"Nothing else but laughter is around me. Forever more. Nothing can reach me. Nothing can save me. No one can hear me. I've gone beyond the truth it's just another lie. Wash away the blood on my hands. My father's blood. I've never known, another life. I never wanted to be what they told me to be. Forfeit my faith and I'd be free. God knows how long, I've tried to change fate! Pain inside is rising, I am the fallen one. A figure in an old game. No jokers on my side. I've launched into misery, I'll turn out the light, and murder the dawn. Turn out the light, and murder the dawn! -Blind Guardian, Mordred's Song

Pain. Pain. Gods... this hurts... ripping... me... apart... Help... ME!!!!

***

The ragtag group of adventurers scattered blindly as a couple hundred pounds of savaged half-dragon slammed into the long-suffering (considering how often things had been slamming into it of late) earth in their midst. Forward momentum carried his unconscious body a few feet forward, digging a small ditch until his momentum finally said to hell with it and he came to rest surrounded in a cloud of dust. Gaav (who had been dragged backwards by Mina, his initial reaction being to turn and snarl at the incoming object,) frowned in momentary confusion, then when he realized who it was who had come upon them so unceremoniously, his eyes widened and he charged up to the battered form of his former servant. Mina reacted similarly.

"Valgaav... what the hell happened to you?!" They exclaimed simultaneously, then looked at one another in surprise.

"YOU know Valgaav? How do YOU know Valgaav?" Mina blinked.

Gaav frowned sourly. "Why the hell do you think he's called Val-GAAV? I'm more interested in how YOU know him."

Mina frowned. "Well... it's a long story..."

Zelgadis shouldered his way in, Pix hovering worriedly over his head.

"Nevermind that, look at him. He's in pretty bad shape. Give me some room."

The two stepped back a bit and looked on in confusion.

"What are you going to do? I thought you didn't know any white magic..." Mina frowned. His wounds... several scrapes and cuts, a vicious, evil-looking hole in his chest and an arrow (broken by his rough landing) sticking out of his lower back revealed the truth of Zelgadis' assumptions. He narrowed his eyes at the arrow and spoke calmly as he surveyed the damage.

"I said I don't know much White Magic, not that I didn't know any. Adventuring is a dangerous business... it would be foolish of me not to learn SOME healing techniques. Still, I'm nowhere near the healer Filia is... or Sylphiel for that matter. It'll just have to do."

Gaav growled. "When I find the bastards responsible for this..." he clenched his fist.

Zelgadis remained silent as he proceeded to cut the arrow out of Valgaav's flesh. Pix looked on and bit her lip. "Is he going to be okay, master?"

He eased the arrow out of the half-dragon and set it down, settling his hands over the wound. White light glowed underneath his palms as the wound began to sluggishly close. He narrowed his eyes. "I don't know... that arrow didn't hit anything vital... and other than some bruises and that wound to his chest, he's relatively unhurt. The thing I can't figure is..."

His eyes widened.

"Impossible!"

"What?!" The group clustered around anxiously.

"I.. I can't heal this... something in him is resisting my healing spell... look.." he rolled the Half dragon gingerly over to reveal the gaping fist-sized black hole in his chest. Mina paled and recoiled and Pix turned away as the flesh seemed to simply start disappearing inward.... as the the hole were a mouth devouring the flesh around it.

"What could have done this?" Mina rasped, shaking her head in horror.

Gaav stood and growled, looking northward. "I know who did this."

Mina looked at him. His face was a rictus of hatred, his eyes flaring crimson. She had to remind herself that she was in love with this man - he didn't look too lovable at the moment.

"Who?" she frowned.

"My brother."

***

Valgaav could feel the Enemy within him. It tore and ravaged his physical body, syphoning off his energy, his being... in the confines of his own mind he clutched himself into a tighter and tighter ball, trying to escape the demon that twisted its filthy talons in his soul.

A hollow, sadistically amused laughter echoed in his skull, he saw flashes of memories that weren't his... the image through another's eyes of his own tormented face turning purple from lack of oxygen, a black gloved hand clenched around his throat.

-Gods! Gods! I'm in Hell!-

A cool, comforting hand touched his fevered brow and he started suddenly. Hands roughened by years of sword practice gently encircled him from behind and eased him out of the fetal position. He shuddered and gasped. The pain, though still present, had receded to a dull, sullen ache. He shuddered, then turned. He knew these hands.... he never thought he'd feel them again.

