WOO! WI-FI! GUESS WHAT THAT MEANS? I GET TO UPDAAAAAAAATE!
On a more serious note I only read through this like once so I'll do some more thorough editing later bcuz I really wanted to get this out there!
It is nearly complete. All I need is the magic to power it. But dragon slayers aren't that easy to come by, are they?
"I never asked." Laxus was lounging on their couch, as per usual. "Are you a first or second generation?"
"What?" Lyla glanced upwards from her mini harp she had bought all those weeks before. She was in the middle of tuning it on the couch near Laxus and making up a new magical song. It was supposed to induce peace with those who were dead. Temporary peace that calms the person into a happy, sad state that reminds them of the happy moments with their loved one and helps them get over it. She had suddenly gotten the idea and hadn't been able to get it out of her head, and dubbed the song Merci. She was almost certain it meant thank you in a foreign language, one she had heard many years before and learned a few words of.
"Are you a first generation dragon slayer, or a second generation?" He repeated, raising an eyebrow. His hand twitched slightly as the memory of being implanted with the lacrima flashed through his thoughts.
"I'm not sure what you mean," She said, furrowing her eyebrows and setting down her instrument. Artemis was out with some old friends she had caught down at the marketplace. There was the common promise that she would be back by 10.
"Were you taught by a dragon, or implemented with a lacrima at a young age?" He elaborated, but he already knew the answer.
"Oh. My mother taught me," She said blankly, pushing the memories away.
"Then you're a first generation dragon slayer," He explained, pretending to ignore her almost emotional moment.
"What's second gen?" She questioned, reaching for her harp again. She needed a distraction.
"When you get a lacrima that allows your body to use dragon slayer magic." His gaze stayed on the ceiling, reminiscing about the two dragon slayers he had left behind. He absolutely did not miss anyone at Fairy Tail, that was for sure. If he did, it would be Freed, Bickslow and Evergreen. Perhaps even Gramps.
"You're a second gen, aren't you?" She plucked a few strings on the instrument, raising an eyebrow in the other blonde's direction. He glanced sideways at her, raising an eyebrow of his own, a little astonished she had figured it out so fast.
"Well, you just knew what a second generation was, so I assumed… sorry, were you raised by a dragon too?" She rushed to explain herself, misinterpreting his expression. He moved his head from side to side slightly, denying her assumption.
"I am a second generation. My father gave me the lacrima when I was a boy." He decided not to tell her that he was a sickly child, and that was the reasoning behind the lacrima.
"Hmm." She pondered this fact. "So, you used to be in Fairy Tail, right?"
"You figured it out?"
"Uh, no, when you got drunk…" She absentmindedly fiddled with the harp, not really playing anything, more of calming her mind. He let out a groan, closing his eyes. "What else did I do?" He asked with dismay hidden in his voice.
"Well…" She paused, remembering that eventful night. Her eyes flicked to his, which were waiting expectantly, and her cheeks tinged pink. He was too proud to take himself pouring out his feelings to the girl well, or at least without embarrassment. "Nothing really. You were quite affectionate, however." She couldn't help herself as she gave the lightning mage a teasing smile, causing his expression to turn infinitesimally horrified as he wondered: what did I do?
He didn't have to ask, she knew the silent questioned emanating from his embarrassed and worried form. She allowed a pregnant pause, enjoying teasing the dragon slayer a little too much.
"Don't worry." She finally said, laughter flowed through her body; it wasn't every day you saw the great Laxus humbled quite like this. "You just hugged me a lot and wanted to cuddle. It was really endearing, you know."
"Shut your trap." He muttered, shifting on the couch where he sat. Lyla let out one final giggle before her gaze floated to the clock on the mantle. She furrowed her eyebrows, and Laxus glanced at her at the sudden silence. "What?"
Her gaze turned terrified within seconds. "Artemis was supposed to be back ten minutes ago."
He relaxed, letting out a silent breath he didn't know he was holding. "She's just a little late, that's all. She's fine."
"Laxus." He paused at the serious tone in her voice, and turned to meet her strangely intense eyes. "Artemis is many things. She has been drunk, had a man, and has even been in the middle of a winning streak at a casino, but she was home on time. She leaves behind friends, money, magical items to be back on time. In all of the years I have known her, Artemis has never. Been. Late."
