Erza's opponent was certainly holding her own. The blonde's fist smashed into the side of her sword again and this time it cracked under the pressure of the hit. Erza got in a solid kick that sent the two of them flying in opposite directions. Then they were back together as Erza requipped a new sword.
Neither of them seemed to be able to gain the upper hand in the fight. Erza was growing frustrated. Her guild mate was so close. Harry, who needed them, was right behind this opponent and she couldn't take her down. She struck with all her frustration and landed a solid blow that had her opponent bouncing back, but certainly not defeated. Harry's armor was a godsend. It was protecting her like no armor she'd ever owned, but it also wasn't affording her any advantages either.
"Why do this?!" she yelled swinging in a strike that was easily deflected. "Why take someone away from the people who care about them? What are you trying to do?"
The woman intercepted her sword and came in close. The rage in those eyes reminded Erza of Jellal, the unhinged Jellal who had wanted to use Erza as a living sacrifice. It wasn't a comforting reminder.
"I'm going to take every ounce of magic from this world." She said crushing Erza's sword in her bare hand. She swung a heavy fist into the only unguarded part of Erza's body, her face.
Erza's vision went spotty for a moment as she bounced off the ground. The world rocked around her as she tried to lift herself back up.
"Mages like you disgust me." She spat to the right of Erza's head as she pinned her chest with a foot digging into Erza's, thankfully armored, chest. "You take and you take and you never once stop to wonder who you're hurting."
A heavy kick landed on Erza's side. She grunted as she skidded back, but at least it put a small bit of distance between her and her opponent. Another sword was in her hand in an instant as she pushed herself to shaky feet. The world tilted dangerously. That hit to the head had definitely knocked off her sense of balance.
"You're wrong!" Erza said. "Fairy Tail isn't like that!"
The grin slipped off the woman's face for the first time. It just left that deep-seated rage in her eyes.
"I don't know what happened to you, but Fairy Tail helps people."
"Where was Fairy Tail then?" the woman flew forward. She latched onto Erza's arm and tried to slam her back into the ground, but Erza drove her back and deflected each hit she could as they flew at her faster, and faster. "If your guild is so great why haven't they stopped the dark guilds? Why do guilds like yours fall to the dark side?! Don't deny it!"
Erza's mouth opened to rebuke the words.
"If guilds like yours are so great then why do they become dark guilds? Why do they kill whole islands of people?! If magic is so wonderful why do so many of you DAMNED MAGES KEEP KILLING PEOPLE?!"
The blows came heavier and faster and Erza was struggling to keep up. She wouldn't last like this. She had to do something else. Every second she argued or fought the woman seemed to be gaining power.
"PHASE TWO COMPLETE!"
The blows stopped and Erza gained some distance. Her arms ached but she didn't dare lower her guard. Her vision was no longer swimming, but if she took another blow to the head she knew it would probably be worse than before. The woman had frozen, eyes turning to the speaker on the wall that had blared the message. A smile was growing on her face again, this one far worse than the one before. It was disturbing how it split her scarred face.
"Finally!"
She'd done it, finally. She'd figured out the last step. Mirie swallowed against the lump in her throat. Yomi was waiting. Her expectations were clear even if no one else had come back like planned. She was alone. She was scared, but Mirie was successful.
She pushed the button for the microphone. It was time to let Yomi know they were moving forward. Dread and doubt warred with her resolution. "PHASE TWO COMPLETE!" she yelled into the speaker, heart pounding. Her finger slipped off the button as she stared at the muted expression of the thing next to her. "On to phase three."
The orders were already there. She'd puzzled them out. All that was left was the final words. "Initiate orders." She said, sounding far more sure than she felt.
He moved for the first time since they'd brought him to Mirie's lab. His eyes blinked, slowly. The green darkened, its odd luminescence fading down and then brightening into an amber color that reminded her of the sky at sunset. Small circles of runes spun within their depths. "Orders accepted."
