Sailor Moon Fan Fiction / Slayers Fan Fiction ❯ Dark Side of the Moon ❯ Prologue

[ T - Teen: Not suitable for readers under 13 ]

Dark Side of the Moon




Dark
Side of the Moon

by Eternal SailorM

Disclaimer: I
don't own The Slayers and I don't own Bishoujo Senshi Sailormoon.
Apparently, wishing doesn't count because if it did, I'd be rich
and famous and swimming in bishonen. But since I'm neither of
those three, I guess I own nothing but a P.O.S. ancient
laptop/computer (which is not the one I'm working on this on), an
IBC Cherry Cola, and a chocolate orange.

Author's note: In
case you missed all the warnings and all, this is going to be a
crossover shoujo no ai. It'll probably never get over an
"R" rating, but this will be a girl-girl romance story.
Also, see if you can guess who my favourite Slayers
characters are. ^_~ It shouldn't be too hard.
And there are a lot of spoilers. That's all I say.

Major
dedication alert: This one is mainly to
Kuriyamimizu, my atashi-chan. She wants this story finished very
badly, so... you know... I owe her for some really good stories (Touched,
And He Doth Descend into the Depths of Heaven, etc.) so
this one's to her!
Dedications: This also goes to the usual suspects: Ro-neechan,
Chibi-chan, Amber-chan, and especially a certain unnamed imouto
for helping in the end.



Parts of an ancient wall were still
intact around the ruin; the parts that had fallen over the course
of time had been replaced, and the newer structures looked rather
formidable. A bronze plaque hung near the wrought-iron gate,
bearing the simple inscription of "Go away!"

But none of that compared to the dollar
signs in Lina Inverse's eyes.

It did, however, bother Amelia wil Tesla
Saillune. "Are you sure about this, Lina-san?" she
whined.

"I want that treasure," the
redheaded sorceress answered. "We've come too far to just go
home."

That much, at least, Amelia decided, was
true. They had come a long way to find this place, and all
because Lina had overheard a couple of bandits mention a
priceless treasure, in a ruin from the World Before, guarded by a
vengeful spirit. Lina had heard the sounds of money, and so they
had set out across the known world, across lands that hadn't been
travelled in thousands of years, to find this place. It was. . .
Well, it was rather creepy, to be honest.

"There was another note,"
Zelgadiss reported, landing beside them.

"Well?"

"It's just another warning. It
says: 'If you really want the spirit's treasure, remember these
things: first, don't make it angry. Second, any man who enters
must be especially careful; it doesn't like men.'" He and
Gourry exchanged a glance. "'And finally, and this is most
important of all, don't ig-'"

"Why'd you stop,
Zelgadiss-san?" Amelia asked.

"The paper is ripped there, so I
can't read it."

"Well, we'll just have to push on
anyway," Lina stated.

The gate creaked and made horrible
noises as they stepped through it. "If this isn't the
perfect set-up for a ghost story, I don't know what is," Zel
groaned.

Inside the ruin, a long-dead figure
stared at them from an upstairs window. If it was physical enough
for facial expressions, its eyes would have narrowed in anger.
People again, coming into this house, after so long. Hadn't they
learned yet that this place was cursed?



"This place is really creepy,"
Amelia repeated yet again. It took a lot of effort, but Lina
managed not to smack her. You'd think the two-year break from
adventuring had ruined the girl; she almost wished she'd brought
Filia instead.

But she did have to admit: it was kind
of creepy. Pitch black darkness greeted them on the inside,
without a candle or lantern in sight.

As if something had read her mind, the
small lever beside the door clicked into an upright position and
the room was flooded with light that seemed to originate from
what looked like a lantern on the ceiling. "What the. .
." Lina began.

"Electricity," Zelgadiss
answered. "If it's working in this room, it should work in
the rest of the house."

"So we'll have light to look,"
finished Amelia. A book hit her in the back. "What?"
she asked, turning to look behind her at Gourry and Lina.

Gourry stared at her with wide eyes.
"We didn't do it. It just flew off the shelf on its
own."

Amelia turned to Lina. "Did you do
it, Lina-san?"

"Why would I throw a book at you,
Amelia? I'm going to look around upstairs."

She'd hardly left the room when
everything went crazy. Everything left whatever resting place it
had previously possessed and threw itself at them.



The upstairs seemed rather unremarkable,
as far as upstairs went. Bedroom followed bedroom followed
bedroom, then came a room like nothing she'd ever seen before.
Okay, she recognized the mirror and the larger basin seemed to be
for bathing, but the rest of it was lost on her. For the moment
at least, she decided to let that mystery lie and finish her
exploring. There was one more door that she hadn't checked yet,
and when she opened it, it led up a set of stairs.

She'd almost put one foot inside the
door when it slammed closed. "Let me in!" she demanded.
Silently it opened again, slowly, as if something, whatever was
opening it, was reluctant to obey. "Thank you." She
could have sworn she heard someone grumbling about it not being
fair. She slowly ascended the stairs, wary of another of the
spirit's temper tantrums.

It was another bedroom, done in colours
that surely must have once been pinks and whites and other such
pastels. A huge bloodstain - no, two of them - spread across the
floor, turned black over time. A desk with a large mirror sat to
one side of a large bed. Cracking posters covered the walls, most
of them of odd contraptions that were vaguely box-shaped and of a
dark blond-haired man in a sort of uniform which said
"Formula One". At least she thought it was a man; it
could have been a woman. The others were of three men with long
hair, the "Three Lights," if the words were to be
believed. On the bedside table was another picture of the blond
man, this time looking a bit more feminine and standing beside a
girl with long blonde hair. Behind it was another picture of the
blonde girl, a bit younger and with a dark-haired man and the
faintest image of a little girl with pink hair. The bed sheet was
blue with moons and rabbits on it. The whole room was simply too
cute for words.

So why didn't anyone clean up the
blood? she wondered to herself, sitting down at the desk.
The rest of the house was immaculate, the kind of perfectly clean
that spoke of someone who had time to stay around the house all
day to keep it clean. Why would someone keep such a perfect
house, yet leave all that blood on the floor?

She turned on the seat and regarded
herself in the mirror. Before her glass reflection sat a hair
brush, long golden strands of hair still in it, the same shade of
golden blonde as the young woman in the pictures. With a sigh,
she pulled out the hair and started to brush out the tangles the
long journey here had produced in her hair.

When she looked up a moment later, she
froze, staring at the reflection she no longer had. Instead she
was looking into an unfamiliar pair of blue eyes framed by blonde
hair nearly double the length of her own. The young woman slowly
brushed out her hair, a small smile on her face. There was a
ringing sound behind her; she turned but saw nothing that could
be making such a sound; looking back in the mirror, the girl had
jumped up and crossed the room to pick up the small
rectangle-shaped object on the bedside table beside the pictures
and she appeared to be talking into it. With a nod, she out it
back on its cradle and returned to the desk, sitting exactly
where Lina was sitting herself. She sighed and rested her head on
her hand, clearly upset about something.

Without warning, the blonde disappeared
and Lina blinked in surprise to see herself again. What was
that all about? "Oh, that's it," she realized
aloud. "This is your house, isn't it? You're not a
spirit; you're a ghost."

Around her, the room seemed to fairly
hum with satisfaction.

"So why don't you want anyone to
come here? I always heard ghosts appreciated the company after
being alone." The sense of happiness fled, and it got very
cold very quickly.

"Lina-san!" Amelia called out,
bursting up the stairs. "Guess what we found!" Her
enthusiasm faded in the chilliness of the room. "It's so
cold in here!" Abruptly the temperature returned to normal
as a breeze ruffled by Amelia's hair and down the stairs.

"What did you find? The
treasure?" Lina asked eagerly.

"No, a book. I can't read it, but
Zelgadiss-san says it looks like some sort of diary. It was
written in something he called 'katakana.' Do you think it could
have a clue to the treasure, Lina-san?"

"It could. We may as well stay here
the night; it's almost dark outside and it's a two-hour walk to
the nearest town."

"But . . . here? In this house?
With the spirit?"

Lina cracked a small smile. "It's
not a spirit. It's a ghost."

"A ghost?" Amelia repeated.
"But I thought ghosts couldn't move things."

"How many ghosts have you known,
Amelia?" The girl shrugged. "When should Silphiel be
here?"

