Firefly Magic presents...
Another Weird Anime Fanfic Production
Written by Jru
Slayers: Reality
AKA Last Quest
Part II: Mirror of Reality
Timeline: After Slayers Try
Quick notes before we start: No,... this has no romantic bias. Well, that's what I'm trying to do. Since I usually write X/L fiction, it may seem that way at times, but remember, Zelgadis and Gourry are along for the ride too. I'm trying my best to keep this as uncoupled as possible. Well.... I'm not saying I'm good at doing that, you know.... ;;
Sorry this took out a loooooooooooooooooooooooot longer than I thought it would. I underestimated my homework, papers, concerts and my own inherent laziness. Thank you for your patience and for your reviews. They had made me extremely happy and have given me great joy. And yes, I was motivated to write whenever I read your reviews. However, many times in life, I seem to find laziness to have a much stronger affect on me than inspiration. Unless, of course, I'm well caught up on sleep, which is usually not the case. Enjoy, Part II of the Mirror of Reality.
Last chapter:
Lina squeezed her eyes tighter. She could feel 'something' trying to open them, to force her to look. So they thought they could just boss Lina Inverse around, eh? Well, think again! She shut them even tighter, and clenched her fists. She was NOT going to be won over by...by...by whoever it was out there.
She heard a sigh in the distance like the whisper of a soothing wind. Lina felt her curiosity aroused, but the logical part of her mind staunchly refused to give up.
"Daughter..." said the voice, gentle, like the whooshing of the wind as it flew by her. Her eyes opened up in surprise as her ruby red eyes met a pair that shined just as brightly as hers, with hair that flew and danced in the wind of the suddenly filled room.
"She's relaxing." said Amelia as she noted the tenseness in the forehead go away. "I'm glad."
"Me too," said Zelgadis who felt silently relieved. Lina's non-response had been worrying him.
Xellos looked on in the distance, not sure if it was a good thing or a bad thing that Lina had all of a sudden adapted to the Mirror. What did it mean? Or better yet,... did it mean what he thought it meant?
She saw everything.
A golden pale light shone over the young earth. Dragons soared over the skies, not as the primitive race they had been brought down as but in all their glory, radiating their power and majesty. And down below her, on the ground of the still forming earth, where the Mazoku. Not the ones she had recently defeated. These were untainted, pure evil and were still in one piece. She had thought nothing could have been worse than fighting against one of the pieces of the Shabranigudo. Fibrizzio showed her the error of her views. There was something about the cruelty his eyes had shown that had been out of place on the face of the young boy he had created. And Darkstar, an other-wordly threat had been even more drastic. Those were nothing compared to what she saw now.
However, despite it all, she found herself smiling at the purity of both forms. They were purely whatever they were incarnating. L-sama had done a good job in creating them.
"Thank you, child," a voice behind her sounded. Startled, Lina looked back in surprise, her eyes frightened at what she would see. Behind her stood a glowing lady with a slim and slender build. Her gold hair flowed down her back in straight waves and her bangs covered her glimmering eyes. In her hands, she held her shovel, gleaming in the light of the bright sun. Around her, the skies were blue and the clouds were wispy white.
"You are..." whispered Lina.
"Yes..."
"And why am I...?"
"You know why."
Lina looked puzzled. L-sama just smiled at her and with a wave of her hand, set the events in motion on earth that had seemed to have frozen when Lina noticed the Lord of Nightmare's presence.
"Just watch," said L-sama. "That's all you're here for at the current moment. Just watch and learn..."
So Lina turned around and watched in horrid fascination as the very story that was told to her when she was a small child unfold into its painful existence. Sure, she had been told about the Creation of the World, how L-sama had come down and created a world filled with both purity and with darkness, something she embodied. She had heard that both the Mazoku and the Ryuzoku had fallen, how they had turned against their creator and how they had turned against their purpose. Instead, they had disobeyed her rules and her laws. And while they decked it out in petty fighting and bickering, L-sama, disgusted with her older creation made a new one, one that was limited power wise. One that was limited in its dealings. One that was more fragile in nature. One that because of their frailty turned out to be an easy target for the superhuman powers the dragons and the demons showed.
"Why did you even make humans?" asked Lina as she watched L-sama weep tears for the warps in her creation. L-sama looked up at her.
"Do you regret the fact that I made humans and in the process, made you?" she asked. Lina was taken back a bit by the question.
"No, no, nothing like that! I'm grateful for my life! It's been a wonderful life!" said Lina. After all, she didn't want to die. "But I'm just wondering, why did you make humans? Why did you start out with Dragons and Demons?"
"Why does a child cut out paper dolls for herself? Why does a child draw eyes and a nose and a mouth, curly hair on the head and then make clothes for it?" asked L-sama rhetorically as she gripped her shovel.
"A child?" asked Lina.
"Yes, a child." said L-sama. She continued. "Why does everyone ask for the reason of their existence? Why do they want to know why, as if they, the individual, were so important to the continuation of life, to the end purpose of finding universal harmony? Does it matter why? Is it not enough that one is born, alive, is given their time on the earth to fulfill their purpose before they are called back to me? Is it not enough being satisfied with the simple answers? Why must one yearn for answers that are beyond the scope of their intellect?"
"Are you talking about yourself also?" asked Lina. Then she realized that she had just questioned a god and hurriedly tried to make reparations, but L-sama waved them away. "Exactly," she answered.
"Why do you question yourself?" asked Lina. Inwardly, she wondered... how had she known that L-sama was going through her own turmoils? This was too deep for Lina and she spoke yet again. "Surely, you are the goddess that created everything."
"All things are created," said L-sama. "Even as I am created. We are all given our lot in life and it is our duty to make the greatest use from it as possible. We were not given life for it to be wasted. Life is meant to be lived. But some of us were born with greater responsibility. Some of us, were born not to ask the question of why we were born, but to answer it." At this statement, L-sama looked at Lina and smiled at her, giving her a warm look of pride and satisfaction. Lina backed away from the look, not knowing what to do.
With no warning, L-sama reached out and tapped her on the forehead, and Lina felt her world explode.
"Twice in one day is not good..." was Lina's last though as she fell into a faint within a faint.
Lina had been moved from her place on the sofa to a bed. Gourry had gallantly offered to carry Lina, but Xellos insisted on helping and Zelgadis was in no way going to let Xellos out of his guard. Especially concerning Lina and his vision. The mirror had been clear... The mirror would cure him. But it had wanted Lina also, and he had a feeling that Xellos knew that too.
As it was, Gourry carried her and Xellos and Zelgadis trailed after him. Gourry was about to draw a chair to sit by her and keep a watch when Sylphiel called to him asking for his help in some thing that she was doing. Amelia had already gone of to talk to Andreys about acquiring his collection of rare and antique furniture. Gourry left, knowing that Zelgadis would keep an eye on Lina.
The people left in the room were three... two men and a lady, two humans and a Mazoku one chimera, one demon and one that Xellos was starting to realize demanded a much bigger explanation than just 'L-sama's chosen'. He would not let Zelgadis get in his way.
"So, Zelgadis-kun," started Xellos as he made himself comfortable on the window ledge since Zelgadis had decided to take the chair beside Lina's bed. Zelgadis didn't even answer as he folded his arms in front of him. "Care to share what went on inside your head?"
"No," said Zelgadis.
"Why not, Zelgadis-kun?" asked Xellos in a sing song way.
"Cause I don't want to tell you." answered Zelgadis simply.
"You're so mean..." said Xellos as he walked over to where Lina lay on the bed and got down on the floor beside the bed.
"What are you doing?" asked Zelgadis, watching him with suspicion in his eyes.
Xellos just smiled at him in his own secretive way. A gloved hand reached out and took hold of a strand of Lina's copper tresses. His fingers caressed the silken texture of her hair and his amethyst eyes watched Lina's now blank face.
For his part, Zelgadis wanted to kick Xellos out of the room and lock the door so that the Mazoku never came back. After all, they had no more need for Xellos... And now... what was that Mazoku doing? If Lina were up, she would have creamed him for touching her hair.
"You know, Zelgadis-kun," started Xellos as he ran his fingers through her hair. "...that Lina Inverse is really a most amazing person?"
"Get your fingers out of her hair, Xellos," said Zelgadis warningly.
"Or else what?" asked Xellos. "Are you going to try to chop my arm off for being naughty?" He smiled. "Make a commotion? Interrupt the spell she is currently in?" Zelgadis just glared at him. With a smile, Xellos continued to play with her hair.
"Anyway... Lina is really an amazing person, you know." His slitted eyes became even more slitted as he closed them slightly, as if reminiscing. "It'd be a... shame... if something were to happen to her..."
"Are you threatening us?" asked Zelgadis. He did not like the way this conversation was going.
"Me? Why would I do that?" asked Xellos as he smiled cheerfully. However, his eyes held a glimmer in them as he smiled. "After all, she is currently worth more to me alive than dead, after all."
"Worth more....?" asked Zelgadis.
"Yup!" said Xellos. And with that, he vanished from the room.
Zelgadis leaned back and studied Lina's still form. Worth more.... whatever did that fruitcake mean by that? What had L-sama told him anyway? Why was Lina singled out every time? He had to be blind to not have noticed. He had never had so much excitement and met so many new and undesirable people than when he was with her. Never in his wildest dreams had he ever imagined himself as part of the team that went against Dark Eye, against Phibrizzio... against all of them.
He had wondered about Lina before. After all, who wouldn't? How could he not, when it was all because of this tiny slip of a girl that his life was where it currently was. Had he not joined her, he wouldn't be here, so close to finally being human at last. Had he not joined her, he would not have met such undesirable denizens of humanity. But had he not known her, his life would have been so amazingly empty also.
What was it with Lina Inverse, Sorceress Extraordinaire, Bane of Restaurants, Mazoku slayer, Demon Killer, a girl that not even Dragons would mess with, L-sama's Chosen.....
L-sama's Chosen..... that was her new title, whether she liked it or not. Her Chosen... he sighed... why did all of this have to be so damn hard!!!!
"Gourry-dearest!"
He looked up and found Sylphiel standing in front of him.
"What?" he asked.
"Would you like to help me make supper for everyone?" asked Sylphiel.
"Um... sure! Are you sure I won't be in the way?" he asked in a worried manner. Lina had always said that he was such a clumsy oaf... speaking of Lina.... he wondered what was happening with her? Why had she fainted after looking at herself in the mirror? It's not as if she were ugly and had scared herself... she was pretty after all. Even if she was a bit small. Even if she always beat him up. Even if she always hit him....
"Gourry? Gourry? Gourry-dearest? Are you listening to me?"
"Hm...?" asked Gourry as he was suddenly shaken awake by small hands grabbing his shoulders. He looked down and saw that it was Sylphiel. "Oh, hi Sylphiel! How can I help you?"
Sylphiel sighed.... She should have been used to this, but well... she wasn't. Every once in a while, Gourry-sama would just... zone out on her and wouldn't say anything. As if his mind were far, far away.
"I was wondering if you could go outside and grab me some firewood," she said with a smile. She could worry about Gourry's dear mannerisms later. Right now, she had a banquet to prepare for. She was assuming that Lina would be up in time for supper and cooking for those two always took lots of time and preparation. Well, not really. She just needed to cook a lot.
