Meanwhile, in Seifer’s part of limbo, the SeeD was curled up in a ball, hugging his knees and rocking back and forth. The silence here was deafening, and there was no color or real form.
     “Alex, where are you?” he asked, his eyes staring blankly into space. “Irvine, buddy, where have you gone? Fujin, Rajin, I’d even settle to see your mugs right about now.”
     Amethyst blinked into space a short distance from Seifer, taking on Fujin’s form, which wasn’t too much trouble for him since he had silver hair like Fujin’s, and could easily change his gender. “Seifer,” he said, giving a sultry voice to the person he was mimicking, “Seifer, where have you been lately?"
     Seifer looked up, his eyes not really focused on the form before him. “Fujin? Where’s Rajin? And why are you talking like that?”
     “I’m no longer a woman of a few words, and I’m burning for you baby,” Amethyst said as he crouched next to Seifer and wrapped his arms around Seifer’s body. “I know what you want and need right now.”
     Amethyst unzipped Seifer’s shirt and slipped his hand inside, stroking warm, naked flesh with passionate abandon.
     ‘This seems so wrong,’ Seifer thought as a hot blush creeped across his face. ‘I know the real Fujin is nothing like this, and I’m pledged to Alex and Irvine...’
     A column of golden light appeared a short distance away, depositing Alex and Irvine, who took one look at what was happening and began to fume.
     “Amethyst, for messing with Seifer’s mind and body without our permission we’re going to punish you,” Irvine grumbled, a magic circle forming around his feet.
     “I’ll take care of your friend later,” Amethyst said, throwing Seifer to one side, “he’s no fun when he isn’t aware of what’s going on.”
<music: ‘Knights of Fire’ - Gundam Wing>
     “I call upon the twelve signs of the zodiac and pledge my life so they may be called forth. By the blood red tides of hell I command the celestial gate to be thrown open. Unleash the crushing blow of destiny!!”
     “You’re not going to get a chance to fire that off,” Amethyst said, firing off a barrage of holy missiles that struck the ground around Irvine and threw him from his feet.
     “You bugger!” Alex shouted, swinging his sword at Amethyst with all of his strength.
     “Give it a rest,” Amethyst sighed, setting up a barrier that deflected the sword blow and reflected the energy exerted back upon the attacker, throwing Alex several feet away, his sword landing near Seifer.
     “Alex?” Seifer said dreamily, his eyes struggling to focus. He looked around to see Irvine struggling to regain his feet as Amethyst repeatedly kicked him in the back. “Ir...vine? Guys?”
     ‘Never doubt the power of innocent dreamers,’ was spoken directly into his mind, ‘never doubt the dreams of innocent children. Never doubt your worst nightmare. Use the power of innocent dreamers. Believe in the dreams of innocent children. Face and defeat your worst nightmare!’
     “I... I’m coming to help you guys,” he said as he sat up, reaching for Alex’s sword. The minute his hand touched the weapon his clothes underwent a fantastic transformation, his shirt and coat changing to deep blue chest and shoulder armor with silver trim and a gray cloak with the symbol of the fire cross on his back. He took the sword in hand and raised it to the sky, the blade glowing, a column of flames surrounding it, electricity sparking from the flames.
     Amethyst turned his head when the hairs on the back of his neck began to prick up from the amount of energy in the area. The moment he saw Seifer’s limit skill unlocking he ceased his assault on Irvine an Alex and turned towards the last thing standing in his way of victory.
     “My worst nightmare is to lose those two who are so dear to me,” Seifer growled as he brought the glowing blade above his head, “I believe in the dreams of the innocent and I use the power of those dreams and now I shall vanquish my worst nightmare! One who would hurt my friends! Fire CROSS!!”
     He swung the blade down before his body, smashing the column of energy into the ground. Amethyst was caught directly in the energy column, taking heavy damage from the strike of the improved Fire Cross. When the dust cleared the weakened Amethyst stood with a barely erect barrier in place before his body, one arm hanging weakly from his body.
     “So, Mister Fire Cross Knight, you thought your attack would finish me?” Amethyst asked sarcastically, “Well, how about you taste your own power?!”
     The barrier glowed moments before an amplified Fire Cross attack poured from it, striking Seifer and throwing him through the air and off of the edge of the limboscape.
     By now Alex had recovered from his run in with Amethyst, and stared in shock as Seifer was propelled over the edge into the void. He grumbled an oath under his breath and smashed his fist into the ground, a Laguna Blade forming in his hand. He dove forward, angel wings unfolding from his back to give him flight. He ran Amethyst through with the black blade, leaving it embedded as he sailed past. The wings folded behind his back as he dove over the edge to reduce drag resistance.
     “Seifer, I’m coming for you!” he shouted as he plunged into the dark abyss, “Give me a sign of your location!”
     “Alex,” Seifer’s voice said weakly as the sword in his hand glowed, lighting the darkness, “Alex, where are you?”
     “Never mind. I can see you. Just hold out your hand!”
     Seifer held his right hand skyward, and out of the blinding light came an angel or what he took to be an angel, who took his hand and back flapped it majestic glowing wings to pull him from the darkness. When he held the glowing blade up he realized that it was Alex who was in the process of pulling him skyward.
     “We’re almost there,” Alex said, the strain of maintaining the angel wings and of ascending showing on his face.
     They emerged from the dark to the light in a sub sonic flight, Alex having to back flap in order to reduce his speed before setting down for a landing. Once they were on the ground Alex's wing’s vanished, and Irvine ran to embrace them. Sunlight broke through the clouds above, melting them away almost instantly. The blank landscape became a lush meadow with brightly colored flowers and green grass. Flower petals and angel feathers wafted through the air on a calm breeze.
     “We did it,” Irvine said, pointing toward Amethyst's lifeless body, “we...”

