Chapter 3
Somewhere over the Atlantic Ocean
June 2nd, 2002
Filia glared at her book. 'Religions of the Northern Isles.' Damn that Xellos! Picking up girls when we're traveling for such a serious reason! She clenched her fists and squeezed her eyes shut.
I'm supposed to be his friend, huh? So he just . . . ignores me, and hits on the first girl he sees!
Valgaav may have calmed her down the first time, but her rage was starting to build again. And I bet that, that MONSTER, is sitting over there grinning about how wonderfully he's pissed me off!
Filia turned to glare at him, expecting a satisfied smirk, but her anger wilted slightly.
If Xellos was feeling proud, it wasn't showing. He seemed to be sulking even more than she was, a dark and dismal expression clouding his pallid features and dark amethyst hair shading his eyes.
He can't be feeling bad about this. That's just not possible.
(-(-o-)-)
Xellos swallowed and tried to push away the emotions he was sensing. Hatred, anger, embarrassment, jealousy, pain . . . it had all boiled out of Filia so strongly. Add to that the lust and fear of the stewardess, and it was almost dizzyingly intoxicating.
But now what? he wondered, staring at the back of the embroidered airplane chair in front of him. He had wanted to get even with Filia, and some small part of him still savored how possessive she had been. But she was so furious, more enraged than she'd been in the past century.
Xellos concentrated on only identifying Filia's emotions, his violet eyes narrowing. Though still livid, a large part was hurt, and it flowed from her wretchedly.
A human would be sobbing by now, he realized, and blinked, shaking himself. How can what I did grieve her so much?
He thought over the flight, and how he'd been talking mostly with Valgaav, still feeling humiliated and angered towards what she had done and said. "Who knows that you have any feelings TO offend!"
Mazoku have eidetic memories, and the words weren't ones he was likely to forget by the next eon. They had certainly stung . . . they still did.
He gazed through his curtain of hair and saw her peering at him with curiosity. Quickly, he looked back down at his lap and clasped his hands together nervously. What should I say? What would Lord Hellmaster Zelas want me to say? Should I even care what she would want? What do I want?
Xellos took a slow breath and let it out even more slowly. I don't know. I want to tease Filia. I want her to be happy, and angry, and excited. I don't really want her to feel pain because of me, but yet I do.
His fists clenched as he let his anger flow inside of himself. She enrages me! She makes me want to smack her and hug her at the same time. Why do I feel this way?
(-(-o-)-)
Groaning, Valgaav watched from the doorstep of the astral plane. "Great, they still haven't started talking to each other. What's wrong with them? Am I going to have to mediate this?"
Val's memories were filled with times when his mother and his 'uncle' Xellos fought. It seemed like there was never a moment when they weren't clashing. It was so obvious they liked each other that his guy friends didn't even bother getting crushes on his mom. Not that the scary, possessive expressions Xellos would send them didn't help out.
Does Xellos even realize he sends that message to others? Does he even know what he feels inside at all? Though Mom's not much better. Jeeze, Mother, you'd think an ex-priestess would have more knowledge of her own emotions.
He supposed he couldn't blame them, what with the social problems of their possible relationship. Admitting their feelings would be dangerous for the both of them, he surmised, though Xellos WAS one of the highest monsters alive. With his master Zelas' promotion to Regent, he was second in rank only to her and the other two Hellmasters that Zelas had recently promoted herself, after their predecessors' untimely demise.
Valgaav chuckled as his mother and Lord High Beastmaster Xellos sat next to each other uncomfortably. Talk about courting royalty. Xellos is pretty damn close. He's far more powerful than my mother or myself.
Suddenly, he felt something in the corner of his mind, and shot his senses out. Another Mazoku. Again? Damn, and at the worst time.
Val concentrated a large amount of energy on feeling Xellos' spirit body and shot a message into the shadowy form that overlaid the angry General-Priest's corporeal figure.
—XELLOS! We have a guest!—
(-(-o-)-)
Xellos gasped slightly as he heard the deep voice boom in his head. Great, how to explain this? He stood suddenly and curtly said, "I'm going to go check on Valgaav."
Turning without waiting for her belated reply, Xellos race-walked to the nearest restroom and went inside, then slipped into hyperspace.
