Hey all.. C&C is GREATLY appreciated... no flame critiqueing, though. This is the rough draft of episode one of Slayers FINAL, which takes place directly after TRY and thusly takes place in the TV and OAV universe only. Any information that could counter information here from the books, video games and other slayers media are null and void.
also... all characters with a couple exceptions are property of Hajime Kanzaka, Rui Araizumi, Kadokawa Shoten, TV TOKYO, SOFTX and Marubeni...
anywayon with the fic...
Slayers FINAL
Episode One
Gracious! the Prodigal Princess Returns! *(1)
Princess Amelia awoke to the sound of a bird singing outside of her window. A shaft of sunlight shone through the thin curtains, lighting the portrait of her late mother that hung on the far wall. Another day. With some effort, Amelia successfully fought the urge to roll over and go back to sleep. Even though her official duties were tedious at times, they were still duties, and the crown princess of Seilune had to set an example, after all. Besides, what would mother think? She yawned, stretched and got out of bed.
"Good morning, mother." she said to the portrait, as was her habit. Amelia had always treasured her memories of her mother, always focusing on the gentle woman she had been rather than what had happened to her. "Please watch over nee-chan, wherever she is, and daddy..um...and please help me do my best to be ready for another day's work in the service of justice!" she almost-shouted with all the sincerity she could muster so shortly after waking up. She couldn't quite understand it, really...she had always been a morning person until recently, leaping out of bed to face whatever perils dared to stand between her and her duty.
The most perilous thing she had seen for almost a year, though, was the peace treaty with Zona: a thirty-scroll monstrosity containing phrases like "I have fully read and understood this document..." that had to be signed in quintuplicate (five of course being the mystically favored number of the monster Zomulgustar). This would have been bad enough in itself, even if Amelia had allowed herself some leniency...but surely it was her duty not to sign that she understood each document unless she had read each copy thoroughly, and cross-checked them to make sure they were all the same, and she could recall any of the twenty-three conditions under which the treaty was to be declared null and void from memory, and... A chill ran down her spine. Somehow, this made even having to fight icky slime monsters not really seem all that bad...she couldn't help but wonder what they were doing right now. But there was work to be done for the sake of justice, and she had to force herself back to reality.
"And please watch over Miss Lina, and Mr. Gourry, and.." And...she tried not to think about it...thinking about it would only lead to worrying about it, and worrying would only make it harder to face the day's work ahead of her. And so it was, that as she finished getting dressed, that she didn't think about why it was she only had one protective star-bracelet on. In fact, she was so busy not thinking about it as she walked down the hall to get her morning cup of coffee that she completely forgot to not wish that something interesting would hap...*sound of trumpets blaring* The distinct sound of the royal trumpets blared outside the palace, jerking Amelia to full alertness with a start. “That’s strange.” She said. “The royal trumpets never play like that unless...” Amelia forgot about the coffee and raced down the stairs.
***
Indescribably horrific sounds echoed through the forest. Several years ago, Gourry would have looked around for the ravenous monster which was the source of these sounds. Having traveled with Lina for the aforementioned several years, though, not even a man of his intelligence could escape catching on to the connection between said sounds and said companion. However, there were many related connections which a man of his intelligence could escape with ease...including, it seemed, that is was NOT a good idea to bring up food immediately after having heard these sounds unless their source was comfortably seated in a well-supplied restaurant...which, judging by the fact that said sounds were described as echoing through the forest, they were most likely not. Not that Gourry was thinking about any of this when he asked, “So, Lina, how far is it to the next town, anyway? I’m hungry, and it’s been a long time since we’ve gotten a chance to stop and eat...”
If looks could kill, a half-mile stretch of barren wasteland would have instantaneously appeared opposite Gourry at that moment. As it was, a very large sweatdrop appearing on the opposite side of his head would have to do. Unless she decided to do more than look, anyway, which she promptly did. A half-mile stretch of barren wasteland appeared opposite Gourry. Not instantaneously...there was that whole thing with the spell-chant and everything, but nothing you’d want to waste screen time on. “There’s nowhere to eat between here and Seiruun. We must be on the ONLY road that has no towns whatsoever for a week’s journey from the city... What kind of IDIOT would build a road through nowhere like this, anyway?”