"As soon as it's dark. I'll go tell
the guys we're staying here then." Amelia went down the
stairs. After a few moments, Lina followed her, but only as far
as the odd room. She stepped in it and shut the door. Almost
immediately the handles over the larger basin began to turn
themselves and water came out of the faucet and began to fill it.

"What? Do I stink or
something?" There was a faint giggle. A cabinet beneath the
smaller basin opened, and a towel came floating out to sit on the
odd-shaped contraption beside the water-filled vessel.
"Well, I guess we're both girls here." She stripped
quickly and got in the water. "Gods, this is perfect,"
she whispered, sinking down deeper.

"I'm glad you like it," an
unfamiliar woman's voice answered, and Lina bolted upright.

"Who's there?"

"You can hear me?" the voice
shrieked. "You can really hear me?"

"Of course I can hear you. Why
wouldn't I be able to hear you?"

"You'll talk to me?" She
sounded sad now. "Everyone who has ever come here has always
ignored me." Hence the note, Lina thought. She
must not like to be ignored. Who could blame her, if she's been
here since before Ceiphied and Ruby-Eye went to war?
"What's your name?"

"Lina Inverse. What about
you?"

"Tsukino Usagi."

"Tsukino? What an odd name."

"Tsukino's my family name. Everyone
called me Usagi or Usagi-chan. I'm pleased to meet you - Do I
call you Inverse or Lina?"

"Inverse is my family name."
She paused, looked down, and blushed. "Could we continue
this conversation some time when I'm not naked?"

"Gomen nasai, Lina. I'm used to not
having a body now; I forgot about that. I'll go."

"It's okay, I guess. Could you
slide that towel a little closer over here?"

Usagi laughed. "Sure." As if
on its own, the soft piece of cloth floated over to the edge of
the -

"What do you call this thing
anyway?" she asked, gesturing to the basin in which she lay.

"A bath tub." She laughed.
"One of the first groups of people to come here were a bunch
of scholars. One of them almost died of fright when I cut the
water on. I guess things like this aren't in the world
anymore."

"How long have you been here?"

She sighed. "It seems like forever.
Since. . ."

The temperature in the room dropped
radically. Lina shivered and slipped as far down in the water as
she could. "Usagi?"

"I can't stay here any
longer," the ghost whispered. "He's coming, and I'd
hate for him to find out there are living people here. I'll be
seeing you, Lina."

"Who's coming?" She was met by
dead silence. "Usagi?"



"Don't you dare try to warn
them away."

"Don't go near them."

"You've warned away every
human that has come here in the past. I want something to toy
with again."

"Like you did that poor scholar? No
way. I'm not going to let you. Besides, it was so hard to make
myself material enough to cut him down."

The third entity nodded silently, and
Usagi patted him softly as best she could. He had hardly spoken a
word when he was alive; he was too silent now, even for a ghost.
He and his group of fellow scholars had thought they were
prepared to enter this cursed house. She supposed it was only
sheer luck that only one of them had died here.

"I'm going to have some fun
with our guests whether you like it or not, Usagi. It's up to
you, though, which ones I play with."

"I won't let you do this."

"They're just after the
treasure anyway. Doesn't that make them worthy of
punishment?"

With that, the evil one faded away. She
paced back and forth across the bedroom floor, her transparent
feet never really touching. "We can't let him do this, you
know," she said to her companion. He nodded back at her.
Even to her, a fellow ghost, he was barely visible; he had
exhausted a great deal of what little energy he had trying to
scare off Lina's friends downstairs. "We have to stop him.
It's obvious Lina and her friends won't leave, at least not
tonight." Her frown deepened, and her speed increased.
"We'll just have to keep an eye on them."

He looked up at her, apparently worried,
and held up two fingers.

"What? Oh. Well, there are four of
them, so maybe they'll break off into two groups. That way, we'll
be able to -"

She froze and ceased speaking as her
latest lap brought her up to the window. Her companion slid up
closer to her and glanced over her shoulder. He tapped her
shoulder urgently and held up five fingers.

"I know, I know. Five of them, two
of us. We have trouble."



"Glad you finally decided to show
up, Silphiel," Lina drily commented as the young shrine
maiden stepped inside the house. A long-forgotten stick of metal
tossed itself at her idly before Gourry batted it away.

"Lina-san," the dark-haired
woman stated warmly, "it's so good to see you again."

She nodded. "Well, I'm going on to
bed, you guys. I'll see you in the morning."

Amelia waited until the redheaded
sorceress was out of the room and most of the way up the stairs
before she turned to the others and asked, "Does it seem
like Lina-san's acting strange to anyone but me?"



Lina sighed and stretched and collapsed
on the bed - then coughed at the wave of dust that action had
produced. From across the room, she heard a faint giggle.
"Usagi? Is that you?"

"Hai, Lina, it's me." She
paused, whispering as though she were conversing with someone
else. "It's us."

"Us?" There was more than one
spirit here?

"Well, yeah. I don't know my
friend's name, but he was a scholar in life."

"So there are two ghosts in this
house?"

"I . . . guess you could say
that." Usagi sounded evasive.

"Explain, Usagi."

The ghost chuckled. "There are two
ghosts here: myself and my friend here. He was the one who was
throwing things at your friends, you see. Then there's the spirit
of the house."

"So there is a spirit here?"

Usagi sighed. "Yes, a very evil
one. He drove my friend here to kill himself. I don't even
remember a time when he wasn't here to torment me. He's tried his
utmost to kill everyone who has ever entered this house, and
since this time of the year is peak for him and me, he usually
succeeds in driving them mad." She paused for no reason Lina
could detect. "Okay, you go do that. I'll be here."

Lina faintly saw a breeze moving the
hair ribbons that hung from the guardrails to the steps.
"Where's he going?"

"To keep an eye on your
friends." Alarm shot through Lina, and she bolted upright.
"Don't worry. He won't hurt them or anything. He only threw
things at them to try to scare them away, but since that didn't
work, he'll protect them now. He's freer to move about the house
than I am anyway."

"How so?"

"Well, our tormenter has made a
game of this. I'm safe from him, so long as I stay on the top two
levels of the house."

"But, Usagi, you're a ghost. He
can't hurt you."

"That's not entirely true. A human
can't hurt a ghost, true enough, but ghosts and spirits are made
out of the same material and we're real enough to each other,
unless we use up a lot of our energy. I've been at his mercies
before. I have no wish to be there again. You're the only one on
the upper levels, so I'll stay with you. Besides," she could
almost sense the ghost winking at her, "you'll talk to
me."

That was a cue if she'd ever heard one.
"So what do you want to talk about?"

"I . . . want to know what the
world is like outside the house. I barely remember what my own
world was like; I want to know all about this new one."

And she'd been hoping to find out about
the World Before too. Damn, Lina sourly thought to
herself. With an internal shrug, she started talking. She never
even noticed herself getting sleepy until she heard faint
shifting sounds. "What are you doing, Usagi?" she
asked.

"I thought you might like a
nightgown, unless you want to sleep in your clothes."

She glanced down at herself. "I
never even thought about that."

"Well, for one who has weathered
the things you have, sleeping in your clothes is probably a very
trivial thing." A pair of blue pyjamas floated up out of a
drawer and over to the bed.

"You know, Usagi, that's really
kind of unnerving. Is there any way you can make yourself, you
know, visible?"

"I would, Lina, but it takes a lot
of effort just grasping things. Ghosts are not made for moving
things about, you know. It takes a lot of energy, and we ghosts
have only so much to spare."

"Then why do you keep using yours
to help me out?"

"From what I can remember, I've
always been this way. I like to help people, especially friends.
And since you're the first person in over a thousand years who
has wanted to talk to me, I think you're a friend, don't
you?" She didn't even give Lina a chance to answer before
she continued. "Okay. Stand up, Lina. Pyjamas, bed. You look
exhausted. It must have been quite a long journey here from
wherever you came from."

"You always seem to be trying to
get my clothes off me," she idly complained. Usagi burst out
laughing. "What's so funny?"

"Nothing, nothing, just the idea of
me trying to get someone's clothes off them. I don't even
remember how clothes work or what the real purpose of them
was."

As soon as Lina set her cape on the bed,
it was picked up and swished around an invisible body. As it
settled down, a faint outline of a human-like form took shape. Damn,
Lina thought again, even dead women have better bodies than
me. "I don't think it's your colour, Usagi."

