GrayLu Week 2016 Day 5
Prompt: Breakdown
And now we go to Fairy Tail Guild Mark Zero, where a wonderful, terrible spell goes awry...
I hope you enjoy this tale of love (and breakdowns) transcending the centuries!
Chapter 5 – The Power of Love
Fairy Tail Guild Mark Zero
~ A History Lesson ~
The first Guild Master of Fairy Tail was a girl named Mavis Vermillion. At the age of thirteen she tried to use the prototype spell Law and although it achieved its end, Mavis was cursed not to age. Sometime after this, Mavis founded Fairy Tail Guild along with her three friends and followers: Yuri Dreyar, Warrod Sequen and Precht Gaebolg.
The Guild lived through turbulent times, and about ten years after Fairy Tail was founded, Mavis Vermillion died – or rather almost died – leaving Precht Gaebolg as its second Guild Master. In his grief over Mavis' death, Precht encased Mavis Vermillion in a giant lacrima – a pure crystal with Mavis' body at the center that eventually became the awesome magical artifact known as Fairy Heart. Fairy Heart was, and remained, a secret known only to Fairy Tail's Guild Masters for over a hundred years, until the advent of the legendary heroes Natsu Dragneel, Gray Fullbuster, Erza "Titania" Scarlet, and the mysterious Lucy Heartfilia.
What Precht never told his successor, Makarov Dreyar, was that the spell he used to contain Mavis' body in the lacrima required significantly more power than he had at his immediate disposal. Therefore, he had used forbidden magic to draw magic from two other time periods. In both time periods he had foreseen mages of exceptional power. Moreover, both time periods contained a static, predictable point: the union of two extraordinary mages with the ability to preserve a soul indefinitely, one within living ice and the other within the magic of the celestial sphere. Their union and subsequent children were probability points so stable as to be "visible" even from several centuries away in time.
This is the untold story of how the forging of Fairy Heart both threatened and restored those legendary, twice-born mages Lucy Heartfilia and Gray Fullbuster.
~ The First Breakdown ~
The breakdown came just as the spell around Mavis' inert form was stabilizing. Precht was a brilliant mage, but he was weary from grief and a long war, and he quickly discovered that his first probability point, and by far the closest and strongest source of power, was not as stable as he had believed. In fact, because of his linking spell, the second probability point was actually drawing power from the first, causing the first point to destabilize further. As bizarre as it seemed, Precht was going to have to take some kind of steps to protect the relationships of his chosen mages in both future times.
After studying the matter carefully, the Guild Master redoubled the links between the two future times, hoping that the ultimate effect would be for each relationship to stabilize the other. The perfect result would be two strong, stable unions at both of his target points and then the birth of a child to fuse the abilities of the parents into the crystal-soul energy that Precht needed to preserve Mavis within the giant lacrima that he had created.
As a final precaution, and believing firmly that the Fairy Tail guild-mark would be preserved in some form in both the near and the distant future, Precht tied his spells at each point into that image. He couldn't know how it would all actually work, but with any luck, the guild-mark would let the four young mages know if or when there was a problem and allow them time to resolve it. At the very least, identifying themselves with the mark would bind them more closely to Precht's overarching spell.
Ultimately, Precht felt little remorse at having bound four young, unknown lives into a dangerous and untried spell. In his view, anything was worth the chance to preserve Mavis Vermillion.
~ The Second Breakdown ~
Fairy Tail Guild
The whole team travelled home by train late the next day, their mission successfully accomplished with the exception of a few burns on Lucy's legs that Gray insisted on looking after. Lucy had already discovered earlier that going out with Gray had this significant advantage: he made a mean ice pack when you had a hangover from apple brandy shandies.
Erza eyed them with interest and seemed to be pleased that they were becoming closer despite their rough start. Natsu and Happy complained that Gray was hogging Lucy, who should be hanging out with the whole team equally. Once again, Erza looked after Natsu on the trip home.
Only three hours into their six-hour trip, there was the screeching of metal and the whole train started to sway violently. It remained upright, however, and once Lucy was sure that they were out of real danger she was able to enjoy having Gray's arms around her. In any event, the engine had well and truly broken down, so the passengers piled off and looked for places to stay nearby. Natsu firmly announced intention of walking the rest of the way to the guild.
Gray drew Lucy off to one side.
"I got permission from Erza to spend a couple of nights here – well, with you – to do some shopping and maybe have a vacation. I mean… if you want."
He looked adorable, Lucy thought: he didn't want to push her too fast (although this was moving pretty fast!) but… he really wanted her all to himself for a while, which wouldn't happen back in Magnolia at the guildhall. Lucy felt her heart beating faster.
