Fairy Tail: Horde of Demons
Summary:After a monster removal mission went terribly wrong, Lucy feels depressed and begins to doubt her usefulness to the Guild. Later, Team Natsu goes on a job that involves removing an infestation of monsters from a small town, however, upon arriving they realise that these 'monsters' have only been heard in legends and myths. After a fierce fight, which utterly drains Team Natsu of their strength, Lucy is taken prisoner by these creatures, who plan on turning her into one of their own. Now Fairy Tail, along with some past allies and a mysterious metal man, are out to finish the job and to reclaim their stolen member.
Rated for reasons. Read at your own risk. Not suitable for children. All characters except OCs are property of Hiro Mashima. Enjoy.
Prologue: The Beginning of Terror and Doubt.
"RUN FOR YOUR LIVES!"
A town in disarray, houses, shops and other buildings up in flames, people running and screaming for their lives, children and babies crying, and vicious, high pitch snarls, growls and roars were right behind them.
This was the crisis the town of Zephyrus was currently in on this dark night.
While everybody in the town were smart/cowardly enough to run from the danger, there was one woman who was running in the other direction towards the chaos.
This woman wore a long brown slightly torn cloak which stopped at her feet, her chestnut brown hair was loose and ran down passed her neck but above her waist, she wore a pink sari dress underneath the cloak, and she had a pair of wooden sandals on her feet.
Her blue oasis eyes were darting from one burning building to another, scanning for something.
"JASMINE!" She cried hoping to hear a reply.
At first all she could hear were the screeches of the creatures and the roars of the burning buildings. She continued to scan the area in dread, until…
"MOMMY!" She turned her head to the source of the voice, which came from an old abandoned church, which was also on fire.
In an instant, she made a mad dash for the door and burst through the door. She figured the church was the last to be set alight as she took note that the inside was not yet dowsed in flames.
"JASMINE!" She yelled, hoping to find a response.
She then saw who she was looking, as a little girl, around the age of 8 came running from behind one of the wooden pillars.
The girl had the same hair colour as her mother, her ruby eyes were lined with tears of fear, and she wore a small bright red sari, which was torn in a few areas. The girl was also tightly hugging a small stuffed red dragon toy.
"MOMMY!" The girl quickly ran into her mother's arms and began to quietly sob. "I was so… scared. And… and everyone was… running and screaming… and…"
"It's ok Jasmine. It's ok. You're safe now." The girl's mother began to comfort her daughter in a sweet, reassuring way.
However, the sweet reunion of mother and daughter was interrupted by a shriek, followed by a blast in the top of the church.
Both mother and daughter stared up at the whole and the shadow that loomed over them.
The girl's mother placed her daughter on the ground and placed her hands on the girl's shoulders.
"Listen Jasmine, you have to run. Go find your father and the other villagers; you'll be safe with them." She sounded calm and caring; however she was serious and scared on the inside.
"But mommy-"
"Don't argue, just go!" The mother quickly grabbed a large stick of wood which had fallen from the ceiling, and raised it in a defensive stance.
Jasmine quickly stared at her mother for a few seconds before the creature jumped down from the whole in the ceiling and land a metre away from them. She then bolted to the door, but stopped just right in front of it to get one last look at her mother.
The mother sensed this, smiled and turned her head towards her daughter. "Remember Jasmine, I love you."
Jasmine could see the tears building in her mother's eyes. She felt her own tears building before slamming them shut and running out the door, tightening her grip on her dragon doll.
Jasmine kept running and running, trying to get away from the flames, the screeches and monsters that infested her home. She ran for what seemed like forever, until she reached the edge of the forest that neighboured the town, and she tripped. She fell on cold, hard ground, her dragon doll falling just in front of her.
She ignored the pain that spread through her body, and clutched her head in fear, wishing that all this was a dream. Or a nightmare.
"Jasmine!" Jasmine looked up to see a man wearing a blacksmith's work clothing which consisted of thick, heavy trousers and solid leather boots, covered over with a very thick leather apron. His eyes were ruby red, and he had dark short, scruffy hair, and a goatee.
"Father." Jasmine weakly said as she looked at the man looking down at her.
Jasmine's father picked his daughter off the ground and handed her dragon doll, which she quickly grabbed and held tightly to her. He then looked back at the village, expecting someone else to come out. When he saw no one he looked back at his daughter who was clinging to his white shirt underneath the apron.
"Jasmine, where's your mother?" At the mentioning of the word 'mother' she buried her face deeper into her father's shirt.
Jasmine's father knew why she reacted and sighed in sadness. He then looked back at the village one last time before heading into the forest with her daughter.
"Don't worry Jasmine. You're safe now." Her father quietly told her in a caring way.
Jasmine looked over her father's shoulder to see the bright orangey yellow flames dance in the distance before she unconsciously slowly closed her eyes remembering the last thing her mother said to her.
"Remember Jasmine, I love you."
7 years later.
"I can't believe it."
"Well believe it dragon breath. Thanks to you that entire job and the reward that came with it, are now history."
