Fairy Tail's Night Terror Chapter 23: The Sound Of Drums, a fairy tail fanfic

Hello everyone!

Sorry, it's been a while, but better late then never, right…right? Anyway, hope you enjoy the next chapter.

danielsnow -Don't worry, I would never do that. If I was to quit this story then I will post a notice informing why I can't continue this story. Besides we're in the middle of an arc so I can't stop so soon. Yes, it's a shame about Flare. She will get better over time as she continues to train with Night Terror. A lot will be revealed in this chapter and I can't wait for everybody to read it. I understand about the face reveal, so that's why (after this arc) I'm going to write a chapter about it. I hope you'll enjoy it.

I don't see why Millianna can't be in the harem. After all he does like cats. Thanks for reading and I hope you enjoy the next chapter.

Djinn - Thank you for reading. This chapter is going to be interesting to say the least and I can't wait to present it.

Martin-di-Arcov - Thanks so much, glad you liked it.

ikusatsunagi - No problem, thank you for reading. Yes, it is and I've fixed the error.

wellingtonlucas282 - No problem, glad you enjoyed it. I'm not quite sure if Ur will be part of the harem. If the readers want her to be then I'll involve her. Thanks for reading.

Lelouch of Zero - Indeed, I suppose the Phobian secrets were good for something and I thought sine Flare was introduced early I can fit Kaguya in as well. We will cover a lot of secrets in this chapter in regards to Erza and how she doesn't want Night Terror knowing about the Tower of Heaven. As well as why there was a Phobos guarding the place. I hope you enjoy the chapter.

Skull Flame - Yep! Since Kagura past doesn't get mentioned a lot in the manga, I thought I could mention how her sword became so powerful.

MDM11 - Thank you so much. Don't worry, I fixed the errors. I had no idea how I managed to make that mistake. Anyway, thanks for the suggestions, I'll try to fit as many in as possible.

Blaze1992 - Thank so much. I changed some things to fit into the story's narrative, I hope you don't mind.

kira444 - Thank you so much, you're too kind. I quite like a good crossover story, but I do also enjoy an OC story. Thanks again for reading and I hope you'll enjoy the next chapter.

GodsReader15 - Thank you so much! I personally don't like OP characters because, as you said, it gets a little stale. However, if it's a well written OP character then I don't mind. It shows that the author has put thought into their story, which I admire. Muireall will get a redemption arc just after the Tenrou Island arc. She'll have a lot to think about during the seven year gap. Thanks for reading.

Guest - You actually gave me an idea for a chapter based on your suggestion. I'll write after I'm done with the Tower of Heaven Arc.

Keeper Darius - That's precisely what I was aiming for. That or the character Death from the discworld series. Thank you so much, I'm glad you are enjoying it.

Nani999 - I suppose. I honestly put it as M just to be on the safe side, but I guess I can update it. Thanks for reading anyway.

Chapter 23: The Sound Of Drums

Prison Camp In Eastern Fiore

For the first time in years, Kagura felt tears from in her eyes and began to flow down her cheeks. She has been looking for her brother everywhere, joined a guild to help her search, trained until her hands bled and her bones ached...and it was all for nothing.

She had no reason to believe this Phobos at all, but she couldn't find a reason for her to lie to her as well. What gain does she get for telling her that her brother was murdered? What gain does she get for lying to her? Her thoughts were a mixture of confusion, distress and fury swirling around in one chaotic whirlpool and the Faceless One could see it on her face.

The Faceless One smiled wickedly behind her mask, 'Daonna are so simpleminded,' she thought before saying, "You are probably confused. I don't blame you, so allow me to explain. Your brother was under the employment of the mage known as Jellal and one day," she shook her head in a mocking display of sympathy, "he displeased him and killed him on the spot. Such a tragic incident. This is the problem with your kind. You see weakness as something you need to get rid of. While I when I see weakness, I take the opportunity to improve it. Upgrade it. If your brother was under my employment then there would be a chance he would become one of my Nobodys and you can meet again. But alas, maybe not. There are some people that are so useless and feeble that they are beyond savi-"

She stopped mid-sentence when Kagura did something that was not expecting.

She reared back her head and spat onto her mask.

"DON'T YOU DARE CALL HIM WEAK!" Kagura yelled at the shocked Phobos, "I'LL KILL YOU AND THIS JELLAL FERNANDEZ IF IT'S THE LAST THING I-"

She too stopped when she felt the Nobodys, who were restraining her, suddenly let go of her, dropping her to the ground. She looked back at them and were surprised to see them shivering in fear, not daring to get any closer to them. In fact, after looking around, all of the Nobodys seemed to be stunned or were backing away. She frowned curiously until a cold icy chill ran down her spine telling her the reason for their sudden reaction. She turned back to the Phobos and almost shrieked in terror; her eyes grew wide and her heart raced in her chest. The Faceless One was surrounded by a dark aura, her hands twitched and her body seemed to physically shake as if she was upset. The air around her seemed to drop to freezing temperatures as Faceless One looked down at utter disgust at the bit of saliva on the cheek of her mask; she did everything she could not to vomit at the mere sight of daonna's saliva on her. Eventually, she looked down at Kagura in fury as the young girl's face morphed into one of sheer horror.

"You filth..." she muttered, before her voice grew louder, "you disgusting, putrid, vile creature! I was going to let you live, but now I'm going to vanquish you to hell! " she stood up and raised a hand above her face, her hand began to glow pure white, "HOW DARE YOU TAINT ME WITH YOUR DISEASE, YOU LITTLE RAT!"

She swung her hand down, preparing to slap across the face and her life right there. Kagura shut her eyes tightly, waiting for the impact as there was no way of escaping it.

As her glowing hand was in mid-swing, Faceless One took one final look at her face. She saw the tears still spilling from her eyes, her hands raised above her head in a feeble attempt to defend herself and she saw how she trembled as if she a scared child.

Something happened in those few seconds.

Kagura changed right in front of her. She was now a young girl about four or five with long red curly hair, deep blue eyes filled with tears and she now wore a dark green dress with white trousers underneath. She noticed the dirty marks on the knees of her trousers and the specks of dirt and mud on the hem of her dress. There were damp spots over the mud splatter where, she assumed, the young girl had tried to desperately clean it, but failed. They young girl sniffed as she stared at the ground, not daring to look up her as if she had been caught doing something mischievous.

'Muireall' a ghostly voice rang through her head. She knew the stern cold voice, but she hadn't heard it years, 'what have you done! You're filthy!'

The young girl sniffed and trembled in fear, 'I'm s-sorry, mother. I didn't mean to-'

'You were playing with that boy again, weren't you! You stupid child! I told you not to talk to him!'

'No!' the young girl yelped as she shook her head, 'I-I fell over on my way back to school!'

'Don't you dare lie to me, you vile creature! People like him are going to drag you down and distract you from your studies! He's already filled your head about the daonna!' the voice yelled at her, 'I'm going to tell you this one more time! The daonna are disease, that boy is disease and if you get close to them then you'll become disease-ridden too! Do you want that to happen!'

'N-no," the young girl muttered meekly.

"Or do you want to become something better!"

The young girl nodded hesitantly. However, she looked up at her, her blues eyes shone brightly, 'But...he's my friend...'

SLAP!

The young girl fell backwards and clutched her cheek in pain, she began to softly sob. For some reason, Faceless One felt her cheek ebb with pain as well; an old phantom pain that emerged without warning.

'Get this through your head, stupid girl,' the cold voice growled, 'You do not need friends to succeeded. They only slow you down. If you want to stop being weak, then you will listen to me. Do you understand?'

'Yes, mother,' the young girl whimpered.

Instantly, the red haired girl disappeared and Kagura reappeared in the same place she was. Faceless One stopped her hand mid-swing, surprising everyone especially the Nobodys. Meanwhile, inside Faceless One's head, her thoughts centred around what had just happened.

