Hello! Thank you to everyone who has read the story this far! You're all awesome! So, I decided with this chapter that it will be light and happy for most of it. Until the end, of course. All hell soon breaks loose. Enjoy!
Chapter 9: Feral Shadows
I was out of bed after the shock wore off, standing at the foot of the bed myself and looking around the room for the demon. I ran into the conjoining room, which was the living area, and searched for any sign of the darkness I couldn't touch. Still I couldn't find where the demon went and knew that it was finally gone. I sank to my knees on the carpet, the adrenaline wearing off and just making me very tired. After my heart stopped pounding against my ribcage, I walked back into the bedroom where Natsu was waiting, a look of outrage on his face.
"That was the demon you talked about," he said, his eyes blazing in fury. "The demon that's been terrorizing you in your nightmares."
"The very same," I said quietly as I walked over to the window to check if the demon was hiding somewhere out there.
"You know what this means, right?" he asked.
"Of course I do," I whispered, resting my forehead against the cool glass, my breath fanning out on the windowpane and making it fog up a bit. "I've been figuring out more and more about the demon with every nightmare. I know that the only way she can get in my dreams is if she's in the same room as me. She hates Rogue, although why that is I haven't figured out yet. I know that she's not really a demon either, but someone who has adopted the demon persona to cover her real identity. She's a murderer, too, just for sport."
"There's something we haven't considered," he said and I heard the blankets rustle as he got out of bed. I heard his footsteps get closer until he was right behind me, wrapping his arms around me from behind and pulling me back to lean against him.
"We?" I asked sarcastically, trying to get a reaction out of him.
"Yes, we," he said flatly. "We're married and mated, which means we're a team. We have to stick together with things like this."
I felt a wave of guilt rush through me as I remembered keeping my secret from him, tears welling up and threatening to spill over when I forced myself to calm down. I sighed and leaned my head back against his chest as he placed his chin lightly on the top of my head. "So, what is it exactly that you say we haven't considered?"
"We know that the woman we found last night was a Lucy from the future, right?" he said and I nodded slowly to acknowledge his words. "Well… what if more people from the future came through the Eclipse Gate after her?"
I froze instantly as I heard the ramifications in his words. More people from a terrible future, hardened and cold by the attacks of thousands of Dragons running rampant throughout the land. As I thought about it, I remembered Lucy's words about how the future version of me snapped and killed everyone from Fairy Tail except for the Celestial Spirit Wizard. What if this demon… is the future version of me?
I whipped around to face Natsu, about to start crying when I had my suspicions about the identity of the demon and he quickly covered my mouth with his hand. "Don't say anything just yet," he said quietly. "I know what you're thinking and you don't know for sure if it's you from the future. It could be someone else with Shadow Magic trying to impersonate you and freak people out. Just wait until we have evidence that proves it."
"Mara, don't freak out over something you don't know is true yet," Ty said calmly, giving me a smile that I knew was meant to comfort me.
"Come on, let's just get some sleep," Natsu said as he pulled me towards the bed. "We can discuss it in the morning."
As we curled up under the blankets, I shivered a little from exhaustion and turned over to bury my face in his chest while he hugged me to him, stroking my hair lightly before we all fell asleep. No one even stirred when the night darkened before dawn and the shadows grew in the room. Like a fog rolling in, the shadows thickened like the huge wall of darkness in the forest. As it shivered like water, out stepped the demon again, eyes colorless as it watched them all sleep. She assessed them like a predator would, her pupils turning to slits like a cat's eye for a split second before shifting back. Soundlessly, she moved forward until she spotted the bundle of tiger colored fur sleeping next to the blue cat and froze. Her head tilted to the side in confusion, a demented expression akin to longing plainly on her face, a yearning not for the cat itself but for the feelings the demon should have had while looking upon the Exceed. Her expression then hardened when she looked back up.
"Such a smart Dragon Slayer," the demon's whisper was lighter than the wind. "Too bad I have to kill their informant." As if her last sentence was funny, she revealed those sharp teeth of hers in a grin while her eyes went red, treading back into the darkness where it rolled away and slid under a crack in the window to head outside.