"T-Tess?" he asked hesitantly, half fearing that this was some sort of trick from the Enemy to force him to give up what little consciousness he had left.

Tess stared back at him silently, smiling. A lock of her curly red hair covered one of her eyes. She brushed it to the side irritably, cursing softly. This more than anything convinced him that this was no trick. It was such a naturally Tess-like action that there was no way this could be anyone other than his love.

"Tess... how... you're.." he asked weakly. She put a finger to his lips.

"Shh. Don't talk. Save your strength. You're going to need it."

His eyes continued to question the impossibility of their meeting like this and she sighed.

"I'm not really here, Valgaav... think of me as a ghost. A part of you is bound to that which is Gaav, just as I was, and Talon is. What's left of me is fighting, Valgaav.. fighting with him for control... but he's very strong. The only reason he hasn't crushed me completely is because he deems me beneath his notice..." her eyes hardened. "I'm risking oblivion in coming to you like this, but it's important that you know..."

Valgaav looked down quietly, shaking with strain. "He's too strong, Tess... I can't fight against him... I don't know how."

She smiled. "You don't have to. You've done very very well up to this point... you don't know it yet, but you're among friends. They will get you to someone who can help you. With their help, you can beat this thing... but right now that's not important. What's important is that you hold on long enough for them to get help, and that you witness this."

He shook his head. "Witness... witness what? I don't understand."

She sighed. "I'm sorry, Valgaav... you shouldn't have to do anything more. It's damned unfair. Unfortunately Sailoon needs you. She's facing a threat more terrible than anything she's ever faced before. It's important for Sailoon to know her enemy... no one does, and that's what's going to kill you all."

"What are you talking about?" he snapped, then instantly regretted it. "I'm sorry."

"No, I am. Sorry I mean. It would be alot easier to simply tell you but I'm afraid that if I do, he'll notice... if he notices me..." She trailed off, looking visibly tired. "Anyway... I'm going to take you to his memories... since that isn't something that involves any interference on my part, it's less likely that he'll notice. He's very arrogant... he thinks of himself like he's the only important thing in the universe.. and that's something we can use against him."

"His memories? Whose? That bastard who killed you? How? He said that you'd become a part of him. I still don't understand..."

Her lips tightened grimly. "You will."

***

Valgaav arched his back and opened his eyes, twin black pits of nothingness, and clawed at the sky with hands contorted into talons. It took Gaav, Mina, and Zelgadis to hold him down. Zelgadis growled in frustration.

"I can't help him... it's tearing him apart from the inside out."

Mina looked horrified. "What IS it? Gods... look at his eyes."

Gaav snarled. "It's not a common attack. It's not one that a normal mazoku can do at all. He's forced a part of his essence into Valgaav's body. Normally the negative energy in a mazoku's astral body reacts to a physical presence by simply negating it... that's how he attacks things. Valgaav isn't just a mortal... he's a dragon AND a mazoku... and the essence is simultaneously trying to negate his physical body while absorbing his astral one."

Mina blinked. "I don't follow you..."

Gaav frowned. "He's created a tiny mazoku INSIDE of Valgaav, and that tiny mazoku is trying to consume enough of Valgaav to take his place."

Zelgadis blinked. "How do you know all of this?"

Gaav turned toward him irritably. "Because I've got all of Dnarc's memories jangled around my head, that's why. Dnarc was scared to death of Talon... Talon had one of those things inside him... he was keeping it in check and using it to blackmail Dnarc into doing anything that Talon required of him... the idiot. When I destroyed Dnarc, I noticed it, but it was so small that I simply crushed it and consumed it as well. I didn't really see it for what it was until I saw... THIS." He gestured to the stricken half-dragon.

Zel and Mina shared a sickened glance. "Ewwww..."

Pix frowned. "So... why don't we just destroy this mini-mazoku thingy and save him?"

Gaav sighed. "Because we'd have to destroy Valgaav as well... it's not really INSIDE him... it's more like a part of him... like a disease... infecting the rest of him with my ASSHOLE of a brother."

"So what can we do?" Mina asked quietly.

"I don't KNOW!" He pounded his fist into the ground. It left a crater.

"I do!" A cheerful voice erupted from nowhere.

The group turned and stared in shocked surprise, then spoke as one.

"XELLOS?!"

***

Valgaav was suddenly blinded by an excruciating white light. Covering his face with his palm, he was surprised to find that the light still blinded him... it shone through his hand as though he were intangible. The light faded to darkness, then a man stood with his back turned to the startled half-dragon. It was a figure he couldn't possibly forget.