     “... defeated a major force of evil,” Irvine finished, blinking his eyes in amazement since they were now in the waking world.
     “A minor major force of evil,” Alex corrected, running his fingers through his bangs. “And if my guess is correct then the others still need our help.”
     “Then let’s go,” Seifer said as he leapt from the bed to grab his clothes. He stepped behind a screen, throwing the hospital gown over it as he dressed. A moment later he stepped forth, tugging his coat on. “Alex, you might want to consider that cosmic transformation of yours.”
     “Right,” Alex said as he hoisted his right hand to the sky, the white jewel for summoning Alexander in his palm, “Saturn Cosmic Power.... TRANSFORM!”
     Ribbons of white light wrapped about his body, joining with angel feathers as angel wings sprouted from his back. He leapt into the air, executing a flurry of punches and kicks before flipping backwards, his armor and outfit forming. When he landed he struck a battle stance, his visor forming over his eyes and his star sword forming in his hand.
     “Onward we shall go,” Irvine said as he pulled his coat on and set his hat atop his head, “portal open?”
     “Portal open,” Alex said, a column of golden light forming around him, Seifer and Irvine joining him in the column moments before time and space swallowed them. A moment later time and space belched them back out, since they suddenly remembered that they needed to help three others who were sick.
     “How could we possibly forget our backup?!” Seifer exclaimed as he grabbed Alex’s spell book and ran off to find Quistis’ room. Irvine and Alex sighed before heading off to find Zell and Selphie.
     Three minutes later six SeeDs filed back into the room that had been previously occupied by Seifer, all huddling close together as a column of golden light surrounded them. A moment later reality bent and warped, surrounding them in a bubble as the universe sucked them into subspace.

     Across the bounds of time and space the universe belched twice, once to deposit Lina, Zelgadis, and Celia; a second time to spit forth the bubble containing Alex and the SeeDs. They joined the eight who were already engaged in combat.
     “Ewww.... slugs! I hate slugs!” Lina said when she saw the germs, and instantly clung to the person closest to her, who just happened to be Irvine. “Make them go away.”
     “Lina, get a grip,” Celia said as she tried to pry the sorceress from the cowboy, “they’re not slugs, they’re germs that must be eradicated!”
     “They look like slugs,” Lina replied, her voice quavering as she clung tighter to Irvine. “Make them go away.”
     “She’s not going to be of any help,” Zell said as he cracked his knuckles and adjusted his gloves, “Let’s kick some butt!”
     “’Bout time you decided to join the battle,” Cassiopia said as she dropped back to hide behind Zelgadis in order to catch her breath, “no matter what we do they keep multiplying.”
     “Just like actual germs and bacteria,” Alex said as he scanned the germs, “extreme heat and cold should do something against them.”
     “We tried that,” Mars said as she used some spirit wards on the germs, which burst into flames. The germs quickly extinguished their flames and renewed their assault on the Sailor Soldiers and warriors.
     “Light Shield!”
     “Aura Barrier!”
     A doubly powerful shield formed before the group, catching any and all of the gooey attack of the germs and deflecting it towards the ground. Whatever was touched began to dissolve and melt.
     “That stuff is highly acidic,” Mercury said, her visor flashing a multitude of readouts, “the PH rating is off of the scale.”
     “Meaning that it’s probably really bad for your skin and anything else it touches,” Selphie said as she whipped her nunchucks around a few times.
     “So how do we beat ‘em if we can’t touch ‘em?” Zell asked as he watched the acid eat a moat around them.
     “Whatever you’re going to do just hurry up and do it,” Cassiopia grumbled, her hands beginning to smoke from the stress her barrier was taking, “I can’t take much more of this.”
     “Then let’s go on the offensive,” Alex said, grinning evilly as his sword began to glow, “I’m sick, I’m tired, and I’m tired of being sick, so let’s eradicate these bacterial menaces!”
     “Technically they’re not bacteria or virus, but a youma disguised and given the property of a bacteria,” Mercury said as several people leapt into battle.
     “Fire...” Lina shouted as she flipped over the barriers, a globe of fire forming in her hands. She dove at the youma, lobbing the sphere forward as she shouted, “...BALL!” the globe split into three separate ones, which struck one youma and burned it to a cinder.

