Chapter 7

Trail

Disclaimer: I do not own Fairy Tail or its characters, only my own OC's and Ideas

Their senses cast out rapidly, trying to lock on to that one Energy Signature they had felt for no more than a few seconds before. They had no doubt they would be able to recognize it when they found it, it didn't feel like anything they had ever come across before.

The only worry either of them could even consider right now was, just how far was this Cosmic Soul for the moon going to be? It could be so far, they may never reach this person in time, before everything truly fell into chaos.

They sweatdropped when their senses cast out well past Magnolia, and they still had not found what they were looking for.

Both Frea and Chase tensed up considerably, doing this, with the World's Energy so chaotic, was quickly taking its toll. Frea was feeling lightheaded now, and she was forcing herself to keep from shaking. Her stomach was doing summer-salts, and her head was starting to pound, now that the force and spinning madness of the World's out of control Energy was hitting her, without the slight cushion of blocking her senses off partly.

Chase was starting to feel worse as he stood there too, though he had been previously spared from all of the effects of the chaos in the Energy, because he was lucky enough to be able to block his senses off completely. His head was hurting a little, and he was becoming a little dizzy, but how he was feeling now, was nowhere near as close to how Frea was quite yet.

Far beyond Magnolia, even the few neighboring towns and cities, they finally found it.

It was just as it had been before, powerful, immense, and it felt like ancient Magic. It was eerily similar to Solana's Magic, despite the obvious differences. Solana's Energy Signature was orange and yellow in color, and it felt warm, and a little wild, a lot like Natsu's Energy Signature.

The one they had locked on to, it was both dark blue, and white in color, mixing it together so it was almost a pale blue. The nature of this Energy Signature, was inherently calm and serene... But at the moment, it was blazing and wavering out of control, nothing like its normal self.

They didn't have to have seen this Energy Signature before to know how it usually felt, or acted like. It was a sort of imprint that would never wash away, no matter the situation, or the behavior of the person belonging to the Energy Signature. It was because it was clear this particular Energy Signature was not acting as it normally would, they could safely assume that the tipped Balance between the sun and the moon, was affecting this certain Cosmic Soul, in a much different way, then it was Solana.

They didn't dare breath as they stayed locked on to it, doing their best to ignore everything else around them. Now, was the time for Chase to use the new Technique he had created not too long ago.

Frea had become aware that Chase had started to create a technique of his own, one that would prove to probably be one of the more useful moves either of them knew, or had come up with.

Far as she could tell, he had come up with a way to maintain a lock on an Energy Signature, and reveal a path, or trail that lead directly to it. She hadn't tried to figure out just exactly how he had managed this, and she didn't plan to. This was something Chase was going to prove to be very good at, and she had a feeling, this was something she would probably never grasp.

"May I find my target,

That I will keep within my sight,

The Energy Signature in which I search for.

Reveal to me,

The trail of those in which I pursue,

To follow in shadow or light,

In whatever conditions that arise,

Appear to me now,

And show me the way..."

Chase began to murmur the words lowly, and Frea listened to every one slowly. His Magic was beginning to blaze up brighter than her own, and she was able to form the mental image, of Chase's Magic slowly wrapping around the Energy Signature of what they were searching for.

"Energy Lock: Trail Seeker!" He finished firmly, and in an instant both their eyes snapped open at once.

Chase's eyes were full pale blue orbs of light for a split second, and everyone stared in shock to see a stream of his pale blue Magic flash over the ground and out the front doors of the Hall, for a split second.

Frea swept her eyes over the Magic before it disappeared, and her hands fell away from Chase's. She looked at him and smiled, this new Spell of his, it was ingenious really.

"What was that?" Lucy asked.

"The trail of the Energy Signature we're looking for." Chase answered, glancing her way. "I can see it, and it'll lead us straight to whoever we're looking for."

Everyone smiled a little in admiration, even to everyone who wasn't an Energy Mage, what Chase had done, was actually really impressive, by doing this, it could speed things up exponentially.

"Impressive." Master smiled and Chase smiled a bit back.

Solana leaned toward Fea with a smirk on her face, "You were clearly a better teacher to him then you let me believe." The red-head told Frea lowly, well away from Chase's ears. For a brief moment, she didn't seem to be in so much pain now that her attention had turned to Chase's Spell. "He seemed to have turned out to be a great Mage!" She smiled clearly impressed with both Chase, and Frea herself. Frea smiled back, nodding a little.

Loke glanced down at the two, from where he was standing close to Solana. He found himself agreeing with the Sun Dragon Slayer, he himself would have never pegged Frea to be the teaching type. But he had spoken with Chase on a few occasions, and though he had never seen the young man in action, it was clear that he was easily one of the stronger Mages around. Frea must have been a pretty good teacher, from his understanding, Energy Magic was not easy to learn, therefore it was safe to assume that it was no easier to teach.

