A/N: And here we are with a new chapter!

I don't own Fairy Tail!

I hope you enjoy!

Chapter 14: Broken Contract

July 27th, X784

JV walked between the shelves of the store he was in, his eyes appraising the various magical tools as shadows were cast all around him by the setting sun outside, his face only twisting into disgust as his eyes landed on various silver keys the store had for sale.

"You've got to have something better than this garbage," JV insisted as he stepped around the shelf to stare the store clerk down with his dark green eyes, his intense stare causing the man behind the counter to break out in a nervous sweat.

"I'm afraid that's all we offer for Celestial Spirit Keys," the man apologized as JV began to growl in irritation, "But! We do offer a wide selection of magical tools and weapons!"

"Not good enough!" JV spat out before marching over to the door swinging it open before slamming it shut behind him, unaware of a second set of eyes that were watching him from behind another shelf as a figure shrouded in a black robe stepped out of hiding.

"Sir?" the clerk questioned, unsure as to where the figure had come from.

"Shhh…" the figure shushed, holding a finger up to their face, which was hidden in the shadows of their hood, before they stepped towards the door, opening it before quietly slipping through and following JV out of the building.

The shrouded figure quickly and quietly wove their way through the crowded streets of Jaborosa Town, their eyes locked onto the back of JV's head as he marched forward, the crowd unceremoniously parting for the angry mage as he stomped his way through town, unaware of the figure stalking him as he moved ahead, though he couldn't shake a nervous feeling in his gut as he went along and picked up his pace as he glanced over his shoulder.

"What the hell?" he thought as he saw the figure in the black robe, seemingly staring right at him through the crowd as it slowly made its way towards him, the nervous and scared citizens well aware of the figure's presence as it moved past them, JV quickly taking the opportunity to turn back around and begin pushing his way through the crowd as quickly as he could, shoving people aside even as he looked over his shoulder to see the figure keeping pace with him until he saw an empty alleyway and dived into it running down it as far as he could until he came to a fork in the alley where it split into two separate paths around a building, JV spinning around and pulling the green and white key of Thanatos from his pocket and pointing it towards the figure that was slowly approaching him.

"Be not afraid, child," the figure requested with a voice that sounded like that of a woman's, "I mean you no harm."

"Then what the hell do you want with me?" JV demanded to know, threateningly pointing his key at the figure before they seemed to lower a couple of inches, as if settling on the ground, "They were… Levitating?" he muttered quietly to himself before focusing back towards the figures head, seeing that they were reaching up for their hood, grabbing it and pulling it down to reveal the face of a pale, middle-aged woman with long, black hair and dark green eyes, "Who are you?" JV asked as he stared the woman down.

"My name… is of little importance," the woman responded.

"Like hell! Tell me who you are!" JV ordered, taking a couple of steps towards the woman as she held one of her hands out, JV freezing where he was, held in place by some magical force.

"Might we be civil about this?" the woman asked, an almost kind smile on her face, yet a threatening glare in her eyes, "I only wish to make a trade with you."

"Like I have a choice," JV growled before he suddenly felt his right arm move quickly down to his side before he dropped to the ground, suddenly able to move again, "Tch… What do you want from me?"

"I know who you are, Jorgun Von Masters, and I know you seek power, do you not?" the woman asked as she looked down at the young man, "You certainly aren't denying it," she added before he quickly turned his head away in defiance, "I offer you… this," the woman stated as suddenly a large magic tome appeared in her hands as she held it down to JV.

"A tome of magic?" JV gawked as he pulled himself up onto one knee, "What magic does it contain?"

"A substantially powerful one. Vitality Magic, which converts the user's life force into a powerful magic energy. The more powerful the user, the more powerful Vitality Magic becomes," the woman explained.

"Tch… Something like that is useless to me. My contract with Thanatos demands I only practice Celestial Spirit Magic," JV snapped.

"You're thinking too small, child," the woman chuckled as JV looked up at her with curious eyes.

