This is your punishment for being bad.

Kira crouched to the ground, gasping for air. She tried to get Brandon's voice out of her head, but her mind kept remembering.

Just look at yourself. Do you look like the type of girl who deserves to be rewarded?

She shut her eyes as she vaguely heard someone shouting her name. 

I wouldn't touch the walls if I were you, by the way. My fire's surrounding your reflection. One touch and your skin'll go up in flames.

"Kira, Lucy's gone! Along with Gajeel and the others. I think they took her." Loke sighed in obvious annoyance. "I told you we should have come up with a plan."

Kira could barely hear Loke. This was just like last time. She couldn't breathe. There was no oxygen in the room.

"Let -- let me out," Kira whispered. "I can't breathe." She opened her eyes as her lungs failed to accept air. "Please!" She caught sight of herself in the mirror across from her. Her eyes were wide, terrified at the thought of dying. 

I'm going to die, Kira thought pitifully as she lowered her head in exhaustion. I'm going to die from suffocation, and Brandon's going to win. He always wins. I'm nothing compared to him. Kira lifted her head one last time to see herself before she died, when there was a crack in her reflection.

The mirrors burst into fragments around her, and oxygen began flowing into her lungs again. She thought she could sense three figures standing in front of her, but she didn't care about them. All she cared about was the oxygen. She needed to take in as much as possible.

"Kira." The one in the middle squatted down and grabbed her shoulders. "Kira, look at me."

Kira forced herself to look up and saw Brandon staring intently at her. 

"I'm sorry!" she screamed, bowing in front of him. "I won't do it again. I promise. Please, just never do that again. I couldn't breathe in there."

"Kira," Brandon said quietly. "Are you talking about what happened one and a half years ago?"

"I'm sorry," Kira repeated. "I swear I won't do it again."

She felt two arms wrap around her. "I promised you that day, that I would never do it again," Brandon said in her ear. "This is 784. It's not 783. We're in the middle of a war."

Kira blinked. What was he talking about? She looked up and saw Brandon smiling at her. Woah, what? She quickly pushed him away. 

"What are you doing here?" she said quickly. She vaguely remembered being trapped in a crystal. . . .

"Brandon got us out of the crystals," Loke said. "He woke up Reedus, too."

Oh, crap. Loke and Reedus. Kira wiped at her face furiously to get the stray tears off. "How much did you both see? How much did you hear?"

"Nothing!" Reedus said quickly, putting his hands up. "He told us to go away and not look at you guys or think about you guys while he talked to you."

[will write when anime is not available to me]

"Attention, all you from Fairy Tail!"

Kira, Brandon, Loke and Reedus looked up as Jose's voice rang in their ears.

"Please listen carefully to this voice." There was silence for a while, but something could be heard soon.

Kira's blood ran cold as she heard a girl scream. As Lucy screamed. She clenched her fists against the ground. When she had undone the ice, it must have also undone the protective barrier around the girl. She slammed her fist against her thigh. If only she had better control of her magic. If only she hadn't gotten trapped in that crystal and that had happened. 

"We have captured Lucy," Jose continued when Lucy's screams could no longer be heard. "So, we have accomplished one of our objectives. Thus, we have one final goal that remains to be fulfilled." Kira narrowed her eyes as she forced herself up. She thought she knew what was coming.

"Wiping you off the face of this earth!" Jose finished before laughing loudly. "You worthless brats!"

"We have to get back to the others," Kira said. "Let's go."

By the time the four of them made it back to the others, the Shades were attacking everyone again, and there seemed to be more than previously. They seemed a lot stronger, too. When Kira looked up, she could see the phantoms swirling around together, forming a giant purple ball. It grew larger and larger until it also grew what looked like arms and legs. Soon, the arms and legs began attacking the guild's already damaged building.

"Our guild!" Cana yelled. "What are you doing?"

"Everyone, aim for the purple ball!" Kira yelled. "Supercell Thunderstorm!" Everyone else also began attacking as Kira's most destructive tornado began to form. What seemed like a bunch of enlarged plates stacked on top of each other made its way toward the ball of light. As it got closer to its target, lightning also began to fall on top of the light.

Out of the corner of her eye, Kira could see Macao trying to restrain Cana from running. As the tornado required all of Kira's focus, unless she wanted the storm to go all over the place, she could only try to get rid of the destructive force as quickly as possible. On the upside, though, it seemed as if the light's blows on the building was weakening already.

Kira inhaled heavily as she got ready to bring in her second most destructive storms. If this didn't get rid of the light, the guild would break in less than a minute.

 Without moving her arms, Kira shouted, "Super-typhoon Storm!" On top of all the magic attacking the light already, Kira's most powerful hurricane began to form. Swirling dust and pieces of the guild everywhere, it finally hit the light. 

Kira narrowed her eyes, focusing on destroying the light that tried to destroy the place she cared so much about. As Kira watched the purple light struggle to fight against the two storms, Kira felt her magic power start to dwindle a little more towards the empty side. 

Just a few seconds longer, Kira begged mentally in her head. I know I can destroy it by then!

She and everybody present watched in awe as the storms merged into one, creating an even more destructive force. In the blink of an eye, the hurricane-tornado quickly swallowed up the purple ball of light, along with more than just a few of the spare phantoms flying around it. With an exhausted grunt, Kira whipped her arms up, where the hurricane-tornado went flying, far into the ocean.

