Faster than your average bear this time! I'll try to keep it up. Please read and review!
disclaimer: don't own FT. Enjoy creating the OCs.
~OoOoO~
Adie's face paled and Lucy's teeth chattered. She could only imagine how the demi-spirit felt, given Veleda's sudden, startling revelation. Lucy had her suspicions as to why the seer had helped them from the beginning, and Veleda had just confirmed those suspicions.
Adie sucked in a deep breath after what seemed like an eternity of holding it. The color slowly returned to her face, and Veleda held the icy blue glare that was threatening to tear through her. The spirit knew it was her time for reckoning. With a flutter of fabric, she dropped to her knees, her hands resting on her legs and her head bowed.
Adie's eyes briefly fluttered wider, before narrowing. Her next words were a roar of fury that Lucy didn't know she harbored. "Explain yourself. NOW!"
Lucy jumped, startled at the ferocity of the command and the regal authority behind it. Veleda did not shudder, her body still and tense. After a moment, and a brief twitch of her fingertips over the downy fabric of her tunic, Veleda finally spoke.
"Daylon was a Celestial Spirit mage, which is what drew Freya to him. It was destiny," Veleda shared, her gaze growing unfocused. "There was a registry for all mages at that time...and Enforcers to ensure that registration."
"Get to the point!" Adie spat vehemently and with an air of impatience.
Veleda glanced at Lucy, "He was a more distant relative of mine, as well, though on my mother's side. He was orphaned at an early age, and I raised him as an adoptive parent. At that time, I remained with the village—it was where my kin—my family—still survived. It kept me there...that feeling of family and belonging. I can't deny that my relationship with Daylon influenced his encounter with Freya, or that I didn't hope... "
A crimson tendril fell in her face, and she didn't make a move to push it away as her amber gaze flickered to Adie and her words sought to impress upon the demi-spirit. "Belonging somewhere. Feeling less alone. I had hoped that by uniting them, there may be more...like me..." She sighed softly. "It's not easy being a half-breed, with nowhere to belong. No people willing to claim you. And Freya had always been so kind to me."
Lucy nodded. She could only imagine the hardship Adassandra, Lilith and Veleda undertook. They didn't fit in either the Celestial Spirit World or Human World.
"I could have read the Enforcer's presence when I noticed he was staring at me, or when he asked for Daylon, but it was the Spring Festival, and I was feeling not my usual mistrusting self and we had been seeing a surge of Council members since the Dragon War," the seer told them, "So I directed him to your father. I was used to people staring at me. My skin color, alone, made me unique. "
"Who was he?" Adie hissed, her voice low.
"I don't know, and I never did find out," Veleda answered slowly. "A premonition was all I needed to find my way to the shop—thank heavens Freya had taken you and Lilith away for the day."
Lucy felt her heart stop, and she wrung her hands nervously. "Daylon didn't practice magic, he wasn't registered, was he?"
"No," Veleda's eyes flickered to Lucy, impressed with her intuition, "He only held the keys to protect them...it was a time where Spirits were being misused and new Spirit Laws were being drafted. I see where you get that resolve, Adassandra; it's your father through and through—"
"Please. Stop," Adie breathed, lips pursed and pale.
Veleda sighed, "My apologies, but I must continue. This man...he was after something..."
"My mother's key," Adassandra's fists were tight balls at her sides. She already knew this part.
"No," the seer replied carefully, eyes on Adie's face. "My key."
Lucy gasped, "You had given him your key?"
"I thought it only right!" Veleda sighed. "Both he and Freya had always been kind to me." When others weren't. "He was my kin. He was like a son! I'd rather a stranger not have it in a time where mages were using us as killing machines! You should have seen our casualties in the Dragon Civil War...sickening."
Adie stared at the spirit, and Lucy was uncertain if she were going to lose her cool. She had grown up under the assumption that her father was the unlucky bystander to a corrupt mage who was a threat to her mother. It wasn't far from the truth...
