heey, remember me? I had a hard time
with school lately, so I couldn't write much.
I had fortunately had some spare time so I could
write this. Pls enjoy it ^^
xxx Tinyss
29 - When the dark rises
"Is everyone ready?" Erza looked at the crowd gathered in front of her. "These are the teams; bickslow, freed, Laxus, and evergreen, you will be the first to go into the forest. You will embark to the eastern side and keep contact with me every 15 minutes, which obviously goes for all the teams. Gajeel, levy, the exceeds, and Wendy, you will go second and you'll be going towards the mountains. Juvia, Lyon, Mira, lisana, elfman and Cana. You will be going third and towards the western side of the forest. Lastly; me, Natsu, Lucy and gray will be on the rear of the teams and we'll go through the middle of the forest. We are the ones you have to contact every 15 minutes, so we can keep everything in check. Hopefully we'll find the guild today, but even if we don't it doesn't matter; the only goal here is to get back before the sun sets. Am I clear?" A firm 'yes' went through the crowd, and before soon the first group went into the forest.
"Damn that Rin..." Sinder unwrapped another bandaid from around isah's arm. "I swear, the moment he opens his damned door he's dead meat." Myrell let out a sigh. "Sin, it won't change the fact that she's wounded and needs to be treated. So shut your mouth and go away, I need to do her back." Sinder frowned. "Why would I go away? I was there the first time whe did her bandages." The brunette rolled her eyes. "That was an emergency. But she's still a girl and you're a boy in his puberty, so I won't take off her shirt before you have left the room." Sinders face got as red as his hair and he stood up quickly, walking towards the door and shutting it firmly. "Boys.." Myrell laughed as she shook her head. She took off isah's tank top and went with her hand over the wound. "Hmm, this one's pretty deep." When she pulled her hand back it was covered with blood, and Myrell couldn't resist to lick it from her hand. "Hmm.. Not bad. Pretty tasty actually..." She licked her lips. It's a shame humans are off-limits, and especially you." She smiled as she patted the raven-headed. "Not that you're human.. You're more demon than any of us"
she took a needle from the first aid kit and started stitching her back. You're lucky it isn't that swollen anymore, otherwise I wouldn't be able to stitch it." She was almost done with the cut on her back. "I don't have any bandages left so I will leave them open like this. It won't be a problem, it just doesn't look nice."
"Oh? You're pretty good at this. Did you do it before?" Myrell ignored him and kept stitching. "I'm talking to you, Myrell."
"Well isn't that good for you?" She snapped. "Number twenty-one, there." She said as she cut the ends from the thread. "Is she ready to have training later this day?" Myrell turned around to him. "Im still fixing the mess you left her with, so I wouldn't dare to say anything about training if I were you, Rin." He chuckled. "Well well, isn't our little brunette grumpy today?" She tssk-ed and turned her attention on Isah again. "And would you mind going to another room? She's not decent right now." He ignored her and sat down on the ground, whereafter he grabbed her thread and needle from her. Before she could protest, he grabbed the back of isah's upper arm and started stitching it. "I thought I should help you 'clean my mess'." He said. "Here, if you do it like this it's easier to pull it out when it's healed, but it will stay in better." She watched him with big eyes, and he let out a chuckle. "What are you doing? Never seen a demon stitching before?" He shook his head. "Don't get me wrong, I'm only doing this because she needs to do training." He paused. "Myrell, I think it will start today." Myrell frowned. "How would you know that?" He swept isah's hair from her back. An ink-like spot covered her back, and if you looked closely you could see it increasing in size. "Eww, what's that stuff?" Myrell wrinkled her nose. "It's a sign that Abbadon is ready." Rin went with his hand over it. "Its consuming the last bits of human left in her." He pulled his hand back and showed it to the brunette. "It won't do anything to me, see? It's totally clean. But if a human were to touch it, it would give a nice show." He stood up and patted myrells shoulder. "Continue stitching what needs to be stitched. I'll set up the training gear."
They had been searching for hours now without any irregularities. It was strange. Even the beasts roaming these woods stayed off their path. Lucy fastened her pace until she was walking next to Erza. "Erza, it's getting dark too fast, we will never get back in time." Erza lifted her head and saw a faint glow passing through the leaves and branches. The sun was already setting. "This is bad... I never expected us to be this far away from the hotel at this hour." She stopped walking and looked puzzled. Then she snapped her head up so fast she startled Lucy, who was still standing next to her. "Gray, Natsu. I want you to contact Laxus' team and gajeel's team. Lucy, you'll call Mira's team with the communication lacrima. Tell them to use the tracking system to find their way to us, and join up with us. It's safer when we're all together."