"The hell are you on about?" he asked as the woman moved the book to her side before reaching down and lifting JV's chin up with her free hand.

"This magic will make you so powerful that your poor spirit Thanatos will have no choice but to bend to your will and your will alone," the woman explained, the tempting offer making JV's eyes light up in thought.

"I doubt you're going to let me have this for free. What do you want?" JV asked, giving the woman the harshest stare he could muster.

"It's quite simple, really. I heard a rumor about how a Dragon Slayer was in your guild, one with the name… Dragomirov. Would you be so kind as to tell me where she is?" the woman requested, though the look of the smile on the woman's face filling JV with a sense of dread.

"That's all you want?" JV asked as he looked the woman in the eyes, neither her smile nor the terrifying look in her eyes ever leaving her face.

"That is all I desire," the woman answered as she removed her hand from his chin as she stood back up straight.

"Give me the tome first," JV demanded.

"And why should I do that?" the woman questioned as she looked down at JV, her magical energy rising.

"Because it's obvious I couldn't escape you with the tome even if I wanted to, but you could just leave with the tome the moment I told you what you wanted to know," JV explained as the woman began to chuckle before breaking out into full-on laughter.

"You are certainly an entertaining child, I will not lie. Clever enough to know when you are overpowered, yet conniving enough to know how to ensure you won't be cheated. Very well," the woman said as a truly pleased smile now appeared on her face as she held out the tome again, JV taking it from her as he stood up, "Now, be a dear and tell me where I can find Dragomirov? Please?"

"Yesterday evening, when I was hanging out near the western exit of town, I saw her leave with two other mages from the guild, talking about how they were heading to the Sealed Forest and then onto Coleus Port after that," JV explained as he held the tome down by his side, cautiously watching the woman's expression change from pleased, to intrigued and then to a seemingly sadistic glee.

"Homeward bound then? I see," the woman mumbled as she became lost in thought.

"Not that I really care, but what are you planning?" JV questioned as the woman turned to look back at JV, a now fairly annoyed look on her face as she scowled at him, a feeling of familiarity filling JV as he looked at that scowl on her face.

"Nothing you need to concern yourself with, child. I've no more business with you, so I shall be on my way," the woman stated before pulling her hood back over her head as she slowly began to float up in the air again before disappearing entirely, leaving JV alone in the now dark alley as the sun dipped below the horizon.

. : + : .

JV quickly made his way back towards the guildhall, unable to shake the feeling that he might have made a mistake, but there was no going back now. What was done was done. He couldn't look back now, only move forward as best as he could. He gritted his teeth harder and harder with every step towards the guildhall, his grip tightening on the tome as the scaffold covered building came into view in the darkness of nightfall. He quickly made his way forward, opening one of the newly built doors and slipping inside, a few curious eyes looking at him before turning away as he walked through the main room and off to the left, making his way to another set of doors and opening them as he stepped into the library in the room behind the doors.

"This is it then," JV thought as he walked through the library, making his way to the far left corner where he was least likely to be disturbed, stopping at a desk nestled between two bookshelves and setting the tome atop before sitting down in a chair and reaching down for a crank and twisting it, turning the desktop up at an angle so he could read the large book easier. JV reached out for the cover of the book for just a moment before hesitating for just a moment, "Pull it together JV, she promised me power, I have to take it," he growled to himself before opening the tome and beginning to pour over its pages, reading and memorizing them as quickly as he could.

He spent hours sat at that desk, flipping through each page one after the next after memorizing the one that came before. Slowly and steadily, he felt more and more confident in the magic contained within the tome as he learned more and more about it. But how would he use it was the main question on his mind as he read more about the theories and development of the magic.

"I see," JV mused as he came to a diagram of the human body contained within the book, "The user's life force in converted into ethernano via this magic ritual, which is then returned to the user's natural magic container and then converted into powerful spells. Is it possible to utilize the spells without the lifeforce though?" JV wondered aloud as he held his hand out before a voice rang out in his mind.

