Disclaimer: I do not own Fairy Tail or any of its characters; they belong to the one and only Hiro Mashima.
I do own the Original Characters –OCs- that appear through the story and the idea for the story.
Knowing it from the beginning.
(A I.-.-.I Kuroyagi I.-.-.I original fan-fiction story.)
Chapter 14: The arrival of the closure.
(In Asa's communication space.)
"Would you, please, calm down a bit?" The short girl known as Sera asked annoyed at the rambling man passing back and forth in front of her and her partner, Baron. Asa was losing what seriousness and calmness he had left, the last line of events making his mind enter a frenzy to know what was that that triggered them, making the ones that looked for his orders being stopped by the lack of focus from his part.
He knew that when Natsu wasn't around, he was the one to give orders to everyone, but after the incident with that formless white being during his last peek into the future… his mind couldn't do anything but wonder how did that happened.
"Answers!" He repeated maniacally as a tantrum, both hands clenched into fists behind his back, his eyes wide and dilated, and his hair a mess for scratching his scalp every time he suffered a headache. Sera released a sigh and Baron stood nervously next to her, both watching the second-in-command lose his sanity.
"W-what should we do, Sera?" The blue haired boy asked his partner, conflicted about what to do with their friend. The petit blonde shook her head in answer, either tired of the scene or telling the boy that she didn't know what to do. They were there, standing idly watching for the past 30 minutes and he didn't even bother to explain what was the cause of his distress.
"I need answers!" Asa bellowed to the dark void one last time before dropping over his shaking knees, his hands moving to cover his face as he trembled all over, shocking his spectators. Baron's mind connected the dots, he felt identified with the scene in front of him, know getting what was happening he got close to the man and rested a hand on his shoulder; gazing at him worriedly when their eyes met.
"What are you afraid of, Asa-san?" The question seemed simple enough, but, unbeknownst to the boy, it struck a nerve inside the man's head.
"Lack of answers!" He screamed ashamed, getting up hastily and shrugging the supportive hand of the timid boy; returning to his back and forth passing, he started to confess his fears to the kids. "I'm supposed to know everything, yet! I don't know why those kids are here! Or what's that thing that assaulted me!"
"Idiot! No one asked you to know everything!" Sera yelled sick and tired of the drama, her voice echoing in the darkness of the communication space until it faded in the nothingness; Asa looked at her with narrowed eyes, his steps taking him to stand imposingly in front of the girl. She took a tentative step back at the unexpected proximity, raising her arms defensively in case he tried anything to harm her but instead, he started to scream loudly.
"Do you know my past? Do you know my heritage? Do YOU have any idea of what I AM?" He berated at her on purpose as he knew that Sera was sensitive to loud voices or sounds, especially those near to her. Baron flinched at the scream but rushed to the help of his friend, anyway. "I am a FARSEER! I'm bound to know everything that happens in the world! And prevent tragedies from ever happening! If something like this happens, am I supposed to stand idle and uncaring about it? Of course not!"
"A-asa-san!" Baron squeaked uneasily, trying to get the man away from the pained Sera with both arms hugging his waist; she was trembling all-over with her hands covering her ears, trying to stop the noises from damaging her ears.
"What would my mentor say? What would my parents think? I'm a disgrace! And you! YOU! Tell me that I'm not supposed to know everything?" He removed the hands holding him and leaned forward to glared at the now crouching girl. "Get out of my sight! Before I do something I regret!"
"Asa-san!" But before Baron could do anything Sera disappeared from the place, leaving a glaring Asa and dumbstruck Baron to see the empty space in which she was previously crouching. The blue-haired boy glared at his superior, teeth clenching and nails digging so hard into his clenched palms that some blood was leaking from the wounds; he was now finding some backbone after witnessing one of his leaders hurt his partner and friend. "Why the hell did you do that?"
"You too, I want to be alonhmpf…!" His sentence was interrupted by a fist connecting with his mouth, move that pushed him back a few steps before the enraged Baron. Asa touched where the punch landed and withdrew his hand to see blood on his fingers, the red fluid dripping from his cut lip, his eyes turned to glare harshly at the young boy now marching towards him to continue his retaliation. "Baron… leave… now!"
