AN: I realize that not a lot of people read this and that's okay. I want to finish posting this story so I can move on to other things.
Tricky Lies
Chapter 10
"You look a little pale Zelgadis, are you sure you're 'good'" Xellos says with a grin still sticking to his voice.
Zelgadis regains his composure and gives a tart response. "(*snuff* before you filthy monster came I was good/fine)."
"How is your new magic training?" Xellos continues courtly.
(Where have you been, what is happening right now)? Zelgadis asks angrily. How can Xellos dare ask a thing when Zelgadis knowingly left his friends in a dangerous situation.
Xellos doesn't immediately respond, but Zelgadis can sense and see a large column of energy starting to form around Xellos.
At the last second Zelgadis dives to the side as a cone of dark energy flies into the chair he has just vacated. Without stopping Zelgadis dashes across the room, moving the ground beneath him in order to move faster, and leaves the room while dodging the tiny sparks of dark energy Xellos is throwing at him. Shuttering, the house begins to break apart with Xellos continuing to attack Zelgadis as he races out of the house. With little effort on his part, Zelgadis can see and sense every attack before it is fired.
While Xellos is still as fast as ever, he doesn't have the same invisibility he once had. It is impossible for the monster to hide his attacks from Zelgadis on the astral plane, since this is how Zelgadis can now see. But Zelgadis cannot keep this up forever. The monster is still much stronger than Zelgadis can ever hope to be.
Using an air and earth spell to shield himself, Zelgadis prepares a Raw Tilt spell right as Xellos lunges around Zelgadis's makeshift hiding place in order to grab at him.
Zelgadis waits to fire the attack until Xellos is only a few inches from hitting him with his cone like form.
With a twirl of his finger, Xellos absorbs the attack only to be attacked again with another weak Raw Tilt spell. Instead of hitting Xellos directly Zelgadis aims behind Xellos and forces the spell to break, raining the astral spell down onto both of them.
In a flash, Xellos pulls up another shield, protecting Zelgadis and himself from the blast.
When the bright light from the magic attack fades, Zelgadis slumps to the ground in puzzlement. Xellos turns slowly and gazes curiously at him.
"Well, you have vastly improved in just five days," Xellos says in a tone Zelgadis cannot read. "But you should work on your control. I'd hate to see what would happen if you hit yourself with your own Raw Tilt spell. Who knows, it might actually damage your new sensibility"
Zelgadis looks around and is appalled to find that nearly a third of Filia's house has been damaged. He glares at Xellos and prepares himself to fight again if the monster makes any sudden movements.
"I was hoping to catch you off guard and get this done the easy way, but it seems now that my best choice is just explaining the situation to you." Xellos says. "Our companions have run into a bit of a pickle you see, and I was hoping to have a word with the evil sociopath who is after you."
(What? Why should I help you? Don't tell me you've abandoned Lina and the others.) Zelgadis stands and after signing his anger at Xellos. Zelgadis grabs Xellos by the collar and gnaws his teeth at the monster. Glaring his blind cold eyes into him.
"I thought you trusted me?" Xellos whines
(That was before you attacked me), Zelgadis points out.
"Oh, so you thought I was going to babysit Lina or something?" Xellos corrects with a smile, chiding Zelgadis slightly for his weak assumptions. "I'm afraid it is out of my control, but I do know how to help them."
(Go get them now then)! Zelgadis says dropping his hands from the monsters collar.
"But I need your help to find him quickly," Xellos says patiently.
(Why should I help you)! Zelgadis screams with his hands. (You attacked me)!
"That again, I thought you wanted to help your friends, am I wrong?"
(I hate you), is all Zelgadis has the heart to say at the moment.
"I'll take that as a yes. I'm going to unseal my curse on your senses so I can converse with that wizard friend of ours," Xellos says as he lifts a cold hand over Zelgadis's face. To Zelgadis though, it doesn't look much like a hand. Instead, right as the black form touches his face the power of Xellos surrounds him and shuts everything out momentarily.
As soon as the blackness of Xellos fades, Zelgadis finds himself in an unexpected place.
Zelgadis is standing in a dark gruesome lab room of some sort. There are wires, chains and tubes straddled along the walls and ceiling with other such equipment littered around to match. It is the stuff out of Zelgadis's nightmares, but that isn't the most disconcerting thing about it.
The things that are being seen with his eyes are not matching up with what he sees with his newly acquired astral vision. On one hand, he can see Xellos's dark form poking at him for attention, while his eyes contradict this image, showing a vision of a mad man's underground lab.
"Oh goody, you have finally come to say hello," a male voice says from somewhere in the room. The villain snaps his fingers and some of the lights turn on, causing Zelgadis to step back and squint in surprise.
"Mister Zelgadis," a familiar voice says from underneath one of the dangling lights behind Zelgadis.
Things are about to become very confusing for Zelgadis.
Recognizing the voice as Amelia's, Zelgadis turns his head towards the sounds source to his right.
