Disclaimer: I do not own Fairy Tail. It belongs to Hiro Mashima and the companies that own the licensing rights to the manga, anime and what not. This little story is just for fun.
This is a story I've been bouncing around in my head for a bit but never got around to. As I've lately wanted to try to get back into a writing-grove I decided to test the waters by writing and posting this. It's quite different from most of the stuff I've written before in that it's all about the interaction between two characters and pretty much nothing else. So here goes, it'll be interesting to see the reviews for this one, if it gets any.
When he woke up he was floating high above the sea. Floating mind you, not flying. Flying would include the ability to move through the air under his own power and annoyingly he seemed to lack that ability.
Hades, now deceased master of the dark mage guild Grimoire Heart, looked around. In one direction there was Tenrou Island where his guild had suffered a most humbling defeat at the hands of the light guild Fairy Tail and in the opposite direction he could see his damaged air-ship, where he'd just recently died at the hands of the legendary black mage he'd been planning to awaken, limp away through the sky. Finally he looked at his own hands just to see what being dead did to people. He looked just like when he died but there was just less of him there. And that was it.
He could now confirm what he'd read about the spirits of powerful mages lingering around for a short while before fading away and it was kind of depressing. After being defeated twice in a single day he did not relish the idea of spending his last few minutes of conscious thought just waiting to fade away into nothing.
"How dull." He muttered and closed his eyes in wait for the inevitable.
"You sound disappointed."
At the sound of the soft and friendly voice Hades' eyes opened instantly and he turned around to face the one person he never imagined he'd encounter again. She had the short and delicate body of a child, long and wavy blonde hair, wise yet innocent emerald green eyes and the gentlest smile he'd ever encountered. The pink frilly, layered robe, red ribbon tied as a bow around her neck, odd wing ornaments around her ears and lack of shoes made her look even more like a little girl rather than a world famous mage.
But this was no mere girl. This was the spirit of Fairy Tail's founder, the legendary 'Fairy Tactician' and Hades' former master, Mavis Vermillion.
As the shock of her appearance settled, the fact that she garnered such a reaction seemed to please the spirit immensely, Hades just let the first words that came to mind flow from his mouth.
"How… how is this possible? I thought you dead and… You died so very long ago." Suspicion covered his features. "This is you isn't it? This isn't some kind of trick or something to that effect?"
Mavis chuckled. "Who would or could do such a thing? Besides, my situation isn't wholly unique. There was this one really old fellow who managed to create an entire fake guild while in this state. He's gone now but there are a few more spirits like this spread throughout the world. Remember what I used to tell you." She winked and held out her hands joyously. "In the world of magic the seemingly impossible is just that which hasn't been discovered yet."
There was something about the way she said the line that he'd heard her say hundreds of times before that made Hades feel a strange warmth within himself. "I guess this is what they call nostalgia." He whispered.
"Huh?"
"Nothing." He took a closer look at his former master. "You look exactly as I remember you master Mavis." He said almost fondly.
Mavis nodded and smirked teasingly. "And you've grown really old. How does that feel?"
Hades frowned. It'd been a while since anybody even dared to address him in such a flippant fashion. Because of this he decided to disregard further pleasantries.
"So why are you here then master Mavis?" A possibility appeared his mind and he spoke with a newfound eagerness. "Is it to teach me the secret to your situation? Are you going to show how I might live on as a spirit?"
Before he could continue Mavis held up a finger to his face. "First of all, just call me Mavis. We've both held the title of master for Fairy Tail. We can speak as equals." She stepped back and a sombre expression darkened the moment quite a bit. "Secondly, I am not here to teach you anything, Purehito." Hades actually shivered as much as a spirit could shiver at the dark intonation his predecessor used when calling him by his old name. "I'm here to talk. That is all."
Hades crossed his arms and straightened himself out. This was not going to be pleasant but he would not be chewed out like some little kid. "Talk you say." He spoke with a defiant and authoritative voice that would send most men running for the hills. Mavis just met his steely gaze with determined eyes. "About what?"
"Your life," Mavis answered without missing a beat. "And the choices you made." Her lips quivered for a second. "What happened Purehito? What happened to make you like this?" Tears started to stream down Mavis' eyes as her voice got more and more agitated "Why did the man I considered a close personal friend and whom I chose to become Fairy Tail's second master decide to walk a path of darkness?"
