A/N: Insert usual disclaimer stuff here. This is the sequel to Penance and Pursuit of Merit.

Again, I went back and chopped this fic up into chapters. If you want to read the thing straight through, with no chapter divisions, just head on over to my site, Because I chopped it up, some of the chapter transitions may be strange. Sorry about that.

Reviews are always welcome and encouraged!


Four days later found him wandering still, his head bent beneath the brutal rays of the sun and feet dragging as he moved across the sands, squinting occasionally at one of the tall, red cliffs the area was dotted with. He hissed and touched his skin, burned by the constant sunlight, annoyed that he had been affected in such a manner. As a high-level Monster his physical body was really nothing more than a magical construct, and therefore he should have been able to smooth away the burns with a mere thought. Because his magic was blocked from him, however, he was roasting like a pig in the harsh sunlight. Lost in angry thought he stumbled in the sand, sinking to his knees in order to prevent from doing a facevault. Grunting, he steadied himself, and that was when he happened to look up.

There were three bodies in the sand before him, two of them slightly bloated and all of them facedown. He stood and stumbled closer, eyes and ears straining to detect danger. Finding nothing, he approached the corpses, blinking rapidly in the bright light. A scowl marred his sharp features as he realized that he knew the people in the sand before him. They were Lina's cohorts.

With a shake of his head he knelt next to the nearest body, that of a young woman. Her eyes were closed, but an expression of unspeakable pain was on her face. Her entire body was slightly contorted, as if she had suffered much before she died. As he rolled her over further he saw the reason she had died. A large hole in her chest, now black with dried blood, gaped at him. The woman's heart was missing entirely. He raised an eyebrow and let her drop back into the sand, moving to the next corpse, the only one that was not slightly puffy in death. It was the chimera man. When Xellos rolled him over, he saw that Zelgadis had met the same fate as Amelia. The chimera's heart had been pulled out of his chest, only most of Zelgadis' ribcage was also missing. The expression on his face was one of anger. "So you never found your cure," Xellos whispered, letting the dead man fall back to his original position.

Then Xellos moved onto the last corpse, the blonde hair of the dead body waving like a golden banner in the dusty desert wind. A small smile graced his face at seeing Gourry's dead body. He was willing to bet that Lina had gone straight back to her previous lover after parting with him, and he was not sorry at all to see the man's lifeless form at his feet. He only wished he had been there to gain strentgh from the man's suffering and pain. "You appear to have made a mistake somewhere along the lines," he muttered, crouching down and grabbing a fistful of the body's silken mane, wrenching the head up cruelly. Gourry's face was a mask of sadness, however, not of pain or anger. His heart had also been removed, but his entire abdomen had been mangled in the process. Xellos found himself wondering if his heart had been removed before or after the rest of the damage had been done. Well, it was for the best, he supposed. At least they weren't trapped in the desert any longer. He glanced at the bodies again, wondering if he should do something about them. He knew humans buried their dead, or burned them. With a shrug he began to move on. Oh, they had been his traveling companions for a while, but as he was he didn't much care if they lived or died. Since they were already dead there wasn't anything he could do for them, nor was he inclined to. At least Lina's body hadn't been among the corpses. However, she usually wasn't too far from her friends. If she hadn't been killed, where was she?

He only took a few more steps before a figure stepped out from behind a rock, clothing torn and tattered, skin splattered with blood. "You," the newcomer hissed, and Xellos shaded his eyes with a hand to better see the speaker.

What he saw took his breath away. He slowly lowered his hands and held them in front of him, shaking. Fear raced through his system, fear that it was all a dream, that what he was seeing couldn't possibly be real. More un-Monsterly emotions swirled within him as well, almost out of his reach and beyond his awareness, but they were there nonetheless. Desperation was there, as was joy. He was certain that if he had still been human tears would have been running down his face. Extending his arms, he began to walk forward. "Lina!" he cried.

