I return! Man, I thought I'd be putting in a humorous one-shot-like chapter before I started this, but the muses demanded and so here we are, launching straight into the next arc. I hope you enjoy it!
Review Response: Dear Cbyte128, greetings! Of course it's alive! It was just dormant for a little while. Glad you thought Cana's actions were believable, I was a bit worried how it would go over. Exactly! I'm kinda going for the whole "pebble sets off a landslide" effect when it comes to the changes caused by Wren's being there. The Whitebeards were fun, I couldn't resist keeping them. Hmmm, well, you do have a point, but you'll have to wait and see for yourself just what changes will happen because of the Whitebeards being members of Fairy Tail. No idea, maybe you're just lucky?
Dear YumiKnowsBest, hello there! Glad to hear it! Oh no, I'm not giving out spoilers. You'll just have to wait and see for yourself what happens when we get to those arcs. Oh, don't worry, things are going to get progressively more AU as we go on. Some things will stay the same, but you should also being seeing a lot of changes as we go on. Again, I can't answer those questions without giving out spoilers, so you'll just have to wait and see. Here is a new update! I hope you like it!
Dear Dragon Lord Draco, hey there! So happy to hear it! Eh ... not a bad suggestion, but I always thought nymphs was more of a feminine title. They'll probably still be called "Whitebeard", but instead of "pirates" it will just be "crew" or "fairies". Newgate's mustache is VERY distinctive after all.
Dear Guest, hi there! Happy to hear it! Hope you enjoy the update!
Dear Palladin1337, greetings! Thank you, I had fun writing. Well, brace yourself, because the next wave of insanity is already on its way! Cannon changes will become more evident as we go along.
Dear BizzyLizy, hi! Good to be back! I was hoping that idea would go over well, so far it seems to be a hit! I know right? It seemed that way to me too, so here I am doing something about it. Poor Mest, he's in denial. But no matter how much he struggles, he'll be assimilated eventually (cackles).
Dear Ori Heartlyng, hello! It's no problem, I completely understand. I'm just happy you're here to review now! Heh, heh, it's fine. I'm sorry if I sounded snappish at all, I was just trying to clear up any potential misunderstandings down the line. Glad you enjoy that part. Well, one of his scars. I didn't add all three because I thought that it would be odd to receive that many scars to the face, two of which being perpendicular to the third, in a single fight. But yeah, he's got the first of his three iconic scars now! Hope you enjoy the update!
Dear snowleopard314, hello there! Aw, thank you for your compliments! That's kinda a pet peeve of mine, actually. I mean, what's the point of giving a character a disability like that only to magically wave it away within the first few chapters? That and having the character go up to the first authority figure they see and blurt out future information that they got from a TV show in a parallel dimension is just ... no. Just no. You're welcome, I enjoy sharing it with all of you. I hope you enjoy the update!
Author's Note: So! Next major arc is here. It will probably be a two-parter, maybe more. After that will be yet another important arc because I am a slightly impatient person with a lot of material to cover. But for now, I hope you enjoy the first of the Last Pieces arc. Just watch out for the cliffy-ish ending. This chapter might get something of a warning for implied gore? Not directly described in detail, but those of us who have very vivid imaginations might want the heads up I suppose. Also, I am working on a one-shot for AUW so that I can FINALLY start the one-shot collection I promised forever ago. I won't be able to post it until at least the chapter after this is up because of timeline reasons, but yeah, just a heads up on that. For those who also read my transformers story, I'm working on it. The next chapter should be edited and posted ... sometime this week. I hope. Will all of that covered, on to the chapter!
Copyright Disclaimer: I do not own Fairy Tail or any references made in this story. The only things I own are my OCs and the plot.
Chapter Twenty-Five: Last Pieces.
(Six months, three days since joining the guild)
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Rihanna took a deep breath of the cool fall air as the Raijinshū ambled slowly down the road. Trees rattled orange and gold leaves in the faint breezes that nipped Rihanna's nose and puffy white clouds chased each other through the sky high above.
The Raijinshū were returning from a job that had gone shockingly well for once. In their quest to catch a notorious jewel thief, they had only broken two walls, set fire to one museum exhibit -which had survived with minimal singeing-, and knocked over four skeletons of various prehistoric creatures. Plus, the three explosions that had occurred had been in no way their fault.
