Moon-raid 1

There was an evening. The weather was a misty one, giving a mysterious aura. The moon was shining brightly as it was a full moon, and next to it there was a second moon being crescent shaped. Two of them were floating in the sky, but one made of some kind of pale or gray stone was giving a mild white light so weak, and yet freely cutting off the mist, giving a lot of visibility. The second one was crescent made of metal, enveloped by the mist, and made of darker shade of gray metal, pipes protruding from its inner, and outer arch, little windows were betraying the multiple presences living inside. One was an uninhabited, unreachable wonder of nature, and the second was a very reachable inhabited human creation. 

"Mr Gran Doma, are you sure the last time you saw the facility it couldn't fly?"

"Without any doubt." Gran Doma answered, keeping his composure firmly. Layla couldn't break it so easily. He long expected something strange to happen. When Fairy Tail is involved, all nonsense is bound to happen.

Layla threw an amused glance at the crescent-shaped facility levitating in the air. Then turned gaze to Lucy, then looking at somewhat nervous Ren, then examined more excited looks of Laxus and Gildarts. Gran Doma's assistants were actually the most confused here. They never saw anything so absurd. A massive building meant to be standing on the ground planned to lean on the ground, was actually levitating in the air.

'What kind of world do we live in?' They thought simultaneously.

The best informed one here was Makarov, Fairy Tail's guild master. His gaze was as concerned as Gran Doma's, but even colder. Hardened by battles, many times saw things going not okay, and even witnessed some of his friends dying in his hands due to an overwhelming enemy, and some carelessness. If there was something he regretted it's that there's no Porlyusica with him this time. Someone able to perform some treatment could actually save lives. Without her at hand wounds delivered by either side could turn ugly in the future… or not if fate has different plans. Fate is quite playful in these matters. First he believed that their advantage against Brain will be so vast that the battle will go very easily, and perhaps his assistance won't be needed. Now he's seeing the facility flying, and that demanded a change of approach from him.

The moment passed, and Layla took her role as the leader of the raid on the Brain's facility. Despite how it looked she decided to take things slowly.

There was no need to rush directly, and trying would cause many problems. She could even point out the reasons to not do that. For example, despite Gran Doma's good skills in letter enchantments it would be hard for him to use them in the air around the facility.

If they were to fight in the air, there would be a high risk that Brain is going to abandon the base, while destroying it. Doing this would put the group in the situation, where they have to run away from the facility before crushing. It has to be mentioned that only Gran Doma, and Makarov can actually fly. Gran Doma due to one of his special enchantments, and Makarov due to his minor elemental mastery over air. The rest can't be said to be nearly as resourceful. Even Layla herself lacks the necessary skills. Perhaps with Lucy's luck they would survive such a catastrophe. However, can everyone be so lucky? And the problem is that Brain would escape or die, the facility would be destroyed, Severin would die or go missing as well, the knowledge about what Brain did would be lost again. That's not a victory, when there's no gain.

'Screw my luck.' That was what Layla inwardly thought.

On the other hand Lucy couldn't prevent herself from thinking that if Happy, Wendy or even just Natsu was there everything would be simple. While dwelling on her own longing Lucy saw something shiny on the ground. Upon visual examination she determined it was a screw. She was about to pick it up from the ground…

"Lucy, please, don't touch that thing!" Layla warned.

Daughter turned around.

"What are you talking about, mom?"

"I'm not sure, but we are standing before a technological wonder. I don't even want to know where that came from. I hope we'll never learn." Layla retorted.

Even in this situation Layla was greatly dependent on her intuition, and at this moment it was screaming at her nearly as much as at the time when she fought with demons. In her eyes the entire place resembled a spider web. Too false a step, and you would end up being stuck to a string.

'This place is more dangerous than it looks.'

Luckily, while moving the facility was nearly without any momentum. No matter how cool it would be to have such a mobile base, securing things inside while flying fast was next to impossible. Also the facility wasn't well prepared to spot the visitors from far away. Also the direction of flying was pretty straight. So in conclusion the very ominous crescent while troublesome was approachable.

"Let's prepare. We have to adapt our plans a bit, but in general nothing changed except there's a higher risk of losing initiative."

"What are we going to do?" asked Gran Doma.

"Mr Chairman, I saw what you prepared yesterday. Despite what you might think there's still a lot of use to it. Here's the location." Layla pointed her finger in a distant piece of plains.

"Add some barriers to make for Lucy and Ren."

"Excuse me, Layla, but I'm doubting their competencies in forming barriers. They're lacking necessary understanding, especially practical."

