"Oh look Natsu; this job has a good reward!" Happy, a blue, wizard cat cheered and handed his pink haired, fire breathing friend the request paper. Natsu smiled wide and read the paper over.
"Wow, 600,000 jewel just to travel somewhere and fight someone, good job for grabbing it first Happy!" The cat nodded and jumped up sprouting wings and flu about, "When do we leave?" Natsu grinned and took off out the door; Happy laughed and took off after him. But before he could make it all the way his tail was grabbed, he looked back startled to see Gray holding him.
"Hey cat, what job did Natsu get his hands on?" Happy smiled nervously and shrugged, "I have no idea." He murmured, Gray wasn't fooled. "Whatever, I'm coming with." He growled and released the cat chasing quickly after Natsu.
Somewhere in the depths of an ocean, a large air bubble held a force that has been growing in power since the day it was recovered from great loss. A demon by the name of Shikara had struck down on a magic guild that consisted of one type of magic user alone, the users of Spirit. A magic that select few could use but a powerful one that could overwhelm the user easily; once the demon had struck only one user was left, the daughter of the guild master, she had been saved by her father's magic. As the only remaining person capable of harnessing spirit she was quickly secured and contained by the magic council. They feared an uncontrollable outburst, so she was sent to the bottom of the ocean to perfect her magic and eventually be able to teach others how to use it as well.
But with such power comes others who want to use it as well, plenty of users from dark magic guilds have attempted to capture the young spirit user, so for her protection they sent a young star pupil who had already mastered the art of magic repel spells. This also made him helpful when she lost control during magic practice, his name was Alistair. After plenty of time spent with the girl he asked to be her first pupil and attempt to learn spirit as well, after more time he fell in love.
They grew up together, she was 17 before she began to feel a hatred for her bubble prison, she was sick of being contained and sick of Alistair keeping her from escaping; even if he loved her, this place was more so to protect her then try to hold her down.
"Come on now Grace, is this necessary?" Alistair called to the young brunette as she threw yet another deadly spell his way, he quickly diminished it with his magic repelling spells. But the fact that he could take her hits so easily just made her angrier.
"I want out Alistair, why must you keep me trapped in the forsaken prison?" She screamed, she mustered up the rest of her power and sent it out at him full force. Alistair stopped, he froze in place. He knew he could easily block the move, but he didn't want to; he felt horrible inside, she thought of him as a simple guard to her jail cell. "Fine, I'll give you what you want." He muttered as the blast of spirit magic was still heading toward him. He huffed, crossed is arms and fell back onto his butt; he sat and waited for it to hit him. The wave stopped about an inch from hitting him, he looked up at it with a small smile.
"Damn it Alistair! Why do you always have to best me?" She whimpered and fell to the ground; she had wasted all of her energy on fighting with him that she had forgotten how badly a spirit user could be hurt by going overboard. Alistair ran to her side and crashed to the ground before her; he picked her up in his arms and sighed when he realized she was okay. "I'm so sorry Grace, but the time will come when you see that this is a shield, not a prison." He murmured even though he knew she couldn't hear him past her unconsciousness.
"So is this a bad time…" Alistair turned to face the voice, before him stood a pink haired boy and a black haired boy. A little cat hovered around them, Alistair smiled.
"I'm quite sorry for the hostile display; normally we are a bit more welcoming and hospitable." Alistair motioned for them to follow. "We can speak more when I have her laid down, please do come this way." The two young men glanced at each other then followed. Once they reached a small cottage and entered Alistair excused himself for a moment to put her to bed then returned.
"My name is Natsu and I came to accept your request." Alistair smiled at the pink haired boy, and shook his hand. "Oh and this is one of my guild mates, Gray." He mumbled afterword; Gray glared at him but shook Alistair's hand as well. "I'm very thankful to the two of you for coming, I sent out the request for powerful wizards to come and try to take on that girl in the other room. I'm Alistair and the girl is Grace, she is the last spirit magic user alive that we know of and as of late she has become aggravated with being held in this bubble for almost her whole life. So to help her blow off steam I invited others to come and fight her, you two are the first." Natsu grinned and raised a hand.
