~A few minutes earlier, while Erza fought Aria & Sol~
Out on one of the shoulders of the transformed building, a great rainstorm continued to pour down around the two S-Class Mages, one from Fairy Tail and another from Phantom Lord. One of ice and another of water. The two stood silently, waiting to see who would make the first move. In the distance, the arms of the mechanized structure continued to move, drawing a great rune of destruction in the air. It looked to be over two thirds complete by now and showed no sign of slowing.
Ultear looked back at the incomplete spell, realizing that she needed to defeat her opponent as soon as possible. She threw her hands together and let out a cry. "Ice-Make: Rosen Krone!"
Three great vines of ice shot out towards Juvia, but the woman made no effort to dodge the attack. The reason for why became obvious enough once the vines reached their target and passed right through her.
"What?!" Ultear exclaimed in surprise. Looking closer, she could see that the area she had targeted had turned to water, resulting in her ice phasing through harmlessly.
"Juvia's body is made of water. Your attacks will not work against it." Juvia replied, confirming Ultears analysis.
"Please, it's only been a single attack. A member of Fairy Tail doesn't give up so easily!" Ultear declared, as she unknowingly removed her shirt and struck a battle pose.
"Wha-?! What kind of attack is this?" Juvia cried, her face turning beat red at the sudden stripping. "This is incredibly improper…."
"Huh? What are you talking about?" Ultear questioned, before looking down and noticing her top was only covered by a sports bra. "Ah crap, when did my shirt come off?!"
'What is this mad woman thinking? She must be stopped before she does anything more indecent.' Juvia said, staring at her opponent in confusion. "Water Lock!"
A sphere of water suddenly formed around Ultear, picking her up and suspending her within it. She looked surprised, but with a swing of an arm the prison was frozen solid and shattered into pieces as she landed back on the ground.
"Well, looks like I can negate your attacks just as easily." Ultear said with a grin, flicking her wet hair back over her shoulder, sending specks of water flying.
"…" Juvia's jaw dropped, staring at her opponent in amazement. 'Juvia has never met someone who can negate her attack. What is this feeling in Juvia's chest? Could this encounter possibly be fate?'
Ultear prepared another attack, unaware of her opponent's inner thoughts. "Alright then, lets try something else. Ice-Make: Venus Flytrap!"
An icy plant burst from the ground, it's flower like a jaw, and flew towards Juvia. She snapped out of her stupor and swung her arm back and forth, producing blades of water. "Water Slicer!" The ultra-thin water cut through the approaching plant, and it fell to the ground in pieces.
'No, Juvia cannot get distracted. This woman is the enemy!' Juvia shook her head looking down sadly.
Ultear seemed to notice her opponent's hesitation and paused her attacks. "Are you okay over there? You don't look like you want to fight me. How about you just stop giving your magic to Abyss Break and leave us alone. You are one of the mages powering it, right?"
Juvia glanced at Ultear with an unsure glance. "I can't let you win, but if you are so worried about the lives of your guildmates, you could take Lucy to Juvia. If you do, I will talk to Master Jose about leaving in peace."
"Forget it!" Ultear spat out. "Lucy is a member of the guild too, and she loves being with us over whatever her father has planned. I'm not giving up until I've stopped you people from breaking her heart!"
Juvia staggered back at her declaration. 'Breaking hearts?! Loves being with Lucy?!' She brought a finger up to wipe a tear that formed on her eye. "Juvia see's now, of course your heart already belongs to another…"
"Eh?"
Juvia clenched her fists, shutting her eyes and hunching over. The drops of rain suddenly began to sizzle as they made contact with her body, and when Juvia popped back up with a shriek, her entire body appeared to be steaming. "How dare you toy with Juvia's heart, you two-timing witch!"
"EH?!" Ultear wasn't sure how to respond to the rage filled declaration and found herself unable to anyways as Juvia's entire body transformed into water and shot towards her like a flying serpent.
