The Problem Child (Fairy Tail Fanfic)

Regretful

{NADIA'S POV}
"Did we get him?" Tina asks, squinting through the dust and smoke on the other side of the water wall.

"It's not over yet." Zoey warns.

Tina groans. "They're persistent, I'll give them that. Right, Nadia?"

I don't respond.

"Nadia? What are you thinking?" Zoey asks, coming over putting a hand on my shoulder after noticing that my gaze is troubled.

The debris clears just enough for me to see our foes. Scar and chain-sickle dude are both knocked out from the force of the blast. Akuhei Tanaka, even though he took the brunt of the damage, seems to have surrounded himself with his black fire and avoided serious injury.

He staggers a little, struggling to his feet, and makes eye contact with me. He smirks.

"I need my dagger." I admit, grinding my teeth together. "I can't get close to him right now. With my weapon, I could even the odds."

"Oh, come on!" Tina protests. "Look at him! He can barely stand! All it'll take is one good punch to knock the big meanie out."

"I need my my dagger." I repeat.

"You left it at Castillia Town." Zoey reminds me.

Something flies at me from behind. Instinctively, I duck. The object hits Tina's water barrier and clatters to the ground.

I pick it up. "My spare dagger. But I left this..." I gasp and spin around. Reiki is standing behind me.

"Ask and you shall recieve?" He shrugs sheepishly.

"You—why—huh?" I sputter.

"You said you wanted your dagger right?" He gives me a thumbs up sign, his cheeks tinged slightly pink. "Get out there and make us proud."

Others follow Reiki's lead, giving me thumbs up signs and offering words of encouragement.

"You can do it!"

"Beat him up!"

"Go, Nadia!"

"We all stand with you!"

I stand there, shocked, tears welling up in my eyes, hands covering my mouth. Then one voice rings above the others.

"Nadia!" It's Cindy! Heads spin, and people gape as my three friends from Castillia Town come running in. Cindy pants heavily, putting her hands on her knees for support.

"You have... no idea... how much of a pain... it was to... find this place." Anya wheezes, gasping for breath every few words.

"You didn't... really think we'd... miss this, did you?" Rio grins.

"Here!" Cindy cries, and tosses something small and red through the air. I catch it and look in the palm of my hand. I grin.

"Thanks Cindy!" I yell, and fasten my red star barrette in my hair for good luck. The strangest thing is, even though it's broken, I can see a little bit of a glow inside the broken star.

Stars symbolize spirit after all. Maybe I've gotten back a little bit of my spirit, which was crushed in that explosion six years ago.

Reiki steps forward, eyes wide, when he sees my barrette. I blush as I recall that he's the one who gave it to me. He opens his mouth to speak, but I quickly turn away.

"Alright girls. We're finishing this." I tell my spirits, returning my focus to Akuhei Tanaka.

"Right." They move to my flanks. Tina drops her water barrier, creating a massive tidal wave which floods the cavern.

Scar and chain-sickle dude are thrown like rag dolls, hitting the wall with a thud. Akuhei Tanaka gets blown back, but he manages to catch himself.

As soon as the water disperses, I dart forward. Heat from the soles of my feet dries the wet floor under me so I don't slip, as well as speeding me up.

Akuhei Tanaka recovers just in time to block a fiery slash of my red hot blade with a flaming fist, but there's no force behind his punch.

He stumbles back, and I take the opportunity to get behind him and jab upward. Somehow, Akuhei Tanaka manages to block once again, staggering out of the way. We dance like this for a minute, me continuously assaulting, him barely dodging.

I can feel him building up power for something big. I have to stop him before that happens. I see an opening and come in for another pass.

His night-fire whip appears out of nowhere, wrapping around my wrist. By retracting the whip once more, he pulls me to him. I try to slice it, but he snatches my dagger and throws it against the wall with so much force that it breaks.

Then he grabs me, and his body starts glowing with a purplish hue. "I refuse to get caught. If I go down, I'm taking you with me!"

"Nadia, get out of there! He's gonna blow!" Tina cries. I hear several cries behind me, and turn to see my guild mates running towards us.

"I won't let you!" A pulse of heat emanates from Akuhei Tanaka. It sends them flying back, and the same time making the building frame, which is already crumbling because of my sun bomb earlier, begin to fall.

I see Dad running towards me, hand outstretched. Mom has tears in her eyes and she's also trying to get to me. Rubble from the ceiling continues to fall and block their path.

"Nadia!" Reiki's the closest. Behind him is a trail of stone that looks like it's been cut half, like he powered through by slicing anything that got in his way. "Give me your hand!"

I reach out, but I can't get very far while tied to Akuhei Tanaka. Our hands are a foot apart. A stone falls, knocking him back, but he comes in again.

"Just forget about me." I recoil my hand.

"You idiot!" Reiki yells. "I could never do that! Nor would I want to! I let you go once, and I'm never going through that pain ever again!"

Another pulse of heat comes from Akuhei Tanaka. Reiki flinches. In that instant, Akuhei Tanaka jerks me towards him, drawing me into a choke hold. I claw at his hands desperately. When that has no effect, I bite him.

"Ow!"Akuhei Tanaka yelps. I push away from him, landing on my butt. Reiki lunges for me, but I push him back.

"Tina, protect them!" I cry. A bubble of forms around Reiki, a mini water barrier. I know that one surrounds every person in my guild.

"Nadia, no!" Reiki screams.

"Zoey!" I yell. An explosion of pitch black flames drowns me out.

The last thing I see before being engulfed by fire is Reiki, Dad, and Mom all leaping for me desperately, arms outstretched. The look in their eyes says it all. Not again.