Disclaimer: Slayers ain't mine. It belongs to Kadokawa Shoten.
Dedication: This chapter of "Faces: Finale" is dedicated to a reviewer named Banx. Happy birthday.
Faces: Finale!
Chapter 12
Splits and Splinters
Vanya opened her eyes and sniffed, detecting the smell of cooking bacon nearby. A rooster crooned from outside, and it took her less than a second to get her bearings. Rising from her sleeping roll, she took a quick look around and found light entering the barn from a window high in the barn wall.
She yawned and looked to her right. Sylphiel was knelt over their small fire, cooking bacon in a small iron pan. As if she sensed the kunoichi's eyes on her, she turned and smiled. "Good morning. Breakfast will be ready in a minute."
Vanya only nodded and stood up, walking to the nearby water barrel and dunking her head in it. She gasped as the cold water shocked her into full wakefulness. "What's on the menu?" she asked.
"Bacon and eggs," Sylphiel called back. "And some bread that wasn't soaked in the rain."
"Any hash?" Vanya inquired.
Sylphiel paused and blinked. "Hash?"
"Corned beef," the ninja elaborated. "Zel and I used to eat it all the time when we were kids. It was his favorite."
The shrine maiden said nothing for a moment. "I didn't know that."
Vanya walked over by the fire and sat down. "He really doesn't talk about himself, does he?" she asked.
Sylphiel smiled wanly. "There's so much in his past that he'd rather not remember, I think," she said, scooping the bacon up and putting it in another pan to eat. "I guess a lot of things he doesn't mind remembering just get lost in the shuffle." She offered the pan to Vanya.
The ninja took it and began to eat. "Yeah, I can see how that could happen," she admitted.
Sylphiel turned and winced as she bent to reach another pan.
"Back pain?" Vanya asked.
"Just a little," Sylphiel confessed. "I'll be okay."
"Turn around," the ninja ordered. Sylphiel blinked but obeyed, turning so that her back faced the kunoichi. She took a quick breath as she felt the woman's fingers press into her middle back. "There, right?" she asked.
"Yes," the shrine maiden replied. Vanya rubbed her back in slow circles. "How did you...."
"It was the same when Aeka, my teacher, carried her first daughter," Vanya told her as she rubbed. "It'll get worse before it gets better."
"Your teacher?"
Vanya nodded. "She taught me everything I know. She was the greatest warrior in the Order of the Royal Teardrop." She smiled, remembering. "It was so scandalous when she announced her pregnancy. The others couldn't believe it. Lady Aeka, the Violet Lily herself, brought down by a man."
"Oh?"
Another nod. "She left the Order for some pirate she happened across in her travels. I was just as shocked as anyone, but she took me aside and told me that it was inevitable, and that we all fell prey to it eventually."
"It?"
"Our 'feminine nature,' as she described it."
"Oh," Sylphiel replied.
"Afterwards, she gave me her katana and wished me luck on my quest to find my brother. I imagine she's happy where ever she decided to go. Aeka would make sure of that." She stopped rubbing. "Better?"
"Much, thank you." The shrine maiden smiled.
"Good. We have a lot of ground to cover today. Let's go."
* * *
Gourry was brushing his teeth in their hotel room when he felt arms wrap around and hold him.
"Mrrm'n, Rinan," he mumbled over the toothpaste and brush in his mouth.
"Good morning, Gourry," Lina said quietly.
Gourry spit the toothpaste into a bowl and rinsed with a cup of water. "So what's next?" he asked, not turning to her.
He heard her sigh and paused.
"Gourry, about last night...."
"Aww, shucks, Lina, you don't have to say anything," he told her with a smile.
"Yes, I do," the redhead replied, gently turning him toward her. She reached up and caressed his face with her hand. "What you said last night was very sweet."
Gourry smiled.
"And I've been thinking about it all night."
He placed his hand on hers.
"And while what you said was very sweet, I still think you're dead wrong."
"Huh?"
A second later, a surprised Gourry blacked out to the sight of Lina's fist crashing into his face. Stars exploded in his head, and as the stars winked out one by one, they were replaced by darkness.
He heard music begin to play....
Faces: Finale!
Chapter 12A
Gourry The Great Sword-Slinging Sword Guy!
//Yeah! Yeah! Oh, yeah! What condition my condition was in!//
Gourry, the Great Sword-Slinging Sword Guy, danced down a flight a stairs that seemed to start from nowhere and end at a black marble floor. He paused to snap his fingers and swing his hands in circles before dancing onward.
//I woke up this morning with the sundown shining in,//
//I found my mind in brown paper bag, but then...//
He danced and snapped his fingers up to a counter with a blacksmith's emblem on it. On the wall behind it were hundreds of swords of all shapes and sizes. Gourry's eyes went wide in wonder. The blacksmith behind the counter turned and placed a sword on the counter before him. Gourry didn't even notice the blacksmith looked exactly like Xellos, except with a blond streak in his hair. He picked up the sword..
//I tripped on a cloud and fell eight miles high...//
//I tore my mind on a jagged sky...//
New sword in hand, Gourry danced down the hall...
//I just dropped in to see what condition my condition was in!//
//Yeah! Yeah! Oh, yeah! What condition my condition was in!//
As Gourry danced, he waved his new sword in front of him. Zangulus jumped out in front of him, then quickly cowered away. Gaav jumped out from the other side, and Gourry waved his sword in the demon's direction. Gaav quickly turned and danced away.
//I pushed my soul in a deep dark hole and then I followed it in...//
//I watched myself crawling up as I was crawling in...//
He danced a little more as Sylphiel and Amelia, dressed in brown leather armor, emerged from the shadows on either side of him and crossed his path, trailing their hands across his chest as they moved. The two were followed by Vanya and Adara, also dressed in armor, who crossed his path, caressing him as they danced past him.
//I got up so tight, I couldn't unwind...//
//I saw so much, I broke my mind...//
Filia and Naga appeared on either side, planting kisses on his cheeks before allowing him to dance forward on his way.
//I just dropped in to see what condition my condition was in!//
//Yeah! Yeah! Oh, yeah! What condition my condition was in!//
The armored women were now in front of him, obscuring his vision of someone beyond them. Suddenly, they parted, revealing Lina on the other side. She wore black leather and held a whip in her hand. She crooked a finger at Gourry and beckoned.
//Someone painted "it goes on" in big black letters on a dead end sign!//
//I had my foot on the gas as I left the road and blew out my mind!//
Gourry held his sword over his head and danced forward until he was next to Lina. He lowered the sword as Lina put her arms over his head, allowing the whip to grab the back of his neck and pull him forward. She reached out and caressed his sword with her fingertips. The other women danced around them, their hands on their waists and their hips moving in unison.
//Eight miles out of Memphis and I got no spare!//
Gourry tossed his sword aside as Lina cast her whip to the ground. The two took each other by the waist and began to move their hips from side to side.
//Eight miles straight up downtown somewhere...//
The other women twirled and stopped.
//I just dropped into see what condition my condition was in!//
Gourry leaned forward for a kiss....
//I said I just dropped in to see what condition my condition was in!//
"Mister Gourry?"
Gourry's eyes snapped open. Amelia and Adara were looking down at him curiously.
"What are you doing down there?" the princess asked.
He sat bolt upright and winced as pain echoed throughout his skull. "Where's Lina?" he asked.
"We don't know," Adara replied with a shrug. "It was getting on in the morning so we came to see what was keeping you."
Gourry rubbed his jaw and looked at her strangely. "What time is it?"
"Going on ten o'clock," Amelia told him, pointing at a nearby clock as proof.
"Damn," Gourry muttered, climbing to his feet. "She has a four-hour start."
"What do you mean?" Amelia asked, blinking.
The swordsman sighed and stared out the window. The sun was peeking out from behind a few clouds. "I mean Lina is gone."
* * *
Water splashed around Naga's boot as she ran across the rain-swelled stream. Stopping briefly at the other side, she dropped to one knee and examined what she thought might be a track. With the storm last night, however, it could mean anything.
It was time to face facts.
Naga wasn't going to find Sylphiel like this.
Sighing, she stood up and started back toward their small camp. She actually smelled lunch cooking before the sounds of Shadow Lina and Jeffrey's voices reached her ears. For some reason she couldn't quite name, she stopped short of the camp and listened to their conversation.
"So what do you think this Zelgadis guy is like?" Shadow Lina asked.
She could almost see Jeffrey shrug. "I dunno. He's Miss Naga's friend. I've never met him."
"Hmmmm," the shadow replied. "Jeffrey," she asked, "Are you scared?"
"Ha! I'm never scared! Well, maybe a little..." he replied quickly. "I mean, I never thought I'd ever have to face down Shabranigdo."
"Yeah, and this Scarrin guy sounds scary," Shadow Lina added.
Naga rested her back against a tree and continued to listen as Jeffrey broke in.
"Yeah, but we have to keep going! Miss Naga is counting on us to help her find her friend!"
Shadow Lina sighed. "Lord Jeffrey, you're too noble sometimes."
"I am?"
Naga turned away as the conversation continued. She knew what the shadow wanted to say, was trying to say. But she was too loyal to Naga to actually come out and say it.
And she was right.
What right did Naga have to ask them to go any further? Originally, the Flaming Heroes were just supposed to find Lina and beat her up. Then it became about simply getting word to Zelgadis that Zero was after him. Now...
She looked up at the sun, peeking out from behind the clouds and casting a small ray of light on her.
"What would you do?" she whispered.
Jeffrey and Shadow Lina were brave. They had proved it. Braver than Naga had honestly expected of them. Braver than she had had a right to expect.
The brave were always the first to die.
Turning away, she walked back towards the river.
* * *
Zelgadis endured the bumps and bruises that came with being swung over a donkey as it marched northward with a sense of stalwart stoicism. Bitching and moaning wasn't going to get them to move any slower or convince them to try to avoid the bumps in the road.
