Ultimate Fairy

Chapter 4: Galuna Island

Part II

…

After a long trek through the jungle, Ben, Natsu, Lucy, Gray and Happy finally arrived at the one and only village on Galuna Island. It was impossible to tell what the village was like, partly because it was now night time, but also because the village was surrounded by high wooden walls with pointed carved tops. Posted on the main gate was the dreaded "Keep Out" sign.

"Well, we found the village." Gray noted.

"Check out that gate…" Natsu remarked. "When they say 'Keep Out' they mean it."

"So, what, do we just knock?" Ben asked, unsure of how to answer a wizarding job request; especially since he wasn't one.

Lucy answered by stepping forward and yelling out, "Is anyone there!? We came to help you!"

The only answer they received was silence.

"Let's bust in," Natsu said, an impish grin on his face.

"No way!" Lucy yelled at him.

Finally, a voice called out from the top of the wall. "Who goes there?"

The group looked up to see two guards staring down at them.

"We're wizards from Fairy Tail," Lucy answered, "We're responding to your request!"

"Why weren't we notified that you'd accepted the request?" the voice asked suspiciously.

Though in Ben's mind, the person had every right to be; especially since the wizards had taken the job against the rules.

Lucy tried to come up with a reason, but Gray beat her to the punch, and called out, "There was probably just a mix-up with the paperwork!"

"Then let me see your guild emblems," the lookout challenged, "right now!"

Natsu moved his scarf, which had partially concealed his red guild mark on his right shoulder. Happy shifted his knapsack to reveal his green mark on his back. Gray lifted his shirt to show his blue emblem on the right side of his chest. Lastly, Lucy showed the pink emblem on the back of her right hand.

Needless to say, the guards were stunned. Those emblems were legit!

"They're here…" the lookouts stammered in shock. "They're really here!"

The sentry was about to open the gate immediately, but stopped when he had noticed a certain person in the group had not shown them any guild mark.

"Wait…that proves who you are," one of the guards replied, "but what about him?" Even without seeing him, Ben knew that the guy was pointing right at him.

"He's with us!" Natsu snapped. "You gonna turn down extra help?"

The sentry didn't really have an answer to that; after all, with the situation the village was in, they'd need all the help they can get. Ben was very grateful as the gate soon opened.

"It's like we're walking into a giant monster's mouth." Happy commented, noting how the pointed ends of the gate resembled sharp teeth.

"Are you trying to freak me out…?" Lucy said, annoyed.

The group stepped forward, only to be greeted by a large crowd of people wearing cloaks, hoods and cloth across their faces, concealing almost all of their features.

"I am Moka, the village chief," the lead figure said, leaning on a staff with a crescent moon on the top, "and on behalf of everyone here, I welcome you. Pleasantries aside, there's something you need to see; now, my people!"

The villagers as one dropped their cloaks, and for a moment, Ben thought they were going to attack them. Instead, the group was greeted by a familiar, yet disturbing, sight.

For the most part, the people all looked human, but every single one of them had a monstrous body part. Arms with claws, legs with talons on the feet, even horns on heads; no one was unchanged, not even the smallest children.

"It's just like the guy on the boat," Gray murmured.

"No wonder they needed help," Ben whispered, "this is awful."

Natsu, on the other hand, noticed something else. "Oh, wow, your sideburns are huge!" he pointed at the sideburns on the elderly chief's face, which stretched down to his waist.

"Not that!" Moka snapped, "I meant my arm!" he held up his purple, clawed arm for emphasis. "Everyone on the island is suffering a disfigurement because of this curse; not even the animals are unaffected."

"Not to sound rude," Ben said, "but are you sure it's a curse? It could be some kind of infectious disease or toxin."

"We've consulted with dozens of doctors, young man." Moka said wearily. "But every one of them says that no such disease exists."

"Can I try something first before I'm convinced it's a curse?" Ben asked.

When the chief nodded, Ben walked up to him and pointed the Omnitrix at Moka's inhuman arm. "Omnitrix, scan closest sentient life-form"

Before anyone could question Ben's sanity for speaking to his watch, the faceplate slid back as a green light shot forth from the core and waved over Moka. To everyone's further surprise, the Omnitrix began to speak in a synthesized version of Ben's voice!

"Subject's DNA is unknown. DNA acquisition blocked by unknown energy. No abnormalities found in genetic structure." With that, the light faded and the Omnitrix resumed its normal mode.

Ben sighed as he stepped back. "So much for the easy way," he said; his tone apologetic. "Sorry about that, but whatever is wrong with you, the Omnitrix can't fix. Guess we'll have to do it the hard way. Can you tell us everything you know about how this happened?"

Moka shook off his confusion and shock, then continued with his tale. "It all started when the moon fell under an evil spell."

"An evil spell?" Lucy repeated.

