There was something strange about the place when I brought her here. Of course Wendy did all she could to save Nina it wasn't like they enjoyed my company. Hajime was a monster, so was I. I nearly tore Lucy's throat open, they didn't want me around ever. I don't know how much I could handle hurting the ones I loved. She's clawing at my brain every day, I just want the voices to go away, but they won't.
Ivy Walker
Quelt had been in the fairy tail world before. Back then it was before she had her two recent children Berit and Quezar. It was her first time meeting the guild her brother Hajime had belonged to. After warming up a little to everyone, and finding Natsu's son by her mother, she had left. It was a bit awkward to think that her mother Ivy had a short relationship with Natsu now that he was with lucy, but that was hardly what was on her mind now.
The deity had gone through a divorce, her ex husband Ren took her son Quezar and she kept her daughter Berit. Returning to the fairy tail world from her own dimension was probably to get her mind off of things. Lucy had always been emotionally supportive for the wolf, though she wasn't sure how well it would go down with new instincts in tow. Something that was seen as dangerous, people tended to stay away from that. Quelt came to the guild today, to distract her thoughts and heal. Her country was fine with her daughter Sundial being the king, so it finally gave her some space to concentrate on herself rather than a dying relationship.
The daylight loomed down on her standing on the concrete in front of the building. The pink haired girl nervously pulled her hair behind her ear followed by a sigh. Just walk in, or knock, that was a huge question. The magic council couldn't touch her here anymore, not when she had political immunity being the Queen of another dimensional country. The idicol country had a unique republic system, the two elected leader may have the title of king and queen but they were simply names. After all, she and her daughter were the King and Queen until they had elections next.
Finally, she took up the courage to enter the building. Opening the door she entered, and everyone as usual in their habits was roughhousing. Natsu fighting with Gray, people drinking(which Quelt was legal to do now considering her age, but she couldn't hold her liquor), the guild master just sitting on his bar. The woman sighed a little until Lucy noticed her, giving a large smile and waving at Quelt.
¨Quelt what are you doing here? How long has it been for you?¨ the curious questions didn't strike her as odd as Quelt smiled. That was right, she had been through a lot since the last time she was here, that considering time worked differently Trinity was only a small boy when she had been here with him.
¨Quiet a while if I had to say so, a lot has happened specially between me and my family and everyone. Good news is, I'm now a political leader in a country. Bad news is I've been stressed out over a lot of stuff personal and impersonal so I actually came here to relax.¨ Quelt unfolded her arms as Lucy came in to hug her. Giving in as the deity gladly wrapped her arms around the shorter girls back before Natsu came over to tug her away, shoving himself in front of Quelt.
¨Ahhhh Quelt! What have we missed!¨ he exclaimed to her making Quelt blink at the excited dragon slayer. Pulling her hands back she smiled a bit. ¨Youŕe different from last time.¨ the boy brought a hand to his chin. Definitely I was, less shy, less snappy I was a lot more confident in myself if that counted for anything.
¨It's nice to see you Natsu, a lot has happened, I actually have gone through a divorce so Ive been trying to seem more outgoing I guess. Specially since I have to run a country too until I get put on the council when new leaders are elected.¨ Quelt rubbed the back of her neck as Natsu grinned at her. An odd thought came into her head, Natsu would have been her dad if Ivy got married, but then again her mom had more partners than a roundabout stud pony. It was highly unlikely. Quelt was sworn to abstinence for as long as she could now though, so she had to get her mind off of relationships.
¨You wanna go on a mission with me and Lucy then! Weĺl definitely get your mind off all that bad stuff going on!" He seemed more excited about Quelt having a better attitude then anything else. After the first time she met him he was overly protective of Lucy and her well being. It suddenly made Quelt cringe, the demon clawing at the edges of her brain. If her instincts got out of control here, she would never forgive herself. Natsu could kill her for all she cared, killing all those people she had trauma of sorts. It was hard to get into fights, even though she still did.
"Natsu don't crowd her like that, it's making her uncomfortable." Lucy argued with him pushing the pink haired slayer a little away from her. Quelt was thankful for that as she calmed herself giving a sigh but smiled at the two of them.
