Finally! Just finished editing this chapter a day or so ago, but Life got hold of me again so I was delayed in updating. But it's here at last!
Review Response: Dragon Lord Draco, greetings! Glad you enjoyed it. If you think that's a good amount of Fairy Tail Luck, just imagine what will happen when the entire Raijinshū go on an ACTUAL magic job outside of Magnolia!
Dear Lightsbane1905, hello there! (grins) "Doomed! Very entertaining though" basically sums up the entirety of the Fairy Tail series doesn't it?
Dear EmberFlame03, hello! Why thank you, and I hope you enjoyed the side story!
Dear Meiseki Dreams, hey there! Aren't Fairy Tail missions always doomed? You're welcome, I hope you enjoy this one as well!
Dear BlackDove WhiteDove, hi! Glad you liked it so much! Yeah, Wren and her problems with being terrifying to other people isn't going to go away anytime soon. Hmm, that's kinda tricky to answer, considering Wren hasn't done any solo missions yet. But I'd like to think that the Pirate Arc was her Luck kicking in somehow. But we'll have to wait and see. (sniggers) Porlyusica is going to remember (and remind them of) that mission forever too, just not with any fondness. Enjoy the update!
Dear Never Ending Song of Insanity, hi there! Aw, well, (offers tissues) have these as well as this newest chapter?
Dear Yatocat19, greetings! Hearing that you think they would have acted like that in canon is one of the best compliments I can get!
Dear Anonymus, hello! Sorry, but no to both. For the first one, because I think pairing up the Shadow users would just be ... to cliche. Not that I don't really like Rogue as a character, I just think pairing the two of them wouldn't work. I wouldn't mind making them become good friends though. As for your second request, I cannot make Wren related to anyone because she isn't possessing anyone's body but her own. The body she's in is the one she had back in her original world, it's just that one of the side-effects of crossing worlds was it physically de-aged her. I hope that all makes sense?
Dear snowleopard314, hey there! So pleased to hear how you enjoyed both chapters! Freed and Evergreen were especially fun to introduce to Fairy Tail Luck. I'm actually really impatient to start incorporating more canon characters as well, because I have PLANS for them. But there's a few things I still need to take care of in the Raijinshū's early days before I start to think about time-skipping. Hope you enjoy this new chapter!
Dear Lightblade23, hi! First off, I'm so happy to hear how much you like Wren and this story! Introducing OC main characters is always a tricky business. She won't be stuck as a kid forever, and I fully intend to eventually make my way through the entire FT series (and maybe a bit beyond but we'll see). I do have a pairing in mind, but I fully intend to take my time in both introducing it and developing it. Plus, it won't come until after Wren herself has developed quite a bit.
Dear Carchee, greetings! Wow, you must be a master sneak-reader... (blushes) Thank you so much for your compliments. I really enjoy writing Wren and her story and to hear that you think she's so awesome and relatable totally makes my day! Keeping the plot from devolving into one of the more common "trying to get home" or "blurt out future knowledge at the drop of a hat" ones is actually the reason I made her mute. Communication is a very underestimated resource sometimes. I figured that if I really wanted a plausible excuse for her to not accidentally (or intentionally) blurting something out that she shouldn't, I needed to give her physical barrier. I wasn't sure I'd be able to write a mute character ... but it turned out that Wren is more than feisty enough to make up for her lack of vocal cords ;). Plus, Wren's situation was an excuse to play around with the main cast (and Bickslow!) as kids before the series started. Lyon will take a while to appear, but hopefully you'll find the wait worth it when he finally makes his entrance, because he plays a big role down the line. Enjoy the newest chapter!
Dear BizzyLizy, hello! Of course not. That would be reasonable and logical and when has Fairy Tail EVER been either of those things? It's not going to get any easier for Freed either (snickers). Freed is definitely one of the most unique perspectives I've ever written, I'm glad you enjoyed it, because it was HARD.
