I only own Kara Metallium.

Chapter 2 - Watching Slayers Helps

"The first rule of black magic, Miss Kara," said Xellos eyeballing his minion to make sure she paid attention, "is try to dodge any spell thrown at you. If you cannot dodge it, you must 1) cancel the attack out with one of your own or 2) put up a barrier. The most important spells to learn first are the defensive ones, so you don't, how do you say, get your 'ass kicked.'"

"So in order to get out of the way, your saying I need to know either teleportation, levitation, or ray wing." Xellos nodded.

"I see watching Slayers actually taught you something useful in your dimension," said Xellos with a smirk on his face. Kara sighed and turned away from her master. She could feel already she was going to be a long time in Xellos's service. Or maybe not.

"Well Miss Kara, as I was saying, I think the most simple of these spells for you to learn is the ray wing and then levita-" Xellos was cut off as Kara whirled around on him. She dragon slaved him and levitated out of the way of the explosion She was high above the ground watching the ensuing fiery inferno when she felt Xellos appear behind her. Kara tried to dodge him, but Xellos grabbed onto her arm and would not let go. 'He is surprisingly strong,' thought Kara. Xellos smiled his trademark smile and wagged a finger at her.

"Did you think you could get away like that, Miss Kara?" asked Xellos cheerfully.

"No, I didn't think so," sighed Kara. For her next trick, she teleported to sit on a branch of a nearby tree. "I imagined it more like this!" she called to Xellos whose eyes were darting around for her presence. He teleported to her side, sitting on the branch.

"My, my Miss Kara. You are the feistiest minion I've ever had. Just what am I to do with you?" he asked smiling but with a slight edge in his voice she was expected to fear. She sweatdropped and looked away, watching the remnants of the fire. Xellos grasped her chin and made her face him. The soulless amethyst eyes were really quite unnerving. His face was serious. "You will obey me," he left the last words unspoken, or face the consequences.' "Now Miss Kara," Xellos said putting on his cheerful face, "perhaps you will tell me what spells you do know."

***

Kara was exhausted. She was lying on the bed she woke up on. Since her little rebellion, Xellos had worked her hard by teaching her over a hundred different spells. He had insisted that she perfect every single one by making her practice each spell until she got it right. 'I think I did pretty well though,' she thought. For the majority of the minor spells she got them on the first try; however, those were only the minor ones. The more complicated ones were extremely difficult, most of which were at least twice as powerful as the dragon slave. At the end, he had showed her how to regenerate on the astral plane, but she still felt tired.

Kara sighed. Xellos was the most extreme form of a perfectionist. No mistakes were tolerated. Xellos actually hadn't inflicted any pain on Kara, yet, but she always felt as if he were one step away from tearing her to shreds or worse. What this worse form of punishment was she couldn't fathom. However, she feared it with an inexplicable horror. She shivered. Even though Kara was mazoku, she was still increasingly uncomfortable around Xellos. His eyes pierced her down to where a small part of her human soul remained.

Kara got up and walked over to the mirror. She examined her eyes. Her round blue eyes were still the red slits she had seen when she had first looked into the mirror. She wondered if she could change the color. She tried to turn them blue, but instead they turned purple, like Xellos's. She shivered as she narrowed a steady purple gaze at herself. She changed back to red.

Kara stretched and walked out to the balcony. She was slightly bored, Xellos had left her with no instruction, except to rest up. 'For what?' she wondered.

***

Kara was asleep when Xellos walked in. He looked at the minion he had created. 'Ah, Kara, you know you really don't need sleep. You are a monster now after all, maybe this means you haven't lost some of your human-like qualities.' Yet, it was all a matter of pushing the right buttons. There still was something that he had not tried provoking her with.

Xellos quietly stole to the side of the bed and looked down at his very beautiful creation. He leaned down and kissed her. Her lips still held a spark of emotion even now as she slept. Suddenly, Xellos was knocked off his feet by a very powerful punch in the face. Kara moaned, stretched, and opened her eyes.

"Damn," she hissed. "I'm still here." She sat up and turned and saw Xellos with a very red mark on his face. A look of horror passed over her features. "Oh gods," she whispered, "did I do that?"

"Why yes, Miss Kara," said Xellos standing up and dusting himself off, "I was quite surprised. Here I came in and tried to wake you up but you punched me instead." (Author's Note: Xellos tells no lies remember!! ^_^)

"I-I-I'm sorry Master Xellos," she stared at the floor. Xellos looked her peculiarly. Yes he had told her to obey him, but never had he demanded that sort of respect. 'No,' Xellos realized, 'It's fear. Damn it,' he thought to himself, 'just when things started to get interesting, now she fears me.' Well he'd play along and see where it got him. He knew she was still fiery somewhere inside, but he had to provoke it somehow. He decided to try his experiment again.

Xellos eyes glittered dangerously. "Yes, I am your master," he said slowly, "and you will treat me as such. You are my creation and will do anything I say." Xellos walked over to the bed. "Stand up," he ordered. She stood and stared at the ground, not daring to meet his eyes. "Look at me when I speak to you," he growled. Her eyes snapped up and stared straight into his, they glittered with inexplicable fear. 'Time to get rid of that,' he said to himself.

Xellos kissed Kara. His warm lips against hers. Kara was startled. She hadn't expected this. She had dreamt but never imagined Xellos Metallium would kiss her. He thrust his tongue between her lips and down her throat almost making her gag.

Two seconds later, Xellos was lying on his back on the floor. Another red swollen mark had appeared on the other cheek. Kara had round house punched him. She fireballed him for extra measure. Kara stood over him, her cheek twitching.

"You bastard!" She yelled as she kicked him violently. "How dare you violate me like that! I may be your creation but I will not tolerate you touching me like that ever!" Xellos started to chuckle. Kara kicked him. He didn't stop laughing. "Gaaaaaaaaah!" she yelled and threw up her hands. She listened to Xellos laugh for a long while. Finally he stopped. He stood up and dusted himself off. The mazoku grinned at her and clapped.

"Well done, Miss Kara. For a moment there, I thought you might actually let me get away with it."