Zelgadis’ head was swimming. Sometimes it felt like he was made of rubber and stretched into bizarre shapes in all directions. Then he’d have a few moments of almost painful clarity before the gooey feeling set in again. He stumbled once or twice but was able to stay upright and keep Sylph on his back, though only just barely.
        "Maybe you should rest for a few seconds," Sylph suggested in a frightened voice. Every time Zel got one of his "rubbery" feelings, Sylph felt it as an alarming ripple in his aura. For a few, scary instants, he became something else—something dark, like a black hole that threatened to suck in her life force. Then the feeling would be gone, and Zelgadis would gasp and miss a step. "It won’t hurt our time—"
        "No!" He snapped back more harshly than he’d intended. "Can’t…something’s here…with us…we have to keep…running!"
        Sylph squeezed her eyes shut tight and started praying to gods she hadn’t addressed since she was a child. "Something’s here, alright," Sylph thought to herself shakily, "and it’s name is Zelgadis!" Zel stumbled again and lost his grip on one of her legs. Sylph yelped and wrapped her legs around his middle with all her might. "Zel, I really think you should slow down before you drop me!"
        "I said ‘no’!" Zel growled. "I can make it! Just hold on!"
        "Stubborn sonnova bitch…" Sylph muttered through frightened tears. If he dropped her at his current speed, she was sure to sprain something if not break a thing or two. And that awful feeling of impending doom and cloying darkness was spreading outward from Zelgadis, into the cavern and waking up things that were best left napping, Sylph was sure of it. There was nothing but evil in this place, dark things that were happy to leave people like herself and Zelgadis alone as long they weren’t disturbed. "Please, Zel?" Sylph sobbed when Zel lost his footing again and almost went tumbling, but he refused to slow down. She buried her face in his neck and prayed harder.
        All at once, Zelgadis screamed and collapsed. Sylph was just able to leap free as he went down in a high speed tumble, sending her in one direction while he rolled in the other. "Zel-ga-dissss!" She shrieked as she skidded on stone, tearing her dress and the skin off her left side, then the ground disappeared from under her. Sylph screamed again and scrambled arms and legs, trying to find something to break her fall. Finally, her right hand got purchase on a piece of rock and was quickly joined by her left hand, only to have the rock come loose from its moorings. Sylph dug her fingers into the rock face as she fell, tearing her fingernails out and peeling the skin off her belly and knees. "Zelgadis!" She shrieked, then choked when her hands got a grip on something that didn’t come loose, breaking her fall with bone-jarring suddenness. Sylph struggled to dig her toes into the rock, as well, to secure her position but every time she thought she’d found a toe hold, it would crumble away, so she just clung by her ruined fingers and sobbed, feeling the blood trickle from what was left of her stinging flesh. Gods, she felt like she was on fire. "Zelgadis! Are you alive?! Zelgadis! Answer me!"
        Her cries were met with oppressive silence.
        "You better not be dead…" Sylph squinted dirty tears out of her eyes and wished she could get a hand free to rub them. "ZELGADIS!" Was that a groan? Sylph strained her ears to hear past the roar of her blood rushing through them, but the sound wasn’t repeated if it had even been there in the first place. "Zel? Answer me! I’m down here!"
        Nothing but echoes.
        "Shit," Sylph grumbled. She pressed her face against the cool stone and fought frustrated tears. "Ok, foxy-fox," she coached herself gamely, "you gotta crawl out of this stupid hole. Hand over hand…" Putting action to words, however, wasn’t so easy. Every time she lifted one hand, the other lost purchase, and she slid a few inches deeper into the hole. "And where did this stupid hole come from?!" She cursed. As far as she could remember, there shouldn’t have been a hole, or even a big crack in the ground, so close to the path. Unless they’d somehow gotten off course. Hard to tell in the dark at such high speeds. Sylph gave up on trying to climb out and just lay still for awhile, hoping to hear some sign of Zelgadis. "What if he fell into a hole, too?" She wondered miserably. What if he fell into a hole, hit his head and was unconscious? Or dead. Sylph found she was in too much pain for that worst case scenario to really mean anything to her, beyond the fact that Zelgadis being unconscious or dead meant she didn’t have to yell for him anymore, which hurt like hell, anyway. No, he wasn’t dead: She could still feel his black-hole aura from somewhere overhead. It was steady now, not pulsing as it had been when they were running. Logic dictated that he was probably, therefore, not moving.
        With a feeble grunt, Sylph tried climbing again, only to skid farther into the hole. "Zelgadis! Answer me!" Nothing. Maybe her magic was working again? She struggled through her pain-muddled mind to remember the calculations for a light spell, but it was no use. Sylph could tell the power just wasn’t there to be used. Dammit! And there was Zelgadis leaching power like a frickin’ geyser! Sylph contemplated the consequences of trying to tap into Zelgadis’ mysterious dark power, weighed her soul against her need to get out of that hole…and decided it wasn’t worth the risk. She didn’t know what kind of power it was that was consuming Zelgadis, only that it was evil and more powerful than anything she’d previously encountered. Instead of lending her strength, it could do just the opposite and kill her in the process. No, hanging around in a hole was certainly better than any of that.
