A/N: YAS! Finally! An update!

I don't own Fairy Tail!

Please enjoy!

Chapter 26: Gut Feelings

April 14, X792 - Morning

Seth didn't hesitate to run to the end of the boat when he heard the splash, knowing he would have to keep up his momentum if he wanted to be able to catch up to Cordelia and the Dark Water. He could see Cordelia just under the surface of the water being pulled along by the black substance still tied around her hands. He jumped off of the edge of the ship to follow the same path that his guild master had, the tattoo of a shark's fin he had on his right shoulder glowing as he did so.

"Chimera Shift: Mako!" he shouted, his skin tinting blue while a pair of dorsal fins appeared along his spine as well as pectoral fins along his forearms. As soon as he entered the water, this form allowed for him to swim at an extreme speed. He shot off in the direction that the Dark Water had gone, moving as fast as he could to reach it. He only had to come up for air once before he finally saw Cordelia just in front of him. He reached out for her when he was close enough, but just as his hand was about to wrap around her ankle, the Dark Water turned sharply and his hand grasped nothing but water. Though, he continued after Cordelia, catching a glimpse of the fear in her eyes in the process. If he already had to come up for air once, he knew that Cordelia was in desperate need of it. He let his adrenaline surge through him at that thought, allowing him to torpedo himself through the water in order to fully catch up with Cordelia.

Seth moved to wrap his arms around her from behind, successfully locking her in place and stopping the Dark Water in its tracks for a brief moment. That moment allowed for Seth to begin pulling them upwards, both of them inhaling deeply when they surfaced. Though, their moment of relief didn't last long as the Dark Water began its pulling again, forcing Seth to grip Cordelia tighter than he normally would, the large man almost fearing that he would leave behind a bruise on her waist from the strength behind it, but a bruise on her was better than letting the black water take her away.

"Get it off!" she shouted, trying to fight back against it. She was sure that between the pulling of the black liquid and Seth, her arm would pop out of its socket.

Seth made a grab for the Dark Water, attempting to pull it off of her hands. This only resulted in the water screaming out again and pulling at Cordelia even harder, causing Cordelia to cry out at the shouting she could hear from it. Before either of them could do anything else, the Dark Water pulled them under the water again, now dragging both of them through the ocean. Seth made sure to keep a tight hold on Cordelia though, knowing that he couldn't afford to lose her a second time. The pair rolled and tumbled through the water, Seth continuing to try and get the substance off of her hands. He felt a change in the pressure around them, realizing that the Dark Water was heading deeper into the ocean. If they went too deep, neither of them would be able to withstand the pressure, especially at the speed they were heading down. He put a stop to that plan as quickly as he could, fighting back against the black water to head back upwards towards the surface again.

In this process of struggling, Cordelia was whipped around until she was now facing Seth, but this seemed to help the pair out since it allowed her to wrap her legs around him to better secure herself along with throwing her tied hands around his neck. This let Seth free up one of his hands to help him lead them back towards the surface. The struggle continued between Seth and the Dark Water, but eventually the larger man won and broke to the surface again, both mages taking in large gulps of air.

"We have to get out of the water!" Cordelia shouted, "It'll just keep dragging us back down otherwise!"

Seth looked around them to see if there was anything to grab onto, but they were too far out from the guild and there was nothing but water around them. He knew of only one thing he could do, and despite the lightning in the air, he'd have to try for it. He kept his tight hold around Cordelia and concentrated his magic into another tattoo. It would take up a lot of his magic to have two tattoos going at once, but he wasn't paying that fact much mind at the moment. The wyvern tail on his lower back lit up and glowed just like the shark fin on his shoulder.

"Chimera Shift: Flying Fish!" he shouted. His blue tinted skin faded into a teal color and along side his fins grew an aquatic, reptilian-like pair of wings. The combo of the Mako and the Wyvern form allowed for him to continue swimming at high speeds, but now he could transition into the air and fly when needed. He expanded the wings out and flapped them once to get them up and out of the water.

Cordelia could hear the Dark Water screaming in protest from the distance being put in between it and the water, but she only clenched her teeth and ignored it for now, "Higher! Go higher!"

Seth nodded at her and began making his way high into the air, all the while struggling against the Dark Water as it tried to pull them back down into the ocean along with having to twist around the lightning bolts that continued to rain down around them.

"Please tell me you have a knife or something!" she yelled.

Seth could only make a face in return, one that told her that he didn't.

"Fuck! What are we supposed to do then?!"

"We'll need to make our way back to the guild so someone can help you get that stuff off of you."

"No! I don't want to risk anyone else getting caught in this!"

"It seems pretty stuck on you though. Even when I touched it to try and pull it off, it didn't react to me."

"I still won't do it!"

Seth sighed, unsure of what to do next and silently hoping that someone on the guild was smart enough to think of something to help them out.

