2/2

Sherry whistled, catching her attention. "Afraid that was me. My Doll Attack Magic is a strange one. You see I can control any object I want, and luckily Celestial Spirits fall under that category in terms of my Magic. I may not have their minds, but I have their bodies."

"But when-" Angel cut herself off as she realised the answer.

"Yes, when Gemini dodged Loke's last attack. A moment where it stopped for a brief second and wasn't near anything that could get in the way. All it took was a little bit of acting then. You never suspected a thing."

Angel swore, her eyes getting heavy. "My prayer… to fade into the sky… like an angel…"

Her eyes closed and then Angel was no more, her body falling limp on the spear of earth. Gemini flashed before turning back into the twin Spirits, Gemi and Mini. They both looked at her sadly before reaching for their Key and vanishing. Aries slowly did the same and disappeared, leaving only the Mages of the Allied Forces there.

Lucy let herself collapse to her feet, Loke catching her quickly before he vanished too, his strength gone. The sand golem fell apart as the Magic Sherry used to hold it together vanished, her reserves drained. "We won…"

Lucy looked at her in sadness. "Did you have to kill her?"

"They're our enemy. You're a nice girl Lucy, and that kindness is a good thing, but it is also a weakness here. I'm not saying you shouldn't feel the way you do, but also understand that we can't show mercy to our enemies. And capturing Angel alive was never going to be possible with Gemini there being Jura. It would have taken more time-"

"Which we don't have as we didn't have much Magical Power left."

"Exactly." Sherry reached to the back of her neck before touching a concealed symbol on her nape. A second later she heard a voice in her head.

"Report."

"It's Sherry. We've dealt with Angel. That's one down."

Protector Of The Fairies

Barely any sound was made back with Hibiki, the only noise coming from his constant tapping with Archive. The other Trimens had left, going after Christina in the hope to get her back into the air. As long as someone was controlling her, the ship wouldn't be defenceless. Autopilot only controlled directions but if Sensei took the wheel, Ren and Eve could take control of the weapon systems.

Glancing backwards, he saw that Jura had yet to move from his spot. The man had been quiet all this time, his eyes closed and his feet crossed as he fell into meditation. He wondered how the man could stay so calm in their current situation, but he guessed it was the exact reason he could. Meditation would calm the thoughts and let them be focused clearly, no distractions or conflicting emotions.

He turned back to the Archive screens up, a variety all surrounding him. Some were mapping the surroundings and tracking their allies as they moved while others were trying to break through the block on Oración Seis. There wasn't much luck on that front.

His eyes glanced at one screen, showing an internal look at the poison's progress through Natsu's body. It was getting worse for the pink haired Dragon Slayer. The poison had already spread to half of the boy's body, and it wouldn't be long till it finally reached the vital organs like the heart and the brain.

A beep sound could be heard and he clicked the flashing icon absentmindedly. "Report."

Sherry's voice sounded through the screens. "It's Sherry. We've dealt with Angel. That's one down."

Hibiki brought a hand up and a small screen flashed to the front with a list of names and images. An image of Angel disappeared along with her name before the screen vanished once more. "Good job. Target's status?"

There was a pause. "Dead."

"I see. You did what you needed to. Are you capable of continuing?"

"We're exhausted out here, most of our Magic drained. We won't be able to make much progress as we wait to recover, and I doubt we can take on another member of Oración Seis as we are right now."

"Don't worry about that." Hibiki pressed a button and an upload bar appeared, quickly filling to full. "I've sent you some new coordinates. Get there. We're moving our base to Christina."

There was another pause. And then a new voice appeared. It sounded like Lucy's. "Are Ichigo and Natsu able to be moved?"

Hibiki shook his head, more for his benefit since they couldn't see him. "No, they aren't stable. Jura and I will remain here till someone can get Wendy to us. Afterwards we'll join up with you all when we can."

The line cut off and Hibiki sighed. A quick glance at the map allowed him to confirm everyone's position. Erza hadn't moved much recently, likely meaning that she had ended up getting caught up fighting someone. Gray and Lyon were still moving and looked like they might be the closest to Wendy but there was no way of telling how many of Oración Seis they would find when they got there. One was dead, the other likely fighting Erza. That left four members unaccounted for.

As for Shinji, the man wasn't even going anywhere near where Wendy was. Was he going after Cobra? It was certainly possible that the Poison Mage would have some way to cancel out the effects of the poison, though how he would be persuaded to do so would be a problem.

"How is he?"

Hibiki glanced at the screens showing Ichigo's status, surprised Jura was finally awakening from his trance. "Still bad. The poison…"

"Yes…"

Hibiki ignored the man, bringing up the screen with Ichigo's status on and scanning the details, his fingers tapping furiously at the keys below his fingers. "That's not right…"

Jura pushed himself up from his seat and approached Hibiki, glancing over the younger Mage's shoulder. "Is something wrong? Is Ichigo running out of Magic?"

