I had the weirdest feeling following me around all day after Team Natsu left for their rendezvous with the other wizards. Lamia Scale, Cait Shelter and Blue Pegasus were all sending someone to play a part in this mission, but Fairy tail had sent the most. We were after all the strongest guild. As a general rule, if a problem wasn't solved yet, then you hadn't thrown enough Fairy Tail wizards at it yet! I had gotten a glimpse of who was going to be sent only after they were already gone, otherwise I'd have warned Erza that she was about to have an encounter with Ichiya...
Not even children were safe from him. I had never met him, since Mirajane was careful to not bring me along to her photo shoots if he was going to be there. But I could sense that not even my age would keep me safe from his...harmless yet utterly nauseating attention.
But I still felt strange. Something was itching in the center of my back, awkward and persistent. Almost like someone was...
Watching.
I was in my room in Fairy Hills, getting ready to go help with the lunch rush at the hall when I sensed a plan.
Ever since Laxus had pulled his city wide stunt at the Harvest Festival, I had been extremely sensitive to plans made around me. Especially if they involved me. And this one was pretty heavily colored in my head, so it was a direct involvement too. But it wasn't coming from anyone I knew, as far as I could tell, and it's end goal was unclear.
Hmm...What can make that plan change?
I felt the charm spell a mile away. A travelling vendor was handing out candied apples to a horde of eager children. The suggestion was there to go over and dig my teeth into one of the sticky sweets myself. But I stiffened my spine against it and kept walking.
I sensed the plan shift. The charm spell increased in its potency.
Targeted on me specifically. But the kids were starting to...get sleepy.
As my foot hit the ground, I saw a flash.
Two men on either side of the road moving in unison to slap a bag over me and activate the paralysis runes on it.
They're kidnapping children in broad daylight...Why? Why take more than just me?
"Faster than a speeding bullet." I whispered, the script winking into life on my legs. I had to get to the guild hall. Now! These people were either being very well paid to come and pull this in Fairy Tail's home city, or they were doing it as a feint for something else entirely.
The mental speed up that this enhancement gave me left me with a lot of spare time to think even as I blurred through the air, easily dodging the sack that seemed to come down on where I had been in slow motion.
I only kept the enhancement for a short burst. Even with shock absorbers handling most of the impact of each step, it was hurting my feet to run that fast. It gave me enough of a head start that I was able to evade my pursuers, but not by much. I heard someone yelling behind me. The plan I had sensed unravelled, warping and shifting into something new.
I had some reporting to do and fast!
-vVv-
Makarov's reaction time was everything it should be. As soon as I entered the hall, I bypassd everyone, even running over Elfman's back to reach him as soon as I could.
"Someone is selling drugged goods to the city's children...!"
He rose then, his Titan magic flaring around him in a heavy cloak.
"My children." His voice rumbled through the air, loud and very attention grabbing. Everyone stopped what they were doing and looked at him, because he was being serious and you didn't screw around when he was wearing his Guild Master hat.
"Someone has made a terrible mistake. Go and correct their error. Teach them we will not tolerate kidnapping in our home!"
I had seen Fairy Tail when motivated.
But the rate at which magic pressure spiked and the hall emptied was still impressive. I was already sitting down, looking over the map of the guild, focused on finding every enemy agent in the city and passing information to Warren to coordinate with the rest of the guild. They were tricky and hard to pin down even with my magic, since I really didn't have a good starting point.
Reading stories is all well and good, but I have to know which book they're in first...
This was harder and took a lot more concentration than when I had done the same thing against the Thunder Legion. There I at least had somewhere to start, a relationship with them to build from.
"Got a name for these clowns." Elfman reported on the network. "Call themselves Grey Chimera."
Warren whipped through some notes, our records on the known dark guilds.
"Got em. Mercenaries in every sense of the word. They only went dark a few years ago, something about the bank they were working with dealing in dirty money. They were blacklisted by the Magic Council and have only been digging themselves in deeper since then."
"How come they haven't been caught?"
"They've got some kind of teleportation spell that lets them get out of almost anything!" Bisca sounded annoyed. "We had a whole dozen of them pinned down, but they've gotten out and scattered, we've only got eyes on four of them now!"
