A/N: Hey, what do you know! It didn't take me half a year or two to put out another chapter.

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

The Assassins of Fairy Tail

Job Thirty Five: The Dragon's Comeback

Akame elated that Natsu showed up when he did and not a second longer. With him entering the fray, they have a much better chance of defeating Jacob. She slowly stood up while experiencing pain coursing through her body. Akame winced at the pain, but she wasn't out of the fight just yet. "I'm not done yet. I can still fight, and we will win!" She realized something important about Natsu's arrival. "That's right, Natsu doesn't know what he can do." It's at least what Akame could do so he'd know what he was up against. "Natsu, listen! He can-"

"Let's do this!" Natsu ignored Akame's warning and charged straight at the enemy assassin. He jumped and flames surrounded his right leg. The fire dragon slayer raised his leg overhead for a flaming kick straight at Jacob. However, he put up his arms and managed to block the incoming attack, though it did burn his left cuff. The Shield was quite surprised by the kind of magic Natsu used. "Flames, huh?" Jacob lowered his arms and smirked at Natsu as he pulled his right arm back. "I'm all fired up."

Natsu took great offense for somebody else using his favorite saying. "Hey, that's my catchphrase, damn it!" Jacob delivered a powerful blow to the fire dragon slayer and sent him away. As Natsu was headed toward one of the guild's support beams, he flipped his body around and landed on the beam feet first. Natsu then kicked off it and made it back to Jacob. He gave Jacob a strong gut punch, but it wasn't enough. As both were falling to the floor, the Shield wrapped his right around Natsu's neck and grabbed his sash. Jacob used the fall to his advantage and slammed Natsu into the floor. He recovered and was rightfully mad for what his enemy did. "Quit wreaking the guild hall!" Natsu quickly realized that Jacob was nowhere to be seen. "He vanished?!" Natsu tried to use his senses to locate his enemy but couldn't find a trace of him anyway.

Unknown to him, Jacob was standing behind the fire dragon slayer. He was about to deliver a surprise attack when…"Shadow-Make: Black Whip!" A shadow whip reached over to the Shield and struck him. The attack blew Jacob away and became visible to everyone. His attention focused on Akame who was wielding her shadow whip.

Natsu was quite surprised by Jacob's reveal. "How the hell did he get behind me!?"

"Natsu!" The fire dragon slayer turned to Akame who gave her a serious look. "Listen to me; he has the power to hide his presence. It must be some kind of stealth magic he's using. I doubt even with your senses you'd find him. However, I can. Just leave that part to me."

Now it made more sense to Natsu as to why he couldn't find Jacob before. He smiled at his guildmate brightly. "Really? That's awesome! That sensing aura thing you do really does come in handy, huh?"

And it was at that point everything went silent for several seconds. Akame had a shock of disbelief while Lucy felt like facepalming for what Natsu did. "I can't believe you actually blabbed that out."

Happy didn't seem too concerned, though. "That's Natsu for ya!"

Only Jacob seemed happy by what his enemy revealed to him. "Sensing my aura, was it? So, that's how you were able to counter my magic. Quite the trick you have there, girl. However, now it won't work anymore." He disappeared in front of everyone once more.

Natsu fractionally looked for their enemy, but again, he couldn't find any trace of him. He turned looked back at Akame. "Hey, Akame! Can't you sense his aura or something to tell where he is!?"

Unfortunately for them, Akame couldn't. "I…can't. He's concealing his aura now." That wasn't the only thing that shocked her the most. "He was able to learn to hide his aura this fast?" Before Akame could contemplate this further, she was blown away by an unseen attack and crashed over one of the tables."

"Akame!" Natsu was also attacked by another unseen attack. He recovered, but the fire dragon slayer became frustrated. "Where the hell he's attacking from?!"

That was something Akame wished she knew. "Now that he's able to hide his aura, I can't tell where his next attack will come from or what he'll do next."

They weren't completely out of options as Lucy had an idea and brought out one of her Golden Gate Keys. "We still have a way to find him even without sensing aura! Loki!"

Her key flashed a bright light and Loke appeared next to her. "I'm on it!" He grabbed his left arm and a bright light shined from his body. "Shining Lion!" The light shined throughout the guild and Jacob was revealed. Loki didn't waste any time coming over to him. "There you are!" The light enveloped his body and delivered a punch straight at Jacob.

The Shield didn't need another nuisance in revealing him. "As if I need another pain in my ass to deal with." He pulled back his right arm and flung it forward which created some kind of boom that sent Loki away and crashed into one of the tables.

Lucy expressed concern for her spirit whereas Loki was confused as to what happened to him. "What the hell…was that just now?"

