September 23th, 2015
A/N:
Hullo there! To those who are familiar with my "Quest for Keys" fanfiction, I'll be putting that on hold for the sake of this one. ^-^
This FF here will be a collab between meh and jfkkennedy. I'm (Angel) ze writer, he's (JFK) the beta and three-quarters of the force behind the ideas.
This is rated "M" for future themes, as well as the narration written below. Please do not read if you dislike any mature content.There'll be character deaths.
Disclaimer: Meh, nor JFK own the characters or Fairy Tail itself. We do not own Kindred and the original idea behind it, either. The only thing we own are miniscule items/OC's used, perhaps the plot as well.
"It's been 10 years, Mira. Maybe it's time to give up."
"That just won't do when I have faith, Cana."
"Open the door. I've made something that'll help."
"But it's been so long. Will it work?"
"Just wake her up, please!"
"Pin her down! Her body is rejecting the medicine!"
"Can you see anything? Do you see the light I'm shining into your eyes?"
"She's not responding, yet her brain is active. We'll try tomorrow."
"Lisanna?"
Everyone was everywhere in the guild of Fairy Tail. It was chaos. After Porlyusica gave Lisanna's brain the jolt it needed, she finally woke up after ten, long years. They should be rejoicing, yet it wasn't the time for that. Lisanna woke up at the time where the guild was on the way to bring what Michelle brought; a piece of the Infinity Clock. Though tired and weary, she insisted she'd come along and help. A few battles and locations afterwards, it leads to the final battle between Midnight and Natsu.
Natsu lit his hand on fire in order to attack Midnight, but it seemed to deal no damage. Nevertheless, Midnight retaliated with his own magic, fending Natsu off.
"On the defensive, huh?" remarked Natsu as he geared to bring another fist towards Midnight's face.
"Not at all." Midnight smirks and casts Genesis Zero on Natsu. He plunges into darkness as a void opens up and sucks him in.
"What is this?" exclaimed Natsu. Midnight's voice echoes in the oblivion, "A simple spell that'll erase your existence, very much like the blonde Celestial Mage. They'll forget you, Natsu."
Meanwhile, on the outside, Midnight seemed to have sat down, waiting to see if somehow, Natsu could beat the odds and escape. Guild members could've used this opening yet didn't as many were tending to any bloodied and battered bodies.
Midnight's eyes were closed and didn't witness an escaping purple phantom leak out and head towards the Fairy Tail gang. The tendril wove through debris and headed towards an unsuspecting, white-haired Take Over Mage.
"Lisanna!" yelled out Romeo. "Behind you!" It was too late and the hand made it's way towards her neck. It wrapped around slowly and lifted up the struggling Lisanna. She hung there struggling with tears leaking from her eyes. Try as she might, she couldn't utter a single word as she hung in captivity. Finger shaped bruises were beginning to form around Lisanna's neck. Romeo came running to help Lisanna, only to realize why her legs weren't moving, why the tears stopped falling, why the phantom was gone.
Lisanna had died in the hand of Midnight. This struck Romeo, who collapsed in shock.
All that had happened was unbeknownst to the unconscious Celestial Mage, defiant Fire Dragon Slayer, and silent son of Brain.
Inside the Infinity Clock, they were barely visible, but Lucy could see them nonetheless. Blobs of color marked who was who in the fight that went outside. Red for Natsu, black for Midnight, blue for Happy who relentlessly pounded on the Clock to let Lucy out, white for Lisanna who laid on the floor motionless.
In her state, Lucy knew that she had completely merged with the Castle and couldn't do anything much longer. In a final attempt, she casted Real Nightmare on the black blob and could only hope it was enough.
In his peaceful sitting, Midnight suddenly succumbed to hallucinations of his days in the Tower of Heaven. Midnight cringed and held his head in pain.
"It can't be real…" said Midnight as he saw himself lying down in a cell floor. "This isn't real. This… This is… This is Real Nightmare." Midnight realized this with wide eyes.
During the hallucinations, with help from Igneel and the determination to help Lucy, Natsu broke free of Genesis Zero and aimed a flaming hand towards Midnight's face. Midnight blocked with his forearm and punches Natsu in the gut, sending him off and crashing into a wall. Natsu quickly got up and sent a Karyu no Hoko towards Midnight's face.
Midnight deflected it with his magic and prepared for the next blow. Natsu leapt up, Midnight followed his actions. They both reeled a punch back and put their resolve in the blow.
Midnight took damage and flew into the wall behind him. Natsu walked towards Midnight and prepared another punch.
"You've lost." Natsu stated and brought the fist towards Midnight's face.
Midnight's face cracked slightly. Natsu smirked in victory and turned to face Lucy, only to find she was no longer there.
"She's gone, Natsu!" cried Happy. "Me and Coco can't find her in there!"
"What?" asked Natsu confused. It wasn't until he heard Lucy's voice coming from every direction did he realize she really wasn't there.