Untraceable teleportation that could easily be used by multiple individuals? Yeah, I could see how a dark guild that wanted to stay free would capitalize on that hard core. But if they had gotten so many of them clear, why weren't they withdrawing? They did not want a pitched battle with Fairy Tail, otherwise they'd have set up ambushes, or done something to draw us out of Magnolia. Instead they had come here. They had kicked up a fuss and gotten our attention and they were now leading our members on a giant wild goose chase.
I marked the location of the other eight wizards on the map and had Warren project them out.
They're buying time. This isn't their main plan. This is a ruse.
I heard that clear and plain in the back of my mind.
"Tell everyone to stay sharp." I said suddenly, sitting up straighter. "This is cover for something else. They want everyone possible outside and divided."
"Very clever." The unknown voice was a whisper behind me and I instantly dropped, a stunning spell flying to my lips.
"We've got one in the guild hall!" Warren called over the channel, hands raising and his magic circles appearing.
Warren's close combat abilities weren't the best in the guild. But he had enough psychic clout to send someone to the psych ward at this range.
My evasive roll would have been the right call...If the floor hadn't opened up beneath me and swallowed me up. I didn't even have time to scream.
I landed in a sack, the same kind of sack I had dodged on the way to the hall after spotting the Chimera's at their distraction.
"We've got her. Withdraw!"
A cold fist closed over my throat as my magic spoke again.
The kidnapping of the other kids was a front. The whole goal was to get you.
But why?! I almost screamed this as reflexive terror started to claw at my composure. What did I do?! WHY!?
In the Tower of Heaven, I'd been taken as a hostage to force Erza into compliance. This time, I was being taken for my own merit.
Natsu, Gray, Mystogan, Freed, Erza, someone! Help me!
It was getting really annoying to keep having fear try to get in the way of my thoughts. I knew I couldn't get rid of it, fear was a natural reaction and it was one I felt was currently justified. But could it...not get in the way?
I imagined the fear as a negative dull greyness swirling around me like a chaotic tornado. I was in the middle of that storm of emotion, but...
Storms have eyes. Hurricanes have that space in their centers that is always clear and calm.
So...if I fed this tornado thing something even more substantial than fear, would it turn into the hurricane I needed? It was a strange thought, but I figured I didn't really have a lot to lose. If I didn't find some way to think up a way around this thing, I'd just collapse into crying little girl mode. And that wouldn't be helpful.
So I started digging through my mind for other emotions to add to the swirl around me. Some more fuel for the fire.
Oddly enough, the first thing that came to my mind after fear was anger.
This was the third time I had been held against my will the past two months. And I was even less able to do something about it. I was so sick of being a kid by this point.
Which would be better? Kidnapped child or damsel in distress? At this point in my magical experience, I'd be a damsel no matter if I was older or not.
That brought up a nice current of exasperation and disgust. I mixed it together with the anger, see righteous indignation, and let it bleed out into the emotional storm.
The heat from the anger tempered the cold fear, and the contrast made the whole thing grow, and pick up speed.
OK! Now that I have that, I can focus and think: Why do they want me? Who would know anything about me for them to want in the first place?
Jellal knew about you.
...
That was true. Jellal, while he was still being possessed, had known about my magic and thought it interesting enough to be worth testing. So how had he known?
It was a fact of life that the magic guilds had information networks that country spymasters would kill for. Blue Pegasus actually traded on that kind of thing chiefly, their wizards were very talented at getting information in unusual or tight situations. Makarov was friends with several other guild masters, including Master Bob, and that meant we had a fairly open relationship when it came to information. I supposed dark guilds would have a similar thing going for them.
Especially among the Balam Alliance.
I felt myself being moved, with strange periods of stopping.
Teleportation.
I needed to know where I was, and where I was going. And then I needed an owl, or moth, or something to get word out to my friends about where I was.
And I needed to keep thinking clearly enough to cause trouble for whoever was responsible for this.
First thing I'm doing when I get home: Making a Pensieve. If I keep getting kidnapped, I may as well be able to pick through the experience later to figure out how best to improve.
Given the trend of recent events, being abducted was apparently going to be a thing for me to watch out for. At least until I got badass enough to protest it effectively.
Ok, first Pensieve, then all the freaking training I can get. I am sick of being a victim.
-vVv-
My captors didn't say much, and I didn't try to get anything out of them. I trusted my magic way more than anything they might bluster.
