Author’s notes: Hey there all you Z&A lovers! This is the result of an idea I got from watching “Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom”. It wont have anything to do with the plot, but I got the idea anyway. Once again, Amelia is grown up, this time with mid-back-length hair. (For imaging purposes-she resembles Nahga (except for her chest-she’s a regular size!), with hair that is about the same, but with curls at the ends… ^^;;? ) Got to go now!
Amelia stood inside of a circle, surrounded by candles. Beast Master Zellas stood no less than 10 feet away. Zelgadis, eyes dull and glazed over, stood next to Zellas, her hand on his shoulder, smirking at Amelia. There was no sign of Xellos, though his presence was known. He was sitting on a high platform holding a lever at a forty degree angle. The lever controlled a rope that ran up to the ceiling of the room, and back down to a beam, where the end was tied to Amelia’s wrists.
Amelia was battered and beaten, blood stained her face and white linen yukata which was already torn to shreds from the lashing she received. Her hands, tied above her head, were clenched from the needles of pain shooting through her body.
Zellas chuckled her husky growl and approached the circle, Zelgadis on her heels. He was shirtless, and had red paint smeared over his forehead, apparently Zellas’s way of showing that she had control over him, the red representing blood. Zellas stopped at the borderline of the circle and grumbled. Xellos snapped his fingers, or tried to, it wouldn’t work so he took of his glove and tried again. It worked and Amelia’s body went rigid, a band of red and blue electricity tightening around her throat.
“Now, now dear child, why don’t you just tell me where the Orehalcon Staff is? It would make all of this much easier for the both of us.” Said Zellas in a human tone, with the remnants of a feral growl.
“If I told, the whole world would go through a much more painful suffering that what I am going through now!” Amelia replied, weakened and hoarse.
Zellas straightened and looked up at Xellos, he nodded and let the lever out some, until Amelia’s feet hovered closer to the floor. Zellas went inside the circle and sneered at Amelia. She pulled the stray hairs out of Amelia’s face and turned quickly to exit. She looked at Zelgadis and motioned for him to enter the circle.
As soon as he came into Amelia’s view, she almost fainted. Amelia had not been able to see him from the darkness, or at least identify him from her blurred vision.
The night before then, Amelia had been in her room in the Seyruun palace speaking to Zelgadis about the Orehalcon Staff, then they chatted about how close they had been for the past few weeks, glances, small caresses from one’s hand upon the other’s. Soon they got into an argument, about his ‘disfigured skin’, and why it wasn’t disfiguring at all. After Amelia had given her defense, very well, Zelgadis was about to kiss her, overwhelmed by how beautiful she was, and how much she put up a fight about his curse. Once he got close enough to kiss Amelia, Xellos appeared in the corner of the room. He gathered a mass of his mazoku magic, and blasted it towards Zelgadis. When Xellos stopped the beam, Zelgadis was left seemingly dead, Amelia was overtaken by a sleep spell. They were both taken to Wolfpack Island, where Amelia was tortured to get her to talk, and give up the location of the Orehalcon Staff. Zellas healed Zelgadis and took control over him. Now Amelia was strung up face to face with him.
Tears streamed down her face, Zelgadis tilted his head at her, eyes unfeeling and dead.
“Zelgadis…what has she done to you? Zelgadis-please don’t let her take you from me. Come back Zelgadis-please-for me. Please?” Amelia pleaded as Zelgadis looked at her in an unseeing stare.
Zelgadis ran his index finger over her jaw line and down her neck, to her collarbone. Then back up to her face and wiped away her tears, his eyes flashed with life, then back to the darkness.
“No…please-Zelgadis.”
He stopped and took a step back, then raised one hand, looked back at Zellas, who nodded, and chanted unknown words. A metallic line leading from Amelia’s collarbone to the bottom of her ribcage materialized. Amelia bit her lip hard enough to draw blood and breathed in a tremor-filled gasp. Her back arched, she closed her eyes tight and gritted her teeth, then started her own defense. Though there was a magic canceling spell placed on her, she let loose her true power.
“ASTRAL HEALING!”
