Chapter 1: Well That Was Unexpected

The guild was in full party mode. There wasn't any special occasion that called for it. They just felt like having a party, so of course, they did what they always do, and they threw one. It was like any party, with Gray and Natsu fighting, dragging the rest of the men, and quite a few of the women in on it. However, an immediate damper was brought to their happy mood when Lahar and Doranbolt walked in, along with a disgruntled looking Cobra, followed by Sting, the newest master of the Sabertooth guild, and Rogue, along with their two little Exceeds, who were, for once, silent.

The people in the room, for the most part, could sense the mood of the visitors, and it wasn't good. They didn't seem at all happy about the visit, and that worried quite a few of the smarter members. Some, though, Natsu being, obviously, among them, didn't sense any change in the atmosphere, and continued to fight, only to be shut down by Erza. The guild was quiet as the visitors entered the master's office, breaths held in anticipation of what was happening that could bring the only remaining dragon slayers outside of Fairy Tail to them.

A sharp inhale sounded around the guild hall as the Master walked out of his room, only to look 5 people in the eyes and walk back into his office. They didn't need any further prompting to enter his office. The first four weren't a surprise, given their visitors, the four dragon slayers present in their guild making their way towards the office. However, as the fifth mage made her way up, people began whispering, wondering why she would be called to join the dragon slayers in the Master's office.

"Ah, hello, my children, please sit down," Master Makarov said as they entered the room. "We have some news for you, which you may find interesting."

"Really, what is it?" Wendy asked, curious, but also cautious.

"There's been some rumors running around about your dragons," was all he said, immediately gathering Natsu's unadulterated attention, as well as Wendy's, and even Gajeel's, although he attempted to hide it behind a scoff.

"What? Really?" Wendy and Natsu said hopefully, looking at each other, their faces lighting up in happiness, until Wendy's dropped.

"But, why does everyone seem so sad, if that's the case?" Wendy said, taking in the atmosphere of the room and figuring out that something must be off for them to be so upset about it.

"It's not as simple as just a dragon sighting," Lahar took over. "You see, while it's true there are rumors of the dragons' whereabouts, the rumored area is extremely difficult to reach and we're still not entirely sure whether or not they were actually spotted."

"That's all great, but what are the snake and I doing here? We didn't exactly have a dragon parent," Laxus said, looking more than annoyed at being present. Lucy was also wondering why she was there, but decided to remain silent, choosing to just nod her head while watching the master expectantly.

"Ah, Laxus, I was getting to the reason you, Cobra, and Lucy are present, if you would be patient," Makarov chided, before continuing. "While Cobra and Laxus were not raised by dragons, they do, however, have part of a living dragon within them."

Lahar once again took over, "When we received the report of the dragon sighting, we were unsure whether to come to you guys with it, or whether to allow Cobra to participate, however, we feel it is necessary after deliberation. You seven are, as far as we know, the last of the dragon slayers, and the knowledge each of you, and through you, we, could gain from you finding and meeting with your corresponding dragons is immeasurable. This is why we are proposing a journey, a journey in which the eight of you must travel together."

Mavis then spoke up from her perch, making herself known for the first time to the non-Fairy Tail members, "Cobra and Laxus, you would meet the dragons who stored their magic inside of the lacrimas that are in your bodies and learn from them about the abilities that you have yet to discover. All research that has been conducted regarding dragon slayer magic and my personal experience shows that there is so much still that you have yet to learn and so much more you can do with your abilities. You have barely scratched the surface, and now would be the ideal time to discover what abilities are lying within you."

"In this period of peace in Earthland, and with you guys watching over Cobra, we feel safe allowing Cobra to travel with you," Lahar said, shifting his gaze from the Fairy Tail members to Cobra, arms crossed and eyes closed as he sat in his chair, acting as if he was ignoring the entire conversation. "Now as to why Miss Heartfilia must travel with you. Not much is known about the area you are traveling to, as no one has been able to enter the protective barrier surrounding the area in centuries."

"If it's a protective barrier, wouldn't it be easier to bring Freed?" Lucy interjected. "I have some experience with runes due to my friendship with Levy, but I'm fairly certain I won't be strong enough to break through a barrier that hasn't been crossed in centuries."

"You misunderstand, Miss Heartfilia, the reason it hasn't been entered in centuries is because the key to enter the barrier is a Celestial Mage contracted to all 12 members of the Zodiac in addition to Ophiuchus. I'm afraid that the most unfortunate news with us today is related to this as well, Sting, if you'd like..." Lahar said, shifting his eyes from the confused blonde to the light dragon slayer.

"Yukino... passed away the other day during a mission. We took care of the mission and the dark mage is now in prison, but unfortunately, we weren't in time to save her... She asked us to give you her gold keys, I know you were friends, and I apologize for allowing her to die," Sting said, for once acting with maturity as he pulled out Yukino's key ring. "There was one other thing. The reason we took the mission was because of seven keys, black keys, that Yukino said were the rarest of the keys. She told us she couldn't tell us anything until she was sure, but when she saw them, something came over her. She told us we absolutely could not allow them to fall into the wrong hands, and in the end, she died protecting them. We still don't know what they are, but we figured if she was willing to lose her life protecting them, that the person she would want to have them would be the same person she gave her other most prized keys to."

