Tides of Virtue – Chapter 19 (Fairy Tail Fan-Fiction)
Hair like threads of spun gold as it flew in the wind, and eyes the dangerous color of blazing hellfire, the warrior, dressed in a full set of silver and crimson armor with a katana in each hand, glared at the enemy that she'd had to kill thousands of beasts to finally reach. Behind her were her fallen opponents carcasses', which were burning, sending scarlet flames into the sky, tainting it with the grey of smoke, making it looked like the barren land of a lava plateau.
"Zeref!" the warrior shouted, grip tightening on her blades as the black-haired boy turned toward her, his eyes the rich color of blood and his robes a deathly black as they fluttered in the slight wind that swept the battlefield.
When his gaze landed on the warrior, he looked at her with a profound sadness shadowing his features. "I was hoping it wouldn't have to come to this, Ciara," he muttered sadly.
"Nor I, Zeref," the warrior, Ciara, said, the same sorrow echoing in her soft-spoken words. "However, I must fight for what I believe in...and I believe that, though humanity has made mistakes, they do not deserve to be wiped from this land." Clenching her teeth, the golden-haired girl fought back tears. "What happened to you? We were once friends, were we not?"
Gazing off into the distance, not meeting her eyes, Zeref replied gently, "yes, we were." A faint smile pulled at his lips, but was then replaced by a frown. "Our destinies have taken us down very different paths, though. Yours one of light. Mine one of darkness."
Taking a step toward her old friend, Ciara lowered her weapons. "It doesn't have to be that way!" she cried, desperately. "You don't have to do this! Please!"
Suddenly, Zeref raised a hand and it began to glow with black energy. "Yes, I do," he said simply, before two great demons rose up from the rubble around him. One was scaly with a long mane of hair flowing down its back, and the other was tree-like; they both possessed the same hollow eyes and humanoid physique. "Meet Deliora and Lullaby," Zeref said sternly. "I'm afraid this is where it ends for you...Ciara..."
Tears billowing in her eyes, the warrior poised for battle. "You know I loved you, right?" she inquired, watching as the two demons stalked around her like she was prey and they the predators.
Turning away from her, the dark wizard stared off into the distance. "As did I, you," he whispered, his words seeming to float through the air and wrap around her, making her unable to move. "I still do, and I will continue to love you until I am void from this world."
Caught off guard by his passionate statement, Ciara was unable to react quickly enough as the two demons lunged at her, one grabbing her torso, the other her legs. Each pulling opposite ways, Ciara let out a cry of pure agony and horror as she was torn in two, her own blood staining the ground a dark crimson.
~
Bolting up in bed, Serenity hugged her blankets close to her chest as a bloodcurdling scream ripped through her throat. Everything Ciara had felt was coursing through the Water Dragon Slayer's small body: her fear, her betrayal, her longing, and the excruciating sensation of her flesh being stretched to its limit before finally bursting...hot, sticky blood erupting from her like an explosion. A few moments later, Serenity's door was flung open and Lucy dashed over to the distraught girl who was cowering back against the headboard of her bed, still screaming like a banshee.
"Serenity!" the blonde-haired girl shouted as she crawled over the crumpled sheets to her sister, pulling her into her chest. "What's wrong? What happened?"
Sobbing, Serenity ceased her pained wailing and clung onto Lucy like she was her lifeline. "Make it stop!" she pleaded, her abdomen burning like it was on fire, and the emotions swirling inside of her clouding her mind like fog. "I can't take dying anymore!"
Lacing her fingers through her sister's hair, Lucy whispered calming things until Serenity had settled down enough to properly inhale and exhale. "What did you dream about?"
Wiping at her nose, the Water Dragon Slayer pulled away from her sister and sat back on her calves. "Ciara," Serenity said, trying to stop her hyperventilating by taking deep breaths. "She was ripped in half...and I felt everything she did...it was terrible." Digging the heels of her hands into her eyes, she sighed. "I don't even know who she is!"
Suddenly, there was a knock at her window, and the next instant it was pushed open revealing Natsu as he climbed over the sill and hopped onto the hardwood floors of the room with a light sigh. Looking around with blazing eyes that seemed to glow in the darkness, the pink-haired boy's gaze finally landed on Serenity who was wiping vigorously at her wet cheeks.
"Are you okay?" he asked, walking over to the bed and sitting down on the edge next to the tearful girl.
Looking up at the Fire Dragon Slayer, she sent him a weak smile. "Honestly? No. I'm not okay." Running a hand through her hair, Serenity sighed. "How'd you even hear me scream? Don't you live out in the middle of nowhere?"
