Chapter 14: Aria v. Tessa
Both Aria and Gajeel quickly brought forth their dragon slayer magic aura, engulfing them powerfully as they stared at their opponents. Happy didn't know what to do, so for the meanwhile he resorted on hiding behind one of the rock pillars to cover himself. He had seen the other dragon slayers in action, but this was the first time he was going to see Aria in a fight that wasn't a spar.
Panther Lily was the first one to make a move, using his enormous sword to slice away at them. They moved out of the way as the piece of the island that they had just been standing on, was sliced off and crumbling down.
E. Tessa took advantage of their distraction and dashed forward, using one sword to slash at Aria and the other one at Gajeel. Aria ducked down and Gajeel covered his arms in his iron to block her attack. Before he could retaliate, Panther Lily came down flying with an attack on his own, sending both dragon slayers clashing into one another on the ground, creating a crater.
"You're fucking heavy, get off me." Aria grunted from underneath. E. Tessa and Panther Lily looked at them, her face not impressed by any means by them.
"If I knew they were not going to be a challenge, I would've left them just for you."
Panther Lily glared at them, "Don't put your guard down. They're Earthland Wizards."
Aria and Gajeel panted but quickly dashed forward. Panther Lily took to the skies in an instant, but Happy came flying and took a hold of Gajeel, taking him to take the fight to the skies.
"You haven't stopped staring at me," E. Tessa commented, "Do I remind you of someone?"
"Shut your mouth," Aria growled as she did a combo of kicks, but Tessa had blocked every single one. One of her long swords glowed brightly and unleashed a powerful blow of magic at Aria, sending her flying and slamming against the lacrima.
Aria felt enraged. She snarled loudly as she dashed forward again, "Thunder Dragon Roar!"
E. Tessa's eyes widened as she saw and heard the clash of thunder going directly towards her. In the skies, Panther Lily's eyes widened and both Gajeel and Happy saw it. She raised her swords in form of a shield to brace herself from the attack. As the dust faded away, she had no time to react when Aria had landed a kick on her, sending her flying towards Gajeel's direction.
"GET HER!" Aria yelled at him from her spot. Gajeel's eyes widened as E. Tessa had been kicked in his direction. She was wide open for an attack. He grabbed her by the throat, but just as he was about to slam her into the ground under him, she opened his eyes and he froze completely. It didn't matter if this was another version of her, they were still her eyes.
His hesitation cost him greatly as Panther Lily was able to land a hit on him with his fist. He took a hold of E. Tessa as he saw the iron dragon slayer and cat crash onto the ground. Aria winced at the force of the punch and ran to him. He was groaning as he held his head with Happy tenderly holding his tail.
"What the fuck was that? I sent her right at you! You could've taken her down with one blow!"
He wasn't meeting her gaze. That made her angrier, "That's not Tessa. You've sparred with her before. I don't understand why you're having issues with hitting her now. It's not like you l—"
She stopped suddenly as her eyes widened in realization. It would explain his hesitation and the way he had immediately gone after Panther Lily.
"Huh," she said as she placed both hands on her hips, "So my suspicions were right after all."
His head turned so fast to look at her he almost gave himself whiplash, "W-what?!"
Happy snickered, completely forgetting about the pain in his tail, "You loooooove her!"
The way Gajeel blushed and started sputtering just made it worse for him. There was no way in hell he had feelings for Tessa.
Aria decided that now was not the time to tease the man, "Get your head out of your ass. This isn't her. The real Tessa is better than this. This is a trashy copy."
The clicking of heels made Aria turn around. E. Tessa was glaring furiously at her, "Trashy copy?"
Aria smirked as she cracked her knuckles, "You heard me right."
—- - -
Laxus leaned against the stone wall as he heard Carla telling Tessa everything about the exceeds and their supposed mission. The other three had taken off to find the King, and he was going with them as well. But it was when he heard Wendy telling Carla what she wanted to do and hearing her ask Tessa to come with her, he decided to stay back.
He liked the kid and he knew she probably could hold her own a bit. However, she was still recovering from the torturing she had been put through. Tessa would only be able to defend her but not retaliate fully if they were to be attacked. After he had heard what Carla had said about the exceeds, he knew it was not going to be pretty for the exceed to get back up to Extalia.
