06| RUNES
Silence was the first thing that Mira had taken into account as her blue eyes slowly opened, a soft groan leaving her lips as she felt the strain on her body. She assumed that was the after affect of being magically drained, and she couldn't be sure how many times the draining seal had been activated on both her and Laxus accounts of unconsciousness.
Laxus.
Her blue eyes snapped towards the lighting dragon slayer, who's face was glowing a faint green. Her body tensed in anticipation for another round of the drainage rune to sap whatever energy they had left, but it never came. Instead she felt a familiar magic, one Mira usually felt around the guild now thanks to the protection runes written by one specific mage.
Freed.
Something in her head flickered to life with realization that Freed had cancelled out the draining rune with his own rune. It made sense, but it also used up his magic if it was through the whole ass mountain. Which meant they had to work quick with their newfound limited time window. This dark guild, The Order, were not only strong but they were intelligent. Which made them even more dangerous.
"Laxus, wake up." Mira muttered, on her knees next to him and shoving his shoulder with her hand. Her eyebrows were screwed together in worry, and she couldn't help it. She couldn't help but feel the dread in the pit of her stomach. She couldn't help but worry and fear for Lucy.
Lucy was the fifth sin, Lust. What did that mean for the Lucy she knew and loved? Was she still there or was she lost in the abyss of her own mind? No, Lucy was being controlled with the other six.
"Please tell me I dreamt everything that happened." Laxus groaned, rolling over on his back as he sat up. His blue eyes scanned over his guild mate, making sure that she was still in one piece.
"Sadly I can't lie like that." Mira says, slowly rising to her feet. "Freed had to have something to do to subdue their draining rune. Laxus, these people are dangerous. A lot more dangerous than we thought coming into this mountain."
"They kidnapped six high leveled mages and turned them into mindless puppets." Laxus muttered, "We don't know how far these people, this group, runs Mira. Can we even save Lucy and the others? Or will we be next?"
Mira frowned at the dragon slayer, shaking her head. "These people have awaken an ancient magic within Lucy and the others, broke a seal that was always there unknowingly until now. There is a dark magic, a demonic magic within Lucy, Sting and the others. I can sense that much."
"Wonderful." Laxus sarcastically muttered with a huff. Leave it to the Celestial Mage to find trouble, but this time really wasn't her fault. Damn blonde could never catch a break.
"A part of my Satan Soul is to control other demon souls." Mira softly reminded. "I felt Lucy's, touched it for a moment before the crystals broke. I think I can fracture the bond between her and that mind controlling mage long enough for our Lucy to break free."
"Are ya sure about that theory though?" Laxus raised an eyebrow. "She didn't even recongize us Mira. These people have their hooks in deep. You saw what she did to Virgo, one of her spirits that she would never hurt at all. She sent the spirit back, violently at that. She might actually be able to kill or seriously injure one of us."
Mira looked over her shoulder at the lightning dragon slayer, "She sacrificed ones of her spirits to save us back in Tartaros. She broke Aquarius's key for us, and we left her."
Laxus's eyes widen in surprise, "How do you know that? Blondie would never break a key of her's willingly."
"The first night we stayed here, I was pulled into what I thought was a nightmare until I realized it was Lucy's memory. She broke her key to call the Spirit King and break us free." Mira frowned, glancing away as she thought about it. "Her mind had to call out to share that with me, and the only way she could do that would be through the demonic energy she shares with me now."
"She wanted you to find her." Laxus pointed out. "If she realized it or not, Lucy wanted you to find her here."
Mira shakes her head, "No, she wanted to be free. Laxus, Lucy is more than likely aware of everything. Meaning she needs help to get free of mind control."
Laxus stood up, determination in his eyes now. "Then let's go find her and get the other six the hell out of here."
Watching Laxus and Mira falling through the ground and then the ground swallowing the take over mage and dragon slayer whole had honestly shook Freed to his core. It was something that he wasn't expecting to happen at all, none of them did. It took a minute for him to recover and for Bickslow and Evergreen to register it as well.
"What the hell just happened?" Evergreen asked, looking over at Freed for some answers.
