Fairy Tail: End of an Era
Chapter 7: The Resurrection Stone
Makarov Dreyar found himself in a painful situation. Alzack Connell had been killed, a fact that was painful enough for the guild master on its own. But combined with the sight of mourning Fairy Tail mages everywhere he looked was almost too much for the old man to bear. But when Satoshi had suggested using the Resurrection Stone to revive Alzack, Makarov didn't waste even a moment thinking about it.
"I agree. Lets use the stone." he said, and Satoshi gave an affirming nod.
"Mason!" he called out. "Bring the stone over here."
A few seconds later, the young mage had run over to the guild masters.
"I have it right here, Sato!" he said, dropping the stone into Satoshi's hand. "Um...are you gonna use it on...?" he started, before Satoshi answered.
"Yeah, it seems that way. But while we do, we need someone to stand guard. Think you and Ethan can handle it?"
"Yeah! You can count on us!" Mason replied before hurrying off again.
"Why did you send him off like that?" Makarov asked. "I highly doubt they'll attack again so soon..."
"Well, you can never be too careful. And besides, I'd rather him not see this." Satoshi answered, causing Makarov to raise an eyebrow in curiosity.
"And why not?"
"Oh... Just a gut feeling I suppose... Now before we try using this stone, I trust you understand there's quite a bit of risk involved?"
"Of course." Makarov replied. "For all we know, there could be any vast array of side effects or consequences that come with using it. But if it means protecting the lives of my brats I'm willing to take any risk."
"Alright then. If you say..."
Satoshi's voice trailed off, and the guild masters' eyes suddenly focused just outside of where the front door of the guild used to be. Five bright magic circle had appeared on the ground, each with mages standing on them. On one was Kagura, carrying a motionless Hibiki Lates over her shoulder. Next to her was Bacchus, his expression simply reflecting anger and frustration as he held the body of his friend and guildmate, Rocker. Beside them was Radioactive Decay's master, Minoru, who was the only one who arrived unaccompanied by the corpse of an ally. And on the final circle stood Tristan and Master Ola of Black Phoenix, who held the dead body of Kallen Fray. As the circles faded each of the mages exchanged silent glances, none exactly feeling in the mood for greetings or smalltalk, before walking into the ruins of what was once Fairy Tail, moving right past Ethan and Mason, who both then jumped in front of them and held a hand out.
"Stop right there! No one gets past here!" Mason shouted. The mages stopped in their tracks, but only gave the two boys sinister glares in response, causing both Mason and Ethan to suddenly start shaking in fear.
"It's alright, they're allies. Let 'em through." Satoshi called out, and Mason and Ethan quickly moved aside. Paying no more attention to them, the arriving mages continued on, though Mason childishly stuck his tongue out at them as they passed.
Erza was next to approach, walking alongside Kagura, though it was the ace of Mermaid Heel who spoke first.
"I know what you want to say. And you know I want to save Millianna as much as you do. But will discuss that later. This situation here must come first." she said, and Erza simply gave an understanding nod.
"And what's the situation with Blue Pegasus? Why didn't at least one of them come with you to bring Hibiki?"
"Hibiki is the only one of that guild who was killed, but the others were all severely injured. My guild arrived in time to treat their wounds, but it was too late for this one. It was during that when Millianna..."
"I understand, Kagura. As you said, we'll discuss that soon."
"To think our enemy was powerful enough to do this sort of damage... And to so many guilds..." Makarov said, a mixture of disbelief and anger etched into his expression as he watched the three other dead mages being carried in.
"The winds of fate have carried some rather destructive adversaries to us. Fortunately, we still have a tool to fight back with. So lets use it now. It doesn't seem like anyone else is coming." Satoshi replied. Makarov nodded in agreement, then stood before speaking in a loud voice so all could hear him.
"I know what has happened is hard on all of us, but I need everyone to be patient and listen to me for a moment! Take the four mages who were killed and lay them down side by side!"
Kagura was first to comply, gently setting Hibiki's corpse on the ground. Bacchus then put Rocker beside him, as Ola placed Kallen down as well. And finally, Alzack Connell was placed on the end. As the dead were being gathered, Minoru went to stand by Makarov and Satoshi, and silently watched on from there.
"This ain't wild..." Bacchus said, looking down at his fallen guildmate. "Ambushin' us all like that, not even givin' him a chance to defend himself..."
"The Balam Alliance doesn't care about a fair fight." Kagura said. "What they care about is eradicating all of us with any means necessary. We're just fortunate that the Resurrection Stone still happens to be in Fairy Tail's hands at this point." Ola nodded, agreeing with Kagura. But there was still a sense of apprehension and uncertainty in her. She intended to keep this to herself, though Bacchus seemed to be having the exact same thought.
