Chapter 1 - Pilot
Two lone figures walked towards the Fairy Tail guild hall. One was covered in head to toe in fabric, a mask donning his face to hide his identity. Next to him walked a young girl, a cape drawn over her shoulders, covering her figure. Her rich dark brown hair was barely visible behind the cloak, as she walked in sync with the other.
The man halted a few metres from the guild door, before turning to his companion. "You ready for this? 2 years is a long time. I'm going to cast the sleeping spell before we enter. Are you sure you don't want to come on another mission with me?"
The girl chuckled before responding, "I'm sure. Thanks Mystogan, but it's been 2 long years since I've seen any of them, I think I'll stay to catch up with them. You think they'll still remember me? It's certainly be a while, I don't look like a fetus anymore." The said male gave her an incredulous look, while she continued, "I'm sure you'll pop by sometime soon, besides, I think after having to put up with my company for the past year a break would be nice."
The male, Mystogan, gave a deep chuckle. "Looking like a fetus? Akira, you still do. You're only fourteen, still a bit more growing to do," he teased. "Anyhow, let's get this over with."
Akira watched as Mystogan cast his spell, straining her ears to hear the faintly familiar voice of Master Makarov muttering "He's coming." Soon after, the sound of body fallings followed.
"Not again," grumbled the resident ice mage.
"So tired ..." a female voice murmured. The sound of even more bodies collapsing followed, until nothing but an eerie silence sat over the guild.
"It's done, come on," Mystogan started again towards the guild door, opening it to reveal the sight of all the members sprawled out across the hall, all unconscious.
Akira couldn't help but break into a huge smile, her eyes darting around the area as she scanned for the familiar faces of her old friends. Her attention was snapped back by the faint muttering from Makarov.
"Mystogan ... Akira..." he spoke quietly, barely keeping his eyes open. Akira's smile broke into a grin, and she bounced towards the master.
"Gramps! Wow it's been so long since I've seen everyone, I'm glad to be back. I've got a lot of stories to tell, but for now, I feel like surprising the others," her grin was contagious, as Makarov's lips edged into a smirk, as he nodded in approval.
Meanwhile, Mystogan had made his way over to the mission board, quickly snatching a random mission before walking back towards them. By then, Akira had seated herself down at the bar next to Makarov, both watching Mystogan's movements.
"I shall return, have fun Akira" his soft voice echoed throughout the dead silent hall.
"No .. wait ... lift your sleeping spell before you leave," Makarov quickly responded, as Mystogan turned and headed towards the door.
"Five ... four ... three ... two ... one ..."
No sooner than he uttered his last words, he quickly dissipated into a cloud of mist. Immediately, groans were heard as the guild members started to wake up from their slumber, grumbling incoherent curses.
"Aw man ... was Mystogan here?" A wizard by the name of Jet complained.
His friend, Droy, hummed in response. "What a jerk!"
"Does he have to put us to sleep every time he comes here?" The female companion of the group, Levy, joined in on the disgruntled complaining.
Akira chuckled quietly to herself, she had moved her hood back up to her face, as she silently listened in to the conversations. Her ears perked up as she heard a new voice ask, "Who's this Mystogan guy?"
Akira studied the girl, noticing her blonde hair, before having her attention snapped to the jingling on her belt. Celestial Wizard.
"For one, he is a contender for Fairy Tail's strongest wizard," Elfman offered.
The blonde looked up interested, "Really?"
"Yeah, and for some reason he doesn't want anyone to see what he looks like, so whenever he comes here to take a job he casts a sleeping spell. Been a while since I've felt his magic, I think he's just come back from a long mission," Gray Fullbuster, the ice make wizard commented.
"That's kinda creepy," the blonde deadpanned. Akira had to hold back the urge to laugh at her reaction, it was fairly normal. It had taken Akira a while to understand why Mystogan did so too.
Her thoughts were once again cut off by Gray continuing, "Master Makarov is the only guy here who's gotten a good look at his face."
