Xelos was still in shock as they sped towards the Sailoon Palace. "Are you sure you're fine?" he asked for about the tenth time.
"I'm fine." Lina replied. "Why shouldn't I be?"
"Well...considering how much you hate being controlled by some 'Prophecy' and that your existence may not be for much longer..."
"...Xelos, Crysanth-you know, my Angel?-tells me she doesn't really want my body but she's got no choice either. She also told me none of us are to blame. And the way I figure it, after she knocked some working sense back into me, I can either curl up and wait for the pain to get so bad that I'll crumble away or I can smile. Granted, that doesn't mean I'm going to make myself as annoying as you are but you get the idea." Lina flashed him a grin. "That includes our so-called 'deal'."
"Ne, Lina-chan," his tone took on a more playful note. "Can you please give me a chance? Please? I'll be a good little Mazoku if you'll just let me give you what you need."
She looked puzzled. "Me? Need? Like what?"
Xelos shrugged. "That depends on the circumstances. Like back there. I thought you needed some physical comforting, since verbal comfort wasn't getting us anywhere."
Lina thought about it. "If I tell you I don't want whatever it is you're offering at the time, you're not going to force it on me, are you?"
"No, but you'll have to give me a fair chance to defend why I think you'll need whatever I offer."
"Fair deal. I accept."
"The first thing I think you need is to get laid."
"I think you're going to need better insurance policies before the day is through."
Xelos smirked. "Aye aye, sir."
She cast him a withering glance. "I really don't understand you."
"I'd rather you didn't try."
She sighed.
Zel was busy fuming when two shadows fell over him. He looked up.
"Zel! What's up? Listen, everything's not going to be fine, but since it's my problem let me deal with it, okay? Now, how're Amelia and Gourry holding up?"
"Duh..." came the intelligent reply.
Lina landed gently and gave Zel a Look. "Come on, you can do better than that!" Zel collected his wits. "You look better than when you left."
"Of course. I am Lina Inverse, y'know." she wagged a finger at him.
Zel allowed himself a rare smile.
Amelia bounced over. "Lina? Are you going to be all right now?"
"No, but that's my problem." Lina replied, smiling a bit sadly.
A bit.
"Ne, then...do you think I can see your Angel?"
"Well..." Lina called up Crysanth. :Can you materialize a bit?:
:Only a little. I won't be able to speak to her.:
"She says yeah, you can see her, but you can't talk to her."
The glowing form appeared over and around Lina's shoulders. She was a tall woman, with a pure white dress falling past her feet and long sleeves that covered her hands. Her long golden hair fell beyond her waist, and soft gold-flecked brown eyes looked at Amelia.
Of course, she was a little transparent, but she was beautiful.
"Wow." Amelia understated.
"Amen to that," Zel said, acting stupid twice in the same day.
Xelos looked at the specter. "Lina, we can see her, and she can hear what we say through you, right?"
Lina looked puzzled. "Yeah. What about it?"
"There's no way for me to communicate with her?"
"Only through me, I guess."
Xelos fell silent and looked thoughtful.
Zel noticed the look. "What are you planning, Mazoku?"
"Ah, but that's a secret. And I do have a name, as you people seem to keep forgetting." Xelos pouted cutely.
"Ano..." everyone turned to look at Gourry. "Who's the pretty lady?"
Lina sighed. Zel looked panicked and made a don't-look-at-me gesture. Amelia smiled uncertainly. Xelos just stared.
"You know, I always knew humans were inferior, but he takes the cake." Xelos commented to no one in particular.
"What kind?" Gourry asked.
"...I rest my case."
The rest of them could only agree.
Lina turned to Xelos. "Waitasec. Whenever one of those Twelve goons show up you act as though you know them. Explain, please."
Xelos smiled. "Well...this is an event that no one, Dragon or Mazoku, want to talk about. Can I tell you in private?"
Lina shrugged. "Just tell me where you think their base is."
Xelos' face twitched fractionally "You're considering attacking them?"
"Yeah! Why waste my precious time waiting for them to attack? Besides, I'll feel better when we're on the road."
Zel nodded. "I agree."
Amelia jumped in the air. "Another quest! Another quest!"
Gourry smiled. "Who's the lady?"
