Chapter 3

                              The Trouble is You!

                             Help From Mystrivious? 

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          A raven looked out upon the warm sunny day. What a cozy day 
it was. The raven didn't like it much. It was too hot...(A raven 
DOES have BLACK feathers. Black traps in heat.) It cawed loudly in 
its tree. Lina looked up at it. "Ugly bird..." she muttered. Suddenly 
the raven swooped down and nearly hit her in the face, if she hadn't 
ducked. (Author's Note: If you're wondering 'What's with all the 
raven stuff at the beginning of each story?' then don't. The answer 
will come in a later chapter! Hahahaha! You know why? Because I am the 
creator and I love teasing you with unfilled questions! Mwahahaha! 
ok that's enough...)

After Xellos' painful confession to Lina, he hardly ever spoke. 
Amelia came up to Lina one day asking, "Why is Xellos still here? 
This is the longest he's ever hung out with us in one whole chunck 
of time!" Lina nodded and responded, "He's got no where else to 
go..." "That's true." "Well, are you ready? We're about to leave 
to go find Mystrivious or Blondie." "Yes, I'm ready." "Ikizu, (Let's 
go,) then!" 

         They all headed out to the woods together, Xellos still 
lagging behind a bit. 'Poor guy... I wonder if there's anything I can 
do for him?' Lina thought to herself. 'Don't worry, there's isn't. 
I told you not to bother yourself over it, Lina-san.' Xellos was 
speaking to her through telepathy! 'N-Nan?! Xellos! Were you listening 
to my thoughts?!' 'Yep... They're all so interesting... to listen 
to a human's thoughts. You learn a lot about them.' 'Chooto! Did you 
hear my earlier thoughts then?' 'Yep. Those were interesting too!' 
Lina turned and yelled, "XELLOS!!" Everyone stood staring at Lina's 
sudden outburst. She scratched her head as she turned around and acted 
like she hadn't done that. 

         'Xellos... Do me a favor and STAY OUT OF MY HEAD!!!' 'Done, 
Lina-san. Done.' 'Chooto... What does Gourry think about Xellos?' ' 
Iie... you told me to stay out!' 'Oh, just this one.' 'Okay... 
Well, he mostly thinks about food.' 'Mostly? What else does he think about?' 
'What two and three equal.' 'Serious?' 'Hai. Well... I have once caught 
him thinking about... some private things... Like what he wants to do 
to you while you two are-' 'THAT'S ENOUGH! Stay out of his head too! Stay 
out of Amelia's and Zel's while you're at it!' 'Done, Lina-san. Done.' 

           They resumed walking in peace. Suddenly, they stopped 
when they felt a shudder underneath their feet. They looked down and 
watched the ground underneath their feet crumble and collapse. Each 
of them fell down the hole screaming. They reached the bottom of the 
hole and it was flooded out with water. Everyone swam to the surface 
of the water. The appeared to be in some corridor of some type. 
Suddenly, something grabbed Lina and she went under. "Lina!" Gourry 
yelled as he dove under to get her. Lina cast a ray wing on herself 
and Gourry. They floated back to the surface. Lina looked around 
on the top of the water. One, two, three, four... four? There were 
supposed to be five. Who was missing? 

           Zelgadis! Lina had forgotten all about his stone skin 
would make him sink. Immediately she dove under to go retrieve him. 
She gasped as she watched him helplessly as he started running out 
of breath and he was sucked up by a whirlpool. She yelled, "ZEL!!!" 
She hurried back up to the surface to tell of Zelgadis' 
misfortune and she's have to go back down there to save him. Amelia 
automatically tried to talk Lina into letting her help but she almost 
succeeded but everyone was teleported elsewhere.

          Lina looked around confused. Just a moment ago she was 
talking to Amelia and then everthing went shadowy and now she was 
somewhere totally different. She looked upon her surroundings. 
Rather pretty. It was and clearing that was like a prarie. Beautiful 
green grass, yellow daisies and there was only a single large 
oak tree. No one was around... not her friends at least. Little 
people that were only half her size. They almost were cute with their 
little bodies and green masks with white eyes and "hoola" skirts. 
"Oy! You wouldn't happen to know a way out of here, would you?" Lina 
asked the curious little people. Suddenly, one of the little people 
from behind jumped up and grabbed a handful of Lina's hair and swung 
on it, trying to tackle her.

         Obviously, Lina was not pleased with this and she turned and 
screamed at the little children-like people, "Omare! Quit it!" Then 
another one did it. "All right! That tears it! FIREBALL!" 
The fireball hit the people on their masks and the masks seemed 
to absorb the power. Afterwards, the little white glowing eyes 
on the masks turned black and they all began attacking Lina in clusters, 
beating her with sticks and stones, others tried to stab her with 
spears, and others kicked and jumped on her. Lina fell to the ground 
about to cast another spell but one of the people grabbed her mouth 
and she was silenced. She kept struggling to get free but they held 
her tightly to the ground.

