Hiya, all! Sorry it took so long to finally post another chapter! I had some things pop up in life that pushed back my writing times. Action is just around the corner, as foretold in the previous chapter, and there will even be a surprising bit that I feel needed to be told since the beginning. I just didn't feel it was the right time to write it in until now. Enough of my explaining for I think you'd all like to get back to reading! Anyway, enjoy the latest chapter!
Chapter 14: The Hope of the Freed
The entire way to the volcano I practically skipped around, elated that I would get a chance to let out my destructive tendencies again. I had my hood down and my coat undone so that it flapped around behind me, the skirt of my dress doing the same as the wind whipped around me. This blue black dress was strapless, but on the back in between the Fairy Tail mark was two long pieces of blue black translucent fabric that glittered in the sunlight and it fluttered down like wings past the coat in the wind. It even forced my bangs out of my eyes, ruffling my still short hair as I skipped along. Natsu had already taken off his coat, not bothering with keeping his identity a secret from Black Eclipse anymore.
It was midday by the time we found the inactive volcano looming up out of the forest. We stood outside on the edge of the woods and observed a few guards standing in front of a rocky door. "We should wait until nightfall," Erza said. "Timara can sneak in around dusk and then set off a distraction once she finds the others."
"I'm going with her," Natsu said as he moved to stand beside me.
"No, you're not," I told him. Then, quoting his exact words with a smile, I said, "This is just something I have to do alone."
"Damn it, Timara," he growled under his breath. "I'm not letting you go on your own."
"Do you trust me?" I asked simply as I looked up at the clouds and then back to the guards.
"Of course, I do but—" he said before I cut him off.
"Then you'll stay with the rest of the group and let me do what I do best," I said before turning around and jumping up into the branches of a tree.
I stood there within the darkness of the leaves, keeping one hand on the tree trunk for balance and letting the other one hang down by my side. I ignored any attempts at conversation from anyone except for Ty, waiting patiently for once for the time when the sun would set. Finally, the sky began to turn orange and soon a purplish color. I looked down at the group after doing up my coat and pulling my hood over my eyes, Natsu giving me a nod as I leapt from the boughs of the trees, shifting into the shadows before me as I moved along. As I passed by the guards in the shadows at their feet, I reached out to grab them by the ankles and pulled them down with me, knocking them out and then throwing them back into the light. The tunnel was covered in guards as well, so I knocked them all out instantly so that they wouldn't issue an alarm just yet.
The moment I moved out into the shadow of the inside of the volcano, I could immediately sense the magic of our Dragon Slayer friends. With black wings forming on my back, I leapt out of the shadows and flew up to roof, taking out the guards there easily. Now comes the fun part, I thought to myself with an evil grin. I finally took off the coat and dropped it down into my shadow as I walked to the door that led down to the next floor. I pulled Natsu's scarf a little tighter around my neck and opened the door, walking down to the next floor to be greeted with a large group of people.
"You didn't just think it would be this easy to sneak into our lair, did you?" the man I recognized as one of the leader's buddies said and I was certain that he was the one with the Sleep Magic. "We've been expecting you to come in here!"
"And that's exactly what I was counting on!" I told him before yelling, "Shadow Dragon's Roar!"
A huge blast of shadows hit them all, creating a huge hole that extended all the way to the outside of the building and shot its way to the volcano wall. I watched sheepishly as it blasted a hole to the outside as well, huge rocks could be heard sliding down the mountainside. I walked over to the hole in the building and looked down, seeing everyone I'd hit with my Roar lying on the ground below.
The building still shook a little and I said, "I think I might have overdone it a bit, Ty."
My shadow rippled as she flew out of it, hovering next to me and then said, "I agree. But at least they know that it's time for them to come in!"
With a smile, I nodded and took off for the stairs again to see another group of them running after me. Another Roar had them being blasted out of building and I ran down the steps two at a time. The next floor yielded the results I wanted, feeling the magic energy of a Sky Dragon Slayer. Using my magic to create an exact replica of the key needed to unlock the door, I slid it into the keyhole, turned it, then opened the door to see an exhausted looking Wendy and Carla. Once they saw me, they ran at me with tears streaming down their cheeks.
"Oh, Timara, you're here to rescue us!" Wendy cried. "Thank you so much! They've done so many terrible things to us!"
"Like what?" I growled as she hugged me, wrapping my arms around her skinny body as she shivered.
