Hey all!
I'm back with another chapter! I really hope you enjoy this one, though there's not much action. Let me know how you feel it was! :P
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
Running Out of Time
Gray soon wished that Lyon would have either got his own bike, or not come at all. Balancing the vehicle in this particular terrain was difficult enough without having a passenger. They kept closing the distance between themselves and Racer, but he'd just pull away and veer off whenever Lyon got a shot off. It was honestly starting to get on Gray's nerves. Luckily, they took a detour, despite Lyon's protest, and rammed into their opponent in the midst of a small valley area. Unfortunately, they also were knocked off. The other bikes that Racer had summoned whizzed by, attempting to crush them, but they managed to avoid becoming pancakes.
The two discarded the clothing on their upper body out of the habit gained from them training with Ur, and both shot off attacks which both made landfall on their target. Racer, however, seemed unharmed. Suddenly, Lyon tapped Gray's shoulder and whispered something to him. At first he was shocked to hear what Lyon said, but he sensed something in his voice. He understood what his foster brother was thinking in no time, though Racer noticed the two taking forever. Before the speedster could do anything, he shouted in a surprised and slightly angry tone, "What!?"
Lyon sighed. "I said I don't need you anymore, Gray. You're only slowing me down."
At that moment, the white haired man froze Gray in a large chuck of ice. It started growing taller and taller until the noirette was suspended in the air at the top of a large tower of ice. Racer was more or less surprised at this turn of events, not quite understanding, but he figured they were making a big mistake splitting their forces. He smirked at first, but his jaw dropped when he saw Lyon bolting into the forest behind him.
"Where the hell are you going!?" he growled, giving chase. If he'd not been paying attention, he'd have been skewered. He came to a stop right behind Lyon due to the Ice-Make mage's back being covered in multiple spikes of ice.
"How do you like my technique?" Lyon smirked. "It's my spell: Ice-Make Hedgehog."
"A cheap trick for slowpokes like you!" Racer growled, kicking Lyon in his stomach. He sent the man flying, but he just created a stream of ice, allowing him to slide around the forest and avoid Racer more efficiently.
Gray was watching this using a spyglass he'd made from ice. He didn't particularly like the plan Lyon had come up with, but it was the only one at the moment that could help them identify exactly if the white haired mage's theory was correct. Somewhere along the way here, he'd begun to notice birds flying strangely in respect to their movement around Racer. His plan was to get him far from Gray so that the supposed range of Racer's magic wouldn't affect him, but still close enough for the noirette to launch a ranged Ice-Make attack.
They had been given access to magic telepathic wavelengths to communicate with the other groups, if they found anything, yet no one had used them yet. Though this made Gray worried, he figured that they should use the telepathic wavelengths to allow him to hear what was going on. He could hear the chatter between Lyon and Racer, as well as the pain the former was experiencing. Though he was a veteran mage, that didn't give him any protection against real pain. He watched as they exited the forest near the edge of a cliff. Gray got the feeling that now was the time, especially since he felt as though he was out of the range of Racer's influence. At least he hoped so, for Lyon's sake.
Lyon was now pinned to a log, with Racer holding an icicle to his throat. Gray could hear Lyon begin to explain Racer's magic and took that time to generate a bow made of ice. He concentrated hard and aimed carefully, releasing the arrow of ice to travel swiftly to Racer's chest. The so-called speedster mage was unable to avoid the attack, proving Lyon's theory correct. He landed on the ground, not moving, but still alive. Gray, seeing he'd landed a hit, made a ramp of ice as he slid towards Lyon's position.
Sherry too, in the time they'd been apart, had made her way to them. She hugged Lyon tightly, causing him to sigh, with a small smile. They turned to the fallen Racer, to hear him utter words.
"My prayer… to be… faster than anyone…"
"I originally figured that your magic increased your own speed," Lyon remarked. "But as I studied the surroundings, and some very well placed birds in the area, I deduced that your magic did not increase your speed, but slowed the perception of time of those around you. To put it simply, you slow others down rather than making yourself faster."
He turned to Gray, causing the noirette to raise an eyebrow. Smiling, he said only three words.
"Good shootin' Tex." he chuckled.
Gray's eyes widened slightly, surprised by the compliment. "Well, uh, thanks." he said, scratching his head. "It was your plan though."
"You executed that well for being out of practice. I can only guess your new magic is similar to your natural magic in ways you've yet to show me."
"You may be right." Gray smirked. "But I'll never tell unless you win in a sparring match against me!"
"Anytime, anywhere." Lyon smirked as they bumped fists.
