Nobody POV
This guy is heavy...good thing I'm almost out of the forest.
Aqua thinks to herself, sighing as she continues to port Gray through the woods. The forest is lifeless and foreboding, but there's peace in its sullen ambiance. Her eyes flicker over the thick, dark trunk of a tree that rises steadily into the sky, its branches interlocking with its neighbors like giant's arms linked together, protecting their home. The trees are densely packed together, leaving just enough space to allow someone to maneuver through them.
It's only a little bit further. Then only a simple forward march to the island...and my prize.
The excitement of that thought buoys her high-strung temperament like a tonic, her lips curling up into a smile. Aqua has switched to carrying the ice mage on her back a while ago, seeing as she could no longer hold him bridal style.
I might have to swim, but that'll be a fair trade-off for the reward I'll get when I hand this dirty intruder over to Master.
Suddenly, she begins to feel Gray stir, showing that he is regaining consciousness.
No, no, no! Come on, not yet!
"Ugh..." he moans, cracking his glazed eyes open.
"Shhh...it's okay..." Aqua hushes, before quietly starting to sing. The melody is eerie, yet soothing in an odd way.
"Sofðu nú svínið þitt,
svartur í augum.
Farðu í fúlan pytt,
fullan af draugum..." (translation is at end of the chapter)
Aqua continues to tacitly whisper to him as she walks, in hopes that Gray will fall back into repose.
And it almost works.
That is, until a vociferous noise rings out from the forest.
"GRAY-SAMAAAAAAAAAAA!"
"Huh...wh-wha...?"
"No, no, no...shh...it's okay..." she goes on hastily as she looks around for any sign that her pursuer is nearby. "It's just your imagination...go to sleep, everything will be fine..."
"GRAY-SAMA!" the scream sounds a lot closer this time. "WHERE ARE YOU?!"
"That's...Juvia...why...she yelling...?"
Before Aqua can open her mouth to shush Gray once again, Juvia appears in her field of vision and immediately starts making a mad dash towards them. There is a daunting expression on her face, one that is ready to kill.
"GRAY-SAMAAAA! PUT HIM DOWN THIS INSTANT!"
"Shit!"
Aqua barely has time to react as Juvia socks her in the jaw, the force knocking her from her feet.
"Gray-sama! Are you hurt?!" the water mage drops down and holds the ice mage in her arms. "Speak to Juvia!"
"M' fine...my...my head jus' hurt...really bad..."
Aqua sits up and looks at the two of them just as the others have caught up with Juvia, appearing to be exhausted.
"Damn...you...you run fast..." Sting wheezes in between breaths, clutching his knees as he bends over.
"Juvia will run at the speed of light to save Gray-sama," Juvia responds as she glares at Aqua, the latter returning the look.
"Damn you...! I was so close! If you hadn't gotten in the way, then it would be one less filthy, wretched trespasser to deal with, and a dream come true for me!" Aqua yells.
"Did you just call Gray-sama a filthy...wretched...trespasser?"
"Oh, believe me! That's not the worst thing I could call him, or any of you for that matter! He's an intolerable miscreant from the real world just like the rest of you! He doesn't even have any good magic! Hell, Ice is a better Gray than him and he will always be! As far as I'm concerned, your's is nothing more than an annoying pebble in a shoe instead of a thorn in the side like the rest of you. He's just like a pebble, too! Small, worthless, irritating, and ugly!"
Juvia goes ominously silent as her body quakes visibly. Slowly, very slowly, she rises from her crouching position. Her fists are clenched tightly, and a baleful vibe emits from her in waves.
"Juvia, just...just calm down, alright?" Mirajane tries to console her, unease seeping into her voice. "I'm sure she didn't mean any of that."
"I meant every word of that!" Aqua snarls. "And I'll never regret saying it!"
"How dare you..."
"How dare I what? Tell the truth?"
"HOW DARE YOU SAY THOSE THINGS ABOUT MY GRAY-SAMA!"
"Juvia, don't!"
"WATER SLICER!"
All rational thoughts in Juvia's head are obscured with wrath, as is the sun with cloud. Crystalline liquid forms at her fingertips as she directs her attack at her look-alike. And with how much power Juvia puts behind it, it seems like it will surely kill the latter. Aqua screams, her arms shooting up in an attempt to defend herself from Juvia's heated onslaught.
But the attack never comes.
"H-huh?"
Lowering her arms, Aqua's eyes widen in sheer terror at the sight before her.
"ICE!"
