User:Derax-Pagani/FanFiction



\(*^* )/ The Fear \( *^*)/
Lucy’s plan had worked to perfection, Alistair was in the bank waiting within the ever enlarging queue and their target had just entered the building. A loud bang echoed throughout the lobby of the bank as the target fired a shotgun shell into the air, peppering the ceiling with pellet holes. Everyone in the bank ducked down and began to scream in fright.
 * -|Chapter 1=

The Joker made his way over to the counter, laughing manically like a drunkard as he leaned over the counter to look one of the cashiers straight in the eye. “What’s the matter? You look scared.” He asked calmly, tilting his head slightly. “Is it the scars? You wanna know how I got ‘em?” The green haired man asked whilst pointing to the somewhat obvious scars on his cheeks.

“Not particularly,” Before Joker could react he was swatted across the face with a right hook from Alistair. The clown landed awkwardly on the deck, but recovered quickly to fire at the red head. The blast merely impacted into a shield of green light causing the lead pellets to fall harmlessly to the ground. It gave the Joker a chance to get to his feet and pull a knife that he attempted to impale Alistair with as he made a slashing lunge towards the Fairy Tail mage.

Alistair moved back in a defensive stance to avoid the incoming slashes. He caught the Joker’s arm on an upward slash with the clown’s arm now high in the air before landing a palm strike into the rogue mage’s jaw followed up by an elbow strike to the neck and knee to the groin.

The knee strike caused the Joker to double over in pain, laughing as a result, before the back of his knees were kicked in leaving him open to be put into a reverse arm bar.

At the same moment, Lucy had taken out the Joker’s goons with a combination of the use of her Fleuve d’étoiles along with Virgo. As a result she was now helping to get as many civilians out of the building as possible whilst Alistair had the upper hand.

Just as Alistair was about to dislocate the Joker’s shoulder he was affected by a cascade of thoughts. His eyes widened, his head was in agony as what turned out to be memories flooded into his vision, he grabbed his own head by both hands, releasing Joker from the reverse arm bar, who used that as his queue to free himself from under Alistair.

The Fairy Tail mage dropped to the floor, huffing and panting hard as image after image flooded in, causing him to become visibly distressed by whatever it was he was seeing.

“You know, you should really have looked up my magic with a bit more… detail.” The Joker began to circle Alistair, taunting him as he spoke. “You see, my magic – fear magic, by the way – causes people to, implode in on themselves, figuratively speaking of course. Which you already knew, judging by Blondie over there, not feeling a thing.” He said pointing over to Lucy who was now on her guard, fleuve d’etoiles armed and ready. “But, clearly, you didn’t take into account the fact that, coming into physical contact with me, is a very, very, bad, idea.”

Sending Virgo back to the Spirit World, Lucy swapped to her Taurus Star Dress. The blonde mage cracked her whip into the floor, sending a shockwave towards Joker who haphazardly leapt out of the way. Lucy followed up with another, much larger Earth Wave that not only struck the Joker, but shattered the windows looking out onto the street behind.

Just as The Joker was standing up, Lucy, who had come in close let an undercut straight into the villain’s solar plexus whilst shouting; “Lucy… PUNCH!!”

The impact sent the green haired mage careering into a wall, leaving quite the crater from the force. The Joker fell face first to the floor, gasping profoundly trying to take in as much air as possible having been fully winded by the Celestial Spirit mage.

Simultaneously Joker and Alistair stood up slowly, Joker laughing and cringing in pain at the same time unnerving Lucy who stole her resolve ready to strike another blow to her opponent if needs be. As it happened, she needn’t have worried as Alistair launched into the Joker in a blind rage, landing strike after strike after strike into the criminal. He dropped a two handed fist into the clown mage’s back, creating a slight crater in the floor, after which he hauled the Joker up before upper-cutting him in the jaw causing him to hit the ceiling. Gravity took its hold as it pulled the Joker back to the ground.

Alistair morphed his arm into the heavily armoured Radiant Wave Surger, firing its slash harken type arm forward to grab the Joker midair, sending him through the window that Lucy had previously shattered, slamming into a concrete wall on the opposite side of the street. The redheaded mage fired two more slash harkens at the battered criminal, pinning him to the wall further. He retracted the surger back, morphing it back to his normal arm. Jumping into the air, retracting the other two slash harkens, Alistair flew feet first towards the dazed Joker, landing a heavy two footed impact into his chest. The slash harkens came adrift from the wall dispersing in the process as Alistair pushed off of the Joker, back-flipping into the middle of the road opposite.

His right arm morphed into a Hadron Cannon, poised to fire at the insane clown opposite him. Just as he was about to fire Lucy stepped in front of Alistair’s outstretched arm, her own arms outstretched with a look of fierce determination on her face.

It was at that moment Lucy got a clear view of Alistair’s face, specifically his eyes. They were puffy and bloodshot, caused by tears that had been streaming down her guildmate’s face the whole time he’d been ripping into their capture target. The look in his eyes had switched from one of murderous intent and hatred to one of utter fear and deep sorrow, further emphasised by how his body was beginning to shake uncontrollably.

“Alistair, stop! If you fire that spell, you could kill him!”

Fresh tears began to fall from Alistair’s eyes, his bottom lip was quivering uncontrollably, and he even had to hold his right arm still for it was shaking so much. He was now scowling at Lucy but his eyes couldn’t hide that he was still deeply upset by something. Magic poured into the arm cannon in an effort to force Lucy out of Alistair’s way. Lucy however, remained steadfast and unflinching as she refused to move out of her teammate’s line of fire.

In the end Alistair couldn’t bare it anymore, letting out a distressed yell, scrunching his eyes shut and head turning away slightly, for a split second Lucy honestly believed that Alistair was going to fire his hadron cannon at her. Fortunately it was not the case as Alistair swung his arm down toward the ground to his right letting loose all the pent up power and emotions into the earth next to the Fairy Tail pair.

The charged particle beam tore the ground up, almost like a land shark until it impacted the canal at the end of the street, exploding in a fountain of water and spray.

Alistair’s arm morphed back to normal. He could no longer take it anymore; he pulled Lucy into a tight embrace, crying hysterically into her shoulder. For a moment Lucy was completely taken aback by the sudden outpouring of emotions that she simply stood there for a brief second not knowing what to do. As the situation dawned on her, the blonde girl wrapped her arms tightly around Alistair, pulling him closer to her. The pair stood in the middle of the totally trashed street, not saying anything as he cried out as much of the pain he must’ve been hiding away and she remained quiet, silently encouraging him to let it all out.

By the time the Rune Knights had arrived to take the man only known as The Joker away, Alistair had since ceased his emotional torrent, deciding it would be best for him to sit out the explanation to the authorities of what had happened, seeing as how most of the damage was his fault. He was sat on the kerbside, opposite the concrete wall where he’d slammed the Joker into earlier. His fingers were interlocked in front of his face obscuring the lower half.