        A sudden scraping sound from above made Sylph’s ears pricked hopefully. She waited for what seemed to be an interminable time for the noise to be repeated, then it was, coupled with a miserable groan. "ZELGADIS!"
        There was a moan, then Zelgadis’ weak voice coughed her name. Sylph burst into elated tears. "Zelgadis! I’m over here! Can you move?"
        Scrape, groan. Expletive. "Barely *cough* . You?"
        Sylph never thought she could be so happy to hear anybody’s voice. "I’ve fallen down a hole that isn’t supposed to be here," she called back in a feeble attempt at humor, "I’m bleeding everywhere and my dress is toast, but other than that, I’m just rosy."
        "Glad to…hear it. I take it you’re stuck?"
        "I’ve tried climbing *pant-cough* but can’t get a good enough grip and just fall farther down."
        Pause, then: "I’ll try to get to you," he groaned; from the other sounds that came to Sylph in the pit, he was dragging himself in the direction of her voice. "Keep talking."
        "I don’t know how far I’ve fallen," Sylph told him, as much to give him information as a voice beacon to lead him to her. "You might not be able to reach me down here."
        "We’ll deal with that when I get there," he grunted back. "Don’t stop talking."
        She never thought she’d hear that command out of anybody, especially not him. Naturally, now that she needed to babble like an idiot, she couldn’t think of a damn thing to say, so she ran through the multiplication tables. Just as well educate the man, even if it drove him nuts.
        It did. "Gods, Sylph, does it have to be math? I hate math!"
        "Why? What did math ever do to you?" Sylph shot back as kiddingly as she could under the circumstances. "It’s the basis of everything in the universe. There’s nothing that exists, or potentially exists, or theoretically exists that can’t be expressed with an equation!"
        He didn’t sound like he was buying that one. "Oh, yeah?" Grunt, drag, scrape. He was almost there. "What’s my equation, then?"
        "2+2=5," she chuckled. The chuckle abruptly turned into gagging, and she coughed up a mouthful of blood and bile. Sylph sobbed.
        "Sylph?!" He cried out worriedly, realizing what had happened from the sickening sounds she made.
        She sniffled and spit out the rest of the muck in her mouth. "I’m not so good, Zel. How close are you? Can you tell?"
        Just then, Zelgadis’ hand crumbled the edge of the pit, sending a shower of debris onto the stranded kitsune’s head. Zel lay flat on his belly and reached his right arm down as far as he could and swung it around, hoping to connect with Sylph; no luck. "Can you reach up a hand?"
        Very carefully, Sylph loosed her right hand, leaving her left to cling to the palm-sized outcropping that was keeping her from falling who-knew-how-far into the pit. Ignoring the blazing pain that racked her body, she stretch her arm straight up. "Ok, I’m reaching," she told him.
        Zelgadis swung his arm very slowly, brushing his hand against the rock face until at last his fingertips connected with soft, wet flesh that was abruptly jerked away with a painful yelp, then returned. He inched closer, straining his arm as far as it would go but still couldn’t do more than touch fingertips with his stranded companion, so he withdrew to think about the problem. "Put your arm back down while I think about this," he advised. From the feel of her fingers, Sylph was even more beat up than he was—and that awful gagging. She was bleeding inside, no doubt, in her stomach or lungs, if not both. Still, without magic, there was no way to get her out of the pit other than to drag her wounded body over all that rock. Furthermore, his non-magical first aid skills were practically non-existent. He hadn’t felt this helpless in years. No magic, no rope, no light. He assumed Sylph had lost their makeshift torch when she fell. Then all at once, Zel groaned: He could make his own torch from his clothes, sword and flint and steel! That was the second time he’d overlooked the mundane answer to the light problem and he was starting to feel pretty stupid about it. "I’m making another torch," he called down to Sylph, "it’ll only take a second! I promise!" In his battered state, it actually took him a few minutes but he finally got his cloak wrapped around the blade of his sword and lit using his flint and steel.
        Light flickered around him and down into the hole. Sylph shut her eyes against the glare and tried to ignore his shock at seeing her condition. "Yeah, yeah, it’s bad, I know! Can you get me out of here?! Oh, gods…" She choked and threw up blood again.
        Her tearful eyes and blood smeared face crushed Zel’s stomach in a vice. He held the torch farther down into the pit and was surprised to discover it wasn’t as deep as Sylph had assumed it to be in the darkness. In fact, if she would let go, she could probably drop to the bottom without injuring herself further. "Sylph," Zel said carefully, "look down."
        "What? Why?" She looked down as she spoke and started crying again. "That still doesn’t get me out of here!"
        Zelgadis sighed. "But you won’t have to dangle and hurt your insides any more than they already are! Sylph, it’ll only hurt for a second, then it’ll be over, alright? It’s better than hanging."
        Sylph thought about it a moment longer and realized he was right. The floor of the pit was only a foot or two below her feet--and she didn’t think her legs were broken, so landing shouldn’t be too bad. She braced herself but instead of just dropping, she slid very slowly until her feet touched the ground, then she let go of the rock face and promptly collapsed and puked blood and gore all over the floor. She spit, then looked up to find Zelgadis easing his legs over the side of the pit. "What are you doing, you idiot?" She croaked. He ignored her and dropped down beside her, sidestepping the puddle she’d just made.
