{Author Notes}
Okay, really quick. I want to say, go read State of Independence by Crimson Starbird. And when that's done, once more, read His Backstory by Miralake. These two stories are really good and they have so little views. I don't care if you drop this chapter to go read them, because they do deserve more exposure.
That's it for now.
There was a rumor that meeting your doppelganger would lead to one's death. However, if that was the case, who would be the doppelganger? Are you really meeting your doppelganger, or are you that familiar stranger's doppelganger? The rumor suggests the original may die, so what if you don't die but your doppelganger dies? Does that mean you're the doppelganger then? Or would it mean that you would now be the original, being the only survivor?
All in all, the rumor can simply boil down to this: if two people with the same face meet, one of them is going to die.
"Y-You have my..." Kain Reynolds was even having trouble forming proper words in his own mind as he stared down the stranger with the same face as his.
Pierre laughed, a chilling laugh. It was insane, it was mad—it was also done by a voice who many in Fairy Tail always heard as calm and honest. So not only were their minds confused, but their emotions on the familiar but horribly different voice were all over the place.
"Yes! We share the same face!"
At that very moment, Mystogan, who was on the other line, had his eyes widened. Pierre and Kain shared the same—his thoughts went blank when he noticed his reflection on a nearby window in the alleyway he was hiding in. Looking at his reflection made him realize: Kain was the same as him! Kain is from another world, and much like a certain masked individual, he shared the same face with someone who was born naturally in this world! Kain is the outsider who shares the same face as the original of this world! Which meant that Pierre is the Earthland version of Kain!
(Damn! I never even thought about Kain meeting his doppelganger of this world!)
Back at the guild, Pierre raised an open palm out towards the young man in red armor. "Ever since I first saw you on the papers after the Phantom Lord War, I knew I had to meet you! I counted every single gaps between the seconds just so that I could meet you! But I wanted it to be perfect! I wanted the two of us to meet in a way that would shake the very foundations of this world!" Pierre screamed like a passionate actor fully immersing himself into his role. However, as soon as he said al this, his crazed smile stopped and he turned slowly towards the captured Fairy Tail members with a look so empty and cold, even Natsu could feel a chill down his spine. "But every single time I wanted us to meet, they got in the way. And a great fool even made sure I couldn't meet you."
Because of the link, even Laxus could hear this familiar voice. Even though he had just fought someone more powerful, the guild master couldn't help but feel the wrongness of that voice, the cold—lifeless but baleful voice expressing it's hate towards him.
Physically, Pierre turned back and Kain swore he could see the man's pupils trembling greatly despite the muted actions of his body. "But I was patient. I knew you would come back for them if they were in trouble, you liked them. So I thought, if they were in trouble, they would want you back." Pierre's twisted smile seemed to grow larger than a face should have allowed. "So I devised all of this to bring you here so our first real meeting would be so beautiful!"
As he threw his hands, the sounds of distant crashes, and pained screams of agony and chaos filled the air outside along with the ground shaking where they stood. The sky was still dark and cloudy, and soon smoke was starting to rise.
"What do you think?! Isn't it beautiful?!" Kain could only stare in horror as Pierre's—his own face looked it he was flushed with embarrassment and pride—almost like a bride meeting the man of her dreams.
The young man's mind could only act in one way.
BAM!
In a flash of red, Kain closed the distance and punched the doppelganger in the face, and caused him to fly through left over debris. "I AM SO GOING TO NEED THERAPY AFTER THIS!" The boy could only scream at the top of his lungs to get his mind off the fact he had a psychopathic doppelganger lusting after him like the Joker would to Batman. He was a normal person dammit! Did he really need a Joker Complex Villain!?
The boy shook his head and tried to bring things back to perspective. "Whatever you did to the Gildarts Shift System, undo it right now!" The boy called out.
Pierre got back up, but instead of answering, all he did was start to laugh and laugh.
The longer this went, the more Kain saw the madness of the Joker in Pierre. As cool as he always saw Batman, Kain in no way wanted to deal whatever complex comic book plot problem that was coming his way while in a world of anime. He decided to attack once more—
"Kain, look out!" The warning from Natsu came out too late as a piece of wood curled up from the floor and ensnared around Kain's waist before throwing him into the floor where the ground beneath him suddenly turned into many sharp, wooden spikes. Kain held his hand out and a blade appeared and he used it to cut both the bind around his waist and the spikes in one massive arc. He back flipped somewhat before he noticed a plank of wood throw pieces of Pierre's mask right back at the doppelganger. In the air the mask started to reform but Pierre was running up, caught the mask with one hand, twirled mid run to put it on and grabbed a blue, runic dagger with his other hand, and as he finished his circle, he had already closed the distance between Kain and him and tried to stab downward.
Kain caught the hand coming down with his right hand and threw his left hand back to deck his opponent hard. However, something quickly pulled and ensnared the very left hand when it was recoiling back. Kain looked towards his back to see the guild's plank floors had all whipped towards him and trapped his arm from following through. Kero instantly tossed his dagger while Kain was looking back and with one sweeping motion, used his free hand to grab the tossed dagger and bring it right down on a distracted Kain.
