It had been a full day since Zeldris returned home, when Terra Mere and Romeo had come in to Zeldris's apartment.
"Hey there!" Terra Mere said, as Romeo waved as well.
Zeldris gazed at the two of them and waved. "Good to see you two." He paused then adding, "I haven't seen you two since before the trial".
Terra Mere and Romeo looked at each other in a bit of embarrassment, Zeldris then spoke again, "I take it that neither of your partners made it to s-class?" he asked.
The two shook their heads, Romeo spoke first, "Bixlow and I lost to Mirajane, it was practically a slaughter," he said quite downtrodden.
Terra Mere then added, "Cana and I were beaten by Gajeel and Pantherlily who lost to Natsu in the final battle," she finished.
Zeldris then fully faced the two, his interest picked up, "so Natsu is now an s-class wizard I take it? Good for him I suppose."
Terra Mere then said, "in the meantime I have some good news, Romeo and I are engaged".
Zeldris raised an eyebrow in surprise, as Romeo went pale in panic and stammered, "I thought we agreed we're just in a relationship."
Terra Mere pouted, "but your dad said we had to be engaged so we could make babies." Romeo blushed redder than Zeldris's jacket as.
Zeldris cleared his throat, "ahem," he said, "so what was the reason you two came here other than to talk about what me and Aquarius do on a regular basis?" Terra Mere and Romeo stopped in their sentences and looked at Zeldris in utter shock.
Zeldris rolled his eyes and remarked, "That was a joke". The two tried to regain their composure.
"A poor joke at that," Romeo replied in disgust.
"Utterly vulgar" Terra Mere added equally appalled as the gears in her mind were spinning with thoughts.
Romeo then spoke to change the subject "We found a job and we could use your help with it," breaking the awkwardness in the room.
"Oh, well what is it?" Zeldris asked.
"We're to provide protection for a research mission in the sea north of Krakatoa for a month" Terra Mere said, "the request is by the Archaeological Society, Mira said you had some experience with them" she finished.
Zeldris nodded, then asking, "how much of a reward is there?"
"Three million jewel" Romeo said with glee.
"We're to meet in Krakatoa in two days times by 10 AM," Terra Mere added.
Zeldris agreed to the job and prepared for the journey, packing enough for the travels and the journey. The train ride was pleasant, as Romeo and Terra Mere filled Zeldris in about some other happenings while Zeldris was gone.
When the trio of wizards arrived at the port the ship was almost ready to depart. The captain of the ship was a somewhat short and portly man with short silvery hair in a white sailor's uniform greeted them. "I take it you three are the wizards from Fairy Tail?"
The trio nodded, and Zeldris asked, "and you sir are?"
"My name is Connor; you may refer to me as Captain Connor," the man said.
"This ship" he continued, "is the research vessel Eden's One" he said gesturing to the ship. "Go ahead and make yourselves at home. Your quarters are on the same deck as the main door, ask second mate Sirius to escort you if you can't find them".
The trio made their way onboard finding the blue haired lady named Sirius who showed them to their quarters for the month-long voyage of research.
Not long after the trio were settled, the ropes were hauled in and the vessel went to sea. The next three weeks seemed to go by slowly as the trio had formed a system where everyone would guard for 3 hours at a time.
It was now a Tuesday afternoon with Zeldris to take over from Terra Mere. As the calendar turned from late February to March the weather started to warm up, much to the appreciation of everyone on board. The divers enjoyed the warmer water, the researchers on the vessel were able to be more comfortable on deck as well. Finally Terra Mere enjoyed this as she was able to work on her tan. As she was doing this when Zeldris found her, bikini strings hanging down at her sides.
Terra Mere yawed as she looked up "Hey Zel, is it time to switch already?" Terra Mere said.
Zeldris rolled his eyes as he looked down at her, "we're supposed to be on guard duty not, sunbathing!"
Terra Mere frowned and pouted as she tied the back end of her bikini top again before sitting back up, "you're no fun Zel. Nothing has happened to us while we've been here, and Captain Connor said something about the possibility of heading back to port soon".
"Alright, alright" Zeldris said, "I'm going to head up to the crow's nest at the top to keep a lookout, signal if you need anything from me" he finished and then began to climb the rope ladder to the empty crow's nest as Terra Mere went inside. She was followed by second mate Sirius and another girl who was a quiet researcher.
Once they went inside the ship, Captain Connor asked the ladies to come into his cabin.
Captain Connor was there along with Romeo, and his first mate Brett, a pale but tall man with dark brown hair and wore a gray uniform like Captain Connor's.