This time he pulled out a box. It was black, embroidered with silk threads woven into the wood in deep colors, seven of them: gold, blue, teal, green, orange, red, and purple, each dark and barely distinguishable from the black surrounding it except for the slight shine they gave off when the light reflected off of it. "We weren't able to open the box, so we haven't actually seen the keys, but here."

He handed Lucy the key ring and the box, the first of which Lucy gripped closely to her heart, tears silently falling from her eyes as she mourned her friend, before shifting her attention to the box. She wasn't sure, but she had a theory about what the black box contained, and the voice of Loke in her head confirmed what she was thinking. She placed the box in her lap and dried her tears, ignoring Natsu's curiosity and urging to open the box and nodded her head at Lahar asking him to continue.

Lahar, sensing that, for whatever reason, Lucy could not open the box in front of them, continued, "Since you are now in possession of each of the Zodiac keys, you can open the barrier."

"If they accept me as their next key holder," Lucy interrupted him.

"What?" Lahar asked, taken slightly aback.

"I'd be more than willing to assist them become reunited with their dragons and participating in this journey, however, I will not force them to accept me as their key holder. If they do not agree to the contract, I will not be able to help," Lucy said.

While Sting looked like he might fight her about it, his urge to see his dragon again after all those years, Rogue put a hand on his shoulder and smiled, "We understand your position. That being said, I'm sure they would be more than willing to work with you. Yukino would not have entrusted them to you if she did not trust you, and her spirits trusted Yukino's decisions." Lucy nodded.

"I have a question, why are the Zodiac keys ALWAYS involved when there are dragons involved? I mean the whole Dragon Festival portal thing could only be stopped because of the Zodiacs, and now the gate that makes it so we can't get to where the dragons are can only be opened by the Zodiac keys?" Gajeel said.

"We believe it has something to do with Draco. Whatever caused the dragons to flee in the first place most likely found refuge in the land of the Celestial Dragon himself, protected by the Zodiac keys. I don't know much about celestial magic, but I do know that after the Spirit King, the Celestial Dragon Draco is the most powerful," Lahar said. Lucy agreed with him, up until the point about Draco being the second most powerful.

If only he knew...

"Very well, then you brats can leave tomorrow," Makarov said with finality.

They all looked around, agreeing with it. Just as they were about to leave, Makarov had one final thing to say.

"One last thing, I'm making Lucy team leader, with Laxus as next in the chain of command," he smiled brightly.

"WHAT?!" several voices yelled, including Lucy's own.

"I think it's a good idea," Cobra said, opening his eye, and mouth, for the first time since the conversation had started.

"Wh-wh-at are you talking about? I have no business being team leader in a group of such powerful mages, the only reason I'm going is because I'm needed to get through the gates to the location..." Lucy said, her eyes directed at the poison dragon slayer.

"They would have sent you anyways. Well, at least Makarov was planning on it before he found out you needed to go anyways, and before you interrupt me again, listen. First of all, we may all be powerful, but most of these guys are about as smart as a door knob, at least when it comes to preparation. We have no idea what we're getting into, there's practically nothing on the area we're going to. You'll be able to think things through if we get stuck in an unwanted situation. Also, I'm pretty sure you're the only one who can talk down both Natsu and Gajeel, and I'm fairly certain you'd be able to talk down Sting and Laxus if you needed to, you just haven't had the opportunity yet. Also, you're magic is versatile and will offer a lot of options if we're stuck in a bind. We need somebody rational and smart to lead the team, and don't think Mira, Gray, or Erza would do a better job, they're too emotional to handle it, and their tempers are too volatile to be able to put up with all the hot heads on this team. This is something you're best suited for."

Makarov nodded, "I couldn't have said it better myself. This is how it's going to work. Lucy will give out orders and will keep everything organized, and Laxus will enforce her rules. If you step out of line, you'll have him to answer to. And Laxus, if you don't listen to her, you'll have me to answer to."

"Don't worry Gramps, I think it's a good idea too," Laxus said.

"Good, also, Cobra, if they're not following orders, and Laxus isn't around, I give you permission to discipline them if they aren't following what Lucy says, not punishment, however, it must only be to discipline them for disobeying orders, and it can't be too severe," Makarov said, "otherwise, you answer to Laxus."

"Now, you're all welcome to go," Makarov smiled, "Be here tomorrow morning with your bags packed at 8."

With that, they all left the room, ready to go to home and get packed, each of the members of the makeshift team excited for what is waiting for them in this unknown portion of the world.

