| COME AT ME AND YOU'LL SEE
I'M MORE THAN MEETS THE EYE
--- YOU THINK THAT YOU'LL BREAK ME, YOU'RE GONNA FIND IN TIME --- |
It was strange. When Saffron had first returned home from the skirmish between Bellum and Pergrande, and had been told by the medics that no amount of healing, magical or otherwise, would be enough to restore the limb she had lost, the young woman had sunk into an extremely deep depression. Fighting was the one thing she was good at, and her strongest skills fell in line with things like boxing, cage fighting… the general use of her arms. She was a proud and confident woman that loved to be in shape and even intimidate some men with her brawn and muscles, but all of that had come crashing down after she’d lost her limb and survived only by sheer, dumb luck.
The blonde had been honorably discharged from the military and sent back home to her parents where she had shut herself up in her room for months. The few times she did show her face, she really only came out to eat or silently do chores, maybe watch a show or two on the lacrivision. But everything she did felt numb. She’d just been going through the motions, consumed by self pity and dejection as her life felt like it had lost all purpose and meaning and fulfillment. It had been hard on her, and even when she had received the prosthetic limb that she now wore the only thing she could do as she stared at the robot limb was wonder: What was the point? Sure it would give her some mobility and independence back, but it was never going to be the same as what she once had, at what she had taken for granted her entire life thus far.
A while she had taken great strides in moving past her injury, eventually forcing herself to move forward and stop being such a baby, that didn’t mean it wasn’t something she still struggled with. Oh, she loved her synthetic arm. Once she had finally worked up the courage to put it on and start getting used to it she started to realize that in a way she was more capable with the robotic limb than she ever would have been with her original one. It was a beautifully crafted piece of technology, and by now it felt so natural to her that at times she forgot that she was technically an amputee. But the kind of trauma that she endured would never simply go away, and while most days were easier to cope with what had happened now that a significant amount of time had passed, even now she realized she still had moments of weakness and insecurity about it, triggered by his implication – whether intentional or not – that what she had gone through held no meaning.
With a soft sigh she heard him reply with a gentle but resolute “no” in answer to her question. More than that, he apologized for what he had said, claiming that it had been unnecessarily disrespectful over a serious matter that should not be brushed off as lightly as he had done. Saffron listened as he explained that the fight they had both participated in did have meaning: to try and stop things from getting out of hand to the point where far more than just the people of Bellum and Pergrande would be affected. Instead, where his comment had come from and what it had been aimed at were those politicians and oligarchs that operated behind the scenes, putting the lives of everyone but themselves on the line to solve their petty squabbles. By this point in his life, Vandrad had been exposed to so much violence and warfare that he was fairly desensitized to it, but as he put it that did not give him an excuse to speak as arrogantly as he had.
Saffron sensed him looking at her and she instinctively drew her own gaze up to meet his eyes, her expression unreadable. The prince affirmed that they had fought to maintain balance, and that was important, he was merely concerned that the efforts that people like her put in would amount to nothing simply because the wars between people with money and power would never truly stop. Saffron didn’t even realize that she was absentmindedly rubbing the spot on her arm where the synthetic limb attached to what was left of her bicep as she thought his words over. But eventually, she gave him a soft nod. “I know what you mean.” Then, after another significant pause, she looked back up at him again, her eyes their natural violet hue. “Thank you.”
Several months later, Saffron was back in the training room at Fairy Tail getting a private workout in while she listened to some gym appropriate tunes. A great deal had happened since Vandrad had exposed her to the darker, more secretive parts of the guild. While Saffron had yet to participate in any mercenary activities since then, her new status within the guild allowed her certain privileges, including accessing certain areas of the guild hall that she had always known were restricted but she had simply assumed it was for the guild leaders; Mura, Vandrad and Akeya. And to be fair, that wasn’t entirely wrong, but she earnestly hadn’t a clue before then of the kind of operations that were taking place behind closed doors.
But frankly, that entire experience was nothing in comparison to the things that had happened more recently. Vandrad had been attacked and nearly killed. In the process his magical core had been completely destroyed, stripping him of his magic and leaving him barely more than a cripple. When Saffron had heard the news she honestly wasn’t sure how to process it. Since the day she had met Vandrad it was obvious that he was a man that took as much – if not more – pride in himself when it came to his fighting and strength. He was a bonafide slave driver when it came to training, waking up early every day to run her and Mura and even Mercury through the ropes. He had latched on to Saffron like a hawk the moment he saw someone that seemed as dedicated to staying in peak condition as he was. And Saffron moan and groaned and dragged her feet, but the truth was that her actions were more dedicated than her words, and it did not take her long to settle into the routine that had already been in place before she had joined up with the guild, and even if he was a bit prickly at times she did appreciate his efforts to train her and help her understand the magic that she had all but given up hope on ever learning to really control.
