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                            PRESENTS...

                         Slayers Chaos :
                            Episode 7

       ...in which the situation looks bleak, but nothing is
       unreasonable with the right thinking, we engage in the
        game of you, and Lina goes through the mirrorshades.

       A Slayers Fanfic Series by Stefan "Twoflower" Gagne

   Special thanks to Jonatan Streith, Karen Waters and Harijubal
   for the winning ideas in the 'Missing Scene From Chaos7a.html
                               Contest'.

     (Almost all characters copyright H. Kanzaka / R. Araizumi,
     obviously.  If I ever even considered claiming that these
     were my own characters I'd probably be thrown into a small
     cell where I'd be forced to eat my own yo-yos to live.)

         --> Read the enhanced hypertext version at <--
             --> http://pixelscapes.com/slayers <--

-=-

    Hello, Lina.
    And the first night, she dreamed of hordes of monsters, more than one
of every kind she had ever seen.  When she called for her magic, it didn't
come; when she fought with her blade, she only barely got away, seeming
hours of endless pursuit and flight away from the stampede.
    It was the start of a long series of very bad days for Lina.
    On waking, she dismissed the dream quickly, figuring it to be a mere
coincidence, and didn't tell her companions.  She considered telling
Zelgadis, who had been helpful with advice in the past and seemed too cool
a customer to ever have a bad dream...
    But Zelgadis was missing.  He left a note on his pillow, saying that he
thought he left something behind in Pleasantville, and had Myth drop him
off there early in the morning.  He'd catch up with them later,
supposedly.  Myth had no idea what was going on, just that Zel had woken
her up way too early, she sleepily let him into the Ways and then slumped
back to bed.  Lina dropped her plans to tell anyone about the silly dream,
and pressed on.
    With no solid leads, they packed their things and headed off.
Reviewing over the written notes of Drama's interrogation, Lina picked up
on the only thing known of Reason -- that she had sank into the
intellectual crowd.  That meant either Justivalero's law library and legal
philosophers, which wasn't likely if Reason had an open mind, or the great
Royal School of Magic and Sciences in Darata.  The Sub Way ride to Darata
was brief, but Lina couldn't shake off creeping horrors of someone watching
them as they traveled.
    Then in Darata, they got inn lodgings, scouted around, found out
nothing, and went to bed after a large meal.  Myth told some stories in the
common room in order to pay for it.  Lina had to admit, they were very good
stories; dreamlike, almost, with the listeners enrapt...
    Hello, Lina.
    The second night was worse.  She vaguely remembered hooks when she woke
up, hooks and long strings.  There was a long metal pin keeping her down
inside a large case, and the hand of Nightmare reached in to tug at her,
playfully.  He said the same thing he said the first night she had
nightmares; hello, Lina.  And then it would start, repeating in case she
didn't get it the first time.
    After that Lina decided sleep was probably not all that necessary in
life and vowed to stay awake.
    Applying for a visitor's pass to the University required a reference
from a noteworthy local philosopher, to ensure you were of significant
mental gymnastic ability.  Weirdly, the one they found chose Myth over
Lina, probably because Lina tried to strangle him when he discussed the
geometry of her physique.  But the day was getting late, and Myth would
visit tomorrow.  Gourry and Myth went to their rooms, Lina went to hers,
and she stayed up to re-read her dogeared copy of 'The Adventures of Jean
the Clever' and stay awake until dawn.  There wasn't any need to bother the
others when she could manage just fine as is...
    She fell asleep at dawn.
    Hello, Lina.
    Jean the Clever, having gained the key into the realm of the dream king
from the cleric, approached the dark castle of dreams.  The dream kingdom
was desolate, empty; its population gone, driven out by the acts of a king
gone mad.  But she wasn't afraid.  After drugging the guards, she
confronted the king -- and he laughed at her in Lina's dream, because the
guards were only faking, and they swarmed into the throne room to claim
Jeanlina, pouring through every door, every window, climbing out of every
shadow.  Insurmountable odds.
    "Why are you doing this?!" LinaJean demanded, frustration of nights of
nightmares breaking.
    "Why are you doing what you're doing?" Nightmare asked, still smiling.
The guards closed in, hooklike knives and whips at the ready, and Gourry
shook her half-awake.
    He was very surprised when Lina grabbed him in fright.
    "Uh.... breakfast time?" Gourry said.
    In a rare moment of weakness, Lina did not immediately spring forth to
go consume her daily feed.  Instead, she stayed where she was, hanging onto
Gourry, not wanting to let go and fall back in bed.
    The boy wasn't quite sure what to do.  This was a new situation, having
Lina this close without her slapping him -- or hauling him a thousand feet
above the ground in flight.  She wasn't angry.  She was scared of
something, deathly scared.  What did his auntie usually do when he had a
bad dream?
    Gourry tried patting her on the back and rocking a bit.  "It's okay..."
he comforted.  That would help, he hoped.
    It took a few moments, on the upwards of a few minutes, for Lina to
recover.  And when she did, she acted like nothing was wrong, pulling away
slowly, getting her hairbrush and starting up her morning rituals in front
of the room's mirror.  Nothing strange had happened, nothing she would
acknowledge.
    "Lina?" Gourry asked, carefully.  He was expecting some sort of slap--
    "Yes?" Lina asked back at him, quietly.
    "What's going on?" Gourry continued.
    "Nothing special.  Getting ready for the day's questing."
    He pressed on, deciding to make an observation.  "You were pretty quiet
yesterday, and this doesn't seem like nothing special.  What's going on?"
    "It's nothing I can't--"
    "Tell me what's going on," Gourry said flatly.
    Taken aback by his unusually commanding tone, Lina's will faltered.
"It's just... nightmares.  Nightmare of the wingless.  He's been taunting
me a bit when I sleep, you know, because he wants to stop us.  But that's
all it is."
    Gourry nodded, quietly.  He turned around, and walked sharply out of
the room, without any comment.
    Confused, Lina hurried up in her preparations, getting on her clothes
and cape and following after Gourry.  She found him in the largely empty
dining room of the inn, talking to Myth -- who was white as a sheet from
whatever he was saying.  Lina approached.
    "...be able to do that, but..." Myth said.  "I don't know what I can
do.  It's not like I have power over him or anyth-- Lina!"
    Gourry spoke first.  "I figured maybe Myth would know a way to stop him
from doing that, Lina.  Since he's a wingless and all, and how Aunt Koirry
was saying..."
    Lina sighed.  "Guys, please.  Don't make such a big deal out of it!  So
what?  We're going after him soon, and then he won't be able to do
anything.  Besides, it's just bad dreams.  Of all the things I have to
worry about, finding Reason comes above a few bad nights."
    "Can Nightmare hurt Lina from wherever he is?" Gourry asked, ignoring
Lina, to address Myth.
    "Uh... he.. I'm not sure exactly," Myth said.  "He can affect dreams,
but he doesn't have the power to do anything other than that.  After all,
it's not like he's king in some dream world; he's just a wingless in the
waking world with Talent."
    "What if he's not..." Gourry trailed off.  His brain was operating on
overdrive to keep on top of this stuff, but it was for an important
reason.  "It sounds stupid, but is there any way he could really REALLY be
in a dream?"
    "It's impossible," Myth said.  "There aren't any spells that let you
enter dreams physically.  I mean, I don't know how to cast magic, but... I
know enough about it, I think, to--"
    Lina realized something.  Things clicked together.
    "He's there," Lina said.  "There's a spell Xelloss knows which lets him
enter dreams.  He's used it plenty of times... and he told me a few nights
ago that Paradox has taken him prisoner!  What if Nightmare ordered Paradox
to do that, so he could learn the spell?"
    Myth inhaled sharply.
    "I thought Xelloss doesn't tell secrets," Gourry said.
    "They could have gotten it out of him, somehow.  He's human now -- VERY
long story which even he hasn't explained -- and I can think of a few black
magic mind reading spells that might do it," Lina said.  "Oh, L-sama... I
know what's going on!  NOW this makes more sense!"
    "What is it?" Gourry asked.
    "One way or another, chances are Nightmare is IN that dream kingdom,
and is running wild with his Talents where they're easiest to use and most
powerful," Lina explained.  She turned to Myth.  "You met Nightmare inside
the Sub Ways outside Ky... Merlin Giga made the Sub Ways.  What if he made
them by transferring people, just very momentarily, through that world?  We
know there are supposed to be four Giga Lore based spells, and I know three
of them.  And if the fourth one is a dream gateway... it all makes sense!"
    Veins stuck out in Gourry's forehead.  It was so much to understand...
"Okay, soo... this Nightmare guy got a spell that puts him really in your
dreams, and... and he might've gotten it from Xelloss.  I mean... ugh.  I'm
wrong, aren't I?"
    "No, that's it," Lina said.
    "Really?" Gourry said, surprised.  "Okay!  Now we're cooking!  So... we
don't know where Reason is, Paradox has Xelloss and we don't know where
they are, and we don't know the spell to get at Nightmare, and Nightmare is
hurting Lina and... and actually, that doesn't help us at all.  Uh.  Damn."
    The trio sat in silence, trying to think of the next move.
    "Can Reason help us get to Paradox?" Lina asked.
    Myth didn't respond, busy staring off into space, as she had been for
awhile now.  Lina knocked on the table to get her attention.  "Wha?"
    "Can we get to Paradox if Reason helps us?" Lina asked again.  "If
she's an intellectual, she might know complex stuff like that..."
    "Ah.. maybe.  I don't know."
    "You okay, Myth?"
    "Y.. no," Myth said.  "I'm not.  Listen... you're SURE it's Nightmare?
Nightmare of the wingless?"
    "It's him," Lina said, with assuredness rivaling gravity.
    "I don't understand, though..." Myth said.  "He wants to kill me, not
you."
    Of course, Love had already told Lina this; but she didn't want to
betray Love's confidence, and acted like this was a surprise.  "Why would
he want to kill you?  You're a wingless too, right?"
    "Yes, but... it's a long story," Myth said.
    "I thought you liked telling long stories," Gourry said.  "I mean,
those ones you told last night for our dinner were long and kinda boring,
and--"
    "It's not a long story I like telling," Myth said.  She spoke quickly;
frightened.  Lina could see it on her face, the tight look to her jaw,
nervous eyes..
    Lina pushed on.  "Would the story help us figure out what to do about
this?"
    "I.. I don't know.  Maybe," Myth admitted.
    "Can you please tell us?" Lina asked.  "Look, we're up the creek with
no paddle here, and--"
    "I'll summarize," Myth compromised.  "It's not an entertaining story.
I don't like telling stories with nothing good or uplifting in them.
That's the sort of story HE likes to tell... okay.  I told you how one of
us caused the fall by trying to kill another?  Nightmare caused it, when he
tried to kill me.  Nightmare wasn't Nightmare then.  None of us really had
names, in the way you guys have names.  He wasn't that bad of a person,
even if he was risk-taking.  Handsome, too...
    "Nightmare made life and death, like I said, at least he thought up the
ideas of it.  And although Love decided to nurture life, he wanted to do
some initial experiments in it first..."
    Lina pieced a few things together.  "Okay.  That's enough.  In that
case--"
    "No," Myth said.  "I want to tell the rest.  I haven't even told the
other wingless this."
    "You sure, Myth?"
    "I'm sure," Myth said.  "It's not all that sad, at least, it didn't
feel that way at the time.  We weren't fully developed humans yet, with the
same emotional responses.  So when he came to me and said he desired to try
out life with me, because we both worked on 'stories' and he felt it was
the next step, I guess you could say I was.. curious.  But after, I wasn't
sure how I felt about it.  I didn't know if I liked it.  But he wanted to
do it again, and I did, and he wanted to do it again and I didn't want to
and I told him that, and he didn't take it well.  Nightmare tended to
obsess about his projects, always wanting to practice with them, expand
them...
    "I don't understand why he didn't go to one of the others.  They might
have been interested in helping him.  But he just wanted it with me, and
since I didn't want it, he got really angry.  Loathing invented angry but
Nightmare adopted and refined it beyond Loathing's simple applications...
and Nightmare decided if I wouldn't practice life, I could practice death
instead, and that's when the Lord of Nightmares stopped him and cast us
out.
    "I think that's when Nightmare changed, at the casting out.  He swore
that he would finish what he had started one day, and upon learning of the
Paradox's theories of time and calendars becoming law in this new world, he
swore that on that day of the casting out, one year, he would return to his
home to claim as his own, complete his work, and find vengeance against the
Lord of Nightmares.  Do you guys know about the holiday called the
Forenight of Chaos?"
    Lina paused, thinking about it.  "I think it's a Sailoon holiday.  The
moon turns golden yellow once every year.  Dayvid once told me it was an
atmospheric condition."
    "It might be, but it's also the day Nightmare made his vow," Myth
said.  "And it's coming up in a week.  Nothing strange has happened that
day any other year, so even most wingless ignore it, but if Nightmare
really has taken the dream world... but he hasn't completed his work.  He
hasn't reclaimed his home, the world we fell from.  And if he means to kill
me, then why isn't he?  He's got the power to do something to any of us, as
he's proven with Lina.  So what is going on?  How does this all fit
together?"
    "I don't like this," Gourry said.  And he left it at that.
    "I don't either," Lina agreed.
    Myth chewed on her lower lip a moment.  "We could... give up the
quest.  Nothing's going right.  If you stop, maybe Nightmare would let you
go, since you're not a threat to him anymore.  Someone else could fill
Giga's prophecy, I mean, we've heard that others tried before so presumably
it'll happen anyway, one day... right?  We could just go home.  Things will
work out without us."
    Lina studied the table, and her uneaten breakfast.
    She could do that.  She didn't want to be terrorized, and she didn't
want to die.  She didn't want to end up like she had in some other world,
living in a mode of constant fear...
    "I don't like to give up, either," Gourry said.  "But if Lina could
die, and all this weird stuff is going on that I wish I understood.. I
mean, what should we do?  Auntie always said to decide for myself what the
right thing to do is, but what's the right thing to do?  I don't know.  I
really hate being stupid sometimes."
    "You're not stupid," Lina said, looking up at him.  "Gourry... gut
instinct, quick reaction, don't think about it just SAY it -- do you want
to give up the quest we started?"
    "No," Gourry quickly said.
    "Well, I do," Lina said.  "This goes beyond my tolerances.  I've got a
nightmare of my very own picking on me each night... but I'm not going to
give up.  Because what I want and what needs to be done aren't the same
thing.  I fold now, I'm going to be wandering around aimless, unless I go
join the Mazoku and stop being a human or something.  I'll have failed to
stand up to this, fleeing when it turns ugly... and what's more, we've come
this far!  Right now, I've got four of the wingless in my bag and one
willing to come along.  Go back now just because one of them is threatening
me?  Myth.  You told me you wrote 'The Adventures of Jean the Clever,'
right?"
    "Uh, yes, I did," Myth said.
    "Obviously, it's largely a fictional story, but you said it was based
on someone," Lina reminded her.  "Did the real Jean give up in her quest?
She came up against a lot of problems, but did she stop?"
    "No... she thought about it, but she kept going," Myth said.  "I almost
wished she would stop, when I was following her.  It was really dangerous.
But she kept on and got her family's amulet back from the king who stole it
from her family, like she promised.  That's what I based the dream king's
story on."
    "You know how many times I read that book when I was a kid?" Lina
asked.
    "Uh... six?"
    "Less than once.  I just finished it a little while ago," Lina said.
"But it was enough to really give me some motivation in life, and take up
questing.  Another incident gave me the idea of being a bandit hunter.  I
haven't stopped since, and damned if I'm going to stop now.  That's just
not how Lina Inverse does things, and I'm going to be Lina Inverse.
Gourry, get your gear.  Myth, we're going down to the university to ransack
Reason's room for any clue to where she's gone.  After that, we track down
Paradox, get Xelloss back, go to the world of dreams and settle the score
with this Nightmare bastard.  We clear?"
    "Got it," Gourry said, getting up.
    Myth hesitated.  "But it's--"
    "And I'd like to avoid any panicking or worrying about something we
can't do yet, like stop Nightmare's nightmares," Lina suggested.  "We'll
deal with things as we come to them and celebrate what we do finish with
large amounts of food and merriment.  I'll have Gourry wake me up each hour
to prevent anything bad happening in my dreams; it won't be fun and won't
solve anything, but it'll work.  We are going to do this, do it right and
do it smiling.  Agreed?"
    "Sounds good," Gourry agreed.
    "Uh... but Lina--"
    "If you've got a problem with this, you can ride in a jelly jar, Myth,"
Lina said.  "I know you're afraid of Nightmare, and now I know why, but I'm
afraid of him too and I say we've got to hurry this up.  We're going to bag
him within a week, so there's no chance of this Forenight of Chaos event,
and finish the quest.  Which way do you want to come along?  It's your
choice, whatever makes you most comfortable, since you're coming along
regardless."
    Myth's protests crumbled.  "I'll go on my feet.  You might need my
help, I mean... especially if you want to eat.  You know."
    For the first time all morning, Lina grinned.
    "Good," she said, smiling big.  "In fact, start thinking about what
stories you're going to tell for lunch.  I got my appetite back.  Speaking
of which..."
    Lina grabbed a forkful of her eggs, and stuffed them in her mouth.
Chew chew, swallow.
    "Mmmh," she said.  "NOW we can go."

