Slayers Fan Fiction ❯ Inner Beings ❯ Preparations and Problems ( Chapter 7 )

A/N: You like my story don't you? You think it's interesting right? Then why aren't you reviewing? *Pouting* Please! Questions, comments, suggestions, anything! JUST REVIEW!

Preparations and Problems

Back at the castle, everyone was hustling and bustling to get everything ready. There were now just two days until the ball. Luna felt that everything had to be perfect, and she knew just how to do it.

"Zelgadis! Arrange those tables in a semi-circle around the throne! Gourry! Move those chairs near the tables! Amelia! Once he's done moving them, arrange them four to a table!" The strange thing was, she seemed intent on making Lina's friends work the hardest. (Hmm.I wonder why?) Just yesterday, she had made Gourry string up the banners and streamers on the walls. Then, she had Amelia wipe down and polish all the furniture (chairs, tables, etc.) in the throne room. Zelgadis was also forced to wipe down the floor and set up the music system. Luna was so busy thinking of new ways to torture Lina's friends that she didn't notice a figure walk up behind her. Luna jumped when Lina started to speak from behind her.

"Do you enjoy torturing people, Luna? And here I thought the Knight of CELPHIED would be a lot more polite and nice. Tsk, tsk, tsk. Whatever shall I do? Oh well, just watch this for now." Lina clapped her hands loudly and yelled loudly to catch everybody's attention. "All right, everybody! Take a twenty minute break and go get some rest. Make sure to come back and start working again afterwards though! Amelia! Gourry! Zelgadis! Come over here! I want to show you something!" Lina's companions dropped their things and walked tiredly to Lina. Luna spoke first though. "Lina! What are you doing here? I thought you said you'd be gone five days! You aren't supposed to see this yet." Lina was barely able to stifle a giggle when she saw how Luna had dressed her friends up, but replied casually. "Oh, that. I had expected it to take three days, but I paid them to get it done quicker. Besides, I didn't say that I'd be gone FIVE days, I said I'd be gone LESS THAN five days. I didn't miss anything, though, right?" Luna smiled slightly and shook her head. "Just your friends dressed up like that since you left and them doing servant's chores."

Now that her friends had gathered around her, she cleared her throat and began. "I will now perform a little magic trick. It is different than my usual magic." She held up her cape with her right hand, held it out for a second, and then dropped it. Where there was previously nothing, now had a figure that looked exactly like Lina, with a grim smile. Next, Lina repeated the same procedure with her left hand. In a flash, a girl who looked like Lina appeared, with a mischievous grin. "May I present, Kollina and Mazolina, in separate figures." Immediately, Kollina rushed up and hugged Zelgadis while Mazolina sighed hopelessly, knowing her love wasn't there. Lina patted Mazolina's shoulder comfortingly. "Hey, I know he's around here somewhere, he always is. Just do a little bit of summoning magic to get him to materialize." Mazolina smiled, concentrated for a moment, and snapped her fingers once. Immediately, Xellos was visible floating high in the air above them. For a second or two, he flapped his hands wildly, trying not to fall. Then, he did a triple mid- air flip and landed neatly on the ground.

Mazolina's smile widened as she hugged Xellos tightly from the back, almost choking him in the process. When she heard him start to gag, and saw him starting to turn blue in the face, she let go. After loosening his shirt collar a bit, Xellos took a look at Mazolina. "My, my. Aren't we looking different today? I could've sworn you were all in one body the last time I saw you." Mazolina giggled slightly and Lina laughed evilly softly. Lina whispered, half to herself, "And the best is still yet to come." Fortunately, nobody but Luna, Mazolina, and Angelina heard her.

Turning to Zelgadis, Lina smirked. "So, Zel. How's life treating you? Do you like being human for a change?" Surprisingly, Zel smiled widely and nodded. "Oh yeah! Being human is the best! For once, I don't have to worry about how I look! I'm so happy!" Lina sweatdropped, but kept her smirk on. She took out her jeweled mirror and handed it to Zel. "Have a look at yourself, Zel. I have a feeling your troubles have taken a turn for the worse instead of the better." Zelgadis took the mirror and looked into it. He gasped and blushed slightly. His now brown hair was messed up every which way, like he just got out of bed. He was also wearing a light pink apron with slate gray janitor-like suit underneath. At his expression, Lina and Mazolina could hold it in no longer - they laughed their heads off and were rolling on the ground, holding their sides, in fits of laughter. Zelgadis growled at them and dropped the mirror. Luckily, Kollina saw this and caught it before it hit the ground.

