And so, with a slight heavy idea behind them, Alex and Kenith headed out with the other members of Team Natsu, once named Team Gray before getting a severe veto in a chop to the head, as Erza took command and the Team was made as Team Erza as they headed out, Kenith not spared the motion sickness, sadly, as Alex needed to leave Freefall behind so that the task would be a stealth mission as they rode on until heading to the meeting hall where they were greeted by Hibiki Lates, Eve Tearm, and Ren Akatsuki, members of the Blue Pegasus team, The Trimens, as they were quick in pampering Lucy and Erza, Gray grumbling about the pretty boy act before Alex spoke with Kenith recovering from the ride.
"All right, guys, we are just playing up the energy here." He folded his arms as he spoke with drawing their attention. "Still, for Master Bob to send the Trimens to handle a few rebel Dark Guilds, we do need to be on alert, boys."
"And you think you know better?" Hibiki answered with getting up, the tension a tad thick as Alex waved a hand.
"Not fully, after we are only two guilds who have joined to handle them before they try anything foolish, but..." He glanced about as he spoke. "I only see three of the Trimens, where's your master?" Ren and Eve were just as on edge now as Hibiki spoke with getting a bit frontal with Alex.
"He will be along..."
"Good, that makes nine wizards for the operation, besides we can't all be..." Kenith beamed in hiding his face while Alex pulled down the Stetson before both revealed their faces again, to Erza's horror to the 'macho' faces that had appeared in the brief seconds, their voices just as changed. "MEN!"
"What the...!?"
"How did...!"
"That was not...!" Their faces reverted back to normal as Alex spoke.
"Now then, we've chewed the fat for a bit, shouldn't our host be greeting us about this time?"
"It is as you say, young man." A shudder went down Erza's spine at the voice that came from the staircase. "I shan't leave my guests waiting... men." All looked up to the top to a dwarf of a stylish man, in a white tux and with interesting features as Kenith spoke.
"Ichiya Kotobuki, I knew I smelled something of an aroma..." He dropped onto the railing and slid down and... stuck the landing, both kind of disappointed on that as he spoke.
"You have heard of me, very well, and I am pleased to see Miss Scarlet and Miss Lucy have come to join us on our regal domain, along with you three." Gray deadpanned in disbelief as Alex waved a hand.
"Pegasus's four and our Fairy five does make nine of us for cleaning up the remaining Oracion Seis guilds, now we have to wait for the other two." He glanced to Kenith and he nodded as he joined him at the pillar.
"You want to know what happened with Mira, don't you...?"
"A mental bond will let me see it, I didn't in respect for you, so may I...?" Kenith nodded and Alex breathed as magic bands formed around their crowns and Alex shared in the memory...
Alex reformed as a specter, wraith-like and shadowed, but still felt like himself as he surged through the trees before finding his brother, but his mood was elevated, rage on his brow so this must have been after his beatdown on the Thunder Legion and their boss, but it was in the name of maintaining the stability of Fairy Tail, unless there was something else on his mind, Kenith shouldn't be this angered.
He hummed with rubbing his jaw before he noticed another presence coming, as if to calm him down. He turned in seeing Mirajane Strauss dashing behind him and catching up as she exclaimed. "Kenith, please slow down and calm down. You didn't-"
"You forget, Mirajane..." Kenith growled with his teeth becoming more sharper for a moment before reverting back. "Laxus doesn't know mercy or pity, he has been on the fast trek of arrogance being his basis, and his little followers would have trailed behind at his beckon call." Kenith answered with stomped on as Mirajane did her best to match the march as she called out.
"Laxus is still family to Makarov, he should have understood how the years have been taking their toll on him, you didn't need to ruin them like that!"
"His ego and behavior are borderline narcissist, you CAN'T pretend that he is still good in the state he was in!" Alex followed them to a clearing in the forest as Mirajane stopped as she exclaimed with her brow narrowed.
"We could have talked it out, we could have asked Laxus to, at least, hear us out, we didn't need to show force to prove our ideas!"
"Lisanna did the same, how did that turn out for her!?" Kenith growled and Alex cupped his mouth in disbelief.
'Kenith... why did you hit her there... that is too cruel for words to say...' Alex lowered his hand to see Mirajane's features drop in surprise before she resumed her frown as she spoke.
