The pink-haired woman stood to her feet, her eyes never moving from that large cube gently moving through the clouds. The soft white forms just parted calmly around the unnatural phenomenon, making the sight seem almost magical. To anyone else, it would have caused them to stare in awe, mouth agape. But it made Kia want to both shrink away and destroy something at the same time.
She pulled her elbows back, her signature fiery wings forming from the crimson magic circle that appeared on her back.
"Wait?!" Verani's voice came through her mind, "Can you really?!"
Kia knew that some of the others must have heard Verani with how loud she was, even if she was still in the infirmary with her brother, but she couldn't care less. The shingles under her feet cracked at the force of her jump as she stretched her wings to catch the air current, a sound that was easily heard inside by the two she had been talking with.
"Hey, what the hell are you doing?!"
A few of the others turned toward the yelling blonde, seeing her holding a few fingers over the glowing rune on her forearm.
"Kia! Answer me, damn it!"
As Verani tried to get her friend to respond, Amber turned and immediately crossed the hall. Throwing the doors open, her gaze shifted up, easily spotting the streak of fire in the sky. She slapped her fingers over her own rune so hard that it was audible, "Kia, don't be stupid! Wait for all of us!"
The dark-haired girl felt a few presences at her sides. She peeked over to find Wendy and a hovering Carla, their own brown eyes looking up.
A voice sounded from her other side, "I didn't think she was as impulsive as Salamander."
"She's not planning on fighting all of them, is she?" The worry was evident in the Sky Dragon Slayer's voice.
Carla crossed her arms while a slight huff, "Well obviously, she's being a fool."
"Card Dimension: All!"
A bright light flooded through the guild hall, engulfing all of its members. Within seconds, everyone but Cana had vanished, replaced by floating cards. Murmurs and questions carried through the air as everyone tried to figure out what had just happened.
Gray scanned the room, "Wait, this magic..."
"When the hell did you learn this one, Cana?" Verani was trying to examine the card that she had been sucked into.
"What the hell's going on?"
"Sorry," Cana explained, "but I have to make sure everyone gets out and some of you are way too slow!" She stood up straighter, extending a hand, "Now then, I return all cards to me!"
There were yelps and cries as they were all hurled through the air toward the Card mage, who wasted no time summoning the three guild members she needed.
"Happy! Carla! Lily! The guild hall's about to explode! Get us out of here and head for that Tartaros base!"
||~x~||
The unexpected shockwave sent her tumbling forward in the air a few times before Kia was able to turn and see what had caused it. And her throat closed. Everything in her body stopped functioning in that second, except for her fiery wings which continued subconsciously.
'H-How? How could that have happened?' Her vision blurred, her eyes beginning to burn along with her lungs. 'Everyone...'
Three twinkles caught her attention as they rapidly shot from the billowing of smoke. Within seconds, she recognized the charging forms of Happy, Carla, and Pantherlily. A small sense of hope flickered in her internal flame, if the Exceeds were okay then the others should be too.
"Kia!" Happy's eyes watered when he saw the Phoenix Slayer. He was so happy to see that she had been able to get away from the explosion. Though he didn't notice the panic in her body, the same couldn't be said for the other two.
"Everyone is alright!" Carla shouted, "We have them all right here!"
Lily nodded, "We are headed for Tartaros!"
Kia nodded, her determination returning as she shifted back toward their destination. That was when a ripple of magic pulsed from the Cube, distorting the air around them. Happy squeaked as the four were roughly yanked upward.
"What's happening?!" Carla cried, clutching the cards in her paws tightly.
Lily stared ahead, "It's pulling us in!"
There were only a few moments to think and Kia had to make a decision. Her eyes scanned over the Exceeds and the cards that they were carrying. They had the full might of Fairy Tail with them, they would be fine. So she pushed flames from her feet, boosting her speed.
Kia faintly heard Happy shouting how their impact was going to hurt, but she forced herself to ignore it as she shot off to the side. She clenched her teeth as she poured more magic into her feet, trying to gain enough speed to make it to the edge before the gravity field could fully overpower her.
Suddenly, the pressure shifted as Kia felt the same tug coming from the side. Whoever was calling the shots wasn't playing around. But neither was she. Without care for how much energy she was wasting, Kia added fire to her fists, giving herself the extra push to break through to the skies above the fortress.
"I'm sorry guys." She muttered to herself. "I have to figure out what's really going on and stop it."
||~x~||
"Hello, Tartaros. I'd like you to meet Fairy Tail!"
Cana's voice rang out as all of the cards in the Exceeds' hands glowed brightly. The full force of Fairy Tail suddenly appeared to face the army of the dark guild.
They broke off into smaller groups as they fought and made sure to keep watch over each other's backs. The lower members of Tartaros weren't that bad of challenge for the Fairy Tail wizards, but there were a lot of them.
A bright light flashed over the battlefield from Loke once he had stopped flirting with Lucy. That light faded but another took its place as a golden blur zipped back and forth, soldiers falling every time they were used by the blonde to change her direction.
Verani slid to a stop next to the red bubble that was wrapped around her dark-haired friend and the injured. Her eyes lingered on the largest body laid out on the ground, forcing herself to turn back to the fight before her.
