Chapter 33
Just One
"Kill Rogue, and I'll kill Glacia!"
Sasori's hold on Rogue's neck loosened slightly as the two men scrutinized the white-haired girl in Jigumo's arms. None of the Dragon Slayers in that area could smell trickery of any sort, meaning that the girl was 100% Glacia.
"...You must be joking," Sasori accused. "Remember who it was that gave orders to Mizuno and Avian to pull off this same trick. Do you really think I would fall for my own prank?"
"Sasori...I joke with you about many things, but this is the real deal. The Dragon Slayers have already smelled her."
"Jigumo, are you nuts?!" Niebel yelled as he rushed forward.
"Wait right there, Nieb!" Jigumo barked, pressing the blade dangerously closer to Glacia's jugular. "Come any closer and Glacia goes back to the underworld!" Against his pride, Niebel floated back.
Sasori stood silently, never taking his eyes off of his brother. "Are you trying to trade with me, Jigumo? I am the master of the Imperial Guard: I can easily control you to release Glacia."
"What if you can't?" Jigumo's fingers danced along the handle of the knife. "Out of all four Imperial Guardians, I'm the one you can't manipulate completely."
"Oh," the scorpion master scoffed as he raised an eyebrow. "Acting now?" The familiar purple aura surrounded Jigumo yet again. The hand that held the knife lowered for a second before it came back up to mark Glacia's neck with a single cut. Both Niebel and Sasori moved forward, alarmed that Jigumo actually followed through with his threat. Rogue felt Sasori's grip slacken as the Scorpion King's entire arm shook.
"...mh...uhm..." Glacia shifted in her unconscious state as the blade threatened to dig deeper.
"Now that was close, wasn't it, Sasori?" Slowly, Jigumo pulled the knife away as blood oozed from the cut. The wound wasn't deep, but Jigumo's message made it through. "Wouldn't want to lose the Imperial Highness, right?"
"Rgh...Jigumo...!" Niebel growled, shaking in fury.
Sasori and Jigumo met each other's eyes. Two sets of mismatched blue and purple eyes glowered, but only one displayed an unlikely emotion: fear.
"...Fine," Sasori conceded in defeat. "Remove the knife from her neck and bring her to me!"
"He agreed?" Wendy exclaimed.
"No way, bro." Jigumo tossed the knife into the air. "I have Glacia; I call the shots."
"You—" Jigumo caught the knife and held it to Glacia's neck. The Spider King grinned as his scorpion counterpart stepped forward again in reaction. "...name it," Sasori hissed.
"Glacia for Rogue, and I want him alive," Jigumo said, never missing a beat. "You will not injure him any further. Methods of injury include, but are not limited to: strangling, stabbing, maiming, assaulting, and stealing a kiss from Glacia right in front of his eyes. And," he added pointedly. "You may not try or do the same with me in any way."
"H-he really thought this through," Niebel mumbled.
Sasori bit back a curse. Jigumo was the final key to his other side, but his spider counterpart closed off every chance he would have had to put him out of action. Of course, I can always attack him after he hands over Glacia, Sasori thought. That revelation made him smirk inwardly. "Deal." The slippery guild master found a loophole that his brother never realized: Jigumo never stated when Sasori could attack him.
Eyeing his brother carefully, Jigumo approached the two slowly, keeping the knife's blade poised at Glacia's neck.
He's up to something, Rogue realized as he could have sworn Glacia opened her eye enough to make it look like she was still out cold.
Jigumo came to stop before Sasori. "Tell me," he started. "Do you really mean your end of the deal?"
"As if you're worth lying to, Jigumo," his brother shot back. And there's absolutely nothing to lie about when there's an opening, he thought snidely.
Now Jigumo knew what Sasori was thinking. And to be honest, he purposely left an opening that he knew Sasori would leap at. But the Spider King needed the timing to be right. Jigumo held his arm out for Rogue while Sasori did the same for Glacia. The poison twins watched each other carefully as they released their individual prisoners to the other.
"What brought about this change, Jigumo?" Sasori asked as he adjusted how he carried Glacia's unconscious body.
Rogue noticed that Jigumo appeared to be keeping an eye on Sasori's neck, as if he were contemplating a way to strangle him. "Do we really need to turn our guild into a criminal organization just because you have the urge for blood?"
"Funny. You didn't seem to have any complaints about all the lives we took months before."
"People change. You certainly have."
"Kings change too. If that snide baron had his way, Fiore would be hell on earth for wizards," Sasori added. Rogue blinked; what were they talking about?
"You really aren't going to give him the Dragon Lacrima, are you?" Jigumo asked, though he already knew the answer.
