My Light and My Darkness

We Missed You

Candy’s POV:
Darkness. That’s all I see. I should be scared, but I’m not. Because there’s a warm presence. I can’t figure out who it is, but all I know is that they make me feel safe. Suddenly, I realize, the warm presence is on both sides of me, but not completely surrounding me. It felt different on each side, telling me that there are two different presences beside me. Whether they are people or not, I can’t tell. I can’t move. I can’t speak either. I can’t tell if this presence next to me is Rosie or not. If it is, it’s not helping to suppress the panic that’s slowly rising. I’m suddenly able to turn my head, I notice something in the corner of my eye, and turn to look at it. The presence to my right is a boy. He looks to be my age, he has bleach blonde hair, and dark blue eyes. He’s slightly taller than me. I turn to look to my left to see if the presence next to me has been revealed too, and it has. It’s also a boy, but he has raven black hair, and maroon eyes. He’s the same height as the blonde boy, both of them are looking in front of them, not at me. I look in front of us to see if I can see what they’re looking at. A figure slowly emerges from the darkness. It’s a man, also with raven black hair, but he has black eyes, and he’s fully grown. He wears black robes, and just looks sad, and calm. He comes to stand in front of me, and looks down at me, “So, you’re the Beast that was Promised? Maybe you and my brother will be strong enough to kill me. But until then, you should be more focused on the man standing behind you.” He looks dead ahead of him, and I turn around, the boys next to me doing the same. There’s a man over there, but he’s facing away from me. He has dark skin, and pale navy blue hair. It’s long and spiky, and it reaches the small of his back. He has these blue markings all around his body, at least from what I can see. He turns around and looks at me, and immediately looks threatened. The sad man that spoke to me earlier continues to speak, but this time to the boys next to me, “Should you boys ever encounter this girl in life, do everything you can to protect her from that man.” They look at him, then both look at me at the same time, only showing one emotion. Determination. Suddenly they all disappear, and now I’m in a field. A beautiful field, filled with flowers and, the most noticeable thing, sunlight. I’ve been here before. A smile spreads on my face as a huge and heavy footstep lands behind me, shaking the ground I’m standing on. I turn around and see Indica, my mother, in all her glory. She smiles down at me, and lowers her head for me to put my forehead against. “My sweet child. You’ve grown, but not that much clearly.” She amusingly looks down at my flat chest. Excuse me?! “Hey!! They’ll grow eventually!!! I’m only 13 after all!!” She laughs, her voice causing the trees around the field to shake. “It’s good to see you love, I’ve missed you.” I look up at her sadly, “You don’t have to miss me. You never did. Why did you leave? Where are you now?” I ask her desperately. She smiles sadly down at me, “All I can tell you is that this is for the best. Your future relies on my absence. But I have not left you alone. You’re surrounded by a family that will always be there for you. And if they ever aren’t, you will find someone who will be there. Trust me.” I look down at the ground and ask her, “What does ‘The Beast that was Promised’ mean mom?” She looked at me, shocked that I knew of it, and said, “The Beast that was Promised is a prophecy about how the Elemental Dragon will be the savior of the world. Considering the fact that I’m not there, the prophecy is referring to you. However, I’m shocked you know of it. That prophecy was said to have been long forgotten by the world.” I look down at the ground and say, “Well it’s not. Everyone keeps saying that everywhere I go. I’m getting tired of it.” She smiles sympathetically at me and says, “Patience, my child. Everything will become clear to you eventually. But not right now. Right now your friends need you.” My friends? Suddenly, I remember the Thunder Legion, Laxus, and Rosie!! I remember Gray, Erza, Natsu, Happy, and Lucy. All of them! I hear mom laughing and look up at her, “You’re not physically here with me, Candy. We’re meeting in your mind, I wanted a chance to speak with you again. It’s selfish of me, but I need to let you return to those who need you.” I grow slightly scared by this, “Wait, but I want to stay with you a little longer! They can wait a little longer!” She looks at me sadly, “They’ve been waiting for you for 3 weeks sweetie. They need to know you’re alright.” What? Three weeks?! No way….that’s a lot longer than I thought it was. Mom chuckles warmly and says, “You’re a beautiful person Candy, and one day you will soar higher than I ever could. Always know that there is one person in this world who loves you, no matter what.” I smile at her as tears start to form in my eyes. “I will.” I say to her, as she starts to fade away, and my vision starts to be surrounded by brightness. The brightness surrounds me and covers me completely until it’s all darkness again. However, this time, I can hear voices. No, it’s just one voice, it’s a man. Wait, it’s Freed!! I feel his hand holding mine, and feel the weight of someone on the other side of me. I need to open my eyes.

