Project Freelancer: Agents of Fiore
Disclaimer: I own nothing
Chapter Three: Reunion
The flight to base camp was quiet, everyone opting to stay quiet throughout the journey.
The ten minutes felt like hours, tension was high between the group of armoured beings and the group of mages. The only one not seeming to be bother by this was the blonde woman known as Agent Texas.
Her blonde hair was kept in a ponytail at the back centre of her skull, reaching down to her shoulder blades. Her under-armour was in tatters after her fight with Natsu, his flames having melted the metal that had once covered her.
"Four Seven Niner to Base Camp: we are on approach from the south, over."
"This is Base Camp, anything of note on board this time?" A new voice that the group of mages had never heard.
"Couple of locals who Texas believes will be useful." Four Seven Niner replied.
"Define useful." The new voice ordered, "We all know that Texas has two types of useful. One being that they are useful enough to fight with us and the other being that they'll make good meat shields. I feel like it's the latter."
"I'll have you know that it's the former dip-shit." Texas responded.
"E.T.A to landing is thirty seconds." Four Seven Niner stated.
"Good to have you back." The new voice responded, a clicking sound on the speakers signalling that they had ended the call on their side.
The transport began to descend to the ground, the pilot doing it smoothly. The slight thump as the wheels touched down on the ground and the sound of the engines powering down told everyone they had landed.
Everyone vacated the transport, Texas going first, followed by the mages, with Wash, York and Four Seven Niner being the last ones off.
To greet the group was another armoured person, the configuration of the armour being the same as the York and Wash's, but the colouring was different. This one had purple with lime green accents. In his arms, he held what looked like a sniper to the group of mages.
"What happened to you?" the man asked as the first thing he noticed was the lack of armour Texas had.
"I had to deal with a little prick and then had a run in with our loveable mute." Texas responded, saying the last part with sarcasm.
"Sounds like you had plenty of fun." North stated, "Who are the newbies?"
"Those would mages whose names have yet to acquire." Texas answered, "You lot, over here!"
The group of mages, as well as York, Wash and Four Seven Niner, headed over to the two.
"Right, I'm assuming you know the three behind you." Texas said, receiving nods from the group of mages, "The man who stands next to me is Agent North Dakota." Texas stated, pointing at the purple and green armoured man, "Now what are your names?"
"I am Erza Scarlet; a Re-quip mage." Erza said, stepping forward as she did.
"I am Happy; I am an exceed." Happy greeted, sitting up straight as he did.
"I am Carla; I am also an exceed." Carla stated, fluttering her wings to get their attention.
"I am Wendy Marvell; I am a Sky Dragon Slayer." Wendy said timidly, putting her hands behind her back and staring at the ground out of shyness.
"And I am Lucy Heartfilia, I am a Celestial Spirit mage." Lucy said, her usual bubbly attitude showing through.
Lucy's introduction had caught Texas by surprise as she suddenly found herself focused solely on the younger blond. Lucy noticed this and began to get nervous, sweat beginning to bead on her forehead.
"What is it Texas?" North asked, also noticing how she was staring intently at the girl.
"Remember before we came here, I was summoned by the head honcho of the lizards?" Texas asked, looking at the man who stood next to her.
"Yeah, what about it?" North asked.
"She told me to look for her daughter whilst I was down here, something about not seeing her since she "died"." Texas responded.
"Do you think she's the one then?" North asked.
"I'm certain, she's a spitting image of that lizard's human form and has the same second name." Texas responded.
"I'll get Four Seven Niner to fuel up and then I'll contact the gate keeper." North said, walking away from Tex and motioning for Four Seven Niner to follow him.
Texas then returned her focus to the whole of the group, looking them over as she did. Her and York's conversation had been spoken in hushed voices, meaning no one heard what they had been talking about.
"Right, I know your guys probably want to rest, but something has come up and we need to head out." Texas explained, "York, Wash, pack everything up onto the Pelican, make sure you secure the Warthog. The rest of you just relax until we're ready to leave, I'm gonna go change into a new set of under-armour."
