Dirt. A whole plane of dirt. Rick watched silently some archeologists discuss exited over what looked like a small rock to Rick. Bah, whatta job. Sitting out in the open, steaming in the sun, and getting a sunburn that made you look like a boiled rat. Then again, it probably was interesting - when you found something. Damn it was hot.
No rest, no relaxation... from their last 'apartment' in that incognito luxury hotel outside Stockholm, Sweden, and directly to Istanbul, Turkey... One night's sleep and then out to find that 'Fanny'-person-lady. So she HAD nice thighs, but walking around a gigantic dig like this in best clothes, sort of made one wonder if it was crazy. And this heat! Get real!
Wheew. Rick adjusted his sunglasses and whiped some sweat off his brow under the black cap. "Well..." He fanned himself with the 'F.Connor Turkey Dig, File' he'd gotten as homework by the Boss. "Sure is a big place, sure is hot, an sure ain't no Fanny-Lady around." The B-man would arrive soon enough and by then he had better located the woman. Where the fuck IS that woman....? .... oooo.... fancy rosette there.
Rick grinned and signed a V-sign by the sight of the long thick blond pony-tail pulled together on the back with an extraordinary ugly pink rosette. Yes! Well then, time for the act. Straight up the walk, refresh the clothes and make sure the cap fits as it should. There. Rick Grey walked over the small hill towards the blond woman who was the object of his search.
...
A piece of a bone. Animalistic, perhaps a bird of some kind. Not really what she was looking for though. Fanny Connor leaned on the large shovel and studied the different sides of the finger-sized find. They hadn't found much at all. Sigh. If Amster Dietrich found... No, SHE would find what was here. What SHOULD be here. Maybe she just should take a lunch-break, as 90% of her staff had all ready. The dusty gray plane spread out around her and up into the hills and towards the mountains. This should be it, this place, but who could know for sure. If she only had had her magic...
Fanny drummed the bone between her fingers where she stood when she noticed someone walking up to her from the lower side of the dig. The place was almost empty at this time a day, in the siesta mid-day heat, who could it be? Maggie?
"Miss Connor, Fanny?" the approaching young man greeted her as he reached her. She pouted her lips absently and looked up with a 'Yea?'. Oh, he certainly was not Maggie, or from around here either for that matter. Not with those fancy clothes, Fanny marked with a mental chuckle. Well-ironed black pants, deep red shirt and a cap which looked real expensive for such a regular head-wear. Oh, and don't forget a pair of nice thin gloves and a well-combed hair to match. Interesting hairstyle and color btw, unusual these days, - gray-brown/black with a touch of purple. That style, parted in the middle, and wildly growing up in two waves to the sides reminded her of something she couldn't quite put her finger on. ... Zel...? Yea.. No, this guy was far taller and had more gray eyes. But still... the hair DID had its likeness'...
"Greeting Ma'am, my name is..."
Fanny Copper blushed blue in shock when a sudden Deja-Vu hit her. He... - HE!
"REZO!!!!???" She screamed and grabbed the shovel in both hands in bare shock. Rick Grey got a serious fright-of-his-life-heart-attack.
"Wa- what...??!"
"RE- RE- RE- REZO!!! " The woman continued and waved the shovel as a club in the air above her shoulder. Rick panicky tried to regain his grasp on the situation but fell off his feat this time as he backed away in shock, holding up his hands.
Two panicked persons on a steaming and almost empty dirt plateau.
"My, my..."
Fanny Connor froze. Rick held his hands grasped for his heart, blue in face. That was just too much. He caught a glimpse of his Boss standing up a bit on the nearest slope, - Finally he chooses to have GOOD timing!
Crazy woman with a shovel crazy woman with a shovel crazy woman ...
Rick's Boss grinned and strolled down the slope seemingly obvious to the warm weather.
"Jaa-ho!" He smiled and waved to both. Fanny blinked shocked, and Rick was too busy to come out of his own shock of being attacked with a shovel to even care. "Fancy meeting you here."
"Ba- baka..." Miss Connor stammered, and then went a little berserk (again).
[WHAP!] [WHAP!] [WHAP! WHAP!] [WHAP!]
Breath out, breath in... Rick Grey managed to recover back to straight reality just in time to see his Boss be whapped with a heavy shovel to bloody pulp by a shocked furious blond female archeologist.
[Graphic Violence Rated PG-13.]
Rick's brain made a loop and his face turned blue for the second time over.
[Insert sounds of a 'Vision of Reality' breaking and crashing down.]
...
[about 10 minutes later.]
"Yare, yare, Firia-chan - just like old times!" Rick's boss chirped happily. Rick (still on the ground) sweatdropped and stared at the purple-haired man who five minutes earlier had been a pile of bloody goo. Not even a wrinkle in the suit... Not ONE. Rick seriously started to consider a bad case of nightmare, virtual-reality, hell whatever, ANYTHING - Except reality. This was just TOO MUCH to take on a Tuesday. And btw, if he could do that, why the heck did Rick had to keep all those suits wrinkle-less all the time?
