Search for the Darkstar - A Living Nightmare

Author: DQBunny Title: Search for the Darkstar - A Living Nightmare

Search for Darkstar
Chapter 4: The One Way to Blackmail Lina Inverse ← Chapter 5: A Living Nightmare → Chapter 6: Hide and Go Seek Among the Ruins

Chapter Index

Disclaimer: "Slayers" isn't mine, but belongs to Kanzaka Hajime, Araizumi Rui and those who represent them. I'm just borrowing the characters for a little while and will return them intact. Except for Gourry. He might be squished just a little. This story is set after the manga arc "Knight of Aqualord" and is an alternate take on the TRY season of the anime.

There will be an author's note following this chapter briefly explaining one plot point.
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Chapter 5: A Living Nightmare
Town of Mythil, Empire of Lyzeille
Three days after Filia hired Lina Inverse and her group
Filia ul Copt had patience instilled in her from a very young age. She knew that in order to get what she wanted, she would have to remain calm and negotiate. But the group of people sitting around her shoveling down food as if it was their last day on the planet made set her teeth on edge and growl in frustration.
She never said she was good at being patient.
Lina shoved a couple bites of roast beef in her mouth before casting a glance across the table at her. "What's wrong, Filia?"
Filia's hands curled into fists. "I graciously allowed you time to make a trip to this...Sairaag place to help Gourry-san. Instead, all we've done is stop three times a day and eat an hour at a time! Do you people ever do anything other than eat?"
"We sleep!" Gourry supplied helpfully.
Lina waved her fork at Filia. "Don't be in such a rush. It's not like anything has happened regarding that prophecy of yours. Besides, if the Sword of Light really is in Sairaag, believe me, we'll need it.
"The explosion in Atlas City?" Shizuri asked. "Do you think that's connected?"
"It's possible, yes." Lina immediately stabbed the back of Gourry's hand with her fork. "Get your fingers out of my food, jellyfish!"
He jerked back his hand with a hiss of pain. "Lina!"
Shizuri sipped at her tea, doing her best to ignore the Lina and Gourry road show. "It does sound a bit fishy though, Filia-san. It's one thing to believe a prophecy, but we haven't seen anything come out of it yet. Granted, that one city was partially destroyed, but there isn't enough evidence to link it to what you told us."
"Prophecies aren't weather forecasts, Shizuri-san," Filia replied in a frosty tone that caused Shizuri stiffen her spine. "We just can't make them come true instantly."
Shizuri drew herself to her full height and stared down her nose at Filia. "Filia-san, I am in service to Zasu-sama, high priest of Aqualord. Believe me, we at the Aqualord temple are aware of the nature of prophecies. We also make sure there is firm evidence behind those prophecies before saddling them with outsiders, not to mention insulting those who you wish to help them. I would check your demeanor and be patient."
Filia slowly rose from her seat and gripped the edge of the table. "You have no right to speak to me that way."
Shizuri followed suit, her nose almost butting into Filia's. "I have every right to speak to you that way, because someone needs to knock some sense into that pretty little head of yours."
Lyos, who sat between the women, sucked in a breath and held it for a moment. "Hey, don't you think you two are taking this a bit too far?"
Lina suddenly shoved her chair back from the table, the scrapping noise snapping both women from their argument. She turned her back on them, halfway tempted to knock some sense into both of them. Instead, she reached for her cloak. "This is the last inhabited town before Sairaag. Since we're done eating, I think it's a good time, don't you, Gourry?"
He nodded and grinned at her and got to his feet as well.
Filia clasped her hands with joy. "You're going to run into this Sairaag place, get the sword and come back so we can all head to the Flarelord's temple?"
Lina ignored her. "It's time for dessert!" she proclaimed, stabbing a finger in the air.
"Yes!" Gourry cried, pumping his own fist.
"No!" Filia wailed and sank into her seat.
With a laugh, Lina and Gourry took off, leaving Shizuri, Lyos and Filia. Shizuri and Filia glanced at each other, then faced the opposite direction with a snort. "I'm going to go find the princess," Shizuri announced. "You stay here with Miss Know-it-All Priestess, Lyos."
"Fine by me," Filia sniffed.
Lyos sighed. "I didn't come all this way to be a dragon's babysitter."
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A few feet away from the inn, Lina spotted a dessert shop they had visited before and dragged Gourry toward it. "We'll get something to eat here and continue on into Sairaag" she explained as she pushed the door open.
They ordered most of the items on hand and and settled at a table outside of the shop to eat. The spot gave them a good view of the public road, the one that led straight to Sairaag. Lina had devoured three cookies before the memories of when she last came through this town started coming back.
