Gomen Nasai, guys! I meant to put this in my original note, but I forgot. Anyway, you really need a working knowledge of Slayers TRY, because a lot of my scenes work on the assumtion that you have either seen the series, or read the synopsis that is available, and know what is going on when I leave out scenes that takes place in the series, but are not mentioned until later in my story. Thanks! Also, I'm an avid fan of Mercedes Lackey, and, um, it kinda shows up in my story a bit.... Please, please don't sue me!
It was World War III! Flames were flying everywhere and there was mass casualties among the civilians. Actually, it was early lunch among the Slayers gang. Alyson and Filia had both finished eating, and were just sitting back and watching the chaos that erupted around them with wide eyes.
"GOURRY!! THAT'S MINE!!! GIVE IT BACK!!!" Lina yelled.
"NO WAY!!" Gourry yelled back.
Amelia had her back to the chaos, gazing out at the ocean, but she would occasionally reach back and grab some food off the table before Lina or Gourry could get to it. Zelgadis watched the proceedings, got bored, and left, stating that he was going to see if he could find anything he could use to help in his search for a cure.
"But...," Filia began, to be cut off by Lina saying, "Oh, don't worry about Zel. He always wanders off like that. Ahhhh, I'm so full!"
"Great! We can head to the Fire Dragon King's Sanctuary, right?" Filia exclaimed, looking very happy.
"Um, we'll do that in a little bit, but first we're going to get something more to eat!" Lina cried, as Gourry and she leapt to their feet and took off down the road. Faint cries of, "Lina, let's go get desert!" rang back to them.
"But...but....," Filia stuttered, and barely managed to keep her feet as she staggered over to lean on part of the wall of the outside restaurant.
"I have a hard time believing that the world is going to end, too," Amelia stated without looking up from her view of the ocean. "It's so peaceful here. Beautiful sea...."
Alyson shook her head as the princess leapt to her feet stating that she was going to enjoy the day more fully, and took off with a Raywing spell, leaving Filia sputtering in her wake.
"If I had known....," Filia began.
"Don't worry. They're always like this. Give them some time, and they'll either get into trouble, or settle down enough to join you," Alyson grinned.
"So what do we do in the mean time?" Filia asked.
"Um, good question. I guess we could go exploring and see what's around here," Alyson answered.
Filia sighed, but agreed. Besides, it would give her a chance to study this young stranger to see what kind of person she was to be harboring so much Power.
About that time, Alyson turned to her and said, "Filia, I have a question."
"What's that?" Filia asked.
"What I want to know is, why, even though I'm not a native to this world, I seem to have different components of beings of this world. For example, Lina says I'm part demon and part human, and you say I also have some Gold Dragon in me, not to mention some unknown part. Why is that?"
"I...don't really know," Filia admitted. "Maybe whoever brought you here wants you to at least seem as if you're from this world. For what reason, I do not know."
"Great. Someone's playing havoc with my life. Oh well. Where shall we go first?"
"I know of this great pottery shop that has hand made vases," Filia suggested eagerly.
"Sounds good to me," Alyson answered, as she followed the dragon maiden down several streets, where they came across the shop that Filia was talking about. The two went inside.
Outside, Xeros sat on one of the roofs across from the shop, and watched as the dragon maiden and the newcomer entered the pottery shop. He giggled to himself. If the dragon maiden was still as unused to being in a human form as he thought she was, then he was going to have some fun. On that thought, he stood up and vanished.
Inside the shop, Alyson suddenly looked up as she felt something tug on the corner of her consciousness, but when the tug wasn't repeated, she decided it had been her imagination and went back to watching one of the potters form a lovely vase. She looked up again when she heard Filia give a squeak somewhere down one of the aisles. She quickly left the potter's wheel, and went in search of the dragon maiden. She didn't like what she saw when she did finally find her. Filia was standing with her arms wrapped around her and her tail waving in the air in agitation. Before Alyson could reach her, Filia's tail swung out and smashed into one of the shelves that housed the finished pottery. Alyson leapt forward and tried to stop the momentum of the falling shelves, but all she managed to do was to help it on its way to the next set of shelves. What followed was a domino effect, but instead of a steady click-clicking noise, there was a steady boom-booming noise that was followed by several crashes as pottery hit the floor and the sound of splintering wood. Alyson bit her lip, and glanced at Filia, only to discover that she wasn't going to have any help from that area because Filia was still freaking out over whatever it was that had set her off. Alyson's frantic eyes glanced around the now ruined shop, took in the damage and the angry people, and she decided to pull a Lina (tm). She grabbed Filia's tail and bolted out of the shop, dragging the dragon maiden along behind her and leaving behind the infuriated shop owners.
On the rooftop, Xeros watched as the newcomer dragged the dragon away from the pottery shop, and giggled. That had turned out better than he had hoped! He decided that since he was in such rare form, he should go find what the little princess and Zelgadis were up to. Now, there was an opportunity for some entertainment! On that note, he popped out in search of his newest victims.
