After the unconventional cross-country run, breakfast was a subdued affair.
In principle, a ten-kilometer run was nothing to the mages of Fairy Tail. Cross-country terrain was nothing. Added weights were uncomfortable but manageable.
The real problem was having to stay sharp every single meter of the way, watching for attacks that could come from any direction at any moment. Getting hit didn't just hurt. It meant doubling back a set distance and running that stretch again, and the trap positions shifted during the rerun so prior knowledge was useless.
On top of all that, a certain someone's running commentary had been its own form of punishment.
The cross-country run had been a test of mind and body in equal measure.
Rhodes could feel the faint weight of eyes on him throughout the meal.
Mirajane glanced around the hall and then at him. "What exactly did you do to them?"
"A standard weighted cross-country run. I just added a few minor interference elements."
Mirajane smiled. "Then why does it look like everyone in the room wants to hit you?"
"That just means the training load wasn't heavy enough."
After a moment of that, Rhodes caught sight of a faint curl of purple mist drifting past the window.
"Someone's here." He pushed back his chair. "I'm stepping out. Have them follow the schedule when breakfast is done. Ask Erza and Laxus to keep things moving."
Mirajane nodded. "Understood."
Rhodes slipped out the back door. A figure in a white cloak was leaning against the outer wall of the backyard, waiting. Hearing the door, the figure reached up and pulled back the hood, revealing brownish-red hair.
Erik. Crime Sorcière. Former Oración Seis, code name Cobra.
"Why not just come inside?"
"I'm still a wanted man. Walking in through the front door causes problems."
"There's no one in the guild who would make it a problem. You can hear that yourself."
Erik nodded, then shook his head. "Better to be careful." He paused. "It's not what you think. It doesn't matter whether we meet or not. Knowing she's doing well is enough. Would meeting her even be fair to her? Am I someone who matters to her? She doesn't remember me anymore. There's no point adding to her burden. I haven't finished atoning. Don't try to talk me out of it. I."
He was carrying on what looked like a conversation with himself. In reality, Rhodes had attempted to speak several times, and each time, before a word could leave his mouth, Erik had already heard the thought forming and started answering it out loud.
It looked exactly like talking to someone with two separate personalities occupying the same body.
Rhodes rapped him on the top of the head. "Did you catch that one?"
"Ow!" Erik grabbed his head. "I heard it, I just didn't have time to react. I know it's rude, but the voices just come in on their own. Sorry."
He hadn't even needed to explain why he'd been hit. Rhodes let out a slow breath. "It's an efficient way to communicate, at least. Let's talk business."
"Right." Erik straightened. "Ultear is already working on reaching Hades. I was the closest to you, so I came to pass on a message and share some intelligence."
Rhodes opened his mouth, then caught himself. The question was redundant. Erik was already answering it.
"A new organization has appeared recently. They worship Zeref and have been collecting information about him from every source they can reach.
They've left traces at former Grimoire Heart sites and locations tied to Tartaros. Any material or stone tablet with a possible connection to Zeref has been taken, including things the Council had already catalogued as worthless.
At the same time they've been spreading their beliefs openly. Their membership likely exceeds a thousand now, spread well beyond Fiore." He paused. "I also picked up word that they're convinced Zeref is still alive, and that they've worked out a method to draw him out."
"That capable?" Rhodes was genuinely surprised. Of every dark organization he had encountered with any connection to Zeref, this one had done the deepest research.
At least they weren't trying to resurrect him.
"Their plan is still taking shape," Erik continued. "The specifics haven't been fixed, but the core of it is death. Mass death. They believe all souls belong to Zeref, and that by generating death on a large enough scale and offering him a vast number of souls, they can draw him out and usher in what they're calling the Era of Great Magic."
Another group chasing the Era of Great Magic.
Rhodes made a mental note to mention this to the Second Master later. He had a feeling the old man might find it strangely familiar.
Erik glanced at him, picking up something with a faint edge of dark humor in it. He elected to pretend he hadn't heard and continued. "Eventually the Council started watching them, so tracking them further became difficult for us."
