Author's Note 1: HOLY %$#&! Your main mode of writing breaks down and before you know it, it's been three months since you've updated your best story! So let's stop dilydalying and get on with it!
Chapter 20: Ambush
It was midday as Team Morningstar was trudging through the Northern Woods. In order to figure out a precise path, Happy was currently flying up and taking notes of the surrounding area as the rest of the team were walking on the ground (Ven being awestruck by the cat's ability to grow wings and fly). The blue cat flew back down and landed in front of the group.
"No signs of the mountains yet." The small cat said with a salute.
"We probably won't see them until we're at least 10,000 kilometers in range." Zeke said as he pocketed Happy's notes.
"Great." Lucy said with a hint of sarcasm. 'My feet are already killing me and we're not even close."
Natsu stopped walking with the group and turned his head.
"What is it?" Alyssa asked (as she carried Ven on her shoulders). The dragon-slayer looked a few feet behind them for a bit before turning around.
"I thought I heard something. Must've just been a stray animal." He stated before the group continued their journey. However, Natsu's first instinct was right, as a certain group of five were observing the wizards, protected by a strange distortion effect of some kind.
"Um, Alyssa?" Ven asked.
"What is it?" The tall woman asked the boy on her shoulders.
"W-Would it be alright if I flew around a bit?"
"Sure. Go ahead." Alyssa said with a smile. She placed the silver-haired boy on the ground. Ven took in some air before the wing marks on his back started to glow and manifested his wings (which Zeke quickly took notes on).
With a quick flap of his wings, the silver-haired boy took off into the air as the older wizards watched. And soon enough, the familiar euphoria of flight and the feeling of the flowing wind came over the winged boy. And once more, at least for now, he was at peace.
And then…
With night falling over the forest, Morningstar had set up their tents and were fast asleep, each of them dreaming of different things.
Happy's Dream…
The blue cat was walking through the forest before clouds started forming overhead. At first, the tiny feline thought it going to rain. However, what came out of the clouds was not rain, but various types of fish, much to his enjoyment.
"Oppa!" Happy cheered as his favorite food rained down from the sky.
Lucy's Dream…
"And the winner for 'Best New Writer' goes to...Lucy Heartfilia!"
The audience clapped their hands and tears came down Lucy's eyes as she walked towards the stage to receive her reward.
"Thank you all. This...this is truly an honor.
Zeke's Dream…
The brunette archer entered his house, but much to his surprise, his nostrils were bombarded by the smell of delicious food.
"Welcome home, darling!" A certain blue-haired water wizard greeted him with a smile. She was wearing a dazzling blue sundress that added to her beauty, even showing off a modest amount of cleavage.
"Juvia?" Zeke asked, confused by the water wizard's presence. "What're you doing here?" 'And why did you call me darling?'
"I thought you could use a good meal after a long job." She answered, gesturing to the dinner spread on the table. "Or maybe..."
She slipped her dress down a little to expose her shoulders as she gave him a sultry look. "You'd like to eat me instead?"
Alyssa's Dream…
Two foes faced each other inside of a coliseum, each of them exhausted and covered in bruises or scratches. However, the red-haired combatant fell to her knees, her swords clanging against the ground and her hands holding the rest of her up.
"You...you are the better wizard." Erza said to Alyssa, who was huffing and puffing at near exhaustion. The orange-haired woman raised her right arm into the air with a smile and the audience started to cheer for the victor.
"Hail to queen, baby!"
Yes, most of Team Morningstar were in the midst of good dreams. However, there were two that weren't having the same comforting dreams. One was Ven which while lessened in intensity, he was still having mild nightmares about his kidnapping. The other was Natsu, who was groaning as sleeping mind was in disarray.
Natsu's Dream…
A screaming woman…
A house on fire…
A man with a knife through his chest…
A girl telling him to run…
A boy running through the woods with tears running down his face…
Suddenly, the six were woken up by the ground shaking and a large crashing sound.
