One day late. Not so bad. E-mail change is complete! Sorry again if I missed you! As always, thanks for the reviews!

Gerao-A - Sorry, Air Jay, didn't know you when I was writing it. ;)p Here's your fight, guys!
Seygram 13 - That's very clever. I hadn't actually thought of it. Although Amedyn hasn't entirely thought that far ahead. She's also following Dynast's plan. ;) Gourry eventually gets through to Lina, it just takes a while. As for Zel, you'll find out now. And is Sherra's sword a Mazoku itself? I didn't know that. I was familiar with the rhetoric that it turned humans into lesser demons, but I didn't know about that. Huh. Thanks for all the interest you've taken in my story!
Klutz82 - And boom! hugs You're so great, you know that?
Hoshi-chan1- Hopefully this will be worth the anticipation! I hope I didn't miss you on e-mail!

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Part XIII - Figurelo Fuera (Figure It Out)

"These precious things
Let them bleed
Let them wash away...
Let them break their hold on me..."
- "Precious Things", Tori Amos

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A Ray-Wing carried them to the ground underneath the castle. From there, Gourry latched onto Lina's waist as she and Zel each cast levitation and slowly made their way up the castle, looking for an entrance.

"You know what this reminds me of?"she asked as casually as she could, never taking her eyes from the black ice before them. "When we were in Sairaag, looking for a way into Phibrizzo's temple."

"I remember that well."

"I don't. Was I there?"

"Er...sort of..." Lina reached back and tousled Gourry's hair. Now was not the time to discuss that.

Up, they went. Up and up and... dammit, there had to be some way into this thing...

"Isn't that a balcony?"

"Huh? Where?" Zel whirled towards Gourry, who, with one arm tightly squeezed around Lina's waist, pointed off to his right side with a somewhat unsteady hand.

"I think it is."Lina broke into a shaky smile. "Let's go."

They shifted paths, diagonally up and to the right, finally coming to said balcony. Dropping down on behind the railing, they stood for a moment, nodded to each other, and moved forward. And all came crashing down on top of one another.

"Ice? No fair!"

"Lina, get off my arm."

"Zel...your foot...is in a very bad place..."

"Oops, sorry..."

The next few minutes were spent untangling themselves and helping one another to regain their footing.

"Shit." Zel dug the heel of his boot into the slick flooring. "This is going to be slow going."

"Then we'd better start now." Gourry said, and made his way to the gaping doorway that led into the castle, disappearing into shadows.

His lover and friend followed after, and ran into him, knocking them all down once again.

"Wow."Lina rolled her eyes. "This sucks. Why the hell did you stop?"

"I didn't know which way to go."Gourry mumbled from under her arm. "Now would you move?"

As before, they clambered apart, and once righted, looked back and forth down the hallways.

"I say left." declared the sorceress.

Zel and Gourry exchanged a look, then started walking to the right.

"HEY! COME BACK HERE!" she scrambled after them. "What's the matter with you two?"

"I just felt better about this way, that's all." Zel shrugged. "If it doesn't get us anywhere, we'll go your way."

Lina scowled, but didn't protest. And thus they walked to the right.

And walked.

And walked.

"It would be nice if we knew where we were going." Gourry mused.

"Well, wherever it is, we have to get there sooner or later. This corridor can't go on forever."

About a hundred yards behind them, a shape appeared, moving silently after. A secretive smile broke free and lavender eyes flashed. Good for them for making it this far. Now he just needed to wait for the fight to begin.

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Amedyn crouched at the foot of the stairs that led to Dynast's throne. She was alone in the great hall; her Master had his own game plan, and Grou and Grau were in the halls just beyond, waiting for some sign from him.

She was to be the first to encounter them.

And they were so close.

Dolgofar's song had picked up within her the moment they'd arrived. The instant his cursed foot had touched the floor, she knew it. Every sense and reflex and nerve in her body had come alive and was waiting for him. Her heartbeat seemed to echo through the empty room, and her breathing was ragged in her ears. Adrenaline pounded through her with incredible force, and anticipation kept her twisting the diamond ring around her finger, the only way to keep her shaking hands from her sword.

Her whole body jerked as the sound of footsteps reached her ears.

Dynast-sama, give me strength... This is it, Zelgadis Graywords. Now you die.

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"Does this end?" Gourry sighed. "I'm tired of looking at the same walls."

