Episode 8: To Keep From Seeing Those Tears
Inside of the Jupiter Cannon the magical energy was crackling like electricity towards the giant lacrima in the center of the ceiling and Igrao had just slashed at Totomaru who blocked with his own sword.
"Hurry Natsu!" Happy yelled panicked as Natsu just stood there at war with himself. On one hand, he knew Igrao was right. He had to worry about the giant lacrima. However, on the other hand he desired to beat that smug bastard's face in himself.
"The Jupiter Cannon is almost ready to fire again!" Happy finished.
"Yeah," Natsu replied with his left fist in his right hand, "I know!"
"It's too late!" Totomaru said as he kicked Igrao back before he blasted blue flames out of a fiery orange mystical symbol at the swordsman.
However, Igrao summoned another sword and cut right through the flames which sent them behind him towards Natsu.
To Totomaru's surprise, Natsu sucked in the flames like a vacuum cleaner sucking up dirt. Totomaru was also impressed at Igrao's quick-thinking.
"Whoa, that was cold going down!" Natsu exclaimed as he finished devouring the flames, "Never tasted fire like that before!"
"So it's you," Totomaru said irritated as he placed his katana point down on the floor and rested his hands on the pommel, "Fairy Tail's dragonslayer. Well, this isn't going to work out well for either of us, is it?"
"Huh?" Natsu said confused.
"Because we're both impervious to fire attacks," Totomaru exclaimed.
"I haven't even hit you yet!" Natsu cried out angrily, "How do you know my fire won't hurt ya?!"
"Go ahead and give it your best shot," Totomaru goaded smugly, "but you won't be able to hit me."
"We'll see about that!" Natsu said loudly as he took a firm stance and proceeded puff out his cheeks far more than should be possible.
"Fire Dragon…" Natsu yelled as he placed his hands over his mouth like a trumpeter would.
"I told you, as the element of fire, I can control any flame!" Totomaru interrupted as he held up a fiery orange mystical circle with both hands.
"Spit!" Natsu finished as he spat rapid fire saliva at Totomaru. Totomaru was less than thrilled and once Natsu finished totomaru stood there with his mouth open with a shocked and disgusted expression on his face.
"Hahahaha!" Natsu laughed, "I got you good!"
Even Igrao had to let out a smile of amusement at that.
"Two minutes until Jupiter fires," said the feminine robotic voice.
"Natsu!" Happy cried out as he flew around in panic, "You gotta hurry! We can't let the cannon fire!"
"That was a dumb move," Totomaru said angrily, "Do you think this is a game?!"
"Orange fire!" Totomaru yelled as a blasted orange flames out of the mystical symbol from before.
"You call that an attack?" Natsu smirked, "Well, I call that a hot dinner!"
Natsu then inhaled the orange flames till he suddenly stopped as he gagged.
"Nasty!" Natsu exclaimed as he dropped to the floor and rolled around while Totomaru laughed.
"Tastes like a rag, soaked in spoiled milk, doesn't it?" Totomaru laughed.
"That was a dirty trick," Igrao said with narrowed eyes as he brandished both his flame repellent sword and his ebony sword.
"And a face full of spit, isn't?" Totomaro retorted as he brandished his blade as well.
"One minute until Jupiter fires," the robotic feminine voice announced.
"Come on!" Happy cried out as he pulled on Natsu's face, "Hurry up Natsu!"
While Happy tried to get Natsu up, Igrao ran at Totomaru and performed a flurry of slashes with both swords. Igrao was so fast that Totomaru was forced into defense.
"You're good," Totomaru grunted as he blocked Igrao's current attack which involved pressing down with both swords on Totomaru's katana.
"But I'm better!" Totomaru finished as he spun around Igrao prompting him to stumble forward. Totomaru slashed down at Igrao, but his attack was halted by Igrao's black blade. However, he quickly slashed again and again without any hesitation in order to put Igrao in defense.
While Totomaru and Igrao focused entirely on their battle, Natsu got back to his feet now that the nasty taste that orange flame left in his mouth had gone. Natsu glared at Totomaru angrily and immediately ran at him.
"Hey!" Natsu yelled as he raised his right fist, "our fight's not over yet!"
Totomaru glanced towards him just in time to receive a punch to the face which sent him flying into one of the lacrima spheres causing a crack to appear on it.
"I don't need magic to take you down, buddy!" Natsu boasted with a smile.
"Yes yes," Igrao said as he rolled his eyes, "you beat him. Now, lets focus on dealing with the center lacrima sphere."