We woke late in the morning to loud knocking and I crawled out of bed with a growl. I was still growling and grumbling to myself as I made my way to the door, sensing the Magic from my brother and his Guild Master. I threw open the door and it hit the wall with a thump, so I glared at the two of them as they took a step backwards in trepidation.
"What do you want so early?" I growled at them.
"Listen here, sister, it's not early at all," Rogue groaned. "Besides, the other representatives from the other Legal Guilds showed up and we have an audience with the royal family in an hour. Time to wake up."
"Tell the king I'm sleeping in," I said as I rolled my eyes, turning around and walking away from the door.
Rogue and Sting seemed confused as I left the door open, so Sting yelled, "Just get ready for the audience! Wear something that like that uniform you created a few years back so you don't look disrespectful wearing training clothes. And don't forget to brush your hair because it looks like a rat's nest!"
I whipped around, snapping my fingers and watching as shadows congealed into the form of a thick bandage that I smacked over his mouth. "I just woke up," I growled. "Shut your face because it is too early for me to listen to your babbling."
Rogue grinned at me while Sting mumbled something nasty past the bandage. "You do know he's a Guild Master, right? He could beat you for this."
"I'd like to see him try," I sighed in annoyance as I left the room, slamming the bedroom door once I was inside and startling everyone awake.
"Whatsamatter?" I heard Natsu mumble sleepily, his words slurring as he rubbed his eyes.
"Rogue and Sting were banging on the door and told us that we need to wake up because all the representatives have an audience with the royal family in an hour," I told him as I brushed out my long hair with my fingers for now until I could brush it. "And apparently I'm not allowed to wear just a tank top and shorts to this audience. I have to wear my uniform."
"Did you pack it?" he asked as he slowly woke up.
"Actually, I'm wearing it right now," I said.
As he turned his head in my direction and seeming very confused, I snapped my fingers as the clothing shuddered, moving what looked to be black scales as they slid into place all over my body. Now as the scales stopped moving, it showed off a full body suit that covered me from fingertips to toes, stopping at my neck where a hood hung down from my shoulders. On the back between my shoulder blades was the royal blue mark of Fairy Tail, one that showed up on the suit just like it did on my skin. At the tips of my fingers were long Dragon like talons that were razor sharp and lethal, Natsu shaking his head the entire time.
"Sure can't tell you're a Dragon Slayer," he said under his breath. "You know, people could mistake that as Requip Magic if you do that in front of others."
"No way, it's just an extension of my Shadow Dragon Slayer Magic," I huffed as I pulled a brush from my shadow and brushed my waist length hair, dropping it back where it came from when I was done with it.
"Which you aren't supposed to be using unless in a dire situation!" he yelled after me as I ran into the bathroom to look in the mirror. Using my Magic some more, I traced my eyelids with my fingertip and left black lines there like eyeliner. My veins burned for a few seconds before finally fading, thankfully no nosebleed forming.
"I'm pretty sure meeting the royal family counts as dire!" I yelled back before walking into the room. Thankfully, he was already dressed, a different waistcoat on this time for the meeting, this one tucked in, zipped close, and had only one sleeve on his left arm that kept his right arm exposed. He tied on his scarf around the open collar and I ran over to help him a bit when it looked like he was struggling. "Can't do anything without my help…" I sight in mock frustration, grinning up at him when he scowled.
I picked up Tyger, who looked like she was trying to fake sleeping still, and placed her up on my shoulder where she stopped her charade to sit up and look alert. Happy walked beside Natsu as we heading out in the living area where Rogue, Sting, and their partners all waited rather impatiently for us. They mumbled something under their breath that sounded like an insult and we all headed out of the room together, walking down the hallway where we planned to get food quickly before meeting with the royal family. I grabbed a handful of bacon while everyone else had a plateful of food and we milled around until all the food was gone, except for me since I grabbed another handful to snack on while on the way inside the palace Mercurius. I tore of pieces and fed it to Ty, who purred happily whenever she grabbed a piece.
"You're going to finish eating that before we get to the throne room, right?" Sting asked. "We are having an audience with the king and his daughter, along with the knights that guard them. I'm pretty sure it would be considered too impolite to eat like that while they aren't."
"Not really my problem, but you can have some if you'd like!" I told him with a smile, handing him a piece.