"As if I would allow a valuable magical crystal be sullied by a man with no personal hygiene." The poison twins wrinkled their noses. "Besides, I have a better purpose for this—" Sasori gasped as he felt a spot on his left shoulder get stabbed. His eyes wandered to Glacia, whose left arm had snaked around to get the knife point to reach his shoulder.
As Mirajane and Juvia fell to the ground, beaten brutally, the Mermaid Heel mage shook her head. "You just had to stoop zat low, Jigumo."
Mermaid Heel 66P
Flashback
"...Why me?" Glacia's voice diminished in volume as she looked down at her feet. "Why is it always me?"
"Because you're the only one who can put Sasori back in his right mind." Jigumo leaned back against an ice pillar, shivering as the cold formation chilled him. "If I do it, Sasori will know what I'm doing in an instant and snap my neck. You, on the other hand—he won't raise a hand against you. And you're so puny, he wouldn't expect you to be able to reach it."
"But what do you want me to do?" Glacia asked. "What can I do that you can't?"
Jigumo beckoned her closer, though she was rather hesitant. "Once the Imperial Guardians begin to fall, Sasori's power levels go through the roof, and that's just for each Guardian that falls."
"He's practically invincible, then," she noted, to which Jigumo shook his head.
"That's where you're wrong. Well, he is invincible—except for one spot on his body."
"'It's a place on his left shoulder that borders near his neck. Think you can get it for me?'" Those words replayed in Glacia's mind when she stabbed the knife in.
"She got it!"
"What happened?" Wendy asked.
"It's Sasori's weak spot, the only thing that makes him vulnerable when he's like this," Niebel explained. He frowned; Sasori's weak spot, so what was with that look on the Scorpion King's face? A look of triumph...unless— "Sissy!" he yelled as Sasori's pincer arm shot out, clamping around Glacia's throat.
"Oh, no you don't!" Jigumo exclaimed as he held Rogue back by grabbing him under his arms. "Sit back and watch, will ya?" he hissed quietly into the Dragon Slayer's ear.
"Wha-what happened?" The former Dragon Slayer tried to pry apart the pincer. "J-Jigumo—"
"The plan my brother made for you worked just fine, Glacia," Sasori sneered. Using his free arm, he grabbed the left shoulder of his tattered shirt. "But did you really think that I would leave my Achilles' Heel undefended?" Sasori tore off the shoulder of his shirt to reveal a thin under armor that covered his left shoulder specifically. "Did you really expect me not to put finger on her, Jigumo?" To prove his point, he tossed Glacia aside, causing her to hit a nearby rock. Immediately, Niebel flew to her side, only to find her out cold.
Imperial Snow 46P
All of a sudden, Jigumo began to laugh. Everyone else looked at him, bewildered by his behavior but the Spider King continued his laughing fit. He even dropped Rogue, who got himself into an offense position. Then Sasori saw what he was laughing about. "What's going on?" he cried as his pincer morphed back into a regular human arm. He held his chest as the pain from his scars returned, only more amplified.
"We are the guardians of the Organic Link, sworn to stand for eternity," Jigumo reminded, leaning on his heels as he chuckled. "You were convinced that, as long as we fell in order, you would have access to that power. But what the others were never informed of was that a fifth pillar was created so that if I was the last Imperial Guardian standing, I could have a reset button at my command."
"You did not!" Sasori exclaimed.
Jigumo smirked as he lifted up his shirt to reveal the compass tattoo fully restored. "The Imperial Guardians must always bow before the Imperial Highness."
Niebel lifted part of his own shirt to examine his tattoo. The arrows that represented north, east, and south completed the compass.
"Jigumo!" Sasori lunged for his younger twin—when a scorched Sting was thrown at him.
"Eh vat?" Jigumo rubbed his eyes, thinking they were playing tricks with him. "Eh vat?"
"Fire Dragon's Roar!" Jigumo looked at the ground, which was covered in fresh...flammable grass. "Nieb, get out of here!" he barked at the boy. "You too, fairy girl!"
"R-right!" Niebel flew away with his sister in his arms while Wendy, as she ran away from the oncoming blaze, slipped and rolled downhill. The younger Dragon Slayers felt the heat of the fire even from their respective locations.
As the fire died, Niebel and Wendy chanced a look at the field. Wendy sweated as she took in the extent of her comrade's destruction—even rocks were charred!
"Uh...uh...somehow...I have no idea how—but Natsu Dragneel has just taken out the remainder of Sabertooth and Imperial Snow in one go! Quite literally—Fairy Tail is on fire!"
Fairy Tail A 67P
"Unbelievable..." Niebel whispered from his spot as he scanned the blazing field for Jigumo and Sasori.
