Xel sighed as he ended his story, feeling various mixed reactions well up inside him from having to relive the experiences again that he'd sooner forget. They were painful, and haunting, and it had taken him a very long while to get over it, for sure. Weeks to cope with his conscience and days of crying endlessly at the murder, the pain, the horror that he'd done.... It was a wound that may never entirely heal.
The others in the room were silent, thinking over the entire story in their minds. It was a tragic and gruesome one, he'd been right about that, and they took their time processing what they made of it. After long moments of silence, the historian spoke up. "For sure you've not had an easy life..."
Xel smiled faintly at that. "That is a minor understatement..." He sighed and closed his eyes, putting his arms around the sleeping Val. "But... I suppose each person has their up and down moments.... I just happened to be caught on the extreme."
They nodded from one to the other, and stayed silent, still digesting the story. While they were doing so, Val stirred then opened his golden eyes and looked up. He giggled and reached up at Xel's face, startling the ancient slightly. He gurgled at him happily, oblivious of the goings on around him. "Pa pa... ma ma...doko?"
Xel stroked the baby's head. He had started learning to talk just about the time that he'd joined their little group.... He supposed it was his influence, Val was very attached to him, for obvious blood kinship reasons, but he'd become very active and made more motions towards talking the past week. Xel ruffled Val's hair gently. "She's ok, I'm sure.... Don't worry about her, she's a big girl..." He whispered, worry in his eyes as he mimicked her own words.
Suddenly there was scrambling from outside, and frantic voices. "Oii~!" Came the soft cry from outside. "You better get him out of here, someone tipped you off, and they've got some mercenaries chasing after them blowing parts of the city up!"
The owner scurried up quickly and stuck his head out of the cellar, and talked with the individual for a moment, then ducked back in. "Come on Xel-san. You better go now." He offered a hand, and Xel pulled himself up carefully, though his stomach still ached from where the gold's had punched him, and his wing throbbed, but he clutched Val to him tightly and limped towards the exit.
"Here!" Someone draped a cloak over his back and the wings, with a reassuring smile. "You might need it to keep a low profile."
He smiled down at them with relief, gratitude on his face. "Thank you.." He murmured and pulled the hood over his head and clutched Val to him underneath the cloak to hide him, then took a breath and climbed out of the cellar into the streets. As he ran, he clenched his fist and drew his wings into himself, as much as it hurt, and as dangerous as it was, he couldn't be seen with them. At least they would heal, if more slowly, from inside him.
Various people were hovering there, throwing cautions glances around. "Hurry!" One man said quickly. "They're a block away!"
He quickly dashed down the opposite alley, following their guide with Val hugging him tightly inside the cloak, and he grit his teeth as the pain in his ankle kicked in. Not not, not now! He hissed to himself. They turned corners and dashed down alleys, changing direction at the wave of one person. Xel was amazed at the amount of people who were undercover helping them.... He had more friends than he'd expected, in such a short time. He limped quickly after their guide, and saw him yet change directions again. Wasn't this heading back in the way they'd....
Suddenly his whole body was flung against the stone wall of the building nearest him and he gasped aloud in pain as his arm was shoved behind him, and he heard another crack of something, most likely a bone, and a sword was suddenly pushed to his throat in one swift gesture before he could react.
His heart was pounding nearly so hard that it blurred his vision, both from pain and adrenaline. He tried to stay still, since he could feel the sword cutting into his neck as his captor had him pinned by a shoulder as well. "Don't move or you're a dead man." His captor growled in a low dangerous voice.
He closed his eyes, expecting the worst, but not even dreaming of moving. Then he heard the soft sound of clapping from someone. "Very good.... You're very elusive.... We had a hard time tracking you." Came a female voice to his ears. "You just better be worth all this trouble for the money they promised us." He heard footsteps come closer then stop. Then he heard dead silence, but didn't dare open his eyes to see what was happening. Suddenly there was a soft whimper from under his cloak and he felt Val's grip tighten on him. This seemed to surprise his assailants, who threw the cloak open, only to see a young cyan haired one year old clinging to him with frightened eyes screwed shut. "What the..." Came the puzzled voice. "We were after a guy and his kid?"
"Um.... Lina-san..... isn't that...." Came a tentative voice from the side, making his eyes snap open in shock at sudden realization.
Standing before him, staring back at the smaller girl in white, who was staring at him with wide eyes, was the infamous Dra-matta.... His one time companion, and her gang of flotsam and jetsam friends. Lina Inverse. She was glancing back at the girl, Amelia, frowning. "What are you talking about?"
Amelia pointed at them. "Isn't that Valgarv-san? And..." She looked up at him and their eyes met, and she got a startled puzzled look. "But..."
Lina turned her gaze back to him, and her eyes promptly widened and her mouth dropped open. "Well I'll be damned...." Her gaze promptly narrowed. "Perhaps they were right after all in having us chase after you." But he saw faltering on her behalf, then suddenly she reached out towards him. He jerked his cheek away, or tried to, but felt the sword at his throat. She gently touched his cheek with a few fingers, then drew back and studied them. Her gaze went up to his, and he could see confusion. "What the hell is going on here? You're bleeding."
"Uh, wait I don't get it."
"Shut up Gourry!"
He felt faint, both from pain and from near relief. But still didn't move, since stone boy's sword was pressed even harder against his neck. "All the better." Came the terse growl. "Maybe we can get rid of him now."
"Stop it Zelgadiss!" Came the snappy shout. "Look at what you're doing!" And the sword was jerked out of the way of his neck letting him be free against the wall. However, the adrenaline was leaving his body, and he felt weak and shaky and too tired to move from his position. Val was tugging on his shirt, whimpering, but he was still frozen.