The armored rider saw this from the corner of his eye. He let go of Pierre's hand and punched the other one with the dagger to make him miss, then followed up with a back hand right into the face of Pierre, who started to fly somewhat from the increased strength. Kain's free right hand started to glow as he brought it back down to cut the wood ensnaring his left.
"Behind you, Kain!"
Kain turned around before he noticed something beneath him. It was runes of this world all written as, "Rise".
Suddenly, the ground beneath him launched up and slammed Kain into the roof, pining him there.
Kero Pierre stabbed into the ground, and his runic dagger started to carve more of these glowing symbols into the floor. The word, "Spike" was written and multiplied before scattered all across the floor. Then the wood and steel from below shot out with intent to impale where Kain was pinned down.
The red rider saw this and unleashed his wings to push himself out and fly near the roof of the Fairy Tail guild, avoiding the many spikes trying to turn him into a kabob. He barely dodged some, punched through others, but when one cut him off, he front flipped into it so that his feet would land on it and he jumped off faster then punched the ground that Pierre jumped away from and landed nearby debris of some of the tables.
Pierre touched the table, and soon it started to glow with more runes written on them, all of them having the rune, "Guardian."
All the broken wood started flying towards Pierre and then started to form a twenty foot tall golem made of chairs, Cana's barrels, and other miscellaneous items.
"Of course when the thrown objects finally fight back it's against the one person that destroyed them the least." Kain muttered under his breath before summoning another blade and running forward, he avoided a powerful blow from the makeshift titan that was strong enough to make the guild shake, and slowly wake up the rest of the guild members.
Kain tried to close the distance, but the giant golem was gaining more arms from the debris it kept absorbing and using them to attack Kain and ward him further away, not only that, the holes on the floor were getting larger, and the space around the red rider was slowly being limited.
The displaced boy did look up to see that more and more people were waking up, but it was only for less than a second or else he might be knocked down who knows how far down. However, this gave him an idea.
Kain stood his ground as another barrage of punches came his way. He then threw one blade right for the first arm coming his way that stabbed right into the fist—then Kain sped right for it and punched the handle, causing that hand to forcibly split open and caused the two split parts to get hit and cluttered with all the other arms. During the moment of discord, Kain used the arms as platforms to get closer to the head of the golem and cut his head off in one swoop. Or at least that's what should have happened.
The head split open before Kain could make the move and ensnared the young man all together. At that very moment, the symbol of 'Guardian' turned into 'Cage'. The form of the guardian instantly broke and all raced to trap the displaced user and as it did, Pierre was kneeling on one of the wood planks rising above the trap.
Pierre jumped back as some of the floor started filling back, but a second later he side stepped to avoid a chunk of wood stabbing into him like it did into a pillar previously behind him. The cage of Kain started to crack all over before it exploded, launching fast moving debris everywhere.
The masked clown could only laugh and laugh before calming down, as if the fight from a while ago didn't phase the insane man at all. "That is quite a funny toy you have there. I hear it is nearly immune to certain magics and greatly resists others." The clown started to encircle Kain as he said this, with Kain moving along to keep the distance between them manageable.
Kain was silent. Pierre did know his abilities if he was talking with the others the time before this uprising. Considering how the maniac orchestrated all this, did that mean he had a way to get around the armor as well?
"Kain, above you!"
The boy from another world heard his friends cry out that something was attacking him from above. For an instant, Kain looked up and saw a smaller humanoid, wood golem with a rune he didn't recognize on his fist. The red rider slashed the golem, but the hand had fallen on his head. When this action happened the rune attached itself to Kain's forehead lit up with the word, 'Pain'.
In one instant, Kain was seen screaming like a banshee and dropping to the floor. He writhed in pain as his body spasmed about like a headless chicken.
However, Pierre noticed that the runes themselves were actually burning off Kain's armor and some seconds later, they were burned off completely. As soon as they were, Kain stopped trashing around and panted for air on the floor.
"I see, the armor does negate the runes I put on you. But I calculated at least ten seconds before it wore off. I have a feeling it'll burn those runes faster now, but until then..." Pierre stabbed his dagger into the floor.
This action made more spikes launch themselves at the weakened Kain, but all of them had varying levels of words written on them such as 'Anger', 'Malevolence', 'Despair', 'Hatred', 'Blindness', 'Madness', and other words describing pain, aliments, and emotional states.
Kain's screams filled the guild and soon, it filled the link all of Fairy Tail was connected to.
All the while, Pierre, in control of the physical guild, making the very foundations and items used in everyday attack the weakened warrior and tossing him around the guild like a game of pin ball.
"I always tire in a battle, it's so droll, inelegant, and it makes people truly boring." Pierre, while sitting on an unused bench, complained before Kain's body fell a few feet in front of him. "At least your armor has been adapting to my magic, now I'd say I have even less time for my runes to affect you, but the fact that you are still makes this a done deal."
As Kain tried to get up, Pierre shot another rune word that landed on Kain's stomach: 'De-power'.
Everyone, including Kain, instantly knew that without his armor, the boy from another dimension was utterly defenseless. Before he could even try and make a move to power back up, the rune word of 'Freeze' was shot and attached to his arm.
"There, now you have no resistance to all of my spells," Pierre sat on the chair with his hand supporting his mask as if it was a part of his face. "Now, I am still rather curious, do you have anything to counter this?"
