And we are back! Hope you all like this latest chapter as we start working towards Draco's appearance! Thanks for the continued support and please read and review.
Natsu was excited to be back in Magnolia with Xally, but he was even more excited to be off that damn plane. Thankfully Xally had used some of her healing magic on him to help curb his nausea from flying, but nothing felt better than being back on the ground. He had thoroughly enjoyed his time with Xally, but he was excited to get back to Magnolia, Fairy Tail and to see Lucy. He was pretty sure Happy was still away with the other two exceeds visiting their families, so once he was back then maybe the three of them could take a job. They still hadn't decided where to live and that was causing a bit of strain in their new relationship, since each person had so much going for them in their own homelands.
They had discussed the living situation with Farron and Freed since they were travelling to Magnolia as well. Freed had decided to stay in Pelerno with Farron and was ridiculously nervous to tell the Thunder Legion and Laxus about the change. Farron wasn't too worried about it since Laxus would have to go through this as well, but the main concern would be what the dragon slayers would do if Lucy stayed or moved somewhere other than Magnolia or Pelerno. Wherever Lucy moved too would more than likely be where the dragon slayers and their mates would be, which meant there would be a lot of Fairy Tail and White Sea mages moving with her. The family being spread out like that wasn't something that anyone was really wanting to do anyways.
For now the two couples were content on walking to the guild and couldn't wait to see everyone. Bickslow had called them while on the plane and had informed them what Lucy had told the guild and whom else knew the whole story, so no-one *cough* Natsu *cough* would say anything they shouldn't. The guild was quiet as they mages walked through the doors. There was only a small handful of guild mates sitting around the tables, so they walked up to Mira at the bar to see where everyone was.
"They're all at the pool outback. Too hot of a day to take missions and Lucy suggested it after three fights broke out before 10am. Something about how the pool might cool off the extra testosterone that seemed to accompany the heat." Mira smiled and everyone else laughed. "Lucy was expecting you so she asked me to give you your bathing suits when you arrived. She is currently out with errands, but said she'd be back to join the party before mid afternoon." The four mages made their way to the change rooms and Natsu told Xally where the women's was, since there were no coed spaces in Fiore.
Surprisingly the four mages were all out of the change rooms at the same time. Farron was wearing a dark blue swim shorts with a green lead pattern of the left leg, Freed was wearing an eggplant pair of swim shorts that had small lightning bolts all over, Natsu had short that looked like flames, and Xally was in an aquamarine two piece with small white hibiscus flowers printed on. The pool went quiet as everyone observed the group of mages.
"Hey Fairy Tail! We're back!" There was a round of cheers followed by Emzadi lifting her sister off the ground and hauling her over to the bar for a drink before going to catch up. Laxus, Gajeel, and Grey met with guys at the bar for some drinks, courtesy of Kinana, and sat down in the shallow side of the pool where Sting, Yukino, Levy, and Erza were with their kids.
"Damn Flame brain, never thought you's land yourself a mate let alone one who looks as good as her. Did you trick her into being your mate?" snickered Gajeel to the fire slayer.
"No more than you had to trick Levy into being yours bolts for brains!" retorted Natsu.
"Seriously though firetard, how does she put up with you and your childish personality?" sniggered Grey.
"You wanna go ice princess?" yelled Natsu while standing up with his fists covered in flames.
"Bring it on fire breath!" Like no time had passed the two best friends were at each others throats and ready to start another brawl, when they both froze and turned to see Erza standing behind them.
"I hope you two are not planning on fighting with the children in the pool." Erza leveled them with a hard gaze and they jumped away from each other and spouted a bunch of nonsense, which seemed to placate the requip mage. She turned her attention back on Violet whom was splashing water at Gale and Slate with Asuka cheering them on. The seven year old had grown and was now practicing her gun magic with her parents, and she had wicked accuracy, and was currently in a blue one piece bathing suit. They boys were enjoying Violet's splash challenge and everyone was giggling as water was being thrown in all directions. The parents contently watched as their enjoyed themselves in the pool for the first time, and were looking forward to more moments like this. Sting was smiling down at both his boys that were in arms as he was chest deep in the water, enjoying the coolness on such a hot day.