A silvery beam erupted from her and impacted Zelgadis. His eyes returned to normal and was released from Zellas’s control. He stumbled back after the magic subsided and rubbed his eyes. Then he looked up and saw Amelia. He ran to her and shakily placed on hand on the side of her face, he got angry really fast. Zellas sighed and snapped her fingers, Zelgadis appeared beside her, being held by two lesser mazoku. She then angrily pointed a finger at Amelia. She was going to finish what Zelgadis could not.
The line that had materialized over Amelia’s chest widened to cover her whole chest. Amelia screamed as it expanded, pulsing with dark power. Zelgadis struggled to get free of the two mazoku and yelled and screamed for Zellas to stop.
However, she did not.
Amelia was screaming and struggling to get free of the ropes. Zellas snapped her fingers and she fell to the floor, shaking and tearing at her chest. Zelgadis screamed her name and tried to get away from the mazoku even harder. Amelia clenched herself into a tight ball and cried and groaned from the immense pain of the contracting tear across her chest. She then heard Zelgadis and rolled onto her back trying to calm down, though the pain was still sharp and constant.
“What are you doing to her Zellas?!” Zelgadis cried.
“Hmph, just toying with her, slowly-and painfully” Zellas replied.
“What’s-happening to me?!” Amelia screamed.
“AMELIA!” Zelgadis screamed her name once more and broke free from the mazokus’ grasps upon his arms.
He ran towards Amelia and fell to his knees as he came to her trembling body.
“Tell us the Staff’s whereabouts and I will stop this.” Zellas bargained.
“N-NEVER!”
“Fine. Zelgadis, two choices, tell me-or she dies and becomes my slave-as a mazoku”
Zelgadis took Amelia into his arms and whispered into her ear: “Amelia, listen. Don’t give up. I’m here, I wont tell, but I don’t want to loose you. We have to do something.”
“W-What is she doing to me?”
Zellas chuckled, “Just slowly letting you die. But I will reverse it if you tell me.”
Xellos thumped his legs on the platform, getting impatient at his master’s timing. The two lower mazoku looked at each other and took two steps back, Zellas was laughing-hard.
Amelia looked down at her chest, the gaping metallic hole on her chest was still there, the pain ever-constant. But now, it didn’t seem so bad-she was in Zelgadis’s arms-warm and well protected within his grasp. Zellas stopped laughing and groaned.
“Oh! Come ON! Let’s get this moving, shall we?” she tapped her foot on the ground quickly, “Come on, come on-look just tell me where the staff is, and I will willingly send you back to Seyruun, right where you two left off!”
“If you ever, ever got your flea-bitten hands on that staff, believe me-you’d have one heck of a fight to put up with.” Amelia began.
“Yaddda, yadda, yadda-give it up.”
“Don’t worry-we’ll get out of this. We always do don’t we?” Zelgadis assured her with a smile.
“Right” Amelia nodded her head and looked back up at Zellas, she smiled at Zelgadis and asked him to help her up.
The wounds that covered her body were multiple-blood stained her dress. Through the torn back Zelgadis could see the long marks across her back going in haphazard directions. Her hair was clumped together from dried blood and pulled into a tangled mass of what used to be a pony-tail. Her eyes where gleaming-her face almost glowing with angelic peace. She kept smiled and took a defensive pose though her body ached and was stiff from being tied up for such a long period.
“You want to see the staff huh?” she asked, lines of energy pulling into her hands.
She clenched them into a position that mimicked Lina’s when she cast the Laguna Blade. The green energy began to take a more organized form. It sizzled and fizzed within her fingers. The energy surrounded her and lifted her feet from the marble floor. Her hair pulled loose from the shoddy pony-tail and flew up above her in a river of black waves. The tangles untangled, the blood disappeared, though the wounds were still ever-present.
A white light encased her and a staff formed within her hands. At the apex of the staff was a crescent moon-shaped diamond which the wood had grown over, encasing it within. Ribbons tied at the base of the diamond fluttered around within the vortex of white light. A small strangely shaped gem appeared on Amelia’s forehead, gleaming just as the diamond did in the staff.
The energy died down leaving Amelia in it’s wake-staff in hand.
