Eeeik! Tuesday! I didn't know I would not have internet until Wendsday! A national holiday kept me from school and updating and then I could not log in yesterday because the server was blocked or something. -cries- Alright, enough of that. Drum-roll please! -bangs hands on desk- Now here is the end to The Unexpected Band!

Go

The first ever tour for the band Slayers was just all too great, even for the members themselves. Zelgadis and Amelia still went out every once and a while, as well as Gourry and Lina. Xellos always would arrive back at the bus after a late-night fast food run to find Lina waiting up, Gourry asleep at her side. Zelgadis and Amelia always came back very late, yet every time made it before sunrise. Lina had made it her "duty" to watch them carefully, especially in Las Vegas. After their stops at Sacramento, Los Angeles and Las Vegas, the band bus also had to stop in Phoenix, Houston, New Orleans, Jackson, Orlando, Nashville, New York City and Toledo. As soon as they felt they were starting the tour, it all ended in Detroit on a blustery March day. Xellos pulled into the familiar football stadium parking lot and everyone strolled into the stadium, going separate ways to get ready.

After a short while, Rei the Show Coordinator noticed some changes in the band members and their manager. The intimacy between Zelgadis and Amelia was highly apparent. Lina and Gourry were not fighting like they had been last time, but instead laughing and joking around. It was all very unusual to Rei. Quickly, he found Xellos and started to talk to him.

"Xellos-san," he asked. "What happened to everyone else? They seem different somehow."

"That is a secret between them," Xellos answered. "I have not noticed anything, but that might be because I have been with them the whole time you have not."

"Oh," Rei said.

"However," Xellos continued. "I have noticed however, Amelia acting a bit strangely. Strangely even for one such as herself. She might be keeping something from us."

"Still, whatever it is, it really is none of our business I guess," Rei said grimly. He really wanted to know what was up. Going to Xellos would not have helped even if he interrogated the man until concert time. Xellos grinned, knowing that he won, and walked off to get changed into his costume.

"ARE YOU READY TO ROCK!" Zelgadis screamed into the microphone, his deep voice resonating throughout the stadium. The crowd in turn bellowed back. It was twice as big as the opening night attendance and very apparent that Slayers was growing rapidly in popularity.

Slamming into his guitar, Zelgadis started up the concert. He and the others played for ten whole minutes on a hard-rock instrumental, Amelia jumping around the stage besides him and Xellos and Lina on platforms. Suddenly the band cut off the song and started anew. Amelia served up a good bass background to Zelgadis's booming voice.

Every time I look in the mirror

All I can see is you

Takes all I have to look away

For what I see is true

I see a demon, a monster ugly

Glaring back at me

Go away now, I can see now

What you don't want to be

Almost unconsciously, Amelia started to sing in harmony with Zelgadis in the chorus.

Now go

Go far away

Don't come back

Don't want to hear you say

Next came the duet of the song. Amelia and Lina played as hard as they could, then let off for Zelgadis to sing once more.

You have left me for another

Now may I start to weep

I'll never recover from your presence

My scars have dug too deep

Liberalize my thoughts and feelings

Pain is all that's left of me

Your being constricted my empty soul

Now you're gone and I'm free

The chorus was sung again and more guitar riffs slammed out. The crowd rhythmically chanted the band's name. Zelgadis and Amelia were all over the stage, lights pouring over them and their own handiwork blasting in their ears. Everything was as perfect as it could have been.

Backstage though, Gourry was feeling nervous. He could not tell to why, but he could feel something was amiss. Rei told him to relax and enjoy the music, but Gourry was just too tense.

Then it happened. Clear and sharp, a noise cut through the air, cleaving the music from the audience. It was a few seconds before anyone could realize that the noise was from a gunshot.

"Lina! Guys! Offstage quickly!" Gourry yelled as he bolted onto the stage to help Lina and Xellos down from the platform. "Someone has a gun! We have to get out of here!"

Just as Gourry got Lina off the platform and as Xellos jumped down from his, another shot rang out, as well as a screech from Amelia.

