Chapter 7: Racing towards the finish

Tessa really thought that the fight would be a whole lot easier because she was pairing up with Gray.

She wanted to hit herself for how wrong she was.

At first they were doing great, being able to intercept him and hitting him straight on, but Racer was faster than them. He kept toying with them, a couple of moments making them crash into one another. She had used her own speed as a dragon slayer, but she was still slow compared to the wizard. The only attack that by thus far had done any damage to Racer was her dragon glass roar. She had nicked him a couple of times, giving her a bit of advantage by sniffing his blood, but he would just become faster.

They were able to see that Natsu had successfully rescued Happy and Wendy. Racer went to attack them, but Gray was able to intercept him, making the wizard more furious as the time went on.

Eventually Racer created some grand prix and materialized two lacrima motorcycles for them to race on. However, her motion sickness had kicked into effect, proving herself rather useless to ride the motorcycle with Gray. She used her own tactics, trying to give Gray the upper hand. Using her glass walls and occasionally throwing glass daggers at Racer, Gray had been able to land powerful hits on him.

Gray was slowly out of magic, his attacks becoming slower than usual. Racer smirked as he saw this, but decided to take a different route.

She had tried avoiding him, but his attack had come quick and ruthless. The moment his fist landed on her stomach, she coughed, blood immediately coming out of her mouth. Just when Racer was going to be getting a second attack on her, a giant gorilla made of ice had punched him away from her.

Gray had quickly run to her as she groaned in pain.

"T-that bastard," she growled as she winced as Gray lifted her shirt to see the damage. He could see the major bruise. The purple, blue, and red making it almost black. If Racer had gotten a second hit, his fist would have gone right through her. He wouldn't doubt that she had a broken rib or two. He removed his shirt and created a piece of ice, placing it right on her bruised stomach and using his shirt as a bandage as he wrapped it around her.

Her arm grasped his forearm and hissed as the coolness of his ice numbed the pain.

"Gray, I need some help over here!" They heard Lyon saying from behind him. Gray looked at Tessa, worried about leaving her alone when Sherry appeared.

"Go, I'll stay with her!"

Tessa had been worried since the beginning she could see the rivalry between Lyon and Gray, but she was surprised to see them working perfectly in sync. Sherry had gone to help them after leaving Tessa against a tree. By this point, they had reached another cliff when Lyon and Gray had formulated a plan. She wanted to laugh at the irony that Racer wasn't fast, he would just slow down his enemies. Their plan had worked perfectly, leaving both ice wizards grinning wide as they had been successful at getting rid of one of the Oracion Seis.

Gray had immediately gone to her, picking her up bridal style since she had been shaking from the pain while standing. Sherry had gone off, exclaiming how Gray was such a gentleman by picking her up when he was out of magic. This left both friends blushing and avoiding eye contact. Even Lyon had been smirking at them.

However, Tessa's eyes widened as she caught the familiar scent of Racer.

He laughed maniacally at them, "You fools you think you can take me on—let's see how you deal with this!"

He ripped his shirt to reveal a bomb lacrima counting down on his chest. Tessa pushed Gray away, her barely landing on her feet. The clock was about to reach zero when she had used one of her daggers to rip the bomb from the vest and kicked Racer.

Her eyes widened as she raised her hands.

The blast had been powerful, knocking Lyon, Gray, and Sherry off their feet. There was smoke everywhere and Gray's heart had dropped.

"TESSA!"

He wasn't sure why he had even invited her. He had found the waterfall when he had been doing his own training on the forest. The small lake seemed to be connected to the bigger lake where they tended to either fish, bathe, and train. The moment he was back on camp, he immediately asked her if she wanted to go see the waterfall. He was expecting for her to tell him to go fuck himself, but she surprised him by jumping up and going inside her tent to change.

The walk had been quiet as usual, both were lost in their own thoughts. Once they had reached the lake with the waterfall, Aria had jumped in immediately. The water had splashed everywhere, wetting Laxus in the process.

When she surfaced again, she laughed at his expression and how his spiky hair was now on flat against his scalp.

He glared at her, and without moving a finger, he shocked her. She screamed since she had been caught off guard and the water made his attack to sting even more.

She flipped him off, something he had been expecting. However, instead of retaliating the attack, she told him to get in the water. There was a moment of hesitation from him, but he jumped in the water nonetheless. He welcomed the coolness against his muscles and he couldn't help but grin at her the moment he surfaced again. Her response was splashing water right at his face and swimming away. This instantly created a battle in the water, a playful one that is. He wasn't deaf. He heard her giggle a couple of times.

They swam around for hours until Aria decided to take a break. They got out of the lake and each reached for their own towels. He was drying his head when he heard her walk up to him.