Despite having half of his face covered, Lucy could still see the mixture of guilt and torment in Alistair’s eyes. The cross between wrecking an entire city street and whatever the hell Joker’s fear magic had made him see was weighing heavy on her guildmate’s heart. She’d only made physical contact with the Joker once and she was beginning to feel bummed out over what had happened between herself and her father not long after her mother’s passing, she couldn’t begin to imagine what sort of torment Alistair had relived from his past.

“Hey, if you want to talk about it, I’m here Alistair.”

“I’m sorry, Lucy, really I am.”

That was the last time either one spoke to the other for the rest of the day as they made the short trip back to Magnolia. News had already spread to the guild about what had happened to the bank and street, no thanks in part due to Warren’s communication lachryma, as Makarov was already weeping at the damages cost he was expecting to have to pay out. Erza was fuming however, and let her rage known as the pair walked through the door, causing Lucy to recoil in horror as the mage known as Titania bore down on them both with a wicked red aura surrounding her.

Alistair didn’t so much as blink, he was far too downtrodden to even consider becoming fearful of Erza’s impending punishment that she had in store. Just as Erza was about to hit full flow in her tirade, Alistair merely turned away, placed a hand on Lucy’s shoulder, muttering before he left the guildhall.

“I’ll see you later Luce…”

Erza was about ready to throttle Alistair for ignoring her and being so rude as to turn around and walk away from her. Lucy intervened however, holding the scarlet haired mage back as she tried to explain their nakama’s behaviour.

“Erza, stop! You don’t know what fully happened!”

The rest of the members in the hall simply watched as Alistair walked out of view of them, startled by how miserable the usually stoic mage had seemed.

It would be the last any of them saw him for a week… One week on from the capture job and Alistair was still to leave his bed, let alone his house. He’d simply stayed there either asleep or just lie there thinking about his past, only leaving his comfortable pit’s embrace to relieve himself.
 * -|Chapter 2=

The Fairy Tail mage was beginning to lose weight, and was also beginning to look dishevelled having not shaved or washed for a week.

It was two in the afternoon; Alistair was asleep again, hiding his conscious thoughts in his subconscious slumber. The sound of a window opening echoed through the hallways of Alistair’s home, waking him from his slumber.

In an instant he was out of his bed - only in his boxers - armed with a 5.7mm pistol held in both hands. He had the weapon held in a firing position ready to confront any possible intruder. Alistair was simply being cautious, he knew as well as anyone that it could be nothing. The odds however, were stacked in favour of the there being an intruder.

Alistair had designed and built his home himself, and part of that design was a low tech alarm system, one that normal people would simply see as a flaw in the design. Certain floorboards were designed to creak in a certain way when stepped on that would echo throughout the house so that even in a deep sleep, Alistair would hear it.

Of course, there was more to the total security system than just the floorboards, but in his sombre stupor, Alistair hadn’t armed them a week ago.

The creaking could be heard from the kitchen downstairs. With his weapon raised, Alistair quickly and silently approached the kitchen expecting to find a burglar or some other schmuck that was unwelcome.

As soon as a mop of salmon pink hair and blue cat ears came into view, Alistair knew exactly who’d broken in.

“Natsu, why the fuck are you in my house?”

“Whoa Alistair! Put the gun down!” Natsu wailed, startled by the fact that Alistair was pointing his gun at the dragon slayer.

“Get out, and I will.”

“But Alistair, we only came to check on you! You haven’t been to the guild for a week!” Happy pleaded with his fellow guild-mate.

“And you do that by breaking into my house?” The redhead deadpanned.

“We break into Lucy’s house all the time and she doesn’t mind!”

Alistair didn’t even give them the benefit of a quip for the idiocy in that statement.

“Alistair, whatever it is that’s eating you up, everyone in the guild is worried about you. What’s wrong?” For the first time since joining Fairy Tail, that was the first time Alistair had ever heard Natsu say something not only compassionate, but reasonably intelligent. And whilst he might’ve been impressed by it, Alistair was not in the mood to be dealing with Natsu, especially when it came to opening up about his personal issues. He took a deep breath before beginning to speak, lowering the pistol as he did.

“Natsu, I appreciate your willingness to help me, sincerely I do. But, you need to understand something about myself and my condition.

“I’m not an open person, I don’t go out of my way to tell people about my problems as I don’t want to bring them down too or upset myself even further. It’s stupid, I know, but that’s how it is with me.

“People with this condition, this, horrible and debilitating illness need to open up about what it is that’s causing it on their own. If we start to talk about it, it means that we’re ready and, relatively, comfortable to do so. If someone else starts it off, we become defensive, almost to the point of aggressiveness in some cases.”

“Like now?” the little blue exceed innocently asked. Throughout Alistair’s monologue, Natsu had remained resolute to hear his nakama out, Happy too. And whilst the pair of them may not have totally understood what Alistair was saying, they were willing to heed his wishes.

“Like now, Happy. Someday I’ll be able to open up about my inner demons to you all, just not for the time being. So can you guys just wait, until that time comes?” Alistair sent the pistol back to its pocket dimension, he was still irritated by Natsu and Happy’s breaking and entering, but he could feel the sadness welling up inside of him, overcoming that anger he’d previously been feeling. Natsu looked Alistair dead in the eye for a brief moment, peering into the mechanisms of the man that had come to be known as the Fairy Machine.

“You can be sure we’ll wait for you Alistair. We’re your nakama after all, and if that’s what you want us to do to help, that’s what we’ll do.” The Salamander shot one of his goofy grins at Alistair before he spoke to Happy. “OK, Happy, let’s go back to the guild and let everyone know.”

Happy merely responded with his trademark saying. “Aye!”

Once he was sure the dragon slayer and exceed pair had left his home and were comfortably out of earshot, Alistair just sat back against the nearest cabinet, covering his face with his hands as tears began to uncontrollably fall from his eyes. Several self-deprecating and depressive thoughts crossed his mind as well as painful memories of similar past mistakes flashed before his eyes.

Unbeknownst to Alistair, Natsu and Happy hadn’t actually moved out of earshot of Alistair’s house just yet. Instead, they were outside opposite his front door, just by the canal’s side relaying their information to Lucy.

The Celestial Spirit mage had been more concerned than any of the other guild members over the past week because she had seen Alistair breakdown after coming into physical contact with the Joker along with the fact she knew from firsthand experience what the Arc of Embodiment mage must’ve been going through.

And as Natsu and Happy had noticed all weak that Lucy was extra-concerned, they’d suggested that they all go cheer Alistair up, or at the very least get to the bottom of their companion’s inner turmoil. None of them had expected this to be the outcome.

Just knowing that one of their own was on his own crying his eyes out was heartbreaking and enraging for the three Fairy Tail mages. But they knew that if Alistair wanted to be on his own, he’d appreciate it more if they allowed him to wallow in his own sorrow more than if they barged their way back in to comfort him. A couple of days after Natsu’s breaking and entering shenanigans, Lucy had taken a somewhat simple job at a care home near Era. After completing it and collecting the commission money instead of heading back directly to Magnolia, the blonde mage headed to one of Era’s maximum security prisons.
 * -|Chapter 3=

This was the real reason for her venture as far out as the Council’s Fiore branch. She was going to confront the Joker about what he’d done to Alistair and the effect the clown mage’s fear magic was having on her nakama.

