Disclaimer: I do not own Fairy Tail and/or Akame Ga Kill. They belong to their original owners.

The Assassins of Fairy Tail

Job Twenty Three: The Assassin's Ambush

The battle against Ajeel's army in the West Cliffs was underway. Natsu, Gajeel, and Wendy were holding them off and hoped they would be stopped before they could reach Magnolia. Natsu was busy fighting against Bakel as he blocked one of Bakel's attacks. He retaliated by delivering a punch that was engulfed by his flames. Natsu's attack struck Bakel and was enveloped by the fire as it pushed him away. The fight was something else to behold to the other soldiers. "He's pushing Captain Bakel back?!"

"But I thought strength was the Captain's forte?"

"That's the only thing he's good at."

Despite the attack Bakel took, he still kept that grin aiming at Natsu. "Hey, that's a nice scarf you got there boy."

His soldiers cheered for their captain. "He's okay! That punch didn't affect him at all!"

Happy came up to Natsu while holding a stick in his paws. "Come on Natsu! Stop fooling around! He'd be done in an instant if you took this fight seriously!"

Of course, Natsu knew that but this was different than the previous fights he was in. "I know but…I don't know how many I've got to fight after him. I can't be going at full-power right from the start you know."

And after hearing that, Happy felt his brain explode. "Natsu's…planning…his attacks beforehand?" He never felt so proud of his best friend. "He's grown up so well."

Then Carla elbowed him while fighting in her catgirl form. "Move it!" She kicked the next soldier she saw right at the side of the head. Lily dealt with a couple of soldiers on his side.

"Iron Dragon's Club!" Gajeel's attack struck several of the soldiers at once.

He then sensed something and managed to avoid Kareem's surprise attack and it struck the ground. Kareem continued to attack Gajeel but the iron dragon slayer kept avoiding them. His new opponent caught his interest. "Kareem of the Ajeel squad reporting for duty."

While Carla and Lily defeated their next group of enemy soldiers, both of them heard screaming and turned to see where it was coming from. Carla gasped as she saw Wendy hovering over the soldiers she was fighting with Mastema. She saw some of the soldiers on the ground were pierced with feathers. Both Exceeds saw the distress on the soldier's faces. "What the hell?! What is this brat!?"

"What those wings she's using?! Are they a magic item or something?!"

Wendy looked down at soldiers with a deadly expression on her face. She raised up her hand and pointed her fingers at the soldiers before her. A barrage of feathers shot out from her wings and all of them pierced the soldier's bodies all over while they screamed in terror. The remaining soldiers were frightened and took a few steps back. Wendy noticed this and set her arm to the side. Small winds swirled around her finger tips, feet, and elbows and flew toward the soldiers. She came in too quickly at them so they couldn't avoid her. Wendy struck through a group of soldiers while passing them by and stood at the opposite end of the group. They just stood for a couple of seconds before dropping to the ground. Everything in the battle surrounding her felt distant. Wendy felt…strangely calm. Her heart wasn't beating at a fast pace and her breathing was steady. It was…a strange feeling to her. "You seem to be enjoying yourself." Wendy gasped as everything around faded into black and recognized Esdeath was speaking to her. She heard the former general laugh at her. "Look at you, taking out these pathetic soldiers and you're doing it without a second thought. And yet, you're still holding yourself back. You're denying yourself. Why not cut loose and show them what you can truly do?"

Wendy refused to turn around to face her. "I'm doing this for my guild. I won't lose myself. Not as long I have the others with me."

The young dragon slayer heard Esdeath chuckle at her. "But this is a war and in war, people will die. That includes your little friends. Tell me…" Esdeath neared her face to Wendy's ear. "What would happen if they were to die and you couldn't do anything about it?"

Wendy growled angrily at the voice. "SHUT UP!" The wind circled around her hand and quickly turned around to swipe at Esdeath. However, the scream she heard wasn't the voice she heard from before. Wendy found herself back in the battlefield and saw one of the Alvarez soldiers laying on the ground with a large gash across his chest.