Freed was frowning, looking around the mountain walls they were incased in. He could feel a magic running deep in them, a magic that wasn't as present but a lingering effect of someone else's magic. He had no doubt now that Levy had been right in this being a set up now and that Lucy was here with the other missing mages.
"Someone here can use earth magic." Freed says, looking at his two teammates in the eyes. "Whoever it is here, they want us to be separated and are using the mountain to divide us in a way they see fit. Stay alert."
Bickslow in turn could feel the different souls within the mountain. The souls of his own guild mates, Sabertooth's and some he never encountered before. He didn't like not knowing what the hell they were up against but right now they didn't have much of a choice in going into this blind.
"We need to find Laxus and Mirajane." Evergreen says as the trio started to walk further into the mountain.
"Well no shit." Bickslow says, following on her other side. "We need to find everyone. I don't like this. I can feel people watching."
It was weird how no one came to them, but the three of them had felt the magical signatures in the mountain going up and down. It was enough to make Freed concerned about something happening to everyone. Whoever was in this mountain was expecting them all, and they had to be expecting them for a reason right? They were needed to something.
Yet as soon as he had the thought, Freed found himself on the ground feeling his magical energy draining rather quickly. He could see Evergreen's and Bickslow's magic energy depleting rather fast as well. Which meant the other's in the mountains were getting drained because the only thing that could drain more than one mage in this capacity would be a strong draining rune, but no one was better in runes than Freed himself.
"What are you doing Freed?" Evergreen groaned, watching as one of her partners forced himself to sit up and placed his hand on the floor. Under Freed a rune lit up a bright purple, the very rune that was causing their magic to flow into the mountain.
"Overriding this rune." Freed grounded out, eyebrows knitting together in focus. "This is a rune that's designed for strong mages like us. Quick acting and deliberate. We were apart of a plan."
"You'll use up your energy Freed!" Evergreen yelled, watching as her friend used more of his energy.
Freed grunted in response, focusing on writing his own rune that would override this one. It needed to cancel it out completely or they would all be sitting ducks. It took about ten minutes before Freed collapsed onto the mountain floor, but the purple rune from under them disappeared and Evergreen found herself able to move with Bickslow.
"Freed!"
Bickslow groaned, standing up and holding a hand out to Evergreen, "He's fine, just out of energy right now. We'll have to wait for him to rest a little bit."
Natsu would be lying if he said that his whole attention span was on the man,Rafael, trying to bash his face in. As he moved to dodge the fists of the sin he that had to remind himself was Wrath, Natsu's mind was also in tune with the fight between the ice make mage and his celestial mage.
Lucy was Lucy, no matter what. The damn dark mages who did this to her would pay, because no one messed with Fairy Tail. No one messed with his nakama and definitely no one messed with Lucy. Whatever the hell they did to her, they were gonna fix it. Natsu's was determined to make sure of that.
"It's rude to not give your opponent your full undivided attention." Rafael says, regaining Natsu's attention again for the moment. "She isn't paying attention to you, nor is she even worried if you live or die, so I suggest you pay attention to me."
Natsu didn't even have time to say a retort back to the man before he was swinging his fist again, but this time his fist was lit aflame. Natsu was quick to move out of the way, and deciding maybe the piece of advice given to him was worth listening too. The man in front of him was gonna really beat him if Natsu didn't refocus himself. Gray would never hurt Lucy.
But she might hurt him. This Lucy, she isn't the same as our Lucy.
He shook that thought from his head, because this was someone controlling her. Controlling her and the rest of these people who were taken from their daily lives and being used against their wills- which was something he had to keep in mind as he ducked under Rafael's arm and took a deep breath.
"Fire dragons roar!" Natsu yelled, feeling the burning inside come to life like a blanket of security and it exiting his mouth right at his opponent.
Rafael didn't even move, hell he didn't even flinch. He took the hit, and simply took a step forward as if that was a gust of wind and brushed off and flick of ash.
"Wrath was forged and created by the flames of war back in the early times." Rafael smirked at Natsu, "Which included dragon flames from the war. You, silly dragon boy, can not hurt me."
