Aura III: The Power Born From Pain

10 minutes later the foursome reached a forest a safe distance away from the city, they landed among the trees when they saw no enemies in sight. Luana still frightened, stood behind her sister as Aura stood off from the two figures. "Okay who are you two?" Aura demanded trying to hide her fear.

The blade wielding figure looked at the two girls, "These are the girls you were talking about? They don't seem all that strong to me."

"Yes they are the ones, and don't be so hard on them Kagura. They've been through a lot." The other figure said as she chuckled and removed her hood and bandana. The young girl's eyes widened in shock as they saw long blue hair flow from the hood as the woman turned around and smiled at them.

"Wendy?" Aura said in absolute astonishment. She couldn't believe her eyes, she hadn't seen the sky dragon in months, she thought she was dead, everyone at the guild did. Before she could react Luana rushed passed her and jumped into the blue haired woman's arms.

"Wendy!" Luana screamed happily with tears in her eyes. "I missed you." Wendy hugged Luana, "I missed you guys too."

Before she could realize what was happening Aura's eyes began to tear up as she walked towards the sky dragon, crying her eyes out as she held the two girls in her arms as if they were her own daughters.

The other figure pulled off her hood and bandana and looked at her three companions. "I'm sorry to have to break up your reunion but we have to hurry back to the safe house Wendy, the others are waiting for us."

Wendy stopped hugging the two girls and stood back up giving Kagura a serious look. "You're right." She then looked back at Aura & Luana, "Come on girls we have to go." Aura & Luana nodded their heads in agreement as they followed Kagura & Wendy through the forest.

…

Aura sat in silence after telling a tale she hoped she wouldn't have to relive again. Everyone else was equally as speechless as they were told about the utter destruction of their guild, their friends, and their home. Juvia moved to comfort Gray, but when she saw the rage filled look on his face she backed off.

BAM!

"Dammit!" Gray yelled as the others looked at him. "How did things get that bad? All of us die except Wendy? How is that even possible?"

Lucy looked at Loke and then back at Aura, "In your story, you said Draven had taken control of Loke & Taurus, but where are the rest of my spirits?"

Aura looked up at her "Loke, Taurus, & Virgo are the only spirits that were left. Draven destroyed the rest of them."

"But how is that possible?" Lucy asked her eyes widened trying to understand, "Celestial Spirits are essentially immortal."

Loke began to speak, adding a harsh tone to his voice as he tried to process what would happen to him and his friends soon. "Draven has the ability to cancel out a spirits essence. Causing our immortality to become moot when facing against him, it was because of this ability as well as his natural evil nature that the king saw it fit to seal him."

"How does the seal become undone?" Levy asked still confused.

"The Gracio." Loke said sternly.

"The monster we just defeated?"

"Yes, to be exact there are 5 monsters like it out there. They are called the "disciples of Draven" they were created by evil magic he acquired from Zeref. Each of them possess a piece of Draven's power and when defeated that power goes back to him, making him stronger."

"Well if that's the case, all we have to do is avoid the monsters." Lucy said sensing hope in their situation.

"NO!" Aura yelled startling the group. "We have to destroy the monsters…and Draven along with his followers." She clenched her fists in anger, "He has to die."

"His followers?" Levy asked confused.

"Yes, Oracion Seis. They are the ones who defeat the monsters and free Draven."

Everyone sat astonished, "What? Oracion Seis comes back?" Lucy asked confused and frightened.

Aura nodded, "Yes. They took down the Gracio and the other monster in my time, freeing Draven but they were all killed when he opened his eyes."

"If you ask me, they deserve it for unleashing his hell upon the world." The look in Aura's eyes showed the pain she had felt inside. "Originally Cobra was supposed to kill the Gracio, but we did the work for him. I say we let them continue."

"But you said yourself that Draven utterly conquers the world in 6 months' time." Lucy interjected, "If we stop Oracion Seis from killing the rest of the monsters, he won't be freed."

"But what is someone else comes along and takes Oracion Seis' place?" Gray asked having regained his bearings.

"Gray." Juvia said worriedly.