They stared at each other for a full five seconds before Laxus lurched to his feet, grabbing his fur-lined jacket and stalking out the door, Lyla right behind him with her own coat in hand. They bolted down the steep stairs of the apartment and out the door, fast walking down the street, heads darting back and forth in their frantic search for the spunky barmaid.
"Artemis!" Lyla called out, growing more and more desperate. Laxus had a calmer demeanor, but he had grown attached to the redhead, as much as he would like to deny it. "ARTEMIS!" While Lyla was searching with her eyes, Laxus was more paying attention to his magic sense, thinking if someone took Artemis, they were most likely a mage, or someone who used magical items.
"Laxus! Laxus, look!" Lyla grabbed hold of Laxus's arm, directing his focus to a mark in the alleyway. Laxus wasn't sure how Lyla had caught it, as it was night and the mark was dark. He covered his hand in lightning and brought it up to the wall, shining light on the shimmering mark. It was a crude L, though the color dragged away in a way that caused it to look like a lightning bolt. The red was bright against the white brick, making Lyla stock still.
"Sh-she's…" Lyla stared at the blood for a few long moments. "Blood. They made her…" her fist started shaking, a harsh jerking making its way up her arm until her whole body shook. Laxus worriedly turned her way to figure out what was wrong when he saw a look he hadn't seen in anyone since Fairy Tail. She was shaking, not in fear, but in unquenchable rage.
"They made her bleed." Lyla's voice was darker than he had ever heard it, and her eyes were a vicious glare. She herself was seeing red, even when she turned away from the bloody mark left by her sister. "They have made a huge mistake."
Laxus realized then exactly how much she was like another member of his former guild. She had reminded him of that one girl -Levy, was her name?- from her love of books, she had reminded him of Evergreen from her snarky nature, she had even reminded him of Erza from her passion towards her favorite things. But until now, he had never noticed how much she was like the calm storm named Mirajane, the kind demon, one of the strongest mages in the guild. Lyla forged on with evil intent, following the painful trail of blood.
Artemis got hurt… someone hurt my sister… I am going to MURDER whoever attacked her! Lyla's thoughts swirled around in a angry cycle. This had never happened before. Why would someone randomly attack Artemis? Lyla knew her friend (her affectionately called sister) was pretty, but she carried quite a few self defence tricks up her sleeve. No, this was an assault specifically on Artemis.
The trail of blood lead the two blondes to a run down warehouse. They would have cringed at the cliche of it if they weren't so intent on finding the magicless girl. Finally they reached the inside of the slowly crumbling building, both sensing the strange magical power coming from near the center of the structure. Lyla saw a large machine out of the corner of her eye before her gaze settled on the unconscious form of Artemis, shackled to a pole and a rag strung in her mouth and around her head. There was blood lining her right arm, which Lyla now saw was a result of Artemis cutting herself with her knife to lead the two mages to her. Artemis had hurt herself to help her friends find her.
"Lovely for you to finally arrive, I was almost getting worried." A snake-like voice slithered into Lyla's ears. She would have shivered in disgust (it truly was a creepy voice) if she wasn't so angry and worried. "I wasn't expecting extra company, however. I do dislike being unprepared."
"Artemis!" Lyla screamed, snapping out of her funk and stumbling towards her best friend.
"Ah, ah, ah." The voice taunted, materializing as a figure behind the redhead. A knife came out of smoke and leaned itself against Artemis's neck, mockingly drawing a thin line of blood. Lyla growled the growl of a dragon, eyes growing into slits. Laxus was still, expression set in a familiar glare, finding the width of the scumbag's magical power and waiting for an opening. Years of training helped him with this, but Lyla was feeding off of strong emotions and raw power.
"Don't. Touch. Her." Lyla narrowed her eyes, and Laxus reminded himself not to get on her bad side. She was a dragon slayer, and she was protecting that which was important to her. Laxus may command the dragon slayer magic, but the true, everyday attributes of a dragon could only come from being raised by one.
"I don't think you are in any position to tell me what to do," The voice said snidely, flicking what seemed to be their finger and the knife pressed closer to the unconscious redhead's neck. Lyla blanched.
"Now, I think that you should-" The voice had started cockily.
There. Laxus had pinpointed the exact position of the perpetrator. Lightning exploded from his body and struck the place where the magic power was the greatest.
