"You guys choose what to do with them."
Lucy gawked at the two bound and struggling people, then at Aki and Zeref sitting beside them. "H-how…?"
Aki shrugged – or, clearly tried. Really, her shoulders sort of winced. "When we aren't restricted, we're pretty powerful, Lucy," she said sweetly anyways. Her face abruptly and instantly became overshadowed, but, Lucy thanked her celestial keys, the look wasn't meant for her. Aki had turned towards the bound man, head tilted and grinning insanely. "Now, what have we learned?" she asked, shadows leaping from their places besides the trees to circle the two. "Will you ever threaten Natsu again?"
The man's eyes widened, and he shook his head frantically, trying, and failing, to scooch away.
"What about you, fool?" Aki asked, turning her terrifying gaze to the bound lady.
The lady trembled, but didn't show any sign of assent.
Lucy's instincts screamed for her to run as far as possible from the apoplectic rage that billowed through the clearing as Zeref stood.
"Can I drown her until she gives in?" Aki asked in a terrifyingly sincere voice.
"No," Zeref replied for Lucy, who couldn't have answered – or moved, for that matter – if she had tried. Any relief was washed clean of her system as he suggested, "We can slowly feed her to sharks until she gives in. Toe by finger, and-"
"You aren't going to do either of those things!" she yelped, cowering slightly as they turned their haunting gazes to her.
Abruptly, disconcertingly, Aki's face flip-flopped back to pleasantness. She laughed, looking back at the lady and chirping, "Looks like Lucy here's saved you from thinking we'd actually do that to you. I wanted to scare you into it," she sighed, shaking her head sadly, "but oh well. I'll be right back, Lucy."
Lucy gaped after her as she hobbled away, vanishing into the slowly lightening forest.
The sun was about to break, the shadows lengthening yet growing less inky, as though spreading themselves out over the earth. Meanwhile, the sky was breaking out in reds and oranges, as brilliant as a dragon's scales.
"Where are they?!"
The furious howl of that mythical beast echoed over the sunrise, each letter sounding closer and more distinguishable than the last.
So they hadn't managed to bring them back before Natsu woke up…
Lucy turned around just in time to see Natsu rocket past her. He slammed headfirst into the two cultists, accompanied by a roar of rage only slightly less terrifying than the Black Mages' quiet wrath.
BOOM!
A tremor shook the island. Resounding over the forest, shaking leaves from their trees, came Aki's voice. "LYNNNNDA! ARCAAAAANE!"
Zeref vanished, and, the ominous air apparently not ominous enough for whatever decided how Lucy would spend her days, another tremor disrupted the poor bit of land. "THE SHARKS ARE READY FOR YOU!"
A pipeline of water dozens of feet thick rose ominously above the trees, its massive shadow swallowing the forest as it pulsed through the sky.
"Natsu!" Lucy screamed as the water twisted toward their tiny clearing.
Natsu jumped out of the way just before the watery snake struck, blocking the two cultists from view. Screams issued from behind the wall of water, bangs and crashes echoing over the island, well, ominously… very, very ominously…
It was always her…
Lucy shrieked as a shark swam lazily by within the deluge. Turning inward, it was swallowed by water's murky shadows.
It was always her!
"Erza, do something!" she shouted, glancing round at the knight expectantly, but Erza shook her head. "But-!"
"They're not hurting them," Erza said easily, grinning as another high-pitched shriek tore through the dawn. "They're just making sure they never try something like this again."
"But-!"
"It also might just save their lives," Jellal commented from beside his scarlet queen. "If they give them a good enough scare, Natsu might not completely kill them."
Natsu seemed to disagree, though, as he punched a fist into his other hand. "Like Edolas I'll let those lizards live another minute!"
Lucy gaped between them, then yawped again, spinning around to a deafening sucking noise; the pipeline of water had disconnected from the earth, revealing two entirely untouched, entirely dead cultists, and two ex-Black Mages.
Natsu made to dash forwards, but Aki shook her head, grinning from her spot on the ground. "Sorry, Natsu-nii-chan, but they're too out of it to react to anything right now. You can't kill them."
Natsu ignored her, scowling as he stomped forward and grabbed the man's collar. Aki sighed helplessly, attempting a shrug, then raising her hand in the 'I-can't-move-my-arms' version of the 'what can you do' gesture.
However, Aki was proved to be quite right in saying that Natsu wouldn't glean the satisfaction he sought now, the man giving no reaction to Natsu's vigorous shaking. "I wanted to kill them!" he howled to the now brilliantly colored sky, producing a plume of flame to compete with the fiery sun.
Zeref's eyes glinted, and Lucy's stomach dropped. "They won't do it again," he commented deliberately, turning again to the lady from before – only, this time, she nodded fearfully, scooting away from him.
Natsu pounced.
"Shouldn't have done that, Zeref-nii," Aki chuckled.
"It was intentional," Zeref replied coolly, disregarding the yelps and shouts of the lady. "I don't want her to even consider hurting him again. Oh."
He and Aki watched interestedly as Erza joined Natsu. First cutting Arcane and Lynda free, she proclaimed, "Fight, you cowards! Fight for your lives!"
