Gajeel uncovered his ears. The wail that had echoed off the walls of the surrounding structures had made his ears fill with static and he'd covered them immediately. He had little want for a busted ear drum. The underlying voice was unmistakably Bunny-Girl's, but the tones of grief and remorse were something he had hoped to never hear in that voice. Even when she was being beaten to an inch of her life by himself, she had not sounded so pathetic as these wailing shadows.
He glanced at Rogue and noticed that the man was standing stoically even as a trickle of blood leaked from one ear. The man looked like he couldn't care less about what was happening, but Gajeel knew differently. It was in the slight downturn of lips that the Shadow Dragon showed his emotion, and if his scent was anything to go by, his fellow red eyed dragon slayer was unhappily pissed off about Lucy's situation.
"Rogue! Rogue!" a feminine voice chimed from under Rogue's cloak.
The inexpressive dragon pulled out a communications lacrima, a slick of shadow brushing the device to answer the summons. A young girl's face, not too dissimilar to Lisanna's popped up on the screen.
"Yukino," Rogue greeted his guildmate.
The girl spoke without preamble, "Something is wrong in the Celestial World. My keys aren't working."
"Like when the spirits were possessed…"
"No. It's different. Then, the keys still held power, I could still feel my connection to my spirits, but this… this feels like the entire Celestial World just … vanished. Lucy…"
"Shit," Rogue interrupted. His eyes flashing in anger and frustration. And Natsu was now back at Fairy Tail. Lucy was alone, without access to her keys. She has been trained at Sabertooth for beginner hand-to-hand combat, but she wasn't nearly skilled enough to take on an enemy. Her magic had grown, her ability to strategize with her spirits had improved, but she was still weakened greatly when her keys were missing or inaccessible. This was a big problem.
Yukino's image nodded in agreement, a worried expression plastered across her face. The lacrima in her hands was the only thing preventing her instinct to bite at her nails from taking over.
"Are you safe, Yukino?" Rogue asked. The idea that Yukino was out on a job without her own spirits rattled him. Was she calling for help? Did she get hurt?
"Mini-chan came on the job with me," the soft spoken celestial said.
"M'Lady is there?"
"Rogue," Minerva's voice sounded from the background. "Yuki-chan is fine. We're headed back to the guild in the morning. Any news?"
"Only that Natsu has returned and Lucy has not." Rogue answered dryly. "Keep her safe…?" Rogue muttered to his unseen guildmate. Yukino blushed.
"How much longer are you tied up with the Fairies?" Minerva questioned. Her hand came over the top of Yukino's face as the communication device was pulled into the grasp of the Territory mage.
Rogue eyed Sting who was still staring as the shadows as they roamed across the guild's outer walls. "Unknown," he answered mechanically. "Lucy is still missing. The Fairies seem to have some knowledge of the man who has her. Sting…"
"Do you want us to meet you there?"
"Not yet," Rogue watched as Sting finally turned form the building to walk back to the group. "After we get more information out of Sting I'll let you know."
The lacrima was unceremoniously dropped back into Yukino's bewildered hands. "Um, I guess we'll be in touch."
"No more jobs, Yukino," Rogue said sadly. He knew the white haired celestial mage was not a fan of being cooped up too long, but the idea of her on a job without her magic….
Yukino's face scrunched in thought before she begrudgingly agreed with a nod of her head.
Rogue ended the call and looked to his blonde counterpart. "We need to get caught up on what you know. Things may have taken a turn for the worse."
"What?" Sting asked. "How is it worse than her being alone with the weird shark-toothed mayor from hell?"
"What the hell?" Gajeel muttered. Bickslow chuckled at Sting's words despite the seriousness of the situation. Levy and Lisanna exchanged nervous glances, both worried how the light dragon would react to the new of Lucy being without her magic.
"It might be best to get off the street to continue this conversation," Bickslow offered. "The Thunder God Tribe's got a big enough pad for everyone to fit comfortably. But first…" Bicks paused in thought and then continued slowly not sure how his request could be taken, "I need to see another sample of someone interacting with the shards of Lucy's soul. Preferably a guild member."