Besides, he needed time to think. A group of berserkers had passed by them a few hours before. Originally, Zelgadis thought they were after the escaped elf girls, but there were far too many reptilian warriors for that. There were nearly four dozen of them.
Something was up.
He had tried to listen in when Gandrav spoke to them, but couldn't get more than a few hushed words out of it. Then the werewolf up and left with them, taking the green ninja with him.
The red-clad kunoichi led them now, with the blue one backing her up.
"Oi!" he called out to one of them, the blue one. "I'm thirsty," he stated as she turned to him. "Give me some water."
The ninja walked over to him and punched him in the nose as hard as she could. Zelgadis reeled and blinked sparks out of his eyes. The kunoichi returned her attention to the road.
"So much for a drink," the chimera muttered painfully. He sighed.
The ninjas continued walking.
"Are we there yet?" he asked.
* * *
Gourry knelt next to what might have been footprints in the road and bit his lip. It was still wet and muddy, but he thought he could decipher Lina's trail. He debated with himself for several moments, then stood up and pointed to the northeast.
"She went that way," he announced.
Adara rode up on her horse and looked at the prints. "No she didn't," the elf woman told him matter of factly.
Gourry's face fell. Amelia blinked.
"Just look at the smear her left boot made as she turned," Adara explained. "And see that deep pocket there? It's obvious that she was running from the south and slipped in the mud. She fell to one knee and stayed in that position for several seconds, probably cursing at herself for being so clumsy. And see that other print there? That's where she placed her hand to help herself up. She stood here for several minutes, then took off again to the northwest!"
Gourry and Amelia stared at her.
Adara blinked and grinned. "I WAS a skilled huntress on Zarak Tor for several years, ya know!"
Amelia took a breath and grit her teeth. "Miss Adara," she said softly, but dangerously. "Where was all this great wonderful tracking expertise when Miss Lina was trying to figure out where Miss Sylphiel had gone?"
Adara snorted derisively and threw a haughty nose into the air. "I told you. I'm after dearest Zelgadis, not that dusty little priestess woman. What do I care where she went?"
The princess growled and clenched her fists. Gourry sighed and started running northwest. They didn't have time to worry about it now. When they caught up with Lina, he'd tell her about Adara and let the sorceress deal with her.
Right now, he had to find Lina.
* * *
Jeffrey looked up at the sky for a second, then turned to Shadow Lina. "Miss Naga's been gone an awfully long time," he pointed out.
The shadow looked up from the fire. "You think she's in trouble?"
"Well.....no," Jeffrey admitted. "But maybe she got lost or something and can't find her way back. We oughta look for her."
The two rose to their feet and put out their campfire with an aqua create spell from the young shadow. Making their way down hill towards the river bank, they carefully ducked under branches and around thorn bushes. They managed to avoid being scratched or knocked on the head, but their luck ran out just as they reached the water's edge, and Jeffrey tripped on a rock.
He grumbled as he pushed himself up, but stopped when he saw the faintest hint of movement from across the river. Blinking, he let Shadow Lina help him up.
"Miss Vanya?" he called out over the river. "Is that you? We've been looking all over for you!"
Nothing moved on the far bank, and yet a voice called back.
"You should go back," Vanya told them. "There's nothing for you to gain by coming after us."
"Miss Vanya!" Shadow Lina shouted back. "Come out! We want to help!"
There was no reply.
"Come on, Miss Vanya!" Jeffrey tried again. "You're one of us!"
"'Us?'" Vanya called back. "There was never an 'us,' Jeffrey." The two blinked. "I used you. Don't you get it? I wanted my brother and I used you to get there."
"But that doesn't matter!" Shadow Lina cried. "After everything we've been through together, you're still our friend!"
"Yeah!" Jeffrey added. "We LIKE being used! You think if we didn't, we'd be traveling with Miss Naga?!" Shadow Lina nodded furiously in agreement.
"Please, Miss Vanya? We can find your brother together!" Shadow Lina told her.
"You're a Flaming Hero, Miss Vanya! And that means you're a part of our family! Doesn't that mean anything?!"
Silence met them both for so long, they thought the kunoichi had left. Finally, there was an answer.
"Go home," she told them.
Then she was gone.
They stood silently on the shore of the river for several minutes until finally, Shadow Lina put their thoughts into words.
"Poo!"
* * *
Sylphiel looked up as Vanya walked back into the small glen they had stopped to rest in, arms laden with full water bottles. Without a word, the ninja put them down and sat on a boulder.
"They're right, you know," Sylphiel told her. She looked up into the kunoichi's eyes. "You don't have to do this alone."
"It's not their problem," Vanya replied. "It's my problem. OUR problem."
"We're not the only ones who love Zelgadis dear," the shrine maiden pointed out softly. "Miss Lina and Miss Naga, Gourry and Miss Amelia." Her expression turned cross. "Even Adara.. They all want to help."
Vanya stared back at her but said nothing.
"You're just like your brother!" Sylphiel chastised. "You both have skulls of solid rock!"
"They don't even know him," she hissed.
"No, they know YOU," Sylphiel told her. "And they want to help YOU."
"Come on. Let's go."
* * *
"Mister Gourry," Amelia said with a sigh. "I think we're lost."
Gourry sighed and hung his head dejectedly. "We're not going to find her, are we?" he asked.
The trio had stopped at the base of a rocky hill covered with trees and fallen branches. They had left the road long ago, but had lost Lina's trail almost an hour ago.
Gourry looked up at the cloudy sky and took a deep breath.
"DAMMIT!!!" he screamed. Amelia and Adara looked at him in surprise. Gourry unslung his pack and threw it violently against a nearby tree.
"Well now what?" Adara asked in frustration.
Gourry wasn't listening. He was sitting on the ground, his head in his hands. Some protector he turned out to be. Lina was obviously hurting or just plain insane or both. A time when she truly needed him and he wasn't there.
She was the one who had left, but he was the one who had abandoned her.
It wasn't a very fair assessment, but feelings were hardly ever fair.
"Mister Gourry?" Amelia asked softly. "What should we do?"
Gourry took a deep breath. "Make camp," he said softly. "I'm going for a walk." With that, the mercenary stood up and started up the hill.
Amelia watched him go, sadness in her eyes. She sighed. "I guess now I have to get THEIR relationship back on track too."
Adara, meanwhile, had dismounted and was setting up her small tent. "He gives up too easily," she said. Amelia blinked and turned to her as she continued. "There he goes, sulking." She sniffed. "You'd never see darling Zelgadis just sulk. He'd do something. He'd come up with some kind of plan to turn this setback around."
"I KNOW what Mister Zelgadis would do," Amelia snapped. She was rapidly beginning to see why Sylphiel didn't like this woman.
"Oh?" Adara asked. "And what, pray tell, WOULD darling Zelgadis do at a time like this? Hmm?"
Amelia put her pack on the ground. "Hell if I know," she muttered. She stopped suddenly and blinked as something new caught her eye. "But I'm guessing he'd start with dealing with THEM!"
* * *
Gourry reached the top of the hill and sat down on the nearest boulder for some good old fashioned sulking. Lina was gone. She was going to face Scarrin alone, just like she had had to face Phibrizzo and Shabranigdo alone.
He looked up and took a look around. The hill was was at the base of the northern mountain range that eventually led into the Kataart Mountains. As they spread north, they became a darker more dangerous place, but here they were still serene, peaceful.
"It's funny, isn't it?"
He gasped and turned in a flash. Lina stood ten feet away from him, her cloak draped over her bangs and her pack sitting on the floor at her feet.
She continued. "How that mountains just ignore you. No matter what problems you might have or what's going on in your life. Whether you're laughing or crying, happy or sad... They just sit there.."
"Lina," he breathed. He stood up and took a step toward her. "Lina...Wh...Where...I.."
"I knew you'd follow me," she said seriously, turning to look out at the mountains. "That yogurt brain of yours knows enough to track me by."
"We lost your trail," he whispered. "How are you here?"
She smiled at him and held up the victory sign. "Of course you did! I've been tracking YOU for the past hour and a half!"
"Why?" he asked.
Her expression turned serious again. "Because I knew you'd follow me. Because I had to make you understand."
He took a step back. "You're not going to hit me again, are you?" he asked.
"Gourry," she began softly. "I know why you're following me, and Cepheid, I love you for it." She stepped forward and took his hands. "But you can't help me this time. No one can. This is something I have to resolve alone." She looked down at her feet as she went on. "I almost lost you to Phibrizzo," she said.
"But you didn't," he told her.
"No, but I should have!" she bit back, fire in her eyes. "By all rights, you shouldn't have survived. Neither of us should have! We defied death! And we did it again with Dark Star! And you know what? I started to take that as the status quo. Death wasn't meant for us. It was like we were in some kind of bubble that separated us from the world, protected us from it. You, me, Zel, Amelia, Sylphiel, Filia...Ritsu.. None of my friends were ever supposed to die."
"Lina."
"But then one did...and she died in a way that brought the point crashing home." Her hands squeezed his tightly. "There are worse things than dying, and we're not immune from it. Just ask Sylphiel. Now it's going to happen to Zel."
"But we can help you!" Gourry whispered. "I can help you."
"And you can die trying too," she told him. "I have to do this, Gourry. I owe it to Zel. And I won't drag you and Amelia with me. Not this time." She squeezed his hands tighter. "You have to understand! And if you can't understand...then just trust me and let me do this!"
She swallowed back tears as he pulled his hands from hers, but was surprised to feel them rest on her shoulders. She looked right into his eyes and found it.
He understood.
"I'd die for you, Lina Inverse," he whispered.
Lina almost smiled. "I know," she told him. "But I'm not going to let you. Not this time." She reached out and embraced him.
She reveled in the feel of his arms surrounding her, the feeling of safety it gave her.
Suddenly, she felt him tense.
"Gourry?"
