So, funny story. Was writing chapter fifty, knew what I wanted to be in it and where I wanted it to end, but it spiraled out of control and ended up being far longer than I intended with a length that was far too cumbersome for a single chapter. So I split it into two. But the content of both was still written and I am terrible at having stuff in the can. So... double chapter update this week! Huzzah!

Time restraints left no time for xenosaiyan to beta this one. Any mistakes are mine.

The last time Wendy had been so pressured in a fight, she'd been battling Acnologia's soul in the depths of the Ravines of Time. And while she'd pulled her weight in that brawl, crucially enchanting Natsu with everyone's power for the final blow, she wouldn't say she'd been the one most often exchanging blows with the Black Dragon of the Apocalypse.

Not the case now. Jaune was providing her with vital support with his vacuum shields, but he simply didn't have the raw strength to go head to head with End. Wendy didn't love her chances on that front herself, but with Dragonforce she had a better shot than almost anyone else. Which meant it was her job to dash in, smack the demon with some tornados, then rush back out before she was burnt to a crisp by a trail of scorching azure flames, usually only escaping untouched thanks to a flashing Holy Barrier duo buying her a crucial few seconds.

But that status quo was swiftly breaking down, End accelerating faster and faster, his raging blaze searing through the air and battering over the ruins of the vacuum barriers before Jaune could construct new ones. Wendy had to bring her own shields around to defend herself, Fairy Scale and its twin's enchantments barely permitting them to protect their mistress.

The Maiden of the Sky leapt back, panting and sweating as she retreated next to Jaune, himself also breathing hard.

"So…" Jaune gasped. "We're not dead. I'd say that's a good first step."

"He's not trying to kill us," Wendy gulped, noting a slight, but worrying drop in the ethernano density in the air.

End chuckled, emerging from the sapphire inferno with flames licking around his claws. "I'm not exactly trying to leave you unscathed anymore. You've both done well to survive this long."

Survive. Not win, survive. That was the nature of the foe in front of them, the foe that bore Natsu's face and casually wielded power as merciless as the Salamander's Dragonforce. Based on Ozpin, Qrow, and Raven's warnings, the group hadn't held any illusions about any of them being able to take him alone or even in a pair. Wendy and Jaune had been selected to fight him, not with any intention of beating him, but as the two best suited to hold him off while the others handled the rest of Salem's forces. The hope was that the others would be in good enough shape after their own battles that they'd all be able to come together and overwhelm The Ophiuchus with sheer numbers.

However, with the shift in the ethernano she'd just sensed, and the fact that despite the disappearance of Cinder and Mercury's curse and magical signatures, no one had come to either their or the other groups' aid, she had a feeling that said time was running out.

Her concern must have shown on her face because End grinned at her.

"You sense it too, little dragon," he noted. "The maidens are gone. There's still quite a bit of ethernano in the air but it's finite. You won't be able to maintain that hairstyle for much longer."

Wendy frowned. "Only until Raven gets back."

"Until Raven comes back? Bold of you to assume that she will," End replied. "I don't know how you coerced her here, but she won't risk herself in a battle she knows she can't win."

Wendy growled. "People can surprise you."

Jaune raised an eyebrow. "Please tell me our plan doesn't actually rely on Raven coming back for us?"

"Erza's might," Wendy admitted. "But mine doesn't. Be ready."

The blond huntsman nodded, hefting his shield and sword into a renewed combat stance.

Wendy did the same with her bucklers Fairy Scale… and… Endless River.

Yes. Fairy Scale was her shield of the past to protect her friends in the present. But, that past, while still a still source of strength she would treasure until the day she died, was gone. Aside from the Strongest Team, it was entirely likely that she'd never see the rest of the guild again. They were as lost to time as Cait Shelter or Grandeeney.

But the spirit of Fairy Tail lived on. The river of light guided by fairies had not stopped flowing. The endless adventure was not over. And she would not stop fighting or looking for a way to save her friends. She'd found a way to get Erza back without sacrificing Scarlet. Lucy had returned to her. Gray was safe with Weiss in Atlas. Natsu and Happy were the only ones left. While Ruby, Carla, and Lucy were dealing with the loyal Exceed, that meant it was her job to search for her Dragon Slayer brother.

And the first step of that, was taking down his demonic doppelganger and getting some answers out of him.

Wendy thrust out her arms in a wide stance, wind suddenly surging around both her and End. The demon frowned, flames blossoming in his palms.

"Your Secret Art? Insufficient," he mused. "Fire Devil Emperor – Purgatory's Pack!"

A pair of sapphire infernos poured out of his hand, coalescing into half a dozen blazing dogs, smaller than the gigantic hound he'd conjured before, but racing towards the Sky Dragon Slayer at double their predecessor's speed.

