And I'm supposed to be a hopeless romantic. A plain boring chapter, I warn thee. It was necessary though. Weirder and weirder, more confusing and just more confusing... will there ever be an end to it? /jen
That JET-lag is a really, REALLY lousy thing, both Rick Grey and Maggie Milage agreed to when they once again found themselves in the Big Apple, New York. It had taken the Conner-crew about five days to properly dig out that hole Dietrich and his men had created, and discover what it held inside. Together with the first large dark stone, they find another even slightly larger, plus a mass of scorned layers of rock and soil, plus the remains of shattered similar stone formations. The two undamaged pieces had been brought safely back to the States with the help of the dig's newest sponsor, -- a mysterious independent N.Y. research facility by the name of R.E.M.O.L.U.S. -- which in the shadows was said to belong to a certain Mr. Sel Metallium, himself. After some hushed explanations among the little head-group, the recovered artifacts (and whatever) now rested in the company's research laboratory of R#8, humbly located on a hill in the outskirts of the huge city.
"Unbelievable."
"Hai. Quite a little trickster he turned out to be, that friend of yours, ne?"
Firia closed her lips as she slowly put down her cup of tea back on the table's blank surface. "Mmm..." She noted. The full-grown woman stretched still aching limbs and leaned back in the steady kitchen chair, looking out the huge clear windows by her side. The city skyline greeted her with the late evening colors dancing through the tall bodies made of steel, concrete, and glass. Yes, Dietrich had surprised them both. Never could she have guessed him to be that deeply involved in the dig. The question remained though; did that low rank Mazoku contact him, or had Dietrich summoned it? In the first case, why would it do that? What did Dietrich know or had, which some rogue Mazoku or other could gain from? Or in the other case which was just as puzzling; if Dietrich had summoned the creature to him; when, where, and how had he gained the powers and knowledge to do that? Even before the last Demon War, humans meddling with Mazoku were a rather rare business and not for the weak-minded.
Perhaps it was just another silly coincidence.
The blonde woman turned her blue eyes from the view outside the window to the man who accompanied her by the small kitchen table. Wearing a simple baggy warm purple shirt and his hair out loose like she always remembered it from before, Xelloss sat drinking his tea on the other side of the table, holding his cup with slender bare fingers. Firia eased down further in the chair, feeling at ease and cosy in the casual T-shirt and pants she herself was wearing. She wondered what Maggie was doing right then. Probably relaxing, she figured with a smile. The last days had been quite a rush for her friend. And not to mention for poor Rick. She grinned slightly. An afternoon off would do both assistants well. Good thing Xelloss didn't argue as Rick had thought he would when she proposed it. And so, it now left the two 'bosses' alone for a calm late evening chat in the Metallium flat. If a chat between Xelloss Metallium and Firia Ul Copt ever could be something called 'calm' that is. Well, perhaps the last days and week's events finally took out their right and left both Mazoku and Ruyzuku down to a worn-out enough level that some peace could be dared to spread. Or maybe the scene had changed enough to meddle with the old script.
"It makes one wonder."
She looked up at him, meeting those piercing sharp human yet still inhuman eyes.
"He clearly did see you survive the halting of the stone. What does he know, and what does he still search the answers for?"
Firia shrugged. "Who knows. In either case, Amster Dietrich sure did rise a notch in my eyes. And I'm sure I did as well, in his. Unfortunately I don't think it'll halt his pestering of me." Xelloss agreed and sipped his tea with closed eyes. He then opened one and looked towards her over the rim of the cup with a grin.
"Yaaa, I do think seeing your female arch rival catch a ton of stone with her bare hands is a good reason for new respect... wouldn't you say, Fi-chan?" He smirked with a gleam in his eye as she gave him a glare. "What possessed you to try, anyway?"
She just shrugged again -- this time choosing to ignore the nicknaming, and smiled a little sheepish. "I don't know. Guess I acted on instinct. I only remembered thinking, that if that thing was what it may be, I'd rather die trying to save it than see it go. And I was right, it WAS what we thought."