"The Council's current intelligence on them is thinner than what you have," Rhodes said. "That ability of yours is genuinely useful."
Erik produced an envelope and held it out. "The list we compiled, along with locations where cult members have been sighted. It's yours."
"Thanks." Rhodes held out a prepared document in return. "Take this back with you."
It covered the western continent.
Erik tucked both items away and pulled his hood back up. "I'll be going."
"One moment." Rhodes turned back with a pleasant expression. "I'm going to ask you once more to meet with Kinana. Could you do that for me?"
Erik met his eyes and gave in. "Fine. I'll wait here."
"Appreciated. Just a moment." Rhodes turned and went back inside, thoroughly satisfied.
Erik's jaw tightened.
This man had not said a single threatening thing. And yet every thought running through his head had been a threat. Clear as a bell.
He heard all of it.
The ability that made his own life difficult was somehow being turned against him with complete ease. By someone who didn't even have it.
He spent a few seconds feeling genuinely aggrieved, and then a wave of nerves took over.
Cubellios had been his closest partner. He had always known she was human underneath, and he had never been able to change her back. Now she had her human form again, but from what he had heard, she had no memories of her time as a snake.
That was good. Of course it was good. He just had no idea how to stand in front of her.
His thoughts were running so loud that his hearing, for perhaps the first time in his life, simply failed him.
The girl was already standing in front of him. He hadn't registered her footsteps at all.
"You. I." The words wouldn't come.
Kinana looked at him for a long moment. Then she asked quietly, "Is it you? I've heard your voice before."
"What?" Erik stared at her.
Kinana pressed her lips together, searching for the words. "I keep hearing you calling out to me in my dreams. You said you wanted to hear my voice."
He had said exactly that.
It had been his wish back in the Oración Seis. The reason he had followed the Brain and activated Nirvana.
"And now I'm here." Kinana stood in front of him, looking at him steadily. "I feel like a few things are starting to come back to me."
Erik felt a rush of joy and a rush of pain in the same breath. He was glad, and he also wished she didn't have to remember any of it.
"We were very close friends, weren't we?" Kinana looked at the flustered young man before her and smiled gently. "You're not going to say anything? I want to hear your voice. Right now."
Erik had already heard what she was going to say before she said it. But this was the moment he doubted his own ears most. And the moment he most wanted to hear the words spoken out loud regardless.
He heard it.
This had to be the most beautiful voice in the world.
"My name is Erik. Before, I called you Cubellios. We were the best of friends. The very best."
The Brain was dead. Nirvana had been destroyed.
But his wish had come true. Right here. Right now.
"Stop pushing!"
"You're stepping on me!"
"Let me see!"
"Keep it down, they'll hear us!"
"She's coming back, she's coming back!"
Kinana stepped back into the yard and caught a row of small heads by the inner door yanking themselves out of sight. Red, gold, green, blue, purple, white. She almost thought she was looking at a rainbow.
Knowing the guild the way she did, she could predict fairly well what was about to happen the moment she walked through that door. Troublesome, but also genuinely warm.
Sure enough, the instant she stepped inside, nearly everyone found something urgent to be busy with.
Only Laki threw her arms around her immediately. "Well? How did it go?"
"How did what go?"
"That person. Who is he? A boyfriend?" Laki shot a look at Rhodes and said, dissatisfied, "He refused to tell me anything."
Kinana caught Rhodes's expression and decided not to engage with Laki. She walked straight up to him and said with complete sincerity, "Thank you."
Rhodes smiled. "You're welcome. I'll give you some extra training later to celebrate."
Kinana puffed out her cheeks. "Could you say something normal for once?"
"That was perfectly normal." He repeated himself with the same smile. "Extra training, to celebrate. Try to look a little happier about it."
Kinana said nothing.
How does Mirajane put up with this man.
Laki grabbed her by the arm and pulled her away. "Ignore him, just tell me about the person outside!"
