FINALLY THE NEHSZRIAH HAS WINTER BREAK! -squee- Now I get to watch more Olympics and write more fanfiction and sleep and just become a zombie. No school, no homework gremlins trying to kidnap me and drag me off to the Kremlin (gremlin from the Kremlin... get it...? History class is getting to me brain...), no teachers telling me when to be awake or when and when not to write fanfiction or be on the Slayers forum... all I need to do is get past my... -dramatic music and lighting- ...mother and the chores of doomage. I do not own Slayers, Major League Baseball, Portland, Detroit, Arizona or the ever-pissed-off-and-sexy-at-the-same-time chimera of ours since I just have no hope whatsoever. Also, I was just informed by my brother (who is supposed to be the one making sure I stay accurate -growl-) that there is Spring Training for some of the baseball players this Spring. Curses.

Hachi

Three's Company! A Transition of Power?

It had been three weeks since the snowy incident in Detroit and things were going along fine for the Slayer's first season as a ball club. They had already faced some miscellaneous teams besides Detroit and had a fairly decent record going for them. As they headed into a road-trip stretch that would not let them come home until the middle of May, they were 12-9, a nice start for a fledgling team in any sport.

"Ah... this is more like it," Lina said gratefully as she stretched out the miles from her airplane flight. "Nice sunny Arizona. Nothing like Portland or Detroit, huh Kurt?"

"Nothing at all," Kurt agreed as he slung the backpack he brought onboard the airplane over his shoulder and looked out of the terminal window at the clear azure sky. "At least we won't get snowed on again."

"That for sure!" Lina replied as she almost skipped off to find her suitcase at the baggage claim. She was quite chipper at that moment and barely realized how quiet Kurt had become. In actuality, Kurt was just basking in the natural warmth of the early morning Arizona sun. The friends were pleased with the whole area and time flew by because of it. Before they knew it, they were at the Arizona Diamondback's home field, Kurt guarding a stall in the bathroom again so that Lina could change in privacy.

"How do you think Miss Amelia would take it if I asked her out on a date when we got back to Portland?" Kurt asked as he leaned against the barrier between Lina's stall and the empty one next to it, looking at himself in the mirror across from him that sat above the sinks.

"I think that's suicide. Have you ever met her father?" Lina asked, popping her head over the top of the closed stall door, her arm hanging over so that she could lightly tap Kurt on the top of his skull. "The man will eat you alive out of concern for his daughter. Besides, I don't think Amelia likes you that way."

"How would you know?"

"Dur... I am her best friend," Lina groaned as she hopped back down to continue changing. Kurt mouthed her words in a mocking fashion. "You know Kurt, I know more about Amelia than her own sister does."

"Really? I did not know that Miss Amelia had a sister."

"Her sister ran away," Lina said, climbing up the bathroom stall again, this time, hopping over it. "No one knows where she is. Maybe with her boyfriend, maybe perfectly happy or dead in a ditch somewhere... we are not really all too sure."

"That's sad," Kurt said as he followed Lina into the main of the visitor's locker room. There was the rest of the team, preparing themselves for the game as well. Everyone was laughing and joking and having a generally good time. The brotherly attitude almost reminded Lina of her high school team, with the exception of that none of the kids in her high school came from a Spanish, Japanese or Dutch speaking country.

"Liam! Why do you always dress in the bathroom?" asked Andreas Cortozar, the man who would be the starting pitcher that game, as Lina sat down next to Kurt's locker.

"I don't like people looking at me while I dress, that's all," Lina commented.

"Then why does Kurt always go with you?" smirked Bryant Whitman, the black-haired third baseman who played backup for Kenny Rook.

"Someone has to stand guard with all of these damn perverts around," Kurt said with a smile as he took off his blue jeans to exchange it for his uniform knickerbockers.

"Hey Jan!" Takashi called from the other side of the room. "Isn't the Diamondbacks your twin brother's team?"

"Yes. Harry does not know what he is in for," Jan Oisterwijk chuckled as he adjusted his batting gloves. "He was second to be born by three minutes... and always will be second in everything we ever do."

"Hey look what I found!" shouted Daniel White's voice from out in the hall by the locker room door. He came in with a very frightened looking raven-haired girl who's eyes darted all around the room, as if she were searching for someone to help her. "She said something about wanting to see you, Inverse." Daniel said Lina's last name with a distinctly jealous sneer.

"Miss Amelia!" Kurt gasped.

"Amelia! What in the hell are you doing here?" Lina scolded as she and Kurt rushed over to take her away from Daniel.

"So then this is your little girlfriend," Daniel laughed. Lina gave him her best death glare in attempt to shut him up.

"Mr. Kurt, Mr. Liam, I dema..." Amelia started. Before she could finish, Lina covered her mouth and dragged her friend out into the hallway with the assistance of Kurt.

