Disclaimer

nikka-chi: I still don't own Xelloss...:(...And it's all Zelas's fault!

Zelas: My fault? I created him! If it weren't for me he wouldn't even exist.

nikka-chi: You could share! 'pout'

Zelas: Just be thankful I even let him leave the island.

nikka-chi: Keh, bitch...

Zelas: What was that?

nikka-chi: 'smirks' Oh nothing, nothing.

"Dear god look at these people." Zelgadiss muttered, trailing behind Lina cautiously. Lina closed her eyes and turned her head, trying not to look at the haunting images surrounding her. "How's Hiyo?" She asked, staying off the subject.

"She fainted, but she's fine."

She nodded, not bothering to look back. "Lina-san, what do you plan to do once we arrive? This king's spear is probably just as powerful as ours, which means alone you are no match against it." Xelloss asked, giving Lina a worried glance.

"We'll see about that."

"Lina-san I don't quite think you understand. He'll kill you, it's almost like you trying to defeat a shinzoku alone."

"Then I guess I'll have to use my lance, now won't I?"

"But then you'd be just as crazy as him, and even if you do defeat him there won't be any chance of reversing the influence of the spear." Zelgadiss put in, for once agreeging with Xelloss.

"Which means?" Lina inquired, obviously not taking this as seriously as she should.

"You'll stay like that forever."

"So there isn't any way at all to stop me?" She turned back now, her eyes showing no emotion, her face set hard in stone.

"There is one way." Xelloss started, his eyes opening to shine in the blinding afternoon sun.

"And what is that?" Lina inquired, taking the bait.

"I'd have to kill you." He answered simply, a smile upturning the sides of his lips.

"Ah."

Turning around again, she sighed deeply. "Fine, then. Kill me. Zelgadiss can have the spear once I'm gone."

Zelgadiss blinked, giving the back of her head a startled look. "Lina...no. This place isn't your responsibility, we can leave!"

"Are you serious? Are you blind? Look around, Zel! What the hell am I supposed to when I'm staring into the faces of all these helpless people, these innocent people? You make the decision then. Look that woman right there," She pointed to a wide-eyed female off to the side with cuts running down her face and torn clothes, who cowered in the shadows at the sudden attention, "that we're leaving! Tell her! Tell her how selfish we are!"

Her voice was breaking now, her eyes watery and her hands shaking. It was obvious that she was biting her lip, a small trail of blood running down her lip. Never had she suspected that this place had been this terrible, but now she knew that it was her resposibiblity to fix it, to save all of these tortured souls. The full weight of what she was about to do was hitting home, crushing her resolve.

All Zel could do was stare, glancing at the woman in question. He sighed, lowering his head in shame at the realization of what he'd suggested. "I'm sorry Lina, I wasn't thinking." She nodded, turning from him. A strangled sob sounded from her, and she wrapped her arms around herself.

"Lina, are you ok?"

Letting her arms drop to her side, she answered flatly. "I'm...fine." Taking a deep breath, she

Xelloss had watched the scene unfold, his curiosity budding. Lina was scared, more so than he ever imagined she'd be. Of course he'd seen her in many states of distress, but this was different. She knew that as soon as she took hold of the spear she'd have the uncontrolable urge to do exactly what this king had done to his subjects, and having that little power over one's self would be quite terrifying.

Lina of course would never admit it, she'd fight to the end, get herself killed, and never utter a word of fear or weakness. That was, from one point of view, incredibly stupid...but from her perspective? It was being brave, strong, independant, and reliable to a T.

It was one of the many traits Xelloss admired about her, and despite his cruel comments, he respected her. How could she not want to save this people? Why, even Xelloss himself felt some sort of pity for them. Not enough to care about them, but enough to give them the decency of one compassionate thought.

A creak brought him to reality, and he looked up to see Lina clutching both hands around the steel bars that were the gates to the palace. She shoved them open, bringing a cling-clang as it swang forward granting them entrance. They all looked up to the ominous looking castle that seemed to loom in a enormous shadow of darkness, and a shiver ran through their spines.

"Are you ready?" Lina breathed, taking a step forward.

"I suppose." Xelloss answered nonchalantly, his air of superiorness radiating.

"Yeah." Zelgadiss seconded, giving Lina a confident smile.

"Alright then, let's go."

OoO

"I told you, we should take the right!" Lina shouted, jutting her finger in the direction spoken.