"How long do we have to guard these monsters from more people trying to free this guy? We can't spend the rest of our lives in fear with our backs to the wall, that's not how we do things in Fairy Tail."

"But you heard what she said." Lucy retorted pointing at Aura. "Everyone dies except Wendy. How do you think we are supposed to stand up to that kind of power when even Natsu, Erza, You, Gajeel, & even the Master were taken down?"

"We have the advantage, this time we're prepared. We know who he is and how to combat him."

"He's right." Gajeel added, "Running and playing defense isn't my style and I'm sure Salamander would agree with me."

"You guys can't just decide this for yourselves, this is everyone in the guilds…the whole world's at stake we can't just run into this blind. We should at least talk to the Master and the rest of the guild before we make our next move."

Lucy & Levy began to argue with Loke, Gray, & Gajeel over the best course of action to take. Juvia worriedly stared at Gray as she thought of the words Aura had spoken earlier. Suddenly Wendy shifted the entire conversation back to Aura.

"You say that I'm the only one still left and that I save you?" She asked Aura with a confused look on her face as she point towards herself.

Aura smiled warmly at the young girl. "Yes, you save both me & my sister from Draven. We thought you were dead."

"What happened to me?"

Aura sat back as the others calmed down to once again listen to the rest of her story.

…

After the four of us reached the hideout, my sister and I found out that more wizards had survived Draven's hunts. Lyon Vastia, Jura, Millianna, Hibiki Lates, Ichiya, Kagura Mikazuchi, and of course the last dragon Wendy Marvell. Wendy had told us that she was sent on a mission my the master to find any remaining wizards from the other guilds and form an alliance against Draven along with Fairy Tail, but with Fairy Tail we were the only wizards left, or so we thought.

Eventually we found others who joined our cause, like Romero from Nightshade, Jellal Fernandes, and we even found the scattered members of Fairy Tail. Levy, Juvia, their kids, and Lisanna were all found in the mountains. Unfortunately due to the attack on the Guild Lisanna had lost her right eye, this coupled with the shock of losing her sibling forced her to become colder and more reserved.

At first no one got a long with all the new members to the resistance, but over time we became a family, just like Fairy Tail once was to Luana & I. Kagura trained my sister in sword play, while Jellal & Jura taught me how to control my teleportation. Lure was also being trained by his mother & Lyon on how to use his water make magic. Lure took a shine to Lyon and it was obvious that he & Juvia had feelings for one another but for Gray's sake she never acted on them.

While Luana HATED training with Kagura, finding her to be too harsh, she did enjoy being around Ichiya & Millianna. Lucy had grown attached to Hibiki but because of the obvious age gap he just shrugged the young girl although they did talk a lot.

As the time continued to pass, I became complacent with how things were and grew lazy. I knew we still had a mission to take down Drave, but my fortitude began to erode with every scouting mission we went on, seeing all the death and destruction made me resign to the fact that we were all going to die anyway. I just…I didn't care.

With me slacking off, Luana began to take charge. Soon she was leading the missions and making pretty good progress on taking down Draven with each success. We drifted apart with each conversation we had, then we had the fight.

…

Aura laid in her bed in the upstairs room of the hideout as Luana entered the room. Her sister, now 14, had just completed her 5th successful mission. Taking down another one of Draven's strongholds without losing a single member of her team.

As she walked into the room sweaty, her blade drenched in blood, she made her way to her bed, which was opposite Aura's. Aura smirked at her weary sister as she sat on her bed.

"Oh, look the savior returns." She said sarcastically trying to get a reaction out of her younger sibling.

Luana heard Aura's words, but chose to ignore them as she rolled over to sleep.

"Oh, you're too good to speak to me oh great one? Ever since you started leading missions that's all you think and talk about."

"One of us has to." Luana mumbled under her breath.

"What was that?" Aura asked irritated

Luana quickly rose and glared at her sister as she repeated herself forcefully. "I said one of us has to think about the mission."

"What's that supposed to mean?"

"You know exactly what I mean Aura. Ever since Juvia & Lucy died you've stopped training and going on missions. It's like you don't care about what happens to the world at all."

Aura shot an equally intense glare at her sister, "I don't."