"It definitely sounds like a plan, that's all I've been doing lately, but its always better with friends." She looked over at the guild master for a moment, he almost didn't seem to notice her. She remembered the council had told her she needed to notify the guild of who she was, why she wasn't exactly sure. Though it was a high guess it was because of her mother and the problems they had in the past with her. Everything she heard about her mother, it brought her to hate her yet miss her at the same time. "One second." she waved at Natsu and Lucy walking over to Makarov. He stopped drinking and looked up at her.
"Ahh Quelt it's nice to see you, how's Hajime and the rest of your family I hope you're all doing well." The man always made her a bit nervous, maybe because older figures reminded her too much of her father. Especially Makarov, he acted very similar to the way her own father acted.
"Hajime's fine, my family is um alright going through some times but we all do. Hey I'm supposed to tell you that I'm here on political immunity because I'm the elected leader of a country called Idicol." Quelt sat near him before he stopped for a moment. Though he took into consideration she did mention elected leader.
"Good, well be careful wherever you're going, you are always welcome here and so is your son or any of your children." She smiled at the guild master, that was a relief. Though she was certain she had to keep Valliant from coming here. Or at least warn them about him, the one son she lost to the clutches of Quezar's father Lyre. Valliant was dangerous, one thing she would regret was not raising him correctly. She turned back to Natsu and Lucy standing up again trying to fix her uniform a bit so that the scar on her chest wasn't visible.
"What's this mission about?" Quelt asked as Natsu grabbed Lucy's hand then Quelt's. He seemed overly joyed and excited though he called Happy over before tugging them outside of the building.
"I'll explain on the way let's just go!" he exclaimed as they started walking on the stone streets down towards the train station. It would be interesting enough seeing as Natsu's motion sickness would kick in on a train, but the excitement of the mission pushed him on. Lucy hung back with Quelt as he let go mouthing off to Happy about something. Quelt's head turned towards the girl.
"How have you and Natsu been Lucy?" The deity smirked a bit. The obvious blush upon the blonde girls face made Quelt laugh a little bit. Just because her relationship went down the drain didn't mean she could laugh and be happy that another was doing just fine or sparking up. Lucy and Natsu were both young and they cared about each other, she wished they only knew the crap they would have to go through later on. "Fine, don't tell me. I don't need to know about all of your sexual frustration anyway." Quelt pushed her a little as she glared at her for even mentioning it.
Natsu had a son, so that was enough to know how he was. Though she was certain her mother had something to do with that. Lucy grabbed onto Quelt's shoulders tugging her closer to her. Making her ears and tail pop out nervously.
"We're fine you fluffy mutt, you shouldn't be talking about relationships right now anyway." Quelt whimpered a little as her black tail flicked back and forth. Slate blue ears turning towards the sound of the train as they reached the station. Quelt watched Natsu a little nervously at first as he walked up on one of the benches. He pulled out the mission flyer and flaunted it off to them.
"Some girl said she was kidnapped by a creep and is now being stalked by him or some sort of monster. So our job is to go catch whoever it is and save her." Quelt leaned off to the side, he just wanted to kick this guys ass whoever it was. "Aye!" Happy chipped in Quelt snorting a little as she walked into the train and they followed. Finding a cabin to sit in Quelt chose the seat closest to the window. Lucy sat with her and Natsu on the other side, it was going to be a few minutes before the train left so for a few moments the lot of them sat there in an awkward silence that Quelt felt like she was causing. She cleared her throat promptly.
"Come on guys you don't need to worry about me. Lots of things go on in my life really fast. It's been maybe four years since I've seen you guys, I have two more children and when me and Ren got divorced he and his new boyfriend took Quezar my youngest son while I kept Berit my daughter." Their silence told her they wanted to know what was going on in her life. After all when Ren showed up last time in a rage, they were instantly at arms. "I'm not bothered by the two of you, quiet frankly I like to see the two of you together." She smiled at them. Natsu frowned a little.
"Okay but you better not be lying!" he exclaimed in which Quelt gave him an odd look.
