There was a very clear and plain tension in the air as people hurried the civilians out of the hall and met in the strategic council to figure out how to handle this without putting the citizens at risk.
I was still trying to comprehend and cope with the fact that people I trusted and cared about were doing this to me, to my family, and fighting to keep my magic from producing some less than friendly illusions. Erza, Lucy and I were the only contestants who hadn't been petrified.
Laxus knows you're free.
I shifted for a moment, slightly bewildered. How could he have known? Clairvoyance wasn't one of his gifts...
Bickslow. Of course...
Bickslow can see through his doll's eyes. In a fight, this makes it really hard to land a hit on him since he's always got multiple viewpoints. One of his dolls can always see something.
We still hadn't gotten past the shouting confusion before Laxus appeared and laid out his proposed 'game'.
As I had seen, everyone would be participating in an elimination style tournament. Once two or more people stepped into an activated rune circle, they wouldn't be allowed to leave until one of them was unconscious. Once one person lost a fight, they were out of the game. And the only way of taking out one of our wizards was to put them down and put them down hard.
No one was happy with about this situation, or with our odds, but Makarov was surprisingly calm about the whole thing. Trying again and again to reason with his grandson.
"I'm done with living in your shadow!"
"The only shadow you're living in is your own. This isn't about proving who is the strongest, it's about tearing us apart." The words came out with a distinctly bitter taste to them. And it somehow cut through the hubbub and impacted Laxus. His eyes narrowed briefly into a glare.
"You stay out of this, brat."
"Only people I know get to call me that." I didn't care what was said, done or the truth. This wasn't the same Laxus who had flipped out a tiny bit over my slipping and falling off of a second story railing. This wasn't my family member right now.
"That...was cold." Gray stated, coming closer to me. Lucy had slipped her arm around me and was holding me close to her side in an attempt to offer comfort. It was something I would have appreciated more had I not felt like Gray had cast magic inside my gut.
"It's gonna be OK, Fae. We'll figure this out."
"Yeah, just you wait."
"It is plain to see that Laxus will not be reasoned with. He must be taken into custody as quietly as possible otherwise the Rune Knights will interfere. This whole plan hinges on Freed's runework." Makarov said at last. "Fae is the most familiar with him and his style. She will work with Levy to find a way to release the traps Freed has placed around the city-"
There came a loud crash and an indignant roar.
"What the hell is this!?" We saw Natsu sitting on his rear at the threshold of the hall, apparently having been thrown there by something. There were characters in Freed's purple script hovering in the doorway.
"'All those over 80 years old are prohibited from passing through.'" I read, the cold anger thawing in surprise. This kind of barrier was a protection that was kinda...condescending. It literally told you why you couldn't violate, pass, or do this or that. Why would that apply to Natsu?
"That must be what Laxus is counting on to keep Master pinned here. Dunno why it's stopping flame-brain though." Gray said, hands stuffed into his pockets, frost coating his arms up to the elbow.
I was still held against Lucy's side when the thought came to me. I patted her arm, not saying anything, but silently asking to be released. She complied and watched as I approached Simon, putting a hand on his arm and using our previous established connection to make mental contact with him.
"Simon. You and Warren need to put up a psychic channel between everyone in the guild hall. Bickslow has got eyes inside the building. As long as he knows what we're doing, we can't hash out an actual plan. And Bickslow could use his contact here to somehow free Evergreen, and that could be troublesome if she starts making noise while we're distracted."
Simon looked very different for having an actual face again, but he nodded, brow furrowing.
"Bickslow... Don't think I've met him. You have a plan, I take it?"
I kept my face as neutral as I could as I ran through my idea...
Simon then made telepathic contact with Makarov to tell him what our plan was, and then he and Warren spoke and communicated with everyone else what we were going to do.
-vVv-
Freed didn't want to look at the live feed from the guild hall. He was afraid he might see Fae's reaction again. He hadn't been able to make himself look at her after hearing her frigid dismissal of Laxus. No matter how close she had been with Laxus, that was only a fraction of the anger she must be feeling towards him right then.
This phase of the plan involved waiting. The other wizards (thinking of them as guild mates made a painful gouging sensation enter his chest) needed to first leave the hall in order for the sifting to properly take place.