"Since ancient times, this island has absorbed the light of the moon, causing it to glow almost as beautifully as the moon itself." Moka's voice turned fearful. "However, three years ago, the moon's light turned purple and bathed the island in an eerie glow."

"Hey, everyone!" Happy called out, pointing up, "The moon is coming out from behind the clouds!"

The wizards and superhero looked up to see that the light of the moon that came down was indeed a creepy shade of purple.

"Stand back," Moka warned, "the change is upon us!"

Before anyone could ask what he meant, all of the villagers began to convulse, moaning in absolute agony. Their bodies began to shift, scales, fur and spikes covering them; now, instead of a single area of their bodies, everyone in the village looked like creatures that Ben had only seen in fantasy pictures.

"I am sorry if our appearance frightens you." Moka said. He was now sporting purple, scaly skin, as well as fangs, pointed ears and a pair of horns.

"It's all right," Ben replied, not wanting to make them feel any worse about their appearances. "I've turned into things that are way scarier."

"These poor people," Lucy whispered.

"Oh man," Natsu muttered, before his face suddenly brightened, "YOU GUYS LOOK SO COOL!"

Everyone else could only stare at him in disbelief while he started to gush about how awesome they looked, at least, in his mind.

"Huh…?" everyone uttered, dumbfounded.

"He said we looked cool…" a male villager repeated in shock.

"No one's ever said that about us before…" a female villager said.

"Natsu!" Lucy slapped him upside the head, "That's insensitive! They don't want to be like this!"

"Really?" Natsu asked, confused, "Well, sorry about that. I guess we should help them out."

"That's why we came here in the first place," Ben deadpanned, pinching the bridge of his nose.

"Get a clue, man," Gray said, equally exasperated.

"Anyway, as you can see," Moka said, trying to get everyone back on track, "whenever the moon comes out, everyone in the village takes on the form of a demon. If this isn't a curse, then what is it? We return to normal when the sun rises; however, there are some among us who lose their minds and never change back. The only thing we can do for those poor souls is to put them to death."

The others were shocked. This wasn't just a curse that changed how they looked; it drove them insane and made them dangerous enough to force the villagers to kill them!

'That's probably why they wanted help so badly.' Ben thought. 'If everyone was okay on the inside, they probably wouldn't be so upset.'

"But they might get better someday!" Natsu protested.

"If we wait for too long, they will kill us all." Moka replied sadly. "We've tried to capture them, but they always break free." Tears began falling from the old man's eyes as he pulled out a photograph. "There is no way to reverse it. This curse has forced me to take the life of my own son."

Shoulders shaking in grief, Moka let the photograph fall to the ground, letting the others see a picture of a man with wide eyes, a moustache and goatee, and a bandana on his head.

"That's the guy who took us here on the boat!" Lucy said softly, "We just saw him yesterday and…"

"Shh!" Gray interrupted, and whispered "now I understand why he just disappeared like that. He's dead, but his soul couldn't rest in peace."

'A ghost…' Lucy thought, beginning to panic.

Ben started to get worried; first magic and a cursed island, and now ghosts? Was there anything familiar in this world for him to hold onto?

Moka picked up the photo, then gave the group a low bow.

"Please lift the curse." he begged. "If you do not, it is only a matter of time before we fall victim to it and die!"

"We won't let that happen!" Natsu shouted, then lowered his voice when Moka looked at him. "We're going to fix this, I promise."

Everyone else in the group nodded in agreement. Silently, Ben swore that no one else was going to die because of this curse.

"There is only one way to lift this curse," Moka said, "The moon… the moon must be wiped from the sky!"

'Okay,' Ben thought, 'this might be harder than I thought it would be.'

…

Moka's demand had left the team rather stunned, and they were ushered into a small hut, away from the purple light. All of them were wondering the same thing.

Did they really have to destroy the moon?

"I never knew the moon could be so creepy." Happy said sadly.

"Hurry up and close the window!" Lucy shouted. "You heard the chief; we have to stay out of the moonlight! You may not care, but I don't wanna risk turning into some freaky monster!"

"I'm not so sure about this job, guys." Natsu said, looking more irritated than worried.

"How can these people expect us to destroy the moon?" Gray asked.

"I wonder how many punches it would take?" Natsu wondered, raising a fist. "You think I can handle it?"

"Are you actually considering it!?" Ben demanded. He couldn't tell if Natsu was determined or stupid, but it was starting to look like the latter.

"For real," Gray agreed, "don't be stupid, man!"

"Natsu, there isn't a wizard strong enough who could do that." Lucy said, shaking her head.

"But that's what we were hired to do!" Natsu objected. "If we back out, it'll make Fairy Tail look bad!"

"What they're asking can't be done!" Gray countered, and then asked, "How were you planning to get to the moon anyway?"

"With Happy, of course," Natsu said, pointing at the cat.

"Huh!?" Happy shook his head, "I don't think so."

"Hey," Ben spoke up as he looked at the job request again. "The job just says to end the curse. Just because these guys think the only way to do that is to destroy the moon, doesn't mean that it'sthe only way."

