User blog comment:IamJakuhoRaikoben/2nd Official Fanon Competition/@comment-4449950-20120822124452

Okay. It was a long time in the making, but I finally finished. Finally! And... it's long D; It's oh so so so so sooooooo long... so gomen T^T But I hope you guys find it in your hearts to read it and enjoy it... it'll make me very happy if you do. So, without further adieu, I present to you (and gosh I hope the comments can support this much text or that I don't cause the apocalypse):

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 * title =Akiha Miku
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{{Collapsible Hi there, welcome to an incredibly long, though hopefully entertaining fanon.
 * title =~ Foreword ~
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Akiha was a character that I started to think about in January 2012. Yes, it took me almost 8 months to finally get her story out of my brain and onto the internet, but it was fun, and I enjoyed it... except when I had forsaken writers block... grrrrrrr. I really wanted to have a story that could be plausible, that is, I wanted my characters story to run alongside that of Fairy Tail and intersect with it in places, all the while doing so in such a way that Akiha could actually be a background character in the canon story without anyone knowing it. I hope I have achieved that.

You may have noticed that there are reference numbers beside some of the story. These aren't actual references, rather any time they appear they link to a little comment I have made outside the story. If you feel like it, they may help you to understand some of the ideas or just have a laugh.

There is no open speech in this story, but I would have loved to put it in. However, it didn't really fit into the style of summaries that we write for canon characters on this Wiki, and though I did stretch the boundaries of summary writing, I didn't want to deviate that far.

There are known characters coming in for some fun and some of my own creation. Either way, I hope you enjoy reading about them,

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{{Quotes|CrimeS|You see these mum; these marks constantly show me the stupid paths I've taken in my life, show me all the mistakes I've made. I can't believe it took me so many trials to finally find my place.|Akiha Miku to her Mothers Statue in "Whispers to the Silent Stone"}} {{Fairy Tail Wiki:Character Template (Crime Sorciere)
 * name = Akiha Miku
 * image = Akiha Miku profile.jpg
 * kanji =
 * rōmaji= Akiha Miku
 * alias= Shock


 * race= Human
 * gender= Female
 * age= 16 (X784) 23 (X791)
 * height= 5'8"
 * weight=
 * birthday= June 30th X768
 * eyes= Purple
 * hair= Purple
 * blood type=


 * affiliation=Crime Sorcière
 * previous affiliation= Ghoul Spirit Black Widow
 * mark location= First: Left Arm Second: Left Waist Current: Right Shoulder Blade
 * occupation= Independent Mage
 * previous occupation= Dark Mage
 * previous team= The White Collars
 * partner= Jellal Fernandes Ultear Milkovich Meredy


 * status= Active
 * relatives= Chisaki Miku (Mother, deceased) Taiki Miku (Father, deceased)


 * magic=Colour Magic

}}
 * image gallery= no

Akiha Miku was a Dark Mage of Dark Guilds Ghoul Spirit and Black Widow. She is currently an Independent Mage of Crime Sorcière.

Appearance
Akiha Miku is a young woman with a tall and slim figure. She has light purple hair that reaches down to her chin and long bangs that fall into her eyes. Her large, cat-like eyes are also purple in colour. She has fair skin and quite large breasts. Akiha is mainly seen wearing a black and white coloured outfit, with the style reminiscent of a school uniform. Mostly, she wears a long collared shirt with black trimmings. Over this shirt she has a matching V-neck vest with a long black ribbon tied through her collar. When the weather is cold she dons a white long-sleeved jacket with large black cuffs and black trimming. The jacket has two pockets and a black ribbon tied at the bottom of the collar. Akiha chooses to wear a short white skirt with two thick black stripes running down the sides, with long black socks that either reach just below her knees or to her mid-thigh. On her feet are a pair dark blue running shoes with white trim.

Due to the added ease it grants her when she uses her Magic, Akiha prefers simple clothes to fancy, colourful and outgoing attire, and as such, most of the clothes she wears are plain and usually monochromatic. She hates fiddling around with her hair and is never seen with it tied up. The only thing she does allow is the wearing of two blue and white flower clips in her hair, fastened to the right side of her fringe, near her eye.

Her first guild stamp was located around her left upper-arm and was dark blue in colour. After joining Black Widow she had the stamp re-located to her left waist, with it being black. When she joined Crime Sorcière she once again had it moved, this time to her right shoulder blade, with the colour changed to aqua.

Personality
Akiha is generally a timid and shy person, choosing not to engage in social situations if possible, preferring to sit on the sidelines and watch than be the centre of attention. However, within her guild and close group of friends, Akiha develops a dominant personality, easily taking on the role of a leader or speaker.

Though she is able to keep her emotions in check on most occasions, if she loses a hold of herself, she flies into extremely emotional fits, particularly when rage is involved. She likes to give off a cool and almost nonchalant air, though inside she carefully analyses and addresses every situation she is in.

Akiha does not like to be fussed over and pampered. She wears plain clothes and does not tie her hair up, not caring about her appearance at all. Though confident in her abilities, Akiha does not gloat or exaggerate, rather choosing to keep her abilities secret than show them off. In battle, she prefers a more brains over brawn approach, and is very skilled in anticipating her opponents attacks and judging where to strike so she gets in the most damage with the least amount of effort.

Though she can have a playful side at times, it is not a part of her personality that Akiha shows to many people. Only her very close friends and family know of this side of her, and even then, it is a side of her that is very rarely seen.

History
Akiha Miku was born and raised in Kunugi, a small yet flourishing town lying on the railway between Hargeon and Clover Town, in Fiore. Her father was a very gifted user of Transformation Magic, particularly Titan Magic, using his abilities to take on and complete jobs for the Mage guild Titan Nose. Akiha's mother was also a Mage, quite capable in the art of Dark Écriture Magic, and would also take on jobs for Titan Nose. However, Chisaki suffered from very severe Schizophrenia, and would often have to take long periods off work when her symptoms became rather intense. Akiha's father did not mind though, and would always do whatever he could to ensure the safety and quality of his family’s life.

When Akiha was six years old, her father received a promotion within Titan Nose, earning the title of an S-Class Mage. At first, Taiki had considered not taking the position, as it could mean that he would spend longer periods of time away from his family. However, after confirmation from Titan Nose's guild master that Taiki would be able to take on only jobs that suited his needs, Akiha's father accepted. It was also around this time that Chisaki’s condition began to worsen. She would frequently fly into psychotic fits, having extreme hallucinations and causing damage to the people and objects around her. Akiha's father was incredibly worried about her, but in her times of sanity Chisaki claimed that she was fine, annoyed for making him worry about her.

For a few years, everything –aside from her mothers seemingly worsening condition- was going smoothly in Akiha's life, until one day the Titan Nose guild master arrived at her door, bearing the tragic news that Akiha's father has been killed whilst on a job. The loss stuck Akiha hard, but nowhere near as much as her mother, who slipped into a state of depression. Chisaki immediately began taking more and more jobs from the Titan Nose guild, pushing herself to her limits to keep up with paying their rent and keeping food on the table. Though Akiha wished to help her mother, the Titan Nose rules clearly stated that she had to be at least twelve years old to join, so at eight years of age, Akiha could not even get a job cleaning the guild.

Akiha and her mother lived slowly and sparingly for the next year, until everything took a turn for the worst. Though her symptoms seemed to have reduced since her husband’s death, Chisaki had unknowingly and slowly dwindled into insanity. Whilst she and Akiha were at the guild one day, Chisaki flew into a very intense hallucination, and began screaming that the other members of the guild were demons sent by Zeref to murder her. When one of her guild-mates stepped forward to calm her down, Chisaki turned and stabbed him in the gut with the knife she had been using to cut her lunch. Chaos ensued as the guild tried to subdue Akiha’s mother, but by the time Chisaki had been restrained, five members had been killed, with a further ten badly wounded. Unsure of how to handle such a situation, the Titan Nose guild members sent for the Rune Knights, intent on having Chisaki arrested for murder. Akiha pleaded with the members to see reason and tried to explain her mother’s condition, but the they would not listen. It was during this chaos that Akiha activated her Magic for the first time, turning both herself and her mother invisible. Using the cover of Akiha’s Magic and the members shock at their sudden disappearance, Akiha and her mother escaped and ran from the guild. It was revealed the next day in the news that Chisaki had been placed on the Magic Council's most wanted list for the murder of the five Titan Nose Mages, as well as her flight from the law. Akiha and her mother were now in a crisis, as they needed to earn money, but knew that no guild in Fiore would take in a wanted criminal. It was then that Chisaki stumbled upon the guild Ghoul Spirit. Located to the north-west of Shirotsume Town, the guild immediately agreed to accept Chisaki as a member, keep her hidden from the Magic Council and provide her with good pay for the jobs she would be helping them undertake. Ghoul Spirit’s Mages scorned the light guilds for not accepting such fine members and told Akiha and her mother horrible tales of the injustice and cruelty that their members had experienced whilst being in light guilds before they joined Ghoul Spirit. Shocked that the government and light guilds could be so cruel, Chisaki immediately joined, promising to help the members of Ghoul Spirit obtain retribution, as well as teach the members of Titan Nose a lesson for daring to try and arrest a sick, Schizophrenic woman.

Seven years passed as Akiha grew up in and eventually became a member of Ghoul Spirit, being labelled a dark Mage but not caring in the slightest. Living amongst others who had been wronged just as she had, Akiha’s mind was slowly tainted with a hatred for the law, the light guilds and the Magic Council, as well as everything they stood for. She would frequently join Ghoul Spirit raiding parties and light guild hunts, believing that every time she hurt or stole was a little bit more justice she was granting the world.

Her mother slowly started taking less and less jobs, but Akiha didn’t mind, as she knew her mothers health kept her from working quickly and easily. She became the main provider for her family, constantly working for money and slowly gaining many friends inside Ghoul Spirit. Well respected for her abilities, Akiha knew she was doing exactly what her father had done before her: keeping her mother safe and their life comfortable.

Of Flesh and Stone
The sun has already set when Akiha trudges up the steps of the Ghoul Spirit guild hall and flings herself into one of the armchairs that line the balcony above. Pointless. What a pointless raid that one had been. She lets her empty loot bag crumple to the ground as she stretches her feet out to the footrest beside the chair, feeling her muscles ache as she does so. She decides to stay like that, and watches as the other members of her party trudge past, clearly just as disappointed as she is. Well, at least they had all come back safely. Maybe she should-

A cry. A shout. Something loud breaking the calm silence that had greeted them upon their return.

She turns and leans her head over the balcony to glance down into the foyer of the guild. There are three people in the entryway, looking tall and proud as they saunter into the guild. She feels her chest tighten as she strains to see them better. No, she doesn't recognise them, they mustn't be Ghoul Spirit Mages. She starts to stand as one of the Mages pulls forward a member of the guild and tosses him to the ground in front of the growing crowd, his voice booming as he questions whether Ghoul Spirit believed they could laugh at them.

Her guild members spare no time responding to the threat, two of them charging forward to take on the cocky Mages. She can't help but feel that there is something very wrong with the entire situation though, her suspicions confirmed when the two men suddenly freeze, their bodies hardening over into cold stone.

There is a moment of complete silence as the guild just stares, but they soon regain their composure, charging the three Mages at once. She shifts towards the balcony ledge, about to jump over and join her comrades just as one of the intruders spreads him arms wide, laughing crazily as five small wooden dolls zoom out from behind him and rush towards her friends, only to begin firing thick rays of green energy from their centres. She cries out and flings herself to the ground as one of the beams passes right beside her head and blasts a hole through the stone wall just behind her. When she glances back up the mess below is more then she can handle: all of her guild-mates lie on the ground, not moving, their bodies seared from the beams and their whines echoing throughout the hall. The three Mages are still only standing at the door; they haven't moved an inch into the hall since they arrived and yet they've managed to do so much. They seem to be talking, yet though she tries she can't make out what they are saying. She does however notice when one of the men reaches up to swipe his spring green hair from his face, his hand printed with a flowing green mark.

Fairy Tail. She's seen their stupid insignia before. A sad, pathetic excuse for a guild, well known for their rebellious nature and rambunctious parties, only being overlooked by the Council because they have someone in there doing the sweet talking for them. They are the type of guild that shouldn't be allowed to exist.

The three Mages appear to have finished their conversation, as two of them break off and begin to head deeper into the hall, probably to find any other members. She slips back from the balcony and hears one of the Mages trudge up the stairs, footsteps heavy on the brick work. He will pass by her place soon, better to act now.

She quickly looks straight down at the stone beneath her hands. She takes a deep breath as she focusses. Gray. Charcoal. Silver. Slate. Timberwolf. Bole. Chestnut. Ecru. Fawn. Copper. Russet. Sepia. Sienna. Ebony. Onyx. Jet.

The man with the helmet suddenly walks past her section of the balcony with his wooden puppets following closely, glancing in her direction as he does so. She smiles and looks him straight in the eyes, well, she tries to through that forsaken helmet he wears. He squints in her direction but then turns back to keep walking.

Idiot.

When his shadow disappears around the corner she moves straight into the light and jumps the railing of the balcony, landing quietly on the ground below. Only the green haired man has remained. He wanders now through the bodies of her guild members checking to see if any are still conscious. She slides her feet right as she creeps along the wall in the opposite direction as him. She needs to be on his other side. When he has walked far enough into the guild she pushes away from the wall and slinks up behind him, drawing her knife from it's sheath at her thigh and quickly twirling it in her hand, and finally, when the man pauses to glance up at the roof she runs up behind him and stabs him in the back.

At least, that's what she had meant to do, but as her knife approaches the small of his back a sound like thunder claps and she only has a few seconds to ponder the situation before she is flung backwards from the man towards the other end of the room. As she moves to stand up the man turns to her direction in shock, purple symbols beginning to float around his body. Damn it, a fucking Dark Écriture user, the same as her mother. She squints to read the runes.

"All weapons that encounter this space shall be repelled"

Well, wasn't that just great. The man has probably enchanted numerous defences around himself. She stands and suddenly notices the man with the green hair can see her. She glances down at herself and sees that she is no longer the colour of the stones the guild hall is made out of. Her "Chameleon" spell has ceased.

The man wastes no time drawing the rapier from his side and charging her, sword flicking dangerously close to her face. She ducks the blade, spinning to the left and thrusting her right hand up into his sword arm, knocking the weapon sideways. He turns and swings again, and she skirts back just in time for the tip to swoosh past her stomach and miss. She has already flung her torso back far enough, so she pushes off with her feet and performs a series of back-flips, landing in a crouch a few feet away. The man turns to her in exasperation, lifting his sword again in preparation to attack further. However, it is at that moment Akiha spots another figure arriving at the guild entrance. Though she knows it is not an enemy, it is still a person she does not want to see. Her mother.

