Slayers Fan Fiction ❯ Slayers For the Future: The Prophecy of Inverse ❯ Prince of Justice…..And Onyx Strikes Again! ( Chapter 12 )

Disclaimer: I do not own anything of "The Slayers."

Chapter 12

Prince of Justice…..And Onyx Strikes Again!

~ LeBlanche Township ~

Lina was angry, angrier than ever. Xellos had gone off on some crazy hell bent mission to get at Onyx by killing a man Onyx had just cured. But she was also angry at Onyx, he was curing people to get the pieces of Shabranigdo for resurrection, which was not a great thing to do either. Zelgadis and Val had separated from the group to search a neighboring town while she and Filia, with Xellos in a headlock, went after the second town.

Lucky they were not, for the women had found no trace or even a tale about a slender priest in black with two swords. A person like that was destined to stand out, but strangely, no one had seen him. It was like he'd vanished off the face of the world, much like Luna. Xellos was no help because he was only dropping them hints and telling Filia to squeeze harder, he wasn't excited enough yet and such. Each lewd comment earned him Filia's mace in his face and other parts of his Mazuko body.

"Xellos….where is the damned piece!? You want to beat Onyx to the punch or what?" Lina growled as they reached the new town of LeBlanche. The town they'd been in after leaving the coastal town had been a waste of time and this new place was becoming even more of a burden with Xellos being so tight lipped.

"Oh, have faith. I'll let you know when we get there….just keep doing what you're doing. And Filia, I can still breath, harder please." He smiled, eyes still closed.

"Namagomi pervert!!" Filia raged, tightening and smashing her mace into his skull.

"Ah fine, be that way. We'll search the whole damn town if we have to, Xellos. I don't need this….the sooner we stop Onyx, the sooner we can get back to hunting down my sister." Lina uttered rolling her eyes before rounding the corner to the next street.

What she didn't expect was to see a young man about Filia's height rounding it at top speed with tears in his blue eyes. He sent Lina crashing to the ground, startling Filia enough to loosen her hold on Xellos. The Mazuko just adjusted his collar and went on smiling at them. "Oh, I'm so sorry, little miss. I had no idea there were sorceresses about. Perhaps you can assist me in my pursuit of justice." The young, dark-haired man said, his voice rather pleasant and childish. He was wearing white plate mail over a green and white tunic, his hair tied up in a short shaggy ponytail.

He had a green bandana on his head and wore a green cloak that was clasped with a sapphire surrounded by pink base. It looked a bit familiar, but Lina couldn't place it, or rather she didn't want to. This guy had called her "little miss" and had practically run her over. "I ought'a fireball your scrawny ass for not watching where you were going, you nit wit! You may look like a knight, but you obviously don't know how to respect your elders, or how to treat the great Lina Inverse with any kind of respect. Say you're sorry and beat it! I have problems of my own!" Lina snapped, the young man'' eyes going wide.

"Lina Inverse? You're Lina Inverse?" He said in disbelief. "That's the name. Don't wear it out. What's it to you?" Lina challenged, pulling her hands together for a fireball spell. "Oh, dear no. I'm not an enemy. I just expected someone taller and older. You should be well over a century old by now, according to my grandmother's stories." He said.

"Grandmother?" Filia asked quizzically. Lina had to sympathize with Filia, who was turning beet red with anger. She was older than Lina and so was Xellos, as if it bothered him, but it bothered Filia. Being expected to be an old crone was not very flattering.

"Yeah, the last queen of Saillune, Amelia Wil Tesla Saillune. I'm the eldest male in the family, but my older sister got married so technically it's a king and queen thing. My mom got married before her too, but she and dad took a vacation from ruling once my big sister got married. Wow, I never thought I'd meet Lina Inverse, the great bandit killer. My mother idolized you more than my grandmother did, you were our champion of justice at bedtime." The young man said happily, the expression on his face close to how Amelia looked whenever she was pleased with something.

'Oh no….not another one….' Lina thought, getting shock written all over her face. "Amelia's grandson? What's your name?" Filia asked. Lina wanted to hit her. 'Stupid! Don't ask him anything, he'll only annoy us and slow us down. He's not in this like we are!' her mind screamed, Lina's face going sour.

"Prince Justin Valhallah Mas Tesula Saillune, at your service. So, can you help me? My kingdom has been robbed, and in the name of all that is just I must retrieve our stolen prize." Justin replied proudly, flashing a victory sign and flexing one of his small arms.

