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Now that I have my computer back, it's easier to do updates and writing in my spare time, so hopefully new chapters will come with more frequency.
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And of course, this being a Sylphiel fic, The Give Sylphiel A Chance Foundation at www.sylphiel.org
Faces: Finale! Chapter 4 Dreams and Nightmares
"Sylphiel."
She opened her eyes slowly to find that she was lying on soft grass interspersed with purple flowers. Looking up, she could see familiar trees and a granite wall just beyond them.
She was on Zarak Tor again; on the Holy Mountain.
There was a faint, white haze surrounding everything.
"I'm dreaming," she whispered in realization.
"Yes, you are."
She turned her head and nearly burst into tears.
Zelgadis, fully human and beautiful, knelt beside her. "This is a dream," he told her softly.
The priestess rose to her knees and wrapped her arms around him desperately. "Oh, Zelgadis dear!" she cried into his tunic, tears wetting the tan fabric. "Zelgadis dear!"
She felt him cup her chin in his hand and gently lift her tear-filled eyes up so that he could look at her.
"You can't give up," he told her softly.
Sylphiel shook her head in despair. "I can't fight him, Zelgadis dear. He's too strong."
"You have to!" he told her more urgently. "HE needs you! HE needs you to protect him from Shabranigdo!" He took her by the arms and rose to his feet. "Stand up, Sylphiel," he ordered. "STAND UP!"
She found herself on her feet, being held by him.
"You HAVE to fight," he told her. His hand traveled down to her belly. "Because if you don't.HE.will never be."
A sob stuck in her throat fought to make itself known. "I miss you so much," she whispered.
"I love you, Sylphiel," he whispered, pulling her into an embrace. The shrine maiden closed her eyes and hugged back. Opening her eyes again a moment later, she found he was gone.
Looking around frantically, she finally caught sight of him walking into the cave's entrance.
"Zelgadis dear!" she cried, chasing after him as the last piece of his tan cloak disappeared into the cave. Entering the cave, she saw his sillouhette at the other end. "Zelgadis dear! Come back!"
From the other end of the cave, he spoke.
"Stand up, Sylphiel," he said as his sillouhette faded away. "It's up to you now."
"ZELGADIS DEAR!"
The white haze swept over her eyes again.
Sylphiel opened her eyes again only to find the bars of the dark bird cage staring back at her. It had only been a dream.
No, not a dream.
A vision.
A message from Zelgadis dear.
She stood up and glared hatefully through the bars. The small pinprick of light that was her companion floated next to her.
"There's got to be some way," she told it firmly. "And we're going to find it."
Greysword opened her eyes to find a strange ceiling staring back at her. Reflexively, her hand went to her head to try to ward off the awful headache she was having, but she found that she was paralyzed. Looking up, she found her hands were tied securely to the headboard of the bed she was lying in. Looking down again, she saw Shadow Lina looking at her worriedly.
The swordswoman grit her teeth. "You just fucking killed yourself," she hissed at the redhead.
Shadow Lina squeaked and began to bite her nails in fright. "We.We don't want to hurt you," she tried explaining.
Greysword went back to staring at the ceiling. "So now what?" she asked.
"We just want to know what's going on," Shadow Lina told her. "Why do you want to hurt Miss Naga's friends?"
She didn't answer.
Shadow Lina puffed herself up..or at least tried to. "We.We have ways of making you talk!" she said, trying to sound as malicious as possible. Greysword nearly laughed. The shadow ignored her. "Isn't that right, MISTRESS DOOM?!"
The door was suddenly kicked open, and a scantily clad woman in a black leather bikini, black cape, and black leather mask entered. She held a whip in one hand and a branding iron in the other.
The bound mercenary didn't bat an eye. "Hi, Naga."
Mistress Doom and Shadow Lina stood there for a moment, taken aback. The shadow turned to Mistress Doom. "How'd she know that was you, Miss Naga?"
Naga sighed and took the mask off. "Just tell us what you have against Stony and the others," she said in exasperation.
Greysword looked straight into Naga's eyes, her own burning in hatred. "None of your fucking business."
"Is Mister Zelgadis really your brother?" Shadow Lina asked.
Greysword said nothing.
Naga nodded. "Fine. We'll ask Stony." With that, she turned and left the room.
Lina opened her eyes to find a familiar ceiling staring back at her. She was back in her room, lying on her bed. Sniffing experimentally, she smelled frying bacon being cooked not far away. She turned her head.
Gourry, wearing a blue apron, was standing in front of the stove. As if with some sixth sense, he seemed to notice she was awake and turned to her, offering her a gentle smile.
"You're up," he declared. He picked up a plate from the counter and approached her. "I made you some breakfast."
She stared down at the plate, but made no effort to attack it. Instead, she asked a question. "What.what kind of thing could do that to a human being?" she whispered.
Gourry bit his lip in thought. "I don't know," he told her quietly.
The sorcery genius said nothing for a moment. Then, "I'm going to kill it."
She said it in the same tone she might use when announcing what she was having for lunch that day. Matter of factly.
"Lina," Gourry began.
"Gourry," she said softly. "Don't get in my way." She looked into his eyes, and he could see hatred burning in hers. "Don't get in my way," she whispered again.
Little Stevanya closed one eye in an attempt to get a better view of the eye of the hook she was trying desperately to fit with a fishing line. She growled softly as her latest attempt to string the hook met with failure.
Finally, with a pout, she tossed the fishing rod, hook, line and sinker to the ground. She folded her arms over her chest and 'hmmph'd. "It's stupid, anyway!" she announced.
She heard laughter beside her and turned, ready to retort. "Well it is!" she told him loudly.
"You just need practice," her older brother told her. "Here." He picked up the rod and expertly threaded the hook, tying it in a good knot before handing it back to her.
She stared down at the rod for a few moments, then back up to her brother.
"Zel," she began. "What do you wanna do when you grow up?"
Zelgadis Greywords cast his fishing line into the stream and shrugged. "I dunno. Maybe I'll go to Atlas and be a sorcerer."
"That'd be neat!" she told him. "I think I'm.um..I'm gonna." She thought hard for a few moments. "I'll be a sorcerer too!" she announced.
"Ya gotta have a BRAIN first," he teased.
"I'm smarter than YOU, dummy!" she fired back.
Before Zelgadis could reply, someone reached over his shoulder and snagged his fishing pole from his hands. "Hey!"
Darsk Landtree held the pole over the boy's head and laughed. "Hey, wuss. Catch anything?"
"Give it back, Darsk!" Zelgadis demanded. "Or I'll."
"Or you'll what, huh?" Darsk asked, giving him a shove. "Come on, wuss. Or what?"
Zelgadis balled his hands into fists and took a swing at the larger boy. Darsk responded by jumping on him and punching wildly.
"ZEL!" Stevanya started slapping Darsk as hard as she could, but the older boy pushed her away.
Finally, Darsk had his fill and stood up, leaving the bleeding Zelgadis on the ground, holding his stomach.
"See you later, wuss," the bully laughed as he walked off, breaking the fishing pole over his knee as he left.
"Zel!" Stevanya cried, running to her brother. "Are you okay?"
Zelgadis didn't reply. He was muttering something through his tears and pain-clenched teeth.
"Strong," he whispered. "I have to become strong."
Greysword stared up at the ceiling as the memory came back to her. It was at that moment she had decided. Her brother was a nice guy, but weaker than the other boys.
