A/N: And here we are with the next chapter!

I don't own Fairy Tail.

I hope you enjoy the chapter.

Chapter 23: Limbo

It was dark.

Everything surrounding JV was submerged in an inky blackness and JV himself felt like he was drowning. His arms were heavy as he tried to reach in the direction of what he hoped to be surface, trying to pull himself upward through the inky black waters he was stuck in. He let out a gasp as he reached his limit, several bubbles flying out into darkness before he clenched his jaw. His legs wouldn't move no matter how he tried to kick and struggle. JV looked down at his legs, seeing that they were locked in ash white shackles he could only assumed to be made of bone.

"Dammit!" he thought to himself as he reached down to try and pry the shackles off of himself, though the sound of something moving around in the darkness quickly caught his attention as he moved to look around, his dark green eyes peering into the void as he reached for his belt, inwardly cursing once he remembered what had happened with Thanatos, "Tch… I'm a sitting duck without him," JV thought as he went back to struggling with the shackles, becoming more and more frantic as the sound of the water rushing around something drew closer, now accompanied by a growing cacophony of bones clacking together as JV began to struggle more and more

"Jorgun Von Masters!" a voice echoed throughout the void, JV instantly recognizing it as belonging to Thanatos as he began to struggle even harder as several skeletons began to become visible at the edge of what he could see, their jaws clacking up and down as they slowly reached out for him, the white of their bones standing out against the darkness surrounding them as they drew closer and closer until he saw Thanatos, floating high above the rest of his menagerie, his black wings stretching out across the void as he too began reaching out for JV slowly and surely until the young man was surrounded by the skeletons and Thanatos' fingers were about to wrap around JV.

"Dammit! Dammit all!" JV continued to inwardly curse as his struggled continued, right up until the Spirit's fingers were about to crush him.

"What foul intervention is this?" Thanatos questioned as his fingers passed right through JV, the Spirit waving his hand through JV's body slowly, confirming that he indeed could not seize the young man's soul, "It is that foul magic you gained from that Witch of Ejder most likely," Thanatos mused as JV continued to look confused at the whole situation, "Worry not, Jorgun Von Masters. I will not be able to claim your soul on this day, as is my right. But should we ever cross paths again, your soul is forfeit," the Spirit declared as he pointed at JV before waving his hand, releasing the shackles on JV's legs, causing him to begin floating upward.

"Remember Jorgun Von Masters. You are living on borrowed time."

. : + : .

July 29th, X784

"My my! It seems we've gotten ourselves into a rather large pickle, haven't we!" Asher laughed loudly as he, Alek and Yuri were being chased down by a large boulder through a dimly lit ruin.

"Is now really the time to be laughing?" Alek shouted while Yuri kept quiet, a rather unentertained look on her face.

"But dear Yuri is having so much fun! The time of her life even!" Asher continued to laugh.

"It's exciting," she muttered as the trio began rounding a corner, the boulder in hot pursuit.

"So when are you going to blow up the boulder then?" Alek asked, looking down at Yuri as they ran.

"Not gonna. I like having both my arms and all my fingers," the girl answered flatly, her orange eyes staring straight ahead.

"I guess that's reasonable," Alek sighed.

"If she blew it up, we'd miss out on this wonderous bonding experience!" Asher declared, "But alas! It comes to an end, a narrow passageway awaits us yonder!" the pink haired man declared, pointing to a narrow archway with a staircase on the other side of it, the three of them quickly running inside and up the stairs before the boulder crashed through and into the stairs, blocking the passage.

"Jeez… I sure hope we don't need to go back that way," Alek muttered as they looked down at the wreckage.

"Then the only way to venture… is onward! Let us resume our adventure posthaste!" Asher shouted, the echoes of his voice being accompanied by a slight rumbling.

"Asher!" Alek hissed, "This place ain't stable anymore. Keep it down."

"Asher wants to make a boom," Yuri quietly laughed to herself.

"My mistake!" Asher apologized as the Alek and Yuri walked past him, the pink haired man following suit as they entered into another hallway, which was lined with columns. Alek stopped a moment to think, placing his hand up onto his chin while Yuri idly spun her arms around as Asher began to smile widely, joining Yuri in her odd, arm spinning dance, the two of them starting circle around Alek as he thought.

"There's gotta be another trap in here, right?" Alek mumbled to himself, closing his eyes to try and concentrate and ignore the two circling around him, while Asher held up a finger to his mouth, signaling for Yuri to be quiet as he used his Illusion Magic to make a copy of himself and Yuri at the other side of the room, dancing in the same way they were before he and Yuri hid behind one of the columns lining the room, waiting until Alek opened his eyes again.

"Hey! How'd you get over there? Were there no traps?" Alek shouted as he walked out into the center of the room and then kept walking to the other side, "I guess there weren't any traps at all," he muttered to himself before Asher and Yuri hopped out from behind the pillar, "Wha-? Guys! Really?"