Lucy sat opposed a clear reinforced Perspex screen, waiting for the dark mage to be escorted into the opposing seat. Despite having fought against some of the most powerful dark mages on the continent, amongst them Master Hades, she was nervous of once again coming face to face with the Joker.

Two armed guards entered the room, followed by the Joker, and then two more armed guards behind him. Despite being imprisoned, the Joker’s clown make-up hadn’t been removed, nor had the green dye in his hair either. All four limbs were chained together with magic seal stone, loose enough for him to walk normally, but tight enough that he couldn’t part his hands by more than a foot’s length.

The inmate merely looked bored, but his face lit up when he saw who his visitor was. Taking his seat, the fear magic user leaned forward toward the Perspex screen between himself and Lucy. “Well, well, well, to what do I owe the pleasure Blondie? Did you wanna hear how I got these? You know, before your boyfriend so rudely ‘cut’ me off.” He motioned to the unsettling scars adorning each cheek.

His unnerving manner of speaking sent uncomfortable shivers done Lucy’s spine, but it did not deter her from doing what it was she’d set out to do. Taking a soothing breathe, she began to speak.

“I want to know the ins and outs of your magic. Every. Last. Bit.” Those last three words came out far more sinisterly than she’d intended, but one of her nakama was depending on this information. The response she was met with didn’t instill much confidence.

The Joker burst out into hysterical laughter, giggling uncontrollably as if he’d just been told the funniest joke in history.

“I’m not… I’m not going to tell you… how my magic works!!” He breathed between fits of laughter.

“After all, what would be in it for me? Letting you, and basically everyone, know the ups and downs of my power? No, no, no, that’s not happening.” The dark mage reasoned after calming down somewhat. Lucy could feel a slight well of anger surge through her having heard the Joker’s dismissal of her demand.

“What’s in it for you?” the Celestial Spirit mage’s voice turned darker than she thought she was capable of doing. “How about not having my entire guild coming in and busting your every bone?” a dark frown covered Lucy’s features as she said that. The Joker once again erupted in a fit of laughter.

“You have nothing, nothing to lever over me! But I’ll tell you one thing sweetheart.” The Joker leaned his face right up close to the Perspex barrier as if he was about to share a big secret with Lucy, it was almost like a kid had the juiciest gossip in the school that they were about to share with their best friend. “Your, boy toy or ‘nakama’ or whatever the hell he is to you, isn’t under the influence of my magic anymore.”

Lucy was taken aback by this, of course there was a niggling doubt that the Joker was being truthful, but what if he was? What if Alistair was no longer under the effect of the Joker’s magic? Why was he being so distant from the guild now?

She didn’t know what to do about this now, if what the Joker was saying was true then she was totally confused by Alistair’s actions over the past week. There was nothing else for it now; Lucy was going to confront Alistair about it. Of that at least, she was certain. At the same time as Lucy was heading back to Magnolia, Alistair was beginning to come out of his mental low. Over the past couple of days he’d actually started taking care of himself again and just spent them doing menial tasks that had needed doing. The redheaded mage still hadn’t gone to the guild but as he at least been out and about so he’d crossed paths with two or three of his comrades.
 * -|Chapter 4=

He had at least acknowledged them, however he hadn’t stopped long to get into in depth conversation. The Arc of Embodiment mage wanted them to know that he was at least somewhat better.

It was beginning to get late and as per usual Alistair hadn’t planned ahead for dinner. He was returning from the local market with a bag full of groceries to proper a little something for himself that would likely last for two meals.

On the way back from the market, Alistair had to pass the train station in order to get back to his house. As he passed the station, Lucy emerged from the main entrance, noting the mop of red hair that belonged to Alistair walking past.

The blonde was somewhat surprised to see her friend out and about. Regardless, she had an agenda in mind and she was going to get to the bottom of it. She chased after her guildmate. When she got close to him he didn’t even pay her any heed, as he was totally focussed on where he was going. It was only when Alistair went to cross a bridge did he finally notice Lucy was behind him.

“Oh hey Luce, I didn’t see you there.” Lucy took note that Alistair’s voice possessed an obvious tone of disinterest and upset. She frowned at this.

“Are you still feeling the effects of that guy’s magic, Ali?” Lucy looked directly into Alistair’s eyes. What she saw was a look of surprise, and possibly a glint of hurt. She looked away; a sullen look crossed her pretty features. “I see…”

Alistair let out a long sigh as he began to piece his next sentence together.

“It’s… complicated. Come on, come back to mine and have something to eat and we can talk about this.”

Back at Alistair’s home, he was in the middle of prepping a large casserole type dish for Lucy and himself. Lucy was sat on a breakfast stool, her chin on the palm of her right hand. The walk back from the canal bridge to Alistair’s had been another silent one, not a thing said between the pair. There had only been awkward small talk between the two as Alistair cooked and Lucy watched.

As he stirred the simmering food he spoke up. “How’d you work it out then?” He didn’t even look up from the pan as he spoke. Lucy looked up at him, not sure if she hadn’t imagined it.

“I visited the Joker at Era after a job. He’s the one who told me that you weren’t still being affected.”

“He’s partly right,”

Lucy looked at Alistair with a confused expression. She didn’t quite understand by what he meant by ‘partly right’.

“I suffer from moderate depression, which I thought I’d sorted out. That was until after casting Cancel,”

“You tried it again?” Lucy asked because during the foiled heist, Alistair had cast his cancel spell over the bank so that the Joker’s couldn’t simply use his fear magic the same way he’d done so in previous heists. The dark mage would cast a spell of some sorts that meant as soon as he entered a building, people were overwhelmed by the bombardment of deeply rooted negative thoughts. It was by doing this that he was able to steal so much money without firing a shot in anger.

Alistair’s cancel spell was a part of a mind altering magic that he’d developed in combination with his Arc of Embodiment. Several spells were developed, one that allowed Alistair to give a person a single order in defiance with their will, and another that allowed him to implant a part of his mind unto someone else. Cancel, as its name suggests, was a spell that dispelled, as well as undoes any mind altering magic cast on a person or group of people within its range of effect. Alistair then began to explain what had happened between him beating the Joker and breaking the clown mage’s spell.

During Lucy’s plan, the cancel spell worked perfectly when the Joker entered the bank, but for reasons currently unknown coming into contact physical contact with the Joker had the same effect as his usual entry spell just with the added effect that dispelling type spells didn’t seem to work against it.

At least that’s what Alistair had originally feared. Three days after though, whilst still under its effects he’d tried for what must have been the 28th time and for whatever reason, it actually worked that time.

