She ran through the tangle of tunnels, silver-grey hair whipping behind her in a mass mess of knots as her feet slammed against the hard concrete. Pale blue lights flickered above her, casting little to no glow over the dark terrain. In amongst the sound of fast, rugged breathing and the loud clacking of footsteps the faint buzz of twisting lachrima cameras could be just about heard as the "eyes" of the dark mages followed the young girl.
Lillith's legs felt like lead as she felt the burning sensation of poison spreading through her veins, making her vision's blurry and cold sweat trickle down her face. A quick glance at the clock made her heart stop before its pace quickened. She had only two hours left – two hours to find both her teammate and get to the finish before she died.
"Crap…"
Dark purple eyes narrowed as the nineteen year old pushed herself harder, muscles aching as she ran. Damn… she could feel her mind slipping – just how strong was this stuff? There was a large purple-green bruise around where the needle had been and Lillith just saw the wound as another thing to spur her on.
She was not losing this – Never!
There was a loud whoosh as the double doors slammed open, shocked faces whipping round to stare at the intruder. Natsu stood, panting, in the middle of the open doors, sweat plastering his pink hair to his face. Behind him were Erza and Gray, both of them breathing as if they had just ran a four-hundred metre sprint.
"Where… is he?" Natsu gasped, hazel eyes hard with determination that shadowed flickers of hope. "Where is Alex Moore?"
Natsu looked round as the harsh scratching of a chair across stone reverberated throughout the almost silent hall. A blonde man slowly turned around and plastered on a cheery smile, pretending not to be bothered by the rude entrance.
"I'm Alex Moore, is there something that I can help you with?" His voice was soft and gentle, and all Natsu could do in reply to this kind man was narrow his eyes and take an almost threatening step forwards.
"Tell me…
Everything you know about "The Game""
"It's started."
Lucy just nodded and continued to fiddle with the strip of red material obscuring her Fairy Tail guild mark. She couldn't shake this feeling from her chest – this horrified feeling of what was yet to come. In all honesty, their tournament hadn't gone that bad, and all the lessons that Carter had been giving her in hand-to-hand combat had really boosted her confidence. But, if that was the just the starter, what was the main course? What awaited them in the semi-finals? What awaited them in the finals themselves? Could they even make it that far?
"We'll definitely win, there's no doubt in my mind about that. Don't you trust me, Lucy?" The blonde slowly rose her head, sad brown eyes catching hold of Carter's emerald green. The blonde shook her head quickly, golden locks whipping against her cheeks as she did so before she looked at the floor again.
"It's not that... It's just... I'm scared." Carter smiled softly and moved away from the door to kneel next to Lucy. Warm fingers gripped her thin shoulder in an act of comfort and Lucy relaxed into the touch. It didn't matter that only ten days ago both her and Carter had been complete strangers – they now shared a bond deeper than any who had know each other for years could ever achieve. It was the bond created through understanding – and in this sense, what they understood from each other was that black shadow of fear that clung to their every movement.
"I told you yesterday Luce... I bet you that Natsu is looking for you as we speak. I can guarantee it actually." Lucy smiled wider and looked back up at Carter.
"And Carter... I bet Alex is looking for you too."
Carter grinned and gave Lucy a thumbs up, fingers releasing her shoulder.
"That's the spirit – that's the Lucy I know!" Carter then stood up and held out a hand for Lucy to grab hold of. "Now, how about some training?"
Lucy laughed and took Carter's hand in hers, letting the slightly taller boy pull her to her feet.
"You're a cruel man, you know that right?" The celestial mage asked jokingly, gold eyebrow raised and a smirk pulling at her lips. Carter just chuckled and patted her on the top of the head before winking cheekily.
"But that's why you love me, right?"
One hour and thirty minutes... Shit, had three hours passed already? That means... Another wave of pain flooded her body and the girl fell to the floor, hand gripping the thin material that covered her chest, heart beating wildly in her chest. Damn it, she could not fall here, not when Jet was waiting for her.
'That's if he's still alive...'
V shook the thought from her head and reached out a hand, resting it against the cold wall as she climbed to her feet, eyes twitching in aguish. There was no way that Jet would die – never, it just wouldn't happen. He would make it through this and they would meet up in the semi-finals – just like they had promised!
But, in order for that to happen, first she had to locate her partner. Damn that stupid Yuki, where the hell was she?! No, she shouldn't be panicking – she didn't usually panic. Now, she just needed to stop and take a few breaths. She just needed to clear her mind and think rationally – which is hard enough as it is without having poison running through your veins and the irritating ticking of a clock in your ear, telling you just how many hours, minutes, seconds until you died. Shit.
In, out. One breath. In, out. Two breaths. In, out. Three breaths.
She was going to make it – she had to make it. There was no way in hell that she was going to let herself die here, alone and cold. No, she was going to make it to the semi-finals, and then the finals, and then she was going to make it home.
