"To The WAR! Don't send me back to war! I don't want to go back to that hell ! Don't send me back!" .
After Ryker said this, he put his hands over his ears, as if trying to avoid hearing something. Mira hugged him protectively.
"What… what war!?", the mages wondered, the same with Makarov. It was more than clear that the wizard was telling the truth. The feeling he emanated was not of pretense but of pure legitimacy, his pain and suffering were real. All of Fairy Tail was sympathetic, and the mood lightened in an instant. But for the mage nothing had changed, the visions, the memories were surfacing, all at once.
Months of drug abuse left him resistant to the effects, and to function he took stronger and larger amounts to stay healthy. However, his sanity was fragile, any stronger stress would break the barrier he put in his mind and everything he guarded, hid and repressed would come all at once. That's what happened, and it broke.
The guild members started talking to each other, speculating. What happened, what was he talking about, where did he come from, all getting questioned. That buzz didn't help the mage's situation on the ground, making him even more uneasy.
"Stop it!" Mira shouted, ordering with a grim face. Everyone was silent in an instant. "Come on Ryker," she said sweetly helping him to his feet and placing him at a nearby table. She sat down beside him and laid her head on his chest, comforting him lovingly. The magician still held his ears and closed his eyes, not wanting to see anything or hear anything.
"Calm. I am here. It's okay," Mira whispered in her soothing voice, over and over, until he calmed down a little.
"Do it, make it stop!", he pleaded with Mira. "Make the sounds disappear! Make the images go away!", he begged desperately for her who held him tighter, comforting him.
She looked pleadingly at the master, she was already tired of it, she wanted to stop everything, take him somewhere else, let him rest.
"Ryker," called Makarov. "It's past time for you to face your fears. Only then can you get past them, and maybe we can better understand all of this", Ryker held onto Mira as if his life depended on it, and in a way it did. His head rested on her chest as the mage stroked her back and held her head lovingly.
He knew what he had to do, tell the truth, even if it stirred a mud pit he was unwilling to reach. But, it was too late, either he would do that or he would lose his only light altogether and sink in again, not total darkness, no chance of getting out. It would be painful.
"I, I lied to you. I'm sorry," he said, still glued to Mira. The wizards looked at each other, how far did he tell the truth then? Doubts began to arise in everyone's minds, only a few people had no doubts about him, Mira, Erza and Wendy.
"I, I'm not of this world," this statement took everyone by surprise, even Mira.
"You mean you're from Edolas?", Natsu asked approaching.
"No. From… from another place," he replied in a muffled way.
"From where then? And how did you get here?" , Makarov asked him.
Ryker sighed, holding on tightly to Mira. "Let's put it off for another day, can't you see he's in shock," Mirajane begged them to stop the interrogation, but Ryker stopped her, pulling out of her embrace and sitting normally on the bench.
"Ryker?", she said looking at him in concern. The mage didn't look back, but held her hand steady, asking for support, she understood and squeezed his hand, indicating she would be there if she needed it.
"I don't know how it works, but … but, I went through some kind of portal. It was an accident. I was on a military base, confronting an enemy, I don't know how or why, but that thing called and pulled me inside. Then I just remember waking up in that lady's house in the forest".
In a way that didn't surprise the wizards. They've already been dragged to Edolas and come back, other people are from there, so the existence of other worlds is neither new nor surprising. Not to mention the existence of people coming from the future and the past. Dragons Slayers are proof of that. So far everything is normal.
"This is all very plausible, considering what we've been through as well," Makarov said. "Now why did you withhold that from us?"
"I just wanted to forget about my past, there's nothing I want to remember. I…I just want to forget, but … but…" the mage felt an open in his hand and looked at the woman beside him. The sight of her soothed him and gave him strength, just as he started to break again.
Ryker sighed heavily, repeatedly trying to control himself. "Only the dead have seen the end of war," he said, looking at Makarov with tired eyes. And that was a shock to him and everyone.
"We also had our wars. What is he talking about?", complained Natsu, who was slapped on the head by Lucy, who called him 'Idiot!'. Mira, too, glared at him in a devilish way scaring his soul.
" No!" yelled Ryker. "You don't know, there's no way to imagine what I went through, what I saw and what, and what I... what I did."
"No need to say, that's enough. You're in no shape, Ryker," Mira tried to make him stop, he was wearing out too much, he was unsteady. For his sake, she wanted to let it all go. But he continued.
"No one is sure when and why 'The War' started," he began and paused for a moment before continuing. "One in four people died, it cost the lives of more than 900 million people and more than a billion injured", the information horrified the guild. Numbers like that were inconceivable! It would not be possible.
