White Eclipse
Chapter 19
Opening the door to her apartment, Lucy steps inside. Luke walks in behind her as he looks around. "Wow, not bad. You afford this by yourself?"
"Yeah, the rent is pretty decent, but I manage with all the jobs we go on. Well, used to go on. There hasn't been many recently, but you know that." Luke rubs the back of his head, feeling a bit guilty. "Ahe. Sorry about that. It was Reve's idea for us to get noticed, but I think we've slowed down on that anyways."
"Mhm. Well, you can have a seat. I'll be right back." Luke sits down on a chair as Lucy makes her way upstairs. When she gets upstairs, she opens her door and nearly lets out a yell before covering her mouth. In her room, was Natsu and Happy were lounging around. Natsu was upside down on the bed while Happy was snoozing at the top of the bed, covered in left over fish. Natsu blinks a few times at Lucy's reaction. "Lucy, what's wrong with you?"
"What are you two doing here!?" Lucy asked with a surprised yet quiet tone.
"Happy left his fish here, and no one could tell me where you were, so we came and got it ourselves. Now he's sleeping."
"Hmph. Natsu you really have to stop breaking in!" Natsu of course ignores the statement as Lucy makes her way to her bathroom, and then back out.
"Anyways, let's go on a job!" Natsu yells out as holds up a job poster.
"Shh! I can't right now."
"Why not? And what do I have to be quiet?"
Lucy sighs as she looks at the ground, afraid of the Salamander's response. "…I'm with company."
"Company?" Natsu raised a brow. "Levy? Cana? They can come too, it's a big reward."
"It's….Luke. I owed him for saving back at White Eclipse, so..we're on a..date kind of."
Everything goes quiet for a second as Natsu stares at Lucy. Lucy couldn't dare look him in the eyes.
"….That's it? Why is that a secret?"
"What? You're not upset?" Lucy looked at Natsu, completely puzzled.
"Am I supposed to be?"
Lucy turns away for a second, then back towards Natsu. "I don't kno- Natsu?" Natsu had disappeared from the room.
"Oi! Luke!" Natsu leans over from the railing and begins waving towards the copy mage.
"N-Natsu!?" The puzzled mage stands from his chair. "What are you doing here?"
"Ahe, I basically live here!"
"No you don't!" Lucy shouted out as she rushed down stairs, carrying Happy and pushing Natsu out as well. Happy stirs awake while this goes on. Natsu just continues to smile and waves at Luke while he's being pushed out.
"You two play nice!" Natsu yelled out right before Lucy pushed him all the way out. "Actually, I should be headed out too." Luke walks over to Lucy and grabs her hand and smiles. "We should do this again sometime, Lucy." As Natsu was already standing outside, Luke slides past him. Natsu watches Luke walk down the street then turns back to Lucy who was in the midst of closing the door. "Lucy wait!"
"What is it Natsu?" Lucy said, seemingly annoyed.
"…Job?"
Lucy stares at Natsu for a bit, as if he's lost his mind, and then shuts the door in his face. "Idiot…"
Natsu and Happy just look at each other and shrug. "Guess it's just us."
"Aye sir.."
.
.
Walking down an abandoned street, Bacchus continued drinking from his gourd, as if it was never ending. Blues accompanied Bacchus as they used this abandoned street as a short cut back to Quatro Cerberus. "Oi.. the sensation of alcohol inside of you. Blues you don't know what you're missing." The Drunken Falcon wrapped his arm around Blues as he belched out an alcoholic's laugh.
"I'll have to take your word for it Bacchus." Blues begin leaning away from Bacchus a bit, to avoid the reek of alcohol. "It amazes me how you're able to function when you're drunk. Whether it's your fighting style or not."
"It's because I'm Wild!"
Blues was about to scream out four, but Bacchus stops him as he gets a curious look in his face. "Yo! Blues, what are they doing? No one stands on this street anymore."
Blues looks over as Bacchus points to Mithril and Ruika standing in the street, near an open manhole. They were talking amongst themselves as Bacchus and Blues stood a ways behind them watching.
"You sure this is the spot?" Ruika asked.
"This is the coordinates /he/ gave me." Mithril replied. "We'll plant it here, and step one will be complete."
"How long does this take again?"
"About a couple of years. But we've got nothing but time now that we know that Zeref is alive."
Ruika scoffed at the time table Mithril gave her. "You all have too much patience." As she spoke she turned around, and Bacchus and Blues caught her eye. She immediately tapped Mithril on the shoulder. They both now faced the two Quatro members as Mithril began to speak.
"What the hell do you want?"
Bacchus' eyes narrow from the male's attitude. "A nicer greeting to one of top eight guilds in Fiore."