'The longer the name, the more delusional the Saillune. They're all crazy. I guess Amelia got over Zelgadis real fast, wonder who she married….ah, probably another nut-job.' Lina mused. The guy hadn't done anything stupid or clumsy just yet, but he hadn't moved from the spot he'd knocked her over from. He was also male, there was nothing to be jealous of since he was naturally flat and pretty slender himself.

"Sorry, J for Justice Town, we have pressing world threatening business to thwart and stuff. Some guy is stealing the ruby pieces of Shabranigdo and we have to stop him. We don't have time to help you get back one little bauble." Lina chided, and Justin pouted.

"But that's just it. A ruby piece was stolen from my kingdom, the piece of the late Rezo, the Red Priest. It was stolen a year ago….I've been sear….urk!!" he began, then Lina grabbed him by his collar so tightly it cut off his air supply. "You're after Onyx?? The Dark Priest of the late Daggers? So are we! Tell us what you know, have you seen him?" Lina said, then roughly dropped him to the ground.

"Yes….recently, I spotted him in the religious sect picking pockets, the unjust blasphemer he is. I lost sight of him in a really well guarded area. One to the Fire Dragon Lord. Its heavily guarded and they refused to let me in, even when I told them that I was a royal emissary of justice. They booted me out, so I lost him."

"When did you lose him? I can get us in there, we have a certified dragon right here, they'll have to let us in." Lina spouted. Justin positively beamed at her, clasping his hands together with stars forming in his blue eyes. "Oh, happiness. I lost him a few hours ago….he's probably still there. We must hurry, the hand of justice awaits to be slammed into the jaw of the dark priest. May his unholiness tremble at my pure heart. Hah, Hah!" Justin crowed, grabbing Filia by the arm before racing back around the corner.

Lina just shrugged and ran after them, leaving Xellos behind. "Just as corny as his grandmother. What a life. My salvation for the next piece is this loon from Saillune. L-sama, you have an endless sense of humor." Lina muttered, finding that Justin had already tripped five times over Filia's agitated tail.

~ Pyro Blossom Shrine ~

"Yes, Father Daniels, we've been awaiting your arrival. When you sect sent us that nasty letter about not risking your life over a crippled nun, well, we feared the worst until to contacted us personally with your image bubble. You are truly a god to us. Sister Faye has looked forward to walking again since she was a child, she's almost 30 now and we've had no luck. We pray for your success." The elderly priest addressed the brown hair one.

He was rubbing his thick mustache rather too much like villain as he looked at the nun lying in her under garments on the straw bed, but then he just shrugged. "Just leave us be….this won't take very long. Do not come in, not matter how much she….may scream in pain. This is not a pretty cure, but it will work. Trust me. I have never lost a patient." The brunette priest told the elderly one. The old man nodded and scuttled out of the room. The brunette quickly locked the door and pulled out a gag from his beige robes.

"Not yet anyway." He snickered, walking over to the smiling woman, who had not heard his words. The woman had never been able to walk, move her limbs, or let alone crawl. She'd become a nun to be healed, but that didn't work either. No one could help her move her arms or legs at all. The man that stared down at her oddly was her last hope, but she was a bit startled when he tied a gag around her mouth.

"Sorry, but this will be very, very painful, but brief. You have something I want. Something I'm just dying to get out of you….Sister. Flow Break." the man chuckled, his features beginning to fade into darkness. Sister Faye began screaming at the top of her lungs when she saw the young man cloaked all in black with a raven on his shoulder. The man was also holding up a dark sword, the true form of this man replacing the kind priest she'd hoped for. The screams were muffled by the gag, making her heart sink with sadness, thinking the man intended to kill her.

He slit his hand open with the sword instead, putting the sword away before dribbling his warm blood on her stomach, then began to paint a pentagram on her bare stomach. "Don't bite your tongue off….this won't be worth walking again if it only lasts a few seconds," he scolded, then raised his now healed hand up into a fist," I pledge myself to thee, oh lord of the frozen north. I cleanse myself for thee, oh maiden of the deadly seas. I bleed of my free will for thee, oh mistress of the beasts. The dark power unchallenged of thy ruby-eyed king, with a heart of ice and eternal soul, I praise thee, to launch the becoming of the soul! Divine Hand!"

The man thrust his hand hard through her, but the pain was terrible, making her scream and thrash her head about before it suddenly stopped. She looked up to see the man wiping his hand off on her sheets and an oval shaped ruby he was holding. When he was satisfied with how clean it was, he pulled out a golden talisman with similar rubies attached to it. He put the ruby in his hand on the talisman, making them glow for a few moments before he aimed his shrouded head at her. All she could see was a finely sculpted chin and a mouth, nothing more. He was smiling, quite charming in fact. She felt herself blush.