"No," Rogue answered.
"I figured you'd be against it…"
"Everytime someone from Fairy Tail interacts with the shadows something massive happens and causes Lucy's magic to go insane. It could put her in further danger," Rogue stated, not willing to budge on the topic.
"What if it is me or Lisanna?" Levy asked. "We were never on bad terms with Lucy, maybe the shadows will act more like they did for Sting?"
Rogue's eyes narrowed at the small bluenette.
"Let them try." Sting was interested to see how the shadows would react to Levy or Lisanna. He was also hopeful that if Lucy's magic went berserk it might hurt Xavion in the process and then Lucy could get away.
"I'll do it," Lisanna spoke up, smiling gently.
"I don't agree with this," Rogue huffed.
"It will help me understand more about what is happening with her soul and what kind of magic is controlling it," Bickslow claimed. "Lis, are you sure you wanna do this?"
"Of course." With that, she turned and walked towards the guild doors like Sting had done before her.
"I'll go too!" Levy called, trying to quickly follow after her white haired friend. Gajeel grabbed the back Levy's orange dress and held her up off the ground like a scolded puppy.
"Shrimp, ya ain't goin' up there right now," the iron slayer said gruffly. Levy kicked uselessly. "Baby Straus will be fine."
Levy pouted, but eventually nodded in agreement. It wasn't that she didn't believe in Lisanna's capability to handle the situation, but she didn't want her friend to have to go through it alone if things went towards the negative. Lisanna was strong, but she was slightly damaged. The whole Edolas thing had left a weird kind of whole in the young woman's heart, and Levy knew that the only ones to understand were herself, Bickslow, and Lucy. What if Lucy's shadow things said something that crushed the poor girl. Levy bit on her lip. Lucy had never had anything against Lisanna, they were still friends. It was Lucy who was helping Animal Take Over mage heal from her unusual loss. There was no reason for there to be anything negative said.
Levy was slowly placed back on the ground after Gajeel was certain she wouldn't make a run for her friend. The group seemed to hold their collective breaths as the white haired girl reached the door of guild hall. Bickslow's eyes shined brightly now that the sun was completely set, lighting up the surrounding area as he watched the shadows, and soul bits, move.
Like with Sting before, the shadows joined together as they dipped and slithered their way from other spots along the exterior walls. It was disturbing in the same way watching a boa constrictor give birth to live young was - an unnatural grouping of slithering and unidentifiable objects. It made Lisanna shudder. She loved animals of all kinds, but she had never been overly successful with reptiles. Just like the cold blooded cobra raising up to display it's hood and hiss in a show of warning, the shadows reared up together and let out a growling hiss.
Lisanna could feel the anger and hurt beating within the shadows like the rhythm of a heart, and it made the same muscle within her chest squeeze in response. The mage was highly empathetic, and the thrum of pain coming from the shattered pieces of Lucy's soul were crying out so loudly it made the poor girl feel dizzy. Unable to help herself, Lisanna reached out to the door frame to steady herself from the onslaught.
"Is this where all your pain has been hiding, Lucy?" Lisanna whispered. "I was wondering why you felt so empty sometimes." Lisanna took a ragged breath, calming the sensations that were circulating through her system like tiny electric shocks. "Levy and I missed you this Friday." She paused, waiting for there to be some sort of reaction. When nothing happened, she continued, "I'm sorry we couldn't stop the whole thing at the guild from happening. ...Natsu's nose," she shook her head with a sad smile on her face.
A whimper sounded from the shadows that were now circling around Lisanna's hand that was still resting against the door frame.
"I wish you would have told us more of what's going on, Lu," Lisanna couldn't stop the edge of anger that appeared in her voice.
The writhing mass of shadows reacted to her statement with gusto. Lisanna was pushed back with a pulse of power. Lisanna was surprised by this for two reasons. The first reason was because the power that pushed her back was somehow… her own? The second reason was related to the first, she had felt no drainage of her own magic in order for the shadow's to produce the attack.