There, Xellos found Valgaav and one of the usual bullies. "Hello, Haramon."
"That's Greater Beastmaster Haramon, Xellos," the jade-haired man grinned as he floated in the swirl of color and shadow that was the astral plain.
"Enough with this," Xellos spat, calling his staff to him with his power. "Valgaav, leave."
The boy nodded and was gone.
"Still protecting the dragons, Xellos?" Haramon tisked with an evil chuckle. "Every time I try to kill them, you're there. I wonder why?"
Xellos flashed his fangs and gripped his staff, smiling angrily at the man who was his equal only by title. "I would normally just beat you senseless without anger, Haramon, but today really hasn't started out well," his expressive voice rang darkly.
With a sudden rush, Xellos sprang at him, eyes instantly glowing white. Haramon ducked and phased, but not before Xellos sliced him in the arm with the power radiating from the red orb.
"Good as always, Xellos!" Haramon laughed. "Why won't you let me kill them? Do you have such a soft heart?"
Xellos grinned maliciously. "Would you believe me if I said it was my current mission?"
"Doubtful," Haramon spat, and violently tossed shards of dark energy at Xellos.
Easily, Xellos blocked them. "I didn't think so."
"If so, it's a long mission, isn't it," the other demon laughed, then disappeared.
"Oh no you don't!" Xellos roared, and phased inside the plane.
(-(-o-)-)
Haramon stood, invisible, above Filia Ul Copt, a blood-thirsty smirk twisting his face. With a yell, he swung at the woman—
Only to be shoved aside, onto the floor of the aircraft. An aquamarine haired boy glared down at him. "Don't you even THINK that I'll let you harm my mother in any way," he spat in rage.
Xellos appeared next to him and snarled as Haramon displaced himself and zapped back standing. "This is the last time, Haramon. You've been a thorn in my side, and your Hellmaster must be too busy with his new duties to realize how much time you waste in tormenting me. His loss."
Valgaav made an intelligent disappearance, leaving the two alone on a plane full of blissfully unaware people.
"You can try to kill me, Xellos," Haramon growled low in his throat. "Give it your best shot! I haven't had a chance to test my powers in a long time!"
The plum-haired Beastmaster laughed at him. "Seems you tested your powers quite well against young Valgaav there, and failed rather easily. Too bad."
"Die, fool!" Haramon lunged.
Flashing out then returning, Xellos appeared behind him and kicked the other monster hard in the back, then shoved his staff into his stomach from the other side. "Enjoying yourself yet, Hara?"
The monster rolled and tossed a web of black power to tie Xellos up, but the priest simply phased out of the way with a grin.
"Do you love her, Xellos?" Haramon's voice mocked from the abyss surrounding him. "She IS a very attractive dragon bitch. Maybe I should make her my slave after I kill you!"
Xellos clenched his teeth, rage billowing in an inferno. That's it. He'll pay with the greatest pain he's ever felt.
(-(-o-)-)
Valgaav watched the fight from yards away in the astral plane, and winced when he heard what Haramon said about his mother. "That bastard. He's going to regret ever saying that to Xellos."
The two Beastmasters fought fiercely in hyperspace, but Xellos was faster and smarter, and slowly the pain of his attacks wore down on Haramon. The further he pressed and the deeper his strikes went, the more enraged the General-Priest became.
Finally, Xellos stood above the downed Mazoku, cackling almost insanely. "You think you can beat me? You think you can speak those words about her WITHOUT PAYING?" he roared, tossing aside his staff and grabbing the monster up in his own hands, pummeling him.
Haramon's image was deteriorating, and even Valgaav felt ill at seeing the carnage. The Mazoku's astral body appeared to smear across hyperspace, but Xellos was crazed with rage, and seemed determined to rip any remaining bits into shreds. "YOU WILL NEVER HURT HER!" Xellos' voice echoed deeply. "NEVER!!"
"Xellos!" Val cried, but the demon heard and saw nothing but his victim.
Lifting the decimated body by the neck with one hand, Xellos snarled with pleasure and slowly crushed the windpipe of the mangled Mazoku, already mostly dead, but still clinging to life.
