I don't own Slayers.

=Chapter XII=

"That's me," Lina breathed.

Zel shifted uncomfortably behind her. He debated whether or not he should say anything more, or just let her alone.

He stared closely at the painting, noticing the similarities between the girl on the picture and the girl standing before him. The only difference (he wondered for a second if she even knew) was the facial expression on the face. The girl in the portrait had eyes that were void of any life. That wasn't Lina; that could never be Lina. She was like a spark; even at her lowest points, she was always burning with life. When he stared at the painting, knowing that it could be her made him feel unpleasant and he wanted to tear it down and incinerate it.

"Lina, we have to get it out soon because--" He stopped abruptly in the middle of his sentence and gasped slightly. Lina turned to look at him, trying to figure out what he was telling her.

"Because?"

There seemed to be a slight flicker of movement in his jaw, as if he were trying to keep from screaming then his eyes glazed over and he fell forward in a dull thud. Someone stood behind him, carrying a sword that shone brightly in the darkness. The sword created by light, the only thing that could pierce stone flesh, she thought dimly.

"Gourry?" Lina cried out. She made a move toward the tall blonde man but stopped as he raised his sword with an evil grin. He didn't look like the person she once knew. His eyes, they were too full of…thought? Was that what it was? No…It was full of hatred and the Gourry she knew didn't hate anything or anyone.

She felt some heat spray across her foot and she glanced down quickly. Zel's face was by her foot, and he was breathing on her. She thanked L-sama for this knowledge that he was still alive… but for how long? Her brain worked rapidly. First of all, she needed to stop Gourry, then get Zel out of there, get the painting, and find her sister…all these thought jumbled up into one large mess that was cleared instantly as the blade of light flew toward her chest.

Lina dodged as best as she could, but the light still grazed the side of her stomach. She felt new stinging sensations all over and gritted her teeth to keep from screaming.

Gourry moved his sword swiftly, aiming to cut off her head, but Lina, seeing this, managed to drop in time and roll behind him. She quickly kicked him in the crotch, then the back of the knee. He keeled over, with the sword still in his hand and glared at her. She stomped on his hand and, as soon as he let the sword go, she kicked it far away.

Mad, Gourry jumped up and rammed his shoulder into her gut. Taken by surprise, Lina could only stare in shock as she felt the force of his body smashing into her gut. The breath in her lungs vanished and she could feel herself flying backward and smashing against something cold. Glass shards broke from behind her, each single blade cutting into her skin then shattering against the floor. She slid to the ground, hurt and sore, as the sound of a blaring horn tore through the basement. She tried to push herself up, but her muscles screamed at her to stop.

"Lina," she heard Zel speak as Gourry went to retrieve his blade of light. "Touch the painting."

She glanced at him for a moment. "What?"

Gourry turned around and stalked closer to them, like a predator circling their prey.

"Just do it, damn it!" Zel cried with a pained expression. He then hurled himself off the floor and flew at Gourry with all his might before Lina could reply. His knee made contact with Gourry's stomach and as Gourry bent forward in pain, Zel slammed his elbow onto Gourry's back.

Lina had no time to waste. She turned around despite her pain, and reached for the painting. Just as it had done before, she felt energy in the painting, moving around then slowly seep into her hand. The painting changed, and instead of the little red head girl, there was a symbol etched into it...something she had seen only once before.

A memory stirred within her. She was standing before Rezo as he painted on his easel. She had asked him what he was painting and he had said something that holds a very important secret. He then smiled at her and began to sing.

"Lial, Lial, tementh a ryea a teno slyth torinth lan," she sang the words brokenly in a quiet but rich voice. The words translated to: "Lady, Lady, break your bonds of darkness and fill me with your light."

Sheer power surged through her and she fell to her knees. Her body burned of light, of darkness, of chaos, of peace, of fire, of water, of wind, of earth, of humanity, of demons…she screamed and grabbed her temples as image after image invaded her mind. Buildings lay in rubble all around her. Millions of people who she couldn't remember were screaming as fire ate at their flesh. Children ran screaming as men in horses trampled on their parents…

And in the middle of all these images, stood one figure, laughing and purely enjoying the crisis: Rezo.

Then she blacked out.

===

"Miss Lina? Are you alright?"

Lina stirred feeling numb all over. She lay in a bed with bandages around her arm, her back, and her midsection. She glanced around her. She was in the same room she had woken in not more than a few weeks ago (could it have only been a few weeks?) and saw the princess perched in a chair next to her bed.

"What happened?" Lina asked.

Amelia frowned. "Don't you remember?"

Lina's temper sparked. "Would I be asking if I did?" she growled.

