His eyes opened. It was dark. Almost too dark to see. His senses slowly returned to him as he realised he wasn't dead. Why wasn't he dead? He thought back. His swords had impaled him, and the demon destroyed. Then he had died. So where was he now?
Pushing himself to his feet, he heard the clink of metal. He looked behind him. The broadsword he had dug up from his mother's grave was resting in its sheath on his back! With a shaky hand, he unsheathed the blade. Sure enough, it was whole and the runes glowing with their familiar purple energy.
"I guess that means the curse is broken. But how did it repair itself?" he wondered aloud.
Sheathing the broadsword, he noticed he was wearing his hat. Taking the wide brimmed witch's hat off his head, he saw that the silver dagger was still in its sheath. Drawing his black cloak back, he saw that he still had his ebony rapier as well! He didn't even need to look to notice the cool iron gauntlets covering his hands. His red eyes narrowed as he wondered what cosmic force had sent him here. Wherever here was.
Checking to make sure he had everything, he started walking towards the light at the end of the tunnel. It was so bright. He was almost out of the cave now. Just a few more steps…
Colour assaulted his eyes when the light cleared from his vision, he almost had to take a step backwards! Lush green hills rolled around under a crystal blue sky, with barely a fluff of white in the sky. It was beautiful!
"So… This is what heaven looks like?" he said to himself. He noticed he was in front of a dirt track leading to a small town. Hopefully he'd find out where he was there.
*v*v*v*
*v*v*v*
The town seemed peaceful enough from the outside. From the road, he saw shopkeepers going about their daily routines, people roaming about and children playing. But when he neared the town, the people began to act strangely. They pointed at him from up the road. Some started whispering. When he got closer the shopkeepers closed their doors, and so did many of the townspeople. By the time he got into the town, it looked deserted.
"Well that's welcoming." He snorted, his eyebrows lowering. He walked through the town, but no matter where he went, there was nobody on the streets! "Hello? Is anyone here?"
"Go away! We don't want your kind around here!" came a gruff shout from behind closed shutters.
"Yeah! Get lost Dark Guild scum!" shouted another, tossing a plant pot from her balcony. Before it could hit him, he whirled around, rapier drawn and sliced the plant in two, the bisected flower drifting slowly to the ground.
'What's a Dark Guild?' he thought to himself before sheathing the rapier again.
"You think you're so tough?! Take this!" shouted the first gruff voice before a frying pan came hurtling through the air. He caught it and whirled around, tossing it back through the closed shutters, smashing the wood with the blackened cooking instrument.
"Manfred! He killed Manfred!" wailed the woman.
People began to step out of their homes, carrying all the weapons they could find. Some were wielding kitchen knives, butcher's cleavers and frying pans, while others had woodcutting axes and mallets.
"You'll pay for that you Dark Guild scumbag!" shouted many of the mob, rushing in towards the cloaked figure in the centre. As the mob drew closer, he clicked his heels together and shouted.
"Seven League Boots! Fly!"
The cloaked figure was launched into the air and began running through the sky at a breakneck speed. When he was a good enough distance away, he let himself descend to the ground. Shrugging and turning his back on the village, he continued down the road. Hopefully the next village wouldn't be so hostile to him. And maybe he could find out what this so called 'Dark Guild' was.
*v*v*v*
*v*v*v*
Life in the Fairy Tail guild was nothing if not eventful. Between Natsu and Gray's fighting, Loke's womanizing and Cana's drinking, there was a lot going on. Erza felt that she should have been bothered by the sheer chaos of the guild she called home, but yet, she felt it strangely comforting. Erza was looking at the Request Board, looking for anything in particular that interested her. She wasn't really in the mood for an S Class mission, so she thought she'd just pick up an easy one to relax. Then she noticed something very interesting indeed.
"A suspected Dark Guild member terrorizing Guano Village?" She thought aloud. "Looks like I'll have to go and investigate."
*v*v*v*
*v*v*v*
The cloaked figure walked down the road, curly boots kicking at some loose stones. While he could have flown anywhere he wanted with his boots, he really just wanted to enjoy the beautiful scenery! He'd never seen hills or grass like this before. It was so pure, so colourful, so crisp! It was like he had never even seen colour until now!