"Zelgadis-san! Don't you know that if you break a mirror you get 7 years of bad luck?! Especially Lina's special mirror! It has a special effect - it shows the true form of whoever looks into it. So don't you dare break it! Here Lina." Kollina handed the mirror back to Lina, who smiled and put it away. Just then, the clock chimed twelve. Lina and Mazolina exchanged glances and nodded to each other. Lina mouthed 'Go now' to Mazolina and she stood up. Mazolina slightly bowed, said "Excuse me," and left the room quickly. Gourry decided to speak up. "Hey, Lina. Where's she going? Is it safe for her to go out alone?" Lina looked back at Gourry. "Oh, she'll be back soon, no worries. She is now pure mazoku, she can take care of herself."

"Umm.Lina? If she is pure mazoku, then why didn't she teleport?" Lina, surprised at Gourry's observing skills, smirked. "Because she prefers to walk. Especially to where she's going. She says it's more fun for her, because she gets exercise, too. Unlike Xellos, she likes to exercise her muscles often." "Uh.Why?" "When she was inside me and things looked bad, she makes me bolt like mad. You've seen me. Therefore, I'm not nearly as fast without her." With his usual dopey look, Gourry looked up and replied softly, "Ah."

Ten minutes later, an explosion could be heard just outside of the city gates. Everyone rushed to a window to see what was happening. Everyone excluding Lina, gasped at what they saw. A huge black dragon, bigger than the Dragon Fang's dragon, was currently setting fire to the buildings on the outskirts of town. Amelia furrowed her brows and bolted for the door, quickly saying as she went, "The evil dragon must be punished for his wrongdoings! JUSTICE WILL PREVAIL!!!" Everybody sweatdropped, but quickly followed Amelia to the crime scene. With an evil smirk, Lina slowly followed her friends, taking her own sweet time.

When they arrived, Amelia quickly caught the dragon's attention with a Burst Rondo. Then Gourry took out his sword and slashed with minimal results at the dragon. When it came to Zelgadis however, he tried to do a Diggor Bolt, but all that happened was a few sparks and then nothing. Confused, Zelgadis looked at his hands. Seeing that they weren't getting much done, Luna decided to step in. She immediately took out her big sword, and slashed at the dragon's stomach. The dragon roared in hurt as a deep gash appeared where the cut was made. Concerned, Kollina stepped forward and healed the dragon's wounds. Surprised, Luna yelled at her. "Just what do you think you're doing?! Are you trying to help the dragon?" The reply came softly, "It's Lina's plan. She wants Zelgadis to realize how bad just being a normal human can be. Don't worry, the dragon won't go any farther into the city than it already has. Just be patient and let it run its course." Luna smirked and nodded. She stepped back into the shadows and watched how it would turn out. With fierce determination, Zelgadis took out his sword and started whacking at whichever part of the dragon he could reach, but to no avail. Irritated by these ticklish slashes, the dragon whipped out his tail and hit Zelgadis, Gourry and Amelia with one hit. Kollina, Mazolina, and Xellos quickly got away before they got hit. Gourry and Amelia were unconscious, but Zelgadis quickly got right back up and tried a different strategy. Summoning all the power he had, he cast a weak Astral Vine and nicked the dragon's tail. Once again, the dragon hit Zelgadis, knocking him to the ground. The dragon was just about to stomp on Zelgadis, when a loud, eerie whistle could be heard in the wind.

The dragon's ears perked up and he put his foot down, on the ground, not Zel. Slowly, from the smoke in the slight distance, a silhouette could be seen. By this time, Gourry and Amelia had woken up and were sitting up, watching the figure in the distance. As the figure walked up, they all saw standing there, Lina, with two fingers near her mouth (stance for whistling). When Lina came into view of the dragon, she levitated up to talk to the dragon face-to-face. Taking a deep breath, she frowned and began. "Saphy! Why are you here? You're up to mischief again, aren't you? Bad dragon! Return to your natural form!" At that, Kollina joined Lina in the air, and Lina floated down to the ground again. Continuing on, Kollina put up a hand, it glowed black and soon the dragon was surrounded by a similar black aura. Slowly, the dragon started to shrink, until it was as small as one of Pico's pups. Lina smiled and went over to pick up the dragon. As she raised Saphy's face to hers, she whispered, "Good job. You did well." At that, Saphy smiled and gurgled happily.

