Chapter Six:
Nashi jumped and took two big steps back. Did she just hear that? As she squinted at the mirror she saw a figure appearing. A tall, thin woman with fuschia colored hair, red eyes, and dressed in flowing blush robes materialized behind her. Nashi gasped and whirled about.
"Sh," the woman knelt down to Nashi's level and set a hand on her shoulder. "It's alright, I'm not here to hurt you?"
"Who are you!" Nashi shouted.
"Sh," The woman place a finger to her lips. "Like I said I'm the Titaness Rhea."
Nashi just stared up at the woman. "Rhea? Like the Rhea who created my Rhea flames?"
"Yes," Rhea smiled. "Exactly."
"But…" Nashi blinked, staring up at the woman, confused. "How are you here? I thought you were dead? If you're not dead how come I've never seen you before?"
"Oh you've seen me before, dear girl," Rhea smiled. "I appeared to you were you were little more than a babe to teach you how to cast my flames. From there you were able to learn the others on your own."
"But…" Nashi looked down at her hands. So...this strange woman had taught her to use her magic?
"But…"
"Why have you not seen me since?" Rhea asked.
Nashi nodded, looking back up at her.
Rhea gave a sad smile. "We've been keeping our distance, hoping to give you as close to a normal childhood as possible."
"We?" Nashi asked.
"Yes, all of us titans are trapped in a state of limbo, neither dead nor alive."
"That makes no sense," Nashi arched an eyebrow.
"I suppose it is confusing. Regardless, you are the only one who can see us. As you already stand out quite a bit thanks to your magic we thought it best for us to stay away until you were older."
"So I'm the only one who can see and talk to you?" Nashi crossed her arms. "Great! As if I wasn't already a big enough of a weirdo!"
A soft, warm hand set itself on Nashi's shoulder. She looked up to find Rhea staring down pitifully at her. "I know you've been mistreated, sweet girl. And I am deeply sorry. Unfortunately, as circumstances stand I have found it best to appear to you earlier than planned."
"Because of what happened to my Mommy?" Nashi asked.
Rhea nodded solemnly. "I'm not sure how much they told you, but the posion this killer is using is nothing to be trifled with…"
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Rogue carefully pushed the door to Minerva's room open. His wife laid in bed, eyes closed, skin pale, one had set against her chest, the other hand….gone.
Her entire arm from the elbow down was gone. All she had was a stub wrapped in white bandages. Rogue felt his knees growing weak as he stumbled to Minerva's bedside. He took her one remaining hand in his, brought it to his face and sobbed. Minerva didn't respond. She kept her eyes closed as she just breathed, in and out, in and out, in and out. She was alive, that was all that mattered. Rogue kept telling himself that, still, her arm was gone. She was injured. She was poisoned.
And it had happened in their house. In their kitchen where Minerva always cooked meals for their guildmates. Cooking had always been a skill she enjoyed. While she was still with her father cooking had been her escape. Her kitchen was her sanctuary. And she had been attacked within it.
"Wah! Wah! Wah!"
Rogue picked his head up. On the other side of Minerva's bed was a bassinet. A tiny, tiny hand reached out of it, chubby fingers grasping for something, anything. Rogue wiped his face on the back of his hand and stood to his feet. He walked slowly, more like shuffled, to the bassinet and peered inside. The tears he'd just washed away came pouring from his eyes once again. In the bassinet was a little boy. He was tiny-so, so tiny- but he was crying, he was healthy, he was perfect. He stared up at rogue with giant, pale blue eyes. Rogue reached in and gently lifted the crying babe to his chest. He craddled the little boy close, kissing the top of his head.
"It's okay," he whispered. "It's okay. I'm here. Father's here. I've got you."
The baby continued to whimper as he nuzzled closer against his father's chest, grasping onto Rogue's shirt with his tiny hands. Rogue smiled softly as he watched him. He was so small!
A shudder ran through Rogue's body as his mind wandered back to the poison's effects on Yukino. Minerva, the strongest woman he knew, had lost her arm to it. How had this tiny child survived such a poisoning unscathed. His son was a fortunate child.
Fortunate...that reminde him of something.
"Rogue?"
Rogue turned to find Sting standing in the doorway of the room.
"Is she okay?" Sting asked.
Rogue looked back at his wife, still unconcious, and shook his head.
Sting sighed deeply as he walked in and looked down at his injured guildmate. It was had to tell which was worse off, Minerva or Yukino. Yukino seemed to be having a worse reaction to the poison, but Minerva had lost a limb. Neither would be the same once they recovered.
If they recovered.
Sting took a deep breath as he turned back to Rogue and then noticed the small babe craddled in his arms.
"Well, who's this handsome fellow?" Sting asked as he reached out and set a hand on the back of the baby's head, stroking his midnight black hair.
Rogue smiled down at his son. "This is Sachi," he answered.
"Sachi?" Sting asked.
Rogue nodded.
Sting smiled back at the baby. "Well, hi there, Sachi."
It was a fitting name for the little boy. It meant fortunate, which this child certainly was.
IIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIII
"Wah! Wah! Wah!"
Wendy groaned as she opened her eyes. Isla was awake and crying in the bassinet next to hers and Romeo's bed. She sat up and stretched her arms before lifting her daughter out of the bassinet.
"Ish she 'kay?" Romeo asked next to her.
"She's fine," Wendy answered. "Go back to sleep, I've got it."
Wendy carried Isla to the balcony attached to her's and Romeo's hotel room. She sat down on a lounge chair and unbuttoned the top of her nightgown to feed Isla. She gently rubbed her daughter's back as she ate and leaned back in the chair, closing her eyes to relax as she listened to the crickets chirping, music coming playing in a club down the street, the water bubbling in the jacuzzi next to the pool below-
Screech! Screech! Screech!
Wendy picked her head up and looked around. That was a strange noise, yet it was one she knew she'd head before. Screech! Screech! Screech!
Is sounded like someone scraping up against a wall. Only inside the wall-
Wendy gasped.
Density magic! Someone was coming through the wall! There were only two people she knew of who had that kind of magic. Lorelle, who was still in Magnolia with the rest of Fairy Tail. And the kill-
A figure dressed in all black walked straight out of the wall of the hotel and onto balcony, a bloody knife in her hand.
"Sky Dragon Roar!" Wendy screeched as she jumped to her feet. Isla screamed in her mother's arms, frightened by the sudden noise and burst of air that exploded over her. The figure tured slightly translucent, the roar of air passing harmlessly through her and into the hotel room. Romeo let out a yelp from inside as the figure became solid again and began walking menacingly towards Wendy, holding the knife above her head. Isla began screaming all the louder.
"You stay away from me!" Wendy screamed before shouting "Sky dragon, wing attack!"
Again, the figure turned herself semi-translucent and the attack went straight through her, knocking the sliding door of the hotel off it's hinges, but leaving the attacker unharmed.
"No, stop!" Wendy screamed, holding Isla close to her. "Leave us alone!"
"Purple Flare!" Romeo's voice rang out. A purple flame in the shape of a hand burst out of the hotel room, reaching to grab the killer. She turned her body translucent again. This time, however, she let out a shriek of pain as Romeo's flame went through her. Wendy and Romeo shared a look. Even if Romeo couldn't grab this person his flames could apparently burn her.
"Purple Flare Net!" Romeo shouted. A net of purple fire wrapped around the figure. She didn't engage her magic at first, thereby getting cought in the fire. She yelped in pain before turning herself translucent. She stepped out of the net and then charged towards the wall framing in the left side of the balcony.
"Get back here!" Romeo screeched as he ran after the killer. She walked straight through the wall and Romeo collided right into it.
"Romeo!" Wendy said as she began walking to him. Well, she tried. Her legs had gone weak, her heartbeat pounding at lightning speed. Romeo whirled around, recovering from his head on collision with the wall, and ran to his wife and daughter.
"Are you okay?" he asked, cupping Wendy's face in his hands.
"I'm alright," Wendy said as she clung to Romeo with one arm and still held Isla with the other. "I'm alright."
Romeo held her close, burying his face in her hair, still shuddering from the sight he'd just witnessed. Isla still screamed in her mother's arms. Romeo let Wendy go and took Isla into is arms, kissing Isla's forehead.
"You're okay, baby. You're okay."
A chorus of terrified screams rang through the night, coming from the other side of the wall the killer had run through. Romeo and Wendy turned towards it.
"NO!" Wendy shouted as she jumped to her feet and ran back into the room and into the hallway. She ran to the room next door and began banging on the door. When no one answered it, she took a few steps back.
"Sky dragon roar!"
The wind blast knocked the door off the hinges. Wendy rushed inside.
Juvia laid on one of the two king-sized beds in the room, her entire torso covered in blood. Storm stood over her, tears rolling down his face as he tried desperately to cast his cleanse spell.
"C...Cleanse! Cleanse!" Strom sobbed.
Gray stood at the other side of the bed frantically looking about the room as he held her hand.
"Help! Someone help!" Gray screamed.
Juvia turned to him, gasping for breath.
"Gray, go!" she choked. "Go!"
Wendy ran to Juvia's side.
"Heal!" she shouted, holding her hands over Juvia's torso. She could now see three stab wounds to Juvia's stomach.
"Gray...Wendy's...here, go!" Juvia choked.
Gray nodded, leaned down, kissed her lips, and raced out of the room.
"Daddy, hurry!" Storm yelled.
Gray had barely zipped out of the room when Romeo walked in.
"What happened?" he asked.
"She came in here!" Wendy shouted. "She came in here and got Juvia after we chased her off."
"Meeko…" Juvia whispered as she began shivering. Wendy gulped and focused more on her healing spell. If Juvia was already shivering that meant the posion was already working.
"Meeko…" Juvia said again, tears running down her face.
"It's going to be okay, Juvia, just stay-" Wendy tried to comfort her, but Juvia shook her head.
"No," more tears fell. "She took Meeko. She took my baby boy…"