Just the Maid

Chapter 26- Old Memories

When I had reached the bottom, I saw a figure sitting cross-legged in a spotlight. I couldn't see him, or her, very well so I stepped closer. As soon as I saw the pink hair, I knew. I thought he was gone. I covered my mouth to keep myself from screaming with joy.

"Natsu... Is that you, big brother?" I cried. He stood and opened his arms.

"Yeah. It's me." I ran into his arms with a big hug, tears streaming down my face.

"You don't know how much I've missed you big brother... Wait, does this mean the others are here too? But how'd you get here?" I paused. Something wasn't adding up to me. I sniffed him. My eyes widened and I slipped down before he could get me. I rolled away from him before he could capture me again.

"You're not the real Natsu!" I yelled in fury. He started laughing.

"Wow! You're quick!" he said.

"Who are you?"

"Whoever you want me to be, really," he said. I watched as his figure shimmered and morphed into someone else.

"Gray? How do you know these people? How are you doing this?" I demanded.

"Well, basically, I can take the form of any human from your memories. I can only take one when I see you, but I can take the rest when I touch you. It's a luring mechanism and it works wonders!" he explained. He even sounded like Gray when he spoke! I clenched my fists and looked at the ground in front of him.

"How could you... How DARE you take their form..." I muttered.

"What was that? I can't hear you, princess," it said. Erza's voice...

"That's it! You'll pay for this!" I screeched. I planted my hand on the ground and a magic circle appeared. I reached into it and pulled out a katana. The circle disappeared and I sprinted towards Erza. She morphed again, but didn't flinch. When I saw who it was, I couldn't move.

"Please, big sister, please don't hurt me..." It took the form of Katrina. I gripped my katana even harder.

"You're not her, so don't even try to be! I won't be fooled!" I swung my sword towards her, but she disappeared. I looked around, but I couldn't see her.

"You know, the best thing about this power is..." A beam of light shot by my left shoulder. I swiveled around to see the fake Katrina in her light outfit holding two balls of light, one in each hand. "...is that I can steal their powers too!" She threw the balls of light toward me, but I deflected them with my katana.

"Oh, you're gonna play like THAT, hunh? Fine. You deserve this anyway!" I threw off my cloak to the side. I stood up straight, closed my eyes, and punched my left hand into my right palm.

"Dark Element!" Black tendrils wrapped around me, changing my maid uniform into my Dark Element outfit.

It was all different tones of black. I had high heel wedge boots, black skinny jeans, and my top was pure black, but it only covered my chest so my belly was exposed.

"Oh ho? I guess it's time to get serious then..." she said. She threw more light balls at me and I dodged them, running towards her.

"Dark Dragon Claw!" I did a flip in the air, projecting my dark magic out from my right leg and out towards the fake Katrina. She dodged easily.

We went on like this for who knew how long. If fake Katrina switched to a different Element, I switched to counter it. We went back and forth, back and forth. Fire beat earth, earth beat water, water beat fire, and so on with our other elements.

After fighting for such a long time, I started feeling pretty drained. This continent didn't have the usual spread of Ether that I was used to, and we were underground so I couldn't get my magic back as fast. I was kneeling on the ground in my water outfit. I looked up to see that the shapeshifter was having the same difficulty as I was.

"Why don't we settle this the old fashioned way, hunh?" I called to it.

"What are you proposing?" it answered.

"We each take a sword, and dual it out. Whoever surrenders first, loses. The winner gets to leave while the other stays. Sound good?"

"Fine. Let's go." It stood up and took the form of Erza. I grinned behind the folds of my hair. I tapped the floor twice with my hand and a pink magic circle appeared. I reached in and pulled out a large, golden spear. The handle was ornately covered in purple swirls. The top of the spear had an amethyst stone engraved in the middle of the head. The top also had two other arrowheads on either side, horizontally and facing up.

I couldn't help but chuckle to myself a little.

"What's so funny?" the shapeshifter asked.

"Do you know who I am?"

"Katara Dragoness, the Legendary Elemental Dragon Slayer."

"Yes yes, but I have other names too, y'know. Do you know any of them?"

"No... What are you getting at?"

"Well, I am the Princess of the Fairies. The girl who you are right now is Titania, Queen of the Fairies. She's not my mom, so how am I the princess? I'll tell you how." I stepped forward and quickly pushed off so I was right in front of it. It gasped in shock. "I'm the princess because I beat her in battle!" I grabbed its hair and slammed it into my knee. It collapsed to the floor.

"Erza could never match my speed and that's how I won. The people didn't want to lose their queen though, they loved her too much, so they decided that I would be the princess. It was a pretty fair deal. But, enough about me. Do you surrender?" I knelt down next to it. It just looked up at me with clear brown eyes and nodded. I stood.

"Where's the exit?" I asked. I picked up my cloak and put my spear back into the magic circle. Guess I didn't need it after all.

"The door on the far side. And by the way," I turned, "good luck on the exam. You'll go far." I nodded in thanks and left the room.

I walked down a long corridor, my outfit back to my normal maid's uniform. I tied my cloak back on as I walked and thought about the strange shapeshifter.

After a bit of walking, I came to a dead end. Or, I thought it was. The wall lifted, like it did in the first phase and exposed a large, circular room lit with torches on the wall. I stepped through and the door closed behind me. No one was here.

"Guess I'll have to wait..." I muttered to myself. I sat against the wall to await the return of the other contestants.