Without warning, she was suddenly flung behind him. She managed to catch her step and looked back at him in shock. "Gourry?!"
He pulled his sword and looked back at her. That's when she saw it.
Berserkers were marching up the hill. At least a dozen of them.
The sorceress growled and raised her hands. She'd teach them to interfere in a Hallmark moment with her boyfriend. "FIREBALL!"
The ball of explosive plasma shot down the hill and hit the lead berserker dead in the chest.
And dissipated.
"FLARE ARROW!"
Ten arcs of fire flew from her hands and struck ten different reptiles, none of which even appeared uncomfortable by the spell.
"Cepheid," Lina whispered.
"Lina, go."
She looked up at Gourry in shock. "Gourry?"
"I said go!" he barked. "You have your fight, and I have mine."
Suddenly she wanted to take back everything she had said. She rushed up and grabbed his arm. "Gourry! Don't!" she pleaded. "Remember what happened the last time we split up?!"
Gourry's expression was as deadly serious as she'd ever seen it. "It's not going to be like last time," he said dangerously and started down the hill.
"GOURRY!"
He turned back and smiled. "If you can't understand," he said softly. "Then just trust me and let me do this."
Lina swallowed, but nodded slowly. "I love you, Gourry."
And with that, she was racing down the other side of the hill.
Gourry turned back to the berserkers, who had drawn their weapons as they approached him.
* * *
Jeffrey turned and stared up a nearby hill. "Do you hear that?"
Shadow Lina stopped and blinked, straining her ears to catch some hint of sound brought by a breeze coming down from the hill. "It sounds like a battle," she commented. It was then her ears caught something else. "And a bunch of somethings coming this way!"
Jeffrey drew his sword and turned. From the base of that same hill, several red-clad berserkers were coming their way.
"Orcs!" he cried.
Shadow Lina sweatdropped. "Um..Lord Jeffrey.... I think those are berserkers..."
The boy snarled. "Berserkers disguised as orcs! Di-a-BOLICAL!"
More berserkers were coming now from the other side of the hill.
"Lord Jeffrey, could we please just skip to the part where we run like crazy?" the shadow asked fearfully.
"C'mon, Lina!" he said with a smile. "You're an all-powerful sorceress! Why, I bet you could cast a spell and just turn them all to stone or something, right?!"
Shadow Lina put her finger to her lip. "Well..I guess I COULD..." She stepped forward and put her arms up. "BY THE DARK POWERS OF THE GREAT EVIL BUNNY! FIREBALL!"
A ball of superheated plasma flew from her hands and arced toward the lead group of berserkers, striking the first reptile and exploding.
But the berserkers were unmoved by her performance.
"Um," Jeffrey began, "I've been giving your run-like-crazy idea a lot of thought, and..."
"RUN LIKE CRAZY!" Shadow Lina cried, taking off toward the river.
Jeffrey was right behind her.
* * *
Gourry cried out and swung his sword again. The heads of two berserkers leapt from their bodies and flew into the air. Panting, he turned and faced off with another one. The reptile swung an oversized axe down toward Gourry's head, and the blond man held his sword up to parry. He grunted as the full force of the berserker's swing was caught on his blade, forcing the honed edge towards his face. Gourry's knee began to bend when suddenly he felt something fly over his shoulder from behind, whistling past his ear.
The berserker's head snapped back, and the force Gourry fought against lessened. When the berserker's face came into view again, there was an arrow sticking out of its right eye.
Gourry fell back on his butt, more out of surprise than anything else. As another berserker rushed him, another arrow flew straight through its torso, and the reptile hit the ground like a sack of potatoes.
"Mister Gourry!"
The swordsman jumped to his feet as Amelia leapt into view between him and the next berserker. As the red-clad warrior swung his spearshaft down, Amelia stepped to one side and grabbed it. Then, using the monster's momentum, she flipped the creature over her shoulder and down the hill.
"Are you okay?!" she cried.
"Where's Adara?!" he asked.
Amelia pointed up, and Gourry followed with his eyes. The elf huntress had positioned herself on a boulder and was using her bow to knock down berserkers as fast as they could present themselves.
"We have to get out of here!" Amelia cried. "These things are immune to magic!"
"No!" he shouted back, shoving his sword into the torso of another berserker.
"Mister Gourry!"
"We have to buy time for Lina to get away!" he shouted.
Amelia's eyes went wide at that. Behind her, a berserker raised his warhammer. Amelia turned to him and and knelt down, gathering power in her legs.
"PACIFIST CRUSH!"
* * *
The two Flaming Heroes couldn't hope to get away with the racket they made running through the forest. Every tree branch, thorn and bramble the Lord of Nightmares ever created had seemed to have deliberately jumped in their way, as if the berserkers had paid them off beforehand.
Shadow Lina was in the lead, panting and gasping as she ran. Just behind her, she could hear Jeffrey wheezing as the two put all their energy and hope into escape. They could hear the sound of steel and leather bumping and rubbing together behind them as the berserkers made chase.
Then she heard Jeffrey cry out and something hit the ground. She turned quickly.
"Lord Jeffrey!"
Jeffrey the Bold had tripped.
The sorceress bolted forward and grabbed his arm to help him up, but he wouldn't budge. "Lord Jeffrey! What is it?!"
Jeffrey pulled at his leg, but the boy had somehow managed to get it wedged between two thick roots. "I'm stuck!"
Shadow Lina pulled with him, trying to dislodge him, but the roots, it seemed, were also in the enemy's employ.
"Lina! Go on without me!" Jeffrey cried.
"I can't just leave you!" she argued. "They'll get you!"
"There's no time!" he cried. "Find Miss Naga! It's our only chance! I'll stay here and buy you some time!"
"Lord Jeffrey!" she gasped breathlessly.
"Lina! Go! Now!"
The shadow hesitated another moment, but she knew Jeffrey was right. Without her magic and outnumbered as they were, finding Miss Naga was their only chance for survival. "I'll be back!" she promised and ran off.
Jeffrey climbed to something that resembled a combat poise and raised his sword at the coming onslaught. "All right, you green, scaly Orcs!" he called. "I'm here for you! Come and get me!"
The berserkers approached quickly.
"I may be caught in your foul trap, but I'll never give up! Never surrender! I'll..."
The berserkers ran right past him.
"Hey!" the boy cried, turning and trying to grab them, pull them back to him. "You're doing this all wrong! You're supposed to be fighting the brave hero!" he cried. "You're screwing up my big death scene! Get back here!"
* * *
Wiping tears from her eyes as she ran, Shadow Lina prayed for Jeffrey's safety, but hearing them behind her again, she knew the end was near.
Not expecting any response, she cried out.
"HELP! SOMEBODY HELP!"
* * *
Sylphiel let go of Vanya's arm and fell three feet to the bottom of the gorge. The two were entering more rocky country now, the base of the Singing Valleys. This part of the forest was criss-crossed with shallow, narrow gorges where small animals, including fairly large rattlesnakes, made their home.
Above her, Vanya suddenly stopped and looked back behind them.
"Miss Vanya?" Sylphiel asked.
The kunoichi stared backward for another second, bit her lip and stood up.
"Dammit!" she swore under her breath. Like a shot, she was gone again.
"Miss Vanya!? What is it?!"
* * *
The shadow tripped on a rock at the shore of the river and fell face first into the water. Sputtering, she climbed to her feet and continued to run. When she was halfway to the other side, she looked up and saw a nightmare.
More of those creatures were coming from that direction. She looked back and saw the ones chasing her emerging from the trees.
Shadow Lina did the only she could do.
She started biting her nails.
A shadow fell over her, and she looked up to see one of the reptiles had started to cross the river and was almost to her.
The berserker hissed and raises his club as the red head cringed and fell to one knee, closing her eyes. As she knelt, something new came into view..
And flew right over the girl, swinging her katana through his throat.
Shadow Lina heard three distinct splashes. One was the head of the berserker hitting the water. The second was his body. And the third was Vanya landing in the water ahead of her.
"MISS VANYA!"
Vanya didn't answer. She lifted her right foot and pulled something from the hell of her boot. Turning, she flung the steel throwing star at the next berserker, who fell into the water with one of the four points embedded in his skull.
The ninja grabbed the shadow's hand and began dragging her downstream as more berserkers entered the river after them.
* * *
Unless Amelia had seen it herself, she wouldn't have believed it. Despite all the bluster, Adara was simply a marvel shot. Arrows rained down, striking attacking and fleeing berserkers alike, at a pace the princess had never seen before.
She shook herself out of her reverie and locked her arm around a berserker's throat, swinging herself over his body behind him, and jerking her arms to the side until she heard a sickening "snap!" The reptile's body fell limp from her arms. Nearby, Gourry was taking on five more berserkers with little effort. He was determined to keep them off Lina's trail until the sorceress had a chance to get away.
Then something happened, and that hope evaporated.
Amelia turned as she heard it.
A white flame flew into the sky from the direction of the river and exploded.
"Distress flare," she breathed.
Gourry was running past her a second later.
"LINA!"
* * *
Two more berserkers fell face first into the water, blood turning the brown water a sickly black. Without thinking, Vanya turned her attention to the next opponent, parrying two sword thrusts and running her katana through his chest. The creature screamed and grabbed hold of the exposed blade of her sword with both hands to hold her there until his friends arrived. Without an ounce of indecision, in a pattern hammered into her through years of training, Vanya pulled her knife with her left hand and sliced it across the reptile's throat. It gagged and fell backwards into the water with the others.
Three more approached.
Behind her, Shadow Lina finished chanting and sent another white flare into the sky, exploding above them. Unfortunately, it seemed to have the opposite effect of the one intended.
More berserkers were running their way.
"Forget it! Run!" she screamed at her.
The shadow and the ninja ran downstream a full four steps before another berserker caught up to them. Vanya turned and slashed downwards. The lizard screamed as he fell off his now amputated legs.