"What was that?!" Lucy (who was dressing in a white t-shirt, pink shorts and had her Celestial Keys & Arm) exclaimed. The rest of the group got out of their tents (Zeke in a pair of black shorts, a t-shirt and his Ascension gloves, Alyssa wearing an orange shirt and sweatpants, and Natsu wearing his scarf and baggy pants) and saw that a massive straight crevice had appeared in the middle of their camp ground, stretching for miles. Natsu's enhanced hearing picked up footsteps and turned.
"Consider that a warning." Michael stated as he approached the camp with his rapier drawn out.
"Who the hell are you?" Zeke asked as he summoned, his bow and readied an arrow.
"I am Michael Alejandro, Archbishop of the Holy Crusaders." The blond man said, introducing himself before pointing his sword in Ven's direction, scaring the boy and making him hide behind Alyssa. "I believe you've meet some of my colleagues when you freed that...thing." He said with a hint of disgust. "So I'm going to give you a choice; surrender Salamander and the Wincaran, or else you will all die this night."
"Like hell that's gonna happen!" Natsu exclaimed as he sucked in some air. "Fire Dragon Roar!"
The salmon-haired wizard unleashed a torrent of fire at the mysterious blond man. But much to everyone's shock, Michael dispersed the spell with a single swipe of his blade.
"Death it is."
Zeke heard a chuckle in the distance and saw some airborne objects reflecting the moonlight. With his quickest reactions, the archer unleashed a quick barrage of arrows, causing the objects to explode and make Natsu, Alyssa and Ven jumped away from the blast as it destroyed their tents.
"Aw, come on man." Zeke looked up and saw Ivan crotching on nearby branch. "No one likes a premature explosion."
Another person leaped from the bushes with his axe raised over his head. The group was forced to evade as the axe fell to ground, shattering the ground as it hit. "Hear this heathens! Tonight, you face the axe of Gerome the Wizard Slayer!"
"Wizard Slayer?!" Lucy yelled in fear.
"I don't think so!" Alyssa yelled as she burst ahead towards the armored man. "Speed Queen: Hundred-Strike Punch!"
In a matter of seconds, the amazonian woman unleashed one hundred punches at her opponent's torso and face. But even with his face bruised by the attack, the man was still standing and his armor was undamaged, Alyssa feeling a bit of a sting on her fists.
"That was dumb." The gothic woman stated as she and her petite comrade walked out from the shadows, the gothic woman now sporting spiked gauntlets on her hands while the dress-wearing woman pulled two pistols out her dress sleeves as she giggled.
"Time to grant these heathens the sweet release of death!" The dress-wearing girl said, still maintaining her bubbly smile.
"Oh great. More crazy people." Zeke groaned as the six reconvened and stood back to back in a circle while the five Crusaders surrounded them.
"Repent." Micheal stated before the battle began again.
Elsewhere…
A silver-haired woman was chained up in a windowless brick cell, her clothes consisting of nothing but rags. Her eyes had black circles underneath them, indicating the lack of sleep she had gotten. She thought back to what lead her to this situation and started to tear.
"You're not gonna start crying again, are you?" The occupant of the next door cell asked. "I've lost enough sleep thanks your sobbing."
She just ignored the voice and continued to tear up.
"Great, just great." The other prisoner said with a groan. "I swear, when I find a way out of damned cell, I'm killing you first. Then I'm gonna eviscerate that masked bitch."
Hearing this just made the woman's sorrow grow and she thought back to the most important person in her heart.
'Ven, please be safe.'
Back at the fight…
When the Crusaders charged at Morningstar, Alyssa ordered Happy to take Ven as far away as possible. The dress-wearing girl attempted to shoot the airborne cat and kid down, but Happy was able to swerve out of the way of the bullets. After that, the group continued their battle.