Chuckling, Natsu smiled at her. "I'm sure everyone in Mongolia heard you." When she immediately frowned and sent him a glare, he began frantically fumbling for words. "I-I mean...I have very good hearing!"
Laughing, Serenity looked up at Natsu with her bright golden-eyes. "That was a much better answer."
Suddenly, an amused giggle filled the room.
Looking over, Serenity's gaze met with Lucy's mischievous one. "I'm going to head back to bed, the tension in here is just too much for me." With that said, the blonde-haired girl stood from the bed and walked out of the room, closing the door behind her; however, not before she sent Serenity a suggestive smile, causing the Water Dragon Slayer to flush a deep crimson.
Natsu looked over at Serenity completely oblivious. "What tension?" he inquired, raising his eyebrows.
"N-Nothing!" the golden-haired girl rushed, hiding her blush behind her blankets as she pulled them up to cover her cheeks.
Narrowing his eyes, Natsu moved closer to Serenity, examining her closely. "You know something..." he trailed, looking at the blue sheet covering half of her face. "Tell me."
"It's really nothing!" she tried to assure him, but he looked unconvinced. "Lucy is just being Lucy! You know how she is!"
Suddenly, Natsu tackled her down on the bed, positioning himself firmly over her legs so that she couldn't wiggle free, before pinning her arms above her head with one of his hands while the other trailed down her side to the extremely sensitive skin along her waist. Immediately, she cringed away from his touch as bolts of sensation crackled where his fingers grazed against her.
"Tell me, or I begin the torture," he threatened above her, his eyes completely serious as he gazed down at her and his features shadowed as the moonlight that seeped through her small window danced across the side of his face.
However, Serenity said nothing; she was too attentive to the position they were in, and to the fact that she only wore a black tank-top and some blue underwear, so there was basically nothing separating her from the boy sitting atop her. Gazing up into his eyes, her breath caught in her throat, and her cheeks flared with color. After a while, it seemed Natsu finally understood what Lucy had said, because his own cheeks darken with an intense blush.
Slowly, he lowered his face down, and hesitantly pressed his lips to hers like he was unsure if he was allowed to. However, when Serenity accepted his approach by returning his kiss, Natsu eagerly brought his unoccupied hand up and cupped the back of her head, pulling her closer, parting his lips and deepening the kiss.
His flavor was addicting...like smoke-laced caramel, and Serenity wanted more. Moaning, she broke her hands from Natsu's grasps and wrapped them around his neck, pulling gently at his hair, before next freeing her legs and wrapping them around his waist. However, when she did this, he suddenly broke the kiss, causing Serenity to whimper as she looked up at him with profound curiosity swimming in her golden-eyes.
When she saw the confusion that littered Natsu's features and the cloudiness of his gaze as he looked at her swollen lips, she opened her mouth to speak, but stopped as he abruptly rolled away from her, starting toward the window. "I should go," he muttered, moving to pull himself over the sill.
"Wait!" Serenity cried, sitting up on the bed, her hair a mess of golden curls that fell around her delicate frame and sprawled on the mattress. "Please, stay." Halting, Natsu looked at her with his cavernous eyes, which were filled with uncertainty. "After that nightmare I just had, I'm not sure I can sleep if you're not here with me." They stayed like that for a few moments, Serenity's gaze pleading for Natsu to stay, while he just stared at her, the corners of his lips pulled into a thoughtful frown, before finally sighing in defeat as he closed her window and flipped the latch, locking it.
Walking back over to Serenity, Natsu laid on the bed, his arms crossed behind his head as he gazed up at the ceiling, his eyebrows drawn together and his eyes glazed over. Was it something I did? She thought, clasping her hands together in her lap. He's never looked so...thoughtful.
"Natsu?" Tentatively, Serenity crawled over to him, looking down at his stony expression. "Are you okay?" He didn't respond. "Did I do something wrong?"
Propping himself up on his elbows, the pink-haired boy looked at her with wide eyes. "No!" he cried. "You didn't do anything wrong! Quite the opposite!" Running a nervous hand through his spikey hair, Natsu laid back down. "Let's just...sleep now, okay?"
Smiling, Serenity crept toward him and cuddled into his side, resting her head on his chest and entwining her legs with his. As Natsu wrapped his arm around her back, she let out a content sigh, immediately feeling comforted knowing that he was there to keep her safe...and, with the gentle beating of Natsu's heart as her lullaby, she soon drifted back into Dreamland.
~
The sky was crying. Its teardrops fell all around the warrior: plastering the thin strands of her golden hair against the soft skin of her delicate face, wetting the ground beneath her feet, turning it into slushy mud, and weighing down the light fabric of her turquoise kimono, which, in her left sleeve, she'd hidden the dagger that she meant to use to slay her enemy, whom was standing in front of her, his back to her as he stared down the canyon that stretched before them at the white waters of the raging river.