She reverts her attention back to the green-haired Mage just in time to realise he is casting a spell in her direction. She throws herself to the ground as the purple letters of the spell fly overhead, hitting one of the men on the ground behind her and causing him to scream in intense pain. At the same time she watches her mother pull the weapon from her belt and charge the man from the other direction. She tries to scream for her mother not touch the man with her blade, but her mother is too quick and swipes ferociously at him. However, there is no boom, rather her mothers blade flies clean and slices the man upon his upper left arm, causing his howls to echo off the hollow guild walls. She doesn't quite understand what has happened until a ring of blue runes surrounds her mothers body.

"All runes that encounter these shall be cancelled"

Akiha can't quite believe her mothers insightfullness, but hurriedly moves to strike the Mage whilst he is concerned with the wound her mother gave him. She rushes him and windmills him with her legs, the man losing his footing and crashing to the ground beside her. Pulling her knife once more, she is just about to embed it down into his chest when she catches a brief flicker of green light from the corner of her eye and the knife is blasted from her hand by a beam of energy, another hitting her in the back shortly after. She is flung back from the Rune Mage, a gasp escaping her as she sees the burnt flesh that is now her right hand and feels the sting on her back. When she stands again the man with the mask and the woman with the fan are charging down the steps towards them. She feels a surge of hatred in her chest and runs toward the two, feeling the tingling sensation spreading across her skin as she activates her "Ultraviolet" spell. The two newcomers only seem interested in reaching their comrade, but as Akiha hefts her knife to slice through them when they pass, the green-haired man calls out to the so-called Bickslow and Evergreen, warning the two that she is there and camouflaged.

There is a sudden whiz of movement as Bickslow's five little dolls fly through the air around her, and though she tries to duck and weave past them, Akiha suddenly feels a sharp crack on the back of her head and she falls forward, crumpling to the ground. She tries to stand and move, but her head spins and she finds herself back on the floor. Fuck.

As she strains to get off the floor she watches as the three Mages approach her mother, who has backed up into the corner of the guild. As the masked man moves forward to grab her, Chisaki strikes, but the man quickly evades the attack and grabs her, pinning her arms behind her back. He lifts her off her feet and turns her to face his comrades, asking them what they should do with her. However, a wide smile appears across his face, and before either of the two can reply he spins Chisaki around to face Evergreen, claiming that he has a better idea. Akiha screams from the floor but can do nothing but watch as the green-clad Mage lowers her glasses and turns her mother to stone.

The man releases Chisaki and she falls to the floor, the dull clunk of stone hitting stone ringing out through the hall. The three Mages glance back at their work, but can't spot her lying almost unconscious and invisible on the ground, so they leave, Akiha crying at the foot of the steps.

Revenge is a Dish Best Served Cold
The following day Akiha helps her guild move the petrified people out into the courtyard. She glances back at the guildhall, the pathetically small group of people that bothered to stay with the guild walking in and out with hung heads. She hadn't expected so many to just up and leave, and none of them had foreseen the master to either. They had first discovered he was gone in the morning, his rooms completely cleaned out along with the guilds safe and stock house. He had taken everything and run. Actually, now that she thought about it, Akiha couldn't remember seeing him during the raid at all; the bastard probably ran as soon as he knew the guild would fall. Bloody coward.

She reaches down to once again grab the bottom of the statue she is helping to lift into one of the carts outside. One of the members had luckily known a healer in a nearby town, and it had quickly been decided that the de-petrification of the turned members would be the first priority of the remaining guild members. Her mind quickly shifts to her mother as she passes the statue up to the member in the cart. She had been an idiot last night. She should have been quicker in getting the green-haired man. She should have followed Bickslow when the group had split up, and taken him out separately. She should have told her mother to run as soon as she arrived. Should have, should have, should have. But of course, it was easier to think this way now that it was all in hindsight.

She turns to watch some of the members walking down the front steps of the guild, and quickly recognises her mothers statue in their arms. She doesn't like that they are the ones carrying it and not her, so she heads over to take their places and lift it herself. However, as she starts towards them she watches as one of the men suddenly slips down a step further than intended, just as the other man moves to adjust his grip.

It's like watching a slowed down Lacrima movie. The first man falls away to the right just as the second lets the statue slip from his hands. There is that split second where the stone seems to stand still in the air before gravity kicks in and it starts to head towards the ground.

Down. Her entire body tenses in a split second as she tries to work out the fuzz that is the panic in her brain.

Down. Her heart pumps as pure adrenaline rushes through her and she springs forward with absolutely no idea where she is heading and what she is doing.

Down. She flings herself at the falling stone, arms stretching out in some pathetic attempt to catch it even though she is much too far away. Too far way to do anything but watch.

Watch as the statue smashes into the cobblestone courtyard and smashes into pieces.

What could have been an eternity passes as she lies on the ground staring straight ahead at the rubble. Everyone on the area stops to look, the silence of their stares almost as painful as the clamping feeling that crushes her heart as her mind catches up and processes the last ten seconds. She stands and walks almost robotically to the pile of rock, staring down at it with unseeing eyes and the other members slowly start to gather closer. She hears one of the men move to her side and try to reach out and take her shoulder, some sick excuse for an apology slipping from his mouth. Just as his hand touches her, Akiha spots her mothers face in the stone, empty grey eyes staring straight into hers, and her arms clench as a white fury more powerful than anything she has ever felt washes over her.

She moves, grabbing the arm of the man behind her and flipping him over her shoulder onto the ground. Before he can stand she is upon him, knife at her thigh drawn before she quickly as successively stabs him through the chest. The others surrounding them scream and trip over themselves as they run in every direction, doing anything to escape her rage. She stands and turns to see the other man running amongst them, and she flies after him. The two run through the fields surrounding the guild, the man speeding ahead when he realises she is in pursuit. He then turns, a green Magic circle appearing beneath his feet as he activates his Magic, and the ground beneath Akiha's feet rumbles. She remembers now, he's an Earth Mage, though not a good one at that. She focusses and feels a tingle sweep over her as she turns her skin the colour of the light she sees around her and goes invisible, quickly rushing to the side as she does so. Just as she shifts the ground beneath her splits open and a huge hole appears, rifts rushing like cracked glass after her feet, trying to trip her up. She spurs herself faster, but the man has turned to keep running and she needs him to stop. And there is only one way to make people stop running away from you. Convince them they are running towards you.

She crosses her arms before spreading them wide to cast her spell and the man screams as she walks out from behind a rock right in front of him. He starts to back away from her and trips over his own feet, landing harshly in the dirt. Akiha's face is plain and expressionless as she approaches him, and she must scare the crap out of him for he moves onto his knees, begging into the earth for her forgiveness. She pulls her knife and starts towards him before moving to speak, though she adjusts her jaw before she does. She doesn't know why, but she starts to ask the man all of the questions she has been asking herself over the past half a day. Did he ever stop to consider that he was doing something wrong? Did he ever think that he should be somewhere else? That he shouldn't have been anywhere at all? The man whimpers but doesn't reply, until Akiha draws her knife and points it straight at his face, when he suddenly spits out that he's sorry. There is a split second as her heart cools just a bit, though not enough for her to forgive him. He can't be forgiven. Ever. As she approaches him from the front she grabs him from behind, and he screams as she stabs her knife into his back. The clone copy of herself that she had made in front of him vanishes as she releases her Magic, and the man's eyes widen as he realises the fool he has been played for. As he slumps forward she moves her face to his ear, whispering to him that he can finally repay her for what he has done.

As she walks back to the guild Akiha cleans her knife on her skirt, arriving to see that none of the members have stayed for her return. She slips into the guild storage room and grabs a large knapsack, walking to the rubble of her mothers statue and piling the pieces into the cloth. Swinging the satchel over her back, Akiha grabs whatever provisions she can scavenge and heads away from the guild without a backwards glance. As she winds down the dirt roads toward Shirotsume, she plans the next few days out in her head. There had always been that little voice in her head compelling her to do this, though she had continuously brushed it off as stupid. But not now. Her blood is so boiled and her grip on her knife tighter than it ever has been, and she knows it will never die until she has found him.

Her new goal set like the stone of her mother in her heart, Akiha heads out to Magnolia, breathing easier knowing that this time in a few days it will not be some clumsy fools blood on her blade, but the blood of Fairy Tail's Bickslow.

The Sign of a Soul
Spirits are high in Magnolia as Akiha walks through the large town, performers, merchants and tourists flocking past her in an effort to see every part of the Harvest Festival before the day ends. She spurs herself south, passing Kardia Cathedral to head down the main road to the Fairy Tail guild. She has no idea whether Bickslow is there or not, but odds are there is at least somebody who knows where he is, and she'll slice the information out of them.

As she starts to get closer to the guild she notes that there are far less people on the road. No, something stranger; people seem to be moving indoors or heading in the opposite direction, and when she actually starts to pay attention she notes that many of the buildings seem damaged, and that she can hear far off cries and crashes. She slips off the main road, not wanting to get caught in an open area, and just as she goes to pass out of the side street a teenager in a red shirt flies past, chasing the very man she is looking for.

She can't believe her eyes. Bickslow! Right there in front of her. She activates her 'Ultraviolet' spell and pursues the two, chasing them through the streets until the dark-haired Mage stops and walks into an alleyway, stopping when a line of purple runes shoot up the walls on either side of him. Crap. She glances around, trying to spot the spring green-haired Mage. He doesn't seem to be here though, so she assumes that Bickslow's comrade must have laid the runes earlier. He has marched the red-clad Mage into his trap. She creeps to the end of the alley and listens as Bickslow explains to the man that he cannot leave or use Magic within the runes. He's more dirty than she originally thought. The man in the red spares no time however, leaping up in an attempt to reach Bickslow where he hangs high up against the brickwork. The two clash for a bit before they crash to the ground, and Akiha spurs the dark-haired Mage to get up, though he doesn't seem to be moving. Bickslow however stands, walking over to the Mage and giving him a sharp kick before moving in her direction. She ducks next to the alley entrance as he passes her, and then quickly follows him. He starts to head down the street, looking in almost every direction as they pass from house to house. He's looking for something, she realises, the thought coming to her just as Bickslow suddenly swerves into another side-street. Perfect, she can take him out without anyone noticing if he goes down there. She runs after him and moves to come up right on his heels, drawing her knife as she does so. However, when Bickslow is around halfway down the alley he suddenly turns, and his dolls fire their green energy beams in her direction. One of the beams hits her clean in the chest and she's flung backwards, smashing into a cluster of crates that line the alley. Bickslow laughs, stating that he thought he heard a little fairy sneaking around behind him. She doesn't understand what he means by "fairy", but curses herself for being too loud, standing to glare at Bickslow from the other end of the alley. He moves into a more defensive position, so she does too, contemplating how she an defeat him. He has numbers on his side, as those five ridiculous dolls are all of his support. If she can keep them busy, she can get him.

She breathes deeply and flexes her fingers. She will have to concentrate hard for this one. As she swipes her hands outward four perfect copies of herself appear at her side. Bickslow stiffens at the other end of lane, and Akiha pushes a little more of her Magic power as she turns herself invisible, directing her clones to slip in front of her.

Defeat numbers with numbers.

She charges herself and her clones up the alleyway, and Bickslow spares no time directing his puppets to blast the crap out of her. She can't have the beams touching her clones; they may look solid, but the beams will simply pass through them if they are hit. But that is another advantage of having your own bodies to control. 50 metres. She manoeuvres her copies, Bickslow face becoming one of slight surprise as he watches the multiple hers perform a series of amazing acrobatics to dodge the green onslaught. 20 metres. Bickslow moves his dolls one-on-one with each clone, the blasts becoming more powerful as he attacks. She slips her blade from its sheath. 10 metres. She turns the blade over in her hand. She'll need all her power behind it is she is to stab it though his thick clothes. 2 metres. Bickslow turns, slapping her sharply across the face and sending her sideways into the alley wall. Her head smashes against the bricks and her clones disappear as she becomes visible and flops to the ground. What the-

But Bickslow is on her. He grabs her by the scruff of her shirt and lifts her into the air, slamming her back into the wall and pinning her there. She gasps as the air flies from her lungs and Bickslow uses the seconds to glance and make sure the clones really are gone. He then turns back to her, mouth turned into a wicked smile as he claims to like her little copying trick. She shifts her head to try and spit in his face, but he clamps a huge hand over her mouth, scowling. She doesn't understand how he managed to find her. Not only should the clones have completely overwhelmed him, but she was invisible.

Seeming to read her thoughts Bickslow leans into her face, smugly asking if she truly believed she could beat a manipulator of souls. Akiha's insides go hollow as she properly comprehends Bickslow's Magic. No. No way. She has underestimated him way too much. He hadn't needed to see her. With her being the only other living thing in the alley, finding her was like spotting a giant in a field of dwarfs. She swallows, throat parched from the fear of the situation she is in. If she could just get him off of her, she need only get into the open streets and he won't be able to attack her. Oh please, let him put her down or move his hand. Only the slightest bit of lenience will do.

But Bickslow has a different idea. He draws back and slams her into the wall again, her vision going fuzzy as she once again hits her head. He releases her then, and she slides towards the ground. She moves to try and get up, but Bickslow's dolls begin to slam into her, hitting every part of her body she has exposed. With each smack of the wood her vision starts to go, and her face finds the ground again. She only has the strength to move her head and watch Bickslow start to walk away, his obnoxious voice claiming that if she improves she may be accepted into Laxus' new Fairy Tail.

She tries to reply that she's not in Fairy Tail, but the blackness takes her.

She awakens to the sound of applause, cheering and loud music. As she moves to get up she realises that the Fantasia Parade must have started on the main street whilst she was out cold. She moves to stand, but her head throbs and she is forced to the cobblestone again, fighting to keep her tears back as she feels the ache of her entire body, like she is one huge bruise. When she feels steady enough she stands and heads out of the laneway, checking to see that no-one is around before she begins along the street. Stupid ass-hole Bickslow. She pauses as her hand flicks to her sheath. Maybe she could find him and-, no, that would be ridiculously stupid, but for some reason the desire to march straight to wherever he is and demand a rematch pounds at her brain.

In the dark and the cool night air she only manages to move a few blocks before she starts to feel nauseous and is forced to sit again. When the feeling doesn't pass she knows she won't be able to get out of Magnolia before the parade ends at the streets flood with people returning home, so she climbs onto one of the nearby rooftops, resting the sack of her mothers statue underneath her in an incredibly uncomfortable pillow as she watches the lights of the parade go on into the night.

☆.. .:*・°☆.. .:*・°☆.. .:*・°☆

Caught in the Spiders Web
She heads east. She doesn't know why but it just seems to be a nice direction to go, and she wants to be as far away from stupid Magnolia as she can get. In fact, she never wants to set foot in that dreadful town ever again.

It's a hot night when she finally stops in a forest clearing just off the dirt road she has been following. As she lies staring up at the stars she feels a sudden chill overcome her and tries to grab for her thicker coat when she sees the snow.