"He and I." A smile appeared on Kinana's face without her deciding to put it there. "We've known each other for a very long time."
The people who had been peeking through the door were now craning their ears in that direction without any attempt at subtlety. Even Mirajane had shifted her chair a little closer.
Rhodes leaned toward her and murmured, "Didn't I tell you the gist of it already?"
Mirajane made a small silencing gesture and whispered back, "Hearing it from her is different."
Rhodes let it go. He stood up, gathered the documents on the dark cult, and started preparing a copy to send to the Council.
When he returned, Warren found him. "Rhodes, I need to take some leave."
"What's happened?"
"The research institute is developing an enforcement-grade communication Lacrima and they've asked me to come in and help."
"Right, I know about that project. It matters, so give it everything you've got."
"The groundwork was laid a while ago. This part shouldn't take long. I'll be back as soon as I can."
"See that you are. I'm setting up a match between you and Max before long. Don't come back and find yourself getting pinned."
Warren winced. "So I can't even let training slide while I'm away."
"Don't stress about it too much," Rhodes said. "In a few days everyone will be rotating out for missions anyway."
And that was how it went. The Fairy Tail training camp settled into its rhythm, and people adjusted to the pace of it. Occasionally someone took leave for a mission, either because they needed the income or because something genuinely urgent came up.
Rhodes tracked the schedule and made adjustments when they returned. People finished their jobs and came back as fast as they could, not wanting to fall behind and give their rivals the edge.
Time moved. Before anyone noticed, it was late November.
Rhodes had just come back from accompanying Mirajane to a checkup. Six months along, and both her health and the baby's development were good.
Her movements were going to become increasingly uncomfortable from this point on, and there was a possibility of her body reacting badly, so they would need to be careful. The two of them walked home slowly, treating the journey as an evening stroll.
His communication Lacrima rang.
Rhodes took it out and was struck by a completely irrelevant thought. "This thing doesn't emit any kind of radiation, does it?"
Mirajane looked at him. "Why aren't you answering it?"
"Right." He connected the call. Mest's face appeared on the small screen.
The partnership between the Council and the research institute had gone well. The enforcement-grade Lacrima was already in production. Warren had contributed significantly and had been paid accordingly.
Mest skipped any pleasantries. "We're getting ready to move. Can we bring Wendy in?"
"Of course. I can send a few extra people along to back her up."
Mest hesitated. "That might be."
More firepower was generally better, but this operation needed to stay quiet. And the people in that guild tended toward a certain definition of subtle that didn't always align with his.
"Natsu's out on a job," Rhodes said. "I'll pick reliable ones. Mainly to keep Wendy covered."
Mest visibly exhaled. "Alright. We're moving in half an hour. Meet at the Fiore branch."
"No problem."
Levy pointed at herself. "Me?"
Rhodes nodded. "You, Gajeel, and Panther Lily. Mainly to keep Wendy company. You know the Council's people, so things will go more smoothly if anything needs to be talked through."
"That works. Though Gajeel isn't exactly fond of the Council."
"Tell him there's a fight involved, and he gets to wear a temporary Council uniform. He can even take a photo and send it to Councilor Belno to give her a shock." Rhodes paused. "And if he performs well, the members of the Custody Enforcement Unit might be willing to sit through his new song at the celebration afterward."
Levy went quiet for a moment. "The idea works. It's just not very kind to the Enforcement Unit."
"It builds character. They've been running their own training lately. I doubt Wolfheim pushed them anywhere close to that."
"Fair enough."
Levy told herself that even if nobody in the room could genuinely appreciate the performance, it probably wouldn't be enough to get Gajeel actually arrested.
The group assembled and Rhodes sent them through to the Council branch. He had left a Hex Gate at the Fiore office some time back, which made transfers considerably more convenient.
Lahar came out to meet them. "We're grateful for everyone's help. Especially yours, Miss Wendy."
"I'll do everything I can." Wendy already knew what her job was. Dealing with disease-type magic was something she had full confidence in.