Chapter 2

Headaches and Greetings

Sam Beckett had been on some crazy leaps, some really bad leaps, and then there were the good ones. This fell under bizarrely crazy. His head was pounding and when he couldn't open his eyes he realized it was because there was something surrounding him... EVERYWHERE. He couldn't even breathe. Which is when he began to panic...

"MMFF!!" his cry was muffled and for a moment he wondered if he was going to die buried in what felt like dirt, before he felt a very strong pair of arms grab him by the sides, and lift upwards, saving him from his sandy death. Sam sputtered out the mouthful of grit and wiped his blinded eyes as he went into small coughing fits from the sand that had gone into his nostrils and down his throat.

"Thanks." he sputtered. Not noticing the strange looks he had earned with that one word, he brushed off the sand and was finally able to regain some of his eyesight back. Only to have the sun blind him as hot wind blew against his skin making his lips and mouth feel parched from the desert sand.

"Daijoubu Filia-san?" the little black haired girl said to him.

"What?" He asked in English.

"Nani?" the blonde haired man holding him up by under his arms looked at him in confusion. Sam automatically then began gathering something was off; he looked to the group surrounding him. There was a red head in a flashy magenta outfit that surprisingly suited her and he even noticed she had red eyes, which was just a bit of a shock. The black-haired girl wearing her white outfit with a cape was normal enough, but what really surprised him was the man, wearing the ivory outfit. At least, he THOUGHT he was a man... He had blue skin, with darker pebbles or rocks of some sort on his body, and had violet hair. Where the hell was he?

"Daijoubu?" the black haired girl repeated.

He looked up to the sky and let out his held breath sounding absolutely pitiful as he said the only thing he could think of; "Oh boy..."

"WHERE AM I?!" Filia screamed once more for what must have been the thousandth time in an hour. No one had replied at all! She screamed in fury than slammed her fist on the table. Which cracked in the center, straight down through the glass. "Oh no!" she gasped. She hadn't meant to do that! "Sorry!" she called out.

As she fretted over the cracked table Al and Tina were busy gaping in horror.

"She just..." Tina started.

"With her bare... I'm not going in there Gooshie!" Al informed his friend. "I'd sooner face Charles Manson bare handed than that... PERSON... Have we even figured out where the hell SAM is?!"

"I've got Donna and the others working on it, we're close to finding him but even Ziggy is saying he's not anywhere at anytime on Earth." Gooshie replied.

"At least I got her to activate her program, she's suffering PMS or something..."

"I knew Sam should never have given that computer Barbara Strissands personality!" he groaned.

"The personality shouldn't have been female." Gooshie corrected. "Too damn 'emotional' and temperamental. It's scary sometimes."

Tina glared at them, "Oh shut up."

"Don't you start getting huffy, I've already dealt with one pissy female today, I don't need another." Gooshie replied.

At this, she promptly told him where he could stick his chauvinistic ways, and gave him several suggestions as to how. After she stormed out of the room even Al was surprised, "I didn't think that it'd be possible to stick something into a place like that, in such an unusual manner..."

"I don't think it is possible." Gooshie replied. "And I'm not even a chauvinist. All joking aside Ziggy's informed us that 'that'," he pointed to 'Sam' who was actually Filia, "Is female. So someone's gonna have to go in and well... talk to her. And I'm seriously considering sending in one of the girls. That way she may not feel so stressed or threatened."

Al nodded, "I'll go help Donna with Ziggy. We have to find Sam, God only knows if he still remembers how to speak Japanese, cause that's probably where he landed, in a place where they all speak something other then English."

"Obviously." Gooshie rolled his eyes and Al left to aid his comrades find his lost friend.

As Al left, Gooshie heard a high pitch scream emit from the speakers that was connected to the room, which was impressive considering it was a male voice doing the screaming he had heard. He spun around to the television that was connected to the camera that was recording her and saw her looking into the reflective surface of the table, a split second later she passed out. "Oh dear." He murmured.

"Oh boy?" the blonde haired man repeated slowly and carefully in English with an unusual accent.

"Never mind-" Sam didn't bother finishing the sentence, the looks he was getting were beginning to worry him. 'Ok think. What are they speaking?' he asked himself. As he tried arguing this within his mind he noticed for the first time an odd man standing behind the group surrounding him. Sam caught a flash of red and brown, and saw the man was holding a staff. He had deep amethyst hair, his eyes were closed, and he was wearing odd clothing.

The man who he had been looking at said something to someone, who turned out to be the red head for she was the one who replied back. As he listened to them it felt as if the gaps in his memory were slowly beginning to get 'jogged'. He searched his memory desperately for those wisps of memory and finally spoke out in the same language as them, "I'm sorry- I'm all right-" he said this slowly, and in an unsure manner.

