Just Misunderstood
Chapter 8
Let's not talk about the fact that I said I would update A Father's Eyes. I'm just really getting into writing this story.
Natsu screamed loudly as the ground grew closer, his ears picked up the same sounds of terror from his guildmates around him as well. He barely had time to protect his head before he met the ground with a hard thud. The cold concert ate at his skin and he clenched his teeth as he felt Erza, and the others land on his back.
His heart beat wildly, Lisanna. The sudden pain in his chest was completely devouring all the other injuries that he bared. He saw her eyes, her face, her body -her tears, her pain- her pain became his pain. He had seen her again, she had been gone.
He had found her.
Finally.
Then he lost her.
Again.
Her blue eyes kept flashing through his mind as if his memories was mimicking a broken record. He saw them happy, he saw realization bloom across them, then he saw the aching pain that filled them up and spilled over.
She was taller now, prettier, stronger, she was still her. The girl that he had lost.
Natsu became vaguely aware of Erza calling his name.
"We made it back. We saved them." Her voice floated through his head.
"Where are we? Gajeel asked, his eyes not recognizing the gloomy cemetery of the Cathedral.
Gray said just that and they all took the time to check each other's injuries, making sure they were all okay. Natsu sat on the ground and looked up at his friends. Wendy sat with Carla, the two looking at the scrapes Wendy had gotten in the fall, Gray stood with Erza, and Gajeel was off to the side, staring at the edge of the woods.
Natsu smelled it too, then he heard it. He stood quickly and joined Gajeel.
Before they could truly react a small cat appeared out of the trees and dragging behind him was a girl, with blue eyes and white hair.
It took him several minutes to realize what was happening, he watched in slow motion as Gajeel tackled the cat, he watched as Erza and Gray covered their mouths, and their eyes flashed to him. His heart was gone, he couldn't feel it, he felt no blood moving through his veins. He only felt a heavy weight lift off of his shoulder, then it was replaced.
Her arms were suddenly around him, her head was on his shoulder, her scent filled his nose. Her softness filled his arms. Happiness filled his lungs, a happiness that had been gone since Lucy.
Natsu's mind was frozen, all he could do was smile and nod as she talked, as everyone spoke. He stood there, not knowing when he moved or why he did but he was there, watching as she ran away. He almost chased after her, but stopped as he made eye contact with Mira, the mage looked confused before she laid eyes on the girl running towards them.
He watched how they hugged, how they cried. He saw the joy in her return.
He saw Lucy. He wished for Lucy.
And oh, how he hated himself for it.
~JM~
Cobra stood painfully still. His muscle aching to eliminate the threat. The threat of exposure, the threat of letting her live. He could feel his slitted pupils expand and contract as he watched her eyes. She did the same, the brown pulsating between its normal color and a brilliant gold. He listened to her heart beat, it was loud in his ears, and it drowned out every other sound in the world. His eyes sudden met the swirling orb on her necklace. The small bead taunted him, it laughed and mocked him. It blocked him, and shielded her, it shone in triumph and rolled in victory.
The deep, powerful magic in it was unbalanced and unmatched. His eyes flashed to the others, they all were watching Brain, not knowing what was going to happen.
Their leader was standing straight, his posture rigid his breathing even, his thoughts clear. Then in a flash, he was gone, his body was behind Lucy. She reacted a lot faster than should've been possible. Her body twisted and she meant to lung back, but his magic exploded around her and she slowly but almost violently fell, his arms wrapped around her small body and she was cradled in his arms.
He nodded for the others to follow and walked the rest of the way to the room the two girls shared.
No one moved, but watched his back. It was so painfully quiet. Hoteye was the first to follow, his large body drawing creaks out of the wood below him. Racer moved after him, his body moving so unnaturally slow. Midnight was already gone, none of them seeing him leave.
With a loud scoff, Angel stood up. Her chair scraping loudly on the ground. But Cobra heard it, the slight hate in the corner of her mind. Not a hate for Lucy but a hate for Brain, but if Cobra listened carefully, he could hear it from them all.
~JM~
Natsu sat with his arms crossed over his chest, his eyes followed Lisanna as she swept across the guild, hugging everyone and explaining her story. He said nothing, he tried to feel nothing. Because whenever he did he caught himself wishing it was Lucy, wishing she was back and that she was the one hugging everyone and telling about her adventures in the spirit world. Natsu loved Lisanna, he really did, and he was glad she was back but he couldn't help the deep regret and pain inside of him.
He tried to ignore the fact that no one was talking about it, about how it had been nine months. As far as he knew time hadn't had passed why he was in Edolas, but still, Lucy should be back. People should be waiting for her, they should be welcoming her.
She should be back.
And that very thought ran through his head until master called a meeting.
