A/N I'm so in the spirit to write this so I'm going to write as much as I can today.
When Lucy woke up, the first thought that ran through her head was: What's on my face?
Her hand came up and wiped the substance off and looked at it.
It's water…Tears?
Lucy sat up, looking at her surroundings. Erza, Natsu, and Grey were all lined up next to her and everyone was lying on a pile of leaves. Happy was gently pushing on Natsu to get him up. Upon closer inspections, she noticed everyone had a streak on their faces, all from tears that were not their own.
The first one to wake up was Natsu. He bolted upright and slowly lifted his hand. He moved each finger individually and grinned. "Alright," he said, "I have control of my body again. Happy! We're going after Kotone!"
He looked around and saw Lucy awake.
"We're waiting for Wendy and Gajeel," Lucy stated.
Natsu stood up, "Why? We're just wasting time as Kotone gets further and further away."
Lucy looked at Erza and Grey, still passed out.
"We won't be able to help her until we get back up. As you saw, we aren't a match for her when she isn't even fighting seriously. You noticed didn't you? She was reprimanding us every time we did something wrong. Correcting us, giving us advice, making it easier for us…Natsu, she wanted us to win. It was like she was training us," Lucy replied.
Natsu's face darkened as Lucy told him what he already knew. "When she was telling me the condition for her not to use magic while fighting us," Natsu said, "that if I broke the condition, she wouldn't hesitate for another second about her choice. She's been fighting herself and she even told Wendy that she didn't want to make the choice. She knows what the right choice is, and she's forcing herself to choose it. There is another way that doesn't include this choice, but the price is too high and she refuses to choose it."
Lucy rubbed her head, trying to make sense of what Natsu said. "Wait," she began, "what is this choice you keep going on about? You said something like this to Mirajane as well. What choice is so bad that she wants to abandon everyone?"
Erza and Grey woke up during the conversation and were listening intently. They were curious and wanted to know as well.
Natsu's hands fisted as his face twisted in anger, "The problem isn't which choice she makes. It's what she plans to do after the choice that is. The choice is a something her father made a long time ago when she ran away. That idiot threatened to go on a rampage and kill thousands of people if she didn't return to him a certain amount of time. In two days, it will be that certain amount of time. The choice is either her freedom or the lives of thousands. She couldn't accept staying with her father, so he gave her another option. She could keep her freedom if she chose to take part in a ritual that would rip out her humanity."
Erza sat up, grabbing her stomach, "You mean she would die?"
"No," Natsu said, "it means that she wouldn't have a human form to change into."
Meanwhile, Wendy was trying to keep up with Gajeel. She was stumbling and running to keep up with his brisk pace.
"Gajeel! *pant pant* Do you think *pant pant* we could go *pant* a little slower?" she asked in between breathes.
Gajeel frowned as he stopped, picking up the little girl. He started running as Wendy desperately clung for life.
"We need to pick up the pace, not slow down!" Gajeel replied.
"I'm sorry I'm so slow. It's my fault we're so far behind the others," Wendy apologized.
Gajeel's frown deepened, "Well we can't dwell in the past, it's too late to change how much ground we covered. But maybe we can make up for lost time."
As Gajeel sprinted to catch up to Natsu and the others, Kotone was taking her time. She would periodically stop and look at her destination, second guessing her decision…
"Wait, what do you mean she wouldn't be able to change into a human form? Isn't she human?" Grey asked.
Natsu sat down in a huff and grumbled to himself.
"What was that?" Lucy asked.
"I would be breaking the condition if I told you anymore," Natsu replied.
Lucy, Grey, and Erza all shared a look.
"Wait!" Happy yelled.
Everyone looked at the cat, wondering what he could have to say on the subject.
"Kotone told Natsu that if he broke the condition then she would use her magic, right?" he asked. Everyone nodded. "Well," he continued, "she didn't say anything about Gajeel and Wendy! They know what's going on and they won't lose anything by telling you! Is that right Natsu?"
Natsu's face light up as he picked up Happy, "You're a genius!"
Then, just as Natsu said this, Gajeel came running by and passed them. All was quite as they looked down the path.
"What?" was all Lucy could manage to say.
Then Gajeel came running back, "Why is everyone lying around? We need to catch up to Kotone!"
Lucy stood up, "Erza and Grey need medical attention. We can't go on until they're healed."
Wendy squirmed out of Gajeel's grip, "I'm here! Let me see them!"
Wendy went to Erza seeing she had it the worst. It was a relief to everyone to see Erza's face relax.
"There, you should be fine. It's a good thing that this type of muscle is easy to heal. You were very lucky," Wendy remarked as she moved onto Grey.
"We weren't lucky," Erza stated. "She never meant to hurt us in the first place. It was only a delaying tactic. She probably even knew that you wouldn't have a problem healing us."
"Who? Kotone? You mean Kotone did this to you? That's impossible, Kotone may be strong, but she's not powerful enough to take all of you on at once," Wendy said.
Natsu looked at Wendy with a serious expression, "What we saw in Edolas was nothing compared to what she showed us today."
Gajeel looked curious, "You mean she's a better fighter than Erza?"
"She has years and years of experience over all of us, even over Gramps. Not to mention all those years were when she was blindfolded. She was even going easy on us. Not to mention she knew everything about Lucy's keys! How is that even possible?" Natsu exclaimed.
"How old is Kotone, she looks to be a little older than Wendy. She can't be older than Master, it's impossible to look that young when you're older than Master," Lucy remarked.
Wendy suddenly became focused with her work on Grey and Gajeel looked at the path. Natsu was the only one who didn't look away. "They need to know if they're going to understand what we're fighting for," he said.
Wendy bit her lip and Gajeel glanced at them. He sighed and said, "Kotone is a dragon."
The three were speechless, even Happy.
