Heya!

Happy New Year! I hope to finish this fanfiction this year, but we'll see how it goes. So far I'm still enjoying it, so thank you so much for reading! Enjoy! ;)

Chapter 56: Do not follow

Flashback to the events surrounding "The Squid"

Ibisan

Communication was cut off. My body was slinking. The power boost Gajeel gave us earlier was fading. But the fight wasn't over.

The lights went out in the Squid Machine and the last of the legs collapsed. Samdy, crawling between the rubbish, let out a scream. 'She's still in there! Sasha is still in there!'

I stood still for a second and tried sensing Caroline. She had been quiet for a while now, and back where I last saw her the building had collapsed.

'Ibisan!' Samdy shouted. He was drained and strangely reminded me of a wet towel, just how the lower half of his body dragged behind him. With one trembling hand he pointed at the fallen machine.

My fur was thinning, I was turning human again. I tried slurping every last bit of magical power and ran over to Samdy. I took the collar of his shirt in my mouth, careful so he wouldn't choke, and walked with him towards the Squid.

Gajeel had jumped up toward the cockpit and was pulling Kubo out behind the steering panel. I couldn't really see what was happening. Gajeel roared, out of nowhere. Not the dragon kind; he was frustrated.

A shadow crossed over us and a second later there was thud. A body hit the ground. I let Samdy go and he crawled towards it. Gajeel jumped down and kicked the side of what was left of the machine.

'Careful!' Samdy said over his shoulder, and then turned back to the man, whom I expected to be Kubo. Samdy carefully rolled the body over, so we could see the face.

Gajeel let out another growl. 'That bastard!'

There were footsteps. Ary, along with Martin, Rose and Tilly, came running from the hallway. I was surprised to see they were unhurt. Ary immediately kneeled down besides Samdy, but didn't begin healing right away. She glanced at the body on the ground and her eyes stayed there for a second.

'But that's…'

'Yeah,' said Gajeel, clearly suppressing his anger, 'the professor. The damn fool switched places.'

On the ground lay an old man, not Kubo. He seemed unconscious, but with such a peaceful look on his face he might as well have been taking a nap on a Sunday afternoon.

'This is a fucking joke,' said Samdy. Ary had her hands on his legs and I was beginning to worry they might be broken. 'This whole thing! He was never really here!'

'He was,' Gajeel replied, grunting almost, 'he just took off early.'

'Lily and Layton are dead,' said Rose, 'we've lost our friends. And it was all for nothing.'

My nose was getting smaller, my ears were moving back in their old places, and I could stand on two legs again. 'Guys, please. It's not like that.'

From another part of collapsed rubbish appeared the twins, one carrying the other. They were covered in dust and I couldn't tell which one was carrying the other. They seemed more dead than alive.

Ary stood up. 'I'm afraid it is like that. Please help me with the wounded.'

I hurried to find something to wear, my clothes ripped when I turned into a bear. I found an apron, which would do for now. Sasha was still inside the machine and I hadn't seen or sensed Caroline.

Gajeel and the now slightly healed Samdy started ripping the metal plates of the body of the Squid. There was knocking coming from the inside, Sasha was directing them to where she was stuck.

I went to find Caroline. I felt exhausted, but kind of relieved. We survived, somehow. That had to mean something.

Or maybe I was just being an idiot. Everyone seemed upset. There were still people missing. But I couldn't help but think we ended something big today. Kubo must've been planning this from the start and we stopped him. Kind of. It had to mean something.

'Caroline!' I shouted as I arrived at the spot where I last saw her. The part that collapsed was supposed to be the science ward, but it was hardly ever used. Who needs science when you have magic?

I walked around, lifting rocks and furniture, but she seemed nowhere. I was scared I came too late.

But then there was a soft whimper. Behind the biggest piece of concrete she sat, her knees pulled up to her chest and her arms wrapped around them, her face hidden.

'Hey!' I said, more cheery than I intended. She looked up and flinched.

'What are you wearing?'

I looked at my apron. 'What, don't you like it?'

She had been crying. And I didn't mean to ignore it, but I also didn't know how to adress it. She kind of smiled, which I saw as something good.