Snow. No, wait. Why would it be snowing?

She hadn't heard them approach, so when three people leap from the surrounding forest she screams and falls over herself in surprise. She has no idea what she is doing, but she feels herself cast Black Out and make a break straight for the forest, the cries of her attackers following her as they lose their vision. She can't see herself, so she's not surprised when she runs into the wall. Well, she's not surprised that she runs into something, but she is surprised that it's a wall. When she falls backwards from it her spell is cut, and she realises it is actually a wall of ice.

With their sight now restored, the three attackers stand again and begin to advance. Akiha knows better now than to try and take on three of them, so she turns herself invisible and once again tries to run, only when she gets to the edge of the trees a powerful voice calls out for her to stop.

She doesn't know why she does, but she stops. When she turns back, the three people have stopped as well and glanced behind them, where a woman steps out from the shadows of the underbrush. She's lovely; tall and thin with long flowing brown hair and sharp features. At a wave of her hand, the three other people drop their weapons and remove their face masks, revealing themselves to be three young women of about her age. Akiha doesn't know what to say, so there is an awkward silence until the tall Mage speaks, asking her if she is a member of a light guild. Feeling slightly annoyed at the question, Akiha hurriedly replies that she isn't and rolls up her sleeve, showing the group her Ghoul Spirit guild mark, which still resides on her left shoulder. Upon seeing it the four women do the same, showing off a variety of colourful spider marks tattooed onto their bodies.

Spiders, huh? They must be a part of Black Widow, one of the largest guilds under Tartaros. She's heard of them before. Their relentless, tough and cunning, everything Ghoul Spirit had wished to be.

With their allegiances out in the open, the group relax and slowly move towards her, though Akiha keeps her defensive stance, asking them what they want. The tall leader responds first, telling her that they were planning on robbing her, but when Akiha's hand flicks to her knife the woman laughs and states that that is completely out of the picture now. She swipes her hair from her face and asks her if she has any plans for the future after Ghoul Spirits disbandment, and when she replies that she doesn't the Mage pauses, looking to her comrades for a few seconds. When she looks back she has an odd expression on her face, something like a smile, but a little more calculating than that. It makes the next words that come out of her mouth a complete surprise, as she asks Akiha to come with them back to Black Widow.

Go with them? Was the woman insane? Was it a normal working of Black Widow to just find random people on the side of the road and bring them back to the guild building?

When she doesn't reply the woman sighs and tells the others to grab their things, and the four begin to head from the clearing without a backwards glance. At first, Akiha just plans to let them go, but something pokes at her, trying to make her follow them. No. It would be stupid. She had just gotten out of her last guild, why go straight into another? 'But why not?', asks the little voice in the back of her head. Why shouldn't she jump at the opportunity?

And so she does, calling out to the four retreating backs. The leader turns back, smiling again as she motions for her to grab her things and join them. Who knows, maybe this chance meeting is exactly the thing she needs to get herself on the right path again.

As the group walk to the Black Widow guild, Akiha is asked for her name and Magic, and asks for theirs in return. She soon finds out about all four, who are a team in the guild known as The White Collars. The tall leader introduces herself as Jacqueline, though the other girls all seem to refer to her as Black Jack, and she demands that Akiha does the same, explaining that she is a very skilled user of Ice-Make Magic, though she also has some talents in Snow Magic, revealing that she was the reason for the snow the night before. When asked, the other girls introduce themselves as Adira, a feisty weapon Requipping Mage; Marisol, a shy timid girl with a talent in Card Magic; and Calla, a beautiful blonde who enjoys playing around with Sound Magic. Though all of the girls seem to have fairly standard Magic that she has heard of, Akiha can't help but be impressed by the variety the group contains, and begins to wonder how well the group perform in battle.

Unfortunately though, the group do not encounter anyone on the road, and soon arrive at the guild, a grand building sitting in the side of the mountain, overlooking a quiet, abandoned town below. It's huge, though it hides under the overhang of the cliff it sits under, so it can only be seen if you stand directly in front of the cliff and look straight. Huge shells that look like abandoned spiders eggs litter the nearby hills, giving an eerie feeling to the entire place as the group walk through.

When they reach the entrance, Adira, Marisol and Calla head straight through the huge oak doors and into the large guild hall, but Black Jack grabs her arm and leads her around to the side of the building. They enter a small door there and wind their way up and up a small staircase until she thinks they must have climbed to the top of the building. Once there, Black Jack leads her down a long hallway to a door at the end, knocking three times before a voice beyond tells them to enter.

They do, and she is surprised to find herself in a huge room absolutely crammed with books. They are everywhere: lining the walls in tall bookshelves, stacked in towers on the floor and resting on every flat surface. In the middle of the clutter is a huge mahogany desk, behind which sits a young man, his legs propped up as he lounges back in his chair. There's no way he's the Black Widow master, he's far to young, though when Black Jack performs a quick bow in front of him she has no doubt. She stands back against the wall whilst Black Jack and the man whisper quietly, before Black Jack turns and gestures for her to come forward. She does, and the man gets to his feet, reaching over the desk to take her hand and shake it, introducing himself and Black Widow's master, Huntsman.

She doesn't quite know how long she spends in the cramped room, but Huntsman asks her question after question until her voice hurts from the amount of talking she's doing. He asks her about her past, her position within Ghoul Spirit and her time hunting Fairy Tail, but most importantly, her Magic. Though she doesn't really feel comfortable doing so, she tells him everything, even the stuff about her mother and her falling to Bickslow. Both he and Black Jack say nothing the entire time, and when she finishes, Huntsman asks her to leave the room. She does, waiting in the hallway as he and Black Jack talk, until she exits too, leading her back down the staircase and into the main hall. When they enter, Black Jack shouts out to everyone inside, and Akiha is shocked to hear that she has been accepted into the guild. As the strangers of the guild flock around her to introduce themselves, Akiha is lead by Black Jack to get herself stamped with the guild mark. Whilst there they examine her old guild mark, but can't seem to come up with a way to remove it. Annoyed, she settles to turning the mark to her skin colour, though she knows it probably won't last for very long. Despite this, she gets her new spider mark stamped onto her waist, a sense of pride running through her as she feels the stamp mark her skin. Surrounding her, the three White Collar girls grab her and proceed to lead her all over the guild, showing her every room.

They give her a tour for hours, pointing out every nook and cranny they have to offer, and just when they are about to head to the third level to show her the infirmary, Black Jack appears and tells the girls that they have been summoned to go on a mission by Huntsman, who wants them to set out straight away. Disgruntled, the three girls bid her goodbye and move off to prepare, though just as Akiha turns to continue on a self-tour Black Jack calls her name, asking her where she is going. At first she doesn't quite understand, until Black Jack asks her to come with them, stating that Huntsman asked her to go too.

They actually wanted her? No-one had ever personally requested her in Ghoul Spirit. Just shows how much more advanced Black Widow was as a dark guild compared to that old crappy joint.

Not needing to pack, she waits out the front of the guild until the other girls assemble, and together they head out on her first official mission as a Black Widow Mage.

The Heist is on
They haven't walked that far when Calla asks for some sort of information on the job they will be undertaking, but Black Jack seems reluctant to answer. After some pushing by the three girls, Black Jack finally cracks, and tells them that they have been asked by Huntsman to steal a very powerful Magic item from the National Museum of Fiore, located in the capital, Crocus. When the girls inquire further into the item, Black Jack merely states that the item is being unveiled during a special festival in the city, and as such, will only be available for public viewing for a short time. The Master has asked that they slip into the museum and procure the item, as it holds Magical potential worth their weight in gold. Despite further delving by Calla, Black Jack states that she has been asked to not reveal too much information on the matter, shutting them all up.

It doesn't stop the group from discussing how they will get in and get the item without triggering the alarm system and causing the Rune Knights to come, and as they discuss different tactics and plans, Akiha finds herself becoming a key participant.

The girls arrive in the capital some days later, their plan to get the Magical item fully planned and prepared. As they approach the National Museum, Calla, Marisol and Adira break off and leave them, slipping away into the busy crowds trying to get into the museum. She and Black Jack head in the other direction, around the right side of the building to the alleyways beside it. There, the two scale the building beside the museum, where they await Adira's signal.

She doesn't know how long it takes, it feels like a pretty damn long time, but eventually a loud and high-pitched wail sounds out through the city, and she quickly jumps up, focussing her Magic on the museum and activating her "Black-Out" spell, turning the inside of the building pitch black. The people inside do the rest: the sudden black out and apparent museum alarm causing them to flood from the building like cut cats. Man, people are stupid sometimes. After almost everyone appears to be outside Black Jack picks up another sound, this one a bird, indicating that Adira has taken out the Lacrima-vision recorders inside. With no-one being able to stop them now, the two girls slip down to the ground and enter the building through the side doors.

As they make their way across the first floor, Akiha turns herself invisible and looks to Black Jack, who points to the roof and holds up three fingers. Understanding, she nods and runs ahead slightly to find a staircase. The two girls begin to make their way to the third floor, though halfway up the steps they hear the unmistakable thudding of someone walking down towards them. Black Jack just has enough time to throw herself behind a huge pot-plant sitting near a window when a muscular man with dark hair and an uncountable number of body piercings comes into view. He seems to be mumbling about pointless jobs and crappy museum security systems, and in his annoyance walks right past where she is standing, heading towards the bottom floors. As he passes her she releases her held breath in relief, but the man suddenly stops, turning back and sniffing the air. At first she thinks it's nothing, but he suddenly turns, his right hand turning from flesh to a massive metal mallet that he smashes into the wall merely a metre from where Black Jack hides. Before Akiha can react, Black Jack leaps from her hiding place and tackles the man, flinging them both backwards down the stairs in a tangle of limbs. She starts to move to run down after them and assist, but Black Jack's rule before they came in, that should they get separated to keep going, sounds in her mind. Ignoring the crashes from below and knowing that Black Jack is more than capable of handling herself, she moves in the opposite direction, up towards the third floor.

She arrives shortly on the third level and begins to walk through the galleries, hoping she knows what she is looking for. And then it's there... a large room cleared of almost everything except a few pieces of art and a gallant pedestal on which an oblong, golden egg sits. The egg has three little feet that hold it just above the display. As she gets closer she notices an intricate pattern carved into its surface, and the shell is so shiny it casts reflections of the room back at her; well, reflections of everything except her.

She is just about to reach out and swipe it from the stand when a loud sigh sounds in the room. She starts, turning to see a woman sitting on a seat against the wall mere metres from her. Damn it! Why hadn't she seen her before?

The woman seems to be talking to herself, body bobbing back and forth, blue curls bouncing as she loudly complains that some "Gray-sama" went on a mission without her. Does she have a problem? No, wrong thing to be focussing on. She turns back to the egg, wondering what she can do now. She had originally been planning to just grab it, but she now knows if the thing suddenly turns invisible the woman will be on to her in seconds. Well, if she's a Mage that is. But she's underestimated these sorts of people in the past and payed the price for it, she won't be so stupid again.

She doesn't want to fight the woman, so sneaking up and simply stabbing her in the heart seems to be a pretty safe way to go. She slinks forward, trying to keep her footsteps light on the polished timber floorboards as the makes her way across the room to the woman, drawing her knife from her sheath as she does. When she is mere metres from the woman she stop, taking in a deep breath as quietly as she can and then releasing it. 3... 2... 1...

She dives, knife held out straight in front of her and pointed at the woman's heart. Her aim is true, and the blade sinks into the woman's chest as she gasps in shock. It goes in deep. Deeper. The entire blade disappearing into the woman. Then the hilt. Then her arm.

What the fuck?

She only has a split second before she realises that she is passing through the woman before her knife thunks into the wall behind her and becomes wedged, Akiha almost slamming into the wall beside it. Damn, does she have some sort of ward on her? No, a ward wouldn't allow her blade to touch, but whatever this woman has done she has no flesh body to speak of.

The woman then jumps away from the wall in a swirl of water. Of crap, her body must be liquid! She tugs her knife from the wall and turns, the woman taking a defensive stance and stating in the third person that she is Juvia and can not be harmed by physical weapons. Man, she really is nuts.

Juvia moves, a huge wall of water rising up from her body and rushing towards Akiha, picking her up to slam her into a nearby display. She manages to land and leaps forward again, slicing her knife across the woman's arm; to no avail, as the blade passes through her as if she is air. Okay, so it wasn't some one off, and that now makes her knife pointless. No, that makes many things pointless. Before Juvia can regain her composure, Akiha turns herself invisible once more and makes a dash straight for the egg in the centre of the room. If she can't fight the woman she is not staying around, better to just get the egg and get the hell out.

She is making too much noise though, and hears a shriek as Juvia turns her entire body to water and charges at her from the other side of the room. Despite having the right location, Juvia still can't pinpoint her exactly, and misses her by a few meters. Taking advantage of the time she has been granted, Akiha finally reaches the egg and yanks it from the stand, turning towards the door.

But Juvia is faster, and another wave crashes into her, flinging her back into a nearby window. The glass smashes under the pressure and she flies out backwards, screaming as she hurtles towards the ground. Just before she can become a human meteor though, a sensation of lightness fills her and she floats the last little bit of the fall to the ground as though she is a feather. Turning, she sees the three White Collar girls running towards her, Marisol waving the card she used to slow her fall. They reach her side and instantly spot the egg, grabbing her under her arms and hoisting her to her feet, starting to drag her along to run. And they may have, had the wall beside them not been blasted apart and Black Jack thrown out backwards, the man with the studs jumping out after her.

He freezes when he sees the group of them and the item they hold, giving them just enough time to grab the bloodied Black Jack and turn to leave. However, they move to find that their path to freedom has been blocked by Juvia, who seemingly materialised from a ball of water moments earlier. They begin to panic, though Black Jack quickly regains her composure and stands, the five of them back-to-back, staring off at the two opponents as Black Jack states that the dark-haired man is Fairy Tail's prized Iron Dragon Slayer Gajeel, and not to be underestimated. Akiha decides to warn them too, mentioning Juvia's freaky body and telling Adira in all her weapon glory to stay away. Feeling Black Jack tense against her back, she wonders what to do next before Black Jack thankfully takes command and tells Calla to assist her against Juvia whilst Akiha, Adira and Marisol confront Gajeel.

Okay. She turns to face Gajeel, twirling her knife in her hand and turning herself invisible. Beside her Adira summons a huge two-handed axe and Marisol grabs a handful of cards from the purple backpack she always carries with her. She has to ignore Black Jack and Calla. They aren't her concern right now. She has to focus herself, just on the enemy in front of her, nothing else.

Gajeel shifts, his arms turning into huge mallets before he charges them. She leaps to the side, but he's running for Adira, the one he probably sees as the biggest threat. Adira is gifted with great speed in battle, and she moves, almost dancing around him as she slashes with her mighty axe. Simultaneously, Marisol throws a handful of cards on the ground, chanting a quick spell as a flurry of spiked vines squirm from the ground and grab Gajeel where he stands, Adira slicing at the same time. They're so well coordinated, she almost doesn't want to get in their way, and they've obvious done the Dragon Slayer a huge amount of damage.

