Chapter 21

As the white magic that had been possessing him seemed to leave his body, the exodus of so much magic power at once caused Mason to drop down to his knees. "I'm… I'm sorry guys."

"We know." Brosnan said as she reached out a hand to pick up her old friend. "Now get off your ass. We have a job to do." Brosnan pulled the dragon slayer up to his feet which is where Mason noticed his old friend's injured arm.

"Oh god! Didi I do that!" Mason quickly bowed apologetically. "I'm so sorry guys for all that stuff."

"Pick your head up, apologies can wait. We gotta stop this thing." Brosnan had clearly returned to command mode and only had one thing on her mind.

"So you really don't remember breaking the boss's arm?" Julia asked as she slipped up beside Mason, startling him. "You were all, 'How dare you touch me!' and she was like 'AAAHHH! My arm! Mason how could you! We're supposed to be friends!' and you were like 'Ha ha ha! Nirvana is my only friend now!'" Julia acted the whole scene out complete with unique voices for all the characters.

"So I was acting like some cheesy super villain. I wish I remembered more of what happened." Mason said sorrowfully as he continued to follow slowly behind his old teammates.

"Julia exaggerates, you acted pretty much the same way you usually do only darker." Tyson replied.

"What's that supposed to mean?" Mason called back as he hurried to catch back up with the other three.

"Arrogant, cocky, completely insufferable as always." Brosnan elaborated as she blew down a wall that impeded their forward progression. "Only Nirvana helped you actually back it up. When you weren't acting like a total jerk you kept spewing crap about justice and you mentioned people I've never heard of before."

"Yeah sounds like you really have it out for that Jellal guy, you must really hate him." Julia said getting Mason to grimace slightly. "Whose Simon?" Julia continued getting Mason to make an even more sour face.

"Jellal was the first friend I made when I was taken to the tower of heaven and for awhile he was my best friend but the day I left something...happened to Jellal. The tower poisoned his mind and he went dark. Simon was another of my friends from the tower, despite living on the tower for so long Simon grew up to be a good man. Jellal killed Simon before the tower was destroyed." Despite being told in only the simplest of terms, Mason's story captured the attention of the other wizards.

"No wonder you hate that dude." Julia spat out, unable to read the room.

"I don't hate Jellal, trust me I tried but I can't seem to bring myself to hate him. I've always thought of him as my friend, if anything I was angry at myself. I had a chance to spot Jellal on the tower of heaven and then again I could've let Erza finish things but again I couldn't bring myself to do it. I let Simon die because I was too weak to do what needed to be done and when I saw Jellal again those feelings were magnified and I was afraid that I still wasn't strong enough to do what I needed to do and that's when I let Nirvana in." Mason said as he kicked a stone down the road.

"Killing Jellal wouldn't have fixed anything." Brosnan said as she looked back at Mason with sympathetic eyes. "Trust me, it would've only made things worse."

"Yeah I get it…" Mason said softly, feeling ashamed of his actions.

"So on a lighter note." Julia chirped up. "Why are you still all grey and scaly?" Julia poked at the rough scales that decorated Mason's face. "I thought we knocked all that nirvana magic out of your system."

"Not all of it." Mason demonstrated by setting his hand ablaze with white magic. "I still have the magic I took for myself, I've already digested it at this point. You knocked out the Magic that Nirvana was trying to sedate me with."

"Sedate you?" Tyson asked, a hint of suspicion in his voice. "How do you mean?"

"Well like I said, I don't remember much of what happened when I was under Nirvana but I do remember that every time I started to feel myself coming to or every time I felt any pain Nirvana would force feed me tons of magic power and things would go dark." Mason said as he scratched his temple. "It's kinda giving me a headache… Speaking of which, where are we going?"

"While we were fighting I sensed another large amount of Magic power somewhere on Nirvana. It's too high to be just another Guild wizard, I figure whoever it is must be in charge." Brosnan said as she continued to trek forward, not letting her injury slow her down. "We're gonna find this guy and beat him up until he stops this thing."

