And moving on:

Sword Muyo

Written by Adrian Tymes
******

"Mwahahahahaha!"

"Aaah, my sword!"  Gourry leapt to try to retrieve his weapon from the
ceiling, but it stayed annoyingly just out of his reach.

"Fool.  It's magnetized.  No steel shall harm *ME*!"  The villain tapped
Lina's crystal prison, glad that its silence both stopped her from
casting spells and kept from his ears the curses he could see her
mouthing.  "And you...were this girl's last hope?  How pathetic."

Ah, that won't last long, methinks.

Nothing in the history of the world had ever brought a full-on Lina
tirade to a screeching halt.  But, as they say, there is a first time
for everything.  Lina could do nothing but gape as Gourry wielded the
black blade as if he had been born holding it.  While the sorcerer who
had kidnapped her was powerful, Gourry just batted his attack spells
aside without blinking an eye, finishing by reflecting a Dragon Slave
back at its source.

Ohh. That sorcerer didn't suck, all right.

Only when the battle was finished did Gourry slice

open the crystal around Lina.  Under different circumstances, Lina might
have intuited that he had been worried about stray shots hitting Lina if

hitting her (would be better, IMO)

she needed time to recover from the prison's magic drain; as it was, she
promptly fainted into Gourry's arms.

******

Under other circumstances, the fact that Lina stayed asleep all the way
back to the nearest inn might have indicated severe shock or fatigue.
While this was her condition in this case too, her antagonist in this
case had forsaken the usual remote tower in favor of a nice, suburban
dwelling, so the nearest inn was but a few minutes' walk away.

How convienent, for a change.

"Very...umm, is Lina all right?"

Gourry glanced at the sorceress in his arms.  "Oh, she's just tuckered
out.  That, or she's under a sleep spell.  I can't tell."

"I can fix that.  AWAKENING!"

"Oooh..."  Lina blinked her way back to consciousness.  "Gourry..."

"Are you ok

okay

, Lina?"

"I'm fine," she replied weakly, "but you've got five seconds to get your
hand off my-"

"That's not my hand."  Gourry frowned at the attendant.  "If you don't
mind..."

Heh

"Oh, sure.  Didn't you know?  Amelia's been studying all sorts of
ancient texts that Zelgadis has been unearthing and sending to her.
They've been trying to find a cure for his condition, and while they
haven't found one yet - oh, my, I almost forgot!  Amelia's been hurt!
You've got to save her!"

Definitely a scatter brain. Might be nice to give the guard a name.

Priority clashed with priority in Lina's mind, each side warring across
her mental landscape with armies of pure thought, until they discovered
that the conflict was quite pointless since there was a solution to help
both of them.  "Fine.  I'll save Amelia, then you teach me the Growth
spell.  Agreed?"

"Done!  Such a deal!  I thought for sure you'd charge more than that to
save her from your sister."

Well, so much for that idea.

restaurant disappeared after she went in.  A short while later, Amelia
reappeared, coughing up blood and clutching her stomach.  She collapsed
before she could tell us what happened.  We took her here to recover,
but none of our white magic could find a thing wrong with her.  We
couldn't even find a wound on her skin."

Well, they don't know for certain if it was Luna who did it.

Amelia's cry had stopped by the time Lina got to her room, though Lina
almost let out a yelp upon brushing through the other worried, but
impotent, attendants present and seeing her friend's condition.
Amelia's skin was whiter than the sheets she lay on, her hands gripping
the sides of the bed hard enough to rip the fabric, and her whole body
shook like a daffodil in a mild earthquake.  Her unseeing eyes were wide
open as her mouth pressed itself shut, suppressing further outbursts.
The only obvious sign of anything specifically wrong was the bulge under
her bellybutton, visible where her shirt had been left pulled up in a
fruitless effort to find injection marks or some kind of wound.

Ah, she's been impregnanted by an Alien Facehugger. Best to kill her before
it bursts out of the chest.

Lina quickly put her hands on Amelia's sides and started tracing
intricate patterns, noting which spots elicited gasps to mark
particularly sensitive spots.  "It's ok,

okay

The attendant already in the hallway started to comply, then noticed
Gourry's hands at his side.  "What about you?"

"I've been through this before.  Lina saved me, too.

Oh? Now that sounds  forebodeing.

"Lemme guess, you had the dragon's blood soup, right?  You gotta be
careful with that.  It did the same thing to me, first time I had it."

ARGH!! I... I should have seen it coming. I should have seen it, but didn't.
Nice work.

Perfectly delivered, BTW.

"Lina...when Luna said you were going to save me from myself, I didn't
think she meant it this way."

"Yeah, well, that's my sis for you."  Raising her voice towards the door
and releasing her no
se,

Odd line break there.

she called out, "Ok,

Okay

Lina sighed.  "Ehh, figured there'd be a catch.  Tell you what, I'll
accompany you back to Seyruun and

Seyrunn, and

Once they were on their way, it did not take long to find a bandit camp
in the forest.  It helped that Gourry had talked the constabulary out of
some hints while Lina was practicing the Growth spell.  A large number
of bandits had turned themselves in recently

Ohhh. A very bad sign.

