Due to all the nice reviews I got for “Wolf Moon,” I’ve have decided to do another song fic! And guess who the leads are? Yep, that’s right:  Lina n’ Xellos again. It was all written out on Rail-kun, my ‘puter, so the plot maybe incredibly warped or clichéd (take you pick here, folks). There also is mild OCC-ing (mostly Lina),  and I not too sure if some of the details will fit well with the canon. If I’ve made any grievous or annoying mistakes, be nice enough to POLITELY tell me about them. The songs are by Type O Negative and Alice In Chains. Gotta love them angsty tunes…
                                                Dedicated to all the wonderful people on the Xellos Lovers mailing list. Thanks you guys. ^_^

“Down in a Hole”

            Lina walked slowly by the riverside, feeling unbearably depressed.

‘God, this is so not like me!’ She thought angrily. ‘What the hell do I have to be moping around about anyway?  It’s not like I haven’t kept in touch with everybody. Gourry’s been sending letters, albeit nearly illegible letters…’ Lina giggled a bit, thinking of the last one he had sent, covered by badly drawn pictures of his big brother and the Gabriev ranch.  ‘And I can always go over to Seiruun to visit Amelia if I felt like it. As for Zel,’ She snorted. “Like he’d care if someone misses him!” ‘Filia sent that vase about a month ago along with a card saying that she and lil’ Val were fine, so it can’t be about them. Could it be…’ The scar that night had left upon her leg throbbed with a dull pain.

  “No!” she snapped aloud. “I refuse to even mention that…that….that mazoku’s name!”

 “So,” Someone behind her spoke up softly. “You’re still angry about that, Lina?”

She stiffened in fury. “Yes! Now leave me alone.”

“Why?”

“Because…” She thought for a moment, then growled. “Because I don’t appreciate being used cheap feed for you!”

 “Huh?!” Xellos blinked in surprise. “I don’t know what you’re talking about!”

            Lina’s eyes narrowed at him. “Oh, give it a rest! I know the only reason you keep following me around is because of the itty-bitty problem with my temper. After all, don’t mazokus feed off of negative emotions?”

            “You’re correct as usual, Lina-chan.” Xellos sighed. “We do ‘feed,’ as you so politely put it, off the negativity of humans. But that’s not the reason why I follow you.”

            “Well,” She was getting really annoyed now. “Why are you constantly stalking me then?”

              “I’m not sure how to put this, but…well…” He looked down at his feet, blushing slightly. The priest took a breath, gathering his courage. “I love you.”

              Lina doubled over in laughter. “You…in LOVE? That’s the funniest thing I’ve ever heard!”

“I fail to see the humor in this.” He grumbled dryly.

Red-faced, she straightened up and, with more than healthy glee, stated, “It’s funny because mazoku can’t actual feel any positive emotions of their own.”

“Are you sure of that, Lina?”

“I damn sure!” She snarled.  “I know you’re kind can’t stand even hearing something optimistic, let alone survive the mental onslaught of having to experience such emotions like love and hope.”

“Oh, I assure you, it does hurt like hell,” Xellos grinned. “But you seem to forget that I enjoy pain. Maybe too much, in fact.”

 “Then why don’t you bother Amelia.” She jeered spitefully. “I’m sure with all those justice speeches, you’ll be up to your little masochistic neck in suffering!”

“Do you think I do this just for the pain of it?”

“No-duh! That’s just way you are, Xellos.”  Lina turned away from him, sneering. “You’ve always been the type jerk who thoroughly enjoys pain and suffering in any form. That’s the way you were when we first ran into you during the search for the Clair Bible, that’s the way you acted after Gav beat the living hell out of you, the way you were during that whole mess with Vlagav summoning Dark Star to annihilate the universe, and that’s always going to be the way I will think of an asshole like you!” Feeling a rush of anger and just outright meanness, she whirled around, jabbing him in the chest as hard as she could, punctuating each word. “Face it! All you have ever done for me is make my life a living HELL!  You’re always pissing me off, you’re never around when I need your help, you use me with impunity, without ever once being  concerned about what the consequences are going to be for ME…but I expect that from you. You know why? Because you’re a MAZOKU! You are nothing more than a lying, cheating, obnoxious bastard who’s only capable of following his master’s orders! A damned puppet who is incapable of do anything more than what he is told to do! I bet you don’t even remember what it was like that have a free will or a soul your own! Actually, come to think about it, I don’t even think you ever had either one to began with! But that really doesn’t matter, does it? Oh-ho no! You’re Xellos, the trickster priest! Juu-ou ever faithful little dog, doing whatever he wants you to do! And you just positively LOOOOOOVE your job, don’t you Xellos?  Now just stop with all the love crap because I am sick and tired of hearing it! All I want to you to do is tell me exactly what the hell you’re planning this time, before I get really mad!”