"Shera!"
"Ice-Ma-" Ultear tried to throw up a counter, but found Juvia's new form far too fast, and the stream of boiling water shot across her left arm. "Damn!" As Juvia flew around and back towards her, she threw out a spell just in time. "Ice-Make: Lotus Shield!"
"My broken heart's rage will burn your cold-hearted self to a crisp!" Juvia shouted as she slammed into the shield, melting through it in mere moments. Ultear had to jump back to avoid another heated charge from her opponent.
"What the hell are you blabbering about!" Ultear shouted back as she prepared for Juvia's next attack. She summoned a massive spiral of frozen thorns in front of her and tightened them the moment Juvia approached. The vines proved enough resistance for a single second, which Ultear used to plunge her hand straight into her opponent's aqueous form. "I think you're the one who needs to chill out!"
Ultear began to push as much ice magic out from her hand as she could, and the boiling water began to freeze around it. The ice spiked out without a fixed form due to not being Make Magic, but still froze the Phantom Lord Mage into place.
"I-Impossible. That one could freeze even my boiling water." Juvia squeaked from within the Ice. "But more surprisingly…"
Ultear looked at her trapped opponent as the steam cleared. Juvia's upper body had turned back to its normal form within the ice and was currently being gripped by the hand Ultear had shoved into the water stream a moment ago. Unfortunately, the part of the chest that she was now frozen stuck gripping was a rather round and sensitive part of it.
"Oh my god!" Ultear exclaimed horrified. She quickly dispersed the ice freezing them together, and Juvia fell down to the ground. "I-I'm so sorry. I didn't mean to…" she began apologizing profusely.
Juvia looked up at the woman in surprise. She just couldn't understand her, and her cheeks burned with embarrassment. "What is it you want from Juvia?! First you lead Juvia on despite being spoken for, then you lay your hands on Juvia!"
"Spoken for? What are you talking about?" Ultear asked in complete bafflement. "I'm not 'spoken for', and- Wait, when did that even come up in the first place! Look, I don't care what this is about, just stop your part in Abyss Break! It's gonna fire any… minute?" She slowly finished as she looked out to the giant magic circle through the rain. "Is it just me, or is that thing going a lot slower?"
Juvia glanced back in surprise, and saw that it was indeed going slower, and not just by a minor amount. 'Impossible, for it to slow that much, both Sol and Aria must have been defeated. Is Juvia truly the last one left? So, Juvia always ends up alone? That is just about all that fate has ever had in store…'
Ultear continued to stare at the magic circle, unaware of her opponent rising to her feet again. "Man, I can't see anything through this stupid rain. Maybe I was imagining it?"
"… So, you really are just like all the others." Juvia said with a monotone voice.
Ultear jumped and turned to see Juvia giving her a deadly glare. Despite being used to the cold, she felt a shiver go down her spine at the look. "What are you talking about?"
"No one truly loves Juvia. You're all pretenders!" Juvia suddenly shouted as an immense amount of pressure shot out from her. She took a single step forward.
Ultear let out a burst of ice at the movement, combat instincts ringing at the woman's sudden shift in feel. She knew that something bad would have happened if she didn't stop her that very moment. She looked at the result of her attack to see Juvia frozen within a giant chunk of ice like before, this time alone and in a much thicker prison. Ultear let out a sigh. "Finally. I don't know what her deal was, but we can sort it out after this war with Phantom Lord is over. Now then, I wonder where Wendy is..."
Turning around and walking away from the frozen woman, Ultear wiped her soaking hair out of her face again. After a few steps though, an ominous cracking sound could be heard echoing through the thundering rain. She tried to discern the source, but when she did, she could hardly believe it.