She had to protect him.
So from that day on, she had tried to keep him out of trouble. She didn't always succeed, but that didn't mean she could stop trying. Now he needed her protection again.
And that meant she had to kill him.
Somewhere inside that stone body, her brother was in agony. If she didn't free him, he'd spend the rest of eternity like that.
She stared up at the ceiling as a lone tear streaked down her face.
"Zel."
"So now what do we do, Miss Naga?" Jeffrey asked when the three of the remaining Flaming Heroes met in the restaurant in the ground floor of the inn.
"There's more to this than we know," Naga announced quietly. She crossed her arms over her chest and grinned in a cocky manner. "I have no choice now," she said. "I have to go to the palace and find out what's going on."
"Won't that be dangerous, Miss Naga?" Jeffrey asked. Shadow Lina only blinked in awe.
"OOOOOOOHOHOHOHOHO!!!" Naga replied, causing the other diners in the inn to look up in fright. "Have you forgotten who I am, Jeffrey!?" She hopped up onto the table and posed. "Naga the White Serpent! Master of covert operations, communications and bad relations!" She hopped back into her chair and folded her arms over her chest. "I'll be in and out of that palace before the guards even realize I was there!"
"What should we do, then?" Shadow Lina asked, nonplussed by Naga's theatrics after spending months with them.
"You two will stay here and guard Vanya," she told them.
Shadow Lina turned pale. "But.But she said she'd killed us!"
"OOOOOHOHOHOHOHO!! She can't kill you if she's tied up, dear!"
Jeffrey raised a finger. "But.um.won't she eventually have to go to the bathroom?"
Naga waved such problems aside. "I'm sure you'll figure something out. Just don't let her escape, understood?"
The two Flaming Heroes nodded.
"Good!"
"We're gonna die," Shadow Lina squeaked quietly.
Gourry watched as Lina's chest rose and fell with each breath as she slept. She had spent all day in bed, sometimes crying, sometimes sleeping, sometimes a haunting mixture of both as her grief for her friend followed her into her dreams.
It didn't add up for Gourry. That wasn't unusual. Things rarely did for the swordsman. But this was different. When something didn't make sense to him, it usually made sense for Lina. Only this time, it didn't make sense to her either. That meant something was trying really hard not to make sense.
Did that make sense?
Before he could try deciphering this puzzle any further, he paused. His head jerked to the left, towards the door. He heard footsteps rushing off and ran forward, opening the heavy oak door and looking outside.
He saw a familiar shadow starting up the steps to an adjacent tower.
Suddenly, things were starting to make sense again. Picking up his sword from its resting place near the door, Gourry started off in pursuit.
Naga's Raywing spell allowed her to float right over the heads of the palace guards in the courtyard. Silently, she somersaulted in the air and landed on the windowsill of one of the tall, stately towers that ringed the palace proper.
She stood there for a few minutes, her black cape flapping in the night's wind. It had been more than a decade since she had left Seyruun. In some ways, it hadn't changed at all.
Well.except for the large lake at the west end of town, but aside from that.
She was broken from her reverie by movement from the top of the north tower. Squinting, she could just make out a head full of purple hair.
"Sylphiel," she whispered.
Finally, she'd get some answers.
Gourry climbed the steps until he reached the door to the tower roof. Sylphiel hadn't passed him in the narrow staircase on the way down, which meant she must have gone through this door. That's what his instincts told him.
He drew his sword.
Among the other things his instincts were telling him.
He braced himself and took a breath.
"Three," he whispered. "Two.One." On one, he kicked the door open and rushed outside.
The wind blew noisily over an empty rooftop. Gourry's eyes tracked along the floor, moonlight aiding his search, even if only in a miniscule way. His eyes came to rest on a purple scarf fluttering near the edge of the roof.
His eyes widened as the worst possible scenario came to mind. The mercenary rushed forward, and looked over the edge.
Nothing.
Behind him, a silent figure floated to rest at the doorway. Reaching behind her, she slammed the door shut.
The noise caused him to turn, and before he could make a sound, the woman raised her hand, and a gust of wind struck him full in the chest.
Gourry cried out as he fell backward over the edge.
"GOURRY!"
Sylphiel grabbed hold of the bars as she screamed, watching a Diem Win spell from her own hand slam into her friend.
She went pale, but watched as her hand turned upside down, as if beckoning something. Whimpering, she saw Gourry, held aloft by a steady stream of wind, just at the edge of the roof. The mercenary was leaning too far back to correct his fall if the wind suddenly stopped.
"Let him go," she whispered.
"All right!" Shabranigdo agreed suddenly, and Sylphiel realized her mistake.
"NO! I DIDN'T MEAN IT LIKE THAT!" She covered her face with her hands and fell to her knees, sobbing. Opening her eyes again a moment later, she found Gourry still floating at the ledge.
Shabranigdo laughed at her.
Gourry growled at Sylphiel, noting for the first time her glowing red eyes. "Who are you?" he demanded. "What did you do to Sylphiel!?"
Shabranigdo, however, wasn't interested in Gourry's questions. "My, my, my.What an interesting sword you have there," he noted in Sylphiel's voice. "Where did you steal it?"
"You killed Lina's friend, didn't you?" Gourry spat back. "She found out about you, didn't she?"
The thing with Sylphiel's face smiled at him. "The best part about it was knowing how much pain it would bring HER." The grin turned evil. "As will killing you."
Gourry grit his teeth.
"Goodbye, Swordsman of Light," it said as it smiled. "See you next fall." With that, Shabranigdo waved Sylphiel's hand, and the wind holding him aloft disappeared.
Gourry cried out as he fell. Normally when this happened, Lina or Sylphiel would hold him up with a levitation spell, but it seemed that THAT wasn't going to happen anytime soon.
He grunted as someone suddenly caught him in mid-air and sighed in relief. "Thanks, Lina," he began, only to turn and find that Lina had nothing to do with it.
Shabranigdo turned away from the edge and blew on Sylphiel's well-manicured nails. "All too easy," he noted.
He turned again as Gourry suddenly appeared again, held aloft by.
"I think it's time you and me had a conversation," Naga said dangerously.
"Miss Naga!" Sylphiel cried in relief. Her companion shone brightly, expressing his own excitement.
Her friend's eyes were cold as she stared at her. Naga was actually taken aback by the sheer hatred she saw in them.
"You're not Sylphiel," Naga breathed.
"Gracia," Gourry warned. "Go."
Shabranigdo raised a hand to them.
Gourry raised his sword. "GO!"
A beam of black light shot from the shrine maiden's hand, striking the two dead on and exploding.
Lina bolted upright in bed and looked out the window. The light from the explosion was just starting to dissipate. Grabbing her cloak, she rushed out the door.
From the cloud of smoke, Naga and Gourry emerged, flying right over Shabranigdo's head. Gourry's sword still glowed from absorbing that much dark energy. Naga wasn't sure why she was still alive, but she was willing to discuss it somewhere else.
She pointed them downward and headed into the city.
Shabranigdo growled as he watched them fly off. Inside his head, he could hear Sylphiel crying out for joy.
Just as he was about to take off after them, SHE crashed through the door.
"Sylphiel!" Lina cried, bracing for an attack. "What's going on?!"
Shabranigdo let a tear fall and pointed in the direction Naga and Gourry had gone. "Miss Lina!" he cried. "She took Gourry dear!"