An only slighly scorched Gourry replied: “Well, Lina, you were complaining so much about how long the journey was taking that I decided to buy a map showing the shortest route to Seiruun.”
“You did WHAT?” Lina gave him another one of her famous ‘I am about three seconds away from utterly annihilating you’ stares.
“I bought a map. The guy who sold it to me was really nice and only charged me 40 gold pieces.”
“Next time, ASK me before you spend our money! That was SUPPOSED to be for FOOD!”
“Oh, I guess it’s OK then...after all we haven’t seen a restaurant for days!”
*POW* *ZAP*
About thirty seconds later, Gourry became aware that Lina had him in a headlock. How exactly this had happened without him noticing was a mystery to him, but then again, so was just about everything else. “Ok...I won’t do it again...I don’t know what I did, but I promise I won’t do it again! *gasp* mercy!”
“Just shut up and keep walking!” she said, releasing him.
“One more question...”
“Yes?” Lina glared at her suddenly sheepish companion.
“What exactly is in this box anyways?” he asked and then ducked , expecting Lina to throw the next punch.
She stopped in her tracks. “Gourry, for once in your life you ask a very good question.” He hazarded a cautious smile. “I don’t know what it is, but it must be something important. It’s labeled ‘Fragile’, addressed to an obscure member of Seiruun’s royal family, protected against scrying spells, and most importantly, worth a fifty gold piece advance, to be followed by five hundred more on delivery...”
“That’s funny, the most important thing I noticed about it is that it’s very, very heavy.”
“Which is why you’re carrying it. Especially after using up almost all our advance...”
“Can I ask another question?”
“You just did, Gourry.”
“Oh, yeah...well can I ask another one after this?”
“Go ahead” *sigh*
“Why exactly did we take this assignment in the first place?”
“The pay is pretty good for just playing diplomatic courier, don’t you think?”
“My my, are you sure that’s the only reason?”
“Well...” she began, but paused.. She looked up just as Xellos appeared between her and Gourry, who greeted the newcomer with a friendly wave.
“What are you doing here?”
“Oh just keeping an eye on some old acquaintances, Lina. I suppose this delivery would be your excuse for going to the Holy City?”
“Excuse? What other reason could there be?”
“That’s funny, I thought you’d be wanting to make sure a certain someone kept his promise.” Lina blushed. Xellos just smiled. “Well, whatever your reasons, I’m sure you’ll find Seiruun very...interesting for a while. In fact, I was just on my way there myself.”
“Oh really, why is that?”
“That is a secret!” Xelloss waved his finger and disappeared.
“Some people never change. Come on, Gourry, I think I see the city up ahead!”
“Didn’t you say that yesterday?”
***
There are few things in existence which are quite so oxymoronic as a Seiruun family reunion. Even ignoring for the moment that any random member of the family was likely to be a walking self-contradiction, there was the matter of that single dominant gene which somehow managed to be responsible for no two members of the extended family looking anything like one another. One also usually uses words other than ‘reunion’ to describe a setting where a significant fraction of those attending are actively plotting the assassination of the people they are having casual conversation with (taking care that they hadn’t sold life insurance to them the day before). In fact, aside from a tendency toward dark hair and blue eyes, there was very little that would lead one to suspect that such a congregation of the local citizenry was in fact a reunion at all. Well, very little except the world’s most dangerous pacifist loudly proclaiming this through every medium available to him. The trumpets had summoned everyone to the central square...and everyone, of course, included Amelia, who at this particular moment in time was attempting to make her way to the front of the crowd without doing anything unbecoming to a princess. She was having a sufficient difficulty with this that she had quite a bit of time to wonder just what all the fuss was about. She hadn’t expected that she would have to use an escort for what would probably be just another royal proclamation, but the crowds pressed in toward the center podium like none she had ever seen...she couldn’t imagine what could possibly be so important... until she saw who was standing next to her father. It couldn’t be, could it?
“Amelia!” Philionel’s voice thundered across the distance between them...the crowd did it’s best to clear a path for her, once made aware of her presence. The woman standing next to Philionel waved to her...and Amelia just stood there...
“G...Gracia? Is that really you?”