Hibiki kept ignoring the man, a new screen appearing with rapidly altering data.

"Hibiki?"

"Quiet." The sound came out almost like a whisper. "Just… be quiet for a moment please."

Jura nodded his head before taking a step back, leaving Hibiki to concentrate. The data on the new screen finally stabilised, showing an almost perfect copy of the original screen. The two screens overlapped at which point Hibiki finally turned round.

"Take a look at this."

Jura obliged, looked at the image carefully. It wasn't something he could understand very easily but he could roughly see what the image was meant to be. A rough outline shaped Ichigo's body while the coloured lines inside that boundary had to be the veins and arteries.

"See this?" asked Hibiki, one finger raised and pointing at some of the purple lines. "This is the poison in Ichigo's body, along with the progress it has taken."

"Looks about ninety percent of his body."

"It is." Hibiki turned his attention to the white and black lines on the screen. "These lines represent the areas not yet contaminated. White and black both represent different moments in time."

"I see. Then that means that the black was early and the white is now."

Hibiki looked at the image. As Jura had described, the white was much less than the black was. "The white is from the first image that recorded the previous results."

Jura blinked, not saying anything for a moment out of pure shock. "Are you telling me…"

"I'm already working on an answer."

"But this… He's healing faster than the poison is spreading. I thought he was running low on Magic."

"He is. Shinji said that he couldn't just purge all the poison. The Magical Power needed is too high. So why is his body healing more areas, and why haven't we sensed a drastic drop in his Magic?"

Another screen came up and Hibiki examined the contents with a mix of curiosity and disbelief. Spinning on his heels he marched right over to where Ichigo was lying before kneeling next to the Shinigami. A hand slowly dropped down and brushed along a part of Ichigo's face before resting on his cheek. "What is this?"

As sudden as his first action, Hibiki ripped his hand away, almost as if he had been burned. "Look at him Jura."

Jura still seemed confused from Hibiki's actions but did as the younger Mage said. Kneeling like Hibiki had, he glanced over at Ichigo. Nothing seemed wrong with his face. Ichigo didn't seem to even be suffering any pain. His eyes were closed and he was mostly still. And looking at what Hibiki had touched, there didn't seem to be anything important there. Why would Hibiki touch a scar?

A scar? That wasn't right. Jura's eyes focused on that area as he tried to work out what was wrong with it. It wasn't a scar, and it wasn't a cut or scab or anything natural that he had seen. This didn't look like an injury, and Ichigo didn't have it a few hours earlier.

"Is this… a crack?"

"So you came to the same conclusion I did as well. I saw it instantly as I tried to examine him. That isn't natural."

Jura nodded. The crack stretched from below Ichigo's right cheek and up to his right eye, a bit going above that too. A similar crack seemed to be slowly emerging on the left side of his face too

Jura reached for the sleeves of Ichgio's clothes and pulled them up, revealing similar cracks in the skin along his arms. He could see some on Ichigo's chest too from the areas where his Bankai's outfit had been destroyed, and he didn't doubt that there would be some of his legs too.

"They're all over his body. I've never seen anything like it."

"I might have."

"Then what is it."

Hibiki looked at Jura hesitantly. "What I say here… Whatever I say… Don't repeat it. I could get in a lot of trouble from just having had read what I know, and I don't want to draw that kind of attention to myself."

Jura nodded. "I swear to you."

A flick of Hibiki's wrist and a screen shot forward, an image of Brain appeared. The difference was that this Brain looked younger and was dressed more formally.

"This is Brain, roughly about fifteen years ago."

Brain looked at Hibiki suspiciously. "I thought you couldn't find anything like this about Brain."

Hibiki glanced away awkwardly. "That isn't exactly true. What I know isn't really common knowledge. I found this purely by accident, likely a few odd files that someone missed when they were being deleted. It's the only explanation for why nothing can be found on Brain. Because he erased himself."

Hibiki glanced back at the screen. "And the Magic Council wouldn't resist him doing that either. He use to be the leader of a research group called the Bureau of Magical Development."

I thought another group like that already existed."

"These guys were the originals however they focused a lot more of Magic in terms of Mages and how they use it. The newer group, during the time of Kisuke Urahara at least, was superior in everything they did. They even surpassed the Bureau. From what I read, it made Brain…"

"Jealous?"

"Yes. Brain seems to like being in control and being the most knowledgeable. The report is a bit scattered but they saw he started more and more dangerous experiments. There was mention of a girl, a girl with a massive amount of Magical Power, and Brain was somehow trying to increase it further by experimentation."

Jura restrained his anger at Brain as he gestured for Hibiki to continue. "Is that even possible? To force someone to gain more Magic?"

"The report is broken up, as I said, but it seems like large doses of Eternano was involved. I'm sure you are familiar with the concept of Eternano and a Mage's container?"

"It's a simple concept. As your Magic inside you decreases, your body starts to absorb Eternano from the atmosphere to refill it. Each Mage recovers it at a varying rate however the most effective methods involve the avoided use of Magic during the recovery time."

