Midnight peeked from behind a tree at an unassuming, most likely abandoned, house that sat in the middle of a forest. He furrowed his brow as he asked the mages who were hiding among the vegetation with him, "we're sure that this is the right location?" His voice was low, careful not to make too much noise in case there was a hidden person who was on the lookout.
Lucy answered, her voice also low, "yeah, it definitely is. Sirius couldn't be wrong." She reached up with one hand and adjusted Rufus' hat, which she had rested upon her head.
Midnight nodded and glanced at Freed, who was finishing up the runes that Lucy had instructed him to put up. Insurance that Terra, Lust, and Nyx won't be able to easily escape. He then turned back to look at the house again. His eyes roamed over the outside, trying to deduce what part of the house Rufus could be being kept in.
It didn't take long for him to spot a small window that sat at the base of the house's exterior. A basement. It was a typical place to keep a captive, but also the easiest place.
"Have you thought of a plan, Lucy?" Freed asked as he returned to where they were hiding.
Midnight heard her hum in thought before she asked him, "Midnight, do have any guesses as to where in the house they could be keeping Rufus?"
Midnight looked over at her before he looked back at the house. He reached out a hand and pointed at the small window that he had spotted. "My guess would be the basement."
Lucy's eyes quickly locked onto the window. She nodded and requipped a silver key into her hand. Midnight and Freed watched as she stood up and stepped backward, away from the tree that she was hiding behind. She raised her key and softly called out, "Open! Gate of the Fly: Musca!"
In an instant, a young man in a fly costume appeared in front of Lucy, sitting with his legs crisscrossed and his chin resting on top of the knuckles of his hand, which were balled into fists while his arms were propped up in the sides of his knees. He grinned up at Lucy and asked, rather loudly, "what'd ya need?"
Midnight gave a slight grimace at his loud tone while Lucy shushed him. She then instructed him, "I need you to turn into a fly and go into that to find out who is where inside."
Musca stood up and brushed the dirt off of his costume before he questioned, his voice now low, and grin still on his face, "how many people am I looking for?"
"Four. Three celestial wizards and one of our friends."
Musca flashed a thumbs-up before he shifted into a fly and flew toward the house. Midnight watched until he wasn't able to see the spirit any longer. He then looked over at Lucy and asked, "what are we going to do with the celestial wizards if we catch them?"
Lucy glanced at him before she looked down at the ground, seeming to be thinking. It was a question that Midnight hadn't realized that he was wondering, but now that he thought about it, he didn't think they had ever talked about the topic, nor had he been told what the plan was.
Freed looked at Lucy with a furrowed brow. "Yeah, what are we going to do with them? None of the books I looked through have any information on them, and Mest hasn't heard of them, so it's possible that the Magic Council doesn't know about them. That could make turning them in difficult."
Lucy nodded as she continued to stare at the ground. Eventually, she sighed and answered, "let's just focus on saving Rufus. Getting him back safely should be our first priority."
Midnight nodded, but he was still slightly concerned with what they were supposed to do with Terra, Lust, and Nyx. It wouldn't be easy to detain and transport them to be imprisoned. While he was on that train of thought, he also couldn't recall them ever learning how the three celestial wizards' mission was possible.
He looked over at Lucy again, asking, "how are they even able to take over the Celestial Spirit World?"
It was Freed who responded, his tone a little on the harsh side, "I don't think that talking this much is a good idea. We can figure all of that out when we capture them."
Midnight suppressed a glare at the other man's tone while Lucy turned to Freed and soothed as she place a hand on his shoulder, "his questions are understandable, I'm curious too. Try not to be harsh, please."
A light dusting of pink appeared on Freed's cheeks as he softly replied, "right, I apologize." It was clearly directed toward Lucy rather than toward Midnight. However, that wasn't what bothered Midnight. A feeling of irritation swirled in his gut as he grimaced at the sight of the blush on Freed's face.
He turned his head away, to look back at the house. He still didn't understand why it irritated him so much when Lucy would be so affectionate toward Freed or Rufus, before his capture, resulting in either man blushing lightly. There was something about the occasional display that would make him want to steal away Lucy's attention, even though he never responded much better than Freed and Rufus whenever Lucy would focus her attention on him, praising him for any sort of accomplishment.
It especially frustrated him that he had yet to figure out why he felt this way about Lucy. Recently, he's found himself watching her more than he used to. Without realizing it, he would end up staring at her with a warmth on his face and in his heart, along with a fluttering feeling in his gut, as he watches her do anything, typically admiring her newest keys.
Speaking of, has he, Freed, and Rufus given Lucy any of the keys that they collected at la Cour de Velours? He knew that he hadn't given her the two keys that he collected, having forgotten about doing so due to Rufus' capture. He wouldn't be surprised if Freed was the same way and Rufus most likely didn't either due to having been captured.