"Congratulations! You discovered that there were no traps in the room!" Asher cheered while Yuri politely clapped next to him before Asher took a single step forward, causing the brick beneath his foot to sink lower into the floor.

"It's a trap," Yuri gawked while Asher's mouth hung open, sweat dripping down him before he and Yuri leapt forward, dodging a giant pillar of stone that dropped from the ceiling before it could crush them, only to land on another pressure plate and have to quickly dodge several arrows that shot out of the wall, the two of them jumping from trap to trap until they eventually managed to safely make it to the other side.

"No traps, eh?" Alek chuckled while Asher and Yuri panted for breath on the ground, "Turns out the safe way to cross was to walk straight down the middle."

"You had it figured out, didn't you?" Asher groaned.

"Yep."

"Alek is mean," Yuri pouted, before Alek reached down and started patting her head.

"There, there. You made it through alright," Alek said gently before looking over at Asher to see that he had removed his top hat and was making puppy eyes at Alek, "No. You're just an idiot."

"Such harsh words," Asher cried as Yuri stood up, following Alek into the next chamber, Asher scrambling to follow them, the three of them stopping to see a large, stone golem sitting quietly in the middle of the room that had a large dragon head on either shoulder as well as its normal head.

"That looks dangerous," Alek said quietly.

"Boom?" Yuri asked, holding her hands up.

"I am in favor of 'Boom', yes," Asher added while Alek sighed.

"Yes Yuri, 'Boom'. Just don't bring this whole place around our ears. We'll try and move ahead to find the treasure," Alek stated while Yuri stepped forward and towards the golem, Asher and Alek moving around either side of the chamber as the golem began to stand up, red lights beginning to glow in its eyes before fire spewed out of the dragon heads towards Alek and Asher who quickly ran ahead to avoid the flames while Yuri dashed towards the golem, quickly jumping to the side to dodge its deceptively fast punch into the ground, Yuri holding out one finger on her right hand and slamming it into the golem's arm, creating an explosion that left her with one less finger.

"Not enough…" she muttered quietly as she saw the explosion caused by her finger only took a small chunk out of the golem's arm, though she quickly had to run away as the golem tried to kick her, the monster's focus now entirely on her as Asher and Alek made it to the other end of the chamber and opened the door as Yuri doubled down on her efforts, knowing that now she didn't have to worry about accidently catching them in the blast. She narrowed her eyes as she saw fire begin to spew from the golem's left shoulder, assuming that meant it was also starting to spew fire from its right side as well, Yuri ran towards the golem, dashing under it and spinning around to see that her guess was right, despite her bad vision out of her left eye.

"Three Finger Heavy Impact!" she shouted as she pulled back her left arm, holding out three fingers before an explosion shot out of her elbow, propelling her fingers into the back of the golem's leg and causing a much more powerful explosion that the first one as the golem's right leg flew clean off, causing it to collapse on its side as Yuri scrambled away, hissing at the pain from the now missing chunk of her left elbow and her three missing fingers, "Now, again!" she shouted as she pulled back her right arm, aiming for the golem's now exposed head and blowing it clean off, leaving her with three less fingers on her right hand an leaving a chunk missing from her right elbow as well. She gasped heavily as she watched the golem carefully, seeing the red glow disappear from the eyes on the dragon heads on its shoulders.

"Boom," Yuri declared, happy with her work before taking off after Alek and Asher, who had since managed to reach the main chamber, though they were now confronted by a large, armored skeletal guard who was brandishing a sword and shield.

"Asher! I need some distractions!" Alek shouted as he narrowly dodged a slice from the skeleton's sword, weaving around and throwing a shadow covered fist at the skeleton, which quickly blocked the blow with its shields before somehow laughing at him.

"Not to worry! You'll have all of me to back you up on this one!" Asher declared before a dozen more Ashers appeared in the area, surrounding the skeleton and waving their canes at the monster as if they were going to try and swing them at it, but backing off whenever the skeleton turned to face its illusory attackers while Alek sunk down into his shadow while the skeleton was distracted.

"That's right, foul beast! Focus your attention on me!" an Asher clone shouted.

"No, me!"

"Me! Focus your gaze upon my glorious visage!"

"Show off! I'm the one you want to gaze upon!" all the clones began shouted, striking various poses and corralling the skeleton around the chamber until Alek's shadow moved behind the skeleton, Alek bursting from the ground and swiping a blade of shadow through the skeleton's spine, cutting it in half before all the bones and armor fell to the ground just as Yuri managed to run into the chamber.

"Ah! Dearest Yuri Boom! We were just finishing up!" Asher declared as Alek held up a small peace sign to Yuri, who awkwardly waved her left hand back at him, showing the missing fingers.

"You guys are gonna have to carry the treasure," Yuri stated flatly, "My fingers are still growing back."

