AN: The Edolas arc isn't something that I remember very well and it doesn't really have much of a purpose in my story. Lisanna never went there and Mystogan doesn't want to go back there either so here's the thing -I have no idea how to 'separate' the two worlds so there will be no more talk of Edolas or what Mystogan did but I will say that it everything worked out and the exceeds have come to Earthland and that is it. I'm essentially done playing with that arc.
Guest- You asked for more NALU moments and I'll be honest me writing fight scenes and romantic scenes could use some work but I tried in this chapter so I'd like some reviews on how I did with the romantic moment…. Some feedback on whether or not I did a good job or something?
Chapter seven
Mystogan had taken Jellal and Loke to Wendy three days ago. The plan was for him to go find Wendy and have their reunion. He would explain that he left her because his twin brother went mad and now that he managed to find a way to save him, he needed her help to finish healing him. He was also going to tell her about the new friends that he made who wanted to meet her and he was going to tell her about the dragon slayer that he found.
Lucy thought it would be easier on the young girl if she was introduced to them by someone that she knew and trusted. They didn't want to overwhelm her or have her think that they wanted something from her. They just wanted to help her but they couldn't force her to train or to power up. Wendy didn't like to fight and they didn't want to force her into doing something that she wasn't comfortable doing.
Natsu on the other hand decided that it was time they upped Lucy's training. For the first month and half since Lucy had lived with Natsu the two generally sparred on a one foot wide balancing beam. The beam didn't have much space to fight on.
The purpose of the beam was to force Lucy to confront him head on, where she learned to block, punch and kick and stay on her feet. She didn't have much experience on using her surroundings to her advantage, something that he needed to change. A battlefield could be a small confined space or the size of a city. She needed to be able to adjust according to her environment.
The beam taught her balance for one thing and it helped her walk with more grace. It taught her how to control the small space around herself and fight without running and hiding. She had been forced to face him head on and fight with her staff and escrima sticks as well as jump and kick without landing on her ass and instead she even managed to pull of some basic combinations of kicking and punching.
She was extremely proud of the fact that she learned how to do proper damage to an opponent so that she could actually knock people out instead of her 'Lucy kick' which didn't have much power behind it. Usually if it failed she usually ended up doing more damage to herself than her opponent.
Her power was in her center which meant that her kicks were more powerful than her punches. It also meant that was why she had a weapon in her hand, to make up for her lack of strength in her arms. However Natsu and the rest of her team once they decided to form it were well known for taking on high class missions some of them were S-classed since they had Ezra on their team.
Simply put, the battle place would be large, messy and filled with people and objects she would have to be able to avoid her allies and any rubble that was in her path. She would also have to ensure that she landed on her feet because being thrown around was the reason for many of her injuries in the past.
She needed to be more flexible and learn some acrobatics. She could already levitate herself so Natsu was determined for her to be able to fly through the air jumping and dodging while protecting allies. He also hoped that she would be able to catch herself when she was being thrown through the air and stopping herself from getting hit.
Most of her injuries came from being thrown into something or landing wrong or not being able to stay on her feet. If she could keep her balance and stay upright her battle was already half-won, being able to take the punches were just as important as throwing them.
Natsu set up the training place deep in the woods. He actually had to cut down a tree to ensure that the place would be perfect for what he wanted to do. He had Lucy call out Aries who spread random fluffs of her wool in several different places of the clearing. The trees marked their battlefield so Lucy couldn't go out of the ring that he created and she couldn't land on the floor anywhere but where the wool had been placed.
She could use the trees and rocks as stepping stones and hand holds but she couldn't touch anything for more than 15 seconds. There was even a small pond in the clearing so she could use all her spirits but she had to either be air born or jumping and flipping while fighting him. Natsu had created a battlefield and while the two of them fought Lucy would be constantly moving. She would have to able to tell her where she going to land and on what.
