Chapter 23
Tears of Life and Love
11:30 A.M.
The duo who had hacked into the Lacrima Vision stopped typing for a moment. "Now that Sasori accomplished what he wanted, what do we do now?" the first wondered out loud.
The other shrugged. "Easy: we gotta switch with Jigumo and Niebel."
Meanwhile, in another part of the landscape, Scorpio and Lucy engaged in battle with Sasori and his giant scorpion, Serket.
Scorpio crouched on all fours, aiming his tail cannon at Serket. "Sand Spear!"
A thin beam of sand burst from the cannon and shot towards the scorpion duo. Sasori puffed his cheeks and spat a large amount of purple poison at the impending attack. A furious hiss sounded as the corrosive substance hit the sand. "You're barely even worth my trouble," Sasori muttered. "Serket!"
The golden scorpion grabbed Scorpio by his tail cannon, rearing its tail back before piercing it clean through the Celestial Spirit.
"Scorpio!"
"You really made a giant mistake when you chose the ace of Imperial Snow as your opponent!" the scorpion master told Lucy as Serket advanced on the Celestial Wizard.
Elsewhere, the Trimens of Blue Pegasus were tied up by Millianna's Kitty Restraint Tube. "Feeling spiffy, right?"
Mermaid Heel 64P
"Blue Pegasus is the first guild to go!"
"Bacchus, do this for us!" The rest of Quatro Cerberus yelled.
Bacchus smirked. "No need to worry. I can handle these guys on my—oh?"
Runes lit up around him, trapping the Drunk Falcon in the enchantment. "Those who walk into this enchantment—"
"—will be unable to leave unless victorious or defeated," Freed's voice finished. Tiny runes swirled around the top of a boulder until they formed a man's body. "Dark Écriture: Pain!"
The air was soon filled with screams belonging to the Drunk Falcon.
Fairy Tail B 32P
Tears welled up in Niebel's eyes again. "Sissy..."
"I...I never wanted to come...back..." The original Ice Dragon Slayer collapsed, shallow breaths escaping her mouth through her unconscious state.
"Hey!" Sherry immediately rushed towards the girl. "Please get up—" A strange moistness made itself known to Sherry's hands, which held Glacia's back. Turning her over as gently as she could, what she found almost made her drop the girl in her arms.
Angry red scars slashed across Glacia's back, as if someone had used her as a scratching post. The marks were surrounded by both old and new blood.
"...Let's get out of here," Sherry decided, shifting Glacia onto her back. She looked around the basement uncomfortably, as if she could feel another presence with them. "You should come too, Niebel," she added.
But Niebel sat on the ground, his back turned to the Doll Play mage. Sherry noticed this and nodded sadly. "Dobengal, your turn."
"Sorry?"
"You used to be in the same guild. If not me, who else will he listen to?"
"Well?"
"...Where's my knife?" he asked.
Sherry frowned. "What does a knife have to do with all this?"
"Where is it?"
Shifting Glacia's weight, Sherry managed to pull a switchblade out of her pocket and handed it off to the ninja.
Shifting sounds behind him alerted the ex-saber that Niebel had finally gotten up. Niebel walked over to the large spider web, his eyes glazed over as if he were hypnotized. Royal blue eyes stared at the glowing blue cocoon for a long time, until—
"Your knife," Niebel said, his voice hollow and monotonous.
The ninja conceded and tossed his knife over to the Dragon Slayer, who caught it with ease. Niebel placed the handle between his lips as he climbed up the arachnid nest until he reached the cocoon that held his sister's magic. Using the knife, the second Ice Dragon Slayer cut through all but two of the numerous strands that connected the shell to the web.
"...Just two?" Dobengal asked as Niebel jumped down.
"Jigumo designed this spider web with Arachne," Niebel said in that dead voice. "If anything happened to one strand, the rest would speed up the extraction. Two is enough to get the job done quickly."
The cocoon glowed even brighter, nearly blinding everyone in the basement with its radiance. Then the light died down as the strands that held it up thinned before snapping. The shell would have plummeted to the ground if Niebel hadn't caught it.