"He had somehow already acquired Morpheus' key. We had been surprised when we faced one another that day, as Morpheus had always watched over me." Veleda's fingers grabbed at the hem of her tunic, gently squeezing the fabric in distraction. "Daylon had, despite my pleas, refused to give my key up to the mage or allow me to fight in his stead. He knew those repercussions."
Adie stared at the ground as she fought the torrent of emotions going through her. Veleda quickly continued. "In the end, Morpheus killed that mage in defiance and I lost my sight trying to save your father's life. We both sacrificed so much to protect him. And it was worthless!" Tears silently spilled over as she retold the story.
"That's why he is indebted to you!" Lucy intervened suddenly. "Morpheus! He said so, once. He would have been exiled for harming a human if it had been revealed."
"You are right, child," Veleda responded softly, tears streaking her face in silent trails. "That would have meant his death. He had saved mine."
"But not my father's," Adie ruefully croaked.
"He had the opportunity to give my key to that mage, but he would never sacrifice a spirit's safety," Veleda quickly replied. "That knowledge and dedication was one of the reasons why your uncle tried to stop time in this world so that Peony could attempt to heal him. But even Leo's mother could not save him. So, His Majesty brought him to our world, hoping he may spend his last moments with Freya. There was nothing we could do, sometimes even magic fails us."
"I remember that day well," Adie admitted. "Lilith was restless. I had met Leo and Aries for the first time and recall Peony leaving quickly. Later, when I saw my mother...she was different."
"I admitted everything to her...not once did she blame me," Veleda admitted, tears falling anew. "She was so emotionally wounded, she needed to rest."
"Freya Sleep is real?" Lucy sputtered, incredulous.
Veleda offered a soft smile through her veil of tears, "Ah, your scholarly friend has been an influence on you, child. It is how Freya heals, yes. But, it makes her vulnerable, so her whereabouts are always unknown. The more perilous the injuries—"
"The longer the sleep. I imagine emotional wounds are more difficult to heal" Lucy nodded her comprehension. They create the most painful scars. "And, yes, I've been reading."
"She's alive?" the demi-spirit whispered, eyes wide with disbelief as she pleaded with Veleda to give her some vestige of hope. Some hope in all of this despair. "I always believed she was!"
"It is my belief." Veleda agreed. "Her priority was to protect you and your sister. A dark magic had been making appearances throughout the land, and that unrest was detectable to even the spirits. It was a start to all of this, I believe. And I think Zeref's prison was slowly weakening, even then."
"How did she come to altering my key?" Adie asked as she gingerly traced the outline of her key as it was nestled in her fingers.
Veleda stared at the object as she reminisced, "She requested me to read your future, as she knew she would not be present. I told her what little I could derive, which was true to what I shared with you when we first met again. My dwindling lineage had always been important to me, and she knew this. Freya was ruthless, but she was not without mercy. She took it upon herself to use your key in such a manner as to protect that one promising divergence of a vision. We all had to believe it could come true. I simply placed the dagger...and a few other objects. "
"Why?" Adie asked quietly.
"It was the only way to protect you and Lilith that I could foresee, though, as I said before, that vision was not without fault." Veleda shared. "It was her only hope. Our only hope. We had to hold onto it."
"No….why help you? Because of you, my father died!" Adie spat, her earlier anger coming back to surface in a raging boil.
Veleda lowered her head, "Perhaps because of me, she had a way to ensure the survival of her children when she could not be there to protect them." Knuckles were white as she tugged at the fabric, once again. "Or perhaps because she knows the role I will play in this?"
Adie stared at the woman, both mute and volatile. Lucy hoped she would continue to contain the fury that was roiling beneath her poised exterior. Lucy was uncertain if she, herself, would react any differently if she had heard this news about her own parents. She recalled the anger she felt upon seeing them on the battlefield, their souls trapped in dead bodies being used as weapons. She felt her pulse quicken at that thought.
"And just...just what role is that?" Adie's voice cracked with frustration. She was fighting the urge to succumb to the engulfing blame.