That, she was certain of.
"I see."
Natsu crashed his fist down onto the table, sending Alex's mug of beer toppling over, honey coloured liquid spilling over the hard wood surface. Alex didn't flinch though – in fact, the only thing that showed that the blonde had noticed Natsu's little temper-tantrum was the fact that his crystal blue eyes raised about half a centimetre to meet with Natsu's.
"Don't just say 'I see'!" The fire dragon slayer roared, muscles tensed. They had just told them everything they knew, all that they had seen, the pain that they had been through and all this guy had to say was 'I see'? Was he joking or something?
"I can say what I want – it's one of my rights." Alex said smoothly, not a hint of caring in his voice. Honestly, where did this idiot get off acting like this? Barging into his guild, dragging him off like this and now acting rude when all Alex was trying to do was give information. Geez. "Besides, it's not like I don't sympathize with you – I do, after all, I've been feeling what you've been feeling for the a lot longer – but I don't show my sadness. To me, that means that I've given up hope of finding my brother – and I haven't, and I will never give up on him."
Natsu growled once more but sunk back down into his seat, a firm glare from Erza telling him that he should watch his mouth. Then, the red-head turned her attention to the music mage in front of her, tone somewhat harsh when she spoke.
"So, are you going to tell us what you know?" Alex sighed and leaned back in his chair before nodding once.
"Sure, I'll tell you – I haven't forsaken all my emotions. For now, at least." The mage closed his eyes briefly before opening them again and rocking forwards on his chair, body lurching from its relaxed position to a tense, serious one. "I don't have much – locations and such are a complete mystery to me still – but I have just about enough to give us a good start."
"The council were the ones who first started looking into "The Game", but that was only after countless reports of missing mages. Of course, the first year showed no evidence and they ruled off the disappearances as 'Mission Mishaps'. However, the next year was a little different – the dark mages got more risky, and in all, twenty mages were gone, not a single hair left behind. That's when things got serious and the search intensified. Still though, nothing turned up and this year twenty-eight mages were taken."
Alex sighed again and looked down, hands clenching into fists.
"I tried to get information out of the Council and various Rune Knights that were on the case, but they gave me nothing – everything was kept hush-hush. So, I had to do my own investigating."
Blue eyes snapped up, the glistening orbs hard and determined.
"I visited the two and only mages that have survived "The Game". At first, they refused to tell me anything, their once happy personalities distorted and cold, but I begged and finally they gave way."
"They told me what they could about the tournaments, which wasn't much. They said that the preliminary games change every year, and that the selection was random, but that there was two certainties when it came down to it. One was that the semi-final's would be a huge battle that would involve every remaining team and only one of them would make it to the finals."
Gray's eyebrows furrowed and he pushed himself off from the beam he was leaning on, shoes clacking against the stone floor as he made his way towards Alex, Erza and Natsu's table. Three pairs of eyes snapped up to look at the Ice-mages troubled expression.
"You said that only one team would make it to the finals, right? Then, who would the finals be between? Surely you would need more than just one team to have a final fight, wouldn't you?"
Erza and Natsu looked back to Alex, the thought only just dawning on them. The music mage just looked down, hair shadowing his eyes and teeth grit. He clenched his fists tighter, nails digging into the tight flesh of his palm and drawing out small droplets of blood.
"That's right, usually you would, but this game isn't like any other – it's sick, and it's twisted and it feeds off of pain." Alex hissed, venom lacing every word as his body shook. "They want to make you experience true hell, that's why, for the finals, they want to break you. All the time spent with your team mate,"
"Don't worry, Autumn. We won't lose. I won't let us lose."
"The bonds that have been slowly formed,"
"Thank you, Iris-san."
"All the hard times that have drawn you closer together,"
"I'm glad you're alive... Setsuko..."
"All of that is shattered, the promises you made to each other becoming void as you're forced, in order for your freedom, to fight and kill that one person that you've been with since the beginning..."
"We'll definitely win, there's no doubt in my mind about that. Don't you trust me, Lucy?"
"...As you're forced to kill your own teammate."
I loved writing that last bit, going over the other chapters to find just the right quotes was somewhat nostalgic XD Oh, and good news to drown out the evil ending that I've given this chapter - I drew Carter! He's not in colour as of yet, but maybe if I can get my media teacher to help me he will be soon. Not just that, but the fantastic, amazing xxArrowWolfxx has drawn to most awesome picture of Setsuko and Fallon! It's absolutely brilliant!
So, if you want to check those out, follow these two links (Don't forget to take out the spaces~)
brokentoyboxxd . deviantart # / d5ecwyh
xxarrowwolfxx . deviantart # / d5e976n
Seriously, check them out!
Now, for the disclaimer part!
Lillith - TheBonBon (This is an awesome pen name!)
V - Vnight
Next chapter will be the usually 'getting to know the team' as well as the chapter after that! But hey, things are finally heating up!