Archive of Our Own

Chapter Text

In the days following Laxus’ disappearance, Fairy Tail was determined to get him back.

Mest’s mind magic has allowed them to view the memory of the brief instant where Freed had entered the room before the seal had collapsed on itself, swallowing Laxus inside a portal before exploding. Levy and Freed had started pulling all-nighters more often than not, trying to find a way to open it back and get to their leader.

Their research had led them to the type of portals that could allow someone to travel to another world, and to Hibiki had put his archive magic at their disposal, helping them understand the theories behind the existence of different worlds.

This wasn’t like using anima to travel to Edolas: Edolas and Earthland were tightly connected by magic, and anima weakened the veil between both worlds, allowing people to travel between them far easier than should be possible.

Wassergreife’s ritual had used pure magic to smash into another world, and it had been only luck that Laxus’ attempt to stop the spell had created a one time use portal.

The results of their research was that it would take a tremendous amount of magical power just to open a similar portal, the kind of power that could only come from sacrificing the life and magic of a mage, and even then they had no way to control what world they would reach. The odds of finding Laxus ever again were infinitesimal.

This wasn’t an enemy they could overcome through strength. No matter how much Cana tried to manipulate their luck, they couldn’t justify the cost for an attempt they were sure would not be successful. Especially given that other guilds and the magic council had gotten involved and would be looking at what they were doing.

What had been determination slowly turned into denial, then acceptance over the following weeks. The Raijinshū took longer to accept Laxus’ fate, but under the concerned gaze of their guildmates they seemed to move on from the loss. They took a quest that had them travelling to Era for a few days, followed discreetly by a few of their guildmates to check up on them, but other than that stayed close to home, at least one member going back to the guild every day.

To the east of Magnolia was a forest, known by the members of Fairy Tail for being Porlyusica’s residence. Some people also knew that the river running through it had a few nice fishing spots along its shores. Further east was a rocky mountain with little of interest to offer, delimiting the area under Magnolia’s control.

Behind the mountain, where few people tried to go, was another forest, this one far less welcoming than the East Forest. Hidden in the middle, far away from any path or trail, was a cabin. If its surroundings weren’t enough to ensure no one ever set foot in it by luck, multiple lines of runes circled the building, intended to trap anyone who didn’t know the exact way around them.

The cabin’s existence was only known by four people. Freed, ever the planner, had wanted somewhere secluded but close enough to Magnolia that the members of the guild wouldn’t notice the Raijinshū and Laxus’ absences when they went there. It had been built during their teenage years to ensure they had somewhere safe where they could research Eye Magic without Makarov noticing. After their success, it had been repurposed into a safe house, and had hardly seen any use over the years, except for Laxus stopping there for a few days after his banishment.

It now housed a permanent guest. The Raijinshū’s quest to Era had been an excuse to get close to the seat of the Magical Council, and more precisely the magical cells underneath. While Freed distracted the guild members that had tailed them, Bickslow and Evergreen had sneaked inside the building and grabbed one of the few members of Wassergreife that had survived to be captured. They had dragged him back to their basement, where he was currently residing, turned to stone.

The three members of the Raijinshū took turns showing up at the guild to reassure them of their well-being, not wanting their worry to turn into nosiness, while the others stayed at the cabin to keep feeding power to the spell that ensured they would one day be able to reach Laxus.

Said spell had been a tricky bit of magic. More than that, it had been a combination of multiple tricky bits of magic. All more illegals than the other.

Bickslow’s use of his Seith magic was the least illegal part. While it was a crime to learn soul manipulation in Fiore, as it fell under the category of human manipulation, Bickslow was born a Seith mage and had been allowed to keep his powers. It was one of the rare ways in which Fiore was more advanced than his home country of Bosco, who would have seen him dead in the Boscan purge of X778.

The Magical Council was willing to turn a blind eye when he used them on a nonhuman or on members of a dark guild—but using his Figure Eyes on Lucy during Laxus’ attempted takeover would have sent him to jail for the rest of his life had she reported it. Not that he thought she knew that had been a possibility.

He had gotten used to facing the distrust of almost everyone who learned about his magic, and had considered it a small price to pay to stay alive—there was a reason why he always hid the top of his face despite his perfect mastery over his powers. However, the Raijinshū had never tried to stifle his powers, instead they had all embraced learning forbidden and dark magic without a care of what the world would think of them.