The night had dawned upon the forest. An eerie silence suffocated the mages, who where desperately trying to find their way back. Levy was clinging on to Lucy, who herself was clinging on to levy. Erza was giving gray a lecture about walking away on his own- for the umpteenth time. Laxus was complaining about the drag this was, his loyal team nodding at everything he said. Gajeel was walking with lily, who had taken on his combat forme. Mira seemed completely comfortable, with even a little skip in her steps. Lisana and elfman were in a heated conversation about evergreen, Juvia and Lyon were completely silent, Cana was drinking her 'emergency booze', And Wendy was walking at the front of the group with Charle and happy. "Wendy, are you okay? I can carry you on my back if you're getting tired or scared, you just have to ask." Natsu ogled the blunette worriedly. "As if! Wendy can take care of herself." Charle sniffed. "Charle..." Wendy smiled apologizing at Natsu. "Thanks, but I'm fine. Ever since my training I've become stronger, so I can take care of myself now." After isah's death, Wendy blamed herself for what happened. Determined to get stronger, she had completely ignored her friends' pleas to stay at fairytail, and went off to train on her own. When she got back, her magic powers where drastically increased, and she was much stronger both physically and mentally. Natsu sometimes pitied her. She was much more distant and independent ever since the incident, even though she was just a kid. A voice woke him from his thoughts. "No way... Guys, check this out." Lisana held a hand on her mouth in surprise, as the others gathered around her to see what she had discovered. "...Lights? So we're back at the hotel?" Cana asked as she gulped the last of her booze down. "No," Erza said. "We found Dead Crow."
"401...402... you're doing better than yesterday, keep this up." Rin watched the girl doing her push-ups. It was only a matter of minutes now before Abbadon would take over. The ink-like spot had covered half of her body now. Her red eyes where focused on the ground beneath her, as she kept doing her push-ups. Suddenly, one of his sisters stormed inside. Her tail was twitching nervously. "Brother, Fairy Tail is almost here." Rin's eyes widened in surprise. "What?! How is that possible?!" The girl flinched. " One of our lacrima-crows detected them. they are entering the village from the southern side now." Rin's eyes flickered in anger. "And why did no one stop them? Is it so hard for you to solve things on your own?" The girl stared at the ground. "Never mind, I'll solve this myself. Go away now, and get our other siblings together in the middle of the village. There's enough room there to go all out." The girl nodded and speeded through the door. "Isah," The girl stopped doing push-ups and looked up at him. "It's your time to shine."
The mages were walking close to eachother, constantly checking the area. "Something's not right..." Erza mumbled. "It's way to quiet.." She was walking in the front, carefully watching her steps. When she turned around the corner, they stood on a large square. She kept walking, gesturing the others to be careful. When they were all in the middle of the square, they heard someone screaming, and before they knew it they were surrounded by demons. "It was a trap." Erza gritted her teeth. "How could I be so stupid." She felt a hand on her shoulder and turned her head around. Natsu stood there with a big grin on his face. "Calm down, Erza. Its nothing we can't handle, right?" He took a deep breath, and screamed: "breath of the fire dragon!"
It was too easy, Cana thought as she hit a female demon with her empty bottle of emergency booze. Why were they all so weak? She heard Wendy gasp and turned around. A demon was on top of her, and tried to suffocate her. "Wendy!" But before she could do anything, the girl used 'breath of the air dragon' and blew her attacker away. "I'm okay, Cana. I'm stronger than before, you know." She stood up and smiled at the brunette. Suddenly, her expression changed as she looked at something behind Cana with horror. "Cana, watch out!" She screamed. She turned around to see a demon falling towards her from the building next to her. She jumped aside just in time, as the spot where she had stood seconds ago was now shrouded in dust. "Cana! Are you okay?" Gray came running towards the two and ogled the cloud of dust. It cleared up, and the image of two demons appeared in front of her in a crater they just made. "Hello there," the man said. "Nice to meet you, my name is Rin. I assume you're Fairy Tail? What brings you here?" She glared at him. "You disgust me so much, digging dead people up and using them for crimes... You shouldn't be allowed to live." Rin started laughing, causing Wendy, gray and Cana to glare at him. "Well, isn't that amusing." Rin chuckled. "Let's see if she thinks the same about me." He leaned on the shoulder of the girl next to him. "You see, I trained her really well, so I don't expect her to lose to the likes of you." Cana looked at him in confusion. "Trained her well? What do you mean?" Rin grinned at her. "You know, the usual stuff. Push-ups, planking, sparring, running, and of course, my favorite part, the whip." Gray looked at the girl next to Rin. She was