Chapter 9

Glacier

"I don't know why he would do that," Carla admitted as the Lacrima Vision displayed Juvia defeated, and Mato declaring Gray the winner. "Or why he's going to."

"Perhaps the girl in your vision had something to do with it," Porlyusica advised.

"Yes...there was something wrong with her," the Exceed realized. "Her left eye...over her left eye was an eye patch."

"To think that Chelia tied again," Yuka noted as the Sky God Slayer exited the arena.

"Her opponent was Avian, Imperial Guardian of the East." As he said this, a purple haired man in a black commedia dell'arte mask walked away. His outfit was almost similar to Rufus' in design, except Avian's vest was black with gold fastenings, and he had red pants and a red shirt. His cravat tie was shorter, and Avian wore dress shoes instead of boots. "Chelia's magic is more destructive, but Avian has experience in Air Magic."

Mermaid Heel 40P
Sabertooth 32P
Fairy Tail A 27P
Lamia Scale 25P
Imperial Snow 17P
Fairy Tail B 5P
Blue Pegasus 1P
Quatro Cerberus 1P

"Lamia Scale has been shoved to fourth, and while Mermaid Heel still holds the top spot, it's a scuffle between Fairy Tail A and Sabertooth for number one!"

"Yeah, we're still in first!" Millianna cheered.

"Just wait, Sabertooth. We'll take take your pride and choke you with it," Arania smirked.

Vóreia sighed, smiling. Can you see us, Glacia? she thought as Team Mermaid Heel celebrated behind her. We'll win the games this year. For the guild, for our pride...for you.

"Say, have you guys seen Platina?" Beth asked.

Vóreia blinked. Come to think of it...didn't Platina come with them to Domus Flau this morning?

"Now that you mention it, I haven't seen her at all this morning," Arania noticed.

Sighing, Rogue walked out of the Sabertooth balcony, glad that today was finally over. But that same question attacked him over and over again.

Who was that girl?

Or, to be precise, what?

She was visible to him and Frosch, and those thugs too. A ghost? But then he reminded himself that the girl last night was also tangible, as shown when the goons grabbed her.

"Rogue, wait for Fro!" Frosch flew after his best friend. Rogue stopped, turning around to see his Exceed buddy fly towards the four intersecting hallways.

At the same time, the shortest remaining cloaked member of Imperial Snow came around the corner. Frosch bumped into them, knocking them over.

Rubbing their head, the person stood, unaware of their hood falling off.

"Frosch, apologize," Rogue said gently.

Blinking in surprise, as it was the first in a long time since he used his gentle voice, Frosch turned towards the mage. "Fro's really sorry—Mermaid-san?" Frosch exclaimed.

His head shooting up, Rogue took a closer look at the Imperial Snow mage.

The mage standing at the intersection brushed invisible dust off of their cloak. Short white hair topped their head, with bangs covering the left side of the face. This person had a very pale complexion, as if sunlight did not agree with their skin. They looked no older than between eleven and twelve.

The Imperial Snow Mage turned towards Frosch, blue eyes narrowing at him. Frosch flinched at the hostility, which made the mage retract that emotion. Mumbling a small excuse me, they began to walk away.

"But—"

"Glacia."

Ears twitching, the mage turned towards Rogue, who stood in shock at their appearance. Even the facial structure is the exact same! he thought.

Before him, the person who answered to the name Glacia gasped, eyes widening in what Rogue could identify as recognition.

"It's you, isn't it, Glacia?" he restated, his heart skipping a beat.

"Rogue..." Frosch kept glancing between Rogue and Glacia, confusion painted on his feline face.

Just as Glacia took a step towards Rogue...suddenly, she turned in the other direction and ran away.

"Wait!" Faster than his Shadow Drive, Rogue took off after her.

"Rogue! Mermaid-san!" Frosch flew after the duo, still unsure of what was going on.

Meanwhile, Rogue was still chasing after Glacia, who was gaining speed by the second. Fortunately, so was he. It appeared that Glacia was trying to get Rogue off her tail.

No. Not this time! Rogue thought as they were coming up towards the entrance hall. You were this close all this time...I'm not letting you go!

They ran into the entrance hall, teeming with mages and spectators. Glacia, being small enough, easily flit through the crowd.

Rogue, on the other hand, ran into someone. A pair of dark sunglasses clattered against the ground.

"Sorry—"

"You know, Herr Cheney, there are better vays to greet a lady. Running into one is not one of them."

Scowling, Rogue straightened up to come face-to-face with Platina's own scowl. Bending down to pick up her sunglasses, Platina placed them over her blue eyes. "Then again, you vere raised by a dragon. I guess I shouldn't blame you for not knowing proper manners."

"What did you just say?" Rogue narrowed his eyes, slit pupils more defined than usual.

Smirking, Platina leaned back on her heels. "Go ahead. You can attack me right now, and you'll only prove you're just as primal as your so-called dragon parent."

If there weren't so many people around, if it weren't so crowded, he would murder this woman. She really knew how to piss him off.

"Rogue!" Frosch began to fly towards his friend.

No. If he gave into her bait, he would only prove her point. Glaring at Platina, Rogue stormed past her, with Frosch rushing to his side.

"Hatred vill never bring Glacia Patin back."

Rogue stopped, turning his head slightly towards the silver witch. "Your point?"

Platina shrugged, keeping that smug grin. "In all honesty, Herr Cheney, you're a pedophile who wants to believe that his lover is back from the grave."

