AN: Hey, it's chapter 8! I just wanted to thank everyone who's read my story so far. I hope it brightened your day just a little bit, and if not, I would love to know why! That's what reviews are for, right?

Notice: I don't own Fairy Tail. Its characters, settings, etc. all belong to Hiro Mashima. HOWEVER, this fic does contain multiple OC's. These, and these alone, are mine.

With that out of the way, hope you guys like this extra-long chapter!

Chapter 8: The Duel

Sic glared in defiance at the hulking man beating his chest in front of him and Lucy. This was a strange man to be a bank robber. He had barged in just as their job to guard the bank for a night was about to end. He was in the middle of a fantastic story, too! This was unacceptable. This brute needed to be taught a lesson, which shouldn't be too difficult since evidently he was just a large man with large muscles.

His attention moved to Lucy beside him, who made a slicing motion in the air with a key from her belt. Before them appeared an axe-wielding cow-man equally large as their opponent, whom Lucy referred to as "Taurness." Strange name, that. To Sic's bemusement, however, the cow-man seemed to do nothing but stare at Lucy Heartfilia and compliment her body. Sic would never understand Lucy's magic.

As the bull-man continued to babble like a buffoon, Sic felt a burning sensation growing in his chest. It was incredibly strange. It was like his heart, for some reason, wanted to throttle the blabbering bovine. He pushed those thoughts out of his brain for now and reminded himself to take his temperature when he got back home.

"Don't worry, Lucy. I'll deal with this. This fool can't help you," Sic promised.

Before she could respond, he drew his twin broadswords and ran at the large robber. The galoot snarled and brought his fist down to crush Sic's skull. At the last second, Sic dodged to the side, then rebounded and launched himself straight towards the man. While the man was off-balance, Sic positioned his swords parallel to each other, and then slashed at the man's chest by turning his body. He made four complete 360-degree turns, meaning each of his blades struck five times. The man collapsed, defeated and screaming, with ten gaping slash wounds crisscrossing his chest. But there was no time for Sic to admire his handiwork. He planted his shoe on the man's face, pushed down, and pointed his sword at the man's chest. "Get out of here," he hissed. "Or do I need to take off your arms?" The man screamed and began crawling down the street, leaving a trail of blood.

Sic turned around and smirked at Lucy. The expression she wore on her face was strange. She was staring at him with wide, unblinking eyes and her mouth hanging open. Come to think of it, so was the blabbering bovine.

"What are you doing?" Sic asked Lucy. "Catching flies?"

Lucy's face returned to normal. "Why did you do that? That was way overboard! All we needed to do was subdue him and turn him in to the police, not maim him and send him to go die in the streets!" This was strange. She was yelling at him. Why? He'd just completed their mission all by himself, so she wouldn't have to do any work.

"If he was handed over to the police, he'd be doing this again once he's released. He needs to learn that it is unacceptable to rob people's hard-earned savings. I was simply doing my job in keeping the bank safe. What is the problem with that?" Sic replied.

Lucy groaned exasperatedly and dismissed her useless bull-man companion. "That was the wrong way to do your job, then." She went into the other room, slammed the door and locked it.

Sic again felt a new sensation in his chest. For some strange reason, he wished he hadn't decisively defeated the robber in such a manner. Why? That's the simplest way to get the job done. Why did he doubt his own actions? He knew that he always made the choices that were the most logically correct. What's wrong with me?

For the rest of the night, Sic sat on the doorstep of the bank and contemplated Lucy's most recent words. How could he possibly have done something the wrong way? Life wasn't a test. There couldn't possibly be any "right" or "wrong" answer to any situation, right? Why did everyone around him seem to have such strange views on the world?

Sic strolled leisurely through the woods at the edge of Magnolia, brooding. The Hydra Claw guild members had returned home, and the guild felt strangely quiet. With the lack of distractions, he'd had a lot of time to think about what Lucy told him on their mission last night. She'd refused to speak to him since then. Sic had never felt so confused. Perhaps she was testing him. If he could just figure out the riddle, then she'd let him talk to her again. Sic pulled his hair harder and quickened his pace. He had to solve this riddle. Lucy was the only thing he understood around here. Or at least, he'd thought he did.

Suddenly he heard a twig snap up ahead. Sic stiffened. Careful not to make a sound, he peered around the tree. There was Grade Forebullster, who was apparently following someone else. He wasn't very skillful at it, but somehow whomever he was following seemed not to notice him. Sic decided that it interested him enough and began to stalk the stalker.