Wendy intensified her magic, accelerating up the racing typhoon surrounding her and End as fast as she could, but the infernal hounds were closing too quickly. The leader lunged for her head, opening its jaws to bite down on her skull—

Only to be intercepted by a double layer of golden ankhs, chomping through the first barrier only to be devoured by the vacuum within.

Wendy glanced at Jaune, outside the wall of wind, and nodded her thanks, her friend returning her gesture just as his second vacuum shield blocked another hound. The remaining quartet battered through the leftover Holy Barriers, ready to run the young wizard into the dirt.

Fortunately, Jaune's defense had bought her a few crucial moments. And there was a reason Wendy was chosen to be his partner in holding off Salem's strongest servant.

The hounds froze in midair, hacking and spasming as their flaming bodies dissipated into nothing.

End's eyes widened, his lips moving in an exclamation of surprise, only for his now fireless hand to rise to his mouth when no sound came out. Or rather, when there was no air around him for the sound to travel to his ears.

Wendy stepped back and out of her rapidly accelerating wall of wind, condensing the racing vortex around her foe. Normally, there was no vacuum in the eye of a tornado, but when one was capable of funneling the air within outside while preventing new gas from racing in to fill the void, it wasn't too difficult to create one as long as the wizard had sufficient control over their magic. And the Maiden of the Sky had always prided herself on her pinpoint control.

Though, she'd hoped that End would be a little more stunned by the sudden reversal. But, instead of panicking about the sudden lack of oxygen for him to breathe (did demons breathe oxygen? Did demons breathe?), he did the strategic thing and leapt back with what air he still had in his lungs. After all, even on the outside chance that the containment tornado would be able to hurt him, it would still provide him with fuel for his fire.

But he never got there, instead smacked down to the ground by the sudden appearance of a shining ankh. End landed on his feet without issue, but soon found himself beset from above by the offending barrier plus another three golden companions, pressed into the earth as the stone glowed beneath him. They wouldn't hold the behemoth's immense strength for long, but at the moment they had both leverage and momentum on their side.

"You said you wanted everything I had! Well, here it is!" Jaune roared, his hands aglow as he marched to the Fairy Tail wizard's side. "Wendy! Now!"

"Right!" Wendy shouted. She swung her arms around, calling over wind from all around her, even pulling in the smoke emanating from the blaze of Haven's roof. All that immense power coalesced along with the tornado containing End, collapsing into a single thunderous lance even bigger than the one she'd used to smite Cinder from the skies of Beacon. "Dragon Slayer Secret Art! Shattering Light: Sky Drill!"

Her command cracked across the courtyard like a roar of thunder, her tempestuous spear tearing through the remnants of her typhoon, crashing down where she'd last seen the demon with her brother's face.

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It was, Ruby decided, much easier to fight someone three-on-one than one-on-one.

That did not mean it was easy.

Don't get her wrong. She, Lucy, and Carla were definitely beating Happy, the demonic Exceed dashing through the sky to avoid their onslaught. Silver sniper shots and arrows of golden starlight seared through the heavens, a blur of white wings always pressing him before he could launch a counterattack.

But while Carla's relentless melee attacks kept Happy from using his height advantage to rain dust rounds down on her allies, it also meant that Ruby and Lucy had to take care with their shots to avoid accidentally hitting her. And the tomcat knew it. Whenever he used the flat of his Buster Sword to block his white-furred counterpart's brutal kicks, he also maneuvered her into her ground support's line of fire. Even the Celestial Spirit Wizard's Star Shots, which seemed to home in on their target, weren't precise enough to circumvent that defense.

Fortunately, Ruby had a plan that just might. And with her friends providing her with enough breathing room to use her semblance with impunity, building up plenty of petals for her Reaper's Rose armor. With a flick of her wrist, her arsenal flew into the air, a storm leafy blades swirling towards the Exceeds.

Happy's eyes flicked towards the incoming barrage, a frustrated growl emanating from his scowl as the petals closed in. With their precise flight paths, it was easy for him to tell that he wouldn't be able to use his opponent as a shield from them.

"Give up, Happy!" Carla screamed, the maelstrom of petals surrounding them both, the soles of her boots clanging off the flat of her guildmate's sword. "Let this end!"

"I can't!" he shouted back. "Besides, giving up isn't the Fairy Tail way, is it."

"Neither is fighting your family!" Lucy roared, tears pricking at the edges of her brown eyes. "Why are you doing this, Happy?! For Sitara? For her war? You can't possibly believe in that!"

Ruby's eyes widened, her mind doing a double-take as she registered Lucy's words. What the heck did Sitara have to do with Salem? Was she somehow being controlled by the Mother of Grimm? Was that how Cinder had gotten the book?

