezo bellowed as he swept a bunch of farming tools off the wall.  He fell to his knees, his head feeling as if it were about to split in two.  "What's wrong with me?!"

Zelgadis snarled, "You betrayed her!  You made me betray her!"  He clawed at his face, leaving superficial cuts that immediately began to close.  He sobbed, "Amelia, I'm so sorry…"

Rezo slammed his fist down on the floor, splintering the wood.  "Damn you!  What do you want?"

Zelgadis clutched at his crimson robes meaning to shred them, but Rezo was able to stop him.  "You know who I am.  I want my life back Rezo!"

Rezo frowned, staring at a point a few feet in front of him.  A figure in a hooded white cloak stood before him.  "You're the demonic swordsman the old man talked about."

Zelgadis frowned under his hood and spoke more calmly.  "Give me my body back.  That's all I ask for."

"Your' body, demon?  I think I'll keep my body to myself, thank you very much."  Rezo struggled to his feet and stood face to hidden face with Zelgadis.  "You spread misery like a disease.  You're pointless."

Zelgadis grabbed the front of Rezo's robes.  "I may be pointless, but you are a lie!  Give me back my life!"

Rezo grinned wickedly.  "Even if I am a lie, and that's not an admission, I think my life still has more meaning than yours.  I have love, purpose, and happiness.  What do you have to live for demon?"

Zelgadis's shoulders slumped momentarily.  "I…"

Rezo nodded.  "Just as I thought.  You have nothing."

Zelgadis shook his head.  "No!"  He reached into his pocket and rummaged around for something.  "I have my promise.  See?" 

Rezo's eyes widened in terror when he saw what Zelgadis held.  A small locket glittered in his hand.  He looked down and was shocked to see that he held an identical locket.  To his growing horror, he began to open it.  "I don't want to see this!  You can't make me see this!"  He closed his eyes tightly.

Zelgadis snarled.  "Look, damn you!  Look at Amelia!  I loved her!"  He growled, "And you made me betray her memory!"

"A dead lover?"  Rezo snapped the locket shut and opened his eyes.  "You want to live for a dead lover?!"  His mocking laughter rang out in the shed.  "Utterly pathetic."  He began to apply pressure to the locket.

Zelgadis gasped in shock.  "What are you doing?  Stop!"

Rezo just grinned as he continued to squeeze the metal.  He could feel it beginning to buckle.  "A lie, am I?  A lie?!"  He looked on in triumph as the cloaked figure fell to his knees trying to resist crushing his own locket.

"Please don't take this from me." Zelgadis pleaded.  He continued to crush the locket.  "Please?!  Please?!"  He suddenly felt the pressure on his hand slacken.  His hand flew open to reveal a sad ruin of twisted metal that had been Emily's gift to him.  He sobbed, "But, I promised Emily…  I told her I'd give it back."

Rezo sighed in relief.  He had triumphed.  "Well I guess you lied, didn't you?  Depart and never trouble me again demon."

Zelgadis wept loudly cupping the ruined locket in his hands.  "You took it from me.  You took everything that I am!"

"Then you were nothing.  Depart I say!"  Rezo watched as Zelgadis faded from sight.  Then blackness came over him.

************************************************************************

Rezo opened his eyes several hours later to see that night had fallen.  He quickly scrambled to his feet and glared around the shed looking for the sorcerer swordsman.  He was alone.  "A dream?" he mused.  "Or perhaps some sort of premonition?"  This would be worth studying.

A noise from outside the shed interrupted Rezo's thoughts.  Cautiously opening the door, he looked up at the sky.  He thought that it must be about midnight based on the position of the moon.  He stepped out of the doorway and moved towards the noise.  It sounded like something heavy was being dragged along the ground.  Rounding a tree, he saw a large shadowy figure moving deeper into the forest.  It seemed to be carrying some burden.  He moved towards the figure warily, trying to discern his identity.

The snap of a twig under Rezo's foot split the silence of the night.

The figure dropped its burden and peered into the darkness.  He tried to call out and whisper at the same time.  "Hey, anybody there?"

