Laura's grip brought Lyla back to her senses. She hadn't realized how much her covered eye acted up.

While trying to calm down, Natsu charged at Jellal, but his blast of Heavenly Body magic sent him crashing into the rock wall of the cave. Some of the walls crumbled, falling on top of him. Happy ran to his aid.

"I see your magic is still as formidable as ever." Brain commented.

Jellal looked back at him with dead eyes, swiping his hand and casting another spell. Brain disappeared, but his magic didn't. She tried to stand her ground, not wavering. If she pretended to be fearless, she would eventually believe it.

Laura continued to clutch onto her shoulders, keeping her steady. The woman stood as still as her as Jellal walked towards them. No, not towards them. His eyes weren't focussed. He looked right past them.

He walked by, exiting the cave. Lyla took in a quivering breath when he left. She had so much explaining to do for Laura.

"Natsu! Get up!" Happy begged with tears in his eyes.

"Jellal!" Salamander shouted, forgetting he got knocked out by the man. His stupidity helped calm Lyla. She took Laura's hand off of her, reassuring her friend that she would be fine.

"I don't know who Jellal is, but taking Wendy back is our priority right now," Carla stated.

"I agree," Lyla added on, quickly bouncing back. She still felt bad, but at least she wasn't on the verge of an episode.

Happy took Natsu and flew back up to the waterfalls. Carla did the same for Wendy. When they left, Lyla placed her finger over her lips to tell Laura to stay quiet. She nodded.

Lyla used Shadow Shift to melt into the shadows of the cave, then waited. Happy shortly came back to collect the girls.

"Where's Lyla?" He asked.

"She ran after that blue-haired guy. She just wanted to keep an eye on him." Laura lied just as easily as Lyla could. Happy looked worried but he believed her and flew her to the others.

Lyla stayed in the shadows. Lying against the wall was Midnight. He seemed to be sleeping, so he couldn't warn Brain of her presence.

Staying away from the candles, She watched as something broke through the ground, dirt and small rocks flying everywhere. At the bottom stood Brain, his hair messy and strands over his face.

"No, this is my fault for removing his restraints…" He spoke to himself. So he captured Wendy to revive Jellal. "Even so, he never bore this much hostility toward me before. Did he somehow hear us discussing Nirvana while in his sleep state?"

When he started to shout, Lyla kept quiet, not moving a muscle. "Jellal! Don't tell me you intend to take Nirvana for yourself! I won't allow it! It belongs to us! Cobra! Do you hear me?!"

Cobra… If he can hear so well, would Laura be able to hear Brain's words too? Lyla wondered what would happen if the two ever ran into a fight.

"Jellal has escaped! Get him! He's going after Nirvana!"

Lyla waited for him to climb out. He smoothed his hair out but kept pacing with anxiety. The shadow wizard traveled up the wall and to the ceiling. She waited.

And waited.

And waited…

She watched him struggle, watched him worry and fear for what was to come. He had much more important matters to concern himself with.

She continued waiting.

Only a few more minutes had passed when he stopped pacing. He mumbled something about Racer. Did Gray beat him? That meant only five targets were left, and Lyla already had her sights on one.

"Sounds like your a little snagged," Lyla said, sprouting from the shadows of the ceiling.

Brain whipped around to find only Midnight lying on the rocks. He let out a sigh. It must be the first time Lyla has ever seen him in such a pathetic state, but that doesn't change how much she loathed him.

"Wake up, Midnight." He ordered, his staff rattled when he planted it into the ground.

The young man rose. He had dark makeup on with long white hair. He also had short black hair on top of his head.

"You have work to do."

Midnight rose without a word.

"Find our foes and toss them into your nightmare." Brain smirked with evil intent, his eyes squinting maliciously.

"Yes, Father."

Okay… That took Lyla off guard. Since when did he have time to have a child? What type of woman would even love a man like Brain? Or maybe he kidnapped Midnight and raised him as his own.

That didn't matter. Lyla could wait for eternity if she had. She would still kill Brain… Killing Midnight might be satisfying too…

The younger girl waited at the bottom of a tall tree, it's trunk the fattest thing she's ever seen. Her clothes were oversized, but they would last much longer.

"A-are you sure it's safe…?" The girl asked, her voice weary of the dangers the older girl faced.

From a branch near the top of the tree, the older girl called down with a smile, "It's fine! My Daddy would let me climb up trees all the time!"

"Daddy…?"

The older girl picked off some colorful plants. Fruit? Is that the word? With only one free arm, she slid down the trunk and landed on the ground, some fruit falling out of her other arm. The younger girl didn't know what they were called.

"You know, your daddy. The person who takes care of you!"

The younger girl stared at the other with a blank stare.

The older girl gave her a fruit to eat while she explained, "My Daddy would hug me and play games with me. I would be a pretty princess while he was a big and strong king! Mommy always got scared when I would climb the tallest tree to be my castle."

The younger girl stopped chewing her mouthful of juicy fruit, more baffled than before. The older girl noticed this.

"They love you and care for you! You have to know what a mommy and a daddy are."

The younger girl wanted to say she did know, but truly… the words sounded foreign.

