All across Magnolia Town, Fairy Tail mages - and one ex-Phantom civilian - stared up at the Hall of Thunder.
"I would estimate that each of those lacrima contains... a whole load of magic," said Warren.
"So if that thing goes off, it could kill everyone in the town!" Laki said, aghast. "I'm turning into a porcupine again!"
"I can't believe Laxus would do something like that! How far does he mean to go?"
"It doesn't change anything!" Gray said. "If Laxus was planning to just set them off, he'd have done it by now. That means we're still working to the same time limit. We need to find Bickslow."
"He could be hiding anywhere," Warren said. "Alzack and me were attacked by the dolls. We never saw Bickslow himself."
"Alzack and I were attacked," a Fairy said.
"What, you too?"
"No, you should have used the nominative form of the first-person pronoun there," the Fairy said.
Warren sputtered. "This is no time for an argument about grammar!" Then they devolved into a furious argument about the proper time to argue about grammar.
"Both of you, zip it!" Gray barked. "This isn't the time to fight each other over stupid things! You can do that later! Warren, get back to Lucy!"
"I'm just a glorified telephone to you people, aren't I?" Warren said sulkily.
"Yeah," said Gray.
"Lucy says, so, Bickslow is the weirdo with the inability to keep his tongue inside his mouth?"
"Yeah," said Gray. "I picked up some stuff when I was fighting him the first time. Targeting the dolls doesn't work. You can't destroy them; he just moves their souls into new shells."
"Oh, like half-naked mannequins," Joey said.
"Exactly!" Gray said. "We have to target Bickslow himself. That's the only way to beat him."
"So Bickslow hangs around in clothes shops?" Warren said. "Alzack, what shops were you around when you got jumped?"
"Uh..." It took Alzack a second to remember. "I think there was a bakery, a grocer's and a charity shop?"
"Charity shops usually have a load of kids' toys in the back," Lucy said.
"If you need to relocate a spirit in a hurry," Chico said, "it's easiest to trap it in a living thing or a vessel designed to imitate a living thing. Also I think he just has a thing for dolls."
"Ew," Lucy said. Warren obligingly reported that over the telepathic link. "Then he must be staying around places with extra things to move his dolls into! What's the biggest toy shop in Magnolia?"
"Tom's Toy Store," Gray said. "That's not far from here. I'm heading over there. Anyone else who wants to help out, meet me there!"
"Mira!" Elfman yelled, as he finally reached the park. There were forty minutes left until the activation of the Hall of Thunder. "Mira!" Birds fluttered from the trees on the other side of the wrought-iron fencing. Elfman turned on the spot. There was no sign of Mirajane. "Mira!"
"Hey! Elfman!" Elfman turned around at the call. Macao and Wakaba came puffing up to him. "Want some help?" Wakaba asked.
"You'd be a fool not to want help from Wakaba. This is a mission to stall Mira, right?" said Macao. "There's nobody in the guild better at wasting Mira's time than Wakaba."
"You're putting yourself down, Macao! You've wasted more of Mira's time than anyone else in the world," Wakaba said.
"At least I'm not married," Macao said. "You should be ashamed, chasing after her like that."
"You're divorced! That's just as bad," Wakaba said. "Aren't you getting a bit old for this, Macao? Evergreen did a number on you."
"I'm barely six months older than you are!" Macao said. "And she got you too!"
Wakaba sighed. "We can't help it, can we? We've got a weakness for the pretty girls."
Elfman stared at them both, and they simultaneously realised that wasn't the best conversation to be having in front of Mira's brother. Elfman was about to send them both away when a high-pitched shriek rang out over the telepathic link. "Elfman! It's Mirajane! On Grandiflora Street!"
They broke into a run.
By the time they reached Grandiflora Street, though, it was too late. Three Fairies were sprawled unconscious in the road. Mira was holding the fourth off the ground by the neck. The wind ruffled her dress and hair. She hadn't even used her Take Over yet.
"Mira!" Elfman shouted. He snatched up a chair from an outside cafe and flung it at her. "Let him go!" The chair sailed over Mirajane's head, but it had the intended effect. Mira turned her head slowly to look at them. She opened her hand. The Fairy fell limply to the ground.
"Uh-oh," Macao said.
"This was your idea," Wakaba hissed back.
"What are you doing?" Elfman shouted. "These are our comrades!" There wasn't a flicker of comprehension in her face. "Damn you, Bickslow!" Elfman said. "As a man, I can't allow this to continue! Beast Arm: Iron Bull!" His right arm transformed into steel. He cracked his knuckles, with a sound like a volley of gunfire. "I won't allow you to be turned against any more of our allies, Mira!"
Tom's Toy Store was a two-storey terraced building, with a facade covered in technicolour pigs and a gaily-flapping flag on top. Gray examined it as if it were a piece of unexploded ordnance.
"Gray!" Heels clacked on the pavement. He looked up. Cana was hurrying towards him down the street. He grinned.
"Cana! It's good to see you!"
"Have you been listening to Warren's link?"
"I didn't want to get jumped if I was distracted." Gray was still looking around, scanning the street for any sign of Bickslow or his creepy dolls. "What did I miss?"
"I don't have good news," she said. "You noticed the Hall of Thunder, right?"
Gray glanced up at the ring of massive lacrima in the sky and said "Yeah, we all noticed the Hall of Thunder."
"You know it's going to go off in about thirty-five minutes and fry the whole of Magnolia?"
"No, it won't," Gray said, "because we're going to stop Laxus. If that's the bad news, we'd already figured it out."
"It's worse than that. When the master found out what Laxus was planning, he... he had a bad turn. We think it's his heart."
Gray's eyes widened. The colour drained out of his face.
"Levy's trying to get the barrier around the town down so that the civilians can escape and someone can bring Porlyusica," Cana said. "I went to the hospital and sent a doctor over to see to the master and Bisca in the meantime."
"Lucy says yeah, if you can't get hold of the crazy woman who lives in a tree in the woods then an actual medical professional would be the next best thing," Warren reported. Gray and Cana both nodded in agreement, but then Gray frowned.
"What's the matter with Bisca?"
"She tried to shoot down one of the lacrima. They're rigged with Organic Link Magic so that if they're destroyed, they'll reflect the damage back on whoever destroyed them. I've got everyone who's free helping to evacuate the town, but if we can't stop Laxus we'll have to shoot down as many of the lacrima as we can." And that still might not be enough, and then they'd all be lying there injured when the Hall of Thunder went off.
"Then we'll just have to stop Laxus," Gray said. "Talking isn't helping. Let's find Bickslow, kick his ass and move on. Is he in here?"
Cana drew a dozen cards from her bag, fanned them out face-down and offered them to Gray. He picked one at random and held it up. "Eight of Pentacles."
"That's a good sign," Cana said.
"Great! Let's go!"
Actually, the Eight of Pentacles meant that there was hard work ahead of them. Cana didn't say that.
Gray pushed the door open and stepped inside. The store was empty. All the lights were out, and the tall racks of teddy bears, dolls in boxes and small plastic dinosaurs cut out the sunlight through the front windows. The only sound was the thud of Gray's boots and the click of Cana's heels on the wooden floor.
"Gray, Cana," Warren said. "Lucy says, is it possible that you are walking straight into an enormous trap?"
"It doesn't matter if it's a trap," Gray said. "If this is where Bickslow is, it's not like we can leave."
"Douse the building in petrol and light it on fire from the outside, she says," said Warren. "Pretend Laxus did it."
