Happy Birthday to Jeptwin (yesterday), DrakOF (today), and Mortelia (Thursday)!
Chapter One Hundred and Eight - Pieces in Place
"I'll give you some time alone," God said, leaving me behind in a room that looked like clouds.
I collapsed on the ground (on a cloud?) and stared up at the sky. I couldn't even cry right now.
Was this why I chose to be alone this time around? I had the opportunity to be raised with real parents – was this why I didn't take it?
They were supposed to take care of me and Amber, and they failed, and I learned that I could only count on myself.
When I told God that I wanted to start out as a child and that I didn't want to be born into the other universe, but rather brought into it, I thought it was because I was impatient (after all, it was hard enough waiting from the age of nine). I also told myself that it was because too much adult supervision would restrict my movements.
I tried to think over the mother-like relationships I had in my life; Layla, and Ame and now Mari, a bit (Ur and Maggie were like those cool aunts).
But even then…there are things that I wouldn't do for Layla or anyone.
I was lying alone in a room of clouds, and felt emptier than one.
After a certain amount of time, I finally left that room.
I found God sitting by a fireplace, knitting with gray yarn with a bluish-purple tint and looking at TV where she watched something that looked vaguely familiar.
"What's that?" I asked, slightly curious.
"Hm?" she asked, looking up. "Oh. I'm just watching someone else's secondary adventures."
I blinked. "Like me? I thought you said that didn't happen often."
"It doesn't. Less than 0.0001% of souls choose to continue. Most choose to wait for someone, and even after that, they usually don't slide into a fictional section of the multiverse."
I blinked. "How…how many souls choose to do that, then?"
"Oh…somewhere over ten thousand?" God hummed.
"…..oh," I said.
I kinda thought that jumping into a universe like I did made me special.
"Don't be silly," God said, looking up from her…hat? It looks like a hat. (Not like a top hat, you can't knit those, even if you are God. Like a beanie-type hat). "Every person is special, because they're all unique in different ways. Do you know the amount of combinations needed in order to make human life possible?"
"A lot?" I guessed.
She hummed, nodding. "Then there's the differences in each person. People tend to be put in a random variety of situations, and they each form themselves from what they go through. Each person is uniquely themselves. And even then, you're not the same you that you were a day ago, much less many years ago. There's no way to 'replace' someone, Elle. Everyone is different, and constantly shifting and changing, and there's nothing wrong with that."
She smiled back down at her hat, and went back to knitting. "So, you're not the only one who jumped into another universe. So what? That doesn't make you any less special. Besides, you're happy, and the people you care about are happy. Does anything else really matter?"
No, I guess it didn't, not really. Not when you put it like that.
"Thanks," I said softly.
She smiled back up at me. "Why don't you sit down?"
She nodded at the chair across from me and I slowly sat down in it. The TV froze and went dark.
It was quiet, while God hummed and knitted her hat, and I sat there, thinking and basking in the warmth of the fire.
"Why?" I asked softly.
The humming stopped. "Why what?"
"Are you going to make me ask it?" I asked her.
"Should I?" she asked me.
I must have looked stricken at that, because she sighed and answered my question anyway. "Bitterness. He knew he was going down, so he hit your family where it would hurt the most."
"It's stupid," I muttered, glaring at the floor.
"It is," God agreed, and I saw her nod out of the corner of her eye. "But it's also human."
"What happens to them when they die?" I asked. "People like...that?"
"Ever hear the phrase 'what goes around, comes around'?" she asked me.
"Karma?"
"More or less. It gets a bit more complicated in certain scenarios, but most of the time, when people die, they're generally in balance. The difference between the beginning and the end is that your soul has matured over your life. The soul, in some such ways, grows much like the mind, advancing, but only able to handle so much from a younger point. And then, when you die, you're asked on what you want to do next."
"What if they're a kid?" I asked. "Like Amber?"
"If they're younger than twelve, it's likely that they'll either a) get reborn quite quickly after their death or b) will be given an opportunity mixed between their own choice and the choice of others."
"What do you mean?"
