Story Seven - The Battle of Fairy Tail (Part II)
Alissa's eye twitched, arms folded as she sat in the stalls of Kardia Cathedral. Laxus sat next to her, rubbing the back of his neck, glancing at her from the corner of his eye.
"This is weird," he muttered.
"What?"
"Well, this was seven years ago, right? Aren't you supposed to be thirteen? You look ten years old."
"That's what you find weird?" she scoffed in disbelief before huffing as her cheeks grew pink, "and I was a late-bloomer, okay?"
"Clearly," he scoffed.
"Shut up!" she squealed, self-consciously covering her missing assets as her face developed into a shade of tomato red. "Why does it even matter? We both know I get them in the end!"
"Never thought I'd ever find a reason to be grateful for Acnologia," Laxus muttered to himself, turning his head away from the pouting kid beside him.
"What?" she frowned, eyes narrowing before bursting out in impatience. "Oh, forget it. I want answers, Laxus!"
"Alright," he sighed, looking forward as he ran a hand through his spiked blonde hair. "We both know this isn't some mere illusion. If anything, we doubt it more than you probably do, because we were here on this day. We know it better than anyone. I never told you the reason for why I got kicked out of the Guild, but this is it."
"But why?" she prompted him, trying to keep her face neutral.
"Because I was a power-crazed idiot," he admitted through gritted teeth. "I told the old man that I thought the Guild was becoming weak and I was doing this to force him to hand over his title of Guild Master so I could rebuild it to become strong."
Laxus studied the ground, his body hunched as if the weight of the world was on his shoulders.
"Later I realised I was just angry. Angry at the old man for kicking out my dead-beat dad from the Guild and always living in his shadow. I targeted the Guild because I thought it meant more to him than his own family."
"I see. You've grown since this period in your life. You've come to value the Guild as your own family and can understand your grandfather's feelings towards them."
"I spent my whole life trying to surpass him. Now I realise I could never live up to that man. That's why I'm striving towards my own path. They'll never love me like they love him, but maybe I can use my strength to protect them."
"I may not have known them long, but I'm sure they consider you family as much as they do anyone else. I… I know I do."
Alissa blushed, occupying herself by fiddling with the material of her shirt. Laxus's eyes widened before he scowled.
"Well you shouldn't," he grunted. "Like I said, this isn't an illusion, and we can't rule out that we haven't actually been placed back in time. This guy, he's forcing us to relive our past because he wants to prove to you that I'm a monster, and he's right. I tore this family apart for my own selfish gain. The only regret I have is that the others have to suffer alongside me for my own stupid mistakes."
Laxus smashed his fist through the stall in front of him, sparks dancing across his skin.
"I'm sorry," Alissa told him, tentatively placing her hand on his arm. "No one deserves to have their past mistakes shoved into their face. Especially when they've grown as much as you have from them."
"It doesn't matter now. We need to finish this," he declared, standing up to await his opponents. "Once we do, I'm sure that guy will be showing his face, and when he does, we need to be ready."
"Freed!"
Freed's eyes widened as he was tackled into a hug by a raven-haired child as soon as he appeared within Kardia Cathedral.
"So this is where you've been," the green-haired mage murmured, looking down at her inquisitively. "You never can stay out of trouble, can you?"
"I'm sorry. You guys re-living this? It's all my fault," she admitted sadly, her glistening gaze looking onto his face as she clung to his lower torso.
"We chose our path long ago. You are in no way responsible for our actions," he declared, shifting awkwardly as he attempted to detach her from his body, before giving up and turning to Laxus. "The battle is turning. Just as last time, Erza has defeated Evergreen and the hostages are now free."
"Then I guess it's time we get our asses handed to us," Laxus smirked, prompting Freed to wear an equally morbid grin.
"I must admit, I am not looking forward to reliving Mira's vengeance. It was terrifying enough the first time."
Alissa gaped.
"Woah, woah, woah," she cut in, waving her hands before holding them in a cross position over her chest. "Are you telling me that YOU GUYS ACTUALLY GET BEATEN?"
"Why do you sound so surprised?" Laxus scoffed, folding his arms over his chest. "No opponent is unbeatable."
Alissa's jaw hit the floor.
"No way! And Mira? What does she do to defeat you?" Alissa shrieked, looking at Freed wide eyed.
"I forgot, you haven't really seen Mira's battle form, have you?" Laxus mused, his smile growing wide as the kid pouted.
"And who the hell beats you?"
"You'll see soon enough. Right now we need to stay on track."
Alissa ceased her pouting at the grave look on Laxus's face. She had already thought the situation was bad enough, but there was more? It seemed so as Laxus activated the Thunder Palace, two hundred lacrima surrounding Magnolia with the intention of holding its citizens hostage now he no longer controlled the Miss Fairy Tail contestants. The three Fairy Tail Mages of Kardia Cathedral exchanged looks, their eyes reflecting a deep sense of sorrow as the two of them re-lived their darkest days, whilst all Alissa could do was helplessly watch.