Her surprise was completely side-railed by the view of liquid shadow bubbling against the wall. It looked like a the sinewy muscle of the twining snakes had been brought to a roiling boil. Each bubble pulled and stretched into being like it was trying to push outside the boundaries of skin before they would suddenly snap, bursting a part in a spray of smokey mist. Lisanna instictively ducked away from the bursting pallups, becoming more freaked out the longer it happened. The mist was starting to congeal in front of her cowering form and Lisanna was finding herself regretting the night the girls 'drank away' their greatest fears. Levy's was spiders, Lucy's had been rejection, and Lisanna's had been… venomous snakes. Specifically rattlers.
The mist formed the rattler first. Lisanna covered her ears as the warning noise, akin to that of sand filled maracas shaking incessantly, filled her senses and sent a chilling vibration through the air. Gray and black scaly skin grew out from the rattling tail and formed a coiled body, the head hidden away within the coils.
Lisanna couldn't stop the "Eeeep!" that fell from her lips as she prepared to turn tail and run. Why would Lucy do this? Her greatest fear, and it was huge! It wasn't like a small, hardly deadly baby rattler. No! It was like a goliath of a snake whose body was thicker than the width of her shoulders. A Nagis.
Slowly the body of the snake started to uncoil and the head of the beast was revealed. Lis gasped and took a step back. Lucy's face stared back at her. Her hair was pulled up in a tangle of wiry bits on her head and it was black like the shadows. Her eye sockets were empty and her face blank. A forked tongue quickly flit out between her lips and the rattling noise increased.
Lisanna was filled with terror. She wanted to run. Run and scream. Her body was shaking uncontrollably and sweat was starting to bead along her hairline. Her breath was beginning to come in short gasps. She needed to get away. But before Lisanna could take another step back, Lucy's shadow-snake coiled around her and held her in place.
Lisanna was too lost to her fear to hear Bickslow call for her. She also didn't notice as the shadow-tail of the snake whipped out to block Levy from reaching her.
"Are you ssscareed?" Lucy's forked tongue flit out again, the edge brushing against the soft cheek of Lisanna's face.
"Y-yo-ou n-nn-know I ammm," Lisanna cried out. "St-top!"
Lisanna was dropped to the ground, the body of the giant snake vanished. Lisanna was curled on the ground shaking. A cold hand touched her shoulder and the poor mage couldn't help how far she attempted to jump away from the contact. Her eyes were wide and filled a betrayal and fear only to come face to face with a shadow version of Lucy's one hundred watt smile.
The shadow Lucy was crouch in front of her, a hand reaching out to her friend. "I am scared too, Lis. If I told you what I did…." The smile faltered and fell, a sad look coming over the usually blonde celestial mage. "You would hate me… Just like he does."
"Oh Lu," Lisanna shook her head wildly, "Never! I would never hate you." The Animal Soul mage reached for her friend's shadow, pulled herself up, and then threw her arms around one of the best friends she'd ever had.
And then she was gripping nothing. The shadows gone.
"Lis!" Bickslow pushed past the iron slayer who was helping Levy get up from the ground and ran to his girlfriend. He wrapped his arms around her small frame and whispered comforting words into her hair.
"I'm okay, Bicks, really."
"Like hell! What was Lucy tryin' to pull?"
Lisanna sighed, "She was just making a point. Fear. She's scared."
"She didn't need to do that to you to make a point." Lisanna agreed, but said nothing. After all, the real Lucy, the one who was kidnapped and alone without her magic had every right to be scared.
Sting and Rogue were next to approach, but stayed further away from the building as they watched the shadows continue to swirl. Levy was brushing off her dress as the iron slayer glared daggers at the building like somehow his displeasure at the Lucy Shadow would be felt by the real deal.
"Before they shadows react again, you should move away," Rogue called to the hugging duo.
Bickslow nodded and turned Lisanna away from the building. "We'll talk when we get home," the seith mage mumbled. He waved his hand for the others to follow and started walking south to the gated community where they great Thunder God Tribe lived.
