Chapter 11 – Wheels and Cogs
Walter POV
I paced carefully up and down the Fairy Tail guild hall, thoughts spinning around in my head. The meeting was only in a few hours and the pressure of what we were about to do was building up. Cyrus appeared from one of the corridors, face stoic. "Prime, it's almost time" he said flatly. I nodded to him.
"Yeah, I know that" I replied, trying to appear calm, but to no avail under the all-seeing eyes of Digit.
"You're fretting over something, is it the meeting?" he asked, a little note of concern in his otherwise emotionless voice.
"No" I said flatly. Cyrus raised an eyebrow.
"Are you sure?" he pressed.
I nodded. "Okay, yes I am. We've been dealing with these guys, the twelve, and of course him" I spat the word, "by ourselves. Doing this now, asking these guilds for help… it just seems to go against everything I drilled into my very core. We pretend to be like them, but we haven't been human for a while now" I said. Cyrus nodded, brown hair neatly combed and not moving despite the motion.
"That is true, however this is a necessity for our ultimate victory. Function must be stopped at all costs" Cyrus stated.
I pouted, "We used to laugh and play and train, never had I thought this was what would come of all those good times" I said, my voice fringed with nostalgic tones.
Cyrus shook his head. "That has happened, this is for our future. Come now, Blake's waiting on you" he said. Although he put on a face of absolute emotionless, I knew that he had those same good memories as me. I sighed and followed his lead to the room that had been prepared for the meeting ahead. Damn it. He's right, but… still… This is a war we're starting; he could show a little more remorse.
/
Natsu POV
We ran through the streets at high speed, me and Gray together. "Crap, oh crap!" I exclaimed as we dashed on.
"It's your fault flame brain. We're late because you wanted to lay around" Gray called over his shoulder, only a little ahead of me.
"My fault!" I argued back, stopping only to conserve breath, "You were the one who insisted on eating before we left, we woulda had loads of time if you just did what I said and ate at the guild". Gray scowled and ran on ahead, putting a little more distance between us. I gritted my teeth and ran faster, catching him up so I was running beside him, the guildhall in sight.
Last night I had slept over at Gray's. We had spent the whole day together and by around 11PM we were tired. I had just intended on sleeping on Gray's sofa, however he had other plans and instead I spent the night sleeping beside him in his bed. It had made me so happy that Gray would let me do that, although we didn't do anything more than sleep. I still gotta go with my plan and see how comfortable he is before I try anything I had thought as I watched him sleep for a little while, before finally settling into sleep myself. This morning I had awoke to a grinning Gray lying beside me. He had greeted me with a kiss and then we spent the next hour or so just lying there, in each other's company. That was, until, we both realised the time.
After a rushed breakfast, much at Gray's insistence, we had dashed out, Gray barely having time to lock his apartment door, before I dragged him through the streets. Erza had made it perfectly clear yesterday that we couldn't be late today for the meeting. Perfectly clear.
So now we ran on, barreling through the guild doors, before running straight to the room where the meeting was to be held. We both took a few breaths and tried to make ourselves look presentable, but before we could even knock, the doors opened and a very pissed off Erza marched out. "You two are late!" she commanded, picking us both up and hauling us inside, only for the doors to close behind her by a scowling Makarov and a very scared-looking Lucy. Erza dropped us into two of the seats arranged around a large table, she herself taking the seat to my right, whilst to my left, beside Gray, Lucy and Makarov took their seats. I went to apologise to the group assembled for our lateness, but another voice beat me to it. "You're sorry your late, right?" Walter said from his position opposite Erza. I looked up at him, dressed in a bright silver suit and wearing a somewhat audacious glare, however I bowed my head and mumbled an apology, Gray following suit.
"We're sorry we were late" we said within seconds of each other. Walter laughed.
"Don't worry I'm sure you had your reasons" he said, raising an eyebrow. We realised that he was referring to our relationship, but we both smirked slightly at the amusement of everyone else not understanding the joke.
"What's so funny?" Lucy asked skeptically. We shook our heads.
"Nothing" I said. Erza thumped her fist on the table.
"That's right, there's nothing funny about being late" she said. I jumped away from her instinctively, but then slithered back in my seat as I glanced around at the looks some of the others were giving us. Walter seemed amused by all this and chuckled a little before speaking again.
