It was awfully ironic that after all the waiting, all the worrying, all the planning – that after everything, Mercury's siblings finally ended up arriving when he was asleep.
He just couldn't believe the irony, even when it seemed to slap him in the face. Just how long had he been stressing about when they'd come? And now he couldn't even deny that they were there; Mercury could physically feel them as though each was an ant crawling around on the surface of his brain, digging into each and every little crevice.
It was terrifying. And nauseating.
To make matters worse, he had to wake up to even be aware of what was happening. In other words, Laxus let him sleep in – which, in another situation, in another world, might have been funny, but as it was, Mercury just found it so terribly unfunny that he wanted to cuss out the man the next time he saw him.
Because of course the only thing he'd left behind was a hastily scrawled note, the only content of which being, "I hope the princess gets his beauty sleep. We'll take care of it" and a crudely drawn squiggle that might have been intended to be Mercury sleeping.
The note was now tucked in his pocket, horribly crumpled as he hobbled to the guild hall.
It was clear that Laxus intended for him to sleep through the whole experience, having (accurately) judged that Mercury would just be a hindrance – he couldn't fight, could hardly even move, and was likely to pass out at any given moment – but the water mage wasn't keen to just sit back and watch.Even if he was, there was no way he'd be able to fall back asleep. While he'd been relatively good about trying to trust that his guild would be fine, that meant nothing when he was actually faced with all the fighting. Not when he could feel his siblings; not when he was able to pick out each individual as though they were standing right in front of him. Flood was there, as well as Storm, and Churn, and Torrent, and Squall, and –
No.
Mercury fought to control his breathing. There was no point in getting caught up in who Fairy Tail was up against; he was only going to the guild hall so that he could satiate his own anxieties, nothing more.
Today, Mercury would not be fighting.
He would not have to see those fuckers ever again.
The streets were relatively empty, which was a relief. Not only did people not have to watch him limp through the streets, pausing every couple of blocks so he didn't pass out, but there was also no need to worry about them getting caught up in the fighting should it somehow manage to break past wherever Fairy Tail's line of defense was. Like good little civilians, they'd actually listened to the guild's warnings for once.
It wasn't like the Battle of Fairy Tail eight years ago where they had to play it off like a festival. This was an actual war with an actual risk of casualties, and nobody wanted to mess around with that sort of risk.
… Mercury was just feeling lucky that his and Laxus's house was located on the opposite side of the city from the bay. That way, there was no risk he'd get dragged in, too.
(Oh, how wrong he'd be.)
The guild building wasn't as empty as he'd imagined it, however. The moment he stepped inside, Mercury was assaulted by small hands around his waist, nearly topping him over as they hugged him tightly. For a second, he seriously thought it was Anemone. They were the same height and general shape, making the confusion understandable, but instead of scales, Mercury felt the normal touch of skin.
"Romeo? What are you doing here?" Wouldn't he be better off somewhere that was definitely safe – somewhere that wasn't anywhere near where the fighting was going to happen?
Like outside of the city?
"Dad told me to stay here," the boy explained. "Him and Master said I wasn't allowed to help out today, so I should stay behind and protect you."
He had a tremor in his voice that disappeared the longer he spoke as though convincing himself that everything would be fine, but that didn't ease Mercury's worries in the slightest.
"Are you here alone? Did they just leave you?" the water mage asked even though he already knew the answer. Though there was an overwhelming noise from the direction of the ocean – a combination of his siblings and the mages already out there fighting – he could still hear the small sounds of presences nearby.
Nab, Reedus, and a couple of the other members of the guild that favored fighting a little less than the rest were there, too. Most were actually lounging around, not looking too stressed. Reedus was hurriedly painting something on a canvas, and Nab was…
Well, Nab was being Nab. He stood to the left of the door, leafing through the job offers stacked on the board. He hadn't even looked up when Mercury entered.
"... Really?" the water mage asked.
Nab turned. "I gotta be ready to go on one when this is all over, you know. Better decide now."
They both knew he wouldn't be deciding on one any time soon, but neither commented, nor did the five or so others that were nearby. Mercury wasn't sure if he felt relieved or even more stressed that there were some people left behind; on one hand, he was glad to know that he wasn't alone, but on the other, wouldn't these guys get wrapped up in everything if something did happen to him? Especially Romeo, who was staring up at Mercury with big, round eyes. Macao had told the kid to protect him, which was probably their method of keeping Mercury in the guild in the first place.
Or, one of their methods, at least. When he turned to the direction he'd come in, the doors to the guild slightly ajar, a shimmering wall of text had replaced the evening sunlight streaming in.
Fried. It was a magic barrier, and though Mercury was too far to make out the text – especially with the orangey-red backdrop of light flowing through it – he could more or less guess.
'Keep Mercury in, and keep anyone else out.'
He sighed. "These guys really don't trust me, huh?"
"Well, your track record is terrible," Max pointed out. "And Laxus said he'd kick our asses if you managed to get out, so I'm actually rather thankful for that barrier. God knows you're a slippery son-of-a-bitch when you wanna be."
"... Weren't you all in for fighting without a plan? Why are you even here?" Mercury asked.
"Yeah, but water and I… don't really mix. I didn't really think about that until the tide started coming in."
"Max, I don't think he can get away even if he wanted to," Kinana said, ignoring the man's rationale. "Merc, why don't you sit down a bit? You don't look so good."
The sandy-haired mage snorted in response. "When does he ever look good these days?"
"At least I still look better than you." Mercury stuck his tongue out, feeling childish in his exhaustion, then followed Kinana gratefully anyway. It was true – walking half a mile to the guild hall had him tired, which was pathetic, though also not something he could help.
As soon as this was over, he really was going to get serious about finding a cure for himself. More serious than he had been, at least.
Kinana offered him a glass of cold water, which he again accepted gratefully; though his stomach felt like it was on the verge of collapse, he figured that the coolness of it would settle him down.
Romeo followed close behind, sticking to Mercury's side like glue. He could kind of figure out why despite being absolutely terrible at understanding children. The last time Romeo had been asked to "watch over him" had turned out pretty poorly; that was when he had his first encounter with the man who would later abduct him, and it wasn't too long after that that he'd disappeared entirely.
It wasn't exactly hard to imagine that Romeo thought it might have been partially his fault.
(But, still, was it okay for him to be here? What if the fighting really did make it close to the guild hall? Mercury supposed that's why the others were here.)
(Just in case.)
"So, how long has this even been going on?" he finally found the courage to ask. He dreaded knowing the exact amount of time people had been out there on his behalf while he was sleeping.
Max stifled a yawn. "I dunno. Couple of hours? Warren's been checking in pretty regularly, so I'm sure nothing terrible is going on down there."
