A/N: Okay, now that the side quest is finished, and we have a new villain on the horizon, let's get back into the main storyline! We'll be picking up where the Fairy Tail 2018 series began, that is, after the one-year timeskip. In the original canon, the guild disintegrated during that time, but was rebuilt by Natsu and company. In this version, the guild lost quite a few members, but the core group stayed together and banded under Mirajane as their new guild master. Let's see just how that has affected the situation...

Avatar Arc: Chapter 1

Clouds Gather

Magnolia, Year x792

"They've been spotted? You're sure it's Avatar?"

"It was me that found them based on the information you provided, so I dunno how much more sure we can be." Sorano pulled a magic pen out of her hair and quickly marked the map that Gorun had laid out with holographic ink. "They were here, here, here, and here. Three of those bases are now empty, and the fourth one looked like they had enough arms and munitions to conquer Crocus."

"Seriously?" Gorun looked at her sharply, alarm flaring in his crimson eyes. "You don't think-?"

"No, I doubt that they'd actually attack the capital," the former criminal answered with a negative shake of her head. "The fourth base- not to mention that location that you sent Cana to check- is too far away to serve as a staging point for an invasion like that. My guess is that they'll attack one of the larger towns or small cities out in the country."

Sorano had been working for Gorun as a member of Golden Tail for the last few months in order to keep tabs on a cultish organization that may have been taking orders from Zeref, or at least follow his base teachings with a zealous fervor. When he had first heard about them, it had been difficult for the Saiyan to find proof of their existence, much less keep active tabs on them. However, thanks to the efforts of Jellal's guild and his own team's work, Gorun had been able to piece together Avatar's movements, and gain an idea of what their goal might be.

"You really think that they're gonna waste a town, just to get Zeref's attention?" Romeo asked, sounding horrified. At thirteen years old, he was rapidly gaining height and muscle mass, especially under the tutelage of Gorun and his wife, with additional lessons thrown in from Natsu every now and again.

The saiyan, Rachel, Kinana, and Yukino were gathered around the table in Fairy Tail's library, having been summoned by their leader. Looking over at Gorun, he added, "You can stop 'em, right?"

"I can't do that if I don't know where they're going to strike," he answered as he leaned over the map a little more, his red hair nearly brushing the parchment. These days the young man was sporting the aura of a Super Saiyan god more often than not, the result of his countless hours spent working to maintain the form for as long as he could. It had gotten to the point where he could sustain the power with almost no loss in stamina, only turning it off when he slept.

"Can Cana slow them down, wherever she's at?" Yukino suggested. "She's certainly powerful enough to cause them grief, even on her own."

"Not if my suspicions are proven correct," Gorun answered through slightly gritted teeth. "She wouldn't last two seconds out there."

"I'd make it three," a familiar voice interjected, surprising the group. As they all turned to see Cana approaching, she smirked before adding, "Give me some credit- you trained me, after all." The young woman looked tired, but otherwise she was healthy, much to the relief of her friends.

"Cana!" Kinana exclaimed before she moved to embrace the final team member of Golden Tail. "We got worried when you missed your last two check-ins." The card mage-turned-saiyan had officially joined Gorun's team four months prior, though she had been training with him in order to master her new powers for nearly a year now.

"Sorry 'bout that," the brunette replied as she returned the hug. "Hiding was a real pain once I had eyes-on." She turned to Gorun as Kinana stepped back, her mouth set in a grim line as she said, "You were right. Azura's with them."

This piece of news was met with various reactions of dismay from the others, though none of them looked as disappointed as Gorun did in that moment. "I'd hoped otherwise, but…" Giving vent to a deep sigh, the young man ran a hand over his face before saying, "This just got loads more complicated. If she's really in on this crazy plan, I'm gonna have to fight her, which could end up causing major damage to Earthland if it gets out of hand."

"I could handle her," Rachel offered readily, despite the anguish in her eyes.

"No, it wouldn't be right," he murmured. Patting his daughter on the shoulder affectionately, he then added, "I'm the reason that she came to this world, so I'd better be the one to clean up this mess. I appreciate the offer, though."

"I don't get it," Cana huffed as she set down her bag of cards next to the table. "A year ago, it looked like you two were starting to get along like family- better than my family, anyway."

"Right, because that's such a high standard," Sorano snickered, earning her a quick smack on the head from Kinana.

"What happened?" Cana asked, ignoring the white-haired woman's taunt.

Gorun shifted uncomfortably in place, having been reluctant to discuss the subject for quite some time. Eventually, he murmured, "The long and short of it is that we had a difference of opinion on how to find Zeref. She wanted to take more immediate action to draw him out, and I wanted to let him come to us. We argued, and in the end, she left to find him on her own. I never thought that she'd go to these lengths just to get him out in the open, though."

"Makes sense to me," Romeo argued. "She chased you all the way across multiple dimensions just to have another shot at taking you down, remember? She's not exactly subtle when she gets obsessed with a target."

