The air snapped, a brilliant, blinding white light flashing to life and illuminating the room before fading again in an instant. The nearly deafening sound of an energized burst, accompanied by a pair of rather undignified squawks, reverberated between the metal walls of the transport room as two figures plunged from the fluid disks on the ceiling and tumbled to the floor on top of one another.
"You're-you're crushing my spleen," Natsu strained beneath the weight of the other boy, spitting out a mouthful of orange sludge that had somehow been flipped up from the ground and into his mouth during their restless time spent on the planet where their most recent mission had taken place.
"Oh please, you don't even know where your spleen is," Gray grumbled. A groan slipped through his lips, his joints aching and his muscles sending an uncomfortable thrum through his body when they tensed as he rolled off of the salmon haired boy. He flopped onto his back next to his companion, the same orange sludge that had somehow wound up Natsu's mouth coating most of his clothes and causing a raucous squelching noise as he moved, his chest heaving as he huffed out, "We still alive?"
"I think so," Natsu pushed himself onto his hands and knees as he looked around at their surroundings, "I'd hate to think heaven looks like this."
Gray propped his upper body up on his hands and let out a relieved breath when his vision finally cleared enough for him to recognize their ship's transport room, his glare slowly sliding to the salmon haired boy beside him, "It takes a very special kind of idiot to pull off what you just did, ashface."
Natsu shot to his feet, haughtily exclaiming, "Hey, I didn't kill anyone today!"
The raven haired boy stood, too, making use of his slight height advantage by leaning into his rival's face as he ground out, "So what? You want a fucking gold star?"
The sharp slap of hurried footfalls on metal began to echo throughout the hallway just outside the transport room, and a furious Erza was soon flying into the space. She came to a quick stop in front of them and crossed her arms under her breasts, her eyes blazing as she commanded, "Spill it. What the hell did you idiots do?"
Gray gave Natsu one last sneer before he turned away, beginning to recount the happenings of his and Natsu's mission, "Started out fine. It was a breeze to disable their security system, and flamebrain snuck in without a hitch. But then ten minutes later, this moron flies into the forest screeching, an entire legion of those things on his ass." He shivered as he recalled the savage appearance of the ape-like creatures they'd faced. Dealing with exotic, alien lifeforms was definitely one of his least favorite parts of their line of work. "Next thing I know, an explosion sends me flying into a tree, and when I recovered the whole damn building was on fire."
Erza's head whipped towards the salmon haired boy, her lips clenched tightly together in fury and her eyes blazing with indignant irritation.
Natsu held up his hands in defense, "Ya know, technically, it wasn't on fire."
"Of course it wasn't on fire!" Gray spat back. "You fucking blew it up!"
"Well at least I was doing something! Your lazy ass just sat on the perimeter the entire time!"
"Because that was the plan, ash-for-brains!"
"Shut it!"
They silenced immediately at Erza's shout, but their glares persisted in the other's direction at full force.
The red head let out an exasperated sigh, "Did you at least get the case?"
A smug smirk spread across Natsu's lips as he finally peeled his focus off of Gray, reaching down to retrieve the item from the floor, "Of course."
Erza quickly snatched it from his hands, her lips pressing into a thin line as she used her thumb to wipe away the thick orange sludge over its latch to examine the lock, "All that, and we don't even get to know what's inside."
"Those things nearly killed us when they saw we had it," Gray crouched down to retrieve one of his blasters from where it'd skidded to during his and Natsu's harsh landing, his lips twisting in a sour pout when he noticed his weapon was completely coated in the same orange gunk covering the case, and the majority of his and Natsu's bodies for that matter. That planet had definitely been one of the least pleasant places he'd been for a mission, and he was sure that traces of it would remain within the crevices of his favorite blaster to haunt him for months to come. "Must be something insanely valuable if the council put us through all that shit to get it."