"Thanks Old Man." Chase murmured, before glancing to Frea, causing her to look from Solana, to him. "Problem is, how are we supposed to get there?"

Frea gave him a toothy smirk and placed her hands on her hips, looking a little too confident in that moment, that everyone sweatdropped.

"Just leave that to me!"

"You might want to slow down!" Moon shouted, holding on for dear life to the frame of the MagicMobile. "Your gonna end up draining yourself!"

They were traveling along at an unreal rate, Frea sat at the front of the car, holding on tightly to the steering mechanism of the vehicle, the wrist-band connected securely to her arm, pumping her Magic into the machine to give it life.

"Don't worry about that, I'll be fine!" Frea told her, eyes trained ahead as she kept her attention on the land.

"She's just a crazy as Erza..." Lucy whimpered from the inside, her voice floating out through the open window, which Moon was poking her was out of, to talk to Frea.

"You'd think I would be use to this by now..." Loke murmured.

"This is the first time I've seen her this..." Solana answered, smiling despite the obvious pain she was in. "... Reckless." She smiled nervously, she didn't have a better word for it.

Everyone besides Frea and Chase, were inside the MagicMobile, relying on both the Energy Mages to get them where they needed to go. What Solana said was sort of true, Frea was always rather collected and calm, she never really acted rashly or erratically, this was the first time in a very long time, anyone had ever seen her rushing so much.

"Even you can't keep this pace up forever Teach." Chase murmured, bracing himself as they turned sharply. Rocky and uneven land was streaming past them, they were well past Magnolia now. The rain was continually pounding down on them, but neither Frea not Chase seemed to register the fact that they were soaked.

"We have to get there as fast as we can." Frea answered. "I'm sorry the rides so rough." She called back to the four in the car, more directing her words toward Solana than anyone else. Frea was well aware of the fact that this ride was putting Solana in more pain, at being jolted around so much. She wouldn't want to put the Sun Spirit through this normally, but they didn't have a choice. She didn't want to risk having Lucy send Solana back to the Spirit World, until they had mended the Balance.

"Its fine."

Frea pushed on faster, she could feel her strength draining with the continued use of the MagicMobile, but honestly she couldn't care less. Thanks to Chase, they had a direct line to who they were looking for.

Before they had left, Chase had channeled his Magic into Frea around her eyes, so she was able to see the Trail, as he could. They were getting closer, and they had only been traveling for maybe an hour or so. It was only because they were going so fast, and the fact that they could see exactly where they were headed, that they had gotten this far in such a short amount of time.

They were quite literally, out in the middle of nowhere. No towns could be seen for miles on end, only rocky, and muddy terrain on either side.

Frea narrowed her eyes, it was a little hard to see a lot through the thick sheet of rain pounding down on them. The clouds had successfully blocked out the eerily red moon above, so everything had been cast into deep shadow. The glowing blue trail she was following was the only clear thing she could make out. She still didn't like the fact that she had managed to drag so many people into this, despite their assurances that they didn't mind. She could still see Natsu's face when their small group had rushed through the town on the MagicMobile, along with everyone else's faces who had seen them.

They hadn't any time to explain where they were going or why, and honestly, she wasn't looking forward to explaining it when they made their way back.

But then, she was still trying to wrap her head around what Master had said, right before she had left the hall.

"Frea."

Frea came to a halt when she heard Master Makarov call her back, just as she had been about to follow everyone else out of the hall. She paused in the doorway and turned back toward him, slightly confused as to why he had spoken up now.

"Yeah?"

"Please, be careful." He murmured, "I know that it was never your intention to cause any of this, and I wish for you to know that no one will think differently of you for it." He closed his eyes for a moment, and she heard him let out a low sigh.

He clearly wanted to say something else, but he seemed to feel it may not be the best time.

"You have many trials ahead of you." He told her, his eyes opened to rest on her once more. "But I have no doubt, that you will find a way to overcome them all." A small smile appeared across his face, "Good luck."

She didn't know why, but his attitude when he had said that... She didn't like it. There was definitely something he hadn't been telling her.

But what?

Her head snapped up a little at the sound of something cracking. At first she assumed it was the same noise she had heard in her dream earlier that morning, but this was different. It was more gravelly then before, and her heart dropped when she realized what it was.

Ahead of them, through the gloom of the rain, the ground had split open suddenly, to reveal a large chasm that dropped down for who knows how long.

And they were headed straight for it.