"Sooner or later, we'll have to come to some kind of door." Lina said, playing with the strings of her cloak.

"Wait..."Zel held up a hand. "Do you hear that? The sounds have changed. We're coming to a large room."

Gourry took another step, then nodded.

"He's right. It's echoing more now."

"So we're close, then." Lina said thoughtfully. "Well, close to what, we don't know. But it's bound to be something."

They started walking again, and within moment, the corridor opened into a huge hall. Both men drew their swords, and Lina readied a fireball. Moving slowly and keeping close together, they moved further into the large room.

As they reached the middle, the blue torches on each of the pillars flared up suddenly, revealing the room with their ghostly light. On guard immediately, they studied their surroundings, until all eyes fell upon the empty throne and the person below it. But as they stood up, Zel was the first to realize that it wasn't a person so much as a nightmare.

"Oh my god..." Lina and Gourry inadvertently spoke together.

But Zel was speechless. There weren't words to describe the horrific sight before him.

She had become even more of a woman during her absence, filling out perfectly the oddly familiar blue coat she wore. Her step was one of confidence, of grace -she moved as if there was no such thing as ice, no chance of ever falling. Her lips were pulled back in a smile that once was defined as beautiful- now it was just frightening. For that smile set off the eyes that should have been the color of sky, but were now a sharp, clear silver-gray.

"I've been waiting for you." she said.

And the vision of blasphemy was complete when the voice that came to him was Amelia's.

This monster, this shadow, was using her voice.

This monster, this shadow...was Amelia.

She was...and she wasn't. She was everything Amelia never could have been and yet everything he knew she could have been capable of. This was her impossible evil twin... herself, as shaped by hell.

"Amelia." the word slipped out of Gourry's mouth.

She looked at him sharply, coming to a defiant stance with one hand resting on her sword.

"Amelia? I'm sorry, but you've got it all wrong. Amelia is dead. She has been for quite some time."

A shuddering gasp burst from Zel's throat, and the eyes of both Gourry and Lina snapped to him. He couldn't have been right...

The young woman who was and wasn't their friend swept her left arm across her body and made a dramatic court bow to them.

"You may call me Amedyn, the General of Dynast Grausherra. The one who will take your lives."

Lina reached over and tightly gripped Zel's shoulder, but the chimera didn't move. He was frozen to that spot, just staring... Staring as his mind processed that what he'd known had been right all along. Oh gods, she was dead. Oh gods... she was right there... His eyes locked onto hers and for one instant, he felt he might break down sobbing. Her eyes should have been blue. They should have been blue! Oh gods, look what they'd all done to her...

Amedyn's lip curled up in a smirk, and gripped Dolgofar's hilt.

Gourry noticed this, and tackled his friends with a shout, carrying them out of the path of the sword as it whistled down in the place where they'd been a second before.

"FIREBALL!" Lina cried, aiming the spell at Amedyn as they slid across the floor.

The small girl knocked the spell out of the way with her sword and her grin grew even more broad.

"I'm not concerned with you right now, Lina Inverse. I want Zelgadis Graywords."

Lina opened her mouth to retort, but it died inside her as Zel stood unsteadily, pulling off his thick cloak and dropping it to the side.

"What do you want with me?"

She laughed - formerly a sweet sound that now seemed torture to his ears.

"I want your blood to stain my sword and my clothes. I want your body torn to shreds lying before me on the ground." Still grinning, she raised her left hand and, without taking her eyes off him, kissed the diamond ring she wore on her wedding finger. "I want you to see that your Amelia is gone, and that if you want to be with her, dying under my sword is the only way."

Zel's entire body focused on that one motion she made.

The ring.

She was still wearing the ring.

Oh.

Gods.

Look what that ring had done to her. This was all started because of that damn thing. Because he had never been there, never told her. He'd let her get away, and the moment she put that ring on, everything had gone to hell.

No, it wasn't the ring.

It was him.

He'd made her into this.

L-sama...what had he done to her?

"Draw your sword, Graywords. Or will you die without a fight?"

Half his mouth moved up in a smile as she spoke. The irony was just so great. Here she was, the waking image of the Justice-loving Princess of Seyruun, holding a weapon she'd sworn never to touch, demanding his blood in death instead of his heart in life.