'Heretic! Take! Take!'

The Dark Water's voice was slowly growing louder and Cordelia wasn't sure how much more she could take of the mix of shouting voices it produced through her mind. It was slowly breaking her down along with the two attempts of drowning her. The only things that seemed to keep her going was Seth's solid grip on her and the thought that Eli wasn't around for the black water to get to. But even with those thoughts, it still didn't help lift the weight that the Dark Water seemed to bring with it.

"I can't take it anymore! Get it off!" she screamed, trying to desperately pull her hands out from the black liquid. She could feel her skin becoming raw from scraping back and forth where it met from her hands being tied, but she ignored the dull, burning pain it brought as panic began to rise through her again. She was beginning to think that she wouldn't ever be able to get the water off from her hands and eventually Seth wouldn't be able to fight against it. He was already wasting a lot of magic by keeping up his combo spell, "Let go!" she yelled at the Dark Water, not knowing what else to do.

'Ours! Take! Can smell heretic on you!'

"I won't be taken anywhere! Let go!"

As Cordelia continued to fight with the Dark Water, she hadn't been paying attention to what her movements were doing to Seth.

"Cordelia! Stop moving around like that!" he shouted, trying his best to keep them out of the way of the bolts of lightning, having to twist and turn sharply in the sky, "You have to calm down so we can think of what to do!" he continued, looking back towards the guild to see Devin flying out towards them in his Angela form, "Look! We've got help coming, so calm down!"

"Get it off!" she cried, not really hearing anything Seth was telling her. All she was focused on was getting the Dark Water off of her in order to free herself and stop the screaming in her head.

"Cordelia! Stop thrashing around!"

She didn't hear him though as she continued to yank them around in her panicked state, "GET IT OFF!" she roared out as she pulled them hard to the left. This caused the pair to move directly under a lightning bolt, the flash taking over everything around them. Cordelia's roar turned into a shout of pain while Seth did his best to keep a hold of her while letting out his own shout during the extent of the strike. Though, this moment within the lightning caused the Dark Water to react to the electricity, loosening up around Cordelia's wrists. Devin was close enough to move in and see the Dark Water begin to move away from her hands, but stay circling around them. He took that moment to attack with his sword, igniting it in fire before slicing it up through the middle of her wrists and cutting the Dark Water in half. Once the strike had faded away, Cordelia and Seth began to fall back towards the ocean, her hands completely free of and moving away from the Dark Water.

"Sacred Fire!" Devin shouted, shooting out his angelic fire at the Dark Water before it could rush down and reattach itself to Cordelia. Devin wasn't sure if the black water disintegrated or was simply blown away during his attack, but it was no longer in sight when his fire faded. He then looked down to see the fallen pair floating in the ocean, the take over mage feeling surprised to see them both still conscious.

Both Cordelia and Seth had taken in damage from the lightning strike, the burn marks across their bodies proving that, but they had both managed to stay conscious when they dropped back into the water. Cordelia still clung tightly onto Seth, who had dropped his magic by now, and hid her face in his shoulder, her hair falling all around her and sticking to her. Seth kept his own hold on her, feeling a bit fearful still that the Dark Water would reappear. He then felt movement from Cordelia, the man looking down to see her body shake as her grip tightened on him. He quickly realized she was crying.

"Seth," Devin called down to him.

Seth waved the young man off though, telling him through the motion that he would swim them both back to the guild. Devin seemed to pick up on what he wanted and made his way back towards the guild.

"We'll stay out here for a moment longer," he said quietly, knowing she needed the time to recover from what just happened before facing everyone on the guild again.

"The lightning," she choked out in between her tears.

"It doesn't strike the same place twice, right? So let's just be optimistic about the situation for now," he said, earning a slight huff in laughter from her in between the sobs, "You just let out all your tears out here, all right?"

She could only nod against his shoulder in response as her sobs became heavier.

Seth let her cry her heart out and he continued to hold her in comfort, but even as he tried to concentrate on helping her, he couldn't help but wonder how Eli was going to react to all of this. He could only hope that the fire mage wouldn't lose his cool over it, at least for Cordelia's sake.

. : + : .

Eli, Zinnia and Aria continued their way onto the island, the trio having to dodge lightning as they moved along the pathway after Swabbie.

"Damn lightning! This annoying!" Aria shouted, "How do people even live on this island?!"

"Rubber houses," Zinnia answered.

"This is no time to joke!" Arai said.

"I'm being serious," Zinnia said, pointing towards colorful, rounded homes. When the lightning would strike down on them, nothing seemed to happen as the house took in the blast from the lightning.

"What the hell?!"

Zinnia chuckled in response before peering over at Eli to see a serious look on his face, "What's with frown?" she asked, "You're normally more gun-ho about going after the bad guys."