"Ah, ah, ah, none of that, nun. You want to leave, don't do it because of this. I am merely relieving you of the curse of Shabranigdo. He is no longer a part of you, and therefore, you can walk. I say give it some time, your legs and arms are not used to moving, so be patient. You'll be walking around and dancing before your next birthday." He told her, his voice entrancing. He was taking the gag off and using it to wipe off the symbol of blood on her stomach. Then he began backing off as he stuffed the gag within his pocket.

She took him on his words and tried moving her legs. They twitched, for the first time since birth, her legs twitched. She wiggled her toes after a few seconds and smiled, then flexed her fingers. Sister Faye began to cry, but tears of joy that she was finally able to move her limbs and digits after so much failure before. She looked back toward the young man, who was unlocking the door, whispering something through the door in another voice before looking back at her.

"Have a nice life. I know I will. Ah…." He was saying, then his stomach growled," After I clean out the local inn for everything they're worth. Bye." With that, he vanished from her sights, leaving her to enjoy her freedom of movement and to share it with the brothers and priests of her sect.

~ Wyvern Inn ~

Lina wanted to cry, to scream, to hit something, maybe use Dragu Slave right in the middle of town. Filia was not their meal ticket into the sect after all, her being a golden dragon might have helped if she was still a loyal priestess. Xellos chose that very moment to show up and tell the guards outside the Pyro Blossom Shrine.

They had said only holy members were permitted within, so they had to lie about Filia still being a priestess. They all wanted to kill Xellos, especially Justin who not only lost his chance as achieving 'justice,' but upon seeing Xellos' Mazuko eyes he went into an annoying rage filled speech about evil.

The guards had threatened to kick them off their property by force if they kept cursing and fighting in front of their holy building. Lina did the most lady-like and brilliant thing she could think of when they said that, she gave them the finger and ran. At her age, it was allowed, but she had to do something that would bring the wrath of the Fire Dragon Lord down upon her.

A fireball in their faces wasn't exactly the best course of action. Her companions, even Xellos caught up to her in front of the Wyvern Inn where she had chosen to stop. She'd stopped there because she'd smelled food, and lots of it.

"Lina! How can you even think of food at a time like this?" Filia scolded. "Yes, Miss Lina, how unjust to think of oneself and not of the mission at hand." Justin added. Both of them got bops on the head, making Xellos smirk and clap. "Oh cork it, Mazuko. I don't trust you enough to send you in to stop him….you'd probably throw another tantrum and kill the person he was taking the piece out of. And neither of you even caught any of my signals to rush the guards so we could fight our way in. It's a holy shrine, I can't touch it with my magic! I'd be damned more than anything for that." Lina growled.

Xellos just giggled. "Damned if you do, damned if you don't, huh, Lina-chan?" he tittered out, just making Lina fume more. "Its unjust to attack unarmed men or dragons. They only had crosses on staffs, which would disconcerting to touch with my unholy sword." Justin whined, getting a rather pathetic look on his face.

"Oh shove it, Justin of Justice Land. I'm angry and so I'm hungry. Let's grab whatever's fresh in this place and then Xellos here is going to tell us where Onyx is heading. He's probably out of town by now, after all the time those bloody guards wasted for us. He might have all the pieces thanks to those idiots." Lina scowled, walking through the doorway angrily.

Justin shrugged, still looking a bit nervous and upset, with Filia and Xellos trailing and yelling at each other like an angry pair of children. Lina just ignored it as best she could as she walked right up to the bar. "We need a lot of food, real fast. What have you got?" Lina demanded, making her voice and face say to the startled and balding man that she meant business.

"Umm…." He said nervously, looking around, then his face looked happy," Over there. Looks like the guy didn't finish his order. There's tons left at his table. See?" Lina looked in the direction the man was, and her eyes practically fell out of her head when she saw how much food was piled onto the table in the back corner.

Half a turkey, three plates full of steaks, six basted chickens, two large bowls of mashed potatoes, two of rice, three of broccoli, and a few platters of fried fish and lamb chops. "Now this guy is my kind of eater. Thank L-sama his eyes were bigger than his stomach." Lina cooed and ran right at the table and tore into the turkey legs.

The others followed, Justin just staring in amazement while drinking some cider that had been left untouched at the table. He just watched Lina eat, smiling a bit in awe at how fast and how much she could eat. One plate of turkey legs was gone by the time he sat down beside her. Filia was on the other side of Lina, grabbing some cider and a fish platter that Lina wasn't near to eat. Xellos was across the table, sitting with his usual smile at first, then he just didn't stop smiling or open his eyes.