Wendy looked ahead to see the other soldiers staring at her disbelief. "What is it with this brat? Is she deranged or something?"

Wendy felt her heart racing again and took in a few deep breaths. "One thousand one, one thousand two, one thousand three…" Her heartbeat calmed down and narrowed her eyes at the next group of soldiers in front of her. The wind returned to her hands, feet, and elbows and lunged at them while yelling.

B

Meanwhile, Gray and Juvia were holding back the second group of Alvarez soldiers in the western part of Magnolia. Dealing with them was more troublesome than Gray thought it would be. "The numbers are unbelievable…"

Juvia could see that but to her, it wasn't as bad. "But it's still less than what we had to death with back during the Avatar battles."

Gray and Juvia looked back to see another group heading towards them. "Yeah, but these guys are way stronger in comparison. And this is only a small portion of their fleet. I have a feeling this'll get annoying."

As the next group approached them, Elfman came out from the sky and crushed several enemy soldiers into the street. "Need a hand!?"

Gray was surprised to see him. "Elfman?"

Lisanna kicked another soldier that was close to Juvia in her animal soul bird form. "Lisanna?"

Mirajane was behind them and swung her arm to the side. "Satan Soul…" She completely transformed into a very familiar Tartaros demon. "Mirajane Seilah!"

Both Gray and Juvia were surprised to see who Mirajane had turned into. "What the!?"

"She was taken over?"

Lisanna opted to explain this to them. "Well, she would've died if we left her like that so…"

Elfman couldn't help but feel a little sad. "My sis…just too nice sometimes…"

Gray didn't see why this was better. "So…she just robbed her of her body?"

Mirajane Seilah smiled at the soldiers in front of her and held her hand out to them. "This is an order. All of you…" The soldiers stopped and stumbled before dropping to the ground. "Shall go to sleep."

Gray was surprised to see so many of the soldiers were taken out at once. However, there were more that weren't as easily influenced by her Macro. "Mira! Some of them are still awake!" Lisanna warned her sister.

Mirajane didn't see this as much of a problem. "Well, for those…" She had a bright smile and winked. "I guess we'll just have to do it the old-fashioned way."

And Elfman cried more manly tears. "So manly!"

At the other end of the group of soldiers, Badd observed what just happened. "Macro….on of the demon's many spells. "I see, how would you like to become one of the Emperor's toys then?"

The soldiers approached Gray and the others and they were prepared to take them out. As the first one in front came in close. Something or rather someone, also descended from up above swiped down on him. The soldier stopped and so did the rest as they saw Akame right in front of them. The first soldier could only stare at the former assassin. "Huh?" Then sight split in half horizontally and blood spurted out of his body before splitting in half.

The sight was horrendous to the rest of the soldiers and some of them took a step back. "S-She killed him. What the hell!?"

Akame didn't waste time rushing to the rest of the group and swung Murasame at them a few times. She got in a few cuts before one of the soldiers attacked to stop her. Before jumping back to safety, Akame managed to cut his hand with Murasame. The soldier hissed at the cut he received. "You bitch! I'll-" The then gasped in pain as he felt something was terribly wrong with his body. He looked at his hand and saw strange markings appear that was spreading quickly throughout his arm. "W-What's going on?" He wasn't the only one. The other soldiers Akame had cut were acting the same and then all of them dropped to the group.

The remaining soldiers didn't know what to think about what they saw. "What the hell happened? They weren't hurt that much and they just dropped!"

"Who the hell is this chick!?"

While the soldiers were freaking out, Badd thought it was very intriguing. "How interesting. A sword that kills with one strike of a blade. It might possibly exude a type of poison once it cuts into its target." Not once as he had seen anything like Akame's weapon before.

The soldiers in the back had no idea was going on. "Why's everyone freaking out all of a sud-" A giant needle of light just dropped from the sky and impaled the soldier from the head. The surrounding freaked out as they stepped back to see what happened to their ally before more of the large light needles rained down upon them and impaled the soldiers from they stood while screaming to their deaths.

