Lyla took a long deep breath in. Ichiya's healing parfum had a nice calming scent; Almost sweet. It calmed her nerves a little. Once everyone had healed, she would have to return to reality, however.
"About Angel…." Lyla took one last whiff of the parfum before it dissipated, "She's a Celestial Spirit wizard-like Lucy. She has Gemini. It copied me and Ichiya and can also copy our thoughts. That's how Oracion Seis knew what we were up to."
"So, all those people on Christina…" Lucy trailed off, melancholy.
Eve explained no one was on the ship when it had been shot down. It was remote controlled. Lyla let her shoulders relax at the sound of that.
Natsu ran past her, shouting how he'd find Wendy and Happy. She would have used her Black Hole spell to drop Natsu back where he started, but Carla pulled him back by his scaly muffler beforehand.
"Sheesh. Try calming down a little." The white cat scolded. While everyone pondered about her wings, Lyla slipped away. By slipping away… She teleported to where she saw Christina fall. She sensed something odd around the crash site.
Lyla ended up in the middle of the forest, the ship a little walking distance away. She used Shadow Shift to silently travel through the shadows of the forest. An ancient magic permeated everything. The plants, the few animals and bugs, even the air was heavy with magic. It felt strange...
She stopped when she reached the treeline. Christina had left a gaping hole in the forest, with smoke and fire licking at the leaves and branches.
For safety reasons and not wanting to be caught in a forest fire, Lyla shoved the vegetation she could away from the ship. If she had Aquarius or Gray's ice magic, it'd be so much easier.
While walking around the airship, she tried pinpointing where this other magic was coming from. She jumped on top of a broken log and leaped into a hole in Christina. Her metal soled boots clanked against the metal wall. She didn't have to walk far to find a small green stone with magic swirling inside.
"And I thought this would be boring," Lyla commented to herself. She shoved the stone in her shorts pocket and retraced her steps to climb back out. Her mask made it easier, but the smoke started to sting into her lungs. She trekked away from Christinia, then teleported back to the group, just so her magic wouldn't be traced to the airship. One could never be too safe.
When she teleported behind the Pegasus boys, she saw her Fairy Tail friends and Lamia Scale huddled around the poisoned Erza. Ichiya's healing parfum filled the air around them, but it did not affect Cobra's poison.
Lyla shifted her gaze to Laura, who spoke through her eyes. The young women were aware of Wendy's magical aura. Laura just had to confirm their suspicions with that gleam in her eyes.
"But I thought healing magic was a lost magic. Wasn't it lost to the ages?" Sherry asked.
As proper as what seemed to be her usual, Carla stated, "Wendy is the Sky Dragon Slayer."
Lyla glanced at everyone's shocked expression. The Trimens flinched and jumped back when they heard the teen say, "You really didn't figure that out sooner? Wait, you guys are idiots. So obviously."
"Where did you even come from?!" Gray questioned.
"I've been here the whole time." She lied easily. She pulled up her mask as she continued, "Let's quit wasting time and go find Wendy already!"
Everyone smirked in determination, Natsu growled in anger that Happy had been taken, but they all pumped their fists into the air and shouted. With everyone's spirits up, they made a plan to split up into groups and search for Wendy and Happy. Maybe defeat a few of the Oracion Seis along the way.
Lamia scale went one way, Blue Pegasus went the other, and Fairy Tail ran through the woods with Carla, leaves crunching under their feet. Lucy and Hibiki stayed behind to look after Erza, however. Laura would have gone her own way, but Lyla wouldn't let her friend face a bunch of scary wizards on her own.
Carla used Aera magic to lead the way using her wings. She told Natsu about Wendy and why she wanted to see him so badly. The teen had joined the mission for the sole reason of seeing Natsu. Carla said she wanted to see if he knew anything about the Sky Dragon, Grandeeney. She disappeared seven years ago.
"Just like the others," Lyla mumbled to herself. Natsu mentioned his dragon, Igneel, disappearing seven years ago. Gajeel's dragon too.
"You say she's a Sky Dragon Slayer?" Natsu asked Carla, not hearing Lyla. "What does she eat?"
"Air."
"How's that any different from breathing oxygen?" Gray asked.
Natsu was so focussed on the whole Sky Dragon thing that his face hit a large root growing curving out from the dirt. Lyla busted a gut laughing. She slightly overdid it to convince herself.
Carla's gasp turned her away from Salamander to the dark forest ahead. The trees were black, and the amount of dark magic coming from them stung Lyla's eye. She would have to be extra careful during this mission.
Everyone turned behind them at the sound of footsteps approaching. A large man with blonde hair and monkey-like facial features walked towards them.
"They said it's 'cause of Nirvana, right Big Bro Zatou?" He asked the man next to him. Just as big, he wore small glasses and had large pointed ears. His teeth were a grimy yellow.
"They said it's such potent magic that it makes the land wither and die, Big Bro Gatou." The second man replied.
A bunch of other men with monkey features emerged from the trees, jumping on branches and howling like the animals they were. Laura and Lyla stood back-to-back, ready to fight.
"Whoa! Monkeys! There are two monkeys here!" Natsu exclaimed, imitating the posture and movements of an actual monkey.
"Make that three…" Laura said through gritted teeth.
Lyla chuckled, then loosened her stance and straightened into a more casual position. She wrapped her arm around Laura, saying, "Welp, I'll leave this to you two. I'll come get you if we find Wendy and Happy."
Before Carla could retort, The teen girls teleported ahead, avoiding the black forest. Lyla's head started to hurt.
