A/N: CHA! A new chapter!
I don't own Fairy Tail!
Please enjoy!
Chapter 28: You Wanted to Smile Too
April 14, X792 - Morning
"So what are we supposed to do now?" Alisa asked after Drayden had rolled up the scroll to the treasure map.
They had found the relic of water they were looking for fairly quickly upon entering the mirror. What they had walked into was an underground cave and a vase of water that seemed to glow blue sat on a raised and flat rock. It was fairly obvious that this was what they had been looking for and Drayden had tipped it enough to let a drop of the water fall onto the map. He had made sure that the new clue appeared before rolling it back up, figuring that Cordelia would like the honors of being the one to really read over it the first time. Now they had a bigger problem. How to get out of the cave since the mirror had been shattered. Where the entrance had been previously for them, it had disappeared when Drayden had pulled Alisa into the cave.
"Well, if someone hadn't of pissed off a pirate, we wouldn't have to worry about that, now would we?"
Alisa scoffed at him, "I could not help it. You did hear how he spoke!"
"Everyone speaks differently. You should just get used to that already, especially living on a sailing guild."
"Being a part of the seas does not give one the right to swear off proper speech."
"Whatever. It doesn't change the fact that you pissed him off enough to break that mirror."
"This is an underground cave, correct?" she asked, completely ignoring his comment.
"Yeah, we've covered that already."
"Do not give me your attitude. I already deal with enough from Aria," she said, narrowing her eyes at him, "Now then, I am going to assume that this is a cave under the island we were just on top of. It would make the most sense. So that would only mean that there should be another exit out of here."
Drayden nodded at her and used his magic to spark blue lightning to life in his hand, creating somewhat of a torch for them to use. He moved it around the cave and walked back into it a bit until he found a tunnel leading out of it, "Looks like you might be right then."
"Of course I am," she stated, causing Drayden to roll his eyes in response, "Now then, let us get going. We need to head back to the guild."
"But what if we end up getting lost in here?"
"Must you be a pessimist about this? At least Aria would be ready to take this cave head on."
"So what you really want to get back to the guild for is Aria then?" he asked with a smirk.
"What?! I never said such a thing!"
"You don't really have to. I can tell that you're worried about her after what Zinnia told us about Eli having to take her back to the guild."
"You really should not make assumptions about people," Alisa huffed, doing her best to cover up the fact that he had been right, "Now, we need to get moving."
"As you wish," was all he said as the two fell into step together, but he still wore his smirk underneath his cowl.
. : + : .
April 14, X792 - Late Afternoon
Cordelia paced back and forth on the deck of the ship that held the infirmary. She had checked on Aria again to make sure she was really all right. It seemed that Jack had things under control when it came to the girl's healing, so while Cordelia was had been worried over the sword mage, it wasn't what was causing her pacing at the moment. It was the fact that three of her mages were still missing in action at the moment. She had sent a few of her mages back onto the island to look for them, but the only thing they had brought back were two of Zinnia's shields. The two shields were leaning against the side of the boat she was currently on, and every so often, she would stop to look at them before continuing her pacing.
"Where are you, Zinnia?" she said quietly. She had originally thought that maybe her best friend had gone with Drayden and Alisa to help them with the clue, but for all of them to be gone so long, something didn't sit right with Cordelia. It would be evening soon, and there was not a single sign from any of them. Out of the three missing mages, Zinnia knew how much Cordelia worried about people, so it made her question what was really going on at the moment. She had even ignored Jack's request for her to take it easy from that morning's event with the Dark Water. She wouldn't be able to take it easy until her three missing mages were back on the guild.
"You're going to create a hole in the deck if you keep that pacing up, sweetheart."
Cordelia stopped as soon as she heard the voice, glancing back to see Securus standing just a few feet away from her. He gave her his usual smirk, a cigarette hanging from the corner of his mouth. Neither of them had spoken with each other much since the that night on Nube that he had stumbled into her office drunk. Though, Cordelia also hadn't had much time to really stop and have a conversation with the man either, not with the treasure hunt still going on. She turned to fully face him, now seeing Nanami just a ways behind the man. Cordelia smiled at the thought of the young woman appearing to make sure things would go smoothly between the two.
She then turned her attention back to Securus, the two simply staring and watching each other for a long moment. There were many things that Cordelia had thought about saying to Sercurus when they had time to talk about the incident. She wasn't angry with him, but she had wanted to remind him that she was still keeping her promise to him. She wanted him to know that she hadn't forgot about him or the thing he kept hidden from the world.
