Hello all! Here is the next chapter in the Pirate Arc! There should be at least one, maybe two chapters to go and then we can move on to (hopefully, if my muses cooperate) the Freed and Evergreen Intro Arc! Also, there's a head's up in the Author's Note, so please remember to read it.
Review Response: Dear Yatocat19, greetings! Correct! They are the counterparts to the Whitebeard Pirates! I hope you enjoy the newest update!
Dear Lightsbane1905, hello there! Wow, talk about coincidences. But hey, at least you were already in the mood for it then, ne?
Dear Dragon Lord Draco, hello! Nope, the Captain is not Freed, nor has he taught Freed. They just happen to use the same kind of magic. As for Gray, what you say is definitely true, but I still stand by my point. If you watch the anime closely, you'll notice that over time, Gray strips less and less, and has even managed to mostly master the art of keeping everything but his shirt (not that he doesn't mess up still, but hey). Anyway, that had led me to theorize that the farther back in time you go, the worse Gray's stripping habit was, so when he is a kid fresh from Ul's ... unique training methods, I think he would lose his undies more than a few times. Besides that, a kid wandering around in nothing but boxers is really REALLY not the brightest idea. Seriously. Oh well.
Dear Guest, hi there! Thank you, I was hoping the idea would go over well. Heh, well, One Piece is the most famous Pirate Anime, so I suppose it wasn't going to be that much of a surprise anyway. Hmmm, flames huh? (snickers) You'll just have to read this update and see, ne? I'm glad you like the counterpart idea, 'cause I do plan on bringing in more at a later date (much, much later date). Swimming with Mermaids, huh? I may have to hunt that one down sometime. Sparkle Terror Alex Armstrong is a lot of fun after all.
Dear Guest, greetings! Indeed! Much brownie points! Nope, Freed isn't here yet, just a bad guy using the same kind of magic. Hope you enjoy the newest chapter!
Dear WanderingMage011, hi! Fangirl away! The Whitebeard Crew has to be my favorite crew in all of One Piece (Though the Straw Hats come a close second), so I just couldn't resist adding them into the Pirate Arc. Glad they're appearance has made you happy! About that, I touch on it a little bit in this chapter, but I'll try to explain more in-depth since you asked. It ties into my head-canons about why joining a Guild is so important for a magic-user. Mage guilds are like mini-communities connected to a bigger community, so a magic-user in a Mage Guild has access to more resources, knowledge, news, etc than a magic-user not part of a guild. That's why Lucy was so baffled by Erza's magic when it's actually a really common one (if underutilized unless you're a specialist like Erza). Lucy knows a lot about HER kind of magic, but because she was never connected to a guild before, she has no real way to sort real magic from the stuff of fantasy and drama stories. So, while Marco (and others) CAN use magic, because they were never part of a Mage guild, a lot of the knowledge that is inclusive to that guild-to-guild community is lost on them. It's like reading occasionally about ship building and being an actual ship-builder, the devil is in the details that the books didn't print. Make sense? Yeah, Fem!Haruta is awesome. So is male Haruta, but since I firmly think that every anime pirate crew needs a pirate lass on it ... yeah. Here's a new update for you!
Dear YumiKnowsBest, hello-hello-hello! Thank you, I try. Hmm, that's ... a really good theory. Wish I'd thought of it myself. But no, the Freed and Evergreen Intro Arc is going to be a separate thing. Really nice theory though, so kudos. Hope you enjoy this chapter anyway!
Author's Note: So, this is an incredibly early notice, but as some of you may remember, I am a huge fan of NaNoWriMo. Which, of course, means that in April, I will be taking that month off to participate in Camp NaNo rather than work on this particular story (sorry guys). Now, there should be at least another update before that, hopefully two, so no need to panic or anything. This is just a really early heads-up that I'll be disappearing for the month of April to work on other projects. I'm only saying this now because I don't want to forget to put in up in the next update and then have everyone freak out over where I went (a few of my AMOSC readers did that once, it endearing and amusing at the same time, but I promised not to do that to them again without a warning first). So that was your official warning. Moving on. Rather pleased with this chapter, especially the end. Oh, mild Cliffy warning for the end of this chapter by the way. I ... think that's everything. So, onward!
