Chapter Eight: Fallen Dark
"Raven Hawk?" said everyone in surprise.
"Raven Hawk…" said Mira, "I knew there was something familiar about her…"
Retina stayed silent. She hadn't expected for anyone to find out about her true identity. She glared at Reiki who smiled, satisfied he had uncovered her secret and put her down. He barked at a group of members, "Take these people to the Heartfilia girl's cell. They can all die together since they're such great friends."
Some people grabbed Retina by her wrists which were held behind her back. As she walked, she passed Aston and Araluen. Araluen leaned against the guild's door frame, his eyes closed. Aston was more direct. He glared at Retina, "You were going to kill us all!"
Retina felt a stab of sadness now that the only two people she trusted in the guild had turned against her. She turned away, "I wasn't going to kill you two." She continued walking with the others to Lucy's cell.
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My eyes had finally decided to stop crying after the loss of my spirits. I still missed them; I hadn't even used Scorpio yet! But more over that, they were close friends and I always through they'd be by my side, literally, but now they weren't. It felt strange to not see that gold glint in the corner of my eye now.
Suddenly, I heard lots of people walking towards my cell again. I didn't feel like talking to the guards today so I stayed curled into a ball leaning against the wall. Until, I heard his voice.
"Let me go, I have to go find my friend!" shouted the undeniable voice of Gray.
I immediately tensed up, the way I always do whenever Gray's around. I hadn't seen him since I'd left him in the street to go running after Juvia. Now I started worrying about that. If it was Gray, which it probably wasn't since I thought the perfume would do the trick, he would probably hate me now for ditching him like that. Maybe I could talk to him about it… but it was something I actually didn't want to do considering he probably hates me and all.
As the footsteps neared, I heard Natsu's voice, "Where's Lucy, dammit?"
My breathing became rapid. If Natsu and Gray were both here, Erza probably was. I nearly cursed aloud. If they somehow forced them to join this guild, they would be incredibly strong. I wondered how they beat my team? Since they were shouting, 'let me go', they were probably being restrained by some people. How strong was this guild to beat all of them at once?
Suddenly, my door was opened and one by one, each person was tossed in: Natsu, Gray, Erza, Mira, Happy, Loke and Retina.
"Mina?" I cried, "And Mira too?"
"You shitheads!" yelled Natsu, running towards the door which the people were quickly trying to shut. He raised a fist, small flames flickering.
I suddenly remembered Reiki's magic, "Natsu! Don't—!"
He yelled in agony as the magic took effect and fell to the ground, holding his side.
"Natsu!" I said, going over to him, "Are you OK?"
"Lucy?" said Natsu, instantly happy seeing me, "Lucy's here!"
"Lucy!" cried the others of my guild except Retina who sat against the wall, her head touching her knees as she slightly curled up.
"Are you OK, Lucy?" asked Mira.
"Mira-chan! Ahhh!" I yelped, seeing her in her 'Demon's' outfit.
"Don't ask," said Erza, holding out a glinting gold object, "Look what we have."
"My Spirits!" I cried, taking the bracelet, "Thank you!" I took off each key, placing it carefully back on my belt, "How did you guys get here?"
"A train and then we hiked," said Erza, "Anyway, that's not important. The point is, what are YOU doing here? You just suddenly ran away! We thought you were dead, Lucy!" she shouted.
"My father," I said, "He was held for hostage here along with his guild. I had to come here to save him."
"Why didn't you ask us to come with you?" said Gray, "You could have died by yourself, no offence."
"I couldn't," I said, "If I brought any of you, my father would be instantly killed. I'm sorry I suddenly disappeared, but I had to for my father."
"Your father," said Retina, speaking for the first time, "is not here."
"Nani?" I said.
"Why would they have to bring him here?" said Retina, "They knew you would come if they wrote your father was hostage in the message and you did so why waste time to actually kidnap your father?"
"Lucy, that's the most obvious trick in the book; come on," said Natsu, rolling his eyes.
"Well, what if he was actually in danger?" I said, "I couldn't risk it by not coming."
"She is right," said Mira. She turned to Retina, "OK, now that we see Lucy is safe and kind of starved-looking but still safe, you," she looked evenly at Retina, "I think you have a lot to explain."
"Maybe," said Retina, "But I don't know what information is useful to you so you have to ask me what to explain."
"OK," said Loke, "That's fair. The one I want to know most is… Why are you bothering to help us?"
"It has to do with Lucy," said Retina.
"Eh? Me?" I said, pointing to myself.
Retina nodded, "When I was little…"
"Uh, we're just looking for a direct answer, not a whole history thing," said Happy.
Retina rolled her eyes, "It has to do with the answer. Just sit down and listen."
We did as she said.
"When I was little, a Dark Guild attacked my village," said Retina, "They killed a lot of people, including my parents. I was only about two at the time. Somehow, the Dark Guild hadn't noticed me and didn't kill me. Anyway, after time, I had to leave and learn to fend for myself. A town was near my hometown, Talien. Soon, I made it there and usually lived in alleys and hunted for food. Then, one snowing night, I think I fell unconscious or something because I was sick with a fever caused by the weather. When I woke up, I found out someone had rescued me," she smiled slightly, "Her name was Freya and she was a strong mage of the town guild. She was very kind and taught me magic and treated me like her own. Then, one day, another Dark Guild had come to attack Talien. I was about ten then. Freya and her guild fought them but they turned out to be stronger. At one point, I couldn't stand just watching them and ran out to help but then a Dark Guild member noticed me and was about to stab my head to kill me when Freya protected me. She was stabbed in a crucial area and yelled at other guild members to take me away and protect me. I didn't want to leave her dying there, but I was eventually taken away by the guild. After that, I felt an incredible sadness and regret that I didn't do anything sooner. I also made it my goal to destroy as many Dark Guilds as I could for taking away everyone precious to me."
