Howdy y'all! :D
Hope you're having a great weekend and staying safe out there! As we get into this next chapter, I'll be trying really hard to give you the best fight scenes possible when we get to them. I've not really gotten much practice writing them, other than my other stories lol.
Anyway, where we left off, we learned a little more about our cold boy, Gray's, past, and his ties with Lyon. Can he get over the past and focus on the crisis in the present? Or will things come crashing down?
We also got a glimpse of The Prophecy and what will happen, as well as Wendy being kidnapped by a certain man we all hate, *cough, cough,* Brain *cough*
Well, here it is, and I hope you all enjoy chapter 13! UwU
DISCLAIMER: I DO NOT OWN FAIRY TAIL OR ANY REAL WORLD REFERENCES IN THIS STORY!
Key for story(More will be added IF needed):
BOLD - anger, attacks, surprise
Italic - thoughts, dreams, stressing a word, sass, other end(s) of a phone call, singing and song titles, and The Prophecy
Rescuing the Sky Maiden
Lucy couldn't help it. Upon seeing her sister in that villains arms, she couldn't hold it in.
"Wendy!" she screamed, though she immediately realized her mistake. Shit! Our parents!
Brain smirked before pounding his staff and disappearing with Wendy. Leo cursed as he heard footsteps rushing up the stairs. He leapt out the window and hid in the bushes.
Her parents came rushing in to find Lucy on her knees, tears streaming down her face.
"Lucy! What's wrong dear!?" cried her mother. "Why did you scream Wen-"
The blonde didn't even let her finish. She enveloped her mother in a hug, crying into her nightgown. Claire pulled her daughter into a tight hug as Ryan went to check on Wendy.
When he came back, his eyes showed fear and confusion. "She's gone!" he exclaimed.
"What!? How, and where!?"
"I don't know! We-we better call the police, maybe Igneel can help!"
Leo, knowing the situation was going to shit, decided against his better judgement. He jumped back up to the branches and through the window, surprising the blonde's parents.
"W-who are you!?" growled Ryan. "What have you done with our daughter!?"
Leo raised his hands. "I, Mr. and Mrs. Ashley, have done nothing but attempt to stop this from happening."
"What the hell are you talking about!?" Ryan growled.
"Dad, it wasn't him!" Lucy cried as she managed to calm herself. She put herself between her angry father and the alarmed lion constellation. She looked at him, just now noticing that within his now wild hair that he had lion's ears. Shaking that strange thought out of her head, she looked back at her friend. "I can't keep them in the dark anymore Leo." she said.
Leo opened his mouth in protest, but decided against his better judgement. He sighed with a nod. "Surly I'll be criticized by the kind, but it's not like it'll be the first time.
"In the dark about what?" her mother questioned. "Lucy, what are you hiding from us."
"Well it's a long story…." she began. No, I don't have time! I have to save Wendy somehow. She thought. "Can I tell you in the car?"
"Why not now?" Ryan exclaimed, not understanding.
"We're going to save Wendy of course!" Lucy replied.
Claire and Ryan gazed at each other in confusion, then back at their daughter. "Fine. But you better explain everything along the way.
Leo seemed to know what the blonde was thinking. "Seems like we'll be taking a road trip." he bowed. "Now before we go, my name is Leo the Lion, King of the Zodiac. You might've heard me called Loke until now,"
"This should be an interesting story indeed." sighed Ryan as they ran for their clothes and out the door. Starting up the minivan and speeding off towards the fight ahead of them.
In the forest….
Natsu rubbed his head as he opened his eyes. He remembered very little from the ride to their crash landing. Most of what he could recall was him continuously barfing over Christina's side. Then a turquoise ray of light.
His eyes widened. Shit!
He looked around at the wreckage to see his friends and the members of the guilds strewn about the formerly mighty bomber. He stood and looked around for signs of danger or an attack, activating his flames and scales. His ruby eyes looking for even the slightest movement amongst the trees. His ears picked up noise from the wreckage as his comrades began to awaken. They too were wary of their surroundings.