She nearly jumped out of her skin at his voice. It was cold, almost mechanical in sound. Even worse than the brief clipped answers they'd gotten in response to commands so far. How had the mages fighting for him ever considered him human? Why were they fighting so hard for what was clearly a doll imitating human life? He was a tool, a means to an end. Mirie swallowed. That was what Yomi said at least.
It/he moved just slightly at first. His arms lifted and he stood, face turned to the sky there was no way he was capable of seeing through the thick ceiling above him. A slow, but steady trickle of energy began to weep from their surroundings into the man.
Mirie turned and flipped on the switches controlling their dishes. The energy amplified, striking the man in a way that surely would have made someone else stumble, but he was unflinching. He didn't so much as blink those eerie eyes of his. She frowned. That wasn't nearly as much energy as there should be flooding through their amplification rings. Had the others not secured the locations they'd been sent to? It would take hours to do it this way. Hours they may not have if Yomi was somehow struck down. She worried her lip between her teeth, watching Yomi talk to the red haired woman she'd been fighting.
She'd seen something earlier while puzzling out their situation. Maybe she could use it.
"What is that?" Lucy watched the colors dance through the air. They were myriad in number and sparkled like crystals all around them as they drifted upward.
Wendy was standing from where she'd been examining Carla. The cat was clutched to the girl's chest. "I've never seen anything like it." Wendy said, finger reaching out to tap the edge of one of the colors. She passed through it.
"It's starting."
Lucy glanced back at the kid and he was sitting on the floor just watching them, disinterestedly. He didn't seem hurt at all.
"What is this?" Wendy asked moving her arm back to support Carla.
"Were you even hurt!?" Lucy balked.
He gave her a grin that pretty much answered her question nonverbally. "Look, none of you seem all that interesting."
Lucy wasn't sure if she found that reassuring or rude. Either way she knew she didn't want to find out what a serious fight with the kid might've looked like.
"That guy, he seemed interesting, but Yomi won't let me mess with him. So I'm…" he flopped backward. "Really bored."
The kid was giving Lucy whiplash.
"We should find the others…" Wendy suggested, also eying the boy with uncertainty.
"W-Wendy?" the small cat seemed to be coming around finally.
"Ah Carla!" Wendy went from cradling the cat to flat out hugging.
"What happe…" Carla cut herself off, eyes widening as she stared at the weird colors in the air.
Lucy joined them near the staircase. "Ah… sorry." She said offered a sheepish smile. "I sort of…"
Lucy trailed off, focus drifting from her eyes. With no warning she went down in front of them before they could even react.
"Ah! Lucy!" Wendy released the cat in her grasp and immediately started to panic over the girl in front of her. She grabbed Lucy's arms and gave her a light shake. "Can you hear me?"
Lucy blinked like she was waking from a dream. "Wuh?" her hand came to her head. "What was that…?"
"What happened?" Wendy asked surveying the blond. "Did you hit your head earlier?"
Lucy was staring at her hands. Then she was staring at Wendy. "Wendy?" Lucy froze, hand going to her throat and confusion spreading across her face.
"Are you okay?" Wendy asked, not sure what was happening. "You were talking and then you just collapsed. Are you dizzy, Lucy?"
"Lucy?" Lucy repeated her name, dazedly. The confusion wasn't reassuring to Wendy.
"Wendy…" Carla tugged the young girl back slightly. She gestured to Lucy's eyes which weren't their normal shade of brown. They glowed a bright and somewhat ominous shade of amber.
"Where are we?" Lucy surveyed the room. "I don't… how did we get here?"
Lucy's dazed look was clearing, but her words were only getting more confusing by the moment. The blond pushed herself up to her feet and then promptly freaked out, tugging on her skirt. "What the hell am I wearing?!" she pulled on the hem of the skirt before spotting her top absolutely having a meltdown. It was Lucy's standard clothes. Wendy was more than a little confused. "Oh god…what's happening? I've finally lost it. Oh Merlin, if Ron could see me now."
Wendy felt like she was missing something important. Carla, on the other hand, seemed to have connected some dots Wendy hadn't.