Freed POV:
It’s been three weeks since the Fantasia Parade, and everyone’s seriously worried. We were under the impression that the coma Candy was in was only a minor one, but it’s starting to look like this will take a while. Ms. Porlyusica has done all she can to shorten her coma, now all the hope we have to rely on is time. The hope that time will be in our favor. That she won’t miss so many days of her life. Days that she could spend outside, having fun with her friends. Bickslow and I are at her bed in the infirmary, Bickslow had fallen asleep a while ago. It’s in the middle of the night, and I haven’t been able to sleep very well. Rosie and Evergreen left a few hours ago, we’re trying to get Rosie to rest, and in order to do that, she needs to get out of this infirmary. Bickslow and I took over for her a while ago. We’re just ready to hear Candy’s laugh again. I’m holding her hand as she lays there, peacefully. I’m about to get up and get a glass of water when I feel her grip tighten suddenly around my hand. I gasp and look at our hands shocked. I look up at her face and see her eyebrows are creased, she looks like she’s struggling with something. I shake Bickslow and he groans and looks at me frustrated. I point at Candy and he looks where I was, immediately waking up and focusing on her. She slowly opens her eyes and looks at me. “Hey Freed.” Her voice is croaky from not using it for three weeks, but it’s still the voice we’ve been longing to hear. I smile brightly as tears start to form in my eyes. She turns to Bickslow and says hi to him too, and soon we’re both crying. “Hey munchkin. Good to hear your voice.” Bickslow says through his tears. She smiles and raises her hand to rub her throat, “Do you have any water?” I nod, and get up to go get a glass of water. When I return, she’s sitting up and I hand her the glass of water. She thanks me, and after taking a sip, she asks, “Where’s Rosie? What about Evergreen and Laxus?” At the mention of Laxus’ name, Bickslow and I flinch. We’re still getting used to not having him around anymore. She notices our facial expressions and says, “What? What’s wrong? Is everyone okay?!” She starts to panic, but I put a hand on her shoulder and say, “Yes, everyone’s okay. You were the only one who everyone was worried about. It’s just, well. Candy, Laxus was kicked out of Fairy Tail.” Her face pales and her eyes tear up, “WHAT?!?! WHY THE HELL WAS HE KICKED OUT AND NOT THE REST OF US?!” She tries to get up further, but Bickslow and I hold her down, “Candy, it’s okay. He’s not upset about it, none of us are. We’re more disappointed than anything. It’s not like the master wanted to do it, it’s just, Laxus put everyone’s lives at risk, including yours.” She looks down at her hands, and tears fall freely down her face. Bickslow hugs her and she hugs him back, “I know munchkin, it’s okay. He wanted us to tell you that he’s proud of you.” This makes her cry more as she grips Bickslow tighter. I take this chance to signal to Evergreen and Rosie to come back to the guildhall. I also send a hologram to Master Makarov, Erza, and Mirajane. Once I’m done with that, I rub my hand up and down Candy’s back to try and comfort her. We knew she wasn’t going to take this news well, we just weren’t ready to deliver it today. Everyone I signaled shows up fairly quickly. Rosie immediately flying into Candy’s arms and Evergreen rushing over to hug her.

Erza is the first to speak up, “Candy! It’s so good to see you up!” Master Makarov continues, “Yes you had us worried for a minute there child.” She smiles at him and says, “It’s good to be back master.” Mira goes over to hug her after Evergreen finally lets go of her. “Thank goodness.” She says as she hugs her, and Master Makarov starts to speak, “I take it Freed and Bickslow have told you?” She nods at him, and looks down at her hands sadly, “Yeah I know.” He looks up at her hesitantly, “Do you know why I did what I did?” He asks. She nods at him and says, “He endangered the lives of others. Of innocent civilians.” She says. He nods at her and says, “Even though he may be my grandson, as the guildmaster, I can’t forgive him for what he did. I will miss him. I already do. I had hoped that he would turn out better than his father, but I suppose the damage was already done.” Her attention is piqued at this and she says calmly, “Actually master, I don’t think this had anything to do with his father.” He looks up at her curiously, so does everyone else in the room. “I think this started out as an attempt to make the guild stronger, so that way, the next time someone tries to attack the guild, we would be able to protect ourselves better. He was really put off by what happened with Phantom Lord. So it started out okay, but he eventually let his negative emotions and his pride get the better of him.” She says, smiling down at Makarov. “I’m sure we’ll see him again someday, and maybe then, he’ll be the grandson you used to know.” Makarov starts crying and says, “Bless you child! This guild doesn’t deserve you. Everyone will be so happy when they hear you’re awake!” She smiles and says, “No master! Don’t cry or else I’ll cry too!! AGAIN!!” Everyone starts laughing at them. It just shows how much we missed Candy. Things will go back to normal now that she’s awake.