"Yeah," Lucy agreed, "I'll bet that if we do some investigating around the island, we'll find the real source of the curse and stop it."

Anything else Lucy might have said was interrupted when Gray threw his shirt at her face. Ben was both impressed and creeped out. The Ice-Make wizard had stripped down to his boxers and the silver necklace he wore in less time than it took to blink.

"You kids can do what you want," Gray remarked as he pulled his socks off, "but after the day I've had, I need some shut eye."

"Please don't take off any more…" Lucy pleaded, a sweat drop running down her head.

"Yeah, our investigation starts tomorrow morning," Natsu added, and then jumped onto the sleeping mats that the villagers had laid out for them. "Let's hit the sack!"

Happy jumped face-first onto the pillow. "Aye, sir!" came his muffled cry.

"Sounds like a plan to me." Gray replied, lying on his sleeping mat face-down.

Ben agreed and headed to his own mat; it had been almost two days since he'd gotten any sleep, and he was dead tired. He took off his hero jacket and folded it up to use it as a pillow.

"Alright…night, guys." Ben said as he laid down on the futon.

"Night!" they replied.

He closed his eyes and slowed his breathing, allowing himself to steadily fall asleep. The last thing he thought of before he drifted into slumber was his family and friends back home, and how long he would be in this crazy magical world.

…

Early the next morning, the team set out; though Natsu, Gray and Happy looked like they could have used a few more hours of sleep. Ben was used to getting up early, either when he was needed to save the day, or when he needed to go to school. Lucy, on the other hand, was raring to go.

"I hate waking up this early," Natsu whined.

"Hey, you guys kept me up all night with your snoring," Lucy snapped, "and you don't hear me complaining! Let's go!"

"Aye," Natsu, Gray, and Happy all moaned.

"You guys want to hit the big leagues, right? You gotta make sacrifices." Ben stated nonchalantly.

"How come you're okay?" Gray asked.

"I'm used to running on only a few hours of sleep." Ben explained. "I've lost count of all the times I've had to stay up late or wake up early to fight some monster, alien menace, or something."

"See, Ben's got the right attitude!" Lucy pulled out a silver key and pointed it. "Open, Gate of the Clock Constellation: Horologium!"

In a puff of smoke, a tall brown grandfather clock, with long black arms and short black legs, appeared. It had a glass case, a Roman-numerical clock at the center, and a small face at the top with slit eyes and a thin, twirl mustache-like mouth.

"The time is seven forty-eight," the spirit said cheerfully.

"Um, did you need to know the time?" Ben asked, confused as to why Lucy summoned a clock-man.

"No, it's because she's lazy," Natsu told him.

Before Ben could ask what he meant, he saw Lucy open up Holorlogium's glass case and climbed inside.

"Let's go, the lady says forcefully," the spirit said, repeating what Lucy had said from within him, and then marched towards the mountain.

"She… uses him to travel?" Ben asked.

"Yep," Natsu replied as he, Happy and Gray walked after the spirit, "because she's lazy."

Ben shook his head. "I'm never going to get used to the magic here…"

Despite Horologium's head-start, everyone else soon found themselves ahead of the slow-walking spirit.

"Do you really think there's another way to lift the curse?" Natsu asked.

"There really isn't another choice." Ben replied. "The only one of us who could get to the moon is me, and even then I don't think I'd be able to destroy it. Even if I could, it would throw the world's climate into chaos and lot of people could die. "

Even though Ben didn't perform his best in high school, he did remember a few things he learned in his classes; in this case, astronomy. The moon was essential in stabilizing the Earth's rotation on its axis, or in this case, Earthland's. Seriously, who came up with that name?

"Wait…hang on…" Gray interrupted, giving Ben an incredulous look, "you could get to the moon?!"

Ben shrugged, and replied, "Yeah, I have a few transformations that can survive in space."

The wizards and cat simply stared at Ben in astonishment; it was then the teen hero realized that, in this world, a person going into space was unheard of. It made since though since the technology in this world was rather low.

"Wow! That's awesome!" Natsu grinned brightly.

'Damn…' Gray thought. 'Is this guy for real…?'

"But even if you could destroy the moon, it could cause salmon to go extinct." Happy mentioned. "And they're my favorite fish!"

"Will you guys keep it down?" Horologium asked, "We don't know what's lurking out here, so we shouldn't draw any attention, the lady demands impatiently."

"You're not tired. Why the heck are you not walking?" Ben asked, a little annoyed by Lucy's nearly bipolar attitude towards all of this.

"Listen, this curse is freaking me out, and I'm scared, she says nervously." Horologium repeated dutifully.

"Are you kidding?" Natsu asked, pumping his fist, "S-Class quests are awesome!"

"We'll probably end up blowing something up," Ben commented, sounding both resigned and excited.

"Yeah," Gray said arrogantly, "but I bet I could just freeze that stupid curse."