"Well thank Ceifheed then, that you still possess some of that Dragon strength of yours."
"I honestly didn't know for sure." She admitted, quietly pondering why he thanked/cursed to the dragon god. "Oh, I know I still have some left. It's been obvious as I grew up again. But nowadays the average girl's life don't produce many situations which could acquire super strength."
"I suppose that's a good sign." Xel commented a little bored while staring down his empty teacup. "So what else do you still have and not? I did notice your lack of a mace though..."
The somewhat disappointed tone in his voice made Firia look up as he got up and went over to the teapot by the stove. His bare feet in those Japanese slippers clapped slightly against the stone floor, and those tight black jeans sure didn't make him look any fatter. The Mazoku poured himself another cup of tea and then bent down to pick of a spoon from the floor, which had escaped as he put back the hot pot on its spot (nice sentence.. ^^;;). Firia fixed the bent-over man's ass with a suspicious glance. It was a nice little ass, and it was also the first thing she saw as she turned her head around to ask him just what the heck he meant by that.
"And what about my mace?"
"Weeell..." Xelloss retrieved the spoon from the floor and leaned back against the bench, new fresh cup of tea in hand. "Mace-sama was such a nice mace." He said with an expression like grieving the loss of an old friend. He sighed longingly into his cup. Firia's cheeks grew wide and reddish, and Xelloss found his face smacked with a flying cookie jar.
"Pervert."
Gracefully avoiding to tip and fall over the stove -which would have been painful for all, since it was gas -- , Xelloss recovered from the smash of the cookie jar projectile and was even able to save a couple of the cookies within. He put the jar back on the table and sat down again, happily munching on one.
"Anyway," He continued, happily ignoring the glare she gave him. "So what did possessed you to be reborn and grow up a human, huh? I honestly didn't know you dragons could do that, by will?" Firia watched the Mazoku lick his lips after the cookie, wet the tip of a finger on his tongue, and proceed to gather up all the crumbs he had managed to spread around. She breathed out and took a mouth-full of her own tea.
"Mm... As I told Maggie and Rick on the plane, I didn't exactly PLAN it." Firia stopped and blinked. "Hey, where were you then anyway?"
"Sore wa himitsu desu!" He answered happily and put his attention to another cookie. She strained her jaw a bit but managed to restrain he urge to plant her teacup in his face. A waste of good tea.
"Sure, sure... I'm sure you had fun."
"Not really." He answered and looked a little disturbed. "The Paris weather sure ain't what it used to be."
"Eh?"
"Gray n' rainy." Xelloss said matter-of-factly and dipped the last of his cookie in his tea.
"Oookey..." Firia just shook her head... Whatever, -- trying to understand madmen never was a good course of action to try anyway.
"As I SAID then, anyhow... I didn't plan it. I can only guess that the shock-waves of the last battle's climax sent me into magical stasis as most creatures which were inside the right range. Somehow I apparently woke up, but I can only remember so much about that, that I was very weak. Apparently I had ended up in a state one could call rebirth. It didn't go as far back as an egg though, -- thank goodness! Then I'd be dead by now. It's all rather jumpy. Can't say exactly how long and when each thing happened. But what counts is, that however I got there -- less than twenty years ago I was a young girl who was adopted by a family named Conner." She paused to take to her tea some more. Xelloss tapped his chin in thought.
"So, you were 'reborn' in the 1900-century as a young girl without much loss of memory with surpressed powers, and proceeded to surpress those Ruyzuku traits so you would survive in this new world order? Clever sacrifice."
"Guess you could say that. Blissfully enough, it also allowed me to actually grow up again. A good childhood really is underestimated."
"I'll have to take your word on that." The Mazoku (ex)priest commented, not even trying to see if he could remember if he ever had had one himself.
