Their boat has just reached the strange island. They all looked around at the area. It was rugged and rocky, and the tower stood tall over everything else. Juvia walked over to a pool of water and put her hand in it. A look of concentration over took her features.

She opened her eyes suddenly and said, "This water is connected to that tower's basement. It's a long swim, so you can use these to breath." She stood and formed hollow water orbs. Each person placed one over their head and began swimming.

They surfaced in the tower's basement and began drying themselves of at the waters edge. 'Do you feel that, Kurama?'

'Yes. It reminds me of the Rinnegan's ability that absorbs chakra. This whole tower feels like it's sucking up all the energy from the surrounding area.'

'That explains the lack of vegetation on this island,' Naruto thought while ringing the water out of his jacket.

Their calm moment was interrupted when around 100 guards stormed into the basement. "Stop right there! Give up now and you won't get hurt!" the leader yelled.

'How'd they find us? They must hat some kind of silent alarm,' Naruto thought. Natsu was building up magic for a Fire Dragon's Roar when Naruto stopped him. "Don't waste time on these guys," he said. "You've gotta keep moving. You guys go with Natsu, I'll handle them."

Natsu nodded and they all followed him up a staircase away from the guards while Naruto turned his attention to the hoard.

The group sped up a staircase and into a maze of corridors. Natsu stopped running suddenly. "I can smell Erza, she's close!" They ran with Natsu and found thematically in a large room with pillars.

The armor clad mage turned and faced them with s suprised look. "What are you guys doing here?" It was their red headed comrade. "You have to leave now. This doesn't involve you." "There's no way we're leaving you here! And we have to find Happy!" Natsu retorted.

"They got Happy, too?" Erza bit her lip.

"Erza," Lucy began, "you can tell us what's going on. We're your friends."

"That doesn't matter right now. We'll find Happy and we'll leave."

"I'm not moving until you tell us something," Gray said. Natsu nodded.

Erza sighed and began her tale.


Tower Basement


Naruto stood facing the guards. 'Using the tailed beast cloak seems overkill,' he thought, remembering how he overpowered the bandits from his first job. 'Sage mode isn't a bad idea, but these guys don't seem willing to give me enough time to gather up the natural energy.

'Let me do it. The cloak won't work with how this tower saps up energy. It'll only exhaust you,' Kurama explained.

Naruto thought for a moment. 'Can I trust you to handle them without killing them? I'd rather not have their blood on my hands.'

'If that's what it takes for me to get some freedom, I'll happily oblige. Now switch with me.' Naruto nodded, and suddenly, Kurama was in control of his body. Naruto's features became more feral. His hair became spikier, his fingernails grew sharp, and his eyes went from a clear blue to an ominous red.

Nearly every guard gulped at the sight of Naruto's pronounced canines. "Don't waver!" yelled their commander. "We have to stop this intruder at all costs. Do it for Lord Jellal!" The men gripped their weapons in anticipation.


Council HQ


"We can not let Jellal use the R-System! There is only one way to guarantee that his plans don't succeed. We must... fire Etherion!"

"That's outrageous, Seigrain! That weapon is far too dangerous! It's more dangerous than your brother's tower!"

"We have nine council members here, but we only need the approval of 5. I am in favor of firing Etherion. We need four more," the young man said.

"I concur, "said Ultear with a raised hand. "The R-System must be stopped. There's no telling what Jellal could do with that power."

The room was dead silent. Each council member was tense. Firing Etherion was no small matter. In one blast, it could destroy an entire city. Such power was to only be used in the most dire situations.

"You would allow my brother to resurrect that mage? Etherion is our only option to prevent that. I beg you, please vote in favor of Etherion!" Seigrain pleaded with his fellow council members.

2 council members, with reluctant expressions, raised their hands. "Etherion might cause damage to Fiore's coast which could result in a loss of lives, but if the Dark Mage is resurrected, many more would die."

"I assure you that firing Etherion will stop Jellal and his scheme," Seigrain started. He looked around at the other members. "If we wait any longer, Jellal may succeed! Will you be a reason that he wasn't brought to life, or will you be known as the council of inaction?"

