"I'd say the story is rather credible," said Zelgadis. "It looks like it was a wise choice to not completely trust you. You were suspicious from the start."

"If he didn't reveal you, your intentions were becoming rather obvious, anyway," added Lina. "We would have found you out sooner or later on our own. With all your secrecy and general bad attitude, you were an obvious double-agent, although not a very good one."

"I'm not working for him!" Sonjia shouted. "He's probably trying to create friction in the group by pretending one of us is on his side!"

"I find it interesting that he chose you," observed Zelgadis.

Jadarin wagged a finger. "Oh, stop denying it. Why, you killed everyone in this town with your own power."

"Did not!" Sonjia retorted.

"Did too," Jadarin taunted back.

"Did not! I can't even use magic, stupid! Not even the simple stuff!" To demonstrate, she raised her hand with the palm outstretched. "Lighting!" she commanded. Sonjia smiled smugly; sure she had proven her point. That is, until a giant ball of light erupted from her hand, illuminating the entire town. Everyone covered their eyes, momentarily blinded by the powerful flash. Sonjia waved her hand to cancel the light spell. Finally, the light died away.

"Fascinating," said Jadarin, scratching his chin. "That sure looked like using magic to me."

Lina shook her head, trying to relieve herself of the little spots of color dancing in front of her vision. She looked over at Gourry and noted that he was standing around trying to catch the little spots floating around. Idiot. Lina raised her arm, intent on giving Sonjia a nasty concussion, but her distorted vision caused her to miss once she swung. Instead, Lina ended up on her face on the ground. "Stupid Mazoku..." she cursed.

"Yeah, he's starting to irk me, too," said Sonjia.

"Not him! You! You good-for-nothing piece of Mazoku trash!" Lina growled, pulling herself up to a kneeling position.

"Pardon?" Sonjia really didn't know how to reply to that.

"Well well," said Xellos, floating down beside Sonjia. "I truly do not recognize you as a Mazoku. But that doesn't mean you aren't one. And if I can't destroy your friend there, perhaps I'll have more luck with you..."

"You will do nothing of the sort!" Jadarin warned. "I'll destroy you first! Or maybe she'll do it for me."

Sonjia crossed her arms. "Yeah, right," she said. "Like that'll give everyone a better impression of me. I refuse to use my powers for destructive purposes."

"Oh, so you do have magical power," said Lina, smirking.

Sonjia smacked herself in the forehead. "Oops..." She looked up, noticing that everyone was giving her rather disapproving looks. "Okay, I'm sick of being blamed for things that I have absolutely nothing to do with! Handle this one on your own!" With that, she turned and ran out of the town as fast as she could, heading back to the forest.

"Someone stop her!" Lina shouted.

"I believe I'll handle this one," said Xellos, preparing to teleport after her.

"I don't think so," growled Jadarin, quickly snapping his fingers. From those fingers he threw... something. Whatever it was, it didn't appear to be anything large or powerful. But it didn't matter, because Xellos had already teleported away. "Damn," he cursed. He was about to pursue, when a Flare Arrow caught him in the arm. This time, it did some damage.

Lina brought her arm down. "Looks like you forgot to keep your shield up!" she said. "I'm finishing this right here, right now!"

"Go away," said Jadarin, pulling one of his chopsticks from before out of his pocket. "Xellos probably won't be able to kill the girl, but I can't take that chance."

"If he can't kill her, I'll kill her myself," said Lina, throwing a fireball at the annoying cat Mazoku thing. He wielded his chopstick like a bat, and swatted at the fireball in midair. The ball of flame dissipated on contact.

"Really," he said. "You can stop that now."

Lina realized that this was probably true. From what she'd seen before, there was no way to hit the guy while his shield was up. And it appeared that Sonjia knew something about it, even thought she wouldn't tell. Well, being in league with him, of course she wouldn't give away her partner's weakness. Lina's only choice was to track down Sonjia, and maybe throttle the information out of her before Xellos blew her to bits.