But nothing is there.
Out of the corner of his eye he spots Amelia, Lina, Sylphiel, Pokota and Gourry as they stumble into the room. Apparently the country of Taforashia and Siraag became involved in Seyruun's plight while he has been away.
Twisting around, Zelgadis faces his friends and calls out to them.
"Amelia, Lina, Gourry, I found you," Zelgadis says, but while his mouth is moving he is confused to find that it sounds like his voice is coming from in front of him, some distance away in fact, rather than his own mouth. In bafflement, Zelgadis turns towards his friends, as he searches the room cautiously. As he searches, Zelgadis begins to depend less on his astral vision, causing the form of the monstrous Xellos to slowly disappear.
A voice in Zelgadis's head tells him that something is wrong, but his friend's voices distract him. Zelgadis has been living without sound for so long that it is now drowning out his thoughts very easily.
"Hey, Zel is that you," Lina says looking towards him in confusion. As he watches Lina's mouth move with the words, he is confused once more when he does not hear the sound coming from in front of him, but towards his left. Zelgadis looks towards his left, but only see's the black shadows of machines. Warily, Zelgadis turns his attention back in front of him and watches Lina carefully.
She is curiously walking forward with a steady eye seeming to look right past him. It's as if she is looking at him through a haze.
"Yes, it's me," Zelgadis says louder than before. This time it sounds like his voice is coming from somewhere in front of him, but Lina looks to her left as if his voice is coming from someplace else. Someone is toying with him. It doesn't sound like his voice is coming from his own mouth at all. When Lina steps closer, Zelgadis has the odd sensation of looking slightly up at Lina. Last he checked; he was taller than Lina.
The Slayers team is beginning to feel the onslaught of overwhelming confusion when two Mazoku reveal themselves from out of the shadows. Ditle comes out of the darkness at Zelgadis's left, while the form of the smiling Chezem comes from his right.
"Come on Lina, don't you recognize me?" Chezem says in Zelgadis's voice with a sharp toothy grin. A prickly pang runs through Zelgadis's mind as he realizes that he didn't say anything. Before this thought has fully sunk its teeth into his mind, his eyes move down against his will. He doesn't see his own hands, but the long and twitching sleeves of the small monster, Klide.
Something rough grabs Zelgadis's arms and begins to shake him, but his vision does not correspond with the abrupt movement his real body is feeling. At this point, Klide is finished mimicking Zelgadis's eye movements to fool him and stares forward as his monster buddies begin to attack Lina and the others.
Zelgadis is forced to watch as his friends fend off three monsters and hears their panting breath as they fight for their lives. He continues to feel something shaking him vigorously, but he refuses to lose sight of what is happening in front of him. Lina raises her hands and prepares to cast a spell. Meanwhile, Amelia and Sylphiel cast a barrier around Gourry and Pokota as they attempt to fend off the monsters main assault.
"It all comes down to this," a demented male voice says softly past the spells being cast by Zelgadis's friends. A whisper meant only for Zelgadis to hear. "Succeed where Rezo failed, ehmm, ehmm, overcome your trial."
"Zelgadis snap out of it!" Filia says in a blood curdling scream into his mind, successfully breaking the spell right as he feels his false teeth sink down into Lina's shoulder.
Coughing and sputtering as the tang of blood seems to flow into his mouth, Zelgadis attempts to cast a shield to block off what he is feeling from the monsters that have control of his senses. Filia helps and eventually Zelgadis calms down enough to reform the world around him with his magic.
"They are fighting," Zelgadis says to Filia and signs for Xellos.
"Then we should get going," Xellos says. "You can trace where your eyes, ears, and mouth are right now, correct?"
Zelgadis clenches the grass beneath him as he holds his breath and nods in the affirmative. Without waiting for approval, Xellos grabs Zelgadis and forces him off the ground, hugging him by the shoulders. Filia stands and grabs at Xellos, demanding something from him, but Zelgadis cannot hear her. If only he had more time, he might be able to figure out a spell to do more than just help him see.
The two seem to have a bicker of sorts, which reminds Zelgadis of an old married couple; even Xellos's form seems to be reacting and agitated. Unlike Xellos's unchanging face, his astral form cannot be as rigid.
Eventually, the two seem to come to an agreement of some kind and Xellos moves Zelgadis into the astral plane.
"Well, lead the way," Xellos says.
"Right," Zelgadis says using his own voice and reconnecting with his lost senses. His next thought he saves for himself and doesn't share with Xellos. No matter how weak I am, I will surpass that demented fools expectations.
Authors Note: I'm sorry it gets so confusing when Zelgadis see's Lina and the others again, but it does make sense if you think about it. Not that you need to, I suppose it's enough to accept that it is all really confusing and fools Zelgadis. Only a few chapters left, this is a very short chapter compared to some of the others.
Right now I just want to post this story and move on to other things since it's been sitting on my computer for nearly a year.