One of the ways they had allowed Bickslow to experience on them was by putting a magical tracker on their soul, fueled by their own magic. As long as they had access to their magic, he would be able to locate where they had last cast a spell.

Of course, with Laxus having been sent to another world, the spell had stopped transmitting. Freed had theorized that the fact that it still existed, was only inactive, was a sign that casual use of magic wasn’t enough to transmit Laxus’ location through the veil between worlds. It would take him using a really powerful spell for the tracker to communicate with Bickslow. How powerful was the question, but they had hope that Laxus’ heavier spells would be enough to activate it.

That took care of half of the problem: now that they would be able to find the correct world, they needed to find a way to reach it when the time was due.

This part had been almost entirely Freed’s doing, with Evergreen’s basic understanding of runes to assist him at some points. They had been able to recreate Wassergreife’s original design and then redesign it into a new seal that would allow them to enter another world, this time voluntarily.

Bickslow had then implanted the knowledge the tracker was providing into Freed’s mind so he could lock the seal into the correct world. It meant however that they couldn’t invoke the spell at the last moment, they needed instead to keep the seal dormant once it had been invoked. The sacrifice would provide the magic necessary to activate it properly and breach the veil between worlds, but keeping it functioning at all time still drained magic. As the only one with complete understanding of the modified ritual, Freed had been the one to invoke the seal, and as such found his magic drained continuously.

While Freed was many things, he wasn’t a mage with a particularly big magical core—there was a reason he used his sword most of the time to write his runes while Levy could do it without any magical item. As usual, he had to make up for it with his cleverness.

That’s where Evergreen came into play. People often forgot that, despite her using it all the time, Fairy Magic wasn’t her primary magic; it was her Stone Eyes. She could use the basics of Rune Magic, enough to be able to assist Freed at some tricky points in the creation of that latest spell where he needed multiple runes to be written at the same time, and her wings were yet another kind of magic that she used daily.

To be able to use different kinds of magic, especially some that weren’t directly related to her primary type, showed that Evergreen’s magical core was massive and could be twisted into shapes it didn’t naturally want to take.

So, as if the seal wasn’t complicated enough on its own, Freed had to modify it until it could stay invoked using someone else’s magical power, and Ever became the main source of power, with Bickslow and Freed taking turns to replace her and ensure she didn’t fall into magical exhaustion.

Doing all of this took them a few months, which they spent under the watchful eyes of the rest of Fairy Tail. It was an exercise in misdirection and lying on a scale they had never attempted before. Even hiding Freed becoming blind in an eye when his first attempt at eye magic had failed hadn’t been half as stressful as trying to hide their current plan.

“Need any help?” Freed asked as he entered the cabin’s main room. Evergreen was sitting at the table, a mirror propped up by two books in front of her, an eyeshadow’s brush in her hand.

“Yes, thank you.” She said, gratefully holding the brush for him to take. He had a very stead hand—needed to because of his magic—and was always willing to help her make sure her makeup was perfectly applied. “I’m going out with the girls tonight, so one of you needs to take over the spell.”

“Hmm, don’t have anything better to do tonight.” He answered distractedly as he focused on the task at hand. “That’s a darker shade of purple than you usually use.” He noticed.

“I broke up with Elfman.” She announced. “He can tell I’m not entirely there with him. It’s a wonder it worked for that long, honestly, but I think he didn’t want to let me down too soon, to make sure I wasn’t alone.” Her lips formed a sad smile. She had really come to love him, but he would never understand how important Laxus was to her, to all three of them. His banishment had almost broken them, it was only the knowledge that he would one day come back that had made them stay in the guild instead of leaving with him.

The three of them remembered that time with misery. Freed had only been a shadow of himself, and while nether she nor Bickslow were as attached to Laxus as he was they had still suffered without him. Elfman wasn’t able to understand this level of attachment to someone that wasn’t his sisters and would never understand the length they would go to reunite with their leader.

“There’s going to be a few well-deserved tears.” She added. If she was going to cry her heart out that night and look miserable, at least it would be more dramatic with dark makeup running from her eyes.

“I’m sorry for you.” He offered sincerely. They had all known it wasn’t going to last, not when she would one day leave this world without him, but it didn’t mean it wasn’t a loss for her.

