Slayers Inversed

A Slayers fanfic by Majo-chan

Part three: Decisions and Action

Author’s note for revision: Once again, I don’t expect any plot changes. Just filling it out and making sure everything flows more smoothly. Also, some of the conversations get clearer. Hope you all enjoy.

**

It was a crisp and cool morning, and even though the sun was well into its journey across the skies by the time the various inhabitants of the Sanctuary had gathered for the morning meeting, it was still faintly chilly.

The large courtyard was silent. All the dragons and the humans that lived in the sanctuary were quiet as they waited for the Chief Elder to speak. Filia stood off to one side of the platform, content to just look sullen and foreboding. She was doing a good job of it too, judging from how many people looked away, flustered, when she gave them dark scowls.

Luna Inverse sat in a chair beside her, her long bangs hiding her eyes and anything one might have seen in them. Filia felt rather than saw some of the reprimanding looks from the Knight, but the upward quirk of her lips seem to indicate amusement more than anything else. Maybe she was amused. After all, the General and Knight of Cepheed were usually required to be present on such occasions, and both have long ceased to really care about what was going on. The speech would prove to be just as boring as it usually was.

This morning was different, though. Filia scanned the crowd for a face that was at once unfamiliar and familiar. A part of her thought it was stupid that she was looking for that young woman in her dreams, because it was just a dream. But another part noted that since Xelloss was in the dream, and he was very real, indeed, than the girl should be here too. At the very least, it would hopefully shed some light on the mysterious dream. Filia finally found the face, in the form of a human girl. She was standing at the edge of the crowd, as if she wanted an escape route if she ever needed escaping. The fiery red hair was hard to miss.

The General looked hard at the human that she had met only in her dream. The girl…Lina, she remembered, looked up and their eyes met. Lina’s red eyes were slightly surprised. They became more surprised as Filia looked away.

“Hey, Lina, what’s going on?” Gourry whispered when he noticed the redhead paying a lot more attention to the raised platform than she usually did.

“I don’t know. Don’t ask me.” She whispered back. The Chief Elder began to speak and she instinctively tuned him out. It was all the same thing, the same thing that she had been hearing since she was a little kid. Probably the same thing most humans hear nowadays. Things like Dragons are the keepers of peace and that Demons must be wiped out if there is to be any future at all. Personally, Lina didn’t understand what the big deal was. Well, Demons might be dangerous, but now? When all the powerful ones are sealed away and the minor ones are milling around getting slaughtered? It wasn’t even really a war against the Demons anymore, since the Demons aren’t really fighting back.

But of course, the dream is going to change all that. How, she was not sure. Well, up on that platform was Filia, one of her supposed partners in crime. But she still didn’t know how she was supposed to revive the Dark Lord and his servants… And where is that man that was in her dream anyway?

“Lina-san, you’re not listening again.” Amelia whispered in her ear.

“I am too.” She muttered under her breath. “Besides, you know how to recite his speech backwards and upside down too.”
“True…”Amelia smiled faintly.

If what the Lord of Nightmares said is true, then the world will end…Lina shook her head mentally. But to awaken the Dark Lord and his generals…

“I don’t know…”She replied softly to no one in particular. “The price of both is too high…”

“What did you say, Lina-san?”

Lina met the curious blue eyes of her friend and smiled.

“Nothing, Amelia, nothing.”

**
Filia knew she couldn’t put off the decision any longer. The sight of Lina, and the look in the red eyes, confirmed it. They, all three of them, had the same dream. And it wasn’t just a dream…if she truly believed it was just some weird coincidence brought on by the stress of the past few days, she would’ve just ignored the ridiculous notion completely. But…the dragon felt the ring of truth in the Goddess’s words, and she had learned long ago to trust her instincts. No…it wasn’t a dream. It was a prophecy, and it was clear on what her role would be.

Now there was a decision for her to make, and putting it off would only cause more damage. But to betray her race and what it stood for…

“I can’t.” She murmured. “I can’t start a war. I can’t stand another one. I can’t participate in instigating one. I can’t go against Cepheed, my God.”

“Can I sit here, Miss Sunshine?”