Dear EnchantedDreamerr, hey there! I'm glad you've enjoyed this story so much! I have to ask though ... who do you find slightly annoying? I can't quite tell from your review. Either way, I hope whoever it is becomes less annoying to you as time goes on. Glad it made sense, I figured that something big would have had to happen to make Freed as loyal as he is. I hope you enjoy the update!
Dear xXLittleBaphometXx, greetings! (gives flourish of hat) Well thank you! Also, you're patience has been rewarded because here is a new chapter!
Dear Scarlet3Wolf12, hello there! (grins) Oh I have plans for our favorite cast of mages ... PLANS (muses cackle evilly in the background)...
Author's Note: So, the beginning of this chapter is basically the opposite of light and fluffy, but is necessary because of Plot Reasons. After that it lightens up, though there is a foreshadow-y ending to the chapter. This is the start of something of a mini-arc, hopefully it won't be more than two-parts, three at the most. But it deals with an important issue and heralds another major AU turning point in the story, though it won't seem like it from Wren's perspective for a long time. Oh! One more thing, I'm doing NaNoWriMo this November, so you won't hear from me all that month and probably not the one after that either (which means my Christmas chapter will be late again, boo), but I'll try to come back as soon as possible. That's about all I can say about that, so I think I'll just end the AN here and let you all move on to the chapter itself! Toodles!
Copyright Disclaimer: I do not own Fairy Tail or any references made in this chapter. The only things I own are my OCs who have run off with my plot.
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Chapter Twenty-Eight: Preparations
(Six months, three weeks, two days since joining guild).
.
.
Her lungs begged for more air and burned from the smoke that greeted her every gasp as she ran. Faster, faster, please, just a little more time- the thoughts circled in her head like a mantra as she stumbled and pelted her way through the forest. Bushes and brambles scratched at her arms and legs and face but she barely felt them. Her muscles begged for rest even as her heart screamed for her to go faster.
She was getting closer, she was almost there yet that knowledge offered no relief. Not when the smoke was so thick and the silence was so complete save for the ominous crackle of wood being consumed in fire. Please. She begged with everything she had left in her exhausted body as she staggered forward, please. Let it be alright. Don't let them be hurt, please, please, not them! Not them, not him, anyone but him! I'll do anything, just let him be okay!
The trees thinned and became increasingly scorched and ravaged, embers burned at the bottom her sandals with such intensity that it felt like the skin of her feet was going to peel away. But she didn't stop, she couldn't stop, she had to find him. She had to keep him safe. She had to apologize-
She rounded the last corner only to stumble over something and land hard on her front with a cry. Panic clawed at her as she tried to scramble up and untangle her feet from the fabric wrapped around her ankles and-
Wait.
With a rising swell of horror and disbelief, she turned and looked over her shoulder at the thing she had tripped over. Blood and smoke marred the clothes and matted hair and bile rose in her throat as she stumbled back and rolled the figure over, shaking and begging and screaming because he had to wake up, he had to be okay, he had to start breathing again and this couldn't be happening no-no-no-no-no-PLEASE-
"Wren! Wren, wake up! Wake up!" Something skittered over her skin, sharp and biting and Rihanna sat up screaming silently. Hands pulled her to a familiar chest, holding her tight as she kept trying to scream. Tears slid down without reserve as grief and terror and guilt all ripped through her like knives as the feeling of gone-gone-gone-no-no-no- circled endlessly in her mind. Minutes passed before she came fully back to herself and realized what was really going on. The nightmares again. Rihanna shuddered and closed her eyes briefly before she forced them open again, afraid of what she would see if she let them close for too long.
Gentle hands were rubbing up and down her back and Bickslow's voice murmured soothingly over her head in time to the vibrations in the chest to which she was being hugged. Rihanna felt another shudder pass through her body and Bickslow held her tighter, still speaking in a low, soothing voice, "It's okay, Wren. It's okay. You're in the Lighthouse, everyone is here, everyone is fine, you are fine. Nobody is hurt, nothing is coming for you, it was all just a nightmare, you're okay. You're okay. Laxus is right here, see? So is Cana and Mest. Freed and Evergreen are downstairs- check that," his voice shifted to a low hiss as he addressed someone over her head, "what are you two doing here? I told you to wait downstairs!"