"True," Yukino said, looking sad. "She's very stubborn. The problem now is, she's taken a path that might see us fighting her directly." Looking at their leader worriedly, she then asked, "Are you sure you'd be able to take her down if you have to?"

"As sure as Laxus was when he fought Ivan," Gorun answered with a hard light in his eyes. "Blood ties mean nothing when you make yourself an enemy of Fairy Tail." His stance and words might have fooled most, but his teammates all knew him well enough that they saw how much it actually hurt him to say that.

In an attempt to pretend that they hadn't noticed the pain in his bearing, Cana took Sorano's pen and placed a new mark on the map. "The head honchos are all gathered there right now," she explained. After circling a few towns and small cities nearby, she added, "Their followers are all moving to congregate somewhere close to them- I don't know exactly where, though. I only heard bits and pieces while I was running surveillance."

"How long until they join the underlings?" Kinana asked.

"Four days, I think."

"Then maybe we should pay their HQ a visit before they can get the ball rolling," Romeo suggested. "If we can take out the bosses before the attack, we might prevent it from happening at all."

"Not a bad thought," Gorun nodded as he stood up straight from the map. "Ideally I'd ask Mirajane to have Natsu's team check it out, but if Azura is on-site with these freaks, there's no telling if she'd rat them out or not. Remember, she's always been better at sensing power levels than I have, so there's not really a point in trying to sneak past her. There's also the fact that Rachel and I are the only ones strong enough to fight her."

"Why don't we use her movements to our advantage?" Rachel asked. "You and I can sense her energy signature, especially if she's using her goddess form to evade normal magical detection. We could pinpoint Avatar's movements if we keep our senses attuned to her presence. If they're gearing up for something big, she'd be the biggest gun that they have. Plus, there's no way she'd miss out on a fight that could draw you out."

"That does seem like something she would do," Yukino admitted, still looking sad. She and Kinana had made a genuine effort to befriend Gorun's relative, and both of them had believed that they were succeeding until the blue-haired Saiyan had chosen to leave their guild.

"All right, Romeo, tell Natsu's team to remain on standby for the next few days," Gorun ordered his young friend. "I want them ready to move out with us if Avatar does make a move with violence in mind." The youngest member of his team nodded and ran up the stairs to carry out his orders.

"Sweetheart, can you go inform Mirajane of what our Intel had provided?"

"I'll go with her," Sorano volunteered as Rachel answered that she would do so. "Guild master will probably make me do the paperwork either way, so I might as well get it over with." With that, the two of them made their exit, followed by Kinana and Yukino, who said that they needed to get a message out to the Magic Council in order to keep them in the loop.

Fortunately these days, the council maintained good relationships with the majority of the kingdom's guilds, seeing as several of its members were still affiliated with guilds across the country. They had no issue in sharing intelligence with Fairy Tail or its allies, which had served both parties quite well in the past year.

"Do we really need Team Natsu's help?" Cana asked with a raised eyebrow when it was just the two of them. "We've got you and your daughter, veritable deities, yours' truly as a Super Saiyan trainee, your wife, one of the only celestial wizards left in the world, her expert spy sister, and Fairy Tail's next firecracker. We've got enough to take on several armies, so why bring an extra team along?"

"Because something can always go wrong," Gorun answered simply. "Being in the Time Patrol and this guild have taught me that much. It never hurts to have contingencies in place."

"Fair enough," the brunette answered as she moved to head up the stairs. "Well, if you'll excuse me, I have not had a shower in over a week, and I'm tired of smelling like a volcano."

"I was wondering about the ash smell. How'd that happen?"

"I don't wanna talk about it."

Three days later, Rachel returned to the guild hall, having gone out to keep tabs on the locations that Sorano and Cana had found out. "They're moving," she told her father, who immediately stood up from the table that he and Mirajane had been occupying. "I guess everyone gathered early."

"Do you have any idea where they were headed?" Fairy Tail's seventh guild master inquired.

"Malba City," Rachel answered quickly, brushing some tousled hair out of her face as she did. "It's the only area with a somewhat dense population that they can reach within a day's journey from where they had gathered, plus they're headed in that direction."

"Then we have our mission," Gorun said as he turned to look at the eldest Strauss sibling. "Do we have your permission to engage?"

"Of course," the young woman nodded with a sweet smile. "Just come back safe, all of you."

"We will." As Gorun and his daughter left the room, he grinned at her and said, "Good job, kid. Thanks for doing the legwork."

"Of course, Dad," she answered with a contented look as he ruffled her raven hair. "But I dunno why you keep calling me 'kid'. I'm thousands of years older than you." During the course of the year since her parents had gotten married, Rachel had become very close to the both of them, and they reciprocated the love that she felt for them. She and her father spent a lot of their free time training out over the ocean, though she did enjoy the occasional story about his service in the Time Patrol.