"ACK!" Gourry cried as Naga flew between buildings. "Put me down!"
"Not until I get some answers!" Naga fired back. She wasn't putting ANYONE down until she knew what had happened to Sylphiel.
She cried out a moment later as a flare arrow grazed her cheek and exploded against a wall in front of them.
"The hell?!" she gasped. Looking behind her, she saw two flying women in pursuit.one of them with red hair.
Lina flew beside Sylphiel after the black apparition. She couldn't make out any features on the sorceress, but it wouldn't matter what she looked like after Lina used a Dragon Slave to melt her face off.
Still, she'd have to be careful about hitting Gourry. She decided to give them a few obstacles to slow them down and pointed ahead of them.
"Freeeze..BRID!"
The ice bolt shot ahead of Gourry and his kidnapper and coalesced into a boulder of ice. The sorceress was diving to avoid it when Sylphiel cast a spell of her own.
"Flaaare.ARROW!"
The fire dart struck the ice block dead on and exploded, showering Gourry and the woman with ice shards. Lina turned on her.
"Sylphiel! What the hell are you doing!? That could've killed him!"
Sylphiel didn't reply.
Naga started to dive beneath the block of ice, ignoring Gourry's screaming, just as a flare arrow struck it.
She cried out as the ice shards hit her point blank, and screamed as some of them found her eyes.
Blinking rapidly, she tried to expel the debris from her eyes, but even as the pain left, all she could see was a dark blur. Blinking didn't help. She was flying blind!
"UP! UP! UP!" she heard Gourry scream, and reacted, pulling into a steep climb. She felt the wind change in front of her and knew they were climbing up the side of a tall building.
She heard and felt more explosions around her as other flare arrows struck the building around her. The sorceress fell the wind change and started back on her original course. She heard running footsteps and realized that Gourry was running along the rooftop. They must have only been a few feet above it.
The wind beneath her changed again, and she dived.
"LEFT! LEFT!" Gourry screamed.
She banked hard left and scraped her knee on brick and mortar.
"RIGHT! GO RIGHT!"
An explosion rocked them from the right.
"I.um.meant left."
Naga grit her teeth and continued flying.
Shabranigdo let fly two more flare arrows and growled. He wasn't going to catch them this way. Ignoring Lina's shouts to stop, he climbed high until the city was below him.
He could see Naga and Gourry flying erratically through the city. Closing his eyes, he held a hand out before him.
"Xelas." he cried. "BRID!"
A bar of light flashed into his hand.
Lina watched amazed.
"You can't do that," she whispered in bewilderment. "You don't know the Xelas Brid."
Shabranigdo reached back and threw as hard as Sylphiel's lithe frame would let him. The bar flew from his hand and shot, spinning end over end, after its targets.
The Xelas Brid tore through walls, towers and buildings after Gourry and Naga, decimating rooftops and homes in its single-minded pursuit of the target.
Gourry looked behind them and saw the bar of light coming after them.
"UP!!!" he screamed.
Naga flew suddenly up!
The bar passed below them and slammed into a tower. The building began to collapse directly into their path.
"LOW BRIDGE!" he screamed.
Naga dived and could feel the stone and concrete only feet above her as they flew narrowly below it.
"WOOOOOO!!!" Gourry screamed in triumph.
Shabranigdo watched as they emerged from the city, over the river and out of his reach.
Then he screamed.
Howled, would be a better word.
Lina flew up from below her and grabbed her arm. "Sylphiel! What is your pro."
Shabranigdo backhanded her with the force of a Dragon Slave, sending her flying through the window of a tower and out the other side, landing in a heap on a nearby roof.
Lina, covered in cuts and lacerations, weakly opened her eyes and tried to move. Her left arm felt broken and the blood from a cut on her forehead was dripping into her eye, making it hard to see.
She looked up as Sylphiel, lightning coursing up and down her body, landed right in front of her. Her eyes glowed dark red as she moved toward the sorceress.
Lina began to backpedal away.
"Kill me?" Shabranigdo quoted. "You are going to KILL me?" The woman took another step forward and lashed out, snatching Lina's foot with her hand. "Go on, MISS LINA," she said, cruelly. "I think you were saying something rather funny." With that, she whirled around and threw Lina against a nearby wall.
The redhead cried out as she heard more bones break. Looking up, she saw Sylphiel's fist falling like a hammer on top of her, sending her crashing through the floor into the building below.
Amelia spooned up a bit of soup and stared at it for several moments. Gracia had meant well by inviting her to have dinner with them, but as she looked at her sister and her fiance, all she could feel was a biting envy and sadness. She wasn't sure she'd ever have that kind of relationship with someone now, not after Zelgadis' betrayal.
The restaurant was nice. Not as grand or opulent as the palace, but well to do enough for her to dress up in a black dress and high heels. She watched as Huey and her sister flirted. Gracia was in a constant state of blushing.
Amelia went back to staring at her soup. All she wanted right now was some sort of distraction. Something that would end this mushy scene before she broke down into tears.
That's when Lina Inverse crashed through the ceiling and through their table.
Amelia's sharp reflexes had her ten feet from the table for the debris from the crash actually hit the ground. Gracia and Huey were frozen in shock in their seats.
"Miss Lina?!" Amelia cried. She saw the sorceress' body covered in blood, her arm bent in a direction Cepheid had never meant for a woman's arm to go. "MISS LINA!" She started forward to help.
Before she could it make it one step, Sylphiel was standing before her, having dropped through the hole Lina had made. Amelia stopped dead in her tracks and blinked. "Miss Sylphiel?!"
Shabranigdo didn't even register that Amelia was talking. Instead, he grabbed hold of Lina and spun around, throwing the woman against a large fish tank situated near the far wall. Glass shattered as water and sea life flooded the floor of the restaurant.
The demon watched as Lina tried to move and smiled. "And now.young sorcery genius," he said softly. "You will die."
He took a step forward and suddenly found Amelia between him and Lina.
Amelia adopted a combat pose and suddenly wished she weren't wearing high heels. "Gracia! Huey! Get Miss Lina out of here!"
The two hurried forward and pulled Lina from the floor, trying to be careful of her injuries, but also trying very hard to leave as fast as they possibly could.
Once she saw them leave, Amelia turned back to her opponent. "Miss Sylphiel," she began, puzzled but trying to sound friendly. "What's going on?"
Shabranigdo smiled and stepped forward again.
Shadow Lina sat at the foot of the bed and threw quick glances at Jeffrey, sitting at the head of the bed and reading a copy of "Swords and Swording" he found in the dresser drawer of the inn's bedroom. The shadow was blushing furiously and kept throwing glances at him while she played with the rug with her toe.
Finally, gathering a bit of courage, she sidled over a foot.
"Lord Jeffrey," she began, looking away from him. "Whatcha think'n about?"
Jeffrey turned the page in his magazine. "I can't believe they've found a way to fold the blade two hundred times!"
She slid over another foot.
"I was thinking," the shadow began again. "You know.Miss Naga probably won't be back till late."
"I mean, Jeez!" Jeffrey remarked, looking at the pictures in the magazine. "And that handle is so freaking awesome!"
"And.you know. You're mom kinda said it was okay that we were together." she continued, not paying any mind to what Jeffrey was saying as she slid another foot.
"Hmmmm." Jeffrey remarked. "Graphite whet stones."