But then she sees Gajeel stand and notices something different. He then turns, and she sees his skin is no longer flesh, but hard and scaled like iron. Adira lands after her swing and swears when she sees, realising her blade has not even scratched the surface of him.

Gajeel turns then, smashing the confused Marisol in the gut with his hand now a huge hunk of metal. Marisol falls to the ground, doubling up on herself as she clutches her stomach. Come on, she needs to move, to do something. If Adira couldn't touch him with her axe, she has no hope with her knife. She's going to have to be smarter than that, or at least buy Black Jack and Calla enough time to get Juvia and come assist them.

She slinks to the right, creating five clones that she sends towards Gajeel to distract him as she focusses her Magic for something bigger. It works for a moment, Gajeel seeming surprised by the sudden appearance of her and wasting valuable energy and Magic power trying to take out her fakes.

Okay, okay, okay. Something a man like Gajeel would be scared of. Hmmmmm, something anyone would be scared of.

Red. Crimson. Carmine. Auburn. Fire brick. Eggshell. Ivory. Beige. Jet. Silver. Ash. Maybe a hint of bole. Too many colours. Far too many for the normal human eye to take.

She hears the audible gasps from everyone in the area as it rises from the ground, spreading its wings and arching its back in all of its glory. She's never done an illusion this big before, but oh boy, is it worth the look on Gajeel's face as the dragon raises its huge crimson head. She risks glancing at Black Jack, Calla and Juvia, who have all frozen to look at the huge beast too, but Black Jack must have figured out that it is her doing, as she turns, leaping at Juvia from across the lawn. She doesn't expect to grab her, but when Black Jack hits the water woman full on, Juvia's body becomes trapped in a huge pillar of ice.

Black Jack turns, calling for Calla to quickly focus on Gajeel before Juvia can build enough Magic power to break herself free. With Marisol still half out of it on the ground, the remaining four girls close in on Gajeel, who seems to have figured out that the dragon is an illusion, despite Akiha getting the feeling she has tweaked a nerve in him for some reason. As he sees them closing in on him he summons forth a Magic circle and huge shards of metal fly out towards Black Jack and Calla, though Black Jack throws up a thick wall of ice to protect them just in time. Calla springs from behind the wall, firing a blast of screeching sound waves towards Gajeel, who gives a cry and grabs his head as the wave passes him over.

Come on, come on, take him down. She quickly looks at the frozen form of Juvia, where a large crack is splintering down through the ice.

Adira rushes in alongside Black Jack, requipping to a long spear that she flicks just centimetres from Gajeel's face, whilst Black Jack summons forth a huge ice grasshopper that Gajeel turns and smashes to pieces with his hands joined in a chainsaw-like sword.

There is suddenly a large cracking sound as Juvia smashes herself from the ice pillar, blasting her body of water straight at Black Jack, who only just manages to evade the attack.

No, these two are too good. Whether partners of not, they both have incredible amounts of Magic power, whilst Black Jack, probably the only person here with a chance of beating one of them, has already used most of her store battling Gajeel solo before.

There is no point fighting a battle you cannot win.

She runs to Marisol's side and lifts the small girl up and onto her shoulder, screaming at the others to run with her. As she starts to head across the courtyard, she fixes the ground to begin to appear to bubble and boil, thick rolls of lava suddenly springing from the wet earth. Calla catches on fastest and turns to leave too, though Black Jack and Adira seem hesitant to go, though they soon figure out it is leave with everyone else or go two on two with the the Fairy Tail Mages.

However, as they are running Calla is suddenly struck in the back by one of Gajeel's attacks, and falls to the ground, dropping the egg in the process. Black Jack runs to her side to get her, and then turns to grab the golden item, though Juvia beats her to it, whipping by in a wash of water and scooping the egg out of Black Jack's grasp. Black Jack screams and moves to run after her, but Calla grabs her arm, urging her to leave it. But Black Jack won't; she seems determined to get the item no matter what. They don't have time for that though, and though the girls finally abandon the egg and turn to run, Gajeel is too close on their tail, and Akiha knows he will catch them.

Suddenly, Adira stops running and turns to face the oncoming man, summoning forth a broad sword. Akiha pauses and turns to scream for Adira to come, though Adira calls back that they have to get out as fast as they can whilst she buys them some time. She is about to run back and assist, but Black Jack grabs her shoulder, yelling at her to run whilst they have the chance.

She hates it. Oh, she hates it so much. But despite the hollowness that forms in her heart at her own selfishness, Akiha runs with the rest of the White Collars from the museum, swearing that for a moment, all she could hear were Adira's screams.

Scars
She doesn't want to walk any more. Neither do the other girls from the looks of things. They stop for a short break to catch their breath, though none of them say anything to one another, images of Adira's sacred yet determined face still fresh in their minds.

She can't stand it. 5 against 2 and they still lost? Though she hates herself for it, she can't help but admire the Fairy Tail Mages strength, just like Bickslow.

The thing she can't stand more though is the fact that they lost not only Adira, but the egg. They lost a great fighter for nothing.

She pauses. She doesn't really want to ask after all they have been through, but the thought has been killing her since she laid eyes on it. Making her way to where Black Jack sits at the edge of their group, she sits beside her a quietly asks what the egg actually did.

A pained look crosses Black Jack's face, and at first Akiha thinks she isn't going to reply. However, after a moment, Black Jack leans across and whispers to her that though it was meant to be a surprise, the egg has the Magic potential to turn back time.

Turn back time? Turn back time!

No! She couldn't have just left the only thing that could help her mother in the hands of those dickheads.

Black Jack sees the anger on her face and apologises to her, stating that once she left Huntsman's office, the two began researching and looking into potential ways to return her mother to normal, remembering the mentioning of the item in the newspaper.

She sighs, not believing her own stupidity, but at the same time feeling a rush of warmth at Huntsman and Black Jack's actions, knowing she will need to thank them both for all of the effort they have put into even helping her. Still, with Adira gone she knows that now is not the right time, and returns to standing alone in her thoughts, still mentally hammering herself for letting such a valuable thing go.

For letting down her team.

☆.. .:*・°☆.. .:*・°☆.. .:*・°☆

Second Time Lucky
She's angry. No, worse than angry. She turns and punches the wall of her room, hard, and lets out a yelp as her hand connects too quickly with the snapshots of Juvia she had ripped from an old Sorceror Magazine she found in the guild hall. Okay, this exercise wasn't making her feel any better now. She flops backwards onto her bed and stares up at the ceiling, thinking. She needs to get that stupid, forsaken egg no matter what. The power to turn her mother back to normal, how could she have just let that go?

They've been back at the guild for almost a month now, and she's been taking on jobs with the White Collar girls, instantly noticing the hole left by Adira. She shouldn't be doing these things, that egg was the most important item ever, and she had held it in her very hands... and then let some motherfucker take it from her.

She rolls off of her bed and begins to pace, too agitated to lie still. How to get it. It's probably under maximum security somewhere by now, yet she knows she'd do anything and go anywhere if it meant she could get it. Yes, she would.

Sighing, she walks from her room and makes the trek upwards through the guild to Huntsman's office. If anyone knows where the item will be, it'll be him, and what is the harm in knowing anyway?

She does pause before his door though, contemplating whether he will still be unhappy with her or not. Well, he can go screw himself. She moves forward and hammers on his door, entering a few seconds later without waiting for his reply.

She walks in to find him and Black Jack already present, the two of them leaning over a huge map he has unfolded over the entirety of his desk. Upon glancing up and seeing her they say nothing, rather Huntsman gives her a wave to join them. She does, walking across the room to stare down at the map and see that he has circled the Magic Councils headquarters, which lie not too far away from their guild.

She's going to have to rob the Magic Council now, huh?

They must see the look on her face, for Huntsman lets out a firm no, and Black Jack tells her that they haven't figured out a way in yet. She doesn't care though, and fiercely rebuts that sometimes the best plan is no plan, turning to head out of the office and gather the things she'll need. Huntsman yells at her to stop, but she suddenly feels Black Jack's hand on her shoulder as the Mage promises to help her out too. Smiling, Akiha tells her that she wants Calla and Marisol to come too, but Black Jack quickly disagrees, stating that the more people they try to get in the more likely they are to be found. Huntsman has moved around his desk to join them, and though he scowls in her direction Black Jack gives him a look and he suddenly backs off, telling them to do whatever they please. Wanting to waste no time, the two girls pack and leave within the hour.

It doesn't take them that long to travel the distance between Black Widow and the Magic Council, and they arrive with pretty much the rest of the day to get in and out. They walk into the main entrance of the Council, constantly check and adjusting their long clothes that they have worn to hide their guild marks. After grabbing a brochure from the main desk, the two unfold the map inside and scan the many floors of the building, until Black Jack points to the seventh floor to the west, her finger touching the little text that says "Department of Magical Items and Weapons". The two set off in that direction, casually passing worker after worker. She's kind of surprised they aren't stopped at least once, but everyone who passes them seems to be in a great rush, and when she stops to listen she picks up something about Magnolia town and a large swirling mass in the sky. Man, she'd hate to work for these guys.

When they arrive at the correct section there is luckily no-one there except for two workers who sit behind a desk, and she and Black Jack approach them. When they ask what they can do to assist, Black Jack pulls out a ring from her pocket, placing it on the desk and stating that she has come to turn in a banned Magic Charm ring she found at a sellers in Hargeon. The woman behind the desk moves forward and picks up the ring, turning it a few times in her hand to examine it. After a little while she places it back on the counter, declaring it to not be an item of Magic at all, rather a plain ring. Black Jack feigns shock at the statement, and hastily tries to point out the Magic inscription on the band. When the woman once again leans in to take a look, Black Jack hastily reaches forward and grabs her head, slamming it into the desk. The other man jumps as his co-worker slumps to the ground, and turns to run, but Akiha has already drawn her knife, and throws it at him, the blade lodging in his back, the man falling to the floor. She can't help but turn to glance at the Lacrima crystal floating in the top corner of the room. Hopefully nobody saw that.

As quickly as they can the two girls drag the unconscious workers to a nearby closet, stripping them of their work shirts and ID's and stuffing them inside. Akiha quickly glances at the picture on the woman's card and focusses her Magic, turning her hair the same shade of brown and her skin a little darker. Now looking somewhat like the woman, the two proceed into the room behind the main office, and are shocked to enter and find row upon row of shelves, each holding a mass of different rocks, jewellery, weapons, instruments and devices. They start to make their way along the rows, searching for around five minutes before Black Jack points out that none of the items are particularly dangerous or powerful, and states that there must be another room that holds all of the ones the Council truly wants to hide. She tries to look for a place that could be, and after wandering a few rooms over, she finally finds a large door, surrounded by three Rune Knights. Damn.

But Black Jack has already moved forward towards them, and upon coming into their sights the men freeze and ask her what she is doing there. She doesn't respond, rather flicks her wrists and giant pillars of ice flick up from the ground, freezing them instantly. Man, ice could be handy sometimes.

She runs towards Black Jack just as the Mage moves to grab the handle of the door and open it. Before she can though, she lets out a shriek and drags her hand back from the knob just a a line of runes shoots up, displaying a number of wards and blocks keeping the door closed. Black Jack swears, turning to kick a wall, but Akiha immediately sinks to her knees next to the door, reaching out to touch it with her fingers spread, the way she was taught to to avoid activating runes designed to emit pain. Black Jack watches her as she does it, suddenly asking if she has knowledge of runes, with her replying that her mother used to use them as her Magic. Black Jack's face becomes one of pure elation as she quickly drops to her side and asks if there is anything she an do to help, but Akiha knows that there isn't and just tells her to go guard the corridor.

She stares at the red symbols jumping across the doors surface and tries to concentrate. They are so complex, she can only make out a section here and there, and even then, it's sketchy. Still, she tries to remember her mothers lessons in rune rewriting, and tries to look closer. And then she sees it, a tiny little section of the runes that dictates the curse on the knob. She doesn't know if she can, but if she can just rewrite this part to accept her hand on the knob and counteract any other functions that have been programmed, she might be able to allow just herself access to the room. She struggles to try and decode the sentence, trying to slip in some simple bypasses and her name. Please, please, please, please, please. She releases the door and the runes snap back into place, though no obvious rejection seems evident. Hesitant, she reaches up and grabs the door handle, sighing in relief when it doesn't shock her. Black Jack, who has been pacing back and forth the entire time runs forward to join her, but she sends her back, telling her that she has only been able to rewrite it for herself. With Black Jack telling her to hurry and find the egg, Akiha slips into the room.

It's just as big as the ones she walked through to get to it, though where those rooms were stuffed with items, this one only has a few, all sitting far from each other in straight rows on separate stands. She begins to walk down the isles, passing a sword that looks powerful enough to cut the earth in half, a giant red jewel the size of her head and a unnerving brown stick with a three eyed skull carved into the top. And then she sees it, right at the end of the room, the egg. She jogs over to it and examines the base it is sitting on, reaching forward to swipe the air around it. Nothing. They mustn't have rune guarded the items. Good.

She reaches forward and plucks the egg from the stand, though as soon as it's feet leave the platform a mighty siren rings out throughout the room. Shit!

Black Jack screams at her from the door, asking her what the hell she has done, though upon seeing her with the egg she calls for her to hurry and the two run down the hallway, the alarm ringing in their ears. Black Jack runs faster than she does and disappears ahead to freeze anyone running in their direction, though as Akiha tries to keep up she suddenly trips on something and falls flat on her face, the egg flinging free of her grip and clattering to the marble floors.

She curses, but before she goes to jump up something slams her in the back and she is flung forward. She lands and turns to see that she hasn't fallen over her own feet, rather a man has suddenly appeared out of nowhere behind her and tripped her. He's fairly tall, large green-grey eyes glaring at her as he starts to approach, demanding on behalf of the Council's Law enforcement that she stop and turn herself in. She pulls her knife in reply.

But then she blinks and he's not there. She starts, but by the time she has realised what he can do he is behind her, grabbing her hands to try and cuff her. She slams her heel into his foot and his grip slips for just long enough that she can pull free and windmill him to the ground, but as she moves to get him he's gone again. Damn him and his stupid teleportation abilities! But then again, she might have a slight advantage. He's not trying to harm her, rather contain her, and if he thinks she is going to come easily he is dumber than he looks. And from the way he's been moving, he is also quite predictable. But she has another advantage.

She turns to run, turning herself invisible as she does. He can't see her, but it's pretty obvious where she is going, so he moves to get in front of her, appearing a few feet to her right. She turns her knife and tries to slash, but he jumps again and is suddenly to her left. Blind to her, he swings out with his fist, but she sinks to her knees and slides along the slick floor underneath him, jumping up to keep going. Come on, come on, where are you?