"For one, I helped carry out her plan to this very moment. Barsky giving that dagger and those relics to Lucy was no coincidence," Veleda admitted in a low, controlled voice. "But more importantly, for what I'm about to do."
By this point, both women were staring at her in anticipation, Adie's anger abating with her growing curiosity. Veleda's eyes fell to the earth, her face devoid of any emotion, though Lucy could hear the inherent sadness within her voice as she raised her head to meet Adie's gaze.
"I will follow in my mother's footsteps and lock Zeref away once again if he is freed."
"But that's suicide! You'll die," Lucy's voice rose, filled with concern.
"And I will do it gladly," Veleda was speaking to Adie. "I am truly sorry." She didn't elaborate, and Lucy wasn't sure that it was necessary.
Adie's face softened before becoming its usual blank slate. She pushed herself to her feet, closing her eyes for a brief moment as she inhaled slowly. "No..."
"It's the least I can do!" Veleda protested, her voice strained with emotion.
"No more deaths," Adie whispered to the sky. "I'm tired of death. I've lost too many people." She looked around the field. "Too many friends."
Veleda opened her mouth to argue or offer her life once again—Lucy didn't know. But something caught Adie's eye, her gaze flickering over Veleda's head to something beyond. Her expression changed becoming more somber. Lucy watched her quizzically.
"Ah," Veleda murmured, understanding what was coming to pass.
"Backup's here," Adie nodded and sighed, her voice warbling with restraint—though from what, Lucy did not know. "'Bout damn time."
Natsu lifted his nose to the sky, sniffing deeply, nostrils flaring with each strong breath. Happy swooped down, landing beside him. He knew all too well that something had caught Natsu's attention. He eyed his friend with expectation and mild suspicion.
"What is it?"
After another dramatic inhalation, Natsu's head snapped around, his eyes narrowed as he scanned the battlefield. "I…recognize that smell. I've encountered it somewhere before…..I just can't...can't remember where."
"What's it smell like?" Happy looked confused as he attempted to understand his friend's dilemma.
Natsu felt an odd familiarity and a deep, instinctual warning, "It smells like...a woman." He shook his head in frustration, growling profanities. "Dammit! I feel like I should remember this!"
"Aye, you should," Happy watched him cautiously, attempting to stave off the growing anxiety deep within his stomach. Natsu always remembers a smell. "Something's telling you it's bad, huh?"
"Yeah, I haven't smelled it since we've been here, so if it's an ally, I'd a-noticed already," Natsu slowly replied, distracted by his flight of thoughts. He rubbed his head furiously as his mind raced. This is a real pain in the ass.
He met Makarov's eye, and he could tell the old man was upset by the deaths the Alliance had already incurred. Laxus had taken the burden of carefully moving the bodies and laying them to rest prior to the start of the new wave of revived forces. Each familiar face had wounded Makarov anew. The dragon slayer had disagreed with the past guild master's ultimate plan, but he knew that the old man wouldn't back down.
Happy sighed unhappily. No way can this be good. "Uh oh."
"Uh oh's right, Buddy," Natsu murmured, glancing at Happy sadly. "It's just more trouble than we already have."
"Then," Happy's white wings sprouted as he shot into the sky, swooping down dramatically after a quick scan of the battlefield. He grabbed onto Natsu's tattered vest, "I suppose we better start looking and find this person fast."
"Yup," Natsu grunted, his mind still struggling to grasp the correct memory. The one that would be the key to the pungent odor in his nostrils—the one on the tip of his tongue. He inwardly cursed his poor memory.
Happy's wings flapped, giving him a formidable speed at which he carried the dragon slayer. He could detect Natsu's fear—fear for Lucy, fear for Makarov, fear for everyone but himself. It was unsettling the dragon slayer's lack of concern for himself, and that's what made him a dangerous foe. The love in Natsu's heart made tears spring to Happy's eyes. He would be a devoted friend...to his death. The eksheed knew they had yet to escape the vision Veleda had shared with him and Lucy, and he'd be damned if he'd let it come to reality. He'd die first.