covered in stitches, that she didn't even try to hide. All of the wounds were long, deep cuts. She didn't seem to bother, as her red eyes were staring blankly at them. Almost like a puppet. His eyes got bigger and bigger when he started to realize everything. "You bastard..." He gritted his teeth and glared furiously at him. "Give her back!" He jumped at the poison Mage, but Rin quickly stepped aside and snapped his fingers. "Isah, finish him." Wendy watched the scene in horror. "..isah?" Wendy looked mortified. "But she doesn't look like isah." Cana laid a hand on Wendy's shoulder, as if to comfort her. "It's because of their spell. She isn't our friend; she died a year ago, you mustn't forget that." Gray got swept away as if he were a bug, and with a painful tut he hit the ground. "Gray!" Wendy ran towards him and activated her healing magic. "I'm okay," he brought out. He spit blood on the ground and stood up. "I've just begun." He started walking towards the girl, holding his right hand in his left. "Ice make, lance!" He said as he tried to close the space between them. "Wendy, we got to help him." The blue haired girl stood frozen, shivering as she watched the two fight. Then, she let out a deep sigh. "O-okay." She said, and she followed Cana, who was already running up to the fight. "No!" Gray yelled at the two. "I'm going to do this on my own." Cana stopped running and looked at him as if he had gone crazy. "Gray, are you-" he lifted his head towards her, whilst holding off isah's attack. "Go! I'm fine!" Cana mumbled something like stubborn brat and started to walk towards the middle of the square. "You better come out of this without a scratch, gray Fullbuster!" Cana yelled at him. "Wendy, come with me. We are going to help the ones who do appreciate our help.
Gray was fighting with everything he got, but he knew it wouldn't be enough if she became serious. He dodged an incoming kick, and jumped back. He had already noticed that she didn't use any magic, what could give him some advance. "Ice make: hammer!" An hammer of ice, sloppily aimed, came down to the girl, who easily dodged it. Just as he wanted. He made a dive for the girl, seemingly surprising her, and pinned her beneath him on the ground. "You have to snap out of this," he panted. "I know you're still in there. Come on, brat. You're strong, fight against it!" the girl slipped from underneath him, not affected by his words in the least. "Damn it..." He bit his lip, causing a small stream of blood to run down his chin." Damn it! I'm not going to fight you!" He threw his hands in the air, seeking for even a glimpse of recognition in her eyes. Nothing. "I'm not too late, am I?" The girl stared at him. "Damn it.. Damn it all." He gritted his teeth. "I'm serious about this. I don't want to kill you." The eyes of the man next to her got bigger. "Well would you look at that." He snickered. "Ain't you lucky? You won't have to kill HER anymore."
A black beam shot into the sky from isah's body, and gray watched how a dark void started to spread through the air above her. When he looked back at her, her whole face had been painted black. Her body, for as far as he could see, wasn't fully black. There where white spots where her skin showed through. What was this stuff covering her body, and what was that black-haired demon talking about? Isah's voice pierced the sky and his thoughts. It was so loud that both mages and demons stopped fighting to look at her. It was a dark, satanic laugh that she produced, but it was unmistakably isah's voice. "Father." Rin kneeled down and looked at the ground. "Rin, you did a good job training my new body." Isah turned her head towards Gray. "It's a pity I had to take it over before it was finished." Gray held his breath. What was happening? "Thus," she continued, "it will be you who pays the price for ruining my plan." The dark enveloped her, and black scales started to form all over her body. The girl moaned as her arms and legs grew out into claws. Her tail got thicker and the fur fell out, making place for more black scales. She threw her head in her neck, and roared as wings sprouted through the fabric of her shirt from her upper back. The cloud dancing around her got thicker and bigger, until it was as high as the building next to it. Then the cloud dissappeared as soon as it had appeared, and before him... Stood a 12 meters tall monster. Her black wings flapped frantically to fully unfold themselves, and her claws scarred the stone and the shredded clothes beneath her. Her tail slammed around and hit one of Dead Crows members, sending it into another building. Her head looked like that of a dragon, horns included. Gray stood there frozen. He had failed. Abbadon had taken over, and his sister was no more. He felt how someone laid a hand on his shoulder. "Gray." He looked behind him and saw all of his friends. "We're going to end this together." Gray nodded, not able to say something. He got himself together and clamped his fists. "Let's do this." He started to run towards the monster, who smiled eerily at them. Just when he got there, the monster lifted his claw and slashed at him. He dodged the claw, and saw how the others where behind him. Natsu was flying behind the beast with happy, and fired balls of flames at it over and over. The