"They had to do things to keep us from using our magic," she whimpered. "For me, they kept low amounts of oxygen in the room so I couldn't fight back. I can only imagine what they did to the others."
It didn't take long to find out because on the next floor below us I could sense the magic energy of Laxus. His room was one with the insides completely covered in just concrete. I made a key for his room and opened it, making him grin up at me as sparks flew from the door and he absorbed them quickly. "Oh, Timara, I never thought I'd be so happy to see your evil little face."
"Good to see you, too, Laxus," I said with a laugh as he walked out.
I heard more running behind us and used my magic to send two demons after them. We ran to the stairs and I could hear screams as the demons did their work. The next floor had Gajeel and Pantherlily waiting for us, sitting in a room with the constant sounds of thunder. This room looked to be covered in pillows and Gajeel was in a straightjacket so he couldn't bust his way out. When I opened the door, all I could do was smile at them as another bout of thunder had Panterlily crouching down in fear as he covered his ears.
"Well, isn't this just a pleasant sight," I said, grinning at a glaring Gajeel and his cat. "Sure, I'll let you out, but I think the straightjacket has to stay on."
"You better take it off of me, girly, or I will destroy you when my magic is back," he growled at me, giving me a psychotic grin.
"You could try, but you'd fail," I told him, the shadows forming long, sharp claws on my fingers. I pulled him to his feet, turned him around so that his back was facing me, and then sliced the straightjacket from him without scratching him as well.
With a devious grin, I created shadowy flames again like the other day and watched as everything caught fire. With an explosion that rocked the building and another one from further below, we went down the stairs and to the next floor where I saw our group of friends with the now free Dragon Slayers that they found. I looked over at Rogue, who previously looked devastated enough to be zombielike, and he gaped at me in shock.
"You're alive…?" he whispered, his eyes wide as he took a step towards me.
With one more step to me, I ran over to him instead and threw my arms around him, hugging him tightly as he did the same. I felt him shake in emotional exhaustion and relief, his breathing ragged as he clutched at me. "I'm sorry, Rogue," I whispered to him. "I didn't mean to worry you. I tried to get here as soon as I could to clear this up for you because I heard them say they'd keep you in the dark before I passed out."
"I managed to wake up as they were dragging me away and saw you lying there," he said, sounding horrified as the memory replayed in his mind. "You were lying so still in a pool of your own blood… I tried to fight them to go to you, but they knocked me out again…" I heard a noise that sounded like someone clearing their throat and looked over to see that it was Natsu, so I glared at him with a frown on my face as Rogue continued on. "I kept seeing it every day, just you looking so broken and lifeless…"
"Well, I'm not like that anymore," I explained to him, patting his back gently as pulled away a little. "But now we need to leave here before it blows up around us."
He still looked as if he was in a daze, so I grabbed his hand and led him along as we ran down the hallway to the stairs. When someone from Black Eclipse showed up to stop us, either Erza or Gray took them down since they were at the front of the line. As we kept running, the building began to shake heavily and I knew it wouldn't be long before it collapsed. We ran even harder when we reached the ground floor and heard a deep rumbling noise. The building was coming down and everyone was almost out when I heard a scream. I turned around to see that Wendy had fallen, looking panic stricken as she slid to a stop on her stomach and Carla tried to pull her to her feet. I heard someone yell my name as I jumped at them both, using my body to protect them from falling debris and used my Shadow Dragon Slayer Magic just in time to create a small barrier as the building crashed down on us.
"Thank you again, Timara!" Wendy cried as I sat up so I wouldn't crush her with my weight. "It's the second time today that you've saved me!"
"It's alright, Wendy," I told her with a feeble smile, feeling a bit tired from keeping the building from killing us. "Thankfully, most of this building is made from metal, so I'm sure Gajeel will be able to get to us sooner rather than later. Or Natsu will burn his way through, although I hope not."
"You can't just somehow drop us into the shadows and get us out of here?" Carla asked me incredulously.
"In this case, no," I said. "The building used to be huge and the rubble is extremely heavy, so it takes a lot of concentration and magic to keep it from dropping on our heads. I'd have to drop this barrier first before I could pull you into the shadows and by that time we would be crushed. I can keep the barrier up just long enough for the others to get to us."
After a while, I began to wonder if we were just buried too deep under all of the metal and concrete when I could hear a faint rumbling noise coming from somewhere. I had a bad feeling when the rumbling noise got much louder and on a whim I strengthened the barrier just in time as an Iron Dragon's Roar blasted into it, leaving a huge hole in the rubble as Natsu and Gajeel could be seen running towards us. When I didn't think that the rubble would collapse on us, I let it go and led Wendy and Carla to the two Dragon Slayers waiting for us.