She gave him a thankful smile. She had been the only one with something that would tie her to Earthland, and neither of them took her giving it up lightly.

Bickslow had been balancing on a stool, leaning against the bar flirting with Mirajane, when Laxus’ tracker suddenly activated. Despite his perfect sense of equilibrium, the strength of the signal made him fall in surprise, decades of training barely allowing him to land on his feet. They had never lost hope that the day would come, but after more than three months without anything from Laxus he had stopped expecting it.

“Everything alright?” Mirajane asked, worry in her tone. His momentary lapse in composure hadn’t gone unnoticed, almost half of the eyes of the guild on him. While they had stopped following the Raijinshū’s every move, Fairy Tail still paid them more attention than usual. It wasn’t surprising, the guild had done exactly the same thing to Mirajane and Elfman for more than a year when they had thought they had lost Lisanna. Even if nobody understood the depths of their relationship with Laxus, they knew he was important to them.

“Papa managed to break his doll.” He answered, most of his attention turned inward as he made sure the tracker’s intel was properly transferring to Freed. “I leave them at home for once to have a quiet day and they still manage to cause trouble.” He added with a put upon sigh to make his lie more believable. “Sorry, I’ll have to go fix it before his soul starts to fade away, rain check on that date?”

“I never agreed on a date.” Mirajane answered with an amused smile on her lips. “Go take care of your babies.”

“Thanks, you’re a sweetheart.” He said with a flirty smile. It would be the last time he was seeing her, and he wanted this to be his last words to her. There was no doubt that once they discovered what they had done she would beat herself up for not having noticed that something was wrong, but he was a far better liar than most people thought. He was used to having to hide his true feelings and very few people could catch him in a lie; none of them were at the guildhall right now.

’I hope Freed wasn’t doing anything important.’ He thought. Given how badly the feeling of the tracker activating had startled him, he couldn’t imagine how much it must have shocked Freed, for whom it wasn’t his innate magic.

He knew Evergreen was at the cabin as it was easier to keep a steady flow of magic into the seal when you were close to it. While it was possible to do it from far away—and they sometime did to avoid people becoming suspicious of never seeing the three of them together in the guild—it was far more draining and uncomfortable.

He mentally called his babies back to him as he ran through the town, since flying on top of them was the fastest way to reach the cabin quickly. He had no patience now that the end was in sight.

“So, I guess it’s happening now?”

His head jerked to the side as Cobra joined him, coming out of a dark alley like the lurker he was.

“What?”

“Your plan to join Laxus. It’s happening now?” Cobra repeated.

“You can’t read my mind.” Was his instinctive response. Cobra could hear people’s thought because he could hear their soul; given Bickslow’s total control over his own soul, Cobra had no way of hearing anything unless he allowed it.

“I heard about the plan when your friends were around. I can only think of one reason you would rush out of the guildhall like that, and be too distracted to sense me following you. That spell you were waiting for to make your move finally activated.”

’Fuck.’ Not shielding Freed and Evergreen had been a huge mistake, not only because Cobra sometimes hang around the guild when he felt like it, but because Mest regularly came to the guildhall.

“You’re not stopping us.” He warned, the threat evident in his tone. His dolls were still a couple of minutes away, and he had little chance of winning against Cobra in a fair fight even had they been here. However, the Raijinshū were too close to their goal for him to even consider having a fair fight. He could kill Cobra in a few seconds if he used his magic to its full capacity.

“I’m not planning to.” Cobra answered, hands spreading apart in the universal sign that he was nonthreatening. He might not be able to read Bickslow’s mind, but he could tell how serious he was by his body language, his muscles shifting slightly in preparation for a fight, the blood pumping faster through his veins. “Listen, I like this concept of a new world. A new life. And me and Laxus were friends, alright? Well, friendly. Let me come with you.”

Bickslow had barely opened his mouth to say a clear and resounding “No” before Cobra started talking again, cutting him off. “I know you’re not afraid to go all out if it means stopping me right now. I’m not afraid either. No matter how fast you can kill me, I’ll have the time to poison you before. You take me out, I take you with me. Or we can go together, not to hell but to wherever sparkly is.”

‘I don’t have the time for this!’ He thought, before saying “Let me see your soul” out loud. Just like his magic was protecting him from Cobra’s mind-reading abilities, Cobra’s gave him natural protection around his soul. Bickslow would be able to overwhelm them if he needed to, but it would take time he didn’t have to do it properly, and to do it improperly would leave Cobra little more than brain dead.

