No matter what they had prepared themselves to face, they were unprepared for what lay before them. It was practically impossible to remain standing in the slime and debris. Small fires burned everywhere without rhyme or reason, evidence of the dark mage’s temper tantrums. Piles of what could only be fathomed as ‘stuff’ lay strewn everywhere. Broken glass, abandoned vials, half full beakers, random body parts from countless species, rotted and rotting flesh, bile, vomit and faeces, slithering experiments and writhing masses of unnatural life lay everywhere. Nothing was clean. Nothing was sacred. Everything was profaned by the man known as Colanthus. Xellos’ eyes flew open at the sight of several mazoku treasures that had been broken beyond repair. Zelgadis noticed a copy of the Clair Bible laying half dissolved and rotted by . . . something. He shook his head in regret that the priceless book had been desecrated in such a manner. Subconsciously he stepped closer to Xellos, who put an absentminded hand on the chimera’s arm.

"If this isn’t the most vile place I have been since my creation, I don’t know what would be." Xellos muttered under his breath. Shaking his head, he stepped on a tiny writhing blue thing that had once been a sparrow, was now a sore covered festering thing that was put quickly out of a long misery.

Zelgadis felt his heart break at the though of any creature being forced to live down here. His resolve to find the other chimera grew even firmer. "We have to find the chimera and the wizard quickly."

Xellos blinked. "Why quickly?"

"So that I can get out of here and be sick." he muttered thickly. Xellos pressed a wry grin from his face before Zelgadis had a chance to see it. "There seems to be another door over there. Cone on." Zelgadis started and Xellos followed. Their nerves were upset and Zelgadis was fighting nausea. Xellos let himself get distracted for an instant stepping on few pitiful creatures, then returned his mind to the task the chimera had set for them. The second doorway was much smaller than the first, but it lead into some sort of antechamber that was just as large as the first, if not more crowded by things best left unmentioned. The room had only three corners, the entrance way standing where the fourth should be. There was one corner at the end of the room that held yet another door to their right. The corner immediately to their right held a writhing mass of formless shapes that twisted both Zelgadis heart and stomach. He turned away from the sight of it. Xellos whispered a mazoku spell that released all the dark energies that held these things to life. The raw power was absorbed by a jewel clasped near his throat. It flickered once, twice. The creatures were released from a seemingly endless torment. The last corner at the far end was surprisingly empty of everything but shadows. Zelgadis felt his eyes drawn to it for a second, before a raging fireball flew from the far doorway, straight at Xellos’ head.

The reaction was instinctive. Xellos cast an ice spell at the same time Zelgadis formed a water spell. Combined, the fireball never stood a chance. With Zelgadis’ water spell added to Xellos’ ice spell, the room ended up frozen. With the exception of the far corner. Both men barely noted this as they hurled themselves down the length of the room to the door. Again, all expectations they had were shattered by the sheer force of decay. Yes, they had been told the sorcerer was old. Yes, they had seen the effects of decay on the things that surrounded them. But what they saw stopped them dead in their tracks. Their guard was up, but this was not the fight they had been expecting. Zelgadis began to listen for the presence of the other chimera. Xellos stood silent, looking down his nose at the figure that sat on the floor before them. Sitting on the floor, knurled knees to his ears, hunched with ill use and age, the man was absolutely pathetic to behold. Grime covered every inch of his body. His robe was worn through in places, aged as it was. He was all skin and bones, no sign of strength to him anywhere. The darkness had eaten him alive from the inside out. The man simply didn’t have sense enough to die.

Colanthus didn’t have the strength to stand. Even his most powerful magic weapon, his precious fireball, didn’t seem to be able to destroy these men. He had thought the fireball would at least kill the blind guide, who better after all, to lead the way in the dark. But the chimera must have shielded him from it. That was the only explanation. There was a dark air about the chimera. It might even have mazoku blood in it, like he did. Yes. Like he did. Now was time enough. No further into his home. No further into his secrets. Time to end chimera invasion with chimera power.

