บท 31: Awakening

**["Lucy! Run! I'll hold them off!" I shout out before dashing towards the Phantom Lord mages.

"I won't run! How dare you do such a thing to Levy-chan!" Lucy cries out in anger from behind me. I go to roundhouse punch Sol and he easily knocks me off balance and the force from the block pushes me back a few feet. I start to get back up for another attack when suddenly my arm won't move.

Looking back, I see that my arm and Lucy are trapped in a bubble of water. Feeling horrified, I struggle to get into the water to try to get to Lucy to pull her out. (No. Dear god, no!)

"Non, non, non! With non of 3, I correct your error! Destroying your guild and attacking Levy-sama was all the work of Gajeel-sama. Well, it is true that all of us in the guild were for the idea, however…" Sol calls out in an almost gleeful manner.

"Let her go you bastards!" I whip my head around to face the enemy duo in front of me and roar out at them. A feeling of power starts to well up inside me to go along with my rage about how they are drowning the girl that I consider a little sister.

"Non, non, non, non! With non of 4, I simply cannot let her go! It is for the great Phantom Lord that we must take her with us." Sol says with a waggling finger while looking our way. Lucy is pounding against the inside edge of the bubble, but cannot make a dent in it.

I keep trying to break the water spell to free her, helplessness and rage building in me as each second passes by. (I have to save her! I have to!)

"What is this? Let me go!" Lucy cries out from inside the water. I roar out my frustration and using my legs, I try to push myself into the bubble to get to Lucy.

"Juvia's water lock cannot be broken." says the rain woman, never changing her tone. Lucy's eyes start to close and her struggles weaken as she runs out of air. Seeing this, I renew my struggles as I feel my control slipping and I start going ballistic.

A feeling of something, bubbling just under the surface, that is trying to get out courses through my body as I turn to lock eyes with my enemies. I see them both flinch at my glare while I'm still trying as hard as I can to get to my little sister.

"I SWEAR I'LL RIP YOUR HEADS OFF AND STUFF THEM DOWN YOUR NECKS IF YOU HARM HER!" I scream in rage. Everything about me is bubbling, about to burst. (I can't let it happen again! I can't let someone else die without doing anything! NOOOO!)

"Trs bien" Sol says acting like he is completely unconcerned about me being caught like I am as he shifts around uncomfortably.

"Do not fear. Juvia will not kill her. Because it's Juvia's job to bring back… Lucy Heartfilia." Juvia states.

"I WONT LET YOU HAVE HER! YOU'LL HAVE TO KILL ME FIRST!" I bellow out towards them.

"Victoire! That can be easily arranged." says Sol in sadistic pleasure.

"We have captured the target. Drip, drip, drop…" says Juvia.

"LUCY!" I cry out in a maelstrom of emotions.]**

"LUCY!" The scream tears harshly out of my throat.

"LUCY!" I scream out again, ignoring the blinding pain in my body, as I try to push myself up. I can't make out where I am with my eyes blurring up like usual after waking up. (I need to find her, I have to get to her. They have her, the bastards. I can't let her end up like….him. I got to find her!) I cry out in my mind, my throat too dry and hoarse to shout out any more.

A pair of hands grab onto my arm and with a snarl I yank myself free and try to launch a counter attack. The hands grab onto my arm that I'm attacking with, effectively stopping me. I struggle against the hold that is until I notice a mop of blonde hair in front of me and a soft feminine voice that sounds familiar call out. I can barely make out the words over the thumping of my heart.

"Lu-Lucy?" I call out hesitantly while using my free hand to wipe the away the wetness from my eyes. The hands restraining my arm release their hold and my now free arm drops back onto the floor with a thump.

Relief starts to flood through my body until I hear a quiet reply that I don't understand. I freeze in my actions and tense up again until I recognize the voice. (Mirajane?) I slowly lower my hand from my face to look at the spitting image of Lucy sitting in front of me with a sad expression adorning her face.

Before I can work up the courage to say something, she speaks. It's Lucy but with Mira's voice. I look at her, not understanding what is going on. The headache and other pains in my body make it hard to think. Especially my face and chest, its like there is a hot knife in me and twisting furiously.

(Why can't I understand her?) I grimace as a wave of agony hits me and the blonde in front of me smiles gently at my expression. Then with a glow of magic, her face turns into Mira's. (So its Mira using her Transforming magic then.) Upon seeing my look of understanding, she uses her magic to change her face back into Lucy's.