:Crysanth, please disappear now so I can try to talk some of my story into Gourry.:
A soft laugh. :I was going to suggest the same thing.: She faded away.
In answer to Lina's question Xelos said, "Yes, I know where they are. But..."
"Great!" She turned to everyone. "Okay, let's start packing. We leave tomorrow morning! Zel, you're in charge of supplies. Take Gourry shopping with you; he's nice and strong. Amelia, you and I are going to go over basic combat techniques. Xelos, you go off and do that thing you do."
Xelos smiled cheerfully. "'Til tonight, then, Lina-chan!" He faded away.
She froze. "Tonight? On second thought, Amelia, maybe you'd better tell me about a few girly girl things. I'm a bit behind."
Xelos sat in one of his comfy chairs in his comfy space. He was thinking. That Angel will be glad to leave Lina. Somewhat surprising, but I can take advantage of that. But the Angel is bonded to Lina's soul. I cut the Angel out, I probably leave no soul left for Lina's body. Assuming I could even do that. He sighed, frustrated. I haven't even done anything with Lina-chan yet! His mind followed that line of thought up to the point where he felt the equivalent of a cold shower was needed. Then he sat bolt upright. That's it! No, wait, I've got to win Lina over first... He slumped back into the chair, plotting. Starting tonight. I must start tonight. I have no real idea how long I have with Lina-chan before she'll be Crysanth.
That done, he pulled one of his recent favorite books out from a shelf. He'd stolen it along with the others in its series from a shop in another dimension. It had illustrations for every sentence, and was actually beautifully done, once you got past the odd art style. He settled down to read it. It was an interesting story, concerning a human girl, and surprises of surprises, a lesser form of Mazoku which was called 'youkai' in that strange world. The names were odd too. They seemed to actually have meaning. For instance, the 'youkai's name meant something like dog-demon. Very interesting indeed.
Time passed, and he decided it was time to consult with Lina in her private chambers.
Lina crawled under the covers. She'd spent an hour with Amelia talking girl talk before she'd decided it was something she needn't bother with. Amelia had improved slightly in her skills, but only slightly.
She rolled over on her side. Odd, there was some warmth on this side of the bed...
"Hi, Lina-chan!"
Lina's eyes snapped open.
Xelos smiled at her, lying on his side alongside her. "Time for our consultation period!" he announced cheerfully. "The bed just looked sooo comfortable that I just had to join you."
Lina stared at him.
And stared at him.
Xelos grinned. "Now then, you wanted to know about the Twelve?"
Lina nodded fractionally, still somewhat in shock.
Xelos turned to lie on his back, his hands behind his head. "It's, like I said, something neither the Dragons nor Mazoku ever want to talk about, even amongst themselves." His face lost the smile, but he didn't loose the twinkle in his eyes.
"The Twelve were created way back when the Lord of Nightmares created the world. Along with the Dragons, who stood for good, and the Mazoku, who stood for evil, she created a race who stood for her own element: chaos.
"There were originally about a hundred of them -we don't know how many exactly because, well, you'll see-and they each did their own thing. But things started getting a little out of hand.
"You see, back then Dragons and Mazoku did nothing to kill their own race; they merely waged war on the other race. The third race, being chaotic, decided to do the opposite and started killing themselves off.
"Finally there were 13, and they stopped killing each other only because one of them said, 'If we continue to kill each other we won't exist any longer to kill each other. This is no longer chaos, this is a pattern. How do we break out of the pattern?' One replied, 'We could do as the Dragons and Mazoku do, and rage war on a different race!" Another said that that was too much like the other races. By then, the Lord of Nightmares had also created mankind, which killed itself off at an alarming rate. The remaining thirteen of the fourth race also didn't want to copy mankind.
"So they finally decided to kill all the races off. Then they'd commit suicide. That way, nothing would be left to copy, so they were free to do their chaotic activities in the afterlife. "Naturally, they started attacking all the races, but didn't get very far. Two or more Dragons or Mazoku were enough to handle their attacks then.
"So they created a new set of magic spells. The head of the group then died creating these new spells, since they went against everything nature stood for. A backlash of power, so to speak. The Balance of things.
"The remaining Twelve attempted to use the most powerful spell that thirteenth being had created-Dark End, the spell was called-but they needed time to prepare for the spell.