The museum curator had not been … completely pleased with the results. But, they had managed to both capture the thief and return the stolen jewels unharmed, so they had only gotten a minor deduction on their reward and were sent on their way.
Mest, who had been dragged into the Raijinshū's shenanigans more and more over the past two months, hadn't really appreciated Rihanna's comment over the lack of chaos. According to him, the chase had been plenty chaotic and their Fairy Tail Luck was still the worst he'd ever seen.
Bickslow had pointed out that Mest was just miffed that the jewel thief had been able to evade him several times despite Mest's use of teleportation magic. He had also pointed out that if Mest really hated their luck, why did he willingly come with them on the past four jobs instead of striking out on his own?
Mest had had no answer for that beyond a low grumble and a dire warning that since the job went so splendidly, they were bound to run into massive trouble on the way home. Rihanna had a bad feeling that Mest was right, but the day was nice enough that she was willing to pretend otherwise.
Cana stretched her arms over her head with a low purr, "Hmmm, pity we didn't bring an extra lunch and a blanket. We could have a picnic or something."
Bickslow snorted, "Who want's a picnic? Those are boring." His tikis chorused a cheeky "boring, boring, boring" and Rihanna shared a look of long-suffering with Laxus as Cana bristled and one of their infamous bickering bouts began.
Ever since Cana's position as a member of the Raijinshū had been confirmed, she and Bickslow had become the Natsu and Gray of the team, always bickering with each other unless it was a life-threatening situation. As a consequence, Rihanna had found herself playing the role of the Erza to their Natsu and Gray with irritating frequency.
Mest waved his hands slightly, trying to come between the two head-butting mage children, "Guys, guys, come on. It's such a nice day, can't you two just get along for five minutes?"
Laxus snorted softly, "Not unless some massive disaster strikes and they have an enemy to beat up instead of each other."
Rihanna was about to nod in agreement when her increasingly honed Fairy Tail Luck instincts tingled and the universe proved once again to love its ironic timing.
Somewhere off to their left, someone started screaming.
The Raijinshū all paused for a moment to stare at each other, then turned toward the sound as one and started running. Of course we'd run into trouble on the way home. Of course we would! Why did I ever think Mest had a chance of being wrong?
We all knew that the job went off way too easily, especially since we haven't had any major trouble on a job in a month. An entire month! We were long overdue. With that dire idea in mind, Rihanna shifted into her shadow form, seamlessly latching onto Laxus's shadow as he kept sprinting in the direction of the screams.
As they got closer, Rihanna was able to pick out two separate voices in the screams, as well as gruff yelling from much deeper voices. Something inside her went icy cold as one of the screams went up several octaves and the tone shifted from fear to something Rihanna never wanted to hear.
Pure, horrified agony. The kind of agony that came from being hurt -violated- in the worst ways possible. Mest swore, frustrated at his inability to teleport directly to the scene without knowing exactly where it was or having it in his direct line of sight. Laxus seemed to grow wings on his feet at the sounds, lightning sparking off of his body until he suddenly burst into his recently discovered lightning form and shot off, inadvertently knocking Rihanna out of shadow form with his burst of power.
Rihanna stumbled for a moment, then took off again for the source of the screaming, not bothering to take the time to drop back into shadow form. Her shadows bristled in preparation, a hundred scenarios flashing through her mind over what they were going to find … or if they were going to be too late. Thunder rattled her teeth as Laxus's roar of rage suddenly echoed from ahead of them.
Rihanna felt her heart jump in fear. She had heard Laxus get angry before. She still remembered the rage that had been in his voice and manner when he intervened during the fight with the pirate Marcus. But that shout … the rage in his voice just then had topped even that.
Before she could really contemplate what could make Laxus that angry, she and the others burst through the tree line and came to a stumbled stop in a scene much, much worse than anything Rihanna could have guessed.
Laxus seemed to tower over everyone else in the area, even over the large group of men backing nervously away from him. Lightning snapped off of his body in waves, the golden aura from when he had fought Marcus rolling off of him as he stood between the men and two huddled children.