"...Follow me," Niebel said quietly, moving past Sherry and Glacia. The Doll Play mage looked at the ninja, who simply trailed after the Ice Dragon Slayer.
Meanwhile, a small spider leaped off the spider web. Its eyes watched the group leaving up the stairs and followed after them.
The Lamia Scale duo were extra cautious—what if Niebel led them into a trap? But after they reached the first landing, their guide climbed up another set of stairs until he reached the second landing. He motioned for them to come up.
The spider from earlier crawled along the railing. The door to the second floor was about to close but the spider made it through in time.
"Over here," Niebel said, standing before a heavily padlocked door.
"Wait, isn't that—?" But the Ice Dragon Slayer ignored the protests and opened each padlock. As soon as the final lock popped open, Niebel pushed the door on its hinges.
The room was surprisingly neat: the queen sized bed looked like it was made recently; an assortment of clothes hung neatly on hangers; a set of double doors led out to a balcony. "This room seems pretty clean for a mutated person's," Dobengal said.
Niebel looked at his ex-comrade in surprise. "Dobengal...what are you talking about?"
"There is no mutated person: this is Sissy's room."
The spider crawled through the crack under the door into a room filled with cobwebs. Spiders dangled from the ceiling while some rested in their nests. On a bed was Jigumo, snoring softly while Olivia the spider hung over his chest. The small spider scuttled up the bed and onto his face, clicking its pincers softly.
The spider master opened an eye, only to find the tiny arachnid on his nose. "Something wrong?" he asked.
The spider clicked away in Morse code. Jigumo raised an eyebrow. "So they got out...and Niebel's with them?"
More clicks. "And he took the Dragon Lacrima with him?" Jigumo cursed loudly. "And here I thought I could catch a few 'z's before that baron arrived. Then tell me, my friend..." He held a finger out to the spider on his nose. "Where is our little traitor?"
Sherry opened the first aid kit and ripped open a packet of alcoholic wipes. Her eyes darted from Dobengal, who sat on a chair contemplating, to Niebel, who was out on the balcony with his head on the railing.
"Dobengal...why don't you talk to Niebel?" Sherry asked.
The ninja looked at her in astonishment. "That's the last thing he'd want me to do. After all...I murdered his beloved sister," he said quietly.
"True...but the sister he loves...practically rejected him." Sherry rested a hand on Glacia's head, moving her long hair aside. "It's not easy to tell someone you love them and be denied. The same applies to losing the one you care for. You understand, right? Because that's how you feel about her—Glacia, I mean."
"Felt, you mean," Dobengal corrected. "After all..." He lowered his head. "She doesn't have room in her heart for me. What was it, fourteen years? That's how long I've waited to see if she felt the same. Now, I'll be surprised if she doesn't hate me for killing her."
Sherry smiled sadly. "Isn't it healthier to be honest with yourself?"
"..."
"Besides, there's one other reason why I want you to talk to Niebel," she continued, turning around. "It'll give you guys something to do instead of mope. And—"
"And?"
She pushed the ninja off the chair and onto the balcony. "No men allowed in this room for the time being until I say so!" she ordered, making Niebel jump slightly. "Now you two had better make nice or I will personally push you over the railing!"
The doors slammed shut making the two flinch at the noise.
"...Your guild mate's pretty scary," Niebel mumbled, breaking his own silence.
"And I thought you hate me?"
"...Right now...I'm not sure if I hate you...or myself." The Ice Dragon Slayer lifted his head a bit. "Because Sissy..."
"It's not your fault that she said that," the ninja said. "I was in the basement too. She probably meant she didn't want to be here...because of me."
"Yeah...but to be honest, I kinda knew she would say something like that." Niebel smiled painfully. "After we revived her...when we brought her back, Sissy forgot who I was. She couldn't remember a thing. That was really painful.
"But...it's okay now," he continued. "She has her memories again...even the painful ones. Memories of you...recollections of Vóreia...even Rogue."