'What was that a memory? Why did it appear now? I've killed hundreds of daonna so what's one more little brat to me?' she thought to herself, 'Am I...being emphatic? Taking pity on her because of my past?' she wondered before she shook the thought away, 'No...impossible. I don't care about that monster. Mother is dead and gone and I have exceeded her to pursue my own legacy. Perhaps this is my mind preventing me from enacting of a rash decision. Yes, that must be it. I have a plan and I can't spoil it now.'

Faceless One looked down at Kagura, who was still kneeling in front of her, before she crouched down to her level; face to mask. The Phobos reached a hand to the chin of her mask and activated her power. The mask cracked before it fell from her face in pieces of dust on to the ground.

Kagura gasped in shock, to frightened to move an inch. Behind the mask was the grey, sickly face of a women in her late teens. Her hair was cut short to her shoulder and straightened in order to fit under her hood. Black veins pulsated across her face and around her eyes, scarring her porcelain skin and her eyes were a deep blood red; having lost any sort of humanity that it might have held. If Kagura had time to think, she would have thought that she was beautiful at one point, but she was soulless; a demonic version of the woman she used to be.

"That's better," Faceless One said with a wicked smile, "No need to get upset over a stupid mask. I can always make another one," she softly told her as the smile fell into a snarl, "you've caught me in charitable mood. But remember this girl, just because I let you live, doesn't mean I care about your well-being. I have plans for you, a mere character in the play I am writing," she looked up at the Nobodys, "round them ready up for transportation. I don't want to spend another second in shit hole," she ordered.

At her command, the Nobodys began to herd the prisoners out of the prison camp. Meanwhile, Faceless One hummed thoughtfully before she looked down at the pile of dust that was originally Kagura's sword 'Archenemy'. She scooped the dust into one hand before she reached into her pocket with her right hand and pulled or a silver ore of metal. Kagura cringed at the sight of the metal, being in the presence of it made her wince in fear. Faceless One's right hand glowed white and turned the ore into dust to which she poured into her other hands and mixed in gently with the other dust. Once she was done, she clasped her hands together and made her hands glow, judging by the focused look on her gaunt face and the black veins bulged bigger, this was difficult magic to use. After a few seconds the glowing expanded longer and longer until it became a sharp object about a meter long. Before the towing could stop, Faceless One plunged to pointed object into Kagura's sword sheath. Once she had taken her hand away, the glowing immediately stopped to reveal the hilt of a katana sword.

"There," she sighed as the veins stopped pulsating, "you will need this."

"Archenemy," Kagura muttered in disbelief, "you restored it."

"I improved it. Made it stronger with Phobian metal."

"But why?"

The cruel smile returned to her face, "You will see the next time we meet. All according to plan."

Kagura found the strength to get to her feet and put a hand on the hilt of her sword, "There will not be a next time. You're too dangerous for me to let go."

She cried out in pain as Faceless One kicked her stomach, causing to collapse on to her back. She tried to recover as quick as possible, but the Phobos had already pinned her foot on her chest. Kagura looked up and her eyes widened when she saw her open hand pointed directly at her face; it the began to glow a bright emerald green.

"You'll play your part. But not yet. Meanwhile, I'll have to make you forget our meeting. It has been a while since I've done this, but I assure you it will be done properly this time," her hand began to glow brighter and brighter, almost blinding Kagura, "Farewell, little girl."

Nearby Forest

Kagura woke up with a start and sat up.

She looked around her surroundings and saw that she was lying under an old yew tree; there was nobody around; it was deathly silent. Once she had calmed down, she frowned in confusion, trying to recall how or why she was here. But no matter how she tried there just seemed like something was blocking her memories. After while she gave up and shakily got to her feet.

'Strange,' she looked up into the sky and noted the sun's position, 'I must be in Eastern Fiore, but why am I here,' her eyes suddenly widened, 'Wait, I wasn't defeated by bandits, was I?' she furiously inspected herself and her pockets and sighed in relief, 'No. All my possessions are still with me."

Her eyes turned to the sheathed sword hanging on her hip and instinctively gripped the hilt, calming herself down. She could have sworn her precious weapon was destroyed right in front of her, but that was impossible. She dismissed the hazy memory as merely a nightmare.

'Calm down,' she told herself, 'I'll go back to the guild and hopefully piece together what happened to me. Although, I can't help but think I'm forgetting someth-'

Whilst in the middle of planning out her next move, she idly unsheathed Archenemy to check its condition when suddenly she was knocked back by a wave of intense magical power. She cried out in shock as she landed on her back on the ground, unprepared for such attack. At first she thought it was an enemy coming back to finish her off, but realised, as she looked down at her weapon, that the sheer mighty power was coming from Archenemy. She gritted her teeth and pushed her hand against the power with all her will until she pushed the tip and sheathed the sword completely into its holder. Once it was in place, the magic power disappeared and Kagura was able to breath again. She took a few seconds to recover before staring in utter disbelief at Archenemy.

'What was that?' she thought in confusion, "Archenemy has never been this powerful before. It must have been tempered with, but how and why?'

That's when a vision flashed in her mind. She saw two figures, both hidden in darkness; one was of a man and another of a woman. She had no idea who they were, but the young girl suspected that they did something to her, something she will never forgive them for. She feared and hated the woman, but she had no idea who she was or why she felt that way towards her. However, the man...she knew his name.

"Jellal..." she muttered before an image of her brother flashed through her mind, "...Simon..." her eyes narrowed in anger and her hand clenched tightly on the hilt of Archenemy, "...Jellal...killed...Simon. I know what I have to do."

Prison Cell, Tower Of Heaven

Meanwhile, in the dark, dingy prison cells somewhere in the Tower of Heaven, a depressed Erza was chained to the wall with her arms held over her head. She made no attempt to break from her restraints and instead stared down at the ground and avoided all eye contact with Sho. The tanned skin man frowned slightly at her morbid appearance, but thought better to comment. After all, he was part of a bigger goal. He can't afford to get distracted now.

"The ceremony will start soon. Are you ready for it?" he asked.

Erza's eyes widened in shock, but she made no attempt to look up, 'Ceremony!? Does that mean they're trying to activate it?'

"I'm sorry we had to treat you like this," Sho continued, "Jellal said that are still under the influence of that Phobos so we have to be careful until we get you back," he offered her a creepy smile, "Personally, I would preferred the Phobos wasn't the sacrifice. We can't have our ceremony tainted by those liars. Ah well, I suppose somebody has to do it in order to get to paradise," he noticed Erza's gloved hands fidgeting slightly, "Are you trembling? I'm sorry, does this place bring you back some nostalgia?"

- Flashback Seven Years Ago -

"Do you really think you could escape that easily, lousy brats!" a fat guardsmen barked, holding his whip above his head to strike the crying children if they attempted to run.

The young Jellal's plan had failed. The tunnel that had been dug out had only led them to another part of the cells where they were instantly caught by the guards. They were surrounded by several of them; their sharps spears pointed at them, trapping them against the wall.

The fat guard sneered down at them, "We're on a very strict deadline. We can't afford to have anymore distractions."

The guard next to him who had dark hair and evil grin plastered on his ugly features, "We'd be up the creek if the development we're delayed in any way...on principal alone, I should toss you little bastards into the Disciplinary Chamber...but just for today, I'll settle for just the one," he proposed, horrifying the children, "So...who was the mastermind behind this botched escape? Only that person will be held accountable...the rest will get a slap on the wrist...am I benevolent or what?" he chuckled.

The guards looked expectantly down at the children, but they remained silent except for Sho was crying. A young Erza looked at around at each of her friends; she knew that they were too terrified to speak up and so she decided to take the blame.