"Says the one that called me 'Papa' for the first three months that she was here," he teased her, which caused her to duck her head in order to try and obscure her reddening cheeks. Giving vent to another chuckle, he said, "Go and get some food. We're heading out once the teams have assembled."

"Yes, sir," she said with a mock salute before making a beeline straight for the bar where Lisanna, Éclair, and Wendy were working.

The sky dragon slayer had grown up quite a bit in the last year, with no small thanks to Rachel's enchantment speeding up her aging process. While she stilled possessed the mind of a thirteen-year-old girl, her body looked to be that of a young woman in her mid-teens. This was in aid of making her strong enough to keep up with her dragon-slaying guild mates, all in preparation for the day when Acnologia would return to slay them all. Now she stood nearly shoulder-to-shoulder with Natsu, and her magic was stronger than ever. Only recently had she been able to access her second origin again, as it had been providing the energy necessary for fueling the magic enhancing her growth.

Gorun knew that she was eager to see just how much stronger she had become, and in spite of disliking violence, he knew that she would fight well on their side in the looming battle with Avatar, and after them, the Alvarez Empire. And once every trace of Zeref's influence has been dealt with, it'll fall to her and the other dragon slayers to stop that monster, he thought as his smile wilted a little bit.

Fighting Acnologia had been a jarring experience, to say the least. The fact that two Super Saiyan 4's and a Super Saiyan goddess had been unable to do anything against him was incredibly worrisome. They were only able to drive him away with the loss of his leg after Rachel harnessed an imperfect version of Hakaishin magic, and even that had nearly cost them everything. If the dragon of the apocalypse returned in greater strength, it spelled trouble for humanity.

So here's to hoping that our plan for when he shows up does work, Gorun thought as he moved to rap his knuckles on the table where most of Natsu's team was sharing lunch.

"Hey man," Gray said as he scooted over to make room for his friend. "What's happening?"

"Avatar is on the move," he said calmly, which got the other wizards looking at each other with alarm. "We need to be ready to move out within the hour."

"I thought that you said they weren't gonna attack until tomorrow?" Happy asked, looking worried.

"Apparently they're very eager to attract Zeref's attention, or whatever it is they're trying to do," Gorun said in a tone that suggested he didn't care to discuss their brand of nonsense. "Either way, they're headed for Malba City, which is where we need to be."

"I'll go get Éclair," Lucy volunteered, but Gorun told her to wait.

"Rachel is filling her and Wendy in on what's happening," he told them. "Finish your lunch, grab whatever you need, then meet back here. I'm using Instant Transmission to get us all there before Avatar does."

"Hey, Gorun," Natsu said as he stood up from the table to let Erza pass him by. "I heard Azura might be with 'em. Is that true?"

Gorun hesitated, but he knew that they deserved to know what they would be facing. "She's in their company, yeah," he admitted gravely. Before anyone could say anything, he added in a stern tone, "Under no circumstances are you guys to instigate a fight with her. She's grown much stronger since the last time we met, so only Rachel and I have the power to deal with her."

"Should we get ready to do a potara fusion?" Gray asked him with a slight frown. "You told us that she had a set of her own now. What if she merges with someone to give her an edge over you?"

Gorun immediately shook his head in the negative at that. "She'd only do a fusion as a last resort. She lives to prove her own strength, so the chances of her combining with another wizard is next to nil."

"It would still be a prudent measure to take," Erza cautioned him.

Gorun mulled it over in his head for a few seconds before he pulled his left earring out and tossed it to Gray. "Keep that on your right ear," he warned him. "We don't wanna trigger an early fusion again."

"Hey, I only did that one time!"

"Yeah, but I've never done it," Natsu complained. "Why's he getting the earring?"

"Our fusions are a little too reckless for me to want to do that near a city," Gorun answered with a shrug. "Also, the last time we practiced fusion, Igneel kept trying to backseat drive."

"I simply thought to make a suggestion on how you might conserve magic power," Natsu's father rumbled in their heads, clearly irritated by the Saiyan's words. Over the course of the last year, he and his compatriots had continued to train their young wards from inside their minds, in addition to shedding some light on how their arrangement had come about in the first place- but now wasn't the time to remember such things.

"Well, next time don't make a suggestion in the middle of a fight with a four-way fusion," Golden Tail's leader replied a little snippily to the King of the Fire Dragons. "I need to go get my team together- meet by the front doors in an hour." He suspected that there was something that Igneel was still keeping a secret from the others, but despite having joined minds with Natsu multiple times, he was unable to confirm it for himself, and his friend was either keeping his mouth shut, or he was also being kept in the dark. Either way, the Saiyan didn't like it, though he made sure not to let it affect his friendship with the pink-haired dragon slayer.

"We all set?" Gorun asked as the assembled teams stood before him.

"I'm all fired up," Natsu answered as he slammed a fiery fist into his palm. "Time to show these freaks why you don't mess with our guild." He and the other members of their team were dressed in their usual mission gear, and all of them seemed eager to flex their magical muscles. If there were as many people in Avatar as they thought, they would soon have a rare opportunity to really cut loose.

