Toshi suddenly sat up from his lying down position. He groaned in pain as he discovered that his body was exceedingly sore. He attempted to stretch, but the pain associated with moving caused him to decide to just sit still for a moment.

"Goddamn dreams. . ." he muttered to himself while thinking about his dreamed meeting with someone who looked like himself, "Shit. . .what's happened? I feel like hell."

Toshi looked at his surroundings. He sat on a grassy hill. The unnatural dark that had made the sky seem to constantly be night had faded and the sun could be seen rising over the horizon.

"Well, I suppose that's good," he referred to the lifting of the unnatural night.

Despite the soreness all over his body he stretched rather painfully. While stretching his arms out in front of him he got a look at his shirtsleeves and realized that one was horribly torn and soaked with bloodstains.

"What the-?"

He studied his arm. Not a scratch could be seen. Not even a scar or the remnants of a wound. He looked down at his chest to discover various rips and slashes in his shirt as well as five punctures in the formation of five fingers that looked as though they would have impaled his heart. He checked his skin, and again there were no wounds or scars. Aside from the slashes and rips in his clothes and his incredible soreness all over he seemed to be perfectly healthy.

"What's wrong with me?" he muttered while running his hand across his face. His skin felt cold and clammy. The longer he held his hand against his face the colder his skin felt until he wondered if he was actually alive. A quick check for his pulse assured him that yes, he was technically alive.

"What's happened?" he again questioned the air around him.

Just then he heard voices from behind him. It was two women; one seemed concerned and the other was enraged. He turned around to see Sierra and Kleo arguing a fair distance away. With considerable effort Toshi stood up and slowly lumbered toward the two women. As he gained on their position their debate could be heard more clearly.

"Sierra, it's not his fault!" Kleo tried to reason desperately.

"It is! That bastard is the cause for this!" Sierra's voice was tainted with hatred. Her eyes were narrowed in a dangerous expression. She looked as though she might be driven to violence at a moment's notice.

"Hey, what's going on? What's the trouble?" Toshi hoarsely said to the two as he lumbered towards them.

Sierra drew a dagger from her robes and placed it against the flesh of Toshi's throat. "You're the trouble! You bastard! This is your fault! How the hell did you become that monster anyway?!"

"Monster?" Toshi asked feeling very puzzled and scared, "What are you talking about, Sierra?"

"Oh, so now you feign innocence?" Sierra accused, "Just take a good look what is only the beginning of what you have done!"

Sierra angrily directed her index finger off to the side. Toshi turned his head very carefully to avoid having his neck slit on Sierra's dagger. About a mile away in the direction that Sierra indicated was the Tower of Rezo, only now it was decimated and rubble was strewn about the surrounding area. The tower was barely recognizable and there was no way that it could ever be used again.

"Holy shit! What happened?" Toshi gasped at the smashed architecture.

"Don't play the goat with me! This is your fault! I'll never forgive you, it's your fault that Terra died!"

"Terra? Wasn't she that Blade Dancer friend of yours that you mentioned earlier? She's dead?" Toshi asked innocently.

"SHUT THE HELL UP! DON'T PLAY STUPID, YOU KNOW WHAT YOU DID!" Sierra almost screamed at Toshi's face, "I ought to kill you where you stand!"

"Sierra, I think he may honestly not know what's going on. . ." Kleo meekly tried to get a word in without directing the blue-haired woman's wrath at her.

"What makes you say that? You support this son of a bitch, don't you?" Sierra snapped at Kleo.

"Please, Sierra, I don't think this is the same Toshi. Look at his hair and eyes,"

Sierra did just that. She stepped back a pace as the sudden realization that Toshi's hair was black and his eyes were green again. She swallowed hard as if trying to hold back tears that were forcing their way to her eyes.

"Sierra, even if he does know about what just happened, it's not his fault. He tried to help us, don't make him into a scapegoat," Kleo attempted to reason with Sierra now that her fury was at a temporary hold.

"It's alright, Kleo," Toshi told her as he walked toward Sierra. He lowered the collar of his shirt exposing his neck completely.

"Anger takes the easiest way out. If it will help her to cope by killing me, then I won't resist,"

Sierra raised her hand as if she was about to strike with her weapon, but then she lowered her hand. She threw the dagger down at the ground in front of Toshi's feet. The weapon's blade sank a few inches into the soil causing the weapon to stand perpendicular to the ground.

"Now you mock me. Rot in hell. Both of you!" Sierra turned away from the two of and began walking to the south, when she was barely within hearing range, she shouted one final sentence, "If I ever see either one of you again, I won't hesitate to kill you!"

"Sierra. . ." Kleo whispered; tears were coming to her eyes at the thought that someone once a friend was now a bitter enemy.

"Let her go," Toshi commanded calmly, "I don't know what's happened, but whatever it was must have been pretty traumatic for her. She doesn't mean what she's saying, she just doesn't know where to put her anger."

