"There's nothing you can't do so long as you have the spirit of the guild, got it?" the words were quiet, not carrying beyond the pair who fought in the middle of the open ring. The people of Edolas's capital flocked to the sight where the blue haired youth claiming to be their lost prince fought to save them from the Demon Lord Dragneel. Everyone was hushed, unable to make any noise that might drown out the thumps and thuds coming from the villain and hero.
At last, the fight was over, leaving the Demon Lord collapsed on the ground at their savior's feet. Could it really be possible? Could their magicless prince, for more were granting him the title with each passing moment, truly have defeated a demon of such power? The silence was profound as the onlookers gradually felt hope bubble within their chests. Who cared if they didn't have magic? They could do anything they believed in.
A cheer arose from the back of the crowd, and the rest quickly joined in, celebrating their rescue. On the ground in the center, the Great Demon Lord Dragneel looked up with a grin at Jellal, the newly returned Prince of Edolas. "I hope we meet again, Mystogan" he said, before he closed his eyes. Jellal honestly couldn't figure out if he was pretending to be knocked out, if he had genuinely fallen asleep, or if it was a combination of the two.
"Natsu" Jellal murmured, overcome with shock at what the young dragon slayer, with whom he had never had a particularly close relationship, had just done. From a corner of his mind, he heard the cheers of the crowd and was thankful for the tactic working so far, but the rest of his mind began the mad scramble of figuring out how to keep the ruse up. Just as he felt he had a solution, something occurred, shocking him to the point where he almost stumbled back a couple steps.
Natsu's body had began to glow, and, when he cast his gaze around, he saw that the same was holding true for Gajeel and Wendy. What was happening? Just as he felt he couldn't be astonished any further, he watched as they all began to be lifted into the air. Just as his mind began to set into a full-fledged panic, an ice cold wave of calm settled over his thought process. It had to be the Anima. All his Earthland friends carried magic inherently within their bodies, so the Anima, in it's efforts to remove Edolas of magic, must be sucking them up as well since it was incapable of removing the magic from their systems. Jellal felt the tenseness in his shoulders dissipate and a small, sad smile crossed his features as he realized that he would likely never see his guild again.
"What's going on?" Lucy screamed. Her body was glowing, for pity's sake, and not in healthy way she always wanted it to. She looked desperately over at Gray, wondering if he had any idea what was happening to them, but he looked as shocked as she did. Their worry was assuaged by Carla, who quickly pointed out that they were being sucked up into the Anima.
Letting loose a grin, Lucy looked over the landscape that was gradually shrinking with each passing moment. "I see! The Anima is sucking up all the magic in Edolas, so it's going to take us, too!" she exclaimed. Lost in her focus on the ground below them, she didn't notice Natsu creep up behind her.
"Lucy, Happy!" he shouted, startling her from her reverie. Smiling broadly, she turned to face him.
"Natsu! You're alright!" It was strange how relieved she felt at seeing his face. He was her best friend, to be true, and she cared for him, but it wasn't until she saw him again that she realized just how much she did. Making a mental note to explore the emotion she felt bubbling within her later, she began to "swim" towards Natsu, torn between smacking him for making her worry and giving him a hug to make sure he was really in one piece, but was halted by a familiar voice from below. Looking back down, she was surprised to see Edo-Lucy and Edo-Natsu with the rest of their guild.
"Magic is really disappearing from this world?" she asked, and Lucy was surprised to see an emotion that looked like fear on her face. "Everything is going to be gone!"
Lucy watched as the people below her began to panic, and she struggled to find something that would be able to resolve their fears, but found herself at a loss, until Gray spoke up from beside her.
"Don't look so disappointed! You're really saying you can't have a guild without magic? As long as you have your friends, that's your guild right there!" He reminded them, and his words seemed to work. Lucy was happy to see the relief and realization move across their features. They would be all right. They were Fairy Tail, after all!
Laughing, Lucy raised her hand and began to wave, though she was startled by a loud exclamation from Natsu. He was clutching his throat and seemed to be in pain!
"Natsu!" she shouted, her eyes widening in worry as she saw that both Wendy and Gajeel seemed to be in the same situation as him. Lucy began to move towards him once more, but was stopped as his gaze turned on her. It was small, barely there, but he allowed a small smirk to cross his face before giving her a wink and returning to his dramatics. Confused, Lucy huffed and rolled her eyes, figuring that he would explain what he was up to later, before turning and resuming her goodbye's.