It didn't take long before Grade stopped and climbed a tree overlooking a clearing just up ahead. Not wishing to be seen, Sic found a little area nestled in between two branches that gave him a good view of the clearing and also shielded him from Grade's sight.

On opposite sides of the clearing, two mages faced each other. Nearest Sic was the one known as Minerva Scradlett, clad in her usual skirt and armored breastplate. On the opposite side was the flirtatious man who had pretended to be interested in him yesterday. Sic had never really looked at him, but his face looked rather… familiar. He grinned confidently and spoke. "You remember the terms, right, Erza?"

"All too well," she replied.

Erza hoped she knew what she'd gotten into. The power radiating off of Ezra doubled in intensity when he swept off his brown cloak. "If you want to back out, now's the time," he boasted.

"You know I'd never do that," Erza said with a dry smile.

Ezra didn't reply. Instead he summoned a pair of twin katana almost instantaneously and sprang at her, poised to strike. Erza only had time to parry to her right flank with the one sword she was already holding. The parry blocked one of Ezra's swords, but the other one found its mark, leaving a gash in her breastplate near her neck. Without missing a sixteenth of a beat, he dropped into a crouch, requipped his fists into a pair of spiked gauntlets, and then sprang up with a nasty right hook to the underside of Erza's chin. Erza was sent flying onto her back.

She blinked up at the sky with dizzy vision. She had to hand it to the guy; because he wore no armor, his agility and speed were that much better. His requipping speed surpassed even her own. How could she possibly defeat someone so powerful? Stop it. Your armor will protect you. It always has and always will.

She blinked again, and there he was, descending on her with a huge axe in his hands. Erza took a deep breath and closed her eyes.

When she opened them again, she saw the familiar inside of her twin adamantine shields. Thank the powers that be for her reflexes. She shoved upward with her shields, and heard a satisfying thunk and a muffled cry of pain.

Erza climbed to her feet and saw Ezra doing the same about ten feet away. He now had two black eyes. Somehow, they just made him even more handsome.

"Not bad, my dear," he called playfully. "I underestimated you."

Erza laughed, requipping into her Flame Empress armor. "It's been a while since anybody's done that."

They launched themselves at each other again, becoming a veritable cyclone of steel whirling around their makeshift arena. Their movements were so well choreographed, it was as if the fight had been scripted a thousand times. Every strike was met with a perfect parry and counterstrike. Ezra would switch between weapons so fast, he'd begin an attack with one weapon and land with another. Erza constantly shifted between various suits of armor in an attempt to throw him off balance.

If it was at all possible to swordfight flirtatiously, Ezra was doing it. He would make parries to the high outside line that allowed him to briefly step inside Erza's guard, in such a way that his hand would brush various parts of her body ever so briefly. It was incredibly distracting. Erza couldn't believe there was someone who could match her so well in the way of the sword. Ezra understood the way of the requip wizard. She felt as if she could have fought him forever in complete bliss.

They struck up a conversation of sorts between the swordplay. "You're not going to take out any dark guilds with shoddy swordsmanship like that," Ezra teased.

"Defeating dark guilds isn't why I fight," Erza replied. "I fight for the people I love. I fight for Fairy Tail. It's what I live for. Fairy Tail is my home, my life, and my family."

Ezra's eyes widened. He backed up from their duel with a thoughtful expression on his face. "What you said… It's exactly how I feel about Hydra Claw. I would gladly give my life for my guild."

There was a minute of silence before Ezra spoke again. "I was initially planning on defeating you without it, but you deserve to see. As a reward for your compassion, I'll defeat you using my secret technique."

Back up in the trees, Sic was in a state of shock. His vocabulary was vast, but he had no idea what the word compassion meant. What was it? Was it the answer to Lucy's riddle? Why did that word seem so familiar?

Back on the forest floor, Erza requipped into her Purgatory Armor and braced herself. "Bring it on."

Ezra grinned and ripped his shirt off. He took a solid stance, threw his arms out to his sides and let out a primordial roar.

Ezra's body began to change. Out of each side of his forearm grew a wicked, razor-sharp blade that ran parallel to his arm. His hands themselves became the pointed tips of swords. Sword blades erupted from his chest, stomach, and back, facing all directions. His lower legs became sword blades that embedded themselves in the ground. Even his pointed spike of hair transformed into a horn. He had transformed himself into a sort of steel porcupine.