He continued: "When I was born it had been happening for years. We didn't have much, we just ate what we needed to survive. The war effort took everything, food, goods, people. Everything was for 'The War'. We didn't get almost anything," he began to tell, but he refused to look ahead, always keeping his head down and holding Mira's hand.
"I grew up on a farm, we planted what we gave and sold to the Empire, the little that was left was for us, but it was insufficient most of the time", as he was counting, the other magicians were sympathizing with his situation. That explained his enthusiasm for food, and the guild's heart ached.
"For almost ten years I lived like this. It wasn't the best of all worlds, but … but it was better than what came later," he stopped talking and stared down at him without reaction. Mira worried and grabbed him by the shoulders in a hug.
"What happened?" asked Makarov, trying to get him to continue.
" With... with the casualties increasing, the imperial government has implemented a plan to recruit...", he sighed " of children". Everyone was shocked and shaken. Put children to fight a war? What kind of people would do this?
Erza felt the memories of being a slave in the Tower of Paradise. That's why they felt that strong connection to each other. In a way they shared something in common.
"In the year I was going to be 10 years old, agents from the Empire came to my house and analyzed me, I had the potential for magic, and I was taken. I never saw my parents again," at that point Makarov boiled with anger, as did many in the guild, feeling a bitter taste in his mouth.
"For three years I was trained, physical, mind and magic. Brutal training for war," he shivered at the memories. "The instructors treated us as nothing more than combat tools. It had to be like that, it was the war at the end, we needed to be strong and tough. Their job was to transform us into war machines, into killing machines, that's what we were trained for."
"What right!? What right did they have to take a child from their parents and turn them into machines!?", Natsu seethed with rage, he grew up without parents, as did many in the guild. Gray was no different, nor Erza or Mira or Lisanna or Gajeel or Juvia and many more.
"Calm down Natsu!", ordered Erza, as angry as she was, the fire mage's lack of control wouldn't do any good.
"Did you hear what he said!?", replied the fire mage. "I'm going to punch them until they learn not to kidnap anyone else!", their fire was indeed contagious, many of them could say they would do the same.
"I'll go with you, firehead," said an ice mage. "They don't lose by waiting," Natsu smiled at his partner.
"If Gray-sama goes, Juvia will go too !" , warned the water mage.
"Hit someone? I'm in, gihihi", a willing Iron Dragon Slayer.
" Idiots!" yelled Erza. "How do you intend to go if even he doesn't know exactly how he got here. And apparently he doesn't even know how to get back, so how do you plan on getting there?" , that was true, the magicians got that silly face.
When they looked back at the mage sitting at the table, he was shaking and Mira clinging to him very concerned about his condition.
"I…I was 11, only eleven when I first killed," the surprises never end, increasingly terrifying and irritating Fairy Tail mages. "They said they were doomed to death, and we just needed a shot in the heart. It was training to desensitize us, we had no choice. We kill. All of them, again, and again, and again. It lasted for weeks, but in the end, killing was no big deal".
No, that had gone too far! Not only Makarov, but everyone was horrified and angry, even Mira had a murderous look and a dark aura around her. Forcing a child to kill had been the height of absurdity. Natsu didn't have control of his fire, there was anger in his eyes, Erza the same thing and many others too. Poor Wendy had never felt true anger, but for the first time she felt hate.
"Ryker…" Makarov called, but was interrupted by the same.
"I went through purgatory to be cast into hell. At the end of training they had a rite of passage," when he said this soon an image came to Makarov's mind. He saw something while the mage was being treated by Porlyusica. Could not be? They wouldn't go that far.
"Don't tell me…" the master said before Ryker continued.
"When we graduated we had to go through a rite of passage. They marked us," said the wizard.
"Marked?", Mira said, that word made her uncomfortable.
Ryker reluctantly lifted his shirt, but there was no reason to hide anything else. He showed the imprint of the imperial army on his left chest. Carla covered Wendy's eyes so she wouldn't see anything. There was not just the mark, but countless scars and burns all over her body. There were gasps of horror at the bruised body image. Mira was horrified by what she saw and her eyes filled with tears for him.
"That's what they did to me! On graduation day they lined us up and told us to take off our shirts. We couldn't scream, avoid, retreat, shed a tear or show any kind of discomfort," he said.
"Ryker! What did they do?" , a menacing voice from Makarov, not directed at him but at those who hurt him.
Ryker swallowed hard. "They heated up a hot iron and branded our bodies at this point, it hurt a lot. I was 12 years old," he indicated with a finger over his brand. The entire guild was in shock, they never heard anyone do this kind of thing, not even among the black guilds.
"We're sorry, Ryker. We didn't know," Levy said for everyone.