            He stood there silent, his entire face blank.

“Well, aren’t you going to say anything, fruitcake?” She grinned cruelly. “Or am I right once again?”

“No.” The reply rang out hollowly. “This time, you happen to be very, very wrong…”

A strong gust of wind suddenly blew across the water, kicking up clouds of sand. Lina instinctively closed her eyes against the grit, bring a hand to her face.  When she opened them again, Lina discovered she was no longer standing on the shore. Now, she was standing in what looked like a cathedral.  ‘What the…Where am I?’

[* “Down in A Hole” by Alice in Chains *]

‘Bury me softly in this womb

I give this part of  me for you

Sand rains down, and here I sit

Holding rare flowers

In her tomb…in bloom’

            “Huh?” She turned toward the sound.

            Slumped against a massive coffin on the altar was a  young man. His long, purple hair was drawn back into a ponytail but there were strands that had come loose and hung haphazardly in him face. By the way he was dressed, the man looked like he had just been in a tavern brawl, the pale gold of his shirt was torn in places and stained with blood, and the pair of loose dark slacks he had on were stuffed into leather boots, both worn and splattered with mud. He would have looked downright handsome if it weren’t for the fact that he had been beaten half-to death. One of his eyes was swollen shut by the horrendously bruised cheek, his lip was spilt and bleeding. There was something oddly familiar about him… Lina shook it off, glancing at the floor. Scattered all around him were the ruined blooms of flowers the likes of which she had never seen before. He clenched the remains of them in his hands, rocking back and forth, singing quietly to himself. The man was completely unaware of her presence.

‘This guy’s a total fruitcake….’ Lina thought, shaking her head.

‘Down in a hole and I don’t know
If I can be saved!
See my heart
I decorate it like a grave
You don’t understand who they though
I was suppose to be
Look at me now,
A man who won’t let himself be!’

            The man stood up shakily, and started walking toward her. Lina was about to speak to him when, unexpectedly, he walked straight through her.

            “What the…?!” ‘He just went through me like he was a ghost or something!’ Turning around, she watched him stagger down the hall.

‘Down in a hole,
Let me put all the stones in their place
I’ve eaten sun so my tongue
Has been burned of the taste
I have been guilty
Of kicking myself in the teeth
I will speak no more
Of my feelings beneath…’

            The man stopped at a window. He leaned upon the sill, staring at the fading red horizon. Shaking, he drew a dagger for his belt and started to twirl it lightly in his fingers, watching the way the light tinted the shining blade a bloody red.

‘Down in a hole, Feeling so small!
Down in a hole, Losing my soul!
I’d like to fly…
But my wings have been so denied…’

            He turned away from the window and slide down to his knees, singing the words madly to himself. Carefully, the man began rolling back his sleeves. Looking at dagger, he ran his finger over to edge to make sure it was sharp enough. The blade had slashed open his finger, causing a thin trickle of blood to ooze out and stain the metal. He smiled happily.

‘Bury me softly in this womb                                                  Ooooh,  I want to be inside of you…
I give this part of  me for you                                                 Ooooh,  I want to be beside of you…
Sand rains down, and here I sit                                              Ooooh,  I want to be inside of you…
Holding rare flowers                                                               Ooooh, I want to be beside of you…
In her tomb…in bloom                                                            Ooooh, I want to be inside of you…’

            Laughing uncontrollably, he pressed the dagger to his wrist and started to slowly pull it across the exposed flesh.

            “DON’T!” Lina lunged forward to stop him. As her fingers wrapped around his slashed, bleeding wrist, the scene shattered like a pane of glass, sending her plunging into darkness. She floated in a free-fall for what seemed like an eternity before landing on a cold floor of black stone. “Nani?!” Lina rubbed the bump on her forehead.

            “Damn you all to hell!”

            Whirling around, Lina saw the same young man, this time with he was full healed but with bandages around his wrist, and his clothes repaired. He was angrily staring down the massive lupine form of…

            “Xellos?!” She blinked, staring closely at it. It was the same beast that she had encountered about a month earlier alright, but there was something different. The red carbuncle wasn’t there anymore. And the wolf beast now was wearing a heavy collar of spikes hooked to the coils upon coils of iron chains hanging across it’s body which ended in spiked shackles at each of it’s gigantic paws.

            “Otooto, please listen to me.” The wolf growled hurriedly. “You can’t kill him! He has become the general under Hellmaster himself! Only a fool would go through with this sort of madness!”

            “Than grant me the power to kill both him and  Hellmaster!”

            “I can’t do that.”

            “Why not?! You are Juu-ou’s general! Can’t you at least help me kill them?!”

