It was quiet for a beat of a second.
"It was you, you sick bi-"
"Now, I'm gonna stop you there, girly," Arabella said with a thin smirk, raising a finger. "You are very right."
"How... You weren't there. How did you kill her...?" Nashi got out, her vision blurring with tears but her teeth gritted together.
Arabella let out a laugh that made Nashi's blood boil, before responding while she paced in front of her men on heels. "There was a moment, during our first meeting, that she had my dagger pressed to her neck. I realized I didn't want to kill her. I wanted her baby. That child, the child of the legendary Salamander and likely the strongest celestial mage in existence, would have so much potential, so much power, and I wanted it. So, I decided, I would take it. Simple, yes? But, of course, I had to think a bit ahead. I knew I wasn't going to fight these two alone in that moment, especially with their friends nearby, so I had to come back later for the child. Well, I knew I would never get my hands on that baby later, unless someone was out of the picture, and who is going to fight the hardest for their baby? The mother."
Nashi squeezed her eyes shut, the tears overflowing and the anger burning in her chest. She felt the heat build in her hands, the burn to fight this woman.
"So, I had to get rid of her. I couldn't do it with him just standing there, so I made a smoke screen, and tried a bit of new magic, Body Link. I made her body a time bomb," she continued, a horrible grin on her lips. "I made it so that when the child was born, the body would shut down. I had her heart stop just after seeing what it is she would lose, just after seeing her baby."
"You're sick," Nashi blurted out. "You won't get away with that!"
Arabella shrugged. "I already have. She's gone, your father is broken, and I have you. That's everything on my list," she said.
Nashi shook her head. "You'll never 'have' me."
She shrugged once more. "It sure looks like I do. Wouldn't you say so?"
Nashi glared her way as her hands burned through the rope on her wrists and fell to the floor. She would only have a couple of seconds.
"Not even on my dead body."
Then, everything moved in a flash.
Nashi jumped up, fist slamming into Arabella's jaw and the fire making a sickening sort of sizzle on the skin of her face. The fire burst from her mouth and blew a path through the rest of the little group, and Nashi jogged a bit down the hall, her eyebrows low over her eyes. She wiped her hands over her cheeks as she ran and sighed deeply as the memory came back to her. Dammit, Dad.
"Nashi, just can't always fight your way through it."
Nashi looked at her Dad with raised eyebrows. Natsu Dragneel saying that. Priceless.
He knew what she was thinking immediately and smiled, walking to put a hand on her shoulder. "I know. If anyone knows this from learning it the hard way, it's me. Just... Remember me telling you this. There's gonna be a time when it's smarter to run. At least remember it then."
Nashi shook her head and raised her fists with a grin. "Okay, okay. Let's get back to the fight."
Nashi bit back an enraged yell and ran, her legs hitting the gravel of the hall until the sun from outside hit her face and she had to squint to see where she was going. She knew this place. It wasn't far from the Hall. No safer place to hide than right under the enemies nose. She took one second to catch her breath, eyes on the doorway she had just left behind her.
"Nashi!" Came the call behind her.
Nashi turned around to see her father, eyes flaming but worried as he looked at her. She picked up her foot to run towards him and a few of her friends. A deep sting in her shoulder stopped her dead and she ground her teeth together as she fell to the floor on her knees.
"That's enough of this," said Arabella from the doorway. "Boys, get the others. I'll get the girl myself."
Her little minions ran off, the members of Fairy Tail quick to fight back against them. Nashi kneeled in the dirt alone and bit back a call for help. She could do this.
She stood slowly, her hand reaching back to where the pain came in her shoulder. Her fingers wrapped around the cold metal of a handle and she tugged, ignoring the burn in her back as her muscles begged her to stop. It finally came full out, a dagger in her hand and blood warm over her palm. She dropped and took a deep breath as she turned to Arabella.
Arabella twirled her quill between her thumb and index finger, eyes calm and amused. It made Nashi pissed. She wanted this woman gone, even if she had to do it herself. They both waited for each to make the first move.
It was Nashi that finally did it.
Her balled fist, engulfed in flames, swung out as she ran towards Arabella, but the flick of the woman's wrist was incredibly fast, and Nashi's hand slammed into a shield that disintegrated under the hit. The bits fell to the floor, but Arabella stood safely before her and gave Nashi a condescending smile.
"Brain will always beat brawn," she said.
Nashi glared at her, but let a smirk peek through. "So what happens when one person has neither?"
Arabella's smile faded and she flicked her wrist with the script of her words. Glass flashed in the air before her, little bits spewing out of the word and straight to Nashi. She fought them with the flames she was so used to using for every purpose.
Their fight was only one in the middle of many, but Nashi couldn't hear anyone else. She had to get this woman, the one who had taken everything from her and her Dad.
Speak of the devil.
"Oi!"
The two girls turned to look as Natsu walked calmly up, his usual sort of swagger in his walk, but no smile on his face. He looked the woman dead in the face and demanded, "What did you do to her?"
Arabella raised an eyebrow, but she knew exactly what he meant.
"Why, weren't you there?" She asked. "The day the Body Link took her, I know you were. I needed that baby, Salamander. I did what had to be done to get her, and here we are."
Natsu looked at her for a moment. You could see the words sink into his mind and his eyes grew dark. He gave an emotionless nod, then took a step closer.
"You won't take her too," Natsu said, and the heat of the fire was incredible.
Nashi stumbled back from the fight as her father kept her distant from the fray. She watched with curious eyes. Her father never lost, but he looked to be struggling for sure.
Suddenly, she saw the thing that would push her over the edge.
Arabella kicked Natsu back with ridiculous force and raised her quill as he lay at her feet. "I suppose I'll have to do to you what I did to the blonde."
Nashi stood, grinding her teeth together. "Not my Dad. You can't take him too."
Her hand absently went to pocket that held her mother's keys. The felt warm, oddly so. When she pulled them out of her pocket, she saw a key she had never seen before. She had looked at the keys since before she could walk and knew each one by color and shape. She knew every glint of the gold from the axe-shaped key of Taurus to the key pressed with the mark of Nikora.
She did not, however, know the key that hung at the end. The one with a pink Fairy Tail emblem pressed onto it.
Nashi didn't know why (she had never done it before), but she raised the key to the sky in front of her, and streaked it down. The soft ring that came through the air and the bright flash of light that followed the end of the key made Nashi calmer, but she didn't know why. The light tampered with her eyes, and they fought to adjust. When they finally cleared, the spirit before her made the air catch in her chest.
The spirit was a beautiful woman. A flowing white dress like those that could be seen on Greek goddesses hung from her body, her curves hugged by thin belts of silver. The woman held herself in a gentle manner, her movements very soft, reminding of a breeze. Thin rings fell on every other one of her fingers, only one on her left hand was gold instead of the silver of the others. The air around her was warm and glowing, but it was her gentle face, golden brown eyes, and the blond hair that fell over her shoulders that held Nashi still in her place.
She felt tears burn in her eyes. That face... She knew it so well, but so little. She felt the warmth of tears on her cheeks as she croaked out the word she had never really had to use.
"Mom?"
I promised a plot twist, didn't I? Well, there you guys have it. I know it's a little crazy, but you'll have to wait til they're not busy fighting to get a bit of an explanation in. This chapters a little long, but I hope you all enjoyed it.
Thanks for all the favorites and followers and especially, the reading. I love you guys.
-J