Xellos looked to Zelgadis, disgusted with their find. "Pathetic. Shouldn’t we simply kill him and have it over with, worry about the chimera later?"

Zelgadis never took his eyes of the decrepit old man in front of him. "And if he is the only one who knows where the chimera is? What then. We spend the rest of the spring and summer down here looking for it?"

"You want chimera, chimera?" The thing on the floor hissed. "Well then you can have chimera, chimera." A revolting sound that could remotely pass for laughter, if one had never experienced the sound before or had been raised by a drunken horde of demons on the ninth level of hell, began to bubble from the living abomination in front of them. A faint yellow glow began to tint the mage’s brown eyes. Xellos and Zelgadis quickly dropped into fighting stances.

And then Zelgadis heard the shift behind them.

Turning with his ferocious speed, he found that he needn’t have hurried. The figure had simply risen from the shadows that surrounded it, that it seemed to be melded with on an intimate level. The unfrozen ground that surrounded it seemed to shiver with fear and anticipation as the shadow moved for the first time in weeks. Its movement meant Death had arrived.

Zelgadis gaped at the figure that unfurled itself. Its skin appeared to be carved from the purest white marble. Scales of the richest, deepest, shiniest onyx were embedded almost ornamentally down the right side of the creature. There were no scales visible on the left. The chimera towered over Zelgadis, nearly reaching seven feet in height. Its limbs were long and lean, muscled with obvious strength. Zelgadis doubted the poor thing had ever had enough to eat to bulk up. His eyes could trace every rib and abdominal muscle. The chimera’s hands were tipped with long, delicate looking fingers. Each white finger was crowned with an onyx talon, curved, hard, cold looking. The legs were long and strong under the thin black cloth it wore for pants, well muscled from the burden of the chimera’s own weight. The feet were white, toes tipped with oddly delicate looking crystalline clear claws. Zelgadis noticed something green shimmer at the chimera’s feet before its movement drew his attention upward again. Glancing up at the chimera, Zelgadis realized the sound he had heard was the unfurling of wings, dragon wings. The left one white, the skin stretched between bone the color and transparency of lake mist in moonlight, the right one black, impossible to discern from the darkness other than through its sheen of brilliant scales. The chimera’s hair was the color of the moon, almost like silver, yet less solid, more ethereal. And it was long, reaching down to the chimera’s waist. The ears were long, like Zelgadis’, only finer, more delicate, reaching out further to hear the sounds of the very earth that surrounded it. Elf ears.

It was the eyes that caught Zelgadis’ attention and held him firm.

The eyes were delicate, defiantly of elvan descent. But the pupils were slit, not round as elves, narrow like those of dragon or mazoku descent. Each eye was unique. The right eye was almost normal, but for its almost unnatural silver color, a trait of several elvish species. The left eye, however, was nothing that could pass for normal, or elvish, amongst humans. Where the eye should be white, it was instead a glistening, shifting blood red. The iris did not match the left eye in color either, instead preferring an incredibly bright glowing green. One eye spoke of freedom and the cool night air. The other whispered a promise of fire and a painful death.

And they reflected nothing. The soul was enslaved. The eyes unseeing. The body an empty shell of flesh being slowly corrupted by the filthy mage with a penchant for fireballs and temper tantrums.

Zelgadis was frozen in place. The moment could have lasted seconds or have been drawn out for hours. There was no mistaking the mixed descent of this creature. Neither was there a chance in hell of his being mistaken for having a choice in his actions. Zelgadis’ rage rose to nearly choke him. Xellos must have sensed this, as the mazoku pressed his back tight to Zelgadis’, snapping the chimera out of his thoughts. When Zelgadis glanced back to look at Xellos, he noticed Colanthus reaching inside his robe for something, and promptly froze the hand in place. While Zelgadis was thus distracted by the mage, Xellos had his own opportunity to size up the natural born chimera that stood in front of him. Noting the empty eyes, Xellos had to agree that the chimera was in fact, not in control of his own actions. Zelgadis would have seen this already, so simply killing the creature was no longer an option. The red and green eye was what gave Xellos the most to ponder over.

