It has to start somewhere. It has to start sometime. What better place than here? What better time than now?
~ Rage Against the Machine
Guerilla Radio
"It's nice to see you again Lina-chan. Please," Luna motioned to an overstuffed chair. "sit. That is alright with you, yes Fillia?"
"H-hai." Fillia meekly lowered her eyes.
"Lina-san?" Amelia asked, concerned at her friend's odd behavior. Of course lately she had been acting weird a lot, but that just wasn't the point right now.
Lina began to back away, bumping into Sylphiel standing behind her.
"Lina?" Zelgadiss questioned.
Luna was here, right here in the same room. By the gods, it had been so long since she had seen her.
And she was terrified.
"Lina," Luna smiled, revealing perfect white teeth. "has all of your traveling made you deaf? Sit."
What was it again? That time....with Luna.....
Blue.
Cold.
Cold heat.
"Lina!" Luna's voice was calm, but there was a tightly controlled undertone of....panic?
Cold blue.
Like then....
Like now.
Lina frantically wrapped her cape around her. Cold, it was so cold.
"Lina!"
Dizzy, so dizzy.
"Sit down!"
Luna - no, not Luna.
The Knight.
Cephied.
"Luna-san!" Xelloss growled. Get a hold of it he mentally threatened.
"Mazoku." The Knight acknowledged. "Traitor."
Zelgadiss looked from Luna to Xelloss and back again. He knew something important must be going on....
And Lina had some part in it.
Gourry frowned a little. He didn't know exactly what was going on, but that wasn't unusual. But Zelgadiss looked confused and that was never a good thing.
Stop it Knight.
Stop what?
The "Enemy of All Who Live" rocked back and forth on the floor. So cold. Memories...the memories.
Hands.
Arms.
Klea knelt down and held her friend.
Stop.
"Luna." She said softly.
Stop Luna! Xelloss commanded mentally.
Traitor.
Never a traitor.
Traitor!
"Luna!"
Not traitorous...destined.
Traitor!
"LUNA!!"
"What?" Luna blinked and ran her fingers through her lavender hair. She glanced at her sibling on the ground, looking at her with huge, tearful eyes. Like that time... this was all moving too fast, nothing was going right. Her eyes settled on the messy haired girl beside Lina. Yes, it was all moving too fast.... but maybe that was for the best.
Amelia cleared her throat as she was the only one with true diplomatic experience. "Are you alright Knight-sama?"
"Luna, call me Luna." she murmured. "I'm fine...Lina, get up, I'm not going to do anything you big baby."
Lina's eyes refocused and she managed to get into the previously motioned chair.
"Would you like some tea?"
"Yes please," she replied shakily. Nee-chan hated it when she forgot her manners.
Luna turned her commanding gaze upon the rest of the group. "Make yourselves comfortable."
They scrambled to obey. Anyone who could make Lina quiver like that was not worth messing with.
"My, this always seems to happen." Luna carefully stirred her tea. "It's nice to finally meet you all," she continued as if nothing had happened. She looked at Lina, "Good job on the quest by the way. Glad to see that the world is still in one piece." She nodded in Klea's direction. "It's been awhile Klea-chan."
"Yes it has."
"Nee-chan," Lina looked up, hesitating. "Why are you here?"
"Paranoid aren't we?" she laughed. "I'm here on a food order for the restaurant. We're going to start selling Seevetalian cheesecakes. It's merely a working vacation."
"But you said - "
" - I had a vision when I entered the city." She waved her hand. "And then I heard about a traveling group that was eating out an entire restaurant, soooo...."
Such said group blushed.
"Besides, I wanted to see how Fillia and Val where doing." She leaned back into the chair. "Tell me, will you be stopping by Zephilia anytime soon?"
"I-I wasn't planning to, but if you want I'll - "
"No, no that's alright. I did have something else to tell you though. It might interest you, especially him."
"Me?" Gourry looked confused.
smile "The Sword of Light...is not lost from this world."
"WHAT!?" Gourry leapt at her. "WHERE!?!?"
sweatdrop "I don't know exactly, that's all the vision told me. You'll have to figure that much out on your own." She glanced at the clock on the wall. "Well, I have to go pick up my order. Thank you for the lovely tea Fillia."
"Anytime Luna-sama."
"It was...nice to meet you all."
The Slayers dumbly nodded.
"After you've found the sword, you should stop by Zephilia."
"Hai."
"What? No good byes for lil ol me?" Xelloss pouted.
She looked at him with a different look than before, a sad look. Of course her long bangs covered her eyes so no one noticed. Tell Xellas not to try anything.
I can't tell my master to do anything she doesn't wish to do.
...
As she left, an audible sigh filled the room. Then of course, Lina and Fillia collapsed to the ground in fright; blabbering things about not wanting to go to school today.
"Are we going to look for Gourry-sama's sword?" Sylphiel asked. Actually, she was brushing her teeth so it was coming out more like Mar mwe gwoing ku mook mor Gowy-shama's smorb?