A rumbling sound distracted him from his euphoria. Further up the track, he could see something moving very quickly. Some kind of car? Well this was a road after all. He stepped to the side of the road and kept walking. The vehicle in front of him seemed to slow down and come to a stop. Sitting at the front of the vehicle was a woman with red hair, most of her body covered in silver plate mail.
"Who are you?" he asked.
"I could ask you the same question." She said, getting down from the seat at the front. "Are you that Dark Guild member that's been terrorising Guano Village?"
"What the hell is a Dark Guild?" he asked.
"Don't play cute with me! Do you know who you're dealing with?!"
"Not a clue."
The woman scowled as a sword appeared in her hand. "I am Erza Scarlet of the Fairy Tail guild! And I'm here to take you down!"
The red eyed teen took the dagger from out of his hat and held it out in front of him. "I don't know how you did that, but I do know that I'm not going to let you drag me away to god knows where for no reason."
Without another word the woman charged in and slashed at the teen, who leapt backwards to avoid the attack. Digging his fingers into the road, he carved out a rune on the ground. As the woman swung at him again, the boy pointed at the rune and shouted. "Explode!"
Large chunks of rock and earth exploded from the ground and thumped against Erza's armour, even though Erza appeared to be unscathed.
'I've never seen any kind of magic like that before!' she thought. 'Just who is this kid?'
The teen rushed in with the silver dagger, blocking the sword with a sharpened iron hand and attacking with the dagger. Leaping back to avoid another strike from the sword, the teenager charged back at the woman. Erza decided that she had done enough fooling around. She didn't want to injure this child too badly, but she really had no choice anymore.
The sword glowed white as two magic circles appeared at either end of the sword. The light elongated and shifted until it became an axe! Smashing down with the blade of the axe, the teenager leapt into the air.
"Seven League Boots! Fly!"
He was launched into the air by his boots, but Erza had quickly requipped into her Heaven's Wheel armour and given chase. The kid scowled and stood in mid-air, drawing the black rapier at his belt.
"What kind of armour is that? It's like you want people to attack your stomach!"
"What makes you think I'll let you?" Erza replied, a faint grin on her face.
He charged in, using the wind at his heels to give him more speed. Erza barely had enough time to block the rapier attack before he stabbed at her exposed gut with the dagger. His arms blurred with the speed of the rapier thrusts, each attack only barely blocked in time. Erza yelled and summoned several swords and began to spin them around herself.
"Dance my blades!"
The blades flew through the air at frightening speeds and one sword ripped straight through his black cloak! The teenager was barely able to dodge the swords flying in his direction, let alone another of the woman's axe swings! He had to finish this, and quick! Sheathing the dagger, he reached into his cloak and pulled out a yellowed rectangle of paper. He threw it at Erza's forehead, where it stuck like flypaper. "Dominate!"
The teen buckled at the knees and fell to the ground, leaving Erza more than a little confused. She was just about to take the weird paper off her face when she wobbled slightly and fell to the ground as well before collapsing to her hands and knees, where she found she couldn't move her limbs!
"What did you do to me? Is this some kind of forbidden magic?"
Erza found her body standing up by itself! "I don't know what forbidden magic is, but I sure as hell didn't want to use my Domination Runes. I'm gonna wake up with the mother of all headaches after this. Now tell me what I want to know." The boy's voice came from her mouth.
"Who the hell are you?!" Erza shouted.
"My name is Insidious. I'm a Warlock from the Badlands. But I want to know what a guild is."
"You really don't know?" Erza tried to scowl.
The Warlock just sighed in exasperation. "Can you please tell me what I want to know? What's a guild, and why did those people in the village attack me on sight?"
"Fine. A guild is a collection of mages from across the kingdom of Fiore. The guild I belong to, Fairy Tail, is among the strongest of these guilds."
"Right. So what's a Dark Guild?"
"They are Guilds that have strayed from the path of good and serve only to create chaos and destruction."
Insidious narrowed Erza's eyes slightly. "Well I guess I look the part. But I'm no Dark Guild member. In fact, I don't think I've ever taken the life of anything that was even remotely human. I'll give you back your body now."
Erza felt feeling return to her arms and legs as Insidious got up from the ground and dusted himself off.
"So you don't belong to a Dark Guild?" she asked.
"Correct."
"And you are not responsible for terrorising that village?"
