AN: Hey all! The story's almost done! Thanks so much to everyone reading through so far! I really appreciate it! Boy, it certainly was kind of a shock going back to regular writing after all those fight scenes... whew! Anyway, sorry I haven't update in a week. Hope you enjoy!

Notice: Passive voice is not to be used, and Fairy Tail is not owned by me.

Chapter 26: The Aftermath

The lights were flickering on and off.

On, and then off again. On and off. On and off.

What was this feeling? Where was he?

Everything slowly but surely came into focus. Blurry, shaking, technically incomprehensible, but focused. For how could Sic not focus on what he saw?

It was the most familiar sight he'd come to expect every time he woke up. A soft, pale face with perfectly smooth skin, both stretched by hardship and softened by friendship. Deep, warm, gooey chocolate-brown eyes, brimming with worry. Soft, luscious pale red lips. Long blonde hair flowing down to her shoulders, with some of it tied off in a ponytail to the side.

It was Lucy's face.

Sic's eyes snapped wide open.

"He's awake! He's awake!" And just like that, Lucy was gone. She'd run out of the room.

With Sic's visual stimulus lost, he slumped back onto his bed, and his eyes fluttered shut again.

The lights were flickering on again. What are these voices?

"-what? I thought you said he was awake, Lucy!"

"I did! I swear, he opened his eyes!" The voice paused, and then continued in a shaky tone. "He really did…"

He knew that voice. Sic forced his eyes to open and sat up, but was unprepared for what he would find. He sat in a bed in a small white-walled room, packed with medical equipment. He had various tubes and syringes affixed all over his arms and a few on the rest of his body. To his left, a lacrima screen displayed a graph of his heartbeat and respiration rate, but it was hard to make out through the crowd of people looming over him.

The entire Fairy Tail guild was crammed into this small room. They all stood over him, staring in silent shock. Everyone was covered in bandages, bruises, and the like, but looked not too worse for wear. Lucy was the first one to break the silence.

"Sic!" she exclaimed euphorically and tackled him, crushing Sic's tired ribs with an energetic hug. "I missed you so much," she whispered into his ear. At this the entire guild broke into full-on childish grins, and began pelting Sic with praises and verbal pats on the back. The amount of merriment was far too much for one room, but it soon died down just as abruptly as it began.

Everyone turned and stared at the ruined figure that had just entered the room.

He was covered head to toe in white bandages, soaked with blood. He leaned on a crutch under each arm. Various chunks of his body were missing, the most noticeable being his right hand, the lower half of his left leg, and a piece of his right hip.

For a minute the guild just stared at the man in gloomy, mistrustful silence. Finally, Wendy spoke up. "Ezra, what are you doing up? You shouldn't be able to even stand yet, much less walk!" Ezra said nothing.

Natsu stepped as close to Ezra as he dared. "You're lucky you and your buddies even got to stay in our infirmary, bastard! If it weren't for what Erza said, I would've tossed you right off the ship!" Ezra said nothing.

Erza pulled Natsu back roughly. "Now, that's enough, Natsu." She regarded Ezra with a stare, not exactly cold, not exactly forgiving, but simply understanding. Ezra spoke up with a raspy voice.

"Where is my brother?"

Sic struggled to get up, but fell back down on his back again. Lucy gave him a look of concern. He felt Lucy's embrace tighten. Sic tried to speak up, but his mouth wouldn't open.

The guildmaster finally stepped up. "Now, boy, I don't know exactly what you mean by 'your brother,' but I do know that you almost killed my children. Now, according to Erza, what happened last week wasn't exactly your fault, but don't try my patience. If you know what's good for you, you'll go back to your own infirmary room and rest until you've come to your senses and can tell us what happened."

Sic couldn't bear it anymore. In one burst of temporary strength, he gently pushed Lucy off of him and rose, trembling, to his feet. He shoved his way through the guild members and threw his arms around the bandaged wreck.

The whole guild gasped. "So it is you, Sic… I didn't just imagine it." Ezra's muscles, taught and strained, gave out, and all of a sudden, Sic was left holding up his brother's dead weight. Unfortunately, in his weakened state, Sic couldn't sustain that for long, and so he and his brother collapsed onto the floor. Sic was in shock, and Ezra was laughing hysterically.

Bemused, Gildarts lifted the two brothers and hoisted them onto the bed, both still wrapped in each other's arms. Lucy huffed, clearly a little jealous. Makarov turned to Sic. "Well, now that you're awake, Sic, and given that you clearly know this man… maybe you can explain why he attacked us."

Sic hadn't thought about it at all, but he thought he had an explanation. Sic nodded, took a deep breath, and filled everyone in on the tale of how he had been attacked by his brother when he was little and taken to the white prison. He also told them of how he'd seen his brother Jellal in a dream, but left out the part about why he was up in the mountains in the first place. As usual, everyone was enraptured by his masterful bard's voice. "…so you see, Ezra was the same one who attacked me back then," he explained.

