AN: Thanks Goku275 and MDM11. MDM11, I understand that life can get in the way and am glad to see more of your suggestions.
Lucy, Blaze, and Happy made their way out of the unidentified forest, only to end up more confused about where they were. The three found themselves before Kardia Cathedral and Mercurius — next to one another despite neither Magnolia Town nor Crocus being anywhere in sight.
"Someone's coming, mya!" exclaimed Blaze, catching Lucy's attention. Happy, searching the area from the sky, didn't react to her words. "That smell…"
The two girls turned to the corner of Kardia Cathedral, from behind which four people walked out. Wendy came first, leading Carla, Gray, and Erza, the latter of whom was being carried on Gray's back due to her injuries.
"They aren't the only ones!" shouted Happy from high up. The Exceed waved his arms enthusiastically. "Over here, Natsu! Over here!"
The dragon in question flew over, returning to human form as he landed. The Fairies all exchanged greetings, then the conversation shifted to a more serious matter.
"What do you know about the Spriggan named Irene?" asked Erza.
"Irene Belserion?" responded Blaze, puzzled. "Why?"
"When I fought one of the Spriggan 12 in Hargeon Town, he started to ask if I was Irene's… something. He… lost consciousness before he could finish speaking, and I wasn't able to find an opportunity to get answers from him before we all got displaced."
"I see," said Blaze as she delved her future self's memories. "She was one of the two Spriggan who survived Acnologia, though she lost her arms, legs, and magic in the process."
"I remember," replied Erza. "You said she used to be the second strongest Spriggan, both a dragon slayer-turned-dragon and a High Enchanter. Do you know anything else about her?"
"Hmm," went Blaze, thinking. After a few moments, she sighed. "Not really. Irene's mind was messed up because of Acnologia. Outside of teaching F-Wendy about Enchantments, she didn't really say or do anything. Although…"
"Although…?" repeated Erza, leaning over Gray's shoulder and toward the young dragon slayer.
"…Come to think of it, her hair was the same bright red color as yours. Sorry, but that's all I can think of."
"Actually, that information is plenty. Thank you."
However, contrary to her words, Erza's expression grew more serious. The S-Class Fairy's hunch was now upgraded to a strong suspicion.
But, before she could share her thoughts with anyone, they were all distracted when a giant eye with a cross-shaped pupil appeared in the sky and stared down at them. Or, more precisely, at Erza.
"Why are there so many of you!?" complained Makarov as he crushed droves of Alvarez soldiers with his magically enlarged body.
Despite the best efforts of the guild master and the many Fairies around him, the enemy forces showed no signs of diminishing. Every defeated soldier was immediately replaced by a new one. This carried on for a while until things changed for the worse.
"Ungh!" grunted Jet as he fell to the ground. Turning around, the Fairy saw that he had stepped on some sticky goop, which had clung to his shoe and caused him to trip.
"Jet!" exclaimed Droy, concerned for his friend. The middle of a battlefield was no place to fall down or get distracted. Of course, Droy then looked at his own body and proceeded to do the latter himself. "What's this sticky stuff all over me?"
At that moment, a foot slammed into his face and knocked the Fairy to the ground.
"Droy!" shouted Nab, only to suffer a similar fate when long, black bands wrapped around him and threw him away.
"Aww, that was too easy!" bragged Juliet, the goo from her Mucus Magic dripping from her hands.
The Alvarez soldiers started to cheer, troubling the Fairies.
"The Irene Division is here!" proclaimed Heine, retracting her Magical Bands.
Fortunately, the Fairies got a few seconds to react to the new enemies as Juliet and Heine discussed who to attack first. Two of the Fairies even took matters into their own hands, making the Irene Division pair's choice for them.
"Don't worry," said Millianna, stepping forward. Fully recovered from her fight with Brandish, she was looking to make up for the time she spent healing while everyone else was fighting. "We've got this, mya!"