"Sure Sylphiel!" said Gourry. "Anything I can do to help!" He beamed her one of his sunny smiles and went out the door. Sylphiel sighed as she etched that image of his smile into her mind forever.... he was just too dreamy....
Walking around the shack, Gourry finally found a small lean-to that contained firewood. in neat stacked piles. He wondered when the Andreys guy had time to chop wood and stack it up. But then again, it looked like he did nothing much, so even chopping wood was probably exciting, right? After all, when he was a little boy, he loved to chop wood. He would pretend that the ax was actually a sword.... he smiled as he entered his dream world.
However...
On entering the lean to, he noticed that Zelgadis was there, sitting on the stacks of wood, looking pensively outside one of the small windows.
"Hi Zelgadis!" said Gourry cheerfully as only he knew how.
"Hello Gourry." answered Zelgadis.
"I thought you were keeping an eye on Lina, weren't you?" asked the blonde.
"I was." said Zelgadis. "But she will be fine."
Gourry nodded. He trusted Zel. After all these years that they had spent together, he had learned to trust in Zelgadis's intuition and decisions, just like he had learned to do exactly as Lina said. He didn't need to hear her explanations or the theories. All she had to do was point him towards the enemy and he would go and fight. Lina made it all easy like that. And Zelgadis he knew he could trust in him. And he knew that Lina looked up to him and respected whatever Zelgadis said. Whether she followed his advice was a different matter, though...
"What do you think of Lina?"
"Huh?" asked Gourry as he was startled out of his thoughts. "You said something, Zelgadis?"
"Yes." he answered. "What do you think of Lina?"
"She's nice." said Gourry.
"Anything else apart from that?" asked Zel. He was looking at Gourry with his hard stony blue eyes.
"Well... she's not always nice, I guess. She can be mean too. And impatient. And..."
"I know, I know, Gourry." said Zelgadis, interrupting him. "I didn't ask about her characteristics or her moods. Just... what do you think of Lina? Over all? What is the first thing you think of when someone says Lina Inverse?"
"Eh... I don't know... I haven't tried that before..." said Gourry, a bit unsure of where all this was going.
Zel sighed... he should have expected that response. If this matter weren't so serious, he would have dropped it right there and then. However...
"Let's do an experiment, shall we?" asked Zelgadis.
"OK!"
"I'm going to say something and you're going to tell me the first thing that comes to mind, OK?" asked Zelgadis That was simple enough, hopefully.
"Sure," said Gourry. "Sounds like fun! Sort of like those psi... psyk..psycho...."
"Psychology, you mean?" asked Zelgadis.
"Yes, that!"
"OK, let's begin, then." said Zelgadis "Square." He gave him an easy one just to warm him up.
"Meals!"
"Pyramid."
"Food." sweatdrop
"Moon."
"Cheese."
"Lina Inverse."
"Nightmare lady." said Gourry without a thought.
"Nightmare lady?" asked Zelgadis.
"Lina." answered Gourry. This was fun!!!!
"Lord of Nightmares, eh?" thought Zelgadis. Out loud, he spoke, "Thanks Gourry. That's it."
"No problem Zelgadis!" said Gourry. He beamed at him and stood in the middle of the room, unsure of what to do.
"You were here to get wood." said Zelgadis, pointing towards the stack of wood that Gourry had collected earlier and had forgotten about.
"Oh, thanks Zel!" Gourry smiled at him, grabbed the firewood and went out of the lean to, leaving Zelgadis to his thoughts.
"L-sama, eh?" he said outloud to no one in particular.
Black swirly inky tendrils of nothingness swirled around her....
She had seen it all before.
She recognized this area... the Astral Plane... To her surprise, she wasn't scared. Instead, she felt... liberated... free.... what else.... at home?
"Home...?" she asked herself. She tried to look at her hands and found none. She found no body either. "OK.... this is getting really weird..."
She tried to navigate the eerieness around her that she had called home. Why home? Why would anyone call this desolated area home? Well... not desolate.
She could see... see so many people here. It was the busiest place ever... it was full of souls that traveled through time and through the ages... it was full of hustle, bustle, life and death... Home?
"Yes... home..." she told herself. This had been the home she had gone in search of. This is what all her years of wandering and roaming had wanted to lead her. Back to her home. Back to where she belonged. And as soon as she realized that, she laughed. Manipulating the nothingness around her came to her easily. It was as if she had always known how to... and then temporarily forgot... and now she was back! Now she knew!
With laughter, she flew around and bumped spectral elbows with the others who lived here. The monsters, the dragons, the souls, the spirits... they were all here. Finally, among her kind!
"Don't get too excited. You can't stay here yet."
She stopped abruptly and turned to face the golden aura in the Astral Plane.
"L-sama!" she said quickly as she bowed down before her queen, her leader, her creator.
"Welcome back."
"It's good to be back! I forgot how much I loved this place."
"But you have to go back now." said L-sama.
"No! Why?" she asked.
"You can't be here yet. Your job is not done."
"Job?" Immediately, around her a flash of golden light appeared and disappeared as quick as it had come. And now she could see herself. She saw her white boots with fur trim. Her magenta body suit. Her white gloves. Her black and red cloak. Her black and gold shoulder guards. Her black headband. Her ruby eyes and hair. And she remembered. "Oh, yes... my job... but I don't want to go back! I'll forget who I am again!"
"My child.... giving you to them is just as hard on me as it is on you.... but I ask you to have patience. You will one day return back to me, and on that day, you will not be forced to return anymore."
"You promise?" The red eyes of Lina Inverse looked up at L-sama, gold meeting red.
"I promise." she answered.
"I resign myself to the will of my creator." she said as she knelt.
L-sama touched her forehead and the magic around them... immediately, Lina's eyes widened in fright as she felt her very being torn apart.
"No! No! Please, L-sama!!! I can't... it hurts so much..." cried out Lina as she curled herself into a fetal position. L-sama just watched on silently, watching part of her very essence ripped to shreds. As the human Lina Inverse, she could have no recollections of who she was and what her power was or what her purpose was. She just was.
"Please, L-sama.... no!"
Everyone heard Lina Inverse scream in denial halfway during supper. Everyone also dashed from the table at the same time to run up the room to see what it was that was happening.
Xellos was the first to make it there since he had, technically, not left the room at all. He had just made himself invisible and occupied a small chair in the corner. He had actually been brooding. Yes,... brooding.. as in being pensively broody.... he had to make a report to Zelas soon, and L-sama knew how ticked off Zelas could be when she didn't get the information she wanted. He knew that the answer was right before him... plain and simple if he only knew what to look for. But he didn't know yet... and Zelas wanted results. He had almost been to the point of being exasperated. His plans with getting Zelgadis riled enough to peek into his thoughts had backfired and he was just there... brooding...
But now, he was the only one to be able to watch first hand what had happened. He had seen the white light that seemed to have filled every pore of hers. He had seen the gold light that had surrounded her. He had seen the way she had levitated off the bed as she screamed. And he saw how she fell back on her bed and woke up, looking none the worse for wear...
"Hm... this is interesting..." he thought to himself. He made sure his presence was erased from everyone's consciousness as everyone burst into the room.
"Miss Lina!" shouted Amelia as she performed a flying tackle into Lina and hugging the living daylights out of her. "You're up!"
"Lina, are you all right?" asked Gourry as he flew into the room, his sword drawn out, ready to take on the enemy that had made Lina shout. Zelgadis ran in behind Gourry, silent yet alert as usual. On seeing Lina awake and being suffocated by Amelia, he let his guard down. All was well. Gourry, too, noticed that there was no danger and sheathed his sword.
"Amelia.... need... breathe..." said Lina as she struggled with Amelia's improvised chokehold/bearhug.
"Oh! Oops! Sorry Miss Lina!" she said as she let Lina go. Andreys and Sylphiel came in as Lina was let alone to take a few deep breaths of air.
"I'm glad you're awake, Miss Lina!" said Sylphiel.
"Huh?" asked Lina. She suddenly realized that everyone was in her room and that they were all watching her intently, as if trying to observe something. "What?"
"Don't you remember anything, Lina?" asked Zelgadis as he watched her.
"Remember what?" she asked. This was puzzling her and Lina Inverse abhorred being puzzled.
"You fainted when Xellos forced you to look at the mirror..." started Gourry.
"...and fainted. You were asleep for most of the day!" finished Amelia.
"It's already supper time." said Sylphiel.
"Xellos? Mirror? Supper time? And no one woke me up!?" asked Lina, her eyes glaring at her friends.
"Eh, but Miss Lina! You were asleep!" said Amelia.
"That is no excuse!" said Lina. With that, she jumped off the bed. "Besides, I'm doing well!" She remembered the mirror incident and did her best to not shiver... it was all good. She had seen the mirror and she was still alive and coherent. Case closed... no need to talk about it. Best to get their minds off it too... "And I'm hungry!" With that, she staunchly walked out of the room, head held high.
The others just shrugged their shoulders and followed her. If Lina said so... well then... who were they to object?
That night... nothing too exciting happened. Not to say that nothing of importance ocurred... just that nothing too exciting happened. The moon was out, and it wasn't particularly memorable. Not full moon, not even new moon. No blue moon, no Cheshire cat smile moon. It was the moon after it was half full... the one that looked like an oblong shape. There were a few wispy clouds that looked dark blue in the dark sky. A few stars, and no memorable constellations. Over all, a night that not many would have remembered. And in this dark night, a few people took walks and a few had talks and then they all rested. Well... ok, not really.
Andreys was taking a walk at night. After the huge supper that Lina had eaten, he had cleared the table and after making sure that everyone was sleeping, he had gone out. There was no need to wake them up. At least, not yet.
Making sure that he was a distance from the cottage, he stood in the middle of an open field and concentrated. A small black light shone around him for a moment before it vanished.
"My, my, never thought I'd ever see the day you would use that trick, ne, Andreys- kun?" asked a voice from off to his right side.
"Don't bet on it becoming a regular thing." said Andreys as he glared at him.
"So how can I help you?" asked Xellos. Andreys thought for a bit. He didn't quite know what he had been planning on doing, truth be told. After all, this was the first time he had magically called Xellos. Ever since that awful day when he had become cursed with his hybrid form, he had never thought he would do this... search out for Xellos willingly.
"What's your plan?" he asked.
"Plan?" asked Xellos, looking confused.
"Yes... you lead them to the mirror, didn't you?" asked Andreys.
"My dear friend Andreys," said Xellos. "Just because I tricked you does not mean I trick everyone you know. For your information, Princess Amelia found the spell all by herself."
"I don't believe that." said Andreys. "You always have a plan no matter what you do."
"What, you can't handle the fact that you got tricked by me? And now you think that I'm out to trick everyone?" Xellos smiled evilly. "You really don't get it do you? You think that you can control..."
"Tell me!" said Andreys. "Or I swear,... I'm going to break the mirror right now!" He reached deep into his pocket and took it out. Xellos froze and the winds were silent for a few minutes.
"You want to... break the mirror?" asked Xellos.
"What is it to you?" asked Andreys. "Why do you want them to see the Mirror so badly?"
