"Checkmate!"
        "No way!"
        "Way."
        Ullan studied the configuration of the chessboard, reviewing his last two moves in his head, then his brother’s and finally conceded defeat. Damn. In six hundred years he’d only managed to beat Zellan twenty-three thousand times. They played once a day on the magic chessboard their grandfather had given them—but only once a day. More than that and the Lord of Nightmares would notice their minute chipping away at the seal which held them between worlds and shore it up or even destroy them. Or worse: Their mother might feel it and then they’d really be back to square one. When Ullan won, his part of the seal would weaken, when Zellan won, his would do the same. At this rate, Zellan would free himself long before Ullan did! But the brothers were nothing if not devoted to one another and each had long ago promised to tear down his brother’s seal once he was free. The other agreement they’d made was that the first head on the block would be their mother’s, then their uncle’s, then his lover’s, that awful kitsune who’d spawned a Knight of Cefeid to send against them. That had been a delicious battle, indeed, and had ended in their grandfather killing the Knight, though Ullan and Zellan would have loved that honor themselves. Unfortunately, by then their mother had finished the spell that sealed them in this place between worlds.
        Ullan loved the chess set. It was beautiful: Crystal embedded with gold and silver squares. But the pieces were the most delicious irony of all, for they were worked in gold and silver and depicted all of their enemies in that long ago battle. The queens were Zhara Metallium, the kings Ullan’s and Zellan’s father Lei Magnus, whose body had hosted the spirit of Shabranigdo. The bishops were Zhara’s twin Urlich and his lover, the kitsune Sylph. The knights Sylph’s and Urlich’s son Zeris, Knight of Cefeid and Sylph’s sister Jessica, who had sacrificed her power to ensure Zhara’s victory. The rooks were Zhara’s between-worlds house and Lei Magnus’ tower. The pawns were Zhara’s Marrigan creatures. Xellos, General/Priest of Zellas Metallium and Ullan’s and Zellan’s grandfather, had foreseen the outcome of the battle and created the chess set as a way for the Sons of Chaos to break their bonds and wreak havoc upon the world once more. But slowly, oh so slowly, lest the Lord of Nightmares notice, or Cefied awake, or—far, far worse—their mother realize what was going on and stop them. Their blood relationship gave her power even L-Sama didn’t have to control and subdue them. Yes, mother would definitely have to die first. The others would be comparatively easy.
         The chess set was a little secret known only to Xellos and the Sons of Chaos. Even his master didn’t know about it, just as she didn’t realize the full extent of the power her servant had stolen from the dragons he’d slaughtered and the one who had borne his children. Ullan often wondered if Xellos had foreseen the power of his grandchildren and had struck the deal with the Great Dragon Eleirian in order to bring about their existence. And if he had, had he also foreseen that Zhara and Urlich would turn against him in the wake of Zeris’ death? As always, Grandfather was tight with his secrets but he’d given his grandchildren a talisman of immense power that also happened to be fun and intellectually challenging.
        Another victory or two and Zellan’s seal would break. He would keep his promise to free his brother, of this Ullan was certain, for the Sons of Chaos were most effective as a team and they’d need their combined strength to eliminate Zhara.

        Garroll led the way through the catacombs, Zhara at his side, her much-coveted map of the underground passages and caverns open in her hands as she marked where they were, just in case those of the group who knew their way around wouldn’t be able to lead the others back out again. Knowing her father, Zhara didn’t think that was too remote a possibility. The question wasn’t so much if he’d try to stop them as when. And, knowing her father, Zhara was sure he’d make his appearance when they arrived at their goal because that would have the most drama. "That’s my dad! Always knows how to make an entrance!" The presence of Zhara and her brother would keep the other dangers of the catacombs at bay. She was practically a goddess to them, after all.