Well, it wasn't that bad of a memory. Somehow, everyone had managed to come out of the fight with Hellmaster Phibrizzo alive and had come back here to recuperate and celebrate. It was punctuated by Martina and Zangulus showing up and announcing their engagement. It was at that time that Martina urged Lina to be true to her own feelings for a second time.
She stared at the pile of food in front of her. "Hey, Gourry?"
"Hmm?" He took a large bite out of a pear.
She frowned and fiddled with her cookie. These emotional discussions still made her feel odd, but she had to know. "Do you feel strange about going to Sairaag?"
"No. Why, should I?"
She glanced up, surprised. Gourry's eyes held mild curiosity, but none of the turmoil that had been going through her own mind since they left Atlas City a couple days earlier. Filia had been right about one thing. They had been going a lot slower than the trip normally took. Lina stared at her hands once more. The closer they got to Sairaag, the further she wanted to be from it. She growled and curled her hand into a fist. It was stupid. Childish. She shouldn't be afraid of a city! She was Lina Inverse! She wasn't scared of anything!
But she could still close her eyes and see the crystal containing Gourry's inert body shattering.
She would have to cast the Giga Slave. There was no other way around it. She would have to, to save him, to save all of them. There was no other choice. She couldn't imagine her life without him in it.
Gourry started to turn his attention back to his food when he noticed the color drain from Lina's face. Her eyes were empty and focused on some random point in the distance, yet her hands shook. A tear slid down her cheek, followed by another.
Carefully, he set his food down. "Lina? Are you okay? Lina!"
"You, who is darker than darkness; You, who are deeper then night." Her voice was barely above a whisper. Energy crackled and began to gather around her body.
Gourry stared at her for a moment, frantically trying to place the spell. A memory slammed into him, of being trapped and of watching her doing this very same thing while pleading with whatever consciousness he had left for her not to risk it. Giga Slave...
"You, the floating one, the Sea of Chaos..."
He vaulted out his seat, upsetting the table and the rest of the food in the process. He grabbed her arms. "Lina, stop it! Wake up, Lina!"
Tears continued to trickle down her cheeks. Her body vibrated beneath his hold as the power gathered inside of her. She didn't know what she was doing, he realized. He shook her, hard. "Lina! Please! You're safe!"
He heard voices yelling at him, the sound of feet pounding toward them. He didn't care. He had to get Lina to wake up, to stop the spell. He shook her again. "Lina!"
"The golden king of darkness. Here I implore you, here I pledge myself to you..."
Gourry quickly raced through his options. He could try slapping her, but he couldn't bring himself to strike Lina like that in this situation, especially since shaking wasn't working to begin with. The power swirled around them and started to pound at his own body. He held her arms, so it was quite possible she wouldn't finish it. Even so, he had to get her to stop talking. He could muffle her mouth with his hand, or...
"That to those fools who..." Lina's voice cut off as Gourry covered her mouth with his.
The power started to dissipate as the spell dissolved, but Lina was still dreadfully still in his arms. He wrapped them fully around her now, held her close, knowing he was damned to hell and the largest fireball she could muster once she realized they were in the middle of a public street. But that didn't matter now. He just wanted her to wake up. He wanted his Lina back.
After a moment, she stirred, then suddenly grabbed him. She clung to him as tight as she could, returning the kiss and stirring another memory inside of him of a similar kiss, a similar desperation. She eased back and appeared to come to her senses, glancing around at the overturned table, the spoiled food and then noticed the small crowd around them.
Lina took several deep breaths and tried to steady herself. She sat limply back in her chair, dazed and a little bit confused. The last thing she remembered was being in Hellmaster Phibrizzo's lair and casting the Giga Slave. No, no, she told herself. Phibrizzo's been dead for 18 months. Then why did...
"Lina-san, are you okay?"
Lina looked up when she felt Amelia's hand on her shoulder. "I'm fine, Amelia," she replied in a shaky voice. "I'm just...that was..." Unconsciously, she reached out and Gourry grabbed her hand. "That was strange," she acknowledged.
"You were casting the Giga Slave, Lina-san," Amelia informed her gently.
Lina shot out of her seat. "I did what?"
"You were trying to cast the Giga Slave. Gourry-san was trying to stop you and he finally kissed you to do so."
"You did what?" Now Lina turned on Gourry. "We were in the middle of a public street!"
"Would you rather have killed us?" he shot back at her, more than a little shaken himself.
Lina started to respond, then caught the addition of someone new standing behind Gourry. Her jaw fell open and she collapsed into her seat once more, not prepared to face this. "Sy...Sy..."
Gourry pivoted, Lina's hand still in his. "Sylphiel!"
-----