~.~.~

When Lucy got home, she took her time calling out the remaining members of the Zodiac, offering her condolences and contracting her newest spirits, getting to know them each a little bit before allowing them to return to the Spirit World. Each of the spirits was pleased to know that their previous key holder had given their key to Lucy, although Lucy could tell how upset Yukino's death had made them, and after speaking to each of the spirits, she spent some time crying over her dear friend's death, only to be interrupted by Virgo and Loke.

"Princess, I know you are sad, but you must begin getting ready for bed, you have a difficult journey in front of you, we know of the area you are traveling to, and it is not easy to reach," Virgo said. "If you are upset over me interrupting you, you may punish me if you wish," she continued, bowing to Lucy.

"No, Virgo, that won't be necessary, however, if you wouldn't mind packing my bags and storing them in the Spirit World, that would help a lot," Lucy said, seeing through Virgo's attempt to lighten her mood by asking for punishment. Virgo smiled and nodded, getting to work.

Lucy then shifted her attention from Virgo to the box sitting on her table, "So its true, they really do exist," she said, apparently to no one, but Loke answered, understanding the statement was directed at him.

"Yes."

"I thought that they were just a rumor... something celestial mages told stories about that didn't actually exist, but they're real," she said, still not taking her eyes off the box.

"You won't be able to call on them right now," he said, "You have to prove yourself to them. The first time they meet you, they'll come from their own power. That's how they work, they don't just accept anybody as their master."

"But I won't be their master," she said, finally lifting her eyes from the box to him.

"And that's one of the reasons they'll come to you, because you won't treat them like their previous key holders did, as an object to use for power, as a weapon. They must have heard rumors about you by now, and they must have an idea of what it will take for them to come to you, but I can't help you with that. It's something only you can do," he said.

"What do you mean they must have heard rumors? Don't you know them and talk to them?" she asked, curious.

"No, they live on their own. They've never understood how the rest of us serve our key holders without first testing them, but the fact that you've been invited to the Spirit World and that even the Celestial Spirit King thinks of you as a friend, and what you did for me, there's no way that word of you and your deeds hasn't reached them, and knowing their personalities, I know they must already be intrigued. I'd be lying if I said I didn't think they're already keeping an eye on you right now, now that you have their box," he said, his gaze shifting from Lucy to the box, and hers returning to it.

"Should I bring them with me tomorrow?" she asked, not sure whether or not she should. She didn't know what sort of things awaited them or how long they'd be gone.

"Yes, you should take them with you everywhere you go now," he said, "because they could show themselves to you at any time. Also, you should try to open the box."

"I thought I wasn't supposed to. I thought it would open itself if it wanted to be opened. I don't want to overstep my boundaries, if they wish to reveal to me when it is time, we will move on their timeline, not mine," she said. It looked as if Loke was about to answer her, when the box flew open and a message in ancient runes was written in golden letters in the air above it.

Lucy quickly translated the ancient language and read the message, "Lucy Heartfilia. You have passed the first test. You may add our keys to your ring, and the right move may reveal us to you. But beware, make one wrong move and you may never see our keys again."

Lucy stared in awe as the stars that made up the runes dissipated before turning to look at the 7 black keys lying in the box, surrounded by a glistening black velvet, shimmering gold flecks making it resemble the night sky filled with its stars.

Each key was pitch black with a single gem on the handle, each a different color, one teal, one purple, one orange, one red, one gold, one blue, and one purple. Lucy vowed to herself to protect the keys and to live up to the spirits' expectations as she carefully slid each key onto her keyring, placing the ring carefully next to her belt on her nightstand, before going to bed, faintly hearing her spirits wishing her goodnight.

And, right before her eyes closed, she thought she heard seven new masculine voices bid her sweet dreams as well, but that may have just been her imagination.

~.~.~

The next morning, they arrived at the guild, ready to go.

"Oi, Bunny Girl, where are your bags, don't tell me a girl like yourself is traveling without a change of clothes?" Gajeel said.

"Well, Gajeel, I was going to offer to have Virgo carry your bags like she's carrying mine, but with a comment like that, I think I might just have you carry your own," she said, sticking her tongue out at him.

She then called out Virgo and had her load up everyone's bags, making it a point to leave Gajeel's until the end, watching as his face turned from initially angry, although she could tell he was just pretending to be angry, to annoyed, and then finally settled on a little pout with his arms crossed over his chest that had Lucy laughing out loud as Virgo went over to collect his stuff.

"Wow, she has you wrapped around her little finger doesn't she, because, I must say, that pout was adorable," Cobra said, laughing from his perch on the bar stool. He was surprised when the blonde had offered to take his bags as well, but he wasn't going to complain. One less thing weighing him down. He wasn't thrilled that he would have to be traveling with Fairy Tail, or with Natsu, and he wasn't even thrilled about meeting these dragons. Half the time, he considered his lacrima more of a curse than a blessing, but at least the journey would serve as a brief taste of freedom from the prison cell he'd been confined to for so long.

"Are we leaving yet? Are we leaving yet?" Sting said excitedly, practically bouncing on his toes in excitement. He was joined by Natsu and the two of them, with the help of Lector and Happy, began a chant of "Let's go! Let's go!"

