Chapter 70! Wow, I'm impressed I've updated so many times. Can we get twenty reviews for chapter 70? If you guys can get it, I'll update again tomorrow! Oh, and I need to tell you guys something. I started writing this fanfic during the Tartarus arc in the manga, so if anything that happens in this story, look at it from the perspective of just after Tartarus, with some estimated end game stuff. Enjoy!
"You can do it Ul!"
"No I can't!" Simon watched as Ultear squirmed in a desperate attempt to get away from her mother, but Juvia had learned to keep an iron grip on her. Ultear's face was still incredibly red, although that may have been from the lack of air. Or was that blue? Either way, Ultear took a deep breath and sighed, turning to look at Simon.
"Any luck?" She asked. Simon cast a glance down at the other Ultear, who was latched onto his arm, and still crying. The water level had gotten to the point where it was up to Simon's lap, and he was more than a bit unhappy about it.
"No," Simon replied. "She won't even tell me what's wrong, she just keeps crying. A lot like you." Simon cast a smirk at Ultear and she growled in response.
"Fuck off." She managed through labored breaths, Juvia squeezing the life from her. "Mavis, I can't do this! I just can't not hate this!" Simon sighed as the crying Ul's head landed in his lap, and he sighed.
"What?" He asked her irritably, and she stopped momentarily to stare at him.
"I'm sad." She sniffled.
"I know!" Simon shouted, "You've been sobbing for the past ten minutes! I know just how sad you are! Over what is what I don't know!" Simon stared at her for a moment before he saw another sob on the edge of her lips. Before she could, Simon clamped his hand over her mouth, effectively silencing her. "No." He hissed. "Enough crying, you hear me?" Ultear's response was her tears spraying out even faster, hitting Simon in the face and sending him flat on his face. Ultear promptly entered another fit of crying, and Simon stayed face down in the tears so that he may be given a swift death by drowning. It seemed the crying Ultear agreed with him, because she grabbed him and squeezed while she cried, effectively making the air leave Simon's lungs. Simon panicked and flailed his arms, managing to surface and take a breath. "This is getting insane." he hissed. "There was to be something I'm missing."
"Simon..." Simon turned to find Ultear still being squeezed, but he could tell she couldn't breath. "I...I can't..."
"Just turn into water." he told her flatly.
"Don't you... think I..." Ultear couldn't finish her sentence, conserving her air.
"You tried that?" Simon asked, and she nodded her head furiously. "Well, shit." Ultear squeezed him even harder, and now Simon was almost suffocating as well. "Ul, seriously..."
"I'm sad!" She wailed. Simon rolled his eyes, he had to deal with this now, or else they were in trouble. He began to pat her head, doing his best not to scream obscenities at her for all the crying that gave him a killer headache.
"It's alright." he tried, doing his best to comfort her. "I'm here for you, you can stop crying now." Simon was impressed with himself when her crying began to die down.
"I-I know..." She managed. Simon did his best to to soother her with the other Ultear making strangled sounds across the hall, but he ignored her as best he could.
"Everything will be fine." he cooed, "Just stop crying, I'm here for you." Ultear's cries turned into sniffles very slowly, and Simon's heart was beating so fast in anticipation that he felt like he was about to have a heart attack. Luckily he didn't, and the crying Ultear stopped crying and disappeared, as with the water level. "Yes!" He shouted in triumph. "I did it!" He stopped celebrating upon hearing Ul squeal.
"That's great!" She shouted, the rage apparent on her bluish features. "Now can you free me from this fucking apparition before I SUFFOCATE TO DEATH?!" Simon panicked at the rage in her tone, running to help her.
"Coming!"
Damien still had no idea what to do, and it was pissing him off. he knew full well he couldn't just forgive and forget what Xisplate had done, and now he had to or he was never getting out of here. Xisplate smiled darkly at him.
"What's wrong, Damien?" He asked in a disgustingly sweet tone. "Are you still mad at me?"
"How could I not be?" Damien replied. "Even if that isn't really you, it's close enough..." Xisplate laughed at the response.
"You're so soft-hearted, Damien." he hissed. "That little girl was annoying anyway." Damien growled at the comment about his sister. As true as it may have been, he didn't enjoy hearing it.
"This is literally an impossible test to pass." he said. "I can't forgive you, there's no way." Then again, Damien thought. The longer I'm stuck here the longer Xisplate is alone with Elise... Damien felt rage flow through him at the thought. He knew the demon well enough to know that he had withheld saying anything revealing with him in the immediate vicinity, but now that he had Elise alone... "Shit, I've got to hurry this up."
"Then you do best to let it go, Damien my boy." Xisplate informed him flatly. "Although given what you've said, I don't see that in the cards for us." Damien thought over his options for a while, before he realized something. In the moment, Xisplate had told him a life was required for his summoning. Xisplate had simply taken the life of the closest living thing, the fact that it had been Steph was completely unfortunate. Damien sighed.
"You didn't target her in particular." He hissed, staring at the ground. "You.. you did what you had to do." Damien felt as if he was being stabbed for saying such a thing. He looked up and noticed the demon fading from view, and smiled to himself weakly. he tore into a sprint, looking for where Xisplate and Elise had run off to. he didn't have dragon slayers senses, but he was descended from one, so his senses were quite focused. He heard Xisplate talking to his left, and Damien tore down the hallway toward them, reaching them.
"And then..." Xisplate said, having garnered Elise's full attention, "We get to where Fairy Tail comes in."
"Hey!" Damien shouted, interrupting him. Damien threw himself in between Xisplate and Elise, glaring at the demon. "What are you guys talking about?" Xisplate looked like a deer in headlights, but Elise was mad.
