Chapter Seventy Two - Zoldeo
The beginning of X776 started out pretty slow. I spent time looking for the Oracion Seis as more and more birthdays passed. Jellal was eleven now, and Reedus was nineteen while Ur was twenty nine.
Brandish's ninth birthday passed, and a few days later, Yukino turned three.
While I made some time for each of the birthday kids, I was, as I said, spending time trying to find the Oracion Seis. My locating magic was blocked, once again (fucking Brain), and Cana's cards did nothing to help.
I did, however, manage to locate a member of another dark guild.
"Laxus, I need your help," I said to him.
"Do you need our help, too?" Jellal asked, immediately volunteering.
I shook my head, messing with his hair. Luckily, despite my small size, I was still a few inches taller than him. "Nah, Laxus is the only one who qualifies. Well…" I turned to look at a spirit. "Loke, you going to be helpful, or not?"
"Depends," he said. "What are we doing?"
"Zoldeo," I said.
His eyes darkened, and his fists tightened. "Let me get Corvus. Take my key with you, we'll meet you there."
And then he faded back to the Celestial Spirit Realm.
Laxus's eyes were wide. "This is serious enough that they'll get along?"
I nodded.
He nodded back. "Let's get going, then."
"Good luck," Erza said.
"Thanks," I replied.
We were probably going to need it.
*****
I totally fucking called it.
I knew we were going to need that luck, and we did.
We started out well enough.
….Okay. That's a lie.
Everything went horrible right from the start.
I'm not quite sure how Zoldeo recognized me by sight, but he immediately started fighting.
Capricorn hasn't returned to the Celestial World in several years (he couldn't, being fused with Zoldeo), so he couldn't have learned things that way (at least I think that's how the previous timeline knowledge carried over).
Though, with how my luck has been, it's probably been Brain. He's been a constant pain in the ass, and dark guilds do have an alliance…so it's not surprising that he might've warned them about me, at the very least.
Piece of shit.
"Get down!" I yelled, tackling Laxus.
"Is that a goat?" Laxus asked.
"No," Corvus said, appearing next to me from the shadows. Loke came out on his own. "He's a Celestial Spirit that's been possessed by a human."
Zoldeo cursed, spitting out words I couldn't understand, and swiped down his arms in our direction, before pointing to Corvus and Loke. Before I could stop myself, I had punched Loke in the face.
"Elle!" Corvus grabbed my arms, holding me back.
Loke was looking over at Zoldeo. "He's a hell of a lot stronger than last time around. He shouldn't be able to take as direct control of a human like that."
"Yeah, this is more like the doll shit that Kain had," I commented, my body trying to toss Corvus off of me.
Zoldeo was staring at Laxus. "Why aren't you affected?"
Before anyone could respond, my hands lit up of their own accord, and Venus's Sword grew out of my hand and speared Corvus through the stomach.
"Corvus!" I yelled, right as he disappeared back to the Spirit World.
Loke pushed me straight into Laxus's arms, which wrapped around my torso, pinning my hands down to my sides. "Will someone tell me what the fuck is going on!?" Laxus yelled.
My body was still moving of it's own accord, trying to get out. "Sorry," I said. "Ugh, I shouldn't have come."
"Hey, it wasn't your fault, Elle," Loke said. "It wasn't this bad, last time."
Loke lit up with magical power, and sped off after Zoldeo, who blanched and blocked his first physical attack.
"I don't understand!" Zoldeo yelled, as he was fighting Loke, though his eyes were trained on Laxus. "Why aren't you affected?"
Corvus finally appeared again, and he took over for Laxus (gee, I'm so helpful, aren't I?) and Laxus took off to get Zoldeo from behind.
"Why isn't my Human Enslavement Magic not working on you!?" Zoldeo yelled.
Laxus's eyes glowed, and something primal seemed to echo from his magic. "Because I'm not human."
With one last strike from each of them, Loke from the front and Laxus from the behind, Zoldeo was tossed out of Capricorn's body.
He fell to the ground and started screaming, his body shifting in and out. Capricorn started getting up, and my body relaxed, finally under my control again. Corvus got up, pulling me up with a hand.
Zoldeo gave one last look at Laxus before he disappeared, his last words crying out at Laxus. "You're right…you're not human! You're a monster!"
And then he disappeared.
Dammit.
I walked over to Laxus, and Capricorn (the only one of the three spirits with a brain) dragged the other two farther away.
"Don't listen to him," I said, standing next to him.
"What?" he asked, looking at me. I couldn't read the look on his face.
I rolled my eyes. "I know what you're thinking, you idiot. And don't listen. So, you're not entirely physically human, so what? That's a dragon slayer thing. But you're human where it counts."
He looked away.
"Laxus, you're a good person. You're human to me, and human to Fairy Tail, and that's what matters."
Without looking back, he reached his arm out and pulled me to his chest, wrapping his arms around me and holding me tight.
I was surprised, but I wrapped my arms around him almost immediately.
I'm not going to turn down a Laxus hug.
And what happened earlier doesn't really count.
"Thank you, Elle," Laxus said. "You-"
"I was the one who landed the winning blow!" Loke shouted, punching Corvus.
Corvus hmphed. "Please, that's only because I came to help back you up." He punched Loke in the stomach.
I could feel my forehead throbbing as I pulled out of Laxus's hug. "You dicks!" I kicked them both. "I'm trying to have a touching moment with my best friend, you jerks, and you interrupted it!"
My words almost completely went over their heads, and I growled at them. "Go. Home!"
With one last glare, Corvus disappeared into the shadows, and Loke returned to the Spirit World.
"Lady Elle," Capricorn said. "I thought you should know that my key will already be on Lady Lucy's ring."
I nodded. "Yeah, I thought so. She knows the rules, it'll be fine."
Capricorn nodded, and disappeared, and all that was left was Laxus and I.
"Come on, let's go home," I told him, sighing and taking his arm before teleporting back to the guild.