        Lina walked behind the leaders with Zelgadis, followed by Jaz and Sylph (who’d insisted upon coming, over everyone’s objections), Nik and Lenzer, then Gourry and Urlich bringing up the rear. This place gave Lina major creeps, even with Zhara’s assurances of safe passage. All Lina could hear in her head was what Xellos’ daughter had told her about how the odds of mortals getting out of Marrigan past its inhabitants were slim to none. Those inhabitants watched the group pass from shadowy alcoves and side tunnels, often visible only as glowing eyes and heard only as hungry hisses. "Only a mozuko’s kid could’ve thought up a place like this!" She shivered as she thought about the stories she’d heard about Marrigan ever since she was a little girl. The threat of being sent to Marrigan’s catacombs had brought a young Lina Inverse to heel more than once, as it had thousands of other little girls and boys throughout the land. The catacombs of Marrigan were full of monsters who liked to eat little children, and the worst monster of them all was the Lady of Marrigan, who was said to be the spawn of a Great Dragon and the mighty servant of an evil Dark Lord. Well, that last bit was true, at least: Zhara’s mother was a Great Dragon and her father was the servant of an evil Dark Lord. Even though she found Xellos infuriating but occasionally helpful and entertaining, Lina had no delusions about his power: "Mighty" was a good adjective to start with, though, in spite of his heritage and job, Lina hadn’t expected Xellos to be quite so cruel as he’d shown himself to be. True, there’d been a lot riding on the outcome of Zelgadis’ "condition"; Xellos and his master could’ve come out of it on top of all the other Dark Lords if they’d been allowed to (and had succeeded in) bringing Zelgadis the monster under their control. But, still...she’d never known Xellos to be this hard core evil. Something was definitely wrong, here, but Lina couldn’t put her finger on it. Ok, so she didn’t know that much about Beast Master but she doubted the Great Beast would have a Chief General/Priest that wasn’t as close to her own will and personality as possible. If that was true, then Beast Master was probably weird, loopy and possessed of an incredibly twisted sense of humor. She was a Dark Lord, so her aim was to reduce the world to a sea of chaos, but if her top minion was any indication, she planned to do it by infuriating them all into a state of utter despair and futility. Xellos had already proven himself to be master of that technique.
        So what was up with Xellos? Why was he such a sick, cruel bastard all of a sudden (instead of a fruity, annoying bastard)? Was he finally showing his true colors? Had he known what Zelgadis would do once he blossomed? Namely, use the head of every friend and foe he’d ever had as decoration, including the heads of Xellos and Zellas Metallium? That would hardly have seemed in their self-interest. And if the Lord of Nightmares had chosen to kill Zelgadis before the Dark Lord within him manifested, then she must have thought even she couldn’t handle him, meaning Zellas Metallium would have failed disastrously. Therefore, Lina reasoned, Xellos and his master hadn’t realized the full implications of what Zelgadis was becoming. Did they now? "Good question," Lina thought darkly, and if they did, did they fear a clone made from a piece of Zelgadis’ original body would have the same dangerous properties? Would it? Zelgadis said the Lord of Nightmares had separated the Dark Lord’s spirit from his, which would seem to indicate that the evil Lord wasn’t a property of Zel’s chimera body, so copying it wouldn’t be dangerous. "Of course it won’t be dangerous! L-Sama wouldn’t be letting us do it if it was!" Unless she was counting on someone stopping them and permanently ending Zelgadis’ tenure in the world of the living. But that didn’t make sense, either! If L-Sama wanted Zelgadis dead that badly, she wouldn’t have given him a second chance like this!
        So, what in the bloody hell was Xellos’ problem? Pride? In his place, Lina would want to put this entire affair (pardon the pun) behind her, but Xellos was...odd. He didn’t think like normal people, though Lina had to admit, he did seem to think like she did a lot of the time. That said, Lina wouldn’t have done any of the things he’d done (in his place), even under Zellas Metallium’s orders. And why did Zellas issue such bizarre orders? To break Zel’s spirit? But if so, why would he want to serve them afterward? Lina felt like tearing out her hair over this gnarly conundrum but found a more constructive way to deal with it: She asked Zelgadis.