In turn, Securus had thought about what he should say to her. He knew he should apologize for what had happened. And he wanted to let her know that he would stay until their current mission was completed before taking his solo mission. That he could handle things until then and that she wouldn't need to worry about him barging into her room drunk anymore.
But even with all these things they had both wanted to say to the other, the two could only stand in silence, watching one another. Though, Cordelia had seen the apologetic look in his eye and that had been enough for her. She eventually smiled at him, Securus finding relief and forgiveness in that smile.
"How many times do I have to tell you not to call me sweetheart? I am your elder, ya know," she said, though there wasn't any bite to her tone.
"I'll call you what I want, sweetheart."
Cordelia simply smiled warmly in response, feeling like things had returned back to normal between the two of them, "As for the deck, it's my guild and I'll do what I want."
"So the other three have not returned?" Nanami asked, walking to fully join the other two.
"No, they haven't," Cordelia said with a frown, "I sent some people onto the island to look for them, but they only brought back Zinnia's shields. I don't understand why it's taking them so long."
"I see," Nanami said, eyeing the shields, "May I look at them, Cordelia-san?"
"Be my guest."
Both Nanami and Securus walked up to the shields to look them over. While one still seemed to be in good condition, the other was filled with bullets. Nanami used her sword to pop one of the bullets out from the shield, looking it over before handing it over to Securus.
"Look familiar?" she asked while turning back to the shield.
Securus narrowed his eyes at the white bullet in his hand, "Daniel," he said lowly, "Where was this shield found at?"
"The search group said they found that one on Glass Beach."
"My guess is that Zinnia caught up with Drayden and Alisa then, but they all had more to deal with than that rock guy when they made it there," Securus explained.
"Securus-kun," Nanami said, pointing towards a hole in the shield filled with the white bullets.
Securus felt his eyebrows furrow at seeing that hole. He picked the shield up to see it went through the entirety of it. He turned it over to see there was a splattering of red across it, which he guessed had been blood. He flipped the shield back over and held it up to Cordelia's front side, measuring where the hole hit her.
"So I know you're not going to like this, but I think that Zinnia was shot," Securus said, seeing Cordelia's body tense up, "She was probably hit around here," he said, motioning towards Cordelia's lower stomach area, "Give or take an inch or two for your differences in height."
"But this is her Spartan Soldier shield," Cordelia said in a quiet voice, not wanting to believe that Zinnia's defenses had been broken, "The other bullets didn't do anything to the shield."
"Then he must've had a bullet that can break through it. The hole proves that much," Securus said, "And the blood too," he added quietly, pulling the shield up to show the splattering of red to Cordelia.
Cordelia stared at the blood for a long moment, unable to say anything during this time. It was hard for her to believe that Zinnia was shot. Her defenses were always the best. There was no way that someone could have gotten through them so easily. But Securus was right. The evidence was staring her right in the face.
"So…she's probably not with Drayden and Alisa then," Cordelia said quietly, still trying to wrap her head around the fact that her best friend had most likely been shot.
"More than likely, no," Securus said, "But I have a good idea of where she is," he continued, holding up the white bullet that belonged to the sharpshooter of the Black Skulls.
"Not that I would want her left for dead," Nanami said, "But why would they take Zinnia-san onto their ship instead of leaving her on the island?"
"That's the question we have to answer," Securus said, "As well as where Drayden and Alisa went to still."
"Cordelia-san, what do you wish to do?"
The two S-Class mages looked over at Cordelia to see a dark look covering her face, "We're getting Zinnia back," she said in a tone that left no room for argument. She turned away from the pair and began the trek across the main vessel of the guild to reach the training ship that held the smaller boats. Her pace was fast and determined, Cordelia ignoring anyone who tried to approach her. Ace had even tried to reach out to her to get her to stop, but he was quickly stopped himself.
"Don't touch me!" she shouted, keeping her attention on the path towards the boats.
"Oi! What's your problem?!" Ace snapped, continuing to follow her sister.
"Madmartigan has gone too far this time," she said lowly as she stepped down onto the deck of the ship that held the smaller boats.
"Cordi, what's going on?!"
Cordelia ignored her brother as she began pulling at ropes to drop a boat into the water.
"Cordelia!" Ace pushed.