Makarov still had some control over the situation in the hall. He was trying to get a counter strategy together, but there were too many conflicting opinions. Nothing would ever come of that. The pressure just had to build until they got tired and rushed out into the fray.
It was why Freed agreed to do this. To purge Fairy Tail of the weak. Makarov had led them for many years, but couldn't truly unite them. This pathetic squabbling was what had led to their terrible reputation.
Is that what you think or what Laxus says?
The voice that said this sounded exactly like the person Freed was trying to avoid looking at.
"Bickslow. Have you got eyes on Evergreen?"
Laxus's question made Freed automatically glance towards the lens Bickslow had handed out to make sure they could all coordinate.
"Not right now. I can't move any of my babies around except for really slowly."
Freed shifted the view of his lens so that he could see the two remaining Rune Mages on the ground, surrounded by writing materials, both working like mad to dissolve the barrier trapping the master in the hall and-
You really are too clever for your own good.
Fae wasn't assisting Levy. She was drawing up a map of the city with his rune traps marked on them. She had either noticed them earlier and not said anything, or she was reading their locations right then and there.
They were about to be targeted by a focused manhunt, consisting of the entirety of the guild vs them, and they were already down one member and their starting advantage.
It still wouldn't be enough to make Laxus abandon his plan. But a little more falling apart, and hopefully just maybe...
He was watching Fae, so he saw her move. Saw her pull out the gnarled staff she had been making from under her table as she rose. Then she seemed to look right at the doll Freed was using to observe her.
She didn't do much. Just tapped the butt of her staff on the floor.
Her action was followed by a blinding flash. Freed flinched, Laxus cursed, but Bickslow yelled in pain. He would have seen that from every set of magical eyes he was using to observe events inside the guild hall, and those would be the ones he was focusing on.
They didn't hear anything but the tramping of feet. By the time Freed had blinked after images out of his eyes, the guild hall had only a few people left in it.
Fae was still looking at the camera, eyes hard and angry, holding her staff in one hand. Her other hand was drawn closer to her chest, two fingers extended and held vertical.
An old sign, typically made at the onset of a hand to hand battle. Fae had pulled it out of some old samurai stories she had read. And now, she was making it, and could only be looking at him. As if she knew he was watching her.
To be honest, she probably did.
And she was saying she was taking this personally with him, not with Laxus.
"Freed!" The Lightning Wizard was asking for an analysis of the current turn of events.
"They appear to have switched all communications to a telepathic channel." It was the only reason they could have coordinated it all so well without anything being said and no hand signals being given.
"Warren doesn't have enough power to set up a telepathic network of that size." Laxus said tersely.
"That and I'm not seeing anything!"
Freed had an answer for that at least.
"The wizard they brought back with them from the incident at the Tower of Heaven possesses a strong talent for telepathy as well as Darkness Magic to conceal it. He was capable of hiding communications from a Ten Wizard Saint. They must be collaborating." Fae had happily, trustingly, told him about Simon during their last talk. The only thing that had really stood out to him as important at the time was how Simon had protected her throughout that terrible ordeal.
Laxus grunted, clearly irritated at the turn of events. It seemed as though Fairy Tail had come together far better than he had originally thought they would in the face of their current enemy.
"Freed. Get those swap circles active. Mix things up, get their commanders out of the hall."
"I found Evergreen. She's asleep, tied up and blindfolded. Orange magic."
Freed flicked his gaze over to their fallen comrade.
Orange magic meant that it was Fae who had secured Evergreen, though their last visual feed from the woman indicated it had been Erza who delivered the blows that had downed her.
Laxus was mobilizing a contingency plan Freed had put in place in case there were still too many people inside the hall, avoiding the game Laxus had proposed. But doing this meant dispensing with the charade that this was a mere game, and escalating the conflict to a full scale battle.
Dark Ecriture.
With his eye glowing with his magic, Freed used the cursed eye he had been born with to scan and find where he had placed his traps inside the guild hall. They were little more than one way teleportation circles that would take whoever stood in them and drop them in one of the traps outside. Simple, but effective.
It was a clever idea to give everyone a map, but it won't help if I can still put people inside of them.
With the map Fae had produced, and the telepaths coordinating to keep people from stumbling into the traps unawares, there hadn't been a single forced conflict between the other mages.
He had put about half a dozen circles inside the hall. He activated two of them.
