"Lina, Zelgadiss-san, wait!" Ameila chased after them, as the two ran ahead to attack the enemy, a group of hybrid monsters.

Lina stopped and braced herself for one of her powerful spells. She let loose a huge fireball, turning a large number of the monsters to shriveled crisps. "Hah, take that...now where is that lunatic sorcerer?" She looked about for the leader of the monsters, who were terrorizing the village they were protecting.

Zelgadiss replied, "Over there Lina, let's get that bastard!" She sprung forward, just as Amelia and the others caught up to them.

"Wait!" cried Slyphiel. "There's something about that man you should know, it's important...he's more powerful than he lets on..."

But it was to no avail, the sorceress and chimera didn't hear them.

Lina walked up with a casual air to the tall slant eyed sorcerer. "Well, Ash....you should know that if you fight me, you won't have a chance..."

The sorcerer laughed, in a way that made Lina nervous. "Fight me? Not when I get through...of course I won't fight you, you are the stronger..."

"Well, you have some sense at least, more so than most maniacs I've fought."

Ash laughed again, as he silently conjured up a spell. "Heh, you may be superb in magic, but I have the intelligence that you could never hope to possess."

Lina growled. "Oh shut up....I've had enough of you!" She was going to blast him into oblivion. "Darkness from twilight, crimson from blood that flows..."

Zelgadiss sweatdropped. "Lina! We haven't evacuated the village yet!"

Lina ignored him, all she wanted was this jerk out of her hair. "...by the power that you and I both possess.....Dragu-" She never got to finish.

Amelia, Gourry, and Slyphiel gaped as Lina and Zelgadiss vanished into thin air. "What, what happened....LINA! ZELGADISS!!!" Ameila wailed dropped to the ground. Gourry ran up angrily with a yell.

"What have you done to them!" He unsheathed his Hikari no Ken, bringing the weapon to the man's throat.

"Put them out of the way, they were of the most threat to me, I can defeat the rest of you easily..." He smirked and put his finger to the tip of the sword, which was no more than cool steel at the moment. "No terrible harm will come to them, but I'd sooner worry about yourselves."

Gourry clentched his teeth and hissed. "What do you mean? Where are they?"

"Let's just say, they took a vacation, to a place out of this world." He laughed insanely.

Slyphiel put her hand to her mouth and Amelia cried. "NO!Zelgadiss-san, Lina!" The princess ray winged to the highest point of the city, a bell tower, and pointed acussingly at him with eyes flashing. "This is unjust! Bring them back or you'll feel my wrath! Evil tyrants such as yourself, will not prevail, for goodness is the-" She let out a screech as she overballanced and toppled backwards.

The sorcerer levitated high into the air, sending a spray of flare arrows down upon them. "Your lives will be short lived!"

Lina woke to the heat of the early afternoon sun beating down her back. She pulled her face out of hot white sand. "Ah! Where? Zelgadiss? What happened to the town? I know I didn't get to cast my Dragu Slave..." Lina rose to a sitting position, rubbing her head. She heard a groan to the back of her, and saw the half buried figure of the chimera she knew so well laying on his side and runing his hands over his face. She crawled over to him. "Zel!"

He opened one eye, "Lina-san." He started and rose from where he lay. "Where are we? You didn't cast the Dragu Slave....it's not this destructive." He looked around at the endless sea of white sand.

Lina knocked him on the head. "Of course I didn't!" She hung her head. "Man, I feel like someone picked me up and dropped me a thousand feet..."

Zelgadiss agreed. "So do I..."

"I wish I knew where we were, that jerk must have teleported us somewhere...but where is where?" Lina looked about shielding her eyes from the glare.

Zelgadiss shook sand from his cape. "Wish I knew...." He looked at Lina expectantly. "Why don't we take a quick look around."

Lina smiled. "Good idea. Raywing!" She called out. "Nani`? Raywing.....raywing, raywing....oh damn don't tell me..." She sat on the ground and folded her arms. "Not again."

Zelgadiss muttered. "That time of the month?"

Lina flinched. "No baka, it's not!"

Zelgadiss shrugged and decided to try out his magic. "Flare....arrow!" Nothing happened. What was going on?

Lina smirked. "That time of the month Zel?"

Zelgadiss looked at her through narrowed eyes. "I don't find that funny...this is serious. He took away our abilities to cast magic...damn him."

"Seems that way." Lina stood. "Well, I guess the best thing to do is start walking and hope that something lies over those dunes...come on."

"Lead on Lina."

"Thank you..." She trudged on ahead of him, determined to find a way out of this place they'd been sent to, wherever that was.