Meanwhile, at the Fairy Tail Guild Hall…
Soron lay unconscious on one of the tables with a blanket over him and a cloth in a bowl of water next to him. Nearby, Lucy stood at the window as she looked out with a serious expression on her face.
We only have thirty seconds, Lucy thought to herself grimly.
"This isn't looking good!" exclaimed the pervy wizard called Loke.
"Why's he taking so long?!" a wizard by the name of Wakabe cried out.
In just under a few seconds, the cannon barrel was destroyed by a blue-ish black conflagration. That caused everyone to cheer in glee at the minor victory.
"Hey!" shouted the cowgirl wizard named Bisca, "check it out! They blew it up!"
"Yeah they did!" agreed the cowboy wizard called Alzack, "The Jupiter Cannon's been destroyed just in time!"
Inside the Fairy Tail guild…
Lucy stood there with a smile as she looked out at her guildmates who were whooping in joy.
Natsu did it, Lucy thought happily.
Behind her, Soron slowly opened his eyes and looked around in confusion. When he saw Lucy by the window he slowly pushed himself into a sitting position. Lucy glanced at him just in time to see him fall to the floor as his legs hadn't regained their strength yet. That blast he absorbed was that powerful.
"Hey!" Lucy exclaimed as she hurried to him, "You shouldn't be trying to move. You absorbed a lot of magical energy. Not even Natsu wouldn't been able to."
"I won't stand by while the guild is in danger," Soron said weakly.
"You haven't recovered enough to go back into battle," Lucy countered sternly, "so, until you do you're going to stay here."
"Besides," Lucy added with a smile, "I could use the company."
Suddenly, they heard several booming sounds from outside. Soron immediately turned to look, but couldn't see anything. Lucy was curious as well, so she helped Soron to the window. Outside, the castle was transforming. Clearly for the second time this day.
"To quote one of the greatest movies on my world," Soron said grimly, "I have a bad feeling about this."
Once the transformation was completed, Soron and Lucy both widened their eyes as they had never seen such a thing before. Soron had seen a lot in his time, but he had never seen something as humongous as what the castle had transformed into. It was even taller than Ultimate Way Big.
"I have to go out there now," Soron said as he brought up his left arm and turned the dial of his Megatrix.
"But…" Lucy trailed off.
"I have no choice in the matter," Soron replied.
Outside in the courtyard…
Some of the Fairy Tailers were panicking while the others prepared to fight even though they believed it fruitless.
"They're coming to attack again," Alzack said as he reloaded his sidearms.
"Giants and ghosts?" Bisca asked now holding dual tommy guns, "How are we supposed to handle this?"
"Just focus on these things for now!" Erza yelled as she raised her sword in preparation to attack the ghosts, "We'll let Natsu and Shuzy take care of the giant for us!"
"Sure, but what about…" Wakabe trailed off unconvinced.
"Natsu's motion sickness?" Macao finished for his friend.
"Okay, then just Shuzy," Erza sighed.
Suddenly, the giant's fist came down towards them. Some of the Fairy Tailers just stood there frozen in fear. Suddenly, the arm stopped. Erza widened her eyes when she looked to see who caused it. It was Soron in his Kryptonian form and he was holding up the fist with all his strength. His arms were both in ninety-degree angles with his palms touching the castle-giant's fist and one knee was forced to the ground. Soron screamed as he pushed the fist up in order to be on both knees. He then slowly lowered himself into a crouch. He stayed there for about a minute before he launched himself upward to force the arm up and away from the Fairy Tail courtyard.
Erza watched as Soron/Krypto-man forced the castle-giant to stumble back a step. Krypto-man then grabbed onto the arm and ran up it in a black blur.
With Natsu…
"C'mon!" Happy said urgently as he shook Natsu who had collapsed due to the building moving, "you gotta get up!"
"What's the matter?" asked Totomaru, "you get motion sickness?"
"Guess you can't eat fire right now, can you?" said Totomaru as he stood up straight, "Well, then. Time for me to finish you off!"
He summoned a mystical symbol and began to charge up a fire attack which worried Happy.
"C'mon Natsu," Happy whined.
"Prepare to die, dragon slayer!" Totomaru shouted before he realized something was wrong.
"Wait," Totomaru said confused, "Hey! No! What's happening to me?!"
"You're not a man," said a familiar voice. Happy looked to see that Elfman had arrived and nearby, Grey.
"You're a backwards shooting snowflake!" shouted Elfman as he uppercutted Totomaru hard enough to send him flying far into the sky. Who knows, Totomaru may even keep going till he reaches outer space.
"That makes no sense!" Totomaru shouted as he rose higher.