         "MIDNIGHT ARROW!" a voice yelled from the brush. It 
was a monotonious voice, niether feminine or masculine. A black 
arrow-shaped, swarming with violet sparks flying from it power sped 
forward and hit one of the people and they vanished. The "children" 
stopped what they were doing and turned to the direction of 
where the power came from. Suddenly from the shadows, ravens flew from 
every direction and hit the little people, taking them from Lina. Slowly, 
a figure appeared. It was Mystrivious! "M-Mystrivious?!" Lina asked 
surprised. "No time for pleasentries. Your friend is in danger," he said 
very monotoniously. He helped her up and started walking. Lina 
followed him. "What do you mean 'my friend'? Which friend?" Lina 
asked frantically.

          Mystrivious just stayed silent and led the way. He walked 
up to the large oak tree then finally spoke. "Get back," he 
said forcefully. Lina backed away not because he said so but 
because his tone. "DAMION FAULT!" he yelled as a black ball of 
power sourced into his hand and blue ribbons of lightening 
struck the center of it. He swirled the ball around until it 
grew about half his size, then he threw it at the tree. There 
was a loud explosion and light bursted everywhere. The light was so 
imense that Lina had to turn away. After the light faded and Lina 
turned around there was an imense hole leading to a tunnel of 
darkness. He signaled Lina to follow. She did obidiently. They ran 
down the long corridor, encountering many of the little strange 
people along the way. Mystrivious seemed to be getting pissed.

        Amelia looked around puzzeled. She was in front of a 
forest of sometype. She went in, in hope of finding someone either 
than the little men that harrassed her earlier. They had pulled her 
hair so she cast a sleeping spell on them. It worked like a charm. 
The little men were out in a flash. They reminded her of leprachans 
that were rejected from auditions or something. She looked around 
then smelled something that reeked. She tried to figure out 
what that reeking was. She walked a little more and came to a small 
dirt clearing. The smell was strongest here. Amelia looked to her 
left and cracked up at the sight she saw. The little leprachan-like 
men had stripped Zelgadis of all but his underwear and tied up to a 
stick and they turned him over and over a fire, rotisserie style.

         He looked extremely aggrivated. They had tied his mouth 
closed with a hankerchief. "SLEEP!" she cast upon the "leprachans". 
They all fell over sleepilly. When they began their little snorting 
sounds, Amelia assumed they were snoring and she went over to Zel 
and began untieing him. His wound on his shoulder was gaping open 
again. "Zelgadis-san? Are you okay? Let me see that wound..." 
Amelia said sounding a bit concerned. She did a recovery spell 
on it. It cleared up only a bit. She tugged at her shirt for a 
moment until it tore. She tore it into ribbon-like strips. She 
began wrapping his wound up with the "bandages". "ArigatOU!" he 
said as she tightened the bandages so they wouldn't fall off.

        After she was finished, Zel looked over her with caring 
eyes. "Amelia, one more thing..." he said putting his hands on her 
shoulders. "W-What is it, Zelgadis-san?" Amelia wispered, hardly 
able to keep her voice under control. "Stop calling me Zelgadis-san... 
You're nineteen years old and a princess... Come on... don't you think 
that was name for when you were a kid? Call me Zel or Zelgadis or 
whatever." "O-okay... I'll try Zelgadis-sa-... Zel." "That's good." 
Suddenly, the "leprachans" woke up. "Shimatta!" Zel growled. 

         Mystrivious panted for a moment. Lina was holding onto 
the ceiling for dear life. "Come. Let us go!" Mystrivious 
ordered after he was finished resting. They started off again, but 
again were stopped, but by something different this time. It was 
a large beam of light that nearly hit them. They both hit the wall, 
dodging, however, Mystrivious nearly went THROUGH the wall. With 
such force, it almost appeared that he was afraid of the light. 
He got down after a moment. "You're not scared of the light, are you?" 
Lina asked him. He just kept walking down the corridor, on his way 
to the source of the light. They followed the corridor up until they 
found "children" flying in every direction and light shooting 
everywhere. Mystrivious was already in the corner by this time. 
Lina saw a large huddle of "children" in a pile as if tackling 
something. Lina squinted at the group a little harder and noticed 
there was some blonde hair underneath all of the "children". It was Gourry!

         "USHAT!!!(ALL RIGHT!!!) I've had enough of this! I'm 
going to cut it all loose!" Lina shouted in fury. Gourry looked 
up surprised. "Lina-chan!" he barked happilly. "Gourry, move it 
now!" "Do shite? (Why?)" "I'm cuttin' loose!" "You're cuttin' loo-..." 
His voice trailed off as he finally understood. "GAH! Hai, your 
majesty! Floor's all yours!" Gourry ran by Mystrivious. "Ya!(Hi!) Gokigen 
ikaga-desuka?(How are you?)" Gourry greeted openly. Mystrivious didn't 
answer, of course. Lina started chanting.