He sighed and took it, which led to everyone else taking some as well to eat all the bacon so I wouldn't eat what was left during the audience. I was greatly disappointed when it was all gone but no one seemed to notice as we approached the throne room, which the hallway outside of it was filled with wizards from different guilds. There was Lyon and Jura from Lamia Scale, Hibiki and Eve from Blue Pegasus, Thibault and Ginger from Twilight Ogre, Bacchus and Rocker from Quatro Cerberus, Kagura and Millianna from Mermaid Heel, and then a bunch of others from less known guilds. Kagura turned around when Millianna pointed out our presence, her eyes landing on Sting and she smirked knowingly before looking away. I turned to look at the White Dragon Slayer, who had a distant grin on his face, and laughed a little.
He turned toward me suspiciously as I said, "So… Kagura, huh? Anything you would like to say now before I'm forced to sneak around to find the answers I want like I did to Rogue?"
"No need," he told me, his grin getting wider. "I know you'd enjoy the sneaking part too much, then I'd have to kill you for it if you caught me doing something and you'd run to Natsu. Might as well say what happened before it occurs. Kagura and I had a fling a couple times. That's it and nothing else."
I smiled over at Rogue, who was noticeably avoiding my gaze on purpose. "See, if he could tell me what happened between a girl, you should be able to as well instead of LYING ABOUT IT!"
"SHUT UP, TIMARA!" he yelled at me and by that time everyone had shifted their gaze to us.
He really looked as if he wanted to strangle me now, which was exactly why I moved over to Natsu's other side with an evil grin, putting distance between me and my brother. "I see what you're doing," Natsu said with a sigh. "Nice try, but you're on your own if he comes after you again. I'm not getting in between yet another sibling fight."
"There go those Shadow Dragon Slayers again!" I heard Kagura yell to Sting. "It's probably a good thing that you only have the male one in your guild and not both, right, Sting?"
"Well, I could have mated with the female one instead of Natsu snatching her up and then we'd all be one happy family!"
"I suggest you never say that again, regardless of if you're in my presence or not," Natsu growled, looking thoroughly tempted to throw a fireball at his head when the large doors leading to the throne room opened up and everyone began to filter in.
Then, before the king and his daughter came in, we were told to sit in places ordered by strongest to weakest guild, the left side being stronger and the right weaker. Natsu and I were to the far left since Fairy Tail was the strongest guild in Fiore while Sting and Rogue sat directly to my right, but I couldn't really see where all the larger guilds were placed next to us. There was a sound of an instrument playing to announce that the king and his daughter were approaching.
"All rise for the king and the princess!" called out a knight. I saw a short older man with extravagant clothes and a crown upon his head start to walk inside and we all bowed respectfully until we heard two people sit on the thrones before us.
"Please sit down," the king said and we all did as we were told.
I looked up and saw the daughter I had heard about earlier. Sitting beside him was a young woman, Princess Hisui. She had long jade colored hair and eyes, a jeweled tiara on her head that was golden with a large ruby adorning it. She had a green dress on and I had a feeling that it was her favorite color. She even looked as regal as her father and I forced myself not to grin.
"I wished to bring you all here while things were peaceful," King Toma said. "Since it seemed like a bad idea to invite every member of every Legal Guild, I asked that representatives be sent for this purpose. I wanted to hold a ball in the honor of all wizards. I also wanted nothing more than to thank you for your service to our country. Without some of you, I have no doubt that Fiore would have been destroyed." The king looked over at Natsu and me, so I knew that he was thinking about how we stopped Etherion and Acnologia.
As the king carried on speaking for about half an hour, I kept catching the princess looking over at us. I didn't think much of it since she probably wanted to watch the two wizards who performed strong feats of Magic together. After King Toma nodded his head to show that he was done speaking, he signaled for both Natsu and me to move before them. I carried Ty over as we kneeled before the two nobles, the door behind us swinging closed as everyone else left. The king smiled down at us while his daughter remained stoic.
"I've heard about the two of you, Natsu and Timara Dragneel," King Toma said. "I asked especially for the two of you to be the representatives for Fairy Tail."
"And here I thought it was because our Guild Master wanted us to get out of the house before we got cabin fever, your majesty," I said with a grin.