Insidious shrugged. "They did that all by themselves. I just walked into town and they started throwing things at me!"
The next thing Insidious knew, the woman was bowing in apology! "Please forgive my grievous error!"
"I-it's fine, really."
The woman was then up again, talking as if nothing happened. "You could always join Fairy Tail. We're always looking for strong new recruits."
Insidious thought for a while before shrugging. "I guess that couldn't hurt. It'll be good to have some friends around here."
*v*v*v*
*v*v*v*
Insidious looked out the window of what Erza had called a Magicmobile. It was a stupid name, but he couldn't really think of anything better. The more and more he saw, Insidious became steadily more convinced that he was in another world of some kind. One where magic was allowed to expand and flourish. It was beautiful.
Of course, it would be a lot better if his head wouldn't stop spinning like a friggin' merry-go-round! It was like his head was about to be split open like a melon!
'I swear, that's the last time I use a Domination Rune." He thought, but the mere act of thinking brought about another twinge of pain.
The Magicmobile came to a stop in front of a large building, the words 'Fairy Tail' emblazoned above the large door.
"We're here." Erza said, stepping down from the front of the vehicle.
Insidious opened the door and stretched. It was a long time since he'd stretched. He felt like he was still dead!
"Come on in, I'll introduce you around." Erza said, stepping through the door. Insidious followed her in, and almost immediately had to duck under a flying bar stool that was flung at his face! "Oh yeah, and you might want to keep your guard up."
Inside the building, it looked like all-out war. Almost everyone was fighting, one woman was drinking from an entire barrel, and several people were lying on the floor in an unconscious state!
"Excuse me for a moment." Erza said before shouting into the battlefield. "Natsu! Gray! Get out here!"
Almost immediately two people, one with pink hair and another with black hair leapt out of the wreckage with a terrified look on their faces. "Yes Erza?"
"This is Insidious. He wishes to join Fairy Tail." She said, indicating to the black cloaked warlock. Natsu and Gray looked at each other and back to Insidious.
"Is his name really Insidious?" the pink haired one asked. "That's kinda dumb."
"Erza, are you sure this guy doesn't belong to a Dark Guild?"
Erza replied with a harsh stare that seemed to get the message across, the two wizards in front of them cowered under her gaze. A blonde woman who had been hiding under a table before then poked her head out from under the table.
"Hey Erza! How's it going? I don't suppose you could do anything about the fighting, could you?" she asked.
"Don't worry Lucy, the Master will be here any second."
Insidious raised one of his eyebrows. "Master?"
A loud crash filled the air as a giant hulking form leapt down from the second floor! Insidious took a step back and put his iron clad hand on his rapier, but Erza gave him a death glare to stop him. Insidious slowly took his hand off his sword as a huge sweatdrop rolled down the back of his head.
'Scary! Almost as bad as a Maka Chop…'
"You idiots are fighting again?! What a disgrace! You should be ashamed of yourselves! Now stop fighting or I'll have to punish all of you!" the giant bellowed before shrinking down into a tiny old man. This greatly surprised Insidious as he looked cautiously at the tiny old man. The man then sighed slightly and turned to Erza. "So Erza, how did the job go?"
"Better than expected, Master Makarov. This is Insidious. He wishes to join Fairy Tail."
"Nice to meet you." Insidious said, extending an iron hand in greeting.
The old man reached up and shook his hand. "A pleasure! Interesting name by the way."
"So how do I join the guild? You can't just let anybody in, right?" Insidious asked.
"That is true. You've gotta prove to us that you can make it as a Fairy Tail wizard. Hmm… What to do, what to do…" he said, putting a hand to his chin as he strode over to the Request Board. "A quest for a holy sword? Nah, you look like you're well-armed enough. Clearing out a cave of trolls? Nah, that'll be far too difficult for you…"
Lucy came out from under the table and walked over to Insidious. "Hi, I'm Lucy! It's nice to meet you."
"Hey." He replied.
"So what kind of wizard are you?"
"There are different kinds? I always thought magic was magic." Insidious shrugged. He never saw many other witches, but from what little his mother told him, they had something to do with animals or aspects or whatever. Insidious didn't have any transformations but he more than made up for it with his rune magic.
"Of course there are! I'm a Celestial Wizard, meaning I can call upon the spirits of constellations!"