The group of mages just stood there for a moment, unsure of what to do as the others went off to sort out whatever it was they needed to do.
A little over half an hour passed, the group had sat around a fire that was in the centre of the camp, waiting as the people who had brought them here were busy loading things onto the craft that had brought them here, a Pelican was what Texas called it.
Once they were done, Texas walked over to them, dressed in new under-armour.
"We're set, better get yourselves on board the Pelican so we can get a move on." Texas said, the group getting up and following her onto the Pelican.
Once on board, they all strapped in, the harness feeling very constrictive as always. The Pelican began to rise soon after everyone was strapped in, taking to the sky and flying away from the camp.
"This Four Seven Niner to Gate of the Dragon Realm, do you copy?" Four Seven Niner said over the comms to an unknown person.
"This is Gate Keeper; we're receiving your transponder and are preparing to open the portal." A deep, rumbling voice replied.
"Copy that." Four Seven Niner replied.
"Gate opening in three… two… one… gate opened." The deep voice replied.
In front of the Pelican a swirling golden and silver vortex appeared, large enough that the Pelican passed through it without even an inch of sticking out.
The Pelican shot through the portal reaching speeds that made the dropship rattle, unused to the high speeds it was reaching.
The vehicle exited the portal and went back to its original speed.
What greeted the occupants was a magnificent sight indeed, even to those who had seen it all before. Islands floated around in the sky, each one representing a certain element like fire, earth, water, chaos. To add to it, dragons could be seen flying around, all seeming to stick to the island that their element was at.
An island at the centre was the one island that caught everyone's attention. On it was a white and gold palace, giving it a heavenly feel. The palace itself was massive, the entrance to it being large enough that the largest of dragons could easily get through.
"This is Four Seven Niner to Dragon Realm's Palace control, do you copy?" She said over the comms.
"This is Dragon Realm's Palace control; the queen is expecting you in throne room. Please land at the front of the palace" A different deep voice replied, this one sounding more feminine.
"Roger that, heading to land at the front of the palace.
With that, the Pelican began to descend towards the ground the palace sat upon, doing so with the smoothness expected of a pilot of her calibre.
The rear hatch opened and the occupants began to exit it. The ones who had yet to visit this place looked up in awe at the palace, realising just how giant it was.
"Come along you lot, don't want keep the boss lady waiting." Wash stated, ushering them to move.
"Who is this "boss lady" you speak of?" Erza inquired.
"She's the head honcho of the dragons, but don't worry, she's not a bitch like most women I know." Wash answered.
"And what is that supposed to mean?" Texas asked in a threatening voice, causing Wash to freeze in place.
"Nothing! Nothing at all!" Wash quickly responded hoping she would accept it and not destroy his chance of ever having children.
"That's what I though, the only bitch here is our pilot." Texas stated.
"Hey! Watch it bitch, or the next time you need air-support, I won't show up!" Four Seven Niner snarled out.
"As feisty as the last time we met I see." A deep guttural voice said as they entered the palace, catching the group by surprise.
Before them stood dark red dragon, several stories tall. He was covered in thick scales that acted like armour would to a human, with two horns protruding from either side of his head. Just below his horns were what looked like fins, protruding near the lower part of his upper jaw. His eyes were onyx, and appeared to be examining each of them, as if judging them.
"Dragneel, come to greet us?" Texas stated, her voice emphasising how ironic it was for a dragon to greet mere humans.
"Not on your life human. I was simply sent by the queen to ensure what stated over the communication device was true." The red dragon answered.
"Wait Dragneel? As in Igneel Dragneel?!" Lucy stated, remembering the name of the dragon her ex-friend searched for.
"No, not Igneel, that's my older brother. I am Vatra Dragneel, second in command of the fire dragons." The red dragon responded, "Follow me humans, it would seem you have brought who the queen requested."
With that, the group followed Vatra, through a set of large doors that lead into another room.