Rihanna took a slow step further into the clearing to get a better look at the situation. Her eyes flickered over the signs of a struggle and her stomach rolled at the odd, burned smell that flooded her nostrils. What is that smell? Is that- Her gaze flicked down and left, then froze. Ice dropped into her veins and disbelief choked her at the sight of a tipped over jar and its spilled contents. No. No way. That isn't… A faint sob drew her gaze to the two children, one of whom had shakily raised his face from the shoulder of the other one. Their gazes met. The last pieces clicked into place in Rihanna's mind. The ice in her veins burned away under rage.
The startled men finally recovered from their surprise over Laxus's appearance and charged forward with shouts of arrogant defiance.
Shadows exploded from around her, swirling and rolling like the writhing tentacles of some underworld monster. The door behind her eyes throbbed dangerously as she launched herself forward into battle.
She may not be allowed to kill people. But in that moment, she swore she was going to make them wish she could.
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Evergreen kept her arms tightly wrapped around her stepbrother, terror and awe intertwining inside her as she watched their tormentors get utterly, totally demolished by the lightning-wielding boy and his companions. Thunder clapped in the air, tooth-rattlingly loud as he swatted aside yet another tormentor and engaged their leader directly in battle.
Her stepbrother shivered convulsively in her arms, a low choked sound of agonized awe shuddering out of his chest as he cradled the left side of his face, his right eye wide with shock at the carnage being unleashed. On our behalf? That … was hard for Evergreen to wrap her head around. Not after everything that had happened to them for the past two months.
Their home burned to the ground in an attack made to look like an accident, taking their parents and everything they'd ever known with it. The head servant, her mother's most trusted advisor, selling them for their gift- no- their curse. The curse that kept Evergreen from looking anyone in the eye without her glasses, the curse that had gotten them sold like common household items.
They had escaped the men who had purchased them, only for this to happen. For these … monsters who made a living "acquiring" rare magic to sell to the highest bidder to spot Freed using his curse to defend Evergreen after she had stupidly gotten into trouble and hunt them down.
Mother had always warned them to be careful about revealing their curses. Evergreen had always assumed that it was because of what they could do to people. She had never dreamed that her mother might have been warning them about what people could do to them. That there were people, monsters, out there willing to hold Freed down and rip one of his eyes out of its socket just for the money they could get from it.
A noise from Evergreen's right made her look, startled in that direction. She screamed at the sight of one of the goggle-wearing monsters looming over her, one hand reaching out to grab Freed while the other brought a magic fire knife to bear. Freed cried out in both agony and terror as he was ripped from Evergreen's grasp. The man pinned Freed against his body, the glowing knife held dangerously close to his throat as he bellowed, "Nobody move, or the brat get's it!"
Evergreen didn't listen, she'd seen enough of these men to know that freezing was as much of a death warrant as taking the risk and moving. Her eyes glowed wildly with her curse, a curse that was frustratingly useless because of the man's goggles, as she lunged for him, "Let go of my brother!"
Startled, the man kicked her in the ribs, knocking her flat with a wheeze of air, "Brat!" The leg lashed out again, and Evergreen braced vainly for another rib fracturing blow, "I said-!"
Thunder clapped and light flashed so brilliantly that for a moment, Evergreen felt like she had gone both deaf and blind. Then it cleared and the blond boy who had first intervened was crouched there, one hand wrapped tightly around the man's outstretched ankle. The boy's glowing fingers squeezed the ankle he was holding and Evergreen heard something crack under the lightning-enhanced pressure. A feral noise, much more like a wild animal than a human, rippled from the boy's chest as the man screeched in pained surprise.
The boy's head tilted upward and while Evergreen could not see what his expression was, it must have been terrifying because the man froze. The boy's fingers clenched tighter and when he spoke, the feral noise from before layered into his voice, sending it to an unnaturally deep octave, "Let. The boy. Go."
Seeming to forget the benefit of his hostage, the man holding Freed shrieked and lashed out with his knife. The fire of the blade extended with the motion and the blond boy jerked back with a snarl, blood flying from the right side of his face. The reflexive jerk sent both the man and the boy off balance and they tumbled to the ground. Freed rolled clear with a sobbing cry and Evergreen scrambled for her stepbrother with a sob of her own.