"What the hell, Damien!" She shouted. "He was just getting to the good part!"
"Good part of what?" Damien inquired.
"Of the Phantom Dove story!" Damien paled as he glowered even darker at Xisplate, who chuckled awkwardly.
"Uh, gotta go." the demon said quickly, disappearing before Damien could tear him a new one.
"What the fuck?!" Elise shouted. Damien had to admit, the pierced girl was rather scary when she was mad. Damien took notice of many piercings he wasn't aware she had, like those ones above her right eyebrow, and the one in her nose. Damien shivered involuntarily. "He was going to tell me that awesome story!"
"Trust me" Damien replied. "That story is not awesome... well all the fights are, but not the story in general."
"How would you know?!"
"I was there!" Damien shouted back. "I killed one of those bastards!"
"And?!"
"Trust me" Damien glowered. "You are not hearing that story. EVER, got it?" Elise pouted.
"Why?" Damien didn't reply right away, mostly because he had no idea how too. What was his reason if she wasn't allowed to know?
"Because." He finally replied, and she rolled her eyes.
"Because why?" She demanded.
"I said so." Damien said flatly. Elise rolled her eyes.
"What are you, my dad?" She demanded. Damien felt no need to reply, so he didn't. He observed the are Elise had stopped in and a thought crossed his mind.
"How do you think the others are doing?" he asked her, glad for the change in topic. Elise shrugged.
"Probably fine." She replied. "How much trouble could they get in?"
"Pull harder!" Ultear shouted as Simon planted a foot on Juvia's face for more leverage.
"I'm doing my damn best!" He shouted back, pulling as hard as he could. He had his arms latched around Ultear's upper body, and he paled when his hands slipped. Ultear squealed as he backed up.
"What the fuck, Simon?!" She shouted as she glared at him, her face completely red. "You just fucking groped me!"
"I'm sorry! My hands slipped!"
"Slipped my ass!"
"Fuck off, stay stuck in that Juvia trap for all I care!"
"True." Damien replied. "They're capable of handling themselves."
"Shall we continue?" Elise asked, gesturing towards the open pathway, "Or should I stay here and not know the rest of that story?" Damien rolled his eyes as he began to walk down the hallway. He heard Elise begin to follow after him silently, glad she didn't argue about his own silence. All the better, he wasn't interested in warding off her repeated questions. "Do you think there will be more tests?" Elise asked. "I mean, how much weirder could this get?" Damien shrugged.
"I sure as hell hope not." he told her flatly. "I mean, I don't know how much more Xisplate I can take today"
"What was that, my boy?"
"Fuck..."
Nashi wished Drake didn't have such raging anger issues. She had to restrain him a total of five more times in the span of five minutes, which she was now holding as a record. She threw her friend down to the ground and stared down at him as he pouted.
"I wish you'd just let me beat them up." He hissed. "This'd be so much easier if..."
"We won't be able to proceed past them if we do!" Nashi shouted, glaring at him like he had a screw loose. "I don't know how many times I have to tell you this before it gets through your thick skull!"
"..." Drake huffed and glared at the ground, and Nashi sighed. Drake's usual response to being wrong was acting so childish, but somehow it still pissed her off.
"Do you have any ideas other than kick their asses?" Nashi tried, hoping her friend could grow up and help her. He shrugged.
"Probably just move past our hatred for them." he replied quietly. "Meaning I'm fucked, because there's no way I'm forgiving that son of a..."
"Drake..."
"What?" Nashi glared at him angrily.
"If we have to face who we hate most, imagine what Ul or shit, even Damien must be going through." Drake stared at the ground, shaking his head.
"Fuck..."
"Yeah." Nashi turned to stare at Rocky and Apocalypse. "We may have it bad, but Damien must be having a really shitty day." Drake sighed, standing up again, pocketing his hands.
"Alright, you go first." he said, and Nashi sighed. She knew she didn't have a choice. She turned to face Rocky, who smirked at her. The mere sight of the man made Nashi's blood boil, but she forced the thought down as best she could. What was she supposed to do exactly? Forgive him? How? She had no idea why he did to her what he did, or why he had been so insistent on continuing. Nashi felt she could not forgive what she didn't understand. Maybe this somehow looped back to her father...
Dad...
Nashi's brain lit up like she did in combat. Now she knew, Rocky was jealous. He'd always been completing jobs and all Nashi had ever done was sit there and get praised for doing nothing. Nashi had not directly caused his hatred for her, his lack of attention from his guildmates and others that always talked and praised Nashi had. She sighed and smiled at Rocky.
"As much as I resent you." She said. "I've come to realize you have your reasons for not liking me. it doesn't excuse all the things you did, but I... I guess I can look past it." Rocky just kept the stupid smirk on his face as he began to disappear, finally gone completely. Nashi smiled. "Yes!" She said, jumping in excitement. "I did it! Your turn Drake."
"Nah" Nashi stared at her friend incredulously as he stared back at her.
"Huh?"
"I already told you, I can't forgive him or even come to understand why he did what he did. Nope, not a chance." They had a staredown for a moment or two before Nashi sighed.
"Do it or else."
"Or else what?"
"I'll beat you up until you do."
"Yeah, okay." Nashi watched as Drake snickered.
"Want to try me?" Drake stopped laughing as fire swirled around Nashi.
"Apocalypse or Nashi? i don't like either option a lot."
Sorry for the wait, I've been typing so much lately my hands are killing me. Besides that, I hope you enjoyed, leave a review! Like I said above, let's get twenty for chapter 70! If you leave a few nice words as you're done reading, we can do it easily!