Here's the next chapter! Hope you all enjoy!
Just as the battle between Wendy and Sherria concluded, Soren appeared in front of the two girls and confronted the young God Slayer.
"Soren, what are you doing here?" Wendy asked.
"You know this psycho, Wendy?" Sherria almost exclaimed.
"Wendy, stay away from her." Soren said without looking back at the Dragon Slayer.
"Wait, why?!" Wendy questioned.
"That magic of hers… Do you know how she got it?" Soren asked.
"The Magic Council gave it to me!" Sherria stated.
"And where do you think the Council got it in the first place?" Soren quizzed the other God Slayer.
Sherria then recalled what Soren had said the other day.
They took something from me to get it.
That girl's magic… has stained her hands with blood.
"Before the Council took custody of it, it belonged to the Blake family." Soren claimed. "We did nothing wrong… But the Council came and killed my mother without even a second thought! Then they took our magic and didn't even bother to give it back to us! They chose to keep what they had stolen from us and not tell anyone about it! They made sure nobody knew about our magic or my mom's murder!"
Wendy stared at Soren in shock and Sherria covered her mouth to hide her mortified expression.
"And you're just as guilty, Sherria Blendy!" Soren shouted.
"But she did nothing wrong!" Wendy said. "She didn't even know about any of that!"
"If an innocent bystander unknowingly helps a killer, that innocent is still punished for the other's crime." Soren stated. "And that's exactly what you are." Black winds began swirling around his arms.
"Soren! Please, stop!" Wendy screamed.
*I don't have enough magic energy to defend myself…* Sherria thought.
Wendy tried to move, but she was still a bit exhausted from the fight. "Nngh…!"
Just before Soren could strike Sherria, a torrent of black water shot up between them and blocked him from getting any closer. Sherria had to shield her eyes from the blowback which had caused her to fall on her bottom. Two hands reached out from the water and grabbed Soren's arms, getting cut up by the blades of wind swirling around them.
"Soren, stop this right now!" A voice spoke from within the water as it began to dissipate.
When Sherria opened her eyes again, she saw Zale standing between her and Soren, keeping him at bay at the cost of his arms being sliced up.
"Mr. Zale!" Wendy gasped in somewhat joyous surprise.
"Let me go!" Soren snarled at Zale.
"Ngh!" Zale grunted from the pain of the bladed winds. "Not until you calm down!"
"I said… LET ME GO!" Soren yelled and blasted a breath of black wind from his mouth point blank at Zale.
Zale retaliated with his own breath attack consisting of black water and the two forces were at a stalemate for a few seconds until Zale's attack suddenly broke Soren's attack and sent him flying across the arena. After rolling along the ground, Soren got up, his body soaked from the black water, and glared at Zale.
"What do you hope to gain from killing Sherria, huh?!" Zale questioned loudly so Soren could hear him clearly.
"I already told everyone!" Soren replied. "She's responsible for my mom's death just as much as the Council is!"
"If Sherria's responsible for anything, it's using your God Slayer Magic!" Zale retorted.
Soren gnashed his teeth in anger.
"And if you're so angry at the Council, why aren't you trying to pick a fight with them?" Zale questioned.
Soren refused to answer Zale's question.
"… You tried, didn't you?" Zale guessed. "Or, even if you did there's no way a kid like you could take on a whole continent. So you needed to shift some of the blame to something you knew you stood a chance against…"
Soren's only response was a squint of his eyes.
"Did I get that right?" Zale asked.
Soren charged at Zale with a miniature black tornado around his right arm, screaming at the top of his lungs.
"SHUUUUUUUUT UUUUUUUUUP!"
Zale formed a ball of water in his hands large enough to fit a small person inside and waited for Soren to get close to him.
"Wendy! Sherria! Get out of here! NOW!" Zale yelled.
Wendy and Sherria got up and ran like Zale ordered. The moment Soren touched the water ball, he was sucked into it and all of his momentum had stopped dead in its tracks. Soren angrily tried to move, but his body wouldn't budge.
"Will you PLEASE calm down now?!" Zale comically pleaded.
Soren's body started to shake and Zale could feel the ball of water vibrating with him, immediately knowing what Soren was trying to do.
"Oh shit!" Zale jumped and threw the ball at the ground.
The water that formed the ball burst out like a water balloon and Soren was pulled by it to the wall. Once the water died down, Soren stood back up and glared at Zale.
"I rescued your friends…" Soren said. "Never asked you to return the favor… And this is how you thank me?"
"Soren, you're letting your hate get the better of you!" Zale said. "You can't let these negative emotions control you! I know all too well what that's like!"
"You don't know what it's like!" Soren snapped back. "You don't know what it's like to see your mother killed before your very eyes!"
Soren charged at Zale again with a wind-empowered arm and Zale ran toward him with his right arm surrounded in black water forming a large claw. As soon as they got close, they swung their arms at each other.
"Water God Hunter!"
Just like before, Zale powered through Soren's attack and sent the boy flying back to the wall. Despite his exhaustion and injuries, Soren still got back up.
"Actually… I do…" Zale said softly.
"'I do' what?" Soren questioned.
"I know what it's like to see my parents die right in front of me…" Zale said.
Something inside Soren's brain caused his thoughts and whole body to freeze in place.
"Soren, you should at least consider yourself lucky that your father's still around, even if he is a recovering alcoholic. And that your mother's magic was given to someone who fights for their friends."