"Luce! Where are you?!" Natsu and the guild wondered the same thing. Their situation made sense when Wendy said Lucy had completely merged with the Castle.
Using his Magic, Warren relays to Lucy the only way to break out. She inquires how and he elaborates.
"There are bio-links connecting the Celestial Spirit Mages. Breaking those would release the spell. If something goes wrong, the pieces will scatter. We won't know where you'll end up, Lucy."
"I have to try, right? I'm a Fairy Tail mage, the daughter of Jude and Layla Heartfillia, and above all, Michelle's older sister. I can't let something stop me now, can I?"
Lucy channeled magic to try and separate the bio-links. In doing so, bits and pieces of Real Nightmare came together and attacked Lucy with words she had always feared.
"You're not strong enough for this." a voice whispered.
"You won't succeed." another hushed.
"Weak is all you are. Can you really pull off something like this?" one muttered.
Lucy couldn't allow the voices to get to her and willed herself to ignore them. She could ignore the voices, yes, but what if it had a weapon?
A single blade cut her skin in numerous places making Lucy in turn, scowl. And yet, she continued on.
It came back again, only to cut deeper this time. It targeted her left arm and cut deep enough where the skin broke through. Blood leaked out of the wound as some blue and red nerves were severed. All that was left to protect anything underneath it was the yellow layer of fat. Blood dripped from it and pain wracked her body.
Even under the difficult circumstance, she pulled through and released the bio-links before Real Nightmare could attack her once again.
Lucy felt her body fade away. She let it do so, and closed her eyes. The pain in her body was non-existent as the Infinity Castle fell and scattered the pieces of the Infinity Clock.
"It's falling apart! Leave the area and run!" Erza yelled into Warren's mind and out went the Fairy Tail mages.
Natsu sniffed the air to catch a whiff of Lucy's scent; they couldn't locate her. The crew searched the surrounding area to no avail. Where was Lucy? Not to mention Lisanna too! Where was she?
Natsu couldn't find Lucy's scent, but he could clearly smell Lisanna's. He and the guild found her near Romeo, who did what he could to bring her towards them.
From afar, it looked like she was tired, fainted almost. They couldn't blame her. She had recently woken up from a coma after all. The guild approached the two only to realize that Lisanna that the sure apparent rise and fall of her chest wasn't there. She laid there motionless with bruises around her neck.
Mira walked towards her sister and held her hand to her mouth. She stumbled to her knees in shock and let out wails. Her cries reflected what each Fairy Tail member felt then. Acting quickly to bring Lisanna back to the guild, Erza called to the others to return to the guild immediately. She concluded Lucy was strong enough to survive a night by herself and called the search until the next day.
It wasn't until Lucy landed on the floor in the middle of a forest did she really gain consciousness. The pain in her arm hit her suddenly and all in one go. It left her near tears and clutched at the bleeding limb.
"Dang it," cursed Lucy. She willed her available arm to move towards her keys to summon Loke, but conveniently for her, he appeared on his own.
"Not looking so good, huh, princess?" Loke remarked.
"No, I'm feeling peachy. Couldn't be better." said Lucy sarcastically. "Help me up, please. This arm isn't helping me with anything."
"If this was any other situation, Lucy, who knows what could happen." said Loke suggestively as he picked her up.
"Scout around, maybe. There might be a house or something we could stop by at." Lucy tried to peer through the thicket of forest trees. "I don't think we're near any sort of major city."
Loke followed her directions and proceeded to walk towards where he heard rumbling. It slowly came into view.
"There's a waterfall. A hut too! I'll search the house for something we could clean the wound with." Loke put Lucy down near the porch and started to turn towards the hut. The need to get Lucy help caused Loke to not be aware of his surroundings. Because of this mistake, a long, ivory tusk stabbed his abdomen.
Lucy stared at the tusk wide eyed and saw a large shape behind Loke. "A boar?" she asked. It seemed to be too large for a boar as it towered above Loke by a good few feet.
Loke cursed and started to fade away. "Try and summon someone, Lucy! Hurry."
Lucy fumbled for her keys as the boar moved closer. She just couldn't for the sake of the Celestial Spirit King get a grip on her keys. The boar released a feral growl. It's lips pulled back to show the panicking Lucy its faded and yellow teeth.
Her trembling hands didn't help in this situation. She gave up on her keys and tried to retaliate in some form. She curled her hand into a fist and let it zoom towards the boar. Too bad for her it only made the boar angrier. Knowing her mistake, Lucy accepted her fate with eyes closed. She had only a few regrets running through her mind.
'Get it over with, Mr. Boar.' thought Lucy as she waited. The boar was being painstakingly slow.
The boar's wild grunts ceased and Lucy peered an eye open to find what had happened. The boar stood still as if time had stopped. She reached for her keys to prepare for the oncoming boar attack, but something caught her eye. From her peripheral vision, she saw a faint glow; the source being from a nearby patio chair.