"You would really... break the Mirror?" asked Xellos, a wry smile appearing on his face. Had it been any other face, it would have just looked condescending. On Xellos's face, however.... perhaps it was just the fact that Andreys already had preconceived notions of him... Whatever the reason, on Xellos... the smile just looked... unnervingly evil. "You would crack it, scratch it, mar it? Just to foil what you think are my plans?" His eyes glinted strangely in the slight moonlight. Andreys hesitantly took a step back and Xellos took a step forward.
"I..." started Andreys, starting to sound hesitant. He hadn't expected Xellos to act this way...
"You would face the wrath of a chimera who is this close to becoming human? The wrath of Lina Inverse as she levels you with her magic? The wrath of Xellos, Trickster Priest of the Lady Beastmaster?" His purple eyes glinted strangely again and Andreys found himself drawn into his eyes, as if he were falling down and down and down...
"I thought not." said Xellos with a smile, as Andreys passed out. The Mirror fell from his fingers, but Xellos caught it neatly with a hand and put it in his pocket. With that, he smiled at Andreys and transported both of them away.
Someone else was walking that night, in quite a different area and with quite a different purpose...
Zelgadis just could not fall asleep. He had tried everything he could apart from sending a sleep spell on himself. However, he preferred not to do that... magic may be a common practice in these times, but it still felt unnatural to use supernatural means to just get himself to sleep. Which was why he was out in the freezing cold midnight weather, trying to get himself tired and worn out so that he could hurry up and go back to sleep in his warm bed.
However, no matter how much he tried, he couldn't sleep. His mind wouldn't rest... it was busy thinking... thinking about so many possibilities. Take, for instance....
"I wonder how I will look?" asked Zelgadis quietly to himself. Now, we all know that Mr. Zelgadis was anything but a vain person,... and in this case, he did have a valid excuse for wanting to know...
Would he have dark skin from being in the sun so much? Or maybe light, since technically, his skin hadn't been in the sun... How about his hair? Still blue? Maybe black? Perhaps brown.... L-sama forbid...purple??? Would it look like Rezo? He sighed... this was getting dumb.
But try as he might, he couldn't stop thinking...
He had grown so accustomed to his looks that he almost felt like he was going to miss it.
'No way!' he thought. He touched his wiry hair and bent it so that he could look at it... No more would he have to buy pliers to comb his hair. He could now bash his head against the wall when exasperated and not have to worry about his hair being stuck to it. His fingers trailed next to the pebbles studding his face. How many hours, days, months had he spent polishing the stones on his face? He wasn't vain. On the contrary, he abhorred his look. But just because he didn't like it didn't mean that he would just let it erode in the elements. There was such a thing as erosion. He had polished them whenever he could. He looked scary enough without having dull stones with algae and moss growing on them.
Would he miss the stones on his face? The wire of his hair? He looked at the ground and saw the imprints his heavy feet made. Would he miss his footprints?
"This is getting ridiculous." he said to the empty yard of Andrey's shack.
"What is?" asked a soft voice behind him. Immediately, Zelgadis jumped in surprise and turned. He was surprised that someone had been able to sneak up on him... "Oh, it's you, Amelia."
"Hi, Mr. Zelgadis," she said quietly. "Sorry, I didn't mean to interrupt you in your thoughts..."
"It's ok..." said Zelgadis. Hopefully she hadn't seen the weird way he had been touching his hair and face. She would think he was even more weird than he was! "When did you get here?"
"Just now," said Amelia with a slight smile. "What are you doing up, Mr. Zelgadis?"
"Zel." answered the chimera. At her puzzled look, he explained. "Just call me Zel. Most people do anyway."
"What are you doing up, Zel?" asked Amelia as she tried out his name.
"What are you doing up?" asked Zel, throwing the question back at her.
"I couldn't sleep. And you?" she answered without missing the beat.
"Same here." he said. Then he added some more. "Too busy thinking."
Amelia walked up to him so that he was beside her instead of ahead of her and the two started to walk.
"Thinking about tomorrow?" she asked. He nodded. What else would he be thinking about?
"I don't think you should worry, Zel," she said. It felt unnatural to call him just Zel... but it inwardly made her pleased also.
"There are lots of unknowns..." said Zelgadis.
"Are you worried about whether it will hurt? Or how you will look?" asked Amelia.
"You could say so." said Zelgadis, not really wanting to admit being worried about something that sounded so trivial.
"Don't worry." said Amelia. "After all, we are all here for you! If anything goes wrong, Miss Lina will know what to do. And..."
"And?" asked Zel.
"...and.... I'm sure you'll look great, Mr. Zelgadis!" said Amelia, putting on a cheerful smile.
Lina was scared... and Lina Inverse didn't scare easily. It wasn't as if there were some huge monster before her ready to tear her to pieces. It wasn't as if she was facing one on one with some unknown monster. It wasn't as if she could see the grotesqueness of her enemy. On the contrary... she couldn't see it, she couldn't feel it, and she couldn't remember it.
She knew she had looked into the mirror. Everyone had said so, and that she had fainted in the process and after a few hours of being caught in the Mirror's spell, she had woken up screaming in denial. All she could remember were... flashes of color. There had been lots of black, and some gold, and it left her with fear and nothing else. There was nothing else to direct the fear to, and she dreaded falling asleep. She didn't want the dreams to haunt her. She did not want to risk the chance of seeing what had made her black out in her dream. She didn't want to deal with L-sama anymore. No more,... not now, not ever.
Which is why she was here, sitting on the ledge of her window, looking at nothing in particular. Her bed was calling out to her. Her pillow yearned for her head... but she was scared. The almighty Lina Inverse was scared of dreams. Of perceptions from a brain that were not real. Of the mocking found in her own mind.
'Gotta be strong,' she thought to herself. She had to be strong, for Zelgadis's sake, at least. He needed the mirror. 'It's his last chance.... his only chance. I can't make him miss it just because I'm scared...'
Be strong... be brave.... get it over with. She took deep calming breaths. One breath, two, three... Her heart was slowing down. Good.
'I just need to do this two more times...' she thought. 'One for turning the Soul Mirror into the Mirror of Reality and one to cast the final incantation so that Zelgadis will be changed.' She had been chosen as the one to cast the spell. She was, afterall, unfortunately, L-sama's chosen. She was the strongest. Amelia would have loved to, and in a way, she would have a part in it also. She was the back-up energy for the spell. A spell that would turn a chimera back into a human would require a lot of Astral energy. And it would be deadly if she ran out in the process. Zelgadis obviously could not supply her with power. Sylphiel... eh... no comment. So Amelia it was. But she, Lina Inverse, was the one who would actually open the channel for the magic to come through. She would be the one to actually chant the words. Chant the spell asking for L-sama's power... She shivered uncontrollably.
'OK...gotta relax... don't think about her right now. Just...relax... relax... relax.' she told herself once more. 'After this, no more. Never.. no more Nightmare magic for me. After this... I will not have to deal with her ever again...' And that thought brought her joy. It would be her light at the end of the tunnel. It would be her hope, her strength, her guide. As long as she remembered that there would be no more, she would remain sane.
Gourry looked up at the ceiling from the bed he lay on. He knew that Zelgadis was out and he didn't blame him. Poor guy probably had a lot to think about. So he had stayed silent while Zelgadis crept out of the room. Now,.. it was his turn to stay awake.
The haziness of thought that usually surrounded him called out that he join it once more. Don't think, don't think, don't think. Just smile, relax, and all would be well. Just smile, and nod. Just nod and support. He didn't need to understand why things happened or how they occurred. All he needed to know was the goal and be told how to get there. The rest... it was just details.
Life for him was never one to be thought about too much. Sure, there were those, like Lina and Zel who loved to know what made everything worked, who spent every moment of their being searching for why. To him... just details. If one was caught up too much in worrying about where the next meal was coming from, then you couldn't enjoy your current stew. If you asked yourself how things worked, you would not be able to appreciate the fact that it was there or that it was pretty. But Lina seemed to enjoy what she did and he let her. Him? He just followed. It made life so uncomplicated.
As usual, he thought over what would happen tomorrow. Just the basics, nothing too detailed. They would wake up and have breakfast. Then Lina would cast a spell. And then she would cast another spell. Then Zelgadis would turn human. Then they would have lunch. Or maybe they would have lunch before that. Like a break in between spell casting. Then they would have fun... have a party with lots of food. It wasn't everyday you get to see Zelgadis as human. Although once he became human, it would be everyday he would get to see Zel as human. Oh well... whatever. They were going to celebrate. And then, they would say bye to Andreys, and Amelia would take all the furniture with her, and they would go back to Seyruun. And then....
At this point, he stopped. What would happen then? He didn't know. So far, they hadn't planned on anything yet. Therefore, it must not be important. Whatever it was, Lina would tell him, of that he was sure. Lina always told him the important things to know. His ears picked up the slight creaking of the door as Zelgadis walked back in.
Gourry smiled. Zelgadis made it back safely, so all was well. He fell asleep.
Sylphiel sighed. Lina was on the ledge staring at something. Amelia was out taking a walk. So she was in bed. Thinking... thinking...
'I think I shall tell Gourry dearest tomorrow.' she thought to herself. 'This time I will tell him!'
She had this thought every night. So far, it hadn't worked out yet. Always, there was something occurring. And just when it was just the two of them by themselves, she would turn to speak to him and would find him either eating some food (this was when they were in the kitchen) or just staring vacantly at something. Every time she wanted to tell him just how much he meant to her, someone would stop by. Or he would go and do an errand. Or Lina would come in. And when Lina came in... she got everyone's attention. Even hers.
'I shall tell him tomorrow,' she thought. 'I must be strong. Otherwise, he'll never realize.'
Things were going so well now. Lina had woken up and had enjoyed her cooking. Lina enjoyed most people's cooking as long as it was free and had a decent taste, actually. She had spent some time in the kitchen with Gourry. Of course, he was drying dishes as she was washing them, but Zelgadis and Amelia had been there. Lina hadn't. She had gone straight to bed. And Andreys had just walked out. So there was no way of talking about it then.
'Tomorrow.' she thought. 'I promise.'
The next day dawned bright and early and the instant the first rays peaked over the hills in the east, Zelgadis found his eyes snapping wide awake. Not that this was an abnormal occurrence. After all, he was known for waking up at dawn. The others, on the other hand... didn't. Of course, today he had another reason to wake up early. It would be his last day as a chimera. His last!!! No more blue skin, no more stones and pebbles. Say hello to soft tanned, maybe, skin which was smooth of the touch and had the feel of body heat as opposed to the stones inner cold. Hello to wind chapped skin, blisters, sunburns and acne problems. He was actually looking forward to it.
He quickly got out of bed and looked around. Gourry was asleep, snoring away peacefully, which was also quite usual. He walked out of the room and looked around to see if anyone else was up. As he walked silently through out the halls, he heard nothing. Finally making it to the kitchen, he half expected to see Andreys there, since he seemed to be the type of person who was up at the crack of dawn. Seeing the empty kitchen, however, soon made him change his mind. He sighed and turned around, deciding to go for a walk. Who was he kidding? As if anyone else would wake up early today... He didn't noticed the white sheet of paper on the table held down by a piece of fruit till later on.
