"Not everything that happens we can control, but we can always choose the way we react."
"What are you doing here?" Lina demanded as she and Gourry hurried up to the dais.
Xellos leaned his staff against the side of the chair and crossed his legs. "It's nice to see you again, too, Lina-san. Gourry-san." He looked from the sorceress to her companion who was close on her heels. He rested his elbows on the arms of the chair and steepled his fingers in front of his face. Instead of his usual priest's garb, he was dressed in a black suit with a white shirt and white gloves. "You look very nice in that dress, Lina-san. Red is a good color on you."
"Quit discussing my wardrobe and tell me what you're doing here!" Lina demanded. Amelia and Zelgadis came up behind them. Zelgadis put a hand on Amelia's arm and held her back.
"Ah, Princess!" Xellos said, ignoring Lina. He smiled charmingly and leaned forward towards her. "I'm so sorry I'm late; it appears my invitation was waylaid somewhere. I came as soon as I realized what had happened."
Amelia paled. Lina stepped forward. "You didn't get an invitation because you weren't invited! Now get out of Amelia's chair and take yourself back to where ever it is you hang out and leave us in peace!"
Xellos sat back and gave her a hurt look. "Why, I do believe you don't like me!"
"That's because I don't like you!" she demanded, leaning forward with her hands on her hips. Gourry loomed menacingly behind her. "Because whenever you show up, something terrible always happens!"
"You make me feel like some Harbinger of Doom, Lina-san," he pouted.
"Maybe because you are one?" Zelgadis said coldly.
Xellos barely glanced at the Chimera, instead focusing on Lina. Smiling, the Trickster Priest leaned forward and touched her cheek. "Do you know you're beautiful when you're angry?" he asked in a husky whisper. His eyes traveled downwards to take in her décolletage.
Startled, Lina straightened and crossed her arms over her chest and took a step back towards Gourry. He put his hands on her shoulders and gold flashed on his left hand.
"Don't touch my wife," Gourry growled.
"Your - ?" Xellos' eyes snapped open and he looked at Lina's hands. With the speed of a striking snake, he reached out and caught her left hand, pulling it towards him and her away from Gourry. Gourry and Zelgadis both started forward.
"Amelia, get these people out of here," Zel said, gesturing to the guests who were starting to crowd around them curiously.
"Right!" Amelia hurried off and found Commander Vymes.
"Don't tell me you actually married him," the Mazoku seethed. This was not what he had expected.
Lina glared at him and jerked her hand out of his hold. "What business of it is yours?" she demanded as she backed up against Gourry.
"This is Gourry Gabriev we're talking about!" Xellos shouted, his outward calm having escaped him. Exasperated, he leaned forward to catch her hands in his and draw her forward. He fixed her with his amethyst eyes and before anyone could react, said quickly, "You deserve better than a pretty lapdog, because that's all he is. You're a hawk, Lina; he'll clip your wings and hold you back with his leaden, earthbound weight when you should be flying free on the wind. You deserve someone who can soar with you to the heights you're capable of, not someone who will foist brats on you and turn you into a dowdy housewife full of regrets for what might have been."
Lina recoiled in horror from the intensity in his eyes. "How dare you?" she demanded. She jerked her hands out of his grasp while Gourry stepped forward and put an arm between the two of them.
"I said keep your hands off her," the big swordsman said dangerously. His eyes were hard as sapphires as he looked down into Xellos'.
The Trickster glared up at him hatefully then looked back at Lina past the barrier of Gourry's arm. "Just what do you see in him, Lina? What can he give you that I can't?"
"I see what this is about," Lina said. She pushed Gourry out of the way. "You think you're the one that I should be with." It wasn't a question.
"That was the idea, yes," Xellos replied. "After all, I'm witty, intelligent and a good conversationalist. The most interesting conversation Gourry is capable of is wondering when the next meal is going to be. Let's face it, Lina, the muscles in his arms aren't the only things that have thickened from years of slinging a sword; the ones between his ears have squeezed all the brains out. He's so stupid he has to take his boots off to count to twenty." He watched Gourry's face go red.
"That's not true," Gourry snapped. Lina put a hand on his arm to silence him. She opened her mouth to say something, but Xellos cut her off.
"Oh, excuse me, he can get to twenty-one if he takes his pants off." He grinned nastily as Gourry's face darkened even more.
The swordsman's face twisted into a snarl and he reached out and grabbed the Trickster by his lapels, dragging him up out of the chair. The General Priest sputtered and clutched at the larger man's arms as he dangled several inches off the ground. "You're really starting to annoy me," Gourry said in a low dangerous voice.
"Gourry, don't! This is exactly what he wants you to do!" Lina said as she dragged on his arm.
