Chapter 12: Awakened Beast
Erza stood strong while she continued blocking every rocket that came screaming down towards the street. She grimaced after a rather harsh explosion cracked her shield, and pushed her backwards.
"Damn it. I can't keep this up much longer…" She muttered. Mira watched from a nearby alley as Erza struggled to stay on her feet. She whipped out her phone and dialed in a number, Makarov grumbling on his own phone next to her.
"Gildarts, I swear….always there when you don't need him…" He tucked his phone away and turned to face the battle and walked out.
"I'm going to go confront Jose myself, hopefully end this battle without any casualties…" Mira looked up at him with a worried expression.
"Are you sure master?" She asked him, he stopped in his tracks taking a shaky breath.
"My children are out there fighting, risking their lives for a cause they believe in. I will not stand to the side and allow them to die. I shall put an end to this whole affair." Another blast could be heard, followed by Erza crying out, they both turned to look at the street, and saw Erza flying through the air, bits of metal falling onto the ground. Erza soon skidded across the asphalt, and crashed into a nearby lamppost, she yelled out in pain grabbing her shoulder that had become dislocated from hitting the lamppost at such a high speed.
"ERZA!" Several people yelled out, Mira's hand flew to her mouth muffling her cries. She really didn't like fighting, much less seeing people in pain. Makarov growled.
"This ends now." With that Makarov walked towards the City Hall building. Mira sighed as she finished dialing the number she had been trying to reach for the last thirty minutes. Holding it up to her ear, the phone rang once , before she was greeted by the following message.
"The number you are trying to reach is unavailable. Leave a message after the beep." Mira quickly hit the end call button, and instantly retried the number. This time it rang three times, and a gruff male voice answered.
"What do you want?!" He snapped through the phone taking Mira off guard, but the momentary shock quickly switched into anger.
"Now you listen here Laxus, I have been trying to get a hold of you for a while now, you don't get to give me attitude, we are all fighting, where are you?! Erza just went down, we could use some backup!"
"Whatever. It's not my problem, I'm sure you fools got yourselves into that mess." Is all he spoke before hanging up.
"LAXUS!" Mira shrieked, seething in anger she began to redial the number once more, but a loud explosion shook the streets, without Erza there to block it several people were sent flying as a large hole was now in the street. Mira looked up to the rooftop, someone needed to take out the people shooting down on them, Bisca read her thoughts and tried firing more shots, just like the last time a rock wall appeared blocking the shots. Someone would have to take them out from the inside. That's when the lightbulb lit up in her brain, she knew her brother had gone in following Natsu, and the others. She dialed his number praying that he would answer, and sure enough he did.
"Hello?" He was confused as to why she was calling now of all times. She looked at the roof and made eye contact with a strange man in an orange suit.
"There is somebody up on the roof, they are preventing us from taking out the missle launchers...We need you to take care of them from the inside!" The man up on the roof stared at her as she spoke into her phone.
"You can count on me big sis! I'll handle this like a real man!" Mira softly smiled at her little brother's catchphrase.
"I know, I can always rely on you." Out of the corner of her eye she saw something pop up behind her. She spun on her heels letting out a scream as the man in the orange suit had popped up out of nowhere. She dropped her phone as the ground rose and wrapped around her body. The man wore a wicked grin.
"Bonsoir belle, we can't have you spoiling the surprise can we? Non non non…" Mira attempted to get her friends attention, but the rocks silenced her. Soon she was struggling to break free as she sunk into the ground.
"Elfman...please…hurry…"
Natsu soon had caught up with the burly, white haired man. They were now running throughout the building looking for the door that would lead to the rooftop. Elfman knew something had happened to his sister, he had to save her. Using that as fuel, he sped up, they soon reached the end of the hallway. It branched off in two different directions. Glancing down them, one of them had stairs that led upstairs the other went down.
"If I had to guess I'd say that way leads to the roof…" Elfman muttered, the two made eye contact and nodded at each other.