        He didn’t look a whole lot better than she did as he rested his back against the rock, one shaking hand keeping the torch aloft. His stone hide was chipped and torn and bloodied, as were his clothes, which only just covered a wicked-looking ding in his left shin and a pair of gashes on his chest. His left eyelid sagged beneath a bloody abrasion that covered most of that side of his face, and his nose was bleeding and looked like it might be broken. But he could stand, which was more than Sylph thought she could do. "Well," he started dryly, "now that I’m down here, my idea for getting us both out doesn’t sound as good as it did when I was up there."
        Sylph’s eyes bugged but she didn’t have the strength to berate him for what she saw as his stupid, arrogant, bone-headed heroics.
        He sank to the ground, pulled his legs up to his chest, held the sword-torch with two hands and rested his arms atop his knees. "I thought I might be able to climb out of here with you on my back, since I’m in better condition than you are," he volunteered raggedly and shook his head. "Maybe after I’ve rested a little while."
        It was then that Sylph noticed he was no longer giving off bad vibes. "You feel…" she started, but he shook his head to quiet her.
        "I know. It’s gone. Whatever it was." Zel gently tapped her hip with the tip of one of his boots and attempted a reassuring smile that only managed to look a notch or two above gruesome on his ravaged face. "Rest a few minutes, then we’ll figure out how we’re going to get out of here."
        Sylph no longer had the strength or the will to argue with him and in a few seconds, she’d passed out from the pain and loss of blood.

        Amelia slept soundly, fully Human again, a pale, disheveled Urlich collapsed on the bed next to her, having been too weak to get to his own room, and Zhara being unwilling to carry him there. The vampire Jaz had disappeared as soon as Urlich’s work was finished. Gourry had wandered off to his room, and Zhara to the basement to await Zel’s and Sylph’s arrival, leaving Lina crashed out in the chair, thinking unpleasant thoughts but especially worrying about Zelgadis. Visions of his temper when he finally joined them in Marrigan had kept her awake when the others in the house (except Jaz, of course) wanted nothing but sleep. Zel was sullen and ill-tempered on a good day and unapproachable on any other kind of day. Speak the name of Rezo, and Zelgadis would either fly into a rage or sink into a bottomless depression. After this latest prank of Xellos’, Lina feared Zelgadis would actually go over the top and become suicidal, if he hadn’t done himself in already. Zhara seemed convinced Zelgadis was alive and on his way to Marrigan through a secret cavern in the company of Sylph the kitsune. Perhaps sending a kitsune after Zel wasn’t one of Zhara’s brighter ideas, Lina thought to herself. From what she knew of fox spirits, they made the trickster priest look like a rank amateur. On the bright side, if Sylph was irritating enough, dealing with her might just take Zel’s mind off his bigger problem. Or, it could get Sylph killed. Lina put her money on option #2.
        She closed her eyes and sighed. Poor Zel. He had all these people who cared about him, even loved him in Amelia’s case, and the one person whose affection he returned was nothing more than a cruel illusion created by one of his most hated enemies. An enemy who had murdered, or at least plotted the murder, of the innocent woman upon whom the illusion was based. What had Zelgadis done to the Metalliums that they’d go after him like that? Since they’d foiled Xellos’ plan, Lina hoped the trickster priest would leave Zel alone, but a nagging voice in her gut told her it wasn’t over yet. Xellos and his boss had something else up their sneaky sleeves, she was sure of it—but what? Was she next on their list? Was the whole thing with Zelgadis an attempt to get to her for being a Dark Lord slayer? Maybe they were worried the Lord of Nightmares would use her against them sometime. Lina shivered at the thought of being possessed by L-Sama again. She had no memory of the experience, but her friends had told her what had happened in great, frightened, detail. Even Zelgadis had been badly shaken by what he’d seen, and poor Amelia had been almost apoplectic.
        "Lina?" Gourry’s sleepy, hushed voice startled her out of her thoughts. He leaned in the crack between the partly open door and the door jamb. From his messy hair, Lina guessed he’d been tossing and turning in his bed. "Sorry. I didn’t mean to wake you up."
        "That’s ok," Lina yawned and stretched, "I wasn’t sleeping. I was thinking about Zelgadis. I have a nasty feeling Xellos isn’t through with us yet."
        Gourry made a worried noise and frowned. "I wonder what he wants."
        "That seems to be the million gold piece question," she rubbed her eyes, suddenly realizing she was incredibly tired. What a day. "I thought you’d gone to bed. What’s the matter? Can’t you sleep?"
        He shrugged. "I’m worried about Zel. I hope he’s ok." Almost as an after thought, he added guiltily: "And Sylph, too. I wonder when they’ll get here."
        Lina dragged herself out of the chair, crossed the room, pushed him through the door ahead of her and softly closed the door behind them. "Zhara thinks sometime tonight, unless they get into trouble."
        "That would never happen," Gourry snorted. Trouble seemed to follow Zelgadis like smoke followed fire. "Do you think we should wait up for them?"
        "That’s what Zhara’s doing, remember?" Lina told him, for once not sounding cross that he’d forgotten something important. "I think she’s camped out in the basement."
        They passed Lina’s door, but Lina showed no interest in going in. "Um, Lina…?"
