AN: Hello, I know I am a horrible writter leaving you all stranded for dear god 3 years. You may not care but a lot has happened in my life in the last three years. Meet some one, moved in, went back to school, got engaged, got married... pandemic... I digress. But I will say I am ready to start moving towards posting more. I have kept writing but you all know I like to keep a regular schedual when I do and for about a year just could not write to save my life. So this was something I had in the works for a while, and am posting it now to get back in to it. Celestial Dragon Slayer Needed is almost done and I should beguin posting soon.
Dragneel; Igneel & Layla 13, Sarapina 11, Nash 10, Michelle & Nayla & Jude 4, Ryu (6 months along)
Redfox; Ren 13, Axel 12, Connor & Wyatt 8, Myka 3
Haroworth; Nolan & Lucca & Kellen & Rainer & Aura 9
Drayer; Lexie 14
Justine; Marcus 12, Isabella 4
Alberona; Chance 12
Fullbuster; Storm 14, Ur & Ulter 3
Damian 12, Ivy 2
Fernandez; Maia 10
Fiore; Drake 10, Alya 4
Ecluiff; Reese 13, Verity 10, Kato 8, Kassie 6, Korin 3
*****Eleven Years After Celestial Mage Wanted*****
"Again!" Natsu shouted over the training field that was filled with the preteens of the guild most of whom we're looking rather ragged, as they had been sparing nonstop for the last hour and a half.
"This time don't hesitate, your enemy won't so there is no reason to hold back!" He growled as the hatchlings and kids went back to their partners and began again.
"Natsu aren't you pushing them kind of hard?" Mira asked as she looked over the field in worry spotting Marcus who was up against Chance.
The two twelve years old's going at it, not even blinking as they used their strongest attacks against each other. Levy and Freed may have warded the space so no one was really in mortal danger but Mira still flinched as Marcus's shirt was torn off of him with a cutting spell that barely missed his skin. Marcus though didn't even blink as he discarded the ruined shirt and pushed forward his arm taking on the paws of a panther they had come upon on vacation.
The sparing partners were always chosen at random, a large jar in the guild with every child's, who was at least ten years old, name inside. Once a week the kids would choose partners who they sparred with for the week. However the rule was that if you could defeat your opponent you had to join in on a fight still in progress turning it into a three on three. She knew Natsu had added that rule himself, arguing that there were too many times a fight was changed because an opponent's ally jumped in or another opponent wanted in on the action. She was still getting used to the idea of her son training like this at all but to watch it was completely different.
"No, Analogia will return in their lifetime it's time we stopped babying them..." The fire slayer said gruffly as he growled under his breath. "Igneel! What have I told you about your demon side!" Natsu shouted in anger as he marched towards his whelp.
The blonde teen was half transformed, growling at Damien who had surrounded himself in a fog of poison and was smirking at his opponent, Koa coiled around his neck as she hissed at the fire whelp. Igneel lunged forward, claws and wings out, only to be pulled back by his father as the poison slayer got pulled into another fight as one of the orphans the guild has taken in was studying toxin magic and bounced off his attacks with Damien and his father. Both of whom could live through anything he could do.
"Are you both okay with this?" The she demon asked as she looked over at Levy and Erik who were helping Natsu supervise.
"Not entirely, but I'm also not okay without this," Levy said quickly as her eyes moved towards her two eldest bouncing Myka on her knee as her husband had taken their twins to Oshibana to look at instruments. Ren and Axel were going against Nash and Verity the two moving together well since Gajeel had trained them to work as a team. "After all, Natsu is right, we can't just sit by knowing that Analogia will return and not prepare them for it. I'm sure if Gramps had known about everything we had to face as young adults he would have had us training like this when we were their age."
"Yeah but Jiji didn't want us to be soldiers, and this seems a little too much like that kind of training," Cana pointed out as she walked up behind Levy watching as Chance switched from his Magic cards to hand to hand combat effortlessly.
Guildarts and Bacchus had been training Chance in hand to hand for some time, both men afraid of what would happen if someone took his cards. And the kid seemed to pick it up quickly as he used a reflect card, that he has stashed in a special made brace on his arm, to block an incoming attack from above as Mia jumped into their fight, her last opponent having passed out from over doing it trying to overtake her. Mia requipped into a ghi and joined in, throwing Marcus over her shoulder as she swiped Chance's legs out from under him.
"But this is good for the hatchlings. Their dragon side needs more training than anything," Levy insisted as she watched her son's get separated and backed into a corner.
"True but for the most part the hatchlings are no different than the other children in the guild," Minerva said from her spot in the shade, Isabella on the ground in front of her as she twirled a baton in the air in front of her. "They're just humans with dragon tendencies," she shrugged as Erik laughed.