He was hoping to train her speed and test how well she could use her surroundings to her advantage. Lucy wasn't the best close range fighter, she was probably a solid four by now but she was a holder mage and her strength was her mind. She could fight but now she needed to see how well she would do in an area that was bigger than a balancing beam.
It was time to really start testing her abilities and really pushing her experience a more lifelike battle. She knew what their battles usually ended up looking like but she wanted to be in the thick of things so she had to be able to keep up. Lucy was touched that he was taking her training this seriously. He really was putting her through the ringer but it was exactly what she had asked him to do.
Lucy wasn't going fast enough. After their first spar she realized that she was going over his fifteen second limit and taking too long to figure out where to land. She kept trying but every time that she hesitated he kicked her ass until they decided to take a break.
Lucy collapsed on the ground exhausted and covered in scrapes and bruises. The fact that he was doing this for her she could no longer claim that Natsu was going easy on her. He was taking her training seriously. All her bumps and bruises were proof that he was going to push her as hard as she could go. She appreciated it even though she was going to soak in their bath for hours tonight.
"I don't know how you always know where to land. You get blasted backwards and you don't even look to see where you're going to land but you always manage to keep your balance and somehow you always end up on your feet like a freaking cat."
Lucy hoped he knew that she wasn't complaining but at the same time she really just wanted some goddamn advice. Learning through practice was easy enough when they were just sparring and he was showing how to actually do the moves and which parts of her body she needed to use when doing a certain type of move.
However they weren't just sparring anymore. It wasn't the basics of martial arts this was a simulation of real life fighting and she just didn't know what she was doing wrong. It was frustrating especially after all the work she put in to do better than before.
Natsu tugged on her hand until she sat down and placed her head in his lap and started combing through her long blonde hair trying to relax her. It really was a nice sunny day and they were in the woods so they had plenty of shade. He closed his eyes and felt the breeze on his face and he could hear the sounds of the animals in the woods and he breathed in her scent.
There were probably a million things wrong or going to go wrong in their future but in this moment everything was perfect, she was perfect. He gazed down at her and he couldn't help but smile. Her creamy skin was getting slightly tan from all the time she was spending outside, her hands weren't as soft as they once were and she was covered in sweat and grime but she was still the most beautiful girl he had ever seen.
Her hair was getting long but he liked it like this. He liked everything about her and he loved having her all to himself. He was able to touch her whenever he wanted, hold her without feeling her pull away and kiss her every chance he got and he would miss the privacy that he had with her. Once the guild knew the truth, they wouldn't get a single moments peace, everyone would be in their business.
"Natsu?" she called his name and he couldn't help but smile because his name fell perfectly from her lips.
"I love you." He told her and he watched her blush from her cheeks all the way down her neck and to the tops of those perfect creamy globes of flesh on her chest.
"I love you too Natsu." She replied her voice sounded like music to him and he couldn't help but give her his famous fanged grin and kissing her roughly.
Lucy gasped into his mouth and his tongue immediately tangled with hers and he dominated her mouth, stealing the breath from her lungs and utterly ravishing her.
"You keep searching for a solid hold when you land or grab something before you push off. The problem isn't that you don't know how or what to do. The problem is that you don't know whether or not you've landed somewhere steady. When you were jumping on the beam you knew that it was going to hold your weight that you wouldn't fall but fighting like this doesn't have that guarantee."
Lucy's eyes were glazed over with lust as he finally answered her question. She knew that his self-satisfied grin on his face was because he could see that he had kissed her senseless and now she was trying to make sense of his words and keep up with his explanation. This was after all the advice that she had asked him for. Natsu just really wanted her to be as speechless as she made him everyday.
Natsu pointed to some of the rocks that she used as hand holds, "You used them to somersault over me but if you planted your feet on them and threw yourself off it then you could have used the momentum to kick me unconscious. When you fight the truth is that you don't know what's going to cave in next but almost anything that you use as a springboard will be able to hold your weight for fifteen seconds before it crumbles. As long as your moving you can stay alive long enough to win."