The king grinned and said, "I'm afraid not, young lady. So, is it true what they say about you both? That one of you absorbed Etherion so it didn't kill the rest of Fairy Tail and Black Eclipse while the other fought and defeated Acnologia?"
"I fought the Dragon while she did the rest," Natsu said, then I elbowed him in the ribs to make him remember his manners. With a start, he bowed his head quickly before adding, "Your majesty."
"Please, no need to use all the formalities right now," he said quietly.
"Father, you really can't ask that. It seems wrong," Princess Hisui told him.
"Hush now, Hisui," the king told her kindly. "Now, please go get ready for the grand party we have in store for tonight!"
The king practically waltzed out of the room without his daughter and she gazed down at us sternly before breaking out in a shy smile. "Please forgive my father. When he thinks he needs to act like a normal king, he gets all stuffy like now. Wait until he gets really excited, then he goes around saying the word 'kabo' after almost every sentence."
"Personally, princess, I didn't see him the way you say," I told her respectfully. "If that's what you call formal, then I can't wait to see what he's like when he's animated."
"Trust me, you don't," Hisui said, her smile losing her shyness as she stood up, beckoning for us to do the same. "Now if you'll excuse me, I have an appointment with a new acquaintance of mine. Please, enjoy your stay and the party later as well."
As we started to walk over to the door where two knights opened it for us, I whispered to Natsu quiet enough so that only he could hear me. "Who do you think this acquaintance is?"
"I don't know," he whispered back, "but you're not going to spy on them."
"So says you," I said with a grin as we walked past the doors.
When no one was looking, I placed my hand on the door, about to use my Magic to move the shadows long enough to see what was going on when Natsu grabbed me and pulled me away. "Don't even think about it," he told me, keeping a tight grip on my hand as he dragged me down the hallway. "Spying on the princess will most likely lead to jail time and we've already had enough of that to last a lifetime!"
"But Natsu, how are we going to figure out who that person is?" I said, whining a little to emphasize my point. "What if she's meeting with the person who is really the demon?!"
"I very much doubt that they'd let a raving lunatic meet with the princess," Natsu said flatly.
The rest of the day was spent wandering about Mercurius together so Natsu could keep me distracted from thoughts of Hisui and her meeting. Closer to sunset, I saw a strange person watching me rather intently as we passed and I wondered if it was maybe him that met with her. This man had long gray hair in a high ponytail while a large fringe of shorter hair that covered his right eye was black. The one eye that showed was red with a black slit for a pupil, looking so familiar to me that I would have thought it could have belonged to Rogue. He had a jagged scar on the bridge of his nose that extended further past his long bangs and then a strange black tattoo around his left eye that was sharp and curved. His clothing was strange to me, almost foreign even as it had different patterns all over the vest he wore and he even had on a long cape with tiger print along the very edges. The shirt underneath the vest and his pants were the only part about him that seemed normal. As I passed by him with Natsu and looked his way, he gave me a smirk that looked as if he was amused by something even though his eyes were emotionless and dead. When we were about to round a corner, I happened to look back to him when I felt a chill run down my spine, only to discover that the man was now gone. Later, after I had been led back to our room, I had an argument with Natsu over the fact that he would have to wear fancy clothes for the party. He insisted that the clothing he had on now would be suitable while I informed him that I would refuse to let him out of the door without changing.
"You know I'm going to let you keep the scarf on!" I yelled at him, placing my hands on my hips and glaring fiercely at him. "You aren't going to wear normal clothes to this sort of party when it's being held by royalty!"
"I think you're just still angry at me about not letting you spy on the princess earlier!" he shouted back. "I don't think this has anything to do with me changing at all!"
"It has everything to do with the fact that you have to change clothes!" I growled and he finally figured out not to argue further, taking a step backwards and giving me a sheepish smile.
"Ok, fine. I'll change."
