By the time Edo-Natsu stopped his vehicle, they were at the edge of the island. When Alex landed, Earthland Natsu jumped out. "I'm alive again!" He cheered.
Alex laughed when the others were thrown out of the car. "Go right ahead and fight against the Kingdom," Edolas Natsu said. "But don't get us involved. Since the Lucy I know asked me, I lent you a hand. But I'm not going to get my hands dirty. All I want to do is keep cruising."
"Hey," Earthland Natsu said, leaning against the car. He pulled Edolas Natsu out of the car. "You get out too! I have something to say to you." He set his counterpart on the ground. "You...How can you handle transport like that?"
The Edolas Natsu cowered in fear. "I'm sorry!" He cried. "I don't know either!"
Earthland Natsu leaned forward. "Are you really the me from here?"
"Yeah," Edo-Natsu cried. "I'm always told my personality changes when I get behind the wheel."
"This is the real Edo-Natsu!" Happy cried in shock.
"Please don't yell!" Edo-Natsu cried again, holding his head. "It's scary."
Alex sighed and kneeled in front of Edolas Natsu. "Calm down," She smiled. "Nobody is going to hurt you." She glared at her Natsu. "Apologize for scaring him," She demanded.
"But I didn't do anything!" Earthland Natsu whined. When she kept glaring at him, he pouted. "Fine." He looked at his counterpart. "Sorry for scaring you, I guess."
"It's fine," Edo-Natsu said, his voice shaking. He smiled at Alex, calming down. "I don't think I recognize you. What's your name?"
"I'm Alex," Alex smiled. "It's nice to meet you."
"And you must be Wendy, right?" Edo-Natsu asked, looking at Wendy, smiling. When she nodded, he smiled. "You're so small and cute." He turned to Earthland Natsu. "And you, sir, must be me from the other world."
"Who are you calling sir?" Earthland Natsu said, staring at his counterpart. Happy introduced himself, and Carla and Alex introduced Erik.
"It's nice to meet you all too," Edo-Natsu stood up. "I am sorry I can't be any more help, though. I don't have that much magic left in my vehicle, and I need to get back to my guild."
Alex nodded and patted his shoulder. "Don't worry about it. I'll get us to the Royal City, no problem. Go back to Fairy Tail."
Edo-Natsu nodded and got back into his car. His demeanor changed once he started his car. "You know, it's suicide going against the kingdom. Try not to get yourselves killed." He drove off.
"Alright!" Natsu cheered. "I didn't think we'd get here so quickly." He looked down at the Royal City.
"Somewhere down there, our friends are turned into lacrima," Lucy added.
"Let's not waste any time then," Carla said and headed down to the city."
"Wait, Carla!" Wendy shouted, following after the cat. The others followed them.
When they made it into the kingdom, Alex flew to the rooftops to remain undetected. Her teammates walked below her. "It's so magical and happy around here," She muttered to herself. "I didn't realize just how different this place was as opposed to the rest of the world." She looked to where Wendy was pointing. "A party? Better go check it out." She flew over to an alley near them and landed.
"What a huge crowd of people!" She heard Happy exclaim when she got behind them.
They got up close to the front to see what everyone was getting excited about. In front of everybody was a giant magic lacrima.
"Could that be everyone from Magnolia?" Happy asked.
"That thing is huge!" Erik said, shocked.
Alex nodded. 'And to think, it's just Gray and Erza in that thing.' Erik turned to her in surprise. When she didn't look like she was joking, he turned back around. 'Those two are powerful.'
The crowd cheered as the King came into view. He raised his arms proudly. When the people settled down, he spoke. "Children of Edolas! Our blessed land of Edolas has used Anime to call forth ten years' worth of magic power! Everyone, sing a song! Everyone, laugh out loud! Let us raise our voices in jubilation!" The crowd cheered loudly in response.
Alex merely scowled at the words the King was using. "This magic power belongs jointly to the citizens of Edolas! And only the citizens of Edolas are the race blessed with inheriting the future! No one will steal magic power from our kingdom! And I promise to obtain even greater magic power!" He struck his staff into the lacrima. "Enough to make this pittance of magic seem like mere garbage!"
Natsu growled when he saw chunks of the lacrima fall to the ground. Lucy held him back before he could expose them all. "Keep control of yourself!" She begged.
"I can't!" Natsu growled. "That...That lacrima is..."
"Everyone here feels the same way," Lucy said into Natu's back. "So please, stop."
Alex walked in front of him and placed a hand on his shoulder. "We'll save them," she promised earnestly. The King cackled in the background. "The people in this lacrima will be saved soon, but we need a plan. Let's leave, collect our thoughts, and come up with a plan, so none of our friends are harmed."
