Chambers


Notes

navy = flashback


She sat at the side of his bed, helpless to stop the illness that devoured him from the inside out. His pale hand rested on top of the starch white sheets, the IV slowly feeding him medicine. His jewel-toned eyes were closed, his expression one of slight pain.

"Hurry, Xellos," she whispered, thinking of her companion who was working frantically to finish the research the bed-ridden youth had left behind.

Lina strolled towards Zelgadis' house for their study date. She had heard the sirens from the distance, and wondered what the problem was, but it hadn't really concerned her until she turned the corner and saw the ambulance outside his house. Her bag fell to the pavement with a thunk, and her eyes had widened with her shock. She scanned the crowd that had formed around the scene, searching for a familiar face. She found Xellos.

"What the hell happened here?!" She grabbed him by the front of the shirt and shook him violently. The purple haired man looked down at her with sorrow in his expression.

"Zelgadis... he collapsed at the top of the stairs and fell to the bottom," he replied. "He's got AIDS, now. Wonder how much longer he'll be around..."

"Don't say those kinds of things!" She slugged him in the gut, then pushed her way to the front of the crowd. "Zel! Zel!!!"

When the paramedics wheeled him to the waiting ambulance, she got a good view of him. He was paler than usual, with a few lacerations on his face and arms. He opened his sapphire eyes just in time to see her before the doors closed.

"Poor guy," someone nearby said. "First to get AIDS, then fall down the stairs..."

"Ya know, I heard he was trying to come up with a cure or something," another person shrugged. "He must have really wanted to live. Most people just accept they're gonna die."

"Too bad he's probably not gonna live to see if it helped any or not."

"Zel... please hold on." She took his cold hand in hers, and was rewarded by his gem-hued gaze. He smiled weakly, wiping away the tears she hadn't realized she had shed.

"I'll see you on the other side," he murmured, then lay all too still.

"Zel? Zel?! Zel!!!" She shook him gently as the heart monitor flat-lined. "Nurse! Doctor! Somebody!"

"Lina, I've got - " Xellos burst in the door, holding a computer disk and miscellaneous papers. She spared him a grief-stricken glance, then returned her attention to the young man in the bed.

"Zel..." She allowed Xellos to pull her back as a doctor ran into the room, checked his vital statistics, and shook his head sadly.

"Time of death..." The physician picked up the clipboard from the foot of the bed and started writing.

"That's it?" Lina cried out in fury. "They're not going to try to revive him? They're just going to let him..."

"If not now, he would just be in more pain until the time they couldn't help him." Xellos held her by the shoulders, watching as the sheet was pulled over Zelgadis' head. "Come on, Lina, there's nothing we can do here."

"No." She shook him off, still irate. "They've got to have the cure. They must get it! We couldn't... couldn't save Zel... but somebody else - !"

"I understand." Xellos nodded solomnly. "I'll see that they get it."

"Couldn't save Zel..." she repeated, her voice all but gone.

"Lina..." A quick tap to her right shoulder, then one to her left. "Hey, Lina..."

"Who - ?" Confused, she looked around her, but her purple haired companion had already exited the room.

"It's okay to cross, Lina." There was a soft chuckle. "You don't have to stay anymore."

"Zel?"

"They won't be suffering anymore. You can cross. Come with me!" With light flooding around him, through him, he offered her his hand to step into the next realm.

"Zel!"

"Yeah?"

"Don't you ever scare me like that again!"

"Lina, where we're going, I can promise you that!"


Xellos watched them cross over with a bitter-sweet smile. No matter how many times he had seen it, it was always a beautiful sight.

"Poor Lina had been staying until they found a way to cure what killed her..." He shook his head. "How often the sins of the parent trap the child..." Although he was somewhat relieved to see her go, he had to wonder when it would at last be his turn.

"When indeed..."


Fanfiction