"It's a damn shame we don't even know if it works yet."
"It'll work. It has to." Satoshi chimed in as he handed the Resurrection Stone to Makarov.
"It's Fairy Tail's to use for now. And since your mage has family here, I doubt anyone would object to you bringin' him back first." he said.
"Makarov nodded and took the stone in his hand. "I just hope it's that simple. But as I said, any risk for the sake of my brats is one worth taking."
Everyone gathered around in a circle to watch as Makarov approached Alzack, and knelt beside him. Holding Asuka, a still weeping Bisca watched on with desperate hope as Makarov then held the stone out just above the fallen gunslinger.
"He's going to bring them back, right...?" Lucy asked.
"I don't really get what's going on, but I'm sure Gramps knows what he's doing." Natsu replied. "So we just have to trust in him right now."
"Natsu's right." Mirajane chimed in. "That stone supposedly has the power to revive the dead. And even though we haven't had a chance to test it yet, I have faith this will work." Hearing their words but being far too young to understand, Asuka looked to Bisca with tearful eyes.
"Mommy, he's gonna help daddy, isn't he?" she asked.
Bisca hugged her daughter tight, and while trying to hide her own tears answered in the most reassuring voice she could muster, "Yes, dear. I promise, daddy's going to be alright."
Closing his eyes, Makarov channeled his magic energy into the stone. A slight gasp escaped the mouths of the onlooking mages as the runes on the stone began to glow. The light given off by the runes suddenly grew and expanded until it encompassed Alzack's entire body, and the extreme brightness of it caused everyone watching to instinctively close their eyes and avert their gaze, including Makarov. When the light died down, Makarov stood back and the area had gone silent, all eyes slowly turned back to Alzack. A moment passed, and nothing happened. Many Fairy Tail mages continued to wait for some sign of life from their fallen friend. And others were clasping a hand over their eyes or averting their gaze, anything they could do to try to hide or stop the flowing tears. Bisca knelt by her husband, still holding Asuka.
"Alzack...please, wake up..." She pleaded. And only a few seconds later, gasp escaped her lips, quickly drawing everyone's attention. No one else had been close enough to see it, but Alzack's eyelids had twitched. It was only the slightest of movements, but it was still a sign. Placing a hand on his shoulder, Bisca began to shake him as if trying to wake him from a deep sleep.
"Alzack! Please, tell me you're alive!"
It was only after this that something happened that everyone watching could see. Slowly but surely, the eyes of her husband began to open. His vision was initially blurry. But when it finally adjusted, the first thing he saw was his wife and daughter, a sight that brought a small smile to his face.
"Bisca... Asuka... I'm glad you-" the gunslinger didn't even have time to finish his sentence as the two females wrapped their arms around him and hugged him as tightly as they could, tears of joy streaming down their faces. Every other member in the guild burst into joyous shouts of celebration, and just like Asuka and Bisca, many others couldn't help but burst into joyful crying.
"We're fine now. But please, don't ever leave us like that again." Bisca said.
"I won't, Bisca. I promise. I'll always be there for you two."
"Even after coming back from the dead the first thing he worries about is his family. That's a MAN!" Elfman shouted.
"I'm just amazed we were even able to bring someone back from the dead in the first place." Macao said. "As old as I am, I thought I'd already seen just about everything..."
"And now that we know we can, there's still a few more people we gotta help out." Gray chimed in.
"Gray's right." Makarov said. "There will be time to celebrate Alzack's revival, but we also have friends here who need our help."
Standing by the remaining three dead mages, Makarov again held out the Resurrection Stone and channeled his magic energy into it. Again the bright light was cast, this time covering Rocker, Kallen, and Hibiki. As before, several moments passed before there was any noticeable reaction. But Rocker was the first to awaken, and rubbed his head as he sat up.
"Huh? Where am-"
"Rocker you crazy son of a bitch!" Bacchus exclaimed, his expression changing to back to his usual grin as he pulled his guildmate back to his feet. "And here I was startin' to think you might be gone for good! How ya feelin'?"
"My spirit's wild as ever, Bacchus!" Rocker replied enthusiastically.
"FOUR!" Bacchus shouted, hurling his fist into the air.
"Eh... But what happened? And how'd I get here?" Rocker asked, clearly confused.
"Some asshole bombed the guild. A girl from White Eclipse was able to heal the others, but you were already dead by the time she got to ya." Bacchus explained.
"WHAT?! I WAS DEAD?!"