I had quickly run an assessment of what resources I had on me.
I had my bracers, each capable of anchoring three small spells, or one large one for long term use. I hadn't been gagged. I may have a dual type pen in my pocket too. All things considered, it wasn't too bad a deal.
So far though, all I had gotten from the man carrying me was that he was hungry, and planning on how to spend his pay for this job.
I dug at the idea of the job, who had given him his orders for one...
Angelo. Guild master.
Angelo was a man with a sharp, pale face. His eyes never seemed to stay in one place, and he was constantly moving with a quick step. Always evading, always moving. A survivor in every sense of the word.
Bet he's the one that they got the teleportation spell from.
Mid range teleportation. Untraceable by current means. Max distance of 30 miles. 24 seconds of cool down for every 10 mile jump. Needs a marker to jump to at distances greater than about one mile.
OK, that was some nice information. It meant that while we were covering ground at a very quick rate I still had time before we got to wherever we were going.
Wherever that was.
And right on cue, my magic alerted me.
To a drop point between Grey Chimera and the Oracion Seis.
And then new information started to pour into my mind.
About the members of the Oracion Seis, the six wizards and the weird talking stick. About their origins.
And right over all of it was a big black blank spot that I had seen before.
I saw it every time I tried to look into my own past.
Ok...heading for a big fight, because there's no way this isn't going to cause a fight. Erza, Natsu, Gray and Lucy are all there, so that's good, I'll have someone to save my sorry butt. But...there's history there too.
My history.
And knowing that made it partly terrifying, and partly thrilling to be kidnapped.
I need therapy.
Travelling only took a few hours.
We stopped and I heard my carrier was breathing heavily. The spell he had been using to teleport us was clearly remarkably energy efficient, since he had been able to use it so many times in a row. If he was starting to get tired, we must have gone quite a long distance. And of course he was running between every spell. That too.
"This job had better pay out." Someone grumbled. "Word says the other fairies are going crazy on any other gang they can get their hands on."
"It'll pay. By the time they catch up, we'll be in Bosco and out of their reach." Ok, not sure how many connections we have in Bosco, but definitely making a note of that.
"Is their man coming?"
"Shut it and wait." Fae felt something prod her side sharply and she flinched in pain. "Good, brat's alive. You didn't rough her up too much? He wanted her unharmed. We want as much cash out of this as we can get. It's gonna be the last deal we get in Fiore."
I didn't know why the Oracion Seis wanted me, but I at least knew that I had friends nearby...If I could get my hands on something to send a message to them, then I would be alright...Hopefully.
I sensed the members of Grey Chimera shifting uneasily. Someone had joined them.
Code name, Midnight. Actual name, Macbeth. Typically floats around on his carpet in place of actually walking.
"Is that her?" A voice, Midnight I assumed, asked.
"Yes." The sack around me shifted, changing, warping...
Reflector Magic, allows him to change, or warp the state of objects and materials.
It certainly seemed to work on the cloth around me to tie me up neatly and efficiently. The smart thing to do would be to stay as quiet as possible and not draw their ire... Midnight had moved on from me and was saying something to the other wizards around me. I was just staring at him...
Black hair on top, but clean white hair beneath. Black, wavy, white, straight, all on the same head with no easily seen difference in hair quality...
I am occasionally accused of being smart. And I don't always live up to it.
"Is your hair like that naturally or do you bleach part of it?" Apparently the question came in a tense moment of the conversation since I had roughly 10 seconds of total stillness while everyone present looked at me with blank expressions. It certainly seemed to catch Midnight off-guard.
"What?"
"If it's bleach, what do you moisturize with?" The wizard from Grey Chimera suddenly looked quite nervous.
"I assure you, the target suffered no damage in retrieval or transportation." With that, my attention shifted to the man holding me even in my improvised bindings. I deliberately made my eyes glow a little and a little unfriendly smile crossed my face.
"Which means my whole mental state is the fault of hands down the craziest and arguably the strongest official guild in the country that you have made extremely angry." I told him, expression never shifting. "Not to mention any of their allied guilds, who all have very strong feelings on kidnapping." Fairy Tail may hold the top spot in the country, but the other guilds that Makarov associated with weren't slouches in a straight fight either. They just weren't as good at it.