Gray's demon tattoo covered most of the right side of his body, his hair spiked, and his cold gaze scanning the area. Laxus' yellow scales dotted his body, and Gajeel's skin went into iron colored scales. His now emerald eyes met the pinkette's, and Laxus's. Jellal's facial marking appeared over his left eye, and he helped the others out of the wreck.
"Is everyone accounted for?" asked Hibiki as they counted their numbers.
"Seems like it." Jura said as he smashed his staff down, creating a wall of stone around them.
Lyon glanced at Gray, seeing his transformation. "I see you still won't use her magic."
Natsu noticed Gray tense up when he said that, which even though he and the noirette had had a hateful relationship a while ago, they'd already mended things. Being his friend, he wouldn't tolerate someone treating them like that. He was about to tell Lyon to back off, until Jellal shook his head.
His face very clearly said: Let it go. Natsu wanted to protest, but decided against it, though he really, really wanted to smash Lyon's face in for his comment. They had bigger fish to fry anyway.
Hibiki began to type furiously, cursing as he did so. "Damn!" he growled. "How didn't our magic scanners pick up their magic power!?"
"Let alone us not noticing it ourselves." Grumbled Ren.
"Alright. Here's how we'll divide up. We have six opponents, and eleven of us since Erza is down." he frowned.
"Actually, I stowed away." groaned a voice in the wreckage. Jellal and Laxus helped her up.
"What the hell are you doing here, Erza!?" Jellal exclaimed. "You can't be exerting yourself while you're poisoned!"
Natsu sighed. Erza wasn't one to give up, no matter how many times someone told her no. It didn't matter who told her either, be it her parents or anyone. As Natsu recalled, that was how she became so popular in the first place.
"Someone has to protect Hibiki as he guides us." she said plainly. "Since I can't exactly go on the offensive, I can defend him."
"He-"
"Although it slightly hurts that you feel I need protecting," Hibiki sighed, "I do appreciate it."
Jellal stared at Hibiki, unable to process what he'd just said. "You can't be serious."
"I can handle myself fine, thank you very much." she said. "Don't worry about me so much."
"..."
Natsu patted Jellal's shoulder. "It's best to let her do what she wants. Otherwise-" he stopped as soon as he realized Erza could hear him. A strong presence of anger was coming from her direction.
"What was that, Natsu?" She growled.
"N-Nothing!" he said, hiding behind Jellal.
"That's what I thought."
"Gihihi!" chuckled Gajeel. "Scared of her, aren't you, Pinky?"
"Shut it!" Natsu shot back. "So are you, Rust Bucket!"
"Am not!"
"Boys, focus!"
"Yes ma'am!" the two squeaked.
"Anyway," continued Hibki, "We'll split up into teams. Erza and I will remain here, while the rest of you go after the Oracion Seis."
"Why doesn't the council do something about this again?" asked Natsu. It'd been burning in his mind, yet he decided to hold back the question, assuming it would be discussed if he just waited.
Ichiya spoke up. "The Magic Council cannot come after this threat because of the panic it would cause." He said while striking a pose. "They're military force may be limited to a couple tens of thousands of soldiers, but that would still cause a hysteria, just moving those troops. There'd be no way to avoid being seen. And besides, Christina had the capability to camouflage herself from any non-magical beings."
"Oh."
"Ahem. As I was saying," The dark blond continued, "These will be the groups, though it isn't perfect, it will be faster: Gray and Natsu, Gajeel and Laxus, Ren and Eve, Jura, Ichiya and Jellal, and Sherry and Lyon."
"Smart." Jura nodded with a smile. "I can handle a single member on my own at the very least, so we should be able to take them all out before they reach Nirvana."
"Let's hope so." Laxus murmured. "There's no telling how close they are to it since we know neither their positions, or Nirvana's itself."
"Well then." Natsu said, "We should get moving then."
"Right." They all said in agreement. The teams began to disperse into the forest.
Natsu looked toward Gray, who nodded back at him. "Let's go get 'em."
"You know it!"
With that, the battle had already begun.
In the van...