Flashing, ruby-colored eyes narrowed and she took a step back. "You stay away from me," she grated.

A slight frown furrowed his brow and he halted his advance. "But, Lina. . ."

"I don't want to hear a single word from your filthy mouth, Monster," Lina replied sharply.

"I'm sorry, I didn't want it to be this way. If I had the choice-"

"And how wasn't it your choice?" she snapped, tears forming in her eyes, breaking something within him.

He paused, searching her face for anything that hinted at what they once shared, but her features held as much warmth for him as granite. "It was my mistress," he murmured, lowering his arms. He hadn't seen her for so long, for so very long, and yet this reunion was a far cry from what he had expected. Xellos was suddenly glad for the emotional death being a Monster provided. If he had still been human his heart would have been breaking. As it was, he found he could dispassionately take a step back and analyze her actions. Of course she was hurt, of course she was angry. She had been torn away from him and suffered for it just as much as he had been torn away from her.

"I SAW you!" Lina screamed. "I watched you kill them!"

Xellos' eyes opened wide and he looked over his shoulder at the corpses that lay a few meters away. "What?" he asked, surprised. "What are you talking about?"

She raised a hand an gestured at her dead friends. "I watched as you took them one by one and pulled their still-beating hearts from their bodies! You killed Amelia first, taking us by surprise, and then Zel next when he tried to fight you. You took the longest killing Gourry. You tried to make him scream, make him beg, but he wouldn't. Not in front of me, and not for you."

He stood perfectly still, dumbfounded, as her entire body began to shake, tears pouring from her eyes. "But I just got here," he whispered, walking to her, wanting to press her head to his chest and let her cry out all her rage and pain. As he came closer he saw that she had sustained her own wounds. "Lina, who did this to you?" he asked, reaching out and touching her.

She wound up and punched him in the face as hard as she could, his head snapping back with the force. He blinked and looked at her as if nothing had happened, and watched as her expression went from one of anger to one of fear. "You did," she snarled. "You hurt me and killed my friends. You killed the man I love!"

Something cold formed in the pit of Xellos' chest as he turned once more towards the corpses, his gaze falling on the body of fhe blonde swordsman. "Gourry?"

"Of course! He's the only man I ever loved!" Lina choked, sobbing. "There was always only Gourry in my heart."

Xellos felt the cold lump within him grow larger. She had always loved Gourry; he knew that. There was no room for him in her heart. Well, he could understand that. After all, he couldn't love her as a Monster. Such feelings did not exist for his kind. Still, he felt something for her, because even as she spoke he was saddened by the pain he heard in her voice. He didn't want anything to hurt Lina, ever. "I didn't do this," he murmured.

"I watched you do it," Lina hissed, wiping at her eyes with the back of a tattered glove. "I saw you do it, heard you laughing."

"It wasn't me," he protested, hands curling into fists.

Lina scowled at him and brought her hands together. "LIAR!" she screamed, and began launching spells at him. He gasped and twisted out of the way, barely able to avoid her fireball, landing in the sand. She released a volley of flare arrows, and he narrowly missed being skewered. He reached desperately for his power, but none was there. It hovered just out of his grasp, throbbing against its containment.

"Listen to me, Lina!" he shouted, diving behind a rock for cover.

"Everything you say is a lie!" she yelled, releasing another attack.

He closed his eyes and covered his head with his arms, stones raining down upon him. He heard the flapping of fabric above him and turned, staring as Lina launched herself into the air. The sound of a spell being chanted reached his ears and he gasped, scrambling across the sand. "No, Lina!" he screamed, holding out a hand as the Ragna Blade came into being. She let loose a roar and he shut his eyes, clenching his teeth and calling one last time upon his power. Suddenly it was there, and his staff came into being in his hands just in time to block the Ragna Blade. Sweat began to bead on his brow as he fought her strike, slowly fighting his way to standing beneath the crushing might of her spell. "Stop this, Lina," he grunted.

