And so it begins… enjoy!

Disclaimer: I own nothing. Fairy Tail belongs to Hiro Mashima, and the lovely Pradesh Family is owned by Desna.

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Prompt: Shatter

"Faith is the strength by which a shattered world shall emerge into the light"

~ Quote by Helen Keller

Bickslow truly loved and hated his magic sometimes.

Sure, there were pros and cons, highs and lows, strengths and weaknesses to any given magic. The mature Seith mage had learned at an early age the invasive and personal nature of his magic. He got to see what no one else could. He could manipulate and compel through sheer desire and will alone.

With his magic, the phrase "The eyes are windows to the soul" was quite literal.

He'd never outwardly expressed his love-hate relationship with his magic to anyone else, though he was fairly certain that cobra and his older brother Kaleb had likely sensed his feelings and thoughts a few times given their own magical affinities toward the mind and soul. Then again, those two probably understood his position better than most would.

Seith magic had deep ties in the both the dark and light histories of magic. It was a rare magic that faced persecution and often incited fear and disgust in those who didn't understand it fully.

It was due to this fear, brought about by the actions of a dark Seith guild in Bosco, which had led to his government condemning those with his magic, resulting in his family having to smuggle him out of the country for his own safety. At the time, he had believed only his family would ever be able to truly love and accept him for who he was. That is… until he'd met and befriended a young, teenage Laxus. The blond lightning mage had accepted him readily enough, and had expressed an interest in his story and magic. Bickslow had accompanied him back to Fairy Tail and the rest was history. Bickslow had since been improving his magic, becoming stronger, and working to abolish the fear and stereotypes surrounding his magic type. That being said, it had been a hard road. It was difficult to address and allay the fears of those around you, especially when they were one's guild mates, if said people were unable to understand how his magic accurately worked in the first place.

He had started to become frustrated at the isolation he and his teammates had faced within the guild. It had to be some joke of the universe that his entire team was composed of the only people who could sympathize and understand his own experiences and motivations due to the similarity to their own. It hadn't gotten them many points with the rest of the guild though, as they had soon become set apart from the others. They had been on the verge of giving up ever being fully accepted for who they were by their guild mates leading up to the Fantasia parade. That was the time when Bickslow had had his first reason to hate his magic.

It had started when he noticed Laxus had become even more withdrawn. Granted, his friend and leader was never a social butterfly, but Bickslow had known something was wrong when the lightning mage had started pulling away from his own team. All it had taken was a brief look, the glow of his eyes hidden by his helmet, and it had taken all of the inner restraint and control for the Seith mage to not cry out his anguish and horror at the sight which had met his eyes. Laxus' soul had deep fissures in it. Branching lines of black stretched across his normally bronze and navy blue colored soul. Now those colors were dampened.

When researching his magic Bickslow had read about 'shattered' souls. Fissures or 'chipping' of the soul were often the result of a traumatic experience or deep personal loss. A mages' individual experiences, feelings, and decisions not only further helped shape who they were, their 'essence' if you will, but it also influenced the depth, growth, and very nature of their magical core. A soul only truly became 'shattered' in appearance for four reasons: 1) when the individual experienced repeated or ongoing hardship; 2) the individual did something that went so far against their own core beliefs and sense of self that their soul literally 'shattered' from the resistant internal shift; 3) discord between magical affinities, or if a mage completely ignores one affinity for another; or 4) a rift was formed in the soul due to an internal conflict— it could be a moral, magical, or spiritual conflict, etc.— and, if left unresolved, the rift would deepen to a point that the stress of holding itself together would basically rip the soul into pieces. Bickslow had come to learn, both from his research and his own experiences that souls, for all of their fragility, were surprisingly hardy, and could heal from almost anything if given time and adequate care. That being said, a 'shattered' soul was one of the hardest things to heal. This was partly due to the fact that it is possible for an individual to have a shattered soul but show no real changes in their outward appearance or actions, thereby making the internal damage hard to detect…unless one had Seith magic. Bickslow had found that this is what made Seith magic so invaluable, as the original purpose of Seith magic was healing.

However, Laxus' soul was the closest he'd ever seen to being 'shattered' that the Seith mage had ever come across. He wasn't entirely sure what to do, though he'd had a good idea of the cause. The lightning mage's avoidance of his recently acknowledged dragon slayer abilities given to him by the lacrima was creating discord within his soul. This discord latched onto his friend's past and current stressors creating a focus that the dissonance with his friend's soul was using as an outlet. Bickslow tried to talk his friend out of his 'take over the guild' idea but was quickly shut down. The Seith mage had only truly backed down after noticing that his arguing against his friend was deepening some of the fissures and forming new ones. Resigning himself to the plan that was set to fail from the start, Bickslow resolved himself to see his leader through this. He would do his best to support his leader, even in his misguided plan, if only to be able to be there to help put him back together on the other side.