        His eyes narrowed at her and his fists clenched, neither of which came off as being quite as threatening when done with Amelia’s child-sized body and innocent face. "Hell if I know! He’s a sick sonnuvabitch, Lina! I’ve been telling you this for years!"
        "Yeah, I know, but he’s never been this vicious!" Lina argued.
        Zhara gave her a withering look over her shoulder. "Did you think he slaughtered two entire races of Great Dragons because Zellas made him do it?" She sneered. "And do you really think he protected you because deep down inside he’s just a big softy who can’t bear to see the world destroyed by the likes of Dark Star or Phibrizio? Please!"
        Lina frowned. "Yeah, but--" she hesitated, unable to put the nagging feeling in the back of her mind into words, "I don’t know. Something about all this just doesn’t feel right! The thing with Zelgadis Bringer of the End of the World is pretty much over, right?"
        Zhara nodded. By now, the rest of the group was interested in the conversation and had moved up closer to hear better. "Once he’s got a new body, yeah. What’s your point?"
        "Well, you seem pretty sure Xellos will try to stop us. Why? What’s it to him if Zelgadis gets to come back to life?" Lina argued. "I think he’d like that, since he seems to love tormenting Zel so much. He’d be getting his favorite toy back!"
        Beside her, Zelgadis muttered: "’Toy’?"
        Lina blushed and shrugged. "He really seems to like making you miserable, so I guess to a mozuko that makes you a toy. I didn’t mean it personally!"
        "I am not a toy!"
        "None of us thinks you are," Lina told him hurriedly, "I just mean, to Xellos. He tries to make you crazy, and you let him!"
        Zelgadis stopped in his tracks to face her, hands on hips, eyes wide with fury. "I do not ‘let him’!"
        "Zel, lighten up!" Gourry soothed from the back of the pack. "She didn’t mean it like you’re weak, or something. She just meant you let him get to you, instead of just ignoring him--ulp!" Gourry realized where Zelgadis’ thoughts must be going and slapped his hands over his mouth. "I--I mean, before, not this time. This was different. Um...like Lina said. Before he was just bugging you to make you mad but this time he was, um, well...ha-ha," Gourry sweat and blushed, "he was extra-mean. I dunno. Different than before. I guess. I don’t know what I mean."  
        "My point, exactly!" Lina declared triumphantly, as if Gourry’s stammering and vague comments had crystallized her point perfectly. "So, let’s get going, ok?" She pushed Zhara and Garroll in the back to get them moving again and pulled Zelgadis along after her by the arm.
        Urlich growled: "I still don’t get it. He’s just being himself, as far as I can tell."
        Lina sighed and her shoulders drooped. "I guess you should know, huh? But I still can’t shake this feeling that things aren’t what they seem--that there’s more going on here than we realize!" She turned to walk backwards so she could meet Urlich’s eyes between the heads of the people walking in front of him. "I think Zhara’s right: He’ll try to stop us, but I don’t think he’ll do it because we stung his pride. I don’t have any concrete reasons to support it, just a really bad feeling that Zelgadis was just Plan A."
        "What plan?" Urlich argued with a condescending smirk. "Your friend isn’t going to turn into anything useful anymore, right? Using Zel the Dark Lord would seem to have been The Plan. That foiled, what other plan is there, O’ Mighty Lina Inverse?"
        Sylph sighed. "You are really a jerk, Url, you know that?"
        "And I suppose you know what she’s talking about?!"
        "Hell, no," Sylph yawned, "she’s babbling like an idiot, as far as I’m concerned. I’m just saying you’re being a jerk."
        Lina’s jaw dropped and her face reddened. "I am not ‘babbling like an idiot’! Gourry, tell them! My intuition is always right!"
        Gourry cleared his throat awkwardly. "Well, you were kind of not right about Zelgadis when we first met him," he mumbled shyly. "You said he couldn’t be trusted, but he helped you escape Rezo and destroy Shabranigdo," then his face brightened and he added in a louder voice, "but you’ve been dead on ever since!"
