My Light and My Darkness

Code ETD

In the Royal Palace, the king and his advisors and military captains are holding a meeting. Biro is there, having taken a break from taking the dragon slayer’s magic to attend this meeting. He snickers his usual snicker, “It’s as the legends foretold. We have proven beyond a reasonable doubt that the magic the Earthland wizards possess comes from within their very bodies.” Sugar Boy, the captain of Edolas’ third magic warfare unit, speaks, “Hmm. They’re much like the exceeds in that regard.” Biro immediately rejects this comment, “Careful not to inflate their abilities. The exceeds are far more powerful.” Then, a little girl who’s always by the king's side, Cocoa, speaks up next, “Hold on. You mean even that Lucy girl is like that? She has magic inside of her too?” Biro answers her, “Yes, indeed she does.” This catches Hughes' attention, who is the captain of the royal army's fourth magic warfare unit, “Then we gotta like, keep her alive right old man?” He asks Biro. The king suddenly speaks up, “She must be terminated! The exceed’s Queen Shagot has given explicit orders. Any discussion to the contrary is a waste of time and breath!” Cocoa looks at the king in shock, “The order came from the queen herself?” Sugar Boy then says with decision, “Hmm. Then it’s settled. We cannot defy the will of the exceeds.” Hughes throws his head back, frustrated, “Man! But this is like such a humongous waste you know?” Biro smiles and says, “However, our technology is lacking at the moment. We’ve not yet been able to perform a magic extraction from the human body.” A huge black cat, the same size as a human, but bearing the resemblance of an exceed then speaks up. He is PantherLily, the captain of the royal army’s first magic warfare unit. “So then, what shall we do with the three dragon slayers, sir?” Biro looks at him with a huge smirk on his face, “Those three are not completely human. They’re more of a strange human amalgam. Successful experiments with them could one day deliver us everlasting magic power.” Hughes and Cocoa light up at his sentence. “Hahaha! Now that’s cool!” Hughes says. “Yeah! Totally cool!” Cocoa says. King Foust then speaks up, “Very well Biro. You should have much work to do. And as an added precautionary measure, begin extracting the magic energy from the Earthland lacrima immediately.” Biro responds with, “Right away.” And everyone except PantherLily leaves the room, all conversing about how excited they are for everlasting magic power. King Foust wonders why PantherLily is not leaving, and asks, “Is there something troubling you PantherLily?” Lily looks at King Foust, and says, “My lord, if I may ask about this recent surge in our armaments.” Before he can continue, King Foust gives him a chillingly cold glare. Lily gets the message and says, “I see. Please excuse me.” He gets up and walks away.

Back in the cell where Lucy is, she sits quietly, looking down at the ground, deep in thought. “It’s hard to believe it all. Happy, Carla, and Rosie are creatures called Exceeds. And Exceeds are kinda like angels in this world. They’re above the humans. That means their queen is like a god. She has absolute control over all of it. Her word is never questioned or challenged. She has final say over who lives or dies in Edolas. One being with that much power, the whole thing is crazy! How could anyone choose to live like this?!” She says to herself. Suddenly, a familiar voice speaks, and a familiar face rounds the corner to stand in front of her cell. “My, you’ve done research on our world, and you’re very thorough.” It’s Erza Nightwalker, the Erza from Edolas. Lucy gasps as Erza raises the cell door to come stand in the cell in front of Lucy. She towers over her, but Lucy isn’t afraid. “Erza?! Is everybody else okay?” She asks her. “Yes, they’re all quite safe.” Erza responds shortly. Lucy breathes a sigh of relief. “What a relief.” She says, which confuses Erza. “Your attitude is puzzling to say the least. Do you understand the situation you’re in? It’s far from envious.” She says to her, confused. Lucy smiles slightly and says, “Yeah. You have a point there. It’s just, you look and sound exactly like the Erza I know. So I guess I automatically let my guard down for a minute.” Erza closes her eyes and says, “You mean my Earthland doppelganger?” Lucy gets excited and says, “And in my