"Shut up brat. Your friends aren't coming to save you." Lie.
I didn't even need my magic to know that. I did delve into it for the history of how long it typically took our alliance to respond to situations like this.
My eyes flashed brighter as I looked at the man.
"Based on past performance, the projected outcome is as follows given that Fairy Tail will have been alerted to my kidnapping instantly: Within two hours, Blue Pegasus will have your location and destination. Their specialists in the Rune Knights will send word ahead of you to freeze any chance of getting asylum." I didn't mention I already knew where they were going... Why give everything away?
"Given Fairy Tail's state of high alert, and their known reputation for dealing absolute vengeance on those who harm their own, average response time is cut down by 80%. They will already have contacted Lamia Scale to spread the word and mobilize search and rescue parties. Meaning that once Blue Pegasus has your destination these teams will be sent to scour all possible routes on which you might be travelling. Your guilds estimated chances of survival once caught, 63%." My smile pulled wider a fraction. "Estimated chance of escape: Negligible."
I could tell the wizard wanted to smack me to shut me up. My words, simple, unenhanced words, while not striking terror into the hearts of those around me, were certainly unsettling them. They had thought I was crying, or having some other normal childish reaction to being abducted. Instead, I had apparently been sitting the bag as they carried me away, reasoning out how long it would be before they caught the heat for their stunt.
Yeah, might be a little freaky all things considered.
He pulled me up by the front of my bindings, veins standing out on his forehead as he glowered down at me.
"You...!" I felt myself get tugged in his grasp, the sensation of Midnight's, Macbeth's Reflector Magic twisting something-
There came a sickening snap and a strangled cry of pain.
Basic manipulation to twist the sleeve and gauntlet into breaking his arm.
"I think that concludes our business for today." Midnight said as I floated over to him, under the influence of his spell. He didn't sound as though he had just broken a man's arm. He didn't sound affected at all. There came the sound of something jingling. "The bonus is there for delivering her in the promised condition." Then I was placed on the magic carpet and we were rising into the air.
The phrasing of what Midnight had said in parting kept on ringing in my head as significant and I kept after the thought until my magic revealed something for me to use.
Psychometry. They want someone with Psychometry.
And all the things that I could read with my magic...Power sets, skills, abilities, weaknesses, structural and organizational flaws. Personalities, lies, skeletons in closets. Cover stories meant nothing to me, and it wouldn't be long before everyone knew it. And oh could that sort of reputation be capitalized on. My word would be absolute truth and no one would think to dispute it.
Or, depending on who was behind me, they wouldn't dare dispute it.
I could wreak absolute havoc in any organized body in the span of a few hours and the right motivation. I knew it. Makarov knew it. This was why he hadn't given me a guild mark while I was still trying to get a lid on my power. Or at least on my ability to cope with whatever I might see. My guildmate's pasts were strewn with roses, you might say. Their stems primarily, with precious few flowers to make up for the pain. The Tower of Heaven had reinforced to me that I needed to wait before going out into the wide world. Or accepting jobs that had a lot of person to person interaction. If I didn't want to end up a sobbing wreck from all the vicarious living I was experiencing through my magic I was going to need mental defenses the size of a continent.
This was also why I hadn't pressed for a mark and full wizard status though part of me really wanted it.
Midnight had fallen asleep even as the carpet flew. But his manipulation spell still lay over my bindings. So the idea of throwing myself off the flying carpet and rerouting my falling failsafe seals would have to be scrapped.
I need to touch him.
I was still lacking a lot of information about what they actually planned to do with me. The best way I could think of getting that right now was by getting some kind of contact with him. He was the only source of information I had right now...
...
Or was he?
I eyed the carpet that was pressed against my cheek. Midnight's history, such as I had seen so far, indicated that he usually travelled by carpet. That meant that it might have been around when plans were being discussed...
I closed my eyes, focused on the past...on reading the story of this magical item that was my current transport. It was only a piece of scenery in the story. A prop at best. But it had still been there...
Information started to pour into my mind. It was hard to decipher. The carpet had no intelligence of it's own, nor did it have any actual means of recording information. Unlike when I tried to read a book's history, there was no psychic imprint of information to let knowledge linger. A book was meant to retain information. A carpet, not so much. It took some effort to get anything worthwhile out of my half nap time, but i learned a few useful things.