She kept waving until the Anima swallowed them up, tears running down her cheeks. Sniffing a little, she turned and moved close enough to finally envelop Natsu in a hug, both to make sure he was really there as well as to comfort herself at the sudden loss of her new friends. Pulling back, the pair grinned and stared at each other for a touch longer than was strictly necessary, before simultaneously blushing and looking away. Backing away, Lucy grabbed ahold of Natsu's hand and turned her attention to the flashing tunnel before them, their road home, and she was made even happier to feel the small squeeze of comfort from Natsu's hand. Yes, she would definitely have to do some thinking once she got home.
All was moving smoothly as they traveled through the Anima until a sudden force buffeted into them. Surprised at the sudden attack, Lucy lost her grip on Natsu's hand as they both whirled, trying to find the source of what felt almost like the magical equivalent of a hurricane, but they couldn't see anything but the swirling, glowing strands of magic surrounding them.
Lucy turned to look back at Natsu, but was shocked to see him drifting further from her. She couldn't quite explain why, but a sudden sense of panic enveloped her. Lucy couldn't shake the feeling that, if she didn't grab a hold of him soon, she would never seem him again.
"Natsu!" she shouted, but her voice was drowned out by a sudden roaring that filled the pathway. She watched as he turned and looked at her, a similar sense of panic entering his gaze as he took stock of the distance that was growing between them. As one, they began to move towards each other, and were just barely close enough to grab each other's hands when another tsunami of magic overtook them. The light intensified and they lost track of their comrades. The only thing Lucy could feel was Natsu's arms, which were suddenly wrapped around her, as hers were around him, she realized. A small corner of her mind wondered when that had happened, though the majority of her mental facilities were focused on the smaller tunnel that had opened without warning on the side of the Anima, and the magic was sweeping them towards it!
Natsu felt her arms tighten around his waist, and lifting his head he saw what had given her cause for such fear. Desperately, he tried to fight the magical current that was sweeping them along, but despite his best efforts they were still being swept along. They moved through the mouth of the tunnel and watched in shock as it closed behind them, sealing them in sudden darkness and silence, with only the sounds of their breathing to inform them that they were still alive.
Lucy looked up at Natsu, or, at least, tried to. Swallowing heavily, she leaned her head forward to rest in the crook of his neck, no longer caring of the implications. She felt his arms tighten around her waist. "Natsu?" she whispered.
She felt him start a little at her name. No doubt he had been half expecting that they wouldn't be able to speak, as she had. There was a movement against the side of her head, which she took to be him looking down at her before he cleared his throat.
"I don't know what's going to happen" he admitted, his voice sounding sheepish. She pulled back to look up at him, frowning worriedly, before she realized that she could actually see him.
"Wha-" she began before she swiveled her head, looking to the side where a dim light could be seen growing closer very quickly. Swallowing heavily again, Lucy looked up at Natsu again and managed to summon a weak smile. "I won't let go if you won't" she murmured.
Natsu nodded his head in response before looking back to what seemed to be their destination. "We'll get out of this, don't worry, Luce" he murmured back before closing his eyes as the light overtook them. There was a sense of free fall, like when your stomach lurches just as the roller coaster falls down the hill. Natsu was vaguely aware of twisting so that he could try to cushion Lucy's fall, and then he wasn't aware of anything else.
Tsukino Usagi sat at the small table with her friends. The sun had just set and they were laughing and munching on sweets that Makato had been nice enough to bring. The girls were enjoying the peace that had ensued since the defeat of Prince Demand and Wiseman before they had to go back to school in a week.
"Ami-channnn!" Mina whined half-heartedly while everyone else laughed at the small genius who had just tried to get them to study..again. "We're still on break and we have another week to go before we need to study!" she pointed out.
Rini laughed and jumped on Ami's back. "Amiiiii can we please not studyyyy?" she asked, using that face which Usagi was well aware meant she would get whatever she wanted. As if on cue, Ami's shoulders sagged as she caved, causing all of the other girls to burst into laughter once more.
Their laughter was cut off by the sudden surge of power they felt coming from the north. "What the hell?" Rei muttered as they all jumped to their feet. Throwing the door open, they ran outside, heading for the source of the power, their little slumber party all but forgotten. As they neared Juuban Park, which seemed to be the epicenter, they were shocked to see a writhing mass of clouds above, before a flare of light descended from the center.
