"What do you need?" Sierra asked urgently to Terra. The two of them had broken into the relic vault that the elders of the shrine kept off limits to all but the highest of priests. The items stored within had a wide variety of magical properties ranging from healing to destruction to the unknown.

"I-I need. . .a talisman. A talisman. . .of blood. . .Ruby-Eye's blood. . ."

"Why?"

"His own blood. . .will draw him out. . .of me. . ." Terra kneeled to the floor and held her head in pain, "Please! Hurry. . .it looks. . .like. . .a glass semi-sphere with. . .an orihalcon backing. It has red blood. . .inside."

Sierra hastily looked through the various items that were kept inside glass cases in the musty vault. Not since the theft of the shard of the staff had the vault been opened, and before that it had been some time more. After a few minutes of searching Sierra encountered a glass case that held four of the glass semi-spheres that Terra had mentioned.

The four talismans each held the blood of some sort of being. The blood inside the glass of one talisman was blue, one white, one black, and one red. Sierra hastily grabbed the talisman with red blood in it and returned to where Terra kneeled holding her head.

"I have it Terra! What next?" Sierra excited claimed.

"Stand in the center of the room," Terra commanded, Sierra obeyed.

"Hold the talisman to your bosom,"

"Why?" Sierra asked curiously, "I thought the effect was supposed to be on you, not me."

"It will affect me," Terra confirmed as she slowly and painfully stood, "I don't have time to explain it right now, but please, believe me sister."

Sierra still felt sort of odd about the whole deal, but she decided that so save her adopted sister it must be done. She delicately held the talisman to her bosom with her hands.

"Next?" Sierra inquired.

"Close your eyes and concentrate. Concentrate and pray,"

"Pray for what?"

"Anything! It doesn't matter, but you must pray!" Terra voice had developed an odd edge to it.

"Alright. . ." Sierra answered.

She closed her eyes and thought about all that had happened in the past few weeks. Everything had seemed to turn upside-down in Sierra's world and she could tell that the same was true for Kleo, Zelgadis, Terra, and Toshi. Toshi. . .what would become of him? She wondered. Was Rekos replacing him permanently? Would the kind-hearted, even if a tad naughty, man whose presence Sierra had grown to grown to enjoy ever be seen by her again? The thought saddened her.

Another thought entered Sierra's mind. How did this all start? Was it when the bandits had stolen the relic that was later used to resurrect the Mazoku Lord? Or was it at the moment when Sierra had first met Toshi? Sierra pondered about the misfortunes of the past few weeks until she heard a sound that alarmed her. The very faint sound of metal scraping against metal alerted her ears. She did not open her eyes, but she questioned Terra.

"What was that noise, Terra?" Sierra asked. She was feeling as though something was wrong.

"I did that," Terra responded calmly, "It's a part of the ritual, ignore it."

"It sounded like a sword being drawn from a sheath. . ." Sierra pressed.

"Ignore it," Terra commanded again.

"Something's not right, Terra!" Sierra shouted.

Sierra opened her eyes, but the confusion resulting from sudden and unexpected pain prevented her from comprehending her surroundings. Something hurt. Something was extremely painful.

Sierra's brain adapted to the sudden pain and started making sense of her sight. Her peripheral vision saw something metallic that looked as though it was connected to her bosom. She looked down and saw the shaft of a longsword. . .that was buried in her body. The sword had run cleanly through the demon blood talisman and into her chest. Sierra's eyes were wide with terror as she stood watching the red blood of her own body mix with the even deeper crimson of the Ruby-Eye's blood. Sierra looked up at Terra. Terra was holding the hilt of the sword and smiling cruelly.

"Pain. . ." Terra whispered. The normally blank sockets that were her eyes now were filled with ominous red glows. Her glass skin and onyx hair no longer looked beautiful as they had before, they were now like a creation from a scared child's nightmare.

"Hurt. . ." Terra whispered again, "Maul. . .kill. . .destroy. . ."

"W-what? T-Terra. . ." Sierra managed to stammer before a rush of blood into her mouth prevented any further words.

Terra sharply withdrew the sword, causing Sierra to fall to her knees.

"Sharp. . ." Terra continued, "Cut. . .rend. . .tear. . .dark. . .uncertainty. . .shadows. . .terror. . ."

Terra let out a deranged giggle that sent chills down Sierra spine.

"That is what we are. That is our existence. It feels so good. . .the ecstasy of pain. We are the ultimate masochism,"

"Terra. . .why?"

"Hmm? Terra? Where have I heard that name before?" Terra feigned innocence, "Ah yes! I remember now! Terra was the name of that foolish woman who actually thought she could cure her blindness by summoning me. Just like Akahoushi did about a century beforehand."