"What are we waiting for?" Natsu smirked, and took off running upstairs, Elfman grinned behind him.
"Hell yeah, MANLY CHARGE!"
Natsu barged through the door at the top of the stairs. Elfman right behind him, they found themselves on the rooftop, the people clutching the missile launchers all turned to face them. Natsu cracked his knuckles.
"Now which one of you knows where Lucy is?" His fists ignited, and Elfman's arm morphed, covering it entirely with rocks. Not bothering to give anyone a second to reply Natsu pounced. The rooftop soon was lit up, the people down on the streets had looked up to see the dancing flames that had illuminated the night sky. Elfman and Natsu had made short work of the defenseless enemies, the six men laid unconscious on the cold, snowy roof. Natsu picked one randomly, and grabbed them by the collar of their shirt. The poor guy who was still a little groggy from the beating, looked into Natsu's eyes. Natsu growled.
"Where is she?!" He yelled at the man who shivered out of fear.
"I-I don't know man….I swear!" Natsu's face darkened as Elfman looked around the roof, he couldn't shake the feeling that something was wrong.
"I'm not buying it. Now tell me where Lucy is!" Natsu dragged the man to the ledge and dangled him over the edge, using all his strength to hold him up, the man began to panic and struggle.
"I'm losing my grip...So you better tell me quickly!"
"Okay! Okay! She's with Gaj-"
Bang.
Natsu's eyes shot open as blood splattered onto him. The person he had been holding went limp, his head angled to the side blood pouring from it. Natsu's body tremored, his white scarf/mask had specks of red on it now. Elfman whipped his head at the source of the sound, a strange man was standing by the door clutching a pistol, smoke coming from the barrel. Natsu was motionless minus the shakes his body was doing. Elfman however growled at the green haired man, clad in an orange suit. His monocle fogged up due to the cold air.
"Why did you do that?!" Elfman yelled at him, in response he just wickedly grinned.
"That traitor had to be silenced, we can't have one of our own responsible for ruining the boss' big plan, non non non." Sol spoke in a thick French accent. Elfman clenched his fist, Natsu was listening, but still didn't move. His eyes not leaving the lifeless body in his hands.
"That's sick! He was still one of your own!" Anger began to cloud Elfman's thoughts.
"Please, that fool...I didn't even know his name, ohohoho" Sol chuckled, he directed his gun at Elfman.
"Monster...you're not a real man at all...you're a coward!"
"Au contraire, it is you that is not a real man, after all, what kind of man lets his own sister get taken hostage?" Sol laughed, and waved his arm that wasn't holding the pistol. Elfman took a few steps back as a large pillar of rock shot up from the roof. A face poked out of it, and his heart fell, sure enough it was the face of his sister.
"MIRA!" He cried out, taking a few steps closer to the pillar. Mira's eyes blinked open.
"Elfman?..." She asked quietly, her voice croaky.
"What did he do to you?" Elfman questioned.
"I caught this mademoiselle here spoiling the surprise I had in store for you, and I couldn't let that slide non non non." Elfman bared his teeth as he looked over in Sol's direction. Sol still held up the pistol at Elfman, and continued.
"So I have come up with a most fitting punishment...watching her dear brother die in front of her should be a good start!" Mira looked over in fear. Elfman took a couple steps back, but with a snap of his fingers, Elfman's legs were stuck, he looked down at the rocks that were preventing him from moving his legs. He struggled to break free.
"NO PLEASE! DON'T HURT HIM!"
"The time for begging is over Ms. Strauss...It's time to say goodbye to your only sibling!" Sol snapped. Elfman smiled softly as he stared down the barrel of the gun.
"It's okay sis...Even if this is the end, I'll die knowing that I protected you. The way I couldn't protect Lisanna." Mira looked over at her brother and saw something in his eyes. She knew at once what he was plotting.
"Elfman, you can't! A full body takeover could destroy you!" She pleaded. Elfman snuck a glance at her.