"Are you all right, Filia? What happened?" Alyson asked when Filia had calmed down enough to hide her tail.
"I don't know. Suddenly I was overcome by an incredible wave of anger...," Filia said, shivering again.
"That sounds familiar," Alyson thought, but before she was able to grasp the wisp of memory, several shouts from the townspeople caught her attention.
"AN ANGEL AND A DEVIL ARE FIGHTING!!!" a townsman yelled as he ran by them.
"A what?" Filia asked, looking up.
"I don't think it's what it seems. See those clouds of smoke over there? I think that's Zel's work," Alyson mused.
"You don't think....," Filia began, but didn't finish her sentence as Alyson nodded.
"I think we should get over there as fast as we can."
They stood up and took off down the twisting streets of the town. It didn't take them long to find where the fight was taking place. It was easily recognizable because of the large crowd that had gathered. Alyson moved a little ahead of Filia, and almost tripped over Lina and Gourry, who were sprawled in the road with a pile of food scattered about them. Alyson rolled her eyes, and looked at the two combatants. She quickly joined Gourry and Lina on the road when she saw that it was Zelgadis and Amelia that was facing off, both of them looking a little embarrassed and surprised.
"How did this happen?" Amelia asked with a large sweatdrop forming on her head.
"Sorry. Guess I got a little hyper," Zelgadis said.
Amelia was spared an answer when a very ticked off Filia stalked up to the pair.
"Why you.....," she sputtered as veins popped out on her forehead. Amelia quickly backed out of her way as she stalked towards Zelgadis, throwing up her skirt and yanking out her mace, "Stop this.....RIGHT NOW!" she screamed, swinging her mace at Zelgadis, who tried to block it with his hand, a useless gesture. The mace smashed into his face, sending him flying through some of the buildings, looking just like one of those balls in a pinball game.
"Zelgadis!" Amelia called, wincing at the thought of the bump Zel was going to have on his head.
"Hey! Hey! Filia!" Lina said, trying to calm the fuming dragon down.
Alyson blinked as she suddenly remembered who was responsible for this little farce. She looked up to where Xeros was sitting on top of a building, laughing hysterically. She smiled slightly.
Xeros just couldn't stop laughing. Especially after that dragon maiden had belted Zel a good one in the face with that mace of hers. He had never expected that to happen, which made it all that much more enjoyable. What he had hoped would happen would be for Zel and Amelia to face off, which they would have had to do since they had gathered a crowd. This had far exceeded his expectations!
While he was laughing, he took a moment to look at the newcomer in the bunch, the one the BeastMaster had ordered him to keep an eye on. Using his Gift of Farsight, he managed to get a good look. At that moment, she looked up right at him, as if she knew he was there, and he found himself gazing into her golden demon's eyes. In that split second, something that had been, up to this point, unknown, raised up, made itself known, then subsided once again. He knew her! The feeling lasted less than a split second, but he was so startled that he over balanced, and fell off of the building backwards.
As he regained his balance and equilibrium, he pondered the mystery of the rising of emotion he had felt upon meeting those golden eyes. Nothing that intense in such a short amount of time had ever happened to him. Sure, he felt a small attachment to Lina, but that paled in the light of what had happened in such a brief moment. He decided that he was going to find out just what was going on. If anything else, it would prove amusing, as following Lina and crew had always proved amusing. Xeros grinned as he vanished.
Alyson's brow furrowed. What had just happened? She felt like she had been pulled inside out and then shoved back together. She shook her head, writing it off as shock from being dumped in the Slayers world, and joined the others as they searched for Zelgadis, who, as predicted, did have a rather large bump on his head.
"Just how did this whole thing get started?" Lina asked, while Amelia held an icepack that was attached to a fishing rod on Zel's head, while he lay on a couch with a disgruntled look on his face.
"However it happened, I think you went too far," Amelia said, looking concerned, while Zel groaned, "Oh, the humanity."
"Hmph! He deserved it!" Filia stated.
"Zel, were you breaking into old temples around here?" Alyson asked from her position on the other side of the room.
"Yeah, I was seeing if any of them held old magic or books that might help me find a cure," Zel answered without opening his eyes.
"You really shouldn't break into old temples like that, you know. Anyway, were you using magic to break in?" Alyson asked.
"Yeah," Zel replied.
"Is that how this whole thing got started?" Lina wondered.
Amelia looked back at the red headed sorceress, then looked at Zel, who now had the icepack over his mouth where it had slipped when Amelia turned. "Magic?" she asked.
"Yeah, the people here seemed surprised by our magic," Zel mumbled.
"What do you expect?" Filia asked. "These people have never seen magic such as yours, because all the countries that had significant magic were trapped in a barrier like you were. The strongest spells these people know are Lighting and Sleeping," she went on to explain.
"Ah! Then that means we're the invincible heros!" Lina cried, causing Alyson to roll her eyes.
