The Thunder God Tribe had always been a presumptuous bunch. Everyone knew it, and to be completely fair to the group, it just wouldn't be them if they weren't. They liked having their names out there just as much as they liked crushing dark guilds beneath their fists, and strutted around often enough to prove it.
One could almost say that their ego was near endless. It was just fortunate that they had the strength to back it up, otherwise they'd probably have a lot more enemies than they actually did.
Mercury never particularly cared for it, but traveling alongside the "Thunder Emperor" hardly let him stay on the down low, so he had a couple of epithets to his name, too. Honestly, he thought they were stupid – most of them were based off of sea creatures or local myths, which, yes, were technically incredibly astute, but also sort of embarrassing. Really, people just liked sticking whatever sort of sea creature was locally feared next to his name. Cetus, Charybidis, Scylla, Kraken – there were far too many to count, which was why no single one ever stuck for long.
And somehow they were all more presumptuous than anything that Laxus had gotten, even if they were really on point. How would all the people who had given him those nicknames react when they found out he was a real, live sea monster? Mercury had almost admitted it once or twice just to see their reactions, though he'd been quickly silenced by Evergreen.
(Bixlow, however, found the idea hilarious, and Mercury later caught more than one person trying to remove his clothes just to check for scales. It was severely less funny after that.)
Being that said nicknames were all based off of rather famous myths and rooted in cultures from all over Fiore, there was ample material to draw from when trying to find a way to make use of said nicknames. Cetus was the name of a sea serpent famous for attempting to kill the daughter of an arrogant queen, while Scylla and Charybidis were both monsters that preyed on ships at sea. A kraken, on the other hand, was just a giant squid – something Mercury'd seen many of in his time living in the ocean.
So there was a whirlpool-like attack that was based off of the Charybidis nickname and a vine-like one that was supposed to act something like how Scylla supposedly pulled warriors off of boats to prey on them. His "kraken" was nothing more than tentacles, but Cetus, at least, was fairly easy to come up with something for.
It was just a snake, right? Couldn't get much simpler than that.
All of these were, like, fifteen times more ironic when considering Mercury's name. Not "Mercury," the name he'd been going by since Chloe came up with it (his gray scales made her think of the liquid metal, which gave her the idea of "Mercury"), but his true name.
The one Mother had given him, and the one he'd abandoned.
"Call of the Azure Tides" was stupid, but it was accurate. Among all of his siblings, he controlled the waves and currents the best.
It was uncontested.
"Okay, Lax, are you ready?"
"For what?"
Clearly, Laxus did not like the look on Mercury's face. Honestly, he felt a bit high, and he couldn't control the smile that was practically glued to his lips, so maybe that wasn't unfounded.
Still, they had a job to do and not much time to do it – a job that only Mercury (and by extension Laxus) could do.
Laxus cleared his throat when he was give no response. "I'm not sure I like where this is going."
"Too late. You already insisted on going with me, so you're going to have to see it through to the end. You're already incorporated into my plans."
"Normally, I think I'd be reassured by that, but that look on your face makes me think that I'm going to want to punch you later."
Mercury's only response was a careful smile. "Master's pretty far off the coast from what I can hear. We're going to have to travel pretty quickly.
"And…?"
"I think you already know."
Judging on the look of disbelief and mild horror on his face, Laxus did already know and was quickly going through the five stages of grief. Unfortunately for him, there was not going to be any "acceptance" for him at the end of his journey.
Laxus Dreyar would never get used to how Mercury traveled on water.
Water surged up to greet the both of them, rising from the ocean in the form of a snake that Mercury hadn't tried to summon in years now. It was large – far larger than anything he'd ever summoned, actually, but with the liberating waves of magic power thundering in his blood, it was go big or go home. Behind him, some of his guildmates let out sharp gasps of horror at the sight; half of the noise came from those about as prepared as Laxus (read: not very) and the other half were just exasperated.
This was a spell he had once been known for. It was as showy and extreme – exactly the two things that Fairy Tail was well versed in – so those who were familiar with him knew what he was doing.
"Mer –" Before the words – the curses, as they were more likely to be – escaped Laxus's mouth, the water swallowed them both up. It crashed over them as though consuming them, then continued on its predetermined trail along the coast for a couple hundred feet, leaving behind it a trail of heavy water. With his hand still around Laxus's wrist, Mercury brought them both up to the surface so that they were riding on top of it.
… It really had been a long time since he'd done something like this. The wind in his hair was oddly freeing.
Laxus held no such nostalgia for it, though. He was too busy glaring, even going as far as to shout obscenities that would have had the dirtiest mouths in the guild gasping in shock – or, at least, he was until something flew into his mouth.
He coughed violently, then switched from cursing to merely flipping the bird.
Mercury smiled.
Ahead on the waters, Makarov's head turned briefly to glance at the two incoming mages. Mercury watched the recognition flash in his giant face, as well as the small smile that followed, and couldn't help himself from giving out a shout.
"I'm baaaaaaaaaaaaaack!"
He was back.
And he wasn't going to leave again.