"There's only like twelve good ones in all." Ruika said with a shrug. Quickly cut down, Bacchus and Blues stand there completely white.
"Oh yeah!" Blues shouted. "I don't remember seeing you around when Quatro Cerebrus was competing in the games."
"Screw your stupid games. We aren't allowed to do those anyways kid. We're in a dark guild."
"Ruika what are you doing!?" Mithril turned to her, as she exposed the nature of their motives.
Bacchus grins. "A dark guild eh? Those captures are worth a lot of money. Tell me, what's your guild name exactly?"
Ruika reaches for a pouch, pulling out celestial keys as she smirked. "Tell ya what. If you beat us, I'll tell you anything you want to know."
"Heh. Now that's WILD!" Bacchus lets out a laugh as Blues loosens his tie, readying himself for a fight. "Let me start us off!"
And with that, Bacchus places a palm on his right knee and lifts his leg. He then slams his leg down into the ground, causing a massive quake and the uprooting of the ground under and around Mithril and Ruika. They scatter however, avoiding any damage from the attack. Blues charges Ruika as water starts to swirl around his fists. He aims a downward punch but he misses as Ruika easily slides out the way. He causes a small crater in the ground from the fist to floor collision. Ruika pulls out a key as she slides away from Blues. "Gate of the Twin Bears! I open thee. Ursa Major! Ursa Minor" As the gates open, a giant bear, and a much smaller bear appear. The giant bear, like Taurus, wielded a giant axe. The smaller bear held twin swords in its hands. They both charge at Blues, Ursa minor jumping off of Ursa major and into the air. Ursa major swings down his giant axe. Blues dodges by jumping high into the air, not noticing that Minor was already up there as the smaller of the two bears swings down a hard kick to the top of Blues' head, causing him to go crashing into the ground.
Bacchus and Mithril meet halfway as they both charge. They begin exchanging strikes, and also avoiding each attack with seemingly relative ease, until Bacchus' unorthodox style of evading begins to catch up with Mithril. Mithril throws a strong right hook but Bacchus twists his body oddly, right under the hook. Mithril was wide open. "Drunk Chop hanging Palm: Under Moonlight!" Bacchus rears back and then slams his palm into Mithril's gut. Mithril goes sliding back, but that was about it as he held his stomach. Bacchus raised a brow at the astonishing endurance, the fact that the mage took such a blow but was merely phased. "Well…." Bacchus charges Mithril again, but this time, instead of charging back, Mithril conjures up a magic circle above everyone, just above the buildings. At the next second random bolts of lightning came raining down, aimed at Bacchus. He sees the first one and slides hard to the right. He also avoids the second one by continuing his charge at Mithril. As he reared back an open palm, Mithril smirks, and merely claps his hands together, causing a loud thunderous clap that was so strong, after a struggle to stay on his feet, it sent the S class Bacchus flying backwards. While in the air, another lightning bolt comes storming down, slamming Bacchus into the chest as he hits the ground.
"Bacchus!" Blues screams out as he sees Bacchus hit the ground. Ursa Major comes up behind Blues, swinging his axe horizontally. Blues ducks as a trail of water leaks from his mouth, signifying the signature dragon slayer attack. "Roar, of the Aquatic Dragon!" Ursa minor was about to swing down one of his twin swords at Blues as he again jumped over Major, but the roar slams into them both, causing them to slam into the wall of a building and disperse.
"Tch…damn Bears." Ruika grabs another key. "Here we go. Gate of the warrior, I open thee! Orion!" Out of the shining gate a tall warrior holding a shield and sword walks out, now standing majestically…until he goes down to one knee, holding Ruika's hand.
"Oh Ruika, how can I protect your beauty from being in harm's way on this day? This day that belongs to-"
Ruika slams her fist into Orion's head. "Will you stop and just destroy them over there!?" Orion holds the back of his head. "A-anything for my love." "Don't call me that."
Blues was on the charge. Water gathered around his fist again as he swung a haymaker at Orion, but the warrior's shield blocked the punch, causing Blues to stumble back from recoil. Orion smirks and goes for a stab, but out of nowhere, Bacchus jumps over Blues and slams a palm downward into the sword, causing it to stab into the ground. Bacchus then gets in close again and strikes an open palm uppercut into Orion's chin. As Orion falls backwards, trying to regain himself, Bacchus turns back to Mithril. "Keep your guard up Blues, that was almost it for you. I must admit guy, that lightning of yours is pretty wild. But you're messing with Quatro Cerberus! You should quit now."
