Xelloss carefully set his staff against the tree trunk and rolled over on his side to watch Lina sleep. Her loose hair fanned out on the ground as she breathed easily, lips hanging open just wide enough to whistle softly with each breath. His smile widened slightly, and he gently ran his fingers through her hair, brushing the lively strands off the birthmarks on her forehead. He sighed in appreciation and leaned over, running his fingertips over the tiny black moles, noting her pale face and set lips.
"Poor little thing can't even relax in her sleep," he thought, his mouth twisting up in amusement. "Who are you fighting now Lina-chan??"
"Mmm...mm.....Phibrizo," Lina finally managed.
"Yup!" the boy declared proudly. He stretched out on his perch, the bracelets on his arms jangling like bones rattling together. He gestured and the mist they were peering though slowly dissipated. Now they could see and speak clearly. "Bet you weren't expecting me were ya, huh??"
"What..what..how.."
Phibrizo glanced over at the girl cowering before him and casually flickered some hair out of his face. "Awwww, come on!!" he protested. "I thought you were sposa ta be smart."
"You're here....." Lina's legs trembled, and she jammed her hands into fists, shaking. "You're talking to me......You're DEAD. This is a nightmare right??? Yeah, that's it, a nightmare." Lina managed to stand, and threw a shaky, defiant smile at the Phibrizo-appairition. "I'm leaving now nightmare."
Phibrizo watched her go, and smiled slightly. Three steps later and Lina was sprawled on the floor in a most undignified position. A wall of transparent crystal stretched before her in all directions.
Phibrizo stretched again and scratched his ribs for good measure as well.
"You can't leave," he said sweetly. "I won't allow it."
Lina stayed on the floor.
Phibrizo hopped down and walked over to where Lina huddled. He knelt in front of her, and wound his fingers tightly in the thick mass of her hair, bringing her face up to his.
"I'm not a nightmare, and I'm not leaving," he told her quietly. "Not till I get what I came for. Now, Miss Inverse I'll Just Summon The Lord Of Nightmares To Bail Me Out, you're gonna sit here, and you're gonna listen to me, cause you have no magic, and here is where I have control. You got it??"
Lina's head sagged as Phibrizo relenquished his hold on her hair, taking her chin in his hand instead. He peered at her closely.
"You understand??"
Lina's eyes had vanished into the pool of shadow underneath her long bangs.
"Look at me and show me you understand."
Lina didn't move.
"I'll kill you if you don't answer."
Xelloss sat back, wriggling himself into a more comfortable posistion. Lina was sleeping very soundly tonight, he decided. Funny thing for her to sleep so deeply, since she was used to sleeping on her guard. Maybe she trusted him enough to relax. He put his arms behind his head, grinning. What a nice feeling.
If Xelloss had examined Lina just a bit more closely, he might have noticed something odd about the girl as she lay curled within the cradle of tree roots. An errant branch had ripped a sizable hole in her leggings over her right thigh. But now the left thigh bore a gaping hole in exactly the same place, the pale skin almost bluish looking beneath it. Dark Star's talisman had switched places with Death Fog's and the mole on her left hand had disappeared, only to reappear on the right.
But most disturbing of all were the birthmarks faintly glowing golden underneath the long hair on her forehead. Lina shifted posistion restlessly, let out a deep shuddering breath and as she stopped breathing altogether, they gleamed like the stars above.
Phibrizo nonchalently tossed the limp body away from him with a flick of his wrist. "If you're that weak minded, I don't need you," he told the still form. He watched her crumple to the ground as if her bones were made of water, then hopped back up to his perch, thinking out loud on the way.
"Maybe there's another little girl out there that I can use. I like girls, they're so pretty and soft. You're beautiful but not very soft. Guess all that magic does bring a price," he said, and grinned.
A soft rustle drew his attention back to the corner where Lina had managed to rise to her knees, breathing raggedly. She was slowly drawing herself back up. "Guess I was wrong," he laughed. "You're not weak, you're just plain stupid. Trust Mother to have a penchant for fools."