"You're awfully calm about this…."
"It's not like anyone's in any sort of danger," the sand mage said, leaning back on his chair. "What's so bad about fighting a little bit of water? From what I hear, there hasn't even been much real fighting yet."
Ah. "So then what the hell is everyone doing down by the docks?"
"I didn't say there was no fighting."
Kinana leaned forward over the bar, much like Mira would often do. "Max, there's no need to be so harsh, you know?"
"What? I'm not being harsh – I'm just sayin' it like it is. I don't really get what the big deal is. I was expecting a bunch of scaled freaks to show up out of nowhere and start attacking like zombies or something, but Warren says it's just the water acting weird."
Mercury did his best to ignore the half-insult in his direction. After all, he was one of those "scaled freaks" too, despite only being halfway there at the moment. "And that's what everyone's doing down there? Stopping the water from acting weird?"
Romeo cleared his throat as though trying to be mature. "Dad says the water started attacking them."
That… sounded somewhat reasonable. Mercury's siblings held dominion over the water – something he used to be able to do, too. Controlling the ocean was well within the realm of possibility, especially if they were refusing to come out of the water as Max had insinuated.
Actually, it was exactly the type of tactic he expected from the sly, cunning man that had held him prisoner for so long.
"They probably won't do anything too big until night fully falls," he nervously mused out loud.
"Yeah?" Max asked. "Why's that?"
"If they come up during the day, they won't be able to see anything. It's too bright if you're used to pitch blackness, and I doubt most of them are adept enough at fighting to do it blind."
"That makes sense," Kinana said. "Besides, aren't you guys kinda nocturnal? I always used to see you up at night."
Mercury wasn't sure if he was surprised or not that she'd noticed, but then again, it wasn't like he'd particularly hid it. Both of them – no, everyone in the guild hall, he quickly noticed – were those who'd stayed with the guild during the Tenrou Team's absence. They were people who had probably seen him at his worst, and now was no exception.
Did that make him feel better or worse?
"Maybe. I'm not really sure – there's no day or night cycle at the bottom of the ocean, so we just went to sleep whenever we felt like it," he sighed. "It might have something to do with the moon cycles though."
"Like the full moon? That kind of moon circle?" Kinana repeated.
"Yeah. It's just something I used to notice about living up here. Even when I'm… like this, the full moon makes me feel a little bit better, and the new moon makes me feel a little bit worse."
"What, you into astrology or something now, Merc?" Max laughed. "Never took you for the type."
The water mage rolled his eyes, leaning back on his chair. Was it just him, or were his ears ringing a little bit? "Very funny, Max. I never took you to be the type to collect idol merchandise either, and yet –"
"Shhh!" He threw his hands up in front of Mercury's mouth to quiet him, looking at Kinana with wide eyes. "How the hell did you even know about that?"
"Ah, yes, because you definitely came up with the idea to create photo cards for the guild on your own. You're right – I must have been imagining things."
"Um," Romeo interrupted, looking lost, "what's an idol?"
"Romeo, why don't you go ask your mother?" Kinana asked. "She'd love to explain it to you."
After all, Enno was practically an idol herself; though she may not have been associated with the guild any longer, it wasn't as though she'd completely disappeared from Magnolia, so many of Fairy Tail's members were familiar with the dancer's work, just as many were still her fans. The poor sap Macao – her ex-husband – included.
"I do not like that idol crap," Max tried to defend, but it was already too late.
Kinana offered him a smile that made it seem like he was pathetic – which, maybe he actually was, considering he was so flustered about something as innocuous as collecting photo printouts of pretty women. Pretty women who knowingly sold said cards to suckers like him, no less.
"Ahh!" the Sandstorm mage howled. "You – this is all your fault! Now she thinks I'm an idiot."
Normally, Mercury would have clapped back with something snarky. 'I think we were all already aware,' or 'You know you're just making it worse, right?' – but his gaze was too focused on the doorway to say anything at all; he simply stared, face frozen in a neutral expression and head tilted to the side as though he was listening to something.
Something he didn't want to hear.
"Merc?" Kinana asked when she noticed his silence. "You okay?"
"That airhead is never okay anymore," Max sniped back, still annoyed at being called out. "Isn't this really stressful for him? Let him be a little dazed."
"Can't you be a little nicer, Max?"
"Can't you be a little less nosy? He'll tell me to stop if he wants me to stop."
"Yeah, just like you've been telling everyone that –"
"Huh," Mercury interrupted, an incredibly dry look on his face. "I bet Laxus didn't predict this when he tried to ditch me."
Max froze at the mention of the Dragon Slayer, while Kinana's head just tilted in confusion. Romeo, on the other hand, was staring at Mercury with wide eyes, trying to puzzle out just what the heck he meant; it wasn't a statement that made any sort of sense to anyone but the water mage, who could hear just what was coming.
The familiar rhythm of his siblings subtly getting closer. Not just any of his siblings, either – ones that he very specifically never wished to see again.
Mercury had no idea how they'd broken past Fairy Tail's line of defense, nor did it matter in that moment. In fact, nothing seemed to matter any more – they were already on their way, and as far as he could tell, there was not a single member of Fairy Tail in between them and the guild.
"What the hell are you talking about?" Max asked as he puffed out his chest. "Is your brain fried already? Do you need to go lay down upstairs with that other kid?"
"Someone's coming."
"Someone?" the sandy-haired man repeated. "Would it kill you to be a little more specific?"
But even Max could tell that the look on Mercury's face was anything but normal, especially when he slid out of the stool with more ease than he'd been able to manage for weeks now. It was as though he was no longer burdened with the weight on his shoulders; instead, everything had been replaced with a hard, dense acceptance.
He was free, if only because in that moment, he gave up on caring.
"Wait, wait, there's no way they got past everyone!"
"You said it yourself, Max. I'm a 'slippery son-of-a-bitch,' and they're the same. Get yourselves ready," Mercury said. He rolled out his shoulders – his one shoulder – and stretched out the legs that were only barely working by now, staring daggers at the harsh sunset leaking through the doors.
"I'm confused. Who is coming?" Nab asked; he'd been startled by the dark tone in everyone's voices, and turned his attention from the board to the bar. "They shouldn't be able to get in regardless – Fried's barrier is pretty damn sturdy, isn't it?"
That was the only thing stopping Mercury from tensing up so hard that he wouldn't be able to move. Fried's barrier.
Nothing should be able to break through it. Nothing had ever broken through it as far as he was aware, and though he hadn't taken a glance to see what was actually written on it, he knew Fried wasn't stupid enough to leave a loophole large enough to let anyone he didn't want getting in through.