"You think?" As if on its own
the cape twisted back and forth before the larger mirror that
stood on its own beside the bed. "Yeah, you may be right,
Lina. But it would be nice to be able to feel cloth again."
She sighed, taking the cape off and folding it neatly, placing it
on the desk seat, as she continued to do for every item Lina took
off. "You know, Lina, sometimes I almost think I remember
how things smelled, how food tasted, but then it fades, and all I
can remember is this dark death." Abruptly she changed the
subject. "You and your friends should leave here tomorrow,
Lina. It won't be safe after then."

She pulled on the pyjamas and slipped
into the bed. "Why not?"

"He'll be stronger tomorrow, strong
enough to physically hurt someone. He gets stronger every year at
this time. Sometimes I worry that he's going to become strong
enough to break through the barrier."

"Barrier? What barrier?"

"Between death and life, of course.
He wants to be alive again." She chuckled mirthlessly.
"All ghosts do."

"I can imagine. Why would he be
stronger?"

"Because the day after tomorrow
marks the day he and I began our struggle. Both of our powers
will be at their peak for the next three days after then."

"Why, Usagi?"

"Because the day after tomorrow
will mark the anniversary of him putting a knife through my
chest. My father retaliated and almost killed him though. We both
lingered on the edge of death for three days. After the first
night, strange earthquakes started, and I vaguely remember
hearing people talking about great beasts fighting in the skies
far away. And on the third day, I woke up and dragged myself all
the way to the door of this house, with that bastard right on my
heels, when a weird blast of radiant light cut through us."
She chuckled again. "And we both died. If we'd gotten to the
house, we would have been safe, I think."

Great beasts fighting in the skies .
. . That would have to be Ceiphied and Ruby-Eye. Gods . . . Then
that means she died right as their battle finished.
"Usagi. . ."

"But I think you need sleep more
than you need to hear my tale of woe, so good night, Lina."

The minute Usagi extinguished the light,
she could feel her eyes drooping shut. Within moments, she was
asleep.

The ghost of a long-dead young woman
stared down at the person in her bed, wishing she could hate her
for being there, for invading her house, her routine, for being
here at a time when he was at his worst, when she'd have
to keep her in her sight. But she couldn't. She smiled to
herself. Yes. This she remembered. This was what it was like to
have a friend. She balanced her less-than-material body just
right and lay down beside Lina on the bed. And, because ghosts
had no need for sleep, she watched her all night.



It was confirmable. He was bored. Why
did he have to end up with this guy to watch? Because all the
others went outside, except him, this woman, and the woman
upstairs with Usagi, he answered his own question.

He could just imagine it now. This guy
(the woman cooking had called him "Gourry") was going
to choke on a bone or something, die, and end up haunting this
place too. Then he would be pestering him and Usagi with these
pointless questions instead of this poor Silphiel woman.
"What do you think Lina's up to up there anyway?"

Finally something somewhat intelligent
out of his mouth. Simply miraculous.

He could almost feel sorry for this Lina
person. She had to be the woman with Usagi - and the only
unattached member of their group. This Gourry and this Silphiel
were a couple, and those Zelgadiss and Amelia people were
another, but Lina was the apparent leader of the group and alone.

"I guess she's already asleep,
Gourry-sama. She wouldn't be missing dinner otherwise."

Well, maybe she'll stay upstairs
where Usagi can watch her, and the other two will stay outside
out of all our reaches, and I'll just have to stick on the idiot
for the rest of the night. Oh gods, it's going to be a long
night. . .



The faint light of early dawn woke her
up. She stretched just slightly, and her hand passed through
something cold as ice, as cold as. . .

"Ohayoo gozaimasu, Lina,"
Usagi greeted. She was apparently right beside her, laying on the
bed too. "Did you sleep well?"

"Yeah, better than I have in a
while. Thank you. You were here all night?"

The bedclothes moved faintly as if the
ghost had shrugged. "Ghosts don't need sleep."

"You know, I can almost see you
today, Usagi." The extra pillow on the bed hit her in the
face. "Hey! What was that for?"

"For the sake of I wanted to. You
and your friends should start getting out of here."

"We're not leaving yet."

Usagi sighed. The bed shifted as she got
up; when she spoke again, her voice was no longer so close.
"Not until you get this house's treasure, right?"

"That's why we came here, but how
did you know?"

"I have my ways. Everyone who has
ever come to this house was ultimately after the treasure.
Scholars, sorcerers, mercenaries, bandits; every one of them was
after it, and none of them ever got it. I died to keep it safe,
and I'll keep on protecting it until I have no energy left to do
so."

"So the treasure is yours?"
Lina whispered; Usagi didn't answer. "You keep on mentioning
this energy, about how ghosts only have so much of it. What is
it? And what happens when you run out of it?"

"Energy is all that is left of our
mortal bodies. It's what gives us what little form and powers we
have as spirits, but when we use it all up, we cease to exist and
we - Lina! Look out!"

The light from the window behind her
died, and the entire room was suddenly plunged into total
darkness. She looked behind her slowly. A huge dark shape blocked
the window, bleak, dark, and opaque. It raised a hand,
claw-tipped fingers aimed at her heart, and plunged it down. A
cold, cold arm wrapped around her waist and pulled her backwards,
off the bed. Before she even realized what she was doing, she
lifted both hands before her and called out, "Elmekia
Lance!" The white light cut through the darkness, and it
screamed in pain before vanishing through the floor.

A familiar voice chuckled. "I
wasn't expecting you to be a sorceress, Lina. Maybe you don't
need my help after all." She slowly released Lina's waist
and let her settle to the floor.

She reached up and wrapped her fingers
around the faint image of the blonde ghost, pulling her back down
to the floor beside her. "You knew it was coming. You saved
my life." Usagi shrugged. "Tell me the whole truth now,
Usagi. What is that thing? What does it want?"

Usagi tried to pull her arm back, but
she wouldn't release it. Wearily she answered, "It was human
once. I know. It - he was my ex-boyfriend. He got upset when I
dumped him for someone else, someone who was nicer to me and who
treated me a thousand times better, and he killed me. For the
first thousand years or so, he was content to just torment me,
then other people started showing up, and he came to see it as a
challenge, a way to break me by breaking others. So, you asked
what he wants. He wants to either kill you or torture you until
you kill yourself, got it?"

"So you, a ghost, are protecting
me? And your companion is protecting my friends? Why?"

"'Why'?" the spirit shrieked
back. Her form hovered a little closer to material in her anger,
and the room's temperature dropped a few degrees. "Do you
have any idea what it's like to be dead? It's horrible: cold,
lonely, and boring! I wouldn't wish this on my worst enemy, let
alone a friend! And like it or not, I consider you my friend now,
Lina, and we'll find a way to drive you out of this house before
tonight!"



The redhead, Lina, was downstairs, and
Usagi was nowhere to be found. Even that unique energy pattern
she wore like a badge was gone. The whole house was a little
colder, even to his almost nonexistent senses. Their opponent,
demon that he was, was almost sulking, probably because of
Usagi's disappearance.

"It's no fun playing with
them when Usagi doesn't get all flustered and protective," it complained as it floated above Gourry and
Silphiel on the sofa.

He shrugged. She's upset about
something. It didn't try something on Lina or her upstairs, did
it? He glanced toward the kitchen, where the redhead was
gobbling down food.

"Don't you be getting ideas
about protecting them, scholar, especially that one. They're mine
to play with."
It rubbed the soft of its shoulder. "Besides, she's a sorceress; she
doesn't need the help of a spirit."

"We have to get them out of the
house," Usagi's voice floated down from the top of the
stairs.

"What?" the demon demanded.

"This is still my house, and I want
them out of it now!" He gestured frantically; somehow she
saw it. "Yes, we need to boot them out, scholar. Literally,
if needs be."

"What do you mean?
Why?"

"They're different from the others.
They're dangerous, more dangerous than anyone who has ever come
here."

The demon smiled, or its approximate
thereof. "All the more
reason to keep them here. That very strength will make breaking
them will be a challenge."

"Yurusunai, kisama."

Those two are impossible, he
admitted, shaking his head. That same movement brought something
interesting to his eyes. Masaka. . .