"I'll go first, bet I could beat her!" Alistair smiled and nodded, but frowned in surprise when Natsu's hand lit up with flame. "Whoa, you can't use that type of magic here!" He called; Natsu looked at his hand and made the flame a little bigger. "What fire?" Alistair nodded, "You must understand, I mean you no offense, but we are in a compressed bubble of oxygen under the sea. Your flames would suck in the oxygen and omit carbon dioxide. If you used your flames down here you will eventually cause everyone in this bubble to suffocate to death." Natsu gasped and quickly put the flame out.
"Seems like it was useless for you to come her Natsu, didn't you read the request paper?" Gray growled, Natsu glared at him. "Of course I read it, what do you think I am, stupid?" "You said it not me." Gray replied with venom, Natsu bared his teeth and went to hit him but an odd white light formed around Gray; it softened the blow until it was but a mere poke.
"What the…" Gray huffed, looking at himself. Alistair smiled and looked behind him, "Come on out, I know your awake now." The same girl from earlier, Grace, peeked around the corner; she eyed the two males with a sort of curious glare.
"Grace, this is Natsu and Gray; they came to fight you." She came out completely allowing them to see her fully; they hadn't gotten a very good look from Alistair carrying her. But now, she was beautiful with a lovely filled out feminine figure. Gray could hardly believe he would have to fight her, but if Natsu couldn't he had to finish the job, but first.
"Hey what was that stuff around me?" He asked, Alistair smiled knowingly but allowed Grace to answer the question.
"Well, it's a little spell that makes it hard to fight. Only I can cast it, so don't get any funny ideas." Alistair rolled his eyes, but Gray nodded. "Of course, we wouldn't steal your magic like those black magic fools we heard about. They come here a lot don't they." Grace's eyes hit the floor fast and Alistair frowned. "Your right about that, they're here practically every day; every one of them with a new reason to catch her and kill me." Natsu frowned.
"That's awful, how do you keep them away?" Grace looked back up with a small smile. "Alistair does it, he has a special magic that can stop magic all together in a person or a group of people. He's a really good wizard even I can't beat him."
"Speaking of, when do you want to battle Grace?" Gray asked, she looked at him with a smile but Alistair covered her mouth. "Preferably tomorrow, she wasted most of her magic energy on her little fit this evening. If you'd like I can show you to the guest house." Grace shook her head and Alistair moved his hand. "Nah, they can stay here. I don't mind and this way we can talk before we battle it out." Alistair nodded and set out makeshift beds on the floors with all the extra pillows and blankets."
"So what magic do you use Gray?" Gray smiled and his hand began to steam, when Grace touched it was freezing. "Ice magic then?" Gray smiled. "Yea, my master was really good at it; she taught me maker magic." Grace smiled and produced a little pin; it was the unknown emblem of the lost spirit guild. Her father had given it to her before he allowed her to escape. "Do you think you can make this?" Gray grabbed it and held it in one hand; the other began to steam again. He then handed her two like objects, one made of ice.
"Wow, impressive. I assume with your magic you create weapons?" Gray nodded at Alistair's question, but Grace stole his attention back. "Look" She smiled, she held the iced piece in her hands and squeezed her eyes shut, soon the piece was floating in her hands and glowing. "There, now it will never melt, I gave it eternal life!" Gray gasped and held the piece; Grace motioned for Natsu to come over. "Only a small flame, but I bet you can't melt it!" Of course Natsu took the challenge and produced a small flame, but holding it to the ice caused it to do nothing.
"You can give eternal life?" Gray asked, his mind was racing on immortal beings but she just laughed. "Yes and no, sadly it only works on inanimate objects, but it makes them impossible to break or in this case melt." Gray nodded and Natsu huffed.
"Ice I can't melt, great." He grumbled, but Gray was still interested. He grabbed one of her hands, trying to get a better sence of her power. She flinched slightly and blushed at his touch, but she let her powers flow to that specific hand. "Holly crap, that's amazing. I've never felt power like yours before…"
"Thanks, but I'm not that strong. You should try Alistair's magic, come here Ali." Alistair grimaced as she used his nickname, he preferred Al, but there was no controlling her. "Yea, yea okay." He mumbled and came over, he crouched before Gray and handed him his hand. Gray touched it and the surge of power he felt made him fall back, Grace giggled like a school girl. "Whoa, that kinda hurt!" Gray muttered and Natsu broke out laughing as well.
