Sunsets were supposed to be pretty. Everyone loved watching the orange ball of light sneak behind the horizon and turning the warm pink and reds into a soothing deep blue. No matter how much she tried, the sun only reminded her of fire, and the night sky made her think of smoke. Nirvana did the opposite of ease her pain.
After much running, Laura felt relieved to find Natsu and Lucy unconscious on the ground. This problem would be easier to handle. A young woman with short pink hair wearing a maid's outfit stood by the wizards. Laura believed her name was Virgo? Lyla had talked about Lucy's celestial spirits before.
Lyla walked up to Natsu and Lucy, who wore matching night blue clothes with gold trimming.
"Were we interrupting something?" Lyla teased.
Lucy had begun to wake up as she approached. She looked at her own clothes, then at Natsu. Her whole face turned red. "Virgo did this! We're not dating!"
Lyla shrugged, "Guess I'll believe you." She then walked up to Virgo to talk.
Laura stayed put. They stood in a very small clearing of trees next to a river. The ground was covered in green grass and bushes with the orange sky changing their hue.
Down the river, Nirvana shot out from the ground. Happy said Jellal had done this. On his own free will? If he was willing to release magic that could send all wizarding guilds against each other, what on Earthland did he do when her guild last met him?
Wait... Nirvana-
"Nirvana! It changed." Laura tried her best to keep her voice steady, but seeing the pillar of light like this meant something bad was going to happen soon.
"Yes. The light changed from black to white while the two of you were unconscious." Virgo spoke to Lucy and Natsu.
There was no more black magic swirling inside Nirvana. Now it was only pure white. People assign "good" to the color white, but this could mean anything but that.
"Wait, where's Happy?" Natsu asked.
Laura looked around. Hibiki, Wendy, and the talking cats were somewhere, but not around here. She wondered what caused the group to split up.
She noticed Lyla looking at her for answers. Laura rolled her eyes. "We… were all separated. I heard you shouting and ran over. Erza ran away when we mentioned Jellal."
Lyla walked up and clapped her hand on Laura's shoulder, "Nice! I knew you could say more than two sentences!"
Laura grunted. They were wasting time.
"We should be running towards that light!" Natsu said. Laura wondered if he was psychic. The thought humored her.
Virgo bowed to the group, mainly Lucy. "I'm glad I could serve you, Princess. Until next time." Her body glowed a soft gold and reduced into nothing. She must have gone back to wherever celestial spirits lived.
"Do you know where Wendy is?" Lyla asked. Laura only shook her head.
"Like I said, we went different ways. Erza probably ran to Nirvana."
"Oh yeah! They needed Jellal to activate Nirvana!" Natsu exclaimed. Both Lyla and Laura scowled at the thought of Brain, but they didn't give anyone time to notice this. This pain was theirs to deal with. Laura didn't trust these wizards to help them.
Laura whipped around at the sound of rustling leaves. They were close, but their footsteps were at a walking pace. The rest of the group could hear the person approaching. First, their silhouette emerged, then the color pink. It was the Lamia Scale wizard; Sherry.
"Sherry!" Lucy exclaimed with relief, "I'm glad you're alright, but did you have to scare me?"
"Weren't you on Big Tuna island? Whatever happened to that dog and the dude with the eyebrows?" Natsu questioned. Lyla would have charged at him if Laura didn't grab her. She sighed, desperately wanting to get a punch in herself. This idiot right here…
"It's all your fault," Sherry mumbled. Laura's body tensed. Something had changed. More than the sky or Nirvana. She could hear it.
Crackling came from behind Sherry. Wooden hands reached out at the Fairies. This was Sherry's magic. She could manipulate inanimate objects.
Before Laura could do anything, Gray's ice magic created spikes that impaled the wood.
"I've had enough of you!" He yelled and put Sherry in a chokehold and threw her to the ground.
"Is she okay?" Lucy asked.
"I think she might be possessed."
"Get off of me! You'll pay for what you did to my love!"
"She still calls Lyon 'love'?" Lyla asked.
"She sounds like Juvia," Laura said.
"You know her?"
"I talk to people."
"But you don't, though."
Laura couldn't fight this. Yes, Lyla was right, but that didn't mean Laura had to admit it.
"She's been acting strange since that light showed up. Have you seen anything weird?" Gray said while trying to keep Sherry pinned to the ground.
"Yeah and I owe you a kick in the teeth for that little trick you pulled," Natsu replied.
Lyla turned to Laura for context. Laura shrugged. She wasn't around when this happened.
"Gemini dressed up as Gray and attacked us," Lucy explained.
"You won't escape me! I swear on my life I'll avenge him!" Sherry fought Gray's grip to no avail.
Laura could hear something different about her magic. It seemed like Nirvana, but she couldn't tell if the pillar's magic was strong enough to carry over to where they were.
