Ch 4: The Twin Dragons of Sabertooth
DISCLAIMER: I DO NOT OWN THE AMAZING FAIRY TAIL MANGA SERIES, AS MUCH AS I WISH I DID.
AN: The reviews are steadily trickling in, and I have to say a big thank you for all of the support so far! We're getting into some longer chapters now, and only a few more until daily updates will turn into weekly updates!
Recap:
And with that, Lucy and Hikari swept out of the guild. Just as the guild doors were closing, I heard her whisper, "Sayonara, Fairy Tail."
Hikari's POV
I sighed, looking at my imouto, who had tears streaking stubbornly down her face, no matter how hard she tried to repress them. I knew that leaving Fairy Tail was up there with Mother's death in terms of sadness, and I vowed that Min-chan and I would make sure she never felt like this again.
"S-So, nee-chan, where are we going?" Lucy sniffled.
"Well, we are going to look for Min-chan's new guild! I cheered, trying to get Lucy to be happy again.
"Min-chan? She's here?! I never knew! Let's get there fast so we can unlock me and show Fairy Tail how strong I really am!"
Lucy was happy again, skipping around me like a little kid.
I chuckled, "Well then come on! We can't miss the train,"
"The train? I thought you only used that as an excuse to leave! Are we really taking one? Don't you have that weird teleportationy thing?" Lucy asked.
I smiled, shaking my head fondly. "Well, yes, I do have that 'weird teleportationy thing,' it's called Apparation. We're not apparating because I'm not sure which guild Min-chan is in, and we're bound to meet mages on the train! They could show us to her!
"Souka! Ne, ikezou!"
"Alright then, let's race!" I shouted. Immediately, we took off for the train station. I held back my speed, knowing I could beat Lucy easily, but only because I had an advantage. Instead, I ran like I would've without my magical advantage.
"I win!"
"I win!"
We stared at each other.
"No, that's ok, you won-"
"No, that's ok, you won-"
Stare…
And we both collapsed in laughter. "Come on-before the train decides to leave us unfortunates out here!"
Lucy laughed at that and took my hand.
We walked into the train car, only to be greeted by the sight of two people obviously in pain. I was about to go help when the blond one raised his head.
His cheeks were puffed out like a chipmunk and his face was green. I immediately choked on my laughter, while Lucy just shook her head, snickering.
"H-Hey! Are you going-to help us or-what?" The blond guy yelled.
"Go and take a chill pill, we're coming," I said, still laughing.
I pulled the dark haired one up, as Lucy had supported the blond one. I dug in my pocket for the Troia pills I always kept, opting to keep my magic a secret. I gave each of them a pill, guessing that they were Dragon Slayers. Their faces immediately settled, and the blond one grinned at me while the brunet one simply nodded.
"Alright, what are your names?" I demanded.
"Woah, someone woke up on the wrong side of the bed today. The name's Sting. Sting Eucliffe." I murmured "James. James Bond." Under my breath, and the Dragon Slayers caught it and gave me a look of confusion, to which I responded with a cheeky smile. I hoped he wouldn't turn out like a certain bouncing ferret-now that would be horrifying. "That's my partner, Rogue Cheney. We're both Dragon Slayers!" Sting finished cockily.
"Sorry about Onee-chan. She's not in the best mood right now. My name's Lucy! She's Hikari, my nee-chan. Have you heard of someone named Minerva Orlando? We're trying to find her."
There was a beat of silence, and then-
"W-WHAT?! DO YOU HAVE A DEATH WISH?!" Sting screeched.
"Baka!" Rogue muttered, elbowing Sting's side as I clamped my hands over my ears, rocking back and forth to get rid of the ringing.
"Ouch! Sorry, didn't know you had sensitive hearing. Yeah, we know a Minerva, why?" Sting looked at us, questions obvious in his eyes.
We ignored the question. "Really?! You know Min-ch-I mean Minerva?! What guild is she in?" Lucy asked, leaning in excitedly.
"Only the best and strongest guild of course!" Sting smirked. "Sabertooth. That's our guild too. We're the Twin Dragons of Sabertooth. Of course you wouldn't have kept up with the times, Fairy."
I glared at him, ready to punch him into kingdom come. Sting noticed this, and backed up really fast, earning weird looks from passengers.
"H-Hey, I-I meant that in the best way possible, o-of course!" He said, hoping to calm me down.