"W-What's go-going on?" I manage to croak out. At my question, the soft smile on Mira's face drops and she turns to grab a cup of something for me to drink, probably in an attempt to prolong answering. No longer in a crazed panic, I can feel every ache and pain in my body. Everything is throbbing and I can still hear the blood rushing by my ears.

The rhythm of my heart almost matches the throbbing of my headache and Mira, the sweetheart that she is, reaches a hand under my head and helps me lift it so I can drink easier as the cup is brought near my face. The cool liquid flows down my throat and if I didn't know better, I would say that I drank a healing potion from how much better I felt. (Who knows, in this world it probably is.)

I let out a large sigh of relief and sank back down as I feel the water cool the burning in my belly that I didn't know was there. Mira lays my head back down gently and I close my eyes as I let the liquid work it's magic.

Something cool and damp is placed on my forehead, causing me to open my eyes again to see the younger woman leaning back from placing what I'm assuming is a wet rag on my head.

I look her right in the eyes before asking in a low voice, "Is Lucy safe?"

She slowly shakes her head and says something clearly to me, but I can't understand her. Realization floods through me. (My translator...) I reach up to my ear, ignoring the pangs of pain in my arm and find nothing. (I must of lost it when that guy was beating me up.) As I begin to recall the memories of what happened, my rage starts to build up again.

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As her fury builds, Krysti doesn't notice Mira flinching from from look of hatred aimed towards the ceiling and the steam coming from the rag on her forehead.

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Appearing in front of the slightly incapacitated dragon slayer, Totomaru quickly figures out Natsu's problem.

"You get motion sick?" he says partly not believing his good luck. Quickly his features become smug despite his battle-worn look and he continues speaking, "You can't eat fire as you are now. I'll burn you to a crisp with my strongest magic!" He crows out at the end while getting into position to cast his magic.

Natsu growls at him, "Oh yea!? We will see whether or not I can still eat your magic, motion sickness or not!" Natsu spreads his legs to get into a wider stance, determined to tackle the magic head on.

"Natsu!" cries out Happy in worry as he stands by his best friend. The magic circle appears in front of Totomaru as his magic activates.

"I'll blow you to bits, Dragon Slayer!" yells out the Phantom Lord fire mage, positive that victory was at hand. His face changes to one of surprise as an unnatural cold covers his arms. His magic dissipating, he looks down in shock to find his arms are covered in ice.

Growing ice.

Rapidly growing ice.

"What the…?" was all he was able to manage to get out of his mouth before he was completely incased.

"If you're a man, fly to the heavens and become a star!" a gruff voice shouts out as Elfman comes into view. With his right arm transformed into a large lizard-like limb, he punches the block of ice containing Totomaru a long distance away until the enemy mage was completely out of sight. With a large grin plastered on his face, Natsu turns to face his friends.

"You guys…" he starts to say with barely hidden relief that he doesn't have to fight while his motion sickness is still acting up.

"Too cool!" Happy shouts out in joy with a paw raised high into the air. "Gray, Elfman!"

Gray looks down at the hunched over figure of the dragon slayer and says to himself in an insulting way, "Natsu is so pathetic."

"If you're a man, you should make the car sick." Elfman agrees, saying this before Natsu can respond to Gray's taunt. Natsu grits his teeth in annoyance, but chooses to remain silent so he can concentrate on recovering faster from the bout of motion sickness he is having.

Turning around to look at the rubble on the floor, Gray asks, "So, are these the remains of Jupiter?"

"Aye!" answers Happy proudly.

"Good job there." Gray says to Happy as if the cat was the one to destroy the lacrima and not his life-long rival. The tremors and movement of the Phantom guild hall finally stop to which Natsu notices immediately.

"It stopped all of the sudden!" he exclaims partly in surprise and partly in happiness as his stomach finally settles down again even though it wasn't as bad as it would have been almost two weeks earlier.

I'll take a look outside!" Happy volunteers, as he takes to the air to see what happened to the guildhall to cause such shaking. Back on the beach, the attacks by the Shades has yet to ease up. The now transformed guildhall lifts up one of its arms and starts to slowly move its arm in a circle in front of it.

From the tip of its extended fingers, shapes start to form in the air where the finger is and stays after it moves. The people down on the beach try to figure out what it is doing.

"Letters? No…" Ponders Alzack as he is shooting Shades with Bisca at his back.

