Episode 6

An Unwilling Participant

Ready or Not,

Xellos Takes a Test?

Xellos wasn’t happy. He’d taken care of Gourry only because he knew that without the blonde swordsman around, Lina Inverse wouldn’t play any of his carefully set up games. He had no thoughts that it would end up with him having to sit out the time period allotted for everyone’s tests. He had things to do! People to annoy. A bandit to punish.

But Elena had spoken, and here he was.

He knew the place well, had often sent those who came to bother him here. He didn’t like being sent here with no choice. Asked nicely, he might well have come here and stayed on his own, out of respect for those past.

But he wasn’t. So he wasn’t.

However, for the record, he had tried to leave, and each time the dimensional portal opened, it closed right back up before he could pass through it. At this point, now he couldn’t even open the portal.

“You can’t keep me here forever, you realize. I’m bound to find a way out one way or another,” he said nonchalantly to the open space that had many listeners.

He didn’t get an answer, but then he wasn’t truly expecting one. “Besides, why keep me here? I already know what happened. After all… I was there, wasn’t I?”

Still no answer.

Xellos sighed and sat on the nothingness and waited. Best time to resign himself to the facts and wait.

“There you are, Xellos. It’s been a long time, hasn’t it?”

He turned, casually alighting on his feet. Not too far from him was the woman with long black hair. “I’m not certain it’s been long enough.”

She turned, looking away. “That’s unkind, Xellos.”

“This is unkind! The whole of it!” He retorted, a rarely seen anger burning behind his eyes.

“You didn’t have to involve yourself, Xellos. You could have left Gourry to do what he would,” She answered.

“Not and expect to continue living in one piece. Lina would kill me if anything happened to Gourry,” Xellos said.

“So you answer to her?” Came the question.

“Of course not!”

“Then you fear her, Xellos,” The woman said calmly.

Xellos opened his eyes and glared at her. “I most certainly do not fear Lina Inverse. It... simply suits me not to be on her bad side at this time. She plays my games far better when she is not annoyed with me.”

The woman sighed. “Are you still playing those games, Xellos? After so long, I had thought that you would have grown tired of them.”

Xellos laughed. “But the games are so much more interesting with Lina Inverse. How could I get tired of her and her companions?”

“As quickly and easily as you got tired of me,” the woman said.

“That’s not fair! You could have told me that you were a Dragon!” He spat.

She folded her arms. “As if that was a reason to stop loving me!” She sighed and shook her head. “Instead, you left, allowing my heart to break. Lalli died, and I became Elena that day.”

Xellos turned away, he had not considered that he would be dragged through this. He hadn’t been prepared. He had thought that Elena was familiar to him… but had he known that she was once Lalli… he would not have stayed. He would not have become involved in this. He sighed. “No, Elena. I never stopped loving you. I had to walk away. You were a Dragon and I was a Mazoku. If I had been discovered, you would have been killed. Aurin tolerated no monsters or demons, he would not have allowed us to continue. You knew that as well as I at the time.”

“Why did you come back to Kuroryu, Xellos? Why now, after so many years have passed?” Elena asked.

“I don’t know, Maybe I wanted to know what the final outcome had been. Maybe I wanted to see what Lina would make of this whole mess,” Xellos replied, knowing full well that those were both feeble answers.

Elena shook her head. “I used to wonder if you had forgotten me. Then I stopped caring. Now, I don’t know what to think. You were better off not coming here.”

Xellos smirked, the anger still brewing behind his eyes. “Yes, I think that I would agree with you in that, Elena. I would definitely grant you that.”

She moved closer to Xellos. “Do you know why you are here, Xellos?”

“Um… no. But I have a suspicion that you’re going to tell me,” he answered.

She smiled. “Because I wanted to show you what happened. You weren’t here when they attacked. You weren’t here when we tried to pick up the pieces of our lives and move on. Aurin was gone, our Queen dead… we were a people obscured by chaos. Our salvation was the human city that was down the hill.”

“How could humans save you?” Xellos asked, leaning thoughtfully on his staff. If he could keep her re-directed long enough, maybe she’d stop reminding him that he was still in love with her. At least, part of him was.