This seemed to calm the group a bit, "What was wrong? Why weren't you making sense?" the black-haired girl asked.

"Umm... this isn't my first language I grew up with." He replied hoping that would work.

"Oh... you mean your first language was probably something having to do with 'Ryuzoku' speech right?" Amelia asked.

"Ry what? Umm sure..." he murmured.

"Are you sure you're all right?" the blue skinned man asked him. "You sound really unsure right now. That blast we got attacked with knocked you out... It must have been pretty bad to daze you."

"Yah, you even have a funny accent now." The man who was still supporting him replied.

"Oh? I don't know why." He lied, of course he had a funny accent, he wasn't raised in Japan, he grew up in Indianna.

"Well Filia let's get going I wanna sit in the shade and talk to both you and Xellos!" Lina said.

"Who?" Sam asked dazed.

"Him," Lina pointed behind herself. Sam tried to look but his vision went blurry

and he faltered. The man picked him up in both arms and shook his head.

"I guess she got it pretty good, she's still dizzy." He commented.

'I'm FEMALE?!' Sam cried to himself, 'Not again!'

After a bit of walking (none of which Sam had to do, the blonde seemed quite willing to carry Sam seeing as he wasn't feeling well) they sat by some rocks and all sat down. Luckily Sam's headache had dimmed down considerably. Now that he had a good look at the group he actually was still in shock over how unusual they all were.

"So first things first," Lina replied, (he knew her name for the man, who had been carrying him, Gourry he believed, had spoken to her along the way.) "Introductions! Xellos already knows us, but he doesn't know you, so, Xellos, this is Filia, a priestess of the Fire Dragon King. Filia, this is Xellos you already know he's a Mazoku."

Sam resisted the urge to ask what 'The Fire Dragon King' was and what religion it was related too. So instead of asking questions that would give him away Sam looked to this Xellos, everyone was sitting down in Indian style pretty much, but Xellos was sitting on both legs folded beneath him. Sam's stomach twisted slightly as he looked at him. Something was off about this man his mind whispered. Of course something was off, as he thought about the word 'Mazoku' his mind supplied him with the answer, 'Evil Race'. Meaning he was either some kind of evil being (Sam had a hard time believing in such things except for the fact he actually had met the devil) or this man was a part of some cult. Sam wasn't sure which he preferred.

"It's... uhh... a pleasure to meet you Mr. Xellos." He had both his hands folded in his lap and bowed slightly, remembering that it was very polite and that it showed honor and respect when you bowed. He was hoping if he was polite enough they'd forgive him any strange behavior. Hopefully Filia was a polite person. As he sat back up Zelgadis, (he had once more found out his name through Amelia because the two had been talking.) was giving him a strange look.

Xellos' expression was befuddled. Wasn't this girl one of the dragon races own? Surely she would have been taught about him, and as a number one rule been trained to detest demons like himself. And surely being a priestess she would have sensed his aura of evil, she had in the market place, and in fact she had gone livid. But now she was not only polite, but also was showing RESPECT, with no amount of fear, hate, or suspicion. This was turning his curiosity all the more. She should have known who he was... A dragon respecting a Mazoku with no fear... Especially HIM. Ignoring the confusion in his mind he gave a smile to her and nodded, "As it is you, Miss Filia."

'Filia' smiled back and turned to Lina. "So what is it we need to discuss?" (s)he asked.

"Well Xellos needs to tell us everything he knows for once in his damn life, in DETAIL..."

Sam paused, "Would there be any reason for him not to? I don't see why he wouldn't-"

"You have no idea Filia." Zelgadis muttered sourly. "He has a tendency to tell us information or stories, and than will leave out the most important part... or he'll twist things around. So he never out right lies to us, but he still ends up deceiving us."

"Why would you do that?" he looked at Xellos who smiled 'innocently'.

"Because he's an evil monster!" Amelia said.

'Filia' looked utterly confused. "So he's not trust worthy?"

"Only if you're suicidal." Zelgadis muttered darkly.

"Then..." Sam hesitated to ask such a rude question in front of the man, but the others seemed to have no problem expressing their true feelings about Xellos. "-why do you stay with him?".

"Because Lina's suicidal." Zelgadis quipped..

Lina gave him a dark glare. "Am not-" before an argument could break out Sam interrupted them.

"So if you want him to give you everything thing he knows in detail, shouldn't you also say, 'I want you to tell us everything you know in detail, and truth, no shadiness or deceptive half lies?" he asked. 'But if you acknowledge the fact he doesn't tell you everything, why are you even bothering?' Sam kept that thought to himself.

"Truth would be a good thing." Gourry replied.

"Ok fine, what she said Xellos. Tell now!"

Xellos face twitched, "You know it's rather rude to speak about me as if I'm not even here." He pouted than continued, "As far as I know the enemy has three objectives. First, to kill Lina."