Five people vanished from the hall and were placed at random throughout the city, smack in the middle of the warded circles that would pit them against one another.
There came a wordless alarm alongside the cries of the startled wizards.
Complete and utter darkness filled Freed's view of the guild hall but the sounds of work continued unhindered.
Bickslow made an annoyed sound.
"Freed, I hate your brat." He couldn't hold back a slight smile of pride at that. Fae had gotten started on thinking up ways of neutralizing visual magic primarily because of Evergreen and Bickslow. And she didn't seem to be inclined to stop anytime soon.
"She's being a pest, but she pulls her own weight." It was as close to a compliment as Laxus would give at the moment.
The darkness was fading, likely a temporary spell meant to keep Freed from activating other circles. The lingering haze was dispelled by yet another flash of light, this time an eye searing shade of neon green. Another sound that may have been a muffled curse from Bickslow indicated that he had been caught by the glare once again.
"Really, really hate that little brat."
"She's my student." Freed said stiffly. Be careful what you say about her, Bickslow. She's my brat. "She is not about to let herself be useless."
He swept his eye across the board again, intent on activating another teleport circle-
Fae's head snapped to the side and Gray jumped clear of the enchantment in time. All he lost were his-
"Are you incapable of not ending up naked in one way or another!?"
-vVv-
I glanced around the hall, taking stock of what had happened when Freed teleported random people outside.
Wakaba, Macao, Alzack, Bisca, Krov and several other guild members who had good talents in a fight or as scouts had raced out to try and locate Laxus, Freed and Bickslow. The heavier hitters would them follow them to take them out of commission.
We'd lost Mira, Elfman, Warren and- There are more circles.
"Grey, DODGE!"
This time, however, the warning came too late, and Gray vanished.
There came a loud curse over the telepathic channel.
"Guys, you're gonna have to count me out of any combat until Freed's down! He dropped me and Warren into one of these death traps with Romeo!"
The adorable little six year old had been sticking close to the side of the room and had been caught in the teleport.
"Damnit!" Natsu snarled, fists clenched tightly as steam rose from his skin. Gajeel was in no better condition than his fellow Dragon Slayer. He had been blocked from leaving the hall by the same enchantment that prevented Natsu from racing out and joining the fray. "Freed! If Romeo gets hurt because of this stupid game, I'm gonna take it out of your hide!" Since Natsu was so aptly stepping in for Macao in terms of paternal threats, I turned my eyes back down to what I was doing.
On the upside, Warren, by being stuck in the same circle as Romeo, wouldn't be in any danger unless one of the Thunder Legion came along with intentions to start a fight. That meant Simon didn't need to power the whole telepathic chain of command we were using to try and keep the Thunder Legion from hearing what we were doing.
But Gray had been our man to go out and disable Bickslow.
Oh yeah, and he might get arrested for indecent exposure. Reedus quickly used his magic to sketch up a pair of pants with wings to go fly to Gray.
Mira and Elfman were-
Freed facing the two Strauss siblings surrounded by a field on broken rocks.
A voice drifted up from my magic with clear certainty.
The She-devil will return.
Then I saw an image of Mirajane in her basic Takeover form smashing Freed into the ground, snarling with rage.
I still flinched in spite of my own fury towards Freed.
It looked brutal. It looked painful.
Not to say that he didn't deserve it but-
But he was still my family.
Nab and Max have forfeited their match.
But they weren't in a circle, how-
"Gramps! Bickslow is possessing some of our guys and making them fight each other!"
Bickslow's Soul Possession magic was a very, very tricky business. If he wasn't careful with what he did with it that he could easily get slammed by the law for improper use and then nothing would protect him from getting arrested. He had first tried it on Laxus, who had been skilled enough to defeat him without using his eyes, and then invited him to Fairy Tail for protection.
If he was turning that power on our guild members...
Bickslow is using his Visual Magic to alter what the other wizards are seeing in order to spark conflicts between them. Gray is facing him while protecting Romeo and Warren.
There came a hiss and Levy yelped in pain.
Suddenly the air was full of Bickslow's dolls were zipping around and firing down at the wizards remaining inside the hall. A few of them were heading straight for me, another three was zipping around to line up another shot at Levy. None of the attacks were very powerful individually, but they were coming from all angles, and were intent on keeping us from taking down to rune barrier.
