Chapter 7 : Nakama
" But, before i say it, can you please stand up first? There's no need for you to kneel down before me." Lucy said as she stretched out her right hand to help Tenebre up,
Hesitating at first, but taking her hand in the end, Tenebre stood up, and asked,
" So, what's your decision?"
Lucy looked at her feet as she kicked away invisible stones on the flat, white ground of the vision space, clasping her hands behind her.
" Let's see, how do i start...?" Lucy said, " I have to admit, i did harbour feelings of hate when i first realized you were partly involved in the process of my mother's death, however, after watching everything and really getting to know you for myself, i've realized that you're not all that i've thought you to be."
" And it's also kinda my mother's fault, she'd always had this 'thing' about her that draws all kinds of people to her, like how you were drawn to her by her kindness, so her asking you about your life and work was also kind of inevitable since you always seem to be in a horrible bleeding battered state whenever you meet with her." Lucy stared pointedly at Tenebre at that, and Tenebre laughed sheepishly at that, rubbing her arms.
Lucy then rubbed her head as if the very thought gave her a headache, " I don't even want to know how many times she had to fix your wounds, heck, the amount of of bandages she used on you."
" But anyway, what i'm trying to say is that instead of feeling guilty for what you did or didn't do, why not get out of that stupid ice block of yours and get out into the world and actually do something, and this time i ain't letting you do it alone."
Tenebre's eyes widened, " Does that mean...?"
Lucy rolled her eyes in exasperation, " Oh Mavis, must i really put it in words? It means that i forgive you okay? I'm not the person to stay angry at one person for long, much less hate."
A tear escaped her left eye and she whispered, " You're just like Layla. You're definitely Layla's daughter."
Lucy smiled at that, a tad happy yet sad, but mostly nostalgic, " It's good to know that i'll always have a little bit of 'mom' in me."
" So i guess we are done here?" She then asked.
Tenebre shrugged her shoulders, " I guess so."
Erza then crossed her arms and nodded, " Let's get out of here then, i've got a cak- ahem, I'm sure Master's worried about all of us and i'm sure Lucy would like to introduce our newest member to the guild, right Lucy?"
Lucy nodded enthusiastically back at her, Tenebre feeling really confused at why the both of them were looking expectantly at her.
"Huh? What new member?"
All of them simultaneously grinned at Tenebre, making Tenebre feel uncomfortable, then Wendy,who was quiet all this while said with a timid smile,
"Its you, Tenebre-san, you're our newest member."
Tenebre spluttered out,"W-Wha?! When?! "
They all laughed at Tenebre's reaction.
" Why not? Your promise only said that your cannot come in contact with me until i'm 18, but now that i'm 18, doesn't that mean that you can follow us now? You don't have to be alone anymore! You have Fairy Tail and me now! We'll be your new family!"
Tenebre was rendered speechless, these people want her as part of their family? A person they barely knew for less than a few hours?
"But why? I'm fine staying alone to atone for my sins to Lucy, but why do you guys invite me, a person you barely know, into your family?"
Natsu flashed his signature grin, and said,
"Geez, must there be a reason for everything? And like the old man always says : "There are people in this world that enjoy being alone, but there isn't a single person who can bear solitude."! So why be alone when you can be surrounded by your family,your nakama?'
" Holy shiz!' Everyone fell onto the ground in shock.
"Ash Brain.." Gray said, his jaw scraping the ground.
"Said.." Lucy continued, a hand covering her mouth and her eyes wide open.
"Something.." Erza muttered, trying suppress her shock.
"Smart?!" Happy laughed out.
" THE WORLD'S ENDING!" Gray screamed out, earning himself a punch from Natsu,
" WHAT DID YOU SAY,STRIPPER?!"
" WHAT?! SOMETHING WRONG WITH WHAT I SAID MATCHSTICK?!"
Gray was about to launch himself at Natsu when a hand shot out and grabbed both of them by their necks, lifted the both of them up with ease and slammed both their heads together, giving them both a huge bump on the head and dumping them rather unceremoniously on the white floor.
Tenebre blinked at the rest innocently as they gaped at her in surprise, and said, " I've always wanted to try that."
Lucy, Happy,Charla and Wendy sweat dropped while Erza simply nods and says,
" I sense that Tenebre would be a great new addition to Fairy Tail."