The voice snapped her out of her daze and Filia looked up in surprise, “Wha-oh, it’s you.” She said as she matched face to memory, though they had met only in a dream.

Lina made a face as she set her tray, laden with enough food to feed a young dragon for a week, down by Filia’s cup of tea. She then seated herself with a minimum amount of fuss, but Filia should’ve known better. “What’s that supposed to mean?”

“Nothing.” The dragon scowled. Lina was tied to the problem at hand. Not directly, but she was part of it, and Filia didn’t want to think too hard right now. “What do you want?”

“What do you think I want?” Lina asked. Well, that’s what she meant to ask, but it came out rather distorted since she was stuffing her face. But Filia understood the general gist of it, and Lina swallowed her mouthful to make her next words more legible. “We have to talk.”

“About the dream? That is exactly that. It was only a dream. Not reality. Just a dream.” The dragon said firmly. Good, she sounded convinced.

Lina swallowed her current mouthful (she had managed to clear about half her plate as Filia sprouted nonsense about the dream being only a dream) so she could have her mouth available for the debate. Deciding that telling the dragon that she sounded woefully unconvincing would just make her mad, she tried logic instead. “You’re not going to just ignore the whole warning, are you?”

“Yes, I am. The whole dream was nothing but a figment of my imagination. I don’t believe the world is going to end at all.” Filia said all that with a note of finality in her voice. Most people know better than to continue arguing with her at this point, but Lina didn’t seem to take the hint like she was supposed to.

“Dragons really are stubborn…” Lina muttered, stabbing a sausage ferociously. “Have you thought about… what if it’s true? I mean, you’re a dragon, so you might not know, but it doesn’t seem right that the dragons are so…well, self-righteous all the time. How they want to be in charge of everything.”

“Are you calling us control freaks?” Filia asked suspiciously. Lina winced. That didn’t come out right at all. Great move, Lina, insulting the person you’re trying to convince isn’t exactly the best way to make her see things your way.

“Er...no. Not you, maybe not the majority of dragons.” Lina amended, trying again. “But what I’m trying to say is that…”

“The answer is no and that’s that. I’m not going to go running off to ‘save the world’ as She put it.” Filia stood up, almost angrily. “I will not-“

She stopped as the world spun crazily around her, things distorting and melting together and zooming in and out. A golden light slowly solidified until it became the form of a woman in full golden armor. Belatedly, Filia realized that she and Lina were not sitting at the table anymore. Instead, they seemed to have been pulled into a more colorful version of the dreamscape that they were in last night.

“Dragon, General of Cepheed.” The woman intoned. “Do you still refuse to see what is in front of you?”

“Who are you?” Filia growled as she looked around sharply. Granted, the dream was weird. But this woman was a threat, especially if she had re-located them so quickly and effortlessly.

“Where did my food go!?” Lina gasped, looking at where the table used to be.

“You’ll get your food soon, Human.” The mysterious woman assured her. “As to who I am, I am Her servant. She has sent me to aid you in the quest. But I can see that we are already running into some problems.” The golden woman said. As far as Lina could tell, she wasn’t the Lord of Nightmares, the voices were too different although the way they spoke was similar. This woman did seem more than human, or dragon or demon for that matter.

“That’s right.” Filia replied. “I’m not going. I’m not reviving any Dark Lords, and I’m not going to do it, no matter what you say.”

The woman tilted her head slightly, and if it wasn’t for the serious expression on her face, Lina could’ve sworn that she was puzzled. “A world that is consumed in Light is still a world that is destroyed. Why do you refuse to see that?”

“Do you know how many people this will kill? Do you know what turmoil and chaos and ravaging will ensue?! I’ve lived in war. I’ve lost many that were close to me. I never want to go through it again. Never.” Filia snarled. “Now let me out of wherever here is and let me get back to my life.”

“That’s an interesting argument that you’re making, Filia.”

Her eyes narrowed. The rage boiling through her was familiar now. “Xelloss.” She growled, unerringly turning toward the place where a dark shadow expanded and solidified. Lina gaped a little as the man she recognized from the dream stood in front of them once again.

