[FFML] [slayers]Kitsune Lina 26-28

Aftermath

Lina watched the country side fly by from within
Amelia's Raywing silently. Amelia periodically glanced
back at her friend concerned. Amelia was aware that
give Lina a ride like this only served to remind her
of two things she didn't need a reminder for. Of
course it yet again brought up the fact that she could
no longer cast magic. Worse than that, though, it tore
into the fresh wound of Xellos's death. If the mazoku
were alive, she'd be travelling much faster. She
thought back to the scene immediately after Regin
finally fell.

******************

"It's over," Lina said wearily. Then she glared at
Zelgadis.
"He asked me to cast the Ra Tilt," Zelgadis said. Lina
just continued to glare at him. "I didn't know what he
had planned."
"You didn't tell ME!" Lina roared and charged forward,
the rags of her traveling clothes falling behind.
Zelgadis didn't do much more than brace himself as
Lina reached and shoved him back against the wall. She
reared back on her legs as Zelgadis stepped from the
wall and prepared for her next move.
They held position for a long moment and Amelia was on
the verge of leaving Gourry momentarily and stepping
between them. Then Lina slumped and shuffled over to
where Xellos's body still lay. Zelgadis remained tense
as she dropped to her knees next to the fallen mazoku.
The were-fox closed his eyes and brushed aside his
bangs.
"Why?" she whispered and then just stared. After that,
Amelia left a healed Gourry to guard her while she and
Zelgadis went to find her some clothes and hear
reports of the rest of the fighting.

*************

Amelia sighed, since then Lina hadn't said much more
than "yes" and "no" since then. She had been crying
before they found her, Amelia had noticed that, but
she hadn't see Lina cry at all. The princess looked
about and saw that they were almost to Filia's house,
it was amazing at how much quicker Raywing was than
sneaking across the country.
"Okay, that's enough," Amelia said suddenly, bringing
them swiftly but gently to earth.
"Why are we stopping?" Lina asked quietly.
"You can't afford this Lina," Amelia lectured.
"I'm fine," Lina protested languidly.
"You are not fine," Amelia told her. "You're in
shock."
"Just leave me alone."
"No, I left you alone once, I'm not going to do it
again."
"I'm alone any way, Xellos is dead." Amelia closed her
eyes in repressed frustration. She took Lina by the
shoulders and turned her around.
"You are NOT alone. I'm still your friend."
"You left once, and you're in love with Him." Lina's
voice finally took on some emotion as she mentioned
Zelgadis even obliquely. "He's in love with you, too,
and you both know it. I can smell it whenever your
next to each other."
"Okay, but what about your children Lina. They going
to need more than a half-present sleep-walker."
"Xina and Xalan, they'll never know...him..." Lina
thought about them, Xina's purple hair and Xalan's
eyes. Then she blinked and started crying loudly.
Amelia relieved let the were-fox lean on her and cry
against her shoulder. The princess had come a long way
since that night when she had been afraid to let Lina
out of a set of silver-threaded manacles.
"Why did he do it? We could have beaten Regin, we were
almost winning without Xellos. Why did he have to get
himself killed? He didn't even succeed, Regin lived,
and that's...that's not like Xellos." Amelia sighed,
she thought she had the answer.
"He wasn't trying to kill Regin," Amelia said quietly.
Lina sniffed and looked at her friend.
"What are you talking about? Who else was there to
fight?"
"After you had the twins, he went off somewhere and
came back beat up." Lina thought back and remembered
the scent of healing in the room when she woke up that
morning. "We think it was Xelas, but we never asked
him to be sure."
"Why didn't anybody tell me about this?" Lina snapped.
"We didn't know for sure," Amelia explained. "And we
weren't going to let Xellos know that we were spying
on him."
"Zelgadis knew," Lina spat, she stepped away from the
dark haired priestess. "Xellos sat and planned out his
own death and Zelgadis helped him."
Lina knew many things. She knew that Xelas was far too
big a fish for the Slayers now that Lina was without
magic. She knew that Zelgadis probably hadn't even
considered that Xellos would willingly sacrifice
himself, he had always considered the mazoku
completely selfish.
"He didn't mean for this to happen Lina," Amelia tried
to appeal to her usually excellent sense of logic.
What she knew and what she accepted, however, were two
different things. She didn't accept that this had been
the only chance to take out Xelas, and she didn't
accept that Zelgadis hadn't let Xellos walk into his
grave.
"He never liked Xellos," Lina countered.
"Lina..." Amelia started. She was at least relieved
that the were-fox was acting more like herself again.
"No, he knew what Xellos was planning," Lina asserted.
She turned toward Amelia. "Come on we shouldn't waste
any more time, I haven't seen my children in three
days. Filia and Sylphiel should be told that we're..."
she faltered. "That we won."