It felt nice, spending time with Lyon again, although they'd done so mainly for the sake of the world. But he hoped they could fully reconcile after this was all over. Siblings aren't people you can easily replace, whether they're by blood or not. The years of neglecting to see each other had taken its toll, and Gray felt it was time to end it.
But naturally, destiny had other plans. Racer had gotten up finally and began laughing maniacally. He ripped open his jacket to reveal some sort of device. It began beeping and flashing, signaling it was a bomb of some sort. He stared at them, an evil grin over his lips.
"If I'm going down, you're coming with me!" he cried as he ran towards them. Before anything could happen, however, Lyon pushed both Sherry and Gray backwards and jumped at the Oracion Seis member, and they both rolled over the side of the cliff. The two still on said cliff scrambled in panic to the edge just in time to see an explosion. Gray stared in horror at the smoke cloud, as Sherry screamed in agony and tears flowed from her eyes. Gray fell to his knees as his own tears fell.
He's… gone. He thought. He's really gone.
Gray continued staring at the smoke cloud until he couldn't bear it anymore. He stood and shook Sherry out of her wailing fit. "Come on." he said, his head low.
She stared at him in anger and disbelief. "How can you say that? He's your brother! Don't you feel anything!?"
"Of course I do." Gray spat, causing her to shut her mouth. "But he wouldn't want us mourning over him, at least right now when our friends need our help. We can mourn him after we defeat the Oracion Seis." He began walking away into the forest, with Sherry following close behind. She trudged along, tears running down her cheeks. Just as they began moving, a column of black light shot into the sky. And little did Gray know that a growing dark presence had begun to stur behind him, as Sherry began to allow her mind to wander.
Lyon is dead. Who killed him? She thought, staring at the ground. Her gaze trailed up to Gray, looking at the back of his head, her head filled with darkened thoughts. His fault. He should have died. If he wasn't here, Lyon would still be alive. Yes. Kill him.
As she reached out for his neck, Gray whipped around and delivered a blow to her head, knocking her out unconscious. He picked her up and continued walking, wondering what he'd witnessed. Only one thing must have caused this. He figured. Nirvana. How was it that he guessed this? Just a guess, that's all.
And like that, he dashed off towards the black light, with an unconscious Sherry in his arms, and hopes of his friends being alright in his mind.
With Natsu and the others….
When Natsu woke up, he couldn't remember what happened, other than the nauseousness after finding Lucy and Loke/Leo. Speaking of which, who was he really: Loke or Leo? And why did it feel like his clothes were soaked? Random thoughts filled his head as his eyes wandered the scene for answers. He gazed upon the unconscious forms of Lucy, Hibiki, and Wendy, as well as three small, golden objects on the ground next to the river. He crawled over to them, his eyes showing him that they were indeed keys. Each design different from the others, each being extremely intricate and slightly mesmerizing. He heard a groan come from Lucy, forcing his head to whip in her direction, She sat up, rubbing her head, looking around. He grabbed the three keys and brought them with him to the blonde's side.
"Hey, Luce," he said, holding her up. "You alright?"
She nodded with another groan. "Y-yeah. My head is just spinning a little."
Suddenly, the keys glowed and in a flash, five forms appeared before them as both Wendy and Hibiki began to regain consciousness.
The first of which they instantly recognized to be Leo. His smile showed as if he'd just finished a satisfying nap after eating. The second being Aries who shivered in nervousness behind him. The next two were not exactly human, but two little blue alien looking creatures with different color pants. The last one seemed to be a dark skinned man with extremely short red hair on one side of his head and extremely short white hair on the other. He also appeared to have a metal, scorpion's tail coming out from behind him. He smirked and gave them a "rock on" sign.
As Natsu helped Lucy up, Hibiki and Wendy joined them, with the latter hiding behind Natsu and Lucy slightly. Leo spoke first out of the five.
"I told you we'd be fine." He said with a smile.
"I can see that." Lucy nodded. She smiled at Aries who gave a shy one in return. Then her gaze fixed on the three newcomers.
The first of the two little creatures spoke. "Hello again, Lucy!" It sounded like a little boy. "You might not remember us, but we're the Gemini Twins!" said the second one with the black shorts, with the sound of a little girl. "I'm Mini, and my brother is Gemi!" she said, gesturing to the one in the orange shorts who then spoke up. "That's me!"
Lucy smiled. "It's nice to see you two again." she said.
"And this is Scorpio!" they both said, gesturing to the dark skinned man, who struck a pose.
"That's me!" he grinned. "Scorpio is here, yeah!"
Natsu was confused. He didn't understand how Lucy could just be so chummy with all these new people who appeared out of thin air. Lucy, noticing his confusion, along with that of the other two present explained their whole ordeal, including The Prophecy.
"So, you're the queen of the Celestial Spirits." Natsu said, dumbfounded.