What happened next is fairly difficult to cram into onomatopoeia, but suffice it to say that, against all known laws of crowd control, a circle fifty feet across and completely devoid of humanity appeared in less than a second, with a notable absence of any expanding glowy radioactive spheres of magical death appearing to replace it...only a clear path for Amelia to join the reunited remnants of her immediate family.
“Of course it’s me, little sister! How could you forget someone as wonderful as me?”
Amelia couldn’t help but shudder...Gracia had always had an unusual laugh, but this, this was something different altogether...but somehow disturbingly familiar...
“What’s wrong, Amelia? Come say hello to your long-lost sister!” Phil boomed. Amelia cautiously approached the area where the two were standing, only to be ceremoniously scooped into her father’s arms (it wouldn’t do to be unceremonious on such an important occasion*) for a long overdue group hug. After finally deciding that it might be a good idea to allow his daughters to breathe, Phil took a handkerchief from his pocket. “My darling Gracia, *sniff sniff* You’re still the spitting image of your mother.” *HONK!!!* *sniff* *sniff*. Then he turned to his subjects and shouted: “I hereby declare this coming month a high festival in celebration of the return of the heir to the throne, Gracia de Gauss Seiruun!” The castle seemed to shake will the cheers of the people, though not quite so much very close to the center podium, where even the Holy Knights of Seiruun apparently feared to tread. While Amelia was far from the only one present who was giving Gracia an odd look at the moment, it was a different sort of odd look, and all the others were also cheering. “Amelia, why don’t you show your sister to the Royal guest bedroom?”
“You mean Mom’s old bedroom?” Phil’s only answer was a nod. “Daddy...can I ask you something...in private?”
“What could you possibly have to ask me that you couldn’t ask in front of your own sister?”
“Never mind...perhaps later...”
And all around them, preparations for the great celebration began, though there were many who would have left as quickly were there less work to be done.
***
*commercial break*
***
Amelia awoke with a start, covered in cold sweat. “What a dream.” she said, staring at the picture of her mother. The room was completely dark with the exception of a stream of moonlight that seemed to creep in through the curtains lighting up her mother’s face. She shivered, pulling the blankets around her
tightly. Just as she was gently fading back to dreamland she thought she heard something...a barely audible metallic scrape. Her eyes suddenly wide open, her breathing faster...surely it was only her imagination...she should just try to calm down and go back to sleep and ignore the blood-curdling screams. She was running before she realized she had gotten out of bed, running toward the source of the screams...louder screams...running...running down the hallway and to the right, tripping, falling, running again almost before standing up...no screams anymore...but only one place they could have come from. She stopped running. Gasping for breath. Finding none. Her mother’s bedroom. An expanding pool of blood inching its way under the partially opened door. A body hitting the floor...a body which was not her mother’s...a man in black....half of a man in black. A sword. A sword covered in blood. In the other half of the man in black. Held by a woman. A woman who was not her mother. A woman who was not her mother, but was however, also covered in blood. Another body...a body which was her mother’s. Something. Not a mist. Not a splash of blood. Not a shadow. Not a snake. None of these things, and somehow all of them at once. Gracia. Something. Blood. Gracia. A hand rising to a chin in a way it never had... Nothing.
Amelia awoke with a start, covered in cold sweat. It was always the same dream, but she could never quite remember it...especially the end. Still she knew it was the same dream...ever since Gracia had returned, it was always the same dream, and she could never remember how it ended. She knew the story as she had been told it...no-one had seen anyone enter or leave, no-one had seen Gracia at all that night or for years after, and when her father had finally gotten there there were only herself, her mother, and the man in black. No sword, no explanation, that was all there was. Something just wasn’t RIGHT. She was definitely the same person, though she certainly had grown..but there were little things...there was just a little too much sway to her walk than was proper, and her moods were even more skittish than she remembered...and then there was her laugh...*shiver*. But all these things could be explained by her long absence...she had to become a woman of the world to survive its challenges and return a champion of justice worthy to make her claim to the throne. It could all be explained, but...but here was no use worrying about it. Worrying would only lead to more...*yawn*...dreams... but...
***
At long last, Lina and Gourry entered the city. “Yeah, Lina! We’re finally here! Can I put this box down now?”