"I dunno." Lina splashed some water on her face. The rest of the day had been surprisingly pleasant. They had visited with Fillia and the oh-so-adorable baby Val. The original plan of trying to decide what to do had never come up, for which Lina was thankful. Fillia had insisted that they spend at least the night so here they where getting ready for bed. Klea was on the couch, Amelia and Sylphiel in one room and Gourry and Zelgadiss in another. Val was in Fillia's room, so Lina got his bedroom all to herself. (A perk for saving the world?)
"I thought that you always did what Luna said," Klea teased, attempting to run a comb through her messy hair.
Lina frowned at the blue cloth wrapped around Klea's hands. She never went with something wrapped around her hands. Had she ever seen her palms? She couldn't remember. There was a reason for it right? What was it again...."I just don't know. Something about the way she asked if we where coming back....she's hiding something, she doesn't want us to go back."
Amelia looked up, wide eyed. "Wow Lina-san!"
"Wow what?"
sparkle eyes "You are ready to face your sister at long last! To stand tall and defeat your fears, that is the true Mark of Justice!!"
"I never went that far!!!"
"You mean that you're not going to face your sister?"
"Over what exactly?!"
blinkblink "Ummmm."
"So what are we going to do then?" Klea gathered her armor, boots and outer shirts, the metal pole she insisted on keeping on top of the pile.
"...I'll sleep on it ^_^"
crash "Liinaa-saan!"
"Oh, like you have a better idea Amelia. Good night guys."
"Good night."
"Lina?"
"Hmm?" Lina opened her eyes and tried to shake the grogginess away. "Fillia?"
"Can I come in?"
"Sure." She lit the lamp beside her bed as Fillia entered the room, shutting the door with a soft click. Fillia was a mess. Her beautiful blond hair was tangled and disarray, and her normally bright blue eyes where red and swollen. Lina sat up strait. "What's wrong?"
Fillia walked to a nearby chair, trying to keep the dignity her race was so well known for. Unfortunately her resolve collapsed as she sat down and she began to sob.
"Fillia!" Lina went to her side.
"I-I thought that guh it was just a stupid dream, but then she showed up and you came and and.."
"Calm down!"
She furiously shook her head. "No! Don't you see! I can't oh Cephied am I going crazy?" She placed her head in her hands. "Am I going crazy?" She let out a hollow laugh. "I pray that I am."
"Fillia..."
She raised her head abruptly, stray strands of hair falling onto her sticky face. "It's been going on for awhile, but I ignored it. Then the Knight showed up and - "
" - Just stop alright! Nee-chan was here on a food order! You got that? A food order! She just has a talent for - "
" - No! I-I'm seeing things Lina. I...I see a threat...at least I think it's a threat. I don't know what it is, I can't comprehend it, it's not natural."
"...Another Demon King?"
"No, don't you see, they're natural."
Lina looked at her, shocked.
"I'm not stupid. Light and Dark, balance. They're necessary. But Lina, this isn't natural and I don't know what it could possible be and - "
" - Fillia!"
giggle "No, I see it. It frightens me, do you know that? I'll bet it would even frighten that Namagomi."
"Fillia, please..."
giggle "I see it," she said in a singsongy voice. "I see Luna-sama and Valteria and everyone, even that filthy mazoku....something important is going on but, I can't hear anything. It's so quiet, so silent....and in the center, the center of it all," she looked up with huge eyes. "I see you."
"...."
"IseeyouIseeyouIseeyou!"
"Sleep!" Lina caught her as she fell forward, then pushed her back onto the chair. She had to do it, Fillia was hysterical, wasn't making any sense. She did it for her own good, she -
Didn't want to hear it.
So scared...
So not alone.
"Klea!" she cried, spinning around. There she stood, holding her metal pole in one hand.
How did I know who it was?
Must not be important.
"I'm sorry," Klea stammered, "I woke up and - "
" - Never mind. Just help me get her to her room."
"Hai."
Lina awoke to the smells of breakfast. FOOD!! She scrambled down the stairs and came upon Fillia cooking a rather large breakfast. "Good morning Lina."
"Good morning," she smiled. Did she remember last night?
"I'm sorry about the other night." Oh, well that answered that question didn't it?
"Don't worry about it."
"I did mean it though," she said quietly, setting the last plates onto the table.
"..."
Fillia sat at the table. "But you already knew that."
Lina joined her. "I don't want to get involved with something that I know nothing about."
Fillia remained silent and served Val some eggs.
"Wow! Food! /_^" Gourry burst into the kitchen, everyone else close behind.
"You got up early." Sylphiel took the seat next to Gourry.
Lina didn't reply seeing as she was too busy fighting Gourry and Amelia for food.
Klea looked at Lina's plate and sighed as she begun to prepare her own massive plate. "That's why you never grew Lina, you don't eat enough. What would Mrs. Horrowitzky say?"
crash "Are you alright Zelgadiss?"
"YOU MEAN THAT'S A LITTLE FOOD!?!?" A super deformed Zelgadiss shrieked.