This next room they were in was, to all extents, what one would expect of a throne room. The walls reached high, with an arched ceiling as a roof. The wall behind what appeared to be a very human sized throne, had a stained-glass window, which seemed to depict two dragons flying in a circle, following the others tail, one was gold with silver eyes, while the other was pitch black with red eyes. Leading up to the throne, was a red carpet, the edges being line with a strip of gold on either side of it. A white tiled floor laid beneath the carpet, the tiles being made from marble, giving the fitting in with the feeling of nobility that the rest of the room gave off. To finish it off, the supports to the rooms ceiling were humongous coulombs of marble, giving the group the feeling of being inside a temple.
Despite how marvellous the room was, what caught the attention of the group the most, were the two fighting dragons.
"What was that metal head!" the red dragon bellowed, him being almost an exact copy of Vatra, except for he was a head taller and scars marred his face.
"You heard me ash for brains!" A different dragon bellowed this time, butting his head against the other red dragon.
This new dragon was very different to Vatra and the other red dragon. His scales looked more like plates of metal, and were without the spines that that protruded from the red dragons. His head also lacked any protrusions, being much smoother and rounded instead. His hands were also very different, as for instead of just claws at the ends of his fingers, he also had serrated edges along each finger, making them look extremely menacing.
"Igneel and Metalicana are at it again I see." Vatra stated, shaking his head in shame of brother's action.
"Metalicana, Igneel, you aren't fighting are you." A stern voice said, coming from the side of the two that group could not see.
"No, no! We're best of friends!" Igneel and Metalicana stated, fear lacing their voices as they wrapped an arm around each other, sweating bullets at the same time.
The way the too acted reminded Lucy of her two ex-friends, who acted the same way when Erza caught them fighting.
The other dragon who had spoken was, again, different from the others they had seen. She was covered in a mixture of feathers and scales, the feathers being in places like her wings and from the base of her skull to the middle of her back. Her irises were onyx, whilst her sclera were a light blue. She wasn't as tall as Metalicana or Igneel, only reaching up to their chins.
The group heard a gasp and all looked towards the source, finding that it had come from the small bluenette. Wendy's eye had gone wide like saucepans, and tears could be seen beginning to form.
Before anyone could approach her, she began running towards the trio of dragons.
"GRANDEENEY!" The girl shouted at the top of her lungs, grabbing the dragons' attention.
When the white dragon saw Wendy running towards her, shock seemed to fill her eyes, quickly replaced with joy as she pushed the other two dragons away and began to bound to the young girl.
As she reached the girl, she was shrouded in a white, obscuring her and, because close enough, Wendy as well.
Once the white light dispersed, what now stood in the place of the dragon was a person who looked like an older version of Wendy. Her hair was the same blue as Wendy's, reaching down to her lower back. She was dressed in a white dress that fell just above her knees and had single shoulder strap, which bronze clip on it, reminding the soldiers of the what the ancient Greeks wore. Her skin was just as pale as Wendy's and her eyes had changed colour to the same brown as the younger bluenette's own eyes.
The group stood there and stared in awe at what they had just seen, even the ex-Freelancer as they had never seen a dragon display this technique.
"It's so good to see you again child!" Grandeeney exclaimed, as she hugged the girl before her.
"I've missed you Grandeeney!" Wendy cried in joy, finally being able to be with the person she saw as her mother.
"I see you have be reunited with your child." A deep rumbling voice said from behind the group, causing them to spin around in shock at having been sneaked up on.
When they did, they found three dragons behind them, neither of them having any resemble to the other two they showed up with.
One of the dragons was pure white, and had hair growing out the top of heads and beard at the end of its snout. It was around the same size as Metalicana and Igneel, but was just slightly smaller by a few inches. Spouting from either side of its head were a pair of horns, which reminded the group of antlers on a deer. The hair spread to his wings, going over the ridge at the top of them. The wings themselves had feather shaped scales, making it appear like fangs were growing from them.