"I really love my family, all the while I'm still Firia. It's much simpler than it sounds though. However, my memories are as good as intact. Hence, my chose of profession, -- it felt and feels still a bit surreal to wake up and find that the world as I used to know it, is both gone... and forgotten." Xelloss 'hmm-ed' thoughtfully and nodded, before moving on.
"Magic?"
"It's still there. Can feel some. But no, I can't use it or tap into it, but it's logical to think that with help or by a trigger, I could access it again. Can't surpress that my body ain't human in that way though, as I just showed, ne?"
Xelloss chuckled and nodded amused. "No tail though? Aww..."
Firia once again leaned back in her chair and looked the male on the other side of the table over. Strange it is, life. She decided to ask all though she most certainly knew the answer. Pah! Even now when she had told him everything... Oh, the irony.
"So, you then? What have you been up to? Where did Sel Metallium come from?"
Xelloss looked at her.
"Sore wa himitsu desu." Came the awaited reply and wise smile.
"I'm sure it is." Firia leaned forward to lean on the table arms folded, her teacup standing on the table. "I'm sure it's all a really big, entwined, old, and yummy little secret." She gave him a sneaky look.
His mouth twisted slightly, not really sure if it was to smile or not. After some twitches it settled for looking casual instead. He sipped his tea. "You bet."
"Actually, I think I'm better off not knowing. Maggie mentioned something about what she'd heard about a Sel Metallium. From that, I say you haven't changed that much Namagomi-san... Everything from help organizations to rumors of illegal affairs networks, yakuusa, and puppet-master of presidents, ne?"
"Gotta keep a balance, Fi-chan..." He smiled his usual mask of closed-eyed-smile at her. "Besides, nothing is ever what it seems."
That's a good rule, Firia silently agreed as they once again drifted off into silence. The night had settled in again over the large human city, the nightlights shone brightly down below and on the numerous signs on the roofs and house fronts. On several signs it read in large number '2000', as it advertised the new year. The clear winter air was high and the sky almost cloudless, treating the city dwellers with a breathtaking celestial theatre showing the whole universe. Not many could enjoy it though, all the city lights blending out the faraway stars, but from the high point of Xelloss' flat it was all an open stage above the neon-lights. Leaning on the table, having finished a sandwich, Firia looked back up at her table mate. There was something brewing (except for the tea), and she felt it. The leftovers from that other 'conversation' of theirs still disturbed a little, leaving a nagging needle in the back.
A jumper. She tapped her teacup absently with her thumbnail. Trying to understand the reasoning wouldn't work, she would never get it anyway. Destruction was not her game to such degree. Her race couldn't be. Going down one path, where would it lead? Help. Life was such a damn bitch. A little hunch, anything. He held the whole card deck. But again, there were always the unexpected to use. The Joker. Damn irony.
Leaning her head in her hand Firia took another hold on her now almost cold teacup. She felt a headache coming and looked at her watch and noting it was creeping towards 21:00. Xelloss was sitting awfully silent. Watching her. Staring like that again. It gave her the creeps, again.
"Firia... May I ask you something,... as a modern man to a modern woman?"
His voice was soft and low, and almost held back like an emotionless hesitant breath. Though still steady, he sat one arm folded over his chest... looking at her.
"Mm, sure." The dragon lady answered and took her own cup, and prepared to take down the last of the liquid resting in it. Xelloss leaned forward on he table, his bangs and tresses framing his serious facial features, and the light from the sparsely lit kitchen as well as the bright lights from the city outside both reflected in that straight purple mane of hair.
"Sleep with me."
The teacup took an abrupt halt just on the brim of Firia's lips. Surprised, she looked up at him.. Why hello that came unexpected. -- Indeed. Her hand lowered the cup absently as she stared at him. She couldn't find even a hint of teasing or a joke in his expression. She swallowed as the whole meaning of the words sunk in. Sometimes shock is known to cause people to act in the strangest ways, and this time Firia just thanked that fact 'cause it reminded her. Of the game.
