DISCLAIMER: I do not own any of the characters in Fairy Tail, all rights to those characters belong to Hiro Mashima. The only parts of this story I own are my character, Rose Jay, and the plot. I do not make any profit from this fanfiction; it is solely intended for your reading pleasure.
"Oh, this one seems kind of interesting. What do you think, Rose?" Diana asks, shoving yet another job request in my face. "I know it will get us in close range of C.B., but it's the challenge we're looking for, and the reward is substantial, even when we split it between us!"
My jaw drops. She found a job request that runs the risk of it turning for the worst in two situations; we either die on the job, or we get captured by Celestial Blood and slowly tortured to death under forced Blood Contracts. However, my heart leaps for the heavens when I scan over the locations, and it explodes like fireworks in the New Year when I lock on the reward of 307.5 million jewels.
"So," Diana presses, looking over my shoulder, clearly as excited as I am. "What say you, Cap'n?"
"I say hoist the sails and set course for the middle of the Northern ocean," I whisper, already feeling the salty sea-breeze playing through my hair. "We're bringing home enough giant-sea-serpent hyde to make our own clothing line!"
Both my sister and I use our Wings of Freedom spells and start literally flying out of the guild before we're met in mid-air by Erza blocking our way out, adorned by her Heaven's Wheel armour.
"Hold up you two," she growls, pointing a pair of swords at each of us. "The master needs you to run some errands for the guild. We're a bit short on drinks and food; specifically beer and strawberry shortcake." The last item leaves a bright red blush on her face.
It's been at least a month since we've joined Fairy Tail, and yet we're still doing personal grocery runs for the guild. Being of such high ranking, it's hard for us to find jobs that fit our standards in terms of location, challenge, and reward money. However, it's something that keeps us busy when the job board is lacking and all we can find to do is taking naps in the guild's rafters. Really the only excitement we've gotten since joining the guild is when Diana and I each had our one-on-one battle with Makarov.
"You can do it, Rose!"
I can barely hear Diana cheering me on as Master Makarov makes the first move, throwing me an elasticized right hook. I leap into the air, knowing this would have been one of the many moves he could have made. Both Diana and I have this skill. In a one to one battle with an opponent, we can plan out most of the scenarios that could possibly take place during the battle, and based on their first few moves, we can usually determine which spells will end the battle as quickly as possible in our favor. However, the enemy has to make the first move, otherwise it could end very badly for the both of us.
With a quick look into the back of my mind, I decide to jump high up into the air, knowing this is probably what the master expects, and when both of his hands fly up to squash me like an insect, the solution that flashes in front of my eyes makes me smile. I've got this fight in the bag already.
"Score one for me, Makarov," I shout, taking up my Fire-Make stance in mid-air. "Fire-Make Wolf Claws: Melee Combo!"
Using Fire-Make Wings of Freedom, I propel myself forward, sprinting along the master's arms, jumping from the left to the right as he tries to swat me with the opposite. Every time one of his massive hands approaches, I slash at it with my fiery claws, making him pull back, giving me the time to jump to his other arm. As I rapidly close in on his small frame, I jump into the space between his arms and lash out, sending an X of fire straight at him. The momentum of my body slows down enough from the attack's recoil that I can cast Ice-Make Floor, making Makarov slip back three feet until he falls and slides another four. Everyone is staring at me in awe, still trying to process the fact that their master had just sorely lost this battle.
"I must say," Makarov grunts, getting up with the help of Erza, looking at me with a sly smile. "You're not messing around when you boast the capability of analyzing every possible battle situation, depending solely on the first moves of your enemy. You truly are worthy of the rank of Premium Class."
"I should expect you'll take no less precautions during your battle with my sister," I smile back at him knowingly. "In many ways, she is both my equal and my successor."
"I would expect no less from your kin," the master laughs, turning to Diana, of whom is already prepared, standing in her Ice-Make battle stance.
