Summary: Madness is defined as a state of wild or chaotic activity. It's the voices that whisper to you, that taunt you. Haunt you. They follow you everywhere, chipping away at your sanity. Until there is nothing left… LaLu and other couples.
Authors note: I'm so so sorry for having taken so long. But life kind of took a turn last month when the elderly man I was caring for passed away. The proud man was the grandfather of my boyfriends, a veteran of war, and a friend to many. While we're still organising things, I finally found a little time to get some writing done. I can't promise weekly updates just yet, but I'll try my best! Remember, you guys keep me going, and your reviews actually got me through the last few weeks to try write a little when I could! Thank you all so much for your support and I hope you enjoy this chapter.
Disclaimer: I, in no way, own Fairy Tail!
"Normal…"
'Voices… (insanity)'
Chapter 2: Run Rabbit, Run
Previously
"Laxus! Wake up!" Her hand curled into a fist, the flesh bubbling and ripping under where his hand held her, "Wake up!"
He suddenly stopped, the lightning settling around them, only the occasional spark jumping out of the sea of yellow. The field around him died, the burning of her arm stopping.
'Saved him? Impossible. He was mad.'
"Not mad. He isn't mad…" Lucy smiled as Laxus blinked, confusing marring his face and pulling his eye brows together on his forehead, "Just sleeping. Madness hasn't claimed us yet."
Now: Run Rabbit, Run
"Thank Mavis..." A sob caught in her throat and her knees gave out, but she kept her arm up, palm flat against his chest. Her body shook with the force of her sobs, tears falling endlessly from her eyes, "Thank Mavis you're here."
Laxus could only blink at the blonde woman whose state of dress was hardly decent. He felt the haze around his mind lift slight, before the warmth on his chest had him flinching. He struggled internally to move his head to find the source, and when he did he swore, taking in the bloody and blistered arm of the Celestial mage, "Fuck... Lucy... What happened?"
He was only answered by a sob and he watched as she pulled her arm away before falling on her side, carefully cradling her arm to her chest, her cries turning from joy to sorrow in seconds, "I'm such an idiot. If I hadn't woken you you wouldn't go mad. I could have come back once I found the others. I'm such a fool!"
Slowly, so as not to startle her, Laxus slid off the chair he'd been on and gently placed his hand on her head, brushing her hair back from her face so that he could look at her, "Come on Blondie. You need to tell me what's going on."
'He thinks you're mad! You are! Mad already.'
"Shut up!" She curled into herself more, using her hands to cover her ears, "Shut up! I'm not mad. I still have time! I know I do."
'No? Mad. Maybe not. Confused?'
"Lucy?" Laxus threw caution to the wind and pulled her into his lap, resting her head on his chest before banding his arms around her, "You need to tell me what's going on. Whatever you think you've done... It's done. Now let me help you."
Lucy took in a breath and held it, viciously wiping at her face to remove the tears with her uninjured hand.
"I don't even know where to begin. And if I'm not careful, I could make you go mad too." She whispered, hot air brushing against his skin.
"I've heard a whole lot of that word in the last few minutes and if I don't get a reason why I might actually go crazy." He huffed, shifting her so that he could see her properly.
"Do you remember anything? From before you woke up here?" Her sudden question had him at a loss and he hummed, wracking his brain for an answer.
"I... don't think so. I do remember being in the office with gramps. And then I heard a scream. You're scream... I think." His eyes narrowed, looking her over with a scrutiny that made her uncomfortable.
"I remember a wave. A wall of black that rushed through the street and towards the guild. Mavis said it was a dark spell. We're now in a place called the Realm of Carima Burona, the Realm of Insanity. Mavis told me I'd already been here a long time, and the longer your here, awake, the more insane you get. I started hearing the voices almost immediately." She shivered and looked away, ashamed at her fraying state of mind.
"What voices?" His prodded her, both intrigued and worried for the woman in his lap.
"Like phantoms… You can't see them. And they aren't in my head, I don't think. It's... it's like people that have died here... like their still around. Talking to each other. And trying to make you go insane faster. They rarely make sense. But they're always there." She shook her head before pinning him with a fierce glare, "You need to promise me Laxus... If I go insane... if I die, you will keep trying to find the others so that you can get out of here."
The severity of her words weighted heavily on him and his stomach twisted, the bile rising in his throat, "What... what are you talking about Blondie? WHy-"
She pushed out of his grip and stood, showing him just how worn down she looked, and it wasn't just the state of her clothing that told him how much she'd struggled before finding him, "This place makes those with magic go insane far faster than a normal person. Those with the strongest magic or mental strength will be here somewhere, sleeping. I've been awake a long time, and even though I got rid of my magic, I can already here the voices. I'm going crazy. But you're strong. Both your magic and your strength of will. You have a much higher chance of finishing this than I do... I-"
She choked on her words, blinking away the tears that pooled in her eyes, "I can feel it. Like a rope that's fraying. And once I go insane, my body dies and I get stuck here... like the voices..."