"Now that wasn't very nice." The voice was from their left now, but it sounded slightly rattled though it seemed to try to hide it. "I think I'll have to punish you for your impudence, kid."
"Who're you calling kid?" Laxus grumbled, seemingly calm as he lashed out again with the lightning. Teleportation magic, or speed?
"BLACK CORRUPTION!" A shout sounded from above, a dark swirling vortex appearing above Laxus and swirling down to him like a tornado. He easily jumped out of the way, watching with fascination as the ground he was standing on turned dark black and crumbled to dust. Lyla stared at the dark hole where the lightning dragon slayer had been standing. Though there was no chance that Laxus would have been actually caught in that weakly placed spell, Lyla didn't know that. She thought there was a large chance he would have been killed. She thought this voice almost killed Laxus.
"Why don't you come out here and fight like a man, coward?" Laxus inwardly cringed as the sentence escaped his mouth. Was Elfman really that influential?
A creepy, disembodied cackled sounded throughout the building. Lyla pinpointed where it came from and realized this weirdo's magic. The mage was voice-throwing, and creating dummies in the place where he or she threw their voice (hopefully he, she would start to feel pity if it were a female, what with the sound of the voice). The dummy Laxus had shot was destroyed, but the kidnapper simply created another dummy next to Artemis and continued to throw their voice. They were also capable to throwing their voice to multiple places at once, which was why the voice sounded disembodied at times. She could figure out where the pathetic mage was, but she had to listen very carefully.
Unfortunately, she realized this as she was cutting Artemis free and watching Laxus battle it out with a fake. But if the mage was creating the dummies so quickly, he had to be close.
She just had to listen. And once she found this loser, she would give them hell to pay. In her mind, they had almost killed two of the most important people in her life.
"DARK TWISTER!" A spiral of purple and dark twisted around, writhing around Laxus's figure. Lightning darted out from the seams of the cocoon the spiral was creating, destroying the spell without much difficulty. Laxus's face was a straight line, and he looked utterly unamused. There was bright yellow lightning enveloping his body and flickering up to five feet from the man. She noticed the hidden fury in his expression, and his arms were tensed. Lyla finished freeing Artemis from her restrains, and held the girl tightly as if she could make all this vanish with a single tight hug.
"I see. You aren't any run-of-the-mill mage, are you? Well, I gotta pull out the big guns then…" The figure materialized in front of Laxus, a lanky man with deep red clothing.
"COMPULSION MAGIC! MAGE MANIPULATION!" The man shouted, holding both hands out in front of him. Red and purple light flew out of his fingers, towards Laxus. Laxus dodged easily, but the magic wasn't directed towards him. He watched, eye widening, anger increasing, and worry evident in his expression. The spell slammed into Lyla full on, flying her back. She collapsed on the floor, only to stand back up almost instantly. Her eyes were no longer the silver he had known, but were a glistening red and purple respectively.
"Now, this is fun…" The man chuckled, causing Laxus to turn and launch some lightning at him, but he disappeared and rematerialized on a ledge in another part of the building. So he could use short-range teleportation as well. While Laxus was attacking the man, Lyla had been muttering spells and setting up magic circles.
"SOUND TRAP!" She screamed, leaping at Laxus in attack. Seven magic circles appeared in a circle around his feet, and magical power erupted from the circles, vibrating and disorienting Laxus in a fashion he'd never seen or felt before. Lyla flew through the magic and tried a punch on his face. It was intended by the man controlling her to knock Laxus back. Unfortunately for him, he didn't account for his victim's physical strength, or lack thereof. While she punched him, or attempted to, he merely caught her fist and glared at her. She widened her eyes. She may not be in control of her actions, but Laxus was terrifying. And he wasn't even trying.
"Laxus," She whispered. He paused. This was Lyla's voice. Can she control that aspect of her body alone?
"Get Artemis and get out of here. I… I can't control my actions. I don't know how to break out of this spell. I don't want to hurt anyone." She shuddered in her wrestle with the spell.
"And leave you here to fend for yourself?" He muttered, the sound spell flickering out of existence around him. Her eyes flashed, and a buzzing sound filled his ears.
"LEAVE!" Lyla shouted, and the buzzing increased in his head. He gave her a little shock of lightning. It was only to stop her spell, and there wasn't enough voltage to actually hurt her. Nonetheless, the buzzing stopped.