Copyright Disclaimer: I do not own Fairy Tail, One Piece, or any references made in this story. The only things I own are my OCs who have run off with my plot.
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Chapter Twenty-Two: Operation Mutiny
(Three months, two weeks, four days since joining the guild)
Mest pressed his lips tightly together as the car jolted and bumped across the countryside. Laxus sat next to him, tense and alert as he curtly relayed occasional directions from the prisoner in the back of the vehicle to Mest.
It had been two days since the pirate ship had attacked the train and kidnapped Cana and Wren. They had forced one of the pirate captives to tell them the location of the ship's intended port, but it was a long ways away and would take far too long to walk or run there.
Laxus had redirected them, with the prisoner in tow, to the nearest town on the train line in the hopes of catching Mest on his way back from his own mission. For once in his life, Bickslow had been glad that they had chatted with Mest while deciding on what mission to take. The teleportation mage had mentioned the location of his next job during the conversation and they had hoped that they would be able to catch up to him and have him teleport them straight to the pirate's hidden port.
But of course, things could never be that simple. After meeting up with Mest and explaining their problem, Mest had tried to teleport them there only to fail spectacularly. Upon further interrogation, the pirate they had dragged along had revealed that the port was warded against teleportation magic for fear of thieves. So, instead of getting to teleport directly to the port to free Wren and Cana, they had been forced to rent a magic car and drive there.
Bickslow was fairly certain he'd heard Laxus mutter about Jiji having their heads for underage driving, but at the moment, he couldn't care less. Mest was the oldest, so he was driving while Laxus and he took turns providing magic power to the car. But despite the steady flow of power Laxus was currently providing the vehicle, Bickslow couldn't help but feel that they were going so slowly. Anything could have happened to Wren and Cana by now and the longer it took to reach their goal, the more horrible Bickslow's mental scenarios became.
Shifting, he fixed a glare at the very cowed pirate giving them directions, "We still on course?" The pirate obediently leaned his head out the window to check before settling back down and murmuring an affirmative. Bickslow checked his aura for lies with Figure Eyes before reluctantly going back to watching the landscape pass.
Silence save for the rumble of the car's engine reigned for a long time before Mest finally broke it, "Hey, what's that up ahead?" Bickslow stuck his head out the window to see forward his tikis chittering out his worry as he realized what Mest had spotted.
Laxus squinted at it for a moment before he grunted, "Looks like smoke."
Mest hunched a little further over the wheel, "I know. What worries me is, what's burning to make a plume that big?"
Bickslow pulled his head back inside and rounded on the pirate with a flash of Figure Eyes, "How close are we to the port?"
The pirate peeked out the window before replying, "I … not too far. A couple miles out, I think? But I have no idea what the smoke would be fro-" The car suddenly bucked, going end over end uncontrollably while Bickslow's tikis screamed and Laxus yelled in surprise. There was a flicker, a pull of magic power at the height of the car's flip, and Bickslow was suddenly tumbling across the grass.
His back smacked against a large rock, bringing a painful end to his rolling and Bickslow scrambled to his feet, "What was that?"
Laxus groaned as he sat up from where he'd been dropped by Mest as the teleportation mage got everyone out of the car and safely away from the wreck, "No idea, the ground just seemed to-" Laxus was cut off when the air rippled, rolling over and through them like a physical wave, causing the ground to buck and groan beneath their feet and the grass to flatten. Bickslow found himself thrown to the earth by the force of it, the breath knocked out of him while his tikis spun in uncontrolled loop-de-loops from the vortices.
Sitting up slowly, Laxus wheezed, "do that."
Bickslow crawled to his hands and knees, trying to re-inflate his lungs, "What … was that?"