Hades sighed. "I see that the afterlife doesn't grant one a better understanding of the world. Just like Makarov you still divide the world into good and evil whereas I have grown beyond such mundane thinking."
"Whether that's true or not you still strayed from the guild's path! Now answer the question!"
A rare look of compassion and shame crossed Hades' eyes and as he met Mavis' tearful gaze. He answered with a voice befitting an old man explaining things to their grandchild. "To think that I would one day be the cause of sadness within you Mavis. It fills me with a sorrow I had not expected." He sighed again, this time it reflected his old age. "While it is true that I took to the dark side of magic and turned on your guild I disagree with your notion that I've betrayed Fairy Tail's path."
Confusion struck the first master's face as Hades continued. "I left the guild merely because I outgrew it. My desire to understand the world and acquire as much knowledge about the true essence of magic required actions that I could not take as the master of a legally sanctioned guild. But I still sought the answers to the most important mysteries of magic and isn't that in line with your childish question about fairies and their tails?"
"IT'S A PERFECTLY LEGIT QUESTION!" Mavis' sudden outburst took Hades by surprise and made he recoil as much as he could in his current state. At the same time it made him rather happy that she still reacted in such an overdramatic fashion to any critique regarding the question that was the guild's namesake. He couldn't help but smirk a little as she rambled on as she used to do when he was younger.
"Do fairies have tails or not? Nobody has ever seen a fairy so nobody knows the truth and nobody knows how to find the answer. Both possibilities are equally valid and both lead to mountains of follow-up questions that just further the mystery. Everybody has their own idea about the subject as it sparks their wildest imaginations and I don't think that you've gotten the point of it at all!" She was breathing heavily, which seemed a bit odd as she was pretty much a ghost but Hades decided to not pay it much attention.
"Go out into world all you want and look for all the answers you desire. But you went to the darkness." All the excitement and energy washed her and gave way to the solemn sadness once again. "You turned to the shadows for answers instead of staying in the light and it clouded your judgement."
"Phaw." Hades raised his voice in contempt. "Metaphors and flowery language. As empty as everything else offered by your precious light. And just as limited. The things I found in the dark are treasures and knowledge that I never would've uncovered if I'd remained on your narrow path."
"And look where that got you." Mavis retorted, harshness sharpening her words and twisting her features. "Killed by the very being you'd failed to comprehend because you couldn't see past your own vision of the world. And just before that you relied on a manufactured power source which failed when you needed it the most. Congratulations."
It was not the inherent truth in words that gave Hades pause. It was the way she said them. Tears threatening to fall and yet her voice filled with a coldness he didn't think her capable of. "Whatever the results were, it was my life Mavis. My existence. And it was defined by my choices. I left your teachings behind and formed my own. That is all there is to it."
Eyes that used to shine with mirth and warmth whenever they he'd see them, now narrowed in restrained anger. It was unnerving him for some reason.
"Yes. You made your choices. You chose to abandon everything we stood for. You chose to hurt people to further your own desires. You chose to come to Fairy Tail's sacred island in order to let your minions desecrate MY GRAVE! Why? Just tell why you would go so far?" Hades remained silent, uncertain of what to say in response as his crimes were laid bare and questioned.
He took a deep breath, another function that was quite unnecessary given his state of being, and tried to explain himself. Strange thing was that he'd never doubted his ultimate goal or the means he'd used to reach it, no matter how horrific the rest of the world thought them to be.
But now.
Now he hesitated.
"I sought to bring about the Ultimate Magical World. I wanted to reach the One Magic that I had stared into during my journeys and take the world to the same magic purity that I'd witnessed. I wished to bring the world of magic to its logical evolution and that required me to look beyond any previous attachment I had in the current world. It was a goal I'd found on my own and I wasn't about to let your idealistic worldview get in my way."
Hades expected another angry outburst at his explanation. But all Mavis did was hang her head in sorrow. "So it all meant nothing to you? Me, our friends, the guild and everything we did together?"
He didn't answer at first, because he wasn't quite sure how to answer. Ever since he'd decided on bringing forth the Ultimate Magical World he hadn't given much thought to his previous life as Purehito and the experiences he'd had. At most he'd thought about how Fairy Tail would be an obstacle for him, but that was it. With the question asked so directly he couldn't help but think about a certain incident from long ago.
