CONTROL - Ver. 2

XIX

"Gajeel!" Rin wandered around the mines, searching for her comrade as well as the two Exceeds she had brought with her. "Gajeel," she called again, but there was no response. "Leese?"

The girl sighed, walking further and further into the cave. Meanwhile, she was inspecting the air, searching for the source of the odd smell she had noticed before. She began noticing a weird sensation filling the cave and how it got thicker the further she ventured in. There were large relics scattered around the ground, even sticking out of walls. She went to touch one―

Bile rose up her throat. They were bones. No, skeletons of dragons. She had to slap her hand over her mouth to keep herself from getting sick. How could they cover something up like this?! She nearly couldn't stop herself from vomiting until she heard footsteps echoing toward her..

"Rin." Gajeel approached her from the side with both Lily and Leese padding behind him. She gulped and turned to face him, wiping the sweat off of her forehead. He understood her reaction immediately as his had been almost the same when he first got down here. "There's more." He nodded his head in the direction he came from, urging her to follow him. "Come take a look."

She followed him silently, scared that if she spoke, her breakfast would come up.

"You okay, Rin?" She looked down to her best friend and nodded. Leese didn't believe her for a second but let it slide. The smell emanating from the cave was getting stronger and Rin questioned whether she should just gag herself and get it over with.

"Up here." After taking the curving path of the cave, she saw exactly what Gajeel had found. There was a mass graveyard hidden underneath the colosseum. Tens of dragons rested here for eternity and she wondered how they had found this place and decided to hide them. Or were they put here...?

"T-This is horrible," she choked out. Her throat betrayed her as the thick air choked her and gagged slightly. Gajeel panicked, not wanting to see anyone get sick and most definitely not expecting it to be her of all people. "Sorry, the smell is killing me." His brows furrowed since he couldn't smell anything. However, he nodded and watched her as she began walking around the relics, tracing her fingers along the bones to see if she could build a connection.

Nothing.

"Let's get going," Lily urged. "I don't like it down here."

"Me neither." Meanwhile, the brunette started to wander. Something down here was calling to her and she had to find out what it was. The three watched her intently, trying to figure out where she thought she was going. "Rin!"

They were ignored as she turned and took a beeline to the wall hidden behind a mass of bones. There was a skull, perfectly intact. And in the center of the being's forehead was a huge gemstone with a dark purple tinge to it. She stared at it, trying to figure out why it looked familiar to her. She took a whiff of the air again.

This was it. This is where that scent was coming from. But why? She couldn't help but feel an attachment to the jewel and reached out a hand. Gajeel was on his way to grab her and noticed her hand getting too close to it. Whatever it was, it began to glow brighter the closer her fingertips got to it.

"Rin, don't!" As her middle finger barely grazed it, a loud shockwave went off. Rin gasped, her eyes shooting up to the ceiling and clouding over. Thousands of images flashed before her eyes in a jumbled mess. They were all related, but she couldn't make sense of any of it. Her body began to tremble and Gajeel knew it was time to get the hell out of here. He gripped her shoulder, seemingly breaking her out of her trance.

Her wings shot out of her back and he was suddenly swept away along with the Exceeds. Rin had grabbed them and planned to escape the tunnels, a gutteral noise emitting from where they just stood. It was horrifying enough to break Gajeel out of his confusion and replace it with fear. They flew at an incredible speed along the rails, finally shooting out of the mine and back to the hole in the arena where the Twin Dragons still remained with their Exceeds.

The two were startled when Rin shot out of the cave, dropping Gajeel and the Exceeds upon their exit and falling to the ground herself. She tumbled, skidding to a stop and allowing her wings to disintegrate. She tried to push herself up, but found that her arms were weak and the most she could do was continue to kneel. "Rin, what the hell was that down there?" The Iron Dragon Slayer began to stomp toward her. "What did you do?!"

Meanwhile, the mage was continuing to see all of the images flash before her in a vicious cycle. Her eyes watered as the horrible scenes repeated over and over and over and an awful buzzing noise drowned her ears. She couldn't take it anymore. She gripped at her head with her hands, trying to squeeze her head in order to make it stop hurting. It was all too much for her.

Red. Dragons. Fire. Death.

She yelled out in pain, the tears finally dropping from her eyes. Sting was unnerved by her cry, immediately moving into action. But Gajeel beat him to it. He had dropped to his knees right in front of her and shook her by the shoulders to try and snap her out of it.

"Make it stop, make it stop, make it stop," she repeated over and over. She nor her body could take this much longer.

"Rin, snap out of it!" She gasped again, finally collapsing as her body couldn't handle it anymore. Leese was crying, now pawing at her partner who lay limp in her comrade's arms. Gajeel scanned her body, looking for some kind of explanation as to what happened.

But it was a total mystery.

"What the hell happened down there?!" Finally realizing that they weren't alone, Gajeel glared up at the two Dragon Slayers. He scooped the brunette up, allowing Leese to lay comfortably in her abdomen. All he could do was take her home. She wasn't injured and there was no reason to take her to an infirmary and she simply needed to rest off whatever the hell that was.

"You two saw nothing," he warned them. The two males glared back at him in defiance. There was no way they were letting that slide. "Do you understand?"

"That's my mate we're talking about here. What the hell happened?!" Sting was in no condition to fight again right now, but he was getting pissed at being dismissed so easily.

"I said, do you understand?" The deep tone of Gajeel's voice was serious enough to make the Twin Dragons back down. The blonde stared longingly at the limp brunette, worrying about what had happened to her. "Good. Don't step foot near that cave and go home."

Sting watched as the Fairy Tail mage disappeared with his mate in his arms. He had instantly decided that he was going to check up on her as soon as possible once he was done getting shamed at Sabertooth for his loss. It was the least he could do after seeing something like that.