Tenebre grins, " Shall we return to the physical world then? I can hear Serpe's whining from here, and it's really getting annoying."
Tenebre stretched out her hands to Erza and Lucy, smiling, they took her hand and extended their hands to Natsu and Gray, then Happy,Charla and Wendy joined them as well, forming their own circle, the floor beneath them started glowing a pale white and Tenebre whispered,
" Return."
And their world went dark.
Meanwhile back in the cave, where the slow falling of snow and the light reflecting off the icicles on the ceiling and them made them look like fairies frolicking and dancing with the wind, and in the middle of the cave stood a majestic crystal, a woman sleeping in ice within it, her hair spread out like a halo above her head, and yet, contrasting the beauty surrounding the cave, a gloomy aura was filling up a corner of the cave.
In the middle of the gloom where it was at its thickest, squatted Serpe, who was sulking in the corner and growing mushrooms there.
" They forgot all about me..." Serpe mumbled depressedly, a purple-spotted blue mushroom sprouted from the spot he was working on.
Then, a bright light filled the cave and the moment Serpe turned around, his ears were immediately assaulted with a loud roar.
" WE'RE BACK!" Natsu roared out, causing a few icicles to drop from the ceiling.
Gray, who'd just opened his eyes and took a deep breath, jumped up just as an icicle almost speared through his body, he scrambled quickly away from it, then glaring at the source his almost death, he hissed.
"Oi Tabasco Freak..." Gray's voice faded into a mutter when he saw Natsu being grabbed by Erza.
Erza, who was grabbing Natsu by his scarf, slapped him repeatedly while reprimanding him,
"Natsu! Are you trying to kill everyone here?! You could've caused the entire ceiling to collapse! "
Then, a soft blue light came out from the crystal, and a translucent Tenebre came out of it, at the sight of his master, Serpe jumped from his spot, and glared hard at her with his arms folded.
" You totally ignored me, you blocked off the telepathic link, you-"
The only reaction Tenebre had was two words,
" It's time."
Serpe promptly shut up at that, his face turning serious.
" Time for what?" Lucy inquired, rather surprised at Serpe's sudden change in demeanor.
" Well, " Tenebre explained, gesturing to her physical body in ice, " As you can see, i can't go no where without my body right? So it's time i came out of it. But there's just one small problem."
" When i come out from this ice, can i ask that you all help me collect the shards of ice that break forth from this pillar? My magic is what you all would call a mix of the impossible, so when you put two completely opposite elements together, that creates a violent reaction right? So imagine every single single shard of ice imbued with magic times fifty of that effect. And if one lands in the hands of the wrong person."
Lucy breathed in sharply when she thought about it, Erza and Grey's face darkened, Wendy looked troubled and Happy and Carla looked horrified.
Natsu's reaction though, was something completely different, and completely expected of him," Peh, we'll just beat this fella up!"
Tenebre simply smiled, " I'll take you up on that some day."
" Well, now that i know what your magic might do," Lucy looked rather pale, " I don't think i wanna know what it actually is."
Tenebre's grin widened, " I think you might see it quite soon cause i feel three sparkling eyes on me right now."
True to her words, Natsu and Grey were looking at her expectantly with eager grins on their faces, their hands twitching. Even Erza still had the same indifferent expression, her eyes were clearly staring at Tenebre, her hand straying to the hilt of the sword at her hip.
Lucy winced, and silently sent her best regards to Master, and the guild hall.
Meanwhile back at the guild, Makarov sneezed violently, his entire body jumping off the bar top, " What's this feeling i'm getting." He sniffed, wiping his nose as a sense of foreboding suddenly came upon him.
" So can all of you help me with this?"
The group looked at each other, and nodded, Erza saying, " I don't see why not."
Tenebre bowed at them, " Many thanks. With that, i'll get started then, as much as i can, i'll use my Time Ark and try to slow down the descend of the crystal shards. "
And she disappears.
For a couple minutes, nothing happened, restless, Natsu yelled,
" Gah! What's taking her so long?"
Serpe just looked at him calmly and says,
" Just a bit longer, dispelling powerful ice like this takes up a lot of energy, magic and time. Just a few more minutes, i feel her magic already."
True to Serpe's words, they started to feel a foreign yet strong pulse of magic being emitted from the ice and filling up the cave,
CRACK!