"Alright, that's enough. We have business to discuss and since those two are here now we may begin" Walter said. There was a grumble of agreement mixed with mutterings of annoyance around the table. "As you are all aware I was the one who called this meeting, however I must first apologise for taking time out of your busy schedules. There is a matter of great importance I would wish to discuss, and I am thankful you all took the time to respond. I am especially thankful to Master Makarov for allowing us to hold this meeting here" he gestured to Gramps, who was sitting with a slight smile. Everyone briefly glanced at the tiny wizard.
"That's all well and good, but why exactly did you summon us here?" a voice said from the assembled group. The source of the voice was probably one of the most powerful wizards here; Iron Rock Jura of Lamia Scale.
Walter nodded to the Wizard Saint. "Yes, I suppose that would be your first question, but if you allowed me to finish I was getting to that" he replied. "The matter at hand is a highly confidential matter, and only a few currently have any details at all. If we wish to discuss this you must all, right now, swear to secrecy. This will all be need-to-know" he added, before looking to his right to Cyrus, who rose to speak.
"If any of you do not wish to participate then you may leave now, if not we will take your staying as silent confirmation of the aforementioned ruling" the brunette Script mage said. There was a brief muttering, however no one made a move. After a moment Cyrus nodded back to Walter.
"Good. Then I may tell you of the exact reasons of why you are all here" he said. I breathed in a little. Does he mean to tell them about those people? The ones who took me I thought, a pang of anger running through me at the memory of the witch who imprisoned me. "We brought together all of the guilds we feel could help us on our mission. Our mission is a simple one, but handed down to us, albeit indirectly, from our mentor. We need to deal with twelve individuals, each is a capable and powerful wizard, and each holds a unique ability. They are a danger to us all, but in order to stop them we feel we must request your assistance" Walter proclaimed. Cyrus flicked his sleeve and the pen he used for his magic shot out. He drew a few symbols in the air and a screen of shimmering grey light appeared in front of every member in the room.
"That's like archive" Hibiki commented, from his position beside the other members of the Trimens. Cyrus shook his head.
"Similar, but not quite" he said, before Walter took over again.
"These screens will display what we know of the individuals in question" he stated, "Firstly, there is twelve of them, as we said, however we ourselves have defeated three and another two were recently taken out with the aid of the very guild we're all sitting in" he nodded to Makarov. Another muttering went around the table.
"If you can defeat them yourselves why do you need us?" Eve Tearm questioned, eyes glancing over the information appearing on the screen. I didn't really bother reading it, I was only really here because Erza said to be, and I was only really interested in beating up the guys who attacked me.
"Yeah, I always heard that you Triplet Code worked under the radar, away from the aid of other guilds" Lyon Vastia spoke up, sitting between Jura and their guilds master, Ooba Babasaama. Gray muttered something I couldn't hear when his childhood rival spoke. Walter nodded to the Ice Make wizard.
"That is true, we have avoided fighting alongside other guilds because of the nature of the work we do. Often, I must admit, we have done some pretty awful things, mostly in the name of the Magic Council, who funds us" Walter replied, "However… that is the past, and we fight these twelve for the future. Recently I, along with my associates, have been fighting and working and even living beside those of Fairy Tail. This was initially just to find the two targets that we suspected were nearby, however as we went on we found that it could indeed be beneficial to have allies. So that is why we want you to help us". Lyon smiled, seemingly satisfied by that response.
"Will there be any reward?" Risley Law of Mermaid Heel asked, earning a look from Erza.
Walter grinned. "Err… does the warm fuzzy feeling of knowing you did the right thing count?" he asked. Risley smiled.
"Nice try" she said. Walter chuckled.
"Well I suppose it's only natural for wizards to look at rewards for jobs they go on" he commented, before shrugging, "I guess we could say three million, thirty thousand jewel for each wizard" he added, smiling at the small gasp that escaped some of the members here, including Lucy.
"That much for just taking out one of these guys?" Jura asked skeptically, "Are they really so much trouble?"
Walter nodded. "I would be willing to go higher, depending on which target you took out. These people are dangerous and I don't really want you all to risk your lives doing our job, so I would allow you time to consider your options before you agree to this" he said carefully, before bringing up more information onto the screens in front of everyone. "Speaking of the targets, here's the list" he added. I glanced over the names that showed up, seeing the two I knew; Succubus and Sand Man, which each had a line through them.
"These can't be their names, they're too stupid" Sting Eucliffe said. I glanced over to the blond Guildmaster, noting that he was looking over to me and smiling.