"Yup. ^_^"
"What kind of freak are you!?"
"...You've never been to Zephilia before have you?"
"...You have to be kidding...."
"Nope!" A SD Klea replied. "When we where kids, the town would hold watermellon eating contests and Lina would always lose and then she'd cry and then - "
"KLEA!!" Lina hurled a fork at her so called friend.
"^_^" She caught the fork a few inches from her face and proceeded to use it to devour her own food. And thus began the true free for all.
The truly amazing part boys and girls, is that this entire ordeal took five minutes, leaving Sylphiel and Zelgadiss picking at what they managed to salvage between two Zephilians, a Gold Dragon, a baby Ancient Dragon, and a swordsman and princess with abnormally large appetites.
"We should go into the market." Amelia suggested cheerfully. "Seevetal has some great - "
" - We're not going." Lina wiped her mouth with her napkin. "We need to get moving."
"Why?"
She gave a final glance towards Fillia "We just do."
And there where no other arguments made.
"Flare Arrow! And. BONK That. PUNCH Is. KICK What you - CRIPPLE - get. MAIM FOR INSULTING LINA INVERSE!!"
This was what life was about wasn't it? Beating up bandits, working out aggressions. Although this gang was unusually large, they where having no real problems. Even Sylphiel was getting into it, although she healed every bandit she managed to injure. (Which, thankfully, wasn't many.)
"I think that's the last of them." Klea wiped off her pole with thickly gloved hands.
"Is there really a use for that thing?" Amelia questioned.
grin "Where's the leader?" Klea asked, ignoring the first question as she tended to do.
"Ah, I think he was somewhere in there." Lina motioned to the piles of bandits.
"Heh, heh, how right you are?"
"Nani? Someone can still talk?" She spun around cheerily. "Well I can - eh?"
The bandit leader stood up, grinning through his wounds. His eyes glowed red and his skin melted away, revealing a reptilian man in bandit's clothing. "Thanks for demonstrating your fighting style to us."
"A Chameleon," Zelgadiss murmured in partial awe.
"Yes quite rare. They are Actually a hybrid of lesser demons ^_^"
"Xelloss! When did you get here?"
"Oh look. point They're all Chameleons. ^_^"
"Ewwww," Amelia wrinkled her nose as the entire gang melted their skin away.
"Well," Lina fired a spell in her hand. "What do you want and which Dark Lord are you working for?"
"I am not privileged to say. Nothing personal Dra Matta."
"Yes, I've heard of you." Xelloss, grinned. "Anything for a sack of gold ne?"
"Money is money. A contract is a contract." He signaled his group to attack.
As the two groups leapt into battle, Sylphiel grabbed Klea's arm. She may have been a bodyguard, but these where demons! Lesser or otherwise. "Stay behind me! I'm going to cast a shield - "
" - No need. I was wondering when I could use this thing." With a turn of her wrists, she separated the pole into two halves, a thinner pole between them. With a resolute click, thinner bars also grew from the other ends of the halves, making the staff an easy eight feet.
"Klea-san! Behind you!" Sylphiel shrieked.
Klea spun around and swung the top of the staff in a semi circle as she went, effectively decapitating the Chameleon.
Sylphiel gapped at the very mean looking blade now on the obvious scythe. "That...how?"
smile "I told you not to worry."
This was too easy! Lina crispyfried another Chameleon. The problem was of course, 1-they had fought them once and doing so again was a little tiring, not much, but still. 2-now they where going in for the kill, not to maim or humiliate. Still, they went down pretty easy, it was all a matter of pacing.
Lina frowned as another Chameleon jumped in front of her target. A loyal little bunch, they kept on getting between her spells and their leader. That was beginning to get annoying.
However easy it might be, it was too distracting to see what was going on around her.
There was too much magical energy to detect the pull in dimensions.
It was too loud to hear the faint scchhrrp of the Astral Plane opening to the physical world.
And she never saw the disembodied hand throw the enchanted knife.
"Behind you!" warned an unfamiliar voice.
"Levitation!" In an automatic response to the verbal warning, Lina jumped/levitated out of harms way.
The Chameleon leader gave an ear piercing wail as the dagger hit him full in the chest and shot out silver energy. As their leader fell down dead, the rest of the 'gang' collapsed themselves.
"Their lives are joined through the leader." Zelgadiss realised. "That's why they always protected him."
Lina stared at the knife that was aimed for her. "What? Who....not again."
"Who was it?" Gourry asked.
"I don't know! My back was turned!!"
"No, I mean who warned you?"
"Uh, wasn't it you Sylphiel?"
embarrassed "Well ah...no."
"Then who did?"
The nearby bushes cleared it's throat. Naturally, bushes don't have throats, rather it was the person in the bushes who cleared their throat. And upon the realization of just who this particular person was, the group crashed to the ground, save Lina who was pulling her hair and crying to the heavens "YOU HATE ME UP THERE DON'T YOU!!?"