                                   [-*-]

    Dayvid Davince prowled around his lab like a caged animal.
    She was out there, somewhere.  Not that he was TRYING to avoid her, of
course, no no, never that.  Just that he was deathly afraid that if he
bumped into Amelia again, she might continue talking about... it.
    "It's got to just be the Talent used on her," Dayvid said, since he
understood what a Talent was, after the three days working in close
quarters with Reason.  "That's all.  That's why she's acting funny.  Seems
reasonable."
    "Actually," Reason said, writing with her right hand while doing
calculations with her left while talking with Dayvid in a conversational
tone, "It's reasonable to suspect that rather than cause a reaction which
wasn't there to begin with, it simply unlocked one that was unrealized as
an unexpected side benefit to the removal of her enchantment.  The
possibility is high, and it would be in league with both Love and Drama."
    "Oh, come on, that's silly," David said.  "I know Amelia's saying she
wants to marry me, but she can't MEAN it."
    "Nothing is unreasonable with the right thinking," Reason said,
finishing a complex series of equations.  "Why don't you talk to her if you
don't believe me?"
    "I'm... I'm far too busy on our project," Dayvid said.  "It's important
work."
    "You realize that she may suspect that the reason you're avoiding her
and spending time with me is because you're seeing me behind her back?"
Reason said, calmly.  "It'd be reasonable for her to think that way."
    "WHAT?!" Dayvid gaped.  "But.. but that's silly!  I mean, you're--"
    "You can ignore my conclusions and evidence because they're silly all
you want, but it's inadvisable," Reason said, shuffling her papers together
and getting up to write the results on a blackboard.  Her mind was already
thinking three or four problems ahead, Dayvid's relationship being one of
the minor ones.  "In fact, I'd suggest going to find her immediately and
engaging in some sort of gesture Love would approve of.  Otherwise, she may
engage in Loathing.  Mind you, Loathing is simply Love with her back turned
in a lot of respects, but--"
    Dayvid was no longer there; the door swung back and forth, wobbling on
its hinges.
    People could provide a lot of fun during working hours, Reason
reasoned.  It was a tremendously good way to relax while you're getting
serious work done.  She turned her attention back to her task in full,
chalk clacking as she worked through the numbers on the spell--
    A small device in the pocket of her lab coat started to vibrate.  Using
her right hand to pull it out while she continued the thaumatological
sequence of progressive pulses with her left hand, she clicked a small
button.
    A window opened, pulling light from her living quarters on campus in
Darata.  Her spy spell had sensed movement.  She kept an eye on it while
writing.
    Her room was an organized mess, as she last saw it; work piled on work
piled on findings in a curious system that only she understood, as it was
part of a geometric sequence of numbers.  She didn't have visitors last
time, though.
    "...understand, you can't come in here without a visitor's pass--" the
dean was trying to explain.
    "Back off.  We're on a mission from God," the sorceress said, pushing
by him and into the room.  She was followed by a swordsman and a wingless
-- that would be Lina, Gourry and Myth, if Reason recalled correctly, which
she did.  Her thumb clicked the send button.
    "Wrong place," she said, and the words echoed through time and space in
a way she suspected Paradox didn't like, but he was such an unreasonable
sort that she didn't particularly care.  "We're in Sailoon Palace.  Come on
by."
    The surprised Lina flinched as words came to her from thin air, and
that was all the visual recognition Reason needed.  She turned off her box
and pocketed it again.
    They probably wanted her to explain things, but she was far too busy.
Explanations could come later.  Work to do right now.