They ran another four feet, but this as the four feet to the shore.
Shadow Lina turned and pointed at the water. "FREEZE BRID!"
A blue light shot from her hands and hit the water, turning the entire river for a hundred yards in either direction into ice. The berserkers crossing the river after them suddenly found themselves trapped waist-deep in ice.
But still more were coming.
Vanya twisted past one berserker's thrust and slashed out, snapping the tendons behind it's knees. The creature fell to the ground, and the ninja finished it off by slicing its throat open.
Other reptiles were braving the ice to move towards them. Shadow Lina lashed out with a Diem Wind spell and blew them back to the other shore.
Vanya was a firm believer in Murphy's Law, and seeing them do this well, she really should've known what would happen next.
But she was too busy to see the flash of green in the trees above them.
Too busy to see the drawn knife.
And too busy until the very last second to look up and see the green kunoichi leap down from the trees and slice downward with her hand.
Vanya stood there for a second in shock. A foot in front of her, the green- veiled kunoichi was crouched down, a six inch tanto in her hand, with only a millimeter of the tip sporting any red tinge at all.
"MISS VANYA!"
She looked down and saw her leather arm sliced open from the top of her chest to her thigh in an eighteen inch cut that was starting to bleed down her leg.
As the green kunoichi rose to her feet, Vanya fell to her knees. The veiled-woman turned toward the shadow and stepped forward..
A step that turned into a lurch as Vanya screamed and buried her katana into the back of the woman's thigh.
The green-kunoichi twisted sharply, wrenching the katana out of Vanya's hand and sending it skittering across the ice. She raised her tanto and lashed out, falling forward on her wounded leg and crashing into Vanya.
Vanya felt the knife enter her stomach, but grabbed hold of the other woman with all her strength and turned, sending them both tumbling toward the water. The two hit the ice hard and rose to their feet, knives in their hands.
The green kunoichi took two swipes at her, connect with the second and opening another cut across Vanya's chest. Vanya, however, took the wound in order to grab the ninja's arm. Vanya looked into familiar eyes and her blood ran cold to hear her own voice speak to her.
"What do you have without your sword," the green kunoichi taunted.
Vanya grit her teeth. "Rock skull," she hissed back, and slammed her head into the woman's nose. Then, as the ninja blinked the daze out of her eyes, Vanya lashed out with her foot, snapping the veiled woman's knee.
Before the veiled woman could recover, Vanya grabbed her by the hair and slammed her face into the ice as hard as she could. Her face met the ice with a sickening crush again and again and again. The ice below them cracked, and blood seeped into the water below.
And the green kunoichi stopped moving.
Vanya gasped and rolled onto her back. Blood covered the ice and most of it was hers.
"Miss Vanya!"
She turned her head and saw Shadow Lina running toward her. The shadow smiled triumphantly...
Right up until a familiar figure grabbed her from behind.
The shadow screamed and turned to her attacker.
Gandrav snarled at her.
Shadow Lina fainted.
"Well, that wasn't too hard," Gandrav noted, tossing the sorceress to a nearby berserker, who promptly tied her hands together and stuffed her into a sack. "Better get going," the werewolf told it. "That's precious cargo."
"Gan..." Vanya began, but quickly ran out of breath. She knew just from the pain and her difficulty breathing that one of the ninja's cuts had punctured her lung.
The berserkers carried Shadow Lina down river as Gandrav strolled over to Vanya and snarled down at her. He hefted his axe as he looked down on her with contempt.
"Lord Scarrin always warned us about the threat of the enemy within our own ranks," the werewolf snarled. He lifted the axe and shook his head. "Funny," he told her. "I never thought it would've been you."
Vanya stared up at him hatefully. She wouldn't meet death with her eyes closed.
Gandrav hefted his axe over his head and suddenly fell over as a blond man slammed his full weight into him.
The werewolf grabbed the swordsman by the throat and snarled ferociously before throwing him into a nearby tree, snapping the trunk. The tree fell over into the river with a loud splash.
Gandrav leapt forward and grabbed the dazed man again, slamming his fist into his face, then bringing his knee up into the man's side. He turned and threw him again, back onto the ice near where he dropped his sword.
The man saw his chance and reached out, grabbing his weapon and rising quickly to his feet before the werewolf could reach him. Gandrav drew his own short sword and charged.
The swordsman parried two thrusts with techniques Vanya knew as familiar, then, with a move that caught Gandrav by surprise, he buried the sword into the werewolf's throat.
Gandrav snarled and stepped forward, impaling himself further on the weapon. He was close enough to the hilt now to read the words decoratively inscribed on the base of the blade.
RAZOR BLADE.
He looked up and saw the fury in Jeffrey's eyes right before the young man pulled the sword out and swung with all his strength.
The werewolf's head hit the ice near Vanya's hand and slid away.
Jeffrey took several deep breaths and put his hand on his side where Gandrav had kneed him. Then, seeming to remember where he was, he stumbled toward Vanya.
"Jeffrey," she gasped. "They..Took....Her.."
"Miss Vanya," he croaked out. "Just hang on, okay?" He looked at her wounds and bit his lip. "Oh Cepheid," he whispered.
"It..." Vanya began. "Happens.."
The boy blinked tears out of his eyes and tried to speak past the lump forming in his throat. "You're going to be okay, Miss Vanya. We'll figure something out. I...I need you to help me rescue Lina."
"Jeffrey," she panted. "You...were..right..." She swallowed painfully. "I'm...sorry.." She took his arm in her own trembling hand. "Aeka...would be...proud..to know..her technique...." She winced. "Passed...to you.."
Jeffrey began hyperventilating. He had heard words like this before. They were in all the plays and books he had read as a child. It was always at this point where he had felt such a thrill. The hero was coming into his own, had surpassed the teacher. But now all he felt was a cold hand squeezing his heart.
Vanya was dying.
All the words all the heroes had ever said in all the books and all the plays he had ever read or seen entered his mind, but all he could come up with to say now was...
"Don't die." He blinked back tears and whispered it again. "Don't die."
Vanya smiled at him. "It would..take a miracle..." she wheezed. "To...save me...now.."
Her vision began to dim. Jeffrey was now enveloped in a black haze. His voice seemed very far away. She could feel the warmth leaving her body.
And then...
There was a light, but it wasn't a tunnel. This threw her for a second because she had always heard that a bright tunnel led you to heaven.
This light was walking right toward her. It cut through the haze, filling her vision. Jeffrey seemed to see it as well and stepped away from her.
The light knelt toward her and reached out, placing its hand on her cheek.
"Oh, sister," a familiar voice said. "What happed to you?"
"Sylphiel," Vanya whispered.
Here, on the precipice of death, Sylphiel's astral aura was like a phosphorescent flare, lighting up the world around her. Vanya heard her chant a few words, and she could see some of that light flow from Sylphiel's hand and into her, swarming toward her wounds. The ninja gasped as she felt strange sensations wash across her body as it knit itself back to normal.
The haze began to lift, and with it the light disappeared, until she could clearly see Sylphiel kneeling over her, a look of frank concern on her face.
The sorceress saw Vanya coming around and smiled. "I knew you wouldn't leave us," she said. "Not until we find Zelgadis Dear."
Vanya nodded and looked past Sylphiel to see Gourry, Amelia and Adara emerge from the trees on the opposite side of the river.
* * *
Gourry panted as he took in the scene. Whatever had happened here, he knew they had missed it. He scanned the river as far as he could and closed his eyes.
"Where are you, Lina?"
* * *
Lina turned back and could still see the hill in the distance. She had managed to evade the red-clad berserkers...
"But so what?!" her mind screamed at her. "You left him! You LEFT him AGAIN!"
For the first time in her life, Lina was genuinely confused. Her words to Gourry had seemed so sure, so certain, and that certainty had evaporated in a second. At that point, it had been HIS faith that she was right that had her leave him and go after Zelgadis alone.
Alone.
It was then that she realized it.
She was alone.
For the first time in four years, there was no one in her party.
Suddenly, the sorceress was feeling very foolish.
She looked to the north. The Singing Valleys were in plain sight, and past them, the Kataart Mountains.
Looking south, she could see the hill where she had left her friends to fight alone. If she went north, she could save Zelgadis. If she went south, she could help her friends fight those strange berserkers who hadn't even flinched at her magic.
"What the hell do I do now?" she asked, falling to the ground. She hadn't been on her own in so long, she couldn't remember the feeling. Now she realized why she had surrounded herself with Amelia, Zelgadis, Sylphiel...Gourry... in the first place.
"What the hell do I do now?" she asked again, closing her eyes. She waited for herself to come up with an answer, and, to her frank surprise, the answer came from somewhere else.
"If you're not going to save the world or do SOMETHING, then you might as well lie down and die," a mental image of Xellos with a blond streak in his hair said somberly. "But that isn't going to make anything RIGHT."
Lina opened her eyes and looked back at the hill, then towards the mountains.
Setting her jaw, she took the first step.
North.
And then she tripped.
"Dammit," she muttered, rubbing her knee. "What the hell did I..." She blinked as the thing she tripped over rose from the ground and yawned.
"No," Lina gasped. "Please...It...It can't be..."
"Well! That was certainly a restful nap!" The obstruction turned and blinked at her. "Lina chan!"
"NaNaNaNaNa...NAGA!!"
Naga put her hands on her hips and grinned. "Tagging along AGAIN, I see! Very well, if you're really so bent on helping me save Stony, I GUESS you can come along! OOOOOOOOOHOHOHOHOHOHOHOHO!!! OOOOOOOHOHOHO!!!"
"Maybe I really should just lie down and die," Lina muttered.
"OOOOOOOOOHOHOHOHOHOHO!!!"
* * *
Author's Notes:
The dream sequence is a tribute to "The Big Lebowski," a movie with a special place in my heart. The song, "Just Dropped In to See What Condition My Condition Was In," is by Kenny Rogers and the First Edition.