"Contractor. Pursuing this would be… unwise," he heard Thanatos state inside his mind as a scowl appeared on JV's face.

"Piss off," he scoffed as a magic circle appeared in the air in front of his hand as he began to cast the first spell, "Vitality Transference," JV said quietly as he felt the spell begin to take effect, his life force being converted into magical energy.

"CONTRACTOR!" Thanatos roared as he suddenly appeared in the air next to JV, his hollow, skeletal eye sockets glowing red as he stared down at JV.

"The hell do you want? Useless bag of bones?" JV mocked as he looked up at Thanatos, not worried about its sudden appearance.

"YOU HAVE BROKEN THE CONTRACT!" Thanatos continued as a miasma of black magical energy began to manifest around him, filling up and spreading out through the entire library.

"What of it? I've decided I'm not going to seek power within the confines of your rules. I'm going to acquire as I please. Your contract be damned," JV retorted before a large skeletal hand shot down towards JV, grabbing him by the throat before lifting him into the air.

"THE CONSEQUENCES OF YOUR ACTIONS… IS DEATH!" Thanatos roared before lifting his other hand up towards JV's face, placing it atop his forehead while its long, bony fingers gripped JV's head from all sides.

"Dammit!" JV cursed as he kicked and struggled against Thanatos's grip, trying to shake the skeleton off of him before he heard the doors to the library slam open.

"What's happening! JV!" he could hear Nika shout in the distance, but he chose not to focus on her.

"I can do this… by myself!" he shouted before looked back to his side, seeing the tome still open as he felt Thanatos's spell begin to take effect as his lifeforce began to drain away as the reaping began, "Vitality… Transference!" JV grunted as he reached out for the tome, the magic circle reappearing as his life force began to be transmuted into magical energy before it could be drained away by Thanatos.

"JV!" he heard Nika shout again as he heard her run closer before a wave of black miasma pushed her and a few other mages back from him and Thanatos as JV's race against the spirit continued until JV's arm fell limply to his side as his breathing stopped, Thanatos dropping him to the ground, his body unmoving, as the spirit stared down at him for a moment longer.

"The punishment for breaking the contract has been completed. The life of Jorgun Von Masters has been reaped," Thanatos announced before vanishing, his green and white key floating up into the air out of JV's pocket before the black miasma throughout the library began rushing into the key, cloaking it in darkness before it too, faded away.

"JV!" Nika shouted as she rushed to the young boys side, placing her hand up on his neck, just below his jaw to check his pulse, "He has no pulse… He has no pulse! Go get Darling! Lillian! Quickly!" she shouted, as Lillian stood for just a moment in shock before nodding and running off to the doctor's home in town while Nika cradled JV's limp body in her arms, shouting his name, hoping and praying that it would somehow bring him back.

. : + : .

July 28th, X784

Nika sat outside of the infirmary, her face cradled in her hands as Raoul and Lillian sat next to her, hands on her back to comfort the woman as she had spent all night crying, not having got a single minute of sleep, Raoul and Lillian have stayed next to her the entire time to try and keep the woman from blaming herself for what had happened.

"Nika…" they heard Irma call out as she stepped out of the infirmary, the woman dressed in a full nurse's costume as she had spent all night trying to help Darling resuscitate JV, "It's not your fault what had happened. I pushed him really hard the other day," Irma admitted as a guilty look appeared on her face, Irma waiting a moment for a response before seeing that Nika wasn't budging to look up at her, "I… I called him weak… and overconfident… and… I just said so many awful things to him," she continued as tears began to well up in her own eyes before she leaned up against the wall, "I'm so sorry. This is all my fault. It's all my fault he went and did something so stupid!" Irma began to shout as the tears began to fall as she slid down the wall to sit, "It's my fault he's dead. This is all my fault…"

"Irma," Raoul said quietly, the woman looking up at him, "This isn't anyone's fault. JV made a choice. He took a risk to get away from Thanatos. He thought he had a chance and he took it, but it didn't work out is all."