Lucy finally managed to follow his train of thought and realized that she never thought of it like that. Then again, she never really thought about fighting and the smallest details about it. She just saw the fancy stuff, being hyper aware of her surroundings came with spending hours suspended on a balancing beam.
Natsu taught her that she needed to be aware of what was happening around her then she could use it to her advantage. He was right even if whatever she used as a spring board broke or crumpled if she was fast enough and already done using it then it wouldn't matter. As long as it served its purpose for that moment it didn't matter what would happen afterwards. She just had to make sure that every move she made had a purpose and that she moved fast enough to ensure that she was in control of her actions.
Natsu grinned as he noticed that she had gotten slightly better later that day during her next attempt at a spar. They would probably be doing this for another month until he was comfortable with saying that she would be a solid five when she mastered this but the truth was that he was having the time of his life with his wife.
Natsu and Lucy rarely got to spend time together especially since their team was so involved in their everyday life. He loved the guild and he would die for his team but the amount of times that they ended up ruining the moment had just been ridiculous in the end he gave up waiting for the perfect moment. He had seen pretty much what seemed to be the end of the bloody world and there was no way in hell that he was going to let another moment go by and she wouldn't know how he felt about her.
He kissed her the first chance that he got and he still did it. He told her he loved her every day and he got her pretty things because he knew that she liked them. He brought her flowers just because it made her smile. He got married to her, put a ring on her finger so that everyone would see it and stay the hell away because he was a possessive fucker at heart and he knew it. He would not be able to tolerate anyone flirting with her again, he just couldn't deal with that crap.
He sent the Strauss siblings and Ezra and Gray far away so that they would all just leave him alone for a little while. He did it so that he could have these moments with her so that he could just keep her to himself for a couple of months. He wanted to enjoy being married, enjoy being together in a whole new way and just find their feet.
It was a big step that he had taken with very little thought. He knew it was the right one but he still needed a moment or two to just adjust and process what they had now. He wanted to do it alone, without anyone breathing down his neck.
He knew it was selfish and that she probably missed the guild and her friends. Natsu knew that she got lonely sometimes which was why he worked so hard to make sure that he was always there for her. Lucy seemed so bloody happy when she learned new things so he just kept training her and when she got too bored then he took her out of town and out on a job.
He enjoyed this time with her because soon when everyone returned and they introduced her as his wife they would have questions and want to get to know her and they wouldn't leave them alone for more than a couple hours.
They were closer now than they had been before the whole time travel thing. She was more in tune with his instincts and he understood her better now. He supposed that age had come into play a little. They may be young in body but they knew that they had lived longer and been through a whole lot. Their relationship had always been strong but now it was like they moved as two parts of a whole. The more he taught her how to fight the more she picked up on his fighting style and started to compliment him as she fought.
He always knew where Lucy was and now she seemed to be hyper aware of all his movements. They moved together like a dance. The longer they practiced together almost able to move in complete synch without wasting a moment or movement. The last time he had seen something like this was when Sting and Rouge fought together. It was breath taking to watch but absolutely amazing to be part of as he moved with her, being with her was everything that he hoped it would be and more.
"You know Laxus kind of had a point when he was talking about the battle of Fairy Tail." he said to her one night after their training.
Lucy narrowed her eyes at him, "What are you talking about?"
Natsu grinned at her, "I don't mean hurting anyone Luce. When Mira and Ezra and all of them return it would be nice to test our abilities against each other. Fairy Tail never cared much about how strong its members were but we all did hold ourselves to certain standards and there were people in the guild that we wanted to reach but we never really tested our abilities against each other. It might even calm us down if we were able to fight it out and get our answers, see how close we are to our goals."
Lucy thought about what he said carefully and realized that he made an extremely good point. It would be nice for a few challenges to be made and see who came out the victor and how far the other person had to go a friendly sparring match like how Natsu and Ezra fought when she first came to Fairy Tail.