"And you are familiar with the dangers from extreme doses?"

Jura hesitated for a moment before nodding. "I'm aware, yes. So far the only recorded Mages capable of existing in high level areas are the Quincy, and they are rarer to find that Shinigami currently."

"That's when it is in the atmosphere though. If someone was injected with large doses, what would happen?"

Jura's eyes widened. "That girl-"

"Was constantly subjected to that treatment. Not enough to kill her but it caused her pain most likely. It was a theorised way to encourage the expansion of a Mage's container in their bodies, and possibly encourage an increased rate of Eternano recovery. She was the only subject said to live longer than a few weeks from the procedures, and this was at low doses."

"How does this relate to the here and now though?" asked Jura, already glancing at Ichigo as if he knew the answer.

"The cracks… They were a common feature in many of the recently deceased. And the cracks were all faint and small in their appearance. But the point is that they showed the same symptoms we are seeing on Ichigo now."

"This is bad." Jura leaned down next to Ichigo. "If they are worst than those that died from overexposure, how is Ichigo still alive? Or better yet, how is he getting this condition?"

Hibiki glanced at one of his Archive screens. "Maybe it's linked to his healing in some way? Maybe it is helping to power the regeneration rate. As for how he is doing it, I have no idea. Those cracks are deadly to touch too. I felt like I was getting burned when I touched one. There's nothing but raw Magic beneath them."

Jura frowned. "Then we have reached a dilemma. Should we try and stop this? Or do we let it continue and deal with the poison."

"We have to let it continue."

"You sound sure of that."

"We have no choice." Hibiki glanced back at a screen to confirm something. "His Magic should have run out by now. I didn't even notice it but looking back at the previous rate it was dropping it, it means he should have run out and died from the poison. We have no choice but let this process happen."

"How much danger do you think he is in from it?"

"Honestly?" Jura nodded. "I'd say we have a few hours at most. His body is rapidly absorbing Eternano, much faster than his body is able to handle, and these cracks are the strain on his body. Eventually, if he doesn't stop drawing in this power soon, his body will break down into nothing. It's nothing short than a miracle that he is still able to handle all his Eternano being absorbed. It's not like he's a Quincy."

"Then we must hope and pray. Send a message out to the others. We need to hurry, before it's too late."

Protector Of The Fairies

He he he. It's not like he's a Quincy. If only they knew exactly what Ichigo is.

Anyway, glad to see you all here again. Last chapter was too much filler it seems, though mainly the last section. I needed Yoruichi there in some form as I do plan for her to appear a bit later on after this arc is over. Plus last chapter needed to set up some stuff for the following stuff. And as you saw, it led straight to the battle with Angel.

I checked a bit with how Lucy fought Sherry when working out how to best use them. Sherry's sand golem was inspired by Ugo from Magi (the spell form, not the Djinn) and her possession worked quite well here when it was timed right. As for Lucy, I had to think carefully how to make the Spirits fight as each one can be suited different ways. Started off as her providing support with a Spirit and changed with Loke to be a frontal assault. I also considered why Aquarius would willingly wash Lucy away and why she doesn't seem to end up as bad as everyone else caught in the blast. Hope it made sense. What a lot of you will likely be surprised at is that Angel died.

Lucy is too kind, and that isn't a bad thing at all. She would try and win without killing, but Sherry knew it was impossible. Angel had Gemini copy Jura, and even if it doesn't match up correctly it still makes the Spirit strong. And with a single chance, she showed no mercy. The Mages of Lamia Scale, in a way, follow Jura's advice and words. He said they shouldn't show mercy, and so she didn't in the end. It also links to how she changed in Nirvana. The way I see it, she could act how she did when Nirvana affected her in canon because that part of her was always there. Darkness is different in everyone, whether it is the ability to harm, the ability to torture, or just the ability to hate. Nirvana swaps as much light as for darkness too so the lighter someone is, the more drastic they would be if turned to darkness.

Now as for the Jura and Hibiki parts, the cracks again took some inspiration from Magi. In Magi, those cracks were a nice way to show exhaustion and when the body was reaching the limit of Magic it could channel at any one point. Hope it worked well here. And it seems Ichigo is slowly recovering, but now in an even deadlier position. How is he recovering? Where is the extra Magic coming from? I think we all know the answer to this.

Quickly to manga. Fairy Tail… Zeref… I have no words. I'm happy. I got to see more of Zeref here, and he seems to have some kind of Time Magic available. I feel like I'm getting obsessed with him. Not my fault. I just find him a really interesting character. As for Bleach, I approve. Rukia's Bankai was well done, and I like both the strengths and weaknesses. I see it being like Soi-Fon's, a one shot type attack with tremendous power behind it. And we saw that she couldn't move as she waited to heat up, otherwise she would have likely shattered into pieces.

Anyway, till the next time. I've been Takei. Thanks for reading.