Author's note: I'm so so sorry about not having updated in ages. I've had college things to do and university applications to deal with (I got accepted so worth it). Thank you to everyone who's been following this and favouriting this - you're the best :)
Natsu's strange feeling about Galuna Island and the strange readings he'd been getting from it had proven correct, as he and Laxus had found within a day of being on the island. After fighting the giant rat thing that they'd run into on their way here – really, Natsu wouldn't call it a fight, not after the wyvern that just didn't want to give up – they'd come across the old temple. Natsu had accidentally created the hole in the floor that led to the cave beneath the temple, and while admittedly he hadn't been aiming to do that, it had all worked out.
And now Lucy and Gray were here.
"Lucy! Gray!" Happy chirped up, waving cheerfully from Laxus's side as the three of them moved towards the other two. "I didn't expect to find you guys here!"
"Yes," Laxus said slowly, staring at them darkly. Natsu saw a shiver go through Lucy's arms, one that had nothing to do with the cold air. "Not when the job request for this island back at the guild was for S-Class."
"Why are we worrying about that now when DELIORA IS RIGHT THERE!" Gray shouted, pointing at the block of ice in front of them. Natsu turned his gaze on the ice and, in turn, Deliora. He wrinkled his nose. Deliora hadn't changed a bit, still just as monstrous and barbaric as he remembered.
"Hate to say it but Frosty's right," Natsu agreed, taking a step closer to the demon. He looked back at Gray. "How do you know Deliora?"
Gray seemed to struggle with himself for a moment, but he eventually managed to steel himself, expression hard as ice. "Deliora destroyed my hometown, on the northern continent," he said, looking up at the demon. "There were no survivors, except for me. Then, ten years ago, my master – the wizard who taught me my magic – Ur, she sealed the demon away in that ice. She sacrificed everything to seal it away."
Natsu stared back up at Deliora again, and Lucy said, "Your master sounds amazing."
Gray just nodded silently, lapsing back into silence. Before Natsu could think to say anything else, his sharpened hearing picked up the sounds of other people slowly coming towards them. Telling this to the others, the five of them all quickly hid behind a pile of fallen rocks. Soon, the disembodied voices had people to match them with: a girl with pink hair, a guy with wolfish features and a guy with some serious eyebrows.
"Something terrible has happened," the girl said, sounding heartbroken and looking down. "Someone has hurt Angelica."
"Nobody cares about your stupid rat!" the wolf one snapped. The three of them stopped in the centre of the cavern, looking at Deliora. Natsu could hear Gray grinding his teeth from where he was crouched.
"There are signs of intruders, though," Eyebrows pointed out coolly, sounding far more put together than either of his friends. "We should find and exterminate them before we continue with the Moon Drip ceremony tonight."
"Yes, we should do that for the Cold Emperor, for love," the girl agreed. The wolf one looked annoyed at her, but settled on saying nothing.
"I say we take 'em," Natsu muttered to the others. "We can get them to tell us about Deliora. They must have him here for a reason."
"Tch." Laxus just bashed him on the head, knocking him to the ground. "Or we can wait here and see what they mean by ceremony tonight, idiot."
"They've gone!" Lucy informed them. She sunk down to the floor against the pile of rocks and sighed. "So are we really going to wait here all day?"
"Well, I don't want to," Natsu replied, grimacing at the thought and pulling at his scarf. Happy hovered nearby, frowning worriedly. "It's midday, and I wanna smash their heads together and get some answers!"
Laxus smashed him on the head again, and Natsu sighed. "Right, right. Gotta wait until night." Dejectedly, he sat down near his fellow slayer and started pushing pebbles around. "You okay, Happy?" he asked his flying companion as he felt the cat land next to him.
"Aye," the cat replied, his wings disappearing and pulling a fish out of his pack.
"So – erm – what are you guys doing here, anyway?" Lucy asked, watching them. The light from the block of ice containing Deliora shone brightly in the dim cavern, and it reflected off of Lucy's keys.
"We were tracking a demon of Zeref," Laxus said bluntly. Lucy went pale, and Laxus continued. "That one, to be precise."
"Technically, we were tracking a trail it had left behind," Natsu continued, putting his hands behind his head. Damn, rocks didn't make for good pillows. "Whoever moved it here doesn't know that much about Zeref's demons as a whole."