"You guys are idiots, she says disparagingly." Horologium replied, though he sounded like he agreed.

Ben was going to give a snarky reply, but was stopped by the sound of giant footsteps. Everyone turned to see a giant figure behind them. It was easily thirty-feet-tall, but the sun was behind it, so the light got in their eyes, preventing them from getting a good look. Whatever it was, it started to laugh in high-pitched, menacing hiss.

"Anyone know what that is?" Ben asked, reaching for the Omnitrix.

"IT'S HUGE!" Gray exclaimed.

"No," Natsu said, gathering flames around his hands, "but I bet it wants a fight!"

"What are you waiting for?! Beat it up, you guys, she yells frighteningly." Horologium said.

Whatever it was, it began to reach out towards them, and Ben slammed down the dial on the Omnitrix. After a bright flash of emerald, Ben had turned into…

"Humungousaur!" the dinosaur-like alien cocked his fist back and punched the creature across the face, knocking it to the side and allowing everyone to get a good look at it.

"It's a giant rat, she exclaims worriedly," Horologium said, sounding rather concerned himself.

Indeed, it was a giant rat, but its fur was a light green and it wore what looked like a maid's apron and bonnet. In Humungousaur's mind, this was definitely the weirdest thing he'd seen in this universe so far, and it would certainly give some of the stuff he'd seen back home a run for its money as well.

The rat got up and rubbed a paw against its now-sore jaw, and then took a deep breath. Not wanting to let himself or his friends get hit by whatever it was about to do, Gray ran forward and put his right fist on top of his left hand, which was palm-up. A cold mist gathered around his body.

"Ice Make: Shield!" a giant fan-shaped shield of ice erupted from the ground. Unfortunately, it didn't do any good, because the rat belched forth a noxious, foul-smelling gas.

"Oh, man," moaned Humungousaur, placing a hand over his nostrils, "when was the last time you brushed your teeth?"

Everyone tried in vain to block out the smell, but it was already in their noses. Natsu lay on the ground, nearly unconscious from the stench, and it affected Horologium so badly that he was forced back into the Spirit World, leaving Lucy to the mercy of the rat.

"Run!" she cried, trying to get away from the giant rodent. It reached out to grab her, but Humungousaur grabbed its forelimb. The rat, whom was fifteen feet taller than Humungousaur, gave him a look that said "I'm bigger than you; what are you going to do?"

Humungousaur only grinned, and then began to grow; his body became taller and wider, his hide becoming thicker and more plate-like. In a few seconds, he had increased his size to his maximum height of sixty feet; much to the amazement of the Fairy Tail wizards.

"Now who's bigger?" Humungousaur growled.

The rat started to take a deep breath again, no doubt in order to uses its gas attack, but the Vaxasaurian punched it in the jaw, snapping it shut. "Shut your mouth!"

He brought his other arm around and smashed it against the rat's head, driving it to its knees, before jumping on top of it in a body-slam. He got up and wiped his hands together, satisfied of how quickly he subdued the rat creature. Then, he heard a yell and saw both Gray and Natsu pummeling the head of the giant rodent.

"Um, I think it's over…" Humungousaur said, confused. "Shouldn't we leave while we have the chance?"

"We should kick its butt while we have the chance!" both wizards yelled at once.

Humungousaur rolled his eyes while Lucy, who had fled further back during the fight, came back.

"Hey, guys!" she pointed in the direction she'd come from, "I found something!"

From Lucy's tone, it sounded important, so Humungousaur grabbed Natsu and Gray in each giant hand and headed after Lucy, all the while ignoring the two hotheads struggling in his grip.

After catching up to Lucy, they found themselves in front of a large temple; its structure covered cracks and vines, meaning that it was either very old or badly-maintained. Crescent moons decorated every doorway and every pillar. The entrance was large, but even at his smallest, Humungousaur was too big to fit inside; so, he gently threw Natsu and Gray inside the temple before turning back to normal.

"What's the big idea taking us outta the fight like that!?" Natsu raged.

Ben rolled his eyes. "Because I'm pretty sure that that rat had nothing to do with the curse, and we need to end it as soon as we can before anyone else dies."

Chastised, Natsu rubbed the back of his head. "Right, sorry."

Then Ben remembered something from the fight. "Hey, Natsu, how come that gas affected you so badly? It was like you almost passed out."

Natsu looked embarrassed, so Happy answered for him. "Dragon Slayers have stronger senses than most, so the smell was really bad for him."

"But…" Ben was a little confused, "But if that's true, when you and I fought, the smell from Swampfire should have had the same effect. What happened?"

"Well, when you blasted me in the face with that water guy," Natsu told him, "the water got in my nose and I couldn't smell as good, so I could fight Swampfire without a problem."

"That… actually makes sense," Gray said, a little impressed, "Way to use someone's attack to your advantage. I didn't think you had the brainpower for that."