Jacob chuckled a little as he spread his arms apart and sent a multitude of invisible attacks at Natsu, Lucy, and Akame. Natsu was pushed back while Lucy and Akame tried to shield themselves as best as they could from the attacks. He had quite the sinister expression he was showing. "Erase…vanish…see…and make unseen. That is the power of my magic." He ceased his attacks and turned to Natsu. The Shield made throwing gesture and Natsu put up his arms to block it, but instead, multiple hits struck Lucy.

The fire dragon slayer and Akame were both worried about their fellow guildmate. "Lucy!"

Jacob just found their concern amusing to him. "Did you think that was projectile aimed at you? It was actually a whip aimed behind me."

The power Jacob displayed so far proved Mavis she was right about their enemy. "So, this is the power of the Twelve Shields protecting Zeref. As I've suspected, they are powerful foes."

Akame rushed at Jacob with her shadow swords ready to cut him down. She swung her swords at him, but he easily moved around her to keep out of their reach. "A bit weary from our last bout, are we?" Akame didn't care about that and jumped high into the air with her right leg raised. Jacob gasped out of worry when he saw how Akame's skirt swayed and saw the position she was currently in. In a strange move, he closed his eyes and looked away. Akame didn't understand why he did that, but she'll take the opening. She raised both of her swords at her right and spun her body once before swinging her swords down at the Shield diagonally. Jacob growled in pain while he was pushed back a little from Akame's attack. He scowled at the other assassin disappeared from her sight. Jacob reappeared behind Akame with his back facing against hers. Akame turned around, but Jacob was faster and backhanded her with his fist and she sent hurdling straight toward Lucy. Akame crashed into Lucy and both girls fell to the floor.

Natsu growled at what their enemy had done to his friends and charged at him. "You damn asshole!" Before he could reach him, Jacob disappeared and reappeared behind him and grabbed him by the head. "Starting now, I'm going to make your life a living hell!" He grabbed Natsu's arm and forced him onto the ground. Akame and Lucy became worried about the position Natsu was put in as they started to stand up. "Take a good hard look at the women standing before your eyes." The fire dragon slayer looked at the two girls and something strange was happening to their clothes, much to Loki's enjoyment.

Natsu was just confused while Lucy started to freak out about what was happening to her clothes. "W-Wait, cut it out!"

Her and Akame's clothes disappeared and were completely in their underwear, which left Lucy embarrassed and tried to cover herself up. Akame just seemed as confused as Natsu was about the whole thing. "How's this!? I rendered all of their clothing invisible!" Natsu didn't feel all that affected by seeing his friend in her underwear.

Lucy didn't know how much more embarrassment she could take and looked over at Loki. "What are you standing around for?! Hurry up and turn my clothes back to normal!"

Loki, however, had other ideas. "If it's not too much trouble, could you erase just a little bit more?"

The celestial wizard just had about enough him. "Loki, close gate!" And upon command, Loki had vanished from the battle.

From the looks of it, it seemed like Jacob's plan working. Even it was only half-way. "Now this is what I call a living hell!"

Lucy begged to differ. "Yeah, for me!" She turned to Akame who seemed surprisingly calm during all of this. "Aren't you embarrassed by this, Akame!?"

Akame looked over at the other girl with a calm expression. "Not really. I'm quite comfortable being in my underwear. It's actually fortunate Leone isn't in this kind of situation right now. She has a strong disdain for wearing bras." That was something Lucy really didn't want to know.

Natsu still wasn't getting what kind of torture he was supposed to go through. "Um…what part of this is supposed to be hell?"

Jacob was appalled by Natsu's response. "You little…there're two nubile members of the fairer sex in nothing but their undergarments right in front of you! You're flustered, right?! You're embarrassed right?! Don't play coy with me It's pure hell! So hellish, that you want to avert your eyes!"

The fire dragon slayer still didn't get it. In fact, this really wasn't the first time he saw Lucy in her underwear and even less a few times before. "Well, you know, Lucy is always wearing skimpy getups anyway. And Akame…uh…." He really couldn't think of anything to say about Akame. "She's alright, I guess."

Lucy took great offense to what Natsu's statement about her. "Hey, what's that supposed to mean!? The clothes I wear are just fine!"

The Shield growled angrily at Natsu's response. "You brat! How can you say something so shameless!?"

While Jacob was shouting at Natsu, Lucy and Akame noticed something quite…strange about him. "Better yet…"

They saw their enemy looking away, eyes closed tightly, and slightly blushing out of embarrassment. "Why is your face looking like that?"

Jacob had a good reason for doing so. "What do you mean 'why'? That's…well…it'd be indecent if I looked! This technique was designed to inflict terrible suffering upon my enemies, but at the same time, I run the risk of taking considerable damage as well. It's a double-edged sword, I tell you!"