"It won't be if you hadn't used that ice hammer on the goblins that were crawling all over the library, Ice for Brains."
"Well you're the one who had to overdo it and burn the mayor's house down to a cinder, Flame Brain!"
"BOTH OF YOU STOP!"
The two fairy tail mages known as Natsu and Gray immediately stopped fighting when Erza yelled at them.
Wendy and Lucy were both depressed as they walked behind the cart of luggage that Erza had packed. Happy and Carla were walking next to their respective dragon slayers, Happy was looking depressed and tired like Lucy and Wendy, while Carla had her arms folded and a disappointed look on her face.
Team Natsu was down in the dumps today. They had recently come back from a job, which involved removing a pack of goblins from a small town, with a reward of 750,000 jewels. However, knowing the team, they accidently destroyed most of the village in the process and had to turn down the reward so the villagers could repair the damages.
Lucy was, by far, the most depressed. Not only was her financial stockings in trouble, thank heaven she had just enough to pay the rent, but she was more depressed on how easily the goblins captured her, and she didn't even have a chance to summon one of her spirits. It was only thanks to Natsu that she got out of that situation.
The team knew what was bugging her but they promised not to speak about it, knowing it will only make her situation worse.
Once the team reached Lucy's apartment, they bid her good night before leaving. Gray and Natsu were returning to the guild to settle on whose fault it was for failing the job, Wendy said that Mirajane needed help with a few chores, and Erza was going to explain to Master Makarov what had happened.
As soon as Lucy entered her apartment, she decided that she needed a bath to help wash all the stress away. So she ran her bath, got undressed and then slid into the warm relaxing water. She sighed in bliss as all her worries began to melt away… for a few moments.
She then remembered what had happened during the job, and then she looked back at all the other times she felt useless, like when Phantom Lord attacked and she lost her keys, and when she was restrained and held a gun point during the whole tower of Heaven incident, even during the whole Grimoire Heart attack.
'Now that I think about it almost every time something major has happened, I usually end up being the one in need of saving or protecting.' She slowly began to sink deeper into the water. 'What if one day Fairy Tail doesn't want me anyone and decide to throw me ou-'
She immediately shook her head at the thought. 'No! There's no way they would do that. There is no way they would throw me out or leave me!'
"Because they're Fairy Tail." She said the last part out loud to reassure herself.
Thinking that she had enough of the bath, she got out dried herself off, changed into her pyjamas, and crawled into bed. Even though she rejected the idea of Fairy Tail abandoning her, the thought continued to float around in her head.
The sun's rays beamed through the curtains and onto Lucy's face which slowly started to stir her from her sleep. She slowly opened her eyes and realized it was morning. She then sat up in her bed and did a big stretch. She felt calm, relaxed and good this morning.
"About time you woke up."
"We've been waiting for half an hour."
"Your snore is quite loud for a girl like you."
And now all those good feelings flew straight out the window.
She turned to see Natsu, Gray, Erza and Happy making themselves at home be sitting on chairs around her small table.
"WHAT THE HELL ARE ALL OF YOU DOING HER?!" She yelled in anger and annoyance at the uninvited intruders.
"I explained to master what happened about yesterday and he said we should try another monster removal job to make up for yesterday's blunder." Erza stated calmly wearing her signature armour.
Lucy sighed in annoyance. 'Of course. As if the first mission wasn't bad enough.'
"So, what job did you guys pick?" Lucy asked, believing she was going to regret it.
"This one." Happy flew towards Lucy with the job poster. Lucy then took the poster and began to read.
Monster Attacks and Infestation
Powerful Mages Required
Location: Zephyrus
Reward: 10,000,000 Jewels
Warning: Woman Mages must be able to handle themselves.
Lucy's eyes widened at the reward. "10,000,000 Jewels just to get rid of monsters?!" It had to be a hoax. This isn't even an A-Class.
"Yeah, shocked me too when I heard about it." Gray said. He knew something was wrong, why would a village pay a high amount for a normal mission just to get rid of a few monsters?
"Who cares? These guys are paying us big just to beat the crap out of a few monsters, what's the worst that can happen?" Natsu asked. Unlike the others he was more than eager to go.
"We could end up walking into a trap, idiot." Natsu chose to ignore the ice mage's insult.
"Never the less, this was the only monster removal mission left, so we have no choice. Get changed and ready Lucy, our train leaves in 15 minutes." Erza stated before she, Natsu, Gray and Happy left to give Lucy some privacy.
Lucy looked back at the job. She still had a bad feeling about it, but if Erza said go, she had no choice.
She then got changed, grabbed her keys and whip, and then went outside to meet the others.
Afterwards they headed for the train station. Erza said that Wendy and Carla were accompanying them, which relieved Lucy of some doubt and stress on the job.
'Besides,' She thought to herself, 'how bad can this job be.'
First chapter up. Enjoyed Chapter 330.
Can't wait for next chapter.
I get the feeling that Hiro's little 'Fan service' involving Lucy means something, probably around Lucy meeting Zeref.