Dedication: This chapter of "Faces: Finale" is dedicated to a reviewer named Banx. Happy birthday.
Faces: Finale!
Chapter 12
Splits and Splinters
Vanya opened her eyes and sniffed, detecting the smell of cooking bacon nearby. A rooster crooned from outside, and it took her less than a second to get her bearings. Rising from her sleeping roll, she took a quick look around and found light entering the barn from a window high in the barn wall.
She yawned and looked to her right. Sylphiel was knelt over their small fire, cooking bacon in a small iron pan. As if she sensed the kunoichi's eyes on her, she turned and smiled. "Good morning. Breakfast will be ready in a minute."
Vanya only nodded and stood up, walking to the nearby water barrel and dunking her head in it. She gasped as the cold water shocked her into full wakefulness. "What's on the menu?" she asked.
"Bacon and eggs," Sylphiel called back. "And some bread that wasn't soaked in the rain."
"Any hash?" Vanya inquired.
Sylphiel paused and blinked. "Hash?"
"Corned beef," the ninja elaborated. "Zel and I used to eat it all the time when we were kids. It was his favorite."
The shrine maiden said nothing for a moment. "I didn't know that."
Vanya walked over by the fire and sat down. "He really doesn't talk about himself, does he?" she asked.
Sylphiel smiled wanly. "There's so much in his past that he'd rather not remember, I think," she said, scooping the bacon up and putting it in another pan to eat. "I guess a lot of things he doesn't mind remembering just get lost in the shuffle." She offered the pan to Vanya.
The ninja took it and began to eat. "Yeah, I can see how that could happen," she admitted.
Sylphiel turned and winced as she bent to reach another pan.
"Back pain?" Vanya asked.
"Just a little," Sylphiel confessed. "I'll be okay."
"Turn around," the ninja ordered. Sylphiel blinked but obeyed, turning so that her back faced the kunoichi. She took a quick breath as she felt the woman's fingers press into her middle back. "There, right?" she asked.
"Yes," the shrine maiden replied. Vanya rubbed her back in slow circles. "How did you...."
"It was the same when Aeka, my teacher, carried her first daughter," Vanya told her as she rubbed. "It'll get worse before it gets better."
"Your teacher?"
Vanya nodded. "She taught me everything I know. She was the greatest warrior in the Order of the Royal Teardrop." She smiled, remembering. "It was so scandalous when she announced her pregnancy. The others couldn't believe it. Lady Aeka, the Violet Lily herself, brought down by a man."
"Oh?"
Another nod. "She left the Order for some pirate she happened across in her travels. I was just as shocked as anyone, but she took me aside and told me that it was inevitable, and that we all fell prey to it eventually."
"It?"
"Our 'feminine nature,' as she described it."
"Oh," Sylphiel replied.
"Afterwards, she gave me her katana and wished me luck on my quest to find my brother. I imagine she's happy where ever she decided to go. Aeka would make sure of that." She stopped rubbing. "Better?"
"Much, thank you." The shrine maiden smiled.
"Good. We have a lot of ground to cover today. Let's go."
* * *
Gourry was brushing his teeth in their hotel room when he felt arms wrap around and hold him.
"Mrrm'n, Rinan," he mumbled over the toothpaste and brush in his mouth.
"Good morning, Gourry," Lina said quietly.
Gourry spit the toothpaste into a bowl and rinsed with a cup of water. "So what's next?" he asked, not turning to her.
He heard her sigh and paused.
"Gourry, about last night...."
"Aww, shucks, Lina, you don't have to say anything," he told her with a smile.
"Yes, I do," the redhead replied, gently turning him toward her. She reached up and caressed his face with her hand. "What you said last night was very sweet."
Gourry smiled.
"And I've been thinking about it all night."
He placed his hand on hers.
"And while what you said was very sweet, I still think you're dead wrong."
"Huh?"
A second later, a surprised Gourry blacked out to the sight of Lina's fist crashing into his face. Stars exploded in his head, and as the stars winked out one by one, they were replaced by darkness.
He heard music begin to play....
Faces: Finale!
Chapter 12A
Gourry The Great Sword-Slinging Sword Guy!
//Yeah! Yeah! Oh, yeah! What condition my condition was in!//
Gourry, the Great Sword-Slinging Sword Guy, danced down a flight a stairs that seemed to start from nowhere and end at a black marble floor. He paused to snap his fingers and swing his hands in circles before dancing onward.
//I woke up this morning with the sundown shining in,//
//I found my mind in brown paper bag, but then...//
He danced and snapped his fingers up to a counter with a blacksmith's emblem on it. On the wall behind it were hundreds of swords of all shapes and sizes. Gourry's eyes went wide in wonder. The blacksmith behind the counter turned and placed a sword on the counter before him. Gourry didn't even notice the blacksmith looked exactly like Xellos, except with a blond streak in his hair. He picked up the sword..
//I tripped on a cloud and fell eight miles high...//
//I tore my mind on a jagged sky...//
New sword in hand, Gourry danced down the hall...
//I just dropped in to see what condition my condition was in!//
//Yeah! Yeah! Oh, yeah! What condition my condition was in!//
As Gourry danced, he waved his new sword in front of him. Zangulus jumped out in front of him, then quickly cowered away. Gaav jumped out from the other side, and Gourry waved his sword in the demon's direction. Gaav quickly turned and danced away.
//I pushed my soul in a deep dark hole and then I followed it in...//
//I watched myself crawling up as I was crawling in...//
He danced a little more as Sylphiel and Amelia, dressed in brown leather armor, emerged from the shadows on either side of him and crossed his path, trailing their hands across his chest as they moved. The two were followed by Vanya and Adara, also dressed in armor, who crossed his path, caressing him as they danced past him.
//I got up so tight, I couldn't unwind...//
//I saw so much, I broke my mind...//
Filia and Naga appeared on either side, planting kisses on his cheeks before allowing him to dance forward on his way.
//I just dropped in to see what condition my condition was in!//
//Yeah! Yeah! Oh, yeah! What condition my condition was in!//
The armored women were now in front of him, obscuring his vision of someone beyond them. Suddenly, they parted, revealing Lina on the other side. She wore black leather and held a whip in her hand. She crooked a finger at Gourry and beckoned.
//Someone painted "it goes on" in big black letters on a dead end sign!//
//I had my foot on the gas as I left the road and blew out my mind!//
Gourry held his sword over his head and danced forward until he was next to Lina. He lowered the sword as Lina put her arms over his head, allowing the whip to grab the back of his neck and pull him forward. She reached out and caressed his sword with her fingertips. The other women danced around them, their hands on their waists and their hips moving in unison.
//Eight miles out of Memphis and I got no spare!//
Gourry tossed his sword aside as Lina cast her whip to the ground. The two took each other by the waist and began to move their hips from side to side.
//Eight miles straight up downtown somewhere...//
The other women twirled and stopped.
//I just dropped into see what condition my condition was in!//
Gourry leaned forward for a kiss....
//I said I just dropped in to see what condition my condition was in!//
"Mister Gourry?"
Gourry's eyes snapped open. Amelia and Adara were looking down at him curiously.
"What are you doing down there?" the princess asked.
He sat bolt upright and winced as pain echoed throughout his skull. "Where's Lina?" he asked.
"We don't know," Adara replied with a shrug. "It was getting on in the morning so we came to see what was keeping you."
Gourry rubbed his jaw and looked at her strangely. "What time is it?"
"Going on ten o'clock," Amelia told him, pointing at a nearby clock as proof.
"Damn," Gourry muttered, climbing to his feet. "She has a four-hour start."
"What do you mean?" Amelia asked, blinking.
The swordsman sighed and stared out the window. The sun was peeking out from behind a few clouds. "I mean Lina is gone."
* * *
Water splashed around Naga's boot as she ran across the rain-swelled stream. Stopping briefly at the other side, she dropped to one knee and examined what she thought might be a track. With the storm last night, however, it could mean anything.
It was time to face facts.
Naga wasn't going to find Sylphiel like this.
Sighing, she stood up and started back toward their small camp. She actually smelled lunch cooking before the sounds of Shadow Lina and Jeffrey's voices reached her ears. For some reason she couldn't quite name, she stopped short of the camp and listened to their conversation.
"So what do you think this Zelgadis guy is like?" Shadow Lina asked.
She could almost see Jeffrey shrug. "I dunno. He's Miss Naga's friend. I've never met him."
"Hmmmm," the shadow replied. "Jeffrey," she asked, "Are you scared?"
"Ha! I'm never scared! Well, maybe a little..." he replied quickly. "I mean, I never thought I'd ever have to face down Shabranigdo."
"Yeah, and this Scarrin guy sounds scary," Shadow Lina added.
Naga rested her back against a tree and continued to listen as Jeffrey broke in.
"Yeah, but we have to keep going! Miss Naga is counting on us to help her find her friend!"
Shadow Lina sighed. "Lord Jeffrey, you're too noble sometimes."
"I am?"
Naga turned away as the conversation continued. She knew what the shadow wanted to say, was trying to say. But she was too loyal to Naga to actually come out and say it.
And she was right.
What right did Naga have to ask them to go any further? Originally, the Flaming Heroes were just supposed to find Lina and beat her up. Then it became about simply getting word to Zelgadis that Zero was after him. Now...
She looked up at the sun, peeking out from behind the clouds and casting a small ray of light on her.
"What would you do?" she whispered.
Jeffrey and Shadow Lina were brave. They had proved it. Braver than Naga had honestly expected of them. Braver than she had had a right to expect.
The brave were always the first to die.
Turning away, she walked back towards the river.
* * *
Zelgadis endured the bumps and bruises that came with being swung over a donkey as it marched northward with a sense of stalwart stoicism. Bitching and moaning wasn't going to get them to move any slower or convince them to try to avoid the bumps in the road.