"Is Wren-sama alright?" was the quiet, stubborn response to Bickslow's hiss.
Rihanna jumped a bit as Laxus spoke from no more than a foot away from her, "Nightmares. Nothing you two can do."
Rihanna raised her head from Bickslow's chest, stubbornly blinking away her tears as she scanned the room. Laxus was perched on the end of her bed, a dark, sad look in his eyes as he watched her. One hand hovered near her knee but did not touch, as if afraid of startling her. Cana stood next to the bed, a tense, heartbroken expression on her face that made Rihanna feel guilty for reasons other than whatever had happened in the rapidly fading nightmare. Mest was by the stairs, trying and failing to herd a concerned Evergreen and Freed back down to the living room.
Something in Rihanna's chest loosened at seeing them all alive and well. With a loud sniff, Rihanna tried to rein in her rampant emotions and quietly sat up. Bickslow loosened his hold on her immediately, but didn't let go. A part of her felt guilty again that Bickslow was getting so good at handling her nightmares.
Laxus finally allowed his hand to rest on her knee while Cana darted for some tissues on the nearby nightstand. The blond eyed her with worry, "You wouldn't wake up this time. Bickslow had to come and get me. I had to zap you to make you wake up." The intense worry and desire to know why went unspoken, but Rihanna heard it loud and clear anyway. She wanted to reassure them somehow, but there was nothing she could do or say. Not right now, with the smell of smoke still coating her sore throat and lungs and images of fire-blood-no-breathe-why-won't-you-breathe-please-
Laxus's hand tightened on her knee at the same moment Bickslow's hands moved to squeeze her shoulders and Rihanna shoved those thoughts as far away as possible. She shook herself before she raised her hands and tried to explain, "I'm fine. Just a nightmare."
"You wouldn't wake up, Imōto." Was Bickslow's tense response.
Rihanna reached up a hand to squeeze his arm, taking comfort as much as giving it as she tried to figure out how to explain something she didn't understand herself. She didn't know why Bickslow hadn't been able to wake her up this time, though she half-wondered if that was because it had been so vivid this time around. Even more so than usual. It had been so real. So terrifyingly, gut-wrenchingly real and even now, with the details of the nightmare already reduced to a few piercing flashes of sight and sound and emotion, a part of Rihanna struggled to accept that it hadn't actually been real.
Finally, unable to convey just how real it had all been without risking drowning in the remaining flashes of memory, Rihanna shook her head at them and moved to get up. Bickslow and Laxus let her go with clear reluctance, sliding off the bed with her to fuss over her while Cana passed her a wad of tissues that she gratefully took in order to clean herself up. She made it three steps away from the bed before she looked up again and froze in shock, what happened to the room?
The room was damaged. Deep gouges scored the walls, the few pictures they owned had been knocked off the walls, the other bed in the room was overturned entirely, and a glance back at her bed showed that one of her bedposts had been pulverized.
Seeing her stunned look, Mest piped up awkwardly, "You were lashing out magically in your sleep, Wren-chan. Nothing precise, just wild slashes and shockwaves with your shadows."
That … had never happened before. It was also very, very concerning. What if the others got hurt during her nightmares because of this? An impression of soot-caked clothes and blood-matted hair flickered behind her eyes and she stared at the others in a panic that Laxus was quick to soothe, "None of us got hurt, we're fine. It's you we're worried about."
Rihanna sniffed again and clutched her tissues, feeling a wave of hysteria almost overtake her before she slammed it down. Too close. Too close. But why? Why is this happening? What do I keep seeing? Those thoughts plagued her even as she eventually managed to make the others go wait in the living room while she cleaned herself up and changed in the bathroom. Her eyes were red and puffy and her throat was sore from trying to scream and despite her best efforts to calm down, flashes of the nightmare still harassed her all the way down the stairs to join the others.