"Like hell!" And he jumped to give another punch, watching the unsurprised farseer stand his ground before a figure appeared out of nowhere and grabbed Baron's fist effortlessly, making the boy stop and look in surprise at the new arrival. It was a man with long light blue hair tied down in a ponytail that rested over his left shoulder; he was glaring at him from his position in front of the second-in-command. "Hyde-san!"
"What are you doing, Baron-kun?" Asked Hyde with some edge in his voice, looking over his shoulder to witness the injured lip of his leader, not noticing the distraught state in which the man was, preferring to take care of the boy before asking what was happening. "You know that Natsu-san won't be please with your actions."
"But…!" The blue-haired boy wanted to say something but a hand raised in front of his face stopped him completely from speaking further, Hyde's magic aura making itself be known and frightening him enough to make him shut his mouth in fear of angering the quiet-stoic healer.
"Leave and wait with Sera for instructions, you've done enough." And, with nothing else to say, the boy nodded shakily and vanished from sight, his eyes glaring at the figure behind Hyde before leaving completely. The light blue-haired healer sighed in a tired fashion, not liking the fact that he had to use his aura to scare the boy off. He wanted to solve troubles without any kind of aggressiveness if possible. He turned around and looked questioningly at the man cleaning the blood from his lips with the sleeves of his robes, demanding an answer to what happened before he appeared in front of the farseer.
"Go away, I need to be alone." And he walked off into the darkness, leaving Hyde to watch his retreating back with a confused stare. Was it him or lately everyone felt like doing a drama over nothing? Sighing tiredly, the man took a seat on the floor and continued to watch the pacing farseer, staying with him to alert anyone that entered the realm of the frail state of their second-in-command and prevent something like what he saw before, from happening again.
It was enough to have almost the entire world against them, they needed to remain united as a group.
Or their mission would surely fail.
(Brammingmont; north side, crash site.)
Jumping away from the blast sent by the new fighter, Nova narrowed her eyes at the man introduced as Fran, watching him smirk at every attack he launched and she avoided. It was bad enough to be fighting a man skillful with the blade together with her mother, and now this freak had to appear telling her that she was his opponent; couldn't they just state why they were fighting against them for? Out of nowhere, her father learns that the Council's army is there and suddenly decides to attack them with his lackeys, more of them coming with each one that they defeat.
Lucy was still fighting the blonde man with her spirits, but she could see that she was getting exhausted and that her opponent was nowhere near of being winded. Her mother was holding her ground against the black-armored swordsman but she was also getting exhausted; she was surely thinking about other things while fighting, thus making her sloppy on her moves and get more strength on some of her attacks that were depleting her faster.
She had to do something! Her father was just standing on the middle of the battlefield looking at their fights and was waiting for an opponent to be freed, she needed to finish her fight with this other man and go confront him about his motives. But the mismatched-haired man was just making it impossible for her to do so! "Look here!"
"Ugh!" She was distracted, she'll admit that, and was struck on her sword-arm for being unfocused; leaving it unable to grab a weapon again until it got healed. Fran's smirk widened, he was enjoying the fight even if his opponent wasn't paying too much attention to it.
"Your dad didn't tell you to be focus on a fight? Oh! My bad!" He laughed hysterically at his own dark humor and taunt, marching to the girl with a hand raise and prepared with another spell. "Light magic! Hyperion!"
"Reequip!" A flash of light and she changed to her Twilight Empress Armor, feeling that it would bring the same result as in the previous battle, using her unwounded arm to cut the blast in half with the armor's spear, and dissipate it before charging at the man with the weapon held high. "Move aside!"
"As you wish!" And he disappeared from sight, letting her spear hit nothing but the ground that received the strike and added a small boulder where it hit; one more to the many on the battlefield. She looked at her surroundings with alert and found him standing to her right with his hand ready with another of his attacks. "Light magic! Titan!"
