1.1.1.1.1.1 A/N: **sighs** I do have a plot for this; by the way…it's just taking a while to get to it. Yeah, last chapter, I haven't watched Slayers for a long time, so I forgot some of the names…please don't hurt me! Anyways, I just want to say that I really enjoy Mercedes Lackey's books. **Sighs** I want a house like hers… Yeah, this chapter was created with the help of The Valdemar Companion, thanks all those who made it…Vanyel might be a bit OOC…

Disclaimer: DUH! I don't own any of Mercedes Lackey's books. I wish did, but sadly…life is hard for me. So you can't sue me, even if I did have something of value…

Warning: coarse language, scenes of violence, blah, blah blah…

1.1.1.1.1.2

1.1.1.1.1.3 Chapter Seven: Insanity's Price

(Zika meets Vanyel in Mercedes Lackey's Last Herald-Mage!)

Megalith Almagest looked down in shock. He shook his head. "That wasn't supposed to happen! I mean, the result was the same, almost, but Lina was supposed to do that!"

"What's going on?" Mazda semi-Almagest came from her shower. "What's wrong, master?" Megalith didn't answer, but pushed the magic Seeing Globe towards her. She peered in, and her mouth made an O.

"That's…that's very BAD! Who did that? We worked hard to set that up!"

"Aamina's Dark Angel, that's who." Megalith growled. "This isn't right! Something must be done, she has done countless damage!"

"So, you knew she was coming? Why didn't you stop her?" Mazda asked.

"Hmm, oh, Danier rang me. And no, I couldn't do anything because she doesn't belong to our dimension, she's a creation of Aamina, and it is forbidden that we interfere with each other, directly."

"I don't understand, master. She ruined your fireworks." She sat down at his feet.

He sighed. "I'm not totally clear on it myself. Our rules were written in Guardian instinct, and we all have a hunch that we shouldn't fatally hurt Zika. Besides, we can repair the damage; it's just a little more than annoyance for most. It's the principle that Aamina is letting Zika run around that bothers us."

"Oh, so you're not mad at Zika?"

"No, she can't help what she is." Megalith said, stroking her hair. She smiled blissfully.

1.1.1.1.1.3.1 "No," Megalith repeated. "It's after what Zika was sent to do that we're going to teach Aamina a lesson…"

~*~

"I can't look."

"You're going to have to sometime."

"Shut up Jova."

Silence.

"I can smell them, Jova. I can hear them swaying in the breeze. Why here?"

"You're still having to open your eyes. Come on and get it over with. You know what you're going to see, just get it over with."

"Don't tell me what to do."

"Okay then."

Zika removed her hands from her eyes and opened them. Another forest. She sighed. A forest at night, to be precise.

"Why do I have to arrive in forests? Is this all a joke from The Powers That Be?" She said.

"If it is, They must all be in on it." Jova grumbled. "I'm getting tired of this too, you know."

"Then we agree on something." Zika said. "Wow, we should mark this day on our calendar, and celebrate every year."

"Well, you don't have to go that far."

"Wait." Zika said suddenly. "Did you hear that?"

"Hear what? I'm a computer, for god sake!"

"I hear something like bells…"

*~* ~*~ *~* ~*~

Vanyel frowned. There was that funky feeling again. Bad enough that some dream/vision had disrupted his sleep, but now something was bugging his Mage-Sight. And that poem, that dream poem that made no sense…

: Hey, wake up there!: Yfandes said, gently waking him up. : We're almost there!:

: Where exactly is 'here'?: Van asked.

:Close to Forst Reach.:

:What! After we've come so far, we have to go back?: Van shook his head to get rid of fuzzy feelings.

:Up there, Chosen. There they are!:

:Maybe now we'll find out what all these is about. I could swear I feel like someone Gated here! But there's no traces.: Van looked ahead of them, and saw a girl standing in the woods, staring at them. 'Fandes stopped next to her, and Van got a better look at her.