"That's not true. I've seen him before," a sharp masculine voice cut through the hall, grabbing the attention of all the mages.
"Laxus?"
"Talk about rare," Macao muttered.
Wakaba stared at Laxus in shock, agreeing with Macao as he commented, "You're never here!"
"... And here is another contender." Gray rolled his eyes, already knowing that trouble was going to start. Akira merely raised an eyebrow from underneath her cloak. So Laxus doesn't hang around much anymore ...?
The smirk on Laxus's face only grew larger. "Mystogan's just a little bit shy, you should all respect his privacy," he enticed, enjoying the reaction he was getting.
Akira scoffed. As if Laxus meant that, he was simply trying to get a rouse. Almost immediately, said male's eyes snapped down to where she sat, widening a bit when he recognised her scent.
His mouth opened to made a snide remark to her, however he didn't get the chance before Natsu jumped in shouting at him.
"Alright Laxus, you and me, right now!"
His fists lit up on fire as he stood ready to fight. Most members watching the interaction merely face palmed, how typical of him.
"Getting your butt kicked once a day wasn't enough?" Gray rolled his eyes, not believing the idiot.
"Hey!" Natsu glared at Gray.
"Yeah pal, if you can't even beat against the red head, don't even bother with me." Laxus chuckled as he smugly watched Natsu's reaction. By now, Akira was growing extremely tired of his attitude, however it would seem she wasn't the only one.
Without delay, said 'red head,' named Erza, rose from her seat and glared daggers at Laxus.
"What are you trying to say?" Her eyes narrowed sharply.
Gray started to panic, not liking where this was heading. An angry Erza was the last thing anyone wanted. "No need to get all worked up Erza!" His efforts were in vain.
The smug smile on Laxus disappeared, he looked down from the balcony as if the others were well below him.
"I'm saying that I'm the guild's strongest wizard!" he declared, once again smirking. His actions were enough to anger the fire wizard.
"Then come down here and prove it!" Natsu shouted through his clenched teeth.
"You come to me little man."
That was it. With that response, Natsu snapped, relighting his hands and charging up the staircase towards the lightning mage. He started to ascend, before a giant hand came down on him from no where, instantly flattening him.
"You're not allowed on the second floor Natsu," Makarov scolded, before muttering, "At least not yet."
Laxus continued to smirk, this time in victory. "I think you made him grumpy!" He chuckled. Akira's left eye twitched, she was close to snapping point. Was this really the same Laxus she once knew?
"That's enough out of you Laxus," came Makarov's response.
The blonde haired mage merely scoffed, before straightening himself up, and opened his mouth to reinstate his authority.
"The most powerful mage in the guild isn't some chick or a hooded weirdo." By now Akira was seconds away from talking back, ready to react to his next egotistic statement.
"You wanna know what the strongest wizard looks like? Well you're looking right at him!" Laxus once again declared, pointing his finger at himself to further express his point.
Akira decided enough was enough, and angrily muttered under her breath, "All I see is an asshole. Talk about an overrated ego." She knew he had strong hearing, and would hear her comment.
As expected, Laxus snapped his head in her direction, eyes narrowing. "You wanna say that to my face?" He growled out.
Akira looked up to face him, her crystal blue eyes glaring into his. "You heard me," she gritted out. "What the heck happened to you? Jeez. The Laxus I knew wasn't such an irritating dick. Whatever the hell you are, I'm not at all impressed."
With those threatening words, every mage in the guild turned pale. Did this figure really just say that to Laxus? Hell was about to break lose.
Laxus looked stunned for a second, before recomposing himself. "Excuse me ...? Looks like two years with Mystogan turned you into a little bitch." His eyes glared anger, as if challenging her to talk back, to which Akira was more than happy to comply.
"Yeah, thanks ... and apparently two years without me made you and even bigger asshole. Damn, I didn't think that was possible," Akira whistled out, enjoying seeing how pissed off he was becoming.