My eyes lock on something that I've never seen my sister doing before, although, looking closer, I conclude that it's not voluntary. There's a very fine mist that would be passed over for haze to the normal human eye, but I have an idea what it is. That fine mist must be showing me what Ice-Make spell she's going to cast. I look back to Makarov, and he's contemplating how to begin this fight. Time seems to slow down during the time that he's just standing there, thinking intensely. I close my eyes for a quick moment, trying to reach Diana. I can see the countless scenarios she's counting off a mile a minute, and I notice she keeps coming back to one in particular. Opening my eyes again, I look back to the master. His stance suggests that he's going to use some sort of compressed magic attack. I go back to Diana's thoughts and I'm thankful that she's noticed this as well. Her battle plan is already set, and I smile in relief. I know I really shouldn't be invading her thoughts, but I can't help it. I only have one sister, and if I lose her, that's the end of everything. Finally, Makarov makes his first move, and I'm momentarily horrified. For some reason or another, he uses a compressed electric attack. I snap my attention to Diana, and the haze that was present earlier has dissipated, and she creates a clone of herself then flies into the air using Ice-Make Wings of Freedom. I notice a slight rainbow-like outline around her and I suspect that the mist is once again surrounding her. The rainbowy shadow forms into the outline of Diana's next spell, and I find relief once again. It turns out my eyes hadn't deceived me earlier, and that the mist is a tell-tale for her attacks.
"Ice-Make Cannon!"
Predictably, Makarov catches the ball of ice with his massive hands, but I never expected him to launch it back at her with the speed and scary accuracy of a professional baseball pitcher. I barely have enough time to scream at Diana to fly out of the ice ball's path when I see the unspeakable happen. In her hands, to my complete shock, a white, white-hot, flaming baseball bat is rapidly forming. As effortlessly as though she were figure-skating on ice, she turns on her heel in a full 360, setting fire to the ball of ice as soon as it hits the fiery bat and sending it flying straight for Makarov twice as fast. Soon after being ignited, the flames disappear, but only Diana and I know where they've gone off to. Once again, the master moves to catch it, this time with one hand, but the moment he touches it, the impact causes the compressed fire within to the ball shatter the ice, making it explode into millions of shards. The force of the blast pushes Master Makarov back a whopping ten feet, leaving a gaping crater where he'd previously been standing. The jaws that had dropped earlier for my battle once again hit the dirt in awe of my younger sister. Although she basks in the shock of the crowd, the tears in her eyes tell me that last spell had done a real number on her hands. Rushing over to her, I reach her just in time, urging her to coat her hands in ice to soothe the pain. It takes her a while to calm her sobbing, but she gathers her courage and dares a glance at her seared hands. Her immediate reaction is panic, but I quickly cover her eyes and tell her to breathe deeply, calm down, and tell her more firmly to coat her hands in a layer of ice. She complies after taking a moment to regain her composure, and Master Makarov comes up to us with Mirajane - the girl in the red dress with the long white hair from earlier - at his side.
"You two are truly worthy of establishing the ranks of Premium Class wizards," the master grumbles as Mirajane gives us our official guild stamps which have a metallic shimmer, setting us apart from our guild-mates.
"That's great, thank you," I say warmly to the baker, handing Diana some of the packages to carry. "I'll be sure to pass on your regards to Erza."
We walk outside, talking about how we're going to handle our job, especially in terms of how we're going to avoid catching Celestial Blood's attention, when I overhear some guys talking quietly to themselves. Instinctively, without saying a word between the two of us, Diana and I immediately stop talking and listen to what they have to say.
"Did you hear about the new wizard in town?" one of them whispers excitedly to his other two pals. "I hear he uses some kind of fire magic."
"Yeah, I've heard about him alright," groans the tallest of the three, his windblown style black and blue hair sweeping down to cover one of his brown eyes. "My girlfriend's gone crazy for him. I don't know what it is about him, but I'm getting a bad vibe."
"Don't worry, Josh," the third reassures his pal, giving him a pat on the back. "I'm sure she'll come running right back to you. After all, what kind of girl in their right mind would want to date a guy whose name is Salamander?"
By this time, I've heard my fill, and I place a hand on Diana's back, directing us away from them, starting on our way back to the guild.
"Come on, sis," I say firmly, keeping my eyes locked on the Fairy Tail symbol above the guild's front doors, clearly visible from town. "We've got some news to bring back to Natsu."
Out of nowhere, a girl with a fairly noticeable bust, medium length blonde hair, and brown eyes bumps into Diana, nearly making her drop the entire load of packages she was carrying on the ground. A moment later, the girl turns on her heel and apologizes profusely.
"I'm so sorry, I wasn't looking where I was going," she laughs nervously, rubbing the back of her neck, then she smiles and winks at us. "I'm Lucy, by the way. Nice to meet you."