“I suppose, but why don’t we wait until we’ve found someplace to eat?”
“How about here?”
“Hmm...Myra’s Bar and Grill. Works for me! Just don’t let it out of your sight, OK?” As they walked in, Lina noticed that nearly all of the patrons were eating and drinking unusually heavily...well, heavily by normal people’s standards, anyway. Lina called the waiter over. “What’s going on?”
The waiter looked startled at first, then relaxed, thinking he understood the situation. If he had actually understood the situation, he would have been desperately trying to come up with some kind of excuse...something about needing to be taller than a certain line to eat at the buffet, or quickly revising the large ‘ALL YOU CAN EAT’ sign to read ‘YOUR OWN WEIGHT IN FOOD’. As it was, however, he remained blissfully ignorant of the nature of these particular customers. “Oh, you must be travelers, that must be why you haven’t heard.”
“Heard what?”
“The prodigal princess has returned. Prince Philionel has declared a month-long celebration of feasting. There’s even a festival tonight at the palace courtyards.”
“Prodigal princess? Amelia doesn’t seem like the type.” Gourry said, though truth be told he was still trying to figure out what prodigal meant.
“Amelia???” The waiter gave them an odd look. “No, not Princess Amelia, Princess Gracia. Her older sister.”
“So her sister finally came back, after all this time...” Lina said in awe, though truth be told she was wondering what kind of food Phil would bring out for such a festival
“Of course, you need an invitation to get into the royal banquet...” Lina’s imagination suddenly found itself biting an empty fork. “but Myra’s is having a celebration special of its own! All you can eat for only one gold piece!” Now THAT snapped Lina back to the present moment.
“Great!” yelled Lina as she threw her last two gold pieces at him. The two picked up their plates and headed for the strangely nervous-looking buffet.
About two hours and one very upset Myra later...
“Gee Lina, did you really have to make the owner beg like that.?”
“Yeah well, its his own fault. You should never promise when you can’t deliver, and if you go back on a promise to Lina Inverse, you’re lucky you’re still in business. Lucky for him there’s that banquet tonight...”
“But Lina, he was closing the place down, and he said it had been in his family for six generations, and...”
“Never mind that, we’ve got a package to deliver and a festival to attend!”
“Don’t we need invitations?”
“Not if we play our cards right...we’ll just have to kill two birds with one stone” *is there any way Gourry can take this literally without being cruel to animals?*
***
“What do you MEAN you’ve never heard of Prince Amadeis?” Lina yanked the guard down to a level where he could read the address on her diplomatic package very clearly. Not comfortably, mind you, but clearly.
“I’m terribly sorry, Miss...Inverse was it? I simply don’t know the person this package is addressed to I’ve only been at the palace a few months, though...if you’ll excuse me for a moment, I’ll check with someone with more experience.” The young guard was quite suspicious of the pair that had just attempted to walk right through the main gate to the courtyard...and such a strange excuse, too... A traveling mercenary, and a sorceress of all things...this was a city of white magic...what business could she possibly have here? Practitioners of the black arts are not usually found employed as messengers, and could they REALLY be good friends with Princess Amelia? On the other hand, if they were telling the truth, he certainly didn’t want it on his permanent record that he had tossed out Friends of the Kingdom from a royal banquet, with or without proper invitations. And they were right about one thing, if this Prince Amadeis of theirs actually existed, he was almost certainly at the banquet Fortunately, he knew exactly who to ask in this sort of situation. The head cook had been working Seiruun’s royal kitchens for 20 years, and he never forgot a stomach. It was his business to remember the tastes of everyone who ate at the royal table, guest and family member alike...“Bernie*, have you ever heard of a Prince Amadeis?”
“Nope, can’t say that I have...there’s little Anadelia who’s allergic to licorice, maybe that’s who they mean...hey, who’s asking?” When he got his reply, he turned white as a sheet and dropped the stewpot he was holding. He didn’t notice the scalding liquid soaking through his pantsleg. Nor did he notice the guard running back to where, a minute before, a gate had stood.
***
Amelia Wil Tesla Seiruun sat playing with her food at the banquet table, watching Gracia work her way through a large turkey leg with disturbing speed. She let out a resigned sigh...there was no way to tell her dad what she was thinking...she even had difficulty convincing herself for a change. Something would have to be done, though...Justice wouldn’t have it any other way. She was roused from her introspection by a half-heard strident voice from among the crowd.