~JM~
Lucy's eyes opened to darkness, cold damp air surrounded her and she struggled to breathe. Hard ground laid beneath her and her shoulders ached as she sat up, as she tried to blink the sleep from her eyes she noticed the eerie silence around her.
She slowly stood, and after walking a few steps, her voice called out, "Angel?" again, "Cobra?" The only sound that came back was a hollow echo of her own voice. With that, she determined that she was in a cave, it was dark and she hugged the wall as she continued forward. It felt like years before she heard another sound of life, the soft chirping of birds. Then light followed as she rounded a turn. The cave opened up into a forest, tall trees surrounded her and flowers bloomed on the dirt path. Mountains continued south and, as far as she could tell, the forest was thriving in a large valley of sorts.
Her nose caught the scent of Cobra, and she was startled for a second. She had forgotten that she would develop the scenes of a slayer, she stopped walking. How did she get here? When did she leave the guild? When did she fall asleep?
She physically shook her head and followed his scent, she caught everyone else's as she moved forward. She climbed through the thick trees to find them all sitting together. A small fire in the middle. They all eyed her warily. No one said anything. No one asked her any questions, no one said any answers.
Lucy huffed and plopped down in between Cobra and Angel. They both shifted to accommodate her and Racer handed her a plate of food.
"Thanks." she took it, "So, um where are we?" She was asked cautiously.
"We got a lead. On Nirvana. You went to sleep after breakfast and we didn't want to wake you, you seemed pretty tired. Brain just transported us here so it wasn't an issue." Cobra explained.
She nodded slowly, that did make sense, that'd explain why she didn't remember leaving. And she did feel horribly tired, she still did in fact. She held her head. A headache was coherent in the back of her skull. "Okay. Thank you for that."
They all seemed to let out a deep breath when the words left her mouth. And so they ate, they talked, they laughed, they argued. They sat there, enjoying the small bit of time they had.
~JM~
"Wendy!" Natsu yelled astonished. He stood in the middle on Blue Pegasus's sister location with Erza, Gray, Lamia Scale and the Pegasus's boys. They all stared at the little girl.
Erza and Gray were quick to run forward with Natsu so hug the young girl. "Hey! Guys, I heard Fairy Tail was in the alliance, I'm glad it was you." She smiled.
"Good to see you again Wendy," Erza said while patted the girl, lightly, in the back.
"Wow, we've been back a day and they've already thrown us into another battle," Gray said as he leaned against the wall.
After a few minutes of pleasantries, the Pegasus's boys pulled up archive.
"We are here for one purpose, to gather intel on the Oracion Seis, we were told not to engage. They are dangerous, there are only six members. But because of recent reports we believe there may be a seventh." The screen multiplied and flipped, four photos appearing.
"This is Cobra, he uses a type of sound magic, he is also known to be able to control a giant snake." Hibiki gestured to the photo.
Ren stepped up, "This is Angel, only in looks, though, being beautiful is not her only pass time, she is a celestial mage that is known to quite sadistic."
Hibiki nodded and pointed to the remaining two, "Racer, speed magic. And Hoteye, he can liquefy earth." He pulled the photos down. "The there's Midnight, no photo is available and we don't know much about him. Same with their leader, Brain."
The mages all nodded and listened carefully, each one trying to absorb the information being given to them. Hibiki typed on archive and a final picture showed up. "This is what might be their newest member." Lucillia showed on the screen, her back, her side facing the camera, her face being blocked by Cobra's tall frame. "She was seen going on a protection tax collection, with Cobra. Now the Oracion Seis has never been known to accept new members." Natsu stepped up and Hibiki stopped.
The Slayer examined the picture, the long blonde hair that was seen was so familiar in texture and color to him, the way she was built was all so familiar. He stared at the back of her head, and then her ear, then her face disappeared behind Cobra's shoulder.
"We expect this new girl to be insanely powerful. She might very well turn out to be the most dangerous of them all."
They had no idea.
~JM~
It was when Cobra stood up abruptly that they all went quiet. "They're here." The simple words triggered a chain, Angel nodded and grabbed her keys, and ran into the woods. Racer and Hoteye both began to collect the supplies, Brain stood slowly and held his hand to Lucy. She took it and stood as well.
"What's going on. Who's here?" Lucy asked.
"The light guilds. They've come to thwart our plans for Nirvana. We must go and stop them."
Lucy already began shaking unwanted thoughts away, she had already decided she would do what she could, but a sense of unease was still burrowed deep inside her. She followed Brian as he loomed forward, his long coat dragging on the forest floor. Cobra was quick to catch up and smirked at Lucy as she struggled to keep up with their long strides.
