SPOOF CHASE PRODUCTIONS
                 (http://spoof.maison-otaku.net/)
                            PRESENTS...

                        Slayers REFLECT :
                            Episode 9
                       Tomorrow Never Lies

       A Slayers Fanfic Series by Stefan "Twoflower" Gagne

     (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 garage kits to live.)

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

-=-

    Various entertainments are available in this world.  Just because
most of the population thinks that stone sundials are a pretty neat idea
doesn't mean they aren't civilized or advanced enough to throw a whooping
good time.  There are plenty of barn raisings, usually followed by drunken
barn dances.  Plays are put on frequently, with the occasional midnight
play where the actors use minimalist costumes and audience members sit very
far apart, if you know what I mean.  You also can entertain yourself by
listening to music at a concerto in the 'alternative' scene, where
everybody dresses funny and does things with sax and violins that would
make their parents go white.  And, if all else fails, you can read a book.
    Myth runs wild in the printing industry, for example.  There's the
'Thousande ande One Tailes of The Bolde Adventures of The Mighty Warrior
Whose Deedes Go Onne For Not Lesse Than Three Hundred Ande Thirty Foure
Pages', always a popular read around the fire for its epic tales of heroism
and bravery, and a good substitute for toilet paper if you happen to run
out.
    More popular but less admitted to is 'Everything Youe Wanted To Knowe
Aboute Sexe But Nobody Else Knewe', an informative and educational text
with many full color illustrations and step by step guides.
    But if you're a sorcerer, what you really want to curl up with by the
fire on a rainy day is a copy of 'Das Textuel Noir', the book of the black
arts, or 'Ways of the Shamans' by Alison.  Magic books.  Lore books.  Good
reading and good for you unless you accidentally blow up your house while
practicing.  (Insurance companies know to charge higher premiums to
thaumatologists.)  And since many sorcerers believe in share and share
alike from dead bodies alone, they horde books of power like treasured
contraband.
    "No, you CAN'T read over my shoulder!" Lina said for the third time.
"Go away!"
    "Come on, Lina!" her obligatory tagalong Naga insisted.  "It's the
Mirror Lores!  I want them just as bad as you do.  Think about all those
ancient secrets!"
    "I told you, I'd like a moment or two alone to read and practice
these," Lina said.  "You can have the book when it's your turn.  Fair?"
    "You're HIDING something, aren't you?" Naga said, eyeing Lina
suspiciously.  "Lina, Lina!  You're so naive!  You can't keep a secret from
your strongest rival!"
    "I'm not hiding anything," Lina lied.  "Can't I just have a quiet
moment?  Is that too much to ask?"
    "Yes!" Naga said.  "But I will allow a moment's respite.  I'll just go
straight back to the inn right away.  You don't need to worry about me!
OOHOOHOOHOOHHOHOHOOO!!"
    Naga turned one eighty and immediately marched back down the hill.
    Lina Inverse gave a sigh of relief.
    The coach was stopped for the night, with Lily and Gourry busy shopping
for supplies, and Lina finally had some time to check out the book.. books
that she had obtained recently.  She had spotted an abandoned cottage on a
high hill just outside of the town they were in, and figured that would be
an ideal, isolated place to peruse, once she snuck away from Naga, who
unfortunately had followed her.
    The foreword in Silverquick's book specifically said that the spells
were intended for her alone.  Chances of something really hideous happening
if Naga got them were pretty high, if he'd go out of his way with an oracle
spell to predict how to get this lore to Lina alone... not only that, but
the second book which she never even remembered getting her hands on was
troubling.  Best to sort this out well ahead of the ferry they would take
the next day to the Island of Ultimate Despair, which Mel.. Xelloss had
insisted wasn't as bad a place as the name made it sound like.
    Besides, she was itching to try out a few of these mirror spells.  A
hand mirror tucked into her backpack would probably be enough to experiment
with.
    Hiking the pack up onto her shoulders, she continued to trudge uphill.
For some reason, these new powers didn't excite her anymore.  They just
worried the hell out of her.

                                    [*]

    The mood aboard the SS Guppy, proud mechanic ocean going vessel, was
jovial.
    Having avoided being melted by volcanic lava and having obtained the
waterskin of whatever it was they came to get, things were looking up.  The
group was having an impromptu party on decks, with Xelloss providing the
music.  When Amelia suggested a group social occasion of celebration to
raise the already high morale, the priest casually mentioned that he just
happened to bring a violin aboard and yes, he was quite good at playing it,
actually.
    Xelloss perched on a rail, playing a jovial little jig, while Amelia
whirled a highly frightened and twitchy Dayvid around.  Dayvid made the
mistake of saying that he's never danced before, and naturally Amelia
offered (being used in the loosest sense of consentuality) to teach him
how.
    Zelgadis, however, decided just to hang out off to the side and sip a
cup of punch that Dayvid had invented a machine that morning to make.  He
was more of the wallflower type.  Frequently he actually blended into the
wall.
    He didn't feel excited about the situation.  They had traveled far,
shirking off attacks from loons at sea and maniacs on land, and what was
the reward?  A bunch of water he had no use for yet and a strange vision he
didn't understand which unsettled him greatly.  The others didn't get
either of these things, and only saw unrelenting victory.  Let them party,
he didn't feel like begrudging them the festivities.
    Of course, Xelloss proved to be ambiaural; able to talk and play music
at the same time, and much to Zel's chagrin, the priest enjoyed annoying
him while the two kids engaged in their violent parody of dancing.
    "So, what was it like down there?" Xelloss asked, playing along with a
catchy beat that Zel actively refused to tap his foot to.  "I wish I could
have gone, but that naughty Silverquick used his lockout spell again..."
    "Amazing.  A Mazoku has some limits to where they go and what they can
do?" Zelgadis asked, having no problems taunting Xelloss right back.
    "Come come, Zel-kun.  We're not omnipotent," Xelloss said, smiling.
"Sure, we like to make it look that way, but let's be frank.  Anybody armed
with an incredible array of magical weapons and/or light powers could
probably give me a black eye or three.  See?"
    "Wahoo."
    "And yet, this one spell seems to prevent my access to the Mirror
Lores," Xelloss said, tisking.  "Silverquick's little group was far too
dangerous for a group of humans, the Mazoku believe.  Thaumatological
hackers all; they posed a great risk to us.  We have an active interest in
keeping humans as harmless as they are, you realize."
    "What a shame.  So, now that Lina has the lores, I take it you're going
to backstab us and steal them?"
    "Zel-kun!  That hurts!  I thought we were buddies?" Xelloss asked,
smiling.  "Whyfor ever would I do such a thing?  I'll simply ask her if I
could take a peek at that nice book once we meet up at the Island.  I can't
think of a reason why she'd refuse me, after I've been so benevolent and
helpful."
    "Benevolent.  Right.  I'm waiting for the other shoe to drop," Zelgadis
grumbled.
    "Such a gloomy gus!  Have you ever considered, my dearest Zel-kun, that
perhaps the other shoe isn't going to fall?" Xelloss asked, his song
twitching into a more serious mood, the beat still clicking along.  "Here
you are, all mopey and moany, waiting for the end to come.  Waiting for
that horrible nasty mean old Mazoku in your midst to switch sides as he's
done before, oh you KNOW he's done it before, and attack you and steal your
magic and aid the Mazoku in destroying the world.  That's the other shoe,
right?  I didn't leave anything out?"
    "More or less," Zelgadis said, suddenly not liking this conversation.
    "I really do hate doing what's expected of me," Xelloss said,
downshifting the music into a slow dance.  He glanced over at Dayvid, who
was now being taught to dance cheek to cheek by Amelia, and looked to be
near the point of a nosebleed.  Smiling, he resumed conversation with
Zelgadis.  "You know the difference between me and most Mazoku?"
    "You're more annoying?"
    "Was that supposed to be humorous?  Your taunts need work.  Perhaps
Naga could teach you... but I digress," Xel said.  "The difference is that
they're evil, sadistic maniacs who kill and crush and destroy and plot and
plan and do devious things."
    "And you are...?"
    "I'm an evil, sadistic maniac who prefers to do what's not expected of
me," Xelloss said, a weird twinkle in his eye.  "Why should I live up to
what other people think I'll do?  People die that way.  Viruses adapt to
the body and destroy it by relying on the predictability of systems.  The
mutants, the freaks and the unpredictable survive -- and they have a much
more fun time of it, too.  Rather a lot like your Lina-chan, yes?"
    Zelgadis glared at Xelloss.  "What about Lina?"
    "She's quite the little deviant," Xelloss said, smiling warmly.  "How
hard she tries not to fall into the usual dramatic traps of the hero, as I
try not to bump into the brick walls of the villain.  It's basically the
same thing, from another angle.  Whereas you squat here in a puddle of your
own loathing, typically.  Have you ever considered breaking out of that
loop?  Perhaps if you hadn't been turned into a chimera--"
    "If I wasn't a chimera, I'd be an asshole," Zelgadis snapped.  "I'd
never have learned a damn thing about responsibility, or honor, or anything
other than.. 'looking out for number one'.  I happen to know this on very
good authority."
    Xelloss's smile widened.  "Whose, precisely?"
    "...none of your business," Zelgadis said, glancing away.
    "The worst within, yes?" Xelloss asked.  He changed his music again, a
sultry tango; much to Dayvid's horror, Amelia knew that particular dance.
"I know a few things about the lores, about the bargain of them.  To ensure
that those who seek the lores are emotionally fit to handle them, they must
confront and recognize the worst they could have become.  Seems yours took
the direct course, so to speak.  It unsettled you, then?"
    "No," Zelgadis said.
    "I'll take that as a yes.  So why haven't you learned anything from
this encounter, Brier Chimera?"
    "And what, exactly, should I learn from this?" Zelgadis asked,
frustrated.  "Just tell me and leave me alone, okay?  The leadup is really
giving me a headache."
    "What, just tell you?" Xelloss asked.  "But it's such a lovely secret.
Wouldn't it be more fun to figure it out yourself?"
    "You're the one with all the philosophy, with me just the whiny little
chimera, right?" Zelgadis asked.  "So prove you're the superior one and go
gloat.  I know you want to.  C'mon.  Give it to me!  Get on with it!!"
    Xelloss scooted away.  "Feisty!  Very well, because you were nice and
asked me in such an interesting manner.  Seeing as how that one big
decision you always wished you could go back and change turned you into a
hideous twit, perhaps you should get over your little handicap and actually
ENJOY life for a change?"
    A pause.
    Zelgadis didn't look particularly enlightened.  "That's it?  That's
your big wisdom?"
    "Simple, but effective," Xelloss said.  "I was expecting you'd sit over
here and sulk.  Remember, Zel-kun; the predictable die, whereas the Lord of
Nightmares and Her favored ilk persist in chaos.  If you'll excuse me, I
think I'll go terrify Dayvid by playing the Labarda.  I understand it's
been banned in six countries!"
    Zelgadis waved Xelloss off, and the trickster priest scooted across the
deck, to make sure the full volume and impact of his zesty, spicy forbidden
dance song was heard.  Both dancers stopped, in confusion.
    Sitting on the side, he was pleased that Amelia had never heard of the
dance, and thus Xelloss's expectations to tease Dayvid were foiled.  He
finished off his punch, and moved to loiter closer to the center of the
party for a change.