The demon cackled, hopping down from his
perch. "Your chosen one
is brave, Usagi."

"Leave Lina out of this," she
ordered.

"Lina? So it's just the
woman you're worried about? Then I'll be extra sure to keep an
eye on her."

"I mean it: leave her alone."

The redhead marched right past them all,
coming so close to the demon that the cape she wore brushed along
it, briefly showing its sharp features to the other humans.
"Come on, guys," she stated. "We're leaving."

"B-but," Gourry began. Lina
silenced him with one severe look. The others merely shrugged and
followed her out of the house.

Usagi sighed in relief, stood, and went
back up to the window in her bedroom to watch them leave. And try
to pretend that the house didn't seem a bit lonelier.



"Okay, Lina, what's the deal?"
Zelgadiss demanded. "You would never give up on the treasure
that easily."

"I haven't given up on it at all,
but we're going to need some more help."

"Who do you have in mind?"

"I think we could really use
Filia."

"Filia-san?" Amelia repeated.

"And then we're going back
tomorrow."

"Lina-san," Silphiel began,
her voice rather hesitant, "what's wrong with you? You've
been acting strangely ever since we got here."

She looked at them, the two sets of
couples, and pasted a grin on her face that she did not feel.
"I'm fine, guys. Really, I am. There's no sense wasting time
now. Let's go."

They'd never understand, she
thought to herself. Zel might have, once, but not now, not
anymore. Against her will, she found herself stopping and
turning around to face the house. But I bet Usagi would
understand. . . Understand what it means to be alone.



"Oh, Megami-sama," Usagi
complained, "was the house always so empty?" He
shrugged his answer, and she went right back to moping. She'd
been doing that since the humans left the day before. He tapped
her shoulder gently, and she glanced back over at him; once he
had her attention, he pointed at the object on the wall she had
once called a clock. "You're right, my friend; it's almost
that time again." He sent her a very obviously concerned
look. "I'm all right. I'm dead, after all, so it doesn't
really -"

The door downstairs burst open, and
loud, startlingly familiar voices drifted up to them. "
-took you long enough to get here, Filia!"

"I'm sorry, Lina-san, but. .
."

But Usagi clearly wasn't listening to
the golden-haired woman below. She stood up and walked right up
to the top of the stairs, the closest he'd ever seen her come to
going downstairs in all the time he'd been with her, and
whispered somewhere between happily and angrily, "She came
back. She came back." She sighed, her face settling into a
blank expression. "Why did she have to come back now?"

"Usagi," the demon whispered in her ear, "it seems your champion has returned
to you."

"Don't hurt her." She turned
and stared up into his cold, ruthless blue eyes. "I'm
begging. Please. I haven't begged for anything in the whole time
we've been imprisoned here, but I'm begging now. Please don't
hurt her."

"As tempting as it is,
especially hearing you beg me for something, now I can't
leave her alone."

"Why?" she demanded, her voice
rising and the whole house's temperature dropping.

"Because, since that little
sorceress came here, you haven't mentioned Haruka once. Not once.
And while I am not abject to a break from hearing about the woman
you left me for, it
certainly seems. . . curious."

"Lina's my friend, nothing
else."

"You said that about Haruka
once too, remember? It doesn't exactly reassure me."

"At the time, that was all we were.
Please don't hurt Lina."

It smiled grimly. "Of course I will." It flitted up through the ceiling toward her
attic bedroom.

"What're we gonna do?" Usagi
thought aloud. "We couldn't run them out when we had days to
do it; there's no way we could get it done in fifteen minutes
now."

"Absolutely not a chance,"
Lina answered. Usagi whirled to see Lina leaning against the
wall. "We're not leaving again this time."

"Demo. . . Lina. . .," Usagi
nervously began, glancing over her shoulder.

"No 'buts,' Usagi." She caught
Usagi's arm and turned her back to face her. "I'm going to
find a way to save you."

Usagi smiled sadly, touching Lina's face
very hesitantly; the sorceress visibly had to fight down a shiver
from the cold touch. "I'm dead, Lina-chan. I've been dead
longer than your world has existed. There is no reason for you to
try to save me." She bit her lip in frustration. "If
you want the treasure that badly, I'll -"

"This isn't about the treasure, all
right?" Lina all but screamed. "For once in my life,
it's about something other than fame or gold. I just -" She
broke off for a moment, apparently losing some of her steam. When
she spoke again, her voice was quieter. "I just want to help
you, Usagi."

"You want to help? Then get out of
here while you still can."

"No."

Usagi looked up at the clock then back
at Lina. "It's too late anyway." Downstairs, the door
leading outside slammed shut and locked itself. The ghost cast
desperate eyes on the human and whispered almost too softly to be
heard, "Just please don't go upstairs, Lina-chan."

"Why -"

Lina didn't get to finish her question
before an unseen force yanked Usagi from her grasp and pulled her
up though the ceiling.

"What was that, Lina-san?" the
golden-haired woman asked, slowly coming up the stairs. "Was
that your ghost?"

"So you could see Usagi?"

"Just barely, just the faintest
image of her. I could see her talking, but I couldn't hear her,
just a buzzing in my head."

"She's sad," Val put in. Lina
glanced down at the small ancient dragon. Reborn after the Dark
Star incident two years ago, the boy that had once been among
their worst enemies, Valgaav, looked perhaps four or five, though
he seemed far more intelligent than his age gave him reason to
be. "She was sad because she's dead, but now she's even
sadder that you came back, Lina-san."

"That I came back?"

"Because now you'll be in
danger."

Even he couldn't help staring down at
the boy in awe. He'd read Usagi perfectly in a matter of seconds.

A scream echoed through the house, and
he started, so caught up was he in the boy's insightful thoughts.
Damn, Usagi still screams loud enough to wake the dead, even
after going through this every year in all this time.

"Usagi!" Lina called, rushing
towards the stairs at the end of the hall. He tried to stop her,
but his hand passed right through her.

Just as Lina reached the steps and was
about to start up them, a small explosion was heard in the room
above her; it sounded very similar to one of Jilas's guns.

If she'd gone up the stairs any faster,
she would have flown. On the floor, each lying in one of the
bloodstains, seemingly unconscious, were Usagi and the
dark-haired man from the picture. They look so solid, so real,
that they almost looked completely human again.

The man climbed to his feet first, his
already dark shirt stained darker with blood that did not flow,
and turned to face her. His blue eyes were like ice, as cold as a
Mazoku's eyes. "So,
you're Usagi's new companion." His voice was colder than his eyes. Moving
quicker than any mortal could, he darted forward and caught her
chin in an iron grip; unlike the rest of him, his hand was warm."I'll be seeing you around." He planted a quick wet kiss on her lips and then
completely vanished from sight, and before she could fire another
Elmekia Lance at him too.

Grimacing and wiping her mouth
fervently, she moved over to check on Usagi. As she knelt beside
her, the small blonde stirred and sat up in a daze.
"Lina-chan?" she asked.

At the top of the stairs, Filia gasped,
touching her own ears lightly. This time, she'd been able to hear
her.

"Usagi?" Lina reached out and
brushed her fingers against the blonde's face; Usagi smiled and
leaned into the touch. Her skin was warm now. "Are you alive
now?"

"Iie, I'm just less dead now than
before. For the next three days, the demon and I will both be
like this, and all three of those days will be pure hell on
hearth. Hey!" she called over to Filia. "Hold onto
something, okay?"

"What. . ." Around them, the
entire house began to shake. It lasted only around five minutes
though. A bit shaken, Filia climbed to her feet and asked,
"What was that?"

"The first of many earthquakes
you'll experience over the next three days, and it was the
smallest and shortest of them all. You see, this is the curse of
a ghost's existence, having to relive their death on its
anniversary every year." She glanced out the window.
"You won't be able to see the great beasts fighting in the
sky, but this is exactly what happened when I died."

"Great beasts?" Filia
repeated.

"Ceiphied and Ruby-Eye
Shabranigdu," answered Lina.

"You've been a ghost that long,
Usagi-san?"

"Umm. . . hai, though I'm not
entirely certain who they are. All the sorcerers and scholars who
came here knew them though. Lina-chan, who are they?"

"A long story."

"Why don't we explain it to you and
you tell us about your world? We can go downstairs where it's
-"

"Iie!" Usagi shrieked,
scooting backwards across the floor.

