Lina looked at the bed-bound princess with a look of hurt, but she quickly replaced it with a small scowl. "Hello to you too, Miss Grouchy." she muttered under her breath. She then clenched her hand into a fist and stepped forward with a look of determination. "Look, 'Amelia', we came a long way to see you again. We want some answers, so you can drop the gloom and doom. It's not you."
The princess Amelia continued to stare daggers at the wall, before diverting her attention to Lina. "You're one to talk, Miss Sissy. Last I saw you you ran away with your tail between your legs!"
Lina glanced over to Zelgadis to see he was staring in absolute shock at the princess. When he met her gaze she gestured, as if to say, "See what I mean?" to him. He stared wide-eyed at her before turning to look back to the princess.
Lina took a step forward, glaring at the princess. "You caught me unaware the last time!" Her fist shook with anger when she saw the bed-bound princess wasn't even looking at her, but was again glaring daggers at the wall. "Hey! Pay attention to me! Or is the wall giving you more bad vibes than me?"
The princess jumped, startled at Lina's last outburst. She glanced from Lina, back to her previous target: one wayward spirit that didn't know when she wasn't welcome. A smug grin spread across her face. They didn't know. She couldn't help but laugh to herself.
"What's she laughing about? You didn't tell a joke, did you Lina?" Gourry scratched his head, puzzled by the princess' reaction. Zelgadis just continued to stare in shock.
Lina made a face at Gourry.
The princess turned and stared back at Zelgadis. "And what's your problem, Ugly? Didn't anyone ever tell you it's rude to stare? Oh wait, no! Who'd want to have anything to do with something as ugly as you?"
Zelgadis nearly fell over backward hearing those words. How could Amelia say that? Even when she had been scared of him she hadn't been so harsh! He unconsciously wrapped his cloak about him and shrank back a bit, years of being feared and gawked at in horror fresh in his mind.
This was not lost on Amelia. "You!" Amelia leapt forward at her evil twin. "How could you say such things! Anyone that would say such hurtful things can't be anything but evil!"
The princess gave her a bored look. "Took you long enough. You're not very bright, are you? I mean, here you've gone and been evicted from your bo-" she suddenly slapped her hand over her mouth, feeling the gazes of Lina and Co. on her.
Lina had noticed the princess' gaze returning to the wall, and now she was talking to air! If she didn't know any better she'd have suspected that someone was there. She glanced over to see if her companions noticed this as well, but Gourry was still intently watching the princess, and Zelgadis had closed in on himself again.
Lina let out a sigh. "Guess it's up to me, then. So who're you talking to, 'Amelia'? Got yourself an invisible friend that's more interesting than me?"
"Like I'd say anything to you." The princess scowled.
"Ooh, someone getting defensive?" Lina scoffed. "Just who could it be that's more interesting than your own friends, eh? Or is it that you're not Amelia at all?" Lina pointed her finger accusingly at the princess.
The princess stared in shock at Lina. "W-what are you saying? How could I be anyone but Amelia?" She glanced about nervously, looking for any way out of the situation.
"I knew something wasn't right the last time we 'talked', and now that I've figured a few things out, I know for sure. You are NOT Amelia!" Lina grinned as she watched the princess sweat.
"Th-they weren't supposed to find out...what am I going to do-this, this changes everything!" The princess looked ready to leap out the window. Instead she called out, "Master! Master Xellos!"
Lina's smile fell. She heard the telltale sound of someone phasing into the room and looked up to see the smiling priest. Oh, crud...
Xellos beamed down from his perch near the bed. "Why, Miss Lina! I didn't expect you to come back so soon. And look, you brought everyone with you!" He waved at everyone in the room.
"Xellos! What is this all about? What did you do with Amelia?" Lina readied herself for a fight, hearing Gourry and Zelgadis taking battle stances as well.
Xellos shook his finger, the smile never leaving his face. "Now what makes you think I would do anything with Miss Amelia? She's right here, before you."
Zelgadis came forward. "That," he pointed at the princess, "is not Amelia. Not the Amelia we know. Not..." He glared up at the priest. "You did something to her, now talk!"
"Why, Mister Zelgadis, you know as well as I that that...is a secret!" Xellos chuckled to himself as he felt Zelgadis' anger grow. "Besides, wouldn't you rather hear it from Miss Amelia herself?"
Lina fought to keep her cool. Getting angry would only add to Xellos' power, and right now that was the last thing they wanted to do. "Perhaps if Amelia would actually talk to us. She's got nothing but hate and anger to spew at us." Lina folded her arms and looked crossly at the smiling priest.
Xellos looked at Amelia, a small smile on his face. "Oh, is that so? Why don't I help her out then?" His cheery demeanor was suddenly gone from his face, replaced by a serious expression as he extended his arms. The group gasped to see darkness accumulating in his hands.