"Hey!" Natsu started to growl at the ice wizard.

"Knock it off!" Lucy half-shouted, "This temple is old, and I don't want it collapsing on us because you two idiots started another fight."

Ben looked around. The inside of the temple was indeed old, and looked like it very well could start to fall apart.

"Wow…this place is massive." Lucy noted.

"So, what's with all the moon symbols?" he asked, pointing to the multiple carvings on the walls.

"Well, it makes sense, Galuna used to be called the 'Island of the Moon'." Gray responded.

"A moon island, a moon curse," Ben smiled wryly, "I'm sensing a theme here."

"Yeah," Lucy said to herself, "you really gotta wonder what all of it means."

Natsu, who had stopped paying attention, started stomping on the stone floor. "Man, this place is a wreck. The floor doesn't even look safe to walk on."

"Well, don't go stomping on it!" Lucy yelled. Her words came too late, however, because the floor did indeed break apart, sending the entire team plummeting into a dark hole.

"Natsu, you idiot," Gray yelled, "look what you did!"

During the freefall, Ben swiftly activated the Omnitrix, selected a random alien and slapped down the core. In a flash of green, Ben had transformed into a humanoid glob of green goo that had an amoeba-like shape. Hovering over its head was an Anti-Gravity Projector that resembled a UFO, and it had the Omnitrix dial positioned on top of it.

"Goop!" Ben called out in a crackling static-sounding voice.

When Goop collided with the ground, his body was splattered everywhere in green, gooey puddles.

A moment later, a piece of rock in a pile of rubble was shifted as Natsu's head popped out. "Hey!" he looked around frantically, "Is everybody okay?"

"I'd be better if you hadn't knocked out the floor!" Lucy retorted, glaring at the pink-haired wizard.

"Here's a thought," Gray growled, lying on his stomach, "if you think before you act, maybe you wouldn't cause so much destruction!"

"Hey, hang on…" Natsu looked around and noticed someone missing. "Where's Ben?"

Lucy, Gray, and Happy paused and glanced around the cavern, seeing no sign of the jacket-clad teen. However, they did notice something else that was odd. There were lumps of green goo splattered across the cavern.

Gray stuck his hand in one of the green globs that was right next to him. "What's all this goo?" he asked curiously.

"AHH…!" Lucy shrieked comically, spotting a large splotch of the green substance on her ample chest. "IT'S ON ME!"

"Sorry…" a high-pitched, crackling voice called out.

The team immediately froze upon hearing the strange voice.

"Who's there?!" Gray yelled.

Suddenly, the globs of green around the room levitated off the floor. Lucy freaked out when the goo on her chest began to move and flew away from her. The emerald globs converged in the air beneath a floating, disk-shaped device and took the shape of a humanoid.

"What is that thing?!" Lucy squealed, frightened.

"Don't worry, guys," Goop held up his hands in a placating gesture, "it's me, Ben…but right now, you can call me, Goop."

"Whoa…your body's made of goo!" Natsu shouted, wide-eyed.

"Way to state the obvious, idiot," Gray remarked.

"EWW!" Lucy cringed at the sight of Goop. "That's so disgusting! And you were on me!"

"Geez…calm down, Lucy," Gray muttered with a sweat drop, "it's not that bad."

Goop reached up to his Anti-Gravity Projector and slapped the Omnitrix dial. In another emerald flash, Ben transformed back to human.

"Sorry about that." Ben apologized, rubbing the back of his neck. "But a fall like that could've really hurt me if I were still human."

It was true. In the short time he had spent in this crazy magical world, he had observed that the people living here were more durable than normal people back on his world; at least, the people he had met so far. Natsu was able to go toe-to-toe with Rath and some of his other strong forms, and he had heard that many other wizards in Fairy Tail were no slouches in a fight either.

Ben was slightly surprised that the three wizards and cat had fallen in what appeared to be a fifty-foot-deep hole and emerged relatively unharmed.

Gray shrugged nonchalantly as he stood up, brushing himself off. "Don't sweat it, dude."

Lucy quickly recovered from her hysteria and looked up at the hole they'd fallen through. "Happy, Ben, can either of you fly us out of here?"

"No, sorry," Happy replied. "That's too many trips for me."

"Don't worry, I've got it." Ben cycled through his aliens, looking for Astrodactyl, when Natsu got his attention.

"Look, a secret cave!" The Dragon Slayer ran through said cave, yelling, "This is so awesome!"

"Would you quit running around like a crazy person!?" Gray shouted.

"Seriously?" Ben asked Lucy as everyone else ran after the pyromaniac, "Is he always like this?"

"Unfortunately, yes," Lucy sighed.

'I'm not sure what'll happen first,' Ben thought, 'either I'll get back home, or Natsu is going to drive me insane!'

Thankfully, Natsu had stopped not too far ahead, staring up at…

"Whoa," Ben breathed.

"That's what I said," Natsu said, not losing sight of what lay in front of them.