Chelsea was on top of the buildings while seeing the whole thing happening. "At least this'll be easier. Akame takes out the front, and I handle the back. Still…" She looked at the direction of Badd who still had a calm look on his face even though he was seeing his own men being impaled. "Why isn't that guy panicking? He's way too calm. Plus there's something weird about that guy and not just because how he looks. I can't…sense his aura."

The soldiers in the front looked back as they heard screams coming from behind. "What the hell is going on here!"

That would be the last question he would ask before being smashed into the ground by Leone in her beast form. Upon her arrival, Leone grinned wickedly at the soldiers in front of her. "I hope all of you said your prayers because this'll be the last night of your lives!" Leone roared as she pumped up. "Take Over: Lionel Beast Soul Combination!" Leone's fur turned to black with bone-like armor covering the top of her hand and extending all the way to her forearms. Three spines emerged from each of the arms of the armor and a single one extending out from her elbows. That same bone armor covered the lower half of her face and Leone's eyes turned bright orange with red markings going through her eyes. Leone's hair turned black and gave a terrifying howl. "Alpha Black Wolf!"

Gray could only think up of one description of Leone's transformation. "What kind of beast did she take on to look something that grim-looking?"

Leone leaned forward and rushed to the first soldier she could reach. She roared as she stabbed him with all three of the spines from her arm. The soldier yelled out while coughing out blood. That was only the start of it as the spines emerged from the back of his body and stabbed the next soldier and the next one after him. Before long, the spines reach impaled ten of the soldiers before Leone lifted them all up over while the spines were in them. She laughed at her work. "Now that's what I call a shish kabob!" Leone then slammed all ten dead soldiers to the ground right at the soldiers in front of her.

The remaining soldiers were beginning to have doubts at what they were seeing. "What the hell are they? Are they really with Fairy Tail?" More of the soldiers screamed as they were impaled from the back by Chelsea as she landed in between them.

She quickly jumped to where Akame and Leone were and turned around while her hand was placed out in front. "Shower Needle Spray!" Countless light needles appeared and they were all sent to the soldiers in front of them. All of them were embedded into the soldiers as they screamed and dropped to the ground.

Seeing all the soldiers being killed easily made Gray appreciate the three former assassins a little more. "Sure glad they're on our side. With them being assassins from before, they have no problem taking out the enemy like it was nothing."

To Lisanna, she remembered what Chelsea had told her from earlier. "I guess…seeing myself fighting in this war proves that I haven't changed much since then. I may have magic to fight with but what can I do against opponents like them?"

She had confidence in Chelsea's ability to fight. "You're doing great so far Chelsea."

Once they were down, Chelsea had to relay what she learned from before. "Leone, Akame, about the enemy. There's no doubt at the other end of this group is their leader and he's probably one of the Twelve but here's the weird part. I couldn't sense any aura coming from the guy."

This detail sounded strange to Akame. "How is it possible he doesn't have any aura? It wouldn't make sense for him to hide it since he's out in the open."

"I don't think they can hide it even if they could." Leone added. She looked at the soldiers that were in front of them. "I can sense their auras just fine. Something's gotta be up with their main guy."

Akame narrowed her eyes at the enemy before them. "We'll worry about him after we finish the rest of them off."

"Hey!" All three turned back to see Gray and the others approaching. He gave them a smile. "You don't mind a little help, right?"

Leone grinned back at the ice wizard. "Why not? We all have to be team players here." She and the others turned back to the remaining soldiers in front. "Let's beat their asses into the ground!"

Back in the airship, Erza was still struggling against her fight against Ajeel. "Dry up already. It won't be long till the sand squeezes every drop of moisture out of you."

Erza tried to requip into a different type of armor but still couldn't do it. "Why can't I use my requips?"

At the guild, Mavis saw the trouble Erza was in. "Osprey Squad! Erza's having a hard time in the upper sky battle! How long until Jupiter recharges?" She didn't hear a reply and turned to Warren. "Warren, please relay my orders with your telepathy!"