Zelgadis heard a small gasp, turning to see princess Amelia shuddering in what he thought to be pain. "What are you doing to her?"
Xellos just grinned at Zelgadis as the energy in his hands grew. He then fixed his gaze on the princess.
Zelgadis saw what Xellos was doing, and putting two and two together he knew that whatever Xellos had in his hands was meant to harm Amelia. Time seemed to slow down as he watched Xellos release the energy from his hands. Without even thinking Zelgadis dove in front of Amelia's bed, intent on taking the blast himself.
Only...it didn't happen. Not how Zelgadis had been expecting it, at least. In truth, Xellos released the dark energy, but it went in an entirely different direction.
Amelia had been so absorbed in watching Zelgadis that she didn't see it until it was too late. She screamed out in surprise as she was overtaken by the dark energy.
Xellos smiled as everyone became aware of Amelia's screams. "There, isn't that better?"
The group all turned to the bed, which Zelgadis was still laying on, to see that the screams were not coming from the princess. Instead she had a wicked smile on her face. She shoved Zelgadis off the bed, then rose up to Xellos' level.
"Who..?" Lina, Gourry, and Zelgadis all turned to the real source of the screams, all gasping when they saw the darkness taking shape. A very familiar shape...
"Amelia!" Zelgadis scrambled up off the floor and approached his now visible companion.
"Zelgadis, stay back!" Lina reached out to pull him back, but he was already out of reach.
Amelia for her part was struggling valiantly to not let the darkness overcome her. The darkness itself was negative emotions, but more potent and vile than she had ever experienced. Hatred. Anger. Loathing. All this and more were trying to take control. Amelia fought back with everything she could, but she could feel herself slipping. She looked up at Zelgadis. "Please, stay...away! I, I can't..."
"Amelia! What did you do to her?" Zelgadis snarled up at Xelllos.
"The real question is, just what is she going to do to you?" Xellos sounded a bit too cheerful as he continued to sit back and watch.
Zelgadis reached out and grabbed the still screaming girl by the shoulders. "Amelia, what's wrong? What did he do?" He yelled out frantically to her, hoping she could hear him over her own agonizing screams.
Amelia suddenly grew eerily silent as her head and shoulders slumped. And then, "Get your hands OFF of me!" she struck out at Zelgadis, causing him to lose his grip on her. "How dare you come back to me! After you left me here, alone, to DIE! You killed me! Now it's time for you to join me!"
Before Zelgadis could react he was overtaken by a wave of negative energy, then he knew no more.
Lina watched in horror as Amelia did what she had feared; Amelia dove into Zelgadis' body, effectively possessing him. Her heart stopped when she heard Zelgadis begin to chant, knowing full well it wasn't Zelgadis at all. "Gourry!"
Gourry sprang in to action, whipping out his sword as he struck out at Zelgadis. He swung the hilt of his sword at Zelgadis' head, intent to knock him out, but missed when Zelgadis ducked. He tried to bring his blade back to protect himself, but before he could even react, he was kicked in the gut. Gourry was knocked back to the floor, gasping frantically for air.
Lina glared at Zelgadis. Or Amelia, rather. Now that the girl had gone psycho and was in a nearly indestructible body, she was a force to be reckoned with. Lina grit her teeth and prepared for her next move. She'd only get one shot at this if she wanted to save both Zelgadis' and Amelia's lives.
Xellos continued to laugh in glee at the situation before him. He had always suspected Amelia hid her darker thoughts, but this was too good! She could wipe out all her friends and save him the effort! His thoughts were interrupted by his minion tugging at him. She pointed over to Lina...casting a spell!
"Miss Lina, that just won't do. As much as I hate do to this, I can't let you interfere." Xellos dove at Lina, striking her with his staff, but was met with Gourry's blade instead.
"Keep away from Lina if you want to live." Gourry spoke quietly, but loud enough for Xellos to hear.
Things were starting to get bad. Xellos pondered his best plan of action, noticing Gourry was focused on him. He glanced over to Lina, seeing that she was nearly done. He then smiled at Gourry. "But Mister Gourry, I would never do anything to hurt Miss Lina. You however..."
The princess, who had pretty much laid low since the confrontation had gotten serious, rammed into Gourry, knocking him back.
"Elmekia La-ance!" Lina yelped the second part as Gourry came crashing in to her. She could only watch in horror as her spell shot off and -struck- Zelgadis. "No!" She then felt a sharp pain in her legs and collapsed to the ground. Even in a heap on the ground, Lina didn't take her eyes off of Zelgadis as he totally stopped chanting entirely, his face losing all expression. His eyes then rolled back into his head as he toppled over.