It was a massive chunk of ice, easily fifty feet tall and fairy circular; the ice itself was a light blue that seemed to glow with an unearthly, and yet calming, light. But the ice itself wasn't what caught everyone's attention; inside the ice was a creature, barely smaller than the ice that held it. It was covered in scales, fangs and claws, and though it didn't seem to be conscious or even alive, it seemed to promise nothing but death and destruction.

"Anyone know what that is?" Ben asked quietly, not sure if he should be loud in front of such a dangerous-looking beast.

"That's impossible," Gray whispered, stepping forward with absolute shock and horror written all over his face. "It's Deliora!"

"What's a Deliora?" Ben asked, but Gray ignored him.

"How? How could this happen?" his voice grew louder and slightly hysterical, "How is it here? What the hell is it doing on Galuna Island!?"

"You've seen this thing before?" Natsu asked, less unsettled by the monster and more by the fact that Gray rarely lost his composure like this.

"T-there's no way…" Gray didn't seem to hear them, his arms trembling.

Lucy grabbed his shoulder. "Gray, try to calm down."

The ice wizard took a deep breath and his shaking lessened, but his eyes had a haunted look about them.

"Can you tell us about this?" Lucy asked gently, pointing at the creature.

"It's Deliora, the Demon of Destruction," Gray told them.

"Demon of Construction?" Natsu asked.

"Destruction," Happy corrected.

"But why is it here?" Gray asked to no one in particular, "It doesn't make any sense?"

Ben had no idea if this demon had anything to do with the curse, but he knew that nothing got "of Destruction" added to their name for being nice. He would have said so, but the sound of footsteps behind them caught his attention. He gestured to the others to take cover behind some boulders.

They hid just as two people entered the cavern. One was a young man who was fairly short; he had a green coat that went down to his knees, spiky blue hair and the thickest eyebrows Ben had ever seen. The second person was another man; he was shirtless, but wore a pair of blue pants. The strangest thing about him; however, was his doglike face, which looked like someone had combined a human face with a dog's. Sticking out of his shaggy brown hair was a pair of dog-ears.

"The voices seem to be coming from down here," the blue-haired guy said, then sighed, "I hate being awake during the day."

'What…is this guy a vampire, too?' Ben wondered.

The guy with the thick eyebrows continued to speak. "So, Toby, were you exposed to the Moon Drip? I mean, you've got those pointy ears…"

"I already told you, they're a fashion statement, you jerk!" the dog-man, Toby, yelled.

The blue-haired man chuckled. "I was just teasing you."

"You don't have to be so mean about it," Toby grumbled.

"Moon Drip," Lucy whispered, "could that be the name of the curse?"

"Looks like it," Ben whispered back, "It also looks like these guys could be behind it."

"Yuka, Toby," a new voice called out, and a young woman walked into the cavern, "something terrible has happened."

The woman had violet-pink hair that was tied into pigtails, and wore a short, pink-and-black dress with white lace around the edges. She also wore black thigh-length boots and a strange, scarf-like thing around her neck that looked like long feathers.

"What is it, Sherry?" the man now known as Yuka asked.

"It's Angelica," Sherry said mournfully, "she's been attacked, and I'm so sad."

"You're moping around because someone beat up your stupid pet rat!?" Toby barked.

A light bulb went off in Ben's mind, as well as those of the Fairy Tail wizards. That rat that had attacked them was with these guys!?

"Angelica is not a rat," Sherry said fiercely, "she's a brave hunter, prowling the jungle to protect us. She is… love."

As their conversation descended into whispers, Ben turned to Happy and twirled his finger around his ear, the universal sign for crazy. The cat nodded in agreement.

"These guys are a bunch of weirdoes," Lucy whispered, "especially the chick with the pet rat."

"Yeah, I've never heard of anyone calling a big, ugly rat 'love', before," Ben agreed.

Natsu narrowed his eyes at the trio. "Judging from the scent I picked up, they're not from the island." He stated.

"And they don't look like they have the 'demon curse'." Happy pointed out.

"Intruders, you say?" Yuka's raised voice brought their attention back to the strange trio.

"And it's almost time to begin collecting moonlight again." Sherry sighed, "Oh, this makes me so sad. This news will displease the Cold Emperor. We should get rid of the intruders before he finds out. Yes, we must find them before the moon's first light."

"Agreed," Yuka said, a sadistic smile on his face. Toby only nodded.

"If they were here, then they've seen Deliora, and that means we can't allow them to live." Sherry said, "We shall give them the gift of eternal rest. We'll give them… love."

"You're talking about death, right?" Toby asked, confused.

'Okay, that's enough of that,' Ben thought, 'Gray might be traumatized for some reason, and we have no idea what these guys are capable of. Better play it safe for now.'

Picking up a rock, he quickly hurled it down the tunnel and got back behind his cover before the trio noticed him. They did, however, notice the echoing sound the rock made and went to investigate. Lucy let out a breath that she hadn't realized she'd been holding.