***********

"Lina, thank Cepheed," Sylphiel declared as Amelia and
Lina landed in front of Filia's house. "We were
getting worried."
"Get inside before someone notices you just flew
here!" Filia snapped. "Wait....flew here, but why
didn't Xellos just..." Lina looked away as she passed
Filia into the house. Filia faced Amelia and the
princess shook her head somberly.
"What happened?" Sylphiel asked Amelia as they both
followed into the house.
"Xellos is dead." Amelia said after seeing Lina walk
into her and...her bedroom abd check on her sleeping
children.
"What?!?" Filia and Amelia both fixed the priestess
with a glare.
"How'd it happen?"
"You felt the ripple in the weave?"
"Yes, if it hadn't come from the wrong direction I
would have thought it was you," Sylphiel admitted.
"I think Xellos caused that," Amelia said. "He had
some plan involving a stream of energy that only he
and Zelgadis could see and..."
"A pure flow?" Filia asked
"What's that?" Sylphiel looked and saw Lina engrossed
in her kids.
"It's a mazoku thing, always thought it was legend
actually," Filia explained to the priestess.
"Whatever it was, Regin made it, we think Xellos used
it to kill Xelas."
"And he died in the process," Filia nodded. "That's in
the legends too."
"We came to tell you, and bring you to the funeral."
"A funeral?"
"A state funeral," Amelia confimed. "A hero's
funeral."
"Sailoon is giving a mazoku a state funeral?" Sylphiel
blinked in near shock.
"Xellos would have loved the irony." They all nearly
jumped at Lina's voice. "Filia can you take us back? I
think you can fly faster than a Raywing."
"Sure Lina...are you okay?"
"No, I'm not," Lina admitted with a glance at Amelia.
"But I think I will be. Come on I don't want to leave
him waiting any longer."