Mithril chuckles. "Good one. Let's stop playing around now eh?" As soon as he finished his sentence, Mithril appeared with lightning speed right beside Blues. This was the first time they were in close combat range, and the smell of Mithril put Blues in shock.
"You smell…. Like a…" Before Blues could regain himself from Mithril's aroma, a lightning infused fist slams into his jaw, causing him to go sliding into the ground, now floating in and out of consciousness. This left Bacchus between Orion and Mithril. "Now," Mithril said as he and Orion surrounded him. Ruika looked on with a smirk. "Let's see where that unorthodox style gets you.
Bacchus performed into his stance with widened eyes of excitement. "Bring it on! MY SOUL IS QUIVERING!"
.
Hours passed since Taya stormed out of the guild. When Nami got her strange feeling, she left the guild as well to go look for her sister. Everyone else remained at the guild. Kuro was at a table by himself, torn between his new friendship with Daityas and the disapproval of the guild. He sighed heavily as he looked out the snowy window, watching the flakes fall from the sky. Reve and Zalen walk over and sit down with him.
"I'm sorry." Kuro quickly apologized. "I didn't know Arc-san and Taya would get so upset. I just wanted to be his friend because he seemed alone. It didn't seem fair that we gave them a chance and not Daityas."
Reve sighed and patted Kuro on the shoulder. "It's okay Kuro, it isn't your fault. In fact you're exactly right."
"Yeah." Zalen chimed in. "We gave Taya and Arc a chance, and they've turned out for the better. Daityas should of gotten one too. He said he was no longer a part of a dark guild, so we should take his word for it unless he gives us a reason to not trust him. If he can put up with your high spirits all day, then there's no way he can be evil right?"
Kuro smiles and nods. "Right! When Taya gets back I'll talk things out with her, but I'll apologize first!"
Reve shook his head as he smiled. "I still don't approve, but he hasn't done anything wrong yet… You're a saint Kuro. It makes me nauseous."
"Aira! Aira where are you!" Nami came bursting through the door in tears. The entire guild turns to her. "Oi, why are you bursting in here with—" Michio immediately stops talking as everyone looks on in shock at who, or rather what Nami was carrying in her arms.
"What happened!?" Jaxon shouted as he looked at the figure covered so heavily in burns that you could barely recognize Taya.
"Never mind that!" Zain takes Taya from Nami's hands and carries her to the infirmary. "Aira! With me!"
"H-H-Hai!" Aira follows Zain to the infirmary as he puts Taya's completely burned body down on the bed. She quickly began to use her healing magic. "I don't think my magic is strong enough for this Zain..!"
"Just give it all you have, and take a break when you're drained." Zain begins shuffling through medical books on the bookshelf, tossing everyone that didn't give the information he needed. "Come on… I remember we have a book in here somewhere about this. Dammit Zain how do you not remember this out of all things!?"
Back in the main room, the eyes of everyone slowly turns to Kuro.
"Stop right now!" Zalen yelled as he stood up from the table to stand in the line of sight between everyone and Kuro. "If you dare think of blaming Kuro for something he didn't have control of! Tell em Reve!"
Reve's eyes were covered by his hair as he stared at the table he was sitting in. Without saying a word, Reve gets up and heads for the door. Before he could reach it, Adamantine and Sidney stand in his way.
"Move before I put bullets in both of you."
"I know your soul is aching Reve." Sidney took a step closer. "But we don't know him, going out for revenge isn't what's best right now."
"Move. Out. The. Way."
Adamantine crosses his arms. "Don't be an idiot. The same thing will happen to you. It seems that Daityas guy is pretty tough to take down an S class. And you're an S class."
Kuro stands with a shaky voice. "Hold on! We don't know if it was Dait!"
Reve loses it. He walks back over to Kuro and flips the table against the wall, shattering it. Kuro flinches in fear. "Who else could it be you idiotic bastard!? Who's the only fire user in this area besides you that isn't here huh!? Who's the only one that came from a dark guild!? Are you that dense!? Not every shithead is pure of heart Kuro! This is your fault!"
"Hey!" Jaxon steps in between Reve and Kuro, Kuro in near tears from Reve's words. "Leave him be! I know you're upset Reve.."
Reve, with a clenched jaw, walks to the infirmary, where Aira was already tired from her healing magic. Zain was still looking frantically through books. Reve stopped at the side of the bed and leaned towards Taya.
"I'm so sorry for what I said. You were right. And I swear on everything that bastard will pay for what he did. I'll make sure of it. I'll have his head mantled on a wall."
Reve clenches his fists at the sight of Taya and turns to storm out the guild, only to have his wrist lightly grabbed, but enough to make him stop.
"Please don't leave me…."