"She can't go below the second
floor," continued Lina. "I'll meet you downstairs in a
little bit, all right, Filia?" Nodding, the golden dragon
left the room. "Are you okay, Usagi?"

"Hai, hai, Lina-chan. I'm dead,
after -"

"Will you quit saying that?!?"
Lina yelled. Usagi retreated a little further, understandably
concerned in the face of an angry Lina Inverse. "I hate the
self-sacrificing heroine type!"

"Gomen nasai, Lina-chan."

She slid across the floor to the other
girl. "Usagi?"

"Leave me alone." She scooted
a little closer, and Usagi jerked away from her, apparently
pouting. "I mean it! Leave me alone!"

"You know I'm not going to."

"Why not?" As odd as it
seemed, the ghost appeared to be pouting.

"Maybe because you're my friend
too." It was amazing how those few words automatically
brought a smile to Usagi's face. Cautiously she cupped her hand
against the blonde's cheek; again she leaned into the touch.
"And maybe because I like you a lot?" she even more
cautiously added.

"I really like you too, Lina."
She smiled, really smiled this time, and it could have lit up the
room.



Lina again glanced at the blonde-haired
girl patiently sitting at the top of the stairs, as if to make
sure the version of what of Usagi's story she knew and was
telling was all right by the ghost, who merely smiled back.
Finally the sorceress broke off with the (rather dangerous)
declaration, "Saa, I'm hungry!"

"I think I am too," came from
the top of the stairs. It was immediately followed by a familiar
growling noise.

"I'd say you are," Silphiel
laughed. "I'll make something and bring it up to you."

She bowed. "Doomo arigatoo,
Silphiel-san." The archaic gesture seemed automatic, but it
was something they had rarely seen. "I'll be waiting right
here."

"Your ghost is a very nice
person," Silphiel stated as Lina hungrily watched her cook a
few minutes later. Large red eyes turned to watch Silphiel's
face.

"You think so?" Lina asked
softly.

"I do."

The redhead smiled faintly. "So do
I."

"I feel sorry for her, stuck in
this house for so long, especially with that horrible demon. And
-" She broke off and smiled again. "It seems the two of
you are becoming rather close friends, Lina-san."

"You think?"

Silphiel smiled. "Yes, I do."
Suddenly she frowned. "I wish there was a way to take her
out of here, before she is destroyed by that demon."

"Nani? Destroyed?"

"We were talking about it
earlier," Filia broke in. "I heard once of a demon
spirit that was able to become a full Mazoku by absorbing ghosts
and evil humans."

"It sounds like that's what the
spirit is trying to do here," finished Silphiel.

"Is it ready yet,
Silphiel-san?" Usagi called down.

"It will be in a moment!" the
black-haired priestess returned. She glanced over at the petite
sorceress beside her. "Lina-san..."

"I'm not going to let him hurt her
again."

Silphiel glanced back at her sharply.
"You like her this much?"

"Spirits like this are tricky
creatures that are nearly impossible to destroy. You could
be..."

"Right now, I really don't care.
I'll be upstairs with Usagi if you need me for anything."



"Picnic!" Usagi happily
declared when Lina came up the stairs into her room. She'd spread
the blanket from off her bed on the floor, so that it covered the
bloodstains. Lina just had to stop at the top of the stairs and
stare at the blonde for several long minutes.

She seemed so totally... normal right
now. So happy and so very innocent. But how could that be, in a
person who had been dead over five thousand years, who didn't
even really remember her own life? She had to wonder, had Usagi
been like this in life too?

"Lina? Are you okay?"

She grinned. "Of course I am,
Usagi." She placed the food on the blanket. "Silphiel
made us quite a feast!"

"Great! I'm starving!" With a
speed that surprised even Lina, she started grabbing at food and
shoving it in her mouth. She had to smile; somehow she'd known
Usagi would eat like this - and manage to look cute while doing
it.

But while she was admiring Usagi, the
blonde was eating all their food. She had to rush to keep up,
even though one of Silphiel's meals was not normally something to
be rushed through.

Without warning, the earth (or the
house) began to shake violently. Totally unprepared, Lina pitched
forward. She was completely unsurprised when Usagi broke her fall
with her own body - and for the feelings that girl's body pressed
so tightly against hers produced.

"Daijoubu?" Usagi's voice
whispered into her ear, her breath tickling the sensitive skin.

She raised her body a bit, so that they
were face to face, noses practically touching. From this close,
there was no disputing the beauty and the hard-kept innocence in
her friend's eyes. "Hai," she breathed.

Faintly she felt Usagi's arms slip
around her waist beneath her cape. "That's good," she
answered softly. She could see a ghost of a smile building on
Usagi's face before she pulled Lina's body down, their lips
pressing together. It couldn't even really be called a kiss, but
when it broke, Lina could feel heat flooding her face. Usagi, on
the other hand, only looked embarrassed. "Gomen ne,
Lina," she whispered.

"For what?"

Big, blue eyes blinked in apparent
disbelief. "You... didn't... you don't mind?"

"Why should I mind?" She
lightly brushed their lips together again. "I never said I
didn't like it, did I?"

She smiled, and Lina felt herself
responding in kind. "That's good to know. Well then, I guess
I'd better get it right this time then."

Lina's eyes slipped shut as Usagi really
kissed her this time. She was aware of the other girl's hands
skimming up her body and unhooking her cape, tossing it to the
edge of the blanket, then moving slowly back down to the small of
her back. Despite the layer of cloth between their skins, the
warmth she could feel from Usagi sent delightful tingles along
every nerve in her body.

Below her, Usagi shivered, never
breaking the kiss though. Maybe this is affecting her as much
as it is me, Lina thought to herself for a split second -

- then Usagi vanished. And Lina found
herself dropping a few inches and her nose colliding with an old
blanket and the hard wood floor beneath it..

"Kuso..." she muttered to
herself.



"Kuso!" Usagi screamed her
frustration. Of all the times for her energy to run low... why
did it have to be right then? She screamed her indignation to
anyone who could hear it.

"Difficulties?" the demon who had once been her boyfriend
purred.

"Leave me alone!" she returned
harshly.

"Tell me: is this more
difficult than it was with Haruka?"

For a moment, she paused, trying to
puzzle out what he meant. She was still having difficulties
remembering the past. Then it came to her. "Yes, much
more." She smiled faintly at the returning memories.
"After all, I'd known Ruka-chan for years and we were both
Sailor Senshi?"

"Would you like it if the
two of you were together forever?"

Suspicion ran through her like a bullet.
"What are you saying?"

It shrugged.
"Nothing important. Do you think you and the redhead
have a chance in Hades?"

She sat down on the floor, apparently
putting some serious thought into this. "I... don't know.
She's this powerful, charismatic..."

"Completely mortal
sorceress."

"And I'm..."

"A incorporeal,
house-locked corpse."

She scowled. "You needn't put it
quite that way. I'll find a way to make it work somehow. Does
that answer your question?"

It shook its head resignedly, making
rather obvious tsking noises, a habit he'd picked up in America. "Yet another tragic love affair for
you, ne?"

"Oh shut up."

He stood and stepped away from her. "Maybe I'll arrange it so that you
two can be together the only way possible now: in death." It vanished.

"Matte!" she called, even
reaching out a hand after it. "Please... don't hurt
Lina!"



Bored again, he complained in
his own mind. All they've done in the last hour is work on
that journal. He glanced over Silphiel's shoulder. Looks
cute enough to belong to Usagi.

He glanced up and found himself
eye-to-eye with the blonde woman. He moved, her eyes followed
him. There was no doubt she could, if not actually see him, then
at least sense his presence.

A moment of staring later, the redhead
came downstairs without her cape and with a red, somewhat
squished-looking nose. "Hi, guys." It sounded almost
like a complaint.

That seemed odd. While she may not have
been the most chipper the other morning, the sorceress was acting
like Usagi when she woke up. Looking at her again as she sat down
between Silphiel and Zelgadiss, he gasped, almost aloud. A faint
silver sparkle surrounded her, one that he'd only seen on other
place before. Usagi... He glanced around desperately,
but no one seemed to notice it except him... and the kid. That
same kid that had seen into and right through Usagi before.

They didn't...

"They did," the demon stated.
Based on the fact no one looked up when he came in the room,
except the kid again, he assumed it was invisible. "Come with me. There's something I
think you should know."