The ground shook, a low rumbling coming from the distance. Brain and Midnight gathered at the entrance of the cave. Lyla remained securely attached to the shadows of the cave.

Perfectly framed by the cave entrance, beams of dark magic shot out, whipping around the sky. A large white beam followed, touching the clouds and then some. The dark magic started circling the light magic, mixing and created a horrid sight.

The amount of magic energy coming from it reached even to the cave. Lyla struggled to maintain her Shadow Shift. She couldn't grunt in pain, otherwise, the enemy would hear and her cover would be blown. She wanted to run away, hide, something to get away from it!

"N-no question about it…"

Midnight turned back to face his father, "Congratulations. I will go and eliminate the guild wizards now. Before midnight. You should go to the light, Father..."

At that, the young man left to hunt, leaving Brain to himself. Or for him to believe.

Lyla waited, trying to maintain silence and fight through the pain. While she did, Brain flinched. The teen at first though he somehow sensed her, until he put his hand to his cheek.

"I-Impossible! Not you too, Angel! I won't let your death be in vain. The light will come crashing down soon."

"The only thing crashing down is you." Lyla's threatening voice echoed throughout the cave. Brain whipped around to see only dimly lit candles he placed. He walked deeper into the cave. Perfect.

"I doubt you've forgotten me." Her voice hissed, the magic from what she could only assume to be Nirvana tainting her voice. She grew from the ground, standing tall with her arms crossed.

Brain's wide eyes stared at the young woman. He didn't seem himself. Almost scared, confused, but he composed himself quickly enough.

"Of course I remember you… I saw your friend not too long ago. I assumed you ran off with her."

"I stayed. I wanted to get a few punches in." She huffed, her legs struggling to support her, "A little bloodshed wouldn't hurt. Well, it won't hurt me at least." She shifted into a fighting position.

Brain stared at her, then started laughing. She tried to hide it, but he noticed her weak stance, the beads of sweat dripping down her forehead, how her eye started to spark dark magic.

"Don't diss me just because I'm unsteady!" Lyla's voice shook with fury, "I've spent years training under better teachers than you! I've learned how to properly control my magic! I AM NOT YOUR WEAPON TO CONTROL ANYMORE!"

"Control your magic?" Brain smirked, completely ignoring all of her other claims, "Just the mere presence of Nirvana cripples you."

Popping a blood vessel was the least of her worries. In an instant, a black hole appeared under Lyla's feet, dropping her inside. The hole disappeared and a second reappeared from behind Brain. She had out one of her many knives, angled to impale the side of his skull, but the man spun around and thrust his staff out to hit her in the stomach. She teleported and appeared on the side of the wall, her feet bound to the shadows.

She leaped off of the wall, lunging at Brain with several knives gripped between her fingers.

"Dark Capriccio." He said simply. A Beam of green magic shot out from the glass orb in the mouth of his skull staff. Lyla extended her feet and merged into the shadows below her, racing to the entrance of the cave to dodge the spell. She half grew out of it, her lower arms and waist-down still gripping into the rock floor. She panted, Nirvana was not helping her predicament. Leaving the cave would put her at a disadvantage, but the cave would leave little room to avoid attacks from Brain…

"Giving up already?" The man's deep voice sent chills down her spine. Lyla growled and jumped out of the floor, landing in the middle of the small island.

"Shadow Make, Lance! Multi-Shot!" Casting her hands at Brain, magic circles appeared all around her on the ground. A lance from each circle shot out, aimed to go straight through her enemy.

He didn't flinch. When the lances were supposed to stab him, he disappeared. Vanished from the land.

Lyla still sensed his magic, though it was hard to tell with Nirvana's overpowering everyone's "scent". He came up from the ground to the side of her.

"Dark Rondo!" Brain commanded his staff. Green magic swirled around his body, reaching for the sky above, then changing direction and aiming for Lyla. She planned to teleport out of the way, but someone grabbed her waist and threw her into the water. The teen fought the person's grip but realized it was Laura. She teleported and the wizards appeared at the edge of the cliff.

Lyla coughed out drops of water, gasping for air. Her body trembled, but she felt better being further away from Nirvana. Her magic would be out of commission for a while, though.

"This is the last time I let you go off on your own." Laura spat, obviously furious.

"Like hell I'd-"

"Idiot! You could have died!"

"I could have killed him!"

"You know well enough that you had no chance."

"A few more minutes and I would have been in the goldilocks zone," Lyla growled. "And he'd never kill off his pet project."

Laura leaned back, her knees sinking closer to the ground. "What the hell does that mean?"

That's right… She'd never had the problem during her time with Laura... Keeping it as short as possible, she explained, "You know what we've gone through. You know my eye?" She placed her hand over her bangs, "When I went to the tower, my eye activated something. It took a few years for me to realize, but my magic acts up when there's too much magical power around me. It has to be something big."

"So Nirvana."

Lyla removed her hand, then stood up. "We need to regroup."

Laura stood up and led the way, "Salamander and the blonde aren't too far from where we last were. We should hurry. The sun is going down."

"I can see that, Sherlock."

"Sherlock?" The woman stopped in her tracks, turning back to show her confused expression.

Lyla thought for a second. In all honesty, she didn't know what that was either. A word she heard during her travels.