The drip. And then a hazy blink that didn't show anything. What was that echo in his mind...?
A hollow laugh...?
His ears were ringing and he hurt..
everywhere..
Bright lights burned still behind his eyes, throbbing in his head, but he could still look into it with out fear or pain...
Another blink and the knowledge that something was wet...
on his fingers..
yes he had some of those...
A blue eye shone in the dark as he peeled one lid open, strange and muddled and.. fuzzy feeling...
A sigh next to his and he opened his eyes completely as identity made it's lazy way home. Blood in his eyes. And all over. That's the wet.
It's heavy. Constricting.
He focused on it as it sighed again, and then came fully, fully awake in an upsetting rush. His breath froze as he realized what he held there. Who it was that lay so still and of all the impossible things.. breathed....
Naked and cold in this profaned place, Lina Inverse shivered in his arms. Tears came then, and even Death would understand that kind of pain; he had seen this reunion before, but never on this side. He had missed the warmed kisses pattered all over the unaware face, and the sobs that bent the man's tall frame double, there on the floor where he lay, pulling her closer and closer as she stirred once in her sleep and then was still.
Death takes a lot out of you. But occasionally, if you say please, He gives even more back. And Gourry Gabriev sobbed as he peeled his tunic from his wasted frame, carefully threading much smaller limbs through the arms, then untying the shadow from his heart that he had worn at his waist, making sure his loved one was as warm as she could be.
Still crying he picked her up, staggering from the loss of blood it took to give her rebirth, and made his way through the dark and the twisted things still there calling out for his attention and he marched back towards the light still so far away.
At the entrance his weary legs stopped and one last wave of sheer wrongness and cling and hate showed him the lighted oil brazier that Luna had left for him, there in the frozen pre-dawn light. There was a shine of purest gold in his hair from a light source unseen, and immortal words said
DO IT.
A well-thought kick and he sent a wave of flame to consume this darkness in heaven's light, and it shone like gold as he walked away, never once looking back.
The flames highlit his bare, thinned frame as he cradled the loved burden closer, staggering on the road back to warmth.
And a Nightmare ended.
The explosion jolted them both awake, sending the small young woman to scrabble across the slick hardwood floor in her thick woolen socks, her companion steadying her before she could fall.
"What was that?!" Panic pretended it was just anger in Zelgadis' tone and Amelia tried to inhale as her world suddenly constricted into a burning midnight struck down by the hands of God.
"Gourry-san..." and her voice trailed off, falling into widened blue eyes that were pulled towards the horizon and it's premature glow. The door slamming was the last living noise in the house as the two sped off towards the sound, hasty shoes and hurried cloaks thrown on as they left.
All there was was smoldered nothings when they arrived, like a maw of heaven came and swallowed the whole place down, but unable to choke away all of the bad feelings here. Amelia stood, stunned at the impressions the violence of creation and the violence of cleansing had left here. There was no sign of anyone.
"But.. Gourry-san.. Lina-san.. How can this be?!" Zelgadis looked at her with a lump in his throat, seeing for the first time the ruler she might become. Defiant even towards Death, and refusing to let go.
Irritatingly, tears seemed seeded to grow in his own blue eyes, giving crystal quartz to what was more commonly thought of as ice. "I-I just don't know, Amelia. Are.. do you think.. are they ..together?" His voice had become a whisper at the last word, as though it were some how fragile and easily damaged leaving his marble lips. But she just looked dazed, an ugly reminder of that blow her head had taken, and unable to accept that her friends were.. gone.
"This isn't right." Her words were quiet and soft, a departure form her usual rant and stance that seemed to grow on you like moss on stone skin. This really was the end.. two gone and two left deeply wounded and drawn.
Where was Amelia's justice now? Gently and hesitantly he cupped his hands around her shoulders, a light touch, childlike in seeking comfort as well as giving it. I'm here, it said, for all the good it will do.
The princess closed her eyes to her tears. Her fists seemed to meet and entwine her slender fingers, and unwittingly, Sight turned on, once used and never to be turned off again. In her throat everything stilled at the perfect image shown to her in white on black. A tall man with a burden, staggering to his knees. She could smell hay. Eyes sealed slammed open and her tears were unnoticed now. Her feet told her to run, go, move, and she did it, past the smoke, ignoring his cry, and never stopping until she tripped and fell. Hard as the ground was, the image never even wavered, and she saw what she had fallen over. A prop. Also known as a buttress. To hold a reluctant building upright even as the roof gave in, and she knew where she needed to be. Inside she dashed, Zelgadis just seeing the hem of her cloak skulk away.
Her gasp was cold water down his neck in the summertime; happiness. Tears had swollen her voice but he still heard.
"Zelgadis-san!! ZELGADIS-SAN!! COME HERE!!!" He slammed into her he ran so fast, wanting more and still fearing the worst, but even his own jaded weary eyes had to widen in divinity.
There on the moldering hay lay Gourry. Asleep. In his arms, was Lina Inverse.
"The Lord has given full vent to his wrath:
he has poured out his fierce anger.
He kindles a fire in Zion
that consumed her foundations."
-- Lamentations, 4:11