"Is Luce back yet?" Natsu had asked the group in hopes that someone had heard from the blonde celestial mage. It was getting later in the afternoon and no one had heard from her yet.
"I am sure Blondie just got caught up with something. Cobra went with her and I'm sure she'd contact Bix if there was something wrong, so just relax." Laxus tried to reassure the younger mage, but he was starting to get a bit worried himself.
Cristoff had never been so excited to be back at the guild. The three of them needed to debrief with Kaleb, but the guild master was gracious enough to let them shower and eat before meeting him in his office. The flight back had been full of turbulence which caused his motion sickness to kick into overdrive, but he managed to not upchuck the entire flight so that was a bonus. They had discussed the keys while flying since all three were still encased in their own chunks of ice and no matter what they had tried nothing would work on cracking them. They were hoping that the Boscan sun would melt the ice and then they could get the keys to Lucy.
It had been just over a month since he had last seen Lucy and he was yearning to hold her in his arms again and smell her strawberry vanilla scent. He also wanted to talk to her more about the mating, where they would live once they were mated, and how many kids she wanted to have. He personally wanted a large family with at least five kids that he could spoil, love, and enjoy making with his beautiful blonde bombshell.
The soothing waters of the Grass Sea he was currently emerged in helped with his aches, pains, and warmed his body due to the colder weather they faced in the mountains. He knew he had time to enjoy the water since Vander and Presca were probably enjoying an attendant or two, after all Vander did want something fleshy to play with when he got home. Cristoff wondered if Vander would ever settle down and if there was someone out there that would match his type of crazy. Maybe he'd have to ask Lucy if there was someone like that in Fairy Tail when he went to deliver the keys in a couple days. He had told Bickslow of his plan to surprise Lucy with a trip to Magnolia and made sure that Bickslow would have his back and pick up the three mages once the aircraft landed. His heavy eyes started to close as he took a short nap in the warm water before heading to Kaleb's office.
Even with Cristoff's nap he still beat Vander to the office and caught Presca's eye whom snorted at Cristoff's silents question. Obviously Vander had enjoyed his time, but Kaleb was a stickler to keeping to timelines so the shadowquip mage had three minutes to get his ass into the office before Kaleb would force him to. Kaleb looked at his clock lacrima for the fifth time before Vander came lounging into the room with a seriously happy look on his face.
"Vander I want you to report the mission to me, since you were late," smirked Kaleb as Vander rolled his eyes at the mindbender mage. He recounted everything they had run into, how the majority of the leads had led them astray, and the large skeletons that they had to fight. The keys were still encased in ice and not even the Boscan heat had been able to melt them, so hopefully Lucy would have something up her sleeve.
"I don't like that fact that a necromancer mage had set up a trap. That seems too planned and something we will have to look into more, especially if he can call upon such creatures." Kaleb looked thoughtful for a moment before a moment of clarity dawned on him. "The only necromancer mage that we had heard of was the demon Keyes from the dark guild Tartaros. You don't suppose that someone is looking at reviving demons again?" Several eyes widened at that thought and the room became quiet.
"But why? I mean the Tartaros guild was under Mard's orders then so he was able to control them to an extent and they were all Zeref worshipers and he's no longer in the picture. Who would have the power to do something like this?" Presca questioned the Pradesh brothers who all looked at each other perplexed.
"I think you and Vander are going to need to do some undercover work in the gladiator pits again. We need to know if this has anything to do with the Kings grand plan or not. I think we need to call Fairy Tail and keep them in the loop, because I feel like their guild may be in danger of a revenge plot." Kaleb picked up his com and dialed Erza - no answer. He tried Laxus, Bickslow, and Lucy with no response as well. Anxiety and worry were thick in the air as Kaleb tried calling Emzadi and Xally, but neither picked up. Kaleb was desperate now and called Farron's com.
