Lina crouched on a rock on the middle of the stream, still as if she were a part of the rock that grew there. Her clothing, boots and hair were completely soaked.
She had splashed around in the cool stream water in hopes it would extinguish the burning heat in her face and throat, but it had done nothing more then make her damp. Now she shivered. Night was approaching, a thin dark line creeping along the trees, turning branches into hands to catch and pinch.
In her hands she turned one of the Stones of Demonblood back and forth, an absent rocking motion. The slick red stone lay in her hand like a perfect pool of blood, as if it would suddenly liquify and run, covering her hand in the same dark ocher. As she watched the remaining light catch the stone, making it wink, she thought.
"He was going to kill you!"
"I don't expect anything less from a Mazoku. But since he's given me such useful items, he's free to use me in any way he wishes."
Strong words, from when she had the power to back them up. Lina squinted at the talisman, seeing the spark of dark power fitfully flicking within the red. Linked to him, and from him, linked to the Lord Of Nightmares. She caressed the dark stone with the palm of her hand, then made a sudden motion as if to throw it, to watch it fall through the clear water, flashing as it fell into a place where no one could bring it back. Together they work, divided they do not.
Xelloss absently bobbed on an air current, following Lina's scent trail. Made stronger by her nervous agitation, it tugged him in various directions, first bending this way, then twining around to double back, then leading him forward. At the end of the trail was a small stream, and in the middle of the stream was Lina.
The priest slipped behind a small copse of trees, observing before acting. Lina was crouched on a rock, seemingly oblivious to the waters rushing below her. The last weak rays of light made her hair glitter like gold glimpsed through a dim room, and gave her fair skin a healthy radiance. How lovely, he thought. And how appropiate.
"Lina-san," he called softly, and she looked at him, blank-eyed as if she had just been roused from a nightmare. The light above and the shadow below made her look quite unearthly.
He drifted out to her, and sat cross-legged in midair, tucking his staff under his arm.
"Well," he said expectantly, watching her. She said nothing, only eyed the water running below.
"You aren't planning anything stupid, now, are you?" he asked casually. "Like drowning yourself?"
"Shut up!" she exploded, briefly startling him with her vehemence. She made a swift impatient movement as if to fling herself off the rock into the dark water below, but he caught her wrist and twisted her up to face him, enjoying the brief sound of pain she made. "Now, now," he said, smiling down at her. "I'm not going to let you kill yourself and disappoint all your fans."
"I wasn't going to do anything," she said sullenly. "I want to get off this rock. It's cold."
"Being wet at night will do that," he said cheerfully, which earned him an even stonier glare.
"Don't be smart," she growled. "This whole situation sucks. We're in the middle of L-sama knows where, I've lost my magic, and I haven't had anything to eat in a very long time."
"I'm shaking," Xelloss grinned. "Actually, I do believe that the loss of your magic is only temporary. In fact, it should only last as long as we're here."
"Which is..?"
Xelloss's smile grew wider, though a little tight and stretched at the corners. "My dear, you're going to love this one."
Lina squirmed, on the verge of wringing his neck. "Tell me."
"Ahem. Judging from the general ambiance, atmosphere, surroundings, etc...I'm getting to the point, honestly - We are in a section of the Astral Plane charmingly known as the Badlands."
Lina sagged, a sudden glimpse of the land he was talking about flashing through her mind as he spoke the name aloud. The Badlands were the domain of Mazoku in the Astral Plane, full of Lesser Demons, a few higher Mazoku who dwelled there permanantly, and the Astral counterparts of the rest. In the physical world, Astral counterparts were little more then vaprous ghosts, spirits trapped behind a wall of glass, watching the earthbound without the power to act.
But in the Astral Plane, they were as full and robust as any one below, able to hurt and be hurt. Lina glanced down at her wrist, half-surprised to note that she wasn't transparent yet.
Xelloss of course, wouldn't be affected. His Astral self and his physical self were twined through each other, twin mirrors reflecting the face of whichever habitat they dwelled in.
Xelloss followed her look. "It seems to be a side-effect of the spell that brought you here. In fact," he said, floating around her to get a better look from all sides, "it's almost like a bubble of the physical world is surrounding you, keeping you together in body and soul. How very interesting!!" Xelloss laughed. "What a clever minx our sorcerous friend is!! I wonder if this marvelously creative person realises what their wonderful spell has done?"
"Wonderful, he calls it," Lina muttered. Her eyes began to burn, and she wiped at them angrily with cold fingers, lowering her head so only she knew.
Xelloss looked down at her, wondering. This must be the second time in her entire life that she's cried, he thought. Absently, he let his fingers slide through the lively mass of her hair, an awkward attempt to console her. "Don't cry, precious. It's not so....oops," he said, as Lina's head shot up, a dull heat burning through her eyes, turning them into smouldering coals.