But, still, that wiggling seed of worry planted itself in Mercury's stomach.
"You're messing with us, right?" Max asked.
Mercury shook his head. "Why would I do that in this situation? Besides, can't you hear it?"
"I ain't got your freaky sixth sense!"
"No, listen."
They all paused, no one so much as breathing. Even Reedus's careful brush strokes had been halted as they all waited with bated breath, trying to hear what Mercury was talking about.
Scrrrriiiiiiiitch.
It was the sharp sound of something dragging against the concrete outside. The noise left the water mage's skin ripe with goosebumps; though he'd never heard it on the surface, he was absolutely certain he could guess exactly what was making it. A lance, a spear, a harpoon – whatever you wanted to call it. Someone was hauling one behind them, letting the tip scrape the ground outside as they got closer with slow, methodical steps that were calculated to bring out the feeling of desperation hammering away in Mercury's chest.
Well, they'd already gotten what they wanted long before the source of the noise became viable.
"What is that?" Kinana asked.
"If I had to guess," he said, fighting the tremble in his throat, "it's my brother."
Romeo's eyes went wide as saucers. He tugged gently on Mercury's limp left shirt sleeve, drawing his attention away. "Your brother?"
Instead of responding to the boy, Mercury turned to Kinana. "You should take Romeo out through the back entrance. They won't follow you."
After all, their target was him; he doubted any of them gave a flying fuck about a bunch of "dirty" humans as long as they got what they were here for.
Romeo protested immediately, but Kinana grabbed his arm and nodded. "That's only if they break through, right?"
"Yeah." Only if they broke through. It wasn't a certainty. Not yet.
"And what are we?" Max asked. "Chopped liver? Not gonna tell us to run away, too?"
Mercury scowled. "You wouldn't run away even if I begged you to."
"Damn straight we wouldn't – but I wanted to give you shit for something," Max huffed. The man crossed his arms and stood up, facing Reedus. "Oi, you gonna help us out too?"
Mutely, the mage nodded, preparing his sketchbook. Though his body was no longer massive, he still relied on his sketches for his magic, thus prompting them to come up with a different strategy – a large tarp that he kept miniaturized to carry with him in times of need. It remained tucked away in his back pocket, but the redhead's fingers wrapped around it as though preparing to whip it out.
The other three mages scrambled to get ready to defend themselves, too. Nab and Max worked together to put up a makeshift barrier of bar stools and tables, while Mercury did his best to relax his body. He knew he wouldn't be able to fight if he was stiff as a brick, yet actually getting himself to loosen up was a far harder task than anyone would have been able to guess.
But he had to do it, because the other option was going to end with people dead.
"Think that's gonna hold?" Nab asked.
Mercury's answer was a definite "no," but there was no time to prepare anything else – by the time that the words were done coming out of Nab's mouth, the doors to the guild started to creak open, exposing exactly what he feared.
He was both prepared for what he saw and so unprepared that he thought his legs might just give out right then and there. Physically, he could argue he was as ready as he was going to get; his body felt like shit, but he was able to stand, and he could even imagine swinging around something as a weapon as he was so used to, but mentally…?
Oh, boy.
Three people who he never wanted to see again stood there, watching him as though he were the only one in the room, a plethora of different expressions on their faces; all looked incredibly happy to see Mercury.
Horrifically happy to see him, in fact.
The first was Surge, the youngest of the three. He was the closest in age to Mercury, and shockingly, he looked to be almost an exact copy of him – they were the same height, the same build, and even their hairstyles were relatively similar in that they were messy and short. The largest (and only, really) difference between them was that while Mercury had gray scales, Surge had dusty orange ones that weren't unlike the color of the sunset.
And, of course, he still had the terrible grin on his face – the same one that he always did, as though he was looking at the funniest thing in the world.
Because to him, everything was entertainment.
Behind Surge was the second eldest, Deluge, who was built like Fried – on the shorter side, but still fairly well muscled. His hair was messy, his face almost entirely blank to match his matte black scales. Mercury could remember that detestable unchanging expression as he watched on, acting like he was ignoring what was happening around him while he was actually raging on the inside. Deluge never cared for anything except what benefited him, but when something got in his way, he never stopped.
("Why are you looking at me for help? You're the one that made them do this to you. This is all your fault, so shut up and take it.")
Mercury looked past both of them onto the third of his siblings – the eldest of the three. He hated both Surge and Deluge, but the real fear, the real terror, was the one standing directly behind them.
Lull.
Such a calm name. Mercury never managed to pinpoint exactly how such a violent man had been bestowed such a moniker as kind as his. It was like the world's biggest joke – the name "Gentle Lull of Warm Currents" did not fit him in the slightest.
He was not warm. He was not gentle.
He was the worst of them all.
A true fanatic for anything Mother said, it was his idea to search for Mercury in the first place, and it was his idea to give the water mage no reason to return to the beaches in the first place.
He was the one to kill both Chloe and Marissa, and Mercury would never forgive him for that.
"Woah, that guy's really your brother?" Max asked nervously, clearly eyeing Lull in anticipation. "Isn't he huge?"
Yeah. Even back "home" in the ocean, Lull towered over everyone else. He was far larger than any of Mercury's siblings and definitely had a couple of inches and at least sixty pounds on Laxus, giving the non-human the impression of being strong even without doing anything.
Frankly, Mercury was terrified by just seeing him again.
"Well, the barrier'll hold, won't it?" Nab pressed.
"Fried's a tough dude, but is he tough enough to keep that out?" the Sandstorm mage practically squealed. "Hey, Merc, tell 'em to go away, won't you?"
"If that would have worked, we wouldn't be fighting them in the first place," he responded dryly. It felt hard to speak; his throat had a huge knot in it, and forcing the words out made him feel breathless and dizzy.
Lull's face looked just as expressionless as Deluge's was as he stared at the barrier with dull eyes. His face didn't twitch one bit – didn't show a single ounce of curiosity or anticipation as his fingers reached forward to touch the open doorway.
The runes flickered to life. Mercury heard Max and Nab let out a breath, Lull's fingers pressed against the dull magic.
"See, what was I even worried about?" the former asked the air around him. "Nothing can –"
Crack!
– His fingers pressed through. Cracks appeared between the words, sharp and undefined as Lull's hand passed through without so much as a grunt of effort.
"What the fuck? Is that even possible?" Max shifted the direction of his sentence, his voice becoming shrill enough to hurt Mercury's ears. "It's not, right? Hey, fuck, what's going on?"
Maybe originally it would be impossible, but seeing Lull as he was now – hearing him as he was now – made Mercury absolutely certain that whatever happened to Mother's power, it wasn't merely taken by one man; no, if anything, it had been stolen, and it hadn't just stopped there.