"You honestly don't know what happened?" Kleo asked while wiping away a few tears that had fallen down her cheek.

Toshi didn't say anything for a moment. He picked up the dagger Sierra had left behind. The blade was recently sharpened; the rising sun glinted brightly off the edge. The handle was wrapped in silver and blue silk. Toshi ran his hand along the handle, feeling the silk. After a moment longer he put the dagger on his belt and finally answered Kleo's question.

"No. It's almost like I fell asleep after finishing off the berserker assassin and then I just woke up,"

"I guess I'll explain it to you then," Kleo offered and she was about to go right into the whole tale when Toshi suddenly stopped her.

"Save it for the trip," he instructed.

"Trip? Where are we going? What are we going to do?" Kleo asked bewildered.

"We're going to pay a visit to Zelgadis," Toshi answered while staring off into the distance as though he was in a trance.

"Zelgadis? You mean the Zelgadis? I thought you didn't believe those legends,"

"I've changed my mind. . ." Toshi replied while still staring off into space.

"That's ridiculous!" Kleo reasoned, "There's no way he could still be alive, he lived a century ago! And besides, even if he was still alive, where would we find him?"

"Just follow me. . ." Toshi instructed as he began sorely limping to the east. Kleo followed his slow pace while attempting to support him with her shoulder.

Sierra sat down. She had been walking for hours, not knowing where she was going. Anger had given way to grief. She no longer sought to pin all the blame on Toshi. But between her thoughts of despair at losing the only thing left that could be considered family, she pondered about Toshi. What a strange man. Was he telling the truth about not knowing what had happened? Why did his hair and eye colors change so?

Sierra leaned her head against the tree whose shade she now attempted to rest in. Self-doubt now filled her mind.

"Why did I accuse him?" She spoke aloud, "It was my fault. I'm worthless. I couldn't help my sister. I just couldn't. . ."

Tears fell freely down Sierra's cheeks as she sobbed into her lap. Her crying allowed a cloaked figure to approach her undetected.

"Dammit! I'm so worthless! I couldn't do a goddamned thing! Every one at home praised my for being so strong but I'm just as weak as they are if not more so. . ."

Memories of back home, of a better life, came to Sierra's mind like angels to a troubled soul. She remembered all the times she had spend with Terra. The conversations played again in her mind.

"Game over, I win again!" Sierra proudly stated to Terra.

The two were sparring with wooden long swords. Other students were lined along the sidelines of the sparring area to observe the duel between the two girls. Everyone wore the white tunics used for weapon practice.

"Seven years ago," Sierra remembered out loud.

"You always win," Terra stated in a friendly way while she pushed Sierra's wooden sword away from its resting place on her breast.

"Well, it's not quite fair dueling someone who's blind," Sierra attempted modesty.

"You doubt the effectiveness of Magical Vision?"

"Well. . .er. . .that is. . .umm. . ." Sierra replied while attempting to try to make up for her last comment, which, as she just realized, was rather rude.

"Watch this," Terra commanded while motioning for another student on the sidelines to come forward. The student, a young man probably two years older than Terra and obviously not blind, stepped forward and raised his wooden sword ready to fight.

"Let's go!" Terra commanded. She lunged forward. The young man parried with his sword and countered with a simple slash.

"Oh come on, you're not even trying," Terra scolded the man a few seconds later when her wooden sword was against the man's neck.

Another memory came to Sierra, it was of their promotion to the rank of Temple Guard.

Sierra and Terra along with another woman and two men were lined up on a stand awaiting the Elder as he came by to give each of them a left gauntlet. It was a custom that symbolized honor and duty.

"Three years ago," she sighed heavily as the comfortable memories faded and the grim reality replaced it. She began weeping again. Her shoulders shook as she sobbed into her lap.

"Damn. . .I thought I was everything back then. But I'm so worthless. . ."

"Is that really what you believe?" the cloaked figure that had approached asked.

Sierra lifted her bowed head quickly to look at the intruder who dared to interrupt her grieving.

Sierra was surprised at first upon seeing who it was, but then she smiled sorrowfully and gave a half-hearted laugh.

"So," she said and then paused a moment before continuing, "Not only do you kill the only thing precious left to me, but now you mock me even further by coming to kill me with her body?"

Shabranigdo in the body of Terra stood before her. Terra's body was clothed differently now. She wore a black cloak as opposed to her plate mail. A hood was over her head and a red headband covered the ruby eye in the middle of her forehead. Long sleeves hid her hands. Despite the concealing clothing, her smooth glass skin and onyx hair could be seen to anyone who looked closely enough. She was strangely beautiful with her now inorganic body. Her empty black eye sockets stared at Sierra for a moment before she spoke again.