Gray was peering into the shadows, trying to pick out any movement. "It's too dark! There's got to be a light switch in here somewhere-"
They worked their way towards the back of the shop, where Gray found a board of electrical switches behind the till. He flicked all of them. The lights came on one by one, illuminating the whole store, and suddenly the noise of a train whistle made Cana nearly jump out of her high-heeled sandals. A model train rattled around a track built halfway up the walls. Against the far wall, a giant teddy bear presiding over a heap of smaller teddy bears started to wave its arms up and down. The lights strung around a giant model of Fairy Tail's original guild hall, made from brightly-coloured construction blocks, began to blink on and off. Gray looked around. The whole shop was illuminated, from one side to the other.
"That's better," he said.
"That's better! That's better!" the dolls chorused. Gray whirled around. Bickslow's dolls were floating right behind him.
"Cana, look out!" Gray shouted, and threw himself over the till as the dolls fired at him. The counter took the brunt of the blasts. Gray scrambled back to his feet. "Ice-Make: Lance!" Two of the dolls were destroyed. The other spears buried themselves inches-deep in the wall behind the till as the others zipped away, squealing "Lance, lance!"
"Hahaha! Didn't you learn anything from the last time, Gray?" Bickslow called. Gray looked up. Bickslow was balanced on top of the model of Fairy Tail's old guild hall. "You can't damage my babies that way! I'll just move them into new bodies!" He spread his hands wide. "And now I'm sitting in a toy shop - a treasure trove of dolls!"
Cana drew three cards from her bag - Heaven, Mountain, and Death reversed. "Summoned Lightning!" She swiped her hand back. A magical seal appeared in front of her and spat out bolts of green lightning. The lightning shot towards Bickslow. He somersaulted off the top of the model a few seconds before it was melted into slag.
"Oh, no!" Bickslow shouted, in mock horror, hands clapped to his mouth. "Look what you've done to the guild! The old man's gonna be pissed!"
Gray drove a fist into his other palm. "Ice-Make: Lance!" The spears smashed into the wall as Bickslow ran away, cackling.
"Babies! Horizontal Line Formation!" The dolls stacked up and spun ninety degrees to fire a crescent-shaped beam at Cana. She leapt over it. The beam slashed through the base of a shelf of action figures behind her and the whole thing came crashing down. Cana shrieked and dived out of the way.
"Hahaha!" Bickslow had leapt onto the traintracks, and now he was sitting astride the model train as it chugged around the track. "You guys seriously think you can beat me? You couldn't an hour ago, Gray, and Cana can't beat anyone-"
"Shut up! Creepy doll fancier!" Cana shouted, and snatched another handful of cards from her bag. "Card Explosion!" She flung the volley of cards at him.
"Babies! X Formation!" Two wooden toy soldiers darted in front of Bickslow and took the brunt of the explosion, though the ends of the arc of cards still slammed into the walls and the train rails on either side. Bickslow managed to leap clear a second before the traintracks collapsed. He hit the ground and rolled. Gray didn't give him a second to regain his balance. He dropped to the ground and pressed both palms flat against the floor. "Ice-Make: Geyser!" A spiked tower of ice burst out of the floor. Bickslow yelled and scrabbled frantically. He managed to catch himself at the top of the geyser, doing the splits, both feet braced between two spires of ice.
"Rude! Babies, teach them a lesson!"
"Gray!" Cana shouted a warning. Gray whirled around. Bickslow had moved one of his dolls into the giant animatronic teddy bear. The other four dolls buzzed around it like satellites. The giant teddy bear lifted both hands and fired bolts of energy at Gray and Cana.
They both dived for cover as the walls and shelves above their heads were pitted with craters. Flashes of green light strobed in their vision.
"Bickslow, the master won't forgive you for this!" Cana shouted.
"I don't need that old geezer's forgiveness," Bickslow yelled back. "When we're done, Laxus will be the new master!"
Cana flung a card to the floor and scrabbled back away from it. "The Prayers' Fountain!" The card glowed, and then transformed into a brilliant blue whirlpool shooting high-pressure streams of water in every direction. The spraying water knocked down shelves and swatted Bickslow's dolls out of the air. Gray scrambled to his feet.
"Don't touch the water! It's dangerous!" Cana yelled.
"I didn't plan to! Freeze!" The water of the Prayers' Fountain froze solid. The wave of ice entombed the giant teddy bear and the tumbled-down shelves in an uneven sea of ice.
"Oh, no!" Bickslow wailed. "Babies! You're all frozen! What do I doooo?!... haha, just kidding!" He somersaulted onto the top of a giant plastic dinosaur that stuck up above the ice. "We're in a toy shop, Gray, you can't make me run out of dolls! Let's go, new babies!" He pointed. Three jointed wooden dolls shot towards Gray and Cana, firing bolts of energy as they did.
"I'm getting really tired of these dolls!" Gray snapped. "Ice-Make: Lances!" Two of the dolls dodged aside, but one was impaled straight through the middle. Cana took out the other two with projectile cards. The second of distraction had been all Bickslow needed, though. He'd got to the other side of the giant teddy bear and freed it from the ice with the fifth doll's energy blasts. The teddy bear turned its head. It raised its arms again.
"Cana!" Gray shouted. "Get down!" He threw himself at her and knocked her flat behind an Ice Shield a second before the teddy bear opened fire.
"How long is left until the deadline?" Lucy asked.
"Thirty minutes or so," Warren said.
Thirty minutes to defeat Bickslow, free Erza and Mirajane and then hope they could defeat Laxus. Fine.
Lucy was concentrating on Warren's rapid fire-by-fire, trying to focus on the battles against Bickslow and Mirajane both at once. "Elfman, tell Mira that, uh..." Even though they were under Bickslow's control, a strong enough shock would make them falter - she'd proved that facing Erza - but she didn't know what would work against Mirajane! She pressed both hands to the sides of her head. "Tell her that you've got Cana pregnant and you both want Erza to be the godmother."
"What?" Warren says. "Elfman says he doesn't have that sort of relationship with Cana! And what sort of man wouldn't choose his own sister as godmother to his child!"
"That's the point! It's meant to be a shock!" Lucy said. She was so focused, she didn't realise anything was off until she felt Musca's gate close abruptly. She gasped. "Musca! What happened?" Had that been a flash of steel? "Someone's coming!"
Warren got to his feet. "Who is it?"
A flash of steel... "It might be Erza," Lucy said faintly. "Should we hide?" Warren looked at her funny. "Oh, yeah. We just figured out that wouldn't work," Lucy said, and smacked her forehead. She scrambled up and went to check the door into the back of the shop, in case they could slip out that way. It was bolted from the other side. "We're trapped if we stay in here!"
"Then let's not stay in here," Warren said, and headed out onto the street. Chico and Lucy followed him. The street was deserted. A low wind blew Lucy's hair around her face.
"You're sure someone was coming?" Warren said.
"Someone attacked Musca!"
"It couldn't have been a civvy with a flyswatter?"
Lucy shook her head vehemently. The three of them had formed into a loose circle, looking outwards.
"Aren't Musca keys illegal?" Chico asked.
"I don't see why you have to bring that up now!" said Lucy.
"I don't approve of rulebreakers," someone said. They all looked up. "Whether the rules are mine, or the laws of the nation." Freed was standing on a rooftop above them.
Lucy drew back sharply. Ugh! She should have been on the lookout for that; she'd used the same trick earlier! "So that little fly was a stellar spirit? I deduced that it was a scout because its flight patterns were too direct." Lucy made a mental note of that. "Warren, you were already defeated by Bickslow. You had no right to return to the game. Stand down now or suffer a fate worse than death."
"What's that for, Freed? Are you scared to fight all three of us?" Warren said.
