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Kitsune Lina
Aftermath Lina watched the country side fly by from within Amelia's Raywing silently. Amelia periodically glanced back at her friend concerned. Amelia was aware that give Lina a ride like this only served to remind her of two things she didn't need a reminder for. Of course it yet again brought up the fact that she could no longer cast magic. Worse than that, though, it tore into the fresh wound of Xellos's death. If the mazoku were alive, she'd be travelling much faster. She thought back to the scene immediately after Regin finally fell. "It's over," Lina said wearily. Then she glared at Zelgadis.
"He asked me to cast the Ra Tilt," Zelgadis said. Lina just continued to glare at him. "I didn't know what he had planned."
"You didn't tell ME!" Lina roared and charged forward, the rags of her traveling clothes falling behind. Zelgadis didn't do much more than brace himself as Lina reached and shoved him back against the wall. She reared back on her legs as Zelgadis stepped from the wall and prepared for her next move.
They held position for a long moment and Amelia was on the verge of leaving Gourry momentarily and stepping between them. Then Lina slumped and shuffled over to where Xellos's body still lay. Zelgadis remained tense as she dropped to her knees next to the fallen mazoku. The were-fox closed his eyes and brushed aside his bangs.
"Why?" she whispered and then just stared. After that, Amelia left a healed Gourry to guard her while she and Zelgadis went to find her some clothes and hear reports of the rest of the fighting. Amelia sighed, since then Lina hadn't said much more than "yes" and "no" since then. She had been crying before they found her, Amelia had noticed that, but she hadn't see Lina cry at all. The princess looked about and saw that they were almost to Filia's house, it was amazing at how much quicker Raywing was than sneaking across the country.
"Okay, that's enough," Amelia said suddenly, bringing them swiftly but gently to earth.
"Why are we stopping?" Lina asked quietly.
"You can't afford this Lina," Amelia lectured.
"I'm fine," Lina protested languidly.
"You are not fine," Amelia told her. "You're in shock."
"Just leave me alone."
"No, I left you alone once, I'm not going to do it again."
"I'm alone any way, Xellos is dead." Amelia closed her eyes in repressed frustration. She took Lina by the shoulders and turned her around.
"You are NOT alone. I'm still your friend."
"You left once, and you're in love with Him." Lina's voice finally took on some emotion as she mentioned Zelgadis even obliquely. "He's in love with you, too, and you both know it. I can smell it whenever your next to each other."
"Okay, but what about your children Lina. They going to need more than a half-present sleep-walker."
"Xina and Xalan, they'll never know...him..." Lina thought about them, Xina's purple hair and Xalan's eyes. Then she blinked and started crying loudly. Amelia relieved let the were-fox lean on her and cry against her shoulder. The princess had come a long way since that night when she had been afraid to let Lina out of a set of silver-threaded manacles.
"Why did he do it? We could have beaten Regin, we were almost winning without Xellos. Why did he have to get himself killed? He didn't even succeed, Regin lived, and that's...that's not like Xellos." Amelia sighed, she thought she had the answer.
"He wasn't trying to kill Regin," Amelia said quietly. Lina sniffed and looked at her friend.
"What are you talking about? Who else was there to fight?"
"After you had the twins, he went off somewhere and came back beat up." Lina thought back and remembered the scent of healing in the room when she woke up that morning. "We think it was Xelas, but we never asked him to be sure."
"Why didn't anybody tell me about this?" Lina snapped.
"We didn't know for sure," Amelia explained. "And we weren't going to let Xellos know that we were spying on him."
"Zelgadis knew," Lina spat, she stepped away from the dark haired priestess. "Xellos sat and planned out his own death and Zelgadis helped him."
Lina knew many things. She knew that Xelas was far too big a fish for the Slayers now that Lina was without magic. She knew that Zelgadis probably hadn't even considered that Xellos would willingly sacrifice himself, he had always considered the mazoku completely selfish.
"He didn't mean for this to happen Lina," Amelia tried to appeal to her usually excellent sense of logic. What she knew and what she accepted, however, were two different things. She didn't accept that this had been the only chance to take out Xelas, and she didn't accept that Zelgadis hadn't let Xellos walk into his grave.
"He never liked Xellos," Lina countered.
"Lina..." Amelia started. She was at least relieved that the were-fox was acting more like herself again.
"No, he knew what Xellos was planning," Lina asserted. She turned toward Amelia. "Come on we shouldn't waste any more time, I haven't seen my children in three days. Filia and Sylphiel should be told that we're..." she faltered. "That we won." "Lina, thank Cepheed," Sylphiel declared as Amelia and Lina landed in front of Filia's house. "We were getting worried."
"Get inside before someone notices you just flew here!" Filia snapped. "Wait...flew here, but why didn't Xellos just..." Lina looked away as she passed Filia into the house. Filia faced Amelia and the princess shook her head somberly.
"What happened?" Sylphiel asked Amelia as they both followed into the house.
"Xellos is dead." Amelia said after seeing Lina walk into her and...her bedroom abd check on her sleeping children.
"What?!" Filia and Amelia both fixed the priestess with a glare.
"How'd it happen?"
"You felt the ripple in the weave?"
"Yes, if it hadn't come from the wrong direction I would have thought it was you," Sylphiel admitted.
"I think Xellos caused that," Amelia said. "He had some plan involving a stream of energy that only he and Zelgadis could see and..."
"A pure flow?" Filia asked
"What's that?" Sylphiel looked and saw Lina engrossed in her kids.
"It's a mazoku thing, always thought it was legend actually," Filia explained to the priestess.
"Whatever it was, Regin made it, we think Xellos used it to kill Xelas."
"And he died in the process," Filia nodded. "That's in the legends too."
"We came to tell you, and bring you to the funeral."
"A funeral?"
"A state funeral," Amelia confimed. "A hero's funeral."
"Sailoon is giving a mazoku a state funeral?" Sylphiel blinked in near shock.
"Xellos would have loved the irony." They all nearly jumped at Lina's voice. "Filia can you take us back? I think you can fly faster than a Raywing."
"Sure Lina...are you okay?"
"No, I'm not," Lina admitted with a glance at Amelia. "But I think I will be. Come on I don't want to leave him waiting any longer."
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