With a huff, Lina dropped to her knees. "More sand.....no village, no water, no food." She balled her hands into fists, her breathing rugged.

Zelgadiss laid his hand on her shoulder. "Don't worry... a couple days without food won't kill us..."

Lina bit her lip. "A couple days? Zelgadiss, that's easy for you to say..."

He bent down next to her. "Do you still have your flask?"

Lina nodded and removed it from her cape, shaking it. "I think it's half full...which reminds me..." She unscrewed the top. Zelgadiss stopped her. "Nani`?"

"Lina, not now...save the water...we don't know if we'll find any out here anytime soon." He added sarcastically. "This is a desert if you didn't notice."

Lina answered, her tone unusually soft. "I did notice Zelgadiss..." She handed him the flask. He looked at her questioningly. "You hold onto it, so I won't be tempted to take any..."

He nodded and tied the flask to his belt. "Listen, let's start moving a bit quicker..." He drew her to her feet. "Look at that..." He pointed to the sky behind them.

Lina stared curiously. "A huge plague of insects?"

"No, a sand storm is coming. It will reach us in a matter of minutes, we should get down low." Zelgadiss took her arm. "Come..."

She followed him and shrugged, feeling somewhat stupid from her remark eariler. "Of course it is."

A strong wind was picking up, blowing against their backs. Lina fell forward on top of Zelgadiss, sending them both rolling down the dune. Lina turned a light shade of crimson as she found herself in the most inappropriate postion over her chimera friend. She lifted herself in a hurry. "Sorry Zel..."

He felt his cheeks grow hot and he struggled to a sitting postion. "Are you okay Lina?" He avoided eye contact.

She helped him up as best she could. "Yes." Then she looked behind her, as the first traces of the sand blew in, an ever encreasing mass that caused the sunlight to dim. "It's kind of facinating, I've never really taken notice before."

"Lina don't admire it, come here and get close..." he grabbed her arm firmly, lifting his mask over his face. Lina almost fell forward onto him again and she gasped.

"Zel, let go..." She struggled against his iron grip.

He silenced her. "Trust me," he pulled her close to him and wrapped his cloak tightly around them, sinking to his knees.

Lina still argued, her voice coming out in a muffle. "Zelgadiss, what do you think you're doing?"

"Protecting you...you have no sleeves, and no mask...do you want sand in your eyes and nose?" He replied harshly and pressed her head to his chest, covering her head with his cloak.

She wanted to blurt out, "You never seemed to care before." But decided against it.

Lina, face mashed against his chest, subsided and clung to him taking shallow breaths, feeling the heat from his body; causing her to become more uncomfortable than before. She blushed slightly at the present circumstance, then shut her eyes and listened to his rapid heartbeat. She wondered at the sudden sence of overwhelming comfort and satisfaction that was melting through her body.

Zelgadiss tensed as the worst of the sand storm passed over, wind screaming and sand slapping against his back. He closed his eyes tightly and bowed his head. In spite of the threating sand storm, he half hoped it would last a while. He couldn't imagine ever being so very close to Lina right now ever again.

And so it seemed that his hopes were justified when the horrific storm lasted almost five hours...

After a long while, Zelgadiss raised his head and looked about them, moving ever so slightly. His arms felt lifeless after holding that pose for so very long. "Lina, it's over..."

The sorceress slowly pulled away from him, though somewhat reluctantly. She winced as pain travled up her spine. Yet, her eyes showed much gratitude. She looked up at him mouth slightly parted, a sudden temptation to kiss him. "That was something else..." Then she looked away and silently cursed. How could she have said something so...so...she would have to bite her tounge.

"We should move on..." He replied, aparently not catching her soft words. He shifted slightly, with a slight groan; his back was out. And he discovered the reason being, that the sand had piled up behind him, almost to his head.

Lina started as she realized they were swiming in sand. "Oh! We've been half buried." She grinned and laughed. "You move first..."

Zelgadiss smiled back and shimmied himself free, then helped Lina out. The redhead made a face. "Oh great, sand in my boots, and in all my clothing!" She shook herself uncomfortably.

Lina dropped to the ground and removed her boots, dumping out clumps of sand.

Zelgadiss shrugged. "That's to be expected, come on Lina..."

But the sorceress shook her head. "Oh no, I'm not moving another inch until I get this sand out of my clothing..."

Zelgadiss sighed. "Nani? Lina, we need to-"

She removed her cape and dumped it on him. "Hold this out like a curtain. I'm going to undress and shake my clothes off."

Zelgadiss sweatdropped.

She continued quickly. "...and if I catch you sneaking a peek, I'll clobber you..." Lina shook her finger at him.