        Lina buried her face in her hands as she turned back around. "Thanks a lot, Gourry."
        "Don’t mention it."
        They walked several yards more, then Urlich piped up in an irritated voice: "Well, what plan?!"
        Lina fumed. "If I knew that, I wouldn’t have all these questions, would I?!" She spun around and walked backwards again, face red with rage. "I’m just saying Beast Master is up to something that needed Zelgadis, but now that he’s not about to turn into a Dark Lord anymore, she’s still planning something but now she has to find some other way to accomplish her goal!"
        "What goal?" Urlich persisted. He held up his hands to keep Lina from going ballistic. "Look, honey, I’ve known her a long time, almost as long as Xellos has known her. She’s weird and she’s dangerous. Very dangerous. But I think her only goal this time was to make Zelgadis her servant, so she’d have all of that power at her command, which would make all of the other Dark Lords afraid of her. Xellos is her tool, her obedient servant who carries out her will but occasionally does things on his own that he thinks will benefit her somehow. Like killing the Dragons, which Zhara already mentioned."
        As her brother talked, a sickening feeling grew in Zhara’s stomach and she began to think about something she hadn’t allowed herself to contemplate for centuries. Xellos may be Zellas Metallium’s "tool", but Zhara’s boys had been Xellos’. For a long time, that had seemed a good thing to their mother, in fact she’d been quite proud of them and their terrifying exploits on Xellos’ behalf. They’d been movers and shakers in the family business, a couple of mixed breeds with bright futures amongst the most powerful beings in the world, part of an exclusive club. Then Zeris, Urlich’s son, had grown up and shown himself to be more than just disinterested in the family business but determined to tear it apart. Zeris Knight of Cefeid, arch enemy of the mozuko race, god of the Great Dragons--Zhara’s and Urlich’s mother’s race. Though the twins often worked for the likes of Zellas Metallium, Xellos and the Lord of Nightmares, they had always been closest to their mother and all but hated their father. His power and money were one thing; they admired his power and liked his gold. On a personal level, however, they couldn’t stand the guy. Then Zeris had challenged Ullan and Zellan, the Sons of Chaos, Zhara’s children, and the family business went all to hell. Zellas couldn’t be trying to free the Sons of Chaos, could she? A creature like Zelgadis had almost become might have been able to break the seal. Zhara shook the thought from her head. Impossible. All of Jaz’s power and most of her own had gone into making that seal. Even the mighty Beast Master couldn’t break it! Lina was just being paranoid. And yet..."Damn premonitions!" Zhara had yet to have one that didn’t come true. Meeting her sons again after that battle... She shook her head again. "Impossible!"
        "My Lady?" Garroll asked cautiously, "is something wrong?"
        Zhara blinked. "No. Just keep moving."
        "What?" Lina poked her guide between the shoulder blades. "What are you thinking?"
        "I said it’s nothing!" Zhara growled. "Just forget it!"
        "I wanna know!"
        "The world is full of disappointments," Zhara told her under her breath. "Get over it!"
        Lina wasn’t the sort to just get over it. "You feel it, too, don’t you? Something’s going on, and you know what it is! Tell me!"
        "You’re dreaming," Zhara sang back, "and I’m going to break that finger if you don’t stop poking me in the back with it!"
        Lina snorted and folded her arms over her chest. "Fine. But if whatever you’re thinking about happens, and you didn’t tell us so we’d know it was coming, I hope it kills you!"
