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Chapter Seven- The Song of the Celestials

Cold, smooth, hard stone greets me as my eyes fly open. My mouth is open in a silent scream courtesy the latest nightmare. Tiny swords of ice strike repeatedly at my temples from within and I wish my head stops throbbing.

A wave of nausea greets me as I sit up and I remember why I was lying on the floor up till a moment ago. A rush of adrenaline washes away the annoying pain I feel in my head and I lightly leap to my feet, silently, with the movement of a trained mage.

Zeref.

The tip of my tongue burns to call out for him, as I look around at the spaced out cavern I am in. Obviously, with the lack of sunlight and the millions of blue magic orbs surrounding me, I am still underground. In the training area, but for some reason the cracks in the rocks above me don't let in even a flicker of light at all, like it does on the gray floor. In fact, their edges are lined with water—I must be further down than I thought.

I'm sorry, he'd whispered to me.

"Oh that's okay," I mutter to myself. "Sure, knock me out intentionally and then apologize. No problem."

"Fairy."

I know it's him before I whirl to the left. The calm, deep, almost-melodious voice is familiar to me now. And I know he's not alone, because he wouldn't address me as Fairy otherwise. No matter how much I scream at him not to.

Because, I realize bitterly, even he knows I didn't mean a word of what I shouted at him the last time I saw him.

The worst part is, I probably never will mean those words. And he'll still know that.

"Zeref." My voice is as calm as his, I note with surprise.

I expected to see Jiemma beside him, but it's not. It's Minerva.

She is beautiful in a cold, hostile way. Her face is all angles and cheekbones, her whole body sculpted naturally into perfection. The disdainful sneer that twists her darkly coloured lips destroys that beauty as she looks at me. I notice the way she stands a step ahead of Zeref, making it clear she is in charge.

"How could you bring her here, Zeref?" she asks at last, her eyes raking me. I cross my arms over my chest protectively.

"She's—" Zeref's eyes lock with mine. "—She's posing a problem. The Fairy refused to fight today, and—"

"Well, two are dead, why not eliminate another?" Minerva smirks a bit, but then suddenly, as if she remembers something, her face goes back into the mask of someone who wants to do something badly but is forbidden. "Oh no."

Zeref looks at her.

"My father wants her," she says at last.

Before either of us can question her, she suddenly moves forward with graceful swiftness and in a flash her lips are against my ear. "You're lucky you're needed alive, little Fairy," she says lowly. "Or I could have melted all your bones and frozen your blood with pleasure."

I try to mask my face into a poker one, but her words make me want to lash out at her. All the while, Zeref's eyes never leave mine. His hood remains limply over his back; he hasn't shadowed his face with it in the past few days. Or…not since I uncovered it.

Minerva moves back lightly, smiling as if she just told me a funny girl-secret. "In fact," she trilled. "Since Lamia Scale is already here, and so is the Fairy, we're left with just the Tiger, aren't we?"

Zeref's eyes leave mine. "Yes."

"Brilliant," she says brightly. Then she smiled widely, the braided locks of her dark hair falling over her eyes as she tosses her head back towards me. "I hope the other Fairy hasn't been much of a problem," she says, lips curved into an amused smile. "It would be a shame to kill him. I rather like how sexy he is."

It's all I can do not to strike her with my whip.

"In fact…" Minerva continues in a soft, malicious tone. "After this war blows over, perhaps we could spare him. He could stay with me. I wouldn't mind getting my hands on his sexy—"

I swear I don't how it happened. But in the next second, my bare and fisted hands collide with her stomach. She gasps as the air rushes out of her lungs and I reach for my whip when she utters an angry cry and whips out something silver and shining.

And as she swipes the dagger at my face, all I can do is stare incredulously at Zeref, who doesn't even lift a finger to help me. In the midst of it, the dagger neatly tears through the skin at the base of my throat, and I stagger back.