                                    [*]

    Using a nearby branch, Lina forced the door open.
    The cottage hadn't been used in a year.  A lot of it was dusty and in
disrepair, but no worse than the attic back home, where she originally
studied books of magic.  Had the same musty odor, too.  Perhaps she was
just drawn to that sort of atmosphere when it came time to do some serious
magical work; more likely it was just chance.  At least here she could get
some peace and quiet, with the precautions she set up around the house.
    Lina picked a nearby rocking chair, lighting the lantern on a table
next to it.  She dusted off the chair, dumped her sack on the floor and
pulled out the Mirror Lores.
    It wasn't like other books of magic.
    Usually, if you picked up something like 'Ways of the Shamans', 80% of
the book would be taken up by elaborate, painstakingly well done drawings
of dragons and beasts and sorcerers in action.  There'd be really
eye-catching frames around each page, patterns and designs in artistic
style; the letters would be in such an intensely decorate font that
sometimes they could be very hard to read.
    'The Mirror Lores, by S. Quick' wasn't like that.  A forenote was
there, telling Lina how this book was made especially for her, and that was
done with nice calligraphy, but the rest of the pages were in very boring
handwriting.  Crib notes for spells, no illustrations, no decorations.
    There were eight spells total.  It seemed that they were ranked in
terms of power, with the last four requiring energized water from the Lake
of Reflections, according to Silverquick's notes. ("Although truth be told,
I didn't include that spell here for a reason," he wrote in the margin,
addressing Lina directly, which was getting to be a bit creepy to her. "I
made an endless supply which will be provided to the right people at the
Lake, and that'll have to do.  Security, you know.  Never code your own
spells without security permissions, Lina, for future thaumatologist
reference.")
    In fact, the entire book felt like designer's notes, with that slight
personal touch.  For example, the spell Lina figured she'd need was pretty
obvious :

Oracle Trigger (class three, water-enhanced spell)
    Upon execution, this spell enchants a mirror that was created
    using Ritual Waterfreeze (version 2.0 or later, see appendix)
    to give repeat effects of the Oracle Burst spell.  Strong drawing
    of power is needed in the third line of the incantation in
    order to enhance the accuracy of the visions, as well as a
    generalized sense of purpose, initial startup behavior sensors
    for the mirror to detect the emotional desires of the user.
    Variate the flow of power to be stuttering at the 1hz level
    during the second line to implement a voice-activated interface
    for the user instead of the less predictable mind-activated
    interface.  DO NOT break the mirror during an Oracle Burst
    vision!  Unpredictable results including brief, low powered
    World Merge may be possible.
        Seealso : Oracle Burst, Ritual Waterfreeze 2.0, World Merge
            INCANTATION
            Shining reflection of what might be,
            Hear my calls and my commands,
            Show me the door of the future most true
            Of impossible and possible lands.
    Personal Note : Oracle Trigger is the most commonly requested
    implementation of mirror magic, although leaders don't seem
    to understand that it tends to show what MIGHT HAVE BEEN based
    on decisions rather than WHAT MUST BE in the future.  Or rather
    it shows WHAT MIGHT BE in the future.  Laymen, honestly -- you
    give them a glass hammer and they try to drive screws with it.
    Do me a favor, Lina; if you survive this and make that mirror
    for Sailoon, warn them this time to take care of it!

    Lina backed up a bit.
    "IF you survive this..."
    Not very encouraging.

                                    [*]

    Festivities wound down once Amelia's near limitless sugar-powered
energy started to deplete.  (It's a rare occurrence, but not impossible.)
Gradually, the celebration shifted to something Zelgadis felt better about
participating in, namely drinks and discussion.
    "The hard part is basically over, right?" Dayvid asked, sipping his
punch.  "You got what you came for, and once I shuttle you guys off to the
Island of Ultimate Despair to join up with the rest of your group... that's
it."
    Slightly red from too much punch, which Xelloss had spiked somehow,
Amelia looked ready to sob openly.  "I can't believe it's almost over!  I'm
gonna miss yooou guys!"
    "Gosh, me too, Amelia!!" Xelloss said, dripping with melodrama.  "It's
just been, like, so... SO, you know?"
    "I know, I know!" Amelia said, not catching onto the sarcasm.  "I don't
think I could take the loss if I didn't know Dayvid was coming with me."
    "Eh?" Dayvid said, freezing.
    "You're gonna help me make a funpaaaarraarrrk!" Amelia said, giggling
after the last arr sound.  "Remember?  You can stay in the Sailoon palace
if you want and we'll getcha all the science stuff you could want like
those beaker things an' steam engines an' the metal stick things that go
zapzap!"
    "Ah.. well... I mean... I thought that was just, um, an idea," Dayvid
said, rubbing the back of his head nervously.  "You know.  Idle musings.
And stuff."
    Delighted, Xelloss clasped his hands together in joy.  "Ah, a royal
court appointed scientist!  I highly approve, son.  A very good career
choice for your future.  And who knows what other.. positions it may lead
to?  A good way to be in with the right people, mmm?  Perhaps an
opportunity to get closer to overall goals involving various non-disclosed
elements of personages who are of noble descent between--"
    "Dad!" Dayvid barked.  "For the last time, I am NOT in love with
Amelia!!"
    Silence.  Ocean waves lapping gently at the hull.  The steam engine
puffing along nicely.  Booster sails flap gently in the breeze.  Mists rise
from the sea waters.  Nobody says anything.
    "Oh my," Xelloss exclaimed lightly, amused to the Lake of Chaos and
back.  "I wasn't talking about that.  But since you happen to bring it
up....."
    Everybody looked at Amelia, through the fog.
    "Wh.. wha?" she intelligently replied.
    "Ah.. well, umm... Dad was..." Dayvid responded, his face accelerating
rapidly through the shades of red available.  "It's like.. I mean, he was
just... it's not like I... no no, I mean... ah..."
    "What the hell is with this weather?" Zelgadis asked, bailing the kids
out and bringing up an important point at the same time.  "Just seconds ago
it was clear as day, now it's like we're rolling through a steam bath."
    "Oh!" the captain of the boat said, breaking the old topic in half.
"Ah!  We're just passing through the Bahumut Trapezoid.  Don't worry,
there's always fog over this area."
    "Wait.  Don't ships vanish forever if they go into the Bahumut
Trapezoid?" Zelgadis asked, getting to his feet.  "What in blazes are we
doing going THROUGH it?"
    "Relax, relax!" Dayvid smiled.  "It's perfectly safe.  There isn't a
single scientifically valid reason for a ship to suddenly vanish.  I've
passed by this area all the time with no problems."
    "By, or directly into it?"
    "..by, but it was close enough to tell there's nothing in here," Dayvid
said.
    "Oh my, oh my.  This could be an adventure!" Xelloss smiled.  "Wouldn't
you agree, Amelia?"
    "Wha?" Amelia repeated.
    Xelloss got to his feet, quickly.  "Unfortunately, I'm not one to hang
around certain doom.  Come along, Dayvid."  He rested a hand on the boy's
shoulder.
    "Wha--" Dayvid asked, before vanishing with Xelloss.
    Before Zelgadis could sound any kind of alarm at this, the rest of the
Guppy vanished in a wink of nothing.