Sam raised his eyebrows, "Why on earth would they want to do that?"

"They blame me for killing Lord Gaav. When in all actuality I only did damage to him. If they want to blame someone for killing Gaav they should go drag Phibrizzo's ass outta the netherworlds to gain their damn revenge. Cause Phibrizzo was the one who annihilated Gaav."

"I see," Sam really didn't see. He was just confused. The names were so odd Sam almost thought they were words he just didn't know. He couldn't wait until Al would show up and explain what was going on. "What's the second one Xellos?"

"The second was is to get Goru Nova, the sword of light." Xellos gestured with a lavender glove to Gourry.

"Wait a minute, Goru Nova? Is that your people's dialect?" Lina got up in his face and for some strange reason a large bead of water (it's a sweat drop!) dropped down his head, startling Sam.

"Oh no, Goru Nova is the sword of lights proper name."

"Wait-a-second! This sword has been in my family for generations... In other words, it's MINE!" Gourry hugged the sword to himself protectively.

"That's not the problem here Gourry!" Lina snapped.

"Oh don't worry Gourry, I recognize your ownership of it!" he smiled slightly, and muttered so low no one, save one heard him, "While it's to my advantage at least..."

Sam, who was pretty much sitting next to him since Lina had moved, looked to Xellos suspiciously, no wonder they were so wary around him... But why did she seem to trust him if she knew this?

"What was that you were mumbling about?" she snapped.

"Oh nothing! The third is that they are gathering a huge army to search for other weapons more powerful then the sword of light."

The group looked at him in shock save Sam who sat there confused.

"Now that you mention it, remember those guys who were breaking into the village? It seemed like they were searching for something." Amelia stated.

Sam sighed, letting out a breath, he was utterly confused, before he could let that get to him too much Xellos nodded in agreement saying, "It's true, I've seen them and their desperation when they were attacking a sand village today!"

Everyone looked at him wide eyed as Lina spoke, "What happened to the village!?"

"Well follow me... They're a mile to the east..." they stood up to follow him when...

"I can't get up!" Sam cried out in surprise as he tried to stand but was pinned from the left

leg down...

"Why is that?" Amelia went over to 'her' and bent down.

"I don't know..." he lifted up his pink dress (he HATED wearing dresses) and when he reached above knee level was surprised to find the mace strapped to his masculine thigh by a garter belt. "What the hell is ---" he trailed off. He hadn't really bothered with it before, for some strange reason he hadn't noticed the mace at all... even when he sat down it didn't make the dress bulge or anything, but the minute he tried to stand on his own he was taken down by the mace. He simply hadn't really known it before because he hadn't had a chance to stand until just then.

"I don't see why that should be stopping you." Lina stated. "You've ALWAYS had

that thing strapped to your leg."

Sam immediately began working it off, "Well I can't carry this around its way too heavy." He muttered. He undid the clasp and said mace nearly crushed his leg as he let it fall to the ground with a solid thud. While he may have seen masculine, and slightly hairy legs, what everyone else saw...

"Gee Filia you have nice legs." Gourry commented which he then got bashed over the head by Lina for being a pervert.

"Umm thanks-" he quickly pulled the garter off and found out it made of iron. "I'll be damned..." he muttered. "Can anyone carry this for me? I really couldn't do it, that thing ways at LEAST a hundred and fifty pounds..."

"I can Miss Filia." Xellos said.

"Fine, then take it." (s)he stated, and stood up. He bent over and picked it up, the garter along with it, and placed it into his sub dimension pocket.

"Well than, let's get on our way." Xellos stated.

Zelgadis looked to Filia with a frown and held back his questions, something was really off with Filia but he couldn't exactly place what... All he had were hints. Waiting for another time to continue with such questions he followed the group.

A Mile Later...

"See for yourself." Xellos gestured to the burning town that still had little people screaming and running about.

"OH MR. XELLOS... HOW COULD YOU?!" Amelia shouted at him.

"Well if Valgaav himself isn't there, then it doesn't concern me, now does it?" he stated.

"You know you sure would work great in government politics..." Lina grumbled.

Sam was angry as well. "Excuse me Xellos, but this Valgaav person or not... It's INHUMANE to leave anyone in trouble and not help them! Especially if it's in your power to do so!" his angered voice held a tone that Xellos rarely heard directed at him. Disgust. Something Xellos found he didn't especially like. Outright anger, yes, hate, and fear, peachy. But this disgust thing disturbed him. He was proud of who and what he was, it wasn't very nice being treated like something low and

disgusting.

"I have my own orders to follow and breaking them could get me killed, or even worse, demoted. Therefore, I listen to my master and I just do my job. I am a DEMON, I don't help people." He informed 'her'.

Sam looked at him, "There's no such thing as de-" Xellos' eyebrows rose at what he believed her next word would be. No such thing as demons? Was that what she'd nearly said?