"I just.I was wondering.Maybe we could.That is.I.Um." The shadow broke off and fidgeted.
"'Cool things to say while wielding a sword,'" Jeffrey read aloud. "'Number one, 'There can be only one.''"
Shadow Lina slid closer. "Jeffrey.You wanna...snuggle?"
Jeffrey looked at her. "Snuggle?" He cried out suddenly as the shadow tackled him and began a round of aggressive snuggling.
That's when Naga and Gourry crashed through the ceiling.
Gourry stood up and shook the drywall from his hair while Naga slowly got to her feet, blinking her eyes. The swordsman looked at the bed and saw Lina..in the arms of a young man.some scrawny, little, pasty-faced, girlfriend-stealing PUNK!
"Hey!" he cried. "What do you think you're doing with Lina?!"
"Um.Snuggling?" Jeffrey replied.
(Wrong answer,) Gourry thought. Just then, Chibi Sylphiel appeared on his head.
"Now Gourry dear," she began. "I'm sure there's a perfectly logical explanation for this. Just give him a chance."
"Lina chan! Are you there?!" Naga called out.
"Yes, Miss Lina! I'm here!" Shadow Lina called back, bounding over to the sorceress. "What's wrong?"
Naga continued to blink and tried to bite back the fear she felt. "I can't see," she said simply.
Gourry, meanwhile, was still holding his sword and getting an itch to use it. "And just who do you think you are to be snuggling with Lina, huh?!" he asked, giving Chibi Sylphiel the benefit of the doubt.
"I'm her boyfriend!" Jeffrey shot back.
Gourry and Chibi Sylphiel stared at him. It was the miniature shrine maiden that spoke first.
"Okay," she said, "Frag him."
"Tonight you sleep in Hell!" Gourry quoted from his favorite magazine, lifting his sword.
"There can be only one!" Jeffrey replied, raising Razor Blade.
"You two knock it off!" Naga ordered as Shadow Lina pressed the palms of her hands into the White Serpent's eyes. The hands glowed with a healing spell that mended the woman's cut eyes, but not without some degree of pain.
The two swordsmen stared at her with confused looks. Shadow Lina only nodded in agreement and turned to Gourry. "Yes, you shouldn't antagonize Lord Jeffrey. He could best you in a fight for my honor lickity split!" Her eyes turned starry. "Why, he would rend the heavens themselves for me and slice a raindrop into two neat halves as it fell from the sky and."
"HEY!" Naga screamed. "Eyes now! Fantasy later!"
"Oh! Right!" The redhead continued her work.
"I am so confused right now," Gourry noted.
"Okay, blondie," Naga said. "What's the deal? Why was Sylphiel acting all homicidal?"
"I have no idea!" Gourry replied. "But that's not Sylphiel! She wouldn't do those things!"
"I know!" Naga bit back.
"If you hadn't been there, Gracia, I'd be a pancake right now. Thanks!"
Naga growled. "Naga," she said quietly. "My name's Naga."
Gourry blinked, even more confused now than before. "But you said earlier you were Gracia."
Shadow Lina looked back and forth between them. "Who's Gracia?"
"You know," Gourry told Lina. "Amelia's sister. You met her."
"I did?"
"Yeah!"
"I'm confused," Jeffrey admitted, lowering Razor Blade.
Naga sighed. "Gracia is my given name, but I haven't gone by that in ten years. You must have met my shadow."
"Huh?"
Naga pointed at Shadow Lina. "Like Lina chan here. She's not the Lina Inverse you know, but a shadow of her, her equal but opposite."
Gourry stared straight ahead. "...............kay."
Naga sighed. "But it does mean we have a problem." Shadow Lina took her hands away, and Naga blinked. Nodding her thanks to the shadow, the sorceress walked into the next room without a word. Curious, the others followed her. Gourry gasped at what he saw.
"You!"
Before Vanya could react, Naga was on her, resting her hands on her shoulders. "Zelgadis," she said firmly. "You're after him. Why?" Vanya was silent. "No more bullshit," Naga hissed.
Seeing Gourry there seemed to tell Vanya that it was over. Defiance left her eyes only to be replaced by sadness. "He's possessed," she said quietly. "By a Mazoku."
Gourry's brow furrowed. "Really? Since when?"
Vanya face faulted. "Whaddya mean, 'since when?!' Since he disappeared almost a decade ago!"
"Zelgadis isn't a Mazoku!" Gourry argued. "Lina always trusted him! And he helped us fight Shabranigdo and Gaav and Dark Star! And I don't think Sylphiel would go out with a demon!"
Vanya shook her head, afraid of what she was hearing. For years she had clung to one particular truth, that to free her brother she had to kill him, now.
"Vanya, listen to me very carefully," Naga told her quietly. "I met your brother a year ago, and we had ourselves a little adventure. I saw him do things that would tear at your heartstrings. I saw him give up something very important to save a lot of people."
"You're lying," she whispered. "Or mistaken."
"I SAW it!" Naga hissed. "Tell me something, Vanya. Let's say you're right, and he's a Mazoku. If so, then I've seen something NO ONE has EVER seen!" She paused. "I've seen a Mazoku FALL IN LOVE!"
Vanya continued to shake her head.
"Who told you he was a Mazoku?" Naga demanded. "Who planted this idea in your head?"
"Scarrin," Vanya whispered. "He told me all about it."
Gourry frowned. "Isn't Scarrin the guy who ambushed us? And what about Zero? He tortured me, remember?"
"That doesn't sound like the kind of things a nice guy does, Vanya," Naga said. "What did he tell you?"
The swordswoman swallowed. "He told me.that."
That's when an explosion rocked the city.
Lina's eyes opened, but instead of the afterlife, which is what she expected to see, she saw Gracia leaning over her, her eyes closed as she concentrated on a healing spell.
"Gracia?"
The priestess' eyes snapped open. "Miss Lina! You're awake! Thank Cepheid!"
"What's going on?" The redhead rose slowly to her feet. "I.I remember Sylphiel going berserk on me, and then."
"She's back at the restaurant!" Gracia informed her hurriedly. "Amelia chan is holding her at bay!"
"WHAT?!"
That's when an explosion rocked the city.
Gourry was the first outside. Looking to his right, he could see a column of red flame jutting high into the sky from somewhere within the city of Seyruun.
"Cepheid," he breathed. His jaw set firmly. "Lina!" Like a dart, the swordsman took off towards the city.
"Hey! Wait for us!" Shadow Lina cried, running after him.
"Flaming Heroes away!" Jeffrey called, drawing his sword as he ran.
Naga watched them go. She remembered the last time she had seen astral flame like that. She had been a small child at the time, and in the course of those events, her mother had taught her one final lesson, not with her words, but with her actions. She whispered that lesson now, words she lived by and made sure to always remember.
"The brave," she whispered, "Are always the first to die."
A moment later, she took off after them.
Lina, Gracia and Huey were panting by the time they turned the corner where the restaurant once stood. Where there was once a beautiful building was now only a flat plain of ash. In the center of this plane were two figures.
Sylphiel, eyes glowing red and lightning running up and down her body, stood there.
And at her feet was Amelia's broken body.
Author's Notes:
Pretty much said everything necessary in the disclaimer. Hope to have the next chapter out soon. Toodles!
Davner
Now that I have my computer back, it's easier to do updates and writing in my spare time, so hopefully new chapters will come with more frequency.
