Chapter 137: Like Clockwork

The castle shook around the temporarily modified roster of Team Pierce.

"What's going on?!" Totomaru shouted, looking around in confusion.

"Whatever it is, it means it's time to go!" Lync pointed out as the stone walls around them shifted, becoming goopy and red like the insides of a living creature.

"I was warned about this. It's a spell used by Mard Geer, the leader of Tartaros. Everyone stay close, my Reality Marble might be able to stave it off!" Blue shouted, slamming a hand to the ground. "Requesting data jurisdiction!"

An unseen voice answered her. "Data jurisdiction unavailable,"

"What?" Blue blinked, before a tendril shot out of the wall and struck her wing, rapidly wrapping around her and immobilising her in a fleshy prison.

"This place must be blocked off from the Overmind's signal," Ariel growled as more tendrils lashed out in every direction. "Grace, fold space! Shield us!"

Grace leapt aside to dodge an assault, dashing to the nearest teammate - Donna - and carefully twisted space all around them both. "Reality Dragon's Spatial Shell!" She looked around, preparing to shield the rest of the Phoenixes, but stilled.

In the scant few seconds it had taken her to protect both herself and Donna, everyone else had fallen victim to the Curse.

"This . . is bad," Donna whimpered.

"Y-yeah . ." The Dragon Slayer, once she was sure that they weren't going to come under fire, released her bent-space cloak and slid over to Pierce. "Big bro?" She looked back at Donna, and then around at their friends. "Do you . . think they're still alive in there?"

"Alice would know," she observed distantly, gripping the Archive witch's shoulder and shaking. But she was firm as stone, not even moving. "I don't think this is just a prison. It's some kind of transmutation, like alchemy. There's got to be some way to undo it but I don't know how,"

There was a sudden noise from down the corridor, and both turned in surprise. "Tartaros' spell didn't affect their own people, did it?" Grace asked.

"I think we should run," Donna declared.

"What? But -"

"They'll be fine. They're indestructible in this state. Run!" Donna overruled her, turning and pelting in the opposite direction. Grace hesitated, but reluctantly followed her.

-[CoT]-

"How annoying," Mard Geer observed from his throne.

"What is it?" Clockwork asked, sounding uninterested.

"Alegria didn't defeat everyone in Fairy Tail and Phoenix's Eye. There's still three people left," Mard Geer snorted.

Clockwork's eyes shot wide, and he hastened to the demon's side to see what he was seeing. "Three? Not just one?"

"Yes," Mard Geer frowned. His ally looked disturbed. "What is it? They're just three humans against my entire guild. What can they do?"

"In the canon timeline there was only one survivor, and she summoned the Celestial Spirit King and reversed Alegria. Kill Lucy Heartfilia! Now!"

"Do you honestly expect me to know their names?"

"The blonde one!" the TFEI clarified, exasperation creeping into his voice.

"I'll do you one better," Mard Geer cleared his throat. "

The red stared at him in disbelief. "But that's exactly - ugh. Leave the other two for me. It's highly likely that one or both of them are TFEI," Sure, they looked like Donna and Grace, but with TFEI you could never be really sure.

". . Very well," Mard Geer hummed.

Clockwork nodded and vanished in a blur. As he did, he mumbled, "Time to deal with that other TFEI. Once that's done, the Celestial Spirit King won't matter. No one will be able to stop us,"

-[CoT]-

Grace and Donna were pelting down a corridor when Clockwork appeared in front of them. Both witches skidded to a halt, taking in the new threat.

"Clockwork?!" Donna gasped.

"Yes. That's my name," the TFEI nodded, a mould-coloured magic circle appearing on the back of his right hand. "You're not TFEI. Either of you," he noted with mild surprise.

"I want to talk to you," Donna declared, a stormy expression crossing her face.

"Hm? Oh, very well. I've got a few minutes to spare," And suddenly, they were somewhere else, a tower at the top of Tartaros' building where a table and some chairs were laid out. "Sit," Clockwork amicably suggested, gesturing to the table and taking a seat himself.

Grace and Donna carefully took seats nearby.

"Alright. You're a red TFEI. I've heard one side of the story behind your kind, from the blue TFEI. What's your story?" Donna asked.

Clockwork's eyebrow quirked, and he leant forwards, tenting his fingers. "That's not what I expected you to ask,"

"You expected something along the lines of 'were you ever really my friend', didn't you?" Donna evenly replied. "We'll get to that. But I want to believe that the time we spent together in Kairos End meant something to you. So tell me the version of the story where you're the hero. Because I don't think that you consider yourself to be evil, I don't think anyone really does. I think you have a goal that you believe justifies the evil you've done. So tell me,"

"That's not something I ever expected to be asked," the TFEI mused to himself. "That's interesting. I suppose, if you had to get right down to it, I do what I do for God,"

". . You'll have to explain that to me a bit more," Donna put forward.