, and actual raids had

nearly stopped, though Gourry was not certain

uncertain (less wordy)

"What, don't you know who you're traveling with?  It's Amelia of the
Dark Justice!  They say when she inflicts her righteous wrath, monsters
gather to revel in the torture!  No bandit in 'is right mind would dare
stand up to her!"

"Hello?  You've heard of her but not me?"

My, that is a surprise. One would think it's an alternate universe or
something.

"Hmm, what's this?"  Xelloss leaned in close.  "I was only told to hang
around you for a while, to answer your prayer.  I never imagined you'd
actually asked for my aid.  If I'd known, I would've asked what you
wanted instead of sticking around just long enough to scare your
enemies."

Heh. Looks like even Xellos doesn't know it all.

Lina blinked.  "What?  What?"

"Really, Lina," Xelloss tsked.  "*You* know Telepathy.

Does it need to be capitalized here?

Amelia from my own sister's 'service', then I get that new spell I'm
still memorizing, and now Miss Justice starts taking after Xelloss.
It's going to be one of those days."

I'd say it's already been 'one of those days.'

"So this is where you've gotten to.  Amelia wanted to see you."

"Did you just...no, I heard it, you did.  But how?"

Gourry blinked.  "Is something wrong, Lina?  I mean, ok

okay

, Xelloss healed

the bad guy.  He's a monster.  That's the kind of thing he does."

"MONSTERS CAN'T CAST WHITE MAGIC, YOU DOLT!"

Xelloss smiled.  "Oh, my, did *I* do that?"

Hmm. Very peculiar.

"Because I don't know where the place is, but Luna said you'd know."

"Aw, no, do we have to drag *her* back into this?"

Amelia shrugged.  "There's more than one 'Bay of Death' in the world,

Hehehehe. Cute.

"Luna said he heard a rumor that a powerful spell was cast there, and
that traces of it still remain.  He was hoping to study the traces to
see if he could recreate the spell, to see if it could cure...hey!"  It
was only the fact that Amelia was sitting between Lina and the door that
let the princess grab Lina as she ran by.  "*Excuse* me, Lina, but..."

My, that is bad.

"By which time, you'll be so tired you'll probably crash into him just
as he's trying the spell, with our luck.  Give me a moment."  Amelia
released Lina, then crossed her wrists and cupped in her palms the blue
charms on her wrists, which began to glow.  "Zelgadis...please, my love,
hear my words..."

So, she actually called him her 'love.' How sweet.

Even with disaster delayed, none present thought it wise to delay
presenting a detailed explanation to Zelgadis, Lina in particular.

Probably for the best, yes.

"Oh, you'll see.  Besides, I only want the happiness you and Gourry
al
ready have."  Amelia blushed.

Lina twitched.  "

Yeah. She definitely should not be so open about Lina's feelings concerning
Gourry. :)

"I have been.  I've been looking at where he's been holding onto you.
You object when other people see him grab your breasts.  Is it that you
only object to other people thinking the mighty, powerful Lina Inverse
is in love?"

"I...ah..."

"If it *is* that, I'd think it's a kind of strength compared to the
alternative.  To be all alone in the world, to have no one to comfort
you..."  Amelia sighed.  "...to pine for your heart's true love as he
searches for what you hope is the only thing more important to him than
you are..."

Heh. Now this is more like her. She was a bit savvy up to that point in her
discussion with Lina

"Ssh!"  Gourry began to draw his sword.

"Not you, too, Gourry."  Amelia frowned.  "Look, if my talking about it
upsets both of you, I'll stop, but-"

"We're surrounded!"

Heh. There we go.

Gourry beheld the bladeless sword grip in his hand, then tilted up his
scabbard with his free hand and watched flakes of rust fall out.  "Man,
I knew I shouldn't have let you talk me into just grabbing something
from the discount bin."

Heh. Reminds me of an old Cerebrus comic that had an Elric parody in it.

She almost missed Gourry simply chucking the hilt into the trees and
listening to it strike metal.  "Hmm...as I thought: they're wearing good
armor.  Plate mail, stainless steel with minimal decorations...hey, you
wouldn't happen to be the Northern Vigilantes, would you?"

"You know them?"

Makes things easier, parlaying, that is.

"Should we have?  You're just Lina Inverse."

"'Just' Lina Inverse?  Hello, Miss Bandit Slayer here!  The one who slew
Shabrunigdo, Gaav, Phibrizzo, *and* Dark Star?"

Heh. Her rep seems to have been forgotten quickly. She needs to kill another
god like being.

"If you say so.  All we've heard is that you taught Amelia.  But if
you're trying to say *you're* a bandit hunter too, taking what they
stole and making it so the original victims can't ever find their loot
again...well, I guess we'll just have to punish you, too, then.  Nice of
you to tag along with Amelia: we can clobber both of you, and your
boyfriend, at once."

"Hey!  Gourry is *not* my boyfriend.  Bodyguard, maybe, but-"

Lina: Definitely sex slave, but not boyfriend.