That was how I successfully forced him into doing as I said and changing into dark pants, dark vest, and a white long sleeved buttoned shirt underneath. I tied the scarf back around his neck with a satisfied grin before heading into the bathroom to change clothes myself. I didn't particularly care for having to dress up like this either but I at least came prepared. I let the scaly suit transform into a long halter blue black dress that flowed down to my ankles, diamonds adorning the strap around my neck and a gold ribbon that tied around the waist. There was a slit in the dress that stopped just above my left knee and it made it perfect if I ever needed to run for some reason. I also had on gladiator styled boots that I absolutely loved. I formed a clip from the shadows, twisting my long hair a bit and then clipping it together at the back of my skull, some of the long hair draping down over the clip and brushing my shoulders. I adjusted the bangs and hair framing my face then walked out of the bathroom entirely, where two cats and a stunned Fire Dragon Slayer waited. He stood up, walked over to me slowly, then kissed me entirely too quick for my liking before we left the room for the party.
It was discovered later that this was to be a masquerade ball and that masks would be provided if we were so inclined to use them. I, of course, created one of my own with the shadows. It had blue black scales and then silver around the eyes and the edges of the mask. Natsu created one for himself as well, electric blue crystals with red markings around it just like the scales of his Dragon form. When we arrived outside the ballroom, the servants smiled at Ty and Happy before giving one to the both of them. Ty's was a sparkly royal blue mask with gold around the edges and Happy's was red with silver fish swimming on it. They flew off somewhere together as I looped my arm through Natsu's before we walked into the room.
Once inside, we could hear music being played by a group of musicians as a large mass of people danced out on the floor. Poor Natsu didn't look too happy to be here at all, seeming about to bolt altogether when I saw Rogue and Sting standing as far away from the dancing as they could get. Taking pity on the poor man beside me, I led him over to where they were standing and watching the others dance. I didn't see either Frosch or Lector, so they must have scrambled after Ty and Happy once they caught sight of them. Sting was wearing something similar to what Natsu wore, only with a blue long sleeved shirt instead. Rogue just had a fancy red long sleeved shirt with a black tie, dark pants with red markings on the sides as well. I was surprised that he hadn't found a way to sneak his cape in here with him. Sting's mask was white and plain as could be and Rogue looked like he took a page from my book, forming his own mask from the shadows that was black and red.
"No dancing for either of you, huh?" I said with a grin as we walked up to them.
"Sting said he might if Kagura asks him to," Rogue said. "I refuse to dance though. It's not my thing."
"I bet you would if Yukino were here to dance with you," I said deviously, laughing a little at the glare he shot at me.
"Why can't you just let that go?" he asked while sighing.
"The moment you admit that you like Yukino will be the moment I let it go," I told him sweetly. "Now, unless you tell me what I want to hear, I swear I'll drag you out there and dance with you until I get what I want."
He seemed to shudder a bit at the thought, which only made me smile, and said, "Fine, I really like Yukino. There, are you happy now?"
"Extremely happy, actually," I said to him.
It was a few seconds later that I saw Kagura appear, giving us all a respectful nod before dragging Sting away. All I saw before they disappeared in the crowd was that she was wearing a long purple dress that sparkled and her mask matched it well. They passed by this woman in an all-white sleeveless dress, her white hair clipped up in a different style than mine and a black mask that was so dark that it didn't reveal the color of her eyes. With zero expression, she seemed to just fade away into the crowd without a second look. A bunch of men turned their heads as she passed and then went back to dancing.
As if sensing my next move, Natsu tried to sneak off before I noticed, but I caught him by the arm and dragged him after me. I lost sight of Rogue as we went further into the crowd of dancers. Poor Natsu seemed a bit nervous for some reason and I had to stifle my laughter, but I grabbed one of his hands as he wrapped his free arm around my waist. As I rested my other hand on the arm around me, we slowly began to dance and I was impressed.
"Now, if I'm correct, the last time we danced was after our wedding and you were absolutely terrible at it," I told him with an amused smile. "You had a thing for stomping on my toes. Now it seems like you know what you're doing. What am I missing here?"
"A few people from our guild taught me when they remembered how horrible I was at it," he said, sounding embarrassed enough that he wouldn't look me in the eyes. "I had Erza, Lucy, and Lisanna took it upon them to take the challenge. Lucy was the only one who didn't try to make me throw up from motion sickness."
"Lucy, huh?" I asked flatly, letting my intense disapproval be heard.
"Don't get jealous on me," Natsu said with a laugh. Then, as a way to distract me, he pulled me closer and brushed his lips against the tattoo between my neck and shoulder that marked me as his mate, laughing even more when I shivered. "I like my mark on you. I think it works even better than the wedding ring to keep guys off you like back in the past."