"Do we have a plan?" Laxus asked as soon as they got close enough that Mercury could slow down, sending his magic curling around the massive geyser that their opponent had summoned. Laxus's face looked green.
"Of course not."
Though there was still the undertone of nausea in Laxus's face, he grinned – a look Mercury hadn't seen on his face in a long time.
"Sounds good." Who needed a plan? Mercury and Laxus? No way. The less directions, the better. The more they could not think, and simply do.
There was a lot that went unsaid between the two, but that was probably for the better. That's how it had always been, and that's how it always would be. Mercury could read Laxus's attacks, no matter how fast they were, and Laxus could count on Mercury to back him up – which, in this case, would be crucial, considering the lightning dragon slayer had nowhere to stand.
Beneath their watery ride, Mercury split the seas, gesturing at Makarov in the direction of the harbor. The guildmaster didn't even hesitate – he nodded, heading back. There was a wicked smile of glee on his face that said more than words ever could.
Makarov knew that Mercury and Laxus were unstoppable together, and that there was no need for him to worry about this enemy any longer.
"Ready?" Mercury asked. Laxus nodded, his own smile noticeable.
He wasn't even worried at all. This was how things should be
Mercury urged his magic upwards, allowing it to flatten under their feet into something that was almost a platform. The water under his feet held the consistency of slime, and only magic kept the surface tension from popping to send them cascading into the waters below them. If he hadn't done this before in areas where there were hazards underfoot, Laxus might have been incredibly concerned, but this wasn't new to either of them.
Before them was the man in the shape of Mercury's sibling – or whatever the case may have been. He wasn't so sure he cared anymore so long as he could get all of this to end.
More than anything, Mercury just wanted to relax again – to relax without having to worry about whether he was going to die the following day or if he stupid family was going to suddenly show up and tell him to come with them.
Soon…
It was going to finally be over.
Their opponent's face wasn't amused in the slightest, nor was it surprised. In fact, despite being somewhat familiar with him, Mercury couldn't point out much emotion on his face at all. "You… I thought you were to be taken care of already."
"She certainly tried," Mercury admitted.
"I see…" The man's face morphed from neutral to curious and back to neutral once more. It was unclear if he was feigning disinterest or truly disinterested. "I should have known better than to trust those single-minded fools, I suppose."
That's when Mercury became certain of it – this man didn't just know about the sibling he was inhabiting; he knew everything.
A distinct possibility appeared in the back of Mercury's mind, but he pushed it down. There were still a lot of questions that needed answering, but they weren't questions that could be answered just by thinking.
If they were, he'd have dissected this man with his mind several times over by now.
Laxus cleared his throat. "Do you really think this bastard's that easy to kill?"
Mercury couldn't tell if he was joking or not. Either way, he was probably right.
"I suppose not," their mystery man admitted. "I will clear one thing up, however – our intent was never to kill him. He's no longer useful to us, but things would have been simpler if he was not involved."
"Who the hell is us?" Laxus pressed.
"It doesn't matter since I'll stop you two idiots before you get to meet him."
So instead of "us," a group, it was "us," a partnership; this man was working with one other, and the possibility Mercury had been thinking of once more seemed increasingly reasonable.
"I figured you'd work alone," he said, "considering that your personality is awful. I wonder how often your partner wants to strangle you for talking like you're part of some mafia story."
The man in front of them snorted."You're not the first to have told me that, though you two would both be better off taking a look at yourself in the mirror. Those living in glass houses shouldn't throw stones, as they say."
Admittedly, Mercury did laugh at that. He regretted it immediately when Laxus elbowed him in the ribs so hard that it would probably bruise.
"Aren't we supposed to be beating the shit out of this guy before he destroys the city, or something?" he asked, scowling. "Believe it or not, I don't care very much for his life's story unless he's going to start telling us his weaknesses or something like that."
Similarly, their opponent scowled, too. It was nowhere near as scary as Laxus's, but it still made Mercury's heart race.
That's the sort of scowl he got on his face when he was getting ready to take his anger out on someone, after all – and that person usually was Mercury.
"You people really are direct. It's a shame that you had the misfortune of being born human – you'd be much easier to deal with if you'd been like the rest of your, ah, siblings."
Mercury's breath hitched in a way he couldn't describe, but he continued speaking anyway. This man knew about what Fiernen had told them. "It's rather funny that you say that considering you're a human on the inside, too. Besides, I'm not –"
"You may as well be human for all you fraternize with them. I feel that you're no better than the rest of them, whatever he may say."
Again with the pronoun game… Mercury really could do without it.
Laxus was obviously getting frustrated with it, too, but he couldn't act until Mercury gave the signal; even if he was hasty to start pummeling the guy that had been in part responsible for the torture and near-killing of his best friend, he couldn't move by himself unless he wanted to risk the fall.
Beneath them, the waves churned angrily. No one wanted to fall into that.
"Can you stop referencing some stupid 'he'? For god's sake, you're worse than those damn kids when it comes to storytelling."
"No."