Mest sat up from where he'd been knocked onto his back a few yards away, his expression tight and grim, "That wasn't natural. That's a Magigenesis."
Bickslow pushed himself to his feet cautiously, "A what?"
Laxus rolled into a standing position with a groan, "Magigenesis. It's the shockwave or vortices caused by the collision of two extremely powerful mages or their spells. It can sometimes be caused by just one spell if its big enough, but then it's usually just called a shockwave." Laxus looked somewhere between awed and terrified, "Never actually been in the radius of one before. I've only read about them in books."
Mest hurried over, a worried gleam in his eyes, "Yes, well, few mages that strong are stupid enough to pick a fight with each other. The damage to the environment at ground zero can be catastrophic and there are almost always casualties from the fallout."
The pirate remained huddled on the ground in terror, only poking his head up long enough to stammer, "I-it's coming from the port…"
Bickslow's head snapped around to stare wildly in the direction of the smoke, "But that would mean-" another Magigenesis rolled over them and despite bracing for it this time, Bickslow still found himself skidding backward from the sheer power. Once it had passed, Bickslow finished, "Wren! Cana!"
Laxus stiffened, lightning arcing off his shoulders for a moment as he caught on to Bickslow's line of thought and hissed, "They'll be at ground zero."
In unison both boys whirled and roared, "Mest!"
Mest nodded as he reached out and grabbed their shoulders, "Right. I'll get us as close as I can, but if the wards are still up, we'll have to run the rest of the way. Remember, we're just going to get in, grab the girls, and then we're leaving. There is no way we'll be able to surviving getting caught in the crossfire of whoever is causing these Magigenesis."
With those warnings aired, Mest teleported. The world disappeared in a blur of color and sound for an instant before it snapped back into place and the boys found themselves in the middle of a nightmare.
Everywhere they looked, people were fighting and fires steadily devoured the barrels, crates, and shanties lining the complicated maze of docks. Just like the pirate had told them, the hidden "port" was built on a large lake that stretched both outside and into a towering mountain cavern that had been artificially enlarged. The portion of it that was inside the cavern served as a hiding place for their large ship and a base for the crew.
Right now, it looked more like some kind of war-zone than a secret base. Swords were flashing, magic was flaring, and people were screaming in both rage and agony.
Terror gripped Bickslow's throat, but he pushed it down in favor of shouting, "Wren? Cana? Where are you?" No one seemed to hear him in the chaos, and there was no reply from the people he sought.
Laxus grabbed his wrist tightly and shouted over the cacophony, "Don't get separated! In this…" he seemed unable to find words adequate to describe what surrounded them and pushed on, "this, we'd never find each other again!"
Bickslow's tikis defensively fired off a few lasers to ward off a wayward shower of debris, "We need to find Wren and Cana!"
Laxus bit his lip, his usually half-lidded eyes were wide with fear and adrenaline. He nodded after another second of staring at the fight all around and started pulling Bickslow toward the huge ship in the center of the turmoil, "Come on!"
Mest followed close on their heels, his hands still resting on their shoulders as they darted through the tumult. Despite their best efforts, they were quickly swept up in the skirmishes, with pirates randomly spotting them and attacking with bellowed war cries.
Bickslow twisted away from a wayward sword-slash and retaliated by knocking the pirate's legs out from under him and sending him toppling into the water. As he whirled to check on Laxus's flank while the other boy sent a pirate flying with a blast of lightning, a part of him wondered wildly, how did all this happen?
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Rihanna gasped for air as she whirled away from the blast of magic that had been aimed for her heart. She stumbled as she coughed on the smoke contaminating her surroundings. A part of her wondered how it had gotten so bad, so quickly, when the plan had started out so smoothly.
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Just as Rihanna had demanded, Cana had explained everything to her, starting with the story of why the pirates seemed to be divided. The answer was because they hadn't always been pirates.