Whatever was the case, her processing was interrupted by a sudden rush of gale-force wind blasting over her face, forcing her to hunker down to her knees in order to keep from being blown away. She had to use all her concentration to keep her storm of rose petals from being tossed aside, even as she watched the flames and smoke conjured from Happy's earlier fire dust funnel into a great spiraling typhoon down in the eastern courtyard, where Jaune and End had been fighting.

The red hooded huntress smirked. It looked like Wendy was doing even better than they'd hoped. Now it was her turn.

The thunderous gale had forced the rest of the combatants to pause as well, Lucy gripping tight to her pillar's railing while Happy and Carla flapped their wings to stay airborne. Once the stream of wind had passed, the demonic Exceed was the first to capitalize on it, flashing into his smaller form and firing off a shot directly beneath him. The momentum rocketed him further into the sky just as Ruby's petals rushed into his last position.

The young huntress directed her arsenal after him, but he was using both his wings and his recoil to outspeed them. She didn't know if her old friend had a maximum altitude, but she couldn't chase him forever. Her armor was the source of the magic that allowed her to telekinetically control her swarm. If they got too far away, her control collapsed. Given said radius of control was nearly a quarter-mile, she hadn't anticipated the range ever becoming an issue, but surprises never ceased.

Fortunately, Ruby hadn't designed the armor with the intent of letting the petals do all her fighting for her. She'd imbued them with mirror and color-change magic for a reason.

She hefted Crescent Rose into the air and set her sights into the sky. Just as he had all the other times she'd taken aim, Happy instantly jerked to the side, planning to throw off any target lock she'd made. If she'd been aiming directly at him, it would have worked.

But she wasn't. And as soon as her petals' sheen shifted from rose to silver, she flooded her chambered round with shining heavenly light and pulled the trigger.

"Argentum Mirror Tracer!"

Her blinding bullet screeched into the sky and streaked into one of her petals, the energy surrounding the round repelling it off the hardened surface and into another member of Ruby's swarm.

She'd been paying attention when Wendy had taught Nora about the minutiae of her reflection magic, about the frequencies of visual light. How each color was a different wavelength, and objects of that pigmentation reflected only that light while absorbing all others. Originally, she'd only included the Color Change Magic in her armor for dramatic flair, but once she learned about that detail, it proved to be the final piece she needed to get the effect she'd struggled with achieving through Mirror Magic alone.

In the blink of an eye, her silver shot streaked through her maze of hardened petals, dancing through the night sky like a shooting star trying to climb back to the heavens, its kinetic energy preserved through the Mirror Magic of the leafy blades.

Happy had made to dodge out of the way of a straight shot from her rifle, but a twisting, bouncing pinball shot? His attempt to retreat flew him right into its path.

"Gah!" the demonic Exceed cried out, the bullet blasting him with a hand grenade of silver light. With his momentum boosted by the force of the explosion and his control annihilated, he plummeted down to the forest just outside Haven's courtyards, an arc of smoke trailing behind him.

Ruby gulped with trepidation, recalling her petals back down to her armor, finding herself torn between relief that she'd been able to win the fight and worry for what had become of her old friend in the crash. She'd done what she had to do, but Fairy Tail didn't kill their normal enemies, let alone old friends. If Happy was badly hurt because of her… she didn't want to think about it.

"Ruby!" Lucy called over from her pillar. "Are you alright?!"

The red hooded reaper whirled around and waved at the blonde, a massive grin adorning her face. No matter what madness she was engulfed in, no matter what confoundment had been raised by her words, it was still a blessing to be reunited with one more lost guildmate.

"I'm fine!" she shouted over to Lucy. "How did you get here?!"

"Blake freed me from my sphere on Menagerie!"

"Blake's here?! That's awesome!"

"Yes, it's wonderful," Carla remarked, fluttering down and landing beside the huntress on the roof. "However, touching as this reunion is, we have more important matters to deal with."

"Can't argue with that," Lucy concurred. "Speaking of which, is there a reason the ethernano in the air is dropping so fast?"

Ah, right that. Ruby had noticed Cinder's mystical signature suddenly vanishing from down below, Raven's doing the same not long after.

"One of our allies may have either abandoned us or died," she informed her friend. "But, good news, the second strongest bad guy is on her way back to Hell's Core!"

"Oh, great. Hell's Core really is a thing again," Lucy sighed. "Right, so, if the second strongest bad guy is gone, where's the first?"

"He's right over—"

"Gah!"

Ruby, Carla, and Lucy all whipped around to Wendy and Jaune's battleground, a pained scream emanating through the air. The wind and smoke cleared from the sky, revealing the chaos breaking out below.