"We're ready, too," Yukino affirmed. She and Sorano wore matching outfits of white with blue trim that would have made it harder to distinguish the two of them, were it not for the fact that the elder Agria sister wore her hair long.

Gorun surveyed the rest of his team for a brief moment, just to make sure that they weren't missing anything. Everyone on his team wore one variation or another of his old Kame-styled gi from the days when he trained under Goku and Vegeta. It wasn't because he ordered them to- over the course of the past year, it just happened. Romeo had asked for one first, followed by Rachel, so on and so forth until it became their team's fashion statement.

Yukino and Sorano wore white as their main color, with blue sashes, wristbands, and combat boots. The biggest difference between them was that the elder sister wore no undershirt, while the younger Agria preferred a more modest look, and had accordingly donned a short-sleeved garment on top of which was layered her gi.

Romeo wore a red-and-yellow variation of the uniform, which also lacked an undershirt, exposing the chiseled figure that he had attained while training under Gorun and Natsu for the past year. Cana's color theme featured dark blue with hints of black, and like Sorano, her uniform tended to be on the more showy side.

Lastly, Kinana and Rachel wore reverse colors to one another, with Gorun's wife donning a sleeveless green gi with purple wristbands, boots, and a sash. Their daughter's purple outfit was long-sleeved with no wrist guards, but her sash and boots were the same leafy green as her mother's. Gorun, of course, wore his usual blue-and-green getup with the gold trim and armored gauntlets, the fancier outfit clearly marking him as the team leader.

Satisfied that they had everything in order, the saiyan gestured for everyone to come and lay hands on him, which they did. When they had first done this maneuver as a group, there had been some awkward shuffling around and hesitation about who should be where, but now they had it down to a science. "Ready?" he asked them as soon as he felt Happy and Carla's paws on his head.

"Ready," they all answered.

With that, he engaged the spell, having located the power signatures of the city's wizard guild. While they were nowhere near as strong as his guild, they were still above the rest of the town in terms of raw battle power, so it was sufficient enough for him to perform the technique.

They popped into existence in front of the guild hall, but did not bother to go inside it. Instead, they went straight for the city's main gate, Gorun and Erza having studied the area before making the jump. They got some confused looks and shouts as they ran by, but they ignored them in favor of moving quickly to their destination.

"Hey, Gorun?" Wendy asked as they ran, Romeo keeping pace beside her. "Can I ask why we're in such a hurry? I thought that Avatar wouldn't be here for a few hours."

"I always prefer to plan countermeasures with the worst-case scenario in mind," he answered as he and Rachel floated above the ground at the same speed that the others were running. "Plus, I'd like to see if we can't intercept them a few miles away from the city- fewer chances of casualties that way."

"It's a good idea, but why not just teleport straight to where Azura is?" Gray asked. "Is she keeping her power level too low for you to sense?"

"This close to her, no, that's not the problem," his friend answered. "I just don't want to deal with a startled Azura. Things get… explode-y, when she's caught off-guard."

"But if she senses us, she might tell the rest of her new friends to go a different way while she fights you," Kinana countered. "What then?"

"She won't," Gorun answered confidently. "Azura always loved showing off how strong she was back in Conton's tournaments. I seriously doubt that she'd miss the chance to have a showdown with me in front of an audience as big as Avatar."

"But-"

"If she does think that far ahead, I'm pretty sure that Rachel can teleport enough of you with her to run interference for Malba," he said, cutting off Lucy's protest. "Does that work for you guys?"

"It sounds logical to me," Carla nodded.

"It should work," Erza agreed.

"Carla?" Éclair asked as the city gates came into view. "Are you having any visions about what's to come?"

"Nothing yet, and I keep trying," the white exceed said, sounding frustrated. Giving Gorun and Rachel a slightly perturbed look, she added, "Whenever time travelers are involved, my visions become more sporadic, especially when they are in opposition to one another. This is why I couldn't predict Azura's arrival when she attacked us with Carbuncle, and why I sensed nothing of Gorun's fated conflict with the Future Rogue. The only thing I can say about our impending future is that I believe it highly likely that Gorun and Azura will fight again. I suggest that we all be on our guard, and try not to wind up as collateral damage."

"Everyone else know their positions?" Erza asked them.

"I'll provide mid-range support alongside Gray, Sorano, and you," Cana answered immediately.

"Wendy, Romeo, and I'll lead the charge at close quarters with Happy and Carla," Natsu grinned in a feral manner.

"Sorano and I are going in for a pincer movement to catch the enemy off-guard from the rear," Rachel added. "I'll stay in touch with Mom and Dad via scouter just in case I see something that doesn't look right."

"That leaves Yukino and me as the last line of defense," Lucy concluded. "We'll fuse into Lucino if anything goes wrong, but for the most part we'll send out our spirits to back you guys up if you need a breather."