Unfortunately, Warren was deep in despair because of the impossible situation she was in. "No matter how we hold up…it's a matter of time until the enemy sends in another squad."

Mavis needed Warren to snap him out of it or they will lose this war. Thankfully, Max did that for her by kicking Warren in the nads hard. "Pull yourself together ya idiot!" He turned Warren around and grabbed by the soldiers while having a panicked look on his face. "We're all scared to death as well! My legs haven't stopped shaking since the battles started! But we've still gotta fight! This is our home and we've gotta protect it!"

His speech impressed Mavis and the other guild members. It seemed to do the trick and snapped Warren out. He then grabbed a broom and impaled Max from behind with the handle. "Don't fricking kick me in the nuts man!" Max screamed out in pain while Warren proceeded what Mavis had told him to do earlier. "Osprey Squad, do you hear me? This is Warren…"

Bisca heard him and gave the update on their next chance. "Another five minutes until Jupiter recharges."

It was good enough for Warren to hear. "We're leaving it to you then. Please save the guild!" He cut off communication with Osprey. He was a silent for a couple of seconds before speaking up. "Thanks, Max."

Max smiled at his friend but not before looking pissed at what Warren did before to him. "What the hell were you thinking kicking me in the ass like that!"

Warren was equally as pissed for what Max did to him earlier. "You started it! There of all places too!"

While Makarov was glad Warren snapped out of it, he couldn't help but sigh at his and Max's behavior. "My apologies First. These ruffians never change."

Mavis giggled as she didn't mind. "It's fine." Still, this battle was far from over. She had no choice but to believe in the other guild members. "It'll all be over if we give up. I need to think of something quick."

At Lucy's house, or rather Lucy's bathroom, the blonde was confronted with Brandish who was taking strangely enough. "W-Why are you in my house?"

Brandish didn't reply and just stared at the other for several seconds before actually answering her. "Come join me."

Lucy wasn't sure if she heard that right but it sounded like Brandish invited her to take a bath with her enemy. It was one of the most nonsensical things she'd heard of. "Are you serious!? Coming in my house, my bath…and then asking me to join you? Are you out of your mind?"

"Don't make repeat myself." Lucy could sense the fear coursing through her body when she heard Brandish's voice. Brandish picked up Marin and presented him to Lucy. "Ah, I see. This one here?"

"You pass, as always!"

Brandish put Marin in a small makeup container which he didn't like. "Ah, wait! Lady Brandish! What are you-!"

"Well, problem solved. Come."

Lucy still thought the offer was crazy. "No way!"

Brandish narrowed her eyes at Lucy. "You lot lost the battle the moment I stepped foot into this town. I'm sure you remember what my magic can do, no? It would only take me a second to shrink the entire town. But I want to enjoy this bath so I won't do it just yet." Lucy hated to admit it but Brandish was right. It would be easy for her to do so and that would end the fight. "Do you understand? You'll be alright as long as you listen to what I say. I take really good care of my pets despite my character, you know?"

She grabbed the container and waved it around with Marin still in it. "Wait, so I'm a pet?!"

Lucy still didn't understand the Twelve's reason. "Why are you doing this?" Brandish's response was simply snapping her fingers there was a rumble out of nowhere. "Wh-What was that?!"

"The building next to this one…" Outside of Lucy's apartment, the building next to it shrunk drastically. "I minimized it." Lucy knew that was the last warning Brandish would give to her. "Last chance. Please get in with me. It's an order."

Marin couldn't believe the chance he was missing. "Man, I wish I can see for myself, ehehehe."

Lucy didn't have much of a choice or any choice. She had to comply and started to undo her clothes. "I can't use magic around her and I don't know what her purpose is. But if it's a physical battle she wants, then it's one she'll get!" Once Lucy fully undressed, she finally joined Brandish in the bath.

The two didn't say anything to each other were staring at one another. Meanwhile, Marin was complaining. "Lady Brandish! Please let me out already!"

They ignored him and Lucy decided to ask Brandish the same question again. "Why are you here?"

Brandish ignored her question. "You're so not cute." She brought out a cat ear headband. "Try this on."

