X777 July – One year before Bickslow joins Fairy Tail

Hiro Mashima owns Fairy Tail

KEY TO HIS SOUL

Dark crimson eyes slid open, taking in the bright room, and the preteen looked up at the ceiling with a bored expression on his face; his arms were starting to cramp from their position but there wasn't much he could do about it, the tight hold that the buckled jacket was known for was pretty effective in keeping him still. "Good morning Bickslow." The voice was detached, like an echo, and he knew it came from the speaker.

His tongue darted out to wet his lips. "Morning Dolly." He replied, knowing that the woman hated the name, and he heard the scoff. Doctor Darlene Olyena, who he called Dolly, had never told anyone that her late father had called her Dolly; for Bickslow he'd learned it by talking to the soul that shadowed the woman, protecting her, and yet everyone assumed him crazy.

The door opened and he was pushed into a sitting position. "Bicks." Dark red met bright green as the teen looked at the guard, Illyria Citharius was a powerful mage that had never revealed her type of magic, the woman was one of the nicer ones.

Her smirk earned a smile before his tongue dropped out of his mouth. "Yo Illy, what's good?" The woman rolled her eyes and unbound his jacket, allowing his arms to relax, and Darlene entered the room not seconds later; the straight jacket was for their safety but he'd never been dangerous. Not to those two, anyway, he had other people who he turned his anger on.

"Ready to talk about that day?" Darlene had no tact, it wasn't the way she worked, if she wanted answers she asked the question until people broke; even if she had to find other things to talk about and sneak questions in. Bickslow held pride that he'd yet to fall for that trick. He rolled his eyes instead and looked away.

Darlene and Illyria exchanged looks before the mage sat down across from him and forced him to look at her. "My magic, you've asked what it is, I'm going to tell you." Suspicion shimmered in his eyes and Bickslow simply shrugged. "I'm a Seith Mage, specializing with human souls, I can see them just like you can." The preteen turned his head to look at her before raising his eyes to the space just above him where the small orbs that he thought nobody could see were hovering.

"What does that have to do with me?" The question came out harsh, he was caught off guard and he didn't like it, but it didn't seem to bother either woman; Darlene watched the exchange without speaking, simply listening.

"You didn't want them to leave you, right? Something happened that caused them to die and you didn't want to be alone?" The prodding questions were left unanswered, Illyria however was just like Darlene and would keep prodding. "So when they were ready to go your magic swelled, you did something that kept them here." The dark red of his eyes grew shiner, tears forming, and he blinked furiously to stop them. "You feel like a monster because they suffered and now you kept them here instead of them moving on." He snapped, his whipping to look at her, his eyes glowing with a green ring.

"Yes! Dammit! I did something that bonded their souls to mine, forcing them to stay in this hell, they'll always be seven-year-old souls that know only to do what I say and know that I'm the only one that can keep them from suffering! Now shut the fuck up and leave me alone!" His voice grew louder, raspier as he screamed, and Illyria stood up and left the room; Darlene blinked, suddenly alarmed, before fleeing without attempting to restrain the teen. Instead she did whatever she could to try and awaken the mage from her strange trance while fear leaked into her, the boy had more magic than she had thought but Illyria had insisted against using anti-magic bindings.

It was strange, waking up from his hellish memory of that place he'd lived in from the age of seven until he turned fifteen, he'd woken up in his dream only to wake up prior to the worst of it. After getting out, seeing as the Council ruled him innocent in the destruction of the circus at last, the fifteen-year-old found himself traveling; he wanted to see everything. Sure he missed Illy and Dolly, the pair were the only ones who knew his story after all, but after unleashing his strongest magic and learning about control four years ago he was ready to move on. They had helped him discover he wasn't a monster, helped him see past the pain, and now he was ready to see the world and help others.

It was raining, for once, and he noticed the teen sitting alone on the bench by the train station; spiked blond hair, powerful magic, and a scar over his right eye. This was someone strong, and judging by his posture he didn't give two damn what anyone else thought, it was something Bickslow envied. Having to use a visor, sunglasses, a mask…all because he couldn't lose control and risk either ruining someone's mind for good or possibly damaging their soul? It was depressing as hell really.