"Excellent," Gorun said approvingly as they dashed past a farmer's market, drawing the attention of a few more onlookers. "I'll do my best to lead Azura away from the city, but she's smart- I doubt she'll outright chase me if she thinks that she can get me to stay close by threatening the people in this place."

"She always did strike me as the cunning, ruthless type," Sorano commented, earning her a disapproving look from her sister. "What? Ask our fearless leader if I'm wrong."

Gorun's mouth flattened as he said in a dull tone, "She's not, even if I had begun to hope otherwise."

No more was said between the friends as they continued their beeline for the city walls, and beyond.

"They moved faster than I thought they would," Rachel murmured as the first elements of Avatar began to stream out of the woods. According to the power levels that she and her father could sense, there were well over a thousand people ready to attack the town. Even if their strength wasn't very impressive on individual levels, together they would certainly be enough to eradicate the city behind the Fairy Tail wizards.

The guild wizards had only gotten a few miles outside of the city walls before they noticed the enemy's approach, having warned the guards that there was an invasion pending, and they should make their defenses ready, just in case. Now they stood in a defensive battle formation that Gorun had taught them months ago, with him and Rachel at the head, ready to intercept and destroy any initial strike from their antagonists.

There were a few power levels that stood out among the hundreds of zealots in front of them, but it wasn't anything that the two teams couldn't handle. The only one that made most of them nervous was the one power level that they couldn't feel, courtesy of a red-haired woman that stood at the front of the column with the other higher-level power signatures. The sight of her caused Gorun's mouth to set into a thin line, while the rest of his friends looked either mad or disappointed.

"Are you sure about this, Dad?" Rachel asked without taking her eyes off of the enemy forces. "It's not too late for us to switch places, and I promise I won't go easy on her."

Once again, he shook his head in the negative before he answered, "This is my fight. I'll give her the rematch that she so desperately wanted. Hang back until Avatar makes their move. Hopefully a fight between two Super Saiyan gods will scare the rest of these freaks off."

So saying, he lifted himself off the ground and floated forward, Azura matching his movements from the other side. Both of them narrowed their eyes at one another from across the way before they were suddenly right in front of each other, not even a full yard separating them. The onlookers from Avatar's side were clearly startled by their speed- neither of them had teleported; they had simply moved faster than their conscious thoughts could register.

"Look at you, skulking in the shadows with cowards and murderers," Gorun said after a tense moment of silence. His voice wasn't loud, but the atmosphere was so quiet that everyone heard his voice clearly. "Feels like old times, when you ran with Carbuncle."

"And you, still protecting those wizards, allowing them to believe that they can rise above whatever constraints their flesh places on them?" Azura laughed in response. "They're not saiyans, Kaidon. They simply can't keep up with people like you and I." This made Natsu angry enough to want to lob a fireball at the traitorous Saiyan, but Erza held him back with a stern look on her face that swiftly discouraged any further interference.

"Maybe not, but I remember something my wife once told me," Gorun said with a small smirk. "In my quest to continue furthering my saiyan powers, I forget that we are partly human, too. And who is to say that they couldn't become as powerful as our people, given enough time?"

"I somehow doubt that will happen in time for them to help you defeat me," Azura responded as she raised her arms out slightly before she clenched her fists, her teeth baring in a snarl. "Given how it's been a while since we saw each other, I'm eager to see what you've made of your time, Kaidon. Has it been wasted training those beneath us? Or have you finally given your heritage the homage it deserves?" A blue magic circle spawned beneath her feet, and storm clouds began to gather overhead, sparking great bolts of lightning that stretched out across the sky and crashed into the earth. Several of these blasts struck groups in the Avatar army, and one nearly roasted the Fairy Tail wizards, only for Rachel to beat it back with an irritated scowl.

If the deaths of her allies bothered Azura, she didn't show it, merely channeling the warrior's cry that had run through her ancestor's blood since the dawn of the known multiverse. A blue sheen of energy encased her entire body before it cracked and fell away, revealing her completed transformation. The clouds that had gathered above them rumbled ominously as she smiled viscously at her cousin with startling blue eyes.

On first glance, she didn't appear that much different from her normal form, save that her eyes were only a couple of shades lighter in color, and her matching hair was spiky, like her ascended Saiyan appearance. Sorano commented as much, asking, "So, what's that supposed to be? Super Saiyan with blue hair dye?"

"It's an advanced god form- one of the most powerful transformations in all of creation," Cana answered with a slight quaver in her voice. "Super Saiyan god is just the beginning for people like Azura and Gorun. This 'Blue' power is matched only by Super Saiyan 4 in terms of raw strength. However, unlike the primordial form, the user retains clarity of mind."