Hearing the work 'Fairy' made me boil with anger, recalling how badly Lucy's guild mates had treated her.
"N-Ne, Onee-chan, I'll tell them, so don't kill them," Lucy said, worried.
I sat down, disgruntled, and said "You guys should count your lucky stars that Luce was here, or else both of you would've been knocked out. Just for further reference, I HATE Fairy Tail and its Fairies, so don't mention them unless saying how you want to beat the crap out of them."
Sting eyed me with respect, saying "Hey Lucy! Is this really your sister? She doesn't seem anything like you! She's more badass and evil."
I heard a small sniffle, and whipped my head around to look at Lucy, who was struggling not to cry. "Hey, Luce? What's wrong?"
Lucy cried harder. "Luce…t-that's what N-Natsu called me before," Lucy cried.
I froze.
I had no idea.
"T-That's ok, d-don't worry,"
"Hey, what happened in Fairy Tail, Lucy?" I looked at Rogue, who had just spoken.
I opened my mouth to protest, but Lucy cut me off. "Well," she said, and stopped crying. "Lisanna Strauss came back from 'the dead' and they ignored me for three whole months because of it; the only people talking to me were Levy, Wendy, Gajeel, Romeo, Master, Charla, and Happy. I was just sitting at the bar when Team Natsu plus Lisanna came up behind me and basically called me weak, pathetic, whiny, and kicked me off the team."
"WHAT?!" Sting roared, forgetting about my sensitive hearing for a moment. I didn't care, though. I barely registered Sting's roars and shouts. It felt like I was submerged underwater, all the sounds muffled and fuzzy and I vaguely noted I was shaking. I was only there for the last part of that white haired mage's-What was her name again? Something like Lisa-speech, and had no idea what had transpired before. I had apparated to the door, and the crack had drowned out any previous words I might've picked up. During Lucy's rant, she had said that her team had practically called her weak, but I was only half-listening, choosing to tune everyone else out and study the people in the guild. That was probably for the best, because even those last words made my blood boil and see red.
I noticed Sting stalking up and down in our compartment, ranting. I only caught snippets of his rant, though.
"Oh, when I see Fairy Tail again-"
"I'll take Natsu's head and-"
"Those idiot fairies-"
"Thought they were all about NAKAMA - "
I looked at Sting, shoving my anger into the back of my head, calming myself down as I vowed to be there when he went through with those threats. He didn't seem like the type to get so angry on a neat stranger's behalf, and he seemed to notice the same thing as he stopped pacing for a second, his face flushing a pale pink before going back to wearing a hole in the floor and ranting.
I mentally smirked; this would be fun. Sting obviously had a soft spot for my imouto, and I would be watching if he decided to act on that soft spot and turn it into a crush. I also vowed that if he hurt my precious imouto in any way I would be there to beat the crap out of him. Well, after Lucy was done with him, because she definitely would be the first to unleash her rage on him, and she definitely could hold her own. I decided that was enough of prying into Sting and Lucy's possible love life and decided to look at Rogue.
Rogue, on the other hand, had gone completely still, his face chalk white.
He looked murderous, but composed himself enough that he could say, "Sting, stop ranting before you make one of us deaf. Also, the Grand Magic Games are coming up, so we'll get revenge by beating them."
Sting looked at Rogue in awe before grabbing his shoulders, shaking him and yelling, "WHO ARE YOU AND WHAT HAVE YOU DONE WITH ROGUE CHENEY?! HE NEVER TALKS THIS MUCH!"
"Sting, EARS!" I screeched.
"Sorry,"
"And to answer your question from earlier, Sting, it's still me, but I just decide not to talk around you because you give me a headache."
Sting pouted at this, depressed.
Lucy gave him a smile and said, "Don't be like that! How about this, we'll join Sabertooth and kick Fairy Tail's butts!"
"ALRIGHT!" Both Sting and Rogue cheered, enlightened.
I noticed Sting steal a look at Lucy, and I smirked. Their love life would be so much fun to mess with.
Suddenly, the intercom came on. "Now entering Montrain City."
Sting jumped up, excited.
"Yosh! Let's go!"
Natsu's POV
As soon as the guild doors closed, I fell to the ground. Conversations burst out between guild members, but I saw everything through a screen, not paying attention to anyone or anything, not even Lisanna, who was currently pulling on my arm, pouting and whining in my ear.