Ice is lying on the ground with a lurid wound in his chest, stretching down to his stomach and is oozing with blood. Organs can be seen poking out from the wound, despite his best attempts to cover them with his arms. Just before Aqua was hit, Ice had appeared and thrown himself in front of her. Looking over at her, the young man smiles weakly.
"I found you, Lotus..." he coughs, blood flying from his mouth. Real blood is nothing like movie blood, just as real death is nothing like movie death. There is no amount of horror that can prepare a person for seeing the life ebb from another, the hopelessness, the tearing at the soul that is the departing of the other. And that is exactly how it is for Aqua in this moment.
Aqua, now revealed as Lotus, slumps down next to him.
"I...Ice! Oh...oh my Master!" she's in shock, a mortified expression on her face. "I...I don't...how will we be able to fix this?"
"Ah...it's alright...I'm just glad you're unharmed...you are unharmed, a-aren't you?"
"Who cares about me?! Just please hang on! I-I can stop this! I can heal this, I can save you!"
"If you don't know, then how can you do it...?"
"Shut up, baka! I can save you! I c-can stop the bleeding!" she shouts, her voice wavering. Her hands move to press snugly against his wound, yet the crimson flow trickles on. "Then when you're all better, things can back to normal like these trespassers never came here! And we'll be happy t-together!"
"That...that does sound nice, but it's too bad I won't be able to enjoy it..." the smile never leaves his face. As the life fluid drains out of him in its garish red, his skin takes on the pallor of a corpse. "You will, though, and that's what I'm happy about..."
"I can't enjoy it if you aren't there with me, and things will never be the same if you aren't here! I can't pull any of my stunts, and you can't be there to scold me afterwards!"
"Lotus, listen to me, please...I can't...can't hold on for much longer, so listen to me for once in your life and grant me this one last request...can you do that?"
"Don't say that! You're gonna be fine!"
"Put your lips to mine," he ignores her. "It's something that I've wanted for a long time, so please...do it..."
Lotus hesitates for a moment, before leaning down and pressing a quick kiss to his bloodied mouth.
"There, I kissed you. Now stop it with all of this death talk, you're going to be fine!"
"I...love you...Lo...tus..."
His eyes slide closed, his head rolling to the side. It is quiet as a sleeping viper as Lotus stares in shocked horror at Ice's body.
"G...Geranium...? Geranium?! Come on! Please, please no!"
The next cry dies in her throat as she lets her body fall to his, desperate to still feel life in his unmoving corpse. The onlookers stand stock-still as Lotus frantically attempts to revive her partner, yet it is futile.
"Geranium! Please, don't leave me!"
It's then that Geranium's body turns into nothing more than a small plushie, lying in a puddle of blood on the ground. Lotus is in a stunned silence as she picks up the toy with trembling hands.
"Oh...oh no...no no no no no..."
She screws her eyes shut, but that does nothing to stop the flow of tears as she cradles the plushie close. Her shoulders are shaking with grief, salty fluid streaming down her already wet cheeks. The noisy sobs echo through the otherwise silent woods. Lotus then doubles over, her forehead meeting the ground in front of her.
"Geranium...I'm s-so sorry...this is all my fault...it's all my fault..."
Mirajane is the first to react, walking over to her and attempting to place a comforting hand on her shoulder.
"DON'T FUCKING TOUCH ME!"
She hastily retracts her arm.
"You...you did this...you all killed him..." Lotus chokes out. "Just...just get out...GET OUT OF THIS FOREST! Get out get out get out get OUT!"
Laxus moves over to Mirajane and ushers the takeover mage away from the implacable Lotus.
"Let's go."
No one argues as they move past her, with Juvia carrying Gray.
"Juvia, you...you can put me down..." Gray is the first one to speak up, his words slurring a bit.
"Sorry, Gray-sama...Juvia didn't realize that she was still carrying you," it seems like she's lying, but he doesn't appear to notice as Juvia sets him down.
Immediately, he wobbles on his legs and nearly collapses. However, Natsu catches the ice mage in his arms just before he hits the ground.
"Come on, put your arm around my shoulder. I'll help you walk," the dragon slayer says, and Gray gives him a look of silent thanks as he complies. They begin to walk, the trees starting to thin as they seemingly near the end of the forest.
The small path widens into a multicolored beach with every size of rock; from boulders big enough to sit on, to grains that get stuck between your toes. Beyond is a flat lake, the shore visible in the distance. In the black watery mirror is only the constellations, starlight so old and young. As they approached the waterline, Sting bends down and skims a rock—the splash loud in the otherwise silent night, and the ripples fading slowly from the poorly thrown pebble. Coniferous trees cast shadows across the shoreline, like trying to conceal them from view.
"That has to be where Lucy is," says Natsu.