"I don't need to know about Zeref to know that this has to be stopped," Gray growled, glaring at the ground. "I won't let them tarnish Ur's name!"
"Gray…" Lucy said softly, trailing off as Gray continued. Apparently, he hadn't heard her.
"I won't let them throw away the sacrifice she made!" Lucy tentatively put a hand on his shoulder and threw Natsu a panicked look.
"We won't let them," she said softly, so assuring. It made Natsu smile, remember his days with Igneel and maybe even – no. He mentally shook himself. Down here with Deliora definitely wasn't the time and place to be thinking about that.
Definitely not, and not ever if he could ever help it.
The day seemed to be taking an exceedingly long time to pass on by. It was a thought Natsu had had multiple times throughout the day as he'd stayed propped against his rock, Happy dozing by his side. Lucy had summoned Lyra, one of her celestial spirits, for a bit to sing for them, but all that had done was just bring up emotions that Natsu had thought long buried, along with his ever-present turmoil over finding Igneel again.
Looking at Gray, it seemed Lyra's song had had a similar effect on him as well. As Gray and Lucy started talking, he let himself fall back into his thoughts again. Something that had been bothering him a lot lately was the fact that other demons had been becoming active again lately, ever since he'd taken care of Lullaby. Dealing with Deliora would be one thing, if it came down to it, but Natsu didn't exactly relish the thought of encountering Tartaros again.
That was one guild he stayed far away from.
As Lyra continued her singing, continued playing her harp, Natsu's thoughts shifted again. Once again, he was dredging up memories, and as Lyra's song wrapped around him like a magnet, forcing them to the surface, Natsu thought about a different time, when he'd been with Igneel. Remembered a brother he'd once known, and now could never see.
"Natsu?" That was Lucy's voice, sounding so concerned. Why was she concerned? It was Gray who was having the emotional turmoil, not him. He turned to look at her, found her watching him closely. "Is everything okay? Are you okay?"
Pushing the memories aside, Natsu smiled. "I'm fine! Why wouldn't I be?"
"One of Lyra's talents is singing songs that relate to what her audience is feeling," Lucy said, glancing around at everyone. Natsu followed her gaze, and could see that Gray's inner turmoil was still raging on, strong as ever. For some reason, Laxus looked deep in thought, almost pained.
"Did her song make you sad?" Happy asked, looking up at him with wide eyes.
Yes, you have no idea how much. I just want to see my family again. Igneel. Even Zer–
"Maybe we should put the harp away," Laxus suggested, voice coming out like gravel. "It wouldn't exactly be great if they heard our sing along."
Gray nodded, the motion somewhat robotic. "He's right," he agreed. Lyra pouted.
"You're all so mean," she said, reluctantly putting her harp away back… wherever she'd got it from. Celestial spirit space, Natsu guessed.
"Hey, guys?" Happy asked, sounding apprehensive. "What's that?" He was pointing towards the giant ice block that contained Deliora, and Natsu followed the paw. His eyes widened. Purple magic circles were appearing above the ice block, one on top of the other, and light was streaming through them, straight onto the ice below them.
"Magic circles?" Lucy wondered, getting up and looking at them. Gray was clenching his fists.
"We should go and look further upstairs," Laxus said, nodding upwards. Natsu nodded, and Gray's expression steeled. Quickly, they made their way out of the cavern that contained Deliora, following Natsu's sharp sense of smell even through the darkness, and up into the temple again. On the first floor of the temple, where Natsu had accidentally stomped through the floor after his and Laxus's fight with the giant rat, there were more magic circles. "More magic circles?" Laxus asked, staring at them in thought.
"Further up," Gray said quickly, and they quickly ascended up the temple, finding more magic circles as they got near the top. On the roof of the temple, they came across a group of hooded people chanting what seemed to be a strange spell, and even more magic circles that went straight up into the sky. They all quickly ducked behind a crumbling wall, watching the hooded people.
"What does this mean?" Lucy asked, peeking over the top of the wall at the other people. "First the circles, now these people?"
"Magic circles beaming light down through the temple of the moon, on the island of the moon," Laxus muttered, clenching his fist so hard lightning began to crackle. "And one of the idiots from before mentioned Moon Drip…"
"Oh, I see what they're doing," Lyra said quietly, looking over the wall as well.