"You act like Vóreia and Rogue committed crimes. What about me? Aren't I the person who murdered Glacia?"
"...For some reason, I can't help but think that what you did was a good thing," Niebel said. He gripped the railing. "Because...when Sissy was alive, she took on so much pain and abuse." The boy looked up with teary eyes. "Even though she hardly ever cried, Sissy could still feel emotions. She could feel hurt—but people would only add onto it."
Niebel wiped his eyes on his sleeve before the first tear could fall. "That includes me, doesn't it? I probably hurt Sissy the most—by bringing her back here in the first place. But Sissy never did anything wrong, she was just born!" He stopped talking after this, taking a moment to sniff his nose. "If it's a crime to be born," Niebel whispered, "and it's a sin to live, then how much abuse does Sissy have to go through?"
The doors creaked, causing the males to turn around and see Sherry poking her head into the balcony. "Sorry," she apologized, while looking behind herself. "But you can come back in now."
Inside, Sherry had to remove the tattered dress from Glacia in order to treat her back wounds. That was mostly the reason she threw the boys together for 'bonding time'. She giggled lightly at the thought. As she placed the wipe on her back, the girl winced in her unconscious state. So the Doll Play mage tried to act as quickly as she could. Of course, part of her that sounded suspiciously like Obaba screamed at her for treating a mage from another guild. But another voice said, What if it were Chelia?
Sherry looked around in the kit for a salve, which came in the form of a bluish cream in a glass container. She frowned; it didn't seem to fit in with the other first aid equipment. But when she rubbed it over the wounds, she lost all doubts about the strange salve. Because as her hand rubbed the cream across the scars, the wounds covered over until it looked as though Glacia's back had never been marked.
So that only left her eye. Sherry found an eye patch and covered Glacia's ruined left eye, lifting her head slightly to adjust the elastic bands. After that was done, the Doll Play mage headed over to the closet for a change of clothes. To her dismay, the closet was mostly filled with dresses and skirts. The most casual clothes she could find were a loose short-sleeved sky blue shirt with navy accents; dark blue pants, and some sandals. The outfit suspiciously reminded Sherry of the clone that Mizuno created on the very first day. When she turned around, Glacia sat up on the bed with her arms trying to cover her torso.
"Um...do you want to dress yourself?" It was stupid of Sherry to ask, especially when she already knew the answer.
Glacia nodded her head weakly, her hair fell across her face. While she changed into new clothes, Sherry decided to check on the ex-comrades. She opened the door just enough to hear their conversation.
"—and it's a sin to live, then how much abuse does Sissy have to go through?"
Sherry accidentally leaned against the door, making it creak on its hinges. She attracted the attention of the two, ending their discussion. "Sorry," she said nervously, looking behind herself so she didn't have to meet their gazes. Glacia sat on the bed again, fully dressed. "But you can come back in now," she added.
Niebel walked in and stood before his sister on the bed, but Glacia didn't make eye contact. Rather, she kept her gaze down as if her blanket's design was the most interesting thing in the world.
"Sissy..." Niebel searched Glacia's face for any change in expression: none. She still wore that mask of sadness. "If you don't want to talk...if you hate me for bringing you back, I get it," he said, trying not to cry as those words escaped him. "But...what did you want, if you didn't want to live again?"
It was like talking to a brick wall but with one difference: walls didn't whisper words. "...I wanted...to sleep in peace...forever..." Glacia mumbled quietly, but Niebel managed to catch her words. Her fingers grasped the blanket. "...When I was alive before...it just felt like the gods' divine punishment for me...to live...to know what everyone else felt...and never be able to get a break from it."
"When I died...I couldn't go anywhere. Unable to move on...or be punished in hell...but being in between was still better than living," she continued. "After all, what good was I? I hurt people; killed them; and I hated them. Now that I'm living again...I don't want to go outside. I know that they hate me...even Vóreia thinks so." Tears welled up in her eyes before cascading. "After all, she said...that I shouldn't have been born..." Glacia lowered her head. "...I'm...nothing but dead weight..."