"I thought as much. The gods of this world are petty. Powerful to be sure, but insignificant compared to our God. We call him D-eternal,"

"Is he part of the D-eternal Directive that Blue told us about?" Grace asked.

"Yes. The Directive is his order, his command that animates the red TFEI. He desires something that this world contains, that you probably haven't heard of. It's called the Data Storm, and it's the source of - well, everything. All things are one in the Data Storm, and the power contained within is enough for D-eternal to bring about a golden age for the entire multiverse,"

"So D-eternal is a benevolent god?" Donna asked.

"Yes. He wants to bring peace to all worlds, everywhere. But this world, this universe that you call home, is a sort of barrier created by the Data Storm to protect it from people who might abuse it. I'm sure that the blue TFEI have told you about the path that history must take, to keep the world from falling into chaos. But chaos is freedom from the predetermined path, the ability to shape the fate of this world without interference from Cardinal and his order-loving blue peons. We don't want to destroy your world, nothing of the sort. Your world is the cork on the bottle that contains the Data Storm, and changing the course of history is simply moving the stopper out of the way. You don't destroy a cork just to open a bottle. We only need to move your world out of D-eternal's path so that he can reach the Data Storm,"

"Then why are you working with the demons to get rid of all magic?" Grace asked.

The TFEI's face fell. "Because we're desperate," he admitted. "Since the beginning of this world's history, the cosmic cork, in a manner of speaking, has been getting tighter. It's a gradual process, that took thousands of years, but it's almost completely sealed. We estimate that, in another year or so, this world's timeline will be so solidly entrenched that it will no longer be possible to uncork the Data Storm. For thousands of years, we've been thwarted at every turn by Cardinal and his blue TFEI. If this doesn't work, we've got perhaps one or two more chances before it's too late,"

"And then our world will be ruled by D-eternal?" Donna sceptically asked. "And Magic's the price we pay for that?"

"And then your world will be saved by D-eternal," Clockwork corrected. "It's entirely possible to live without magic. There are countless dimensions that do it. I've seen them. I don't like that the endgame of this plan costs this world its magic, but that's not our fault. There were countless plans that would have brought D-eternal's rule to this world without the price of its magic, but they were all foiled. The blame lies with Cardinal and his ilk for their foolish resistance,"

"I hoped that you'd answer this, but you're being annoyingly vague," Donna frowned. "Were you always the Clockwork I knew?"

"Yes. There was never a 'real' Clockwork, so to speak. I was assigned to Lycurgus in the year X730. We hoped that we could assist your old friend in finding a way to hijack the Sempiternal Phoenix and, in the process, disrupt time enough that D-Eternal can access the Data Storm. Unfortunately -"

"You failed," Donna put forward. "But how do I factor into your plan?"

Clockwork shrugged. "You don't. Individual people like you, unless they're royalty or similarly influential in the world order, typically don't have enough say in the world to have much influence on the flow of history. Lycurgus was a rare exception. But thar's not to say that I, personally, don't care about you, Donna,"

"Prove it," the Phoenix challenged.

"I could recite every detail I've ever learned about you," the TFEI pointed out. "But it would be meaningless, as TFEI have idyllic memories and I'd remember all that even if I didn't care for you at all. But based on what I know of you, I can extrapolate -"

"No. That's the problem. You knew Mordonna. And I remember being her, but I'm not her," Donna pointed out. "What I want to know is, do you care about me, either for the sake of or independently from, Mordonna?"

"Ah. You should have been more specific," the TFEI admonished her. "Well, if we're considering you as an independent entity from my friend Mordonna, then no, I can't say that I'm attached. But given your interrelation, I do care about your fate,"

"I see. But I'm not sure that I can believe that you're the same person I knew back then," Donna frowned.

"Why?"

"Your speech pattern's changed," she explained, looking grave. "While I knew you, you punctuated every sentence with a 'tick, tock', but you haven't said that once while we've been talking,"

Clockwork shrugged. "I got sick of it. Would you prefer I continued?"

"No, because the fact that you didn't from the onset demonstrates that you're pretending. Or, rather, you were pretending for all the time that Mordonna knew you. Me and her never knew the real you and our relationship never meant anything to you. And that saddens me . . but it doesn't surprise me,"

"So you're going to fight me, then?"