At the end of his rope, the dragon slayer tried to lunge forward, but Mercury stopped him with a hand on his wrist. "What the hell?" Laxus grumbled.
"Give me a couple more seconds," Mercury explained, trying to convey his thoughts without saying them out loud. "I'm curious about something.?
"Oh?" said the man in purple. He didn't follow it up with anything, instead, listening intently to what Mercury was going to say.
Laxus pushed onwards despite his friend's comment. "Seriously? After all this bastard has –"
Under his breath, Mercury muttered, "He's got more tricks up his sleeve than even I know about, and there's still something suspicious about all this. Wouldn't it be better to get more information before fighting?"
Besides, there was also just the burning curiosity in his stomach that made Mercury want to know who this person was – one of his siblings, a human, or something else entirely?
(Perhaps something like Mercury was now?)
"No," Laxus huffed, but he didn't press. He didn't remove his eyes from his opponent, either, obviously rather disgruntled. Mercury was even pretty sure he heard him whisper, 'who are you, Natsu?' under his breath.
Right, this was a very 'Natsu-like' thing to do.
"Then why are you doing this?" Mercury asked, turning back to the other man. "I don't understand what your goal is in all of this."
"What? What point is there in explaining? If I did, would you agree to join me?" he practically snarled.
"Of course not."
"Then I see no reason to hear me out, unless you're aiming to buy time for something – and wouldn't that be a shame for me?"
"I"m not," Mercury promised. "Besides, I can take you out whenever I want."
It was, of course, a bluff. He was pretty sure that he could take down this man, but it would be a long, hard fight even with Laxus by his side. Still, it seemed to work – the man's right eye twitched almost violently. "Is that so?"
"Would I come here if I wasn't certain I'd win?" the water mage continued, sticking out his chest. Even Laxus was giving him an odd look now. "Why would I throw myself into harm's way like that? It's not like I'm doing this for revenge or anything – I just want to protect that city."
'And everyone inside it' went unsaid.
Their opponent sighed, shrugging in a way that made him look like he was absolutely exasperated at the gall of Mercury and Laxus. It reminded Mercury of when he was this man's prisoner. Then, he laughed. The sound sent a shiver down Mercury's spine. That was another thing he remembered – that laugh, cruel and uncaring.
There was no doubt in Mercury's mind that this man despised whoever he saw as his enemies, whether that be Mercury himself or humans in general.
(Then again, he wasn't human either, no matter what that man had to say about it.)
"It doesn't matter what my goal is," he said, still laughing. "All that matters is that you're between me and that continent, and you're not strong enough to stop me from destroying it."
"What? Destroying it?" L repeated. "That's it?"
Mercury would say he was surprised, but he wasn't. The pieces were falling into place far more clearly than he thought they'd be able to.
Plenty of people in this world aimed for such a goal. If they couldn't have control, then why allow the world to exist at all? If there was no dominion, then what about damnation? Even Fairy Tail had experienced this before; many had gone through the guild as part of their plans, and many had failed simply because Fairy Tail was there in the first place. Phantom Lord and Jose, Laxus and the Thunder God Tribe – but the difference between then and now was that the destruction had always been a side effect, something that happened along the way.
This time, destruction was the main goal, which made Mercury think of something.
Perhaps the "goal" wasn't the destruction of the land at all; perhaps it was eradication – eradication of the people that resided on it.
The humans.
"I have a guess, if you'll hear me out," Mercury said.
"Again, why would I do that?"
Magic power thrummed in the air, an obvious threat. This man was probably at his wit's end, too.
"Becuae the other guy inside of you is curious about me to keep me alive when you wanted me dead."
Laxus made a strangled noise of confusion. "Huh?"
Mercury had been thinking about it for a long time now. He'd originally assumed that the person in front of him had taken over the body of that sibling who left the ocean a long time ago, but too many things were still confusing him. For one, there was the fact that this man seemed to know about how Mercury's siblings functioned; his first action after kidnapping Mercury was to bring him as far from the ocean as possible, and very soon after, they'd started on trying to extend his lifespan with magic implantation – which hadn't worked, but they had to get the idea from somewhere.
He also knew about things Mercury hadn't known until conversing with Fiernen. Most notably, the fact that his siblings weren't "complete" – that they were just pieces of the whole that didn't have the same depth as wasn't information that he could just force out of someone. He'd been told it as part of this plan. He'd been told that by someone who trusted him to go along with it.
And then there were the pieces that Fiernen had told Mercury about the sibling who'd left long ago.
'He went too far, too fast.'
What did that mean? It sounded like she could no longer reach him, which only made some sense. After all, Mercury had been hearing her voice – the other part of her – for practically all of his life now; if she couldn't reach him, how had she been able to call to him? That meant that there was something blocking her voice, and since Mercury's soul had been bound to her, he figured that if this man bound his soul to something else, the connection would have been severed – much like he'd just done with Fiernen.
With that in mind and all the pieces in place… wouldn't it make sense to believe that not only were there two people inside that body of theirs, but that one of them was the very sibling that had left all those years ago?