        "I don’t want to be alone in this creepy place with Xellos’ kids," she grumbled, not taking her eyes off the carpet. "Do you mind?"
        He slipped his arm around her shoulders and replied in a suggestive voice: "What do you think?"
        Lina shook her head and rolled her eyes. She elbowed Gourry jokingly in the ribs.. "That’s not what I meant, you big sex fiend! I’m really tired."
        Gourry’s shoulders slumped. "Oh."
        "You’re not mad, are you?" Lina asked hesitantly.
        He hastened to reassure her that he wasn’t. "It’s ok, Lina, really. I’d never make you do anything you didn’t want to. I love you, remember?"
        Maybe he’d get some, after all, Lina mused, but just as they were about to enter Gourry’s room, Zhara came pounding up the stairs with a look Lina could almost swear was fear. "Zhara, what’s wrong?!" Lina demanded as Xellos’ daughter grabbed her by the elbow and started dragging her back to Amelia’s room. "Hey!"
        "I hope you weren’t planning to go to bed," Zhara growled, "’cause we’ve got big trouble and we’re gonna need all the magic we can get our hands on—fast!"
        "Zelgadis," Gourry said as he tagged along behind the women, only half meaning it as a question. What else could be going wrong, now that Amelia was cured? Unless…"Or is Xellos here?!"
        "It’s Zel, isn’t it?" Lina moaned. "Sylph was too late."
        Zhara hustled them into Amelia’s room, dashed around to the far side of the bed and started furiously shaking her brother. "C’mon, Url, the world’s ending, wake up! Gourry, cut these ropes, now!"
        "The world’s—" Gourry started loudly, but Zhara cut him off with an angry gesture and a very serpent-like hiss. "But, I don’t have a knife!" He protested.
        "Here." Zhara pulled one out of Url’s boot and tossed it over the bed. Gourry snatched it out of the air and started sawing at Amelia’s bonds. "Come on, Url!" She gave up on shaking him and instead pulled Urlich off the bed and let the floor wake him up.
        Which he did with an angry roar. "What the fu--?! Oh, shit…" Urlich’s anger turned quickly to fear. The magic protecting Zhara’s house was gone. The whole place was exposed, accessible to anybody through all the doors to all the many planes between which the house sat. The front door, the "normal" door, opened on Marrigan—the weirdest, most dangerous city in the world—at its most active time of day: Nighttime. Urlich got two fistfuls of coverlet and used them to drag himself to his knees but that was as far as he could get before falling back onto his butt where he sat, trembling, while Zhara tried to rouse Amelia, and Gourry tried to return Urlich’s knife to him. He didn’t even have the strength to ask how Gourry had gotten one of his daggers, nor even to care. They had far worse things to worry about. "Zhara, where’s Dad?"
        "How the hell should I know?!" The bandit snapped back, then realized what her brother was really asking her. "I don’t sense him but I can only reach so far."
        "Can’t you use a crystal ball to locate him?" Lina asked incredulously. "I mean, he is your father, I’d think you could find him using a crystal! Hell, I can do that and I’m not even relate..ted…to…um…*ahem*…" Zhara, Urlich and Gourry glared at her. "I’ll get my crystal ball and try."
        "You do that," Zhara grumbled as Lina ran to her room to fetch her crystal, then she returned her attention to waking Amelia. Unfortunately, it was looking like waking the dead would be easier. "Gods, Url, what’d you do to her?"
        Urlich was having another go at getting off the floor, meanwhile. This time, he was able to get onto the edge of the bed for all of half a second before starting to slide off. Gourry caught him by the collar and pulled him back onto the bed.
        "Url?" Zhara prompted.
        Urlich shook his head to clear out the cobwebs. "Sleep spell," he explained. "Keep your panties on, I’ll get it in a second!"
        Zhara’s sigh sounded more like a growl. "No, Url—NOW! We don’t have time for you to jack around!"
        Urlich whirled on her in a rage, suddenly very much awake. "’Jack around’?! After all I’ve done for you in the—"
        Zhara held up her hands defensively. "Fine. Sorry. That was out of line. My bad."
        Blink. Blink. "Right…" Suspicious of his sister’s willingness to back down so quickly, Urlich hesitated. "What’s going on, sister?"
        Zhara glared meaningfully at the snoozing Princess and refused to answer before Urlich woke her up. With a irritated look, Urlich waved a casual hand at Amelia, sending a puff of golden smoke into her face. Amelia’s nose twitched and her face wrinkled up, then her whole body jerked with a sneeze that just about blew Urlich onto the floor again. "There," he growled at Zhara, "she’s awake. Now what’s going on?"
        Before she could answer, Lina charged back into the room and held her crystal ball aloft for all to see with a triumphant smirk that quickly evaporated when she saw the looks on the faces of the other people in the room. "*ahem* Um…I’ll find Xellos, ‘kay?"
        Something changed…a ripple of magic washed over the house, then settled. Zhara held up her hand. "Wait." She cocked her head, a puzzled expression on her face. "It’s back!" She exclaimed, at the same time Urlich said: "That was too weird!"