Pierre threw his other hand that launched one last word that slapped itself into Kain's forehead…
'Suicide'.
Everyone trapped who was now awake saw the rune and could only gape in horror.
The 'freeze' lock was gone and soon Kain, with a dazed and lifeless look in his eyes, picked up one of his dropped blades and pointed it towards his own neck.
"Kain!" "Don't you dare!" "Stop it!" "Fight it, Kain!" "Don't give in!" "Let go of him, you bastard!"
Those captured could only shout out their emotions as they watched the blade tremble in the displaced young man's hands before it started to push into his own neck where blood was starting to drip.
As the pleas and desperate cries got louder, the ones trying to save Magnolia also felt the emotions and fear of everyone through the link.
"Warren! You're linked to him, damn it! Stop him from doing that!"
"I-I can't do anything like that with my magic!"
Even far away from Magnolia, Mystogan desperately tried to break his curse faster, but no matter how hard he was trying, his magic wasn't coming back to him. (Hurry! I need to make it!)
Pierre could only laugh. "I admit, I too wonder if this will kill you, but then again if you fell for something as simple as this, you wouldn't be as fun." And then he snapped his fingers.
In one instant, Kain's arms pushed outward then quickly launched themselves right back for his nec—
And light filled the guild.
CLANG!
Everyone watched as the blade Kain was previously holding was now flying in the iar and landing far away from the young man that would have almost killed him.
It took Kain a second to gasp for breath as he dropped to the floor. He felt a shadow over him and looked back up to someone now standing right in front of him.
"Sorry it took so long, everyone. This bastard had a complex barrier that even the old man had trouble breaking through from where he was."
Pierre sighed. "Well, I guess that is something. I may have gone too far."
The displaced young man could only stare in disbelief before getting back up. "L-Loke?"
The Celestial Spirt Leo, or Loke of Fairy Tail was now standing in front of Kain with his fists glowing brightly while sporting a new sharp tuxedo.
"I was sort of hoping to be coming here to save Lucy like a proper knight in shinning armor, not saving a night in shinning armor. It's funny when one thinks about it." The returning celestial spirit began before looking back at Pierre with a glare. "It's even weirder to think I'm saving a 'knight in shinning armor' from an evil version of himself—so all in all, it's good to be back in Fairy Tail again."
Loke's smile shifted into a tense battle look as he turned with his palm open to blast a measly metal dagger.
SLINK!
The Celestial Spirit's pupils expanded then shrunk before his body reacted violently and coughed over, while reaching for the second knife lodged into his abdomen that was somehow hidden by the first one
"Loke!" Kain activated his armor and was about to pull the blade out, but he was knocked back by the ground coming up and smacking him away into the stage.
Loke felt extreme pain and a disconnection from his magic. A second later a hand picked his chin and forced him to look up to the shadow covered mask with an eerie smile.
"Welcome back." Pierre spoke simply before the hand around his chin then wrung the neck of the handsome spirit. "And goodbye."
With more strength than he showed, Pierre threw Loke over head, and as he did, all around the guild, runes appeared with the word, 'Spike' and instantly, pieces of the guild shot out like bullets all with the intent to turn Loke into swiss cheese.
However, a blur of red crushed and slashed all spikes from hitting the air borne spirit. Kain had powered up once more and got Loke in a stead position. "Should we remove that?" The red rider asked as he looked at the dagger, unsure if pulling it out would casue more bleeding or not.
Loke, using both his hands, pulled out the blade with a pained scream but no blood came out. "Man, I gotta say it's great being a spirit again, otherwise..."
The two looked up to Pierre who was just… standing there. The mask he was wearing could hide any emotion from being read on his face.
The air around the clown was unreadable, but there was something off in the air than compared to the insanity from awhile ago.
"By the gods, your cockroaches follow you everywhere. You know what? I'm getting a little tired of keeping them around."
No sooner than he said this, a scream filled the air. Everyone followed it to Lucy who was now screaming as blood started to appear on the side of her hip.
"Lucy!" Loke and everyone else cried out. The spirit looked over to Kain, who shared a silent nod before they both raced for their intended targets.
Loke reached for those imprisoned while Kain tackled Pierre out of the guild building to prevent more of his forced home field advantage.
What Loke didn't know was that the restraints of the Fairy Tail members were all booby trapped. As soon as he broke Lucy free to save her, her restraints all turned red…
Meanwhile, Kain was trying to push Pierre away from doing anything more harmful towards Lucy, but while pushing him, Kain felt his hand grabbed and he was judo thrown off the Fairy Tail platform and into the sky above Magnolia. His cape expanded into wings and as he stabilized before he felt a presence above him and looked up towards the clouded sky.
Pierre had created two giant runes, "Wing' on both sides that formed into large, pseudo wings.
"Why are you fighting so hard for them? You are better than all of them combined." Pierre began as Kain did his best to focus on his enemy despite the cries off everyone below. However, one great thing about with his heightened senses, it sounded like Fairy Tail and some of Phantom Lord were able to finally minimize the chaos from the shift system.
"Uh excuse me? That is the very first time since I've heard that I am better than other people, especially people who could do super human feats as naturally as breathing air." Kain was a person who didn't have a lot of self confidence. He had enough, but it was more or less on the lower side, to hear about how he was better than certain amazing people baffled him to no end.