She rounds into the first room of Magic items they entered, kicking over the stands as she goes to try and slow him. It does. He's good at what he does, but he can't risk hitting anything when he teleports. He's being too careful. He has things to lose. She has nothing.

She hears a clatter as he lands on the junk behind her and she suddenly gets the feeling he is coming at her. She hadn't been expecting what happened next, because it all occurred so quickly. She had stuck out her right arm in an attempt to put him off jumping right next to her, but he must have already moved as she did, for he whips past her arm a few times and she is thrown to the floor after losing her balance. She hears his scream before she sees him, but when she turns he is also on the floor, clutching his face as blood drips between his fingers.

No way, he's jumped into the side of her knife!

They both scramble to their feet and she sees he has -or she has, she's not quite sure- sliced himself three times, all three cuts on the left side of his face, right next to his eye. Before either can move to take each other again, Black Jack suddenly runs into the room, followed by three men in Rune Knight clothing. She screams at Akiha to move, and yanks her up as she runs past, the two of them sprinting back the way they've come again, the men hot on their tails.

They sprint back past the eggs original holding room and down to a pair of glass doors at the end of the hallway. She bursts through the doors expecting to find the balcony curving around the side of the building, but it doesn't, rather it is a half-circle, just a viewing platform. She swears, but when she turns to go back the Council men have already arrived a the door. Black Jack summons forth some ants made of ice that charge the men, but one of the extends his hand and the something like a heat-wave rises towards them, melting the ice before it has even begun to reach them.

Black Jack hisses as he does, and the three men advance closer, one of them breaking off to runs straight at her and the egg. The other two move to do the same, but Black Jack jumps in between them, slamming one in the face with her elbow. That leaves Akiha with the third man, and she slashes at him with her knife, daring him to come closer. He raises his arms and they turn into huge black paws of some animal, and then he is rushing her, slipping past her blade to smash her in the face. She falls to the ground and tries to jump to her feet but he grabs her and shoves her backwards, her spine slamming into the concrete handrail. He pulls back to knock her out, but suddenly Black Jack is there, kneeing him to the side. He flies to the right, though as he does his legs flick out and connect with her chest, and then she's falling, a weightless sensation filling her body as she flips over the railing and begins to fall from the building.

Shit. Shit. Shit. Shit. Shit. She's going to die. There is no Marisol and her Card Magic to slow her fall this time.

But there is Black Jack. Akiha jolts as Black Jack flings the top half of her body over the railing and grabs her legs. She's dangling by them with her hands pointing to the ground, upside-down and only just gripping the egg. She screams at Black Jack to pull her up, but Black Jack's strength is failing her after fighting off the three men, and Akiha feels herself begin to slip in Black Jack's grip. Black Jack screams down to her, asking Akiha to pass up the egg to her.

She doesn't understand why that is important, but she moves to try and curl upwards with the egg, only when she does Black Jack struggles in her grip again and she drops a few centimetres, not being able to contain the short scream that escapes her. She screams up to Black Jack that she can't, but Black Jack suddenly looks furious, and demands Akiha try again, stating that they haven't come all this way for nothing and that Akiha must give her all for the guild.

So she does. She has never been good at sit-ups, but she clenches her stomach muscles and curls upwards, stretching the egg up above her. Black Jack tightens her right arm around her legs and extends her left one towards the golden ball, just managing to clasp it. And then Black Jack shrieks and her grip on her legs loosens and she is falling. She knows she can't survive a fall from this high, but at least Black Jack got the egg. She can turn her mother back for her.

But just before she loses sight of Black Jack in the flurry of air whipping past her, she hears Black Jack swear and sees her lose her grip on the egg, and suddenly it is falling too. No! It'll definitely smash if it hits the concrete at this speed.

What does it matter though? She is going to die. The egg is going to smash. Black Jack has next to no hope of getting out of the Council and will probably be arrested. At least she is going to die quickly from hitting her head. She'd hate to die painfully, like getting stabbed or something.

As she shuts her eyes so that she doesn't have to see the ground approach she suddenly feels light in her stomach; then in her torso; then in her entire body. No! She's slowing. She's definitely slowing! It can't be! The Council must have Magicked it's buildings with Slow-Fall Spells! She looks to her right and notices that the egg has also slowed, merely drifting softly to the ground alongside her.

She lands then, a bruise on her butt probably being the only thing she'll get from the fall. The egg clunks to ground beside her and she runs to grab it before looking back up at the balcony so many stories above. But it isn't Black Jack who is staring over the railing at her: it's a Rune Knight, his mouth open as he yells out commands to his co-workers.

But where is Black Jack then? She stumbles backwards as she tries to spot her somewhere. Anywhere. But she isn't in sight, and she can't hang around to keep checking. She tucks the egg under her arm and turns to run, needing to get out before the men manage to get down to her.

The outcome is horrible though. She has the egg and her own life.

But Black Jack has been captured.

Black Eyes on the White Snow
As soon as she is out of the Council building boundaries, she runs. The trip from Black Widow to the Council hadn't taken very long, but she needs to inform Huntsman of Black Jack's fate as soon as possible. They will need to send the entire guild if they are going to bust Black Jack out of the prison cell she must be in by now.

She covers the trip in what could probably set a Fiore record, not bothering with the main hall, but heading straight to the secret stairwell Black Jack showed her on her first day. She belts up the narrow passage of stairs and straight down the corridor into Huntsman's office.

He's standing next to one the massive piles of books trying to pry one free without toppling the others, and he starts when she suddenly bursts in before quickly realising it is her and rushing to her side. He grabs her shoulders and does a full circle around her, asking her if she is okay before glancing back at the door. When it dawns on him that she shouldn't be alone he asks where Black Jack is.

She doesn't like the look that crosses his face as she recounts what happened and Black Jack's sacrifice to save her. It isn't concerned enough, actually, it's more accepting, as if Black Jack being taken is not the guilds worry, more an occupational hazard. She's just about to demand the guild form a party to go get her when he grabs her face, asking if she managed to retrieve the item from the Council. She doesn't think this is important right now, but in her stupor at his words she reaches into her satchel and pulls the funny golden egg out, holding it up for him to see.

His eyes widen and a smile takes his face as she holds it out to him, and he moves forward, taking it from her. For a second they stand in silence as he looks at it, before he calls out in a loud voice, thanking both girls for retrieving it for him, and she watches as Black Jack steps out from behind a stack of books, running her hand across Huntsman's back as she joins him at his side.

Black Jack? What? No. What was she doing here?

Black Jack smiles from over Huntsman's shoulder and runs her hands down the gold shell of the egg, commenting on it's pretty appearance and thanking her for returning so quickly. Akiha doesn't understand what's going on, and though she hates to admit it to herself, there is something completely off about the look Black Jack is giving her: almost like a spider that's caught a fly in its web.

When she asks what's going on neither reply until Black Jack breaks away, walking circles around her and pondering aloud that the ability for someone to turn invisible, let alone turn other things invisible is an incredibly rare and valuable Magic. It takes a few seconds, but Akiha can almost hear the click when her brain snaps everything together. She looks straight at the thing in Huntsman's hands and asks aloud what it does. When neither respond again, she repeats, only screaming this time. She begins to think that they are just going to ignore her when Black Jack starts laughing, and Huntsman soon joins in, before he hoists the egg above his head and introduces her to the latest effort in weapons of mass destruction.

She knew it. Shit. What level of idiot did she have to be to actually believe that thing would help her mother? As she fights over her own stupidity in her head, she notes the other things she was too stupidly blind to see: why Black Jack only stopped the White Collars advance after she turned herself invisible, why she was so suddenly the newest member of their group, why Black Jack seemed to be so nice and do everything just for her. Pathetic, Akiha, pathetic.

Suddenly, one final detail dawns on her, and she turns to ask Black Jack if she actually knew about the Slow-Fall enchantments surrounding the Magic Council building. Black Jack scoffs and runs a hand through her hair, curtly replying that if she had, she simply would of found a different way to kill her, finishing with a remark on how stupid she was for believing simple forms of death were easy nowadays.

If the sound of her brain figuring out Black Jack's deception was loud, then the click of the switch in her brain controlling all of her reason flicking off must have been like Etherion firing; she can feel the blood pumping through every inch of her body as her hands clench and re-clench at her sides. She whips her head up just as Black Jack turns to Huntsman and comments that they should be going, and before she knows it she is rushing Black Jack from the other side of the room. She leaps and grabs her in a spear tackle, the two of them flying backwards into the wall she was standing near. What Akiha doesn't expect though is for the wall to buckle under their weight and split open, both girls flying out of the side of the guild building and crashing to the ground stories below, Akiha rolling off of Black Jack to stand facing her on the opposite side of the garden.

Black Jack shrieks and jumps to her feet, spitting blood from her mouth and tearing her jacket off. Only a few seconds pass before it begins to snow, and Akiha growls, using Black Out to make the surrounding objects as black as night. She slides her feet into a wider and more defensive stance, and Black Jack does the same, the two of them tensed for battle.

Black Jack strikes first, her arms whipping through the air as she creates a barrage of ice dragonflies that zip through the air towards her. Akiha jumps, flipping past as many as she can, though she feels the sting as one slices just through her leg as it goes past. Halfway through a jump she turns herself invisible and creates five clones, Black Jack screaming and raising from the ground huge glass-like stag beetles that shatter through the clones like they are nothing. Akiha lands and whips the knife from her sheath, charging Black Jack from her right as the Ice Mage struggles to locate her. She must be too loud though, for Black Jack hears her approach and throw up a wall of butterfly wings around herself. Akiha can't stop herself and slams into them, Black Jack hearing her and smashing through the ice barrier to slam her in the shoulder. She falls backwards, but as Black Jack moves to grab her whilst she knows where she is, Akiha runs her hand through the air, summoning a quick Jutsu Shiki wall just as her mother taught her, which Black Jack unceremoniously runs straight into. Both girls use the time they have been granted to get to their feet, Akiha slipping away into her darkness as Black Jack begins moving her hands in a series of quick gestures before thrusting both into the air, vapour springing from between her fingertips.

She must be casting an amazing spell. Akiha shifts her stance to ground herself more, prepared to dodge whatever Black Jack dares to throw her way. She isn't expecting the attack to be such a wide one, but it is, Black Jack releasing a flurry of long icicles that find her almost instantly and wrap around her like spiders webs. With her now stuck, Black Jack pushes her hands forward, a great ice spider creating itself from nothing and charging at her, ramming her full on as she is sent flying backwards, smashing into the ground and feeling the tingle of her skin becoming visible again.

Black Jack begins to laugh, coming out of her stance and sauntering to where she lays, throwing her arms wide and questioning whether that is all Akiha has to offer. When Akiha doesn't reply she grabs her by her collar and lifts her to her feet, forcing her to look into her face. Akiha tries to turn her head away, but Black Jack begins to shake her and claw into her neck, trying to make her do otherwise. Black Jack tightens her grip, and when Akiha still refuses to look she creates a long thick icicle in her hand, drawing the thin point along Akiha's face so she can feel the prick as it just cuts through her cheek.

No, please. Oh crap, no. Black Jack pulls her arm back and then shoves it forward, stabbing Ahika in the right side of her hip. She screams, the tip of the icicle breaking through her skin like nothing and slicing her all the way through her body, white hot pain searing up her right side and blood gushing from the wound. Black Jack just stands and laughs, but just before she drops Akiha to the ground she leans in and whispers into her ear that her mother will now have nobody to put her pathetic self back together.

Red.

She has seen many different colours in her life; biologically speaking she can see far more colours than any other person. So why now is there only one colour?

Red.

Her blood boils and she feels the pumping of her body near the wound Black Jack just made. Yet as she turns her head to face Black Jack, she can't seem to feel it any more. It seems so far away.

Red.

She opens her eyes and she is looking straight into Black Jack's brown ones. Though as their eyes lock there is an almost tangible pressure that passes between them. Black Jack freezes, her eyes going wide and the colour draining from her face. She seems rooted to the ground, unable to move.

Red.

She doesn't seem to have control over her body. Whatever the thing is inside her it has taken over her limbs, her heart, her soul, her mind. Her words; she whispers the one word like a secret.

Blind.

And Black Jack drops her, pain rushing up her side so fast she screams. But she isn't the only one. Black Jack has fallen backwards too, hands over her eyes as she screams and yells in absolute pain and terror, rolling onto her back to flail around and gouge at her eyes. And then she stops, her body going limp before she tries to get to her feet. She does, but not in the confident manner she had had just seconds ago. No, something is completely different. And then she turns and looks straight at Akiha.

It's like looking into the pits of hell. Black Jack's eyes, once a rather pretty shade of brown, no more. Instead, she eyelids open to reveal pure black, no iris' or whites, just black. At first Akiha thinks the Ice Mage is going to run straight for her, but Black Jack stumbles around before falling again, all the while screaming out, questioning in sharp gasps what Akiha has done to her.

She can't be.

Akiha stands. It's so painful and she fears she is going to faint before she even makes it to Black Jack's form, but she does, grabbing Black Jack and rolling her over to look straight into her face. Black Jack stares blankly back, asking who is there. No doubt about it now: she's blind.

She doesn't know what compels her to be so cruel, but after everything she has just been through, this kind of closure seems perfect. So Akiha leans down and whispers into Black Jack's ear, the Mage freezing as she realises what has occurred, before she begins to cry.

Akiha stands, glancing up at the guild to the hole the two of them fell out of to see Huntsman staring down at her in a state of shock. He wasn't betting on Black Jack losing, but what is he going to do now? She doesn't want to give him the chance. As he makes a break for the door of his room, she stands and runs as fast as she can towards the main hall, side burning in fierce pain, though the adrenaline in her blood pushes her forward. She turns herself invisible races into the side room they had given her for her sleeping quarters and grabs the bag containing her mothers statute. Other items be damned, she sprints back towards her freedom outside, but he's appeared now, trying to calm the other startled members as he dashes to and fro trying to find her. He can't let her escape, now that she has taken down Black Jack and seen so much of their guild.

But her invisibility is too good for him. Whilst he starts to go for her room she makes a break for the oak doors, crashing through them as she makes her escape. Pain in her side starting to return worse than before, she spurs herself down the mountainside the guild rests on, and runs straight for the comfort of the forest.

☆.. .:*・°☆.. .:*・°☆.. .:*・°☆

True Evil
She stumbles, foot having gotten caught in tree root she was too tired to see. It isn't the first time, and as she pull herself from the wet muck of the forest floor she knows it won't be the last. Her white shirt runs red with blood, so much so that she looks like she's dressed in it. Her side aches, no, more than aches, white spots flashing before her eyes every time she touches it or moves too forcefully. But she keeps going. If she doesn't get to a town she will bleed out and die, and though she would never admit it aloud, the idea of dying alone in the unforgiving life of the forest scares her shitless.