Justin got smacked for trying to grab a chicken from across Lina and then was punched for trying again. He realized then that she had labeled that meal all hers. He grabbed what wasn't near her, as Filia had, a bowl of soy sauce drenched rice.

He looked over at the Mazuko, who had taken a lot for himself, three of the chickens, the other bowl of rice and potatoes, both broccoli bowls, and whatever other fish and turkey meat wasn't being consumed by Lina. Justin didn't think much of it and started to eat his rice, looking up occasionally at the red-headed sorceress his grandmother and mother always talked about, all be how destructive and ravenous Lina Inverse actually was in relation to how his relatives described.

He looked at Filia for a moment, admiring how pretty she was for a golden dragon that was well older than the lot of them. He recalled his grandmother said she had a foster son, Val or something. He'd never met either till now, but wondered how just she was traveling with a Mazuko, he had to wonder about Lina too. The Mazuko was with her too.

'Mazuko are evil, they do not love anything but pain, sadness, lust, death, everything that is against a just life. Why do they travel with such an unjust creature?' he thought, taking another bite of his food. His grandmother had said Mr. Xellos was a strange Mazuko, always fawning over Miss Lina, teasing her and Mr. Zelgadis to no end, as well as he did with Filia. He seemed pretty annoying to him anyway, but then again, he'd done nothing but tease and ruin their plans off and on, like it was an addiction.

Justin looked over to the Mazuko again, his jaw dropping when he saw that half the food he'd had with him had vanished. "How did you eat all of that food, Mr. Xellos? I thought Mazuko didn't need to eat?" Justin asked, the Mazuko's smile never wavering, but he seemed to be sweating. "That's…..gulp…..a secret." He chuckled out, a little less cheerfully than Justin had been associated with.

Justin just eyed him a little longer, then shrugged looking back at his food. He looked back up in an instant to see Xellos handing down a chicken under the table. "Hey!" Justin yelped, standing up," Why are you doing that, Mr. Xellos?"

"Crap…." Was what Justin heard uttered from where the Mazuko sat, a bit stricken looking now, but the voice wasn't his own. His lips hadn't even moved. He waited a second before looking under the table to get the shock of his young life.

There was Onyx, sitting under the table right in front of where Xellos was sitting, his Sword of Light aimed right at Xellos' groin with one hand and in the other was a cooked chicken that had been stripped to the bone.

The dark priest turned his head towards the young prince, startling him yet again with his charming, malicious smile. "You again! You little ant of justice! You ruined my lunch!" Onyx grumbled, launching the chicken bones at Justin's face, hitting him right on target.

~

Lina had less that five seconds to process the conversation Justin was having with Xellos and the new voice from under the table. Enough time to shove the rest of the turkey leg meat down her throat before bursting out of her chair. Filia followed her actions just in time to see Xellos fly out of his chair and into the bar, Onyx coming out from under the table. Instead of laughing or firing spell at them, he just tapped his foot at them, his head aimed down in dismay.

"You ate my lunch! Now I'll have to wait till dinner to eat again! I hope you're happy, you justice brat!" Onyx grumbled, sounding like he was about to cry over the entire thing. He didn't cry, rather he took the last bowl of rice left, the one Justin had been eating, and devoured it in a few seconds. "That might tide me over….little brat. I need the ruby more than you, you pansy." Onyx roared, not even getting a speck of food on his chin or clothing.

'And I thought I had a temper about food. Wait, he's our enemy, this is no time to debate over food!' Lina thought, clenching her fist in Onyx's direction, and the raven she saw perched on his right shoulder. "Who cares if you're hungry?! So am I, buster, but that's not the point. Hand over that talisman or else!" Lina growled.

That got Onyx laughing. "What are you going to do, blow your friends up just to blow me up and get this cherry little bauble? Nah, an Inverse wouldn't do that to anyone. Unless of course her friends got out of town before you Dragu Slaved the place to death. That'll get you bonus points out here, yeah. Lots of them. Go ahead, I'll wait, hit me with your best shot." He chuckled, backing up only a step before spreading his arms apart to invite a spell.

Lina shrugged and threw a fireball at him. He smiled as he put up a wind shield and let it melt right off him. "I said you could hit me with you best shot, I never said I wouldn't defend myself. Get with the program….Argh!" he was saying, then Lina saw a staff had jabbed him in the back, making him fall forward. When Onyx tried getting up, his bird still perched firmly on his shoulder, a staff and two swords greeted his back with their points. Only then did he stay still, his lips sneering when the staff kept prodding him.