Amber's voice rang through her mind as the Blood mage pressed her spare hand against the communication rune on her arm again, "Kia! Answer!"
"Stop shouting." The Phoenix Slayer's voice came through low, but even. "It's hard enough to think without you both yelling in my ear."
"Flash Bolt!" Verani blasted back a few more enemy troops as she pressed her own rune, "Then tell us where the hell you are."
Kia sighed through the telepathy, "I'm doing what I have to."
The other two's eyes widened as their blood ran cold. Amber replied, "P-please tell me you aren't inside alone."
"Sorry."
"Kia, wait for us." Verani growled, shooting another Flash Bolt. "You don't have to face this alone."
But there was no response.
Amber and V made eye contact. They both knew what this place meant to Kia, the role it played in her past. Those were memories that they never wished for her to have to face, let alone on her own. Both reached for their communication runes again, but faltered as the ground beneath them shook.
"What the hell is it now?!" The blonde grumbled.
A sudden explosion caught the attention of everyone on the underside of the Cube, two figures erupting from the newly-made hole in the ground.
Lucy's voice rang out, "It's Erza!"
The guild watched in awe as Titania continued to push the demon further toward the world that loomed over their heads. For a moment, a few feared that she was going to break through the gravity field and plummet for Earthland, but that didn't happen.
Her feet touched back down, her gaze scanning around in confusion, "You're here."
"Well done." Master stepped through the crowd to the red-haired mage. "You've opened a path for us.
"My pleasure." Erza continued to look around, "Question: Why are we upside down?"
Gray was the one to answer, "Sorry, but don't have time to play catch up." He turned to the others, "I say we storm the hole Erza made and wreck shop."
"Yeah!"
Everyone cheered as Verani made her way closer. She dropped her voice below theirs, "Grandpa."
Makarov turned, stopping when he saw the pure concern in his granddaughter's eyes. His heart skipped, his worry immediately going to his grandson that was laying on the ground nearby.
"Kia's already inside."
His eyes widened. That was in no way what he had been prepared to hear.
"I know you don't know everything," she said, "but this was personal before they took Natsu or attacked Fairy Tail. I don't know what she's planning but..." Verani stopped, she didn't want to say that she didn't trust Kia, because she did. There were very few people in the world that the blonde could say that she trusted with every fiber of her being and the Phoenix Slayer was one of them. But that also meant she knew that Kia would do whatever she had to in order to protect the guild and everyone else, regardless of what that meant for her. As long as Kia didn't die before keeping her promise to her dad, she would do anything. And there was the bigger thing that V couldn't tell her grandfather: they had been looking for Tartaros before Tenrou happened.
It was the only other place Kia could think of that Zeref might hide that damned book.
"We just have to have faith in her."
Her eyes locked with her grandfather's as he continued, "Kia is smart. She knows what she's doing, even if we don't like it."
"Doesn't mean I'm not going after her."
Makarov sighed, "I figured as much." His eyes hardened again, "Come back to me in one piece."
She nodded, "We'll all come back on one piece."
Verani turned, seeing Gray and a handful of others jumping down into the hole that was their ticket into Tartaros. She paused, catching Amber's eyes.
"I'm going after Stupid! I'm leaving my brother and the others to you! Take care of him for me!"
"Will do!" Amber's voice rang out, echoing down the hole as Verani dropped toward the other side of the Cube.
||~x~||
In four hundred years, the halls hadn't changed. It felt as though Kia was here only last week, not a few centuries ago. But she did skip most of that time. For her, it had only been about fifteen years since she was forced to call this building her home.
Surprisingly, everything seemed fairly empty. She quickly assumed that most of the lesser members had been sent to the outside of the Cube in hopes of keeping the rest of Fairy Tail from getting inside.
Kia shook her head, forcing that thought to the back of her mind. The others would be fine. They were Fairy Tail wizards and were more than capable of taking care of themselves and each other. She used that same logic to keep from sprinting through the halls screaming for her little brother.
"Kia! Answer!" Amber's voice rang through her head, desperate for any kind of response.
Keeping her voice down in case anyone happened to be nearby, she finally pressed her fingers against her communication rune, Stop shouting. It's hard enough to think without you both yelling in my ear."
It was Verani who replied, "Then tell us where the hell you are."
She sounded slightly out of breath. Kia could only imagine how much steam the blonde was blowing off at the expense of those who were a part of the guild who had hurt her older brother.
Kia sighed, "I'm doing what I have to."
"P-Please," Amber's voice crackled, "tell me you aren't inside alone."
The pink-haired mage closed her eyes, "Sorry."
Kia pumped some of her magic into the back side of the rune, cutting Verani off mid sentence, "Kia, wait for us. You don't ha-"
She took in a breath, forcing her feet to move forward one at a time. Her body wanted to stop, but she forced her logic into her muscles. The smaller hall she had taken widened into a circular room, only one other exit lay on the other side of the table at its center. Kia didn't pay mind to anything that sat abandoned in the room, her legs carrying her down that other hall.
There was only one being in this fortress who truly knew what was going on. Even after all this time, that was a fact that Kia was sure hadn't changed. And as she stepped out into his private throne room, seeing him seated smuggling on the regal chair, she was sure she was right.
Mard Geer smirked, "Well isn't this a surprise?"