"Well, only if all twelve of the Zodiac give their seal of approval, as well as their king."
"Wow." Wendy said in awe.
"About that," said Scorpio. "I watched your fight with my previous master, Angel, and to say I was impressed was an understatement. You rock girl!" he said, grinning.
"We agree!" said Gemini. "And we could feel your emotions upon seeing Aries and Leo forced to fight each other." Said Gemi.
"Indeed, Piri-piri!" said Mini. "Personally, I feel you are worthy, don't you agree, Gemi?"
"Indeed, Piri-piri!" nodded Gemi.
"I totally agree with the Twins!" Scorpio nodded. "She's worthy indeed of working with us!"
"I told you all." said Leo, fixing his glasses with a smirk. "Besides, you already had my approval, Lucy, and Aries thinks so too." The pink haired woman nodded in agreement, peaking out a little.
"So, how does this work?" Hibiki asked. "How does her power come into play?"
"With every approval from each of the Zodiac spirits," Leo explained. "Her powers will be increased. She may call on us whenever she wishes, and we may help according to our magic levels. But the catch is she can only summon one of us at a time for the moment, otherwise she might exhaust herself or even worse." he said seriously.
The four gulped. Natsu glanced at the blonde, noticing her nervousness. Leo explained the rest of it and they each formed the pact in order to connect them, giving her golden keys with their Zodiac symbol. They would serve as conduits to help her contact and summon them for the time being. When she got strong enough, she wouldn't need to use the keys, and she would be able to summon two or even more if possible. The only problem was the seal on her natural magic, which was now breached due to making contracts with each of the four spirits(the Twins being a single spirit), allowing her to access only part of her magic power's potential.
"Well, that was surprising." commented Hibiki. He looked rather shaken upon the unfolding of Lucy's potential. Natsu looked over at little Wendy to see she was beaming at her older sister. Though he'd have liked to celebrate the blonde's newfound power, they still had a few problems to deal with: the Oracion Seis, and now what appeared to be the awakening Nirvana. And as far as he could tell, Nirvana was close. That, as well as the scents of two of their friends, and two of the Oracion Seis.
"We gotta move," he said. "I think Erza and Jellal are near Nirvana."
"He's right." Leo said. "We can discuss the rest of this later. For now, let's do what we came here to do."
With that, all the spirits except for Leo, vanished. The four ran, though Hibki separated from them to go find the rest of their groups. Natsu watched him go out of the corner of his eye, knowing that something wasn't right. Laxus, Gajeel, Eve, and Ren, all haven moved from their positions where he last sensed them. Shaking the worst case scenario out of his head, he continued charging towards the black light. Not far off, they came to a crater, seeing Erza and Jellal being pinned down by Cobra, while Brain stood in front of a large tree and the surging light.
He seemed to notice their presence, because he turned around, a grin on his face and laughed. "You're already too late!" he exclaimed with continuous laughter. "At long last, Nirvana awakens, and we shall be set free!"
"Piss off!" Natsu yelled, taking a step towards the cackling man. The ground began to rumble and shake. Confusion spread over Natsu and the others' faces and Cobra reluctantly let the two he had on the ground go, dashing to Brain and disappearing in a flash. The quaking seemed to get even more violent as the ground began to crack and something began rising from underneath the surface. Natsu and Leo helped their friends up as they all ran for their lives. Dashing through the forest in the complete opposite direction. Behind them, they could see a massive stone structure erupting from the ground, as well as extensions like the legs of a spider bending and lifting it out of the dirt. The black light disappeared over the center, and soon enough the entire thing was visible for all of them to stare in fear.
The gigantic structure seemed to be entirely made out of stone and had six legs protruding from its sides. It also seemed to have some sort of large hole in the front, which they took to be some sort of weapon. But they suddenly heard a voice, and one that was quite familiar, but a little staticy as if it was coming over the radio.
"Hello, hello! This is Hibiki."
Natsu looked around in confusion. "Hibiki!? Where are you!?" he asked, glancing around.
"I'm using my telepathy," Hibiki said with a sigh. "Now listen. I just met up with Jura and Hoteye. They found the others unconscious, and they're trying to wake them up. Everyone except Gray and Lyon are here." He filled them in on what Nirvana did as explained to him by Hoteye.
"Wait, seriously?" gasped Lucy.
"Yes." he replied, but he sounded upset. "It seems Lyon didn't make it."
Natsu gritted his teeth and clenched his fists. Wendy looked confused but seemed to get the gist of it, while hugging Lucy. Leo looked down at the ground cursing under his breath while Erza and Jellal shared the same face as their pink headed friend.