"Oh my, you're really too far gone," Pierre put a hand on his face that almost looked like a mother worried for their child. "For your sake, I must get rid of all of them."
In front of such a dark implication as mass murder and with obvious realization that Pierre could do such a thing, Kain valiantly tried to stop him.
"Can you not!? That in no way will make me happy, you obsessive lunatic!" Alright, he screamed out in annoyance and small parts sarcasm, but we could pretend he was more heroic than that.
"Why do you defend them so much? They are all holding you back." The voice of Pierre actually sounded genuinely curious, and obviously made no attempt to correct Kain's insults.
"How the hell are they holding me back!?" Kain cried out as if it was the most obvious thing in the world.
The red armored young man was about to say more, but to his surprise Pierre had an answer to that question that was supposed to be rhetorical.
"Because they aren't helping you get home."
Kain froze for a second, even his anger and his sarcasm gone in that instant when he heard about the word home.
Pierre lifted his arms. "Fairy Tail is far too open with it's information if one simply asks. I learned about you from what everyone said, and they all told me how you came from a different place from here and have been trying to find your way home, but that is besides the point. Haven't you noticed yet? Not once has anyone in the guild actively tried to help you find a way home."
"That's a lie!" Kain thought back to a period before their battle with Phantom Lord began. "We tried searching though a large amount of books containing lost spells and we found nothing on them!"
"And how did you find them?" Pierre asked before answering for him. "By pure coincidence. In fact, you were originally helping someone else in a simple task before it escalated into something worse, didn't it? And it wasn't just that, from all of your so called friends, they mention that whenever you are around, things radically escalate from simple adventures. The only reason why you found those books was because you had the luck of a demon, not because Fairy Tail was helping you. Answer me this: have you found any leads or has anyone from the so called greatest guild ever helped you with finding information on your goal?"
Kain knew Pierre was telling the truth about the lost spells they had found. What irked him was how that he thought back, no one but him was actively searching for a way back. "T-They're helping in their own way!"
Pierre shook his head in disappointment. "My point, Kain, is that Fairy Tail isn't as great as you think it is. They're only glad you're there to help them out of their messes, but when it comes to you they so conveniently forget it in response to their adventures."
"T-That's not..." Despite how much he wanted to deny that, Kain couldn't really find himself completely against Pierre, and that horrified him.
Then Pierre put both hands on his chest with an eerie tenderness to them. "But I can do so much more! I know a way back for you!"
Kain's eyes widened as he looked up to Pierre in utter shock. This madman knew a way back home?! That was a lie! It had to be a lie… Kain, you need to shout out loud and call him a liar!
"You… You do?" The boy from another world asked softly in disbelief.
"I admit, it's mostly a rumor, but in my travels, I've heard of a story of the ability to travel to 'far away lands that distance cannot measure'." He then tilted his mask towards Kain's direction. "But when I met you, I realized that it was true! This must have been the clue you need to get back home, Kain, and I know where it is."
He raised a palm out to the boy in red armor. "And I can bring you there, all you have to do… is abandon everyone here and never look back."
Only when Kain gasped for air, did he realize that he wasn't breathing. Was that it? A clue on how to get home from this world has finally revealed itself?!
But… abandon his friends? C-Could he do that?
Wait a second. "W-Why can't I hear the link?"
"Oh, right. That." Pierre gave off a scoff. "Let's just say I dislike it when the audience believes itself part of the play and tries to intervene. I couldn't disconnect it, but I have faced and seen telepathic magic before and I do know how to disrupt certain aspects of it."
There was a sound back in the guild that made Kain look back and see blasts of magic start to go out of the broken guild that was pushed up into the sky. He swore he could see shadows of something inhuman among the holes and soon realized the restraints had traps in them.
"What are you doing to them!?" Kain demanded before Pierre simply sighed.
And then the guild started glowing red.
Back inside, as Loke freed everyone else and helped those previously capture with Lucy's well being, but they all armed themselves with their magic as they noticed runes all over the guild that were different than the ones he was using to fight Kain with... these... these were written in blood.
However, suddenly more runes written all over the guild started to appear and glow red. The runes had different words in them this time such as 'Doom' 'Greed', 'Hate', 'Fear', and 'Chaos'. The words written in blood started to grown and form together to make amalgamations of monsters of words.
For example, 'Doom' turned into a bipedal beast with the 'D' as a maw the 'OO' as the torso and the M as three spinal legs. This one thing took half the size of the guild and roared in such a way that could give Ignis a run for his money.
'Greed' was much smaller, becoming more snake-like and elongated, but there were many of them. They were much like 'Hate' in that regard, many but small. Hate was designed in such a way where the H was a jagged, angry looking head to a creature with T for arms, a crude A for hips, and a strange E for legs.
'Fear' was true to it's word, unlike the two ground bound ones, this one sprouted ink like tendrils that kept it airborne and gasped and hissed like a creature of nightmares.
And lastly, 'Chaos' was a massive beast, no longer looking like a word, but an actual monster made from blood.
"What the heck!? He had that much time to make all of this?!" Gray cried out before the bloody words attacked Fairy Tail.