Besides, he needed time to think. A group of berserkers had passed by them a few hours before. Originally, Zelgadis thought they were after the escaped elf girls, but there were far too many reptilian warriors for that. There were nearly four dozen of them.
Something was up.
He had tried to listen in when Gandrav spoke to them, but couldn't get more than a few hushed words out of it. Then the werewolf up and left with them, taking the green ninja with him.
The red-clad kunoichi led them now, with the blue one backing her up.
"Oi!" he called out to one of them, the blue one. "I'm thirsty," he stated as she turned to him. "Give me some water."
The ninja walked over to him and punched him in the nose as hard as she could. Zelgadis reeled and blinked sparks out of his eyes. The kunoichi returned her attention to the road.
"So much for a drink," the chimera muttered painfully. He sighed.
The ninjas continued walking.
"Are we there yet?" he asked.
* * *
Gourry knelt next to what might have been footprints in the road and bit his lip. It was still wet and muddy, but he thought he could decipher Lina's trail. He debated with himself for several moments, then stood up and pointed to the northeast.
"She went that way," he announced.
Adara rode up on her horse and looked at the prints. "No she didn't," the elf woman told him matter of factly.
Gourry's face fell. Amelia blinked.
"Just look at the smear her left boot made as she turned," Adara explained. "And see that deep pocket there? It's obvious that she was running from the south and slipped in the mud. She fell to one knee and stayed in that position for several seconds, probably cursing at herself for being so clumsy. And see that other print there? That's where she placed her hand to help herself up. She stood here for several minutes, then took off again to the northwest!"
Gourry and Amelia stared at her.
Adara blinked and grinned. "I WAS a skilled huntress on Zarak Tor for several years, ya know!"
Amelia took a breath and grit her teeth. "Miss Adara," she said softly, but dangerously. "Where was all this great wonderful tracking expertise when Miss Lina was trying to figure out where Miss Sylphiel had gone?"
Adara snorted derisively and threw a haughty nose into the air. "I told you. I'm after dearest Zelgadis, not that dusty little priestess woman. What do I care where she went?"
The princess growled and clenched her fists. Gourry sighed and started running northwest. They didn't have time to worry about it now. When they caught up with Lina, he'd tell her about Adara and let the sorceress deal with her.
Right now, he had to find Lina.
* * *
Jeffrey looked up at the sky for a second, then turned to Shadow Lina. "Miss Naga's been gone an awfully long time," he pointed out.
The shadow looked up from the fire. "You think she's in trouble?"
"Well.....no," Jeffrey admitted. "But maybe she got lost or something and can't find her way back. We oughta look for her."
The two rose to their feet and put out their campfire with an aqua create spell from the young shadow. Making their way down hill towards the river bank, they carefully ducked under branches and around thorn bushes. They managed to avoid being scratched or knocked on the head, but their luck ran out just as they reached the water's edge, and Jeffrey tripped on a rock.
He grumbled as he pushed himself up, but stopped when he saw the faintest hint of movement from across the river. Blinking, he let Shadow Lina help him up.
"Miss Vanya?" he called out over the river. "Is that you? We've been looking all over for you!"
Nothing moved on the far bank, and yet a voice called back.
"You should go back," Vanya told them. "There's nothing for you to gain by coming after us."
"Miss Vanya!" Shadow Lina shouted back. "Come out! We want to help!"
There was no reply.
"Come on, Miss Vanya!" Jeffrey tried again. "You're one of us!"
"'Us?'" Vanya called back. "There was never an 'us,' Jeffrey." The two blinked. "I used you. Don't you get it? I wanted my brother and I used you to get there."
"But that doesn't matter!" Shadow Lina cried. "After everything we've been through together, you're still our friend!"
"Yeah!" Jeffrey added. "We LIKE being used! You think if we didn't, we'd be traveling with Miss Naga?!" Shadow Lina nodded furiously in agreement.
"Please, Miss Vanya? We can find your brother together!" Shadow Lina told her.
"You're a Flaming Hero, Miss Vanya! And that means you're a part of our family! Doesn't that mean anything?!"
Silence met them both for so long, they thought the kunoichi had left. Finally, there was an answer.
"Go home," she told them.
Then she was gone.
They stood silently on the shore of the river for several minutes until finally, Shadow Lina put their thoughts into words.
"Poo!"
* * *
Sylphiel looked up as Vanya walked back into the small glen they had stopped to rest in, arms laden with full water bottles. Without a word, the ninja put them down and sat on a boulder.
"They're right, you know," Sylphiel told her. She looked up into the kunoichi's eyes. "You don't have to do this alone."
"It's not their problem," Vanya replied. "It's my problem. OUR problem."
"We're not the only ones who love Zelgadis dear," the shrine maiden pointed out softly. "Miss Lina and Miss Naga, Gourry and Miss Amelia." Her expression turned cross. "Even Adara.. They all want to help."
Vanya stared back at her but said nothing.
"You're just like your brother!" Sylphiel chastised. "You both have skulls of solid rock!"
"They don't even know him," she hissed.
"No, they know YOU," Sylphiel told her. "And they want to help YOU."
"Come on. Let's go."
* * *
"Mister Gourry," Amelia said with a sigh. "I think we're lost."
Gourry sighed and hung his head dejectedly. "We're not going to find her, are we?" he asked.
The trio had stopped at the base of a rocky hill covered with trees and fallen branches. They had left the road long ago, but had lost Lina's trail almost an hour ago.
Gourry looked up at the cloudy sky and took a deep breath.
"DAMMIT!!!" he screamed. Amelia and Adara looked at him in surprise. Gourry unslung his pack and threw it violently against a nearby tree.
"Well now what?" Adara asked in frustration.
Gourry wasn't listening. He was sitting on the ground, his head in his hands. Some protector he turned out to be. Lina was obviously hurting or just plain insane or both. A time when she truly needed him and he wasn't there.
She was the one who had left, but he was the one who had abandoned her.
It wasn't a very fair assessment, but feelings were hardly ever fair.
"Mister Gourry?" Amelia asked softly. "What should we do?"
Gourry took a deep breath. "Make camp," he said softly. "I'm going for a walk." With that, the mercenary stood up and started up the hill.
Amelia watched him go, sadness in her eyes. She sighed. "I guess now I have to get THEIR relationship back on track too."
Adara, meanwhile, had dismounted and was setting up her small tent. "He gives up too easily," she said. Amelia blinked and turned to her as she continued. "There he goes, sulking." She sniffed. "You'd never see darling Zelgadis just sulk. He'd do something. He'd come up with some kind of plan to turn this setback around."
"I KNOW what Mister Zelgadis would do," Amelia snapped. She was rapidly beginning to see why Sylphiel didn't like this woman.
"Oh?" Adara asked. "And what, pray tell, WOULD darling Zelgadis do at a time like this? Hmm?"
Amelia put her pack on the ground. "Hell if I know," she muttered. She stopped suddenly and blinked as something new caught her eye. "But I'm guessing he'd start with dealing with THEM!"
* * *
Gourry reached the top of the hill and sat down on the nearest boulder for some good old fashioned sulking. Lina was gone. She was going to face Scarrin alone, just like she had had to face Phibrizzo and Shabranigdo alone.
He looked up and took a look around. The hill was was at the base of the northern mountain range that eventually led into the Kataart Mountains. As they spread north, they became a darker more dangerous place, but here they were still serene, peaceful.
"It's funny, isn't it?"
He gasped and turned in a flash. Lina stood ten feet away from him, her cloak draped over her bangs and her pack sitting on the floor at her feet.
She continued. "How that mountains just ignore you. No matter what problems you might have or what's going on in your life. Whether you're laughing or crying, happy or sad... They just sit there.."
"Lina," he breathed. He stood up and took a step toward her. "Lina...Wh...Where...I.."
"I knew you'd follow me," she said seriously, turning to look out at the mountains. "That yogurt brain of yours knows enough to track me by."
"We lost your trail," he whispered. "How are you here?"
She smiled at him and held up the victory sign. "Of course you did! I've been tracking YOU for the past hour and a half!"
"Why?" he asked.
Her expression turned serious again. "Because I knew you'd follow me. Because I had to make you understand."
He took a step back. "You're not going to hit me again, are you?" he asked.
"Gourry," she began softly. "I know why you're following me, and Cepheid, I love you for it." She stepped forward and took his hands. "But you can't help me this time. No one can. This is something I have to resolve alone." She looked down at her feet as she went on. "I almost lost you to Phibrizzo," she said.
"But you didn't," he told her.
"No, but I should have!" she bit back, fire in her eyes. "By all rights, you shouldn't have survived. Neither of us should have! We defied death! And we did it again with Dark Star! And you know what? I started to take that as the status quo. Death wasn't meant for us. It was like we were in some kind of bubble that separated us from the world, protected us from it. You, me, Zel, Amelia, Sylphiel, Filia...Ritsu.. None of my friends were ever supposed to die."
"Lina."
"But then one did...and she died in a way that brought the point crashing home." Her hands squeezed his tightly. "There are worse things than dying, and we're not immune from it. Just ask Sylphiel. Now it's going to happen to Zel."
"But we can help you!" Gourry whispered. "I can help you."
"And you can die trying too," she told him. "I have to do this, Gourry. I owe it to Zel. And I won't drag you and Amelia with me. Not this time." She squeezed his hands tighter. "You have to understand! And if you can't understand...then just trust me and let me do this!"
She swallowed back tears as he pulled his hands from hers, but was surprised to feel them rest on her shoulders. She looked right into his eyes and found it.
He understood.
"I'd die for you, Lina Inverse," he whispered.
Lina almost smiled. "I know," she told him. "But I'm not going to let you. Not this time." She reached out and embraced him.
She reveled in the feel of his arms surrounding her, the feeling of safety it gave her.
Suddenly, she felt him tense.
"Gourry?"