"Well… they're the nicknames we've given them" Walter said amusedly. "They usually reflect their powers"
"What about these ones" Gray spoke up from besides me, "The unnamed Targets". I gave him a sideways glance, noting that he was looking at Sting too.
"About that… I need to admit one thing; we don't have information on all of them" Walter said, "We know about several of them, and have even fought a few on the odd occasion, however… some are so good at giving us the slip we don't even know their abilities" he admitted.
Lyon looked to Walter with confusion. "If you don't have knowledge of them then how are we supposed to help you fight them?" he asked flatly. Gray looked to Lyon, a small nod aimed towards his rival.
Walter rubbed the back of his head. "These twelve are the epitome of evil and chaos. They would only do things that benefit them and the resulting evil that would cause is their biggest give away. If you suspect someone and are able to catch them then I would put it to you to ask them one question" Walter said. Jura raised an eyebrow, and I noticed Makarov looking intently at the other Wizard Saint.
"What question?" the Lamia Scale member asked.
"What is your nightmare?" Walter stated, earning a muttering of confusion. I took the opportunity to whisper to Gray.
"Is there something going on with Sting, you keep looking at him" I asked. Gray looked to me and then to the blond.
"No, it's… nothing" he said.
/
Gray POV
After the meeting had begun I sat in quiet as Walter announced to the group. I took the opportunity to analyze who was around us. Of course I immediately recognized all of those gathered, friends and allies from our past adventures all present; the Trimens, Ichiya, and Bob from Blue Pegasus, Lyon, Jura and Ooba from Lamia Scale, Sting and Rogue from Sabertooth, of course Natsu, Erza, Lucy and Gramps, as well as Kagura, Risely and Millianna from Mermaid Heel, and finally Walter and Cyrus. Looking at the group I was impressed at how many powerful wizards had attended, although one thing struck me as odd. Where is Blake?
The dark, brooding, black haired demon-mage was not seated with his team mates. Probably off doing something, I suppose he wouldn't be good at actually talking to these guys I commented mentally, before turning my attention to Natsu with a subtle glance. No one had found it suspicious that we were both late together, thankfully, although it annoyed me that Lyon was here. He'll probably make some comment later about how 'childish' I am for being late.
As I sat listening to Walter I began to notice another feeling, like I was being watched. Looking once more around the assembled group I noted that Sting was looking over in our direction, instead of focusing on Walter. Why is he watching us? I thought confusedly Does he still idolize Natsu that badly or something?
Deciding to ignore the stares of the blond I refocused my attention to Walter and to the screens that were in front of us. When the names appeared I heard the blond chirp up from his seat between Rogue and Kagura. "These can't be their names, they're too stupid" he said.
"Well… they're the nicknames we've given them" Walter replied with an amused tone. "They usually reflect their powers"
I noted how true that was. That witch had her damned power over Natsu, and that guy with the sand… Memories of that unpleasant night filled my mind, until I noticed that near the end of the list there was no names, just the word 'Target' and a number. "What about these ones" I called out, "The unnamed Targets". Walter looked to me, along with Lyon and Sting. I ignored the smirk from Lyon, but then noticed the wider grin from the blond. Why's he smiling like that, it's not like I said anything funny? I thought, Actually… is that at me or… I looked towards Natsu, following the line from Natsu's face to Sting's. He's looking at Natsu?
I heard Walter explain about the targets, however it was background noise; my whole attention was focused on why Sting was looking to Natsu. After a moment of thought I returned to the room, hearing a mumbling around me. Natsu leaned in and whispered to me. "Is there something going on with Sting, you keep looking at him" he asked. I held my breath without meaning to, worrying that Natsu had thought I was staring or something. When he looked a little more intently at me I allowed my gaze to jump to the other Dragon Slayer, who was talking with his guildmate, and then back to the pinkette beside me. "No, it's… nothing" I said. Natsu nodded, smiling, before returning his attention to the group. I breathed out. He'll probably bring it up later, right now he just wants to leave. I know he hasn't really looked at any of the information on that screen, he's more interested in beating guys up than reading I thought, a slight smile on my lips. I know that because that's exactly how I feel too.
After a little more discussion as to what each of the names meant a bell rang out from somewhere nearby. Walter heard it and then looked to Cyrus, who stood up again. "That's half of the meeting time covered. If there are no lasting questions, then we may adjourn for now and I believe our next meeting time is in two hours" there was a quiet rustling as people communicated between themselves.
"I have a question" Ichiya raised his hand, causing a quiet to form in the room. The Perfume mage stood up in his chair.