'Is it over?' she asked. I sat down beside her, hoping my apron hid enough.

'Kind of. Kubo's not here, there was some other guy in the machine. It was...strange.' I lay a hand on one of her knees. 'We're safe for now.'

I half expected her to lean into me for a hug, but she just nodded, wiped her tears away and stood up. 'That's good. Are the others over there?' She pointed.

'Uh, yeah,' I said, 'everyone's fine. Well, except we have no idea where Kai-'

'I know,' she snapped, turning around.

'Did...did I do something wrong?'

She kept her back turned to me, but shook her head. 'I did. I tried to get them in on the coms…' Her shoulders started shaking. I stood up, but didn't know what to do next. Hug her? Pat her on the back?

'What happened?'

'I...Kai...he's not…' she sobbed. And then she pushed her face into my chest and clung to me as if I was the last thing keeping her from falling. And that terrified me.

'Kai's not what?'

For a few minutes she couldn't get any words out, so I waited. When she could breathe again, she wouldn't look at me.

'I tried getting their minds connected to the rest,' she said, 'Jake warned me to stay away, and Kai…he just straight up burned.'

'Burned? As in, an insult, or…'

'No, silly. He tried to fry my brain.'

I just stared at her, till I was sure she wasn't lying. If Kai could do that, it meant that probably wasn't Kai at all. And that was scary.

'Damn,' I mumbled. Caroline lifted an eyebrow and I wondered if maybe this time I did something wrong.

'Yeah,' she said, with a question mark at the end, 'and it hurts too. Still does.'

'But he didn't fry your brain,' I said, in a weak attempt to make light of the situation, 'and when we find him, I'll make sure he won't ever try that-'

'Sure,' Caroline interrupted, 'you do that.'

She took a step away from me, but took my hand as well. We walked back to where the others were. Everyone was there, except Kai and Jake, and of course, the ones we'd lost. Sasha was succesfully pulled out of the machine and seemed to be OK. Samdy was by far the worst off out of everyone, besides Gajeel, but I'd say that didn't really count because he didn't seem bothered at all, while Samdy grunted with every breath he took.

Speaking of Gajeel; he stood a few feet away from the group, trying to get a few words out of the old professor-man. It didn't go so well.

'What do we do now?' asked Floyd, sounding surprisingly energetic. 'We destroyed the school and there's no one here.'

'And we have nowhere to go,' added Greg.

'Shouldn't we bury our dead first?' said Rose, quite shocked. 'You talk about leaving as if...as if…-' Then she burst in tears. Martin, standing next to her, softly rubbed her back. I could imagine how he felt.

'Don't get this the wrong way,' Tilly started, staring at the ground, 'and I think there is no right way to say this, but we have no bodies to bury. Layton, well...there's nothing left, and Lily...the Squid-thing kind of...you know.'

'I don't,' says Samdy, still sitting on the ground. Sasha, standing behind him, gave him a soft kick.

'Are you really gonna make her say it?' she said. 'Point is that there is nothing. But we can build something. Or maybe take care of ourselves first, and come back with new strengths and-'

One second, I was looking at Sasha, the next Rose had jumped on top of her and was pulling her hair and screaming. 'Don't you dare talk like that! They're not even cold yet! She just stopped breathing!'

Martin and I immediately stepped forward to pull Rose away, but she kept moving too much. I had to use a bear claw to lift her up.

Which was a really, really stupid thing to do. I felt my heart skip a beat and I had never felt that before. As if my heart got stuck between my lungs and squished till it let out a weak and squirmish drum.

As soon as I had Rose sitting on her ass a few feet away from Sasha, I fall backwards. The world shifted a little in front of my eyes and there were multiple smeared faces above me, but I recognized none of them.

Then there was acid coming up my throat, fast. I sat up, rolled over and vomited in the grass. My hearing slowly returned and Caroline was saying my name over and over again.

'I'm fine,' I said, but I felt another load of sick coming. I managed to swallow it down. Ary pushed the back of her hand against my forehead.

'He's burned out,' she said, as if I wasn't right in front of her, 'can I get some water over here?'

And very quickly, everyone's faces disappeared. I was out for a couple hours.