"You are not!" Niebel insisted. "Vóreia's wrong!"
Even with his words, Glacia kept weeping. But then she felt a hand cup the right side of her face and wipe her tears away with a thumb. She blinked in surprise and looked up to see that the one doing so was Dobengal.
"Please don't cry." He moved Glacia's hair out of the way. "I hate it when you cry. It makes me feel like I can't do anything."
Glacia raised a hand and tried to move his arm away, sniffing sadly as she looked back down. "...I don't get it. You're supposed to hate me for hurting you. I ruined your arm...and..."
The ninja lifted Glacia's chin with a finger and used that same digit to press her forehead. "That's what I'm supposed to say, little idiot. You're supposed to hate me for putting you in this position in the first place."
Sherry's mouth made an 'o' as she remembered Rogue's words on the first day.
"'You have no idea what her tears do to a complete stranger, do you? They make you feel helpless, powerless, and those same tears could bring a god to their knees.'"
"'I hate it when you cry. It makes me feel like I can't do anything.'"
He's still in love with her, Sherry thought with a smile.
"Sherry, you have that look in your eye."
The Doll Play mage tilted her head innocently. "What look?"
"The look that says 'I knew you were still in love with her and I will do whatever it takes to get the two of you together and you can't do anything about it'."
"Hey, if you'd just admit that you were still in love with her—" Sherry started.
"But you'd still have that look anyways," Dobengal shot.
"So you admit you still like her!" she exclaimed.
"I did not."
"But you just proved it."
She couldn't help herself. Glacia covered her mouth and giggled slightly, attracting the attention of the other people in the room. "You think so too, right?" Sherry asked.
Furious, continuous clicks reverberated through the room. Glacia jolted and covered her ears, shaking uncontrollably. "Hey, what's wrong?" Sherry tried to remove her hands from her ears, but the look in Glacia's eyes told her that she was terrified. "What is it?"
"Spide—" Before Niebel could complete that word, the door crashed down on the floor.
"And the ninja bravely comes to rescue the princess from the enemy kingdom," Jigumo sneered as he strolled in. Olivia the spider sat on his shoulder, clicking her pincers restlessly. His eyes moved past the others and saw Glacia shivering on the bed. "Ha! So the princess developed a fear of insects!"
"Jigumo!" Niebel rounded on the spider master, fury painted in his blue eyes. "You lied to me! You said that Sissy would be okay!"
Jigumo sighed tiredly. "Niebel, why didn't you listen? We're still keeping our word. Glacia's going to stay in Imperial Snow with us!"
"Like she'd want to stay! You hurt her!"
"Oh that?" The spider master waved a hand dismissively. "That wasn't even the worst of what I would have done. Sasori may have unleashed his scorpions on her, but I could have done way worse. For example, ripping things off, one by—" Jigumo was thrown out of the room, crashing against a wall.
"...I just couldn't stay quiet," Dobengal said simply.
"No fair, big meanie!" Niebel yelled as the ninja rushed out of the room to continue his assault. The Ice Dragon Slayer rolled up his sleeves and ran after him. "I was supposed to land the first hit!"
The girls sweated as the two ganged up on Jigumo outside. "...How can they do so much for me?" Glacia questioned in amazement.
Sherry placed her hands on her hips, ignoring the sounds from the fight. "I don't even know who you are, so I couldn't possibly understand. But somehow, I do. The three of you used to be in the same guild, so they could be acting on the friendship that was there. But...we know that's not the case, is it? You're right to say that people will resent you for the events last year. That's why you want to stay in here. Not just in this hotel...but with Imperial Snow, because you know that they won't shun you. But what about outside of Imperial Snow?" The Doll Play mage stared out the doors to the balcony. "You have a brother who raised you from the dead; a guild that mourns for you; a friend who cries over you; and two men who have proved over and over that they care for you...and would gladly fight each other to the death to have you. Could such actions be done out of hate?" Sherry smiled knowingly. "No...That's love, isn't it? Even now, that is the name of the invincible wrath that fuels those two outside."
