Layla was bandaging the man's leg. His face was bending pressing his lips and gritting teeth. Expression was changing while she was pulling out another cactus needle from his face. Layla wasn't a sadist but being unable to miss such an opportunity she was experimenting with utilizing this pain for her own goals.
"First answer my question. What's your magic?"
"Darkness. My magic creates and utilizes element *ouch* of darkness. What does it have to do with my destined fall?"
"I was worried you would say so. Hear me out so you understand your problem. Do you know who's going to be sacrificed in this ritual?"
"No. By any chance do you know?"
"Yes and it's you."
"? *ouch*"
"You didn't expect right? I have a theory about Brain. I think he put his hand on Severin declaring that he's 'trash' 'maggot' or something even less desirable. He did the same for you."
"That's right."
"Did you ever question what it indicates?"
"*ouch* I guess it means that he has bad habits of being rude to people so to speak."
"Is he really rude to everyone not closely related to him?"
"I guess no? What's the point?"
"I don't know yet. Not in rational ways at least. I just got an intel saying that normally in the future he would obtain four kinds of magic. One is telepathy one is archive magic the next one is fire magic and the last is darkness."
"Oracle?"
"Can't answer even if I wanted to. The point is that your magic matches some of Brain's future magic from the intel. It's not much but sure it's enough to suspect his power is somewhat related to you."
"So that bastard wants to use me to get magic power? Is that even possible? *ouch*"
"Magic power comes from both body and spirit. If he finds a way to assimilate your body or spirit in theory it should be even possible. In theory cause in practice it's a suicide. Spirits have personalities. Placing someone else's personality in your body is not different from suppressing your own. As for the body transformed magic particles normally will untransform with decomposing the body. There are some cases of transplanting organs but the rate of rejection is too high to consider it as reasonable."
"So what is he planning?"
"Probably assimilation of your spirit. It's indeed a suicide but at least suppressing someone else's personality is possible. In dark guilds there are some cases of brainwashing members with special kinds of magic. Doing reverse for example shouldn't be much harder I guess. Of course that's only my speculations. Let's change the subject."
The guy decided it's time to ask more important question. Putting his ouching aside they need a good plan against Brain.
"What are you going to do with me? If you want intel I can give you as much as you want. It's not like I can help Severin now. If only Brain... *ouch*"
Unfortunately he realized it's hard to put ouching aside.
"Let me ask. What would happen if Brain'll will think that you're dead? Is he going to use your Severin immediately?"
"I don't think so. He will use my death to sow seeds of sorrow in my son. Let me also tell a story. I remember one girl that was a bit sick and took that girl from worried mother telling her that the only way to save her daughter's life is to hand over the girl to government researchers. The girl wasn't really sick. She was experiencing some pain due to her body adapting to her magic power. They tortured that girl by infusing her body with more ethernano only to eventually come up with a method to make human body more adaptive to magic power. Brain failed to discover the secret of her special constitution but he still wanted to try something on her. He told the mother that her daughter died. Later he let the daughter escape knowing that the mother found two orphans to take care of. Later she returned with a strange kind of resolve. She wanted to go through more of their experiments. You would have thought it was possible? *ouch* She infused her body with as much magic as possible. Normally it would be a suicide but she behaved like she's going to survive and reality was meaningless. I don't know what happened later. That was crazy! I didn't want to see more. Looking from distance I saw lab being destroyed and Brain taking girl somewhere."
"How much time do we have? A few days. Week? And why do you think that Brain will know if you die?"
"I don't know. *ouch* He always knows that his subordinates died. I don't believe it's by chance."
"Huh? Can you repeat?
"I don't believe it's by chance?"
"Not this. What did you say before?"
"He always knows that his subordinates died. *ouch*"
"Bingo!"
"What?"
"I think I know why. He cast organic link magic spell on you."
"Continue."
"Organic link magic requires living being as a base of connection. It should stop working if used living being will die. Then Brain should feel that his link to you doesn't work anymore."
"Can we cut off this connection? *ouch*"
"Yes and that's what we're going to do."
...
Ancients believed that love is a feeling of lack. It's not obvious what it means. It might be an analogy to the fact that the object of love is desired when we can't possess it or a way to refer to the fact we alone are usually not enough to be a place where the greater picture becomes. Scholars on the subject note that the ancients were more gay and more lesbian so we don't understand the context. The most experienced in those matters seems to believe it's a woman or man that we lack. But the most experienced are Celestial Spirits.
Lucy read a letter from her mother. She was a bit surprised about the timing but Layla wants to delay the plan to save Erza and Jellal and use the next two weeks to prepare for Brain.
'I don't how but it seems that she knows about my problems with Brain. Mother always knows. It's scary though. She shouldn't know about Brain helping me in progressing my magic.'
Two weeks means she wants to develop some tricks that can help her to win the battle against Brain. The problem is that she's still a kid. Not necessarily mentally but physically for sure. In short she's lacking nearly everything. She can't perform Urano Metria. Sure she has Taurus but she promised to not use him and she's going to keep this word. The physical power of her body and agility is not there anymore. She can enhance her whip to compensate for that a bit. But a bit it's not a lot.