Turning to her shocked friends, Lina smiled at them. "I suppose you've already met, but allow me to introduce my childhood friend, Saphy the black dragon. Well, his full name is Silicon Silver Sapphire VII, but I just call him Saphy for short. I'm sorry that he caused you so much trouble. I suppose he thought it would be the quickest way to find me, isn't that right, Saphy?" Saphy nodded and curled up against Lina's chest. He was soon snoring peacefully. With a gentle chuckle, she began making her way back to her friends. Gourry looked at Saphy, and then at Lina. "Umm.Why isn't Saphy scared of you? Aren't you supposed to be a dragon spooker?" Frowning at the nickname, Lina closed her eyes and sniffed. "Hmph! Mazolina told me earlier that dragons were only afraid of me because when they got close enough, they could sense a demon, Mazolina, inside me. As you know, demons and monsters are the dragons' worst enemies. So, of course they would get scared. But now that I extracted Mazolina from my body, they no longer can sense anything to fear. Besides, I've known Saphy ever since I rescued him in the woods as a kid. He completely trusts me."

Gourry umm.contemplated this answer. After a minute or two, he looked back at Lina with a dazed expression. "Huh? What did I ask again?" Shaking their heads at his forgetfulness, the troupe walked back to the castle. Once there, Lina put Saphy into the care of Pico in her bedchamber, and turned to Zelgadis. She set right to work with a bombardment of questions.

"So, still like being human? Isn't so great now, is it? Now you can't protect anyone, not even yourself. Have you realized just how hard being a complete human is? Especially with what we do for a living? Hmm?" Shocked, Zelgadis took a step back, but Lina just stepped forward and continued. "Even though Saphy wasn't a real enemy, it could have been. Did you see what happened to your powers? They're worse than when it's my.my time of the month! Ha! You should really be ashamed of yourself, you know. A guy like you having such weak and pointless attacks. I pity you, I pity you." With that, Lina sneered and walked out of the room. After exchanging glances, Kollina and Mazolina followed her. Luna, Amelia, and especially Zelgadis looked in Lina's direction, dazed. Gourry just looked up, confused. After a few minutes of processing, they all looked at Zelgadis. Luna folded her arms and frowned at him.

"She's right you know. Lina may have been a bit harsh, but it's the truth. You were very weak when we fought Saphy. It's obvious that as a mere human, you will soon die from your weakness, even faster than the local townspeople. I'm going to go check on Lina. Excuse me." With that, Luna walked away, in the direction that Lina went. With saddened eyes, Amelia looked at Zelgadis. "Zelgadis-san." Zelgadis interrupted her. "Ugh. Just leave me alone Amelia. I need to think by myself." Zelgadis went out the room and headed towards the library. Sighing, Amelia and Gourry went over to a table to do the ball invitations. Amelia did the addressing and inviting, while Gourry did the stuffing and licking.

In the garden, Lina and her fellow spirits were having a little chat. "Lina-san, are you alright? What made you say those awful things? He's one of your closest friends, right?" Kollina asked. Lina turned to her and replied, "I'm fine, don't worry. I guess my fighting spirit got the better of me. I've had it with him. He's so damn vain and irritating, especially now. Okay, he might have changed his opinion after what happened with Saphy, but still. What should I do?" Mazolina smirked and patted Lina's shoulder.

"I'll tell you what to do! Let's hold a group debate! The topic will be 'Should Zelgadis be Chimera or Human?' The teams can be Zelgadis, Amelia, Gourry, and Luna for humans, and us for Chimera. What do you say, Lina-san?" Looking over at Mazolina, Lina contemplated this idea, smirked, got up, and nodded her head. "Yes, that's exactly what we're going to do. Tomorrow, at noon, in the dining hall. After that, we'll just have one more day until it wears off, and we decide. Come, let us check on Saphy and Pico." As they were leaving the garden, they bumped into Luna.

Once again brushing her off, Lina quickly told Luna as she walked past her, "Tomorrow, we're going to hold a group debate to decide if Zelgadis should be human or chimera. Prepare two tables by tomorrow. I'll see you later, I'm going to my room." Silently, Luna nodded and headed towards the dining hall, as Lina and her spirits went to Lina's bedchamber.

A/N: Well? Do you like it? Sorry it took so long - I've been trying to think of what else to write. In the next chapter, the debate will take place and Gourry will try to propose again. How will Lina deal with all this? Read the next chapter to see! You have to wait a while though.PLEASE REVIEW!