He nodded and followed the dark-haired
demon into the living room. It was silent for a long moment.
Finally, impatient, he gestured wildly. Well, what do you
want?!?

"I know how you feel about
Usagi, scholar. It's no big secret; you do a very poor job of
hiding it. You know she doesn't love you back, don't you?" He nodded. "She's
fallen for that sorceress, that human."

She loves Lina? raced his mind.
But they're both girls...

"The Haruka she left me for
all those years ago was a girl too. That seems to be her
preference." He looked
smug. "So, you see, you
never stood a chance. Neither of us did."

He shrugged, trying for nonchalant. And
your point is?

"The reason Usagi's aura is
on the redhead is because she kissed her," the demon stated. Alarm shot through him. "A good bit of her energy is in
her."

Is she crazy? he thought to
himself. She knows the risks. Why would she risk herself like
that? I should go check up on her, make sure she's okay and all.

He was so consumed in his thoughts that
he didn't even notice the demon approaching him.

But someone else did.



Usagi grimaced as she tried again to
balance herself on her bed - and again fell through it.
"Kuso," she repeated yet again, pulling herself back up
to her feet. "This is just not working right."

The faint sound of flying footsteps was
her only clue of approaching company before the door was flung
open and a small boy raced up the last set of stairs into her
room. "Usagi-san!"

"I'm right here," she
answered, extricating herself from the bed and instead sitting on
the floor before him. The worry in his large amber eyes filled
her with an unexpected dread. "What's wrong?"

He shook his head. "There isn't any
time! You've got to come with me!" He reached out and
unerringly grabbed her hand - and she felt herself solidify
again.

How can such a small child have so
much energy within him? she thought to herself.

Then she pushed thought aside, jumped to
her feet, never releasing his hand, and stated, "Lead the
way."

As they descended to the second level of
the house, the boy began to explain, speaking very quickly.
"The demon, it ate up your friend, and now he's gone."

"No!" She put on an extra
burst of speed and moved ahead as they reached the second floor
landing. She hesitated there for a brief second then rushed on.

Six steps from the bottom, it felt like
she ran into a wall and bounced off, actually rolling back up
the stairs with the force of it. "What the -"

"It looks like a seal made from
Mazoku power." She glanced up, and for a moment, the boy was
replaced by a slightly older man with shoulder-length sea
green-coloured hair and... a horn? Not the time to ask,
she decided.

"So, why can't I get past?"

"It's sealed against -"

"- the powers of the
gods," the demon
finished. She sprang back to her feet as he appeared at the
bottom of the stairs. "And
it took me forever to build."

"Build?" the boy and she
repeated in one voice.

"Did you really think I let
all those intruders get away? They were sacrificed one by one to
build this shield for this moment, when I could finally break
your power."

Would you like it if the two of you
were together forever? ... Maybe I'll arrange it so that you two
can be together the only way possible now: in death.

"Lina!"



A man appeared before Ruka-chan and
me today, a strange man with purple hair, claiming to be a monk
or a priest. He warned us of a new enemy approaching. Ruby-Eye
Shabranigdu was its name. The priest said it was sealed within a
person on this planet, hiding itself until the time is right for
it to emerge.

This sounds like our worst enemy
yet, worse than even Chaos. If this priest, this Rezo, is right,
this could be the end of our world.

What I can't figure out is why
Ruby-Eye would be interested in the Ginzuishou, if indeed it is.
Ruka-chan thinks it isn't the Ginzuishou it's after at all; she
thinks it wants me.

But why?

Why me?

What's so special about me? All I've
ever wanted to be is normal. Is that so much to ask of the gods?
But... if I was normal, I would never have met Ruka-chan or the
other Senshi. These days I have to always balance the good
against the bad in my life.

And my love is definitely part of
the good. I suppose I'd better quit writing now; the light's
keeping Ruka-chan awake.



"So," Amelia began, "how
old would this make Rezo?"

"Surely he died and was
reborn," Zelgadiss argued.

"Who was Rezo again?" asked
Gourry before Lina hit him.

"I bet Shabranigdu arranged to be
reborn inside Rezo's eyes to get revenge for warning them,"
Silphiel whispered. "I could almost feel sorry for him
now." She paused. "Almost."

"Anyway," continued
Filia," there's only one more entry. It may tell what
happened."

Lina bit her lip then whispered, "I
hope so."



It's - It's all gone to Hell.
Everything.

Ruka-chan and I are the last Senshi
left alive. Pluto gave her life to keep us alive, but...

I think this is only a temporarily
pardon Shinigami-sama has granted us.

These Mazoku who serve Shabranigdu,
they're so powerful. A thousand times more powerful than any
bakemono or youma we've ever face. Mistress Nine, Pharoah 90,
Galaxia, Metallia - nothing could have prepared us for this. They
even killed Hotaru. The Senshi of Death, and she's gone. I can't
believe she's - they're all dead.

How can these creatures be
destroying us so quickly and easily?

We are
were all trained fighters, all of us; even Ami... was. And now
-----

That sound... That tight clenching
in my chest...

Ruka-chan!



I'm finishing this entry. I don't know why. It's killing me to
write these words.

I'm the only one left, the only one
alive. They killed Ruka-chan.

And to make matters worse, Mamoru -
yeah, the bastard who cheated on me - is back from America. To be
honest, he's been back in Japan for a few weeks...

And these Mazoku first started
showing up a few weeks ago. Could... No way! Mamoru's a bastard,
but he's not a Mazoku! Right? Right?!? He's amoral, yes, of
course, but he'd never sell out the human race, right?

I'm just further convincing myself
of a connection. He's involved somehow. How though?



Masaka...



Mamoru couldn't be the human that Shabranigdu is seal in.

Could he?

Rezo said there was another human,
this one with a being called Ceiphied locked within him. Rezo
failed to say what Ceiphied is though. All he said was Ceiphied
is Shabranigdu's eternal enemy, its polar opposite.

So if Shabranigdu is a demon, then
is Ceiphied a god?

So many "ifs" and not
enough answers. I do know this: before Rei died, she said that
the Ginzuishou was part of the puzzle. I know these Mazoku
dislike even its presence.

So is the Ginzuishou related to the
Ceiphied mystery? Yet another answered-less question.

What if Ruka-chan was right? What if
they don't want the Ginzuishou after all? What if all they want
is me?

I remember, in the battle for
Galaxia's soul, when I gave myself over to the Ginzuishou to heal
her, I felt something stir. I wasn't sure if it was me or
Galaxia, the Ginzuishou or Chaos, so I ignored it. But what if
the Ginzuishou was trying to tell me something? Or warn me of
something? And I ignored it like the baka I am. And now everyone
is dead, and it's all my fault.

I'm going against the Mazoku. I
can't let my Senshi be alone; I can't let Ruka be alone. Please,
if I die and anyone reads this later, find Ceiphied and use it to
destroy Shabranigdu. That's all I ask.

Destroy Ruby-Eye Shabranigdu for
me for us.

For Ami, the genius who go us out of
so many pinches. For Rei, who was always there for me when I
needed her, like a best friend should be. For Mako-chan, who
always protected me and stood up for me, right up to the end. For
Minako, whose cheerful and silly demeanor masked the strong
leader who kept us from falling apart.

For Setsuna, who gave her life for
me and Ruka and who always stood in the shadows watching over us.
For Hotaru, who never really had the chance to live. For Michiru,
who only wanted to love Ruka and me.

For the woman who joined our fight
for no reason other than we needed help but gave us no name, save
Galaxia. For Seiya, Star Fighter, who stood by me, even when I
chose Ruka instead. For Taiki, Star Maker, who died for Ami. For
Yaten, Star Healer, who fought so valiantly and died so bravely.

For Ruka, the woman I loved, who
held me tenderly and helped me forget the past, who taught me how
much I was worth, who loved me for and in spite of who I am.

And for me, baka Usagi, Sailormoon,
Princess Serenity, age nineteen, and all alone.

And maybe Mamoru will help me in
this fight...



"So who was Ceiphied?" Amelia
blurted out. "And was that Mamoru guy really
Shabranigdu?"

"Lina-san, didn't you say -"
Silphiel began.

"Mamoru was the one who killed
Usagi," the redhead finished, a very angry glower on her
face. "And he is the spirit who keeps making everything hell
for her. He could very well be Shabranigdu, even
now."