"I'm NOT YOURS!" she screamed, grabbing hold of his hair. Shrieking like something raised from the dead, she thrust his head into the stream and dunked him hard several times.
"Please Lina-san," he burbled, before his head was thrust back underwater. "Let's be rationa..bbbbubbub."
"SHUT UP! STUPID SMUG MAZOKU....Stop talking!!" she screamed. "Just stop talking for one damn minute!! Just be quiet!! BE QUIET!!"
"STOP THIS AT ONCE!!"
Lina quieted immediately, her hands falling to her sides, a puppet whose strings had been cut, leaving her to flop lifelessly on the ground. Xelloss flipped his wet bangs out of his eyes, his chest heaving with each breath. "I hate getting water up my nose," he said quietly.
Lina hugged her knees and rocked back and forth. "My head aches," she said quietly, a low dull sound of pain underlining each word. "I want to go back." Xelloss glanced at her face, took her pulse, made her rise to her feet.
"Come on," he said with subtly forced cheer. "Let's go have you lie down." He wrapped a hand around her elbow, and silently lead her back towards the forest.
Sleep that night was hard-won, a painful, stiff fight. Lina's eyes were already sticky from unshed tears, so it was no burden to close them and let them rest, but her body refused to relax, tense and weary, refusing to lose another battle.
Presently a thick white fog rolled by, and Lina sat up and looked around in confusion, wondering when the world had become so thick and clouded. She rose and walked forward a few steps, meaning to call for Xelloss, but her mouth was frozen.
"Poor little lamb," a voice called out to her, high and pure as melting snow one moment, then dropping into a sludgy low growl the next. Someone giggled.
"Poor lamb. Are you lost? Should I help you find your way back to your wolf?"
Lina looked around, confused. A golden sphere slowly formed in the middle of the mist in front of her, and Lina drew closer to look at it. Instead of her own face reflected within, she saw a dim picture, flickering and unsteady.
Scenes from the past and scenes beyond anything imagined spun before her eyes.
She saw
a woman dying, a young girl putting coins on the woman's eyes, then turning, and it was Luna with a redhaired baby in her arms, fleeing with a pack of farmer's hounds hot on her heels, ill-won fruit clutched in her arms, roaming silently among dusty books, leaving her sister, her sister leaving her, her parents gone, and suddenly Gourry was saving her from the bandits, and Zelgadis was with her as they fought Rezo out and buried him with the awesome power of the Giga Slave, Ameria ran with her from Ellis and Kopii Rezo, Martina and her ridiculous golem, Xelloss's eyes shining into her own, gold dragons flying overhead and Garv was trying to kill her again. Phibrizo's bright eyes laughed into her own, and then the beauty of the Giga Slave and the Lord Of Nightmares golden presence flowed into her and whispered a greeting as she reduced Phibrizo to the dust he wished the world to be.
Valgarv's wings cast a shadow over the world, glaring down at her, as Filia begged him to stop. Dark Star reared his ugly head, and she was in Xelloss's arms casting a futile Dragu Slave, and then black destruction and silver creation were flowing through her again, and Dark Star died as Valgarv was reborn,
and Lina reabsorbed her past.
Then the scenes changed to those of horror:
Aqua's vision of the failed Giga Slave, the Gold Dragons falling thick and fast in the heat of battle, Xelloss laughing at her from behind closed eyes that saw everything, taunting her with secrets only he would ever know, Ameria and Zelgadis falling on top of each other, horribly slaughtered as a black haired man laughed, as Filia fell protecting the child Valgarv, and Gourry was dead already as she smiled, a empty smile of bleak joy as she raised her hand for another strike and a bluehaired girl came out of nowhere and slashed at her, only to die at her feet, and she clutched Xelloss in terror as they fled invisible laughter.
With a cry, Lina wrenched herself away from the sphere.
"Some the past, some the future, some what will be, some what could be," the voice sing-songed triumphantly. "Did it not please you, pretty lamb? But now," the voice said, changing abruptly, "it's time for you to go."
The golden sphere was crushed as if by an unseen hand, and Lina screamed as pain shot through her body like lightning, burning and searing everywhere it touched.
She awoke with a start, pale and damp but very much alive. Trembling, she put a hand to her mouth as bile rose from within.
"Lina-san, what's wrong? You're as white as a ghost.."
"Please, Xelloss," she said shakily. He reached out and chafed her wrists gently. "Bad dreams?" he asked lightly, troubled by the pallor of her face. Slowly, he reached for the vial tucked away in his satchal.
"Oh please," Lina begged as the laughter rose around her ears again. "Make it go away." Xelloss looked at her curiously, but said nothing more, his left hand curled around the small glass tube. Lina reached out and took his right hand in hers, gripping it tightly, pressing it into hers, surprising them both with the acknowledgement of her need.
Together they sat up, waiting for the sun to rise.