"Lyla. You're coming home," He commanded, stormy eyes staring into hers. She paused. Her eyes flickered between silver and the red and purple combination, but settled on the red and purple.
"SOUND DRAGON WING BEAT!" She shouted, frantically trying to stop the spell. She hadn't used a dragon slayer spell since… well, since she was with Zara…
Lyla had jumped up, bringing her arms down in a powerful movement, unleashing the attack upon Laxus, who was hiddenly astonished and braced himself against the attack. The stone underneath his feet cracked under the pressure of the spell, and Laxus grunted as he was pushed back an inch, arms positioned in an X in front of him.
"Lyla! Fight it!" He snapped at her, patience wearing thin. Where was the man who kidnapped Artemis?!
"I'm trying!" She tried to sound irritated, but it came out afraid and weak. Her body twisted into a kick directed at Laxus's face, which he easily caught and threw to the ground. Her body stumbled to the floor, and she resisted the urge to get up and fight. Don't…
Her body, acting of its own accord, lurched to its feet and turned towards the other dragon slayer. "Attack me." Lyla told him, trying to move away but failing for the hundredth time.
"Lyla-" He tried to deny her request when she rushed him away, shouting out "DRAGON SLAYER- wait." Her body froze on the spot, her mouth twisting in confusion and anger against her will. When she opened her mouth, the snake-like voice slithered out instead of her own.
"You are preventing me from the dragon slayer spells?" She hissed, her face contorting into something wicked. "How? Have you forgotten them?"
Laxus watched in worried, almost scared fascination as she let out a shriek. Her hands clamped around her head in a vice grip. Her eyes were shut tightly and she was fighting, fighting against the spell that bound her.
"STOP!" She yelled, trying to figure out what to do, how to break free. "GET OUT OF MY HEAD!"
At the last word, all sound in the building vanished. She was collecting it all, eating it, absorbing it, gaining power. Laxus tried to speak, but the words were ripped away from him the instant they left his mouth. His ears picked up nothing from around him, a truly disorienting effect of her power collecting. All at once, the sound came flowing back and she stopped twitching. Her eyes were solid silver. Victory appeared in her eyes, but it only lasted a moment before the man shot her in the back with another bout of manipulation magic. She stumbled, sure she could break free of it easier than before…
But this time it was different. The spell was stronger, and she didn't want to hurt Laxus, though if she managed to it would be quite the feat, knowing the strength of the dragon slayer. Laxus, on the other hand, groaned in frustration. They would get nowhere with the dance they were doing. Something had to be done.
She had started her struggle against the second spell when she realized the freedom the voice had given her. Lyla, the Sound Dragon Slayer, had the freedom to speak.
"Auto suntsitu, abesti sendatzeko," She pronounced. Laxus and the captor were suddenly confused: what language was she speaking?
It did not seem to matter, and the lightning mage's thoughts deviated from confusion to shock when a large, white, shimmering magic circle appeared below his feet. A cool, soothing feeling filtered its way through his bones and he saw a similar circle under Artemis. The little magic power he had lost was replenished, but before his eyes Lyla started losing energy. She gave him one final, apologetic smile before collapsing, her final words being "Self destruct, healing song…"
"Lyla!" He called out, rushing to her side. The voice let out an irritated noise.
"That was not supposed to happened, but no matter." He materialized behind Lyla. Laxus narrowed his eyes. "You!" He darted forward, intent on defeating this man if it was the last thing he did.
"Well I have no more need of you so goodbye," The man said quickly, snapping his fingers and vanishing the instant Laxus punched violently through the empty air. The sudden silence was a small shock to the lightning mage. Laxus slowly turned, examining his surroundings, staring at the run down walls of the building and noting that he was the only living being in the whole structure. The machine was gone as well.
Laxus had been independent for many years, and had embarked on many solo missions, but he had never before felt so alone.
-so maybe I suck at writing action scenes and forgot to tell you
#no regrets
I feel like this is moving a bit too fast but it is only part one, and I'm planning on having (so far) around 3+ parts (since I haven't actually watched the whole FT series yet *hides*) with the 1st part being the shortest and stuffs.
sorry i'll shut up now (don't forget to favorite/follow/review!)
-Leaf