Sylphiel held out the silver ribbon. "Um, are you mad at me because I took this? Sorry, I thought you were just a statue...."

The girl cautiously took the ribbon, looking confused. "Statue? What do you mean stat....?" Her eyes widened, like she had just realized something. "Oh hell." She tied the ribbon around her wrist for safekeeping, then began patting and looking through her vest pockets. "Knowing sis, she probably left me... a-ha!" she exclaimed, triumphantly pulling a folded piece of paper out of her pocket. Lina, Zelgadis, and Sylphiel simply looked on, completely lost.

"Pardon me," said Lina. "But do you think you could explain who you are and why you were sealed in stone down here?"

The girl waved her hand, reading the note. "In a sec. Hang on." She read down the note, looking decidedly unimpressed. "'So sorry, dear sister,'" she read aloud, sounding rather bored with the note. "'This was done for your own protection', yadda yadda. 'The following are instructions on how to'...." She raised an eyebrow and shook her head. "Hmm..." She read the rest of the note in silence, until she got to the end. "'P.S. Since you're reading this note, it obviously means that someone released you, so please do yourself a favor by eliminating them.'" She shrugged and stuck the note back into her pocket, while Lina, Zel, and Sylphiel assumed a defensive stance.

"Why kill us?" said Sylphiel. "This was all just an accident."

The girl put a hand behind her neck and laughed. "Oh, don't worry, I'm not going to kill you guys! Judging by what the rest of that letter said, sis wasn't really in her right mind when she left instructions. Besides, you three don't look very suspicious. And judging by your initial reaction, I figured this was all some sort of mistake."

Lina eyed Zelgadis at the "don't look very suspicious" comment. She shrugged. "Ah well, maybe this kid has a higher tolerance for people who are different." Zel didn't respond.

The girl sat on one of the shelves and looked at them intently, like a child waiting to hear a story. "Anyway, now that that's all cleared up, I'm curious to know how you got down here."

"We... opened the doors and went down the stairs," Lina stated obviously.

The statue girl nodded. "And?"

"And what? That's all there was to it," Lina replied.

The girl looked confused. "You mean... you didn't run into any of the traps? You weren't stopped by any barrier spells? No illusionary passages?"

"Lina actually went so far as to go around looking for those," Zel said, dryly. "But this lab is about as uneventful as a deserted street."

"But.... if the wards are gone, then....." she whispered. She leapt off the shelf and ran up the stairs.

"Whoa, wait a sec!" Lina shouted, hot in pursuit. She soon realized, however, that running up an endless flight of stairs was extremely tiring. A Raywing spell solved that problem, and it quickly closed the gap between her and the fleeing girl. Lina caught up to her and grabbed her by the shoulders. "Hold it!" she commanded.

The girl tried to squirm free. "Let me go!" she shouted. "I just want to check something!"

Lina had the girl pinned to the wall. "I'm not letting you go anywhere until you explain some things. Like who you are and why you were sealed down in that lab."

"Alright! Alright! I give up!" the girl said, her cheek pressed against the stairwell wall. "My name's Sonjia, okay? And I was sealed down there for protection from L-sama knows who. At least that's what my sister said."

"And just who is your sister?" Lina wanted to know.

Sonjia narrowed her eyes and looked Lina straight in the face. "That's a secret."

Something about that completely shocked Lina, as she lost her grip and fell down a few stairs, allowing Sonjia to make her escape. Zel and Sylphiel finally caught up to her at that point.

"Lina? What's wrong? What happened?" Zel asked.

"Violet eyes," Lina whispered. "She's got violet, slit-pupiled eyes...... Like a Mazoku."

Sonjia reached the top of the stairs, panting. She had no clue as to what had just spooked the orange-haired sorceress, whom she had heard referred to as "Lina". But she took that chance to make her escape. "Sorry about that, Lina," she said to herself. "But there's something I've just gotta know." However, finding that out wasn't going to be easy, as she realized she was standing at the bottom of a 20-foot hole.

"Well, this is definitely different from what I remember." She dug her hands into the side of the hole and proceeded to climb. The ground was extremely loose, however, and it took all her strength to keep herself from slipping. "What I wouldn't give right now for a little Levitation," she muttered as she reached for the top.

Lina and company got to the top of the stairs just in time to see Sonjia's feet disappear over the top of the hole. "Come on!" said Lina, snapping a Levitation spell in place. "There's something weird about that girl, and I want to keep an eye on her."

When Lina got out of the hole, however, she discovered that her culprit hadn't gone too far. In fact, Sonjia was standing right at the edge of the hole, completely still and stark white from shock. "Wh.... When did this happen?" she uttered. She was gazing out upon the pieces of houses strewn about, and the hundreds of workers working to rebuild them.