"That's another reason why you should take them. You can give these little brats some tips. By the way, I request you to report to me later which one's barriers were their creations. Actually they don't even have to make working barriers. This will be rather an exercise." Layla said carelessly.

"What kind of exercise?" It was hard for Gran Doma to keep up with the idea.

"Make some easy barriers for them to replicate. They'll have to recreate them as many times as they can."

"Mnemonic?"

"Yes."

"Sounds acceptable. I'll teach these kids a lesson, they won't forget." Gran Doma grinned.

*gulp* Lucy and Ren had a feeling it's going to get even harder than before. The chairman laughed unexpectedly.

"Kids, you wanted to go to the battlefield and contribute. Lucy, Ren, go with me. I'll show you how hard it really is."

Lucy, Ren, and Gran Doma made their way to prepare the battlefield. With them busy Layla turned her attention to the Gran Doma's guards and Makarov. Layla made a request.

"I want you to kidnap one researcher. Incognito, not the other way. Makarov, you'll take Andre to assist you, and then you'll return with a kidnaped researcher."

"Why can't I go alone?" Makarov asked.

"Because… let's say your presence is as vast as your power. You can barely be ignored. Do you understand what I mean?" These words were said in a sarcastic tone.

'She says I'm noisy and brutal!' That was what Makarov understood. He sighed, and nodded silently.

After that he enlarged his left hand and invited Andre to stand on its palm. They flew away just like that, and 30 minutes later they already had a hostage. The man struggled at first but when realized he couldn't break free.

The man was masked, a veil with a triangular emblem was hiding his face, his uniform was white. One could wonder how this man was even seeing through it. It was clear that Andre didn't like this veil too much, because it was used to plug the man's mouth. Seeing him, Layla was surprised how little time it took. She didn't hesitate, and after releasing the man from his own veil, she started the interrogation.

"I'm not sure if you understand what you got yourself into, my fellow. First, I want to confirm something."

"I won't tell you anything." The man replied with confidence lined with a hint of fear. 

"Really? That's a shame." Layla was amused.

"Should I torment him a little?" Makarov asked Layla.

"Not yet, Makarov. Let get us to know something about a man before making him suffer."

"Fine, but I'll start on my own."

Makarov lowered his grip on the man, and started talking slowly, not too slowly, but enough to feel the inescapable weight of his speaking..

"I'm Makarov Dreyar of Ten Saint Wizards, the guildmaster of Fairy Tail. We're here, because we're convinced there might be illegal experiments conducted here. Can you say it's true?"

"Our experiments are secret. Only the highest government officials can privy into them." The man presented his official reason. One that was meant to substitute whatever happened.

"Even if you experiment on innocent children?" Makarov suggested something

"Who to… I won't you anything. It's against our policy."

"The thing is we have a witness, and he pointed to this place."

The man was taken back, but his stance was firm.

"I can't tell you anything without the government's approval. Our research is a national secret. If you want it to be revealed…"

"So you're going to just listen to the Magic Council even if it means doing bad things?"

"It's a crime to defy the Council, you know that." He kept his composure, hoping to play on the mask of the loyal citizen, most has on hand.

"*sigh* I sometimes hear such statements. Nonetheless…" Makarov had some pity for that man. He was either a hypocrite that used the Council to validate his own wrongs, or even worse, he believed it's not wrong because he had the confidence that he had the government's blessing. Either way it was unsightly. The guildmaster made a step to his left, revealing Gran Doma working on barrier enchantments far away. He would swear the man widened his eyes if not for that they were hidden behind a veil.

"It's… Is he really the person I think he is?"

"Gran Doma, the Chairman of the Magic Council, a former Wizard Saint. He believes us that things you're doing here are going against his justice. When he heard about your boss using children, he agreed for our intervention without any problems. In fact, he wanted to see this personally." Makarov still talked slowly, making sure there's no way the man would consider himself unreachable.

"I see." The man lowered his head, the eyes under his veil were turned to the ground, avoiding eye contact with Makarov.

"Getting to the point. We have the Gran Doma's blessing. He has the highest authority here, and he is the highest official we can bring here. Is he enough to make you talk?"

"Forgive me my unwillingness. I didn't know you're with Gran Doma."

Later things progressed smoothly. He admitted some children were used. He said it was some kind of experimental therapy that has yet to be approved by the government, but despite that treating them was never the main goal. The crewman surprisingly knew enough about what caused the facility to fly.. 