It was that empty-eyed demon.

"YOU!" He snarled, too weak to move, though he wanted to. Tess interrupted his train of thought quietly.

"It's no use... he can't hear you. This is his memory... just be quiet and watch... and remember."

As Valgaav watched, Talon's life began to unfold. He stared on in morbid fascination...

***

He wandered through a field of cold white blankness he vaguely knew to be something called snow, though how he knew this he wasn't entirely sure. His mind was a frustratingly empty blank, though odd details forced themselves into his consciousness at random intervals, such as the penetrating cold... and the howling wind. He staggered against a tree and looked about with a bewildered expression.

"Where... am I? Who am I?"

He shifted his hand against the tree he was leaning against and was surprised when it met no resistance... he suddenly found himself buried in the tree up to his elbow. Struggling frantically, he pulled his hand loose and stared at it.

"What... am I?"

***

"The Shards aren't inherently evil, Valgaav... as you found out with me." Tess explained quietly. "We were born with no memory of what had happened to us previously... nothing to draw on at all. Some of us were deformed... as you see with Talon. We all wondered around, and some of us found homes... places we belonged." She smiled briefly, before her face hardened a bit. "Some of us...."

***

"MONSTER!!"

He turned confusedly towards an angry voice and suddenly his vision exploded with white hot agony as a rock bounced off of his cheekbone. He staggered backward and held his hands up entreatingly. This was not the best course of action as his hands were the most inhuman portion of his anatomy next to his empty eyes. He spat out blood.

"What did I do...?"

"Ever since you came to this village, the crops have sickened and died... and people are getting sick!"

"But I've done nothing..."

Angry villagers looking for someone to blame don't need logic, nor will they listen to excuses...

They just need someone different.

***

He wandered out of Sailoon, beaten and sick from hunger. The bandits left him well enough alone... he obviously had nothing of value and his differences were just evident enough to keep anyone from prying into his affairs, or offer him any help. Finally exhausted and at the limits of his strength, he collapsed in a dry, desolate place where the sun burned like the fires of hell...

A party of hunters stumbled across him where he lay, barely conscious and gibbering about a Sea of Chaos. Their original intent had been to put the Inlander out of his misery and leave him for the sand spiders but then Noric, the eldest hunter in the group, pointed out his hands and his eyes...

He was taken in for the first time in his short life.

Cool water touched his lips and he started awake, eyes staring at a blurred figure that filled his vision. He tried to sit up but soft hands pushed him gently down and he was too weak to resist them. His vision cleared and he found himself looking at a strangely beautiful face that was both woman and feline at the same time. He blinked rapidly but the vision before him remained the same.

"Who... who are you?"

She smiled. "Neela... rest easy, strange one. You are amongst friends. You are safe."

His eyes narrowed into empty slits. He sobbed.

"Safe..?"

***

"Those barbarians we fought weren't always as unified as they are now... once, they were thousands of tribes scattered about the deserts squabbling over the few sources of water and regular food to be found like vultures over a decaying carcass."

"It's too bad he was first discovered by one of the relatively peaceful ones..."

***

Talon darted up suddenly from the dune he'd crouched behind for the last four hours and slapped his hand against the back of the fleeing bird's neck. Half of its throat and spine simply ceased to exist and it flipped head over heels to the ground, twitching. Its companion squawked in terror and darted away across the forest floor, only to stop short when the sand in front of it burst out in a cloud of slashing claws and teeth. Collapsing into a bloody heap, the bird rolled one painfilled eye as a beast-woman crouched in front of it, grinning ferally.

Talon smiled, an expression that found its way more and more often to his handsome features. He chuckled.

"Neela... you just had to kill it... you didn't have to butcher it as well."

Neela blinked and twitched a finger at him, grinning mischievously at him. "I believe in saving time. 'Sides... the fresher it is when you carve it up, the better it tastes."

He shook his head and shouldered the now still landstrider he'd downed, grinning. "Well... you get to carry it."

She stuck her tongue out at him and picked it up easily, her arms rippling with muscle beneath her tawny fur coat. "Lazy."

"Beast."

"Dandy."

They both snickered.

