Disclaimer: I don't own any of the characters. They are the property of Hajime Kanzaka and Shoko Yoshinaka.

Chapter Fifteen

To Wish Impossible thing - by The Cure

Lyrics – Italics and Centre

Any Narrative – Black

Remember how it used to be
When the sun would fill the sky
Remember how we used to feel
Those days would never end
Those days would never end

Maybe it was the steel hilts in her hands, or maybe it was his voice in her head, but for some unknown reason – Lina couldn't get Zelgadis off her mind. He seemed have taken permanent residence in her thoughts. It was strange – at least to her. She kept telling herself that all those thoughts belonged to a person that she had been forced to leave behind. She hadn't been able to take anything of her old self with her. Yet, it had always been her philosophy to slash and burn memories and mistakes that happened in the past. Maybe she wasn't so different after all.

Still, she believed that Zelgadis was someone she was going to have to leave in her old life. There was only Dynast left for her.

Remember how it used to be
When the stars would fill the sky
Remember how we used to dream
Those nights would never end
Those nights would never end

Now that she was a mazoku, Dynast made no secret of his ambitions – and he was ambitious. He wanted her to be strong; strong enough to cast the Giga Slave repeatedly. Lina remembered Sylphiel's warning about the spell having the capability to destroy everything in their world, but somehow she found that she didn't really care if the whole world went down in flames. It didn't matter if she couldn't have what she wanted, and Zelgadis was lost to her.

It was the sweetness of your skin
It was the hope of all we might have been
That filled me with the hope to wish
Impossible things
To wish impossible things

She stood in the great hall with twin katanas in her hands. She wanted to work through her feelings until she could live with herself – the movement and methodology would help her. As things were, she felt incapable of existing as a mazoku. She, who had thrived on passion, was now exempt from all rational feeling and existed only to drive someone else's desires. It seemed too cruel. She had always been the leader and now was forced down the lane of fate – led by a master she had not chosen. Dynast had been so clever in deceiving her and trapping her.

She just kept on thinking that if she saw Zelgadis one more time, she could explain to him what happened to her and why their relationship was now impossible. She didn't like the idea of leaving him without a word. She thought hundreds of times that she should have gone to the inn to see him, but Dynast would not let her out of his sight until he had confirmed that Zelgadis had left the inn.

Lina shook her head. She was very muddled. She seemed to sit on the cusp of being a human or being a mazoku, but she could never seem to land on one side or the other. She couldn't be a human, but there were parts of her humanity that wouldn't leave her to be a mazoku. It was torture.

But now the sun shines cold
And all the sky is grey
The stars are dimmed by clouds and tears
And all I wish
Is gone away

She tried to keep herself concentrating on what lay ahead for her as a mazoku. She couldn't think. Obviously Dynast wanted her to cast the Giga slave repeatedly, but it seemed to Lina that his intention had nothing to do with preserving her, but instead of furthering his own will. Maybe she wouldn't live long enough to carve a life out for herself.

All I wish
Is gone away

She often wondered what Dynast planned to do with himself once everything he dreamed of came true and the answer she always came to seemed to numb her senses. The truth was; Dynast didn't care if he lived through it. He would be willing to go down in a burst of flame as long as that burst was big enough.

Then she thought about Zelgadis again.

She was going round in circles.

All I wish
Is gone away

Author's Notes: Jak convinced me to do a bridge chapter. Those of you who are up to speed with the story may not appreciate this, but the next planned chapter slingshots us into the final conflict, so he thought I should do a reflection chapter. So, those of you who just read from the beginning may enjoy this - it would probably be too much of a jolt to your systems to launch right into the finale. Anyway, thank you to all my reviewers! I love reviews!