            “No, I cannot.” The wolf sat on his haunches, sighing. “Hellmaster is higher up on the hierarchy than I am…and he also happens to be much more powerful than Juu-ou. If I was to aid you in any way, both mother and I would suffer dearly for it. Hellmaster has no qualms whatsoever about slaying any who dare to make him angry. And I personally do not want to be on the receiving end when he gets pissed!”

            “You’re a coward, Fenris! A pathetic, sniveling coward!”

            “No, otooto, I’m not a coward.” He snapped, bringing his immense jaws inches from the youth’s face. “I’m being realistic! Even without Hellmaster’s assistance, your brother could, and WOULD, kill you just as easily as a child squashes a bug!”

            “You…you don’t honestly expect me to let him get away with what he did to her unpunished!” Tears streamed down his pale face. “Everything that I ever wanted…that I ever loved!… he’s taken away form me! He killed her in cold blood, just because she loved me! And now you’re telling me to just forget about it! To act like this never happened!”

            “Yes…that’s exactly what I’m saying.”

            “Whoa!” Lina quipped, digesting Fenris remark. “That’s really cold…even for a mazoku.”

            “How can you just sit there and say something like that!” He shrieked hysterically.

            Lina trots up beside the guy. “Yeah, fleabag! You ought to…Hey, what a second…Phibrizo is already DEAD! I blew him up with the Giga Slave! Xellos, how could you forget something like that! Geez, you’re starting to get as bad as Gourry…”

            Apparently, neither of them heard her. Fenris shook his head. “Xellos-kun, you don’t understand…”

            Lina promptly falls over in shock. “Th-this guy is Xellos?!” She stared at him in amazement, noting every minute detail. Now she realized why he had looked so familiar. The same outfit, the cruel, jeering arc of his mouth, the vivid hue of his hair… But the eyes weren’t Xellos’. They were a perfect ice blue, lacking all the glimmer of  lighthearted humor she had reluctantly grown fond of in him. ‘What’s going on here?’

            “She was mortal. All mortals die eventually, Xellos-kun…some more violently than others. That’s life, and you won’t change by stupidly challenging fate. That kind of foolishness gets little boys killed. Besides, there are plenty of other women out there for you to have. Just forget that girl and get yourself another one.”

“Argh! You heartless bas…” She lashed out to slap Fenris’ face, but her hand passed right through him. “NANI?!?!?!” Stunned, Lina glanced back and forth form Fenris to Xellos before their nature fully dawned on her. ‘They aren’t real…they’re just shadows! But when did all this happen? It has to have all happened way before the War of the Resurrection of the Demon King because Phibrizo still has his general…but why isn’t Xellos Juu-ou’s priest-general instead of Wolfie? It doesn’t make sense!’

Xellos stepped back slowly, ominously silent as he turned away from the mazoku wolf.

“What the hell do you think you are doing, otooto?!”

“Something I should have done years ago…” He took off at a run, rushing headlong into the creeping shadows.

“Otooto! Stop!!” Fenris bounded after him, dragging his heavy chains behind him.

 

 

[* “Green Man” by Type O Negative *]

Spring won’t come, the need of strife
To struggle to be free from hard ground
The evening mists that creep and crawl
Will drench me in dew and so drown…

I’m the Green man…
The Green man…

Sol in prime       Sweet Summertime
Cast shadows of doubt on my face
A midday sun, its caustic hues
Refracting within the still lake

Left alone in the blackness, Lina watched this specters of the past vanish from her sight. Slowly, the room began to waver and shift like fine mist, changing to a vibrant backdrop of autumn trees in the light of a fiery midday sun. She could see Xellos marching down the shore of a vast, glassy lake toward a tall, powerfully built man with pitch black hair. The guy cocked his head at slight angle as he looked down on Xellos.

‘So, this must be the big brother, Hellmaster’s general.’ She shrugged. “They sure don’t look like brothers to me.”

“Ahh… you’ve finally decided to show up.” He laughed coldly. “You shouldn’t have kept me waiting so long. I was starting to think you had run away again.

             “Shut up, you bastard.”

            “Watch your tongue, boy, or else I’ll cut it out of your foul little mouth.” He pointed his sword threateningly, waving its point in his face.

            “Is that so, nii-kun?” Drawing his own blade, Xellos smiled mockingly at the larger man. “Than go ahead and try.”

            With that, they lunged for each other, clashing with a heavy clang of steel upon steel. They broke apart and began visiciously hacking and slashing one another. After a few brutal rounds of this, it quickly became clear who would win the battle if it continued.

Xellos was shaking, gushing blood from wounds across his face and body. Each breath came out as a ragged hiss or a cough of gore. He slumped down to his knees gasping for air, supporting himself with his sword. His brother, on the other hand, barely had a scratch on him. 

Causally, he walked over to his wounded younger brother. “Pathetic.” He hissed and with a gesture, he sent Xellos flying backwards into a boulder. “I thought you’d at least put up more a fight than this. You did last time.” He laughed. “But this time, I won’t be so generous.”

