Well here's chapter 3, if anyone's actually readin this story. My description was lackin in this chapter badly. :p

Chapter 3: Newfound hope?

"Interesting…" Lina commented, reading a newspaper while sitting on Whit's bed. "This could be just what I been looking for."

It had now been four whole days since Lina crossed over to this timeline. She enjoyed the fact that things were almost always peaceful in this era but it was beginning to become dull. The sorceress felt the urge to go back to wild adventures, slaying monsters, and finding valuable treasure. She was also growing more concerned for Gourry everyday.

Meanwhile, school had ended and Whit was on his way home. He stepped off the bus and happily marched onward.

"Thank god it's Friday!" Whit said. "No school tomorrow and there's a party tonight? This week just keeps getting better and better!"

He walked up the porch, unlocked the front door and danced his way inside, closing the door behind him.

"Hey, Lina!" Whit called out as he made his way up the stairs and into his room. He saw Lina's eyes affixed on the newspaper.

Her eyes drifted to him. "Hey, Whit," she answered with a smile.

"Did you miss me?" Whit asked, removing his backpack.

"Nope," Lina chuckled.

Whit let off a grin so bright that it nearly blinded Lina.

He walked over and sat next to her. "So, what ya reading?"

"Check this out." Lina showed him the article.

Whit only read the title in bold print. "Ancient books uncovered in ruins now on display at the Amalthea Muslim." He looked at Lina and set the newspaper aside. "Oh, please. Don't tell me you think one of those old books have time spells in it."

Lina nodded. "Yep, that's right. You never know."

"And you want me to go with you?" Whit questioned as a frustrated expression appeared on his face.

Lina slightly frowned. "What, you don't wanna come or something? I thought you enjoyed being around me all the time."

"I do, but…" Whit started. "There's a party tonight."

"So?" Lina crossed her legs and folded her arms. "Why's that so important?"

"So, I wanted you to go with me," Whit said.

The first thought that popped into Lina's mind was a bunch of drunken men groping her and doing immoral things to her body. She moved a few inches away from him. "Uh, no thanks."

"Why not?" Whit inquired. "It won't be bad, I swear."

"I got better things to do than waste my time getting intoxicated." Lina turned away from him.

"No one said you had to drink," Whit replied trying to persuade her. "If anyone gives you problems, I'll take care of it."

Lina laughed. "I doubt I'd need protection. Especially from someone like you, or did you forget that I was the one that saved you?"

Her vulgar remark strung deep into Whit's soul. He disappointedly stared down at the floor. Lina was right, she was the one that saved him from possible death and fought off Ralph. He was utterly useless to her. He did not know any magic spells, he was not a good fighter, and certainly was not a genius.

Lina turned back and saw Whit's sorrowful expression and began to regret what she said. She did not mean to sound rude, she also was not expecting her comment to affect him this greatly. It looked as if someone he loved had just died right in front of him.

Lina laughed awkwardly and playfully slapped Whit's back. "Oh come on, Witty Whit, I'm just joking. Don't take things so seriously."

Whit glanced at Lina and put on a feebly smile but remained silent.

"Now what will you do?" Lina asked. "Will you go with me to the museum or will you go to that party without me?"

"Uh, there's no way I can get you to go to the party?" Whit questioned.

"Maybe if you paid me enough," Lina started. "But other than that no. Don't worry, I can be just as fun as any old party, believe me."

"Maybe I can do both?" Whit questioned. "We can go see the ancient books and make it back in time for the party!"

"I really don't wanna go," Lina answered. "But if one of those books possess time magic I might be in a good enough mood… I'll think about it, okay?"

"Fine," Whit simply said.

"Then it's settled." Lina stood up. "We should get going now."

Whit got up. "But what about my mom?"

"Just leave her a note," Lina responded.

"Alright then… Um, Lina?"

"What?"

"You think you can change into clothes that are a little… Normal?