It was an anti-gravity formation recently placed on the roof. It wasn't actually a spell lowering gravity despite what the name suggested. Gravity magic is rare in this world, so it couldn't be used here. It was using the air magic to push the air beneath the facility up. When such a heavy object is maintained in the air, the laws of physics of this world can even somewhat ignore a little of the additional mass of humans so the facility would not come down unless something really heavy, and inorganic is going to be attached to it. So the best way to actually land the flying crescent is to find the control device, and to weaken the effect of the anti-gravity formation. 

Thinking about the solution they realized there's actually no way to do that without alarming anyone. The moment the facility will start lowering to the ground, everyone will feel it's going down. If the crew on top of that is going to think they're landing due to another party targeting them, they will be vigilant.

Layla also considered the idea of landing the facility quickly. Everyone inside could end up hurt, and heavily bruised, which would make everything awfully easy. However Layla had moral problems with that approach. The group she took for the raid was apparently strong. Obviously strong enough to not only defeat Brain, but also strong enough to have some mercy. With Makarov, Gran Doma, Gildarts, and Laxus on her side there was nearly no way they're not going to win. So her ambitions were way beyond just a win. She wanted to take everyone alive, and then, if possible, put some sense into them.

Sadly no one actually shared her idea. She took with her various people with various motives, most of them were somewhat in favor of what she's gonna do. Not even Lucy wanted the specific change to form itself, yet everyone was here, nearly ready to act. In the end people often act, and then start to think about what they have done, and when they realize, it's already too late.

'The show must go on, and for that someone has to start it.' Layla summoned her communication lacrima and waited ready.

…

Brain was familiarizing himself with his newfound magic power. Second Origin pushed his potential to a new level. Before he was able to perform some fire magic, but never was actually interested in it. Nonetheless it was his natural affinity. If he wanted, he could burn the facility down. He didn't like his magic attribute as he considered it too ordinary for him. Despite everything he had to admit that fire magic is his main weapon, and it's going to be like this for a while.

The more exciting change in his power was about his organic link magic. Due to increased capacity for magic power he felt he would be able to cast some more energy-consuming spells like for example telepathy, a spell that created a channel to transmit thoughts, or to put a person under a curse. (note: I decided to include telepathy into Organic Link Magic, because of Brain having both, and due to some similarity.) Organic link magic has a lot of utility, and various branches. Those wizards, who are said to possess it, are rarely good in more than one branch of it. Till now Brain was able to make some kind of tracking marks informing him if the marked person is alive, but his ambitions are greater. The spell was made in preparation for his next projects.

He has already proven he's able to increase his own capacity for magic power, which is nothing short of a miracle, but for Brain it's not enough to sustain his vision. What he's lacking now are specific elemental affinities. The greatest mages always find a way to combine multiple attributes, and aspects. Someone as ambitious as Brain, cannot be much different in this regard. Unfortunately he's 'suffering' from the lack of natural affinities. Fire is the only thing he has, and he doesn't have the necessary talent to cultivate another one to the satisfying level.

If something can change his destiny, it's faith. The confidence in beliefs has always driven people to keep themselves together even against the inevitable. The legendary wizards were always driven emotionally, and were able to pay the highest price to achieve what they believed in. He's going to pay that price.

That day Brain was somewhat somber. The crew saw him glancing at the ceiling of the chamber they used for ritual. He talked with the crew asking a lot about how it works, especially how to steer it. They were somewhat excited with this change in their boss's behavior. He assured them he'll apply to the council to accept their frivolous modifications, taking the blame for what happened to it. While saying it he was giving a mysterious malicious glint in his voice. They took it for a moment of a mad scientist which Brain surely is in their eyes.

Later in the night he called Klodoa to bring Severin with him. The boy's aura surely improved. If before it was sick, and chaotic, now it was a little refined, and purposeful. He still couldn't control his power too well, which was showed by the strange occurrences around him. Sometimes objects around sink a little into his shadows, and then get repulsed. For an unknown reason Severin's Second Origin had a sliver of the darkness attribute, which is another nuance to his already bizarre constitution. Brain started the conversation with a prepared lie.

"Severin, in the end we're going to run away from here."

"Why? Uncle Brain, tell me what's going on." Severin asked in surprise.

"To my utmost disappointment lately I learned that the staff plots against us. They're planning to land the facility in a special place, and then hand over us to the Magic Council. If we don't go, we're going to be charged for the treatment I used on you. If that happened we would end up in jail." Brain said somberilly.

"Why are they going to put us into prison?" Severin didn't want to believe.

"It's their doing. I mean the Magic Council. They made treating your disease illegal."