                                    [*]

    The candle in Lina's lantern burned.  Melted wax dripped to the bottom,
having lost an hour of length.
    All eight spells, plus the simple ritual to form crystal water into a
mirror, were now memorized.  Usage and practices, incantations and
subtleties.  She had to admit, the strange style Silverquick wrote them in
actually made it easier to read than normal magic books, which tended to
slap the letter 'e' after every word.  Even in this short time, she felt
confident enough to cast the spells.
    There were four 'types' of spell, in two power levels.  The minor group
consisted of : Recording Glass for visual, replayable messages... Oracle
Burst, for a quick foresight... Optimum Vision, if you wanted to see
yourself at your best, good for egotistical princesses and such... and
World Reflection, which lets you tune into a specific world, although
finding the world's 'pattern' as Silverquick put it didn't seem easy.
Naturally, he had to have written that part in a weird, poorly documented
magical jargon Lina couldn't follow...
    Beyond that were the enhanced spells.  Memory Glass recorded your own
memories, rather than just whatever the mirror was pointed at.  Oracle
Trigger would restore a thing like Sailoon's Oracle Mirror, something she'd
have to do once she got the water from Zelgadis.  Custom Vision let you
view yourself in a more specific way, worst, best, anything inbetween.
Finally, and this one creeped Lina out a bit, World Merge -- take a
parallel world, and join it to this one.  There didn't seem to be any
limits on the power of this one if you had plenty to supply.  ("In
hindsight, maybe I should have toned that one down," a sheepish Silverquick
wrote underneath the entry.)
    Lina reached the last page, where Silverquick had written one final
note.  Almost a personal letter, or a will.

    'I wish I could tell you how everything will turn out, Lina, but truth
be told I couldn't see that far.  I guess my tinkerings with the universe
do have their limits.

    'The Lord of Nightmares tried to make me see that, me and the rest of
our group.  We didn't catch on until after the group disbanded, but we were
trying to make magic for us humans, powers we could use, and just made
ourselves more problems.  I guess some fruits of our labor will arrive,
with Alison's plans to spread Shamanism by faking its ethos, but it won't
be anything we can use against our darkest days without the help of the one
who did this deed before any of us were born.  There's already a power we
can use; all we did was mess around.  I don't think that means anything to
you, but I felt I should say it, 'cause I'm an old dead hacker and I get to
have the last word for the dearly departed.  A warning, I guess.

    'I hope you get what you need out of the lores and live a long and
happy life.  I've spent the last year getting everything ready for this
time of YOUR life -- I almost feel like I know you and care about you,
Lina.  A bit silly, since we're living across the sea of time.  I've been a
bit silly in the head since Alison left us.  Sorry if I'm rambling.  Once
again, good luck.  The hopes of the human mages before you ride with you,
wherever you go.

    'Yrs truly, S. Quick.

    'P.S. - I'd say more, but I didn't see anything beyond when you finish
reading this that I could conclusively say would happen.  Very chaotic
images, random noise, that sort of thing.  I think you got a second book
when you got this one but I couldn't see what it was.  I hope it's better
written than mine.  Anyway, bye bye now.  I'm sorry for the mess.'

    The book closed silently, its holder in deep thought, deep panic.
Beyond hyperactive mania and into the silent delight of a real worry.
    Silverquick saw the second book in her pack, the Giga lores.  But he
didn't see what it was; if he did, he'd have said something, considering
how it's practically the holy grail of sorcery.  Something was up here.
Lina couldn't resist her dark string of curiosity.  So, she closed the
Mirror Lores, set them aside, and opened Merlin Giga's book...
    A loud crash sounded from outside, with the tell-tale WHAP! of a bent
tree snapping upright.
    Lina snapped the book shut and tucked it into the cushion of her chair
before turning to look out the window.  Naga bobbed upside down in silent
dismay, hanging from the snare trap Lina had set for her.  Smirking, Lina
opened the window of the house, and leaned on the sill.
    "Just hanging around, Naga?" she lamely joked.
    "Mou, Lina!  That wasn't very nice, setting up booby traps!" Naga
protested.  She drew her rarely used sword and cut herself down without
realizing that she'd be too busy cutting to catch herself and crashed
ungainly onto the ground.
    "I told you I wanted a little time to myself!  It's your own fault for
going back on your obviously lying words," Lina justified.  "Now, beat it.
I'm busy."
    "OOHHOOHHOHOOO!  Lina, Lina!  You're so--"
    "--naive," Lina finished.
    Without missing a beat, Naga continued.  "You can't keep me from
sharing your legend, Lina.  Why, history itself would never forgive me if I
wasn't a part of it!  And since you clearly are trying to hide that book
for some reason, it makes me all the more curious!"
    "Hide the book?  I said I'd give it to you later," Lina said.
    "Ahhhh, but with all pages intact?  Or is there something ELSE you're
hiding?" Naga asked, waggling a no-no finger.  "You can't fool me, Lina
Inverse!"
    "I could always blast you to Sailoon with a well angled Dill Brand,"
Lina suggested, snapping her fingers with a spark.
    "Ah, but I thought of that!" Naga said.  "You can't blow us ALL off,
Lina!"
    "Us?" Lina asked.
    *knock knock*
    Lina's head snapped back to the door.  Confused, she stepped over, and
opened it.
    Peeking into the house, Gourry hiked up the large keg of ale he was
carrying for a better grip.  "Hey, Lina!  Naga told us about the party you
were throwing here.  Look, I got drinks!"
    The dust on the floor unsettled when Lina crashed face first into it.
    Naga strode proudly into the room, careful not to step on Lina in the
process.  "Okay, Gourry, crack open the ale here.  Lily, I'll help you cut
the cake.  It's going to be a fun night!"

                                    [*]

    The sensation of floating in the air, of falling, of--
    WHAM.  The Guppy hit bottom, splashing down hard in the water, sending
its passengers sprawling across the deck.  Zelgadis scrambled to his feet,
sword out and at the ready, looking for danger.
    All he saw were the same ocean mists he saw before.  No change.  But
they did fall, right?
    "I could have sworn we were done bumping into things like this,"
Zelgadis groaned.  "Everybody up.  New thing to deal with."
    "Ugh..." Amelia mumbled, rubbing his head.  She looked up.  And looked
confused.  "Wait.  We didn't go anywhere!"
    "We sailed into a mythical geometric figure, and felt like we fell for
a few miles in a second," Zelgadis said.  "Don't put any real money on us
being fine and dandy."
    "Dayvid, maybe if we... Dayvid?" Amelia asked, glancing around the
deck.  "Xelloss-san?  Dayvid-san?  Aaaa!  They're gone!"
    "They bugged out like cowards before we fell," Zelgadis said, squinting
to see into the mist.  "I think we're coming up onto something."
    "Hey, Dayvid is NOT a coward," Amelia noted.  "He... ano?  What's
that?"
    A single light winked magically in the distance.  The boat was floating
right towards it, and naturally, Zel never learned how to steer the thing
using Dayvid's strange machines.  He got a better grip on his sword with
one hand, readying a fireball with the other...
    The light bobbed into view in the thick fog, a glowing ball hovering
over a bouy.  Neatly printed on the sign, etched into a kind of metal, were
the words 'WEATHER ADVISORY -- HEAVY FOG.'  The words melted back into the
metal, shifted around and surfaced once more, to read 'DOCKS AHEAD.  REDUCE
SPEED.'  It turned in the water, to keep facing the boat that drifted past
it.
    "Oh, I see," Amelia said, smiling.  "That's very nice of them to warn
us!"
    "There can't be docks ahead," Zelgadis said, putting his sword away.
"We're supposed to be a few hours away from the island, and there's nothing
else around."
    "You said we're somewhere different, right?" Amelia repeated.  "Maybe
we're off the shore of Sailoon or something."
    "And Sailoon has signs like that?"
    "Uh... no.  Okay, not Sailoon, but whoever they are, they can help us
get back.  I'm sure of it!  Cheer up, Zelgadis-san!" Amelia smiled.  "I'm
sure this'll be a fun adventure!"
    "Do you know how to slow this thing down so we don't crash?" Zelgadis
asked.
    "Uh... no."
    "Then we're going to have to have a very short fun adventure," he
confirmed.
    As the Guppy slid past, the sign's light blinked red.  The words
changed, now reading, 'UNRECOGNIZED VESSEL.  ALERTING PATROL.'  But by
then, the pair on board wasn't looking at the bouy anymore.