"I believe I said that we never wanted you dead," the man drawled, clearly becoming more irate. The pressure in the air hadn't abated.
"Yes," Mercury agreed. "The two of you didn't want me dead, but you did. You thought I'd just get in the way like this, right? But I'm still alive."
"I am indeed starting to regret allowing that to happen."
"And I was thinking about why you needed me in the first place," the water mage continued. "Money? No, you haven't done anything with whatever funds you got from Alchemist. Fame? No, you despise humans. So why?"
"Merc, what are you saying?" Laxus asked. He sounded as confused as Mercury had been while thinking all of this up.
Back when he didn't have all the puzzle pieces, that is.
"He needed me because he wanted to know something about me. Am I right?"
The other man's head tilted to the side as though he was listening to someone else, his eyes turning hard and steely.
Mercury was right. He knew he was.
"What the hell could he have wanted to know? Weren't you practically dead by the time that he came along?" the dragon slayer pressed.
"I don't think he knew about that." Mercury's eyes flicked to the other man. "He was curious as to why I was alive in the first place."
Suddenly, that man laughed. It was so different than the laugh Mercury was used to that he felt startled. Yes, you're right," he said. "I was hoping that you were in far better condition than you actually were. Imagine my disappointment when you were in the same state as he would have been in."
"So you admit it? That you and him are sharing a body?"
"But who the hell is him?" Laxus growled.
Mercury and his opponent locked eyes, each daring the other to speak, to explain. Neither one did, leading to Laxus's increasing frustration.
"Stop playing the goddamn pronoun game and come out with it," he demanded. Lightning sparked nearby, sending the hairs on the back of M's neck into a standing frenzy.
Seemed Laxus was at his limit for waiting.
"300 years ago, one of my siblings left home," Mercury said slowly without taking his eyes off the older man. "It turned out that I wasn't the only one. He was the eldest of all of my siblings, so I guess it's not a surprise I wouldn't have known."
"Indeed," the opponent continued. "He left the pond of an ocean and wandered the human world, where he eventually stumbled upon me. I'll admit, we were rather fast friends. I never knew there were things beyond humanity in this world, and I found myself rather… intrigued by him, just as he was with me."
"But something happened to the two of you," Mercury guessed. "Something that led to your hatred of humans. The first trade wars were still going on around then, right? You two were caught in the crossfire."
The other man paused, looking lost in 've experienced it firsthand – what do they do when they're met with something new?"
"... "They try to tear it apart and build it back up to see how it works."
He nodded. His face had taken on a noticeably more grim tint to it. "By the time I managed to destroy them with my own hands, he was already damaged in the same way you were. His only option was to return home, but…"
"But he didn't want to."
"How could someone changed return to a place that never changes? Of course, I didn't want him to return there either, but there was little choice unless he consigned himself to a long, painful death."
"The one that I was experiencing," Mercury finished. "And the way you two got around that was to put him into a body that could store magic – your own."
The other man stayed silent, looking at Mercury with somber eyes. It was the most emotion he'd seen on the man's face in his four years of knowing him.
"... That's the opposite of what you originally thought," Laxus commented. "But I guess it makes some sense."
"And what of it?" their opponent asked.
Mercury felt caught off guard. "What?"
"What about it? Why do you care? As I said, unless you're planning to join our side, there's no point in understanding us."
Right – what was the point in asking? It wasn't as though Mercury thought he could convince these two to do anything but go on their path of destruction. After all, in another life, the water mage might have followed the same one.
But as it was…
"I guess I was just curious as to how you ended up like this," Mercury finally decided. "I wanted to at least know what pushed you this far."
"Well, you've found out, and now what?"
"Oh, my plan hasn't changed," he admitted, puffing out his chest again. "I'm still going to stop you guys from doing this. Even if I can sympathize, you're both still insane to think you'd get away with trying to destroy the city."
Their opponent snorted. "From our perspective, aren't you the insane one? Siding with the humans that will never accept you even after all that they've done to you?"
"Wasn't it you who got me locked in a basement for four years? At least these guys," Mercury jabbed a finger over his shoulder to Laxus, "have the decency to have a reason when they break my nose."
Though, truthfully, it was him breaking Laxus's nose, not the other way around.
"Then I'll remove you from the equation and we can all be happy. Now that you've made your intent clear, I'm sure our, ah, friend will have no qualms with taking you out."
The man opposite them, still nameless, took up a fighting stance that Mercury wasn't familiar with, then pulled something from the insides of his ugly, purple jacket – a knife, as though to say he wouldn't be letting them have their way under any circumstances. It was thin and the edge jagged; for some reason, it looked more like a tooth than a blade.
And considering the circumstances, perhaps it wasn't a stretch to say that it might have been.
Beside Mercury, Laxus did the same. "Finally," he groaned. "You guys talk to goddamn much – this could have been finished ten minutes ago."
Electricity flickered to life around them once more, a visual representation of his eagerness. Fortunately, Mercury was used to this static, and would probably say he enjoyed the feeling of it because it meant Laxus was nearby – though, as usual, he'd be caught dead before he admitted that aloud.