Next to him stood a dragon with midnight black scales, and was around about the same size as him. Their eyes glowed an angry red, and a pair of horns sprouted from either side of their head, giving them the appearance of a demon. All down their back, from the base of their skull to the tip of their tale, shadowy mane flowed. Their wings, were like that of a demon's, black and leathery, finishing the beasts imposing appearance.
The third dragon had dirt brown scales, along with spines running down their back in the shape of rocks. This one was more the size of Grandeeney, however they seemed to give of a sense of juvenile joy just from the posture, which was in the form of them swaying and humming a joyful tune. Their wings seemed to be shaped like three leaves on each, adding to the earthy the group got from them.
"That you are right Weisslogia." Grandeeney responded.
"Tierra, would you please act a bit more professional in the throne room." The shadowy dragon ordered the earthy dragon.
"Sorry Skiadrum." Tierra, the earthy dragon, replied bashfully, her voice sounding childish and young compared to the other dragons.
"Leave the girl be, Skiadrum, she only just taken up the mantle of ruler of the Earth Dragon Kingdom, we can grant her some leeway for now." Weisslogia said to his shadowy companion, receiving a huff in response from Skiadrum.
"Now, now you two, no need to have a falling out over something so trivial as how one should act in certain places." A new voice spoke from where the throne sat, this one sounding motherly and oddly familiar to Lucy.
Another two dragons had arrived, standing near the throne and both looking feminine for dragons, at least what the group guessed female dragons looked like from seeing Grandeeney and Tierra.
One had cerulean blue scales, with spines protruding from their elbows and knees, their shape flowing like water down a river. They were around the same size as Skiadrum and Weisslogia. Their tail was shaped like a curved trident, with webs between each prong. The wings of this dragon were almost see-thru, but still looked extremely strong.
The other dragon looked almost godly with their golden scales and their glowing silver eyes. They were tall, larger than Igneel and Metalicana. Their wings were large and were the same gold and silver as their scales and eyes. All in all, this dragon appearance demanded respect, whether the dragon wanted it or not.
"Your highness." Igneel said, bowing his head towards the golden one, all the other dragons, except the blue one who had walked in with her, following suit.
"It seems almost all of us are here." The golden dragon said, the motherly voice originating from her.
"We are just waiting on your husband Achnologia, Blitz and Otrovan." Igneel stated.
"For being Blitz being the lightning dragon, the fastest moving dragon of us all, he never does arrive on time." Weisslogia said.
The door to the throne room opened, allowing three more dragons entrance to the room.
"Speak of the Devil and he shall appear." Metalicana stated.
The dragon on the left, had dark blue, gold and silver scales mixed altogether. They had a single jagged horn protruding from the end of their snout, as well as jagged spines running all the way down the centre of their back. Their wings were unlike any that the group had seen before, as the air around them seemed to vibrate, a distinct buzzing sound could be heard coming from them.
The dragon that stood to the right had purple scales, with spines that ran down the centre of their back that were tipped with a sickly green. A small line of knife shaped spines protruded from their head, these were not tipped like the others. Their wings were a lighter shape of purple from the scales, but they seemed to have a mist surrounding them,
The final dragon, the one in the middle, was very imposing. He had black scales with light blue swirls appearing all over them. On the sides of his head were fins, two large ones on either side, as well as three smaller ones as well. Instead of two large wings, he had ten thinner wings, but were just as long as the other dragons' wings, the longest probably being longer.
"I see we are the last to arrive." The middle dragon said, as he and the two next to him strode towards the other dragons.
"That would be correct boy." Metalicana growled, his patience wearing thin having been waiting for the meeting to start for quite some time.
"Now, now, I'll have no fighting in my throne room over something so trivial." The golden dragon said, her voice stern and demanding.
"I apologise my queen." Metalicana said, bowing his head to emphasise how sorry he was.
"I too am sorry my love, but the Apocalypse Dragons' Kingdom is unfortunately in a state of civil unrest." Achnologia said in a sorrowful tone, bowing his head like Metalicana.
