"Could this day get anymore...I'm not going to finish that statement. There's no telling just who could be listening." said the golden haired young woman, floating in the Lake of Chaos.
Few minutes later...
"Perhaps there's something interesting happening to Akari Hisa or Serena Tsukino...Nope, both are studying for finals."
Few hours later...
"Ooooohhhhhh! I'm sooooo boooorrrreeeeddd! LINA! Lina's bound to be doing something...No, just blasting bandits with that gorgeous, though dumb, swordsman Gourry."
Few days later...
"By all the Powers, there's absolutely nothing going on! I'm going STIR CRAZY!"
"Perhaps I could be of assistance, L-sama."
"Xelloss. What do you suggest?" This had better be good, Trickster, or I'll send you back to Zelas in many small boxes, POSTAGE DUE!
"Well, perhaps you could set wheels in motion and make some entertainment."
"Go on. I'm listening."
"Well you could always free a Dark Lord..."
"No, it's been done."
"Perhaps..."
"That too. I'm getting annoyed, Xelloss."
"I got it!"
With that Xelloss created an illusion of a chimera, not just any chimera I'm talking about a very familiar and at this point one very angry chimera.
"Yes, Xelloss, it's a chimera. Your illusions are not making me any less bored or annoyed." L-sama said warningly.
"I'm not through, though. Please let me finish. This young man is none other than Zelgadis Greywers, a friend of Lina Inverse. He could prove to be very entertaining."
"You're not suggesting that I..."
"NO! No, L-sama, you misunderstand my intentions. Zelgadis considers himself truly alone due to his, ahem, condition. Due to his feelings he has withdrawn from society and...well, let's just put it this way: Girls give him the willies. What I am suggesting is this: In all of the worlds out there, surely there is one girl who is Zel's perfect woman. Wouldn't it be interesting to put them together and watch the tension develop?"
"You do have a point, but how do you expect me to find out what he wants in a woman?"
"His dreams, L-sama. Simply steer his dreams away from his usual nightmares and toward a girl. His mind will fill in the details."
"And what do you want in return?"
"Simply seeing you entertained and happy is reward enough." Having the Lord of Nightmares owing you a favor is definitely a good thing.
"We'll see."
That night...
Zelgadis tossed and turned in his sleep, as the Rezo nightmare starts then stops. In it's place a new dream begins, one about a girl...
"Where am I?" Zel asks himself out loud.
"You are here, with me." A young girl's voice answers back.
"What an odd accent, I've never heard one like it." Zel thinks to himself. "Who are you?" he asks her.
"Does it matter? I'm not here to hurt you."
"Why are you here?" He chokes out, not wanting to believe that this beautiful woman was standing here talking to him, instead of running or cowering in fear.
"You need me." She said, coming closer to Zel.
"I don't understand."
"I felt your need and your longing, to love and be loved." She whispered softly in his ear.
"If you knew what I was you wouldn't be saying those things."
"What, that you're a chimera? I already knew that. It doesn't matter as much as you believe." She draws back, smiling at him lovingly.
"But..." Zel begins but is quickly silenced as the girl kissed him.
Zel sits up, gasping for air, as he was shocked out of his dream by the kiss. As he thinks about the dream he discovers that all he can remember about her was her pale-blue hair.
Every night the girl visited him in his dreams. They talked about many things. Zel soon realized that her heart and mind matched her beauty equally. She was everything he could want in a woman, though he knew all this all he could remember about her looks was that she had pale-blue hair.
A week later...
"Zelgadis-kun, greetings and how is life treating you."
"Go away, Xelloss, I'm not interested in anything you have to say." Zel snarls at the priest.
"Oh, how rude. How do you manage to keep Lina-chan as a friend acting like that?" Xelloss asks, acting like his usual annoying self.
"Lina knows when to leave me alone, unlike you."
"I just wanted to know if you've met anyone interesting. Well, have you?"
"Why do you want to know?" Zel asks, suspiciously.
"That is a secret." Xelloss says as he walks off, leaving Zel contemplating just what is he up to now.
That night...
"Do you know someone named Xelloss?" Zel asks the girl as soon as she appears.
"No, why?"
"No reason. What do you want to talk about tonight? I've told you just about everything I remember about my friends."
"Tell me how you became a chimera." She says as she sits down, entirely too close for Zel's comfort.
"Alright. It all started one afternoon a couple of years ago. I was practicing with my sword, all the time saying, "I wanna be strong". That's when my grandfather, Rezo, showed up. He said he could give me the power that I desired. He said I would be completely transformed. I was a fool not to know what those words meant!"
"No, that wasn't foolish, it was simply inexperience. He was someone you trusted. You didn't know that he wasn't worthy of your trust. If he made the same offer now, would you accept it?" She asks Zel softly.
"No."
"See?" She smiles after saying that. Then she looks sad.
"What's wrong?"
"This is the last time we will be together, here. I can't come anymore."
"What? You can't go! I...
need you!" Zel shouts. "Look at me I'm totally hung up on this figment from a dream. I must really be desperate or irrational. Still, I wish she was real." He continues, before going back to sleep a sleep without dreams and more notably without her.
