“I have called this emergency meeting of the village to reinitiate the rescue mission of Phil’s daughter Amelia!” Lina yelled out over the crowd of men that were gathered in the barn once more. She still stood on her soapbox so that her line of vision was above everyone else’s had seemed quite pleased with herself when the village men joined voices in a joyous “Huzzah!”

“Lina, I warned you the last time,” Gourry groaned from besides her. “Going out to the castle with an angry mob is not going to work. You are going to get hurt if...”

“The sakura trees are near their bloom!” Lina replied animatedly. “The mountain passes are free of snow and we have to go and save her before it is too late! Who knows what that Beast could have done to her by now!” There was an uproar of voices from those gathered around her. Gourry sighed heavily and walked out, traversing back to the tavern so that he could wearily keep watch after it alone for the evening, again.

“By holding my daughter hostage,” Phil exclaimed, “he has forfeited any chance for forgiveness! He could take other girls prisoners as well! Do we want that?”

“No!” came the reply from the village men.

“Then let us go and reclaim Amelia and destroy this creature!” Lina yelled, thrusting her dagger up into the air. She jumped off her soapbox and started to walk out of the village boundaries. The men from the crowd followed her in chorus, wanting to all get in on the action.

“Will there be other monsters there?” one villager asked excitedly.

“Yeah, I want to know what we are going into,” another piped in.

“We do not know,” Lina said, hiding her nervousness perfectly. “This is a journey into the unknown and we all have to be prepared for anything that might come our way.”

After that, a good chuck of time after was spent marching in pure silence. Not a soul wanted to breathe a word of their mission. It was not until a strange man came up to Lina and tapped her on the shoulder was anything spoken.

“Miss Inverse,” he creepily grinned.

“What is it Xellos?”

“Should we sing to pass the time?”

“Not just not, but hell no!” Lina snapped at Xellos. The man just smiled and returned to the center of the crowd, right before breaking out into song.

“Through the mist, through the woods, through the darkness and the shadows, it’s a nightmare but it’s one exciting ride...”

“Damn it all,” Lina muttered. “I think we should use him as the battering ram to break the castle door down instead of a log. He’s probably just as dense...”

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Sitting down in the library, Amelia was settled with a good book and a candle for light in the dark spring evening. Her ears suddenly perked up at the faint pounding sound. She bolted from her chair and looked out the window. Down at the front door was a group of men trying to break down the door with a tree trunk battering ram. Amelia frantically ran towards the foyer hall. She could not bear to let them harm Zelgadis.

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“...aaand fifty Frenchmen can’t be wroooooong!” Xellos sang as he swayed back and forth to the rhythm of the tree-trunk battering ram.

“Shut up! This is not a damned musical!” Lina yelled. She pushed Xellos into the wall of the castle, knocking him unconscious. The other villagers had a miniature celebration before finally forcing the door to succumb and open. Phil and Lina then immediately rushed in, leaving the rest of the others to idly wait, for they were only extras with very little purpose to the plot’s actual advancement to begin with.

“I’ll go this way!” Lina said as she strung her bow and ran off towards the West Wing with an arrow knocked. Phil agreed and was about to head into the East Wing until Amelia burst out into the foyer. Phil forgot about searching the castle and ran over to his daughter to embrace her.

“Daddy, please, I saw the angry villagers break down the door,” Amelia said as she shoved her father away. “Don’t let them kill Lord Graywords!”

“Why shouldn’t I!” Phil cried angrily. “He kept you as a prisoner!”

“He has allowed me to leave!” Amelia snapped. “I have been offered my freedom many times already and I have refused every single time!”

“Amelia...” Phil squeaked, shocked at her words. “What... what has that creature done with you?”

“He has shown me who he really is!” Amelia said, slowly backing away. “He is a good man. Lord Graywords is a good, decent, kindhearted man!”

“You don’t know what you are saying,” Phil replied frantically. “That... creature is nothing more than a savage beast!”

“Daddy... you’re wrong!” He is not a beast or a monster...”

“Amelia,” Phil pleaded, holding Amelia at arm’s length. “Do you love him?”

Amelia did not answer him. Tears welled up in her eyes as she ran off into the West Wing, despite her father’s pleas to get her to stay. She simply had to find Zelgadis and warn him before her father could get to him.

[]Lord Graywords, she thought. I cannot let you die. I... I...

“Amelia!” Zelgadis called out, bursting from a door further down the hall. He rushed towards her. “The castle is being invaded!”

“It is my father!” Amelia wept as they met by a window. “He brought the villagers with him. They want to kill you!”

“Oh Amelia...” Zelgadis started. Instead of finishing his sentence, Zelgadis collapsed and let out a deafening scream of sheer pain. A metal arrow had been lodged deep into his lower shoulder, quite close to his heart. Blood gushed everywhere. Amelia shrieked in terror. She knew of only one person in the entire village with the skill and equipment to even think about piercing through stone.

“Amelia! Run!” Lina yelled as she ran over towards the wounded Zelgadis. In a fluid movement, she put away her bow and drew a dagger from its sheath on her belt.