"Make yourselves comfortable" the Captain said, "I have some good news, as we are almost finished with the research, we will be pulling up anchor and returning to Krakatoa tomorrow evening" he said excitedly.
"That's great to hear" Terra Mere said, Sirius turned to the girl she walked in with and nodded. She then stood up as Captain Connor and the others talked, beginning to think of required preparations, the girl went and locked the door and sat back down as no one batted an eye or paid attention to her beyond Sirius.
"Captain, is there anything else you'd like to discuss while we're here?" Sirius asked, still maintaining her cover. The captain shook his head no.
"Excellent" she said as she and the other girl stood up, both pulling out a sabre sword. The situation changed instantly. Everyone except the two sword wielding ladies were on edge and petrified.
"This ship and its crew are the property of the Amazonian Blade guild" Sirius said as Terra Mere and Romeo looked at each other in shock.
"What is the meaning of this mutiny Sirius!" Captain Connor said furiously.
Terra Mere then blurted out, "but the magic council captured all of you!" still trying to wrap her mind out of the situation.
"One would think so, but for now" Sirius said as her partner reached down, and pulled out a communication Lacrima, "a word, from our sponsor".
An image formed of a woman in the Lacrima, it looked like a younger and dark-haired version of Lady Turmoil, the woman smiled gazing at her two subordinates.
"Huzzah! Good work Sirius, I knew you could do it!" the woman said.
"Thank you, lady Tumult, we have the captain and his first mate, along with the wizards that defeated us the last time!" Sirius said excitedly.
"Excellent! I will have exquisite end for you two wizards" Lady Tumult said, "Now, Captain Connor" she paused and frowned saying in a deep voice of annoyance to her subordinates, "turn" The ladies turned the Lacrima to face the captain who was trying to keep a brave face.
"Now, Captain Connor," the woman continued, "I will give you a decision, in ten minutes you will surrender your ship and have your crew abandon it but leave the treasure. I know the real reason for your research in this area. If you do not abandon and vacate the ship I will attack, with all my forces! If you wish to negotiate or officially turn the ship over, you will contact us on the Lacrima here". The image on the lacrima faded away and the two ladies unlocked and stepped out of the cabin and locked the quartet of people inside.
Zeldris looked through an eye glass and spotted another ship drifting in and out of mist at the sea as a small rowboat came speeding towards the Eden's One. Zeldris crouched down in the crow's nest to stay out of sight on those onboard.
The two ladies who had taken the crew hostage grabbed a small lacrima from the boat and set it on the ship. They began talking gleefully about how they were going to blow up the ship with said lacrima. Zeldris overhead them and was trying to piece things together as he watched things unfold. The two ladies then quickly climbed down to the boat and the small boat sped away. Zeldris clambered down as quickly as he could out of sight of the boat as it sped away.
He picked up the lacrima that was put on the ship and realized the severity of the situation, "it was wise of me to hide in the crow's nest like I did" he thought as he jumped off the side of the boat into the warm sea water.
He pulled a golden key out of his shirt pocket and put it into the water bearer saying "open gate of the water bearer Aquarius"! From the water the extremely well figured blue haired mermaid appeared.
"You really should call more often" the blue haired mermaid said chastising her wizard, she then noticed Zeldris's expression and the Lacrima he held and scoffed, "alright, so what do you need".
Zeldris pointed to the wake of the boat as it was now just barely in sight, "this bomb Lacrima came from those awful Amazonian Blade wizards, I need you to return it to them please and try not to let them know you're there."
The mermaid nodded and said, "alright, but we need to spend some more time together" as she sped away with the Lacrima.
Zeldris muttered to himself, "I swear I'm more of a boyfriend to her than that Scorpio!" ensuring she was out of earshot first.
As Aquarius continued, she dove into the water to hide her presence and followed the small rowboat as it pulled into the mist and pulled alongside another massive ship. It was like the pirate ship from their previous clash. The mermaid quietly placed the Lacrima onboard the ship away from the sight of the other ladies onboard and quickly swam away then returned to the celestial realm.
Lady Tumult gleamed with delight as she was in her quarters returning from the Lacrima delivery, "their time is almost up, it is just a matter of seconds now" she said. A few seconds later their pirate ship exploded!
Zeldris had gotten back on the Eden's One and unlocked the captain's cabin to the confusion and delight of the others.
"That explosion Zel, what was it?" asked Romeo.
"Oh, nothing much, it was just your late host saying so long" Zeldris finished. The others looked at each other ominously concerned about what happened.
The next day, the captain returned to port with the research mission finished and the wizards received their well-earned pay and headed home to Magnolia, to begin their next job.