Fairy Tail was in total uproar.
When Zeref, Aki, Natsu, and Wendy had disappeared, the rest of their little group had hopped on the earliest train to Magnolia. Gray was acting smug, as though his point had been proven perfectly, but more so was he stressed about how Wendy was – he was too furious with Natsu to care if he was in trouble. That dragon slayer deserved what he got after welcoming the Black-winged-Mages into their lives, in his opinion.
A day later, and they had told the authorities – nothing. (You honestly thought that Fairy Tail would notify the authorities of anything? Have you watched through the entire show? Actually, have you watched even one season? Literally the first—episode?) They had, however, contacted Crime Sorciere, who had immediately rushed over to help. They had debated telling Blue Pegasus and Lamia Scale, but had decided that keeping the fact that they were – or had been – harboring the Black Mages on the down low.
When they received the letter from Wendy, Master Makarov had just broken down, sobbing that he was 'going to quit this dragon forsaken guild.' In his stead, Mira had taken over, sending Erza and Jellal to retrieve the four. She had innocently said that Jellal was quite strong and had interacted with Aki before, that Erza was the most responsible S-class wizard they currently had a hold of, and that Lucy, who had seemed a prime candidate for her involvement in the original acquisition of the two mages, was needed for help keeping the library clean. While she had fooled nobody – everyone in Fairy Tail knew that she was the guild's official match-maker – she had convinced them to let Erza and Jellal go alone, and she was perfectly satisfied with that.
Erza was flustered to say the least as she hopped onto a train with Jellal, who had his entire face covered in cloth, looking like a knock-off Mystogan (not nearly as fashionable.) This hid his identity, of course, but it had the added benefit, in his opinion, of not letting Erza see how flustered he was. After ten minutes awkward silence, Erza decided to speak first.
"So," she said in a forcibly business-y tone, "you've met Aki and Zeref, right?" She internally facepalmed; she was the one to whom Jellal had originally reported his strange encounters to.
Jellal nodded.
"What-"
He seemed to crick his neck as he turned away from the window he had been staring determinedly out of to look at her. "No, I've only interacted with Aki."
"Oh!" Erza laughed; Jellal, thanking all that was magical that she couldn't see how red his face felt, still felt he was going to die. "Well, what was she like?"
"She was…" Jellal trailed off, trying to figure out how to explain the oddity of the girl. "She was definitely weird."
Erza looked at him expectantly. When he didn't elaborate, she prompted, eyebrows raised, "Anything else?"
"Ah…" Jellal scrambled to find words to say. He needed to take this seriously, not be so distracted by her… her. She was managing it, so why couldn't he? "Well, um… she was… uh…"
What he didn't know was that Erza was definitely not managing it. At least, not really. She was, per usual, pushing her feelings down and away, focusing as much as possible on the situation at hand. So she was able to briskly interrupt his rambling, saying, "I remember you said that she switched between almost personalities really quickly, and that she seemed to take everything as a game?"
Jellal latched onto that statement; somehow, it managed to ground him – or maybe it was just relief that Erza was acting so professionally. "Yes," he said, a bit too much relief making itself known in his voice. He swallowed before continuing, "She did seem to change at the drop of a hat. She was obviously powerful; she could use all sorts of magic – even Lost Magic. I saw her use the Lost Magic Ark of Time; the same magic as Ultear's."
"She knows more than one Lost Magic?!"
Jellal nodded, then paused. "Or so she claimed… She said she could use all ancient magics, actually."
"What other magics can she use? How many do you know of?" Erza pressed, leaning forward. Jellal took a minute to answer. Not because it was a hard question, but because the afternoon sun was shining brilliantly on bright red hair that was falling forward over shining silver armor- he shook himself.
"She, uh, she used some kind of telepathy magic to get us chased by the Rune Knights, then some type of magic that could create doubles of herself without her able to do anything more than wiggle, she used a teleportation magic, the Lost Magic" —he nodded at her— "and possibly some type of magic that can identify drugs."