“Xellos… understand, if we hadn’t forged the alliances then, our people would never have been remembered…”

Something began to grow in his mind, something unfathomable. “Elena, you aren’t telling me…”

“We were capable of taking human shape… why not intermingle with them and ensure a future?”

Xellos turned away. While he had nothing against humans… he was trying not to become ill. Dragons and humans… it would have been better for her to have run away with him as he had suggested so many long years ago. And now she was telling him this… “Elena… I…”

“A vote was held, those of us who had survived the attack went to meet with the villagers. I was the only one left of the Royal Family, so I was chosen to be the Queen for the new King. We did not get along at first, but soon enough we became friends, and after that, lovers.”

Xellos sighed. What was she telling him? And why?

“What I am saying, Xellos, is that the current people of Kuroryu are our children. Each and every one of them is part human, part dragon. And by some unknown and unanticipated fluke, some children were born more dragon than human. One or two were even born almost pure. Kuroryu’s people live longer than most humans, and those who have more dragon in them live all the longer. Sadly, there are those who suspect themselves as being more, and when they hear our voices calling to them so that they may learn who they are… the mind snaps and they kill themselves in an attempt to rid themselves of our voices. Therefore, we’ve had to become very careful in how and who we select.”

Xellos sighed. “Why are you telling me this?”

“I am telling you this because you need to know. You need to know because there’s a severe danger of one of them failing their test. Consequently, there will be a great problem.”

“Who is failing?” Xellos asked. He wasn’t sure that he wanted to know the answer.

“I can’t tell you. You know that I can’t,” She said.

“Then let me go and do what I can to help. Don’t force me to stand idly by while someone is about to fail their test!” Xellos said, trying not to storm around.

Elena sighed. “You know that’s against the rules. It’s bad enough that you helped Gourry.”

“So it isn’t Gourry failing. And I’d be amazed if Zelgadis failed. He’s too perfect. So who is it?” Xellos asked.

“I’m not telling you, Xellos. You forget that I know you too well.” Elena replied, folding her arms. “You’ll just have to wait and see.”

“Damnit, Elena! What happened to you? You used to be so different… so full of brightness and life! You were my opposite, and just being near you made me feel human again.” Xellos exploded.

“You want to know what happened, Xellos? Now, after being away for so long?” She sighed, looking away. “Fine, I’ll show you. You deserve to know that much.”

Xellos blinked, and felt the spell weaving around him. He understood the theory behind the magic, yet knew that the magic used was well outside of his scope.

He alighted neatly beside a burning building, and with a jolt, realized that it was the Palace of Kuroryu. So many Black Dragons were falling from the skies, the air alive with the killing magic of the Golden Dragons. In the not too far distance, a single Black Dragon arched in the air and fell to the ground. As he stood, transfixed, a girl in white cast a high-level healing spell and vanished into the brilliance of the spell.

The Dragon that had been healed rose unsteadily to human-form feet and looked sadly out over the battle. A casting began, the magic tangible between her hands. Lalli. He knew her!

He started to rise into the air, but decided against it. If this was real, and the Golden Dragons saw him… he took off running across the courtyard towards her.

“Lalli! Lalli, wait!!!”

The words that he heard her casting chilled him to the core. It was wrong.

“Darkness beyond twilight, crimson beyond the blood that flows, buried in the stream of time is where your power grows… I pledge myself to conquer all the foes who stand against this mighty gift bestowed in my unworthy hand…”

Some instinct that he must have gained in his travels with Lina threw him to the ground, bringing his hands up to cover his head.

“DRAGON SLAVE!”

As Xellos’ staff hit the ground, he looked up to see the Dragon Slave fading from Lalli’s hands. The aura about her had changed, and she wasn’t finished. Several Gold Dragons were coming around to bear down on her, and again she raised her hands. He caught only the last words as he brought a protection spell up around him.

“Together we can destroy all who cross our path. Spirits of the Gods, deliver your smiting blow…”

The protection sphere snapped into place. He wasn’t taking any chances.

“LAGUNA BLADE!”

A brilliant pillar of darkness spilled from her hands, arched upwards, catching the Golden Dragons by surprise and slaying them before they could react.