"Sorry, your Highness," he said mockingly to the younger man. "You can start fighting for me now."
"For you? Since when have I been your gladiator?"
"Since always. Why are you giving me that look? I thought you'd be more than willing considering that your brain is only ever focused on fighting."
"Fuck you. If my brain's only focused on fighting, then yours is only focused on yapping."
Suddenly, Mercury didn't even want to fight the man he'd been building up to right this whole time. All he wanted to do was punch Laxus.
What an effect that guy had on some people. Apparently, however, Laxus felt the same, turning from the man in purple to the one who was still shirtless, having not had time to run back home and get one to replace his ruined one. They squared each other up, and more magic was released in the air, making the air feel much heavier than normal.
… And their opponent, not wanting to be forgotten, cleared his throat. "Are you two serious right now? You're bickering in front of the person who wants to destroy your hometown?"
"Mind your own damn business," Laxus hissed, but it was lost underneath the slightly louder Mercury saying, "Shut the hell up."
Ironically, both were said with enough vitriol that it got the man to flinch back, despite looking vastly more irritated than he had been when it was just Mercury questioning him. In a way, it felt somewhat gratifying – the masks of disinterest had been forcibly removed, and by childish bickering at that.
Frankly speaking, however, the two's arguing was nothing more than the warm-up. It was enough to get Mercury's blood pumping and nothing more, and since he and Laxus were more experienced in fighting with both words and fists, there was no need to worry about them getting distracted mid-fight.
Of course, after the fight… who knew what was going to happen.
Mercury heard the zap of electricity by his ear, and allowed his own magic to reciprocate, forming a shimmering glare of water around the two.
Laxus picked up on this, too. "Are you sure you can fight, old man? Wasn't even a full day ago that you couldn't walk."
"Last time I checked, I could walk just fine – you just wouldn't stop trying to follow me to the bathroom like a goddamn creep."
"Say what you like, but you were definitely two steps from passing out every time you stood up."
Mercury grinned. "We'll see who is going to pass out after this. My stamina's always been way better than yours. Plus, this guy's practically part dragon now, and last I heard, you failed to kill even one dragon during the Grand Magic Games.
He was satisfied to see that Laxus met his smile with one of his own. "So are you, apparently. Think my dragon slayer magic is enough to cancel out whatever part of you is considered a dragon?"
"I'd like to see you –"
A bolt of water cut between the two of them, which actually nearly hit both of them with how close together they'd gotten. It forced Mercury to separate from Laxus. He turned to their opponent, who was now boiling mad.
"I'll never understand people like you," he said, arm still outstretched from where he'd urged the magic between them. "Fighting in a situation like this? Are you insane?"
Neither answered him; instead, Mercury caught Laxus's eye from the side and nodded.
"Guess we'll have to settle this after we deal with him."
"Guess so."
And with that, Laxus was done waiting. He leapt forward, arms coursing with powerful electricity that left bright sparks in its wake to form what looked like arching claws as he moved almost as fast as the magic power he controlled – literally like a flash of lightning The dragon slayer swiped through where the man was, ready to take him out in one blow –
– and Mercury was slightly slow on the uptake.
What he should have done was form footholds for Laxus, but he was… slightly behind. Laxus's foot plummeted through the air, which changed his vision level and caused him to miss entirely; fortunately, muscle memory reacted a lot faster than Mercury's brain could, and he managed to form a foothold with that same magically-enhanced water just a couple of inches before Laxus could actually fall.
Oops.
His foot hit the new one, and he turned and hissed at Mercury. "Merc, this is where you're supposed to –"
"I know, I know, just give me a second," the water mage huffed. "I haven't done this in a while."
And he'd been so confident in keeping up with Laxus's speed, too.
In their moment of distraction, their opponent took the opportunity for his first real opening attack, but surprisingly, the spear of water aimed at the back of Laxus's head reached nothing at all; the man may have been bickering with Mercury still, but that didn't mean he stopped paying attention to the one they were attacking.
Laxus's body shifted once more to electricity, dodging upwards. Mercury was ready this time; by the time the man was ready to land, there were already several small, foot-sized platforms ready for him to choose from.
See? Mercury could do it – he just needed a second to get back in the swing of things.
"Alright," he raised his voice – something he hadn't been able to do until recently, so he reveled in the sound of it – and started casting enchanting spells on Laxus. "Enchant: Speed, Enchant: Strength."
As the magic rippled into the air in the form of a faint blue sheen surrounding the younger dragon slayer, it occurred to Mercury that perhaps he and Wendy weren't all that different.
Laxus's movements sped up, but Mercury had already started getting used to the pace again. The yellow blur flickered between footholds, first to their opponent's left, and then to his right, slamming scorching claws of electricity into his side. The man in purple stumbled back; he couldn't dodge Laxus's superior speed even without any of the enchantments, so he took the attack directly to his obliques.
… and that's all that happened.
His clothes smoldered a bit, sure, but the man didn't seem fazed in the least. In fact, his smile grew from one of concentration to something akin to a predator when he realized that things were going to be nearly as easy for Mercury and Laxus as they had been acting.
