Divided Time
A Slayers Crossover Fanfic

Volume 3: Wonderful, Now What?; Tsuzi Says

Tsuzi's Song
How Different it Could Be
How Much the Same?
The Life I Choose

Differences Come and Go
But I Remain Me
Only Me
How I Could Have Changed It Then

Again The World is Indifferent
I Continue to Exist Here
In the World

Beautiful, Isn't It?
How it's all Changed
How I Am...

	Mako and Tsuzi got on quite well. The pair talked for some time about various little things. The hour was getting late and Mako noticed the sun had sank. The small windows facing west showed the night sky lit up already. Mako stood up.
"I didn't really realize how late it was. I must go find my friends or they'll start to look for me."
Tsuzi stood as well. "I'll take you to the banquet hall. Maybe they'll be there."
Mako cheerfully agreed to Tsuzi's offer. They made their way down to the banquet hall and ran into Amelia. 
Amelia jumped at Mako and grabbed her arm. "Mako!!! We've been looking all over for you." 
She was pulling Mako down to the dining room when she realized that someone had been with her. Amelia stopped and turned around. Her face turned a little red. "Sorry about that."
Mako stood between Tsuzi and Amelia and introduced the two. 
Amelia smiled and asked if she had ever been to Seiryuun.
Tsuzi gave a short bow to the princess of Seiryuun. "I studied in Seiryuun."
Amelia's smile was even bigger. "Isn't it a pretty town?"
Tsuzi nodded. Mako grabbed Tsuzi's hand. "Come to dinner with us then. We'll tell a lovely story about capturing bandits."
Amelia jumped and agreed. "Yes! You must dine with us."
Tsuzi agreed.

	Throughout dinner Lina was talking about how she had single-handedly destroyed the bandit gang. Everyone was rolling their eyes, but thought better than to make Lina upset. She could be pretty mean after all. They all also kept asking Tsuzi about where she was from and wanted to hear if she had any grand adventures. Mako wanted to enjoy dinner, but she was distracted. She didn't pay any attention to anything anyone said. She thought about the man in the white robe, about the man in ice, about home.
Home. She wondered how she'd gotten caught up in all of this anyway. Mako drummed her fingers on the table and looked far in the distance. The table didn't exist, the hall didn't exist. She was home. Her own backyard. The fresh cut green grass smelled the same, the sky was blue. The color was all there.
She looked at the sun set below the fluffy white clouds. How it was when she was a little girl. 
"Mako?"
She shook her head and came to. "I'm," she searched for the word, "sorry. I'm tired. I think I'll go to bed now." She stood and walked toward the door. Tsuzi stood and followed her.
"Are you O.K. Mako?"
Mako looked at her. "Yea, I'm fine. Really." She continued to her room.
Everyone sat silently. Amelia stood as well. "That dinner was so good it's made me sleepy too. If I don't sleep well, I can't defend justice tomorrow!" Amelia dashed out of the room. 
Tsuzi turned to the other three. "It was very nice meeting you." She left as well.
Lina, Gourry and Zelgadis all sat around for some time before deciding that they too, were tired.

Mako entered her room. She sat on the bed's edge. Her cheek rested on one knee and the other leg was tucked under her. Her thoughts were everywhere but here. She drifted to sleep. Third time. She stood in that cold room. She looked around. It was a very pretty sight. The light reflecting every color. She thought she should sing.
"Beautiful isn't it?" Mako spun around. The man in the white robe was there.
Mako nodded. "It's one of the most beautiful things I've ever seen."
The man reached for Mako. He held her in a tight embrace.
She felt she knew him forever. She felt warm and cold. 
"Who are you?" Mako had tears in her eyes and she didn't know why.
He smiled slightly. "I'm a mazoku, but you knew that right?"
"Yes."
"Call me Shion. I'm here to ask you a favor."
"Ask me." 
"Are you afraid Mako? Of any of this?"
She shook her head no. "I wouldn't know what to be afraid of. I would be afraid of everything, so I must be afraid of nothing."
"Are you lonely?"
"I am alone."
He brushed the hair from her eyes. "No. You're not. Don't you believe me?"
"Even if I am alone, I want to believe in you."
"The Dynast has sent me. I know Tinako is your friend, but I need you to do something for me."
"You want the key back."
He nodded. "It's not time. We would love to resurrect Ruby Eye, but we would have too much interference. It's safer for my lord Dynast to have the key. She would never even attempt to touch him."
"She?"
He shook his head. "No, it is not time. You must get it from her."
Mako looked into his ice blue eyes. "Mazoku make for great liars, but I can't see that you would be lying. Would Tinako know you?"
He looked down. "If you say my name to her even once she will know what I've come for."
"Why doesn't the Dynast just ask Tinako for it back?"
He shook his head. "Mazoku may not always be loyal to the humans they deal with, but they are always loyal to the ones they make."
"How do I get it?"
He whispered in her ear.