For what other explanation was there that described why Lull's sound was exactly that of Mother? It was definitely still Lull (Mercury would never forget that sound), and yet it had been warped into a mockery of the pureness of Mother's magic.
This… was worse than he thought.
The water mage turned to Kinana. "Take Romeo and get out the back. We'll stall for time – I'm not sure where everyone is, but we should have enough people to come back and help as long as it's still light out, yeah?"
Romeo frowned immediately, tugging on his own scarf. "No, Merc, I'm not letting you –"
"Come on, Romeo." She tugged the boy away as Lull's arm sunk through up to his elbow.
Mercury wasn't sure what was said after that.
All he could hear was the sound of magic shattering like glass and blood pumping in his ears. Even if it wasn't natural blood pumping – after all, he had no heart to pump it in the first place – it still roared as though it were screaming at his body to fight. No, not just fight – his body was telling him to kill the three men in front of him. To destroy them so thoroughly that there would be nothing left to take back to the ocean.
Even if it wasn't possible.
Nab turned to him. "Hey, Merc, what do we –"
The sound of magic collapsing cut him off, a noise that was so loud everyone inside the guild had to clap their hands over their ears. A rush of air followed closely behind, nearly knocking Reedus over; Mercury himself barely managed to stay standing by leaning on the bar he'd just stood from, one hand over his eyes to block anything from getting in them.
"What the hell?" Max shouted, though it was clear no one was going to answer him. Magic like that wasn't supposed to break – after all, if it could be broken, they'd never have had an issue at Fantasia eight years ago.
Mercury couldn't even fathom what gave Lull the ability to do so. Rune Magic was – no, there was no time to even consider it. His siblings were here, now.
And they'd come for him.
Surge stepped around Lull rather delicately, movements smooth like a dancer. He had always been the most slippery of the group, though Mercury had the sneaking suspicion now that he simply fought on instinct alone, which allowed him to avoid most hits.
"Hi, Tides," the orange-scaled man greeted, once more looking at Mercury and only Mercury. "What terrible manners you've learned here. You're not even going to greet your brothers?"
The water mage stiffened at the name; it was his name, but it also wasn't his name. He'd abandoned those long, drawn out titles long ago, and "Tides" was no more.
He was Mercury. Just Mercury.
"Cut the crap," he growled back.
Surge puffed out his chest. Clearly, he took pride in riling people up, but Mercury already knew that. "Can't you at least pretend to be surprised to see us? I, for one, was shocked to hear that you were alive and kicking. Thought you'd dried up and died with your beloved humans."
"Don't lie." Deluge stepped forward, taking his place next to Surge. "You definitely knew that this kid was alive."
"Right, right, of course I did – Abyss never shut up about bringing you back, so I knew you'd probably be alive up here somewhere. You wouldn't do anything like go off and die without her permission, right?"
Mercury stayed silent. Abyss was his older sister. His eldest sister. She was the very one he'd been telling Mira about not too long ago.
Suddenly, the air seemed to drop about ten degrees, or maybe that was just Mercury; he tensed up, instinctively listening to what Lull was going to say even though he hated the thought of hearing that man, let alone understanding what he was saying.
"Keep yourselves focused."
Surge gave an appreciative half-nod towards their older brother, stepping further inside the guild as he did so. "You're not looking so hot, are you, Tides? Realize you're nothing without Mother yet?"
"That's not my name," Mercury bit out.
"You still going by that dumb shit? Would you rather I call you Azure?" his brother sniped back, every bit as cruel and mocking as Mercury remembered.
"No."
Max fervently looked between his guildmate and the intruders, while Nab had his gaze set on the latter as though he was able to feel how large of a threat they were. Both were placed in between Mercury and his siblings, but neither made a move, either out of hesitation or wariness.
Mercury wondered if they were waiting for what he'd do.
Surge knocked over their flimsy barricade with a single kick, and everyone inside the hall jolted unwillingly. "Pretty interesting place you've got here, isn't it? Maybe the humans are onto something."
"What's he saying?" Max hissed. Mercury didn't answer.
"If they're so interesting, you can take their ideas and leave," he hissed instead. "Shouldn't you three be busy kissing Mother's ass?"
The air got heavier. "Tides," Lull grumbled – growled almost, like a wild animal. "Have you learned nothing? It's time to go home, brother."
"You don't get to call me that."
At least that did confirm what they wanted, which was Mercury himself; some odd part of him had been concerned that they were going to try to kill him, but if they just wanted to take him…
If things got too bad, and Reedus and the others were in trouble… Mercury could always go with them. He didn't want to, of course – he hated the very idea down to his core – but it was better than people dying for his sake.
Too many people had already done that.
"Merc, buddy, I think we really gotta know what these dudes are saying," Nab said. "They're gettin' closer!"
He didn't know if Surge could understand exactly what was being said, but he definitely got the gist. "More humans to throw themselves in front of you, eh?"
This time, Mercury ignored his sibling and responded to his guildmates. "They want me to go back with them. The choice is up to you guys."
"Are you insane?" Max protested. "Do you really think we'd let them just waltz off with you like that? Laxus'll kill us!"
Nab cleared his throat. "Yeah, what Max said – I'd rather get beaten by these guys than Laxus."
Reedus gave his own grunt of agreement, stirring… something in Mercury's stomach. Appreciation or gratitude maybe, but there was no time to show it, because Surge, as much of an idiot as he was, could still read the situation for what it was. He could tell that they weren't going to hand him over willingly.
He attacked, and Deluge was quick to follow.
Immediately, Surge was on top of Nab, who blocked him with two raised arms in a vain attempt to push him away. Deluge, on the other hand, stayed behind his brother, waiting for his opportunity to strike.
"The orange one relies on brute strength," Mercury barked out, startling Max out of an unrelated reverie. "Black relies on magic – don't give him any time to cast!"
Behind them, the sound of Reedus's tarp unfurling blocked out the grunts of Nab and Surge; Mercury didn't bother to turn around even when he heard the scratches of paint and other artistic tools fervently being thrown onto rough material. He was too focused on what was ahead of him.
He came to the crushing realization that this might be the end for him.
He couldn't think of a way to get out of this without the others being hurt, even if he did use what limited magic he had left. Mercury couldn't even think of a way out of this, period. The only thing he could do was stall for time and hope that Kinana and Romeo managed to get help before…
Before…
Before either he died, or his guildmates did.
Max's magic flared to life, deafening against the several other tones floating around them. Though the air was damp with the sea creature's magic running wild on the inside, his sandstorm materialized anyway, forming a rotating vortex that knocked Deluge back almost a foot.