"If it means I can save you then it's what I have to do. We've both heard the stories about this guy, there's no way I can take him the way I am now. I have to try it." Sol interrupted their conversation.
"This shall teach you for messing with Phantom Lord! OHOHOHOHO!" Sol cackled, Elfman closed his eyes focusing his power as Mira shrieked. Sol's finger played with the trigger, he was about to press down, but thankfully Natsu had recovered from his dazed state and had stepped in at the last second. He sent Sol barreling into the door breaking it off the hinges in the process. The gun clattered to the floor. Elfman opened his eyes, and Mira glanced at Natsu. His body was emanating steam. His breaths were short and shallow, his fist was clutched so tightly the veins were popping out. He stared straight down at his shoes.
"He was your friend. And you killed him…." Natsu began in a hushed tone as Sol had recovered, and was fuming as he stared down Natsu.
"I won't let you kill my friend…." Natsu continued, the quiet rage inside of him began to boil over. The image of the corpse in his hands popped into his head.
"And what are you going to do about it?" Sol asked, wiping away the blood that glossed his mouth, he took off the shattered monocle and through it on the ground. Natsu finally looked up at Sol, his eyes were cold, void of all emotion, no that wasn't true. There was emotion in his eyes, one very clear emotion that Elfman, and Mira both had never seen in this normally easy going boy. It was more than anger, more than sadness. It was primal almost, the look in Natsu's eyes was similar to that of a hunter that was about to tear it's prey apart. Natsu growled before replying to Sol's question.
"I'm going to destroy you." In an instant Natsu's body ignited in flames, his fire burning hotter and brighter than it ever had before. Sol had no time to react to Natsu shooting at Sol delivering a hefty punch that sent Sol flying off the building, taking a large breath he shot out a mighty attack of fire from his mouth that enveloped Sol in the air. The Frenchman screamed in pain. The rocks that were imprisoning Mira and Elfman disappeared back into the roof. Natsu's flames also dissipated. Leaving him to take several calming breaths.
"S-Sorry..." He muttered refusing to look at the two Strauss' afraid of what they must be thinking about him. Up until that point they had never seen him like that. The last time he had been that upset was that night two weeks ago when he found his father dead in the kitchen.
"Natsu, it's okay…" Mira started, but Elfman cut her off.
"Yeah that was so manly! I owe you one, you really saved my biscuit back there!" That actually caused Natsu to smirk.
"Ohohohohoho! It's going to take more than that to defeat I, Sol of the Element Trois!" The three looked around for the source of the voice, and suddenly Natsu got thrown backwards. He fell onto the rooftop, his head bouncing off of the ground, he hissed as rock made cuffs wrapping around his arms, legs and neck. Sol's laughter grew in volume all around them, Natsu struggled to break free of the restraints, but had no success. Mira let out a yelp and it seemed like she had been swallowed into the ground itself. Elfman tried to catch her, but soon she had vanished into the ground.
"MIRA! NATSU!" He shouted, turning his head as Natsu slowly sunk into the ground as well. Elfman spun around looking for the source of Sol's laughter.
"Ohohohoho, look at the poor monsieur...all by himself. This takes me back, what about you?" Elfman clenched his fists, squeezing his mouth shut so tightly it felt like his teeth would crack any second.
"I don't know what you're talking about!" He yelled back morphing his arm into the lizard-like one. From the corner of his eye he saw the man clad in the orange suit pop up from the ground. He turned on his heels and flung himself at the enemy, swiping down at him with his claws. Upon the contact Sol erupted into a cloud of sand.
"Come on monsieur...let it out...The beast you hide deep inside. You can't beat me without its help." Three more Sol's rose from nowhere. Elfman snarled as he blindly charged swinging his transformed arm at all of them.
"NEVER! I WILL NEVER DO A FULL TAKEOVER AS LONG AS I LIVE! I CAN BEAT YOU MAN ON MAN SO STOP HIDING!" He screamed out as all three sand clones of Sol faded into nothing.