"Yes, mister Ichiya, what is it you would like to ask?" Cyrus said diplomatically. Ichiya struck a pose.
"Well… throughout the whole of this meeting," he began, striking another pose, "I have been smelling quite a fortunate parfum. Whilst the danger that is posed by these targets are great, I'm sure there is not one person here who doesn't want to take up your call to arms. So, I would just like to ask you this, why did all three of your members not appear in this meeting, you are supposed to be the triplet code, correct? We all appeared, why did you not?" he asked. There was a small furrowing of brows by a few of the wizards.
"Actually… if I recall correctly I saw Blake leaving the guild hall earlier this morning" Lucy commented. Makarov nodded.
"Yes, I think I saw him leaving around 8AM" the tiny Guildmaster concurred.
Walter rubbed his hands together. "Yeah, that'd be about right. I sent him to gather up a few supplies from our home base whilst me and Cyrus took the meeting. He can't speak so I figured having him do that would be a better use of his time" the Requip mage answered. Now that their question was satisfied no other mage seemed to raise another question.
"Right, so see you all here in two hours" Walter finished, "Remember that, Natsu and Gray, two hours, alright?" with that the meeting ended. Walter and Cyrus lead all of us out of the room, whilst Makarov explained the rules of the guildhall to the other wizards. I fell into step beside Natsu, "You want to go get a bite to eat somewhere?" I asked the pink haired Fire mage. He looked to me and smiled.
"Yeah, sure I do" he replied. Before we could escape the group I felt a small tap on the shoulder. Lyon was just passing me.
"Do try to be on time, Gray, otherwise you might just be too late to stop me from whisking Juvia off her feet" he said, moving to follow the rest of his guild whilst me and Natsu darted into a side corridor.
"Stupid Lyon" I sighed, making Natsu chuckle.
"Don't be jealous Gray, you can't have Juvia… and me" he whispered. I smiled at him.
"Shut up Natsu, it was your fault we were late this morning" I said. Natsu pouted at me.
"Are we going to have this argument again?" he asked mockingly. I shook my head.
"No, I don't want to argue, I want to eat" I said. Natsu nodded, leaning in discreetly to place a kiss on my cheek whilst no one was about.
"Yeah, me too" he said, "So let's go" he tugged at my arm. Before I could leave with him we heard another set of footsteps coming back from the corridor where the rest of the group had gone. Natsu immediately leapt away from me, each trying our best to look casual.
Before we could even see who it was, however, we were greeted with a loud shout. "There you are!" the blond wizard said. I stared in surprise as Sting leapt around the corner. "When I didn't notice you were with the group I figured you must have ducked out" he said. I looked at him carefully.
"What are you doing here Sting, I thought you'd be with Rogue and the rest of the group" I commented. Sting shrugged.
"Rogue's busy sending a message back to Sabertooth to tell them how it's going, whilst I" he pointed to himself, "Wanted to ask you something". I raised an eyebrow as Natsu answered.
"What did you want to ask us?" Natsu asked. Sting smiled.
"Do you know any good places to eat?" he beamed.
/
Natsu POV
Gray was pouting as we ordered lunch. "I think I'll have fish" I said to the waitress.
"Me too" Gray said, a little grumpily.
"Yeah, me too" Sting added, smiling broadly. After Sting had run into us at the guild I had invited him to come eat with us. Although Gray hadn't made any direct objection to it, he seemed to sulk whilst we ate.
"I still think your so cool Natsu, I heard about how you got captured and was ready to assist if it was required. But then we got word that you were rescued and I was pretty relieved" Sting said, before taking a bite out of his fish. I nodded to him.
"Yeah, they did some pretty bad things" I said, trying to avoid the thoughts of just how terrible it had been, "But it was okay 'cause Gray got me out with the help of the guild" I added, smiling at Gray. Gray smiled back, but remained quiet.
"That must have been hard, but I'm glad you're good now, and I think I will probably accept those guys' offer to fight. I mean, if they are as big of a problem to be able to capture you then they will probably need to be beat, right?" Sting responded, seemingly oblivious to Gray's bad attitude. I nodded as I ate.
"Yeah, I'm gonna turn each one of 'em to ash" I said with a grin. Sting returned the grin before putting down his cutlery, done eating.
"Yeah, but only if they've managed to escape my Holy Ray" Sting said cockily. I chuckled a little as Sting stood up. "Sorry, I've just gotta go to the toilet" he apologised, leaving quickly. I watched him go, before turning my attention to the now scowling face of my boyfriend sitting opposite.