                                   [-*-]

    "We're in Sailoon Palace," the disembodied voice said.  "Come on by."
    Lina twitched.
    "Hello?" she asked, but didn't get a response.  "Helloooooo?  Yoo hoo?"
    "That was Reason!" Myth recognized.  "That's her voice.  ...and that's
what's she's like, too, she never really bothers saying more than you need
to know..."
    "At least she gets to the point," Lina said, trying to see the good in
things.  "Back to the Sub Ways with us, then.  We'll be leaving campus now,
Mr. Dean."
    Pushing by the still unbelieving Dean, Lina led her little party
through the university hallways, back to the front gates.
    "I'm feeling on a roll here," Lina said.  "Pumped.  Primed.  Psyched.
And so on.  Myth, tell me about Reason.  What can we expect from her?
Gonna be a stand up fight or a sneaky one?"
    "Uh... uhh..." Myth gasped, having trouble keeping up with Lina's brisk
trot.  "I don't know.. she always has her own weird motives for things.
She likes to say that anything's reasonable, so she's actually very
unpredictable... umm, what else, what else... likes science, likes magic...
and she doesn't have any Talents."
    "Eh?" Lina asked, confused.  "How can you be a wingless with no
Talents?"
    "She just doesn't use any," Myth said.  "She's smart and remembers
everything and is ambidextrous and said she didn't need anything else.  If
she has any, they've never been touched."
    "I had a cousin once who was ambidextrous, so they put him in jail,"
Gourry said.
    "Gourry, ambidextrous means 'can use both hands equally well," Lina
defined.
    "Oh, I know.  He was able to pick two pockets at once."
    "Wait wait!" Myth said, dashing in front of the group to block them.
"We can't go by Sub Way.  If it runs through Nightmare's place, we'd all be
in danger."
    "It moves near instantly," Lina reminded.  "You got stuck that one time
because some old dirt was jamming up the system.  It'll be fine.  Besides,
it'd take us a long time to get to Sailoon, and we've only got a week to
go.  Right?"
    "Well, right, but--"
    "Then Sub Ways it is," Lina said.
    "It's dangerous!"
    "So's swallowing a whole zucchini!" Lina snapped.
    Myth attempted to figure that one out.  "Huh?  What does that have to
do with anything?"
    "...I don't know, it just sounded cool," Lina said.  "Don't bug me, I'm
feeling righteous today."

                                   [-*-]

    Like a holy rolling freight convoy of crushing importance, Lina's party
stormed through Darata to the stone circle just outside the city, and
traveled the Ways (uneventfully) to Sailoon.  Then it was a steady jog down
the merchant's path towards Sailoon City, storming the gates of the fair
city at a brisk yet determined stroll straight up to the gates and through
them before the guards had enough time to say 'What's your business here'
and into the palace and straight through the Main Hall where majestic
tapestries of Sailoon's rulers were hung (sometimes literally) and on
through the Royal Gardens and down the hall and out the servant's rear
entrance and onto the street of Small Shops and...
    "I think we went too far," Gourry observed.
    So the party turned around and marched right back into the castle, and
this time chose to stop in the Royal Gardens and wait there.
    Myth slumped against a tree, completely out of breath.  "How can you
have that much energy on one fried egg??"
    "Don't you see?" Lina said, gesturing dramatically.  "We're near the
quest's end!  It's almost over, and we're moving right along according to
schedule and plan barring little hiccups like perpetual nightmares and so
on.  I feel like I could take on the world!  Bring it on!  LET'S GO!!"
    The world didn't bring anything on and they didn't go anywhere.  A few
butterflies roamed the nice flowers of the gardens, but other than that,
movement was not the word of the day.
    "Aren't we supposed to be greeted or something?" Myth asked.  "After
that entrance, I mean..."
    "Maybe they're busy," Gourry said.  "Probably getting a really big
celebration of our arrival together or something."
    Lina tapped her foot, and waited.  Impatience knows no boundaries to
one who is On A Roll.
    Finally, someone came into view.  Two someones.  Arguing as they walked
by.
    "...swear, there's nothing happening between us!  Really!" Dayvid
protested, pleading after a haughtily-marching Amelia.
    Amelia turned on him with a really really nasty but cute look.
"Soooo!  You're busy doing nothing in that lab of yours for hours and hours
while I'm here trying to plan our wedding.  Very inconsiderate of you!  I'd
almost think you didn't want to get married."
    "I don't!" Dayvid said truthfully.
    Gears started to turn backwards.  "Wh... whaaa?  You hate me!?" Amelia
bubbled, on verge of busting out into tearful hysterics.  "I just had this
flash of realization recently that we got along really well and enjoyed
spending time together and you've looked at me funny ever since Happyworld
and... and I was wrong?  Oh, woe is me!  Tragedy!"
    "Huh?... no no, you've got it all wrong!" Dayvid said, whose grasp of
feminine feelings was proving to be more complicated than subatomic
thaumatological methodology.  "I don't mean it that way."
    "So you ARE cheating on me with that Reason person!" Amelia accused,
going right back to angry.  "Well, fine!  The wedding is off!  Good day,
Mr. Davince!"
    Dayvid was left to pick his jaw off the floor as Amelia turned and
marched right across the gardens, past a cluelessly puzzled Lina and off to
some other hallway in the castle.
    "Err..." Dayvid said, just now noticing the questing party.  "Reason
won't be ready until tonight, you'll have to wait.  Excuse me.. Amelia!
Hold up!  Pleeease!!"
    And off he went, jogging after her.
    Lina's mind reached for what just happened like a bar of soap in the
bath.
    "I didn't know Dayvid was trying to grow a beard now," Gourry observed,
missing the point entirely.
    "And she thinks I'M on drugs?!" Lina yelled, shaking her fist after
them.  "HEY!  Lina!  Yoo hoo!  Important person waiting for proper
greeting!"
    "He said they'd be ready tonight," Gourry said, relaxing under the
shade of a tree.  "We can wait, right?"
    "Waiting.. good," Myth said, already trying to recover from various
shocks and energy drains from the day's events.  She leaned back on a
grassy knoll, and pulled out her book.  "I'll just write a bit.  Don't mind
me.  Waiting is VERY good."
    Lina paced in rapid little circles.  "I don't wanna wait!  I'm full of
steam here... I mean, I'm... oh... oh, foo.  Nevermind."  She sighed, and
sat next to Gourry under the tree, finally getting some exhaustion after
the adrenaline reserves had run dry.  "We can wait.  I swear, this palace
is just as boring now as it was last time we were here..."
    Spontaneously, Gourry plucked a few tiny flowers from a nearby patch.
"Boy, they've got some nice ones," he commented, examining the golden
leaves.  Then, he offered them to Lina.  "Here."
    Lina looked at the flowers, uncomprehending.  "Huh?  What're those
for?"
    Gourry blinked.  "I thought girls liked flowers.  You know, you put
them in your hair or something."
    Lina winced.  "Ugh.  They used to do that all the time back in
Zeifilia.  Bunch of soppy girls who liked reading romance novels and
sighing.  I always wondered if they had lung problems or something..."
    "Oh..." Gourry said, pulling the daisies away a bit.  "Nevermind,
then."
    "Eh, what the hell," Lina said, snatching the flowers away, and trying
to arrange them off to one side of her hair, as casually and uncaring as
possible.  "Can't hurt... what's with that smile?"
    Gourry's big goofy smile got a little less goofy.  "Oh, nothin'..." he
said, looking off into the sky to think a moment.  A gear clicked.  "Hey,
you guys want to go do something fun?"

                                   [-*-]

    Across town, two conspirators were drowning their woes in fancy fruit
cocktails and straight lager respectively.
    This was their last hope, that maybe Lina and Company would come back
to Sailoon.  Before he got taken, Loathing said he had no idea where
Paradox was, and as for Nightmare... who could say?  They had no leads
left.
    A few flies buzzed around Bugger's drink; he shooed them away with a
wave of his hand, and sipped again.
    "I tell you, it's right awful," he said.  "Should've taken Nightmare's
advice.  Punk had a good idea -- just hit the little tart upside the head
with everythin' we got, you know?  None of this playin' around.  Why don't
we do that more often?"
    "Huh?" Angela said.  For a Dragon of grace and elegance, her slump
wasn't particularly attractive, looking up from a goblet of wine.  "Why
don't we do what?"
    "Screw 'em hard and fast," Bugger said, making a drilling motion with
his hand.  "Just whack 'em.  Noooo, Mazoku gotta trap them, taunt them,
kill them in interestin' ways... actually, that usually works, I mean, get
some poor sod into a fleshpuller or a quality nine 'o burning irons, their
clock is PUNCHED... but then you gots these ones like Lina, and you're all
like, 'Oh looky, nudder stupid human to toss into the gapin' maw 'o
destruction' and they're the ones who put the smack down on YOU, 'cuz
you're all goofin' off and... geez, Angela!  Pay attention!  Damn good
stuff here!"
    "What does it matter?" Angela groaned.  "We've failed.  Lina's gone,
she's obtained nearly all of the wingless and we have no leads.  All we can
do now is pray that our superiors won't demote us too far for the slipup,
and pray that this wasn't important enough to let slip between the
cracks... I am SO miserable!"
    Bugger glared at her.  "YOU miserable?  At least when you get back,
you're just goin' to get a slap on the wrists and a 'Bad Dragon!  No soup
for you!'.  Mazoku got a worse lot, believe me, gel... I go back and say I
lost Lina, I'm gonna be exterminated.  No warning, no expression of
disapproval, just flat out erased.  There ain't no points for second place
in my gang."
    "My lot is bad too," Angela said, trying to defend her kind.  "I'll
fall in prestige in all the right circles!  This was going to be my golden
mealticket.  I even had to nominate myself to get on the mission, something
that they'll have figured out by now... if I brought Lina back in chains,
I'd easily be forgiven.  But now?  And need I remind you that someone of
the Dragon hierarchy is aiding Lina?  It's a complete cock-up and I'm to
blame!  It'll take centuries to get back to my previous status."
    "You've GOT centuries," Bugger grumbled.  "I gots... days, I'd guess.
Hours if I'm unlucky.  I'm tellin' you, the only way our luck is going to
look up at all is if Lina walks through that door right there in the
next--"
    "Yeah, this is the place!" Gourry smiled, pushing open the swinging
entrance doors.  "Come on in."
    Bugger's mouth hung open, as in walked Gourry, Lina, and Myth, checking
out the bar, and looking for a place to sit.
    "It's them," he said redundantly.  "Okay.  I'll kill Lina in one hard
and fast shot; you contain the other two and we'll pick 'em off later."
    "What?" Angela said.  "We can't do that.  There are other humans here.
We'd make a huge stink of it and possibly destroy the city block!"
    "Gel, this is the only opportunity we're going to get!" Bugger said.
"No more screwin' around!  We kill them now or might as well pack our bags
and head to the headsman!"
    Angela eyed their prey, who were sitting at the bar, ordering drinks.
A clear line of fire to them.  So easy to...
    "Can you make it clean and not injure any of the others?" Angela said.
"The last thing I need is to go back to the Dragons saying that I had to
slaughter dozens of humans to do this mission."
    "One tight shot of black power," Bugger said, prepping a small bullet
of darkness.  "Smooth as silk.  You contain the other two.  Could probably
leave them be if you wanted to, neither of 'em know the Resurrect spell.
Then we bail.  Agreed?"
    "Agreed," Angela said.  She charged up a shielding spell, ready.
    Bugger wound up, and there's the pitch--
    The tiny speck of black power shot through the air, straight and true,
until it encountered a similar shot of white power; the two canceled out,
smooth as silk, nobody disturbed.
    "What the...?" Bugger said, confused...
    A waitress stepped up behind them, and cleared her throat.
    "Take your order?" she asked them.
    Both Dragon and Mazoku turned, looking upon the face of Luna Inverse,
Knight of Ceipheed.
    Luna snapped her fingers, and all three vanished into thin air.