"Thanks, you guys," Natsu smiled as he pushed himself up and looked at them.
"You're so cool!" Happy shouted, "You showed that phantom jerk who's boss!"
"What's your deal Natsu?" Grey asked as he stared at the flame-brain, "That was just sad."
Fortunately, Grey hadn't stripped to his shorts-length boxers yet.
"If you were a real man," Elfman said, "you'd make the giant motion sick of you."
"So, is this all that's left of the Jupiter cannon?" Grey asked as he looked at what remained of the giant lacrima.
"Yeah," said the voice of Igrao as he removed himself from the rubble, "pretty much."
"Heh," Grey said, "then you three did good."
"Huh," Natsu said as he fully recovered from his motion-sickness, "It must've stopped moving, because I'm feeling better now."
"I'm gonna fly outside and see what's goin' on," Happy informed them as he popped out his wings.
Down on the ground…
"Hey look," said Alzack as he blasted the intangible ghosts with his magic revolver, "What's that?"
"It's drawing something," Bisca said as she fired her magical thompsons.
"A magic circle!" shouted a purple haired woman named Laki.
"Oh no," said Erza as she looked up at the circle, "that's one of the forbidden spells!"
Inside of the moving castle…
Elfman, Igrao, and Grey had concerned expressions while Natsu was furious.
"What'll we do?!" Natsu shouted, "We gotta stop 'em!"
"I guess we should split up and start looking for this thing's power source," Grey said calmly, "right?"
"Man, are we ever gonna catch a break?" Elfman said irritated.
"C'mon," Natsu said as he raised a fist up, "let's do this guys!"
"I'm going to go down and help the others," Igrao said as he looked out of a damaged portion of the wall.
"You do that," Natsu grinned, "We got this!"
"Yeah!" Grey and Elfman said in unison.
At that, Igrao jumped out of the hole and headed towards the rest of the Fairy Tailers were.
A little later, with Soron…
Soron had transformed back to his normal boring human form once he had gotten inside, and he had his damaged clothes on. Unlike Ben's ultimatrix, the megatrix doesn't allow human clothing to repair itself once the wearer returns to normal. Azmuth never figured out why, but Soron considered it was like a feature. Yet another way to make it unique.
"Man, this is a long hallway," Soron grumbled to himself as he walked, "and this guy clearly has a love for things that aren't human."
Along the hallway were alcoves where pedestals had statues of non-human looking things. Suddenly, Soron felt as if he was being watched. He quickly turned around and saw a guy with a monocle appear to have grown out of the ground.
"What the fuck is your deal?" Soron asked. The guy merely took his hat off and said something that sounded French.
"You're one of the Element Four," Soron said as he turned fully towards the guy, "aren't you? Also, I can't understand you very well so you're going to have to speak clearly."
The guy wobbled from side to side which made Soron raise an eyebrow at how odd he was being.
"My name is Sol," said the French guy after something else in French, "Monsieur Sol."
"I honestly don't give a damn who you are," Soron asked as he crossed his arms, "All I want to know is how to stop this gigantic transforming stone robot."
"You're going to have to beat me to get that info," said Sol still wibbling.
"Gladly," Soron said as he turned the dial on his watch.
"What is that thing you're doing?" Sol asked confused.
"Let me show you," Soron smirked as he selected an alien. He then popped the dial up and pressed it down. A second later, he was enveloped by golden light which made Sol look away. Once the light had ebbed, Soron had transformed into a bipedal tiger without a tail and one big claw coming out of the backs of each wrist. His eyes were golden and on his chest was the golden megatrix symbol.
"Rath!" shouted the tiger loudly before he looked at Sol with an angry expression.
"What's this?" Sol asked, "a strange kind of cat?"
"LET ME TELL YOU SOMETHING GUY NAMED AFTER EARTH'S STAR SYSTEM," Rath yelled as he pointed at the wobbly wizard, "RATH'S GOING TO TEACH YOU NOT TO MESS WITH FAIRY TAIL!"
"It appears the rumors spreading around about you are true," Sol the wobbler said still wobbling, "Your take-over forms are outlandish indeed."
Rath didn't even speak, but instead leapt towards the wobbling wizard and punched down. However, he missed as the wizard jumped out of the way. That caused Rath to hit the ground instead.
Sol immediately used his earth-based magic to cause the floor to rise up and punch Rath multiple times. Each attack on Rath genuinely hurt him, but he's been assaulted by more powerful forces before.
"RATH DOESN'T LIKE YOUR LAZY MAGIC!" Rath shouted as he recovered from the attack, "RATH'S GOING TO GIVE YOU SOMETHING TO DISLIKE IN RETURN!"