        "What’s back?" Lina and Gourry demanded. Amelia was too busy rubbing her eyes and figuring out where she was and why there was a guy who looked like Xellos sitting on her bed (and why everyone seemed to be ok with that) to pay attention to what was being said. And who was that horned woman…?
        Zhara’s pointy ears twitched and her eyes narrowed. She and Urlich exchanged nervous looks: "Very odd, indeed…" Zhara said.
        ‘"WHAT’S ODD?!" Lina and Gourry shouted at her, sending Amelia into a fit of frightened whimpers. "This had better be good…" Lina added with a menacing snarl. Amelia dove under the covers.
        "The wards on this house," Zhara explained impatiently, as if they should have sensed the same thing she and her brother had. "they were gone, now they’re back."
        Urlich raised an eyebrow, no longer mad about being tossed out of bed (literally). "Most disturbing. Theories?"
        Zhara nodded. "Something I sensed in the basement," she began ominously, taking each of them in with her dragon eyes. "I felt a powerful, dark presence coming from the cavern just before the wards disappeared. I’m not su—"
        "That’s where Zel is!" Gourry interrupted, and was harshly shooshed by Lina. "Well, it is…"
        "Right," Zhara agreed, not seeming to mind his rudeness, "that cavern. I’ve never felt anything like it before, even in L-Sama’s presence—the Lord of Nightmares, I mean," she added quickly, before Gourry could ask who she meant by L-Sama. "There was nothing, then all of a sudden—BAM!—" she struggled to find the right words to describe what she’d felt but couldn’t. "I can’t explain it. It was just…really, really bad and had the protection spells on this house unraveled before I could do anything to stop it—if I even could stop it. The wards came back as soon as it disappeared a second ago."
        Urlich picked a sleep booger out of the corner of one of his eyes and yawned. "This is not good," he said through the yawn and picked a booger out of his other eye. He reached down to scratch his bum in a most undignified manner for a man who was usually so meticulous about the way he appeared to others. "Think Dad had anything to do with it?"
        Zhara shrugged, but before she could answer, Amelia resurfaced and meekly asked who "dad" might be. Lina snapped: "Xellos. They’re his kids: Zhara and Urlich. Don’t you remember anything?"
        Amelia clutched the covers up to her chin and shook her head, wide-eyed and pale.
        Gourry rolled his eyes. "You were a vampire, but Urlich saved you."
        "I—I was a v-v-vampire?!" Gourry nodded. Amelia looked like she might cry. "I didn’t…bite anybody, did I?"
        Lina sighed. "No, you didn’t bite anybody. You’re fine now. The same old Amelia we all know and love."
        "Thanks to Urlich," Zhara added pointedly.
        The Princess gulped and made a feeble attempt at looking polite and grateful in Urlich’s direction. He yawned and gave her a "whatever" wave. Amelia gulped again and whispered to Lina: "He looks just like Xellos, Miss Lina…"
        "No shit," Urlich grouched, "and you look like one of those insipid dolls they give away at festivals. You didn’t even make a convincing vampire."
        "Knock it off, Url," Zhara growled at him, "we have more important things to deal with right now."
        "Yeah," he snorted, "like me getting some rest so I can be worth a shit next time this darkness thing rips our wards!" To emphasize his point, Urlich twisted around on his butt, lay back down next to Amelia, folded his hands on his middle and closed his eyes. Amelia jumped out of bed and hid behind Gourry, who looked disgusted. Urlich smirked and moved to the middle of the bed. "Keep talking, Zhar’. I promise to listen until I fall asleep. There was this dark presence…" he prompted.
        Zhara closed her eyes, balled fists trembling with rage at her sides as she tried to marshal her self-control. "You know, Url, sometimes you can be a real prick."
        "Every chance I get," Urlich retorted sweetly, "but what does that have to do with the problem at hand, hm? You felt the evil force in the cavern, through which are travelling Sylph and whatsisname—Zagilders?"
        "Zelgadis," Amelia corrected in a meek voice.
        "Whatever. And Daddy and Zellas are unusually keen on getting their hands on this Zelgadis, yes?" Zhara nodded impatiently, but Urlich kept his eyes closed and didn’t see it. And yet, he rambled on on the assumption that everyone agreed with him. Anyway, he hadn’t made his point. "So, what if this mysterious ‘dark power’ is coming from Zelgadis? That would explain Daddy’s interest in him, wouldn’t it? Imagine the fine weapon Zelgadis would make if Dad and that fruitcake he works for could control him…"
        The others considered that for a few, dreadful moments, but it didn’t add up with Zhara. "He didn’t have any magic in him when we met—"
        "—but Rezo changed him, remember?" Lina interrupted thoughtfully. "Gourry, remember when we fought the first Kopii in Sairaag? He had all of Rezo's power. The copy of the copy had practically no power at all, so Rezo's power must have passed to Zelgadis!" She smacked her fist into her palm, eyes aglitter as she ran with Urlich’s theory. "And when we faced Rezo in his tower, before he revived Shabrinigdo, he was able to control Zel and make him attack us!"
        "I don’t follow," Gourry confessed, scratching his head.
        Amelia nudged him in the back. "I do! What she’s saying is: Rezo put a lot of his power into Zelgadis when he made him! And maybe now that all the copies are dead, the power that was in them went to Zelgadis, too!"