"Then I guess the reason you bring this up in the presence of the rest of the council, is so that you can ask for assistance?" The golden dragon inquired.
"You would be correct." The giant black and blue dragon replied, "But that can wait till later. I know you didn't call this meeting to find out about the state of my kingdom."
The others dragons nodded their heads, looking towards the queen. They had no idea as to why the queen had sprung a last-minute meeting on them, but they knew it had something to do with the humans that were present.
"As you well know, we were visited by five humans in unique armour." The golden dragon began, "They appeared in our realm out of pure coincidence, having made a blind jump with the technology they had to escape their pursuers."
"We know this. Why are you telling us this again?" Metalicana asked.
"I you allowed me to finish, you'd find out." The golden dragon stated.
"My apologies your majesty." Metalicana said, bowing his head.
"Anyways, as I was saying, they arrived in our realm looking for refuge whilst they prepared to find a way to combat against their former comrades." The golden dragon continued, "We offered them refuge, and in exchange they offered to help us with any task that we saw fit to ask them to complete." The golden dragon stated, "The mission we gave them was to recon the human realm and determine if they were ready for our return. However, I tasked the one know as Agent Texas with a second task that only myself, Achnologia, The Gatekeeper and Agent Texas."
"What was this mission?" Igneel asked.
"Agent Texas was tasked with finding mine and Achnologia's daughter, who we had to leave as she was far too vulnerable the way she was." The golden dragon answered.
The other dragons seemed to share looks of shock.
"Am I to assume that she is part of the group that came with them?" Weisslogia asked.
"She is." The golden dragon stated, "Texas, bring forward my daughter."
Texas grabbed Lucy by her upper arm, shocking the girl. She dragged the younger blonde to below the steps up to the throne.
Lucy was looking around frantically, confused as to what was happening, whilst Texas just stood at parade rest next to her.
"What's happening?" Lucy asked, a slight twinge of fear in her voice.
"Lucy... I know you are probably confused, but allow me to explain." The golden dragon stated in a soothing voice, "Me and Achnologia are your parents."
"That can't be true, my mama died seven years ago, and my father went back to the merchant guild to build his wealth back up!" Lucy exclaimed, her voice full of confusion and hysteria.
"I guess you wouldn't believe us without evidence. Fine then, allow me to show you some evidence." The golden dragon stated, suddenly being enveloped in a golden light.
An immense magical force fell upon those in the throne room, forcing the humans down to their knees and the dragons were beginning to sweat from the stress. Only two were unaffected by the force, Achnologia and Lucy.
The light died down, and where once stood a towing dragon, now stood a human female.
Her hair was in a regal bun, with strands at the front being left loose, framing her face. She had fair, unblemished skin that shone in the light, giving off an angelic aura from just looking at her. Soft, chocolate brown eyes glanced around the room. A pure white toga hung from one shoulder, a golden broach securing it in place, fitting into the curves of her body. Her body shape was curvaceous and was one that other women would kill for and one that men would drool over.
She was basically an older version of Lucy.
The woman that stood before them forced tears to well up in Lucy's eyes and a sob of joy to get caught in the back of her throat.
"Mama? Is that really you?" Lucy asked tentatively, worried that she was dreaming and that she would wake up to find her mother gone again.
"Yes, my dear daughter." Her mother responded, tear beginning to cascade down her face as she too allowed the emotions she'd been holding back during the start of this meeting to flow free.
The two ran at each other, meeting half way and embracing in a hug the likes neither had experienced for years, one of a familial relationship.
"I thought you had died." Lucy sobbed, hugging the woman with all her might.
"I know, and I'm sorry I had to deceive you, but it was for your own good, to keep you protected." The woman said to her.
"Lucy, who is this?" Erza questioned her friend.
"This is the person I believed dead, my mother Layla."
A.N – Hope you enjoyed this instalment of the story. Please leave a review on how I could improve it and favourite and follow to keep up to date with each chapter I post.