Rath then picked up a stone pillar formed from the ground and ran at Sol, but the PL wizard vanished from where he was just in time to avoid getting hit by the pillar. Rath looked around in confusion, but didn't see Sol appear behind him. Suddenly, Rath was hit in the jaw by a pillar which sent him flying into the air. However, Rath recovered quite fast and flipped in the air to land on his feet and skidded to a stop several feet away from the French wizard.
"No, no," said the wizard as he melted into the ground. Rath whirled around intend to punch him, but instead the wizard wrapped himself around Rath's fist and looked smug about it.
"RATH DOESN'T LIKE CREEPY THINGS!" Rath yelled as he attempted to pull the wizard off of him, "GET OFF OF RATH!"
However, Sol immediately reformed to normal and kicked Rath backwards.
"LET ME TELL YOU SOMETHING MAD SEWER SOL!" began Rath as he pointed at the wizard.
"It's Monsieur, idiot!" Sol yelled as he launched some stone at Rath who dodged it.
"LET RATH FINISH!" Rath shouted angrily. Once Rath noticed that the wizard wasn't going to respond, he said, "RATH ISN'T GOING TO CUT IT, BUT RATH KNOWS WHO WILL!"
He then slapped his chest and a second golden light flared once again forcing Sol to look away. Once more the light ebbed, but this time a yellow being with what looked like giant springs in his arms stood in Rath's place. Like Rath, he had golden eyes and the golden megatrix symbol on his chest.
"Armadrillo!" the yellow being shouted.
"What does one that do?" Sol asked confused again.
"Let me show you," Armadrillo said. He then ran at Sol and punched at him, but he wobbled out of the way. Sol kept wobbling as Armadrillo punched, and the fight seemed to be at a stand still.
"This is boring," Sol sighed as he melted into the floor and rose out of it a few feet away.
"You are not from this reality, no?" Sol asked with a smile. Armadrillo blinked twice at that, because there's no way Sol could know that.
"I know this because I looked into your mind when you were walking down this hallway," Sol said, "your foot touched me which is what gained me access to it."
Armadrillo didn't like that one bit, and so he leapt into the air and prepared to punch. However, suddenly there was a statue of a busty blonde woman with long hair in his path. Not Lucy, but someone else.
"Exact likeness to your little sister?" Sol smiled.
"Why you?!" Armadrillo said angrily as memories of her began to flash through his mind.
"I gleaned this image from what memories you have of her," said Sol smiling, "otherwise it wouldn't be accurate enough to make you stop your attack."
Armadrillo was getting angrier by the second, and Sol was reveling in that.
"Oh, pardon moi," said Sol, "now I see that she lived till she was sixteen. Not very long at all. Where from your from that is. Then you had to bury her in the cold dark ground."
Armadrillo just stood there staring at the statue of his little adopted sister. He fell to his knees as he returned to his human form.
"How could you do something to someone who loved you so much?" Sol asked cruelly.
Suddenly, the statue looked directly at Soron.
"Hey, big brother," the statue said. Soron then got to his feet and let out a primal roar of pure rage and grief. When he was done, he turned the dial on the megatrix and pressed down. Once again, the golden light flashed and once again it ebbed. Standing in Soron's place was a giant purple man with golden armor on his person. In the middle of his chest was the golden megatrix symbol. He didn't even shout his name.
"I will make you pay for that," said Soron in a voice that sounded like Josh Brolin as he opened his eyes revealing golden irises, "and it will be easy for me. You are nothing but an insect, after all."
"You think I'm an insect?" Sol said with anger as he turned the rubble around them into stone dust and gathered it up, "No, no, no. How dare you insult me like that?! The only people who are insects are those who caused their loved ones to die!"
Suddenly, he fired a gigantic stone fist into Soron which caused the wall behind him to get destroyed. However, Soron was still standing. He looked at Sol with nothing but contempt in his eyes.
"Pathetic," Soron said before he walked towards Sol. However, he stopped when he heard a familiar voice.
"Somebody! Help!"
Soron turned towards the wall and saw that Mira had been grabbed by one of the castle's hands. She was now pinched by two of the fingers.
"Mirajane," Soron said calmly. He looked between Sol and Mira and came to a decision.
Soron then jumped out of the hole and went fairly far through the sky. When he landed it was right next to Mira.
"Gah!" Mira exclaimed when she saw him.
"Quiet," Soron said calmly as he picked a handle off of his right thigh and pressed a button. Suddenly, two blades grew from either side. Once they have finished, Soron stabbed down into the finger and cut a hole for her to crawl out from between them.