The others members looked at each other. Soon enough, they, except for one member, approved the use of Etherion. "Let us start preparations to fire it. We don't have time to waste!" yelled Seigrain. They all shuffled around hastily to summon Etherion.


The Tower


'You've gotta hurry up with these guys. I can feel our chakra slowly draining into of this tower,' said Naruto.

'Don't rush me when I'm having fun!' Kurama replied as his fist connected with a guards jaw. 'These guys won't entertain me much longer anyway. You'll have control soon enough,' he assured while mowing through the clump of guards.

Naruto couldn't deny that these guards were nothing more than fodder. He watched as the tailed beast in boy form thrashed each guard with ferocity. 'He's having way too much fun with this,' he thought to himself.

Kurama looked around the room and grinned. Every guard was slumped on the ground. His work was done.'That was fun, you have to let me out on a regular basis from now on.'

'I'm sure we'll work something out.' They switched places and Naruto was once again pilot of his body. He looked around and began following the staircase Natsu and the ready had taken.

He ran quickly and was eventually hearing people talking.

"That's how I know Jellal. We were enslaved together at this tower," Erza said, concluding her story.

Naruto followed the echo of that familiar voice and found his friends standing around Erza. "There you guys are!" he said running towards them. They turned and greeted him with grins.

"You finished off all those guys that fast? We weren't apart for more than 5 minutes!" Lucy stated in awe.

"I have my ways," Naruto said. "It sounded like you guys were reminiscing about the past, but there's more important matters at hand. I don't know if you guys have noticed yet, but this tower is absorbing our energy every second we're inside it. We've gotta stop whoever that Jellal guy is and escape."

"You're right! I've gotta hurry up and save Happy!" Natsu proclaimed as he sped off. So much for sticking together.

"Leave him be," stated a new voice. "I can lead you all to Jellal."

"Simon? Why are you trying to help us all of a sudden?" questioned Erza, suprised at his change of motive.

"I've known that Jellal was being manipulated all along. I saw through his less, but I'm too weak to do anything on my own. Please, if you would help me, we could actually stop him."

Erza nodded after she saw the desperate look in her old friends eyes. "Lead the way!" she encouraged. Naruto, Gray, Lucy, and Juvia followed. "We have to watch out. Jellal hired dark mages from Death's Head Caucus. I'm sure we'll run into them soon. Please don't hold back on them, because they won't show mercy. They only want blood." The rest of the group nodded and continued running.

Natsu came to a stop in front of a large cat shaped door. He entered the room and saw a myriad of cat stuffed animals and toys. The room's theme was entirely feline. He walked father into the room when he was ambushed. "What the-? Happy?!"

"Natsu! the exceed replied gleefully. "Hurry and get me out of here before that girl comes back!" the cat begged. Suddenly, they heard footsteps in the hallway. Happy assumed a sitting position on a cat shaped pillow while Natsu put on a cat helmet and hid.

'This is gonna be a disaster.' Natsu thought.


Meanwhile, Simon ran through the tower's winding corridors with Erza and company in tow.

"The top of the tower isn't far, but the way the halls twist and turn slows us down," Naruto remarked.

"The way this tower's arranged makes us easy to ambush at any given time," added Gray. Moments after his statement, a figure burst through a wall near them and attacked.

"Gray, from now on, don't talk," said Naruto. The dust cleared and revealed not one, but three figures.

"You won't move beyond this point," said the pink haired woman. He words acted as a signal for her comrades to act. The large owl headed man accelerated at Gray with ridiculous speed granted to him by his jet pack. He grabbed Gray and threw him at Naruto. The collision pushed Naruto and Gray through a wall and into a large open area in the tower.

"I will serve justice!" yelled the owl man. He flew into the large room after Naruto and Gray.

"Damn, that guy's strong," said Naruto. "He threw you hard enough to send us both through a wall." Naruto stood up and looked up at the hovering man above them.

"We have to find a way to take away his flying ability," advised Gray. "I might be able to freeze that jet pack I'd I can get closer enough." Naruto nodded and got in a battle ready stance.

Erza, Lucy, and Juvia stood starting back at the 2 mages before them when the woman spoke up. "Vivaldus, I'll handle Titania. Do something about the other two," she ordered.