"That sounds pretty cool." Insidious said. "So what kind of magic does Erza use? When I was fighting her she made all these different swords and weapons. It was pretty interesting."
Lucy's eyes went wide, as did Natsu's and Gray's. "You fought with Erza?!"
Natsu looked over Insidious. "You don't even have a single scratch on you, ya liar!"
"She tore my cloak a little and gave me a massive headache, but that was about it. Though the headache was my fault." Insidious blanched a little. "I am never using that damn spell again."
The three wizards stood in shock at Insidious, the latter starting to get a little nervous.
"Will you all quit staring at me? It's kinda creepy."
"Ah hah! I have an idea!" shouted the Guildmaster, returning to Insidious. "If you want to join Fairy Tail, you have to have a rematch with Erza."
"Master Makarov, you can't be serious!" said a shocked Lucy.
"Eh?" Insidious asked. "Alright."
"What?!" shouted most of the guild.
"Hmph. As long as you don't use that Dominate spell again, I'll be happy to." Erza said before turning to the Guildmaster. "When do we begin?"
"Just fight out the back. If Insidious can last five minutes against Erza, he's more than made his place in Fairy Tail."
*v*v*v*
*v*v*v*
In a matter of moments, both the combatants were outside with Makarov standing off to the side as judge.
"Alright! This'll be a simple sparring match, so no lethal attacks! If Insidious can last five minutes against Erza, he'll become a fully-fledged member of Fairy Tail! Are both contestants ready?"
"Yeah." Insidious said, drawing out the rapier and dagger.
"Just so you know, I won't be going easy on you like last time." Erza said, summoning her twin swords.
"Oooh, so that's how he didn't get all beat up." Natsu said.
"You be quiet." Erza said.
"Eek!"
"Aaaand… Begin!" shouted Makarov.
Insidious was the first to arrive at the middle and blocked one of Erza's swords with the dagger. He thrust at the gap in the armour at her shoulder, but she knocked the sharp point out of the way with an armoured forearm. She swung viciously at Insidious, the latter only just dodging out of the way! Insidious sheathed his weapons and ducked low, scratching at the ground before he ran at Erza again. He leapt over one of Erza's swords and narrowly dodged the other, landing behind her. He scratched at the ground again before Erza rushed in to attack him. A big mistake.
"Teleport!"
Insidious disappeared into the earth and reappeared from the rune behind Erza. She was still looking where Insidious was when he slammed an iron fist into her armoured back, sending her flying. Guild members scrambled out of the way as Erza regained her balance in mid-air and landed on her feet.
"Wow, that's pretty impressive. Are you sure you're not part cat?" Insidious asked.
Erza was at that moment about the time she and Happy had switched bodies. It was not a pleasant experience. Unpleasant experiences tended to aggravate her, and Insidious reminded her of an unpleasant experience. Therefore and thusly…
Insidious' jaw dropped as a giant hammer was hurtling through the air towards him! Clicking his heels together, he shouted "Seven League Boots! Fly!" and was propelled into the air just before the axe came crashing down where he was just standing.
"Oh come on! He can fly too?!" Natsu exclaimed loudly.
"Just how many tricks has this guy got up his sleeve?" Gray wondered.
"Gray! Put your clothes back on!" Lucy screamed.
"So we're going to play this game again, are we?" Erza asked before requipping into her Heaven's Wheel armour and leaping up into the sky after him.
Insidious leapt off the air at Erza, using the gale force wind at his feet to speed up his movements. As the swords clashed, Erza noticed something. Insidious had put away his dagger! Insidious reached into his cloak pocket and pulled out another paper rune and stuck it to Erza's breastplate.
"Burn!"
Erza was obscured by a ball of fire and both the fireball and Insidious floated to the ground. When the fire cleared, it was revealed that Erza had changed her armour again! Her hair was slightly singed and there were small soot marks on her face, but she otherwise appeared unscathed!
"Fire Empress Armour. It'll reduce the damage of all your fire attacks by half." Erza explained, readying her new weapon.
"Well then, I guess I'd better stop using fire." Insidious smirked. This fight was getting even more interesting. Sheathing the rapier, he pulled out the large broadsword on his back, his sclera glowing purple.
"Whoa, his eye colour changed when he pulled out that sword!" Lucy exclaimed.