"Pretty sure most of those guys only did things like that to make you angry on purpose," I informed him.
When the song was over, he reluctantly let me go and looked over at a table where food was placed while I happened to look the other direction at a window that led out onto a large terrace. Standing there and looking in, his gaze riveted on me, was the man I had seen earlier. He even wore a red mask for the occasion that seemed to glow with the illumination from the party. Then, with a hint of a smirk on his face, he walked away from the window and I had a feeling that he wanted me to follow. Looking up at Natsu, whose gaze was locked onto the food, I knew what I had to do next.
"You go eat some food and I'll catch up with you later," I told him, hoping to squash the edge of suspicion I could see on his face. "There's someone I have to talk with for a few minutes."
With a hesitant nod, he walked away and towards the food table as I moved my way to the veranda doors. Out there was a huge courtyard that overlooked the front lawn of Mercurius, trees lining it as far as the eye could see. I didn't see the man anywhere, which was extremely suspicious, so I walked closer towards the edge of the large balcony when I heard a hissing noise from the shadows. I felt something rush at me, pinning me to the railing, as someone grabbed me by the wrists to turn me around. It was the man who beckoned me out here and I let out a growl before he pinned my wrists together as a huge glob of a dark substance appeared around my wrists, keeping them bound together no matter how hard I tried to pull them apart. He grabbed the rubbery substance and lifted me into the air, making me hiss out a breath when my shoulders felt like they might pop out of their sockets.
"Little Timara Wyvernia," he said, his voice rough and familiar. That must have been the reason why he didn't speak when I first saw him because he figured I would guess his identity.
"It's Dragneel, not Wyvernia," I told him as I thrashed in his hold, my shoulders protesting. "You should know that since I told you were at my wedding."
"And I always hated that you changed your last name to match his. This must mean you've figured out who I am," the man said with a harsh chuckle. "Tell me then who I am to you."
"If a Lucy can come back from the future, then there must be others like her as well," I said. "You're the future version of my brother Rogue, one of the only two Dragon Slayers left in existence in your era."
"You were always smart and quick to figure things out, Timara," future Rogue said with a smirk.
"There are things I don't understand though," I said as I began to get angry, glaring at him fiercely and baring my fangs.
"And what would that be?" he asked, sounding bored. He then lifted me even higher, forming a shadowy hook to loop through my binds and moving it to dangle me over the side of the balcony where there was a long drop.
I let out a hiss as my shoulders began to ache even more then spoke up. "You've been following us. You showed up at my mansion and played with Frosch. You even decided to burn down a helpless colony of Exceeds. That doesn't really add up."
I watched him as his eye brows drew together in confusion, the one time he let an emotion be seen. "I played with Frosch for reasons that don't concern you. As for the colony, that wasn't my doing."
"Perhaps that's because I was the one to destroy it," I heard a voice say that was equally familiar.
Rising up from behind future Rogue in his own shadow was the demon from my nightmares, making her presence known. She reached out and gripped the back of his neck tightly, her claws digging into his skin and letting droplets of blood drip down his neck. Before my eyes, I watched as the shadows surrounding her began to slowly fade away as if being pulled by the wind until her identity was shown to me. Standing behind the future version of my brother was the woman in white I had seen earlier, the one with the white hair. She reached up to grab the clip keeping her hair in place before yanking it free, her hair flowing down her back and I realized that her hair was actually so white it could be defined as colorless. Her pale skin seemed to glow in the moonlight and reflected off now colorless eyes as she ripped the mask from her face.
"Stay still. Make one sudden move to drop her and I tear your spine out," she said in a lethal voice, looking feral as she watching him while staying unnaturally still.
"If I must," future Rogue said, his eyes straight ahead as he stayed expressionless.
She looked up at me like a predator would and said, "Glad we could finally meet face-to-face and in my regular form. It was long overdue."
I started shivering then and I knew better than to blame it entirely on my shoulders feeling like they would be ripped from me. As I looked down upon the woman in white, I took in the familiarity of her features numbly as the same thought ran through my head. This woman who was also the demon… is the future version of me.