"Avenge me for what exactly?"
Lyon's question brought Laura out of her thoughts. He explained himself. He had joined Gray in on fighting Racer back when Fairy Tail just found Oracion Seis' cave. Racer had a bomb strapped to his chest and Lyon threw himself over the cliff with the enemy so the bomb wouldn't hurt anyone. He lived through this explosion, but Sherry and Gray assumed he had died when they couldn't find his body. It sounded like an emotional battle.
Sherry cried, but she smiled. She rested on the ground and black smoke rose from her body. Laura didn't know how to take it.
"I told you guys she seemed like she was possessed," Gray commented.
"Nirvana. It can bring people to their opposite sides." Laura explained, but everyone gave her dumbfounded stares.
Lucy cleared things up, "I think she means that Nirvana can turn a good person bad and a bad person good if they doubt themselves. Hibiki questioned his actions… He was beginning to think he wasn't good enough and Nirvana almost changed him."
Laura gave a simple shrug. She had overheard Hibiki explain this to Lucy when she ran to save Lyla from Brain. Laura was more concerned about saving her friend, so it seems she didn't get every detail in the conversation.
She walked over and sat against a tree. Laura needed time to rest and think.
Lyla approached from behind and sat against the other side of the tree. It felt nice for it to be only the two of them again. Back when they didn't know anyone else.
"I… don't know," Laura mumbled.
Lyla took a few seconds to respond, "Know what? That nostalgia had a nice pair of blades?"
She shook her head. "Nirvana can make bad people good and good people bad."
"Right… And?"
"How does Nirvana know 'good' and 'bad'?"
This got Lyla to think. "Nirvana didn't make itself. Human beings had to build it. So Nirvana only knows what those humans programmed it to know."
"What says they say what good and bad is?" Laura hissed, "There is no black or white. You can think someone is a villain when all they do is try to help. And someone who is bad can think they're the hero. It's all an opinion."
Lyla talked slow, "There are some basic rules each side goes by.
Laura snorted, "If I complete a job to save a village from a monster, does it make me good or bad?"
"Good."
"But what if I only did it to get the reward?"
"Bad?"
"But I need money to continue living. How am I supposed to survive if I don't get paid?"
"You steal."
"So if I accepted the job out of the kindness of my heart without payment, I would starve and end up stealing from others."
Seconds past with nothing from either side. Laura huffed and briskly stood up, her eyebrows furrowed.
The ground and a painful buzz came from Nirvana. The pillar multiplied in size and filled the sky with white light. Laura had trouble staying on two feet. She feared Nirvana would ruin her ears again.
"This doesn't look too good!" Lyla's voice wavered.
"And once again, Erza is right in the middle of it."
Laura expected something to happen, but she didn't expect the light to dim and everything to fall silent. Had Erza stopped it?
Everyone shrieked when the ground rumbled again and six tube-shaped legs lifted from the ground. They ripped the forest from its roots and kicked chunks of rock and dirt miles across the ground. The group happened to be standing above one of the legs and took them to the sky.
Laura kept her hands on her ears, praying her eardrums wouldn't explode.
The leg turned vertically and left no ground to stand on. Laura had to grab onto the moss that grew on it. She saw Lyla higher up, falling down. She was able to grab Lyla's wrist. Had she fallen unconscious?
Lyla opened her eyes and took in the scene, she reached out to grab onto moss and rock. That left Laura to worry about keeping herself from falling.
Looking around, there were six legs in total that carried an ancient city in the center.
"I would say it looks nice if a loose grip didn't determine our lives," Laura commented casually. A calm head made things easier.
"Sure," Lyla said. Laura could only hear her voice. She clutched her eye. Laura remembered when they were at the cave. There was too much magical energy around them. She hoped Lyla would last.
"Where's Lyon and Sherry?" She asked.
Laura couldn't hear their magic. "I don't know. Nirvana is too strong." What she could hear was Natsu's shouted growing louder. She saw him run past her with a large cloud of dust trailing behind. Gray and Lucy were running not far behind.
"How are they doing that?" Laura asked.
"Easy. Stand up and run."
Laura gave Lyla and unimpressed look.
"It might take a side of fighting spirit and a main course of crazy."
Laura rolled her eyes but followed the snarky instructions. She placed her feet and the ground and worked on gaining momentum. She got enough to be able to run ahead without falling hundreds of feet to death. It surprised her when the leg began moving, but she noticed the other five were moving as well. The thing was walking. This was Nirvana walking towards a destination, and Laura would sprint into the city and help stop it.
A/N: haha, so, sorry. I know it's almost two days late, but here we go. Part of it though is because today was my birthday. Sorry I took so long though. I hope you enjoyed. If you did please leave a review? All right, bye.