Strained silence caressed the room as Xelloss watched how Firia seemed to ponder his question. She seemed slightly disturbed. A hint of shock could be caught in her eyes, but she concealed it well. He reminded himself to breathe once in a while. Finally she blinked and then casually swept her teacup and swallowed the last content therein. Firia licked her lips and breathed out, as if weighing the question over. Finally, after a short span of time -- which felt like an eternity for one other -- she leaned a little more on the table and met his gaze.
"Well then." Both parties leaning on the table, their faces were only inches apart as she began talking. "As a modern woman I will answer you..." They studied each other's faces almost nose to nose, her voice sending her breath to his faintly parted lips. "... -- after the movie."
Eh? Xelloss stared with one eyebrow twitching visibly as Firia steadily stood up, put her cup on the counter and stepped out towards the living room.
"M-Movie?" He sputtered, obviously rather surprised. Firia leaned back into the kitchen and pointed to her watch.
"Hai. They're showing 'Kelly's Heroes' on the Classic Movies channel, and I just love that film. C'mon!"
Xelloss turned very, very slowly in his seat and looked at the empty doorframe. Only the sounds of footsteps leaving greeted him. The old and undercover Mazoku equally slowly rose from his seat and started after her, cup still clasped rather tight in one hand. The other hand got placed in his pocket as he walked stiffly towards the TV room. "....." was just about all he could manage himself to think.
" -- There you go again. Always with the negative waves, Moriarty. Always with the negative waves... " [8]
Xelloss closed his eyes where he sat laid back in the large sofa. The very large expensiv -- .... oh, never mind. .... After a slow breath he closed his inner sight as well. Darkness. Endless darkness. Calm. Silent. Not even a heartbeat. An aching. Like a vacuum. Inside the chest. Or center of being in a Mazoku's case, being non-flesh creatures [9] and all. Heavy to breathe, heavy to... be. It's hard work to carry the weight yourself, keeping that balance-scales even when the other cup is as well as empty. He remembered, the fight... with Maryu-ou Gaav, the quest for the Claire Bible [10], and his lend-master then... Phibiritzzo; Mei-ou. He wondered if this was what the crazed top general of Ruby Eye Shabranigdo had felt as he madly sought Lina's Giga Slave to cast the world into the ultimate chaos. And why? Just because he himself longed for the reason of his creation; to be destroyed and return to the origin. Pretty loony. But somehow it made sense. Yes.
Hmm... that reminded him, of something. Hellmaster? Hell? Oh yeah, right, Hell. Memo to me, memo to me, Xel repeated in his mind to himself. Remember to check up on that place, preferably before the current replacement Underworld King got a chance to do something stupid, again. Kids these days... No discipline. All though, Xelloss had enjoyed that old incident with the witch-hunts. Humans are so stupid. Truly.
A long slow breath. Darkness, sweet and calm... Still aching.
Listening to the end credits song, Firia sat silent, one elbow plopped up on the back of the sofa and chin in hand, carefully watching the man by her side. There was something spooky in the air. The dragon lady bit her lip, but she still seemed to smile amused. Perhaps amused over the situation. Come to think about it, she didn't flinch at the thought of what she was about to do, as should be expected. That was funny. It was a nice feeling too so she smiled, almost secretively. The plan sounded impossible the logic part of her mind screamed, when you sized up the opponent which would have to be defeated. Then again it COULD work. It SEEMED to be able to work. Man, she would be in a nice seat if it didn't. And nor would she know if it did work for real, until long time after. Though, it was an interesting challenge. Firia almost grinned inwardly and at the same time felt like hiding her face in her hands and blush in embarrassment. But... oh well. No pain, no gain.
