Disclaimer: I don't own Fairy Tail or ANYTHING in this aside from my OC Charlotte Phantomhive, and even she's the daughter of crossover characters from Black Butler/Kuroshitsuji.
Warnings: same as usual.
Enjoy!
Mirajane watched with narrowed eyes as a man in an exorcist's uniform snuck out of where the Fairy Tail guild was sitting, slipping a small vial into his pocket.
Glancing around, she saw that there was a cup of tea beside Raven, which Rin and Charlotte had brought her in an attempt to calm her down from her anger at the simulation earlier.
Raven hadn't touched it yet, but when the purple-haired girl lifted it to her lips, Mirajane's instincts went into overdrive.
"Wait!" she blurted, practically flying over to Raven, who glanced at her in surprise.
"What's wrong?" Raven asked in her usual monotone.
"I think someone put something in there." Mira explained, carefully sniffing at the drink. "Poison."
Her inner demons started purring in delight at the smell as Raven's eyes widened and she set the cup down.
"Beat me to it." Erik said, walking up from behind the pair, who turned to see him glancing at Mirajane appraisingly. "You like the smell."
It wasn't a question, of course.
Raven's eyebrow raised in slight surprise as she glanced at the white-haired supermodel and barmaid, who blushed under their watchful gazes.
After a moment, she shrugged. "Poison is a demon's favorite snack."
Raven stared at her. "Half-demons can't drink poison. And you're not in one of your Take Over forms."
Mirajane shrugged, not knowing what to say.
"Well, waste not want not." Erik said with a shrug, picking up the cup and taking a sniff himself, causing him to wrinkle his nose. "Blech. That blend smells nasty."
Mira grinned at the words, snatching the cup from the Poison Dragon Slayer's hands and turning towards Raven. "Do you mind?"
"Feel free." Raven answered, eyes widening as Mirajane took a long sip and let out a content sigh.
She still hadn't used her Take Over magic.
'Is that even safe?' she wondered.
She decided that it must have been, as fifteen minutes later Mirajane was still alive and healthy, occasionally sipping at the tea.
She didn't notice that a few feet away Kozue was getting rid of Rin's drink, and Sinon was doing the same with Charlotte's.
Arthur Auguste Angel, leader of the True Cross Order of exorcists, scowled as he realized that his minion had failed in his mission.
"I added the poison!" the man protested nervously. "I swear!"
"Not enough, perhaps?" Arthur asked dryly, running a hand through his long blonde hair.
The man pulled out the vial to show that he had emptied the entire thing into the cup of tea.
Arthur sighed, glancing once again at the trio of half-demons with the Fairy Tail guild.
There was Rin Okumura, of course. That boy had caused far more trouble with the Order than he was worth, and then he had dared to run away when they tried to exercise their right to kill him.
His pride demanded that he, at the very least, die before the Games were over.
The next of the trio was Charlotte Phantomhive, daughter of the infamous Ciel Phantomhive, a human who had become a demon. Of course, even as a human he had done some horrible things.
He grimaced as he noticed that she was holding hands with another girl and that they were leaning close together.
'She's already bound for hell, what's one more sin?' he thought with a sneer. 'And dragging the other girl down with her…'
(AN: Despite those words, I have NOTHING against the LGBTQIA community. Obviously, as there are a few non-hetero couples in this story. I just figured it fit with Arthur's character if he was homophobic.)
And last of all…Raven Roth.
All of the exorcists had gotten at least a little bit nervous at the display of power that she had given during the strength-based contest, even Shura's brats, who in his opinion were far too…sympathetic…of the hell spawn.
At some point he would have to do something about them…
Why had he chosen that group to compete, again?
It wasn't like he didn't have older and more experienced men (and women) under his command.
Valka froze as she suddenly found herself being stared at by a few dozen people as her son introduced her.
"This…is my mom. Valka." He said, his voice holding a slight hint of wonder at the concept.
Her heart panged as she recalled—not for the first time, and she was sure it wouldn't be the last—that her decision to stay away had caused her son a life of solitude and torment before he'd managed to run away from Berk.