All around, the fighting between the strangers who had appeared from nowhere with the blond boy and the monsters who had taken Freed's left eye was still going on thick and fast. Evergreen felt like gagging from the smell of blood and magic in the air and her ears rang with the battle cries and screams.
The man who had tried to hold Freed hostage scrambled to stand on one leg, the ankle of the other now oddly shaped and no longer able to hold his weight. The boy rolled to his feet around the same moment, the golden yellow of his magic aura still burning around him like flames as he growled, "I'm going to make you pay for what you've done."
The man's face twisted with fear again and he turned to run away only for a bolt of lightning to suddenly strike him from the sky. The man went sprawling with a scream, body taking a vaguely burnt appearance and muscles twitching spasmodically against the ground.
The boy looked over his shoulder at them and Evergreen felt her heart flutter frantically in her chest at the intensity of the boy's gaze. She kept her own gaze averted. Afraid of what her curse would do to the boy who had, for whatever reason, intervened on hers and Freed's behalf. Out of the corner of her eye however, she could see that the boy was no longer unscathed. His right eye was squeezed shut, blood dribbling freely from the jagged wound that went from above his eyebrow down almost to his jawline, passing directly over his eyelid on the way down.
He got that … defending us. Why is he…? Her gaze flickered briefly to the others wreaking havoc across the clearing. The tallest of their number was vanishing and reappearing at random intervals, his vicious kicks and punches from any angle wreaking havoc as he held his own against five of the men who had been chasing Evergreen and her stepbrother. Strange wooden … things whirled through the air like shrieking oversized bees, their green lasers blasting through the defensive magic of anyone who tried to box in their acrobatic master.
A girl whirled in and out of the group of men in sync with the boy who commanded the wooden bees, small squares of paper -cards?- flying from her hands to unleash blasts of fire, electricity, or water. Her brown hair swirled around her face as she ducked beneath a wild blast of light magic from one of the men and retaliated with a card that promptly exploded. Evergreen couldn't help a slight gasp of awe at the other girl's speed.
Something shifted on the edge of her vision and even over the rest of the clamoring battle, Evergreen could hear the shriek of the man who she saw getting dragged into the shadows by a mass of … tentacles. Tendrils. Something. Her heart skipped a beat at the sight, the impression of faceless horror. She couldn't see any mage controlling those … things. Only a huge, roiling mass of black that stalked along the edges of the field, emitting an aura of danger that coated the air like smoke.
As she watched, it darted into the main fray, tendrils lashing out with razor-sharp points to cut and harass the men before darting away again. As it did, it dragged another victim out of the crowd with it, reeling it into the central mass darkness like a predator slowly consuming hapless prey.
One man, having seen the fate of the other one, broke away from the combined attacks of the wooden bees and the card girl and made to run away. However, as soon as he reached the edge of the tree-line, the darkness was on him, tendrils latching onto his ankles and arms. They slammed him first against the ground, then picked him up and flung him into a tree with enough force to shatter it and the three behind it. Then that man too was dragged into the central darkness.
Why are they…? What are they…? Evergreen's gaze flickered back to the boy who commanded lightning, who had been watching her through her several second examination of the others. "Who?" She managed to gasp out shakily.
The boy came closer and Evergreen flinched, clutching a shaking Freed closer and raising her gaze warningly to the boy's collarbone, letting her curse shine clearly in her eyes. Even if he seemed to be helping them, she still didn't trust him enough to let him that close to her stepbrother. Not after all of the betrayal and hardship they had gone through so recently.
The boy stopped, but she felt as if he was somehow wrapping them protectively in the power that rolled off of his frame, "We are the Raijinshū," he answered lowly, "and we're going to make sure these scum never touch you again." Throwing back his head, the boy suddenly roared, "Raijinshū! Turn them to ash!"
The other three howled their assents and renewed their attacks on their much bigger yet somehow still overwhelmed opponents while the mass of shadow spiked in size dangerously. The boy whirled away to rejoin the main fray and the step-siblings both watched him go with wide eyes and a growing feeling of adulation in their chests for the stranger who could command such dangerous allies and chose, for no discernible reason, to help them.