Rezo looked down on the figure from his new position on a tree limb twenty feet in the air.  He muttered, "Don?"  The voice confirmed his suspicions.  It was Don and he was carrying something heavy in a large canvas sack if Rezo wasn't mistaken.  He whispered, "Don, what are you up to?"  He looked up at the dark sky again.  "And so late at night no less?"  He was about to follow Don into the forest when he had a thought.  It was none of his business.  Healing the sick was his business, not prying into the lives of those who had taken him in.  "Besides," he muttered, "it's probably some dead livestock or something."  He nodded and turned back towards the cabin, abandoning his pursuit.

In the darkness behind him, Don continued on his path into the night…

************************************************************************

The next morning Rezo was in town bright and early planning to buy some supplies for the farm.  He had just entered the feed store planning to purchase some seeds for the new planting season when a voice called out to him.

"Mr. Rezo?"

Rezo turned to see a man in a yellow headband.  "Ryoga, right?"

Ryoga nodded.  "That's right.  Have you seen my grandfather?  He said he was going to play chess at the store yesterday, and that was the last I saw of him."

Rezo scowled.  "He's missing then?"

"Yes sir.  You haven't seen him have you?"

Rezo shook his head.  "No.  I'm sorry, but I will keep an eye out for him."

"Thank you.  I hope he didn't wander off into the woods.  He doesn't really have a good sense of direction, you know."

"So I've heard.  Well, good luck in your search."  Rezo turned and entered the store.  He moved down the wall looking dubiously at the different seeds.  "Cucumbers, carrots, radishes.  I don't know the first thing about this stuff."  He called up to the old man dozing behind the counter.  "Hey, Bill." 

The old man behind the counter continued to doze, oblivious to Rezo's voice. 

Rezo rolled his eyes and yelled, "Bill!" 

Bill almost fell off his stool.  "Whazzit?"

"Sorry about that, Bill.  I was in the area and thought that I'd pick up some seeds for the farm.  What kind of stuff does Don plant?"

Bill blinked drowsily.  "Oh, that you Mr. Rezo?"  He stood up and popped his back noisily.  "I don't rightly remember.  It's been so long since he came in.  Cucumbers, maybe?  Yeah, end of the row there, Rezo.  That's them." 

Rezo picked up a small bag and carried it up to the counter.

"That'll be four silvers there, Mr. Rezo."  Bill sighed as he made change for the priest.  "Terrible thing isn't it?"

"What's that, Bill?"

Bill nodded towards the window.  Out in the street, Ryoga was asking anyone that would listen about his grandfather.  "That poor old man.  Probably wandered off into the forest and got lost.  I don't reckon they'll ever find him."

"Why's that?" Rezo asked as he put his change away.

"Wolves.  Mean creatures, you know?"  Bill shook his head and sighed.  "I don't think an old man would stand much chance against them."

"Wolves, huh?"  Rezo recalled his encounter with the wolves of the area.  He had saved Anita from a pack of them several months ago.

"Yeah, I reckon you have more than a passing familiarity with them.  Saved Don's daughter from them, didn't you?  Nasty business that must've been, eh?"

Rezo muttered, "Nothing I couldn't handle Bill.  Thanks for the seeds."  He turned to leave. 

Bill called after him.  "Not that it's any of my business, Mr. Rezo, but is it true that you've been courtin' Don's daughter?"

"You're right Bill.  It isn't your business."  Rezo sighed, "But yes, I have been seeing Miss Anita.  What of it?"

Bill shook his head quickly.  "Nothing about her really, Mr. Rezo.  I hope the two of you are happy together."  He looked around nervously before continuing.  "But Don?  He's something of an odd fellow isn't he?  No offense of course.  You are staying with them right?"

"That's right."  Rezo paused, wanting to leave.  He didn't want to know why Don was an 'odd fellow', did he?  All he cared about was being with Anita.  After a moment, he asked, "What's so odd about him?  He seems nice enough to me."  Briefly, he recalled Don dragging the canvas bag through the woods in the middle of the night.