It had honestly been a great relief when the blonde celestial mage had beaten him. Granted, his heart had never truly been in the fight, but he hadn't taken it easy on her at all. Following the aftermath of the Fantasia debacle and Laxus being cast out of the guild, Bickslow and the rest of the Raijinshuu would often meet up and check in with their leader on some of their extended jobs. Bickslow had been relieved to see his friend's soul mending itself back together as Laxus gained a better understanding of his own purpose, goals, and sense of identity. The Seith mage had hoped that that would be the last time he saw a soul of a friend or family member in such a horrific state. He hadn't known it was only the beginning.

His sister, Emzadi, was a second generation solar dragon slayer, and the oldest female of her kind. At the age of eleven, her soul had cracked and darkened when she'd accidently killed her childhood crush after he'd sought her out in her first mating season. It had taken two years for it to mend and lighten to its previous state. Two long years of Bickslow constantly sneaking glances and monitoring the healing process of her soul. Then his family had had to smuggle him out of the country to escape persecution for his magic. He'd been worried to the point of nearly making himself ill when word reached him six years later from Bosco that Emzadi's boyfriend, an S-class fire manipulation mage by the name of Shota, had sought her out and engaged her in battle during her mating season; Against Em's numerous explicit warnings to boot. Bickslow had nearly wept upon his first glance of her soul after that. She'd been sent to visit him while their family took care of the legal uproar. Where before there had only been cracks and a darkening of color, his sister's soul had deep, ranching fissures tearing through it. The soul had been heavily scarred and seemed to scream his sibling's grief, anger, and despair. The fine line the soul was riding on; the hairs breadth away it'd been from shattering all together had kept Bickslow on-edge the entire visit, and had him keeping an even closer watch over his sister. It had taken four years this time, for her soul to heal. Even so, he could still spot the barest traces of cracks where the fissures had filled, which attested to the devastation the soul had been dealt. Emzadi had become more careful in her romantic ventures after that.

Then, Tartarus happened. Fairy Tail's disbandment shortly after their defeat of the demon gates had left Bickslow and his team feeling bereft. It had taken almost a week for things to sink in before the Seith mage had been able to form a plan of action. He'd received word from his father soon after news spread of their return from Tenrou Island that the ban on his magic had been lifted. Before leaving for the fateful S-class trials, Bickslow had been arranging to take a month long holiday to Bosco to visit his family and re-connect with his mother country. Needless to say, the unwanted seven year sabbatical had thrown a wrench into those plans.

The rest of his team and Laxus had been considering joining up with Blue Pegasus for a while, but had changed their minds when Bickslow has proposed going to Bosco and joining White Sea. The added bonuses being their admittance was practically guaranteed as his brother was the guild master, and that they would be staying as guests at his father's estate.

This brought him back to the current situation. It had been on his way to meeting up with his team that he saw her. Or rather, saw her soul. It was almost enough to make him weep. Lucy's soul, usually a bright, warm, golden-white, was now grayed and so dim it looked like a puff of air could wipe out the light forever. But that wasn't what had made the Seith mage stop in his tracks. No, that honor belonged to the broken shards and jagged edges he was seeing. Her soul had truly and utterly shattered. The broken piece themselves showed further faults and fissures webbing through and across them, hints of the near future. For an instant, he had been tempted to walk away just so he wouldn't have to see the heartbreaking sight, but quickly pushed it aside as he took in the mage who had offered him open acceptance and forgiveness; Who had discussed his magic with him and understood his connections to the once-lost souls that now followed; Who had opened her heart to him and his team after the events of Fantasia, appreciated his wit, and was unafraid to snark back at him when he deserved it. No, for that strong, willful, loving, sincere, bright mage he would stand his ground and work his magic to empty for as long as it took to pick up the pieces of her soul and mend them whole again. As much as it tore him up to see the soul of someone he cared about in such a state, his heart and his magic would not let him leave them hurting.

Decision made, Bickslow approached the celestial mage where she stood staring at the remains of the Fairy Tail guild hall. When their eyes met, the Seith mage offered a crooked smile, one telling of understanding, acceptance, and comfort. He held out his hand to her, and offered an invitation.

Yes, Bickslow truly loved and hated his magic. For while it made him see and confront the dark cruelties, pains, and sufferings of the world, it also let him see hidden wonders, and gave him the power to heal those miseries.

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Until tomorrow!

JB