brains and brawn | sting eucliffe

¹⁸ꜰɪɢʜᴛ ᴏꜰ ʜᴇʀ ʟɪꜰᴇ

She heard two pairs of footsteps behind her as she ran up the hill.

Her lungs ached, but it was nothing compared to how she felt when she saw that they were almost there. She could see the crack of light in the distance. They were so close.

Gears had been running all day. Ever since the sun rose over the kingdom.

Setting a trek for the mountains around Crocus, her first interaction needed to be the group on the outside. When she finally tracked down the three mages, she'd already been searching for hours, and her entire body was exhausted.

Crime Sorciere.

When she had appeared from the shadows, they almost attacked her. But, she freaked the hell out- not expecting to round a rock formation and see them sitting down in a circle. So they calmed down after seeing a familiar face.

Well, Jellal saw the familiar face. Melody almost knocked her out.

Once that had been settled, she explained all of her calculations- well, to Ultear. The other two could barely keep up with the physics of it.

She double-checked her work, and they both came to the same conclusion. The Eclipse Gate needed to be shut.

So, while the group was rendezvousing with the council.. Jellal saying something about another dragon slayer. She almost asked.. almost. But that would take more time- and judging by the almost setting sun, she was almost out of time.

"Stop!" She shouted, voices of her friends echoing her words as they came around the corner.

Guards covered every inch of the area, but she knew that someone had to hear them. "Stop! Close the gates! You've gotta close the gates!"

She rammed into the side of armour, trying to push past the blockade of people.

Sting came up from the side of her as he tried to get her a way through. "Stop! Listen to her! You've got to close the gates!"

Only the clash of metal replied to their words, before a figure stepped through the masses, leading the girl through as she stumbled along. Her right arm was being pulled through the crowd, and she spotted the two dragon slayers following behind as they broke through to the other side.

"What do you mean?" A voice asked, and the girl looked up to see a green-haired girl that looked to be around her age. She held her head up high, a crown on her head. Gears knew exactly who she was.

"Princess." She greeted respectfully, ignoring the gaping looks from behind her. "Please, you have to close those gates-"

Her expression turned from one of peace to a scowl. Her mood sank as she realized that the princess would not be changing her mind. Especially when she thought she was trying to do the right thing. Hisui was trying to protect her people, and Gears couldn't be very mad about that.

"Those gates are what's protecting us from the dragons." The girl snapped at her, clearly out of it. She didn't know what to think. "If we close them, we'll have nothing to defend ourselves with."

Gears watched her as she pointed at the gate, but still she tried again. "Listen, your calculations are wrong, this can never be used as an ether-"

"Silence!"

There was a pause as the orange haired girl watched them start to turn the wheel to open the gates. "Please, if you open those gates, the dragon-"

Hisui turned to her with a furrowed brow as the orange-haired girl panted, still trying to catch her breath while attempting to appear calm to the princess. "I know exactly what those dragons will do if we open the gate- they'll die."

The girl panicked as the doors began to turn open, inching forwards as the girl watched on, panicked. Her friends stood by her side, and she spotted Lucy, Mira, Natsu, Happy & Wendy off to the side.

Good. At least they were able to get out.

She looked to the gates, and then back at the princess, who looked relieved at the sight of the gates finally opening.

She took a step forwards, a breeze blowing past her face. "If you open that gate you'll bring them straight to u-"

There was sudden silence- and Gears choked slightly. Curious, the princess turned to see what the pause was about- and she screamed.

Blood. All that they could see was blood. A dagger to the stomach as she collapsed, red pooling around her body. She coughed weakly, laying a hand out besides her as the group around quickly crouched down besides her.

Somebody shouted out a blood curdling scream, she couldn't tell in the chaos.

All they could see was the cloaked figure of Lucy as she lay in front of Gears- clutching her stomach in pain and relief.

"Aww. I missed."

Her eyes turned up to a figure, clothed in black- long hair dripping over his shoulders in a low ponytail. She recognized the man.. but he looked.. different. A lot older than he seemed to be now.. but how?

"Oh well." Rogue grinned, looking back up at the girl with a lazy smirk. "I could always try again."

She backed up a bit, torn between getting away from the crazed individual or helping Lucy. Her eyes trailed between them before feeling her body be pushed behind another.

Gears looked up to meet the back of her comrade.

Sting growled at the man, holding his left arm out to make sure she was protected. "Rogue, what the hell man?! What's gotten into you!?"

He sneered, magic beginning to pool together in his palm. "It's simple really, I just needed you all to open the gate. And it seemed like it wasn't going to happen if Gears Griffin had her way. So I just wanted to eliminate the problem."

She swallowed heavily as the door continued to open. There was barely any time, and they needed to get to that panel.

Thundering steps echoed around them as the gate was almost completely opened up. A large, looming shadow appeared from behind the glowing light- sending terror down their spines.

Gears had never seen a dragon before. And after this, she wasn't sure she wanted to.

There was silence for a moment. One fleeting moment.

Until chaos struck.

The dragon roared, sending the entire army that the princess had brought with her running for the hills. Her legs began to shake as the group found themselves face to face with the reptile.

Her eyes met those of the others- and she knew that she was just as screwed as the rest of them.

She was ready for the fight of her life.

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✎crocodile