'It's time to rethink my fighting style and define my perspective. How can I contribute to the real battle?'
First she can try to master star bullet. It's power is not very destructive but it might be possible to achieve that in two weeks and it's ranged. Second she can prepare letter enchantments that will force her enemy to stay in place. Again. Not very destructive but it can support her comrades. Third possibility is to perfect her hardening enchantment. Effects should be guaranteed but it's usefulness won't be. If you don't have endurance like Natsu or Jura getting close to guys like Brain is rather a suicide. After analyzing possibilities her choice is star bullet. At least in some situations it should be able to distract the enemy making it vulnerable to stronger attacks. If you can distract someone like Brain as a kid you have the right to be proud... or perhaps even name yourself Happy. Besides this is a spell based on star attribute. Her cup o tea right?
'My position is frustrating. I have to leave the decision about saving my friends in hands of my mother cause I'm unable to achieve anything on my own. Is this why I run away from my father?'
Lucy sighed and stopped reading. There's a routine to follow. First lessons. Then asking Gran Doma for points in mastering first letter enchantments. Mastering new kind of magic is not a donut. She need to inform Ren about the imminent battle and general tactic they have to use. If this kid still wants to take a risk she won't prevent him from doing so (Fairy Tail was able to do even more crazy things) but he needs at very least to be aware that he won't be able to do more than her. After sorting out her problems day started.
Lessons today were more of an introduction so she was able to divide her attention between listening to the teacher and training with lacrima hidden in a bag. The bag was made of a special kind of material blocking magic from leaking which prevented her teachers a bit from noticing that she wasn't paying them full attention which could be taken as an insult to their work. At least she hoped it would work because unfortunately fluctuations of magic power in her body couldn't be really concealed. Kids had a bad sense of magic so they didn't find out but as for one of the teachers...
"Lucy can you show us what you're doing."
"*Sigh* I wanted to hide it."
She took out the lacrima from the bag.
"Give me that. I return it after lesson."
"But."
"There's no 'but'."
Kids in the class laughed for a few seconds and then stopped.
"Let's continue."
'I guess it didn't work.'
After lesson she had to talk with the teacher to beg permission. He agreed after proving she remembered the content of the lesson.
In fact every more powerful wizard has to be able to divide his attention between different aspects of spells. Otherwise they would be unable to cast anything more complicated. That alone is enough to accept such behaviors like dividing attention on lessons. The teacher was only a bit surprised because wizards at this level usually don't wage the need for doing multiple things at the same time very highly.
...
Layla ended with treating wounds and started to experiment with organic link on the man. It was easy. In the end probably every mage is able to master organic link magic to some extent. It's just for most wizards this extent isn't captivating.
After breaking the connection with Brain Layla used the assassin's communication lacrima to play a little with Brain. She talked to him acting like... in fact she didn't even need to act so much to be really enraged. She was just mocking him and was keeping talking to him in the tone of 'How dare you?'. Feeling more creative she was talking about herself as an arrogant aristocrat would talk trying to trick Brain into believing she's just another human trash or something more specific for unverbalized parts of his worldview. She was continuing this to the point when Brain hanged up. Then she considered this little act as her success.
"You sure it worked?"
"I hope so. Why could it be different? Of course there's a risk that he didn't fall for that but Brain is arrogant. I think he'll try to suppress the emotional influence of my arrogance on him with his own arrogance. This will be his crucial mistake."
"You sure are more scheming than me or Brain. Were you not in a dark guild by any chance?"
"I don't remember myself being in one but it would be interesting to know something new about myself."
"Right..."
"I think we can consider this as a start of our cooperation. As your partner can I ask you at least about your name?"
"I'm Kibbe Harlow but in this business I'm called Zero."
"*sigh* Layla. But you know already."
'Things couldn't go worse. This poor soul not only is the source of Brain's power but also the source of second personality of Brain.'
"Maybe we should destroy this lacrima?"
"No it's ok to have it. I cannot rule out that the option in which he will give us some more important information. However in the worst case he will use this lacrima to deceive us about what's with Lucy. In fact he can't do anything meaningful against her without causing any political drama so I guess he can only lie to us about her safety so it's rather okay. We should be more worried about your Severin. Two weeks are enough to do something to him. We could miscalculate and he will die."
"It's not like I have a better choice so there's no use in thinking about this. Let's just hope for the best."
"Optimist..."
Layla doesn't like guys like Kibbe. His attitude while sometimes brightening up the mood in the end ruins also his plans. This is the simplest kind of optimism. The problem is he didn't realize it yet so he keeps repeating the same mistake. Allowing yourself to believe that everything will be fine only because of having a plan is a very simple way of thinking. The problem with this comes from the fact that reality is not simple. Reality is complex and human mind is only able to grasp a part of said complexity. Therefore if the relation of your views to reality as a whole is simple there's a guarantee you're just wrong. It doesn't matter if you see yourself as a product of your reason or your emotions or your sensations.