"Oh, he's nice enough, I suppose.  Never bought much until you came around.  I wonder, what did he grow out there before?  He's a farmer but he never bought any seed.  Not from me, anyway.  I reckon he could have bought some from out of town, but why bother?  I've got pretty much anything that'll grow around these parts."  Bill pulled a pair of spectacles out of his pocket and began to wipe them on his shirt.  "Why do you reckon he did that?"

Rezo sighed.  "I really couldn't tell you, Bill.  Good day."  He turned to leave again, expecting the conversation to be over.

However, Bill apparently couldn't take a hint.  "That's not all though.  Rumor is that he's out here because of something he did up around Atlas City.  I don't know if that's true, but it's kind of strange for a man to pick up and move a couple hundred miles for no reason, don't you think?"  He chuckled.  "Well, I'm sure you're tired of listening to wild stories."  He waved cheerily as Rezo walked out the door.  "Don't be a stranger, now. 

Rezo gave Bill a halfhearted wave fully intending to find someone else to buy his farming supplies from in the future.  He found Bill to be somewhat upsetting for some reason. 

************************************************************************

"Anita?"  Rezo knocked on the door before cautiously poking his head into the cabin.  "Are you here?"  He saw her sitting at the table, staring out the window with an unreadable expression on her face.  "Can I come in?"

"I suppose." Anita sighed. 

Rezo sat down beside her and, after a moment's hesitation, took her hand and kissed it.  "I'm sorry.  I overreacted yesterday."

Anita forced a small smile.  "It's alright.  I shouldn't have pried into your personal life.  It's not really any of my business."

Rezo shook his head.  "No, I want to share everything with you.  It's just that…"  He tried to remember.  He remembered fighting in Sairaag against a fiery haired sorceress.  Inverse he assumed.  Then darkness.  Then he woke up in the forest.  He saved that man's life.  There was a gap of almost a century in his memory.  There was something wrong with that and he was sure that the sorcerer swordsman had something to do with it.  "…it feels like I don't know myself sometimes."

"Is there anything I can do?"  Anita squeezed Rezo's hand reassuringly.  "I'd like to help you."

Rezo nodded.  "Thank you, but I think that this is something I have to deal with myself."  He stood and picked up his supplies.  "I'm glad you're not too angry.  I was a little worried."

"Well, you should be."  Anita tried to look stern, but failed miserably, bursting out in a fit of giggles.  "I guess I forgive you."

Rezo smiled.  "That's a relief."  His grin faded as he remembered Bill's words.  "Anita?  I got cucumbers.  Is that what your father usually plants?"

Anita looked confused for a moment.  "I'm not really sure Rezo.  You'll have to ask him.  He does the planting and harvesting.  He won't let me help him.  I just do the housework mostly."

Rezo shook his head.  "You mean he runs a fully functioning farm on his own?  It must be rough."  He thought back to Don's hands.  Not a callus on them.  He wasn't a farmer.  There had to be something more to this.  "I don't want to know this", he muttered.

"But I do", was Zelgadis's whispered reply.  "Ask the questions, Rezo."

Anita was working on the cooking fire and didn't hear Rezo's dialogue with himself.  "Yeah, but father's a hard worker you know.  He goes out at dawn and doesn't come back until well after dark."

"He's a good man, Anita.  Rezo muttered, "And a miraculous farmer to be able to grow crops in the forest with no seeds."  Rezo sat back down at the table and stroked his chin thoughtfully.  "How did you come to live in such a remote area, anyway?"

Anita frowned.  "We like the peace.  Father… was not a popular man where we came from.  He was treated horribly."

"Oh, really?  Where did you come from, Anita?"  Rezo struggled to drop the subject, but Zelgadis would not be denied.  He suspected something terrible and he had to know the truth.

"Atlas City.  I was just a little girl when we left.  The people ran us out soon after my mother died.  Father said that it was because they were jealous of his work."  She sighed.  "Some people are so close minded."

Rezo shuddered, dreading the answer to his next question.  "What was his work, Anita?"

Anita smiled innocently.  "Magical research.  Father was a powerful sorcerer."

************************************************************************

Rezo sat in the highest branches of a tree, hidden by the shadows.  He glanced up at the moon.  He muttered, "This means nothing you know.  Absolutely nothing.  I think I'll go back to bed."  He willed himself to move towards the ground, but he remained as immobile as stone.  He sighed and muttered, "If he doesn't show up we never mention this again, agreed?"