The biggest, most worrisome piece of information was that Cobra, as he was called, could read thoughts. He could literally hear them, and pick all sorts of things out of a person's head. So, even if I kept mum and didn't say anything, they would still get information. Chiefly about my friends, who they would be fighting.
Ok, not acceptable. Sure, Natsu's motion sickness would probably get abused. It happened at least once in every fight. But the personal wounds that my friends had that I was privy to? The secrets of their past, to just fall into someone else's hands? Especially those of an enemy?
Ok, ways to BS a mindreader. The Harpell method won't work here. He could still hear it...
From what I had read about Brain, Midnight's father and the leader of the Oracion Seis, he was an accomplished wizard. He was, as his name implied, a very smart man. He wasn't the most powerful fighter, but he knew the basics of at least a dozen types of magic. He was also the one who had taught all of the other members of his guild how to use magic, having raised them together since childhood. Someone who could effectively teach such a wide variety of wizards to use their powers to this extent was not someone to be trifled with. Nor was it someone I wanted to be near without a plan. Especially because he had also fallen out of the crazy, evil, mad scientist tree, hitting every single branch on the way down.
Most importantly for me since I was about to become his prisoner, he knew any number of flexible, useful counterspells for just about anything under the sun. It was how he had kept the other wizards in his guild under his thumb. He knew ways to counter each and every one of their magic's passive and active abilities.
Whatever my chosen form of defense was, it couldn't be something he could reach. If he could get his hands on it, or see it, he would be able to undo it given time, and probably not much of it. It would have to be entirely inside my head. Not being able to use a literal written component would suck... and speaking it would have almost the same effect since the script would almost certainly be visible. But having my almost encyclopedic knowledge of my friends be used against them would be much worse.
My reading of the carpet had gotten me the code names and general skillsets of the remaining members of the dark guild. Most importantly, I knew the range which Cobra could hear thoughts. I wanted to have my shield up by the time we got into range.
If I was an adult, this wouldn't happen, right? Or would it just be even more frustrating because of the unspoken assumption that grown ups are supposed to be able to take care of themselves?
The motion of the rug lulled me into a trance that was most helpful as I erected my defenses. Since the biggest threat to my secrets appeared to be Cobra's ability to literally hear thoughts, I figured creating a literal barrier of sounds and noises in my head, some of them quite grating, would be a sufficient deterrent for passive skimming from him. Beyond that, I tried consciously to think in pictures and feelings as opposed to words with sounds.
It would take part of my concentration, taking up space in my head that I would otherwise need for spells, provided I didn't get a restrainer slapped on me as soon as I arrived. But I would take that risk. There was no real chance of my being able to free myself of my own volition. I would need outside help in order to escape.
I stayed still and quiet as the rug landed.
"How was the handover?"
"No problems." Midnight replied.
Brain didn't look like a madman, but he did feel like one.
Dr Jekyll, Mr Hyde.
I could infer what was actually in Brain's mind from there.
He was examining me with a sort of professional interest, reading me in a way that I couldn't quite keep up with.
"At least they kept you in good condition." He said finally, confusing me to no end. "Midnight, put her under."
-vVv-
Some time later I felt the sleep spell fade. Thanks to my relationship with Mystogan, I had practice forcing myself to think even though a magical haze, so I began taking stock of my surroundings.
There were enchanted manacles on my wrist that would keep me from using spells that needed more than a certain amount of magic power. They couldn't cut me off completely from my magic if they wanted me to stay alive. In fact, having it down so low would have kept an adult unconscious, but my child's body needed much less energy. Even this tiny amount let me break through the remnants of Midnight's spell and wake up fully.
Then I heard a hissing sound close by.
I turned my head to see a bored looking man with sharp elf like ears staring off into the distance while a massive purple snake slithered around me.
"Don't try and run, etc, etc, Cubellios's venom is deadly and he will bite."
Cobra, though his real name is Eric.
He looked at me then, his boredom vanishing.
"That's not you."
Activate.
The blur of meaningless white noise started to buzz through my mind. A pain to focus through, but better than just letting him hear everything I was thinking. I sat up slowly from where I was laying
"Now what are you doing?"
"I don't like eavesdroppers."
I then ignored him in favor of looking at the snake and focusing...