She had silvery white hair, extremely pale skin and what he would call silvery-blue eyes. She was also wearing some of the most outlandish clothes that he had ever seen. She must be freezing out here! He thought as he got off Yfandes.

"Hey, you could keep your thoughts to yourself, you know." The girl said. "You aren't doing such a good job of shielding them there bud. And why do you wear so much white? You might as well wear a sigh 'Shoot Me'."

"Y-you can Mind-Speak?" He said, a little astonished. He could pick up nothing from her, except for a bad gut feeling.

The girl shrugged. "Yeah, nothing big. I'm Zika, by the way."

"Ahem." A teenage boy appeared beside her. "And I'm Jova. And no, I'm not a ghost." He looked Yfandes in the eye. "A spirit with no body, maybe, but not a ghost."

"A spirit who won't have a mouth soon, if he keeps this up." Zika muttered. Jova just looked smug. Zika pressed something on her wristband. Jova yelped and disappeared.

Van didn't really notice what happened to Jova; he was slightly distracted.

"What's going on?" Zika asked Yfandes. She snorted and was about to nudge Van, but Zika grabbed the side of her face.

"No, don't just snort at me and get him to deal with me, you vain construct! What's got him so interested that he don't realise that I just caused Jova to go away?"

: That.: Yfandes said, and she nodded her head in the direction that Van was listening too.

Zika frowned, and concentrated. With her mind, she touch another…

: Chosen: The mind said, another Companion. :I'm coming:

"NO!" Zika said, pulling away. "That's wrong!" She shook her head. 'That is the most ridiculous thing I have ever heard! Me, a Herald? I don't even belong to this dimension!' If it had been on someone else, she would have been laughing, perhaps later she would laugh at it. She thought she heard Jova laughing. 'Ohhh, The Powers that Be want to play, do they?'

She saw that Van and Yfandes were pre-occupied, or they were faking. So she slipped away. There must be a mistake! 'I'm the Root of all Evil, The Dark Angel of Insanity, and a Digital Angel! Not necessarily in that order…' She scanned the area for a life force that was similar to her own. Finding one not that far away, she flew low through the forest ('Damn Forests, it always has to be a forest, doesn't it?'). The life force was coming from a large building.

'Now, that'll be an inn.' Zika thought to herself. She slipped inside the sleeping building, and made her way to a small out-of-the-way room where a little girl was sleeping. The girl had whitish-blond hair that barely went past her shoulders. Her skin was pale in the moonlight. Gently, Zika woke her up with a careful nudge.

Two deep blue eyes opened and stared into Zika's. Zika felt like she was drowning in those eyes. 'Ohmygod! I'm looking at myself! Wheee! This is me, in this dimension. Gee, I would expect myself to be older. But, man! I'm so darn cute!' She shook her self.

"Hey there." She said quietly. "I'm Zika, what's your name?"

"Deborah Kosher." The girl said.

"And, do you know where those who are Chosen go to?"

Deborah giggled. "Course, they go to Haven."

Zika smiled. "How would you like to go there?"

"And see a real Herald, I mean, up close?" The girl's eyes widened. Zika nodded. "Then I'll be glad to go." The girls face flushed with excitement. "When are we going?"

"Now." Zika said. She picked the girl up and carried her in her arms out the door. Once outside, Zika started walking in the direction where both Companions had been coming from, figuring that they came from Haven.

After a while, she got tired of the silence. "So, why were you in that inn?" She asked.

"I just got there. My home got burned." Deborah said. "I think that I'm the only one who survived. I just pushed the fire away from me. After wandering for a bit, I came to the inn and they're letting me working in the kitchen."

'Yep, this is the girl.' "Really, that's interesting. And it was like you could see something that wasn't there, wasn't it?"

"Yeah, how did you know? Are you a Herald? A Herald-Mage?" Deborah asked, her face full of wonder.

"Um, not quite, but just as powerful." She said. "And I think that there's going to be someone who's going to meet you sometime, and you'll get to see how wonderful it is to do things like that."