        That hit way too close to home for Zhara’s comfort but hell if she was going to let Lina know that. So she just bit her lip and forced her body not to turn around and break the irritating sorceress’ nose. Anyway, Ullan and Zellan were safely locked away between worlds, where all Dark Lords who offend L-Sama go if someone like Cefeid or Lina Inverse doesn’t come along and kill them first. Any thought of Xellos or anyone else finding a way to free them was absurd and paranoid. But if they ever did get loose, Zhara knew she was first on their hit list, followed closely by Sylph and Jaz then Urlich. Sylph had been the only one to fight openly on Zeris’ side, but Urlich wouldn’t let anyone hurt his beloved Sylph, and Zhara wouldn’t let anyone hurt her brother...or her sons. Didn’t they realized she’d saved their lives by sealing them away from the world? She sighed to herself: Probably not. They’d gotten that part of their father’s temperament that came from Shabranigdo’s spirit. If ever the Sons of Chaos were loosed on the world once more, Zhara knew the only one who could save her would be the Lord of Nightmares, herself.
        But they weren’t coming back. They’d stay in their prison until the end of time, then they’d die with everyone and everything else. Period. End of story.
        Much later, after spending almost two full hours marching through the catacombs, the Marrigans were discovering something that Gourry and Zelgadis had known for years: Lina can be really, really persistent.
        "Will you shut the hell up?!" Zhara shouted in Lina’s face. They were almost to the cavern where Garroll’s copying machine lay, and Lina still hadn’t let up on her insistence that Zhara knew something she wasn’t telling them. "Xellos doesn’t have any nasty little Plan B, ok?! I think you just can’t stand the fact that you’re gonna go home without killing a Dark Lord this time! Well deal with it, you little bitch!"
        Gourry shoved through Nik and Lenzer and Jaz and Sylph, then pushed Lina behind him. "Nobody calls Lina Inverse a bitch while I’m around!" He drew the Sword of Light and put its glowing blade between himself and Zhara. "You said a mundane blade couldn’t kill an immortal--well the Sword of Light isn’t a mundane blade! So take back what you--"
        Lina got a handful of his hair and jerked him around with it. "Gourry? You seem a little tense lately. I don’t think we need the Sword of Light to deal with this, ok?"
        "But your honor, Lina!"
        She pulled his face close to her own and snarled. "My honor can take care of itself!"
        Gourry looked hurt but he sheathed his sword. "But, Lina--"
        "Zhara’s trying to help us, you idiot!" Lina snapped as she shook him by the hair. "So she called me a bitch. Big deal. Takes one to know one! Get over yourself, you big, old fashioned, muscle head!"
        "Hmph!" Zelgadis snorted, getting Lina’s angry attention in a snap. "Now who’s ‘a little tense’?"
        "I AM NOT TENSE!"
        There was a long, nervous pause, while all but Lina sweat, and something profound occurred to Zelgadis. Being in the body of a woman having her period enlightened a guy on certain things. "It’s that time of the month for you, too, isn’t it?"
        Lina gulped, Gourry blanched. Urlich said: "No way."
        "Damn right, ‘no way’!" Lina screamed in Zelgadis’ face, liking the way it felt to talk down to him for once. "It’s not that time of the month for me, ok?"
        "So, you’re just like this all the time?" The hapless Nik asked from his relatively safe place behind Sylph and Jaz. "I knew there was a reason I didn’t have a girlfriend."
        "I thought it was because you were ugly," Lenzer quipped.
        To which Nik grinned and replied: "No, that’s your reason."
        Lina looked like she was going to explode, so Gourry did what he always did when Lina became unreasonable: He started walking away but he didn’t get too far since Lina still had a death grip on his hair. "Let go of my hair, Lina. We don’t have time to mess around!"
        "He’s right," Zelgadis added, "I only have two days and most of it is needed for growing the copy."
        Zhara smirked and made an overly grand motion with her hand ahead of them. "Shall we continue, then?"