"ZELGADIS!" she yelled. Lina and Gourry turned to see Amelia hunched over Zelgadis, all tense and pain-stricken. His face was contorted into a grimace and blood was pouring out of a wound in his chest, right below his shoulder blade.

"Amelia! Get down!" Lina cried. She started to run out to her friends, but in an instant there was another shot, then gold...

---

Lina Inverse got out of work at six o'clock, just like she always did. It was raining roughly, which caused her to pull her grey trench coat collar up and her blue security guard's hat down. She walked the half mile from the museum to a flower store. There she got a single white rose and placed it in her coat for the brisk walk over to the cemetery. Making her way through the maze of gravestones, she halted right before plowing into a small boy that was blocking the cobblestone path. He could not have been much older than six and was staring at the polished rock in front of him with severe intrigue.

"Oh! I am sorry ma'am!" the small child said, noticing Lina standing next to him. He moved so he was not blocking the way. Lina laughed on the inside when she saw the young boy's face look up at her through the rain. It was a familiar hard and grey. His hair was a soft purple framing eyes of sapphire blue. Lina knew exactly who's child this was.

"Hello there Zelgadis. Where is your mother?"

The small boy looked up at Lina with wonder and amazement. He could not remember this woman, but she could clearly remember him.

"Zelgadis!" a voice yelled from down the path. A woman with black hair ran up to the boy, her face hidden from Lina by a yellow umbrella that protected her from the rain. "Zelgadis, how many times do I have to tell you to not run off like that?"

"Mommy," Little Zelgadis said, pointing at Lina. "The lady knows my name. How does she know my name?" The woman looked up at Lina and gasped.

"How long has it been Amelia? Seven years? We really need to stop meeting like this," Lina chuckled. Amelia gave a forced laugh and smiled.

"I see time has not changed you much Lina," Amelia said. Her small son hid behind her, peeking out from the shelter of her coat to stare at his mother's friend.

"Ah, but time has changed you. Look at you. A child, I bet that dream job as a police officer is secured, no more bars and stages for you."

"Then are you still our loyal security guard, sitting around old things that do not move, taking care of them on your life's honor?"

Both Lina and Amelia laughed. They then half-turned to the headstones sitting side by side. Each stone was simple. No fancy lettering or nothing, just the names of their owners, their birthday and their last day on earth.

"Zelgadis," Amelia said softly. She bent down to eye level with the child and pointed to the gravestone on the right. "There he is."

"Father?" Little Zelgadis asked.

"Yes, your father," she answered. The child went up and touched the name emblazoned in the rock that was so eerily similar to his own. A jolt went down his back as he ran his fingers over the smooth, wet stone.

Father... he thought.

Lina sighed and took the rose from her coat. Carefully, she set it down on the ground, propped up on the gravestone next to her best friend's.

"I still love you Gourry," she whispered, choking back painful tears. "There is never a moment where I do not wish you were here. I want you to be alive. I want Zelgadis to be alive. He can never see his son grow up and we can never have any of our own." She held back her sobs as hard as she could. "Oh, why does it have to be this way?"

"Maybe it was part of the Great Plan," Amelia said, putting her hand on Lina's shoulder for comfort.

"It might be," Lina said. She let out a small, forced laugh. "At least Xellos is not here to see me get all emotional. He moved to England around two years ago."

"Did he now?"

"Yeah, him and Filia. They plan on starting a family soon."

Nothing more was said between the two former band members. There was no use for such things at that point. The rain had died down slightly and for a while, the only water that fell was the tears from Lina, Amelia and Little Zelgadis's eyes before it started back up again. There was too much pain for talking. Many memories flashed though the minds of the two women about the day when their lovers died.

-flash-

...in the news today, the lead singer and the manager of the breakout rock band Slayers, along with a few dozen concert goers have been shot...

...are being contained at St. Jude in serious condit...

...the gunmen who attacked their final concert appearance in Detroit are still at large...

...Zelgadis Graywords and Gourry Gabriev, lead singer/guitarist and the manager of the rock group Slayers both died early this morning...

...died...

...no suspects have been found or identified...

...died...