"Geez, and you say I'm Captain Obvious." A nearby flying cat muttered.
Insidious charged in again, the broadsword trailing in the wind. Erza parried the attack and struck with her burning blade, only narrowly missing Insidious' chest! Insidious floated again, but now only hovering around an inch above the ground. Tilting his feet, he sped around Erza with incredible speed, occasionally lashing out with the broadsword. While Erza tried to blast Insidious with fire magic and blocked his attacks, Lucy looked at the ground and noticed something.
'What's with all the scratch marks on the ground? Hang on, is that dirt on Insidious' claws?' She thought.
Insidious grinned as he landed back on the ground and stabbed the broadsword into the dirt.
"Collapse!"
The ground split and fractured around Erza as she struggled to maintain an easy footing. Insidious tore the broadsword out of the ground and pointed the tip directly at Erza.
"Witch's Lightning!"
As the crackling purple beam hit Erza, a huge brown dust cloud was thrown up around them. Insidious shielded his eyes with an armoured forearm and waited for the dust to clear. When it did, his jaw dropped in shock! Her armour had changed again, this time to a beautiful light blue and gold chestplate and a white and gold cloth robe underneath. Her weapon had changed as well, to a long spear with a wide blade.
"Damn it! How many stinking armours do you have?!" Insidious shouted.
Erza let herself a faint grin of pride. "I own over one hundred sets of armour and over two hundred different weapons! Allow me to show you another of my favourites."
Erza glowed again as her armour changed to a black set, with two bat like wings protruding out of her back. The weapon had changed again to a huge single bladed axe.
"This is my Black Wing armour. Now my attacks will be much stronger. So now I think it's time I go on the offensive."
Erza moved with blinding speed and Insidious only barely blocked the attack, but Erza was much stronger than before! He sidestepped and slackened his wrist, letting the axe drop into the ground while he forced the pommel of the sword into her forehead! Erza staggered backwards but Insidious was attacking again with Erza blocking his every attack! Insidious dropped to the ground and planted a hand on the rune.
"Flood!"
Water gushed from the rune and quickly advanced towards the bystanders in a rushing torrent.
"Ice Make: Wall!"
A wall of ice surrounded the water before it could touch any of the gathered wizards watching the battle unfold. Insidious activated his boots and leapt up into the air before he noticed that Erza's armour had changed again!
"You should have realised that elemental spells have no effect against me!" she said, raising her crystalline sword. "My Sea Empress armour protects me from water damage!"
"That's what I was counting on." Insidious grinned before pointing the broadsword at the water below. "Witch's Lightning!"
As the purple electricity hit the water, sparks ran up Erza's legs and caused her muscles to spasm, almost dropping her sword in the process. Her armour glowed again and changed back to the Black Wing armour and she soared up into the sky to Insidious.
"That really hurt! I have to say, you're a lot stronger than I first thought. You'll fit in well in Fairy Tail." She said. "Now let's finish this!"
Lucy looked over to the guildmaster. "Master Makarov, how much time does he have left?"
"Eleven… Ten…"
Insidious and Erza charged towards each other.
"Nine…"
Erza swung her sword as Insidious swung his, purple sparks arcing across the blade.
"Eight…"
The two swords clashed and an explosion of wind turned the water below to vapour and shattered the ice wall.
"Seven..!"
Insidious was struggling to hold his sword against Erza's, and she was forcing him down! Then something terrible happened.
Insidious, for whatever reason, sneezed.
His guard broke and he was sent hurtling to the ground.
"Sixfivefourthreetwoonetime'sup!"
An impact crater was formed underneath the twitching body of Insidious, the sword still in his hand.
"Perhaps I overdid it a little…" Erza sweatdropped.
"Doesn't matter! Insidious is now a part of the Guild! When he wakes up of course." Makarov said proudly.
*v*v*v*
*v*v*v*
Insidious woke up, and immediately regretted that decision. His entire body ached like he had been hit by a runaway freight train and he was covered in bandages. Once his eyes had adjusted to the surprisingly warm light, he saw that his clothes had been repaired from both his fights with Erza. But there was something different about his cloak now. While it was still black, the pentagram had changed to a dark red coloured version the same symbol that he had seen on the banner outside! Then he noticed that his gauntlets were sitting by the cloak, all polished and gleaming. He looked down at his mutilated hands and let out a depressed sigh. He didn't want to bring all the others down with his sad tales.