Roughly four years ago, the Master of the famous treasure hunting guild One Piece, said to be the strongest treasure hunting guild on the continent, had fallen ill and died. In the aftermath of his death, because he had never declared a successor and no one could agree on any one person to succeed him, the large guild had split apart into hundreds of smaller guilds, some only comprised of a handful of people who were used to working together in a team.
One such group was Edward Newgate and his unofficially adopted "kids", otherwise known as the magic-capable strays he had collected during his travels. Like many of the other former One Piece members, they formed their own small guild and sought to recruit new members.
Newgate's guild was all of a year old when Marcus Banner joined the guild. Less than a month after joining, he gave out identical, inscribed necklaces as gifts to everyone in the guild as a "symbol of thanks and unity".
The sheer audacity of the lie would have been funny if it hadn't worked.
As soon as everyone else had put the necklaces on, the engravings, which were actually Jutsu Shiki runes, activated and forced their bearers to obey a short list of rules:
Rule One - No necklace-bearer is permitted to take off or damage either their own, or another bearer's necklace.
Rule Two - All necklace-bearer's must obey any order given directly by the holder of the Jutsu Key.
Rule Three - No necklace-bearer is permitted to attack, threaten, or harm the holder of the Jutsu Key either directly or indirectly.
Rule Four - No necklace-bearer is permitted to go to the authorities about any matter involving the necklaces, their purpose, the holder of the Jutsu Key, or any orders given by the holder of the Jutsu Key.
Rule Five - No necklace-bearer is permitted to touch, grab, or otherwise come in contact with the Jutsu Key.
Rule Six - No necklace-bearer is permitted to use their magic unless specifically ordered by the holder of the Jutsu Key.
Six rules, each with two multi-layered runes to represent them, was all it took to steal the freedom of Newgate and his adoptive children for the next three years.
According to what Newgate had told Cana, Marcus's only purpose in joining their guild at all was because they were the strongest non-mage guild to be comprised of mages. Which meant that even though they could use magic, were good at magic, they had little to no knowledge of magics outside everyday items and their own particular magic types.
In other words, they were perfect targets to trap with his own rarer form of magic and force to help him in his ambitions.
Under Marcus's orders, Newgate and the others had dissolved their budding guild and instead unwillingly formed a pirate crew. With their magic under his command and their obedience ensured, Marcus was able to steal fortunes, build a modified ship that could go on both land and sea, and collect more and more like-minded individuals for his enterprise.
For three years, they had been slaves. Well-armed and deadly slaves, but slaves none-the-less.
Rihanna had been furious on behalf of Newgate and his followers, which was when Cana had turned to explaining her deal with Newgate and her plan to accomplish her end of it. Cana and Rihanna would free Newgate and the others from Captain Marcus's necklaces, in exchange for freedom to return to Fairy Tail unharmed.
Cana's plan to accomplish this freedom? Have Rihanna use her Shadow Magic to steal the Jutsu Key during the party the pirates would be throwing once they returned to their hidden port. After stealing it, Rihanna would take it to Cana, who would seal it away in one of her cards, an act which would theoretically render the necklaces and their rules completely inert as sealing an item into the cards cut off its ability to magically interact with the outside world.
Rihanna had, reluctantly, agreed to the plan. She had figured that if the worst came to the worst and the Jutsu Key was not neutralized by being sealed in a card, Rihanna would just have Cana unseal it again and let her destroy it with her Dōjutsu. Potentially magically enhanced durability or not, she figured that being in the center of a rip in the space-time continuum would be too much for the Jutsu Key to handle.
According to what Newgate had told Cana, most of the other pirates had lackluster magic at best and stolen magic items at worst. Therefor, once they were freed from the necklaces, it wouldn't be very hard for Newgate and his children to subdue the by-then-very-drunk pirates and escape with their freedom. From there, they could then report everything to the proper authorities and get Marcus taken care of for good.
