Chapter 5
 

I’m the Chaos Knight!
A History Lesson
Leads to the Future


        Lina’s dreams were far from restful. The words of the Lord of Nightmares at dinner still haunted her.
        “As much as I would enjoy being here for recreation, I must tell you that I am not,” The Lord of Nightmares looked across the table towards Lina and Kira.
        Lina froze in mid-bite, but Kira continued to cut her steak, nodding as if there was nothing unusual in that. “I didn’t think you were, L-Sama. It has to do with Lina’s dreams, doesn’t it?”
        The Golden One nodded slowly. “Part of your dreams are correct, Lina. There is something that you must do in relation to the Philosopher’s Stone. And if it is not done in time…”
        Lina’s voice was a whisper. “Shabranigdo will be reborn…?”
        “Reborn, yes. But not from you or of you,” The Lord replied.
        “Excuse me,” Zelgadis said, putting his cup down. “I don’t see why you want to keep the Dark Lord from being reborn.”
        Amelia held her breath. Mister Zelgadis really shouldn’t talk to the Lord of Nightmares like that!! She thought frantically, and then a chill ran down her spine as the golden eyes flickered to her briefly.
        “Shabranidgo, like his lesser minions Garv and Phibrizo sought to overcome Me,” the Lord of Nightmares said, now tactfully ignoring the cringing princess of Sailune.
        Zelgadis nodded. “That makes sense. In overcoming you, the balance of the Four Worlds is usurped.”
        Gourry opened his mouth, but Lina hit him before he could ask anything. “Not to mention that you must have a vested interest in keeping yourself in control, true?”
        “Indeed,” the Lord of Nightmares nodded to Lina and hid her bemusement at the antics between Lina and Gourry. Soon enough, she knew, Lina would come to learn the reason that Gourry Gabriev was the way he was… and that would have its own consequences…
        “So I have to recover the Philosopher’s Stone before it’s used again, right?” Lina asked, undaunted by this information.
        The Lord of Nightmares nodded.
        “Then… what’s the catch?” Lina said, putting her hand on her glass and picking it up.
        The ‘catch’, Lina, is that you must do this alone.
        Lina dropped the glass.

        She sat up in bed, awoken from a nightmare that she could not remember. Shaking, she stood and walked to the window, opening it for some fresh air. Alone… Without my friends… Without… Gourry…
        She leaned out the window, recalling fragments of this latest nightmare, puzzling it out with the memory of her first nightmare of the entire situation…

        She was standing alone in the unholy grave of Shabranigdo, the place where she had first cast the Giga Slave, not knowing its terrible power and potential destructive force. A chill settled in her stomach, fear gripping her heart, and she shook her head. “No… not again…Not this…”
        She stumbled over rocks and boulders, searching for something that she didn’t know. She was indeed alone, she couldn’t find the others, and they didn’t answer her calls.
        At length, she sat on a boulder and looked out at the desolation, wondering why she was there. What purpose could returning here serve? What was she looking for, if not her friends?

        That’s right. I was alone in the dream… they weren’t with me… I was there… without anyone…

        Something glimmered magically, a sense catching her eye and mind, and she slipped off the boulder, moving in search of it.
        There it was, the Philosopher’s Stone. But hadn’t it been destroyed when Rezo used it? But this was good! Her dream was telling her that she could go get the stone! It existed! She could give it to Zelgadis for his cure…

        And when I thought about Zelgadis… He showed up. Shabranigdo came in my dream. Was it because I was sidetracked? I let my guard down? Something happened to me in Kuroryu… beyond me taking the position as Chaos Knight. What was it?
        Her mind flickered back to the fight with Shabranigdo. I was alone then too…
 
        Those moments flew, precious and fleeting, and then his physical attack came from behind. She hadn’t expected that. It pierced her protective shield and caught her about the waist, upending her. He threw her up against the far wall, and for a moment, she thought she heard Gourry call her name. Then, suddenly, she felt Shabranigdo let her go and she was falling. Her body hit the floor, her mind suddenly falling on into the Astral Plane as he pushed her on into the Astral Plane.