“No Miss Lina!” Amelia yelled, stepping between her injured lover and the tavern owner. “Please don not kill him!” She tried to hold Lina back, but Lina held Amelia by the forearm and jerked her back to look into her eyes.

“You do not understand,” Lina spat. Amelia winced as Lina’s grip became unconsciously stronger. “This is for your own protection, as well as the rest of the villagers’.”

“Miss Lina,” Amelia groaned as she tried to break the grip on her arm. The arm seemed to be squeezed tighter and together until it suddenly released. Amelia looked to see Zelgadis was holding Lina in the air by her throat, a protective fire in his eyes.

“Don’t you dare hurt her,” Zelgadis hissed. He was so angry that he appeared half-possessed. Without any inclination for her safety, Zelgadis tossed Lina aside like a rag doll and she flew into the window, shattering it and falling onto the roof.

“Lord Graywords!” Amelia cried. “Miss Lina could fall!”

“She...”

“Miss Lina cannot die!” Amelia protested, cutting Zelgadis off. “She is not a bad person! She doesn’t know how good you are!”

Zelgadis felt horrible. He did not really want to rescue Lina, yet his heart said that he had to for Amelia’s sake. So, he jumped out of the window and onto the slightly sloped rooftop to find Lina. The sky had grown so dark, that even the moon’s wan light was blocked out by the clouds, making it all the more difficult for Zelgadis to find Lina. When he found her, she was lying spread-eagle and settled precariously on the edge of the roof, nearly falling off and down into the water-filled moat surrounding the castle.

Hmm... she appears to be unconscious, Zelgadis thought as he reached for Lina’s body. He was almost able to grip her shoulder when Lina’s eyes snapped open and she quickly reached out and clasped onto Zelgadis’s forearm.

“Don’t think you can deceive me that easily,” Lina cackled. She shifted her weight and threw Zelgadis onto a lower section of the roof.

“Miss Lina!” Amelia yelled. It was useless to shout, for Lina had already dropped down to the level of rook Zelgadis had landed on, becoming out of an earshot.

Miss Lina, don’t kill him, Amelia thought as she ran down the hall towards where she could hopefully reach Lina and Zelgadis. There was a balcony close by where the were standing and hopefully Amelia could make it there in time to stop Lina from killing Zelgadis.

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“You will pay for holding Amelia prisoner,” Lina snarled as she hovered over Zelgadis as he lay in anguish from the fall and the metal arrow still in his back. Lina forcefully yanked the arrow out from Zelgadis’s back and put it, still bloodied, in the quiver on her back.

“Do you like my specially made arrows?” Lina smirked evilly. “They were made to take down big game. You’re truly big game my friend.”

“Please stop this,” Zelgadis moaned in pain as Lina reached for her dagger.

“Begging for forgiveness are we?” Lina laughed darkly. “How sweet. Shame I can see through your act, yet Amelia cannot. Where did she ever get the idea that you were actually still a human after all those years of spiteful solitude?”

“You do not know me,” Zelgadis spat as he struggle to get up. His breathing was weighted and he was only barely able to reach his hands and knees before collapsing again. “Amelia knows how I really am. She knows the true me.”

“A rude, spoiled, prick of a man is what my great-grandmother always said you were,” Lina sneered. “She was even your servant before your curse was put upon you. ‘Lord Zelgadis Graywords,’ she used to say, ‘was a cold-hearted wretch of a man who never cared about anyone or anything except his own damned self.’ Does that sound a bit familiar you broken lord?”

Zelgadis looked up at Lina as she caressed the dagger in her hand. She held it with distinct familiarity, letting him know that she could use the short metal blade properly. For the first time in his life, Zelgadis was truly afraid of someone and what they could do to him. He was too weak from the fall and arrow wound in order to fight back and Lina appeared as if she were going to deliver the final blow to kill him any second now. Lina raised her arm with the dagger and prepared herself for the kill.

“Goodbye,” Lina said blandly. She thrust down the dagger, yet stopped when interrupted by a familiar sound.

“Miss Lina!” Amelia called out. Lina looked over to see Amelia running across the roof, an open windowpane blowing about in the slight breeze behind her. After almost tripping on her own feet, Amelia made it over to Zelgadis and Lina, putting herself protectively in front of the wounded chimera.

“Amelia, move,” Lina ordered.

“No! You can’t hurt Lord Graywords!” Amelia cried.

“We went through this already,” Lina sighed. “He is a creature that needs to meet his end! Why can you not understand that!”

“Because... because...” Amelia said. She could not continue because she was choking up with tears.

“Move Amelia,” Lina said as she tried to shove Amelia away. Lina then tried to stab Zelgadis again, yet stopped when Amelia put herself in the way of the dagger by holding onto Lina’s wrist.

“Amelia!”

“I love him Miss Lina!” Amelia cried as she struggled against the force in Lina’s arm. “I love Lord Graywords!”

“You can’t possibly...”

“I do! I don’t care that he is made of stone! I love him!” Amelia sobbed. Frightened, Lina started to back away, a horrified look plastered on her now-gaunt face.