“Whilst I was no longer under the effects of the fear magic, the damage had already been done. The memories it had brought back to the surface were enough to put me into a deep low. The deepest I feel I’ve ever suffered.” Alistair knew that in the year after Makarov had disbanded the guild Lucy had fallen into a moderate depression also, something which she’d opened up to the redhead about, so he knew that she understood what he meant.

“I basically started feeling little else than sadness all the time, I slept for most of each day and when I wasn’t asleep I just felt exhausted despite having had fourteen plus hours of sleep. Eating was out of the question as my appetite just up and left. Then there was the feeling of worthlessness…

“That seemingly unending feeling that no matter what you could’ve done in those dark memories everything would’ve just come out the same or worse. Where you just have to get all the sadness out but there just isn’t an outlet for it, so it just grows and grows like a cancer with no signs of stopping.”

Lucy could see that just describing his emotions was tough on him, he was shaking all over and his voice was straining too. She stood up, walking behind him to give him a warm embrace. The feeling of another person wrapping their arms around someone was one of the most comforting gestures that anyone suffering from depression could be given, regardless of if it was from someone they didn’t know or even by someone they didn’t like that much in some instances.

“Ali, you never thought of ending it all? Did you?” The concern in Lucy’s voice was overt. It was a question she didn’t want to ask for fear of what her friend’s answer could be.

“That was always the point where I briefly saw sense. The point where I’d say to myself, ‘Alistair, don’t be so stupid. You know better than most it’s more than possible to get through this.’ And then it would just start over from the beginning again, just like a vicious circle with no means of escape.” A sea of relief washed over Lucy hearing those words. Yes, Alistair would remain in his depression, but at the very least he wasn’t so far gone that he’d try and commit suicide because of it. “Part of the problem is pride.” The redhead stated flatly.

Lucy looked up at him questioningly. She could see over his shoulder that his eyes were once again puffy with tear streaks visible on his cheeks. The Celestial Spirit mage could tell by the way her friend was breathing, as well as how his lips were erratically quivering that he was holding onto the pent up emotions, refusing to let them out, to not let her see him in a supposed state of weakness, or himself.

“I’m so goddamn prideful that I can’t just allow myself to cry, when it should be so simple.” He rubbed his eyes with his arm as he spoke. “Even though I know it’ll help, if only slightly, I can’t bring myself to let it all out!” Both of his hands slammed on the kitchen bench either side of the hob he was using. The sudden outburst broke the embrace Lucy had been giving him, causing her to jump back almost in fright. The Arc of Embodiment mage slumped over the bench to the right of the hob, propping his head up with his left hand, his right resting on his left bicep.

He didn’t want Lucy to see him like this, and at the same time Lucy didn’t want to see Alistair like this either. Seeing anyone in such a state was painful, a close friend in this sort of state was plain horrific though. Lucy didn’t know what to do really, so she did the only thing she could think of that might have at least some impact. She leaned next to Alistair and proceeded to gently stroke his back in a slow up and down motion.

“I feel so pathetic… Erza lost her eye as a child slave for Christ’ sake, Juvia’d never seen the sun as a kid, Gray’s parents were killed by a demon only for another one to resurrect his father for their own experiments, you lost your beloved mother when you were only nine before all that shit with Phantom and your Father happened. Look at you all, totally able to at the very least put all of it behind you and carry on with your daily lives.

“I can’t even do that, and for what? Something as insignificant as having troubled time at school as a kid…”

She knew what Alistair was trying to say, hell she’d felt the same way sometimes in the year after the war with Tartaros. But there was no point in belittling whatever the problem was as it only made everything worse for the individual suffering.

Everyone had a breaking point which was different from person to person as well as being broken in different ways, again dependent on the individual. Lucy couldn’t help but feel that Alistair was close to, if not beyond, his breaking point.

“Lucy, I’m sorry to have burdened you with all of this. It’s completely unfair of me to do this to you,”

“Don’t be so silly Ali, I’m your friend! Everyone at the guild is. If you can’t open up to us, then who can you open up to? Natsu and you helped me cope with the loss of my father, and you helped me with the disbanding of the guild. It’s my turn to help you cope with this.”

Alistair could hear the resolution in Lucy’s voice. Whilst he wasn’t looking at her, he could just picture the conviction she currently held in her eyes. A small, barely audible chuckle escaped his lips.

“Thanks Luce, that means a lot.” After saying this, he stood tall again, looking Lucy dead in the eye. “Right, that looks done to me. Go sit back down so I can plate it up.” Alistair grinned, causing Lucy to smile radiantly agreeing to the request.

An hour later both Fairy Tail mages stretched back, empty bowls in front of them, stomachs full with delicious food. Lucy leant back forward with a subtle curious look on her face as Alistair continued stretching, twisting his back, making several cracking noises as he did so. The sound caused the blonde Celestial Spirit mage to wince in pained disapproval.

“That casserole thing of yours was delightful. That cracking noise however,”

“Sorry, just needed to loosen up a bit.” Alistair replied sheepishly. The delicate smile on Lucy’s face turned subjugated along with the mood.

“I know you said to Natsu that people with depression don’t like being asked about what’s causing them to be the way they are, however, do you think you’d be willing to talk to me about it?” The look Alistair was giving to Lucy indicated that he wasn’t willing to humour her request at that exact moment in time. His answer however somewhat betrayed the look of incredulity across his face.

“Tell you what, come back tomorrow – about half eleven – and I’ll take you to the very place that brought this wretched illness down on me.”

Lucy sensed a rare vigour in Alistair’s words that was underlain with a torrent of venom laced into it, a torrent that specifically began as a strong current under the word ‘place’. Whatever this place was, Lucy could tell that the terms ‘animosity’ or ‘hatred’ couldn’t even begin to cover how intensely Alistair disliked this place. The next morning, Lucy made her way to Alistair’s place for roughly the agreed time. Alistair had done the gentlemanly thing last night by walking her back to her rented apartment.
 * -|Chapter 5=

During her walk back to his house today though she’d been hypothesising and theorizing about the place Alistair had mentioned last night. After going back through all the information from last night she’d worked out that this place was his old school. So how was Alistair going to take her to it?

Alistair wasn’t a native of Fiore or even Earthland. Furthermore, no one was entirely sure how he’d arrived in Magnolia in the first place, in which that list of people who didn’t know included himself.

The blonde Celestial Spirit mage realised that she must’ve been walking on autopilot whilst she was so deep in her thoughts as she’d realised just how close to her guildmate’s house she was.

Knocking on the door she was quickly let in. In the daylight and without the awkward silence that had occurred last night, Lucy was finally able to get a good look at Alistair’s house. The hallway had bare walls with the exception of a single mirror between two doors. The first door lead to the dining area, the second lead to the kitchen. Both of which were linked together as a single open air room.

At the end of the hall was a single cloakroom where the toilet was, to the right of that room was an indoor dock that was linked to one of Magnolia’s numerous canals. The hallway was shaped like an upside down ‘L’, where the top was the front door. Lucy knew that there was a garage based off of the front of the house, so she couldn’t quite work out how to actually get in it.