Filia's eyes widened, and she glanced
around wildly. "Where's Val?"

"The other ghost isn't here
either," Zel stated. A certain chill that always seemed to
mark a ghost's presence was missing. All in all, the entire house
was too quiet.

As if on cue, a room away, a deep voice
spoke. "The powers of
the gods. And it took me forever to build." It was silent for a second, as if listening to a
brief response then continued. "Did
you really think I let all those intruders get away? They were
sacrificed one by one to build this shield for this moment, when
I could finally break your power."

"Lina!" another voice
screamed, one that was somewhat more familiar to them.

"Usagi!" The sorceress bolted
out of her chair and ran out of the kitchen.



Usagi's heart sank as Lina appeared out
of the kitchen. She didn't have long to dwell on it though.
Around her, she could see and feel the texture of the house
changing. The walls on either side of her vanished, and the
barrier before her was visibly strengthened; she could see it. It
cast its own perceptions on the floor below; while she could
still see Lina, the colours were muted and paled; her hair seemed
almost pink, along with the outfit she knew to be red.

The golden-haired woman from earlier,
Filia, burst out after Lina - and skidded to a quick stop before
she ran into her. "Val?" she called.

"I'm right here," the boy
behind her answered calmly.

"So your name's Val, eh?" she
asked without turning, a small smile on her face.

"So the gods dare send two
of their own into this place?" the demon asked, breaking the tableau. "With the power I'd gain from
sacrificing of two dragons, I could completely destroy Ceiphied
at last."

"A lot has changed since you've
been imprisoned here, Ruby-Eye Shabranigdu." Lina sounded
angry, and that sounded dangerous.

"Am I supposed to be afraid
of you, little ningen? The world hasn't changed that
much."

Any other time it might have been at
least amusing to see Lina bristling up in anger like that. That
one must have hit her pride hard, to make her react like this.
"Kono yarou! Elmekia Flame!"

The demon vanished before it could hit,
and the white light kept going until it hit the barrier.



The Elmekia Flame hit an invisible wall
and seemingly was absorbed by it. For a split second when it hit,
she could see Usagi and Val on the other side, then the vision
disappeared again, and she let out the vilest stream of curses
she could think of.

Filia, though, cut her off by asking,
"Where are the others?"

"They were of no use to
me," the creature
spoke up, now by the door leading outside, "so I created another kekkai to seal
humans." It smiled
wickedly. "I'll let
them out later to hunt down and kill, of course."

"Of course," Lina echoed.

"The only reason you're out
here, ningen,"
it sneered, "is
because your death will hurt her a great deal. I've waited so
long for her to fall in love with another ningen. Haruka died
before I could awaken, but I think you'll do just splendidly,
Lina Inverse."

At the top of the stairs, the kekkai
shuttered just slightly. "Nande?" she whispered, mostly
to herself.

"They can see you down
here, even if you cannot see them. They can hear you too..."

"Usagi?" she called out.

"... But you can't hear
their replies," he
finished, heedless of the glares he received. "Now, let me see: which dragon will
be easist to kill? The golden dragon or the ancient dragon?"

"Leave Val alone. He's not a part
of this," Filia stated, somewhere between pleading and
threatening.

"He's a dragon, and dragons
are subjects of Ceiphied. The only way for me to leave this place
is to absorb Ceiphied, and I need the power that sacrificing
dragons would give me to do that." He smirked lightly.
"It's nothing personal, golden dragon, except that I
want to kill your boss."

He vanished.

"No!"



"Ceiphied again," Usagi
whispered, listening intently to the conversation going on below
them. And then -

The demon vanished.

"No!" Filia screamed, and she
felt all her senses go on alert.

"Val?" she called out softly,
keeping her eyes on the kekkai and her target beyond it.

"Hai, Usagi-san?"

What kind of a world was it out there
that such a small child could sound so calm when his life was
threatened? "We're going through the barrier."

That got his attention.
"But it's sealed against the powers of the gods," he
argued.

"Lina's spell weakened it. I think
- I know we can make it through now." She paused.
"If you trust me."

She sensed, rather than saw, him come to
stand behind her. "I don't have much choice except
to trust you, Usagi-san."

She turned - and could only stare for a
long, long moment. Dark feathered wings, too large for his small
body, held her gaze. "Kuroppoi tenshi..."

"What's a tenshi?" He didn't
dispute the "dark" part though.

"Nevermind. Hold onto me."

Inside her, for the first time in
hundreds of thousands of years, she felt something stir again.



The kekkai shuttered once more then
began to stretch obscenely. With each inch outward it moved, the
easier it was to see two figures on the opposite side of it.

Then with a loud popping noise, it
broke, and Usagi and Val came tumbling down the stairs, the ghost
protecting him with her suddenly very alive-looking
body, stopping them after only falling a few steps.

"Kuso!" the creature screamed, reappearing."Quit interfering!"

Electricity flew out its hand at the
pair on the stairs, and again Usagi protected Val, pulling him up
against her, even doing her best to hold his wings in. The light
blue top she always wore burned away quickly under the intense
heat.

"Usagi!" Lina felt slip from
her lips. "Elemekia Flame!" It stumbled against the
white light, but that was all. It was similarly affected by
Filia's holy magic.

Beyond the demon, she heard a strange
sound, like giant wings unfurling. But Val's wings are
already out, and Filia doesn't have wings in her human form, only
a tail.

"Shit," the demon stated briefly, falling back a step.
And now she could see the source of the sound and the demon's
discomfort.

"That's one way to put
it," Usagi answered.
Only it wasn't really Usagi, was it? Was Usagi supposed to have
wings? Was she supposed to look so... so... much more perfect,
beautiful, radiant than she usually did?

Filia answered her unspoken questions
for her, dropping to one knee and reverently whispering,
"Ceiphied-sama..."

And for a long, less-than-reverent
moment, she stared at the winged woman in the flowing white and
gold dress, who stood between Val and Ruby-Eye Shabranidgu, and
all she could think was, So Usagi was Ceiphied? Of course!
And when they were at the point of death, it freed Ceiphied and
Ruby-Eye to begin their battle for real. But why are they both
here now? And... why would Usagi - no! Ceiphied
- be interested in... me? Then dark blue eyes met red ones,
and the formerly golden haired being smiled, and it was the same
smile she'd gotten used to seeing from Usagi already. So she was
both then? Both Usagi and Ceiphied?

"Daijoubu desu ka,
Lina?" When she spoke
this time, Lina could hear two voices: the echoing intense voice
of Ceiphied and the light silverly one that belonged to Usagi.

"Don't concern yourself with
me," she answered. "Worry about Ruby-Eye."

I can't cast a Dragon Slave against
Ruby-Eye Shabranigdu; likewise using any spells invoking lower
Mazoku's powers would be pointless, Lina thought to herself.
Even if we could get Zel or Amelia out here, a Ra Tilt
wouldn't work, especially if Filia's Holy Magic didn't. Ra Tilts
didn't work against a small piece of it anyway; what chance would
that spell stand against the main body? We don't even have the
Hikari no Ken anymoe. Damn it! All that leaves is Chaos Magic orr
sitting back and watching. "Hells, no," she
muttered aloud. "But I have to them carefully or Usagi -
Ceiphied, whoever it is now - will be hurt. L-sama! Just this
once more: help me.

"Don't you think it's time
we ended this?" Usagi/Ceiphied
asked, casually casting a holy spell.

"Careful, you idiot!" the demon scolded. "Don't
you see what your little ningen is doing?"

Blue eyes flashed dark with anger. The
winged figure moved forward quicker than anyone's eyes could
follow, and her hand cracked against his cheek as she yelled, "Leave Lina out of this!"

And in the instant that their skins
touched, everything was flooded into darkness.



Usagi opened her eyes, closed them, and
then opened them again. Everything was still an endless black
nothingness, an unending sea of... darkness as far - or was it as
close? - as the eye could see.

I've seen this place before,
her mind whispered.

"Yes, you have,
Usagi."

"Who's there?"

The faintest image of a reddish dragon
appeared before her; it was small enough for her to hold in her
cupped hands. "This
place is part of the Sea of Chaos, Usagi. You know it because for
the last five millenia, your house has been the replacement
scenery for this."

"Who are you?"