There's a funny thing about wishes. Just when you think that someone won't hear them or they won't come true, someone hears and makes the impossible happen.
"She is real, Zelgadis. I just have to find her." L-sama whispered as she looked through the lake at the vision of Zelgadis as he stoked up the fire, rolled over, and goes back to sleep.
"Who would have guessed that he liked that kind of woman? So are you going to put them together or just leave him like that?" Xelloss asked.
"What do you think? After all I don't get a sick pleasure from torturing people, like you Mazoku."
"Oh, but it would be fun."
"For you, now go away I have work to do."
"So, who is the lucky girl?"
"That is a secret, Xelloss. Now leave before I send you back to your mistress in a box."
Xelloss' jaw flopped open as he realized that she just stole his line and used it a lot better than he ever did. He was still in the middle of the face fault when he left for goodness knows where.
"Now that he's gone, I can get down to business."
3 hours later...
"Well, I've narrowed the field down to four girls: Sai Eskeleria, Terra Branford, Irena Romanov, and Vesta Owens." L-sama says, summoning an illusion of each girl. Then she walks to the young woman with long purple hair. "Vesta is beautiful, intelligent, and serious but she is far too old for Zel-chan, he's 19 and she's 23." L-sama dispels that illusion and walks over to a tall girl with green hair. "Terra is lovely, bright, and the right age but she is aggressive, violent and unknowingly in love with someone else. Even I don't mess with destiny." She abolishes that one and moves to a girl with long black hair with purple highlights. "Sai has all the requirements and she's single but she is far too powerful. After all we can't give Zel a larger inferiority complex than he already has." She stands in front of the last girl. She has pale blue in a neat. "Irena is perfect! She has the right combination of everything. She's a little on the small side. Let me rephrase that! She's smaller than Lina-chan! Then again, Zel's not the largest of men, either. Yes, she'll do nicely. My timing will have to be perfect. What is she doing now? Fighting a youma...that's right she's also Sailor Glacier. I had forgotten."
The vision zooms in closer to the fighting as the sound increases.
"Akari, don't just stand there, TRANSFORM!" the cat named Apollo shouts.
"Alright, Illumina Power!
"It's about time!" Sailor Cosmos yells, dodging a blast.
"Yeah, next time why don't you wait a little longer." Sailor Earth says, going in to punch the youma, connecting solidly before being tossed away like a rag doll.
The youma then zeros in on Sailor Glacier who was waiting for a clear shot. It sends a wave of energy at her. She tries to scramble out of way but she's to slow. The wave slams into her...
"Now." L-sama says as her eyes flash and behind her appears an unconscious Sailor Glacier, floating above the lake of Chaos. "Well, I pulled you out just in the nick of time. I'm going to have to do something about that sailor senshi thing. People just wouldn't understand. You always did wish to be a "normal" girl. No Russian princess, no Sailor Senshi, no saving the world from ancient evils, just an ordinary girl. Well, Irena, here's your chance." L-sama said as she closed her eyes and placed her hands over Irena's chest. The girl glowed brightly and after it faded she was in jeans and a long sleeved white dress shirt.
"Now it's time for you to meet Zel." With that Irena disappeared.
Zel trudged along the road, looking for a place to crash for the night, after another disappointing day.
"I can't believe that spring dried up. Just my luck." He grumbles.
Then a blinding flash of light appears and a girl crashes down, striking her head on a rock. Zel runs forward and sees blood running from her temple.
"Please be alive." Zel begs as he fumbles for a pulse. He breathes a sigh of relief as he finds one. Then he quickly casts a healing spell. If Shilfiel was here she could heal her completely, but she looks like she should be fine once she comes to. I'd cast Dicleary and wake her up but it would probably be better if she wakes up on her own. Well, I can't leave her here, who ever she is; she'd be easy target for anyone in this condition. Zel thinks as he scoops her up in his arms, surprised at how light and fragile she feels. He walks for a while, and then he finds a small clearing by a stream. "This will do nicely." He says, laying the girl down. He quickly sets up camp and places the girl in his bedroll by the fire. After seeing that she's comfortable he fixes his mask and hood to keep his face covered and starts cooking dinner.
As dinner was cooking, Zel finally got a chance to get a good look at the girl who so suddenly "fell" into his life.
She has blue hair. I get the feeling that I know her but that's impossible. I don't think she's from this world. I've never seen clothes like hers. Fortunately, no blood got on them so those should be fine until we get to a town.
His train of thought was interrupted by a scream, he looked up to find the girl sit straight up, holding her head, and trying to back away.
"Shhhh. Calm down, you'll hurt yourself." Zel said soothingly. He whispers the enhance calm spell as he inches toward her.
"Wh-Where am I? Wh-Who are you?" She gasps out between blasts of pain.
"Please, calm down, I won't hurt you. I want to help. My name is Zelgadis. Let me help. I promise I won't hurt you."
Her ice blue eyes were wild with pain and shock, then suddenly they became focused as she pushed down the pain and fear she was feeling. Her eyes closed as she tried to slow her breathing and her racing heart. A few moments later her eyes opened and looked right at Zel.
"My name is Irena." She whispered through her pain.