"I only have orders to terminate the Phantom girl," Freed said. "I am merely trying to limit the number of people I am forced to kill."
Lucy started. Forced to- what?
"What the hell was that?" Warren yelled.
"Chico, you and Warren get out of here," Lucy said quietly.
"...what?" said Warren.
"If you bite it, the whole link goes down!" Lucy said. "Chico, get him out of here!"
"That'd mean leaving you alone," Chico said.
Lucy unsnapped her keys from her belt. "I'm never alone! Move!"
Warren flung out a hand, and something like a wave of static rolled through Lucy's head. Freed staggered backwards, and slipped. "Move!" Warren shouted, and he and Chico pelted down a side road. A telepathic attack, to buy them time to run? Lucy spun on her heel and sprinted in the opposite direction. Guys wearing lacy cravats and so much hairspray their hair wouldn't move if they were hung upside-down weren't usually big on running, were they?
She threw a glance back over her shoulder as she skidded around a corner, and saw Freed flying after her.
Crap!
Levy muttered feverishly to herself as she worked, reciting the rules from the handbook. A double encryption, using both Rogue and Guile grammar. Oh, that was diabolical. And really not her area of expertise. "Break down the Rogue characters' arrangement data into basic character material, identify the base characters used in rule construction..." She jabbed her pen at the characters on the notepad. "L, O, S, U. Map those onto simplified Guile grammar... No!" She straightened up in surprise. "The L and the S are a red herring! The keycode is 'ALS'!"
There were twenty-four minutes left until the activation of the Hall of Thunder.
Elfman crashed through a stall for the third time in the last seven minutes. "Argh!"
Macao cursed and flung out a hand, fingers spread. "Purple Net!" Strands of purple fire lashed out at Mira. Her wings tore free from her back and she launched herself into the sky.
Wakaba puffed on his pipe. "Smoke Crush!" Smoke billowed from his pipe and transformed into fists. They reached up for Mira. She climbed higher. The attack flailed uselessly at the air under her feet.
"This is bad!" Elfman said, hauling himself out of the wreckage and shaking his head to clear it. Mira had ranged attacks. They didn't. Mira stretched out one hand. A magical seal opened up in front of her and a dozen clawed hands made of pure dark energy reached down to clutch at them.
"Smoke Fake!" Wakaba shouted, and suddenly the street was full of Wakabas, tearing around yelling with their arms up in the air. As the dark hands raked their claws through the crowd, some scattered and those that hadn't been quick enough burst into wisps of smoke. Macao hurriedly took cover, because there weren't any duplicates of him out there. Elfman howled and snatched a folded parasol from one of the tables outside the cafe. He flung it up at Mira like a spear. "Mira! Get down here!" Mira caught the parasol, spun and and threw it back. Elfman dived out of the way just in time. "Ugh! Mira, stop! Don't you know it's me?!" Was this what it had been like for them when he lost his reason?
What was it that Lucy had suggested?
"Mira!" he shouted. "I'm having a baby with Cana and we want Erza to be the godmother!"
Mira's wings stopped beating. For a moment she hung still in the air, and then she fell. She landed flat on her face on the ground. The street cratered.
Elfman swore and ran towards her. "Mira!" That was a mistake.
Mira pushed herself back to her feet. "Erza?" she screamed. "Erza?" She lunged at Elfman. He caught her first blow on an upraised arm, but the impact still knocked him to his knees. She slammed a roundhouse kick into his side that knocked him flat and sent him skidding across the cobblestones. That plan hadn't worked!
"Elfman!" Macao shouted. He brought his hands together over his head and fired a purple beam at Mira. She blocked it with one hand as Elfman scrambled back. Black energy boiled up around her palm, with a harsh white light at the core. She let it fly at Macao. The flash of light was blinding. Elfman scrubbed a hand across his eyes and blinked away the afterimages, and then gasped.
Macao had completely disappeared. There was nothing left.
Elfman let out a howl of despair. "Mira, what have you done?"
"Macao!" Wakaba shouted. "No!" There were still a few Smoke Fakes left, but Mira's head snapped around when he shouted. She blurred. Her boot slammed into the side of his head. Wakaba crumpled to the street. The last few fakes dissolved into puffs of smoke. Mira lifted her boot to bring it down on his neck.
"No!" Elfman shouted, and charged. He bowled Mira over in a flying tackle. Mira rolled, shoved both feet under his rib cage and catapulted him off over her head. He hit the ground with a crash that knocked all the air out of his lungs. Mira leapt to her feet.
"Purple Net!" Macao shouted. Ropes of energy lashed out and locked tight around Mira's arms and waist, dragging her away from Elfman.
"Macao! How are you okay?" Wakaba gasped, trying to push himself up off the ground.
"I turned into a lizard!" Macao shouted back. "You keep forgetting I can do that!"
Mira's wings unfurled, shredding the magical ropes bound around her. She shot back into the sky. Elfman sprawled in the street, gasping for breath. Mira hovered above him. A sphere of swirling dark energy began to gather between her hands. Macao hauled Wakaba to his feet. They both staggered in front of Elfman, leaning together, Wakaba's arm slung across Macao's shoulders.
"What are you doing?" Elfman demanded. He tried to push himself up onto his hands.
"You've still got the best shot at stalling Mira! Don't worry about us!" Mira brought her hands forward, blazing with dark energy. Macao and Wakaba tensed and shut their eyes.
"No!" Elfman roared. "I won't allow you to harm any more of the people you care about! Lisanna died because I was too weak, I lost control... I won't allow you to feel that guilt!" Sheer magical energy burst out of his skin. Golden light blazed up around him.
Macao and Wakaba turned around. "That's impossible!"
"Elfman hasn't been able to use a full-body Take Over since-"
"Oh, crap," said Wakaba.
"H-hey," Macao said, "maybe we were better off when it was just Mira."
Why had Lucy sent the other two away? She wasn't good enough for this, and he was trying to kill her! Ugh, she'd survived a mad woman trying to summon an outer god, S-ranked dark guild mages, an inter-guild war, Jellal Fernandes and Etherion, and she was going to get killed by some cravat-wearing Laxus fanboy? She wasn't even a member of Fairy Tail! Images of Simon kept flashing into her head, she hadn't even liked him that much but he'd been alive, and talking, and then he'd just been killed-
"Open, Gate of the Chisel! Caelum! Cannon Form!" As Caelum transformed, Lucy grabbed the ring around its barrel and bolted again, towing the cannon behind her. She needed to find cover! There were shops on either side, but all the doors were locked, there were displays behind the plate-glass windows that she couldn't climb over and some even had metal shutters rolled down in front of the shopfronts. On the corner, she spotted a nightclub with a big window of purple-swirled stained glass. She spun and hurled Caelum through the glass. The window shattered. Lucy leapt through it - glass crunched under her boots as she landed - snatched up Caelum and tore to the back of the club, by the bar. Caelum was almost fully charged. Lucy thudded it down onto all three feet for stability and aimed it at the broken window.
Freed dropped out of the sky outside and stepped in through the window, fastidiously avoiding the broken glass on the floor. He had drawn his sword.
"Caelum!" Lucy shouted. "Fire!" Caelum let fly with a blast of green light. He swept his sword through the air, leaving a trail of runes. "Dark Ecriture: Reflect!"
Caelum's beam rebounded off Freed's runes and came back, straight at Lucy and Caelum. Lucy tried to dive out of the way, and tripped over one of Caelum's legs. She and the chisel both crashed to the floor in a tangle of limbs and machinery. Lucy screamed. The blast hit.