"Told you, pretty cool right; Alistair has to be super powerful like that to keep me safe, it's his job." Gray and Natsu nodded and Alistair didn't seem to like what she said. "I keep you safe because I want to Grace, not because it's my job." Grace looked at him and hugged him with a grin. "I know you do silly and I'm just telling them formalities, like you do." Alistair smiled back at her and hugged her tightly.
"So mind showing me a little more of what your capable of, Grace?" Natsu spoke up, he had a big grin and Grace nodded with a smile. "What do you want to see?" Natsu fell backward so he was lying down. "All of it, I'm so curious about your element." Before Grace could start showing anything off, Alistair interrupted them.
"How about we get some rest, wouldn't want to see you guys sleep through your battle." Grace smiled and plopped into one of the makeshift beds, there were only two of them, Alistair sighed and shrugged it off. He went to get more blankets and pillows but when he came back he just dropped them, Grace was lying between the two of them telling them about how she lived down in the bubble. Her glimmering smile was the only thing that kept Alistair from ordering her to her room; she was finally in a good mood, something he hadn't seen in a few weeks.
"Night." He mumbled and turned to go to his room, but he looked back when his wrist was caught. Grace had climbed over Gray to reach him; her beautiful face held a bright happiness and her touch lifted his spirits.
"Good night Alistair, see you in the morning." He nodded and she let him go returning to her spot between the two boys. When morning came around Grace opened her eyes to the sound of a rumbling tummy; she turned over to see the fire boy sitting up and riving in pain.
"Are you okay?" She whimpered sitting up quickly, Natsu glanced at her and shook his head no.
"He's fine, just hungry." Gray, the ice user, muttered as he too woke up, he held his stomach as well. "Not gonna lie, I'm in the same boat he is. Don't mean to sound rude, but do you have any food?" Grace smiled and stood up, she ran out of the room and soon returned with two plates; on each of them was a little tablet, like a pill. She sat down in front of them and looked first to Gray; she smiled and set the plates down in front of him.
"What would you like to eat?" Gray looked at the pill with a bit of skepticism, but gave her his answer. "Maybe some pancakes and syrup." Grace smiled and bowed her head. "I can do that!" She squeezed her eyes shut and grunted with effort, the pill poofed and in its place was a stack of four pancakes smothered in syrup. Gray smiled brightly and picked the plate up looking it over.
"Me next, please!" Natsu whimpered and scooted closer; Grace nodded and asked him the same.
"Can I have what he has and a side of bacon with eggs too, and some sausage!" Grace giggled and took a deep breath, she looked a little concerned. "To work up that much food I might need a little help." Natsu nodded with a smile. "Sure what do you need?" Grace held her hand out and he complied giving his to her. There was a little zap between them and Natsu pulled away quickly, surprised by the force of the shock.
"Sorry if that hurt a little, but now I can do this." She closed her eyes and Natsu's pill poofed into a plate full of food; he grinned big and began to scarf it down as Gray ate more calmly.
"Okay, time to brawl!" Grace smiled and backed away from the boys, they looked up at her. Both of them yelped in surprise as she launched herself at them, she elbowed Natsu in the stomach and kneed Gray in the chest. She jumped away and put her hands out in front of her; she closed her eyes and huffed.
"Spirit Tie Tide Slash!" Natsu and Gray squeezed their eyes close and waited for the hit, but they were left unharmed. They opened their eyes to see Alistair standing in front of them facing Grace.
"Gracie, that's not how you do things! You have to give them a fair try at you, no surprise attacks like that." He scolded; she frowned and looked past him. "They look fine to me, they could have taken that." Grace pronounced, she grinned. "Now come on and get up boys, it's time to fight!" Natsu and Gray glanced at each other, the strength in this girl reminded them of Erza and that was someone that they didn't want to face off with.
"Okay, take it outside. I have to clean up so don't go killing them okay." Alistair mumbled, he was still tired and using magical energy right off the bat had hit him a little harder than he had expected. Grace smiled and grabbed their wrists tugging them along so they were out doors, Gray hadn't thought about it earlier but now that he saw the area he was curious. There was grass and even a tree down here, how did they manage that under the ocean?
"Okay, now are you ready?" Gray looked up quickly; she was already in a pouncing stance. "Umm, yes." He said, it sounded more like a question but she leaped at him anyway. She ducked under his arm and kicked his legs causing him to fall over, she then jumped onto him holding him down and using her knees to keep his arms away. She held her hands out in front of her again.