Using this phenomena to her advantage, she edged closer towards the chair to find an average looking sword. Its hilt was wrapped in black leather, the guard the purest shade of white. A single diamond decorated the pommel. The blade was one sided and took on a dark gray, black almost color, and let off a faint, light blue hue.
The hue grew brighter as Lucy reached a hand towards it. She tested the sword's weight in her hand and continued doing so until a voice called out,
"Use me," it said. "So long have I waited for a wielder and it seems to be you. Use me with care and I'll let my true potential shine."
Lucy stared amazed and bewildered. Since when can swords talk? Do Erza's swords talk too?
The voice laughed slightly, reading Lucy's mind. "We'll talk after the hut's owner gives you a chat. In the meantime, you have someone waiting."
The sword stopped shining and threw Lucy back into reality. The boar's growl returned and charged towards Lucy as if nothing happened.
With precision and speed Lucy didn't know she had, she brought the blade towards the boar's exposed foot and cut it clean off.
The boar yowled as wine red blood spurted from the cut, coating the ground with it's lifeline. Its severed foot lay on the forest ground twitching. The boar turned to retreat and limped towards the cover of trees.
Lucy looked horrified as she never saw blood up close. She glanced at the boar's severed foot and let out a shriek. She almost dropped the sword in shock but opted to place it on the patio chair, hoping it won't stain too badly. She then sat herself down and tried to comprehend what had happened.
'I've injured people, yeah, but never maim! The boar's an animal, but still!' Lucy shivered. She brought her knees towards her body and wrapped her arms around. She sat in peace to contemplate her actions until it was interrupted.
"Wow, missy. I never thought you'd be able to do that." remarked a jolly voice. Lucy glanced up to see a man well into his fifties. The creases on his forehead as he smiled told her so. "You sure did something. Look at that leg." The man bent down, picked the leg up and showed Lucy the limb.
"I don't want to look at it!" Lucy buried her face into her legs and refused to look at the damage she brought.
The old man sighed. Lucy looked at the man again and gone was the jolliness. He looked serious as he set the leg down and stared straight at Lucy.
"That sword you used, Miss, is a picky one. It's an good heirloom in my family. Until the next generation is born and is of age to start training, the current one is to wield it. That's me." He nudged a finger towards the blade. "But as I said, it's picky. It won't accept me as its master and hasn't been used since. Until you came along of course."
The man walked towards the entrance of the hut. "Come along. Surely you haven't forgotten of the wound on the arm, have you?" Lucy stood up and winced. The red blood cells in her body did their job. The wound had stopped bleeding, but her pale skin was now bathed in blood. She shook her head thinking, 'What a scar this'll leave.'
Nevertheless, she followed the man into the hut. He pointed her towards a chair, and walked towards a cabinet. She sat and the man brought back bandages and disinfectants.
He started to clean the surrounding area of blood and rubbed alcohol to disinfect the surrounding skin. Afterwards, he wrapped the bandages around the arm and said, "You can call me Hamaji. Just Hamaji."
"Lucy. Just Lucy." Hamaji smiled slightly and put the supplies away. He returned back with a cup of tea that he passed to Lucy.
"Its name is Kindred (1). The sword has two personalities inside it. One is Lamb, the other Wolf. You most likely met Lamb first. She's the calm, rational one. Wolf is the bloodthirsty, violent one." Hamaji paused in his information and went outside to retrieve the sword. He grabbed a nearby cloth and cleaned the blade of any blood.
"Because they chose you, you need training in order to fully use their potential. I only know so much, but will help you along with Kindred. You need to stay here three weeks tops to recover. I know you have keys, but the forest we are in is dangerous indeed. Named Forest #44 (2), it houses animals thrice their normal size. With their size come dangerous abilities. It won't hurt to have a sword up your sleeve, would it?"
Lucy looked at Hamaji silently until it suddenly dawned her. "Thank you for your hospitality, Hamaji-san, but I can't stay long. My guildmates are most likely looking for me right now. I'll have to hop on the train in the nearest town to get back."
Hamaji shook his head. "From where we are, Lucy, we're a good 50 miles away. Putting together the trek and animals inside the forest, it's too much for a recently injured person. Stay. So far, you're the only person that Kindred has accepted."
Lucy compared her current pros and cons and decided that her only reasonable choice was to stay. She nodded in reply and drank the last bit of tea in her cup (3).
Hamaji smiled and set the cleaned sword on the table. "I'll be back to retrieve the sheath. Acquaint yourself with them, won't you?"
1: Kindred the sword will be loosely based off of League of Legend's new upcoming champ called Kindred. Some of the two concepts will be similar.
2: Can you see the allusion? Oooooooooh. Spoooky.
3: If you compare Lucy's personality from the fight during the Infinity Castle and now, it took maybe a 180 degree turn. This is because of the shock that she maimed someone (not just flat out knock out), and because of the pain from her wound.