"Kaleb?" came the haggered voice of Freed.
"Freed what's happening? I tried calling several of you, but no one answered." Kaleb asked, keeping the slight panic out of his voice.
"Honestly I am not sure. We were all heading in from the pool to have supper in the guild when Bickslow grabbed his head and started to scream. There was a large bang and the next thing I know I am pulling myself out of the rubble that used to be the guild to answer Farron's com." Freed said while looking around with large eyes.
"Where's everyone else at?"
"I don't know Kaleb. I just don't know." Freed said with tears in his eyes.
"I am rounding up several White Sea mages along with father and we will be in Magnolia within the hour Freed." Freed tried to speak but his com went dead. Kaleb yelled for Thane and several other mages while Cristoff was on the phone with Arman. Please be safe Lucy.
Lucy and Cobra were heading from the guild to the city's magic shop after receiving a call from the owner, Mrs. Potts. The little old lady had called Lucy to let her know that she had a new key come into the shop and Lucy had been out the door before anyone could inquire as to what she was so happy about. Cobra had kissed Kinana, who was getting ready to head to the pool bar, and followed the ecstatic blonde through the streets of Magnolia. He loved the sound her soul made every time she had a prospective key or was contracting a new one. It was so full of love and light that it even had him openly smiling at his dragon queen, who had stopped to turn to see that she was being followed by him. She waited for him to catch up before looping her arm through his as the walked in relative silence.
Silence. That was something that didn't occur for him very often anymore, but Lucy was able to block out the noise when it was just the two of them and he had chopped it up to some random queen power, not that he had told anyone that it was happening. After talking with Bickslow he was going to ask Kaleb if he could train him to keep the voiced at bay, quiet, or something. The mindbender mage was incredibly powerful and after witnessing a minuscule amount of power while he was in Bosco he figured it wouldn't hurt to ask. The nights with Kinana were mostly quiet, unless he was making his purple haired mate scream his name - that noise he didn't mind one bit. However the bomb she had dropped on him this morning had him questioning everything.
"Erik are you alright?" Lucy inquired, gently pulling on his arm.
"Just thinkn Tink." Cobra responded with a side glance at her.
"Does it have anything to do with becoming a father?" Cobra stopped dead in his tracks causing Lucy to stop as well. His eye widened as he stared at her like she had grown eight heads.
"What . . . When . . . How the hell do you know? I just figured it out this morning after noticing her smell had changed ever so slightly." Cobra was still shocked at Lucy's revelation.
"I noticed about a week ago. I could just sense the change in her and went to meditate when Draco appeared confirming my suspicions. Apparently I one of the first to know when someone in the nest is pregnant so that I can prepare for it's arrival and make sure the woman carrying is safe." Lucy let out a sigh at another of her crazy dragon queen powers.
"Crazy is right Tink! Why did you just tell me?"
"And ruin the surprise of you and Kinana finding out for yourselves, yeah right," snorted Lucy as she rolled her eyes at the poison slayer. "Besides this reaction is so much better in person. Wonder what would happen in if I told . . ." she slapped a hand over her mouth to stop herself from saying anything else.
"Told who what Tink?" smirked the slayer as he tried to read her only to meet a brick wall and glared at the blonde before him. "Dammit! When the hell did you learn to block me out so efficiently?"
"After Draco told me the news I may have called Kaleb and asked about some pointers before training with Capricorn." She brightly told him, before continuing on her to the shop. Cobra grumbled to himself before following after her, again. The shop was only a few blocks away, hidden between a bakery and a book store. It had a very rustic feeling to it which was welcoming and upon entering the soothing smell of lavender made it's way to his sensitive nose, but it was an overpowering smell.
