A/N
Hi eeveryone, I know I haven't uploaded in a month and im sorry for that but I was studying for exams and even now im sick and feeling like crap. Fortunately I've manage to write another chapter and even threw in something for the Jerza fans. Please R&R, it really makes my day
The only sound arround any of them was the noise of a crackling fire, it was burning multiple pieces of wood giving the wizards around it warmth and light. They had been walking for hours and were a bit exhausted, specifically the small Dragon Slayer and Celestial mage. Lucy and Wendy were relieved when they had finally gotten a break from all the walking. The group of wizards had decided to set up camp for the night sense it was turning dark and started a fire, Lucy, Wendy and the exceeds were all sitting by the fire enjoying the warmth while the rest of the group were off in the woods each taking care of their own business. The only light source beside the fire was the full moon that was above them which was beautiful yet at the same time a bit creepy. It would take them nearly a whole other day to reach the forest they were heading to and even longer to search it for the guild, then they would just have to walk all the way back home to come up with some sort of attack plan. Lucy did want to take these guys down but at the same time she hated walking everywhere, sense Natsu wasnt around they were able to take trains and carriages to iobs more often but it did mean that they didn't walk as much.
Lucy and Wendy simply sat around the warm fire while back out in the forest, Erza was standing by a cliff looking out into the landscape. She was sitting down calmly looking out till she heard something in the bushes behind her and quickly stood up turning around to see someone standing there in a dark blue hood "who are you?"
"It hasn't been that long Erza, im a bit disappointed that you dont recognize me" he smiled pulling off the hood revealing blue hair with a red tattoo over his right eye
Erza looked at him a bit surprised and nervously brushed her back worried that she was looking a bit messy "J-Jellal? what are you doing here? Where's Meredy and the Oracion Seis?"
He smiled walking closer and looked out at the landscape behind her "they're just a bit to the south, we're currently set up in an old town near here"
She nodded looking back out at the landscape as she stood next to him and looked up at him "that still doesn't answer my question, why are you here?"
"I could be asking you the same thing you know, your quite the distance from Magnolia. As for me.. I sensed Zeref's presence in the east. Were currently heading there till I saw you and decided to say hello" Jellal smiled a bit awkwardly knowing that wasnt the reason.
He liked talking to Erza but he was also nervous about it as well, he was actually forced to talk with her. Cobra had heared her and the rest of the wizards a while ago and after alot of arguing with Meredy and even Angel he decided to just make them happy and come talk with her. "That reminds me, what are you doing here?"
Erza sighed lightly as she crossed her arms under her chest looking up at the moon "we finally have a lead on the guild that was responsible for Natsu's death, we're currently heading to a possible location for the hideout but I just needed some time alone"
He nodded looking at her and moved closer looking into her eyes "How have you been holding up about that anyway? I know you and Natsu were very close and even when you asked me for help a year ago I started wondering if you alright"
She weakly smiled up at him but ended up laying her head against his chest as she clenched her eyes hugging him "I-I miss him Jellal... I only wish I would have been there with him and Lucy... maybe I could have done something. Maybe Natsu would still be here"
A single tear was falling down Erza's cheek before she felt strong arms embrace her holding her close "Dont blame yourself Erza, there's nothing you could have done. All you can do now is be strong, for your friends and for Natsu. If he was here he wouldn't want you crying, he would want you to be smiling and moving forward with your life"
Jellal smiled remembering something similar Natsu had told him about not letting yourself be controlled by ghosts and especially remembered how much he hated seeing Erza cry. Jellal knew he couldn't atone for all his sins but at least he could fix this one by helping Erza. They stood there for some time just enjoying being close to each other and sat down talking about what each of them has been up to. Eventually it was getting late and Erza knew she had to get back to camp but before she said goodbye she looked Jellal sternly in the eyes "Jellal, I need to ask a favor of you. Please stay out of this one, I promise I will inform you all about this once its over so please let me and the guild handle this"
He looked at her quite surprised but looked down smiling and nodded "okay Erza, I will. But you must promise me you'll come back safe from this"
She smiled back nodding and each of them got up heading their separate ways but before they got too far Erza looked back at Jellal "wait Jellal! I still have something I need to ask you"
He looked back at her and nodded with a gentle smile "of course Erza anything"
"I have been wondering this for a while... what's your fiancée's name?" she asked bluntly looking him dead in the eye
Jellal was honestly at a lost for words, after the incident at the beach he had hoped that this subject would never come up again. Unfortunately he didn't have a plan if it did, so what would a man in his situation do?... "o-oh no I think I hear Cobra calling me! I'm so sorry Erza another time!"... he would run
She laughe lightly shaking her head and looked up at the stars smiling "You've always been such a bad liar"
She walked back to camp to find most of the group already in their own sleeping bags asleep with only Gray awake poking at the fire with a stick. She walked over sitting down next to and looked at him "You have something on your mind dont you, you have that look in your eyes"
He sighed lightly not wanting to talk about it but knew it was best just to give Erza what she wants otherwise she would just beat it out of you. "I'm thinking about Natsu... Lucy has so much hope that somehow, even after a year he's still alive being held by this guild. I'm trying to believe it but I just cant, Natsu may be an idiot but he's strong. He would have escaped or at least gotten a message to us somehow, I really do wanna believe it but look at the stack of evidence against it."