He fell into an easy stride beside her, walking along in companionable silence through the trackless wastes that her tribe called home. It still amazed him how quickly he'd become used to life here, though at first it had been rather difficult. He'd been unable to use his hands for anything until he discovered that the cloth from the clothing he wore could not be destroyed by his hands... he'd cut the surprisingly durable cloak into a pair of gloves, and that had solved his touching problem. He'd rapidly adapted the tribes clothing, with Neela's help, to his own untwisted frame and settled into life among the desert people. Though the tribe was remarkably close-knit he'd found that the differences that set him apart from the people who'd mocked and drove him out made him a well-liked and respected member of the tribe... few of them had disfigurements as useful as his were. Any awkwardness on his part had been completely erased by Neela, who'd taken an almost obsessive interest in his well being. She refused to let him feel unwanted, giving him a place to stay, a shoulder to cry on...

And much more.

The two of them had been planning on getting married as soon as the tribe's summer journey to get away from the seasonal sandstorms had been completed.

Talon was, for the first time in his life, content.

This was of course the time when fate decided that enough was enough.

Neela stopped and looked skyward, frowning, her expressive ears twitching.

He frowned. "What is it?"

Her eyes widened and she the carcass she'd been carrying dropped to the ground, forgotten. She raced forward, sprinting over the desert sands. He dropped his own burden and raced after her, panting.

"Neela... what... what is it? What's going on?"

"Village is under attack! The village is burning!" She panted, completely clearing the next dune in her haste to get home.

He narrowed his eyes and followed, stripping his hands of his gloves as he ran. He had a feeling his talents would be needed soon.

He was right.

***

Valgaav shook his head. "I don't understand, Tess... he doesn't seem evil at all... not anywhere near what he is now."

Tess sighed and sat down cross-legged. Her face looked ten years older. This was obviously not easy for her. "Love can make you do strange things, Valgaav. It can turn the biggest tyrant into a saint..."

She closed her eyes. "And the kindest soul into a monster."

***

Talon stood back to back with Neela and snarled his defiance at the horde surrounding them, his hands spread wide before him. Neela growled deep in the base of her throat, clawing at the air in front of her.

The large piles of dead bodies lying around them revealed why the horde was currently keeping its distance.

The two hunters had arrived too late to do anything more than mourn the small village they'd been a part of, though there had been little time to do even that. They'd torn into their attackers with a vengeance, two snarling demons of fury, and though surrounded, they still had plenty of fight left. Neela's hand squeezed reassuringly on the back of his forearm and he grinned, his eyes flaring with dark fury.

"So who's next?" he grinned darkly.

A large form pushed its way through the crowd and their attackers scattered out of the way of the advancing giant. Stopping at the edge of their circle of death, he crossed his arms over his barrel chest and shook his head.

"Heh. So that's why these incompetents are having so much trouble dealing with you two... You're one of us."

Talon and Neela turned to face him, puzzlement on both their faces. Talon frowned.

"One of what?"

The man (though he could only be considered a man in the loosest sense of the word) shook his head, his long red hair marred by a single white streak. His mouth, something that only an alligator could love, hissed in amusement.

"It doesn't matter. Haven't you idiots thought of shooting them yet?"

The horde around him looked at one another uneasily. "No, Malice..."

He rolled his eyes. "Then DO it, morons. Aim for the boy first... he's the one we need to worry about."

The sound of several bowstrings being stretched taut echoed over the dunes. Talon gritted his teeth. "Neela...," he whispered. "When they fire, use the time they take to reload to cut your way out of here."

She shook her head resolutely. "No."

Talon grimaced. "Don't-"

Anything he might have said to persuade her otherwise was lost as ten bowstrings sang in unison. Talon blinked involuntarily, then the air rushed out of him violently as a densely muscled body threw itself over him and pushed him roughly to the ground. He felt the impact of the arrows striking the body over him, and he howled.

"Neela! No!"

All hell broke loose.

***

Valgaav closed his eyes. "I don't want to see this."

Tess sighed. "It's not easy to deal with the fact that your enemy was human and had feelings at one time. It's important that you see it all, though."

"WHY?!"

She looked down and whispered. "Because I don't want you doing what he did. I don't want you becoming like him."

"I could NEVER become him."

"Couldn't you? You did once."

"I-"

"Watch."

***

Talon stood, covered in blood, his face engulfed in the black flames that exploded out of his eye sockets. Malice giggled. It was an odd sound, coming from such a large man.

"Oops... you idiots missed. Oh dear...he does look angry. I'm scared." he mocked.

Talon growled. "You should be."

"Shoot him, idiots... and this time, don't miss."

