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

Chapter Eighteen

Lina didn't want to open her eyes. She didn't know what happened. She knew she had begun to chant the spell to call on the Giga Slave, but she didn't know if she'd completed the spell or not. She didn't want to know. It didn't really matter anyway.

She had been in the mountains, and the snow had blown in white crystals against the black sky. Now she could feel heat in a wound on her chest and bright light breaking across her eyes. Perhaps Dynast had gotten what he wanted and the world was now gone. Maybe the power of the Dark Lord had cracked her to crumbs. From the heat she hoped she was in mazoku hell and would be able to rest now, but that couldn't be what happened. However, she couldn't have died if she could still feel her wounds.

"Open your eyes Lina," she heard a familiar voice say to her in the most commanding tone.

She obeyed.

At first the light was too much for her dilated irises and she couldn't focus on the person who had spoken to her. She knew one thing – it was not Dynast. It took a moment more, but at last she could see who it was. It almost looked like Zelgadis, but it could not be him. She knew the man was a mazoku and not a chimera. There was too much power bursting from his aura to be a mere chimera – not to mention his smooth skin and long hair. She closed her eyes. It had been too much to hope for.

"Have we met before?" she asked wearily, thinking he at least looked familiar to her.

"You don't know me?" he asked callously.

"Perhaps not," she answered, jolting herself up into a sitting position. "Where are we?" She was having a difficult time thinking straight.

"The Desert of Destruction," the man answered, before he got up and strode towards the window. "Do you really not know who I am?"

"When I first opened my eyes, I thought you looked like a friend of mine. That's all. You obviously know me if you're able to address me by my first name. How do you know me?"

At first he didn't answer, and when he finally did speak he didn't answer her question. "I am the General of Hellmaster Phibrizzo."

She whistled as if impressed. "That's got to be a good job. I assume this is Hellmaster's castle then? No wonder the place looks like a tomb," she said examining the room. "There's just one thing . . . I didn't think that Hellmaster had a priest or a general. I thought they were both killed during the War of the Monster's Fall. So, tell me – who are you really?"

"I didn't realize you knew so much about Hellmaster," he drawled. "I had no idea you were so intimate with mazoku, Lina. I should have known you did, since you dealt mostly in black magic." As he continued his voice became bitter, but Lina could not see his face now. He kept his back to her. "To think I kept so much of my appearance so that you would know me when you saw me. Tell me Lina, who do I remind you of?"

Lina's mouth suddenly felt very dry as she considered the possibility that . . .

"Zel?" she blurted.

Now he turned his face toward her. She recognized him immediately. He looked almost human, but not really like himself at all. Then all of a sudden she wanted to scream – the irony of it was too much for her to bear.

She had been foolish enough to follow Dynast into the deepest, darkest, coldest part of the world because she had found herself in love with Zelgadis. She would have loved Dynast forever, if he had stayed Zelgadis - for it was Zelgadis that she fell in love with. It was his face, his voice, his intellect, his magic – him! Even the chimera aspect of him she had loved, and when Dynast had shed the façade she lost her only chance to be with the real Zelgadis. Mazoku could not love and she could not disobey her master. Now, she was with the real man – the real Zel – and he had changed himself, so that he was no longer the person she loved.

She shook her head. It didn't really matter. She was a mazoku now and couldn't love him anyway. That's what she kept telling herself.

"Why did you do it?" she asked at last. "What did he offer you so that you became his general Zel?"

"You," Zel said without emotion.

"And what made you think that I was Hellmaster's for the giving?" Lina asked hotly.

"Don't act like you were in a state to make that kind of choice on your own. If I hear one more word like that – I'll rip your throat out," he said very seriously. "You know perfectly well that you were completely out of control. You'd be running back to Dynast this very minute if I had not . . ." Here Zelgadis stopped as if he was too uncomfortable to continue. But his eyes betrayed him as they strayed to the wound on her chest.

Now Lina looked down to examine it. It was where Dynast had thrust his dagger into her back, but now the stain was different. It was larger, deeper, and needed to heal all over again. "You did this?" she asked angrily.

He just looked back at her, and didn't even have to say, "What was I supposed to do?".

"What the hell?" she yelled at him. "Let me ask you one question. How are we ever going to be together like we dreamt about being together that one night in the inn? It's impossible. You're not human. I'm not human. The only way we seem to be able to get together is by drawing blood. That's not what I dreamt about!"

"There has to be a way," Zel said and he cleared his throat, not that his throat needed to be cleared. "Hellmaster has asked me to make you an offer. It seems that he would like you to join us and become . . . his priestess."

Lina stared.

"I didn't realize that was his intent when he made me his general, but it seems to me that he had his eyes on you all along," Zel said bitterly.

"So, he wants both of us?"

Zel nodded gravely.

"And that's your idea of us 'being together'?"

"Do you have a better idea?" he barked.

"How about if you calm down?"

"I'm calm!" he exclaimed.

"Right," Lina said rolling her eyes.

"Lina, I did all of this for you. I became a mazoku for you! I knelt down and allowed Phibrizzo to drive the Sword of Light through my spine. I was thinking about you and how it was the only way for us to be together. It would be a hard thing, but if you asked me to run away with you – I would do it. If you wanted me to go serve Dynast and betray Hellmaster – I would do it – whatever you wanted!" He said in his own deep voice; his aqua eyes seemed to burn with impossible feeling.

"Isn't your loyalty to Hellmaster strong enough to stop you from doing all of those things?"

"My memory of my feelings for you is strong enough," he said passionately.

"You're going to get killed if you keep talking like that about your master," Lina said.

Zel ignored her comment and asked, "Do you not love me anymore?" his hand over his heart.

Lina didn't think he made the gesture on purpose. "Do you really want me that much?"

"I do."

Author's Notes: Thanks everyone who's still following this. I know - it's been an awfully long road. Please review!