In that moment, watching the boy call lightning down from the sky in vengeance against the men who had hounded them and hurt them so badly, her previous distrust melted away and Evergreen swore that if she would follow that boy to the ends of Earthland and beyond.
She didn't know it, but somewhere in his agony-hazed mind, her stepbrother swore the same thing.
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Laxus was beyond enraged. The wild surges of feral emotion pulsing through his veins made even his anger at Marcus over two months ago feel like nothing. Back then, he had been acting on the rage at seeing how hurt Wren and Cana had been, but he had still been himself for the most part. But this time was different. What these … pieces of trash had done was beyond even the memories Wren's faded whip scars provoked. It was beyond anything he had seen and beyond any anger he had ever felt before.
He knew what these scum were, he recognized their mark and their purpose. Magic Hunters. People who stole rare magics, drained the original users of their power to fill up lacrima which could then be sold on the black market for hundreds of millions of jewels. He had known about them, dimly, for years. However, it wasn't until he had formed the Raijinshū with Bickslow and Wren that his grandfather had taken him aside and warned him about what Magic Hunters were really capable of.
If Magic Hunters found people would wielded eye magic, especially young ones or ones who were not known to be in a guild, they extracted the eyes and sold them to people who wanted that kind of power. Properly "acquired" magic eyes went for billions of jewels, enough to support the guild that got them for decades. It had been horrifying to hear his grandfather tell him such things. But to see it? To see these scum pull the boy's eye right out of its socket before Laxus could stop them? To smell the burned flesh of the wound that had been cauterized by the heat of the tool used to rip the eye free?
The dragon inside his head howled in fury at the atrocity and this time Laxus didn't bother holding it back. Images of such a thing happening to Bickslow or Wren pounded through his mind, coupling with his righteous wrath over seeing it done to a kid not much younger than him to send him into battle frenzy the likes of which he had never even imagined possible.
These monsters were going to pay for what they had done and Laxus would not be satisfied until that debt had been repaid a thousandfold.
He spotted the leader of the group, the man he had had to stop fighting briefly in order to save the boy and the girl from the idiot with the knife. The leader was holding his own against the combined forces of Bickslow and Cana. Mest was still busy with three of the remaining minions and Wren was … Laxus had to search for a moment before he spotted the mass of writhing shadow. Wren was only just barely visible in the center of it, her eyes blazing with the same frenzy as his as she stalked toward the leader.
The more tactical side of his mind, suppressed by his rage though it was, prodded his mind and he called, "Wren!" Blazing eyes with thin trails of black smoke rising from them to match her rippling black aura met his and he pointed back toward the two kids. "Keep them safe! I'll deal with this trash!"
Her lips curled to bare her teeth in a savage expression of irritation at being denied a fight. The dragon paused in its roaring to growl stiffly, wary -as it always was for reasons Laxus couldn't understand- of the tiny shadow-user. Laxus subconsciously rolled his shoulders, flexing his shoulder blades as if to spread out wings that did not exist in a show of dominance. His nostrils flared as he held Wren's gaze, silently daring her to challenge his authority. Wren's lips settled into a half snarl as she dipped her head and spun away from the fight, shadows spreading out like webbing to coat the earth around the two she had been ordered to protect.
Laxus nodded curtly to himself while the dragon rumbled approvingly. Turning, he resumed his trek toward the leader, allowing a noise very similar to his inner-dragon's bass snarl to vibrate from his throat. Tensing his legs, Laxus suddenly launched himself off of the ground into a flying leap, lightning-enhanced foot aimed directly at the leader's head. The man, hearing the crackle of Laxus's electricity, whirled just in time to block the blow with his arms. Laxus kicked off of the man's arms with a low noise of anger, pushing the man back several feet.
Laxus landed on all-fours, using the points of contact to immediately spring away from the man's retaliatory blast of Light Magic. Cana pulled back her wrist to throw a card when Laxus snarled, "Don't interfere! He's mine!"
