"She's here? Where? Where?" Lina practically launched herself at her prison's bars in her excitement.

Zelgadis could have laughed at her, but instead he kept smiling. "She's right here, with us. Or me, rather." He coughed a bit in embarrassment.

"I was right?" Lina blinked. "I was right! I knew it! This is great! Now I don't have to deal with trying to figure out what's going on through you, Zel." Lina grinned. "So...can I talk to her?"

Gourry looked at Lina in confusion. "How can you talk to Amelia?"

Lina paused in her quest for answers to answer Gourry, now so used to his queries that it didn't make her skip a beat. "Easy, Gourry. If Amelia's trapped in Zelgadis' body with him, then she can take charge of it and speak directly to us. At least, theoretically."

Gourry blinked.

"Oh, come on, Gourry! Like earlier when we thought Zel woke up screaming, that was actually Amelia." Lina shot him an unamused expression.

"Oh!" Gourry beamed. "I get it!"

"Glad to hear it." Lina turned her attention back to Zelgadis. "So?"

"Uh..." Zelgadis was silent for a moment, but it was obvious watching his demeanor that he was having an inward battle of wills. He finally looked back over to Lina, an apprehensive expression on his face. "Is it really necessary?"

"What? Of course it's necessary! Can she hear me in there?" When Lina saw Zelgadis nod she continued, "She has information that I need to know if we're to get out of here and restore her to her own body. No offense Zel, but I'd rather not have you play middle man."

Zelgadis nodded again in silence, and Lina watched as his entire demeanor again changed. He suddenly seemed...frightened?

"Amelia?" Lina asked.

Zelgadis nodded his head cautiously.

'So strange. It looks like Zelgadis, but that's Amelia's mannerisms.' Lina cleared her throat nervously. "Relax, Amelia, it's okay. Is Zelgadis still aware of this?"

"I don't...oh, no, where did he go?" Amelia looked at Lina in fright.

"Relax, relax. It's not every day you find yourself sharing the same body. You probably just shoved him back into his subconscious..or something." Lina again coughed nervously. She had been possessed once herself, but didn't recall anything that had happened during it. She was no expert on the subject, but she didn't want to tell Amelia that. "I don't want him to hear what I have to ask you, anyway. It would only complicate things."

Amelia again nodded her head. "What did you want to ask me, Miss Lina?"

"First off, what was that I saw? A dream? Was any of it real?"

"Yes," Amelia's voice caught in her throat, "it was all real. Everything...he, Mister Xellos..." This time her voice choked, and Amelia stopped talking.

Lina silently cursed her prison that was keeping her from comforting Amelia. Of course this was going to be a touchy subject for Amelia. Heck, who actually enjoyed talking about their death? She needed to find out Xellos motives though, and she wouldn't be able to do that if Amelia broke down now.

"It's okay, Amelia. I just wanted to make sure what I saw actually happened. I need to ask you some more questions about that night. Do you think you can handle it?" Lina tried to speak in as calm and soothing a voice as possible.

Amelia choked out a sob, but seemed to regain some composure. "I'm sorry, Miss Lina. I, I just hadn't been able to remember what happened until now...and it's hard to want to remember." Amelia cast her gaze to the dirty cell floor.

"Amelia, look at me." Lina waited until Amelia met her gaze. "This is really important. I know that it was Xellos that..er...harmed you, but I need to know his motives. I've got a few theories of course, but I need to know for sure."

"I, I understand, Miss Lina." Amelia tried to put on a brave face.

"Okay." Lina smiled. "Just take it easy. We have plenty of time. So, if you'll pardon my bluntness, Xellos came into your room while you were incapacitated and took you out. Did he tell you anything about why he was doing it?"

Amelia shook her head. "He only told me I was more useful dead than alive." She automatically put her hand to her throat and rubbed it cautiously as she spoke.

"I see..." Lina thought over the tidbit of information for a moment. "And after he took you out, do you remember anything that happened after that?"

"I...no, I don't..." Amelia was suddenly struck with a memory, falling silent as she processed it.

Lina looked at Amelia curiously. "Amelia? Something wrong?"

Amelia's gaze was unblinking and unfocused as she replied, "He forced me from my body. I was so confused, all I could do was watch in horror as he summoned some thing to his side, then he commanded it to possess my body. He wanted it to do something, and then...then Mister Xellos realized I was still there. I don't know what he did next, but it repelled me. Next thing I knew I wasn't in my room or even near the palace any more."

"I see..." Lina cupped her chin as she thought. "So Xellos offed the entire royal family, sans the one who was basically an invalid anyway, which caused for us to be sent off to retrieve the remaining able member of your family." Lina made an irritated noise. "Well, if he wanted to cause chaos, he accomplished that."

