Lina awoke from a terrifying nightmare with a bone-shattering, tearful scream, waking her bedmate Gourry (and probably everybody else in the house, except Sylph who’s body still fought to recover down the hall). Gourry wrapped his arms around Lina and crushed her head against his chest, caressing and kissing her hair and whispering words of comfort and reassurance for the second time that night.
        "Was it that dream about Zelgadis again?" He asked softly. She nodded and sobbed even harder. "It’s just a dream, Lina. We’re all worried about him, but I know he won’t turn into a monster like that. He’s Zelgadis!" Gourry winced as Lina’s fingernails dug into his bare chest. "Amelia’s pretty weird most of the time, but she was right about one thing: Zel’s one of the good guys and he always will be no matter what happens. We’ll find him, Lina, and we’ll cure him of whatever’s wrong with him, even if we have to—" He bit back against speaking the worst and clung to Lina instead. They’d have to kill him if he became what Lina was seeing in her dreams: A bloodthirsty Dark Lord, who took the heads of both former friend and enemy as fashion accessories. "We’ll save him," Gourry finished, but Lina had already fallen asleep again. Keeping his arms around her, Gourry closed his eyes and tried to fall back to sleep, as well, but his mind wouldn’t rest. All he could think about was Lina’s nightmare: Zelgadis on a battlefield, the bodies as thick as a carpet on the blood-soaked ground, smoke hanging low, turning day into night. Zel was a giant, sitting on a mound of torn bodies, counting the heads on his belt—their heads. His and Lina’s, Amelia’s…even Xellos’. Gourry shivered and pulled the quilt up higher on his chest, where Lina slept, tears still leaking from beneath her eyelids and staining her cheeks. Silently, Gourry vowed: "I’ll save you or kill you, Zel. I won’t let you become one of Them."

       While the living slept, Jaz slipped out of the house and made her way like a ghost back to the catacombs where she dwelt after sunrise. She wanted to hate this Zelgadis guy for being so stubborn and careless. His actions had nearly killed her sister, and that alone was more than enough to put Jaz on the hunt for Zelgadis’ blood. But after hearing Zhara’s explanation, Jaz knew the best way to serve her sister’s interests was to find Zelgadis and keep him from disappearing before Zhara and those other people could save him from his curse. Jaz figured he had two curses on him, the second stemming from the first and having something to do with the man Urlich had killed the previous night, the one called Kopii. According to Jaz, killing Kopii had set off Zelgadis’ hidden curse. No wonder she’d given Urlich orders not to kill him. But, no, Zhara hadn’t known Zelgadis was under any kind of curse at the time, much less one as dangerous as this. Still, if only Urlich had heeded his sister’s intuition and taken Kopii prisoner, rather than killed him.
        Jaz paused at the entrance to the catacombs to assess who if anyone was hanging about just within. Topsiders like herself tended to be crueler and more dangerous than the natives, who dwelt more deeply inside the maze-like caves, and she didn’t have time to deal with others of her kind just then. Vampires were topsiders, for the most part, emerging at night to hunt the mundanes Zhara allowed to stray into Marrigan for that purpose. Zelgadis’ friends would have been entrees if Kopii hadn’t been working for Xellos and hadn’t tried to operate in Zhara’s city. No ally of Xellos lasted long in Marrigan, the twins made sure of that. Plans were foiled, allies captured or slain, turning to naught anything the Trickster Priest attempted in that city.
        Good, no lurkers. Jaz darted through the entrance and had soon exchanged the pale light from Topsider street lamps for the ambient glow from the shimmering moss that grew on every surface in the catacombs and the dancing ghost lights that swirled through the air like autumn leaves. This was a much more beautiful place than Topside, Jaz thought, longing to stop and play with the ghost lights as was her custom upon returning from the upper world but she was on a mission and had to keep going with all speed. She’d had a hunch while talking to Zhara, a hunch that had grown stronger after hearing Gourry’s description of the way in which they’d found themselves in the middle of a street instead of in the great cavern. Zelgadis hadn’t disappeared, they had, an observation which had made perfect sense to the newcomers once Jaz had voiced it. As for the cavern, it was just a part of the catacombs Zhara was able to use as a link to certain places she  had created as "jump points" so she could get about with nearly the speed of her teleporting relatives. Therefore, if Zelgadis was as badly injured as Zhara said, it was reasonable to assume he was still in the catacombs. If he was lucky, no one had found him yet, or they’d surely call for the one catacomb-dwelling healer they knew: Cricket. Cricket was a Topsider, like Jaz, though not as ruthless as she often was when not under orders from Zhara. Still, he wasn’t anyone a mundane like Zelgadis should want messing around with his open wounds. Cricket might just get to wondering if chimera blood tasted different from human blood, or, worse, he’d sense the power Zelgadis was reportedly giving off and try to get some of it for himself by making a meal of his patient. He’d fail, of course: Zel’s power stemmed from a magical curse, not an inherited condition, so it couldn’t be transmitted through his blood. Lucky for Cricket.