She made a mental note to slip away from the others sometime soon to have a nice long cry in private to get it out of her system. Hopefully that would help.
The others hovered when she came down to the living room. Bickslow was glued to her side while Freed and Evergreen fidgeted. Cana pressed herself against Rihanna's other side while Mest hovered just behind her and tried to keep Cana and Bickslow from whisper-fighting over Rihanna's head. Laxus offered to cancel their plans for the day but Rihanna drew the line at that. Despite the horrific and strangely elusive nature of her nightmares, she refused to let the others hide away indoors on a perfectly good day. Especially one that was so important.
It took a bit to convince Laxus that activity and busywork would be a better cure for her than locking her up in the lighthouse and wrapping her up in the couch blankets Bickslow was eyeing but she managed somehow. Shortly thereafter, they were all trekking down the streets to the guild hall, with Laxus now busy outlining various rules of conduct and survival for their upcoming in-town mission. Namely, all available Fairy Tail members were to assemble at the guild hall for instructions.
Why? Because Fairy Tail was throwing a party. This was not usually something to take note of, because Fairy Tail threw a party over just about any excuse. This time, however, was different.
It was a birthday party.
Well, several birthday parties all rolled into one. Apparently, since there were so many members in Fairy Tail that celebrating all of the individual birthdays would be an exercise in bankruptcy, Makarov had designated the twenty-fifth of every month to be the day when Fairy Tail would throw a party celebrating the birthdays of anyone born in that particular month. Of course, if the individual teams wanted to throw one on the specific day, that was fine, but the twenty-fifth was reserved as the day when all of Fairy Tail would pull out the stops and celebrate on behalf of all the members who had a birthday that month.
Having already experienced the madness four times out of the six months they'd been there already, Rihanna wasn't sure she wanted to be anywhere within ten miles of Magnolia when Christmas time rolled around. Combining the two events and the classic Fairy Tail enthusiasm for both sounded like a recipe for chaos even beyond the scope of the anime.
In any case, this would be Freed's and Evergreen's first time helping out, which she suspected was the reason Laxus had delayed their going to the guild hall for a few days rather than join in as soon as preparations had started. The two had needed a little bit of time to recover from their first official dose of Fairy Tail Luck and Freed was still getting used to having a full field of vision again.
By the time the guild hall came into view, Freed had almost religiously memorized every tip and rule that Laxus had told him and Evergreen was looking decidedly nervous. She didn't bother trying to help Mest reassure Evergreen, because even from here Rihanna could see what appeared to be a mass of balloons escaping out the open doors. Entangled in the strings of the slowly rising balloons was a shrieking Fairy Tail member who looked distinctly like poor Reedus. She wondered how he had gotten roped into balloon duty again after the last time this had happened.
Just ahead of her, Mest sighed and disappeared with a faint pop of magic to go rescue the fellow guild member. Freed made a strangled noise in his throat at the sight and Bickslow piped up with a bit of restored humor, "And that is why no one under the age of thirteen is allowed to be on balloon duty."
Evergreen's eyes were wide behind her glasses and she winced at the loud snaps of rubber that sounded as someone accidentally popped a few of the balloons in their attempt to round them up, "This happens a lot?"
Laxus made a low noise of resignation, "Every time. Come on, we'll go in the back way."
As it turned out, the back way wasn't much better. Someone had obviously gotten way, way too many balloons, as the moment Laxus opened the back door a small wave of them escaped to the outdoors and began to float away. Laxus grunted in exasperation as he caught two by their strings and dragged them back inside, closing the door again the moment everyone had entered. Freed was staring up at the ceiling of the foyer … or rather, the bobbing, shifting mass of bright colors that seemed to have replaced it.