"Natsu, remember she can't lie even if she wanted to, she's the goddess of truth." Lucy said as the dragon slayer sat back a bit making Quelt giggle slightly. He seemed to puff out his cheeks before the train started moving. The boy went pale, clutching his stomach he set his head on the table and groaned. Looked like he would be out for the rest of the ride, me and Lucy would do all the talking until we reached the town that this girl lived in. "You say that you're okay but I just wanted to make sure that, that's what you are." Lucy seemed to be more concerned than she usually was. Quelt didn't blame her, with what she used to act like, all reserved and shy. Being more outgoing and far more talkative was a big change. Though she still had a lot of underlying problems she didn't generally share it with others.
"I'm not perfect, there are a lot of things I need to work out but its my own problems not yours." Quelt waved her hand at lucy with a smile. That seemed to satisfy her enough luckily as she dropped the subject a little.
"You said you had another son and daughter, how are they?" Lucy asked, more about Quelt's life. Not that she minded, four years was a lot to catch up on for humans. The girl had to stop and think about that though.
"Berit is….alright I guess, our house has been a little hectic but I can't tell you about the recent events that happened. And Quezar it's hard to be around him because of his birth circumstances I love the little boy to death but he's better off with Ren and his boyfriend Zac." Quelt smiled. "Berit seems to think she can do everything on her own, she's an owl." Lucy grinned at her.
"That's adorable." Lucy chirped as Quelt looked back over at Natsu. His head firmly placed onto the table, it made her feel a little guilty. Yet with the recent dragon hunters around she couldn't be mistaken for one here. They were nearly extinct thanks to those hunters and had taken on human forms but that was a secret only Quelt and a few others knew. Natsu would most likely be devastated if Quelt told him about that.
They reached the station, and Lucy tugged Natsu off the train and walked to a bench to set him there. The town was littered with snow with mountains in the distance. Buildings small and made out of brick and stone, but that was how most of the buildings were around Fiore anyway. Quelt stepped back a little, she had never really gotten to explore the place only the area around the guild. Her hair blew in the wind for a moment until she turned to Natsu.
"So is this girl currently kidnapped? You said she was stalked so that would imply she was no longer kidnapped." she questioned him as the recovering mage looked at her waving his hand. Happy flying around his head.
"Ayy, her father placed the request, he wants us to get her back I think." the flying cat explained. Well this seemed oddly familiar to her, being kidnapped, having people look for you. Saving people who had been kidnapped, now that she was a government figure she had to watch out for those kinds of things again. At least, no one was at risk in her family. She did have her own problems to work on after all. Natsu shot up, "Let's go!" running off towards the direction of the house. Quelt sighed a little leaning off to the side. Lucy grabbed her hand and started to make her walk along with her.
"Don't be dozing off with us, stay concentrated and don't let your mind wander to the negative things." she said. Quelt frowned, stay positive. Her brother was trying to take her daughter away from her, though that was supposed to be a secret. Hajime used to be a member of the guild when he was a teenager, when he ran away from home. Now after the incident with Chaika who promptly tried to hang herself in Quelt's living room right in front of Berit, Hajime wished for Berit to be sent into a foster home. When the two of them reached the house the door was already open with Natsu and Happy inside. Though the man who was standing in front of him, made the deity shiver slightly. Suddenly she was filled with anger, but held it in as they entered the house.
"Thank…-" he cut himself short when he saw Quelt, who grinned at him.
"Hello, Milo, how have you been." Quelt hissed through her teeth. The dark haired man seemed to recoil a little. Milo was Quelt's daughter, Sundial's, ex husband. The father of Itaki who seemed to be the one who was missing. After the deity Tomb, the god of gambling, was involved in a mass kidnapping Milo betrayed the family he abused not only sundial but did unspeakable things to Itaki. Quelt wasn't entirely pro Milo team, and she was certain she didn't want Sundial around him either. Though questions would be asked if Quelt tried to take her granddaughter back.
"You two know each other?" Lucy seemed confused, looking back and forth between us as Milo suddenly jumped to his defence.