"With pleasure!" the man yelled with a twisted smile on his face. The loud man began swinging his baiting in a circle. After a few rotations, his hair increased to an extreme length, wrapped around the two girls, and tightened. He carried them to another large area that seemed to be used for the tower's plumbing/drainage system.

"Let us go, creep!" Lucy demanded.

"Let you go? You asked for it!" He then tossed them in the air. Before they could hit the ground, he strummed his magic guitar and played a deafening and disorienting tune. The girls might have landed on their feet if it wasn't for his guitar magic.

The music stopped and the girls stood up. "Juvia will handle him," proclaimed the water mage. She transformed her body into water and sped towards the man, only to be blasted back by more deafening music. 'Why does the music hurt Juvia?' She asked herself silently.

The man grinned. "You can't stop my magic. Physical attacks may pass through your body, but sound waves disrupt water. And now that you're in your water form, this next part week be a lot easier."

"I won't let you win," said the red head. "My comrades and I will prevail and stop Jellal."

"I'm glad that you have such confidence, but my sword can cut through anything," explained Ikaruga. "I'll have fun cutting you and your confidence to pieces." The woman clashed with their swords. Ikaruga's attack was so quick that it seemed like she stayed still. The effects of her attack were visible though. Erza's armor fell off in pieces.

"How can you expect to compete with me if you move that slowly?" the pink haired woman asked, laughing. "This is truly pitiful. The great Titania of Fairy Tail is defeated in one swing of my sword."

"It's not over yet. I've still got plenty of fight in me," Erza said as she stood up. She requipped into some red pants with yellow flame patterns and bandages covering her bust. "As long as I'm wearing armor, I'm only hiding from my problems. Instead, I'll face you head on!" She dashed at Trinity Raven's leader, but was interrupted by someone yelling her name.

"Shô? What are you-?"

"I won't let anything happen to you!" The man then trapped her in one of his cards.

"Hm? What's this? You think you can just barge in and interrupt our battle?" asked Ikaruga.

"You won't hurt Erza anymore! I'll make sure you can never hurt her again!" Shô dashed at the sword wielding woman with his fist drawn back.

"Don't do it Shô! She'll-!" Her words didn't have time to reach him before the deed was done. Erza looked on helplessly from inside the card as Shô was impaled by Ikaruga's sword.

"Burn, little boy." As she spike these words, fire traveled from the sword hilt, all the way up the blade, and engulfed Shô.

"Don't worry, there won't be anything left of him in a short while," she said as she removed her sword from his still burning body. "Now, back to more important things," she said, looking at Erza. "I wonder what would happen if I cut this card in half. Would you die, too?" Her sword sliced the card, but instead of being injured, Erza was freed from the card.

Erza wasted no time attacking Ikaruga with reckless abandon. She put every bit of her energy into her attacks. Ikaruga's eyes widened as she realized that she was being overwhelmed by Erza's anger driven attacks.

Erza slashed at Ikaruga, who tried to block the attack. The pink haired woman would have never expected her sword to shatter. She barely ducked the next swing, but fell onto her back. 'Am I about to die?' she thought. She was frozen in fear, her heart racing, her body refusing to respond to her brain's commands.

No trace of mercy could be seen in Erza's eyes. She was moving automatically. Her wide, horizontal swing of her sword was on its way to Ikaruga's neck. At the last moment, Erza tilted her sword so that the flat side of the blade would hit Ikaruga. The impact left her unconscious.

Erza stood over the woman, panting hard. She fell to her knees and looked at her hands in disbelief. 'Was that me fighting just a second ago? I could've killed her. I almost lost myself.'

She sat still for a few more moments then stood. She clenched her fists in anger. If she wasn't so weak, Shô would still be alive. Erza took a deep breath to calm herself. She didn't have time to mourn. She ran out of the room and made her way toward the tower's top floor.


"Care to help me fight, Mr. 'I'll try to freeze his jets'?" Naruto asked, irritated.

"Speak for yourself, Naruto. You're the one who's supposed to slow him down!"

Naruto and Gray were having difficulties against the owl man. Naruto gazed at the mage hovering above them. "Gray, I have a plan," Naruto said.

"I'm all ears."

"Instead of slowing him down, why don't we make him speed up?"