"I don't give a damn about what's inside," Natsu ran his fingers through his hair to collect the orange sludge clinging to his salmon strands, flicking it off of his hand with a groan of disgust. "Let's just get this over with and get it to the council so we can move on to the next job." He suddenly chuckled to himself, sending a pointed look at Gray as he snidely remarked, "Besides, the real treasure is the memories we made along the way."
The raven haired boy snapped, shoving him back with fist to his chest, "I almost died!"
A wicked smirk spread across Natsu's lips as he recalled the moment when Gray had only narrowly avoided getting nailed by a dematerializing blast from one of the alien's weapons, "Ah yes, my fondest memory."
"Oh, I'll give you something to remember!" Gray launched himself at the other boy, his fist poised to punch him the face.
Erza rolled her eyes as the boys tackled one other, childish insults spewing from their mouths as they pummeled the other with their fists. Normally, she'd break up their fights with a few quick words to send them to their opposite sides of the ship. But she'd already had enough of dealing with their bullshit today, and the tactlessness with which they'd barely managed to complete their mission had drained her of her will to care about their wellbeing, at least for the moment. She figured that if she let them fight, they'd push themselves to exhaustion and she'd be free of their bickering for the rest of the day.
So she turned on her heel and strode off with the case they'd retrieved, her only concern whether or not the transport room would remain fully functional after their brawl had reached its peak.
After a much needed shower, in which his drain had become clogged with orange sludge as he scraped it off of his skin and out of his hair, Natsu meandered into the bridge, his favorite room onboard their ship by far.
He plopped himself in his pilot's seat with a pouch full of his favorite spicy urug jerky, the kind that could only be found in the Reum Star System, and propped his feet up on the edge of his steering console, contentedly gazing at the stars speeding past beyond the bridge's window.
The warping of the stars had always made him incredibly sick when he'd first been taught how to pilot spacecraft, and it'd taken him years to become acclimated to the propulsion of traveling faster than light itself.
He could stomach the sight and disorientation now, and he'd even go as far as saying he got a slight thrill from it. He'd always dreamt of travelling the galaxy when he was younger, though he'd never imagined that his adventure would come in the form of a pilot's license. He couldn't say he regretted landing on that path though, however unexpected it was, fully content with where his journey had taken him.
The view of space speeding past from the bridge was perfect.
Well, almost perfect.
There were a few dead pixels in the corner of his console's display that constantly drove him a bit bonkers, and Gray had refused to fix the auto-repair system that managed the console countless times by claiming he had more important matters onboard to tend to. Which, Natsu had to admit, he probably did. The raven haired boy was their ship's mechanical engineer, and its entire operation relied heavily upon his abilities. Of course there were the auto-repair systems, but their functionality provided only a temporary fix when battles got tough and their systems were damaged and, in the worst case, completely disabled. In those times, the ship wouldn't work at all without the raven haired boy's quick thinking and engineering capabilities.
Nevertheless, the pilot was fairly certain that the frustration the dead pixels brought him was the main reason Gray left them in disrepair. The mechanic was always looking for ways to tick him off, and he succeeded more often than the salmon haired boy was willing to admit.
The aforementioned display suddenly flashed to life with the notification of an incoming video transmission, and Natsu's eyes widened a fraction when he caught sight of who it was from.
Erza landed in a crouch on the sprung floor of their ship's training room with a loud exhale, purple light trailing after the blade in her right hand in an arc, the brightest light in the dimly lit room by far. It was one of the swords Gray had customized for her a few years back, the blade now doubly lethal with its sharpness and mechanized tendrils on the central ridge, which set it aglow with a dangerous purple radiance.
On missions, she was often taunted by their enemies for her weapon of choice, and she was always rewarded with immense satisfaction upon proving that her blade was far better than their aim. But there was another reason she preferred a sword, whether mechanized or not, over any other weapon in the galaxy. The art of wielding her blades represented thousands of years of tradition. It was her people's pride.
Or at least…it had been.
"Erza…ya there?"