"No, I need to go over some things with Laxus first," Lucy said, looking pointedly at Natsu and Happy, who immediately shut up and quieted Sting and Lector as well. Lucy was then the receiver of a very appreciative glance courtesy of Rogue, who was sitting in the corner massaging his temples, attempting to dissipate a headache that had been building as a result of Sting's constant talking about the journey and being able to travel with Natsu and Gajeel, and blah, blah, blah. Rogue had stopped paying attention after the first five minutes, but that didn't stop him from talking and his volume from rising with every passing minute.

Lucy smiled at Rogue before turning to Laxus and moving towards a quieter area of the guild to talk over the plan with Laxus.

"Okay, so I have the map and I've marked the area we're heading towards, and with the help of one of my spirits, I've been able to map out the quickest, easiest, and safest route there. We should be able to avoid the worst of the weather and the worst of the magical creatures and it'll only take about a day and half if we follow this route exactly, but we can't even get a mile off course, or we could end up in some pretty questionable territory," Lucy began. "I'm going to need your help keeping them in line. I'm sure Cobra would be more than willing to help as well, Wendy will probably do what she can, and I highly doubt Gajeel and Rogue will be a problem on their own, however the problem is..."

"Natsu and Sting." Laxus finished for her.

"Exactly, if they start fighting or if they get curious and begin to wander off it could send Rogue and Gajeel over the edge, and then you and Cobra will have more than you can handle on your hands alone, and I will not put Wendy in the middle of a fight between the four of them. From what I can tell, Rogue can handle Sting pretty well, and I think Cobra can help keep him in line if he gets really out of hand. I'm going to have to leave it to you and Gajeel to keep Natsu in line. Gajeel and Natsu don't have the best relationship, especially with Natsu always challenging him, but Natsu will probably listen to Gajeel before he listens to Cobra, and if worse comes to worse, I give you permission to fry Natsu unconscious and we'll figure out a way to carry him," Lucy said.

"That sounds like the best plan, I'm sure I can handle fire breath," Laxus said, nodding at her, "and I'm sure those of you that aren't the two idiots heard everything she just said," he said, turning to look in the direction of the other slayers, who all nodded, while Natsu and Sting were just sitting there, obviously attempting to hold in their excitement.

With that, they finally set out, the rest of the guild yelling after them in encouragement for their venture, wishing them luck on their journey.

~.~.~

The journey, although technically only a day and a half, not exactly long by the measurements of some, seemed to drag on forever as they had to continuously separate Sting and Natsu, who were happily walking together one second, while the next they were attempting to destroy the entirety of the forest they were walking through.

However, after that torturous journey, they had finally arrived at the barrier. They had thought that it would be some invisible barrier that someone would run into without knowing, which is why they had put Natsu and Sting in the front around 10 minutes ago, after all, they were stupid enough to agree. They were wrong.

Instead of an invisible wall, there was a gate. Although just calling it a gate would be an understatement. It would be impossible to find the words to describe the beauty, intricacy, and size of the heavenly gates before them. There were no handles on the golden doors, instead only 12 key slots with the Zodiac symbols lying under them.

"Why is it whenever a gate and dragons are involved, the Zodiac keys are needed for it?" Cobra mused, looking over at Lucy.

"I was actually thinking about that too, and we think it's because it has to because of Draco, the Celestial Dragon, like Lahar and Doranbolt said yesterday. Leo said that Draco is essentially the king of the dragons, and that he thinks the reason they're being protected by the celestial gates is because they found refuge with Draco, who hasn't been seen since the rest of the dragons disappeared either," Lucy explained. "Now I think it's time that I opened this gate and we can find your dragons."

One by one, she took the keys off her ring and turned them into their holes. After putting the last key in, she stepped back from the gates, watching as they began opening, the keys flying back to her. With the doors opened, the dragon slayers and Lucy were finally able to step through the gates into the dragons' supposed refuge.

As their feet passed over the threshold, a bright white light encompassed them, blinding them. They heard the closing of the gates and the undeniable feeling of falling until they landed on something solid. When they landed and could finally see again, they were most definitely not in the same forest they had been in only 5 minutes ago. Also, the gate was gone. And the most interesting scene was laid out before them.

Then, an unknown voice said, "Well, that was unexpected."

~.~.~

Luffy's adventure on Little Garden hadn't exactly gone as planned. Then again, there hadn't actually been a plan to begin with, so it would be obvious to say that it hadn't gone as planned. Perhaps, hadn't gone as expected would be a more accurate term to describe the journey.

Between the warring giants and the members of the Straw Hats' newfound enemies in Baroque Works searching for them, they more than had their hands full, not that Luffy particularly paid attention to most of what was going on. At this point, all he knew is that he had to get his friends out of the wax that had encompassed them and was currently growing around them. However his actions were stopped when a giant crash drew their attention away from their waxy problem and towards the eight strangers that had fallen out of the sky, in addition to what looked like 5 cats.