"Something wrong?" I asked him. He huffed.
"Why'd you have to invite him, this was just supposed to be us two?" Gray said, a little annoyance in his tone. I shrugged.
"He seemed friendly, and I felt bad for leaving him on his own" I replied. Gray just snorted derisively.
"Does that mean you care about him more than me?" he accused. I shook my head, leaning over to rest my hand on his briefly.
"Of course not, but he is a Guildmaster, and if we're going to be fighting with these guys shouldn't we be friends?" I countered. Gray retracted his hand.
"Yeah but…" he sighed. I cocked my head.
"Is this because of what happened in the meeting?" I asked. Gray looked to me, a little fear in his eyes.
"Natsu…" he said, "I swear nothing was going on in the meeting it was just… I saw he was looking at us, and then I think he was looking at you" Gray spoke quickly. I furrowed my brows.
"What do you mean, he was just smiling, and anyways, Lyon was looking at you" I said. Gray shook his head.
"Not like what Sting was looking at you. It was no accident he came to find us; I think… he might have been looking for you specifically" Gray said.
I laughed quietly. "You don't think he is…"
"Yes, I do" Gray stated quickly. I shook my head.
"Impossible. When people like another person they give off a smell, like… pheromones" I said. "When Sting's been around us I haven't smelled anything like that, so I don't think he likes me like that"
"I don't know Natsu… did you ever smell that from me?" Gray replied, taking a sip from his glass of water. I thought about it a little.
"I guess… not… but then, it's harder to tell when the smell is for you specifically" I explained. Gray went to say something else but Sting returned.
"Sorry about that, what are we talking about?" he said.
"Oh… just… guild stuff" Gray said quickly, "But anyways, I just wanted to ask you a question"
"Sure, ask away" Sting replied, taking a drink.
Gray grinned, "What's it like being a Master?"
/
After the meal we said goodbye to Sting. He headed off to the guild to find Rogue whilst I walked with Gray around town. "So… you really think Sting's attracted to me?" I asked Gray quietly. The Ice mage looked to me, before leading me down a side street to another lane.
"Yes, I do… but can we just wait until we get to my apartment" Gray said, "I don't want people catching us talking about that out here" he took my hand and lead me along another street, reappearing very near to his place. Once we arrived I darted inside and Gray locked the door behind us.
"Right, so now we can talk" I said. Gray nodded.
"Yeah. I just want to say this; Sting likes you Natsu" the dark haired wizard said. I rolled my eyes.
"You said that already, but I don't think that's true. Sure he smiled at me, and sure he found us at the guild, but that doesn't mean he likes me. He said I was his idol, remember, and he always wanted to have a drink with me and stuff after the games so maybe he just wanted to be friends" I said bored of Gray's complaints already. Gray shook his head.
"Stop being stupid, flame brain, he likes you… it was obvious" he said. I jumped down onto Gray's sofa whilst the Ice mage leaned against the wall, facing me.
"I told you, he doesn't smell like he would so he doesn't like me" I said, pouting a little. Gray sighed loudly.
"Will you stop being so stubborn?" he cried out, "And just see what's in front of you"
"I am, and all I see is two guys, one who wants to be my friend and the other who is my stubborn, jealous boyfriend" I said, laying down on the sofa so my full body was facing Gray.
"Okay, fine, maybe I might be a bit jealous, but… could you please just be careful around Sting, I don't want anything to happen" Gray said, walking over to me and kneeling so that his face was close to mine. I nodded and smiled.
"If that will stop you complaining, then yes, I'll be careful" I said, before leaning up to kiss him softly.
"Good, because he really does like you" he said with a smile. I tickled his side.
"And I'm telling you that he doesn't like me that way, not like how I like you, popsicle" I said with a small chuckle. As soon as I said that Gray was leaning in for another kiss, however I pushed him off and sat up so that he could sit beside me. Gray did, and as soon as his butt hit the seat I sat on top of him, pushing him down.
"Nats-" he exclaimed in surprise, before my lips silenced him. I grinned down at him as I pulled away.
"I just wanted to show you how wrong you are that you could think I would let anyone take my attention more than you" I said, before pulling me and Gray close "Now tell me again how you think Sting likes me". Gray smiled and pressed his lips to mine.
"Guess I'm wrong then, so show me how much I'm wrong" he chuckled, before we began making out.
/
A little while later
We returned to the guild hall with plenty of time to spare, much to the annoyance of Gray. "We coulda spent a little more time together" he mumbled as we made our way over to the booth Lucy and Erza were sitting in.