                                   [-*-]

    Across the room, Lina felt a slight breeze.  She turned to look at a
strangely empty space in the room, wondering what it was.  Probably
nothing.  She turned back to the bar.
    "Okay, I'll have a mug of ale," Lina ordered.
    "No alcohol," Gourry said, cutting her off.  "We've got a quest
tonight, right?"
    "C'mon, Gourry, it's just one--"
    "How about some coffee?" Gourry said.  "It keeps you awake and alert."
    Awake and alert was a state Lina was starting to approve of, after the
last few nights.  "Right.  Coffee for me, then.  Strongest stuff they've
got!"
    "Umm.. I'll have a glass of milk," Myth said.  "It's good for your
bones."
    "And I'll have the Ultra Fudge Ripple Slam Chocolate, Boysenberry and
Mint Chip Shake Deluxe," Gourry said, reading each word in turn off a
nearby menu.
    "I don't get it, though..." Lina said, glancing around.  "Pretty
ordinary bar.  Why did you say this was the 'funnest place in Sailoon'?"
    "Huh?  You don't know why?" Gourry asked.  "It's... okay, take a look
over at the stage.  See that guy there?"
    Lina turned on her barstool, glancing at the spotlight cast on the
stage.  A small band was playing a popular tune, and the singer was singing
it... very badly.  A young boy held cue cards off to the side, prompting
him with the lyrics.  A few folks in the crowd were actively booing and
hissing at the singer, who was a bit nervous.
    "What about him?" Lina asked.  "So the floor show is weak.  What--"
    The booing got louder, and suddenly a high pressure hose hooked up to a
barrel of water cut loose, blasting the guy.  He ran off stage quickly,
there was applause, and a judge held up a score of 27.
    "If you do really bad, you get the hose," Gourry grinned.  "It's a
Karoke Bar!  People can sing songs and if they get a score of 95 or better,
they can take home a trophy.  It's really fun!  I got an 87 once, before we
left Sailoon."
    "Karoke," Lina said, dumbfounded.  "You took us to a KAROKE bar?"
    "Sure," Gourry said.  "It's my treat.  I wanted to take you somewhere
nice and fun, Lina.  Get your mind off all the problems we've been having
lately.  Ne?"
    Well... his heart was in the right place, Lina thought.  She gave him a
smile.  "Thanks, Gourry.  So, what'll you be singing for us?"
    "Actually, I thought you two might like to sing," Gourry said, fetching
a list of available music from a stack of papers on the bar.  "It only
takes about a half hour to get into the rotation and be on stage, so--"
    "Sing?" Myth said, horrified.  "On stage?  But.. but it's
embarrassing!"
    "Don't you tell stories on stage?" Gourry asked, confused.
    "Uh, yes, but... singing is totally different," Myth said, taking a
copy of the song list.  "It's all verse chorus verse, no real structure at
all like a really good story, and if your voice cracks it sounds all
wrong.  I can't think of a single thing I could possibly... whoa, they have
'The Ballad of the Wreck of the Old '49er'?"
    "Uh-huh," Gourry said.
    "Plenty of interesting narrative in that..." Myth said, musing it over.
    But Lina put up more resistance.  "No.  Nada.  No way.  No how.  Not
happening.  Not a chance.  Never going to occur in your lifetime.  Forget
it, skip it, move on, I am NOT going to sing."
    She took a sip of her coffee, which was so black that light had trouble
escaping it.  Her body vibrated for a moment.
    "Whoawhattheheckisinthis?" Lina asked.  "Everythingsmovingslowlynow!"
    "You said you wanted the strongest thing," Gourry said.  "That's also
why I picked this place.  Very good coffee."
    "WellanywayIwon'tbesingingGourrysoyoucanjustforgetitbecauseI
can'tsingandIwon'tmakeafoolofmyself," Lina blurred.
    "Awww, come on," Gourry said.  "I bet you'd have a pretty voice."
    "BetIwouldn't," Lina said.
    "Pleeease?"
    "OhFINE!" Lina said, moving too fast to want to argue about it
anymore.  She jabbed her finger on a random song.  "I'llsingthisone!
SeethatIdon't!!"

                                   [-*-]

    Quite a distance away, over the middle of nowhere (unrelated to the
middle of Noh Wheir), three figures, a table, a candlelit placesetting and
two drinks materialized five hundred feet over the ground.
    The table dropped, but Bugger managed to rescue his drink before it
plunged into the forest below.
    "That was very rude," Angela said, maintaining a cool status in front
of the Knight of Ceipheed.  "Snatching us away like that.  Didn't He teach
you better manners, human?"
    "Nope," Luna said, in her usual clipped way of talking, eyes hidden by
her bangs, mouth smiling.  "Work better this way."
    "This is a conspiracy, isn't it?" Bugger asked.  He took a last swig
from his bottle, and tossed it aside.  "You planned all along to sell my
poor little Mazoku bum to the Dragons.  I just bet.  It'd round off a
perfectly lousy day, I can tell you."
    Luna ignored Bugger, continuing to address Angela.  "You cheated," she
said.  "Nominated yerself."
    Refusing to show any concern, Angela gave a shrug.  "So?  I have been
doing my task as appointed.  Perhaps using unorthodox methods, but you are
certainly familiar with going outside the lines.  In fact, is that not your
reason for being?"
    "You're fired," Luna said.  "Ceipheed's orders."
    "Fine, fine," Angela said.  "Just kick me while I'm down, why don't
you.  I swear, this is not going to be enjoyable, facing everybody when I
return--"
    "New orders for ya," Luna said.  "Under me.  Got it?"
    "And if I refuse?" Angela asked.
    "Don't," Luna suggested.
    The waitress cum Knight of Ceipheed and enigmatic human agent for the
Dragons who happened to be Lina's sister spotted Bugger, as he tried to
sneak away.
    "Hey," she called.
    Bugger turned, readying a black fireball.  "Okay, okay!  I can sneak
off AFTER a fight.  Bugger's got no bloody problem with that--"
    "New orders for ya," Luna said.  "If you want."
    The Mazoku quirked an eyebrow.  "The hell?  A Dragon sneak telling a
Mazoku what to do?"
    "Blackmail," Luna informed him.  And left it at that.
    Bugger tried to work out the logistics, and failed.  "What's that
supposed to mean?"
    "I... believe I know," Angela said.  "What our short spoken colleague
here is saying is that she'll turn you into Zelas-Metallum if you don't
help her.  Did I neglect to mention that Luna, through some twisted
reasoning which I'm shocked the Dragons don't disapprove of, is friends
with Beastmaster?  I doubt our working in secret will remain a secret now."
    The Mazoku's heart fell into his stomach.  "Oh, hell.  OH, BLOODY
HELL!  You'd do that, wouldn't you, you sadistic human tart?  Just ruin
Bugger's life completely, you would!"
    "Yep," Luna said, smiling.
    "Don't that beat all," Bugger grumbled.  "Fine.  So what do you got for
me?"
    Luna told them.
    "HELP her?!" Angela and Bugger shrieked in unison.

                                   [-*-]