Mako roused herself. She was back in the palace of Xoana. She knew something that made her heart hurt. She walked around. It was the middle of the night. It seemed to her that she was in that cave for hours, but really she was only asleep for a short time. She made her way to the library. Tsuzi was sitting in there talking to someone. Mako clung to the corner. She carefully peeked around the side. It was Zelgadis.
She couldn't hear their conversation, she strained herself trying to listen. As she so carefully tried to spy, she tripped on a table and fell right into Zelgadis' lap.
Tsuzi jumped up and Zelgadis sat stupefied. 
Mako grinned. "Ahhh!" Her face was beet red. "Hi, what are you doing sitting there?"
Zel stared at Mako. "Uhh..." Nothing was coming out. He just sat puttering.
Mako stared at Zel. His face was so red, he looked like a tomato. He finally scrapped Mako out of his lap.
"I was sitting there..." He stood up and Mako was sitting on the floor. Zel was so embarrassed that he left the room. Mako looked at Tsuzi.
"Hi!"
Tsuzi looked flustered as well. "Um, hi."
Mako stood up and dusted herself off.  "I didn't mean to spy or anything. I just came in and saw you talking. I didn't really want to disturb you."
Tsuzi shook her head. "It was nothing of importance. You could have walked in instead of planting yourself in that man's lap."
Mako blushed. "Poor Zelgadis..."
Tsuzi giggled. At least she found the situation humorous. "Why are you still up so late?"
Mako smiled again. "I dunno. I find it hard to sleep here. It's so far from home. So different too."
Tsuzi smiled fondly of home. "I wish I could go home too. But there's nothing left for me there."
Mako turned around. "I can't go home. No one knows how to get me there."
The concern was evident on Tsuzi's face. "What? I don't understand."
"I'm not from here. I from a different world. It's nothing like this. The only demons we have are the ones inside us. Not the ones that drag you to different realities."
"Mazoku? You're dealing with mazoku?" 
"Not by choice. One just happened to come along and drag me here."
Tsuzi's anger was showing. "I hate mazoku. All they are good at is destroying things. I want them all dead. They destroyed everything. Everything I had..." 
Mako looked at Tsuzi. "Everything?"
Tsuzi's eyes were full of tears. "One day a selfish voice will reach you and in that very moment the world will change, and not always for the better."
"Tsuzi..."
Tsuzi wiped at her tears. "I don't want the tears to spill you know. They just keep coming."
"What happened?"
"One day a very powerful wizard decided that everyone I loved didn't need to live. If that wasn't bad enough. Another very powerful mazoku decided that he would bring them back, for his own sick purpose."
Mako just stared at her.
"And to make it worse, they were merely puppets at his command. He couldn't even let them die in peace! I hate mazoku! I want them all dead!"
Amelia walked around the corner.
"Tsuzi..."
Mako and Tsuzi looked up and say Amelia. Amelia also had tears in her eyes.
"Sairaag. It was there wasn't it? When copy Rezo destroyed the city."
Tsuzi nodded. She was still crying.
Mako looked questioningly at both the girls. "Were you there Amelia?"
Amelia nodded. "Lina died there. Saving someone else. Saving me..."
"Died? But Lina is very much alive now." Mako was puzzled.
Zelgadis came back in the room. He had been sulking outside the door for a few minutes, trying to get the red out of his cheeks. He stood in the doorway.
"I remember that."
Mako turned to him. "Please tell me about it. I want to hear."
Zelgadis started. "It all started because of me. In the beginning, it was my fault. The real Rezo was my grandfather. He's the one that turned me into this. Many things happened then. Lina and Gourry came along and had something I needed. The thing is we fought Rezo and killed him. Then through the processes of cloning, Eris created a new Rezo. Copy Rezo. Amelia was there then, and a girl named Syphiel. If it wasn't for Syphiel, Lina would be dead. She was the only one who could have even resurrected her. Copy Rezo was so obsessed with Lina..." The look in Zelgadis' eyes were distant. Like he was still on that battlefield.
"Lina killed the original Rezo, he had to prove he was better. He could beat her. He ended up destroying all of Sairaag." Zel looked at Tsuzi. "As far as I knew Syphiel was the only one to escape the city alive."
Tsuzi stared intensely at Zelgadis as he told his story. She thought about that time. "One day a selfish voice in your head tells you to leave. You want to see the world. My mom and sisters begged me to stay and I insisted I leave. I was going to Seiryuun. I would be a shrine maiden. So I left. Said good-bye. Every time I was going to go home I sent word to my mom I wouldn't be home. I would be studying, something, just nothing that important. My mom sent word my sister was sick. She asked me to come home. I again told her something stupid. If I knew it would have been the last time to see them alive. Really alive. I would have gone. Word came maybe two days later...Sairaag was...gone."
Mako's tears were running down her face. 
Tsuzi continued. "Syphiel and I were good friends growing up. I knew how her fathers death was killing her. My family was gone too because I was too selfish. I left Seiryuun. Traveled. Went back to the ruins of my city. Found my sisters favorite stuffed animal. Almost everything was crumbling. Ruined. Some months passed and I heard that Sairaag was being rebuilt, but the tree...the tree was dead. I went back. 
It was..."
Amelia stepped in. "It was exactly the same as it was before Rezo destroyed it." Amelia was also in the moment. "The buildings, the faces, all exactly alike. Syphiel's father...it was all back."
Lina too was awake. She walked into the room and listened to what everyone was saying. At that point Lina entered the room. "The town was the same, but the people were dead. We saw them all die. I was helpless to stop it. I don't know what more I could have done then. I didn't know. When we saw Syphiel's father we knew something was very wrong. Syphiel was happy just to say good-bye. Say she loved him. Phibrizzo had their souls. Imprisoned them to do as he wished."
"Phibrizzo?"
Zelgadis was standing next to Mako. He leaned over and whispered to her. "Hellmaster Phibrizzo was the strongest of  Ruby Eye Shabringdo's generals. He was the master of life and death."
Mako nodded. "Oh."
Lina continued on with her story, how she had finally defeated Hellmaster. How the souls were freed.
Tsuzi listened. "I went back and saw my mom and sisters. I knew they couldn't be alive. They told me to leave. To be safe.  I knew something was wrong about it. I knew they had died. I said good-bye. But it's never been enough for me." She looked at Amelia and Lina and over to Zelgadis and Mako. "I don't fault you Lina, you saved their souls. But I hate mazoku. Using people for their own sick purpose. Dead people as puppets. I just can't stand it."