As the light descended into the middle of the copse of trees located in a more isolated region of the park, the girls were thrown to their knees by the sudden shaking of the ground.
"Is it an earthquake?" Mako asked
"No," said Ami, who already had her computer out, "It's a superficial tremor, not caused by plate tectonics. Likely whatever that light was had enough mass to cause impact tremors"
Usagi nodded, her previous levity forgotten. "Everyone, transform. We don't know what this is, but we're going to find out" she commanded, inwardly raging at the sudden interruption to what was supposed to be a peaceful, fun-filled vacation.
Multi-colored flares of light appeared in the dark forest, and they disappeared just as fast. Where the six young girls once stood were six Sailor Scouts, annoyed at the interruption of their night and ready to fight if needed. With a single, collective nod, they raced into the darkness of the trees, looking for that which had fallen.
The trees whipped by them, smacking into their skin and leaving welts and scratches, despite their attempts towards prevention. The stinging was ignored, though, in light of the gravity of the situation. The copse of trees seemed to go on and on, and the scouts were beginning to wonder if they had imagined the entire event when the trees suddenly opened into a clearing, and what they saw there shocked them to the point of muteness.
Lying in a small crater, not nearly as large as the force of the tremors would have indicated, was a young man and woman dressed in outlandish clothes. Their clothing was torn and burnt, revealing scratched, dirtied, and bruised skin. When the gray pallor of their faces was registered by Usagi, her eyes widened and she rushed down into the crater, ignoring the protests and startled exclamations of her scouts. "Mercury!" she called over her shoulder, "They need medical help!"
This seemed to startle the dark-haired girl out of her contemplations, as she quickly followed her leader. She was nervous, to be sure. These people had, for all appearances, just fallen out of the sky, after all. However, she wasn't one to deny medical assistance to those who needed it, despite the circumstances. She was soon followed by the rest of their little group who came forward to see what they could do to help.
Ami knelt beside the unconscious pair and shakingly reached her hand forward to take their pulses. She may want to be a doctor some day, but, despite all her studying, she couldn't help but feel as though she wasn't ready to deal with the responsibilities associated with the position, especially if they didn't turn out to be alive. Gulping, there was a moment where she couldn't seem to feel any sort of heartbeat, but then a wave of relief swept through her as she felt the slow, but strong pulsing of blood through both of their veins. Nodding, she sat back and looked at Sailor Moon.
"We need to get them somewhere where they'll be protected from the elements. For all appearances, it seems as though they aren't anything more than asleep, though I don't think we should take them to a hospital."
"Why not?" Minako asked from behind her, to which Rei rolled her eyes
"Well think about it," Mako responded, "what exactly are we supposed to tell the doctors when they ask where these two came from? And why we knew where to find them in the middle of an isolated wood? And why we were out here to begin with? They would ask too many questions that would lead to too many problems."
Nodding, Usagi looked up at all of them, "My house is closest and my parents are visiting my mother's friend in Nagoya with Shingo. They should be back in a few days which should give us enough time to figure out what to do."
The girl's nodded their agreement to the plan and broke into pairs to carry the strangers out of the park. As they exited the grove of trees, they came across Tuxedo Kamen who was running towards them, followed by Luna and Artemis. Upon seeing the unconscious pair, the three of them were brought up short and looked to Sailor Moon for answers.
Sighing, Usagi held up a hand, "We're taking them back to my house. I'll explain everything once we're out of the open" she said with a soft smile. With a nod, Tuxedo Kamen escorted them through the night, curiosity burning within his mind. Who were these two? And where did they come from?
Ello there, this is the first chapter of my new fanfiction! As you can tell, the premise is the question of what would happen if something went wrong in the transfer from Edolas to Earthland. For clarification, I write along the lines of the Sailor Moon Manga, if anyone was wondering at the sudden strength Usagi seemed to display. As anyone who has read the Manga knows, she is a much stronger character than what the anime portrayed her to be (a fact that rather irritated me, even if I like the anime). In any case, I hope you will enjoy what I have in store for you and I would highly encourage you all to take a minute of your time and just jot down your thoughts on the story so far in the review box below! If you enjoy this, might I also suggest my other work in progress, "For Better or Worse", which is another Fairy Tail Fanfic.