Lina steadied herself against the wall as Phibrizo talked on.
"You and Xelloss, now that's a pair worth watching," he continued. "You're both stupid and chaotic. Probably could have one hell of a kid too, but who needs another you or another him running around the world?" He grinned around the thought. "Course both him and his bitch thought they were pretty clever. I was dumb-I know that now. Walked right into their little setup as innocent as a lamb. But they used you too, ya know. Coulda ruined your life, ruined everything. Aren't you mad?"
Lina merely looked on from the corner, hands curled into crabbed fists to grip the smooth walls. Phibrizo grinned and roused himself to speak again when he gasped, a thin and watery trinkle of dark blood escaping from his slack mouth. His little hands fumbled in vain for the hilt of the dagger that had buried itself between his shoulder blades. "Don't you ever call an Inverse weak," she managed.
Phibrizo grimaced as the dagger ripped itself out of his body. "Very funny," he growled. "Maybe you were better off sprawled in the corner."
Lina took a few steps forward, willfully ignoring the trembling in her legs.
"Why did you bring me here?" she asked, stopping a few feet away from her.
He glared at her as the dagger melted in his hand, dripping hot metal over his fingers. Then his glare changed to a sly smile, tight and cunning. "Do ya really want to know?"
"Can't be any worse then what you had planned before, but since I don't have my magic, I doubt it has anything to do with the Giga Slave," she retorted. "Plus none of my friends are here for you to use as your pawns." She gave him the smallest wisp of a smile. "Looks like your plans are dead before they were even brought to life."
Phibrizo nodded calmly, and tucked his hands behind his head. "Nah, you're right, no magic this time. This time I just want your body."
"Xelloss."
Was Lina calling him??? He searched the black void for her face, looking for the wild tumble of red hair.
"Xelloss."
She was in trouble, she needed him. Helplessly, he waded upstream through bone chilling waters. "Lina!!" He spat river and called again. "Lina!" She called out to him desperately, a plea for help or a warning swallowed by the black water. His fingers closed on a limp wrist through the rushing water, and he drew her to him triumphantly, only to find himself greeting the fleshless grin of a death's head.
Xelloss screamed.
"Since you and Mother destroyed my physical body, I have two choices - I can wait until I reincarnate into another physical body, or I can find a suitable vessel for my soul. Normally I'd just wait till reincarnation to get a new body, but each time I do that, I lose a few of my memories and I leave myself vulnerable. But you came here to give me another way." His fingers wove through the air, pulling a thin silver gleam out of the shadows, and Lina saw a knife, slender and polished.
"Since none of the Mazoku are suitable vessels and the Dragons are totally out, that left the human race. At first I thought, nah, it's not worth it. But then you and Fruitcake came into my realm, as innocent as you please, and I saw my revenge in your eyes."
Lina whimpered, her feet held fast to the floor by fear. Her lips moved silently in prayer. Oneechan help me...... and her eyes fell upon the crack in the wall.
Lina.....
He was voiceless now, lulled beyond speech in the restless sigh of the water. Her face drifted before him, pale and distorted through the heavy grey lens of water. She was drowning and he could do nothing to save her.
"I'll go in your body and they'll all bow before me. The Dragon and Mazoku will fall thick by the roadsides and the ground will run red with blood." He stroked her hair and lifted the knife, moving to draw it across her heart.
The thoughts slid into her mind, pulsing together with each breath.
The talisman!! The stones! Armed!!
I can't stop him!!! she thought frantically.
Strike the knife!! The knife!!!!!
Her fingers closed around the smooth hardness of the talisman at her throat, ripping it from its setting. The knife slashed the blood red stone and a blinding flash of light accompanied Phibrizo's inhuman shriek.
The water rushed out of his lungs and he could breath again.