Not a bad plan, as far as Fairy Tail plans went. It probably would have worked too, if Fairy Tail Luck hadn't kicked in with a vengeance just as they reached the hidden port in question.
Because of course, the one time they needed Captain Marcus to be content to let Newgate keep Cana as a "hostage" in his office, he decided to be petty and vindictive and order Cana to be brought out as pre-party entertainment instead.
Newgate had been forced to escort Cana out onto the main deck, where her hands were tied to the mast by a long rope that acted as some kind of leash. Captain Marcus had revealed that while he was going to follow through on Newgate's suggestion to ransom her off, he was going to punish her for causing trouble during the raid and then "trying to stow away on his ship" first.
Rihanna had tried to stay hidden and think out a proper strategy before acting, she really had. But the sight of Cana being made to run and stumble and dodge around the mast at the end of the long rope while Marcus chased her around with his whip and the other pirates who weren't loyal to Newgate threw things in her path or otherwise tried to trip her was just … too much.
The whip had finally landed, hard and deep and loud across Cana's back, she had screamed in agony, and Rihanna had snapped.
Her shadows had lunged out in a shockwave that knocked Marcus and several of his cohorts onto their backs while she wrapped a tendril of shadow around the earring-shaped Jutsu Key on Marcus's ear and pulled.
The original plan was to wait until Marcus had drunk himself stupid and fallen asleep, then gently remove the Jutsu Key from his ear while he was too out of it to notice and raise the alarm. Quiet, quick, bloodless.
Rihanna's shadow may have been quick, but her actions had been neither quiet, nor bloodless in any sense of the words. Blood had poured freely from the large tear in Marcus's ear as Rihanna recklessly ripped it out, his howl of pain stilling everyone else on the deck in shock. Fury pulsed in her veins as the tendril dropped the bloodied magical item into her hand, all eyes swinging from the bleeding Captain to her with uncomprehending gazes.
For a moment, her eyes had met that of the man who dared call himself a captain, icy wrath meeting agonized fury in a silent confrontation before he had recovered himself and shrieked, "Kill her!"
Taking a step back from the pirates, she had flicked the earring into the air and toward the approaching mob, waiting until it was a little over halfway in its arching path before yanking on the door in her mind. The pirates who had begun to surge forward stumbled back in surprise and fear as a small black hole ripped into existence in front of them, sucking the warmth from the air even as it devoured the earring that had held Newgate and his children captive.
Everyone, even the bleeding and crying Cana, had stared at the black hole with huge eyes. Using the time bought by the shock to her advantage, Rihanna had crossed her arms over her chest and coiled the shadows around her clenched fists in preparation. Just as she shut the door in her mind, causing the black hole to vanish, she had swept her arms down and out. Two curved blades of shadow had launched from her hands, the sheer speed of them stirring the wind into a shriek as they slammed into the crowd of still dumbfounded enemies and sent several of them flying.
The attack had snapped everyone out of their daze and Newgate had lunged forward with an enraged roar that literally shook the ship, "Marcus!"
Their magic finally theirs to command again, Newgate's children had rushed the other pirates, wordless war cries shaking the air as they unleashed their long pent-up fury.
Pure chaos had descended without so much as time to take a bracing breath.
Rihanna had dived for Cana, dodging around the large hole in the deck that had formed from Marcus frantically dodging Newgate's downward punch as she did so. Cana had been shaking in a mix of terror and pain at the mayhem breaking out around them. She had barely noticed Rihanna cutting her bonds with a sharpened edge of shadow until Rihanna had pulled her to her feet and Cana had cried out in agony. Rihanna had winced at the cry but forced Cana to keep moving, she'd had to get Cana to cover, somewhere out of the war zone spilling out all around them.
Except there hadn't appeared to be any way to get to that somewhere. Everywhere she had looked, there was fighting, bodies flying, magic flaring, or blood spraying the air in a sickening display of battle frenzy.
