Disclaimer: Slayers is not mine! It belongs to some Japanese guys with more money than me L

Almost there

We got to do something

Eruks eyes shot open. Out in the distance an orange light illuminated the night sky. "That must be Xen…" he whispered. He could feel deep inside that something was happening. The air was filled with pain and despair.

He stood up and pulled his shirt on. For a while he just looked out in the horizon. Somewhere inside him, he tried to find out if he was thrilled or disgusted. Despite his doubt about himself, there was one thing he was sure of. They had to get going as fast as possible. He pulled the curtain aside. His two companions were sleeping soundly in the bed. Naga was clutching a bottle of wine tightly, almost as if it was a stuffed animal of some kind. On top of the blanket Nimph was sleeping soundly. Suddenly Naga turned around in her sleep. To his amazement Nimph started flapping her wings and hovered above the bed until the sorceress was laying still again. He shook his head, the tiny creature just kept surprising him. How she could fly in her sleep was beyond him. But he figured that it would be of no use asking her, she probably didn't know herself.

"Miss Naga!" He shook he gently. "Wha…?" She slowly opened her eyes. "We got to go now" He said. Naga turned away "Go'way wanna sleep…" she mumbled before she fell asleep again. He turned to look at the window again. Normally he would honor a lady's request. But Naga could hardly be considered a lady, and they really needed to hurry. He decided to wake Nimph up first.

"Huh? Is it morning already?" Nimph asked. She sat up and rubbed her eyes "is something wrong?" she asked sleepily. "Yeah, I'm afraid there is" he replied, still looking out of the window. She flew up and sat on his shoulder "what is that light, master?". He looked at her sadly, "I'm afraid that it's Xen burning". She shook her head "do you really think so? That is just to sad". A tear formed in the corner of her eye.

"Now to wake up miss Naga" Eruk thought. He grabbed hold of her blanket and pulled with all his might. Naga instantly woke up "What do you think you are doing, you pervert!?" she shouted. "It was the easiest way to get you to wake up!" he argued. "Oh you say that, but somehow I doubt it" She stood up and started advancing on him "but again, I can't really blame you, can I?". Eruk backed away. Had it been any other woman in front of him, he would have been terribly embarrassed to look at her. But this was Naga, her nightgown, as skimpy as it was, actually covered more of her body than her usual outfit. "It's nothing like that" he tried to explain "look out the window, and you might understand".

She looked past him "Is that Xen burning?" she asked. Again he nodded "I think we should get going".

"Why are we waiting here master?" Nimph asked. They were standing in the hallway outside their room. "We are waiting here because miss Naga needs to change her cloths" he explained. Nimph titled her head to the left "why does that mean that we can't be inside?" she asked. "Well" Eruk blushed slightly "She is a woman, and I'm a man, it wouldn't be proper". Nimph nodded slowly "another human thing, right?" She asked. "Yes, another human thing" he agreed. Some time passed. "Can I ask another question?" Nimph asked. She leaned in close to his ear and whispered "what's a pervert?".

"This is awful" Eruk was looking out on the remains of the once proud city of Xen. It had taken them most of the night to get there. The fire had died out, but the smoke was still rising from the ruins. "Who could have done such a thing?" he asked in a low whisper.

"Hey master, look!" Nimph pointed to a house a short distance away "Miss Naga found someone!". Eruk snapped out of his thoughts "A survivor?".

Naga walked towards the two "So you found anything?" she shouted. Eruk sighed "not really, how about you?", somehow he knew what was coming. "OHOHOHO of course, I found something" as usual her laughter sent a chill down his spine. "Take a look here" She moved aside. A little girl was standing behind her. Eruk figured that she was about 8 or 9 years old. The girls eyes darted all over the place. "Poor thing" Eruk thought "Probably one of very few survivors…". Suddenly she ran in behind Nagas cape, looking scared out of her mind. "What are you doing!!" the tall sorceress shouted. "It… it's him…" the girl pointed a shaky finger in Eruks direction. He looked around, confused "Huh? Me? What are you talking about?". The girl started crying "you killed everybody!!".

Naga crouched down "what are you saying little girl?" she asked. "That creepy guy and his monsters burned the town and killed everybody" the girl sniffed. Slowly Naga turned her head "SIDEKICK" she shouted "What have you done?". Eruk pointed at himself "Me? I haven't done anything!".

The girl continued crying "but you did! I saw you!". Naga looked at him with a frown on her face "I knew I couldn't trust you! You are really evil aren't you?" . Eruk backed away "look, I honestly don't know what you are talking about" he protested. "Did you really do it, master?" Nimph asked carefully. "Not you too" he sighed "I had hoped you at least would back me up". Suddenly his ears picked up a low noise behind the girls. None of them seemed to notice it though. He went pale when a strange creature came into sight behind them. It had been covered by a fallen building. He was unable to determine if it had been waiting in ambush, or if it was just a coincidence. "Sidekick" Naga shouted "It pains me to do this, but…" Her speech was cut of by the girl's screaming.