It was almost lunch time before everyone had woken up. Zelgadis found himself having to exert much self control just to not run up the stairs and pound on everyone's door till they woke up. However, he did not want to run the risk of a cranky Lina Inverse... specially since she was the one who was actually casting the spell. He shuddered, trying to imagine what a cranky Lina Inverse casting a spell on a mirror might look like. Thankfully, his mind blocked out the images.
"Mr. Zelg... I mean.. Zel! Have you seen Mr. Andreys around?" asked Amelia as she ran up to meet him as he walked on the pathway towards the area where they were staying at.
"You mean he's not up?" asked Zelgadis, looking confused.
"He's not in his room, and his bed doesn't even look slept in!" said Amelia, her eyes worrying.
Zelgadis frowned.... where had Andreys gone to? Without him, they didn't know where the mirror was and then he couldn't become a human. Dang... so close, yet so far, once again.
"Miss Amelia!" shouted Sylphiel from the house. She waved a white sheet of paper. "I found a note from Andreys-san!"
"A note?" asked Lina as she threw open the windows that led to Andreys' room where she had been searching for clues.
"It was in the kitchen!" said Sylphiel. "I wanted to start lunch since you were all going to be pretty hungry after looking for Mr. Andreys."
"Good job, Sylphiel!" said Lina. She closed the windows and ran down the stairs.
"Actually, Gourry found it." said Sylphiel as they all met inside the kitchen.
"Gourry?" asked Lina with surprise. "Wow... I'm amazed! Good job, Gourry!" Gourry smiled sheepishly.
"It wasn't anything much," he said with a grin as he scratched the back of his head with a hand. "I was actually reaching for some fruit on the table and it was stuck to it. I almost ended up eating the paper!"
The Slayers sweatdropped, but soon that was over as Zelgadis grabbed the sheet and read it.
"What does it say?" asked everyone as Zel skimmed it. Zelgadis's eyes narrowed as he continued to read the note.
"It says... that he had to run some errands last night that he remembered last minute and that he will not be back until tomorrow." said Zelgadis.
"Oh no! And he's the only one who knows where the mirror lies!" said Amelia, looking sad and weepy.
"No, he wrote where it's found," said Zelgadis. Lina looked at Zelgadis and saw his suspicious face.
"Hey, you guys go look for the mirror." she said as she took the note, quickly skimmed it and gave it to Gourry and Amelia. "Sylphiel, you keep on with lunch." At this, Gourry and Amelia ran off to find the mirror, and Sylphiel moved over to the kitchen. "And you," she continued as she pulled on Zelgadis's arm. "Are coming with me." They moved to the outside porch where the two sat down for a minute as they contemplated the sky.
"OK, so cough up. Why are you suspicious?" asked Lina after the silence lasted too long.
"He doesn't seem to be the type of person who would forget errands to run. He doesn't seem to be the type of person to leave his home to a complete bunch of strangers." said Zelgadis.
"In other words, he's not the type of person to leave a note saying that he's gone and to do as we wish, ne?" asked Lina.
"Yeah." said Zelgadis.
"Do you feel a trap?" asked Lina.
"I don't know..." said Zelgadis. Lina looked up at him.
"How come?" she asked.
"I know the mirror will work. L-sama told me herself." he said. He mistook Lina's widening eyes as sign of her surprise that L-sama had spoken to him. Lina, however, found herself taking a big gulp of breath as she tried to calm her breathing. L-sama was involved?
"So do you want to go ahead and cast the spell then?" asked Lina. "It's up to you. It's your body and I'm not going to be the one to tell you not to or to do so."
Zelgadis closed his eyes. The sun was shining down on them, but try as he might, he couldn't feel the warmth of the sun's rays hitting his stone skin. This skin... it was made wrong. It was not made for feeling sunlight, or for interaction with the environment. It had no nerves that let him feel such delicate things. He could imagine it. He knew how it felt and at times deluded himself... but he knew it wasn't real. To feel real sun and wind on his skin...
"Let's do it." he said.
Lina nodded. There went her last chance at postponing the incantation. She had to do it now.
"OK,... let's go and get it over with."
"Ne, what do we do now?" asked Amelia after they had located the mirror.
"First things first!" said Lina. "We should grab some lunch!" She put on a supremely cute face as she made her face look all excited. She had one more chance to postpone the inevitable...
"No... let's do it now." said Zelgadis. Lina glared at him.
"Why?" she asked.
"I've waited too long for this."
"Exactly," said Lina. "Thirty minutes won't harm you. You've waited so long, just hang tight for a bit."
"Ano..." said Gourry as he supported Lina's decision. "I would like to eat too."
"You would..." muttered Zelgadis.
"What did you say?" asked an angry Lina.
"Fine, do as you wish." he said, looking annoyed. By the time those buffoons were done, he might have been a human, had they started right now.
"Eh... Mr. Zelgadis," started Sylphiel softly. "It might be better if Ms. Lina ate something to make sure she has strength."
"Fine, fine... I said go ahead." said Zelgadis. He sighed... he should have known better than to fight against Lina's stomach. "How long is it going to take?"
"Well, I still have to make the food... so I'd say we'd all finish eating in about an hour, if I start on the food right now."
'I just can't win, can I?' thought Zel to himself as he nodded.
Xellos watched from the shadows and sighed.
'They're going to eat...., I should have expected that.' he thought to himself. He had decided to wait and act on his plan before going to Zelas so that he would have actual concrete results to show her. So this was going to be a surprise for her. He just had to wait for Zelgadis to do his move and then Lina would be all his... Well, metaphorically speaking.
ONE HOUR LATER
"You guys finished eating, yet?" asked Zelgadis as Lina and Gourry finally placed their plates down on the table. He himself had nibble and had finished about thirty minutes ago. So had most. Obviously, his sour-ish type of mood was enough of a killer of a mood for some people. And not for others as he eyed how Lina and Gourry had inhaled everything in sight and had not paid any attention at all to their surroundings except which dish was laid out where and whose hand was reaching out for their own food.
"Just about," said Lina. She reached over the table and snagged a piece of fruit from the plate in the center of the table. Zelgadis waited impatiently as Lina inhaled the apple and then finally leaned back on her chair with a full and content expression on her face.
"Well, I'm going to go wait in the other room while you finish eating." said Zelgadis sourly. He walked out of the room and plopped himself in the couch. The mirror was exactly where they left it, on the small coffee table.
"Sheesh, what's his problem?" asked Lina as she stretched. "One would think today was actually the worst day of his life, and he's going to actually become human today!"
"Um,... Miss Lina," spoke up Amelia quietly. "Maybe he's just worried about the spell and impatient because he has had to wait for so long."
"Yeah, Lina." said Gourry. "And you were eating a bit slower than usual today also!" Lina sighed. Trust Gourry to recognize her eating patterns and speeds. Now that Gourry had slightly stood up to Lina, Sylphiel hurried to add her vote.
"I'm sure he has waited for so long, that seeing you put food above his spell might have hurt him a little, Miss Lina." she said. Gourry nodded at her and smiled. It was true, after all.
Lina sighed yet again. They were all against her, weren't they? However... she looked at the dishes that Amelia and Sylphiel were currently putting away. There had been inklings of truth in what they said. She had been pretty mean to him, and acting at a bit slower speed than usual.
Without a word, she turned out of the room and settled herself to her fate. Before Amelia's, Sylphiel's, Gourry's and Zelgadis's eyes, she quickly moved back the furniture and arranged the chairs to the edge of the room. She even tapped silently on Zelgadis's shoulder to get him to stand up. As soon as he did, she had pushed the sofa all the way across the floor by herself.
Zelgadis was shocked. Lina wasn't saying anything. He didn't know what had surprised him the most: the fact that Lina had a serious and pensive look on her face, or the fact that she was this strong to single-handedly move all the furniture in the room in less than a minute. Granted, there wasn't that much furniture, but the sofa was a bit on the heavy side.
Lina took out a piece of chalk from somewhere on her body and proceeded to chalk up the room, drawing sigils and signs, circles and squares and triangles on the floor. All from memory. She had memorized the entire spell.
The center of the room now contained the small mirror placed in the center of a white incantation circle. It was an amplification diagram and would help in making sure that Lina had enough energy to complete the spell. Off to one side, Zelgadis sat on the floor, his feet crossed and his eyes closed as he rested. Lina rested in the incantation circle at one of the corners of the five pointed star. She turned on her amplification amulets on and slowly began the incantation.
Only a few minutes were needed for the Soul Mirror to become the Mirror of Reality. Upgrading the mirror was the easy part. The manuscripts that they had looked at had made it seem a lot harder than it really was, thought Lina as she looked up with a gentle smile. She then threw a piece of chalk at Amelia.
"Draw out another glyph for Zelgadis, will you? I'm not leaving the circle for now." she said with a wry smile. Amelia glowed as she caught the chalk thrown to her. She hurriedly drew out the next circle exactly opposite to where Lina was sitting. This way, the three were all lined up: Lina, the mirror in the center, and now Zelgadis. The mirror had been placed in such a way that the reflecting surface would face Zelgadis.
"You can look into it now, Zelgadis, but you won't actually see anything yet because it's not activated yet." said Lina. "It's like my talismans. They won't amplify power until I turn them on." Zelgadis had nodded and had stared at the cool and strangely gold face of the mirror.
"Ready, everyone?" asked Lina to the room at large.
'Let this work, please let this work...' thought Amelia as she stood in an auxiliary circle that was away from the main circle to provide back up should it be needed.
'Human... I'm finally going to become human...' thought Zelgadis as he felt the power lines moving around them and finally concentrating on him.
'Just hang in there, Inverse. No more after this. You're not touching Nightmare magic ever again...' thought Lina as she poured herself into manipulating the magic flows to not only turn on the mirror itself, but to provide her energy and power to change Zelgadis's chimeric form.
There was no actual incantation for the spell. There was no ballad, no sonnet, no excerpt of blank verse that accompanied the spell. The room was silent as all the viewers only saw Lina the glowing of the lines of chalk, as if fire had started one line and was now running through the rest of the marks, giving forth it's golden glow.
"Is Lina asleep?" asked Gourry to Sylphiel as he watched Lina sitting crosslegged in her circle, her face oddly calm and worry free. Usually, when Lina cast lots of magic, she had on a violent face, full of strength and spirit that seemed to shout. Now, she was just quiet.
"No, Gourry-dear," said Sylphiel softly. Amelia had turned to look at them and had put a finger to her lips getting accross quite clearly that they were to remain as silent as possible. "Miss Lina is concentrating on magic. So that Zelgadis can become human." She tried to speak as clearly as possible so that Gourry wouldn't be confused any more and that way, not ask questions.
They settled down to watch the show... for better of for worse, here went the spell.
Fin Chapter 2
Author's notes....