Lucy saw the green flash through her eyelids. It took her a moment to realise she wasn't in it. She opened her eyes. A neat round circle, smoking at the edges, had been carved out of the bar behind where she had been standing. The floor was charred. Expensive booze dripped from broken bottles. She still had a death grip on Caelum. Somebody had scooped both of them up and yanked them out of the way.
"It looks like only I have the power to pass through the gate whether you call me or not," Loke said. "I wonder why that is?" His voice dropped to a purr Lucy felt vibrate through his ribcage. "I suppose this is proof that the barrier between human and spirit... crumbles to nothing before the power of our love."
"Love?" Lucy said, as he dropped to one knee to let her down. She smiled a little. "What are you talking about, you silly idiot?"
"Loke," Freed said. His eyes narrowed. One had turned deep purple, and the pupil glowed dimly. "I heard that you had thrown in your lot with one of Phantom Lord's old members. Do you have no shame? She and her kind declared war on the guild barely a month ago."
"You and your kind declared war on the guild barely three hours ago!" Lucy said. "And you're hardly entitled to complain anyway, considering you weren't there!"
"I don't care which guild she belonged to. Lucy is my owner," Loke said, "and whatever the circumstances, hurting her is the one thing I cannot forgive."
"You've chosen your side, then," Freed said shortly. He lifted his sword. "I suppose it's fortunate that you're my opponent, Loke. As a stellar spirit, you're immortal. I would rather not kill any more people than I am required to." At the word kill, Loke's shoulders stiffened.
"Nobody's requiring you to kill anyone!" Lucy snapped. "Nobody's holding a gun to your head! If you're trying to kill people then it's not because anyone's making you do it, it's just because you're an asshole!"
"Lucy, you stay back," Loke ordered.
"Don't be ridiculous," Lucy said. "Caelum, Sword Form!" Caelum transformed. She gripped the handle in the sphere at the end and the ring around the middle of the blade, ready to ward off an attack. "Stellar spirits aren't shields!"
Loke gripped his upper arm with the other hand and raised his fist. "O Regulus, grant me your strength!" Bright light gathered around his fists, almost blinding in the dimness of the club. Freed shifted into a fencing stance, rapier held at the ready. His eyes narrowed.
Loke attacked first. He darted in suddenly and Freed whipped his blade up to slash across his chest. Loke leapt back before the blade could connect.
"A specialist in hand-to-hand combat has a disadvantage against a swordsman," Freed said.
"I have an advantage that you don't," Loke retorted. "A partner!"
Freed started and glanced back over his shoulder just as Lucy swung at him with Caelum. Freed dissolved into runes the second before the blade of the chisel hit him. "Erk!" The momentum of the blow spun Lucy around. "Did you have to remind him that I was there?"
"I'm sorry, Lucy," Loke said, as runes spiraled around him. "You're so beautiful I didn't think he could have - Lucy, behind you!"
Lucy whirled around with a squawk like a distressed parrot. Freed had reformed behind her. As he lunged forward, she swung Caelum wildly. The chisel crashed into his blade and knocked him aside, but Lucy had put too much of her weight into the swing and it made her stagger. Freed recovered faster. He thrust his rapier under Caelum, towards Lucy's stomach.
"Lucy!" Loke grabbed her arm and sent her spinning back, away from the blade, and then before Freed could regain his balance Loke punched him in the face. Freed's head snapped to one side and he staggered back. Loke pivoted to deliver a devastating roundhouse kick into Freed's ribs, but before the kick could connect Freed dissolved into runes again.
"Oh, come on!" Lucy protested. She scrambled to her feet and turned to stand back-to-back with Loke. Freed materialised a little way away from them, and stood still and silent, with his rapier raised so that the blade bisected his face. He was waiting for Loke to move into close quarters again.
Lucy looked around, picked up a fallen bottle and lobbed it at Freed's head. Freed's eyes went wide. He jolted forward to avoid the bottle - which sailed harmlessly over his head and smashed on the wall behind him, because Lucy's aim with a bottle wasn't that good - and Loke moved fast. As Freed tried to slash at him, Loke dived under the blow, rolled onto his hands and slammed a boot into Freed's stomach from the ground. Freed doubled over. Loke catapulted back to his feet, light blazing up around his fist. "Regulus Punch!" His fist connected solidly with Freed's face, and the burst of light hurled Freed back into the wall. He slumped down.
Lucy cheered. "That was amazing, Loke!"
Freed reached out, groping blindly. His hand found the neck of the broken bottle Lucy had chucked at him. Lucy's whoop turned into a yell of shock. "Look out!" Loke looked down sharply, and Freed flung the remaining dregs of the alcohol into his eyes. Loke cried out and reeled backwards, one hand going to his eyes.
"Loke!" Lucy screamed.
Freed scrambled back to his feet, sword raised. He swiped it through the air. Runes followed the path of the blade. "Dark Ecriture: Pain!" Loke howled and staggered sideways, both hands going to his head.
Lucy shrieked. "What are you doing? Stop it!" This was her fault! She shouldn't have thrown that bottle at him!
Freed's sword flashed again. "Dark Ecriture: Pain!" Loke threw his head back and screamed. Freed didn't stop. "Dark Ecri-"
"No!" Lucy roared, and dived in between them. The tip of Freed's blade scored a trail of fire along her ribcage. She screamed a curse and threw herself forward, inside the reach of his sword. "You bastard!" She swung Caelum's edge into his throat. Freed stumbled back.
"What the hell is wrong with you?" Lucy screamed. "Why are you using spells like that on your guildmates?" She battered at him with Caelum, driving him back, trying to keep him off balance enough that he couldn't swing his sword. "Isn't being in the same guild supposed to have some significance to you people?" If the Fairies were going to start being backstabbing jerks just like everyone else, what was the point of them? "Aren't you supposed to be comrades?"
"We were, once," Freed said. He spun and kicked her squarely in the stomach. Lucy was flung backwards and sprawled on the floor, wheezing for breath. "But within the context of this game, the purpose of which is to recreate the guild's structure, such notions are meaningless. Laxus's enemy is my enemy."
Lucy pushed herself up onto her hands, gasping. "Stop saying it's a game! This isn't a game! You're trying to murder people!"
Freed loomed over her. Dim sunlight gleamed along the length of his sword. His face was cold and empty. "Everything I've done has been for Laxus." He brought his sword down.
Loke rose up behind him and bludgeoned him around the head with a chair.
"Augh!" Freed lurched sideways. Loke hit him again and sent him crashing to the floor, but before Loke could bring the chair down on his head Freed burst into runes again.
"I'm starting to get tired of that trick," Loke said. Lucy tried to climb to her feet. Loke gestured sharply. "Stay back, Lucy! You're injured!"
Lucy looked down, and pressed a hand to her side. Her palm came away soaked red with blood.
"Oh," she said. The pain caught up with her abruptly. "Ugh!"
"Honestly, Lucy," Loke chided. "I'm supposed to risk myself to save you, not the other way around. How can I show my love for you if you keep doing that?" He moved lightly on his feet, watching the swirls of runes.
"Take Caelum," Lucy gasped. She tried to throw him the chisel. Caelum landed on the floor a few feet away from her. Loke scooped it up.
"Stay there. Try not to do anything heroic," he ordered. Lucy sank down by the bar, with a little hiss of pain. What could she do? Everything she'd tried had made it worse. She couldn't summon another of her golden keys, there wasn't space to summon Ursa Major and even though it was dark, there wasn't enough cover for Serpens to slither around behind Freed without being seen...
The swirling runes solidified into Freed again, back on the opposite side of the room.
"I'm impressed that you recovered so quickly, Loke," he said.