"Non, non, non! That will never do...you forget monsieur I hold the life of your friend and sister in my hands. So let it!"
"Why do you care so much if I fight you with or without a full body takeover?"
"Because Elfman Strauss. I want you to be at your strongest when I beat you. I want to see the look on your face when you realized there is nothing you can do to beat me. I want you to succumb to my will, to do whatever I tell you. The possibilities are never ending, OHOHOHOHO!" Sol's laughter made Elfman's blood boil, he became surrounded by at least a hundred more sand made dopplegangers, all of them laughing at him.
"I would never! I AM A MEMBER OF FAIRY TAIL! I WOULD DIE BEFORE SERVING YOU LIKE A MINDLESS SLAVE!"
"But you see monsieur, you already are a slave. A slave to your own mind, don't tell me you've forgotten. Forgotten what the beast is capable of? Forgotten what you have done."
"Stop it…" Elfman tried, he attempted to attack the sand figures, but found he couldn't move. His legs were bound once more, he grunted as he tried to escape. Sol's laughter continued to play in his mind from all around him, causing him to shut his eyes, but the Frenchman's laughter soon changed into the sweet laugh of a female, the sound like music in his ears. Slowly he opened his eyes, and found himself still surrounded. Not by hundreds of Sol's but of a small teenage girl. A petite girl with short white hair similar to Elfman and Mira's. She wore a huge grin on her face, and Elfman's heart fell.
"Forgotten little Lisanna Strauss." Sol's voice rang through the air as Elfman stared at hundreds of clones of his little sister.
"...Lisanna…" He spoke tenderly, the girl's laughter continuing around him.
"It was almost two years ago wasn't it? The day we first met. The day you killed her?" Sol's voice whispered in his ear.
"...Lisanna, I'm sorry…" Elfman's eyes watered and he avoided looking at the girl.
"Two years ago I was a petty thief….Do you remember? The three of you attempted to defeat me, and you Elfman turned yourself into that dreaded beast." Elfman was helpless to listen to Sol as the memories played out in his head. His hands began to tremble.
"And kind hearted Lisanna attempted to stop your rampage. I haven't forgotten that day, that beating you gave me. For the last two years I have dedicated myself to mastering my powers to destroying you! It's your fault she's gone, it's your fault your dear sister is dead, and soon Mirajane shall join her. Oui, oui."
"...I remember that day….I remember looking at my bloody hands realizing what I had done. I never forgot it, that day was the day I vowed to never attempt a full body takeover…"
"Non, non, non. That will never do. You cannot defeat me without letting it out! I have been trained by Master Jose himself!"
"Maybe so...But I have to try!"
"Let yourself go big brother Elf." The Lisanna's all spoke in unison. Elfman's heart began to pace.
"I know you're not real!" He tried, but it didn't sound all that convincing. Soon they all faded away their laughter still ringing out in his head. Sol popped out of the ground, Elfman could tell this was the real one.
"Let me put it like this. Let the beast out or else…" Holding out his hand Natsu and Mira also came from the ground, they were encapsulated in rock only their heads were visible they were both unconscious, holding out his hand an axe formed from sand. He held it up to Mira's neck, fear clouded Elfman's mind as he was powerless to do anything but watch on.
"I'm going to bring this down on her neck. Let the beast out. It's the only way to stop it!" He held the axe up.
"NO! STOP!" He shouted, struggling at his restraints. Sol grinned wickedly as he began to bring the axe down upon Mira. Something snapped inside of Elfman. He yelled out, but it came out as a low primal roar. Sol stopped in his tracks and glanced over at Elfman who was beginning to grow larger. The mighty roar woke Natsu, and Mira who were groggy.
"ELFMAN!" Mira shouted.
"What...the…." Natsu's eyes bulged. Elfman's skin turned green, with red. Horns began to protrude from the top of his skull, his teeth turned sharp. Soon, Elfman was no longer standing there, in his place was a large monster who let out another loud roar.
