SALVATION

This piece was inspired by the events of the EVOLUTION-R manga currently coming out in Japan. In the manga, Zelgadis basically knocked Amelia out using questionable methods, attacked Lina, and then went off with Ozel to try and talk to Rezo (or his spirit or whatever) because he seems to think he'll be able to get some information about his cure.

After reading the very well thought-out story "Betrayed?" by Ichiban Victory, which shows how Zelgadis' leaving affected Amelia, I decided to write up this short drabble-like thing showing Zel's side of things. I suppose it could have been longer, but let's face it...Zel isn't particularly difficult to figure out. Better to be concise, I think.

Anyway, enjoy!

"How much longer?" Zelgadis asked, impatiently.

The living marionette, Ozel, glanced at him over her shoulder.

"The town is not much farther, Zelgadis-san."

Ozel turned back around without another word, and Zelgadis was equally silent as he followed her.

He had no idea what he would face in Vezendi. There was the possibility he was walking straight into a trap, but he couldn't ignore the very small possibility that each step he took could be bringing him ever closer to his cure.

No, he could never ignore that. It was that hope that drove him on. It was that hope that made him betray his friends. Made him betray her.

Zelgadis hoped she would understand. He had not only deceived her and betrayed her trust and friendship, but he had abandoned his post as Amelia's protector. In that way, he had also betrayed her father. The man who had always treated him with respect and accepted him as his daughter's close friend, despite his appearance.

Zelgadis felt a wave of regret and guilt, but then looked down at the blue skin of his clenched fingers and remembered why he was with the strange Ozel and not with his friends.

She would understand. If he regained his human body and returned to her, she would forgive him. She'd be so relieved and happy for him that she would forget all about the sleep spell he cast on her so that she wouldn't try to follow him. If he did end up having to face Rezo again, or if he was walking into a trap set by the assassin, Zuuma; he couldn't stand for her to fall victim to his selfish stupidity.

Zelgadis chided himself for being stupid and selfish, but at least he thought enough about others to protect her from his decisions.

But was that really it? Maybe he had cast the spell not to protect her from him, but to protect himself from her. He could only imagine the look she would have given him if she had been awake as he turned his back on his friends. It wasn't a pretty picture.

Zelgadis shook the thought from his head. After all, Amelia was the least of his problems. He had attacked Lina Inverse. Of all the people to attack, it had to be her? Maybe if she hadn't been so stubborn, it wouldn't have come to that. Now, if he did somehow get his cure and return to them as a full human, there was a good chance he would be promptly Dragon Slaved into oblivion.

Would it have been worth it?

Yes, probably.

Besides, Lina probably knew him better than any of the others. Amelia knew the man he had become over the past few years of traveling with her and the others. She knew the softer side they had managed to drag out of him just by being there for him and treating him like a human being.

Lina, on the other hand, knew how he had been before. She knew the man who had once been Rezo's berserker. If this didn't work out and he lost his life, he hoped Lina could convince Amelia that he was a bastard who had gotten what he deserved.

Somehow, though, he doubted it.

"We are here," Ozel said, quietly. She had stopped walking so abruptly that Zelgadis almost ran right into her.

"So we are," he answered in a whisper.

They stood just outside the town of Vezendi. Through the gates waited either his worst nightmare, or his greatest salvation.

As he stared at the gates, a thought came unbidden to his mind.

"Zelgadis-san, when this battle is over, will you come back to Seyruun with me?"

Amelia's words, spoken in the heat of battle years earlier, rang in his ears as he steeled himself and turned to Ozel.

"Let's go."