By now the guild hall was dead silent. No one dared make a move or speak. Someone was actually challenging Laxus? It wasn't heard of!
It didn't take long for electric sparks to start radiating off Laxus. It was a warning, a strong visual that he was extremely irritated. Generally, anyone who wanted to walk away alive would have known to back down and run, but not Akira. No, she was getting a rouse out of pissing him off so much. Serves him right the bastard!
A smirk broke out on her face, and she innocently cooed, "Oooh, what's this? Ha! Sparky's got a short circuit." With those words she knew she'd pushed him over the edge.
Instantly, lightning hurled towards Akira as Laxus used his lightning body to appear behind her. Akira simply turned around, not really intimidated by his attempts. His entire body sparked, the tension was thick in the air.
They glared at each other for what seemed like eternity. Neither side speaking, neither side backing down. The others watched on in suspense.
Finally, Laxus spoke.
"Careful brat, keep it up, and I'll teach you to shut your trap." His tone was low, the threat coming across loud and clear, however, Akira did not let herself flinch. If it had not been for her anger, she would have backed down by now.
With those words, Laxus scoffed loudly, before turning his back on her and storming out of the guild.
Silence followed for a few minutes afterwards, everyone stood still trying to process what had just happened.
"ARE YOU CRAZY!?" the guild's resident drunk, Cana, finally yelled, snapping everyone from their suspended state.
Wakaba looked at her as if she crazy. "You've got some guts kid."
Most mages were still trying to process the fact that someone stood up to Laxus. By most, everyone except Natsu.
After he snapped out of his shock, Natsu shouted the first thought that came to his mind. "Awesome! Fight me!" Natsu charged at her, ready to attack.
Everyone else stood by and sweat dropped. Trust Natsu to challenge her.
Akira merely stood still, waiting for Natsu's attack. Natsu raised his fist, and was about to strike, when he suddenly stopped.
Sniff sniff.
Natsu started to sniff at the air. "Wait ... you smell familiar ..."
A grin broke out from under the hood.
"About time you realized!" Akira laughed, lifting off her hood to reveal her long brown hair that was neatly kept under the hood.
In a split second, Natsu had recognised her.
"Akira!"
"The one and only. Good to see ya Na ... oomph!" Natsu had charged at her, glomping her and catching Akira off guard. They both tumbled to the floor.
The remaining members of the guild were dead silent, Gray and Loke stood frozen in shock. After Natsu's actions, the guild immediately broke into cheer, happy to see their guild mate had returned. Everyone came and greeted her, welcoming her back after not seeing her for a long time. Akira smiled, glad to be back among her friends and family.
Gray and Loke however, were still to move an inch. Seeing Akira after two long years was a shock to them, she had disappeared so suddenly, they were not expecting to see their best friend again.
Armoured clinkered as Erza walked up to Akira, raising her hand for them to shake. "What a surprise, welcome home Akira," Erza smiled warmly at her.
"Thanks Erza, it's good to be home." Akira accepted the hand and shook, before Erza grabbed her and pulled her into a strong hug. Akira couldn't help but wince as her head hit the metal breastplate.
After releasing her, Erza asked, "May I ask, where have you been? It must have been about two years now, you just vanished overnight without word. We were worried, we had no idea where you went."
Akira's smiled vanished, and she looked back shocked. "Wait, Gramps didn't tell you?"
All heads immediately turned to the drunk guild master who sat there looking guilty. "Heuheu, it may have ... umm ... slipped my mind?" He laughs nervously. Everyone sweat dropped.
"He said you were on a mission, but that was all," Natsu paused, before excitedly exclaiming, "Where did you go? Did you look for the dragons? Did you find them? Did you find Aurora or Igneel?"
Akira looked dumbfounded at Natsu. "The dragons? No ... actually, I spent the last 2 years accompanying Mystogan. That's kind of why I upped and left, he asked me last minute, I had to make a split second decision.
Silence followed, until the entire guild simultaneously yelled,
"WHAT!?"