Erza whistled under her breath. Even without a death curse that had massacred seven dragons, the former Black Mages were a force to be reckoned with… She blinked. "Wait, didn't you say that she didn't attack you at all? When did she get the chance to use Ark of Time? And the other ones?"
"Well, she fell onto a bench from the sky and broke it. That's the short story. The other magics she used, well… they're long stories, too," Jellal chuckled, remembering how ludicrous it had been and would sound now if he told her.
"We have a few hours," Erza pointed out pleasantly. When he didn't respond, she leaned forward again. "Jellal, what happened?"
Jellal paled and blushed at the same time, his face becoming the same pink as Natsu's hair, though Erza, of course, didn't see it. "Oh, uh, okay," he agreed randomly. "Well, uh, I- let's get started on those stories."
Erza nodded, placated, and leaned back against her seat.
"Well, uhm, yeah…"
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"Stop!" he shouted, trailing behind a gleeful little girl.
She was dressed in a black halter-neck wrap dress, the tank top sleeves crossing over each other before wrapping around her neck. The dress went down to her ankles, had a lot of fluttery light layers, and exposed her epigastric region in a triangle caused by the wrapped sleeves and the white strip of fabric that wrapped around her waist. The white fabric was tied in a neat slip knot at her back, leaving two slips of white fabric whose ends were sharply diagonal, starting to cut off at her waist and ending at her knees. Her hair, which was down, was ebony, straight, and layered. The lower half of it reached the middle of her back, while the top half was pixie cut and stuck up like Natsu's.
Jellal nearly tripped as she responded gleefully, "No thanks!"
He and the rest of Crime Sorciere had been searching for the source of the Zeref and Aki-esque magical presence that had permeated every inch of Crocus during the Grand Magic Games. He had felt it since the first Grand Magic Games, but only now that the Tenrou group of Fairy Tail wizards had returned was he able to properly search, for they had agreed to help.
Much to their surprise, however, they had sensed the power the before the games had even begun, and he had managed to source it for the first time after all these years… to a nine-year-old.
If Ultear hadn't warned him that that was how the Black Mage Aki appeared, he might have been rather doubtful – as a matter of fact, a tiny part of him still was. But he had been told as such, so he had opted to be cautious, covertly watching her lick her ice cream on the ledge of a fountain, swinging her feet and watching the passersby.
After a few minutes, the girl, having finished her ice cream, had hopped down from her seat, dress fluttering around her, and directly met his eyes. She had smirked at the surprise that had no doubt registered itself across his face, then taken off into a nearby alleyway.
Jellal, honestly, had been fine with this, as he felt significantly more comfortable in backstreets where fewer people had the chance of recognizing him, and had been expecting to catch up with her quickly, at home as he was. He had, however, been wrong; very, very wrong. He did catch up with her just fine, and he'd nearly caught her several times over the past six hours of running, but that was the thing – nearly. Every time he had gotten within a foot or so of catching her, she had slipped away: Having chased her into a dead-end alleyway, she had dropped, spun on a dime, and run in the opposite direction, all so quickly he hadn't even noticed that she had dropped before she was back at the end of the alleyway.
During this not-so-subtly one-sided game of cat and mouse, he had called out to her many times, and she had steadfastly refused to speak. So he was perfectly justified in his surprise when she responded so casually, as though they had been conversing the whole time.
"Please?" he tried, not really expecting that to work. He wasn't sure how to keep the now open line of communication, well, open. He had said it on an impulse, as she looked so much like a child playing dress up, but he was surprised again as she tilted her head as though considering his request.
"I definitely will not-" she stated, nodding to herself.
He knew that, of course, and thought the fact that he had momentarily believed she might have thought about it to be rather ludicrous on his part. But he was just a foot or so away from her again, and, with night peeking over the horizon, he wanted to apprehend her before she could slip away into the darkness; not to mention, he was rather exhausted from chasing her all over Crocus for literal hours.
He reached out, her sash almost in reach, just a little closer, just a little-
"… keep running!" she crowed, and he found himself, instead of grabbing hold of her train, barreling past her into a wheel cart filled with feathers.
