RUN TO ME


Damn you, Rezo.

Zelgadis hadn't hated his great-grandfather for a very long time. Nearly 80 years, by his estimation.

It was a lifetime ago when he had finally sent the visage of his last remaining relative back to the Sea of Chaos. If not for his friends, Lina and Gourry, he wasn't sure he would have survived the third destruction of Rezo the Red Priest.

And then, of course, there had been Amelia.

She had been a young woman full of life, hopes and dreams. She had wanted to travel the world and smash evil with her fists of justice...or whatever damn thing she used to say.

They had saved the people of the lost city, Taforashia, together. They had saved Seyruun.

After leaving for a brief period, much more brief than ever before, he had returned to her on the verge of her 19th birthday.

Since that day, he had never looked back.

In the moment he had accepted that she loved him just the way he was, stone body and all, he had also let go of his resentment.

He had hated his great-grandfather, but he had loved Amelia more.

But now, as he held her limp and winkled hand, he once again cursed Rezo and the fucking bastard Mazoku who had possessed him.

Amelia looked up at her husband with dull eyes. Her silver hair was matted with cold sweat, yet she managed a small smile.

Zelgadis' heart beat wildly. She still had that effect on him, even after all these years.

The chimera knew that time was running out for his wife, but 80 years hadn't even been enough time to prepare him for it.

Rezo had probably thought his great-grandson's virtually indestructible body was a gift, and at times it had been, but with that gift came the true curse. He aged at half the rate of a normal human, which means he had watched all his friends slowly disappear before his eyes. He had watched his father-in-law, one of the strongest people he had ever known, succumb to the same illness that had afflicted his own father. Even Lina Inverse, the Dragon Spooker and Enemy of All Who Live, had eventually withered away from old age. Her husband, lover and self-appointed guardian, Gourry Gabriev, had followed soon after.

Zelgadis was beginning to understand how Gourry must have felt. Without Lina, he had no reason to go on. So he had given up. "Died of a broken heart," is what they'd said.

But Gourry had been an old man. Seven years older than Lina, in fact. Zelgadis was physically half Amelia's age.

He had a long way to go.

Too long.

Unless...

Amelia's breathing hitched and she shuddered. Zelgadis' thoughts were interrupted and he stood up quickly next to her bed, still holding her hand.

In that brief moment, a dozen thoughts flashed through the chimera's mind. Had he made her as happy as she'd made him? Did she ever secretly resent that he hadn't been able to give her children? Did she ever long for the touch of soft human flesh instead of warm stone?

And then none of it mattered anymore. She let out one last long shaky breath, and then she was gone.

Zelgadis closed his wife's deep blue eyes, then leaned over and gave her one last kiss on the forehead.

As he slowly pulled away and dropped her limp hand, he whispered softly in her ear.

"I'll see you soon."

Author's Notes: Sorry for this depressing one! At least they're few and far between, right? Zelgadis' final comment in this story can be open to interpretation.