"Over there," Natsu's finger shot out, directing Happy to the odor he was tracking. Happy could feel the tension his friend carried. His lack of awareness was driving him mad.
"Right," Happy dove as Natsu continued to give instructions. "The one with the mask, that's her! I—" Suddenly his eyes grew wide, "Shit! I remember! What the hell?"
Happy squared his shoulders as he awaited the revelation, swiftly swooping low on his course. He darted under blows and over heads. His eyes tracked his target who was easily maneuvering around the battlefield. "Who is it, Natsu?"
"The one from Galuna Island," Natsu growled, "I'm sure of it."
"You fought him...or her" Happy recalled the male appearance despite Natsu's protests he smelled like a she. "You beat that mage." Why is she here? And who is she?
The dragon slayer shook his head, "Something wasn't right then. A woman dressed as a guy—even sounded like a guy. But, my nose knew she was a woman. She said she didn't use her full strength." He looked up at Happy, expression solemn. "And I believed her."
Happy's stomach sank as he recalled that particular mission. It was right after they had met Lucy. "She was helping bring back Deliora, right? With Lyon..."
"Right," Natsu confirmed, fists clenching and lighting on fired. "Which means…."
"She's no ordinary mage," Happy finished. And probably really a she.
"Which also means…" his friend growled as his fists started to glow brighter and skin became scaly.
Happy continued to weave through the battlefield, he could see the mage streaking past others, though not disturbing them. She was a mage on a mission, it seemed.
"That she's likely not an ally."
"Nope," Natsu agreed, looking behind him, hoping to catch a glimpse of Lucy or Gray, even if to warn them. "And I wouldn't be surprised if she were Ultear herself."
The first of the black-winged butterflies landed on Lucy's shoulder. She could barely see through the thick black cloud of fluttering Oneiroi. Despite the sheer abundance of their numbers, she wondered how they would help them. She recalled the second form she had seen them take, and didn't feel they'd be of much more help unless it was to quickly remove the survivors from this war.
"Adie? How are they, uh, going to help us? Really?" Lucy timidly asked. Adie smiled as one landed on her palm. She brought it close to her face.
Veleda watched, a look of disbelief, awe, consternation—Lucy couldn't tell—on her face. She bowed her head slightly, "I will return. Remember what I said." With that, she disappeared with a soft plop, though Lucy and Adie were far too distracted to be concerned.
"You mentioned a third form, once..." Lucy recalled an earlier conversation as she studied the inky being on her finger. And said I didn't want to ever see it! The creatures lifted off of the two women, fluttering about them. People's curiosities were piqued by the sudden appearance of the dark, mysterious cloud, but Lucy was too distracted to notice.
"Didn't you ever wonder how such peaceful creatures could make up my uncle's army? A Royal Guard?" Adie's cool eyes met hers.
Lucy looked between the serene-appearing Oneiroi and Adie. A half-smile found its ways to her lips. "I think I'm about to find out, no?"
Adie smiled in return, though hers was strained. Her gaze flickered back to their visitors. In quick succession, the metamorphosis began to occur, the creatures turning into the gentle equine form Lucy had witnessed before. Lucy jumped as she realized they were continuing to transform. Slowly, those forms grew both taller and thicker, their torsos elongating. Muscles formed and twisted, and within moments, the tiny Oneiroi had taken on formidable forms of what Lucy would qualify as warriors.
They stood about ten feet tall, at least, on hoofed feet with the torso of a well-defined man. It was the only portion of them that resembled a human. Their faces were not equine, and were more what Lucy would consider to be scary. Their skin was a deep onyx, contrasted by white, sharp teeth, deep-set eyes, and flat noses that sloped into their prominent foreheads. Short ungulate-like ears introduced the familiar mane one would find on a horse. In their hands, they held large spears that harbored a half-crescent on the other end which, by the way, appeared to be for the sole use of decapitation. Lucy swallowed hard.
"Holy shit," she whispered as she stared up at them, "How the—what are they?"