"Now that I think about it," Minerva, carrying the blood-crested dagger in her pale hands, heaves. "I guess the Fire Slayer will work just as well with your half-dead body."

Before I can make sense of what she is saying, she flips out another daggers and when she pounces on me, I don't even realize it until I feel a strange bare feeling.

When I look down, my whip is gone. So are my keys.

I am weaponless.

Without looking at Zeref, she commands, "Go, do what do you have to. Fast."

A cold angry look, so familiar to all of us by now, registers in the pallour of Zeref's face. "You will not hurt the Fairy."

Minerva turns to look at him. "Leave," she orders. "You don't want me to bring up the doubts of your allegiance to us in front of my father, do you? You know what you have to do, just do it."

I close my eyes.

When I open them again, he's gone.

Trying to hold back a rising fear, I search frantically for my weapons.

The whip lies on the floor, and the keys dangle from the other female's long fingers. Anger surges in me and I jump forward, trying to grab them.

Her long nails rake the side of my cheek, and I hit her chin with my knee as I come down on top of her on the floor. I am straddling her as I try to swipe my keys away from an outstretched hand, and she gives an amused laugh as I also try to block the daggers.

When the blade of one of the weapons pierces my torso, I gasp, and in that moment our positions flip and I am under her now.

Her knee presses down on my legs, her hand grips my throat as her free one throws the keys away and expertly moves the dagger until it is inches from my face.

"I wonder," she says softly. "How your beloved Fairy partners will like you once you have that pretty face covered in scars."

With the last of my adrenaline, I wrench my left hand free and close it around the blade. I feel warm blood under my fingers as they are cut, but I don't care nor do I feel the pain. I thrust my legs up to momentarily push her off, and then in one fluid movement I wrench the dagger free from her hand.

I press it to her throat, my eyes searching for the dagger's twin. I realize with dismay that it's as far from us as my own weapons are.

Her hands grip my throat, and the dagger in mine are pressed against hers.

Her long fingernails dig so deep into my skin, that I hold back a cry, and the silver blade makes a long gash across her throat.

She coughs blood onto my chest—ugh—and rolls away from me. She comes again, all bemusement gone from her face. As she grabs my shoulders in a sudden movement and crashes my body onto the stone wall, I blindly throw my glowing weapon.

It hits her in the ear, which starts to bleed immediately, and I realize something is burning my hand. I look to my left to see my palm thrust unconsciously into an orb, and I quickly move away.

Trying vainly to stem the flow of blood from my torso and neck, I move away as Minerva looks at me with fury. As she summons her magic and flies toward me, I grab a fistful of her hair and slam both of us down on the ground. Then I use the same dagger, using the flat of the blade, to hold her down. She kicks at my legs and I jam down my elbow on her bleeding throat.

Then in a split second decision, I rush past her and grab my keys, unable to reach the whip. My mind whirs as I notice the uneven stairs leading away from this cavern, and I know I have to leave before Minerva injures me too badly to follow Zeref. Something is happening to the mages up there, and something is happening with the guilds Lamia Scale, ours, and Sabertooth.

I watch Minerva struggle to get up.

I can't give up.

Thankful to have most of my magic power and not just brute force by not fighting that demon, I raise Leo's key. It burns golden in my hand as I summon him.

My spirit, unlike myself, looks strong and healthy as always. Loke's soft auburn hair covers most of his face, but I can see the momentary pain in his eyes as he takes in my situation.

I am already edging away towards the stairs. "You're my most powerful," I say to Loke, as he looks at me sadly but with a touch of pride. "Fight her off as long as you can, will you?" I give him an almost brave smile. "Help me."

As he takes a step forward to blast the Alliance leader's daughter with the powers of celestials, he looks back gently at me. "Always, my princess."

The darkness of hell

Rose up, tore up,

Greeted the songs of innocence

The angels of heaven

Descended, tore down,

Banished the songs of violence.

Swords of the stars, thy light,

Rivers of ashes, thy night.