    The sun started to set when Lina and Company finally got back to the
castle.
    Myth was walking tall, quite proud of herself.  The trophy was pretty
heavy to carry, but she had won it quite skillfully if she did say so
herself, which she had said at least three times now.
    Lina just dripped, leaving little puddles of cold water as she walked.
Nothing's worse than being shocked back into reality after a coffee high by
a water hose.
    Once again, there were no trumpets or vast celebrations at their
arrival.  The gate guards simply gave a nod of recognition, directed Lina
to Dayvid's Lab, and let them be.
    "Hospitality seems to be at an all time low," Lina grumbled, as they
made their way through the maze of palace hallways.
    "Does it really matter, though?" Gourry said.  "We're here on business
and stuff, right?  So we shouldn't make a big scene."
    "I was kind of hoping for a big scene," Lina said, approaching the door
to the lab.  "You know, fireworks, cheering and yelling, that sort of
thing..."
    Lina turned the doorknob, and stepped into the apocalypse.
    Elemental fire fluttered near, threatening to scorch her eyebrows.
There were plenty of small midair explosions, in various colors, in
addition to plenty of yelling and panic -- then it all stopped.
    Dayvid sat on the floor, panting and white as a sheet.  A woman in a
lab coat finished making a modification to a blackboard filled with math.
    "I see what went wrong.  Forgot to carry the two," Reason said.  "Sorry
about that.  It should work now."
    Dayvid was hysterical.  "But... but!--"
    "It's reasonable to make a mistake from time to time," Reason said,
stepping past the dazed scientist to greet Lina.  "Hello.  Sorry about the
floor show.  We're just about ready to send you to Paradox's lair."
    "...huh?  I mean.. how'd you know?" Lina said.  "We just thought of
that this morning!  Are you telepathic?"
    "No, it's just the most logical conclusion one could come to," Reason
shrugged.  "The minute I heard you were gathering the wingless I realized
you had no way to reach Paradox, and I'd have to lend a hand."
    "Gosh, that's pretty nice of her," Gourry said.
    "So... you came to Sailoon?" Lina asked.  "Why?  I wasn't here."
    "Oh, I didn't need you," Reason said.  "I needed Dayvid.  He's
potentially more skilled with magic and has the ulterior emotional
motivation of rescuing his father, and he could understand the higher forms
of thaumatology required to make the gateway since he had cast something
similar once before in addition to having dealt with Paradox once already.
In actuality, you're extraneous transportable goods for the operation.
Cargo, if you will."
    Lina stood and stared.  Confusion shifted quickly over to anger.
    "No offense intended, of course," Reason said, and then went right back
to her calculations on the board.
    "Cargo!?" Lina barked.  "I'll have you know I'm considerably more
important than--"
    "You're filling a prophecy rather than having filled one," Reason said,
not looking away from her writing.  "You could still fail, as the others
have.  In which case, while it's important to lend aid, you haven't won the
position of honor that you seek and therefore are not important to the span
of history as of yet.  Try to keep things in rational perspective, Lina.
Ego tends to trip up famous leaders throughout all of time."
    "She's right, actually," Myth piped in with.  "I've written plenty of
morality plays about how hubris can lead to--"
    Lina cast her a Sharp Look you could cut depleted uranium on.
    "--but they could have been flukes," Myth concluded.
    Dayvid, having recovered most of his wits, decided to take over and try
to calm things down.  "Um.  It's just that Reason likes to work
mathematically with magic rather than with spells and rhymes, see... and
I'm very good at math.  Not that you're bad at math, Lina!  But... um.
It's a very complex spell designed to bust through all the security Paradox
has placed around his reality bubble, and it has to be done in a sneaky way
he won't notice, so we've been working on it for days, and... well, when it
works, that's when you take over."
    Lina, calming somewhat, nodded.  "Because I have to confront the guy.
Right.  So!  Let's fire up the spell, and go get him!"
    "The spell will take five hours to cast, allowing for minor in-course
alterations in the code," Reason said.  "Go get a good night's rest and
we'll do it in the morning."
    Lina froze.  "A good night's rest?  But.. hey, it's okay.  I can stay
up late.  Let's get this thing up to speed!  Got a quest to do here--"
    "The challenge with Paradox could go on for a long time, and you need
rest," Reason said.  "We won't leave until morning.  Excuse me, I have work
to do."
    Reason fetched a book, flipped exactly to page 247 without looking and
started to refine the equations.
    "But... but I can't..." Lina protested.
    Dayvid whispered to Lina in an aside.  "It's best not to bug her when
she says she has work to do.  She won't hear you, anyway.  Don't worry,
we've got your quarters upstairs prepared just like they were."
    "I don't want to go to bed," Lina said, almost like a kid begging her
dad to let her stay up a few more hours.
    "Sorry," Dayvid shrugged.  He turned to his part of the spell, and
started adding up numbers.
    Gourry placed a hand on Lina's shoulder.
    "Don't worry," he smiled.  "Remember the plan?  I'll just wake you up
every few hours.  You'll be fine."
    Except that means YOU won't get any sleep, Lina thought.

                                   [-*-]

    The Royal Princess's Quarters have big, heavy, nasty doors.  Dayvid
tried tugging at them again, without much luck; they were locked tight.
    He really didn't deserve this.  He was a man of logic and reason, who
was fully capable of entering in any sort of debate with a good sense of
improvised logic; but Amelia wasn't exactly behaving logically.  Dayvid,
whose life at sea with no companions save thick textbooks and funny
machines, lacked any experience whatsoever with girls.  Nobody had written
a comprehensive book about them, after all.
    But still, he persisted with trying to plead with Amelia.  He was,
after all, friends with her as far as he could tell, and didn't want to
just let this slide.  Sure he was busy with all this magical study (which
he was beginning to see more as another kind of science, rather than an
esoteric spiritual thingamabob) but that didn't mean he could just ignore
Amelia.  Actually, when she was like this, it was rather impossible to even
attempt to ignore her.
    He summoned his remaining will, and launched a final strategy.
    "Please?" he begged through the door.
    "Go away!" Amelia demanded.
    So much for that.
    He probably should just give it up, and give Amelia a chance to cool
down.  Talk to her tomorrow, after the spellcasting.  That would be the
sensible thing to do.  She was just a crazy princess.  He didn't care THAT
much how she felt, right?  Right?
    Ten minutes later he was dangling out the window in an improvised
harness attached to a rope he had secured using a standard knotting
technique, and trying to bungee his way down to Amelia's window.  He
managed to do this without concern by thinking of anything other than how
insane it was.
    The gambit worked, except he hadn't counted on Amelia's window being
closed when he got there, and he forgot that while shimmying down a rope
was easy, climbing back up took more physical effort than he was capable of
giving.  Dayvid dangled there in the dim light of early evening, politely
knocking on the window, hoping Amelia would notice -- as she was busy
moping in bed.
    Amelia looked up, after a minute or two of this.
    "Aaaaa!!!" she yelled, which alone might have been enough to shatter
the window.  She ran over, staring at Dayvid through the glass.  "What are
you DOING!?"
    "Can I please come in?  It's cold," Dayvid said, not looking down, not
looking down, not looking down...
    Amelia quickly unlatched her window, and swung it open.  Dayvid dangled
there, his arms flailing around to grab onto something; he took Amelia's
hand and pulled himself inside, undoing the release on his primitive rope
harness and falling into the room on his face.
    Any entrance you can walk away from is a good one, he hoped, getting up
and trying to look dignified.  "Um.  Hi.  Can we talk?"
    Crisis averted, Amelia went back into Snit mode.  "Why should I talk to
you?  You don't even like me," she said, snitting away freely.
    "I do too like you!" Dayvid protested.  "I like you a lot!"
    "Certainly aren't showing it!"
    Dayvid tried to fall back onto debating methods.  "Okay, look... give
meee... two and a half minutes.  That's all, and if you're not convinced,
I'll go back out the window and won't bug you again.  Is that fair?"
    Amelia thought about it.  "Fair," she agreed.
    "And you have to promise not to talk when I'm talking."
    "But--"
    "Shh," Dayvid said.  "Right.  I don't want to get married.  But that's
not because I don't like you!  It's because I like you too much to dive
headfirst into something like that.  Yes, we get along well, yes we work
well together, but... it's too early to be thinking about anything like
that.  I mean, we're both young, I just met you maybe a few weeks ago, and
these things take time, and... and..."
    Rule number one about debating was always to have enough research done
to know what you're talking about.  Dayvid didn't have any.  He was
wobbling at the podium.  Taking a deep breath, he just decided to talk from
the gut and hope it all worked out.
    "Look... Amelia," he said, relaxing slightly.  "You're a really nice
girl, and I'm glad I'm here in Sailoon instead of just bumping from port to
port on the Guppy.  It's been a great few weeks, with a few hiccups, but I
think that's pretty normal; I'd be more worried if there weren't any.  But
this is a pretty big hiccup, you know.  It's just not the right time to
start thinking about weddings.  And that doesn't mean I don't care about
you, just... let's wait, okay?  Let's just wait on this and decide later.
Together, instead of you just announcing one day that you had some
revelation and it's time to hit the chapel... I mean, I get a say in this
too, right?  I haven't had a revelation, and frankly, you're spooking me
with all this.  Maybe if I have one later that'll change and everything'll
work out.  Please?  Um.  Pretty please?"
    Amelia's face was unreadable.  She could be happy, she could be sad,
could be confused... Dayvid felt the need to add something.
    "And NO, nothing's going on with Reason," Dayvid said.  "She likes
mathematics more than me, anyway.  More than breathing, I'd suspect.
Besides, I'm not planning on dating any other girls."
    That softened her a bit.  "Umm..." she started, not sure what to say.
Eventually she decided.  "Okay."
    "Okay?" Dayvid asked.  "Really?"
    "Sure," Amelia said, smiling now.  "Sorry, I just... it's hard to
explain!  I just woke up that day feeling so much in love with things, and
I just realized how I REALLY felt, and I had to act on it, and... well, I
guess I got a little crazy.  Hee hee."
    "You sure it wasn't just that weirdo magic the Dragon put on you?"
Dayvid asked.  "I mean, Reason said it probably wasn't, but--"
    "Oh, no, it was there before.  I just never saw it," Amelia said.  "I
had a lot of time to think about it, and could think really clearly about
it for some reason.  I thought you felt that way too.  I got really worried
when you reacted like you did, but I thought it was obvious before that...
you've been looking at me funny ever since HappyWorld, you know--"
    "Have not," Dayvid flushed.
    "--and you keep suggesting we go out for dinner and stuff after working
on the plans for the Sailoon Waterpark or whatever you're doing in the
lab--"
    "I was hungry," Dayvid explained.  "That's normal, right?"
    "--and there was the box of chocolates you gave me on Pumping Heart Day
a week ago," Amelia said.  "With a little card addressed to Amelia-chan."
    "Uh... aren't those customary in this country?" Dayvid said.  "I don't
know too much about Saileese holidays, and um, I didn't, uh--"
    "Actually, what really clinched it for me was your diary," Amelia said,
fetching it from a nearby table.
    Dayvid's face exploded with red hues.  "WHAA?!  Amelia, you read my--"
    "You left it out in the open behind a portrait in a locked wall safe
that any crowbar and three servants applying pressure could get at," Amelia
said.  "I just sort of stumbled across it when I was wondering if you were
doing something funny with Reason the other day.  Sorry!  I guess jealousy
can do some funny things, huh?"  And she giggled.
    Dayvid made a mental note never to cross someone in the Sailoon royal
family again.  It was potentially fatal or embarrassing or both.
    Flipping through the diary, Amelia read. "'Ever since Dad had to go out
of his way to point it out, I think I've got a crush on Amelia.  She's
really pretty and very nice, if a bit scary from time to time, and I find
myself really looking forward to getting back to Sailoon and working on
this park she likes.  Although I wouldn't have the faintest idea what to do
about the crush itself, so I think I'll just keep it quiet and hope it's
just a phase of mine.  Besides, she probably doesn't like me that way, at
least not that she's saying.'  Gosh, Dayvid!  I was in denial the whole
time but you knew and were too polite to say anything.  That's so sweet!"
    "Uhh... uh..."
    "But you're right.  We should wait," Amelia said, nodding.  "It's the
mature thing to do.  It's a good thing I've got someone as sensible as you
around, when I get all impulsive and stuff!  Thanks, Dayvid.  You've really
cleared things up for me."
    With that, she gave him a cute little peck on the cheek.
    Some sort of chemical reaction fired into Dayvid's brain like a pink
mortar round.  "Ah... you're welcome," he smiled.  "...Amelia-chan?"
    Amelia's face lit up like a really really bright shiny object.
"Thanks, Dayvid-kun!"
    Dayvid relaxed.  Sure, he was still weirded out, but it was a
good-feeling weird.  "Glad we could talk.  Not that anything feels less
confusing, but... anyway.  Can I use the door on my way out this time?"
    In proud standing with her other mood swings, Amelia shifted once more.
    "Actually," she said, voice quiet and purr-like, "Now that we've got an
understanding, I had a silly idea..."