Eh... sorry about the really looooooooong delay. Bet you all thought I was dead, eh??? xD Well, this was gonna be only 2 parts, and then I realized, by the time I got to writing this again) that there was a bit more I needed to write before ending... xD
So... it's gonna be three parts long... xD
Hope you enjoyed it and that it was worth the wait. If not... eh.. I'll try better for chapter 3, eh? As it is... chapter 3 is like... 1/6 done. Or something like that. xD
Jru
Another Weird Anime Fanfic Production
Written by Jru
Slayers: Reality
AKA Last Quest
Part II: Mirror of Reality
Timeline: After Slayers Try
Quick notes before we start: No,... this has no romantic bias. Well, that's what I'm trying to do. Since I usually write X/L fiction, it may seem that way at times, but remember, Zelgadis and Gourry are along for the ride too. I'm trying my best to keep this as uncoupled as possible. Well.... I'm not saying I'm good at doing that, you know.... ;;
Sorry this took out a loooooooooooooooooooooooot longer than I thought it would. I underestimated my homework, papers, concerts and my own inherent laziness. Thank you for your patience and for your reviews. They had made me extremely happy and have given me great joy. And yes, I was motivated to write whenever I read your reviews. However, many times in life, I seem to find laziness to have a much stronger affect on me than inspiration. Unless, of course, I'm well caught up on sleep, which is usually not the case. Enjoy, Part II of the Mirror of Reality.
Last chapter:
Lina squeezed her eyes tighter. She could feel 'something' trying to open them, to force her to look. So they thought they could just boss Lina Inverse around, eh? Well, think again! She shut them even tighter, and clenched her fists. She was NOT going to be won over by...by...by whoever it was out there.
She heard a sigh in the distance like the whisper of a soothing wind. Lina felt her curiosity aroused, but the logical part of her mind staunchly refused to give up.
"Daughter..." said the voice, gentle, like the whooshing of the wind as it flew by her. Her eyes opened up in surprise as her ruby red eyes met a pair that shined just as brightly as hers, with hair that flew and danced in the wind of the suddenly filled room.
"She's relaxing." said Amelia as she noted the tenseness in the forehead go away. "I'm glad."
"Me too," said Zelgadis who felt silently relieved. Lina's non-response had been worrying him.
Xellos looked on in the distance, not sure if it was a good thing or a bad thing that Lina had all of a sudden adapted to the Mirror. What did it mean? Or better yet,... did it mean what he thought it meant?
She saw everything.
A golden pale light shone over the young earth. Dragons soared over the skies, not as the primitive race they had been brought down as but in all their glory, radiating their power and majesty. And down below her, on the ground of the still forming earth, where the Mazoku. Not the ones she had recently defeated. These were untainted, pure evil and were still in one piece. She had thought nothing could have been worse than fighting against one of the pieces of the Shabranigudo. Fibrizzio showed her the error of her views. There was something about the cruelty his eyes had shown that had been out of place on the face of the young boy he had created. And Darkstar, an other-wordly threat had been even more drastic. Those were nothing compared to what she saw now.
However, despite it all, she found herself smiling at the purity of both forms. They were purely whatever they were incarnating. L-sama had done a good job in creating them.
"Thank you, child," a voice behind her sounded. Startled, Lina looked back in surprise, her eyes frightened at what she would see. Behind her stood a glowing lady with a slim and slender build. Her gold hair flowed down her back in straight waves and her bangs covered her glimmering eyes. In her hands, she held her shovel, gleaming in the light of the bright sun. Around her, the skies were blue and the clouds were wispy white.
"You are..." whispered Lina.
"Yes..."
"And why am I...?"
"You know why."
Lina looked puzzled. L-sama just smiled at her and with a wave of her hand, set the events in motion on earth that had seemed to have frozen when Lina noticed the Lord of Nightmare's presence.
"Just watch," said L-sama. "That's all you're here for at the current moment. Just watch and learn..."
So Lina turned around and watched in horrid fascination as the very story that was told to her when she was a small child unfold into its painful existence. Sure, she had been told about the Creation of the World, how L-sama had come down and created a world filled with both purity and with darkness, something she embodied. She had heard that both the Mazoku and the Ryuzoku had fallen, how they had turned against their creator and how they had turned against their purpose. Instead, they had disobeyed her rules and her laws. And while they decked it out in petty fighting and bickering, L-sama, disgusted with her older creation made a new one, one that was limited power wise. One that was limited in its dealings. One that was more fragile in nature. One that because of their frailty turned out to be an easy target for the superhuman powers the dragons and the demons showed.
"Why did you even make humans?" asked Lina as she watched L-sama weep tears for the warps in her creation. L-sama looked up at her.
"Do you regret the fact that I made humans and in the process, made you?" she asked. Lina was taken back a bit by the question.
"No, no, nothing like that! I'm grateful for my life! It's been a wonderful life!" said Lina. After all, she didn't want to die. "But I'm just wondering, why did you make humans? Why did you start out with Dragons and Demons?"
"Why does a child cut out paper dolls for herself? Why does a child draw eyes and a nose and a mouth, curly hair on the head and then make clothes for it?" asked L-sama rhetorically as she gripped her shovel.
"A child?" asked Lina.
"Yes, a child." said L-sama. She continued. "Why does everyone ask for the reason of their existence? Why do they want to know why, as if they, the individual, were so important to the continuation of life, to the end purpose of finding universal harmony? Does it matter why? Is it not enough that one is born, alive, is given their time on the earth to fulfill their purpose before they are called back to me? Is it not enough being satisfied with the simple answers? Why must one yearn for answers that are beyond the scope of their intellect?"
"Are you talking about yourself also?" asked Lina. Then she realized that she had just questioned a god and hurriedly tried to make reparations, but L-sama waved them away. "Exactly," she answered.
"Why do you question yourself?" asked Lina. Inwardly, she wondered... how had she known that L-sama was going through her own turmoils? This was too deep for Lina and she spoke yet again. "Surely, you are the goddess that created everything."
"All things are created," said L-sama. "Even as I am created. We are all given our lot in life and it is our duty to make the greatest use from it as possible. We were not given life for it to be wasted. Life is meant to be lived. But some of us were born with greater responsibility. Some of us, were born not to ask the question of why we were born, but to answer it." At this statement, L-sama looked at Lina and smiled at her, giving her a warm look of pride and satisfaction. Lina backed away from the look, not knowing what to do.
With no warning, L-sama reached out and tapped her on the forehead, and Lina felt her world explode.
"Twice in one day is not good..." was Lina's last though as she fell into a faint within a faint.
Lina had been moved from her place on the sofa to a bed. Gourry had gallantly offered to carry Lina, but Xellos insisted on helping and Zelgadis was in no way going to let Xellos out of his guard. Especially concerning Lina and his vision. The mirror had been clear... The mirror would cure him. But it had wanted Lina also, and he had a feeling that Xellos knew that too.
As it was, Gourry carried her and Xellos and Zelgadis trailed after him. Gourry was about to draw a chair to sit by her and keep a watch when Sylphiel called to him asking for his help in some thing that she was doing. Amelia had already gone of to talk to Andreys about acquiring his collection of rare and antique furniture. Gourry left, knowing that Zelgadis would keep an eye on Lina.
The people left in the room were three... two men and a lady, two humans and a Mazoku one chimera, one demon and one that Xellos was starting to realize demanded a much bigger explanation than just 'L-sama's chosen'. He would not let Zelgadis get in his way.
"So, Zelgadis-kun," started Xellos as he made himself comfortable on the window ledge since Zelgadis had decided to take the chair beside Lina's bed. Zelgadis didn't even answer as he folded his arms in front of him. "Care to share what went on inside your head?"
"No," said Zelgadis.
"Why not, Zelgadis-kun?" asked Xellos in a sing song way.
"Cause I don't want to tell you." answered Zelgadis simply.
"You're so mean..." said Xellos as he walked over to where Lina lay on the bed and got down on the floor beside the bed.
"What are you doing?" asked Zelgadis, watching him with suspicion in his eyes.
Xellos just smiled at him in his own secretive way. A gloved hand reached out and took hold of a strand of Lina's copper tresses. His fingers caressed the silken texture of her hair and his amethyst eyes watched Lina's now blank face.
For his part, Zelgadis wanted to kick Xellos out of the room and lock the door so that the Mazoku never came back. After all, they had no more need for Xellos... And now... what was that Mazoku doing? If Lina were up, she would have creamed him for touching her hair.
"You know, Zelgadis-kun," started Xellos as he ran his fingers through her hair. "...that Lina Inverse is really a most amazing person?"
"Get your fingers out of her hair, Xellos," said Zelgadis warningly.
"Or else what?" asked Xellos. "Are you going to try to chop my arm off for being naughty?" He smiled. "Make a commotion? Interrupt the spell she is currently in?" Zelgadis just glared at him. With a smile, Xellos continued to play with her hair.
"Anyway... Lina is really an amazing person, you know." His slitted eyes became even more slitted as he closed them slightly, as if reminiscing. "It'd be a... shame... if something were to happen to her..."
"Are you threatening us?" asked Zelgadis. He did not like the way this conversation was going.
"Me? Why would I do that?" asked Xellos as he smiled cheerfully. However, his eyes held a glimmer in them as he smiled. "After all, she is currently worth more to me alive than dead, after all."
"Worth more....?" asked Zelgadis.
"Yup!" said Xellos. And with that, he vanished from the room.
Zelgadis leaned back and studied Lina's still form. Worth more.... whatever did that fruitcake mean by that? What had L-sama told him anyway? Why was Lina singled out every time? He had to be blind to not have noticed. He had never had so much excitement and met so many new and undesirable people than when he was with her. Never in his wildest dreams had he ever imagined himself as part of the team that went against Dark Eye, against Phibrizzio... against all of them.
He had wondered about Lina before. After all, who wouldn't? How could he not, when it was all because of this tiny slip of a girl that his life was where it currently was. Had he not joined her, he wouldn't be here, so close to finally being human at last. Had he not joined her, he would not have met such undesirable denizens of humanity. But had he not known her, his life would have been so amazingly empty also.
What was it with Lina Inverse, Sorceress Extraordinaire, Bane of Restaurants, Mazoku slayer, Demon Killer, a girl that not even Dragons would mess with, L-sama's Chosen.....
L-sama's Chosen..... that was her new title, whether she liked it or not. Her Chosen... he sighed... why did all of this have to be so damn hard!!!!
"Gourry-dearest!"
He looked up and found Sylphiel standing in front of him.
"What?" he asked.
"Would you like to help me make supper for everyone?" asked Sylphiel.
"Um... sure! Are you sure I won't be in the way?" he asked in a worried manner. Lina had always said that he was such a clumsy oaf... speaking of Lina.... he wondered what was happening with her? Why had she fainted after looking at herself in the mirror? It's not as if she were ugly and had scared herself... she was pretty after all. Even if she was a bit small. Even if she always beat him up. Even if she always hit him....
"Gourry? Gourry? Gourry-dearest? Are you listening to me?"
"Hm...?" asked Gourry as he was suddenly shaken awake by small hands grabbing his shoulders. He looked down and saw that it was Sylphiel. "Oh, hi Sylphiel! How can I help you?"
Sylphiel sighed.... She should have been used to this, but well... she wasn't. Every once in a while, Gourry-sama would just... zone out on her and wouldn't say anything. As if his mind were far, far away.
"I was wondering if you could go outside and grab me some firewood," she said with a smile. She could worry about Gourry's dear mannerisms later. Right now, she had a banquet to prepare for. She was assuming that Lina would be up in time for supper and cooking for those two always took lots of time and preparation. Well, not really. She just needed to cook a lot.