"Fine, whatever. My outfit needs to be washed anyway."

A few minutes later, Whit and Lina departed from the house and waited on a bench by a bus stop. Lina insisted that she would fly them to the museum but Whit disagreed saying the people would think she was an evil witch if she flew. So instead of using magic, Whit decided they should depend on the local bus to get to their destination. It did not take long for the navy blue bus to pick them up. Whit picked a seat and Lina sat next to him. She saw him take out a square electronic handheld system. He turned it on and began playing a game titled 'World Saviors.'

"What's that?" Lina asked, staring at the small screen on the handheld.

"It's called a Gameman," Whit explained, picking his eyes glued to the screen. "Don't tell me they don't have these in your time."

"Nope, never heard of those," Lina said.

Whit gritted his teeth as he feverishly pushed two red buttons on the right side of the game system. On the screen a fiery aura surrounded a pixilated human-like cat as he shot off several fireballs from his hand at various, mysterious monsters. Suddenly a human that fascinatingly resembled Whit and a spiky haired ninja came across the screen and slashed wildly at the monsters the human-like cat was fighting with swords.

"Don't they have any type of video games in your time?" Whit asked.

"Perhaps. I never seen one though," Lina replied. "Can I try it?"

Whit paused the game and handed it to her. She resumed where Whit left off and repeatedly pushed the red buttons hoping to win. On the screen a teenaged girl in a short-skirted school uniform appeared next to the human-like cat and his allies. Lina continued to push buttons and the school girl began to effortlessly toss the enemies around by using psychic powers. However, a strange man dressed in a dark purple robe appeared on the enemy side of the screen and with one powerful blast the human-like cat, the school girl and their two friends were exterminated. The words 'game over' flashed across the screen in big bold, black letters.

"Damn it!" Lina swore, gripping the handheld tightly as if she were trying to break it in half.

"It's okay, I always die at that part too," Whit said. "I need to level up Rogan and Andrew a little bit more."

Lina handed the game back to Whit. "This stupid thing's a waste of time." She stared outside the window.

Noticing that Lina was no longer paying him any attention he slowly glanced at her body. Lina looked even better in modern day clothes than she did in her sorceress costume. Whit had let her wear one of his red shirts and jean shorts. Even though she was not wearing her old clothes she kept her earrings and headband on. Whit could understand the earrings but he did not see why she always kept her headband on. Lina did tell him it was magical but its not like it was the source of her power. His eyes dropped down to her figure again. Try as he might he could not fight off his perverted thoughts and soon enough he began to sweat and breath heavily. He looked away as soon as Lina glanced at him.

As the bus ride continued Lina eventually started chatting about her adventures. She informed Whit about her fights against Shabranigdu, copy Rezo, Gaav, and Fibrizo, her search for the Clair Bible, and her unbelievable battle with Dark Star. She also told him more about her friends: Gourry, Zelgadis, and Amelia. Whit was lost on most of the discussion but he processed to listen. The bus arrived at the museum an hour and a half later.

The two got off the bus and Lina immediately sprinted into the gigantic building with delight. Whit followed but paid more attention to the well-built museum. It was much larger than his school and appeared extremely sturdy. He entered into the building and saw Lina staring at something contained in a glass display. He stood next to her and saw that she was gazing at one of the ancient books. The book was a blackish gray color and the cover had several scratch marks on it.

"Aw, come on!" Lina replied growing annoyed as she pressed her fingers against the glass. "When they said it was on display I at least thought we could pick up the book and read it." She looked at Whit. "You think all the books in here are like this?"

"Probably so," Whit said.

Lina angrily sighed. "Great, this is just great." She furiously ran her hands through her hair.

"Don't get upset, Lina," Whit replied, trying to calm her. "Who's to say that these ancient books are even magic books? They might be fakes just like the ones we saw at the library."

"Well…" Lina balled her hand into a fist. "There's only one way to find out!"

"What, no!" Whit shouted.

