A/N: I'm with my Mom in the hospital. She's in labor and the baby should be here soon, so no worries! I'll be back before you know it, but here's the chapter y'all!
It was about half an hour before noon.
Everyone was relaxed and chatting away, multiple people taking jobs from the board and heading out, but many people found themselves glancing at Seph from the corners of their eyes. She was simply reading a book, but she was hopelessly absorbed in its words. She made the slightest shift between expressions as she read, but she always went back to a small, contented smile. No one wanted to bother her because she had never been so calm and content before, in their eyes at least.
But Levy slowly turned toward Seph's direction and locked her sight on the young Exceed, standing up and finding her way over to her. Her team was seated around her as if they were bodyguards, but they allowed Levy to sit down in order to talk to Seph.
"That book seems a bit big for someone so small." Levy stated, although she wasn't trying to be rude. She was actually impressed that Seph could be so focused on all of the little words that ran across the big pages and tried to keep her smile soft so the Exceed would know that she didn't mean harm.
"I've read it before." Seph told her without any wavering in her voice, not lifting her gaze from the pages. "It's one of my favourites." Levy leaned over a bit to take a look at the title, finding it to be one of the first fictions ever created, with millions of copies sold although they had gone missing over the years: "Reach of the Heavens".
"Oh! I've read it before as well, it's good!" Levy agreed, gaining a small nod from Seph before she continued speaking. "Did you find it in the library?" Seph gave her another nod. "Where did you read it before?" There was a pause before Seph replied.
"There was a library where I came from, full of ancient books. This was the only fiction, so…" Seph trailed off a bit, gaining a nod in response from Levy before the human girl shifted to look at the pages with the Exceed. Seph was still on chapter one, but she had probably just started reading it all over again.
"Where did you learn how to read?" Levy asked, gaining a pause and then a reply.
"… My Dad taught me when I was little." Seph responded softly, seeming more intrigued by the book than before. Levy decided not to question about the Exceed's family because of it.
"So, you know how…?" Levy questioned, bringing a small silence before Seph flipped back to the first page, took a breath, and started reading out loud.
"It befell in the days of King Ranulf, when he was the one and only king of Cesel and so reigned foolishly. There was another mighty king in Meiric that held war against him for an unfairly amount of time, called the King of Churhera. So by means, King Ranulf sent for the King of Churhera in Meiric, challenging him to bring his beloved daughter, for she was a fair lady and a passing wise, and her name was Einar. When the King of Churhera from Meiric arrived in Cesel, his daughter Einar by his side, her eyes met the ones that she peer into forever. They were the ones of a knight by the name of Nicol."
Levy went quiet after that, as did Seph after flipping the pages back to the spot she left off, and they both sat reading from the pages silently. There was a small smirk on Levy's face form there on out, even though she had been the one proven wrong.
Seph had been pulled out into town without Evergreen to help her out with clothes shopping, even though the Exceed wasn't one for judging people by their looks. She was allowed to take her book, so she went, and after about an hour of wandering around for Evergreen to pick up a whole pile of clothes to try on, Seph found herself reading on a bench outside of some dressing rooms and constantly giving Evergreen either a thumbs-up or a thumbs-down. Multiple people walked by without an issue of the Exceed and her teammate, but one woman had been standing around for too long for Seph to remain comfortable.
At some point, while Evergreen was changing, Seph found her book being ripped out of her tiny hands by said woman, her face twisting into confusion.
"What the hell is this?" The woman asked, and Seph really didn't know what to say. She didn't know this woman… but she knew that mark on her arm that she thought she was hiding so well and she lost her breath, unable to reply. She couldn't even think and God, how she wished that Evergreen would hurry up. Without a response, the woman threw her book onto the ground by a trashcan before rolling up her sleeves as if she was preparing for a fight. "Whatever, I have orders."
Seph's eyes went wide, but there was no other reaction from her because she was shaking so badly.
But then, she was grabbed by the shoulders and couldn't stop herself from letting out a bloodcurdling scream that pierced the air. The lights went out as the woman yelled at her to shut up, digging her nails into the screaming Exceed's shoulders. A door swung open somewhere, from where Seph couldn't tell because she had closed her eyes moments ago due to her fear of the dark and of being taken back to the awful place she had escaped merely months ago, and the hands were off of her shoulders moments later, finding herself almost being thrown onto the ground. She was screaming and sobbing, even as she crawled around little by little on the ground.
Moments later, the lights came back on to reveal that the woman had disappeared. No one had noticed that Seph's screams had stopped until they realized that she and her book, both previously on the ground, were gone as well.
