Chapter 10: When Everything Fit
Lucy's perspective:
Brandish was a dangerous foe, anyone could tell from the obscure magic power she possessed, but what I could not wrap my head aroun was that she was in my bathtub. And yet, he was, with her accustomed poker face, in my bathtub, bare naked.
She stared at me, although she was judging how I looked, scrutinizing my whole body, sending all sorts of chills and signals all over my body. Sure, I have taken a bath with many and I mean many "interesting" girls (CANA!) but she took an exception even in such a wide range of variety. She finally uttered," Wear some cat ears for me, you know what will happen if you don't." Somewhat shockingly, I shot back," I don't have any cat ears."
"Here's a pair for you," she replied nonchalantly as she pulled out a pair of black cat ears. My eyes widened in shock, after which I hesitantly put on the pair of cat ears.
"Oh my…so cute!"
WHAT WAS WITH THIS GIRL?!
"Now, rub my back for me."
This was the perfect chance!
As she turned around, my heart pounded against my ribs as my nerves were going haywire. This was do-or-die. She has the ability to annihilate me at any point in time. I have to think swiftly. Not one moment could be wasted.
I took out a key, bracing my hand to apply the impact to summon a spirit to defeat her. Until, she asked,
"You're Layla's daughter, aren't you?"
My eyes widened in complete shock as she turned her body around and nailed me onto the cold, cobblestone floor.
"I'm going to kill you now, daughter of Layla Heartfilia."
Just then, something astounding happened.
Never did I imagine for the water surrounding us to move.
To morph into…Aquarius?!
Aquarius conjured up the water in that room and swung it at Brandish.
Due to the heavy impact of the cyclone of water, Brandish fell backwards in a direct swoop. She chortled out some water and coughed profusely due to the amount of water that got into her system. Meanwhile, tears of elation brimmed at my eyes as I lunged forward to hug Aquarius, sobbing heavily.
"Aquarius! I missed you…" were the words that I could sob at that very moment. The amount of time I mourned over her loss. The amount of time spent staring at what was left of her key. The amount of time spent bawling over her absence. Yes, she wasn't the kindest celestial spirit. But she was my first friend, and that meant more than anything 'kindness' could have given me. She hugged me back as she smiled contently as well. "I missed you too."
Until we were done with our heartfelt reunion did Aquarius say, "Put your clothes on. What type of indecency is that?"
I giggled a reply, "Okay."
Our moment lasted until Brandish's presence was known to the both of us again.
"Nice to see you again, Brandish. You've grown quite a bit…" When Aquarius said those words, I was appalled, they knew each other?!
"NOW BARK FOR ME, MUTT!" The order Aquarius had given out startled me, I felt like my eyes would have popped out of my eye sockets if they could because what happened next was unbelievable.
"YES, MASTER!" Brandish complied merrily as she got down onto fours and barked like how a puppy would.
WHAT THE HELL WAS THAT?!
"Good girl!" Aquarius exclaimed as she petted her head as if she was a mere puppy. After a while of comical moments of Brandish turning into a mere follower of Aquarius that probably made me lose 10 years of sanity.
Afterwards, the blue-haired celestial spirit coughed and started explaining," It seems that there were some misunderstandings, leading to this."
"Brandish", she mentioned with much intent, turning towards the mage with emerald hair," Layla never killed your mother."
I felt a heavy weight being elevated from my heart, bringing me much relief, however, the tension was high in the room, Brandish and Aquarius held such intense gazes towards each other, however, I could sense a mixture of grief, shock and curiosity from Brandish's orbs as they softened, as though trying to beckon Aquarius to spill the truth about her mother. My whole heart burned with a strange feeling. Even through all the books I have read, I could never figure out the true root of the feeling. It was similar to empathy. I always wondered how my mother has passed on. Although her death left a huge scar on my childhood days, everything that has happened came past in a blur. Everything was hazy. Whenever I tried to reminisce what my father had told me about Mother's death, I always felt that there was something more to her rather than some mere disease.