                                   [-*-]

    Naturally, Lina made Gourry wait in the hall while she changed into her
pajamas.  She made sure every button was done on them, too.
    This was mild to moderately embarrassing for her.
    True, Gourry had stayed in her room once before... back on the Island
of Ultimate Despair.  And it was under similar circumstances, but... why
should she need him to watch over her like this?  True, waking her every
hour was a logically sound idea, but Lina wished she didn't need the help
in the first place.
    Was she relying on Gourry too much?  For things she shouldn't need to
rely on anybody for?  She wasn't some little kid anymore, she was Lina
Inverse, after all.  Genius sorceress supreme!  Able to overcome any
obstacle, leap any bound with her clever wit and gratuitous application of
highly destructive -- err -- careful control of the forces of magic.
    Of course, part of her was relieved to have Gourry around.  It wasn't
going to be a fun night, and now that the secret was out, at least she had
some sympathy and some help from him -- from her other friends too, of
course...
    Lina decided to stop thinking about the reasons why, and simply to do
it.  She opened the door for Gourry.
    "Okay, come on in," she said.  "All set."
    Gourry peeked to make sure the coast was clear, then entered; in full
armor with sword.
    "What's all that for?" Lina asked.
    "Oh, you never know with these weird monster types," Gourry said.
"Just in case some big black weirdo pops out of you or something, I want to
be ready.  Besides, it's not all that uncomfortable.  Good Testabournian
armor.  My Uncle Rami made it, you see, and--"
    "Sorry I have to put you through the trouble of all this," Lina
interrupted.
    But Gourry dismissed the idea.  "Don't worry.  I'd be happy to.  And
you need your rest, right?  Right.  I'll just sit over here in the corner,
pretend I'm not here."
    Gourry moved a chair over to his designated sitspot, and put a portable
hourglass on the table near him.  He sat down, and twiddled his thumbs,
waiting for 59 minutes to pass.
    Climbing way, way under the covers, Lina attempted to sleep.
    Not easy, considering she didn't want to.
    "You know why I wanted to get a move on today, Gourry?" Lina decided to
admit.
    "Hmm?"
    "I was actually hoping we could finish the entire quest in one day,"
Lina said.  "Seemed simple enough... get to Reason, use her to get to
Paradox, hit Paradox with all the magic I have and trap him, get the spell
from Xelloss then go after Nightmare, quick quick quick... before I'd have
to go back to bed.  Heh.  Silly, isn't it?"
    "Could've worked that way," Gourry said.  "Just that it didn't.  But
it's okay.  You'll get him eventually.  Besides, you've got help, ne?  Me
and Myth."
    "I don't like asking for help," Lina muttered, starting to doze.
    "Oh, I know," Gourry said, cheerful.  "But that's okay, because I like
to give help anyway to people I care about.  Wanna hear something
interesting, Lina?"
    "Mm," Lina sounded, eyes closing.
    "I'm supposed to be a mercenary," Gourry said.  "That's what I trained
to be when I left home.  But I thought the job was pretty boring, the few
quests and things I went on... when I met you I thought it'd be a short
bodyguard job, like I was used to.  And I decided I shouldn't bother
charging any fees.  I just sort of went along.  And after awhile I forgot
about being a mercenary completely.  I know the job never really appealed
to me, but I think it was mostly because I was enjoying traveling with
you..."
    He looked at Lina, who was very still under the blankets, and smiled.
    "I know you told me back at home that we were just hunting treasure and
you could replace me with Naga," Gourry said.  "But I don't think you
will.  I know I wouldn't want to be partners with anyone else.  As for why,
actually... I think I'm in love with you, from what I've figured out.  I
don't know how that all works because Aunt Koirry just told me to do what I
felt is right, so I'll just help you out like I usually do and spend time
with you for now.  Seems right, and I'd want to do that anyway.  You think
that'll work, Lina?"
    "ZZZzzzzzz..." Lina replied.
    "Yeah, I think that'll work," Gourry said, agreeing with himself.  He
glanced over at the hourglass, and waited.

                                   [-*-]

    Waking up every hour put Lina into a surreal state of
consciousness.  Dreaming awake, awake while dreaming, mixed between the two
in ways that Nightmare was trying to pull her out of, and Gourry was trying
to tug her into.  Like one thick layer of butter spread on a slice of
bread, Lina dreamed of horrors and terrors, of Gourry poking her awake, of
her bed and her feet and running and flying and running to Gourry and away
from Nightmare...
    She could feel, on at least one level, that it was working.  Nightmare
had to move slow, as dreams needed buildup, and each time he got close to
her, Gourry was there to stop the music.  And this made the king of dreams
howl in rage, that something so simple should be pulling his treasure out
of his reach...
    Finally, Lina woke up in the morning, and woke up for good.  She wasn't
very refreshed, but at least she didn't wake up in a flight of fear.
Instead, she simply yawned, stretched, and carried on like any other
morning.
    "Did it work?" Gourry asked.  He had baggy circles under his eyes,
clearly from not sleeping a wink, but kept up a genuine smile.
    "You know, I think it did," Lina said.  "He didn't figure out a way
around it.  I think we got him licked, Gourry."
    "Glad I could help," Gourry smiled.  "We're going to raid Paradox's
place today, right?"
    "Not you," Lina told him.  "You need some sleep.  You're a mess,
Gourry."
    "But I have to come with you," Gourry said.  "Don't you need my help?"
    "No," Lina said.  "Now, get that hurt look off your face.  Paradox is
not the kind of guy you can wave a sword at, and if you do, he probably
could do a lot of damage to you in return.  There isn't much you can do
against him, and I need you rested and ready for tonight.  Reason and Myth
are coming, and maybe Amelia if she isn't still stomping around in a
lover's quarrel.  I'll be fine."
    "But--"
    "No buts," Lina said, putting a finger to Gourry's lips.  "Trust me.
Okay?  Just trust me on this one."
    Gourry looked doubtful, but decided to put some faith on the table.  "I
trust you," he said.  "I'll get some rest.  Night night!"
    His head sank and his eyes closed and he was instantly asleep, still
sitting in his chair.
    Lina groaned.  The big oaf wasn't gonna get any rest THAT way, in a
wooden chair.  She nudged the chair and its surprisingly heavy occupant
(must be the armor) over to her bed, then stepped back, and rushed the
chair, slamming into it from behind--
    WHUMF.  Gourry tipped forward out of the chair and onto Lina's bed,
face first.  Maybe it wasn't the most comfy of sleeping postures, but it
was better than nothing.  Task done, Lina got dressed and ambled
downstairs.

                                   [-*-]

    In the Great Hall of Sailoon Palace, the war party was assembled.
    Reason had a large stack of notes on thaumatology with her.  On it were
inscribed numbers and syllables of chant, as well as power flux dampening
sluice gates for magical energies and patterning formulas.  She had put on
a cleaner lab coat, but other than that, made no extra preparations.
    Amelia, however, had decided the best way to go on this journey was in
her costume... her NEW costume.  Lina winced, remembering her last
encounter with 'Sailor Justice', and quietly hoped that she would not be
making any longwinded speeches.  It was probably a slim hope.
    Dayvid was another matter.  He was grinning stupidly for some reason,
tagging along after Amelia like someone had dumped a layer of gauze on his
brain.  His shirt was also on backwards, but Lina didn't point it out.
    "So!" Lina said, reviewing the troops.  "Are we ready to go kick some
wingless behind?"
    "YEAH!" Amelia cheered.
    "All set to go traipsing across the known realities and bust down the
doors of Paradox?"
    "Suure," Dayvid smiled.
    "Are locked and loaded, primed and pumped, and ready to GET IT ON?!"
Lina asked, pep running high.
    "Affirmative," Reason said simply.
    "RIGHT!" Lina exclaimed, holding a fist to the sky!  "Then let's HAVE
SOME BREAKFAST!"
    "We don't have time," Reason said.  "We should start off immediately.
The longer we wait, the more chance he has to prepare."
    "I don't fight overpowered antagonists on an empty stomach," Lina
indicated.  "It's a major ruling guideline in my life."
    Reason sighed.  The one thing she couldn't handle were irrational
people.  She pulled a small pill from her pocket, and passed it to Lina.
"There you go."
    Lina peered at it.  "Little.  Yellow.  Different.  What's this thing?"
    "Breakfast," Reason said.  "It's my own magically compressed full
course meal.  Easy to digest, and rich in nutritional value.  Very
efficient means of obtaining daily vitamins and minerals."
    "What fun is that?" Lina asked, holding the pill up to study it in
distaste.
    "It's not supposed to be fun.  It's supposed to facilitate mealtimes."
    "Bleah," Lina said.  "Oh, fine.  The sacrifices I make for god's little
quests, honestly..."
    She swallowed the pill.  It tasted like chalk.
    "Sorry, my mistake," Reason said, passing Lina a white pill.  "That was
my chalk."
    The second one actually tasted worse.
    Reason passed the stack of paper to the dazed Dayvid.  "Here you go.
You may start casting the spell."
    "Huh?" Dayvid said, looking away from Amelia, to read the papers.  "Oh,
right.  Spell."
    "You seem to be experiencing an emotional backwash," Reason said.  "Are
you fully capable of spellcasting, or should we wait and do this tomorrow?"
    "Today," Lina said quickly.  "We do it today.  Get to work, Dayvid."

