"WHAT ARE YOU DOING?!?"
Zelgadis looked up, then promptly cussed to himself. He could have sworn that it would be impossible for anyone to see him, let alone find him, this deep in the woods. He lowered his dagger and turned to the girl in front of him.
"What does it look like I'm doing?" He said, in a huff.
"Like you were about to shishkabob your chest! What the hell is wrong with you!?!"
"It's none of your concern. So please, just go and leave me to it."
The girl with brown hair and a long braid, gapped behind her cascade of bangs. Zel, meanwhile, turned his back on her and raised his dagger again. A quick Flare Arrow shot the dagger from his hands. He whipped around and glared at the girl.
"This is none of your concern." He repeated with emphasis on each syllable.
The girl simply walked up to him, totally disregarding the branches snagging on her skirt, and smacked him in the head. At times like this, Zel was a little regretful about finding his cure. But what choice did he have but to continue his pursuit? Especially after the only other thing he wanted...
"You!" She interrupted his thoughts. "Are an IDIOT!"
"And why should you care!?" Zel held his swelling face and sat up.
"I don't care! I just can't stand - Oh! forget it!" She turned around and began stalking away.
Zel shook his head, reclaimed his dagger - Wait a minute. It was gone! And damn it, it was the only weapon, no, possession that he had left after he had sold or given away everything else. Afterall, everything else would be useless after he was dead. He ran to catch up with the girl.
"Come back here!"
The girl looked back down the road to see the violet-haired boy again. That's why she took off running. Unfortuneately, she didn't get far before tripping on her skirt. Zel found her cussing on the ground.
"Give me back my dagger."
"No." She said simply, sticking out her tounge at him.
Zel squeezed his fist. "Fine. I'll take it from you."
The girl cast a Dil Brando underneath him. Then simply stood up and dusted herself off as Zel lie in a heap. Zel's eye began to twitch as he laid there. This girl was seriously starting to tick him off. So without getting up to let her know he had recovered, Zel quickly cast a Diem Wing to blow her off her feet. Unfortuneately, it also blew up her skirt, giving her a more embarassing landing position than Zel had had. Zel stood over her, but blushed and looked away. She quickly flipped back upright and glared at him, grinding her teeth.
"Oooohh!!!!.... Fine! Take the damn thing!" She threw Zel back his dagger, sticking it into the stretch of dirt road between them. "Give up! And see if anyone cares!" She crossed her arms and turned, as if waiting for him to go ahead and stab himself in front of her.
Zel stared at her strangely for a minute, then slowly took back his dagger. He stood and stared at her a few minutes more.
"Well?" She was irritated, but still didn't turn.
"Why did you try to stop me?"
"Does it matter? I'm not stopping you anymore." She said curtly.
Zel still watched her, perplexed, but the more objective part of his mind telling him she didn't matter and he should get on with his own life... What he wanted left anyway.
"What do you want?" She continued. "Just go!" She threw down her hands.
Zel turned to leave.
"Wait a second." Her shakey voice called.
He turned back. Were her eyes wet?
"Are you afraid?"
"What?"
"I mean...um...Do you really think taking this way out is OK?"
"Don't tell me you're going to try to talk me out of it."
"Naw...It's just that...I keep telling myself that wanting that way out just proves how weak a person could be. And the last thing I need is another reason to feel pathetic - " She caught herself, just realized that she was rambing. She tried to hide it with a smile, trying to discreetly hide her tears.
Zel read her tone of voice.
"Are you asking permission to do the same thing to yourself? Hmph. Go ahead. Some things aren't worth bearing." He turned away again.
She followed.
Zel kept his eyes averted from her as she walked beside him.
"I promise...I...I won't try to stop you...but... It's nothing to be afaid of doing, right?" She tried to smile.
Zel stopped. "Ok. Just what it your problem with suicide?" He began, exasperated. "If you want to do it, if you're life is empty, VOID, and filled with NOTHING, and the pain NEVER stops, even when you sleep, and there's NO CHANCE you could go back and change things, and everything is so pointless without her - !" Zel shut up and quickly started off for the woods again.
"Her?" She quirked and eyebrow.
Zel continued walking.
"C'mon. Tell me."
"Fine. If it'll make you go away." Zel concentrated on the walking. "I fell in love with a girl who married someone else before I could even tell her how I felt." He glanced at her. "Don't look so shocked."
She was the one who looked away this time. "No, it's just that it sounds familiar..."
She had the same reason? Zel tried to disregard the wierd coincidence.
"You're right though. It is hard to live with..." She added quietly, "And I'm getting so tired... Imagine...the great Lina Inverse giving up..."
"WHAT?!?" Zel took the girl by the shoulders. "You can't be - !"
"Yeah, I'm Lina Inverse." She stated as if giving a shameful confession.
"But - But - !"
She twisted out of his grip. "I'm sure you expected someone more fearsome or just plain stronger than some flat-chested little girl who everyday wants to die, but is afraid to."
Zel just stammered. "L-Lina - ! It's me!"
"Hm?"
"Zelgadis!"
"Zel...!" She froze in place and stared.
"What happened?" He stared at her drab dress, pale complection, and brown hair, which was begining to seem more plausible as a former orange. "After you married Gourry - "
"Hold on! I never married Gourry! You proposed to Amelia!"
"What?!"
"Wait a second..." Lina almost sniffed the air. "Do you sense that?"
Zel quieted his mind and felt around with his magic. "Yes... A large power...maybe watching us..." With his mystic senses analyzing the area, Zel noticed something else as well. "This world - !"
" - it can't be mine!" Lina finished for him.
"Fate Vortex!"
"What?!" Vortex almost fell out of her chair, but managed to cover up her crystal ball glowing with Lina and Zel's little scene.
"Have you been putting different versions of people in parallel dimensions they aren't authorized to be in, AGAIN!?!"
"Gotta go!"
"Come back here you insubordinate troublemaker!"