"Of course Erza would join him," Lucy moaned, exasperated, witnessing a- well, it wasn't so much a one-sided fight as a one-sided massacre. Of course, it wasn't the first time with Erza, and it wouldn't be the last.
Aki grinned, glancing from Zeref to Lucy. "I wish I could stretch," she moaned suddenly, throwing her head back. The movement proved to be more than her body could handle, and she tipped over backwards. She yelped as her head made contact with the ground, but shook it anyways when Lucy started forward.
Lucy, obviously, ignored this, hurrying forward and helping Aki to an angle. After a minute, Aki repeated, groaning, "I wanna stretchhhhhh."
"Why don't you?" Zeref asked, bewildered.
"'cause of this," she answered wearily, starting to lift her arms – or, arm, rather, her other arm limp against the ground.
Instantaneously, Natsu was at her side, glowering wordlessly down at her.
"See," she grumbled, slumping back into Lucy's arms; Natsu leapt back into the cloud of dust that hid the loudly screeching condemned from view.
"Alright, Natsu," Zeref called after a minute. "They won't hurt you again, so we're happy. Calm down."
Natsu poked his head out, looking furious. "I haven't killed them yet!"
Aki giggled as his head disappeared again. "What about you, Erza?"
Erza called, not bothering to stick her head out, "I haven't killed them yet, either!"
Lucy shook her head in exasperation at her teammates' antics, but, as Aki and Zeref smiled sheepishly at their feet, their faces rather red, she couldn't help a smile. That tint wasn't caused by lighting – the sky was mostly orange now, anyways, the sun too high in the sky to sustain any deeper color. In fact, as the sky's painting grew less and less pronounced, theirs was deepening, turning redder than Erza's hair as the knight and Natsu continued to punish their ex-captors.
"Let's get you guys back to the village, then," Lucy said proactively, glancing around. "Jellal, can you take Zeref? I can't lift him."
"I'm fine!" Zeref blurted immediately, struggling to push himself to his feet. Unfortunately for him and his determination to receive no help, Natsu appeared out of thin air to glower silently at him, just as he had Aki.
Aki sniggered as Zeref quailed, allowing himself, albeit extremely reluctantly and with an air of intense discomfort, to be picked up by Jellal. Jellal, for his part, tactfully didn't look at him, instead starting immediately for the village.
Her laughter died when she met Lucy's eyes. "Sorry, Lu-"
Lucy tapped the top of her head with the back of her hand, forcing down an 'awwwww' when the other blinked like a lost kitten. "Stop apologizing," she rebuked gently, lifting Aki bridal style; Aki winced. "Are you okay?"
"I-"
"You aren't," she amended. "How can I help?"
Aki coughed once, blushing. After muttering incoherently for a moment, her breathing growing heavier, she asked in a forcibly controlled, still painful just-to-hear voice, "I could just wrap my arms around-"
Lucy raised an eyebrow at her, telling her wordlessly that she wouldn't hesitate to tell Natsu on her.
"… Would you lift me a little higher and… and tilt me towards your shoulder?" she mumbled uncertainly, not meeting Lucy's eyes. "If- if you don't mind me leaning against your…" She trailed off.
"Of course."
Giving a weak grin, Aki settled into Lucy's arms; her breathing eased up almost immediately. "Thanks," she murmured, nudgeling her head apparently unconsciously into the crook of Lucy's neck.
"Not a problem. You're a cutie pie, you know?"
Aki nodded absently, making a vague, affirming grunt, confirming Lucy's suspicion that she was, in fact, already mostly unconscious.
Lucy shook her head – Aki made an unintelligible little murmur – and started towards the village, leaving whoever the two were that had dared hurt the Fairy Tail family this time to their deaths by Erza and Natsu. She wasn't the least bit sorry for them this time, looking down at Aki, covered in so many scars – now physical as well as meta.
Aki mumbled wordlessly again, and Lucy smiled, tilting her head against the other's; she giggled as Aki, blatantly asleep, responded by pressing against her, tilting her own head up and making a little trilling noise.
Lucy looked back up at the morning sky, filling with the warmth of day.
"You're both such sweethearts."
{-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-}
I'm so happy that so many people liked this (or, at the very least, viewed it (^^;)) I already said above, but less than two weeks probably, at most a month. Depends when I get the oomph to realistically weave in this scene in my mind. If that inspiration never comes, you'll still get the chapters, just minus that scene. But man I love that scene. *mumbles unintelligible writer nonsense* so much... character develop... relationships... pacing... other... the guild... and... AUGH HOW DO I PUT THIS TOGETHER
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My previous question was who is your favorite overall character?
My list is something along the lines of Natsu, Jellal or Zeref, Erza. I really like Panther Lily, too, and Gajeel's pretty neat (character development wise). Laxus because of the most cliché reason: he's a boss. Uhm, maybe Mira?
Besides her eTREMEly unhealthy stalking of Gray, Juvia is actually a really good character. Actually, now that I think of it, she's an awesome character.
1) Natsu. 2) Jellal or Zeref. 3) Juvia?
Of course, I make this list as if my favorites don't change every other hour. ┑(￣Д ￣)┍
No new question, folks! Thank you very much for reading [Legacy of Evil]. *bows* See you in [A Mage's Mark]! .（＾∀＾) ﾉｼ