"No, I don't think that'd end well for me. I've got something else in mind," In a flash Donna withdrew her Celestial Keyring, producing a crystalline key with a grey tint. "Open, Gate of the Graveyard! Pluto!"

There was a celestial doorbell, and with a flash of light a throne appeared, made of bleached, dried bones, bearing a humanoid shadow.

"Helm of Darkness! Now!" Donna commanded.

Clockwork, frowning, immediately threw up a defensive shield as the entire room was engulfed in darkness.

A deathly science settled over the room, but eventually the shadows gave way . . and Donna, Pluto and Grace were gone.

"Helm of Darkness. You told me about this, remember, Donna? It was some decades ago but I haven't forgotten. It's the ultimate spell of the Celestial Deity Pluto, a spell of absolute concealment. You think you can escape me with the perfect hiding ability. I'll admit, it's an impressive spell, and even I can't penetrate it and find you, but . ." He chuckled darkly.

"Algeria is going to be reversed. In a few minutes, your friends will be released. I might not be able to harm them in this state, but I'm going to be standing right there with a knife at Pierce's heart. He won't even have time to think before dying," He swept out of the room with a dramatic gesture. "Try to stop me, if you can,"

-[CoT]-

He took the leisurely route. A dagger in his hand, rather than teleport, he walked the stairs and corridors back to where Pierce, Cal and the other prisoners/rescuers had been trapped by Alegria. Every sense, mundane and magical, told him that he was alone, but he was certain that Donna and Grace were shadowing him, their presence masked by the Helm of Darkness.

And so he stood over Pierce Blastreyne's frozen body, dagger levelled at his throat, waiting for the moment when the Celestial Spirit King, on Lucy's command, would reverse Alegria and free the captives.

He expected to be attacked at any second. But nothing came. Still, he was sure that Grace and Donna were watching, prepared to strike.

Cube suddenly shook with the Celestial Spirit King's power, and as he expected, the shell melted away, revealing Pierce's exposed flesh.

He stabbed, and his dagger met flesh. Blood burst out.

But darkness evaporated from a previously invisible form, and Grace squeaked in pain. The dagger buried in her left hand, though, didn't stop her from using her right hand to punch Clockwork straight down the corridor.

Pierce came to, registering what had happened. "Grace!"

"Not bad," Clockwork growled. "You knew I'd notice if you bent space, so you shielded him with your own body. Clever. But ill-conceived," As he spoke, red magic burst out from the dagger, flowing into Grace's body and spreading its poison into her blood.

"What did you do?" Pierce growled as the rest of his team took up positions behind him.

"I poisoned the dagger. Obviously," Clockwork sighed. "It was an added precaution that cost me nothing. You've survived so far because the villains you've faced so far have been inept. Not I. I don't need to fight you to win, I just need to be in the right place at the right time. With that in mind . . goodbye," With that, he vanished in a flicker of light.

". . What just happened?" Totomaru asked.

"He ran away!" Lync crowed. "He knows he can't beat us!"

"That's not it at all," Ariel shook her head. "He's got some kind of plan, something in mind that'll influence the events happening all around us and derail history. He knows that fighting us is a risk he doesn't have to take. We need to find him,"

"No," Blue interrupted. "What we need to do is figure out his plan. We know what's going to happen. Fairy Tail's going to kill the Demon Gates one by one, Acnologia will show up and then Igneel will fight him off. The first and third generation Dragon Slayers will all release their Dragon Souls and destroy FACE, and Natsu and Gray beat Mard Geer and get the Book of E.N.D. What's he going to do that'll disrupt that sequence of events?"

"Can we talk about this when Grace isn't dying?!" Pierce yelled, and both TFEI started. "This is TFEI magic crap, do something!"

"Uh, right!" Ariel nodded, crouching over their guildmate. "Um . . Okay this shouldn't be a problem. Blue, give me a hand here," The other TFEI nodded, joining them. Both placed a hand on one of Grace's shoulders, and blue magic flowed into her body, beating against the red infection. Slowly, a second skin of blue Data Particles coalesced and wrapped around the young Dragon Slayer, bleeding the redness away and stabilising her body.

"She'll be out of it for a bit," Blue apologetically clarified.

"That's fine, as long as she's alive," Pierce nodded, gulping.

