A/N: Hiya people! Sorry for posting so late, I was at a mini party where we ate chocolate and watched the movie Rio. I actually thought it was pretty dumb, mostly because of the implausibility of it all, and the fact no one died.

It's not a good movie if no one dies.

Also, I will be putting a poll on my page just for the fun of it to see which OC from this story is getting the most love out of the main ones….

Vote if you have the time, review if you have the emotion!

I hope you enjoy, happy Labor Day!

The Beginnings of Insanity

Alzack was definitely lost now. Worse than before. Like, so lost he was actually confusing his right and left.

He had to find Bisca though, so rather than waiting to get his bearings he plunged furiously on, no longer bothering to chart his progress mentally. He would either run into an ally or an enemy, and either one would be fine.

If he ran into allies, he could team up with them, it was damn creepy wandering around on his own.

If he came across enemies he could either play target practice to get some of his frustration out or use one of them to find Bisca for him.

Just as he opened another door and peered inside, he heard something from the room opposite to him.

BAM. That was a gunshot. No doubt, that was a gunshot. And better yet, it sounded like a rifle, which was what Bisca used by choice….

An inarticulate roar of fury rang through the wall and startled the Fairy Tail mage. Then a scream, a woman's scream, and it sounded like…

Bisca!

Alzack ran to the door as fast as he could, kicking it in, fearful but joyful, afraid but ecstatic.

He halted in the doorway.

One of the Sun mages was laying face-down in a pool of blood, the one in engineer boots and torn jeans…. Wish, that was it. His ripped shirt was soaked in gore, glazed blue-violet glittering beneath his lids. His mouth was slightly open in a vague expression of shock. The hole punched through his body was clearly visible even at a distance, the magic bullet casing lying on the ground beside him, stamped with the indication of a minor explosive. Every gun-using mage had some, but Bisca marked her casings by painting them green for when she and Alzack went to the shooting range for some friendly competition.

Green bullet shells, check.

He heard a muffled cry and gave a shout of his own. The knife master, Shredder, was on top of Bisca, furiously stabbing downward, intent on shoving his blade through her face. The only thing stopping him from doing so was the fact that Bisca was holding her gun in front of her to ward off blows.

"Damn you!" the knife mage roared, "Damn you!"

Alzack had just enough time to register Bixlow rolling Wish over to check for signs of life. Alzack saw none; signs of life, that was. The boy's eyes were rolled back and glassy, blood leaking from his mouth and pouring from his chest.

After taking note of his guild mate, Alzack drew his gun and aimed at Shredder's back.

He would not allow anyone to hurt Bisca.

Not his allies, not his enemies, not even himself.

…

Lucy swallowed and came to a decision. She would have to play it cool, get information from the girl and try to escape by any means necessary. She hadn't come across any 'dolls' yet, but she had felt that temporary, mind-numbing emptiness and decided that must be the way the 'dolls' were controlled.

"Lucy-san? Would you like some tea?" Lacie offered sweetly, proffering a white porcelain tea pot from which steam was rising. Lucy opened her mouth, closed it, opened it again, and, finding no words, simply held out her tea cup. A stream of pale liquid poured in and the smell was divinely sweet with a bitter edge.

"We didn't know what all of you liked, so we made earl gray." Minnie said quietly stirring her own beverage, "We hope you like it."

"O-oh, um, thank you." Lucy stammered, and Lacie smiled.

"Sugar?" She asked, clicking the tongs together. Lucy took a sip of the tea, and finding its flavor to be perfect, she declined.

The room they were seated in had vertical black and white striped walls, white tiles beneath their feet, and muted cloth hangings of the blank stretches of wall.

"Do you like skipping rope?" Lacie asked.

"I used to jump rope when I was little! What rhymes do you use?"

Lucy and Lacie, with the occasional interjection from Minnie, kept up the small talk, and Lucy decided that she rather liked the young girl, and could almost forget the terror of the house she was in and the wounds given to her friends.

"I wonder if everyone wants to leave downstairs yet. They're bothering me." Lacie pouted, "They all come to take my friends away, and I don't like it. The people I have here have fun. You're having fun here, right Lucy-san?"

"W-well, yes, the tea is rather good, but…"

"But?" Asked Minnie.

"Well you said you don't like it when people take away your friends, but… when you keep people in here, you're taking away their friends too." Lucy pointed out. For the first time, the cute little girl's eyes clouded over and Lucy could see a hint of the madness that had driven her to create the house of insanity they were currently residing in.

"No one would ever come near me when they had a choice, so I have to force them to come to me!"

"What are you talking about?" Lucy queried in confusion. She couldn't see anyone not being attracted to the adorable, if slightly creepy, little girls before her. Sure they were a bit scary considering what they had done, but all things considered….

Lucy wondered if her affection for the girls was an effect of the house.

"Do you want to know?" Minnie's voice was quiet and harsh.

"To know how we became two out of one?" Lacie's tone was muted and sad.

"I-I… Tell me." Lucy wanted to get information out of them the only way she could.

After all, knowing was half the battle.

"It all started when I told Mama I wanted to be a Fairy Tail mage when I grew up…" Lacie started, and suddenly Lucy was transferred into what could only be a memory from Lacie's mind. Lacie's voice spoke through the gloom before anything became solid or animate, "Don't worry Lucy-san, this is easier than explaining. Watch like you would a video lacrima. Watch and listen for me."