At Natsu's voice in her ear, she straightened herself out from her crouch, sword still within her grasp as she used the back of her hand to wipe away the sweat on her brow. She inhaled deeply a few times to steady her breathing, pressing her fingertip against the com in her ear to turn on her mic, "Yeah. Go ahead."
"Your boyfriend's calling."
Her jaw clenched at Natsu's choice of words as she slid her thumb along the hilt of her sword to deactivate it, placing it back on its stand by her other blades before storming out of the room and towards the bridge, "Call him that again and I'll cut your tongue out."
When Erza entered the bridge, Natsu was trying his very best to look busy by fingering the buttons and levers on his control board, his lips folded into his mouth and tightly clamped shut as if he really thought she was going to follow through with her threat.
She only spared him a quick glance and rolled her eyes at his attempt of avoiding her attention before turning to the large screen beside the entrance. She let the salmon haired pilot get away with his shenanigans this time, deeming the person on the screen much more worthy of her interest for the moment.
His features lit up a fraction as she stepped into his line of sight, but she kept her expression firm and didn't return the sentiment. It'd been almost two years since he'd last made any effort to contact her, and she had every intention of making sure he knew exactly how she felt about his lack of communication. She crossed her arms beneath her breasts, lacing her expression with fury to mask the relief she felt at seeing him alive after going so long with no knowledge of his well-being or whereabouts, "Where the hell have you been, Jellal?"
"Working," he replied simply, an obvious lie.
Their lives were never that simple. With the way the galaxy functioned nowadays, work was never just work and that made everything a hell of lot more complicated than it used to be. Their pasts forced everlasting ties with the conflict that was tearing the galaxy to shreds upon them, and as long as things remained the way they were, there would be no peace to be enjoyed by anyone who was unfortunate enough to have been born in a time such as theirs.
He didn't give her a chance to voice her complaints, his tone laced with traces of regret, but also with determination as he pressed on, "I know it's been far too long since we last talked, but I'm afraid I don't have the luxury of the time needed to fill you in on the details of the past two years. I know I may no longer be deserving of your kindness, but I have a favor to ask of you and your crew."
That piqued Natsu's interest in their conversation, and he was quickly spinning his chair around to face the screen.
The desperation in Jellal's voice caught Erza off guard, and she searched his expression for any clue as to why he sounded so hopeless. There were definite bags beneath his eyes, and his entire face seemed to be slightly drooping with fatigue. The horrible pixilation of his video transmission prevented her from seeing any more details of his face, and the space behind him was rather dark, leaving no context clues as to his location. But regardless, wherever he was calling them from, it had a terrible connection, which lead her to believe that his situation was more desperate than she'd originally thought upon first seeing his face on the screen.
"I'm traveling with a companion," Jellal resolutely continued, "and I've recently found myself unable to keep them in my company any longer."
Erza caught on in an instant, raising a brow, "So what? You want us to take them in?"
"No chance in hell," Natsu's voice suddenly sounded out behind her, and she whirled her head around to find him with his arms solidly crossed over his chest, his features set in an adamant glare.
Jellal wasn't one to be deterred so easily, "Natsu-"
"I said no," the salmon haired boy firmly repeated. "This is one of the best fighter ships in the galaxy, not some charity home. We work for the council, and that means we're constantly putting our lives on the line and charging into battle. We can't support a freeloader who'd just get in our way."
"Look, you don't need to provide food or anything else like that," Jellal reasoned evenly, clearly having thought over his argument beforehand. "I've already supplied them with everything they'll need for their time aboard your ship. All I ask is that you prepare a room. I promise they won't be a bother. You'll hardly even notice their presence. Please, Erza. They have nowhere else to go."
Despite her anger over his lack of contact, the red head found herself unable to refuse his favor, letting out a heavy sigh, "For how long?"
"Erza!" Natsu haughtily protested.