"I-"

"It was me!" Jellal suddenly said as he stood up, leaving the other children speechless, "I planned it all and told them what to do."

'Jellal no!' Erza thought in despair.

The guard gave him a suspicious look, studying his confident face for any deception. However, his eyes then landed on Erza as a wicked smile spread across his face."

"Hmmm, it was the girl, wasn't it?" he said, shocking Jellal and Erza, "It was your idea all along."

"What!? No!" Jellal cried.

But it was too late. The guard grabbed Erza by the arm and pulled away from the rest of children.

"I'll say a night in the Disciplinary Chamber will do you. We can't have you ruining our plans," the guard chuckled as he dragged the trembling girl away.

However, before he could take her anywhere, another figure entered the room, causing the room to fall silent.

"What is going on here? Why are you away from your posts?" the slaver guard who stopped them at the start of their escape snapped at them.

The rest of the guards straightened up in response while the children gulped nervously at the sight of the strict woman.

"Boss," the guard who had a hold on Erza uttered in surprise, "We just found these escapees and I'm in the middle of disciplining one of them. If I may proceed?"

Erza felt Boss' intense gaze fall on her for a few seconds before it looked up at the guard again, "Only one of them?"

"Yes, no need to injure anymore of this stock."

Boss hummed before she held out her hand to him, "They will not learn anything. Give me a girl and I'll deal with her. Bring the others back to their cells, I'll get to them later."

The guard's smile dropped from his face, "But-"

"That was not a request that was an order. All of you get back to work and let me deal with the miscreants," she sharply cut him off.

The guard gulped nervously and was about to push Erza towards her when another voice echoed through the chamber.

"Guard 65118!" they all turned to slavers superiors, a man in his sixties with a long white beard wearing a purple robe, standing at the door, "I need to speak to you in my office this instant."

Boss hid a small growl before turning to her superior, "Sir, in all respect, I was about to punish this slaves. Can it wait?"

The superior sniffed crossly, "No it cannot. Let the other guards do it."

"But sir-"

"Now!" he roared, "Or do you want to end up in the same place as that girl?"

Erza watched as the usually stoic woman clenched her jaw as if she was annoyed by his command. She felt her eyes glance at her one more time before she sighed sadly and marched towards the Superior. The guard, who still had a tight grip on Erza, saw that he was clear to continue and began dragging Erza away again, much to the other children's horror.

"NO STOP!" Jellal cried, as he was held back by the guards, "IT WAS ME! TAKE ME!"

But as she was dragged away, Erza looked up at him. Although she was trembling and sweat was pouring down her face, she still put on a brave smile; reassuring her friends that she was going to be alright.

"D-don't worry," she stammered, fear evident in her eyes, "I'll be fine. It's just as you said, Jellal. It's n-not going to be scary at all."

Then, before the terrified children's very eyes, Erza was dragged into the darkest depths of the prison, prepared to meet her punishment.

- Flashback End -

Sho looked down in regret, "I'm sorry about what happened, sis. The one who planned it was me. But...I was scared, so I kept quiet. That...was pretty rotten of me, huh?"

Erza mentally shook that horrible memory away to the back of her mind, "I don't care about that. What's more important is whether you know how dangerous the R-System is."

Sho cocked an eyebrow, "You know what the R-System is? Didn't expect that."

"The Revive System. You sacrifice one person to bring another person back to life. It's a forbidden magic that breaks every laws of humanity."

"Ah you see," Sho said, raising a single finger, "That's the thing. Every law of humanity. The Phobos are not humans."

Erza sighed sadly, "Sho, I know you are angry at the Clan. So was I. But you can't dehumanise them; they were people like you and me. Jellal is just telling you this just say to justify using the system. Night Terror is the last one; the Clan was destroyed before we were taken to the Tower-"

"SHUT UP!" Sho yelled suddenly, tears forming in his eyes, "Even if that is true, he still deserves to die! We trusted them! We put our lives in their hands! They promised to keep us protected, but they can't even protect themselves!" he shouted before he bowed his head and sniffed sadly, "They will never understand what we went through. The long days working, getting beaten, starving. The cold nights we we had to huddle together on the stone floor to keep warm. Day after day after day; it was all the same with no way of getting out. I would prefer it if they did betray us. Being given false hope is worse then being lied to," he mumbled before his tone became dark; more sinister, "But it doesn't matter. That was then and this is now. No matter what the reason is, we're still going to continue. Jellal has a plan..." he suddenly looked up at Erza and she saw the crazed look in his eyes, "...he is going to lead us to Heaven."

"Heaven?" Erza uttered, her brow furrowed deeply.

Sho leaned in close to her face and smiled creepily, "The moment Jellal brings that man back to life...the world will be born again...and we will control that new world! The remnants of the group that took away our freedom! The Phobos cowards who let us be enslaved! Those mindless minions who roam the world without a thought in their heads! That idiotic Council! WE'LL BRING TERROR AND SORROW TO THEM ALL! THEN WE WILL TAKE AWAY ALL OF THEIR FREEDOM! WE WILL CONTROL THE ENTIRE WORLD!" he roared madly.

Erza gritted her teeth in fury before she used all her strength, kicked her leg upwards and slammed her knee underneath Sho's jaw. The force not only caught him off guard, but made collapse onto the hard floor, completely unconscious. Erza sighed before she lifted herself up by her restraints and bit through the rope until it snapped and she was freed. She landed on the floor and looked down at the knocked out man before her. She remembered how innocent and bright he used to be; he was very much a younger brother to her back then. But now that boy was gone and replaced with a hate-filled murderer...

...and she knew who was to blame.

"Jellal..." she growled as she requiped into her armour, "This is all your fault."

Throne Room

In a large, dark hall near the top floor of the Tower of Heaven, a hooded figure sat on a dark throne situated upon a dais. Before the dais kneeled a tall, thin man in his late twenties with slicked-back black hair, slightly tanned skin, a handlebar moustache and cruel green eyes. He wore a black velvet cloak over a white ruffled chemise and black trousers. His chemise was partially opened to reveal a red guild mark in the shape of a flaming skull.

"You called for me, Jellal," he said in singsong voice.

"Maestro of Trinity Raven-" the hooded figure began to say.

"No, no, no sir. I must insist in you calling me Magnificent Meastro," he said with a prideful smile. However the smile soon left his face at the intimidating look on his master's face, "…Maestro is fine."

The hooded man gave a growl before he continued, "It would seem our mouse is heading towards its trap. However, most of my players are spread thin across the board. I trust that you will keep the Phobos busy until more players are free to play."

"The Phobos," Piedra uttered with a small grimace, "you want me to…fight him."

"Not necessarily," Jellal said, "that girl is his weakness. Use her as leverage and force him to submit. Remember you have the ring, he won't be able to use his Fear Magic."

Maestro smirked and got to his feet, "Of course," he sung as turned and left the hall. As soon as he stepped outside, he whipped a conductor's baton out of his pocket and chucked darkly, "Obviously, he would choose the classics over that tasteless noise Vidaldus calls music. Only a rousing symphony will tame the master of fear. Ha ha!"

Grand Hall

"COME ON OUT, BOX MAN!" Natsu roared, shaking his fists in the air, "WHERE ARE YOU?!"

Lucy clamped a hand over his mouth and sighed, "Will you please shut up. We're in the middle of enemy territory."

"Don't bother," Grey muttered, "It's not as if we've been quiet this whole time."

"I quite agree," Night Terror chimed in as he inspected the room they were in, "I fear that we are being watched."

"We cannot stay here for long; Juvia thinks we should keep on moving," Juvia said seriously.

After climbing the stairs out of the cavern, the mages had found themselves in a grand dining room. It was elegantly designed and was the complete opposite of the Tower's exterior, with a long, fancy mahogany table being the main centrepiece. It was decorated with flowers in vases and they were eight chairs surrounding it, but other then that it was left completely bare. Night Terror hummed as inspected the room for any magical presence that could be used to spy on them when suddenly...