"Yup! But ya don't need to worry about that now. Now that everyone's alive and well again, we can focus on getting back at the guy that tried to take all of us out. Wild!"
"FOUR!" Rocker answered.
Next to awaken was Kallen, who suddenly sat up and looked around with a confused expression. Before she could even ask where she was, Ola practically tackled Kallen back to the ground as she hugged the female dragon slayer.
"Master! What's going on? Where am I?" Kallen asked, and Ola drew back before drawing her response in the air with her finger.
"You're in Fairy Tail. You were killed at Black Phoenix, but you've been revived."
"Eh?!" A million questions began racing through Kallen's mind, and she stuttered over herself trying to figure out where to start. But her train of thought was somewhat broken as Tristan joined them.
"Glad to see you're alright, Kallen-san." He said with a smile. "I'm sure Mizaki-san and Leon-san will be relieved when they see you."
"Thanks... Wait, Mizaki and Leon! Are they alright?"
"Yes." Ola replied, again using her magic to write the words in the air. "They were both worried to say the least, but everyone's alright now."
"Can we go back to the guild so I can see them?" Kallen asked, and Ola looked to Tristan for the answer.
"Sorry, Kallen. I've just about exhausted my magic." he said. "I'll need to rest a bit before I can teleport us all to Black Phoenix."
Kallen was about to respond, but the attention of all three suddenly moved over to Hibiki, who was finally regaining consciousness as well.
For a moment the Blue Pegasus mage was confused and dazed. But he soon saw Lucy amongst the crowd of Fairy Tail mages. And as if nothing had even happened he dashed over to her before taking hold her hand and kissing the back of it.
"It's wonderful to see you again, Lucy. You're looking as beautiful as ever." he said, smiling as he always did when flirting with women.
"Well it sure didn't take you long to get back to being your normal self..." Lucy said,
"Now that everyone has been revived, I think we need to figure out what we plan to do next." Kagura said, just loud enough to call everyone's attention. "Millianna has been captured by the enemy. I want to know how much anyone else knows about this, and what we're going to do to get her back."
Erza was the first to answer.
"Minerva was here earlier. She said there would be a prisoner exchange in three days. we can get her back then."
"Prisoner exchange? Who on their side have we managed to capture?" Kagura inquired, to which Master Ola replied by writing in the air.
"Tempesta of Tartaros. He is currently trapped in a block of steel at Black Phoenix."
"Probably best to keep him that way." Laxus chimed in. "I fought the guy once. He's got some kind of deadly self destruct mechanism that causes intense magic deficiency."
"Now that you mention it," Tristan said "right before I trapped him, it seemed like he was about to do...something, as if he was preparing some sort of attack."
"Then there's a good chance he's already in his self destructed state." Laxus replied. "All the more reason not to let him out."
"Then we can simply take him to the exchange point inside his current container." Kagura said.
Satoshi glanced over at Minoru, who seemed to be in deep thought.
"You've been even more quiet than usual. What's your thoughts on all this?"
"It would be foolish not to expect some sort of trap. If we make the exchange, we need to send a team of mages who are strong and experienced fighters, but levelheaded enough to back away if a fight isn't necessary."
"Hm... I think that sounds logical enough. I have a feeling the winds of fate will carry some amount of chaos into this situation as it plays out. Anyone object to that plan?"
When no one answered, Satoshi continued.
"Then that's settled. A team will be organized to go to the prisoner exchange in three days. I guess with everything that happened, we should consider ourselves lucky they've only taken one prisoner."
"I'm afraid that's not entirely true." said a new voice just within hearing distance. Everyone looked in its direction, and saw a severely wounded Yukino Aguria walking toward them, barely able to keep her balance.
"Yukino!" Lucy shouted, before running out to help her. Draping an arm over her shoulder, she helped the Sabertooth mage walk the rest of the way to the guild. Surprise covered the faces of everyone in attendance.
"Yukino, what happened?!" Lucy asked. And with a weak voice, Yukino replied.
"They have Sting. Sabertooth has fallen..."
Kneeling before Marde Geer within the fortress of Tartaros was Kyouka, Minerva, Hades, Abbadon, and Azuma. Marde himself sat in his throne, legs crossed, and his resting on his right fist. A single finger on his left hand slowly tapped on the armrest of his thrown for several moments before he finally broke the silence.
"How do you think your mission went? Hm?" he asked, and Minerva was the first to answer.
"It did not go as planned..."
"Elaborate, Minerva. In what ways did it go amiss?"
"...We failed to retrieve the Resurrection Stone as you ordered." she answered.