Mr. 5 was the first to break the silence, saying, "Well, that was unexpected." Not wishing for any additional problems, he quickly launched a few bombs in the direction of the strangers, not caring who they were or where they came from. He was on a mission, and he didn't need any additional problems messing with the already complicated Straw Hats.

However, he was surprised when the bombs exploded into flames only to be sucked into what seemed to be some kind of vacuum. Except it wasn't a vacuum, and when the dust cleared, everyone present had to wipe their eyes to ensure they were seeing it properly, because the resulting fire from the explosion was being sucked into a man's mouth.

The man, with what appeared to be pink hair and dark onyx eyes wiped his mouth with the back of his hand. "Wow that was delicious," he said, looking around. "Now, where's Igneel?"

Finally, his gaze landed on the dumbstruck people in front of them. Cocking his head to the side, Natsu's face turned from hopeful to confused as he said, "You're not Igneel. Actually, you're not dragons at all. Who're you?"

"What do you mean who are we?! You're the ones who fell from the sky! Who are you?!" Mr. 3 yelled at the top of his lungs.

"Huh?" Natsu asked, the confused look on his face becoming even more prominent as he tried to process what Mr. 3 was telling him. From her spot on top of the wax candelabra Nami almost felt like face palming, the similarities between this stranger and her idiotic captain making her more frustrated than she already was. After all, how could there possibly be another man in the world as stupid as Luffy was?

"Natsu, stop being an idiot," a very large blonde man said. He was literally huge, easily the biggest man there, with spiky blonde hair sticking out in every direction and stormy blue eyes. However the most prominent feature was the lightning shaped scar cutting through his eye, if you ignored the very defined muscles visible through his form fitting black shirt, that is.

"What are you talking about?" Natsu said, turning to look at the man. He just rolled his eyes and ignored the pinkette, his eyes rapidly taking in his surroundings, trying to decide the best course of action.

It was the blonde woman that answered him, "Obviously we've been transported somewhere else. I'm not sure where, but we're not in the same forest we were in, the vegetation is all wrong. The information we had was probably false, although it's possible the dragons are somewhere in this forest. Hopefully they know a way out of here, though, because the gate's-" She was cut off when she was suddenly trapped in a wax box.

"Hey, what the hell?!" was heard from the box containing one of the other men of the group, this one with long black hair and blood red eyes, along with several other yells of agreement.

"Well, we'll just have to deal with them after we deal with the Straw Hats, but right now they're our focus," Mr. 3 said, turning his back on the boxes he had formed to jail in the new arrivals.

"Excuse me, but I don't like being ignored."

Turning back around, Mr. 3 almost fell over when he saw what was happening before his eyes. Coming from the box containing the voice there was suddenly a long blade resembling a chainsaw, the metal gleaming in the light and looking sharp enough to rip straight through steel, which it was obviously capable of as it easily sliced through the wax box. The box fell in two pieces to the sides to reveal the man with the long black hair, his red eyes gleaming, and his dozens of piercings shining in the light. However, everyone was a bit taken aback when they saw that what they had believed to be some sort of sword was revealed to be nothing other than his arm, their surprise becoming even more pronounced when the blade morphed back into an arm before their eyes. Sitting on his shoulder was a black cat with a large scar over its eye and its arms crossed as he glared in the direction of Mr. 3 and Mr. 5.

'Wh-what the hell?' Zoro thought as he watched how easily the blade went through the wax and observing the blade become an arm.

"Ugh, I was in the middle of talking you know," the blonde girl's voice came from inside the box, but then she wasn't inside the box anymore. Instead, she was coming out of the ground in the arms of a pink haired maid that had most definitely not been present before, leaving everyone wondering where she had come from. The blonde was holding a golden key in her hand and as the pink haired girl set her down on the ground she twirled the key around her finger, saying, "Okay, you can go back now, Virgo." With that, the pink haired girl disappeared in a white puff of smoke as the key glowed, and the girl put the key back on a key ring with over a dozen other keys, in gold, silver, and black.

"Well, that wasn't very nice," said a voice. The voice was coming from another one of the boxes, this one was glowing from under the wax. As the wax melted, another blonde man was revealed, also very muscular and with a scar over one of his eyes, however he wasn't quite as big, and his mouth was set more in a mischievous smirk than a scowl. The man seemed to be the source of the light, because after the wax had finished melting, the light receded into the man. He was holding a red cat in his arms. He smirked as if he was ready to fight with them, "We don't even know you, and yet that's the second time you attacked us. What kind of mages would we be if we didn't at least fight back?"

"Sting, don't be rash, you idiot," came a bored voice from another box. Seeping out of this particular box were shadows, making their way between the wax and the ground, and coming from the shadows was another man. Like the man with the metal arm, he also had black hair and red eyes, but he didn't have any piercings and was a bit shorter than the first. Hiding behind his leg was a small green cat wearing a pink frog suit. When he was completely out of the shadows, he pulled the blonde man, Sting, back next to him. "You don't make the calls on this mission, Lucy and Laxus do."

