SailorStar9: After getting Chapter 60 out, this is Chapter 61 of this fic. (Sighs) Guys and girls, is it too hard for you to leave a review, instead of just putting this fic up on your favorited list and story alerts?

Disclaimers: I own nothing, except for the plot bunny and my OCs.

Chapter 61: The Power of 'Life'

"Don't worry about me." Ultear assured. "Hurry and take Zeref to the escape point."

"Juvia, snap out of it." Ulyo barked.

"Roger, Ulyo-sama!" Juvia was on her feet.

"Juvia, after them." Ulyo instructed. "Don't let them have Zeref."

"My leg…" Juvia winced, her thigh had not yet recovered from her previous injuries. "But if Ulyo-sama's orders, pain like this is nothing!"

"Ice Make: Lance!" Gray countered with his spell, Ultear's 'Time Arc' magic gaining the upper hand on him.

"I'll just fast-forward this ice's 'time' to the future." Ultear evaporated the ice. "Evaporate."

"'Arc of Time', huh?" Ulyo mused.

"To the future!" Ultear caused the ice lance to vanish.

"Damn it…" Gray cursed. "My Ice Magic is useless."

"Shouldn't that be obvious?" Ultear snorted. "After all, 'Arc of Time' is a magic I learnt in order to kill Moulding Magic users like my mother."

"Ensui." Ulyo summoned her sword. "Juhaku." Stabbing the blade into the ground, small particles of ice filled the air as she froze the Teal Orbs, giving Gray the reprieve he needed.

"To kill Ul, you say." Gray glared.

"I always hated her." Ultear admitted, sending another wave of Teal Orbs at the pair. "It's futile." She fast-forwarded Gray's shield and let the orbs slam into the two.

"Ul…" Gray readied another spell. "She was always thinking about you!"

"Your point is…?" Ultear taunted, nullifying Gray's 'Ice Make: Cocoon' with her 'Arc of Time'.

"It's so sad…" Gray took the chance and moved in front of her, his fist clocked back. "All the things she can't convey to you now!"

"Is it going to be a physical battle now that your ice is sealed?" Ultear taunted, slamming Gray into a wall.

"I'll strike you down with ice." Gray stood back up. "I'll strike you down with Ul's magic."

"My magic, 'Arc of Time', manipulates the 'time' of all things." Ultear explained. "If ice goes to the future, it will eventually evaporate. If it goes back to the past, it becomes water once more."

"I believe in Ul's Molding Magic." Gray remarked, preparing his 'Ice Blade: Seven Slice Dance' spell.

"You cannot defeat me with ice." Ultear declared. "Molding Magic will be of no use to you at all."

"Your darkness…" Gray swore, cutting himself on the waist and freezing his blood. "I will… seal it."

"I told you ice won't work." Ultear snapped. Time… she was stunned when Gray attacked. Won't move! "What's going on?"

"You can't move the time of living things, if I recall correctly." Ulyo stated. "Damn, that hurt."

Red ice… Ultear noticed. It can't be… he froze his own blood! Give a man rope enough and he'll hang himself… she mused. What tenacity… nevertheless… I cannot lose!

"That stance…" Gray recognized.

Until I reach the Great World of Magic! Ultear swore. "Ice-Make: Rosen Krone!"

"First Dance: White Ripple!" Ulyo countered the ice rose bush with a wave of ice avalanche.

"I never thought…" Gray admitted. "That I would be seeing that again. Ul's magic… I should have expected it. After all, the two of you have the same blood flowing in you."

"SHUT UP!" Ultear roared, unleashing an 'Ice Make: Bloom' at the pair.

"Why you!" Ulyo hissed, using one of the vines as leverage and tackled her older sister, both siblings tumbling over the cliff and into the ocean. "What happened to you that made you this way?" she screamed.

"I said shut up!" Ultear barked. "As if someone like you would understand! I was abandoned by my mother!"

In the sea, Ultear recalled how she had been a test subject in the Bureau of Magic Development as a child. Once, she managed to escape the facility and returned home to her mother. However, she had seen her mother with three other kids, Ulyo, Gray and Lyon, where she had been happy, causing her to think Ul got rid of her and replaced her with those three kids. She returned to the facility in order to acquire the power she needed to take revenge on her mother. That was when she met Hades, learned of Zeref and joined Grimoire Heart to train under Hades to learn of a type of Lost Magic, Arc of Time.

Help me! Ul's pleading voice echoed in the water.

What was that voice? Ultear was stunned.

Help me! Ul's pleas sound again. Please!

There it is again…! Ultear's eyes widened.

This child was born with far too much magic power! Ul begged, cradling the unconscious Ultear.

What's this? Ultear wondered. Memories of my mother?

All that magic power is too much for her little body! Ul wept. She's burning up with a fever!

For a condition like hers, there's a specialized treatment facility. One of the Bureau's members informed the worried mother.

My mother's memories… Ultear gaped. Why am I seeing it now? S-he melted away at Garuna Island and was washed away by the ocean. The ocean… am I inside my mother?

She died? Ul echoed after the Bureau informed her. What do you mean, she died? How could this be? How could this have happened?

No matter the reason, she's dead. The then Brain informed the mother.

But didn't you promise you would treat her? Ul sobbed. You're supposed to be a specialized facility! But you…!

Unfortunately, that child's magic power was much too powerful. Brain's assistant lied. She was a case even we couldn't help.

It's best that you don't see her body. Brain advised and walked off.

No way… Ul sobbed. Wait… give back my daughter! Give back my Ultear!

It's not how I remembered it… at all… Ultear was shocked.

"Second Dance: White Moon!" Ulyo was underneath her sister, summoning an ice pillar that erupted from the sea bed and sending both siblings upwards. "Mother once told me a story about you." She added, shattering the ice. "Before your grave; she told me that when you were born, she felt a light shining in her heart and she dreamt of a future full of hope for you. The power of 'life': she couldn't stop the tears from overflowing. Mother and I, we never forgot about you, Aneue." she whispered, both sisters floating in the water.

"I wanted to go to the Great World of Magic…" Ultear whispered, tightening her hug around her sister. "And return myself in a time before I hated mother. All I wanted was to be with mother just one more time…"

"My fight is over." Ultear confessed, Gray having pulled both sisters out of the sea.

"But our battle is far from finished." Ulyo declared, Gray bandaging his wound with his shirt.

"You can't win against Hades." Ultear warned.

"Yeah, we know." Gray admitted. "It'd be impossible to do it by ourselves."

SailorStar9: Now that's done, read and review.