Silence was like a plague. It spread across the room of three.
What broke the pressure of the moment? Aquarius' sigh.
"I guess I'll have to show you."
After that, it all unfolded in a flash. Before I could grasp my own surroundings, I found that my legs were…gone. To be replaced with a mermaid tail?! Confusion was clearly written on my face, and the same went for Brandish. When I glanced up, I came upon Aquarius with a smirk on her face.
"Welcome to the Memory of the Stars. This is the archive of the life events of celestial spirit mages. And this is where you will find out the truth about what happened to both of your mothers."
Visual mages poured out of the abyss as stars of shimmer rained down on us, bringing us into a whole other dimension. At once, we noticed the first image that showed itself to us. The woman in the image…she looked awfully a lot like me and her stance was somewhat intimidating. Her face showed the true resolve of pure determination as her eyes held that burning of passion and her stance simply oozed of charisma. It was intriguing just to look at her…but, why did she look so much like me?
"That's Anna Heartfilia, the ancestor of the Heartfilias, she was the greatest celestial spirit mage ever known, her power was limitless and her knowledge of the stars exceeded all boundaries, so, she was incomparable to anyone. Well, maybe…Lucy inherited some of her superior power, maybe." I smiled warmly at the comment as I noticed alight pink hue that was maintained with much effort. "She helped Zeref, the black magic user, to transport five powerful warriors to the future using the power of the Eclipse gate."
Powerful warriors? Wait, Zeref…he told me Natsu came from 400 years ago in the past…the five dragon slayers were raised by dragons but dragons ceased to exist…a long time ago. So…W-Wendy…G-Ga-jeel…St-Sting, R-R-Rogue a-an-and N-Nat…su…were from 400 years ago?!
Tears formed at my eyes as they hazed my vision, threatening to fall any moment. However, I just merely blinked the tears stinging at my eyes away, this just wasn't the time, not now."
"And so, they awaited a long time for someone to open the gate from X777 and one day, someone did. Layla Heartfilia," My eyes widened as I faced the hidden truth. Was opening the Eclipse gate in relation to my mother's deteriorating health?
Without your mum, you would have never met Natsu.
A voice in my head whispered into my conscious as red was painted across my cheeks. Even now, my feelings are fiddling around with my sense of logic.
"However," There was a shift in tone, it seemed as though it was challenging for the celestial spirit to come to terms with, since it took her much effort to voice out that one elephant in the room. Why did my mum die around the time she helped to open the Eclipse gate?
"The amount of power she took to open the gate was just too much for her, leaving her body frail, her magic power depleted and her struggle for the moments of her remaining life force. It was tough for her and it was heart wrenching to see how much suffering she had to go through. Yet, she never ceased to smile. Every single day, she would wear a smile like everything that was happening was normal. She was a courageous lady, she was a passionate master, a beautiful wife and a loving mother, she was all we celestial spirits could gawk at."
"Now, Layla would never kill your mother, Brandish. Going back on track, since her magic power was at a loss, she decided to give the three Zodiac keys she had to the three people she trusted very much. She gave the key of Capricorn to the infamous mage Lucy fought on Tenroujima, Zoldy. She gave the key of Cancer to Ms. Spetto, her trusty servant whom she considered to be her valuable friend and a motherly figure to Lucy. And lastly, she gave my key to Brandish's mother. Brandish's mother looked at Layla with great admiration, great respect, she treated my key nicely, polishing it whenever she had the time and would stare at it longingly, with the remembrance of Layla forever in her mind. One day, she decided to visit Layla. Once she arrived, she was astonished to see a rare and shocking sight. It was unbearable. It was Layla, panting hard, with the passion and determination in her eyes draining and the fiery life inside her eyes slowly drifting away. Brandish's mum rushed to her side, filled with the vehement worry that the fragile woman in front of her may crack at any point in time."
As we turned out ranges of sight to the flashback that appeared before us, it allowed me and Brandish, two enemies, to have a string of empathy entwine around the both of us. I had a feeling that our mothers were really close. You could sense the amount of trust they had in one another just by their actions, their words and their reactions.