Suddenly, lightning struck, literally. Coming from the sky, a single powerful strike hit one of the boxes, shattering it to a million pieces. The large blonde man from earlier stood inside, sparks flying off his body. He didn't need to say anything, because his anger was easily detectable in his glare and the scowl on his face. Mr. 3 was so terrified of just that one look that he was pretty sure he peed himself, immediately regretting his decision to trap them in those boxes.

They weren't able to pay attention to the blonde man for long before an explosion was heard and the melted, burnt wax was all that was left of the box holding the pinkette, Natsu, he had been called, who's body was currently engulfed in flames. "I'm all fired up!" he yelled at the top of his lungs, lunging towards Mr. 3, causing him to pee himself again, before he was zapped with some lightning, receiving a glare from the larger blonde man that made him immediately extinguish his flames, however that was possible. Finally, hanging off of his back was a blue cat.

The next box to be destroyed was releasing toxic chemicals as the box melted, some sort of purple liquid seeping from under the wax killing the grass around it as a tanned man stepped from out of the box, his one open eye taking in his surroundings, not saying anything. He had spiky red hair and when he opened his mouth to lick his lips, picking up a drop of the same purple liquid that was killing everything it came in contact with, fangs were visible.

Everyone's eyes shifted to the final box, waiting to see how the final person in their group escaped from its clutches. The wax shattered, and when it did, a giant whirlwind of air emerged from it. When the wind cleared and they were able to see the person standing inside, their jaws dropped. Inside stood a small girl, holding a white cat in her arms, her long blue hair in twin pigtails at the top of her head. "Ugh, how rude," the cat said. The girl shushed her, "Carla don't be mean."

It was official, the Straw Hats and Baroque Works agents alike were confused out of their mind. Who were these people?

"You know, that's the second time you've attacked us in the five minutes we've been here, and we don't take kindly to unwarranted attacks," Laxus growled out.

All of the dragon slayers' noses crinkled when the distinct scent of urine entered their senses, their attention shifting towards the man with the ridiculous hair shaped as a 3. Gajeel lifted a pierced eyebrow and laughed out loud at the man, his "Gihihi" only bringing further fear from the man.

"Natsu, take care of explosive guy, Gajeel take care of the guy that just pissed his pants," Laxus said, looking at Lucy out of the corner of his eye for confirmation. When she nodded her head at him, they went to work.

Laxus and the others were content to sit back and watch, well not really Sting, but Rogue held him back, explaining that they didn't need any further problems and telling him to sit still and behave.

Explosive after explosive was fired towards Natsu, who just swallowed the fire down, and Mr. 5 had no idea how to respond to the defense, only fearing what kind of attack could possibly come from a man who could eat fire.

"Fire Dragon's Roar!" came from his mouth, his hands forming into fists in front of his fists. Some sort of circle that he didn't recognize formed in front of his hands and suddenly a whirlwind of flames approached him at an unbelievable speed. He barely had time to be surprised before the blackness took him.

Mr. 3 didn't even have time to be concerned about his fellow Baroque Works member, too busy worrying about his own opponent, who looked like he was having entirely too much fun. His smile clearly showed off teeth sharpened to a point, and Mr. 3 gulped, looking around for an exit. He wasn't sure if he'd rather face this guy or Mr. 0 at this point. At least with Mr. 0, he knew what he was getting into, this guy was a wild card, and he was beginning to think "wild" was a mild term to use to describe the man.

He wasn't given much time to contemplate his options before a whirlwind similar to the pinkette's fire came towards him, this time, though, the whirlwind was made of shards of metal cutting him all over, but at least his pain was short lived, because it was only moments before he fell unconscious.

"Well now that that's out of the way, we can figure out our next move," Lucy said, turning to look at the dragon slayers. Suddenly though, she felt something wet on her back.

"What the?" she said, looking over her shoulder to see what was on her back. There was yellow paint on her back, and she couldn't help but wonder what on earth it was. She felt the urge to laugh for some reason, but didn't understand why. She shook off the feeling, now wasn't the time to laugh, and then turned her attention to find the source of the paint.

"Why aren't you laughing?" a small girl asked.

"Huh? Who're you?" Lucy said, looking at the girl.

"I asked why you weren't laughing."

"Well, for some reason, I do feel like laughing, but this is a serious situation, therefore it would be inappropriate time to laugh, so I'm not laughing," Lucy said.

"But, anyone who has the yellow mark from my brush has to laugh," the little girl said.

"What on earth are you talking about?" Lucy said. The dragon slayers were just watching Lucy as she talked to the little girl, deciding she probably wasn't much of a threat.

"See," the girl said, taking some more yellow paint and splashing it onto Natsu who then began to laugh uncontrollably, rolling around on the floor.

"Natsu, stop being an idiot and get up," Laxus said. Cobra nudged him with his foot, just short of being an actual kick.

"I- I- ahahahahaah- I can't - hahah – I can't stop," he finally got out, stopping every few seconds to laugh.