"At long last…" Sol didn't get to finish his sentence before Elfman was charging. Sol got sent soaring through the air. Elfman jumped into the air and caught him by the legs. He slammed him onto the rooftop leaving a lanky man's imprint, Sol shrieked as Elfman once again lifted him in the air, and promptly slammed him down again, and again, and again. After what felt like a century of slamming him into the rooftop, he began to spring around still holding him by the legs. He released Sol who crashed into the pillars imprisoning Nastu and Mira,freeing them as rubble flew everywhere.
Elfman began to punch the crap out of Sol who was laying flat on his back. Natsu and Mira rushed over to try and stop him.
"Woah easy there big guy! Sun's getting real low!" Natsu grabbed Elfman's arm to try and prevent him from punching Sol anymore who now lay completely motionless.
"Elfman. It's okay! You can stop now you beat him!" Mira grabbed his other arm, Elfman growled at them and tried to fling them off. The two held on for dear life.
"Elfman snap out of it please!" Mira pleaded.
"C'mon man get control of yourself!" Natsu tried. Elfman roared once more successfully getting them to relinquish their holds on him. Natsu ignited his fist and stood in front of Mira as Elfman charged in a blind rage. Mira placed a hand on Natsu's shoulder.
"Wait, I can handle this. Just trust me."
"You sure?"
"Not really, but I need to try." Mira waltzed out from behind Natsu and walked towards the rampaging beast. She stood still as he came closer towards her. He lifted his arm above her. Natsu kept his hands ablaze just to be safe, ready to interfere if things went south.
"Elf…It's me your sister Mira." She spoke tenderly. Elfman stopped mid punch and looked down at her heaving heavily. His eyes showed something that proved that he could recognize her, she took a small sigh and slowly reached up touching his cheek. He flinched at the touch, but didn't do anything to stop it.
"That's right Elfman. It's all over, it's okay." Elfman closed his eyes, his growling ceased.
"M-Mira?" His snarly voice rumbled. Mira smiled up at him, Natsu unclenched his fist letting the flames go out, but he was still on edge, afraid of Elfman to go on another rampage.
"That's right. It's me, I'm right here." The beast looked down to avoid eye contact.
"I-I'm sorry." He muttered, he began to shrink in size until he returned to the normal white spikey haired male. He fell to his knees breathing heavily, his face had become significantly paler. Mira bowed down and squeezed him.
"It's okay, you did great, I'm just happy you are okay." She smiled at him, He smiled softly back.
"For real buddy, now I owe you one!" Natsu announced walking over and offering his fist, Elfman smirked and fist bumped him.
"I'm too tired to move. I'm sorry Natsu, you'll have to go find Lucy on your own."
"Hey don't worry about it. I can handle things from here!" Natsu looked over to Mira who nodded at him giving him the silent go ahead. He began walking off with his inner fire burning bright.
"Be careful Natsu." Mira spoke sincerely as he walked over to the doorway.
"No promises, and hey Elfman for what it's worth…" Elfman looked over to Natsu who smirked and held out his fist, pumping it.
"You are a real man! That's for sure!" He turned and walked away. Elfman could feel his grin growing larger at Natsu's words. He walked out of their sight, but soon their spirits turned sour as Sol began chuckling.
"That fool….He has no idea….Gajeel will make short work of him…." Elfman growled, and tried to get up, but Mira prevented him. She walked over to the downed Frenchman, and stared down at him, smiling brightly.
"It's not Natsu I'm worried about...It's whoever tries to stand in his way of saving his friend." Sol just grinned and fell out of consciousness. Mira puffed her cheeks glaring down at the man.
"I believe in you Natsu."
Natsu was rushing through the hallways once more, looking for any sign of Lucy. Suddenly he heard a female scream, the voice he recognized immediately.
"I'M COMING LUCE!" He ran to the source of the scream to the basement. He heard it once more coming from the boiler room. Clenching his fist he sprinted full speed and punched the door shattering it, flames burning all around him.
Chapter 13: Fire and Iron Dragon!