Whit threw himself into Lina's fist in an attempt to stop her from scattering the glass. He was struck in the stomach by the punch with such force that it knocked the wind out of him. He fell to his knees and held his stomach. The situation caught the attention of a few other people in the building but they all eventually just shrugged it off and laughed. Most thought it was just a random couple fighting each other.

Lina looked down at the fallen Whit. "What the hell are you doing! Why'd you stop me!"

Whit slowly rose up while still gasping for air. "You can't do that, we'll get in trouble."

"So what!" Lina retorted. "None of these people can stop me!"

"Are you saying that you're trying to steal!" Whit shot back. He could not believe what he was hearing. "Since when did you become a thief?"

"I'm not stealing," Lina denied. "I'm borrowing."

Whit nearly fell over from her response. "I can't believe you!"

"Well, sorry what else am I supposed to do?" Lina said. "You'd do the same thing if you were in the same situation as me."

"But, Lina… still… you can't steal." Whit struggled to keep himself calm.

An evil glare surfaced on Lina's face. "What, are you gonna try and stop me?"

"Lina, come on, please don't be like this," Whit begged. "There has to be another way."

She looked away, placed her hand under her chin and began to ponder as if she were reconsidering.

Whit's whole image of Lina was now ruined. He did not want to believe that she would steal. It made him rethink about what kind of girl Lina really was. Maybe she was banished to this timeline because she was trying to destroy a city or kill someone important or maybe he was just jumping to ridiculous conclusions. He was so confused and was beginning to get a headache.

"Whit…" Lina called his name in a soft tone as she looked at him. "I need to do this… Gourry could be in a lot of trouble and might need my help. I won't take the ancient books now in front of all these people… I'll do it when the museum is closed at night. I know you don't see eye to eye with me on this but you have to. I don't wanna hurt you, you been too nice to me…"

Whit hung his head in shame. "It doesn't really matter what I say, does it? I can't stop you anyway." He straightened up and looked her straight in the eyes. "Let's just try not to get caught!"

"What?" Lina shrieked. "What'd ya mean we?"

"I dunno…" Whit paused. "I know what your doing is wrong, but I wanna be there with you…"

Lina examined his face. "Huh? After all that fuss you wanna help me anyway?"

"I'll do whatever you want… Well almost," Whit shrugged. "I just hope we don't get caught. Mom will kill me if we do."

"Hey wait," Lina started. "What about that party?

"Screw it," Whit answered. "Wouldn't be any fun without you." He warmly smiled.

She returned the smile. "Let's just hope these ancient books are what I'm looking for."

For the rest of the day, Lina and Whit hung out at a hotel a few blocks away from the museum. Most of those hours were spent eating, sleeping, plotting, and watching television. Whit felt like he was going insane. He was going against his morals just to be with Lina. He could have never thought he would turn into a crook. He fought with himself wondering if it was really worth it. His mind was telling him not to go through with it but his heart was urging him to. He thought about it for all those hours and in the end he decided to listen to his heart instead of his brain. Before they came to the hotel, Whit had bought himself a facemask and got Lina a hat and some shades for a disguise.

Lina really was not thinking of anything during all the free time. She only prayed that the ancient books held time magic in them. She knew getting the ancient books would not be difficult but the fact that she had to keep Whit and herself undetected might be a challenge.

As soon as it became eleven at night, Lina and Whit left the hotel and headed for the museum. Once they were a few yards away from the building, Lina put on her hat and shades and took to the air. She scouted the area and spotted a few policemen around the museum. She hoped there was some type of opening at the top of the museum but unfortunately no luck at all. There was no way for them to sneak in because there was no other way into the building except the front, which was guarded by three policemen. She returned to Whit and landed.

"Well, how does it look?" Whit inquired.

Lina took off his shades for a moment. "Not very good. We can't really get in without being seen 'cause they got guards at the doors."

"Then how about a distraction?" Whit suggested. "I'll get them to chase me while you go inside and get the books."