His eyebrow shot up in confusion as he looked down at her. She barely reached his chest. Her eyes were slightly narrowed as she looked at him without saying anything.

"We already know I'm almost ready to go back," she started, "But when do you think you'll be the one to be ready?"

His eyes widened since he wasn't expecting that question at all.

"I don't know what you're talking about."

"Cut the bullshit Sparky. You don't want to go back. You want to prolong it as long as you can."

He glared at her, completely forgetting about his hair, "That's none of your business."

"It kind of is since I'm here stuck with you."

He lowered his voice, "You didn't have to agree. I could've gotten expelled instead."

She gave him a look, "Would you really leave your friends like that? So what that you went nuts. Everyone loses their mind at some point."

Once she said that, she turned around and sat down on one of the bigger rocks that was right next to the lake. The tip of her toes could touch the water and she thoughtfully submerge them in.

"I killed my aunt."

His eyes widened at her confession and the tone of her voice. That was not what he had been expecting at all. He had been trying to figure out for the longest how she had gotten the lacrima. Why she had stopped using her magic for a couple of years. Now she was coming open about it and he didn't know what to say.

"I had taken a job near Shirotsume," she started, "Tessa was with me when it happened. It was to take a couple of bandits down. The jobs we would take were scarce—it's not like we were affiliated with a guild. I was too stupid to realize it had been a trap, and when I did, it was too late."

He hadn't felt himself move, but now he was just a few feet away from her, "What happened?"

She laughed bitterly, "They took us down like if we were nothing. They took us to some caves and my aunt was there. When I was ten years old is when she put the lacrima in me. I remember my uncle wanting to be master of the guild he was part of, but he didn't want any of his family being weak. I was born with no magic. What I can remember as a kid, I was constantly beaten to make my magic surface, but nothing. She forcefully put the lacrima in my chest. Constant pain for three years until I met Tessa. I didn't know what I was doing with my new power. But she helped me understand it better.

I was sixteen years old when I saw her again. She was furious. She wanted me to go back but I refused. They had placed some bracelets, cancelling our magic. The moment I refused, she stabbed Tessa on her stomach.

B-blood was everywhere… she asked me again and Tessa told me to not agree to go back… she dug the knife deeper and I just snapped."

Tears were streaming down her face by this point, "I snapped. This new strength enveloped me while Tessa was screaming. I ripped the magic bracelets off and I killed every single person in there, except for Tessa. I ripped Marcea's throat out and electrocuted her body until she was just burnt completely. I remember the smell of smoke, electricity, blood. What snapped me out of it was hearing my cousin screaming at me for killing her mom.

I passed out. Apparently the caves crumbled and Tessa had saved my cousin, but then she had us leave immediately. To this day, I don't know how she did it since she was hurt. She told me that the dragon in me, in my lacrima, reacted to the smell of her blood since I considered her my pack. The stench of blood was in my hands for so long…

That's when I vowed to never use my thunder ever again. I didn't want to kill her. I had forgiven her… I just hated her and didn't want to see her again. I had no childhood thanks to her. I hated that she gave me this magic. But I didn't want to kill her… so I stopped using it altogether."

"Until you came to Magnolia," Laxus said quietly. If one word could describe how he felt in that moment, it was shitty.

He felt like the biggest piece of shit. Here was a woman in front of him, who possibly had the most fucked up childhood and instead looking for revenge, she forgave the person that did the most damage to her. What about him? He had no clue what came of his mother. He was a sick child and his father constantly called him weak and useless. But in his childhood he had one person always picking him up, and that was his grandfather. He taught him to be caring, to look at the brighter side of things. He never called him weak. When the lacrima had been implanted on him, his grandfather was there by his side. But the older he grew, the words of his father had gotten to him. When his father was expelled, he wanted to hate the old man with all his might but he couldn't. Everyone only saw him as 'Makarov's Grandson.' Never as his own person.

Was this what his grandfather meant when he said that he needed to get stronger?

He placed a hand on her shoulder and she instantly froze.

"It's not your fault what happened. At the end it was her choices that caused her death. She didn't give you proper training, didn't teach you what you needed to know. Just wanted to use you. Her death is in her own hands, not yours." He said, his voice surprisingly soft yet strong.

"Only a strong person can handle the power of a dragon lacrima. You did have magic within you for the lacrima to be accepted by your body. You're not weak. You were able to knock me out," he slightly chuckled at the memory.

She wiped the tears off her face as she turned to him and smiled, "That definitely goes into one of my favorite memories."

He was grateful to see her in better spirits and smiled back at her. He removed his hand from her shoulder and let it fall to his side. They stayed in comfortable silence for a few minutes, both enjoying the view of the sky slightly changing colors signaling the beginning of the twilight hour.

"You shouldn't be afraid to go back to the guild. I'll be next to you."