                                    [*]

    ...far away, across the span of time and space, a tiny pocket of
reality, pushed into a bubble by magic, decorated with a loving hand, homey
and comfortable and literally away from it all...
    Xelloss and Dayvid popped back into existence.  Used to the journey,
Xelloss landed easily; Dayvid stumbled forwards, arms pinwheeling, until he
bumped into a table.  Jigsaw puzzle pieces scattered.
    "Awww, I was working so long on that," Xelloss pouted.  "Now it's
messed up.  Oh well.  I can always puzzle it back together again..."
    "Who... where are we?!" Dayvid asked.  "Amelia-san!  Zelgadis-san!"
    "They're probably halfway around the multiverse by now," Xelloss
shrugged.  "I could've told them we were headed for danger.  Even the
Mazoku are smart enough to avoid that hole.  We--"
    Having had enough, Dayvid grabbed his father by the lapels and
throttled.
    "Bring them back!" he commanded as best he could.  "NOW!"
    "Y-yikes," Xelloss smiled nervously, his head wobbling.  "I c-c-ould
b-brr-bring th-em ba-ack wi-ith hel-help if y-y-ou st-stop sha-shaking..."
    Frustrated, the boy released the Mazoku priest.  "Fine.  Do it, pronto,
here, today, now!"
    "Not quite as easy as that," Xelloss said, dusting himself off.  "The
way you make a hole like that one is to detonate a reality bubble, tearing
a slip in the world.  That particular one was made when some fool human
tried a spell way too powerful for his kind to handle, and he went splat.
It's high black magic to warp reality, you see--"
    "Can you do it or not?" Dayvid asked.
    "Tetchy, tetchy!  Worried about your girlfriend?"
    "Dad, for the LAST time, she is not my girlfriend!!" Dayvid said,
waving his arms madly.  "I just... I don't want her stranded somewhere,
okay?  And they have a quest to do!  It's the right thing to bring them
back.  Anybody else would do it too.  And... and I want her back, okay?"
    "Her?"
    "Them.  I want them back," Dayvid corrected.
    "Very well," Xelloss said, smiling widely.  "It's a simple enough
spell, if almost uncontrollable.  I made my home away from home with it.
I'll teach it to you, and then--"
    "What??"
    "It's high time you learned a little magic," Xelloss said.  "You ARE
half Mazoku, you know.  It's in you.  And it's not like you have to use it
for dastardly deeds and taking candy from babies.  So few people realize
that of us who are not.. shall we say... truly spawned? tend to avoid the
standard operating procedures..."
    "I can't do magic.  I'm a scientist!"
    "So be the world's first magic-using science guy," Xelloss suggested.
"It's either that or leave them whenever they are."
    Veins popped in Dayvid's forehead.  "Why don't YOU do it?!"
    "I don't have a strong enough will to want them back," Xelloss said.
"I figure it's going to take hard and blunt human will to carve a specific
gateway such as that.  You, however, could do that.  If... if you truly
desire to see Amelia again, that is.  Not just some lame humanitarian
excuse for it."
    "You orchestrated this, didn't you?  You set it up so you could force
me to use magic which I hate, and force me to admit something about
Amelia!"
    "No, not really, but isn't it just LOVELY the way it played out?"
Xelloss smiled.
    Dayvid hit him with what was left of the jigsaw puzzle.

                                    [*]

    Fleeing the party early was harder than Lina was expecting.
    The basic problem was this.  She had stuffed Giga's book under the
cushion of the armchair, and naturally, that's exactly where Gourry decided
to plunk his keister for the night's duration.  If Naga found that thing,
life could be bad; if her sister couldn't be trusted with the Dragon Slave,
Naga certainly couldn't be trusted with the Giga Slave.  But at the same
time, Lina had left herself hanging, waiting to open that damn thing and
now this interruption was.. well, an interruption.
    Naga knew this, of course, which is why she stimulated idle
conversation and kept the affair going as much as she could.  Probably
waiting for Lina to crack and give her the books or tell her what was going
on.  Instead, Lina sipped the one ale she had drawn for the night and
gritted her teeth and waited.
    "But aren't you worried?" Naga asked, chatting up with Gourry.
    "A little.. a lot.  I mean, it's MY Sword of Light," he said.  "But now
that I think about it, I think it'll be okay .  I've lost it before and it
always comes back to me.  Even that one time Bongo stole it from me back in
school a few days after grandpa gave it to me.  I didn't see it for a
month, but then I got it back when the principal raided his locker and
found a bunch of nude pictures and weapons and stuff!  Of course, I had to
file a lost and found claim for it and there was a meeting with my
parents..."
    "How interesting!" Naga said, and refilled Gourry's drink.  "Do go on."
    Lina's hands clenched and unclenched.  This wasn't going anywhere.
    Then the candle flickered and went out, dipping the room into total
darkness.
    "Oh, blast, we ran out of wicker," Naga said.  "Ne, Lina?  Is there
another candle around here?"
    An opening! Lina thought, grinning wickedly.
    Nobody could see anything, but the sounds that followed went like this.
    "Ano.. I think there may be a candle in eeeep!" "What?" "OOHHOOO!  An
intruder!?  I will--" BONK "Naga?  What's wrong?  Wha- HEY!" (WHAM) (crash)
"Lina?  Lina?  Ow, that's my foot!" "I'm sorry!!" "It's okay, just-- hey,
no shoving, Gourry!" "That wasn't me.." "Where is everybody? I can't--"
THUD "Oof! Whoa--" BOOM, SMASH!!
    When Naga finally located a candle and lit it, the room was a mess, the
armchair overturned with its cushion gone, and someone had broke out of the
window to escape.

                                    [*]

    The city was amazing.
    But just saying that the city was amazing in no way expressed exactly
how amazing it was.  Try to imagine the most amazing thing you've ever
seen, the most beautiful object, the most elegant design and the most
staggeringly impossible creation the gods have ever daydreamed to consider,
amplify it through a haze of awestruck glory, and go 'Whoa.. that is REALLY
AMAZING, man!'  Then you might have the right idea.
    Because to Amelia and Zelgadis, whose idea of a city was a few four
story buildings, a littering of wooden houses and shops and maybe a castle
or two, the shining city on the hill that loomed before them was nothing
short of miraculous.
    Golden spires scraped at the clouds, polished and gleaming structures
of glass and crystal.  White domes of all sizes, littered with gigantic
windows, covered the ground; geodesics of enough size to encompass several
villages.  Streets curved around these hemispheres, running with small
wheeled things that were drawn by no horses.
    And the ships!  Docked here were a wide variety of elegant seacraft,
streamlined, completely lacking in sails.  They bobbed in the ocean like
blocks of floating ivory.  And what's more, the Guppy was about to plow
into them at an excessive speed and cause a great deal of death to those
inside.
    Zelgadis ignored the pretty view and frantically yanked levers, pushed
buttons, adjusted dials in the bridge of the ship.  So far he had found the
horn, the automatic rain wipers on the windows, and woke up the mapping
turtle which lazily started to draw mathematical sequences.  But the ship
had yet to realize that maybe slowing down would be a terrific change of
pace.
    "What do we do?! What do we do!?" Amelia panicked, balling up her fists
cutely under her chin and running in circles.  "We're going to wreck
Dayvid's nice ship!"
    "Dayvid's ship can go to Terry Jones' Locker.  WE on the other hand are
gonna Raywing on out of here," Zelgadis said, finally giving up and
wandering back on deck.  "Come on."
    "We can't just wreck his ship!  It's not right!" Amelia said, following
him topside.  "It's got to be one of those--"
    The ship halted with a jarring shock.  Zelgadis staggered slightly,
before regaining his center of balance.  "What, did we hit already?
But..."
    A large, taloned hand clamped itself over the railing.  Zel jumped back
in shock, and drew his sword.
    Although he wasn't expecting to see one when he woke up this morning,
sure enough, a gigantic golden dragon had stopped the ship with sheer
force, flapping its wings in the air gently to provide a countermeasure.
The struggle went on for a few moments, a tug-of-war which felt more like a
push-of-war, until finally the engines of the Guppy gave a sad little whine
and cut out, black smoke pouring from the exhaust pipes.
    "....." Amelia said, staring wide-eyed at the dragon.
    The golden dragon seemed to breathe a sigh of relief, floating up into
the air, turning... turning over, turning into... and landing gently on the
decks, a tall human with golden hair and a matching golden tail.
    "Hello," he said.  "Sorry about that, but we saw you coming in at
unsafe speed and had to do something... are you guys lost?  And where did
you get this relic?"
    "Relic?" Amelia asked, not sure what else to say.
    "Haven't seen a real wooden ship except in the museum," the dragon-man
smiled.  "Oh, sorry... very impolite of me, forgot to introduce myself.
I'm Ryu, with the Council of Dragons Safety Commission.  Welcome to Central
Lair.  Can I be of any assistance, humans?"