In a fit of desperation, Rihanna had teleported Cana into Newgate's office, it had been the only place she could think of as safe, in range, and easily locatable at the time. Barricading the door by pushing Newgate's enormous desk against it with her shadows, Rihanna had turned her attention to tending to the bleeding slash across Cana's back from Marcus's whip.
The screaming and fighting had echoed through the ship, only barely muffled by the wood walls, causing Cana to flinch at the frequent explosions just as much as the hasty medical treatment Rihanna had applied to the lash. All she had really been able to do was use the bandages stored in Newgate's desk drawers, he didn't trust the ship's doctor apparently, to tightly wrap Cana's long wound in hopes of stopping the bleeding and keeping bacteria out.
They had huddled there for … Rihanna wasn't sure how long, just listening to the fight and, in Rihanna's case at least, praying that it would turn out in their favor. A little part of Rihanna had wanted to go out and help, to fight for hers and Cana's freedom as well as burn off the anger still pulsing through her veins over Cana's injury. But the rest of her wasn't so foolish.
This wasn't some brawl with petty bandits or thieves. This was a true battle, life and death decisions in every moment, every breath. No place for an injured child and a civilian woman trapped in a six-year-old body. Not without heavy backup, preferably not at all.
Which, curse Fairy Tail Luck, meant that they were going to get involved in it anyway.
Rihanna wasn't sure how long into their hiding it was before she noticed it, the ache her throat, the tickle in her lungs and the sour tang in the back of her mouth. So faint that at first she hadn't registered it in her worry-hazed mind. But as it grew stronger, she suddenly realized that she could smell smoke. Panic had clawed at her mind all over again as she had realized what that meant.
The ship was on fire.
And she had barricaded the door.
Lunging to her feet, she had struggled to pull the desk away from the door, not wanting to risk depleting her magic reserves with another teleportation unless she had to. After a moment, Cana had stumbled to her feet and helped her by using one of the cards from her purse, which they had recovered from Newgate's desk alongside the bandages, to seal said desk away.
Throwing the door open, Rihanna had led the way out into the corridors, her panic spiking a bit as she had realized just how much the smoke had infiltrated the halls. Still, she had taken Cana's hand in her own and dragged the other girl through the ship, trying to remember the way to the nearest hatch. Or even the nearest port hole, that would have worked too.
They had finally managed to find their way back onto the deck, where it appeared that the fighting had spread out into the port itself, and Rihanna had directed Cana toward lowered gangplank. Miraculously, the thing had not yet caught on fire from the embers raining down from the burning sails, no doubt the origin of the other little fires she could see feeding on the decks and masts.
It was as Cana was stumbling down the gangplank that Rihanna had felt it. A rippling pulse in the air that had sent both girls literally flying for several feet before crashing onto the port walkways. What was that? She had thought dizzily as she pushed herself to her feet and looked in the direction of the pulse. There had been a momentary pause, and then Newgate's hulking form had surged into view with speed that astounded her. He had pulled a fist back, striking the air as he whirled to his left. Marcus had materialized from the curling smoke just as Newgate completed the action, his whip glowing a rich purple from all the runes coating it as he lashed out.
Newgate's fist had smashed against the whip, there had been a momentary pause, like the world itself was taking a deep breath, then the air had pulsed again and Rihanna had barely managed to keep from toppling over. They're causing that?
Instinct had Rihanna crawling to her feet, grabbing Cana, and running again with the intention of getting as far away from Newgate's fight as possible.
They hadn't even managed to run twenty feet before a pirate lunged at them from another walkway, guns glowing a telltale green. Rihanna had pushed Cana to cover behind a barrel and dodged to the side, narrowly avoiding the blast of magic as it had whipped by her head.
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The pirate fired again with a war cry and Rihanna gasped for air as she whirled away from the blast of magic that had been aimed for her heart. She stumbled as she coughed on the smoke contaminating her surroundings.