Even though the kingdom of Lyzeille had seen its fair share of odd people passing through since the Mazoku barrier was destroyed, the two making their way to Sairaag still caused a lot of unwanted attention. Or, maybe it wasn't their size, but the fact that two such dissimilar creatures were in each other's company willingly.
The taller figure looked like an orc, the smaller a fox. The fox held a map, which he used to plot their location every so often.
"How much longer, Jillas?" the taller one complained. "This is starting to look like a fool's mission."
"We should be no more than a half day's walk from the site, Gravos." The fox informed him. "Valgaav-sama wouldn't send us on a fool's mission, you know that. He said that splitting up is the best way to get ahold all five of those weapons. He said that one of those have been spotted near this Sairaag place."
"Just like he said one of the others was near that Atlas City place we were just at," Gravos pointed out. "But that weapon's gone, whatever it was. We've got to find this one."
Among the leafy tree branches a few feet in front of them, Xelloss took a sip of tea and gave the travelers a cryptic smile. So he was right about someone else going after the weapons as well. With any luck, Lina and her group were also on their way to Sairaag. It would be a race to see who would locate Gorun Nova, no the Sword of Light, first.
Lina's group would have the advantage over the two newcomers, for they knew the kay of the land. And, if for some reason that Jillas and Gravos got ahold of the sword before Lina's group did, well...Xelloss smirked. It would be no problem to simply lift the weapon from them. But it would also mean reworking his plan a bit, and he hated to do that. The weapon would be more useful in Gourry Gabriev's hands at the moment. No, he needed to have Lina and her group intercept them and draw out the battle just enough to get all the pieces in place.
Speakings of Lina and her group, it was probably a good time to check in on them. Xelloss finished his tea and headed back to the Astral Plane.
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"They're not that bad once you get to know them." Feeling generous, Lyos signaled for a refill of both his and Filia's teacups. "They're definitely a bit...strange. But not that bad."
"I just wish they would take things seriously," Filia sighed. Her gaze dropped to her newly filled cup. "We've been waiting for so long already. Part of me wonders if we're running out of time, or if I've even gotten the right person."
Lyos' eyes took on a faraway expression. "If there's one thing I can't doubt, it's that Lina Inverse is extremely powerful. I think she's even more powerful than me and I'm the Knight of Aqualord. Then again, she can do magic, which is something entirely different from the power that I have."
Filia started to take a sip of her tea, then cocked her head to one side. "There's a lot of yelling going on out there."
Lyos glanced up and noticed energy crackling through the window. He half-rose from his seat. "Something's going on."
Filia followed Lyos' gaze, then jumped up from her chair. "Look! It's Lina-san!"
They raced outside just in time to see Gourry haul Lina into his arms and kiss her. As he did so, the magical energy surrounding them died away. Partly out of embarrassment, they looked away and noticed to see Amelia, Shizuri and a third woman running toward them.
Amelia approached Lina's side and bent to talk to her. Shaken, Shizuri turned to them. "Did you see what happened?" she asked.
"No, we just felt an incredible surge of energy," Filia replied, her earlier disagreement with Shizuri pushed to the side.
"She was casting some strange spell and..."
"I did what?" Lina shrieked in response to Amelia's words.
"What sort of spell?" Lyos asked.
Before he could get an answer, he saw Lina collapse into her chair, stammering out a name. Gourry whirled around, his eyes locking on the third woman who had come running up with Amelia and Shizuri. "Sylphiel!"
A slim woman with hair as dark as Amelia's stepped forward. She was dressed in a tunic and leggings that reminded Lyos of the style he had seen other women wear in this country, the normal garb of shrine maidens as Amelia had explained. Like Lina and Amelia, she wore her hair loose so it tumbled down her back. Her eyes, large and expressive, took in the scene before her. Shock, dismay and some resignation crossed her features before managing a smile. "Gourry-sama. Lina-san. It's been awhile."
Lyos' face grew flush and he averted his gaze quickly. She's beautiful...
Shizuri flicked a glance over her shoulder at Lyos, a smile slowly growing. There's hope yet, she thought, before turning her attention back to the current situation.
They stared at each other for a minute, Lina, Gourry and Sylphiel. This was the moment of reckoning, but it wasn't how she would had chosen to do so. Lina got to her feet again, her hand still in Gourry's. "Yes, it has been awhile, Sylphiel. What brings you here?"
"Well, it's been several years since...that day," Sylphiel replied, her voice dropping nearly to a whisper. "We've been holding a remembrance ceremony for Sairaag's destruction every year and I'm on my way there to do so for this year."