"That's impossible…"
The icy prison around Juvia had begun to crack. Slowly at first, but eventually spiderweb patterns spread throughout. The ice wasn't losing strength due to being melted but by being bended through pure strength. Ultear could see Juvia's body within begin to shift, and seconds later the entire prison crumbled to dust. She emerged from the rubble slowly, her hat having fallen off at some point. When she looked up at Ultear there was a new feature on her face, a set of brilliant blue scales around her eyes.
"Are those…But they can't be!" Ultear exclaimed in surprise.
Juvia spread her arms out and tilted her head up to the sky. The falling rain began to swirl like a vortex towards her. The water began to be absorbed into her body, and it began to transform. The same scale-like pattern grew on her hands, and her sleeves tore away to reveal the effect spread all the way up her arm. Her boots broke apart as well, revealing more scaled appendages, ending in great clawed feet.
The scales glistened in the rain, and it took merely a glance for Ultear to realize what kind of creature they must belonged to. Despite the seeming impossibility, someone just like Natsu and Wendy stood right in front of her.
"You're… a Dragon Slayer?!"
'Juvia has always been alone…'
Her most prominent memory is of two boys the same age as her talking boisterously together at school. They're no older than five but have already realized the truth about her.
"I wish Juvia would go on a really long vacation!"
"Yeah, it does nothing but rain when she's around!"
Juvia remembers just staring at the two as they laugh about her. It wasn't the first time she noticed that it always rained around her. It was just the first time she realized that it was her own fault. It was this exact moment that her life began to make sense, that she understood why no one would ever be close to her. Why else would her own parents have left her in front of an orphanage as a baby. Why else would the other children frown and say mean things to her whenever she tried to play together.
Later that day she visited the church and a lady there told her a story of a charm to ward off bad weather. She made her first teru teru bōzu that night, its body from her own torn bedsheet and buttoned eyes off her own coat. She shut her eyes, for once happy for tomorrow.
She woke up the next morning to find the orphanage roof had collapsed from water damage.
'Juvia causes nothing but unhappiness for those around her…'
After pouring through tome after tome, learning and mastering everything she could about Water Magic, Juvia found herself no closer to controlling the curse that plagued her. At least it made it easier for her to disappear and hide. Not everyone had only mean words to throw at her.
"Man, this rain is really depressing, huh?" a passing couple would say, unknowing of the cause walking by them with a guilty look.
"It's impossible to have any fun with all this weather lately." a woman huffed to her friends as their picnic was soaked through, not seeing the blue haired woman sitting behind a nearby tree crying.
"Rain, rain, go away! Come again another day!" a group of children would sing as they hanged up their own teru teru bōzu. Juvia looked on with sadness knowing that their charms had no power over the storm. Hers never did, no matter how many she made.
Every corner of every street quickly emptied at her approach. Every building she entered packed with people unknowingly avoiding her wrath. It's why she kept moving from town to town. No one else deserved to put up with this hellish downpour forever.
None but her, it seemed.
'Juvia will never be loved, as her heart is already filled by the rain …'
She searched far and wide for someone who could understand her pain. Someone who she could bare her heart to. The one person who would approach her with a smile instead of a frown. If there was even a single person out there who would be able to put up with her cursed existence, then maybe she could find a reason to smile again.
"It wouldn't work out between us, y'know?"
"I'm sorry babe, but I've found someone else…"
"I really tried, but I can't deal with this for the rest of my life!"
Juvia gave a chance to anyone and everyone who would dare to approach her. But no matter what she did, they would always leave her eventually. They all had different excuse come out of their mouths, but their eyes always said the same thing.
"It's impossible to love you."
But giving up was not an option, as she couldn't stand to be alone over the inevitable betrayal. She travelled up and down Fiore looking for her perfect soulmate. The most perfect and understandable and loyal person in the world. And one day, she believed she found them.
He had expertly cut purple hair, a perfect jawline, broad shoulders, and eyes that stared into even Juvia's rain-filled heart. She had never felt drawn towards a man so much in her life, like a spell had overtaken her. He stood in a crowd of fawning woman, but the moment their eyes met, he ignored them as he strode up to her.