"Sure Sylphiel!" said Gourry. "Anything I can do to help!" He beamed her one of his sunny smiles and went out the door. Sylphiel sighed as she etched that image of his smile into her mind forever.... he was just too dreamy....
Walking around the shack, Gourry finally found a small lean-to that contained firewood. in neat stacked piles. He wondered when the Andreys guy had time to chop wood and stack it up. But then again, it looked like he did nothing much, so even chopping wood was probably exciting, right? After all, when he was a little boy, he loved to chop wood. He would pretend that the ax was actually a sword.... he smiled as he entered his dream world.
However...
On entering the lean to, he noticed that Zelgadis was there, sitting on the stacks of wood, looking pensively outside one of the small windows.
"Hi Zelgadis!" said Gourry cheerfully as only he knew how.
"Hello Gourry." answered Zelgadis.
"I thought you were keeping an eye on Lina, weren't you?" asked the blonde.
"I was." said Zelgadis. "But she will be fine."
Gourry nodded. He trusted Zel. After all these years that they had spent together, he had learned to trust in Zelgadis's intuition and decisions, just like he had learned to do exactly as Lina said. He didn't need to hear her explanations or the theories. All she had to do was point him towards the enemy and he would go and fight. Lina made it all easy like that. And Zelgadis he knew he could trust in him. And he knew that Lina looked up to him and respected whatever Zelgadis said. Whether she followed his advice was a different matter, though...
"What do you think of Lina?"
"Huh?" asked Gourry as he was startled out of his thoughts. "You said something, Zelgadis?"
"Yes." he answered. "What do you think of Lina?"
"She's nice." said Gourry.
"Anything else apart from that?" asked Zel. He was looking at Gourry with his hard stony blue eyes.
"Well... she's not always nice, I guess. She can be mean too. And impatient. And..."
"I know, I know, Gourry." said Zelgadis, interrupting him. "I didn't ask about her characteristics or her moods. Just... what do you think of Lina? Over all? What is the first thing you think of when someone says Lina Inverse?"
"Eh... I don't know... I haven't tried that before..." said Gourry, a bit unsure of where all this was going.
Zel sighed... he should have expected that response. If this matter weren't so serious, he would have dropped it right there and then. However...
"Let's do an experiment, shall we?" asked Zelgadis.
"OK!"
"I'm going to say something and you're going to tell me the first thing that comes to mind, OK?" asked Zelgadis That was simple enough, hopefully.
"Sure," said Gourry. "Sounds like fun! Sort of like those psi... psyk..psycho...."
"Psychology, you mean?" asked Zelgadis.
"Yes, that!"
"OK, let's begin, then." said Zelgadis "Square." He gave him an easy one just to warm him up.
"Meals!"
"Pyramid."
"Food." sweatdrop
"Moon."
"Cheese."
"Lina Inverse."
"Nightmare lady." said Gourry without a thought.
"Nightmare lady?" asked Zelgadis.
"Lina." answered Gourry. This was fun!!!!
"Lord of Nightmares, eh?" thought Zelgadis. Out loud, he spoke, "Thanks Gourry. That's it."
"No problem Zelgadis!" said Gourry. He beamed at him and stood in the middle of the room, unsure of what to do.
"You were here to get wood." said Zelgadis, pointing towards the stack of wood that Gourry had collected earlier and had forgotten about.
"Oh, thanks Zel!" Gourry smiled at him, grabbed the firewood and went out of the lean to, leaving Zelgadis to his thoughts.
"L-sama, eh?" he said outloud to no one in particular.
Black swirly inky tendrils of nothingness swirled around her....
She had seen it all before.
She recognized this area... the Astral Plane... To her surprise, she wasn't scared. Instead, she felt... liberated... free.... what else.... at home?
"Home...?" she asked herself. She tried to look at her hands and found none. She found no body either. "OK.... this is getting really weird..."
She tried to navigate the eerieness around her that she had called home. Why home? Why would anyone call this desolated area home? Well... not desolate.
She could see... see so many people here. It was the busiest place ever... it was full of souls that traveled through time and through the ages... it was full of hustle, bustle, life and death... Home?
"Yes... home..." she told herself. This had been the home she had gone in search of. This is what all her years of wandering and roaming had wanted to lead her. Back to her home. Back to where she belonged. And as soon as she realized that, she laughed. Manipulating the nothingness around her came to her easily. It was as if she had always known how to... and then temporarily forgot... and now she was back! Now she knew!
With laughter, she flew around and bumped spectral elbows with the others who lived here. The monsters, the dragons, the souls, the spirits... they were all here. Finally, among her kind!
"Don't get too excited. You can't stay here yet."
She stopped abruptly and turned to face the golden aura in the Astral Plane.
"L-sama!" she said quickly as she bowed down before her queen, her leader, her creator.
"Welcome back."
"It's good to be back! I forgot how much I loved this place."
"But you have to go back now." said L-sama.
"No! Why?" she asked.
"You can't be here yet. Your job is not done."
"Job?" Immediately, around her a flash of golden light appeared and disappeared as quick as it had come. And now she could see herself. She saw her white boots with fur trim. Her magenta body suit. Her white gloves. Her black and red cloak. Her black and gold shoulder guards. Her black headband. Her ruby eyes and hair. And she remembered. "Oh, yes... my job... but I don't want to go back! I'll forget who I am again!"
"My child.... giving you to them is just as hard on me as it is on you.... but I ask you to have patience. You will one day return back to me, and on that day, you will not be forced to return anymore."
"You promise?" The red eyes of Lina Inverse looked up at L-sama, gold meeting red.
"I promise." she answered.
"I resign myself to the will of my creator." she said as she knelt.
L-sama touched her forehead and the magic around them... immediately, Lina's eyes widened in fright as she felt her very being torn apart.
"No! No! Please, L-sama!!! I can't... it hurts so much..." cried out Lina as she curled herself into a fetal position. L-sama just watched on silently, watching part of her very essence ripped to shreds. As the human Lina Inverse, she could have no recollections of who she was and what her power was or what her purpose was. She just was.
"Please, L-sama.... no!"
Everyone heard Lina Inverse scream in denial halfway during supper. Everyone also dashed from the table at the same time to run up the room to see what it was that was happening.
Xellos was the first to make it there since he had, technically, not left the room at all. He had just made himself invisible and occupied a small chair in the corner. He had actually been brooding. Yes,... brooding.. as in being pensively broody.... he had to make a report to Zelas soon, and L-sama knew how ticked off Zelas could be when she didn't get the information she wanted. He knew that the answer was right before him... plain and simple if he only knew what to look for. But he didn't know yet... and Zelas wanted results. He had almost been to the point of being exasperated. His plans with getting Zelgadis riled enough to peek into his thoughts had backfired and he was just there... brooding...
But now, he was the only one to be able to watch first hand what had happened. He had seen the white light that seemed to have filled every pore of hers. He had seen the gold light that had surrounded her. He had seen the way she had levitated off the bed as she screamed. And he saw how she fell back on her bed and woke up, looking none the worse for wear...
"Hm... this is interesting..." he thought to himself. He made sure his presence was erased from everyone's consciousness as everyone burst into the room.
"Miss Lina!" shouted Amelia as she performed a flying tackle into Lina and hugging the living daylights out of her. "You're up!"
"Lina, are you all right?" asked Gourry as he flew into the room, his sword drawn out, ready to take on the enemy that had made Lina shout. Zelgadis ran in behind Gourry, silent yet alert as usual. On seeing Lina awake and being suffocated by Amelia, he let his guard down. All was well. Gourry, too, noticed that there was no danger and sheathed his sword.
"Amelia.... need... breathe..." said Lina as she struggled with Amelia's improvised chokehold/bearhug.
"Oh! Oops! Sorry Miss Lina!" she said as she let Lina go. Andreys and Sylphiel came in as Lina was let alone to take a few deep breaths of air.
"I'm glad you're awake, Miss Lina!" said Sylphiel.
"Huh?" asked Lina. She suddenly realized that everyone was in her room and that they were all watching her intently, as if trying to observe something. "What?"
"Don't you remember anything, Lina?" asked Zelgadis as he watched her.
"Remember what?" she asked. This was puzzling her and Lina Inverse abhorred being puzzled.
"You fainted when Xellos forced you to look at the mirror..." started Gourry.
"...and fainted. You were asleep for most of the day!" finished Amelia.
"It's already supper time." said Sylphiel.
"Xellos? Mirror? Supper time? And no one woke me up!?" asked Lina, her eyes glaring at her friends.
"Eh, but Miss Lina! You were asleep!" said Amelia.
"That is no excuse!" said Lina. With that, she jumped off the bed. "Besides, I'm doing well!" She remembered the mirror incident and did her best to not shiver... it was all good. She had seen the mirror and she was still alive and coherent. Case closed... no need to talk about it. Best to get their minds off it too... "And I'm hungry!" With that, she staunchly walked out of the room, head held high.
The others just shrugged their shoulders and followed her. If Lina said so... well then... who were they to object?
That night... nothing too exciting happened. Not to say that nothing of importance ocurred... just that nothing too exciting happened. The moon was out, and it wasn't particularly memorable. Not full moon, not even new moon. No blue moon, no Cheshire cat smile moon. It was the moon after it was half full... the one that looked like an oblong shape. There were a few wispy clouds that looked dark blue in the dark sky. A few stars, and no memorable constellations. Over all, a night that not many would have remembered. And in this dark night, a few people took walks and a few had talks and then they all rested. Well... ok, not really.
Andreys was taking a walk at night. After the huge supper that Lina had eaten, he had cleared the table and after making sure that everyone was sleeping, he had gone out. There was no need to wake them up. At least, not yet.
Making sure that he was a distance from the cottage, he stood in the middle of an open field and concentrated. A small black light shone around him for a moment before it vanished.
"My, my, never thought I'd ever see the day you would use that trick, ne, Andreys- kun?" asked a voice from off to his right side.
"Don't bet on it becoming a regular thing." said Andreys as he glared at him.
"So how can I help you?" asked Xellos. Andreys thought for a bit. He didn't quite know what he had been planning on doing, truth be told. After all, this was the first time he had magically called Xellos. Ever since that awful day when he had become cursed with his hybrid form, he had never thought he would do this... search out for Xellos willingly.
"What's your plan?" he asked.
"Plan?" asked Xellos, looking confused.
"Yes... you lead them to the mirror, didn't you?" asked Andreys.
"My dear friend Andreys," said Xellos. "Just because I tricked you does not mean I trick everyone you know. For your information, Princess Amelia found the spell all by herself."
"I don't believe that." said Andreys. "You always have a plan no matter what you do."
"What, you can't handle the fact that you got tricked by me? And now you think that I'm out to trick everyone?" Xellos smiled evilly. "You really don't get it do you? You think that you can control..."
"Tell me!" said Andreys. "Or I swear,... I'm going to break the mirror right now!" He reached deep into his pocket and took it out. Xellos froze and the winds were silent for a few minutes.
"You want to... break the mirror?" asked Xellos.
"What is it to you?" asked Andreys. "Why do you want them to see the Mirror so badly?"