"No, the left!" Zelgadiss jutted his finger as well, only his in the opposing side to Lina's.

"Right!"

"Left!"

Xelloss sighed, his eyes darting between Lina and Zelgadiss as they fought over which hallway to take that would lead to the throne room; where they assumed this king would be.

Hiyo sat propped next to him, still unconscious, and lay limp almost irnonically. Eventually a guard would find them by following the shouts, but who was he to interveine? Lina would just yell at him, and Zelgadiss...well Zelgadiss hated him either way.

It was a lose, lose situation.

For once he wish that the perky little Hiyo were conscious, for she was usually the only one who could bring reason into the stupid arguments they had gotten themselves into. Xelloss could probably wake her, but why should he care? It wasn't really his problem, and he didn't feel like it anyway.

"Listen, Zel, I'm expierienced with this sort of thing. I think I know what I'm doing."

"Do you know how many ancient ruins and mazes I've been through, Lina? And besides your sense of direction is useless."

"Oh, yeah right! You just can't face that I know something you don't!"

"Wha- That's so idioic that there aren't even enough words to describe how stupid you sound."

"Don't give me that high-and-mighty bullshit! You aren't any better than me!"

"I beg to differ."

"Fuck you!"

Lina was red-faced now, her hands clenched into tight balls at her sides. Zel was of course one of her dearest, and oldest, friends, but he was an asshole 99 of the time. His arms were crossed, his body turned half-away from her, just oozing arrogance off his stone body.

She clenched her teeth, lifting her hands to blow his ass up with another dragon slave, but a chorus of voices interrupted her.

"What was that?!"

"I don't know. Could it be the intruders from the gates?"

"You check down the main hall, I'll go this way towards the right wing."

Zel and Lina exchanged surprised glances, and turned their heads towards the voices. There were two or three guards towards the end of the corridor, and one of them was heading for them fast. He couldn't see them due to how dark and shadowy the palace was.

Lina took advantage of this and hurried over to grab Xelloss by the collar, and while she dragged him off she whispered harshly to Zel, "Get Hiyo, you idiot!"

He nodded, pulling Hiyo into his arms and trailing behind Lina and the carpet-sore Xelloss.

After what seemed like forever, they stormed into the nearest room possible, barely dodging a new wave of guards hot on their trail. Lina collapsed onto the floor, her breathing heavy and constricted. "Those guys...don't...give up...do they?"

Zelgadiss placed Hiyo onto a near by couch before collapsing into a chair himself. "It's your fault, Lina. If you'd have just gone my way sooner then we wouldn't have had to run."

"Whatever, it's not like you couldn't of given up either." She grumbled in response.

Zel blinked, turning to Lina in surprise. For the first time since he'd known her, Lina had actually admitted that she was wrong...Sort of.

She caught his gaze and blushed in embarrassment, turning her head away. "W-What are you staring at?"

He smiled slightly, "Nothing."

Xelloss sat quietly off to the side, seemingly forgotten. A sourness filled him suddenly, aimed particularly at the chimera who was now filled with the sickening emotion of affection. Resisiting the urge to cringe, he instead decided to interrupt, "Excuse me you two, but shouldn't we be worrying about how to reach the king?"

Lina nodded, rising to her feet. "We should search this room first, there might be some sort of secret passage."

"Secret passage?"

"Yeah, evil castles like this always have them." Lina answered, running her hands along the stone walls for a hollow spot, or a button. Shifting her attention to the bookcase she searched through them, pulling them out slightly.

Xelloss watched her for a moment, before something just beside her caught his eye. "Lina-san, step to your left just a bit."

"Why?"

He raised his eyebrow at her, and she sighed in exasperation. "Fine, fine. I'll do it. But I don't think that-ah!" Jumping back with a yelp, she staring in shock at the bookcase that had just swung open to reveal a darkened passageway. Turning to give Xelloss an incredulous look, she stuttered, "How did you know that?"

"It's simple, that tile had a darker outline to it. Which means that it this king just recently had the previous one replaced. So what else could it have been?"

She frowned at him for a moment before shrugging. "Anyways...we'll leave Hiyo here and lock that door. She'll be fine as long as we've got the guards attention in the throne room."

Zelgadiss frowned at her before nodding, and following her down the steps into the unknown. Xelloss gave Hiyo a lasting look before doing so as well, knowing that something wasn't right about this 'little' girl.