"I'm disappointed that you'd resort to cheap tricks like that, Freed. I didn't think you would go that far," Loke said. He swung Caelum up over his head and bounced on the balls of his feet, ready to dodge or dart in for an attack. What could Lucy do? "Does Laxus appreciate how far you've sunk for him? Turning the Dark Ecriture against your own guildmates..."
"You're not even a true mage, Loke, you're a stellar spirit," Freed said shortly. "You joined the guild under false pretences and then made yourself a slave to one of the guild's enemies. You won't be necessary for Laxus's new guild."
"What sort of messed-up standards do you have for Fairy Tail mages?" Lucy demanded. "Is Laxus a proper Fairy Tail mage? That's not a rhetorical question, is Laxus a proper Fairy Tail mage?"
Freed shot her a look from the corner of his eye. "Of course he is. Laxus is the most powerful mage in the guild."
"Look what he's doing with it! He's threatening to murder everyone in Magnolia!" Lucy said. "An entire town full of civilians! Is that what you want Fairy Tail to be, the guild for homicidal psychopaths?"
"If the master surrenders then there will be no need for any civilians to be harmed," Freed snapped. "We never intended for civilians to be harmed! Makarov is being too stubborn! He's the one putting the townspeople at risk!"
Oh. That was... defensive. Lucy immediately resorted to emotional warfare. "That's the Fairy Tail emblem on your sword, isn't it?" she demanded, gesturing to the hilt of his rapier. "What a joke! You've got the guild's mark on the sword you're using against your guildmates? You must be one of the worst mages Fairy Tail ever had! You're attacking all your comrades for... what, exactly? Because you were told to by some guy who's just sitting back and watching you do it?"
"Shut up!" Freed said.
Lucy raised her voice. "Laxus hasn't been in a single fight since this started!"
"Laxus is saving up his own magic," Freed said. "He means to have an all-out battle with the master."
"Oh, I see, that must be why he locked Makarov up and then hid," Lucy said. "You're seriously siding with him over all your other comrades? And you think Loke is the one who ought to be ashamed?"
"Laxus is my only comrade," Freed snapped. His voice was rising. "I'll follow him into hell itself, if that's what he wants from me!" He clearly owned a giant Laxus poster and kissed it every night before he went to sleep.
"Oh!" Lucy snapped, flinging out one hand. The other was still pressed tight against the slash on her ribs. "Well, if you love Laxus so much, why are you helping him destroy everything he wants?!"
Freed started.
Huh. That sentence had honestly started out as a suggestion that they get married and adopt psychotic babies. Lucy changed tack. "Don't you see what you're doing? This can't work! There's no way Laxus can make this work, Freed!"
"Shut up!" Freed shouted, and attacked her. Lucy gasped and threw up her free arm defensively, but Loke threw himself in between them. He deflected the thrust with Caelum and, as Freed's momentum carried him forwards, he spun and slammed the edge of the chisel into Freed's chest. The bright light of his Regulus magic flared on impact. Freed was thrown back. Loke followed, swinging Caelum by the handle. Luminescent trails followed the end of the blade.
"Even if Makarov surrenders and declares Laxus the new master, what do you think will happen?" Lucy demanded, as Loke darted in for an attack.
"Laxus will make the guild stronger!" Freed shouted, and brought his blade up to parry Loke's strike. Sparks flew from the edge of Caelum's blade.
"How long have you been in Fairy Tail?" Lucy shouted, over the noise of chisel crashing against sword.
"What?" Freed demanded. "What are you talking about?"
"How long have you been in this guild?" Lucy repeated, louder.
"Four years!" Freed said.
"I came to visit this morning," Lucy said. "You know what I've noticed that you apparently missed? They don't like Laxus! This whole threatening-murder thing is not making him any friends! None of them want him to be in charge, and none of them will follow him!"
"Shut up!" Freed shouted. "Once he's the master, they won't have a choice!" Loke was almost a blur, and Caelum was aflame with Regulus light in his hands. Slowly but inexorably, he was pushing Freed back.
"Laxus can't stop them from walking out!" Lucy said. "They'll quit, Freed. They'll just leave! Nobody is going to stay and follow Laxus's orders! If he thinks people laugh at Fairy Tail now, how much worse is it going to be once everyone's abandoned the guild like rats off a sinking ship? He won't save Fairy Tail! He'll be the guy who destroys it! And that's if he's lucky, and they don't just kick his head in!"
"There's nobody in Fairy Tail who can defeat Laxus," Freed snarled. "He's the strongest mage in the guild!"
"Jose Porla was one of the Ten Mage Saints," Lucy said. "Remember what happened to him? That's exactly what'll happen to Laxus!"
"You're wrong!" Freed roared.
"Are you blind or just stupid?" Lucy yelled back. "Saying I'm an enemy of the guild because I used to be in Phantom - Phantom Lord is what Laxus is trying to turn your guild into!"
"No!" Freed shouted. "Shut up!"
Loke leapt high, bringing Caelum down in a two-handed slash which would have cracked Freed's skull open if it had hit. Freed caught the blow on the flat of his sword, the blade across his other palm. His own sword bit into his hand. Freed cried out in pain, and kicked Loke in the chest. Loke staggered back. Freed's blade flashed.
"Dark Ecriture!"
"Don't you dare!" Lucy screamed, but Freed's blade was aimed at himself.
"Darkness!" The word appeared written in purple light across his chest, and then he changed. The top of his coat was shredded as his chest and shoulders expanded. His skin turned grey and leathery. Massive twisted horns erupted from his forehead. Scales rippled across his face, filling in the socket of his left eye.
"Oh, ew!" Lucy said. That was his plan? Become hideous?
"Lucy! Find a back door and get out of here!" Loke shouted. "This is Freed's forbidden form!"
"I'm not running!" Lucy snapped, and flung the worst thing she could think of at Freed, screaming so loud the words tore at the inside of her throat: "Laxus is going to die because of you!"
Freed faltered. Loke ducked inside his guard and slammed Caelum up under his chin, edge-first. Freed didn't stumble back. He grabbed Loke and hurled him away. Loke hit a table. They both crashed to the ground.
"Laxus can't die!" Freed roared. "Why would Laxus die?" He turned towards Lucy, fist raised. His rapier looked like a toothpick in his other hand.
Lucy hadn't actually thought of a reason why Laxus might die before she'd started yelling. Idiocy wasn't terminal. "The Hall of Thunder!" she said.
"Laxus can't be harmed by lightning magic!" Freed surged forward to attack Lucy.
She shrieked and covered her head with her free arm. "Loke!"
On the other side of the room, Loke rolled to his feet. "Regulus Impact!" He threw out his hand, balled into a fist. A giant lion's head, burning like a supernova, smashed Freed into the opposite wall with a roar that rattled the bottles in the bar. The rapier fell from Freed's grip.
"Do you think the Magic Council won't notice if Laxus blows up an entire town?" Lucy shouted. "There are like thirty thousand civilians in Magnolia, Freed! He's threatening to kill them all!"
"The Magic Council has been disbanded," Freed snapped. "The catastrophe with Councillor Siegrain ruined their credibility. All the councillors were forced to stand down!"
"Blowing up an entire town is the kind of thing that would make them reform in a hurry!" Lucy snapped. "You can't just run around massacring people! He'd be the most wanted criminal in Fiore! If Laxus goes through with setting off the Thunder Palace, the only way it ends for him is with a murder trial and a public execution!" She broke off to drag in another deep breath. "Good job, Freed! You've loyally helped Laxus get himself disintegrated!"