A keening sound unlike one Val had ever heard emerged from the creature, and the boy winced and looked away, but Xellos merely began to cackle evilly and squeezed harder, sending waves of destructive energy into the miserable form. "Scream, Haramon! ASK MY FORGIVENESS, BEG FOR IT!"
Something cracked, and the horrified cat-eyes locked onto nothingness. With a roar, Xellos tossed the body into the air and struck it right on the spine with both arms.
Val closed his eyes to the butchery, plugged his ears to the sounds of breaking bones and tearing flesh, but it seemed to echo within his mind. No, NO MORE!
With a cry, Valgaav grabbed the fallen staff and ran up to the mindless Mazoku and swung the weapon, hitting him over the head.
Xellos turned on Val, but the dragon disappeared before he could strike, and only spoke into the air. "Xellos . . . Uncle! Stop this! He is DEAD!"
Rabid, the violet-haired demon screamed, "Not dead enough! Never enough!"
"No!" Valgaav zapped in again and whacked him harder.
Xellos shook his head, blinking. "Val . . . gaav?"
The teen stood before him, gently cradling the red-orbed staff in his hands. "Uncle. You killed him. You won."
"Did I?" he asked softly, falling to his knees in the spacelessness. "It felt . . . wonderful," he breathed, closing his eyes.
Val cracked a smile, but shivered. "I bet it did."
Xellos looked down at his hands in his lap and snarled. "It really wasn't enough, for what he said. What he . . . intended."
"Calm down, Xellos," Val admonished. "Don't worry, no one will ever do that to Filia."
Glancing up, it almost seemed like a ghost image of fear crossed the serious face before the monster chuckled. "Unless you decide I should never see her again."
"You mean, you'd stop protecting her if I did?"
"NEVER!" Xellos hit his thigh angrily, then narrowed his purple eyes. "Though . . ." his voice became a whisper, "I shouldn't . . . care . . . this way."
Concerned, Valgaav let it drop. "This will send a message, you know. You've never killed any of them before. You won't have to fight quite as often to protect us."
"How many have you witnessed, Valgaav," Xellos asked tiredly.
"Enough." Valgaav tossed the staff, and Xellos caught it distractedly. "What should I tell my mother?"
The monster sighed. "Tell her . . . tell her I'll be back. I think she deserves to be told the truth . . . by me."
(-(-o-)-)
Filia sighed, lacking the feeling of darkness that surrounded her every time Xellos was near. "Where are they?" she muttered, sipping her tea.
"A Zellan Melathin ordered a bottle of wine, miss?" a dark-skinned stewardess asked politely, rolling a cart with a bottle of red wine sitting in steaming ice. Next to it stood two crystal wine glasses.
The blonde looked up and smiled weakly. "Um, yes, he's my friend. Thank you."
Studying her hands, she looked up when she heard a familiar stride. "Valgaav."
"Hi, Mom." He looked very dour.
"Something's happened, hasn't it?" the dragoness gasped, standing up. "Is Xellos all right? What's happened?" Her voice fell to a harsh whisper. "Where is he?"
"Calm down, Mother," Val spoke softly, and smiled. "Xel is . . . he's fine."
"'Xel'?"
Valgaav took her hand. "Mother, why don't you find someplace private and go into the astral plane. You'll find him there."
(-(-o-)-)
Filia looked out across the field of darkness and slashes of vibrance, and adjusted her blue blouse nervously. "Xellos," she whispered.
Across space and time, a solitary figure sat, back to her. Orchid tresses shielded his features and to one side he clutched his long wooden staff.
Her snowy skirt twined between her legs as she walked silently up to him, floating in the nothingness to reach his level.
The man chuckled as she neared. "Valgaav told you a little more than I expected him to."
"Maybe he wanted to give us some privacy," her gentle voice chimed. She gazed down at him, then looked out yards before him. "What . . . is that, Xellos?" she asked softly. "It almost looks like random matter."
Xellos raised his head and laughed. "Anything that . . . dies in the astral plane . . . quickly dissipates."
The blonde dragon lowered herself to sit before him. "You . . . fought someone?"
"And won," he smiled, plum-colored eyes narrowed dangerously.
She nervously looked away from his frightening gaze. "You monsters are so violent," she taunted weakly.