But, actually, when she thinks about it, maybe this dark, wet place is where she needs to die, the scum of the earth left alone to rot where no-one can find them. That is what she deserves now, after all that she's done.

Her foot hits something and she falls again, only this time when her face hits the dirt she doesn't bother to try and get up. Tears spill from her eyes, over the bridge of her nose and down her cheeks to the ground as she cries. No, not crying, crying is what you do when you're sad. She's not sad. She's not anything. Her body feels hollow and oh so fragile, like a single leaf drifting down from the above trees could land on her and shatter her to a million pieces. A million pieces, just like her mother.

The thought brings on a whole new wave of tears as she rocks and slams the ground with her fists repetitively in disgust at herself. Harsh cries fill the air as she wail and wails to absolutely nothing, voice echoing through the silence of the trees until she loses it and can scream no more.

Why? Why did she waste so many years of her life. Being raised in Ghoul Spirit was bad enough, but to finally be free of them and then... Bickslow! Juvia. Gajeel. Was it right for her to attack them like she had? Oh, for fucks sake, who is she kidding, everything she has done over the last 16 years of her life has been bad. Immoral, cruel, selfish and bad. She had lied, cheated, stolen, hurt and killed... for what? Nothing! No... wait. She pauses, rolling over to grab her bag and pulls out one of the hunks of rock. She draws it to her chest and curls around it, crying into it.

For her mum. She had done it all for her...

...and she could make it all better again for her too.

The sudden little rush of contentment after so much emptiness warms her a little, and for the split second she thinks it a smile crosses her face and determination flares in her. That is, until she moves, white hot pain searing everything she just thought out of her.

No, she can't die here. She won't. Not with so much to make up for and so many people to find and apologize to. She won't...

She stashes the rock back in her bag and stands again, head rolling and body swaying and she limps and stumbles from tree to tree, using them as crutches to walk the unseeable path. She tries to get her bearings and prays to someone that she is heading in the right direction, just keep going, just keep going, just keep going echoing through her head.

She walks for what she thinks are hours, though in reality they are probably just minutes, though her head can't fathom such minute details. And then the forest suddenly ends, opening out to a large field of smaller trees planted in meticulously straight lines. She walks them, the straightness doing her head in with strange patterns and way too many colours. Far, far too many colours. She thinks it's the first time she has ever hated her extra ability, but as the greens of the leaves and grass around her drill into her eyes she just wants to shut it all out. She does, closing her eyes for a bit, but she ends up walking into the low hanging branches of one of the plants, the twigs pulling at her hair like dead fingers.

She needs water and food. The wound is bad enough, but without anything she will just collapse and not just her lack of willpower to get up will keep her down.

But then, finally, she finds the road. It's old and gravel and worn, but it is a road none-the-less. And roads can be followed to towns. And towns contain food and healers.

She starts down it, feet becoming heavier and heavier until each step makes a grinding noise of rock on rock so loud it could probably wake the dead. She has no idea where she is, nor if the road even leads anywhere, and with her mind bringing up more and more negative facts and images of her lying dead on the roadside she feels her previous hope disappear.

No! She won't give up. Not until...

...not until her foot slips on some wet gravel and she falls again, head smashing into the ground and body crumpling in on itself.

Yeah, that might just do it.

The Pit at the Centre of the Cherry
She awakens in the dirt looking straight up at the sky. When she tries to move the stabbing sensation in the right side of her gut sends spasms rocking up and down her body and she collapses to the ground again, heavy breaths releasing huge clouds of white into the air. No, it wasn't all a dream, she's still got the wound, still open and fresh and probably infected by now, streaming brighter shades of red across her already crimson shirt every time she moves.

Where is she? She needs medical attention and yet... where can she go? No, she doesn't need medical attention, she needs a fucking miracle.

In the times when Akiha looked back on this very moment, she would laugh at having thought that, for in that second she spotted it, just meters down the road. It is a cherry tree, and a huge one at that, branches overflowing with the ready-to-pick berries. She doesn't know how she manages to or how long it takes her, but through the pain and dizziness it causes her she manages to pull herself to the tree, collapsing at its roots and staring straight up into the laden branches. One of the limbs is so full that it has drooped right down to touch the ground, and she begins ripping the fruits off and stuffing them into her mouth, the purple juice running down her hands and chin as she eats, to the point where she can no longer tell what is blood and what is fruit, and becomes scared that it is all just her blood. When she thinks she is going to puke if she has even one more cherry she lies at the base of the tree, side aching and pulsing under her hand.

And that was exactly how Akiha is when she arrives, and what a shock they give each other too, Akiha screaming at first from the appearance of her and then from the pain in her side when she jumps, while the woman drops her basket of fruit and rushes to her side, leaning over her and stroking her face, asking her what happened. But she's had enough by this point, and she just shuts her eyes and drifts under the woman's soft caresses.

When she opens them again she is staring at white. Oh shit, she knows she's died but she doesn't want to believe it, so when she rolls and finds herself staring into the eyes of the elderly lady she almost screams again.

No, she's not dead, at least not yet.

Upon seeing her awake the woman rushes from the room, calling a nurse and healer to her side. The two examine her wound, and upon removing the bandages, Akiha sees that the majority of it is gone, save for a thick and puckered scar that runs between her hip bone and her bellybutton. Satisfied, the two doctors provide her with a plate of food and leave, the old lady resuming her spot in the seat next to her bed.

At first, neither say anything and Akiha tries to pretend to sleep slightly before the lady finally opens her mouth, stating that she should try and eat something. She doesn't feel like getting into an argument with the woman, so Akiha sits and begins to spoon the porridge on the plate into her mouth, trying to place her eyes anywhere but on the woman's face. But she fails, and the two lock eyes before Akiha breaks the silence by thanking the woman for what she has done, asking her what happened.

The woman replies that when she collapsed she brought her to the closest infirmary and demanded Akiha be treated. It hadn't taken long for the healers to clean and close the wound, though Akiha had been out for most of the day. Worried that she didn't have anyone to watch over her, the woman had stayed by her side for the entire day, waiting for her to open her eyes.

Akiha can't think of any words to thank the woman, and though she tries it sounds sloppy and totally stupid, but the woman smiles and takes it anyway, asking Akiha to call her Zanita. Becoming curious, Akiha asks Zanita what she was doing out in the middle of nowhere in the first place, and Zanita replies that she owns much of the farmland just to the north side of town, growing fruits there that she then picks and cooks to sell in her cafe. Intrigued, Akiha asks more and more questions, Zanita being happy to talk to her for the rest of the day, before sleepily stating that she should be getting home. As the elderly woman heads to the door, Akiha can't help herself, and asks if she wouldn't mind coming back the next day if she isn't busy.

And the next day she does return, bringing with her a large lemon tart that she tries to force down Akiha's throat every minute Akiha isn't speaking. When the two begin to make such noise over the Lacrima vision screen, a nurse comes in and examines Akiha again, flatly telling her that she is fine and should probably leave. After gathering her belongings, the two walk from the healers, and Zanita asks her where she plans to go. Akiha is unsure, and seeing the look in her eyes, Zanita asks if she would like to see her cafe, with Akiha happily accepting.

As the two walk through town, Akiha notices that something seems a little off. The usual noisiness of everyday life seems to be missing, as people quietly wander to and fro whispering under their breaths to one another. Zanita seems to catch this as well, and when they round into the main street of the town she hurries to a vendor and purchases a newspaper, gasping as she reads the headline:

Fairy Tail's Sacred Land Destroyed, 20 Members Presumed Dead

No. Akiha whips the paper from Zanita's hands when she's finished and scans the small print under the picture, flipping through the pages and devouring the article. No way, it had to be a lie. How could so many of Fairy Tail's members disappear in one quick moment? Even weirder: when the hell had she even started caring what happened to them?

Her concern or not, Akiha notices that Zanita has gone quiet and decides not to interrupt with her careless chatter, so she simply follows the old woman through the town until they arrive at a tiny shop in the back streets, it's dusty and weathered sign reading "Kirsche Konditorei". When she asks, Zanita states that the name means "cherry cafe", unlocking the door to reveal a small yet quaint inside filled with tables and chairs.

Akiha moves around the cafe as Zanita heads to the kitchen out the back, running her hands over the lace tablecloths and glancing at all of the pictures on the walls. Finally, she spots a smaller one with Zanita and man, Zanita appearing just as Akiha turns and asks her about it. At first, Akiha thinks she is not going to reply, but Zanita quietly states that the man is her late husband, who passed away a few years earlier from an illness. Surprised, Akiha moves to apologize before Zanita continues, stating that she had almost had to close her shop due to the extra work load she was burdened with, until two beautiful women from Fairy Tail by the names of Mirajane and Cana offered to assist her. They helped out at the cafe for almost a month, coming in daily to do chores and serve customers; after everything they did they even refused the pay she tried to give them. Akiha can't help but notice that as Zanita tells her this her eyes flicker to the newspaper, which sits on the counter top.

Akiha doesn't know what to say to this, so she moves to look at the rest of the cafe, finishing up and grabbing her stuff to go, before Zanita quickly asks her where she is staying. Not feeling in the mood to lie, Akiha states that she hasn't got anywhere to stay, and Zanita hurriedly scuttles to snatch her bags from her and head for the stairs. When she asks what Zanita is doing, the older woman replies that it would be against her morals to let Akiha stay out in the dark without shelter, and forcefully states that Akiha shall stay in her spare bedroom above the shop. Akiha tries to refuse, stating she doesn't have any money to pay rent with, but Zanita blows off her concerns and says that she shall work in the cafe for her room.

Well, it wasn't what she had in mind, but staying in a place as nice as this one couldn't do any harm, at least until she figures out where she wants to go. Besides, she'll probably only be here for a few days, or a week at the most.

Four months later, she wakes up to the sound of Zanita singing in the kitchen, and hurries downstairs to put on her apron and grab the fresh breads from the nearby bakery. As she hums along to Zanita's catchy little tune, she sweeps the shop floor, sets the cutlery out and then proceeds to assist Zanita in the kitchen when Freya, the morning waitress, finally arrives. Freya dons her apron and stuffs her belongings in the employees cabinet before moving into the kitchen with them, slapping the morning newspaper onto the counter and commenting on the headline, which describes another failed attempt to locate the missing Fairy Tail Mages. As the three set up, they discuss the awful news, and when Zanita sees the cold expression Akiha always tries not to make but always does when Fairy Tail is mentioned, she moves across the room to hip bump her and tell her to cheer up. The older woman is always telling her that Fairy Tail will forgive her for what she did to them, though Akiha knows that if the roles were reversed she would never want to look at herself, let alone forgive herself.

Despite the continuing bad news and eventual giving up of the search by the Council and the remaining members of Fairy Tail, her life heads in a different direction, and one she never expected it to. Only she -and Zanita, since she told her- know the true meaning behind the rocks that line the shelf in her room, the secret marks she keeps hidden underneath her clothes, and the reason why nobody is allowed to look in the box underneath her bed, and Akiha can't help but feel that she has been given a second lease of her life.

She owes Zanita so much; she has been too kind to her, yet Zanita loves to comment on how business has been better since she hired a pretty young waitress. Smiling at the thought of what entertainment today's customers will bring, Akiha snatches a cherry from Zanita's bowl of fruits and plops in into her mouth, spitting the pit through the open window and into the garden beyond as she goes to greet the days first guests at the door.

☆.. .:*・°☆.. .:*・°☆.. .:*・°☆

Like an Hourglass
It is as if her life is on fast forward for the longest time. When she looked back on the days that had passed, Akiha knew they had been nothing but fun, though despite her helping of Zanita, she can't help but feel some sort of hollowness in her heart, like misplaced rock she can't get rid of or ignore. The day that Zanita came running into the cafe waving her arms in pleasure at having won an auction on a huge restaurant -one that she planned to call 'Kirschbaum Restaurant'- down on the other end of town, Akiha should have been overjoyed with happiness. The business would expand almost three-fold. They would have a bigger living space, more business and more income. But it was still there, that rock in her chest.

It hadn't been the first time when Zanita walked in on Akiha in her room and found her pouring over some thick text on Time Magic from the library, but Zanita must have seen her face every time she went to return the empty books, for she walked across the room and snatched it from her lap, telling her to engage her time in something that brought her more happiness. But even then she doesn't give up. Books, old newspaper articles, talks with Magic teachers and scholars, she'd tried them all. But nothing. It seems that Time Magic is called a Lost Magic for a reason. But every time she walks into her room and sees the lumps of stone sitting on the shelf, Akiha is spurred on.

Book after book. Talk after talk. Search after search. Year after year.

☆.. .:*・°☆.. .:*・°☆.. .:*・°☆

Tenebrae Intra
It is a fine and sunny day as Akiha sweeps the footpath outside Kirschbaum Restaurant, customers on every table and their booking list full. She swings the broom around as she watches Zanita run frantically to and fro inside, her arms laden with food platters and dirty dishes. It is the kind of day she just enjoys working, not the kind of day she is expecting everything to change.

As she passes the outside tables to put away her broom and start on the dusting she overhears two men speaking with raised voices at one of the tables in the corner. It isn't the first time here has been a row within the restaurant, and she pauses in the doorway, wondering if she can be stuffed going and asking them to calm down, or whether she should just wait for one of the other customers to complain first. Either way, she leans back on the frame to listen. She picks up the words 'Magic Council' and 'dark guild'. Damn. Politics. Boring.

However, just as she grabs her broom to leave, her ears pick up the distinctive word 'time' and 'Mage' in the same sentence, and her heart skips a beat, prompting her to slink closer to their table, pretending to clean the recently vacated one beside it.

The two men are leaning over an article in the local newspaper, pointing at it ferociously as they seemingly argue over its contents. From her eavesdropping, Akiha picks up that the Magic Council has denied claims that an independent guild has struck again, targeting and destroying a dark guild near Clover Town. Though denying it was the doing of the independent guild, the Council refused to take responsibility themselves, leaving everyone at a standstill as to what actually happened. This however is not the fact that the two men are yelling about. According to the article, a lone witness spotted just three Mages enter and take down the guild, also claiming that one of the Mages "reverted damage done to the guild by turning back time". The two men seem in different minds over this statement, and are arguing over the validity of it. She simply stands in a stupor as the two men bicker before they stand to go, leaving the paper on their table. As soon as they are out of site, she launches herself at the tabloid, eyes gushing over the small article as she tries to take in everything and anything to do with the time Mage. Unfortunately, the column says nothing more on what the men have already stated, though it does give the exact location of the destroyed guild.