"Seriously?" Gray asked her, looking startled. They all remembered the sheer ferocity and might of the primordial Saiyan power when he had fought against Goku a year ago- and Gorun had only grown stronger since then. So what exactly was Azura's Super Saiyan Blue capable of? They couldn't sense its energy like they could with Super Saiyan 4, but there was pressure in the air that set them all on edge, similar to Rachel's Destroyer form, though hers' was admittedly more terrifying than what was on display before them now.

It seemed that they would have to wait a few moments to receive an idea about the heights that Azura could now reach with her new transformation. "You said that I should pay my respects to my heritage?" Gorun laughed, seemingly unafraid, despite the fact that Azura's power now dwarfed his. "I couldn't agree more."

He mirrored her stance before a pink magic circle appeared above his head, showering him with divine light, even as his raw power erupted into the heavens, darkening the clouds further and causing the sky to become absolutely ablaze with electricity. The ground rumbled as if a gigantic beast were tunneling below them, and the air pulsed as if the war drums of the heavens were declaring that the battle should begin. Gorun's guttural bellow was nearly lost in the chaos of noise, lightning bolt after lightning bolt smashing into the ranks of the Zeref-worshippers and the no-man's land around his friends and family. Just when it seemed that the sky could handle no more of the insane power, the magic circle disappeared and Gorun was swallowed up in a cocoon of pink-and-purple light.

When it left his body, he had changed in a way that his guild mates- minus Kinana and Rachel- had never seen before. His hair was now pink like Natsu's, and his eyes were a cold gray, like that of a wintry cloud on a clear day. His aura gave off an unnerving pressure not only in its presence, but in its appearance. Close to his body, the color was a violent, dark purple, while further out it became magenta before darkening into a red that reminded one of dried blood. In that moment, he had become divine wrath and fury incarnate, woe unto any that stood against him. Despite knowing that he was their friend and ally, most of the Fairy Tail mages at that moment could not help but be frightened by his transformed self.

"Does anyone else feel like they just became completely irrelevant to the outcome of this battle?" Éclair asked of no one in particular.

"You're not alone," Erza admitted, startling the others. Of all of them, she had always carried herself well, confident in her strength and earned rank, even if she never bragged about it.

Meanwhile, the two Saiyans were now engaged in the tensest standoff that Avatar had ever seen, with even some of their leaders looking like they were questioning the wisdom of being so close to such an impending conflict. No one moved. Hardly anyone dared to breathe.

Finally, the silence was broken by Azura, who grinned at her cousin and said, "Let's give them a show that they won't forget."

The smile was returned with a laugh as Gorun replied, "Yes, let's." His drew his hands to his sides while Azura took a long stance and held her arms up in front of her in a cross-block. Black-pink light gathered around Gorun's foot and pooled in between his hands before he roared, "Kamehameha-SUNDER!"

He spun his body all the way around, conjuring a scythe of energy from his foot before grounding his stance and allowing a powerful beam to surge forth from his outstretched hands, augmenting the rose blade, and sending it crashing into Azura. The deadly energy tore up the air around Azura before the rest of it was rapidly split into hundreds of smaller beams that destroyed the ground while others arced up, around, and back toward the earth in order to demolish a more than half of the Avatar cult in a series of violent explosions that left many of them dead, with more gravely injured. As the light faded from Gorun's hands, the remaining onlookers were able to see that Azura had conjured a shield that had caused the Kamehameha to miss her.

"Hey, am I the only noticing something weird here?" Gray asked as his eyes narrowed at the show of power.

"Both of their attacks are only hitting the Avatar members," Sorano murmured. "You're wondering if that's on purpose."

"But wait, that could only happen if Azura was-" Lucy paused in mid-sentence as she and everyone else turned to look at Kinana, who was putting on an innocent smile. "This is an act?"

"When Gorun first started hearing about Avatar, he wanted to plant a mole in their operation," she answered with a single nod. "His cousin was the most plausible traitor, so he and Mira sent her undercover."

"Wait, why didn't we know about this?!" Cana demanded.

"We had to keep up appearances," Gorun's wife replied calmly. "Only Mira, Gorun, and I knew about her mission. We had to make her betrayal look as authentic as possible- Avatar moves quietly, and their reach in the criminal underworld is long. If too many people knew about it, word could have gotten out."

"Hey!" Rachel said as she crossed her arms. "Why wasn't I told?"

"You never asked if she was a double agent."

"I-! Oh… That's still messed up!"

"I agree," Erza frowned. "We should have been told."

"Hmm," Kinana mused, her smile still in place. "Something tells me that you would have done the same thing, were you in our position." Her calm confidence had certainly grown over the past year- the shy barmaid from the days of Fairy Tail's more disreputable years would have never had the nerve to tell Titania Erza that she was at risk of being a hypocrite.

"Eh, whatever," Natsu shrugged as red scales began to appear on his face and arms. "Gorun always has a reason for doin' what he does. We can yell at him later. Right now, I say we give Avatar a piece of our minds."

"Wait, are they seriously going to attack us after what they just saw?!" Lucy cried as the remnants of the army began their charge, going around the two 'enemy' Saiyans.