Talon gestured outward with his hands and one side of the group clustered around Malice collapsed to the ground shrieking, having been deprived of their legs (and everything below their navels). He gestured back the the other way, and the other half, which had turned and begun to run, was obliterated utterly. Malice stood in stunned silence.

A weak voice penetrated the howling din and Talon blinked, then turned.

"Ta... Talon.."

He fell to his knees and fumbled with his gloves, struggling to pull them on hap-hazardly. He cursed his clumsiness.

Neela smiled weakly, her lifeblood flowing out from a multitude of grievous wounds. "Talon... don't... bother."

He sobbed. "I..."

"Just... touch me... just once... with your hand..."

"No.." he shook his head, vehemently.

She touched his face. "Please.... it... hurts."

He closed his eyes for a long time, then reached up with a trembling hand and brushed her face gently.

She sighed in contentment.... shuddered, and died.

He turned and stood, a hole appearing in the air over his right hand. He trembled with rage and grief, his eyes still closed. Malice realized a bit too late that it would have probably been a good idea to attack him or run away while he was distracted. He giggled hysterically and fell to his knees.

Then he simply wasn't.

Red lightning played over Talon, staggering him with the intensity of the power flooding through him as his gaze flew towards the sky in sudden, horrified realization.

"YOU!! IT'S ALL YOUR DOING!!" He pointed accusingly at the stars and the black expanse of the sky.

"I UNDERSTAND NOW!! IT'S JUST A GAME!! ALL A GAME!!" he laughed hysterically, his mind fracturing with the weight of his epiphany. His insane laughter became a twisted, wracking, gutteral sound of pure agony and grief.

"NO MOOORE!!! THIS TIME YOU WILL LOOOSE!!!" he shouted at the sky, his eyes wide with his grief and madness, though without tears. He was unable to cry. He threw his arms out wide, casting arcs of black power upward, as though he were trying to erase the sky.

There was no answer to his challenge.

***

"He wants to end the world? End the "game"? What does Sailoon have to do with this?"

Tess sighed. "Guess what comes next."

***

He returned to Sailoon, this time cloaked to hide his differences. It struck him how different the people here were when they couldn't actually see your differences, kind-hearted and generous. Talon wasn't fooled... he knew what they were REALLY like. He traveled in search of knowledge, and on the way, he sought out other Shards, killing them ruthlessly as he found them. One Shard in particular caught his attention, a nasty, foul coward of a demon that called itself Dnarc. He'd long since put together what had likely happened with Gaav's destruction, pieced together the evidence from what he'd read from the tomes he'd stolen from a guild of black mages (now all deceased) and the bits and pieces of memories stolen from the other Shards. Dnarc was powerful but stupid, and Talon decided to put him to good use, making him an agent of sorts. It was then that he discovered Sailoon's dreadful secret, something he could never have done if he hadn't been privy to the legends of a several thousand year old people. After careful research it all fell into place... his plan for vengeance against the Lord of Nightmares... his plan to become a Darklord... it could be realized.... he set it in motion.

***

Tess rolled her eyes. "This is where it gets... self important. Like I said... Talon remembers things oddly."

Valgaav blinked.

***

-So THAT'S it.... It's so simple! I simply had to ask myself the right question... WHY is a kingdom composed entirely of White Magic operating right in the middle of an area controlled for millenia by mazoku? It makes no sense.... a ward SO immensely strong that only the most powerful mazoku can enter the city, and even they can't breach the central wards. Why are they so hell bent on keeping Mazoku OUT of a city they have little to no interest in? He snorted to himself over the tome he was buried in, before snapping it closed and grinning to himself.

-Then you take into account that the nomads were Scarred and driven away two thousand years ago... during the War between the Dragon Kings and the Mazoku.. during the War when Shabranigdo was split into eight parts...-

-Where did those parts go? The answer is so amazingly simple! Sailoon's white magic barrier wasn't created to keep mazoku out... at least not primarily. It was created to keep the most terrible of them IN, and safe from their meddling! Sailoon MUST hide a piece of Shabranigdo... its evil energies twisted those helpless savages into beasts when it fell... then along come the Knights of Cephied, who see a bunch of "monsters" wandering around... so they force those monsters away to where they belong, and settle Sailoon with the ancestors of the current bunch of pacifistic idiots that live there.-

His grin widened. -So that's it, is it? Part of Shabranigdo was merged with Rezo... that gave him the human's determination... the FREE WILL that mazoku lack, to destroy the world... but that meddling sorceress stopped him. Phibriso tried to force Lina Inverse to destroy the world, since even though he was immensely powerful he lacked free will, and he almost succeeded, but he misunderstood the Lord of Nightmare's intentions and was obliterated when he tried to get her to destroy the world... in effect, he asked her to lose the game intentionally.-

-Too bad for him. I have free will, being partially human, but lack the power to destroy the world. Shards can absorb other shards... perhaps I can absorb that piece of Shabranigdo, or in the very least, set it free... then I will have the power I need...-

He clenched his fist. "I've got you this time... bitch."