As pure rage boiled in him, Rogue lunged for Platina, drawing the sword he always kept by his hip but never used.

Platina flicked her arms outward, her sickles slipping into her hands at her command. She leapt forward to meet Rogue's blade. At that same moment, she executed a pirouette on the spot, accomplishing two things.

One: The sickle in her right hand caught Rogue's blade and forced it out of his hand, making it clatter against the floor.

Two: With the absence of the sword, Platina was able to touch the tip of her sickle in the left hand against Rogue's neck. Again.

"You might want to hold still, Cheney, unless you're desperate to join your dead lover," Platina sneered.

All around them, a crowd had formed, pointing at Platina.

"Did you see that?"

"She just owned Sabertooth!"

"Hey, move it, people! What's going on here?"

Team Sabertooth and Team Mermaid Heel pushed to the front of the circle to find their team mates.

"There you are, Platina!" Arania let out in relief. "But why are you with him?" she added, pointing to Rogue.

Removing the sickle from Rogue's neck and tossing it into the air, Platina walked back to her team mates as she caught her weapon. "Just a little guten tag from one guild to another, nothing more."

"That girl actually went head-to-toe with Rogue," Orga muttered in astonishment.

"Rogue, pull yourself together." Minerva stepped up, a gloved hand on her hip. "Your team mate has been nothing but a headache since day one. But as the strongest guild of Fiore, we have appearances to keep, especially among the common people, like you," she sneered, curling her lips. "We'll take a simple apology as your way of surrendering the games to us, little upstarts."

Platina threw her head back and laughed. "So let me get this straight," she chuckled, mockingly clapping. "You expect me to apologize to a trash guild filled vith savages and two-faced dogs like you?"

"Platina!" Kagura warned sharply.

"How dare you—" But Rufus was silenced by Minerva, who bore an interested expression on her face.

"This was only a warning. We'll send the message to you later, and you'll understand too late."

Minerva smirked as she walked away from Team Mermaid Heel, the rest of her team in tow. Rogue sent a glance in Platina's direction before he followed.

"Platina!" The rest of Team Mermaid Heel flinched at the change of tone in Kagura's voice. Kagura glared disapprovingly at her team mate. "I warned you, didn't I? If you can't control your own tongue, someday it'll cut itself out."

Rogue layed back in his room in the penthouse suite, staring at the ceiling. This is so confusing, he thought to himself. Indeed, the sight of a girl who was supposed to be dead was frightening to him. But she was real. Frosch ran right into her.

She still looks the same, he thought, remembering her appearance back at Domus Flau.

But...what are you doing with Imperial Snow? he thought as he closed his eyes, fading into unconsciousness.

~Crocus Gardens~

Sasori strolled down the hallway, passing by his brother before he stopped. "Jigumo."

The spider expert turned his head slightly. "Yeah?"

"How's the project going?"

A fiendish smirk began to creep onto Jigumo's face. "Come with me, bro."

Jigumo led his older twin down several flights of stairs until they reached a door just before the basement floor. He clicked his tongue, and a spider crawled out of his sleeve. It then spit up a key far bigger than its body size.

"That's disgusting," Sasori groaned as Jigumo swung the door open.

"Hey, you and your scorpions hardly have any room to talk."

"Fair enough," Sasori decided as they entered.

The basement was covered in sticky spider thread. From wall to wall, large threads of it stuck, and in the center of the basement was an enormous spiderweb with two cocoons in the middle. One was rather big, about the size of a child, and constricted around whatever was in the cocoon. The other was small, but seemed to grow slowly by the second.

"Couldn't you have gotten a machine?" Sasori asked, disgusted.

"Hey, that machine is pretty expensive, and we'd have to use every penny in the guild treasury just to get it. Besides, where's the fun in that?"

"How much longer?"

"Probably the fifth day, at most." Jigumo leaned back, watching the progress of the smaller cocoon. "How incredibly stubborn. You know how much they fought?"

"Even my scorpions had stung her for days and she wouldn't budge." Sasori began to smirk, revealing two sharp canines. "But in the end...bringing them back to Fiore was the best decision."

10:30 PM

It was actually peaceful. Maybe it was due to the fact that Rogue was sleeping right now.

"Frosch, did something happen today?" Lector whispered.

Frosch nodded eagerly. "Something did! Fro and Rogue saw Mermaid-san today!"

Sting and Lector froze at the froggy Exceed's words. "F-Frosch...that's impossible, she's dead," Sting choked out.

Frosch shook his head vigorously. "Fro isn't lying, Fro saw her! Fro ran into Mermaid-san earlier!"

Lector opened his mouth to scold Frosch, but the look in the Exceed's eyes showed determination. Frosch wouldn't be giving up any time soon. So Lector pulled a photo out of his pocket. "Like her?" he asked, holding the photo out for Frosch.

Frosch held the photo in his paws. "Oh! The pretty lady from last night!"

"Let me see." Sting grabbed the photo, whistling when he saw the girl in the picture. "Damn, she's hot! Lector, where did you get this?"

Lector scratched his head nervously, sweating a bit. "Well, you see...I kinda...borrowed it from Vóreia without her permission..."

"In other words, you stole it," Sting teased.

"Hey, take that back, Sting-kun! Or I'll tell Vóreia you said Glacia was hot!"

"Huh?" Now Sting and Frosch were confused.

"That girl in the photo...that's Glacia with long hair..." Lector mumbled.

"Whoa!" Frosch grabbed for the photo again. "So it was Mermaid-san in the park yesterday!"