I rolled my eyes at Gray before sitting down next to Lucy. "Hey guys" Lucy said cheerfully. I smiled.
"Hey, what're you talking about?" I asked. Gray slumped down next to Erza as the red head replied.
"We were just discussing the meeting" she said calmly, "We were trying to work out who would be working with us"
"Yeah, I think that they will probably all help, although I wonder how much Walter is going to tell them" Lucy said. I nodded, taking in what the blonde was saying without really listening.
"I just want to bring the beat to those guys before they attack us again" I said, a little fire rising in my eyes as I thought about the fights ahead. Erza shook her head, thinking levelly as usual.
"They were powerful, and from what I heard you had some trouble dealing with that 'Sand Man' when you escaped the castle" she stated. Lucy nodded, a slight grimace on her face at the memory.
"Yeah, he was tough" she said, "We couldn't really do anything against him, it was all Blake" she added. I scowled, being reminded how useless I was in that evening really annoyed me. I noticed Gray smirk a little from his seat.
"Don't worry Natsu, I'm sure you'll be more help next time" he said, earning a look from Erza and a gasp from Lucy.
"Gray!" the blonde scolded, "You can't say that, it's not Natsu's fault he was caught, right Natsu?" she looked to me. I nodded.
"Yeah, I had to take that guy on pretty much alone, I'd like to see you better, droopy eyes" I retorted, a grin forming on my own face. Gray sighed and went back to his quiet self.
Erza gave him another look before standing up. "You two need to take this threat more seriously, we've already had to rescue someone once, I don't want to have to do it again" she said, before moving to leave, "Now I'm going to go find Kagura, there's something I want to ask her" she added, before marching off to find the other powerful Sword mage.
"See ya Erza" I barked out before leaving. Lucy got up too and I looked to her momentarily.
"Speaking of finding people, I need to go talk to Mira about a job I reserved. I don't think I need to keep it if this 'mission' is going to be keeping us busy, I'll see you later" she said, before dashing over to the counter to find the Take-over mage. As soon as Lucy was gone I looked to Gray intently.
"Well, we're alone now" I said with a smile. Gray cocked his head.
"Yeah, but we're in the guild, so we can't do anything" Gray replied sullenly. I rolled my eyes and leaned over to him. Before I could whisper what I wanted to, however, a voice sounded behind me. I turned in time to be met with a huge smile.
"Hey you two, have you just come back?" Sting said, Rogue standing at his shoulder.
I nodded. "Yeah, why? Did you need something?" I asked, glancing over to Gray to find the Ice mage in an even worse mood than before.
Sting shook his head. "No, after I left you two at the restaurant I went straight to the guild, where Rogue was waiting" he gestured with his head to his companion. Rogue smiled a little.
"I must thank you for assisting Sting" he said calmly, "I'm sure he must have bugged you". Sting scowled at the Shadow Dragon Slayer.
"Rooooogue!" he complained, hitting his friend in the arm. I laughed a little at their actions, despite Sting becoming Guildmaster, and despite all that had happened with Jiemma and Minerva at the Tartaros base they still seemed the same somewhat childish pair that we fought at the games.
Suddenly Walter appeared on the landing above us. "Hey guys, the meeting's gonna start in three minutes, everyone here should get to the meeting hall, if anyone's not here can someone go fetch them, thank you" he barked. Before anyone could even process his commands the Requip mage disappeared off somewhere, Cyrus at his heels. Sting looked to us and then to Rogue. "Guess this means we'll leave you two here, see you inside Natsu, Gray" he bowed his head before leaving, Rogue muttering something as he left that sounded like 'idiot'.
We looked to each other before standing up ourselves, Erza coming over. "Ready for another boring talk?" I asked Gray, who was still eyeing up the retreating back of Sting. I clapped my hands in front of his face to get his attention. "Hey, Gray, did you hear me? I swear, if you keep looking at Sting any longer I'm gonna start thinking you fancy him" I said. Gray snapped his attention to me at that.
"Shut it, pyro" he said, "What did I tell you, why did you have to enguage with him" he added. I rolled my eyes.
"For the last time St-" I started stopping only when I noticed Erza arriving beside us.
"What are you two muttering about? You better not be arguing again" she scolded. I sighed, between Gray's sulking and Erza's scolding today was not as fun as I had imagined it would be.
