A/N: I know this chapter is short, but I hope it's very powerful and you decide to review it anyway. Thank you all for your wonderful reviews and sticking with me for this gargatuan fic. I apologize for the brevity of this chapter, but it seemed appropriate.

"No!" Lina screamed, pounding on the barrier. "Gorran, no!"

"Oh gods," Amelia breathed, Zelgadis putting his arm around her, face grave.

"Giga Slave? What is that?" Kerra asked, eyes wide. "Is he in danger?"

Xellos stared at his son, watching in horror as the casting began to form. "It's a spell that summons the Lord of Nightmares to this plane. If the caster loses control of it, the Lord of Nightmares' power could destroy the whole world."

Kerra's mouth fell open. "But why would he do that? Doesn't he know?"

"I don't think so," Lina replied. "He probably learned it the same place I did- through books. Few people actually have the capacity to cast it. He, however, does."

Xellos glanced at his fellow captives, their faces set with despair, eyes dull. They had given up, every single one of them, and his son was out there, sacrificing himself. His son did not deserve to be destroyed. His son had not committed any sins.

Xellos had to do something. Quickly grabbing Lina, he kissed her passionately on the mouth. "I have lived all these years for you, and what I do now, I do for you and our family. I love you, Lina Inverse, and I always will. I hope we meet again, in a different life."

"Xellos!" Lina cried, expression terror-stricken. "What are you talking about? What are you doing?"

"I love you with all my soul," he replied, kissing her once more and releasing her, quickly drawing the counter-runes on the inside of the barrier. The large ball of nightmare magic was already appearing above Gorran's outstretched hands, sucking everything around it into its mass. Xellos closed the barrier behind him and took off at a dead run, squinting his eyes against the debris in the air. Gorran's face was contorted with concentration, his entire body suffused with a honey-gold glow. His cape whipped around his ankles in an artificial wind, his short curls tossed this way and that. The black sphere above him grew, and suddenly Gorran's eyes went blank and his face went slack, his knees buckling as the ball of magic came crashing down upon him.

"NO!" Xellos howled. He wasn't going to lose his baby twice in one day, he wasn't going to let his family be destroyed. He willed his legs to move even faster and managed to grab his son's golden wrist as the magic swallowed them completely.

Xellos had shut his eyes as he took hold of Gorran, but the sudden silence that enveloped him was so startling that they immediately snapped open again. They were standing in the air, floating several inches above golden water that stretched in every direction. The sky above him was black and starless, the entire world featureless. He slowly turned his head, searching for anything at all, any sign that he was still alive, and he nearly jumped out of his skin when someone spoke, someone who hadn't been there a split-second before. It was Gorran, his hair and clothes whipping about him in a nonexistent wind. Everthing about the young man was golden, and the eyes in his face were not human. "Why are you here? Did you not hear the child's prayer?"

Xellos fell to his knees, lowering his head as far as it would go as he bowed. "Mother," he breathed.

"I recognize you," Gorran said, but it was not Gorran's voice. "Why are you here?"

"Take me instead of the child," he replied, sitting upright and looking straight into the golden, emotionless eyes.

"Why?"

Xellos swallowed. "Because I love him. He is precious to me."

A strange smile quirked the corner of Gorran's mouth. "How can you love him? You seem a demon."

"I learned how to be human," he replied simply. "I learned what it means to be one with the flow of time, and I learned how meaningless it is to live without the pain and pleasure of love. That, to me, is what being human means."

Silence surrounded them as Gorran stared at Xellos. It seemed like an eternity, but Xellos knew there was no time in this place. He had seen it before. He had trespassed here before.

"What is your heart's true wish?" the Lord of Nightmares asked.

Xellos paused, studying the golden face. "Absolution," he whispered. "I wish to be absolved of the wrongs I have done throughout my existence. I wish to atone."

The Lord of Nightmares raised an eyebrow. "Gods and demons do not feel the need to make things right. They do not believe they make mistakes."

Xellos smiled. "I know, but I'm neither god nor demon. I'm only human."

The Lord of Nightmares reached out with his son's hand and touched him on the head, burying Gorran's fingers in Xellos' silver-streaked hair. Suddenly it was no longer Gorran standing before him, but Gourry, then Zelgadis, then Xellas, then every single person he had met over the course of his existence, even dragons and lesser demons he had killed. The final image was the most painful, for it was Lina, standing golden before him, just as she had the day she had destroyed Phibrizzo. However, the woman in front of him wasn't as beautiful as his Lina; she did not have the tiny wrinkles around her eyes when she smiled, she didn't have the snapping temper or vibrant life inside her. "So you are," the Lord of Nightmares murmured, once more reverting to Gorran's form. "You are both demon and god. You are only human."

Reaching down, the Lord of Nightmares took Xellos' hands and helped him up to standing. "You shall have your wish," it said, and he sighed as they merged, his entire life passing once more before his eyes, and then there was only a shudder and darkness.