"Yeah, we sure are!" he smiled with forced cheer, obvious to even Filia. He turned his head away and pulled his knees up, leaning his arms across them, staff still tightly clasped in one hand.
They sat in silence for a while, then Filia managed, "Your wine came."
He nodded.
"Xellos . . ."
"Valgaav called me 'Uncle'."
Filia stopped trying to talk and watched him intently.
"Val . . ." the Mazoku smiled sourly, "knows how to use psychology very well. He knows what to say . . . to snap someone out of an emotion they've been feeling for far too long."
"Xellos, I . . . don't quite understand," she attempted. He's acting so serious! Something horrible must have occurred.
She ran her fingers along the staff . . . it was a way to connect with him without actually touching him. He didn't seem to mind.
(-(-o-)-)
Xellos peered through the dark veil of his hair and sighed at Filia's worried cerulean eyes. "I want to explain to you . . . but I'm not sure how!" He laughed at himself and suddenly stretched out to lie beside her. She gazed down at him, and he grinned back. "You might be upset after I tell you. You might . . . not be. You might not know what to think."
Filia nodded her golden head. "Maybe we should get the wine?"
He chuckled and began to sit up, but she touched his shoulder. Calm worry and . . . affection? . . . flowed through him, but he scoffed inwardly. No way that's affection for me, must be an incorrect analysis.
"No, it's okay," she said gently. "I'll bring it."
He smiled at her. "I can summon it here, it's close. How do you think I got my staff from the cargo hold?"
"Oh. Won't someone notice it disappearing?"
Xellos shrugged. "At this point, I don't care."
(-(-o-)-)
Filia poured them wine, and Xellos rolled over to lie on his stomach. "Good vintage," he commented. "Good year, too."
"We were living in London then," she remembered.
"No," he grinned, "you followed me to London."
She blushed and fought a smile. "True. But you were the one who kept appearing in my house unannounced."
"You had that crush on the French teacher at the local university," Xellos continued. "And Valgaav thought he was a pompous ass."
She frowned at him half-heartedly, twirling her glass. "AND let you know when I was making him dinner just so you could show up and pretend to be my fiancée!"
Xellos laughed and sat up, hand on his neck. "Well, he WAS a pompous ass. You were too good for him."
Her azure eyes heavy on him, Xellos folded his legs and nervously sipped his wine. She was hushed.
"For a long time," he began, then stopped. "For centuries. There were some monsters that thought it would be fun to . . . exterminate the remaining dragons on this planet." He studied her reflection in the deep burgundy liquid. "I . . . disagreed."
Silence. She sipped her wine also.
"Valgaav was very young. For some reason, I didn't hate him like I hated him before. He was innocent, brilliant. And after Lina . . ."
His voice stopped, cut like a string.
"She was very old, Xellos," Filia's voice spoke kindly. "It was her time."
"I could have resurrected her," he said, dejectedly.
"But you knew she wouldn't want that!" Filia announced. "Stop pouting!" He glanced up, shocked, to see her smile. "She knows how much you cared about her."
His violet eyes narrowed. "So how do YOU know? I'm a monster without feelings, remember? Just this week you said it twice! 'You couldn't possibly care about any creature but yourself', sound familiar? How about, 'Who knows that you have any feelings to be hurt,' eh?" His cruel tone tightened his brow.
She flushed and sloshed the dark liquid in her glass. "I . . ." He's right. I'm so contradictory sometimes.
"I can't have cared for Lina, Amelia, or anyone else I was allowed to meet on this world, because I am a monster." His dark eyes glared at nothingness below him. "And Mazoku aren't supposed to care, I'll have you know. Except for ourselves. Our own selfish desires."
Filia blushed and shook her head. "I guess . . . people can change."
"But am I a person, Filia?" Xellos laughed dryly.
"Yes!" She frowned and clenched a fist. "You are, just as I am, or Valgaav is."
"So . . . is Hellmaster Zelas a person?" he asked quietly.
She blinked, uncertain. "Hellmaster?"
"She was promoted over the years." He chuckled, dark eyes suave. "So was I, by the way."
"Oh. Well, she must be a person. You care about her."