"Vell phrased, little vun," an accented voice said behind him. Niebel jolted in alarm as the mysterious Mermaid Heel mage stood by him, observing the scene. The unknown woman sighed. "And here, I hoped Herr Cheney vould be the victor."
Niebel's ears twitched at the title that she gave Rogue. "Herr? That's—"
"YOU!" Niebel jolted once more as Natsu stormed towards him. The Mermaid Heel mage stepped in front of Niebel and Glacia, shielding them from view. "Out of my way, lady—!"
"Ze little vun is already out. To harm him vile he's injured is low, even for you, Fairy Tail," she addressed in that accent.
"She's right, Natsu-san." Wendy ran over to them while avoiding patches of fire. "Niebel gave up earlier. Just let him take care of his sister."
"So...with the flabbergasting defeat of Imperial Snow and Sabertooth by the Salamander, Mermaid Heel is the only guild left to rival Fairy Tail's teams!"
"Do you think she'll win?" Beth asked.
"She will," Risley insisted. "Because our leader is the one and only—"
The leader of Mermaid Heel raised her right arm, which caused Wendy and Natsu to react in case she planned to attack. But the words that came out of her mouth were words that no one expected.
"Vell," she decided, "I give up."
Risley gaped in shock as those words left their team leader's mouth, as did the rest of her guild. Vóreia couldn't believe that her team chose a leader who would give up so easily.
"You're giving up? Why?" Natsu yelled in complaint.
"Believe me, I have every desire to clash vith you, but I have better things to do than brawl vith Fairy Tail. For example—" She looked back at Niebel and Glacia. "A friend in need."
Fairy Tail A 72P
"Should we continue, Yajima-san?" Chapati asked the former Council member.
Yajima shook his head. "No. Even if we let it go on, the winner would still be Fairy Tail."
"Then...that means...with the surrender of Mermaid Heel..." By now, the woman lifted Glacia onto her back while Niebel was free to fly after her. "The winner of the X792 Grand Magic Games is—Fairy Tail!"
The Mermaid Heel woman sighed. "Ah, I can already hear my guild screaming at me."
Niebel sweated. "So why did you give up, miss?"
"Risley..." Arania's hands twitched, itching to wrap themselves around her team leader's neck. "Just who was our leader?"
Risley fidgeted as she sweated nervously. "Well...you see, it was—Glacia?"
"Huh?" The remaining fighters warped back to the arena. Mermaid Heel's leader waved up to them, adjusting a sleeping white-haired girl on her back. "No way..." Millianna breathed, rubbing her eyes. "It couldn't be..."
"Is it?" Vóreia stepped closer, trying to get a closer look at the girl on their leader's back. Glacia woke up, squinting her eyes at the harsh light of the setting sun.
"YOU!" Glacia flinched at the volume of the voice as Yaeger stormed over to them. The woman set Glacia down on her feet, holding the younger girl's hand. "You have some nerve showing yourself here, Patin!" The audience gasped when Yaeger announced Glacia's surname. "Don't you even have a shred of guilt for what you did to our guild, you little—!" Before he could complete that phrase, the Mermaid Heel witch bound him with a metal rope.
"Three times now," she informed, tugging on the rope. "This is the third time you've spoken ill of mein comrade. And the first time, I could have sworn you promised to stop."
"Weren't you there last year? Didn't you see—?"
"Unfortunately, I wasn't born until months ago. However..." The Mermaid Heel mage stepped closer to Yaeger, giving her metal rope a good yank. Yaeger was pulled forward until he was face-to-face...er, helmet-to-face with the woman. He could have sworn her eyes glinted underneath that visor. "I have the need to jog your memory. So how about—" Without warning, she backhanded Yaeger, sending him back until he collided with Orga, who supported Minerva.
"What the hell?" Orga yelled indignantly. Yaeger, on the other hand, got back on his feet, now free of the metal rope.
"Is that how you wanna go? Fine, lady! But don't expect me to go easy on—!" Before he could say the last word, Mermaid Heel's leader was already in his face. How does she move like that? he thought. She swiped his legs, knocking him off his feet. In seconds, she had Yaeger of Quatro Cerberus flat on his stomach, with her foot on his head.
"Who the hell are you?" Yaeger grated out.
What must have been a smirk formed underneath that dark helmet. "Am I really a distant memory, little mutt?"
"But who is she?" Rogue muttered to himself.
Somehow, she heard Rogue, because she began to laugh. "You dummkopf!" She placed a hand on her helmet, lifting it slowly. "I put on a helmet, an idiot level disguise, und now I am a stranger to you? For shame, Herr Cheney!"
His ears twitched. No way... there was only one person who called him Herr...
The helmet was thrown against the wall, shattering upon impact.
The woman gave everyone a smug smirk. "Platina Gaci. Pleasure to see you again."