"If it's so wonderful, then how come I couldn't save my family?" Zika winced at the pain in her voice; it sounded so much like her own when she was that age.

"Well, how long have you been able to do things like that?"

"Not very long."

"See, you don't know how to use it, so how do you know that you could've saved them?" Zika said. "Once you learn what you can do, then you'll be able to do things like that. AS some say, great power comes great responsibility." She cringed inside. 'I'm lying to myself! This is amazing!'

"Really?"

"Really!" Zika said, as sure as she could be. 'Hey, this is for my own good; I'm really taking care of myself…in a weird twisted way. This is sooo weird!' But the Deborah was smiling and was snuggling into Zika's arms. Very soon, she was asleep. Zika almost smiled at the peaceful look on her face. 'Gee, I'm so trusting in this dimension…I don't think that I've ever really trusted anyone…since father…'

************R.A.O.I. *****************************************

The finger puppets of Chibi Zika, Pre-teen Zika, Teen Zika and Digital Zika appear. They start to have a major fight that disappeared into a cloud. When the dust settles, all them are lying unconscious in a pile. Neko Baka arrives and stares at them. She jumps one top of the pile. "I win! Victory!"

************************This has been a Random Act of Insanity…*********************



The night was very peaceful as Zika walked. The sky was clear, and she gazed at the stars, trying to figure out some kinds of constellates from semi-unfamiliar stars. She smiled to herself, very content with the universe. And then there was the sound of bell-sounding hooves on the ground.

Zika frowned as the pure white shape of the Companion came into view before her. "You again."

:I'm here to Chose: The Companion said to her. : But…this is confusing.:

"You're telling me?" Zika said dryly. "Do you have any idea of what multi- dimension travel is? Wait, considering the, ah, levels in this dimension, don't answer that, you'll probably have no idea what I'm talking about by that. How about multi-possibility travel?"

The Companion was staring blankly at her. She sighed. "Never mind." Suddenly, she whirled to face the Herald-Mage behind her. "You know, sneaking up on someone isn't really nice of you. I'm surprised that people don't like you too much."

"I wasn't sneaking up on you, you knew I was there." Vanyel said.

"Yeah, that's what you say." Zika snapped. She had half a mind to throw some lightening at him, but that would mean putting down, and possibly waking up, Deborah. Sighing, she turned to the other Companion. "Here, this is your Chosen. Belief me, once I get out of here, it'll look a lot clearer." He hesitated, and then nodded. As Zika approached him, Deborah stirred in her arms and opened her eyes into his.

"Anon." Deborah whispers. Zika lifts her and she climbs onto his back, and snuggled happily. Zika uncomfortably felt the girl's happiness.

'What is done to one must be done to the other.' Zika thought, pulling away. "There," she said out loud. "You have your Chosen. Now leave me alone!"

"On, wait a moment! You're not just going to leave?" Vanyel protested.

"Just watch me." Zika said, and started to walk away.

"Please, wait!" She stopped and turned back.

"What is it?"

"Surely by your colouring, you must be a mage. So I'm asking that you come to Haven with us." Vanyel said.

Zika looked shocked, but amused. "How'd you figure I'm a mage, huh?"

"Your hair is silver white, and your eyes, not to mention your aura…" Vanyel's voice trailed off as he realized that she was laughing at him.

"Oh! That's rich!" She said. "I'm an albino, you ninny! And the aura you sense is the reason why my eyes are that colour! If I wasn't what I was, they'd be red!"

: And just what are you? : Anon asked.

"I'm a Digital Angel." She said, extremely amused. "I'm basically made up electricity, or something like that."

"I don't think anyone has heard of a Digital Angel, I'm sure that everyone at Haven would like this opportunity to meet you…"

"Oh no you don't!" Zika said, wagging a finger. "I'm not even supposed to be here. The Powers That Be should be in a fit right now; I've interfered major with history. You want to know why Anon here thought that I was his Chosen, well that's because Deborah is my alternate self. It doesn't make sense now, but when you die it will. I'm sure the Powers That Be will answer your questions." She giggled. "No, I won't go with you, so shoo!" She made shooing motions. "You can't make me anyways, if that's what you're thinking."