"Kaboom, baby!" Ivan yelled as tossed five more grenades at the group that exploded. Unfortunately for him, the grenades went off near Natsu, who proceeded to consume the flames before it reached his comrades. The dragon-slayer smirked up at the bomb tosser and gathered fire around his hands.
"Fire Dragon Wing Attack!" Ivan and the two female crusaders were forced to evade the strings of fire. Germone however was undeterred and leaped once again, readying his axe for another downward swing. But he was intercepted by Alyssa bursting upwards at him and knocking him back with a Vibration Punch.
Michael evaded his falling comrade and rushed towards his opponents. Lucy saw this and blocked the rapier with her Celestial Arm. The two exchanged blows for a bit, but Michael had upper hand due to his longer experience with sword fighting. The two were pushing their blades against each other when the crusader called out, "Talia, now!"
The goth woman (now identified as Talia) rushed past the two and clocked her right arm, ready to strike the Celestial Wizard. But much to the Crusaders' surprise, a figure emerged from a golden light and knocked the gauntlet wearing woman away. The light faded and revealed…
"Loki!" Lucy cheered as pushed back Michael. The auburn-haired Lion Spirit was now decked out in a black suit with a red tie and blue-tinted sunglasses. "How did you get here? I didn't summon you."
"I'm the boss of the Gold Zodiac. I can cross through the gate no problem." The spiky-haired wizard explained before looking around at the battle. "So what's going on here?"
"I'll explain later! Long story short, they're the bad guys!" The blonde wizard explained as she flicked her wrist, changing her Celestial Arm into its snake-sword form.
"Got it." He replied as he pulled on his suit and a golden glow started to form around him.
"Whatever." Talia said as she clenched her fists, blades coming out of the gauntlets.
In another part of the battle, the dress-wearing woman was attempting run in the direction that Happy took Ven, but her path was quickly blocked by magic arrows landing in front of her.
"Sorry, but you're not going after them." Zeke stated as he pulled back on his bowstring, a stern expression on his face. Unlike before, the arrow and magic circle manifested as soon as he pulled the string to its limit without him having to gather up energy. This was because of the lacrima embedded in his gloves. "So just give up before I turn you into a pin cushion."
The woman just giggled again and pointed her guns at the archer. "You're pretty serious for a magic using heathen."
'That's the third time they've called us heathens. What's that about?' The brunette thought to himself before the two started evading and unleashing barrages of magic arrows and bullets. Zeke managed leap behind a tree and pulled the string to ready his next spell. "Arch Shot: Tracer Arrows!"
He quickly fired three arrows that swerved towards his opponent, which she evaded. She quickly noticed the arrows turning around towards her again and waited until the last second to evade as the arrows hit the ground. She quickly turned and fired a barrage of bullets. Zeke evaded the shots that perforated the tree he was using as cover. The green-eyed wizard quickly readed another spell, this time aiming at the gun in her left hand.
"Arch Shot: Drill Arrow!" With a swirling arrow, Zeke managed to knock the gun out his opponents' hand. But to his surprise, the woman just giggled again and pulled out another pistol from a holster underneath her skirt, forcing him to evade once for as she fired.
"I'm called Effie of the Hidden Guns for a reason." She taunted as the two readed their respective weapons once more.
Meanwhile, Alyssa was forced to run from an explosion as Ivan tossed more explosives from atop a tree branch, cackling as he did so.
"Run, run, run, 'tiny'! But you can't evade my bombs forever!" The manic bomb tosser exclaimed as he flung more grenades at her. But much to his shock, the orange-haired woman caught them in a burst of speed, spun quickly and tossed them back at his position. Ivan jumped out of the way as the bombs blew up the tree, making Alyssa smirk.
'Got ya!' "Speed Queen: Twin Twister!"
And with a yell, the crusader was hit by the twin blasts of winds and was knocked into a tree, knocked out from the impact.