<music: Dancin' Doll - Iczelion>
     “Time to change into something less bulky,” Alex said, his armor glowing, his outfit shifting to what he wore while fighting as a SeeD, his jacket billowing out about him. He leapt into the air, bounded off of the wall to their left, leapt into the air from that and bounded off of the wall to their right. While thusly airborne he flipped towards the youma, a globe of fire forming under his right foot as he executed a burning dragon kick, striking one of the youma and setting it ablaze. The momentum of the kick sent it flying into a second one, setting that one ablaze as well.
     “Astral Vine!” Zelgadis shouted as he unsheathed his sword, the blade glowing with astral energy. He charged forward, his body splitting into six, all of whom shouted, “Turbid Current!” as they circled around one of the youma. They ran it through in six points before all leapt into the air and reformed as a singular Zelgadis.
     “If we keep attacking them singularly then it will take forever to defeat them,” Quistis said as she unleashed a Firaga spell that fried one of the youma to a cinder.
     “That’s the only way our attacks were effective,” Darren said as she struck one with an Aura Flare, sending it screaming into oblivion.
     “Then I guess it’s time to kick it up a notch,” Seifer said, reaching into Alex’s jacket pocket to draw forth his white materia. Alex whipped around, grabbed the materia back, and held it aloft.
     “Release the light from the dark, deliver us from the shadows. Unleash the light unto the dark, enlighten those locked in shadows. ALEXANDER!”
     Angel wings spread out of subspace, wrapping around the group and protecting them from incoming fire. The wings spread wide a moment later, revealing a large suit of mechanical armor. The wings glowed for a moment before a barrage of holy missiles was launched, all striking the youma and destroying them.
     “Queen’s Savior!” Cassi shouted as she leapt into the air, a column of light surrounding her spear. She dove at some of the remaining youma, impacting amongst them, driving her spear shaft into the group. Around her ghostly images of royal guards appeared, all striking the youma with energy swords before vanishing.
     After these attacks a single youma remained, and it was quite undersized and under formed. Yet for something so small it possessed remarkable speed and equally remarkable strength, flooring some of the combatants in scant seconds.
     “This sucks,” Seifer said as he watched some of the fighters get beaten by one germ.
     “They didn’t catch what we had,” Alex said as he summoned his star sword, the blade glowing. He leapt into the air, chanting a spell under his breath as he gained altitude. He swung the blade downward while shouting, “Goddess Slash!”, releasing a beam of energy that utterly decimated the ground where the germ had been.
     “Go to plan B,” Alex shouted as he touched down.
     “What is plan B?” Sailor Mercury asked.
     “Hit with everything we’ve got,” Nebula said, cracking her whip, “Mercury, a little bit of fog would be helpful.”
     “Right. Shabon.... Spray!”
     A cold fog permeated the air around them, cutting off the range of vision to most people in the area. The youma looked about, puzzled as to where its targets had gone.
     “Cosmic Fire Strike!”
     “Mars Firestorm Flash!”
     Two streams of fire from opposite sides tore through the fog bank, striking the youma that refused to die. Seifer drew his gunblade and unlocked his limit skill, bringing the fire cross down on top of the youma. And for the coup de gras Lina summoned Bahamut, who belched a large beam of energy onto the youma, erasing it from the plane of existence.