The Dragon Slayer took a second to consider his demand, well aware of the danger in agreeing, but decided to drop his shield down. Immediately Bickslow was reading his soul, trying to figure out Cobra’s true motivation.

He didn’t have to look very far. For someone who had joined Crime Sorcière and been pardoned, Cobra’s soul was surprisingly plunged in darkness. The kind of darkness that could only come from someone who regularly killed or tortured people, which didn’t fit at all with what he knew of Crime Sorcière, who preferred to catch people alive in their quest for redemption.

This meant that Cobra still had a few extracurricular activities, the kind Jellal wouldn’t hesitate to arrest him for. He wouldn’t be able to keep them a secret forever given the crowd he was now running with.

’A new life, uh. More like an old one.’ He had reverted to a behavior very similar to what he had done with Oración Seis, only without the crazy leader and the plan for world domination.

“Freed is the one you’ll have to convince, not me.” Bickslow warned, jumping on top of his babies as they reached him. “You’ll have to hold on to me if you want to come.”

“That’s not a problem.” He jumped up, easily fitting his body against Bickslow’s. “I’ve never been moved by dolls… Let’s just hope it doesn’t count as transportation.” He grinned.

“My babies are souls, practically people. They’re not transportation.” Laxus had checked.

The journey to the cabin didn’t take long, the flying totems bypassing the securities around the house easily.

“I’ve managed to focus the spell on Laxus’ location, we only need- what is he doing here?” Freed started to say as soon as Bickslow pushed the door open, stopping when he noticed Cobra at his back.

“He found out what we were doing.” Bickslow informed them.

“I’m not a threat.” Cobra said quickly, hearing their thoughts turning murderous, throwing a glare at Bickslow for his under-explaining. “I’m interested in leaving this life behind. Leaving for another world with people I know can understand me seems like a fine idea.”

“Let’s just say that our dear Cobra here is not exactly a model citizen.” Bickslow added when they looked at him for clarification.

“Why should we let you go with us?” Freed asked.

“One more person going with you cannot hurt. And I like Laxus, so I have a vested interest in helping him out if needed.”

’And we can’t waste time or risk you fucking up with the ritual.’ Freed finished mentally.

“That, too.” Cobra agreed.

“Alright.” Freed sighed. “Evergreen?” He already knew how Bickslow felt, he wouldn’t have led Cobra here if he wasn’t willing to let him come with them.

“We can always stop him if we don’t like what he’s doing.” She answered, readjusting her glasses menacingly. “Now, where do we need to put the Wassergreife bastard?” She asked, fingers strumming against the dark mage turned to stone.

“Right there, in the middle of the runes. You need to turn him back to normal.”

She dismissed her Stone Eyes, unsurprised when he started to struggle almost immediately. Despite the slight memory loss that came with the use of her spell, recognizing the people in the room as Fairy Tail mages was enough to make him panic.

“Stop moving or I’ll cut off your arms.” Freed threatened distractedly as he checked one last time that his spell work was correct.

“Or I’ll be the one to incapacitate you. Yes, I’m that Cobra.” While his reputation had changed for the public at large thanks to his involvement in Crime Sorcière , dark mages always thought of him as Oración Seis’ Cobra. They knew to fear him.

Freed finished writing the last rune circle, trapping the dark mage. “Everyone needs to grab onto me. Our new friend here will provide the biggest part of the magic needed, but I’ll have to contribute from my own core. There’s a risk that it’ll wipe me out entirely.” He warned them. “The spell should make us appear somewhere close to Laxus’ current position, but there’s no knowing in what kind of situation he’ll be. It had been half an hour since the tracker activated here, but as seen when we got transferred to Edolas, time might move differently in the world he’s in. It might have only been seconds for him, meaning that whatever danger was high enough for him to use so much magical power and transmit his location across worlds will still be around.” They all nodded seriously, Evergreen and Bickslow taking their usual position around Freed. Cobra seamlessly got into the opening usually reserved for Laxus.

“Let’s go.” His hands twisted, two fingers moving quickly in a circle in front of him as he activated the dormant seal. Its usually faded green light suddenly flared, illuminating the room in a blinding flash. When the light disappeared, there was no one left behind.