"That's… No way!" Bisca exclaims in dread. Laki shouts out the answer that the Fairy Tail mages don't want to be true.

"It's a magic circle!" she exclaims angrily as she looks away from the battle to study the magic scrawl taking form in the air above them. Hearing Laki's shout, Mira moves away from Krysti and Erza to look out the window at the continuing battle. A loud gasp catches Krysti's attention and with gritted teeth, pushes herself to stand up.

The pain in her chest is immense and she has to grab onto some of the broken furniture to help pull herself up. With great determination, she ignores the pain that is coursing through her like rapids in a river. Without the younger woman to force her back down to rest, she is able to stand up on wobbly legs and slowly limps over to the white-haired woman's side at the window.

"That magic circle is for Abyss Break!" Mira exclaims to herself quietly as she starts to tremble slightly.

Moving up next to her, Krysti asks quietly, "Abyss Break?", the only two words that she was able to understand. The younger woman jumps in surprise, not noticing that her charge was behind her. She gives the larger woman a chiding look which doesn't faze Krysti at all.

She asks Mira again, "What is Abyss Break, Mira?" The white-haired woman sighs in defeat knowing that Krysti won't stop nagging until she gets her answer. She points outside towards the guildhall slash robot that is making the magic circle. Krysti sidles up next to her to look outside, and a large gasp tears out of the brunette's throat at the sight.

She turns her head to face the younger woman as she asks, "Phantom?" Mira nods her head solemnly. A snarl adorns the other-worlder's face as she gazes back at the monstrosity in front of the guild.

"Those rat bastards won't give up." she growls out. Not understanding what she is saying, the younger woman just wraps gentle arms around Krysti's shoulders and tries to pull her away from the sight. Reluctantly she allows the blue-eyed woman to lead her back to the makeshift bed that she was on. After a moment, a cough that cuts over the sound of the ensuing battle outside of the guild catches both girl's attention.

Cana is standing besides the window and holes in the wall looking in at the two with a grim expression. Mira and Krysti both head back to the gap to face Cana. The card wielding mage turns to face to battle in case the Shades manage to slip through and try to attack the guildhall.

"Mira, how long until that magic spell activates?" the younger brunette asks in complete seriousness.

With a deep breath, Mira answers. "About 10 minutes, I think. We have to destroy its power source, somehow." Glancing back inside at the occupants, Cana tries to encourage the downhearted woman and she flinches at the look of rage in the newest guild member's eyes.

"Our men inside must be thinking the same thing." the younger brunette says before looking back out to survey the battle on the beach. A spark of hope flashes in Mira's eyes as she turns to face the thinner brunette.

"There's other people other than Natsu in there?" the former S-class mage asks desperately. Krysti perks up at hearing Natsu being mentioned as she was deep in thought on what she wants to do if she ever get a hold of any of the Phantom mages.

"Gray and Elfman." Cana says grimly, knowing how her friend is going to react. And her prediction was true as Mira's face changes to a mask of horror.

"Elfman! But why?" she cries out in terror. At this Cana looks sad, knowing how worried Mira has been over her younger brother after the accident.

"Why? He also wants to…" Cana starts to say as Mira presses herself up against the wall to face her better. Krysti steps closer as well to put a reassuring hand on the shoulder of the woman that she views as a sister after seeing the terrified look on her face.

"It's no use! He can't fight! You know that, Cana!" Mira cries out in protest. Cana looks back at the guild's bartender and gives her a confident smirk.

"He can fight. He helped us when we raided them before, remember?" she says reassuringly.

Mira argues back, "Fighting with their lackeys is one thing, but if he goes up against their big guns… As he is now, Elfman can't…" she trails off, not wanting to finish the sentence. Krysti pulls the distressed woman into a hug, her earlier rage now forgotten as she wants to comfort her friend. Cana turns away not wanting to see the look of anguish on her friend's face. Shushing noises and soft hums are heard despite the battle taking place not far away.

"Hey, Mira… When that happened, you, Elfman, and everyone too… We all suffered a deep wound." Cana say reluctantly. Krysti looks back and forth between the two women, wanting to know what they are talking about. She decides against asking what the problem is, knowing that she wouldn't be able to understand anyways. All she knows is that it has something to do with Mira's brother.

Cana continues to speak, "However, in his own way, he's forced himself to move forward. I know you realize this." At those words, Mira clutches tighter onto Krysti's arms and hugs back as she thinks over what Cana said.