Wendy finished with Grey and said softly, "Kotone is over 500 years old. She's been in agony for a vast majority of that time. Her mother was human, that's why she can take on a human form. She used to only be in her human form when she lost her sense of sight. She practiced for a long time in order to walk the earth as she is now."
"Her adoptive father is Acnologia, the dragon that thinks of humans as insects that need to be squashed. He could care less if he killed all of us. Even I wouldn't want to go back to living with him," Gajeel stated.
"Kotone doesn't want anyone to get hurt, so she knew immediately that she would eventually go back. It's been about 400 years since she last saw her father. Just two more days…that's all we have to convince her not to kill herself," Wendy murmured.
"Wait! She's going to kill herself?" Lucy exclaimed.
"Would you want to stay with that monster of a dragon?" Gajeel asked.
Monster….It rang in Lucy's head.
"Do you know if Kotone has met any other dragon than Acnologia?" She asked.
"No, she hasn't," all three answered at once, in a sigh.
"While we were fighting Kotone, I asked her what she was. Her reply was 'a monster'. Do you think that she maybe believes that all dragons are monsters because of Acnologia?" Lucy asked.
Wendy thought for a moment, "That is a possibility. It would make sense, seeing as she was constantly shunned and attacked because she was a dragon."
"Lucy," Erza said, "I think you know what Kotone is going through better than any of us. You ran away from your father and it put all of us in danger. The difference is that Kotone doesn't have the same support as you did and she doesn't even know the people she's trying to save."
"That's true," Grey commented, "it may be that only Lucy can really persuade Kotone to live after she goes with her father."
Lucy felt the pressure and started shaking her head in denial. "What could I do? I can't go up to her and tell her I know how she feels! That would be a lie because I don't know what it's like to be a human-dragon hybrid. I don't think anyone knows what it's like beside Kotone. She's all alone and no one can understand what she's going through at all."
Natsu stood up and his hands fisted so hard that you could hear the joints of his fingers popping in protest. "You're wrong," he stated. "Wendy, Gajeel, and I, we know exactly how hard this is for her. I refuse to let her die this way. Everything she's been through, to have it all amount to nothing? I can't accept that!"
Wendy also stood up, looking at Lucy. "I don't know what Erza's talking about, but if you really have even experienced partial the pain Kotone's felt. Then I'm sure you can get across to her. She knows she can be persuaded by us," indicating Gajeel, Natsu, and herself, "and that's why she escaped in the night and why she handicapped all of us. I wouldn't be surprised if she took out Natsu first, seeing as he saw the dream."
Natsu's teeth gritted as he fought his urge to go sprinting after Kotone right then. Grey stood up, wounds healed, and asked, "What is this dream? Kotone mentioned it earlier."
Gajeel leaned on a nearby tree and said, "She has created a magical device that amplifies her magic power into a lullaby puts you into a deep sleep and during that slumber, you dream her life."
"Her life?" Happy asked.
Wendy nodded, "In the dream you see her life story play out. She showed it to us to save the precious time we had left in Edolas. She also did it so then we wouldn't see her as a monster…" A light bulb went on in Wendy's head and she gasped with excitement. She ran over to Lucy and hugged her, "Lucy you're a genius!"
"I am?" she asked.
"Yes! She does view dragons as monsters! That why she said that she was a monster! It all makes sense now! This is why she ran away from Master all those years ago. This is why she's running away again! When Master found out she was a dragon, she ran away, scared he would call her a monster. That's why when she was gone she was working so hard to stay in her human shape without the blindfold. So he could see her as a human, not a dragon in disguise. Then, when she was forced to become a dragon in order to save us from the collapsing pillar in Edolas, she showed us the dream, hoping we would be able to understand her. It's because we were dragon slayers that she offered to show us the dream. She thought that since we were also raised by 'monsters' we would be able to tell the difference between her and the dragons. Then we have what we're doing right now. She's going to her father so she can save the people who have accepted her. She's not going to take part in the ritual because she despises being part dragon, she's not going to choose becoming a real dragon. Then her freedom is what she's going to give up. She's going to give up all of her freedom, all of it."
Everyone was silent, the logic making sense to all of them. Everyone glanced at each other, silently making sure they weren't the only ones shocked. Wendy stood, determined that she had come up with the correct reason Kotone was doing this.
"Well," Gray said, drawing everyone's attention, "what are we waiting for?"
Natsu grinned as he yelled his agreement, the others joining in. Everyone stood and walked onto the path Kotone was on. The path that would end in despair and tragedy, despite their determined footsteps, would leave footprints on Kotone's soul.
A/N SUCCESS! What was that? three chapters up in one week? BOOOYAAAHH! I'm so happy! I might even be forgiven for not updating in over a month! I will admit, the next chapter will probably not come for a while due to HW and finals and all that other fun stuff.
Also, the OC deadline has been extended. I thought it over and realised that a lot of people are on vacation and might not have internet connection. The new deadline is December 10, 2011. I actually argued with myself over this for a while. I have been getting a steady stream of OCs which makes me really happy. Not so many that I'm overwhelmed, but I've gotten enough to give me that happy feeling people get when someone tells them "Good Job" after putting a lot of work in a project.
I DO NOT WANT TO DISCOURAGE ANYONE WHO WANTS TO OFFER AN OC! If someone wants to give me an OC on December 10, they have just as much of a chance to get a big role as the first person who offered an OC.
Happy: I want to offer one!
Miu: Really? That's great! Want to tell me about your character?
Happy: He's a fish! A ginormous fish that is rainbow colored and has enough meat to last a lifetime!
Miu:...I had a feeling you would say something like that...but that actually not a bad idea. With some tweaks I could actually use him...
A/N Holly crud monkeys! I just thought of that on the spot and I think I'm going to use it!