"They're fighting with words, and I do mean that in the most literal of sense." Pierre offhandedly mentioned. "It was so I could have this conversation with you. Now please answer. If you come with me and leave this place, we can truly begin your journey home." And then the clown offered an open palm towards Kain, waiting for his answer.
Kain thought about it. This was his chance to finally go home! To be honest, this adventuring had gotten more and more dangerous, even with a supposed super weapon in his possession, Kain did worry that with the rising stakes, he might end up dying before he could find his way home. This could be it, this could finally get him out of this place for good!
… But… could he leave his friends, especially at this state they were in?
"N-No! I can't leave them like this! It wouldn't feel right!" Memories of when Kain had first met with Natsu, about him saying how he couldn't meet his father so recklessly, returned. Kain had told Natsu to be careful in taking risks, and now? He was also taking that advice—no matter how much he wanted to go against it.
Kain instantly paused when he saw Pierre's open palm now curl into a trembling fist. "They have brainwashed you, turned you into one of those boring people! I now know I must save you, from them!"
Pierre slammed his hands together, and soon the barriers all around the city that were made by Freed started to activate again and shine red, even the guild was shinning brighter than before.
They all had a rune that Kain could read as, 'Explosion'. All through out every corner of the city, the rune explosion appeared, even the underground where the space was empty and some of the disabled or destroyed movement runes were now shinning red.
Pierre was going to nuke Magnolia off the face of the map even though he didn't know what a nuke was!
"Do not fear, Kain!" Pierre shouted over the maddening humming sound echoing as one all throughout Magnolia, "With us this high up, we can fly further away so that we will be unharmed and you shall be free of your shackles forever!"
"Undo this! Undo this now!" Kain yelled as he looked back down. He saw people, injured and scared, looking more horrified as a red light shone around them, he watched as fellow Fairy Tail members desperately tried to break those barriers or disable the runes to no avail, he even saw the ones in Fairy Tail, the blasts coming out of the guild stopped dramatically and a few lights were being snuffed out inside the red light. The light was growing brighter, and with each second, hundred, maybe even tens of thousands were going to die.
And Pierre could only laugh, and laugh all throughout it.
Kain cried out, he practically begged Pierre to stop, but by then Pierre was in his own world, laughing and laughing as the humming sound reached the sky.
The young man was desperate—please! Anyone! Help!
But help wasn't coming this time. This time, his brain pulled out a plan… a plan… that wasn't really a plan at all.
Pierre… finally stopped laughing.
SPLATTER!
Even he couldn't laugh with a red blade stabbed right through his heart.
Pierre looked down, and his mask fell into the earth below, showing a face of disbelief to see a red blade pushed into his own heart… with Kain holding it with trembling hands.
The sword glowed, and instantly, Pierre's runes shattered like glass, there were even runes he wrote on his own body that vanished as the magic disruption blade pierced into his body.
The magic all around Magnolia had slowly faded, as did the light in Pierre's eyes. Kain could only watch as the light slowly left his eyes—Kain's eyes. It was like he killed himself.
And the moment before Pierre lost himself, he looked towards Kain… with tears and a look of hurt betrayal in his eyes. "I… I thought we would be friends..." Even though he was a madman, why did he so perfectly capture the look of someone so broken hearted and betrayed?
And then, Pierre was lost, his body slipped down from Kain's blade as he fell into the ground. The boy could only look away. Unfortunately for him, his enhanced hearing made him hear the splat.
Silence was now all around Magnolia, except in the skies where a boy could only quietly sob… after his very first kill.
Everything after Pierre's defeat was both slow and fast while a lot but nothing at all. Time passed quickly, but it felt so slow. Or rather, everyone was already quick to try and rebuild while Kain seemed… distant. Everyone in Fairy Tail could tell what had happened in order for Kain to stop everyone from dying, but the young man was a silent as an empty room. His eyes seemed to look right through you and he kept looking at his hands which just still trembled.
While Kain himself seemed distant, everyone rounded up all of Elpton's men and the ones to pick them up were not the Rune Knights, but the Fiore Royal Army, who was currently helping the Magic Council while they were still in repairs with their main branch being temporarily destroyed. To the surprise of many, Mystogan reappeared and gave good news that Macao would be fine, he would just need some rest before he would return. The masked mage seemed to also have a private word with Laxus before leaving to wherever he was, but not before expressing his thanks to Kain.
As night fell, there was one last thing Fairy Tail had to talk about. Laxus.
Understandably, many people were pissed off at Laxus for not only kick the ex-members out, but harassing those that remained.
Laxus himself seemed unusually silent, taking their complaints with an unreadable face. However, there was even talk by more passionate members to kick Laxus out for such a cruel treatment of his guild members, while the Thunder Legion was against that, they were starting to get out voiced by a majority of people.
To the surprise of many, Kain broke his silence and actually defended Laxus. He argued what Laxus did was wrong, horribly wrong. But they couldn't kick him out, not when the Magic Council was still under repairs. They were the ones that choose Laxus, and as much as they all wanted Laxus out, if he was impeached, that would put Fairy Tail in a worse relationship with the Magic Council for kicking out the leader they choose while they were in disarray.
In other words, due to political machinations, Laxus was still the best guild master for Fairy Tail to avoid scrutiny and wrath of the Magic Council. Even though he deserved to be kicked out, they couldn't not with Fairy Tail threading so thinly on ice with the past battles and political standing.