"That is true. But there's more to it than that. I instructed you to eliminate Fairy Tail's surrounding allies so they could not interfere. Blue Pegasus, Quatro Cerberus, and Fairy Tail itself were reduced to a pile of rubble, and four mages were killed. While that pleases me to know, it still wasn't enough to prevent reinforcements from arriving to help Fairy Tail. Because you underestimated your enemies' abilities, we not only failed to reclaim the stone, but one of our own demons is now in the hands of the guild alliance. The only reason I am allowing you to live after such a monumental blunder is because I find the prisoner exchange idea to be brilliant. In at least that respect, Minerva, well done. You've saved your own life and those of your allies." Though his words were as much an insult as a compliment, Minerva bit back her desire to lash back at him.
"Thank you, my lord." she said.
Marde then turned his attention to Kyouka.
"I want you to choose a different team to send to the prisoner exchange. I don't doubt they'll be expecting a trap, but they likely won't take the Resurrection Stone since they're trying to keep it as far away from us as possible. That means they won't be able to immediately revive anyone. This could be a good opportunity to inflict significant damage to their forces."
"Very well, Marde-sama. It will be done." she replied.
"Excellent." Marde said, a sly grin forming on his face.
"What are your orders regarding Sabertooth? Therian's attack happened much sooner than planned. They've probably figured out by now that we have Sting." Kyouka said.
"Indeed, Therian was forced into action earlier than I would've liked. But from what I've gathered, that guild has been destroyed as well. And since they do not know our location, any attempt to rescue him in the near future is highly unlikely. We will continue as planned at least until Therian returns. I'll decide if anything else needs to be done once I know the full details of what transpired."
Hades then took a turn to speak.
"And what of the stone? With only one team going to the prisoner exchange, we could send others to retrieve it."
"Indeed we could, Hades. And we just might." Marde replied. "But even aside from the destruction of several guilds, a seed has been planted that will work to our advantage if allowed to grow. For that reason, it might make things easier to be patient for the moment."
"I'm not sure I understand..." Hades said.
"Lucy Heartfilia, Gray Fullbuster, Cana Alberona, the Strauss siblings and many others in Fairy Tail alone have parents and loved ones who have passed away. And again, that's just in Fairy Tail. So many of these mages have had tragic losses in their life it's almost a cliche. If Fairy Tail's used the stone to resurrect those we've killed as I predict, then everyone will know a way exists for them to be reunited with those lost loved ones. And what's more, they will know that the opportunity is one that could disappear at any time. They will want to use the stone for themselves. And eventually, they'll even turn on each other to do so if they have to." he explained, chuckling to himself as he finished. "It's pathetic just o think about, don't you agree?"
"Indeed." Hades answered. "But before that happens, there's something else related to the stone we need to address."
Marde raised an eyebrow curiously.
"Oh? And what might that be?"
"Makarov Dreyar still has the stone, and I believe I know what he will do with it next. If I am right and he is successful, it might become a serious problem for us."
Seated on the ground within the ruins of Fairy Tail, Yukino's wounds were being treated by Wendy as she explained what had happened at Sabertooth, from the discovery of Sting's capture to the battle with Therian.
"Me, Orga, Rufus, Rogue... Even with our combined power we could hardly even put a scratch on him. When he started getting the upper hand, the others told me to alert you and ask for help. I went as fast as I could. But not long after I escaped I looked back and I saw an explosion engulf the guild..." she said, before burying her face in her hands as she started sobbing. "That guy had said something about a multi-guild attack happening, but I had no idea things were this bad."
Lucy sat next to Yukino and hugged the crying celestial spirit mage, hoping to give her even the smallest amount of reassurance that everything would be alright. And for several moments, everyone else was silent, still trying to digest the information.
"...It seems we have more to discuss." Makarov finally said, and Satoshi nodded in agreement.
"Sting was the one who suggested the plan in Crocus of how to handle the Resurrection Stone. But since that Sting was an impostor, it means the enemy knew everything about our strategy when they launched that attack. And that means we need a new strategy..."
"Simply rearranging the details of the old plan won't be enough." Minoru added. "Whatever plan we decide on has to be completely new.
"If a strategy is what we need, then I know the perfect person to consult. Though with our second master on their side, they might anticipate this and try to stop us." Makarov said. Immediately catching his meaning, a look of slight surprise surfaced on Erza's face.
"Master, are you saying..." she began, and Makarov nodded.
"That's right, Erza. The plan for the prisoner exchange has not changed. But I will lead a second team on a different mission. We will go to the island of Tenroujima to revive and recruit one of the greatest tacticians this world has ever known, Fairy Tail's first master, Mavis Vermillion!"
To be continued in Ch. 8: Prisoner Exchange