Without warning, she was suddenly flung behind him. She managed to catch her step and looked back at him in shock. "Gourry?!"
He pulled his sword and looked back at her. That's when she saw it.
Berserkers were marching up the hill. At least a dozen of them.
The sorceress growled and raised her hands. She'd teach them to interfere in a Hallmark moment with her boyfriend. "FIREBALL!"
The ball of explosive plasma shot down the hill and hit the lead berserker dead in the chest.
And dissipated.
"FLARE ARROW!"
Ten arcs of fire flew from her hands and struck ten different reptiles, none of which even appeared uncomfortable by the spell.
"Cepheid," Lina whispered.
"Lina, go."
She looked up at Gourry in shock. "Gourry?"
"I said go!" he barked. "You have your fight, and I have mine."
Suddenly she wanted to take back everything she had said. She rushed up and grabbed his arm. "Gourry! Don't!" she pleaded. "Remember what happened the last time we split up?!"
Gourry's expression was as deadly serious as she'd ever seen it. "It's not going to be like last time," he said dangerously and started down the hill.
"GOURRY!"
He turned back and smiled. "If you can't understand," he said softly. "Then just trust me and let me do this."
Lina swallowed, but nodded slowly. "I love you, Gourry."
And with that, she was racing down the other side of the hill.
Gourry turned back to the berserkers, who had drawn their weapons as they approached him.
* * *
Jeffrey turned and stared up a nearby hill. "Do you hear that?"
Shadow Lina stopped and blinked, straining her ears to catch some hint of sound brought by a breeze coming down from the hill. "It sounds like a battle," she commented. It was then her ears caught something else. "And a bunch of somethings coming this way!"
Jeffrey drew his sword and turned. From the base of that same hill, several red-clad berserkers were coming their way.
"Orcs!" he cried.
Shadow Lina sweatdropped. "Um..Lord Jeffrey.... I think those are berserkers..."
The boy snarled. "Berserkers disguised as orcs! Di-a-BOLICAL!"
More berserkers were coming now from the other side of the hill.
"Lord Jeffrey, could we please just skip to the part where we run like crazy?" the shadow asked fearfully.
"C'mon, Lina!" he said with a smile. "You're an all-powerful sorceress! Why, I bet you could cast a spell and just turn them all to stone or something, right?!"
Shadow Lina put her finger to her lip. "Well..I guess I COULD..." She stepped forward and put her arms up. "BY THE DARK POWERS OF THE GREAT EVIL BUNNY! FIREBALL!"
A ball of superheated plasma flew from her hands and arced toward the lead group of berserkers, striking the first reptile and exploding.
But the berserkers were unmoved by her performance.
"Um," Jeffrey began, "I've been giving your run-like-crazy idea a lot of thought, and..."
"RUN LIKE CRAZY!" Shadow Lina cried, taking off toward the river.
Jeffrey was right behind her.
* * *
Gourry cried out and swung his sword again. The heads of two berserkers leapt from their bodies and flew into the air. Panting, he turned and faced off with another one. The reptile swung an oversized axe down toward Gourry's head, and the blond man held his sword up to parry. He grunted as the full force of the berserker's swing was caught on his blade, forcing the honed edge towards his face. Gourry's knee began to bend when suddenly he felt something fly over his shoulder from behind, whistling past his ear.
The berserker's head snapped back, and the force Gourry fought against lessened. When the berserker's face came into view again, there was an arrow sticking out of its right eye.
Gourry fell back on his butt, more out of surprise than anything else. As another berserker rushed him, another arrow flew straight through its torso, and the reptile hit the ground like a sack of potatoes.
"Mister Gourry!"
The swordsman jumped to his feet as Amelia leapt into view between him and the next berserker. As the red-clad warrior swung his spearshaft down, Amelia stepped to one side and grabbed it. Then, using the monster's momentum, she flipped the creature over her shoulder and down the hill.
"Are you okay?!" she cried.
"Where's Adara?!" he asked.
Amelia pointed up, and Gourry followed with his eyes. The elf huntress had positioned herself on a boulder and was using her bow to knock down berserkers as fast as they could present themselves.
"We have to get out of here!" Amelia cried. "These things are immune to magic!"
"No!" he shouted back, shoving his sword into the torso of another berserker.
"Mister Gourry!"
"We have to buy time for Lina to get away!" he shouted.
Amelia's eyes went wide at that. Behind her, a berserker raised his warhammer. Amelia turned to him and and knelt down, gathering power in her legs.
"PACIFIST CRUSH!"
* * *
The two Flaming Heroes couldn't hope to get away with the racket they made running through the forest. Every tree branch, thorn and bramble the Lord of Nightmares ever created had seemed to have deliberately jumped in their way, as if the berserkers had paid them off beforehand.
Shadow Lina was in the lead, panting and gasping as she ran. Just behind her, she could hear Jeffrey wheezing as the two put all their energy and hope into escape. They could hear the sound of steel and leather bumping and rubbing together behind them as the berserkers made chase.
Then she heard Jeffrey cry out and something hit the ground. She turned quickly.
"Lord Jeffrey!"
Jeffrey the Bold had tripped.
The sorceress bolted forward and grabbed his arm to help him up, but he wouldn't budge. "Lord Jeffrey! What is it?!"
Jeffrey pulled at his leg, but the boy had somehow managed to get it wedged between two thick roots. "I'm stuck!"
Shadow Lina pulled with him, trying to dislodge him, but the roots, it seemed, were also in the enemy's employ.
"Lina! Go on without me!" Jeffrey cried.
"I can't just leave you!" she argued. "They'll get you!"
"There's no time!" he cried. "Find Miss Naga! It's our only chance! I'll stay here and buy you some time!"
"Lord Jeffrey!" she gasped breathlessly.
"Lina! Go! Now!"
The shadow hesitated another moment, but she knew Jeffrey was right. Without her magic and outnumbered as they were, finding Miss Naga was their only chance for survival. "I'll be back!" she promised and ran off.
Jeffrey climbed to something that resembled a combat poise and raised his sword at the coming onslaught. "All right, you green, scaly Orcs!" he called. "I'm here for you! Come and get me!"
The berserkers approached quickly.
"I may be caught in your foul trap, but I'll never give up! Never surrender! I'll..."
The berserkers ran right past him.
"Hey!" the boy cried, turning and trying to grab them, pull them back to him. "You're doing this all wrong! You're supposed to be fighting the brave hero!" he cried. "You're screwing up my big death scene! Get back here!"
* * *
Wiping tears from her eyes as she ran, Shadow Lina prayed for Jeffrey's safety, but hearing them behind her again, she knew the end was near.
Not expecting any response, she cried out.
"HELP! SOMEBODY HELP!"
* * *
Sylphiel let go of Vanya's arm and fell three feet to the bottom of the gorge. The two were entering more rocky country now, the base of the Singing Valleys. This part of the forest was criss-crossed with shallow, narrow gorges where small animals, including fairly large rattlesnakes, made their home.
Above her, Vanya suddenly stopped and looked back behind them.
"Miss Vanya?" Sylphiel asked.
The kunoichi stared backward for another second, bit her lip and stood up.
"Dammit!" she swore under her breath. Like a shot, she was gone again.
"Miss Vanya!? What is it?!"
* * *
The shadow tripped on a rock at the shore of the river and fell face first into the water. Sputtering, she climbed to her feet and continued to run. When she was halfway to the other side, she looked up and saw a nightmare.
More of those creatures were coming from that direction. She looked back and saw the ones chasing her emerging from the trees.
Shadow Lina did the only she could do.
She started biting her nails.
A shadow fell over her, and she looked up to see one of the reptiles had started to cross the river and was almost to her.
The berserker hissed and raises his club as the red head cringed and fell to one knee, closing her eyes. As she knelt, something new came into view..
And flew right over the girl, swinging her katana through his throat.
Shadow Lina heard three distinct splashes. One was the head of the berserker hitting the water. The second was his body. And the third was Vanya landing in the water ahead of her.
"MISS VANYA!"
Vanya didn't answer. She lifted her right foot and pulled something from the hell of her boot. Turning, she flung the steel throwing star at the next berserker, who fell into the water with one of the four points embedded in his skull.
The ninja grabbed the shadow's hand and began dragging her downstream as more berserkers entered the river after them.
* * *
Unless Amelia had seen it herself, she wouldn't have believed it. Despite all the bluster, Adara was simply a marvel shot. Arrows rained down, striking attacking and fleeing berserkers alike, at a pace the princess had never seen before.
She shook herself out of her reverie and locked her arm around a berserker's throat, swinging herself over his body behind him, and jerking her arms to the side until she heard a sickening "snap!" The reptile's body fell limp from her arms. Nearby, Gourry was taking on five more berserkers with little effort. He was determined to keep them off Lina's trail until the sorceress had a chance to get away.
Then something happened, and that hope evaporated.
Amelia turned as she heard it.
A white flame flew into the sky from the direction of the river and exploded.
"Distress flare," she breathed.
Gourry was running past her a second later.
"LINA!"
* * *
Two more berserkers fell face first into the water, blood turning the brown water a sickly black. Without thinking, Vanya turned her attention to the next opponent, parrying two sword thrusts and running her katana through his chest. The creature screamed and grabbed hold of the exposed blade of her sword with both hands to hold her there until his friends arrived. Without an ounce of indecision, in a pattern hammered into her through years of training, Vanya pulled her knife with her left hand and sliced it across the reptile's throat. It gagged and fell backwards into the water with the others.
Three more approached.
Behind her, Shadow Lina finished chanting and sent another white flare into the sky, exploding above them. Unfortunately, it seemed to have the opposite effect of the one intended.
More berserkers were running their way.
"Forget it! Run!" she screamed at her.
The shadow and the ninja ran downstream a full four steps before another berserker caught up to them. Vanya turned and slashed downwards. The lizard screamed as he fell off his now amputated legs.
They ran another four feet, but this as the four feet to the shore.