He didn't hear Gourry's shout, but somehow managed to get his sword out and block her attack the instant before the blade met his skull. The force of the collision drove him back, and before he could blink she was on him again, slicing, feinting, moving with speed that reminded him of Gourry turned dark and female. As she slashed again, he almost felt compelled to send a prayer of thanks to Rezo for giving him his chimera speed -without it, he would surely be dead.

Lina and Gourry were on their feet now, and the sorceress again prepared a spell.

"Lina, you can't! What if you hit Zel?"

"Do you have a better idea?"

"I-"

His answer was prevented by a stream of flying ice that erupted between them. They jumped apart, and landed facing two newcomers to the scene.

Grou pulled back from the stance wherein he'd cast the spell and stood tall next to his partner.

"I'm sorry," Grau's grin was broad. "But we really can't let you interfere."

"Dynast's priests." Lina half-smiled, placing her hands on her hips. "I was wondering if we'd get to meet you."

"Oh, we never miss a good party." Grou leaned his elbow on Grau's shoulder. "And since we didn't get to chat in Seyruun, we wanted to make sure to introduce ourselves here."

"Gourry Gabriev." Grau moved toward him, seeming to draw a sword from thin air. "My name is Grau. Your swordsmanship is of great note, and I haven't had a good fight in centuries." She held her weapon up in a salute. "Shall we?"

Gourry watched her, not quite sure what to make of this development, but after a moment, returned the salute. And then he was fighting for his life as she, like Amedyn, launched herself at him.

Lina watched them take to fighting, then rounded on Grou.

"And I assume that it'll be you and I then."

"Good call. I'm Grou, and it's a pleasure."

"The pleasure's all mine." she responded. "Now tell me, should I kill you outright, or would you like to play around for a while?"

"Don't be so cocky!" Grou pretended to scold her, then began a spell. "We'll see how this turns out. DYNAST BRAS!"

"FLARE ARROW!"

-------

"Wah! He's so creepy-looking!"

"Life is wonderful!"

Her feet barely seemed to touch the ground. She was practically flying around him, fading in and out to either side, striking at him as if she'd held a sword from the moment she was born. Silver and blue and black and the glimmer of diamond were the colors that streaked by him as he used every ounce of strength within him to hold back her vicious assault.

"In the name of Justice..."

"He can't be a villain! He's wearing white! Villains always wear black!"

She dropped back a moment, breathing hard, but aside from that, completely unscathed. Zelgadis felt blood dripping down his cheek and knew that wasn't the only mark she'd made on him. A wound on his upper arm screamed at him, and adrenaline didn't ease the pain. The sword hadn't gone into his skin deeply, but it was enough of a hurt to make his shoulder sizzle with agony as he moved. Goddamn black sword... Goddamn bastard that had given it to her.

"I'm okay...I'm...okay..."

"Zelgadis-san, when this is all over, will you come to Seyruun with me?"

This creature in front of him had her face, and her voice, but it was not her.

It could never be her.

Because Amelia would never do this to him. Amelia would never raise arms against anyone.

Amelia would never try to take apart and vanquish the few clear memories that he had left of her.

And still...still it was her. It was her in a form that made him want to cry, for what he'd done to her, for what he'd done to himself. He was fighting against his friend, his companion, the girl, no, the woman he lo-

Could he allow himself to think these things? This thing that was and wasn't her had confused him so deeply, had his mind working away and turning on itself... she would kill him if he didn't figure out what was going on.

Figure it out.

Figure it out, Zelgadis, said Gourry Gabriev.

Figure it out, Zelgadis, said Lina Inverse.

Figure it out or you and she will both hate you forever.

"Amelia."

Amedyn raised her head and snarled at him.

"Don't use that name on me. Amelia was weak, and now she's dead." A smile that screamed of hate.

Her words dug deeply into his chest, driving stinging water into his eyes, but he held it all back by swallowing hard and focusing on standing tall despite the pain in his arm.

"If she's dead, why are you wearing something that belonged to her? Why are you wearing her ring?"

Amedyn's face became angry again.

"What are you talking about? It's my ring!"

"Yes, it's your ring. Because you..." he took a deep breath. "Are Amelia."

"HOW DARE YOU!?"

"I don't care what you say."he grit his teeth and willed himself to look straight into her eyes. "You couldn't be Amedyn unless you had first been Amelia. And you are Amelia. You're a hateful nightmare of Amelia, but you're still her. I came here to get her, and I'm not leaving without her."