She nodded looking at the small fire in front of them sighing just like Gray did "I know how you feel, deep down I hope we find him there as well. I thought I was at peace with this but obviously im not, none of us are, especially Lucy."
They both sat there in silence till Erza stood up patting Gray's back a bit hard knocking the air out of him "well I think that's enough sad talk for tonight, now come on. We better get some rest as well, we still have quite a distance to walk."
He nodded at her putting out the fire as he got up and got inside his sleeping bag slowly falling asleep. Menawhile in another camp site to the South a fire was still bright with several people sitting around it talking with each other. They heard something in the bushes behind them only to see their friend Jellal. Meredy and Angel got up walking over smiling at him "So Jellal, how did it go with Erza? Or was Cobra wrong about what he heard"
There was an annoyed scoff in the direction of where Cobra was as Jellal simply smiled looking at the two girls "It went fine, we caught up and talked a little but unfortunately we have to head back in the morning. Turns out the trail was wrong and we've been heading in the wrong direction"
They looked at him surprised but nodded as he was the leader of the group and after a bit more of chatting between themselves they were all heading to bed. Jellal laid down in his makeshift bed yawning lightly till he heard something behind him and quickly sat to see Cobra "what do you want Cobra? It's late"
"Nothing Jellal just wanted to make sure that you were alright, that must have seriously hurt"
Jellal looked at him confused and sat up more "what are you talking about Cobra? Nothing happened"
"Yeah right, I hear everything and what I heard earlier was a man getting whipped by his lady friend"
He growled lightly standing up walking closer glaring at him "Go to sleep Cobra"
He simply smirked at him as poison started forming around his fist "make me"
After that Meredy woke up to a loud boom and saw the leader and Dragon Slayer of the group fighting each other. She simply sighed rolling on her side groaning lightly "Not again... keep it down you two, fight in the morning" sadly what she said was ignored as they continued fighting
The next day the Fairy Tail wizards were all smiling as they had reached their destination after alot of walking. They were all carefully walking around checking for any sort of booby trap making sure to keep their presence hidden, the wizards were crawling through bushes and the exceeds flying at high altitude getting a bird's eye view of the forest. Carla sighed looking around seeing nothing but trees for miles "how could a guild possibly be hidden in a forest, the trees here arent that high so it cant be covered"
Pantherlily nodded flying closer keeping an eye out "maybe underground perhaps? It would be a good hiding spot"
"Or maybe it's just invisible!" Happy smiled suggesting his idea only to have it immediately turned down. He flew a bit faster determined to spot it worst and ended up ahead of the group but as Lily amd Carla watched him from behind their eyes widened as they saw him just disappear in mid air
"Happy! Happy where are you!?" Carla cried out worried till she saw his head reappear in mid air with no worry on his face
"what? You dont have to yell, and look what I found!" He dissapeared again and as they flew closer they saw the forest change from a healthy green forest to a dark desolate land with dead trees and in the middle an old mansion "hmm... it must be some kind of cloaking magic that keeps them hidden from the rest of the forest unable to be seen from the other side. Thats why it looked like Happy had just dissapeared"
The exceeds all flew back down to the rest of them informing of them of the discovery and they all carefully snuck closer staying unseen "okay, remember everyone. This is simply a recon mission, we examine the area then we get out"
They all nodded as Erza gave them orders but Lucy's eyes were locked on that mansion, if Natsu was going to be held up anywhere it would be there. They all carefully split up walking around the mansion examining the inside but as Gajeel was looking through a window his eyes widened as he quickly jumped back avoiding a hammer as the green haired woman they had told him about slammed a hammer into the ground "oh my, you heard me coming? Thats unusual, my victims only hear me if I want them to"
"Gi-hi well I dont exactly have normal hearing, dragon slayers got the best hearing around" He put his arm to his side transforming it into a sword as Lily changed into his battle form pulling out his sword "you know, its very rude to fight two on one. Especially against a woman"
"Well I was never really the gentleman type" He saw her quickly move towards him swinging her hammer hitting the wall but as he was grinning he got hit in the face by something sending into the ground. He quickly got up to see a pillar of bricks stretching out from the wall she had hit with a smirk on her face "oops, did that hurt? Dont worry I'll make sure all the pain goes away, as soon as I kill you"
She ran towards Gajeel but he quickly got his sword only to have her dodge not only his but Lily's attack from behind as well. In another part of the forest Carla was holding Wendy as she flew dodging multiple sound blasts from a man on the ground with a blindfold over his eyes "ooh your pretty nimble ! But I'll hit you eventually!"