"But the good news is that three of the Oracion Seis have been taken care of. You guys took out Angel; Gray, Sherry, and Lyon took out racer; and Hoteye has defected to our side." They heard a soft 'Oh Yeah' in the background. "Gray went on ahead, so Jura and Hoteye will be going after him. You guys listen carefully now. We already told Gray how to take this thing down when Hoteye gave us the info he had. He said there are magic lacrima in each of the joints of the six legs, that being six in total. If we destroy all six, Nirvana will be destroyed."
"Peace of cake." growled Natsu.
"But there's a catch," Hibiki continued, earning a groan from the rest of them. "We absolutely have to destroy all six at the same time."
"Well, how in the world are we supposed to do that!?" Lucy cried.
"Timing. Once I'm sure you all are in position, you must destroy the lacrima. They should be large orbs. You'll know them when you see them."
"Great, we're on our way." and just like that, Natsu took off running, leaving them in the dust.
"What is he doing!?" Jellal growled. He scooped up Erza and rocketed after the boy in hot pursuit, finding it a little hard to keep up this time.
Lucy, Wendy, and Leo stared at their friends a little while before realizing that they needed to go. But Lucy stopped, remembering Wendy was still here. She turned to Leo.
"Listen, Leo," she said. "Take Wendy home quickly. Get her as far away from here as possible." The little bluenette tugged on her sister's shirt and shook her head.
"I can't leave!" she cried. "I have this… power that I can use to help you guys!"
"But-"
"No! I won't lose you! Or Natsu, or anyone!" she said, trying to show her determination. "I want to help… no. I'm going to help you guys take those people down!"
To be honest, this surprised Lucy. She didn't expect to see this from the shy girl she'd known so long. With an irreversible smile, she nodded and hugged the girl tight. Then together, they ran towards unknown danger.
With Natsu...
As Natsu ran, he couldn't wait to unleash his anger upon the remaining Oracion Seis. He didn't know Lyon well, but the fact that he was Gray's brother was enough of an excuse to pummel the rest into oblivion. He wasn't sure why, but these feelings of his were aimed at avenging their comrades death. He wondered how Gray must be feeling at this moment.
As he reached Nirvana, he leapt onto its leg and scrambled up the steep climb with such swiftness, he even surprised himself. As he climbed, he could see Jellal rocketing towards him in the distance, and he turned to see a strange sight at the top of the leg. It was a city, and one that was older than anything he'd ever seen. The buildings were crumbled, but still stood as if they were perfectly preserved. He ran into the city, seeing a large tower in the middle, and catching a whiff of three familiar scents. Growling, he dashed towards the scent of Cobra with his snake, and Brain. He almost made it when his sixth sense kicked in, and he was kicked in the ribs. He cried out in pain as he went flying into the wall of a building. Pain seared all across his body as he glanced at his attacker, smirking and cracking his knuckles.
"You know what?" Cobra said as his snake hissed. "I'm starting to get really annoyed at you and your buddies getting in our way all the time."
Natsu managed to get up, creating fire in his palm. "Oh yeah? Well maybe you shouldn't be trying to cause all this pain and chaos!" he growled, throwing hsi flaming fist at his opponent, who had already moved before he could make a hit.
"I heard that." Cobra grinned, grabbing Natsu's face and smashing him into the nearest building. He continued to do so for a little while until the pink haired boy finally managed to escape. He glared at Cobra before wiping his head around and inhaling slightly.
"Fire Dragon's Roar!" he yelled as he breathed out a spiral of flames. It hit dead on target and released an explosion. But to his surprise, he heard Cobra laughing.
"You didn't really think you had me, did you?" he laughed as his eyes glowed purple. He thrust his hand through the flames, grabbing Natsu's neck and lifting him off the ground. But what disturbed him the most was Cobra's arm. It was much different. His fingernails were now longer and black. All the way up his arm, as the fire died out, the outer part appeared to be covered in crimson scales, darker and more ominous than his own, while the inner part resembled the underbelly of a snake. It never occurred to him that the only magic this guy had was mind reading or whatever the hell it was.
Cobra grinned like a kid receiving every present he could ever as for. "It looks like you didn't predict there being a dragon slayer among our ranks! So, let me introduce myself formally to you. They call me Cobra, and I'm a Poison Dragon Slayer!
That's a wrap! Once again, I hope you enjoyed! It's been too long since I updated, but I'm sure you all can guess why. I might not be posting a new chapter for the rest of this whole week for any of the stories(unless I just do because I feel driven to). So see you all later! UwU
STAY SAFE OUT THERE! BE ALERT, NOT ANXIOUS!
With luv,
WritingHobbyist2020
Song(s) in this chapter:
- None this chapter :P
New character's and their 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
