The nightmare still plagued the mind of sorceress supreme Lina Inverse, even long after awakening. She was helpless as the demonic being stood before her, blade poised to prove her own mortality and eyes glowing as red as fresh blood. In her dream, she could feel only betrayal and numbness.
"Why?" She would ask, not understanding how this scenario could have come to be. "Please, no..." Her crystal clear tears splattered on the cold stone floor, and the echo was resounding as the sword descended with it's golden glow.
"I... CAN'T!!!" The crimson eyed executor wept tears of blood as he turned the blade on himself and impaled his own chest, rather than hers.
Sun-gold luminescence flashed with a painful scarlet and moribund ebony. The ruby-like glow drained from his eyes with each impossible bloody tear.
Lina couldn't tell who's scream it was that chilled her to the bone as she opened her arms to catch him as he fell. His slit-pupil eyes looked so human as the tears diluted to transparant.
"I'm... sorry..." He breathed, staring indirectly at her face as she leaned over him. "Lina... no... itooshii..."
Those were his last words; he began coughing up an unusual colored blood. She could feel the verry essence of life drain out of him.
Then he was gone.
Lina would awaken with a scream half on her lips, and a cold sweat dotting her forehead. If one of her travelign companions was still awake, they would inquire about her health. One time, Zelgadis had asked about the nature of the dream. When she had attempted to explain it to him, she found the only thing she could remember about her would-be executor were his red eyes and blood tears. He gave her a cup of hot tea and told her to go back to sleep.
Several weeks after the nightmares had started, they suddenly took a turn for the worse. It began with a void, a black hole of empty or dead emotion. She would hear laughter, and streaks of violet and blue danced through the ebony. The executor was wearing a more noticable outfit; jet black pants, long sleeved tunic, with the once golden light of his sword tinted with violet and blue.
The rest of her dream would continue as usual, every terrible moment of it 'till the very end, when she drifted somewhere between the dreaming and waking worlds.
"shhh" a soft voice whispered as warm, strong arms wrapped around her. "It's okay, Lina. I won't let anything hurt you."
All that she remembered upon awakening was the gentle touch of a dark beige, and a light violet that could almost have been blue.
Upon reaching the Temple of Blood and Ice, a large and omnious black building where Lina had been expecting to find treasure of great value, the red-hared sorceress froze in her tracks at the threshold.
"Lina-san?" Amerlia cautiously poked her friend's shoulder in concern. "Lina-san, are you okay?"
"Lina, what's wrong?" Gourry put a hand on her shoulder, half expecting her to throw a fireball at him for doing so. His expression of worry increased when she continued to do nothing.
"Lina?" Zelgadis' soft tenor finally snapped her from her daze.
"Oh! Ahehehe, sorry." She laughed in an embarresed fashion. "Let's go get that treasure!" She smiled brilliantly to feign cheerfulness. Gourry accepted the facade readily, and Amelia openly welcomed it to keep from worrying.
Zelgadis, however, was not fooled in the least by her masquerade. He trailed her closely, suspicious of her true fear.
"Hello everyone!" A frightfully chipper voice greeted them as they entered the main shrine. Lina's blood ran like liquid ice in her veins as her ruby colored eyes took in the lavender hair and split pupil eyes of the Mazoku Trickster Priest, Xellos Metallium.
"Xellos." The chimera's voce was tainted by fiery malice, and in her perifial vision, Lina could see Gourry's hand gripping the hilt of his Hikari no Ken, Amelia powering up a fireball, and Zelgadis... the blue skinned young man stood silent and drawn to his full height. With the deadly expression on his stone-chisled face and the unnatural breeze that rippled through his metallic hair, Zelgadis Greywers was apparently in no mood to be triffled with; and was the visual definition of intimidation.
"Well, well, Zelgadis-kun, long time no see. What have you been up to, Stone Boy?" Xellos laughed, his eyes and smirk enhancing the menacing aura he had alread built up. "Don't smile, Zel-kun; your face might crack!" The Mazoku's teasing caused the chimera to fume silently, but the Trickster Priest maintained his cross-legged position floating above an alter made of black volcanic glass that was also noticably stained wtih blood. The blue eyed chimera stood his ground, but held his hand out to Gourry in an expectant manner.
"C'mon, Amelia." The blond said in a grave and uncharactistic fasion. "This just became none of our buisness."
"What?!" Ameila wailed, looking at him as if he were out of whatever kind of mind he had. "What do you mean it's none of our..." Her voice died in her throat as Gourry handed the unsheathed Hikari no Ken to Zelgadis wordlessly. She glanced at the chimera who had been her first real crush with a wistful sigh.
"Oh." She murmured, stepping back. "I see."
"See what?!" Lina yelled, waving her arms wildly to draw attention to her state of confusion. "Guys, what ... why are you... Guys?" She felt her heart leap into her throat and remain there as an unmovable and frozen testament to her temporary mental paralyzation. .
For it was at this time when she noticed the pattern of fresh blood flowing down the spiral pattern that was deeply engraved in the semi opaque face of the obsidian. Memories of the void, and the horrible events there after, flooded her vision,overriding the sounds of the two split pupiled persons calling out to her in concern.
