The Unbroken Spirit (A Fairy Tail fanfic)

Guardians Destroyed

Keira sat on the edge of the cliff until sunset when she heard rustling behind her. She scrambled to her feet and came face to face with Gray. Keira swallowed hard,

"Why are you here?" She asked looking down at her feet, her ears hot with embarrassment from Gray's icy stare.

"I could ask you the same thing" he replied coldly. Gray walked past her and sat on the edge of the cliff giving a sigh as he got into a comfortable position. Keira stood, unable to speak then followed him and sat down when he patted the grassy earth next to him. "Here, I guessed you would need this," Gray said handing Keira her long,black rapier.

"Thank you" Keira said sincerely and sheathed her sword. They sat next to each other silently for many minutes. Keira stared into the distance, keeping her face away from Gray. Finally Gray spoke,

"What you did back there was pretty amazing. Keira, I don't know who you are or what you've done to strike so much fear in people but here, with us, you don't need to hide." He gently reached over and pulled off Keira's hood, revealing her ghastly face. Keira turned her head and made eye contact with Gray, her yellow eye's pupil thinning down to a small sliver.

"Here in Fairy Tail, if you're going to be apart of our team then we need to trust you and you need to trust us. No matter about the past, its gone forever. All we have is the future, and if you dwell in the past then you won't have a future." Gray looked out into the horizon and stayed silent for a minute. Keira stared at Gray,

" I get it, you can't trust someone who doesn't trust you in return, its a two way street." Keira leaned back and propped her herself up on her elbows. The moon was rising when Gray stood up,

"Well, I should be off, they're probably still running around looking for you and me." Gray started off towards the wood line, he paused and turned around, "you coming? Or staying here?" He asked, Keira sat still for a moment, was she going to follow this stranger she just met to a guild where no one knew her and didn't fully accept her or was she going to sit here and figure out her life on her own. She smiled to herself and stood up, walking towards Gray,

"well, let the adventure start here." Keira chuckled and they walked back to the group inside the woods.

The next week Keira was more socialized and happy, she still didn't take her hood off in public but around the Fairy Tail guild she could not wear it and no one would say anything. It was like a big, dysfunctional family here, and Keira loved it. She wasn't the only one with a weird or untold story and no one cared either, they just accepted her for who she was. Keira stuck around with Erza and her group of enthusiastic wizards, Natsu had finally warmed up to her and was acting like his usual self around her.

The group was out in Magnolia, returning from lunch, laughing and of course Natsu and Gray fought when Erza wasn't looking. Keira and Lucy were in the back of the pack telling jokes to each other. When suddenly the earth trembled and the Fairy Tail wizards fell down.

"What was that?!" Natsu exclaimed rubbing his head where he hit it on the road. Keira's eyes widened and fear washed over her in a wave. She had felt this shaking before, it was the Guardians!

"Get back to the guild, now!" Keira yelled, scrambling to get to her feet. How did they find her so quickly? Erza and the others were reluctant to leave Keira. Keira turned to them, her eyes blazing, "Go!" However no one moved again, all of them had nervous looks on their faces. Keira looked at Gray, "you told me a team needs to trust each other, trust me right now." She and Gray held a hard stare then Gray turned,

" Come on, she can handle this" he said. Still unsure the others followed Gray, Keira watched them go, her heart pounding in her chest. She spotted the floating guild hall, it was close to the ground and the vibrations from it got bigger and more frequent as it neared Keira. She pulled out her sword and ran after it, how did they pass over Keira without her noticing? They were almost to the guild! She sprinted up the hill, leading to the Fairy Tail guild.

When she got there she saw that the whole guild was outside, ready to fight. Keira stood in front of them as the Guardians stopped moving, readying for battle. Winged people flew out of the large doors and shot to the ground. Keira looked up, her mouth open in awe her mind whirled and flashed back to when she was a little girl.

~ "Achnologia!!" ~

Keira gasped and stumbled back, she fell over but was caught before she hit the ground. She looked up and saw Gray, his dark eyes concerned. She shook her head, her vision a little blurry and stood up.

"You alright?" He asked, Keira nodded, her eyes electric with anger, everything came back to her, all the memories the Guardians stole from her when they captured her. She bared her teeth and looked up again, the Guardians almost at the guild. She charged her sword with magic energy and swung it in front of her, a shock wave of shadow hit the flying Guardians head on and grounded them but more were flooding out of the fortress.

Keira noticed that the Guardians weren't attack Fairy Tail. She saw Natsu speed past her, his arm recoiled, ready to attack.

"Natsu don't!" Keira screeched, the young man stopped his attack looking back, confused, at Keira.

"Why? What's the problem?"

"If you attack them then you are declaring war." Keira explained, her breath short, Natsu paused then growled under his breath and retreated. Keira was then swarmed with thousands of Guardians, through the fray she saw Madison, wearing the Head Guardian coat and ordering her troops to attack Keira with no mercy. Keira, with her memory restored, fought with a new purpose, not just for herself but to stop the Guardian's tyranny.

She battled her way to Madison, whose green eyes glowed with malice. Madison knocked Keira's sword from her hand, sending her flying into the ground. Keira's breath was knocked out of her and Madison hit Keira in the chest with her Guardian Magic.

Keira felt hands grip her shoulder and arms drag her down with their weight. She could hear Natsu yelling that he wanted to fight but she heard Gray reply calmly.

"We have to trust her, she knows what she is doing." That statement warmed Keira's heart, he truly trusted her. Keira looked up and saw the floating guild above her. She gritted her teeth and wrestled in the throng of people and finally freed her right arm. All the weight on her chest made it hard to breath and stay conscious.

Opening her palm a white Guardian symbol appeared in front of her hand, a beam of pure light shot from her hand and condensed into a tiny ball in the center of the flying earth. Taking a deep breath Keira spoke with authority,

"Holy Guardian Judgement!"

The white orb expanded quickly and engulfed the floating island and everyone in it. Keira struggled to continue the spell, the sheer amount of magic energy needed to produce it was too much for a normal wizard of her age. All the Guardians around her, including Madison, fled at the sight of their fortress being vaporized.

They left Keira laying on the ground and the Fairy Tail wizards where they stood in front of their guild. Keira was unconscious, all her magic energy gone in one spell.