Looking up at the sky a smile formed on Hades' lips. "Do you remember that first mission we had, right after we founded the guild?"
Mavis didn't answer. She just raised her tear covered face slightly in confusion. Was it genuine nostalgia she heard in his voice?
"A village wanted us to track down and defeat a large band of bandits that had managed to elude standard authorities for quite some time. So we started investigating and Warrod managed to find their hideout by talking to the trees in the area. Heh, I never did understand how he did that. Anyway, I thought that we should take them out with a methodical strike wherein you coordinated our efforts with your strategic displays. But you demanded that we just openly challenge them all head-on. Which led to a three hour long brawl with the four of us against, what was it? 100 bandits…"
"Around 200 actually." Mavis corrected with a sniffle as she dried away the tears.
"Right, we fought 200 bandits without any plan or strategy in mind. We were just going to take them down with our magic abilities, which were fairly average at that point in time I might add. So we took the sloppiest, most destructive and hazardous route possible in dealing with the situation and after we'd triumphed, and healed properly I once again questioned why the hell you thought that had been a good way of dealing with it all. To which you responded that,"
"We needed to make a proper name for ourselves of course." Mavis answered with the exact same voice as nearly a century ago, indicating that she thought it was silly to ask such an obvious question.
Hades laughed. "Well, you certainly were right. We made a name for the guild as a reckless bunch of maniacs and that reputation has stuck with the guild for all this time. I'm still surprised we never got arrested by the council and that you ended up with the epithet of 'Fairy Tactician'."
"We were an effective if reckless bunch of maniacs. Nobody could deny that." Mavis reasoned in a somewhat calm voice that seemed to just enjoy the conversation. "And it wasn't until after that day that I started employing more tactical approaches to missions." She rubbed her cheeks and pouted. "Getting hit in the face with fireballs really hurt."
"Indeed." Hades mused as he reminisced some more. "That and many other missions kept me on my toes and I can quite honestly say that my days as a member of Fairy Tail were the most exhilarating time of my life."
"Then why..?"
"Time passed, you died and I changed. Simple as that." He looked down, saw that his form was barely there at all and sighed. "Considering my current situation I cannot say that my choices ended up being perfect or even right. But I stand by them and my ambitions."
The smile on Mavis' face shrank into a sad line. "I guess that's it then." She didn't even try to hold back her tears now. "I'm not sure what I was hoping for from talking to you like this. It's not like I could save you from yourself or anything like that. I can't exactly keep you from dying and it seems like I can't change your mind. So… I don't know."
Hades had never seen Mavis look so defeated. "I'd venture that you wanted some form of closure. Did you achieve that?"
"Time will tell." She let out a deep sigh and managed to regain some composure. The tears didn't stop though. Hades felt a strange warmth as he realised that she would be ok, however that applied to spirits. "Farewell Purehito. I will miss you, old friend."
"And if there is anything left of me after I've faded away I will miss you as well, Mavis." He remained for a few more second before truly disappearing but there was nothing left for either to say.
Mavis didn't know how long she floated in solitude before she felt its approach. She snapped her head up and looked into the horizon where she saw a monster approaching. "Acnologia."
The black dragon of the apocalypse was headed in her direction but she wasn't the target. It was after Tenrou island, or more precisely, the people on it. "No more." The little spirit muttered as Acnologia flew past her. "I've already lost one friend today. But no more. I won't lose any more of my precious guild. Not to you or any other creature of darkness!" She roared after the dragon and followed it with every intention of saving Makarov and all the young guild members currently residing on the island.
She had a plan. There was no way for her to just get involved in the fight or empower everyone so that they could combat the monster. But she could protect them. As long as their bonds to each other were strong and their faith in those bonds was unshakeable they could all be saved.
"As long as the ideals we built the guild on are still strong they can still be saved, Purehito. I'll show you that love and the bonds we share with others will overcome any power." She spoke fiercely and with determination, but there was still a part of her that was filled with fear. Fear that Hades was right, that the principles of friendship and kindness upon which she had founded the guild were naïve and weak. After all, if the close friend she had trusted with the guild could be corrupted and turned to darkness who's to say that the current members would have bonds strong enough to activate the spell needed to save them?
To Mavis' complete and unquestionable amazement, happiness and pride the guild proved her right and would continue to do so for a long time.
The End