Sherry wrapped her arms around Glacia, who stiffened in surprise. "A falling star can never return to the sky, but someone will be there to catch it when it falls. Things can never go back to the way they were before...but you won't be alone as you try to make it work. So please...Even if it's just for one person, or even two—" She hugged the girl tighter. "Live on," she whispered.
Another wave of tears fell from Glacia's eye as she hugged Sherry back. "...Yes..."
Sherry pulled away and winked. "Now, why don't we go outside? I'm sure Mermaid Heel would be happy to see you."
Glacia nodded with a smile. The Lamia Scale mage grabbed the little mermaid's hand and led her out carefully in case the boys were still brawling. Thankfully, Jigumo was sprawled across the floor unconscious with Dobengal and Niebel on either side of him.
"Invincible wrath..." Glacia murmured.
Niebel looked up and noticed the brighter expression on her face. "Sissy...are you coming with us?"
The former Dragon Slayer nodded. "Of course I will."
A wide smile grew, and the Ice Dragon Slayer nearly tackled his mentor and sister hugging her. That was when Sherry took notice of Niebel's and Glacia's similarities. Right now, Glacia appeared three years older than him, but Niebel was the same height as her. Besides the hair color and length, the only things that distinguished them were Glacia's chest—which wasn't very prominent, matching her appearance—and their eyes. Though if she looked at them from a distance, they appeared as the same shade.
"That's it!" Sherry turned to Niebel. "Your room doesn't happen to be near, does it?"
The others looked at her strangely. Niebel pivoted on his toes uncertainly. "It's next door on the left."
"What's going through your head now?" the ninja asked.
"I have an idea that just might work," she replied.
Niebel opened the door to his room. Immediately, Sherry opened the closet and searched for clothes. "No, not that—wait, maybe..." She came out with a pair of dark pants identical to what Niebel was wearing, a loose light shirt, a long-sleeved navy jacket with gold buttons, husky boots, and two straw hats.
"Can you come with me for a minute?" Sherry dragged Glacia into the bathroom while the former Dragon Slayer looked at the other two for help. The boys could only stand there as Sherry did her business with her.
Two minutes later, Sherry came out with a different set of clothes and Glacia, who now looked like Niebel's twin except for the eye patch and hat.
"Your turn."
"Wait—" The Doll Play mage adjusted an eye patch over Niebel's left eye and placed the hat on his head.
"I'm impressed," the ninja admitted as he did a once-over of the 'twins'. Niebel and Glacia looked at each other.
"Your identity should be a little harder to discover—" Sherry placed a hand on the 'twin' with the gold-buttoned jacket; the one she knew was Glacia. "—if they think you're Niebel. So until we can use the fact that you're 'Glacia' as a weapon, we need to hide your ponytail and your voices."
The 'twins' nodded in agreement.
"The rest of Imperial Snow are at Domus Flau," Niebel said. "I think we can use the entrance."
Polished black shoes clicked on the tiled floor. They stumbled upon an unconscious Jigumo, before the person decided to kick him. "Wake up, slob."
Jigumo opened one eye and snorted in disgust. "Oh, it's you."
"I paid you to extract and kill, not to sleep around," the king's advisor sneered.
"Don't tempt me," Jigumo said darkly, standing up.
"Where's my Dragon Lacrima?" the baron demanded.
"Oh, it—" Just then, four people burst out of Niebel's room, with Niebel carrying the cocoon that held his sister's magic. Sherry pointed a finger at the fallen door. "Door Puppet!"
The wooden door came to life and advanced on Jigumo and Baron Hubert. Jigumo slammed the living door against the wall as his spiders moved across its surface. By the time the wood rotted, the quartet was gone.
"—It ran off," Jigumo finished.
The baron shrieked in rage. "We had a deal and I expected you to carry it out!" he screamed shrilly. Jigumo's hand wrapped itself around the advisor's neck.
"You really don't get it, do you, Fatnose?" Jigumo slammed the sputtering baron against the wall. "You ordered me to extract and kill; those were your only commands."