He heard Racer and Hoteye behind them, their words hushed and secretive. And for a while they walked, Lucy and Cobra exchanged words but for the most part, they walked in silence.
The cold air seemed to create a shield around them. Almost as if it was being controlled, Lucy's heart raced in her chest, it beat wildly in it's cage. Subconsciously she moved closer to Cobra, his height and build making her feel secure.
Of course, Cobra noticed this, he knew that he was the one she trusted the most, he didn't have to hear her thoughts to know that, she was wary of them all. Not entirely trusting any of them, but he knew that if she was running, he would be the one she would be running too. She had only been with them a couple days but, Cobra could tell that everyone, even Midnight on some level, was beginning to like her, trust her, respect her.
That could become a real problem.
'Cobra, we have a very big issue,' it was quiet and muffled, far away but he heard her.
'Fairy Tail is here,' Cobra stopped at Angel's words. His feet scuffing the ground and ruffling the leaves under his boots. His eyes wiped down to Lucy, and then to her hand, to her Fairy Tail guild mark.
"Fuck." The word was ripped from his mouth before he could stop it.
Both of his companions looked at him in question.
He pointed to his ears, "Angel's having a hard time. She ran into a problem."
Brain raised his eyebrows and Cobra's eyes darted between him and Lucy's pink guild mark, he did this until realization eclipsed the confusion on his guild master's face.
Lucy continued walking, knowing Angel could probably handle whatever the problem was. She looked up at the two tall men walking on either side of her and smiled gently. Lucy didn't know the details of Nirvana, or how they were going to get it, she didn't know anything about these people. She didn't know their backgrounds, their pasts, their stories. She didn't know what makes them cry or what makes them happy. She only knew that they were awkward and amusing, harsh and blunt, bold and brash. They were loving in their own ways, they were mean to each other in ways only best friends could be, they laughed and screamed. They loved and hated. She had only been there a few days, but the emotions that bubbled inside of her reminded her of the early days of Fairy Tail. The painless first days, the joy and happiness that will always be present in her heart, even when they weren't themselves. She was glad she was here, with Cobra and the others. Even without knowing much about them she knew that this would grow into a love. A love like she had for Fairy Tail, but never replacing it.
Her eyes caught Cobra's and he smirked widely, she rolled her eyes as she chuckled.
'Okay, it's taken care of. I just showed them what they wanted to see.' He heard the angel laugh, 'they were too surprised to do anything. I only got the Fairies, though, you still got the others heading your way. I'd recommend meeting them on the cliff.'
Cobra smiled even wider, "she took care of it. Let's intercept the others" Cobra informed them.
"Where?" Lucy asked.
Cobra smirked when he realized what she was planning. He pointed to the cliff several hundred meters in front of them. She looked up at the peak and smiled. "Yeah, I got this." And without another word she summoned two orbs in the palms of her hand them grabbed both their hands. Cobra grunted in surprise as he's landed on the edge of the cliff, nearly losing his balance he leaned forward and watched as pebbles fell into the forest below.
"Ah, very good. Not even I can get this precise." Brain mused. Lucy blushed and pulled her hand away from him. She still held Cobra's though. She pulled him a little away from the edge and laughed, "careful."
He scoffed and muttered a 'yeah, yeah.'
As if on queue Racer was next to them, his hair still moving as if he was. He breathed out heavily and crouched low. Hoteye soon joined them, his hand clutching his gold chain. Midnight was there as well, his soft snores being heard by them all. Lucy's eyes were trained forward, afraid of who was going to show up, afraid of which guild she was going to have to fight. She didn't technically know a lot of people from other guilds but she knew of them. She knew that they didn't deserve to be stopped, they were just doing their jobs, but she needed to help her friends, her family. And now that she was truly thinking about it, she didn't really care how much she was going to have hurt people, how much she was going to have to sin. It was such a weird feeling, realizing that you would be willing to hurt someone for someone else. It was like a hole in her chest, and all of the things she thought she would care about were being sucked through it.
Lucy's stomach hit the root of her mouth as she saw several figures appear in the distance, they were running fast and she heard yells of delight.
None of her companions moved, they all froze as if ice had descended on them all, they just watched as the figures approached them, Cobra stiffened, even more, when they came into full view.
He heard Fairy Tail's thoughts in the back of his mind, Angel had taken care of them, but he heard the thoughts that resonated throughout their heads.
Lucy.
Apparently, Angel had pulled no punches and hit them close to home. Sometime, somewhere, she had copied Lucy using Gemini and had pulled them out against Fairy Tail.
It was fresh in their minds, all of them being hit with wave after wave of sadness. They were conscious but restrained, immobilized. They weren't going anywhere anytime soon.
Then as if he hadn't of been watching they were there. Not Fairy Tail, though, the others.