He turned back to look at Lucy again. She was staring intently at the house, one of her hands resting on her opposite arm as she, seemingly absentmindedly, picked at non-existent lint on her blue shirt sleeve. He quickly found himself staring at her again, but couldn't find it in himself to care very much about how weird it might look. So, he doesn't look away. Instead, he observes how the freshly risen sun shines down on Lucy's golden hair, making it glow beautifully. Her dark brown eyes seemed to sparkle in the light, something that, as he's noticed, was a common thing that happened whenever it was sunny outside.
A sudden sharp, but incredibly brief, pain snapped his attention away from Lucy and over to Freed, who had silently moved to stand just behind him. The green-haired man gave him a silent glare, which was clearly a warning that he should stop staring at Lucy. Midnight returned the glare, continuing the sort of standoff until Lucy spoke excitedly, yet still softly, "Musca! He's back!"
Midnight and Freed watched as Lucy walked past them to speak with her spirit, who returned to his more human form to give his report. The fly costume-clad young man gave a large grin as he chirped, "your blonde friend is in the basement!"
Lucy asked, concern lacing her voice, "did he appear to be hurt?"
Musca shook his head. "Not really. He's tied up, though."
"What about the celestial wizards?"
"Two of them seem to be preparing to leave. The other one is gonna stay, I guess."
Lucy nodded and hummed in thought. "Who are probably leaving?"
"The chick and a guy with blue hair."
Lucy thanked Musca and dismissed him back to his realm. When she turned back to face her two friends, Midnight questioned, "what's the plan now?"
Lucy answered, "we should get to Rufus first. Terra and Lust would know that we're here once they discover the runes that Freed set up, so we need to release him before they get to us before we can get to him. We also need to deal with Nyx, but I'm sure that the three of us can take care of him just fine."
She walked back to the tree that she was previously hidden behind and peered at the house. A few moments of silence followed before she spoke again, "we should wait for Terra and Lust to leave. Once they do, we can go in from different entrances." She turned around to look at her guildmate. "Freed, how many doors did you see?"
"Three. The front door, back door, and a side door." Freed wasted no time in listing off the entrances to the house that he had seen while setting up his runes.
Lucy nodded. "I'll go in from the door opposite of the one that Terra and Lust exit from. While I look for Rufus, Freed, you'll look for Nyx and try to capture him. Midnight, you'll stay outside and go after Terra and Lust."
Midnight nodded along with Freed, agreeing with the plan. The three then turned back to the house to wait for Terra and Lust to exit the house. Midnight tapped his fingers against the tree that he leaned against, feeling unusually restless. Well, he supposed that uneasy would be a better word. He wasn't sure why he was feeling this way, but really irritated him and he itched for Terra and Lust to finally come out of the house so that they could get on with the dual rescue and capture plan.
It took several minutes of tense waiting, but eventually, Terra and Lust finally exited the house through the front door, making their way toward a part of Freed's rune wall. Lucy then nodded toward the two men and the trio set out to their assigned jobs: Lucy to find Rufus, Freed to capture Nyx, and Midnight to capture Terra and Lust.
Midnight quietly but swiftly made his way in the direction that Terra and Lust had walked in. As he got closer, he readied himself for a fight. As confident as he was in his ability to fight, he couldn't exactly deny that he was nervous about this confrontation. He had no idea what other forms of magic these two were capable of using, or which spirits they had. Going by what Lucy had said about when she, Sorano, and Yukino were captured, Terra knew Sleep Magic. The chances of her knowing other types, or Lust knowing other types, were higher than Midnight was comfortable with.
His train of thought was abruptly cut off when he bumped into Freed's wall of runes, the enchanted writing a glowing purple upon contact. He groaned as he rubbed his dully pained nose. He hissed a curse under his breath and looked around, searching for the two mages he had gone after.
Where were Terra and Lust? They should be here. Did they walk in a different direction? Why would they? His movements were silent, so they couldn't have heard him. Did they go back to the house after finding the wall of runes? He would have surely heard them making their way back if they did.
"Looking for us?"
Midnight whipped around to find a pink-haired woman standing several feet in front of him, a smirk on her face. Next to her, a blue-haired man stood with three silver keys in his hand. Midnight looked back at Terra, his eyes narrowed in a glare, and shifted his tensed body into a fighting stance.
Terra only continued to smirk, her body eerily relaxed. It unsettled Midnight, just a little. His instincts, honed from a lifetime of fighting, told him that there was something more here, something that he was missing. The smirk on the woman's face was too smug, too sure of herself, too...knowing.
Midnight continued to watch her closely, his brain working to figure out what it was that he was missing. When Terra's eyes flicked to the rune wall behind him several times, he chanced a quick look behind himself, his body's stance not changing. His eyes widened and his body froze when he saw the runes glow a purple color before disappearing entirely, clearly deactivated.