"I can sure as hell try." Natsu clenched his teeth, fist curled by his side. For once he might be evenly matched in his own element. If this sin's flames were the same as his own, or similar, maybe his couldn't hurt Natsu.
He's not human right now. A demon is occupying his body, and Lucy's.
Natsu had to remind himself that he was still human, not immortal, and that he bleed as much as he could get burned by fire if he wasn't paying attention enough. He had to be smart about this, because everyone else was busy dealing with someone on their own.
"Indeed." Rafael tilted his head, "We shall see."
Rafael only smirked, lighting his fists with fire .
Gray would have never thought that this would be a challenge they would have to face, never thought that they would ever stand on the other side against Lucy. Never thought that she would stand against them, but as he looked into her blue glowing eyes it became all the more clear that this was not their Lucy.
Lucy Heartfilia was warm hearted, smiled brighter than the stars shinning in the night sky and welcomed people in with kindness. She believed in never breaking promises, to protect her family and spirits and to be the best stellar mage she could be. Yet that Lucy was no where to be found, and by the sounds of it - she hadn't been seen since the day the guild disbanded.
Gray couldn't get a word in when he was kept busy with trying to dodge a certain blonde with glowing blue eyes. He knew his friend was agile with her spirits, but he was experiencing something new. Lucy's eyes were narrowed in on him solely as she came to finally stand still. Her head tilted to the side as if she was trying to figure something out, calculating her moves and what he would do and it was then he felt the most threatened by Lucy Heartfilia in his entire life.
It was clear that there was no getting though to her, with his words going though one ear and out the other. It was also clear that he would have to fight her just so his ass wouldn't get kicked into next year. He was able to tell that Lucy had two new abilities, to get into someone's head and that she was skilled in hand to hand combat.
"You lack vitality in fighting for your life." Lucy's voice wasn't her normal voice. There was a tone that was underlying, a tone of a promise he didn't want anything to do with.
"I don't want to fight you." Gray breathed, chest panting to catch his breath from all the defensive moves he was doing to block Lucy's attacks. The part that scared the shit out of him was that he knew Lucy was only toying with him right now.
On the other hand, Lucy was observing the man in front of her. Her main obligation, her purpose and duty of her whole existence was to protect the Hellfire. Yet she felt no threat towards the hell fire, so why was she fighting? Why did she have the urge to beat the man in front of her that didn't even formally challenge her as a one of the seven deadly sins?
"I couldn't tell." Lucy's voice dripped with newfound sarcasm, her blue eyes flickering with hidden conflict.
Yet Gray saw it come as fast as it went, and any little emotion he just saw in those blue eyes was snuffed out instantaneously. He saw the little silver device on her neck blink red as Lucy's body went rigid for a second.
She was getting out of their control. Those devices don't control them, the devices shocked them. That shock had to cause their minds to blank for a second and then the damn mage who had the mind magic was taking control.
Gray always knew that Lucy was strong willed, it was embedded into her personality. It was how she was raised, and it was probably the only thing from her childhood that she kept the same. Not that a person could really change that part about themselves . It was just another reason why she fit into Fairy Tail so easily, they all had strong wills and morals.
"Woah!" Gray shouted, backpedaling as Lucy lunged at him with her fists closed and aimed his face. Her speed and movement was a lot more quicker than before, back before she was taken. Before they had left her to herself and went their own ways.
Yet he stilled lacked the heart to actually hit her. Why though? He could act like it was a brawl with Natsu or someone else from their guild, but the reality of it was that this was Lucy. She made a sacrifice for them, mourned alone and they had left her to deal with it. He hurt her enough already. She was basically a sister to him after all they went through over the years, and he could never hurt his family.
"Gray-sama!" Juvia's voice snapped Gray out of it, just as Lucy's foot came in contact with his cheek and sent him flying back- which hurt.
Juvia could understand why it was difficult for Team Natsu to fight Lucy. Why it was hard for her beloved to fight her Love-Rival, but it wasn't hard for her. Juvia would protect her beloved no matter what, even from their own guild members. She had already made her mind up, and besides this wouldn't be the first time her and Lucy had a face off.