"Why are you still here?!" Lucy demanded shrilly, staring at her celestial spirit with wide eyes. Lyra ignored her.
"They're casting the Moon Drip," Lyra continued, not taking her eyes off the chanters in front of them. "It's an ancient Belianese spell that converts the light of the moon into pure magic energy. They must be using it to melt the ice down below us and revive the demon."
"Melt the ice?!" Gray nearly exploded. Natsu glanced between him and the people chanting warily. "Ur cast Iced Shell on that thing! It can't be melted!"
"I hate to say it, but it can. Focused moonlight can break any spell."
Gray looked lost for words, eyes angry as he struggled to form a sentence. "Why would they want to melt the ice?! Why would they want to free that monster?!" he demanded, clenching his fists. Ice was beginning to form around them. "Those idiots have no idea what they're dealing with!"
"Well, maybe if we're quieter, we'll find out!" Laxus said darkly, glaring them all into silence.
"Somebody's coming!" Lucy hissed, and they all quickly ducked below their makeshift cover. Within a minute, the sound of approaching footsteps made them all look to the side, and Natsu narrowed his eyes.
Someone in a really elaborate get-up, a man judging by the scent he was getting a whiff of, was walking towards the chanters. What seemed to stand out most about him was the helmet he wore: it covered all of the top part of his face, had horns coming out of the side of it, and, to top it all off, had a huge plume of feathers on the top of it. Natsu had never seen anything so stupid, and he'd seen some pretty stupid things during his time at Fairy Tail. He was accompanied by the three people they'd seen down in the cavern earlier; the man that looked like a dog, Eyebrows and the pink haired girl.
"So that must be their Cold Emperor," Laxus mused, glancing around the corner of the wall.
"Man, I'm so tired," Eyebrows complained, yawning heavily. "Awake all afternoon and we didn't even find any intruders!"
The dogman, who seemed to have been sleepwalking, suddenly woke up and shouted, "DID THEY EVEN EXIST IN THE FIRST PLACE?!"
"It's so sad, Cold Emperor," the girl said, sounding like she was in a tragedy. "There seemed to be intruders this afternoon, but they somehow escaped us." She closed her eyes and let out a small sniffle. "I have no right to speak of love at a time like this."
"Will you shut up about love!" the dogman shouted irritably. The so-called Cold Emperor, however, tilted his head slightly.
"Intruders?" he asked lightly.
Gray let out a strangled noise, and Lucy frowned. "So is that the Cold Emperor?" she asked. "Weird mask he's wearing…"
"I think it looks cool," Happy chimed in.
"You would do, cat."
"Have they been able to finish reviving Deliora yet?" the Cold Emperor asked, glancing back at his minions.
"They say that the ceremony should be complete either tonight or tomorrow," the girl answered, and the Cold Emperor tilted his head again, seeming thoughtful.
"Well, WHICH ONE IS IT?" the dogman shouted at her. The girl ignored him, her attention devoted entirely to the masked man.
"Then the time has nearly come," he said softly. He turned to look at the girl, and said, "As for these intruders…"
"Most likely some nosey villagers, Cold Emperor," she immediately answered, looking around as though she expected her imaginary nosey villagers to pop up around them. "They're the only ones left on the island now, aside from us. Most likely having stayed out of love." The dogman gave her another irritated look.
"I see," the Cold Emperor replied quietly, turning back to oversee the chanting. "In that case, eliminate them."
Natsu could feel the world slow down around him with those words, feel the blood in his veins turn cold. "What?" he asked hoarsely, gripping a broken part of the floor so tightly that it shattered. The cold in his veins turned to rage. This masked freak was going to kill the entire village based on speculation? Hell, this masked freak was going to kill an entire village of innocents?
"But the villagers have nothing to do with this!" Lucy protested, gripping at her keys.
The Cold Emperor resumed speaking again, in that cool and collected tone that had begun to piss Natsu off so much. "While I dislike bloodshed," he said lightly, "I will have nothing coming between me and my dream."
Gray's jaw was clenched tightly, and he was shaking from what seemed to be pure rage. "That voice…" he hissed out, trembling. "It has to be him… Lyon!"
Author's note: I hope this was okay. Once again, I'm really sorry about the lack of updates recently! Please let me know your thoughts?