She whipped her body around to face him, an angry look across her face, "The Black Skulls have Zinnia and I'm going to get her back!" she shouted before jumping down into the boat that was in the water. Ace watched as Securus and Nanami jumped into the boat with her, "He'll fucking pay for this," she said lowly as Securus started up the boat and moved them into the direction they had last seen that black ship belonging to the pirates.
. : + : .
Swabbie was currently sitting down in the brig of the ship for the Black Skulls along with Mingo and Daniel. The redhead had managed to catch Mingo's attention when they had approached the ship, the first mate quickly recognizing who Zinnia was, having seen the brunette near Cordelia when they had gone to get Micky back from Storm's Helm. Mingo had guided them down to the brig in order to hide her, Madmartigan being in his own quarters at the time. The blonde had dragged Daniel down with them, not wanting the man to go to the captain about things yet. They had placed Zinnia down in the brig, Mingo doing his best to get her cleaned up first and leaving Swabbie to watch over her while he questioned Daniel on what had happened. The two men were still going at it while Swabbie continued to watch over the girl in the cell.
"Did you even think about what would happen afterwards, you idiot?!" Mingo shouted.
"Like I give a shit," Daniel answered, "At least I did something to help the guild out. That bitch is the one that can put up shields. Without her, their defenses are severely weakened."
"You really are an idiot. If you had killed her, it would have started a war with the guild. Giving them a real reason to take us out is not something we need right now. We're only trying to get the map, dammit!"
"Have you forgotten that we're pirates? We do whatever we want, when we want. So if some little bitch happens to get in the way of what I want, then that's her damn fault. I don't feel bad for aiming to kill her!"
"If they figure out what you did, what do you think they're going to do? You think they're just going to sit idly by and hope that we hand her back over? Hell no! They're going to come here, pissed off and guns blazing! And considering the history you and your specialized bullets have with a couple of their mages, who do you think their going to single out first?"
Swabbie ignored the arguing duo as he turned his attention back to the woman in the cell in front of him. He was currently hunched over in a chair in front of it while they had propped Zinnia up on the small bed that was shoved to the left side of the cell. He could tell that her skin had paled from the amount of blood she had lost and that it would only continue to become paler if she wasn't properly taken care of soon. He noticed how her chest rose and fell slowly before staring down at the ground, pinching the bridge of his nose when he felt the beginnings of a headache coming on, and he was sure it wasn't just from the lack rum since the morning.
He genuinely felt bad that the woman had gotten hurt like she had. While he had attacked her himself, he wouldn't have aimed to kill anyone. He had seen enough of that in his lifetime and killing her or the other mages with her definitely weren't necessary deaths, at least he didn't think so. And she had been so kind to him. She didn't even know who he was and she had shared drinks with him and danced with him like they had been long time friends. She never hesitated once to smile at him, not even when they fought back on the island. And she had covered him with her shield before moving on ahead to keep him safe from the lightning. He didn't understand it. Why save a pirate like him?
The creaking of the bed pulled him from his thoughts, the redhead looking up to see Zinnia struggling to sit up. She held one hand to her stomach that had been cleaned and wrapped and another to her head where a large bandage had been placed due to Swabbie knocking her out.
"I feel like shit," she said lowly, "Like a tank hit me."
Swabbie grunted at the irony of her comment, considering most people referred to him as a tank when he was fighting. The grunt seemed to be loud enough to catch her attention since her head popped up to look at him. He seemed to panic for a moment when they locked eyes, Swabbie still feeling upset over what had led to her being in her current predicament.
Everything that had happened came rushing back to Zinnia when she saw the redhead. Daniel showing up, the mirror breaking, Daniel shooting her and the redhead stepping in to stop Daniel before knocking her out.
"You," she breathed out, moving to weakly stand in front of the bars of the cell, grabbing onto them to keep herself standing.
Swabbie was surprised that she could move like that, but he was also worried since she should be resting from her wound. He thought that anger was what fueled her movements, the man waiting for her to start shouting at him, but he was met with a completely different outcome.
"You saved me."
He could only blink at her in surprise. That definitely wasn't what he expected at all. It was because of him that she was even in her current state, that she had been shot by Daniel. He frowned at her, having to look away from her green eyes from all the guilt he felt.
Zinnia stood in her own surprise, wondering why he would turn away from her like that. She began to look around and soon realized that she wasn't on the island or her own guild, "Am I on your ship?" she asked, earning a grunt in reply from Swabbie, "I'll take that as a yes. I'm guessing your captain knows I'm here then?"
"No."
