We stared, trying to suppress our anger - along with our urges to go and save the exceeds. If we did that, then there was the risk that this girl would go ahead and attack us, after she did that she may end up hurting them even more... This was a lot more complected than it looked. We didn't know where Levy was either. If we did, we still wouldn't tell her where she was... "I'll only tell you where she is if you tell us what you want with her." Xavier spoke carefully. The girl stared into Xavier's eyes. It may have been my imagination, but her face seemed to soften as she stared at him. It must have been my imagination. "Alright..." He spoke hesitantly, "I'll tell you. But while I speak don't dare attack me - or one of your little fury friends... I shall kill one of them." The word rang in my head. Kill. Kill. There was no way that we were going to defy her now - it wasn't worth the risk. We were all rooted to the ground - not daring to move a muscle - as she began to speak.
"27 years ago... I was born..." Was she just going to tell us her full life story right now! I stared at the girl before me. She didn't look 27 - If anything she looked 17, just like us... "I lived with my two parents and went to school. I was happy." As soon as she said I was happy I knew that this story wasn't going to be a happy story. "Then my 6th birthday came along..." At this point I was starting to realize why she looked like she was 17. "A few weeks or something like that later - half my village was destroyed... Because of my... Power..." The girl sighed - not taking her eyes off us. I could tell that she was trying not to show any of her emotions to us. This was obviously a topic that upset her... "Many people lost their lives because of me... Not too long after, the council came looking for me. My parents tried to hide me from them. The council wanted to take me away. They wanted to seal me away in a lacrima because of my power. Apparently, it was so that nobody else was hurt. Also, so that I wouldn't be a danger to myself." I saw the looks in the other's eyes. They understood what she was talking about... Had they accidentally killed people before? Had I killed people? Sometimes I wished I had my memories - sometimes I wished I would never remember.
"They eventually found me. When I was sealed away, I remembered that it was the McGarden family who did so." Was this why she wanted to find Levy? "I waited for 21 years. Listening. Listening to the outside world. I remembered hearing the rain the wind. I remembered the talking. I remembered hearing other children being sealed away. I remembered hearing Fairy Tales and Fantasy. Short children's stories. Silence. Shouting. Screaming. Crying. Playing. I heard it all. It felt like centuries before we were all released. I had heard that some of the others had been sealed away for over hundreds of years. I wouldn't have been able to stand that." That was when I realised that I was the only one here who didn't understand this girl's pain. Her suffering. Since I had no recollection of being sealed away. All of my memories were made from when I was broken out of the lacrima... "As soon as I was set free I ran away. I was desperate to find my family..." I could see the sadness on her face. It wasn't shown anywhere else on her pale face, that was as cold and hard as ice. "I eventually found out that I had been sealed away for 21 years. But that wasn't the worst of it. I also discovered that my mother had died giving birth to another daughter. Apparently, my father couldn't take another loss. He ended up taking her to an orphanage. After that he gave up his life..."
The girl looked upwards, her eyes shone in the golden setting sun that was now almost lost over the colourful horizon. I looked downwards towards the hand she was holding the exceeds in the net with. There on her hand was the familiar silver generation zero emblem. This girl was a Generation Zero dragon slayer. A water dragon slayer at that. "I have never forgiven the McGardens for sealing me away." She spoke in a melancholy voice. "Maybe, If I wasn't sealed away. Things would have happened differently. Maybe by parents would still be here..." Her eyes seamed to harden once more. "Not longer after I had discovered the truth, Master Hades found me." I assumed that this 'Master Hades' was the master of Grimoire Heart. "He taught me how to control my magic and allowed me to develop it so that it became an overwhelming force. Now I have become his second in command. I am on par with Bluenote - though I may be slightly more powerful..." Who was Bluenote? Presumably a member of Grimoire Heart...
"Have you tried finding your sister?" Miriza asked. I could hear sympathy in her voice. For a moment, the girls eyes seamed to soften for a second before freezing once more. "No more questions!" She shouted. "Now you have to tell me where Levy McGarden is!" Lilias shook her head.
"We don't know. We've already told you. If we knew we'd take you to her so you can both talk things out." That wasn't what the rest of us were thinking. I could tell by the looks we all gave Lilias. We wouldn't do that. We would fight her to protect Levy of course! "Fine!" the girl spoke stubbornly reaching into the net which held our friends. She was actually going to do it. She was going to kill our friends.
Terror struck. I felt my heart bang violently against my rib cage. I didn't want any of our friends to die. Not like this... We had to do something. I couldn't stand idly by while this happened! "Raina! What on earth do you think you're doing!?" We all turned to see a figure hovering towards us. "Avera," The girl - Raina - spoke, "It's about time you finished..."
Author's note
Avera's name is credit to Haku, thank you :) For all you readers, the name means 'cold wind.' Think about that before the next chapter comes out...