She plonks herself down into a chair and thinks about the situation until a relatively stupid plan comes to her. Without bothering to think it over, she runs up to her room and immediately begins packing her backpack for travel. She removes the now dusty chunks of rock and wraps them, throwing them into the bag too. When she has everything she thinks she'll need she reaches under her bed and pulls out the box that holds her old pearl-handled knife, cringing slightly as she once again straps it to her thigh just like she used to. Set, she walks out of her room and down the stairs, only to run straight into Zanita, who is leaning against her work counter near the doors to the kitchen. As soon as she spots her a certain look crosses her face and she sighs, pushing away from the counter to walk towards her. At first, Akiha thinks she is going to snatch her things from her and demand she get back to work, but upon reaching her Zanita merely grabs her into a tight hug, wishing her good luck and telling her to do what she must. After promising to return to help her harvest the summer fruits once again, she leaves Kirschbaum Restaurant, heading north to her destination.

She travels for two days straight, arriving at the dark guild building the newspaper specified swiftly. Upon looking through the building, she notices that most everything has been destroyed. Everything that is, except for the building itself, which stands almost perfect around her. She searches every room for a sign of the apparent independent guild, but after hours she still turns up nothing. Whoever these people are, they are good. Not one clue left behind.

Annoyed at herself, she moves out of the guild and sits near the entrance for a few good hours, contemplating where she can go and what she can do, not particularly wanting to return to Zanita's now that she finally left. Lying in the grass, she suddenly has an idea, though she passes it off as stupid as soon as it enters her mind. She couldn't, could she? Well, her options are minimal and it's either that or Zanita's, so she stands and begins to travel once more.

After another four days she arrives on a hill overlooking a small gorge, a gorge that holds one of the notorious dark guilds she heard about whilst in Black Widow: Tenebrae. As she looks down on the guild from above, she sets up her camp, sitting down to monitor the dark guild for as long as it takes for the three Mages to show up. She's knows they will, but when is more the thing bugging the back of her mind, though she brushes it off. To find this person, she would do anything.

So wait she does.

It takes a whole three weeks for anything to happen, Akiha jumping awake one night to the sound of a large explosion coming from below. Abandoning her things straight away, she high-tails it down to Tenebrae, arriving to see the front of the guild wreaked beyond belief. As she enters the guild she activates her "Ultraviolet" spell, the mass of unconscious Mages she finds within the doorway instantly reminding her of the life changing day at Ghoul Spirit. How long ago that seemed now.

Sneaking in alongside the wall, she tries to move deeper into the guild, hoping to find one of the Mages nearby. Suddenly she hears a voice coming down the nearby hallway, and flings herself behind a column to her left just as a young girl with brilliant pink hair enters the room. The girl glances around before producing a Light Pen from her pocket and walking to one of the only standing walls, reaching up to write in thick red lines. Akiha watches from her hiding place as the girl scribes "With this, I repent", followed by a strange J-like symbol and the letters "CS". Just as she finishes, two more people join her. The first is a tall man with bright blue hair and a red tattoo on the right side of his face, the second a shorter woman with long dark hair. As the man approaches the pink-haired girl the dark-haired Mage spreads her arms wide, and Akiha watches in complete shock and awe as the broken fragments of the building rise and come together, the guild re-shaping itself as shards of glass knit together and rocks become one again. When she finishes, the three Mages shortly converse before turning to leave. Now is her chance! That woman is the time Mage from the article, the very woman Akiha knows will be able to make her mother whole again. However, she can't seem to make her legs move forward or her tongue work, and she crouches almost paralysed behind the pillar.

Move Akiha! Move! She tries to form the words to shout out to them, but she just can't, her heart frozen in fear that they might reject her or even attack her. But they are getting closer to the door, and she has waited too long for them to get here. It's now or never.

Just as she steps out from behind the pillar and goes to cancel her invisibility spell, one of the Tenebrae Mages lying on the floor in front of her suddenly jumps to his feet, a huge beam of red energy firing from his hands towards the three Mages retreating backs. The man with the blue hair reacts with cat-like reflexes, ducking the beam and firing a bright one of light from his own hands directly back at the man.

She only has a split second to realise the light is coming directly at her too before there is an explosion on the ground at her feet and she is flung backwards into the pillar, knocked out cold as soon as her head comes into contact with the stone.

Destiny's Curse
She is awoken by a cold and wet cloth being placed on her forehead. When she opens her eyes and glances up, she realises she is lying on the floor of an unfamiliar room, and that the young girl with the bright pink hair is the one holding the cloth to her face. Startled, she moves to get up, but the girl grabs her shoulder and pushes her back down, introducing herself as Meredy and telling her to stay still. Akiha tries to make out where she is when the door to the small room is opened and the dark-haired Mage walks in with a plate of food. Akiha almost leaps from the bedding in surprise, the only thing keeping her down being that she can't quite feel her legs over the numbness of her body. As the woman moves forward and sets the plate on a nearby table, she asks what happened. The two reply that when she was flung into the wall she became visible again, and knowing she wasn't a member of the guild they brought her with them to keep her safe should the Tenebrae members awaken and find her. When Akiha asks how they knew she wasn't a member of the guild, the two reply that they had been keeping tabs on the dark guild for months before deciding to attack, and had noted that there were no female members of the guild. Moreover, they had never even seen a female in the guild at all. Combining this with the fact that they had not seen her when they first raided the guild, they had assumed her good intentions, or thought her to be a prisoner trying to escape during the raid.

Akiha thanks them for carrying her to safety, sitting up and happily taking the plate of food when the time Mage hands it to her. The three sit in a silence for a while as she eats, before Meredy asks Akiha for her name, as well as an explanation for why she was in Tenebrae to begin with. Before she can answer though, Akiha realises that she has left her belongings on the hill near Tenebrae, but when she expresses her want to go and get them, Meredy ensures her that the third member of their group, Jellal, is already searching the surrounding area for them, and will hopefully return shortly. Happy that she hasn't lost her mothers statue, Akiha turns and finally asks for the dark-haired woman's name, with her replying that she is Ultear.

Just as she goes to ask about Ultear's Time Magic, there is a small knock on the door and Jellal enters, his arms filled with her bag and other belongings. Seeing that she is awake, Jellal immediately walks to her side and apologises, asking her to forgive him for attacking her. She dismisses the apology, as she knows it was her own damn fault for sneaking around in the first place. Having all of the members in one place, Akiha swallows the lump in her throat and asks them if they are the people attacking the dark guilds that she has been reading about in the papers.

At first the three Mages exchange a small glance, and Meredy and Ultear seem hesitant to answer, though Jellal leans back against the nearby wall and introduces the group as Crime Sorcière. Intrigued, Akiha asks what the group does, and Jellal curtly replies that they are an independent guild of ex-criminals with the sole task of destroying dark guilds and anything or anyone affiliated to Zeref.

She can't help the warmth that gathers in her chest at his words. They are just like her, they must be. Simple, good people who have wronged and seek to repent in a world too unforgiving to let them. She must be one of them. They have to let her be.

With nobody having said anything for a while, the three stand, wishing her all best in her recovery and trip home.

Come on Akiha, it's now or never.

As the three reach the door to the room she flings herself to the floor, bowing as the three Mages turn to her in surprise. Head on the cold woven carpet, she asks the three to please take her along with them and make her a member of the group, stating she will do anything for them in return.

Jellal is the first to react, moving across the room to grab her shoulder and move her out of her bow, asking why in the world she would want to be a member of the group. At first, Akiha goes to say a few things about her admiration for them and what they do, but she suddenly pauses, and before she knows it she has launched into the story about her times in the dark guilds, her fights against Fairy Tail and those she thought she trusted, and her journey to find them. However, for a reason unbeknownst to her, she finds herself leaving out the part about her mother being turned to stone, instead stating that she went after Fairy Tail out of pride for her guild and joined Black Widow for the money.

At first, the three Mages simply stand in a slight stupor as she talks, probably wondering why she is bothering to tell them all of this in the first place. However, as she continues, their expression change to those of shock and wonder, and they eventually end up sitting around her to listen to the entire story, pure silence meeting her when she finally finishes with how she found them.

Meredy is the first to break the silence, though she doesn't say anything, rather a slightly choked noise comes from her mouth as she turns to look at the others in her group. Again, they simply stare before Akiha once again asks them with everything she has to let her join.

The two women exchange a glance before finally turning to Jellal, and Akiha knows that it is probably up to him to decide. At first, Jellal lets the silence continue, but suddenly he stands and looks down on her. She feels slightly uneasy under his gaze, but looks him straight in the eye, daring him to speak.

And finally he does, extending his hand out to her to help her off the floor and saying that she can happily help them out. However, he finishes the statement by saying that they cannot erase the sins of her past, though she can try and repent for them as much as she would like by joining them. Overwhelmed, she feels like crying, and vents her happiness on Meredy by flinging herself at the girl, hugging her tightly. As Meredy laughs at the sudden turn of events, Jellal comments that they have already wasted enough time in one location, and the group heads out.

They travel north for a long time, Jellal stating that they are heading towards a guild situated along the coast at the top part of Fiore, and though the group cannot risk taking a carriage or other form of public transport, Akiha enjoys the time they spend together. She slowly learns about the three individuals pasts, the darkness that once resided in their hearts, and their reasons for joining Crime Sorcière. Shocked as she is about the harsh reality of her new friends lives, the knowledge that they have strived for redemption strengthens her own will to do so too. She also gets a first hand witness of the trios Magic, and her mind is blown by the sheer power and skill they possess, her own Magic seeming weak and childish by comparison. However, every time she watches Ultear perform her Magic, the knowledge that she has purposefully been avoiding asking about her mothers statue nags at the back of her mind.

Finally, on a wet day when the group of independents have stopped to make camp, Akiha calls Ultear aside into the surrounding forest. When they are far enough away from the others that she believes they won't be overheard, she pulls the rubble out of her bag and confesses the situation to Ultear, who stands amazed that she never brought it up before. Though appearing slightly shocked by what she has suddenly been asked to do, Ultear agrees to try, and she watches as Ultear spreads her arms wide, eyes glowing pink as she activates her Magic.

At first, nothing seems to happen, but suddenly the pieces of rock begin to twitch and rise, slinking towards each other, Akiha's breathing ceased in pure anticipation as they once again make whole the image of Chisaki, still standing in exactly the same position she was when she was petrified. After the final little chunk slips into place, she falls to her knees, tears of joy streaming down her face as she cries and cries over finally, after all these years, seeing her mother again. She now knows that she only needs to de-petrify the woman inside and her mother will once again live and breath and talk.

However, just as she moves to thank Ultear for all that she has done, Ultear whips her hand out and the statue once again shatters into a million pieces. Akiha stands staring for the first seconds it takes for her to process what happened, before she screams and turns towards Ultear, angry words bubbling in her throat. When she turns though, Ultear isn't wearing the malicious or teasing grin she had expected to see, rather large tears are rolling down her face.

What?

Before either woman can talk Ultear's eyes glow and Chisaki is once again formed. Akiha moves towards Ultear, asking her what she is doing, her once happy tears now threatening to pour for a completely different emotion. Ultear stands quiet for a moment before she speaks, commenting that she had feared something like this happening. When she asks what, Ultear states that her Magic cannot be used on living things, moreover that she shouldn't be able to manipulate anything with a soul. As the truth threatens to dawn on Akiha, Ultear finishes by saying that the fact that she can openly change the statue back and forth between two times means that there is nothing living in the stone. Chisaki was dead and gone from the moment she hit the cobblestone all those years ago.

No. There was no way that could be true. Not after everything she had done to make it better. Not after everything she had changed in herself. The times she had hurt, robbed, betrayed, threatened... killed. All for nothing? Just for a pile of stone?

In the time it takes her to think this through, the tears have already started pouring from her eyes, and eventually her body just flops, knees giving out beneath her as she can't find the will to stand up any more. Can't find the will to do anything any more. She would have hit the ground had Ultear not caught her, the woman pulling her into her arms and hugging her tightly.

And that is how they stay for the longest time: her head against Ultear's shoulder and their arms around each other, tears and rain becoming one in a puddle beneath them as both women cry their way through the storm.

The Games and the Grave
A few weeks after the events surrounding her mothers statue, Jellal suddenly bursts into the camp where she, Meredy and Ultear sit, waving a copy of the newspaper and elatedly stating that the missing Fairy Tail members have returned after the seven years they were thought to be dead. The news comes as a great shock but joy to everyone, and the group spends the rest of the day celebrating. She celebrates alongside them, happy to hear the good news, though at the same time she can't help but realise the daunting truth that the only Fairy Tail Mages she has ever met have been those she has tried to brutally kill.

With the news lifting the mood throughout their ranks, Crime Sorcière continues on their jobs for the next few months, before Jellal one day walks into the camp and states that he has a plan. Akiha is a little put off at first, no offence to Jellal, but his plans often weren't the best thought out things and usually ended in them just having a huge all-out fight with whoever their target was. However, this time around Jellal's plans are not about a dark guild, rather the approaching Grand Magic Games. He states to them that he would like to meet up with the returned Mages of Fairy Tail and ask them to enter the Games on their behalf in order to locate the dark Magic energy that Crime Sorcière has been feeling every year. When she states that she has no ides what they are talking about, the group tell her that every year since the Grand Magic Games has begun they have felt a malicious force coming from the arena, one that reminds them of Zeref. Though Jellal has wanted the three to head to the Domus Flau and check things out, the decision was always made that it would be too dangerous for them to head to a place so populated, let alone enter the Games arena. Jellal though, states that he has come up with a plan to ask for Fairy Tail's help this time, and that if they work together they will be able to investigate the Games once and for all.

At first, Meredy and Ultear seem unsure of the plan, asking Jellal if he merely has ulterior motives for suddenly wanting to see Fairy Tail so badly, though Jellal vigorously denies this. After discussing what would need to be done, Ultear and Meredy finally give in, and the group plans to meet and ask for Fairy Tail's help. When the move to prepare though, Akiha builds up her courage and blurts out that she will not be going with them. The three seem a little shocked at this, and when asked why, she replies that she wants to go and put her mothers statue with her fathers grave in Kunugi. Besides, she doesn't deserve to ever see those kind people again, not after what she has done to them.

Though the trio try to convince her to come with them and then go to Kunugi, Akiha rebuts all of their arguments until they finally give in, the group promising to reunite at the Domus Flau at the start of the Games. Bidding them farewell, she hires a cart to transport her and the statue, and the three part ways.

A few days later she arrives in her home town, her mind filled with the memories of her happy family living here so many years ago. How long it has been. She doesn't waste any time heading to the tiny graveyard that lies in the centre of town, the bouquet of roses in her hands streaming a trail of petals behind her. With the help of some of the cemetery workers, she has her mothers statue shifted in behind her fathers tombstone.

Seeing the two finally together, she falls to her knees and cries against the foot of the statue, pouring out all of her love and confessions to the silent stone her parents have become. She sobs over how she wasted so many years of her life trying to find herself and the right path, but also promises her parents that she will continue to repent and aid those in need for the rest of her life.

