green = Gaea
blue = Lord of Nightmares
purple = both Gaea and the Lord of Nightmares
The pain that throbbed in the bloody laceration on Lina's side was nothing compared to that which had siezed her in a grasp of disbelief. The heroes always won, that was the way the world worked. Yet here they were, the next to invincible team of rag-tag heroes who had saved the world so many times, and they were losing. The talisman she wore glowed brightly as she chanted the power amplifier for Ragna Blade.
L-sama, please help! She prayed. Let this work. Please!
"RAGNA BLA - !" The words in her mouth were cut off as the gray clad man removed his dagger from her throat.
"It will be so much more fun to watch you drown in your own blood." His green eyes flashed.
He was too close! Her mind screamed. Too close! This was a game to him, they were just toys!
"HYA!" Gourry yelled, bringing his sword down in a powerful arc...
Lina's ruby eyes opoened to darkness, something that startled her very much.
Great, I screwed up and now I'm dead. She thought.
You are Lina Inverse? A woman asked.
She is. A second female answered before she had a chance to do so.
She has the best chance? The conversation continued.
Her demise on his conscious will suffice.
Shall I inform him?
Do.
"Hey, what's going on?!" Lina shouted. "Who's demise? On who's conscious?"
Your death will prompt the Shaman's conscious to act.
"Shaman? You can't mean..."
Zelgadis Greywers.
"What happened to Zel?" She demanded in a dangerously soft voice.
Zelgadis sat in silent meditation, pulling his thoughts together in order to block out the screams of those around him. Sorcerers pleaded, priests begged, and other Shamanists, few that there were, tried despretely to block out the sound.
I really should fight against this imprisonment. He mused. But to what would I be going back? Hate? Scorn? Pain? Betrayal? Death?
Zelgadis.
I can't handle that any longer. I won't be able to face that kind of rejection.
Zelgadis.
Yet, to remain under the will of that bastard Kuroi would be doing the devil's bidding, just like signing Lina's and Gourry's and Amelia's death warrent.
"ZEL!" While the voices of Spirit Mother Gaea and Golden Demon Lord of Nightmares could not pierce his reverie, the annoyed shout of Dra-matta Lina Inverse was more than enough to do so.
Lina?
"Listen up Zel, 'cause I don't have much time."
What? Lina, what's going on?
"That guy who said he'd cure you, you know what he wants, right?"
To rule the world.
"Worse! He wants to destroy it, then recreate it!"
Lina, how did you -
"Kuroi is threatening L-sama's power! No one's been able to scratch him, even with Nightmare Majik!"
What?!
"He absorbed the Giga Slave!"
Impossible!
"Zel, if you don't fight back, we don't stand a chance! Amelia's already been paralyzed from the waist down, and Gourry's lost his left arm."
What about you?
"I... I'm bleeding to death. Zel, the team isn't complete without you. The chain is weaker when one link is gone. L-sama says I've got to get back to my body, or I'll die now. Please, Zel, fight back."
Lina, wait!
Zelgadis. A woman, slender and blonde, appeared in the black sea of emptiness.
L-sama.
For what will you fight? She questioned. Will you fight for life? For the world? For revenge? For what will you fight? Your fate depends on this answer.
Zelgadis searched his heart, dredging up betrayals and losses and painful memories. Not one of them seemed to be worth fighting for when he remembered them.
Then, he found the answer was that which he most hated, most despised, most feared. He found his answer.
IX | Story Index | Fanfiction