"What about the big blue one?" the Sandstorm mage shouted without turning his back to his opponent. "Do we have to worry about him?"
Mercury looked up to see that Lull hadn't moved an inch. He simply stood there, harpoon at his side (oh, god, that wasn't just a harpoon, it was the harpoon) while staring directly at the distressed water mage. It looked like he wouldn't even jump in even if Surge and Deluge started struggling – and honestly, he probably wouldn't.
If piety was Lull's main motivation, then "strength" was his second; those that lost were discarded, and those discarded were worth nothing.
"Worry about him the most," Mercury said, "but focus on those two."
"And how the hell am I supposed to –"
Reedus's tarp shook violently as magic gave it life behind them, releasing four shining Vulcans into the room that startled Max enough to shut him up. They rushed past Mercury and jumped into the fray without a care for what was going on around them; two went to take pressure off of Nab, and another sprinted towards Deluge, who immediately had to duck under their attacks.
The last one, however, pushed past all of them, aimed at Lull. It was dispatched in a single punch.
He was just as strong as Mercury remembered.
Still, he couldn't just sit back and watch; if he did, he may as well have just ran away, which he refused to do, so he grabbed the stool he'd abandoned, lifted it, and broke it apart on the bar's counter. What he was left with was one of the legs – a makeshift baton.
It wasn't so different from the sword he used to use, was it? (God, where even was that thing now?)
Deciding that Nab and the two Vulcans were in a stable enough position, Mercury moved to attack Deluge. He sprinted to the best of his ability past Max, hoping that the man would understand his plan – pull Deluge out of position, allowing for the sandstorms to hit him directly.
But Max was no Laxus. Though Mercury was now slow as all hell, the sandstorm mage wasn't going to be able to attack as accurately as precisely as his Dragon Slayer was able to.
"Brother," Deluge greeted. His voice was normal and neutral – if someone were to hear it and not know what was going on, they'd doubt he was fighting in the first place.
Of course, Mercury didn't respond. It was hard enough to keep his legs moving, let alone stop and chat (not that he'd want to anyway), so he raised his baton, intent to bash it across his older sibling's face.
It worked. Contact was solid. Deluge didn't so much as flinch.
"You're weak," he hissed and kicked Mercury away – a hit that was just as weak as the water mage's was, and yet he stumbled back before being able to regain he balance.
"Yeah," Mercury acquiesced, "I am."
He was weak, and it was all his fault. That was known – if only he'd taken better care of himself, if only he hadn't been so idiotic as to go chasing after dumb rumors, if only he had told people sooner – but weakness didn't mean that he was going to let them take everything from him once again.
He reset himself and swung at Deluge again, aiming for the man's left elbow; this time, he was blocked, but Deluge grunted slightly at the effort. Even if he was weak, desperation was like a flame in his chest – it was fuel, pushing him harder and harder.
To be honest, he knew it was pushing him harder than his body could handle anymore, and yet he let himself be swept up in it anyway.
"Max!" he cried, throwing himself back and allowing the man space to aim.
"On it!"
The room exploded into a flurry of sand, obstructing any vision either he or Deluge had. Mercury squinted against it. He couldn't make out anything other than his brother's pale black outline, but that was their biggest advantage – because while Mercury knew what sand was and knew what Max would do, Deluge was standing there with wide eyes, apparently startled enough that he didn't bother throwing his hands over his eyes.
To his siblings, this was all new. The only sand they knew was dense and wet, and the only animals they could think of were those that lived thousands of feet beneath the ocean; they had no idea what a Vulcan was, nor did they know the best way to counter Nab's animal possession.
It was their only shot of winning.
Mercury took his chance and stabbed his bat towards his brother the second before he sensed the sand twister was starting to fade. The rough grains dragged against his skin – and Max even shouted at him for being stupid – but he paid it no mind, slamming the bat into the side of Deluge's face. The edge of the wooden baton caught on the side of his head, just below his ear; small, soft black scales scattered to the ground at the same time that the sand died down entirely, leaving Deluge staring at his younger brother with a look of shock.
"You… really always were a brat, weren't you?" Small red droplets of blood dripped from Deluge's cheek.
In less than ten seconds, the wound was already healed.
Max startled. "You mean they've got that stupid ass ability, too?!"
Deluge lunged forward to grab the collar of Mercury's shirt, and the water mage knew he'd successfully triggered his brother. The man was incredibly intelligent, but his worldview was limited and he was severely prone to mistakes when angry; unfortunately, the flip side to that meant that he stopped thinking, too.
And he was far worse than Surge when it came to emotions.
Overhead, Mercury heard the building groan dangerously, so he wasn't surprised when one of the pipes that ran through the rafters popped. He also wasn't surprised when a second one followed, or a third; soon, water cascaded around the mages and the non-humans freely, dousing everyone.
Max cursed loudly, having come face to face with the whole reason he wasn't out there fighting in the first place. "How the hell am I supposed to fight now?"
"Think of something!" Mercury demanded as he dodged around streams of water. Each one practically reached out to grab him, urged by his older sibling, and if he hadn't been hit by a second wind (by his last wind), there was no way he'd be able to avoid being held down.
Fortunately, Surge had to deal with the same issue. The water pressed on top of everyone equally. If they were completely under the water, it would have been no issue, but with Deluge's control running rampant, they all had to suffer together.
Slowing Surge was the most that Mercury could do for Nab. One Vulcan had already been destroyed, and though a large bear that towered over all of them had been added to the mix courtesy of Reedus, the dark-skinned man was struggling under the constant onslaught of punches and kicks.
"You know," Deluge said, drawing Mercury's attention back to him, "I have no idea why we were asked to bring back a runt like you. It would have been better if you'd just died up here and saved us the trouble."
Ironically, his words mirrored something that he'd said almost seventy years ago, except back then it was, "If you wanted to die, you should have just done it quietly."
Deluge seemed to hate that he had to get involved in the first place, except he still took great pleasure in making sure Mercury got what was coming to him.
The water mage stayed silent. Water remained cascading around them, but the emergency shutoff had been triggered, meaning that no new water was flowing from the pipes; he just had to look out for what Deluge had control over now, and stop him from finding water elsewhere.
… Except dodging was far harder now that Deluge was angry.
Mercury, Nab, and Surge were all slowed, but the middle brother had no such restraints; in fact, he was faster now that there was water pooling around his legs, just as his punches were harder and his kicks stronger. Mercury took a blow to the chest that had him stumbling back, and Max had to cover for him, rushing in to grapple Deluge around the waist.
"Thanks," Mercury bit out.