Seph had calmed down enough moments ago, just enough to be semi-aware of her surroundings and finding herself in a part of Magnolia that she didn't recognize. Her shoulders were bleeding thanks to that woman, who she recognized now but didn't dare even think of her name, and she was lost in a part of the city that she'd never been in before, small and wandering.
She stared at the ground underneath her, heavy rain having started right after she and Evergreen entered the store she came from, and she sighed a bit upon finding that her boots were scuffed. She was covered in mud because she had tripped at some point when she was running and there was blood not only coming from her shoulders, staining her pink jumper, but also coming from her knees. Well, she had re-opened a wound on her right knee, so it made sense that it would be throbbing worse than the other one was…
She found herself sighing at herself. It had been four months since she removed herself from an awful part of her life, and yet it was still as if the person she once trusted most would show up at any minute and scream at her for being an awful excuse of an Exceed. He might've even taken her back if he did show up… That's what that woman was going to do, she was quite sure of it. She had orders, after all.
Nonetheless, with her book clutched tightly in her arms, Seph trudged onward through the thick, heavy rain without her glasses because she had dropped them when she ended up on the ground at the store. That wasn't going to stop her, though… She was going to persevere.
"What do you mean that you lost her!?" Laxus asked with his voice raised at Evergreen for the first time in a long time. The panting woman had ran all the way back to the Guild after the incident, in her damn high heels, to report that Seph was missing and all that was left behind was her glasses.
"I mean what I said!" Evergreen shouted back, trying to catch her breath and not having a moment to with all of the attention on her. A Guild member was missing, so of course everyone would be concerned. "This woman who had been hanging around suddenly grabbed her and the lights went off so I couldn't see anything, but I know that I got to that excuse of a woman before the lights came back on! She disappeared right out of my grasp and Seph had been on the ground, but she and her book were gone when the lights came back on, so I think she ran, but she dropped her glasses and—"
"Calm down before you kill yourself with lack of breath." Freed advised, in which Evergreen immediately sat down at the table. Her feet were aching from running in her heels, but she couldn't care less with Seph lost and alone in the city, in the middle of a storm!
A huge group of people had gathered around within the couple of minutes she had returned, all of them worried for the Guild mate's well-being and all of them seeming to be thinking one exact thing at the same time: find her. Freed found himself sitting Laxus down before his rage broke his own bones, rubbing his back to keep his as calm as necessary.
"She's out there, alone and lost, in the middle of a storm." Freed repeated, gaining a nod from Evergreen as she ran a hand through her hair. She obviously felt awful. "This woman, was there a reason she grabbed Seph of all people?" Evergreen paused before speaking.
"She said something about having orders, I heard it. She had this mark on her arm, a little hidden, probably from a Guild." Evergreen explained before taking a deep breath. "She was probably from a Dark Guild, I didn't even think, I just…"
Katie suddenly came hobbling forward with a limp from her still sprained ankle, sitting down at a table nearby with Charles right beside her. They looked just as concerned for their friend, but they questioned if it was another Dark Guild working under Chaos Phoenix of if it was them.
"What did she look like?" Katie questioned, gaining an instant reply.
"Her hair was short and blonde, her eyes a weird brown, and she was really fast." Evergreen got out right away, gaining a small nod from Katie and Charles as they exchanged looks. "Do you know who she is?"
"Ninian, she's the fourth of the top five members of Chaos Phoenix, who's known as the quickest person in the Guild and the stealthiest. She probably teleported out of there somehow…" Katie explained softly before quickly looking up from looking down at her lap. "I don't think she got Seph, though, considering that you said Seph was on the ground and that her book was gone and her glasses left behind. Ninian doesn't care for literature."
"So, she's out there in the middle of the storm for sure?" Happy asked, his voice laced with worry.
The moment Katie nodded; everyone basically got into a circle and started laying down a plan to search the city for the small Exceed. It would be a little tedious with her height and dull fur, but considering that she was wearing pink, they should be able to spot her even with the storm coming in heavily. No one wasted a moment after being given sections of the city to search, setting out immediately to go and investigate. Katie and Charles would stay with some of the others in the Guild due to Katie's injuries and if Seph managed to make it back.
Seph looked up at the sky from the alleyway. The rain was falling pretty heavily now and was clearly not going to let up anytime soon, the streets flooding quickly, and she wondered if it would snow. Maybe it would even become a blizzard with her luck. She read a sign in front of her on a building and found out that it was the city library, brightening her mood as she ran across the flooded streets. She stumbled here and there, but didn't fall to the ground once before running straight inside the big doors, finding it quite familiar. She had been in the Guild's library, but this?
This was the biggest library Seph had ever had the privilege to lay her eyes on.