"Spirit Tie Tide Slash!" She yelled, but the attack never came. She looked at her hands and sighed. "Really Alistair, I was being good. He even said he was ready!" She crossed her arms still on top of him.
"I told you not to kill him; do you want the magic counsel to give you a life sentence somewhere even smaller than this bubble?" He growled helping her off her icy opponent; she sighed sadly and held a hand out for Gray. He took it and stood, but glared over at Natsu as the pink haired boy laughed.
"Oh wow laid out by a girl in less than a minute, come on you trying to shame FairyTail?" Grace perked up at the name and Alistair noticed instantly, Gray went to yell back at him but stopped when Alistair started talking in a hushed voice.
"No Grace, you know you have to stay here!" He growled at the female, but her eyes were still hopeful. She looked up at Alistair and smiled, he gasped and moved back. She had tears in her eyes and a glimmering smile on her face. "You guys are from FairyTail? I've always wanted to visit that place, I hear they have amazing adventures and they have amazingly handsome males and beautiful girls, it's my dream to join FairyTail."
Natsu smiled and Gray grinned, Natsu strolled over and put and arm over her shoulder. "Well as a FairyTail member I invite you to come with us and join our guild!" Alistair shoved him away, Natsu gasped and fell back but he rolled and landed it.
"She is not permitted to leave this place, by order of the magic council she must stay here until she has been assessed and deemed safe. Am I understood?" His glare was deathly and even Natsu flinched at the coldness in his voice, without a second of hesitation he shot a blast of magic draining energy at the dragon slyer. But a shield of ice came up to protect him; Grace smiled as her new friends protected each other from the rage of her captor. She turned and pushed Alistair he glanced at her with anger but ignored her otherwise sending like blasts at Gray now.
"Stop it Alistair, this isn't what I wanted! Stop trying to hurt them." She cried out, but he once again ignored her and shot another round. "Leave this place and never return or I will end your life!" He growled at the two FairyTail wizards.
"No, if it's her dream to join FairyTail then I already consider her part of the family that means she's coming with us!" Natsu pushed yesterday's warning out of his head and leaped into the air.
"Fire Dragon Iron Fist!" He ran at Alistair but was stopped as Grace jumped in front of him. "No, don't come near; he'll suck you dry of all your magic energy!" She cried out, she didn't want Natsu or Gray to get hurt for her sake. She turned and faced Alistair again.
"Okay, I get it I have to stay. Just stop this and let them leave in peace!" She screamed, but Alistair seemed to not hear her. He was overcome with rage; these two boys come one day and earned Grace's love and kindness within the night. It had taken him a year just to get her to talk to him, let alone live in the same building or share meals together. He shot off another round but this one hit its mark on Gray's chest, he fell to the ground breathing hard. Magic energy is basically the life of a wizard, if it's drained from them they could die.
"No Alistair!" She yelped and ran to Gray's side; she crashed to her knees and put her hands on his bare chest. At some point he had shed his clothes. "Spirit Tie Helpful Hand." She whimpered the spell refueled his magic energy but the hit from the blast was still physically damaging. "I hate you," She murmured, she turned and glared at him. "I HATE you!" She snarled causing him to freeze up.
"N-no." He whimpered, he knew he had taken it too far, but all he wanted was for Grace to know he was her protector. He didn't want to hurt her, his world crumbled and he felt the slight burn as tears began to well up in his eyes. "I- I just wanted you…" He couldn't finish his sentence as Natsu shoved him to the ground with a fiery punch, Alistair coughed and fell. Blood dripped from his mouth; he was a wizard but his body wasn't fit for being attacked, especially by such a powerful attack. His magic may have been good for defense but without it he was weak to magical attacks.
"Whoa, I didn't mean to hit him so hard!" Natsu yelped, Gray sat up and looked over to his friend. "Geez dude, you couldn't have held back?" But his attention was drawn back to Grace; she was on her knees next to him. He could feel her silent sobs through the small contact of her knee touching his side; he put a hand on one of hers.
"Hey it's gonna be okay. We can take him to our guild; we have a really good infirmary where they'll take care of him." She looked up at him with her teary yellow eyes, they glistened with wetness and shown a brilliant gold. She nodded, but she had once again used too much power and couldn't keep herself upright. She fell over and Gray caught her easily.
"Come on Natsu we have to get these two back to FairyTail." Gray called to his pink haired friend; he nodded and picked Alistair up.