Rihanna stared up at the balloons with a bland expression, Pantherlilies. This is going to be the balloon version of the Confetti Invasion isn't it? Cana seemed to have similar thoughts, as her hands wandered down to her card bag and she muttered darkly about fast-acting glue and explosions. Laxus led the way down the balloon-infested hallway to the guild hall itself.
Activity inside the guild hall was like some kind of organized train wreck. One where everyone technically knew what they were doing and how to do it without fire, shouting, copious amounts of balloons, and stuffing other guild members into a giant piñata, but included those things and more anyway. Rihanna glanced up to the second floor, expecting to see Master Makarov perched on the railing and acting as if this kind of thing was perfectly normal and acceptable for party preparations. He wasn't there. Rihanna frowned for a moment as she tried to figure out where he could have gone-
"Yo! Laxus! Raijinshū!" Master Makarov's voice came from directly above them and Rihanna looked up … and then smacked her face with a palm. Because of course their midget Master would decide to tie a bunch of balloons to his belt and float over everything rather than sit on a chair like a normal seventy-something-year-old. At least he hadn't taken a beer mug up there with him, Rihanna would have resorted to drastic measures if any alcohol got spilled on her head.
Apparently this was not an unusual thing, because Laxus and the newly-returned Mest didn't even bother looking surprised. Laxus raised a hand in Makarov's direction, "Yo, Jiji!"
Rihanna watched with vague incredulity as Master Makarov did breast-strokes in the air like he was swimming and it actually worked in steering him around the rafters. The clearly magically cheating old man smiled down at them, "Here to help with the party? Or here to finally make your birthday wish?"
Wait what? Rihanna glanced at Laxus —who was making frantic shushing motions up at Master Makarov— in surprise. He hadn't said anything about his birthday being in november. Then Freed and Evergreen both gasped like fish and Rihanna realized why. The two newest Raijinshū whirled on their leader with huge eyes. Laxus winced, but pointedly ignored them as he called up, "We're here to help, Jiji, and you know I already submitted my wish list a month ago. Stupid old man…" The last part was a dark mutter she suspected was caused by the distraught looks on Freed's and Evergreen's faces.
Master Makarov just smiled down at Laxus, as if he wasn't aware of how he had just sold out his grandson to his fan-club-come-newest-teammates, "Alright then, you and your team can help wrap the presents that the others have turned in so far. Freed, you know how to use protection runes, boy? Good. When you're done wrapping, you can make sure the food tables and the presents table don't blow up this year. Wren will help you."
Laxus shot Master Makarov a look that promised painful revenge, to which his grandfather just shooed them away with cheer and resumed air-swimming to the next group that required supervision. Freed and Evergreen remained silent until they had escaped the chaos of the guild hall and been led to the upstairs dormitories that Rihanna and Bickslow had stayed in before buying the lighthouse.
The beds and floor were stacked high with presents and each bed also had its own pile of tape, tags, ribbon, and wrapping paper to go with it. Rihanna peeked at the foot of the beds and saw that someone had labeled each bed or pile of presents with the name of the intended recipient. Huh, wonder where Laxus's presents are. Does he really trust Laxus not to peak? Or maybe Laxus just doesn't care about being surprised or not? Or maybe-
"Why didn't you tell us?" The dual-voiced shout startled Rihanna out of her thoughts and she looked over her shoulder in the direction of the shouting. Freed and Evergreen had effectively cornered Laxus by the door. Their shoulders were tight, eyes watering and wide, and their bottom lips were quivering. Laxus looked distinctly uncomfortable, but when he tried to shuffle away from the two, they just shuffled with him.
Laxus rubbed the back of his neck, "It's really not that big a deal…"
"Yes it is!" Was the united shout of his fan club and out of the corner of her eye, Rihanna saw Mest shooting a confused frown in Laxus's direction.