"L-Lina...what kind of guy do you think I am?"

"A decent kind of guy, but even descent guys can be tempted, especially over a pretty girl, like me." She smiled.

Zelgadiss rolled his eyes. "Don't flatter yourself...make this quick."

He lifted the cape and looked the other way. He could hear Lina fumbling around, vigorously shaking her articles of clothing. She reached up and hung her shirt on the outstretched cape.

It was true Zelgadiss considered himself a gentleman, and so, in spite of his burning desire to steal a glimpse of Lina in the flesh, he continued to stare at his feet. "Are you almost ready?" His voice came out in a waver.

"Yeah Zel." She grabbed her shirt and quickly dressed. Then she drew her cape over her shoulders, but dicarded her weighted shoulder pads. "Forget these, they'll just slow me down." She tossed them to the ground. "That's much better...thank you Zelgadiss-san."

"Your welcome," he grinned. "I'm sure you would have done the same for me..." With that he turned and started walking again.

Lina blushed at his sly remark. "Hey, wait for me..." She took off after the chimera.

"What a beautiful nigh sky..." Lina broke the long silence that had lingered uncomfortably between them. "I've never seen one so clear...but those stars Zel..."

"What about them?" He looked at her his eyes piercing through the darkness.

"Those aren't our constellations...this isn't our world at all." She sounded a bit disturbed and frightened.

"Don't worry about it..." Zelgadiss answered quickly.

"I'm not!" She snapped back. "I just was confirming-"

"Yes, I know..." he muttered. He pulled his cloak over his head and glimpsed at her from under the hood. He was worried, worried for Lina. He could survive the harshness of the dessert far better than Lina could, even if she was strong willed. What if there wasn't any town for hundreds of miles. They'd never make it on foot...they would both die long before they reached that distance. "Stop it," he told himself. "I must not get negative now...she's counting on me...even if she won't admit it."

"Zelgadiss? Did you say something..." Lina slowed her pace and turned to him.

"No, just thinking aloud."

Lina stopped him and pulled back his hood. "You are worried aren't you....that makes two of us, but at least you are here with me, and that is the best comfort in the world to me..." She smiled bravely. She ran her hand over his wiry silver strands of hair that reflected the moonlight. Then Lina caught herself and turned away, walking on. She stubbornly ignored the pains of hunger in her stomach. By now, they would be seated in an inn, with heaps of delicious food set out before them. Lina banished that thought away.

Zelgadiss sighed when she turned away from him. She had been so gentle just then, almost affectionate. He shook his head. Affectionate? He was imagining things, Lina couldn't consider him as anything more than a good friend...yes that was all he could ever be to her. Just a friend.

Hours into the night, Lina suddenly stopped. Zelgadiss, who had his head down, bumped into her. "What is it?"

Lina turned to him, her breath was frosty as she spoke. "Getting kind of cold isn't it?"

"You are right..." He had been so consumed with his own thoughts that he hadn't noticed the temperature drop. "Do you want my cloak?"

"Oh Zelgadiss, I couldn't-" She began.

"Take it, I don't feel the weather as much as anyone else might." He laid his cloak over her shoulders.

"Can we rest for a while....I'm getting kind of tired, aren't you?" Lina closed her eyes.

"For a couple hours...I do suppose we could. But starting tomorrow, we need to change our method of travel..."

"Meaning?" Lina blinked.

"We should sleep during the day, and travel at night...much more comfortable that way."

"Oh, that would make sense..." Lina yawned. "Okay, let's rest now..." She sat, legs crossed on the rough sand. Zelgadiss sat beside her. For a long time, they silently stared up at the sky, then gradually sleep overcame them. Morning found them fast asleep, holding each other tightly for warmth.

Zelgadiss batted his eyelids and gulped as he saw Lina's face inches away from his. She was still sleeping, with a sweet contented smile on her face. He wondered what she was so pleased about; a good dream perhaps. Then he suddenly came to the realization that their arms were around each other. He blushed brightly. How did they get like this? He couldn't remember. He was about to carefully pull free, when Lina muttered something, scooted into him, and swung her right leg over his. Zelgadiss sweatdropped and stopped breathing. Damn, if she were to wake up and find them like this, he wouldn't hear the end of it; she would blame him of course. "That's it!" he thought desperately to himself. He breathed lightly. Any more of this and he would loose it. He quickly jerked away and rolled onto his feet. He gasped and waited for her to wake.

Lina rubbed her eyes then turned on her stomach. "No nana, I wanna sleep just a bit more..." She began to snore.

Zelgadiss marveled. "She sleeps like a log..." He moved over to her. "Alright, young lady, rise and shine. Time to go...before it gets too hot."