Her right side didn't feel anything at the start, it began to burn for a moment and later she felt the large white beam pushing her against a wall at great speed, her armor taking most of the damage before being completely broken; shattering into a million pieces before her shocked eyes, her spear following the same fate for being used to hold back the powerful attack.
Nova's eyes widened.
Her armor.
The armor that belonged to her mother.
Shattered after receiving a single strike!
She watched helplessly as the armor disappeared and left her in nothing but the swimsuit-like second part of it and her father's scarf, still protecting her from taking most of the damage but not saving her unprotected parts from the burning light.
It is true that she never let a single strike touch the armor, but she hoped that if the situation presented itself, the armor would resist it and shrugged it off like nothing. Seems like she was wrong. She fell to the ground on her knees, her hands and arms stinging her with unbelievable pain for stopping her face and torso from hitting the ground before moving frantically to gather the pieces that were once the armor given to her as a memory of her mother's death.
"Oh, sorry! Did it mean something to you?" Fran mocked as he faked concern for the broken armor, his actions stating the contrary to his words as he was inspecting the nails of his right hand with an uninterested look. "The armor, that is."
"Y-you…! You!" The girl tried to form words to shut the man's mouth but none came to her mind, too busy with what happened to even notice that Natsu was looking at her at the moment and that Erza was on a standstill with her opponent to cast a look of concern on her direction. "M-my mother's armor!"
"So… it meant something?" Fran asked feigning stupidity, disregarding the glare sent his way by the red-head fighting Pierre and the feeling of someone's eyes on his back. "Sorry then, girl, I got carried away…"
"Fran." Natsu's voice resounded behind him, the dragon-slayer putting a hand on his shoulder and making the mismatched-haired man look at him from over his shoulder made that part of the battlefield go silent; Fran frowned at seeing the stern face of his leader. "That's enough."
"If you say so." And he backed away from the place, taking a seat close to Hyde's frozen figure and leaving Natsu to close the remaining space separating him from his… daughter. The dragon-slayer kneeled in front of her, a scowl in place as he watched her hands –wounded for the last attack- gathering the remnants of the armor she said it belonged to Erza.
"Nova," He spoke softly, making her raise her head to look at him with pained-desperate eyes. He didn't know what to say, he wasn't a father -yet- nor did he knew what to do in this kind of situations -yet-. For instance, he knew that lying to her would not help, neither would it help disregarding the armor and asking about her state; he could only think about what happened… what he 'allowed' to happen and wonder what could he do now that the damage was done. Maybe some truth would help, since he knew… her. "I… I know of somebody that can repair it."
Yes, he wasn't going to apologize this time. What was done was done. It was hypocritical of him to do that when he was the one to cause it, but that didn't matter now, he needed to calm the girl and reassure her that what happened could be undone… that he was going to mend his mistakes and the mistakes his followers did during the plan's path. The red-head looked at him with her broken stare before lunging to hug him tightly, much to his surprise. "D-dad!"
She started crying. How much he hated that, especially when the girl looked exactly like… her. The fact she looked identically to the woman he love wasn't helping his anger to settle, he now wanted to kill the one that cause this, even if it was one of his own men. He returned the hug awkwardly, trying to soothe her pain with his hands, one rubbing her back up and down while the other caressed her hair as his face tried to control and not show the anger about to explode.
But then, he felt it, he smelled it; several scents approaching the square with an odor he identified immediately and didn't remembered fondly. His eyes hardened, his body went rigid and his body heat raise in temperature; things that didn't went unnoticed by the girl he held close. She tried to move away from him to question him about what was going on, but he stopped her and whispered hastily while pretending to still being consoling her. "Knights. You and Kaki out."
"Wha…?" She managed to say before disappearing from the place in the blink of an eye.
With Fran... and the frozen Hyde.
'Seems like he's not.' Thought Fran disapprovingly as he watched the display of affection of his leader towards the girl, he saw it coming; he knew that even if Natsu's plan involved fighting against his old friends, the dragon-slayer was going to feel regret for doing it. He sighed shaking his head, his eyes going to look at the other fights; missing the disappearance of his leader, the girl on his arms and the boy lying unconscious close to him.