"XELLOSS!!!" Firia Ul Copt, aka 'Fanny Connor', shouted between heavy breathing. Still holding the shovel in one hand she glared daggers at the fancy dressed Mazoku.
"Missed me?" Xelloss asked and smiled his trademark cute-happy smile wide. Firia/Fanny (known as 'Firia' to the narrator, from here on) frowned and resumed to collect herself.
It had to be the sun. Or the heat. She looked from Xelloss to the seriously shocked young man on the ground, and back again. Definitely too much sun. As the shock slowly sank away, realization slowly dawned on the unofficial Ruyuuzuku 'maiden'. The year 1999 by the Roman calendar... and XELLOSS... stood in front of her. The General and Priest of the Beastmaster, himself, again. Same face, same smile, same voice.... Same... no, - they eyes looked almost human. False human eyes... All though, the small round pupils and lupine iris couldn't restrain the clear Mazoku glint that glowed behind them, keeping in all light and reflected little. ... He was still smiling... as if it all was yesterdays dream. This was spooky, - he was even ALIVE, and AWAKE? Here she'd thought she was one of the very last few who cared to actually take up life again. How come she hadn't known he was around before? And by the look of it, he didn't seem to be an all that unimportant and incognito fruitcake either. Freaky... Maybe this 'something-is-brooding' feeling DID have some anchor outside her imagination only, after all.
"Please excuse R-kun, he's not so accustomed to 'real life' yet." Xelloss continued when she didn't answer him and threw a thumb in Rick's direction. Firia snapped to.
"'R-Kun'? He belongs to YOU? " The shovel raised itself again, - the oldest habits are the hardest ones to break. "You've made a Koppii ...?!"
"HEh?"
Rick stared wide-eyed. Rezo-koppii-who-what-where?
"How dare you??!!!!"
"But..."
[WHAM!]
"R-kun..."
[WHAM!]
"...is no..."
[WHAP!]
"...koppii."
[WHAM!]
"What?
"He's no koppii." Xelloss repeated, this time from the ground. Rick started to wonder if he was experiencing narcotic hallucinations. He never had tested drugs of course though. But then again - he'd never seen someone been beat to a corpse IRL either (not accounting bad action movies and series), and brush it off afterwards. Two times in a row. Narcotic hallucinations sounded more and more believable by the minute.
Firia objected loudly and pointed almost hysterically at Rick. "He looks just like...!!!"
"He does, doesn't he?" Xelloss smiled wide.
If someone tells me the Klingons[1] are attacking I might just believe them, Rick thought to himself where he sat.
"He's genuine. Found 'im in behind a McDonalds counter." He grinned. Firia groaned, but lowered the shovel.
Xelloss brushed himself off and walked over to the youth on the ground and waved a hand in front of his face. "Ricky?"
Rick blinked. "Um, have no homework today mom."
Xelloss scratched his chin. "Oh dear. Poor kid." He sighed and pulled the other to his feet. Steadying his protegee with one hand, the B-man swiftly brushed off the worst from Rick's trousers and shirt and then began pushing him up the slope.
"Why don't you go wait in the car, R-kun, ne? Relax a little. Why, test the mimi-bar even! Hop, hop!" Xelloss shooed the SLIGHTLY unfocused young man onward with a smile.
The two adults watched Rick make his way a bit distracted down the slopes and over some hills, back towards the barracks and the car-parking. 'The B-man', Xelloss, watched his protegee disappear down the dirt-paths of the dig. He smiled slightly dark to himself. To think it had taken all to this years... And now, all at once. He was a true trickster in soul, but not even the infamous Xelloss Metallium could compete with Life in that category. Which reminded him... He turned to the blond female and once travel-companion and team-mate by his side. She seemed as caught up in her own thought as he. He wondered what she wondered over. What did she know?
"Ano, Firia-chan, you knew Rezo? ... and Kooppii-san?"
Standing straight, hands on back, eyes open. She narrowed her own eyes, was her memory too tired or what felt changed? Eyes open. Strange. Pretending, or actually asking? So many new questions... Planting the shovel into the ground she gave him a suspicious look.
"How I know? Surely, you must know that, if you're HERE." Her eyebrow twitched slightly. She hated when situations slipped out of her grasp. It had just been another day at work. Then suddenly a young man and Rezo-look-alike enters the scene, followed by no other than the long gone greater Mazoku and Trickster Priest himself. Rick wasn't alone in being slightly shocked. So... What did he know?... He always DID know... Before.
"Just WHAT does it look like I am doing, hm?" Xelloss blinked and looked at the pointing fist suddenly thrown up to his face in an angry motion.
"And where did you come from? Both Dragons and Mazoku is officially out of game in the world, and those who still against all odds bother to be around either play the human way -like me-, or keep the fairy tales, legends, and religions alive when they occasionally makes a public appearances. - Not to mention the new decade's renewed occultism."