Soren's legs gave out and dropped to his hands and knees.
"I bet you never had someone to help you through such a turbulent turn in your life." Zale walked up to Soren and knelt down to him. "I had Fairy Tail, but you weren't so lucky, were you?"
The boy was still frozen as he listened to Zale's words, but he suddenly felt something touching his hair. He looked up to see a smiling Zale with his right hand gently placed on his head.
"From now on, if you ever start feeling angry or sad, come to me." Zale said softly. "I'll always listen to what you have to say."
Unable to hold back his tears, Soren started crying while hiding his face from the crowd and Zale petting his head. It was as if the rest of the world around them was faded out.
"… Well, I certainly didn't expect that!" Chapati finally spoke up.
"At leasht no one was sheriously injured." Yajima said.
"Normally, that boy would be under arrest for attempted murder…" Lahar then looked at Soren down in the arena. "… But for now, I'll simply report this to the Council and let them decide on a course of action. Though only because of his situation and his age."
In the crowd, Sam sighed in exhaustion and exasperation.
"Dammit, Soren…" He mumbled under his breath. "You had to go and do something stupid, didn't you?"
While Zale was still petting the crying Soren, he finally felt sharp stings all over his arms and took notice of the cuts the Sky God Slayer had made earlier.
"Hold on!"
A pair of small hands held up to Zale's arms and a calming green glow emanated from them that began to close the wounds. Zale looked toward the hands and saw that the owner of those small hands was Wendy.
"Thank you, Wendy." Zale said.
"I should be thanking you, Mr. Zale." Wendy smiled at Zale. "If you didn't show up when you did, who knows what would have happened… I didn't think Soren would even think-"
"Well, let's just be glad it's over… At least for now…" Zale interrupted her.
Soren's crying had turned into sobbing when he felt a warm sensation coming over his body. He looked to his side and saw that Sherria was healing him.
"Listen…" Sherria looked down and away with a sorrowful expression. "I know it won't change what's already happened, but… I'm sorry…"
"… No…" Soren spoke up. "Everyone was right… you had nothing to do with this and yet I went off on you… I'm… I'm sorry for directing all of my anger on you…If… if you want to take a whack at me, then I'll take it without complaining…"
Soren closed his eyes and clenched his body, waiting for a slap in the back of his head, but when nothing came, he looked to see Sherria just giving him a gentle smile.
"You already took enough of a beating." Sherria chuckled. "And… I forgive you."
For some reason, Soren felt another strange, warm sensation in his body and his cheeks turned pink. He eventually looked away to hide his face, even though he wasn't entirely sure why he did that.
Night had just fallen on the capital of Crocus and the members of Fairy Tail all returned to the Honey Bone Lodge. While the others were having fun, Zale was just quietly sitting on a bench near the corner.
"Is something wrong, my love?"
Zale snapped back to reality from the sound of Juvia's voice, his girlfriend standing right in front of him with a look of concern.
"I'm just thinking about Soren…" Zale replied.
"Do you think Soren will be okay?" Another voice spoke up.
Zale and Juvia turned to see Wendy with Carla in her arms.
"I don't know, Wendy…" Zale answered. "Hopefully the Council will only give him a slap on the wrist."
"You did what you could, Zale." Juvia said as she sat down and held onto his arm. "You were so wonderful out there." She started rubbing her face against his arm.
"Looks like you're a lucky man, Neptune!" Another, different but familiar, voice said.
Zale looked toward the voice and saw Jayden standing in front of him this time.
"Well, you'd have to be to get such a beautiful girl." Jayden continued.
"Jayden?!" Zale exclaimed as he stood up. "What are you doing here?! Did Soren get in trouble again?"
"No, no, nothing to worry yourselves about." Jayden shook his head and waved his hands. "His dad just grounded him."
"Zale, who is this?" Juvia inquired.
"Oh, that's right!" Zale said. "I never got to tell any of you! This is-"
"Please, let me handle the intros." Jayden insisted.
"'Intros'?" Zale was a bit confused by Jayden's wording.
"I'm Jayden Oceari, the Water Dragon Slayer." Jayden pointed at himself with his thumb.
"You're a Dragon Slayer, too?!" Wendy gasped.
"Were you raised by a dragon or did you have a lacrima implanted inside you?" Carla asked.
"Mmm…"
"YOU HAVE TO THINK ABOUT IT?!" Carla shouted in aggravation.
"A… little of both." Jayden answered.
"So you're just like those Saber Dragon Slayers." Wendy said.
"Ah, I see you've met our newest recruit." This time an old, gravelly voice spoke up.
Their attention was drawn to Master Makarov walking up to them.
"… Master, could you repeat that, please?" Zale requested. "I think I misheard that with all the partying going on."
"From this day forward, Jayden is officially a member of Fairy Tail." Makarov stated.
"I was so impressed by your guild in the games today and thought I'd join on as a new member." Jayden said. "Isn't that great?"
Zale just stared at Jayden with his mouth agape.
"… I'll take that as a 'Hell Yeah'!" Jayden raised his fist into the air.
A/N: That's the end of the chapter! Will the Council try Soren as an adult for his actions? Will Jayden prove to be a valuable asset to Fairy Tail? Will Zale come up with a good date idea? Will I ever stop asking questions like the narrator of the 60's Batman show? Stay tuned for next time!