/
The meeting resumed in the stated three minutes. Erza practically dragged us to our seats, insisting we could not be late again, as the Master and Lucy followed us in. Once we were all seated Walter stood up, Cyrus quickly writing the same spell in the air as he had before to make the screens reappear. "Right, now that you all have had a couple of hours to deliberate I wanted to restart this meeting by asking you if you have any thoughts, or concerns, regarding what I told you last time" Walter started. There was a brief moment of quiet before Makarov raised his hand. Walter gestured to the Fairy Tail Guildmaster. "Yes, Master Makarov. I have informed you of much of what we intended when we first arrived, so if you have anything new to ask I'm sure you've given this some thought" Walter said. Makarov cleared his throat.
"Yes. When you arrived here and brought up the terms of our little arrangement I recall I asked you for details of your mission, which you willingly, albeit under secrecy, gave me. What I have to ask you now, however, is to do with your connection to the Magic Council" Makarov said. There was a small muttering around the table. Walter nodded.
"Alright, go on" he said, nodding to Makarov. The elder wizard stood up in his chair, gaining the attention of everyone in the room.
"Thank you. So, as I said, I wanted to ask you this; why does the Magic Council want these specific twelve captured?" he asked. Walter pouted in thought for a moment before smiling.
"Okay yeah… that's a good question, but the truth is this has nothing to do with the Council" Walter said. There were a few small gasps of surprise.
"As I suspected" Makarov said, "That leads me to ask just one more question; what is your connection to the Council?" he added a moment later. There was another murmur.
"Yeah, from what I heard the Triplet Code is part of some guild that works directly for the Council" Lyon said, "If you've no connection to the Council then how can you make a request for guilds to band together like this, only the Council has that authority".
Walter held his hands up as Makarov took his seat. "Okay… okay… Yeah, we're not doing this for the Council, but we are doing this for the good of everyone. The truth about us is this; our connection isn't with the Council per say, more that we are directly under the command, or more accurately we adhere to the requests of, a few select members. These are most notably former member Yajima, Lahar and Doranbolt of the Rune Knights, as well as the now sadly deceased Org. In addition to this all Chairmen are made aware of our presence, although usually through an intermediary chosen by us" Walter exaplained. I glanced at Gramps, who wore a slight smile.
"So Yajima knew about you" he mused. Walter nodded.
"Yes, Mister Yajima was our intermediary for a time, and we often did as he requested since he was such a positive influence in the Council" Walter noted. I smiled, remembering the few times I had worked for the ex-Council member in his restaurant.
The amusement did not last as Jura stood up to speak. "If I may ask you something then" the Wizard Saint spoke, "We Wizard Saints have recently reformed the Magic Council, how come we were not informed of your presence when we were given clear reports of all Council activities previous to the Tartaros incident?"
Walter rubbed the back of his head. "We were aware of the reformation, however we had not yet decided whether to appear. As for the reports, what we do is mostly highly confidential, and as such there are no 'official' reports, just the knowledge that those select few have on the matter. As I believe it stands now, besides those continuing their work in the Council, only Chairman Hyberion has been made aware of our existence" the Requip mage explain quickly. Jura frowned, but returned to sitting with his guildmates.
"If I may also add something" Cyrus spoke up, before tapping his screen in front of him to make images of a few of the Wizard Saints appear, including Jura, "We have been deliberating whether or not to request these members be made aware of us, so if you were not informed now then you would have been in the future" the brunette explained. Jura nodded to him,
Walter breathed in an audible breath. "Now that's cleared up, does anyone have any other questions?" he asked. A clanking of metal sounded from beside me as Erza rose from her seat. I glanced at her before pinning my attention back to Walter; whatever Erza asked I just hoped she liked the response Walter gave her.
"Yes, I have a question" she said boldly. Walter grinned.
"Ah yes, Titania Erza… what would you like to ask?" Walter said, no fear in his voice, which surprised me.
"I would like to ask what danger is actually posed by these twelve people, besides their powers. They seem more like trouble makers, not world class villains" she said.
Walter clapped his hands. "A good question, and one I'm sure a few of you asked yourselves during our little adjournment" he said, "The danger posed by these twelve is innumerable… as you said their power alone is dangerous, however…" Walter pushed his chair out and began to pace near to his seat, "their real problem lies in their connection" he said. A few quizzical looks formed on people's faces. I looked to Gray, who glanced at me with questions in his eyes.
"What connection?" Ichiya asked.
Walter's face turned serious. "They are all connected by a spell. This spell will unleash a powerful being if at least five of them remain in three months' time" he said flatly. Lucy gasped.