"What a fate it must be, to meet a beauty such as yourself on this day." the man said, taking one of Juvia's hands and planting a kiss upon it. "The moment I saw you, I felt drawn to you as if you were the calming eye in this storm. May you tell me your name?"
"J-Juvia!" she had stammered out, nearly breathless at the man's charm.
"What a lovely name. But I couldn't help but notice you standing alone. Did you not come to town with your friends?" he questioned in his sickeningly suave voice.
She had looked down at the puddle of rain beneath her feet in embarrassment. "Juvia doesn't have any friends she could go shopping with. Juvia… doesn't have anybody but herself."
"Is that so?" If she hadn't been so smitten, she would have noticed the way his ears perked up at her statement. "Me and a couple of friends are throwing a party on my boat out at sea tonight. How about you and I get to know each other while we wait, hm? The name's Bora." he said, snaking a hand across her back and onto her shoulder.
As the man began to drag Juvia around town, he asked more questions about her life than all her previous dates combined. she couldn't believe that someone would ever want to know so much about her. As the sun began to set and he led her onto a luxurious yacht, Juvia was convinced that she would remember this night as the greatest moment of her life!
'Juvia remembers the lowest point in her entire life…'
She sat on the floor of a darkened cell, knees to her chest. She could recall the feeling of her body swaying back and forth with the boat as it went over wave after wave, but the feeling in her stomach at the time wasn't due to seasickness.
A few charming words was all it took to follow that man like a fool, and after downing the first drink handed to her, she had found herself waking up in the brig with a pair of cuffs around her wrists. She should had known it was too good to be true.
Apparently, the people who had taken her were slavers destined for Guiltina. They would be disappointed though, as no one would have wanted her, even as a slave.
After a time, the boat's rocking had increased dramatically, and the storm grown louder and louder. Time blurred together down below, but eventually she was dragged up to the deck of the boat by a panicky sailor. The sky was covered with a pitch-black blanket of clouds, roaring ominously as lightning arced across them. Rain was spewing forth from the heavens harder than Juvia had ever seen in her live.
The entire crew had been on the deck as a giant wave crashed into the ship. When the water that had washed across the deck disappeared, a few of the crew members were missing. As the rest scrambled to control the boat through the tempest, the man who had charmed him ran over to him in desperation.
"Thank goodness! All this rain is your fault, right?! You said that you caused this kind of stuff whenever you're around! Hurry up and stop it already!" Bora desperately pleaded with her. They were the same words anyone she ever met eventually said to her.
Juvia couldn't help herself this time though and started laughing upon hearing them for some reason. It started slow, merely a giggle, but eventually her entire body was convulsing as she cackled madly. The entire crew had stared at her like a madwoman, but she didn't care.
The man grabbed her by the shoulders and shook her until she quieted. "What are you laughing about you psycho?! What's so fucking funny?!"
"My life." Juvia responded simply, giving the man a crazy stare. "The rain will follow Juvia forever. Juvia's life brings nothing but misfortune to those around her."
"So, your life is keeping this storm going? Then the solution is simple." He said with an edge. He tightened his grip on her shoulders as he began to push her back towards the railing. Juvia didn't even have the chance to fight back before she was leaning partially over the bars into the brine below. "Sorry about this beautiful. Between you and me, it sounds like this is what's best for both of us."
With one final shove Juvia went tumbling into the sea, dragged down by the whirling rapids. She tried to use her magic to save herself but found herself unable to use it, likely due to whatever having had knocked her out still swimming in her system . As she sank into the depths below, she found the sound of rain that had tormented her for her entire life had finally vanished.
Eventually she reached a depth where what little light that had reached the water vanished, and there was nothing but darkness surrounding her. Despite her immanent demise, there was a certain peacefulness to it all. As Juvia felt the remaining air leave her lungs, she closed her eyes and finally accepted the end.