How could Amelia love him? Lina asked herself as she stepped away. Amelia, was this entire venture to rescue you for nothing? Don’t you care about your father and sister and want to go back to them? Amelia...?

Lina gasped. She had stepped too far and was beginning to loose her balance at the edge of the roof.

“Miss Lina!” Amelia yelled as she rushed over to her friend. She tried to reach Lina to keep her from falling off the edge, but she was too late. Lina lost balance and fell off the edge of the roof, her eyes fearfully looking up at Amelia as she fell through the air and into the moat surrounding the castle. Within seconds of her going under, Lina’s head broke the surface of the water as she gasped for air.

“Oh, Miss Lina,” Amelia sniffled as she saw that her friend was going to be okay. It made her morose to think about how Lina reacted to her saying that she loved Zelgadis. Lina had seemed utterly appalled, just like her father.

Amelia looked around to face Zelgadis, who was laying on his back. She let out a small yelp when she discovered that her Zelgadis was glowing a soft opalescent hue.

“Lord Graywords!” she yelled as she ran over to him and knelt down besides him. “Lord Graywords! What is happening?”

“You set me free,” Zelgadis barely whispered. The wound in his back had let out so much blood, that he was laying in a pool of the stuff. All of the precious blood that had been lost made him groggy and it very difficult to even keep his eyes open. “Now that I am free, I can be human again and die in peace.”

“Die...? Lord Graywords! You can’t die!” Amelia cried as she shook Zelgadis’s shoulders. It was no use. He did not answer her. “Lord Graywords! ... Lord Zelgadis! ... Zelgadis! ... Wake up Zelgadis! I LOVE YOU!”

As if her words were the magic incantation needed, which in all actuality they were, the light that was being emitted by Zelgadis’s body burst into a blinding flash of light. The light coming from Zelgadis lit up the sky. Lina could see it, Phil could see it from inside the castle, the extras playing a game of Egyptian Rat Screw at the castle door could see it... hell, even Gourry and Garcia at the tavern in town could see it and they were even a couple of miles away! Well, Garcia could not see that well because she was drunker than a skunk, yet that is a different story entirely.

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Back at the castle, Amelia was so overcome with the light that she could not see. She knew that Zelgadis was there in the center of the burst of light, yet everything in her vision was blurred due to the light. Finally, after a few heart-racing moments, the light had died down until it was not even a glow anymore and Zelgadis lay there on the flat roof as still as a corpse. Carefully, Amelia blindly inched over towards Zelgadis and nudged his shoulder with utmost caution.

“Lord Graywords...?” she asked softly, wondering about what could have happened. Her eyes were not quite adjusted to the dark night yet when Zelgadis slowly sat up and moaned in pain.

“What in the world...?” he muttered. Looking over at Amelia, he could remember all that had just happened. Zelgadis remembered her protecting him from her friend who put an arrow in his back, how that friend fell off the roof and the horror upon Amelia’s face when he said that he was free from the curse and was going to die. It felt like death anyways. Looking over at Amelia, Zelgadis could tell that she could not yet see him clearly. She could not yet see what had happened to him. Her face was blank, red from tears and waiting patiently for her eyes to adjust to the lack of light. Without thinking, Zelgadis drew Amelia in quickly and kissed her, not even letting her react to the touch of his transformed skin.

Zelgadis was human again.

“Amelia!” Phil yelled as he jumped out the nearby window and onto the roof by his daughter and her lover. The torch he held illuminated the rooftop as he discovered Amelia kissing a man that he could not recollect seeing before that moment. His daughter and the stranger stopped upon his entry and looked embarrassedly surprised. “Amelia, who is this?”

“This is Lord Graywords,” Amelia answered sheepishly. Phil came closer with the torch to make sure that his eyes were still working. The man in front of him was not the steely-eyed stone beast that threw him into a dank tower for unknowingly stealing a rose, but it was a man in bloodstained clothes that were torn in numerous places who had black hair and the only color on his pale skin was that of his excessive blushing from being caught kissing Amelia. It was very difficult for Phil to even imagine that this was the same man that he had feared so much.

“I am sorry that you found me kissing your daughter sir,” Zelgadis apologized, wanting to get on Phil’s good side. His eyes found the ground as he nervously continued. “Yet these past few months, I have fallen in love with Amelia and care about her more than you ever could dream. I would like your permission to marry her.”

All Phil could do was let out a smile that went from ear to ear.

Soon after, Zelgadis and Amelia were married. They were a happy couple and lived each day in bliss. The new Lady hired servants to help take care of the castle, yet Amelia and Zelgadis always pitched in to truly show their appreciation. The countryside that had fallen into ruin during Zelgadis’s curse became beautiful and fruitful again and all rumors that had gone about that concerned Lord Graywords and his castle soon dissolved and peace reigned throughout the land. The white rose that the red-clad enchanted had given Zelgadis in reminder of his curse died and withered away into nothing, proving that love can conquer even the strongest and oddest of magics.

Owari . Fin . The End