"There," Soron said as he stared at Mira with contempt, "Become stronger so I won't have to save you next time. The strong survive while the weak perish."
Before Mira could say anything, Soron leapt back up into the air and towards the hole. Sol was standing in the hole to watch the whole thing, and so he had to scramble backward when he saw Soron arriving. However, he wasn't fast enough so as soon as Soron landed in the hole, he spartan kicked Sol in the gut. That kick sent Sol flying several feet away.
"You're physically strong," Sol said as he got to his feet, "I'll give you that."
"I'm sorry I can't say the same for you," Soron said calmly as he walked forward.
"Are you as fast though?" Sol asked before he suddenly launched stone pillar after pillar after pillar. However, each one was shredded by Soron spinning his blade. Sol began to panic and sent more and more and more while he backed up. However, Soron merely shredded those too. However, Soron ran as he did it. Eventually, he reached sol and grabbed his chest.
"I made you a promise," Soron said calmly as he hefted his blade and pointed one of the blades at Sol, "and I intend to keep it."
Soron prepared to stab the evil wizard, but hesitated when he saw someone behind Sol. Suddenly, Soron was back at the grave of his deceased sister. He was about a couple years younger back then. Ben was alive, Gwen and Kevin were still together, Max Tennyson was there as well. This was during the early years of the war. Before Soron had the Megatrix and before Tetrax and Azmuth showed up. At that point, the human militaries were still around.
"Promise me, brother," said a young feminine voice, "you won't lose your sense of mercy. I know its there, and I believe that one day you'll find it. When you do, all I ask is that you keep it. Always be the good man that I know you to be."
Suddenly, he was earlier that day. Soron knelt and held his little sister as she coughed up blood. She had been blasted by a laser, and the blast had penetrated a lung. There was no time to take her to a hospital, and even if there were… the nearby hospitals were destroyed by Vilgax. Soron cried out in anguish as he held her close to him.
"I promise you, Sara," past-Soron said sadly, "I will do my best to keep it."
Once more the scene shifted, but this time it was in a battle. Soron had a sci-fi bow and arrow in his hands and was behind some rubble using it as cover as he fired an explosive arrow at Vilgax's drones that were advancing.
"Dammit!" past-Soron shouted, "They just keep coming! There's no end!"
"Just like L.A," said Sara with a smile as she fired her dual blaster pistols.
"You and I remember L.A very differently," past-Soron replied as he fired two arrows at once towards two of the drones. The arrows veered away from each other and stuck into the faces of two of the drones. They fired laser blasts at other nearby drones.
"Hey," Sara said with a serious expression, "Should anything ever happen to me-"
"Don't you dare talk like that!" past-Soron said sternly as he fired a normal hard-light arrow into a drone that got too close, "We will survive! Both of us!"
"Even so," Sara said as she threw two grenades and blasted at them causing them to explode into the faces of the drones, "Remember that I will always be in your heart."
Once more, the scene shifted. This time, back to the grave but a few days later. Soron knelt in front of the grave and stared into the hologram on top of the gravestone. Before the war, humans had managed to create holo-tech.
"I can't do this without you, Sara," past-Soron said as he looked into the image shown by the hologram, "I can't be the person you think me to be. You were my conscience. You were my heart."
"Yes, you can," said the voice of Gwen Tennyson behind him, "You can be the person she saw in you. Remember what she said. She will always be in your heart. She will be in all of ours, and we'll never forget."
Suddenly, Soron was back in the present and he looked down at the terrified Sol. Instead of killing Sol, Soron backed up and dropped the wizard. He proceeded to collapse his blade and turned around.
"You're not worth it," Soron said as he pressed the megatrix symbol to return to normal. He only made it a few steps when he was suddenly rammed in the back by a stone pillar. That pillar sent him flying through the hole, and the pain had rendered him unconscious as he fell towards the ground below.
Back with Erza…
Erza had just saved a couple of her guild-mates when she saw Soron falling out of the castle and clearly unconscious again.
"Soron!" Erza yelled.
I apologize for rarely using Sol's canon lines. I just don't understand him most of the time he speaks French. I know he was supposed to fight Elfman and this was supposed to be a major emotional growth episode for Elfman. However, I wanted to give Soron more scenes in this chapter. also, i'm personally not a big fan of Elfman. Nothing against him. He's a cool dude, but he's just not as cool as Natsu. besides, this story is primarily about Soron overall so of course I was going to use him instead. also, i apologize if this chapter was shorter than the others. Couldn't be helped.