-flash-

Lina and Amelia could both remember how painful it was after Gourry and Zelgadis were shot on that fateful day seven years ago. Both girls had spent a week in St. Jude Hospital at their lover's sides. Amelia was horrified, for she knew she was going to have a child in seven months and Lina was the same for Gourry had taken the bullet that was headed towards her heart. Neither man ever recovered from their wounds and died within two hours of each other.

The young boy, however, could not think or even imagine these things. He could not remember a single thing about his father. His death was months before he was even born. That is why his mother gave him such the unusual name of Zelgadis, to carry on his father's legacy. He had no idea how different his life could have been if his Zelgadis's wounds were not enough to kill him. Amelia never told her son about his father's fame and would-have-been fortune. It was best if he found out on his own. Slowly, he turned towards Lina and tilted his head to one side.

"Are you my father's friend Lina Inverse?"

"Why yes, I am. I am your Aunt Lina. I have not seen you since I looked at your father last. You do look so much like him," Lina said, squatting down to the boy's eye level and patting him on the head. The child just looked at her, not understanding the sentimentalism in her words.

"Lina-chan?" Amelia asked. "Have you been here before?"

"Yes," Lina answered. "Every year on the day they both died. I bring a rose for Gourry and a prayer for Zelgadis. I can tell that this at least the first time Zelgadis-chan has been here."

"Well, we are moving back to the city," Amelia sighed. "In the fall we will move into a house on the river."

"Tell me where exactly you end up then," Lina said quietly. "I would like to help you look after the boy, if it would be alright."

"Perfectly. Zelgadis would have wanted that."

Things were subsequently very quiet. Nobody could muster it up to speak a word. Then, very slowly, the rain started to subside once again. It became a light drizzle, then was thin enough for Amelia to put down her umbrella and Lina to put her coat collar back down.

"Where did you go?" Lina asked, still staring at Gourry's grave. "After Zelgadis and Gourry died, you just took off in a rush and never left a forwarding address."

"I went home to my father's place in the country," Amelia replied morosely. "I was a widow even before I was married. There was nowhere that I felt I could go, not with Zelgadis coming. I know it was wrong to just disappear, yet I was just so afraid. The amount of coverage on the shooting was so great, I never wanted our child to be exposed to any of it."

"Mommy," Little Zelgadis asked. "What are you talking about?"

"I will tell you when you are older Zelgadis," Amelia sighed, patting her son on the head. "Why don't you go and wait in the car while I talk to Lina-san."

"Bye Lina-san," Little Zelgadis said, hugging Lina around the waist and running off to his mother's small grey car.

"He looks exactly like him," Lina marveled. She stood up straight so that she was eye to eye with Amelia. Her eyes were just filled with hardship, grief and suffering, so much that it was nearly unbearable.

"It is a mixed blessing," Amelia said. "He is picked on at school and obviously some of his classmates have figured out he is part chimera. Zelgadis is never picked for anything and only has one friend."

"Is it a short red-headed girl with a hair-trigger temper?" Lina lightly joked.

"No, a small boy with long blonde hair."

"Heh. Hey, you know where to find me for when you move back to the city, right?" Lina asked.

"Yeah, I remember. You have not moved then?"

"No. Not planning to. I guess I'll see you around then."

"See you around."

And with that, the two former band members parted ways once again. Neither was overly sad to depart, for they both knew that one day, they would meet again and that their lovers would both rest in peace.

The End

Fwuah! -punches air- I finished! Oh my Lord, I cried while I wrote that ending! Can you imagine? Bawling Nez-chan. Not a pretty picture.

For me reviewers:

Gerao-A: Danke, arigato, gracias, however-you-say-it-in-Portugese, THANK YOU! -glomp- You guys are awesome reviewers! I hope it all was good. Alandra, Sunny, AirJay, Maliska and Ramon, I am glad you have reviewed some of my stories and I have a feeling that this is not the last we will see of each other!

Zeraf: Hey man! Arigato for all of your reviews! They were very much appreciated.

Zanbato: My little brother, never a review, but always there to listen to my ramblings. I owe you a bit. Not much, but a bit.