        "And Shabranigdo’s power…" Zhara gasped. Urlich’s eyes shot open and he gave her a look that could melt ice. Zhara hastened to defend her theory: "It’s possible, isn’t it? Wasn’t Shabranigdo hiding in Rezo’s eyes at the time he put the spell on Zelgadis?" She looked to Lina for confirmation; Lina nodded.
        Urlich groaned and covered his face with his hands. "Please tell me you’re not suggesting this old friend of yours is becoming a Dark Lord."
        Lina and Zhara slumped down on the edge of the bed and stared blankly at the wooden floor. Gourry was still scratching his head and trying to get his brain around the idea of Zelgadis playing ball in the same league as people like Shabranigdo, Phibrizio and Zellas Metallium. Amelia, oddly, wasn’t nearly as stunned as the rest of the group. Coming out from behind Gourry, she shook her fist and boldly declared: "Zelgadis could never be a Dark Lord! He’s one of the good guys!"
        "Oh, that was profound," Urlich muttered in disgust.
        "Define ‘good guys’," Zhara added under her breath. By her definition, she was one of the good guys, no matter who’s side she was on or who she was working for at the time.
        Lina rubbed the bridge of her nose, suddenly beginning to develop what she liked to call an Amelia-graine. "Amelia," she ground out tersely, "try to catch a clue, ok?! Rezo was ‘one of the good guys’—one of your heroes, if I recall correctly—and he turned into a Dark Lord!"
        "No he didn’t," Amelia argued primly. "Shabranigdo was hiding in Rezo’s eyes—a totally separate entity from Rezo. When Shabranigdo manifested, he killed Rezo. So, Rezo didn’t become a Dark Lord, he was killed by one."
        "So, what you’re saying is," Gourry interjected, "that Zelgadis isn’t becoming a Dark Lord, there’s one hiding inside him, like with Rezo, and when that Dark Lord comes out, he’ll kill Zelgadis?"
        Suddenly Amelia didn’t look quite as thrilled with her idea as she had been a moment before. "Well, I—um…I don’t know," she stammered, eyes brimming with frightened tears. "What if it’s another piece of Shabranigdo? How many were there, anyway?"
        "Seven," Lina, Zhara and Urlich replied at the same time. "I think there are three left, or something like that," Lina added wearily.
        "So Zel could have a piece of Shabranigdo in him?" Gourry asked. The others nodded. "Ok, so tell me one other thing: Who’s Shabranigdo? And why is he in pieces?"
        Gasp. Amelia fell flat on her face, Zhara collapsed back onto her brother. Lina gaped. Urlich just chuckled in disbelief. "He’s kidding, right?"
        "No, Url," Lina moaned, "he’s really that dumb."
        Gourry looked as innocent as ever. "What?"
        Lina’s face turned bright red as she launched herself at her erstwhile lover. "Grrrrrr! You helped me and Zel fight and kill Shabranigdo, you moron!" She screamed at him, then pummeled him senseless, breaking her be-nice-to-Gourry streak after only one day. "I can’t believe you don’t remember that! We almost got killed!"
        In a heap on the floor, Gourry rolled his big, blue eyes thoughtfully ceiling-ward as he sucked on one of his fingers. Then the lights went on in his attic. "Oh! That’s when your hair turned white! I remember now!"
        "That’s what you remember?" Lina raged. Amelia quickly leapt in to keep her from killing their friend, but Lina just bullied on and beat Gourry around the Princess, who whimpered and pleaded for her to calm down and please not hit her. "You remember my hair turned white but you don’t remember fighting one of the most powerful Dark Lords ever?! How can you be such an idiot?!"
        Finally, Zhara got hold of Lina’s hips and pulled her back onto the bed. Lina tried to get up again, but Amelia jumped on top of her, and Urlich grabbed a fistful of her hair. "Calm down, or you’re bald," he warned and tugged her hair to show he meant it. Lina lay very still while she cursed them all to every horrible fate she could think of and accused them of ganging up on her. "I’m too tired to deal with this," Urlich complained. "Either make a point, or get out of here and let me sleep! Is Zelgadis becoming a Dark Lord, being taken over by a Dark Lord, or is he being chased around the cavern by a disappearing Dark Lord? Or…" Urlich held up a finger to make what he thought was an even more profound point, "is Sylph the one with the problem?"
        Lina carefully turned her head to give Zhara an expectant look. "I thought she was just a kitsune?"
        Zhara shook her head. "It’s not Sylph," she said quite definitely. "It would—" Zhara cut herself off in mid-sentence, her heart in her throat. "It would kill her…" she finished hollowly. "Oh gods, Url…the power disappeared that suddenly…you don’t think—"
        Urlich let go of Lina’s hair and patted his sister’s back with uncharacteristic tenderness. "No, Zhar’, I don’t think it’s Sylph. I can still feel her. She’s alive and she’s—" he paused. Now that he actually tried to verify his former lover’s existence, something didn’t feel right at all.
        Zhara turned on him with a panicked look on her face. "She’s what?!"