"You should mention it to the master. Maybe he could have Freed and Levy set out runes to protect the guild, get a practice area where you guys can have mock battles. Especially if what you said about Ezra and Mira is true then when they get back they're going to destroy the guild. It should also motivate some members to get more powerful."
Natsu kissed her forehead, happy that she understood where he was going with this and he was also hoping that Mystogan would show up and kick Laxus's ass. Then maybe take him away with his brother. He was sure that between the two of them they could teach him how to be a better person.
He really wasn't sure it would work and he hadn't brought it up to Lucy yet because she was more interested in meeting Wendy again at this point than worrying about Laxus. Laxus was an asshole but he was their asshole and they would get him to understand without having to be expelled. It had broken gramps heart to do that and he wasn't going to put the old man through that again.
Natsu kind of wondered how he would fair against Laxus if he and Lucy fought against him and then he realized that Laxus was a monster above other monsters and the sooner he figured out what it meant to be a Fairy Tail mage the faster he would reach those heights.
Then again, Laxus, Ezra, Mira and Gray were all at a very low level compared to where he was currently. He remembered not being able to do anything against Bluenote on Tenrou Island but when he came back from his yearlong training mission he was able to knock him out with one punch while barely paying any attention to him.
During that one year, everyone powered up majorly but now compared to where they all had been they were nowhere near what they were truly capable of and he was going to have to push them to train and train hard to get them back up to that level. Natsu pushed those thoughts out of his mind and cuddled his wife in bed because they were finally going to meet Wendy again in the morning and he needed to sleep.
Mystogan had sent word that Loke's part was done and that they should come and meet Wendy since she was excited to meet another dragon slayer. Lucy went to get one of her keys back and finally meet her little sister. It was a good reason to introduce them without them seeming like they wanted to force the girl into anything that she didn't want to do.
Meeting Wendy again had been an experience. The girl blushed very often and that was cute but she was shy and unsure of herself. It made Natsu kind of mad to see her so timid. She was a dragon slayer, a user of lost magic and he knew that she was so much more than she thought she could be.
Wendy was meant to be soaring through the skies and owning that shit but she seemed to crawl into her shell every time they got close to her. He remembered their Wendy and he knew that she was so much more than this fragile little girl and he couldn't wait to break her out of her shell.
Lucy on the other hand sympathized with the girl. She knew what was like to live in a place where everyone was older than you were and no one truly understood you. Young girls needed mothers or at least a sister. They needed role models, strong women to inspire them. She remembered Erza had done that for her.
Wendy was living in a village where the people definitely showed care for her but it was obvious that she was lonely. Her guild master was a ghost of someone long gone and the people here were created to give her the illusion of a family. It reminded her of living in the mansion with the servants who were always kind to her but kept her at arm's length.
Wendy had shown an interest in Lucy's spirits and the two girls had spent a lot of time talking about their magic and their theories about how it worked. Wendy explained her supportive and defensive magic and even her healing magic. However, at her age using it for too long often tired her out.
Lucy started her training by showing her how meditate and empty her magic so that her magic reserves would grow. Wendy had been grateful and Mystogan had encouraged her to learn the full limits of her power.
"Why is it going to take several healing sessions to wake him up Wendy?" asked Natsu when they first arrived.
Mystogan had already explained that he had introduced Wendy to Siegrain as his twin brother who had come into contact with dark magic that had twisted his mind. She had immediately placed him in a healing coma. As far as Wendy knew the reason why he left her here was because Siegrain was in danger and the dark magic made him dangerous to his brother and the people around him. She had been sad that he left her behind but at the same time grateful that he had sought to protect her.
"Healing him in one go is possible but his memories might be lost and I don't know if he can recover them in the future. If I do several sessions over a few weeks we'll ensure he remembers everything and that there will be no lingering traces of the magic that could cause instability." She replied while hiding behind Mystogan.