"Uh," Reddening, Xellos hastily drank from his glass. "What makes you think that?"
"You always talk about her with such awe and admiration!" she declared, aqua eyes pinning him. "It's obvious! And if she reincarnated you, and made you her highest servant, she must care as well."
"So now all monsters can care?" he asked, perplexed and ignoring her assumptions.
Filia sighed. I guess so. "It has to be true," she answered. "But that doesn't mean they DO care about anyone. Or that they know they can." His violet eyes studied her, and she met his gaze with a smile. "But, Xellos, what does it mean . . . that you disagreed with the other monsters wanting to . . . kill us for sport?"
"That's 'Greater Beastmaster Xellos' to you," he grinned, "and what do you think it means?!" He poured himself more wine and announced, "I couldn't let them kill you two."
"Why not, because we could be manipulated and used to your advantage?" she asked him sweetly, eyes hard.
"At first, that's what I told myself," he admitted. "I told Lady Zelas that, too."
"And then?"
"And then," his free hand began fiddling with the buttons on his scarlet shirt, "Lina died. Goury died soon after from . . . heartbreak. I could watch their children and grandchildren and remember, but it wasn't the same." He sighed and watched the colors warp and twist around them. "Amelia had changed, become an ancient monarch, unwilling to even remember her old friends!"
"You tried to tell her?" Filia asked in wonder.
"Yes." He struck his staff with his fist. "She didn't care. She didn't admit to remembering Lina and Goury, and didn't care if they had died." He shook his head. "I remember feeling genuine hate and anger for the first time in a long time. And I felt . . . betrayed, too."
Filia blinked. I think this is too much information for me to handle!
"Anyway, you were the last people I had to remind me of the best times of my life. At least, I thought they would be." He laughed at himself. "I was wrong, I had a pretty amusing life with you, Filia. There wasn't as much property damage as Lina had caused, but it was still pretty entertaining."
The dragon turned rosy and glowered at him. "Is that the only reason you kept Valgaav and I alive all these decades?"
"Of course not! Are you crazy?" he shouted, then tossed back the wine with a hard swallow and set the glass floating nearby. "Filia," he growled, violet eyes narrowing, "you and Val became my friends, all right?! There, I said it!" She gasped as Xellos turned away and clutched his knees to his chest, spitting, "But Monsters aren't suppose to care, are they? Not even the Mazoku themselves will admit to even having the CAPACITY!"
The resulting silence hurt her head.
Time passed while she tried to think of something, anything, to say.
Finally, after what seemed like days, but could only have been minutes, the blonde took a deep breath. "X-Xellos-"
"We should get back to the plane," he forced a smile and stood, obviously not willing to talk of it more.
"Xellos?"
She watched the well-dressed Mazoku gather the bottle and crystal glasses. "Someone's bound to notice we've been gone for so long," he continued, then winked, "and they might think we're doing something 'naughty' together!"
Smiling despite herself, the dragoness let him disappear. "Xellos," she sighed and shook her head.
(-(-o-)-)
Sitting down, Xellos returned the wine to the ice bucket. He glanced to his left across the empty seat to where Val sat, the boy smiling at him knowingly. "What?"
"Nothing," Valgaav dismissed. "Did you tell her?"
"Yeah."
"What about what he said . . . about her." His smile fell.
Xellos' eyes widened. "No, I think it might be quite a while before I can tell her that." What I told her so far was embarrassing enough.
"Tell who what?" came a cheery voice.
The Mazoku turned to smile at Filia as she stepped passed and sat down between them. "Oh, just more secrets about me."
"But Val knows?" she asked as she arranged her skirts and peered at him speculatively.
"Uh," Xellos coughed, "only because he eavesdropped a few times he wasn't supposed to."
They both looked at the young man, who shrugged with a grin. "Eh? Did you expect any less?" He leaned back and laughed. "Growing up around the two of you, I think I gained a natural affinity for it!" Thunk. "OW!"
"There," Filia sat back, satisfied, and unclenched her fist. "That's what you get for being rude."
Valgaav stared at his mother and rubbed his head. "Sometimes I think you're nuts, Mom," he muttered.
"What?" She turned evil blue eyes on him.
"Nothing!"