world, you’re one of the strongest and most loyal members of Fairy Tail!” Erza looks at her shocked and says, “Is that true?” Lucy, encouraged by this, continues, “You’re powerful, cool, and collected, and a little scary there too. But everybody in the guild trusts you with their lives. You love cake, and you have like a million outfits that you wear. Sometimes it’s pretty surprising how girly you can be. One time-” Lucy is interrupted when Erza grabs the white goop on her wrists and starts to drag her out of the cell and down the hall. “I’ve heard more than enough. Obviously I’m not the Erza that you know.” She throws Lucy against the wall, right underneath where there’s a window. Lucy tries to reason with Erza, “Please, listen! You and I aren’t enemies! All I’m trying to do here is save my friends lives! Look, Erza. I know you’re not the same person. But I also know that you have a heart! You can’t be someone that laughs at someone else’s suffering!” Erza, growing sick of hearing Lucy talk, hooks her spear onto the goop on Lucy’s wrists, and sticks it out the window, holding Lucy over a 1,000 foot drop. “I hope you’ve made your peace!” Erza says to her threateningly. Lucy looks at her, terrified, “How could you do this to someone who wasn’t even fighting back?! The Erza that I know is kind! She’d never hurt a defenseless person.” Erza just smirks at her and says, “I thought I made myself clear! I’m not her!! I enjoy watching others writhe in agony! I’ve earned my title as the Fairy Hunter! No one has killed more Fairy Tail wizards than I have!!” The last sentence brings tears to Lucy’s eyes, and she looks at her angrily, “No you can’t say that. Not with Erza’s voice. Not with Erza’s face!” Erza just smirks at her and says, “Then, I’ll simply say goodbye.” She retracts her spear quickly, dropping Lucy to her death. She falls, letting out a terrified scream, fully confident she was falling to her death. Erza watches her fall, a huge smirk on her face. Then, a familiar voice brings Lucy hope, “Lucy!!” Happy shouts at her, Carla and Rosie flying at his side. They’re heading straight for her. Erza looks at them, shocked that exceeds are trying to save her, and not just any exceeds, it was the exceeds that ‘helped’ the humans capture her and her friends. Happy aims straight for Lucy, but rams right into a wall. Carla flies past him and grabs Lucy. Rosie laughs at Happy, clutching her stomach. The three of them float up to be eye level with Erza, Happy telling Rosie to shut up. Happy takes hold of Lucy, and Erza asks them, “But why? The queen! She gave the order! This Earthland girl was to be executed immediately!” Carla decides to trick her and says, “The order has been rescinded.” Erza looks at her in defiance, “I’m sorry. Although you may be an exceed, you don’t have the power to turn down a directive handed down by the queen herself. I respectfully ask that you hand over the girl at once.” Rosie and Happy look at Carla nervously, wondering what her plan is. Carla crosses her arms, glares down at Erza, and says, “Do you not know your place? Bow down!” Happy, Lucy, and Rosie look at her in shock. Carla continues, “You are in the presence of greatness here. Of royalty! I am the eldest daughter of Queen Shagot. But you may call me Divine Princess Carla of Extalia.” Erza looks at her in horror. Lucy, Happy, and Rosie look at Carla bewildered. Erza immediately bows, and the other three hold blank faces, extremely confused. “I beg your forgiveness, your grace!” Erza pleads. Carla then asks, “Where is Wen- I mean where are the dragon slayers?” Erza immediately answers, “They’re in the basement of the west tower.” Carla demands for Erza to release them, but she says, “I’m afraid that I can’t. I don’t have the authority. I’m truly sorry.” Carla immediately raises her voice at Erza, “I WON’T ACCEPT YOUR EXCUSES!!” Erza grows more nervous and says, “Yes. It’s unacceptable but-” Before she can continue, PantherLily’s voice shouts, “ERZA!!! THOSE THREE ARE FALLEN EXCEEDS!!! THEY’VE BEEN OFFICIALLY BANISHED FROM THE KINGDOM OF EXTALIA!!!” PantherLily is running towards Erza with a whole force of soldiers behind him. “That doesn’t sound good. Do you know who he is?” Lucy comments nervously. Rosie responds, “No. I’ve never seen him before.” She looks at him in confusion and curiosity, and thinks to herself, ‘Is he an exceed? Why is he on the side of the humans if he’s an exceed?’ Before anyone else can say anything, Calra says, “We need to go now.” Lucy looks at her in confusion as Happy and Rosie follow her, “Hold on. I thought you were some kind of princess!” PantherLily and his forces try to see where they’re going, Erza remains kneeling on the floor, embarrassed, and enraged. She punches the ground and says, “How dare they?!” An announcement is made for them to capture the three fallen exceeds and to terminate with extreme prejudice…why? I don’t know. As they fly away, Lucy says, “You saved me! Thank you!” Carla responds with, “I thought you’d be angry.” Lucy smiles and says, “Why? About what?” Carla looks at her with a slightly sad face, “Because we were the ones who got you captured in the first place.” Lucy smiles and says, “But you made it up by rescuing me. Right, Happy?” Happy looks down at her and says, “I’m so sorry Lucy.” Lucy continues, “Maybe it would be a different story if you hadn’t come back to get me. But forget about that for now. I’m still shocked to hear that Carla is a princess in this world.” Rosie agrees with her, “I didn’t know either.” Carla just blankly says, “That was just a bluff. Obviously.” The other three look at her shocked, “What?!” Then Happy and Rosie both smile at her, amused by her actions. Carla turns to them and says, “Happy? Rosie? Why must you look at me like that?” Happy laughs and says, “I’m just smiling ‘cuz that’s totally something you’d do.” Lucy smiles at the fact that Carla used Happy’s name for the first time. “Regardless, we need to focus on the task at hand. Which is locating Wendy, Candy, and Natsu.” While Carla is trying to get them back on track, Lucy laughs to herself, “That’s so cute!” The exceeds don’t hear her, and continue to converse. “Where are they?” Happy asks, to which Rosie replies, “Weren’t you listening? She said they were in the basement of the west tower. Why are you smiling now Lucy?” Rosie asks Lucy. She looks at her and says, “Oh, it’s nothing!” She looks ahead of them and sees the west tower that the four of them are heading towards. But as they fly that way, they hear a lot of meows behind them, freaking Lucy out, “Hold on! What’s that sound?!” They all turn around to see that the Royal Guard of Extalia is following them through the air, Michiya leading them. “Surrender now Fallens! Escape is futile!!” He shouts at them. Lucy looks at them nervously, “Woah! That’s a lot of flying cats!” Carla suggests that they need to get to the ground, but Happy objects. The ground beneath them is covered by human soldiers from King Foust’s royal army. “Lucy, can you use your celestial magic?” Carla asks. Lucy holds up her wrists and says, “I’m pretty sure this sticky stuff is blocking my powers.” The four are stuck, with the human army beneath them, and the Exceed army flying towards them, they don’t have anywhere to go. Not too far away, King Foust stands on a balcony overseeing the whole thing go down. He looks at the exceed army, enraged. “What is the meaning of this?” Cocoa explains from next to him, “The Extalia Royal Guard. They’ve invaded in pursuit of the fallens. What’ll we do?” Foust grows angrier and angrier by the second, the mere thought of the exceeds invading his kingdom literally pisses him off. His anger grows until he snaps, “INITIATE CODE ETD!!! RIGHT AWAY!!” He commands. The army commanders on the ground beneath him all look up at him in shock as soldiers start to blow horns simultaneously and banners are dropped. Magic cannons are positioned along the castle walls. Erza looks up at it all in shock, “We’re using Code ETD?!” Hughes from next to her looks up at everything the same as Erza and says, “Woah! I don’t believe it!!” PantherLily is outraged by this order, clearly none of them were expecting this. Sugar Boy starts to speak in thought, “This is the last line of defense in our homeland security arsenal, and he went right to it.” Carla, Rosie, Happy and Lucy immediately head inside the castle, anxious to get out of range of the magic cannons. A soldier shouts among the chaos, “Code ETD! INITIATE!!” The magic cannons fire up and start to shoot at the exceed army. Turning them all into a giant cat shaped lacrima. They’re turning the exceeds into their own lacrima for magic power. Rosie, Carla, Happy, and Lucy all observe in horror and confusion, confused as to why the humans are