"You have a claim on Amber," she told me. "Perhaps even more than her parents. It doesn't happen often, but it does happen. And this is one such case. Her only wish, as complicated as it could be, mainly amounted to wanting to be with you."
"What about Al and Katie?" I asked.
"They have lost their claim on Amber," God said, shaking her head. "And the answer for that is much more complicated."
I didn't ask. I didn't want to know.
"Now what?" I asked.
"I don't know," she said. "It's up to you."
I looked into the fire as she knitted some more, before I raised my eyes. "I think I'd like to go back to my life now."
God stopped knitting and looked up. "Well then, there's only one thing left for you to see."
The shouting was what woke me up.
"THE TIMER SPED UP!"
Freed. I should've known.
"Freed, shut up," Laxus's voice growled. "You're going to hurt her ears. You've already hurt my ears."
"Sorry, Laxus-sama," Freed said, downtrodden.
"Laxus, don't be mean to Freed," I muttered, sitting up and clutching my head. Now that I was back in the real world, it suddenly hurt a hell of a lot more.
"Ella-sama!" Freed yelled, and then I was tackled by several small bodies.
"Guys, I'm not even up yet!" I shouted, being shoved back into the mattress. From the outside of the fairy pile, someone squeezed my hand.
"I'm so glad you're awake, Onee-sama!" Juvia shouted.
"We were so worried!" Lucy said, her voice muffled from where her face was planted to my side.
"Guys, I'm alright, okay? Can I sit up, please?"
After some complaints and grumbling, the kids backed off enough for me to sit up. The other person's hand squeezed mine again, and I followed the arm to look up at Laxus.
I knew that hand felt familiar.
"Hey," I said softly to him.
"Hey," he said back, quietly.
Someone cleared their throat, and we all turned to look at Phoenix. "…Check up?" he said.
Laxus rolled his eyes, before getting up and shooing the kids. "Come on, guys, we can come visit when Phoenix is done."
Phoenix and Laxus locked eyes and Phoenix nodded, and Laxus led the kids out the door, meeting with Macbeth and Erik and closing it behind them.
"So how am I, Doc?" I joked, stretching. My gaze fell on something on my lap; a familiar knitted piece of gray clothing.
I smiled and put on the beanie.
Phoenix glared at me, his fingers tingling as he scanned me for injuries and clearing away my headache. "Grounded."
"You can't ground me," I said, lifting my eyebrows. But at least I was physically alright now.
"Yeah, but the rest of the guild is going to be clingy for a while. You'll probably have to go back to those guild-wide sleepovers, too."
"That doesn't mean I'm grounded," I told him.
"It does if I can make Laxus agree. Right, Laxus?"
Laxus opened the door. "You want her to be grounded, you do it. I'm not her keeper."
"Oh, yes you are!" Freed said.
I snorted and then began to full-out laugh, until it was hard for me to breathe.
"Elle?" Laxus asked quietly.
"I'm alright," I told him, my eyes watering. "I'm just…really glad to be home."
"We're glad you're back, too!" Lucy shouted from outside, and the door burst open again, with a stampede of children running back in.
I was mobbed back into the bed, but I was fine with that.
It was good to be back.
^That's not a double meaning...is it? Pwish.
I don't know what noise that's supposed to be.
So I am alive. Obviously. Thank you for all of your wonderful comments and thoughts. They helped me when I was at my lowest and I've still saved some of the reviews I got to my email. :D
So, news; this should be starting up again. I am back at Emerson College and Fairy Tail is supposed to return next month, so I am happy.
I've also found myself screaming and crying while I was dragged back into the MCU so that's a thing. I've got a few draft/ideas saved up that are helping me return to Ripples, because it's a future Ripples spin-off/Marvel CROSSOVER. The idea is, on Tenrou, they don't survive and they can't return to the FT world with their memories intact, so they decide to go universe hopping. While there will be spoilers for MCU, there wouldn't be any for Ripples, because the people who will be on Tenrou is different in this fic in the future (these are just the people I want flung into another universe).
If enough people are interested, I might post it online. Right now, I'm just outlining it, and it helps me redirect my muse back to the Fairy Tail universe. But those will definitely turn into chapters pretty soon. The question is if you want to read them.