Shadow Lina turned and pointed at the water. "FREEZE BRID!"
A blue light shot from her hands and hit the water, turning the entire river for a hundred yards in either direction into ice. The berserkers crossing the river after them suddenly found themselves trapped waist-deep in ice.
But still more were coming.
Vanya twisted past one berserker's thrust and slashed out, snapping the tendons behind it's knees. The creature fell to the ground, and the ninja finished it off by slicing its throat open.
Other reptiles were braving the ice to move towards them. Shadow Lina lashed out with a Diem Wind spell and blew them back to the other shore.
Vanya was a firm believer in Murphy's Law, and seeing them do this well, she really should've known what would happen next.
But she was too busy to see the flash of green in the trees above them.
Too busy to see the drawn knife.
And too busy until the very last second to look up and see the green kunoichi leap down from the trees and slice downward with her hand.
Vanya stood there for a second in shock. A foot in front of her, the green- veiled kunoichi was crouched down, a six inch tanto in her hand, with only a millimeter of the tip sporting any red tinge at all.
"MISS VANYA!"
She looked down and saw her leather arm sliced open from the top of her chest to her thigh in an eighteen inch cut that was starting to bleed down her leg.
As the green kunoichi rose to her feet, Vanya fell to her knees. The veiled-woman turned toward the shadow and stepped forward..
A step that turned into a lurch as Vanya screamed and buried her katana into the back of the woman's thigh.
The green-kunoichi twisted sharply, wrenching the katana out of Vanya's hand and sending it skittering across the ice. She raised her tanto and lashed out, falling forward on her wounded leg and crashing into Vanya.
Vanya felt the knife enter her stomach, but grabbed hold of the other woman with all her strength and turned, sending them both tumbling toward the water. The two hit the ice hard and rose to their feet, knives in their hands.
The green kunoichi took two swipes at her, connect with the second and opening another cut across Vanya's chest. Vanya, however, took the wound in order to grab the ninja's arm. Vanya looked into familiar eyes and her blood ran cold to hear her own voice speak to her.
"What do you have without your sword," the green kunoichi taunted.
Vanya grit her teeth. "Rock skull," she hissed back, and slammed her head into the woman's nose. Then, as the ninja blinked the daze out of her eyes, Vanya lashed out with her foot, snapping the veiled woman's knee.
Before the veiled woman could recover, Vanya grabbed her by the hair and slammed her face into the ice as hard as she could. Her face met the ice with a sickening crush again and again and again. The ice below them cracked, and blood seeped into the water below.
And the green kunoichi stopped moving.
Vanya gasped and rolled onto her back. Blood covered the ice and most of it was hers.
"Miss Vanya!"
She turned her head and saw Shadow Lina running toward her. The shadow smiled triumphantly...
Right up until a familiar figure grabbed her from behind.
The shadow screamed and turned to her attacker.
Gandrav snarled at her.
Shadow Lina fainted.
"Well, that wasn't too hard," Gandrav noted, tossing the sorceress to a nearby berserker, who promptly tied her hands together and stuffed her into a sack. "Better get going," the werewolf told it. "That's precious cargo."
"Gan..." Vanya began, but quickly ran out of breath. She knew just from the pain and her difficulty breathing that one of the ninja's cuts had punctured her lung.
The berserkers carried Shadow Lina down river as Gandrav strolled over to Vanya and snarled down at her. He hefted his axe as he looked down on her with contempt.
"Lord Scarrin always warned us about the threat of the enemy within our own ranks," the werewolf snarled. He lifted the axe and shook his head. "Funny," he told her. "I never thought it would've been you."
Vanya stared up at him hatefully. She wouldn't meet death with her eyes closed.
Gandrav hefted his axe over his head and suddenly fell over as a blond man slammed his full weight into him.
The werewolf grabbed the swordsman by the throat and snarled ferociously before throwing him into a nearby tree, snapping the trunk. The tree fell over into the river with a loud splash.
Gandrav leapt forward and grabbed the dazed man again, slamming his fist into his face, then bringing his knee up into the man's side. He turned and threw him again, back onto the ice near where he dropped his sword.
The man saw his chance and reached out, grabbing his weapon and rising quickly to his feet before the werewolf could reach him. Gandrav drew his own short sword and charged.
The swordsman parried two thrusts with techniques Vanya knew as familiar, then, with a move that caught Gandrav by surprise, he buried the sword into the werewolf's throat.
Gandrav snarled and stepped forward, impaling himself further on the weapon. He was close enough to the hilt now to read the words decoratively inscribed on the base of the blade.
RAZOR BLADE.
He looked up and saw the fury in Jeffrey's eyes right before the young man pulled the sword out and swung with all his strength.
The werewolf's head hit the ice near Vanya's hand and slid away.
Jeffrey took several deep breaths and put his hand on his side where Gandrav had kneed him. Then, seeming to remember where he was, he stumbled toward Vanya.
"Jeffrey," she gasped. "They..Took....Her.."
"Miss Vanya," he croaked out. "Just hang on, okay?" He looked at her wounds and bit his lip. "Oh Cepheid," he whispered.
"It..." Vanya began. "Happens.."
The boy blinked tears out of his eyes and tried to speak past the lump forming in his throat. "You're going to be okay, Miss Vanya. We'll figure something out. I...I need you to help me rescue Lina."
"Jeffrey," she panted. "You...were..right..." She swallowed painfully. "I'm...sorry.." She took his arm in her own trembling hand. "Aeka...would be...proud..to know..her technique...." She winced. "Passed...to you.."
Jeffrey began hyperventilating. He had heard words like this before. They were in all the plays and books he had read as a child. It was always at this point where he had felt such a thrill. The hero was coming into his own, had surpassed the teacher. But now all he felt was a cold hand squeezing his heart.
Vanya was dying.
All the words all the heroes had ever said in all the books and all the plays he had ever read or seen entered his mind, but all he could come up with to say now was...
"Don't die." He blinked back tears and whispered it again. "Don't die."
Vanya smiled at him. "It would..take a miracle..." she wheezed. "To...save me...now.."
Her vision began to dim. Jeffrey was now enveloped in a black haze. His voice seemed very far away. She could feel the warmth leaving her body.
And then...
There was a light, but it wasn't a tunnel. This threw her for a second because she had always heard that a bright tunnel led you to heaven.
This light was walking right toward her. It cut through the haze, filling her vision. Jeffrey seemed to see it as well and stepped away from her.
The light knelt toward her and reached out, placing its hand on her cheek.
"Oh, sister," a familiar voice said. "What happed to you?"
"Sylphiel," Vanya whispered.
Here, on the precipice of death, Sylphiel's astral aura was like a phosphorescent flare, lighting up the world around her. Vanya heard her chant a few words, and she could see some of that light flow from Sylphiel's hand and into her, swarming toward her wounds. The ninja gasped as she felt strange sensations wash across her body as it knit itself back to normal.
The haze began to lift, and with it the light disappeared, until she could clearly see Sylphiel kneeling over her, a look of frank concern on her face.
The sorceress saw Vanya coming around and smiled. "I knew you wouldn't leave us," she said. "Not until we find Zelgadis Dear."
Vanya nodded and looked past Sylphiel to see Gourry, Amelia and Adara emerge from the trees on the opposite side of the river.
* * *
Gourry panted as he took in the scene. Whatever had happened here, he knew they had missed it. He scanned the river as far as he could and closed his eyes.
"Where are you, Lina?"
* * *
Lina turned back and could still see the hill in the distance. She had managed to evade the red-clad berserkers...
"But so what?!" her mind screamed at her. "You left him! You LEFT him AGAIN!"
For the first time in her life, Lina was genuinely confused. Her words to Gourry had seemed so sure, so certain, and that certainty had evaporated in a second. At that point, it had been HIS faith that she was right that had her leave him and go after Zelgadis alone.
Alone.
It was then that she realized it.
She was alone.
For the first time in four years, there was no one in her party.
Suddenly, the sorceress was feeling very foolish.
She looked to the north. The Singing Valleys were in plain sight, and past them, the Kataart Mountains.
Looking south, she could see the hill where she had left her friends to fight alone. If she went north, she could save Zelgadis. If she went south, she could help her friends fight those strange berserkers who hadn't even flinched at her magic.
"What the hell do I do now?" she asked, falling to the ground. She hadn't been on her own in so long, she couldn't remember the feeling. Now she realized why she had surrounded herself with Amelia, Zelgadis, Sylphiel...Gourry... in the first place.
"What the hell do I do now?" she asked again, closing her eyes. She waited for herself to come up with an answer, and, to her frank surprise, the answer came from somewhere else.
"If you're not going to save the world or do SOMETHING, then you might as well lie down and die," a mental image of Xellos with a blond streak in his hair said somberly. "But that isn't going to make anything RIGHT."
Lina opened her eyes and looked back at the hill, then towards the mountains.
Setting her jaw, she took the first step.
North.
And then she tripped.
"Dammit," she muttered, rubbing her knee. "What the hell did I..." She blinked as the thing she tripped over rose from the ground and yawned.
"No," Lina gasped. "Please...It...It can't be..."
"Well! That was certainly a restful nap!" The obstruction turned and blinked at her. "Lina chan!"
"NaNaNaNaNa...NAGA!!"
Naga put her hands on her hips and grinned. "Tagging along AGAIN, I see! Very well, if you're really so bent on helping me save Stony, I GUESS you can come along! OOOOOOOOOHOHOHOHOHOHOHOHO!!! OOOOOOOHOHOHO!!!"
"Maybe I really should just lie down and die," Lina muttered.
"OOOOOOOOOHOHOHOHOHOHO!!!"
* * *
Author's Notes:
The dream sequence is a tribute to "The Big Lebowski," a movie with a special place in my heart. The song, "Just Dropped In to See What Condition My Condition Was In," is by Kenny Rogers and the First Edition.