                                    [*]

    There exists a place no human has ever set foot in.
    Not because it's inhospitable, or uninhabitable.  It's actually a very
nice valley, which unfortunately happens to be surrounded by mountains
which are completely impassable.  In here, a small ecosystem has maintained
itself, with no outside influences, keeping the lifecycle up for thousands
of years.  Since the valley has no name, let's call it 'Doomed', for some
strange reason.
    A small burst of purple light popped into existence in the center of
the valley, depositing Xelloss and a disgruntled Dayvid on the grassy
ground.
    "This will do quite nicely," Xelloss smiled, looking around Doomed.
"Now, we should act quickly before we lose track of their scent in
reality.  I'll teach you the spell, then cast it in dual psychic link with
you to act as a control barrier and amplifier.  Follow?"
    "...no," Dayvid said.  "Dad, I'm a scientist.  I'm not a magician, I
don't know what you're talking about."
    "Ah, then we're even.  I've got no clue what your usual jargon means
either," Xelloss said.  "Of course, this unfortunately puts us at square
one.  Hmmmm.  I suppose we could wait a month while I teach you how to tap
black magic..."
    "I guess knowledge has to be slowly accumulated," Dayvid said, sinking
slightly.  "It was like that when I was learning science.  Can we afford to
take that... well, no, we can't, you guys are expected at the Island of
Ultimate Despair soon... maybe we should go tell.. Lina? that we'll be
late--"
    "No, no need," Xelloss said, placing both his hands on Dayvid's
forehead.  "We'll just take a shortcut on the road of knowledge.  This may
sting."
    "Shortcut?" Dayvid asked.  "What do you MEAAAAAAA!!!!------"
    Boiling in oil.  He had never technically been boiled in oil, but if he
had to pick one sensation it was akin to, that would be it.  But it was oil
burning on the INSIDE, searing flesh internally, your skin cold and dead in
comparison to the raging fires scorching through him and down his spine
racing along his fingertips and burrowing into his brain oddly only on the
left side of his body like half of him was dipped into some weird
transmuted pot of acid leaving the other half to panic and wave its arm and
attempt to get away from the other half of his body until
    He collapsed on the grass, panting, sweating and roasting enough to
make him seriously wish there was a bathtub around.
    And there was his father, dusting off his hands.  "Terribly sorry, but
you DID want to get this over with soon..."
    "Whhhh.. whhhhhhhhhhh..." was all Dayvid could manage.
    "You ARE half-Mazoku, you know," Xelloss reminded him.  "You've done a
brilliant job repressing your black half it since, well, you had no idea,
but I gave it a poke with a stick and got it to wake up.  Congratulations!"
    Awkwardly getting to his feet, Dayvid flared with anger.  "Congrraaa...
you... YOU DID WHAT!?"
    "You can beat me up again if it makes you feel better," Xelloss said,
smiling cheerfully.  "Go ahead, get those negative emotions out.  It'll
help you grow stronger.  That's how we get by, you see."
    "I... DO NOT.. want to be a Mazoku!" Dayvid growled.  "I'm a human
being!  I'm not some evil demonic beast!  I'm a scientist and a human and
not a dark monster or a.. a whatever!!"
    "So?" Xelloss said, his voice suddenly going more serious than it had
in the last six days or so of his life.  "Realize this, son, I'll only
explain it once.  You're half human.  Those who are not aligned, body, mind
and soul to the Mazoku can do whatever they please.  Rebels.  Freaks.  Fun
people.  Those who don't buy totally into the company mission statement,
those with a mind of their own.  Dayvid, just because you're half Mazoku
doesn't mean you are evil; be a nice goody two shoes or a killer or a
pacifist or a madman or a scientist or whatever.  ...but you DO want to
cast that spell and get Amelia -- and the others -- back.  I am correct?"
    "...yes..." Dayvid admitted, calming somewhat.
    "Well, then," Xelloss said, rolling up a sleeve.  "Let's get to work,
son."

                                    [*]

    Once Zelgadis had established who they were and where they came from,
and notably what level the technology and magic had reached, it all became
very clear to Ryu.
    "I need to call the Council about this," he had said.  "We've never had
time travelers before."
    Even Zelgadis, who assumed he was able to grasp any new situation with
ease, had a hard time accepting this.  But Ryu explained exactly what he
had missed in history, in the handy dandy truncated abridged summarized
version
    Roughly five centuries ago, probably around when Zelgadis and Amelia
departed, the second great Mazoku War broke out.  Nobody knew why or where
it happened, what triggered it.  Before Ceipheed could be revived,
Shaburanigdo's minions had dominated basically all of the world, but the
darkness wasn't strong enough to suppress the Dragons for long; they jumped
into the fray and the war raged for the better part of fifty years.
    Most of the population bought the farm ("That's the colloquial term
humans use, right?  I want you to feel comfortable, you see") in the
process, but eventually, the Dragons won.  The Mazoku, crippled, ran into
hiding and haven't been heard of since, except in token resistance and
ineffective insurgence against the Council of Dragons, which governed over
the world and had kept peace for hundreds of years.
    It was a utopia at this point.  Pain and simple, very straightforward
as Ryu described the state of the world.  Crime reached an amazing low,
bandits and pirates were now extinct, the people prospered economically,
spiritually and physically.  Death was rare, as the Dragons were more than
happy to spread healers of their kind with amazing White Magic powers.  The
city they were in -- which was just as impressive inside than out, if not
moreso, if that was possible -- was Central Lair, the current capital of
the Dragon empire.  Chances were this Bahumut Trapezoid they sailed into
was a hole in reality, which Ryu said the Dragons had to repair after the
war in large numbers, and it shifted them ahead in time to where they were
now.
    And.. that was that.  His story told, a little box on Ryu's belt
beeped, and he said he had been paged by the Council to report on the two
newcomers.  He left them at a small cafe, changed back into Dragon form,
and flew off, leaving Amelia and Zelgadis quite stunned and confused.
    "I'm dreaming, right?" Zelgadis said, trying to find an opening in his
fruit drink, which had too many little paper umbrellas.  "This has got to
be some surreal dream.  I'm a rational person, I can handle the strange and
unusual, but this is really pushing my limits."
    Amelia was busy watching the people passing by.  Happy people, usually
smiling and saying good day to each other, sometimes doing some business,
sometimes stopping to chat.  Horseless coaches slid silently and cleanly
along the roads in this indoor city as well, without bumping, without
traffic insults.
    "Beautiful..." Amelia said to herself.  She glanced over at Zelgadis.
"If it's a dream, it's a wonderful one.  Justice has finally won.  Crime is
almost gone, and everybody is safe and happy.  Nobody needs to die or be
robbed or anything.  Ne, Zelgadis-san, isn't it nice to know that when the
next Mazoku war comes, the good guys will win?  We're not going to live in
a bad world at all in the future!"
    "Good?" Zelgadis asked.  He gave up on his drink, setting it aside, and
leaned over to talk quietly with Amelia.  "Listen.  Assuming this isn't
some fever dream, I think you're missing some key problems..."
    "Problems?"
    "When did the second Mazoku War start, for instance?" Zelgadis asked.
"Right around when we left, according to that guy.  What caused it?"
    "Uh..."
    "There is a chance that we caused it," Zelgadis finished.  "I still
have the water from the Lake of Reflections with me.  If we got stuck here,
in the future, when Lina needed it for some reason -- you have to admit
this sort of world-breaking thing usually happens at the end of a long
quest, Amelia -- then maybe everything goes wrong.  Yes, that's a wild
string of conjecture, and a hunch.  But that's how this stuff WORKS.  It's
all Drama.  Do you follow?"
    "Aww, come on, Zelgadis-san!  That's silly," Amelia smiled.  "If--"
    "Second problem.  The Dragons won.  Totally and completely, and now
they're ruling over mankind, it seems," Zelgadis said, cutting Amelia off.
"That's not how the balance of nature works, according to Shamanism and
just about every event in human history.  It never stays tipped in total
favor for long unless something is wrong."
    "What's wrong about peace and quiet?" Amelia asked.  "What's wrong with
happiness?  This world is so ideal, Zelgadis-san!  It's perfect!"
    "Nothing's perfect," Zelgadis said.  "The other shoe is gonna drop.  Or
it already did, and we can't see it.  And EITHER way, I want to get out of
here, and go back to where we belong.  Can you at least agree on that?"
    "Well... I mean, it's a nice place, but..." Amelia said, glancing from
the city to Zelgadis and back.  "We should go see Lina.  It's not right to
leave a quest incomplete, right?  It's not honorable."
    "Or safe," Zelgadis agreed.  "We'll just have to ask the Dragons how to
get back.  They probably want us out of their hair, anyway.  We're
practically violent neanderthals in comparison to folks here......"
    He trailed off quietly.
    No.  Now, that is getting entirely too paranoid, even for him.  The
idea was immediately dismissed.