He smiled cheerfully, completely ignoring Filia’s dark look. “That’s me.”

“Get out of here.” The dragon said, her voice carrying volumes of implied threat.

The Demon shook his head, completely unaffected by the daggers she was glaring at him. “Now, now. I’m part of the debate team too. Don’t forget that.”

Lina scratched her head, feeling a bit out of her depth among the two. “Okay, if this is just an attempt to get Filia to join us in this crazy endeavor, can I gracefully back out and get back to breakfast?” Obviously there was a lot more between Filia and this Xelloss than she understood. From what she gathered, he was a demon. But just that fact, despite the common knowledge that all demons and dragons hate each other naturally, seemed insufficient to explain Filia’s very noticeable loathing for him.

“Human, you are just as important as the Demon or the Dragon. Therefore you must participate in this discussion.”

Lina blinked. Well, there goes her intention to back out from between the glares and the too-innocent grins.

Conversationally, Xelloss turned to the woman in gold. “Hello, haven’t seen you in awhile.” He greeted her with a polite smile.

“You haven’t seen anyone in awhile, Xelloss. What do you want?” The woman asked, looking slightly annoyed. Lina raised an eyebrow at the abrupt change in mood.

“You know her?” She asked Xelloss.

“You can say we’ve met.” Xelloss replied ambiguously. “After all, she works for L-sama, and L-sama’s the mother of all, including Darkness.”

Filia seemed have swallowed her anger at seeing the Demon for now and was tapping her foot impatiently. “I’m still not convinced. So can I go now?”

“Let me put it this way, Dragon. If you prevent the destruction of the world, then those hardships you mention will happen. That is true. But even if that happens, at least all the living creatures have a chance to live on and fight on for what they want. If the world is destroyed, everything becomes irrelevant. Nothing will matter, not war, not pain, not happiness, not despair. There will only be emptiness and the void of Chaos.”

There was silence as Filia gave the woman a surprised look. There was silence as the woman gazed steadily back at her, until the dragon had to look away.

“No one gets a second chance, Filia. That’s what it boils down to.” Xelloss said, serious for once. And Lina noticed his eyes were purple. Cold, intent shards of amethyst. “You want to condemn everything in this world to destruction? Is that what you want?”

Lina crossed her arms. “Well, Filia?”

The Dragon felt like she was being put on trial. “I…”The Dragon looked hesitant. If what she said was true…then what right did she have to take away the right to live, for everyone? “I don’t know.”

The woman sighed. “Then allow me to show you something. Lina Inverse and Xelloss Metallium, you two must see this also.”

“Eh? What?”

Gracefully, she raised an arm. The world around them distorted once again. Lina felt herself almost toppling over as the matter making up the space they were in rearranged itself.

“I think I’m getting a migraine…” Lina muttered, closing her eyes so she won’t have to look at all the clashing and swirling colors.

“They control the power of Chaos, Lina-san.” Xelloss chuckled as he grabbed her arm to steady her. “Making them stay constant would be asking too much.”

Lina opened her eyes. “Do I know you?” she asked, puzzled. She felt that she should know him…even though she was fairly sure she had never seen him before in her life, before last night.
He smiled. “No, you don’t. You might know of me, but even that’s highly unlikely.” He winked and grinned at her. “The dragons don’t like to acknowledge my existence. I’m Xelloss, Lina. Nice to meet you.”

Lina’s brow furrowed. “Your name sounds familiar…”

“Don’t trouble your brain. Ask your sister sometime.” Xelloss turned his attention to the new scenery and released her arm. “I think we’re supposed to pay attention now.”

Indeed, the scenery screamed for their attention.

Filia and Lina’s gasps broke the eerie silence. The torn earth was soft beneath their feet and the dead littered it, blood carving out rivers in the soil as it flowed freely. The golden sky seemed to reflect the dead earth with its red clouds that paralleled the rivers of blood in gaping wounds across the heavens.

“What is this?!” She whispered.

Most of the forms seemed to belong to Dragons and Humans, although there were a few Demons here and there. It was easy to see all the way to the far horizon, because all traces of landscape had been flattened, leveled as if by a force greater than humans, dragons, demons or any gods.