He could hear her peals of mirth as he struggled to pull his head out from the hole that now marred the cart's wooden bottom, covered head to toe in white fluff. "I can't believe you actually crashed into the- Hey!" she shouted indignantly, Jellal having grabbed hold of her wrist.
"Who… are you?" he panted, wondering at how distinctly not out of breath the small girl was.
Said girl didn't struggle, instead opting to look up at him and pout. "Well, who are you?" she retorted, inexplicably accusatory.
Jellal raised his eyebrows. Well, saying 'please' had actually worked, so maybe… "I asked first," he pointed out, doing his best to feign amusement.
Jellal mentally faced-palmed and sighed in relief as she laughed, "Fair enough."
He felt was starting to get the hang of the situation, and, inadvertently, his grip relaxed ever so slightly on her wrist – an act he immediately noticed and regretted as she flicked her wrist up with a broad, taunting grin, effectively snapping it out of his grasp. He didn't manage to get half-way through a muttered oath, though, before he found her wrist back in his hand, and before he could register that, he felt that sinister magical presence flooding over him, roaring in his ears like thousands of voices howling in his head.
Then he was falling, Crocus miles below him. "What the-"
First making sure he still had hold of the girl, thoughts immediately flooded his brain. Should I use my magic? But if someone on the ground senses or sees it and realizes who it belongs to, my magic is unique…
The ground and it's buildings were growing alarmingly fast, a giant snake lunging forward to swallow him hole.
Do I ditch the girl? She'd die, surely? No, she got us up here, probably through some kind of teleportation. She'll be fine on her own.
What had previously been tiny boxes and pinpricks were swelling into miniature houses and doll-sized people.
So I let her go- no, no, definitely not. That must be what she wants. Should I even use my magic, or will she give in and take us back?
The answer to his last question proved to be yes when he felt that heavy, suffocating aura envelope him once more; no, when he realized he was now twice as high up as before, Domus Flau an ant's castle.
"I hope you have some sort of flying magic or something," a voice called over the wind, "'cause I'm not taking you back down!"
Growling, Jellal scowled up at – nothing; the girl was gone.
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Aki materialized on top of a sleeping, black haired mage, crashing into his stomach with all the momentum of her fall.
He lurched forward, hacking up bits of blood, each drop sizzling out of being before even reaching the ground.
"Ak-ki-i-!" he tried to reprimand, but he was too out of breath to speak. Not to mention, he was grinning far too widely to hide his amusement at his younger sister's antics.
"Yes?" she asked, tilting her head in a show innocent of curiosity. He rolled his eyes and closed them. "Wait, no, I wanna chat! I wanna chat!" she objected frantically, rolling off him.
"Yeah? Well I want to sleep," he retorted, eyes firmly shut. He couldn't open his eyes, or he'd see — he shuddered — them.
"But Nii-chan!" she whined, pawing at his robes. When she got no response, she wheedled, "It was really fun! I don't see why you never want to go play with those idiots! Sure, they're weak as hell and so naïve it makes you want to eradicate him, but they are goofy! Come on, Zeref-nii!" she whined again.
He rolled away to his side, repositioning his arm under his head. He felt her scurry round to face him again, and rolled the other way. She followed. "You're not going to let me sleep, are you?" he groaned, eyes still screwed shut.
"Nope!"
"Fine, fine, I'll listen," he grouched, sitting up and opening his eyes. "No! Why are you making that face?" he yelped, throwing his arms over his eyes as though she was harnessing the sun to shine the world's brightest flashlight in his face. "I said I would, alright! Stop with the eyes!"
"I had to make sure you wouldn't play any tricks, Zeref-nii!" she laughed, voice tinkling.
Grumbling, Zeref lowered his arms, rolling his eyes after he knew she could see them. "Well, you got me."
Zeref didn't hate – though he would till the day he died- well, reversed time… would till the day he reversed time deny it – the Puppy Dog EyesÔ. It did remind him painfully of Natsu, as he and Aki had always used puppy eyes together – scoring a double-hit and instant triple-KO on him and their parents – but it also reminded him of her, and she was still here, the only thing in the world left for him…
As she started chatting about the chase she had just led some man on to find his goose – both of them ignored the small wave of death that wafted around them – his frown turned up slightly. Never change, Aki-ki…
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Oh, oh, he's here! He's he-e-e-re! Took him long enough! How long before he notices me? … Wait… something's off… Trap?