Lucy thought his reasoning was ludicrous but to Akame, it made some semblance of sense to her. She remembered how he reacted to her previous attack. "I suppose in the position I was in, he would've caught a glimpse of my underwear and that's why he looked away." Jacob was certainly an enemy Akame has never encountered before; An assassin who considered himself to be a gentleman.

Then Natsu came up with a brilliant idea. "Don't start stripping now on your own! Uh-oh, I can see Lucy's boobies!" Lucy was taken aback by the fire dragon slayer's words and Akame became further confused.

Happy went up to the blonde's ear and whispered into it. "Let's follow Natsu's lead." Lucy was reluctant, but she could see who to use this situation to their advantage. Meanwhile, Mavis was beginning to notice something.

"Good grief, I never knew you such a closet exhibitionist showing your goods in front of all these people! Whoa, she's completely in her birthday suit!"

"Who cares about clothes right now? I'm not afraid to show off what I got!"

"Oh man, they're so soft to touch!"

"Mmmm, don't stop, Natsu!"

While all this was going on, Jacob was having an absolute meltdown, freaking out and screaming like a maniac. Meanwhile, Akame had no idea what was happening in front of her. "What exactly am I looking at here?" She had been in countless life-and-death battles but Akame had never been in this kind of situation before. She didn't even know how to react to it.

Jacob growled as he decided enough of was enough. "Ahh, that's it!" He raised his hand and pointed up. "I'll just kill them myself like I should've done in the first place!" After his spell ceased, he opened his eyes and realized what he had just done.

Lucy's and Akame's clothes became visible again. The celestial wizard's right leg began to glow brightly. "Regulus…"

Natsu had a toothy grin and flames surrounded his leg. "Fire Dragon's…"

They both kicked the Shield in the face at the same time. "Lucy Kick/Talon!"

Their attacks pushed him away, but he wasn't through just yet. Akame jumped into the air and put her hands together. "Shadow-Make…" She put her hands out in front and multiple shadow fists traveled over to Jacob. They all struck him all over his body. "Despair Knuckle!"

The attacks ceased and Jacob at all three of them with an intense fury in his eyes. "You dirty brats! You've got some nerve provoking a dignified man like that!"

After witnessing Natsu and Lucy's display, Mavis realized something important. "I've finally found it! The means by which to defeat Zeref!"

Jacob kicked into high gear and headed straight to Natsu. He raised his left leg and kicked the fire dragon slayer, but he managed to put up and crossed his arms to block. However, the force behind the attack was enough to push him back. Almost at the same time, Lucy gathered light in her right fist and ran toward the Shield. Jacob turned his body and kicked Lucy down to the floor. He landed on the floor and chased after Natsu and delivered a powerful blow to the center of his body and sent him further away. He looked up to see Akame in the air with her hands put together. "Shadow-Make-" She gasped when she saw Jacob disappear and felt a strong blow from above land on the right side of her face. Akame crashed heavily into the guild floor and Jacob landed without a problem.

Akame managed to stand back up again, but she didn't know how many more attacks she could endure coming from Jacob. She, Natsu, and Lucy saw the Shield vanish from their sights and felt a flurry of powerful attacks pummeling all over their bodies. Akame could feel the dramatic increase behind the attack's strength. "These hits are much stronger than the ones from before!"

Lucy fell to her hands and knees while crying out in pain. "What's happening!?"

Natsu tried his best in enduring attacks while trying to find the enemy. "Damn it! Where's he hiding?!"

"Damn half-wits. It's a cruel world we live in. You best not forget that!" Jacob landed a heavy attack on each Fairy Tail member and they each fell to the floor. "Your one hundred thirteen guildmates who I captured, starting now, I'm going to kill them personally one by one!"

Hearing that worried Akame and feared for the worst. For Natsu, he was pissed at Jacob's threat. "Just try it!"

For Mavis, she didn't want that kind of outcome at all. "Please, you mustn't!"

Jacob finally reappeared before the three members and was still angry at the three. "We're far beyond begging now! There's no taking back what all of you've done!"

Lucy had a sudden thought about Jacob's words and realized something. "Wait a minute! One of your allies is in there too! Brandish is in there with them!"

Her words surprised the assassin but he was wary if she was lying. "Is that so?" He brought his hand up in front of his face and an orb appeared above his palm. Little did he know, Lucy pulled out another of her golden gate keys and smirked. Jacob looked inside and gasped at what he found. "Brandish?! And that bloody wanker of hers too?! If Dimaria ever finds out about this, I'll never hear the end of it from her! Guess I've got no choice." He closed his hand and both Brandish and Marin appeared lying on the floor. "Damn, I botched the job."

Brandish turned her head around and was surprised to see her fellow Shield. "Jacob?!"

Marin stood up and more than glad to see him again and was grateful he let them out. "Thank you so much, Mr. Jacob! You sure did save our hides!" He tried to look over at Jacob's direction but instead, he found looking at himself." This surprised everyone in the guildhall but none were as surprised than Marin who was freaked out by his doppelganger. "Why is there another me!?"