“Gourry, the last meatball is mine!” she heard it say.
It might be wishful thinking, but it couldn’t possibly be confused for anyone else...she looked up, but couldn’t see her. And then there was an unmistakable sound of metal against metal, echoing off the stone walls surrounding the courtyard. This was no swordfight, the pitch was too high...they had to be here...she’d just need to find them.
”Amelia, wait! Aren’t you going to finish your dinner?” Amelia didn’t even turn around to answer her father as she pushed her way into the crowd in the direction of the quarrel.”
“Says who?”
“Says the one who paid for it!”
“What do you mean you paid? All you did was take down the gate!”
“Great one, Gourry! Tell the world about it, why don’t you!”
That at least explained how they had gotten in without invitations...if Amelia had known they would be in the area she would have been sure to send them one, but...this was getting frustrating...all the noise in the area made it very difficult to discern the direction the conversation was coming from...she started toward the tallest flagpole in the vicinity, figuring it would have a clear view of the courtyard.
“All right, how about we rock paper scissors for it?!”
“OK...ready? One, two, three!”
Oh well, it might not be the tallest flagpole, but it would have to do...if she didn’t find where they were quickly, Gourry might...
“HA! Rock beats scissors!”
...win. Uh-oh... By now, Amelia was halfway up the flagpole, and she suddenly noticed a flash of blond hair...a man holding up a meatball on a fork...she slid down the pole and ran toward where she remembered seeing him.
“Oh well...I guess that’s it, Gourry...fair’s fair..but let’s go best two out of three, OK?”
“Uh...OK, I guess...”
“One, two , three..”
*BLAM!!!!!!!*
“Didn’t you know, Gourry? Bram Blazer beats scissors every time!”
“Miss Lina!” Amelia ran up and hugged the victor who had her mouth full of meatball. Lina looked down at Amelia. Amelia quickly remembered who it was she was hugging and let go, electing to latch onto Gourry instead with a quick healing spell as part of the bargain.. “Mr. Gourry! I see you two haven’t changed much.”
“Hi there Amelia. *swallow* Your flair for overenthusastic greetings isn’t rusty either, I see.. I hear your sister finally came home!” Gourry chose this particular moment to fall to the ground unconscious.
“Yeah, isn’t it great?” answered Amelia, though she didn’t sound as if she were that happy about it “It looks like Gracia is home for good.”
“But why was she gone for so long? “
“I don’t know, Miss Lina. Whenever I ask she changes the subject. Or else she just laughs me off...” she shivered just thinking about it.
Lina looked over at the table where all the highest royalty were sitting, Gracia of course sitting in the place of honor. There was something familiar about her, though she couldn’t tell just what it was...just that she had this feeling that something was WRONG about her wearing a princess’ long, flowing dress. There was also something oddly familiar about the way that everyone who had any flexibility in their seating arrangements chose to sit as far away from her as possible...you’d think that all of the local nobility would be wanting to worm their way as close to her as possible, particularly the nobility of the male variety, she realized with a self-conscious blush. Change the subject.
Amelia decided to do that for her: “So, what brings you to Seiruun, anyway?”
“Well, we were actually wondering if you could help us with that...you see, we got this package that we were supposed to deliver.”
“Hey, didn’t Xel say something about a promise?” Gourry recovered at a decidedly awkward moment (as usual). Lina turned beet red, though her face was nothing compared to Amelia’s, much less the impressive bump which shortly appeared on Gourry’s head, ending his short-lived recovery.
“Never mind him...could you help us with something?”
“What is it, Miss Lina?” she replied, still blushing.
“You know the royal family pretty well, right?” Amelia nodded in reply. “Well, have you ever heard of a Prince...”
There are only three sounds which could have had the effect this particular sound had on Lina. One of them would be the sound of a slug slowly dripping its way into her ear. Another one of them would be the sound of her sister’s voice demanding retribution for a certain incident which more or less ended her childhood. The sound which actually filled the courtyard at that moment, while neither of these things, nevertheless caused Lina to forget completely about her package and go into a dead faint on the spot.