"Aaagh… Damn. Can't even go a mile without damn side effects." She growled. Laura didn't look too steady on her feet.
"Let's rest." The woman suggested, sitting cross-legged on the grassy ground. Lyla leaned against a trunk, trying to calm herself.
"So… Are we going to keep running?" Laura asked, her volume wavering.
"I would sense Brain, but with Nirvana's magic tainting the place, I can't get a good read."
Laura pointed at her ears. "Can't do anything either."
"I guess running is our best option."
Agreeing on that, the sound wizard got up and started running aimlessly. Lyla also kept searching for anything, not Nirvana, but no luck came to her. They ran for a while. Whatever Natsu and Gray were up to, there were a lot of explosions behind them.
Lyla glanced at Laura, who ran a few feet ahead. The teen noticed something in her friend. Something sparked in her eye when she looked back at the young woman. Lyla took that look as a sign she should follow Laura.
The woman took them to a large river of rushing water. Laura fell to her knees and almost fell in as she plunged her head into the water, coming back up with a gasp of air.
Making a weird face, Lyla waited beside her, ready to jump into action if Laura decided to take a swim.
The woman did the same thing a few more times, wiping the water off of her face and rubbing her ears. The water had a red tinge to it.
"You good now?" Lyla snarked.
Laura waited a few seconds, snapping her finger beside her ears before answering. "It's not the best, but I think I got all of the blood cleaned out." Her voice sounded sturdier in volume.
"You think Wendy can fix those broken eardrums of yours?"
"That's what I plan to find out." She stood up and led the way, "Come on, let's keep looking. I can hear some magic following the river."
Lyla took her word for it. Soon enough, she started to sense some familiar magic up ahead. It seemed like Natsu's but different. Sky Dragon magic? She felt hopeful but snarled when she also sensed Brain's all-too-familiar plethora of magic.
The young women stopped when they saw a waterfall ahead. There were many. Six or seven of them dipped into a deep crater with a little grassy island in the middle. A small trail from the island led into a cave.
Lyla closed her eyes and sat down. She focussed on how many bodies there were down there. Wendy, Happy, Brain, and three others. One might be Racer. She took a few extra seconds to calm herself when she felt magic gathering at her eye.
"They're down there. Six of them." She informed without opening her eyes, "I don't know two of them. One is a bad familiar, though."
Laura slowly sucked in a stream of air, they slowly blew it back out. "I just cleaned the blood out too…"
"Hmph," Lyla smirked. She opened her eyes and tilted her head up. "You'll be too busy with me to have time to fight."
Laura opened her mouth to talk, but stopped. Her shoulders tensed. "We get Wendy and Happy, then leave." A pause followed. Then, "You said you would get Dragon Breath and Snow Queen."
"Oh yeah… I did say that, huh?" Not standing up, she teleported away, reappearing a second later with Natsu, Gray, and Carla standing behind her. She pretended to feel just fine while the others weren't used to her spell. Her eye burned like hell.
"Just down there." She stated simply. The three of them examined the view, a little cautious. Perhaps Carla, but the other two probably just need time to comprehend what Lyla meant.
"Happy! Wendy!" Natsu called out, leaning over the edge of the cliff.
"Stop that! The enemy might be down there!" Carla warned.
"They're idiots. You can't teach them anything if it doesn't involve punching." Laura told the cat.
"You've been here for, what, a few weeks? And barely talk to anyone?" Lyla questioned, standing up.
"Shut up. The Salamander is louder than anyone."
Lyla shrugged. She had a point there.
They saw something from below in the crater. Within a second, it came flying at them, almost knocking some of the wizards off the cliff. It was Racer. He ran up a tree and stood on a tall branch so no one could simply punch them. Not like they could with their difference in speed.
"I got this! You hurry down there!" Gray shouted at the others.
Racer smirked, "You're not going anywhere!" But Gray froze the ground and created a layer of ice around the tree Racer sped down. He slipped and fell to the ground.
"How do we get down?" Laura asked anyone who could answer.
"Use this!" Gray created a spiraling slide down to the island. Natsu picked up Carla and slid down on his feet. Lyla hopped on and followed behind. Laura cautiously got on and came last.
At the bottom, Lyla saw Natsu frozen still. He stood right beneath the end of the slide.
"Watch out!" She yelled, but he didn't move and she fell on top of him. She tried getting up, but a girly scream approached them and the source fell on top of her. The body stood up and shifted to the side, crossing her arms.
"Did you just-"
"One word and I will cut out your vocal cords!" Laura spat, stomping off. Lyla's eye twinkled devilishly. She ignored the motion sick Natsu and jogged up to her friend. They found the cave and walked in.
Inside stood Wendy, kneeling on the floor. Brain in his long white cape stood across from her. Lyla lurched. Magic sparked from her eye. She clutched her hand onto her mask, breathing heavily while trying to stand up straight.
How? She thought, First Lyon now him. Brain was bad enough. The thought of him made her sick. She had replayed thousands of images of him suffering by her hands. He's the reason she is the way she is. But him. He tried sacrificing Erza. He broke Erza's heart and risked killing his comrades. He would have killed Simon if Lyla weren't there to save him. As it was, Simon had still barely survived.
Standing between Brain and Wendy was a young man. With his back turned, all she could see was his blue hair. He wore a black sleeveless shirt with dark blue pants and brown boots
He died. The tower collapsed! How is he still alive?! Jellal should be dead! He shouldn't be hurting anyone anymore!