Freed let out an agonised howl. "No! You're wrong!" He raised both hands, summoning up a sphere of dark energy. Lucy dived behind the counter just in time. Red and black flashed in her vision. The counter shattered into pieces. Shards of wood and dust rained down on her. Loke and Caelum were hurled into the far wall. Caelum cracked up the middle from the impact, sparks of green light escaping before it melted back into starlight. Loke groaned, rolled over and sat up.
"Give up, Loke," Freed said. You're one of the guild's low-rankers. You can't hope to defeat me."
"I'm not the same as I used to be," Loke snapped, pushing himself up the wall. "Since meeting Lucy, I've regained my strength as a stellar spirit - meeting Lucy made me strong! I'm strong because I'm fighting for someone I care about!"
"As am I," Freed ground out. "Laxus gave me my orders, and I will follow them! I will kill anyone I have to!"
"You're just making it worse, Freed!" Lucy said. "Laxus can't win! Even if Makarov surrendered right now he couldn't win! Committing murder for him now is only going to make it worse!"
"You're wrong!"
"Why am I wrong?" Lucy demanded. "If I'm wrong, then tell me why!"
"Because- !" Freed started angrily, and stopped. Lucy pressed on.
"I'm friends with the Iron Dragon Slayer," she said breathlessly. "I know that sometimes your friends come up with really stupid ideas, okay? But if you're really their friend, you have to tell them to lay off before they get themselves hurt or worse, not help them throw themselves off a bridge because you're too spineless to argue with them!"
Freed's demon form wavered at the edges and shrank until he was back to his real human appearance. His cravat was undone and his hair was a tangled mess.
"If someone is really your friend, then you don't follow them into hell," Lucy said. "You tell them to stop walking into freaking hell!"
Freed started to cry, great racking sobs that shook him like a leaf. He covered his face with his hands. Tears dripped between his fingers.
Lucy and Loke looked at each other, panic-stricken.
"I-" Lucy started.
"No!" Freed shouted. "No!" He bolted out of the club.
As Lucy pushed herself up, Loke hurried over and lifted her up with two hands around her waist. "Are you okay, Lucy?"
The slash across her side burned every time she breathed. "I'm okay," Lucy said. "Thank you, Loke."
"Check this out," he said, and projected a brilliant glow onto the dark wall of the club. Outlined in thick dark shadow within it were three words: I LOVE LUCY.
And then he'd drawn a little heart.
"Erm," Lucy said, and was then mercifully saved from having to make any further comments when her knees gave way under her. Loke caught her before she hit the floor.
"Lucy! Be careful, that was a long fight and you're injured."
"I'm okay. 'M okay," she said. "Do you want to find that back door out of here?"
To Levy's amazement, when she had managed to bring down the barrier Freed had put around the town, she'd seen Porlyusica already marching down the road towards her. They'd hurried back towards the guild hall against a tide of civilians escaping to the hills around the city, Levy struggling to ignore the shouts of "What are you halfwits doing now?" and "You'd better fix this!"
She pushed the door of the guildhall open to let Porlyusica in and held it as the healer stomped past her. "Thank you for coming!" She caught a glimpse of the display board. Ten minutes left. Could Laxus really be serious? Could they really beat him in time? "I know it's a bit of a difficult situation right now-"
"I know that, too. That's why I'm here," Porlyusica said shortly. "Where's Makarov?"
"In the infirmary! Through here!"
The six beds in the infirmary were really meant for people too tipsy to walk home, but now Makarov and Bisca were each lying in one. A young doctor was standing over them. He looked up as they came in. "Who are you?"
Porlyusica ignored him. She walked straight to the master's bedside and looked down at him.
"Will he be okay?" Levy asked nervously.
The doctor looked Makarov over, sighed, and said "There's nothing to worry about here. You should get out of the town with the others."
Porlyusica shot him a hard look. "What good does it do to tell lies? Bring Laxus here."
"Huh?" Levy said. "Me?"
"Bring that idiot boy who's playing the fool in total ignorance of his grandfather's condition here, now."
"His c-condition?" Levy stammered. "Wh-what do you-"
"Just do it... please," Porlyusica said. She turned. Tears glimmered in her eyes. The blood drained from Levy's face. "He doesn't have long left."
Laxus was sitting on the steps at the side of the cathedral, knees braced wide, head down, chewing over old arguments.
"Laxus... aren't you taking part in the Fantasia parade?" It had been the disappointment in the old geezer's voice that had rankled. Where the hell did the old man get off, saying crap like that? Like he was expected to go and prance about in a stupid costume? An older memory sparked off. Laxus didn't even remember what had caused that argument. Probably something stupid the old man had said.
"Everyone expects me to do well!" he'd shouted. "Ever since I was a kid - It doesn't matter what I do, it's always just 'oh, he's Makarov's grandson', 'well, he is the grandson of Fairy Tail's master, after all' - I never get proper credit for anything!"
The old man'd fiddled nervously with his mustache. "You're brooding over this far too much. 'Proper credit' isn't an easy thing for anyone to achieve in this world-"
"I don't need you patronising me as well!" Laxus snapped.
The old geezer sighed and lowered his head, ready to launch into another lecture. "Look-"
"Don't you have any feelings at all?" Laxus demanded. "Why did you excommunicate Dad, damn it?!"
The old man just sighed again and shut his eyes. Laxus was clearly being a major inconvenience. Laxus seethed. "He was a danger to the guild."
"Okay, so he did a lot of stupid things!" Laxus shouted. "But he's still your son, isn't he? He's family!"
His grandfather's eyes hardened. "Family or not. I cannot allow a man who endangers the lives of his guild-mates to be a member of this guild. Like the masters before me, I will protect the guild. That is the way of Fairy Tail."
Was that a threat? "So, what? You're going to get rid of me too? If you did, I'd just join the guild Dad started and take you out!"
"The guild he... started?" Makarov's eyes widened. "Do you mean to say that you know where he is now?" Well, that had finally squeezed a reaction out of the old man, but what was he thinking now? That they were in league to destroy Fairy Tail, or some crap like that? Laxus turned away with a dismissive gesture.
"Like you give a crap? There's no point pretending like you suddenly care now."
"Wait!" Makarov said. "He knew extremely sensitive information about Fairy Tail! If we don't find him, the guild might be in danger!"
"Says the guy who went and chased him out..."
"Laxus!" Now the old bastard sounded worried.
"I'm going to surpass you one day," Laxus had told him. "Not for Dad, but for me. So I can be a man in my own right."
Well. Makarov couldn't say he hadn't warned him. Laxus stood up and went back to stand before the display board. Erza was standing by one of the cathedral's great columns, statue-still and silent. "You're a pretty shitty conversationalist," he told her. She kept staring blankly at the stone of the column.
The display board showed six minutes left until the activation of the Hall of Thunder.
"He still doesn't feel like giving in, huh?" Laxus said. "That's the stubborn old bastard I know, I guess."
Behind him, the door creaked open. Laxus looked over his shoulder, and his face split into a grin. Erza didn't react at all.
"So you're here! I wouldn't have dreamed you'd actually decide to take part in my game-"
Mystogan's gaze flicked over to Erza's motionless figure for a moment. He spoke quietly. "If you deactivate the Hall of Thunder immediately, you may still be able to pass this off as a joke in very poor taste."
Laxus ignored that. He didn't notice that Erza had lifted her head as soon as Mystogan spoke. "This is my lucky day! You do know, right? All the rumours flying around, about you and me-" He stopped and made a revolted face. "About which of us is the strongest in Fairy Tail. That's what the rumours are about."
"I'm not really interested in that," Mystogan said, "but I would have said Gildarts."