Xelloss chipped a small breath though his nose by the warm sweet touch of a finger stroking his cheek along the jaw-line. He opened his eyes and looked to the side slowly, meeting the blue gaze of the woman sitting relaxed next to him. Firia smiled slightly as she continued to tug slightly at the soft shirt he wore, carefully straighten it out here and there. Xelloss just stared at her while she continued with tending to that and absently once in a while casting a glance on the rolling credits on the TV. What ever happened to good old-fashioned torture, with stretch-benches and spiky objects drawing much blood and such? he wondered and turned to the ceiling again face blank.
The eyes of Xelloss' Metallium opened wide as a weight draped itself over his lap suddenly. A pair of soft hands reached out to caress his cheeks, dig into his thick hair, and comb their way backwards to hold his head by his neck. Large lupine purple eyes stared up at Firia as she leaned her elbows on his shoulders and looked down at him.
"Ok." She then said softly, and casual.
.....?
No hesitation as the strong and tempered woman lowered her face down and gave him a real deep kiss, right to the lips. (pretty easy since he all ready was something like 'wha?', to start with).... If considered possible while being kissed, Xelloss face-faulted on the spot.
Eyes wide open, but all he could see was... white. White.
Soft and warm. Firia came up after the kiss keeping her face close just above his, their noses touching. She mused while he stared at her with eyes like of a blind man. He seemed numb, quiet... Leaning back again, she reached down towards her lap and grabbed the edge of her T-shirt, pulling it off. Slowly. Despite the loose braid, long strands of sunlight blond hair fell roughly back to drape around her shoulders when the cloth was released from her body, over the head. The sudden movement in his eyes confirmed that he indeed, was not blind. She felt him starting to grow tense, though yet he seemed limp where he sat. Just watching. Empty. Tired. Reaching out for his face yet again, she this time did not herself bend closer to him, but brought him into a sitting embrace.
The Mazoku's pale skin felt smooth and cool against her warm upper chest. His lips burned hot almost trembling by each breath, just above her cleavage. Firia smiled half a smile into his hair. A smirk trailed up the corner of her mouth as she opened her eyes and gazed up, past the back of the sofa and through an open door on the other side of the room.
"Say, Xel..." She trailed into speech. "...that's an awful large bed you have there. Room enough for a whole orgy or two..." The Mazoku's hands halted upon their way around her lower back, waiting.
"Though..." She continued. "... three is a crowd, to this girl. Think you can handle that?" Relieving Xelloss' lap from her weight she stood up. She didn't let go of his face though. Bending forward she looked into his eyes. (hey, nice view there Xel)
"Well?" she hushed.
Weak hands came to grasp her wrists as to answer her. She smiled and pulled him up of the sofa and began to lead him towards his very own private room. Absently Firia couldn't help to wonder if he was even capable of something like this right there and then as apathetic as he seemed now. One quick glance to his trousers answered that question for her. No problem sister, no problem at all. Firia could barely restrain a giggle; god, this was all so absurd. The time, the place, the people, the situation... and the world too for that matter. Quite much so.
In a small but well held hotel outskirts of town, Maggie Milage was asleep cuddled up in her bed with numerous books strayed across the room. One single yellow light spread a calm aura across the shadowed room.
One story beneath the flat of Sel Metallium in the Metallium scraper, Rick Grey lay lost inside his dreams in deep sleep, his long limbs sprawled out and tangled among the bed-sheets. He dreamt he was playing poker again. Not once he seemed to grasp the game inside the dream, even though at school he used to be a star at it. Then again, Poker as most other card games and other is a play in between the players. Suppose it couldn't hurt to listen up this time. Not that Rick understood the good to come of it; playing with those two strange men... who both seemed exactly like... images of himself.
[8] - from "Kelly's Heroes" (classic WWar2-movie with Clint Eastwood in the role as Kelly), the classic comment by 'Oddball' - peace, man!
[9] - uhm, what was it Lina said.. "Sort of like High-Dense-Ghosts?" -- Powerful high-dense-ghosts... indeed.
[10] - Slayers NEXT.