Silence was his only response.

Rezo shook his head.  There was something guiding his actions on this night.  Was it fate?  Or that swordsman from his dreams?  He decided that if Don didn't show up in the next ten minutes, he was going back to bed.  This was pretty stupid after all.  Movement caught his eye.  Glancing down into the darkness, he saw a large figure stealthily exit the cabin.

It was Don.  He looked around nervously before approaching the shed.  He quietly opened the door and glanced inside.  He rummaged around for something briefly before quietly shutting the door again.  Looking quite pleased with himself, he quickly darted into the forest.

Rezo leapt silently from tree to tree, following Don quite easily.  "Damn it Don," he muttered, "why couldn't you have taken the night off?"

************************************************************************

Inside the house, Anita awoke when she heard the shed door shut.  She looked out the window and saw Don disappearing into the forest.  "Father?"  Sensing that something was amiss, she quickly dressed and slipped out into the night.

************************************************************************

Rezo watched as Don came to a clearing in the forest.  Sensing that the pursuit was almost over, he leapt down into the underbrush silently.

Don glanced around again, before walking over to a large stone in the middle of the clearing.  It looked as if it weighed several hundred pounds, but Don put his shoulder against it and slowly moved it to reveal a set of stairs set into the earth.  He quickly descended the stairs and vanished into darkness.

Rezo sighed.  "Curious.  Well, there's no turning back now, I suppose."  Saying this, he crept out of his hiding place and slipped over to the top of the stairs.  He glanced down the passage, ready to bolt at the first sign of Don, but he only saw a couple of flickering torches lining the stairs.  Cool air blew against his face.  He sniffed the stale air and muttered, "Quite a ways down.  What ever are you doing, Don?"  He quietly moved down the staircase.

Rezo was wrong.  It wasn't quite as far down as he had first thought.  He stepped out of the passage into a laboratory.  Heavy tables along the walls contained all sorts of magical ingredients.  They were all neatly labeled and organized, a far cry from Rezo's old lab.  Something shiny caught the chimera's eye.  "What have we here?"  He walked over to one of the tables and picked up a metal thread.  His eyes narrowed when he realized what it was.  It was hair.  One of his hairs.  He shuddered and glanced at a door on the far wall.  He knew what he would find there now.  The hair confirmed it.

Rezo shook his head and walked towards the door.  He muttered, "I don't want to do this."  He continued on though.  He put his hand on the doorknob and held it for a moment.  Taking a deep breath, he quietly opened the door.  The strong smell of alcohol wafted from within.  The new room was much darker, but he still recognized what was within it.

A large cylinder full of a strange green solution stood in the center of the room.  Floating within the solution was a figure.  It was the old man that had gone missing.

Rezo walked up to the tube and put his hand on its cool surface.  "Damn you, Don.  Damn you.  Why did you do this?"  He was surprised to note that he was thinking about Anita.  The real injustice of the situation was that this would complicate things with Anita.  Maybe if he just talked it over with Don…

Zelgadis snarled, "You self centered bastard!"  He looked into the tube.  The old man was alive.  His wrinkled flesh had smooth spots on it, almost as if something were growing just under the skin.  Zelgadis looked at his own stony hand.  That was it.  The old man's flesh was slowly becoming pebbly like his own.  He looked at the new chimera's hair.  Among the thin white hairs floating in the solution, several wiry hairs stuck out of his skull. 

Don had used Zelgadis's hair to create this monstrosity.  He had used Zelgadis's own curse to inflict this horror on another human being.

"It's lovely isn't it?"

Zelgadis stared at the tube, trying to curb the desire to rip Don's head off his shoulders.  As he watched, a large eye in the old man's torso opened and looked at him.  He growled, "You bastard.  You used me to ruin this man's life."  He heard Don take a step back.

"How can you say that?  His life was nothing but pain.  I fixed him.  Improved him even."

Zelgadis turned around, gritting his teeth.  "Improved?!"  He clenched his fists, his fingernails piercing the hard skin of his palms.