"Oh shit!" She growled. Chase was frowning, they both knew they were going way to fast, to be able to stop in time.

"You guys better hold on." Chase leaned back and told the people inside, his eyes not leaving the gaping hole before them. Moon poked her head out again,

"Why?" She asked, but her eyes went wide upon seeing the hole they were headed for. "We're gonna die..." She whimpered.

"No we're not!" Frea growled, pumping her Magic Power into the armband faster. They sped up exponentially, and the ground started to shake violently as they neared the chasm.

The wheels of the MagicMobile left the ground, and they were propelled over the gap, to land roughly on the other side. Frea strained to keep the vehicle straight as they hit the ground on the other side, as it tilted and swerved dangerously for awhile, before it slowed down and straightened out again.

"Frea... I hate you..." Moon muttered, looking dazed. Frea let out a sigh,

"Your allowed to..." She mumbled. The earth was still shaking a they continued forward at a relatively slower speed. She sweatdropped, things were starting to get worse, it wasn't only the sun disappearing, the storms, the wind and the flooding now, earthquakes were starting up.

The MagicMobile faltered a little in its course, when her vision started to blur, and she shook her head furiously to get rid of the haze. Out of the corner of her eye, she could see Chase give her a worried glance, but he didn't say a thing for awhile.

"Teach," Chase murmured, gaining her attention. "Why did you turn Solana into a Celestial Key?" He asked quietly, keeping his voice low so Solana wouldn't hear. It was useless though, Solana had heightened hearing, and Frea didn't doubt that the red-head would have heard the question.

"She would have died if I hadn't." She murmured in reply. "I spent that entire three months with her. She was my intended target for the job I took, but when I found her, she explained that a Dark Guild was after her, and they had a mole inside the Council. That mole was pinning the council against her, so she was fighting against both a Dark Guild, and the Council at once." She let out a low sigh, "All of Fairy Tail has had trouble with Dark Guild's before, but I've also had trouble with the Council... For most of my life."

"I decided to help her, and when we began the fight with the Dark Guild that had been after her, the Guild Master hurt Solana pretty badly." Chase narrowed his eyes at the explanation. "That scar on her chest, is where she got hit."

Frea broke off for a moment as lightning pierced through the clouds, and a booming roll of thunder echoed after.

"I was going to use Morana Drearand to heal her, but Jynx stopped me."

"How did she-?" Chase asked.

"The Limiter Seal." Frea answered simply. "She limited my Magic completely, so I was unable to use it to heal Solana." She couldn't help but feel that flare of anger toward Jynx rise up in the pit of her stomach at the memory. Even if Jynx had been trying to protect her, she was still angry with the idea that the ghost girl had been willing to put Solana's Life at risk for her.

Chase seemed to notice her sudden anger, and sighed silently. "You know she only did that to spare you from straining yourself." He put in slowly and she growled a little.

"I. Know." She hissed through gritted teeth, and Chase dropped the subject. "... After Jynx stopped me, the most unexpected person showed up."

No One POV

Chase's head tilted a little, hardly able to guess who she was talking about. "Who?"

"The Celestial Spirit King." She answered simply, remaining oblivious to the astounded expression he was wearing after she had said the name.

"...w-what..?!" He whispered, ".. Now way! Nobody but Spirits ever see the Celestial Spirit King!" He told her and she shook her head.

"Wrong." She murmured. "Lucy has seen him twice, and Levy, Wendy, Happy, Carla, Natsu, Gray and Erza have met him as well." She smiled a little and Chase just stared, dumbfounded.

"How did you know about that?" Loke asked, glancing out of the window behind them, with Lucy and Moon squished in beside him.

"I know a lot more than you guys think I do." She answered vaguely, giving no other explanation.

They all exchanged glanced with one another, this wasn't the first time Frea had said that exact same phrase. Loke and Lucy stuck their heads back inside, and Moon just rest her chin on the bottom of the window.

"... To continue, Solana was stamped as a possible soul to be turned into a Celestial Spirit when she was younger." Frea continued on. ".. Now that I think about it, I think Jynx was the one who chose Solana as a possibility." She added in as an after-thought.

"In order to become a Celestial Spirit though, she had to find a GateSentry, someone who had been given the power to alter a human's soul, and create Celestial Gates as well as Keys, by the Celestial Spirit King himself." Frea went on. Moon and Chase listened quietly, both their eyes trained on Frea, who wasn't looking at them, but ahead as she continued to speed away over the land toward their target.

"I'm not a GateSentry." Frea murmured. "The last GateSentry..." She trailed away suddenly, a very dark look coming over her face. Moon and Chase exchanged glances, both of them didn't understand why she suddenly looked so... Angry. It was a hate filled look, that they had never seen Frea wear before. Sure, she had been angry at others... But this was pure, unshielded hatred.