"And risk you getting caught?" Lina said. "Here's a better idea… Let's just forget this whole James Bond thing and just blast our way in!"

"But we don't wanna kill anyone," Whit replied.

"Relax, I won't kill nobody, just hurt 'em," Lina said.

Whit shrugged and put his black facemask on and followed Lina as she darted towards the museum. The two cops at the entrance immediately saw them and took out their guns and aimed at the two of them.

"Freeze!" one of the policemen commanded.

The other cops around the area came to their friend's aid and aimed their guns at Lina and Whit as well.

Both Lina and Whit stopped. With a devilish smirk, Lina positioned her arms as if she were holding a bow. A look of nervousness appeared on the officers' faces when they saw frost in the form of a bow appear in her hand. One officer fired but the bullet only scraped her cheek.

"Freeze Arrow!" Lina shouted as three arrows made of ice formed in front of her and streaked towards the policemen. The three officers that were hit with the arrows became incased in a block of ice.

"What the hell?" one officer cussed.

The remaining policemen quickly became horrified. One man slowly backed away while another dropped a pistol because of his shaky hands. Lina wiped the speck of blood from her cheek and charged forward and delivered several punches and kicks to the policemen until all of them were knocked unconscious.

"Piece of cake," Lina commented as she walked over the defeated cops and blasted the gateway down with a fireball.

"Guess you really didn't need my help after all, imagine that," Whit dryly replied as he trailed after her.

Lina and Whit saw that there were countless sensory beams scattered all over the room. Since the beams were low to the ground, Lina simply flew Whit and herself over and descended next to the ancient book they encountered earlier.

Lina stretched her hands out. "Flare bit!" Four small orbs of light materialized in her hand and caused tiny, harmless explosions as they hit the glass display.

The glass was easily shattered and Lina grabbed the book and handed it to Whit. She flew them to the last two books, using the same spell to break the glass and take the book. After that, she raywinged the both of them out of the museum and back to the hotel. Before they went in they removed their disguise gear and threw it away in a trashcan near them.

They greeted the clerk as they passed by, went up an elevator and entered their room as quickly as possible. Whit placed two of the three books on the bed and opened the one he had in his hand.

Lina beamed. "What does it say! What does it say!"

Whit slowly flipped through the pages and began to panic. His eyes grew wide with confusion.

"What, what's wrong?" Lina asked, walking up to him.

He grimly looked at her. "Uh, I can't read any of this. It doesn't even look like it's in regular English."

"What!" Lina screeched as she snatched the book from him. Her frustrated soon disappeared as she scanned one of the pages. She began to laugh, but it was not an evil or angry laugh it was a happy one.

"You're not mad…?" Whit froze, thinking Lina had finally gone insane.

"You may not be able to understand the text, but I can," Lina said with a smirk.

"So, is it a magic book or not?" Whit questioned. "If it is, is it fake? And how can you understand the book? What language is it?"

"Shut up, give me a minute to read a little," Lina answered in an irritated tone. "Go watch that box thing, whatever it's called."

Whit scoffed as he walked away from Lina, grabbed the remote off the TV set and turned it on. He sat on the bed and boringly watched television. He was actually becoming sleepy and could not help but yawn.

Lina continued to read the book; her eyes sparkled with an undying joy. "I can't believe it!" She squealed. "This is a miracle, Whit! This is exactly the book we were searching for!"

Whit stood and walked over to her. "So, it's not fake and has time magic in it?"

Lina nodded. "Yeah."

"What about the other two books?" Whit pointed to them. "You think they're time magic books too?"

"They could be," Lina replied not bothering to look at them. "This is the spell I need to use to time travel. According to the book, it takes a lot of magic energy to cast the spell though."

"Well, give it a try," Whit insisted.

Lina turned away from Whit and began to translate what the book said. "Oh, golden entity that controls space and time, grant thy power to me and allow thy to cross over the vast, chronic seas of time to embark in a new age! Time travel!"