"You would really... break the Mirror?" asked Xellos, a wry smile appearing on his face. Had it been any other face, it would have just looked condescending. On Xellos's face, however.... perhaps it was just the fact that Andreys already had preconceived notions of him... Whatever the reason, on Xellos... the smile just looked... unnervingly evil. "You would crack it, scratch it, mar it? Just to foil what you think are my plans?" His eyes glinted strangely in the slight moonlight. Andreys hesitantly took a step back and Xellos took a step forward.
"I..." started Andreys, starting to sound hesitant. He hadn't expected Xellos to act this way...
"You would face the wrath of a chimera who is this close to becoming human? The wrath of Lina Inverse as she levels you with her magic? The wrath of Xellos, Trickster Priest of the Lady Beastmaster?" His purple eyes glinted strangely again and Andreys found himself drawn into his eyes, as if he were falling down and down and down...
"I thought not." said Xellos with a smile, as Andreys passed out. The Mirror fell from his fingers, but Xellos caught it neatly with a hand and put it in his pocket. With that, he smiled at Andreys and transported both of them away.
Someone else was walking that night, in quite a different area and with quite a different purpose...
Zelgadis just could not fall asleep. He had tried everything he could apart from sending a sleep spell on himself. However, he preferred not to do that... magic may be a common practice in these times, but it still felt unnatural to use supernatural means to just get himself to sleep. Which was why he was out in the freezing cold midnight weather, trying to get himself tired and worn out so that he could hurry up and go back to sleep in his warm bed.
However, no matter how much he tried, he couldn't sleep. His mind wouldn't rest... it was busy thinking... thinking about so many possibilities. Take, for instance....
"I wonder how I will look?" asked Zelgadis quietly to himself. Now, we all know that Mr. Zelgadis was anything but a vain person,... and in this case, he did have a valid excuse for wanting to know...
Would he have dark skin from being in the sun so much? Or maybe light, since technically, his skin hadn't been in the sun... How about his hair? Still blue? Maybe black? Perhaps brown.... L-sama forbid...purple??? Would it look like Rezo? He sighed... this was getting dumb.
But try as he might, he couldn't stop thinking...
He had grown so accustomed to his looks that he almost felt like he was going to miss it.
'No way!' he thought. He touched his wiry hair and bent it so that he could look at it... No more would he have to buy pliers to comb his hair. He could now bash his head against the wall when exasperated and not have to worry about his hair being stuck to it. His fingers trailed next to the pebbles studding his face. How many hours, days, months had he spent polishing the stones on his face? He wasn't vain. On the contrary, he abhorred his look. But just because he didn't like it didn't mean that he would just let it erode in the elements. There was such a thing as erosion. He had polished them whenever he could. He looked scary enough without having dull stones with algae and moss growing on them.
Would he miss the stones on his face? The wire of his hair? He looked at the ground and saw the imprints his heavy feet made. Would he miss his footprints?
"This is getting ridiculous." he said to the empty yard of Andrey's shack.
"What is?" asked a soft voice behind him. Immediately, Zelgadis jumped in surprise and turned. He was surprised that someone had been able to sneak up on him... "Oh, it's you, Amelia."
"Hi, Mr. Zelgadis," she said quietly. "Sorry, I didn't mean to interrupt you in your thoughts..."
"It's ok..." said Zelgadis. Hopefully she hadn't seen the weird way he had been touching his hair and face. She would think he was even more weird than he was! "When did you get here?"
"Just now," said Amelia with a slight smile. "What are you doing up, Mr. Zelgadis?"
"Zel." answered the chimera. At her puzzled look, he explained. "Just call me Zel. Most people do anyway."
"What are you doing up, Zel?" asked Amelia as she tried out his name.
"What are you doing up?" asked Zel, throwing the question back at her.
"I couldn't sleep. And you?" she answered without missing the beat.
"Same here." he said. Then he added some more. "Too busy thinking."
Amelia walked up to him so that he was beside her instead of ahead of her and the two started to walk.
"Thinking about tomorrow?" she asked. He nodded. What else would he be thinking about?
"I don't think you should worry, Zel," she said. It felt unnatural to call him just Zel... but it inwardly made her pleased also.
"There are lots of unknowns..." said Zelgadis.
"Are you worried about whether it will hurt? Or how you will look?" asked Amelia.
"You could say so." said Zelgadis, not really wanting to admit being worried about something that sounded so trivial.
"Don't worry." said Amelia. "After all, we are all here for you! If anything goes wrong, Miss Lina will know what to do. And..."
"And?" asked Zel.
"...and.... I'm sure you'll look great, Mr. Zelgadis!" said Amelia, putting on a cheerful smile.
Lina was scared... and Lina Inverse didn't scare easily. It wasn't as if there were some huge monster before her ready to tear her to pieces. It wasn't as if she was facing one on one with some unknown monster. It wasn't as if she could see the grotesqueness of her enemy. On the contrary... she couldn't see it, she couldn't feel it, and she couldn't remember it.
She knew she had looked into the mirror. Everyone had said so, and that she had fainted in the process and after a few hours of being caught in the Mirror's spell, she had woken up screaming in denial. All she could remember were... flashes of color. There had been lots of black, and some gold, and it left her with fear and nothing else. There was nothing else to direct the fear to, and she dreaded falling asleep. She didn't want the dreams to haunt her. She did not want to risk the chance of seeing what had made her black out in her dream. She didn't want to deal with L-sama anymore. No more,... not now, not ever.
Which is why she was here, sitting on the ledge of her window, looking at nothing in particular. Her bed was calling out to her. Her pillow yearned for her head... but she was scared. The almighty Lina Inverse was scared of dreams. Of perceptions from a brain that were not real. Of the mocking found in her own mind.
'Gotta be strong,' she thought to herself. She had to be strong, for Zelgadis's sake, at least. He needed the mirror. 'It's his last chance.... his only chance. I can't make him miss it just because I'm scared...'
Be strong... be brave.... get it over with. She took deep calming breaths. One breath, two, three... Her heart was slowing down. Good.
'I just need to do this two more times...' she thought. 'One for turning the Soul Mirror into the Mirror of Reality and one to cast the final incantation so that Zelgadis will be changed.' She had been chosen as the one to cast the spell. She was, afterall, unfortunately, L-sama's chosen. She was the strongest. Amelia would have loved to, and in a way, she would have a part in it also. She was the back-up energy for the spell. A spell that would turn a chimera back into a human would require a lot of Astral energy. And it would be deadly if she ran out in the process. Zelgadis obviously could not supply her with power. Sylphiel... eh... no comment. So Amelia it was. But she, Lina Inverse, was the one who would actually open the channel for the magic to come through. She would be the one to actually chant the words. Chant the spell asking for L-sama's power... She shivered uncontrollably.
'OK...gotta relax... don't think about her right now. Just...relax... relax... relax.' she told herself once more. 'After this, no more. Never.. no more Nightmare magic for me. After this... I will not have to deal with her ever again...' And that thought brought her joy. It would be her light at the end of the tunnel. It would be her hope, her strength, her guide. As long as she remembered that there would be no more, she would remain sane.
Gourry looked up at the ceiling from the bed he lay on. He knew that Zelgadis was out and he didn't blame him. Poor guy probably had a lot to think about. So he had stayed silent while Zelgadis crept out of the room. Now,.. it was his turn to stay awake.
The haziness of thought that usually surrounded him called out that he join it once more. Don't think, don't think, don't think. Just smile, relax, and all would be well. Just smile, and nod. Just nod and support. He didn't need to understand why things happened or how they occurred. All he needed to know was the goal and be told how to get there. The rest... it was just details.
Life for him was never one to be thought about too much. Sure, there were those, like Lina and Zel who loved to know what made everything worked, who spent every moment of their being searching for why. To him... just details. If one was caught up too much in worrying about where the next meal was coming from, then you couldn't enjoy your current stew. If you asked yourself how things worked, you would not be able to appreciate the fact that it was there or that it was pretty. But Lina seemed to enjoy what she did and he let her. Him? He just followed. It made life so uncomplicated.
As usual, he thought over what would happen tomorrow. Just the basics, nothing too detailed. They would wake up and have breakfast. Then Lina would cast a spell. And then she would cast another spell. Then Zelgadis would turn human. Then they would have lunch. Or maybe they would have lunch before that. Like a break in between spell casting. Then they would have fun... have a party with lots of food. It wasn't everyday you get to see Zelgadis as human. Although once he became human, it would be everyday he would get to see Zel as human. Oh well... whatever. They were going to celebrate. And then, they would say bye to Andreys, and Amelia would take all the furniture with her, and they would go back to Seyruun. And then....
At this point, he stopped. What would happen then? He didn't know. So far, they hadn't planned on anything yet. Therefore, it must not be important. Whatever it was, Lina would tell him, of that he was sure. Lina always told him the important things to know. His ears picked up the slight creaking of the door as Zelgadis walked back in.
Gourry smiled. Zelgadis made it back safely, so all was well. He fell asleep.
Sylphiel sighed. Lina was on the ledge staring at something. Amelia was out taking a walk. So she was in bed. Thinking... thinking...
'I think I shall tell Gourry dearest tomorrow.' she thought to herself. 'This time I will tell him!'
She had this thought every night. So far, it hadn't worked out yet. Always, there was something occurring. And just when it was just the two of them by themselves, she would turn to speak to him and would find him either eating some food (this was when they were in the kitchen) or just staring vacantly at something. Every time she wanted to tell him just how much he meant to her, someone would stop by. Or he would go and do an errand. Or Lina would come in. And when Lina came in... she got everyone's attention. Even hers.
'I shall tell him tomorrow,' she thought. 'I must be strong. Otherwise, he'll never realize.'
Things were going so well now. Lina had woken up and had enjoyed her cooking. Lina enjoyed most people's cooking as long as it was free and had a decent taste, actually. She had spent some time in the kitchen with Gourry. Of course, he was drying dishes as she was washing them, but Zelgadis and Amelia had been there. Lina hadn't. She had gone straight to bed. And Andreys had just walked out. So there was no way of talking about it then.
'Tomorrow.' she thought. 'I promise.'
The next day dawned bright and early and the instant the first rays peaked over the hills in the east, Zelgadis found his eyes snapping wide awake. Not that this was an abnormal occurrence. After all, he was known for waking up at dawn. The others, on the other hand... didn't. Of course, today he had another reason to wake up early. It would be his last day as a chimera. His last!!! No more blue skin, no more stones and pebbles. Say hello to soft tanned, maybe, skin which was smooth of the touch and had the feel of body heat as opposed to the stones inner cold. Hello to wind chapped skin, blisters, sunburns and acne problems. He was actually looking forward to it.
He quickly got out of bed and looked around. Gourry was asleep, snoring away peacefully, which was also quite usual. He walked out of the room and looked around to see if anyone else was up. As he walked silently through out the halls, he heard nothing. Finally making it to the kitchen, he half expected to see Andreys there, since he seemed to be the type of person who was up at the crack of dawn. Seeing the empty kitchen, however, soon made him change his mind. He sighed and turned around, deciding to go for a walk. Who was he kidding? As if anyone else would wake up early today... He didn't noticed the white sheet of paper on the table held down by a piece of fruit till later on.