Wendy fought back with multiple wind attacks but for someone with his eyes covered he was able to dodge attacks. "Carla, we need to get closer!"
Against her better judgement Carla nodded flying fast aiming straight for him only to have him dodge grinning as he looked at her until... "Sky dragon's roar!"
Wendy hit him point blank as they were beside him quickly flying back up to see some of the forest destroyed but as some dust cleared their eyes widened to see him standing in the exact spot without a scratch on him with a sort of barrier around him as he looked around like he couldn't see her "gotta admit! That was good! Never saw it coming, well to be fair I cant really see anything so eh. Now... my turn..."
The barrier dissapeared as he held fists up grinning sending a huge sound wave in the air hitting them causing them to lose balance giving him enough time to appear beside them blasting them into the ground. Meanwhile, inside the guild Natsu jumped up off the ground awakened by the slight shaking and saw that he was still on the ground tied up in front of the master still bruised and beaten. He got up om his feet jumping to his feet seeing fighting, he smiled immediately trying to break out of the restraints only to get hit on the head by a golden staff sending him into the ground "There is no chance im letting you fight, however..."
He tapped his staff on the ground and heard footsteps before a young man in black pants, a red hoodie, and a hat on his head backwards appeared in front of him "you called master?"
He nodded looking back outside "we appear to have some uninvited guests, take care of them"
The young man immediatly smiled wide nodding and ran outside with a gust of wind behind him as the master looked down at Natsu. "Too bad your not out there fighting with them"
Gray was running as fast as he could to where the sound of fighting was coming to help till he heard footsteps behind him but as soon as he turned around he received a punch to the face sending him into the ground. He groaned getting up and saw some dude in a red hoodie smirking at him "ooh you couldn't even see me could you!"
He immediately got a punch only to see him dissapear to hear him behind him "boo"
He received a punch to the back sending him flying till he managed to gain his footing and quickly looked around "I got you now..."
As soon as he heard footsteps he put his hands together growling "Ice make floor!"
The floor around him immediately turned to ice but his eyes widened as he saw it turn into steam receiving an uppercut but even without feeling a hit he was quickly slammed back into the ground only to see the dude standing right there "Dude you really suck, I was hoping this would be fun"
Gray clenched his fists immediately getting at him with the air around them getting cold. In another section Lucy was running quickly with Happy beside her both getting tackled by Erza as multiple black spears came right abover their heads. "Thanks Erza, Happy are you alright?"
She looked down to see Happy with his eyes spinning "Luuucy? Why are there three of you?"
She took this as a really bad signal and held him close "It's okay Happy, just get some rest. Everything is gonna be fine"
He nodded closing his eyes as Lucy pulled out her Sagittarius key transforming into her stardress as Erza requiped a sword with both of them looking at the small girl behind them with some type of black magic covering her creating multiple sharp weapons "Lucy, I'll attack close trying to get you an opening. When you do hit her with everything you have understood?"
Lucy reluctantly nodded not wanting to hurt the girl but held up her bow as Erza was about to run but before she could Gajeel and a small Lilly got slammed though the wall with Carla and Wendy crashing into the ground as Gray tumbled to them quickly getting up "You guys having as much trouble with your guys as I am with mine?"
They nodded tiredly as Erza looked at each of them and clenched her fists tightly "Everyone we're retreating! We need to escape!"
They each looked at her surprised but with each of their enemies closing in on them they knew this wasnt a fight they could win. Lucy nodded looking at them aiming her arrow at the ground shooting it causing it to scatter causing a huge blast of smoke, with that they ran as fast as they could but as they were running Lucy's eyes widened. As they passed a window she saw him... she saw Natsu on the ground tied up and beaten and even though it was just a few seconds it felt much longer. As if time had slowed down just for her to see her best friend again. Without realizing it she had tripped but was caught by Gajeel throwing her over his shoulder running. "This is no time to be daydreaming bunny girl!"
"W-wait! Put me down! Put me down Gajeel! I saw him!" She hit his back repeatedly trying to get down as he just ignored her as she looked back at the mansion with sad eyes "NATSU! I PROMISE I'LL COME BACK!"