"Yeah," agreed Juvia, the second fighter. The sudden teleportation had rendered her guarding of the captured Spriggan pointless. "I'm looking forward to the opportunity to release my frustration. I was separated from my beloved Gray for no reason!"
"Hehe… she's funny," laughed Juliet, pointing at Juvia. She turned to Heine. "I'll take her, so you can deal with the other one."
"Don't decide your opponents based on entertainment, you imbecile!" yelled Heine. But it was too late, as Juliet had already launched herself at Juvia. Heine sighed, then looked at Millianna and smirked. "No matter. It looks like you're mine."
With that, Heine ran toward Millianna, extending her bands as she approached the Fairy.
"So you're the First Master's childhood friend, subconsciously recreated by her magic when her body was freed," summed up Rogue.
Sting and Lector looked at him oddly, surprised that he had been able to understand Zera's explanation. Frosch, not paying attention, admired the giant tree on the nearby Tenrou Island Peninsula.
"Exactly," answered Zera. "Now, our first order of business is gathering everyone together. Our meeting place should be the guild hall!"
Bringing her right index and middle fingers to her head, Zera began sending out a telepathic message to everyone bearing a Fairy Tail guild mark (aside from Mavis, as that would cause Zera to vanish).
"The guild is to your…"
The direction given varied depending on where the Fairies were, the guild hall's location having been determined by Zera through her connection to Mavis.
"Head for the guild! Everyone can meet there! You've been separated by the enemy's magic! You have to become one force! Mavis is in trouble! She's like a mother to all of you! Each of you has a duty as her child! So go! Now! Go protect Mavis!"
"That was pretty forceful," commented Sting bluntly, unaware that his words were being relayed to everybody in the guild through Zera's Telepathy. "I mean, nobody other than me, Rogue, Lector, and possibly Frosch know that you're Mavis's friend. You're just a stranger giving them all orders. What if they don't believe you?"
"…It'll probably be fine since I transmitted what you just said, too," responded Zera, her face red from being chastised by the White Dragon Slayer while the entire guild listened.
"Are you still sending what we're saying right now?"
"…Not anymore" replied Zera, her blush deepening as she cut off the communication.
"…Let's just go to the guild hall," said Lector, attempting to help Zera forget her embarrassment.
"Fro agrees."
"The rest of you should go on ahead," Juvia told her fellow Fairies. As she spoke, she turned her torso into water and opened a hole in it, causing a shot of Juliet's goop to miss her. "Millianna and I will deal with these two and then catch up."
"But…" started Lisanna, hesitating to leave her friends alone against Juliet and Heine.
"They have it handled," stated Mirajane. "Just leave it to them."
Lisanna obeyed her sister and left, though a look of uncertainty remained on her face.
"Nekōsoku Tube!" shouted Millianna, extending the hands of her Nekōsoku Knight aura into whips.
The Fairy's whips warred against Heine's bands. Both mages sent out dozens of attacks with their lashes, whipping up a large cloud of dust around them. From within the cloud, countless cracking sounds could be heard as the two of them blocked one another's every strike.
When it became clear that her current tactic wasn't going to work, Millianna switched gears. She returned her aura's right hand to its original shape, using her left hand to defend as Heine attempted to take advantage of the pause in Millianna's attacks with a barrage of strikes.
The Fairy received a few lashes — which Heine electrified — but was able to endure. She pointed her right hand at the Alvarez mage, then unleashed several Kitten Blast.
Heine responded by weaving her bands together into a shield. The Kitten Blasts hit the Alvarez mage's barrier and exploded, filling the area in front of her with smoke.
"Idiot!" berated Heine. "Your spells are nowhere near powerful enough to destroy my Magical Bands."
However, the Alvarez mage's confidence faltered when the smoke covering her bands faded. Wrapped around the uppermost band of the woven shield were two Nekōsoku Tubes, which stretched from the arms of Millianna's Nekōsoku Knight like a pair of rubber bands.