                                    [*]

    Feet running through a forest at night.  The crunch of twigs and
leaves.
    Lina kept a good grip on her book, as she put as much distance between
herself and the cottage as she could.  Okay, truth be told, she felt bad
about causing widespread mayhem in order to escape, but it was for the
best.  The longer she waited, the higher the chance Naga would find the
book -- the more chance Naga would find the book, the more chance she'd
learn the Giga Slave -- the more chance of THAT, the less of a chance
humanity at large had of surviving.  Naga wasn't stupid, not by far, but
knowing her she'd be just as immature with it as Lina was once...
    ...once, in her mother's attic, looking through her sister's things.
She wasn't supposed to touch them, being too young for that sort of stuff
at eight years since her Nameday, but she just couldn't resist stuff she
wasn't supposed to touch.  Like the cookie jar, or the cat's poo in the
box, her sister's magic lightning-throwing lance.  Sure, she might get in
some trouble, but it was never anything really bad.  Lina Inverse just
wanted to know everything, see everything, touch everything.  Was that so
bad?
    When she managed to open her sister's storage closet upstairs, using a
handy lockpicking spell she had learned a week ago from a magical thief (he
was a nice man and gave her candy, before taking it away from her again),
she rooted carefully through all this neat magic stuff.
    Then she found, rolled up neatly in the back, a scroll.  Not really a
scroll; a page from a book.  Horribly yellowed and old, full of holes, torn
from its bindings.. but readable.  And on it was this really cool spell
called the Giga Slave!
    And Lina, wanting to know everything and be the world's best sorceress
in the world like her sister, memorized the spell before putting it back.
A few days went by and nobody commented, so she decided to test out the
spell outside of her town.
    At first, casting it was easy.  It was strong, but she was a tough girl
like the folks in her country usually were, and she could handle it.
    Then it got to be very hard to handle, as each word had to struggle to
get out.  But she pushed on anyway.
    Then it was very hard to STOP saying the words, like the time she
crawled into a barrel and had a friend push her down a hill.  She also felt
very dizzy...
    When the spell completed, it ran wild, and mile-high Mt. Erectus just
outside of town was completely vaporized in a tremendous blast of pure
black energy, pulled from a golden river of chaos.
    Lina got a pretty bad spanking for that one.
    ...but in the here and now, she was smarter than to just hurl unknown
spells around.  She'd read Giga's book, memorize what she could and then
perhaps hide it somewhere safe, like her sister tried to do with that
fragment of the lore.  Then she'd never cast them again unless she had an
EXTREMELY GOOD REASON.
    But Naga, she had proven time and time again not to have much
restraint.  Perhaps Lina could hammer the idea home that these spells
weren't for crushing your enemy, they were usually for making world go
boom, but until she could soften Naga up enough to do that it was better to
hide out and be cool about it.
    And for now, she'd read the Giga Lores.
    'The True Human Magic, by Merlin Giga.'  She could FEEL power crackling
at her fingertips as she opened it, finally, or maybe that was just
anticipation...

    ...of a blank book.
    Lina fell sideways, still clutching the text in her unbelieving hands.
It was EMPTY?!  Clean white pages of nothing?!  Impossible!  There had to
be some kind of...
    Wait.
    Now words started to form, as if an invisible pen wrote them.  Pausing
to dip in ink occasionally.  Transfixed, Lina read the lines as they wrote
themselves, in the handwriting of a man dead so long ago...

        And in my left hand,
        I held the ultimate human darkness,
        searing black flames in my fingers.
            With this, I took my first step.  Giga Slave.
        And in my right hand,
        I held the ultimate human light,
        holy fire of blinding brilliance.
            With this, I took my second step.  Giga Restoration.
        And my path was irreversible then,
        carrying both flames in balance,
        to my destination.
            With this, I took my third step.  Giga's Gate.
        And then I flew free,
        for I had found my salvation,
        as my people rejoiced.

    The page turned itself, and the pen copied out the Giga Slave, exactly
the same font, the same stylized writing that Lina remembered from so long
ago.  Next page.  Giga Restoration.  Next page, Giga's Gate.  Next page.

        And only for those who walk the path,
        Will the final truths be revealed.
            With this, I close.
                    - merlin giga

    The rest of the pages stayed blank.
    Naga snatched the book cleanly from Lina's hands.
    "A-HA!" she said, using a different vowel than usual.  "Caught you,
Lina Inverse!  For shame, hiding things from Naga, your strongest ally!"
    "Aaa!!!!" Lina responded.  "Naga, don't read that!  Don't!--"
    Paging through the book with a look of puzzlement, Naga read.
    It's been a nice universe, really, Lina thought to herself.  She didn't
have too many complaints.  Sure, she was hoping to get rich and retire with
a fetching man sometime in the future which she apparently wasn't going to
have anymore, but beyond that, things could have been worse.
    "What's this?" Naga asked, seriously curious rather than mockingly
curious.
    Groaning, Lina gave up.  "What's it LOOK like, Naga?"
    "Looks like a blank book to me," she said, showing Lina the perfectly
clean pages of the book.  "What, are you planning to start a private
diary?  OOHOHOHOOO!  Hiding nasty things you want to write about Naga, are
you?"
    Not used to the worst case scenario vaporizing itself in a cloud of
hidden irony, Lina was completely at a loss for words.
    Uninterested, Naga handed the most sought after book of lores in
history back to Lina.  "Very well, keep your silly little girl diary.
Really, Lina, you do need to learn to grow up and be less childish about
such things.  And after all, you have myself if you need someone to talk to
about those personal problems!  I wouldn't laugh at you or anything, I
swear!"
    Nod nod, confused look.
    "So, the matter is settled and we shall resume the party?" Naga asked.
    Nod nod, stunned look.
    "Lina?  Is something wrong?"
    Nod nod, faint.

                                    [*]

    Doomed flowed with verdant green life.  An elk trotted along the
stream of the purest waters, sipping delicately.  Birds chirped.  Trees
exploded.
    "That's not quite right, afraid," Xelloss said, shaking his head
sadly.  "You need to have better control."
    "I'm doing the best I can here," Dayvid grumbled, trying to remain
casual about being able to summon black energy.  "And I'm only a few hours
old at this."
    They had been practicing on simple black magic, to build up to the big
spell.  Dayvid didn't like magic.  He had only been associating with it for
a short time now and already could tell he didn't like it.  There was no
form to it, no structure.  You just... called the powers, and they ran
through you with the sickening feeling of being a human dam's gate, and
stuff blew apart.
    "You see," his father had explained, "Most people use these long,
poetic chants written by some sorcerer or whatnot.  But they're just focal
points.  If you look between the lines, it's all about focusing on what you
want to happen, what you want the power to do; then you adjust and temper
the flow as it runs through so it takes the shape you want.  I don't
usually bother with the chanting.  Why train yourself with a crutch, as
most human mages do?  Certainly it's harder to control raw power with raw
will, but then you have no real limits."
    But Dayvid LIKED the idea of spells.  Chanting and forming words that
directed the actions, much like .. like... sort of like.. like putting
mathematics into the arm that controlled his turtle, in short coded
bursts... he knew he should have come up with a name for the action, but
since he never had anybody to talk to about it, he never bothered.  But
spells should work like that, not just like wrangling a river's flow
chaotically.
    And besides...
    "We don't have a lot of time here, right?" he said.  "I think I can
deal with having a crutch or training wheels or whatever, if it means we
can get the others back faster."
    "I suppose, but you need to control your will better than you are,
spell or not," Xelloss warned.  "Otherwise, the Reality Bubble spell will
go boom and it would be bad."
    "I'm fuzzy on this whole good / bad thing, dad."
    "Try to imagine every tiny part of your body simultaneously exploding
at the speed of light," Xelloss smiled.
    "...okay, that's bad," Dayvid agreed.  "You know, I tried to clock the
speed of light once, but I couldn't invent a precise enough stopwatch.
Let's start with the spells, though, okay?  Just to get going.  Then I'll
worry about basic will.  No more shortcuts, deal?"
    "Oh, fine.  Do it the boring way," Xelloss grumped.

                                    [*]