When woke up, it was already dark. I lay on a mattress in a former classroom, the roof was gone. The stars shone down on me and seemed to dance slightly.

I then noticed my hand was stuck. Caroline, laying on the cold ground beside my mattress, was holding it as if her life depended on it. I could tell she had been crying a lot.

I was wearing clothes, and not just any. They were my best pants and blouse. Stuff I never wore because I was afraid I might get them dirty. I was saving them for something official, like graduation or something. Caroline probably put them on.

I sat up, feeling dizzy still. But I had to pee. I carefully stepped over Caroline and was almost at the door when I realised I couldn't leave her like this. So I returned and inch by inch slipped my hands underneath her and lifted her off the floor. Her head fell against my shoulder and she blinked.

'Hey,' she said, and then went back to sleep. I pressed a kiss on her head and carefully placed her on the mattress. As soon as she noticed the softness, she spread out her limbs, literally like a starfish. I was planning on laying down beside her when I came back, but there was no way that could happen now.

I quickly went to the door, because I really had to go now. The hallway was filled with blocks of concrete, bricks, dust and old wall ornaments, so much so that I almost didn't recognize where I was. And so didn't really know where the nearest toilet was located.

I found a girl's restroom at last and decided that would have to do. There was no one in there and I kind of wondered where the rest had gone to sleep. I still felt weak, but took a moment while washing my hands to sense the others. Everyone seemed pretty scattered around. Some went to the dorms, or what was left of it. Gajeel was being grumpy somewhere at the steps of the entrance to the school. El Paco was gone, apparently.

And then there was some magic I didn't recognize. There was no towel to dry my hands, so I rubbed them off on my pants and immediately regretted it because these were my nice pants.

I went back into the hallway and focused on the unknown magic. For a second I thought I should tell Gajeel, but somehow I decided not to. Things might've turned out differently if had done otherwise.

It came from Kubo's former office. Pretty much every wall of it had collapsed, except the one with the window sill. The door was open. There was rumbling, someone throwing around papers and shoving books off shelves. And between that muttering. 'No, no, that's not it….or is it? Surely it would be here, old friend...yes, yes, I'm sure of it...mouse, mouse.'

The voice was like nothing I'd ever heard before. A bit pitched, but still rusty. I slowly looked around the door.

At first I saw nothing, but that was because he was so small he disappeared behind the desk. But he jumped up to reach a top shelf of a fallen bookcase. And then I spotted him: the professor. The old man who took a nap this afternoon, the body double of Kubo.

I moved back, hopefully before he could see me. And by doing that I bumped into someone. I jumped and hit my elbow on the doorknob.

It was Caroline. She had woken up and had followed me. She pressed a finger against her lips, but it was too late.

'Hello?' said the professor. No one said anything for a while. We could see the old man's shadow across the floor, the moon shone right behind him. He stood on top of the desk now and looked intimidating somehow.

He jumped to the ground. Caroline and I pushed ourselves against the wall behind the door. He might just walk past us.

He didn't.

He looked behind the door first. 'Oh. Hullo.'

His face was strangely friendly, almost too much. And it was especially strange when he looked angry. 'Should've just stayed in bed, kids.'

Caroline grabbed my hand. I braced myself for whatever was coming. This man was one of the main enemies, the mercenaries Kubo hired. For all I knew, he was extremely dangerous.

But he didn't do anything. He went back into the office.

'Go back now and you won't get hurt.'

I looked at Caroline. And somehow, her voice was inside my head. 'We can't leave now.'

'How are you doing that?' I asked without moving my mouth.

'Practice. We have to catch him before he does something.'

'Gajeel's at the entrance of the school.'

A frown appeared on Caroline's forehead. 'I can't reach him, he's too far.'

'Then get closer. I'll stay with the nutty professor.'

She looked at me for a long time. 'Alright then. But don't do anything rash.'

I nodded and gave her a quick kiss. She gave me another one back. I watched her walk away and for a second almost forgot what I was doing. As I turned around I saw the professor was leaving the office, and actually walking down the hallway. I followed him.

'Kid,' he said, when I was only a few paces behind, 'I warned you. You better get back to bed now.'