"Come on, guys!" Lina called to them. "We're getting out of here!" Gourry, Zelgadis, and Amelia nodded and ran after her as she hurried out of the city. Once they had gotten about halfway up the hill to the forest, Lina stopped and looked back at the town. Jadarin was still hovering slightly above it, laughing at them. She smirked and began chanting a spell. Everyone around her immediately recognized it and took off towards the forest.

"Oh, Jadarin!" Lina called. "Here's a 'Thank You' Dragon Slave for that wonderful battle!" She let loose the glowing red beam at the town. It would destroy the stupid Mazoku and burn all the bodies, perhaps giving them a slightly more dignified burial. The Dragon Slave struck the city...

...And evaporated into nothingness, leaving the town completely unscathed. Lina dropped to the ground, dumbfounded.

Gourry peeked out from behind a tree. "Hey, doesn't the Dragon Slave usually go 'boom' or something?" he asked.

Lina scratched her head in bewilderment. "Who is this guy?"

Sonjia ran through the forest, trying to get as much distance between her and Lina's group as possible. It was obvious that they didn't trust her, but she trusted them even less, if that was all conceivable. If only there was some way of knowing for sure...

A staff caught her by the shins, tripping her. Sonjia fell on her stomach, right at the feet of Xellos. "Going somewhere?" he asked. He jabbed the end of his staff down on her back, preventing her from getting up.

Sonjia sighed. "I guess you guys are going to hound me for information no matter what I do. And you won't stop until I tell, or you kill me, right?"

"Killing you would be easier," said Xellos. "But I also love to know secrets. So, do you want to tell me something interesting before I kill you?"

"Maybe," said Sonjia, trying to get out from under his staff. "That is, after you tell me something first."

Xellos shook a finger. "Ah, I believe that anything you ask me would be considered a secret. I can't tell you anything."

"You don't even know my question," she said.

"But whatever it is, I'm not answering it."

Sonjia let out a huff and grabbed Xellos by the ankle, yanking his foot out from under him. "You jerk!" It was just enough to lessen the pressure of the staff to her back, allowing her to get up.

"My, aren't you the resourceful one," Xellos observed.

"Anyway," she said, brushing herself off. "My question is..."

Xellos covered his ears and wandered around in circles. "Hmm hmm hmm, I'm not listening! It's a secret! It's a secret! No matter what you want to know." Sonjia grabbed him by the back of the cape, but he vanished and reappeared sitting on a tree branch, still holding his ears.

"Get down here! Do you want to get killed or something?" she yelled at him.

"And how will I be killed?" Xellos asked.

"You tell me what I want to know, and I'll tell you what you want to know," she bargained with him.

"No deal!" said Xellos, jumping down from the tree, then vanishing again before Sonjia had the chance to grab him. He reappeared behind her back and flipped her hair. She turned and grabbed him by the neck, but he teleported to safety just like before. "You can't catch me like this," he taunted.

Sonjia realized he was right. And there was really only one way she could think of that she could possibly catch him. And if it worked, her suspicions would be confirmed. She wandered over to a bush and picked off a single burr, examining it. She then turned back to Xellos.

"New deal. If I can catch you, then you tell me what I want to know. If not, then you can kill me or something." She waited for a reply.

Xellos clapped his hands. "Sounds rather sporting! Why not?" He teleported in front of her and grinned. "But what exactly can you do against teleportation?"

Sonjia shrugged. "I dunno. Maybe.... this!" She lunged at him and got him into a headlock. She victoriously snapped her fingers and ruffled his hair. "Ha! Looks like I win!"

"Oh really?" said Xellos. "Then what would you say if I tried this?" The two sat in silence a moment, Sonjia's arm still around Xellos's neck, and neither of them having moved. Finally, Sonjia spoke.

"Do what?"