                                   [-*-]

    Every universe has a number of pockets.  Places where will has burned
hard enough to melt a hole in reality, pushing a bubble into the fabric of
space and time.  In those pockets, the laws of physics tend not to apply in
full... as if one had shredded the law book that ensures the smooth
operation of the world and spread out the pages in a decorative pattern.
    Paradox hated it when humans made places like that.  They ruined the
flawless mechanics of the universe, the ticking clock that he felt
responsible for inventing.  Was he not the one who theorized Hours?  And
Days, Days were a good touch, including a Sun to guide them by and divide
them into light and dark.  It was so elegant.  And they DARED to mess with
his creations?  (He refused to acknowledge that absurd notion that the Lord
of Nightmares was the real creator of such things.)
    Of course, this anger at those who would violate the machine didn't
stop Paradox from ignoring his own laws when he felt like it.  Which is how
his home was made, a mushy blob on reality's fabric, assembled of
hypocrisy, tended to with loving care.  It was guarded by levels of hard
reality, where existence of humans was impossible.  Nothing could get in or
out without his permission.  He was lord and king.
    So he believed.  Reason felt otherwise, as the spell she and the young
protégé Dayvid had assembled wormed its way past every single defense
Paradox implemented, slithering through known and unknown angles until it
opened a simple doorway from Point A in Sailoon to Point B in Somewhere
Else Entirely.
    Lina stepped into the new world, feeling the old one tug at her like a
sticky substance she was breaking free of.
    The landscape was dominated by fractal trees, with melting clocks
keeping perfect time as they dripped off the nearly wooden branches.  It
was bleak and featureless, everything ticking along in sync, like a low,
second-counted rumble across the land.
    "Cute," Lina said.  She finished examining the land, and turned to her
partners.  "Okay.  Reason, have you ever been here before?  What sort of
resistance can we expect?"
    "I don't know, I never bothered to come here," Reason said.  "We don't
get along.  I think it's perfectly reasonable to be able to do a lot of
things he thinks should be patently impossible."
    "You've never bothered to...?  But you made that spell!"
    "So you could use it," Reason said.  "Necessity is the aunt of
invention.  Beyond this, it's up to you and Dayvid to free Xelloss and
capture Paradox.  That's not my job.  I do have one recommendation,
however..."
    "Namely?"
    "Don't bother trying to fight him with magic," Reason said.  "This is
his world and it's reasonable to expect him to prevent you from using its
magical powers against him.  Good luck.  I'll be waiting back in Sailoon.
Dayvid will open a doorway back for you.  Goodbye."
    "Hey, WAIT!" Lina demanded.  "What do you--"
    Reason stepped through the doorway, which promptly twisted itself shut
after her.
    "Oooh, you LITTLE.... rgh!" Lina growled.  "Fat lot of help you are.
Hmph... Amelia?  Where'd you run off to?"
    Amelia popped up from behind one of the melting clocks, followed by a
still dazed Dayvid.  "Hai, Lina-san?" Amelia asked.
    "We've been abandoned," Lina said.  "C'mon, we've got to find Paradox
and get out of here."
    "Right!  Sailor Justice is on the case!!" Amelia said, posing.  She
paused, and turned to Dayvid.  "Hey, would you like to wear a tuxedo?"
    "Suure," Dayvid smiled.  Then his senses snapped into sharp relieved.
"Wha?  Huh?  No!  I like my clothes just fine the way they are!"
    "Ah, poo," Sailor Justice pouted.  "Ne, Lina-san, where is this Paradox
guy?"
    "He lives somewhere around here," Lina figured.  "So if we split up and
look for--"
    --twisting around her, the ground itself bending through optical
tweaks, grabbing the three of them and shifting them through solid objects
and on and on stretching beyond conceivable possibility and landing in
    A glass sphere.
    Lina's brain oriented itself to this weird place again, having been
dragged to a new location.  She saw clocks -- countless numbers of them,
not hanging on anything except the air, in a limitless void of a room...
She was inside a sphere, with identical spheres nearby containing
unconscious forms of Dayvid and Amelia, as well as--
    "Xelloss??!" Lina gasped.
    The trickster priest looked up at Lina weakly, through his good eye;
the other was terribly bruised.  In fact, the guy was a total mess, with
signs of a serious beating, a few floggings and worse -- all without his
priests robes being removed.  He slumped against the floor of his sphere,
and tried to focus on her.
    "Oh dear..." he said, after coughing.  "He got you.  I'm terribly
sorry, Lina..."
    "Pathetic!!"
    A man wearing a cloak of stars and moons stormed over to the glass
prisons.  He glared at Lina angrily.
    "Here I was expecting some big challenge from you, the one who's
filling that damn prophecy," Paradox said.  "And you get snagged so easily
when I change the universe to relocate you here.  How did you worm your way
by Loathing and the others if you're this sloppy?  It must not have been
your companions; they didn't put up much of a fight when I told their
bodies they were asleep."
    Lina chewed on her lip.  This wasn't the best way to start things, was
it?
    "Simple," Lina explained, tossing some who-cares attitude into her
voice.  "I let myself get captured.  It was certainly faster than trying to
track you down, since you could easily have hidden yourself."
    Paradox flinched.  "Oh?  Trying some of that inverted psychiatry on
me?"
    Xelloss pulled himself up to standing, weakly.  "It's 'reverse
psychology', Paradox-kun," Xelloss taunted.  He was still smiling, despite
being in clear pain.  "Perhaps if you would read a book now and then other
than Billy Bunny Bumps His Nose, you'd know that.  Although your lips would
move while you read it--"
    "That's enough out of you!" Paradox shouted, knocking on Xelloss's
glass.  "You're trapped, you stupid little ex-Mazoku!  When will you get it
through your head that I WON?!"
    "I'm sure I'll get a Get Out Of Jail Free Card any minute now," Xelloss
said, giving Lina a wink.
    A wink... meaning... Lina tried to figure it out, fast.  Clearly the
trickster was trying to give her a signal.  Paradox was red in the face and
flaming angry from being teased.  Was that the way to get out of here?
Power wouldn't cut it, Reason said.  Lina decided to make a try.
    "You know, for someone with command of any physics he cares to invent,
you're really unimaginative," Lina said, refusing to show any nervousness,
keeping cooler than the hotheaded wingless.
    "Is that so?" Paradox said, stalking over to face Lina, outside her
prison sphere.  "Strong talk from someone who's already lost."
    "Lost what?" Lina asked.  "I don't recall playing any game.  Did you,
Xelloss?"
    "The very slightest thought of the possible coincidence of perhaps
engaging in some kind of competitive activity never crossed my senses,"
Xelloss responded, playing along.
    "And what sort of game did you WANT to play, then?" Paradox said,
crossing his arms.  "Poker?  Go fish?  Bonkers?"
    "It'd be a start," Lina shrugged.  "Unless you want to just keep me in
this silly thing without REALLY testing me.  You think you can beat me?  I
don't think you have the balls.  Other than your glass ones, of course--"
    Lightning stabbed through Lina's spine, Paradox losing his cool
completely and deciding to strike out.  "You talkin' to me?  Are YOU
talkin' to me, Lina Inverse?!  Let's go!  Right here, right now!"  He cut
off the electricity with a sharp snap.
    Lina willed herself not to show any signs of agony, and glared up at
Paradox.  "A game, then," she said.  "I win, you're mine.  You win, I'm
yours.  Simple enough even for you to understand."
    "I'll pick the game," Paradox said.  "Objections?"
    Of course Lina had objections.  Very big ones.  But if she backed down
now, Paradox might lose interest in this single chance for her escape...
    "None whatsoever," she declared.
    "FINE!" Paradox shouted, throwing his hands up, forming a bubble of
reality.  Inside, Lina vaguely saw rain... "A game of you, then!  Find your
way back to who you are, and win.  Sink inescapably into the mind of the
other and you belong to my partner, Nightmare, to do with as he plans!  Are
you ready, Lina Inverse?"
    Xelloss's eyes opened wide in concern, his usual smiling eyes deadly
serious.  He quickly pressed himself to the glass, whispering half audibly
and half telepathically.  "Remember what you most want to return to," he
said.  "That's the path.  I've played this--"
    Fire flooded Xelloss's sphere briefly, scorching him.
    "NO SPOILERS!" Paradox yelled.  "Game's on, Lina!"
    And she fell, and fell sideways into the bubble world in Paradox's
hands--

                                   [-=-]

    Rain poured from the sky in sheets of liquid, falling from clouds
the color of television tuned to a dead channel.  Streets got watered like
gardens, sidewalk weeds the only thing green and verdant in the waking
world.  Shifting gray zeotrope images flickered high above, the massive
holograms of Fuji Electric and Sony unable to cope with the foul weather.
It was one of those mornings where Layla usually just crawled back under
the polyester sheets of her futon and wished it all away.
    She was beginning to regret a lot of decisions lately, and would regret
getting up today.  But it needed doing.
    Slowly, she crawled out of the bed, slamming a hand down on her clock
radio.  Coffee in the coffee maker, so drink.  Toothpaste on the
toothbrush, so scrub.  Get ready for the day.  The day's run.  The daily
bread.
    Nagging at her was this sense of something being wrong.  That was
normal, on days when she had a run to do, but it felt stronger than most.
More than a general 'this time, I won't make it back' or 'this time, the
black ice is gonna get me'.  She felt... wrong.
    Console jockeys couldn't feel wrong.  Feeling wrong was the hate trip,
the ego killer, the clumsy death.  Work those dry dreads away, sip the
coffee, be ready to move.  Layla was ready to move.
    She grabbed the least unfashionable things she had and put them on,
quickly; a flash mix of business gear and casual, showing skin, but showing
style.  You couldn't even set foot into the Underwire if you looked like
some yup on vacation who wandered into Chiba City.  Style points get you
noticed, get you connections.  Nerd points just got you ignored.
    Move fast, stay hot.  Layla grabbed her umbrella, lit up the florescent
tube in the handle, and joined the fray.