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When Wendy had launched her kickass giant tornado spear, Jaune had felt a flower of earnest hope blossom in his chest. After all, he'd felt Cinder's Fall Maiden signature drop away, which hopefully meant that Scarlet had saved Pyrrha before the black-haired bitch could finish her, their vacuum strategies were doing their job at hamstringing End's fire, and, insanely terrifying or not, they had successfully maneuvered The Ophiuchus into the path of the Sky Dragon Slayer's strongest attack. Even if it wasn't enough to kill him, it would certainly have to wound him enough that they would be able to survive until their fast-approaching backup arrived. When the blustering wind started to clear from the line of fire, he expected to find the flame demon on his knees.

Instead, he found a pool of bright, sweltering, lava.

"Ugh, excuse the optimist in me reaching here," Jaune muttered to his current partner, sweat pouring down his brow from both the heat and his own nervousness, his feet shuffling across the warming ground. "But I don't suppose melting rock is a part of sky magic? Maybe being the opposite of the ground breaks it apart?"

Wendy shook her head. "No. This is something else. Stand on your guard—gah!"

Jaune's eyes widened, the ground beneath him and his friend suddenly skyrocketing in temperature. He and Wendy leapt back just as the rock melted into its own pool of glowing orange magma.

And from the depths of that molten stone, End emerged, his scaled claw darting for Wendy's throat.

The pink-haired girl thrust out her hands, twin bursts of wind blasting her just out their foe's reach. However, as soon as she began her flight, a massive hand of purple fire erupted out of End's arm, blasting forward and catching the Sky Dragon Slayer in its grip.

By the time Jaune's feet had fallen back to the ground, The Ophiuchus had reeled the Fairy Tail wizard into the palm of his opposite claw, the scaled limb pressing into her face as her brown eyes widened in terror.

"Fire Devil Emperor – Purging Inferno."

A conflagration of sapphire flames surged over his arm blazed and into Wendy, the Dragon Slayer howling in pain as her aura crackled with strain.

It might have broken entirely if a round of shining silver sniper shots hadn't suddenly crashed into End's shoulder. The demon grunted with annoyance and threw another wave of blue fire back at the roof, forcing both Ruby, who'd shot him, and Carla, who'd been charging, to scatter from his attack. The former's petal storm, which had been racing towards the Etherious was burned to ashes by the blast. Guess when the blaze devoured magic, including Hardening Magic, they were just rose petals.

Still, they provided a brief distraction and Jaune didn't waste it. He rushed forward, ignoring the blistering, hellish heat permeating the air, and ripped Wendy's charred form from the demon's grip, racing back as fast he could. If his ally's speed enchantments hadn't still been boosting him, he had no doubt End would have squashed him like a bug before he got away.

He immediately began applying his semblance to restore Wendy's aura, his eyes flickering between the two growing pools of lava, the molten splurge expanding as the ground between them melted. The fact that the rock seemed to be liquifying from below answered his frantic question of how their enemy had escaped Wendy's attack.

He'd been an idiot! He'd seen the ground melting beneath End's feet no flames required! A vacuum could prevent fire from burning by denying it air for fuel, but if it stopped heat from traveling, the sun couldn't warm the planet! He'd just never imagined that The Ophiuchus could produce enough body heat to turn the ground beneath him to lava, tunnel beneath them by doing the same below, and then swim through the molten magma to attack them where they'd least expect it.

But to think he'd done it as fast he had to avoid Wendy's Secret Art… if they didn't have their auras, could they survive the sheer heat generated by his presence? And this was him holding back? What happened when he didn't? After all, now that Jaune's panicking mind was thinking about it… he hadn't used that Etherious Form thing Wendy had mentioned all the other Tartaros demons having.

Suddenly, Ozpin's warnings about The Ophiuchus being able to burn Mistral to the ground felt a lot more real. And terrifying.

End turned to face Jaune and Wendy, the latter still struggling to her feet after her aura had nearly shattered. The affability was not gone from his face, but no more teacher like encouragement came out of his mouth. His hands lit up with flames, ready to brush them aside like the ants they were to him.

Jaune hunkered behind his shield and conjured his full four-layer vacuum Holy Barrier, just as End's right claw stabbed forward. The azure blaze crashed against the glowing golden ankhs, the front surface disintegrating instantly and allowing the vacuum to suck up and quench the inferno.

Just in time to see End's left hand already coming around and launching a torrent of sapphire flames at the ground under the Holy Barrier. The conflagration tore through the stone, the rocky surface quickly melting into a river of lava.