She stood planted to the ground, looking very confident. " And don't start up with the magic stuff, this world isn't liking me very much, so we'll be in big trouble if we start messing around."

: What do you mean? : Yfandes asked. Zika pointed up.

"See those clouds, up there. Well, I don't know whether you've noticed, but it was a clear sky just a little while ago." She said. "I'm guessing that the Powers That Be here don't like me very much, and pretty soon we'll have the pleasure of playing tag with the gods and their lightening bolts."

She was smiling when suddenly she frowned.

"Oh shit." She let forth a lengthy stream of curses.

"What's the matter?" Vanyel said. He was getting that funny feeling again, like something extremely powerful was coming nearer, and nearer. Zika's attitude shifted to something lethal. She scanned around her, and then nodded, satisfied. She focused on the Herald-Mage.

"You need to get her out of her." She said, pointing to Deborah. "And don't stop until you're all the way to at least the next village. And whatever you do," her eyes held his. "Don't turn back, don't try to be a hero, not here, not now. Sometimes things aren't plain black and white, so you can't do anything." She let him break away and get onto Yfandes. "Now go, and take care of De!" She screamed.

Startled, Anon turned and raced away, Yfandes following with Vanyel. The wind began to pick up and blow their hair around. As that Zika's was short, it didn't bother her too much. But her eyes nervously scanned the sky, watching for the lightening to fall.

"Come out, come out, wherever you are." She whispered. "I'm waiting."

Finally, she couldn't stand it any more.

"Come on! I know you're out there! Face me!" She yelled into the wind. "I know it's you, Bounty Hunters! So show yourselves!"

She flexed her power, and the electricity began to crackle…

~*~ ~*~

: Damn it 'Fandes! We need to go back! : Vanyel Mind-Sent. : How could we leave her back there? :

: I don't know, Chosen. She influenced our wills somehow. You felt as well as I her aura. :

: And don't forget that feeling we Felt there. That's nothing I would want to face alone. She's in trouble, and we need to help her. : Vanyel thought, determined. Yfandes silently agreed.

They raced back down the road, re-tracing the path they no too long ago had come. The scenery around them hurled past them as a blur of colour. Before them, storm clouds raged and they saw flashes of light and sounds that did not come from the natural thunderstorm.

Soon they could see explosions and their smoke rising from the trees. Yfandes slowed down just a hair. Suddenly there was a large explosion coupled with a huge flash of light that left them near blinded. The aftershock rumbled the ground and disrupted the forest. Still they rode.

The dust settled as they approached the source. Vayel had to rub his eyes to make sure he was seeing right. A very large crater had ripped the road and surrounding forest. It was so deep that the bottom was starting to slowly fill with water. Half way up the side of the crater, two people were picking themselves up and dusting off their clothes.

"Well, that went better than I expected." The male said.

"Humph. Well, it didn't go quite as bad as it could." The female said. "It seems, Pewter, that she was going light on us today."

"So she picked up a new toy. I'm pretty sure that I hit her a good one with that laser bolt. You, as I recall, couldn't get near her for that sword of yours, warrior dearest." Pewter replied. He turned. Seeing Vanyel approaching, he grinned. "Hey Ikeda! Looks like we have some company."

"Oh, joy. Friendly, I hope. After Zika's fire bolt there, I haven't the strength to hold off another." She said, eying Vanyel warily. "Besides, we need to check in with Master Delilah. Her Graciousness won't be too pleased."

Quickly chanting the trigger spell, the two Galaxy Bounty Hunters disappeared in two columns of light reaching into the sky.

~*~

Vanyel dropped wearily at Savil's feet, and rested his head against her knee, his back against the chair.

"You would not believe what I just went through, Aunt Savil."

She stroked his silver and black hair. "Why don't you tell me about it, ke'chara."