Midnight looked back at the duo in front of him. It was then that the realization hit him.
These three celestial wizards knew that they were there and what they were planning.
As soon as the realization struck him, Midnight was enveloped by flames. He screamed as his knees buckled and he fell to the ground, the flames that lapped at his exposed skin burned painfully, but didn't leave any marks.
Seemingly as quickly as they came, the flames died out and Midnight was left on his hand and knees, his eyes stinging with tears as his whole body stung, his clothes smoking a little, as well. His breathing came out in gasps as he looked around for the two celestial wizards, or for the celestial spirit who attacked him from above, but he found nobody in sight.
He cursed under his breath as he pulled himself to his feet, his slightly singed clothes rubbing against his still burning skin painfully. He was able to catch a small glimpse of blue hair disappearing in the direction that lead away from the house. Tempted to give chase, he reluctantly decided to instead make his way as quickly to the house as his pained body would allow him. He knew that he wouldn't fair well in a fight with those two, and Lucy didn't need to deal with two injured men.
He eventually made his way out of the trees and looked up to find that Lucy and Freed were standing in front of the house, seeming to be talking, while Rufus sat on the front steps, what looked like a book in his hands.
Midnight made his way to them. Upon noticing him, Lucy wrapped her arms around him in a tight embrace, causing him to grimace with a pained groan. Lucy jumped away with a slightly panicky tone, "sorry! Sorry!"
Midnight waved her off and asked, "anybody hurt?"
Freed answered, "my scuffle with one of that man's spirits will certainly leave me with a few painful bruises, but besides that, I'm unharmed. Lucy, too, isn't hurt, and Rufus, rather surprisingly, isn't injured."
Midnight looked down at the blonde man, his iconic hat now firmly on his head. A small wave of relief washed over him upon seeing that Rufus was, indeed, not injured. His attention went back to Lucy when she spoke, "Rufus found something big." There was a delighted smile on her face, something that Midnight hadn't seen in some time and, unexpectedly, missed a lot.
He looked back at Rufus and asked, "that book?"
Rufus nodded and stood up. "This is a book of Celestial Spirit Magic spells. It contains the spell that will allow a celestial wizard to take over the Celestial Spirit World."
Midnight's eyes widened at that. He stepped closer to peer at the book. "How?"
Rufus tipped the book closer to him, allowing him to read the page. When he stepped away, his curiosity partially satisfied, he looked at Lucy and asked, "what's the plan now?"
Lucy opened her mouth to speak, but was cut off by Freed, "hold on a moment." All three mages looked at the rune mage. His sea-green gaze was set on Rufus. "How did you find this book? And this spell? You were tied up in the basement, weren't you?"
Midnight nodded. "That's a good question." He looked at Rufus. "How did you?"
Rufus closed the book and tucked it under an arm. "This is going to be difficult to believe, but yesterday, Nyx told me about the spell and gave me this book."
Midnight narrowed his eyes at him. It wasn't in suspicion toward Rufus, he knew that the Sabertooth mage wouldn't do anything traitorous, rather, it was in suspicion of the fact that one of the celestial wizards they were combating had, seemingly, freely given up such important information.
It seemed that Lucy, too, was suspicious. "Are you sure that he can be trusted, Rufus?"
Rufus sighed, looking down at the ground for a few moments before he finally looked at the three of them and answered seriously, "look, I understand why you'd be hesitant to trust him, but I spoke with him about it. He came to me with this information, I didn't need to push. He was insistent about wanting to help us. Furthermore, he let me go when he saw that you were coming."
Lucy questioned, a surprised tone in her voice, "that's why I ran into you on my way to the basement? I thought that you had gotten yourself free."
Rufus shook his head. "Nyx had let me go. He wanted to speak with you. He's sworn up and down several times that he wants to help us."
Midnight couldn't believe what he was hearing. He shook his head. "You can't honestly believe his word. Have you forgotten who we're fighting?"
Rufus countered, "I understand your concerns, but what if he is being honest? If we can team up with him, then it would most definitely give us a great advantage. I'd say that it's worth the risk."
Midnight could only disagree. They didn't need to know anything about their enemy, they just needed to know what they were planning. Now that they had this book, they could more easily figure out how to stop those three celestial wizards. He looked to Lucy, prepared to urge her against the idea, but wanting to listen to her initial response first.
Lucy stared at the ground for a few moments longer before she looked back up and answered, "let's find a place to stay in the town before we make a final decision. I don't want to stay here for much longer, in case they come back."
With that, the small group set off toward the nearby town, an argument almost certainly waiting to happen.
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I hope you enjoyed this chapter. I'm still not good at writing fight scenes, so I wasn't able to make Midnight's "confrontation" with Terra and Lust very fighty. Hopefully, I'll get better at writing fight scenes.