"What?" Luana asked astonished at her sister's words.

"I said I don't care what happens to the world. What's the point in fighting when we know Draven is just going to kill us anyway?"

"You don't know that Aura."

"Oh really? Tell me Luana, do you really think all these "victories" you've gotten over the past few years really matter? Juvia, Lucy, Ichiya, Jura they're DEAD and Draven is still out there controlling the world. The only thing that's changing in this hell is the number of friends we bury."

"We won't know if we don't try Aura. We have to make their sacrifices mean something otherwise they died for nothing."

"Open your eyes Luana! There's nothing in this world worth living for. I'm sick of trying, I'm sick of caring, I'm sick of fighting, and I'm sick of watching people die. I just want to sit here and wait for the inevitable." She lied back down on her bed, hands behind her head as she closed her eyes.

"What about mom & dad?" Luana asked in a low tone.

Aura opened her eyes, "What *about* mom & dad?"

Luana looked at the ground as she swung her feet hovering from the floor "Did they sacrifice themselves for nothing too? Did you even care about them at all?"

Luana looked up and opened her eyes wide as she notice Aura was no longer in her bed, she looked up to see Aura appearing above her, her right fist drawn back for a fierce punch.

"SHUT THE HELL UP!" Aura screamed as she struck her sister.

BAM!

The loud could be heard throughout the hideout as everyone ran to the girl's room to see what happened. Wendy opened the door to see Aura standing over her sister, her fist having been blocked by a scabbard from a sword that he sister summoned.

"Stop it you t-"Wendy began to go into the room but Kagura stopped her, placing her sword on her.

"They have to sort this out themselves this has obviously been building for a while." Kagura said in her usual stern tone.

"But Kagura-"Wendy began to protest but she relented when she saw the pain in the two girls faces as they glared at each other.

"Do you think mom & dad would be proud of what you've become Aura? What happened to my big sister? The one I used to look up to?" Luana asked disappointed she laid on her back on the ground, her scabbard still holding back Aura's fist.

"SHUT UP!" Aura swung her right fist forward, but Luana moved sliding out of the way and regaining her footing near the open door of the room, she didn't even notice Wendy and the others standing there.

"You've become a coward Aura. Is this how you choose to honor mom & dads legacy? Their sacrifice?!"

Aura gritted her teeth as she clenched her fist until it bled as she thought of her younger sister's words. Her hand began glowing, Wendy thought it was teleportation, but upon closer inspection it looked like…

"Fire." Kagura said aloud.

Luana continued to berate her sister, "What's wrong? No more tough talk on how I'm wasting my time? That's all you do Aura is talk, you're not trying to make anything better."

Aura, having heard enough, raced towards her sister who stood ready to draw he sword if need be. "I SAID…SHUT UP!"

BOOM!

Aura's glowing fist had struck Luana's sword nearly cracking it. Luana opened her eyes a cut having appeared on her left cheek as she looked to see her sister crying.

"Aura." She said with regret.

"You have no idea what it's like, you were there but you didn't see it." She said through her sobs. "You didn't sit and watch in horror as everyone you knew died and there was nothing you could do about it. I saw our parents fight to their last breath, I saw Draven extinguish their lives without remorse." The glow faded from Aura's hand as she dropped to her knees in frustration.

"I'm just tired. I'm tired of death, I'm tired of pain, I'm sick of being powerless."

Luana tried to comfort her older sister, "You just have to fight harder."

'That's easy for you to say!" Aura yelled back "Your strong like dad, you can re-quip like mom. Everyone's always praised you." She looked at her hands, they were shaking. "I inherited nothing, I can't conjure fire, and I can't re-quip. All I can do is teleport. Do you know what that's good for? Running away, all I can do is run away."

Luana tried to comfort her sister by inching her hand towards her, but Aura swatted it away. "Don't touch me! Just…just leave, go away Luana."

Without another word Luana sheathed her sword and stormed out of the room, tears in her eyes. "Luana wait!" Wendy called after her as she ran after her. Everyone else went back to their rooms all filled with sorrow at what they just saw. All except for Kagura, she looked down at the depressed girl as she replayed the glowing fist in her mind. *That was definitely Dragon Slayer magic.* She then walked downstairs to where Wendy & Luana were.