"Nice thinking, Ben."

"But why didn't we just jump those guys and beat some answers out of them?" Natsu asked grumpily, itching for a fight.

"We don't know what they can do." Ben explained, "And even if we did beat them, they could just lie to us. I'd rather learn as much as we can, then compare our info to theirs. Besides," he shot a look at Gray, who was still staring at the frozen Deliora, "I don't think Gray is in any shape to fight."

Natsu sighed; as much as he didn't want to admit it, Ben was right. "This job keeps raising more questions."

"Aye," Happy agreed, "like, who is this 'Cold Emperor'?"

"Well, I doubt he's called that because he's all warm and fuzzy." Ben said sardonically.

Gray, meanwhile, was off in his own little world. 'Deliora… what could they want with it? And how the hell did they even find it and bring it here?'

"Gray?" Lucy asked, "What do you know about this thing?"

"It was sealed away inside a glacier on the Northern Continent a decade ago." Gray answered. "An immortal demon ravaged the town of Isval; countless people lost their lives. My master, Ur, the woman who taught me my magic, sacrificed everything to seal it.

"I don't know if it has anything to do with the curse, but that demon doesn't belong here. We have to find out who this 'Cold Emperor' is. If he's tarnished Ur's legacy, he's gonna regret the day he was born!" He raged, a cold mist billowing off of his arms.

Ben was taken off guard by Gray's ferocity for a moment before he collected himself. "Yeah, whoever was stupid enough to mess with the super-demon probably deserves to get his butt kicked." he agreed, "But you need to clear your head, Gray. You're no good in a fight if you're like this."

"Why don't we just take out this stupid demon right now?" Natsu asked, approaching the frozen Deliora, "A little fire'll do the trick."

Something in Gray suddenly snapped as he punched Natsu in the jaw, sending him tumbling to the ground. Happy gaped at the ice wizard while Lucy put her hands to her mouth in shock.

"Whoa," Ben said, "that might have been a little overboard, dude."

"What's the big idea, Gray!?" Natsu demanded, getting up.

The Dragon Slayer paused when he saw the dead serious look Gray was shooting him.

"I don't want you or your flames anywhere near it!" He shouted, and then lowered his voice dangerously. "If the ice melts and Deliora gets free, nothing will be able to stop it."

Ben had doubts about that; after all, he'd beaten things way worse than demons.

"Oh, come on," Natsu said, his tone serious, "You really think a chunk of ice that big would be easy to melt?"

Gray tried to retort, but fell silent.

"Gray," Ben said, "can you tell us how your master stopped this thing?"

The ice wizard nodded. "My master used a spell called Iced Shell to trap Deliora. It made a type of ice that can never be melted. It's so strong that even the most powerful fire spells have no effect on it. But if these people knew that the ice couldn't be melted, why would they bring it here?"

"Maybe it had something to do with that Moon Drip thing that they were talking about?" Lucy offered.

"You might be right," Gray said, "so if they're going to wait for the moon to come out, then we'll do the same."

"Cool," Ben said, "I haven't done a stakeout in a while."

"Argh," Natsu moaned, "It's the middle of the afternoon, I'll die of boredom!"

Five minutes later, the Dragon Slayer was sound asleep on the rocky floor.

"Well, that was fast," Lucy commented, used to her friend's ridiculous behavior by now.

"Aye," Happy agreed.

Moments later, Lucy was sitting on a rock a meter from the snoozing Dragon Slayer with her head resting on her left palm. "Must be nice," Lucy remarked, looking at Natsu, "he doesn't have to worry about anything but eating, fighting, and sleeping."

"Aye," Happy replied, "that's Natsu for yah."

"I gotta admit," conceded Lucy, "I'm a little bit jealous."

Lucy turned her attention to Gray, who was sitting on a rock in front of the frozen Deliora. He was staring at the ground with a brooding expression. In fact, the onyx-haired teen was recalling a memory of training with his Master Ur when he was a boy.

"Ugh…" Lucy moaned, "I know I agreed to wait, but this is so boring."

"Aye," Happy replied.

Ben, who was propped up against a flat ledge of rock, glanced over at the blond girl and blue cat incredulously. Were they for real? "Breaking the rules and going on an S-Class quest isn't exciting enough for you?" he remarked dryly.

"Oh, I know!" Lucy said excitedly, ignoring Ben's comment.

She pulled out a silver key from her key pouch and thrusted it forward. "Open, Gate of the Harp Constellation: Lyra!"

In a puff of pink smoke, a young girl, with orange waist-length hair that curled at the end, appeared. She wore a long blue dress with yellow hearts printed by her waist, leather shoes, and had a pink bonnet on top of her head. She had round blush marks on her cheeks, and small white wings and a large harp on her back.

"Oh wow!" Lyra smiled brightly, waving her right hand in front of her. "I haven't seen you in forever, Lucy!"