     “How.... how could they defeat my lovely youmas?! How were they able to defeat my lovely sickness? They should all be in bed.”
     “Not necessarily,” a sultry female voice said from behind him, “not if you happen to be a vampyress...”
     “Or a chimera,” a male voice said, also behind him.
     “Or have a great amount of resolve and determination,” another sexy female voice said from the area the first two came from.
     From the shadows stepped Celia, Zelgadis, and Rinoa, all of whom were ready for a final showdown of some sort.
     “Goddess of the sky and heavens, sword of light and purity, free yourself from hell’s bonds. Become one with my power, one with my body, and let us walk the road to justice together,” Celia chanted, a globe of light forming in her right hand, “Power to split the heavens and cleave open the sky, gather in my hand! Goddess BLADE!”
     Celia clamped her hand onto the globe, a large sword of light forming out of it, showing no likeness to its counterpart, the Ragna Blade. She held the blade towards Topaz, smiling so that her fangs were visible.
     “So you’re the one who’s been making everyone sick,” Celia said, “you’re worse than Emerald ever was when she had her brilliant plan.”
     “So what if I am? What are you going to do about it?” Topaz asked, backing away from the three towards the shadows. He found himself bumping into Celia, who had teleported across the room to block his line of escape.
     “Just where do you think you’re going?” she asked, giving him the evil eye.
     “Well, since there are only three of you, I guess I’ll stick around and finish this job,” Topaz said, forming in his hands a large blade of blackness that glowed with an eerie green. “Meet the Viral Blade which your friend Saturn created.”
     “Alex created something like that?” Zelgadis asked, sensing the energy from the spell. He cringed, his ears flattening back against his head as he realized the spell’s components. “That’s a Ragna Blade crossed with a super powerful virus or bio spell!”
     “Correct as usual Mister Greywords. And where would he get something as powerful as a bio spell?”
     “More than likely from an illness he had which more or less knocked him on his ass,” a male voice said from the shadows, “and you really shouldn’t be messing with a spell you do not know the mechanics of.”
     From the shadows stepped Alex, a magical glow forming around his hand as he prepared to summon a flow break. He smiled evilly at Topaz, which caused a shudder of fear to run down the back of the evil one, who began to back up towards the shadows again, only to run into two more people, who stepped into the light to reveal themselves as Sailor Mars and Warrior Cassiopia.
     “Going somewhere?” Mars asked, brandishing an ofuda, “We’re not quite done with you and your little illness!”
     “You made me sick,” Alex grumbled, “you also got Seifer sick, and I’ll be surprised if Irvine and Rinoa don’t come down ill after this!”
     “Whatever you’re planning, it’s game over,” Rinoa said, a magical glow surrounding her hands as she prepared to fire off a goddess strike.
     The forces of good moved in to surround Topaz, all grinning evilly at the thought of taking out yet another force of evil, and one whose damage was far reaching and unforgivable. Topaz took one look at the faces of those who were to be his executioners and phased between. Unfortunately for him Celia’s goddess blade could cut into subspace, which it did quite effectively, for he stumbled out of subspace clutching at his side, where the blade of light had pierced.
     “Any last words before we send you screaming to the great beyond?" Alex asked as he cast his Flow Break.
     “Emerald, forgive me my failure. I shall be with you soon my sweet.” And with those words he disintegrated into brightly colored bubbles, a single jewel falling to the floor and shattering, the fragments turning to dust which were blown away by an unseen wind.

     “Hello, Hino residents, Chad speaking. Oh, hey Amy. No, Rei can’t come to the phone right now. She’s feeling a tad under the weather. Yeah, it totally caught up with her and beat her over the head with a vengeance. O.K., I’ll tell her you called. Bye.”
     Rei sat in bed, huddled under her blanket since she was alternating between freezing and burning, and at that moment she was freezing. The cold cloth on her forehead was no longer icy cold, and she coughed a few times as Chad entered.
     “Who was that on the phone?” she asked, sounding absolutely miserable.
     “That was Amy,” Chad replied as he changed the cold cloth on her forehead.
     “What did she want?”
     “Nothing really. Just wanted to know how you were feeling.”
     “And what did you tell her?”
     “That you caught what everyone else had with a vengeance.”
     At that moment a loud knocking came from the door. Chad rose to answer it, and returned a moment later with Mina and Serena in nurses uniforms. Rei’s eyebrow began to twitch, since the wonder twins were bound to make her life miserable.
     “How are you feeling Rei?” Mina asked in her incredibly cheerful way.
     “Yeah Rei, how do you feel?” Serena asked, adding to the cheer.
     “I probably feel the way you guys felt when you had this,” Rei replied before sneezing. She glanced at their smiling faces before asking, “You’re here to give me the same treatment I gave you when I had Nicole and Susana with me, aren’t you?”
     “That’s right,” Mina and Serena said in unison, “and we’ve improved greatly since last time.”
     Rei huddled closer under her blankets, praying that she would be spared the torture of the last time Mina played nurse for her. ‘Please.... just leave me... ALONE!’