"Right…" Alek sighed before walking up to the pedestal holding the treasure they were after, a small dragon shaped idol made of solid gold, "Who wants to bet its booby trapped?"

"Me," Yuri quickly answered.

"I would eat my top hat if it were not," Asher declared while Alek let out a heavy sigh, lifting the idol from the pedestal before the pedestal began to sink into the ground.

"Dammit," Alek cursed before the three of them watched the back wall open up, "Dammit!" Alek cursed louder as another boulder came rolling down towards them, the trio beginning to take off in the opposite direction and back towards the entrance.

. : + : .

July 30th, X784

Sasha let out a deep sigh as she found herself in the infirmary once again, despite it being past midnight, her eyes falling on Irma, who had fallen asleep in a chair towards the back of the room and JV, who was still unconscious in one of the beds. She guessed Darling had gone home for the night, as he was taking care of both Rena and Zavid in addition to Delia.

"Puu-puun?" she heard Martin call out from down on the ground next to her.

"Hm? Yeah. I guess I am really worried," Sasha sighed as she quietly entered the room moving to sit down in one of the chairs on the opposite side of the room from the beds, setting her bag and sword down on the ground before starting to fiddle with her keys, looking through all of the silver keys on her keychain, "Is it really a bad thing that I only have silver keys?" she mused quietly to herself.

"Pun-pun? Puun!" Martin countered, waving his arms about in an interpretive dance.

"I know. I love you all, but I'm so outclassed by all the other Celestial Spirit Mages I've heard of. JV had Thanatos. And I heard that Lucy girl from Fairy Tail has all those gold keys."

"Puun…"

"I know… I shouldn't compare myself to the other mages," Sasha sighed, though the sound of someone moving caught her attention, she looked over to Irma to see that she was still asleep before she turned to JV, seeing him begin to sit himself up in his bad, gritting his teeth, "JV!" she shouted so loud that she woke up Irma, who nearly fell out of her chair before scrambling to her feet, seeing JV sitting up.

"JV!" Irma shouted as well before she and Sasha ran over to his bed, the both of them bombarding him with questions too fast for him to understand.

"Will you both be quiet!?" JV snapped before clutching his head in pain, "Damn that Thanatos!" he growled.

"JV… Calm down," Irma said gently, "You need to take it easy. You were clinically dead for a few hours."

"W-was I?" JV muttered as he rubbed his temple, closing and opening his eyes repeatedly, "So Thanatos did try and reap my soul then."

"That's what we assumed," Irma answered, "JV… What happened that night? Why did you break your contract?" she asked as JV looked her dead in the eyes.

"Because relying on Thanatos alone made me weak," he answered coldly.

"Weak?" Sasha repeated, "But he's such a powerful Celestial Spirit."

"And a one-trick pony, just like most Celestial Spirits," JV spat, "So I took a risk. I found a tome of powerful magic and I learned it. Once I did, Thanatos broke the contract and attacked me. I thought I was dead. I was in his realm, but he couldn't take my soul."

"JV, it's been about three days since that all happened. Your heart stopped beating and hasn't started to beat again since. You're stuck in a state of limbo. You're neither alive nor dead as far as Darling and I could tell," Irma explained while JV held his hand against his chest, realizing that she was right, his heart wasn't beating despite him clearly not being dead.

"I… need some time to process that thought, I think… But still. This worked out better than it could have. The alternative was to die after all," JV stated flatly.

"Don't breathe too easily, JV, I can only imagine the talking to Nika is going to give you in the morning," Irma sighed as JV grimaced in response.

"Don't remind me."

"She was really upset when it looked like you were dead, so don't think of her too harshly," Irma countered, "But before then, I need to run some tests to make sure that you're fine. Sasha, if you wouldn't mind, JV is going to need his privacy."

"Oh! Right! Of course!" Sasha replied before running off to grab her stuff, "JV! I'm really glad you're alright! We were all worried about you!"

"Yeah, yeah," JV huffed as Irma began rooting around on Darling's desk in the back of the room, returning with a clipboard.

"Take care!" Sasha called out before leaving the room.

"You all really don't need to fuss over me," JV sighed.

"Well, everyone disagrees," Irma countered as she held out a thermometer, "Now open up and say, 'Ahh'," she ordered, JV rolling his eyes and going along with what she asked of him as Sasha shut the door behind her, Martin doing a happy dance out in the hallway while Sasha wore a giddy smile on her face.

"He's alright! I can't believe it! I was so worried that he would never wake up!" she cheered happily as she picked up Martin and began to spin through the hallway with him, the small spirit making happy noises along with her.

A/N: And there we have it, Chapter 23 is done.

JV is back now, after being unconscious for like, 9 chapters now. So that's good. We're almost done with this story arc too, which is even more exciting.

But anyways, I'd like to thank Grimnack and Benthino for the reviews. As always, they are appreciated.

That's all for now.

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Dreadburner94.