Suddenly, she feels a cold hand on her head, and looks up to see that her mothers statue has reached down to stroke her hair. She doesn't understand how or why the statue is moving, but suddenly seeing her mother looking so alive, she jumps up and grabs the statue in a stony embrace, with its cold arms tightly hugging her in return. She doesn't know how long she stays there crying; it's so much like her mother, such a warm gesture despite the fact that she's stone, and yet, she knows she has felt this sort of sensation before. Eventually she draws back and dries her eyes, turning to thank Bickslow for making her feel better.

For a second she thinks that she may have been wrong, but Bickslow then walks out from behind one of the nearby trees. He cancels his Magic, making the statue once again inanimate, and asks her how she knew it was him. She laughs and asks if Bickslow really believed that she would forget such an extraordinary Magic, with Bickslow laughing in return, placing a hand on her shoulder as he asks her if she is alright. She goes to reply that she is fine before she suddenly remembers that he is a member of Fairy Tail, and asks what he is doing in Kunugi when he should be training on the beach with everyone else. At first he seems a little weirded out at how she seems to know the going-ons of Fairy Tail, but eventually replies that the Fairy Tail members split into separate training groups, and that he and the rest of the Thunder God Tribe are passing through on their way to Crocus to support the rest of the guild in the Games, deciding to stop for the night when Evergreen started complaining that she was tired.

As the two walk through the graveyard back to the main part of town, she asks Bickslow how he could even remember her in the first place. Though seeming a little embarrassed, Bickslow admits that when he first met her in the alleyway all those years ago he had truly thought she was a minor member of Fairy Tail, and had been surprised upon not seeing her later in the guild after the Harvest Festival was over. Going on to say that he saw her cart pass through the main part of town, Bickslow admits to thinking he had seen the statue somewhere before, and with Evergreen already turned in for the night and Freed trying desperately to contact their leader, he had decided to follow the cart and see where it went. Laughing at the irony of the small world they live in, the two arrive at the inn Bickslow is staying at, and she asks if he and his group are heading to Crocus the next day. When he confirms they are, she shyly asks if they wouldn't mind her accompanying them, and Bickslow replies that she is more than welcome to come if she wants.

The following morning she meets up with the Raijinshū, and the group travel by cart towards Crocus. Though feeling awkward for every second of it, she is properly introduced to the critical Freed and the obnoxious Evergreen, both who seem to have a slight recognition of her. As they travel, she learns that Fairy Tail has managed to secure not only one, but two teams in the Grand Magic Games, with the leader of the Raijinshū being one of the competitors; the three Mages are hoping to make it to Crocus in time to meet up with their guild and celebrate their first day competing. It's surprising that Fairy Tail managed to secure two spots, she had followed the guild in the news as they had fallen over the years. What a major impact having the old members return could be.

Luckily the roads are fairly empty, and the group arrives on time in the capital. The Raijinshū bid her farewell, as they are going to meet up with their team mates in a bar on the other side of town. After watching them go, Akiha books into a nearby hotel, planning to meet up with Jellal, Meredy and Ultear the following day around the Domus Flau.

And she does, awakening at sunrise and climbing the rocky cliffs surrounding the Domus Flau, breathing heavily by the time she has spotted both Ultear and Meredy and reached them. The two are sitting where they can view the arena in all of its glory, watching the actual Games on one of Ultear's Lacrima. The two welcome her when she approaches, though it takes her a while to realise that she can't see Jellal. Where could he have gotten to now? Ultear and Meredy exchange a look and begrudgingly tell her that after meeting the Fairy Tail Mages Jellal went to their guild master and managed to smuggle himself into the Games disguised as an ex-member.

No. Fucking. Way.

He's the biggest idiot she knows! Not only did he drag all of them into his stupid plan, but if he were to get caught the dumbass would be sent straight back to his cell in the Magic Council. Akiha sighs and flops onto the grass next to the the independent Mages, who give her a "we reacted in the same way" look, explaining how they already had to utilise Meredy's Magic to prevent Jellal from exposing himself trying to impress Erza during a fight with another of the Ten Wizard Saints. Feeling that they now had no choice but to continuously monitor the matches in case Jellal decides to pull another stunt, the two have been up on the cliff-side watching all day, though note that they have yet to sense the strange Magic aura. As Akiha ponders this she turns her attention to the Lacrima, watching as a woman with a sword approaches a woman with white hair on the battlefield. Staring at the woman's sword as the two speak, she suddenly gets an uneasy feeling in her gut and thinks of Jellal, but quickly pushes her stupid thoughts away to focus on the battle. Just as the match starts, Ultear and Meredy ask her who is going to win, and she sees the smug expressions they hold, having not believed her when she told them she had a knack for predicting fight outcomes. Trying not to look too smartass about it, she turns her attention back to the Lacrima, and after seeing the sword-Mage not even flinch upon being encountered by two Celestial Spirits, Akiha gets a tingling sensation in her eyes and declares that the Mermaid Heel Mage will win. Still feeling slightly uneasy about her for some reason, she watches as the sword woman does win, Ultear and Meredy's stuck-up expressions turning to those of impressed acceptance.

After watching the closing of the second day, the women decide to just camp up on the cliff in the nice weather rather than head back into town. And so they do, Akiha lying on her back and staring up at the stars, all of them glittering in the clear night sky.

And that is how she waits. For the Games to finish safely. For the malicious force to be found and destroyed. For Jellal to return to them in one piece.

For the days of adventure she knows lie just around the corner.

THE END

Magic and Abilities
Colour Magic: (色の 魔法 Iro no Mahō): is a Caster Type Magic in which the user can manipulate the colour of themselves and/or the things around them. By mixing the confusion that her Colour Magic can cause with her impressive knife fighting skills, Akiha can swiftly and easily overcome many of her enemies, proving herself to be quite the formidable opponent.
 * Image: The caster manipulates the colours of the air around them, forming a picture of anything they want. The images themselves are mere illusions, and as such have no true solid form.
 * Clone: (クロン Kuron): Akiha creates an image of herself by manipulating the colours in the air to form an image that represents her. Simple versions of this can be merely a static image, but more advanced users can go further to make the image dynamic, appearing as a walking functioning human. Akiha employs this spell frequently in her battles, using it to overwhelm and psych-out her opponent. It is due to this spell that she chooses to wear simple clothing, as it is easier to form pictures that are monochromatic and plain, so wearing such clothes speeds up her casting time and reduces the amount of concentration needed to produce viable clones.
 * Ventriloquism: Because her clones appear so life-like, Akiha enjoys taking her clones to the next level by making them not only appear, but sound like her. To do this, Akiha learnt to throw her voice, so that even if she is on the opposite side of her opponent to her clone, she can speak and make it appear the the clone is the one talking, not herself.
 * Illusion: (イリュージョン Iryūjon): Being able to create anything she wants in the air by manipulating colours, Akiha has the ability to create powerful illusions of almost anything, the only boundary being her own imagination. As with her clones though, these images can appear to be real, when in fact they have no form. However, she can play with her enemies sense of self-preservation, distracting them by creating seemingly harmful images.
 * Human Light Pen: (にんげんてき 光筆 Ningenteki Hikari Pen): Just as a Light Pen can be used to write in the air, Akiha can change the colour of the air around her to form words and/or symbols, granting her the same use as a Light Pen, but without the actual tool required.
 * Colour-Blast: A spell in which the caster makes everything in the immediate area a different colour, confusing the eyes of their opponent.
 * Black-Out: (ブラック アウト Burakku Auto): Akiha turns everything in the immediate area -as well as herself- the colour black, resulting in her enemy being unable to to differentiate between her and her surrounding objects. If there is a light source present where this spell is cast, depth can still be perceived and as such, objects can still be seen. However, if this spell is cast where there is no light source -such as inside a building with no windows- it is impossible to make out her from her surroundings, rendering herself and her opponent visually impaired. Akiha uses this spell in times of need when she is being overpowered by her opponent and needs a distraction.
 * White-Out: (ホワイト アウト Howaito Auto): As in Black-Out, Akiha turns everything in the immediate area -as well as herself- the colour white, for a similar effect.
 * Psychedelic: (サイケデリック Saikederikku): Akiha turns everything in the immediate area -as well as herself- different colours, ranging from yellow to red to blue. The sudden blast of colour can be difficult for the eyes to take, and as such, the opponent may be forced into shutting their eyes or turning their head away, making this spell perfect for fast escapes.
 * Invisibility: The caster alters the colour of themselves or something near them, resulting in the targeted object being invisible.
 * Chameleon: (カメレオン Kamereon): Akiha alters the colour of herself or a nearby object, turning them the same colour as the objects behind them. As long as the object stays still -or the background in which they are hiding does not move/change- the object will be completely camouflaged.
 * Ultraviolet: (きょくしがいせん Kyokushigaisen): A spell that Akiha developed herself, being known as the only caster to be able to use this spell. As Akiha is a tetrachromat, she has the ability to see ultraviolet light. By turning herself the same colour as the light she sees around her, Akiha turns invisible to other humans, who unlike her cannot see ultraviolet light. This spell was the very first she cast, at nine years of age.
 * Colour Manipulating: The user permanently changes the colour or shade of an object/being.
 * Permanent Colour Changing: A technique that Akiha has been working desperately to perfect. Akiha has the ability to change the colour of the things around her. However, when she ceases casting a spell or after a period of time, the colours of the object in question return to their original state. Akiha has been working to master her Magic and make her changes permanent, so she can forever alter the colours of things, such as her skin to hide her old Guild Marks. The object that she has managed to change for the longest period of time was a shirt that she changed from red to yellow. Though she put all her effort into the first and only spell she cast on it, the shirt slowly began to turn red again after a few months.
 * Blind: (ブラインド Buraindo): The only spell Akiha has ever cast that has remained permanent. When in a fit of rage so intense she could barely think straight, Akiha manipulated the colour of Black Jack's corneas, turning them from a clear film to a black film. The result was Black Jack going completely blind, due to being unable to see through her eyes.

Dark Écriture: (闇の文字 (闇のエクリテュール) Yami no Moji (Yami no Ekurityūru): Though nowhere near as proficient in this Magic as other users, Akiha has shown to be able to use simple forms of this Magic, being taught to do so by her mother, a talented Dark Écriture Magic user.
 * Jutsu Shiki: (術式 Jutsu Shiki): Akiha is capable of forming simple barriers and blocks using this Magic. In most cases, her barriers are not long lasting, and can only be formed to repel single objects/humans. Her obstructions are not complex in their rules, and Akiha only employs these blocks in times of need, such as stopping someone from entering a room she is in.
 * Rune Re-Writing: Akiha has been taught by her mother how to re-write runes to either cancel them out or work them to her advantage. Though her abilities in re-writing are limited, Akiha's skill has been found to be very valuable.

Master of Disguise: Akiha has proven herself to be a master of disguise, as she is able to change the colour of her skin, hair, eyes and clothes at will. By altering any combination of her physical features, Akiha can easily slip undetected through crowds, changing her appearance multiple times if necessary. She can also literally disappear into crowds by using her Chameleon spell to make herself camouflaged.

Keen Intellect: Akiha has demonstrated a keen intellect, using her creativity and smarts to fight many of her opponents, battling them from afar and confusing them before quickly and quietly sneaking in for the finishing blow. By using her intellect in battle, Akiha can overcome many opponents that would otherwise outshine her in pure strength or Magic power, as she can play to her enemies weaknesses and faults. Her other -so far undefeated- ability to forecast the outcomes of Mage battles is a skill that has earned her much respect among her Guilds, also winning her many jewels through betting.

Enhanced Sight: As a tetrachromat, Akiha possesses incredible sight, being able to differentiate between colours and shades much better than normal humans. This helps with her Colour Magic immensely, as she can guarantee that the colour she is turning herself to blend into a background, or the colour she needs to create in the air to make a clone is exactly the same as the colour she is copying. Enhanced Agility: Akiha's skinny frame and light weight provide her with excellent agility and gracefulness on the battlefield, assisting in her fighting style, which is to confuse and disrupt her opponent before quickly striking at them. Her nimbleness allows her to dodge opposing Mage attacks with ease, and grants her the added comfort of knowing she can outmanoeuvre many enemies she faces.

Expert Hand to Hand Combatant: While not as skilled as when in possession of her knife, Akiha has proven herself to be quite a capable hand to hand combatant, using her slim figure and strong upper-body to quickly and precisely deal swift blows to her opponent(s).

Master Knife Fighter: Since she first began to train her Magic for battle, Akiha has practised and mastered the art of knife fighting, choosing to employ it alongside her Magic as her main assault in a fight.

Equipment
Pearl Handled Knife: A very well crafted and shaped knife given to her by the Guild Master of Ghoul Spirit on behalf of the Guild in celebration of Akiha's 16th birthday. The knifes handle is crafted from pearl, and the guild chose it to represent the birthstone of Akiha's birth month, June. Akiha adores the knife and uses it as her main weapon in her fights. After joining Crime Sorcière, Akiha refused to sell or give away the knife, keeping it by her side as a constant reminder of her dark days.

Gale-Force Reading Glasses: (風詠みの眼鏡 Kazeyomi no Megane) Akiha is an avid reader, and as such, is never short of a good pair of Gale-Force Reading Glasses. Her pair was passed down from her mother to herself, and though they are an older version (only 8x, allowing Akiha to read eight times faster than usual) Akiha would never allow herself to replace them, and uses them despite better versions being available.

Trivia

 * Akiha, Chisaki and Taiki all have names with meanings relating to trees: autumn leaf; a thousand blossoms, and big tree respectively.
 * Akiha's surname "Miku" means beautiful crimson colour.
 * Akiha was named by Chisaki when she looked out the window the day of Akiha's birth and saw the oak tree outside shedding deep red leaves.
 * Akiha is a tetrachromat, meaning that unlike normal humans who possess three different cone cells in their eyes (capable of picking up red, blue and green light) Akiha has four cone cells, rendering her the capabilities of perceiving a much larger spectrum of colours, even ultraviolet light. As a tetrachromat, she can also differentiate between slight changes in colour much better than normal people.
 * The pearl handled knife that Akiha possesses was stolen from Duke Everlue's mansion by a Ghoul Spirit raiding party. The Mages later went back and found a matching scabbard in the ruins of the house -apparently a fire-breathing dragon, an ugly blonde maid and a blue dog had destroyed the mansion a week earlier.
 * If Jason were to give Akiha statistics for her participation in the Grand Magic Games, they would be as follows:

Quotes

 * (To an unnamed Ghoul Spirit Mage) "Did you ever stop to think that the statue you were holding in your hands was my entire life?"
 * (To Black Jack) "They may have to call you Black Eyes from now on."
 * (To Jellal, Meredy and Ultear) "I've done some terrible and disgusting things in my life that I need to repent for. You made this Guild for that reason alone. I don't know how to make you realise that this is where I need to be, but I hope with all my heart that you will accept me as one of you."
 * (To her Mothers Statue) "You see these mum; these marks constantly show me the stupid paths I've taken in my life, show me all the mistakes I've made. I can't believe it took me so many trials to finally find my place."

References... Well, not really lol ...
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