Staggering to his feet, the bloody faced trickster merely smiled as he lurched forward.

Autumn in her flaming dress
Of orange, brown, and gold fallen leaves
My mistress of the frigid night
I worship, pray to… On my knees

            “Darkness beyond blackest pitch,/Deeper than the deepest night…”

            ‘The Giga Slave?!’ Lina felt her blood run cold. “How could he have learned this spell?!”

            “Well, isn’t this cute? The little shit’s going to try to blast me with some sort of a Dragu Slave.”

            “Lord of Darkness, shining like gold upon the Sea of Chaos…”

            She ran forward, amid the crackling energies bursting up from the ground. “STOP IT! IF YOU LOSE CONTROL OF IT, YOU’LL DESTROY EVERYTHING, YOU DAMN FRUITCAKE!!!!!”

            The Hell general’s eyes widened in terror a he realized what Xellos was doing. He stumbled back, trembling as the glowing figure advanced on him, passing harmlessly through the unseen figure of a red haired girl.

Winter’s breath of filthy snow,
Befrosted paths to the unknown
Have my lips turned purple yet?
Life is coming to an end,
So says me, me Wiccan friend
Nature coming full circle

            “I call upon thee, swear myself to…” With a croak of blood, his body jerked back as if he had been struck. The power that had been gathering within Xellos’ body surged and dissipated in brilliant streamers of gold and black.  “N-n-no…” He fell onto his knees, his eyes now glassy with death. Still, Xellos gasped and shook, clinging to life in desperation.

            Perched atop the boulder was a young boy, about seventeen, clad in blue. Pressed tightly between Phibrizo’s pale fingers, the small golden orb representing Xellos’ essence was slowly shattering.

            “Lord…lord Hellmaster!” The general’s eyes glittered with thanks as he smiled with relief.

            “Fool,” Hellmaster’s voice was just as lilting and pure as it had been when Lina-tachi had faced him. “You’ve ruined my perfectly laid plans by making me have to kill him too soon. Now, I am going to have to make you pay the price for your stupidity.”

            Before he could even beg for forgiveness, a column of darkness engulfed the screaming general, rending him asunder in a ghastly display of shredded blackness and flesh.

            Lina stared at the scene before her in horror and disgust.

            Phibrizo sighed unhappily. “Now where am I going to find a replacement for him.” He glanced at the writhing body of Xellos. “Hmm…that’s odd. Shouldn’t you be dead by now?”

            Convulsing and frothing at the mouth with bloody foam, his hand grasped at the hilt of his sword.

            “Oh, poor thing,” Phibrizo cooed, kneeling down beside him. “Are you trying to reach for your sword?” Callously, he kicked it away. “It’s not going to be much help to you anyway.”

            Xellos forced himself to reach up and claw at him, smearing gore across Hellmaster’s face and clothes.

            “Well, well, such a persistent little fuck, aren’t we?” He brushed the grasping hands away effortlessly. “You should feel very proud of yourself right now. Not many mortals last this long. Most buy it in the first minute or so, but you’ve made it to a good ten or eleven.” Phibrizo grinned with childish glee. “Personally, I find this to be at once incredibly frustrating and yet very amusing. You truly are a stubborn fellow.” He giggled softly. “If I didn’t know any better, I’d say you were mazoku, but that’s impossible. If you were one of us, this sphere would be black instead of…” Opening his palm, Phibrizo gaped in astonishment.

            Lina watched a fine, black powder run out between his fingers and spread across Xellos. As it did, he started laughing madly, coughing up black ochre now instead of blood. The powder finally enveloped him and was blasted away in a whirlwind of shadowy fragments. The cyclone that had formed twisted around Lina, swallowing her up its violent dance of wind and sand. After buffeting her around like a rag-doll, she was finally deposited on the bank of the river that she had been walking along earlier. Swearing, she sat up and coughed out the grit that had gotten in her mouth.

            “Well, well,” Xellos sneered, reforming into his human shape. “Wasn’t that educational, Lina?”

            “Just what the hell did you show me that for? Trying to make me feel sorry for you?”

            “No, I don’t want any of  your pity.” He half-opened his eyes and fixed her with a frigid glare. “I did that just to prove you wrong, Lina Inverse.”

            She gaped and started to say something, but nothing came out. In one of those rare moments in her seventeen years of life, Lina found herself completely speechless.

            Xellos simpered with bittersweet satisfaction. “I suppose I’ve bothered you enough today. Good bye, Miss Lina Inverse.” Wavering like a heat mirage, he vanished.

            “Grrrrroooowrrr!!” Lina slammed a fist into the gravelly sand, seething with frustration. “I’m really starting to hate that man!” 

~*~*~ Owarri ~*~*~