        Lina’s eyes widened. What happened in the time between him throwing me Astral and when I came back to myself?
        The light knock at her door jolted her out of her memories, and she turned around to see the door open just a crack, Kira’s face peering in. “Lina?”         Lina sighed softly. “Yeah, Kira. I’m awake.”
        Kira pushed the door open further and walked into the room. “You had another nightmare.”
        Lina tried to laugh it off. “Well, you know… She is the Lord of Nightmares, after all. I guess I can’t be expected to be her Knight without having a few nightmares here and there.”
        Kira folded her arms. “You and I both know that is not the case.”
        Lina turned away, looking out the window once more. “I’m scared, Kira. I faced Shabranigdo alone once before. Something happened then… before I had the chance to call the Giga Slave. Shabranigdo… attacked me… physically.” She leaned on the windowsill and sighed. “And I don’t know what that might have done.”
        Kira walked towards the younger girl, wishing that there was something else to say, some way to pass it off and promise that things would get better. But there wasn’t. “Lina… there are some… things… that I need to tell you. Some things that happened long before you were born… that set the course of both your life and mine.”
        Lina turned to look to Kira. “What do you mean?” The look on the elder Inverse’s face was unnerving, as if Kira was wrestling with some unhappy memory.
        “Let’s go down to the kitchen,” Kira said.
        “The Lord of Nightmares paid me a visit one night. During this, She told me that there would come a time when She would be needed to act in a capacity that could not be done without the sacrifice of a human soul,” Kira started, pouring two cups of cinnamon cocoa, one for Lina and one for herself.
        Lina took the cup silently, watching her mirror image sit at the table.
        “I had expected something to that nature. Chaos was, after all. I asked her if it was to be me… I’d been the Chaos Knight for almost thirty years. I’d been around for forty-seven years… not a bad life, really.” Kira paused to sip at her drink. “But She told me that it wasn’t to be me, but a descendant.”
        Lina snagged a roll from the basket at the center of the table and chewed on it. “But… you didn’t have any children before you became the Chaos Knight.”
        “That’s what I told Her. I told Her that a child would get in my way… severely hamper the ability to be the Chaos Knight, and that I knew the affiliations with Nightmare magics prevented children. But She told me otherwise,” Kira said.
        Lina stared. “But it’s in all the books! And no Nightmare Mage has ever given birth!”
        Kira’s smile was wry and wistful. “In a sense, that’s true. But, nevertheless, due in large part to Her magics, an infant was brought to the world that night. An infant of my flesh and blood, Anna Inverse. Your great-great grandmother. The Child of Chaos.”
        Lina put the cup down. “You’re telling me that Anna Inverse was your child? But she grew up in Zefeilia…”
        Kira nodded. “Yes. Because I took her there and gave her over to the Inverse Family to raise. I asked them that they not hold my actions against her. But they also had to know how powerful she would be.” Kira sighed softly. “I had her at my side for a month in traveling to Zefeilia… and I missed her for years after.”
        Lina bit her lip. She couldn’t imagine a child underfoot on her travels, let alone an infant in arms. But this was a chance to learn her history… her true family standing. Maybe it would explain…
        “You know how powerful Anna was, and how she grew to become the Healer of Zefeilia. But you don’t know that she herself had a girl named Laura. Laura Inverse’s birth was what truly killed Anna.” Kira watched Lina’s expression carefully. “Yes, the Family Book says that Anna died healing a townsmember… but it was herself that she was trying to heal. Laura’s birth was traumatic due to the magical nature of both Anna and Laura. As a result, Laura never cast a spell in her entire life.”
        Lina nodded. She knew that Laura Inverse had rejected the magic she inherited from her mother… but she’d thought that Laura had been born to another Inverse… not Anna. She reached out and grabbed another roll and waited for Kira to finish the history.
        “ Laura’s child was your mother, Lina. And there’s not much that I need to tell you about her, is there?” Kira asked.
        Lina shook her head. “No… but…” something clicked in her mind, and she looked to Kira sharply. “You mean… all of this… was the Lord of Nightmares planning for me? For the day that I would have to cast the Giga Slave against Phibrizo?”