        Something small and fast flew past Jaz’s head and was gone into the caves before she could get a good look at it. "Damn bats!" She growled and chided herself for letting the creature startle her. She knew good and well the Topside ends of the catacombs were home to bat colonies. The creatures didn’t like the deeper parts of the caves because the concentration of glowing moss and ghost lights was much greater there. Jaz was almost to the inhabited parts of the catacombs now, closer to where the great cavern physically lay, and still no whiff of a strange power that would indicate Zelgadis’ presence. "Hn." Was he dead? She paused to get a better sample. "There!" She felt just the barest tingle of alien power resting near the farther end of the cavern. Jaz’s lips twitched into a tiny smile. Nik, Lenzer and Garroll. Good and bad: They were good but they’d probably sent for Cricket, which would be bad, though she wasn’t sensing the healer yet. There was still time to reach them before he arrived, but she’d need more speed than her vampire body could give her. Jaz shimmered, then her body seemed to melt, then be poured into another shape. In a moment, a little black fox stood where the vampire had been, then it was gone into the cave in a blur of dark.

        "Dammit, where is he, already?!"
        Ah, the voices were back, good. That meant he’d be waking up again soon and be out of this horrible nightmare. Zelgadis just hoped he’d be able to stay awake this time. He heard what sounded like a hand hitting Velvet Knees’ leg, then:
        "Garroll—"
        "I see her."
        Jaz trotted to a halt before the three underworlders, who’d turned from Zelgadis at her approach: Nik the Knife, all in red, right down to his fiery, curling hair and ruby eyes; green-haired, muscular Lenzer the Fist, the street fighter with the horns of an oni; and the gentle pool of calm and reason that was Garroll, with his long white hair and cat’s eyes, renowned for his unnatural strength. His otherworldly beauty even gave Jaz pause. She was one of those Topsiders they didn’t trust, so she’d have to play this one carefully. The best first step was to stay in fox-form, her less dangerous form, until they realized she didn’t mean them or Zelgadis any harm. Cautiously, Jaz walked around the men, pausing sharply when Nik pulled a knife from a sheath strapped to his wrist. Garroll stopped him with an uplifted hand, and Jaz continued until she’d put Zelgadis between herself and them. Keeping her eyes on the underworlders, she started sniffing Zelgadis, trying to judge his condition from his scent, while her less mundane senses also looked him over. After a few moments of that, she sneezed his smell from her nose, then sat back on her haunches to think about it. All-in-all, he was in pretty bad shape, though he was in no danger of dying anytime soon, unless one of her kind got hungry, or Nik got bored. He liked those knives of his, Nik did, and liked carving up vampires with them even better. Then there was Lenzer of the short temper and lightning fists, looking at her as if he was trying to decide how many of her bones he could break before it killed her. Jaz was glad Garroll was there to keep those two from going ballistic before she could even try to tell them her story. He’d be more willing to listen and maybe to believe her than his companions would—certainly more than that bastard Cricket. "Damn! I don’t have time to mess with these guys! What?!"
        Jaz flattened herself against the ground as another bat flew past, headed out of the caves. No, thought Jaz, she was sure that was the same creature that had blitzed her on the way in. And what was a bat doing this deep anyway? Once again, it was gone before she could get eyes or other senses onto it. Coming out of her crouch, Jaz noticed the underworlders seemed just as unsettled by the bat as she was.
        "Shouldn’t be down here," Nik observed tersely.
    Lenzer nodded. Garroll continued to stare after it with narrowed, golden cat-eyes for a while before they all returned their attention to Jaz. Nik’s other wrist knife joined the first one, and Lenzer took up a defensive stance when they saw Jaz had returned to her human-like form. Again, Garroll steadied them with a gesture.
        "What do you want with this man, Jessica?" He asked, using her real name, the one nobody but Sylph ever used anymore. Jaz hated it.
        She’d bared her fangs at him before she could stop the instinctive expression of displeasure. Jaz squeezed her lips tight and bowed her head politely to show she hadn’t meant it. The underworlders didn’t relax: Nik twirled his knives in his hands, his hard, red eyes never leaving hers for an instant. "Zhara wants him. He’s a friend of hers and he’s in great danger. She wants me to bring him to her." She wasn’t inclined to tell them the whole truth, that the "danger" in question was that he might turn into a full-blown Mozuko Dark Lord at any moment and go on a rampage.
        Lenzer cracked his knuckles and sneered: "Of course she does, dear."
        Jaz’s eyes narrowed but she forced her lips to stay firmly together, keeping the fangs they hated and feared out of sight.
        "So where’s Zhara, if she wants this guy so bad, huh?" Nik asked darkly.
        "Zhara sent me." Jaz replied firmly, her voice holding just the slightest hint of a snarl. It wasn’t entirely true, of course: Jaz had made the decision to go but had done so with Zhara’s knowledge and blessing. Jaz could feel Cricket now, hurrying. Shit. She really didn’t have time for this. Alright, she’d just have to let the truth out and appeal to Garroll’s reason. "He’s a danger to all of us, Garroll," she met his eyes, brown to gold, with a dark stare. "This man is under a curse placed on him by Rezo the Red Priest. He’s becoming a Mozuko, a very powerful one—surely you can feel the power! There are people staying with Zhara who think they can lift this curse, but I need to take him to Zhara."