Eli's brows furrowed in response at first before he spoke, "I can't shake the feeling that something bad is happening."

"Did you see or hear something?" she pushed.

"No. It's more like a gut feeling," he answered, frowning down at her, "Something just doesn't feel right."

Zinnia was quiet for a moment as she thought about his response. Soon enough though, a smile came to her face, "Well, I wouldn't worry too much. There are plenty of mages left on the guild if something goes wrong. I mean, it's not like anything serious is really going to happen. You had those bounty hunters tied up before we left."

"I don't think it has anything to do with the bounty hunters," Eli said lowly.

"Whatever it is, if it even is anything, I'm sure Cordelia and the others can handle it, so don't worry. What can go wrong? Besides, we have our own orders to follow at the moment anyways."

"I suppose," Eli said, still unable to shake the horrible feeling in his gut.

"There he is!" Aria shouted, bringing their conversation to an end. The other two looked up to see Swabbie just a ways ahead of them, the pirate having no trouble moving through the lightning thanks to his rock armor.

"We need to work as a team like we did on the guild," Zinnia said, "So you two can get a bit more wild this time around, just watch out for the lightning and any civilians that might be nearby. I'll move in first," she said as she picked up her speed. She dodged a couple of bolts, using one of the last strikes to boost her speed as it busted up the ground around where it struck. Zinnia jumped onto a chunk of earth that had been sent flying towards Swabbie. She soared ahead of the other two, jumping off of the piece of earth and twisting in the air to land in front of Swabbie with her Spartan styled shield at the ready. She clenched her teeth and tensed her muscles together to prepare herself for impact. She didn't have to wait long for the redhead to slam into her shield, Zinnia sliding back across the ground once again like she had done on the guild.

"Map," Swabbie grunted as he continued to push Zinnia forward.

"Sorry cutie, but I have my orders to stop you," Zinnia said with a flash of a smile.

Swabbie seemed a bit thrown off by her reaction, causing him to stop his movements forward.

"All right! Eli, it's your turn!" Zinnia shouted.

"Green Fire's Sliding Strike!" Eli said as he came down on Swabbie. His fist hit the top of the redhead's back, quickly melting through the rock that covered his skin. Eli then made a downwards swiping motion, leaving behind a line of the green fire to continue melting through the armor on his back.

"Now Aria!" Zinnia said.

"Hell yeah!" the young woman said, smirking as she brought down her fire ignited blade down across his open back. Blood flew up from the attack, the skin around the cut being burned from her fire.

Swabbie let out a loud grunt of pain as his back arched up from the attack before he slumped forward, "Map," was all he said as he forced his armor to cover up the weak spot on his back. He started moving forward despite the pain he felt from the wounds now on both his arm and back.

"I don't think so," Zinnia said, shouting as she moved forward and rammed her shield against him.

"Move," Swabbie said, hoping that the woman would move out of his way. He genuinely didn't want to hurt her, especially since she had treated him so nicely back on the guild, but he also had a job to do. He frowned when her only answer was to continue pushing him back. He then slammed into the shield with his shoulder, the forced behind his hit being enough to have Zinnia stumbling backwards. Swabbie didn't waste any time moving in again with another attack, punching the shield dead center. Zinnia went flying backwards a few yards from his sheer strength. She skidded to a stop on her back, her eyes going wide when she saw a lightning bolt coming right down on her. Luckily she had been able to keep her hold on her shield and that it was big enough to cover her body when she curled up under it. The lightning struck the shield just as she finished pulling her feet under it, the metal layer on it taking in most of the bolt.

While Zinnia dealt with protecting herself, Eli and Aria attempted to move in on the pirate again. Eli tried to make a grab for the same arm that they had wounded previously, but Swabbie turned on him much quicker than he expected, grabbing onto Eli's wrist with one hand while sending his free hand into the fire mage's gut. Eli coughed hard as he was sent flying backwards much like Zinnia had. As his body slammed onto the ground, a bolt of lightning went off a few feet away from him, chunks of earth being ripped up and sent towards him. He could only cover his face as they came raining down on him.

Aria charged in next. She knew that her fire wasn't hot enough to burn through his rock armor like Eli's was, but she still had to try something. She aimed for the few spots that weren't covered by rock. She managed to hit a couple of them, but it did nothing but give him small slices on those spots, and while they were annoying for the pirate, it wouldn't be enough to stop him in the slightest. In the next attack she made, Swabbie dodged to the side and brought down his fists onto her back, instantly knocking the air out of her along with breaking a few bones, Aria was sure, considering how much her body hurt when it ricocheted against the ground.

Swabbie looked around at the three, unmoving mages, and when he was satisfied that they wouldn't be getting back up, he began his trek to get the map again.

"Don't think we're finished that easily," Eli said as he rose up from the rubble that covered him. He wiped a hand across his mouth to clear away the blood that had been trickling down from the corner of it.