"What you are doing is not right, Kenith, it is not manly or heroic to hold onto anger for no reason, it doesn't make us stronger than before." The cord was struck hard as Kenith turned about and shouted with his eyes flaring.
"IF ELFMAN WAS STRONG ENOUGH BACK THEN, JUST AS YOU SHOULD HAVE BEEN, THEN LISANNA WOULD STILL BE ALIVE! HE FAILED HER! YOU FAILED HER!" That was the last straw as Alex growled to Kenith's rage before Mirajane spoke, her hair shadowing her eyes as she gripped her hands.
"How dare you..." Kenith flared his nostrils, but Alex could see... a hint of regret in his eyes, he struck a tender spot and now he had broken the seal as Mirajane bellowed up with a torrent of power as well, her powers becoming undone. "HOW DARE YOU INSULT MY PAIN!" The Take-Over Magic consumed her and Alex was sure that Satan Soul was now out to play, but the violet storm changed to a pinkish-purple as a bodysuit formed around her body, a cape flowing out with tattered edges, armor plating covering her chin and the face's sides with horns while her white mane surge and grew with the blue and white suit before her legs burst into flames, Satan Soul Sitri was out to fight and Kenith breathed as he whispered to himself.
"I made that grave, now I'm going to lay in it..." He bared his fangs as he pumped out his wings and roared, a challenge, and Mirajane accepted with clashing, Kenith fighting back with power that made it clear that he was not going down without a fight, Alex frowning as they tore apart the landscape in their brawl of earth and fire, blow for blow was shattering the earth to sand and shattering trees and plants like dust, even turning some of it into glass that meld with the ground, warping the clearing for ten minutes before both tired out, both panting with Kenith's scales falling and decaying while Sitri tired out with a flash and Mirajane dropping to her knees as her arms were scarred and wrecked black and blue, Kenith stomping right for her as she matched his gaze with fury before he dropped to his knees and pulled her into an embrace, surprising her as he whimpered.
"I'm sorry... I shouldn't have said that... I'm sorry... for insulting her... she was a true friend of all... I shouldn't have mocked your pain like that... I still felt it for my brother..." Mirajane numbly reached around, tears leaking from her eyes before grounding herself with Kenith before she wailed, having relived that same pain again and missing Lisanna again, her heart cracked, but with each sobbing fit, it mended a bit more as Alex breathed in disappearing from the memory...
Alex blinked awake and turned to Kenith. "You broke her... you struck her in her most painful spot..."
"And I regret it, the moment those words came out, I knew I made a mistake, but I couldn't just take it back in a fight, I had to let my emotions burn out with the pain..." Kenith tightened his hold on his arms as he spoke. "I promised to help her out, but it will be a long time before she can forgive me for my callous words." Alex nodded as he tilted his Stetson downward and breathed with unpacking all of it.
Brief as their reunion was, the memory showed that they were not fully there just yet, a few words and a skit, but that was it other than their beatdown of the Earth and Wind Elementals, he mourned for Alex and the bounty hunter couldn't dismiss it, they needed time to properly heal...
Speaking of time, a wham made it clear that Ichiya just got punched by Erza for invading her personal space and was launched right for the third guild to arrive, the dwarf's head and upper torso chilled out in ice as Lyon lead the party of Lamia Scale, along with Sherry appearing and the energy was tense before Alex breathed and planted two fingers into his mouth, Kenith paling as he cupped his ears, to the high-pitch whistle that came out, all there cupping their ears in pain as Alex spoke.
"Do I have your attention now?" All looked to him as he walked back to the center of the room with Kenith, the big guy barring Gray from making a move for Lyon. "So, Blue Pegasus, Fairy Tail, and Lamia Scale, huh? We are now a decent twelve members as I can see Jura of the Ten Wizard Saints here as well." The man walked in with a smile as he nodded.
"Indeed, and you must be Alex Arcturus, responsible for purging Eisenwald along with the Salamander and also having been seen handling the Tower of Heaven." Alex smiled as he shook the extended hand as he spoke.
"I didn't go it alone, despite what others may say, Iron Rock Jura, but I am pleased to make your acquaintance." Alex looked back to the Trimens with a slight grimace. "At least we will have another sane mind along our numbers here." He shook his head in speaking as the tension faded off. "Sorry about the flying Ichiya, he was getting too nosy on Erza and she is a single woman, despite him saying otherwise."