"Oh, I should have known," said Sylphiel. "It must be a shock to you seeing the city destroyed like this. But we're making good progress rebuilding."

Sonjia turned and looked at Sylphiel. "RE-building? As in building again? How long ago was it first built?"

Sylphiel thought a moment. "I believe it was first established shortly after the Mazoku War ended, about a thousand years ago. Why do you ask?"

Sonjia gulped. "Cuz the last time I went down into that lab, there was no city here..."

"Whoa! Wait a sec!" said Lina. "You mean to tell me that you've been sealed in that lab for over a thousand years?"

Sonjia nodded quietly. "Looks that way." She sighed and fingered the ribbon still tied around her wrist. "You mentioned that the Mazoku War ended a thousand years ago. If you don't mind me asking, who ended up winning?"

"Uh, it was a stalemate, sort of," said Lina. "Ceipheed broke Shabranigdo into seven pieces and sealed him away, but exhausted his energy in doing so. So, even though the war's over, the world is still in dispute."

"Ah," said Sonjia. "I sure was down there a lot longer than I thought I was. So, now I guess my only problem is that I've spontaneously acquired a thousand-or-so year memory gap." She rubbed her hands together. "And now that I'm back, I guess it's time to hit the history books."

But before any of them could say anything more, the foreman had tracked down his victims, who were once again not working, much to his dissatisfaction. "Okay, so what's your excuse this time?" he grunted, folding his arms across his massive chest. Lina and Zelgadis cowered in fear.

"S... sorry!" said Lina. "We just wanted to check out...."

"I'm not very happy with you guys right now," he boomed, rolling up his sleeve. "And you don't wanna see me mad!" Lina covered her head with her arms to hide from the scary man.

Sonjia, on the other hand, was looking back and forth between Lina and the foreman, completely confused. "So what makes him all high-and-mighty?" she asked. "You sure didn't seem like the cowardly type."

Lina would beat her up for the "cowardly" comment later. First not considering Zelgadis suspicious, and now not being intimidated by the massive hulk of a foreman standing before them? Being sealed in stone for a thousand years must have done something to this girl's sense of perception. "Can't you see?" said Lina. "He's scary!"

Sonjia raised an eyebrow. "I guess the definition of 'scary' has changed in the past thousand years. I don't find him the least bit threatening."

"But.... he's so..... big!" said Lina.

"Guess the definition of 'big' has changed too," said Sonjia, scratching her head.

The foreman clomped over to her. "You feel like picking a fight, little lady?" he growled, staring her straight in the face.

Sonjia was still decidedly unimpressed. "Go on. Hurt me."

Lina jumped up. "She's nuts! What is she trying to prove by standing up to that guy?"

Zelgadis jerked on her cape to get her attention. "You said she had Mazoku eyes, right? If she really is Mazoku, what could a guy like that do to her?" he reasoned.

Lina blinked in realization. "I guess you have a point there." She smiled. "But if she is a Mazoku, then I guess she won't mind a fireball for that 'cowardly' remark." She began charging up a ball of flame in her hands.

"And if she isn't Mazoku?" said Zelgadis.

Lina had already released the fireball. "Oops." The fireball went sailing at Sonjia, who was still standing her ground against the massive foreman. At the last second, she sidestepped it, letting the foreman get burned to a crisp.

"Hm, even though it missed, that felt pretty rewarding," said Lina, cracking her knuckles. Zel couldn't help but agree with her on that one. Lina looked back at the charred foreman, only to notice that he was quite a bit shorter now than she remembered. He coughed up a bit of smoke.

"Lina-san, was that really necessary?" he said innocently, in a higher, but immediately recognizable voice. Lina could feel her face burning with anger as she menacingly took a few steps toward him.

"Xellos....."

He immediately found himself in a headlock, experiencing Lina's wrath. "How dare you go around telling me what to do and acting all scary like that!" she growled at him. "I should Dragon Slave you for that!"

"Glad to see you're feeling braver," said Sonjia, off to the side. "Told you he wasn't very impressive."

"Ne, Zelgadis-kun!" Xellos shouted to the sulking chimera. "I rather enjoyed you following my orders for once! You should do it more often!"

"I can't believe I was tricked by that two-faced fruitcake of a Mazoku," Zel grumbled. "By the way," he said, addressing Sonjia, "how were you able to see through his disguise like that?"

She nervously scratched her chin. "Uh, that's a secret!"

And for Zel, that confirmed it. Sonjia was a Mazoku.