"WHAT?"

Kira ignored Gajeel's stunned cry and the cheers of her guildmates as she collapsed onto the floor. She now had absolutely zero percent of magic power left in her. She wouldn't be able to defend herself against a toy a newborn baby might throw at her.

"You think you're Erza or something?" Cana walked over to Kira, bending down in front of her. "And you couldn't have done that for us before half the guild was taken out?"

Kira looked up at the guild and saw that Cana had a point. Part of the guild was still destroyed. And it seemed like there were still some phantoms left.

At Kira's dejected-looking face, Cana quickly spoke up. "I'm just teasing," she said, nudging her lightly. "If it weren't for you, the guild would be completely destroyed, and there would be so many more phantoms right now. You did a lot."

Kira couldn't stop the small smile from appearing on her face. "Thanks," she said tiredly, "but I'm out of magic now. I can't --" Before Kira could finish her sentence, a loud explosion from Phantom Lord's guild interrupted her.

Everyone turned their attention to the guild that began breaking for the third time that day. It was clear of who was responsible.

"Oh, Natsu," Cana said, shaking her head while smiling. "He always goes overboard." Suddenly, Cana turned to face Kira. "It must be a Fairy Tail thing. I think you're starting to get the overboard-disease, as well."

Kira scoffed. "I did not go overboard."

Cana opened her mouth to reply, but closed it again, frowning instead. "Duck," she said.

"What?" Kira asked. Instead of an answer, however, she saw a line of cards in her vision. Catching on quickly, Kira threw herself to the ground and the cards just barely passed over her, exploding in a bunch of phantoms' faces.

"You said you're out of magic, right?" Cana confirmed as she threw three more cards in the direction of more Shades. "You should go hide somewhere. Can you move on your own, or do you need help?"

"I'm fine," Kira said, barely getting up on her feet. "I just can't use magic; I'm physically fine." As soon as the last word left her mouth, she fell to the floor again. "Or not," she muttered as Cana bent down to set her upright.

"Maybe I should get Macao or someone to help you . . . Hey, I thought you said you couldn't use magic anymore."

"I can't. Why?" Kira saw Cana frowning behind her, so Kira turned to follow her line of vision. Her left eyebrow shot up. "Um, I'm not doing that," she said lamely as a flickering sphere surrounded what was left of the Phantom Lord guild. Waves of water dangerously splashed against the barrier and lightning crackled from the clouds above.

"Kira, are you doing this?" Alzack yelled.

"No," Kira replied. "I'm not. I don't know who's doing that."

At that moment, the ground began shaking. Although people began to panic as they wondered what was going on, Kira focused her attention at the sea, and for good reason. Suddenly, a giant flash of purple light started from the middle of the guild, expanding until it pushed back the waves with a giant force. Not a moment later, a flash of white light appeared, destroying more of the guild.

"Cana, do you know what that is?" Kira shouted.

"I think I do," Cana smirked. "That's Master's magic. It has to be."

"Master's?" Kira turned back to face the guild. Despite being at Fairy Tail for two years, she had only heard rumors about Master's magic. She watched eagerly as a bright light began to form, forcing Kira and everyone else to shield their eyes. However, Kira could see something else.

"The Shades are disappearing!"

Everyone watched as the Shades got absorbed into the light surrounding them.

"This . . . this is Fairy Law, isn't it?" Kira asked. "A magic now believed to be a legend." Nobody answered her, but Kira knew she had just witnessed something she had only read about.

By the time the light finally faded away, the guild was completely destroyed. The only one left standing was a little old man.

"We won against Phantom Lord!"

All of Fairy Tail erupted into cheers and congratulatory spirit. Without even realizing it, Kira hugged Cana like they were best friends. She even managed to get up if she leaned on Cana's shoulder.

"You know," Cana suddenly said to her, "for a twenty year-old? You're not so bad."

Kira scoffed playfully. "Are you calling me old?" she joked. "I thought you were in your mid-twenties when I first saw you."

"What was that?"

Kira couldn't help but smile widely as she and Cana laughed and teased each other. Just one day ago, she was alone. Now, she had gotten closer to Erza and Cana. She realized that she actually cared for Fairy Tail, unlike what she had tried to make herself believe. She had also gotten over her fear of Brandon. Or had she . . .

She finally found him standing a slight distance away from all the other members of the guild. She excused herself from Cana, walking over to Brandon. Surprisingly, she had gotten some of her physical strength back. If she was lucky, she could probably beat Happy in an arm-wrestling contest.

"Um, Brandon?"

Brandon slightly jumped when he saw Kira standing right next to him. "Oh, Kira. Hey."

Kira sighed before continuing. She debated walking away, but realized that it would be the cowardly thing to do. She wouldn't get over her fear of Brandon unless they actually talked things out. As she opened her mouth to ask him, Brandon opened his mouth first.

"Um, can we talk?"

Kira couldn't help but give a small smile. "Sure."

A/N:

Guys, I just jumped 30+ reads in a day from 70-something to 102! I know it's not a lot, but thanks, guys. I actually feel like a writer.

Next chapter: Do You Truly Wish to Leave Fairy Tail?