"Be that as it may, I don't want to be considered a monster," Zel stated, sitting up and moving the icepack out of his way.
"Great! Then we can head out to the Fire Dragon King's Sanctuary! Come on, Lina!" Filia cried, snagging Lina by the wrist and dragging her outside, with Lina yelling at her to stop pulling so hard.
Gourry and the rest stood up, and Gourry, with a very amused grin on his face, summed it up with two words. "Oh boy."
"My thoughts exactly," Alyson replied as they stepped out into the street. Zelgadis, as usual, pulled up his cowl and mask, and sneaked around, being inconspicuously conspicuous. The rest walked down the street, with Lina commenting on how she really liked this town and didn't really want to leave, to which Gourry remarked that they were sure to come across other towns that were just as interesting and that had lots of good food to eat.
Xeros watched as the small group wandered down the streets. He had to find a way to get them into the desert area where he knew some of Valgarv's henchmen were raiding a small village. He also knew that Valgarv would be most likely to show up there looking for Lina. He thought for a few seconds, then giggled as an idea formed in his head. Sneaking around behind the group, he let his presence become known to the dragon maiden, who reacted just as predicted.
The group stopped and stared at Filia, who had suddenly wrapped her arms around herself and was shaking.
"This was how she was acting in the pottery shop," Alyson thought to herself.
"What's wrong Filia?" Lina asked.
"I don't know, but something..," Filia trailed off.
"Another vision?" Amelia asked.
"No! Just this inexplicable wave of anger," Filia replied, before her tail suddenly popped out and started waving around. The group stared for a moment, transfixed with surprise, before sprinting into action and gathering around Filia, shielding her tail from sight.
"We're sticking out! We're sticking out!" Zel cried shakingly.
"I know, just calm down," Amelia replied.
"Ha ha! Nothing to see here, everyone!" Lina called cheerfully.
"Let's go!" Amelia responded, before Lina suddenly took off after something, leaving a hole where she had been. Alyson quickly joined Amelia in holding her cape over the area where Filia's tail could be seen.
After a few seconds, Filia was finally able to get her tail back under control, and the group took off after Lina, leaving the surprised townsfolk behind.
"Why did you suddenly take off like that?" Gourry asked when they finally caught up with the sorceress.
"Just maybe, that was a real devil, and we haven't seen him in a while," Lina remarked, before looking out over the desert. "Let's go this way."
As they walked through the desert, Lina told the others that she thought she had seen Xeros disappear around here, to which Alyson replied that she had seen him on top of the building when Zel had been turned into a living pinball.
"But Xeros is a guy we know, why would he hide from us?" Gourry asked.
"I don't know, but it looks like the Demon Race has become involved," Lina answered.
"It seems that Filia's prophecy is becoming more and more real, especially now that the Demon Race is showing up," Zelgadis remarked.
Alyson shuddered, and said, "It's really creepy when that happens."
"I agree. What do you think, Filia?" Amelia asked, and turned to find the dragon maiden clutching herself and shaking with rage. "Filia?"
"Demons......demons.......DID YOU SAY DEMONS?!!!" Filia shrieked, her face awash with rage and her tail sticking straight into the air.
"Hey, hey! Filia!" Lina said, trying to calm her down again. It didn't work.
"WHERE ARE THE DEMONS???!!!!!" Filia screamed, just as a ball of red energy arched out of the sky, and blasted into the ground, sending everyone tumbling head over heels on the sand.
Lina and crew looked up at the sound of deep laughter, and saw a man with jagged aqua colored hair that was parted by a horn in the center, and golden eyes gazing at them.
"I've been waiting for you, Lina Inverse," the man said, propping one foot casually on the edge of the crater his previous blast had created.
"I see I'm already famous in this land!" Lina said, looking smug.
"I can see that you're just an arrogant fool," the new man said, and formed another sphere of red energy in his hand.
"That power....It can't be! Demon Dragon Garv!" Lina cried, looking stunned as the power suddenly became frighteningly familiar.
"My name is Valgarv. I'm the last of Lord Garv's followers. Take this with Lord Garv's blessings!" Valgarv cried, letting the red energy loose towards the crew.
"Zel, Amelia, create a shield!" Lina cried, as Zel and Amelia scrambled to comply, both of them adding their shield to the one that Lina had set up. Valgarv added more power to his blast, laughing in amusement.
"I have one question," Alyson remarked to Gourry, who was kneeling with her beside the downed Filia, who had taken the brunt of Valgarv's first attack.
"What?" Gourry asked, looking at her.
"Why is it that the attacker always laughs when they're attacking?"
Gourry blinked at her, and replied, "Good question."
Alyson looked to the front, and saw that Lina and the others were starting to weaken. Lina snarled, and yelled, "Where are you Xeros?!!!!"
"What do I do? What can I do?!" Alyson frantically thought, desperately wanting to help Lina and the others, but failing to know how to. All she could do was sit, watch, and pray.