"No! Shabra. . .nigdo. . ." Sierra managed to cough out. She began to fall forward further from her kneeling position but propped herself up with her arm.

"That's right, my beauty," the Mazoku Lord assured her, "You humans are always so fun to toy with. I just act as though I'm still Terra and you believe me unquestioningly. That is why humans are so weak. They love each other and thus do not think to hold suspicions."

Sierra vision began to blur. Her blood ran from the hole in her chest down her gown staining it crimson.

"I must thank you, granddaughter of the Contact," Shabranigdo stated, "Without you or your ignorance I never would've been able to be completely resurrected."

"What. . .?" Sierra gasped.

"You are the granddaughter of the Contact, the woman whose consciousness is directly linked with the Lord of Nightmares. Her blood flows in your veins, and now it is mixed with my blood upon this sword. I will use this blood to bring about my complete resurrection seeing as currently my rebirth is incomplete."

A blur of black flickered next to Shabranigdo for a moment and then Xellos appeared.

"You see, my lord? It's always so much more fun to abuse their stupidity than to take the direct path," Xellos commented.

The Mazoku-possessed Terra laughed wickedly which again sent chills down Sierra's spine. "You're correct, Neo-Beastmaster, it is enjoyable. Now we must leave this place. We must enact my complete resurrection with the Contact's blood and mine,"

"No. . .you. . .can't. . ." Sierra muttered. She collapsed upon the floor in a bloody heap.

"How sad," Xellos sighed, "To think that your grandmother used to be a good friend of mine. Fate can be cruel, for it is fate that has caused these events."

The sound of hasty footsteps could be heard running away from the hallway outside the relic vault.

"Oh?" Xellos observed, "It would appear that little rat Stein was peeking and saw what happened. Shall I slaughter him, my lord?"

"No, let him live for now," Shabranigdo replied, "We have more important tasks at hand. We have no more need for this place, so we must be off. The nearest place of high Astral Energy concentration is the cliff behind the shrine. That is where we head to enact the complete resurrection."

"As you command, my lord," Xellos bowed respectfully and the two of them blurred and faded out of view.

"Terra. . .Ceiphied. . .forgive me. . ." Sierra whispered to herself. She couldn't feel the pain anymore, but now she felt tired. Very tired. She closed her eyes. This wasn't so bad, was it? It felt comfortable. Sleep seemed so very comfortable now.

"I doesn't seem to be working. . ." Zelgadis informed his companions.

He, Stein, and the High Priest were kneeling over Sierra's body, attempting to cast healing spells on her wound, but it was so severe that the magic didn't seem to have any effect.

"Why aren't you helping?" Zelgadis asked Rekos angrily. It was understandable why Kleo didn't help; her knowledge of healing magic was so limited that she would only get in the way. Rekos on the other hand was a master of healing arts, so why did he just stand there staring?

"It is too late. It was too late when we got here," Rekos said unemotionally, "She is dying and soon her life will leave this world."

"Damn you!" Zelgadis shouted, "Why do you have to be such a bastard? Why couldn't you have changed in the years since we last met?"

"I didn't see you changing at all, stone boy," Rekos countered.

"Sierra is going to die! You swore you would protect her!"

"Yes, I did swear I was going to protect her. But when I arrived here it was already too late. There is nothing to be done. Now let me ask you. . .why do you care for this woman so much? You barely even know her,"

"Because I can sense she is an ally to me. And in addition to that she is the granddaughter of a good friend of mine. . ."

The High Priest, an elderly man with graying hair shook his head. "He is right. There is no chance to save her now,"

The High Priest wasn't quite sure what was going on. Things weren't really explained that well to him. He didn't know that Sierra was back or how she was injured so. He didn't know that the legendary chimera Zelgadis was still alive, much less here. And this man who was referred to as Rekos, could it really be same person that the members of the shrine respected so?

"There's nothing we can do?" Stein asked gloomily, "I don't believe that!"

"Stein. . ." Kleo whispered.

"I refuse to believe that! Sierra was the only friend I had for such a long time when I first came here! If it wasn't for her I think I probably would've gone insane! I refuse to just sit here and declare that she's too far-gone to save! There must be something. . ."

Stein stood up from his kneeling position over Sierra. He quickly looked around the room at the various relics.

"There must be a relic of healing here strong enough to save her!" Stein dictated.

"There is," the High Priest stated, "But. . ."

"I don't care what the cost is! Give it to me right now!" Stein commanded.

"Don't be so hasty, Stein," Kleo told her brother.

"Shut up! Don't you want to save Sierra?"

"Yes, but. . ." Kleo stammered and took a few steps toward her brother.