The warm afternoon wind blew over the dry plateau. Little did the few working men and women out in the heat know about the historic meeting going on just there, on their job. Not that they did care either, as long as they got their pay on time. Life ain't for free, y'know.
"I dunno how you found me, Mazoku-leftover, but haven't you at least guessed why I play to be 100% human since my rebirth, and has studied all the arts of history? Like you didn't KNOW what this here plane might be and what I am trying to find here!"
Firia looked at the purple-eyed man. He didn't flinch. Her temperature rose. She clenched her fists, hard.
"Oh, damnit Xelloss! Ever since the last day of the last Kouma War, there's been a black hole in history. What happened in the center? What made it turn out this way? What fate happened to the rest? Don't play stupid with me, this is THE place, the center of where the last battle was, where my world - our world - halted. And I am trying to recover what happened. If for no other reason than to make sure. To gather back all the peices of the puzzle again. Even in stasis sleep one forget, Xelloss. To remember, their faces, to patch up the hole. I've searched for everything and anything... any fragment that survived the loop of history. And if I searched and re-found the story of Lina Inverse, or Zelgadiss Greywords, don't you think it would be logical to find Rezo The Red Priest too? He was part of the first reaction. And if I know that - you too should know that, Namagomi..."
The soft fabric felt cool and delicate by her fingers as she held him near by his collar in a firm and angry grip, as she growled the last words over strained lips. He just looked at her.
"Ah."
"'Ah'? That's all you can say? And just how the hell DID you survive anyway?"
"Sore wa himitsu desu." Came the soft reply. Firia cocked an eyebrow upwards. No gleeful smile? Huh, something sure was deadly out of place in this scene. And just not the bad writing. *__*;;
"Oh dear, I so do hope I am not interrupting something, hm? But then again, you don't seem to have much to work with for time being so it's ok, no?"
Xelloss tilted his head slightly and looked past a suddenly frowning Firia and towards the new man entering the stage. Medium tall, medium built, middle-aged... slightly reddish dark-blond hair which made Xelloss wonder if he was wearing that silly 'classic safari-adventurer hat' to cover up a bald, or just because of bad taste. The man walked nonchalantly up to them with a superior smile plastered over his face that even rivaled one of Xelloss' own on the irritating-scale.
"Hello, Amster... " The only female present, hissed with a strained smile. He nodded -still grinning- and continued to walk pass them and around the couple in a circle. Firia cursed to herself and folded her arms again. Why did all the smart-ass JERKS always bother HER?
"What brings us the honor, Dietrich?"
"Oh, just thought I'd stroll by for a visit. Thought you might need some company in your tiresome futile search and digging, my dear." Your Dear, my ass... Firia thought and continued to count to ten to keep her temper. "But I see you have some company all ready." Amster Dietrich giggled and chewed on the toothpick he had sticking out the side of his mouth. He waved a 'like I care' motion in the air for some sort of greeting and stopped lightly by Xelloss' side to looked him up and down and.
"Don't worry," The male archeologist said. "I have nothing against homosexuals. ... - Now! Fanny, dear, tell me, how IS it going? Really?"
Heh? Xelloss blinked.
"I hear there's nothing but dust... and dust... around here?" The concerned tone surely didn't fit the gleeful smile on Fanny Conner's arch rival. Normally she'd kicked him back to his own field, which he'd bribed himself to the right to dig there, - but with a flushing irritated Xelloss in the background she found it hard to keep angry enough. Firia/Fanny couched out a snicker before taking up the conversation.
"Well, it depends on what one's looking for, doesn't it?... DEAR Dietrich. "
Dietrich chewed in professional looking way on the toothpick.
"Suppose, suppose... "
"And I suppose YOU have much more interesting finding over at YOUR side, no?" Firia sighed, god he was dancing the nervs.
Xelloss snorted. Bah. Jerk. It's SO irritating to get caught off-guard with an insult. And it sure was meant as one. Swallow the toothpick and get a punctured lung. Wise-ass.
"Ooooooooh, Fanny dear, you are SO clever!" Dietrich laughed and clapped his hands together. "As a matter of fact... YES! We're excavating something REALLY interesting right NOW... we've might have hit a break-through even! ....Ah, that reminds me, I really should get back. After all, I'm the star, no? Be well my beautiful rival. Keep digging I'm sure you'll find something. Eventually."
Amster Diethrich grinned and saluted before turning heel and walking back to where he came from.
Firia fumed.
"And... he... walked... all... that...way... to GLOAT!" She kicked the shovel so it fell from where it stood. "Rah. If he finds.... Ah. I HATE that guy." She stomped the ground. "Heck, I'd rather kiss the Namagomi than EVER do something for that... JERK!" Then she remembered the namagomi in mention for the first time in a few centuries time actually was present.
"I'm not sure I take that as a compliment." Xelloss answered.
[1] - Star Trek: Klingons = Alien race.