As they traveled through the forest, Lucy prayed they'd get there soon. She had just finished telling her parents the summary of everything that's gone down that had been related to her friends, Zeref, and this hidden magic world that they were now a part of.
"So let me get this straight," Ryan said, still confused. "Some madman, named Zeref, injected Natsu, Gray, Erza, Jellal, Laxus, and Gajeel with some serum that allows them to use magic and 'transform', and now some of his escaped test subjects are now planning to use some ancient magic for some evil purpose? I still can't even believe that literally most of those we've come to know are a part of this." he said, baffled.
"Yeah." the blonde nodded.
"Natsu's the one they refer to as Salamander?" Claire asked.
"Yeeaah." sighed Lucy. "I'm so sorry I hid this from you guys." she apologized.
"To be honest, I don't blame you." Ryan said. "Besides, we learned our daughters are in trouble, so we'd naturally want to help as much as possible."
Lucy's eyes widened. "Wait, really!?"
Her parents both nodded and smiled. "You kids can't do this on your own." Caire explained.
"Besides," her dad continued, "It's kind of cool that our daughters and our foster son are kind of like superheroes." he laughed. "And that you're a part of some prophecy."
"Well," Lucy sighed. "I still haven't been able to use my magic yet."
"That's actually quite simple now." Leo said.
"What do you mean?" the blonde asked.
"Well, there are twelve Zodiac Celestial Spirits." he said. "The Prophecy hasn't been able to be interpreted completely for thousands of years, but more recently I've come to this conclusion. The first line says: 'When the black wizard plays with life,'. Can you guess who that could be?"
"Zeref." Lucy said, her eyes narrowing.
"Correctamundo." he said. "As for the second line, it's more difficult. 'And wings of darkness shall cover the sky.'. I still haven't figured that part yet, but I'm almost certain the wings it refers to is one of a dragon. The next two seem all too easy for me now. Just being near you, I can feel what Acnologia was referring to."
"The stars shall name their queen at last,
With her flowing gold hair, and a love for a lie." Lucy recited.
"You've got that flowing 'gold' hair." he said.
"But what about: 'and a love for a lie.'?" she questioned.
"Now that," he said, "is a good question. It had me puzzled even before I knew it was you. But as for the previous line about the stars naming their queen, as I said, it's very simple. Think of all the Celestial Spirits as a nation. We twelve represent the entirety of the Celestial Spirit population before the Celestial Spirit King."
"Wait." she said. "You mentioned him earlier. I thought you were the king."
"Well, not exactly. I'm only the leader of the Zodiac, so I discuss extreme matters directly with the king himself. He's the one with all the power." Leo explained.
"I see." Lucy murmured. "So, do you twelve vote or something?"
"Sort of." he said. "The king serving during the time that The Prophecy was made, had foretold, since he was there as it was given, that that queen would be chosen by the given approval us Zodiac twelve, and by the king during that time as well. With that, the queen would be named and that part of The Prophecy would be fulfilled at last."
"So in order for me to be named this so-called queen, all thirteen of you would need to give your stamp of approval."
"Yep."
"..."
"What?" he asked.
"Are you sure I have so-"
"Lucy, for the entire time I've served as Leo, King of the Zodiac, I've never met a celestial wizard with power that even compared to yours. I can feel it locked away, so it comes off as a smaller force, but I know without a doubt. It's you, Lucy."
"Wow, thanks." she said softly. She hadn't expected such an answer.
"Honey, you already have Natsu." Claire smirked.
"M-Mom! What are you saying!?"
Leo chuckled. "Interesting. I must've missed that while I was away. Well, as the rest of it goes:
A hero to slay darkness and time shall come,
And being that which he desired to raze.
Upon the final stage shall he burn last,
Or the demon king shall set the world ablaze."
"I'm not quite sure about that one." Lucy muttered. "But I'm guessing it has something to do with a fire magic wielder, and END."
"You do have a point…" Leo said.
Fire magic user… Lucy thought. Could it be...
Suddenly, Leo stopped the van. He got out of the vehicle, took a few steps, and tensed up.
"Leo, What's wrong?" the blonde asked nervously as she followed him outside.