Her head snapped towards him, her voice firm, "You may be the ship's pilot, but you're certainly not its captain. Don't forget that I was the one who asked to join this crew, and that means that I can kick you out any time I'd like."
"Aye," the salmon haired pilot shrunk back into his chair, cowering into the back cushion and solemnly swiveling around to mindlessly fiddle with his control board again. However, he still kept his ears focused on the conversation behind him, not very keen on the idea of letting a complete stranger onboard his ship, regardless of Jellal's promises.
And regardless of the fact that Erza had been the one to recruit him, he still did fully consider it his ship. Without its pilot and mechanic, the ship would be completely useless, and therefore it belonged to them more than it did to the red headed weapons expert. And he sure as hell wasn't considering himself part of Gray's crew, so the ship was his, and there was no way Erza could change that fact in his mind.
Jellal's gaze flooded with gratitude, his voice full of relief as he gave his answer, "At this point, I can't be sure…a few months, maybe? I just need some time on my own to figure out my next path."
Silence filled the bridge as Erza thought over what he'd asked of them, her lips pursed and her eyes trailing off to the side in thought.
Natsu's fingers paused in their mindless fiddling as he awaited her answer, mentally chanting, 'Say no. Say no. Say no. Pleeeeeaassse say no.'
"We're meeting with a member of the council in two days' time on the Helios Station. We're scheduled to dock in hanger seven, pad three. Meet us there."
The salmon haired pilot visibly deflated in defeat, though neither Erza nor Jellal were paying him any mind at this point.
"Thank you, Erza," Jellal breathed out, his voice laced with the utmost gratitude and relief.
Natsu tuned out their conversation as they gave short goodbyes, grumbling to himself about how he'd get Erza back for letting a complete stranger on his ship, knowing she'd only given in because it was Jellal who'd asked.
He wasn't planning on being very welcoming to their 'guest,' no matter what connections to Jellal they had. Like he'd said, their ship was designed for fighting, and any extra person aboard it who served no purpose to their cause was an unnecessary nuisance, one he'd quickly shed without hesitation if worse came to worse.
"So…why wasn't I invited to the meeting where we decided to adopt somebody?"
Erza rolled her eyes at the raven haired mechanic's question, determinedly weaving through the crowd of people on the Helios Station and back to the hanger where they'd docked their ship before their meeting with the council member to hand over the case they'd retrieved, "We're not 'adopting' anyone. Whoever it is, they're not here to stay. They'll only be with us for a few months."
Gray huffed out a breath, "And you're one hundred percent certain that whoever it is Jellal's dumping on us is trustworthy? Like…we're not gonna have eggs implanted in us while we're sleeping or some other freaky shit like that?"
Natsu shivered at the thought.
Neither he nor the raven haired mechanic could see Erza's face from where the pair was trailing behind her, but her second eye roll of the conversation was practically audible in her voice as she reprimanded, "Don't be stupid. I see no reason why we should have any concern over their character. If Jellal trusts them, then so do I."
The salmon haired pilot leaned over to whisper to the boy beside him, a chuckle in his voice as he quipped, "She's totally whipped for hi-"
His snide remark was cut short when she whipped around and buried her fist in his stomach, his body doubling over as a groan burst from his lips and his arms wrapped around the abused area once her fist had withdrawn.
"Idiot," Gray snickered, obviously gaining satisfaction from the pilot's pain. "Thought you would've learned not to mess with Erza by now."
"Shut up," Natsu strained out, still hunched over and clutching at his middle.
The redhead sharply cleared her throat before whipping back around to walk through the gate that lead to the hanger where they'd docked their ship, her authoritative voice carrying over her shoulders to the boys in her stead once more, "I expect you two to treat our guest with all the hospitality you can muster. Which isn't much, I know, considering you're a rather incapable pair," she jabbed, still upset with their shoddy performance on their last assignment.
She suddenly paused in her steps, Natsu nearly running into her from behind due to his lack of attention for where he was headed.