"Kill you? What a pity, I had hoped you would've been happy to see me again,"

Sierra suddenly realized that Terra's voice did not hold the demonic tones of the Ruby-Eye, and despite her glass skin and onyx hair, she seemed strangely human.

"Terra? Is that really you?" Sierra's tear-reddened eyes stared in wonder and hope at the deformed body of her friend.

"Yes," Terra answered back while smiling slightly.

Sierra stood up and leapt at Terra. She swung her arms around Terra's body and hugged her tightly despite the fact that her body was deathly cold. Sierra sobbed freely into Terra's cloak.

"Hey, it's okay, sis. I'm back. . ." Terra put a glass hand on Sierra's head and gently stroked her silken blue hair. The metal talons that had previously decorated her hands were now nowhere to be seen.

"How. . .? How?" Sierra managed to choke out between sobs of joy, "How can this be. . .?"

"Hey, I'm a Blade Dancer and the best sorceress of our shrine, remember? You think I'd just let some decrepit old Mazoku Lord possess my body that easily? There's no way in hell I'm giving up that quickly!" Terra smiled as she looked into Sierra's grief worn face.

"Terra. . .you have no idea how much I missed you!" Sierra choked out as she and her best friend again embraced like loving sisters.

"Yes, I do," Terra replied, "Come on, let's go. . ."

"Go where?" Sierra asked curiously.

"East. Home,"

"But there's no way that the people of the shrine will accept you now,"

"I have a few tricks up my sleeve and a plan to boot. One of the relics in the Shrine should be able to permanently remove Shabranigdo from my body. But we need to hurry because I can't resist him forever. We'll make it. C'mon, let's go home. . ."

The sisters, one human one demon, began the long trek back to their homeland.

"I haven't had this much fun in years, and it's only going to get better," Xellos laughed aloud as he strolled leisurely along a path that spanned to the west of what remained of the Tower of Rezo.

The Mazoku priest could easily have teleported to his next destination like he usually did, but he was in a good mood and wanted to survey the landscape of this world before it was to be obliterated permanently.

As he strolled down the path he noticed a human-sized bundle of white and green cloth alongside the road. He walked closer and studied the bundle. It was apparently a human woman, but whether she was alive or not he couldn't tell. He also noticed that Rafahs Vines bound her arms tightly.

"Hey! Hey! Hey!" he said as he poked her with the butt of his ruby staff.

The pitiful bundle coughed in reply and the green and white robes moved to reveal a woman's face. But it was barely recognizable as a woman's face.

The woman's right eye was swollen shut and blood trickled down from the eye suggesting that even when the swelling healed, her right eye would always be closed. Cuts and bruises covered her face and blood seeped out of her mouth.

"My, my, I recognize you," Xellos commented, "You're the priestess from Greenhell. You're quite a mess, aren't you? What happened?"

The priestess didn't respond for a moment because she was occupied with a coughing fit, but she eventually began slowly speaking. "Bandits. . .bastards. . .they. . .attacked. . .me. . ."

"And you couldn't fend them off because your arms were bound?" Xellos reasoned.

"Yeah. . ." the priestess slowly agreed as she again coughed.

"Looks like they did quite a number on you," Xellos commented while scratching his chin.

"They. . .beat me. . .took. . .every. . .possession I. . .had. . .and. . .then. . ." her voice trailed off as she looked away from Xellos as though she was too ashamed to talk.

I light suddenly went on in Xellos's mind. This was an excellent opportunity.

"Who's responsible for this?" he asked.

"Those sons. . .of. . .bitches. . ." she replied referring to the bandits.

"Oh, really?" Xellos inquired, "What about the person who bound your arms? If you had your arms free then you could've fended off the bandits with you magic no doubt."

The priestess considered it for a moment and then in her one open eye the bright blaze of vengeance suddenly ignited.

"It was. . .him. . .Toshi. . .Yo. . .kutsu. . .bastard!"

"Are you afraid? Are you afraid now that you're dying?" Xellos inquired while hoping to further manipulate her lust for revenge.

"Not. . .afraid. . .just. . .hate. . .him. . .but too. . .weak. . .can't. . .avenge. . ."

"Not so!" Xellos assured her, "This isn't your end yet. You may be dying, but I can help you."

"How?" the priestess's voice rasped in response.

"What's your name?" Xellos asked.

"Elayne. . ." the priestess answered.

"Elayne. . .do you accept my power?" Xellos's eyes were now open and their true demonic properties could be seen. He extended a hand near her face. In his hand was a sphere of black and red gases.

Elayne either understood or didn't care anymore. She barely managed a smile.

"For. . .revenge. . .I. . .accept. . ." she coughed out.

"A wise choice," Xellos informed her, "You'll work with me from now on, alright?"

Xellos's hand gently brushed Elayne's cheek and the black and red gases seeped into the pores in her skin.