Filia clutched at her head, fighting the surge of memories. This scene was too familiar…too familiar for comfort. The bodies she remembered. Torn spires had jutted from the ground in her own version of hell, but this was close enough. Only Xelloss seemed unmoved by the sight. He glanced around, not quite smiling, but with a calm that neither Lina nor Filia managed.

“Oh, Gods…” Filia murmured. “Oh, gods….” Just like the Golden Dragons. That was how she found her people, so long ago. Torn apart on a bloody battlefield. Blood everywhere…

“The creatures on this planet will destroy themselves if the balance is not restored. And even if they didn’t, L-sama will intervene when one race finally dies out.”

“It really interesting,” Xelloss said off-handedly. “In trying to save the world, the Dragons actually furthered the Demons’ goal of ending the world.”

“We can’t let this happen!” Lina cried. “We can’t! This isn’t how it’s supposed to end. This world wasn’t supposed to end yet.”

“That is true.” The woman nodded. “That is why there is one option before you. And that is also why the Dragon must make her decision.”

“Filia?”

Filia was shaking, kneeling in the earth, staring at the red streaks in the sky. Like blood. Like the blood of her people. Like the blood of all that will die…

“I’ll do it.” She finally said.

**

“Hey, sis?”

A pause. “What is it, Lina?”

“Do you know of…the Lord of Nightmares?”

“Why do you ask?”
“Well, I was just thinking, you know. About Good. About Evil. About Balance. Do you think too much good is bad?”

“That’s a good question, Lina. I think it probably would be bad. After all, there can be no light if there is no darkness. Without darkness, light fails to be light. The same thing works vice versa. What are you thinking about?”

“Nothing.”

“Peace is well and good.” A nod. “But too much of anything, even a good thing, can be bad.”

“Okay, sis…Another thing. Do you know someone named Xelloss?”

“…”Not quite surprise, but close enough.

“Sis?”

“…Lina, promise me something.”

“What?”

“Never speak that name when in the presence of any Dragon. Never. Do you understand me?”

“Why? Is he dangerous?” Curiosity.

“Are you his enemy?”

“Ur…”

“Just be svery careful when dealing with Demons, Lina. Very careful.”

“Sis…”

“I’m not stupid, Lina-Chan. Take care on your journey, okay?”

Hesitation. Surprise. Then finally, “All right.”

“I hope you succeed.”

**

A dark cloud obscured the full moon as a stealthy figure made her way to the lower levels of the Sanctuary. She did not notice another person following her. Luckily for both of them, the guards didn’t notice anything amiss.

“You’re late.” Filia said, waiting for Lina by the barred door that led down to the deepest dungeons.

“Can I help it? I had to sneak past the guards, unlike some hotshot General I know.” Lina retorted acidly. “Well?”

“He’s down further.” Filia frowned at the thought but there was no helping it. She had agreed. “We have to get him out first.”

“Him? As in Xelloss? He’s here?”

“He’s been here for awhile, Lina.” The general explained with a semblance of patience. “The Dragons finally captured him about a hundred years ago, and he’s been here ever since, except for a few times when the Elders moved him for questioning.” Filia somehow opened the door silently, and they began to head down what seemed like an endless spiral of stairs.

Lina wanted to ask what they tried to find out, but figured it was probably a secret. Instead, she asked, “Did you ever find out anything?”

“No,” was the short reply.

“Oh.” Lina was feeling a little claustrophobic about the walls and the spiraling stairs that seemed to go on forever into the darkness. “How are we supposed to go unseal those Demons?”

“That’s why we need Xelloss. The Dragons don’t know where the Demons are.”

Lina stared at Filia’s back incredulously and actually stopped. “Wait a sec! You dragons were the ones that sealed them, but you don’t know where they are?!”

The General continued her descent. “The Demons were sealed separately, by different dragon mages.” There was a scuffling of feet behind her as Lina hurried to catch up. “Usually the Dragon mage sacrificed his or her life for the sealing, and the unsealed Demons hid the Dark Lord and his servants. The Demons couldn’t break the seals, obviously, because they have not done so yet. But our whole mission was to wipe out the Demon race, and if we had found the sealed Dark Lord, we would have found some way to destroy him already.”