                                   [-=-]

    Underwire ran underneath the subway.  It was real down, down and deep,
stairs so steep the health commission wanted them shut down; not that it
would stop anybody from going there.  This was the hot scene, the place
where the dance of biz was parlayed, where things got done.  It was where
Layla first met Mif.
    Mif had a weird job for her, a burn and run on eight systems, searching
for key genetic data.  She didn't know why Layla had to go look for it.
She wasn't much help in getting it, save the few fast ones she'd pull to
keep Layla out of hock with zaibatsu security... it was all some task
ordered on high by the LoNnet, according to Mif.  The girl practically was
religious about it.
    Why Layla, though?  There were plenty of other hackers, ice crackers
and freewheeling cowboys and cowgirls.  Layla was a cowgirl par excellence,
as she saw herself, and had burned systems like Phribi Zoan and Gaavisoft,
but that didn't make her stand out.  She ran bandit runs, burning down
pirate archives for the reward money.  That was her primary goal in life.
    But Mif insisted, it had to be her.  She would be rewarded.  The risk
was high, the challenge steep.  Layla took the job.  The first few data
havens were easy to crack, but the last few... harder.  And the next one
hardest so far.  She would be meeting Mif and her companions here, in the
Underwire, to go over the final details.
    Descend the stairs, step step.  Open the door.
    The back alley ambiance was maintained with eternal vigilance.  Seedy
as hell and about as pleasant.  Upper class cowgirls get the swank places
with fine wines and comfortable chairs, but Layla was never interested in
pulling hideously rich jobs... they didn't appeal.
    She had to smirk, though, at the newbie bartender's assistant.  The kid
was always trying to do something to combat the gloom of the Underwire.
He'd gone so far as to put a vase of flowers up near the vodka... yellow
plastic ones, of course, since sunlight was alien to this bar.  You just
had to grin.
    Mif was at a nearby booth, in a hushed chat with two companions.  They
both looked like hardcore techhead junkies, a combination of chromed
goodies on their jackets, trailing wires leading behind their ears and
presumably into their brains.  Real by the numbers people.  Layla had a
seat, flashed the recognition codes, and the chat was on.
    "Hi," Mif said.  "Um.  These are my friends, Rez On and Da5id..." she
said, gesturing to the wireheads.  "They've designed the program to get you
inside ParaDox's cores.  Rez On, this is Layla."
    "Like the tune," Rez On said, nodding along.  "She'll get you on your
knees, begging darlin' please.  I can appreciate the irony in that,
cowgirl.  It took a great deal of math, but you'll find that this is a fire
and forget ice breaker," she explained, sliding the chip across the table.
"This is my prodigy, Da5id.  He did the supplementary numbers--"
    "We've met," Layla nodded.
    "Her friends hired me for transport and penetration once," Da5id
explained.  "On the Happy World run."
    "I've got a good feeling about this," Mif said, smiling in her cheerful
way.  "Everybody knows each other and everything's working well.  Right?"
    "...almost," Layla said.  She was hesitant to bring this up, but... "I
think I picked up a virus on the way out of HThompson's memory palace.
Either of you familiar with the Nitemare virus?  It's been ragging on me
for the last few days, and really bawbing up my sleep..."
    Dull silence over the group.
    "So Nightmare's made his move already," Rez On said.
    "It... that's the software link of Nightmare," Mif said.  "He's the
final waystation you need to invade.  I guess he wants to stop you ahead of
time..."
    "Only way to beat it is to wake every hour, so the code doesn't have a
chance to mesh with your neural patterns," Rez On said.  "And you need
physical movement to do that, so an alarm clock won't cut it.  You got
someone you trust to do that for you?"
    "I..."
    Did she?
    "No," Layla said.  "I'll grin and bear it, then.  Work fast and get
this over with."
    Rez On flashed Layla a look of warning.  "Nightmare can eat you inside
out if you don't stave it off--"
    "I said I'll handle it," Layla said.  "Now what's the details on
tonight's burn?"
    "Slot the codebreaker and you're in," Da5id said.  "After that you
tangle with ParaDox himself.  He won't be happy, and he's got root jacked
up in power on that system.  You'll be in considerable danger, but if you
beat him, you've got the genetic code..."
    "What's this shit for, anyway?" Layla asked, leaning back in her seat.
"Nobody's explained why I'm gathering these codes.  What do they make when
you put them together?"
    Mif looked hesitant.  "...we don't know," she said.  "LoNnet needs the
codes.  She didn't say why.  But it's important for all of us.  Every
human."
    "Uh-huh," Layla said, disbelieving.  "Okay.  I'll be back before
sundown with your precious cargo."
    Ignoring any requests to stay, Layla pocketed the chip and got up,
walking for the door.  She paused, to glance at those ridiculous plastic
flowers again.
    Something's wrong, she told herself.  Something's damn wrong and you
need to figure it out.
    You need to get on with the hack, too.  Get this Nightmare control loop
out of your head, purge your wetware of this garbage... work fast.  Worry
about what's wrong later.
    She took the stairs two at a time, pushing by some Nipponese tourist,
and went into the street, soaking herself head to toe in the rain.  Regret
over leaving her umbrella behind at the Underwire.  Regret over this task
she was railroaded into.  Pushing on, though the city streets, heading back
to her flat, to her work.

                                   [-=-]

    Cup ramen and Jolt were her dinner.  She was a fine gourmand of fast
food; burgers by the double digits, shakes in the nines.  But there just
wasn't any time for that.
    The run wasn't really worrying her.  ParaDox was an unpredictable
bastard, from the GoTo she had done on the guy, but could be dealt with.
What was she gonna do tonight?  Could go to the clubs, find some guy for
the night, do a deal.  Get him to wake her up every hour.  But she didn't
want to do that.  She didn't want some one night stand, it didn't feel
right, and what guarantees did she have that he'd care enough to stay
awake?
    Who did she have that she could trust?  Zelga ran off after the last
run.  Said he had unfinished business, probably the cure for his
disfigurement.  Poor bastard.  Amy... ugh.  No, Amy was too flaky for Layla
to trust her.  And definitely not that bitch Naya, who constantly teased
her and mocked her skills.
    Forget it.  Layla didn't need anybody.  She could fill that hole
herself and not need
    --yellow--
    anyone.
    Flash.  She didn't feel right, cooped up in this apartment.  She should
be out and about, under trees and above grass, running free.  Briefly she
felt like taking a walk to the park, but considered the rapists and gang
bangers and freaks out there and decided against it.  Time to run.
    Layla's deck wasn't any great shakes, but she had the moves with it,
that was sure.  She pulled the contact trodes from a peg on the wall,
shunting the connections into the black slab of biotech processing.
Spreading the black headband of sensors across her scalp, applying a little
paste to keep them there, she took a deep breath, and jacked--
    The Matrix.  The Net.  Online.  Neon green gridlines running from
infinity to infinity; the red pyramid of the Fission Authority, the blue
towering beast of Microsoft, all the familiar landmarks.  Layla was in the
realm of sound and fury, of magic and miracles.  Here her powers ran free,
and the cowgirl rode the range.
    Any self doubts and worries smoothed away in tap of the reservoir of
the gods.  This was her home.  It was also home to the likes of Nightmare,
but she was clever and could beat the dream king.  And she could do it
    --golden flower--
    by herself.  Strange image to float through, but anticipatory
hallucinations were common with this generation of tech.  Time to move.
    Layla punched through to the address that was provided by Mif, standing
before the unreal clock of ParaDox.  She slotted the clip of Da5id, worming
through the unreality, into a new system, and.... ugh.
    Her stomach sloshed into her head.  Her feet felt cold.  What was this
place?  ParaDox had totally munged the physics engine of the unreal,
warping the senses and distorting time.  Unpredictable bastard,
unpredictable.  Like any normal human, Layla figured.  She'd deal with this
no--
    Thunder and silence echoed, the Matrix bending itself around the will
of another.  Her deck screamed warning signals and errors as her
manifestation jerked itself into a new sector, landing in a gridwire of
prison cage, an iron mesh of containment-- jack out, get to the eject
button, get out, blocked and halted--
    "Pathetic!" ParaDox roared.  "This is the best they could send?"
    Dammit.  Trapped under black ice.  No way out.  Layla glanced around,
seeing the twisted visions Paradox had made of time distorted, of reality
bent to a little play on words of his own choosing.  Only one recognizable
element.
    "Zelas??" Layla gasped.
    Not that she cared to see the freak, since her on again, off again
partner and trickster here had screwed her over on numerous occasions.  But
he looked like hell.  His avatar all derezzed, munged -- she could see
black prongs of black biotech programming piercing the veil of his online
existence, shunting coded pain into his meat-body somewhere far away.
    "Good to see you too," Zelas coughed.
    Everything right was wrong again.  Deja vu crept up Layla's spine like
the first rising vibes of an acid frenzy.  Flawed and wrong.  Missing
elements.  But the same...
    "If you were that easy, I have no problems leaving you for Nightmare to
deal with," ParaDox shrugged.  "Let him take your power and claim his
dominion.  You're not very impressive."
    "Not impressive?" Layla asked.  Get this guy rolling, tick him off,
trick him, get out.  Modus.  "You're no tall glass of water yourself, pal.
In a fair match, I'd win.  Guaranteed and certified."
    "You want a game, then?" ParaDox asked.  "What did you have in mind,
Quake or some garbage like that?"
    "Doesn't matter," Layla said.  "Bring it on.  I can take you on myself
    --yellow flowers given to--
    no problems."  A flash again?  Layla grasped for it.  It had to be
important...
    "A game of you, then!" ParaDox snarled.  "Find yourself or I have you!
And time ticks.  This is your last chance to win."
    Zelas tried to send her a private message, packets sealed and encoded.
'Remember what you most want to return to,' he said, before the TCP stream
died, more rods of black ice shoved through him by an angry ParaDox...
    The hole.  The hole she felt needed filling, the flawed thing, the
wrong-feeling thing.  A game in progress.  An important thing.  What did
she want to return to?  The missing element taunted her, just out of reach,
out of
    --in the garden--
    her hair.  Nightmare's threats.  The waking world.  The world of
dreams.  One to keep her part from crossing over.  One to watch over her,
but not just on orders.  One who cared.  One who wanted to with nothing
expected in return.  The missing thing.  Gourry.  The missing thing.
     He was waiting back in Sailoon.
     "I've got to go," Layla said, standing inside her prison.
     "I'm not finished with you, cowgirl," ParaDox growled.  "If--"
     "I have got to leave now," Layla said again.  "I need to get back to
Gourry.  He's going to be worried about Lina.  And I'm Lina.  And I just
won your game."
 
     And the Matrix collapsed, like the walls of a stage set, crumbling
away when the crew was ready to halt the play.  Paradox looked around in
disbelief, his reality bubble popping like a flimsy shell...
     Glass cracked, and shattered.  Lina stepped out of her sphere, a jar
at the ready.
     "Seven down," Lina said, pressing the jar against a stunned Paradox.
In seconds, he was neatly stored.  She screwed the lid back on, satisfied.
"One more to go."
     Without Paradox to control this world, Lina easily shattered the other
prisons, and lifted the sleep enchantment on Dayvid and Amelia.
     Dayvid rose, blinking.  "Whaa...?"
     "Time to move," Lina said.  "We're going back to Sailoon."

                              TO BE CONTINUED