The door creaked open and a familiar bunch walked in.
"Hey Insidious! That was great man!" shouted the pink haired guy. "I don't think I've introduced myself. The name's Natsu! And this here is Gray!"
"Hey." Said the guy with dark hair.
Insidious looked at him, a large sweatdrop appearing on the back of his head. "Uh… Why aren't you wearing any clothes?"
"Huh? Augh!" he screamed.
"Sorry about that. Gray's sort of… special." Lucy explained.
"I see." Insidious said, though he didn't really have the faintest idea.
"That was indeed a good fight. You'll do well in Fairy Tail." Erza said with a smile on her face. "Just follow the rules and play nice and we'll treat you like family."
It was at that moment when Erza saw Gray and Natsu fighting again. Her eyes narrowed she she death stared the both of them before giving the death stare to Insidious. Just in case.
"Behave like those two idiots over there and you'll have me to answer to."
Insidious had never felt this scared since facing Lord Death for the first time. "Y-yes ma'am!" he said quietly, pulling the covers over his nose. When Insidious finally stopped cowering, Lucy looked over Insidious' hands. He noticed this and quickly reached for his iron gauntlets. "I guess you're wondering what happened to me. I guess I can't blame you."
"So what did happen?" Natsu asked, sitting down on the wooden floor.
"I don't want to bother you with it." Insidious said, clamping the gauntlets onto his ruined hands.
"We've all got our sad stories to tell. Why not tell us yours?" Gray asked.
"Yeah. I mean we can't get to know you if you don't tell us anything about yourself." Natsu added.
Insidious thought in silence for a while. This world was definitely different from the one he was used to. The one he grew up in. For the one thing, he hadn't sensed any Kishen Eggs around, not to mention that when he used his Dominate spell on Erza, she barely put up a fight! Maybe he was in a different world…
He'd have to alter his backstory somewhat.
"Where I came from, an area known as The Badlands, magic isn't only shunned, it's downright forbidden. Anyone caught practicing magic is systematically punished. Or worse."
"What? That's insane!" Natsu shouted.
"Why would anyone force others not to practice magic?" Erza pondered.
"When my mother and I were found out to be magic users, they had her executed. I watched her die right in front of my eyes. But not before they tortured me. Since I was too young to execute, they stuck my hands in a furnace and hacked away at them with blunt swords and knives. I managed to escape, but only after a week of being locked in a dark, dank cell."
The others were speechless, eyes wide with horror at the cruelty of the non-existent torturers. Though the wounds were all too real for Insidious' liking.
"Wait, how did you get out of there?" Lucy asked.
Insidious pulled a foot out from under the covers and showed her the pattern of scars. "I used an old rib bone I found in the cell to carve an Unlock rune into my foot. It's gotten me out of more situations than I care to think about."
"That seems pretty useful."
Insidious pulled himself into a seating position and leant back against the wall. "After I escaped I had been wandering the Badlands, dodging patrols out to get me and looting what I could. Eventually I found myself back at my hometown. There was no grave for my mother. It was like the entire village had completely forgotten about her. So it wasn't much of a surprise that when I got back home, the entire house had been reduced to ash and charcoal. But then I saw the handle of my mother's broadsword sticking out of the ashes. So I took it and continued on my way. Eventually I made my way here. I tried to go to a nearby village for directions and well… The rest is history."
Erza didn't seem very convinced. "You seem to be quite calm for someone who is recounting such a terrible experience."
"When you're wandering a dusty wasteland with not a thought in your head other than surviving and the death of your entire family, you tend to think things over a lot. After recovering my mother's sword I decided that there was no use clinging to the long dead. I could never forget her, or what happened to her. But there was nothing I could do except move forward. Besides, Mum never would have forgiven me if I lived my life moping about the past."
There was silence for a while as the whole story sunk in for everyone. He told it with enough detachment in his voice to make it sound like he really had moved on, but the memory of it still stung. He never got the chance to settle his score with Spirit.
"Well, you should get some rest for now. When you're well again, we'll see about officially integrating you into the Guild." Erza said, standing up and shaking Insidious' now gauntleted hand. "Welcome to Fairy Tail!"