Her words penetrated the anger that had gripped him. Gourry looked at her then at Xellos. The flush in Gourry's face lessened and he laughed. Setting the Mazoku on his feet, he said, "I see through you, Xellos. Get the dumb blonde swordsman worked up enough to give you a good meal. Well, it won't work; I'm on to you. I could care less what you think of me." He turned and took Lina's hand. "Lina chose me, not you; deal with it. Come on, Lina, Zel. Let's get out of here. The company is getting tiresome."
Behind him, Xellos' eyes narrowed. "Don't turn your back on me, Gabriev-san," he said in a low, sinister voice. "Or this time you really will end up dead."
Against his will, Gourry paused and turned to look at Xellos. "What do you mean 'this time?'" As far as he could remember, this was the first time the Mazoku had ever shown any overt hostility towards him.
"If you'd just had the sense to let those mercenaries kill you, I wouldn't have to be going through so much trouble now."
Gourry felt his insides go cold. Beside him, Lina gasped. Neither could speak so it was Zelgadis who demanded in a harsh whisper: "Are you saying you're the one that sent those mercs after Gourry and Lina?"
Xellos' smile twisted and he leaned back in the chair. "I admit, hiring only seven seemed like an insult, but they were all I could find. Too bad they weren't good enough. Now, I'll have to go to the trouble of killing you myself, and I didn't want to have to do that."
"You monster," Lina said angrily, raising her hands and preparing a spell.
Amelia, who had returned with Vymes, started forward. "Lina-san! Please! Not here!" She looked around significantly at the still crowded ballroom. The footmen and waiters were busy ushering the guests out of the palace, but while trying not to cause a panic. Vymes' guards were filing in and surrounded the little tableau on the dais. Lina looked unhappy but let her spell fizzle. There was no way she could hurt him with anything less than a Ragna Blade, anyway, and that would cause too much peripheral damage.
Xellos took all this in without looking away from Gourry; amethyst eyes locked on sapphire. "They could have hurt Lina," the swordsman said in a low voice. Xellos could feel the swordsman's anger coming off him in waves and knew he had his opening.
"Oh, but they had their orders not to harm her. You were the one I wanted out of the way. The plan was that I come rushing in at the last moment and 'rescue' her from the mercs, only too late to prevent them from killing you. I would be there to comfort her when she needed it, but you simply refused to die. And now I'll have to take Lina away from you."
"I think you'll find it won't be as easy as you think!" Lina shouted, readying a spell. Behind her, Zel and Amelia were preparing to back her up.
"I think you'll find it easier than you imagine." Xellos waved his staff at the group; a shockwave sent all but Lina staggering back. A ball of black fog encased the sorceress and she screamed. Her screams mingled with screams from guests trying to get out of the room.
"Lina!" Gourry shouted, crouching against the wind. When he was able to stand, he ran up to her. The black fog had sealed itself into a glassy ball; he could barely see her inside, frozen mid-scream. He beat on the surface with his fists. When it didn't yield, he whirled around to face Xellos. Glaring balefully at the Mazoku, he growled, "Let her go. Let her go!"
Xellos leaned on his staff and looked at the swordsman with a mixture of black humor and contempt. "Uhm..." he said, as if he were actually considering the possibility. "No," he said, and sent another blast at the swordsman.
Amelia screamed as the blast sent her spinning backward into Zelgadis. He put his arms around her and they slid across the slick floor of the ballroom. They came to a stop up against a suit of armor that stood against one of the walls. The iron plates crashed down on them, burying them.
Gourry dropped to the floor and strained against the aethereal wind Xellos had summoned. Around him, the Seyruun guards were being pushed back, save for Vymes who had also dropped into a low crouch to present as small a target against the buffeting wind. Gourry's eyes fixed on the man's waist and as soon as the wind lessened, he lunged for the commander. Grabbing the man's sword, he yanked it out of the scabbard and scrambled to his feet. Furious, he turned to face Xellos. The Mazoku was standing next to the ball in which Lina was sealed. Panting with rage, the blonde man approached him.
"All right, Xellos," he said. "Fight me. None of this fancy magic stuff. Fight me with a real weapon in your hand and we'll see who the better man is." He shrugged off his frock coat and flung it away.
The Mazoku actually raised his eyebrows at the challenge. "My, my..." he said in a musing tone. "That might prove interesting." He nodded and stepped away from the glass bubble. He took his staff in both hands and adopted a ready stance much like the one Gourry had dropped into.
Zelgadis pushed aside a breastplate in time to see the two circling each other. He swore and shifted the rest. Climbing out from under it and Amelia, who was dazed from a blow to the head, he staggered to his feet. "Gourry, stop!"
"Stay out of this, Zelgadis," Gourry said without looking away from his opponent.
"Don't be stupid! You can't beat him with a sword!"