"His name is Zero." Mason said seemingly out of nowhere. "I don't know who told me that, maybe it was Nirvana or maybe it was Zero himself who told me but that's his name and he's dangerous." Mason then took a glance down at Brosnan's arm. "And you're in no condition to fight him."

"Then how do you suppose we stop him?" Brosnan said as she stared back at the Dragon slayer.

"I don't think WE are gonna do anything. YOU need to get somewhere safe." Mason then spread his wings as if to show of. "I'm still stronger than you are anyway plus I got you all into this mess, I should fight him."

"Oh no you don't!" Brosnan pushed a finger into Mason's chest. "As long as you're all weird and scaly and full of that Nirvana magic you aren't gonna be doing anything. Who knows what could send you back over the edge. Nirvana got in your head once and who's to say it can't creep its way back in."

"What? Are you seriously worried about that. I'm fine." Immediately after he said that his eyes shot open wide and his legs began to tremble. "Nevermind, I'm not okay…" Mason bent over to hide his face.

"Mason what's wrong." Brosnan went over to comfort Mason. "C'mon you gotta talk to us."

"Nirvana is…. Nirvana is…." Mason groaned.

"What? Nirvana is what?" Brosnan said as she flipped Mason over to look at his face which had gone totally green.

"Nirvana is moving….. I think I'm gonna puke…." Mason managed to get out before his cheeks filled up.

"Ew! Not on me!" Brosnan pushed the Dragon Slayer off of her and onto the ground.

"Ugh… Ichiya's spell must've worn off." Mason struggled to so much as stand still but then out of nowhere his motion sickness seemed to stop. "Hey we stopped moving!" Mason said cheerfully before realizing what that Must mean. "Oh God we stopped moving."

"Boss! I smell three wizards headed right for us." Julia called down from the top of a building before looking back for a moment. "I also see them, one super pretty redhead a dude with blue hair and a little girl with black hair."

"I know them…." Mason said sounding pretty unenthusiastic about seeing his old 'friends…'

"Mason!" Erza called out as she Wendy and Jellal got close enough but rather than a friendly reunion she quickly pulled a sword on him. "Enough is enough! I'm ending things here!"

"Wait! I'm back to normal!" Mason called out as he hid behind his arms to block the the attack but it never came and Mason eventually looked up to see that Erza had stopped her attack but was still on guard. "Uhhh… I'm sorry for my actions earlier, please forgive me."

"So you're really back to normal. You're still all scaly.." Erza slid her hand down the side of Mason's face to feel his scales. "It's grosser than I thought it would be."

"Ok that's enough touching." Brosnan spoke up, getting Erza to jump. "Listen, you civilian wizards had your shot but clearly this has gotten out of hand. You better pack up your things and evacuate. Leave this to the pros."

"I don't know who you people are but this is our job that your Magic Council assigned for us because they were busy putting themselves back together and fairy tail always finishes a job." Erza declared as she stood up to Brosnan.

"Well the council is back to one piece and they assigned us to this job because they didn't think that trusting the fate of the country to amateurs was that great of an idea and looks like they were correct in that assessment. As far as who I am, I'm Golden Eye Brosnan the Head captain of the largest magical army in the country, so I think I'm pretty qualified for this 'job'." Brosnan fired back.

"Ummm… Ms Golden Eye Brosnan you don't know me but my name Is Wendy Marvel…" The timid Dragon Slayer said as she respectfully approached Brosnan. "Ms Brosnan Nirvana is going to destroy my guild hall please don't send me home."

While the girls argued over who belonged where Mason and Jellal fed into the background where an awkward silence fell over the two of them. Eventually Mason decided he would be the one to speak up. "Uh…. Hey man…. Sorry about you know...trying to kill you."

"No I understand." Jellal replied equally as awkward. "I don't remember too much of what happened but it's pretty evident that I did some pretty awful things… That's why I need to bring an end to Nirvana to make sure nothing else horrible happens under my watch."

"You're really not the same as you were on the tower and that makes feel even more like stupid jerk. If I hadn't let my anger get the better of me then we could've already stopped Nirvana by now." Mason slammed his fist into a stone wall out of anger but accidently knocked the whole thing down.