However in his mind Brain knew he twisted the truth.

'In fact we have special permission to use experimental treatments in the name of our research. Because of that we're one of the few that can legally treat patients with the disease. That's why people have to seek our help in solving their problems.'

"When are we going? Where are we going?"

"Very soon, probably in an hour. Pack your things quickly, and come back to me. Don't take too many unnecessary things though. Don't tell anyone we're leaving. Time is of the essence. If they're going to ask you, what you're doing, tell them that I'm going to give you a better room."

"Ok. I'll be back."

Severin walked away, while Brain, and Klodoa decided to take a look at the anti-gravity formation. His plan was to plant an Organic Link mark on the formation. Then while leaving he will be able to cause the formation to malfunction, making it fall down. Brain already prepared some copies of the research documentation, and the blueprints for the ritual devices. He had his things packed and kept safely in his Requip spatial storage. When Severin's ready, he's going to cast an Illusion Magic to make himself, Klodoa, and Severin a little invisible, and then…

Suddenly the ground beneath him shaked, making him lose balance!

"What the hell!"

Just right after two members of the staff found him.

"Boss, this place is losing altitude. Someone started landing without warning!"

The unexpected statement left Brain dumbfounded. He couldn't actually blame his staff for trying something like this. Didn't he plan to betray them as well? Maybe someone found out what he has done to the anti-gravity formation? There was no time to wonder. He only needs to take Severin, and then he'll put his plan into action! Meanwhile…

"Go, and stop them from landing!"

"Yes, boss!"

That way Brain again got alone.

*sigh*

He didn't know what happened, but he had bad expectations. It was to the point he decided to find Severin himself, and get the hell out of it as fast as possible. He spotted Severin in a corridor, took his packages into Requip space, and they were about to find a balcony, however just before that he got a call.

'Shit! What now?'

Brain nervously pulled out his communication lacrima, and then he heard a familiar feminine voice, the one that threw mud on his dignified figure. Not only he was getting angry. Severin was touched with anger as well. On the surface of the lacrima was an image of Layla's face. She didn't waste time, and started with an insult.

"Oh, here's my favorite maggot! Who do you try to MURDER this time?"

"It's you…"

"What? Did my look make you fall in love with me? Well, I'm flattered, but don't think I would like a worm like you. Not to mention I'm happily married."

"Is it because of you, you arrogant maggot, my facility is going down?"

"Who are you calling maggot, you filthy…"

"You didn't answer."

"You don't deserve my answer. Know your place!"

Brain didn't know what this call was about, but didn't want to continue this purposeless conversation as he thought it's beneath him. Somehow even then he went a bit further into this unpleasant exchange, but hanged out to save his standards.

"Uncle, was that Layla?"

"Doesn't matter. We're going to talk about this later. There's no time to lose."

They entered a balcony. The ground was definitely closer, but there was still much time before touching the ground. Brain activated his illusion magic. He, and Klodoa exchanged understanding looks, nodded, and then the exclamation followed.

"Kid, hold me tight. We're getting away now."

Severin was standing for a moment, doing nothing.

"Sorry, uncle. I'm a little scared."

'That wouldn't do. I'm forced to resort to this or leave him behind.' Brain sighed, and then changed his tone to a more caring one, while inserting a ring on his left hand.

"There's no other way to leave this place. We have to do this. Just hold me tightly. I promise it won't be long."

At the same time Brain subtly used a charm to make the youngster feel a bit brave, and make it seem to him like he was encouraged simply with the power of his words. Severin took a more confident look, and nodded.

Then they jumped off. The facility is in the air, so there's no way to get away without a jump. With this in mind he prepared a parachute for himself beforehand, and opened it. Also at that moment he ordered Klodoa to use his ability to levitate to slow down their fall. That way they were also able to maneuver their fall.

Normally if Brain was about to leave his people, he would give an evil laugh, but he didn't have the humor to do this. Instead the famous researcher's face darkened. Klodoa was too preoccupied with trying to make their fall as slow as possible. Severin was on the other hand too worried about the possibility of falling down, and didn't even dare to look around. Hence, only Brain noticed the thing occurring down there. The facility was straight on the way to land on a very flat piece of land. It wasn't just flat! It was so flat so it was clear that someone prepared it beforehand, which could mean only one thing…

'Trouble!'

"Klodoa?" Brain asked.

"Yes?"

"I changed my mind. Don't try to make our fall as slow as possible. Just take us as far as you can. My suspicion is we have an unexpected guests."

"I'll try, but don't expect too much."

