Chapter 9

Rift Mended?

Disclaimer: I do not own Fairy Tail or its characters, only my own OC's, and my Ideas

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"So, would you like to tell me why you never mentioned that you were contracted to the same KeyHolder as Loke before?" Alumina asked the Bear Spirit that stood before her calmly. She was back in her apartment in Magnolia, having waited until the day after she saw Karen's grave to try and speak with Ursa about what happened. The morning light was filtering in through her window as it hit her bed and lit up the room.

Ursa just gave her a flat stare back, before looking away, her ears flattening against her head. "It never came up." She mumbled and Alumina sighed at the answer.

"Bad answer." Alumina told her. "I would understand before, but you should have at least mentioned it when you found out I contracted Loke." Alumina told her.

Ursa huffed in reply, "I guess so, but it doesn't matter. We may have had the same KeyHolder before now, but it really doesn't make a difference now, does it?" Ursa asked her moodily.

"It does." Alumina told her, "I know who it was, it was Karen Lilica, and I know she abused her Spirits." Ursa flinched a little but Alumina continued anyway. "I know that for whatever reason there's a rift between you and Loke now, and I want to figure out why. I want to know your side of the story, I already asked Loke for his." Alumina explained.

For a long while Ursa didn't answer, but Alumina was patient, she would wait for as long as she needed to, to get an answer out of the Bear Spirit. At last Ursa gave up once she realized she wouldn't get out of this without giving Alumina some sort of answer, and she motioned for Alumina to sit on the bed. Alumina sat on her bed and Ursa bit her lip for a minute, before sighing, still not looking at Alumina.

"Yes, I was contracted to Karen at the same time as Leo and Aries." Ursa started. "And yes, she abused us, but Aries always got the worst of it. We're Spirits, we are forbidden from disobeying our KeyHolder even if our Master isn't decent... Leo and I used to be friends, great friends actually, right when we were first contracted to Karen we got along really well, never argued..." Ursa trailed away as she frowned at the floor, teeth clamped down onto one of her nails. "But once Karen's abuse started getting out of hand, our friendship fell apart. We were both fed up with Karen's treatment of us, we both wanted it to stop. If you could have seen what she did to Aries half the time..."

Ursa's eyes narrowed as the yellow orbs lit up with cold hatred, and her fists clenched at her sides.

"I wanted nothing more than to beat some sense into that woman, to show her what it felt like to be abused. I'm sure Leo felt the same way, but we didn't so much care about ourselves, we could handle her abuse, but Aries couldn't. If anything, Karen needed to stop abusing Aries, it didn't matter if she quit abusing us." Ursa turned around so her back was facing Alumina. "Hearing this now, I bet you can't see where that rift between Leo and I started. We both wanted the same thing, after all..."

Ursa fell into silence and Alumina tilted her head a little.

"The problem was we couldn't do anything, nothing, not unless we wanted to break the law. I couldn't think of anything, and at one point I just told him to drop it, that there was nothing to do until we got a new KeyHolder. I think that's what pissed him off, and it pissed me off that he decided to try and fix things by force. That's when we fell apart, I didn't think what he was doing was right, but at the same time I did I suppose... I know he made sure Karen couldn't call either me or Aries once he started his plan. He came through his gate on his own and that caused our gates to be shut off because Karen wasn't strong enough to open two Gate's at once."

"He was such an idiot, Zodiac Leader or not staying in the Human World that long is dangerous, damn it!" Ursa growled. "What he did, it was rash, foolish, arrogant. He paid for it, not only with Karen's life, but three long years of suffering and slowly dying. Thing is, Karen sold me off before she died when she was unable to work for money. I wish she hadn't, I wanted to make Leo stop what he was doing, but before I knew it, I had a different KeyHolder, and Karen was dead. Leo was exiled from the Spirit World, and the very thing he was doing it for, to try and protect Aries, his efforts failed, when she was taken into the hands of a Dark Wizard who abused her just as much. Only thing is, Leo wasn't there to try and protect Aries after all of it happened, and I wasn't there either..." Ursa began to shake as her fists clenched harder, reliving the memories of what happened.

"I should have been there! I should have been the one to be exiled, not him! I hate myself for all of it, because the problem was he had the courage to do something about Karen's abuse, and I didn't! However much I wanted to stop it, I couldn't work up the damn nerve!" Alumina frowned sadly at her friend, but she stayed silent. "I was to afraid to stand up for what I believed in, but Leo wasn't. He did all of it for Aries, he did it because he cares about his friends! Damn me!" Ursa shouted, her voice had been rising as she continued on.

Alumina was beginning to see the rift between Ursa and Loke, it wasn't just about their different views on how to handle things.

No, that wasn't it.

From the way Ursa was acting now, the anger, the guilt, the painful memories spilling out... Ursa seemed to hate herself for not being able as brave as Loke had been all those years ago. Ursa hated herself for not being strong like Loke had been, and no matter how much Ursa would deny it, the Bear Spirit still saw Loke as one of her friends, close friends, and she must have hated to see him suffer for so long, only because he was the only one to stand up to Karen.

"I should have... I should have helped him... shared the punishment..." Ursa whispered as her voice dropped and Alumina frowned a little.

This rift between Ursa and Loke needed to be mended, it would help both of them move on. Alumina stood up and stepped away from her bed as she quickly got in front of Ursa, flinching at seeing the tears streaming from the usually joyful spirit, and quickly wrapping her arms around her, pulling Ursa into a hug.