"We're on our way there as well, Sylphiel-san!" Amelia gave her the biggest smile in her arsenal. "It's no use for you to travel alone. Why not go with us?"
"I don't know," Sylphiel hesitated, looking over at Lina and Gourry once more.
Gourry grinned. "It'll be good to have you with us. It'll be great to have your cooking again."
Lina gaped at him. Was he really that clueless? Could he honestly not see what was going on here? She was halfway tempted to shake some sense into him. Instead, she pulled her hand away from his and placed it on her hip. "It's up to you, Sylphiel. We've got a big group already. One more's not going to matter."
Without much fuss, Sylphiel accepted and quickly turned her attention to meeting Shizuri and Lyos and getting her things. A low headache settled behind Lina's temples and she knew it was going to remain that way for the next part of the trip. It wasn't that she didn't like Sylphiel, in fact she did very much. But the fawning all over Gourry that tended to accompany her presence grated on her nerves and especially now, it would be really awkward.
With each passing moment, the decision to go speak with Filia's elder at the Flarelord temple immediately sounded more and more appealing. But she had made this promise to Gourry, and more importantly, she owed it to him for the part he did in bringing her back from the Lord of Nightmares. Not to mention, that's what you do for someone you love, right? Lina grumbled. Things were much simpler when emotions weren't involved.
That night, on the outskirts of Sairaag, Lina made a point of situating her bedroll on the very edge of the group - and as far away from the men as she possibly could. Her head aching viciously, she pleaded exhaustion and crawled into her bedroll as soon as she could. She sprawled facedown and wished for a dream, any sort of dream, to take her away.
After a bit, Lina felt a cool hand on her head, then a spell washing through her body. The ache disappeared and she looked up to see Sylphiel kneeling by her side.
She drew her hand away, pressed it to her breast. "You looked like you were in pain, Lina-san. I'm sorry if I'm intruding."
"No, no, you're fine," Lina grumbled. She did feel a lot better, she couldn't begrudge her for that. Damn it, she could never stay upset with Sylphiel for very long.
Sylphiel allowed her hand to drop to her lap. Slowly, they both curled into fists before relaxing slightly. "I...I...you and Gourry-sama. How long has it been?"
She deserved nothing less than the truth. "A few weeks. We traveled to another continent, to a country called Kunan. It happened there, though I suppose unofficially for awhile now."
Lina pulled herself into a sitting position. She wasn't about to apologize for it and on two occasions, Sylphiel had made overtones about her interest and wanting to know her own motives. Now they were out there.
Sylphiel's gaze drifted over to Gourry, where he still sat by the fire talking to Amelia and Shizuri. "Lina-san, I've been thinking about this for a very long time. It's a very complicated matter."
Lina scratched at her cheek absently. "It's not really..."
"I just want to know one thing." Sylphiel swung her attention back to Lina. "Is he happy?"
"Aaah...that's probably something you should be asking Gourry, Sylphiel."
Sylphiel's eyes hardened and she leaned in a little closer. "Okay then. Are you happy?"
"Huh?" Lina gave Sylphiel a blank stare. "Am I happy?"
She nodded. "Yes. Are you happy?"
"Umm...," Lina stared at her knees and noticed the worn spots in her leggings. She needed to get more, these had been her spare after the fight with Hureika. She took a few deep breaths and mulled it over. Was she happy? For the first time, she allowed her own gaze to drift to the fire, then the man sitting beside it. After a moment, she smiled. "I suppose I am."
Sylphiel smiled. "Good. That's all I want." Before Lina could stop it, Sylphiel had thrown her arms around her and gave her a quick, hard hug. "Then I want nothing but happiness for the both of you," she whispered before pulling away.
She sat back on her haunches. "I know we...I know that I...," she took a deep breath. "In the end, I just want him to be happy. And I want you to be happy too, Lina-san. You're both very important to me."
Lina's smile grew. "Thanks, Sylphiel."
Sylphiel rejoined the others and Lina turned onto her side to get some sleep. She glanced up quickly, noticed spiky blue hair moving through the bushes. With a smirk, she fell asleep.
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Author's Note: I did want to explain a little of what is happening to Lina. She's going through post-traumatic stress disorder, something that can occur to people who have gone through major traumatic experiences - especially through a war. Of course, the Slayers cast doesn't know about it, nor will they figure it out. In a lot of cases, PTSD doesn't occur until six months to a year after the event has occured (it's been a year after Lina fought Phibrizzo and entered the Sea of Chaos) and can be triggered by encountering things that are associated with the traumatic event.

Chapter 4: The One Way to Blackmail Lina Inverse ← Chapter 5: A Living Nightmare → Chapter 6: Hide and Go Seek Among the Ruins

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