I give her a quick look, taking in her appearance. She's wearing a white sleeveless shirt that has a deep blue trim and a cute little collar that folds out in the same style as a tuxedo jacket. Her skirt is the same shade of blue as the trim on her shirt, although it seems a tad bit too short. Then again, I guess that's why they're called "miniskirts". She's also wearing a brown belt with a long, black whip that has a spade on the end of it, making it look more like a demon tail. The last thing that catches my eye makes my heart stop, and not exactly in the best way, either. On the opposite side of her belt as the whip hangs a small light brown pouch that looks somewhat like a cellphone case, but it's what can be seen inside it that really scares me; Gate Keys. I can sense that Diana noticed them as well, because one of her fingers starts drumming impatiently against the boxes she's holding. I really need to find some way to fix that, or at least have her show her anxiety in a much less obvious manner.
"I'm Rose Jay, and this is my younger sister, Diana Jay," I reply, gesturing towards her with my head. "We'd shake your hand, but these boxes aren't exactly full of feathers."
I'm telling the truth when I say that, but in reality, it's not the main reason why I'm trying to avoid any further physical connection with ourselves and this girl, Lucy. The Gate Keys she possesses, even though there are a few gold Zodiac Keys among them, means there's a very high chance she could be a member of Celestial Blood. Though something about her overall personality - or what I've seen of it so far- tells me otherwise, Diana and I learned not to let our guard down around any Celestial Wizards the hard way, and our lives almost paid for that horrible mistake.
"Anyway, we'd love to stay and chat," my sister lies, though she hides it surprisingly well. "We really should get going. These gifts won't deliver themselves."
"Ah, yes. If only they could deliver themselves, then we'd have more time to take-."
"Our grandmother with us on our travels."
I'm thankful Diana interrupts, because I'd just let my guard down without even consciously realizing it. Even during a conversation with any of our closest friends I wouldn't have been so careless. My suspicions of Lucy being in alliance with our enemy are completely overthrown; it just doesn't seem to fit. When my thoughts snap back to reality, I find Lucy and Diana deep in conversation about traveling and their curiosity about the various traditions of the world. My sister looks so happy. Possibly the happiest she's ever been since our first and most dangerous incident with the guild of dark Celestial Wizards. We nearly lost our lives when we were forced to fight each other to the death. I remember looking down on her as she lay curled in on herself in a pool of her own blood, the life rapidly draining from her as I hesitated to deliver the final blow. Had it not been for a mysterious stranger breaking into the guild and getting us out of there, I would have been forced to kill Diana or watch those pitiful excuses for Celestial Wizards let her bleed to death from the comfortable view of a noose specifically hung from the ceiling for me.
"Well, I hope we meet each other again sometime," Lucy calls with a smile when I nudge Diana, letting her know we have to get going. "It was nice meeting you two!"
"Likewise," I shout back, giving her a two-finger soldier salute, heaving a sigh of relief.
"Are you going to tell Gramps about her?" Diana queries when we reach the front door of the guild.
"Oh I'm going to do more than just tell him about her," I whisper with a smile, knowing that Lucy could be an extremely helpful ally towards our cause somewhere down the road. "I'm going to have him send out someone to recruit her."
"I swear that pink-haired idiot heard nothing of what I said about Lucy," I growl, hanging over the starboard side of our personalized 420, my arms crossed in front of my chest in frustration, making me look like a temperamental child. "Another four degrees to port, Diana."
The moon is hanging high in the sky, partnered by the thousands of stars that shine brightly. Other sailors might consider us crazy for hitting the water in the dead of the night, but even being Rogue Zodiacs, we have the guidance of the stars to keep our course true.
"Check that, Cap'n," Diana replies happily, adjusting the tiller and sails accordingly. "I'm sure that Natsu heard you, he just probably didn't register it, is all," she tries to reassure me, but she knows as well as I do that Natsu took off the moment he heard Salamander and fire magic user in the same sentence.
There's a long silence where neither of us speak, save for notifying the other of a course adjustment. With my sister as crew, she can call up a vicious current around our boat to give us a massive speed boost.
"How fast you reckon we're going, Diana?" I shout over the howling wind in my ears.
"I'm betting about 13 knots," she calls out, lying back out on trap, tucking her hands behind her head and closing her eyes, making it look like she's relaxing in a lawn chair.