DUM! DUM! DUM!

The low banging noise of the bodhrán drum vibrated in his mask. He was getting closer to it; it was coming from somewhere in the upper floors of Tower. Whoever was playing it was still hopeful that somebody will pick up their distress signal. Night Terror frowned sadly at what he was going to do, but he could always explain later.

"I have to leave-," he began before he noticed something, "Miss Lucy did you change already?"

Lucy smiled brightly as she twirled around in her new green and light blue dress, accompanied by a green head scarf, "Glad you noticed," she happily said, "It's clothes from the Celestial World. My clothes were soaked so I asked Cancer to bring it along. What do you think?"

Night Terror coughed bashfully, "You look...lovely, Miss Lucy," he shyly complimented, "But would it have been easier to let Mr Natsu dry your clothes?" he asked, pointing to where Natsu had set himself on fire while Grey stood next to him to dry his own clothes.

"To be honest, the thought never really crossed my mind," Lucy sighed.

"Juvia thinks she's trying to show off," Juvia muttered with a roll of her eyes.

"Hey! No I'm not!"

"Oh, did Juvia say that out loud?"

"Don't make it seem like that was an accident!"

"Anyway," the Phobos said, cutting the argument off, "I need to find whoever is playing the bodhrán Find Miss Erza, Miss Flare and Mr Happy and get out of here as quick as possible. I will meet up with you later."

Lucy blinked in surprise, "Wait Night-"

But before she could protest, Night Terror sunk into the shadows and disappeared completely.

"Huh. A little rude," Natsu commented, staring at place he vanished.

"Sorry," the disembodied voice of Night Terror said from the shadows.

Suddenly the doors at the end of the hall slammed opened and ten guards came running at them.

"There they are! Capture them!" one of the guards yelled as they charged at them.

The mages got into a fighting positions, ready to take them on when somebody swiftly ran through the door and took the first three down with a swipe of their sword. The mages stood back in surprise as the person, who was moving to fast to see, knocked every single guard one at time. Once the last guard was down, they eventually saw Erza with two swords drawn in each hand, staring at the floor in concentration.

"Erza!" Grey gasped.

"Thank goodness! You're okay!" Lucy chimed in as they walked over to her.

"T-that was impressive," Juvia uttered.

Erza noticed them; her eyes widened in shock, "What are you doing here?"

"What do you mean!?" Natsu shouted angrily, "We came here to get you, Flare and Happy and beat those freaks to a pulp! Where's that boxy guy! I know he's near somewhere!"

Erza didn't respond to him and shook her head, "You shouldn't be here...any of you," her eyes turned to Juvia, who flinched slightly at the attention, "I don't know who you are?"

Juvia gulped and placed a hand on her chest, "My name is Juvia. It's a pleasure to meet-"

"Go home as well, Juvia!" Erza snapped, causing her to squeak in fear. Erza spied the room as if she was looking for somebody, only to sigh in irritation, "Night Terror is here as well, isn't he? Damn it," she muttered before she turned back to the door, "I'm going to look for him. I expect all of you to be gone by the time I get back."

"What!? No way!" Natsu shouted, "Happy is still here and I'm going to find him!" he sniffed the air for a few seconds before he sprinted out of the room, "I'm coming to get you Happy!"

"You idiot! Don't run off like that!" Grey shouted, preparing to run after him when Erza suddenly pointed her sword at him.

"No! I'm not letting anybody get any further then this!" she shouted before she turned away from them and headed to the door, "I'm not going to repeat myself. Get away as far as possible."

"Like we would ever consider that!" Lucy snapped at her, forcing her to stop in her tracks, "We're coming with you, Erza! We couldn't stand to do less!"

Without looking back, Erza softly said, "This is my problem. I don't want you people, especially Night Terror, to be caught up in it."

"We're already caught up in it! You saw Natsu, didn't you?"

Erza didn't respond; she merely stared at the floor in silence.

Lucy frowned softly and took a careful step towards her, "Erza, what is this Tower? Who is Jellal? Why don't you want Night Terror here?" she asked, but Erza remained silent still, "If you don't want to say, it's okay, but...you mentioned that you used to be friends with those guys. But we're your friends...and Juvia... standing right here, right now."

The water mage gasped in offence, "Juvia can be friends with her..." before she looked over at Erza, "...only if she wants to be friends with Juvia, of course."

Lucy rolled her eyes before continuing, "I don't know what Night Terror has to do with all of this, but I'm sure he would want to help you as well. No matter what you say to him. Because we're all a part of Fairy Tail...and we look after each other till the very end."

Silence fell between them as they waited for Erza's response. After a few seconds, Erza softly spoke to them.

"Please stop Night Terror."

"But Erza-" Grey began to complain.

"I'll tell you everything," Erza continued, "The Tower, Jallel, everything, but Night Terror...he can't be here. He can't know what happened here."

"But-" Lucy said.

Erza slowly turned around to look at them, causing all three to step back in surprise. Grey clamped a hand over his chest and make a choking sound, Lucy's eyes widened in utter shock and Juvia looked on in surprise. The reason for their reaction was because they saw something that they never seen before. Something they would never expect somebody as strong and noble as Erza to do in the entire lives.

Erza was crying.

A single tear from her left eye glided down her cheek and dripped onto the floor. Her face was a mixture of despair and regret as something pained her so deeply.

"Please," she uttered, "If he knows what happned...it will break his heart."

Prison Cell

Flare stared miserably at the floor of her prison cell, she was still restrained to the wall with Millianna's rope wrapped around her to prevent her from using her magic. She had long given up trying to get out of her bindings and was now waiting for…well for anything. Flare had to admit that they didn't treat her too badly. The cat woman and the muscular man were at least nice to her and gave her food, but she knew that they were only keeping her alive because she was bait.

'I should have just kept quiet,' she thought bitterly, 'Now I've made things worse for Night.'

The sound of the metal door opening down the hallway from where her cell was, alerted her that somebody was coming. She sighed wearily and looked up, expecting to see the familiar faces of her kidnappers when Maestro arrived, flicking his cloak dramatically.

"Good day, bambina," he sang as he opened her cell door with another dramatic flourish and began posing as if he was a model, "I am the magnificent maestro! Here to conjure the most wonderful music you will hear. From the sweet sound of the piccolo to the mighty boom of the drum, I shall weave the music into a symphony like no other!"

…

Flare blinked in bewilderment and tilted her head to the side, "Can…I get one of the other kidnappers. I think I would prefer them to interrogate me."

Maestro gave her an annoyed glare, "I'm waiting."

"Waiting for what?"

"An artist expects an applause from its audience."

"My hands are tied, you moron!" she shouted at him before she got an idea, "Maybe if you untie me-"

"Absolutely not," he cut her off, "Just applaud me by banging your feet together."

Flare rolled her eyes, "Just get this over with. Why are you here?"

"I'm here because…" he sang as he raised his baton to her head, "…because I need you to be part of my orchestra."

Flare's eyes widened as few colourful musical notes spouted from the end of his baton and floated in the air. She heard the sound of different instruments being played emit from the notes; violins, trombones, flutes, drums; all combining together into one sound. Maestro swung his baton in circles, making the notes circle around her head; faster and faster at dizzying speeds until they sunk into her head. Flare gasped in shock before her eyes grew glazed and her body became limp.

"Bellissimo!" Maestro chuckled as he began to unclasp her hands from the wall, freeing her from her chains. The red haired girl stood like a zombie, her body swaying side by side gently as if she was listening to a slow song, "now that you have been enchanted by my music, let us meet our Phobian audience. Allegro!"