Max probably couldn't hear him. No, the moment he got close to the ocean's child, his head had become submerged in water entirely; the man's grip around Deluge's body loosened until he was no longer even touching him and he began to flail wildly.
He was drowning.
"Shit.Max!" the water mage shouted, and in his hurry, did the one thing he had been expressly been told not to do numerous times over the course of the last two months.
Use magic.
It wasn't a spell or anything. The magic in Mercury's body was so fragmented and scattered that he could hardly condense it enough to even get the water to listen to him in the first place, so all he could do was get what was around Max's head to shatter into small beads, leaving the man sputtering on the ground.
"You – idiot!" he coughed, but Mercury, too, could hardly hear it, too distracted by the two things that happened at the same time.
The first was a sensation not unlike a lightning strike jolting his whole body, stemming from his stomach and running through the tips of his fingers – on both hands, which startled him more than he could put into words. He knew it was the effect of using magic when he had none to spare. There was no other explanation, especially when he was suddenly gasping for air that, for all intents and purposes, he should be able to breathe.
But he couldn't – and that's when the second thing happened. He was tackled from behind by Surge, who had finally managed to knock Nab out and was now free to do what he wanted. Even Reedus was incapacitated by that point, stuck swimming in about as much water as Max had just been trapped in.
In other words, Mercury and Max were the only two even awake – and that changed quickly. Deluge took one look at the sandstorm mage that had put him through such a "humiliating" experience (as he probably saw it) and then forced his head underwater once more.
And then it was just Mercury.
With Surge on top of him and his body still spasming, it was hard to do anything. Just breathing was hard, but he still tried his best – after all, his other option was going to end with his own death, anyway. It didn't matter if he fought himself into the grave right then and there because the other option was probably going to end up the same.
It was probably too late for anything else.
He clawed away at his brother's orange scales desperately, even continuing when Surge dug his teeth into the soft part of Mercury's neck, just above his gills. It was painful. Everything was. Everything hurt, and each time Surge pulled back his fist to punch the water mage into the ground, he knew the impact was going to bring just a little bit more numbness with it. He couldn't feel his left arm. He couldn't feel his left leg. He couldn't feel his lungs, or his face, or even his chest, but that didn't stop him from fighting Surge off as much as he was able.
It was only after several moments that he managed to throw his brother off of him with a right-footed kick. When Surge stumbled back, Mercury tried his best to wrangle himself into a standing position, but it was no use. His left leg was completely black now, and his right arm was quickly following all the way to the elbow; he could feel neither, and he could use neither.
Mercury was out of cards to play, and all of his siblings knew it.
Surge's grin returned, predatory once more as he watched his brother struggle. He wiped a thin line of blood from his arm where Mercury had managed to claw through, though the wound was slowly sewing itself shut."All of that just to lose again, huh, Tides?"
"Fuck you."
His brother sighed. "Your manners really are terrible."
Deluge kicked Max's limp body off to the side. It was unclear whether or not the man was breathing, but at least his airways were clear.
Mercury couldn't tell much more than that.
"Worried about humans over yourself again?" Surge asked. He didn't get any closer – the water mage took it as a sign he was still wary even though there was no realistic way he could do anything at this point. "You're the same fool as ever."
"Kill him. See if I care," Mercury spat back, lying through his teeth. "All three of them. You'd be doing me a favor."
It was a risk – a massive one – but it worked. Surge lost interest in the fallen men when it seemed clear that Mercury didn't care what happened to them. If he'd shown any sort of care for their lives, Surge would have ended them in a second.
Anything to be cruel.
"Can we not just be done with this already?" Deluge asked. "I don't understand why we had to go this far to bring back a pathetic runt like him."
"Abyss asked," Surge said. His eyes flickered to somewhere behind Mercury before he added, "Mother asked for it, too."
But the water mage knew his brothers far better than he'd ever want to admit, and he saw something in those orange, wary eyes that gave him pause – Surge's hesitation. It was clear to Mercury that he really was doing this because Abyss asked, not because of anything Mother had said, which confused him. Mother, or whoever had taken over her power, clearly wanted him for something; she definitely would have asked someone to retrieve Mercury if it would further her plans, and yet Surge and Deluge weren't doing this for her.
They were doing it for Abyss, and more importantly, they were doing this because Lull wanted to do it.
Mercury had an idea. It was a terrible one and it definitely wouldn't work, but there weren't any other options.
"I know you two aren't dense enough to think that creature is Mother," he said, looking intently at Surge. "Can't you feel it trying to imitate her? It's taking advantage of all of us – it's using you to do its bidding."
Surge opened his mouth, but Deluge beat him to it. "We were not born to doubt her."
He, too, had an odd look in his eyes, and that's when Mercury became certain. They were both fully aware of the fact that wasn't Mother, and yet they were blindly following her directions anyway.
As though they'd been brainwashed.
As though they had no other choice.
As though –
Chghk.
Ah.
How many times had he been taught the same lesson now? How many times had it been forcefully ingrained into his body through scars and pain? How many times had he had to tell himself to not make the same mistake?
Do not insult Mother. More importantly, do not insult Mother in front of Lull.
"F-Fuck you…" Mercury groaned around a pole of metal in his gut. "Dumbass… bastards…"
He slumped forward, unable to move any more than he already had. He'd been so delusionally engrossed in trying to convince Surge and Deluge that he'd stopped paying attention to what Lull was doing – which, as it turned out, was creeping towards him, same disapproving look as every etched onto his face as he stared at what used to be his youngest brother.
"Do not insult her," Lull chided. Mercury could hardly hear him. His vision was already going black, and all he could see when he looked down was the tip of Lull's harpoon through his gut; the tip was died a harsh mixture of red and pink, a combination of blood and –
Where those his intestines?
Yes, Mercury realized. They were. His pink and red intestines, now slowly turning gray as though fading the ash, had been caught on the tip. Blood poured from the wound as though he'd become a fountain, staining the ground beneath him.
And it hurt.
So bad.
He'd thought that without how numb his body was, there was no more pain he could feel, but he was wrong. Horribly wrong. Was this pain more or less intense than the last time it had happened? Mercury couldn't tell. No, he couldn't even think that far – he was too busy trying to prevent Surge and Deluge from getting any satisfaction out of the fact that he'd been brought to his knees like this a second time.
He failed miserably. Mercury bit down on his tongue so hard that he felt his teeth cut through it, adding more blood to that already welling up from miserable little coughs.
This was it. He was going to die.
He couldn't breathe. Couldn't hear. Couldn't even see, blackness having already claimed his vision. This time, it was not just his consciousness fading. It was so much more than that.
It was his life. His memories, his self.