"They don't strike me as the brightest bunch," Carla commented dryly as a glow enveloped her body before revealing her demi-human form. "Let's see how long their resolve holds up against us." Next to her, Wendy's hair shifted into a pink hue, while white feathers sprouted in various places on her body.

"It won't matter how long they hold out for," Gray said as the air around him began to chill while his demon slayer markings crawled across his now-bared torso. "Psychos like them need to be taken in- or taken down."

"Agreed," Erza said as she requipped into her Fairy Kai armor. "This seems like a good way to test what Gorun and Rachel have taught us over the last year."

"You don't gotta tell me," Cana grinned as she and Kinana activated the Kaioken. "But somehow, I don't see this taking very long."

"So, should we keep the game going for your new friends, or should we join the others, see what they can do against Avatar?" Gorun asked as he and his cousin let their auras die away, reducing them to their basic god forms.

"I'd love it if there was a good fight to be had, but your friends can certainly handle these peons," Azura snorted. "Not even their leaders are worth the effort of our regular Super Saiyan powers. There's also the fact that your friends have probably already made us, especially given how bad you are at espionage."

"Avatar's that weak, huh?" her cousin laughed as she turned around and made a rude gesture toward the shocked cult leaders. "Given how well they've managed to stay hidden without the assistance of the Baram Alliance, I kind of expected more. In that case, I invite you see what Fairy Tail's finest have made of themselves."

"If nothing else, I suppose it'll be entertaining."

"Oh, it will- more than you think, I imagine."

With the two saiyans more or less content to watch from the sidelines, the other wizards took up the fight, Natsu leading the charge with a savage delight, Happy carrying him forward at high speed. Wendy and Carla were following close by while Romeo flew with the assistance of his girlfriend's magic. They crashed into the front lines of the enemy cult, each offensive spell laying waste to dozens at a time.

The two dragon slayers, of course, were accounting for the majority of the casualties, but Romeo had been training hard over the past year, and now his power would have put a teenage Freed to shame. He soon found himself surrounded by over fifty enemies, all of them glaring at him with a crazed bloodlust. Instead of being frightened like most kids his age would be, the fire mage smiled at them and said, "So guys, who believes me when I tell 'em that I fought the Baram Alliance and lived?"

In response, several of the men charged at him with swords and clubs, causing his confident smile to grow. "Guess I'll have to show instead of tell," he said as he swept his arms around his body, freezing the air and earth with a blue-white flame that left at least ten of the enemy encased in ice. Knowing that the fight wasn't anywhere close to being done, he ducked the blow that he knew would be coming from behind and swept his legs around, tripping up his assailant before he finished him off with a fireball to the face.

Seeing that their comrades were struggling to get through the ice that he had conjured, he laughed and said, "You guys don't know when to give up, do you?"

"Your feeble magic will be made irrelevant when our Lord Zeref heeds our summons!" shouted one of the cultists. "You will all join us in the glory of the eternal darkness that is his empire!"

"No thanks," Romeo quipped. "I like living in the light, and anyone that tries to take that away from us is gonna have to deal with my fire!" A red magic circle appeared under his feet as he flexed his lean muscles and shouted, "Pyroken!" Red fire burned in his hair and eyes, yet harm came to neither as the presence of his magic power doubled. Grinning at his enemies again, the boy then said, "You guys are fried- Blaze Whip!"

Black-red flames erupted in the shape of more than twenty tendrils from his wrists, latching onto any enemy that was nearby and binding them in place. The men cried out in surprise, but the fire did not burn them like they initially thought it would. This led to them trying to break free through sheer strength, but the magic held tight until each of the tendrils had a prisoner. Romeo then heaved mightily, leaping up high in the air and yanking all of his captures toward each other so that they ended up in a big heap, which he then aimed his right palm at, magic power swiftly gathering in front of it. "Big Blaze Attack!"

An explosion scattered the men as the tendrils vanished, also frying the people that had been frozen and wounding many others before Romeo landed a few yards away, dusting his palms off. "I thought these guys would be tough, but they're not even close to the Baram Alliance in terms of strength," he commented to no one in particular.

It appeared that all of his training with Gorun over the past year had really paid off. Even if he couldn't use his mentor's techniques exactly, that hadn't stopped them from getting creative with alternative methods. The Pyroken technique did nothing to enhance Romeo's physical stature like the Kaioken did, but it allowed him to release a substantially higher amount of magic energy in one go without putting his life at risk. It tired him out a lot faster, of course, but it was still helpful when dealing with a large group of people, or someone that would normally outclass him in terms of raw magic power.

"These people may be weaker, but there's a lot more of them!" Wendy shouted to be heard above the howling winds of her magic that scattered more of the Avatar members across the field.

"Ha! That's what makes it more fun!" Natsu cackled as he roasted a hundred fighters with a sweeping wing attack. "Come on, we gotta stomp more of these guys than Gray's team!"