"Are you brain-dead?" Lina shouted. She could hear the laughter and catcalls of her teammates that were still back in the locker room.

"Mr. Liam, I demand that I be allowed to go with you and Mr. Kurt to the away games! You two need me around!"

"For what? We don't need a babysitter!"

"...but... I..."

"Listen to them Amelia, they're laughing at us. Nobody else has their female friends popping up at random while they're away in another state!" Lina snapped angrily. "You need to be back at home, working and living your own life."

"Mr. Farquain is allowing me, so is Daddy," Amelia replied smugly. "Let me come with you guys..."

"Two's company, three's a crowd," Lina said curtly.

"Actually, three can be company too," Kurt said shivering a slight bit in the hallway without a shirt on. Lina glanced over at the thin man and sighed.

"Go put some clothes on man," she moaned. Kurt happily went back inside the locker room to finish dressing.

"Miss Lina..." Amelia hissed.

"Amelia..." Lina whispered back. She was going to go on, but the creak of the door hinges stopped her.

"Umm... I think you two better come in here," Kurt said with distress in his voice as he opened the door to the locker room a crack. The girls looked over at him with some alarm to why he was summoning them back inside.

"What's up?" Lina asked, a bit worried at how serious Kurt sounded.

"Come see for yourself."

Lina and Amelia walked into the locker room to find all of the Slayers gathered around a small area. Fighting to get their way through, they found the center to be Aaron Reed's portable television, set onto one of the sports stations.

"We have breaking news to bring you," the male anchor announced in the basic newscaster's professional monotone. "The studio has just been informed that the owner of the expansion baseball team in Portland, Rezzo Graywords, has suffered a massive heart attack. This tragic event could change the future of professional baseball in Portland as Mr Graywords's grandson takes over ownership of the team in his stead, either temporarily or permanently..."

"Holy shit!" Lina swore. "Every single one of us just saw Old Man Graywords yesterday at the stadium! How in the hell did he have a heart attack?"

"They don't know," Gary Polous said, the usual jock-grin wiped clean from his face and a solemn look of grief replacing it. "He was not in the best of health though. That might have been what did it."

"He was also old," mentioned Will Scott. "I met his grandson Zelgadis once. The kid's not even a kid anymore. He's got to be in his twenties at the least."

"Then Old Man Graywords had to have been about seventy, maybe even eighty years old," Lina said thoughtfully, trying to calculate how old the man was based on his grandson's age.

"Stop saying that he 'was' Mr. Liam!" Amelia scolded. "It makes me feel as if he is already dead!"

"He might as well be," Lina said with a heavy heart. "That man is the reason I am here and he is almost gone. I do hope that if this does kill him, at least he doesn't feel anything."

"That is such a sad thing to say!"

"Liam is being kind Miss Amelia," Kurt said, putting his hand on her shoulder. "Besides, Zelgadis Graywords might sell the team. He does not like baseball at all and might just get rid of us if his grandfather dies. The old man was dedicated to the Slayers and his grandson despises us. We just got our big break and everything looks as if it is going to go downhill from here."

"How do you know that?" Amelia asked with distress in her voice.

"The boy just does," remarked Gary. "We don't know the rhyme or reason, but he hates baseball and everyone who has to do with the team."

"I think it is because being so hands-on with the Slayers has worn the poor old man down," said the sullen Murdoc Rodriguez. "He was never in the best of health to begin with."

"No," Amelia whispered. "Mr. Graywords can't do that to his grandfather's team! He just can't! He can't sell you!"

"He owns the team now," Lina said solemnly. "Whether we all like it or not, he has the power to do whatever he wants with us. The ball club is dead meat."

80808080808080808

The door to the emergency room burst open and Zelgadis rushed in, Frances right behind him. Both had rushed to the hospital from the bookbinding shop and were still dressed in their business clothes. They ran up to the receiving desk and stopped to catch their breath.

"My grandfather is here," Zelgadis panted to the man behind the desk. "His name is Rezzo Graywords."

"Third Floor, ICU Room 23-C... and please don't run. He's stable and not going anywhere for a while," said the male nurse, not even lifting his head from the paperwork he was depressingly looming over.

"Thank God," Frances sighed as she and Zelgadis walked over to the elevator and pressed the button to go to the third floor. When they arrived, they walked out and found exactly where Rezzo was being kept and where his doctor was.

80808080808080808

"Your grandfather is a lucky man Mr. Graywords," Dr. Alandra said as she and Zelgadis stood right outside Rezzo's room in the ICU. "At least he has a chance to say goodbye to his family. Is there anyone else I should call other than you who would like to say their farewells?" She pulled some of her blueish-black hair back behind her ear so that she could properly see the health statistics secured on the clipboard she held.