Just as Alissa suspected it had gone long ago, Bickslow was defeated by Lucy ("I'm never going to let him forget that," she had spluttered), Freed and Mira lost the will to fight (so she wasn't that scary) and Laxus was the last man standing with four players left in the so-called game.
"Natsu, Gajeel, Erza..." Alissa counted them up on her fingers, sitting on the floor of the Cathedral, her back against the stalls, before furrowing her brow. "Who else is left?"
"That would be me."
Alissa blinked as a cloaked man, his face highly covered with multiple staves strapped to his back, walked into the Cathedral.
"Who are you?" she inquired, having never seen him in the Guild before.
"This is Mystogan," Laxus explained. "Between me and him, one of us is likely to be the strongest Mage in Fairy Tail here."
"So he's the one," Alissa murmured, eyeing him up.
"You may want to step back, little girl, otherwise you may find yourself caught up in the crossfire," Mystogan warned, eyes fixed on his opponents as they began to build magical power.
"By all means," she prompted, retreating to the edge of the building.
The battle itself was… insane. From the first move Alissa had summoned her staff, holding it in front of her body in case of wayward spells. Mystogan seemed to be a master of magical circles. All together a diverse mage, one that always had something up his sleeve. In other words, highly dangerous. She could see why he was thought to be a match for Laxus. Whilst the lightning mage had the advantage of raw power, Mystogan was of superior intellect and tactics. It was just as their battle was beginning that Natsu and Erza arrived.
"Who's this guy?" Natsu blinked, looking towards Mystogan before his sights set on Alissa. "Oh, kid - you made it!"
"Who is this child, Natsu? Why is she standing in the middle of a dangerous battle?" Erza growled, causing the dragon slayer to begin sweating.
"I tried to stop her, Erza, but she wanted to help, you know? Said she was going to beat Laxus to a pulp," Natsu gulped, eyes white and slanted and he held up his palms to indicate peace.
"I see, then she is obviously a brave child," the red-head declared, making Alissa blush.
It was at that moment in which Mystogan gave Laxus an opening, resulting in the mage being struck by lightning. His face coverings were destroyed, the blue-haired male righting himself to reveal…
"Jellal," Erza breathed, wide eyed.
"JELLAL?" Alissa screeched at the exact same time, eyes threatening to bulge from their sockets.
"You know him too?" Laxus frowned, eyebrows lifted towards the raven-haired girl.
"Erza, I never wanted for you to see this face," the blue-haired man declared, his eyes fixed on the floor. "I am not Jellal, and he is not me."
"I am so confused," Alissa whined, scratching her head.
"I apologise, but it seems I must leave the rest to you."
The man disappeared, leaving behind a frozen Erza, the perfect target for Laxus's lightning. Alissa winced as she watched the red-head scream in anguish from such a strike.
"Hey kid, you ready to deliver on that promise?" Natsu asked her, eyes fixed on his opponent as his clenched fist began to flame.
"Oh Natsu, you're here?" Laxus mused, making Natsu's eyes go white and slanted. "You know that 'little girl' probably has more of a chance of beating me than you do."
"HEY!" both of them cried, Natsu going on to further threaten the lightning dragon slayer that was counting on him, whether he knew it or not. "YOU BASTARD! I'M GOING TO KICK YOUR ASS!"
Alissa stood stunned as she watched lightning and fire clash. Despite her many battles with Natsu (all initiated by the fire mage himself) she had never witnessed him so fired up, his flames warping the air with their intense heat. Even more impressive were the other members of Fairy Tail, who had mere moments ago been fighting each other, each of them taking on a portion of the Thunder Palace at detriment to themselves. In a way she was ashamed to be surprised, because the action itself was Fairy Tail to its very core. Unfortunately, such a shock could only be trumped as Natsu and Gajeel decided to work together.
Truly, the world was ending.
Yet as much as Laxus had insisted that they should follow the course of history, that he deserved this fate for his actions, she couldn't stop the clenching of her heart. For every blow he delivered, every powerful blow that made their own spars look like a joke, she could see the agonising pain he was inflicting upon himself to bring himself to do it. How he willed for the dragon slayer duo to bring him to his knees, taunting them to the point of blind rage. She could barely handle it as the light of Fairy Law washed over her, the raven-haired teen collapsing to her knees as the tears fell from her eyes.
"Please," she wept, her chest pressed to her knees with her arms folded over her heart, "please stop."