His focus followed the redhead's to the pad where they'd docked, finding that two hooded figures stood near the closed entrance of their ship, the taller of the pair removing the fabric concealing their face upon looking in their direction.
Blue hair slipped free of the hood to be set aglow by the artificial light of the Helios Station's seventh hanger, and as the three approached the place where he and his companion stood, Jellal gave them a gentle smile, removing the cloth that had concealed the lower half of his face as well.
"Erza," he hummed warmly in greeting as the trio stepped within earshot, unintentionally and momentarily ignoring the two boys that accompanied the scarlet haired woman. "It's been quite some time."
"It certainly has," her voice held none of the fire it'd held during their exchange via video a couple of days prior, a small smile adorning her own features as she looked the blue haired man over in person for the first time in two years.
Natsu's eyes quickly shifted between the two, beginning to feel more and more like he didn't belong in this moment as time went on. They were just staring at each other now, without saying anything, and it was seriously weirding him out.
He'd never loved anyone, at least not romantically, so how the hell was he supposed to understand and relate to what was happening the between the two before him, both so obviously in love with the other even though they refused to admit it themselves?
One thing he knew for sure though was that as an outsider, watching them dreamily gaze at one another in silence was awkward as hell, and it kind of made him want to throw up.
Gray suddenly cleared his throat, bouncing on the balls of his feet once before he started up the ramp that led into their ship, "Well…this is awkward, so I'll be excusing myself." He gave Jellal a quick two-fingered salute in farewell before he disappeared into the ship, the clanking of his feet on the metal paneling on the floor soon fading away.
His disturbance of the silence that had settled upon the group seemed to finally snap Jellal and Erza out of their daze, the blue haired man clearing his own throat before casting a glance at his almost forgotten companion and cutting straight to the chase, "It's unfortunate that we weren't able to reunite under more pleasant circumstances, but the situation was desperate."
Natsu's gaze slowly shifted to the figure standing silently at Jellal's side, their hood still pulled over their head and their focus lowered to hide their face in the shadow cast by the fabric. The salmon haired pilot guessed they were about a head shorter than him, though given the distance between them, he wasn't entirely positive. Due to the hooded poncho draped over their torso, he couldn't see much of their frame other than their narrow shoulders, thin calves, and booted feet, but from those characteristics he concluded that whoever it was must be a teen, probably only a few years younger than him.
"I wish we could converse longer, but I must be on my way," Jellal cast a quick glance at both Erza and Natsu in turn as if in apprehension before turning to his hooded companion and resting his hands on their shoulders, his voice dropping in volume as he murmured a few words in a foreign tongue.
The metal-paneled floor beneath them groaned as the salmon haired pilot shifted on his feet, agitated by his lack of understanding of the one-sided exchange. It bothered him to think that Jellal had switched languages for the sake of keeping the contents of his speech confidential from him and Erza, though he also picked up on the possibility of the hooded figure not knowing their language. Either way, he didn't like being excluded from knowing information, whether it be words of wisdom or a simple farewell. He wanted every bit of information he could get about the person who'd be staying on his ship for the next few months, though it appeared he'd be getting no verbal cues as to who they were, their only response to Jellal's words a single, gentle bob of their head.
Having received physical confirmation of his companion's understanding, the blue haired man turned back to the two standing before the entrance to the ship, one of his hands still resting on the shoulder of his hooded acquaintance as he sincerely bid them good tidings, "Take care on your journey. Wherever you may go, my well-wishes go with you."
"We wish you the same," Erza returned the sentiment, her regret over their short meeting evident in her eyes. Though, she was well aware of Jellal's wish to be rid of this place, so she turned her focus to his hooded companion, offering them a warm smile even though their gaze was still downcast, "I'll show you to your room."
Natsu curiously watched the figure as they silently followed behind Erza, still wary of letting a complete stranger board his ship. He didn't give his trust so easily, and those that had earned it were few in number.