"No. I'm it," Zelgadis said as he looked into the room for a brief second. Frances was sitting next to Rezzo's bed, too scared to do anything but look at the old man who was hooked up to IV needles and machines that kept him just barely alive.

"What about her?" Dr. Alandra asked, noticing Frances's morose face.

"She's just an old friend," Zelgadis said, turning his face back to the doctor's. "Her relation to my grandfather is solely through me."

"Right then," Dr. Alandra sighed. "Well, he has not woken up yet. If you want, you can leave a phone number with me where we can reach you when he does finally become conscious."

"Sure," Zelgadis muttered, taking the clipboard from the woman and scribbling down the number to his cell phone. The doctor smiled at him and walked away, leaving him to go into Rezzo's room.

"Is it possible for him to be in pain and at peace at the exact same time Zelgadis?" Frances asked softly as Zelgadis went and stood at the foot of the bed.

"Of course it is," he said, putting his hands in his pockets. "Now the question is if he will ever wake up or not."

"He will wake up!" Frances protested, standing up with tears in her eyes. "Don't you have even the slightest bit of hope that he will wake up?"

"It was that damned baseball team that did this to him," Zelgadis spat, glaring angrily at Rezzo as he slept. "That was when his health started to spiral downhill. The damn old fool would not listen to me and now look at where he is. He pretty much just delivered himself to his own grave."

"Zelgadis!"

"I'll talk to you later," Zelgadis said blandly as he turned to exit the room. Frances grabbed onto his elbow and hugged it tightly.

"Please Zelgadis, don't go. At least talk to him..."

"He's asleep."

"I know that. Maybe he might hear you and wake up."

Zelgadis gave the conversation quite the long pause as he stared the statuesque Rezzo down.

"Leave Frances," he finally said.

"Huh?"

"If you want me to talk to him, then you have to leave."

"Fine. I'll be waiting in the hall," Frances said as she slowly backed away from her lover. She gave him a weak smile as she exited the room and disappeared from sight.

"So then," Zelgadis said, looking over at Rezzo's calm face as he walked over to the sleeping man's right side. He took the chair Frances was sitting in and sat down so the he could lean forward and rest his arms on the back. "You are finally going to join Mom, eh? Do you realize how lucky you are? You do not have to be the last one to go. Once you are cold and planted, I am the one who gets to wander this world alone, already half-dead and just living life as if the whole world and whatever the hell is in it does not matter."

Zelgadis paused for a moment, realizing how sadistic he sounded. It was actually a disservice to himself to be so cynical.

"Well, I do have Frances... but she just can't seem to make me feel alive again. Part of me died with Mom and Grandmother, you know that." Silence was his response. "Now another piece of me is dying along with you. Please don't die... not yet. I know that the stress of the team caused this. Why did you take on the team if you knew that you would end up like this? Dr. Alandra warned you months and months ago. I even warned you. Did you listen? No."

Taking another pause, Zelgadis found himself staring at the ceiling tiles, trying to hold back tears. He was never supposed to cry, the whole concept did not suit him at all. Men did not cry. They just held back what it was and then released it in private solitude.

Damn you, he cursed silently. What in the hell do you want from me? Why do you have to die? Why did Mom have to die? Why did Dad never come home? Do you have these answers...? Why don't you have these answers?

"Why don't you tell me what in the damned world is going on? I am not a child anymore. I can take whatever you can throw at me... Just take your best shot you... you... you... damned shortstop. " Zelgadis said the last two words with a sneer. Becoming frustrated, he stood up hastily and stormed out of the room.

"So...?" Frances asked hopefully as the chimera briskly stepped out into the hallway.

"Never ask me to do that again," Zelgadis said blandly right before he started to walk away.

I guess it will be my job to make sure he has a good time tonight, she sighed to herself as she followed Zelgadis into the elevator, grinning on the inside as she had already begun plotting plans for the evening.

Things To Know

Uh Nez? Things Are Getting Filler-ish Again: Part of the plan! Yes, I have a plan! I know the story is sort of staying in neutral, but that is the way things should be at the moment. It will pick up, trust me. -winks- One more chapter in Zelga-land should do it.

Zelgadis and Rezzo: Yeah, so I kind of wanted Zelgadis to go through this stage of turmoil, where he was really confused and might not even make sense to anyone but himself. I hope he just leaves things off on a little cliff for me to shove him off of later. His story is starting to slip through the cracks! Bwahaha! I also realize that he is off character a slight bit and my going overboard with the depression. That is on purpose and bugging me as well.

Dr. Alandra: I do not own my reviewers or their characters! This is Alandra-chan of Gerao-A.

What's With The Late Update?: The server was being a pain in my rear. .;;