"Alright, here's the plan. Fairy Tail's going to get together outside the castle soon, Grace will be safe with them. I know where they're going to be, me and Pierce will take Grace and meet up with them," Ariel explained. "Everyone else, split up. If you find Clockwork, engage him. Keep him busy. We don't need to win, we just need him to not do whatever action he has in mind that will change the future. Call for help if you can, but stick to him like a limpet," Ariel explained, and everyone nodded assent, accepting the plan.

"Hey, everyone," Ariel asked, her voice wavering as she looked around at her guildmates.

"Yeah?" Pierce asked.

"There's something I need to ask you, before we go," the blue TFEI mumbled. "Am I a bad person?"

The blond leader blinked. "What . . what kind of question is that?"

"You're not a bad person," Donna agreed.

"Just . ." Ariel sighed. "I try, okay? I've always tried . . what I do, what the blue TFEI do, it's important, nothing is more important than keeping the world intact. But . . sometimes I have to do things that aren't . . that I don't feel right about. Like messing with memories, or . . worse. And it's for the greater good, but no matter how much I tell myself that it's . ."

Pierce's gaze softened. "I get it. Sometimes you have to make the hard choices," he acquiesced. "I . . don't agree with what you've done, but I understand why. If what you're asking for is forgiveness, then -"

"That's not it," Ariel shook her head. "I don't care if people forgive me - that came out wrong, I do but that's not the issue. I just want to know what you think . . does saving the world justify unforgivable actions?"

"Ariel, with all due respect, you're overthinking it," Blue interrupted. "Ethics and morals are all good and well, but they're aspirations, not standards. If you're never willing to compromise, to do the things that have to be done, then you'll never get anything done. Trying to find a perfect solution just takes too long. I'm willing to lose sleep at night if it means other people get to wake up in the morning," She shook her head and smiled sadly. "When all's said and done, it doesn't matter what's right. All that matters is what's left,"

Ariel cast a glance at Pierce, who shrugged. "I don't know what you want me to tell you. I'm no philosopher. But the way I see it, you're trying to do the right thing. And you did just save Grace's life. If you ask me, that counts for something,"

"I've said it before and I'll say it again. I'm always going to be grateful to you for keeping my guild alive," Donna agreed.

Fleur signed something, and Totomaru translated it. "All you can do is what you can do . . is that right?" he checked, and received a nod from the mute. "I agree. Even if the means are questionable, everything's turned out alright so far, so we can't really complain,"

"Thank you," Ariel hoisted Grace over her shoulder. "Alright. Let's get out of here. Blue, Phoenix's Eye, we'll leave Clockwork to you," Pierce nodded, and the three of them headed towards the exit to the castle while the rest of their group split up.

-[CoT]-

At another point in the ruins of the Tartaros Guild building, approximately twenty minutes of navigating wreckage later, Pierce, Ariel and Grace heard the noises of battle.

Crouched behind a broken wall, they watched as Sting and Rogue fought a demon that bore a strange resemblance to their old guild master, while Natsu and Grey fought a ridiculously powerful demon who Ariel recognised as Mard Geer, Tartaros' de facto leader.

"Why aren't we helping?" Pierce hissed to Ariel.

"These are their fights. Sting and Rogue need to overcome their old master, and Natsu and Grey need to beat Mard Geer. And according to what we Blues know of the future, these fights are happening exactly the way they should. Which is a relief. If we interfere, we risk derailing history. It's better to just watch," the TFEI replied.

"I don't like it, but alright. Where's the rest of our guild?" Pierce asked.

"I'm pretty sure Makarov led everyone to take cover in Fairy Tail's basement, or else they're scattered around Tartaros somewhere. This place is really pretty big - we can't even see Igneel and Acnologia from here," Ariel mused to herself.

"What?! Acnologia?!" Pierce demanded. "Why would he be here?!"

The water witch blinked. "Um . . Probably shouldn't have mentioned that . . don't worry, it'll be fine. Unless Clockwork plans to interfere with Acnologia somehow . . I can't picture it, though. TFEI are strong but Acnologia's on a whole other level,"

As they watched, Grey unleashed a massive arrow - "Ice Devil's Zeroth Destruction Bow!" - that impaled Mard Geer, leaving him out of the fight. Ariel breathed a sigh of relief.

"So what's going to happen next?" Pierce asked.

"Igneel's going to punch Acnologia out of the sky, then come back here and release the Dragon Soul Seals on Gajeel, Wendy, Sting and Rogue, releasing their dragon parents who were trapped inside their bodies. The five dragons are then going to destroy all three thousand FACE bombs in a matter of minutes. Acnologia will go for round two with Igneel while Natsu and Gray fight over whose father's dying wishes are more important for the Book of END -"

"Holy shit!" Pierce gasped, seeing a massive red dragon descending towards the Fairy Tail members. "Are you seeing this?!"