It was almost lunch time before everyone had woken up. Zelgadis found himself having to exert much self control just to not run up the stairs and pound on everyone's door till they woke up. However, he did not want to run the risk of a cranky Lina Inverse... specially since she was the one who was actually casting the spell. He shuddered, trying to imagine what a cranky Lina Inverse casting a spell on a mirror might look like. Thankfully, his mind blocked out the images.
"Mr. Zelg... I mean.. Zel! Have you seen Mr. Andreys around?" asked Amelia as she ran up to meet him as he walked on the pathway towards the area where they were staying at.
"You mean he's not up?" asked Zelgadis, looking confused.
"He's not in his room, and his bed doesn't even look slept in!" said Amelia, her eyes worrying.
Zelgadis frowned.... where had Andreys gone to? Without him, they didn't know where the mirror was and then he couldn't become a human. Dang... so close, yet so far, once again.
"Miss Amelia!" shouted Sylphiel from the house. She waved a white sheet of paper. "I found a note from Andreys-san!"
"A note?" asked Lina as she threw open the windows that led to Andreys' room where she had been searching for clues.
"It was in the kitchen!" said Sylphiel. "I wanted to start lunch since you were all going to be pretty hungry after looking for Mr. Andreys."
"Good job, Sylphiel!" said Lina. She closed the windows and ran down the stairs.
"Actually, Gourry found it." said Sylphiel as they all met inside the kitchen.
"Gourry?" asked Lina with surprise. "Wow... I'm amazed! Good job, Gourry!" Gourry smiled sheepishly.
"It wasn't anything much," he said with a grin as he scratched the back of his head with a hand. "I was actually reaching for some fruit on the table and it was stuck to it. I almost ended up eating the paper!"
The Slayers sweatdropped, but soon that was over as Zelgadis grabbed the sheet and read it.
"What does it say?" asked everyone as Zel skimmed it. Zelgadis's eyes narrowed as he continued to read the note.
"It says... that he had to run some errands last night that he remembered last minute and that he will not be back until tomorrow." said Zelgadis.
"Oh no! And he's the only one who knows where the mirror lies!" said Amelia, looking sad and weepy.
"No, he wrote where it's found," said Zelgadis. Lina looked at Zelgadis and saw his suspicious face.
"Hey, you guys go look for the mirror." she said as she took the note, quickly skimmed it and gave it to Gourry and Amelia. "Sylphiel, you keep on with lunch." At this, Gourry and Amelia ran off to find the mirror, and Sylphiel moved over to the kitchen. "And you," she continued as she pulled on Zelgadis's arm. "Are coming with me." They moved to the outside porch where the two sat down for a minute as they contemplated the sky.
"OK, so cough up. Why are you suspicious?" asked Lina after the silence lasted too long.
"He doesn't seem to be the type of person who would forget errands to run. He doesn't seem to be the type of person to leave his home to a complete bunch of strangers." said Zelgadis.
"In other words, he's not the type of person to leave a note saying that he's gone and to do as we wish, ne?" asked Lina.
"Yeah." said Zelgadis.
"Do you feel a trap?" asked Lina.
"I don't know..." said Zelgadis. Lina looked up at him.
"How come?" she asked.
"I know the mirror will work. L-sama told me herself." he said. He mistook Lina's widening eyes as sign of her surprise that L-sama had spoken to him. Lina, however, found herself taking a big gulp of breath as she tried to calm her breathing. L-sama was involved?
"So do you want to go ahead and cast the spell then?" asked Lina. "It's up to you. It's your body and I'm not going to be the one to tell you not to or to do so."
Zelgadis closed his eyes. The sun was shining down on them, but try as he might, he couldn't feel the warmth of the sun's rays hitting his stone skin. This skin... it was made wrong. It was not made for feeling sunlight, or for interaction with the environment. It had no nerves that let him feel such delicate things. He could imagine it. He knew how it felt and at times deluded himself... but he knew it wasn't real. To feel real sun and wind on his skin...
"Let's do it." he said.
Lina nodded. There went her last chance at postponing the incantation. She had to do it now.
"OK,... let's go and get it over with."
"Ne, what do we do now?" asked Amelia after they had located the mirror.
"First things first!" said Lina. "We should grab some lunch!" She put on a supremely cute face as she made her face look all excited. She had one more chance to postpone the inevitable...
"No... let's do it now." said Zelgadis. Lina glared at him.
"Why?" she asked.
"I've waited too long for this."
"Exactly," said Lina. "Thirty minutes won't harm you. You've waited so long, just hang tight for a bit."
"Ano..." said Gourry as he supported Lina's decision. "I would like to eat too."
"You would..." muttered Zelgadis.
"What did you say?" asked an angry Lina.
"Fine, do as you wish." he said, looking annoyed. By the time those buffoons were done, he might have been a human, had they started right now.
"Eh... Mr. Zelgadis," started Sylphiel softly. "It might be better if Ms. Lina ate something to make sure she has strength."
"Fine, fine... I said go ahead." said Zelgadis. He sighed... he should have known better than to fight against Lina's stomach. "How long is it going to take?"
"Well, I still have to make the food... so I'd say we'd all finish eating in about an hour, if I start on the food right now."
'I just can't win, can I?' thought Zel to himself as he nodded.
Xellos watched from the shadows and sighed.
'They're going to eat...., I should have expected that.' he thought to himself. He had decided to wait and act on his plan before going to Zelas so that he would have actual concrete results to show her. So this was going to be a surprise for her. He just had to wait for Zelgadis to do his move and then Lina would be all his... Well, metaphorically speaking.
ONE HOUR LATER
"You guys finished eating, yet?" asked Zelgadis as Lina and Gourry finally placed their plates down on the table. He himself had nibble and had finished about thirty minutes ago. So had most. Obviously, his sour-ish type of mood was enough of a killer of a mood for some people. And not for others as he eyed how Lina and Gourry had inhaled everything in sight and had not paid any attention at all to their surroundings except which dish was laid out where and whose hand was reaching out for their own food.
"Just about," said Lina. She reached over the table and snagged a piece of fruit from the plate in the center of the table. Zelgadis waited impatiently as Lina inhaled the apple and then finally leaned back on her chair with a full and content expression on her face.
"Well, I'm going to go wait in the other room while you finish eating." said Zelgadis sourly. He walked out of the room and plopped himself in the couch. The mirror was exactly where they left it, on the small coffee table.
"Sheesh, what's his problem?" asked Lina as she stretched. "One would think today was actually the worst day of his life, and he's going to actually become human today!"
"Um,... Miss Lina," spoke up Amelia quietly. "Maybe he's just worried about the spell and impatient because he has had to wait for so long."
"Yeah, Lina." said Gourry. "And you were eating a bit slower than usual today also!" Lina sighed. Trust Gourry to recognize her eating patterns and speeds. Now that Gourry had slightly stood up to Lina, Sylphiel hurried to add her vote.
"I'm sure he has waited for so long, that seeing you put food above his spell might have hurt him a little, Miss Lina." she said. Gourry nodded at her and smiled. It was true, after all.
Lina sighed yet again. They were all against her, weren't they? However... she looked at the dishes that Amelia and Sylphiel were currently putting away. There had been inklings of truth in what they said. She had been pretty mean to him, and acting at a bit slower speed than usual.
Without a word, she turned out of the room and settled herself to her fate. Before Amelia's, Sylphiel's, Gourry's and Zelgadis's eyes, she quickly moved back the furniture and arranged the chairs to the edge of the room. She even tapped silently on Zelgadis's shoulder to get him to stand up. As soon as he did, she had pushed the sofa all the way across the floor by herself.
Zelgadis was shocked. Lina wasn't saying anything. He didn't know what had surprised him the most: the fact that Lina had a serious and pensive look on her face, or the fact that she was this strong to single-handedly move all the furniture in the room in less than a minute. Granted, there wasn't that much furniture, but the sofa was a bit on the heavy side.
Lina took out a piece of chalk from somewhere on her body and proceeded to chalk up the room, drawing sigils and signs, circles and squares and triangles on the floor. All from memory. She had memorized the entire spell.
The center of the room now contained the small mirror placed in the center of a white incantation circle. It was an amplification diagram and would help in making sure that Lina had enough energy to complete the spell. Off to one side, Zelgadis sat on the floor, his feet crossed and his eyes closed as he rested. Lina rested in the incantation circle at one of the corners of the five pointed star. She turned on her amplification amulets on and slowly began the incantation.
Only a few minutes were needed for the Soul Mirror to become the Mirror of Reality. Upgrading the mirror was the easy part. The manuscripts that they had looked at had made it seem a lot harder than it really was, thought Lina as she looked up with a gentle smile. She then threw a piece of chalk at Amelia.
"Draw out another glyph for Zelgadis, will you? I'm not leaving the circle for now." she said with a wry smile. Amelia glowed as she caught the chalk thrown to her. She hurriedly drew out the next circle exactly opposite to where Lina was sitting. This way, the three were all lined up: Lina, the mirror in the center, and now Zelgadis. The mirror had been placed in such a way that the reflecting surface would face Zelgadis.
"You can look into it now, Zelgadis, but you won't actually see anything yet because it's not activated yet." said Lina. "It's like my talismans. They won't amplify power until I turn them on." Zelgadis had nodded and had stared at the cool and strangely gold face of the mirror.
"Ready, everyone?" asked Lina to the room at large.
'Let this work, please let this work...' thought Amelia as she stood in an auxiliary circle that was away from the main circle to provide back up should it be needed.
'Human... I'm finally going to become human...' thought Zelgadis as he felt the power lines moving around them and finally concentrating on him.
'Just hang in there, Inverse. No more after this. You're not touching Nightmare magic ever again...' thought Lina as she poured herself into manipulating the magic flows to not only turn on the mirror itself, but to provide her energy and power to change Zelgadis's chimeric form.
There was no actual incantation for the spell. There was no ballad, no sonnet, no excerpt of blank verse that accompanied the spell. The room was silent as all the viewers only saw Lina the glowing of the lines of chalk, as if fire had started one line and was now running through the rest of the marks, giving forth it's golden glow.
"Is Lina asleep?" asked Gourry to Sylphiel as he watched Lina sitting crosslegged in her circle, her face oddly calm and worry free. Usually, when Lina cast lots of magic, she had on a violent face, full of strength and spirit that seemed to shout. Now, she was just quiet.
"No, Gourry-dear," said Sylphiel softly. Amelia had turned to look at them and had put a finger to her lips getting accross quite clearly that they were to remain as silent as possible. "Miss Lina is concentrating on magic. So that Zelgadis can become human." She tried to speak as clearly as possible so that Gourry wouldn't be confused any more and that way, not ask questions.
They settled down to watch the show... for better of for worse, here went the spell.
Fin Chapter 2
Author's notes....
Eh... sorry about the really looooooooong delay. Bet you all thought I was dead, eh??? xD Well, this was gonna be only 2 parts, and then I realized, by the time I got to writing this again) that there was a bit more I needed to write before ending... xD
So... it's gonna be three parts long... xD
Hope you enjoyed it and that it was worth the wait. If not... eh.. I'll try better for chapter 3, eh? As it is... chapter 3 is like... 1/6 done. Or something like that. xD
Jru