"Children! Scatter outside, keep listening in on the channel and avoid those traps at all costs! Anyone who gets trapped, do not harm each other, wait." Makarov's command was heard and everyone who could leave the hall did so. Simon veiled himself with his Darkness magic, but couldn't so the same for the rest of us. He continued to supply the power for the telepathic channel as well.
If Bickslow manages to stop us from working, then he keeps three people capable of fighting Laxus hand to hand trapped here.
The Soul Possession Mage was taking on a lot of tricky tasks, focusing on dozens of different perspectives at once. But part of his magic was an enhanced brain that could move fast enough to compensate for all of that. There was a reason dark guilds feared whenever the Thunder Legion went hunting. And it wasn't just because of Laxus. The dolls began their onslaught once again.
My hand whipped my staff up again as I stood quickly. The doll's blasts of magic dissipated harmlessly against a spherical white barrier that surrounded us both completely. But it was still taking a pretty bad beating from all angles. It was sucking down a lot of my magic power...
"Iron Dragon Roar!" A flurry of sharp metal sand enveloped our spherical protection but instead of rattling against the shield, it...curved around it, only taking out the dolls that had been trying to disable us.
Ok. That is the last time I just write Gajeel off as a straight up brute. That took some seriously fine control!
"Leave the kid alone, bastard." Ok...is he talking about me, or about Levy?
The runes at the entrance of the guild chimed suddenly. "Bickslow versus Gray. The winner is Bickslow." Dammit, Grey lost!?
"We need to stop Bickslow from controlling those puppets. We can't work like this!" Levy thought to us, working in spite of her injured arm. "Fae can't keep that shield up forever and I need her help!"
"Leave it to me!" These words came from an unusual source. A black whip lashed out and swatted another doll out of the air with a crack. "Natsu, get me a clear path! Happy, I need wings!"
"You got it! Go get him!" A big blast of fire shot out the door, in no way hindered by the runes, and Happy zipped into the clear air carrying Lucy by the back of her shirt.
Lucy was clever, creative and had a very versatile array of gifts to pit against Bickslow. I felt good about her chances to slap the Soul Wizard around and put him out of the fight.
"Good luck, Lucy."
"I hate just sitting around here waiting!" Gajeel growled, punching a few more dolls out of the air. They kept on rising again as soon as Bickslow re established his control. "There's a good fight going on out there right now and we're just sitting here playing with dolls!"
"You can't just hit em until they stay down." Natsu said, catching two between his burning hands and reducing them to fistfuls of ash. "You gotta destroy em completely!"
"Good enough for me." Gajeel snarled, spewing out a metal storm that shredded the wooden dolls into floating sawdust.
Mystogan is approaching the city. Without really meaning to, I read that his paired lacrima to the guild hall had been registering odd magical signatures and he had peered through enough to know what was going on. His intent seemed to be to go to the cathedral. It was a big, impressive building and Laxus was enough of a showoff that deduction could lead to one beginning their search for him there.
Unlike Bickslow's instant live feed connection, my way of keeping track of what was going on could only happen after it came to a conclusion. And even then, it was starting to make my head hurt using this passive ability of mine to keep track of my guildmates scattered throughout the city. Laxus hadn't really taken part in anything, so I couldn't instantly track him until he did so.
"This is the Osprey Squad callin' in from the cathedral! We got eyes on Laxus." Bisca's voice sounded through our channel.
Makarov had been sitting on a table, completely unphased by Bickslow's magical blasts. It wasn't that they were not hurting him, they were not making contact period. His magic was radiating around him in such a way that Bickslow's attacks, meant to harry, sting and confuse but not do lasting harm, weren't even managing to touch him. At Bisca's news, he lifted his head, eyes flashing with the steel of a commander.
"Well done, Alzack, Bisca. Retreat without drawing his attention. Keep an eye on him and inform us if he moves. Erza, go and engage Laxus until I arrive."
"Yes Master!" Erza, who had been deflecting Bickslow's dolls from my and Levy's left flank Re-quiped into her Speed Armor and was out the door faster than my eye could follow. Natsu shifted his stance to cover that side of my shield.
"My shield's at 30%. Master, Mystogan's heading for the cathedral as well." I reported tersely. The enchantment had been a hasty one, using only my memory and a quick air drawn rune to set it up. My copy of Gandalf's staff had helped me focus it, but the spell was still a lot more temporary than I wanted it to be.