"But how are we going to get there?" Tessa asked, "Lightbulb over here is with us now. That's too much weight for Carla."
His eyebrow twitched at the nickname, "I can teleport all of you up there. It's right above us right?"
Wendy blinked at the taller man and nodded, "Yeah, it is."
"Then let's go, there's no time to waste."
Wendy held on to his arm and Tessa wrapped her arms around her. There's no way I'm holding on to him like that. Aria can say what she wants, but she would murder me, she thought to herself. Carla grabbed on to his other hand and suddenly all of them were covered by his lightning.
In a blink of an eye, they landed in the middle of a street in Extalia.
The exceeds gasped loudly as they saw the electrical sparks from the dragon slayer. Some were cowering in fear, others were yelling at them already in disgust and anger.
"That's the fallen!"
"Why is she with the humans?"
"They're so disgusting looking!"
"Get them out of here!"
Wendy flinched at their words but didn't let them get to her, "Please! We must speak to your Queen! All of you are in danger right now!"
Her voice was still raw from her previous screams, but she was desperate for them to hear her out. Carla continued, "The Royal Army turned the Exceed Army into a lacrima!"
A brown cat scoffed at them, "Our army defeated by the likes of you? You're delusional."
Laxus' patience was running thin. Tessa felt his aura spark from behind her and she quickly turned around.
"Look here nightlight," she started as she poked him with a finger, "You need to learn to be patient! You need a LOT of patience with Aria too! You can't let some harmless cats—"
She was interrupted as a rock hit her right on the head. She whirled around quickly and yelled at the cats.
"Which one of you did that?!"
Her answer was more exceeds tossing rocks at them. Wendy and Carla pleaded for them to stop and to listen to them. Tessa grabbed both of them and created a glass like box to protect them from the blows.
"What are we going to do? They're not listening!"
Laxus rolled his eyes. He told Tessa to remove the barrier and he stepped forward, his lightning circling around him. He kept his hands inside his pockets as he glared at the cats.
"You furballs are pretty damn ballsy to be throwing rocks at us," He said seriously as his lightning started scaring the exceeds and stopping their attacks, "Let us speak to your Queen unless you want to die."
—- - - -
Aria had noticed that whenever her thunder would rumble, Gajeel would gain the upperhand. She came to the conclusion that the big exceed hated the sound of thunder. She made sure every attack would rumble loudly to help out Gajeel in the distance.
She had gotten successful and destroyed one of E. Tessa's swords, leaving her with just one. However, destroying the sword had left a deep gash on her left forearm and droplets of blood kept flying everywhere whenever she would attack E. Tessa. She started using her speed more, transforming into her thunder form and slamming into E. Tessa as much as she could. E. Tessa covered herself as much as she could until she saw an opening on Aria. She jumped in the air and hit Aria on her back right shoulder with the hilt of her sword that had a small blade right on her back. She skidded on the floor towards the edge after the impact, desperately trying to hold on to a rock. She slipped off and she barely got a hold of the edge of the island with her injured arm and grunted. She could feel the blood dripping from her back where the smaller blade had dug in.
She was going to pull herself up, but she screamed in agony as she felt a sharp heel digging in her knuckle.
"Hm. You're powerful. But still weak compared to me," E. Tessa sneered as she pressed her heel deeper through the flesh of Aria's hand.
"Your friends will crash against Extalia and they will die. Edolas will forever have magic to sustain it and there is nothing that you can do about it. Your other friends will die at the hands of the rest of the Royal Army Captains."
Aria winced as she glared at her, "Y-you're wrong! I'm going to slam your head into the ground!"
E. Tessa laughed, "You would have to get up here f—"
The woman didn't finish as a blur of black slammed into her with such force and pushed her away.
Aria gasped since she knew the heel was the only thing anchoring her from falling, but now that she was gone, Aria had lost the feel of her hand. As she felt herself slipping, she felt someone grabbing her shoulders and pulling her up.
She turned around and sighed in relief, "Happy!"
