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Chapter One   |   Chapter two   |   Chapter Three   |   Chapter Four   |   Chapter Five   |   Chapter Six   |   Chapter Seven   |   Chapter Eight   |   Chapter Nine   |   Chapter Ten   |   Chapter Eleven   |   Chapter Twelve   |   Chapter 13
Chapter One

Befuddlement -
 a new world

     Travelling through the void, Lina felt like screaming at herself.  Why did she agree to this foolishness?  With Xellos of all people, sure she kissed him once but why did she do it?  Why did he do it?  Why did she let herself get involved in the schemes of Gods?  Stupidity, it must be, there was no other reason she could think of.  Well maybe the thought of a new adventure, new lands to explore, new bandits to blow up...Lina told herself to get a grip, wasn’t this going to end.  At least Zel was cured, she hoped he didn’t think she was forced into this for his cure, her mind darted to thoughts of her friends, is this going to end soon.
     Suddenly she felt the breath sucked out of her body As she tried to scream Xellos shouted out a spell and she found herself enclosed in a bubble of air with him.  He eyes widened as she took in the sights around  her.

     "Lina, I don't think we're in Sayruin any longer." Xellos observed with muted tones as he stared  at the large silver apparition in front of him.

          "I think you're right." Lina answered, as she looked down at the stars under her feet.  “Okay now what do we do, I don’t see any land here.  You know Xellos” Lina continued in an even voice, “I really want to freak out here, you do know that don’t you.”

     “I can sympathise,  we are out of the influence of the planets within the ether between stars.  That silver thing seems to be a transportation method.  Should I knock on the door politely or should I just transport us inside I can see in that window thing.” Xellos asked.

     “I want to be out of this now, Xellos. I need an up and down, I want a floor now! I want walls now! ” Lina yelled furiously.

     Xellos noted with interest that her face had turned a delicate shade of green. “Are you sure Lina dear?  I’m starting to enjoy this.”

     “I’m sure you stupid fruitcake.  Are you trying to Gourry’s place for stupidity?” A fireball started forming in her hand.

     “Okay lets go.” Xellos told her snickering. “Really Lina, you should learn to control that temper.”

     After transporting they found themselves in a corridor made of the same silver metal that formed the outside of the thing.  Lina looked carefully at the doors, the same metal, she tried a small unlock spell but she found the metal didn’t react, sort of like orhelcon.  Closing her eyes she could feel magical energy around her but it was different, Lina narrowed her focus. There. She smiled at Xellos.

     “This thing is powered by magic, I can feel it flowing in very narrow streams.  The control they have over the magic here is something else, I can’t feel any leakage at all.” She told him.

     Xellos closed his eyes and checked, “You’re right but it’s not just magic there’s something else powering this...whatever.  The magic is providing the direction, the other energy is making it move.”
     “I see what you mean. ”Lina nodded.

     “Damn” she jumped in the door way as she heard the sound of someone running towards them.  Xellos followed suit.

     “Be careful of the spells remember there’s nothing outside.” Xellos reminded Lina.

     “Right.” Lina took out her sword feeling the warmth it always projected to her when she drew it.

     The sound of running stopped as a red haired youth skidded to a stop in front of them and drew a familiar looking sword.

     Lina’s eyes gleamed and she put on her cutest expression.  

     “Oh no.” Xellos groaned knowing what was coming.  The stranger began to have a confused look on his face.

     “The Sword of Light will you give it to me please, I’ll give you 20 gold for it please, please.”
     The newcomer backed up a step, “Listen kid, I don’t know what you’re doing in my ship but there’s no way I’m giving you my psiblade.  You couldn’t use it anyway.  I want some explanations and I want them now.  How did you get in here?

     “Kid! Can’t use the sword of light!  I won’t take that from a third rate mage... Darkness beyond twilight...”

     “Lina stop remember outside.” Xellos pleaded in vain as Lina finished her spell.

     The red-haired youth stared at her as she finished chanting and yelled “DRAGON SLAVE.”

     “Ookay was that supposed to do something?” he asked quizzically

     Lina looked at her hand dumbfounded,

     “Oh right Lina.  I forgot.  Chaos magic and non specific spells only.  Until you do some research on the Monster Lords in this world black magic won’t work.  I’d also imagine that most of the shaministic magics won’t work either unless you’re on a planet.” Xellos put a hand behind his head as he laughed sheepishly.

     “Just give me a second I want to figure out a way to blast that second rate mage in a bad cape... Oh forget it” Lina jumped forward with her sword in hand.

     “Bad cape, I’ll have you know that this cape is the epitome of good fashion.” The youth jumped forward with his sword of light in his hand.