Xellos opened his eyes in surprise and tried to teleport again. Nothing happened. He went through his entire repertoire of spells, finding them all ineffective and disabled. What the heck did she do?

"Like I said before," said Sonjia. "I win. Now tell me what I want to know."

"I could tell you, but then I'd have to kill you," said Xellos. "So, what's your question?"

"I have three, actually," replied Sonjia. She felt Xellos's shoulders slump a little at that. Obviously it was a little more than the original bargain. "Okay, question one. How old are you?"

This time, Xellos fell completely over, sweatdropping. "Oh, I see. I'm sorry, my dear, but I believe I may be a little old for you. I'm not ready for that kind of relationship."

Sonjia blinked, and it took a moment for her to figure out what the heck that was supposed to mean. Once she realized it, she bonked him on the back of the head. "You sicko! Truthfully, I just want to know how old you are!"

"One thousand and twelve.... or so..." he answered cautiously, unsure as to how exactly that information would be of any use to anyone.

"Okay," said Sonjia. "That's good. Now for the next question: What is your relationship with Lina and the rest of her group?" Realizing that that was just asking for a perverted comment, she quickly added, "From a business standpoint."

Xellos scratched his head. "Well, they're just fun to play around with, really. I wouldn't call us allies or anything. They're hardly followers of the Mazoku, although I sometimes wish they were." What the heck was she trying to get at by asking these questions? She had let him go some time before, but he hadn't turned around to face her, so he couldn't tell if she was busy processing the answers. Plus, he still couldn't use his Mazoku powers.

"And lastly," she began, "From a militaristic standpoint, who is the Mazoku's greatest enemy? Or perhaps just the group that they wouldn't mind obliterating."

Well, that question was slightly more along the lines of what he had expected, but it still didn't ask anything particularly secret. "I'd say the Gold Dragons," he said. "They're certainly not as powerful as the Mazoku, but could be considered a threat in large groups. I personally wiped out a good number of them in my youth," he said proudly.

"Good for you," Sonjia commented absently. "So, basically what I'm summarizing from this is, in all the years you've been around, humans have stayed out of the conflicts between the Mazoku and the dragons. Right?"

Xellos lazily put his arms behind his head. "Well, what exactly could they do? Even though Lina has the power to destroy a Dark Lord, she usually stays out of our business, unless it directly affects her. That's just how humans are." He turned to face her, but realized that she had gone off to hide somewhere. "So what have you deduced from this, o great detective?" he called out into the forest.

"First of all," she said, sneaking up behind him, "I know I can't trust you." With that, she tackled him into a headlock again. Xellos struggled, thinking that because of that comment, she was attacking him or something. Instead, after a moment, she released him, and he spun around to face her.

"What was that for?" he demanded to know. "Are you trying to kill me?"

She shook her head. "Just wanted to retrieve this," Sonjia said, holding up a burr that she had pulled from his hair. "You have your powers back now, and are free to go." She casually flicked the burr away.

Xellos blinked and checked himself. Indeed, he had access to all his powers once again. "Well, what about my questions?" he asked.

"I told you, I can't trust you. So, I could tell you..." said Sonjia, "but then I'd have to kill you!" she added playfully.

"What a splendid idea!"

Sonjia and Xellos looked upward to see Jadarin perched on a branch above them. He leapt down and held Xellos at knifepoint. Um, actually, he was at chopstick-point. What was with this guy and his stupid chopsticks? "I'll take it from here, my dear. Thank you for detaining him for me, though."

Xellos didn't feel the least bit threatened by the chopstick point jabbed into his throat. He casually began charging up another ball of dark energy. Well, he tried to, but realized that his powers were once again disabled. This was, what, the third time now she'd done this to him? It was getting old.

"So, she truly is working with you?" Xellos asked.

"No," Sonjia stated firmly.

"Yes," Jadarin corrected. "She is truly my partner in this escapade." Receiving a stern look from her, he added, "Although whether she actually realizes it or not is another story."