"XELLOSS SPY!"

Already ducking as she was, when Lina's footing slipped, it was not a
far trip for her face to fault on the ground.

Makes it easier, it does.

"It started out as black.  Who knew?"

Irony, it's true.

Amelia shrugged.  "I hope you've

got your stomachs ready.  We're still surrounded, but the only people
this way are their cooks, and it was lunchtime for them too."

"You mean...?"

"Yes, we're going to do an eat and run!  Here we go..."

Wow. Amelia is a strategist. Who knew a spell could work such miracles. :)

Checking inside the pit, Lina found the part-golem, with his tent
pitched at

might need a comma between pitched and at, but I'm uncertain. It does read
off to me without it, though.

"As you wish.  Levitation!"  Within moments, Zelgadis and his tent rose
from the pit and began to hover away from it.  "Is there anything else
you wish to discuss with me?"

"Oh, yeah.  Amelia thinks she has a cure for you."

Zel: Bah. I have better things to do than worry about that.

"Amelia.  I've been through that all before myself, many times.  Let's
just see if it works.  What is it: a spell, a potion, some kind of
ceremony?"

Ameilia; Plastic surgery. They'll do rockosuction and skin grafts to slowly
replace everything until you're a new man.

Light surrounded Amelia and Zelgadis, then faded.  Zelgadis began moving
again, experimentally flexing his hands and arms.  "Well, I don't feel
any different."

Amelia, however was looking at her blue hands in joy.  "No, it worked! I
know it!  See?"  She picked up a nearby chipped rock and whacked it
against her forearm a few times.  "No blood, and I'm barely even feeling
it.  Which means..."  The princess ran over and glomped Zelgadis.

Heh. Well, at least he's not alone, although that doesn't really cure his
condition, which was sort of the point. It was a nice gesture, though.

"Ow!  What..."  Who pried her away, to see that her hair had punctured
his shirt and skin a bit.  "Blood.  That's...my blood."  He widened the
tear in his shirt, to see pink flesh underneath.  "I'm...you did it.
You did it!!"  He hugged Amelia tighter, careful to keep her razor-wire
hair away from his flesh.

Oh. Even better then. Of course there might be a problem with Amelia now.

"Well, I remember hearing something about how you could call on anyone
you knew, tap magic directed into kind of a personality template.  The
person wouldn't even have to be that powerful, just the magic.  But
that's ridiculous."

Gourry nodded.  "Which means it's about to happen, right?"

Of course.

"We teleported."

Lina tried to pick out which grunt had replied, but whichever one it was
did not seem to be in the front ranks.  "How?  You need a gate or some
large device for teleportation, and-"

One of the grunts flickered out, then reappeared right in front of Lina.
"Bah, you haven't even heard of a Teleport spell?"

"...those...don't...ex-xis-st..."  Lina gulped, trying to convince
herself it was only to moisten her suddenly dry mouth.

Yes, it does seem anyone can cast a spell when they want to lately.

Immediately deducing what was about to happen, Lina slapped her hands to
her ears.  "I'M NOT LISTENING!!!"

Heh.

#...lend to me your terrible fury.  Destroy the fools who stand before
me!#

"NO, NO, DON'T DO THIS AME-"  And then Lina went limp except for her
legs, arms fallin
g to her sides as her mind briefly left her body.

"LIIINAAA SLAAAVE!"

Sigh. I never conceived of that. I really wish I had. The Lina Slave. It's
perfect.

"Don't think of how you can repair this, Amelia.  You'd just make it
worse than I did."  He smirked.  "Besides, you've got Zelgadis to
cuddle.  Why don't I leave you alone for a few hours, too?"  He started
walking off in the direction opposite the way Lina had taken.

Amelia started to follow, only to feel Zelgadis's hand on her shoulder.
"He didn't mean that as a question, Amelia."

Amelia: But he put a question mark on the end.

"Huh?"  Amelia turned around, to see Zelgadis wiping some bloody smears
from his face, with a cloth moistened from his canteen.

"That's all of them."

"What are you..."  She squinted.  "Popping zits?"

"Yeah.  Really annoying.  My pores just wouldn't open up while they were
stone.  Good thing the zits just looked like darker stone.  But they're
all clear now.  You can give the stone skin back, if you want."

Hehehehehe. Cute.

"Xelloss," he acknowledged without bothering to look at what was, in the
end, just another part of himself.

Oh? What a surprise.

"I thought this time for sure.  Show

her how little she truly knows, and maybe - just maybe - she'd question
other beliefs, like about how she thinks she feels about me."  He
sighed.  "She's as much the Lord of Nightmares as I am, yet I don't
understand her at all."

"As you say.  And she still doesn't remember merging with our ultimate
Lord?"

Ah. Now I see.

"Ugh.  I still need to get used to this
everyone's-a-part-of-the-same-being thing."

"Not that you should care that much.  You have but one purpose in this
world."

Gourry nodded.  "To love Lina.  And I do."

Nice little twist at the end. Didn't see it coming. Amusing throughout. Nice
read. I'm glad I got to it.

D.B. Sommer

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