"Osprey's, circle around and meet Mystogan, one of you pass him the key to the channel so he can be properly informed of the situation."
"I need five more minutes." I glanced down at the spread of what Levy had been working on.
Lying at my feet was a paper storm with notes, scribbles and theories that had been produced and discarded as quickly as they came. Levy McGarden was a Solid Script Mage in more than one sense: When she had a piece of rune work to undo, she got it done right and she got it done fast. She had all the separate spell components laid out, she just needed to link it all together to produce the figurative key to lower the barriers. This layout had taken Freed six months of intensive labor to set up, but Levy was taking it apart in less than 20 minutes.
Destruction was always easier than creation, but it was still dang impressive that Levy could take down Freed's best work this quickly, especially considering that she had only a fraction of his power.
Bickslow has been defeated.
Then the dolls suddenly fell to the ground, inert and useless.
"Bickslow is out of the game and isn't going to be causing any more trouble." Lucy's voice rang with deep satisfaction. Gajeel's scowl broke into a disbelieving look.
"You mean the cheerleader can actually fight!?"
Levy grinned even as she wrote out line after line of magical text meant to lower the barriers around the guild hall.
"You go Lu!"
Natsu looked very pleased.
"Yeah, she's tough as nails! "
I let down the shield with a sigh of relief.
"Can someone go knock out Evergreen au natural? I need to recover some magic power and she's been draining me trying to wake up." Natsu instantly dashed to the back and with a low thud, resolved my issue beautifully.
"Done!"
"Thanks Natsu."
"And, done!" Levy proclaimed picking up her written spell and marching to the door. She passed through without issue and I suddenly felt as though I were watching a large ornate tapestry being pulled apart by the warp suddenly evaporating. The skeleton was still there, but the functions had been erased, or negated.
"Natsu, Gajeel. You go and assist Erza at the cathedral, Laxus must be stopped at all costs." Makarov rose almost as smoothly as he always did but I caught a slight shake to his limbs. Natsu did too.
"You alright there, Gramps?"
A thought projection of Laxus snapped into existence in the center of the guild hall and he looked furious, but also determined. But this was a childish obstinance. He was determined to win this fight because in his mind, that would make him right.
I was collecting my leftover magic from assisting in making the mental map and restraining Evergreen. Consequently, I only half heard his plan, but the implications reached me loud and clear.
Thunder Palace. All around the city.
There had been several strong lightning storms set around here over the course of the summer, and I would bet that Laxus had planted his Lacrima in the spring so that they would absorb the energy over the summer and spare him from needing to do anything other than activate them when he chose.
We were now his hostages. Us and the whole city if he didn't get his way. It was time to remake Fairy Tail into the strongest guild in Fiore.
Makarov is having a stroke. "Master!" I dashed over as he fell from his seat on the table. The stress must be too much. But it still caught my attention when Simon spoke up.
"That is not what Fairy Tail is about."
Laxus sneered.
"You got here, when? Yesterday? You don't get a say in this." Simon tapped his guild mark.
"This says I'm involved, and I think being a slave to a literal tyrant for more than ten years gives me a pretty good perspective." Well, Laxus certainly couldn't argue with that without making himself look like an even bigger jerk. So Simon stepped forward, dark eyes glittering with energy.
"Fairy Tail is not a gang of super-powered thugs, thriving on fear with no place for the little guy. That's what you want to turn it into. It's home, it's family, it's forgiveness and relying on each other. You will not improve Fairy Tail by throwing out everyone who doesn't meet your impossible standards: You will destroy it. A guild is nothing but an empty name without people to give it a soul." He held out a hand, a magic circle blooming on his hand. "You can speak to Master Makarov again when you have gotten your head knocked around enough to see reason. Now, you are leaving." And just like that, Simon unmade Laxus's projection with an outstretched hand and a burst of expertly controlled Darkness Magic and hurried over the Makarov's side. I did so as well, laying a hand on his forehead and checking his pulse and heart rate.
"We need to get his heart rate down." I said, gnawing my lower lip. "And Porlyusica needs to look at him."
"I'm glad you have that much sense, girl." Her voice came from outside as the healer strode inside. "I was on my way to make sure that this one's prosthetics were functioning as they should, but here you are, all racing around the city like madmen! This is why I don't care for people!" She looked at Makarov with narrowed eyes for a moment before beginning to give orders, starting with Simon.