"Flare Dragon Ceiphied. In
a way, I'm your guardian, as Ruby-Eye Shabranigdu is Mamoru's.
And the two of you have been our guardians."

"Why?"

"Only the Dark Golden Lord,
the Lord of Nightmares, knows that. All I know is we remained
sealed in your bodies till you were on the point of death, then
we were released to begin our war."

"If you left, then why did we
die?"

"We're bonded together,
Usagi, whether you like it or not. When Ruby-Eye and I first
injured each other, it killed the two of you. I don't even know
how long we battled, several thousands of years at least, before
we reached a... conclusion five thousand years ago."

"A conclusion?"

"I split Ruby-Eye into
seven parts, hiding the biggest and main part in the Sea of
Chaos, before I split myself into four parts and followed
Ruby-Eye into the Sea of Chaos. And so you and Mamoru were
brought back while we recovered."

"So you just bring us back whenever
it's convient for you?"

"In a nutshell, yesh."

"So why am I here now, seperate
from you?"

She could have sworn the dragon looked
nervous. "Because
L-sama was summoned."

"L-sama...? The Dark Golden
Lord?" It nodded gravely. "But how? Why? By whom? Who
would have the power and knowledge to summon her?"

"What do you
know about L-sama?"

"We were bonded. I know
what you know. So who, why, and how?"

"Your girlfriend did it," a
deep voice answered. She turned as best she could without a
ground beneath her and found herself staring at her ex-boyfriend.
In his hands, he held a red creature; it could only be Ruby-Eye
Shabranigdu. In response, she clutched Ceiphied a bit closer to
herself.

"What do you mean, Lina did
this?"

"Not denying the girlfriend bit,
eh, Usako?" She shot him a very cold and dirty look.
"She called up the Lord of Nightmare's, L-sama's, power, and
you touching me completed the spell."

"Darkness and light aren't
ever supposed to meet," the red creature stated.

"We came so close to finally defeating you, especially
after Hellmaster Fibrizo's god-sealing barrier weakened the Water
Dragon Lord a thousand years ago," Mamoru continued.
"It gave me what I needed to convince you to stay upstairs
while I started a barrier of my own."

"I'm not interested in the history lesson at all right
now, Mamoru. Where's Lina? I swear, if you've hurt her..."

He laughed shortly. "In this place? Here, I couldn't hurt
her, no matter how much I want to. She's going to be the one in
control here, over all of us."

"Good of you to
notice," a powerful
version of Lina's voice rang out, echoing just slightly.

"Lina?" Usagi called, looking
around wildly for the voice's owner.

"Here, Usagi." The blonde woman turned in the direction the
words came from and stared in blatent shock at the woman before
her. Or, more specifically, at the golden aura surrounding her.

"Lina?" she whispered, nearly
letting the small dragon fall from her fingers. "Is that
really you, Lina?"

"That's the Dark Golden
Lord."

"The Lord of Nightmares,
you idiot lizard."

"Then where's Lina? Let her go!
Please don't take her!"

L-sama smiled. "I'm not going to try keeping her. I
just need to borrow her body and voice. And she did
call me, you
know." She turned her
attention to the two small beings. "Because
of the two of you, this world gives me more trouble than the
other three put together."

"Gomen ne, L-sama," Ceiphied stated. It was the only one of the two
that looked contrite as well.

"I want you to release your
holds on these humans and let them go however they will. And try
sticking to fighting your own battles from now on."

"I would release my human,
L-sama, but Ceiphied here bound it to me and me to it. Without
me, it will die, and vice versa."

Usagi could have sworn the dragon winked
at her. "Just a
precaution against that human hurting Usagi again."

"I have no interest in living in
that world anyway," Mamoru stated plainly, "not when
I'd be powerless after having had Ruby-Eye's power for so
long."

"So then you will let
Shabranigdu devour you?" He shrugged. "Your
choice. Both of you should offer a boon to them as well for all
the trouble you've caused them."

"A boon?"

"A favour, a wish."

"I can do that." The dragon's voice got quieter. "What do you want, Usagi? Name it,
and it's yours."

"All I want is to spend the rest of
my life with Lina as a mortal."

A few feet away, Ruby-Eye finished a
small spell to keep others from hearing the wish. "So what do you want, ningen?"

"That's simple. I want Usagi and
Lina's time together to be very short."

"How short? Less than ten
years?"

"If even that much."

"Considering the wording of
her wish to Ceiphied, we can do it."

"So both of your wishes are
decided and Lina will be saving hers, so..."



"Lina?" a deep voice echoed on the edges of her
senses, strange yet familiar at once. Fingers snapped before her
face several times. "Lina?"

"Lina-san?"

That voice she recognized, and she correspondingly
reacted in what seemed the most appropriate manner:
"Fireball!"

And Amelia was two years out of practice dodging. Needless to
say what the result was: one toasty and well-done Saillune
princess.

"Hidoi, Lina-san!" Amelia complained, latching onto
her signifcant other in a rather leech-like fashion. Gourry
didn't look too pleased to be between Amelia and Lina Inverse.
"I was just trying to wake you up! There was no reason for
you to just Fireball m-"

"Do you see Usagi?" Lina interrupted, whipping
around wildly.

"You were the only one who came out of there,
Lina-san," Silphiel answered slowly, glancing back at
Zelgadiss for confirmation.



Amelia stared at Lina as the redhead ate the local tavern out
of every bite of food the poor owners possessed, and she pitied
hers and Filia's money pouches; they were going to be so
empty after this...

"Excuse me?" She lifted her head to see their
overworked waiter standing behind Gourry, looking down at a
still-gobbling Lina. "Would you happen to be Lina Inverse by
any chance?"

The fact that Lina willingly set her food down to study the
man before her showed just how little attention she was paying to
her meal. "Who wants to know?"

"Look, some shrine maiden told me to keep my eye out for
a redheaded sorcererss who was traveling with a large group. Said
it was real important that she talk to you."

'Was that you?" Lina asked Silphiel.

"No, I went straight out to the house."

"She left the message earlier today." He glanced
behind him then back at Lina. "She's at the bar now, if you
want to see her."

The sorceress shrugged, stood, and followed him to the bar.
Sure enough, a young woman in a blue cape and a miko's - a shrine
maiden's - clothes with waist-length blonde hair sat at the bar.

She stopped behind her and opened her mouth to speak when the
shrine maiden beat her to it. "So is blue my colour then,
Lina?" Her eyes grew wide as the woman turned around, a
sparkling pair of blue eyes raising to meet her own red ones.
"Well?"

Lina just shook herself for a moment before breaking from her
shock. "Usagi?"

The blonde smiled softly. "Lina... look." She
grabbed Lina's hand in her own and rubbed her cheek against it
for a moment. "I'm alive again," she whispered so
softly that only the other girl could hear it.

Lina let her fingers brush against Usagi's cheek and allowed
an almost timid smile to come to her cheek "How?"

Usagi shook her head. "It's not important. Lina?"

"Hai?"

"Can I... can I spend the rest of my life with you?"

Lina stared at her for a moment, not trusting herself to
speak. "You want the rest of your life with me?" she
repeated, confused, a faint blush rising up to stain her cheeks.

Usagi nodded. "Hai. Only if you want me to..."

Lina smiled and put one arm around Usagi in a loose hug.
"Of course I want you to. Demo, I don't see why you would
want to be with me..."

The blonde smiled and leaned against the other girl. "I
was thinking something a lot like that myself, Lina, demo... ai
shiteru."



"So that's the infamous Usagi?" Zelgadiss asked,
sipping his tea, obviously not really expecting an answer.

"She's cute," Silphiel answered, cuddling up to his
side.

"I'm glad Lina-san's finally going to be happy,"
Filia stated, "aren't you, Val?"

"Hai," he absently answered, a faint frown in his
eyes. A dark cloud hung over the happily and obliviously kissing
couple. He blinked sharply, and it vanished. He smiled and went
back to eating.

Surely he'd just imagined it.

::Owari::



28 April 2001

^_~ So... did I end it evilly enough? Be sure to review it (if
you're at FanFiction.net) or, if you're reading this at
DarkMagick.net or anywhere else it may end up archived (though I
seriously doubt it), e-mail
me!!!

I am open to doing a sequel, but there has be suffient
interest.

^_~
Bai-bai!