So it had shaken her to her core the first time she’d seen him after his attack, the blonde at a true loss for what to do or say. It was obvious how much it hurt and frustrated him, even if he didn’t say so out loud when Saffron was around. However, unlike how she had reacted when she’d been injured so long ago, Vandrad did not take long to start trying to get back on his feet, stubbornly determined to gain back what he had lost. Saffron wasn’t sure that he would ever really accomplish that. When Mercury had pulled her aside to explain the diagnosis, Vandrad’s fate seemed pretty set in stone, but all at once it dawned on her that whether or not he did get his abilities back wasn’t important. What mattered was that he was refusing to let this overwhelm and overcome him like she had done for so long after she’d lost her arm, and after all this time he had spent helping her she had realized it was her turn to return the favor.
That was why she had taken it upon herself to almost swap roles with Vandrad, making sure to be at the training room every morning to help him move at a steady and reasonable pace, monitoring to make sure he didn’t go too far while also making sure she was there to help challenge him to keep pressing forward. Given her own intimate experience with a crippling physical recovery, she could empathize with where he was coming from and did her best to give him the kind of support that he needed, the kind that matched his determination to grow and move past his obstacles without being pitied or treated like he was incapable of taking care of himself. It was going to be a long, long road to recovery. Longer even than hers had been by a long shot, but Saffron planned on stepping up to the plate to be there as much as he and his surprisingly newly engaged fiance needed.
Yet even that had come to a screeching halt far sooner than anyone had expected. Saffron was just starting to settle into the new routine when she’d wandered into the training room to find Vandrad wasn’t there. It had not taken her long to figure out something was up, and after contacting Mercury the Silver Wolf ace agreed that something was very, very wrong. And thus had begun the fruitless search for Vandrad that had turned into a full blown investigation. Saffron could have stayed out of it, really. She wasn’t all that involved in Vandrad’s personal life, truth be told, and while they had spent a great deal of time together over the last several months she had still viewed him as more of an authority figure rather than something like a friend. But it wasn’t her nature to just sit by and let others do the work. She had skills and training that would be useful, so once she learned from Mercury that they were running a multi-pronged search, Saffron didn’t hesitate to offer her assistance.
It was an offer that put her in a position to meet a lot of very powerful and important people very quickly. Before she knew it, she was face to face with Vandrad’s parents, including the infamous Ashen Dread – a woman that Saffron practically idolized just from the stories alone. Not only that, but she also met Serilda and Mythal, the leaders of the Rune Knights and two of the four Gods of Ishgar, who she had no idea was Vandrad’s adoptive brother and soon to be sister-in-law. She’d spent practically an entire week living at the du Wolff’s estate in Bellum with the prince’s family, keeping herself available to run missions with anyone that asked for her help and taking on whatever tasks were requested of her in the search. It had been a bit awkward at times to watch as time went on and the cracks began to show through the otherwise brave faces of his family as despair and hopelessness began to settle in. She felt more than a little out of place, given that she really wasn’t a part of the prince’s familiar inner circle. There were times that she kept to herself or stepped out of the room if she sensed that someone needed a moment to collect themselves, but otherwise she just coasted through as best she could. And to the credit of his family, they all made it very clear through the entire process how grateful they were for her efforts.
But then Mercury had been kidnapped as well, and that had only complicated matters further. Saffron had been stunned to silence when Gren and Themesycia had revealed the news to everyone, and it was at that point that the blonde was well and truly at a loss for what to do next. From there things only got more and more convoluted as it came out that Mercury wasn’t as human as she looked. Not only that, but apparently she wasn’t even native to Earthland at all but, much like Hosrius and Grubar, was from another planet entirely and supposedly under the thumb of some tyrannous group that had enslaved her people decades prior. Add to that other details she had gleaned from spending time with the du Wolffs and the rest of his family, things about gods and demons and secret societies and organizations…
Frankly, by the time Vandrad returned as mysteriously as he’d vanished, Saffron had simply stopped trying to understand everything that was going on around her and simply focused on just being there to do things when people asked. Whatever business all of them were mixed up it, it was clearly complicated and way over her head, and she didn’t want to get in anyone’s way to try and ask about it, so she just hung out until they needed her. Eventually, they had worked out a plan to get Mercury back and against all odds the kidnapped woman and the rest of her people were liberated from their servitude. Saffron had allowed herself a day to recover in Bellum with everyone else after the trip and battle across space, but she had still felt like the odd one out of the close knit circles. As such, she had taken her leave fairly quickly to head back to Fairy Tail and giving Vandrad’s family privacy in which to recover.
And that was where life currently found her: minding her own business in the training room, getting in her reps and passing the time with a decent workout as she tried for the millionth time not to think too much about all the weird shit she’d been exposed to within the last week and a half. Things were more or less settled back the way they should be, and that was all she needed to know.