In terms of physicality, the two were clearly superior. Laxus's body rippled with pure muscle, and Mercury was no slouch, either; with his body returned to its "natural" state – its peak state – he was as strong as he'd ever been, and his magic power still felt like it was ready to spill out of his body and flood everything around him.
The issue wasn't their strength. It was their opponent's.
"Goddamn it," Laxus huffed. He'd come to the same conclusion – with enough magic power, you could become invincible, and the man they were fighting definitely wasn't lacking in magic; just as Mercury's body was overflowing, so was his.
For better or for worse.
The younger dragon slayer jumped back, dodging a small wave of water sent in his direction. He landed next to Mercury, taking a quick glance in his direction. "Are you just going to sit there and watch?"
It was an indirect way of saying, "I could use your help." Of course, Laxus would never say that out loud, but the meaning was clear enough to anyone who knew him, and Mercury knew him plenty.
He grinned.
At that moment, it felt like something in his chest had popped – he'd been joking about the man fighting for him, but perhaps it had not truly occurred to Mercury that yes, he could fight. He wasn't relegated to being the support anymore.
What a liberating thought that was. How long had it been since he last fought seriously, anyway? It must have been Fantasia – in Edolas, he was more of a bystander than a mage, and though he'd challenged Twilight Ogre to a one-sided beatdown, it wasn't like there had actually been much risk to it.
But to use magic to fight was the definition of a mage, and Mercury, finally was going to be one again. The thought filled him with joy – but not as much joy as he got from being to fight alongside Laxus again.
… Which, just like Laxus, he'd never admit to anyone. If there was a time that they were truly honest with each other, then the world would probably end.
"What," Mercury said, failing to hide the smile borne from his happiness, "can't fight him on your own or something?"
Laxus remained silent, but if Mercury wasn't mistaken, there was a similar look on his face, too.
Without waiting for the man to snap back, the water mage allowed water to swirl into his hand, forming it as a weapon – though he missed his trusty sword (there was no way for him to carry it around as essentially an amputee), it wasn't the end of the world, especially when water magic remained the most flexible of any of the elemental magic. Mercury grabbed a water-made hilt, reveling in the feeling of it on his hands.
What he made wasn't just a sword. It was a near-exact replica of the one he had bought second hand to use as a baton – the one that he used against Twilight Ogre, and the one he'd left behind in his house that day before he disappeared.
It had been so long since he'd held a weapon, let alone swung one; he gave it a little wave, testing out the balance of it – much to Laxus's discomfort.
"You better not stab me with that," he said, taking his eyes off the opponent. Then, he had a second thought and added, "Or yourself."
"Don't you know I'm an expert at swinging shit around?" Besides, the blade was dull – he could probably make a sharp one, but that would take time and brain-capacity that Mercury just didn't have. If he managed to stab someone, he'd have to be a master with the sword.
Laxus grunted, but didn't press back. In the meantime, their opponent had been watching them somewhat carefully – which Mercury found odd, because wouldn't it be better to attack when they were distracted? – but chose then to start up his movements again; unlike Mercury, that man had no sense for the sheer number of possibilities that water magic opened up. He stuck to the basics – claws made of water that barrelled at the two of them, which Mercury was easily able to knock aside with his own water construct.
With that signal, the two Fairies' offensive began in earnest; they slotted together like two magnets, Laxus going in high while Mercury went in low. Despite the mishap minutes ago, neither made a misstep, moving in perfect unison as they swiped and stabbed and slashed at their opponent.
In an instant, he was on the back foot. Trying to fend against two fully grown men was never easy, but two men in perfect sync was even harder. When he blocked a hit from Laxus, it meant he left himself open for Mercury, and when Mercury managed to hit at a weak point, Laxus would move in to take advantage of the new opportunity.
Their opponent growled, quickly realizing that just because he had more power didn't make him more powerful. His own moves became more brash, more brazen; instead of aiming for what appeared to be gaps in Mercury's defense, he would aim for Mercury as a whole, trying to wash him under a wave – something that might have worked if their opponent was any more used to the magic now coursing through his body; instead, Mercury shoved the water aside with a burst of how own magic, canceling it completely.
Admittedly, it was somewhat difficult to focus on blocking water attacks, providing footholds for both himself and Laxus, and going on the offensive; his priority was footholds, and sometimes, attacking on his own became secondary to defense.
Still, they clearly held the advantage. Up on the ground – or, rather, in an area that wasn't the ocean – their opponent was little more than an average water mage, and the three men were so far above the surface of the water that there was little advantage to be gained from it. Soon, his clothes were torn and smoldering, and there were light purple bruises starting to appear on exposed skin.
Rather fitting for the man who exclusively wore purple.
Mercury wasn't completely without injury, either. Their opponent's attacks tended towards the extreme – sharp, jagged bolts of water that were forced through the air were outside of Mercury's control, and the man was surprisingly deft with the knife in his hand. There was a small indentation on his own forearm from where the blade had slashed through, a gash on top of the scales that hadn't quite been strong enough to hit through to skin.