"Tell your parents to get out of here." he said. Then he quickly turned to her. "NOW!"
Lucy panicked and ran back to her parents. "Get out of here! GO!" she yelled.
"But Lucy-" her mother protested.
Leo turned to them. "I'll keep her safe. And I'm sure the others will too, so move before you're caught in the crossfire!"
With that, Lucy watched her parents drive off, safe and out of harm's way. "What's wrong, Leo? Do you sense something nearby?"
"One of the Oracion Seis is nearby." he growled. "Come on!" He took off, running into the forest as the blonde tried to keep up.
With Natsu and Gray...
As they traveled through the forest, Natu and Gray had met a few mages along the way, all of which was hired by the Oracion Seis. Surprisingly, they weren't so tough, and they'd taken out a whole guild by themselves. Natsu yawned.
"Ugggh! That was so boring."
"I don't think it was supposed to entertain you, Ash Breath." Gray sighed. "Though I concur."
Natsu looked at him funny. "Concur? What the hell is wrong with you, Ice Princess?"
"What? Jealous I have a wider range of vocabulary, Squinty eyes?"
"If that's the best insult you have, then there's no reason to be jealous, Droopy Eyes!"
Suddenly, Natsu paused, holding his hand up to Gray before he could shoot back another insult. He caught a whiff of something familiar as he sniffed the air. But it didn't make sense. Why would she be here?
"What's wrong, Natsu?" the noirette asked.
"I'm not sure why," he said, scowling, "but I smell Wendy."
"That can't be." Gray waved him off. "There's no way she'd be here. She's at home with Luc-"
"I smell her too." The pinkette added. "It's faint, but she's with… Loke."
That caught Gray's attention. "Are you sure!?"
"Positive." Natsu said. "But what's really bothering me is that one of the Oracion Seis is near Lucy and Loke, and there are two near Wendy."
"Seriously!?" Gray gasped. "H-How?"
"I don't know." he muttered. "But from what Lucy told us, Loke is that 'King of the Zodiac' and whatnot, and she has natural magic too so she'll be fine."
"Then it's safe to assume you're going after Wendy?"
"Yeah." Natsu growled. "Lyon and Sherry are nearby as well. Alert them if you can, despite whatever beef you have with that white haired numbskull."
Gray narrowed his eyes. "Fine." he grumbled. "But then I'm going to meet up with Lucy and Loke." He said.
"Not if I get to her first!" the pinkette smirked as he blasted off into the woods leaving Gray behind. In his free time when no one was around, he'd practiced firing his flames in a thin burst from his hands and feet, sending him flying wherever he wanted. It was much faster than plain running, though it was dangerous. He figured he'd need to take out the Oracion Seis quickly before they could do any real damage, so he hoped this might help. He looked up towards the sky when he saw a familiar yellow beam zip over his head towards Wendy and who he assumed to be Brain and Midnight.
Is that …. Jellal? He wondered. Why did he and Ichiya separate? He thought about it as he soared through the forest, getting closer to the powerful leader of the Oracion Seis, and to the girl he saw as his sister.
Just hang on, Wendy. I'll be there soon!
With Wendy….
As Wendy opened her eyes, she felt woozy. Almost as if she'd ridden one of those roller coasters that were specifically designed to make you dizzy and queasy. She looked around at her surroundings, not expecting to be somewhere other than her bedroom. She felt a surge of fear and confusion. It seemed as though she was in a small cave. She could see the tunnel leading outside, though she could tell it was still nighttime. The inside was lit with torches, and at the back of the cave wall sat some sort of small shrine.
Where am I? She asked herself. And why am I here?
Suddenly, she heard the crunch of footsteps. Her head whipped around to find a tall man with white hair and facial tattoos smirking at her. His staff had a skull on it and his demeanor was quite intimidating. Behind him was a man sleeping upright on a …
"How's that carpet floating!?" she cried, the fear evident in her voice as she backed away from them, "W-Who are you people and what do you want with me!?"
"We, little girl," the large man said, "are the Oracion Seis! I, Brain, have brought you here to do us a little favor."