Cana screamed a warning and Rihanna threw herself forward, air rushing from her lungs in a silent scream as she felt the magic blast burn her leg on its way by. Rolling to her feet, she clumsily threw a fist forward, using the motion to throw shadows at the pirate in a short-range shockwave. The pirate went flying with a cry and a splash. Rihanna bit her lip as she pushed back the throbbing pain in her leg in favor of rushing back to Cana.
Cana was wild-eyed but surprisingly tearless, hands clutching some cards as she looked around, "W-we need to get out of here!" No kidding. Let Newgate and the others deal with this, we'll come out when the fight is over-
Another shockwave rippled over them, but this time it was accompanied by a bellow of pain that most definitely did not come from Marcus. Twisting around, Rihanna stared up at the deck where the two had been fighting. Newgate was on one knee, an expression of enraged pain on his face as he looked down at Marcus.
Even through the smoke steadily clogging the air, Rihanna could see the pulsing purple symbol on Newgate's bare chest. How did Marcus-? She cut that thought off, it didn't matter right now. What mattered was that Marcus had somehow gotten the symbol on him and it was clearly doing Newgate no favors.
She remembered how vastly outnumbered Newgate's adoptive kids had been compared to the rest of the crew, how their original plan of escape had hinged on the other pirates being too drunk to put up much of a fight. Even if his kids could handle the riffraff of the crew, if Marcus was strong enough to defeat Newgate, the man who had punched a hole through three levels of the ship in one go… If we lose Newgate, we're not getting out of here alive.
Rihanna was running before she was even aware of what she was doing, ignoring Cana's frightened call from behind. Marcus was gloating, she could hear his voice even if she couldn't make out the words. Newgate was clearly fighting against whatever the rune on his skin was, struggling to stand and attack again. But even if he could break free on his own, Rihanna wasn't willing to bet on it happening before Marcus finished his bragging and killed Newgate once and for all.
Sure enough, Marcus was raising his whip again even as he kept speaking, the runes on it glowing a fever-brightness as he prepared to attack the still frozen Newgate. Rihanna felt her heart lodge in her throat, right behind her scar as she pushed herself to run faster despite her leg injury.
If asked later, Rihanna would be unable to say what made her act the way she did. What allowed her to bypass the throbbing injury in her leg and the smoke clogging her lungs enough to launch into a sprint. What compelled her to do what she did. Perhaps it was the magic of the world, the magic that let all Fairy Tail members pull off crazy stunts despite their wounds. Perhaps it was desperation. Perhaps she had just been too stupid to realize she couldn't or shouldn't.
As it was, Marcus was clearly not expecting her to come barreling up the gangplank and slam into his side. Her fingers, which had at some point in her charge become coated in razor-sharp shadows, buried deep into the flesh below his ribcage even as her momentum sent him lurching to the side.
The noise Marcus made as he stumbled, her fingers digging into his flesh and his blood splashing hotly onto her face, was one she would never forget. It was the cry of an animal, wounded, enraged, and in pain. The butt of his whip handle slammed against her head a moment later, sending stars across her vision as he then threw her away from him. Another scream ripped from his throat at that, his reflexive throw having caused her fingers to partially catch and drag through his body as she was tossed away.
Rihanna struggled to her feet, a noiseless groan catching in her throat as she fought to see past the pulsing in her skull. Dizzily, she looked up, her eyes catching Marcus's again by complete accident. Recognition blazed in his eyes, his lips peeling into a feral expression as, before Rihanna could think to dodge, he lashed out with his whip, "You!"
Pain exploded like a long line of fire down her right shoulder and side and Rihanna screamed without sound. Another line of fire carved itself across her back as Marcus stumbled closer, his left arm pressed against his injury and his voice hitting a fever pitch of hate, "You did all this!"
Rihanna could barely push two thoughts together, barely drag herself across the deck in a feeble attempt to escape the third line of agony burning into her skin. Newgate roared from his pinned position, "Marcus! Leave her out of this! You're quarrel with with me!"
Marcus ignored him and Rihanna was subjected to a fourth line of agony, "You will pay for this you little-!"