"If that was all I would be fine," he said. Ryker reached into his pants pocket and pulled out a key and handed it to Mira and said something in her ear.
"Lisanna", she called her younger sister. The magician handed the key into her hand. "Go to his house and get that translucent sphere, yes. And go fast," Mira asked. Lisanna ran out of the guild without questioning.
Mira brought the mage closer to her, shielding him from anything. He was haggard and tired, she felt his tremors and pulse racing. She wanted so badly to comfort and soothe him, but she knew it would be difficult now.
"What does he intend, Mira?", asked Makarov.
"I don't know master, we can only wait and see when Lisanna returns", he replied.
After a while of silence, the magician decided to speak while he waited for Lisanna. The truth was, his heart needed to unburden himself, to share with someone his pain and the weight he carried. It wouldn't free him from his nightmare, but sharing the burden was a big help.
"There was a battle going on," he began, everyone looked back at him. "Neither side was taking advantage, they needed more men, but they didn't have anyone in charge. Not now and not in the time they needed. There were battles going on all over the world."
"All over the world!?" asked one of the wizards.
"It was a world war, the world was engulfed in combat," he replied and continued. Nobody in the guild could imagine what this would be like, it was too tense.
"There was no one to command and help our side and it was a decisive battle, we needed to win. The summit decided to send us", children at war, that was unnatural, thought the entire guild. "It was simple, we were going to be parachuted behind enemy lines and attack them from behind. We were sent weeks after we graduated. It was my first mission in the 7 years of war in what I fought", his voice was weak and tired, a look downcast and defeated.
"They put us on planes and sent us. They figured there would be 10% of casualties." Ryker took a deep breath and gained strength from Mira's grip around him. "Only that it was 30%, one in three didn't make it to the ground alive", he started breathing harder and faster, eyes widening and panic taking hold again. It was up to Mirajane to calm him down a bit.
"A lot of the guys I lived with in those three years died in midair. I saw them die, many more during combat. We didn't have the experience, nor enough strength to face mature and experienced soldiers. It was a massacre, but the distraction worked. Three days later we won and took the place", by that time he was no longer in control of his body, he was trembling on his own, as much as Mira tried, she was not enough to give him peace.
In no time did he look up. Always looking down fixed at a point on the ground. "Have you ever heard the sound of people dying, agonize, asking me to kill them? Have you ever smelled dead and decaying people? Worms eating their meat, you can't even tell who they were. Water contaminated with putrid blood that ran into the rivers, yet you force yourself to drink, or you die of yield. In the end there were 25,000 bodies in that field", as he spoke the guild members felt disgusted with the situation and didn't even want to imagine being in that place. If there was a hell it would be there. They didn't even know how to react to what they heard. That person in front of them went through all that so young! A child exposed to such barbarity. At the same time as they felt pity and pain for their mate, a tremendous hatred gripped them against those who dragged him to hell, as he said.
"We stayed there for a few days until we were transferred. We climbed into the trucks and headed for the nearest town," he took another deep breath, over and over again before speaking. "120 kilometers, those bloody red ones! They killed the entire city and impaled every citizen on both sides of the road, all the way! More than 10,000 bodies hanging along the road, left there for us to see. Me, I was only 12 years old!" he yelled and hugged Mira with all his strength, surprising her, but past the shock, she hugged him back. She let her tears run down her face. The rest of the guild was silent, mulling over what they had just heard. There was nothing to say.
"Tell me, Mira!? Am I a bad guy ?", he asked, sinking his face into her neck.
"No! You're just a victim", she said trying to be strong, but her emotions got the better of her and she couldn't control her crying anymore.
Many of the guild were in the same way, desolate Wendy wanted to hug him, comfort him, but Carla stopped her, leaving only Mira for that moment. Levy couldn't hold back the tears either, and was comforted by Gajeel, Juvia and Lucy were crying, saddened by their nakama, comforted by their partners. Even Erza was teary-eyed as she clenched her fists in anger. Makarov was furious, no longer with Ryker, but with the one who brought him so much pain and suffering.
" Ryker!" , the master called, but he didn't look in his direction, he clung to Mira. "I can't imagine what you've been through, but now I can understand your behavior. I want you to understand that we act differently in Fairy Tail, and we will help you as much as possible. You are one of my children and you are not going anywhere. I don't care what the council says, a Fairy Tail mage has a family and we'll take care of you." Hearing that he held even tighter on Mira who reciprocated, as did the other members who smiled. No one will leave anyone behind, Ryker and Mira were still holding each other, he didn't want to let go of her and she didn't want to let him go.
Not long after Lisanna enters the guild with the spherical and translucent object in hand.