His double just smiled at him. "You pass!"

"Star Dress: Gemini!" Behind the second Marin, Lucy changed into her Gemini Star Dress and it was Gemini that took on Marin's form.

They both popped out from the copy's sides. "Piri Piri!"

Natsu and Akame were impressed with what Lucy had pulled off, but Marin had a different opinion about it. "This is way too creepy! Definitely a failing grade"

Happy wasn't too sure if it was a good idea for Gemini taking Marin's form. "If you're bringing out Gemini, why not have them transform into Brandish? She's way stronger than him."

Mavis had an explanation as to why that wasn't possible. "Gemini can't possibly transform into such strong wizards such as Brandish."

Lucy smiled at the idea she had in mind. "While that's true, what I was really after was…"

Gemini-Marin held his arms out with a bright smile. "Space Commandant, Activate! Pi Pirikiri!" The space around everyone began to light up and surrounded everyone.

Happy remembered what happened last time when something like this happened. "But wait, won't this negate Gemini?"

He was right about that, but Lucy wasn't the least bit worried as her outfit started to disappear and her normal clothes returning. "And I'll lose this cute star dress, but that's all part of the plan."

Jacob realized what was actually happening and what it meant. "My Transport is…"

"This will render all spatial magic ineffective. In other words…" Multiple figures began to appear out of thin air.

Jacob yelled out of frustration and anger when his Transport magic was being nullified. "GODDAMNIT!"

His magic wore off and everyone Jacob had sealed away had come back. "I can bring everyone back to this dimension!"

Everyone guild member who came back were overjoyed to be back. "We finally got out!"

"You rock!"

"Now that's our Lucy

"We're back in business!"

"Aw, yeah!"

Even Mavis was impressed by what Lucy had just pulled off. "Marvelous! You really did it, Lucy!" The blonde gladly took all the praise everyone gave her for what she'd done.

Out of all of them, Akame was the happiest. She had to admit what Lucy did was brilliant. She had taken Jacob's only leverage. Seeing this sight before her reminded what Lucy had said to her before. "Remember, all of Fairy Tail is here to help you. We're all in this together." Akame admitted she could never pull something like this on her own.

Jacob wasn't done quite yet as he held his hands apart from each other. "It's one pain in the ass after another with these fodder! The lot of ya, get out my sight! Vanish!" He closed his hands, but he felt something felt very off. The Shield became slightly confused as to what he was feeling. "Squishy?"

The assassin looked down and saw Happy in between his hands. "Owie..."

"A cat!?" Mavis found Jacob's current expression a little humorous.

"You've got some nerve, inflicting such pain on the First Master." Makarov was beyond furious with Jacob and pulled his right arm back. "So, today was 'Respect for the Aged Day', was it?" He threw his arm forward and it expanded dramatically. His giant fist punched Jacob and through the back of the guildhall and sent him flying through the air. "IN THAT CASE, THEN YOU OUGHTA SHOW THE FIRST MASTER MORE RESPECT THAN ANYONE, YOU PUNK!"

Mavis felt quite saddened hearing those. "I know I've been around for a long time, but I'm actually in my twenties…"

Natsu was freaking out of the damage the Guild Master had done to their home. "Gramps, stop wreaking the guild!"

He felt Makarov push his entire body with his other enlarged hand and still enraged. "I DON'T WANT TO HEAR THAT COMING FROM YOU!" Makarov threw Natsu out of the guild and the fire dragon slayer screamed out of terror. However, he quickly discovered he was catching up to Jacob and smiled while Jacob felt fear.

Warren still didn't know why their master threw Natsu out of the guild in the first place, but Max and Vijeeter had an idea. "Isn't that going a little overboard?"

"Well, the thing is…if Natsu were to go all out in here…"

"Then the guild would definitely be destroyed!"

Both Natsu and Jacob went over the lake far from the guild and that gave the fire dragon slayer the perfect chance. The water underneath them instantly dried up by the heat Natsu was giving off. Akame could hardly believe such a phenomenon happened right in front of her eyes and the other guild members. "He's evaporated the lake with just his magic?"

Fire burst out of Natsu's entire body and burned strongly around him. "MODE: FIRE DRAGON KING!" The intense heat from his magic burned through his suit and was proving to be too much for him to handle. Fire surrounded Natsu's right fist as he pulled it back and struck Jacob with overwhelming power. "FIRE DRAGON KING'S DESTRUCTION FIST!" Natsu's attack proved to be the final blow to Jacob as he skidded across the now dry lake bed in nothing but his underwear until he stopped and no longer moved. The members of Fairy Tail cheered at their victory as another member of the Spriggan Twelve was defeated.