        Lina growled at her. The two women stared each other down for a while, then all of a sudden Zhara laughed, waved a dismissing hand at Lina, collected Garroll by the arm and walked away down the tunnel. Zelgadis and Gourry followed her, then Sylph, Jaz and the others brushed past the stormy Lina and caught them up. After a few more moments of silent rage, Lina trotted after them. Not that time of the month, no. Not today. Maybe not even tomorrow. Maybe it wouldn’t make any difference, if Zhara was right and Xellos really didn’t have anything more dastardly in mind than salving his wounded pride. In which case, they had Zhara’s and Sylph’s magic, Lenzer’s fists and the blades of Gourry, Urlich and Nik on their side. Oh, and Jaz’s fangs, of course. "We’ll just make a copy of Zel and put his spirit in it and everything’ll be ok," she coached herself, then sighed miserably. "Who am trying to kid?"
        "So how much farther is it, anyway?" She asked when she caught up to her companions, giving every impression that the previous argument had never happened, which was just fine with the rest of them.
        Garroll pointed to an opening not ten yards ahead of them. "In there," he said. As if on cue, the cavern beyond the entrance blazed with light, revealing a tangle of pipes and the great copy machine itself, perched on a platform in the back of the cave. Sitting on the platform, blissfully kicking his heels against it and making up limericks for his own amusement was Xellos.
        "There once was a Dark Lord named Zellas, who loved to make sport with the fellas. She’d beat them and flay them and generally slay them, that kinky old Dark Lord named Zellas!"
        Zhara turned to Lina and jabbed a thumb over her shoulder at her limerick-spouting father. "See? Told you he’d be here."
        Lina didn’t take the bait. "Yeah, but why is he here?"
        "To recite poetry?" Garrol suggested, at the same as Zhara totally lost her cool.
        "To stop us, you stupid bitch!" Zhara screamed in Lina’s face. "We’ve been over this already!"
        "And we still don’t know the real reason why he’s here!" Lina screamed back with equal hysteria in her voice.
        Following Garroll’s less-threatening thread, Gourry commented: "It’s not even very good poetry..."
        "WILL YOU TWO SHUT UP?!"
        From the cavern came a giggle, then: "There once was sorceress named Lina, who’s magic was really quite fina. But her temper was bad and the bandits were glad when the Trickster Priest finally did bury her!"
        "That doesn’t rhyme!" Gourry shouted, as he drew the Sword of Light once again and charged for the cavern, ignoring Lina’s attempt to stop him.
        "’Fina’?" Garroll wondered, oblivious to the mounting tension around him.
        "I like that part about burying her," Urlich interjected conversationally.
        Sylph’s eyes bugged. "Hello?! Reality to Urlich!"
        "We’re having a crisis, here, lover!" Jaz added. "Time to kick some ass! Are you coming?"
        Meanwhile, Gourry had almost reached Xellos, who had come up with another limerick and proceeded to share it with the approaching swordsman.
        "There once was a swordsman named Gourry, whose mind was just a bit flowery. When brains they were needed, to his sword he conceded the right to solve all problems for him!"
        To which Gourry roared: "Who told you you were a poet?! NOW DIE!"
        "Oh, shit," Zhara rolled her eyes and ran after him with Lina beside her and Zelgadis on her heels. Eventually, Garroll and Urlich followed when it became clear they would miss the action if they didn’t. "Is he always this stupid?" Zhara asked angrily.
        "’Fraid so!" Lina called back just as she passed Zhara and threw a ray wing over Gourry that lifted him up and out of the reach of the blast of lethal energy Xellos threw at him. The group dove out of the way and flattened themselves on the ground as the spell shot over their heads.
        Xellos’ wicked giggling could be heard over the explosion that shook the cavern when his spell hit the wall next to the opening and sent a shower of boulders crashing to the floor. When the dust cleared, the cave mouth was considerably wider but filled with debris to within inches of the ceiling. "Shouldn’t have ducked!" Xellos scolded them with a smirk and waggling finger. "Now you can’t get out!"
        Lina snorted her opinion of that, pointed at the pile of rock and said very casually: "Fireball." The fireball hit the rocks with a giant explosion, shooting them into the tunnel beyond and clearing the entrance in a blaze of efficiency. She turned a weary look on Xellos. "Nice try."
