It was a lovely nice day, the sun was shining, the birds were singing...
(BOOM!) "Victory!"
And bandits were being blown to pieces. Lina off course had just defeated another band of bandits for some quick cash along side with her other companions. They were searching for a fabled temple of knowledge and power. Each person had their separate reason for wanting to find this place. Zelgadis himself was just looking for a cure. In fact that's sorta how they all found out about this temple in the first place. Lina, Gourry, Sylphiel and Amelia bumped into Zelgadis and Lina persuaded him to tell them what he was up too. Lina figuring that she could get some treasure or valuable item or information decided that they were all going with Zelgadis whether he liked it or not. Now Zelgadis didn't really mind that much that they were coming, what he did mind was that Xellos showed up all of a sudden right after they all left together. And he wouldn't go away.
"Zelgadis are you sure that the information about the temple that you were given wasn't just a bunch of lies?" Xellos asked with a smile and a sugary sweet voice.
"No but do you know anything about it?" Sarcasm dominated Zelgadis' voice.
"It's a secret!"
No one even bothered saying anything or paying any notice to the secretive and annoying monster. But did Xellos know something about the temple that they were searching for? Well he did know something that they didn't know about the area that was surrounding the temple but he didn't actually know anything about the temple itself. But of course the information he did know was quite important to them, but it was not like he was going to tell them anyway.
The journey over to the temple was a long one so when they finally reached the area it was dark. So despite how much Zelgadis was complaining they all went over to the town nearby for the night with plans to search out the temple the next day. Zelgadis was grumbling because he didn't want to wait. He wanted to go check out the temple right away but Lina wouldn't let him. Her excuse was that it might be dangerous and it would be a better idea to check out the place in daylight. But what did Zelgadis think was the real reason? Because she was tired and hungry.
"Why the hell do I have to wait and leave with them in the morning? I didn't even ask them to come." Zelgadis grumbled lying on his bed. "Wait why am I waiting for them? I was going to go by myself in the first place anyway so who cares about them? I only want my cure." Zelgadis got off his bed and with his stuff in hand he headed off to the area where the temple was supposed to be. Everyone else was asleep in their beds except Xellos who was just sitting around not doing much. He did notice Zelgadis leaving and went to follow him. I wonder if Zelgadis even knows what he's getting into. He should have listened to Lina. He mused as he watched the chimera hack trees from overhead.
Zelgadis found while following the map he had acquired that the trail leading to the temple wasn't really a trail at all. It might have been at the time when the map had been drawn up but now it was nothing more then overgrown forest and bush. Which required a lot of work for him to do. Well at least when Lina wakes up in the morning and gets angry when she notices that I've left she will have an easy way over to the temple. Zelgadis thought to himself as he hacked down another branch. Because of his chimera body he was able to see his surroundings to a certain degree but the thought didn't occur to him that he was making quite a bit of noise. Noise that could be heard all throughout the forest alerting the forest's occupants that there was someone there. Even if the thought had crossed his mind the only things he could think of that he could alert of his presence would be a couple of wild animals and Zelgadis could handle himself with something like that. But what Zelgadis didn't know was that there was more then just wild animals living in this forest. Xellos knew what else was there, but he wasn't going to warn Zelgadis. No he was still pretending that he wasn't there. Nor did Xellos warn him when two savage demons pounced on him from behind.
"AHHHH! What the?! Demons?" Zelgadis staggered off and got into a battle ready stance. But these demons weren't ordinary ones. Normally Zelgadis could sense a demon nearby or an attack coming, but you couldn't sense these demons. They were faster, stronger and could become invisible at will. The purpose of these demons was to keep anyone from reaching the temple.
Xellos did know about these special creatures. Ages ago the temple had been run by very powerful but very wise and holy people. Very few were let into the temple unless they passed some tests to prove their pure intentions. One day an evil man was denied access to the temple. He was very powerful and was outraged that he had been refused. So with amplifiers he increased his power beyond control to summon and create these demon creatures and to wreak havoc on the temple. Only the spell worked too well, the demons were too powerful and they killed whoever went near the temple.
But Zelgadis wasn't like an average man; but he was still having a bit of trouble with the two of them. But then things got worse when five more came to aide the other two. Zelgadis was being attacked back, left, right, and center. Xellos almost laughed from his viewing point, but he no effort to aide Zelgadis, he just merely watched.