With Erza and Pierre.
"Concentrate." Pierre said with no emotion, making a sword appear on his left hand before using it to slash at the distracted Erza, she looked at him again and avoided the blade with a simple sidestep to her left, reading the next movement and summoning a sword of her own to parry a slash from the right; making another standstill.
"Who are you?" She asked as he tried to kick her on the gut and she jumped back, he lowered his arms and shook his head to her, running to strike her again with a double slash in an X fashion from the front that she stopped with just one sword; using her free one to stab him on the chest but stopping when she noticed that he wasn't going to avoid it. "Are you looking to die?"
"Don't lower your guard." Was all he said before overpowering her block and breaking her sword in two, Erza giving a step backwards, leaning back to avoid getting her throat slit; the edges' of his swords gracing some strands of her hair that weren't so lucky. He moved another step, giving a slash to her middle with his left that she avoided with a backward jump, he moved again to stand in front of her and gave a stab with his right… stopping when the blade was about to touch the Titania's armor. "We're even."
Well, he was honorable… or stupid, that was certain. She nodded slowly before moving the blade from aiming at her chest with her own, summoning another one to continue the exchange of blows.
Her mind raced as the two exchanged blows. She hated when her feelings got involved in something, she couldn't think straight about the present matter when that happened, and with Natsu being the cause of all the disaster that was happening, it was fairly obvious that she was still trying to digest the info correctly. Her Natsu, the one she thought she knew, was the one disrupting the order she likes; not that it wasn't rare for the dragon-slayer to disrupt order, but this far? Her brain was replaying what happened so far and what she knew:
The pink-haired was back and was "supposedly" helping them with the foreigners' issue, he met up with her and showed her that he somehow reciprocates the feelings she has for him, they managed to beat the two outsiders and later have them to question about their motives discovering that he's on their part and seems to be their leader.
But if that's supposed to be true, then the known headstrong, childish and oblivious man she loves was in charge of an army of mages; making them do his will to fulfill a plan he had, like the guild master of a dark guild!
Or… no. She didn't like that comparison; that possible explanation!
It was like Jellal when he was drove mad and brainwashed to build the Tower of Heaven to revive the supposedly dead Zeref! Guiding people blindly to a disastrous end! But which was his purpose? What drove him to command this army of foreigners? And most importantly, what was the reason that triggered him to do it?
He couldn't have gathered them all to free Jellal and defeat the supposed 'dark one' just because someone told him and showed him an old legend! Though, that was something the old Natsu she knew would do... but! He showed her that he grew up this past years! So there was surely an ulterior motive for his actions!
She looked over her shoulder to see the man plaguing her thoughts and, much to her surprise, he wasn't there! Neither was Nova, and now that she examined the battlefield closely, the boy that arrived with her was also gone. 'When did he…?'
"Focus." The man in black armor said as he parried a slash and, moving away her other sword, got closer to her and rammed her with his chest plate; throwing her off balance and calling back her attention to the present fight. She steadied herself and raise her two swords to the front, stopping a vertical slash from cutting her in half; she clenched her teeth in annoyance and anger, she needed to get rid of this guy before checking Natsu and the kids' whereabouts.
But then, something clicked in her mind. She remembered how the man stopped when he had the chance to stab her through the chest, saying that they were even as she did the same thing for him before. She stopped her assault and made her swords go back to her magic storing space, nodding to the man in front of her before trying her theory. "My name is Erza Scarlet, S-class mage of Fairy Tail and Ex-quip user."
The man stopped at hearing this, mimicking her actions and making his swords disappear before speaking with his monotonic voice; a low bow given to the Titania out of respect and courtesy. "Pierre Marlier, Captain of Bosco's Royal Family guard and Armor Dragon-Slayer."
Erza felt her eyes widening in shock. Another dragon-slayer? And more over, one specialized in armors? So he eats armors to replenish his magic? How was that? Wasn't it the same as eating iron like Gajeel? And his roar? Did he spew weapons or armors? Confusing indeed, she nodded slowly to his introduction, calling back her weapons and returning to her fighting stance, the man doing the same. Questions would have to wait.
