The first thing they saw was darkness, then they saw each other. Metal tables...thats what our hero's found when they woke up, Gourry, Zelgadiss, Xelloss and Amelia tried futilessly to move but found themselves strapped to metal tables.
"Where are we?" were Amelia's first words
"I wish I could tell you, Zel replied
"The last thing I remember," Xelloss stated looking around "is trying to talk to Lina, then those guys came and must have knocked us out with something".
Suddenly a light flicks on, bathing the room in a bright glow, in the middles of the glow is Exodus. Looking around they find they are in a big room, sort of like a normal room saves for the circular disk underneath them.
Exodus looks at them evilly, a dangerous smirk on his face
"I'm glad you have finally woken up" he says his voice amused
"Where are we!" Gourry yells out "what do you want with us!!"
"Where is Lina..." Zelgadiss asks his voice chilly
"Don't worry about her, she's safe, for now..." Exodus smiles
Amelia looks at him angrily "what do you mean by that?!"
"what i mean, my dear, is that she is safe until the ceremony..., then she will be Her's forever..." he chuckles and walks to them "don't underestimate me, she is under my control now, I have her life in my hands, be nice. His laughter chilled their bones as he walked to the door and closed it.
"Bastard," Zel muttered under his breath "now what?"
"we get out and find Lina" Xelloss replies
"wrong!,"makes a buzzer sound "HOW do we get out of--
Before Zel can finish his sentence Xelloss disappears and reappears free, grinning. "here..."
Zelgadiss and the other all just blink as their freed. But as soon as they get out they hear whisperings by the door and hear someone coming in, Zelgadiss motions for them to stay quiet and the door opens, 3 of the cloaked beings come into the room and freeze in their tracks as they see the prisoners free. Their eyes are the same solid color as Lina's and flash as they turn to walk out the door to warn their master that the prisoners are free, Gourry however slammed the door shut while the rest advanced on the cloaked beings.
Xelloss, who has one of the beings by the shirt is shaking him.
"Where is Lina! what is this ceremony!"
(in a monotone voice) "The ceremony is to bring forth our Goddess, the chosen one's lifeforce must be sacrificed to bring forth the Goddess" the man said.
"so now what?" Amelia asks "where is the ceremony?
"I don't know" Zelgadiss answers her looking at the remaining girl "where is the ceremony being held"
The girl looks at him "down in the lowest chamber"
"how do we get there?"
"stand on the circle and push the button on the wall."
They nod and Amelia caste a sleep spell on the two of them, they then stand on the circle and as soon as the button is pressed the floor falls away from them and they hold on for the ride, after a while the elevator suddenly stops and they find themselves in a darkened hall. They step out of the elevator the stop hearing a strange but familiar chant, they look at each other in shock and run down the hall till they reach a door where the noise is the loudest, they open the door quietly and go inside, shocked at what awaits them.
"oh my god..." Gourry
"what the?!" Amelia
"Lina...no..." Xelloss
"damnit...!" Zelgadiss
They are in a big room lit by candles, there are symbols and tapestries all over the walls and floor, the cloaked figures from earlier were chanting in front of an alter...on the alter was Lina. A big machine stands above the alter a golden beam coming from it to Lina, Lina herself was lying comatose, as if her body was fighting off the strange beam, as the guys watched from behind the pillar Lina started to glow bright red, red sparkles came out of the glow up to the machine as if the beam itself was sucking up the glow of her lifeforce.
"oh my god, whats going on...?" Amelia asks worried
"its taking her lifeforce...thats what the red glow is, the machine is draining it, sort of like storing it for this goddess whoever she is, but its dimming..." Xelloss answers her in a quiet voice.
Gourry looks at him in shock "what happens if the glow goes out..."
Xelloss looks to Zelgadiss
"if the glow goes out...we lose her..." Zelgadiss explains looking at the ground.
"Wait! there may be a way..."
They all look up at Xelloss
"what way?!"
"if we can get her off that alter before the glow goes out, then we may have a chance of saving her, if we can break through the spell" Xelloss says.
"spell?" Amelia looks at him hope in her eyes "what spell?"
