Celestial Heart (A Fairy Tail Fanfic)

Chapter 30: Heart to Heart

My hands curled into fists at my sides. She'd gone too far this time. I could hear their conversation like echoes hitting their last, lingering notes, their words indistinct and garbled but recognizable nonetheless. And I'd be damned if I allowed Karen to carry out another of her unreasonable punishments, on Aries especially. 

It was a simple matter of pulling Aries home, taking her place admist a sea of smoke while Karin's shrieking reached its climax. Evidently, she wasn't used to people running out on her, too enchanting to have anyone dislike her. 

Her arrogance needed to be checked.

"Leo?! Why did you open the Gate without my permission?!"

The urge to smirk was almost overpowering. Seeing her so completely baffled, so out of her element, I felt a thrill of victory for all the Spirits she'd mistreated in her career.

"I'm a combat Spirit by nature," I answered, catching her wavering gaze through the hazy air between us. "I'm strong enough to handle your tantrums. But if you do these horrible things to poor little Aries again, I won't let you get away with it."

I could see plainly the muscle ticking furiously in her jaw; the grinding of her teeth was audible in the shocked silence in the wake of my declaration. As I said, though, I knew Karen. I understood her rather well, actually, to the point where I could guess her reactions to the last, most minuscule detail. Down to the enraged flush dusting her cheeks, the curling of her fists. 

"You're just a Spirit," she all but spat, "what are you going to do-"

"I'm here today to say this," I said, slicing neatly through her no doubt futile tirade, "I want you to terminate your pact with me and Aries."

I'd thought about this for months now. It was Aries' only chance of freedom, and my best opportunity as well. We'd suffered years of this, treated as mere emotionless tools. It had to end.

"What are you talking about..." Her voice shook terribly, though from fury or fear, I couldn't say. 'That's not something a Spirit can say!"

"I can't abide by your evil ways any longer. Other Spirits are afraid to hand their Keys to you."

"Shut up!"

"You've lost the right to be a Spirit Summoner," I went on, as though deaf to her shrill words.

Desperate now, she squared her shoulders, bracing herself, and shouted, "Go back! Leo's Gate, close!" while frantically pointing a very useless finger in my direction.

It took a moment for the message to sink in, but the moment the words had been beaten into her cotton-stuffed ears, her temper flared with a vengeance, and her efforts to return me to the Celestial Spirit World only intensified.

I made no move to stop her. 

Eventually, her stamina gave out (she'd never been particularly hardy from the beginning), and she stood, panting, hands propped up on her knees, her shadowed brown eyes glinting with malice. "Why can't... I force the Gate to close...?" 

"I won't leave before you remove our pacts," I said simply. Karen's eyes widened, her trembling limbs going still. "And as long as I'm here, you won't be able to summon any other Spirits. You don't have the strength. It'll be quite difficult for you, won't it?"

A faint sneer crossed Karen's lips as she straightened, taking quite the defiant step forward. "Ho ho, your magic isn't limitless either. Without my permission, you'll run out of magic within ten days and be forced to return."