"You mean... we aren't physically here?" He only received a small nod before she turned her back to him.
"We'll be able to find more people if we split up. And as long as you aren't exposed to me, you should last even longer tha-" Her words were once again cut short, only this time it was because her face was pressed up again his neck. He had to hunch down to hug her, but he couldn't make himself let go.
"That's enough. You've been alone too long already. And if you hadn't found me... who knows if I would have gotten out of here myself." He pushed her away long enough to grab her uninjured arm before walking towards the entrance of the chapel, dragging her behind him, "And now we have to find something to treat your arm with."
If he was disturbed by the ruins of Magnolia Cathedral, he didn't show it. But he was staggered by the state of the world outside.
"I've learnt it's best not to dwell of what it looks like. It only speeds up the process." Lucy whispered from behind him, her head lowered.
"Well then... let's not dwell here." He tugged her forward again till she was walking next to him, but he still didn't let go of her hand, and she didn't have to heart to tell him he was holding on a little too tightly.
She tried to ignore the voices as she walked, developing a twitch as she occasionally shook her head and looked over her shoulders but she knew Laxus was worried for her, constantly glancing at her when her grip tightened or her body lagged behind his.
"Lucy..." He pulled a face and turned his head away so he didn't have to look at her, "How... uh. Damn it. How bad do you think you are?"
"Bad?" She tilted her head, the voices filtering through her thoughts.
'Mad. He thinks you've gone mad. Mad just like the others!'
"I'm not mad!" She snapped, pulling her hand from his and crossing her arms, careful of her burnt flesh, "Not yet anyway. But I don't know how to tell when I get worse either... So, for now you just have to trust me when I say that I'm not insane yet."
He glanced at her before sighing, "I know. I'm sorry Lucy... this whole situation though..."
"It's designed to make people go madder faster than they would normally. Anything that makes you questions something, anything that makes you anxious or makes you hesitate, you need to ignore. Don't linger on anything. It pulls at your mentality and makes it easier to fall. So just... don't okay?" She took off at a subdued pace, picking her way through the rubble with an elegance that awed him.
"Okay. Well... keep walking. Get to the edge of the street and wait there. I'm going to release my magic. That way we'll both last longer here." Lightning crackled and formed along his skin and she didn't answer him, walking along the broken cobble until she deemed she was a safe distance away.
She watched him light up, everything vanishing in a shifting wave of golden light. But despite the blinding force of his magic, she couldn't look away. And it was only when the lightning stretched upwards towards the sky that she heard it.
"Gehe. Guess little bunny got lost." Lucy bit back a scream, spanning on her heel so quickly that the skin ripped on her foot.
'Mad. The madness has him. Run!'
The voices rushed through her head, whispering so quickly she could barely understand what they were telling her. But before she could respond, or even bring her arms up to defend herself, a metal fist slammed into her stomach. Lucy was sailing before the first drop of blood was past her lip, her breath knocked from her lungs. She slammed into Laxus, the lightning crackling around her so loudly she was sure she would be deaf if she survived this encounter.
Strong arms banded around her waist, stopping her from a brutal collision against the wall of a ruined shop behind the blonde man. A weak cough left her, blood dribbling down her chin. She winced when the he moved, her head lolling from one side to the other.
"Gehe. Stupid bunny. Can't even run away properly." The voice echoed through the street and the lightning died instantly. Static clung to them though, and even from a distance the metal in Gajeel's skin flickered and shone with the residual lightning magic, making the large metal man flinch, "Iron Dragons Roar!"
With a grace that Lucy didn't think possible with his size, Laxus gathered her in his arms and vault over the attack with ease.
"Lucy. Has he gone mad?" Laxus landed stopped on the most stable roof he could find before turning to look down at the street. Gajeel was nowhere to be seen and that set him on edge.
'Mad. Lost.. Asleep...'
Lucy closed her eyes to focus on the voices, disturbed by how easy it was for her to block out the pain.
"Not mad... he's just... asleep. Like you were. Only his mental strength isn't anywhere close to yours so his body is projecting his... well, mad side." Nodding to herself, satisfied with her explanation, she felt the sting of her abused muscles stretching.
"So all we gotta do is wake him up?" Laxus only got another nod from her before he set her down, making sure she was stable on her feet below standing up straight, "Shouldn't be hard." He cracked his neck, preparing himself for the fight ahead.