"You'd think that with the circumstances, Paw would try to keep Lu-chan someplace more inconspicuous," Levy comments.
"I doubt that Paw has any energy left after having to deal with us for so long," Rogue doubts. "I'm not surprised that she can't move Lucy, especially in her most likely injured state."
"I don't see a way across. It looks like we're going to have to swim."
"Juvia can get you all across," Juvia speaks up.
"Are you sure about that?"
"Why? Do you not think that Juvia can do it?" the waiter wielder looks at her.
"Well, I just thought that you might be exhausted from all that running."
"Juvia has more stamina the you think," Juvia says as she moves to stand waist deep in the water. "But who would like to go first?"
"I'll go," Lisanna volunteers.
"Come to Juvia then," she extends a hand for Lisanna to take.
Lisanna does so, and Juvia uses her magic to will the water to carry the takeover mage to the island. She does the same with the others as well, until all of them are on the island. Natsu complains about the spray of water dampening his scarf, but is cut off when he grabs Gray yet again, who nearly face-plants into the sand as Juvia let's him onto the island. Gajeel laughs upon landing on the beach and seeing this, which in response Gray growls and loudly declares he can stand on his own. He waves off Natsu's support and shoots Gajeel a look, the iron dragon slayer only snickering in response.
"Guess this is it," Erza muses, while Natsu hovers close next to Gray in case the devil slayer needed help walking.
"I'm fine," he insists.
"I know you are, I just don't want you falling over in the middle of battle!" Natsu huffs.
"Whatever..."
"We just have to find Lu-chan and then we can forget that this ever happened," Levy sounds relieved. "I'll be looking forward to that."
"We all will."
Mirajane notices that Lisanna is looking around at the scenery of the island with a surprised look on her face.
"What's the matter, Lisanna?" she asks.
"I recognize the scenery of this island...I've been here before."
"What? How is that possible?"
"I dreamed about this place and it was the reason I went to go check on Lucy," she replies. "I saw her sitting up against a tree in my dream,"
"Where, though?"
"I don't know, but I should know when I see it. Let's get looking."
They begin to search around the island and after a while, they come across the telescope tree. But there's one small problem that takes the form of the absence of Paw's final victim.
"What the-?"
"What's wrong?" Natsu asks, frowning.
"This is where Lucy was in my dream, but she isn't here," Lisanna looks back at them. "I don't see her anywhere."
"What?! So that monster moved her!?" he exclaims, clearly not happy.
"Calm down, squinty eyes..."
"I DON'T NEED TO CALM DOWN YOU NEED TO CALM UP!"
"That makes no sense," the ice mage sighs, rubbing his head.
Before Natsu can open his mouth to say anything else, a white dove flies over and perches itself atop Natsu's head. It gives a chirp, as if it's greeting them.
"Aw, it likes you," Wendy smiles.
"Isn't that the bird which led us to the tree house?"
"It could be, but it could also be a different one," Levy answers. "A lot of birds look the same."
The dove begins to make itself comfortable in Natsu's salmon colored hair.
"My hair is not a nest!"
He shakes his head and the bird flies away, but it doesn't go far as the it lands in front of the telescope tree and gives an irritated look to Natsu before chirping at him.
"Sorry, but we don't speak bird," the fire mage didn't seem phased in the least.
As if the dove seemed to understand him, it lets out one final chirp before it starts to change.
The bird grows in size, feathers morphing into a flowing white dress, skin covering all the body. Talons shift into feet and wings to arms, fingers and toes following suit. Blond hair sprouts from the head and tumbles down the back in waves, coming to a stop near the legs. It isn't that bland color that's just a shade nicer than the white of old age, it's toned-down gold and natural yellows. It gives them some warmth, complementing their pale face rather than making them look washed-out. Eyes the color of deep forest pools stare at them, pupils oddly blown out like that of a corpse. They did not match the expression, however, as a jubilant smile is decorating the features.
The bird has fully transformed into a young human girl right before the mage's disbelieving eyes.
"Sorry! Bird speak sounds exactly like English when you're a bird!"
No one knows what to say as they continue staring at the woman standing before them.
"Huh? What's the matter? Cat got your tongue?"
It's a few moments before each of the Fairy Tail wizards react to her in the same way.
"FIRST?!"
PawPrint-Writer(author): Review plz?
RevlisCharm(beta): Any thoughts on the death scene, readers? I put a lot of work into it, and would love to know what you all thought! And the lullaby Aqua/Lotus sang is Icelandic. It translates into:
'Sleep, you black-eyed pig.
Fall into a deep pit of ghosts.'
...Creepy.