"Harry?"
Lucy stopped flailing about and sent the cat a hopeful look. Though her eyes flicked to the colorful streams floating through the air as well like she'd just realized they were there.
"Harry?!" Wendy repeated, baffled.
"They were both connected to the clock." Carla suggested. "Maybe they have some sort of connection, and now he's in Lucy's body?"
"Lucy's body?" Lucy/Harry stared at their arms. "That uh… that does answer some questions. But is raises quite a few more like…"
A look of pain flashed across their face and they dropped to their knees. Wendy rushed forward. "Harry?" she said, unsure.
"Yeah." They answered with a grimace.
"Are you okay?"
They seemed to ponder that for a moment. "Not sure, really." Was the honest answer.
"Wow are you really that guy?"
The kid was squatting inches from Lucy's face with an interested gleam in his eye. "I uh… aren't you that kid Natsu knocked out?"
"Yahiko." The kid supplied helpfully.
"Right… hi."
"Yomi took your body and she's planning to use it to remove all magic from the world." The kid supplied helpfully.
To say that the expression Harry was stretching Lucy's face into was abject horror would be an understatement. Lucy's already pale complexion got a lot lighter. "W-where is my… where am…" they stumbled over how to ask the question, but it was obvious what they wanted to know.
Yahiko pointed straight up. The he prodded Lucy in the forehead. "Yomi said you weren't supposed to have a soul. So how are you here?"
"Of course he does!" Wendy slapped the hand away from her friend. "Harry's one of the nicest people I've ever met! There's no way he doesn't have a soul!"
"I…" Harry gave her a bewildered look, but some of the paleness flushed with embarrassment.
"We don't have time to talk this out." Carla cut in. "Whatever's going on it can't be good."
Harry/Lucy jumped to their feet and gave a nod, determined expression in place.
"Good luck I guess." Yahiko said plopping back on the ground. He looked bored again. "Don't get killed."
That was all the acknowledgement Wendy needed. She grabbed Lucy's hand and pulled them into a run. They followed with Carla bringing up the rear. They flew up a set of stairs and through a door impaled with a familiar looking object.
The room was absolutely destroyed. Broken chunks of desks and tables littered the floor along with a few plants. A massive vine that had been visible downstairs as well caught Harry's attention. It was pinning a familiar girl to a column where she hung limply. Just beneath the girl who had assaulted him in Clover was another familiar figure, but this one filled him with a different kind of panic.
"Kosmos!" Wendy cried out, rushing to the downed girl's side.
Kosmos was breathing roughly, a small mask over her face. Wendy peeled it back carefully. Small specks of blood dotted the pale girl's face where she'd obviously coughed up some blood. Small pools of blood had gathered near her neck and waist as well.
"Can you help her Wendy?"
It was Lucy's voice, but when Wendy looked back she could almost see Harry in the expression he was making with her face. She'd met a lot of wonderful people since joining Fairy Tail, but she didn't think she ever met someone who just… cared as much as Harry seemed to. He looked devastated that Kosmos was hurt.
"Of course!" Wendy assured him.
"We can take care of this." Carla agreed. "You should keep going. Erza is still ahead somewhere… and… you."
Their eyes met and for a moment it looked like Harry might argue as amber eyes flicked to Kosmos again. After a moment of hesitation, in which his eyes flicked to the still present colors floating through the air, he nodded Lucy's head. "Thank you… and be careful."
Wendy grabbed Lucy's wrist lightly as they went to move past her. She met those oddly colored eyes and tried not to shiver. They didn't remind her of Harry or Lucy. They were other worldly. "You be careful too." She said with as much determination as she could muster.
Lucy's other hand landed on Wendy's head and ruffled her hair a bit. A gentle smile lit Lucy's face in an entirely different way than Wendy was used to seeing. "I'll be back."
Without any more preamble they were rushing forward and Wendy started examining Kosmos. It wasn't until she noticed the poison and tried to cast a spell that she noticed something worrying. "Carla…" she said, eyes staring at her hands. "I can't use my magic."