As the Seith Mage sat beside the blond, seeing as he didn't want to be bothered and the sort of older teen was scaring most people away, he let his mind wander to the times when things were normal. When his friends weren't souls that just possessed whatever was convenient to use as a weapon at the time. "The hell is the mask for?" The blond boy was looking over at him, arms crossed over his chest, and Bickslow rolled his eyes.

Was it worth answering? This guy was the kind who was used to people giving him what he wanted and so Bickslow simply turned his head away and didn't answer. "Oi! You deaf or something?" The blond grabbed his shoulder and forced Bickslow to look at him.

The sharp glow of green behind the black fabric was enough to make the blonde's eyes narrow. "It protects people from my magic." That answer made the blond look at him warily, as if expecting the Seith Mage to suddenly attack him, and Bickslow stood up as his train arrived; just like in a bad movie the blond teen was boarding the same one it seemed.

As he sat down Bickslow became aware of the fact that the blond had followed him, sat in the car across from him, and was now holding his hand out. "I'm Laxus Dreyar, soon to be S-Class mage of Fairy Tail." Bickslow looked down at his outstretched hand and decided to stop holding back. He clasped hands with the blond as a wide grin formed on his face.

His reply was boisterous. "I'm Bickslow, wandering mage, and I use Seith Magic as well as Figure Eyes." He could hear Pappa babbling about the blond before him and his scar, the fact that his hair looked like he'd stuck his finger in a socket, and the blond himself smirked.

"That's pretty rare magic, hasn't been used in a while from what I've read, but I know it's hella' strong. Why not join Fairy Tail? We can be teammates since I doubt there's anyone back at that annoying place quite as strong as you. Maybe Erza but she's a mini monster." The Seith Mage snickered at that, wondering just who this Erza person was, and rolled his shoulders in a shrug.

"I might but I want to travel for now, see the world and all that jazz, never got to before." Laxus studied him for a couple moments, making the masked mage feel a bit uncomfortable, before the lightning mage reached into his pocket and pulled out a small communication lacrima and handing it over.

Bicsklow studied it for a moment. "What is this?" He hadn't seen one before, as he spent most of his lift in a padded cell, and the blond mage across from him held up a second one.

"Communication lacrima, these ones are specifically tuned to one another, all you do is add magic to it and think of me. It'll call this one. You call me when you're ready to settle down and I'll come get you." The Seith Mage lifted his head from the orb in hand to the teen across from him, sure he wasn't exactly offering to be best friends or anything crazy but he was offering to be someone to depend on. Offering a home.

The Seith Mage pocketed the orb and leaned back in his seat. "You know you've got a soul following you, right?" Laxus seemed intrigued by this, sitting up slightly, and he looked up where Bickslow was looking.

"Who?"

"A woman, her hair is blond and she's got brown eyes, pretty. Her name is Layla." The teen blinked, as if trying to recall anyone he knew by that name, and he shrugged. "Layla says you don't know her, that you aren't related, but that one day you'll have someone in common that you both care about." Laxus scoffed at the idea but Bickslow could see the pink blush on his face.

"Do you have souls following you?"

"Always, I've bound them to me, my friends are here at all moments."

"Oh."

The silence wasn't awkward, as he'd feared, instead it was as if that one question and answer had spoken volumes; Bickslow was surprised that he was that comfortable with anyone. When anyone learned that he could see souls they often shrunk back in fear, when they knew he could control them they often fled, so to have someone who knew that didn't run was endearing.

The two parted at Hargeon, Bickslow getting off the train while the blond kept going, and as the Seith Mage walked through the town his heart felt lighter. Pappa shivered excitedly in the air as the mage headed for the post office, Illyria had delivered something to Hargeon for him apparently before she left for Bosco on a vacation, and as he entered the magic store the old man handed him the parcel. The wooden dolls were hand crafted, it was apparent, and he knew Illyria's work anywhere; she'd made him five small totems for his friends.

The orb flashed to life, storm blue met dark red, and Bickslow made sure the lacrima was angled so Laxus could see the print behind him. "I'm ready to be your teammate, Laxus." The blond teen smirked and headed for the doors, pushing them open, and greeted the visor wearing mage as the wooden totems floated around him.

"Yo, Laxus."

"Laxus!" "Yo!"

The blond smirked as he watched the totems practically dance in midair.

"Come on in, Bicks, you've gotta meet Freed."

A bit more into Bixy's past for this one and tomorrow will be the 100% full story of his past.