"Look, I know we don't have the best of relationships. My other personality isn't the best of men but I've been controlling him as of late. I took Itaki and left Tomb, but now he's kidnapped her again so I didn't know what to do." he seemed frantic as Quelt raised an eyebrow.
"You sure this isn't just a set up trap, do you know how hard deities are to handle." Quelt snorted. Ignoring Lucy and Natsu's presence entirely now as Happy looked a little displeased.
"Ummm, can someone explain?" Lucy poked Quelt in the side making the woman's attention snap towards her. The blonde jumped a bit making Natsu frown before Quelt sighed rubbing the back of her head.
"Milo is my daughters ex husband. Itaki the girl who was kidnapped is my granddaughter and the deity who kidnapped her Tomb he's a dangerous murderer." Quelt explained trying to relax herself, she eyed over to Natsu. He was glaring at her and keeping a very close eye on her. That figured as much any slip ups and he usually went all crazy on her anyway. Quelt had always been careful around Lucy but she cursed her mother for making the relationship sketchy even when she hadn't even known Natsu in the first place.
"You still get the money, it's a job." Milo said as Natsu stood up.
"Of course we're gonna take it we'll find her in no time." the dragon slayer stepped in front of Quelt making her die down a little. She stared at the floor nervously, trying to keep herself calm. Not even noticing Natsu could tell she was upset, it was the entire reason he was standing between her and the guy. Lucy looked at Quelt smiling a little bit, making her look at her and hide her face.
"Where's the last you saw your daughter?" Lucy asked Milo as the cat dog hybrid smiled at them. He clapped his hands together for a moment.
"Downtown near the lake, she was with Tomb and he was taking her somewhere I'm not sure exactly where." Natsu smiled at Milo giving him a thumbs up.
"Leave it to us, come on what are we waiting for." he grabbed Quelt's wrist surprising her as he dragged her outside. Making her look at his face then back to Lucy who followed behind. Happy flying near her.
"Natsu's just bad at saying he likes you." Happy giggled making Quelt look back to Natsu for a moment. Her anxiety died down a little as they exited the house. The pink haired girl moved away so that Lucy could stand next to him. She had a feeling they weren't doing anything just because she was here. Quelt awkwardly let out a sigh, and started to walk towards the lake. It was a straight shot down this road towards the back of the town. Covered in snowy pine tree's and then there was an icy lining until it got to the shore of a lake. Setting it in her sights she made it her sole concentration. Lucy and Natsu looking at each other for a moment before following her.
Quelt was having second guesses of coming here, maybe she should have stayed home. Maybe she should have gone to visit her son. Then again she wasn't sure if she could face Ren at the moment. Her feelings still remained and now newly single it felt very awkward to be around just about anyone. Plus she was positive Chaika hated her, Chaika was her ex girlfriend she went to Quelt's house after Ren's divorce to see if she could get back together with her. Yet was rejected and felt left out, so partly her actions in Quelt's home were her fault. Right now she needed to concentrate on this world, protecting Lucy, Happy and Natsu took first priority. They were dealing with a dangerous criminal after all. She stopped at the edge of the lake turning towards the two wizards.
"I want the two of you to know he's very dangerous, deity or not he was a well known killer a while back." Quelt shivered at the memory, he half brother kidnapped her and made her a prize for these 'games' in his country. Beasts fought and two convicts were there to seek freedom, a girl, and a man by the name of Tomb. It was chilling to watch the insane man fight and wager, especially when it was Zac, Ren's fiance fighting at the time. Quelt was reliving too many memories she took a deep breath and relaxed. Concentrate.
"We've never run away from danger Quelt, Fairy Tail wizards always finish the job." Natsu flexed his arm making the pink haired girl look at him funny. "Now we should split up and look fo-"
"No" Quelt cut in. "No splitting up," she walked forward tugging onto his scarf a little bit. "Tomb will ambush you in a few seconds if we do that." the deity turned around breathing in she relaxed herself once more. Concentrating a white light appeared softly around her until she shifted into her australian shepherd form. The dog turned her head to them, they hadn't seen her like this before she had only shifted into her dragon form around Natsu. Wiggling her tail a little.