…..

A woman with violet hair and lavender eyes smiled at Lacie from across the table. They were in the kitchen, Lacie munching on cookies her mother had made.

Lacie was the only one in her family with magic power. Onee-chan didn't have any, but she wasn't jealous. She had told Lacie that herself, saying that she was too scared, and that even if she had power she wouldn't use it. Onee-chan said that as long as Lacie was happy, she was happy too.

Onee-chan was with her boyfriend right now, so it was just Lacie and Mama.

"Lacie, what do you want to be when you grow up? A ballerina? I know lots of little girls want to grow up and dance." Mama asked with a small smile.

"Mff…" Lacie swallowed her cookie and took a sip of milk, because Onee-chan told her not to talk with her mouth full because it was unladylike. "I wanna go to Fairy Tail Mama! I wanna be the bestest mage ever! I wanna be prettier than Mirajane and stronger than Titania Erza! I'm gonna be the greatest mage to go through Fairy Tail!" The little girls said proudly. Already she had a great deal of power for her age, her specialty ability being to alter reality for her own purpose. Of course most of it was just an illusion, but surely if she practiced enough, then… then….

"Oh. I see." Mama's voice had suddenly gone cold, and Lacie looked up, wondering what she had done wrong.

"I-I'm going to play dolls now Mama. Thank you for the cookie!" The tiny girl ran to her mother's side and hugged her tightly. "I love you."

Mama didn't reply. That was when things began.

That was when Lacie started to go mad.

….

Later that night Lacie heard voices in the living room, so she got out of bed, grabbing a doll she called Elliot and cradling her. Putting her ear to the door, Lacie felt naughty and was sure she would be caught and scolded, but her child's curiosity caught her up and she listened any way.

"…. Wants to go to Fairy Tail, then that's her goal Mama! She should be able to dream what she wants just like any other child!" That was Onee-chan. Onee-chan was sixteen, twelve years older than Lacie, and she had a different Papa, but Lacie loved her Onee-chan. Onii-chan was thirteen, and he lived with Papa, so Lacie didn't see him very often, but he was nice too. Onee-chan had violet hair like Mama, but blue eyes like her papa. Lacie's papa had green hair like hers, and dark purple eyes, and was very nice, only he was at work a lot.

"That little girl is a freak!" Lacie heard Mama say, and she wondered who she was talking about, "She's a freak that should be killed or sent away from normal people. She's not right!"

"Mama! That's your daughter you're talking about!"

"No, you're my daughter. That thing doesn't belong to me; she was part of the marriage. I pretend to like her because Alren loves her!"Lacie hadn't known that. She thought Mama was her mama and Papa was her papa, but now… Mama wasn't her real mama?

"Lacie is as much my sister as Luca is my brother! I won't let you talk about her like that Mama!"

"Mama…?" Lacie hadn't meant to speak out loud, but in the shock of it all… the door swung open and the piercing purple eyes appeared in the crevice between, full of tears, "You don't…. you don't love me?"

Mama had simply stared at her then. She had simply stared and taken Lacie to the cellar…

Her prison for the next two years.

….

It was dark. So dark she couldn't see her own hand in front of her face for a long time after she woke up, having her eyes closed the same as having them open. But after a while she could see again, her eyes adjusting.

She didn't have her dolls here. She couldn't, or rather, wouldn't use her magic down in that hole. She didn't have food, only the rotting scraps she was thrown from upstairs. She was still in the nightgown she had worn when first put down there.

It had been months, how long she didn't know, but she felt hollow, hungry for food, for love, for freedom.

It was dark. So dark.

So lonely.

…..

More time passed, and still she knew not how long. She couldn't remember her name for lack of it being called. She could no longer speak when she tried, her voice box dead from lack of use. She could no longer feel the gnawing sensation of deadly hunger, for lack of anything to fill the space.

But the loneliness remained. She had been down here for a long, long time… all alone. And she knew. She had found things down here.

Children's bones. She didn't know where those had come from, but they were undeniably the bones of two children, maybe more. And there were dog bones.

Those were from her puppy, Buttons, who Mama had said had run away. Lacie had found his collar, still on his bleached white neck.

Lacie picked up a child's skull and peered into the empty eye sockets. What if those bones were hers? What if she had died, and not realized, and simply stayed here….?

Lacie decided she wanted a doll more than anything right now. Dolls wouldn't ever talk back to you, and they were as good as having a friend down there. They listened, and never criticized, and they loved you no matter what.

Lacie took the bones and began to shape them….

…

The doll had been coming along quite nicely. She didn't have hair or eyes yet, but the face, carved out of the skulls, was finished. The arms and legs, jointed and held with bone pins, swung smoothly. The thin body was clothed in rags torn from Lacie's dress. Lacie took the sharp bit of skeleton she had been using to carve and began to cut her hair, gathering it at her feet. It was matted and dirty, and she couldn't remember what color it was supposed to have been.

She then knotted the newly cut hair into a pixie cut and placed it through the holes drilled in the head of the doll so that the hair hung realistically about the face.

The only thing the doll lacked now was eyes.

And she would have eyes.

"An eye for an eye, a tooth for a tooth…." Lacie whispered insanely to herself.