And they all rose up, tore down

Found the new age beginning.

The song of the celestial maidens of heaven. As old as time.

Timeless words strung into the familiar haunting, beautiful, seductive melodies being sung in a deep, soft voice freeze me to the stones.

This song—Song of the Angels—has been sung by the Celestial Mages for all of eternity before us. The oath of the Slayers—Oath of Embers—has been sworn upon when they all first began; the music of the Magic yielders, the earth and water and light—Eder's Serenade—has been played for as long as mages have existed.

These are ancient pieces of our world, which still bind us to what we are and what we do. The song, the oath and the serenade.

So this song being sung, in a place like this, unnerves me. I have been flying up the steps as fast as I can, trying to ignore my wounds which give a sharp stab of protest at every step. At last, feeling my way through the rocky place I reach a large gilded stone-way exactly like the one which leads to the chasm.

The song continues to be sung in a male voice. My right hand lifts and presses softly against the door, and then I take a deep breath, wrap my fingers around my keys, and push it open.

The unexpected burst of light that greets dazzles me so much that I almost stagger back and fall. Sunlight.

After days of being trapped in this dark place, with nothing but the power of magic to give us light, even the faint white light on my face feels like the harshest glow of the sun.

I look up, blinking, and keep staring, forgetting momentarily that I am not alone here. Forgetting, that the song has stopped.

A tunnel like structure burrows all the way up to the ground above us. All the stones till the utmost point are removed, letting the sunlight waft in. It's like the light through the painted glass ceiling of the Kardia Cathedral back home.

Eyes adjusting, I look forward. And the breath catches in my throat.

Chained to the stone walls before me, almost separated from me by the beam of light are the Slayers of Sabretooth.

Sting and Rogue.

It has been months since I saw them, and years since the Grand Magic Games. When Magnolia was invaded, I had not seen them fight against us, but later I assumed they had become part of the Alliance already.

I remember the conversation I eavesdropped on by the chasm. Suddenly, Minerva's words so long ago echo in my mind. We need the rest of the Dragon Slayers.

The Shadow and Light Dragon Slayers stare at me, wide-eyed, lips parted. None of us speak, we just stare at each other. I take in their bloody, beaten up state. Then I notice the runes all over their body—they've been injured by magic, not brute force. Sting's blonde hair—so perfectly arranged before—lies tousled, dirty and crusted with dried blood over his heavy-lidded eyes.

My eyes shift to Rogue. He never spoke much, I remember. Never smiled or laughed or seemed to bare any emotion except a soft disdain for his cruel guild members. But now his eyes hold so much sadness, I have to quickly look away. His mage's robes and pale skin are tainted with runes and wounds too; his hair is disheveled, face turned away from the light.

The worst part?

Both their hands are shackled to the hard stones. Both of them are help up at least two feet above me by the steels that capture their hands to the wall.

After what seems like an eternity, I say in a trembling voice; "…were you singing the song of the celestials?"

At that, Sting's dry lips lift into a mirthless smile. "And a celestial maiden appears to the rescue," he says in a hoarse voice, with nothing but a lingering trace of his earlier arrogance and humour.

My eyes sting looking at them. I can't believe nor imagine what has happened to them. Weren't they part of the Alliance? Hadn't Yukino with her bitter, betrayed tone told me that they had agreed?

Rogue looks up. "You're Lucy," he states. At once I understand it was Rogue singing. His voice is not as hoarse as his partner's and even when he speaks I can hear the way his voice carries melodies. "You're from Fairy Tail."

I nod. Then I step forward, away from the light, closer to them. "You were singing, right?"

A hint of a smile touches his lips. "It keeps us happy. Even like this."