Gray looked at Naruto. "You sound like Natsu when you say stupid things like that. Get serious!"

"I am serious," Naruto replied. "I'll handle the speeding up part, you'll see what I mean once I start." Naruto formed a large number of shadow clones around him. They all grabbed onto each others ankles to form a long line. The clones swung themselves at the flying man like a human whip, forcing the man to evade their attempts.

Gray watched closely, trying to grasp what Naruto meant for him to do. Then it clicked. 'I'll see! I've just gotta make sure I time this right!' He got in a ready stance as he prepared a large ice spell. He waited for the man to get close to an edge of the room when he activated his magic. "Ice Make: Geyser!" Ice jutted out from the closest wall and toward the owl mage. The ice encased the man completely and rendered him immobile.

"That's it!" Naruto yelled in triumph. "That flying bastard was really starting to annoy me!"

Gray grinned. "Enough with the celebrations. We've still got to get to the top of this tower."

"I'm sorry I wasn't any help in your fight, but I'll do my best to assist you all. I'll go find Erza for you," offered Simon.

Naruto nodded and they resumed their journey.


'I wish there was some water around! I could really use Aquarius' help.' Lucy had tried Taurus, but he was too easy to distract and was defeated easily. Juvia had fought, but she couldn't ruin on her own. Lucy thought hard for a few moments, but cane up with nothing.

"Lucy! Use Juvia! Use Juvia and her water!" yelled the water mage.

"I can't belive I never thought of that before!" Lucy used Juvia's water to summon her strongest spirit.

"Why the hell did you summon me, girl. I was on a date with my boyfriend," said Aquarius, spitefully.

"I don't have time for your attitude right now! I'm gonna combine your magic with Juvia's so wet can defeat that guy!" yelled Lucy.

Juvia readied herself and her water magic. Aquarius reluctantly complied with Lucy's demand. "You'd better remember who your talking to," the celestial spirit said while glaring at Lucy.

"Nevermind that! Do it!"

"Unison raid!" the women shouted in unison.

"As if I'd be defeated by you two," the man said. He stubbornly stood and let the attack hit him, thinking that he'd be able to handle it. Moments later, he was unconscious on the ground.

The two female mages could only stand there in disbelief. They had done it. They had beaten a dark mage. They both felt exhausted after the Unison Raid, so they nonverbally agreed to rest while they soaked up the victorious atmosphere.


Council HQ


"The preparations are done. Seigrain, since it's your brother's life at stake, you fire Etherion," said Ultear.

The man's hand hovered over the button as the suspense in the room built. Suddenly, he passed the button. "It is done. Etherion will fire."

Far above Earthland, a strange weapon charged up energy to fire at the Tower of Heaven.


Tower


All the mages in the tower were taken off guard when a bright light filled the sky. The light was so bright that one might confuse it with the sunrise. Then, the light made impact with the tower. The ground shook and dust flew. The Fairy Tail mages shielded their eyes from the light. When the tower stopped shaking, they were suprised to see that the tower had taken the a crystalline form.

'I have to hurry and tell Erza so she and her friends can escape,' thought Simon.

He caught up to Erza in a relatively short time. Beside, he had been living in the tower for nearly 8 years now. It would be a shame if he didn't know his way around. He sped her and called out to her.

"Simon! Where are the others? I'd everyone okay?" she asked with a desperate tone of voice.

"Don't worry, they're all okay, but if they don't leave soon they might not be."

"What do you mean? Does it have something to do with that light?"

"The past 8 years have gone towards making the tower able to absorb the blast from Etherion. It's basically a giant lacrima. The problem is that Etherion is highly unstable after it is fired. The tower can only hold wheels power for so long. After a certain point, the tower will violently explode."

Erza's eyes widened. 'An explosion of that magnitude would covet a great distance. If everyone's going to survive this, they need to start evacuating now.'

"I can use telepathic magic," Simon started, "tell them the situation and that they need to start evacuating immediately."

Erza nodded and touched Simon's hand which allowed her to speak to everyone else via his magic. She explained the tower's true purpose and Jellal's motives. She urged all of them to escape before it exploded.