"AHHHHH!!!!" Zelgadis yelled and hissed in pain. He had always thought that only something like the sword of light could break through his skin, but the gashes from the demons' claws proved otherwise. He was bleeding and in pain and probably had quite a few broken bones, but he could not escape. The demons had him surrounded and he didn't even have enough strength left to cast levitation. Damnit I should have listened to Lina! Zelgadis grimly thought as he tried to avoid another attack only to have his leg fractured or broken. He had tried to use magic spells on the demons at the beginning but whatever spells the demons didn't manage to avoid didn't have any effect. So now limping and almost falling to the ground Zelgadis realized that it was hopeless. And at that moment two of the demons attacked him at once and bashed him in the head really hard. Zelgadis fell to the ground knocked unconscious with blood oozing out. At this moment Xellos decided to intervene.
"My what a mess you have gotten yourself into Zelgadis. Tisk, tisk." Xellos shook his head standing at the chimera's still form. Some of the demons tried to attack him but he repelled them send sent them flying. Xellos picked up Zelgadis and teleported elsewhere.
Lina was woken up to someone shaking her.
"What the hell do you want?!" Lina yelled and surprised to see Xellos standing near her bed holding a very bloody and beaten Zelgadis. "Zelgadis! Xellos what did you do to him?!" Lina glared daggers at him with a fireball ready.
"Nothing Miss Lina. Zelgadis decided to venture on his own towards the temple. If anything I've saved him." He placed the chimera down on her bed.
"What attacked him?!"
"That is a secret. Oh and I'd get those wounds treated soon or else he might not make it." Xellos teleported out of the room leaving Lina both angry and concerned. She gave Zelgadis a quick look over only to discover that he was in far worse condition then she had thought. Quickly Lina rushed over to wake everyone up.
The next morning Zelgadis was still in Lina's bed but most of his wounds had been healed up. Sylphiel, Amelia and Lina had been healing him for most of the rest of the night and seen to many of his injuries. It was a long night for most of them so once Zelgadis' condition had been stabilized everyone went back to their beds for some much needed sleep. Lina stayed up watching over Zelgadis. He hadn't come to yet but he was sleeping. For the most part Lina was trying to decide whether or not to fry his ass when he woke up for being so stupid. Eventually Lina fell asleep sitting in her chair.
Later on that morning, nearing close to the afternoon, Lina woke up with a stiff neck and back. It was sore from sleeping in that hard chair. Zelgadis seemed a bit better when Lina looked him over. His breathing wasn't as labored as it had been before she had fallen asleep. She was just about to leave and go get something to eat when she noticed Zelgadis stir.
"Well it's about time you woke up." Lina said dryly to Zel as he opened his eyes. His vision was blurry at first but then he could make out Lina's form.
"Where am I?"
"You are in the inn we are staying at. And in my room too. I can't believe even after we all agreed that we would go the temple together in the morning that you leave in the dead of night and go all by yourself! You are lucky you didn't get killed!"
Zelgadis looked up at her with his sapphire blue eyes meeting her red ruby ones. Only instead of annoyance, anger or regret, Lina saw confusion in his eyes.
"Do I... know you?" Zelgadis asked and Lina didn't respond she only stood there blinking.
"You mean you don't know who I am?!" Lina squeaked out. She stared at him thinking that this had to be a joke.
"No am I supposed to?" But Zelgadis wasn't joking. The uncertainty displayed in his face was profound.
"Yes you are. Do you know who you are?"
"I'm... I'm... I don't... know. Who am I?" Zelgadis asked more to himself then to Lina. He couldn't remember anything. All there were small fuzzy images that were very far away that his mind couldn't reach.
Later that day everyone was gathered in Lina's room where Zelgadis was. Since Zelgadis wasn't going to be getting out of bed anytime soon Lina just switched rooms with him. With a few tests they concluded that Zelgadis did indeed have amnesia.
"Mister Zelgadis you don't even remember who I am?" Amelia choked out close to tears.
"No I don't. I don't remember any of you. I don't even remember anything." Zelgadis cried out. He was very frustrated. He wanted to remember, he truly did but no memories came to his head. And what made matters worse when everyone had heard of his amnesia they had been asking him a million questions. He felt bad that he couldn't remember anyone; it was almost like he felt like he was betraying them by not being to remember them.
"Well Miss Lina I can definitely say it was that gash on the head that you, Miss Sylphiel and Miss Amelia had healed up yesterday along with his other injuries." A doctor who had been summoned to the inn by Lina a little earlier said with a solemn voice. There was no doubt about it, Zelgadis had amnesia. But what disturbed the doctor was that this wasn't an ordinary case of amnesia. Given the fact that Zelgadis' skin has a stone consistency it would have to have been a very hard blow to his head. But that was only to knock him out. Indeed Zelgadis had been very beat up the fact remains that he shouldn't really have amnesia. But those demon's did have a reputation to having magic properties to their bodies, so chances are that Zelgadis' amnesia is the just the effect of those magic abilities. Of course the doctor didn't have any other cases to compare it with because no one has ever fought with those demons and had lived to tell about it. "To be honest I really have no idea what's going to happen to him. For all we know this just might be temporary or permanent. But I would recommend that you stay away from that temple. Those demons have killed many people day and night." The doctor packed up his stuff and left them all looking back to Zelgadis.