Amelia thought that one over for a few seconds before an overly cheerful Xelloss appeared next to her. He cocked his head to the left as he glanced at Lina then said, "You snore when you sleep."

After Amelia had batted him away (literally), she sat in the corner of Lina's bed. "Mr. Zelgadis and Mr. Gourry are still in the infirmary. Miss Filia and I brought you all back before the guards could take you…when we had gotten to the basement after the alarm rang, we found all of you sprawled on the floor. You were suppose to disarm the system, you know."

"The painting?" Lina asked.

"Safe. It's in the temples with Filia and Syphiel guarding it like hawks…" Amelia bit the bottom of her lip and her face appeared troubled as she tried to describe everything she knew. "Miss Lina, after the alarm went off, there was a bright flash of light that flooded the ball room. Everyone thought it was a power surge, but Miss Filia looked pale. She said something about the weapon gaining powers." Amelia's eyebrows furrowed and looked to Lina as if the elder girl were hiding something from her. "Do you know what she meant?"

Lina shook her head vigorously, letting her wild hair fly around her. She stared at the tangled locks and frowned. She could hear Amelia sigh and stand. "Miss Lina, you should really take care of your hair."

The young girl walked to one of the tables and pulled out a drawer. Within, there was an old brush that looked to be well used. Amelia grinned at it then walked over to Lina. She then sat behind the red head and began to brush. "I have an older sister named Gracia. A few years ago, she ran off in order to become some adventurer or thrill seeker. I don't know why, though."

"Amelia, if you're trying to come on to me, I can tell you right now, it's working."

Amelia grinned and continued with her story as if she weren't interrupted. "She asked me, the night before she left, what I would do without her." Amelia dropped the brush in her lap and lay back on one particularly fluffy pillow.

Lina turned around and stared at Amelia. "What did you say to her?"

Amelia shrugged. "I didn't say anything. I never thought that she'd go away. I guess I took that for granted."

Lina fell into reflective silence. Finally, with a slight half smile, she nodded slowly. "I know the feeling. How'd you feel when you saw that she was gone?"

Amelia's eyes looked so distant at that moment, that Lina felt like she was an intruder. The red head almost got up and left, if it weren't for the pains that she was suffering through. "I guess," Amelia began slowly, "I felt alone, more than anything else. I felt like that I was the reason that she left. And, Miss Lina," Amelia's eyes now burned with a fiery passion as she glanced fanatically at Lina, "that was the worst feeling that I've ever received in my entire life. It's the same feeling that I get whenever I look into your eyes."

Lina grinned sheepishly. "I'm sorry I make you feel that way--"

"No! I meant that you give off those feelings because you suffer from it yourself."

Lina stared at Amelia in shocked silence. Did she show her feelings so blatantly? Did other people know? Lina tried to deny it, but then stopped. Why should she lie to a person who knew what it felt like?

Amelia leaned forward and placed a hand on Lina's shoulder. "Miss Lina, please, it's too unjust to suffer like that. You must know that you aren't alone. Mr. Zelgadis, Mr. Xelloss, Miss Filia, my father, and I are all here for you. If you want to talk or if you want to yell, we are all here to listen."

In an uncharacteristic moment of pleasant emotion, Lina leaned forward and hugged Amelia warmly, like a sister. For some reason, she could feel her fatigue diffuse out of her veins and be replaced with strength.

As the two girls hugged, the door slowly creaked open and Xelloss poked his head inside. He stared at the two girls with extreme interest then whispered as if egging them on, "Now, kiss her."

Lina extracted herself from Amelia and turned around. Before she could attack, Amelia jumped out of the bed and started chasing after Xelloss. Xelloss merely pouted and said, "Why can't you make a man's dreams come true?!"

===

Zelgadis lay in the bed, staring at the wooden ceiling. "Her powers were locked in the paintings," he muttered, recalling the experience.

A bright flash of light had erupted from Lina's body and spread across the empty corridors, knocking him and Gourry backward. Gourry passed out from the sheer force, but he had stayed awake, watching Lina as she fell to her knees, grabbing her head in her hands and crying out in pain.

He could feel the magic in the air. It swirled around her, like a tornado, then slowly began to seep into her body.

She then stood, shakily at first, and her eyes began to glow yellow. She whipped her head around, staring directly at him. "Zel…" Her voice was laced with another voice, creating a sort of eerie sound. That was the last thing he heard before he passed out.

He frowned and continued to stare at the ceiling when he heard someone enter. "473," the woman said as she pulled up a chair next to Zelgadis' bed and sat down. Zel heard the chair cry out in pain as the woman leaned back and let out a sigh of relief. "473 panels of wooden boards span the ceiling."