My world shattered when I thought of what Levy, Wendy, Gajeel, Romeo, Gramps, Charla, Happy, and Lily would say. More likely do, as I thought up different scenarios of torture that they would prepare for me. It just made it all the worse that today was Luce's birthday and that they would probably be back, happy, and laden with presents to give.
I only stood when Erza pulled me up, her face streaked with tears.
"YOU-YOU SAID TH-THAT LUCY WAS F-FINE WITH IT AND THAT-THAT SHE WAS OKAY!" Erza thundered as best as she could, but the effect was lost with her shaky voice. I didn't even wince when my dragon hearing magnified and multiplied her voice, almost shattering my eardrums.
I deserved it. I deserved it for hurting nakama.
"ANSWER ME NATSU! WHY DID YOU SAY SHE WAS FINE WITH IT?!" Erza's voice had taken on a keening note of desperation, like she had awoken from her worst nightmare just to find out that it was true.
"I-I-Lisanna told me that she had talked to Lucy about leaving the team and that she was fine with it," I whispered, my voice dead with grief.
But before Erza could turn on Lisanna, Gray had gotten there first, his tears forming soft snowflakes on his face.
And we all froze.
There was a thud as Lisanna fell to the ground. Black smoke poured out of her mouth, and floated away.
Lisanna shook her head, as if she had a headache. "What-What happened? I could've sworn I was in my room, and that I was-JULY 1st?! What-WHAT?! Have I learned how to time travel?! It was April 1st just a second ago-"
"Wait wait wait-you really don't remember ANYTHING that happened in the past THREE MONTHS?!" Gray looked at Lisanna, untrusting and incredulous.
"Nooo… Should I?"
I just stared at her. She didn't remember anything-which meant that she couldn't possibly have been responsible-but then what happened-
Lisanna's voice startled me out of my inner turmoil. "Anyways… Could someone tell me what in the name of Mavis happened in these past three months so that I can see if I remember anything at all? Oh, and to catch up on stuff…"
"You came up to me and you said to kick Lucy off Team Natsu," I began.
Her eye widened as I spoke.
"You said that you talked to Lucy about it and that she was perfectly fine with being off the team. You also came to everyone and told stories of Edolas, and we forgot about Lucy…"
"And today we kicked Lucy off the team while saying some really hurtful comments, which we didn't mean," Gray spoke up.
"It was odd, the words just tumbled out of our mouths and we couldn't control them-and because I wasn't strong enough to fight it I have hurt a nakama! Please punch me!" Erza finished.
"Oh…" Lisanna started crying. "Y-You guys a-always made he-her seem-seem so nice, and-and now I just h-had to go and s-say those things!" Now Lisanna was outright sobbing.
Just then, Gramps appeared in front of us, looking disappointed.
I looked away. I couldn't take that look right now. It was almost exactly like the look that Lucy gave us when we destroyed something during a mission, and my heart clenched.
"I'm terribly disappointed in you, children. You should've noticed," Gramps said softly, which made it all the worse.
I wish that he would just yell at us.
I take it back. I was afraid of what they'd say, not do. Physical pain was easy to recover from, and even though I deserved all of it, emotional pain hurt more and left a scar on your heart that would never heal.
He finally looked at Lisanna, after pinning each Fairy Tail member down with that 'I-know-you-could-do-better' look.
Gramps put a hand on Lisanna's shoulder.
"There there, child. You didn't remember anything from three months ago; it couldn't have been you. Later, we'll have to look around in your house. That is the last place you remember being, right?"
"Yeah," Lisanna replied, still down from driving out one of her own nakama.
"Well then, we'll figure this out and get Lucy back!" Gramps cheered.
"YOSH!" I cried, desperate to fix the mess I made.
"Let's go, Happy!"
And we learn the truth! Sort of… (Anyone who can tell me where that reference is from will get virtual choco chip cookies! ;P) So, Lisanna's not evil! Yay! I'd never do that to a Fairy Tail member! I do hope I was good on the subtle StiCy fluff...never written it before, and it doesn't help that I have no idea how to even write fluff, so helpful comments highly appreciated! We also took a peek inside Natsu's mind…which was surprisingly mature. He'll be fine the next time we see him though! (A mature Natsu…KOWAI!)
Ja ne,
Kit Kat