Natsu frowned up at her. "They'll be okay?" Alex nodded seriously. He sighed. "Fine. We better go."
That evening they stayed in a hotel. Natsu stared out the window at sunset. The others sat in despair while Carla wrote something on a piece of paper. "I can't take it anymore!" Natsu said, standing up. "We'll charge into the castle." He started walking to the door.
"Wait a little more," Carla advised. "We have to make a plan, or we'll never return everyone to normal. And charging isn't a plan."
"Everyone's been turned to crystal," Wendy said. "How can we turn them back, I wonder?"
"Mystogan said Dragon Slayer magic should do the trick," Alex muttered, her hand on her chin in thought.
"Then why didn't Snake Boy over here just free our friends?" Natsu demanded.
"We don't know how it works yet, idiot," Erik retorted.
"We have no choice but to ask the King directly," Carla said.
"But there's no way he'd just tell us!" Wendy protested.
"Then we should hit him until he does!" Natsu declared. Alex hit him over the head. "What was that for?" He cried.
"Do you want to be imprisoned?" She asked irritated. "You can't go hitting the king." She crossed her arms. "No matter how much you want to."
"I see!" Lucy sat up. "The King knows how to bring everyone back?" She asked. Alex nodded. "This might work! If I can get close enough to him..."
"What are you talking about?" Wendy asked, looking at the girl.
"Gemini!" Lucy said determinedly. "Gemini can transform into anyone they touch, and while they're transformed, they can also know what that person knew. In other words, if they can transform into the King, we might learn a way to save everyone!" Natsu gasped in surprise. "However, they can only be transformed for five minutes. And the amount of transformations they can keep in stock is limited to two people. If they transform into someone else, then the oldest one can't be used anymore. The question is, how do we get close to the King?"
"I've drawn a map to how we can get close to the King," Carla said, holding up her piece of paper. "It was originally a tunnel to allow the King to escape from the castle to outside the city. So there should be a way to get outside the city to the basement of the castle."
"Wow!" Wendy said, smiling. "How do you know all this?" Carla told them about the information that kept popping into her head and how she's gained bits of information since they got to Edolas.
"If we can sneak into the castle like that," Lucy said, "we'll be able to manage somehow!"
Alex crossed her arms. "Alright, then. Here's the plan. Erik and I will go with Lucy to figure out how to use dragon magic to break the lacrima." When Natsu started to protest about being left behind, she raised her hands. "Sorry to say this, but you and Wendy are pretty useless without your magic. We'll be able to keep her safe. The rest of you need to find Gajeel. He's in the city somewhere, and he should be able to give you your magic back."
"The Tomcat and I are coming with you," Carla said. "It's where we're supposed to be."
Alex looked at Natsu and Wendy. They looked worried for their friends. "Don't worry," Alex smiled gently, her fangs appearing. "I promise you; they won't be harmed down in the tunnels."
Natsu nodded. "Fine then. But my little buddy better come back to me safe, you hear me?"
Alex nodded. "We leave tonight."
The group went to bed to rest for a couple of hours. Alex lied on one couch and Erik on the other while the others took the rooms. "Are you sure this plan of yours is going to work?" Erik asked, looking over at Alex.
Alex sighed and turned to face him. "Not really. I know this way, Natsu and Wendy don't get captured. I'd rather nobody goes down into the tunnels since it's so pointless, but Happy should get to meet his parents. And Carla and Happy can't fly right now. They need to meet with Happy's parents to get their flying back." She sighed. "If everything goes like I think it will, we should have a couple more Fairies helping us this time tomorrow."
"And if it doesn't?" Erik asked.
"I'm trying not to think about it," Alex admitted. "Try to get some sleep."
Midnight found the group outside of the city near the entrance of a cave. "This should be the entrance to the tunnel," Carla said, looking at her map.
"Wait a minute," Lucy said, looking at the cave. "Alex, you already know how to free everyone from the lacrima, don't you?" The look on Alex's face was enough to tell her her assumption was right. "So why are we even going in this tunnel?"
"Two reasons," Alex said. "The first is the kingdom knows we're here. If we walk in, we'll be distracting some powerful knights from Natsu, Wendy, and Gajeel. If we don't walk into this trap, they'll start searching for Dragon Slayers around the city, and we can't have that." The others nodded. "The second reason is for Happy and Carla's sake." She crouched down next to the two. "I could tell you why you can't fly, but I don't think it will have the same effect. The people in here are going to take you to Extalia. You'll learn a little bit more about who you are." She placed a hand on Carla. "You need to know that this isn't your fault," She told her. "Nothing that's happening is your fault."