The leader of Team JNPR growled, his shields powerless against the alternate avenue of attack, especially since the enemy's regular fire barrage was still breaking down his vacuum defense, the second layer of his barrier shattered apart. With the magma racing towards him and Wendy still stunned from the last blow she'd taken, he had only a split second to act. And in that instant, his mind fell back on his purpose. His friends were priceless to him, and he would protect them.

He conjured a golden ankh beneath Wendy's feet and tossed her away to safety just as the ground beneath his feet melted away. Jaune howled in agony as he sank into the glowing orange sludge, pure white light radiating out from his aura.

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Wendy's muscles burned, both with pain and actual heat, both caused by the maelstrom of flames End had bathed her in. But the moment she saw Jaune, the boy who'd become her friend over their months-long journey, the boy who'd saved her at Oniyuri, who'd just tossed her to safety a moment ago, sink into the merciless depths of lava, her entire body went cold.

"Damnit," End sighed, flicking the remaining blue fire from his claws in disgust. "Such a waste."

"You… you…" Wendy snarled, wind swirling around her. "You monster!"

End's gaze turned on her, his eyes filled with haughty pity, like a teacher looking down on a student who still did not understand the lesson. "I am a monster for killing one who was doing his very best to kill me? I offered to resolve this matter without violence. It was your side that began this battle and your friends have since slain two of my brethren."

Wendy's teeth gnashed against each other, her fingers twitching towards her shields' triggers. "Hell's Core will bring them right back. Fairy Tail doesn't kill unless we have to."

"I'm well aware," End hissed, stomping towards the Dragon Slayer, true fury simmering under his words. "I've been at the mercy of your guild's enlightenment long before I ever raised a hand to any of—"

A hail of shining golden arrows crashed down into the scorched pavement before him, a hail of rocks and dust rising in the demon's path. He was unharmed, yet the moment he caught sight of the opulent projectiles, the implacable behemoth froze, his pitch-black eyes wide with shock.

Wendy might have mistaken it as an opening she could use to attack, if the air temperature hadn't suddenly ratcheted up far beyond its already volcanic swelter.

End slowly rotated towards Haven's hall, his gaze tracing the arrows' flight paths back to the towering pillar on the other side of the building. And the voluptuous blonde woman who'd fired them.

"You."

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When she saw him, she hadn't known what to think. When she'd last seen him, she'd been desperately trying to seal him away, to buy time for them to find a healer who could stave off his Bane Particle poisoning, crying tears of terror that they might fail and she'd lose him and Happy forever.

Now, who knew how many thousands of years in the future, Lucy gazed down from Haven's pillar and laid eyes on Natsu once more.

His dark obsidian eyes, his pink hair he'd always insist was salmon, the jagged scar on his right cheek he'd gotten from his first battle with Zeref, it was all there, undeniably him. Even the scarlet scales on his arms and the devil horns on his head were hardly things she'd hadn't seen on him before during his various transformations. When he'd burst out of the lava, Lucy had felt her heart fill with hope.

Then he'd attacked Wendy. Then he'd blown Ruby and Carla aside when they'd tried to intervene. Then he'd drowned that poor boy in magma.

This… this couldn't be Natsu. He'd never do that! This had to be some sort of illusion or shapeshifter! Loke had mentioned that Gemini had been one of those who'd gone over to Sitara's campaign.

She'd been roused from her shock when she'd seen the monster take another step towards Wendy, launching a volley of Star Shots downrange. The golden arrows streaked through the night and crashed into the ground right in front of him, missing their target.

Yes, the magical arrows that homed in on whatever she targeted, the arrows powered by her still valid contract with the Archer of the Zodiac, had missed. That was what had happened. It had nothing to do with her fingers shaking on the bowstring, unable to truly aim at the being that bore her lov—best friend! The being that bore her best friend's face.

And after that missed attack, he followed the arrows' path and looked up at her, that familiar, lovable face that had brought her to Fairy Tail with its smile meeting her gaze once more. His mouth moved to speak a word she couldn't hear because of the distance between them.

"Natsu," she whispered.

The moment his name left her lips, the creature below twisted her best friend's face into a visage of absolute fury. She'd always been aware of the towering presence of Natsu's anger, but she'd never had its wrath directed at her before. She wasn't ashamed to admit that she stumbled back at the experience.

Her fear cost her, the enemy below taking in a deep breath of power.

"Lucy, run!" Wendy screamed, blasting into the air.

"Fire Devil Emperor's Howl!"

A column of blue fire as big as a Jupiter Cannon blast erupted from the enemy's maw, lighting up the night sky as if the sun had risen hours early as an azure dwarf instead of a yellow one. Wendy leapt up into its path, throwing out her new bucklers as she span a thick sphere of wind all around her form, desperately attempting to block the gargantuan attack.