"You! Pick him up and take him to the infirmary. You two, go fetch that dramatic little boy and get him to come here." This last was directed to Levy and me.
"Yes ma'am!" Levy and I both ran for the doorway-
And I experienced the unpleasant sensation of running face first into a wall.
Damning purple script hovered in the doorway.
All those under the age of twelve are not permitted to leave the guild hall.
"Hey! I took everything down, why is that still there!" Levy complained after she'd let go of my hand. I could read what had happened very plainly, even if I was once again steaming mad.
"He hid it under the other enchantments so it wouldn't activate until the others were taken down."
He'd figured on me staying in the guild hall, or being kept there, to help work through his first barrier. So that even when Makarov was free again, I would be trapped there for at least twice the original time.
I loved and admired Freed.
But right now, the thought of committing horrible bloody murder while screaming profanities I wasn't supposed to know was a little too attractive.
First, he had plotted with Laxus to do all of this because of his loyalty and attraction towards him. I didn't care what the actual goal was. He had still planned, plotted, to turn my family on each other, to hurt them, to tear them apart.
Second, he had kept it all a secret.
And now he was locking me out of it. Not only was he setting all of this up, but he was also putting me in a position where I couldn't go and do something about it. He was not permitting me to help.
I'd intended on talking to him after having some time to cool off after this concluded, but with this little insult...
I looked over at one of the used teleportation circles. The one that had snagged Mira and Elfman.
I was dimly aware of my eyes glowing as my magic read the circle...then I saw it change in my minds eye to be what I wanted it to do instead.
-vVv-
Freed was unsurprised that Elfman was not giving up even though he was hopelessly outclassed. His greatest strength, far beyond raw power, would always be his ability to take a beating. And he had certainly taken one now. He was barely holding onto his Beast Takeover.
Not much longer.
He would end this fight before this progressed too far. The Dark Ecriture was taking over more and more of his thought process. It was a ruthless style of magic, focused chiefly on survival of the fittest. Elfman had put up a good fight, but he was ultimately, not the strongest. And it was taking a lot to keep this fight from going lethal while he had the advantage.
The part of him that was still grounded and stable was keeping an eye on the enchantment he had set up to monitor all the players of this game Laxus had proposed. Specifically on those nearby who would be his duty to eliminate.
His thoughts flashed back to the conversation with Laxus when their plan had been hindered from the start by a lack of hostages.
"There's no place in Fairy Tail for weak thinking like that."
No place for the weak...but what about those who aren't strong yet?
No place for the weak, no place for deadweight. The financial sinks that the guild supported were among the first thing Freed knew Laxus would cut, should his plan work.
Fae was strong for a child, but she was still a child and the kind of guild Laxus had in mind wouldn't be a place for her. She was still too weak, too limited in what she did to make the cut. Freed knew that and wondered, worried, if Laxus's plan did work, and he by some miracle became the guild master...What would happen to Fae? What would happen to the other wards that the guild supported? They weren't ready to face the real world, they needed protection, shelter, training if they were to be expected to survive.
Freed was thinking less and less that this was something that he wanted to keep supporting.
Elfman's punch landed.
Pain resonated through Freed's everything as all the desperation Elfman felt on behalf of who he was protecting translated to extra power and sent Freed crashing into the ground, the first telling blow he had managed to strike. Impressively, he'd managed to fight through the numerous pain inducing spells Freed had already layered on him throughout the course of the fight.
His higher cognitive functions twitched, its grip relaxing, control of his instincts weakening just a hair-
Dark Ecriture rose to take the minute amount of ground he had given in his distraction.
Recall.
He teleported back to the anchor rune he had placed to reliably get him positioned behind his opponents back, his sword lifting, the rune flashing to life on it's tip.
"Death."
Then he heard a female screaming in denial, in anger, in helpless frustration.
A dark power burst into life behind him. Freed used the surprise to hastily reassert his control over his power and deactivated the lethal rune before he did something he would regret forever.
Mirajane's form was tense with magical power surging around her randomly, her hair standing on end as dark purple and black energy whirled around her.
"Satan Soul..." Freed instantly knew that his ordinary level of power would not be enough.