"Stay back!" Stein shouted. He pulled out of a pocket on his habit a gun that to Kleo looked rather familiar.

"What? Where did you get that?" she asked.

"Don't you remember, sis? I'm an expert pickpocket. Thanks for letting me borrow your gun for a little while,"

"Don't be foolish, Stein," Zelgadis warned him.

"I'm not! Now give me this healing relic! I said now!" Stein moved the gun to aim at the High Priest.

"Very well. I shall do as you command," the High Priest said sadly, "But. . ."

"Don't tell me! If you tell me what the consequence is I won't want to use it, so don't tell me," Stein said.

The High Priest walked over to one of the glass cases and withdrew a crystal about the size of an orange. The crystal radiated white light. The High Priest handed Stein the crystal while Kleo and Zelgadis looked on with concern. Rekos just watched from a distance with an amused expression.

Stein kneeled over Sierra again and this time held the crystal between them. He closed his eyes and prayed that whatever he was about to try would work.

"Stein, please, stop!" Kleo begged.

"Let him, Kleo. His mind is set, there is no dissuading him now. If this is truly what he wishes, then we are in no position to stop him," Zelgadis told her while resting a hand on her shoulder.

"But. . .but. . .Zelgadis-san. . ."

The two of them looked at Stein just in time to witness the crystal shatter into sand-like shards. There was a bright flash of light that lasted for many seconds. When the light cleared, Sierra's wound was completely healed. She was still unconscious, but her chest slowly rose and fell to imply breathing.

"Stein you did it! You saved Sierra! You--" Kleo cut herself off as she noticed that Stein was no longer kneeling over Sierra as he had been a few moments ago. Stein now was lying on the floor a few paces away from Sierra, a large hole just like Sierra's wound was in his chest.

"Stein. . ." Kleo muttered.

"Heh, sorry, Kleo. I guess I'm just an idiot, huh?" Stein whispered.

"The drawback of using that relic is that it doesn't actually heal. It transfers the wound from one subject to another," the High Priest explained.

"You. . .you idiot!" Kleo screamed. She kneeled next to Stein and slapped him forcefully, "You fool! You moron! Dummkopf! Warum hast du das gemacht?!"

"Es tut mir leid, Kleo. I just wanted to prove that I'm not completely useless. I wanted to show you that I'm not following the same path that Father took,"

"Stein. . ." tears rolled down Kleo's cheeks.

"Now that I've seen what really happened to Terra. . .I don't feel so bad about giving up,"

"Shut up! Just shut up! We'll heal you, you'll survive,"

"Don't be stupid, Kleo. . .it's alright. . .I had a feeling that the crystal would do something like this to me as I was using it. I just have one request,"

"What is it?" Kleo asked while wiping a tear off her cheek.

"Don't tell Mother that you ever found me. Don't tell her that I found an honest life. Let her think that I've become like Father. That way she won't have to mourn for me,"

Kleo was silent a moment. A tear fell from her eye to Stein's wound. Kleo smiled sorrowfully.

"Alright. Alright, Stein, I won't tell Mother,"

"Here, you'll need this for what is to come next," Stein said while he handed Kleo's gun back to her.

"Stein. . ." Kleo said; no response.

"Stein?" still nothing, "Stein!"

There was an awkward pause for a few seconds, but to Kleo it seemed a lot longer than that.

"Aufweidersehen, Stein," Kleo bid him farewell.

Kleo stood up and wiped the back of her arm across her face. She turned to face her comrades. Sierra was still unconscious, Zelgadis's face was straight but his expression was saddened, and Rekos smiled smugly. Their ranks seemed thin to fight against two of the world's most powerful Mazoku.

"High Priest, please take care of Sierra and give Stein a proper burial. Zelgadis-san and Rekos, let's get our revenge," Kleo commanded.

"That's the kind of thinking I like," Rekos commented. Zelgadis gave him an evil glare, but Rekos didn't seem to care.

"How can you act like that at a time like this? Her brother just died and you only care about your lust for blood?" Zelgadis said angrily as he drew his sword at Rekos.

"Do you plan to kill me, Zel?" Rekos asked, he wasn't in the least bit intimidated, "After this is over I'll fight you if you wish, but we need all the help we can get right now. I wouldn't advise us killing each other just yet."

"He's right, Zelgadis-san," Kleo said, "Let's forget about his attitude for a bit, I want revenge on those demons."

"They'll most likely be at the cliff behind the shrine," Rekos commented, "That's the nearest place that would suit the complete resurrection."

"Fine," Zelgadis said angrily, "But when this is over, I'm going to kill you Rekos. I should've done that a century ago."