Lina stumbled out of Phibrizo's grasp, clutching the stone as dark blood dripped over her fingers, deaf to the wavering howl behind her. The crack proved to be a bend in the wall lending down an endless hallway, and Lina ran for her life.
Xelloss stumbled out of the water, clutching Lina in his arms. Her long hair dragged in the soft earth, dripping dark water as he carried her towards higher ground.
Lina collapsed in the middle of the hallway, panting, her hands stained deep crimson. The stone of Demonblood now bore a long gash across the front and blood spouted from it like a ruby fountain.
He dropped to his knees, propping Lina against the trunk of a nearby tree and tried to make her breathe again.
"This could have been easy," Phibrizo panted, his green eyes mean and narrow as he eyed the exhausted girl huddled in the passage. "You just couldn't give up without a fight, ne? An Inverse to the end. Now we'll..."
Lina closed her eyes, too frightened to listen to the rest of his prattle. His voice washed over her like ether, chilling her body, rooting her to the floor. She tightened her grip on the talisman, knowing it had given her all the help it could.
Phibrizo smiled, a tight twisted look in his crazed eyes. He raised the knife to strike again. "Now I'll...."
"Die." The heavy voice echoed out of nowhere.
Lina screamed as an enormous sword stabbed all the way through Phibrizo, pinning him to the crystal floor. His face quivered, his mouth moving in little round gulps like a fish brought to land, his tongue slick with dark blood. The knife fell from his slack fingers to strike the floor with a soft clank.
Lina's skin was freezing to the touch, yet he made himself hold her body, force breath into her lungs. Her hair had dried, the red gold strands curling the same in death as in life.
"Lina!!" She still refused to breathe for him, her eyes fixed and glassy. In despair, he turned her over and struck her sharply between the shoulder blades.
A trickle of grey water escaped her lips, and she frowned and coughed.
The crystal chamber was collapsing, the ground heaving below her feet. She made it to the end of the hallway and staggered back into the mists she had come from.
"Xelloss."
She was all right, she was warm and real and she was kissing him, her small tongue darting between his lips. He groaned.
"Here?? Now??"
"Here," she acknowledged, her soft skin warm under his fingertips. He tried to pull back in confusion. When had she become naked.....??
Lina's eyes opened slowly, greeted by the night sky above. The stars twinkled gently, as a balmy wind blew. She sat up, touching her face, her hands, reassuring herself she was still all whole and in one piece. Xelloss still lay at her side, his face drawn tight in sleep. She started, almost afraid, wondering if he was all right. Just as her hand moved to touch him, his eyes opened.
They stared at each other for a few moments, then spoke as one. "I had the most horrible nightmare...."
The sun was peering over the horizon as they silently made their way from their campsite. Lina walked ahead of Xelloss for a few paces, then dropped back to walk beside him. Neither looked at the other.
"Why didn't you tell me there was a chance this could happen?" she finally accused, her eyes red rimmed and squinty. She lifted a hand to shade her eyes from the rising sun. Clutched in the other hand was a crimson streaked handkerchief.
Inside lay the halves of what had once been the Stone of Shabranigdu, now split in two.
Xelloss sighed and brushed some twigs out of Lina's hair. She flinched, then smacked him, but without any of her usual fervor. "Well??" she said after a few moments. "What do you have to say for yourself?"
"Lina-chan, I had no reason to believe he could or would do something like that." He refused to show how badly shaken he had been by Lina's recounting of Phibrizo's threat. Nor did he mention his theory about her savior.
"Perhaps my nightmare was his way of ensuring that I would be unable to help you when he attacked," he said quietly.
She snorted. "Why were you even asleep in the first place? In all the time I've known you, I've never seen you sleep. Not once."
"I need to sleep just as you do," he said defensively. "Not as often, but once in a while."
"Well, you picked a hell of a time to do it."
"Thank you for you voice of confidence Lina-san," he bit off.
"WHATEVER Mr Protection."
They managed to make the quarrel last all the way through the forest.