"Hey, you idiot, you could have killed us!" I growled at Gajeel, trying to punch him when Natsu grabbed me to keep me away from him.
"Well, sor-ry, princess! I had your mate breathing down my neck the entire time and this was the quickest way to get him off my back!" Gajeel yelled at me. "Nothing else I did seemed to work and since leaving you behind wasn't an option, this was the only thing I could do!"
By this point, I was trying to leap from Natsu's grasp and attack Gajeel myself when Natsu picked me up, throwing me over his shoulder as we all ran outside just in time for the tunnel Gajeel made collapsed as well. I tried to get free again and almost succeeded if it hadn't been for a happy Tyger flying in front of me to hug me, screaming about how she had been worried the entire time.
"Do something like that again," I said, glaring and having to be loud over Ty's blubbering, "and I will end you."
I watched as Wendy and Carla ran over to Lucy and Erza, looking a bit disgruntled as everyone decided that it was time to move on. Natsu, who still had me thrown over his shoulder and refused to let me go, kept me as far away from Gajeel as possible. Zeref walked beside me and tried not to laugh as I kept myself somewhat upright as I was carried around. I heard Natsu call his name and Zeref looked at him, curious as to what he wanted.
"Why didn't you get to her earlier when she fought Acnologia?" Natsu asked him. I sighed, trying to squirm my way free only to have him tighten his hold.
"I'm still here, guys," I grumbled. "And by the way, it would have blown my cover."
"What the hell is that supposed to mean?" he asked, the both of them looking at me strangely.
"I told that idiot Dragon that I had Zeref hidden somewhere that he would never find him," I explained. "I can't exactly have Zeref barging in at the wrong time and making me a liar. Not only that, but that would mean practically giving Acnologia what exactly what he wants."
"I thought there was something wrong with that gate," Zeref said to himself as he concentrated back on walking. "I couldn't figure out why I had seen people going in and out of it all day, yet it was locked just for me. You did something to it that day to keep me in."
"I ought to be angry at you," Natsu muttered under his breath. "I think I'm just going to have to carry you the rest of the way until we camp for the night as punishment."
The rest of the time before we camped for the night, I tried to free myself from his hold as he walked along. I could tell he found my efforts amusing and that was what made me come up with even crazier ideas. At one point, I had Ty grab my arms and try to pull me away, but that only resulted in a messed up version of tug-of-war, one that almost sent her flying into a tree. After a while, I became so frustrated that I began to claw and kick to get him to let go, making him stop just long enough to bite my leg hard.
"Ouch! Damn it, Natsu!" I yelled as he kept walking along as if nothing happened. I could hear his quiet laughter as the others turned around to check on us before going back to talking amongst themselves.
"Stop trying to escape then," he said simply.
"I'm going to end up getting rabies one of these days," I grumbled to myself, only making his laughter get worse.
Finally, Erza called out that we would be staying in a thicket just up ahead and Natsu let me down, making me practically run towards it and flop down on the grass. With a snap of my fingers, all of the tents erupted from my shadow and set themselves up on the grass around me. Thankfully, it was time for sleep as a few people had to share tents since there wasn't enough for everyone. Erza said I could go to the nearest town after sleeping and go steal a few more from Black Eclipse. With an exaggerated salute to her, I wandered over to my tent before Natsu got there.
"Oh, Gawain," I said, lifting my arm up to see the snake tattoo wrapped around my forearm shiver slightly as it listened to me. "Be a dear and go out to keep watch. Stay the size you were when I first met you so you won't be seen."
If I must, the snake grumbled in my mind before leaping from my arm and getting larger before it hit the ground. It was huge by the time it slithered out of sight, but still not as big as its mother in that form.
"Who is Gawain?" I heard Natsu ask as he walked over in my direction from a few tents away.
"You'll find out soon enough," I said with a smile as I crawled into our tent. It wasn't long after he followed me that we both fell asleep, Natsu holding me tightly and burying his face in my neck as he slept.
It was almost morning when I had felt like I had been bitten, waking up with a jolt of surprise. Although the first person I suspected was fully asleep and quite incapable of doing so, I soon realized that it was my mental link with Gawain. He must have been calling me for quite some time and finally got tired of waiting.
Took you long enough, the snake hissed. I thought I was going to have to take charge instead if you kept refusing to wake up for me.