He waved his baton towards the door of the cell and instantly, in a dazed state, Flare began to march towards out of her cell. Internally, Flare was trying to stop what she was doing, but her body wouldn't listen. Whatever magic Maestro had put her under was too strong. She exited the cell and stopped abruptly until Maestro walked past her. Without looking behind him, he flicked his baton in the air and Flare's body immediately responded.

"Come, come. We haven't got all day," he sung mockingly.

'Damn it!' she thought in frustration, as she listened to the music from earlier began to play a marching song, 'I need to snap out of this now. I got to get out of here before Night Terror gets here!" she shouted in her mind.

As soon as she thought it, she felt the ends of her hair flick in response to her anger.

'My hair! I can move it! He untied the cat girl's rope,' she thought happily as she began to concentrate, 'come on! I need to do this!'

She began to form the image of a fist in her mind, trying to influence her to do the same. One large braid of her hair raised up to her shoulder, but it eventually dropped.

'No! Come on!'

She focused again, making the hair braid rise up once again. The ends of her hair clumped tightly together in a fist-like shape, but it too dropped like before.

'One more time! I can't disappoint him again!'

With all her will power, the hair braid raised to her shoulder once again and began to take shape once again. She fought through the pain, held her breath and concentrated on solidifying the shape until she raised it high above her shoulder, took aim and…

THWACK!

Maestro jumped in surprise at the sudden sound before he turned to see Flare collapsed on the floor; the ends of her hair was formed into a human fist about half the size of his head raised above her. Before he could do anything, Flare shakily sat up and got to her feet. She wiped a little bit of blood from her mouth with the back of her arm and smiled proudly.

"I'm free," she muttered as she focused once again and raised both her hair braids up in defence, "And now I'm going to take you down."

Maestro growled irritably, "Hair magic. They should have told me. Caster Magic is harder to control," he muttered before he grinned and posed dramatically with his baton over his head, "tuttavia! Humans are not the only ones who can be enthralled my music," he declared as he flicked his baton, causing more musical notes to flight out of it.

The notes flew around the air for a few seconds before the split up and darted into the walls, floor and ceiling of the corridor they were in. Flare frowned in confusion before she heard the sound rumbling stone and rock. That was before the stone wall beside her cracked and a rocky hand peeled out of it. It was followed by an arm, a head, a torso and then legs until, soon enough, towering over was her was a six foot tall anthropomorphic golem. Flare stepped back as nine more golems climbed out of the walls, ceiling and floor and stood before her and a smirking Maestro.

"Let's see you get yourself out of this, bambina," he chuckled before he flicked his baton towards her.

The golems lumbered towards her as she backed away. With her hair she punched the closest golem with all her strength, but all it did was stagger back slightly before continuing to stagger towards her. She continued to barrage the golems with her hair, trying her best to get them away as she walked backwards. She cried out when her back hit the end of the corridor, preventing her from escaping any further.

'No, no, no!' she thought in panic as she grabbed one of the golems by its leg in attempt to knock it over.

However, it was too strong and the rock monster simply reached down, grabbed the hair braid and pulled it of its legs, causing her to shout in pain. The golem pulled her up by her hair to hold her still while Flare kicked her feet in the air helplessly.

"Stop it! Stop it!" she cried as she tried to move her hair out of the golem's grasp.

"If you want me to stop then you'll do what I say," Maestro sung with a flick of his baton.

Flare growled, "Never!"

Maestro sneered in annoyance, "You have turned my tempo from giojoso to agitato, you little monello," he spat, "How about I give you a lesson on how to respect your elders," he said as he flicked his baton once again.

The golem that was grabbing her hair raised its other arm and tightened its stony hand into a fist, ready to hit Flare. The young girl couldn't do anything but close her eyes and wait as the massive fist was sent hurtling at her...

CLANG!

The sound of stone hitting metal echoed through the corridor, surprising Flare and Maestro. The red haired girl opened her eyes and saw a familiar dark figure in front of her, seeping out of her own shadow that she was casting on the floor. The hooded figure had his hand outstretched so that his metal claw caught the golem's fist that was a couple feet from her face. Through his skull mask, Night Terror glared angrily at Maestro and gave a deadly growl. From out of the shadows, three dark tendrils shot out; two had wrapped around each of the golem's arms while the third one grasped its head.

"Don't you dare touch my student," he coldly said before he tightened the shadow tendrils.

The rocky arms and head of the golem exploded in a shower of debris and fell onto the ground, followed by the rest of its body. The hand holding up Flare fell away, dropping her to the ground, but Night Terror called up another tendril that caught her and laid her gently on the ground. The only part of the golem that remained was the fist in Night Terror's claw; to which he simply raised it next to his head, squeeze the claws into the stone and making it too exploded and fall to pieces on the ground.

"How troublesome," he muttered.

He conjured nine spiky shadows out from the floor that pieced the rest of the golems, making the shatter to pieces instantly.

Maestro staggered back in surprise, "The Phobos. You've come too early."

"I think you'll find that I've come at the right time," the Phobos hummed before he looked down at Flare, "Are you hurt, Miss Flare?"

Flare stared in wonder up at him. She felt as if she can't breath, her heart began to race and, for some reason, she began to blush brightly.

"Err...umm...err..." she stammered before she coughed and shook her head, "I'm f-fine."

"Good," he said before he reached down and flicked her forehead with his claw.

"OW! What was that for!?" she cried as she rubbed her forehead.

"For worrying me. Do you know how panicked I was back at the casino?" he scolded before he petted her head gently, "However, I am happy you are alright and proud of you for improving your magical skill."

Flare gasped happily, "You saw that?"

"Of course, I did. Now are you hungry? Thirsty? I have a few sandwiches you can eat," he asked fussing over her.

Flare opened her mouth to comment how he was babying her again when she shrugged, "I can eat."

Night Terror took out a lunchbox and handed it to her.

"Ahem!" Maestro coughed irritably, catching their attention, "a pleasure to meet you, my shadowy enemy," he greeted with a low bow, "the name is the magnificent Maestro. Master of the classics and writer of such fantastic symphonies."

"Another odd one," Night Terror sighed.

"You're one to talk," Flare muttered as she ate one of the sandwiches.

The Phobos ignored her and addressed the mage, "And you must be a member of Death Head's Caucus. I recognise the guild mark on your shoulder."

Flare raised an eyebrow, "Who?"

"A dark guild who specialises in assassination missions. I have captured a few over the years, but, I have to say, none of them are as…flashy as you are."

Maestro grinned manically, "Nothing wrong with a bit of prestidigitation in one's work. However, I hope you don't mind that I did a little research on you. A Phobos posses two forms of magic that is part of the ensemble. Their Fear magic and a specialised magic which, in your case is shadow manipulation. However, now that I have this…" he held up his hand to show he was wearing the ring which prevented Fear magic, "…all I have to do is concentrate all my effort on stopping your shadows."

"Good luck with that," Flare said with a proud grin, "your golems don't seem to put up much of a fight against Night."

Maestro chuckled darkly, "That was only an overture. My golems are not the only skills in my repertoire, bambina," he flicked his baton in the air, "Let's start with the percussion."

From out of his baton came a single black musical note, a quaver to be precise, that flew at them. It was much larger then the ones that enchanted Flare; just under a meter long. Night Terror glared at musical note before he swiped at it with one of his shadows.

BOOM!

The musical note exploded as soon as the shadow made contact, throwing them through the thin wall and into a chamber behind it. The chamber was a tall chimney-like room about 100 feet tall; on one side was a door that led to a spiral staircase that ran up alongside the chamber with windows looking into the room. Night Terror grunted in pain as he skidded along the floor and crashed into the far wall. Once he had stopped, he looked down at Flare who was wrapped in his arms and a few shadows.

"Are you well, Miss Flare?"

Flare climbed out of her protection and looked up at him, "Forget about me. What about you? You got hit by a bomb!"