Now it's time to plug some stuff. First off, the Two Guys Fan Fic Review Site at www.cavdav.dragonsanime.com
And of course, this being a Sylphiel fic, The Give Sylphiel A Chance Foundation at www.sylphiel.org
Faces: Finale! Chapter 4 Dreams and Nightmares
"Sylphiel."
She opened her eyes slowly to find that she was lying on soft grass interspersed with purple flowers. Looking up, she could see familiar trees and a granite wall just beyond them.
She was on Zarak Tor again; on the Holy Mountain.
There was a faint, white haze surrounding everything.
"I'm dreaming," she whispered in realization.
"Yes, you are."
She turned her head and nearly burst into tears.
Zelgadis, fully human and beautiful, knelt beside her. "This is a dream," he told her softly.
The priestess rose to her knees and wrapped her arms around him desperately. "Oh, Zelgadis dear!" she cried into his tunic, tears wetting the tan fabric. "Zelgadis dear!"
She felt him cup her chin in his hand and gently lift her tear-filled eyes up so that he could look at her.
"You can't give up," he told her softly.
Sylphiel shook her head in despair. "I can't fight him, Zelgadis dear. He's too strong."
"You have to!" he told her more urgently. "HE needs you! HE needs you to protect him from Shabranigdo!" He took her by the arms and rose to his feet. "Stand up, Sylphiel," he ordered. "STAND UP!"
She found herself on her feet, being held by him.
"You HAVE to fight," he told her. His hand traveled down to her belly. "Because if you don't.HE.will never be."
A sob stuck in her throat fought to make itself known. "I miss you so much," she whispered.
"I love you, Sylphiel," he whispered, pulling her into an embrace. The shrine maiden closed her eyes and hugged back. Opening her eyes again a moment later, she found he was gone.
Looking around frantically, she finally caught sight of him walking into the cave's entrance.
"Zelgadis dear!" she cried, chasing after him as the last piece of his tan cloak disappeared into the cave. Entering the cave, she saw his sillouhette at the other end. "Zelgadis dear! Come back!"
From the other end of the cave, he spoke.
"Stand up, Sylphiel," he said as his sillouhette faded away. "It's up to you now."
"ZELGADIS DEAR!"
The white haze swept over her eyes again.
Sylphiel opened her eyes again only to find the bars of the dark bird cage staring back at her. It had only been a dream.
No, not a dream.
A vision.
A message from Zelgadis dear.
She stood up and glared hatefully through the bars. The small pinprick of light that was her companion floated next to her.
"There's got to be some way," she told it firmly. "And we're going to find it."
Greysword opened her eyes to find a strange ceiling staring back at her. Reflexively, her hand went to her head to try to ward off the awful headache she was having, but she found that she was paralyzed. Looking up, she found her hands were tied securely to the headboard of the bed she was lying in. Looking down again, she saw Shadow Lina looking at her worriedly.
The swordswoman grit her teeth. "You just fucking killed yourself," she hissed at the redhead.
Shadow Lina squeaked and began to bite her nails in fright. "We.We don't want to hurt you," she tried explaining.
Greysword went back to staring at the ceiling. "So now what?" she asked.
"We just want to know what's going on," Shadow Lina told her. "Why do you want to hurt Miss Naga's friends?"
She didn't answer.
Shadow Lina puffed herself up..or at least tried to. "We.We have ways of making you talk!" she said, trying to sound as malicious as possible. Greysword nearly laughed. The shadow ignored her. "Isn't that right, MISTRESS DOOM?!"
The door was suddenly kicked open, and a scantily clad woman in a black leather bikini, black cape, and black leather mask entered. She held a whip in one hand and a branding iron in the other.
The bound mercenary didn't bat an eye. "Hi, Naga."
Mistress Doom and Shadow Lina stood there for a moment, taken aback. The shadow turned to Mistress Doom. "How'd she know that was you, Miss Naga?"
Naga sighed and took the mask off. "Just tell us what you have against Stony and the others," she said in exasperation.
Greysword looked straight into Naga's eyes, her own burning in hatred. "None of your fucking business."
"Is Mister Zelgadis really your brother?" Shadow Lina asked.
Greysword said nothing.
Naga nodded. "Fine. We'll ask Stony." With that, she turned and left the room.
Lina opened her eyes to find a familiar ceiling staring back at her. She was back in her room, lying on her bed. Sniffing experimentally, she smelled frying bacon being cooked not far away. She turned her head.
Gourry, wearing a blue apron, was standing in front of the stove. As if with some sixth sense, he seemed to notice she was awake and turned to her, offering her a gentle smile.
"You're up," he declared. He picked up a plate from the counter and approached her. "I made you some breakfast."
She stared down at the plate, but made no effort to attack it. Instead, she asked a question. "What.what kind of thing could do that to a human being?" she whispered.
Gourry bit his lip in thought. "I don't know," he told her quietly.
The sorcery genius said nothing for a moment. Then, "I'm going to kill it."
She said it in the same tone she might use when announcing what she was having for lunch that day. Matter of factly.
"Lina," Gourry began.
"Gourry," she said softly. "Don't get in my way." She looked into his eyes, and he could see hatred burning in hers. "Don't get in my way," she whispered again.
Little Stevanya closed one eye in an attempt to get a better view of the eye of the hook she was trying desperately to fit with a fishing line. She growled softly as her latest attempt to string the hook met with failure.
Finally, with a pout, she tossed the fishing rod, hook, line and sinker to the ground. She folded her arms over her chest and 'hmmph'd. "It's stupid, anyway!" she announced.
She heard laughter beside her and turned, ready to retort. "Well it is!" she told him loudly.
"You just need practice," her older brother told her. "Here." He picked up the rod and expertly threaded the hook, tying it in a good knot before handing it back to her.
She stared down at the rod for a few moments, then back up to her brother.
"Zel," she began. "What do you wanna do when you grow up?"
Zelgadis Greywords cast his fishing line into the stream and shrugged. "I dunno. Maybe I'll go to Atlas and be a sorcerer."
"That'd be neat!" she told him. "I think I'm.um..I'm gonna." She thought hard for a few moments. "I'll be a sorcerer too!" she announced.
"Ya gotta have a BRAIN first," he teased.
"I'm smarter than YOU, dummy!" she fired back.
Before Zelgadis could reply, someone reached over his shoulder and snagged his fishing pole from his hands. "Hey!"
Darsk Landtree held the pole over the boy's head and laughed. "Hey, wuss. Catch anything?"
"Give it back, Darsk!" Zelgadis demanded. "Or I'll."
"Or you'll what, huh?" Darsk asked, giving him a shove. "Come on, wuss. Or what?"
Zelgadis balled his hands into fists and took a swing at the larger boy. Darsk responded by jumping on him and punching wildly.
"ZEL!" Stevanya started slapping Darsk as hard as she could, but the older boy pushed her away.
Finally, Darsk had his fill and stood up, leaving the bleeding Zelgadis on the ground, holding his stomach.
"See you later, wuss," the bully laughed as he walked off, breaking the fishing pole over his knee as he left.
"Zel!" Stevanya cried, running to her brother. "Are you okay?"
Zelgadis didn't reply. He was muttering something through his tears and pain-clenched teeth.
"Strong," he whispered. "I have to become strong."
