Finally, the plot begins it's upwards climb to climax (not as dirty as it sounds! ^_-)
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Dawn came and went, and still Valteira stared at the broken landscape. The sun sparkling off the snow hurt his eyes, but he still stared.
Zelgadis had long ago rebuilt the fire for Lina, and they sat watching, Lina absently gnawing on a chicken leg.
"Dammit, Zel!" she yelled suddenly. She punched the ground. "We should have left this place before this could happen!"
"We couldn't have known. It was completely different when we left, spring-like. Now it's winter again. In more way than one."
"But..." she sighed. "I lost Gourry, but I'll be damned if I lose Valteira. Especially to Valgarv!" She stood up, tearing the last bit of meat from her drumstick before throwing the bone to the ground, and stomped towards the boy.
"Val, look," she started.
"I know, Lina," he cut her off. "I was a real... um... I wasn't very nice when I was the other me. But the point is, HE is still ME. I'm the same person. I know what he was trying to do." He turned to her. His eyes were Valgarv's, cold and hard. "And I almost agree with him."
"Val, no!"
"But almost isn't good enough...." He sighed wearily. "Such a mess.... And all of it my fault." Lina and Zel looked at him and then at each other. Were those... tears... glimmering in the boy's eyes?
"Valteira..." Lina's call became a shriek of fear as a black bolt whizzed by her, slamming into the boy and throwing him backwards. "VAL!!"
"Oh my, I missed," Xelloss murmured as he materialized next to Lina.
"Xelloss! What are you doing?!"
"That... is a-" his shoulders sagged. He didn't really have the heart to say it, no matter how cute Lina and Zel were when they got mad at him. "You know," he finished.
"Xelloss!" Valteira's voice rang as he stumbled to his feet, clutching his side where the bolt had hit. "You came. I knew you would."
"Then you understand what I need to do." Lina caught a twinge in his voice, a bare, split-second pause as if he were choking.
"Not at all!" the young dragon said brightly. "I know. But understand... Never again." His right fist clenched and unclenched slowly. "I know, I know it all... Ryuzoku, Mazoku, Shinzoku, the whole bit, the whole nasty past that created me. Your Master is laughing her ass off at us now." Xelloss shrugged. "You were the only father I ever had, Xelloss, but I know what you have to do. Mazoku are Mazoku, after all." The wind whipped in the tiny valley where the Ancient Dragons' temple had once stood, and as Valteira flexed his hand again, it became the great black dragon's claw. "Does this prove to you that I am the same? Or will this?" At these words, huge black wings sprang from his back. "Does this help, Xelloss?! I am still the same!"
Valgarv once again stood before them.
Xelloss hissed. "Yes. Thank you. I think I can kill you now."
"Come then. Complete this mission."
Lina and Zel watched helplessly as they rushed each other, Xelloss teleporting and Val using his wings. The boy was good, Zel thought... Until he heard Lina's choking sob next to him.
"Stop it. Stop it," she murmured over and over. Three passes now. Neither was wounded yet except for Val's side. His claw squealed as he blocked a blow from Xelloss's staff, the sharp nails raking furrows down it's length. "Zel, stop them!"
When she turned toward him, her eyes were wide and her face contorted with grief. Zelgadis shook his head.
"I can't. Noone can stop them, except them."
"Ze-el...."
Uh-oh. It was That Voice. The one that meant-
He'd known it was coming, but he was helpless to stop it. Zel found himself on the ground, in the strongest chokehold he'd ever encountered. "Lina... stop... you're killing me.... gak!"
"Then do something, Beach-for-Brains!!" She dropped him roughly and stood. "Maybe a Dragon Slave...."
"'Beach-for-Brains'?"
"Rock golem, rocks, pebbles, sand, it's essentially all the same," she told him as she calculated just the right spell to knock both furious combatants unconscious. Zel stood and brushed himself off (more than a little disgruntled at being Lina's punching bag, so to speak) when something caught his eye.
"Lina..."
"Dil- no, Dare Brando. What Zel?"
"Is it me, or has that mountain over there sprouted a Mazoku?"
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Author's Notes: Whew! Chapter 14, finally!! It's a bit short, but this is not a long-chaptered fic. Only two more chapters!