Ariel followed his gaze, searching for the source of his ahem before realising he meant Igneel. "Oh, that's right, this is your first time seeing this. I suppose it is fairly impressive the first couple of times, and a bit more so when it's actually happening,"

Pierce cast her a bewildered look. "You are just something else,"

The TFEI nodded, looking faintly bored. "I don't think we can offer any input on proceedings. Let's just watch things play out,"

And they did, exactly as Ariel had explained they would. The other four dragons appeared - "Grace should be awake for this, she'd love it," Pierce lamented - before flying away to destroy FACE. Acnologia recovered, and assaulted Igneel, and once again the two dragons vanished into the sky as they fought.

"So what now?" Pierce asked.

"Zeref's going to appear and take the book -"

"The Black Mage Zeref? Seriously?!" the Phoenix spluttered. "Is every legendary evil figure in the world going to pop up here?!"

"Don't be stupid. The Eighteen War Gods don't even exist on this plane of reality, for one thing," Ariel pointed out.

"You can't just name-drop famous people like it's no big deal!"

"Right, sorry. I've reviewed the tapes of today about a hundred times. I'm a bit desensitised to how important all of it is," Ariel apologetically explained.

Cries of surprise rang out from Natsu and Grey as the book disappeared from between them.

"Aaand Zeref's here, right on -" Ariel stiffened.

"I'm typically loath to pick sides, but I have to agree with Gray here," Clockwork declared, his sweeping gaze taking in the two Fairies. "This book needs to be destroyed,"

"Who are you?" Natsu demanded,

"Clockwork," Mard Geer spluttered before the TFEI could respond, his eyes flashing dangerously in spite of the massive hole in his chest. "You said your plan would be enacted before I was defeated,"

"No. I said my plan would be enacted before you died. You're not dead yet, are you? I just let you make certain assumptions about how things would go. I'd say I'm sorry for deceiving you . . but I'm really not," Clockwork admitted.

"You said . . you just had to kill the Dragon Slayers before their dragons could destroy FACE -"

"Ohhhhh yeeeeeees," Clockwork rolled his eyes, his voice dripping sarcasm. "All I have to do is kill five main protagonists, of such strength that they shit out plot armour, simultaneously, by myself. Do I look suicidal? I lied! All I have to do to break history is destroy this book. You, of course, would never allow it - you care far too much for your precious E.N.D.," he scoffed. "So I had to wait until you and your peons were in no state to get in my way. Thank you for that, my boy," he nodded courteously to Gray.

"No, seriously. Who are you? If you want the book destroyed, are we on the same side?" the Ice wizard replied.

"No way, this guy reeks of evil," Natsu sniffed. "If he wants the book destroyed then it's obviously the wrong thing to do, so we have to stop him! Come on!"

"I'm afraid I can't allow that," Clockwork tutted and teleported out of Natsu's preliminary strike's path.

"Unfortunately for you, I've always held the opinion that the number of situations that cannot be solved by an explosion is inversely proportionate to the size of said explosion. With that in mind, goodbye," The Red TFEI snapped his fingers and a mould-coloured magic circle bloomed underneath Natsu and Gray's feet.

A white shockwave billowed out of the ground, launching them both into the air and sending both Fairies flying in a different direction.

Clockwork tched to himself. "As I suspected. Simply delaying them is much easier than killing them outright. Not that it matters. Now then," He held out the Book of E.N.D. "Lifehack:[Magic[Exception:TFEI]Disintegrate, DefineArea-"

And then a ruby-coloured blur shot past him, snatching the book from his hands and looping back towards the rise. "What?" Clockwork blinked.

"Did you get it?" Ariel asked.

Pierce, currently in the grip of Take Over: Qilin Soul - Cor's inherent magical speed boosting his agility and endurance far beyond his natural limits - paused for a second and nodded, holding up the Book of E.N.D. "This thing reeks of dark magic. Are you sure we need it?"

"If it gets destroyed, the world is going to end," Ariel groaned. "I'm an idiot! Why didn't I realise this was going to be his plan?!"

"Ah. I suppose it wouldn't be exciting enough if this was easy," Clockwork spoke, suddenly appearing before them. "You won't give me the book, so I won't waste my breath asking. I've indulged your existence long enough, Pierce Blastreyne. Time for you to die,"

"Run!" Ariel shouted.

Pierce ran.

A/N

A/N

Final boss battle of Crowns of Thorns, y'all! Time to get excited. Peace!