Naga slowly turned around. In front of her was a creature she had never seen before. It kinda resembled a troll, but it was definitely something else. It held the girl in both hands above it's head "Naga, get down!" Eruk shouted. Heeding his warning, she fell to the ground, just as he passed her. He slashed away at the creature with all of his might. It howled in pain as it stomach was sliced open, and in the confusion it dropped the girl. Eruk jumped forward and caught her in mid air. "No, let me go!!!" she shouted. Eruk just held her tightly "complain later, we have to get away" he shouted. "What are you doing" Naga shouted, as he ran towards her. He sat the girl down "I want you too take care of her, I'm going to finish that thing of".

He spun around and faced the approaching creature. There was no trace of the wound he had inflicted on it before. "A tough one, aren't you?" he smirked. He dodged a punch with ease. The thing wasn't very fast, but he had to keep telling himself to be careful. Judging from the sound it made when it hit the ground, it was tremendously strong. He ran in circles and tried to distract it with weak attacks. He noticed how the small wounds he made closed at once. "So that's your game huh?" he thought "I guess I'll have to finish you with one blow". He dodged another punch, spun around and struck it's leg. The creature lost it's balance for a moment. As he stroke the monster, he cast his own original spell, the flare fist. Split seconds before he hit, his hands exploded in flames. His claws sunk deeply into the body of his opponent. In the matter of seconds all that remained in front of him was a smoking pile of ash.

Naga whistled in amazement "That was a pretty cool move there, sidekick". He was breathing heavily as he turned around. He dropped to one knee. "Are you ok, master?" Nimph was hovering above his head, with a concerned look on his face. "I'll be fine" he huffed "this kind of thing just wears me out". He turned his attention to the dark sorceress "I haven't done anything to this town". Naga nodded slowly. With some effort he stumbled to his feet "We have to get moving". He turned to the little girl " I know this might sound cruel, but you need to find your own way to safety". Naga gave him a hard glare "what was that? You want to leave her here?".

He knelt down next to the girl "Listen girl" he said in a soft voice "I wish we could do something to help". She looked at him with teary eyes. "We are going to find the ones who did this and make them pay" He said through gritted teeth. He reached into his cape and pulled out the dagger he found at the bandit camp. He closed his eyes and whispered a few words. The weapon started glowing white. The little girls eyes was the size of saucers as he handed her the weapon. "Don't worry I have put a magic spell on this dagger. It will protect you until you reach a village" he explained "just go that way, and you'll be safe" He pointed in the direction of the town he had just left. She took the dagger and nodded. Slowly she turned and started walking. "Are you sure she'll be ok master?" Nimph asked. He followed the girls fading form with his eyes "I hope so" he whispered.

"Where did you learn that kind of magic anyway?" Naga asked as the looked through the ruins. "Sylphiel taught me the flare arrow a long time ago…" he explained absentminded. "There was that name again" the sorceress smirked "but never mind that, what about that protection spell?" He smiled a little "that was just a light spell. I just tried to give her some courage". Naga padded him on the shoulder " Pretty sneaky, aren't you?".

"Master, look over there" Nimph pointed at a huge mansion. Even though it was right in the middle of the destruction, it didn't seem like it was hurt in any way. "You are right" he agreed "that is pretty suspicious". The fairy shook her head "That's not what I mean! I've been here before!". Eruk stopped walking "you've what??" he asked. "This is where I used to live!" she exclaimed happily.

"Sidekick, would you mind telling me what's going on here?" Naga asked, as she clutched to the small window frame.

"Isn't it obvious?" he answered "we're breaking in". He was carefully working the glass out of the frame with his blades. "Aren't that against the law?" Naga asked with a frown. He sighed, Naga could be almost as violent as Lina, and at the same time she was worried about breaking the law. He just couldn't understand her. "Look maybe breaking in is against the law, but so is destroying cities" he countered. Naga nodded "good point, sidekick".

"I can't believe this" Naga growled "There is nothing of value here at all". The tall sorceress was busy rummaging through various drawers. Eruk looked around, it seemed they had entered some kind of store room. "Nimph?" he asked "could you tell me where we are?". He opened the door a little bit and she peeked outside. "Nope, sorry" she shook her head "I've never been in this part of the house before". He turned to his partner "Miss Naga? I'm gonna go look around, ok?". The sorceress waved him off without a sound. He chuckled under his breath, it would seem that she had found some kind of trinket after all.