He took a quick glance at Laxus, who was suffering the same. Other than a bruise on his cheek, he had a long, thin cut on the side of his face that dripped blood mixed with salt water. It probably burned, but the man didn't give any indication that it bothered him, or even that he felt it in the first place.
"What's this bastard on?" he growled. "It's like I'm not doing anything."
Mercury wanted to say, 'have you looked in the mirror?' but held his tongue. "He's probably got the same abilities I do – regeneration and all that."
"So we have to keep fighting him until he runs out of power?"
"No, that's practically impossible," the water mage explained hurriedly. He ducked under another attack and had to raise his voice to continue speaking. "He won't run out of magic before you or I do. We just have to wear him out enough mentally for me to be able to get him to submit."
"Like you did with that brat?" Laxus repeated, trying to stop himself from panting. "Is that even possible?"
"If you'd asked me a day ago, I would have said no, but –"
"Just what the hell are you two whispering about?" the other man snarled, attempting to calm his own breaths, too. It seemed that their offensive was doing something, but it wasn't enough to give them the upper hand, and Laxus looked a hell of a lot more tired than he did. "Do you seriously believe that you can defeat me, after all I've prepared for? We're not going to give up just because we face one roadblock."
"Well, we're not going to be defeated either, but if you somehow get around me you've still got all of those knuckleheads back home to deal with, too. Hitting Magnolia first was probably the worst decision you could make," Mercury spat.
"You say that as though you're certain that they haven't been washed away already."
"They haven't," Laxus argued. "There's no way those guys are getting wiped out by a bunch of water."
"No," their opponent said. "Even Fairies can't go against the forces of nature."
What the hell did that mean?
Mercury didn't get time to press for an answer because instead of continuing their fight, the other man chose to let the water under his feet collapse, sending him into the water below. It reached up to meet him like an old friend. In just one second, the ocean returned to its natural, angry state, showing no hint of the man who'd just thrown himself in.
… What an anticlimactic end to phase one.
"I guess that means we're pressuring him a little bit," the water mage commented.
Beside him, Laxus looked far more confused. "What the hell? Did he just kill himself? After all that rambling about revenge and planning?"
"Of course not," Mercury said as he stared at the spot the man had disappeared. "He wouldn't die from that height, anyway. It's a temporary retreat. He's going to try something big, if I had to guess."
Probably the thing that Fiernen had mentioned – the reason that he hadn't pulled away when the sun started rising and all of Mercury's siblings became blind as bats.
"And what would that 'something big' entail?" Laxus pressed. He, too, was staring at the spot where the water had reached up, though now it looked as nondescript as the rest of the ocean in any other direction.
Mercury had a sneaking suspicion. "What's a force of nature that involves the water?" he asked, turning to his friend. "There's only one thing I can think of."
Laxus grunted. "A tsunami."
"Bingo."
Based on the way that the waterline began to recede at that moment, Mercury would say that their conclusion was the correct one. He could feel the tug of it in his gut, too. The pull wasn't just coming from their opponent, but all of his brothers and sisters in unison.
If it actually hit Magnolia, the results would be disastrous.
"And that's something we can stop, right?" Laxus asked, and seeing that the water mage said nothing, he added, "Can we stop it?"
"I can stop it."
Without a moment of hesitation, the dragon slayer said, "Overruled." For good measure, he crossed his arms and added, "Denied. Vetoed."
Mercury felt surprised that Laxus even knew what those words meant.
"Oh, come on," he said. "It's not that serious. Do you want to come with me?"
Laxus paused, very clearly considering his own answer. "... Is that possible?"
They both knew that under normal circumstances, the answer was a very clear and resounding "no." Only Mercury had the necessary parts to survive as deep as he imagined their opponent had fled, from gills to the organ that allowed him to actually get that deep in the first place, and despite the near-endless possibilities of magic, he didn't know how to transfer those things.
But this was a world of magic. It wasn't impossible to come up with a solution to something that seemed impossible. After all, until recently, Mercury hadn't even technically been alive, let alone something 'natural'; if anyone could come up with a way to make this sort of thing possible, it would be him.
And he did have a solution. It was just a terrible one.
Sensing his confusion, Laxus said, "Spit it out. How bad is it?"
"How'd you know it was a bad idea?"
"You got that look on your face," was his only explanation.
Ah. "Well, it's just a little bit of, uh, letting me control your body with magic. You know. The usual."
He stared at Laxus. Laxus stared at him. There was at least four seconds of silence before the dragon slayer let out a massive sigh. "Sure, whatever. It can't be more disastrous than letting you go alone."
"I just said it was a bad –"
"Listen," Laxus hissed, "you act like a suicidal maniac when you're fighting by yourself, and personally, I'm not looking forward to trying to explain why the hell I let you go off alone to Mira, so just do whatever you're going to do and get on with it."
"... You have such little faith in me," Mercury huffed.
"I have enough faith in you to let you do this, don't I? Get on with it."