***********************************************************************

The Funeral

Lina was moderately happy that she could walk around
in the second
aspect, virtually had to. If she were to walk around
in human form then
people would look at her kids and might figure out
that she was a shape
changer. It would be easy to figure out she was a
werecreature from that.
She prefered this form anyway, the speed, strength and
enhanced senses
gave her a sense of security that made up for the loss
of her magic. Today,
however, she half wished she couldn't hear most of the
conversations.
"The princess has....interesting taste in friends."
"That swordsman is the most normal of them."
"If you call some one with that little intellect,
normal, I was thinking
about her..." Lina could hear the pause as the man
sneered in distaste. She
privately wondered hhow they would compete with Gourry
on the road.
"...fiancee." Lina agreed with them on that. Zelgadis
was too single
minded, it was creepy, and she was certain that was
the trait that had gotten
Xellos killed.
"There's the priestess and that blonde woman."
"Priestess is okay," the man admitted. "But that
blonde, there's
something, different, about how she acts."
"She used to travel with Lina Inverse, by L-sama."
"That's not as bad as this....Xellos Metallium, and
that harlot fox-girl
mooning over his unholy corpse." Lina snarled quietly.
"On top of everything else, this....this indignity."
"A mazoku in the Tomb of Heros."
"A higher mazoku, a dark lord's general no less."
"He was probably helping those Temple maniacs."
"This is a hideous miscarriage off justice."
"Oh what does it matter, the royalty just for show
anyway."
"This is hardly what we wish to show the other
kingdoms." Lina tried to
ignore the conversation as the funeral continued. It
was just part of
civilization. She had never liked gossip, the road had
ALWAYS been her home,
since she was old enough to walk it. You didn't have
to worry about
small-minded envious little jerks like the fops behind
her, not when you were
in the wilds.
Lina was having enough problems takinng care of her
children without the
extra bother of worrying what a pair of pointless
nobles thought about her.
She was lucky that they hadn't asked to be fed yet,
but just the awkwardness
of trying to carry them both around was a challenge.
Fortunately, Filia was
willing to help, especially with advice, even if said
advice was more fitting
for dragon infants than true humanoids.
Lina remained sitting in the great hall of the Tomb
long after the
ceeremony had ended. Her friends and Zelgadis were
gathered about the
entrance, giving her a respectful space. The chimera
was trying to avoid
looking at Lina, it seemed that Zelgadis agreed with
her assessment of his
responsibility in Xellos's death. About ten minutes
after the ceremonial
hall was emptied, Zelgadis broke away from the other
slayers.
"That's not a good idea," Amelia warned him.
"There are things she has to know."
"I can tell her about the note," Amelia pleaded. "She
really does blame
you."
"I know," Zelgadis didn't deny the responsibility at
all. "But she won't
do anything to me, definitely not with her children
around."
"What are you talking about?" Gourry asked.
"Lina blames Zelgadis for Xellos's death," Sylphiel
explained.
"Oh, how did he die anyway?"
"We're not really sure," Zelgadis muttered, though in
his mind he
repeated the name of the spell. 'Ra Tilt.' He
continued walking away under
Amelia's wary eyes. The chimeraa heard a low growling
as he neared Lina, her
ears laid back flat against his head, and his eyes
could almost see every
strand of fur along the exposed section of her spine
rising on end.
"Go away," Lina growled.
"I have to warn you."
"Someone should warn Amelia."
"You're wrong about this being over."
"Regin's dead, Martina won't be a real threat for
years yet," Lina picked
up her twins and started walking away.
"Regin was summoning the old ones, Lina." The were-fox
stopped and
turned to face him.
"You expect me to believe he was dealing with
creatures that are supposed
to predate our world?" Lina asked angrily. "Xellos
said this guy had some
crackpot prophecies, but seriously."
"I don't think Xellos believed it was possible until
just before
he....made his plan."
"What does it matter either way, we stopped them." She
started walking
again
"I was directed to the Necronomican by a black-furred
raven."
"So?" Zelgadis followed silently a few feet behind
her.
"There was a note, 'stall them now, their end will
come with the next
generation,' do you get it, Lina. The next generation,
like your kids,
maybe." Lina had reached the gathering of Slayers and
turned to face
Zelgadis again.
"Stay away from me and my children," she repeated, her
deadly tone
warning him that she was serious. "Filia, I'm ready to
go now."
"I want to go home to, mommy," Val Garv insisted.
"We're going now," Filia assured him, taking Xina off
Lina's hands for a
moment.
"You're not staying for the wedding?" Amelia sounded
dismayed.
"I'm not welcome here," Lina said glancing at the
stragglers from the
ceremony working their way across the courtyard
outside. "I might bring the
twins to see their father one day, but I can't stay
any longer right now."
"These humans are...tiresome," Filia agreed.
"Take care," Amelia hugged her friend, being careful
about the infant in
her arm.
"Gourry, Sylphiel," Lina nodded to them.
"We'll see you later then, I guess," Gourry said.
"Hopefully not too much later," Sylphiel added.
"Hey, you never know," Lina declared softly. "Farewell
until then." She
nodded to Filia and the two walked through the
courtyard to an isolated spot.
Then Lina, Val Garv and the twins were riding the gold
dragon's great
reptillian back into the sky.

****************************************************************************

Slayers Seperate

Sailoon was recovering, and doing it very well
considering. For the
first month or so one would have thought that the
capital city had been
struck by a plague. In a way it had, but the people
came together well, and,
much to the chagrin of the surviving bureaucracy of
nobles and merchants, the
remaining slayers pitched right in to help. Many of
the lesser nobles took
the example and stepped in to help as well, with in a
month the city seemed
more or less as it had before.
Of course the sheer number of deaths that had occured
before the
guardsmen could catch every single cultist meant that
some lands were now
without lords. This meant the raising of lesser nobles
to high positions,
and in many cases, the founding of a new noble house
by royal decree. The
old powers of the kingdom didn't like this, but
remained helpless to stop it.