"It was then that both the Dragons and Mazoku, for the sake of self-perseverance, linked arms for the first and last time in history and sealed away those Twelve." Xelos looked at Lina out the corner of his eye. "That's why no one wants to speak of the Twelve."
Lina frowned and sat up. "Wait, if they were sealed up, how come they're out now?"
Xelos smiled. "Very clever observance, Lina-chan. Remember when you were to be Knighted at the Temple of Ceipheed, and I told you that it wasn't supposed to move?" Lina nodded. "I did a little more scouting about afterwards and I found out the most curious thing!" He chuckled. "Those Dragons are so stupid. Originally, the land that the Temple of Ceipheed was on was where those remaining Twelve were sealed up. The Temple was basically the door to their prison. If the Temple was demolished or moved, well, they'd break out. Those Dragons moved the Temple to that spot where you were to be Knighted because they could draw more power from the nearby elements, since the land around the Temple of Ceipheed was going a bit dry in power resources.
"They forgot to do their research because they were in such a rush to contain you that they actually set in motion 'The Prophecy!'"
Lina looked stunned.
Xelos glanced at her. "Ne, Lina-chan, anything else you need to know?"
"...Where are they?" she pulled herself together.
Xelos grinned. "On an island in the middle of a frozen river. The place is oozing with raw power. Which means they'll be able to set the spell up sooner."
"How long does the spell take to set up?"
"..." Xelos thought a moment. "Maybe... two weeks."
"My life span, basically." She said, deadpanned.
Xelos' face went serious. "Supposedly. I'm making an educated guess here, Lina-chan."
He slipped a hand under her shirt and brushed his fingers over her back gently.
DONK
"YOU PERVERT!"
"No, wait, Lina-chan, let me explain..."
Lina glared at him. "You've got one minute. Go."
"Ano... I just wanted to see how tense you are, that's all. From what my fingers tell me you could use a good massage."
Lina stared at him.
"I mean it. You ever had a massage?"
She stared at him. "No."
Xelos smiled widely. "Well, then! Let me work the kinks out of those poor tense little muscles of yours, and I guarantee a good night's rest."
Lina stared at him.
Xelos sighed, slightly exasperated. "Trust me!"
"Fine, fine. I doubt you'd leave me alone if I refused, right?"
Xelos nodded. "Good! Now take off your clothes."
DONK
"Let me rephrase that: Let me get a cheap towel you can use to cover whatever you think needs to be covered," he popped in and out of the room and tossed her a long white towel, "you get undressed, and I'll go get some rubbing oil or something. Do you prefer fruit fragrances or flower fragrances?"
"..." was the brilliant choice Lina made.
"Okay." Xelos popped out.
"Tell me how I got talked into this one." Lina said to empty air.
She sighed and stripped, resigned to her fate. But if he puts his hands anywhere indecent I'll kill him. Satisfied, Lina looked at the towel and tried to figure out the best way to use it. Finally she shrugged and wrapped herself in it and lay down on the bed.
"Ne, Lina-chan, you're supposed to lie on your back. If you want a frontal massage I can manage that but..."
Lina flipped over quickly. "Any funny business and you're toast."
Xelos pulled his gloves off. "Ne, Lina-chan, do you want to smell like a strawberry or honeysuckle?"
"..."
"Okay, we'll do strawberry. I like them, don't you?"
Xelos worked quickly, feeling satisfied as he felt the muscles loosen and relax. It'd been a while since he'd last given someone a good massage and he was pleased to see that he hadn't lost his touch.
There was silence for many moments.
"Ne, Lina-chan," he said in an attempt to start up a conversation. "What was your childhood like anyhow?"
"ZZZzzzzzzz..." came the response.
Xelos paused and leaned over. "Well, I'll be a human's aunt! She's asleep!" Xelos wondered if he should continue or not. He decided to continue. He had offered, and she had accepted.
Besides, it gave him a great excuse just to touch her skin.
"Ne, Lina-chan," he said softly, talking to her without really talking to her. "Your skin is surprisingly soft. I keep forgetting that under that tough girl posing you're just a human girl. Not a bad thing, actually." He traced a finger from her shoulder blades down her back. "Smooth. Beautiful."
He kissed a shoulder gently. "And mine."