"You make it sound so simple and impersonal," Irma scoffed as she wiped away her tears.

"Sometimes it is just that simple. He might have been motivated by things you said to him or because he was unhappy with someone else's choices, but it was his choice to make in the end," Raoul explained as he looked off to the side, turning his head to look over at the window at the end of the second floor hallway they were on, seeing the early morning sunlight shining in through the window, "Besides, I'm sure he'd yell at you all for crying over him like this."

"Excuse me!" they heard Darling call out as he poked his head out of the infirmary door, "I really do hate to interrupt you, but you all need to see this," he said as he gestured for them all to step inside the infirmary, Raoul and Lillian slowly getting Nika to stand up on her feet while Irma climbed up off the floor before they all entered the infirmary to see JV still laying atop one of the medical beds, "Look closely," the doctor instructed as they all looked at JV's now very pale body before seeing a slight movement from it as his chest began to slowly rise and fall.

"Is he… breathing?" Lillian gawked, "But… that's impossible… You declared him dead five hours ago!"

"I know! I can't explain it! He has no pulse! No vitals! Not even a heartbeat! Nothing that would suggest he was alive until he started breathing just a minute ago!" the doctor exclaimed as Nika slowly began to walk over to JV before collapsing on her knees.

"I'm so glad…" she sobbed as she reached out and grabbed one of JV's hands, "I'm so glad you're alive. You scared me so much. I was so worried for you."

"Nika…" Raoul said quietly as he watched the woman begin to cry anew.

"But how is this possible?" Irma questioned as her tattoos and eyes began to glow green as she examined him, "He's not a spirit or a ghost… but he's not really alive either? He's dead, but alive at the same time? How did that happen?"

"That page that tome was turned to!" Lillian suddenly exclaimed, "I went back to the library and looked at it after Darling declared him dead! It was turned to a page that described a spell to turn your life force into magical energy! He must have transformed all of his life force into magic before Thanatos could reap him and now his magic energy is turning back into life force!"

"And thus returning him to life! What a brilliant plan!" Darling added excitedly, "Mr. Von Masters escaped death by making it look as if Thanatos had killed him, when in fact, he had just put himself in a death-like state by draining his own life force with this new magic of his."

"But that doesn't explain why he still doesn't have a heartbeat. We don't even know if he'll ever wake up," Raoul stated as suddenly everyone's faces fell again.

"It doesn't matter," said Nika as she stood up, "He's alive. That's what matters. If he wakes up on his own, he'll do so when he's ready to. If not, we'll find a way to wake him up."

"Attagirl," Raoul replied quietly as a smile returned to his face, happy to see confidence return to Nika.

"Now then, Dr. Darling, please continue to watch over JV for me," Nika requested as the doctor smiled and nodded, "The rest of you, we have a guild to rebuild so JV can back to growing stronger as soon as he wakes up."

"Aye-aye, ma'am," Raoul replied as he patted Nika on the shoulder before walking off, Lillian and Irma giving her a smile before walking out of the infirmary as well. Nika took one last look at JV's sleeping body before turning back to look at Darling.

"He'll be okay, Miss Anastasia. You have my word," Darling reassured before Nika smiled at the man before leaving the infirmary and the sleeping mage behind for now.

A/N: Chapter complete! Hope you enjoyed!

This chapter has been planned for ever since I got JV from Origm2012, so it was a lot of fun to finally get to so I could show off what his magic is actually going to be throughout the story. But I hope I at least had some of you thinking I was actually killing JV so early on. You might consider that a taste of what's to come when I do eventually kill a character, because a few actual deaths have been planned already. But now the path to character development awaits JV! As soon as he wakes up! Gotta wonder who that mysterious woman was though… And I wonder if we'll ever see Thanatos again? Hmm?

But anyways! I'd like to thank Benthino, Grimnack, bulk Locke the the grim head, XLil MEkoX and MyDearWatson for the reviews! They mean a lot!

That's all from me for now though!

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Dreadburner94.