Greysword stared up at the ceiling as the memory came back to her. It was at that moment she had decided. Her brother was a nice guy, but weaker than the other boys.
She had to protect him.
So from that day on, she had tried to keep him out of trouble. She didn't always succeed, but that didn't mean she could stop trying. Now he needed her protection again.
And that meant she had to kill him.
Somewhere inside that stone body, her brother was in agony. If she didn't free him, he'd spend the rest of eternity like that.
She stared up at the ceiling as a lone tear streaked down her face.
"Zel."
"So now what do we do, Miss Naga?" Jeffrey asked when the three of the remaining Flaming Heroes met in the restaurant in the ground floor of the inn.
"There's more to this than we know," Naga announced quietly. She crossed her arms over her chest and grinned in a cocky manner. "I have no choice now," she said. "I have to go to the palace and find out what's going on."
"Won't that be dangerous, Miss Naga?" Jeffrey asked. Shadow Lina only blinked in awe.
"OOOOOOOHOHOHOHOHO!!!" Naga replied, causing the other diners in the inn to look up in fright. "Have you forgotten who I am, Jeffrey!?" She hopped up onto the table and posed. "Naga the White Serpent! Master of covert operations, communications and bad relations!" She hopped back into her chair and folded her arms over her chest. "I'll be in and out of that palace before the guards even realize I was there!"
"What should we do, then?" Shadow Lina asked, nonplussed by Naga's theatrics after spending months with them.
"You two will stay here and guard Vanya," she told them.
Shadow Lina turned pale. "But.But she said she'd killed us!"
"OOOOOHOHOHOHOHO!! She can't kill you if she's tied up, dear!"
Jeffrey raised a finger. "But.um.won't she eventually have to go to the bathroom?"
Naga waved such problems aside. "I'm sure you'll figure something out. Just don't let her escape, understood?"
The two Flaming Heroes nodded.
"Good!"
"We're gonna die," Shadow Lina squeaked quietly.
Gourry watched as Lina's chest rose and fell with each breath as she slept. She had spent all day in bed, sometimes crying, sometimes sleeping, sometimes a haunting mixture of both as her grief for her friend followed her into her dreams.
It didn't add up for Gourry. That wasn't unusual. Things rarely did for the swordsman. But this was different. When something didn't make sense to him, it usually made sense for Lina. Only this time, it didn't make sense to her either. That meant something was trying really hard not to make sense.
Did that make sense?
Before he could try deciphering this puzzle any further, he paused. His head jerked to the left, towards the door. He heard footsteps rushing off and ran forward, opening the heavy oak door and looking outside.
He saw a familiar shadow starting up the steps to an adjacent tower.
Suddenly, things were starting to make sense again. Picking up his sword from its resting place near the door, Gourry started off in pursuit.
Naga's Raywing spell allowed her to float right over the heads of the palace guards in the courtyard. Silently, she somersaulted in the air and landed on the windowsill of one of the tall, stately towers that ringed the palace proper.
She stood there for a few minutes, her black cape flapping in the night's wind. It had been more than a decade since she had left Seyruun. In some ways, it hadn't changed at all.
Well.except for the large lake at the west end of town, but aside from that.
She was broken from her reverie by movement from the top of the north tower. Squinting, she could just make out a head full of purple hair.
"Sylphiel," she whispered.
Finally, she'd get some answers.
Gourry climbed the steps until he reached the door to the tower roof. Sylphiel hadn't passed him in the narrow staircase on the way down, which meant she must have gone through this door. That's what his instincts told him.
He drew his sword.
Among the other things his instincts were telling him.
He braced himself and took a breath.
"Three," he whispered. "Two.One." On one, he kicked the door open and rushed outside.
The wind blew noisily over an empty rooftop. Gourry's eyes tracked along the floor, moonlight aiding his search, even if only in a miniscule way. His eyes came to rest on a purple scarf fluttering near the edge of the roof.
His eyes widened as the worst possible scenario came to mind. The mercenary rushed forward, and looked over the edge.
Nothing.
Behind him, a silent figure floated to rest at the doorway. Reaching behind her, she slammed the door shut.
The noise caused him to turn, and before he could make a sound, the woman raised her hand, and a gust of wind struck him full in the chest.
Gourry cried out as he fell backward over the edge.
"GOURRY!"
Sylphiel grabbed hold of the bars as she screamed, watching a Diem Win spell from her own hand slam into her friend.
She went pale, but watched as her hand turned upside down, as if beckoning something. Whimpering, she saw Gourry, held aloft by a steady stream of wind, just at the edge of the roof. The mercenary was leaning too far back to correct his fall if the wind suddenly stopped.
"Let him go," she whispered.
"All right!" Shabranigdo agreed suddenly, and Sylphiel realized her mistake.
"NO! I DIDN'T MEAN IT LIKE THAT!" She covered her face with her hands and fell to her knees, sobbing. Opening her eyes again a moment later, she found Gourry still floating at the ledge.
Shabranigdo laughed at her.
Gourry growled at Sylphiel, noting for the first time her glowing red eyes. "Who are you?" he demanded. "What did you do to Sylphiel!?"
Shabranigdo, however, wasn't interested in Gourry's questions. "My, my, my.What an interesting sword you have there," he noted in Sylphiel's voice. "Where did you steal it?"
"You killed Lina's friend, didn't you?" Gourry spat back. "She found out about you, didn't she?"
The thing with Sylphiel's face smiled at him. "The best part about it was knowing how much pain it would bring HER." The grin turned evil. "As will killing you."
Gourry grit his teeth.
"Goodbye, Swordsman of Light," it said as it smiled. "See you next fall." With that, Shabranigdo waved Sylphiel's hand, and the wind holding him aloft disappeared.
Gourry cried out as he fell. Normally when this happened, Lina or Sylphiel would hold him up with a levitation spell, but it seemed that THAT wasn't going to happen anytime soon.
He grunted as someone suddenly caught him in mid-air and sighed in relief. "Thanks, Lina," he began, only to turn and find that Lina had nothing to do with it.
Shabranigdo turned away from the edge and blew on Sylphiel's well-manicured nails. "All too easy," he noted.
He turned again as Gourry suddenly appeared again, held aloft by.
"I think it's time you and me had a conversation," Naga said dangerously.
"Miss Naga!" Sylphiel cried in relief. Her companion shone brightly, expressing his own excitement.
Her friend's eyes were cold as she stared at her. Naga was actually taken aback by the sheer hatred she saw in them.
"You're not Sylphiel," Naga breathed.
"Gracia," Gourry warned. "Go."
Shabranigdo raised a hand to them.
Gourry raised his sword. "GO!"
A beam of black light shot from the shrine maiden's hand, striking the two dead on and exploding.
Lina bolted upright in bed and looked out the window. The light from the explosion was just starting to dissipate. Grabbing her cloak, she rushed out the door.
From the cloud of smoke, Naga and Gourry emerged, flying right over Shabranigdo's head. Gourry's sword still glowed from absorbing that much dark energy. Naga wasn't sure why she was still alive, but she was willing to discuss it somewhere else.
She pointed them downward and headed into the city.
Shabranigdo growled as he watched them fly off. Inside his head, he could hear Sylphiel crying out for joy.
Just as he was about to take off after them, SHE crashed through the door.
"Sylphiel!" Lina cried, bracing for an attack. "What's going on?!"