"A dog! Quelt that's amazing!" Lucy seemed excited petting Quelt on the head as she looked at the blonde a little unamused. Happy didn't seem very enthusiastic about it.
"Yes a dog, my father was a dog shifter. I have a wolf form too. Anyway, I can try and sniff them out even though with this snow it might be hard." Quelt turned around and stuck her nose in the ground. Searching for some sense of scent, it seemed Natsu was trying to do the same thing. Quelt stopped when she felt her paw hit something, it felt wooden. Her claws and pawpad scraping against it as she shuffled snow away behind her to reveal a small wooden trap door. Figured, everyone liked to make their bases underground even Antonio. He was a seal and yet, they all acted like they were moles of some sort.
"Let's go in and get her!" Before anything else Natsu burst through the door with his fist on fire. Quelt lowering her ears a little to the explosion as he fell into the hole. She didn't think that was a very smart idea watching as Lucy yelled and chased into the hole after him. The dog sighed, letting her tail drag a little bit. These two wouldn't last a minute in her world, but that was the entire reason they were here. They were meant to be here. The canine jumped down the hole, using her limbs to scrape down the walls until she jumped on Natsu back who was face down in the entrance of the tunnel. Walking across him before looking at Lucy.
"It seems like this place is really cramped." Quelt noted looking around the tight tunnel as Natsu stood up Quelt shifted to her human form as he lit a finger on fire to give them some light in the dark. The three of them started to walk down the tunnel until it opened up in a huge chamber with two splitting tunnels. Quelt stopped as Natsu sniffed the air.
"There's scents down both holes but I think the girl is down that one." he pointed to the one on the left. It was a hard decision but Quelt was determined not to let them break ranks. Too many time had she lost people that way or had seen it in reports at least. Quelt started down the left hole as the other two followed her. Stopping midway Quelt looked down to see a large hole, lucky enough she hadn't fallen into it.
"All of us need to be really careful in here," Lucy came over to her side looking at the hole, "it would be bad if we got separated like you said."
"Oh come on I can handle him I swear." Natsu laughed as Quelt looked back at him with her blue eyes. Jumping over the hole, she made sure that Lucy and Natsu didn't drop down the hole either.
"Once we get her we get out, there's no way we're fighting tomb." She made it clear to them, though Natsu just grinned before passing her into the chamber. Itaki was sitting near the wall chained around her wrist. When she saw Quelt her eyes went wide. The pink haired girl nodded her head to the black teenager.
"Itaki we're here to get you out." Quelt told her, starting to untie the chains that were attached to her wrists. The chamber was all dirt, the walls brown only illuminated by Natsu's flame. It seemed rather unsettling, this entire situation. Like something was severely missing and Quelt was not noticing it. Once the cuffs were off Itaki rubbed her wrists and jumped onto Quelt wrapping her arms around her.
Itaki was obviously crying because Quelt could hear and feel the tears on the back of her neck. The deity wrapped her arms around Itaki for a moment and gave a sigh. Just thank the heavens that the girl was okay, it wasn't like she didn't care for her granddaughter. She only remembered how bad Antonio did at handling her, it made her scoff. That damned seal was worse than Ren was when it came to talking to others.
Quelt picked Itaki up carefully as the girl folded her hands into the other woman's chest. Natsu nodding his head cracked his knuckles. "Alright let's get out of here!" he yelled as they started back towards the tunnel that they came out of. Seeing the daylight probably never felt so good as they emerged in the snow. Itaki clinging to Quelt as Natsu helped Lucy out of the hole, the deity looked around for a moment to make sure that Tomb wasn't around.
"Let's just hurry and get back to the house." Quelt said, the leader in her kicking in. She walked ahead of the other two. Reaching the house was easy, but it seemed like the door was kicked in. Stepping in carefully she saw the tall man standing over Milo the other deity turned and locked eyes with Quelt sending a shiver down her spine. Tomb grinned at the woman make her freeze up with his strange empty eyes.