"What do you mean?" Amelia had a somber expression.

Lina met gazes with Amelia. "Think about it. Seyruun was a well run kingdom up until this point, right? Sure, it wasn't perfect, but things ran pretty smoothly. Enter Xellos, who in one fell swoop takes out the royal family, frames another kingdom for the crime, and to make matters worse, essentially corrupts what little support the remaining heir to the throne would have."

Amelia suddenly stiffened. "Oh no, Gracia! What happened to Gracia?"

Lina held her hands up to get Amelia to settle down. "At ease, at ease! She's fine, at least in the sense she's still healthy. She's not been exactly with it emotionally, but then as long as I've known her she never seemed to be all there anyway." Lina suddenly bit her tongue and looked sheepishly over at Amelia.

"Miss Lina, that's not nice!" Amelia scolded. "That reminds me! When you found my sister, you called her 'Naga'. How did you know her middle name?"

Lina blinked. "How did you...? Who told you..? When-" Lina sputtered, not able to form a complete sentence.

Amelia bit her lip. "Umm...after Mister Xellos banished me, I woke up in some coastal city. Then I found Gracia, although she looked a mess, then you and Mister Gourry came to tell her what happened. Then you all left me behind." Amelia frowned.

Lina leaned back against the wall. "You were there the entire time? And I had no idea..."

Amelia nodded her head.

"I sure hope I didn't say something I shouldn't have..." Lina bit her tongue before Amelia heard her thinking out loud. "Anyway, about your sister, I met her when I first started traveling on my own. I never knew 'Naga' was part of her name. I mean, I didn't even know she was royalty, let alone your sister! I thought she was just some freaky sorceress with really bad fashion taste."

Amelia winced, but didn't say anything.

"I'm still a bit in shock about the whole thing. I mean, she was so greedy over money...and she made me pay for her meals, and here she was the heir to Seyruun's throne and no doubt had plenty of money to spend! Ooh, that Naga! When I get my hands on her..." Lina clenched her hands into fists.

Amelia coughed nervously. "Miss Lina? Did you have any more questions? Mister Zelgadis is starting to get restless..."

"Oops, sorry. I kind of got distracted, didn't I?" Lina unclenched her fists and instead started to tug on her fingers. "I don't have anything to ask now, no."

"What are you going to do, Miss Lina?"

"For the long term, track down one meddling Monster and give him what's been coming to him for a long time!" Lina motioned breaking something with her hands. "But for now...find some way to escape this place. I hate it here!"

Amelia nodded her head, then retreated back to allow Zelgadis to resume rightful control of his body. Zelgadis came to a moment later blinking in confusion and rubbing his head.

"Welcome back." Lina smirked slightly.

Zelgadis glanced at Lina, who had moved since the last time he could remember looking at her. Come to think of it, Gourry was fast asleep now as well... "What happened?"

Lina reached through her cell bars to smack Gourry to wake him up. "Nothing important, don't worry about it. For now, we need to figure out a way to get out of here. Hey, Gourry?"

Gourry started awake. "Huh? Oh, I fell asleep?"

"Nothing new there." Lina sighed. "Come on, this is going to require your input as well. Now then, what's the best way to escape from a prison without a key, magic, or even crude weapons at your disposal...?"

Author's notes: Let me start off by getting down on my knees and saying, "I'm sorry!" The past few months have been a bit crazy. I got promoted at work (bakery promotions are an interesting thing), so I had to learn a lot of stuff, which made it too hard to really concentrate on this story. Then I finally heard back about my college application...and got accepted! So between learning how to be a decorator and preparing for college, this story took a back seat. Most of the hard stuff is over and done with now, so I was finally able to sit down and write! I hope to get some more written before I head off to college in January.

As for reviews...

Lina Gabriev - I have been wanting to do more with the diary and Zelgadis actually seeing it for real, but so far nothing has really worked. I'll keep trying to figure out some sort of solution because it has a lot of potential.

DQBunny - If I had kept the chapter where it had previously been going, then yes, Lina and Gourry would have questioned Zelgadis' sanity. As it is this way turned out much better, and Zelgadis even stayed grounded in reality.

Maddy02 - I was originally going to kill Amelia off and keep her dead, but I really don't like how it makes the story end. I'm not going to promise that she won't die though. If this last chapter proved anything, it's that stories have a way of going where ever they please. XP

Gerao-A - Why do people have to interrupt special moments? Good question. I just had to put an end to the sap before it got too out of hand. If all goes well it won't be the last time Amelia and Zelgadis have a heart-to-heart.

Next chapter: Prison break!