Before she could try and work it out, Alistair showed her into the kitchen where he started boiling some water for himself and Lucy.

“Would you like anything Luce? Tea? Coffee? Hot chocolate?”

“I’ll have a hot chocolate Ali, thank you.”

“Feel free to have a look around the house,” Alistair mentioned as he buried his head in making the two drinks for himself and his guest.

Lucy took that as her queue to have a wonder round, venturing upstairs via the staircase at the far end of the kitchen. On the upper level there wasn’t much except a lounge area that had a south facing balcony which looked onto the canal along with having a decent view of Magnolia on the whole. Elsewhere on the upper floor were a grandiose bathroom and two bedrooms. Lucy assumed that one was Alistair’s and the other a spare.

After Alistair came to find her, handing her drink to her. Throughout the house Lucy had noticed that there were barely any decorative pieces or anything that one might consider to be of sentimental value. When she asked him about it, his response was surprising.

“Why would I? I have my friends at the guild. There’s no need for sentimental objects.”

Walking back downstairs Alistair asked Lucy about the latest goings on at the guild he’d missed. As the two sipped their hot chocolates they just had a conversation, ignoring the reason why’d they met up for, for the time being. Lucy would tell Alistair about some of the gossip going around the guild along with some of the hilarious goings on; like how Happy’d dared Natsu to dive into a glass of water, using transformation magic on the decent to turn into a small enough fish to land, only for it to go horribly wrong because the fire dragon slayer somehow transformed into a tuna and landed on Gray who hadn’t been aware of the pair’s antics.

Throughout the conversation Alistair would laugh a hearty laugh if Lucy told him unbelievable or would stay quiet nodding in agreement, only interrupting if he felt something had to be said. The pair continued this for what easily felt as little as ten minutes when in fact it had been going on for nearly two hours.

As the pair finished their respective mugs of hot chocolate Alistair went about washing the mugs out whilst suggesting that Lucy go powder her nose in the upstairs bathroom before they set off. After the mugs were washed out, Alistair went to relieve himself also in the downstairs cloakroom. The pair met up in the hall way before stepping into the dock.

Sat in the dock was a 33 foot long motorized yacht. The hull was painted in a metallic black colour that beautifully reflected the light glinting off of the water; the prow was a well oiled dark wood, possibly birch Lucy guessed, that swooped along the flanks to the wind shield, curving around to meet once again behind the open air bridge. Said bridge was clad in whitish cream leather upholstery whilst the controls were finished in a black glossed varnish of some sort.

“Like it?” Lucy was brought back to reality as Alistair enquired if the obvious was true.

“Yeah, it’s a gorgeous boat. How long is it?”

“About 10.7 meters, it’s got two engines and if it was a real one from my home, it’d cost you about 7.7 million jewels.” Lucy’s eyes almost bugged out of her head when she heard the figure this elegant but still simplistic looking-yacht would cost. “Arc of Embodiment comes in handy for indulging one’s fantasies.” Alistair stated matter-of-factly. Lucy looked about the yacht some more before she and Alistair headed down the stairs that were located directly opposite the door to the room, parallel to the actual dock. The mystery way to the garage as Lucy noted.

There was a single dead end corridor parallel to the stairs with a single door to the left that lead into the garage.

Entering it Lucy was greeted by a collection of, what to her; were some of the most extravagant and bizarre magic four-wheelers and two-wheelers she’d ever seen. The tallest one amongst the collection even had six wheels!

In total Lucy counted up five two wheelers, nine four wheelers and the solitary six wheeler, none of which looked like any magic wheelers she’d ever seen. Not in Fiore, nor in Alvarez. None of them had open cockpits or separate cabins, rather enclosed cockpits and cabins merged into one with no SE plugs apparent.

The two wheelers though looked fairly standard by comparison, only missing the SE plugs again. Lucy looked at the tallest two-wheeler closely. The front fender that made up the body work was black chrome, with a metallic green trellis frame visible. There was only a single swing-arm for the rear wheel along with an angular box-like exhaust. The blonde noticed that because the way the seat was sculpted and had two side cushions that would sit next to the rider’s waist that only a single person could ride it.

“You can sit on them if you want. I can even make you a set of riding leathers for it if you want?” Alistair asked. Lucy looked at the redhead sheepishly before hoisting her right leg over the angular, bulky looking vehicle. She took a hold of the handlebars as she sat on the seat, twisting the throttle in her right hand once she was in a comfortable position. “Like it?”

“Uh-huh, but I get the feeling this might be a bit much for me,” Lucy quietly answered with a sheepish tone.

“If you’ve never ridden a motorbike before then all five of these would be too much for you. 200HP is far too much for a new rider to handle.” As Alistair said this, Lucy could see that his hands were radiating a small amount of magic. “You want a set of riding leathers?” Lucy pondered it briefly, not entirely sure what ‘riding leathers’ were. Every time she’d seen a magic motorbike, the riders were wearing normal looking clothes. Curiosity got the better of her however, as she nodded her head in approval.

“Ok then,” Alistair directed for Lucy to hold her golden locks up away from her neck so that he could start. He began by tracing his right index finger around her neck, the light touch sent shivers down her spine as he did this. Alistair ignored this because he was focusing on doing the job properly. Next he asked her to hold out her arms, she complied by taking a hold of the handlebars again. The redhead mage stepped in front of the bike so he could do this part of the job properly. He traced both his index fingers around Lucy’s wrists; totally circling around them meeting at the point he’d started at on the inside of her wrists.

After this, Alistair asked Lucy to get off the bike so he could complete the first stage. Using her thigh-high boots as a guideline, the Arc of Embodiment mage traced his index fingers from in between her legs, around the bottom of Lucy’s calf muscles, working his way out, around and back in to where he started. In order for the suit to be created properly Lucy was asked to step out of her boots, which she happily complied with.

Now stood behind his barefoot friend, Alistair placed both hands on Lucy’s bare back, where he preceded to poor that small pool of magic onto her skin. From there black leather rippled out from his palms, cascading down her back, her sides, moving around to her front flowing downwards as it did so. As the leather material that crept up her back to her neck Lucy felt another shiver go down her spine, she even let out a slight moan as the material ceased to proceed beyond the imaginary ring Alistair had drawn around her neck. The same thing happened at her wrists and calf muscles, once the material reached the imaginary rings Alistair had drawn on them, the material ceased to flow.

Green piping around the five rings formed, similar in colour to the trellis frame on the bike she’d been sat on. Two more leather pipes formed down her front, starting at her neck before finishing at the bottom of the legs, the same thing happened on her back too.

At that point Lucy thought it was finished, but oh no. After voicing her thought that it was complete Alistair asked her how she was going to get out of it if it was finished. Looking slightly perplexed Lucy started to tug around the ends of the suit trying to get some leeway for her to slip out of it. When she realised it was impossible for her to do so she sighed in defeat.