"Water Nebula!" Juvia cried out, watching as her water went in for Lucy- but the blonde was quick on her feet and dodged out of the way. It only caused Juvia's eyes to narrow in determination, not even looking at Gray now. "Gray-sama, help Wendy-san. I have Love-Rival."
Gray wasn't sure if he should be worried, but he didn't have time to argue as Lucy decided to give her attention solely to Juvia. Probably because she had actually attacked her, where he was only on the defensive side of things. Juvia had Lucy's calculating predatory gaze on her, and he wasn't sure that was a good thing.
"Rain rain go away." Lucy sang, chills going down Juvia's spine as she started to circle again.
There was a chilling edge to Lucy's voice, Juvia noted, that reminded her of a siren beckoning a sailor at sea to follow along to his watery death. The sweet melody the tempted any who heard to follow along without a second thought, but Juvia new better. Her eyes narrowed on the blonde, who's blue eyes glowed just a bit more intensely. Shoving the urge to listen down, Juvia thought about her options here- weighed them.
It was known that Lucy herself was scarily smart, a lot more clever and intellectual than she let on at first glance. She was the one who thought out things calmly, for the most part, when a situation got stressful. Juvia wasn't as good at it, especially when it was someone she knew but this wasn't the same person. It was someone who wore the face of her love rival. Someone who wanted to fight, to cause harm.
The look on her face was calculating, watching Juvia with narrowed eyes. This wasn't the same as when Juvia herself had gotten controlled and broke free with Lucy's help. Lucy was waiting to pounce again, but it seemed like she wasn't going to wait as long as she did with Gray. Without hesitation, Lucy went in with glowing blue eyes and her hand lit with blue sparks.
Lighting.
Juvia knew then she would have to dodge and make sure that her lightning didn't touch her. That wouldn't feel very good and probably disable her for a few minutes, and that was something she could not afford right now.
If anyone had ever told Laxus that he would one day witness Lucy Heartfilia fighting Juvia without her spirits and damn near winning, he might not have believed it. Despite knowing she was more than capable of defending her own, he never thought he'd see it. Yet it was Juvia's voice that he and Mira had followed.
Natsu was fighting fire with fire, of course. Gray was fighting with Wendy against some guy who was using some type of air and gravity magic and then there was Erza, who seemed to be an expert in hand to hand combat so far with the equip mage. Laxus couldn't help but frown as Mira went running towards Juvia and Lucy, who's fight was looking pretty intense. Laxus could even swear there was a trail of blood running down both females somewhere.
"Lucy." Laxus heard Juvia breath, her heartbeat racing with adrenaline as she faced off Lucy. "Please stop fighting us. We are your family!"
Mira stopped a small distance away from the two fairy tail mages. Her eyes going back and forth between Lucy and Juvia, who seemed to have been going at it for a little bit. The effects of the fight was more seen on Juvia, but Mira could see it in Lucy as well.
"The reason you can't break through to Lucy is because she's not in the right state of mind, along with the others." Mira was quick to say, only to be cut off by Gray.
"Yeah no shit, I think we've noticed that much!"
Mira set him a glare, effectively shutting the ice mage up, "Lucy and the others, including Sting were encased in dark magic for six months."
"Six months!? I thought she was doing a story!" Came Natsu's yell from across the battle field as he dodged Rafael's punch.
"The drainage seal that they activated was why they needed us here, why they lead us back to Lucy. Out of all the mages they took, they knew Lucy was important. We activated the seal, the magic they needed in order to break the seal on the sins."
Erza frowned, "So I was right, they are possessed by the demon sins."
"No." Mira corrected, shaking her head. "They are the sins. They were the seals, and right now their minds are frazzled, and The Order is taking advantage of that."
"What the hell is that suppose too mean!?" Natsu yelled as he sent Rafael back with his own punch now.
"It means aim for the weird shit on their necks!" Gray yelled for the dragon slayer to hear.