"Who said I was trying to destroy your bands?" retorted Millianna. The Fairy pounced at Heine, her Nekōsoku Tubes slingshotting her over the Alvarez mage's barrier and into her. Millianna twisted her body as she flew through the air, making it so that she slammed foot-first into Heine's chest.
Heine tried to defend herself by electrifying and reshaping her bands, but neither were the Fairy's tubes conductive nor the Alvarez mage's bands fast enough to stop the attack. And, as the kick landed, Nekōsoku Tubes sprouted from Millianna's foot and wrapped around Heine.
To Millianna's surprise, this caused the Alvarez mage to transform into a black sword.
"Take that!" yelled Juliet, flinging blobs of acidic goo at Juvia. "And that! You're about to get real slimy!"
Juvia turned her body into water and was unaffected, the shots passing right through her.
"Hey! Why aren't you taking my attacks!?" complained Juliet. Growing angry, she threw more blobs of slime at the Fairy. Her speed increased with her anger, but it didn't change the fact that the goop was unable to overcome Juvia's water body. "This isn't fair! Not fai—"
The Alvarez mage's words were cut off as Juvia struck her with blades of pressurized water. Juliet fell back onto her butt, the blades cutting deep into her body.
Strangely, no blood came out of the Alvarez mage. Instead, a light leaked out of Juliet. As this happened, her body faded away, revealing a white sword.
"What is this?" muttered Juvia to herself. Dread started to fill her. "She was a sword… enchanted with a personality…? Could this be the work of Irene? Are her abilities truly that monstrous?"
"I see you two have been taking good care of my little girls."
An enormous, menacing Magic Power appeared behind her, confirming Juvia's worst fears.
The blue-haired woman turned around to face Irene, while the cat-like woman threw a tube-shaped spell at the Spriggan.
It didn't matter. With a flick of her arm, Irene commanded the black sword's Magical Bands. They struck down the cat-like one's attack and then wrapped themselves around the Fairies, binding the women to a boulder. When the blue-haired one tried to escape by turning into water, the Spriggan used a jolt of electricity to stop her.
Irene made another gesture, and the white sword began to drip corrosive mucus. The goop flowed toward the bound Fairies, covering their bodies and burning their flesh. The two screamed in agony, causing Irene to smirk.
"Your deaths will not be quick," stated the Spriggan in a sadistic tone. "I'll melt your pretty flesh and luxurious hair until you're disgusting lumps of meat that nobody can stand to look at!"
She cackled at the helpless women and their suffering, until a voice broke her out of her reverie.
"Irene," said Ajeel. "Stop this right now."
Omake
After hearing Zera's message, Elfman began trudging toward Fairy Tail's guild hall alongside Ichiya and Bacchus. He, the two Fiore mages, and a group of now-unconscious Alvarez soldiers had all been transported together, separating them from everybody else.
Elfman turned his head to the right.
"Maaan," said Ichiya, making finger guns at the Fairy. He was currently dressed in nothing but a speedo that the Pegasus had been wearing under his clothes for reasons Elfman neither knew nor wanted to know.
Elfman turned his head to the left.
"…And after I've guzzled down a few drinks, I'll find a woman or two," continued Bacchus, describing his post-war celebration plans. He paused for a moment as an idea come to him. "Come to think of it, your sisters are pretty hot. They available?"
Elfman looked straight ahead.
"…I wish I had ended up with anybody else," thought Elfman unhappily. Spending time with these two was more exhausting than fighting the Alvarez Empire. "Even a Spriggan would have been better than this. Possibly Zeref, too."
AN: Aside from which two Fairies would be fighting, I actually didn't plan out the Juliet and Heine fights until I wrote this chapter. Consequently, I didn't think about how Juvia's ability to turn into water would make Juliet a pretty harmless opponent until after I had written the battle between Millianna and Heine.
Meh, I'm still satisfied with what I wrote. Besides, I wasn't going to pass up Millianna vs Heine, given their similarly-shaped magic. If anything, I regret not making that fight longer.
That is all. Goodbye!