"All of them except the Dragneels," he said looking over to where Layla was now squaring off against her twin and sister.
The three she was originally facing were currently being examined by Wendy for mild burns and exhaustion. Saraphina was using all hand to hand and Igneel had partially morphed into his demon form, on purpose this time. But the little pink haired girl was still whipping their asses. Sending her brother flying with a Lucyesk kick and out of the secured barrier that she had to stay in, she turned her focus on her sister who was holding out Capricorn's gate.
It took some finagling in the contracts but Lucy had made it so that the zodiacs could be called out by any of her children so long as they held it's key. And since Loke and Virgo had the ability to open their own gates the two made it a habit to check on the whelps whenever they were in trouble. But with one scale attack she threw them both out. Lexie ducking under Reese and charging towards her rival and the two went head to head, much more evenly matched. Until Layla's arm was covered in deep purple scales. Then Lexie too was sent flying as Igneel jumped back into the ring just to be kicked out again.
"Yeah those kids are Dragons with human tendencies," the poison slayer said as Kianna handed him Ivy who was drinking from a sippy cup, as Natsu signaled Laxus to take over the instructions before jumping into the ring with his daughter.
Then the fight turned viscous. Draco popped out watching the fight, not even blinking as father and daughter sent sparks and flames everywhere. Soon Layla took an opening and kneed her father in the gut before jumping away and falling into a pin by her father. "You know where you went wrong?" Natsu asked as he kept his daughter pinned down as she struggled against his hold. Snapping she bite down on his arm just as a flush of red scales covered it.
"Never jump away from an opponent without knowing they can't get up faster than you," Draco said firmly as he knelt next to the pair. "You had the advantage but you gave it away to show off!" He growled in her face snatching her by the back of the neck with his hand. "That arrogance will cost you your life!"
Layla snarled as she finally freed herself from the two males. Storm rushed through the fighting pairs, having left one of the safe haven kids frozen solid in a block of ice with an air hole in it. Wrapping his arms around the pinkette she relaxed in his arms but moved swiftly, catching Taurus's ax in her hands stopping it from reaching the back of Storm's head. Twelve zodiac spirits popping in as Natsu was pulled out of the ring by Draco. The spirits descended as the two preteens worked in unison against them.
"Down!" Draco shouted, the most of the kids listened and dropped to their stomachs just in time as arrows and axes flew over their heads. Then they all turned to look at the spectacle. Layla and Storm effortlessly moved in sync as they attacked and a moment later defending never once being in the others way.
"You sure they haven't been trained to do this," Brux's voice startling everyone as he appeared next to Draco.
"Gramps!" Lexie cheered racing forward crashing into the large man sparks flying around them.
"I didn't, Natsu?" The celestial dragon asked as the pink haired father shook his head.
"No, we've been keeping most of their training separate, the whelps have been learning tracking while everyone else works on stamina building. We just started sparing a few weeks ago," he said gaping in awe. "Luce and I couldn't work like this until after Tenrou," he said watching as the pair fight.
Even with Virgo making the ground into a land mine of pit holes the two teens turned the attack into their advantage, one deflect from Layla and Taurus fell into the hole while Storm froze the opening so he couldn't get out easily. The field turned icy but that didn't slow anyone down as the now nine zodiacs continued their onslaught against the two teens. And one by one the teens took out their opponents until just Loke and Virgo remained.
"Regulus impact!" Loke shouted and he punched the ground but rather than shattering the ice as intended it merely cracked just around where his hand had impacted.
"Brother help!" Virgo cried as she struggled to get out of the ground as she had tried to dig another exit out of the holes she had created.
"Too late!" Storm called as all Loke saw was Layla's foot as it hit his face sending him flying backwards. The kids and hatchlings that had gathered around to watch all began cheering loudly as two of their own had taken out twelve out of the thirteen zodiac spirits.
"Effective," Draco said as he stepped away from the crowd.
"This isn't ordinary ice," Grey said as he examined the crystal that had covered the training field. The loud commotion had drawn his attention as he was just getting home from a job.
"No, it's not. But it has a distinct scent of the heavens in it," The celestial dragon spoke turning towards the teens as they gasped for breath.
They had been fighting for well over two hours at this point and he could tell they were close to collapsing. "We figured it out a week ago," Layla offered leaning against her mate.
"Layla can use her celestial dragon powers to take the air and make it frigid, then if I take the moisture out of that air and freeze it the resulting ice can't be melted," Storm offered as Igneel squeaked in annoyance.
"Is that how you made that ice I couldn't melt! I lost five thousand jewels on that!" Igneel raged as his father glared down at him. "What?!" The teen asked, before wisely ducking behind the rest of the teens once he remembered how much trouble he was in for that bet.