"Ooookay. Then what's going on? Why am I here? I need to get back to my guild as soon as-" she said, her words being cut off as a wave of pain hit her. She grabbed onto her stomach tighter since that was the source of the pain. Though, she felt something warm on her hand, causing her to look down to see that a thin layer of blood covered her hand as well as the bandages covering her stomach. She fell limply to her knees, leaning against the bars of the cell.
Swabbie jumped up in panic, unsure of what to do, but knowing that keeping her in the brig like that wouldn't help save her. What would be the point of saving her from Daniel only to let her die here? He had never felt compelled to save anyone before, but this one woman had his mind going crazy at the thought of her dying. He came to perch himself beside her cell, reaching through to feel and make sure she was still breathing. He froze when her head moved slowly to stare up at him, her green eyes keeping him locked in place. Those eyes still stared at him without malice or ill will. She seemed to almost stare at him like she was happy to see him again.
"Why?" he finally asked.
"Why what?"
"Protect me. Smile at me. Why?"
Zinnia stared at him for a long moment before she smiled at him again, "Because it looked like you wanted to smile too and I wanted to see that."
Swabbie fell backwards away from her, her words stunning him. He watched as she passed out against the bars and even in his stunned mind, he knew that she needed to get proper medical treatment or she might not wake up again. He shook her last words off for the moment and stood up. He yanked a few of the cell bars out of place, causing the arguing men to stop and look over at him.
"What are you doing, you drunk idiot?!" Daniel shouted as he stormed over towards him, "She's our prisoner, so she's staying in the fucking cell!" he continued, trying to get Swabbie to stop by pulling on his arm.
This only caused the redhead to turn quickly and slam a fist into his chest, knocking him into the iron bars of the cell across from Zinnia's. Swabbie knew the man wouldn't stay quiet after his attack on him, so he quickly made sure Daniel would stay silent long enough for him to execute his plan. Before Daniel could say anything further or even recover from the first blow, Swabbie punched him right across his head, much like he had done to Zinnia, but with much more force. Daniel was knocked out in an instant, Swabbie leaving the man slumped against the cell as he turned back to Zinnia. He gently picked her up and began carrying her out from the prison.
"What are you planning on doing?" Mingo asked, not at all seeming upset that he had hit Daniel.
"Taking her home," he grunted.
Mingo placed a hand on his shoulder when he began to pass by him. Swabbie turned and stared him down much like he had done to Daniel before he hit him. Mingo threw his hands up defensively, "I'm not going to stop you. I actually want to help you. None of this sits right with me. Plus, if that guild master has figured out what's happened to her, it'll create big problems. I need to stop those problems ahead of time."
Swabbie stared him down for a moment before letting out another grunt and walking off with Zinnia.
"Besides, you don't have the smooth talking skills needed to get on a boat and sail back to the guild like I do, now do you?" Mingo smirked, only earning another grunt from Swabbie.
Storm's Helm Question Corner!
Today's question comes from Origm2012 for Eli:
What's the worst mission you've been on with a guildmate?
Eli: Marzell.
Watson: That doesn't even answer the question!
Eli: Any mission with that card punk is the worst mission ever!
Watson: Look, we finally returned with the Question Corner and this is how you answer the question asked?! The readers deserve more than that!
Eli: And who's fault was that for being gone for so long?! Sure as hell ain't mine!
Watson: *smiles towards the readers* Give us one moment please. *grabs Eli and yanks him off set*
*Loud shouts and punching can be heard, quickly followed by a stream of fire appearing across the screen*
Producer: Please excuse the interruption, but we will be going into Standby Mode for a moment.
Twenty Minutes Later
Watson: Thanks for waiting! *glares over at Eli, who has several large bumps on his head* Try to blow me away with fire will you?! You're lucky that Isaak showed up when he did! Now answer the damn question!
Isaak: He's quite the brute, isn't he?
Watson: More like an idiot…Now answer the question, dammit!
Eli: *glares at Watson and Isaak* The worst mission ever was when this four eyed idiot over here first became S-Class and forced me and Cor to go on a mission with him. He bossed us around the entire time, thinking he knew what was best. Only we ended up in the middle of an ice wyvern nest up in Iceberg waters and it was thanks to me that we got out of there alive! Fucking idiot!
Isaak: How about I take you out for a drink?
Watson: *blushes* Ahaha, sure!
Eli: Don't ignore me! Dammit!