With an orange aura emanating around his right index finger, Alistair started to once again trace outlines around the suit. He drew around Lucy’s shoulders, her elbows, her knees, twice on her back – once creating a rhomboidal like shape from the top of her neck to the base of her spine, and a second time creating a triangle from where her shoulders met her neck, the longest point tapering off midway down the centre of her back.

Alistair ceased his ‘drawings’, taking a step back, orange auras encompassing both of his hands that he held out at his sides. It was at that point that Lucy could feel padding on the inside of the suit forming around the areas he’d drawn on but formed tough, plastic-like plates on the outside of it. The only exception being the triangle on her back which bulged out somewhat. When she again tried to take it off Alistair tutted at her, for there was two things left for him to add.

He drew an elongated half circle on the front of her neck which became a button up strap for the suit which he undid, giving Lucy a little breathing space for her neck.

“Ok, last bit. You… might have to… guide… me with this.” Now that Alistair was almost done, he wasn’t concentrating as much as he had been to begin with so his mind had just reminded him of what was between him and getting Lucy out of the suit; the front zipper, which started underneath the buttoning collar and finished at her navel. In order for him to do it correctly, Alistair would have to draw a line straight down her front, which included her very impressive bosom.

The flush on Lucy’s face when Alistair informed her of what he had to do to finish it rivalled the colour of Erza’s hair. It was a deep shade of scarlet. Likewise, Alistair’s face was equally flushed as he’d not only made it look like he’d purposefully put Lucy in this position, but he was also well aware of the fact that she wasn’t wearing a bra.

Alistair placed his index finger at the starting point for the zip and zipper, letting Lucy take a hold of his hand and just simply allowed her to glide his finger down her now leather-clad front stopping just below her navel. The zip and zipper subsequently formed without any accidental groping or poking issues occurring, much to the relief of both participants.

Now with the suit complete, Lucy was free to give it a proper look. Despite leather’s reputation for being extremely form-fitting and tight, Lucy was pleasantly surprised that whilst it was form-fitting to a certain extent it was comfortably snug and not so skin tight that it left little to the imagination. Despite this she still felt sexy wearing it.

Alistair produced a mirror with his magic for Lucy to pose in front of. The black with green trim may not have been her first choice but she had a sneaking suspicion that if she asked Alistair could change the colouring design for her.

“It looks good on you Luce. It’s not totally finished, I’ll have to make a pair of boots and gloves as well as a helmet for you to complete the look.” The compliment certainly boosted Lucy’s confidence, and whilst she’d never ridden a motorcycle before in her life, she certainly felt like she could take on Earthland’s best whilst wearing this set of leathers.

After she was prompted to put her boots back on, Lucy sat on the large black sports bike again, feeling even more comfortable on it as a result. Whilst she would never voluntarily go back to glamour modelling, she could totally see herself doing photo-shoots like this in future if the pay was right.

A couple of minutes later Lucy got off the bike, which she learned was something called a ‘Kawasaki Ninja H2’. The name was meaningless to her but she made a mental note to one day learn to ride and eventually have a go on it. She undid the button collar along with the zip, and after a bit of a struggle, even with Alistair’s help, she was out of his creation.

Looking at the time, Alistair realised that it was probably about time the pair got going. He carefully placed Lucy’s new race suit over the H2 before he headed towards the metallic orange magic four-wheeler that was sat directly opposite the ramp up to the garage doors.

Even whilst on the H2, Lucy had taken cursory glances towards it. It was very low, not only in terms of height but also in how low to the ground it was. The whole vehicle was angular from wherever you looked at it. Still, in its current company of wonderfully exotic looking four-wheelers, this one looked particularly special. Two large air intakes were proudly adorned at the front, both of which were connected by a black front splitter. Above the centre of the splitter, sat proudly on the nose was a yellow gold bordered black shield, in the centre of which was a single gold fighting bull. Sat above the bull was a single word, also in gold; Lamborghini.

Around each side of the vehicle were two more air intake vents, an obvious one on the sill behind the door, the other concealed behind the upper bodywork. At the back of the vehicle there was a single window that had three angular sheets of glass positioned perpendicularly to the window into the cockpit. Below the three sheets of vented glass Lucy could peer into something. She didn’t really know what it was, but guessing by how prominently on display it was; it was clearly important.

Unbeknownst to Lucy, she was staring directly into the engine bay of the car. A black, carbon fibre cross-member sat above the engine cover itself. Upon the bottom of the cover a hexagonal steel plaque could be seen embossed within the cover. The plaque simply had written on it; V12.

On the exterior of the car, Lucy took note of the much larger metallic mesh grills either side of the rear of the car. Below these two vents was a collection of carbon-fibre grooves that must’ve served some physical purpose. Nestled in the centre of the grooves was a single, metallic, hexagonal exhaust pipe of which Lucy could see inside where four smaller box like exhausts.

Between the largest vents and the top of the rear deck were the light clusters in elongated hexagons, the rear lights being stylized into three horizontal ‘Y’s within the clusters. In between the two light clusters was a single panel, on which in silver metal was the word ‘Lamborghini’ again.

Lucy wasn’t 100% sure, but she had a feeling this magic four-wheeler was a Lamborghini.

Whilst Lucy was looking the Lamborghini over, Alistair had sat in it and decided to fire it up. In an instant the engine roared into life before it relaxed into a mere burble. Lucy looked through the passenger side window at him questioningly. As he began to repeatedly stab the throttle she had to cover her ears for how loud it was in conjunction with the echo within the garage.

Taking a step back Lucy could even see a spit of flame bursting out from the exhaust at the rear a foot and a half long. Even with her ears covered she could still tell how the car would initially start as a burble that turned into growl which morphed into an almighty howl when Alistair stabbed the throttle hard.

Seeing that Lucy had to cover her pained ears, Alistair shut the engine off, stepping out afterwards. It was only then that Lucy realised the doors opened up wards in a scissor fashion. Was there anything normal about this thing?

Alistair walked round the rear of the car, noticing the black scorch marks on the skirting bored from the flames spewed out the exhaust. After sweat-dropping at the result of his exuberance, he opened the passenger door for Lucy, explaining to her how to get in to the low slung coupe.

“There’s two ways to get in something like this; the undignified way where you have to crawl on your hands and knees to get in or there’s the proper way. Open the door up, then park your arse on the door sill,” Lucy huffed at the crass manner Alistair explained it; she complied with the instruction though, sitting on the surprisingly wide sill. She noticed the word ‘Aventador’ written on a plaque similar to the one she’d seen on the engine. “Now, slide back onto the seat base – careful not to bash your head on the door frame – and when you’re comfortable, lift both legs up and swivel them into the foot well so you’re facing out the windscreen.” Lucy could now see why getting into this thing would cause problems for some people, she’d had a light blush dusting her cheeks when she realised how exposed she was whilst wearing a skirt.

Lucy was slightly surprised when Alistair poked his head into the cabin, pulling out the seatbelt, passing it over her chest and waist. The blonde mage lent backwards, hands up so as not to obstruct her friend. Once the buckle had clicked into place Alistair closed the door before getting into the driver’s seat.