     “Stop it you two right now.”  a girl with long blue braids materialised between Lina and the young man.

     “A monster!” Lina shouted.  Xellos moved forward and took an attack position beside Lina.

     “A what? I’ll have you know that I’m a perfectly respectable ship’s AI  and I want to know how you showed up out of nowhere on my ship’s scanners.”  The blue-haired girl took a deep breath. “No, let’s calm down and go and sit in the rec area.  Explanations can wait until then, agreed?” she looked at Lina and Xellos.

     “She’s not a monster Lina.” Xellos told Lina.  “Him, I can feel, He’s angry, confused and a bit scared.  It’s as if she’s not even there.”

     “I’m not scared” the red haired man blustered.

     “Of course you’re not.” Xellos answered agreeably with a smirk.

     “Right, just so you know. Kain Blue river ain’t scared of nothing.”

     “Okay, we’ll go along with this for now.” Lina agreed, “but any funny stuff and you’ll regret it. Lead the way”

     After settling down in the rec centre, Lina looked at the pair trying to keep her calm was even more difficult than usual.  Xellos tried to keep from snickering as Lina and Kain glared at each other, “It must be the red hair” he told himself.

     “Hello my dear, let me introduce us.  I am Xellos Metallium and this is Lina Inverse. We are not from around here.” Xellos told the girl.

     The girl smiled at him, “It is nice to see some manners for once, My name is Canal and I am the ships artificial intelligence.  That lout is Kain Blueriver and he is my pilot. We are on the swordbreaker. Now I’d like to ask you how you came to be here”
     “Damn stowaways.” Kain grumbled.

     “I can move the washrooms again.” Canal told him and smiled again as Kain stopped grumbling. “Now they didn’t stow away, I ran the diagnostic program and checked all my files there was a blip out side of the ship and then they just appeared in the corridors.  I’d like to know how they did that. I also sense an enormous amount of psi energy from them, even more than you Kain.”

     Kain’s eyes widened, then narrowed. “Doesn’t make her any less obnoxious.”

     “Lina is known as the enemy of all that lives back home” Xellos added helpfully.

     Lina looked at him angrily, “Listen fruitcake, I’d appreciate it if you waited for supper. Or else I will figure out how to cast a dragon slave in this world. Or I may just go for broke I’m sure a giga slave will work fine.”

     “Sorry Lina, after a few thousand years the habit is pretty hard to break.” Xellos told her  in a embarrassed tone.

     “Okay to get back on track, what do you mean by the dragonslave and gigaslave?” Canal asked.

     “Oh that easy magic spells, the dragon slave is the strongest spell in black magic.  The giga slave calls on the power of the Mother of All.” Lina answered.

     “You can do magic.” Kain asked sarcastically.

     “I am Lina Inverse, the beautiful sorcery genius, of course I can do magic.”      

     Xellos became alarmed as Lina’s eyes started to show flames.  He shot a quick glance at Canal who intervened.

     “Kain I think what they refer to as magic we refer to as psi energy.  According to my files that is how people once referred to psi energy.  If the reading I am getting are correct she is very strong, stronger than any recordings on file.  Her friend there has a very good barrier but from what my sensors pick up he is quite possibly as strong as she is.”

     Canal looked at them with a wicked smile and thought of the firepower she would have if she could convince them to hook up with her weapons systems.

     “The question is how did you two get here?” Kain interjected before Canal could act on the familiar gleam in her eyes.

     “Now that.”  Xellos answered, “Is a secret.”

     “Xellos.” Lina warned.

     “Take all the fun out of my life will you, Lina-dear.” Xellos complained. “We used  a small dimensions warp to get inside the ship from outside.  A larger more complex one using both our energies to get from our world to where we were.  Quite simple really when you know how.”

     “You mean you formed a dimensional warp using psi energy.” Kain asked disbelieving tone.

     “psi energy, magic whatever you want to call it but yes.” Lina confirmed.

     Lina looked at Canal who had found a data terminal and was typing furiously into it. “Um Kain, what’s she doing?”

     Kain just shrugged, “She’ll be done in a second.”

     “Yes, it is possible given the power you two give off and if you’re only transporting yourselves there should be power to spare. I don’t know how much power it takes to go between worlds though, theoretically more than you have. I wonder what you two could do given amplifiers.”

     “She’s going to be doing that for a while, why don’t we get something to eat.  We’re meeting Milly at port so the food won’t be great...” Kain stopped as Lina grabbed his arm.

     “Food where, let’s go.  We’ll talk later.” Lina demanded.

     Xellos shook his head as he followed the two red heads.  Lina wouldn’t be fit to talk to until she was full.  He hoped that this “ship” had plenty of food stored.   


Slayers - Universe