Someone was holding her, probably Levy, Alissa burying her face into the word-mages chest before she couldn't stand it anymore, Gajeel having just used himself as a lightning rod. She broke away, her hand clasped around her staff, white-knuckled, as Natsu assaulted Laxus in a fiery rage.
"Wait, stop!" Levy called, her hand outstretched as Alissa dashed forward, her forearm wiping away her tears.
Natsu's eyes widened as he saw the kid stand in front of him, staff raised, but the attack that was meant for Laxus had already been unleashed. The girl was obscured from sight as the torrent of true dragon slayer magic hit her. The occupants of the room held their breath, several moments passing in deathly silence before the flames seemed to retract, the girl standing before them with her staff aglow as she recalled the magic to its glass orb.
"Idiot," Laxus wheezed, flat on his back as he lay sprawled out on the ground behind her.
"I couldn't- I couldn't take it any longer," she admitted steadily. "That man, he said that he was going to reveal to me what you were really like, and he did. He showed me that you're all so strong."
Laxus's eyes widened at the girl's shout, the whole room setting their sights of the raven-haired girl that was bawling her eyes out.
"When faced with my past mistakes, I would crumble, I would run away. Hell, that's why I joined Fairy Tail in the first place, because I'm a coward. But you guys are so strong - you have the strength to go through this again and the strength to face your comrades and admit that you've done wrong. You think you deserve this, but you don't! I saw how every blow killed you a little more inside and I couldn't watch anymore!" Alissa breathed heavily, her body glowing from the fiery power as she made it her own. "The only monster around here is the guy who made you do this! The illusionist."
"Alissa, we don't know that! For all we know we may have just changed the flow of time itself!" Freed cut in.
"What the hell is going on?" Natsu demanded, looking a little pale as he looked between the occupants of the room.
"No, we didn't. I'm sure now," she told them with a small smile and a shake of her head. "If this was reality as it was seven years ago, I would be dead, or worse."
"Of course you were the one to figure it out, my one true friend."
"Who the hell is this?" Natsu screeched, looking at the silver haired man with thin wire glasses as he walked into the Cathedral, looking back as Alissa clutched his shirt, hiding herself behind his back.
"The real bad guy," she told him.
"Why, Alissa?" the silver-haired man asked, not even flinching as Natsu charged at him, a fiery first raised before phasing through him and ending up on a heap on the floor.
"What the? You some sort of ghost?" Natsu frowned, continuing to swipe at him despite his evidently futile efforts.
"Honestly, how do you think with this one around?" he sighed, pinching the bridge of his nose before snapping his fingers.
Alissa looked down to see her former body had been restored, her hands immediately gripping her breasts.
"Oh thank magic," she breathed, suddenly realising that she had an audience as someone coughed into the palm of their hand.
Alissa removed her hands, a faint blush creeping up her cheeks before giving her four friends a soft smile.
"I'm sorry I didn't realise earlier. You had to go through so much, but whatever it was you wanted me to realise," her tone switched from an affectionate softness to a dark promise as she turned to the spectacled man that claimed to be her 'best friend', "you have gravely miscalculated."
"How can you not understand? They made friends fight each other! They took a whole town hostage! If that spell had worked, he would have killed everyone!" her 'friend' challenged, his voice exasperated and pleading as he tried to convince her to his side.
"In the past," she declared simply. "The people sitting here now are not like their past selves. They've grown into kind and caring people that would do anything for their comrades, or a complete stranger for that matter. They're my real friends, unlike you who has caused them a great deal of pain, and I do not like it when people hurt my friends."
Alissa gritted her teeth as her magical power began to build, the vines of her staff glowing white with raw power.
"Now either release us, or die."
"I don't understand," the man frowned, looking back at the Thunder Legion.
"Of course you don't understand," Laxus cut in, groaning as he dragged himself up from the floor, clutching his chest, still afflicted by the injuries given to him by Natsu. "This is some sort of mind magic, isn't it? The reason everything was so realistic and accurate, is because you're drawing from our memories. Well why not look a bit further? What happened next?"
The silver-haired man frowned, his eyes fixing on Alissa who looked towards him expectantly. Suddenly, the mind space was filled with memories. Many of them were of the Thunder Legion, attempting to reconcile with Fairy Tail: Freed aiding Levy in her research, Bickslow poorly attempting to outdrink Kana, and Evergreen hanging off Elfman's arm. Laxus himself was shown hanging around the edge of Magnolia or countering Dark Guilds, a silent defender. Her eyes glistened as she watched the memories from Tenroe, a tear rolling down her face as she watched them join hands in the face of Acnologia.
"I… think I may have been too quick to judge," the man admitted, rubbing the back of his neck sheepishly.
"You think!" everyone yelled at him as he laughed awkwardly, snapping his fingers before anyone had the opportunity to maul him, thereby freeing them from their minds.