	Everyone left. It was late and everyone was tired. The nights experience left everyone emotionally drained. The only one who got a good nights sleep was Gourry. Tinako still hadn't been seen. Mako didn't dwell on where she was. In fact she was glad Tinako wasn't around. Mako walked with Zelgadis toward their rooms. When he reached his door Mako turned to him. "Zelgadis, can I talk to you?"
"Yea, what about?"
"Private."
They went into his room. He sat on the bed and Mako sat in the chair across from him. 
"First I want to apologize. I didn't mean to fall in your lap earlier. I didn't mean to spy, I was just curious who Tsuzi was talking to."
"It's O.K. it was just a bit embarrassing."
"Yes, well sorry. And second. Tsuzi definitely hates mazoku. I think it best we not tell her about Tinako, or even Xellos, should he come around."   
Zelgadis readily agreed, and added "I hope HE doesn't come around." 
Mako gave a small laugh. She smiled sadly. "If he doesn't come around, I'll never go home."
"I'm sorry Mako, I didn't mean..."
"No, I understand. You've dealt with him way more than I have. You know he's a bastard. I've pretty much figured that, the problem is, if that bastard doesn't help I'm stuck."
"No, Mako. I shouldn't have said it. You don't seem like you come from another world. It's like you belong here. I can't imagine what it must be like for you, stuck here."
Mako stared at Zel and then looked to the floor. She gave a nervous laugh. "You know, I don't know how 'stuck' I consider myself. I kinda like it here. It's so... So different. There's nothing like this in my world. Magic died a long time ago. It's only parlor tricks and people ripping you off. There's no real sincerity left in my world. I sometimes wonder if there's even love. It's busy and rushing and stress. No one cares about the person next to them, the people they see everyday. Someone is always trying to hurt you and blame someone else for doing it. If they do it to themselves, it's still someone else's fault. You all genuinely love and care for each other. That died a long time ago in my world. Some days I don't want to go home, but there are still people I love..." Mako's tears were rolling down her cheeks.
"Mako I had no idea."
Mako was almost shouting through the tears. "Everyday, everyday!!! It's always the same things there. There's no time to stop. You want to choke whoever says the next word to you. All your faults are laid out and everyone judges!!! Here... Here..."
Zelgadis put his arms around her. Comforting her. Letting her cry.
"Here, I can stop for five minutes and no one judges me. No one hates me for being me. I don't have to pretend."
Zelgadis held Mako up. He wiped her tears from her face and looked her in the eye. "Here, we love people for who they are. Faults and all. Lina and the others taught me that. I used to think no one would like me because of how I look. It was a shock when I realized they don't care what I look like. They care about the me inside. We're not going to judge you for anything. We all really care about you. If you can't ever get home, you'll always be home with us."
Mako smiled and wiped at her tears. "Thank you. Really. Thank You."
Zel smiled back. "If all else fails, I'll do everything in my power to find you a way home."