"Xellos, quit it. This is over now. Hand over the talisman, Onyx, if you value your life. I'm in no mood for your crap." Zelgadis said crisply. Onyx shook his head, and that was it. Val gave him a poke in the rear, making Onyx skid away a bid, still on all fours and staring at the floor. "He said hand it over. We won't let you destroy the world." Val said vehemently angrily.

"Can't we just reason with him, dear fellows? As a champion of Justice, I must insist we take him back alive to stand trial for his crimes. It wouldn't be right to kill him without due process. Please Onyx, you are a villain and evil one at that, you know good always triumphs over evil so please give up quietly. Do the right thing." Justin proclaimed, looking rather silly to everyone since he still had the entire dead chicken of bones on his head.

"What planet are you from? Justice? I spit on your justice….my justice will come when I succeed," Onyx said mockingly, standing up between the three men and the dumb looking prince," Evil always loses? I beg to differ, evil triumphs as equally and if not more often than good. The world is full of evil, the evil that took my family and friends from me! There's your stinking justice, the world is cruel, and I'm fighting back. I'll do whatever it takes to do it, brat!"

"Spare us, Onyx, give up the pendant or you'll be subjected to a fate worse than death. Though you could spare yourself great humiliation of failure and become a Mazuko like me and serve my mistress. Trust me, we never go back on our word. You'd be a welcome addition, even more so with that talisman. Xellas could protect you indefinitely to regain the other pieces, hmm? Sound good?" Xellos said cheerfully, smiling with his amethyst eyes open and narrowed.

"What, and be a fruitcake like you? Hah, I'll pass. I won't lose, without your help I will not lose. You damned, lying sack of raw garbage….there is no glory in being Xellas' Mazuko, you pack of uncivilized, molesting fiends….I've had enough your talk," Onyx grated," Source of all souls which dwell in eternal and infinite. Everlasting flame of blue, let the power hidden in my soul be called forth from the Infinite...RA-TILT!"

Xellos just stood still while Onyx was casting, and Lina thought he must have a lot of balls for doing it or he was totally insane. Ra-Tilt was as powerful a shamanism spirit spell as her Dragu Slave was for black magic, and it was know the spirit spell could destroy a pure Mazuko. Then, to her astonishment, she saw why Xellos had been still. He made a slight finger wag once the middle of the chant had been reached and then teleported out and teleported Val in his place once Ra-Tilt had been uttered.

"NO!" Onyx cried, vanished from his spot once the blue-flame spell left his hands and slammed himself into Val a moment later to take the spell in the back. "Onyx!" she cried out, involuntarily of course. It had just been a terrible shock to see their enemy saving one of their lives and get blasted out screaming from the building. Xellos' eyes were wide with shock for once, the action to puzzle a Mazuko was quite a feat indeed.

The one eye Lina could see on Zelgadis' face was bulging too, mostly from Xellos action. His jaw dropped when Onyx sacrificed himself for Val. Filia was attending to a very stunned Val, who was looking out to where Onyx had been flung. "He's dead….He died to protect an enemy?" Val was mumbling, staring at the prone, black clad body laying facedown in the streets. People were starting to huddle around the body. Soon no one in the group could see past all the people just flocking towards the prone form.

"Xellos, you namagomi, bastard! You tried to kill my son!" Filia screamed, too angry and hurt to beat Xellos to death, too afraid that he'd try and hurt Val again if she left he son's side. "Oh please, better him than me. I have a life. Val's just an ancient dragon swordsman. Not many Xellos Metallium's around, Filia-chan. Onyx saved him….what a foolish sacrifice, but he saved him. Killed two birds with one thrown. Yuck….what a waste of bird too. Poor little raven." Xellos said as cheerful as ever, jamming his staff on the dead raven's head.

"Never mind that, fruitcake. Let's go get the talisman before someone steals it and give the body a proper burial. He did save Val." Zelgadis pointed out softly, stepping past them all and out the door. He disappeared into the crowds after that.

Lina helped Filia pick up Val and throw dirty glares at Xellos while Justin yanked the chicken skeleton off his head, yanking pieces of grease and gristle our of his black hair. Then a hoarse sounding yell pierced the air, one that send the entire crowd about Onyx's body run for cover.

Lina saw Zelgadis and only Zelgadis standing where Onyx's body should have been, but it wasn't. No blood, no clothing, only the imprint his body had made upon landing. Onyx had eluded them again. "How….Ra-Tilt attacks the spirit. Not even Mazuko can survive that spell. What is he?" Lina shuddered, looking to her friends pale faces, not getting a single answer.

To Be Continued….