She gasped and staggered back, the Ragna Blade crackling in her hand. "No! Not until you're dead!"

Xellos watched the black energy writhe in her hand. "You know you can't control that spell for long, Lina! Please, don't do this!"

"I don't care if I die. I'm taking you with me," she snarled, launching herself at him again.

He understood then why the underlings had put him through so much pysical stress. They must have been the ones to kill Lina's friends and made her hate him, and because he was so exhausted from his trials he had little to no control over his own spells. They wanted someone to die. His vision swam from the effort of summoning his staff, and he shook his head to clear it. The damage from the torture and the harships he had endured in the land of ice and the desert were taking their toll on him. He was having a difficult time standing upright, let alone fight. "This is a mistake," he murmured, watching her come at him with her spell with an odd detachment. Instinct took over as she slashed at him, his conscious mind rapidly losing ground. He parried and dodged and threw up defensive spells left and right until he was so tired he could barely stand. Blackness loomed at the corners of his vision and he saw her charge him again, screaming pain and rage at the top of her lungs. He shut his eyes and flung his staff up in front of him, hoping to steer her off to his right, but instead felt a searing pain in his shoulder as the Ragna Blade pierced him. Warm fluid spurted everywhere, and his right hand felt oddly warm. Opening his eyes, he was nearly blinded by dark energy, Nightmare energy, slicing through his shoulder. The blade within him was not moving however, and he squinted through the crackling magic at Lina.

She was staring at him, hate burning in her ruby eyes, a snarl on her face as blood trickled out of the corner of her mouth. Xellos gasped as he looked down at his hand, covered with her red blood. He watched, paralyzed with fear, as the Ragna Blade faded out of existence and he could finally see his arm. Lina grunted and placed her hands on his forearm, slowly pushing herself off of his staff. His eyes widened with horror as he wached the wood of his staff slowly appear from inside her abdomen, blood pouring down the front of her tunic from where her abdomen had been pierced. "Damn you," she gurgled, crumpling to the ground as she freed herself.

"No," Xellos whispered, staring at his bloodied hand and ignoring the pain that his shoulder was sending through his entire system.
Lina coughed, sending a spray of blood into the air. "I almost had you," she wheezed.

Xellos flung his staff away from him, face stricken. He crawled over to her and gathered her up in his arms. "Oh, no," he whispered, feeling the hollowness inside him expand. "This can't be happening."

"You won," she snarled, pushing against his bare chest feebly. "I can't believe you won."

"Oh, Lina dearest, I'm sorry," he said softly, pressing his lips to her dusty, matted bangs. "I'm so sorry."

"Shut up," she growled. "I don't want to hear your poisoned words. You deserve to die for what you did to us."

"No, please, don't leave me. I don't want to be without you again," he choked, pressing her against him, heedless of the way her blood stained his skin. "I can save you. Pledge to me and let me save you."

"No. I hate you, Xellos," she whispered, glaring up at him. "I'll hate you forever. I'd rather be dead than look upon your face again."

"Please don't say that, please."

"Forever," she grated, and the flame of life in her eyes died.

"Lina?" he cried, looking down into her rage-twisted face. "Lina?"

He shook her gently, but there was no response. "LINA!" he screamed, closing his eyes and burying his face in her hair. "No!"

He wasn't sure what was worse, holding her dead body in his arms and knowing there was nothing he could do about it, or the empty, emotionless void that he, as a Monster, was filled with. He wanted to cry so desperately, to rid himself of the aching sorrow that lurked just beyond his awareness, but his race was incapable of such things. "No," he whispered, clutching her body and rocking back and forth. "No. . ."

For two days and nights he held her to him, his voice hoarse from saying her name and eyes blank with disbelief. She was gone from him forever, and she had died with hate in her heart. Hate from anyone else would have tasted sweet to him, but as it was, her hate was the most bitter taste he had ever experienced. The world around him slipped away, and he was left with nothing but Lina's dead body in his arms, her flesh cold against his.