"Leave her alone!" Cana's voice interrupted Marcus and through the haze of pain pulsing throughout her body, Rihanna heard the telltale crackle of her favorite lightning cards. Marcus screeched like a wildcat and the whip snapped the air, but this time Rihanna felt no pain accompanying it. Cracking open her tear-filled eyes, Rihanna watched Cana bound across the deck, dodging and whirling around the whip-strikes that actually blew holes in the deck wherever they missed.
Cana flung a handful of cards, forcing Marcus to dodge back lest he get set on fire and electrocuted at the same time. Marcus cocked back for another strike when Cana flung a card high above his head with a cry of, "Unseal!"
Even though Rihanna felt like her body was on fire, a part of her still laughed hysterically at the girlish shriek Marcus made as he dodged the massive falling form of Newgate's desk. Cana darted farther away, Marcus chasing after her with a snarl and a snap of his whip.
Rihanna swallowed back her tears, trying to force her body into moving again. There was no way Cana would last against Marcus. She was injured already, all it would take was one more hit from his whip and she would be too pained to dodge the killing blow that would no doubt follow.
"Wren-chan." The breathless rumble dragged her gaze away from Cana's fight to the still kneeling Newgate, "Come here, child. You must come here." With a sob that she only felt rather than heard, Rihanna managed to half-crawl, half-drag herself over to Newgate's massive form. Her back, side, and leg were all screaming at her, and a part of her vaguely wondered how she still had the will to move even as she forced herself to continue.
Newgate watched her progress with intense, yet sympathetic eyes. Once she reached him, he murmured, "Good girl. That's it. Listen carefully, you must break the rune on my chest, Wren-chan. Then I will be able to help Cana-chan and put a stop to Marcus once and for all."
Rihanna furrowed her brow at Newgate, too tired to form her question any other way. Newgate, seeing the question, continued hurriedly, "The technique you used to injure Marcus earlier, you must do it again. Slash the rune. I believe that once the surface upon which it rests is broken, the rune should lose power."
She stared wide-eyed at him for a moment, he wanted her to- to … Cana yelped at a near miss from the whip and Rihanna tightened her jaw. No choice … no choice… Struggling, she reached for her shadows to cut the rune on his skin. Her shadows wavered, slipping through her fingers as the agony shooting up and down her back caused her to lose focus again and again, Come on … come on …
Cana gave a shrill shriek of terror and Rihanna jerked her head around to see Marcus's whip wrapped around her, pinning her arms to her sides as he dragged her closer. No! She reached out futilely, scrambling for a spell, any spell, even her black hole so she could save Cana-
Then, rising over the crackle of flames and the screams of battle throughout the port, shattering the air with its unmistakable intensity, came a possibly the most wonderful sound Rihanna had ever heard.
Thunder crashed like a death knell as something bright and yellow and snarling cannoned into Marcus, sending him flying across the deck and into one of the masts. Marcus stumbled, barely catching himself from landing on the deck face first. All eyes swung in the direction from which the blow had come and Rihanna felt tears of relief slip from her eyes as she saw what she had desperately hoped to see.
Laxus stood on the deck, Bickslow flanking him on his right, Mest cradling Cana on his left. Laxus's fists were clenched tight, shoulders bristling, lightning snapping and sparking off of his body like demented raindrops. His gaze flickered briefly over everyone else on the deck, his eyes lingering for a second on first Cana then Rihanna before he returned his stare to Marcus.
Rihanna took a moment to be astounded at the fact that his eyes were literally glowing with the power of his magic, a strange yellow aura enveloping his frame as he snarled lowly, "No one. Hurts. My. Raijinshū."
Next to Laxus, Bickslow's lips turned upward into a tongue smile that somehow conveyed only malice and his uncovered eyes glowed a menacing green. His tikis sniggering hatefully as Laxus cracked his knuckles and growled, "And now, scum, I'm going to teach you why."