"We'll see about that." Gourry and Xellos circled each other. "See to Lina," he ordered.
Shaking his head in anger, Zelgadis dug Amelia out from under the armor and dragged her to her feet. Together they rushed over to the glass bubble in which Lina was trapped.
"Amelia, try a Flow Break," he said. He turned to Vymes who had come up beside him. "Get the guards back. I don't trust Xellos; he may try something sneaky." Vymes nodded and went off to issue the orders.
Xellos seemed to be taking quite a lot of enjoyment from baiting Gourry. He circled lazily to his right, holding his staff at the ready. Every two or three steps he'd feint and pull back quickly. Gourry would react and find nothing there. When he grew wise to this, Xellos turned the feints into attacks: Feint, draw back, attack.
Gourry, however, was too good a swordsman for that trick to work. He could sense the attacks and Xellos' aborted follow-through. So, when Xellos was expecting him to be in one place after the feint, he was in another altogether. The surprise was enough to break through Xellos' calm and Gourry had his opening.
He wasted no time in pressing the advantage. With incredible speed, his sword flashed up and back down. Xellos nearly stumbled trying to get his staff into position to block the strike, but he made it. Steel rang on enchanted wood with enough force to send a shockwave down Xellos' arms.
"It's no good, Zelgadis-san," Amelia said. Her voice dragged him back to the problem of getting Lina out of the bubble. "I've tried Flow Break and the spell is too strong. I can't figure out what it is."
"Damn." He ran his hand over the glass surface. "All right, forget this for now. We need to find a way to defeat Xellos. Without blowing up the palace."
"Daddy will kill me if he comes back and finds the palace in ruins!" Amelia said. "But if it means getting Lina-san out of that thing, I say we do it!"
"Let's try something else, first." He stepped forward towards the two combatants. "Help me, Amelia," he said, and began readying a spell. Amelia recognized it and began reciting the spell in time with him.
Xellos' heard them and glanced quickly in their direction. This cost him as Gourry pressed him, beating down on him with his sword. The steel bit into his shoulder, shearing through cloth, muscle and bone. Black blood spurted out of the wound as he dropped to his knees. A groan escaped from between tightly clenched teeth and he glared up at the swordsman.
"This is getting wearisome," he ground out. Taking his staff in his good hand, he swung it at Gourry's legs. Gourry dodged that blow, but the Mazoku turned the staff around with super-human speed and brought the large ruby up into the tall man's midsection. Winded, Gourry staggered backwards out of Xellos' reach; he nearly dropped his sword but managed to get a better grip and keep the point up. Breathing hard against the pain, he kept his eyes glued on Xellos while he pressed his left hand against his abdomen.
The Trickster levered himself to his feet just as Amelia and Zelgadis said the final words to their spell and gave it form: "Elmekia Lance!" the shouted together. The brilliant white light leapt from their hands and hurtled towards Xellos'.
Holding up his hand, he deflected the spell without effort. Neither had expected it to hit, but hoped it would buy Gourry an opening. What they hadn't expected was for the Mazoku to suddenly phase out then back in behind Gourry.
"Gourry-san!" Amelia screamed as Xellos raised his staff. Even with his quick reflexes, Gourry couldn't match the speed of a high-level Mazoku. The two bystanders watched in horror as the Xellos lifted his staff and brought the ruby around to connect with the swordsman's side, just above where the kidney would be. Even one-handed, the blow had a lot of power behind it, and Gourry went down with a scream of pain.
Amelia and Zelgadis roused themselves and hurried forward. "Damn you!" Zelgadis shouted, grabbing up the sword that Gourry had dropped. He faced the Beast Master's General Priest as he stood protectively over the fallen swordsman. "Amelia, get back!" he shouted when she joined him by his side.
"We're a team," she said simply, readying her power.
Xellos just smirked at them, blood soaking through his suit. "I'll admit that this has been a delightful evening, but I do have other engagements. I'll be going now, and tell the lapdog not to worry about Lina. I'll take very good care of her." His eyes darted down to Gourry, who was still crouched on all fours but glaring hatefully up at the Mazoku. "After all, no matter what the size of a man's sword, it's what you do with it that's important."
Forgetting his pain, Gourry launched himself upwards at Xellos, hands outstretched as if to tear him apart. Xellos dodged with little effort and aimed another blow at the blonde man's head. Amelia screamed as the ruby connected with the swordsman's temple and they heard a sickening crack. Gourry dropped like a rock and did not move. "Maybe that will knock some sense into the idiot," the Mazoku remarked with a smirk before phasing out.
Helplessly, Zelgadis whirled to face the glass bubble in which Lina had been trapped only to see it fade away. He swore loudly and dropped to one knee to drive a fist into the floor.