This wasn’t his kind and gentle Lalli any longer. Lalli would never have brought the Dragon Slave against her own kind, nor would she have used the Laguna Blade. What had happened? Letting the protection spell fade, he looked to where he had last seen her, but she was not there.

Where was she? He had to find her, had to find what had happened. Moving around the ruins, he discovered only death and destruction. A good many Golden Dragons lay dead or dying, but all of the Black Dragons he found were dead. He’d changed some since the Great War in which he had dealt so much death, finding this whole scene mildly repulsive to him. Why? What had changed within him? Well… come to point, he only did as he was told. He wasn’t told to feel about it, so he didn’t. But this, he had no part in. He could feel. It made him sick.

If he had been human, he’d probably be in a corner, reliving whatever lunch would have been. It was a good thing that he was Mazoku this time. He didn’t eat, and drinking tea was a purely aesthetic thing. It made him glad that he wouldn’t embarrass himself.

“Well? What think you, Xellos?”

He turned to see Lalli- no, Elena standing there with her arms folded.

“It wasn’t right of them to attack. But I never thought you’d use the spells you did,” Xellos replied casually.

“I did what I had to do. Those few of us who survived, did so because of a healing spell. It wasn’t supposed to be, wasn’t supposed to exist. But it did. And so did we. We went on to the village there, reclaimed part of our own town… built a new life with the humans.”

The world around him faded back to the gray of the inter-dimensional plane. He sighed faintly, and she looked at him. “You wanted to know the truth. Now that you know, do you feel any better for it?”

Xellos leaned against his staff. “Now that you mention it, not really. I don’t understand who cast the healing spell… and I want to know why you used the very magics that they wanted for themselves.”

“The caster of the healing spell is of no consequence to you. She did not remain after that spell. The backlash…” She paused. “I used the Laguna Blade because I wanted them to see the absolute destructiveness of the magic that they sought. Improperly controlled, any of the Claire Magics can destroy the world as we know it.”

“I see…” Xellos mused. Little wonder that they feared Lina Inverse. After all, she could not only cast and control the Laguna Blade, but she cast the Giga Slave twice and lived. No doubt that they would test her resolve not to use the Giga Slave.

Test her… and someone was failing. Suddenly, he knew that Lina would be put in a position where she would feel that she would have to use the Giga Slave, and therefore would fail her test. His eyes opened fully, violet irises intensifying as he turned his focus to Elena. “What are you doing to Lina?”

She took an involuntary step backwards, looking at him uneasily. “She has to pass her test, Xellos. Just as everyone else has to.”

“Ah, but I think that you are being unfair with Lina because she knows the magics that you don’t want her to know. This far, I have only been playing with you, not using the full extent of my abilities as a Mazoku. I am sure that you are aware of this. I’d rather not find myself forced into a position where I would feel the necessity to use anything… stronger.” Xellos said, his eyes narrowing.

“We need to test her more strenuously, as she is a danger to us all by knowing those spells!” Elena retorted, desperately trying to reassert herself and once again keep Xellos off-guard. “And we still haven’t resolved the issue over us.”

“There never was an issue with us, Elena. You were a Dragon and I was a Mazoku. We can never be any more than that. Now stop trying to redirect me and answer my questions. What are you doing to Lina?” Xellos snapped. Zelas Mellatium hadn’t said anything for him to do lately, and he felt a growing need to take action.

“She will be required to make a choice. A very deadly choice. Which way she turns is up to her, but the choice in itself will decide if she passes, or fails. We expect that she will fail,” Elena said coolly. The emotional approach hadn’t worked on Xellos then, and it still didn’t. He was the perfect Mazoku in her eyes.

But Xellos was far from perfect. Indeed, rage was his second favorite emotion, but he didn’t enjoy feeling it himself. None-the-less, he decided at that moment that it was time to take matters into his own hands.

He bowed to Elena, energy crackling around his staff. “You’ve been most helpful. Now, if you will excuse me, I have some people to gather…”

With a brilliant flare (Xellos was a sucker for dramatic exits at times) he broke the Dragon-wrought barrier around the dimensional pocket, and vanished.