"Hey, Lyra," Lucy greeted, smiling.

Ben blinked in confusion at the Celestial Spirit. 'Things just keep getting weirder and weirder…' he mused, putting his hands behind his head.

"Say," Lyra looked at the blond wizard in slight annoyance, "why don't you call me anymore? It's not fair." Her demeanor quickly brightened as she continued, "I'd love to help you out, but you ignore me, meanie."

"Meanie, huh," Lucy gave the spirit a pointed look, "you're the one who told me you were only available three days a month."

Lyra gaped and looked at Lucy in slight shock. "Are you sure about that…?"

Happy sweat dropped. "Great…another weirdo,"

Ben sighed, and murmured, "Tell me about it. As if being in a world of magic wasn't crazy enough."

"So, what would you like to hear me sing?" Lyra asked animatedly, "any requests?"

"Nope. Whatever you want," Lucy replied.

"You know any songs about fish?" Happy asked eagerly.

Ben inwardly chuckled. 'Of course Happy would ask that.'

"Okay!" Lyra beamed, giving a thumbs-up. "I've got a song I think you're going to love, Lucy!"

"Lyra has the most beautiful singing voice." the Celestial wizard said.

"Well, Mira's a singer too, yah know." Happy retorted. "And she sings songs about fish for me."

Lyra sat down and removed her harp from her back, setting it down it front of her. She ran her hands across the harp's strings, creating a calm, lovely sound.

Happy gasped in surprise from the beautiful melody before a peaceful smile crossed his face.

Ben's eyes widened slightly. For some reason, the sound of that melody made him relax. A smile crossed his face as he closed his eyes.

"Words are born into air…" Lyra sang, "…and quickly fade out in the wind…but they find their way inside you…where they live forevermore…When the skies are dark and full of rain…look inside of your heart…"

As Lyra continued her song, Gray clenched his teeth as his body trembled slightly. He had suddenly remembered the time when Ur was teaching him how to perform 'Ice-Make: Shield'. As a result, a stray tear fell down his face as he choked back his sobs.

When Lyra finished her melody, she, Lucy, and Happy overheard Gray's sniffling and looked at him in concern.

"Gray?" Lucy said worriedly. "What's wrong?"

"Nothing…" he choked, "I'm fine."

"You seem upset." Happy pointed out.

"Well, one of Lyra's talents is singing songs that relate to what her audience is feeling." Lucy said calmly.

"Did her song make you cry?" asked Happy.

"I…I wasn't crying." Gray denied; although, it didn't take a genius to know that he was lying.

"Maybe you should sing something a little more upbeat?" Lucy suggested to the harp spirit.

"You should've just said that in the first place." Lyra retorted.

A moment of silence passed before Gray replied, "I think we should skip the song. We need to stay quiet. We don't wanna be found out."

Meanwhile, Ben was currently lying against a flat rock, sound asleep. Lyra's singing had knocked him out cold. At first, her melody had sent him into a calm, peaceful slumber; however, it didn't take long for the nightmares to set in, and for his face to contort in discomfort.

For two years, Ben would experience these sudden nightmares. At first, he had lost plenty of sleep over it, but after a while he had learned to manage. However, that didn't mean coping with it was any easier. The pain was still there, just not as strong.

Ben's head rolled to the side in his sleep as he groaned lowly.

…

Back in the Fairy Tail guild hall, Makarov sat at his usual place at the bar, his mind filled with worry. He had four members of his guild, as well as a guest, who were missing and possibly in terrible danger. He'd hoped that Gray was on his way back with them in tow, but it was looking more and more likely that he was either still looking for them, or had joined them.

"Master!" Mirajane walked up to him, a letter in her hands. "A message has arrived from the Magic Council archives. You wanted me to let you know when it got here."

"They already have an answer?" Makarov said, slightly amazed.

He'd sent a message to some old friends, asking them to find any magic that could send someone to another universe. Truthfully, if the magic did exist, it was probably hidden so well that it would take weeks, even months, to find. He hadn't expected a reply in less than three days.

He opened the letter and quickly read through it, his expression turning graver with every word. Mirajane noticed this and had an uneasy feeling.

"Is something wrong, Master? Did your friends find a way for Ben to go home?"

"They did," Makarov said, "but I don't know if Ben will like it."

…

A/N: Well, I hope you all enjoyed the changes I made in this chapter.

Goop has made his grand debut! Lucy, however, was not happy about it after having him splattered on her. LOL

But, in all seriousness, I felt like Ben falling into a hole that deep as a human would seriously hurt him. After all, he's not as strong or durable as Earthland wizards are in his human form. Heck, they've taken beatings in the show that would kill normal people in Ben's universe!

Anyways, please stay tuned for Chapter 5-6 Revised. They're won't be many big changes, but I would highly recommend reading them.

Well, please leave any critique or comment in the review box if you would like. No pressure!