A tall man with spiky hair watched Lucy, his blue eyes piercing through her.
'She looks like one of Gray's companions.' His thoughts were louder than everything else, Cobra's eyes widened and he moved before he thought he did. He was suddenly behind the man, his poison already dripping from his hands and mouth.
"Cobra!" Lucy's voice sounded so loud in his head, it echoed and his poison was suddenly gone, the claws on his hand suddenly dry. He scoffed in his head and sent out his leg, kicking the man a good several feet.
"Lyon!" A female yelled. She stepped forward her pink hair swirling around her. "Marinette Attack! Rock Do-," Her spell was cut off by a blur of black and yellow. A high pitch scream was released from her mouth as she flew into the brush of the forest.
Racer crouched low to the ground, his fingers brushing the dirt below him, his eyes scanning the enemies around him. He eyed a tall, bald man. His stance was different, his staff low to the ground, he saw the tiniest bit of magic flash in his eyes.
He had no time, the magic was already commanding the ground. Racer was suddenly in front of Angel, his body shielding hers from the large column of stone that was launched from the ground. Her beautiful blue eyes were wide with shock as the situation registered in her mind. Horrible cracks from bone were heard and echoed throughout all of their heads.
Cobra was suddenly there, his knee implanted into the tall man's stomach. The bald man staggered back and coughed, blood spilling onto the ground. "This is why we told you to take the s-classes out," Cobra grunted. His hand blocking a punch from a tan man.
Angel caught Racer as he fell forward, "I took the redheaded one out. I assumed, Almighty Cobra, that you would be able to take them." She tried to counter, but the shakiness in her voice was present.
Lucy stepped forward, her shock of the last few seconds leaving her. A tall man with orange hair ran at her, his fist raised and magic swirling around it. She dismissed the thought that he looked like Loke and dodged his punch. Her head moving to the side, the air from his fist wiping her hair. Her hand went to his wrist and he ripped it back his knee coming up to hit her stomach. She caught his knee in her other hand and they stood there. Both locked in each other's grips, her eyes met his and he scoffed. "So, this is the new Oracion Seis member? Nothing really special."
Lucy's eyes flashed and magic collected on her skin, it grew over his and he tried to flinch away but the magic turned to gold, it burned and ate at his skin. Creating bubbles and blisters. He ripped away and fell back, "Hibiki!" His comrade yelled.
Lucy smiled, "Nothing special?" She sneered. She heard Brain laugh behind her but couldn't look back when another boy jumped at her, he was young, maybe too young to be in a fight this serious, but Lucy couldn't find it in her to care. His body was covered in a white hue and snow was swirling around him. Lucy sidestepped and jumped back, her boots sliding nicely on the dirt. She covered her body in magic and was gone, her senses being filled with the smells and sounds of the spirit world before she was back into her own. Her foot went out to kick the boy's side as she appeared behind him.
He flew forward to land beside his friend and Lucy stood over them both.
Her eyes glowing gold and purple magic swirling around her. Lucy locked eyes with Cobra and a certain emotion in them caused her magic to disperse. His beautiful purple irises seemingly sparkled, like water would, his slitted pupils expanded and contracted as they watched her. Lucy felt her breath hitch, her breathing shallow. His eyes flicked down to her hand and she followed his gaze. Warm liquid dripped from her fingers and it splattered in a pool on the dirt below. The thick red fluid was almost foreign to her eyes, her entire hand was bloody and she looked around to find the source of her injury.
"Lucillia, that's not your blood." That name was unfamiliar to her and her mind was fuzzy. Her gaze caught the deep slash located on the stomach of the young boy that she had just fought. His cries of pain were now palpable in her ears and she stumbled back, her hands coming up to grab her head, leaving blood in her hair but she couldn't care as she almost fell back.
Strong arms wrapped around her waist, and her vision was filled with maroon as she was pulled up into his arms.
Brain's words floated into her ears, "Take her, it's the spell, it was too soon for her to fighting." He stepped forward, Hoteye and Angel joining him.
Lucy's head tilted back and his hand went to support it. He held her close to his chest while he vanished in a swirl of green magic.
~JM~
Cobra stumbled when he landed at the bottom of the cliff, Brain's magic causing his balance to falter. Lucy's eyes were closed and her head was still hung back as he carried her. He quickly set her down and listened to her heart.
The slow beating caused him to release a breath that he hadn't realized he had been holding.
She was alive.
His eyes caught the necklace on her neck and he grabbed the small orb and ripped the leather clasp off.
And as the necklace left her, the lively orb stilled, the magic inside of it stopping completely. He listened closely to her thoughts, he searched for answers, feelings, dreams. But all he heard was the same line that was always screaming inside of him.
How could I have done that?