His breath caught in his throat when part of their hood was swept back as they brushed past, a small portion of their face revealed to his gaze. The rough brown material of the hood caressed a pale cheek that was speckled with tiny, glittering lights unlike anything he'd ever seen before. He would have compared them to freckles if they weren't so perfectly spaced across their skin, not to mention the fact that they seemed to shine like stars in the night sky. The same markings ran in three vertical lines beneath their mouth, stretching from beneath their soft, pink lips and disappearing over the curve of their chin. Those lips were very obviously feminine, and the curves of their facial features lacked the definition prominent in most males.
When Jellal had asked them to take someone in, Natsu hadn't know what he'd been expecting, but it certainly hadn't be this. A hardened criminal maybe, or perhaps an endangered politician or galactic elite would've been plausible, but not this. If what he'd seen of the girl's features were anything to go by, she was far too young and delicate to be anything of the sort.
Why was Jellal traveling with a girl like that? And why had he felt the need to send her aboard their ship?
He turned to Jellal with hundreds of questions on his tongue, but the man was already gone, having disappeared amongst the crowd in the station without a trace.
AN
I kind of posted this on a whim, hoping that I'll get some feedback to inspire me. I normally don't post fics until I've got at least a few chapters written, and while I do have a plan, I only have about half of the next chapter written...I just need the inspiration and motivation to get it finished...
Anyways, yaaay sci-fi! Fantasy and sci-fi are my two greatest loves when it comes to fiction, and since there's plenty of fantasy to go around both in the original FT verse and in the FT fanfiction world, I thought I'd give writing a science fiction FT story a try! And also, the FT fandom is seriously lacking in the sci-fi department…so I thought I'd do my best to contribute.
This fic might be the longest I ever write, but I'm really not sure at this point. I only have very vague outlines for events that occur towards the end of the story, but right now, it looks like we'll have around eight or nine arcs that I'm considering the 'main' arcs, and there'll also be a few lesser arcs and bridge chapters. In fact, this was originally supposed to be one of those 'rewrite the entire plot of FT but in this universe' stories, which is why the structure is kind of similar, but then I just kinda trashed the idea cause it made me bored since there's already a handful of those and it somewhat restricted my freedom in a few aspects. There will definitely still be a lot of events that are obviously inspired by the events of FT since I loved some of the plot points I came up with too much to let them go, but the overall basis and flow of events is completely independent from any influence from the original storyline…or at least I would like to think they are.
With that being said, if you've read any of my fics before, you should know that I'm not afraid to kill off characters. I won't be killing characters left and right like I have in some of my other stories and it will be a long, long, long while before anyone major dies, but just know that it will happen down the line. No death in conflict is a very unrealistic thing, and we'll soon learn that the scope of the conflict in this universe is massive, so death is too be expected, just letting you know now.
And since I know a lot of you are thinking about this, there will be ships. I think it's obvious that there's already some Jerza action going on, and as per usual, I can't write a fic without my other fav ships, Nalu, Gruvia, and Gajevy (and possibly some others that I'm currently undecided on). I'm particularly excited about the Gajevy since I've been really cruel to them in my other fics, especially Scarlet Heart, but I gave Gajeel kind of a special role in this fic that I'm super psyched about We won't really get to the super cool stuff until much later though, unfortunately, but when it comes, I hope it's more than worth it.
But also, know that friendship will kind of take precedence over romance, at least at first, especially the friendship between Natsu, Lucy, Gray, and Erza, since I'm using them as the main characters of this fic (which I'm super psyched about because this is the first time I'm using Erza as a main character!). I feel its only fitting that such is the case since friendship is one of the main themes, if not, the main theme, of Fairy Tail.
With all of that said, I hope you enjoyed this first chapter! Any feedback is greatly appreciated because ya girl is strugglin'...And also, I spent, like, 20 hours over the course of three months on the cover, so if you could at least look at that too, it would also be much appreicated...
Anways, thanks for reading!