"No harm done, I am pleased that you are willing to let things slide for our latest member of Lyon."
"Yeah, lucky you guys, you have a complent Ice Mage." Gray commented with a smirk before Kenith picked him up by the nape and started to juggle him a bit, with some boulders.
"Huh, you have not been eating right, Gray, my boulders weigh at least a good two hundred pounds, you only weigh a one thirty."
"You can tell how much he weighs with just juggling him!?" Lucy exclaimed as Erza hummed in wonderment as well as Kenith nodded.
"Of course, you have to know the weights you lift, otherwise, you can't really improve at all, I like juggling these boulders to keep my strength at a sizable pace." Lyon yelped in getting picked up as well as Kenith. "You are worse, one twenty-eight."
"Ah, come on!" Lyon whined as Gray moaned with the routine as Alex turned to Jura with arms crossed.
"So besides us here, who is the last guild?"
"I thought you were aware of the alliance, we along with a small guild by the name of Cait Shelter are tasked with clearing out the Dark Guilds once in line with Oracion Seis, who even now searches the Worth Woodsea for their master guild's prize, Nirvana."
"Of course..." Alex breathed with facing forward to the display. Cait Shelter had a stake in this as Nirvana was their last legacy, or rather the Guild Master's last before Wendy, and would see it destroyed once and for all before it fell into the wrong hands, but it also made the notch that only Wendy would be coming with her companion Carla, that would add up the numbers to thirteen, a 'unlucky' number, but they would make do, equally so as the original grouping was twelve with two Exceeds adding to it to be fourteen, so that makes Carla their fourteenth member, but it was still thirteen as she was a foreseer, not a Wizard of the fight.
"Wah!" A voice squeaked with a thump to the ground and Alex covered his mouth as he thought to himself.
'That was an adorable fall...' He and Jura turned to the fallen girl on the floor, her mane of blue falling to her hips as she got back up from her tumble of tripping on open air.
"Ow... that hurt..." The others soon noticed as Alex folded his arms in speaking.
"Who are you, and are you part of the alliance?"
"Oh, yes." The girl answered as she straightened up politely. "I am here on behalf of Cait Shelter and my name is Wendy, it's nice to meet all of you."
"What was Cait Shelter thinking, just sending a child to handle this?" Sherry mused as Kenith stashed the boulders and put Lyon and gray on the ground as he spoke.
"You would think that, but the truth is that someone like that is worth much more than just a force of power." He spoke with folding his arms in scoping her out. "But, you would be correct, she doesn't look like she has seen much action and that is a concern to see..."
"I would approve of all of you not eyeing Wendy like she is some simple child."
"And I stand corrected." Kenith voiced in joining Alex's side as a white cat with wings, in a dress as well, flew in from behind the girl which meant that the meeting could now start... after Ichiya used the restroom, both brothers facepalming at the sheer level of dim that dwarf was before they focused on what was going to happen now...
It was simple, as a last order from the Oracion Sies before they made for the Tower, all of the gathering Dark Guilds were sent to dig through tree, dirt, and rock in search of Nirvana and to unearth it in unleashing its grave power upon the world and to fight off any Guilds looking to stop them.
But, as a rule of thumb, the Teams were more than a match for such simple foes, Alex and Kenith avenging Laxus's 'honor' with blasting the Naked Mummy Guild to pieces, but that was only the slight of the route as one of the monkey men talked, about a blue-haired man in the forest as well, he having stolen a coat from a remaining mage of Eisenwald, and his right side was done up with a series of tattoos.
That got a reaction out of both Erza and Wendy as they branched off to find this Wizard, the brothers facepalming again on the chances that Jellal would just so happen to be there as well. Alex motioning and Kenith nodded as he followed the two on their way, just as the earth erupted into fragments, Alex getting steady on feeling the air and his eyes widening as he quickly figured out what just happened.
"Trimens, get your airship here now! The Dark Guilds have lacrima-bombs planted!" Alex pulsed for a figure on how many there were...
Too many and they even nearly touched on where Nirvana was hidden and he traced the lines to five position where the triggers could be pulled. This didn't happen in...
'Oh right, I had altered the canon events, of course I did...' Alex groaned with rubbing his face on the aftermath before he moved to taking out the triggermen, Kenith could handle Jellal if he was hostile and keep Erza from lapping off heads or Wendy from misidentifying her friend with the current Jellal.