'It's possible that it's only another nonsense one's able to think about but if this Kibbe is what happened to become Zero in the future it's impossible to not wonder about his psyche. Is it special in any way?'
"By the way I think I gonna call Makarov for help."
"You know him?"
"We share common goals and beating Brain in this game now is one of those. Of course I can do everything on my own and with my experience as a wizard. I'm nearly certain it would be the same."
"Nearly?"
"Doing this all alone is still a risk. It's not worth taking. Believe me on that. Maybe in the world of statistics my chances of failing are like a few thousand to one but when things have something to do with me my chances of succeeding are like four to one. I suspect that half of my fortune was used up when I gave birth to Lucy. By the way... do you want some wine?"
"Thanks. I might need it."
...
*bumb*
On the ground appeared protruding piece of earth.
"It's something like this. I want you to master this spell enough to be able to cast in at most half a second."
"And what's this supposed to do?"
"I think... I'll just show you."
Lucy walked over and she pretended to stumble.
"Do you understand?"
"I guess. So you want me to use this to make enemies fall on their faces?"
"Yes it may look now pretty pointless but if the enemy will be running around avoiding being hit this will do. The key to success is to cast it fast and from a distance or doing this before the battle."
"I'm not sure if it will be helpful. I don't remember anyone being really hurt because only falling on their faces."
"Because that's not what we're going to do. We don't have enough magic power to really hurt an enemy on the level of a guild master. We have to depend on adults for that."
"Risky."
"If we want to be helpful we have to be willing to take some risks. There's no way around it as ugly it is."
"Lucy can you at least tell me what we're actually doing?"
"We're going to get a bit stronger and help adults to deal with Brain's immoral experiments."
"No that's what you think this is from my perspective. Just some immoral experiments. We can let adults deal with this. They should be effective enough without us. Why do you even want to go there? Are you looking for trouble?"
"That's not..."
"Who's Brain for you Lucy?"
"..."
"Please."
"He's the guy who if not prevented will make my friends suffer. I can't do nothing about that."
"And those friends are..."
"They are imprisoned on one island by a certain dark guild."
"Did you meet them before?"
"Not in this timeline."
"What?"
"I can explain everything."
She told him about being from a different timeline and those friends being her friends in this alternative future. This was unbearable for Ren as he thought he was just fooled by an intelligent girl. Too many surprising informations usually mean lies. And time travels by normal means are impossible.
"Stop telling me this nonsense!"
And he ran away.
"Wait! Ren! I'm sorry!"
'*Sigh* I should expect it. He's a kid after all and our friendship a fragile one. He will forgive me probably.'
Lucy wasn't really disappointed. It was already a miracle that he endured absurd statements from her one after another.
'It's better like this. He's not aware of dangers he would experience with me. However now I have another reason to work hard. I have to become strong enough to convince him that I didn't lie! Let's do this. Time is running.'
And she started to form a four-pointed star on her finger only for the star to disappear a moment later. Depending on the star attribute alone is different from just pulling all her magic into a spell. Untransformed magic is too formless to sustain spell dependent on magic transformed into star attribute magic. Experience of failing to use star bullet also shows her that she didn't really master Urano Metria. Before she even thought she upgraded this spell by using water magic from Aquarius or by using it together with Gemini. But after all it was just a lie. She only grew more dependent on the power of her spirits instead of increasing her own power. Mrs. Hayako nearly articulated her problem right. Her foundation is weak! She can't deny it anymore!
She also summoned her first Nikora to train with her. She didn't have access to Plue because she don't have his gate key. She instead has found a key of strangely purple Nikora. Nikoras were always a mystery. They aren't strong at all but instead they are common. There are hundreds and thousands of Nikoras. But in being common they are also so uncommon. It's not that easy to get two Nikoras looking the same. Facial features and colors are different.
"I will name you Dixie. Are you happy with that?"
Dixie gave some howls joyfully indicating it's happy. Nikoras are known for having personalities with a tendency to be content with whatever their owner is. It's associated with their lack of other interests. Magazines describe them as the purest of Celestial Spirits destining them as good pets. They are not dangerous and in some ways they even resemble babies. And now this little dog is going to become her ultimate divine beast!
"Normally I would make you into signing with me a contract which would eventually make you bound to me preventing you from disobeying my orders."
Dixie heard this and started paying attention feeling Lucy said something meaningful.
"But having experience with spirits I know that contracts have great disadvantages. Above all they are surprisingly weak to transformation magic. If someone is able to fake or copy my appearance he will get the ability to give you orders and you would be left without being able to disobey which in turn will make you guilty about for example having to harm me. So here's my proposition. I want to make a contract with you limited to not having any contract with other humans. You don't have to follow my orders if you don't want."
Purple Nikora easily agreed. He was listening despite acting like excited dog. Lucy patted his purple head scratching his places behind nearly nonexistent ears while continuing.
"I still need your help. If you still want to follow me I want you to overcome your weaknesses. First dome some laps around this field. This will help for your motor coordination."