Aki was sitting under a bridge in Crocus, writing in her notebook, legs swinging idly over the water. She was also paying close attention to the magical signatures of the people around her general location within a five-block radius, eagerly awaiting her next game.
Definitely. He's moving towards me, and there are… five people moving this way… Four… Two…
She smirked, sending the book back into her and Zeref's personal storage dimension. (They would have had their own separate spaces, but since they had been cursed, any magic that can only have one use per person had registered them as one.) I have two playthings today, then?
A crystal ball whacked into her head with an audible crack of her skull, sending her flying sideways into Jellal, who had shot as a golden blur from his spot two blocks away.
"Was there any need to hit her that hard?" he asked, wincing as he examined the blood on her forehead.
Ultear jumped down to the path by the canal, landing next to Jellal, eyebrows raised superciliously. "Jellal, that 'little girl' is Aki. A-K-I," she said the name slowly, emphasizing each letter. "We can't take any risks."
Both mages jumped as a voice agreed amiably, "She's absolutely right, you know. You shouldn't take any risks with us."
"Aki!" Ultear raised her arms, dropping into a fighting stance as crystal balls multiplied around her. She noted tensely that not only was Aki awake, but the lump on her head and even the blood in her hair had vanished.
Jellal, who still had hold of the tiny girl, shifted her until he was holding her from behind, his grip around her arm pits making it difficult for her to move at all; her feet didn't even reach the ground. "Move, and you'll get hurt," he warned her.
Aki merely giggled, putting the other two on an even higher alert, and did her best to wave her arms in surrender, still firmly trapped.
"We said not to move," Jellal growled.
"But why-y-y-y-y-y?" Aki whined playfully.
"Because you're an evil fiend, and we want to destroy you?" Ultear suggested darkly.
"Look, if moving means that you guys will be able to 'destroy me,' I'll go get Zeref-nii and you can do us both in," Aki offered cheerily.
Jellal and Ultear exchanged looks. "What are you talking about?" Ultear demanded, crystal balls inching closer.
Aki laughed, eyes glinting. "Oh, this, that, hat, bat…"
Ultear's eyes narrowed. She sent one of the balls directly into Aki's stomach with a sickening squelch, causing the other to curl in Jellal's grasp. "We're not here to play your games, Aki," she snarled, watching Aki heave, blood spattering the pavement.
But it evaporated, and she chuckled, lifting her head; her wound had already healed itself, no blood left on her lips. "And I ask again, why?"
Ultear snapped, striding forward and grabbing Aki's hair, pulling her face to meet hers. Both she and Aki entirely disregarded how it wrenched painfully on her trapped arms. "Listen hear, Aki," she growled hatefully. "I've met you, so don't try some kind of cutesy attitude; it's not going to get you anywhere. We're taking you with us. We can't kill you, but that doesn't mean we'll just let you roam free."
Aki sniggered, meeting the ice-hard gaze with easy amusement and a superior smile. "Ooooo, so scary!" she mocked, flapping her hands. "Also, I don't remember being that evil on Tenrou. In fact," she added gleefully, grin broadening at the look on Ultear's face, "I believe you were the ones who attacked the island? Calling us 'Kyou-'"
She was interrupted by her own grunt of pain as Ultear's knee landed in her gut. "You fiend!"
"Ultear," Jellal warned, throwing her a look.
Aki chuckled, spitting blood that vanished before hitting the pavement. "That goes without saying, Ultear-chan."
Ultear snarled, but relented nevertheless. She turned to Jellal. "Ready?"
He nodded, and he and Ultear turned around, taking a step forward just to come face-to-face with- another… Aki?
"What-" Jellal started.
Ultear wheeled around, punching Aki hard in the gut. "I said no games, Aki!" She felt an arm on her wrist and glanced up, wholly exasperated with her partner. "Jellal, I thought you- Eh?"
"Would you not do that?" a third Aki asked, hand on Ultear's wrist.