While thoughts swirled around my mind, I returned my attention towards the flashback.
"Layla! what happened to you?"
"Grammi…I don't think I can hold on any longer, it's time for me to accept my fate and live on…in your memories."
Grammi's eyes were contorted with agony, self-anguish, tears brimmed at her eyes as they fell like raindrops, as gentle as they could, caressing the supple skin of the middle-aged woman's cheeks.
"Layla…don't give up…how about Lucy? And Aquarius' key…? It would be for the best to give that key to her. She has much more potential to be a full-fledged celestial mage."
"Mm, also, your daughter…Brandish right? She seems to have the potential to be an outstanding mage one day," Layla coughed painfully, later continuing, "I do hope that Lucy and Brandish could be great friends like us."
"Me? Great friends with you? Milady, you must be joking, I am too inferior to be your friend," Grammi stated bashfully as she waved her hands with speedily from side to side to show her disagreement to the statement.
"Nonsense, you are a great friend of mine and I treasure you very very much. So…how is Brandish doing?"
Afterwards, the two women gushed on about the events in life before Layla fell into a deep sleep due to her weak condition.
Right after leaving the golden, shimmering key on Layla's bedside table, Grammi took her leave, as tears streamed down her face and cascaded onto a handkerchief she had at hand. It was prominent on how much she cared for Layla and yearned ofor her friend's upmost health and security.
However, she failed to notice the black silhouette loolming behind her in the shadows.
Slowly…
Slowly…
Approaching the crying figure…
And there went the bloodlust.
You could see it in his eyes, he was not just some lunatic who wanted to kill Grammi, he was on a hunt. And he was thirsty, thirsty for the bittersweet tang of revenge. It was painful to watch, it shook up my heart and it made my adrenaline pick up when I witnessed that bloody and cruel murder.
If that was what a mere outsider who had not had any form of contact with Grammi whatsoever felt, then, what would Brandish have felt right now?
"MOTHER! NO! DON'T DIE! Come back to me…no…why…"
All she could do was to watch her mum get brutally murdered right in fornt of her eyes, it was gruesome and the murder's intent was grotesque, like a plague that had formed with bits and pieces of misunderstanding. It was horrifying to see such a strong woman break into a fragile young girl. Right then, Brandish was sobbing ferociously and the amount of salinity that stained her face wasn't enough to explain how much she was wallowing in the depths of her sorrow at the moment. Crushing as it were to watch revenge be wrongfully and woefully inflicted towards an innocent victim, it was even worse to see Brandish losing whatever form of composure she had left. All I could do was thow my body forward and bring her into a tight embrace.
Letting all her worries out through the embrace that intensified emotions, allowing room for the cognitive dissonance that had built up over all this time to be finally set free.
To allow all the pent-up anger, frustrations, worry and doubt to flit away into nothingness.
What she needed was comfort and that was what I could give to her.
I do hope that Lucy and Brandish could be great friends like us.
Those words continued and echoed on in my head.
I really did hope my mum's wish would come true.
Author's Note: Whoops! I have gone and done it. My sincerest apologies, my dear readers! I didn't think I would be so busy for school and I also fell sick on another lingering occasion, so…THIS IS THE UPDATE YALL HAVE BEEN WAITING FOR. Yes, I know it's just the chapter of "Memory Of the Stars" be expressed in words, but I really liked this chapter, it was quite the arduous process to write though, because I had writer's block for like a few days and I didn't manage to successfully arrange my words into a story, so yeap. I promise that I won't give up on this story no matter what and that it is my top priority, so rest assured!
Oh, and shout out to my friends (psychological siblings) YQ and YX for reminding me to update my fanfiction in our group chats! ._. Love yall! This chapter is dedicated to the both of you, hehe.
Anyways, Over and Out! (The next chapter will be out quite late *Early warning* because I have EXAMS the next week and they are worth a huge portion of my grade, I am sho effing sorry )