"A pleasure." She said tightening the hold on her swords.
"That, it is mine." He answered in kind before lunging back at her.
With Lucy, Loki and Literio.
Lucy withdrew her whip after the weapon was nearly caught by the blonde dragon-slayer's hand, clenching her teeth in frustration at how hard it was so far to make the man fall even with the help of her strongest spirit's help; she needed to think of something to overpower him and defeat him, or at least make him surrender like the guy, Gray and the girl from the future fought minutes ago. The light-blue haired man now stood frozen in the middle of the battlefield.
'Calling Caprico or Gemini won't be of enough help, and it will drain what little magic I have left…' She thought clutching her whip tightly, Loki keeping their enemy at bay while she figured a way to defeat him.
Literio was thrilled. An opponent that couldn't be defeated by normal means, that was able to counter his strikes with such grace that made him doubt his chances of victory, and that was experienced at fighting his kind of magic. He would be jumping of joy if it weren't be because losing focus would mean his defeat. The grin on his face widened to insane proportions, ducking a roundhouse kick to his head, he positioned his feet correctly and lunged to the spirit's back when it was facing him; his lightning covered fist connecting perfectly with the target's spine near the lumbar, hearing a crack sound from the hit and sending him flying against and through a building's wall behind the stellar mage.
"That… was… interesting…" He said in between pants, his body acting out of will-power to make him stand up straight, he cracked his knuckles and readied himself for the next round; he knew the spirit wasn't defeated yet. And he was right, Loki walked out –rather crawled- out of the debris and coughed a few times before raising his head to glare at the blonde foreign man. Lucy knew now that she needed to think faster, maybe calling Caprico to back him up wasn't a bad idea, she did called the goat more than once over the past years to help the lion and they seemed to fight well together. She moved her hand to the keys hanging on her belt, her fingers grabbing the goat's key by instinct before her arm raised high to summon him.
"L-lucy, stop!" She heard Loki calling out to her, she saw him getting up shakily and readying himself to continue; his clothes in tatters and his shade-glasses cracked. He was panting hard and his vision seemed to be blurring, but he was willing to continue the fight on his own. "I… I can deal with him…"
"But you're wounded badly! I can't…!"
"Trust me!" He shouted before his feet started to drag him forward rapidly, his fists glowing brightly as he waited anxiously the closeness to return the favor to the grinning blonde in front of him. The distance closed, a right hook moved to hit the blonde on the chest, and a sidestep from him followed by a fist to his face; the spirit stopped the fist from sending him flying like last time by the strength of his neck and legs, moving it slowly while the fist still remained on his cheek, his eyes glaring at the ever grinning Literio.
"You're getting slower…" Loki grinned cheekily at the man's words, unsettling him but not enough to him from grinning ear to ear.
"And you're getting sloppy!" Immediately after saying that, Literio found his arm grabbed by both hands of the spirit, preventing him from moving away; the golden light returned to the spirit's hands as it started to burn the blonde's arm on contact, making him grunt in pain. Loki's grin widened, as the light of his fists started to grow, inch by inch, spreading the burning sensation to the lightning slayer's front until it engulfed them completely; the spirit giving one last shout before disappearing from sight with his prey.
"Regulus Impact!"
And all that was seen…
…was light.
To be continued.
Okay, I grew tired of waiting! I can't wait until February the 5th to upload!
So here you have a new chapter, something to keep you entertain while I work with the next of "My Candy"; chapter 15 and the epilogue will be release for Sunday the 5th, so wait a little longer.
Going to myself, my vacation went great, I literally cannot complain about it. It gave me time to freshen myself, think about some ideas, organize others and pay some attention to my boring-routinely life.
About this chapter, I think I have stretch the fight longer than what I should have, so it will end... right now.
Wait for the next one to see what I'm meaning.
Also, I've been writing this story for the past months and so far, the only thoughts shared with me about where this story is going were through PM. Is there a soul out there willing to share his/her thoughts about the story through review?
If there is, please, you and all the other readers! R&R!
Saludos and glad to see you all again!