        He grinned. "Shall I collapse the entire cavern, then? I don’t think you could fireball your way out of that one, Lina!"
        "What is your problem, anyway?" Lina grouched at him, taking her earlier questions directly to the source, however unlikely it was that the source in question would give her a straight answer. "I know you and Zel have never liked each other, but give the guy a break! I mean, he’s not going to turn into a mighty Dark Lord anymore, and the Lord of Nightmares said he can live--"
        "If you can make him a new body," Xellos reminded her with a wink. "That would seem to be the key, wouldn’t it?"
        Zelgadis seethed. "So if we want to make that copy, we have to get through you first, is that what you’re saying?" He cracked his knuckles and prepared to cast a major Ra Tilt, then remembered he couldn’t since he was in Amelia’s body and Amelia was having her period. So he cursed instead.
        "Actually, no," Xellos replied, pretending not to notice that Zelgadis had just failed to cast the most powerful attack spell in all white or shamanist magic but being inwardly amused by Zel’s predicament. "Make your copy. I won’t stop you." He hopped off the platform, bowed to them and made a flowery gesture toward the machine. When none of them moved, he gave them his best innocent grin. "No, really. I won’t interfere. I just want to watch. This machine does belong to me, after all, so I have a right to observe when it’s being used. I wouldn’t want you to break it."
        The others exchanged worried looks, then turned very suspicious ones on Xellos, who had come up with another nifty limerick in the meantime. Something to do Zelgadis and getting in touch with the woman within, but the Zelgadis Copying Team didn’t give him a chance to finish before ganging up on him to beat him to a pulp, which they tossed into a corner while they got down to business.
        "You don’t like my poetry," Xellos pouted from his corner. In a blink he was fully recovered from their assault, but chose to stay where he was since that particular corner offered him a nice view of the copying machine. "Cretins."
        Lina turned to Urlich, who sat on the platform next to her watching Garroll work his copying mojo upon the lock of Zelgadis’ hair. "Isn’t there some way to shut him up?"
        Url shrugged and grinned at her in that disturbingly Xellos-like way he had. "Killing him works until Beast Master makes another one. Ignoring him takes less energy."
        "There once were two brothers called Chaos, whose great dream in life was to slay us. Along came their mother, along with her brother and sealed up those brothers called Chaos."
        Lina started to say something sarcastic to Urlich, but the words caught in her throat. Xellos’ son had gone terrifyingly pale. All activity in the cavern abruptly ceased. Sylph gasped and collapsed, pulling her frightened sister down to the floor with her. Nik paused with knife to whetstone and looked worriedly from Zhara to Urlich. Garroll’s hands shook on the controls, but he added the last bit of growth culture before releasing them and daring a look over his shoulder to where Zhara hovered with Zelgadis, watching him work.
        "Holy gods..." Zhara gasped and had to sit down to collect her wits. He was just trying to goad her, that was all. Just being his usual, irritating self, only more so because she’d insulted him and his master. Her boys were safely sealed away, and there was no way Xellos had the power to release them! Only a Lord of Shabranigdo’s caliber could do it! Or the Lord of Nightmares, whose power Zhara had used to create the seal. Not even Beast Master had that kind of power.
        "’Brothers called Chaos’?" Lina muttered, thinking aloud. Chaos, Chaos... "Oh no!" She shook her head vehemently and pointed a trembling finger at Xellos, whose face had lost all of its mirth and stared at her with his scary lavender eyes. "You don’t mean the Sons of Chaos! Even you wouldn’t raise them! They almost destroyed the world!" When all he did was grin at her, Lina raced over, grabbed him by the shirt and shook him mercilessly. "Xellos, answer me!"
        Zhara’s dry chuckle saved her father further throttling. "He’s just trying to get to us," she said, trying to sound confident but not quite making it. "The Sons of Chaos can’t be ‘raised’, as you put it. They were sealed between worlds using the power of the Lord of Nightmares. That seal can’t be broken until the end of time, when it won’t matter anymore, anyway."