        "She doesn’t have any magic…" Urlich told her slowly. "I can’t feel her magic, Zhar’. I can feel her life force, but nothing else." Suddenly his eyes blazed and he sat up with a ferocious snarl. "That son of a bitch drained her magic!" He was out of bed and headed out of the room before anyone could even think of stopping him. "Dammit! Why didn’t I kill him when I had the chance?" Urlich cursed as he stomped down the hall. "I’ll feed him his balls on a platter…"
        Such threats against her beloved propelled Amelia down the hall after him, wearing her "warrior of justice" face and looking ready to kick some Xellos-spawned ass if it so much as scratched Zelgadis. Lina and Gourry knew that look too well and caught the crusading Princess by the arms just in time to keep her from ripping off one of Urlich’s appendages. Oblivious to the tussle going on behind him, Urlich stripped down to his bikini underwear, much to his visitors’ mortification, then amusement. He then proceeded to rifle through a tall, gorgeously-carved wardrobe in search of his "hunting clothes", as he angrily described them. That only fed the fire of Amelia’s righteous anger. "I won’t let you kill him!" She screamed as she broke free of her captors and tackled the mostly-naked Urlich just as he got his hands on the pants to his "hunting clothes". Lina and Gourry rushed to pull Amelia off of him, but Urlich was too fast and had the Princess hog tied, using his pants as restraints, in record time. Triumphant, he jumped up and pumped his fists in the air with a victorious shout. "Just try and stop me, you pathetic little kewpie doll!"
        It was then that Urlich realized he was dancing around like a fool, wearing his last pair of clean underwear, which also happened to be the silliest pair he owned: Pink leopard print with little, day-glo smiley faces in the spots. They’d been a gag gift from Sylph, whose twisted sense of humor had seemed funny at the time. Still, he was unwilling to surrender the energy of the moment to Princess Amelia, who looked even sillier than he did, on her back, red faced with fury, tied hand and foot with his favorite pair of pants. However, his sister arrived at that moment and burst what remained of his bubble:
        "Url, you are such an ass," Zhara snorted. She leaned in the doorway and shook her head at him. "You’re not killing Zelgadis—"
        "Like hell I’m not!"
        Zhara was trying very hard not to laugh at him. "I can’t take you seriously like this. Untie the Princess and get dressed, then meet me in the basement. We’re going in after them."
        "I’ll get my sword!" Gourry offered as he brushed past Zhara. "Lina?"
        Lina appeared to be hypnotized by Urlich’s lingerie. Or by something in that vicinity. Gourry followed Lina’s gaze, decided he had nothing to worry about and resumed his sword-fetching mission. He wouldn’t be caught dead wearing underwear like that! Gourry chuckled to himself: "He’s just as weird as Xellos!"

        In a bizarre coincidence, Sylph was thinking about that particular pair of underwear and Urlich’s face when she’d given them to him, in an effort to keep her spirits up and the contents of her stomach down. She knew the blood had to come out, but puking hurt so much—not just because her diaphragm muscles convulsed over ribs she was now certain were broken, but because the bile had burned her throat raw. Following her instructions, Zelgadis had been able to determine the extent of her internal injuries. He’d sacrificed his tunic to her dignity and to help stem the flow of blood from her external chest injuries. Or possibly just to ease his massive load of guilt.
        "This is all my fault," he moped from his side of the pit. "I should have listened to you and slowed down." His cloak was almost completely burnt away; when it was gone, they’d be in the dark again, unless Zelgadis was willing to part with his pants, as well. There was precious little left of Sylph’s dress, the fabric having been too delicate to withstand the beating her speed-of-sound skid had given it. Zel’s tunic was just long enough to cover her hips. If only she had her magic, Sylph agonized for the millionth time, she could turn into a fox, making clothing a moot point. Of course, if she had her magic, she could also cast healing spells on herself and Zelgadis, then raywing or levitate them out of their current predicament.
        "Stop beating yourself up over it," she moaned, then launched into a coughing fit. When she recovered, she added in a hoarse voice: "It’s in the past. We have to worry about…making sure we have a future."
        "Indeed, little fox," came an amused, male voice from above, a voice Sylph and Zelgadis knew far better than they cared to, "but what will your future hold, I wonder?"
        Zelgadis struggled to his feet and held the torch aloft. What the light showed confirmed his fears: "Xellos."
        Helpless, angry tears trickled down Sylph’s cheeks. She cursed bitterly. After the way she’d embarrassed Xellos and his master in rescuing Zelgadis, Sylph was sure the Trickster Priest could only be after revenge. At least she was already dying and in more pain than he could possibly cause her. But if she was dead, who would keep Zelgadis and his blossoming dark powers out of the Metallium’s greedy hands? Or maybe Xellos just wanted to finish the job he’d started with her son. Those thoughts forced Sylph out of her puddle of self pity and made her determined to stay alive. Surely Urlich must have felt her life force slipping away by now. Gods, they’d been lovers so long, it was a wonder they weren’t the same person. And there was their murdered boy…Zeris.
        Xellos, meanwhile, was blithely doing a soliloquy. He struck a dramatic pose at the edge of the pit and weighed his options between his hands. "Should I kill you for making a fool out me and the mighty Zellas Metallium? Or should I forgive you that slight and play the hero? With a wave of my staff, I could heal both of you, get you out of that hole and all three of us out of this cavern. But should I? Hmmm…" He tapped his chin in exaggerated thoughtfulness. "I could, of course, just forget about you entirely, Sylph—it would serve you right—and just take Zelgadis and leave you here to die all alone in the dark. Decisions, decisions!"