"Zeref," she'd meant to shout, but instead it'd come out a strangled whisper; however, it was enough to get the ebony-haired boy to turn toward her, his eyes like two black holes that seemed to draw her in.
"Again we meet, Ciara," he said, his expression unyielding. "I feel as though we've been going around in circles. How many times has it been that you were reborn, now?"
Looking at the ground, the golden-haired girl smiled sadly. "This remains my fourth life, dear Zeref. Until I am in a state where I am no longer mendable, I will continue to be brought back to life—of course, you know that already. For it is my destiny to rid this world of your darkness." Sorrowful tears filled her eyes. "You were right in my first life. Our paths are ones of very different natures." Choking back a sob, she looked up and met his eyes. "However, I continue to love you. For without darkness, light would not exist."
Wiping at her runny nose, Ciara continued. "The woman I was born to in this life did not come from this land, she came from one farther away, and she taught me about 'yin and yang.' From her I've come to learn that we are not of opposing natures, but of complementary ones!" Ciara took a step toward him. "We can be together! Please!"
Turning away from her, Zeref looked up at the sky, letting the raindrops fall on his pale cheeks. "Love is for humans, and I care not for them or their ways." When his gaze moved back toward her, his eyes were the same blood red as she remembered them becoming when he'd gotten angry with her. "They are murderous; and I wish to rid them of the world so that a new era can be born."
Clenching her fists, Ciara glared up at the dark wizard as she stepped closer to him. "Don't say that! Though some may be bad, others are good! They have kind hearts, and high spirits even in the worst of times!" Pulling the dagger out of her sleeve, she brought it toward his abdomen; however, he quickly caught her wrist and turned the tip of the blade around so that it was facing her instead.
Using the hand that wasn't holding the hilt of the dagger, Zeref grabbed Ciara's waist and pulled her toward him, the knife piercing through the thin material of her kimono and tearing through her flesh, blood quickly oozing from the wound and staining the front of her robes crimson.
Bringing his mouth close to her ear, the dark wizard quietly whispered, "I continue to love you—but we cannot be together. For you are the sun, and I, the moon." Turning around with Ciara in his arms so that she was facing the great drop of the canyon, he kissed her cheek before letting her go.
As she fell backwards over the cliff, the golden-haired girl sent her childhood friend a gentle smile, before saying in a soft voice, "complementary." This caused the ebony-haired boy to gasp; however, Ciara's body was already lost to the raging waters of the river, drowning beneath its foaming surface.
~
Eyelids flying open, Serenity was immediately confronted by the harsh rays of the morning sun, which shone brightly in the room, dappling the ligneous flooring with patches of yellow light and dancing across the pale sheets of her bed like the calm waves of the ocean. Burying her face in the side of Natsu's neck, she attempted to hide away from bothersome disturbance, but to no avail. Letting out a quiet groan, she slowly sat up, careful not to wake the sleeping boy next to her, before rubbing vigorously at her eyes, trying to clear them of sleep.
The nightmares had confronted her frequently throughout the night, and in all, a death had awaited her: decapitation, disembowelment, falling from great heights, and many other excruciating demises. However, after each, the pain that followed when she'd woken up from the dreams, had become less and less, and after her last one, she hadn't even felt anything. There was a pattern, too. Each time Ciara was reborn into a new life, she'd obtain an additional power that voided the possibility of her dying of the same cause twice. When she fell to her death, she obtained wings in her next life. When she was decapitated and disemboweled, she gained quicker reflexes, the ability to think hastily in difficult situations, and greater durability. Finally, when she'd drowned—she became a Water Dragon Slayer.
Sighing, Serenity quietly stood from the bed and walked over to the mirror on the far side of her room, before staring intently at her reflection, a slight frown pulling at the corners of her pursed lips. She'd been wondering who Ciara was, and doubting her own identity because of the words that Jellal had spoken to her, when the entire time, Ciara was her, and she, Ciara. Her purpose was to banish the dark wizard, Zeref, from this world. It was her destiny, her sole purpose for existing. Yet, she'd failed many times, because she had feelings for him harbored in her heart. However, this time—this life—was different. Glancing over at Natsu's peaceful sleeping form, she smiled tenderly. Serenity no longer loved him, for someone else had stolen her heart. Someone who ignited feelings inside her that she'd never felt before. To her, he was the sun, and she, the moon. She shined because he gave her the ability to glow.
*~~~~~*
Edited.
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