A huge crack appeared at the side of the crystal, then,small cracks formed from them and started spreading throughout the crystal, a small shard came off, and fell, falling straight into Serpe's hand.
"Get ready!" Serpe shouted, getting ready to run, and so did the others, tensing up and getting ready to bolt.
For a moment, all they could hear was the cracking of the huge crystal ice, but nothing moved, diamond dust fell from it, and then, everything went silent.
Like a wave, the moment one small shard broke forth from the block, so did the rest, and they cascaded down in a shower of crystal shards, the entire crystal pillar falling apart, shards of different shape and sizes falling like hail.
The moment the first crystal touched the surface of the snow, everything went into slow motion, the crystals started to fall in a slower speed, and the gang flew into action.
" Ice Make : Net!"
" Gate of the Maiden, I open thee! Virgo!"
" Requip: Flight Armour!"
" Happy/Charla! Let's go!"
While Natsu and the others were flitting around busily collecting every single shard of crystal, piling them high into the net Grey created, Serpe was running, running to catch the falling body of his master.
Tenebre was falling, and she was falling fast, as Time Ark can't influcence living objects, a contrast to the rain of crystals around her that seemed frozen in time, her hair whipped wildly around her waist as she fell head first.
Diving to catch his master in time, Serpe grunted as he skid on the snow on his back, but he didn't care about the pain, all he could think about was of his beloved master's safety.
"Let me make it in time!" He thought desperately as he saw his master's body come closer to the ground,
Tenebre's body barely landed in Serpe hands, and he skidded to a stop by jamming his legs in to the snow. Carrying her body bridal-style, he swept away her wind-swept hair from her still sleeping face and adjusted her dress as he stood up.
" Welcome back,Tenebre-sama." Serpe smiled tenderly at his master as he said this, he then walked towards the rest, the group scouring the area to make sure they got everything.
" Thank you all for your help." He bowed low, showing his gratitude.
Natsu grinned at this,and gave Serpe a thumbs up,
"No problem! We're Nakama after all!"
"How is she?" Lucy asked,worried about Tenebre as she still hasn't woke up, but when she put a hand on her shoulder, she immediately drew her hand back,
"Mavis! She freezing! Is she ok?" Lucy looked at Serpe, feeling worry pooling in the pit of her stomach.
" She's fine, she just needs to get to a warmer place, who knows what being stuck in ice for around a decade would do to her body." Serpe reassured Lucy, seeing that she was close to panicking, although his last statement didn't sound really reassuring.
They all sighed in relief, then Serpe continued,
" Well, that's one thing done, how are we going to transport all this crystals back to your guild? "
"Hime, i can take this back to the Celestial Spirit world for storage, and you can summon me again when you want it and i'll bring the crystals together with me. Tenebre-sama has done a lot for us, so we would like to show her our gratitude." Virgo said with her normal poker face as she stood beside the pile of crystals secured by the intricately created ice net.
" Thank you Virgo! That's really helpful of you! " Lucy clapped her hands together happily.
" Is it time for a punishment, Hime?" Virgo asked expectantly.
" No! And i never will do! You can go back now, Virgo!" Lucy shouted out, waving her hands in front of her.
" Yes, Hime." And with a poof, both Virgo and the bag of crystals were gone.
" That's another done! So..."
Just as he was about to say something, the ground started to tremble violently and so did the ceiling, and Serpe exclaimed,
" Ah, i knew i forgot something, after being in ice for so long, her crystal became a permanent part of the cave, so if it's removed, the entire cave will collapse!" Serpe chirped out, smiling as if there was nothing wrong.
They all looked at Serpe incredulously, and in sync, they screamed,
" WHY DIDN'T YOU TELL US EARLIER?!"
At the same time, a portion of the ceiling fell down directly beside them.
" Shall we get going?" He asked.
" Ruuuuuuuuuuuuun!"
They clambered frantically up the ice ladder Gray created, and just as Wendy scrambled up it, a huge landslide of snow crumbled from the walls and covered the hole behind the group.
Concealing the dying light of a small lacrima in its cold depths.
And the whole cave collapsed.
AN: Just wanna say a huge sorry to ya all for the late update and the rather short chappie, life hit me pretty hard this week. Not much of an excuse though, cause now that i'm here, on with the writing bitches cause i'm on a roll! Moving on to Chapter 8! Screw you maths!
R&R!
Ja Ne!
~KanaeHitomi~