"I believe the expression is 'not my first rodeo'," he remarked before he ducked as something was flung at his head, embedding itself into the wall. He turned around and saw that it was quaver, similar to the one from earlier but this one was bronze coloured. He raised a claw up to it and tapped it, making a metallic sound, "Brass," he muttered, "This is solid brass."

They heard a maniacal cackle from the hole in the wall and turned to see Maestro on a giant blue treble clef which flew through the wall and floated a few meters above their heads.

"I see you are spellbound by my magic, no?" he cackled darkly.

Night Terror hummed thoughtfully, "Looks to be a variation of Letter Magic. Just like Miss Levy's."

Flare frowned in irritation, "So Percussion notes explode and Brass notes can be used as projectiles and maybe as a defence barriers. All we need to know is what Woodwind and String notes do?"

Maestro raised his baton as he balanced upon the treble clef, "Would the bambina like a demonstration of the Woodwind?"

He flicked the baton in the air and produced a four green quavers that were bridged together. In the air, the notes broke away before they zoomed down at them like missiles. Night Terror instantly produced four shadow tendrils to batter the Woodwind notes away, but as soon as he hit one away, it recovered quickly at came at them again. They were fast and seemed to evade the tendrils and Flare's hair as much as possible, making it even more difficult to counter them. Eventually, he was able to batter them enough so they were weak enough to cut through them with his claw. Night Terror took the first three down, shattering them like wood, while Flare grabbed a hold of the last one, squeezed with all her might, and making it shatter as well.

"Don't tell me your exhausted already," Maestro cried, "I've barely done anything yet."

Flare glared up at him with a smirk, "Of course not. We were just tired of listening to your boring music."

Maestro's smile dropped from his face when she said that and was replaced by a furious look, "Critics!" he yelled, "All of you are critics! Every single one of you! Why does nobody understand my art!" he flicked his baton and sent another Percussion quaver at them, "I'll kill you all! Every last primitive, thuggish critic!"

Night Terror grabbed Flare and leapt away in time for the bomb to hit where they once were and explode; shaking the room's foundations.

Once the debris had fallen around them, the Phobos looked up at Maestro. However, his eyes landed at the windows in the circular walls and suddenly he hand an idea.

"Miss Flare. I need you to run now," he told her, nodding at the door that led onto the spiral staircase, "I can not use my full power with you close by."

Flare was about to protest when he noticed him subtly nodding at one of the windows and then towards Maestro. Her eyes widened in realisation before she nodded firmly.

"Got you. Try not to get hurt" she said to him before she got up and ran up the stairs.

"I do not plan to," he softly said before he looked up at Maestro, "Usually, I am more merciful with my enemies in combat, but since you harmed my student," he growled as the shadows whipped and vibrated around him threateningly, "I will not be as kind," he growled.

Maestro looked down at the ring on his finger glow slightly as it absorbed the Fear Magic before it stopped, "You have to do a little better then that, Phobos," he grinned before waving his baton, "Woodwind recommence!"

Another four quaver beam note flew from his baton, split up and came shooting down towards Night Terror at great speeds. The Phobos quickly produced a shadow dome to repel the attacks. As he was doing this, Maestro sent a Percussion note at him whilst he thought he was distracted. However, Night Terror used his shadows to propel himself off the ground, making the Percussion note to explode on the floor he had been standing on. He leapt across the room and sunk one claw the wall before turning around and swiping away Woodwind note, cleaving it in half. Maestro, seeing him get to a slightly higher position, flew up on his treble clef, making sure to keep his distance from him and any dark places the Phobos could use as an advantage.

'It seems he does have some common sense,' Night Terror thought before he sunk himself into the shadows.

Maestro frowned in annoyance as he scoured the round room for any sign of him. Eventually, he tapped the treble clef with his baton and instantly it began to illuminate bright, lighting up the room to get rid of darkness. He looked down again at the empty room when he felt a presence from above. He snapped his head up and saw the Phobos coming down at him, his arm outstretched above his head to deliver a downwards blow with his metal claws. Maestro yelped in surprise before he produced a Brass note in front of him before Night Terror could hit him, hitting the note instead. He then followed it by a Percussion note which forced Night Terror to call a shadow tendril to pull him back into the darkness. Maestro saw the spot Night Terror went a fired a barrage of notes at it, hoping to at least hit him. He finished it off with a Percussion note which, when it hit the wall, made the entire wall collapse with some debris crashing onto the floor.

Maestro took a deep breath at the sizable crater in the brick wall, "Come on. I know you're out there."

His ears picked up the sound of brick and stone moving about and looked down at the ground. As soon as he leaned over the edge, he had to immediately duck as part of broken wall, the size of his head, flew by him. He gritted his teeth and looked down again to see several large dark tendrils lift up the pieces of stone and rocks and flung at him. He dodged the first two, but as the rocks came at him more and more, faster and faster at different angles, he was forced to use his Brass notes to repel them.

"Merda!" he shouted as the rocks began to overwhelm him. He flicked his baton again and yelled, "Strings take your solo!"

A single yellow quaver came out of his baton before four sharp strings spouted out from it. Using his baton to guide it, he whipped the note around him sharply, the strings slashing through the projectiles and breaking them into pieces.

The rocks exploded into dust as the Strings cut through them; the Strings had also left deep cut marks in the walls around Maestro, indicating how sharp they were.

Maestro grinned proudly before he gasped in shock. Surrounding him on all sides were hundreds of shadow tendrils seeping out of the darkness, ready to take on everything he could throw at them. Night Terror stood on the ground, controlling every single one of them as he looked up at dark mage.

"My control over the darkness has increased ever since I got my new armour. But I can not waste any more time," he muttered before he chanted, "SHADOW MAGIC: HUNDRED HANDS OF THE ABYSS!"

He ordered the tendrils to slither through the air towards Maestro to seize his arms and ending the fight. There was no way he could defend himself from all of them.

Suddenly, Maestro rapidly flicked his baton in the air producing a symbol around him. It look liked horizontal line on top of a rectangle.

"Semibreve!" he chanted.

Night Terror's eyes widened in disbelief as every single shadow tendril that he had control of stopped in mid-air before it could reach Maestro. He tried his best to move them, but they seemed to be frozen in time, he couldn't even dispel them.

"A semibreve," he muttered, "it means a pause in the music."

"Indeed it does," Maestro cackled, "I did enjoy our concerto, my shadowy friend, but it is now time for grand cadenza!"

He raised a baton in the air before began whipping it around wildly, expelling more and more musical notes as he did. The Percussion notes hit the tendrils and blew them away, the Brass notes smashed into them, the Woodwind notes rammed through them and the String notes sliced through them. He produced more and more notes until a whirlpool of music whirled around him, hitting and destroying anything in its path. It sounded like a thousand orchestras, all playing different song at the same time as fast and as loud as they can. The sheer noise made Night Terror grit his teeth.

"ACKNOWLEDGE MY GENIUS!" Maestro bellowed through the noise, "I AM THE GREATEST MUSICIAN IN THE WORLD!"

Night Terror growled in irritation before he got an idea.

'I have not done this in a while, but drastic times call for drastic measures,' he thought.

He took a deep breath and focused on the darkness around him, conjuring every last shred of shade and blackness to him and making it swirl at his feet. He gritted his teeth and manipulated the shadows to rise over him in a cylindrical shape, covering his entire body. It grew taller and taller, longer and longer; the body of the shadows began to form grooves like the scales of a reptile while the end of the shape began to form itself into a head. Maestro stared down and grimaced at the shadows took a form of a giant serpent with blood red eyes. It opened its jaws to reveal dark pointed fangs and leather-like forked tongue that flicked in the air. The serpent hissed threateningly and snapped its vicious fangs at him; he looked down at the ring on his finger and saw it grow brightly before looking away.