"Lets just say, the last GateSentry was killed a long time ago." Frea growled.

Loke POV

Loke pushed his glasses up his nose, and let his eyes close. He was listening quietly to what Frea had to say, as were Solana and Lucy, though the three of them weren't making their attention as obvious as Chase and Moon were.

Lucy was sitting in rather tense silence, drinking in every word with astonishment. The blonde was shocked at very detail Frea was retelling, much like himself. They had both known Frea was a strong Mage, Loke even more so, but even this was shocking to them both, and he had known Frea for longer than Lucy had.

Solana however, was slouched against the seat beside him, with her arms wrapped around her stomach, eyes scrunched closed and silent. She had hardly spoken since they had left Magnolia, as for good reason. It was clear to anyone that she was in an unbelievable amount of pain, and she was a lot weaker than she had ever been before. Her body had stopped wavering in and out of being see through and whole some time ago, instead now she just appeared thin and pale. He frowned slightly at the thought, he had gotten to know Solana while she had been in the Spirit World, even if it hadn't been for long, and he would be lying if he said he didn't care about her already.

She was his fellow spirit, even if she had once been human not to long ago, and he hated to see any other Spirit suffer like this.

He silently hoped that they would find a way to fix all of this soon.

"I'm not a GateSentry." Frea's voice reached him through the open window, slightly muffled by the sound of the rain.

GateSentry or not Frea... You still did the impossible...

"The last GateSentry..." Suddenly the Energy Dragon Slayer's voice trailed away, and he did not miss the slight venom that had crept into her voice so suddenly.

He tensed up a little, and opened his eyes to stare down at his hands, which were folded in his lap. He knew why she suddenly sounded so angry, because he knew who the last human GateSentry was.

Kasumi

He had only become aware that Kasumi had been the one to seal off Frea's Memories, and trap Winter and Shadow inside of her, shortly after Frea had found out herself. He had never known about Kasumi... Hurting Frea when she had been younger, before he had ever met the silver-eyed young woman, or even before Kasumi had been killed. Though he knew of it, as the rest of the Guild did as well, he didn't know any of the details about what Kasumi had done to Frea, and he suspected no one else did either.

His eyes slowly switched to the side, so he caught a glimpse of Frea's outline in the darkness outside.

"Lets just say, the last GateSentry was killed a long time ago."

No One POV

Moon and Chase sweatdropped a little at the tone Frea used as she said the words, but at the moment, they weren't really willing to question it.

"Whether or not I'm a 'true' GateSentry, there wasn't any way in hell I would let Solana die. So, I was able to use a Spell I came across, for the very purpose of altering a human soul, into a Celestial soul." Frea went in, becoming more relaxed as she continued to speak. "Celestial Energy Key Bind. It was that Spell, that over half of Fiore saw."

Chase blinked, he couldn't help but wonder, where in the hell would Teach have found a Spell like that? It couldn't be common knowledge...

He was about to ask the question, when a shrill scream of pure pain cut through the rain, and stopped him from speaking. The scream rang clear and loud despite the pounding rain, howling wind, and boom of the thunder. It was clearly filled with agony, and it sent chills down their spines. Everyone stiffened at the noise, and Frea's eyes narrowed, the MagicMobile slowing a little. While they had been talking, they had faintly stopped paying close attention to the trail in which they had been following, and it was only now did they realize how close they had come.

They could clearly feel waves of pure Power washing over them from up ahead, Frea's nose twitched a little when she caught the scent of their target, despite the rain.

The scent was cold, crisp, faintly smelling of the night air.

But it wasn't the feeling, or the scent that caught everyone's attention, even the members of the group who were not Energy Mages. Not too far away, the clouds were see-through, so they could see the blood red moon in the dark sky, and even through the haze of the rain, they could clearly see blazing white and dark blue light spiraling around and around in a huge sphere shape. It was Magic, they had no doubt of that, and toward the edges, the Magic was begging to turn a deep, blood red color.

This was the source of an unbelievable amount of raw Power that had begun to hit them in terrifying waves of sheer force.

Another scream of agony cut through the air, and they cringed at the noise slightly.

"... We found who we were looking for..."

Hey! I finally posted another chapter, sorry for making you guys wait so long for it! Been super busy lately, and i'll try to get another chapter posted for all my stories by the end of the week, becuase next week, i wont be able to post anything,no internet, no cell serive for a week while my family and i go on vacation.

I would like to thank all of you who have followed, faved, and reviewed for this already, it means a lot!

Hope you like it! Please, follow, fav and review if you can! Thanks!