Before Sam could knot that particular noose he was cut off by a very familiar, but scratchy voice, "Not in this world Sam."

Sam spun around to face his friend, "AL!" he cut himself off as he realized one of two things, one, Al was flickering in and out occasionally, and two the group couldn't see Al, therefore, they would think he had gone completely mad and think that he was just talking to thin air.

"Al?" Xellos repeated. He could sense something in the air, as if there was something there but he just couldn't place it for some reason. The moment he felt that change he thought he saw something shift, and it was Filia... like something went through her and made her look all phased out. As if he'd been looking at a reflection in a body of water that had suddenly rippled.

"Umm... nothing... uhh we really need to help this village right?" he answered.

"RIGHT!" the group chorused, save Sam and the demon.

"Let's go!" Lina shouted, and three of them cast ray wings and hurled off in the air as Gourry ran after them at not so normal speeds. Sam's mouth couldn't help but drop.

"So Filia, how's the Fire Dragon King these days?" Xellos asked lightly. Sam gave a start, "Pardon?"

"Fire Dragon King... Hmmm he's the uhh, lord that Filia is a priestess to." Al answered.

Xellos repeated his question and Sam stuttered, "He... is uhh doing fine..."

"Would you mind telling me who this Al is?"

"Friend of the family..." Sam answered with a nervous laugh, "I guess the sun is making me see weird things... well... I'm just gonna go after them..." he turned and ran down the slope making sure not to trip over the pink dress that fit over his body and still fell to his ankles, the boots he was wearing made him feel completely off balance. For some odd reason, every time he leaped, the clothes would fit, he had no idea why... and honestly, wasn't about to complain. The white cloak he wore was of a strange material and he had no idea what the jewel on him was, but as his mind reminded him, this was no time to ponder the clothes he was wearing.

"Who the hell am I, where am I, and I would like to know WHAT am I!" I've seen a demon, a guy with blue skin-"

"You are Filia Ul Copt, priestess of the Fire Dragon King, you're about two hundred and fifty years old, you have gorgeous blonde hair, and baby blue eyes to kill for, man if you weren't her, I'd hit on her..."

"AL!" Sam snapped. That was the bad part he hated, the people around him could not see him for who he was because Filia's aura (and everyone else he had ever leaped into aura's) had always covered the real him. But the worse part was not even AL could see him for SAM. He always saw the... illusion.

"Oh right... She has a very VERY short temper, feisty, I like that in a woman..."

"You'll like anything about any girl as long as she's female!" Sam snapped.

Al started, indignant, "That is NOT true. Anyway if I may continue... She utterly hates demons, went on and on about how she couldn't believe Lina Inverse got the 'Beast Master Xellos' involved in their travels. She doesn't know him cause she hasn't met him... well you have, but she all ready hates the guy."

"Ok, so what time is it?"

"Well Filia told us some weird thing like it's been one thousand years since the changing of priestess' and so on but I can't tell you. It looks like you're in a medieval time though cause she didn't even know what the toilette was. And the reason we can't give you a date is because you're not even on earth." Al said with a sigh.

"What?" he hissed.

"We can't figure it out, we don't know how you got here. But we're lucky we even found your signal for me to talk to you. It took all we had. About two and a half-hours of working, and during that time Donna spoke to Filia gathering everything she could. Our psychiatrist being on vacation and everything... It seems she is with Lina Inverse and this group of people because of some prophecy of a Dark Star. She says she was there to get them to the Temple of the Fire Dragon King because she has to bring them before the Dragon elders. At first we thought she was nuts but you wouldn't believe what she could do. She ended up breaking the glass table in there, which will cost one thousand dollars to

replace, and she set off this weird... she said it was a 'spell', inside the room... it's a mess. Anyway she has powers but you don't... unless this was one of those scrambled leaps."

"Ok..." he muttered.

"And Ziggy's trying to figure out why you're here."

"So am I Al... what happened to Zelgadis? Is he human?"

"Yes he was human, but some schmuck called Rezo the Red Priest turned him into something called a 'Chimera' and well he's now one third demon, human, and brow demon from what she said." Al shook his head. "You ended up in a weird place Sam."

"Tell me about it, listen, you go back, preserve power and come back when you have more info or need to check on me."

"Right." With that Al hit a button and a door like entrance lit up, he stepped into it, and hitting another button on his little hand control unit that was connected to Ziggy, the door closed leaving Sam alone. With that, Sam ran the rest of the way to the Village in need.

Two lil notes: One, No one can see Al, there's a reason Xellos can't see Sam for the man he is, and a reason why he can't see Al. Two, when Sam leaps into people, he looks, sounds, and feels like that person. And Vice versa... They look sound and feel like him... anyway, COMMENTS PLEASE!