"Eh, he's no use. He's not coming back," Laxus said. "Mira's no good, either. She used to have the right attitude, but she went soft after Lisanna got herself killed." He looked over at Erza. "Erza's got promise, but she's still weak. Look how easy she got jumped by Bickslow."
"If you believe that Erza's weak, why did you feel it necessary to compel her to join your side?"
"Look, I'm trying to pay you a compliment here, Mystogan," Laxus said, exasperated, and broke off again. "Platonically! It's a platonic compliment!"
"...I hadn't imagined otherwise, but thank you for clarifying," said Mystogan.
Laxus hurried on. "Right now, the strongest mage in Fairy Tail is one of us two."
"Is that all you ever think about?" Erza was staring at Mystogan. He was watching Laxus, and didn't notice.
Laxus went on as if Mystogan hadn't spoken. "Let's settle this once and for all, with the title of Fairy Tail's best mage at stake, Mystogan! Or should I call you, the other-"
Mystogan's eyes widened and he spun one of his staves in his hand, producing an explosion of golden light. Laxus summoned up his own lightning magic like a protective shield to counter the blast. The explosion blew out all the windows of the cathedral and blew clouds of dust through all the streets around.
("What was that?" Lucy gasped. "The cathedral!")
Laxus grinned. Mystogan's grip tightened on the shaft of his staff.
"...how did you learn of that?" he said.
Well, he'd finally managed to get a reaction out of the stoic bastard! Laxus's grin widened to bare all his teeth. "Maybe I'll tell you if you can beat me?"
"You will regret this, Laxus," Mystogan said. "You're about to witness a form of magic you won't have seen before."
"Bring it on!" Laxus challenged him. "I'll show you where you stand!"
Gray and Cana were pinned down behind a display of books by the teddy bear gunner. The noise of the shots cratering the walls and floor around them drowned out Cana's voice, but Gray saw her point upwards. Bickslow's other dolls were swarming over the top of their row.
"Ice-Make: Igloo!" The two of them were covered by a thick dome of ice a second before the dolls fired their lasers. Green flashes lit up Cana's white face. If they stayed where they were, the dolls could reduce their shield to rubble within a minute. If they tried to get out from behind their shelter, the teddy bear gunner would blast them full of holes. Cana drew three cards from her bag and fanned them out. The Mountain reversed, Death, and the Tower. "I can take out the teddy gunner," she said. "But it might bring down the whole shop on top of us."
"That's a risk we'll have to take," Gray said. "Do it!"
Then someone asked, over Warren's telepathic link, "Cana, Gray, can you destroy Bickslow's dolls?"
"Is that you, Chico?" Cana said.
"Oh! Destroying the dolls! Good idea!" Gray said. "It won't work. He can just move them into new bodies!"
"I know," Chico said. "Can you do it anyway, please? Destroy them, don't just trap them. You have to disrupt the integrity of the shell."
Gray hissed between his teeth, but did it. "Ice-Make: Shrapnel!" Once again, the igloo exploded outwards into flying shards of razor-sharp ice. The little wooden dolls were much smaller than the mannequins he'd pulled that on earlier. Two of them were able to evade the attack. Two of them were blasted into splinters. The spirits came unmoored from the remnants of the dolls and, for a second, they floated free. Chico snatched them up before Bickslow could.
"Wha-" Bickslow whirled around to see Chico standing just outside the front doors. "You kidnapped my babies!" Wisps of something that looked like smoke curled between Chico's fingers. She clapped her hand to her mouth and swallowed.
Bickslow clutched at his head. "You ate my babies!" He pointed at Chico. "Get her!" The teddy bear gunner turned. "Ate your babies, ate your babies!" Chico sang, and shot into the air. The blasts blew the front doors out in a hail of broken glass and splinters. Gray seized the opportunity, and leapt onto the top of the display rack that had been shielding them. "Cana! Take out Bickslow!" He slammed one fist into the other palm. "Ice-Make: Bullet Hail!" A magical seal formed in front of him and spat out a barrage of hailstones. The nearest doll was ripped to pieces. Bickslow snatched the next and dived for cover behind the machine-gun bear. The giant bear only managed to get off a few more shots before it was torn into a cloud of stuffing.
One of those shots hit Gray square in the chest and threw him off the display stand. He smashed through a stand of toy trucks and lay still.
"Gray!" Cana screamed.
Chico, floating safely near the ceiling like a stray balloon, snatched up the other two dolls' spirits as they drifted free. "Bullet hail, bullet hail!" she mimicked gleefully.
The last doll left was in a small teddy bear. Bickslow clutched it tight to his chest. "Damn it! You've left me no other choice!" He yanked off his visor. "Figure Eyes!"
Cana screwed her eyes shut and yanked a handful of random cards from her bag. She leapt to her feet. She didn't care if she couldn't see him. She knew where he'd been standing. "Explosion Cards!" She flung the cards at him. At the same moment, Chico raised both hands, palms out, index fingers and thumbs almost touching, and fired off a blast of green energy. Both attacks hit at the same time.
The boom rattled the toy shop and shook plaster from the walls. Cana dropped back down until the echoes of the impact faded - she felt dust settle lightly on her shoulders - and then peeked up over the display rack.
That one display rack was almost the only thing in the store left standing. Half the floor and the fallen shelves were covered in a thick layer of ice. Bickslow was sprawled on his back surrounded by the remnants of the machine-gun bear, mouth gaping open, eyes closed.
"I think we beat him," Cana said.
"We beat him!" Chico confirmed happily, as she drifted down from the ceiling. Cana raised her hand for a high-five, but before Chico could respond there was a cough and a groan from behind them.
"What time is it?" Gray rasped.
Cana and Chico looked at each other blankly. Cana drew a Clock card from her bag and activated it. A holographic outline of a grandfather clock with arms, legs and a little moustache appeared above the card and waved.
"Three minutes until the Hall of Thunder goes off," Cana said, in a small voice. There was no way that would be enough time for Erza and Mira to find Laxus and kick his ass.
"Fine." Gray pushed himself up out of the wreckage. "Then we'll just have to take down as many of the lacrima as we can."
The ground around Elfman ruptured. Cobblestones broke free and floated in the air. The energy gathering in Mira's hands flickered and faded out. Her eyes went wide. Elfman was glowing, and as they watched his outline shifted and warped and grew until the top of his head was level with the shops around.
Macao and Wakaba both backed away in a hurry.
"Don't do it, Elfman! You can't!" Mira shrieked. She shot down to the ground and landed between Elfman and the other two. "Both of you, stay back! I'll deal with this!"
"Mira! You're back!" Wakaba said. Macao grabbed his arm and hauled him away. Elfman's arms grew longer, until his knuckles nearly grazed the floor. Horns grew from his forehead. An angry red scar opened up under his eye. Thick coarse fur sprouted from all over his body, and his feet distorted until they looked more like a bird's claws. He roared, revealing a mouthful of sharp serrated teeth.
Mira drew in a deep breath and let Satan Soul go. "Elfman! Can you understand me?" She couldn't see any trace of recognition in his eyes. Something at the back of her head started running calculations - how much collateral damage could they afford, how hard would she have to hit to take him down without hurting him, how likely was it that that was even possible? - but that was happening a long way away. The rest of her mind was all blank,
"You... you haven't lost your reason again, have you?" The skin on his face twitched and warped as the scar under his eye sealed up. "Elfman?" He snatched her off the ground and clutched her tight. "Elfman!"
"Mira!" Elfman said. "I'm so glad you're all right!"
"You're still you!" Mira gasped, dizzy with relief. She flung her arms around his neck.
"Oh thank God," Wakaba said, and then he and Macao both collapsed.
"What on earth were you doing? Elfman, that was dangerous!" Mira said.