Despite his worries, Brain could still consider that things are going well for him. In general it doesn't matter if the facility will land or not. After all, he's getting away, and no one can notice him, because under his Illusion Magic he's invisible. Whoever stands behind the sudden landing, it seems more probable he will concentrate on the facility itself, and won't consider someone jumped off, especially, because the facility has yet to land.

He was getting further, and further away. The moment was stretching itself to be like eternity. At least when he wasn't thinking about it, because the moments he was considering if they're stretched, seemed to be perfectly normal. Was he impatient, and wanted to go away so much? Or is he sensing some kind of danger? There was a bit of danger, indeed. For example, Severin can lose his grip on him, which would result in him being hurt. If Klodoa fails in keeping their fall slowed down, he might get hurt. In general there was something important to be afraid of, but Brain thought it wasn't it, while it was something important. The Severin's grip was firm, and Klodoa didn't dare to make an unsafe landing.

'What is it? Did I forget about something important? Did Layla really do that? Even if she's not, she can't do much, right? We're basically invisible. Of course, there are ways to see through the illusion, but do they have what it takes to see through it?'

Unfortunately it's not that simple. Illusions similarly to charms are using gaps in human awareness to stabilize them, and manipulate their awareness of surroundings. They could appear as real as long as the spectator didn't question the authenticity of what they saw. It's hard to keep yourself alert for illusions all the time. The truth people have access to is learned through the same mediums that sometimes lead them to believe something that isn't. If someone wants to learn a truth by observation he has to accept the risk he will be wrong. The illusion magic thrives on that acceptance. One cannot simply make another human see anything. It has to be something one's mind is ready to accept. Otherwise the mind will easily reveal inconsistencies in what is seen.

There are very severe limitations on the usage of Illusion Magic. For example, the user can practically never aim for every aspect of perception. To cast the illusion one has to have a clear picture of what he wants to show. Be it a tree, a natural disaster, a man or something different, the user has to impart his image of what he wants others to see into their minds, and it has to be an image of a specific thing. Imparting something greater means a more complicated spell. Therefore it's easier to show something relatively small. Besides, it has to match the environment to make it appear consistent with what happens around. If there's rain, but there's no clouds, and you don't feel the droplets of water on your skin, and there's nothing to protect you from the rain, and nothing's getting wet, apparently there's no rain at all. Just thinking about it would make the illusion crumble under its weight. Usually the most troublesome part is timing. Also the illusion to work properly has to be casted before the place, where the thing is going to be shown, is to be seen. The user can't just make a tree appear just before someone's eyes without any preparations. An illusion of the tree – to be seen – has to be casted earlier before the observer perceives it. Then the illusion has to be maintained till the moment it's observed. This simply cannot be overruled despite it sometimes appears to be different.

Brain's illusion makes them three not be seen. In this way it's somewhat simple. People could stare at him, get an impression they saw something, but when they start to pay attention, they would realize they see nothing. So he had to impart them with the image of seeing… nothing, zero.

While recalling principia of the Illusion Magic, and ways someone could see through it, Brain was already very close to the ground. He landed, feeling his legs being momentarily strained by the force of gravity. As if his preparations wanted to mock his own worries, he was fine. They landed safely and far away from the base.

"You can let go. We landed."

Severin snapped out, had his eyes closed for a few seconds more. He opened his eyes, looked around, and only then let him go.

"Was it so bad?" Brain asked.

"Yes, it definitely was!" Severin retorted.

"Which part?"

"Everything."

"*sigh* Well. It's over for now. Let's go."

"Brain recalled the parachute to his Requip space, making it disappear."

Brain spared a glance at his facility, which was still lowering its altitude. He couldn't help but feel nostalgic. He hardened his resolve to leave this place for good, and prepared himself to cause the 'malfunction'. From his uniform he pulled out a black remote with a single, big, red button. The remote was wirelessly connected to a fire lacrima of his own creation, which he planted at the formation. Just one click would cause its explosion, and with that the facility would fall down eventually killing everyone. He was about clicking it, and tasting the sweet flavours of the monumental scale destruction, but… he also had a problem bringing himself to actually doing it. How is he going to explain to Severin that it was a necessity to kill these people? Were his trust issues so severe?

"Uncle, watch out!"

"Brain, watch out!"

Severin, and Klodoa shouted at the same time.

"Huh?"

"Layla punch!"

He instinctively jumped to the side barely avoiding a furious fist on its way to connect to his gut. He didn't dodge entirely. Instead the fist landed on his hand, causing him to drop the remote control.