The improvised gale barrier clipped the top of the azure inferno, slightly altering its course downward, but with not nearly enough force to stop it. The Sky Dragon Slayer's wind sphere was torn to shreds by the relentless blaze, the young girl letting out a frightened wail of terror as she was blown away into the forest surrounding the courtyard, the pink sheen of her Dragonforce fading as she fell.

Lucy gasped in terror for her friend, but she didn't have time to do anything more. The titanic conflagration was still barreling towards her, the sapphire blaze crashing through Haven's roof and obliterating the huge wooden ceiling. The behemoth of cobalt fire stampeded into the center mass of the Celestial Spirit Wizard's pillar, Wendy's sacrifice having altered its course from hitting her head-on. The column, its support annihilated, leaned over to the side, crumbling towards the ground.

The blonde dashed up her swiftly slanting footing and leapt into the open air, gaining the briefest bit of altitude as the fallen pillar shattered to splinters against the charred stone. She worried that she'd soon join it in splattering against the rocks, only for a rush of rose petals to snag her from midair, arresting her fall a fraction before she and her rescuer went skidding across the rocks.

"Ugh… you okay, Lucy?" Ruby groaned from beneath her guildmate.

Lucy scrambled up, clutching at her groaning hip while also giving her friend a hand up. "I'm alright. Wendy, did you see—"

"Carla's already heading after her," Ruby assured her. The young huntress's silver eyes flickered towards Haven's hall, the roof she'd fought upon a moment before now nothing but ash and cinders, pouring down into the building within. "The others inside…"

"Don't worry. I sent Loke to help them," Lucy said, trying not to breathe in the smoke and soot from the collapsed tower. "He'll keep them safe. He's older than the last time you saw him. Stronger."

A section of Haven's burning wall suddenly collapsed inward, a thunderous crash echoing through the night.

Ruby gulped. "Stronger than that?"

Lucy flinched, unable to bring herself to say the truth they both knew. Loke had always been strong, the strongest of the Zodiac save Aquarius, but she couldn't remember a time when Natsu wasn't his superior in combat.

And even if the person with the blue flames wasn't really her dearest friend, he certainly had power like him. Specifically, when he had entered Dragonforce during their battle with the Water God Dragon Mercuphobia, a kind and gentle being who'd been driven berserk against his will by the White Witch. When Natsu had eaten the blaze offered by the newly arrived Ignia, Igneel's biological son and the Fire God Dragon, he'd entered a mindless rage within mercy or conscience, nearly beating Mercuphobia to death before she'd been able to calm him down. It was the first time she'd ever been scared of her partner's fire.

If this demon could summon power equal or greater that…

Lucy charged toward the front of the hall, the only safe way to get into the building and rescue their friends. Though, given there was a White Fang strike force there, perhaps safe was overstating things, unless that scruffy guy with the scythe had beaten them all since the reinforcements had shown up.

Still, as Ruby fell in behind and then overtook her, she couldn't help but think that she felt a lot better about taking on the faunus terrorist army than the demon with her partner's face. For more than one reason.

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"Come on, little shrimp! Get up! Get up!" Irene shouted, her voice growing more frantic by the second. "I know I hit you harder than that when we fought, and you sure as hell didn't have aura to baby you then!"

Despite her incessant encouragement, her protégé did not awaken. Wendy's already wounded aura had barely been able to protect her from End's breath attack, the shield breaking completely when she'd landed on the forest floor. The young enchanter had been knocked unconscious by the blast; her scarlet ensemble burnt black around its edges.

Irene couldn't help both admiring the little shrimp for holding out as well as she did against a creature His Majesty had specifically created to be stronger than himself, and cursing her infuriating gumption for nearly getting herself killed jumping in front of his breath attack to save her friend. The latter was currently winning within the spectral Scarlet Despair, fretting endlessly over the girl she'd bound herself to.

For perfectly practical reasons of course. If Wendy died, she went with her. Yes, that was it. Talented though she was, the Maiden of the Sky was purely a tool for her to cheat death and one day regain a body that allowed her to taste, feel, and sleep. She certainly hadn't grown to care about her. That would be… ridiculous…

… of course, Erza did care about the scamp, so if she really was trying to repair her relationship with her daughter, it would only be natural for her to maintain the health of her guildmate. Yes, that was it. Purely practical.

The sound of a twig snapping to piece roused the former Queen of the Dragons from her introspection, the scarlet specter whirling about to see who had stumbled upon her charge. Unfortunately, it was not an ally. At least at present.

The demonic Exceed, Happy, stalked through the verdant underbrush, leaning on his Buster Sword as a cane as he approached the downed wizard in his humanoid battle form.