"I was trying to stop you!" Elfman said.
Mira's forehead creased. Stop her? She wasn't doing anything! She'd only been cleaning the bar, and then... She looked around wildly. How had she got here? Why had she been in Satan Soul? Why did her muscles ache like she'd been fighting? "What happened?"
"It wasn't your fault," Elfman said. It was sickeningly familiar. The same thing she'd said to him, after...
Mira's eyes widened. Her voice rose to a panicked scream. "What did I do?"
"Nobody's badly hurt!" Elfman said. "Laxus is trying to force the master to hand over the guild to him. Bickslow mind-controlled you and Erza into fighting on his side, but nobody's been killed!"
"But I hurt our people?" Mira covered her face with her hands and shook.
"Nobody would hold that against you! It wasn't your fault!" Elfman said. He let her drop and clutched her shaking hands tight. "It's okay now!"
"Buy us a drink and it'll all be forgiven!" said Wakaba.
Mira didn't listen. She let out a heartrending. "I hurt you, Elfman!"
"I chose to come and fight you on my own!" Elfman said. "What sort of man would stand by and let his sister be turned against their comrades?"
Mira looked at him between her fingers. "... you fought me to stop me hurting our friends?"
"Yes!" Elfman said.
"You came to fight me so I wouldn't hurt someone I cared about?" Mira said.
"Yes! I swore I wouldn't allow you to feel any guilt!" Elfman said. For a second Mira just stared at him, and then she reached up again. Elfman scooped her up. She wrapped her arms back around his neck and rested her head against his shoulder until her heartbeat and her breathing slowed. "I love you very much, Elfman."
"I love you too, sis!" He looked down at himself, at the massive arms wrapped around Mira's waist, the coarse red fur and the bone spurs jutting from the elbows. Tears welled up in his eyes. "I'm sorry, I know you probably never wanted to see this form again, but I-"
"It wasn't your fault that Lisanna died," Mira said. "You were only trying to protect us back then. Sometimes things just go wrong..."
"Mira!" The tears overflowed down Elfman's face. His voice cracked. "I'm so glad you're all right!"
"And how is crying going to help?" Mira asked mildly. "Don't worry, Elfman. You keep our friends safe, and I'll deal with Laxus." Scales rippled over her skin as she shifted back into Satan Soul. Her voice dropped. "Where is he?"
"We don't know. Nobody's seen him since the battle started," Wakaba said.
"Damn it! If he's a man, he should get out here and face us like one!" said Elfman.
"I heard a really big boom from the cathedral a minute ago," Macao said. "I'd have mentioned it, but... everyone was a bit distracted."
Mira gestured. Elfman lifted her up so she sould see. On the other side of town, a vast cloud of dust rose up around Cardia Cathedral. Birds flew cawing from the belltowers.
"... could he be in the cathedral?" Macao said. Mira didn't wait. She braced herself with one foot on Elfman's shoulder. Her wings unfurled. She shot into the sky and towards the cathedral.
Erza blinked. She looked around. There had been a familiar voice...
Ice water ran down her spine. No. That couldn't be right. She had to be wrong. Jellal was dead, and she'd put two swords through the thing that was left. What was happening? She had been in her room, polishing her armour! And now she was in Cardia Cathedral, watching-
"Hahaha!" Laxus shouted. "You thought some stupid illusion would be enough to deal with me, Mystogan?"
"Impressive," said the man with the scarf across his face. Erza's head snapped back as if she'd been slapped. She knew that voice. She knew him. "But you realised an instant too late. My spell is already set up." A tower of magical seals appeared above Laxus. "Fivefold Array: Mikagura!"
Laxus laughed. "Which of us is it that hasn't realised?" A faint glow appeared under Mystogan's feet. He looked down. Both spells discharged at the same time.
Erza's mouth was as dry as sandpaper. She pinched her arm sharply, but she didn't wake up.
Neither mage was slowed down much by the other's attack. Mystogan made the stone floor of the cathedral twist and rise up around Laxus like a stormy sea. Laxus transformed into lightning and shot up one of the cathedral's great columns. "Hah!" At the top he shot down a massive crackling bolt of electricity. Mystogan turned into mist before it hit.
Laxus landed on the ground and rose back to his feet.
"Tch... not half bad, are you?"
"It's kind of you to say so," Mystogan said, his voice carefully neutral.
Erza knew him. She knew with absolute, sickening certainty who that was. It wasn't Mystogan. Or, rather, Mystogan was...
Shock gave way to fury so intense it choked her. Erza requipped into the Flame Empress armour, and drew the sword that came with it from her arsenal. A spark raced the length of the blade, and then it burst into flame. "Flame Slash!" she shouted, and swung down her sword.
Laxus and Mystogan's heads both snapped around, just in time to see the wall of flame racing towards them. Laxus transformed into a bolt of lightning and shot away up one of the columns. She'd been aiming for Mystogan, though, and he didn't dodge fast enough.
He was knocked back, one arm raised defensively, and vanished behind a roiling tide of fire. When the flame cleared, he lifted his head. Smoke curled from the edges of his clothes. His mask and hat had been vaporised.
"Jellal," Erza croaked. "You're dead! I put two swords through you!"
"Oh?" Laxus said, and smirked. "A familiar face?"
"Erza," Jellal said. His face twisted. "I'm not Jellal. I know your link with him, but he isn't me. I'm sorry." He spoke like he'd completely forgotten how to string words together into coherent sentences. "I wanted you, at least, not to-" He stepped back. "I'll leave the rest to you." And then he disappeared into a wisp of smoke.
Erza gaped for a moment before wheeling on Laxus. "Laxus! What the hell is going on? Is this some trick of yours?" Her voice and her hands shook.
"Wipe that stupid look off your face," Laxus said. "It's nothing to do with me if you didn't kill your ex-boyfriend hard enough."
"You don't know what you're talking about!" Erza snapped. "Bickslow ambushed me, didn't he? And that can only have been on your orders! What are you doing?"
"I borrowed you for a bit," Laxus said, with a malicious grin. "You and Mirajane, really. I'm just demonstrating to the old man that it's time he retired and let someone not as old as the dinosaurs run the guild. Someone with a better eye for discipline. Someone like... me."
Erza stared at him.
"You've been very helpful," Laxus said. His smirk widened. "Do you want to see the results? You took out twenty-three little trash Fairies. Mira's done a little better, but-"
"Stop it!" Erza said. "You set Mira and I against the other Fairy Tail mages to force Makarov to step down? You made us attack our own comrades? Laxus, have you lost your mind?"
Laxus laughed. "I'm not done there! I've set up a spell around the town. If the old man doesn't give up in the next three minutes, I'm going to reduce the whole of Magnolia to ruins!"
Erza's mouth dropped open. "Laxus," she said. "You've gone completely insane."
"No, I haven't!" Laxus screamed. Spittle flew from his mouth. "The old man ran the guild into the ground! I'll fix it, and there's nothing you can do to stop me!" He blasted lightning at her.
Erza had changed armour in an instant. Her regular breastplate glowed and dissolved, replaced by the jagged plating and bat wings of the Black Wing armour. She shot out of the way. The lightning crackled across the stone and dissipated. "I'm going to deal with both of you," she said, and drew a two-handed longsword from her armoury. "But you first, Laxus!"
Laxus laughed, and shrugged his shoulders so that his coat fell to the floor. He tossed his headphones aside. "Bring it on!"
There were two minutes left until the activation of the Hall of Thunder.
A/N: With that sort of preternatural ability to smooth over awkward situations, I don't think there can be any doubt that Mystogan will make a brilliant king.