Watson: That's it for this interview! See you all next week! *walks off with Isaak*
Eli: Hey! What did I say?! You ruin everything, you damned card loser! *chases off after them*
A/N: And there we are! I hope you all enjoyed it!
So I enjoyed this chapter a lot, but I think I most enjoyed that interaction between Swabbie and Zinnia and writing out some of Swabbie's thought process for how he felt about the whole incident. And also that silent apology and forgiveness moment between Cordelia and Securus since that still needed to be taken care of.
But I do believe in the next chapter, we'll finally be getting to the beginning of the first big flashback for the story, so I'm super excited about that!
I don't have too much else to say for this time around, so I'll jump right into the reviews then!
So thanks to all of you that reviewed last chapter!
Momochan77 - Glad you enjoyed the last chapter! And things have heated up a bit with Zinnia being shot like that. So we'll see how this all gets handled next chapter. Hope you enjoyed this chapter!
CrazyAnimeForever - That does sound like a cool idea. The Glass Beach turned out the way it did though for how the clue was set up since they had to find that mirror and everything. Anyways, I hope you enjoyed the chapter!
Benthino - Yep, sinister works well to describe Zinnia getting shot like that. So I'm glad you liked that scene. And I hope you enjoyed the chapter!
Joshua1277 - Haha, yeah, even if he is a drunk, Swabbie definitely had a better thinking process than Daniel. And this will definitely be a learning experience for Zinnia. Yep, I do have plans for that to happen between Isaak and Eli, so just keep waiting for it! I hope you enjoyed the chapter!
Sakura-Fiction - Haha, the fluff! And then Zinnia getting shot…doesn't really help that fluff, does it? LOL! But I'm glad to hear that you like Swabbie so much. I've really come to like him myself now that I've been able to write his character. And oh yes, do keep a look out for that Dark Water! Hope you enjoyed the chapter!
XLil MEkoX - Haha! All those poor tables! Although, it's partly my fault for them, lol! So many questions! And some answered this chapter…only to create more! CHA! Hope you enjoyed the chapter!
Origm2012 - Haha, glad you liked that mirror in the middle of the beach. And I figured it was time to bring a Black Skull back around, so why not Daniel? It was too perfect to pass up, especially with how things worked out with Zinnia. And yep, I straight up shot her. I felt bad when I did it, but again, too perfect to pass up! And yeah, Swabbie for the win! Haha! I think 'ugh' is the perfect word to describe Eli sometimes. Even Cordelia uses it to describe him! I really want to smack him sometimes and I was the one to create him! Just give it time though (and maybe a good punch from Seth) and he'll stop being stupid…a little anyways. And no worries on the long review, lol. Like I've said before, I enjoy reading them! And it looks like your Eli counter passes this chapter, but only because Eli wasn't in it, haha! Hope you enjoyed the chapter!
LightandDarkHeart - Yep, the guild just seems to go from one bad situation to another. But that just means more excitement for you all to read! And Cordelia managed to figure out what happened to Zinnia thanks to Securus and Nanami, so obviously that can't end well for the Black Skulls, can it? Hope you enjoyed the chapter!
ThePrinceOfLight - Glad I could surprise you with Daniel's appearance! But it was just too perfect of a moment to pass up with Zinnia and everything. But then Swabbie saved the day! And Eli always seems to make things worse before making things better, lol, it's just how he is. But I hope you enjoyed the chapter!
potentialauthor18 - Haha, now every time I picture Drayden using his Lightning Bullet all I'm gonna see is the Spirit Gun, though I suppose that's now a bad thing. But yeah, Swabbie managed to come onto the scene in time to save her from actually dying. But yeah, he doesn't really want to see her dead, so he's lucky that Mingo is an understanding guy and hates Daniel as well. Help him out with his case of saving Zinnia. Anyways, I hope you enjoyed the chapter!
Dreadburner94 - Seriously…you got super lucky again! I was going through my review responses before my final edit when I got your review again, lol! But yeah, Swabbie definitely saved Zinnia this time around, so she lucked out big time. And yeah, Eli really is an idiot when it comes to certain matters. He already chewed her out once for the Dark Water and she had just almost drowned, but when it comes to controlling his anger, he's not very good at it. Nor is he very good at apologies either, is he? But like you said, that's sort of his nature, but still…he's rally a hopeless idiot sometimes! Anyways, I hope you enjoyed the chapter!
That should be it for this time around!
See you all next Sunday!
Yours Truly,
MyDearWatson