"Xellos, come away from there," he heard a gentle voice behind him say.

"No," he replied, curling his body around Lina's protectively.

"She's gone, pup. It's far too late."

"I won't."

He heard a sigh and a hand on his shoulder. "Xellos, your mortal woman is dead. We can't bring her back or undo what has been done."

"But, Lina, she. . ."

"I know she was precious to you. Keep her memory, but put the past behind you."

Xellos blinked up at the speaker, surprised to see Greater Beast Xellas looking down at him. "Mistress," he whispered.

"I have come for you," she said gently. "I want to take you away from this place. You have to leave her behind."

"I don't want to leave her again."

"There is nothing you can do for her anymore."

"But-"

"Shhh," Xellas interrupted him, kneeling and gently taking Lina's body from his arms. He grasped at her and tried to grab Lina's wrist, but Xellas was too quick for him. "Here, let us commend her body to the air," his mistress said, looking down at him with her cool, golden eyes.

"I. . ."

"This is how you can say goodbye," Xellas said, balancing Lina as she took Xellos' hand and pulled him up to standing. She put Lina back into his arms. "Do it, my child."

Xellos swallowed and looked one last time into Lina's face. "Go, now, woman who meant everything to me," he whispered, and gently called upon his magic. "Find rest. Forgive me." He muttered a few words and her body turned to dust, the particles borne away by the wind and across the muted evening tones of the desert. "Goodbye, Lina Inverse," he whispered, and the hollness within him grew.

Xellas turned to him and inclined her head solemnly. "Are you ready to go home, now? Are you prepared to begin your duties once again?"

Xellos looked at her and nodded. "Yes, Mistress."

Xellas smiled, the expression cool. "There is nothing tying you to the mortal world now, Xellos. You can finally let it go. You can become a full Monster once again."

Xellos didn't have the courage to tell her that things would never be the same again. Instead he stepped into her embrace, closing his eyes and leaning into her as she transported them both home.

Xellos' eyes fluttered open and he felt very groggy as he gently pushed away from Xellas' bosom. The chill of the stone chamber seemed refreshing at first when compared to the heat of the desert, but soon he became cold. Xellas wrapped her mantle over his shoulders and slid off of the stone slab, standing and placing her hand around his chin. She maneuvered his head so that she could look into his eyes, then nodded once. "Welcome back," she murmured. "They treated you badly, and I apologize for that. Please do with them as you see fit."

Xellos glanced around to see several underlings huddling in the corners of the room. "As you wish, Mistress," he whispered with cold anticipation.

"Then I suggest you retreat to the astral plane for a bit. You are weak and must recover."

"Yes, Mistress," he said, swinging his legs over the edge of the stone slab. He watched her move to the door of the room, then pause.

"Xellos, I'm sorry for everything you have been through. I would do things differently, if given the chance."

"Of course," he replied, bowing as well as he could from his seat.

She examined him one last time and left the room.

Xellos sighed and stretched, feeling remarkably normal. So long as he didn't think of Lina's death he found that he felt almost completely Monster again. It was sort of refreshing, not to have the myriad emotions lurking at the edges of his perception, just out of reach. He slid down from the slab, scowling slightly as the soles of his feet came into contact with the cold stone floor, and looked around at the cowering underlings in the room. "Hello, fellows," he said, donning his characteristic, closed-eyes smile.

"W-welcome back," one managed to stammer.

Xellos' smile widened marginally and he raised a hand. "Thank you," he said softly, snapping his fingers. His smile turned into a half-grin as the underlings collectively screamed, obliterated. When only charred smudges on the floor served as their remains, Xellos turned and examined the room. Strange, everything seemed centered on this one room. Something was not right. Deciding not to think about it, Xellos shrugged and teleported to his room. His mistress was right about one thing. He definitely needed some rest.