Cubellios is female and actually human.
Huh.
...Why?
Magic.
Of course.
I looked at Cobra, feeling the rundown of his past pour through my head.
From what I could see, he seemed like a...decent guy. Growing up as he had had pretty much ruined him from ever having a chance of being 100% nice, but he was far from a monster. And since his whole thing was about loyalty to his only friend, Cubellios and wanting to understand her...
Parseltongue it is then.
In the story, Harry had always been able to speak the language just by focusing on snakes and talking. It was something entirely unconscious for him. So doing the same...
It took a few nonsensical mutters and Cobra looking away with an annoyed look before the hiss finally emerged from my lips. And while I heard a hiss, I also understood what I was trying to say.
:Hello:
The snake froze in its way around me, staring at me in absolute shock.
:You...I understand you: Her voice was female, young and gentle, but it was warped somehow under a thick layer of Transformation Magic.
I could read the spell on her easily. The spell was all that there was to her right now. She had been very young when she was first transformed. There wasn't much of her history where she hadn't been a snake. I couldn't even see her name underneath the identity of Cubellios. If something happened to force the spell to show itself, I'd probably be able to take a crack at undoing the spell myself. But as it was, it might be better for someone with more practice to handle it.
:And I understood you! Now that we can talk: Will you please not attack me if I move around a bit? I won't try to escape: The big snake's eyes narrowed briefly, wondering if I was trying to trick her.
:My friend wishes to keep you here: And her priority was helping her friend. There really wasn't much human thought underneath there right now... Her concept of loyalty and friendship was really the only thing that had remained intact after years of conforming to a snake's mindset.
:And I'm not foolish enough to try to escape on my own. I'm waiting for my friends to come and rescue me. Which they will. Trying to escape alone would only result in my being overpowered: Like I said, that would be foolish. And snakes were not foolish. Appealing to that trait ought to help...
Cubellios wound her way closer to me, tongue tasting my hair gently.
:That makes sense. If you do not try to escape, I will not hurt you. You may move, but you will stay close to me:
:I accept your terms. Thank you!: I patted Cubellios's nose before looking to see a very confused Cobra staring at me both.
"Cubellios, what are you doing?" The big snake flicked me into the air and onto her back. She regarded Cobra with a smug look on her face.
"We had a nice conversation." I replied. "I'm going to assume you didn't know that she's actually a girl."
"What?"
"So long as I'm near her, she'll let me wander around."
"Woah, woah, woah, back up: Since when can you talk to snakes?" That must not have been in the information they had on me then.
"As of about three minutes ago." I said, folding my arms. I glanced through what he did know about me, and proceeded from there. "One of my stories has a character who can talk to snakes, so I can do it too."
Raging jealousy flashed on Cobra's face as Cubellios carried me around the base, a clearing backed against a large rock formation.
"Teach me the spell." I lifted my wrist that had the magic suppressor on it.
"No can do, unless you feel like taking this off." And I was pretty sure Brain had explicitly said that I wasn't supposed to lose the shackles until he was there to supervise me personally.
The Poison Dragon Slayer glared at me, (thank goodness his magic was not visual or I would already be dead) clearly unhappy. The large reptile shifted, sensing his mood.
:What is wrong with my friend? I cannot understand what he says in your language, but I smell he is unhappy:
:He wants to speak with you like I am, but my power is being contained so I can't help him:
Cubellios settled into a loose coil with me in the center, eyes regarding both me and her friend. She was thinking hard as well.
:The man with the half mad soul will be angry if your power is unleashed: Cubellios was loyal only to Cobra, but she was afraid of Brain. She wouldn't cross him for anything without a very good reason to believe he would lose the ensuing fight.
Well, so much for that hope.
I had half wondered if Cobra's desire to speak to his animal partner would overwhelm his reason and get him to take off the manacle. And barring that, Cubellios likely had the same desire to speak to him and could probably get it off with some of her acidic poison.
The snake turned her head to look at me, a human hope shining in her eyes.
:Little one...will you speak for me to my friend?:
Cubellios had undergone more than ten years of forced silence. She couldn't confide her human emotions to anyone, and had thus lost most of her humanity. Her only solace was Cobra's companionship.
:What do you want to say to him?:
"Cubellios says: 'Please don't be upset.'"