Once again Alistair thumbed the starter button in the centre of the dashboard. Now that Lucy was inside the car she realised it was much quieter, probably as a cross between being in front of the engine as well as being sat within the vehicle.

Putting the car into gear, Alistair pressed a button at the bottom of the dashboard. Lucy could feel the front of the car lift up slightly as it pulled away. After pulling out the garage they turned left before traversing over a canal bridge, turning right at the end. The pair ventured up the hill that sat at the most southern point of Magnolia, once up it the car darted down a south eastern road that had been more or less finished in the year after Tartaros destroyed the city.

“What kind of magic four-wheeler is this? It’s completely different from all the others.”

“We don’t use the term four wheeler ‘round my neck of the woods. We just call them cars, and even then this one is a standout from the norm.” Lucy was somewhat in awe of this car because of how different it was from what she was used to, just the fact it had a fully enclosed cockpit, two purpose made seats and a steering wheel rather than a joystick.

“They’re also not powered by magic either, they can be powered by a number of different fuels; petrol, diesel, electricity and hydrogen to name a few. A hundred odd years before I was born some were steam powered. Before I ended up here some were powered by a combination of either petrol or diesel and electricity.”

Alistair then admitted to Lucy that he was somewhat of a car-bore. He had a self confessed extensive knowledge of all things automotive but because it was such a geeky subject it wasn’t one he got to talk about often, and even when he did he was always worried about boring the other person to sleep.

“This car, if it was on sale in Fiore today, would cost about four million jewels.” Alistair informed Lucy. That was 133 times her monthly rent! Not long after, the pair became quiet. Alistair concentrated on driving whilst Lucy watched as the world passed by her window.

This went on for a few miles before Lucy broke the silence. “You know Ali, for all the noise and pomp surrounding this car, it doesn’t seem that fast.” No sooner had that last part left Lucy’s lips had Alistair stood the car on its nose bringing it to a complete halt.

“Oh really?” the redhead asked with a cocky smirk. Delving into his pocket then conjuring something up in his hand, he leant over to Lucy’s side of the cabin placing whatever he’d pulled out his pocket onto the thing he’d conjured up where he preceded to stick it to the dashboard above the glove box. “Then let’s play a game, shall we?” As Alistair said this, he pressed a button on the centre console above the starter button. The button he pressed had an arrow pointing towards the driver; on the opposing side was another one that pointed at the passenger side. In between the two buttons where three words; ‘Strada’, ‘Sport’, and ‘Corsa’, the latter most now lit up red.

Alistair then pressed a toggle switch down, second from the left amongst a row that lined the length underneath a screen that took up a third of the dashboard above the central console. He then pulled the right paddle furthest away from Lucy behind the steering wheel. She couldn’t see the next bit but Alistair had his left foot on the brake pedal, a message popped up on the digital tachometer; ‘Thrust mode possible.’

“That there is a 5000 note on the dashboard. You’re going to count down from three, and on go; you have until I’ve pulled this paddle six times to pull that note off. If you do, you win and can keep it. It’s only stuck on with blu-tack so it’s not difficult to pull off.” At the very mention of money and the prospect of winning said amount, Lucy grew a confident smirk. The rules were simple, the task didn’t sound that hard, she’d win this easily and take the 5000 for herself.

“Alright, you’re on!”

Alistair had a quick glance in the mirrors and looked ahead to make sure what he was about to do was as safe as possible. When it became clear it was, he started to build the revs up till they hit the magic 5000rpm where the car held it.

“Ok Luce, ready when you are.”

Lucy was sat comfortably in her seat, not dead against the seat back. How hard could it be to peel a note off a dashboard?

“In three…! Two…! One…! GoooOOOOOOO-Waaaahaha!” As soon as the word ‘go’ left her lips Lucy was pushed back into her seat by the shear accelerative force. By the time she’d realised she hadn’t even so much as got her fingertips to the note Alistair had already pulled the gear paddle twice, and with each swap of the cogs it became harder and harder for her to pull forward from her seat.

Despite being determined not to lose, she couldn’t help but laugh each time she got closer to pulling it off just to be thrown back in her seat when Alistair pulled the paddle again.

“Only one more to go Lucy!”

She hadn’t realised just how loud the noise reverberating through the cabin was until Alistair had to shout to her in order for her to hear him. Even inside the cabin the Celestial Spirit mage could now hear just how loud the howl of the engine was. She couldn’t begin to imagine how loud it was from the outside.

“Ooooooooooh! Ohhh!! There we go Lucy! Seventh gear! Better luck next time.” Alistair let off the gas a tad, according to the digital speedometer nestled within the tachometer they were covering ground at a monstrously fast 205mph. The road was straight for many tens of miles so Alistair knew there was no need to slow the car down too much, but 200+ miles an hour was way too excessive.

Even whilst concentrating Alistair could see out the corner of his eye that Lucy was pouting over not being able to win their little game. Just to be a good sport, Alistair let Lucy have another few goes, each time clocking over 200mph. Before the fourth go he made a point of saying that it would be Lucy’s last opportunity as he didn’t want to tire himself out too much before getting to where they were going.

“I did it!!” Lucy cried victoriously as she was thrown back into her seat, arms above her head clutching the 5000. She’d only just managed it before Alistair changed up into seventh.

“Aaaaay! Well done Lucy!”

From then on Alistair settled on a cruising speed of 120mph, resettling back into a relaxed rhythm. It was only when he stopped at a lake that was regarded as a natural beauty spot that he saw Lucy had fallen asleep.

Lucy came to when it dawned on her in her sleep that she was no longer moving. Sitting up properly she could see a figure sat on a picnic bench out the windscreen. Looking around she could see Alistair was no longer sat next to her and that a blanket had appeared out of nowhere, covering her whilst she slept.

Stepping out of the Lamborghini into the cool afternoon air, clutching the blanket to her chest, Lucy slowly walked over to the figure on the picnic table. It was Alistair starring out over the horizon where the sun reflected brilliantly off of the water’s edge. The look on his face was a stern one, but no matter how hard he tried to disguise the fact he was nervous, his eyes betrayed him. Contemplation of the past could be seen in his dark blue orbs. “Hey, are you alright?” Lucy asked solemnly. Alistair looked over his shoulder to see Lucy stood next to him. He gave her a small smile before his demure look returned. He sighed before answering his friend.

“Yeah, I suppose I’m as alright as one can be when they’re about to confront their past,”

Lucy stepped up on the bench to sit on the table itself next to Alistair, placing her right hand on his left. She leaned against his arm, head against his shoulder. Her eyes were looking downwards with a solemn vigour as she thoughtfully pieced her next sentence together.

“I know how it must feel for you Ali. I was the same after we came back from Tenrou Island. When I went to see my father’s grave, a tempest of emotions broiled inside me. Everything from sadness, anger, and even hatred too over everything he’d done in my life. And yet, at the same time I felt those emotions; sadness and anger for different reasons I hadn’t expected to feel them for. I was angry at him for not waiting for me to come back from Tenrou Island and sad at the same time because I didn’t get to say goodbye to him,

“I know that what you’re going through isn’t quite the same, but I’m here for you Ali. Once you’ve confronted your demons head on, you’ll come out of it all the stronger.” Lucy was surprised when Alistair’s other arm gently came to rest on her left bicep.