“O goodie goodie! The staff-THE STAAAFF!” Zellas beamed, jumping for joy.
“Yep-and wait ‘til you get a taste of it’s true power…” Amelia replied to Zellas’s joyous outburst.
“Huum?”
Amelia swirled the staff for a moment and struck a pose, one hand spread at her forehead, the other clasped onto the staff. She spun around slowly, the power of the staff gathering.
“Lord mighty within the heavens, grant me the power of this godly staff. I grant myself to you-beseech the power of all to my hand. Let the heavens’ wrath flow into me and into this staff to destroy the one who confronts me and the power you have granted. Mighty staff-Orehalcon Staff-allow me to harness your power and destroy this foolish foe who stands before me…”
Amelia took off at a dead run towards Zellas, she leaped up into the air and drew the staff back. She gritted her teeth and tensed her muscles to prepare for the blast which was to erupt from the staff.
“OREHALCON SLAVE!”
A swirling cloud whirled above Amelia-who was suspended in mid-air, the staff drawn back. A silvery-blue beam poured from the cloud, into Amelia. Teeth gritted and bared, Amelia wailed, tears running down her cheeks which were knotted up from her eyes being shut so tightly. She drew her legs up to her and the staff pulled back behind her head. With one fluid motion she flung the staff back in front of her-a beam of silvery-white light erupted from the staff.
Zellas shrieked and transported fifteen feet away. The beam bounced off the floor and into the direction where she was. She transported one more-this time she was too slow, the beam impacted her and burst into flames. Of course, she didn’t “die”, but was thrown into a “Dark Lord awareness group” for Shabranigdo’s lackeys who can’t keep their noses clean. Which could take quite a long, LONG, LONG time to get out of for the Beast Master Zellas.
Amelia fell back down to the floor-totally drained-and was caught by Zelgadis before she hit the ground. She sighed and smiled at him, he smiled back and the two picked up where they left off-with a perfect kiss.
Lina and Gourry, sitting on a couch, both blushing and exchange looks as Zelgadis and Amelia sit quite close to each other on a love-seat opposite them. Amelia holding Zelgadis’s hand and leaning on his shoulder, Zelgadis smiling a bit and blushing slightly, both hands on Amelia’s.
“S-Sooo…I guess you two are ah-um. You know…?” Gourry stuttered.
“Going steady-a couple-kissing-maybe considering engagement?!” Lina bantered.
Amelia smiled, Zelgadis turned one shade deeper crimson, Gourry rubbed the back of his head and coughed. Lina smiled, showing her fangs.
“Actually, we are a couple, but how ‘bout you Lina-are you two twiterpated too?” Amelia bantered right back.
“But-I-we-I um-well…”
Gourry thumped his hand on her shoulder and smiled.
“What does it matter? Hey! That reminds me! When’s dinner Lina?” he asked
They all laughed. A picturesque scene of the four the way they always wanted to be. Amelia in Zelgadis’s arms, surrounded in their love, Lina-drooling with Gourry over dinner plans and fortune only cities away.
The group united, friends brought together by fate, and fighting side by side during times of destruction. From Shabranigdo to Dark Star, the gang has stuck together like glue, relationships blooming with every adventure. Foes come and go, but friendships last a lifetime.
And now, at least two members have found love, but still, two more still have to admit to it.
Author’s end notes: Well, how was it? I apologize for my bad writing and editing on Finding the Truth ^^. Well-it was my first try and I got too excited to edit it for the billionth time, so I sent it in before revising it one last time. I read it all recently-I discovered something-it sucks! The storyline was good, but the writing was shoddy. Part two will drag it’s behind for a while, I’m in no hurry. About this fic, the Orehalcon Staff is a staff made of part of the Staff of the Gods, it amplifies power and the gem contains the power of L-Sama. The “twiterpated” thing came from “Bambi”, you know, as a term for when someone is in love.
This fic, hopefully is better than my last…many are still in production. The next to come may be “Finding the Way” or “New Discoveries” or “Forever’s Temptaions”, whichever I work on more frequently over the Thanksgiving holiday away from school! Mail me please! I want some comments, what do you think? Please…tell me! I have to go now, T*T*F*N! Ta ta for now!