        Xellos giggled. "Don’t be so vague, dear." He grinned into Lina’s face until she paled and released him. As she backed away, he asked: "Want to hear the real story?"
        Sylph sobbed into her sister’s shoulder, Urlich’s arms wrapped around both of them as he glared pure death at his father over their trembling heads. Gourry wanted to ask who the Sons of Chaos were, but judging by the vibes in the room, this wasn’t a good time, so he just tried to look as menacing as possible at Xellos, who seemed more than willing to provide the explanation, whether anyone wanted it or not. "I think you should leave now, Dad," Urlich rumbled in the voice that belonged to his true form.
        Xellos wasn’t impressed. "No. I think it’s time this story was told," he looked up into Lina’s eyes and added: "The right way. There have been too many myths surrounding the Sons of Chaos and the battle that ended in their being sealed away from the world. You should know the truth, if you’re to fight them, Lina."
        Zhara stormed over, shoved Lina out of the way and slapped his face. "Stop it right now, Dad! They’re not coming back!"
        "I’m afraid they are." Xellos grabbed his daughter’s hand as it made another pass at his face and used it to pull himself to his feet then to pull her close. "You should have let me kill them. Did you really believe you could seal them away forever? That was extremely arrogant of you, my dear."
        Lina blinked astonishment. That wasn’t how she’d heard the story! In fact, the version she’d heard didn’t include any of the people in the room with her now. There was a Knight of Cefeid, who was unnamed other than that, the Sons of Chaos, also unnamed other than their title, and the Lord of Nightmares who sealed them. No Xellos trying to destroy them, no Zhara trying to protect them from him by sealing them out of the world. Just the Knight, the Sons of Chaos and L-Sama. And yet, despite his habit of not telling the whole truth, Xellos had never outright lied to her... "I want to hear the story."
        Several voices at once expressed their horror at that, but Zhara’s was closest and loudest. "YOU WHAT?!"
        Lina shrugged. "I don’t see what’s so bad about knowing what really happened when the Sons of Chaos were sealed away," she strolled back to the platform and hopped up onto it next to Zelgadis. "Obviously the stories I heard were wrong, since they didn’t mention you or Xellos--or is the version I heard correct, and neither of you were there? Or are we talking about another incident, entirely?" When no one replied, she added pointedly: "I think it’s pretty important to get our stories straight if what Xellos claims is true and they’re coming back."
        "I second the motion," Zelgadis said.
        Gourry added his vote in favor, but no one else spoke.
        Xellos grinned, not caring who took his side and who didn’t. The major players in the old drama were either reduced to tears or too paralyzed by anger and fear to stop him. They needed to hear his story, though they wouldn’t like the part he’d played in it, nor, perhaps, would they understand, blinded as they were by their collective hatred of him, but he thought Lina might understand. She was usually pretty quick on the uptake with such things as Dark Lords and their servants and their natty little fits of infighting. The one thing that troubled him in all of this (however slightly) was having to keep the matter from his master, though keeping secrets from her was nothing new for him. She didn’t know what he’d gotten from the Dragons he’d killed, didn’t know the true extent of his power, didn’t know about his role in the affair with the Sons of Chaos--and now she believed he was here to mess with Zelgadis’ plans to clone himself so he could rejoin the living. Frankly, Xellos didn’t give a damn whether Zelgadis lived or died now that the great power that had lain within him was gone. Without that power, he was useless to Xellos and, so, was no longer worth his trouble. When he’d said he wouldn’t interfere with their copy-making, he’d meant it, though the rest of it had been bunk.
        He smiled to himself, closing his eyes and reaching out with his feelings to the prison that would soon cease to hold Zhara’s sons. Not long now. When he opened his eyes again, his expression caused any further argument to fizzle. "Make yourselves comfortable," he said without cheer, "it’s a long story, but a good way to pass the time while we wait for Zelgadis’ new body to grow. I do so hate waiting."