Lucy assumed that the last time she healed him she hadn't realized how much dark magic had been infecting his mind. She just healed away thinking that the wounds had been created by the island being destroyed and the insane amount of magic that was lying around back then. This time Wendy knew exactly what she needed to heal. It wasn't his body but his mind and she was doing her best in the type of magic that she best at using. She really was a remarkable child.
Natsu remembered that Wendy looked up to him when she saw him using magic so he decided to have a mock fight with Mystogan. He wanted Wendy to see what she could be capable of doing someday and what offensive dragon slayer magic looked like. She had once learned how to use her magic by studying him. He thought that this would give her a few ideas and he had been itching to stretch his magic against someone who wasn't Lucy for a while.
Lucy and Wendy were watching the mock fight from under the shade of a tree. Lucy made sure to remind Natsu not to go too overboard and overwhelm the young girl. No one wanted her to watch Natsu getting too violent and scare Wendy since she was much younger and never really saw any fights.
Wendy watched with wide eyes as she saw Natsu roar at Mystogan and Lucy made sure to explain what the move was called. She explained that Natsu had learned to fight offensively from a young age and told her how long it took him to perfect the moves. Lucy could see how interested the young girl was but at the same time she wasn't ready to go any further. They had done enough by just letting her see what she could do in the future.
The two men eventually just called the match a tie since they didn't want to kill each other and Natsu went up to Wendy and asked, "Have you ever tried to roar?"
It was the first thing that she had learned to do in the previous time line. She learned to do that all on her own so he supposed that it was a good starting point. It was the first thing that every dragon slayer learned how to do.
Natsu could see that she didn't really believe she could pull it off but he gave her a few tips on how to do it. She was shocked when she managed to pull it off even though it wasn't as strong as the first one she had done. Two and a half years in the future she managed to destroy a huge lacrima but she was still young. Her magic reserves were still small but it was an extremely good starting point.
He gave her a few tips and pointers on how to fine tune and practice some other moves and left her to it. She was just learning and she wasn't in a hurry to learn how to fight. The timid girl really didn't like to fight so much but she knew that learning how to use her magic was important. She went through the basic exercises that Natsu had taught her and they left it at that for now.
Wendy had been interested in meeting another dragon slayer because she wanted to know what happened to her dragon. Natsu knew that he couldn't tell her that at this time Grandeeney was inside her body so he told her that he was sure that one day she would see her dragon again. He couldn't bring himself to tell her that he didn't know. Natsu couldn't lie to her instead he dodged the question and told her that Igneel had left on the same day as Grandeeney.
Natsu and Lucy already had plans to visit her more often and check up on her. Every time they visited they would show her how to use other offensive magic but for now she was far above the place she had been when they first met.
She even seemed to be standing a little taller when Natsu praised her for being able to roar on her first try claiming that it took him days before he was able to do it when he first started his training. It was nice to the glimmer of the girl they had known in the young girl when they were done training. Wendy was proud of how far she was able to come with very little instruction and being as young as she was only showed how limitless her potential could truly be.
Seeing Wendy again had been an experience one that Lucy wouldn't trade for anything. She knew that the people of the guild and the village were not real but they were all kind. She knew that it meant a lot to the village chief that they teach Wendy because he knew that Nirvana wouldn't be kept a secret for very long. Sooner or later they would have to face what they had done and Wendy would be left alone when that time came.
He knew that he would have to leave Wendy behind when it was all said and done but for now they were grateful that they were teaching her how to survive in the world without them. Wendy was a smart, powerful, beautiful girl who would grow into an incredible woman and this place would only limit her. She needed to head out into the real world and he knew that with these people by her side she was going to just fine. He also suspected that they knew the truth but they were going to leave it up to him to tell her the truth when they were ready.
He already had a feeling that Wendy would join Fairy Tail sooner rather than later. He hoped that she would find happiness there. This place was never meant for young child and now it seemed like her friends had come to take her home but she wasn't ready to let go just yet. He had been alone for a very long time so he didn't really mind keeping Wendy here just for a little while longer.