Was it weird that his last thoughts were that the guild's floor would never be the same color again?
All Mercury could do was whimper pathetically as a Lull jerked the handle of the harpoon down, taking him down with it. A fresh wave of pain that had already become stale seared his stomach.
"Let's go," said his older brother. "It's time to return."
He didn't want to think of where he'd be returning to. The endless abyss of the ocean was cold, dark, and restricting; it always was, and always had been.
And now it was going to be his grave.
.
.
.
His stomach hurt.
It hurt, it burned, and it was going to kill him.
Mercury couldn't see anything. He couldn't feel anything other than the throbbing, familiar pain radiating from his abdomen – not the drag of concrete and dirt on his face as his brothers pulled him, limp and lifeless, through Magnolia's backstreets, nor the way his scales prickled on his arms and legs like daggers.
He felt so numb that he thought he might never feel anything ever again.
Underneath his body, the ground stopped moving, but Mercury's head didn't; it remained spinning, prodded in rough circles like cattle on a farm from the blood loss and magic deficiency. There was nothing left for his body to give, and so he knew.
This was it.
The pledges that his guildmates made to help him get better no longer held any weight. The promise he'd made to Laxus didn't matter anymore. None of the oaths he'd made with his friends to keep on living with them could keep him rooted to this world.
Mercury was dying.
The harpoon through his body finally hit the floor as Lull dropped it, but he couldn't find the strength to care. Evenwhen the far off voices of his brothers radiated through his body like knives, he remained still, unable to do anything and resigned to his fate.
It was only by the gentle yet harsh breeze on his face that he could tell where he was; he'd come up here so many times before, searching for comfort in the caress of the wind that brushed past the cliff just outside Magnolia, after all. It wasn't just something he could forget.
How many times had he had to deny the ocean telling him to jump in? And now he was here with no other option – because if Lull had brought him to that same cliff, his intent was obvious.
A foot pressed into the head of Lull's spear into his gut a little further, and on instinct, Mercury writhed on the ground, trying to get away, trying to make it stop, oh, god please –
"I thought I told you not to kill him."
If there'd been any breath left in his body, Mercury might have laughed; weren't he and Mira just talking about his Eldest Sister? Why did she have to appear now?
Because this was her will, that's why.
"Aww, come on Abyss," Surge huffed, pretending to be annoyed. "He's definitely still alive."
Mercury wished that his hearing had faded just a bit more. He didn't want to listen to them, but he pushed his eyes open anyway, allowing the hatred that thrummed in his chest at her voice to become what little strength he had left in his body.
Abyss was his Eldest Sister – a title she always impressed upon her younger siblings so that she might remain "special," or so Mercury had always assumed. She gazed down at him without a hint of fondness in her eyes. Just as the rest of his siblings were exactly as he remembered, she, too, appeared as though trapped in time; her hair was longer than his own had ever been, reaching down almost to her ankles, and her angled, reflined face still managed to rival Mira in terms of beauty.
Even her eyes… Especially her eyes. They still held more emotion than Mercury thought possible of any of his siblings, except her gaze wasn't emotional in the same way that human gazes were.
Abyss's eyes held only one emotion in them – desire
The strands of her hair caught on a breeze, but she did nothing to stop them from being caught in the blood on Mercury's cheeks. Blue became red, mixing to become a dark purple, just like her scales.
(He remembered, then, how she used to help him brush out his own hair, keeping it untangled and pristine despite the difficulty doing so under the water. He remembered how she taught him to keep himself neat and tidy, presenting himself not as one as their brute siblings, but almost as refined as her. He remembered how she'd lend her ear, allowing him to confide in her when his brothers got too harsh.)
(He remembered the moment when he realized that she did not see him as a brother.)
(He remembered the moment when he realized she saw him as a pet.)
Abyss flipped her hair over her shoulder like a scarf and bent down, staring deeply into Mercury's eyes. He wanted nothing more than to close them, to look away from her intense gaze, but he felt frozen, his body paralyzed as that flaming desire in her eyes flared to life once more.
Mercury… hated Abyss.
He feared her in a way that he'd never feared Lull. Something in the way she looked at him made him feel like prey; they had once filled him with a sense of being wanted, a sense of worth, but now they made him feel like a morsel of meat in front of her, the predator who had been starving her entire life.
If he thought that Lull's name was the antithesis of his being, then Abyss's was the most fitting in the world. "Endless Depths of the Abyss" was not a name that meant nothing.
Her eyes were endless pits of desire.
"Mercury," she said sweetly, "you're finally coming home."
He wanted to vomit. When his name rolled off her tongue, he thought he might want to discard it entirely. It would have been better if she'd called him by his old name, too.
Everything she touched was tainted.
"I see you've cut your hair."
Mercury didn't respond. Abyss reached down to ruffle his short hair, not paying attention to how soaked with blood it was. He'd seen the same look she was giving him now in other people's eyes before – like she was staring down at a pitiful animal on its last legs, a beloved family pet about to die.
Surge put his foot on Mercury's leg, digging in with his heel. He couldn't help but groan, his back straightening against the ground despite the wave of pain that followed soon after. "Hey, she's talking to you. Don't just ignore her, you fucking brat!"
"S-Screw y–"
"It's okay," their Eldest Sister cut him off. "He's just not used to seeing his sister around anymore. He'll get back into the swing of things in no time."
It was a struggle to speak. Every time Mercury's mouth opened or he tried to breathe, white hot pain radiated through his stomach and blood oozed out; he could already feel himself going into shock, his body aching from the tips of his toes to the ends of his fingers.
But he tried anyway.
"I'm n-not going to –"
Lull stepped on his throat. "There will be no more of your foolishness, brother. One time was enough. How long are you going to keep wasting our time on a struggle as pointless as this? This is what Mother wants."
That was a lie – it had to be. Mother was a vindictive being, but she wasn't cruel, and she wouldn't go back on her word. She'd told Mercury that he would return of his own free will. Having Lull and Abyss bring him back was the exact opposite of that, especially now that there was nothing else Mercury could do.
Though, as much as he wanted to voice any of that (not that there'd have been any point), he couldn't speak at all. Lull pressed into his esophagus so tightly that Mercury thought it might just be crushed altogether.
"Now, Lull, there's no need for that. He's just a little confused – he's been stuck up here with all these humans for long enough that he's forgotten how loving Mother is," Abyss said gently, as though she were speaking to a toddler. "Besides, you may actually kill him before it's time at this rate."
Lull removed his foot. Mercury gasped desperately for breaths, trying to ignore the screaming of pain in his stomach.
"Let's just be on with it already," Deluge huffed. "We have better things to do. Aren't we supposed to join with the others soon? I want to be done with this place."