"You aren't leaving period!" she screamed at him, although her sword dropped a little. "I won't let you go until I've killed you for her!"

"Why?" he asked quietly.

"Why? Because she wasted so much on you! Because she used so much of that stuff that makes human pitiful and weak waiting for you. Because she is the reason I exist and you killed her."

Zel was almost afraid his teeth were going to shatter with the effort it took to hold back the wave of anguish that came over him.

"Don't you understand, Amelia?"

"STOP CALLING ME THAT NAME!"

"I never meant for this to happen... I should have said something earlier, but I didn't know, and I was afraid, and..."

"STOP TALKING AND FIGHT ME!"

"Life is wonderful."

Her large gray eyes momentarily got even wider, and then she fell to her knees, hands clamped over her ears.

"STOP! STOP STOP STOP! STOP TALKING AND FIGHT ME! FIGHT ME!"

"Amelia..."

"I'M NOT AMELIA!"

Before he could say another word, someone was standing in front of her- a handsome young man with dark hair and malicious eyes. He raised his hand, snapped his fingers, and from the corner of his eye, Zel could see the other two battles cease immediately.

Dynast looked around.

"Well, well, well. What a fine assortment of powerful people. I have to say, I'm very proud of you for making it this far. I was almost certain you'd give up back on the mainland. But that wouldn't have been very in-character of you, now would it?"

"No, it wouldn't." Lina's sassy retort came out before she even had time to think. "And I'm sure you would have been awfully disappointed if we hadn't come to visit you, huh Dynast-sama?"

"Oh, we would have crossed paths sooner or later, and I would have been willing to wait. However, for the sake of my general, I was hoping you would come sooner rather than later." He glanced down at where she knelt on the floor, hands still tight against her head. "Get up."

Slowly, her eyes opened and she raised them up to him as her hands fell away. His presence seemed to provide her with more confidence, and she stood up.

"I believe you're all familiar with one another." Dynast laid his hand on her shoulder, and Zel, watching, had to fight from running over and slapping it off. "And I thought I should inform you of a little desire you old friend has acquired. It seems she wants to kill you-"

"And I wonder who made her think that?"

In a moment, Lina was acquainted with the pain Amelia and Grau had experienced before her. She dropped to the floor with a scream, and Gourry was at her side in seconds, pulling her into his arms.

"Lina! Lina, what's wrong?"

"Please don't talk when I'm speaking to you." The Dark Lord's calm tone hadn't wavered, but he gave Lina a meaningful look before he snapped the spell off again and resumed talking. "As I was saying, Amedyn has expressed an overwhelming urge to see all of you dead. Especially our friend the chimera.

"Now before you try to interrupt me, Graywords-san, yes, I know you have no intention of being killed by her today. And I am also very aware that dealing with people such as yourselves, there is a possibility you could throw a crimp into my plans. Amedyn has proved a very useful addition to my forces, and I don't want to lose her just yet. So I am willing to make a bargain with you.

"Leave now, or stay and die."

"Not on your life." Zel found the words come without any hesitation. "I came here for Amelia, and I'm not leaving without her."

"Now, you see, I really can't let you do that. In fact it's fairly impossible. Perhaps I should say this another way." he paused, and took the silence to walk close to the shamanist. They were nearly a perfect match in height, and their eyes were directly on level with one another. "Leave, and I'll give you the thing you want most in the world."

"The...?"

"I'll give you the cure you want so badly."

The whole world outside those nine words seemed to fall away.

"My cure?"

"Don't trust him, Zel!"

"Your cure."

"ZEL!"

"If I leave...you'll give it to me?"he could hardly believe he was willing to take this bargain, but here, when the thing he'd desired for so long was suddenly so tantalizingly close...

"Leave, and it's yours. Stay for Amelia...and you'll have to kill her."

The lingering echo of his voice bounced around the room while each of the Slayers processed this information. Lina's fingers clenched tightly around Gourry's arm as both of them fixed their eyes on the chimera.

"Zel, you can't trust him!"Gourry felt his throat tighten as he spoke. "Would you leave Amelia here with him? Would you abandon her for something that might not even exist?"

Zel remained unmoved, locked eye to eye with Dynast Grausherra.

"I have the power to tell you where to find your cure. I have the knowledge and the means. All it takes is a simple word. And then it's yours."