Lina flashed her eyes open. "Zel?" She looked around, remembering where they were and frowned. "I was having a nice dream.....we were in a forest with a big cool lake, lots of shade....cooking trout over a campfire..."

Zelgadiss shook his head. "Say no more, let's go..." He pulled her to her feet.

Minutes later they were on their way, the sun had just risen and the air was slowly warming. Lina lagged behind.

Zelgadiss, didn't like this negative attitude Lina was showing, she was always so optimistic. He spoke out. "Who was in your dream?"

Lina raised her head. "Huh? You, Gourry, Amelia, Luna, Naga, Xelloss, Sylphiel, ....and a funny looking little dragon..." She smiled. "Just before I woke up, it turned into a human and told me he had a cure for you..."

Zelgadiss blinked. "Did he? Can I have your dream?" He forced a smile. Lina returned it, but only half-heartedly.

"I hope that more than just sand lies over those other dunes up ahead..." Lina pointed.

"So do I, Lina. So do I."

Amelia, Slyphiel, and Gourry took refuge behind a large brick wall. They couldn't outsmart that devil of a sorcerer. He was too quick and his spells, though simple in casting, were greatly increased in power and number. Amelia's righteous blood was boiling, Slyphiel was praying silently, and Gourry was preparing to attack with all he had, when a smooth voice shattered the awkward silence.

"I take it you need some assistance, my friends?" Xelloss Metallium hovered next to them. In the darkness, lit only buy the flaming houses and shops, his eyes showed a hint of sadness. Amelia thought that strange, but forgot about it instantly.

"Your assistance? Well, without any other options, go ahead, I don't care..." She replied quickly. "What do you plan to do? He's a difficult person to fight, and impossible to reason with." Amelia sighed.

"And are you forgetting what I am, Amelia-chan?" Xelloss shook his finger at her. "Don't worry, I know just what to do?" He smiled that sly smile of his and dissappered.

"What is he going to do, I wonder?" Gourry mused.

Ash stood atop the high roof of an inn, impatient for some more action to take place. He knew they had to show themselves soon; either that, or he would start blasting away every hiding place. "Show yourselves now, or else I'll tear this place apart!"

The sorcerer felt a forceful slap dealt to his shoulder. He spun around. "Who?" Nothing...but there it was again, this time a hard whack under the knees. Ash fell forward and hit the ground far below, stifling a cry, as he heard something snap. Damn, who or what was doing that? Ash heard eerie laughter as a form materialized in front of him. The sorcerer cocked an eyebrow. "A Mazoku?" He spat, pain travling up his right leg. The bone was shattered.

Xelloss only grinned back. He hovered just out of the socerer's reach, then with a wink, he disappeared in front of the startled man's eyes.

"Hey!" Ash hollered. "You little imp, come back here." The man stood ridgidly and readied a spell, waiting for the right moment to let it loose.

Xelloss darted around behind him again and kicked him with the heel of his boot. Ash fell face forward into a muddy puddle of monster slime.

"Aaaaaaarggh!"Ash raored. "Why don't you fight like a man, or are you scared? Disappearing between attacks is cowardice." He wiped his face with disgust. He almost topped backwards as he tried to steady himself.

Xelloss grinned and chuckled. "I'm having way too much fun...yes." He hovered in the air, legs crossed and whistling to himself, casually reading a "New York Times" issue.

Ash drew his sword and with a yell, charged at the Mazoku, well painfully hobbled. He came to a jittery halt as again Xelloss moved effortlessly just out of range...

"Damn you..." Ash hissed, his eye flickering in rage. "Stop disappearing and fight fair..."

Xelloss' expression held no emotion now, this man was tiring him. Ash was definately no match for him and he wondered why Lina couldn't of disposed of the bastard sooner. "I'm not disappearing, and who are you to tell me to fight fair?" he replied, his voice icy. He moved quickly again, escaping the man's vision and then reappeared in front of the sorcerer, inches from his face. Before Ash could react, Xelloss shot a bolt of energy through his middle. No cry came from Ash, and he slumped over and fell into a pile of rubbish, blood soaking his tunic. Xelloss lifted the dead man's head. "That was for Lina!" The Mazoku spoke gruffly. He gritted his teeth and thought to himself. "At least Zelgadiss is with her." He knew the chimera was iron willed and could handle most situations laid before him. I wonder where he sent them? Perhaps I should have forced that out of him, before I did away with him...oh well, this makes it far more entertaining...

Where indeed Ash had sent them? He knew just what to do. Grabing the dead man by his collar, he faded out of sight as the others came rushing up to meet him.