Effervescence

Chapter 3

"You smile a lot, Sasha-san. It's kind of hard to believe you're related to Laxus-san." She said as she shook my hand. I settled into the space next to her.

"I didn't have a lot of chances to smile back when I was with Acnologia, so I guess I'm making up for it. Also, no need for the honorifics, Wendy!"

"O-okay. You have really pretty hair, Sasha..." And that's how we went on getting to know each other for the next hour or so. I let her and Charla braid my hair, and in turn I braided her hair into two cute pigtails. About halfway through, Mavis joined us.

"Now that you're sitting next to each other, I can see an uncanny resemblance..." Wendy said shyly.

"Yup, my middle name is actually Sasha Mavis Dreyar, because I look almost identical to Mavis. The only obvious difference was my eye color. At age 11 through 14, we used to play pranks on everyone where we would use a little trick I learned from a book to change my eye color to green, and she changed hers to blue. Then, we'd switch places! It was so much fun!" I sighed and closed my eyes as I remembered the days when I would act as the first master of Fairy Tail.

"So even though you're just a projection of when you were alive, you two were close friends? That sounds nice." She sighed. She was 13 now, and the only female friend who was the same age as her was in a different guild.

"Well then, why don't you two get to know each other better! Mavis may be a ghost, no offense," "None taken!" ", but she's also lonely! You could be friends, just like I am with her!" They both smiled and nodded, and got to know each other better as I had suggested.

~~

Before sunset, I sneaked out of the guild, and walked to my favorite place in Magnolia.

It was a cliff just on the outskirts of the forest, and the willow tree there gave the perfect shade as I looked across the town.

"So many things have changed, haven't they old friend? And still you're here to listen to my problems and musings..." I sighed as I leaned back and patted the tree behind me. I wiped the goofy smile off my face, and felt like I was being consumed by the darkness inside me. It spilled out of me, and seemed to encase me in a metaphorical shell of emptiness.

"And you're still more inclined to pour all of your secrets out to a tree than a human being..." I jumped up, looking around me to discover the intruder. She must have been downwind, so I didn't smell her approaching me.

"Sheesh, you scared the crap outta me, Cana!" I heard a low chuckle as the willow branches parted to reveal Cana Alberona, one of my most cherished friends.

"So you finally told Gildarts he was your dad." It was more of a statement than a question.

"Yeah... now I kinda wish I hadn't though..." she mumbled so quietly only a slayer could've heard her.

"At least your father knows about you and shows his love."

"Yeah, I know. I'm mostly happy that he knows now, though." She simply brushed off my melancholy remark, used to it from when we were younger. I lay down, my head on a root sticking out of the ground, and Cana lay down with her hands behind her head.

"Why'd you come here?"

"You seemed uber-cheery today."

"And that's a reason to come here?"

"With you it is. Anyway, my cards told me you were hiding something." She sighed and turned to face me, propping herself on her elbow. "One thing I will never forgive myself for doing is being naive enough to believe you when you said you were okay." She said, worry and guilt in her voice. I let out a dark chuckle. She sighed again, and flopped back onto her back. "Why're you so difficult?!"

"Remember when you taught me to read tarot cards to predict when my dad would come back from a mission?" "Yeah." "Those were the days when you would help everyone out, however small the problem. You would never show anyone your true face, always being the good girl who was all smiles."

"Yeah. Then, you found me here one day. Mavis was patting me on the back, and you went and sat on the other side. Not knowing what was wrong, you did the same thing as I cried my eyes out." I could remember that day as clearly as if it was yesterday.

"And then you smiled at us both and said 'I'm okay now.' Pfft. What a liar you were." She laughed, and I cracked a smile. It was a bitter smile, a broken smile, but it was a truthful smile.

"Then you enlisted Gray to help cheer me up, and you two became my little shadows..." I closed my eyes, and remembered the two crying 11 year old kids as I hugged them both to my chest, telling them that I'd be back soon. It's enough to say that I wasn't. My thoughts turned dark, as I felt the darkness inside me swell to an almost tangible taste.

"Sasha... Sasha! Sasha! ASH!" I opened my eyes as Cana's scream finally penetrated my morbid daydream. My eyes widened as I saw tendrils of ash gray stuff came out of me, darkening the whole atmosphere so that the world turned monochrome. Then, everything went black.

~~~

Woah that escalated quickly.... Sorry if it was at all too fast, but Sasha has problems now WOOHOO. Also, this was way over my expected word count! It is 1588 words long! I'm so proud of myself!

As you can probably tell, I tried to establish some relationships for her, such as showing you her, Cana and Gray's history, and some bonding with Wendy.

Any constructive criticism is welcome, and if you have any suggestions or whatnot, comment or PM me, please!

Anything you want to see in this fanfic? Go ahead and speak your mind!

The next update will be a poll, so look out for that!

Love,

Maia