"This is my secret skill," Ezra boasted. "I requip parts of my body into weapons."

And with that, he launched himself at her.

If Erza had thought Ezra was difficult to fend off before, it was practically impossible now. Blades were everywhere, all around her. He struck with every one of them- his hands, both sides of each his arms, the ones coming out of his abdomen, his legs. Erza could see why people called him the Steel Whirlwind.

She had to figure out a way to end this, and fast. Her Purgatory Armor couldn't take much more of this. She waited for an opening, then slashed her way out of the whirlwind of steel. Without missing a beat, she sprang into the air and prepared to land the finishing blow with her mighty black mace.

But it was not to be. Ezra turned around and formed his arms into a loop above his head. They morphed and formed a large, round shield, which easily deflected Erza's attack. He then pulled apart the shield and slammed his arms together in front of him, which formed a huge double-bladed axe. Erza was still in midair, directly after an attack. She desperately requipped into her Adamantine Armor.

SLICE.

Erza was knocked to the ground. She stared in horror at her twin adamantine shields, pierced straight across by Ezra's incredibly strong blade. Erza looked down at her own armor, which was pierced as well. The axe had left a tiny cut that was barely bleeding at all. Erza shuddered to think of what could have happened if she'd not requipped when she did.

Ezra pointed his sword-hand at her throat. "I win."

Erza smiled. It wasn't meant to be. He was simply too strong. "Yes. Well-fought, Ezra."

He smiled and his body-requips disappeared, leaving his hand just an outstretched hand waiting to help her up.

"So," he said slyly. "Meet me tomorrow at the Hargeon wharf at eight." He winked.

Erza blushed. She couldn't help it. "It's a date," she replied.

Gray gripped the tree branch he was holding so hard that it snapped. He couldn't let this happen. That jerk didn't care about Erza at all. He was just using her like he probably did all other girls. Gray knew he couldn't let Erza go on a date with him. Because Gray cared about Erza… So much so that… Yes. He could admit it to himself. He loved her. He wanted to be able to protect her, just as she had sworn to always do for her guildmates. He knew what he had to do. He would go down there, and he would challenge Ezra for the date with Erza. He would show her that he was willing to do whatever it took to protect her. He stood up and jumped out into the clearing. Or rather, he thought he was going to. His knees buckled, and he began shaking uncontrollably. What's happening to me, he thought. Is this… fear?

Gray couldn't get up. All he could do was watch Ezra help Erza limp back to the guild. Gray hung his head in shame and began to cry, his tears freezing when they touched his face. I'm weak, he thought. I couldn't protect Erza when she needed me. I don't deserve someone like her. And so he collapsed completely and cried in silence as the sun finished setting. When he fell out of the tree, he just lay there on the ground, crying silently into the dead leaves.

Sic's mind was so clouded that he barely registered Grade fall out of the tree. Why the hell didn't the black-haired man finish the job? He'd fought so hard, then finally won the battle, and had the power to make sure Minerva couldn't threaten him again. But instead he simply helped Minerva up and escorted her home. Why? Was it because of that compassion word? What did it mean?

Sic knew there was only one person who could teach him.

Lucy was happy to finally spend some time with Natsu and Happy after a long while. After spending so much time with Sic, it was a little refreshing to be able to talk to someone who could really have some fun. She didn't even mind that Natsu was trashing her apartment. Even so, she couldn't help but miss Sic a little bit. Even though he'd done something disturbing back at the bank, she couldn't help but wonder…

There was a knock on her door. "Coming," she yelled. She opened the door to find the same person she'd been thinking about kneeled on the doorstep, staring at the floor. Uh-oh. "Natsu, you and Happy better go."

"Aw, but Luce-"

"GET OUT!"

"Okay, okay, sheesh. C'mon, Happy."

"Aye…"

After Natsu was gone, Lucy turned her attention to Sic. "Hi, Sic," she said uneasily. "What's up?"

And then Sic did something she didn't think was possible. He lowered his head and began to cry.

"Please, Lucy," Sic said through muffled sobs. "You have… to teach me. Teach me… teach me the meaning of… compassion."

What did you think? Hope you guys liked it, and see you all next time! Please don't forget to review, and hope you all have a nice day!