"Lina!" Zelgadis' airy and gentle voice; mock apathy always trying to hide shattered and beaten emotions.
"Lina-chan!" Xellos' devil-may-care tone; sadism and morbidity clouding a long ago sense of humane compassion.
Her vision blurred with her tears until all she could see were the colors. A myriad of tones of light blue and pale ivory reached out to comfort her, lavender-azure tracing her delicate jawline. Cobalt vanished when invaded violently by a thoudand hues of purple and dark beige that she could not identify. Soft words in her ears, a promise of relief.
A girl's scream; a man's shout; and the terrible sound of something not all together human weeping from the bottom of his soul in agony.
Lina's world faded into darkness.
Lina awoke with a headache; something that would have ordinarily made her irratable for the entire day. However, as the air was perfumed with the aroma of fresh roses, her temper decided to take a leave of absence. The gentle carress of silk against her skin was an even greater temptation, until her highly unused voice of reason quickly explained why a bed of silken texture and a sinfully pleasurable scent were a bad combination.
Cautiously, she cracked open one of her gemstone-hued eyes to glance at her surroundings.The room was a dark shade of violet, the regal yet sinister pigment seeming to writhe on the very walls. The berth she lay on was much larger than any she had ever slept upon before, and four obsidian columns supported a purple lace canopy above her head. A small ebony nightstand was at her right, and a chair held her freshly laundered sorceress outfit... Wait a moment. The voice of reason started going berserk at this time, and Lina remembered why it got such little air time in her general thoughts. Blushing almost as red as her hair, she scrambled into her uniform as rapidly as she could.
"Good morning, Lina-chan." The voice of the Trickster Priest caused Lina to nearly jump in fright. "Did you sleep well?"
"Xellos, I..." Her gaze fluttered briefly from him, to the walls, then back to the other wall. "Ah, eh, where are we?"
"Why, Lina-chan, we're in the one place that no one else can bother us." Xellos seemed to melt away from the shadows of the room, smiling like the proverbial cat who got the canary. "We're in your dream."
"My... dream?" skeptically, she glared at him.
"Well, it's your subconscious. Whether you think it's a dream or not, you and I are the only ones here." He began moving towards her with a preditory smile that sent chills up and down her spine.
"Damnit, Mazoku, get out of my HEAD!" She pulled back her hands and drew her energy into the space between her palms. "FIREBALL!" She thust the sphere forward...
Only to find a rather embarrasing lack of pyrokinetics.
"Lina-chan, for shame!" He scolded her, suddenly much too close and intimate for her comfort. "You can't use black magic against a Mazoku in a dream! Why, that might damage something important!"
"Xellos, go AWAY!" She screamed lashing out with all her strength to punch him into the distant wall. But the indigo eyed Trickster caught her hand by the wrist and pulled her in close.
"But Lina-chan, there are so many possibilities, ne?" He smiled down at her, a preternatural glint in his eyes as he moved to claim her mouth.
Stay away from Lina, Fruitcake! A voice yelled, energy rippling through each word. RA TILT
The sorceress' dreamscape shattered to reveal a cloud filled sky.
"Zel?" Lina called out, searching visually for the Shamanist chimera.
shhh A whisper echoed in her mind. It's okay, Lina. I won't let anything hurt you. Mist and sky melded together to lightly form an ivory and azure figure. She relaxed against the insubstantial touch, reveling in the light graze of his lips against her cheek.
"Zelgadis?" She asked again, silently pleading for her unseen benefactor to be the blue skinned youth. "Zelgadis?"The world errupted into brightness, and she screamed her way into the waking dimension.
"Lina!" Gourry grabbed her by the shoulders and shook her from her dream. "Lina, wake up!"
BAM
"I'm awake Gourry!" She yelled, violently kicking him in the head as hard as she could.
"Lina-san! You're awake!" Amelia smiled, looking extremly exhaused from her place beside the swordsman. "That's good, now Zel - "
"Where's Zel?" The red headed sorceress glanced around, the icy hand of fear gripping her heart when Ameila and Gourry shared a concerned glance.
"Zelgadis-sama took the Hikari no ken and went after Xellos-san." Ameila stared at the ground, tears welling up in her child-like eyes.
"He said he wasn't coming back 'till Xellos left you alone." Gourry's position and expression mirrored the princess'. The mortification of losing someone the considered a close friend spread through them as an inhuman scream accopanied the thunderous sound of shattering stone...
The three remaining adventurers scrambled into the main shrine again, only to find the obsidian alter shattered on the floor in tiny fragments.
"Between the golem and Mazoku in him," Xellos smiled, hovering over a black clothed figure who stood amidst the wreakage. "Zelgadis is rather easy to control. Go get 'em, hot shot." The Mazoku Priest laughed, then teleported to a safe watching distance.
"Zelgadis?" Lina's voice was dead in her throat as the blue skinned chimera threw back his cloak and weilded the Hikari no Ken in a deadly fashion. Gourry leapt forward, brandishing the sword Zelgadis had left behind, but a single backhand from a stone fist sent the blonde mercenary reeling across the room. Gourry hit the wall hard, then slowly slid to the ground in an unconscious and undignified heap.