Shabranigdo let a tear fall and pointed in the direction Naga and Gourry had gone. "Miss Lina!" he cried. "She took Gourry dear!"
"ACK!" Gourry cried as Naga flew between buildings. "Put me down!"
"Not until I get some answers!" Naga fired back. She wasn't putting ANYONE down until she knew what had happened to Sylphiel.
She cried out a moment later as a flare arrow grazed her cheek and exploded against a wall in front of them.
"The hell?!" she gasped. Looking behind her, she saw two flying women in pursuit.one of them with red hair.
Lina flew beside Sylphiel after the black apparition. She couldn't make out any features on the sorceress, but it wouldn't matter what she looked like after Lina used a Dragon Slave to melt her face off.
Still, she'd have to be careful about hitting Gourry. She decided to give them a few obstacles to slow them down and pointed ahead of them.
"Freeeze..BRID!"
The ice bolt shot ahead of Gourry and his kidnapper and coalesced into a boulder of ice. The sorceress was diving to avoid it when Sylphiel cast a spell of her own.
"Flaaare.ARROW!"
The fire dart struck the ice block dead on and exploded, showering Gourry and the woman with ice shards. Lina turned on her.
"Sylphiel! What the hell are you doing!? That could've killed him!"
Sylphiel didn't reply.
Naga started to dive beneath the block of ice, ignoring Gourry's screaming, just as a flare arrow struck it.
She cried out as the ice shards hit her point blank, and screamed as some of them found her eyes.
Blinking rapidly, she tried to expel the debris from her eyes, but even as the pain left, all she could see was a dark blur. Blinking didn't help. She was flying blind!
"UP! UP! UP!" she heard Gourry scream, and reacted, pulling into a steep climb. She felt the wind change in front of her and knew they were climbing up the side of a tall building.
She heard and felt more explosions around her as other flare arrows struck the building around her. The sorceress fell the wind change and started back on her original course. She heard running footsteps and realized that Gourry was running along the rooftop. They must have only been a few feet above it.
The wind beneath her changed again, and she dived.
"LEFT! LEFT!" Gourry screamed.
She banked hard left and scraped her knee on brick and mortar.
"RIGHT! GO RIGHT!"
An explosion rocked them from the right.
"I.um.meant left."
Naga grit her teeth and continued flying.
Shabranigdo let fly two more flare arrows and growled. He wasn't going to catch them this way. Ignoring Lina's shouts to stop, he climbed high until the city was below him.
He could see Naga and Gourry flying erratically through the city. Closing his eyes, he held a hand out before him.
"Xelas." he cried. "BRID!"
A bar of light flashed into his hand.
Lina watched amazed.
"You can't do that," she whispered in bewilderment. "You don't know the Xelas Brid."
Shabranigdo reached back and threw as hard as Sylphiel's lithe frame would let him. The bar flew from his hand and shot, spinning end over end, after its targets.
The Xelas Brid tore through walls, towers and buildings after Gourry and Naga, decimating rooftops and homes in its single-minded pursuit of the target.
Gourry looked behind them and saw the bar of light coming after them.
"UP!!!" he screamed.
Naga flew suddenly up!
The bar passed below them and slammed into a tower. The building began to collapse directly into their path.
"LOW BRIDGE!" he screamed.
Naga dived and could feel the stone and concrete only feet above her as they flew narrowly below it.
"WOOOOOO!!!" Gourry screamed in triumph.
Shabranigdo watched as they emerged from the city, over the river and out of his reach.
Then he screamed.
Howled, would be a better word.
Lina flew up from below her and grabbed her arm. "Sylphiel! What is your pro."
Shabranigdo backhanded her with the force of a Dragon Slave, sending her flying through the window of a tower and out the other side, landing in a heap on a nearby roof.
Lina, covered in cuts and lacerations, weakly opened her eyes and tried to move. Her left arm felt broken and the blood from a cut on her forehead was dripping into her eye, making it hard to see.
She looked up as Sylphiel, lightning coursing up and down her body, landed right in front of her. Her eyes glowed dark red as she moved toward the sorceress.
Lina began to backpedal away.
"Kill me?" Shabranigdo quoted. "You are going to KILL me?" The woman took another step forward and lashed out, snatching Lina's foot with her hand. "Go on, MISS LINA," she said, cruelly. "I think you were saying something rather funny." With that, she whirled around and threw Lina against a nearby wall.
The redhead cried out as she heard more bones break. Looking up, she saw Sylphiel's fist falling like a hammer on top of her, sending her crashing through the floor into the building below.
Amelia spooned up a bit of soup and stared at it for several moments. Gracia had meant well by inviting her to have dinner with them, but as she looked at her sister and her fiance, all she could feel was a biting envy and sadness. She wasn't sure she'd ever have that kind of relationship with someone now, not after Zelgadis' betrayal.
The restaurant was nice. Not as grand or opulent as the palace, but well to do enough for her to dress up in a black dress and high heels. She watched as Huey and her sister flirted. Gracia was in a constant state of blushing.
Amelia went back to staring at her soup. All she wanted right now was some sort of distraction. Something that would end this mushy scene before she broke down into tears.
That's when Lina Inverse crashed through the ceiling and through their table.
Amelia's sharp reflexes had her ten feet from the table for the debris from the crash actually hit the ground. Gracia and Huey were frozen in shock in their seats.
"Miss Lina?!" Amelia cried. She saw the sorceress' body covered in blood, her arm bent in a direction Cepheid had never meant for a woman's arm to go. "MISS LINA!" She started forward to help.
Before she could it make it one step, Sylphiel was standing before her, having dropped through the hole Lina had made. Amelia stopped dead in her tracks and blinked. "Miss Sylphiel?!"
Shabranigdo didn't even register that Amelia was talking. Instead, he grabbed hold of Lina and spun around, throwing the woman against a large fish tank situated near the far wall. Glass shattered as water and sea life flooded the floor of the restaurant.
The demon watched as Lina tried to move and smiled. "And now.young sorcery genius," he said softly. "You will die."
He took a step forward and suddenly found Amelia between him and Lina.
Amelia adopted a combat pose and suddenly wished she weren't wearing high heels. "Gracia! Huey! Get Miss Lina out of here!"
The two hurried forward and pulled Lina from the floor, trying to be careful of her injuries, but also trying very hard to leave as fast as they possibly could.
Once she saw them leave, Amelia turned back to her opponent. "Miss Sylphiel," she began, puzzled but trying to sound friendly. "What's going on?"
Shabranigdo smiled and stepped forward again.
Shadow Lina sat at the foot of the bed and threw quick glances at Jeffrey, sitting at the head of the bed and reading a copy of "Swords and Swording" he found in the dresser drawer of the inn's bedroom. The shadow was blushing furiously and kept throwing glances at him while she played with the rug with her toe.
Finally, gathering a bit of courage, she sidled over a foot.
"Lord Jeffrey," she began, looking away from him. "Whatcha think'n about?"
Jeffrey turned the page in his magazine. "I can't believe they've found a way to fold the blade two hundred times!"
She slid over another foot.
"I was thinking," the shadow began again. "You know.Miss Naga probably won't be back till late."
"I mean, Jeez!" Jeffrey remarked, looking at the pictures in the magazine. "And that handle is so freaking awesome!"
"And.you know. You're mom kinda said it was okay that we were together." she continued, not paying any mind to what Jeffrey was saying as she slid another foot.