Natsu raised his hand. "So are you saying he's always been crazy?" Everyone facepalmed.

"So MANLY!" Elfman yelled. Everyone facepalmed again.

"What does that have to do with anything?" Evergreen snapped.

"Oooh, you two are in looove," squealed Happy.

"Shut up, cat!" Lucy snapped.

"Hey, leave Lily out of this!" Gajeel threatened.

"SILENCE!" Makarov roared. Everyone meekly quieted down. Sic awkwardly cleared his throat and continued to speak.

"I was, ahem, just getting to that part. You see, our father was the famous Juan Carlos Fernandes. He was an extremely powerful wizard, a member of the Ten Wizard Saints in his own right. But you see, he hailed from the ghost town of Ruinweld. Judging by your expressions, I gather that you've heard of it. There was an ancient curse set on the place by a dark wizard that stated, anyone born in the town who chose to leave would be forever haunted by dark spirits named eidolons for the rest of their days, and so would all their descendants for the rest of eternity. However, Juan Carlos figured out a way to circumvent the curse. By inscribing his face with a spiritual tattoo, he could ward off the evil spirits. And it worked, too! He lived a long and successful life. But the curse extended to his descendants, and so, when each of us were born, he inscribed the same tattoo over one of our eyes to prevent the eidolons from taking hold. But when Ezra was in such a terrible emotional state, a single eidolon found a gap in his spirit large enough for it to slip through, temporarily. It possessed his body and made Ezra attack me. When Ezra was going to cut my face, my magic automatically kicked in and reflected his attack, which is where his X-shaped scars come from. Not only that, but I believe my white magic also expelled all forms of evil from his body."

Gray scratched his head. "But if you got rid of the spirit, why did he go crazy today?"

"It's because the spiritual tattoo is technically a form of dark magic. I must have burned the tattoo right off his face, and that meant that from then on, the eidolons got unobstructed access to his body. Now, I don't think they actively controlled him his whole life- it's hard for an eidolon to exhibit human qualities- but I think it certainly influenced his general life path, and probably convinced him it was okay to attack Fairy Tail. Right now, he's still protected by the residual traces of my white magic, but we're going to have to find some way to shield him from the eidolons again."

The whole guild stood and pondered his story. Levy was the one to break the silence this time. "I-I'd be happy to search the library for some kind of spirit ward- maybe I can find out how to re-inscribe that tattoo!"

"I'll help you with that," said Freed.

"Yeah!" Wendy chimed in. "And I'll work on some kind of healing spell to get Ezra's body recovered as fast as possible! I'll do my very best!"

Natsu cackled. "Evil spirits, huh? Even more stuff to blow up!"

Elfman's eyes filled with manly tears. "Fighting against evil spirits within is just so damn MANLY!"

No one disagreed.

It was pretty busy around the guild for the next few days. Sic was still stuck in his infirmary room. He could barely walk. He was pretty sure he'd invested a significant portion of his energy into saving Ezra's life. Not that he minded, of course. He'd gladly give his life to save his brother's. What was that called again?

Lucy came to visit him from time to time. She would talk, about all the guild's crazy escapades as of late, and then he would talk, spinning epic tales as per the usual. Some nights, she would support him and they would walk out into the fields around the guild, and they would lie down and watch the stars. They both liked to watch the stars, but for different reasons.

For Lucy, they symbolized all her friends, all the Celestial Spirits she knew would always be by her side. They would always be there, watching over her. But for Sic, the stars represented change. They wouldn't be there forever. One day the light of those stars would run out. And he liked it that way, for that was what made the light they gazed upon now priceless.

Sic tried not to think about what Loki had told him, about why he'd ended up in the mountains in the first place. But it was eating away at him, and he knew he'd have to get it off his chest sooner or later. So one night, he told her about it.

Lucy frowned upon hearing the news. "Oh, that Loki. I'll have to give him a real good talking-to later."

"Wait. S-so… you're not mad at me for not telling you?"

Lucy shook her head. "Of course not. What Loki said to you- that was terrible. I feel awful that one of my spirits made you feel that way."

"But- but what he said was true. I put you-"

His words were cut off by Lucy's lips, pressed firmly to his own. She shoved him to the ground and kissed him again and again, passionately, relentlessly. Sic was flustered beyond belief. There's no way this was real, right? Please, tell me this isn't real. I'm not recovered enough yet.

When Lucy finally halted, Sic struggled for breath, gasping like a fish out of water. "I don't understand-"

"Look, Sic. Are you happy right now?"

Good question. Was he?

"Yes." He paused, and then spoke again, more confident this time. "Yes, I am."

Lucy smiled at him. "Then I'm happy."

In the back of Sic's mind, Sic pondered Lucy's question. Was he really happy? How could he tell? How would he know?

Lucy kissed him again.

Yes. He definitely was.

Thanks so much for reading! Have a super awesome fan-freaking-tastic supercalafragulisticexpialodocious day!