"W-What?" the confused girl squeaked.
"We need you to heal a much needed asset to our plan." he said. "He should be here soon, so we need your magic now."
"What are you t-talking about?" she said, shaking her head. "I don't have any magic!"
"Of course you do!" Brain smirked. "You just need to awaken it within you."
He raised his staff and smacked her body into the cave wall, causing her to scream in pain. She didn't feel anything was broken, but pain surged throughout her like nothing she'd ever felt before. As she hit the floor, she coughed up blood. Her eyes were wide, and thoughts of fear and confusion flooded her brain. She slowly met Brains gaze as he began to close the distance between them. She feared another strike, only to be saved by a voice.
"Stop!"
Both Wendy and her attacker gazed towards the entrance to find none other than Jellal standing there. His eyes held no fear, but she wondered why he was here. She noticed a red mark running down the right side of his face, going over his eye, as well as his clothes being rather strange.
How did he know where we were? She wondered. She tried to speak, but Brain cut her off.
"Excellent timing, Jellal!" he said, praising the blue haired boy. "You're just in time!" He raised his staff, a large green orb forming at it's head, and blasted it straight into their visitor's chest.
"Jellal!" she cried. She attempted to push through the pain and slowly crawl toward his now still body. "What did you do to him!?" she screamed at Brain.
"Oh, don't worry. He's not dead." Brain reassured her. "I did say that he was a valuable asset to us, just for the fact he's been working for us secretly the whole time."
The girl was stunned. Jellal was in cahoots with these guys? Why? She just understands why a friend of her sisters would work with such evil people. But that didn't mean she stopped caring for him.
"You said I have magic power that can heal." she whimpered. "What is it, and how do I use it?"
"Dear girl," he said, "You are the daughter of the late Sky Dragon Grandeeny, though your magic is slightly different. You have the power to control the sky and kill the mighty beasts that were feared by all for their ferocity. You are a Sky Dragon Slayer, which allows you to heal your comrades with that sky magic."
"D-Daughter of The Sky Dragon, Grandeeny?" she questioned
"Yes. Her maiden name was Marvell, but the married name she took in wedlock was Redfox."
Gajeel's family name!? Wendy thought in surprise.
"The man she married: Igneel Redfox."
No way! She was beyond surprised. Natsu's original foster father was her actual birth father.
"Wait. You said late." she said, concerned. "That would mean she's…"
"Indeed." Brain said, confirming her suspicions. "Your birth mother is unfortunately dead."
Wendy felt like crying. She felt pains in her chest, other than the pain inflicted by Brain's assault.
"Now, as for Jellal, he was a young boy when we first met." Brain explained. "He'd wandered too far from his parents, and I used a hypnosis spell which created another personality. As for which one is real, I could not tell you, but he's been working for me specifically ever since. Now let's get back to your magic power, I'll show you how to save him." he said, smirking.
Wendy shivered and shook with sorrow and fear. She had no time to mourn her mothers death, or identify if it was true. There was nothing she could do to fight back. She was alone and helpless. Only a tool for the means to Brain's end.
Please! She prayed. Someone, anyone! Help me!
Oh poor little Wendy! ;-;
Who else agrees with me that she doesn't deserve to be smacked around by that MF, Brain? Well, regardless, that was here fate for the moment, but it seems like she's finally been initiated into the hidden world of Magic. And she's not the only one. Lucy's parents have finally been filled in about what's happened to the others.
These are the possible fights that I'm debating to show up in the next chapter.
Natsu vs. Brain and Midnight vs. ?(more than likely)
Gray, Lyon, Sherry vs. Racer(m.t.l.)
Jura vs. Hoteye
Lucy, Leo vs. Angel(m.t.l.)
Well, I hope you all enjoyed it! Peace out :P
Song(s) in this chapter:
- None this chapter :P
New character's ages in this chapter:
- None this Chapter :P
AS ALWAYS, FEEL FREE TO LEAVE A REVIEW OR A QUESTION IN EITHER THE REVIEW SECTION OR IN A PM, AND THANKS FOR READING! :D