"Sorry I couldn't get here sooner. Panther Lily wouldn't let me."
He placed her on the ground and she hissed as she held her hand, "How did you then?"
"Gajeel destroyed his sword! He then punched him and sent him crashing against the fake Tessa."
Aria turned to see Gajeel walking up to them, his famous smirk plastered on his face as he cracked his knuckles.
"You good to continue?"
E. Tessa's angry screech because her last sword was broken made her grin.
"Like never before."
Both slayers ran to them and started battling it out with hand to hand combat. Panther Lily discarded his armor, making his movements faster than what they already were before. E. Tessa was furious that both of her weapons had been broken, her anger giving her attacks the energy that they needed. However, Aria started to notice flaws in the other woman's attacks and she laughed.
"Some things never change. You still suck at throwing punches!" She roared as she connected a hit right on E. Tessa, followed by rapid kicks and punches. E. Tessa grunted and gasped in pain as she slammed into the lacrima in a sickening crack.
Gajeel was gaining the upper hand on Panther Lily when a ferocious roar was heard. It made all of them freeze in their attacks. It was loud and harsh, making Aria feel fear for an instance.
E. Tessa started chuckling evilly as she slowly stood up, "They've activated the dragon cannon. There's nothing you can do now. It's all over."
Aria's eyes flashed, "Thunder Dragon Wing Attack!"
Panther Lily's eyes widened as he saw the attack connecting to E. Tessa with an intensity the attack didn't have before. He rushed to her to check out her injured form that now laid immobile on the ground.
"She's not dead," Aria said disgustingly. Happy was about to say something when suddenly, the entire island started to shake like a huge tremor.
Gajeel didn't like the sound of it, "Now what?!"
"It's the dragon hook. It's attached itself to the island," Panther Lily replied coldly as he glared at them.
The once blue lacrima started to glow in a red and orange hue. The brightness increased with huge amount of power behind it when they felt it move. Aria's eyes widened as she could see what she guessed the kingdom of Extalia just a few miles away.
"Fuck," Both her and Gajeel said at the same time.
The island started to increase speed as it made its way to its target. Aria looked at the lacrima and started to summon all of her power.
"There's no time for that!" Gajeel said as the island continued growing on speed, "Even both of us won't be able to destroy the whole thing at once."
"What are we supposed to do then? We are getting closer!"
A loud roar made them freeze followed by a familiar cry of battle. They walked over to the edge to see Natsu, Lucy, Erza, Gray, and some girl on top of a monster flying towards them. The creature put itself between Exalia and the lacrima and slammed its head against it, trying to prevent it from going further.
But it wasn't working.
Happy quickly flew down to Natsu and both Gajeel and Aria wasted no time to follow after the exceed. Panther Lily was dumbfounded as Gajeel had called for a temporary truce.
"There's no way to stop it!" Panther Lily called out to them, but his warning fell on deaf ears.
"We are getting out of here alive," Gajeel replied before he jumped down, "And you will be coming back with me and be my cat!"
Aria halted from jumping down when she heard the slayer, "WHAT?!"
He, however, ignored her and jumped down. She looked at Panther Lily and at E. Tessa's unconscious form.
"Get her out of here."
She jumped down and she landed right next to Natsu while Gajeel landed by Erza. She summoned all her magic energy just like the fire dragon slayer and placed both of her hands on the hot surface of the island. She ignored the pain of her bleeding injuries and started pushing with the rest.
"We can't let this thing crash!" Gray yelled loudly.
"We have to do this!" Lucy grunted as she pushed.
"LET'S GO FAIRY TAIL!" Natsu roared loudly.
/././././.
Tessa's heart dropped to her stomach as she saw the energy of the lacrima approaching Extalia.
Laxus clenched his fist and started to walk that way. Carla looked at him, "Where are you going?"
"To stop this thing! You stay here and keep talking to these damn cats. I'm going down there and I'm going to help them stop this thing."
Tessa looked at him confused, "Them?"
His eyes were blazing, "We both know damn well they are there right now. You coming or staying?"
Tessa turned to look at Wendy and then at the lacrima in the distance, "Let's go!"
/././././.