Colanthus howled in pain. Zelgadis had made an excellent choice of weapon. Nothing hurt the mage more than the cold, so long had he spent with heat and fire. Burns were shrugged off by a longstanding spell he had cast in the prime of his youth to prevent accidents and allow more risky experimentation. The spell, like the one he cast on the chimera-slave, was still strong. Maddened by the pain, he began to scream wordlessly at the source of his pain.

The second chimera did not move. It’s eyes were focused down, to the floor. It had not been given any reason to look up.

Xellos took careful not of this. He hissed quickly to his mate.

"I believe Colanthus has used the Dysan Tavist Madoc on tall dark and pale over there. The commands have to be explicit, clear and direct. Otherwise nothing happens. A very effective spell, but very limited nonetheless."

Zelgadis was two steps ahead of Xellos this time. Barely before Xellos had finished speaking, the chimera strode up to the mage, bent his knee, and kicked the old man square in the face breaking nose, jaw, cheekbone, and driving several teeth down the mage’s throat besides sending the rest skidding over the floor of the dank cavern. Colanthus body collapsed into an unconscious heap.

The pale chimera stood, unmoved. Zelgadis glared at the unconscious wreck of a man, fighting his own bloodlust. Xellos blinked.

And blinked again.

"That was . . ." He moved to stand next to his fuming friend. "That was a bit more violent that I have come to expect from you concerning weak and stupid creatures. Rather anti-climactic, wouldn’t you agree." Zelgadis cast a scowling look at the purple haired mazoku before turning back to the silent chimera.

"Anti-climactic only if this were truly over. The question remains, what do we do with him?" Zelgadis took a deep breath, and immediately regretted it. It took several moments for the nausea to pass again. "And I wish you would stop referring to Gourry as a stupid creature." Xellos grinned. The smile washed from his face as he regarded the silent figure before him. Zelgadis kept a careful eye on his lover. "Do you know how to break the spell, Xellos?" Xellos shook his head.

"I’m afraid not, Zel. I know of several ways to end the spell, not break it. Killing the chimera ends the problem." Xellos felt the anger his words caused. Simply a natural reaction. Not much of a meal. "Obviously, that is not an option. The other is to kill Colanthus. The problem with that option is that ninety-nine out of one hundred times, the result is the death of the enslaved creature as well. With what I can see from our little adventure here, I wouldn’t want to attempt it. I can’t bring to mind any other possibilities at the moment." Xellos stood silent for a while, pondering various other possibilities, none of which could bring a happy ending for the chimera. Only one path held the remotest possibility, and he didn’t really want to impose. "Unless . . ."

It just slipped out really. He hadn’t meant to say it. Or if he did he had kept it a secret from even himself. If Zelgadis had been paying more attention to the fallen form of Colanthus, if he had been more absorbed in the enigmatic figure that stood before them, he would have missed the mazoku’s whisper. But he wasn’t. And he didn’t. So he waited, eyes on Xellos. Noting the direct and rather focused attention the chimera was giving him, Xellos decided to remain silent for a while, just to get under the other’s skin. Not that that was hard for Xellos to do. He stepped up to the black and white chimera, noting its height. It was definitely head and shoulders over Gourry, perhaps Gaav’s height. But slender, like Valgaav. Touching the scales on the left arm of the chimera, Xellos was slightly surprised to find them warm. He had expected the scales to be cold. Dragon scales were usually cool to the touch, and in this cavern, he had come to expect the creature to be freezing to the touch. The dragon’s blood was of the riginal mix though, so it had to be diluted by elvish and mazoku blood. The scales had a rippled texture, but were incredibly smooth. The edges of the scales were, he found, incredibly sharp as well. His fingers came back bleeding. He absently sucked on them, feeling Zelgadis’ impatience begin to reach that dangerous pitch which would mean ‘no sex for Xellos’ tonight. Time to finish letting the cat out of the bag.