The two were talking to one another Kagura passed them but stopped a small distance away as she looked out at the moon. The shining brilliance almost made her forget of the hell she called home. "Don't be so hard on your sister Luana." She said not looking at the pair. "She's been dealing with a lot as well. You two will sort this out." She then began to remember her own brother, Simon. "You're the only thing the other has left in the world."

…

That was the last time I talked to Luana. About a month after our fight, we got information about a stronghold Draven had supposedly been hiding in. Luana, Millianna, & Wendy went to check it out it was an ambush, only Wendy & Millianna made it out alive. I heard the news from Kagura and raced off to meet the two and tears began to stream down my face as I saw my little sisters bloodied body in Wendy's arms.

…

Wendy solemnly released Luana into the crying Aura's arms. Aura unable to ear the weight of losing the last of her family fell to her knees as she cradled her sister. The cold tears fell from Aura's face to Luana's stirring the young girl awake.

She looked up to see her crying sister, but despite her injuries she smiled. "Big…sister."

Aura's eyes widened. "Luana?!"

"Why are you crying…Aura?"

Aura smiled weakly through her tears. "Why? Look at yourself you idiot."

"It's…not that bad." She placed her right hand on her sister's cheek. Aura grabbed it and continued to cry.

"Stop talking. Wendy can heal you, you'll be fine." She looked up at Wendy with a small glint of hope but that soon faded when Wendy looked down sullenly.

"Wendy?" Aura asked confused.

"I can't heal her Aura, her injuries…they're too severe."

"What do you mean they're too severe? You can heal anything…now HEAL MY SISTER!" She yelled angrily but Luana's words quelled her rage.

"Don't be mad at Wendy, she did what she could. Listen big sister…I'm sorry for that night."

"What are you apologizing for? You're gonna be fine." She tried to stop her from talking but Luana kept on anyway. "I know it's been hard for you since mom & dad died. I…I thank you for always…looking after me. I…Love...you Au-"

Aura's eyes widened as Luana's hand fell to the ground. Aura grabbed her hand in disbelief as the light faded from her sister's eyes.

"Luana?" She looked into her sisters vacant eyes, but she still had hope as she placed her on the ground. "Luana? Come on stop joking around."

Millianna tried to comfort Aura. "Aura she's-"

"SHUT UP! She's fine, she's just playing around see?" Her crazed looked just mad everyone feel worse about the situation. Aura's pain was felt by everyone as the others came out of the hideout. Levy tried to walk to Aura but Jellal stopped her, shaking his head at her when she looked at him.

"Luana wake up! Please!" She pressed her hands against her sister's chest, pressing against it as she tried to preform CPR. Nothing happened, she grew more and more desperate with each try. After her 20th try a she let her arms fall to her side as she kneeled next to her little sisters dead body.

The only family she had left was now gone, and once again she was powerless to keep them alive. She looked at her sister's lifeless body and recited her name in denial.

"Luana…Luana…Luana." She gritted her teeth angrily with each repetition. "Luana…Luana…Luana." Unable to hide it any more she let her pain flow out. "LUANAAAAAAA!" she screamed in agony as she cried even harder as rain began to pour. "….rahhh…ughhh…ahhh." she cried through her tears. Wendy tried to move closer to her and relieve her pain, but then the unthinkable happened.

An orange aura began to glow around the young girl's body growing brighter as she continued to cry.

"Rrrggg…" Aura's pupils faded her eyes turning white as she yelled into the sky. "RAAAAAGGGGGHHHHHHH!" She cried out in anguish. Suddenly her body was engulfed in flames that shot up into air, evaporating the rain around her.

Everyone stood back amazed and at the same time terrified at what they were witnessing. The flames were hot, but they didn't burn anything on the ground. All of Aura's emotions the pain of losing those closest to her was spilling out in the form of this new magic, and the sight was bittersweet.

*This looks like-* Wendy thought to herself.

*Fire Dragon Slayer Magic.* Kagura thought to herself.

Aura continued to yell into the night as the flames continued to pour from her soul.

…