        Kira took a long breath, and then exhaled. “Yes. You were the One… the ultimate descendant who would stand to be the sacrifice to the Lord of Nightmares. But you survived, largely due to Gourry Gabriev. Not even L-Sama had expected that.”
        Lina frowned. “But Gourry’s…”
        “Part elf, part descendant of Cephied.”
        Lina stared.
        “Why else does he have the Sword of Light, Lina? Surely you don’t think that the largest fragment of Cephied fell into obscurity? Absolutely not! You saw the power that Rouddy Gabriev had… you just never put it together that Gourry Gabriev was his descendant.” Kira said, finishing her cocoa.
        Lina considered this carefully. “But Gourry’s so…”
        Kira shook her head. “He may be thicker than a stack of bricks, but that’s due to the elfin blood, and Rouddy wasn’t a paragon of intelligence to begin with. But Gourry’s powerful, whether he knows it or not.”
        Lina nodded slowly as she finished her roll.
        “But the question remains, Lina. What else can you do? Do you know? Does the Lord of Nightmares? You are the Chaos Knight, but Shabranigdo wants you for some reason. Those nightmares of yours… they are more than mere nightmares.”
        A chill hit Lina and she looked back to Kira. “What?”
        “Shabranigdo’s trying to pull you to him. But you’re powerful enough on your own to keep yourself steady. For now. But he’s going to try to weaken you over time, try to turn you towards him,” Kira said. “That’s where Rihana fits in.”
        Lina’s eyes narrowed. “I don’t get it.”
        “You haven’t fully stepped into the role of Chaos Knight, Lina. You haven’t half a clue of what you can do as the Chaos Knight, and the rest of us don’t know what you’re capable of without being the Chaos Knight. You’re a wild card that Shabranigdo would love to control. You alone can tip the balance of the World.”
        Kira’s statement hit Lina and sank in very slowly. Kira allowed some time, then continued. “Rihana’s return can only mean trouble. I’m sure that between your nightmares and her presence, Shabranigdo plans to throw you off-guard and put you into a position where you will be forced to grant him his rebirth.”
        Shock snapped through Lina and she felt the cold chill of reality hit her with full force. “I’d rather die.”
        “That’s why the Lord of Nightmares wants you to complete this task alone. You have to learn what is within yourself, not just for being the Chaos Knight, but to prevent the resurrection of Shabranigdo,” Kira said quietly.
        “But how can I, when Rihana has returned? How can I just leave? I mean… there’s not like there’s… two… of… me…” Lina looked to Kira, then it all came clear. “You’re going to be my decoy. I’m here and you’re here and we can pass as twins, and I’m supposed to pick up and go off and leave you here, pretending to be me.”
        Kira looked away. “I can’t see any other way, Lina.”
        Lina sighed heavily. “The damnable thing is neither can I. I don’t want to become one of Shabranigdo’s goons any more than you want me to be… but I’m not leaving without telling my friends. They have to know, so that it works. They’ll all notice that you’re not me… and that I’m missing. And knowing them, they’ll all take off trying to find me.”
        Kira smiled. “Your friends… to have such dedicated devotion, Lina. I never had that.”
        Lina grinned. “Well, it’s a good thing and a bad thing. I mean… it gets irritating at times, but then someone saves your butt when you weren’t watching, and you realize that even though they may irritate the Hell out of them… you’d miss them not being around.” The last phrase was quiet, as she knew that all too soon they wouldn’t be around. She’d soon be on her own to claim the rights and powers of the Chaos Knight, and to discover precisely what they meant to her.
        “Then we’ll have to tell them in the morning. The sooner we do this, the better,” Kira said, standing up.
        Lina nodded and rose as well, but looked to Kira for a moment. “What about Xellos and Elena?”
        Kira’s smile was an eerie reminder of Lina’s. “Xellos is sufficiently… afraid of me, Lina. And Elena seems to be a creature of reason. She will understand. Now let’s go to bed. There’s a long day of planning ahead of us.”
        Lina nodded quietly, following Kira out of the kitchen and into the hallway that led to the bedrooms. Tomorrow… do I say goodbye tomorrow? Without… without knowing where Gourry and I…
        She closed the bedroom door and walked to the bed. No… I can’t think of that. I won’t lose him again… and when I come back, I’ll have that figured out too. I hope…
        She curled up in the bed, pulled the covers over her, and fell asleep.