Don rolled his eyes.  "You're one of them, aren't you?  I thought you would understand, having such a gift yourself, but you obviously can't see my vision.  I'm perfecting humanity.  Why can't you understand that?"

Zelgadis was upon Don in an instant.  He grabbed the larger man's upper arms and squeezed them, effortlessly crushing bone.  He shouted, "Perfecting humanity?!"  He punched Don in the face, shattering his lower jaw.  "Perfecting humanity?!"  He shook Don violently as if expecting some response from him. 

Don just screamed incoherently.

"You think this is a gift?!"  Zelgadis lifted Don off the ground by his throat.  He began to crush his windpipe.  "Let me show you the benefits of my 'gift", he snarled.

"Rezo stop!"

Zelgadis glanced over his shoulder to see Anita standing in the doorway, a look of horror on her face.  His head began to ache.  "No, not now!"

Rezo loosened his grip on Don's throat.  He looked at Anita, trying to figure out what they were doing here.  "Where are we, Anita?  I can't remember."

Anita spoke slowly and calmly.  "Rezo, please release my father.  He needs help.  Let me help him, okay?"  She took a cautious step towards Rezo.  "Please?"

"No!" Zelgadis snarled.  "There's no help for him.  He's an evil man, Anita."  He began to apply more pressure to Don's throat again.

"Please, let him go Rezo!"  Anita put a hand on the chimera's arm.

Zelgadis shook his head violently.  "Don't call me that!  My name is Zelgadis!"

Rezo's confused expression returned briefly.  "Anita?  I can't stop him.  Help me stop him!"

Zelgadis gave Don's neck a violent twist, snapping his spine.  He tossed the body aside like so much garbage and turned to Anita.

Rezo's expression returned.  "What happened Anita?  Did I stop him?"  He looked down at the crumpled form of Don.  He whispered, "By Ceiphied…"  He turned to Anita and grabbed her arm.

Anita shrieked and slapped Rezo.  "Don't touch me, you monster!"  She knelt next to her father's body and began to quietly weep.  She glared at Rezo with such hatred that he took an involuntary step back.  "I hate you."

Rezo shook his head.  "Anita, you don't understand!  I tried-"

"Get out of here!" she shrieked at him.  "You killed my father!"  She turned back to Don's body and broke down completely.

Rezo tried to apologize, but couldn't find the words to do so.  Instead, he quietly slunk out of the laboratory, and out of Anita's life forever.  His self-pity turned to anger as he walked through the moonlit forest.  He hissed, "Zelgadis."  The priest's compassion for humanity had turned into blinding hatred for the sorcerer swordsman.  "I will find you.  I'll make you pay."  The shadow's engulfed the priest and in a moment, the forest was utterly still again.

And the months passed…

************************************************************************

Next Chapter:  Rezo meets a fallen prince…

Notes:  One more down.  Maybe two or possibly three more to go.  Hope everyone enjoyed the chapter.  I hope the Rezgadis bits came out okay.  I tried to make them different.  Zel's just Zel, while Rezo cares only for his own happiness. 

Review Responses:

Anita, thanks for your, um, extremely enthusiastic response!  You scare me sometimes, you know that?

Linagabriev, you didn't know that Lina drank the blood of virgins?  It was mentioned in one of the episodes.  Don't ask which one.  Okay, maybe it wasn't.  Thanks for the questions.

CT, thanks for sticking with the story.  You've seen the end of Anita's part in the story.  Regarding Christopher and Phillionel, some questions will be answered in the next chapter.  Regarding the name of Rezo, Zelgadis's grandfather was such a strong influence upon him, in addition to the fact that he was wearing his robes and reading his journal, it just made sense for him to call himself Rezo.

Hikari, I tried to send you another mail at none@screwedupserver.com and you still didn't answer!  Are you snubbing me?  Just kidding!  You could always get a hotmail account I guess.  And yes, Zel is a schitzo.  I'll bet you loved this chapter, huh?

K.R.P., thanks for the interest in the story.  Did you read the first one?

Mats Forsen, thanks for the compliment.  I will finish this pretty soon.

'Til next time!