Naruto looked around. He gazed at the crystal. He put his hand out and touched the crystal while meditating. 'The amount of energy in this tower is on tailed beast levels!' What ever just hit the tower was no joke, and what ever the tower was made of I'd dangerous enough to corral all that power in and make it it's own. "You heard the girl, Gray," he said to the ice mage. "We're leaving."

"I'm not one to argue. Let's go."

Lucy and Juvia, after hearing Erza's plea for them to leave the island, knew that it was time to go. "Juvia remembers the way to the boat," she said as she stood up. "We will go there and wait for Naruto, Natsu, Happy, and Gray-sama."

Lucy nodded as a water bubble encrypted her head. They jumped into the water and began swimming to the boats they came on.

Natsu heard what Erza had to say. He knew that two of his enemies were in the room, but this situation changes things.

He stood and took the helmet off. Before Wally and Milliana could attack him, he put his hands up and spoke. "Before you do that, talk to Simon about what's going to happen to this tower." The two mages looked at each other in confusion. Wally brought his hand up to the side of his head as a sign that he was speaking to Simon telepathically. After a short moment, his eyes widened.

Natsu grinned. "I guess you understand now. Jellal couldn't give two shits snout if you guys died when this tower blows up! How could you follow someone as heartless as him? You two were Erza's friends, and it would hurt her if you died. I'm telling you this to help you and her."

"How is it that you can show such kindness to us? We're your enemies, yet you are treating us like your friends," Milliana stated.

"It's because you're friends of a friend. There's a boat on the north side of the island that we came on. Happy, tell the others that these two are cool now." With that, he began running through the hallways in a rave for the top of the tower. 'Erza couldn't possibly believe that if leave without her right?' He thought to himself laughing.

Happy lead Wally and Milliana to the boat where they found everyone else waiting for them.

"Happy, where are Natsu and Erza? Didn't they come with you?" asked Lucy. Before the cat could answer, Gray spoke up.

"Damn that flame brained idiot. Of course he wouldn't come."

Naruto grinned. "He's lucky to have strong instincts. That's the only explanation for him staying in the tower. When Erza told us to leave the tower, we all assumed she included herself in the evacuation. Natsu was able to pick up on the true meaning behind her words," Naruto explained.

"Well," Lucy started, "what exactly was the true meaning?"

Naruto looked at everyone. "She'd do whatever she can to stop Jellal, even if the tower blew up with both of them on it. It means she's ready to die to stop Jellal."


They all sat in the boat, waiting for Erza, Natsu, and Simon to arrive, each of them gaging at the tower in silence. "From down here, the tower looks really pretty under the stars," Lucy said.

"Too bad it's purpose is so evil. I could get used to a calm atmosphere like this," Naruto added. Unfortunately, the calm atmosphere he had just mentioned was interrupted by an eruption of flames from the top of the R-system. They all watched the battle unfold between Natsu and Jellal.

'Flame Brain's really going at it up there,' thought Gray. He and the other mages watched as the tower seemed to shake and large chunks of its crystal surface we knocked off. Then, in a flash, the movement stopped. There was silence for a few minutes. The only thing that had changed was that the tower had begun pulsating light.

"I think we should probably start rowing away now," Naruto suggested. He didn't like how that tower was blinking at them. The blinking got faster and neither until it seemed like a continuous steam of blinding light. They could hardly look towards the tower. The wind picked up and made waves that were almost too big for the small boat to handle.

Suddenly, and loudly, a beam of energy shot out and upwards from the tower. All the mages watched in awe and fear that the building would soon explode, sending a huge wave toward them. A minute passed and the energy beam subsided, and the fierce wind and waves went away with it. To their suprise, the tower was gone, as if it's fibers and materials,which were fused with Etherion, had been whisked away in the beam of energy.

"I'll be right back," Naruto stated simply. He leaped over the edge of the boat and onto the water. Yes, onto, not into. The mages still in the boat watched with suprised expressions as Naruto ran on the water as if it was something he did often. Despite how the felt about it, they were too mentally exhausted to question it at that moment.

Naruto arrived at the island and found an unconscious Natsu and Erza. He made a clone and proceeded to carry them back to the boat where everyone else waited. As he laid them down in the boat, he said, "Alright, let's go."


AN: Thanks for reading! I hope you enjoyed!