Author notes: Well this is my first Slayers fanfic and hope people like it. Some of the characters might be OOC because I haven't seen the entire Slayers anime, (but I will soon thanks to that complete box set I'm getting.) but I'll try my best to try to keep them IC.

Special thanks goes to Vega Knight, Nagafan, and Kaitrin
And also Saffire Persian for beta reading!

Prologue

A man in a dark blue robe jumped backwards to dodge a medium sized orange ball of fire as it exploded upon contact with the rocky soil. He covered his pale face with his black-bandaged hands to avoid getting dirt and dust in his dark green eyes. A moment later, the dust died down and the man looked at the opponents who launched the attack.

There were two figures several feet away from him. One was a male and the other was a female. The male was probably around the height of six foot and was wearing a simple plate of blue armor. The small female, however, looked more like a sorceress than a knight with her pink shirt and tights, cape, and gloved hands.

The man in the dark blue robe finally spoke. "So, have you finally come to surrender yourself . . . Lina Inverse?"

Lina Inverse pushed her long orange hair out of her face. She let off a warm smile. "Nope. Not in this lifetime."

"Then," the man bellowed, "prepare to feel an excruciating amount of pain!"

"The only one who's going to feel pain is you!" The blonde haired knight retaliated.

"That's the spirit, Gourry." Lina grinned as she slapped him in the back of the head with so much force he stumbled forward, almost tripping.

Gourry held the back of his head. "What did ya do that for?"

"What I do?" Lina asked, looking up at him. "All I did was encourage you."

"No. You did this!" Gourry growled, slamming his hand against Lina's skull.

The strike made her squat. She mimicked Gourry's actions, holding the back of her head as she rose back up. "That was uncalled for!"

She grabbed his lengthy hair and pulled on it.

"Ow! Stop it, Lina!" Gourry shouted. "Let's see if you like it!"

Enduring the pain, Gourry reached out, grasping a portion of Lina's hair and repaid the favor.

"Hey! Don't pull on my beautiful hair!" Lina spat out. "Let go!"

"Let go of me, then."

"You first!"

"No, you first," Gourry growled, refusing to relent her handful of hair. "You started it."

The man in the robe stared at the two with disbelief, eyebrows twitching. They probably forgot that he was even there. He glanced at the large white moon suspended in the dark sky and the large open field they stood in, before turning his back to Lina and Gourry, who were now pinching each other's face. He cleared his throat loudly. The two stopped fighting and stared at him.

"Now, let's get down to business." The man looked deep into Lina's light crimson eyes. "I'll ask you one last time: join us now or face the consequences."

"Ohh! Consequences!" Lina replied sarcastically. "I'm shaking in my boots."

The man scratched his head. "I'm guessing that was a no?"

"You got it," Lina nodded.

"Why you little…" The man growled as several veins popped out of his forehead.

"We're not scared of you," Gourry started, unsheathing his sword. "After all, you were the one who ran away from us the last time we fought."

The man blushed. "My magic was weakening at that time, but now I'm back and ready to kick some ass!"

"Well, now's your chance to prove it," Lina said, as she formed an orange fireball in her hand. "Fireball!" She shouted as she hurled the attack at the man.

A devilish smirk appeared across the man's face. He stretched out his hand and a quick gold light flashed: "Slow down!"

Lina and Gourry gasped. Her fireball spell was no longer speeding towards the man. It was now steadily creeping through the air extremely slow. It almost looked like the fireball was struggling to fly forward. Once the fireball was a few inches away from him, he simply stepped aside and watched the fireball travel away into the night.

"Time magic?" Lina revealed. "You know time magic? That's pretty impressive; and all this time I thought you were just some low class magician."

"Why thank you, my dear," The man showed his gratitude by taking a bow.

"But it won't be enough to stop us!" Gourry shouted, as he bolted towards the man grapping his sword tightly.

Another gold light flashed from the man's hand, slowing Gourry down to a snails-pace. Gourry noticed the extreme decrease in his speed and stopped. "What the hell?"

"That was a very unwise move, buddy," the man taunted as he walked up to Gourry. "Here, try to hit me."

The plain look on Gourry face vanished and was replaced by a furious one. It took him nine seconds to lift his sword up over his head.

"Now, you do realize that at the speed you're going, you won't be able to cut through me," The man chuckled. He glanced at Lina. "Feel free to help your boyfriend out at any time."