"This isn't a unison raid but it's similar to how dragons and their mates fight together, Penna and I use our powers to create large explosions on the battle fields," Brux offered looking very impressed that the two whelps had figured this out on their own.
"I told you this generation is more dragon than human," Wendy huffed as she skated across the ice to the two teens who had finally collapsed from exhaustion.
"But the question is, how do we get rid of this ice? Maker ice takes longer to melt anyway but if Igneel is to be believed not even dragon or demon fire can melt this," Grey said as he walked across the ice with no effort. His son was out cold and had somehow collapsed on top of Layla who was lightly snoring as Wendy ran glowing hands over them.
"A few bruises that I already fixed, but they both are exhausted. But not from the fight they opened their second origin with those last attacks," Wendy explained as she lifted the two teens with wind and with the help of Grey made it off of the ice without slipping. "No more training like that or jobs for a week while they refill and adjust," the sky dragon slayer ordered as she walked into the guild with the two teens floating beside her.
"Igneel!" Draco called out as both the teen and dragon made human appeared at his side. Draco rolled his eyes as he placed a hand on the dragon made human's shoulder. "Your only job right now is to figure out how long and how much heat is needed to melt this ice," Draco said as the man nodded. Draco snapped his finger and all twelve spirits who had still been trapped on the field disappeared into the realm along with Brux and himself.
"Two weeks and he's only half done?" Lucy confirmed as she watched her children play in the fire that had overtaken the training field.
Nash was sitting in front of the large dragon having a conversation with him. Layla and Igneel were sparing around his tail and every once in a while, the appendage would wrap around one of their ankles and hang them upside down in the air for a few minutes; while the trapped individual tried to dislodge themselves while blocking attacks. Saraphina and Jude were summoning spirits as they lounged in the flames thier backs against the dragon's side, Saraphina had just received Fornax a silver key that had chosen to pop into her daughter's bedroom about a year ago. The little fox like spirit was chasing its tail in the fire as Jude laughed. And Nyla was sitting on top of Igneel's head using his horns to help her get a better view a she scouted the land for adventure with Michelle climbing up and down the dragon's body tumbling and flipping over the spikes.
"Yes, but Igneel will have to return to the celestial realm soon to rest. His spirit can't be separated much longer," Loke said rubbing a hand against Lucy's slightly protruding stomach.
This pregnancy was harder than the others and Wendy figured that this one would be another demon dragon cross like its big brother Igneel. The whelp she carried was always restless, but even more so whenever Lucy was near one of her spirits. Zeref had figured that since this child was showing signs of demon traits before it was even born the child would always be slightly uncomfortable around beings that exuded so much light and goodness: much like he was once he had made his first demon. Only Draco's assurances that her child wasn't doomed to a life of crime and bloodlust had calmed Lucy of the panic attack she had had. Even Zeref had agreed with Draco that the only reason Igneel didn't have the same problem is that he share her womb with a sister that did nothing but draw on Lucy's light and had built up an enormous tolerance as a result.
Nodding her head Lucy huffed as she kept her vigil. "Natsu and the children will be so disappointed when he does leave," she said turning back to her spirit. "I know they can't stay forever but the other Dragons visit a lot more than he does," she huffed.
Igneel came for birthdays and every other Christmas. While the other dragons seemed to be working on a schedule, at least every other week they had a dragon here for at least four days. They would help with training the hatchlings and other children while they spent time with their own Slayer and family. Hell, Grandeeny had even help deliver the triplets while she had been here. It had annoyed Lucy to no end but when she had confronted the fire dragon about it all he had said was that he had other responsibilities in the celestial realm that couldn't be left for a long amount of time.
"Look Igneel is like Natsu you really can't make him do anything," Loke offered but he knew Lucy was more upset that her children missed the fire dragon so much, every time he left they would all sleep in the room at their house he used until it stopped smelling like papa Igneel.
"I guess," Lucy sighed dramatically, she knew there was something Igneel wasn't telling her but there was nothing else she could do to get the answers she craved.
"Draco has set up a new training regime for Layla and Storm he wants them to work together as much as possible," the lion spirit said handing off the notebook to Lucy who looked mildly horrified at the thought.
"She's just barely thirteen, can't we slow down and let them all have a full childhood?" Lucy asked as tears began falling down her cheeks as she stoked her stomach.
"Luce," Natsu grunted as he came around the corner and wrapped his arm around his mate.
"It's not fair, she just a baby... She my baby," Lucy cried again as she felt her mate tighten his grip on her as he let her cry.
"You and I both know if we could we would gladly give ourselves in exchange for her to not have to deal with this," Natsu said as he repeated a conversation, they had had so many times that he had lost count.
Lucy continued to cry as her mate held onto her. Both knowing they had no choice but to prepare their daughter for what was to come.