"We can't worry about the past right now, someone needs to keep that cannon from firing or else hundreds of good people will die." Jellal said before he started staring off in the direction of Cait Shelter.

"Yeah… Someone needs to stop that cannon…" Without a second thought Mason spread his massive boney wings and took off into the sky leaving everyone else in the dust.

"MASON?!" Brosnan called out as she could only watch her old friend fly away from her. "WHERE DO YOU THINK YOU'RE GOING?!"


(With Mason)

"WHERE DO YOU THINK YOU'RE GOING!" Thanks to his abilities as a Dragon Slayer Mason could hear Brosnan's shout as if they were right next to each other even though he had gotten so far away he could no longer see her.

'Where am I going? If I told you, then you'd just call me an idiot wouldn't you.' Mason said as he eyeballed Nirvana's Massive cannon which already seemed to be charging up a magical blast aimed at Cait Shelter.

"Crap I thought I'd have more time but that things getting ready to blow and that's a lot of gun to destroy." Mason said as his fist was engulfed with Magic power. "PHANTOM DRAGON VANISHING FIST!" Mason struck the side of the cannon but his fist did nothing, not that this would dissuade the Dragon Slayer. "PHANTOM DRAGON STRIKE!" Mason hit it once more this time with a kick that did just as little but Mason kicked wailing back and forth against the side of the cannon but his efforts yielded little results, maybe a scratch or two but not enough to make any legitimate progress.

"Dammit this thing won't budge!" Mason roared as before Nirvana finally fired. Mason quickly flew in front of the massive magic blast and created a barrier using the magic he stole from the walking city that was strong enough to halt the energy but Nirvana's attack was slowly pushing Mason back. "Oh no you don't…." Mason growled as he fought against Nirvana's blast.

It didn't take long for cracks to form in Mason's shield and as ridiculous as it may have sounded a few minutes ago but he was losing magic power fast just fighting to keep up his shield. "C'mon! C'mon! You can't break on me now! If I can't hold this thing back then all those good people will be held accountable...just like Simon…." Flashes of Simon throwing himself in front of Jellal's attack dashed through his mind. "Just like Simon...just like Simon...just like simon… FWWWSSSSHHHHHH!" Mason opened his mouth and began to feast on the magic from Nirvana's cannon.

'Simon didn't even hesitate to through everything on the line to protect what he cared about, I should follow his example. When I became a rune knight I swore to protect innocence no matter the cost. When I joined Fairy Tail I promised to do whatever it takes to protect my friends, even if it kills me! Both are on the line now so I really need to give this my all!" After he finished psyching himself up Mason's cheeks swelled with Magic power. "PHANTOM DRAGON'S ROAR!"

Mason spit out a massive energy blast of magic power that equaled Nirvana's energy beam in size and even began to push back against Nirvana! "ROOOOAAAAAAAAARRRRRRRR!" Mason continued to feed his attack magic power but he soon started to lose ground against Nirvana's unyielding strength. Eventually Mason's scales began to evaporate into smoke as he no longer had the energy necessary to maintain Dragon Force, everything had been put into stopping Nirvana. Slowly Mason's wings, the only thing keeping him airborne, started to dissolve.

Mason's body was burning up at this point and his eyes were slowly beginning to close as his consciousness started to fade and Nirvana's attack was just a few inches away from obliterating the Dragon Slayer along with Cait Shelter. Just when things seemed to be at their worst, help arrived from the last place Mason would expect.

KABOOM! A massive magic explosion went off on Nirvana's left side, knocking the walking city off balance and altering the path of the beam so that it would miss Cait Shelter entirely and Mason watched as Christina, Blue Pegasus' Magic Bomber flew over his head. "Huh? Who would've guessed hehe…" Mason chuckled as he began to fall, his wings had been entirely burned off the last thing he saw was a golden flicker before he went unconscious.


(End, authors notes)

This one is a little bit shorter but the last chapter was a good bit longer so I think that makes up for it but if not then worry not the next one is on the way. Until next time please read rate and review! Bye ;)