"Lucy my dear girl! I am glad you were able to make it to the store in such a quick amount of time!" The small white haired women, whom he assumed was Mrs. Potts, came around the counter she was behind to wrap Lucy in a hug.
"I wouldn't have missed this opportunity for the world!" Lucy excitedly told the older woman, whom laughed at the blonde.
"Well come over here my dear. It's a lovely silver key." Mrs. Potts opened the safe behind the counter and pulled out the silver key laid on a black velvet display.
"Oh Mavis! This is exactly who I have been hoping to find. Mrs. Potts you have no idea how much easier you have made my life!" Lucy was practically glowing as her brown orbs filled with tears. Canes Venatici - the Hunting Dogs. They'll be able to help me track the Alpha Keys. Cobra smirked listening to Lucy and knew that she would probably have a plan in place to find the rest of the keys before she went to bed. Cobra frowned as he starting picking up on a strong vibration coming from somewhere in the store. He followed it to a window display case and could almost feel how much the item was waiting to be found.
"Tink you should check this out," Cobra called to her as he kept an eye on it. He heard Lucy suck in a breath as she realized what he was staring at.
"Mrs. Potts when did this come in?" Lucy asked pointing to the bronze colored item.
"That old key? It came in a couple days ago from a couple who had been going through their deceased grandmothers items. I bought quite a few items that day, why?"
"Nodus Secundus - also know as Altais, the bright yellow star," whispered Lucy in awe, but Cobra caught it thanks to his dragon hearing. "We will take this one too please Mrs. Potts." The woman smiled and added it to the silver key, rang Lucy's bill up and then waived to the mages as the went out the door. Lucy quickly requipped Altais' key and started on her way to a park that wasn't far from their current location. She wanted a little bit of privacy to contract her new spirit, plus she didn't know if the spirits were people or actual dogs and if they were K-9's what size they would be. Lucy didn't bother to see if Cobra was following her, because she could just sense that he was there.
"Open Gate of the Hunting Dogs, Canes Venatici!" Two very large dogs appeared in front of Lucy. One was black with brown, slightly taller build and the other was brown with black, both had long shaggy fur, and were the size of leonbergers.
"Asterion it's her! The Celestial Princess actually holds our key!" The smaller, younger dog spoke before running up to Lucy to plant a big sloppy kiss on her cheek. Lucy just laughed as she wiped the slobber off with the back of her hand.
"Chara would you please behave yourself," chastised the older of the two dogs. "I am sorry Princess for his exuberant personality, but we are both very excited about to know that you now hold our key."
"If you are willing to make a contract with me I would like to know when you are available and what your abilities are please." Lucy couldn't help the grin that was plastered to her face. She loved meeting new spirits and adding them to her growing family.
"Of course we will contract ourselves to you. We are expert hunters and it doesn't matter what we are looking for we will find them. We can imprint around 50 different people in our repertoire before we have to re-catalog to make room for new scents," explained Asterion to his new master.
"We are available any day except for Sunday, since that is the typical day of rest for most hunters. We work miracles with Orion if you happen across his bronze key," Chara said while wagging his tail and rubbing his head against Lucy's thigh.
"I didn't think there were any other keys besides gold and silver though," stated Lucy with a puzzled look on her face.
"The bronze keys get to choose who their master are, so most have been contracted in centuries since they're a bit snobby and haven't found anyone worth their time," snorted Chara causing Lucy to giggle and Cobra to snicker.
"Well thank you for deciding to become my friends. You should head back now and say hi to everyone in the celestial world, since I am sure it's been a while since you have seen may of them."
"Thank you Princess. We look forward to working with you in the future," Asterion stated before the two dogs returned to the spirit world.
"So there's a third category of keys, eh?" Cobra wondered out loud. He had always been curious of there were more keys out there after Angel had acquired her angel keys.