He had apparently found what he was looking for. He held up a piece of paper like a map, but it clearly wasn't. It looked more like a blueprint. And the direction he was walking in I pretty much knew he was going for the machine.

'I can't go unless you tell me what you're doing.'

The man stopped and that scared me, so I stopped too. He seemed to somehow get smaller as I looked at him. He was now only as high as my knee was from the ground. His legs were like stumps and it took him a few paces to turn around to glare at me.

'If you keep following me, you'll die.'

I quickly tried sensing where Caroline was. She hadn't reached Gajeel yet. 'I don't think you'll kill me.'

The tiny man rolled his eyes. 'I never said I was. I told you that if you keep following me, you'll die.'

'I've followed you down the hall and I'm still alive,' I said, half muttering. The man kind of reminded me of a grumpy man I used to know. He had a vegetable cart.

This grumpy man shook his head like the other one would and turned around again. 'Suit yourself. I don't have time for this shit.'

As we continued our way to the machine, the man got smaller and smaller. The 'time' he mentioned was probably influencing his size. When we stood in front of the machine, he was barely tall enough to reach my ankle. It was kind of sad, really.

He muttered to himself while touching the surface of what was left of the Squid. We had destroyed most of the outside and getting Sasha out hadn't been easy. The wiring was all over the place and for a split second I imagined what it would be like if the Squid had been an actual one. With organs and stuff.

The professor jumped into one of the holes leading to the core of the machine. There was some more muttering and then beeping.

'Kid,' he said then, 'last chance.'

I took a look inside. The man could stand up straight between all the gears and wires. He was holding a touch pad of somekind and entering numbers and muttering to himself. He was now as big as my hand, the touchpad being almost as big as himself.

Someone called my name. I turned around. Caroline and Gajeel were running towards me, looking very concerned. Caroline was crying.

'What's wrong?' I asked. I noticed the rest of the class was awake as well. They all had very worried faces.

'It's gonna blow!' yelled Gajeel, I could barely hear him. Caroline fastened her pace, but Gajeel stopped her. 'Get away from it!'

I looked back at the old man. He sighed. 'I told you.'

The beeping stopped. There was light and there was a whole lot of yelling. I had no chance to run.

The stupidest thing was that I didn't save anyone by going out this way. I was just at the wrong place at the wrong time. I tried doing the right thing, as any sensible person would, but doing the right thing isn't always the smartest. And smart is something I am definitely not.

There are, of course, different ways of being intelligent, but I'm pretty sure none of those fit me.

I can't remember stuff. I can't apply it. I can't concentrate at all. For the longest time I had one hand that could transform into the paw of a bear and that was pretty much it. And I liked it that way.

I didn't mind not being smart, until Caroline started showing interest in me. Then I realised she was even cooler than I thought. I wanted to be smarter, like her. And look where that got me.

Of course, I'm not really dead. Well, not all of me. Whatever is known of what comes after death, I think it's pretty clear that most of you is supposed to be gone. You get to relax, that's the main narrative. But I didn't feel relaxed at all.

In fact, I felt like I was waking up from a very long and very tiring sleep. The one where you need a minute to get back into reality and it kind of feels like you didn't sleep at all even though it's been nine or ten hours.

I felt like I had slept for months. And when I looked at my hands I thought I might as well have. Or paws, I should say.

I touched my face and accidently scratched my cheek with a long nail. Gotta get used to that.

I was pretty sure I was in a cave. I couldn't smell it. I didn't smell anything. And I didn't feel hungry either. Just tired.

I forced myself up and was reminded I walked on all fours again. At the entrance of my cave, which I somehow knew was mine, was a forest. Pine trees, dewy grass, yellow flowers. But I couldn't smell any of it and that bothered me. Wherever I was, it wasn't real. I knew that much.

There was a sound, though. Water. I didn't feel thirsty, but it felt natural to go for a drink. A blue stream, almost too clear to be true, but I felt nothing as I drank. This couldn't be heaven, this was some cruel afterlife. Not being able to enjoy food, that is hell.

There was movement in the corner of my eye. My eyes were farther apart now too, had to get used to that. I spotted a little boy, sitting at the river bank, crying.