Irene gnashed her ghostly teeth in frustration. That mangy furball wouldn't be a threat to Wendy if she were conscious, but knocked out as she was? He could scoop her up and take her back to Salem with ease.

She needed to do something. She'd promised Wendy that she wouldn't take over her body without permission, after the extinguishment of her magic power she wasn't completely sure she could at all, but this was a special case if there ever was one. She would give the form back as soon she'd gotten her to safety—

"Everything's really gone to hell, hasn't it?"

… what?

Happy sighed. "Shouldn't have expected any less after all this time. I try to get Yang a teacup to make a lockpick out of, she uses it to cut off her hand. I try to drag out the fight with Ruby as long as I can to get an opportunity, Lucy shows up. I try to hide Lucy from him… well you get the idea. Shouldn't even be risking talking about this, but if he's focused on her that means he probably isn't paying attention to his passive hearing. So, silver lining, I guess. Very thin silver lining."

The dark blue creature reached into his belt and extracted a folded over slip of paper. He hobbled over to Wendy and stowed the note away in the inside pocket of her dark maroon jacket, pulling the zipper closed afterward so it wouldn't fall out.

"Wish I could wait around until you woke up and explain everything better," Happy murmured, hanging his head with exhaustion as End's guttural bellow shook the night. "But someone's gotta calm him down before he levels the place. Oh well. Figured slipping you that would be the best I'd get under his watch anyway."

The blue cat turned and sprouted his demonic bat wings but paused in his exit, his paw wiping down his face. "He's not actually that bad a guy, you know. I mean, he's a bad guy, but he's not a 'bad guy'. Not any worse than me at least. For our family, we'd gladly become villains… I wonder if Natsu really understood what he meant when he said that."

Without another word, he flapped his black, leathery wings and soared up through the tree line.

"Well," Irene muttered, her lips pursed in thought as she went over the soliloquy she'd just spied on. "That is interesting."

"Wendy!"

Carla zipped through the forest in her human (faunus?) form and lunged over her charge's form. The white-haired Exceed checked over Wendy before hefting her guildmate over her shoulder. "Come on. We need to get out of here."

The catgirl sprouted her pure angelic wings on her back and soared off into the sky with her friend, completely unaware of the old friend who beaten her there.

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She was here. She was here!

Heartfilia!

End stomped across the courtyard, the ground melting to lava beneath his feet with every step. His scaled body was completely coated in a wreath of sapphire flames, his mind flooded with fury unfathomable.

All these years, all these decades, and he could still remember his consciousness being shredded down to its very essence. The first few years after Salem had released him from his prison, he'd woken up with his room in the castle ablaze, his claws flying to his face to remind himself that he was no longer powerless. He was no longer trapped at the mercy of that idiot's bitch. He had his body back at last. He was in control.

Maybe once he'd burned her to ash, he'd be able to move on.

He raised his hand, conjuring a sapphire sphere of flames in his palm, readying Dante's Tower to wipe out the Celestial Spirit Wizard and all who'd protect her-

"End!"

The demon cocked an eyebrow before shaking his head and continuing his march. His rage was truly all-encompassing if it was now making him hear the voices of someone he'd already killed—

Something rammed into his side, shoving him off course even if the blow wasn't nearly strong enough to actually hurt him. End growled and turned on his new assailant, only to tilt his head in surprise when it turned out to be an old assailant.

Jaune Arc, decidedly not dead, panting and sweating as lava trailed behind him, the last remnants of the magma pool he'd walked out of dripping from his form and the brilliantly white glowing aura that surrounded it. His shield, warped and melted from its brief contact with End's blazing coat, was cast aside, fully revealing his bare, muscled chest, straining in the open air with only the tattered, scorched remains of his sweater to protect it.

"We're not done yet!" the blond huntsman roared, brandishing his sword. "You wanna get to them? You've gotta get through me first!"

"How are you—" End muttered, his confoundment cutting through his rage as his eyes flickering between Jaune and the molten pool he'd survived.

His chosen candidate didn't dignify his confusion with a response, instead conjuring a pair of Holy Barriers and trying to slam them into the demon's form. However, with End's enraged cloak of curse flames still burning, said golden ankhs simply shattered upon impact, their magic incinerated at his touch.

Jaune's body sagged, his grip on Crocea Mors loosening. End assumed that the fact that he hadn't used vacuum shields in his attack meant that the young man's origin had finally run dry, with the thinning atmosphere of ethernano not permitting him to recharge with his previous haste. Even still, his physical exhaustion made less sense, given he clearly still had aura left in his tank.

Granted, that was still less confusing than his aforementioned swimming through lava. End could do it because he couldn't be burned, but anyone else should have been melted into sludge. Hell, without aura, that would happen if they were just standing near the… stuff.