"It's my devil fruit power, when I paint someone, they're slaves to color. Yellow is the Color of Laughter. Only those with a strong will can resist the power of my colors," the little girl said. Instead of being met with fear or even trepidation, for the most part, she was met with boredom and confusion.

"Lucy, what do we do with her?" Laxus whispered to Lucy. "I'm not really sure what a devil fruit is or what that means, and she doesn't really seem dangerous, but at the same time she seems like she could be a nuisance. I don't really wanna knock her out, but I don't know what else to do."

"I'll take care of it," Lucy sighed. Where the hell were they? What the hell was a devil fruit? She'd never heard of that kind of magical item, and she'd never heard of this kind of 'color magic' before.

"Open: Gate of the Maiden: Virgo!" Lucy called out, pulling out the golden key. The pink maid from before reappeared, and she told Virgo to tie the girl up and put her up against a tree, sure that the other two men would take care of her once they came to and the rest of them were gone.

A splash of black appeared on Virgo's shirt.

"Be careful! That color makes her do the opposite of what her friends tell her," the orange haired girl trapped in the giant wax candelabra exclaimed. The dragon slayers and Lucy all turned over to her, they had completely forgotten about them. Considering they hadn't interfered in their fight, if you could call it that, and they were now trying to help, they decided to leave them alone for now, deciding they probably weren't enemies.

However, to Nami's surprise, Virgo just went and tied the girl up.

"Wait, only those with a strong will can resist my colors. First that blonde girl, and now you, you're completely subservient to her, how could you possibly have a strong enough will to escape the power of the colors?!" she exclaimed, thrashing in an effort to escape Virgo's ties.

"I am bound by celestial law to obey the word of Princess, it would take a far superior power to yours for me to break my contract to Princess," she said, before disappearing back to wherever she came from.

With their three opponents, again, if you could call them that, no longer in the way, the Earthlanders once again turned their attention to each other to try to figure out their next move.

~.~.~

"SO COOOOOOOOL!" Luffy exclaimed, staring at the newcomers with stars in his eyes. Their heads turned towards the boy.

"LUFFY! Stop messing around and get us out of here!" Nami said, her attention no longer on the newcomers and instead on her own dire situation as the wax continued to engulf her.

"Oh, right!" He said, turning his attention to his friends, but before he could do anything, a flash of lightning struck down, hitting the candelabra and freeing Zoro, Vivi, Nami, and Brogy from the wax.

Luffy turned his attention back to the newcomers again, stars once again entering his eyes, "WOW! Thanks!"

"Yea, no problem kid. Now could one of you please tell us where the hell we are?" the bigger blonde man said.

"You're on Little Garden," Brogy said, smiling at the man.

"Little Garden? Where the hell is that?" the black haired man with the piercings said.

"On the Grand Line," Nami said, how did they not at least know that they were on the Grand Line? It was pretty hard to accidentally end up on the Grand Line.

"The Grand what?" the pink haired one said, him and the smaller blonde man cocking their heads to the side, looking like confused puppies.

"You... you don't know what the Grand Line is?" Vivi said in disbelief.

"Um... no?" the little girl with blue hair said, looking at the blonde woman with big eyes, clearly confused.

"Ughhh... not again," the blonde said, her head falling forward into her hands.

"Not... again?" the Straw Hats said in unison, looking at her.

"What are you talking about?" the red-headed man said.

"Ahhh, shit," the black haired man with the piercings said, while the other black haired man just looked at him with a confused expression.

"Luce... what are you talking about? I don't remember ever being here before," the pinkette said.

"Shut up, Natsu," the blonde said, turning her attention to the Straw Hats.

"Excuse me, are we on Earthland? Have you ever heard of Fiore?" she said, looking at them hopefully, even though she was pretty sure she knew what was going on.

"Um... I've never heard of either of those," Nami said, watching as the girl fell to the ground, head in her hands.

"Why is it always me? How the hell did I end up in another world with these six idiots and only Wendy to help me with them?" she cried into her hands. The girl with blue hair gently put a hand on the blonde's shoulder.

A lightbulb seemed to go off in the pinkette's head, "We're in another world again, aren't we?"

"Yes, you idiot," the blonde girl said from the ground.

"What do you mean again?" the red-head said.

"Yes, what do you mean again?" echoed the smaller blonde, with an accompanying nod from the piercing-less black haired man.

"It's a long story, but this is the second time we've been transported to another world against our will," the man with the longer black hair said.

"I'm guessing Mystogan isn't around with another Anima this time," Laxus sighed, "We'll have to figure out some other way to get home this time."

"Come on guys, don't look so down, this'll be fun!" the pinkette exclaimed, giving the smaller blonde a high five.

"Natsu, can you be serious for one second?!" The blonde girl growled, lunging towards him, but the blonde with the lightning scar wrapped an arm around her waist to stop her.

The blonde quickly composed herself, but the lightning man kept his arm around her, as if prepared for her to lash out again. She sent him a pointed look and he quickly dropped his arm.