"YOU JUST DON'T KNOW WHEN TO GIVE UP!" Maestro yelled as he directed all his musical notes at the serpent.

The notes pelted the dark snake making it hiss in anger as if it was alive. Night Terror directed it to lunge at Maestro who narrowly avoided by flying up, making it smash into the wall behind it. But it didn't stop there, Night Terror continued to order it to keep on attacking, making Maestro keep on dodging. The music mage wiped the sweat from his brow as he tried his best to battle the serpent, but no matter what he throw at it, nothing seemed to effect it.

"WHY ISN'T THIS WORKING!" Maestro yelled as he continued its barrage.

Much to his surprise, the serpent replied back in dark voice of Night Terror, "THISSS IS NOT JUSSST MY SSSHADOW MAGIC, MAESTRO! THISSS ISSS A COMBINATION OF MY FEAR AND SSSHADOW MAGIC!"

Maestro looked down at the ring which was growing brighter and starting to get hot, "But my...ring-"

"ONLY REPELSSS MY FEAR MAGIC EFFECTING YOU!" the dark serpent hissed, "THE MAGIC YOU ATTACK WITH WILL ONLY BE FRIGHTENED AWAY. COMPLETELY USELESS!"

"Not if I had something to say anything about it," Maestro grunted as he prepared another semibreve attack.

However, as he raised his baton in the air, he felt something whip it out of his hand. He gasped and looked back to see Flare leaning out one of the window, her hair extended over her head as she held his precious baton captive.

"No!"

"Ready for the grand finale!?" Flare called out as pointed behind him.

Maestro looked around and gulped as saw the dark serpent tower over him, its blood red eyes staring straight into his soul.

"LIKE THE RESSST OF YOUR GUILD MEMBERSSS! YOU ARE WEAK WITHOUT YOUR LITTLE TRICKSSS!" it hissed as the snake unhinged its jaw directly over him, "BÌDEADH NATHAIR!"

"No please! STOP! STOP!" Maestro screamed as he held his hands up in desperate attempt to defend himself.

However, the serpent's giant head dropped down upon him as quick as a flash, smashing his floating treble clef to pieces. The serpent brought him all the way down before slamming him into the ground with a great explosion of debris and dust that shook the room.

Flare quickly climbed down the stairs and peered over the small crater in the middle of the floor. She saw the shadows flow away back to where they came from to reveal Night Terror standing over an unconscious Maestro, with his claw pressed against his head, The Phobos slowly raised his fist to reveal a large swelling on the side of the music master's head. Flare may not know a lot about being a doctor, but she was fairly sure that Maestro will be out of commission for a while. Eventually, Night Terror waved his gloved hand and made a dark tendril grab a hold of Maestro and drag him into the void, ready to be arrested later.

"In hindsight, I should have probably lead with the last one," Night Terror hummed, "Would have saved a lot of-"

The Phobos almost lost his balance when Flare slammed into him and wrapped her arms around his waist in a tight embrace. Surprised, he looked down at her to ask what was she was doing, when he heard a soft sob come from her.

"I'm sorry," she meekly said, "I-I caused all this trouble for you. I promise I won't do it again."

Night Terror gave a soft sigh, took off his gauntlet and patted her gently on the head, "It is quite alright, Miss Flare. You just had me worried, that is all. You are my student after all," he said in a softer tone then what he usually does. Flare sniffed and nodded into cloak in understanding, "Although, a part of me did believe that you were fine without me. Your magical skills have greatly improved from when we first met."

Flare turned her tear-stained face up at him in surprise, "You really think so? You trust me that much?"

"Of course I do. Why do you think otherwise?"

Flare wiped the tears from her eyes and hugged him again, happy at what he said, "No reason."

"Very well. Let us not stay any longer here."

Flare pulled away and grinned in determination, "Right," she firmly agreed before she held up Maestro's baton, "What should I do with this?"

The Phobos hummed thoughtfully before he took the baton from her and inspected it. After a few seconds, he simply snapped it in half and chucked it over his shoulder, "Problem solved. Shall we go?"

Throne Room

In the darkened room, the hooded figure of Jellal hummed in intrigue before he moved over to a chess set and knocked over chess piece shaped like a treble clef.

Hallway

"...what you did with your shadows was so cool! I never knew you could do something like that!" Flare gushed as she and Night Terror walked down another corridor, "maybe I can do the same. Now that I can make shapes with my hair I can form like wolves or lions or...or I can probably make different weapons like swords and maces. Can you please teach me how to do that? Please, please, please," she begged, tugging at his sleeve.

Night Terror smiled awkwardly at his students excited chatter, she hasn't stopped since they left the prison and he was finding it hard to catch up with what she was saying.

"Of course, Miss Flare. But please remember where are in the middle of a mission," he said before a few guards rounded the corner and charged at them with their spears. Night Terror casually waved his claw and the guards were knocked away by shadow tendrils or pulled into the darkness, "There is danger at every turn."

"It's so cool when you act so casual," Flare commented with stars in her eyes.

'Does that mean she did not think I was cool before?' the Phobos thought drearily.

DUM! DUM! DUM!

The sound of the bodhrán vibrated his metal mask once again, making him stop suddenly. It was much louder then before, meaning that he was getting closer to where the other Phobos was. If he just follow the sound he could finally meet them, but he did have to wonder why they hadn't come out to find them. Perhaps they were imprisoned in here as well.

"Err...Night, what's wrong?" Flare asked, looking up at him in concern.

Night Terror hummed, "Miss Flare, I need you to do something very important. You need to find a way to contact the Council and inform them of the Tower. I am sure there is some sort of communication devise somewhere in the Tower. After that, go and find the others and stay with them."

"W-wait where are you going?"

"I have something just as important to attend to, as well. Please do not follow me," he ordered before he began walking back the way they came.

Flare stared after him for a few seconds before she remembered her promise to Erza. Using her hair she reached out and grabbed a hold of Night's hand, stopping him from going further.

"Miss Flare?"

"Please Night. We need to get out of here. It's dangerous," she pleaded, tugging his arm back.

Night Terror looked back at her over his shoulder, "I am aware of that, Miss Flare. All the more reason to not postpone our tasks."

"But Night-"

"I assume Miss Erza asked you to get me out of here," he said, surprising Flare. Night Terror turned around and walked back to her before crouching to her height, "Miss Erza and I have always had a...strained relationship. I have no idea what offence I caused her, but I would like to find out. She may think she is protecting me by keeping me at a distance, but really all she is doing is making it worse for herself. I care about her wellbeing as much as I do with everyone in Fairy Tail and in order to help her...I need to find out what is going on here. What is the purpose of the Tower? Who are these mages? And why do they hold a grudge against me. Please Miss Flare, I need to investigate for the benefit of Miss Erza."

Flare frowned unsurely, "I...I don't know about all of this," she muttered before she released his arm, "But I trust you to put everything right. Please don't take too long."

"I promise," Night Terror firmly said before he swiftly stood up and walked away again.

Flare stared after him for a few seconds until he turned a corner and out of sight. She sighed in concern, her brows knitted together in worry, before she turned around and headed down the opposite way.

Meanwhile, Night Terror walked quickly down the hallways, following the sound of the drum as it got louder and louder.

DUM! DUM! DUM! DUM!

He turned down a hallway with twenty doors on either side. Night Terror hummed as he tapped the wall of the hallway and found that it wasn't made in the same material that the rest of the building was. It seemed older like the Tower had been rebuilt around it. He opened one of the doors and found a medium-sized room with a few bunkbeds, a few cabinets and a bathroom on the other side of the room. Judging by the single guard helmet left on the one of the cabinets, this was a shared bedroom where the guards rested when their off-duty.

DUM! DUM! DUM! DUM! DUM!