"We—" the largest of the Oneiroi stepped forward, bearing silky black hair tied on the top of his head, "are the Royal Guard, Miss Heartfilia."
Oh. Good.
Lucy squealed, not expecting the smooth deep booming voice coming from the Oneiroi. Well, she expected it, but was not ready to hear it. She noticed their rippling and ropy muscles—muscles of a creature born for combat. They were majestic; her head didn't even reach their flanks.
"It's rare a human sees your true form, Chiron," Adie greeted the Oneiroi with a warmth that made Lucy jealous.
"Mistress," Chiron bowed his head, leaning forward on his front legs and bending at the knees in a manner of respect. "Morpheus is still predisposed, I see."
"Not for long, hopefully," Adie confirmed with a quick nod. "That is my next destination. I expect to find him in one piece."
"As is likely, knowing him." He watched her for some time before his deep-set eyes darted back to Lucy. "Miss Heartfilia, how may we best be of assistance to your call?"
Lucy wrung her hands anxiously, looking around. The mages surrounding them were staring—no gaping. Lucy noted the look of sheer awe on Erza's face. She wished Natsu could see it! She took notice of Lilith's creatures on the battlefield, and she remembered her grounding.
"S-Sir, erm, Mr. Chiron..." Her eyes fell on the dozens—no hundreds—of Oneiroi behind him. She thought he was a him. She had no idea anymore, and frankly, found it unimportant. "I want to protect the spirits. I want to protect my friends. They have come to help me fight to free the spirits that have been captured...and I can't do that on my own!" She bent forward at her waist, hoping her tears would be hidden as her hair hid her face. She sniffed softly. "I-I need you to help me...please!"
The silence that followed her squeaky plea wracked her nerves. She quickly collected herself, wiping her nose and returning to a respectful upright position. She glanced at Chiron. He was watching her carefully, as if assessing her for any sign of disingenuity. His steely gaze fell on Adie once again. The two stared at one another for some time, and Adie simply nodded. Chiron stepped into position before Lucy.
"Very well, Miss Heartfilia. Your heart is noble and intent pure. I will help you." He retreated to the Oneiroi behind him, his voice stern in a language she did not recognize.
Lucy turned to look at Adie, who was observing the army Lucy had summoned. Her arms were crossed over her chest, and she met Lucy's gaze with another stiff nod and forced smile. Her eyes darted to Ultear's airship, which was still planted in the middle of the battlefield. Adie once again returned her attention to the Oneiroi as they pounded on their chests with a closed fist—a sign of respect for their leader, Lucy concluded.
"They are formidable," Adie told her.
"You can say that again." Lucy huffed. "You think they can help us?"
"Help us?" Adie chuckled, a rare sign of playfulness. "They will tip the scales in your favor, moron! Isn't that obvious?"
"Our favor." Lucy whispered.
Adie was taken aback, shock quickly taking over her features before being wiped away. Her gaze returned to the airship and her voice was soft. "Our favor...yes."
"You're going, aren't you?" Lucy followed her line of vision. Adie didn't turn to look at her, instead nodding wordlessly. Lucy prepared for the verbal retaliation, but her decision was firm. "I'm going with you, then."
"No!" Adie's head snapped toward her, "You should stay here!"
"No," Lucy shook her head. "Everyone needs help. You need help. I'm here to help you, just accept that!"
"Absolutely not. It's not safe for you. You have others who worry about you," Adie began.
"Not safe for me?" Lucy laughed. "And who do you think you are? You have people who care about you, too, silly!"
Adie said nothing and Lucy took the opportunity to continue. "Besides, you must have misheard me, Adassandra."
"Misheard?" the demi-spirit echoed.
"Yep." Lucy met her look with one of the utmost severity and intent. "I'm not asking your permission. I'm telling you I'm going. Whether you like it or not."
Adie's jaw clenched in annoyance, but she didn't refuse Lucy's demand, much to the spirit mage's surprise.
"Fine, Heartfilia," she growled, looking at the Oneiroi one last time. "But you better not slow me down."