Lucy was sweating profusely as she felt her arms muscles screaming in pain, "This thing is not budging!"
Aria roared as she continued to push with Natsu. She wasn't sure how much longer she was going to be able to continue pushing. Specially with how badly her forearm was.
The island was barely budging.
She felt her eyes burn. There was no way she could give up now. Her and Tessa had found a home finally. A family.
A hand was placed over her injured one and she gasped.
"Looks like you need a hand," a deep voice suddenly said from her right side. Her eyes widened and she turned to see Laxus smirking at her as he removed his hand from hers placed both of his hands on the island and started to push.
"Laxus…"
Aria heard Lucy gasped from her spot, "Tessa!"
Tessa grinned at her, "Wasn't going to let you guys have all the fun!"
They're here, Aria thought to herself, they're safe.
The entire courage that the guild was known to have spread through them like hot lava in their veins. They would all lose something if the lacrima clashed into the exceed kingdom. Their friends that were now their family depended on them. It didn't matter the mistakes of the past at this moment. What mattered the most was for all of them to come together and save all of them.
The sky was lit with various forms of lights. Carla had been the first one to reach the island, and soon after that, every single exceed of Extalia flew down with the Fairy Tail guild members and started to push the gigantic island away.
Laxus genuinely smiled to see the exceeds finally cooperating. He wasn't sure what the white cat had done, but it seemed to have worked.
He felt that the others were slowly diminishing their strength and he yelled out, "WE HAVE ONE LAST SHOT!"
Erza swallowed, "LET'S GIVE IT EVERYTHING WE GOT!"
"ONE LAST PUSH!" Tessa cried out.
The magical auras from both exceeds and the humans combined and moved like the waves of the ocean around them. Their auras jumped out of their bodies and with one last final cry, they all pushed at the same time and successfully pushed the island away.
Aria couldn't believe it as her hands left the walls of the rocky island, but before anyone could cry out in victory, a bright shot of light engulfed the entire island. The wind started to blow like a tornado, making some of the exceeds fly out.
Tessa tried bracing herself as she felt the high winds, and just as she thought she would get sent flying, she felt Gajeel wrapping his arm around her waist tightly.
"You're not going anywhere!" He said as he tried using his whole strength to keep them from being thrown off.
The brightness of the island increased, and the wind did as well. It seemed to have gone for an eternity. Natsu noticed the hook dissolving into the light and he could only wonder what was happening.
His answer appeared before him not soon after. The light faded away and the lacrima of Magnolia disappeared with the light. Several of the exceeds took a hold of them, raising them to the skies to prevent them from getting sucked in when the wind had picked up. Gajeel still had a hold on Tessa as her eyes welled up in tears.
"I'm sorry for taking long," the sudden voice of Mystogan echoed in the sky. The Fairy Tail guild members turned to look at him in surprise.
"It took longer than expected to find an appropriate anima to restore Magnolia, but all of you were successful!"
Wendy's eyes widened, "Everyone is back?!"
She couldn't see it, but she knew he was smiling under his mask, "Everyone has returned to Earthland safely."
Tessa cried out happily and wrapped her arms around Gajeel's neck in celebration as the others yelled out their happiness. She realized what she did, but before she could pull back, the grip around her waist tightened and pulled her closer. He wasn't looking at her, but she could see the blush spreading softly on his cheeks. Her heart swelled with emotion and smiled brightly.
Aria smiled softly as she saw the interaction of the two of them. It seemed that the battle against E. Tessa had given him some sort of courage to express his feelings. Him not hitting the double had been louder than words and she was glad he wasn't hiding it. She turned to look at Laxus who had his arms crossed over his chest in his usual way as an exceed had a hold of him. He felt her gaze on him, but as he was turning to look at her, confusion and surprise spread through some of them as they heard Panther Lily call Mystogan his prince.
However, as they were grasping the news, a shot of energy appeared suddenly and went right through Panther Lily's stomach. Tessa felt Gajeel freeze in shock as Mystogan screaming his name echoed through the dark sky.
"Son of a bitch…" Aria whispered as the Royal Army was flying straight to them.
The battle isn't over yet…