"Pleasure to see you again Quelt." he leaned forward a little as Natsu jumped at him trying to punch tomb in the face but the deity simply stepped off to the side and grabbed his wrist. Pulling it behind Natsu he pinned the smaller man to the ground and used his foot to keep him down. Probably being able to hold ten times the weight Natsu could. Quelt settled Itaki down gently, glaring at Tomb trying to cover up her shaking. Lucy prepared her keys before Quelt stood in front of her.
"What the hell do you want Tomb, let them go, they don't belong to you anymore." Quelt snorted. Though she could care less about Milo honestly. She didn't want her daughter going through that kind of heartbreak specially since she had found a new boyfriend.
"Do you….want to make a bet?" Tomb pulled off the giant hat that was on his head, his long silver hair falling over a perfect face making Quelt's heart beat faster.
"What kind of bet?!" Lucy snapped before Quelt looked at her.
"No bets you little thief. I just want to take Itaki the reward Milo promised and get out of here." She clenched her fist hissing silently. She felt her instincts giggling inside of her head, that was all they ever did. It didn't have a name, and it was far more civil than Tle had been. Yet, Quelt was still bothered greatly by her new friends. Tomb watched her rather curiously.
"Did the demon get a new friend already? Your body couldn't handle the empty space right, why didn't you just switch bodies?" Tomb looked at Natsu struggling underneath him.
"Let go of me, so I can kick your ass." he spat fire at Tomb though the deity seemed to not be affected at all. Just staring blankly at the dragon slayer.
"You're scared too, scared of getting hurt and letting it out so I know you won't come near me." Tomb raised a hand closer to Natsu making Quelt jerk a little. She didn't care, he was wrong about that, if he as much as hurt Natsu she would flip out. Quelt jumped for Tomb aiming for his stomach it took the deity by surprise enough for it to land a hit. Slamming back into the wall and going straight through it as he released Natsu. Tomb sat in the rubil a bit dazed as Milo scrambled away.
Lucy helped Natsu up as Quelt growled at Tomb, her ears and tail popping out aggressively. Black tail lashing back and forth as Itaki stood up, "Come on grandma let's just go, leave them." she insisted.
"What about the jewels!" Lucy complained as Quelt looked around. There was a sack of money on the table, figured he would have it prepared, he was a stickler for punctuality. Snatching it up she threw it to Lucy and grabbed Itaki's hand.
"We're leaving, and your father isn't coming with us." she said sternly as she started walking towards the station Itaki struggling against her a little bit. Lucy and natsu following behind as they reached the train station. Tomb looked perplexed so he didn't follow them. Specially when he saw Quelt like that.
Lucy was rather worried about Quelts silence. Itaki looking between Natsu and happy before at lucy. "Im guessing you haven't seen her this mad before" The black haired girl with a red streak in it looked at Quelt buying tickets. She walked forward calmly and placed her hand on her grandmothers. "Im right here ma. You can rest a bit." Quelt snapped towards the girl.
"I came here to relax and forget about the fucking shit going on in my life right now, my brother hates me and took my daughter away. I don't need tomb chasing us around along with your good for nothing father, your mother just got over him" Quelt snapped. Natsu stepped forward as lucy put itaki back.
He looked angry at the girl. "Why are you getting so mad at her. It isn't like its her fault. Quelt you need to calm down." The dragon slayer mused.
"You're one to talk. you know that your father is dead. Dragons are going extinct! Because there are humans who are stupid, worthless, and just want things they don't understand. You don't care about me. Im pretty sure the whole country hates me. After all i'm the granddaughter of the infamous zeref. Daughter of the beast who nearly wiped half the fairy tail guild out. No one can even think about being comfortable around me!" The deity stepped back running her hands through her hair frustrated. Trying to catch her breath. Natsu blinked at her for a moment. At first he was hurt, seeing as he knew his father was dead. Though he stopped after he saw her walk away from him. Quelt couldn't lie so she wasn't lying.
Natsu didn't know what to say. He looked back at lucy as she shrugged getting on the train quietly. They rode in an awkward silence, itaki squirmed slightly looking at Quelt. It seemed like the woman would be taking her straight home. She sighed, the tension tension have been uncomfortable but, it was something she was used to.