Mira was quick to call onto her demon soul takeover, rushing in front of Juvia to block one of Lucy's in coming attacks. Her eyes bore into Lucy's glowing blue, trying to find the demon soul that was in there but she could only find one soul- not two.
"You won't find anything in there." Lucy spat at her, blue eyes blazed with a new anger. "I feel you inside my soul, but like I told you before." Lucy was quick to grab Mira and pull her close. Mira shivered again feeling Lucy's lips on her ear. "I am the sin of Lust, not Lucy."
With that, Lucy pushed Mira back and lit her hand with a new spark of electricity that caused Laxus's eyes to widen in surprised. He was ready to rush and push Mira away, not sure how Lucy's electricity worked or would effect others but seeing Juvia's body that had brusing and burns- he could only imagine.
"Loke!?" Juvia called in surprise, but he ignored her and focused on Lucy and the glow of her blue eyes. Laxus didn't have to push Mira out of the way in the end, Loke had put himself in the line of fire to stare Lucy down.
Loke had felt Lucy's presence the moment it reappeared. He could also feel the presence of her other keys, of the other spirits who shared a contract with the celestial mage. He had looked over Gajeel and Rouge who had their own battles cover and then had looked at Yukino and Levy. Yukino had known the moment he looked at her, smiling a reassuring smile and handing him his golden gate key.
"Go get her back Loke."
He had done exactly what he wanted to do the second he was able to come back out of his key, he made his way to his master and she was someone he didn't recongize in that moment. If she was feeling guilty about destroying Aquarius's key, then this would be a whole different thing for her to deal with after. She was fighting her guild with a magic Loke didn't even know she had.
No, these people had done something to her and the other six mages. Even Sting didn't seem right, he wasn't himself. Lucy was under the same spell as the others, and he had barely gotten there just in time to intercept Lucy's electricity with his own regulus light and tackle her to the stone floor.
"Snap out of it Lucy!" Loke snarled desperately, shaking the girl a bit harshly when she didn't respond. Not even bat an eyelash. "This isn't you!"
It was the first time she spoke to him in months, and it sent chills down his spine in a way he never thought she would. "Then who am I, lion boy? Will your blood taste as good as the maid spirit's?"
This caused several pair of eyes to widen in surprise, yet it only hardened Loke's resolve. His purpose in life was solely to serve Lucy. To protect her from everything that could potentially cause her harm, even if that were to be herself. He had made that promise to her and to himself because the reality was he knew Lucy more than anyone else. He loved her with everything he had.
He needed to bring the real Lucy back.
"What would Aquarius think if she saw you like this Lucy?" Loke snapped at her in desperation. "To see you act in such a way after her sacrifice? It would break her heart knowing this was happening! Where is the girl I know and love who sacrificed her spirit, who had the courage to fight for her family and stand tall when all she wanted to do was cry!? Where is the girl that grew to be a wonderful woman full of warmth and love!?"
Loke thought he had seen every facial expression on his beloved holder's face, but he was wrong. He watched as Lucy's nose scrunched up as if she was smelling something foul. How her eyes clouded with pure disgust in a way it never had before.
"This Lucy you all keep asking for is no longer here. By the sound of it, that's a good thing." She spat at him, literally as her saliva hit his cheek.
"Her neck Loke! The device on her neck!"
Loke snarled in response to Mira's yell, eyes snapping to that small metal oval blinking mockingly at him. Quick as Laxus's lightning, his hand wrapped around it and ripped it off. Calling on his power of regulus, Loke destroyed the small device and tossed it aside all while Lucy staggered to the side and fell to her knees.
I am so sorry it took me so long to update this story. I didn't mean to be gone so long from this story, but it was taking me a while to really get this chapter done in a way I liked and plan the next chapters out. So far I don't really like how this chapter came out, no matter how many times I tried to rewrite it or change things around. This was the best I could do with my idea and maybe I'll rewrite this chapter one day.
I hope you enjoyed this chapter though and I also hope that everyone is staying safe. Please stay safe with your families! Covid isn't fun!
Thank you for the support as well. I appreciate it!