"well just look at her, her lifeforce is fighting against whatever that golden light is, we have to move, now"
They nod and come out from behind the pillars, Xelloss hits the ground with his staff and everyone looks up, Exodus sees them and shoots them a glare that could bend metal, walking in front of the alter.
"I wont let you get to her, we've come too far for you to ruin it now" Exodus growls at them "its almost too late anyway" looks behind him to Lina who is starting to grow pale but her lifeforce remains strong "just a little longer..."
"like hell it will" Zelgadiss's voice came from behind him and he turned around to counter with his sword.
Exodus hears the sound of metal melting and spins around to see a sword, with a blazing like a jagged piece of the sun embedded into the control panel, Gourry on the end of it smirks, then a blur out of the corner of his eye and he see's Xelloss pulling Lina off the alter, the beam flickering out. He screams in frustration and rage and jumps at Xelloss and Lina, but the blade of Zelgadiss's sword embeds itself into Exodus's chest, he falls and lays still. Xelloss who is now holding Lina carries her over to the hall where the others were waiting. Once safe he lays Lina on the ground, Lina's lifeforce is strong but getting weaker, Gourry shakes her but she doesn't wake up.
"Why won't she wake up?!" Gourry yells looking at Xelloss, Zelgadiss and Amelia do the same thing.
"I didn't expect this...there is another spell on her, so that even if we save her she still dies" points to Lina who not only has a dim red light radiating from her body, but also a blue glow over it, making her shine bright with blue light "so we have to break her out of this spell, then hopefully she'll wake up, but we have to somehow keep her lifeforce in at the same time"
"how do we do that?" Amelia asks
"I don't know Amelia, I really don't..." Xelloss tells her sadly "unless..."
Everybody looks at him "unless?!"
He then looks up, a plan forming in his eyes, the others catch it. He looks down at Lina, he bends down and kisses her. Everyone looks on saucer eyed as they watch Xelloss, they suddenly gasp as they see the blue glow start to flicker, Xelloss continues, the blue glow growing fainter and fainter until it finally disappears, the red glow can again be seen but it is very, very faint, barely there anymore, she as white as a sheet.
"it's working, but look at her...she doesn't look too good..."
"look!" Amelia yelled,
They look over and see Xelloss glowing with a red essence like Lina as if transferring energy into her, he pulls back as a ball of glowing golden essence comes out of her body and floats over to the machine, as they watch, the golden essence spins and red sparks flow up from the machine around the ball turning it a deep red in color, it floats back over and hovers over Lina's chest, they all get back as the ball expands over Lina's body covering her from head to toe in the red glow, the glow disappears and Lina opens her eyes, her eyes clear as she sits up and rubs her head.
"are you alright?" Gourry asks her and she nods
"I think so, what happened? the last thing I remember was going to bed last night and--
She puts a hand cautiously to her head and feels a jeweled crown, even more shocked as she looks down to see herself in a long dress and laced up heeled shoes...it quickly sinks in and she screams.
"WHAT THE HELL HAPPENED! AND WHY AM I IN A DRESS??!!? Lina screams, and looks at the others
They look to each other wondering if they should tell her but the look in her eyes makes the decision for them.
"Um, well..." Gourry stumbles trying to find the words
"You were hypnotized and kidnapped, mistaken that you were a chosen girl 100 years ago, you were dressed up to look the part, and may I say you look pretty good in a dress, you were brought here and under a spell to forget all of us and finally were laying under another spell on an alter being sacrificed to resurrect a goddess, we defeated the one controlling you and using my strength I kept you alive, broke the controlling spell with a kiss, your essence came back and was reabsorbed into your body and you woke up." Xelloss explains to her, him and the others brace themselves for the reaction.
"I see, at least everyone is okay" Lina says a soft smile on her face, the others just look on in shock wondering what was going on, until... "Wait a minute... I what...?" Lina rewinds to what Xelloss has told her "YOU DID WHAT XELLOSS??!!!!" she screams partially in anger and partially in shock and slaps him. Everyone just laughs and makes their way out of the temple, Lina still fuming with anger her face red.