Natsu however was not having as the same luck as his girlfriend as he battle Gerome. His spells seemed to only annoy Gerome and his physical attacks almost did nothing, making the barrel-chested crusader chuckle. And strange enough, he was starting to feel tired, even though he had barely been fighting for more than two minutes.
"Your feeble flames can't melt my armor, boy!" The bushy mustached man stated. Hearing this just made Natsu scowl as he slammed his fist and palm together.
"You want to test that theory?!" And with that exclamation, azure flames erupted from the dragon-slayer. Germone raised his eyebrow before raising his axe again and swung down, unleashing a powerful blast of force from the swing.
"Fire Dragon Roar!"
The attacks collided and created a massive explosion that unrooted the nearby foliage. Gerome tried to see the past of smoke that appeared because of the colliding attacks. But unbeknownst to the large crusader, his salmon-haired opponent managed to run behind him and launched at the axe-wielding man with a blast of azure fire. Gerome was taken by surprise as his younger foe actually manage to grab his torso and blasted the two through a bunch of trees.
"Fire Dragon Sword Edge!" And with a vicious uppercut, Natsu blasted his opponent into the air, leaving a massive cut in the front of the armor. While surprised that his armor was damaged, Gerome decided to use his downward descent and grabbed his axe, forcing the dragon-slayer evade the massive impact.
But even as he evaded, Natsu started breathing heavily, much to his confusion. Gerome walked out of the crater and noticed that his foe's condition. Seeing this made the moustached man smirk.
"Took long enough for it to kick in."
"What're you talking about?" Natsu said as sweat started to flow down his forehead.
"When this battle began, my colleague tossed a few special grenades laced with a fast-acting poison element." He stated as he walked through Natsu, who was still panting profusely. "It took a bit for the poison to affect you, but it looks like it's finally doing its job."
Natsu just clenched his fists and ignited them in azure flames. He charged, but his speed at half as its usual limits at the moment. Enough for Germone to step out of the way. When his fist missed his opponent, Natsu watched in disbelief as his flames went out. He tried to ignite his fists again, but the only things that came out her tiny sparks. And it was this distraction that gave Gerome the chance to backhand Natsu, knocking him unconscious.
The large man grabbed the fallen dragon-slayer and tossed him onto his shoulder before rubbing some blood from his lip that he received from the Sword Edge spell. He then proceeded to walk towards the remaining combatants and saw them engaged in battle.
"We're done here!" Germone exclaimed, getting everyone's attention (minus the unconscious Ivan).
"Natsu!" Alyssa proclaimed before blasting towards the massive man, only for a bullet to scrape her upper thigh thanks to Effie, causing her to fall on her face.
"It'll have to do for now." Micheal stated as he deflected a strike from Lucy's Celestial Arm. He pulled out a green pendant from his pocket and held it out. "Consider yourselves lucky for now, Morningstar. But rest assured, your judgement will come."
The rest of the conscious crusaders pulled out identical pendants from their clothes and they all started to glow, temporary blinding the wizards. When the light faded, they saw that the four crusaders and Natsu had vanished without a trace.
"Where'd they go?" Lucy asked.
"It must've been some kind of teleportation charm." Zeke said, which confused him as he tried to piece together what the Crusaders were about based on their proclamations from earlier.
However, Alyssa got up and came to the realization that her boyfriend had been kidnapped. "They...they took Natsu."
Hearing this snapped Zeke out of his thoughts and he shared a worried look with Lucy, as it seemed like they had a whole new set of problems than when they started their journey.
And then…
Natsu started to groan as he finally regained consciousness. He quickly took notice of his surroundings and saw that he was in a cathedral-like room with a green tint on the windows. The salmon-haired man then noticed a series of dark blue chains surrounding his torso and arms. He attempted to melt the chains with his flames, but much to his shock, his fire refused to manifest. "What the hell?"
"That won't work." The dragon-slayer turned and saw Lady Fuyu kneeling in front of the altar. "Those chains negate the flow of magical energy. You can't summon your fire to melt away at them."