"Be careful Laxus. We don't know what the madness around here does to people and their power level. You may have beaten Gajeel before, but he's a wild card at the moment." The dark look in her eyes had him on edge but he just smirked down at her.
"Relax Blondie. I'm not going anywhere." He flicked her forehead before jumping back down to street level, his senses sharp as he focused on his surroundings. It was only the distant crackle of fire that reached his ears however and he tensed, "Come out metal breath. I know you're there."
Grey eyes narrowed in on a pile of twisted metal from a destroyed warehouse and he pulled on his magic reserves, not having had enough time to get rid of it all before Gajeel showed up.
"Gehe. Stupid. You ruin all the fun." A distinct boom echoed through the street and he just barely dodged the metal beam that dropped from the sky. More and more followed it, appearing at random and crashing into the ground with enough force to shatter the road beneath his feet.
"Laxus! Behind you!" Lucy shrieked from the roof, the sheer panic in her voice making the hair on the back of his neck raise and he twisted on his heel, bringing his arms up in time to block the blow from the Iron Dragon Slayer. Gold met silver in a clash of magic and they struck each other blow for blow.
Block. Punch. Parry. Kick. Retreat. Repeat.
Laxus couldn't even focus on the numbness that took over his arms, every part of him trying to avoid getting his head ripped from his body. But it only took a second for his concentration to slip, one moment where he saw Lucy hang from the roof, for a blow to strike his chest and he went sailing into the pile of metal Gajeel had created from the warehouse debris. He couldn't even gasp when a jagged beam pierced his side, slicing through him like a hot knife through butter.
"Gehe. You're a fucking idiot. I'm not the same weakling like I was before." Gajeel stalked closer and Laxus struggled to pull himself from the metal he was impaled on, but it was useless. He could feel the hollowness in his chest, his magic unable to replenish. And his opponent had tapped into his dragon force, the blood hungry stare freezing the him where he lay.
Gajeel lifted his fist, his arm slowly turning into a beam, ready to smash him to pieces when a hollow thud made them both freeze. The metal slayer stepped to the side, allowing Laxus to see Lucy, her whole form heaving with the force of her breathes, a pole held tightly in her hands, still raised from having him in the head.
"Lucy!" Laxus felt his eyes go wide, panic searing through him like fire, "Lucy no! Get away from him!"
"No!" She refused to look away from Gajeel, but her words were directed at him, each one piercing him in a part of him he didn't know existed, "I won't leave you. Without you, I probably would have gone mad by now. By saving me from that, we have a chance to get out of here. And we will. We're Fairy Tail. We're Nakama! And we don't leave each other behind!"
Her words made him remember what he had overhead Natsu say about her not leaving him behind when he'd been trapped under a pile of rocks. Lucy had refused to leave him, even when she knew she was powerless. Even when she could feel her head being crushed by their enemy, even in the face of death, she had stayed behind for Natsu. Much like she was staying behind for him now.
Laxus ground his teeth, biting back the pain from his abdomen where the metal protruded from, and pushed himself up, groaning as black dots danced in his vision.
"Stupid bunny. Shoulda run while you had the chance." Her strangled yelp pulled Laxus' attention and he could only watch as Gajeel lifted her up into the air, her feet leaving the ground while he choked her, "Now I can't have the fun of chasing you down."
"Lucy..." Laxus panted, the broken cobble stone digging into his knees. He struggled to concentrate past the pain, begging for a spark of his magic to show itself.
"Ga-jeel... Th-think of... Levy. Th-think... of your Nakama." Her fingers scratched at his metal scaled arm, her face slowly turning an unhealthy shade of red, "T-think... of... who y-you... are..." Abandoning the vain attempt to pry his hand from her skin, one of her arms extended, her finger tips just barely brushing his scaled cheek, "Th...is. Isn't... y-you..."
Her arm dropped, her head dropping listlessly onto his arm. It made the Iron Dragon Slayer pause and Laxus lunged, a roar of rage leaving his lips as he struck the man in the centre of his back, lightning jumping from Laxus to Gajeel and knocking the man away. Both Gajeel and Lucy hit the ground, one seizing from the lightning, the other disturbingly still.
Panting, Laxus dropped to his knees next the blonde woman, gently shifting her so that he could rest her against his legs. He felt his heart stop when she didn't respond and he leant down, fearing the worst, until the faintest breath brushed against his sweaty skin. He waited, praying to anyone who listened to not let her be dead. And when he felt it again, he let the first tear fall.
xXx Over the Edge xXx
And there you have it. Nearly 3k words! I hope you enjoyed it. Again, if parts of it don't make sense, good, your meant to feel a little lost, it helps you understand the emotions each character goes through.
Thank you to the following people for reviewing the last chapter:
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Tiernank
xoxi