Freed leaned closer to Laxus, his lip-quiver growing more pronounced, "It's your birthday party, Laxus-sama! How are we supposed to acquire suitable birthday presents for you if you don't even tell us when it is? Or what you like? Or how we should-"
Laxus held up his hands in surrender, "Okay, okay, I get it. But you really don't have to do anything like that, okay? I'm sure Jiji's already either gotten everything on the wish list he makes me write every year, or had someone else get it for him. I didn't tell you because you two don't really have any money right now anyway, and I'd feel bad having you take something out of the team fund just for this. Besides, it's not really that important."
Now Rihanna was frowning in Laxus's direction as well, because since when did a kid —because thirteen still counted as a kid— not care about his own birthday? Bickslow looked up from where he had already begun clumsily wrapping a present, "Yeah, what's the big deal? It's just a day."
Freed and Evergreen whirled on Bickslow with expressions of horror, "Just a day?" Freed squawked, "Just a day? It's Laxus-sama's birthday! The day Laxus-sama was born! It is a most honored day that must be celebrated with all of the reverence and joy due its momentous status!" Easy there Freed, that's skirting out of fanboy status and into something dangerously close to "devoted cultist".
Mest looked about as disturbed as Rihanna was feeling as he tried to break up the rising hysteria, "Look, if it matters that much to you, I know a bit about what Laxus likes so I'll help you pick something out later. But let's get these presents wrapped and the runes sorted out first okay? The Master did give us jobs to do."
Freed and Evergreen eyed Mest thoughtfully, but finally agreed to his proposal when Laxus ordered them to. Rihanna sat down in front of a random pile of presents and set about wrapping them, her thoughts briefly lingering on Laxus's lack of enthusiasm for his own birthday. It wasn't unheard-of she supposed, but it still rubbed her the wrong way. She recalled still getting excited over her birthday at that age, and her mother and friends hadn't had near the amount of funds or manpower that Fairy Tail did. She wondered if perhaps having to share his birthday celebrations with so many other people in the guild had soured his enthusiasm over the years.
Bickslow worried her too. They had never celebrated his birthday on the streets and she doubted that many pleasant pre-street memories had survived his abuse at the hands of the townsfolk. A surge of guilt went through her as Rihanna realized that she didn't even know when Bickslow's birthday was. Rihanna raised her gaze from the presents she was automatically wrapping to study her adoptive brother. A moment later her guilt was temporarily forgotten in favor of silent surprised laughter.
Mest had spotted Bickslow as well and there was a definite chuckle in his voice as he asked, "Need a little help, Bickslow?"
Bickslow growled something unrepeatable into the floor and his tikis fluttered helplessly above him, as if trying to figure out how to get their master out of his predicament. Bickslow had apparently waged a simultaneous war with the wrapping paper, the huge roll of tape, and the ribbons that were supposed to be used for bows.
He had lost. Badly.
Laxus turned his attention away from his own project and stared at the squirming, ribbon-mummified mass of wrapping paper and tape that happened to have Bickslow's head sticking out of it. He gave a suppressed snort of laughter and turned back to his project, apparently deeming Mest capable of helping Bickslow get free.
Cana had neither Mest's nor Laxus's restraint and started howling with laughter as Bickslow flopped like a fish on the floor in frustration. Mest shot a reproving glance at both Cana and the silently sniggering Rihanna as he crouched down next to Bickslow, "Hold still Bickslow, I'll get you out. How did you manage to do this without making a racket anyway?" Bickslow growled unintelligibly into the floor again while his tikis whizzed across the room the harass Cana for laughing. Cana retaliated on instinct with her cards.
Honestly, Rihanna really shouldn't have been as surprised by the miniature brawl that broke out as she was. Thankfully, none of the presents were destroyed in the time it took Rihanna to catch the tikis with her shadows and glare her two teammates into submission. Laxus did have to help put out first the bedspread and then Freed's hair though.
After Mest had unwound Bickslow from his birthday-themed mummy wrappings and agreed to show Bickslow how to properly wrap presents without ending up being wrapped himself, things went more smoothly.
However, the brief bout of chaos had been enough to cause Rihanna to temporarily forget both of her earlier concerns.
She would remember the first concern and curse her short-sightedness later.