    Ryu showed up at the sidewalk cafe after entirely too long.
    "I'm sorry to keep you waiting," he said, bowing slightly in apology.
"But truth be told, you've caused quite a stir with the Council.  We're not
used to time travelers..."
    Zelgadis, sitting in a small pile of discarded paper umbrellas and
empty glasses, looked up at Ryu with eyes that expressed total relief from
boredom.
    "Don't worry, we're not planning to stay," he said.  "Assuming magic
technology has advanced as much as it has, is there a way to zip us back?"
    "Go back?  Uh... look, you'd better just come with me," Ryu said.  "The
council wants to talk to you about what they've decided on.  I'm just a
soldier, really."
    "What'd they decide?" Zel asked.
    "They'll explain it.  So, if you please...?" Ryu suggested, motioning
for the two to follow him.
    Zelgadis nodded, and nudged Amelia awake.
    The trip was fairly short, thanks to a 'Taxi' that Ryu hailed.  He
offered to fly them there on his back, since the roads were deliberately
made wide enough to accommodate any Dragons that felt like going au
naturale, so to speak, but Zelgadis declined.  He preferred non-sentient
forms of transportation.
    They passed by city scene after city scene, identical all, until Zel
lost interest in looking out the window.  People.  People everywhere,
walking, riding, talking, business, shopping, talking, walking, riding.
Sprawling apartment complexes with people.  No arguments, no problems.
Idyllic.
    Zelgadis liked to think that being a natural pessimist was actually an
advantage for him.  He wasn't always right about the worst case scenario
happening nine times out of ten, but when he was, at least he was prepared
for it.  And he could say 'I told you so' to the people who weren't, not to
mock them, but to suggest they think ahead next time like he did.  It was
the only logical way to approach a situation if you wanted to succeed in
life.
    So, the less attached he became to this strange world the better.  Keep
it as a fever dream image, not as a reality to accept.  Then when he left
everything would be cool, and while here he could stay critical.
    "You know..." Amelia said, since she hadn't lost interest in looking
out the window, "This is pretty close to what Dad wants."
    "Huh?" Zel asked, surprised at Amelia's talking, since she had been so
quiet recently.
    "A world like this," Amelia said.  "Where people can be free.  Free
from crime, from wars, or even from hatred from others.  That's really what
justice is about, you know, making sure people are free to do what they
want and not come to harm.  Of course, some want to cause harm, but justice
keeps those wants from interfering with the wants of others... there's a
lot of theory behind it."
    "Theory?  Behind your whacked out heroism?" Zelgadis asked.  "All I
usually see is mindless stomping of bad guys.."
    And oddly, Amelia glared at him.  "Don't put it that way.  That's not
what it's SUPPOSED to be.  Justice means you keep order, but you do it with
the right mind.  Compassion is half of it.  I've already met someone who
just stomps the bad guys, and I'm very much not like he was, thank you very
much.  Maybe I'm young and still have a lot to learn but at least I'm not
going to fall into that trap..."
    This threw the chimera.  "Ah... um.  Sorry.  I didn't mean to accuse
you..."
    And oddly, Amelia smiled.  "I know.  You're just being you the way you
act.  It's okay, really, Zelgadis-san!  I'd like to think my optimism
balances our team out, and keeps us successful in our quest!"
    "That's.. a strange way to look at it."
    "Really?" Amelia asked, surprised.  "Funny, I figured it was the only
logical way to see it."

                                    [*]

    The Council of Dragons is ancient.  The Council is wise.
    When the wars tore the land to shreds, the Council formed of the wisest
and noblest of the Dragons to help humanity restore itself to former glory
and beyond.  Where the Mazoku destroyed, the Dragons rebuilt.  When the
Mazoku corrupted, the Dragons purified.  They weren't the leaders of their
race, but simply civil servants selected to deal with the humans; the true
capital of the Dragons existed somewhere else, probably somewhere very
highly and with lots of perches.
    Six dragons sat on the Council with a seventh floating in from time to
time, because six and seven were popular numbers to humanity.  They sat
along a long table, because humans prefer a panel discussion.  They've
adapted nicely to what the humans want, as they see them wanting, to make
sure they're comfortable.
    But the two who entered did not seem comfortable.  The young female, on
the right; she was quite at ease, but burned with intensity of ease.  The
other sulked in gloom.  They were expecting that, of course, from Ryu's
descriptions.
    "Welcome," one of the Dragons said, and it didn't really matter which
one.  "We have been expecting you.  Please, have a seat.  Do you wish
anything?  Food or drink?"
    "We'd like to leave," Zelgadis said, up front.  He seated himself, and
looked the Dragon addressing them squarely in the eye.
    "We have discussed and rejected that option," another Dragon who Zel
wasn't looking at stated.  "While a reality bubble could be popped to make
a similar gate, and possibly shaped to lead back to your time, it would
cause damage, and Paradox would likely occur.  We are not creatures of
destruction and will not perform such an irresponsible black act.  The last
of those are scattered to the winds."
    "Okay, fine," Zelgadis negotiated.  "Tell us the spell we need and
we'll do it ourselves."
    "Allowing another to cause the destruction involved is also
unacceptable," the first Dragon stated.  "This is a world of peace,
Chimera.  Nothing must jeopardize that.  Surely your companion agrees?"
    "Well...." Amelia said, prompted to speak.  "It's not a good thing to
put other people at risk.  That's a given.  But at the same time, we'd be
doing a dishonorable thing by abandoning our quest which I don't think
Lina-san--"
    "Lina Inverse?!" the first Dragon asked.  The others piped in randomly.
    "The black witch of chaos?"
    "The enemy of all who live?"
    "She who brought the Mazoku lord not once, but twice?"
    "The most dangerous human to walk?"
    "A risk to her own race, if not all three races?"
    The first Dragon held a hand up to silence the others, not because he
was the leader, but because they were all peers and respected each other's
wishes.  They grew quiet.
    "Any service done against Lina Inverse likely is of benefit to your
people," the Dragon said.  "Her continuing irresponsible actions with dark
magics she should not have tampered with caused much death and despair.
You would be far better off staying here, which is what you must do,
regardless."
    "Lina Inverse did aid Filia in her quests before the Second Mazoku
War," another Dragon stated.  "We must not discount that."
    "Irrelevant," a previously quiet one said, flatly.  "Her later actions
were too horrible to keep a balance of neutrality.  Her mirror affairs are
one of the major projected causes of the second war.  She is to be
considered an enemy of the Dragons and Humans both and thus discounted
appropriately.  Reportedly, the Knight of Ceipheed agrees."
    The Dragons nodded in full consent.
    "...she's not all that bad..." Amelia meekly said.
    Zelgadis tried to re-rail the conversation.  "Can we get off of Lina
for a moment?  What exactly have you people decided should become of us?"
    "You should live here, with your kind," a Dragon said.  "We can cure
you, Zelgadis, so that you have no problems meshing with humans once more.
Amelia, already you have grown to agree about the ideals of this world.  We
believe you will have a happy existence here.  Whatever quests you were on
are written into our history already, outcome regardless.  To change that
is to anger a Paradox."
    "I guess it would be... but, well.." Amelia said, trying to come up
with a defense.
    Zelgadis's mouth was hanging open.  "Wait.  ...cure me?  You can cure
my curse?"
    "We will," the Dragons said.  "Come.  Third will perform the ritual in
a private room, and correct your problem.  Amelia, Fourth wishes to talk
with you as well in private.  Then we may reconveniene, and find a good
place for you two to live, and things to do when there."
    A cure.  Fancy that... Zelgadis was always interested in a cure.  But
at the cost of not going back?...
    Actually, why would it have to be a cost at all?  So the Dragons remove
his Chimeric parts, make him human.  Then he and Amelia can quest for the
'reality bubble' spell, cast it in secret and go home.  A good plan.
    "I'm game," Zelgadis said, allowing himself a sly smile.
    The Dragons also smiled, but for other reasons.

                                    [*]

    Outside the shining walls, figures creep.
    Creeping is not done in Central Lair, because it implies you have a
reason to sneak around, and that reason likely is not a social one.  But
these figures skulked with definite purpose and defiance.
    The ringleader of the merry band motioned for them to hold, and he
detonated a sewer grating with a homemade explosive, the formula for which
was cooked up nearly four hundred and fifty years ago.  The Dragons never
had gotten the hang of science.  Almost a humans-only magical club, it was,
the figure smirked.  They'd have felt black magic or fireballs, but a
smudge of C4 would never be noticed.
    "Okay, move in," he said to the others, in a sign language.  "Move
quietly.  We don't have long before the spell goes off, and everything
matters."

                                    [*]

    Zelgadis was already pleased with himself and his situation, and thus
didn't notice the magical sealing of the door behind him as he entered the
small chamber with the Dragon.
    "I'm curious," he said.  "How is it that you've managed to find a magic
that reverses my problem?"
    "Research and development, mostly," the Dragon said, preparing a book
of runes that was ready and waiting on a nearby table of instruments.  "It
was of the utmost necessity, we found, in the evolution of humankind out of
the moldy roots that led to the second great war.  How is it you say it?
History repeats its mistakes you learn from?"
    "Actually, it's 'History repeats itself' and 'You learn from your
mistakes,'" Zelgadis corrected.  "But I don't see how that relates."
    A magic circle was drawn around Zelgadis's feet, a glowing powder that
settled into a perfect form with the slightest of commands.  He briefly
considered stepping out of the circle, a paranoid impulse, but by the time
it passed through his mind, the circle was complete.
    "It's simple," the Dragon stated.  "It's the darkness within humans
that causes the occasional Lina Inverse.  The wild card.  The one that
could bring the whole works toppling down out of vanity or power-mad
hunger.  We simply have learned to purge the Mazoku's brand of blackness
from men's souls, and make them pure..."
    This wasn't sounding good.
    "What does that have to do with curing my Chimera curse?" Zelgadis
asked.
    "You thought...?" the Dragon asked.  Then, it shook its head.  "I
should have realized.  We knew you would need the most adjustment towards
the side of goodness, Zelgadis, of the two of you.  Corrupt as usual.  We
must cure you of your evil thoughts, so that you will not harm others, and
will live in happiness and peace..."
    And every suspicious, pessimistic impulse slammed back into Zelgadis
with a ball-peen hammer.
    "Oh, of COURSE," he groaned.  "Now, this I should have seen coming.
You brainwashed those people in the city, didn't you?  You've made them...
nice.  But nice by your choosing, not theirs."
    "That is correct, albeit with disappointing labels," the Dragon said.
"You shouldn't look at this so negatively.  It is for the best for
everybody involved.  You don't need the darkness anymore, not now--"
    "Typical," Zel said.  "So totally typical.  So much so that I wish I
had expected it.  What happens now?  You're going to scrub my head too?
And Amelia?"
    "Just a little for her," the Dragon said.  "She has too much ambition.
She could cause a great deal of harm while she has very good intentions.
It can be fixed.  Five hundred years we have tried to figure out what to do
with your people, Zelgadis -- you embraced us at first, then tolerated us,
then defied us and almost brought about a third coming.  No more.  We will
save you, for your own sake.  We--"
    The thing that the Dragon wasn't expecting to happen, that he would be
caught in a timed explosion in the middle of explaining his plans,
happened.  The bomb under the floor slammed the Dragon through the ceiling
above; Zelgadis, tougher than the average sort of guy, was merely singed.