What's going on? I asked him sleepily in my mind.
A group from Black Eclipse is here to ambush you all while you sleep. Do you want for me to take care of them on my own?
Well, you haven't had a decent snack in a while, so why don't you have fun, I told him as I curled up against Natsu for more sleep.
As you wish, Gawain said and I could hear the glee in his voice.
I tried to go back to sleep but when I heard a rumbling noise and then a scream, I knew I had made a mistake. With a quiet sigh, I tried to sneak out from under Natsu's arm that was wrapped around me, only to make things worse when he hugged me to him even more tightly. In frustration, I inwardly growled to myself and wriggled my way free, practically bolting from the tent and disappearing into the darkness. I jumped up to the trees, jumping from their boughs gracefully until I heard another scream nearby. There was a large crowd of people all wearing gray, cowering before a snake that was as high as the trees in this forest. He hissed, picking off anyone who tried to run from him and eating them. With a jump, I landed lightly on the huge snake's head, letting out another hiss that almost sounded like a growl.
"So, Gawain, what do we have here?" I asked, grinning down at everyone as they cowered in fear.
Intruders, the snake said, and what's worse is that this isn't the only group. There's a larger force about to strike from the opposite direction.
It wasn't until I heard a familiar roar that I felt the blood drain from my face. Giving Gawain the go ahead to eat them if he wished, I bolted back to camp as fast as I could, biting my hand and creating a blood sword as I ran along. I heard a scream from Wendy and I ran even faster, jumping from tree to tree and just missing a quiversful of arrows shot at me. With a snarl, I slashed at another bout of arrows before smashing them with a wave of shadows, knocking them out before hopping down to the ground outside the camp. With a strange sense of intuition, I dove down onto the grass just as a large blast of fire tore through the air where I had been standing. I scrambled to my feet and rushed past the tents to see chaos unfolding before my eyes.
Black Eclipse members were everywhere, their numbers vast as about ten of them were needed to keep each person down. I could see Natsu was close to breaking free, looking livid as he roared and sent fire everywhere. With a yell of my own, I launched myself as his attackers, using Shadow Dragon's Slash and swinging my blood sword as well until most either ran in fear or were felled by my attacks. Together, Natsu and I took out the rest, freeing everyone and leaving just one wimpy member of Black Eclipse to interrogate.
Erza, who almost looked scary as she grabbed the guy by the collar and lifted him into the air, said, "Here's the deal. You tell us everything you know and we'll let you live. If you don't, two of my Dragon Slayer friends will get a chance to turn you into their own personal punching bag." I gave the poor man an evil grin, even going so far as to wave at him, and he gulped before nodding enthusiastically. "Good man. Now, why were you sent here to attack us while we slept?"
"To kill her!" he whimpered, pointing right at me. "Our leader said that she's too dangerous to let live after she survived Acnologia's attack! He's worried that she'll ruin our plans!"
"What plans?" I growled, taking a step closer and making him cower in fear. Zeref, who looked curious, walked over to stand beside me with Natsu.
"I don't know!" the man cried as he looked at Erza. "I'm just a lowly member! No one ever tells me these things! I just know that only she has the power to stop it!"
"Why is she the only one able to do all this?" Erza asked curiously.
"I don't know that either! It was something about how he suspects her to be a lot stronger than she lets on, just like the pink haired guy over there!"
Figuring that this would be all she could get out of the man, she dropped him to his feet and we all watched him run away. "I think we need to pay the castle of Pergrande another visit," I said, still looking in the direction that the man went.
"I think that's a bad idea right now," Erza said. "I think they'll be waiting for us to do exactly that."
"I can sneak in there easily enough," I told her. "I could grab their leader and drag him outside."
"No, Timara," she said as she walked away. "It's too dangerous right now. You are not to go there and that's an order."
I growled in outrage and stormed off, heading back to where Gawain was hiding as Ty flew after me. Once I had the snake back around my arm, this time it was wrapped around my upper arm, I decided to take a walk to cool off. I needed to get to the castle to find out more about this plan that Black Eclipse was hoping to set in motion. By this point, I only managed to get even angrier when I heard a strange noise behind one of the bushes close by. I saw Tyger's ears prick up before she dove into the bushes, a couple screams could be heard as two Exceeds were thrown into my sight. Ty, with a proud look on her face, flew back to me and I held her in my arms after she put her wings away.