***

Valgaav shook his head in horror... "Then why... why is he assaulting Sailoon with an army? Why are they following him?"

Her mouth set into an angry line. "He's using them for cover. They think he's leading them to their rightful homeland... they think he's their messiah. He knows he doesn't have the power to confront Xellas and Xellos face to face, and if Xellas finds out he's essentially trying to EAT their dark god, then he's as good as dead. He's using the army to get close to Sailoon and to shatter the barrier for him... and look like he's doing it because he's trying to rule the world. The mazoku have been trying to turn Sailoon into their own personal playground for centuries... the thought of a kingdom of White Magic really pisses them off. They aren't going to try to stop him... they MIGHT have even helped him, if they weren't so dangerously undermanned at the moment."

Valgaav shook his head... "I can't believe it... that monster is using these people like... like..."

Tess nodded grimly. Then she turned suddenly and gasped, fading from view almost in an instant. Valgaav reached for her, but his hand passed through empty air.

Talon appeared from the shadows and grinned at him. "That's quite enough of that. I think it's time we got a little... better acquainted."

Valgaav screamed.

***

Zelgadis grimaced as he caught sight of the trickster he so despised. "It's you! I knew you had to be a part of this somehow."

Gaav drew his sword and it flashed forward, ending so close to Xellos' face that the the tip dimpled the flesh of his nose. Xellos sweatdropped.

"You'd better talk fast, Xellos... I haven't forgotten your impertinence the LAST time we met."

He lowered his sword in shock when Mina stalked past him, wrapped her hands lovingly around Xellos' throat, and proceeded to try to throttle the life out of him, Mazoku or no.

"YOU!! THIS IS ALL YOUR FAULT!! MAKE A NAME FOR MYSELF MY ASS!!! BANDIT KING MY ASS!! YOU ALMOST GOT ME KILLED TWICE YOU PURPLE HAIRED-"

"Three times." Xellos supplied helpfully.

"THREE TIMES YOU-"

He opened his eyes. "Really? You'd rather NOT have met Gaav?"

Mina blinked and released him, blushing. "Well..."

Gaav crossed his arms, looking annoyed... Xellos never failed to turn the tables on you... even when he was short a few limbs.

Zelgadis looked back down at the convulsing half-dragon disappearing before him, he narrowed his eyes. "Look, all this is going to have to wait... if you know something that can save him, you'd better do it now. Otherwise I don't think he's going to make it."

Xellos raised a finger. "Exactly. It's not WHAT can save him, rather WHO."

Gaav frowned. "Well?"

Xellos straightened his cloak. "His mother."

Gaav's eyes widened. "HUH?!"

Mina snapped her fingers. "He means Filia... she raised him during his second childhood... after he.."

She stopped when she noticed a glazed look in Gaav's eyes. "Er... nevermind... I'll tell you later. There's no way we can get him to her in time... she's like, four hundred miles that way." she pointed.

Gaav groaned. "Why is it always "X" hundred miles in the direction we've already traveled?"

Xellos grinned. "Actually she's only fifty miles due south. They're having something of a problem tracking you two down for some reason."

Mina and Gaav frowned sarcastically. "Gee I wonder why THAT is." They muttered in unison.

Xellos shrugged unconcernedly. "I can lead you to them, but you have to hurry. Valgaav doesn't have much time left."

Zelgadis nodded. "Alright, let's arrange some sort of litter... Mina you-"

Gaav growled. "No time." He picked up the unconscious half-dragon easily and slung him over his shoulder like a sack of potatoes. "Let's go."

Zelgadis blinked. "Or we could go with the second option..."

Xellos grinned. "Follow me everyone! Lina and the others are this way!" He pointed with his staff.

Mina suddenly paled. "Oh dear gods...."

The group looked at her in askance. "What?"

She slapped her forehead. "My mom's gonna kill me."

Zelgadis and Gaav shared a worried look.

***

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