Oh, that beautiful maverick bastard!

"Your semblance!" End laughed, a note of pure joy conquering his previous terror. "You used your semblance on yourself! I didn't realize you even could do that! Well done, Jaune!"

The blond huntsman growled, clearly displeased that his tactic had been so easily discerned again.

In truth, End was surprised it worked on him at all. From what he'd witnessed of the semblance when Jaune used it to heal Wendy both in their current fight and at Oniyuri, it had seemed like he'd poured his aura into theirs in order to boost their ability. In theory, that should have made it impossible for him to gain any advantage from it himself, since his aura was already what he was using. But…

"You're using the manipulation to focus its properties as you wish," the demon analyzed. "Of course, that means you aren't getting the healing or stamina amplification anymore, but its shielding capacity makes you truly invulnerable. At least, as long as you can fuel it. And even with reserves like yours that won't be long, especially when you've already taken quite the beating."

Jaune's eyes narrowed, breathing heavily through the smoke-filled air. "Long enough to keep you away from the others."

End smiled, the sapphire orb in his palm shrinking into a marble and turning white as its spin tripled. "Let's test that theory."

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Panic split through Happy the moment he saw the Dante's Tower flare into the sky. It was smaller than the one that had annihilated the Branwen Tribe, so hopefully that meant End had managed to retain some semblance of control. But given that he'd shot a full power Fire Devil Emperor's Howl into the air, which there was no way the Mistral Police didn't notice, he wasn't holding out hope that The Ophiuchus hadn't seen Lucy.

He had to get to him. He was one of the only people who stood a chance at calming End down before he burnt Haven and everyone inside it to the ground. He'd used the chaos of the battle to deliver his note to Wendy without any of the Gates noticing, just as planned, but that would be worthless if everyone else got killed!

He swooped into the academy's courtyard, greeted by the image of his current partner standing over the unconscious form of Jaune Arc.

"End?" Happy murmured warily, mindful of the wreath of blue flames cascading over the Etherious's body. "Are you alright?"

The Ophiuchus grinned, letting out a deep breath as the blaze extinguished from his muscles. "This boy. He is spectacular. Barely an origin, barely a huntsman, and he still wouldn't go down without a fight."

"Oh," Happy remarked, carefully eyeing the blond's soft, natural breathing. "So… you good? Even though you saw… you know?"

"Heartfilia?" End growled, only to sigh immediately after, his eyes looking kindly on Jaune. "Who can be angry when something so stupendous is before them? The Celestial Wizard will get hers if she does not comply… but Salem wants to give her a chance. And even if she refuses, without the Relic, we'll still need her."

Happy let out a breath of relief. "So, are we going to try to take her?"

End shook his head. The demon knelt down and tossed Jaune's limp body over his shoulder. "I can hear the Manta Flyers approaching. And after my little temper tantrum, the Mistral Police aren't going to be far behind. We need to be gone now. Is the bullhead running hot?"

"Aye, sir."

"Good. You get that. I'll grab Emerald," The Ophiuchus said. He marched towards Haven's hall (or rather, the flaming wreckage of it), only to halt after a few steps and turn back towards the Exceed. "Happy, thank you."

The demon cat raised an eyebrow. "What for?"

End smiled. "You came to calm me down. That means a lot."

Happy shrugged. "I'm your friend. I'll always try to help you. You don't have to thank me for it."

"And that just means more," the strongest Etherious replied. "I know I'm… not the easiest person to deal with. Especially for you. And I want you to know that I appreciate it. Truly."

Happy cracked a playful smirk. "You're welcome."

The pair whirled around and dashed off towards their respective objectives.

All the while Happy flew towards the bullhead they'd stashed in the woods, he couldn't help but shiver. Being friends with people hadn't used to be this complicated.

But that didn't change his goal any more than all the things he'd done over the last fifty years. He needed Wendy's help. He needed Salem's help.

All to save Natsu.

Yeah... our heroes are strong, but End is not said to be Salem's equal without good reason. His base form here is slightly stronger than another Gate's Eclipse Etherious forms, and his released state... well, let's just say when he finally does that, the only Fairy Tail foes stronger than him will be Acnologia and the full power God Dragons. Jaune and Wendy's efforts were not pointless however, exploiting every advantage they had in order to keep him from getting to the others and ending the overall battle outright. They have still won this engagement, he's just scrambling to keep it from being a total disaster. Oh well, at least he finally got to pay off the body heat foreshadowing I've been laying down since the gas station. That was fun.

Oh, and Happy is doing something that will totally not be important... at all... probably not an important subplot... probably... :)

Now! On to the next chapter!

Thank you for Reading! I hope you enjoy what comes next!

Go Forth and Conquer!