“I see…” Lina nodded. “It’s a good thing the Dragons didn’t find them, then. Still, where does that leave us? Does Xelloss know where they are?”

“That is very possible, since we suspect he was the one that hid them in the first place.” Filia finally stopped in front of the heavily warded doors. “Here we are.”

“Ah.” Lina looked at the door with interest. The magic symbols of the wards glowed dimly in the darkness.

Suddenly, the Dragon stiffened and spun around. “Who’s there!?”

“What?” Lina asked, confused.
The giant war axe was shifted to the dragon’s right hand. “I heard someone.” Filia growled, then raised her voice. “Come out now!”

Lina strained her ears in the silence that ensued. “I don’t hear-“

“Kyaaa!!!” a startled yell sounded from somewhere above and to the right of her. Muffled, as if it was bouncing off walls.

Lina’s eyes widened. “Wait, that voice-“

Filia swung the axe back, ready to chop the intruder in half. Or at least, that was what she intended to do. The powerful swing was hampered by Lina hanging off her arm and the whole speed and balance of her weapon was thrown off.

“Stop! Stop!” Lina yelled.
Her axe clashed against something metallic. A sword. And a body behind it, in stance, holding his own against the much heavier weapon and the much stronger dragon.

“Stop it! That was Amelia’s voice! Stop!” Lina held on tighter, but she shouldn’t have worried. Filia disengaged the blades quietly.

“ Lina-san?”

“ Lina?”

Lina didn’t know whether to be glad or angry. “Amelia? Gourry!? What are you guys doing here?”

“Would you kindly let go of my arm?” Filia said icily.

“Oops.”

The Dragon was not pleased. “I guess the whole ‘Let’s leave quietly’ plan is screwed.” Considering the fact that Lina had probably already yelled loudly enough to alert the guards, there was no point in sneaking around. That said, she might as well remedy the blinded by darkness problem at hand. Grumpily, she chanted a Light spell. The white light illuminated the small, narrow hall they were in. Amelia was rubbing her bottom, obviously smarting from having fallen down the stairs, and Gourry was looking confused, his sword still out and at ready. “Who are these people, Lina?”

“Who do you think, Miss Kill First, Ask Later?” Lina snapped. “Those are my friends. You didn’t have to try to kill them.”

“Excuse me-” Filia retorted.

Before their disagreement could get louder or more heated, the wards on the door flared for a split second before the door itself blew outward with tremendous force. Lina and company yelled and screamed as they were flung back violently.

“Geez, what does a guy have to do to get rescued?” A voice said with mild annoyance as the dust slowly cleared. Lina looked up, for somehow the Light spell didn’t dissipate in the explosion. A tall, slender man that she recognized as Xelloss was brushing hair out of his eyes. “ Filia’s right, of course. There’s no possible way we can leave without the Dragon guards’ knowledge. Better go, I’ll meet you guys outside.” And with that, he disappeared from the obliterated doorway.

“WHAT?!” Filia half screeched. “How the HELL were we supposed to-Damn it!” There were shouts from above. As much as she hated to admit it right now, he was right. “Let’s get out of here.”

“How?” Lina retorted. “We’re deep underground and there’s only one way up!”

“Grab my hand. I’ll teleport out of here.” The sound of feet rushing, the clang of weapons coming down…

“But what about Gourry and Amelia?” Lina knew that if they were caught down here, with Xelloss gone and the wards destroyed…”We can’t just leave them here!”

“ Lina-san? What’s going on?” Amelia asked frantically.

“We don’t have time! Just grab on!”

Lina grabbed Gourd’s hand. “Hold on to Amelia! Filia, get us out!” Already, she could hear the clang of the weapons. Too close…

A golden light filled the small space and Lina screamed as it filled her, with light and pain and it was tearing at her stop it it hurts….Then the jolt, then the white became black that slowly faded into nothingness.

End

End ver. 2