"Why would I go alone like that?" Zelgadis again was asking more himself then the others in the room. Lina, Gourry, Amelia and Sylphiel had been trying their hardest to tell him things about himself, but the more he heard the more confused he got. Zelgadis was having a hard time believing the person they were describing was him. It didn't seem right and he was startled on how closed off and bitter he was.
"I don't know. My guess was that you were desperate to get ride of your chimera curse that you weren't thinking straight."
"But do I really look that bad?" Zelgadis asked his reflection in the mirror. He did admit what he saw wasn't your average and ordinary human, but it was interesting. And the color blue was very nice. Zelgadis found that he kinda liked the way he looked like. And he had more physical and magical abilities this way. So again Zelgadis was confused about the description that they were giving him. What they told him was that he was slightly negative more or less logical and very intelligent no-nonsense guy who searched relentlessly for a cure for his curse, which he despised, and that he was a loner and preferred to do things alone and not get involved with people.
"No and we've been trying to tell you that for a long time, only it doesn't seem to stick that well with you. You always think that everyone thinks that you are a freak or a monster and no one really accepts you for you. Which of course is dead wrong otherwise you wouldn't have us as friends." Lina was finding this a little annoying. It was unnerving to think Zelgadis of all people having amnesia.
"What about that Xellos person who saved my life? Do I consider him a friend?"
"No actually you hate his guts which isn't too uncommon among us because he gets on all of our nerves."
Xellos who had dropped off Zelgadis' beaten body hadn't shown his face around the inn ever since then. They all were kinda of wondering what he was up too. They even thought that maybe Xellos had been lying and that he was the one responsible for Zelgadis' injuries or his amnesia.
"So what do I do now?" Zelgadis looked around the room to the faces of his friends which felt like strangers. Each of them looked like they hadn't slept well.
"You should get some rest for a little while. So we'll all leave now." Lina half ordered and everyone else vacated. Lina picked up the last her stuff to put into her room and went to her new room. While Zelgadis just sat there having a strange feeling of mental suffocation. He had no idea who he was and everything that they told him didn't feel right. He was already freaked out of his mind he sure as hell didn't want to be alone.
"Lina?" Zelgadis spoke out to Lina who had just left her room and was in the hallway.
Lina peered back into Zelgadis' room and gave him a look. "What's wrong?"
Zelgadis just looked at her unable to say anything and when he tried he just hung his head in shame. "Nothing. Just go."
"No there's something wrong. What?"
"It's stupid... but I don't... don't want to be alone." He still didn't look up at her. His eyes were glued to his sheets. But Lina on the other hand glanced at him with a softened expression.
"Must be pretty scary to not remember anything about yourself then having everyone to leave you alone in your confusion. I guess it was pretty stupid to have ordered everyone else out. It's not like you are going to be falling asleep anytime soon." Lina pulled the chair closer to the bed and sat down. Zelgadis for a while didn't say anything.
"Am I really that bad?" He finally spoke in a soft voice.
"What do you mean?"
"The way you all described me... I'm a jerk."
Lina on a normal basis would have laughed or said some sarcastic remark but she didn't feel that would be a good idea. "We all are jerks sometimes. But no I wouldn't say that you are."
"But what you guys said -- "
"Is partly true and partly not. I can make guesses about why you act the way you do. I have no idea if that's the real reasons but they could very well be."
"Like what?"
"Well you haven't had the greatest life and I think you have been hurt a lot of times. So I think you try to keep yourself closed off people so that it's hard for them to get close and hurt you. Plus you could also keep people away because you are afraid of people rejecting you. But despite all that I know that you care about me and everyone else. We are your friends and that's all that matters." Lina dared to look at him. She was half expecting him to have a gloomy expression but instead saw one with a bit of hope.
"Meaning that I could just been putting on an act."
"Right. But then I have no real way of knowing. Either way we all have our good sides and our bad sides. Like a good side to you is your intelligence. You are the only one out of our group that I can have a decent conversation with. It's nice to have someone around that I talk to about magic and other various stuff without having to explain it a thousand times or have justice opinions thrown in my face." Lina rolled her eyes and Zelgadis smiled. He figured that she was talking about Amelia and Gourry. "So what do you want to do?"
"What do you mean?"
"Well I'm not going anywhere until you fall asleep and it doesn't look like you are going to be falling asleep anytime soon, so what do you want to do?" Lina prompted him. Zelgadis went quiet deep in thought.
"Do I like to play games?"
"You mean like chess and stuff? I really don't know you never wanted to waste time on things like that. But let's find out." Lina said with a smirk.