"Hmmmm." Jeffrey remarked. "Graphite whet stones."
"I just.I was wondering.Maybe we could.That is.I.Um." The shadow broke off and fidgeted.
"'Cool things to say while wielding a sword,'" Jeffrey read aloud. "'Number one, 'There can be only one.''"
Shadow Lina slid closer. "Jeffrey.You wanna...snuggle?"
Jeffrey looked at her. "Snuggle?" He cried out suddenly as the shadow tackled him and began a round of aggressive snuggling.
That's when Naga and Gourry crashed through the ceiling.
Gourry stood up and shook the drywall from his hair while Naga slowly got to her feet, blinking her eyes. The swordsman looked at the bed and saw Lina..in the arms of a young man.some scrawny, little, pasty-faced, girlfriend-stealing PUNK!
"Hey!" he cried. "What do you think you're doing with Lina?!"
"Um.Snuggling?" Jeffrey replied.
(Wrong answer,) Gourry thought. Just then, Chibi Sylphiel appeared on his head.
"Now Gourry dear," she began. "I'm sure there's a perfectly logical explanation for this. Just give him a chance."
"Lina chan! Are you there?!" Naga called out.
"Yes, Miss Lina! I'm here!" Shadow Lina called back, bounding over to the sorceress. "What's wrong?"
Naga continued to blink and tried to bite back the fear she felt. "I can't see," she said simply.
Gourry, meanwhile, was still holding his sword and getting an itch to use it. "And just who do you think you are to be snuggling with Lina, huh?!" he asked, giving Chibi Sylphiel the benefit of the doubt.
"I'm her boyfriend!" Jeffrey shot back.
Gourry and Chibi Sylphiel stared at him. It was the miniature shrine maiden that spoke first.
"Okay," she said, "Frag him."
"Tonight you sleep in Hell!" Gourry quoted from his favorite magazine, lifting his sword.
"There can be only one!" Jeffrey replied, raising Razor Blade.
"You two knock it off!" Naga ordered as Shadow Lina pressed the palms of her hands into the White Serpent's eyes. The hands glowed with a healing spell that mended the woman's cut eyes, but not without some degree of pain.
The two swordsmen stared at her with confused looks. Shadow Lina only nodded in agreement and turned to Gourry. "Yes, you shouldn't antagonize Lord Jeffrey. He could best you in a fight for my honor lickity split!" Her eyes turned starry. "Why, he would rend the heavens themselves for me and slice a raindrop into two neat halves as it fell from the sky and."
"HEY!" Naga screamed. "Eyes now! Fantasy later!"
"Oh! Right!" The redhead continued her work.
"I am so confused right now," Gourry noted.
"Okay, blondie," Naga said. "What's the deal? Why was Sylphiel acting all homicidal?"
"I have no idea!" Gourry replied. "But that's not Sylphiel! She wouldn't do those things!"
"I know!" Naga bit back.
"If you hadn't been there, Gracia, I'd be a pancake right now. Thanks!"
Naga growled. "Naga," she said quietly. "My name's Naga."
Gourry blinked, even more confused now than before. "But you said earlier you were Gracia."
Shadow Lina looked back and forth between them. "Who's Gracia?"
"You know," Gourry told Lina. "Amelia's sister. You met her."
"I did?"
"Yeah!"
"I'm confused," Jeffrey admitted, lowering Razor Blade.
Naga sighed. "Gracia is my given name, but I haven't gone by that in ten years. You must have met my shadow."
"Huh?"
Naga pointed at Shadow Lina. "Like Lina chan here. She's not the Lina Inverse you know, but a shadow of her, her equal but opposite."
Gourry stared straight ahead. "...............kay."
Naga sighed. "But it does mean we have a problem." Shadow Lina took her hands away, and Naga blinked. Nodding her thanks to the shadow, the sorceress walked into the next room without a word. Curious, the others followed her. Gourry gasped at what he saw.
"You!"
Before Vanya could react, Naga was on her, resting her hands on her shoulders. "Zelgadis," she said firmly. "You're after him. Why?" Vanya was silent. "No more bullshit," Naga hissed.
Seeing Gourry there seemed to tell Vanya that it was over. Defiance left her eyes only to be replaced by sadness. "He's possessed," she said quietly. "By a Mazoku."
Gourry's brow furrowed. "Really? Since when?"
Vanya face faulted. "Whaddya mean, 'since when?!' Since he disappeared almost a decade ago!"
"Zelgadis isn't a Mazoku!" Gourry argued. "Lina always trusted him! And he helped us fight Shabranigdo and Gaav and Dark Star! And I don't think Sylphiel would go out with a demon!"
Vanya shook her head, afraid of what she was hearing. For years she had clung to one particular truth, that to free her brother she had to kill him, now.
"Vanya, listen to me very carefully," Naga told her quietly. "I met your brother a year ago, and we had ourselves a little adventure. I saw him do things that would tear at your heartstrings. I saw him give up something very important to save a lot of people."
"You're lying," she whispered. "Or mistaken."
"I SAW it!" Naga hissed. "Tell me something, Vanya. Let's say you're right, and he's a Mazoku. If so, then I've seen something NO ONE has EVER seen!" She paused. "I've seen a Mazoku FALL IN LOVE!"
Vanya continued to shake her head.
"Who told you he was a Mazoku?" Naga demanded. "Who planted this idea in your head?"
"Scarrin," Vanya whispered. "He told me all about it."
Gourry frowned. "Isn't Scarrin the guy who ambushed us? And what about Zero? He tortured me, remember?"
"That doesn't sound like the kind of things a nice guy does, Vanya," Naga said. "What did he tell you?"
The swordswoman swallowed. "He told me.that."
That's when an explosion rocked the city.
Lina's eyes opened, but instead of the afterlife, which is what she expected to see, she saw Gracia leaning over her, her eyes closed as she concentrated on a healing spell.
"Gracia?"
The priestess' eyes snapped open. "Miss Lina! You're awake! Thank Cepheid!"
"What's going on?" The redhead rose slowly to her feet. "I.I remember Sylphiel going berserk on me, and then."
"She's back at the restaurant!" Gracia informed her hurriedly. "Amelia chan is holding her at bay!"
"WHAT?!"
That's when an explosion rocked the city.
Gourry was the first outside. Looking to his right, he could see a column of red flame jutting high into the sky from somewhere within the city of Seyruun.
"Cepheid," he breathed. His jaw set firmly. "Lina!" Like a dart, the swordsman took off towards the city.
"Hey! Wait for us!" Shadow Lina cried, running after him.
"Flaming Heroes away!" Jeffrey called, drawing his sword as he ran.
Naga watched them go. She remembered the last time she had seen astral flame like that. She had been a small child at the time, and in the course of those events, her mother had taught her one final lesson, not with her words, but with her actions. She whispered that lesson now, words she lived by and made sure to always remember.
"The brave," she whispered, "Are always the first to die."
A moment later, she took off after them.
Lina, Gracia and Huey were panting by the time they turned the corner where the restaurant once stood. Where there was once a beautiful building was now only a flat plain of ash. In the center of this plane were two figures.
Sylphiel, eyes glowing red and lightning running up and down her body, stood there.
And at her feet was Amelia's broken body.
Author's Notes:
Pretty much said everything necessary in the disclaimer. Hope to have the next chapter out soon. Toodles!
Davner