"Three months?!" she said. A few similar comments flew around the room.
"Why did you neglect to inform us of this before?" Erza accused.
Walter shrugged. "We believed their danger to be minimal until Natsu and Cyrus were kidnapped, now they are more of a threat we feel we must inform you of this. I decided to wait until now so you could process the other information and not feel pressured into acting alongside us" he explained. Erza cocked her head slightly, listening to Walter acutely.
Kagura raised her hand next. "So you've established the danger and the rewards of this mission, however I still have one question" she said. We all looked to the sword bearing wizard, waiting for her question. "Why should we fight with you, when we don't know anything about you or your powers?" she asked coldly. Erza seemed to smile slightly, obvious in agreement with Kagura's question.
Walter laughed, which made everyone jumped, and look to him with confusion. "That's exactly what I would expect you to ask" he chuckled, "However… it is still a valid question so I suppose you deserve an answer, if you'll direct your attention to the screens before you" he pointed downwards, retaking his seat. Kagura, as well as Erza, sat, although Kagura wore a significantly more skeptical face than Erza did.
Walter grinned. "Right, now that you're seated, observe" he tapped the screen twice and an image began playing of him standing in a plain brick room, "My magic, if that's what you're interested in, is simple; I use two forms, Requip magic, and Swift magic" he said. The image played out, firstly showing him Requipping into his Titan Gloves, followed by two wicked looking knives, and finally a whole body Requip into a red suit with flame patterns and matching gloves. "My Requip style is the Brawler, it allows me to easily shift between gloves, hand-held weapons like knives, guns and claws, as well as cloth armor or suits" Walter explained, "My other magic, Swift, is a special magic I found that allows me to move a set amount of steps in just one step, it's Spatial magic". Instead of taping the screen Walter stood up, "Observe, Swift; 10 Steps" he said, before moving in a blur of motion to the space behind Kagura's seat. "See" he said causing the sword wielding wizard to spin around in as much surprise as others. Before she could strike at him, however, Walter had returned to his seat. "I hope that satisfies you" he commented. Kagura seemed a little suspicious still, but nodded all the same.
"What about you?" Lyon asked, looking to Cyrus. Cyrus stood up.
"I use two forms of magic, just as Walter does. My first is the one before you, observe" he said, taking his pen in hand and writing a symbol intricately in the air. He snapped his fingers and it activated, causing a little fire to glow in the space above his seat. "I use Script magic, more accurately a specific form called Rainbow Script. Through its powers I can manipulate the elements, both empower and weaken spells, take control and warp magic, as well as control, to a lesser extent, light and shadow" Cyrus explained, before extinguishing the flame he conjured.
Hibiki raised his hand. "So you can use your magic to form screens like Archive?" the Archive mage asked. Cyrus nodded.
"Sort of. You can use Archive to store, collect, and transfer data, all I can do is use a mixture of my grey and white scripts to form these screens to show thoughts. All the data we showed you came straight from my mind" Cyrus stated. Hibiki seemed impressed, but didn't say anything further.
"You said you could use two magical abilities, if I may ask, what is your other power?" Master Bob of Blue Pegasus asked.
Walter smiled at the creepy Guildmaster, as Cyrus tapped the table. "Well… my other power is a form of Eye magic, the Scribe's Eyes, however… it would be difficult to demonstrate. All I can really say about it is that it allows me to understand spells that I see" Cyrus tried to explain. Everyone mumbled about the unhelpfulness of Cyrus' description, however, having seen them both first hand I didn't really care what the others thought. Both of those guys were powerful.
"What about your missing comrade?" Jura asked, "Blake was it? What is his magic?"
Walter stood up to respond. "I'm afraid it's a little more difficult to explain his, if you still want to know later, when he returns then I'm sure that he can give you all a demonstration" the Requip mage said. Another grumble went around the assembled group as Walter once again refused to provide an 'acceptable' answer to their questions. I almost went to say something about how awesome they all were, however a sudden eruption of noise came from the entrance to the room, swiftly followed by the arrival of Mirajane.
"I'm sorry to disturb you all, however…" she began, Walter raised an eyebrow.
"Is something wrong, Mira?" Lucy asked. The Take-over mage nodded.
"Yes, Blake has just entered and he looks like he's be attacked" she said. There was a loud collective gasp around the table. My first thought was; Am I going to get to fight now?
Chapter 11 End
Next Chapter; Secret sharing