"That didn't turn out quite as I expected. However, there will be plenty of time to remedy that later. Come." Xellos gestured at his minion, then they both disappeared.
"Zelgadis! Amelia!" Lina dragged herself across the floor to Zelgadis' fallen form. "I didn't mean to hit you, I was just trying to distract you! Gourry!"
Gourry tried to pick himself up off the floor, but went into a coughing fit instead. He gasped to catch his breath, trying anything to ease the pressure in his chest.
Lina's heart leapt in fright. "Gourry?"
Gourry coughed again. "I'm okay, Lina. Sorry I didn't protect you better. Is Zelgadis okay?"
"I don't know...I just don't know! What am I going to do? I never thought anything like this would happen. Just what's going on..." Lina grabbed her head, trying to collect her wits. As she was trying to gather her thoughts, she heard heavy footsteps charging toward their room. "Oh no..."
"Quickly! Someone's after Princess Amelia!" At least a dozen guards came charging into the room, one very irate Crown Princess among them.
"Lina!" Gracia stared down at her fallen rival in shock. "What did you do?" She looked about the room in horror, looking like she was ready to scream and pass out.
Lina forced herself up into a sitting position, wincing in pain from her injured legs. "It's not what it looks like! We were just-"
"I know I called you my rival, but I thought I could trust you. We all trusted you! ...Amelia trusted you, and how do you repay that?" Gracia's voice came out in a hoarse whisper. She fought back tears, then struck her palm out in a commanding gesture. "Guards! Take her away! Take them all away! I'll question them later, but for now..." she paused a moment, choking back a sob, "...I need some time to think."
With that, Princess Gracia dashed from the room. The guards were instantly upon Lina and Gourry, binding their arms behind them. Another guard hefted the still unconscious Zelgadis onto his shoulder.
Lina struggled against her captors. "You don't understand! We're innocent! We didn't do anything wr-augh!" She was silenced by a guard stuffing a gag in her mouth.
"Save it. We'll know soon enough whether you're guilty or not." The guard then lifted Lina off her feet, fighting with her all the way to the jail.
-
Author's notes: Oh, my brain! This chapter was not fun to write! I probably could have made things much worse, but I really don't enjoy the whole being totally evil to people. That, and Xellos is evil, but he's that annoying playful evil that doesn't just out and out do evil unless he's good reason to. (So confusing...)
I'm betting many of you are still going to be horribly confused at this point, but I am going to reveal exactly what happened that fateful night Xellos came to visit Amelia. I'm just sapped from writing this part, and don't want to make you all wait an extra week or so to read it.
Before I forget, I totally forgot to mention what spell Amelia was trying to cast, but that's because the perspective kind of jumped to Lina, and Lina was more concerned with breaking Amelia's concentration. But anyway... Amelia was casting a Ra Tilt to kill Zelgadis. If you want to know why, there's a story behind this...
Once upon a time I was playing Slayers Royal (which has an awesome battle setup, I think). In the game you have to wait a certain amount of time before you can tell characters to cast spells. (Lina of course 'charges' up quickly, so she can cast almost from the getgo.) I was fighting a big group of Lesser Demons, and since Amelia's spells are usually stronger against them than Zelgadis', I sent him to fight with his sword while I waited for Amelia to be ready to cast a Ra Tilt.
It's a bit confusing though, because there are two versions of the Ra Tilt in the game (Ra Tilt A, and Ra TIlt B, actually), and as I was new at the game I wasn't sure what the difference was. Anyway, when I selected the spell it shows you the area it's going to affect (the battle is laid out on a grid), so I put the spell on a group of Lesser Demons that Zelgadis was standing next to. According to the area affect, it wouldn't hit Zelgadis, but when Amelia actually cast it...
...not only did it hit and instantly kill all of the Lesser Demons, but it also hit Zelgadis...and killed him as well! You can imagine how horrified I was to see him go down, and by Amelia's hand at that. Thankfully she also has Resurrection, so I had her dash over and resurrect him as soon as she could. To this day I can just imagine her apologizing profusely for killing Zelgadis off accidentally...
So anyway, I thought it strange that an astral spell would have such an effect on Zelgadis, but then I recalled that he is part Brau (however you want to spell it) Demon, which would have more of an astral presence than a normal human. While I never have gone back in to see if the Ra Tilt affects the human characters in the game, the fact that Zelgadis would be susceptible to such spells has stuck with me. That's partly why I had Lina's spell, which would usually only stun a person, have a much more dramatic effect on Zelgadis as well.
I just was not nice to Zelgadis this chapter...
Annoyance! This site doesn't want to display this chapter properly. I am trying to find a way to fix it, but as of yet I am failing miserably. I want my story to be easy to read, not full of odd symbols and the like...