***************

The fools might have seen Zelgadis as a peasant freak,
but he had proven
incredibly adept at preventing assassinations on him
or Amelia. Also Amelia
might have seemed naive and vulnerable at first, but
she was proving to be an
effective ruler, and just as unsurprised by people
randomly trying to kill
her as Zelgadis. They tried, one by one, and were
found out one by one.
Amelia and Zelgadis's wedding was the final blow to
the ego of the old
houses, the commoners had been invited. It was also
the last attempt at
assassination, resulting in the final blow to the old
establishment. The
bureaucracy had died when Regin betrayed the kingdom,
too many nobles and fat
merchants had died, and the new generation was too
strong. Within three
weeks of Amelia and Zelgadis's wedding, only one or
two of the great houses
remained, and they were near to dying out from lack of
heirs.
"Too bad Lina decided she had to go," Amelia sighed
one day, looking out
the window of their bedroom. "She would be glad to
hear what most people
have to say about Xellos."
It was true, the common people didn't have the
education to know much
about mazoku. They knew that someone named Xellos
Metallium had died in
destroying the traitor's spell. Legends were already
growing around what had
been seen on the top of the tower that day.
"She's right about me," Zelgadis said suddenly. Amelia
turned to face
him, then walked over and leaned against his back.
"You didn't know what he was thinking, Zelgadis,"
Amelia comforted him.
"How could you?"
"I should have guessed, he practically said farewell
to Lina in the
tunnel," Zelgadis noted. "But its too late now."
"Yes, let's just concentrate on our life now, not the
past," she turned
him around gently and looked into his eyes. "If we pay
too much attention to
the past, the present will get us."
"Or the future," Zelgadis whispered as he hugged
Amelia.

***********

"You're not mad that I turned down the offer of a
title are you?" Gourry
asked Sylphiel.
"No, whatever gave you that idea?"
"I don't know, you just seem rather quiet."
"I was thinking about what your homeland must be
like."
"Well, that's easy enough to fix, why don't we go
there?"
"We are, Gourry-dear," she answered.
"We are, oh yeah, that's right." Gourry thwacked his
head and then
smiled. He loved doing that to people. "Are you sure
about this? Its
mostly just elves, aren't many humans this way yet."
"I'll make do," she smiled at him. "If they give me
any trouble, I can
always make chili."
"Yeah, that'll be good for a laugh," Gourry agreed.

**************

It had taken long enough, but she finally had a
creditable home. Finding
a cave had proven easier than she had at first thought
it would be. It had
to be a cave, something with natural camouflage and
lots of space. She
didn't really like the idea of a cabin anymore, too
many avenues of attack.
This cavern, that Filia had found had helped excavate,
was huge, dry and had
already been carved into rooms by something. There was
a small pool in one
corner, providing water, and several well hidden
exits.
Now the natural mansion was well furnished with a
little help from Filia.
Lina suspected that some of the money for the various
pieces of furniture
came from Amelia, but that was okay. She had a home
now, in the forest,
close enough to Filia that she wouldn't have to worry
about her kids one full
and new moons, but far enough from town and the road
that she wasn't going to
be running into many other hunters.
She sat down in one of the large soft chairs that
Xellos seemed to favor,
at least when he went looking for furniture for her,
and sighed. This was
hardly going to be the easiest segment of her life,
especially without
Xellos. She'd get through, however, she'd faced every
other challenge in her
life. Xellos had bought her this chance with his life,
she wasn't going
to just throw it away.
The sound of her twins waking up and crying snapped
her out of her
reverie.

***********

Martina shrieked in glee as she rooted out another
piece of power. Her
new masters had directed her here, and though she had
protested at first, it
was a good decision. By the time she had found it the
effects of Zelgadis's
Ra Tilt mixed with the pure flow had faded. Now the
essence of destroyed
mazoku was scattered throughout the whole island. It
would take her years to
find them all, but by then she would have more than
enough power to destroy
Lina Inverse and her friends. More importantly, she
would be able to further
rip the walls of reality for her masters.

******************

I was right, you are here.
The Old Ones and the Fallen are my responsibility,
where else would I be?
I prefer that you don't meddle in my world.
Everybody prefers that I don't meddle in their world.
Perhaps if you warned them before appearing?
Sometimes I do. The Vagabond had a sense of the Lord
of Nightmares'
scowl.
Are you going to be much longer?
No, everything is going as I expected it would.
Good, then I expect this is the last time you'll
interfere in my world.
The Vagabond shrugged.

*******************************************************************************

So ends Kitsune Lina, first part of the Born and Bred
trilogy. The next two fics are where I get the name
for this trilogy, and I might post some of them
tonight, but I work tomorrow so, who
knows...anyway...they all have these short chapters,
since I was just starting at the time I wrote these,
and writing between classes...so I choose to post them
all at once like this.

=====
"Caffeinated Kender? What's that, a berserk spell?" -
Tribble, Kender Warrior of the Celestial Kingdom
"God has to have a sense of humor, it's the only explanation for sex." - my father
"I have to write a how-to paper for class, so I'm writing a paper on how to be psuedo-evil." - my brother

http://members.aol.com/thrythlind/snake.html

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