"Zelgadis-sama!" Amelia yelled, hurling a fireball at him. "How could you? In the name of Justice, I - " the young princess soon followed the lanky blonde into the state of unconsciousness.
"Zel..." Lina dropped to her knees and stared upwards at the stern and cold expression the chimera wore. "Why?" It was then, when she caught view of his azure-turned-crimson eyes, that she realized her nightmare, her darkest fear, was being played out before her on a much darker and more morbid level. His air of nonchalent-malice seemed to halt her very breath. The golden light of the Hikari no Ken flashed with red and black in the Shamanist's hands.
Go on, Zelgadis Greywers. Xellos whispered into the chimera's mind, the command harsher than any other words. Kill her. The blue skinned warrior slowly raised the deadly blade above his head, with a ruby-like gleam in the corner of his eye.
"Please, no..." She curled up into an upright fetal position, unable to accept his change of heart and unable to do any serious harm to him after knowing his original intentions. The resounding sound of her tears struck her as a shock; she hadn't realized she had begun crying. She stole a glance at Zelgadis. He still held the energy sword above his head, what was visable of his muscles obviously taught in preparation.
Soundlessly, she began the chant for the Dragon Slave incantation, her heart breaking with every syllable. Naturally, when she heard the first metallic ring of shattering crystal, she assumed it was due to her own emotions. But by the second miniature explosion, she paused, then found Zelgadis' crystaline tears breaking on the ground as his gaze slowly diluted to normal cerulean.
Do it. Xellos whispered. 'If I can't have her, no one will.' His personal thought was added with a grim sting.
"I... CAN'T!!!" Zelgadis roared, plunging the glowing blade through his own chest. Pure energy ripped through the chimera's body, and tore into the full mazoku with a vengeance.
"Zel!" Lina opened her arms to him as he crumpled, a black numbness seeping through his blue and grey complexion.
"I'm... sorry..." He murmured, an odd colored blood bubling upon his lips. "Itooshii... Lina... no... itooshii..."
"Zel, c'mon, I can't heal you by myself!" She grabbed the Hikari no Ken by the hilt and unsheathed it from its grisly case.
"Sorry... I... let you down." his cobalt colored hand trembled as it traced her jawline delicately, and she clasped his hand to her tear-stained cheek. "Lina?"
"Zelgadis Greywers, I will never forgive you if you die here." She said firmly, trying to knit his seared flesh back together with no amount of sucess.
"Please." His half-closed eyes held hers for a moment before unfocusing. "Will... Will you... kiss me goodbye?"
He never recieved a verbal answer to his dying request, the chimera bearing the name Zelgadis Greywers passed on with his mouth locked in a sweet embrace from his beloved.
Epilogue: Scared you, didn't I?
Lina could feel her heart literaly halt in her chest when the smooth stone lips of the chimeraic youth fell back cold and lifeless. With all her soul she wished for him to respond, willed him to make some acknowladgement of her final symbol of emotion.She waited a moment, with her warm body huddling over a cold and lifeless one.
'Zelgadis, oh, Zelgadis, please don't abandon me!' Her mind raced, trying to capture the chimera as perfectly as possible. So many things he'd done in the past each being perserved in the glacier of her emotions. She wouldn't allow herself to forget the first man who had called her beloved.
Her mentality finished storing the flawless memories in her icy wasteland of a heart when the sun decided to return and bring spring with it.
Her ruby gaze snapped open and were slowly met by a pair of sapphire-brillant eyes. Human eyes, with dark lashes. Dark, feathery hair, toned to the violet-blue end of the color spectrum. Falling in slender wisps across the right eye. Cream colored skin, untouched by age or diseas or blemish. Fingerless ivory gloves encasing smooth hands. Slender fingers tracing her jawbone.
"Lina?" Light tenor voice, soft and unwavering in it's gentle uncertainty. "Lina, why are you crying?"
Liquid movement, hinting at the hidden spped and grace of a Mazoku, but the constriction of the muscles under his clothes was a reminder of the strength of a golem.
"Lina, itooshii." Hand extended to help her rise. "I'm sorry - " His sentance was cut short as she wrapped her arms around him in a crushing embrace. He toppled over in surprise, and they landed in a heap on the floor.
"Zel!" She cried out, burying her face in his chest with relief. "You're okay! You're alive! You're - "
"Lina-san!" Amelia's annoyed moan caused her to look back. "Why are you hanging all over him? I thought you were concerned about Zelgadis-sama!"
"Lina, are you fickle or what?" Gourry rubbed the back of his aching head. Lina spun around, preparing to fireball her idiot sidekick.
"Ow." The ivory clad youth stood quietly, pulling his violet-blue hair out of his sapphire hued eyes. "That hurt. Ano, what are you all staring at?"
"Zelgadis-sama?!" Ameila's jaw hit the floor.
"Huh? Zel, uh, what happened to you?" Gourry picked up his sword, giving him an odd look with all the tact of a speeding boulder.
"What?" The former chimera let out a yell of joy upon realizing the transformation back to human, and spent the rest of the day in a celebration with his closest companions; namely, an all day eating fest.