"I get it Ursa," Alumina murmured, "But you cant keep beating yourself up for this, think about it, even if you had stood up to Karen with Loke, and she still died, what would have happened had you shared the same punishment as him?" Alumina asked her and she felt Ursa stiffen in her grasp. "You know what, you wouldn't have been able to stay in the Human World for very long, and I wouldn't have ever met you, or become your friend." Alumina told her quietly as she gently pulled away, hands placed gently on the silently crying Spirit's shoulders. "You and Loke could go back to being the friends you once were, all you have to do is move on and stop hanging around in the past. You cant change what happened, but you can fix this now."

Alumina gave Ursa a small reassuring smile as the Spirit's tears started to slow down, "Take some time to think about it Ursa, its not easy to stand up to someone like your KeyHolder, not everyone can do it. But I'm sure the next time you need courage, you'll find you have more than you need inside of you, in your heart." Alumina grinned widely as Ursa smiled a little, "Your one of the bravest people I know!" She chuckled.

"Thanks Lumie." Ursa smiled as she began to fade. "But you know, your way braver than I am."

Alumina blinked in surprise at the last words, but Ursa was already gone and she smiled a little. Ursa would be ok in time, and she was hoping to get to see the shattered friendship between Loke and Ursa be repaired soon. Her thoughts flashed back to a conversation she had, had with Aries earlier this morning.

She had called the shy Spirit out to see if she would talk about what happened with Loke and Ursa, at the time she hadn't been expecting any good answers. Aries was a shy and fragile Spirit, usually she wouldn't make someone like that re-live painful memories, but she wanted Aries side of the story as well as Ursa and Loke's.

But surprisingly, Aries was very open about it, and even though she seemed a little reluctant to explain what had happened, she had told her everything she needed to know. Yes, Karen abused her the most, and yes, Ursa and Loke stopped talking to each other after a major fight back in the Spirit World that Aries had overheard. The one thing that surprised her was something that Aires had asked her to do, and it made Alumina smile at the thought.

"Please help Ursa and Leo become Friends again, I hate seeing them so cold toward each other, especially after them being such good friends before. Its because I was one the one to be abused the most and wouldn't do anything to stand up for myself... its because of that, that they fought in the first place! Sorry~"

Aries shouldn't think it was her fault, but it made Alumina happy to see that Aries cared just as much about Loke and Ursa's happiness as they had for her in the first place.

If everyone in the world got along, there would be no need for fighting, and no one would ever have to suffer so badly anymore...

..._-+-_...

"How may I serve you, Prin-"

Alumina placed a hand over his mouth and shook her head at him, the Lion Spirit blinked in surprise at the action. Alumina pulled her hand away from his mouth.

"Not today Loke." Alumina told him, flicking her head toward he window where he could see night settling down on the land. "Its late, I just wanted to tell you something. Come here," She pulled on his wrist and pushed him down to sit on her bed.

Loke looked up at her expectantly, wondering what it was she had to say. Alumina stood in front of him and crossed her arms over her chest,

"Ursa and Aries told me what happened with Karen." She started and he flinched at the woman's name. "I know you were banished from the Spirit World for three years before Lucy convinced the Spirit King to let you back in, she saved your life." Alumina told him. "I also know exactly why you and Ursa don't get along."

Loke frowned at her a little, "Why are you so interested?" He asked her in a low tone.

"I'm your KeyHolder, I think I deserve the right to know if one of my Spirits killed his KeyHolder in the past." Alumina replied. "Besides, Ursa is my friend, and I was hoping you were my friend too. I hate seeing both of you so torn up about Karen, and fighting each other, especially when you two don't even know why your fighting anymore."

"Who says we don't know why we're fighting? If you talked to Ursa you'll know exactly why we're fighting." Loke huffed at her.

"See the thing is Loke," Alumina told him, ignoring his comment. "You really aren't fighting because you disagreed with each other." Alumina leaned down to plant her face inches from his. "You're fighting because you don't understand. Ursa isn't mad that you disagreed with her, on the contrary, she hates herself for not being able to stand up to Karen, like you did."

Loke's eyes widened at her words and she straightened up,

"You two used to be really good friends right? Ursa still sees you as a good friend Loke, she hates herself for not being able to stand up with you. She hates the fact that you suffered for three years in the Human World. She hates the fact that you were the only one to get punished." Alumina closed her eyes for a minute. "She wishes she had been the one to get punished instead of you, she wanted to help you stand up to Karen, she really did. But in the end she couldn't find the courage to do it, and then Karen traded her away." Alumina opened her eyes to look at him.

Loke was frozen, eyes wider than she had ever seen them with his jaw dropped.

"She blames herself, she has all these years. It because of her hatred for herself, that she's fighting with you still. She doesn't know what to do." Alumina sighed. "You don't hate her, you still see Ursa as a friend, I can see it in your eyes. You don't want to fight with her anymore, and she doesn't want to fight with you either."

Alumina leaned forward and placed a finger under his chin as she made him close his mouth again,

"I don't want to see you two like this anymore, Aries doesn't either. I think its time you two made up." She drew her hand away from him and smiled a little.

"Now that you know, I hope things between you and Ursa will get better."

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Updating in my off time at school now, only just figured out how to post new parts using my phone- very handy!

Another shout out for my other story! I wrote it awhile ago and my writing style may not be as good but I would still ask you try it!

And please leave a comment! I wanna hear your thoughts! Votes are appreciated too! Grazie!