However, while Kain's explanation killed any ideas to kick out the fourth guild master, the young man did look back towards Laxus.
The young man gave a small smile. He then said something weird that almost no one understood but the two of them. "Can you really call us weak now, master?"
Laxus could only scoff. Kain then took his scoff to properly announce that if people wanted to, they could return and join Fairy Tail properly. If they did, they would receive bonuses from Laxus' paycheck.
The blonde dragon slayer stood up, but before he even utter a syllable, Kain spoke out again. He spoke out that what Laxus did was wrong, and while he's keeping the control over the guild, his punishment for causing all of this in the first place was that some of that power was going to be limited. Kain then threatened that he would go back to Hargeon and leave Laxus with all the paperwork that was going towards them if he didn't agree with those terms.
Laxus could only grunt, seeing as how the paperwork would only increase tenfold due to all the problems that Pierre caused. He relented and agreed to Kain's decisions. While they weren't perfect, they were something at least to ease tensions between him and the guild.
However, Kain left quickly after it was made. He expressed… being exhausted beyond belief and would not say anything more. He was able to get Ignis and fly back to Hargeon Town, but everyone could tell something was bothering the young man.
The morning after Pierre's attack, Kain returned to the guild and seemed returned to normal, but his closer friends couldn't help but feel something off with him. Natsu, being someone without an ounce of tact, asked him what was wrong. And Kain, being in a complex and confusing state actually answered him.
"I killed Pierre after he told me he knew a clue to get me home." It was like the silence after and before an execution after Kain had so simply stated something amazing—or rather, it started to seem like Kain could only explain it in simple terms.
However, before anyone could properly react to such a sudden input of knowledge, Laxus called up Kain for something early that next morning and the two went off to meet the mayor of the city.
His name was Hollo Biune, an old man who was around Makarov's time, but looked like a normal old man as opposed to the midget the third guild master was. Kain briefly noted in his head that unlike in his world, Mayors could hold office for a much longer time than the ones in his world. The young man also wondered if he was going to complain about the fiasco yesterday.
Image the two, who were preparing for the worst tongue lashing they probably deserved, instead were asked a favor by the mayor to continue the Fantasia Parade later that night.
The two were understandably surprised at the request, even when Hollo explained that he would much like it to continue on because of what happened previously.
"Bad and horrible things do happen, I've seen it before, and it'll keep continuing. But I want the festival to continue as it should have because I want people to know that good times are just as sure as the bad ones. And I would like to remind them that the bad does go away."
Hollo's kind and hopeful words were hard to argue against. Laxus and Kain agreed to the man's favor, half because it was a good idea, and half because they were thankful for not being yelled at. Still, that meant the entire guild had to help with the remain of the floats. With everyone still injured, it was a mad race for everyone involved to create the floats and still make them as beautiful as possible, along with adding some new ideas.
However, with everyone working together, the floats were ready, and even Natsu seemed excited, saying that this might be the best Fantasia Parade yet with what they did.
It was really cold up the roof of the Magnolia Cathedral. It was a rather dark night even though certain streets of Magnolia were lit up like a holiday event. I was stationed, or rather I volunteered to stay in the Cathedral to over look the incoming floats, and to get ready for the special show the Thunder Palace was about to make. (I just needed to be alone for a little more) I was able to reactivate the Thunder Palace to shoot out Fairy Tail symbols and light shows along with the upcoming fireworks. So instead of a weapon, it can be used to entertain people as well.
The communication lacrima on my lap started to glow. "Kain, we're ready to turn down Fogo Street."
I picked it up and answered back. "Alright, floats A-K, slow down your speed, Fogo Street is a curved path. All other floats maintain your speed for several seconds longer before slowing down."
And with that, the drivers of the floats said roger and the parade went as normal. With how everyone was cheering in the distance it seemed to be working better than I expected it to.
There was the sound of feet stepping on the roof that made me snap my head back. "Huh? Master Laxus? What are you doing here?"
The giant of a man started walking before sitting down right next to me. "I doubt people will want to see my face down there."
I shrugged my shoulders, he was right even if he didn't mean for all of that to happen. But I didn't really have any right to refute him, since I wanted to be alone for…
…
I just needed to be alone.
"The bigger question," Laxus continued. "Is why you're not down there?"
I…
{"I… I thought we would be friends..."}
I still kept thinking about that. "I guess I just don't want to be seen right about now." I said as I brought up my binoculars to watch the float where Lucy was. She seemed much better after being stabbed in the hip, and it was good to see her back to her usual self.
"I overheard what you said about Pierre." Laxus blurted out. It seemed like all dragon slayers were blunt as they were prideful. It may have been a stereotype, but I have yet to see it disproved so far.
"Oh." I didn't know what he was trying to say with that opening sentence, so 'Oh' was really the best I could do.
"I… I also heard everything he said to you. When he said he disabled everyone's link, I think he didn't know about link between only you and I that Warren set up." That was interesting, but...
Not only was this a touchy subject, it was kind of awkward that Laxus of all people knew about this more than the others. "So… what do you think?"
"What I think? Brat, what the hell about you? He got under your skin a lot and even when you kill—" I flinched when he said that word. Laxus noticed this and stopped for a second. "When you stopped him," He corrected. "He still said some disturbing things."