Obviously, Lucy refused. "No!"

But she ended up wearing the cat ear headband anyway. Brandish marveled at the way Lucy looked with the headband on. "Oh my…what did I do? How adorable!"

Lucy questioned the situation she was in. "What is all this!?"

Brandish quickly returned to her serious side. "I've…seen you before somewhere.

At least Lucy got something out of Brandish but that only raised more questions for her. She looked away from the other girl. "That'd be Sorcerer Week-I mean I was a journalist for a year and did a couple of model shoots as well."

Brandish really didn't care about that. "The magazines you lot read here do not interest me at all."

That was a bust to Lucy so she opted for something else. "Uh…then the Grand Magic Games?"

"What?" This whole thing made Brandish more curious. "I can't seem to remember."

Lucy couldn't believe this was happening to her for the countless time. "Don't tell me you came here just for that!?"

"That's right. And take that off already. We're having a serious conversation now." And Brandish was making Lucy feel frustrated. "Will you wash my back for me?" They exited out of the bath and Lucy was now scrubbing Brandish's back with the car ear headband still on. "What's your name?"

That was the first question the Twelve had asked the blonde this entire strange time. "It's Lucy."

As she Lucy continued to scrub Brandish's back, Marin was making the container he was in hop. "Oh! It's my job to wash her back Please let me do it!"

Lucy continued to ignore him and saw an opportunity. "She's lowered her guard. Now's my chance." Lucy brought out the handle of Aquarius' key and held it. "If I could take out one of the Twelve…"

She was about stab Brandish with the broken part of the key. "Ah, Layla's daughter?"

Lucy immediately stopped once she heard her mother's name. Her hand was shaking. "You know my mother?"

That was all the confirmation Brandish needed. "So it's the truth then." She looked back at Lucy with a deadly look in her eyes. "Layla's daughter, huh?"

There was another rumble and Lucy looked up to see the ceiling was coming down. "The room's getting smaller!?" She quickly made her escape out of the bathroom. "This is bad!" She entered her room and that was shrinking as well. "My room!" Lucy tripped momentarily but stood up and continued to run. She tumbled down the stairs and made it out of her apartment before it fully shrank.

However, Brandish was standing in front of her with her clothes on. "To think I'd find you in a place like this."

Lucy had one important question to ask to Brandish. "What happened between the two of you?"

Brandish reply was staring at the other girl and gave a threatening look at the blonde. "It's too much trouble so I won't be talking."

"You better get away from her!" Brandish noticed cards flying at her and evaded them. Cana arrived just in time to help out Lucy. "How dare you do this to our town! You're really starting to irritate me!"

Lucy was glad Cana showed up when she did. "Cana!"

Cana took a look at Lucy and smirked at her. "Wow, look at you. Someone's certainly been having some fun."

Lucy yelped and covered her chest with her arms. "Y-You've got it all wrong!" She smiled as she held up the makeup cover Marin was in while covering her chest with her other arm. "But it's fine!"

Marin didn't know what was going on. "Huh? What's happening?!"

Lucy tossed the container on the ground and smashed it with her foot. Along with Marin which worried Brandish for the first time. She then took out one of her Golden Gate Keys. "Nw for my Celestial Spirit Magic!" Lucy went from being naked to fully dressed by using one of her Star Dress spells. "Star Dress: Aries Form!"

Cana was feeling nostalgic about her team up with Lucy. "Oh, this brings back memories of that time tag game on Tenrou Island."

Brandish didn't look too worried while Marin reached his hand out toward Lucy. "Such wonderful legs…you…pass." He promptly passed out.

Up on the airship, with Marin defeated, Erza noticed a significant change. "My requip is working again!" Erza requip into a different armor and blew away the sand that was surrounding her which surprised Ajeel. "Wind God Armor!"

Erza dashed to where Ajeel was and struck him back to a wall. However, he didn't look injured and chuckled at her attempt. "That's it?"

At the West Cliffs, Natsu and Gajeel were panting slightly as the soldiers they fought were laying all around on the ground. Happy was impressed how long it took for them to beat them all. "They were quite a handful even for you two, huh?"