Mystogan had enjoyed being with Wendy. He had missed the younger girl and he had worried about her a lot over the years and to know that the old man had kept his promise and had taken care of her had soothed his mind. Wendy had also found Carla here which gave her a best friend and that was something else he could be grateful for.
He couldn't help but feel pride as well when she managed to do a little baby dragon roar. If he considered the stories that Lucy had told him of her he shouldn't have been so shocked. However the fact that she was able to do it still somehow managed to surprise him. She was so young and to have so much potential was staggering and at the same time it was different to see her potential for himself. It was really going to be fun to watch as she learned how to soar through the skies.
They stayed with Wendy for one week and in that time Lucy mainly spent her training time with her spirits. Capricorn explained to her that since she had the whole zodiac there were some spells that would be available for her to use.
"Why didn't you guys tell me when I first got the keys?" she asked and Loke rolled his eyes at her.
"There wasn't enough time for you to learn them Lucy. You were in the middle of a war not training, besides its never been done before. Its possible in theory but no one has ever held the entire zodiac and with all the meditating that you've been doing, your magic has expanded a great deal. You finally managed to master Urano Metria." Replied Loke.
Lucy bit her lip in thought, "Isn't Urano Metria a spell?" she asked and Capricorn shook his head.
"Urano Metria is the only celestial spell that can be cast using the mages power. It's the only caster magic that exists for a celestial mage to use and there are no other spells. We are talking about combining keys to create spells or offensive attacks. Without the keys the spells will not work but Urano Metria works whether or not you are in possession of your keys." Explained Capricorn.
Lucy worked her magic, her star dresses and fighting against her spirits while Natsu and Mystogan fought each other. She noticed that they both picked up a few tricks from each other. Wendy was really impressed at how fluidly they fought until Natsu decided that he and Lucy needed to work on their team work so she was tagged into battle.
The two of them made a devastating team. Lucy's intelligence combined with Natsu's sheer magical force combined with the fact that the two of them seemed to be able to read each other's mind actually left him unconscious but Natsu refused to take it a real win because he didn't win in a one on one fight.
Wendy broke up their mock fighting to announce that Siegrain was awake and Mystogan and Lucy went in to see him. Natsu took Wendy away and showed her a couple other offensive abilities that he knew she would be able to master if she tried really hard. He knew that he didn't have much tact so he left the explaining to Lucy.
"What happened to me?" he asked Lucy them both while staring at Mystogan and Lucy smiled at him gently.
"Do you remember everything Jellal?" she asked and he nodded his head.
A few tears slipping down his face and she wrapped her arms around him. She couldn't help it. He just seemed so lost and broken in that moment that she wanted him to know everything was going to be alright.
"I have a long story to tell you and when I'm done we can figure out what you want to do next."
Then Lucy started with how she met Natsu two years from now. She explained everything that happened since then and why they ended up back here. She told him everything that he did wrong and what he did right and she told him about Ezra. It was a long story and when it was over he fell asleep and she went looking for Natsu.
"And now what happens?" he asked and Lucy merely stared at the stars in the sky.
She had spent the entire day explaining the future to Jellal and now they were left to wait for him to digest and come to terms with everything that he learnt.
"I don't know. It depends on what he wants to do in the future." She replied and the couple stood there under the stars waiting for a broken man to put the pieces of himself back together and find his way back to the person he loved more than anything else in the world.
"Do you think he'll make it through this?" asked Natsu and Lucy smiled.
"He loves Ezra, even in the depths of his madness he was consumed with his need to choose her. No one else was good enough for him. He'll make it through this and then he'll come home to her."
Natsu rested his forehead on hers and Lucy smiled because it was something that he did all the time. When he needed comfort or when he was giving her comfort or when he just needed her to know that he was here for her.
"Just like I'll always come back home to you."