Seph was soaked to the bone, panicking a little bit, but didn't dare to worry about it for too long.
"May I, um… help you?"
She flinched and turned sharply to find the librarian leaning over her desk, staring down at her with warm brown eyes and a soft, confused smile. Seph calmed down a little bit, but still found herself being on edge. The librarian stood up and came around her desk to greet Seph properly, but the Exceed moved away a little bit.
"N-No… I-I'm okay…" Seph told her softly, gaining a small nod in return before the library clasped her hands together over her stomach. "I-I was… j-just t-taking a w-walk…"
"Taking a walk, in this weather?" The librarian asked with a small chuckle, kneeling down to Seph's height the best she could in her long skirt. Seph gave a small nod, gaining another soft chuckle from the kind woman in front of her. "You're awfully soaked. Did you walk from the other side of the city?"
Seph wasn't sure, but she knew that the librarian meant it as a joke and felt kind of bad by nodding. She was a little sure that she had walked quite far, into a part of the city she didn't know altogether, and the librarian let out a soft gasp. Almost immediately, the librarian asked the Exceed to follow her, leading the small girl to a sofa and ordering her to sit down. Seph immediately sat down, her legs aching and knees throbbing, and her head telling her to obey before she got hurt even worse. The librarian left and came back multiple times, each time bringing something new. She brought towels to help Seph dry off, bandages (even helping Seph bandage up her knees and shoulders, and then a bottle of water.
Seph appreciated it and found herself returning to her book after a bit, finding the silence to be much more comforting than anything else at the moment.
"Did any of you find her!?" Levy shouted in order to be heard over the howling storm over Magnolia.
"She's wasn't at home!" Freed responded, pushing his soaking wet hair out of his face.
"Then where is she?!" Natsu screamed, flicking his hair around only to soak everyone more than they already were. "She's not anywhere!"
"Is there anywhere else she could be?" Wendy asked desperately, gaining silence from the others in return.
"Maybe there are some clues about which direction she went when she left the store?" Freed offered, gaining some hums in agreement. Levy tried to think of something; anything, and then she remembered something.
"Guys!" She exclaimed, gaining their attentions. "Remember what Evergreen said, about the lights going off?"
"What does that have to do with anything!?" Natsu shouted in exasperation, gaining a shaking head from Levy.
"The power went out!" Levy told him, gaining silence from the others.
"To repeat what Natsu said, what does that have to do with anything!?" Happy screamed over the howling wind.
"Are you suggesting what I think you're suggesting!?" Lily questioned, in which Gajeel let out a yell because he didn't understand.
"I think we should try it." Erza said suddenly. "We don't have any other options right now. We'll follow the dead lights."
"We should hold onto each other so we don't get swept away!" Levy offered, having Wendy immediately latch onto her arm.
"Maybe you can make some rope or something!? We can tie ourselves together so it's more difficult for us to get separated!" Gajeel explained, gaining a bunch of surprised hums.
"Gajeel, that idea is actually not stupid!" Erza complimented as Levy made some rope with her Solid Script Magic, gaining a yell of "what does that mean!?" from Gajeel before they all started tying themselves together. "Now let's go!"
Natsu lit a fire to brighten up their path, Erza started to lead the way for them.
They had a Guildmate to find.
Seph couldn't believe that it had only been two hours since she arrived at the library. It felt like it had been much longer. Maybe it was because it was dark outside… No, it was the memories. When Ninian had grabbed her, it felt like she was back in time to when she was so stupid to trust the one person who hurt her most again. Everything became like those days all over again, he was even…
She shook her head and focused back on her book, taking a deep breath to ground herself. She really didn't want to think about it, not even thinking about thinking about it. She was here, alone in a library with rain falling and wind howling…
She was going to embrace the calm silence.
The ten Fairy Tail members huddled close together by Barren Bridge, shivering from the cold rain that had already soaked them to the bone. They would most likely get colds after this, but they couldn't care less. The way was blocked by abandoned mobile vehicles and emergency vehicles, and Natsu had to use both fists to light the way for them.
"I want to go home, but I don't want to go home, and I don't know what I want!" Wendy whined as she latched onto Levy's shoulders.
"Same here!" Happy yelled from the back of the line.
"We can't give up yet!" Erza told them. "We just have to cross this bridge and keep following the trail of darkness until we find Seph! It's easy!"
"This entire thing would have been a lot easier if Salamander had lit up the both of his fists right away!" Gajeel complained, gaining a growl from Natsu.
"Shut up!" Natsu yelled, in which both men gained an exasperated sigh from Levy.
"Guys, stop fighting, please." She whined a bit. "We're already going to die, either out here by being swept away or Master's going to kill us all, but we have to keep moving!"