"OK, so what's the point of this story?" asked Natsu.
"Natsu!" hissed Erza, hitting him in the head, "She's speaking of losing someone! Be polite!"
"No, it's OK," said Retina, "Anyway, Lucy reminded me so much of Freya. She was a strong person and a believer in using your own strengths instead of stealing someone else's. This guild would have killed Lucy. I helped her because if I let her die, it'll be like seeing Freya die all over again. And also, if she died, you guys would probably feel the same pain and sadness I did and I never want to inflict that on someone else."
"I see," said Erza, "So you're not actually a part of this guild but rather, you want to destroy it."
Retina nodded, "Although it has been hard. Aston and Araluen have become close friends in the two months I've been here. If I decided to kill this guild, I wouldn't be able to kill those two and if I destroyed their guild, they'll hate me forever."
"What do they like so much about this guild?" said Mira.
"It's their home," said Retina, "Literally. Araluen is Reiki's son."
"NANI?" I yelled, "His SON? Who'd be nuts enough to MARRY that guy?"
"Yeah," said Retina, "Aston's been here since he was five. This guild is home to them. And I guess someone hungry for power. Although it's said she's passed away."
"Well," I said, "Moving on from this topic, I want to ask, what the heck is this guild doing?"
"Well," said Retina, "As you might have noticed, I have the same abilities as your friend, Evergreen. I didn't learn it. It was actually implanted in me."
"Like a lacrima?" asked Gray.
"Not exactly," said Retina, "Ochre copies a person's abilities, sometimes some of their DNA and memories as well, and puts them into another person. We can have as many people's abilities in us as possible without any harm. It was forbidden a long time ago because some people had the idea to make the ultimate human weapon with all these legendary abilities stuffed into them. You can even copy the abilities of long-dead people and give them to others. When the Raijinshuu tribe and that water mage came here to save a town aka, Estonia on a mission, we beat them and copied their abilities. I was given Evergreen's abilities, Aston-Freed's and Araluen-Bickslow's. The water mage was the one who was sneaky and managed to escape before she could be copied and freed the others. Although, Ochre had already messed with all their memories a bit and they have no idea we have their abilities, except the water one."
"Juvia…" I said, "And the Raijinshuu team."
"What's that green jewel you were holding and broke?" asked Natsu, "The one that was around blondie's neck?"
"You fought Kyrie?" I cried.
"Yeah, we beat her, case closed, I don't feel like explaining. Anyway, what was that jewel?" asked Erza to Retina.
"When Ochre copies abilities, he copies twice," she said, lifting up two fingers, "One he actually implants in the person and the second into a magic jewel. When someone has gotten new abilities, they usually have trouble controlling it or getting enough magic power for it especially if it's a strong magic such as, let's say, your Requip magic," she said to Erza, "If they wear the jewel, it gives them a boost in magic power and helps them control the technique better. That's why people with recently implanted abilities usually have to wear them like Kyrie. When people have gotten used to their abilities like me, they don't have to wear it."
"Well, if all they do is give a magic power boost, why did you destroy it?" asked Loke.
"It's been said that if you destroy the jewel with a person's ability implanted in it, the implanted person will no longer have that ability. For example, since I destroyed Lucy's ability jewel, Kyrie should no longer have contracts with any of Lucy's spirits and can't summon them any longer."
"Thank God," muttered Loke.
Retina smiled, "So basically, the whole point of this whole operation was to get Lucy here, lure other Fairy Tail mages here, defeat mages using Lucy's ability since her friends wouldn't bear to fight her Spirits, copy everyone's abilities and become the strongest guild."
"That sucks," said Gray.
"Of course it does; that's why we're busting out of here and destroying the whole guild, except for a few exceptions." She moved her hand over her mark and an indigo pulse radiated out, erasing her Demon Crosses mark, "Only I have no idea how we are going to get out. We can't use magic in here and there's only one way out which is by a locked, steel door."
"Well, maybe we can dig out?" I suggested.
Mira tapped the stone floor with her shoe, "With what?"
"Maybe there's a weak spot in one of these stones?" said Erza, looking thoughtfully at the stone walls.
"Ah, I know, I know!" said Natsu enthusiastically, "I'll punch out the wall with my Dragon Slayer magic!"
"Are you not listening?" I said in disbelief.
Suddenly, a clicking of footsteps interrupted our bizarre/useless ideas. We all looked up to see shadows falling over our cell.
"Go away, we're planning how to get out of here!" shouted Natsu.
"You idiot!" yelled Gray, "How dense are you?"
Then, unexpectedly, I heard a click and we looked up to see the door swinging open.
"Hey, Luce," said a familiar voice, "Sorry we took so long but… we're here now."
I looked up to see Fallen Dark smiling at us.