Natsu had a reason for taking as long as he did. "Well, sure. I couldn't go all out on them."

Gajeel turned to the other dragon slayer. "Yeah, I've been on ten percent strength this whole time."

Natsu looked back at Gajeel. "Oh yeah? Then I was at point-one percent!"

Gajeel questioned Natsu's statistics. "But weren't you having a hard time?!"

"Hate to break it to the both of you but I think Wendy was the one who used the least amount of magic. Just look what she did."

All of them looked at Wendy's direction and saw the soldiers she fought were covered in feathers and even those who were not, were laying on the ground without a single scratch on them around the young dragon slayer with a blank look in her eyes. Gajeel couldn't help but feel a little uncomfortable seeing the sight. "Looks like the kid's been busy. Kinda surprised those wings of hers haven't lost all of their feathers."

Carla was worried about her friend and called out to her. "Wendy?" Wendy heard her and looked at the other's direction. "Are you feeling okay?"

Wendy smiled at Carla and nodded at her. "I'm fine, Carla. Really."

Gajeel thought differently about that. "You sure? Because we all heard that outburst you had earlier in the fight."

Wendy would rather prefer not to be reminded of that. "Don't worry about that."

Natsu looked at the soldiers Wendy defeated and wondered about something. "Hey, Wendy? Some of the guys you beat don't even look hurt at all and you still beat them. What's up with that?"

The young dragon slayer looked at the soldiers she defeated and looked back at the rest of the group. "It's simple really. It's what I did same with using the feathers that come out of Mastema. I aim at certain weak points on the body. One well-placed hit on one of them and the enemy will go down. As for the ones without the feathers, I applied a small portion of my magic to my fingertips, feet and my elbows to strike those same points on the body. It's quick, easy, and gets the job done. Chelsea was the one who taught me while we were traveling back to the Capital from Kyoroch."

While Gajeel was impressed by that, Natsu was a little confused. "Seriously? How does that work?" The best way to show him was to demonstrate. Wendy walked up to the fire dragon slayer and raised her hand while a small amount of wind circled around the tip of her index and middle finger. She struck a spot on Natsu's side and yelled out in pain while falling to the ground holding his side. "That freaking hurt!" Gajeel laughed at Natsu's misfortune as it was the funniest he's seen in a long time.

"One thing about the weak points on the human body is that they stay the same no matter how much you train your body."

Natsu groaned as he stood up while continuing to hold his side. "Then let's see what to Gajeel when you do it to him!"

Wendy shook her head. "I'm sorry but I can't do that. Gajeel's skin is like iron so my method won't be as effective." Natsu growled at that while Gajeel continued to laugh.

While all three were fooling around, Lily and Carla looked up to see more ships coming their way. "They're still coming."

Carla was feeling exhausted just looking at the ships. "There's no end to them."

The three dragon slayers also looked up and Wendy admitted Carla had a point. "Their strength and numbers are nothing like we've faced before."

"Exactly!" Bakel immediately stood up and struck Natsu on the head from behind. "You lot can't even deal with Ajeel's Squad, let alone go up against the entire Alvarez Empire!"

Wendy was worried about the fire dragon slayer. "Natsu!"

Natsu, however, didn't seem to be affected too much by Bakel's surprise attack. "Oh yeah?" He elbowed Bakel in the stomach and then delivering an uppercut at him which sent him flying into the sky while Bakel was screaming.

Near the group, Kareem was conscious all this time and after seeing Bakel taken out like that, he thought it was best to be where he was currently. "I think I'll play dead a little longer."

Bakel skyrocketed all the way to Ajeel's ship and bust through it. Ajeel saw him and was surprised to see him. "Bakel?!"

Erza smiled she knew that meant. "Got it, Natsu." She ran over toward where Ajeel was and attacked him once again with her sword while passing him by. However, this time, her attack managed to damage Ajeel and he screamed in pain. "I'll make sure your fighting spirit doesn't go to waste then!"