Surge took that as his chance to step forward and bend down. His orange scales briefly became all that Mercury could see before he reached down to grab a handful of the water mage's hair, jerking it upwards so that their eyes were even. "You're an idiot, Tides. I thought we taught you better than this. Wasn't that garbage on the beach enough for you?"
"Screw you."
His head fell to the ground. Surge put his hands up like he was entirely done with Mercury, standing once more. "Honestly, I think we should kill him. He's made his choice clear –"
"Surge," Lull growled.
" – but Mother's will is absolute, I understand," Surge finished.
"Isn't that great, my dear Mercury?" Abyss clapped her hands together in glee, though it was devoid of meaning when her face remained blank. "Mother has allowed you to return with us."
"I… re…fuse…"
Her voice suddenly turned harsh and cold. "It's no longer your choice."
The tall woman stood, her hair once more tickling Mercury's noise as she turned away towards Magnolia. Mercury couldn't see her face, and that was fine because his vision was going hazy again, anyway.
He stared up at the dark sky, praying that it would rain.
"You're so obstinate now," Abyss murmured, "but what do you think will happen when you, who is on the brink of death, is brought back to the source of Mother's power – that which gives you life in the first place?"
He knew. That's why he promised Laxus what he did – to have this as their very last plan, something they'd only do if it was the last possible option.
Right now, if he got tossed into the ocean, the odds of him being wiped away entirely – of "Mercury" being wiped away entirely, were not small. No one knew what would remain in its place.
"It seems you're aware," she hummed. Abyss turned to face the endless waters, the place where Mercury would soon be returned to – his hell, and his home. "But I am not going to simply leave it to that being to fix you."
What…?
The way she said "that being" was exactly the same way that Mercury referred to Mother – with hatred and disgust. While he'd known Abyss didn't particularly care for Mother, she had never acted like she would directly go against her wishes or anything like that.
Did she know that Mother wasn't really Mother?
"You… knew?" Mercury grounded out.
"Knew what? That our Mother has been taken over by a foul beast that should have died long ago? Of course I knew, and that's why I told him that I was only going to help him if I got what I wanted, too."
That's when Mercury could hear it – the sound of Abyss's magic. It wasn't the exact same feeling he got when he heard Lull, but it was pretty fucking close, like she was Mother but also not.
Abyss had been involved with the dissemination of Mother's power, too.
"I will mold you into your old self on my own," she said haughtily. "That's what I wanted from him – you."
So that's how it was. Again, he was not "Mercury" to her, but a prize to be won – a prize that she had once lost, and was now getting back.
It wasn't that any of them wanted "him" back. No, Lull did this because that's what the creature he idolized told him to do – whether or not it was actually her didn't matter. Surge and Deluge did it part because they were afraid of going against Lull, and in part because they were tired of having to be involved with their younger brother; regardless of whether he died or was "molded" into something new, they'd no longer have to deal with him ever again. In a way, Abyss was the simplest of all of them, despite having become the most involved. She just saw him as an item that she couldn't have. It was as simple as that.
"Now just wait your turn like a good boy, and I'll make sure you go back to normal. You'll never have to think about the word "human" ever again."
Mercury hoped he could just die before then. Really, truly, death felt like a far better option than allowing himself to be erased, because erasure meant forgetting and forgetting meant that the life he'd lived up here meant nothing.
And that – he refused to accept it.
Abyss turned away, apparently satisfied that he was going to sit there and wait as she'd told him to. That's how it always was. When he was younger, Mercury always listened to Abyss, even if he thought her advice didn't make any sense.
But now… wasn't it time for him to grow up?
He couldn't listen to his siblings forever. He didn't want to listen to his siblings forever, and besides, were these fuckers even his siblings? Were the ones who continuously hurt him really family?
No. They obviously weren't. Mercury's family were those gathered not-so-distantly on the edge of Magnolia, trying to fight the literal ocean; they were the ones who declared they'd fight a force of nature so strongly that Mercury believed them, the ones who told him to wait for them, the ones who would always be there to pick him up if he fell.
There was no longer any way to tell them how he felt, but he was sure they knew. They'd know through this one final act – this one final refusal of his own life's circumstances.
Because even if there was nothing left he could do, there was still one last thing he could try – one last gamble that would determine his life or death. After all, hadn't those fuckers who had dragged him out here already done it? Even now, Mercury could feel that stolen power inside of them, thrumming away in their bodies just as a lacrima did in Laxus's body.
Who knew getting one of his own into his body would be so goddamn simple? All he had to do was make a simple bet. What would happen first? Would he succumb to whatever this imposter of Mother wanted, or would he manage to take over the power for himself?
If he was going to die anyway, he may as well do it under his own willpower.
Mercury gathered what small, meager amount of strength he had left. It was tough – probably the hardest thing he'd ever done in his life; just sitting up felt like carrying the weight of the world on his back, and moving around the spear in his gut wasn't any easier, but he did it anyway. He couldn't feel his hands or feet, and his legs only barely responded. Every movement made him want to hurl.
He pressed forward – towards the cliff, dragging himself every inch of the way there without so much as a sound. Even when he could no longer see, his vision entirely gone from blood loss and the eventuality of death, he pushed on, because Mercury was nothing if not resilient.
This was his will. The will of Mercury – the will of Fairy Tail.
"Wait, he's –" but Surge was too late to do anything. His reactions were slow, and even if they weren't, he was too far away to do anything. Lull, too. The last glimpse of him that Mercury got was a face of complete and utter rage; once more, Mercury was running away, but this time it was to somewhere they couldn't follow.
Because this path that Mercury chose was one without a set destination – was it death, or was it life? Was throwing himself off a cliff and into the churning waters below going to kill him or save him?
It didn't matter; all he cared about was not allowing himself to be erased like garbage.
With the last of his remaining strength, he let himself fall.
It was nice, sort of. With gravity doing the rest of the work, Mercury could finally close his eyes and let the crispness of the cliff's air brush against his face. This might have been the last time he got to feel the comforting Magnolia breeze, so he did his best to savor it – savored the feeling of the warm summer air, the feeling of people thrumming in his head as Fairy Tail fought nearby. Finally, he relaxed into the decision that he'd made with his whole heart.
God, Laxus was going to be so pissed. After all, this was the Plan Z that they'd decided he'd only do with both of their consent, and here he was, making the decision on his own. If the Dragon Slayer never forgave him for this, he'd understand.
He opened his eyes one last time to look at the skies overhead – still dark, and yet it still held the last gentle touch of orange that faded with dusk, ushering the city into the clutches of night.
And come the following dawn, it would be beautiful.