He walked through the empty hallways. Even though it seemed like nobody had been around for a while, he kept to the shadows. The last thing he needed, was being found out by whoever lived in the mansion. A flicker of light caught his attention. Carefully he approached the light hallway. Several torches were hanging along the walls. It was obvious that someone frequently used the rooms here. He took a deep breath and slowly opened the first door he met. The door made a low sound as it opened. He held his breath. If something was inside, it would be aware of him now.

Much as he had feared his keen senses warned him of movement inside. He took a deep breath before he jumped into the room. He landed in a crouching stance, ready to fight anyone. To his surprise the room actually proved to be quite empty. He smiled to himself, in a corner of the room he saw a cage with a small bird inside. "So that was what I heard?" the thought as he stood up and dusted himself off. "I whish you would stop rolling around on the floor like that!" Nimph yelled from inside his pocket "All of my pictures are falling down from their shelves!". For a while the only sound to be heard in the room was the bird singing. "Hello! I'm talking to you here!" Nimph's head popped out of the pocket. "I know, but I think I'll stand in stunned silence a while longer" he replied dryly. He had known for a while that she had tried to get comfortable with living in his pocket, but this was starting to get ridiculous. He got out of his shock like state of mind, and started searching the room. If there was a bird living in a cage, then there was bound to be people using this place too.

He jumped up as the door swung open, but soon relaxed. "Miss Naga, would you please try to be more silent" he scolded. Naga was staring at him in disbelief. He shrugged "well, it looks like nobody is here anyway…". He wanted to say more but fell silent. Another Naga was standing behind the first. Then another joined, and another. He backed away, this was just so very wrong. He watched as more and more clones entered the room. He estimated that there was ten of them. "Oh Ceiphied, not that…" he thought, as the ten clones started laughing. He covered his ears in a futile attempt to keep the awful noise out of his head. To much, can't take it anymore he thought as he slumped to the floor.

"What's going on here?" A loud voice cut through the laughter. Eruk raised his head, yet another Naga had appeared. From her attitude he guessed that this was the real Naga. The ten clones fell silent. "It's… it's the one" one of the clones pointed her finger in Naga's direction. "OHOHOHOHO, of course I'm the one" the raven haired sorceress exclaimed. "So cool!!" the clones whispered in awe. "I wish, I could be like that…", "how does she do it?" the clones were busy chatting among themselves. Eruk spent the time trying to recover from the sonic attack I should have known that the only one miss Naga would respect, is miss Naga.

"So what are you visions of beauty up to?" Naga asked casually. Apparently seeing ten clones of herself didn't even faze her. "It's been terrible!" one of the clones explained "Some weird guy, that looks like that one over there, is trying to take over the world". Naga shook her head "I really thought I had taught you girls better than that. Didn't I tell you never to hire out to the forces of darkness, unless the forces of darkness paid an outstanding amount of gold?". Eruk groaned at that statement, but somehow he had expected her to say something like that. "But what about you, oh great one?" another clone asked with big starry eyes "why are you here, and where is that small breasted sidekick of yours?". Naga looked deep in thought "Oh that sidekick!! I ditched her long ago, she was just so useless. Now I'm helping that guy" she pointed at Eruk, who quivered in a corner. Seeing eleven Nagas was just too much.

He carefully stood up, "you mean, you've seen those ten before?" he asked. "Of curse I have" Naga laughed "A brilliant old man made them some years ago. They traveled with me for a while and I taught them everything". Eruk got an idea "do they know their way around this complex then?" he asked hopefully. The clones nodded in response.

"I must admit that was a great idea, sidekick" Naga whispered, as they followed the ten clones down into an underground lab. "And this is where we keep the specimens" one of the Nagas explained proudly. Eruk had given up trying to tell them apart. He was pretty sure about who was the real one though. She just had a certain aura that the others didn't. He looked around in the giant lab. Suddenly he stopped moving. Inside several of the test tubes he saw most of his friends. "Something wrong sidekick?" Naga asked. He pointed "The people inside those tubes… ". The clones beamed with pride "they are the latest ones that was brought in, most of them are pretty powerful for mere humans". Eruk shot them an angry glare "and they are my friends!" he snapped. "That mazuko as well?" one of them asked carefully. "Mazuko? You don't mean Xellos do you?", he was amazed that anyone could even touch the trickster priest, let alone capture him.

He went closer to the tube that held his friends. Upon closer inspection they seemed like they were in some kind of magical sleep. He stood in front of the tube that contained Zelgadis. "What are you going to do?" Naga asked. He readied his weapons "I'm busting them out". He took a deep breath, maybe just breaking the machines was stupid, but he didn't have time for anything else. He figured that it would be wisest to free Zelgadis first. He was most likely the strongest among them, and therefore the one with the greatest chance of survival if something went wrong. Here goes nothing, he thought before he made his attack.