She then turned her attention towards the Straw Hats and their friends, "Hello, you wouldn't happen to know how to travel between worlds, would you?" she asked, her smile far too wide, and slightly unnerving the Straw Hats as they looked at it.

"Um, I'm afraid not," Nami said, smiling uneasily.

"Well, then you wouldn't know where we could find the nearest train would you?" She asked.

This time Brogy answered, "Oh, we don't have anything like that here, this place is practically abandoned."

The blonde's face dropped and she looked like she was about to break down and take out her anger on the pinkette who was still grinning like an idiot with the smaller blonde.

"JOIN MY CREW!" Luffy shouted.

"LUFFY! This is NOT the time! Can't you see they're upset?!" Nami yelled, hitting Luffy over the head.

"But Namiiii, they're so cool, and we can take them with us and they can ask around about getting back to their world!" Luffy whined, nursing his head.

Nami was about to hit him again when she was interrupted by the blonde, "Actually, that's not a bad idea," Lucy said, considering.

"Oh, well... if you're considering it, then you should know that we're pirates," Nami said. Immediately, most of the people in front of her took up a defensive stance and Lucy's eyes widened.

"Pirates?" she said.

Nami, fearing for her life at the glares of the men, and women, before her, quickly began to explain, "But we're not bad pirates, not really anyways. I mean, Luffy has a bounty, but we don't hurt innocent people, and we're only really pirates to reach our goals, none of which are bad, we just want to be free. Besides, the Marines here are really corrupt, and-"

"Corrupt?" the blonde girl narrowed her eyes, "How so?"

"Well, they just are, they treat their prisoners horribly, and they don't even follow the laws they set, and they treat everyone like scum and they're entitled," she began.

"Another corrupt government? It seems like every world we come to, we're destined to be on the opposite side of the law," the one with the piercings grumbled.

"Well, I don't have a problem with it," the red-head said, smirking.

"Shut it, Cobra," the blonde girl said. "You don't get a say." He just smirked at her again, this time exposing his fangs.

The blonde seemed to be considering things, "Okay. We'll join you, for now at least, considering it seems you're our only way off the island. But if we see anything we don't like, we're gone."

Luffy started celebrating, and Nami sighed out of relief.

"Okay then, I'm Nami, the navigator of the crew. The green haired man is Zoro, the swordsman. Don't be offended if he glares at you, he glares at everyone. The idiot yelling is Luffy, he's the captain, no matter how hard it is to believe, and he has a bounty of 30,000,000 berries, which is a lot, since you guys probably don't know anything about our currency, I'll go over that with you later. And the blue haired girl is Vivi, she's a friend of ours, we're helping her out with a problem, but we'll explain more about that later. Right now, we should head over to the ship and you can meet the last two members of the crew."

They all nodded and followed her. When they got to the ship, Natsu turned green at just the thought of riding it.

"Can't I just fly with Happy?" He begged, with Sting nodding along with him pleadingly. Gajeel, Rogue, and Laxus although not quite as green or desperate definitely didn't look pleased at the thought of riding the ship.

"Don't be ridiculous, the Exceeds can't carry you for that long, now suck it up and deal with it," Lucy said. Cobra snickered at them, which earned him several glares from the dragon slayers and a pointed look from Lucy.

A blonde was waiting for them, along with a man with curly black hair. The blonde looked up and immediately hearts grew in his eyes as he bounded towards them, exclaiming, "Who is this beautiful, voluptuous blonde you found?!"

Lucy looked horrified as she thought he might shove his face right into her breasts, but then there was a body in front of her. She thought it had been one of the slayers, which wouldn't be entirely out of character, given that more than one of them were quite protective of her, but when she looked up she didn't recognize him.

He had dark purple hair that was up in a small spike, with just the right amount of messiness. His dark purple five o'clock shadow covered his angular jaw, and his eyes were the same shade as his hair. His skin was tanned to have an olive complexion. He had on almost nothing, except for a dark purple and white pair of shorts that went down to just above his knees. Somehow sheathed in the shorts, he had 8 daggers, four on each side. The hilts of the daggers were pitch black, and encrusted with amethysts, while the blades were the same dark purple as his hair and eyes. In his left ear was an amethyst stud, and on his back protruded a pair of huge, beautiful deep purple wings. However, his eyes weren't on her, they were on the blonde man, glaring at him, "You don't touch her," he growled out.

The blonde, who had fallen on his butt after slamming into the man, scrambled backwards in fear of the man's glare.

"Hey! Who're you?!" Natsu yelled, lighting himself on fire, to the surprise of the blonde haired man and the black haired man the Earthlanders had yet to meet. The man merely glared at him, staring him down.

"Natsu! Back off," Lucy said, her eyes wide, barely holding her composure as she stared at the man before her.

I can't believe one of them came so quickly, I thought I'd have to wait months before one came... she thought in disbelief.

"Hello, I'm Asmodeus, the Prince of Lust," he said, smirking down at her.