That was as much of an admission of trust as Mercury was going to get – not that he needed one. It was one of those things he knew with his heart and soul: Laxus trusted him more than anyone else in the world.
He nodded, taking a deep breath.
Mercury recalled the time he fought against José Porla of Phantom Lord, who had done something similar – though, admittedly, the intent then was far different than Mercury's intent now. Magic wasn't something one could transfer easily, but it was energy, and energy could be both changed and transferred.
The issue, then, was being able to change it in a way that wouldn't kill Laxus. And then, on top of that, Mercury needed to control it well enough to prevent Laxus from dying of asphyxiation, too.
Truly, it was easier said than done. If it were anyone else in the world, this sort of thing would have been inconceivable.
Mercury closed his eyes, listening to the world around him. Beneath his feet, the waves were getting choppier as though angry that they had the gall to even think of inserting an outsider into the ocean, churning to grab at them. It sounded just like his siblings' magic, or even like Mother or Fiernen did, but warped – an instrument that had been out of tune for several centuries.
"Shout at me if it feels like you're going to die," Mercury said, and then he got to work.
There were three issues that needed to be addressed in order to not kill the dragon slayer, and likewise, there were three reasons he could say this might work.
First, he needed to know what magic he was matching. By far, that was the simplest of the three problems because Mercury could literally hear magic – he knew what sort of sound Laxus's magic made almost as well as he knew what sound his own magic was going to make, which led to the second issue – he needed to be able to match the magic, or else it would just be toxic.
That problem was solved in a rather roundabout way that was entirely lucky, if you asked Mercury. Though he'd never realized it until several days ago, he and Laxus had similar magic; they were both dragon slayers. Though the exact qualities of their magic was different, the base was the same. He was certain that he'd be able to unify their magics in order to prevent any damage, which was the third issue…
He needed to use their shared magic to control Laxus's body.
Honestly, that was the most insane part of the entire idea. Again, if it wasn't Mercury, this would have been so impossible that he wouldn't have even considered it, but the water mage had essentially been controlling his body with magic for the last seven or eight years; if anyone could do it, it was him.
… But it was still insane, and a misstep could spell the man's death, so Mercury didn't bother thinking about why he thought it could work. He let his own magic flutter into the air like butterflies.
Mercury was startled to realize that this was the first time he could hear his own magic, too.
When he'd interacted with his siblings in the past, he could hear them just fine. It was just a sound that he'd long become deaf to – the sound of rolling ocean waves. In fact, their sounds were one of the few that weren't suspiciously like a musical instrument; just as dragons were, their sounds were nature, and his own had been no exception.
Now, though, Mercury could make it out as clearly as he could hear Laxus's thunderclap next to him – a cascade of piano scales going up and down like a waterfall, reaching a graceful crescendo before fading into the next verse.
It was peaceful. He liked it like this.
Carefully, he directed his magic to entwine with Laxus's, braiding them together like a rope in an effort to get them to match. Slowly but surely, the piano faded, giving way to a far heavier sound; it wasn't quite cymbals, but it was different enough that Mercury could confidently say they weren't percussion. The magic became something that was neither lightning dragon slayer nor water dragon slayer magic.
Mercury took a quick glance at Laxus to make sure that he was alright and didn't look like he was going to drop dead. Though his face was equally serious and concentrated, he looked fine.
Actually, he looked intrigued.
"Does it feel okay?" Mercury asked. He was starting to let his magic settle into Laxus's body.
The lightning dragon slayer looked like it might have been hard to talk, the uncomfortable sensation of his lungs working under someone else's control filling in, but that didn't stop him from speaking. "You're right. It's weird."
He kept his words brief. Short.
Mercury nodded. "No pain or numbness?"
Laxus shook his head.
"Anything tingly? How's your head? Does it hurt, or are you dizzy –"
"Merc," Laxus said, "I'm fine. Let's get a move on before this stupid city ends up six feet underwater."
It would be far more than just six feet, but Mercury didn't voice that.
His turn to nod came as he let his body relax into the sensation of controlling Laxus's internal movements, from his breathing to his heartbeat. Putting it into practice was surprisingly easy; he was so used to controlling his own internal functions that it came as easily as breathing… which shouldn't have actually caused him much shock.
"I'll get us closer to the water, then."
"... And you don't have to narrate everything you're doing," Laxus grumbled. "I can figure it out just fine."
"Well, excuse me, princess," Mercury said, doing exactly as he was 'narrating.' The small, water-like platform they were standing on was just barely high enough to avoid the water's rage building beneath them.
Just a few more feet, and they'd be stuck in the endless ocean. Surprisingly, Mercury didn't feel nearly as afraid as he used to.
In fact, he felt quite calm.
Was it because Laxus was by his side, or because he now knew there was nothing to fear in its depths?
"One last thing," Mercury said, ignoring Laxus's glare. "Since he and I can both do similar things, we may actually need a plan."
Though Laxus looked somewhat irritated – God forbid they actually decide on their actions beforehand – he tilted his head as though to say, 'I'm all ears.'
"So, what I was thinking was…"