"Darkness beyond twilight,

Crimson beyond the blood that flows-"

        Mystrivous suddenly jumped up and shrieked. 
"Oy! Don't worry
... she does this all the time. She has good control of it. She 
won't shoot it at you unless you seriously piss her off," Gourry 
said. Mystrivious didn't calm down but only freaked out more. Gourry 
turned his eyes back unto the battle. "Children" were begging to 
jump on Lina, but she ignored it so she could finish.

"By the power you and I possess!" 

         Gourry looked back at Mystrivious but all that was left 
was a small tunnel in the wall that looked like it led outside. The 
dust from it being made was still in the air. "Wow, he really was 
that scared. I wonder why." Gourry said. 

"DRAGON SLAVE!"

Lina chucked it at the "children" and they vanished instantly. 
"Hmph! That takes care of that!" Lina said brushing her hands off. 
"Where's Mystrivious?" "Oh, he took off when he saw you cast that 
dragon slave. He was scared out of his mind. See that little tunnel? 
He dug that in like two seconds!" "I don't understand why he'd be 
scared of a dark spell like the dragon slave. I saw him earlier 
doing some really kick-ass dark spells..." 

         Suddenly, they heard a scream. It sounded like Zelgadis' 
scream so they hurried in the direction they heard the cry for help.

         Zel was being attacked by "kodomos"(which is what Zel called 
them). They had knocked out Amelia and Zel was struggling despratly 
to get to her before the "kodomos" did. One knocked him down and 
another came with a large spear and stabbed him in his wound. Zel 
screamed in pain, then in his agony, he didn't care anymore and 
he shot a fireball twice the size of himself, hurting his shoulder 
more. He looked away and walked towards Amelia but even more 
"kodomos" came over and tackled him to the ground. Out of nowhere, 
the ground began shaking and Lina and Gourry popped out of the 
ground. Gourry's Gorun Nova had chopped up the ground and led them 
outside to where Zel and Amelia were. 

         The little men looked angry and they formed a circle around 
the group. Zel ran over and revived Amelia. The four of them 
huddled together trying to stay away from the little men, trying 
to comprehend what they were doing. They started chanting in 
their strange little voices. A black dome formed over the group. 
"Oh that tears it! They're trying to trap us!" Lina jumped forward 
and shot a fireball at the dome they were encaged within. The 
fireball just reflected off the walls and almost hit everyone else. 
The dome was beggining to collapse and it seemed this was about to 
be their deaths. Amelia screamed and she held onto Zel and he took her 
into his arms. 

         Suddenly Mystrivious appeared outside the dome and he 
had a large orange orb that looked like it was composed of fire. 
"Heed my words fools who dare attack these humans. I shear(hold) a 
Cronos Dancer. I advise you to release these people for your own 
sakes!" he warned. The men ignored him and kept the dome collapsing. 
"You poor ignorant fools..." Mystrivious said, then he threw down the 
orb. The orb immediatly burst into flames and shot up hitting him in 
the face. He quickly teleported into the dome. "Take my hands and 
I'll lead you free!" he called to them. They ran over to him and all 
went black.

           When Lina woke up, they were somewhere else in the woods. 
The only ones who were too were Zel and Mystrivious. Mystrivious was 
on the ground going through the grass as if searching for something. 
Amelia and Gourry arised. Zel walked over to Mystrivious and grabbed 
his arm but he pulled it back. "Oy! Listen!" Zel growled as he turned 
him around. His black glasses were gone.

         His eyes were gold. The flesh around his eyes was a peachish-
buttermilk color and looked pleasing to touch. At the top of his hood, 
a small piece of his hair could be seen. he had blonde hair. Zel stepped 
back. "Do... shite?" Mystrivious asked. Zel just gasped and didn't 
know what to say. Amelia stepped forward and said, "Your eyes 
are so beautiful. Why would you want to hide them?" "BEAUTIFUL?!! 
These eyese are anything but beautiful... They have beheld nothing 
but war and death. These are eyes that've witnessed the deaths of 
many men. All I've done during war is run... These are eyes of pure 
hatred and darkness..." his voice trailed off. 

         Tears fell down his face. Amelia came close to him and 
put her hand on his shoulder caringly. He looked surprised. He 
looked down a moment and his body seemed to stiffen. When he returned 
his gaze to her, it no longer bore confusion but anger. He got 
up and slapped Amelia hard against the face and she fell to the 
ground. He turned and began walking away, but as he did he said, 
"Foolish girl... you don't know of what you speak of... Gomenusai... 
I can't tell you what has become of me now. It is something you 
can't know. Perhaps the next time we encounter you will know of myself. 
For now I do bid you farewell. Forgive me." 



                            To My Best Friend and Brother

                                       o

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                                   Aqua Tenshi

                                       by 



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                                    Weir Tenshi