"Well now to my knowledge there are five categories of keys; Gold, Bronze, Silver, Angel, and Hell keys. Sorano is the only mage I know who uses angel keys and I have never heard of anyone using the hell keys or even if they're real, but I think it's safe to assume that they're out there." Lucy surmised after hearing about the bronze keys.
"How about we head back to the guild and see how that pool party is going? Mira should almost have the food ready by the time we return." It was hard to believe that Lucy and Cobra had been wandering around Magnolia for that long, but time flies when you're following the queen. They walked in comfortable silence for the majority of the way back to the guild and were just starting to see the guild come into sight when Lucy stopped and frowned.
"Tink?" He knew that look and he generally never liked what came after it.
"I just . . . just felt this overflowing amount of anger rush through me. If I were to sum it up it felt like molten lava sparking through my veins."
"Natsu is probably picking a fight with Laxus again," Cobra said with a shrug of his shoulders. "That isn't anything new, especially since the flaming idiot hasn't seen Laxus in a month."
"Erik it's not that. It's more . . . distressed . . . maybe anxious is the right word. Whatever it is I would like to make sure everyone is alright. Leo!" Lucy called her faithful lion knowing he would help ease her mind.
"You called beautiful?" smiled Loke as he pushed his glasses up on the bridge of his nose.
"Can you head to the guild to make sure everyone is alright and that the children are safe? I don't like this feeling that I have in the pit of my stomach." Lucy said while she used her right hand to rub her left arm.
"Of course Lucy. I will check everything out and return to your side shortly." With that Leo left in a puff of gold. Cobra was listening in to his surroundings a little bit closer to see if he could pick up on anything, but it was quiet. Too quiet actually. He couldn't hear birds chirping, the sound of the leaves rustling, or people walking through the street, so he immediately pulled Lucy behind him.
"I can't hear anything."
"Erik?"
"Nothing Tink. No wind or birds. Hell we are this close to the guild and I can't hear any brawls." Cobra felt her grab onto the back of his jacket. "Someone is using magic to either distort sounds or this is a mirage." Clap. Clap. Clap.
"Well done. It's been a while since someone has been able to pick up on my illusion magic so quickly." A tall man with slicked back dark red hair said as he came around a corner. He was wearing black combat boots, tight black jeans, dark green t-shirt with a grey jean vest and a silver chain. His pale beady eyes were looking at Lucy, as he licked his lips, which made Lucy shiver.
"Who the hell are you and what the fuck do you want?" growled Cobra to the stranger.
"My name is Tobit," he said while dramatically bowing to the duo. "My colleagues and I have come to kidnap Lucy Heartfilia and destroy Fairy Tail."
"Why? You know we will just come back ten fold and kick your ass?" demanded Lucy as she pulled away from Cobra.
"The fairy does have a backbone after all. We've been ordered by our Master, so we shall do his bidding. I don't know the exact plans, but I do know that Fairy Tail's downfall starts with getting rid of it's light," he cackled maniacally. This guy was giving off some major creeper vibes, but nothing could have prepared them for the earth shaking blast and rising smoke from the guild direction. Cobra took a defensive stance while Lucy requiped her whip, calling forth Taurus.
"Guild down boss. Judgin by da looks of thangs we got a few of dem." The voice came from a floating orb that materialized into a bald man with snow white skin, red eyes and dressed only in a pair of torn knee length black shorts.
"Good job Jaccard. Gather up the others and then come back to pick the girls and myself up in five," ordered Tobit, as Jaccard transformed into a white ball and disappeared. "Now you can come with me on your own accord or we can do this the difficult way, and I can assure you that neither of you will get out unscathed."
"Fuck you! No way are you getting through me." The night sky suddenly loomed over them as a large rock dragon flew overhead and landed before Cobra. "No way in hell! We sent this guy packing years ago." The dragon he fought during the eclipse gate fiasco was glaring down at him.
