Zelgadis laughed as wind whipped around his face. Tears streamed down his cheeks, but he wasn't sad. In fact, he was quite insane. And it was this insanity that was boosting his power, and it was this insanity that was about to make him kill all his friends.
The dark sky above him was full of lightning and fire, a storm of mythical proportions brewing amidst the clouds. Twice now he had been struck by the thunderbolts, but neither time had left him with so much as a scorch mark.
"Zelgadis!" Lina screamed. "What the hell is wrong with you?! Why won't you talk to us?!" She threw a fireball at him, but he somehow made it disipate mid-flight by simply looking at it.
"C'Mon, Zel, this isn't like you!" Gourry chimed in, throwing himself at the chimera in a wild sword swipe. Their once ally backhanded him into the ground at Amelia's feet.
"Mr. Zelgadis!" The young princess cried. "Mr. Zelgadis, please stop!"
In an instant, Zelgadis had her in a choke hold, and in another, she was rendered unconscious.
Lina froze. She didn't want to hurt Zel, but at this rate... she wasn't going to have much of a choice. Their battle was ripping apart the very land they stood upon. With tears in her eyes, she began to summon the energy for a Dragon Slave. She was halted abruptly when the shaman twisted her arms behind her back.
"Do you want to know why I'm doing this?!" he hissed, his aura becoming a cold, blue void.
"Of course, Zel." She swallowed her surprise, but his grip did not lessen. "We're friends, right? You're supposed to be able to tell me anything, right?"
Faster than any normal human could have moved, the chimera spun her around and had her tied in her own cape. He gazed deeply into her eyes to determine if she was telling the truth, or lying to give herself a few extra moments of life. But he found her to be honest, and hurt by his actions.
"We're not real." He scowled. "Everything we've gone through is a lie. A story. Made up to entertain somebody we've never even heard of. This world? It doesn't exist. We're all just characters in a made up performance.
"Zel, that's crazy - " She started, but he slapped her to keep her quiet.
"Is it?!" He shouted. "Everything we've gone through, all our pain, all our feelings, they were just created by some person who thought we'd be a good laugh! Our entire lives are jokes!"
"Our feelings?" She whispered, tears running over the red mark from where he had slapped her. "What about our feelings, Zel?"
"None of it's real!" He paced before her. "Everytime I thought I had feelings for Amelia, or for you, they were just some person's idea! Not mine!"
"Zel, please, stop this!" She begged him. A minute more, and she would be able to escape the knots he had tied.
"It's too late for that, Lina." He smiled sadly. "There is no reality here, and so, in frank, I can do whatever I want. And what I want is to destroy this lie!" Huge black wings shot from his back, leathery bat-like appendages that seemed to show the distant stars. His aura spiked wildly, totally uncontrolled.
"Zelgadis, stop!" Lina pleaded one last time. When he laughed at her, she cast Ragna Blade.She swung it at him, but he caught it in his hand and snapped it in two as if it had been no more than glass.
"You're not real!" He cried. "How could you hurt me?"
"I can sure as hell try!" She snapped back.
Suddenly, a swirling white-blue portal opened up beside them. Stunned at this turn of events, both Zelgadis and Lina watched as two men dressed in black suits stepped through. One was tall, with silver-white hair that spiked at the bangs and glowing green eyes. The other was not quite as tall, but not short, either, with long, straight auburn hair and blue-green eyes. They looked at the sorceress and hcimera, then looked at each other, and simultaneously both removed a pair of sunglasses from the inside of their pocket.
"How far back do you think we should set it?" The auburn haired one asked, withdrawing a small silver object with a red lens at the top.
"Hm...... about a month, to be on the safe side." The silver-topped one shrugged. "Would you two be so kind as to look at the red lens?" Both Lina and Zelgadis blinked curiously, then looked....
FLASH!