"What an unfortunate soul I have found within my domain. Are you the one who has caused such a storm above?" A voice proclaimed from the darkness. Juvia opened her eyes and saw something move in the distance. A few moments passed, and a bottle mysteriously floated towards her from the abyss, and she weakly reached for it. "Drink, child."
Using the last of her strength, Juvia somehow brought it to her mouth and popped the cap open. The contents seemed to float aimlessly for a second, until flowing into her mouth as if the currents themselves guided it in. The potions effect became clear quickly as she suddenly began to gasp as if wishing to fill her lungs with air. Despite none being available, in a few seconds she found herself able to breathe normally. She brought a hand to her throat. "Juvia can breathe underwater?" she asked out loud, before widening her eyes in surprise at also being able to speak.
"A gift from my people." the being in the dark replied. She could barely make out their shape through the void. They moved around in a circle around her like a great serpent, and the entire ocean shifted, as if bending to their will. "Now I will ask again, was that storm your doing?"
"It was. The rain is the only thing that will stay true to Juvia, no matter how Juvia tries to turn it away." she explained, staring up at the surface. "It is like a selfish lover, turning everyone away from Juvia's heart, only to give nothing in return…"
"I see…" the voice replied. "And what if it could give you something in return?"
"What?"
"Would your life be better if the rain gave you power, even if you hated it beyond your imagination?" the voice questioned.
She thought deeply as she stared into the abyss. Eventually she decided on an answer. "Anything is better than Juvia's current life. If embracing the rain is the only way to change, then so be it."
"Well said, young one." The waters shifted, and the face of the one speaking to her finally moved into view, revealing the face of a being that she had only heard of in legends. A set of great horns, rows of shimmering scales, and sharpened teeth. "Then take a part of my being! As long as the rain stays your only companion, take its power for yourself! Do not let the rain drown out your heart but strengthen it, until the day you find someone strong enough to take its place!"
"Water Dragon's…" Juvia began, sucking the water in the air into her mouth before expelling it out in a violent beam. "ROAR!"
"Ice-Make: Lotus Shield!" Ultear shouted, quickly trying to summon a defense against the oncoming stream. But when the water connected, it shredded through every ice petal formed and Ultear was blasted back by an explosion of water. "Damn, that's just like Natsu's attack! She's really a Dragon Slayer?!"
Juvia began to run towards Ultear, summoning water around her hands. She jumped up in the air and balled her hands, ready to pounce upon her prey. "Water Dragon's Fist!"
"Ice-Make: Rosen Krone!" A multitude of icy thorns shot from Ultear's hands towards her opponent. But unlike the last time she used the technique, instead of fazing through the attacks, the thorns smashed into pieces upon contact with her body. 'Why didn't she phase through those attacks? Could she possibly not be able to do so in that form? In that case!'
Ultear snaked one of the vines she had launched around Juvia's arm instead of into it, and with a flick of the vine, sent her opponent flying back. Juvia aborted her original attack, smashing the vine with her free arm and landing back on the ground roughly. She rolled out of the fall and turned her attention back to Ultear.
"So, you gave up one gimmick for another? If you're going to let me hit you now, then you'd best be ready!" Ultear gathered her magic for a much larger spell. "Ice-Make: Rose Garden!"
Instead of only a few icy vines, there were now dozens shooting out around Ultear and towards Juvia. Juvia raised her arms up and summoned forth another attack. "Water Dragon's Wing Attack!" Two waves of water crashed into the vines around her, but it wasn't enough to take out the entire attack, and Juvia found herself being grabbed and scraped by the many thorns adorning the icy rose bush that was slowly growing around her. She eventually freed her hands and prepared a second attack. "Water Dragon's Claw!" Water gathered around Juvia's transformed limbs, solidifying into sharpened talons that proceeded to cut their way through the frozen briar.