“I’ll get through this, no matter what.” The nervous that had previously occupied Alistair’s eyes had been replaced by one that Lucy was much more used to seeing from them; determination. Only this determination wasn’t the fierce kind which Alistair always seemed to have when confronting a powerful enemy. This was a steely determination to get better. “For you Lucy, and for everyone at the guild, I swear I’ll get through this!”



Foreword
Basically A Twisted Family Feud is a scenario where three characters from the fourth generation of Pokemon as wondering mages in FT Verse, with Dawn and Cynthia sharing a mother daughter kinda relationship and Cyrus being the father figure for Dawn. Dawn's aim was to master earth, wind, water and fire magic to learn Abyss Break, Cynthia was sort of just happy wondering and Cyrus was secretly the leader of the dark guild Team Galactic. The following work is the result of Cynthia and Dawn finding out the truth about Cyrus. Note, this bit of work is currently incomplete. 

\(^_^ )/ A Twisted Family Feud \( ^_^)/
The ear piercing shriek of a young girl being impaled reverberated throughout the clearing along with the entirety of the surrounding forest. The young quad-element wizard had been pierced through her abdomen by a spell created for piercing even the toughest of bedrock; Dark Capriccio. It wasn’t the fatal blow that had hurt Dawn the most, no, it was the fact that it was someone she had looked up to, trusted and loved who had cast the spell, her surrogate father: the leader of the dark guild Team Galactic; Cyrus.

Her barely living body fell to the ground with a thump. The dark blue haired girl was wide eyed as her brain tried to process what was happening to her, her lungs began to cough blood up along with the hole in her stomach.

Her friend, sister-like figure, and surrogate mother; Cynthia abandoned her brawl as she realised what had happened to Dawn. The blonde dashing over to the younger girl, to try to save her, they both knew that Dawn was a fighter and that she’d never give up to the bitter end. There was no way that Cynthia would let this be Dawn’s bitter end.

All combatants, even the Team Galactic members, had stopped their respective bouts; totally shell-shocked at Cyrus’s brutality to his daughter figure. Their horror was increased further as the dark guild master cast the Drain Magic spell; Futile Resistance. Waves of inky haze creped to the ever-fighting Dawn as she struggled to stay conscious with all the help Cynthia could muster.

When the blonde Dragon Slayer realised what was coming she rushed in between the haze and Dawn in an effort to halt the Drain Magic’s march. The effort was futile though as the black haze merely manoeuvred around her to the dying girl that lay behind her.

It wrapped Dawn in its cold embrace, slowly removing her refusal to passing on. Regardless of what Cynthia did it continued to take its toll on the young wizard. The visible effects could be seen by all around as her body became weaker, her twitches much less stronger, but the largest effect could only be seen by Cynthia as Dawn’s eyes began to become heavier, creeping down over her irises inch by inch.

Cynthia slumped to Dawn’s side in defeat as reality hit her that there was nothing that could be done by her, or anyone else, to save her surrogate daughter now. Tears quickly rolled down her face, landing on Dawn’s jacket.

There was nothing more that could be done. That was it. Dawn was not for this world much longer. Cynthia placed her arms over the blue haired girl’s torso where she began to sob.

“…Cynthia?” the young mage coughed loudly enough for only Cynthia to hear. The blood she coughed was beginning to foam, staining her ever paling face.

The blonde Dragon Slayer looked up at Dawn expectantly.

“…Cynthia… Always remember… that I… I’ll… love you… forever…”

“I love you too, Dawn…”

Those five little words left a small smile upon Dawn’s face as she closed her eyes for the last time. Her head lulled lifelessly toward Cynthia where she placed her hands on Dawn’s cheeks.

“Dawn…? …Dawn?! ……DAWN!!” The hysterical shrieks of a loving friend soon morphed to quiet sobs as the gravity of the situation sunk in. Dawn was gone. There was nothing that could bring her back. Maybe she was actually in a better place now? Cynthia’s hopeful thinking was brought crashing down to Hades itself as the man who’d caused this calamity began to walk towards her.

“Dearest Cynthia. It pains me too, to no longer have our beloved Dawn among us anymore. However you brought this upon yourself when you were both taken in by Zane all those years ago and once again when you and Dawn stood against me.” Cyrus’s expression was one of sadness; the sincerity of that sadness though was not enough to mask the maniacal glee that glinted within the pale blue haired man’s eyes.

Cynthia’s head shot up to look Cyrus in the eye, his maniacal glee was met with one of ferocious anger; something Cyrus had never seen before. Something else the dark guild master had not seen before began to meet his gaze as the Dragon Slayer slumped over his deceased daughter began to emit a golden aura around herself. Her grey eyes glowed increasingly in a gold light, as flesh coloured scales began to appear across her cheekbones as well as along and around her expanding biceps.

Now in Dragon Force, the Star Dragon Slayer uttered three words.

“Metsuryū Ōgi: Ryūseigun.”

A golden magic circle materialised in front of Cynthia along with a second several hundred feet in the air above Cyrus. If it wasn’t for his calculating nature he would have missed the second circle in the sky.

The primary circle shrank away into nothingness as the second increased in size, firing off a barrage of golden comets and meteors down to Earth.

Realising what was about to happen to him, Cyrus cast Passive Intent. His outstretched hand emitted a red cloud which wrapped itself around Cynthia, the purpose of Passive Intent was to drain the emotions that caused an individual to want to fight; anger, hatred and sadness, away from them, dispersing them to the winds.

Cynthia stood amongst the red cloud completely unaffected by its calming effect. She was still glaring at Cyrus with murderous intent.

In his haste to discourage Cynthia from fighting him, Cyrus had left himself at the complete mercy of the assortment of shining comets and meteors hurtling towards him.

The barrage of comets and meteors crashed all around and into Cyrus. The shards that hit him directly inflicted massive amounts of pain upon him, in addition the shards that impacted the surrounding earth sent up large boulders of rock as well as the broken up comets and meteors themselves inflicting secondary shrapnel damage on Cyrus.

After being struck down with the full force of a Dragon’s most powerful attack, not even the pain relieving spell Vigour would do much to dull the pain caused by the Draco Meteor. Even if Vigour could do something relevant to Cyrus he had no time to use it as he was struck on the left side by Cynthia using Meteor.

The Dragon Slayer was giving no quart in this battle. “Seiryū no Saiga!” Cynthia slammed a glowing claw-like left hand down onto Cyrus’s face, slashing the man’s pale skin. “Seiryū no Kagizume!” The blonde Dragon Slayer followed up with a spinning kick imbued with Star Dragon Slayer magic into the left side of Cyrus’s face, continuing to draw as much blood and cause as much damage as possible.