Remembering all the times I sing softly to myself just to keep my sanity while training, I realize that I understand what he means. Pressed down by the Alliance, trapped, forced...we always find a way to rebel. Even if it is as simple as a song, here, where we have been stripped of our guild marks and forcefully committed to the Alliance by their brand, it shows that we still believe in what has made us what we are. It's a kaleidoscope of magical history that binds us together, and those pieces won't go away, ever. I feel a sudden respect for Rogue, knowing that it's his little way of showing that he doesn't belong here, and nor do the rest of us.

Looking at the metal glinting in the sunlight, I ask: "Why are you both chained up? Aren't you part of the Alliance? What happened?"

Sting closes his eyes. "Easy there, blondie," he says. "One at a time."

I stare at him incredulously. "Stop trying to act all brave!" I say furiously. "What happened?"

"Don't you know?" Rogue asks softly. When I shake my head, he says, "We were the easiest, you see. To capture, before the other Slayers. They believed we wanted to help, but we didn't, and now we're chained—"

"A pity," Sting cuts in. "We could've played along and saved ourselves the screams."

"—and the others will be too, really fast," Rogue continues. "Don't you have a Slayer friend?"

Still unable to understand anything, I whisper, "Natsu…"

"Ah, the Fire Dragon Slayer," Sting looks up and smiles. "Missed him."

I glare at him and turn back to Rogue. "Look, please, Rogue. I can help you, I think, but you need to—"

There is a tremendous rumble of large rocks falling apart and a cloud of dust catches me in the face. Loose stones fly onto us and then bounce of the walls, shuddering as they fall.

As the dust clears, my heart freezes into place and stops beating. A stumbling, bleeding Minerva stands in front of me, clutching at her weapons.

Then suddenly, I am standing inches away from her as she has thrust her hand forward, slender fingers enclosing my throat.

Shit. I never thought of what magic she used—she could manipulate this territory. I realize that she never expected to lose the fight now. She had been so angry back there, we had just rolled over and over using nothing but weapons and bare hands to claw at each other. Now she has already changed my position from feet away to inches away.

Here, with space for me to run away from her without being attacked, of course she will use her magic.

A sudden thought comes to my mind in cold fear. Loke. What happened to him?

As I am lifted up into the air by a wrathful Minerva, I reach again for my keys. But I can't reach them; Minerva tosses back against the stone wall like a rag doll, and then immediately changes her position, flinging herself onto me and pinning to the wall, inches away from Rogue.

"You," she raggedly whispers to me, face level to mine. "Bitch."

And then she uses her foot to my abdomen to keep me pressed back painfully against the stones. I try to focus, try to consider my options, but unable to get any of my weapons, I am hopeless.

As Minerva slashes her daggers forward, Rogue suddenly unclenches his legs and kicks out at her. Surprised, she falls back to the ground and I am released. With no time to thank Rogue I run as fast as I can, away from the light, towards the shadowed darker parts of this place.

Every step my legs take feels like lifting up a giant block of stone over and over again, but I manage to keep at it. I still don't know what I'm planning, only that I'll never win by trying to fight her barehanded.

Suddenly, I collide with something sharp and hard, and gasping, I collapse to the ground. I look up hastily, and then it's as if I can't breathe anymore, as if everything that has been happening has finally drained of me all energy.

Because what I collided into was a giant shard of ice, pointing towards me; other arrows of ice stick out from the ground and towards me, ready to impale. And above them, chained exactly like the Light and Shadow Dragon Slayers is a silver-haired mage in dark blue robes that are stained in blood. His slanted eyes look down in shock at me, his lips turned down at the corners, his mouth parted in silent questions.

Lyon Vastia.

The sharp edge of a silver dagger pierces into my spine, and I fall forward, narrowly missing the shards of created ice. My nails fist into the dirt as Minerva's booted foot comes down upon me.

"Enough, Fairy," she rasps.

And all I can think as her weapon comes down again is how beautiful, in this dark place, the ice looks.

Do review and tell me whether it was good! So how was the song of the celestials, did I write it okay?

Hey, who watches Superwoman here? (random, I know :P) Don't you guys love her? XD