And even then he hadn't gotten away unscathed.
Thank god he'd had Toothless, and that Jack had found him, or else the loss of blood alone probably would have killed him.
After a long moment, Valka cleared her throat. "Hello."
Her voice was still hoarse from disuse, since most of her communication with the wyverns at the nest was nonverbal.
"It's so lovely to meet you, Mrs. Haddock." She was greeted by a young woman with long wavy blonde hair and brown eyes that emanated warmth.
"Valka, please." She managed to say as she was struck with a feeling similar to her son had had when he first laid eyes on the blonde, like she was this otherworldly being.
Ryder now knew that all Celestial Spirit mages kind of felt like that, but in his defense it was stronger in Lucy than any other that he'd met.
"I'd rather not be associated with that other name." Valka admitted with an awkward shrug once she'd shaken off that strange feeling.
She didn't dare look into the crowd to try and find the tribe.
Ryder smiled tightly, agreeing with the sentiment.
Unfortunately, he hadn't come up with another name by the time he joined Fairy Tail, so now the name Haddock was in his permanent file.
Still, if he and Jack ever got hitched, he could take his name.
Ryder Overland.
Riding over land.
Huh.
Now that he thought about it, that would be kind of perfect, wouldn't it?
He didn't notice Erik and Warren snickering and Kozue giggling into her hands as they heard his musings.
If only he knew that they'd all heard Jack thinking the same thing before.
Things were very different were the Vikings were gathered.
"Eh, Stoick." Gobber said, eyes wide as he stared at a familiar figure standing with Fairy Tail. "Stoick. You're gonna want to see this."
"What, Gobber?" Stoick asked in exasperation, fed up with being punched in the arm with Gobber's metal prosthetic as his oldest and best friend (even if the Hiccup situation had weakened their friendship) tried to get his attention.
"Look!" Gobber gestured wildly.
Stoick grimaced, steeling himself as he prepared to be faced with the image of his son—no, his former son, and that blasted dragon.
Instead, the sight he was met with took his breath away.
Literally.
"STOICK!" Gobber shouted, panicked, as his friend's legs gave out from underneath him. "Get a hold of yourself, man!"
The red-haired Viking chief didn't respond, eyes staring blankly ahead as his mind tried to process what—or rather, who—he had just seen.
His wife.
His wife who had been killed by dragons nearly twenty years ago.
Was this it, then?
Had the gods seen fit to curse him by showing him impossible things?
"Valka." He muttered hoarsely, standing up again, not noticing as he stumbled and bumped into his younger brother (Spitelout) and nephew (Snotlout.)
"Er, Stoick, that's not a good idea—" Gobber tried to stop him.
He didn't pay him any attention, pushing his way through the rest of his tribe to get to the exit.
It was more difficult than Stoick thought it should have been.
Ugh. Why were Vikings so large?!
The irony with the situation was that most Vikings were of the opinion that the larger you were, the better, and Stoick was one of them.
"STOICK!" suddenly Gobber was in front of him, bellowing in his face.
"WHAT?!" Stoick demanded with a snarl, armed with the most dangerous look Gobber had ever seen him with.
Gobber didn't want to do it, but it had to be done.
"Look at her." He urged. "Look around her. What do you see?"
Stoick glared at his friend, but after a long moment when he lost the battle of wills, not having any real issue with looking at his wife again, he listened.
And after a few long minutes as Stoick's mind once again tried to process he was seeing, the huge man turned a rather worrying shade of red.
Valka. His lovely, lovely Valkyrie.
Conversing cheerfully with her son and the white-haired boy, gesturing wildly, grins on their faces.
And beside the blasted Night Fury was another dragon (wyvern, whatever.)
The same one that had taken her that night, all those years ago.
The one that had killed her.
Except that it hadn't.
Gobber shouted in alarm when Stoick's eyes rolled into the back of his head and he collapsed on the hard stone flooring.
Please review! :)
I've been waiting a long time to make that joke about Ryder taking on Jack's surname, I'll have you know. And it is actually the name Jack was born with, I wasn't making that up.