While an untrained eye might have believed Ultears attack had no effect, she was quickly able to deduce a change in her opponents' appearance. She let out a cocky smirk. "Looks like those scales of yours are beginning to lose their luster. How long do you think you can withstand my attacks before I begin to break them?"
Juvia gave her a glare as she raised one of her damaged arms, holding it out to her side. "Juvia thinks she could do this forever." At the reply, the rainwater began to circle around the arm, and Ultear's smirk quickly faded as the rain seeped between the scales and they began to shine again with the same brilliance from earlier. The same effect happened to all the Juvia's limbs, until it was as if she hadn't been attacked at all.
In a horrifying realization, Ultear quickly recalled the number one rule about fighting a Dragon Slayer. They regain power by consuming their specified element. Natsu could eat fire, Wendy literally sucked up the magic in the air, and if Juvia was a Water Dragon Slayer….
She looked up at the ever-growing storm above her, realizing at this rate that the fight would be ending long before the rain did. "Just my luck. Why did this damn rain have to come by now?"
At the words, Juvia cried and prepared another attack. She raised both hands above her head and a giant orb of water the size of a gathered there. "If you hate it so much, then just leave! Leave Juvia to the rain like everyone else does! Water Dragon's Royal Tsunami!" Throwing the growing blue sphere down in front of her produced a tidal wave over three times her height that sped towards Ultear.
"Ice-Make: Ice Geyser!" Giant chunks of ice quickly sprouted on top of each other until Ultear was barely above the oncoming wave. She felt the structure she had created creak upon contact with the attack, but it held strong.
"Water Dragon's Wing Attack!"
It couldn't, however, withstand the two waves of water that flew from Juvia's arms. Ultear plunged into the wave below and was swept away with the tide. She felt the ground dragging along her back disappear suddenly and summoned a frozen vine in panic. She managed to hook it on a corner of the wall above, preventing her fall into the ocean below with the rest of the runaway water.
"This is getting ridiculous. The longer she fights for, the stronger she gets!" Ultear whined as she dangled from the ledge. She quickly hauled herself back up, ready for another attack from Juvia.
But Juvia was staring at Ultear intently instead of attacking. "Why do you still come back to Juvia? No one ever want's to…"
Ultear glanced past Juvia to the nearly completed Abyss Break. "Well, if I don't then I lose everyone I love. Don't really have much of a choice but to keep crawling back here to you."
"You lie! No one would ever want to return to someone like Juvia!" Juvia shouted. She looked down at her scaled arms in anger. "Look at this body! Juvia isn't even a human anymore!"
"Don't you dare say that!" Ultear suddenly shouted angrily, surprising Juvia. "One of my best friends can transform into a demon, but she's the kindest person I know! Just because you don't look the same as everyone else, it doesn't change your heart inside! If you're true to your heart, people can understand you just as easily!"
Juvia twitched violently at those words. The storm above seemed to rumble with each movement. 'Heart?! Understand?! After all these years no one has ever understood Juvia! What could this woman possibly know?!' She held her hands out, and felt the rain begin to spin. Stretching her power further, she forced the water to speed up, until a waterspout began to form around her body. The vortex reached up further and further, all the way to the clouds above, which began to spin as well. Eventually everything revolved around Juvia like she was the eye of the storm.
"Juvia has had enough of you! Juvia has had enough of everyone! Juvia's heart is nothing but rain, so understand this!" Juvia shouted in rage. "Sapphire Serpent: Leviathan Monsoon!"
At the scream, the storm began to move towards Ultear as it teemed violently with Dragon Slayer Magic. She stared at the oncoming attack and froze up, staring up at the twister's size. 'There's no way I can dodge or block this attack! But then what could I possibly do against this?! I mean, it reaches all the way to the clouds! Wait…'
Ultear suddenly got an idea. It was probably the stupidest idea she had ever come up with in all her time at Fairy Tail. She had no idea if she could even pull it off, but considering the alternative was entire guild getting vaporized off the map, she didn't really care. 'I've never tried using a spell that big before, but I know I have more magic in me then the average mage. I'll just have to call it all out at once.'