Dark Ecriture was a survivor, and it knew an apex predator when it saw one. And this one would not be fighting blindly. That wasn't how Takeover worked. It was literally imposing one's will, and mind, over the magical power and abilities of another creature. And the Strauss siblings of Fairy Tail possessed two of the strongest variants of that magic: Beast and Satan. Monsters and demons. And there was no question as to which was more powerful.
Mirajane's transformation completed, her magic circle still glowing under her feet as she glared at him with all the malice of a demon, and all the potent love that motivated her magic to be enough to master the demons she carried within her. A cold spear of ice stabbed into his gut. Fear, the kind of fear he had never really felt before. He had been marked as a threat to something this devil held dear. His options were run or die, because he would not be able to fight her.
He would need everything he had just to get out of this encounter with the She-devil in one piece.
"Dark Ecriture: Darkness!"
The physical changes that came with the transformation were painful, but manageable. He would pay the price of pain to access this power, if it would keep him alive. He then lunged straight for Mirajane. He had heard stories about her prowess at close combat, able to match Titania blow for blow. But her magical abilities were far more deadly and he needed to attack before she had time to form a spell.
He was in motion when he saw something flash between him and Mirajane...
Fae materialized on the teleportation circle, one hand clutching her staff, and bright blue eyes still glowing with magic.
All functional thought stopped.
Mirajane was about to charge, and Fae, his impossible, intrepid, brilliant apprentice had just slipped out of her safe zone through a door he had put into it himself. And she was now exactly where he hadn't wanted her to be: In his line of fire.
Fae was going to die.
It was only a question of who would do it. Whose attack would impact first: His or Mirajane's.
The guilt would be his either way.
"Faerun!"
In a blur of dark energy, Mirajane surged forward and snatched Fae in one clawed arm, pulling her entirely out of Freed's course. Her other hand, and accompanying magic circle sending out dozens of clawed hands constructed of magical energy...In exactly the wrong direction to even come close to touching him. Dark Ecriture spoke before he could master his own tongue.
"Are you still so unused to having your power back again, She-devil?"
Mirajane's voice was cold, and a lot deeper than it was normally, and her eyes were without mercy when she regarded him, still holding Fae in one arm.
"Those weren't for you." The hands withdrew, bearing the unmoving Elfman in their grasp. Fae looked somewhat startled, as if she hadn't known what she had gotten herself into. It was quite a lot to take in all at once.
"But you-" Mirajane cut him off sharply.
"I don't hurt my family. Demon or not." She then placed Fae on her feet as Elfman was deposited gently nearby. The young Rune Wizard instantly fell to her knees and began to check vitals and administer basic first aid.
"He's alive and will recover." She reported quickly.
"Good." The formerly sweet, almost angelic bartender whipped out her hand, black, bat like wings sprouting from her back to match the scaled tail she was currently sporting. "But I've not let any of my dark side out to play for such a long time that putting it back right away just wouldn't be right." A surge of muscles and movement, and she was hovering in midair herself, facing Freed.
He tore his eyes away from his apprentice, shaken and looking very small and frail all of a sudden. She seemed to sense he was watching her and raised her head. He'd been wrong. There was no fear in her expression. She spoke without emotion in her voice.
"We will talk after she's done thrashing you."
It was painful, to see her looking at him with such cold fury.
She was a child whose family was in danger, yet she wasn't afraid. She was enraged.
Not a child. He admitted as she lifted her hand and started writing out spells meant to stabilize Elfman and unravel his enchantments on him. The sense of shame he felt at her seeing what he had been doing, face to face, without any sort of buffer, hit him even harder than Mirajane did.
Celeste D Faerun has never really been a child in the sense that she was naive, easily cowed or easily frightened.
Coming into the guild as she had, no memory, no past, but with magic that continually drew in more and more information, she had made her own personality. Crafted from those around her. Not all adults when she first arrived to be sure, but all older than her. All powerful casters of unique magic.
She's a wizard. A fully grown, fully capable wizard who's just waiting for her body to catch up with her mind.
And after what he had done here, there was another concrete, inescapable fact about the girl:
She would never view him with the same warmth and openness that she had once held towards him. She may forgive him, might even trust him again one day. But she wouldn't be just his apprentice. He wasn't worthy of that kind of trust.
She's not mine to protect.
Not anymore.