The glass splintered, and the unconscious chimera fell out on the floor. He placed his hand over Zel's mouth "Miss Naga he's breathing. Don't you have spell that can wake him up?". Naga pushed him away "let me take a look". She carefully studied the man in front of her "That's some golem" she whispered in awe. "Miss Naga, please!" Eruk hurried her. "Ok ok, I was just admiring a brilliant piece of engineering" she pouted. She raised her hands "Detoxify!". The healing energies was flowing through his body, and after a few seconds he slowly opened his eyes.

"Where am I?" he asked, clearly still dazed. "Oh, it even talks too!" Naga was thrilled. Zel struggled to get on his feet "who are you?" he asked, while keeping his eyes firmly on Naga. "She's a friend, Zel" Eruk tried to explain. Zel spun around "you!". He reached for his sword, but found that it had been removed. "Whoa, easy there Zel" Eruk backed away "It's me, Eruk, remember?". Zel anger gradually faded "Eruk?" he asked "I thought you were dead…".

Eruk smiled bitterly "no, but it was close… Nevermind that though, how do you feel Zel?". The chimera shook his head a few times "I'll live". Eruk nodded "Then I guess it'll be ok to help the others". Naga stepped up to him "Then what are you waiting for sidekick, get to it" she ordered. Zel almost choked when he got a closer look at Eruks new companion. Blushing slightly he turned his gaze away from the scantly clad woman. "Zel, you free Gourry, I'll free Taki and Filia, Naga you help Amelia" Eruk ordered. Zel nodded and got to work.

"Amelia?" Naga asked. Inside the container in front of her was a girl that what strangely familiar to her "Sis, is that you?" she whispered. She hesitated, it had been so long since she left her family behind. Would she even recognize her?. "Hey Naga, what are you doing over there?" Eruk shouted. Naga nodded "Right, this is not the time to dwell on the past" she assured herself. She drew her sword and smashed the glass container. The girl inside was flushed out on the floor. "Here goes nothing" Naga whispered before she put her hands on the sleeping girls chest "detoxify!". A jolt shot through the young girls body, but she remained unconscious. Naga smiled as she picked Amelia up. It would seem that she had gotten a bad wound in the back of her head.

"Eruk, what are you doing here?" Taki asked, she sat on the floor and looked around in confusion "Where is *here* anyway?". Eruk sat down next to her "I wish I had the time to explain". Taki nodded "I know, Miss Lina, and miss Sylphiel, you wanna find them right?". Eruk said nothing, but she knew that he was thinking the same thing. "So sidekick, what's the plan now?" Naga asked, she was still carrying the unconscious Amelia. Eruk looked the group over. Taki and Filia was supporting each other, Amelia was safely in Nagas arms. Even Zelgadis struggled to stay standing. There was no was he could risk taking them with him.

"Naga, I'm afraid this is where we say goodbye" he said solemnly. "What? Naga shot him an angry glare "What do you mean *goodbye*?". Eruk gestured to the rest of the group "look at them" he said. "There is no way they could last in here. I want you to lead them outside".

Eruk looked as the rest of the group left with Naga and her posse of clones in the lead. "Hey Zel?" Eruk held the chimera back "I need to ask you a favor".

"Now, to find the rest of them" Eruk wandered through the lab, when he heard someone scream in agony. "What was that, master" Nimph asked sleepily. "It's about time you woke up, lazy creature" he scolded her with a smile. "I need my beauty sleep, you know" Nimph defended herself. "Just kidding" she added with a sly smile. Despite the situation, Eruk was laughing to himself "What's down this corridor?" he asked. Nimph looked in the direction he was pointing "Oh that's where the keep the mazukos they bring in" she said with a shrug "terrible unsociable creatures if you ask me". Eruk ignored her babbling about how terrible mean the mazukos could be.

"You are not going down there, are you master?" She asked frightfully. He nodded in response "I just have a weird feeling, that's all". At first glance the room held noting of interest to him, but then a strange looking device caught his eye. He looked inside through a small window. A smile spread across his face, inside was a very weak looking Xellos. "Hey, that's that mean old priest, isn't it?" Nimph shouted.

Eruk nodded, a wicked gleam in his eyes. From his weakened state Xellos looked up at the tine window. "Help me…" He whispered. Eruks smile grew "I might, but I have conditions…". Xellos only nodded, he could easily guess what the conditions were. Eruk took a step back. He channeled all of his energy through his weapons, before he slashed the device open. He went inside and dragged the priest out. "I owe you one" Xellos mumbled, before he vanished into the astral plane to regain his strength. "Just leave me alone from now on, and we're even" He said, somehow aware that Xellos could still easily hear him.

Authors notes:

WOHOO!! 50 reviews!!! I'm so happy!!! Thanks a bunch to everyone who have reviewed!

Glad that you like my little story (well, can't call it *little* anymore, now can I?)

So almost everyone have been saved, except Lina and Sylphiel.

How will this end? Read on and find out, please!