He closed the door when he heard the drum once again and heard it coming from further down the hallway. He stopped at every door, listening for the drumming again. He was almost there, the Phobos was behind one of these doors.

DUM! DUM! DUM! DUM! DUM! DUM!

He stopped suddenly outside one door that looked to be the oldest out of all of them; the drumming was coming from within this room. He raised a claw to the door and knocked gently.

"Hello!" he called out in Timorin, "My name is the Night Terror. Is there another Phobos in here?"

DUM! DUM! DUM! DUM! DUM! DUM!

Night Terror frowned in confusion before he reached for the handle and twisted it, only to find it was locked. He hummed thoughtfully before he took a step back and kicked the door in. He heard the crack of the wooden doorframe shattering by the force and he stepped inside. The room was just like the other one, but it instead only had the single bed. It was filthy; cobwebs and dust was everywhere and he could smell rotting wood from somewhere.

However, other then that...there was nobody there. It looked like there hadn't been lived in for years.

He looked around in confusion, 'Surely, this is where they should be,' he thought as he inspected the room, 'There is nobody in the shadows otherwise I can sense them and I cannot see any animals a Beathach could transform into. Then where are-'

DUM! DUM! DUM! DUM! DUM! DUM! DUM! DUM! DUM! DUM! DUM! DUM!

His train of thought stopped when he heard the sound of the drum beat louder then ever. But what surprised him was that it was coming right from under the bed. He used his shadows to lift the bed up and saw nothing but the rotten floorboards beneath it. He was about to put it down...when he noticed something off about the floorboards. Some of them seemed to be arranged awkwardly while a couple seemed like they didn't fit in with the others at all. It was as if they were put in during a hurry.

DUM! DUM! DUM! DUM! DUM! DUM! DUM! DUM! DUM! DUM! DUM! DUM! DUM! DUM! DUM! DUM! DUM! DUM! DUM! DUM! DUM! DUM! DUM! DUM!

The sound was coming underneath them. He prised the floorboards away and looked down to find a dug out compartment beneath them in which lied a bodhrán drum attached to some sort of clockwork devise. The device was a blocky cuboid in which the drum was placed onto it like you would put a record on a record player. The device had a time on it and a mechanical arm which held a drumstick which, ever so often, struck the drum. Judging by how thin and hole-filled the skin of the drum was, the devise had been beating the drum for seemed like years.

Realisation seemed to slowly take a hold of him as he stared down at the strange device.

There were no Phobos after all. He was on his own once again.

He carefully lifted the device out of the compartment and laid on the floor next to him. He looked down and saw something wrapped up tightly in a simple white cloth. He gently picked it up, unwrapped it and found two leather bound books with no titles on the front. He frowned curiously, picked up the first book and flipped to the first page where he was surprised to see that it was written in Timorin. It read:

'Day 1 - I have successfully infiltrated the project as one of the guards. I thought it would have been more difficult like background checks or training, but as long as you pledge allegiance to the superiors then they'll let you join. I don't suppose they think anybody was spying on them, let alone the Magic Council. I have yet to discover the reason behind building this tower, but I hope to get some answers in the next week. I will keep maighstir updated on progress via raven. I hope everybody back home is well and not too busy worrying about me. Maybe it was too soon to take the job.'

Night Terror hummed curiously, 'A Phobos was here. I have never heard of this.'

He flicked a few pages in and read another entry.

'Day 8- Maighstir's suspicions were correct, there is something cursed about this island. They are using the daonna as slaves, hundreds of them. Men, women and even children! I reported back my findings and they told me to wait until I discover the true reason for this Tower before they could send others to help. I suppose there are correct. We can't rush in before we know what sort of threat we are dealing with. They said they have sent word to the Magic Council, but they had yet to hear back from them. This is troublesome.'

He flicked to another page a bit further into the book.

'Day 94 - It has almost around three months since I first arrived and I have had enough. They are monsters; forcing the poor daonna to work even harder then before for something known at the R System. I had yet to discover more as my superiors are getting suspicious of me; I need to maintain a low profile for now, but I have sent a message back home on progress. They way they are treating the children sickens me. I can hear them weep from my guard position every night and it is becoming unbearable. They remind my of my sweet little Una. She should be about six months old now. I wish I could see her.'

'Day 104- I've had enough. Damn this mission; we need immediate action now. I've called for reinforcements, but I have not heard word from my maighstir in days. The raven keeps flying back to me with my report unread. Are they ignoring me?'

'Day ? - Where is everybody! Nobody is responding to me no matter how many letters I send and my superiors are even more suspicious of me! We need to evacuate this island now!'

Night Terror continued to flick through every single entry. All of them saying the same thing: Why is nobody responding to them, how horrible it was here, the superiors breathing down their necks. Anger, frustration and concern evident in their writing.

Why hadn't he heard of any of this?

He stopped at the very last entry of the book. The author had given up what they day was, but he could only assume it had been a long time. It read:

'I have long given up on outside support. I can only assume that something has gone terribly wrong. I've constructed this contraption for the bodhrán drum to continue playing when I'm not around; hopefully it would draw some attention. My attempt at saving the prisoners was thwarted by my superiors. I had set up a few boats in the cavern underneath where I can lead them to, but I don't think they'll be any use at all. I had attempted to encourage the children to stay put until I could find a right time to get them out, but they escaped anyway and ended up getting caught. I tried my best to help get the red haired girl away, but they...' the writing was a little blurred as if water was dropped on it, 'they...tortured her. Those bastards tortured her! She was only a child. How can they be so cruel!

They can't stay here any longer. I will carry out the escape whether I get caught or not. I'll kill them if I have to. However, I doubt I'll be willing to go after this. If something had gone wrong at home then I really have nothing left. I only wish my Una wasn't harmed and is safe and sound. I'm sorry, little one. I promised you I'll be back before the Summer Solstice celebrations...'

The extract ended abruptly at that and the book fell out of Night Terror's claws. He felt a chill roll down his spine and a great weight in his stomach as he soon realised what had happened.

"They did not respond...because the Clan had been destroyed by then," he uttered, as he recalled everything about he knew about the Tower. The enslavement, the cruelty and pain, why the mages wanted to kill him; it all made sense now, "This...was all my fault. If I did not go to Elend...and make Muireall turn to evil...and have the Clan destroyed...none of this would have happened. Just like Deliora and Grey, I allowed this all to happen," h

He felt a presence at the door and turned to see Erza, her eyes widened in shock.

"Night Terror," she uttered.

"Miss Erza," he replied before he asked her the dread question, "Why did you not tell me about this?"

Again sorry for the wait and I hoped you enjoyed the chapter.

I'm going on another holiday soon so the next update might come in late again. Sorry if it got a little dark at the beginning, but I hope it explains a little bit of Muireall's upbringing.

Thanks again :)

Story Outtake

She focused again, making the hair braid rise up once again. The ends of her hair clumped tightly together in a fist-like shape, but it too dropped like before.

'One more time! I can't disappoint him again!'

THWACK!

"Too...hard," she uttered before she collapsed again with a small ghost version of her seeping out of her mouth.

Maestro blinked in confusion and sweat dropped, "Err...she's knocked herself out."

He then felt a something heavy fall on his shoulder, causing him to look around. He gulped nervously when he saw the darkened mask of Night Terror towering over him, radiating a deadly amount of Fear Magic.

"What...did...you...DO!?" he roared.

Maestro held up his hands in defence, "Wait, wait, wait. That wasn't me. She did that to herself."

His argument, however, was in vain as Night Terror went on to beat him to a pulp.

The End

Omake

"Hey! We were hardly in this chapter! What gives!" Natsu shouted at Victor Soul as Lucy, Grey, and Juvia stood behind him, equally as annoyed.

"I'm not retyping the entire story. That's copying the original sauce material...and also my fingers hurt," Victor complained.

The End