His eyes widened at her remark and when he turned to look at her, she was already looking at him again.

"You're not the only one that's going to feel like an outsider."

"Stupid lacrima, stupid Oracion Seis, stupid cliff," Tessa grumbled from her place on Gray's back. Her clothes were torn in various places and she had a couple of burns from the blast.

Gray tried fighting his grin as he heard her talking, glad to see that she was okay after the heart attack she gave him.

She had been quick enough to cover her whole body in glass when the blast went off and make a small shield for the rest of them. But no one was expecting for the entire cliff to collapse from the impact. While they were passed out, Nirvana had been activated. The could see in the distance a powerful cylinder of magic that reached the heavens. It's glow was immense, as swirls of what it could only be dark magic wrapping themselves around it making a beautiful contrast with the sun setting.

The four of them decided to go towards it, knowing well the rest of their comrades were bound to start making their way there as well.

Gray had finally put her down after she insisted that she was fine to walk on her own. She looked down at her appearance and pouted.

These were my favorite boots too! She thought angrily.

Her head snapped up the moment her nose caught the scent of burnt firewood and strawberry.

"Natsu and Lucy are near."

The other three looked relieved at the sound of that. When they finally found them, Tessa blinked a couple of times.

"Why are you guys matching?"

Lucy blushed instantly, but before she could reply, Gray interrupted.

"Where is Erza and Wendy?"

Natsu then went on an explanation on how the young dragon slayer had healed Jellal, how Erza took off the moment she was healed, and finally Lucy's fight against Angel.

Gray ran a hand through his hair, "And of course Erza is in the middle of that thing."

Suddenly, the ground started shaking like a powerful earthquake. The ground started shifting, breaking apart almost making all of them fall. Lucy started to freak out, but Tessa got a hold of her hand.

"I got you!"

The earthquake intensified when something started coming forth from the ground. It was gigantic in form. Almost reminding them of an octopus in a way. The legs seemed to go for dozens of miles, making the enormous dome stand far away from the ground.

"That's Nirvana," Lyone whispered as he looked at the monstrosity in front of them.

"I don't know about you guys, but I am ready to go up there and finish this!" Natsu excitedly said.

And without another word, the fire dragon slayer took off running. Tessa, Lucy, and Gray grinned at each other and took off after him as well. Their bloods were pumping as they knew the danger that was up ahead. But their fear didn't matter, they knew they needed to stop it.

However, as they were reaching the top of a giant leg, the whole thing started moving. Tessa could feel her stomach making flips and she started to sweat. Natsu was in worse shape than she was.

"You've gotta be kidding me!" Lucy said as she was hanging on through the gaps of the leg, holding on as it was moving.

"This is the worst time for you two to get sick!"

It's not a vehicle—It's not a vehicle! Tessa kept thinking to herself over and over. It seemed to work more for her than Natsu, who ended up falling into his death until Happy appeared and saved him. They decided to go on ahead and that they would eventually catch up. They finally reached a tunnel made out of stone. Tessa was almost ghost white but she kept on going.

"You should've gone with Natsu,"Lucy said worriedly as she looked at her. She could see the dark circles forming under her green eyes and she was sweating.

"N-no. I can do this. I can't let my motion sickness getting the best of me."

Once they made themselves through the tunnel, their blood froze as they saw what was in front of them. It looked like it was an abandoned city. They walked for various minutes until eventually they met with Jura and one of the Oracion Seis, Hoteye. They went to explain the effect that Nirvana's magic could cause.

It had the power to change the mentality of someone evil that had doubts regarding their action, but it could also change a good person into evil if they were to be defeated by their own negative thoughts. They talked for a while until Midnight, one of the Oracion Seis appeared. The darkness she could feel from him almost made Tessa feel more sick. His eyes were red—very similar to Gajeel's. But they lacked a lot of emotions she was used to seeing. It didn't help the way he had make up on, making him even creepier.

Tessa could feel the hairs on the back of her neck standing up the moment he spoke. She was growling as her green eyes were narrowed. Midnight attacked, but before she could do something, she felt the ground beneath her shift. She landed on top of Lucy and Gray was on top of her.

"Leave him to me! All of the Oracion Seis—our power is equal! Oh yeah!" Hoteye said.

They didn't have much choice but to leave. Tessa felt wrong by leaving him. There had been something off with Midnight and she didn't like it.

They ran through the scrumbles of the street when a huge explosion was seen not far away from them.

"That is definitely the pyro," Tessa said dryly.

"We should hurry—he may need our help!"

"Leave it to Natsu to make things explode."

At certain points they needed to stop since Tessa could feel getting worse, so she needed a few minutes to recover and then continue. They weren't far away from the fire blast anymore until they heard a powerful scream.