"Don't you like my gift to you slayer? Won't it be nice to watch him go after your precious mate?" sneered the mage. Cobra launched himself at the large creature and started fighting him with everything he had. "I await your answer princess."
"I will never go willingly with scum such as you!" Lucy shouted to the man as she cracked her whip against his cheek. Tobit brought his hand to his cheek then looked down at it to see a smear of blood on his fingertips.
"Fine! Have it your way!" Tobit yelled at the celestial mage as he launched a ball of ice her way, which Lucy easily dodged.
"How did you manage to bring a dragon back? That shouldn't be possible," Lucy asked while letting her whip fly at Tobit's leg landing another solid hit.
"I am a talented mage Miss Heartfilia and something as simple as a dragon doesn't require much," his lips curled into a cocky smirk and Lucy had the urge to punch it right off his face. They both continued to dance around each other, so she stepped it up and called Sagittarius into the battle and kept an eye on Erik who didn't seem to be getting very far with the dragon. It still irked her that a dragon was here, but she couldn't figure out why. Her distraction had cost her a rather nasty gash to her left arm from a particularly sharp piece of ice that her master archer wasn't able to get in time. She watch as here enemy changed his ice spheres into flat, sharp blades and started rapid firing them at her. Lucy stardressed into her Aries form and threw up a bright pink wool wall to stop this torrent of ice blades and called out Asterion and Chara.
"Can you guys pick up the scent of the dragon that is fighting Cobra?" Lucy asked while wrapping wool around the mages hands, stopping his attacks.
"There is no smell Princess," Asterion told his key holder.
"Nothing but the smell of magic," chimed in Chara.
"Thank you! You can head back now." The dogs headed back to the spiritual world along with the archer after getting hit with a large ice blade, so Lucy called out Virgo and Capricorn.
"Keep him busy! I need to reach Erik." Lucy took off towards the poison slayer as fast as her legs would carry her. Erik had minor cuts along his arms, but otherwise he was physically fine just tired. "You need to stop Erik! Please! It's only an illusion!" Her screams fell on deaf ears as he continued to attack the rock dragon and she growled in frustration. Wait a minute! I'm THE Dragon Queen, which means I can get Erik's ass in line just like I did with Gale and Slate! I doubt a growl is going to work on his though . . . but maybe a direct command?
"Erik you are to stop fighting that dragon and return to my side immediately," she yelled at the slayer who had jumped into the sky to try an aerial dragon roar, but nothing happened. Damn . . . Maybe I need to play on his dragon soul reading ability instead of his dragon sense of hearing? It's worth a shot! Lucy closed her eyes and concentrated solely on Erik and could see the red and black color of his magic. Erik! Erik you are to stop fighting the illusion and return to my side right now. Erik stopped mid attack and looked at the blonde mage before landing right in front of her.
"It's an illusion?" he questioned.
"The hunting dogs confirmed my suspicions and honestly he did state that you had broke his other illusion earlier when you heard no noise," shrugged Lucy.
"Miss Lucy we have company!" yelled Capricorn over his shoulder as he was fighting two mages now. Jaccard had returned with the other mages once Tobit's time allowance was up and came to assist their leader.
"We don't have time for this!" screamed a frustrated Tobit. "I want that blonde bitch captured now! I don't care what it takes as long as she is alive!" His lackeys jumped into action at his demands. Tobit was firing attacks at the two spirits, three other wizards were attacking Cobra, and the remaining two were ganging up on Lucy who had stardressed into Taurus. Cobra was getting knocked around, but holding his own against the mages and their water, wind, and rock attacks. Lucy was struggling against a gravity whom had pressured the area around her so much that her body felt like lead, but screamed when the other mages's vines started to bite into her skin from its tiny barbs.
"LUCY!" Cobra was frantically trying to make his way over to her when he felt the rock mages attack coming from behind, hitting him in the back of his head. The last thing he saw was Jaccard sucking Lucy into his weird orb with the rest of his vile team Lucy . . .