"It's just that, while dying would be great, pain is, well, not all there." A fourth Aki grinned from behind the third.
"And I'm no masochist!" a fifth Aki called out, her head popping up out of the crowd – crowd? Jellal and Ultear's heads snapped back and forth, utterly bewildered by the sight of more than a dozen Akis surrounding them.
"That's the truth!" The Aki in Jellal's arms put her hand out to high five another one.
"Aki, quit it!" Jellal growled, giving her a shake.
"Okay!" she replied cheerfully, and all the Akimposters vanished. Ultear glanced warily at Jellal.
He shrugged. "I told you what happened yesterday, didn't I?"
"Oh, I told someone, too!" Aki chattered excitedly.
"Yeah? Well, we don't care, so shut up," Ultear snapped.
Twenty minutes later, however, they were still in the same canal that supposedly extended just a couple blocks. Ultear looked about ready to torture the answer out of her, but Jellal took over, sighing, "Aki, whatever you're doing, please stop."
"Whatever?" she checked doubtfully. "Are you sure-"
"Yes!" Ultear snapped. "Of course we're sure!"
Aki still seemed uncertain, but, after a second, shrugged. "Alright…" she said wearily, shaking her head the centimeters in each direction she could in Jellal's grasp. "On your own heads be it… Uh, you might want to move pretty quickly to wherever you were taking me."
"And why's that?" Ultear ground out.
"Oh, well," Aki said easily, a smirk twitching the sides of her worried frown, "now that I'm no longer communicating telepathically with the Rune Knight Squad that is assigned to protect the sweet little girl" —she made an overexaggerated sad puppy face— "being targeted by mages, I think they might, you know – oh, here they are!"
A magic bullet shot Jellal in the back, and, though it did no damage, it succeeded in forcing him to drop Aki, who immediately fell to the ground. She sat up slowly, wincing, affecting pain but waving at them, rune knights behind her.
"You little-!" Ultear started, but she was cut off as Jellal grabbed her hand and activated his magic. As the golden light enveloped them and they shot off, both members of Crime Sorciere glanced back; the soldiers had reached Aki, whose smirk was so wide, they could have seen it from atop Mercurius.
So ended the third day of wanted mages cat and mouse, score: 2-0, Aki.
{-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-}
Yayyyyyyyy~~
Oh, precious Wendy. Annoying Gray. (Thanks, Mira-chan!)
Even a little Jerza just makes my day (v)
Do you think I let Zeref have too much joy from Aki chattering telling him about Crime Sorciere? I'm not entirely sure how much he could be allowed to have at that time... (That. That sounds. Like. Really bad. Oh dear. Hm. Uhm. Welp. I've got a chronic case of 'Writer Syndrome' where I am unable to not give the characters horrible tragic backstories. It's coming. It's coming~)
I actually have all these chapters in proper book format and am changing it to internet format. It's... It's really... exciting... I also have to combine chapters to make decent length instalments for you guys. I didn't have to do that, but I always love when a fanfiction has longer chapters, so. That's. That's what I did. (I know, my inner commentary is absolutely fascinating.)
Previous Question (III)
Who would you most want to be friends with?
My Answer: Natsuuuu. I just, I love his- I- not exactly dorky but weird- it- and his smileeeeee- I would love to spar with him all the time. He's so niiiiiiice when he needs to beeee. AAAAAAAAAAAAAA ASDHlfasdhf;HSD:FiaseN:NFjSd;vbads;ONISdnvDVn:DSna;lfknDASNVCNXZ;O
My second is Zeref, obviously.
In third place is Sherria and Orga. Tied for fourth are Hibiki (shut up, he has a mini character arc and he's really nice{maybe nice isn't the word, considerate? I don't know}), Sting, Yukino, Meledy, Irene, Larcade if his magic wasn't so obscene, Panther Lily, Lyon, and Lucy.
I know, my list is pretty weird. ¯\_(ツ)_/¯
New Question (IV)
Who would you least want to be friends with? (No 'bad guys.' As in, no one you view as a villain, not necessarily who is or is not canonically a villain.)