"It is pretty disturbing that I killed a man, especially someone with my same face." I gave a weak chuckle after saying that.. Dang, I was already in sarcastic mode. "But I… I didn't really have a choice, did I? It was either him or all of you." Although I said this, I looked back towards my hands, they were trembling again. They became sore again, even though I did my best to wash my hands for almost all of last night, it still felt sore and I could still feel the blood in them.
I could feel Laxus looking at my hands despite me trying my best to not make them tremble.
"When I was fifteen, I was in an A-Class mission that went to shit fast." Laxus suddenly said. "Some asshole was coming at me, trying to catch me by surprise, and I didn't have enough time to control my magic. I ended up shooting a hole through the guy's lungs. He died instantly."
I raised my brow as to why Laxus was explaining this, but soon he elaborated. "It was my first kill in self defense, but I can still remember the look on his eyes just before my thunder blasted a hole in him—or more like I can't forget it. Believe me when I say the days do get easier and the trembling does stop."
I blinked before staring hard at him. Laxus turned his head elsewhere, towards nothing in particular, as if trying to look away from my gaze. It took me a second later to realize this was his way of consoling me. Who knew he could care for others?'
"Thank you Master Laxus," I found myself calling him a master genuinely now. "If I may say, I think you're grandfather would be proud of you right now."
"Psh! The old geezer couldn't care less, and neither could I." Laxus scoffed.
I disagreed with him, but then there was another glow coming from the com links. "Kain, the music shows are ending, we can start the light show now!"
"Roger that." I stood back up and the screen for the controls of the Thunder Palace appeared in front of me.
"I had to leave early because of some issues in the southern part of town," Laxus began before he stood up as well. "What the heck did you guys put for the light show?"
"Oh right. Well, everyone told me about this hand sign that they wanted to be inputted in the light show."
"Hand sign?" Laxus sounded genuinely confused at it.
"You haven't heard of it? Even Lucy said she knew it and we entered the guild at the same time. The others said that master Makarov learned this sign from..." I trailed off, my mind putting two and two together as I looked to Laxus. I could feel a smile forming on my face as the pieces fit together. I handed Master Laxus the binoculars. "Here. You're going to need this more than me."
Laxus was confused as I handed it to him but then I activated the Thunder Palace, the orbs all around started to glow and then they shot to the sky a large Fairy Tail Symbol all above Magnolia.
As soon as it was up, I raised my hand and performed the symbol that the other told me about. My suspicion was right as Laxus looked as if he had seen a ghost when I performed the hand sign. He then found the reason why I gave him the binoculars and used them to look back at the Parade. I knew by then, he was looking at every single member of Fairy Tail raising their hands high up for the same hand sign that Laxus himself had created so long ago.
"And that's the proof, Master Laxus, Makarov never gave up on you." I said before I was surprised by a sight I wasn't expecting: Laxus, the prideful, stubborn, strong mage of Fairy Tail… was crying his eyes out.
He looked at me, and glared at me, but no matter how much he tried, his tears made it hard for me to take him seriously no matter how dangerous he sounded. "Tell anyone this, and I'm killing you, brat!"
I smiled and looked back towards the parade in the distance where the fire works were now let loose and brightened the dark skies around their area. "Don't worry, Master Laxus, I'm taking your secret to the grave with me."
It was a very beautiful parade, even from far away.
{Author Notes}
And that ends this take on the Civil War for Fairy Tail! (imagines Fairy Tail in marvel manner) Ugh, I don't know why but this was much harder to write than the other arcs. What the heck, are the arcs getting harder to write as time progresses?
Also, what the hell guys? You all just did the spoilers anyway. Really? Second, why on earth did you all think Pierre was from Edolas? I put the Mystogan hint there to point you all to the fact he's Jellal's counterpart, which in turn means that Kain is like Mystogan in that he's from another world and has the same face as someone who is in the world he's currently in…
Okay, maybe I was jumping ahead to fast and the hint was more obscure than I thought. But I will state this again, Pierre is the original of Earthland. Kain is from Earth, and if—I will stress this IF very much—there is a third Kain, he would be the Edolas Kain. Pierre is in no way Edolas Kain because he was born in Earthland, there is no alternate timeline where a different Kain fell into Edolas and then somehow fell into Earthland like Mystogan.
But with that all out of the way, I can finally start on a new original arc! I haven't had one since the Isle of the Dead, and this one is going to be different than even the ones I've had so far.
Anyway, thanks for reading guys.
Extra: Wait a second that can't be right.
Freed opened the door. "Yes, all the paper work for the damages and etcetera have arrived."
Kain sighed as he followed the green haired man. "Yeah, I figured let's just get this over..." Kain paused as he witnessed what was right in front of him.
There was a desk with papers all around the table and the floor around the desk. Around half the room was filled with stacks of paper.
"It does seem a like a lot, doesn't it?" Freed began as he saw the brunette pause.
However, just as quickly as he said this, Freed raised his brow when the lawyer returned a look with equal amounts of surprise. "What no! This can't be right, where's the rest off them?"
"The rest of them? This is all of them."
Kain shook his head. "No, the entire City is damaged about the fight, so I expected a room filled with paperwork, not around half."