Colors danced through the air, drawing toward the room the woman in front of her claimed Harry was in. Erza grit her teeth in frustration. Whatever they were trying to do they were one step closer to doing it and she was stuck out here fighting a losing battle. She had to switch armors. She needed an advantage in the battle and Harry's armor wasn't going to give her that. She called forth one of her strongest swords. She had no idea if the absurdly strong woman in front of her would be able to snap it like a brittle twig as she had been doing with her others, but she hoped not.
The sword barely made it out of her pocket dimension. She caught it with surprise. She tried to requip her armor. Nothing happened. They were removing magic from the world. That's what this woman in front of her had claimed. It was what Levy had speculated about before they came here. Erza felt cold. Had it already made it impossible for her to fight? She glared at the woman in front of her when she smiled knowingly. It didn't matter. Erza wasn't giving up.
She ran, swinging her sword without mercy. Too much was on the line to hold back right now. The woman caught her sword, but thankfully seemed incapable of splintering it this time. They traded blows in rapid succession, each more desperate than the last for Erza. She just needed a good blow, a single solid hit to knock the woman out.
"You mages will finally know justice for the suffering you've given this world!" A powerful punch was directed at Erza's head again.
"This isn't justice!" Erza bellowed, arms pivoting to let her weapon take the impact of the hit so she didn't end up winded on the ground again. "I don't know what happened to you, but stealing magic from the world doesn't solve your problems!"
"What would you know?" the blonde spat back with so much seething anger Erza could almost feel the words bite into her very soul. Erza knew. Injustice had been her life until Fairy Tail. Injustice had colored every fiber of her upbringing. Injustice had taken everything she loved once upon a time and given her a last name in its place. The tower still burned as brightly in her mind now as it had all those years ago. It shaped the person she was.
Another hit landed and the two were face to face; earnest brown eyes staring into red. "You're forcing him to be exactly what you hated." She said, gritting her teeth with the pain of taking the blow head on. Her head pounded as she strained against the force with brute strength. "Magic is what sustains our world. He told me that without it our world would die. You're forcing him to use that magic to hurt people. Worse, you're forcing him to use his magic to hurt people he cares about."
Something flickered in Yomi's expressive eyes, but she was bouncing back with a side strike and a grimace. "He is the reason magic exists." Anger burned in Yomi's tone. "He is the reason our families are gone. MY family is gone."
Erza hesitated to strike back for the first time. She knew what it was to feel loss.
"If he is the one who brought this world about he will be the one to undo it." She spat. She seemed beyond reason. Erza wouldn't reach her no matter the argument, she could tell. Not like this. "And then I will end him."
"That I cannot allow." Erza swung her weapon down. She would protect her comrades with her life. She would stop Yomi before her plan could be fully realized. For Fairy Tail, and for the sake of this world.
They clashed. Erza landed a solid hit, but it didn't seem to matter. An equally explosive hit threw her back again. She slid along the smooth floor trying to stop her momentum so she could go in for another strike. Something was flying at her.
Erza had just a second to recognize the broken point of one of her own swords before someone jumped in between her and it kicking it off its collision course with her face.
"Lucy?" Erza was more than a little shocked to see the celestial mage here. She was even more shocked she'd jumped into danger like that. She'd known the girl for awhile now and she usually tended to be a distance fighter. The blonde's face was pulled into a scowl that was very… un-Lucy like. She got a half glance back.
"Are you okay, Erza?"
"Fine." Was Erza's somewhat stunned reply.
"Another annoyance joins the fight." The woman laughed. "It doesn't matter. You won't stop this. You can't even access your magic any more."
Erza knew she was right. It stung, but she knew she couldn't requip. That meant her magic was effectively useless. If she couldn't even use the relatively small amount of magic necessary to requip what were the chances Lucy was capable of summoning? She glanced at the blonde to see her fumbling with her keys.