Laxus barely noticed Cana's startled look before he sprang forward to attack his opponent with a barrage of punches and kicks. His inner-dragon hissed victoriously at each flinch and grunt his blows incited, then snapped imaginary teeth in frustration at being unable to break the man's guard. The leader shoved Laxus away with a shockwave of light and Laxus tasted blood as he accidentally bit his cheek during his landing. The copper taste stung his tongue as he rolled to his feet and his inner-dragon abruptly lunged with more force than it ever had before.
Laxus turned his head briefly to spit out the blood, then felt his lungs expand as he breathed deeply. His lungs hit their normal capacity … then just kept expanding. His opponent lashed out with a bolt of light, giving a triumphant shout at Laxus's apparent inattention.
Just before the beam of light could hit him, Laxus's head snapped up, his mouth opened and his inner-dragon roared. Lightning exploded from between his jaws, a solid beam of destruction that split the opposing beam of light like it was nothing. It kept going, plowing through the beam until it collided with Laxus's opponent.
The man went flying with a scream, straight through a row of trees before crashing to the ground. Laxus chased after him, lightning pouring off of his frame as his inner-dragon howled for him to finish the fight. Laxus's opponent was just getting back onto his feet when Laxus caught up to him and kicked him in the head, sending him flying again, "You-" The man rolled to a stop and fired off a desperate hail of light beams.
Laxus shifted into his lightning form, the beams passing harmlessly by his body as he plowed on and slammed into his target's midriff, "Will never-" The man coughed up a telltale red as Laxus bucked his entire body upwards, the lightning enhanced power of the motion sending the man high into the air. Laxus hunched low to the ground on all fours again, "Harm anyone-"
He sprung into the air, all the way up to his still airborne target with a thunderclap of power. Clenching his fists together and -still following the raging instincts of his inner-dragon- raised them high above his head, "Again!" His fists crashed down onto the man's back, lightning filling the area with an almost unbearable glow as his blow sent his opponent smashing into the ground with devastating force.
Laxus landed in the crater made by his opponent's abrupt return to earth, lungs heaving as he struggled to rein in his rampant magic. His inner-dragon howled triumph to the sky, but Laxus was unable to share in the feeling. He slid unsteadily into a seated position, mouth wide open as he struggled to breathe, something painful pulsing like a second heartbeat deep inside him. His rage simmered away under exhaustion and an unfamiliar nausea slithered through his stomach.
The sound of his inner-dragon faded until it was its usual bare nudges of instinct and in its place, Laxus's logical side had an epiphany. Dragon Slayer Magic … I just used the Lightning Dragon Slayer Magic stored in my lacrima. Not … not good. Laxus swallowed hard, trying to keep from throwing up from the odd swimming feeling invading his skull, some kind of rebound effect. My body isn't used to channeling the Slayer Magic for combat … like a muscle that's suddenly overworked…
Familiar chittering sounds to his left drew him out of his thoughts. Bickslow skidded down the crater side to a stop next to him, his hand on Laxus's shoulder suddenly the only thing keeping him from falling over, "Laxus! Laxus!"
Laxus focused on breathing through his nose and ignoring how badly his lungs ached, "I'm fine. The others?"
Bickslow gave Laxus a look that said he knew Laxus was not fine but answered, "We're all okay except for minor injuries here and there. But Wren passed out from magic exhaustion after she realized that all of the … men … had been taken out." Laxus wasn't surprised at that last part, he couldn't ever recall her making that many shadows before, let along controlling them all to fight.
"The … kids?" Bickslow winced at his question and rubbed the back of his neck.
Helping Laxus to his feet, Bickslow answered, "Alive. Mest took them and the … jar. Teleported them to Porlyusica-san's house for treatment. He said he'd come back for us in a few minutes."
Laxus nodded dully, then gave a low hiss as the motion cause a stabbing pain across the right side of his face. Bickslow glanced at him, then did a double-take, "Laxus! Your eye!"
Laxus cautiously reached up to the right side of his face. His fingers gingerly brushed the wound there, memories of how he had gotten it coming back as the last of his adrenaline left. Pain stabbed him again and he suddenly bent double, heaving. His retching only made the pain worse and he barely had time to register Bickslow shouting for Cana's help before blackness snatched him away.