"And just who the hell are you?" Natsu growled as he sat up. The cloak-wearing masked woman stood up and started walking towards the dragon-slayer, saying nothing as she stopped in front of him. Without warning, she socked Natsu in the jaw, knocking him on his side.
"It wasn't enough for you destroy everything. But you don't even have the decency to remember your sins." Fuyu stated, hatred evident in her voice as she proceeded to kick the downed Natsu in the gut.
"W-What're you talking about? I've never seen you before in my life, lady!" But saying this only got him a kick to the face, drawing blood.
"How dare you! You took away everything from me! Burned it to the ground!" Fuyu declared, striking Natsu with each punctuation. She then held the chained up dragon-slayer by his scarf, their faces near the same level. "While I've been forced to hide and wallow in anguish, you've been prancing around Fiore, playing the part of a hero."
"Lady, I don't know you! I've never meet you before!" Natsu yelled out. Fuyu just let go, letting him fall on his ass as she held her mask in her hand.
"You really are a disappointment." She said as she pulled her mask off and her hood fell off, revealing long salmon-colored hair. The same color as Natsu's. Fuyu lifted her face, showing it to Natsu and making his eyes widen in shock.
"W-What?"
Fuyu's face had a burn mark on her left side that crossed over onto the rest of her face. A burn mark in the shape of a small hand. But what got to him to most was her eyes, which were the same shade of black as his.
"Who….who are you?" Natsu asked, even though the deepest part of his mind was fearing the answer. The question in turn made the salmon-haired woman's face contort in anger.
"Tell me, Natsu." Fuyu said. "What sort of child forgets his own mother?"
To be continued…
Author's Note 2: DUN, DUN, DUN! How's that for a cliffhanger?
And yes, this what I've been hinting too since Chapter 5 and my one of my complaints with the Tartarus arc of the canon Fairy Tail manga. Aside from killing off the dragons in a mean-spirited fashion, the other thing that ticked me off was the revelation that Natsu and Zeref are brothers, which feels like a big slap in the face and boils down the story to a fight between brothers and implies that Natsu is some kind of demon.
And don't worry. Unlike most shonen writers, I'm not gonna dick around and make you guys wait fifty chapters for an explanation. The next few chapters will be about the fallout of these revelations and the rescue of Natsu from the Holy Crusaders.
And now, I'd like to end this chapter with the promised new segment from the last chapter; Fairy Tail Q&A, where you can ask any member of the FT: AND cast any question (provided it not be about spoilers) and they'll answer it. So here's the first question from Martyn:
How about Zeke loses his contacts (if he has any) and has to live with his glasses from then on and loses THEM as a running gag?
Zeke: That's not gonna happen since I don't wear any contacts. My eyesight just improved as I grew older and I didn't really need to wear glasses anymore. Although I still wear them when I'm reading a good book or when I'm just feeling nostalgic.
XSDStitch asks the following: Is Ven a reference towards Ventus from name and lack of memory?
And how did Happy get the idea of using Lacrima Grenades to fight his opponents?
How did the Team find it's name Morningstar? (If this is already explained, please point to the chapter ; I tend to miss some details at times)
Happy: I can answer these! Ven is more like a reference since the name is Italian for wind and he actually hasn't lost any of his memories. As for the grenades and the team name, I started using them since it doesn't take up a lot of my magic energy to use them and they picked the name because it sounded cool.
SulliMike23 asks: I got a question for Alyssa. Why do she and Erza fight?
Alyssa: I'm pretty sure I explained why in Chapter 4. Erza used to bully us back when we were kids (not that she thinks that was bullying) and never apologized for it. Plus, everyone needs a rival and Tin Can makes a pretty good one.
Anyway, that's it for now! If any of you have any questions, please feel free to send me a PM under the title 'Fairy Tail Q&A'!
Next time: Natsu's Past! Be sure to read, favorite, review and support this story by editing the TV Tropes page! See ya later!