Her eyes widened at the sound. It was almost the exact same replica of a dragon roar.

She could barely catch his scent, so she was able to lead the others towards the direction of where Natsu was. They found him, but he was being dragged by his shirt by the leader of the Oracion Seis, Brain.

Happy was imploring from his spot on the ground in a weak voice for them to save Natsu. His motion sickness was growing worse as he couldn't remove Brain's hand from his shirt.

Brain's voice was deep and gruff, as he explained how he would use Natsu to fortify his own guild.

"Like he would actually help you!" Lucy said angrily.

Natsu ended up biting Brain on the arm but was knocked over with ease like if he were a fly. He groaned on the floor and begged him to help him. Tessa ran forward and unleashed her lance, trying to slice at Brain who quickly blocked it with his own staff. She tried rolling out of the way when he raised his fist, but she was far too slow due to her motion sickness. He blasted her, sending her back to the others, her whole side scraping on the rough surface. Lucy fretted over her as she groaned.

"If you weaklings think you can stop Nirvana, you better do so quickly!" He laughed maniacally, "Soon we will be reaching Nirvana's first destination to cover with darkness. The Cait Shelter!"

Tessa's eyes opened wide, Wendy's guild!

She was about to bring out all of her magic in to attack Brain again, but this time Jura stepped forward. His yellow aura was visible and all of them could feel his power coming forth. Brain yelled for them to kneel as he attacked, but Jura acted quickly. Using his own magic, he deflected Brain's attack with boulders, creating a major explosion where the wind blew wildly.

The power of a wizard saint!

The battle between the two older men continued with ferocious force. Brain had been capable of getting through Jura's iron rock walls, but Jura always seemed to be two steps ahead. He wasn't giving Brain a chance to catch a quick breather. The wizard saint used the rocks at his own will, bending them in imaginable shapes like if they were nothing. He was serious as he continued attacking the leader of the Oracion Seis.

Tessa turned to Gray and told him that they needed to move Natsu out of the way. The pyro couldn't get up and various times he was almost hit by the other two wizard's attacks. Jura finished off Brain, leaving sprawled on the ground in shock and in pain.

As Gray came back with Natsu, Tessa heard Brain loud and clear.

"Midnight… you are our only hope."

They heard someone calling them, and Tessa felt a rush of relief to see that Wendy was alive and well.

Before they could all continue talking, Tessa looked at Wendy.

"I need you to heal me. I need to find Midnight."

Gray looked at her like if she was crazy, "I'm sure Hoteye took care of him."

Lucy agreed, "I don't think it's necessary for you to run off by yourself. Specially because even if she heals you, the city will continue making you sick as long as it keeps moving."

Wendy tilted her head adorably, "You get sick?"

Tessa groaned, "Motion sickness. Natsu gets it a lot worse than me though."

Wendy then started to heal her, completely ignoring Carla objecting in the background. She then put her hands on Tessa's head and casted a spell to maintain her balance. The blue aura covered her whole head and, in an instant, Tessa felt a whole lot better and much stronger.

She smiled brightly at the girl, "Thank you so much! When this is over, I will tell you what Grandeeney used to tell Uzume about you." With a wink at the small girl who stared at her in shock, she took off running.

"Tessa, come back!" Gray yelled at her.

"Heal Natsu and find a way to stop this thing! Brain was clearly not the key!"

She ran quickly through the streets, trying to catch Midnight's scent. She had grown worried a while after she had left when she heard a loud explosion, but knowing that Wendy was with them, she was sure that she had healed Natsu and he did something about what she had heard.

"If I was a confused and depressed child with horrible taste in makeup, where would I be?" She pondered out loud.

A loud noise followed by a cloud of smoke answered her question and ran towards that direction.

The closer she got, the stronger Erza's scent was also getting.

Her green eyes widened when she finally saw her, but she was currently tied up struggling to breathe.

"GLASS DRAGON CLAWS!" Tessa yelled as she sprung forward and slashed away the metal that had wrapped around Erza. Erza let out a breath of relief of being able to breathe properly.

"How did you find me?" She asked at the dragon slayer in surprise.

"I smelled cake and vanilla nearby!"

Erza gave her a nod and then glared back at Midnight. She used her magic and removed the armor she had been wearing, leaving her in her white sleeveless blouse and then changing into her heaven's wheel armor.

"Be careful Tessa, he uses reflective magic."

Tessa's eyes widened and then narrowed. She had heard of that magic before. Capable of being able to reflect, distort, and twist all manner of objects.

That explains what he did to her with her own armor, she thought.

Midnight snarled, "You will both meet your end!"

A rainbow-like aura started emerging forth from Tessa as she felt her muscles twitching with anticipation to unleash her magic, "We'll see about that. You are going against a dragon slayer and Titania herself. Bring it!"