        "Eat shit and die, murderer!" Sylph coughed.
        Xellos seemed confused for a moment, then his face lit up as he realized what she was referring to. "Are you still holding that against me?"
        Sylph sobbed: "You killed your own grandson, you freak!"
        Xellos gave her a mocking pout. "He got in my way. You should have hidden him, as Zhara wisely did with her brats."
        Zelgadis’ mind went back to that morning when he’d fought Urlich and tried to imagine such a slick, cold-seeming man as the father of a kitsune’s child. He wondered briefly how long his and Sylph’s relationship had lasted, or if it had been a relationship at all, then decided it didn’t matter. Xellos had killed Sylph’s son…and for such a sick, selfish, shallow reason. His heart burned with renewed fury: "You killed your grandson because he got in your way?!" Zelgadis shook his burning cloak off of his sword and snarled defiantly: "I’ll send you to hell!"
        Xellos only giggled again, eliciting a furious roar out of Zelgadis. Then Xellos winked and morphed into Dr. Sorez wearing next to nothing. He touched himself suggestively and in a sexy voice, asked: "Tell me, Zelgadis: Was it as good for you as it was for me?"
        Zelgadis’ rage drained out of him so fast he had to struggle to catch his breath. His sword slipped from his limp hand and hit the ground with a clatter. He shut his eyes tight against the angry tears that wanted to come and to keep from looking into her face and remembering. Yes, it had been good for him. It had been everything he’d ever dreamed falling in love and having sex could be, and then some. It had been perfect, transporting, the brightest spot in his entire, miserable, ill-fated life. With every fiber of his body, he ached to pick up his sword and throw it right through Xellos’ heart (assuming he had one) but the Trickster was wearing her face, her body, was speaking with her soft, sweet voice…He’d rather kill himself but he had to protect Sylph. Even without magic and wounded, he was in far better condition than the kitsune was. He’d kill that monstrous son of a bitch or die trying.
        Then much to his astonishment, he heard a weak chuckle from behind him. "I can’t believe he’s getting to you, Zel." She coughed and spit blood, then added: "He wasn’t your kid. What do you care?"
        "He was your son!" Zelgadis growled back. "That bastard murdered your son—"
        "Boulder brains…" she whispered.
        Zel started to rail at her, then he realized what she was trying to do and silently thanked his brave, if annoying, travelling companion. "Fur brain," he shot back with a wicked smirk. Her old banter shored up his flagging confidence. Zelgadis stooped to retrieve his sword and glared defiantly up at his glowing nemesis. "Don’t die, Sylph," he joked, "I don’t want to fight your boy’s daddy again. I almost killed him last time."
        "Urlich?" She coughed. "Yeah, he was pretty messed up…*hack*…but he’s ok now."
        Zel arrogantly twirled his sword from one hand to the other, then back again. "Glad to hear it. I took him for someone else. I won’t make that mistake again."
        Xellos/Dr. Sorez found that supremely amusing. "Of course you won’t: Dead men make no mistakes."
        "That’s ‘dead me tell no tales’," Zelgadis corrected him grimly, "and you’re telling your last tale, dead man!"
        With a mighty roar, Zel drew on reserves of strength he never imagined he had, crouched then sprang straight up into the air, past Xellos who flashed back to his natural form in shock. The Trickster Priest dove to the left and rolled out of the way just as Zelgadis’ sword came down with the full force of the chimera’s substantial weight and fury behind it. Metal slammed into stone, sending sparks and shards of rock winging in all directions. Xellos cried out as some of the razor sharp chips slashed his face and buried themselves in his flesh. Before his enemy could launch a counter attack, Zelgadis charged, flipped and dropped like a missile, sword-point down and aimed right at Xellos’ chest. Xellos rolled, but Zelgadis followed him, stabbing and stabbing into the rock with his sword and firing flecks of rock and steel into his own torn skin as well as his adversary’s. Even when his sword had shattered down to the hilt, Zel kept up the onslaught, never giving Xellos a chance to utter a single spell. When the Trickster swung his staff, hoping to sweep Zel’s legs out from under him, Zelgadis grabbed the staff and yanked it out of Xellos’ hands, pulling his foe’s arms out of their sockets in his fury. Xellos bellowed his rage and pain, but Zelgadis was unmoved. Wielding the staff like a club, he beat Xellos, over and over again until the Trickster was no longer moving and didn’t appear to even be breathing.
        Zelgadis tottered on his injured legs, eyes stinging with tears from the painful pounding of his heart in his chest. "Now," he panted, "you die!" He hoisted the staff over his head, point down over Xellos’ throat: "This is for the real Lara Sorez, you murdering son of a bitch!"
        In an instant, the light disappeared, and Zelgadis brought the staff down onto nothing but air. "WHERE ARE YOU?!" He cast about desperately, falling to his knees when his legs would no longer hold him, but Xellos was gone, transported out of danger, probably by Zellas Metallium. Denial soon turned to confusion, then to futile rage. Zelgadis doubled over, Xellos’ abandoned staff still clutched in his hands, and sobbed. "No…no…no…"