The members tightened the ropes and stepped on the walking path on the side of the bridge, continuing on. They were closer to their destination than they thought and once they reached a still-lit streetlight, they found it… the Magnolia library. Needless to say, they weren't very surprised.
"Of course… She's hiding in a library, of course, because she's Seph." Gajeel muttered, gaining a smack from Levy behind him. "She's probably perfectly fine."
"She's probably here to distract herself from what happened." Laxus argued lowly. "When Seph is stressed, she tends to distract herself so she can clear her head and such. Just because she doesn't always show it, that doesn't mean that she's not hurting."
Nonetheless, they all piled inside and brought floodwater in with them, working on untying themselves as the librarian stood up and hurried over to the group.
"Let me guess, you were just taking a walk." She sighed, crossing her arms over her chest. They all gave her confused looks and she shook her head a bit. "A cat came in earlier, real upset… She seems to have calmed down since then, though."
"We're Exceeds, actually." Carla corrected, although the librarian didn't seem to care for the statement, merely giving a small apology.
Once they got themselves free of the tightly knotted rope, they took a look around and spotted Seph curled up on the sofa under a couple of towels, reading her book from earlier and seeming quite content despite the situation. They made their way over to her carefully and Seph merely looked up briefly, a dull expression on her face, before returning to her book.
"… You found me." She stated softly, her voice flat and cold. It was the first time that they had heard her speak in such a way.
"Of course we did. You're pretty tough, though, coming all the way over here on your own in this awful storm." Erza told her as the ten of them piled around, all of them soaked straight down to their bones and probably in the midst of catching awful colds.
"I've been through worse." Seph told them, her voice going a little soft. She then turned the page, curling in on herself more as Laxus sat down on the couch beside her. "… Now please go away."
They all sat down to make a point, a couple of them on the couch and a couple of them on the ground, and they all shook their heads, water dripping off of them and down onto the carpeted ground.
"If we leave, you're coming with us." Laxus told her, but she immediately shook her head.
"Why should I leave?" Seph argued, tears building in her eyes. "I have books to protect me. I touch no one and no one touches me. It's perfect."
"You can't stay here forever. We would miss you." Wendy said softly, smiling as gently as she could. Seph didn't mean to, but she yelled.
"That's a lie!" She yelled hoarsely, causing Wendy to jump. There was pause as Seph curled in on herself more, looking ashamed but continuing to speak. "No one in their right mind would miss me."
"Then none of us are in our right mind." Lily countered from her other side. "All of us trudged through floodwater to get here and bring you back. Everyone is worried about you, and it's really sad that you can't see it."
There was a pause as Seph merely read and everyone sat around, dripping wet from rainwater and shivering from the drops because of the warm atmosphere in the library, and then Seph spoke up again.
"I know that everyone is worried…" She whispered, obviously no longer paying attention to her book. She just couldn't. "It just… doesn't feel like it. You'd be better off if you didn't care." She paused before continuing. "I can't stop you from feeling what you do, just as you can't stop me from feeling what I do."
"That wouldn't work out." Lily told her, bringing her to finally look up from her book and at him. "You're one of the nicest people I've ever met, you're so smart that you can read big books that I wouldn't even dare to pick up, you have a really cute smile, and—"
"You can stop now." Seph choked out. "I'm an awful person, okay? You don't have to lie."
"He's not lying." Levy countered.
Seph just really didn't know how to respond, looking back down at her book. There was an uncomfortable silence before Seph whispered again.
"… They won't stop coming for me." She told them, and although she didn't know it, they knew what she was talking about. "… They're just twisted like that…" They were silent again.
"You do know that we're all friends, right?" Lily asked her, watching as her forest green eyes lifted to meet his orange ones. She really didn't know and it actually made him laugh a bit because he thought that she had known. "We're all Guild mates, and that means friends. Everyone is searching for you right now, in the middle of this awful storm."
There was a long pause as Seph stared at him before looking back down at her book, and then curling up under the towels she had been given as if she was trying to disappear. Her cheeks had gone a light pink, and they supposed that was a good thing at the moment.
"… Thanks…" She mumbled ever so slightly, gaining a chorus of hums and some nods.
"Just… don't ever scare Laxus like that again. He was raging so much that we thought he would destroy the Guild." Levy told her, watching as she paused to look up at the blonde man, who had turned away from her, and then as a smile split across her face. The laugh that left her throat was soft and angelic, and she let herself fall against Laxus' leg despite his pants being soaked.
Seph let herself be picked up, too tired to protest, and honestly… she was ready to return to the Guild that she loved so much. They didn't care what she had done or where she came from, they just cared for her.
That was all she needed.