Swabbie looked back at him, genuine surprise in his eyes. No one had ever gotten back up from one of his direct hits. He had to really wonder who these people were that they could so easily stand back up from his attacks.

Though Eli was able to stand back up, he did sway a bit from the damage that hit had done to his body externally and internally. He was certain that Jack was just going to be thrilled when they got back to the guild. And with the thought of the guild crossing his mind, that gut wrenching feeling returned tenfold. Eli looked back towards it, knowing that something was definitely off, but he just couldn't place what it was. All he knew was that he needed to get back to the guild as quickly as he could.

He turned back to face Swabbie once again, seeing the redhead beginning to walk towards him to initiate another attack, "Oi! Zinnia! Grab Aria and get ready!"

Swabbie looked over to see Zinnia pop out from her shield unharmed by the lightning. He couldn't understand how they could be getting back up, even the sword mage he had slammed in the back had begun moving to get back up on her knees before Zinnia ran to grab her and pull her out of the way.

"Good luck getting out of this one," Eli smirked, "Green Fire's Acid Torrent!" he shouted, throwing out both hands to send out a huge torrent of the acidic green fire at the pirate. Swabbie held his ground, throwing his arms up to shield himself from the attack. The fire completely covered his body, quickly melting away all of his armor. When the spell had faded, Swabbie looked down to see that he no longer had any defense to protect him, "Aria!"

"I got it!" she shouted, forcing herself to charge the pirate again, "Break my bones will you, you freak of a pirate!" she said as she made a quick 'X' mark across his chest. The flames on her blade once again burned his skin while the marking dug into his skin and had blood flying outwards as his eyes widened and he fell backwards onto the ground. Aria dropped down to her knees again once her attack was over, whatever damage Swabbie had done to her starting to hit her all over again.

Zinnia walked up to Swabbie with a sad smile, "Sorry we had to be so rough with you, but you didn't really give us a choice. But I really did like partying with you. Maybe once all of this is over, we can have a drink together again," she said before slamming her shield into his head and promptly knocking him out. She then began moving his body into a scrunched position in order to cover him with her shield.

"What are you doing?" Eli asked.

"Well, we can't let the poor guy get struck by lightning, now can we?"

"We can't?"

"No," she huffed at him, "He was following his own orders like we were following ours. It wasn't really his fault."

"But he-" Eli started until another wave of worry and bad feelings hit him, "Whatever. Do what you want," he grumbled, "I need to get back to the guild."

"We should continue forward to help out Drayden and Alisa with the clue."

"I did what I came onto this island to do," Eli retorted as he helped Aria stand back up, "Besides, she needs to see Jack as soon as possible."

"Are you really that worried about the guild? You do understand that all five S-Class are back on the guild along with Cordelia, right?"

"I don't care. Something doesn't feel right and I'm going with my gut feelings this time," Eli said as he began the trek back towards the guild with Aria leaning against him, "Do what you want though. I'll let Cor know if you decide to go help the other two out."

Zinnia sighed. While she could understand following your instincts, they also had a job to finish up, "You do that. I want to make sure the other two are able to figure out the clue."

Eli simply nodded in response before the two parted ways, neither parties really ready for what they were about to walk into.

A/N: And there we are! I hope you all enjoyed it!

I know it was a fairly short chapter this time around, but I wanted to get something up after making you wait so long! I had wanted to get this chapter finished yesterday, but it just didn't quite happen with getting the TS chapter completed along with having to do a few things yesterday as well. But we should be back on track now with things, especially after that bout of writer's block I had along with One Piece sorta taking over for a while, haha! But never fear! I have been planning things during this time period still, so it's not like I completely stopped working on things all together. I actually was able to work out more of the upcoming arcs thanks to Dread and a few of you readers, so that really helps me out a lot with future planning. So big things to come! CHA! Next chapter should be longer though!

And along with the short chapter, I'll be forgoing my usual question corner and review responses since it's so late and I still have to edit and I really just want to get this chapter up for you guys already. So once again, we'll be back to normal after this chapter for both stories!

But as always, I do appreciate all your reviews and support! I seriously love all the reviews I get and they always make me smile! And we're even over 400 reviews now! Holy crap! You're all just so awesome! :3

On another awesome note, CryptozoolgyConundrum made an awesome fanart for the story! I know they uploaded it on photobucket and it should be under Oh Captain My Captain Eli and/or Cordelia (either name should work when you're looking it up), if you want to check it out. I think they mentioned that they were also going to put it up on deviantart, but I know for sure it's on the photobucket site. It's totally awesome and I was super excited to see it! So thanks again so much for making that!

So that should be it for this time around. Again, next chapter should have the usual question corner and review responses! Promise!

See you all next Sunday!

Yours Truly,

MyDearWatson