     Across the bounds of time and space a certain cowboy and a heavenly angel were sharing a room, both coughing, freezing, and burning alternately. A knock came at their door, and they both weakly said, “Come in.”
     “The committee of good cheer has come to make you feel better,” Alex said as he, Seifer, and Selphie entered. He surveyed the room before saying, “So, how do you feel?”
     “Do you even have to ask?” Rinoa moaned before sneezing. “I feel absolutely miserable.”
     “Ditto on that,” Irvine replied, staring idly at the ceiling, “I’ve counted these ceiling tiles about twenty times, and each time I come out with 596 and a half tiles. The dots number in the millions.”
     “Well, be glad we came to cheer you up first,” Selphie said as she changed the cold compresses on their foreheads, “Squall came down with it as well... a doubly strong whomping by the sound of it.”
     Rinoa and Irvine sighed. “Was it due to him having to cast that detoxify spell so many times?” Rinoa asked.
     “You might say that,” Seifer said, trying to hide a smile. “He.... drank a tad too much ether... the experimental flavors at that, and sorta, well, had a bad reaction to the pickle and prune flavored ones.”
     Everyone in the room wrinkled up their noses at the thought of that flavor combination. From the next room over they could hear Squall moaning about the pain and the inhumanity of it all, and everyone chuckled under their breaths.

     In the apartment belonging to the Slayers, a very tired Lina Inverse was relaxing in a hot bubble bath, her hair piled up atop her head, a cup of tea steaming on the table beside the tub. As she inhaled the aroma of the soap she was using she began to sneeze, her sinus passages instantly clogging and telling her she was coming down with something.
     “Damnit,” she muttered as she reached for a tissue, “this can’t be happening to me. I can’t be getting sick. Not now.”
     “Believe it,” Zelgadis mumbled as he knocked at the door, “Lina, we caught it, and it has a vengeance.”
     “Poor Mister Zelgadis,” Amelia said as she wrapped her arms around his chest, “don’t worry, I’ll take care of you. I learned all about taking care of the sick from my daddy.”
     “That’s kind of you Amelia, but you.... hey, what are you doing?!”
     “I’m getting you ready for bed, and you can’t be wearing these dirty clothes to bed, since they may be covered with germs that’ll make you even sicker.”
     Lina chuckled to herself since it was more than likely Amelia wasn’t going to give up on undressing Zelgadis until she got her way. Another knock came at the door a moment later, and this time it was Celia’s voice which spoke.
     “Miss Lina, do you think it’s possible for a half vampire to get half of a cold or half of the flu?” she asked, sounding about as miserable as Lina was beginning to feel.
     “I don’t know Celia, but from the sound of it you’re coming down with something,” she said. Celia poofed past the door, appearing in a cloud of smoke which was a pale comparison with her normal cloud. The vampyress looked like she hadn’t slept in days, and when she breathed her nose had a peculiar whistle to it. Lina took one look at Celia and began to chuckle, but stopped when the pounding in her head threatened to cause it to explode. “Owwww.”
     “Please tell me that Gourry won’t try to make us better,” Celia said, wincing at the volume of her own voice.
     “Don’t worry,” Lina whispered as she sank into the bubbles in an attempt to warm up, “I think we should contact Cennarian for this one. More than likely he’ll know what to do.”
     The vampyress and sorceress sighed, both feeling absolutely miserable. Even the tortured cries of Zelgadis only brought faint smiles to their faces as they sat in the bathroom, both trying to summon enough energy to contact the green haired elf.
     “Lina,” Celia said after a moment, “we have the actual flu and not something Topaz whipped up, right?”
     “That’s right,” Lina said as she cast a fireball in the tub to make it nice and hot.
     “So is the old adage true about fools and colds?”
     “I guess so. We’re not fools, therefore we caught colds.... or in this case the flu.”
     Both groaned in pain, wondering when they would recover from this sickness and who would take care of them.
     “Amelia, leave me ALONE!” echoed through the apartment from one tortured soul.

The End.

     “Hey, Irvine here. If you thought the first two episodes of Slayers Fantasy were intense, just wait for the third one.”
     “Say Irvine, exactly what happens in the upcoming episode?”
     “Well Selphie, it’s like this. Seifer, Alex, and myself are sent on a dangerous secret mission to a missile base run by ex-Galbaldian soldiers. It was supposed to be a total cake walk. Scout the area, find out how much weaponry they have, maybe stop some chaos. Only problem is we’re captured and a string of horrible events ensue. So stay tuned for Slayers Fantasy episode 3, titled Broken Wings.”
     “It’s absolutely angelic.”

Slayers Fantasy main.