Zel looked down at her and grimaced. "Get out of here," he hissed.

"Not going to," the woman said as she grinned. "At least not yet." She leaned forward in her chair so that her face was a scant few inches away from his ear. "I have a bone to pick with you."

He sighed as if saying 'what else is new?' Rolling his eyes he whispered, "If they catch you here, you'll be executed on the spot, Luna."

The girl laughed heartily at his words. She closed her eyes in mirth as she leaned back in the seat. Her long purple hair swayed gently as she shifted her body. "That is, if they catch me, right Zelgadis? Or have you forgotten how powerful I really am."

He felt his jaw flicker as a new wave of anger spread all over his body. "Stay away."

"You're not even going to ask why I came? Not even the least bit curious why Rezo sent me here?"

"Stay away from her."

That seemed to spark some attention within Luna. She bared her sharp teeth at him as she darted forward to look into his eyes. "Stay away from whom? From Filia, the girl who betrayed her own people to help you? From Amelia, that annoyance of a princess? Or from my sister?" When Zel didn't answer, Luna frowned slightly and backed away. "Tell me, Zelgadis, what exactly is your relationship with my sister? If I remember correctly, you were just suppose to watch her."

Zel tried to turn away, but he was too weak. Instead, he settled on shutting his eyes and letting out a deep breath. "What does it matter to you?"

"It means everything. After all, Lina is still my kid sister. I have to protect her, don't I?"

"You gave up that position when you joined Rezo. Now you and he are just trying to use Lina for your own personal game of war and absolute power."

Luna feigned shock. "Use her? What about you, Zel? Aren't you just using her to get that damn weapon for yourself so you could finally kill your grandfather once and for all?"

Zel didn't respond. He couldn't reply to anything that she was saying because he partly knew that she was correct. It had started out like that; he wanted to get the weapon to kill his nearly undefeatable grandfather, but now…it was something more than that. He wanted to help Lina find her past, to help her move on. He could see in her eyes, that the past was effecting her so much…He also wanted to save the people that had always been there for him. He felt a loyalty to Prince Phil for taking him in and trusting him despite his past affiliation with someone as dark as Rezo.

"Well, Zel, I just wanted to tell you--" her hand flew at his throat and she pressed down on it, crushing his trachea. Zel tried to grab at it as Luna sent a slight wave of magic through her hand and into his throat, stopping the movement of his muscles. Luna hovered directly over him so that her head successfully blocked the light from reaching him. "Instead of stopping us, or hindering us in any way, you've actually furthered our cause."

Luna grinned at Zel's expression. "What do I mean?" Luna said. "Well, you know that weapon you've been searching for the entire time? It was really under your nose."

"What?"

"Think about it Zel. Didn't you think it was odd that Rezo only wanted Lina around while he painted? Didn't you ever wonder why it was odd that the paintings were said to lead a person to the greatest weapon of all time? Did you even care that it was only Lina that could reveal the truth beneath the work of art with just her hand? Didn't you know that each painting was a magical bind that held one third of Lina's power in each? Do you know what will happen when she unlocks all three?" Luna's voice began to crack and she blinked rapidly to try and control her emotion. Finally, in a deathly hiss, she said, "Didn't you think it was strange that I could leave my own sister in the streets, knowing how much I loved her?"

Zel felt the splash of Luna's tears hit his face and for an instant Rezo's words resurfaced after all those years. It washed over Zel just as realization hit him. "I want you to watch her, Zelgadis. Her life is more important than yours…"

Zel shut his eyes. "Lina…" he whispered.

All that time, he had spent searching for the weapon that would finally be able to destroy his demented grandfather and the whole time the weapon was there by his side, working with him and helping him, staring at him with her red eyes and cramming food down her loud mouth. It was her, it was all Lina Inverse, the greatest weapon of all time.

"Lina," Luna mimicked Zel's voice. "Here I was, trying my damned hardest to get my sister away from all this chaos and you reel her right back. Maybe I should kill you right now so I could end all our suffering." She squeezed his neck harder. "I know nothing can pierce your skin, but I wonder how well you'll do without oxygen."

He had only known Lina was able to unlock the mysteries of the paintings and he thought that was the reason Rezo thought she was important. He didn't know…he had never really known…and now, after everything, instead of remedying the situation, he had managed to screw it all up.

Luna abruptly let go of him and stalked back to the door. She leaned against the frame and said, "Bastard. It pains me to think that Rezo still wants you alive." Then Luna disappeared out of the room and down the hallway.

Zel could only shut his eyes, and wait for his body to heal. He had a lot of thinking to do, and a lot of planning. He shook his head slightly and felt sleep start to over take him. Without any struggle, he gave himself up to oblivion.