Zelgadiss had whirled about and was facing Lina. "Come on, why are we after this trash? He can just disappear anytime he wants to! We're wasting our time." He turned about and made as if to leave but Lina stopped him.
"Matte! Yeah, he could disappear any time he wanted to.... BUT, look at him!" She pointed at Xel with a finger. "He's terrified Zel!!"
They all looked at him somewhat astonished... he looked a mess, from his ashen face and eyes filled with terror, to his wounds and Val clutching him tightly crying in fear. He was just a shadow of the person whom they'd known before.... And a frightened shadow at that.
Amelia seemed to realize that something was wrong, and walked up to him. "Xelloss-san... are you ok?" She gently took his good arm and looked up with concern. "You don't look well, maybe you'd better sit down...."
He seemed to vaguely recognize the gentle order, and slowly sunk to his knees, sitting down, while Val looked up with tear-filled eyes at him and reached for his face. "Pa pa...." He touched Xel's cheek with the gashes, and he winced and seemed to come out of his trance to grasp Val's hand an squeeze it lightly, glancing down at him tiredly.
"Shh.." He whispered hugging him to him, and a small tear trickled down his cheek, hitting Val's head. "It's ok...."
The others were staring at him with blank astonished expressions on their faces, as if to say 'this guy is Xelloss?', and were obviously at a loss for words. Finally, Lina seemed to snap out of it, and kneeled down. "Oi... Xelloss, are you all right?"
He looked up with lost eyes at her. "No..... no I'm not..."
Amelia's hand came away red and she gasped slightly. "Xelloss san...! You're injured!" She reached for his cloak, and pulled it back to reveal his left arm where it was obvious that it was badly broken. She glared up. "Ok enough, he needs to be cared for first, then we can ask questions later!" Her tone was no nonsense and commanding, unlike the young girl she'd been just a few years ago. "Let's go to an inn or something."
The others nodded slightly and Amelia helped him stand up, and he still carried Val in his arms, though he was obviously tired. They then made their way to the nearest inn, and booked a few rooms, then all piled in there. Amelia led Xel to the bed and sat him firmly down. He obliged, and Val jumped up on the bed and sat there with wide eyes watching.
She then made him take his cloak off, and carefully took his arm, despite his gasps of pain, and put a numbing spell on it, then set it and began to heal it with her white magic. He sat there, face still pale, but trying to concentrate on staying conscious. It took a little bit, in which there was dead silence through the room, as the others stared at him with narrowed suspicious glances. He felt nervous under their gazes, but didn't look up to avoid having to come in contact with them. Once Amelia had finished, she sighed, and he smiled in gratitude at her. "Thank you Amelia-san..." He said in a quiet calm voice, very unlike him. She returned his smile, then stood and took off the bloody bandages on his cheek, and began replacing them with fresh ones, since she couldn't heal that injury so soon after her major healing of his arm.
When it was done with, Val was curled up in his lap sucking his thumb, and the others sat around, watching him waiting for an answer. He kept quiet though, staring off into nothing for a bit, before Lina's voice brought him back to reality. "So, are you gonna explain or not Xelloss?"
He looked up to meet their suspicious glares. "What.. would you like me to explain?" He said carefully, knowing there were some truths he had to keep to himself.
Lina scowled. "Well, for one, you're not a mazoku anymore, that much is obvious, there's no evil aura around you. So what's the deal?"
He looked from one to the other, then carefully chose his words. "Yes, I'm not mazoku any longer.... And I've been discharged of my position..."
"I see..." Lina said slowly staring at him. "So you're not a Priest and General of Zelas anymore?"
He nodded his head. "Correct."
Lina seemed to ponder that, and Zelgadiss was smiling in the corner for some odd reason, for which Xelloss could only speculate. "So... you're human and you're getting along with Filia obviously, or you wouldn't have Val...." She frowned. "Where is Filia anyway?"
At that remark, he paled considerably remembering where she'd gone. "I... don't know.... We were separated.... She went off to lure them away from us..." His voice shook a bit as he thought of what could have happened to her. "God... I hope she's ok..."
That shocked them to no ends.... They stared at him blankly at his obvious worry for her. "Wait... you two are civil now?" Lina asked in disbelief. "I can't believe that."
He smiled sadly. "Odd isn't it...? But they say that the one that is most comforting in times of need is the enemy..." He smiled quietly. "Yes, we've made up our differences I'd say."
Zel snorted, and that made Xel look up at him with a somewhat bitter look. "Is that so hard to believe?"
"Yes." He said sourly. "You two were at each others throats a few months ago, and now you're friends? I don't know if I believe this whole thing with you being 'normal' now. It's probably another trick of yours."
Xel took a deep breath to calm himself, his rage beginning to boil a bit. "I know it's difficult to believe, and I'm not going to force you to help me or trust me. All I ask is that you don't turn me over to those golds. I have to find Filia, and protect Val."
They stared at him, Amelia with some respect, Gourry just a normal Gourry-like look, and Lina rather skeptically, and Zel of course looking amused and suspicious. "So.." Lina said. "Why were they after you? Wait, never mind, I can guess." She tapped her chin. "they wanted to kill you for obvious reasons, and then there's Val... they must know he's an Ancient."
Xel nodded slowly. "Yes.... If they managed to catch us, we'll both be killed. Filia as well... if she.." He choked on that. If she hasn't already...
The women looked sympathetic, though Lina didn't look convinced. "Ok, here's what we'll do Xel." He looked up at her. "We won't turn you in to them, cause I'm interested in this whole thing... but we wont' help you after we find Filia and make sure that she's ok, deal?"
He nodded slowly. "Hai.... Deal."