Lina's eyes narrowed. "He's not my boyfriend!" She took out a sword from a sheath on her belt and charged at the man.

By this time, Gourry's sword was only a few inches away from touching the man's forehead. The man focused his attention back on the knight. "You're too slow!"

He knocked Gourry down with a fist to the face and grabbed Gourry's sword before it could touch the ground. He used Gourry's sword to block Lina's. Lina slashed at him with her sword continuously but the man easily blocked every sword attack she could deliver. He swung his sword vertically at Lina, but missed when she jumped back to dodge it.

"Damn it!" she cursed.

The man bent down and placed his hand on Gourry's back, who was trying to get to his feet but couldn't thanks to the time magic. A light green orb surrounded Gourry and made him float in midair. He banged on the orb but he couldn't get out, he was trapped inside the magic prison. "Lina! Get me outta this thing!"

The man dashed at Lina and swung at her again with Gourry's sword, but she rolled out the way, running as soon as she got to her feet. "Ray wing!" She yelled as she leaped into the air, now flying like a bird, an invisible shield of wind around her.

"Ray wing!" The man repeated as he flew after her.

The man pursued Lina in the air, gradually gaining on her. Lina suddenly spun around to face him. She positioned her hands as if they were holding a bow. "Flare Arrow!" four arrows made out of fire appeared in front of her and sped toward the man, who was forced to dive down to avoid the flaming arrows. The attack exploded off in the distance and the chase continued.

Lina quickly descended back down to the ground next to the immobilized Gourry. She glared at the man and put her hands up. A gust of wind immediately began to build around her. "Diem Wing!" Just before the man could reach Lina he was blown backwards by a strong blast of wind.

He was blown a far distance only able to stop himself once the wind had died down. He stayed hovering in the air for a few seconds just before he flew towards Lina again.

"It's time to end this!" Lina said, turning to Gourry. "Don't worry, Gourry, I'll get you outta there in just a sec. Just let me deal with him first. Then we can collect our reward!"

Her gaze turned back to the robed man in the air, who was now a few yards away. She sighed and began to build another spell. "Darkness beyond twilight, crimson beyond blood that flows, buried in the flow of time, in thy great name, I pledge myself to darkness, let the fools who stand before us be destroyed by the power you and I possess. Dragon Slave!"

An enormous dark red beam formed out of Lina's hands and surged toward the man, now only a few feet away. He gasped in fear. He had forgotten all about Lina being able to cast the Dragon Slave. The beam was closing in on him with frightening speed and he knew he would have to think of an idea quickly, or it would all be over. After a moment, an idea popped into his head. He outstretched his arms and a mysterious black hole materialized in front of him, seconds before the beam made contact with his body.

Fortunately for him, the black hole absorbed the powerful beam, but there was also a drawback. He was having a hard time closing the black hole back up. The space in time was starting to suck everything in front of it -- grass, dirt, rocks, whatever was on the ground, was being drawn in. Even Lina was being pulled in. She fought against the rip through time trying to run away from it, but the force was too great. She screamed as her body slowly went into the darkness, stopping once she had completely vanished within the void.

The man struggled to control the black hole, closing it before it could suck up the trapped Gourry. "Whew, that was a close one," the man commented.

"Lina!" Gourry shouted. "Lina! Come back! LINA!"

"Uh… I really didn't want to do that," the man replied as a large drop of sweat ran down his face. "But I had no choice, I couldn't slow down something as powerful as the Dragon Slave. Lucky for me, I can cast future time warps quickly," A toothily grin appeared on the man's face as he ran his hands through his jungle green hair and flashed Gourry a peace sign.

"Where is she?" Gourry yelled. "What did you do to her, you monster?"

"I haven't the slightest clue where she is now," the man said. Noticing the knight's venomous look, he said hurriedly: "I didn't kill her. I just sent her through a time warp, no idea what future timeline though…"

"Damn you!" Gourry yelled, fighting hard to break free of his magical prison. "Just wait until I get outta here. You'll be sorry."

"Come now. You're in no shape to threaten me, blondie," The man chuckled. "I have the power over you now, and you have to listen to me. We're going back to the boss. He'll be happy to know that we've attained a new swordsman for his army. Time to go. Ray Wing!" A hidden shield of wind appeared around him, and he flew off with Gourry inside the prison orb.