Lucy shot her a helpless look and Erza was about to confirm that she too couldn't use her magic. Instead Lucy asked a question she wasn't expecting. "Any idea which one of these summons which spirit? I'm lost."
"I… what?" Was Erza's completely unsure reply.
Lucy seemed to settle on one of the silver keys. "Uh… Come on out spirit guy!" she said, waving the key around.
It was the strangest spirit summoning Erza had ever witnessed… but it did work. Standing about two feet from Lucy was a shivering… dog? She'd seen Lucy summon it before, but never in a combat setting. Erza assessed the thing. Perhaps it was stronger than it looked.
Lucy looked disheartened. "No offense… but you're not quite what I had in mind." She said, poking the spirit.
"How did you do that?" their opponent was staring at the spirit with absolute shock written on her face.
"Round two?" Lucy examined the keys again. "Screw it."
Lucy grabbed three gold keys.
"Lucy I don't think-" Erza started, but was cut off as Lucy waved the keys through the air and all three gates opened. The little dog thing remained present as well. Erza had never seen her guildmate show this much power before. She didn't even seem winded.
"How can I help you mis…"
Lucy had summoned Virgo, Leo, and Aries. All three were looking at Lucy with wariness. Leo caught Erza's eye, then seemed to look at their surroundings before turning to Lucy. "What's going on? Who are you?"
Erza was immediately tense. That wasn't Lucy? Not Lucy's eyes hadn't left their opponent who seemed to be seething.
"We met a couple of times." She said, eyes not turning to Leo as she replied. "It's Harry."
Erza wasn't sure what emotion that brought out. Relief? A whole new kind of worry?
"We need to resolve whatever's happening here. Then we can worry about this situation with Lucy and me." Amber eyes finally turned to the leader of the zodiac. "You can feel it can't you?"
Leo gave Harry an assessing look for another few seconds before nodding.
There was no time to plan a strategy. Their opponent launched back at them, attacking with abandon. Leo took the front lines and Erza rushed forward to help him. Harry fell back a bit giving quick orders to the other two zodiac spirits. Virgo disappeared beneath the floor and didn't reappear. Aries seemed to stick close to Harry's side, blushing furiously but looking determined.
Erza tried to keep her focus on the fight in front of her, trading off blows with the spirit fighting at her side. She was thankful all those crazy, powerful attacks weren't being directed her way now. It gave her a chance to think in between strikes. They might just win this after all even with Erza's limited magic.
Mirie finished a new command trying not to hyperventilate. Yomi went from a single opponent to two. And then that second opponent had somehow summoned three more.
"Liminal orders accepted." The same hollow voice told her again as she activated the command.
The magic draw continued, flowing into the body in front of her, but it moved toward the doorway fluidly. Bright sunlight broke into the lab as the door opened. Mirie watched the retreating back of the thing in front of her with apprehension.
Aries was hanging close to him by request. If Harry remembered right she could make cloud like wool so if Harry took a hit in Lucy's body at least there was someone there to catch her. He would feel incredibly bad if something he did left any sort of lasting effect on Lucy. He wasn't even entirely sure how he was inside her mind to begin with. His working theory, and the only one he could come up with, was that her brief time in the clock had formed a psychic link between the two and somehow he'd projected into her. Mystical stuff wasn't really his area of expertise.
So problem one was that he was in someone else's body and didn't want to hurt it. Problem two was that he seemed to be incapable of channeling his own magic. He'd tried. It had burned. He didn't feel the effects now, but the arcing pain he'd gotten had nearly made him scream. He prayed it hadn't hurt Lucy permanently somehow.
Problem three arrived shortly after the battle regained its momentum. Leo and Erza had taken the forefront of the battle and were preoccupied with trying to weather some nasty looking hits. That's probably why he was the first one to see the problem when it stepped out the doors and headed their way.
"Bloody hell."
The fight seemed to pause briefly at his exclamation. All eyes landed on Harry's body standing about thirty feet from the group with a blank expression. Magic bent in streams, flowing into its chest.
"This just got… a lot harder."
O,O
~Kanathia