"Unless Xellas-sama knows how. She may. But it means that I have to impose on her. We, rather, have to impose on her." he corrected himslef." I think she humors me enough lately. I would rather not risk her anger or annoyance." He walked around the chimera, further examining it as he spoke to Zelgadis. The chimera showed no signs of life. It didn’t even seem to be breathing. A trick of the dragon race and wood elves. What was this chimera made of? His curiosity was peaked. Especially as to the source of its mazoku father. Then the gem at his feet caught his attention. He bent to pick it up. And could have swore he felt the chimera bristle for a second. He turned it over in his hand, determined its origin, tossed it to Zelgadis who remained still, silent in thought.

Zelgadis caught the gem. He sighed in despair at the dirt that covered it, began to absentmindedly polish it, rubbing the grime into the left arm of his jacket. "So what would happen if I went to Xellas-sama and asked for Valerian’s freedom? What would she ask of me?"

Xellos felt an unexpected pang of jealousy when Zelgadis spoke the name of the other chimera. Shaking his head, he dismissed the foolishness of the emotion even as he felt it strengthen his energies. "She would ask for something in return, definitely. Perhaps your servitude. Perhaps Valerian’s servitude as well, if we are using his name now. Perhaps she would free him from Colanthus and keep him to herself. She could demand any number of things from you, Zel-kun, the least of which could be your life. And if you are determined to see this through, I will go to Xellas-sama myself and make the request. I am more suited to the burdens of owing my Master favours than you would be."

"Then I think you should request and audience with your Master before I have to kick the bastard in the head again. I might accidentally kill him next time." Xellos smiled at the note of sarcasm that dripped from the word ‘accidentally’. He looked to the lump of bones that was Colanthus, back to the imposing figure of the chimera behind him, back to the chimera he could call his own.

"If you think you can handle things here, I’ll be right back." The mazoku disappeared. Zelgadis continued to polish the green gem on the sleeve of his jacket while turning to keep an eye on Valerian and an eye on Colanthus. His attention was much more focused on the mage, who would be the cause of trouble if there was any. Had he paid closer attention to the other chimera, a luxury he refused to allow his curiosity right now, he might have noticed the silver eye flickering.

Bringing the gem up close to his face, Zelgadis could almost make out lettering on the stone itself. It was very thin and fine, but to crusted yet to make out clearly. He began to look at the silver work that held the gem in a tight embrace. It too was delicate and fine, yet deceptively strong. Zelgadis began to think that maybe the metal was not silver, but some sort of elvish blend, unique to them. There was no mistaking the beauty of the piece though, even under the dirt. He wondered if this belonged to some long forgotten Drow Lady, and had gotten mixed in with the rest of the items here. He turned it over several times more before Xellos popped back in.

"It seems that my Master is more interested in this expedition of ours than I thought. She will see all four of us immediately." Zelgadis didn’t even have enough time to blink before he was standing at the base of a simple stone throne, a lady in shadow sitting on it, and the echo of an empty room around him. Valerian was to his left. Colanthus was an unintelligible heap in front of them. Xellos stood closest to the foot of the throne, acting ambassador. "Welcome to Wolf Pack Island, Zel-kun. Island of my creation, manor of my Master, and home when I need a place to rest." Xellos paused here. "You may bow now, Zel-kun"

Giving his head a quick shake to clear the cobwebs, both literally and metaphorically, Zelgadis quickly bowed before the shadowy figure. She was not his master, but he had no reason to disrespect her, and a lot of reason to make sure she was not angered. He straightened, remained silent, and waited.

The true confrontation was about to begin.