                                    [*]

    Xelloss licked one finger, and held it to the sky, testing the winds.
    "What is it now?" Dayvid asked.  "We're ready.  It's taken a day or
two, but I think we're ready.  We are ready, right?"
    "Mmmm... it's time," Xelloss nodded.  "Things feel aligned
appropriately.  You do remember the chant, yes?"
    Dayvid nodded.  "Of course.  I've got a good memory."
    "You shouldn't HAVE to chant it, you know--"
    "Let's not start on that again."
    "Just suggesting," Xelloss shrugged.  "Say the words if it makes you
comfortable, but hold Amelia in your mind as hard as you can regardless.
Otherwise this simply isn't going to work.  Now, join hands, so we can
funnel the same powers.  I'll act as a conduit and guide, you control the
spell's flow."
    Dayvid glanced around Doomed, at the lush wildlife for a moment of
beauty-inspiration, then took his father's hand.  "We can just do it again
if we screw up, right?"
    "Actually, no, we'll likely be blasted to subatomic particles if we
screw up, but don't let that worry you," Xelloss smiled.  "I'm funneling
the power now.  I'd suggest you start."

                                    [*]

    Excitement tugged at Amelia, like she was about to open a present.  She
was all smiles, despite the bad lighting and slightly unusual nature of the
spell-room.  She could identify some items used in a number of powerful
white magic spells, including ones that dealt with the mind.
    "What do you use this room for?" she asked the Dragon, who was busy
inscribing her in a circle.
    "Healing," the Dragon said.  "This will only take a s--"
    The explosion from the room across the hall shook the building.  An
alarm sounded.  The Dragon also looked alarmed until the door behind him
exploded with black energy, which flowed out and consumed him in what
sounded a lot like a GULP.
    A man in military fatigues stepped through, brushing some dragon-dust
away with the toe of his boot.  "No point in not whipping out the heavy
artillery, now that we've tripped the alarm.." he shrugged.  Looked to up
to Amelia.  "Come with me if you want to live."
    Amelia took a defensive stance, a fireball ready to cast.  "Who the
heck are you?!"
    Into the room walked Zelgadis, dusty and scorched, but otherwise fine.
    "Time to go," Zelgadis said.  "We've been sprung before the Dragons
could mind-alter us by these nice rebel type people.  You are rebels,
right?"
    "How'd you guess?" the leader asked.
    "The outfits and bombs were a good tipoff."

                                    [*]

    Winds picked up in Doomed.
    "Powers outside the lores, forbidden spells of world shaping..." Dayvid
chanted, despite inwardly being worried about the ominous words.  No;
concentrate on Amelia and Zelgadis.  He wanted them back.  The spell WOULD
bring them back, powers he commanded, even if he didn't like those powers
he could at least use them here and now.  To bring her back to him.
    "Secret magics of risk and reward, grant me your blessing..."  And
somehow he could FEEL them.  They were together, somewhere, along with
others, but he focused on them.  It was a modified bubble.  It was designed
to steal some of reality away from the future he sought, and move it
around, and pop the bubble to merge it with this world.  It made.. some
kind of scientific sense to him, really.  Magic seemed to be a lot like
science, but with more hand waving and explosions.  At least, more hand
waving.
    "Push the bubble, the pocket, in the fabric of reality..."
    Ah, there were the explosions.

                                    [*]

    "You don't have long," the leader said, pocketing a walkie talkie.
"The Dragons are sending soldiers now like Ryu to clean up this mess.
We're the mess.  But we know the spell will be cast here and now, and we'll
keep them off your back long enough."
    "Spell? Mess? What?  Who?!" Amelia asked, still a bit dazed.
    "Who's bringing us back?" Zelgadis asked.  "And who are you?"
    "That is classified, Zel-kun," the commando smirked.
    Dragons poured around the corner, and white lights flew past Zelgadis--
    --the rebels threw black lights back, and red fires, and blue ices,
anything they could to stem the flow of the powerful whiteness of the
Dragons.  Even some whiteness was thrown.  Amelia was reminded of Sailoon
Founding Day, in midsummer, and he fireworks displays...
    "How long until we go?!" Zelgadis asked, over the roar of the fighting.

                                    [*]

    The bubble formed, pushing through the ground, through the air,
twisting and warping reality around it...
    The spell was done, and now Dayvid was just funneling power to keep the
bubble going, until he was sure the others were inside.  This was harder
than it seemed.  Focus, focus, keep a grip on Amelia, keep things going...
shimmering forms appearing inside the tiny pocket of existence...
    "I forgot to mention," Xelloss said, casually, over the roar of the
magical maelstrom.  "We're probably going to really, really, really piss of
Paradox doing this, and only have a gambler's chance at surviving."
    "What?!"
    "Focus!" Xelloss demanded.
    And the figures formed...
    And Amelia and Zelgadis felt themselves pulled from the world where the
Dragons held sway over Man, and into a place of nothing, and into a world
familiar...
    The bubble burst.
    Time had a heart attack.
    Four people stood in a Doomed valley which was being torn to shreds in
the rage of history.
    And Paradox finally noticed the commotion, and as all good (and
surviving) time travelers remember, he asked Just what in the hell do you
think you're DOING?!
    Strands of time snapped tight and knotted themselves until

                                    [*]

    the refreshing beverage in Zelgadis's hand dropped in surprise.
    The Guppy drifted out of the mists of the Bahumut Trapezoid, puttering
along without a care, reentering the sunlit world out of the rolling clouds
of gray.
    Xelloss was perched in his usual place, fiddle at his side.  Dayvid and
Amelia were similarly lounging around.
    All of them took a deep breath to confirm that Yes, they are still
breathing.
    "It... it was all a dream?" Amelia asked.  "It was just a big, scary
dream!  Heh!"
    Pause.
    "Now's usually when we find the bloody hook or the discarded sock or
whatever bit of evidence that makes us go 'Or WAS IT?'," Zelgadis pointed
out.
    The other sock did not fall.
    "History doesn't actually like to leave obvious clues like that,"
Xelloss said.  "It's supposed to look seamless.  But don't worry, it did
happen.  Actually, it's better things happened this way, since we did
abandon your ship in the future originally, Dayvid."
    "The shi... aaaah!" Dayvid said.  "I was so busy trying to pull Amelia
back that I forgot about the Guppy completely!!  Aww, man, that would have
been a disaster..."
    "So who was pulling me back?" Zelgadis asked.
    "Uh.." Dayvid mumbled, trying to remember.  "I.. think I sort of wasn't
focusing much on you.. err, no offense.  So that means..."
    Three heads slowly looked at Xelloss, who was busy tuning his violin.
    "Hmmm?" he asked, innocently.
    "YOU specifically worked to get me back??" Zelgadis asked.  "Why?  You
think I'm predictable and annoying."
    "Ah..." Xelloss said, sounding a sharp, dramatic orchestral note on his
instrument.  "THAT, my friend, is a secret."

                                    [*]

    And so, the party -- or rather, the parties -- wound to a close, the
people wandering off to rest before the big meeting at the Island of
Ultimate Despair.
    Far away, Lina was tucking herself in for the night, having finally
been able to relax enough to have a drink and generally unwind when she
realized the book was refusing to show itself to Naga.  It wasn't blank --
it still wrote the same words for Lina to reread if she felt like it.
    Giga Slave.  Giga Restoration.  And when those two are done, eventually
Giga's Gate.
    Lina knew a good slab of prophecy when she saw one.  The stories aren't
hard to understand.  Anybody who casts both the Giga Slave and the Giga
Restoration is doomed to go through whatever Giga was talking vaguely about
in poetic form.  And fortunately, Lina wasn't stupid enough to do exactly
that.
    As far as she was concerned, Giga's spells could stay hidden.  She'd
just bury the book somewhere, or destroy it, or just keep it safe somewhere
for the future -- she'd never cast Giga Restoration herself.  Only a fool
would deliberately walk into a trap of destiny.  Her primary quest, rebuild
and transport the Oracle Mirror to Sailoon, was right around the corner
from finishing, no fusses, no problems, no world-shattering hidden magics
to rock the world.
    Satisfied in her conclusions, she went to bed, and dreamed she had
wings.

                              TO BE CONTINUED