The male cat was black with white stripes and wore a fuzzy brown vest. He looked up at me with bright blue eyes that seemed cold as it looked angry. The other cat was female that was completely orange, a white dress that was wrinkled now from being pushed down. She opened her eyes after a while, her mint green eyes gazing up at us, and gasped in shock.
"Could it be…?" she asked in disbelief, staring at Ty as she stood to her feet. She looked back at the other cat before turning her focus back at us, more specifically me. "Where did you come across that Exceed that you're partners with?"
"I caught her as she fell from a tree not long after hatching three years ago," I said, staring down at them both.
"I was right then," the female cat said, looking down at her feet with a strange expression. "Liam, it's our daughter…"
"Do you think so, Evelyn?" the black and white striped cat asked, looking back and forth between the orange cat and Ty.
"I'm certain of it. A mother just knows these things," she whispered.
I felt Ty tense up in my arms and I growled, startling both cats standing there. "If what you say is true, then how dare you… How dare you do that to your own child! You just abandoned her!"
"You have every right to be angry, but we were afraid," the one called Evelyn said. "She could play with shadows like they were alive, just from inside her egg before she hatched. The other Exceeds we lived with left us because they were so scared that she was a demon, so we thought that the best thing would be to leave her in the nest and hope that nothing bad befell her."
"She fell from the tree and broke her wing!" I yelled, glaring fiercely at both cats as I felt Ty shaking slightly. "She would have died from the fall if I hadn't been there! I think I was more of a mother to Ty than you'd ever be!"
"Timara, stop," Ty said quietly, the shaking only getting worse. "I have something to say to my 'parents.'"
"Listen, what was your name? Ty, right?" the black and white cat named Liam said. "We didn't do this because we didn't love you."
"That's right!" Evelyn piped up, clutching at her paws nervously. "We did it because—"
"Both of you, shut your mouths!" Tyger yelled angrily and I could feel tears dripping down onto the bare skin of my arms. "You just left me because I was different! You didn't even know for sure because I was still in my egg! You didn't even give me a chance!" I hugged Ty to me a little tighter and her tears fell even faster. "It was just like what happened to Timara! You were both too much a coward, so you pawned me off to be someone else's problem or tried to kill me by leaving me defenseless!"
"That's not right at all! We'd never—!" Evelyn sputtered but Ty cut her off once more.
"No, you don't get to try to excuse your actions anymore! I'm done hearing you speak!" Turning her head to look back at me, Ty said, "Let's just go now, Timara. We can go and attack the castle now."
I walked on for a long time silently as Ty stayed eerily quiet. After a while, I couldn't take it anymore and I held her away from me so I could turn her around to look in her eyes. She looked so sad as she quietly cried, her red eyes looking at everything but me. I knew there wasn't much for me to say or do, so I pulled her close so that her head rested on my shoulder and hugged her comfortingly.
"I'm so sorry, Ty, that you had to find out what happened all those years ago," I whispered to her. "Just know that this doesn't change anything between us and that I'll always be here for you. You mean so much to me, my friend."
With my words, the dam broke and she sobbed loudly, her tiny body shaking with the force of her emotions. She hugged me back the best she could, wrapping her arms around my neck as far as they could go and we stayed like that for the longest time. I rubbed her back soothingly until her cries subsided into hiccups, her breathing hitched as she slowly calmed down. When she didn't make a peep after that, I sensed something stalking me from afar in the shadows.
With a sigh, I called out, "You might as well stop slinking around like an alley cat. I know it's you, Rogue."
I head a soft chuckle as his body rose from the shadows, little Frosch hiding behind his leg as the cat looked up at Ty. "You were always too good at sensing me when I'm following you. It's definitely a sibling thing."
"No, it's just a me thing," I said as I shook my head. "Now, what you want?"
"I came here to go with you when you inevitably go rushing foolishly to the castle," Rogue said to me. "I figured that since I'm the only one out of the group that can actually keep up with you step for step that I might as well go with you. That way, Erza and Natsu won't have an aneurism when they find out you left to do this alone."
"Do you actually think you're up to this?" I asked him. "I mean, we just freed you from the Black Eclipse compound in that volcano not that long ago. Do you even think you can keep up with me?"
"I'll make sure I do," he said with a smile.
With a nod, I leapt up into the boughs of the trees and watched as Rogue followed suit after picking up Frosch. We then jumped from tree to tree in a westward direction, occasionally jumping into shadows and jumping out again to move even further. It wouldn't be long before we found out Black Eclipse's plan and I would put an end to it.