        Garroll’s gaze flicked from Jaz to Zelgadis and back again. Yes, he could feel the immense power building in the battered chimera and he was familiar with the Red Priest’s power, if only by reputation. Rezo could, theoretically, have cast a spell of that level, but he was skeptical of Jaz’s claims that Zhara had people who could lift one of the Red Priest’s curses. If Zhara and Urlich together didn’t have the power but needed to call upon outsiders to break the spell for them…"If he’s that important, Zhara would have come, herself, not send one of her employees. You’re not convincing me, Jessica." He grinned, showing a mouthful of pointy teeth and fangs of his own. He raised a velvet-gloved hand. "Nice try, though. I especially liked the part about him becoming a Mozuko. That was a nice touch."
        "It’s the…the truth," Zelgadis gasped. What was Zhara thinking, sending someone to bring him to her? He had to get away from his friends, or he’d drain them of their magic and—The nightmare came back to him suddenly, and he saw himself with their heads bouncing on his hips. His breath caught in his throat. No, he had to get as far away from them all as possible. But where could he go that he wouldn’t cause any harm once the curse was complete? And where could he go that one of the other Dark Lords wouldn’t try to pull him under their wing? Zelgadis started crying again, weeping his frustration, even as Jaz used his statement in support of her cause. "No!" He managed, as Garroll started to believe her. "I can’t go…I can’t be with…" he sobbed, "I can’t kill my friends! If you…take me to them…there’s nothing they can do…"
        Jaz could actually hear Cricket’s footsteps approaching from behind her now. "I don’t want Cricket getting his hungry mitts on this guy!" She snarled at the underworlders. "I can’t believe you sent for him to treat a mundane! What were you thinking, Garroll? You’ve got more brains than that!" Jaz pulled one of Zel’s arms over her shoulders, put her arm around his back and tried to lift him. "Help me get him Topside at least! I’m not strong enough to move him." When they didn’t budge, she bared her fangs and put the red feeding glare into her eyes. "If Cricket gets him, I’ll fucking kill every last one of you pasty-faced, bum-fucking worms! Now help me get him out of here!"
        Their eyes widened and their fists clenched briefly with outrage. Garroll recovered first. He got his arms under Zelgadis and stood up, lifting the chimera as effortlessly as a sack of feathers. "I’ll get him to the entrance," he said, even as he took off in that direction. His companions and Jaz fell in behind him. "But no farther at this hour. Your prowler-friends will just be returning from their rounds, and I’d hate to make you watch what we do to them if they give us trouble."
        Jaz rolled her eyes. What they could do to her kind was about as grisly as what her kind could do to them. The two factions routinely kept each other’s numbers under control, as it were. It was one of Jaz’s pet theories that Zhara had set it up that way, to keep the population of Marrigan from getting too large for her to manage. She was her friend, but Zhara was Xellos’ daughter and she’d only been her father’s enemy for six hundred years, ever since he’d murdered Sylph’s son. Prior to that, the twins had often taken part (for a fee) in Xellos’ schemes and had doubtless picked up quite a bit of his world view and his disdain for the sanctity of lives not his own. What vampires and underworlders did to each other was nothing compared to what would become of them if Zhara decided she was bored with running a city of her own design. Still, Zhara did pay quite generously.
        "Ok, what do you want to carry him to Zhara’s for me?"
        Now they were all on familiar ground. Nik made the opening offer: "We get you and stoneman to Zhara Metallium’s, and you let us have our way with you tomorrow night."
        Jaz snarled, but Garroll spoke up before she could attack. "Be serious, Nikolaus. She’s Urlich’s wench, or have you forgotten?"
        As a matter of fact, he had, but Garroll’s reminder silenced the redhead like a slammed door. Nik remembered the last time he’d messed with something of Urlich’s: He’d coveted one of the Metallium Twin’s exquisite blades and had formulated what he’d thought was a fool-proof plan for getting it. Nik had figured he could take Urlich in a duel with knives alone, no swords (no one he’d ever heard of could beat Urlich at swordplay). They’d wager each other’s knives on the match, winner take all. Urlich had been neither amused nor game for the challenge but he’d taken Nik’s knives and returned them by sticking them into the underworlder’s chest like a pincushion, purposefully missing vital organs so Nik could pass on the lesson he’d learned to others. Nik gulped and decided to let Garroll and Lenzer do the talking.
        Lenzer made his offer next: "Two hundred gold pieces, payable upon delivery of him to Zhara."
        That was more like it. Jaz considered his offer and decided it was fair. "Two hundred gold pieces, then."
        "For each of us," Garroll added.
        Jaz just about choked but knew she could do worse. "Very well. For each of you. Payable on delivery. Agreed?"
        "Agreed," they said as one.
        That settled, Garroll put on speed, leading the way toward the exit to the world above.
        L-Sama’s dragonette zipped from the catacombs and disappeared with a pop of light that anyone who saw  would have attributed to a firefly. Mission accomplished.