firing on the exceeds like that. They decide to use the distraction to try and get away and rescue Candy, Wendy, and Natsu. Erza notices them leave and says, “The fallens! They’ve taken away the prisoner! Call for more defenses!!” She then takes off to chase after them, a small group of soldiers following her. “Send them to the west tower!” She orders as she runs out of sight. The exceeds all simultaneously turn into a giant cat lacrima and fall to the ground. The soldiers look on in horror, none of them truly knowing that Code ETD did this. They start to question the order when they hear King Foust’s voice. “There are no gods in this world! We humans have suffered with scarcity while the exceeds flaunted their limitless abundance! Hoarded their wealth of magic power while we were forced to beg for scraps!! It’s time to grab what has been kept at arm's length for all these years!! To claim our rightful prize which we have been denied!! As of this moment, the era of begging and subservience is over!! We must fight for the future of humanity!! We must rebuild our kingdom on the foundation of limitless magical power for all humankind!! We must rise up and take what is ours!! Therefore I am initiating Code ETD; Exceeds Total Destruction!!! These so-called ‘angels’ shall meet their extermination by our hand!!!” The soldiers all raise their fists in the air, shouting in agreement. Hughes and Sugar boy both stand with smirks on their faces. “Gotta say, things just took a very interesting turn!” Hughes says, Sugar Boy turns to him and says, “It was bound to happen sooner or later.” PantherLily isn’t pleased by this however, considering that he himself is an exceed. He growls and says, “So this is the reason we were building up our military!” He does not think the same way most exceeds in Edolas do. He doesn’t believe Queen Shagot is a god, and he definitely doesn’t think of himself as an angel. He believes in the idea of peace, and he thought that becoming the captain of the Royal Army’s First Magic Warfare Unit, and serving the king of the humans, he would be able to keep the peace. However, it’s clear that both of the rulers in Edolas are liars. He’s completely enraged by this, however he’s in it too deep now, and he can’t back out. He must follow the orders of his king. King Foust gives the order for Biro to fully extract the Dragon Slayer’s magic at once. Down in the basement of the west tower, Biro aims the magic vacuum at Wendy first, snickers, and says, “This may tickle a little more than our previous experiments. Hehehehe! Your sacrifice will mean a great deal to our kingdom!” Also in the west tower, Carla, Rosie, Happy, and Lucy all are running down the stairs, heading for the basement. “Things are getting worse by the minute!” Happy says, then Lucy adds, “Who knew the humans were so close to starting a war with the exceeds!” Carla counters, “What they choose to do is none of our concern! We have no stake in the matter. They can wipe each other out if they like!” The four of them keep running when Erza’s spear comes out of nowhere and lands on the floor right in front of them, causing a small crater in the ground. “This is as far as you’ll be going!” Erza says, standing on the steps in front of them, a group of soldiers behind her. Lucy looks at her, annoyed, “Oh come on! Seriously?! I thought you had more important things to do than bother with us!” Erza chuckles at this, a huge smirk on her face. Her spear, still stuck in the ground in front of them, starts glowing and a big shock shoots the four of them back. They all move a little bit, all of them in pain from the blow they just took which left them lying on the ground. Erza picks up her spear and says, “Impressive. You just took a direct hit from my magic, and yet you’re still breathing. But not for much longer.” She walks up, and aims her spear at Lucy, “You see. My orders said nothing about taking you alive, so it seems there’s only one option.” She raises her spear and is about to kill Lucy with it, but Happy flies at Erza, screaming. He knocks into her at full force, and they both fall against the wall. Erza’s spear drops to the ground and causes an explosion, and the ground falls out from beneath them. Lucy, Rosie, Carla, and Happy all fall down. Lucy grabs an unconscious Happy, and Rosie and Carla both carry them together through the air and find a hiding place.