"Are you sure?" she finally asked, trying to read his face.
"It depends what you mean, Lucy. I am sure that I want to take a vacation with you. And I will admit right now that my motives are not entirely pure." He slid his hand down her side and over her hip and she got goosebumps. "Anyway, the question is really whether you're sure, you know? News gets around, eventually."
Lucy grinned at him. So this really was a romantic get-away for the two of them. Wow.
"I can be ready to go in about ten minutes. I'd be there sooner, but I need to get my suitcase from the baggage car."
And so, just a few minutes later, Lucy and Gray left Natsu and Erza arguing about the best way to get home to the Guild. Erza won.
~ The Second Breakdown ~
Fairy Tail University
Lucy and Gray didn't make a secret of how they felt about each other, so Erza and Natsu (and Happy) weren't surprised when they elected to rent a car and drive back to the university on their own together. Natsu seemed slightly put out when Lucy told him that he might have to curtail his visits to her dorm room from now on; he just couldn't or wouldn't believe that some things changed when two people became a couple. In particular, they might be a little more sensitive to their partner's insecurities and they might have more need for privacy.
The first hour of the trip back to Magnolia City and FTU had gone by very quickly for Lucy and Gray. Lucy was by far the more talkative of the two, but Gray liked to listen to her and as he relaxed he contributed more to the conversation. The rental car was well-equipped with modern conveniences, so they were able to plug in their dataphones and share their music with each other. Gray laughed when he found out that the reason that Lucy had so many of his favourite songs on her dataphone was because they reminded her of him. Lucy was embarrassed, but she didn't mind as much when she saw a rare look of sheer happiness on Gray's face.
They had just gone from discussing music to some increasingly unsubtle flirting when Lucy saw it again.
"It's back! Look!"
Grey was already having difficulty concentrating on the road thanks to Lucy having unbuttoned her white blouse further down than usual (in retaliation to him struggling out of his T-shirt while driving a car). Nevertheless, he peeked over quickly. Sure enough the pink FTU crest was once more on the back of Lucy's hand. It didn't come as a surprise - although it did impair his driving even further – when Lucy traced a pattern on the right side of his chest.
"So mine's back too?"
"Yep!" Lucy looked at the mark thoughtfully. "You know, I think we should talk to Master Makarov about reinstating the old tradition. I mean – it's not like a tattoo, because it's done with magic. Or at least it used to be. And it could fade, even, if you let your connection to the old Fairy Tail Guild fail."
Despite the fact that he was driving a rental car on an unfamiliar road while trying not to get so turned on by his new girlfriend that he couldn't see straight, Gray allocated a few brain cells to considering this idea.
"Okay – and by the way, it's a little geeky for you to know all this history – cute, but geeky… damn what was I saying?"
"I think that you were going to talk about history," Lucy said demurely, tucking a few stray hairs behind one of her ears. "And about the marks."
"Yeah… I was thinking that maybe, somehow, we're getting the marks because of the same magic. Like, we're being made part of the old Fairy Tail Guild. It's a crazy idea, what do you think?"
Lucy just beamed at him.
"I love that idea, Gray! That would be so amazing... But it's not like we're doing anything even remotely connected to the old guild, right?"
"Well, if getting together with you is what old Fairy Tail wants me to do, then so be it. I am willing to sacrifice my body for the cause."
Lucy blushed deeply. But she noticed that when she managed to look back a moment later, the blue mark was still on Gray's chest, and it didn't look quite so insubstantial anymore.
"Lucy?" Gray was back to paying attention to the road now.
"Yes, Gray?" Lucy's eyes were still glued to the FTU crest on the Ice Maker's chest.
"When we get back… come over to my place, okay? Less likely that Natsu will show up at a bad moment."
"Will there be a bad moment for Natsu to show up?" Lucy teased, although she was suddenly feeling a little shy.
"I hope so. You?"
Lucy swallowed. She stared down at the pink mark on the back of her right hand. It didn't seem to be fading either.
"Yeah… I hope so too."
Two minutes later, the car broke down and came to an undignified – but gentle – stop on the outskirts of an old tourist town. Gray swore, but quickly recovered himself.
"I guess old Fairy Tail is against us after all, eh Luce?"
Lucy shook her head and pointed. Ahead of them, they saw a beautifully restored, old-style house with "Bed & Breakfast" artistically lettered on a sign hanging near the wooden front gate. In bigger letters, the sign also read: Fairy Tail House.
Author's Note: I really hope you've enjoyed this little flight of imagination! If you have a moment and feel so inclined, please post a review or send me a comment to let me know what you think!
I hope you're looking forward to Day 6 - September 6 - GrayLu Day! Things could get very hot...