She quickly summoned a mass of vines, tying them around her legs to prevent from being blow away. The whirling current was nearly upon her, and as soon as it was in range, she plunged her hands into it and began calling upon as much magic as humanly possible. The water around where she had plunged her hands began to freeze, much like when she had frozen Juvia's Shera.
"You cannot be thinking to…!" Juvia's eyes widened upon recognizing her opponent's plan. "That's insane! You can't possibly expect yourself capable of freezing an attack of this size?!"
Ultear just kept pushing, using all her strength to keep her hands from being blown out of the water and ruining the spell. "That doesn't matter! Being a part of Fairy Tail means trusting others with all your heart! And if they trust me to save them, then I will!" Ultear felt herself finally gather every drop of magic from within herself, and after sculpting what shape this attack should take in her mind, she pushed it all out into the storm.
"Ice-Make: World Tree!"
Ice poured out through Ultears hand up and down the waterspout. It coated the whirling water like a layer of bark, rooting it to the ground as it continued to crawl up the typhoon until it reached even the storm clouds above. But the ice didn't stop there, and as it branched into the darkened clouds, the condensed moisture within began to freeze as well. They were too weak to form a connected structure, instead forming millions of snowflakes as the magic weaved through dispersing the veil. The sky slowly grew brighter and brighter, until it became so much that both women present had to shield their eyes.
Juvia eventually lowered her hands that had shielded her and cracked open an eye. At the sight she spied though, both eyes' immediately shot open, and her hands fell to her side as she stared up in wonder. In front of her was a great pillar of ice, her attack frozen in time. But as she followed her eyes up the icy tree's trunk to the clouds above, she found… blue.
The sky sparkled with a brilliance she had never seen before as the clouds that once tormented her fell calmly from the sky as snowflakes. They reflected the sun's rays, all sparkling like a thousand stars. And past it was a site Juvia had only seen in her dreams. A sky that was radiant and blue. She nearly had to shield her eyes from all the light. She felt her knees give out as she continued to stare.
"Hey, are you alright?!"Juvia looked down to see Ultear running up to her. She looked completely exhausted but still ran over and got on her knees to check on Juvia. "You look out of it. Did you get hit in the head by some of the ice?"
Juvia just shook her head and looked back up at the sky. "It's so bright…" She said like an inquisitive child.
Ultear let out a laugh that made Juvia's heart do flips. "If you think that looks good, you should check yourself out!"
"Look at Juvia?" Squeaking in surprise, she brought her hands up in front of her and began waving them back and forth. "That's ridiculous! Juvia has nothing to… check… out?"
Juvia found herself speechless again as she stared at her own outstretched arms. They were still transformed, covered past her elbow in blue dragon scales, yet they looked completely different now. The suns rays now refracted off the scales, and as she turned her arms a rainbow pattern shimmered along them. After an entire lifetime of everything around her being dimmed by the clouds overhead, seeing so many different colors come off herself was preposterous to her mind.
"The view sure is beautiful isn't it."
Juvia looked up in surprise, only to find Ultear staring up at the sky now too. The snowflakes had fallen further down to around the two of them now, shining like diamonds. As she stared at the one who parted the clouds for her as she shined like a thousand gems, Juvia could only think of one thing to say.
"Yes, beautiful beyond measure…"
She suddenly felt exhausted, and as Juvia closed her eyes and dipped her head, she thought back to the words that were told to her that fateful day, when she thought that she had lost everything. As the embrace of sleep finally took her, she felt a smile adorn her face for the first time in years.
"Do not let the rain drown out your heart but strengthen it, until the day you find someone strong enough to take its place!"
'I believe I've finally found that someone, Mercphobia…'
Next Chapter: Sharing A Soul of Flames