others had fully surrounded it and where firing their magic at it. Mira had turned into a demon soul gray forgot the name of, and elfman his beast King, whilst Lisana had taken her cat forme and was clawing at the beasts ankles. He himself was firing ice spears at her, as he looked up at the beast with a grin running across his face. There was no way Abbadon could counter this. But at the sight of abbadons head, his breath stuck in his throat. Not impressed, said the bored look on his face. He mowed with his claw and hit Evergreen, sending her a few meters away. He heard the raijinshu yell ever's name, elfman roared and started hit the monster with all he got...and it wasn't enough. What happened here was Acnologia all over again, and there wouldn't be a second miracle to magically safe them. All of a sudden, Erza stood next to him. He didn't even notice her approaching. She looked gray in the eyes. "Gray, I've known you for a long time now, and I can see from your eyes that you're giving up." Gray tried to fake a frown but Erza shook her head. "Don't even try to lie. Everyone's fighting and this thing has its weak spot, for sure." He smiled at Erza. "Thanks." She smiled back and ran off. "Okay... Where would I put a weak spot on a huge demon..." He eyed it and summed up the possibilities. "Neck, armpit, underbelly, heart. And ofcourse, the eyes. It was possible that there was a weak spot between her wings, or maybe the wings itself. "Natsu!" Gray shouted at the salmon haired boy.
"Could you fire your flames at the spot between its wings?" Natsu shouted something gray couldn't hear, but he did seem to have understood him. As soon as the dragonslayers flames hit the spot, the demon turned around with a beastly growl and clawed at the boy. The demon seemed annoyed, but it wasn't a weak spot. Natsu fired at its horn, and the dragon went on his hind legs to swat off this annoying salmon-headed bug. This was when gray saw it. A white spot amidst all the black, bright as a star amongst the dark sky. Gray ran forwards and ignored Lucy's scream. The demon didn't seem to notice him as it was clawing at Natsu, who was still flying above its head. He took a deep breath. "Ice make, lance!" And as he ran under the demons belly, spears of ice speeded towards the white spot and pierced it. Gray felt his heart skip a beat from joy when blood gushed out of the white spot, but then he realized to his horror that the wound wasn't deep enough. His eyes widened as he noticed how he had been trapped between the demon's legs. Not only that, the demon had noticed him now. He saw how the huge black head slowly bent towards him, and for a short moment he saw his life shooting past. But then he heard a familiar yell, and a pink flash dashed closely past the demon's head. "Natsu.." He started running and made a way for the back of the demon, avoiding the head at all costs. He had made it! He actually made it! He turned his head to Natsu and saw how he was still distracting the demon. "Gray!" He turned around and saw Cana. "Get away from there!" he wanted to turn his head back to the demon, when it felt as if he got hit by a four-wheel vehicle. Stars appeared everywhere and he couldn't get grip on the ground, when he realized something had sent him flying. Everything went too fast, and in the matter of seconds it had taken him to realize what was happening, he had already reached the ground. He smacked onto the ground and his vision exploded into a thousand colors. The last thing he saw was Cana running towards him.
"Stop! Please make it stop." The hoarse whining noise of a high pitched voice filled his ears. He slowly opened his eyes only to see a spike of stone pointing at him. He stood up carefully, but still tore his shirt on a spike. He turned around to see where the sound was coming from, but there was nothing but stone. He appeared to be in a cave, filled with stalactites and malachites pointing dangerously at him. It was an odd scene. There was no possible source of light, yet he could see anything. He could vaguely remember fighting a demon in the village of Dead Crow, so how did he end up here? A scream of agony filled his ears, and he started running. It had happened before, when she had appeared to him in his dreams. He was sure he wasn't dreaming right now, but he knew for sure that this was the place where isah's soul remained.
In the blink of an eye the setting had changed, and he was now standing in a forest of pine trees. He stopped and blinked his eyes in surprise, to make sure he was truly seeing this. Their conversation from weeks ago replayed itself in the back of his head, and he started running again. This was all her imagination; a world created from nothing but her thoughts. If it was changing between those creepy settings, there must be something wrong with her, he thought. His feet flew across the dead needles and mud, and he pushed himself to run faster than ever before. The setting changed again, and he was in a burning city now. He tried to ignore the eerie atmosphere of the town, as buildings collapsed around him. Suddenly, he recognized the houses: it was the village of dead crow! He ran through the small alleys and past houses, crossing the village as if it was his hometown. The big square appeared in front of him and he stopped.