Lina and Whit stood silent, expecting some type of magic to unfold in front of them, but after a moment, the two realized nothing was happening.

"Why isn't it working!" Lina bellowed. "I read the spell precisely as it was written."

"Maybe you need to do a dance?" Whit proposed. "Or maybe you need to be jumping around while doing it."

As stupid as it sounded, Lina tried both of Whit's ideas and chanted the spell but once again nothing happened.

Lina scratched her head. "I don't get it. Am I not strong enough to activate the spell or something?"

"Maybe you're reading it too fast or too slow," Whit guessed. "Maybe the entity doesn't like you or maybe its sexist or-"

"Or maybe you should just shut the hell up!" Lina replied as a vein bulged out of her forehead. "If you think you know so much then you try it!"

Lina tossed the book at Whit, which knocked him down as soon as it made contact with his skull.

Whit unhurriedly stood back up and rubbed the large bump on his head. "Ouch. I was only trying to help, you don't have to hurt me." He picked up the book. "Do you remember what page you were on?"

"Don't worry about that, just repeat what I said a few minutes ago," Lina demanded.

"Oh, okay," Whit said with a determined expression. "Oh, golden entity that controls space and time, grant thy to me," as Whit continued he began to feel a bit nauseous. It as if something was rising out of his stomach and up his throat. "And allow thy to cross over the vast, chronic seas of time to embark in a new age! Time travel!"

Once again the two waited a moment but nothing seemed to happen.

"Sorry, Lina, I tried," Whit frowned.

Lina shrugged. "I knew it wouldn't work, I mean you don't even know how to use magic in the first place. I'm really starting to get pi-"

Lina choked on her words when she and Whit noticed a golden orb begin to materialize amid them. Both of them were too shocked to utter a single word to each other. Lina was more dumbfounded than Whit due to the fact that it was him who activated the spell instead of her. The mystical light from the orb bathed the room in its gold color and almost blinded Whit and Lina. The orb began to occasionally change colors and expand while the room stayed gold.

Everything just seemed to unreal to Whit. He glanced around the room and saw that stars were starting to appear out of nowhere. It was a magnificent sight to behold but it somewhat frightened Whit. The orb had now become long enough for a person to walk through it.

Lina finally was able to speak. "Is-is that a rip through time?" She slowly approached it and cautiously reached out.

Before she could touch the hole…

It suddenly vanished.

"Huh, No!" Lina shouted as she frantically grabbed at nothing but air hoping the void would reappear.

The stars gradually faded away and the room returned to its ordinary appearance. The magic spell had clearly ended.

Lina turned to him. "Whit, cast the spell again! Right now!"

Whit breathed hoarsely. For some reason, he was now extremely exhausted and could barely move his body. He felt his eyelids become increasingly heavy until he could no longer reopen his eyes. As he fell forward, Lina ran forth and caught him. She lifted him up and carried him over to the bed.

Lina looked him over. She knew he was still alive, his soft snoring indicated that. The spell most of took a lot of energy out of him. She could not believe that he was able to cast a time spell but she was not. It did not make any sense at all. Whit was not a sorcerer so how was he able to activate a spell? Much less a spell that not even Lina could call forth. It was unbelievable but for once, Lina needed Whit to assist her. She had realized that he was now the key to her escaping from this timeline and getting back to her own. Without him, she would be stuck here forever.

The teenaged sorceress ran her hands through his hair. She found it funny. Who would of thought she would need help from someone in this magic less world, especially from someone like Whit? It was strange to her. Had she never met Whit she would still be trying to figure out a way to get the time spells to work. She doubted anyone else in this pathetic timeline could trigger time magic.

Lina tucked Whit under the covers and sat down in a chair. She picked up the time magic book and continued to read. She occasionally tried to perform some of the time spells, but like before she was unable to. She read until she became too tired and dozed off while still in the chair.