Alex stood up. "Let's get this over with."
"What about light," Carla asked. "You may be able to see in the dark, but we won't be able to."
Alex smirked, and lightning danced across her skin. Her body almost glowed. "This should light the way pretty quickly." She turned to the others. "Any other objections?" When nobody answered, she walked into the cave, the others quickly following so they wouldn't be left alone.
The Fairy Tail members walked through the tunnels, Carla leading the way. "It doesn't look like anybody's used this tunnel in a long time," Happy said, looking at the broken beam on the ceiling.
"It should be up ahead," Carla said, pointing. The tunnel was blocked off.
"Well, how are we supposed to get through this?" Erik asked. "My magic isn't made for destroying things, and Fairy Girl here is a little busy being a human torch."
"Lucy has a Celestial Spirit that should be able to help," Alex said, ignoring the human torch comment. She turned to Lucy. "What do you think?"
Lucy thought for a minute and smiled. "Taurus!" She pulled out his key. "Open, Gate of the Golden Bull! Taurus!" The bull appeared when she turned the key. "Taurus should be able to bust down that wall, no problem."
"If that's what you need," Taurus smiled. "I'll take care of it." He walked over to the wall and punched it a few times. When the dust cleared away, the wall was destroyed. "That was a cinch, Lucy-san."
"Thank you, Taurus," Lucy smiled. "You can go now." She closed the gate, sending him back to the Spirit World.
"Stay alert," Erik warned. "Remember, we're walking right into a trap."
They walked further into the tunnels, Carla telling them when to turn. They stopped when they entered a cave of glowing rocks. "We came out to a pretty open place," Lucy said.
"It looks like this is where it connects to the basement of the castle," Carla said.
The group walked forward, only for la Erik to push Lucy away, only to be captured in a white material. He growled. "I can't use my magic!"
Lucy shrieked when she was also captured. Alex stood still when she was also enveloped in the material. She grinned when the soldiers appeared. "This isn't going to work on me," She said, lightning dancing across her arms. "I don't just use magic." She broke out of the material. "Demon's use curses." Her purple lightning took out half of the guards. She walked over to Erik to try and get the material off.
"Why don't you use your lightning like when you got rid of yours?" Erik asked when she seemed to be struggling.
"Because I can handle lightning," Alex retorted. "I'd rather not fry you to a crisp." She launched some lightning at the other guards, making them back away.
"So these are the wizards from Earthland?" A voice asked. Erza Knightwalker came into the cave. "Are you really a different person than Lucy Ashley?" She asked, looking at Lucy. "Take them."
"Just try it," Alex growled, standing up.
"Alex, look out!" Erik shouted before a figure dropped down and shot a dart into her arm. Alex looked annoyed and pulled the dart out of her arm.
"What did that even accomplish?" Alex asked. "There wasn't any poison in that dart."
A man with shoulder-length, bright purple hair appeared. He was wearing a black suit and held a pointed staff. He grinned widely. "Is this really me from Earthland?" He looked Alex up and down. "Not that impressive if you ask me."
an Alex here, too?" Lucy asked, surprised. "But that's impossible!"
"You're right," The man said. He ran up and threw some lightning with his spear straight at Alex. It hurt her.
"What did you do to me?" She asked, trying to stand up, lightning coursing painfully through her body.
"You said you were a demon, right?" The man walked over to her and crouched down. "We don't have that many demons around here, but I know how to nullify their curses. Lightning can hurt you now." He cackled and shocked her with more lightning, ignoring her friend's cries.
"Axel! Stop playing with the prisoner," Erza commanded. "We still need them.
Annoyed, the newly named man stood up. "I was having fun," Axel complained. At her stern look, he rolled his eyes. "Fine. Guards, take them."
"Yes, sir!" The guards, who were still conscious, said. They pulled the trio of Fairy Tail members away.
"Wait!" Happy and Carla ran after them. Erza Knightwalker stood in their way.
"Exceeds," Erza said, bowing. Axel and some of the guards also bowed. "Welcome home, Exceeds. I thank you for leading the intruders into our custody."
Hey everybody! I hope all my American readers had a good Thanksgiving, even with the pandemic, there was still food to eat. I should know, I had to work in a restaurant for it. And for everyone else, I hope yesterday was a good day for you too.
I hope you enjoyed this chapter. Please let me know if you liked it, because I worked hard on this story. And this is the longest written story I've ever done. Thank you so much for reading this story. I love writing for Alex and I hope you enjoy reading about her. Again, thank you so much, and I'll see you in the next chapter!