Freed was rather confused at what Kain was saying. "Are you saying you wanted more paper work?"
"Well, not really, but I know how the rules work here, and the paper work should be more. This isn't enough to cover the damages and repairs of Magnolia and our guild." Kain began explaining to which Freed was starting to get.
"But these are all the papers we've been sent."
Kain put a hand on his chin. "Well if that is the case, where's the rest of the papers? Or more specifically, who could they have been sent to?"
Meanwhile, in Phantom Lord.
"YOU DID WHAT!?" Voyu's voice made an exploding volcano look as pleasant as a sun flower. "YOU DESTROYED THE INTRICATE SHIFT SYSTEM OF MAGNOLIA!?"
"B-But the kid told us to do it!" Gajeel panicked as he stood in front of a very angry soon-to-be new master of Phantom Lord. "We saved lives because of it!"
"Yes, but YOU were the ones who broke it! The Magnolia consensus is blaming mostly you, Gajeel, for breaking the expensive system that's been a part of the city for more than three decades!" The lime haired colored man pointed to Redfox.
"Me!? Sol was the one down there most of the damn time!" As Gajeel tried to find the earth mage, he noticed that there was no sign of the Element Four anywhere near this storm.
"Gajeel," Voyu's voice brought the Steel Dragonslayer back to him. "You do realize that were only a few weeks before we are officially reestablished, yes?!"
Now Gajeel would admit in any day of the week he never knew much about the whole technical stuff, but with how the older man brought that fact up specifically gave the Steel Dragon Slayer a feeling similar to a stomach ache. "W-What does that mean?"
Voyu put a hand on his head, obvious disdain on his face. "Someone get me a call to guild master of Fairy Tail!"
...
"Sooooo because Gajeel Redfox is technically a solo mage, he has to pay for all the damages to the system?" I repeated as I, the Thunder Legion, and Laxus were talking with a larger communication orb with Voyu Carliso on the other end.
"Yes that is basically it. Our assets are still frozen as of right now, and Fairy Tail is already insured on the system." Voyu continued with a sigh and momentarily removed his glasses to rub the bridge of his nose.
"Which means if Gajeel joins Fairy Tail, he can pay off the debt he owes over time instead of all in one go, and the money will go to us." Laxus finished.
"Yes. Considering Juvia is already there, I'm sure you can take another one of ours in at least temporarily."
I saw Laxus' face turning into a frown and then I looked over to him and gave him a look. The blonde Guild master groaned before relaxing into his seat. "Fine. We'll take him in until we can work out more of the politics in this."
"Why thank you, that's very civil of you despite us being mortal enemies/rivals." Voyu smiled before terminating the call.
"Tell me again why we're letting that bastard into the guild after he wrecked it in the first place!?" Laxus looked to me with obvious disdain in his voice.
"Because I told him to destroy those Lacrima in the first place. If anything, we should be apologizing to Phantom Lord for giving them that problem which should have been ours." I returned easily. In all logic and honesty, we should be at each other's throats like we were in the war, but we are weirdly enough on good terms I would very much like to keep. "Come on, Master Laxus. You don't want the guild to be known as shrewd or slimy for pulling off something like that even if it was a mistake."
Laxus groaned again, obviously he didn't like it. But he obviously disliked the idea of people dissing Fairy Tail more. "Damn it. Fine. But you're going to be the one to meet him!"
"Yes sir." Goddamnit. I can tell that this is going to be a long day.
"Master Laxus," Freed began. "What are we also doing about the reporter from Sorcerer Weekly?"
Well double shit. I forgot about that too.
"Just do what we always do." And with that, I took my leave outside the Guild Master's office.
Well, Gajeel is coming and so is the interviewer for Sorcerer Weekly. I can obviously tell this is going to be a long day.
Little did I know how right I was. But that's a story for another day.
Extra # 2: Might as well go all the way.
Mira looked around the near empty guild before looking towards Éclair and Momon. "Have you seen Kain?"
Thunder boomed from the outside before the two shrugged their shoulders. "He said something about fulfilling a… what was it, Momon?" The brunette looked over towards the animated bird.
"I think he said it was something like, "A Childhood fantasy"?" The bird spoke up.
Mira tilted her head in confusion. "What does kind of childhood fantasy does Kain have in a thunder storm as bad as tonight?"
Meanwhile, on the very top of Magnolia Cathedral, a figure stood tall, shrouded in darkness with only the strike of lightning able to show brief flashes of the figure.
"I am vengeance!"
A booming voice began as his cape blew in the wind.
"I am the night!"
Now thunder and lightning escalated in the skies above.
"I AM BAT—!"
And then actual thunder struck Kain Reynolds from completing that last word. The blow of the strike made the young man in red armor drop down and hit almost every part of the cathedral on his way down much like a toy doll falling down some stairs.
However, it landed with a huge thud and groan when Kain fell back into the concrete. Yet even with a nasty fall, Kain was able to point up to the sky.
"You… are not stopping me from doing that, universe! Y-You hear me?! You may throw me at these stupid, life or death adventures, and emotional trauma that will haunt me for the rest of my days, but you will never stop me in living my childhood dreams!" The boy weakly shook his fist at the heavens before collapsing like the idiot he was.