A heap of dark void and blood was laying in the middle of the square. If he hadn't known it was her, he wouldn't have recognized her. He carefully approached her and kneeled next to her. His blood was rushing through his veins as he touched her back. She looked more dead than alive, so he wasn't prepared in the least when she suddenly turned around and jumped on top of him. In terms of muscle he was stronger than her, but the look on her face made his limbs weaken. It was a look of pure madness. Her pupils where small dots, threatened to be swallowed by all the white surrounding it. Her hair was soaked in blood, just like her belly. It was nearly impossible to see the color her clothing was. Her teeth had ripped up her lips, causing her blood to drip on grays face as she leaned over him. It was a short moment, but nonetheless terrifying. Gray wasn't easily scared, but seeing someone close to him in such pain.. He bit his lip and murmured a 'sorry' as he kicked her in her side and flipped her on her back. She was now laying under him, struggling to break her wrists free from grays hands. "Pull yourself together!" He tightened his grip. She screamed in pain as another wound appeared on her body. He realized that her body was still connected to the demon he fought just minutes ago, and felt extremely guilty for causing her so much pain.
"Isah, calm down. It's me." Ragged breaths left her throat as she averted her head. "Look at me, don't you recognize me?" He put his arm on her throat and made her head turn his way with the other. "Gray..." She dropped her resistance and gritted her teeth. "I thought I would never see you again." He pulled her against his chest and hugged her. "It's alright, I'm here for you." He helped her on her feet. "I thought you were going to kill me for a second." Gray grinned at her as he brushed the dirt from his clothes. "I would like say the same." Isah looked at him expectantly. "Did you forgot our promise? You are going to kill me, right?" Gray clenched his fists and forced a grin. "Easier said than done, punk. Your little demon friends are putting up quite the fight." Isah chuckled. "As if fairy tail couldn't handle a single dark guild. It's about me, isn't it? Be honest, I don't like it when people lie to me."
The icemage didn't know what to say. The least he wanted was scaring the dying girl even more. "It's-"
'Gray! Do you hear me?'
Gray looked around to see where the sound was coming from, but saw nothing else than the illusionary buildings.
'Hang on, I'll start healing right away.'
Judging from isah's expression, she couldn't hear the voice.
'Thanks for notifying me, Juvia. A minute later and his life would've been in danger.'
His vision started to blur, and Isah was fading out. In the blink of an eye, his view changed from a burning village to the worried faces of Wendy, Juvia and Cana. He got up and tried to ignore the sting in his side. "Isah! Wait, I-"
"Gray, easy..." Cana pushed him back on the ground. "You got hit pretty hard, Fullbuster. You almost broke your promise to me." She stomped his arm. "You idiot, you scared us to death." He would've grinned at her if it wasn't for this situation. He had to kill her. He had to kill his sister. He pushed himself up again, ignoring Cana completely. He had to do it, and fast. "gray, get back here!" She ran after him and grabbed his arm, forcing him to look at her. "You're out of your mind taking that thing on like this. Just look at you! You're more dead than alive! Just leave this to-" a loud noise came from the creature, and the whole square went silent. It became clear how fierce the battle had been; wounded demons and mages lying around, swords and broken weapons left behind. But all eyes where on the demon, who was surrounded by green magic. Slowly but steadily, it got smaller and smaller, until it was the size of a child. It's features changed, it's colors changed, until a painfully familiar person stood in front of him. "Isah..." Gray whispered. "How-?" Voices rose up from the crowd. Nobody seemed to know what was going on, not even the other demons. "Gray." She walked up to him until she was only a meter away. "We do not have much time. Do... Do it. Kill me." She stretched her arms out as she smiled at him. "Isah...don't be ridiculous." He clutched his fists and shouted, not giving a damn about the people who where looking at them. "There must be some other way, right?! There must be!" Isah stumbled forwards and clutched his shirt. "Gray..." She panted. "I can't hold him back much longer.. I'm not that strong... Any time, he could take over again..." She shook her head. "Kill me! It's our only way to win!" Tears appeared in her eyes. "Gray... I'm counting on you..." He looked at her with eyes filled with horror, unable to say anything.
Isah stumbled back. "Im sorry, onii-chan." She murmured. "I shouldn't have asked you that. I realized I couldn't have done that either if you had asked me to kill you." She kneeled and reached out to something, but it was already too late when gray realized what she was doing. "I'm losing grip of myself, gray. I can't bring you into danger because of my own selfishness." She stood up and held a sword from Erza in her left hand. "Farewell, gray Fullbuster." She turned it around, closed her eyes, and stabbed.