While she chills out, I turn my eyes to the sky. I don't even remember much of what happened between when I saw it and when I found myself kneeling right over the turtle bag, Diana having fallen overboard in the midst of my daze, watching the tail of stardust disappear behind the heads of a herd of enormous-.
"SEA SERPENTS, DEAD AHEAD!"
By this time, Diana has gotten in through the back of the 420 and is at the helm, veering us violently to port. We just barely avoid a head-on collision with the jaws of one of the hundreds of scaly sea creatures with piercingly cold, beady black eyes. In the turmoil of the ocean, I hear a voice calling out to me. The very same voice I'd heard in the back of my head when I watched the shooting star streaking across the sky not even a minute ago. I recognize it now; Rogue Zodiac Virgo.
"Rose, Diana," he screams, and I see him trapped in the bloodthirsty jaws of a towering serpent hundreds of feet above us. "Help me! Please, you have to hurry, I don't have much ti-aaaargh!" The beast holding him clamps its jaws down harder onto his waist, causing him to go into a fit of agonized screaming.
"Marcus!" I cry out, flying up using Wings of Freedom, Diana at my side. She rapidly fills the serpent's mouth with water, making it open up to spit it and Marcus out, and I lift our friend out of danger. Diana flies down and derigs our boat, then returns to take Marcus down to safety, afterwards flying back up to assist me in fighting the horde of scale-hided snakes.
"Can you do anything about the water around them?" I ask, drying the eyes of a particularly large serpent. "Like, part it, freeze it, something like that?"
"I can," Diana mutters sheepishly, rubbing the back of her neck, looking almost pleadingly at me. "But it's going to take more power than I can spare on my own."
I grin at her comprehensively, and as though our thoughts were interconnected, we "fold" our Wings of Freedom spells and dive down into the water like a pair of fish. When we reach the bottom, Diana's grip on my hand tightens a little bit. If she lets go of my hand, the water pressure will crush my lungs, I'll run out of air, and I will most certainly die. It's because she's the Celestial Kin of Aquarius that she can remain underwater for much longer periods of time, as well as much greater depths than a mortal. When we reach the sea floor, we both cast an Ice-Make spell and push off hard, using the ice structure that's forming around the serpents to help propel ourselves back up to the surface. As we break through the surface of the water, we "unfold" our Wings of Freedom spells and break off on our own to fight off the various remaining serpents.
"Rose, look out!" Marcus calls, sending a blinding flash of golden light at something directly behind me.
"Mistaking me for the enemy is one thing, but outright attacking me is just wrong," shouts an achingly familiar voice down at Marcus, making him hang his head in embarrassment.
My heart stops dead when I recognize the voice, and I have to fight the overwhelming urge to scream in delight as my eyes lock on Grant Hopper smiling warmly at me.
"Well, well," he purrs, sighing in recognition and relief. "If it isn't my little Rogue Rose."
"GRANT!" I cry, hugging him tightly, not even caring that he's standing on top of the head of one of the creatures I'm supposed to be killing to earn money. "What are you doing here?" I add, subconsciously using a Fire-Make spell to take care of three overly confidant serpents trying to sneak up behind me.
"Well, I went to try finding you, and I was lead to Fairy Tail," he admits, looking at his feet, clearly not wanting to be overheard. "Then the old man told me you were out on a job in the middle of the Northern ocean."
He's just looking up at me, opening his mouth to say something, when we're interrupted by Diana's agonizing screech. I whip my head in her direction in pure horror. I'm momentarily confused when I see my sister flying in mid-air, holding one of her hands very close to her. Oh great. She tried using a Fire-Make spell again. I rush over to her and pull out a roll of gauze from my back pocket. It's soaked all the way through with salt water from our earlier dive into the water, but it's of much more use to me now than it would be if it were dry. I thoroughly wrap her hand, using all of the gauze just as a precaution, then I take her hand and I seal it in a thick coating of ice. This will keep the water that was absorbed into the bandage wrap cold, but still leave it as a liquid so the salt in the water can disinfect the burn. The sound of fighting coming from behind me reaches my ears and I turn to see Grant finishing off the last of the serpents. Diana and I fly down to our 420, checking to make sure that Marcus is okay, then we start rigging up again. Grant joins us on our return trip, and just when we think everything's going fine, Diana's wails of distress snap me out of my thoughts.
"MARCUS, NO!"