"This is not the time to be engaging in frivolity!" Carla scolded him, but of course, Natsu wasn't listening.

"Fire Dragon Roar!"

"Is this seriously the best that they've got?" Gray called as he flash-froze sixty people with one spell. "After all the planning that Gorun did to set a trap for these guys, I expected way more resistance."

"These guys are just grunts, but I can sense some people coming up that have real power," Cana replied as she slung a tarot card at a troupe of horsemen, which resulted in an explosion that knocked them all off their mounts. "Get ready for them."

"Requip!" Erza quickly transformed into her Heaven's Wheel armor, even as Cana took to the air and started raining ice and lightning down on their enemies while Gray and Éclair continued the fight on the ground. "Where are they?"

"There, those two," the brunette answered as she pointed at another pair of riders. "Pretty boy and the chick with the white hair."

"I see them." Erza acknowledged as she conjured multiple swords around her. In response, one of the riders drew his sword and held it aloft, as if to challenge Erza directly. "I suppose I should respond to that."

"If you handle them, I've got the other one," Eclair assured her as she aimed her palms at the oncoming rider, golden flames licking her fingers as she readied her magic.

"You sure about that?" Gray asked her. "I could take her, no problem."

"This will be a good measurement for how far I have come."

Training with several wizards over the last year had made Eclair into a competent mage, even if fighting was not her first solution to a problem. However, this did not stop her from using her powers to blast the enemy rider off of her horse, sending her rolling across the broken ground. Seeing that her attack had been successful, Éclair began to walk forward, intent on pressing her advantage while Erza began to tangle with the other swordsman.

The woman from Avatar recovered from the attack quickly enough, however, and got to her feet as she muttered some unknown incantation under her breath. This saw to the appearance of three clones in addition to the original, each of them expressing a different emotion. One looked angry, one looked sad, another was smiling, and the last appeared to be strangely neutral. Regardless, all of them looked ready to fight, and they quickly confirmed this thought by using another spell to send shockwaves through the ground, hurling pieces of stone and dead minions at the former priestess, who gave her a flat stare in response.

With a single cry of exertion, Éclair let out a blast of fire hot enough to turn the oncoming debris into slag, which passed her by due to the explosive force of the heat. "Care to try again?" she asked the other woman passively.

"You only advance our cause with this violence," one of her enemies retorted. "Whether we slaughter the citizens of Malba, or you slay our legions here, the outcome is the same. The blood spilled will be used to purify this land and summon Lord Zeref!"

Éclair narrowed her eyes at the clones before she muttered, "I hate the ones that think they've found a win-win scenario." So saying, she extended a hand and fired off a large fireball that levelled all four clones in an instant, leaving them barely alive in a heap.

She turned around after hearing a loud cry of pain to see that Erza's opponent was similarly collapsed. If the rest of the leaders are this easy to deal with, I'd say that we have no real cause for concern, she mused quietly.

That's when the ground started to rumble.

Natsu had broken away from the main group and just finished thrashing a number of the cult leader's final defenders, and now he was squaring off against the man in the mask known only as 'Alok'. Even as the battle continued to rage on in the background, Natsu told Alok to have his men stand down, or else face the wrath of Fairy Tail.

The man laughed and called him a fool for attempting to thwart the will of Zeref, and subsequently began a dark incantation that Natsu knew meant nothing good. He tried to take the man out of the fight, but even after he flattened the cult leader, it was too late. The ground began to rumble and the sky shook as the presence of a terrible omen descended upon the land. The people of Malba cried out in fear as a titanic figure began to descend from the clouds above, black and menacing with a sword the size of several city blocks in hand. Even the members of Avatar appeared to be afraid of this new being that had suddenly come into their midst.

The second that the battle god, Ikusa-Tsunagi, had touched down on the ground, he swung his massive sword and split the earth for miles with a single stroke. The message was clear to anyone who watched- all who stood before this mighty deity would be reduced to nothing more than a faint memory.

Gorun and Azura were not impressed in the slightest.

"They call that thing a god?" the young man snorted as they floated nearly a mile above the battlefield. "As someone descended from a deity, I'm insulted." The being known as Ikusa-Tsunagi had a power level that would obliterate most anyone in Earthland, but compared to Super Saiyan god, he wouldn't even constitute a light exercise. Either Gorun or Azura could kill him with a literal slap across the face.

"That idiot Alok talked him up so much that I assumed that he would at possess the strength of a lower kai," his cousin said as she folded her arms in disappointment. "This is just pathetic, but I suppose one of us should handle it."

"Not so fast," Gorun said as he held out a hand to stop her from descending.

"You have a plan?"

"I have a test." The saiyan youth tapped a button on his scouter and said, "Rachel, you hear me?"

"Loud and clear, Dad," his daughter answered through the device. "Do you want me to take out that thing?"

"No, but thanks for volunteering," he smiled. "Do me a favor, and use your telepathy to send Cana to deal with it? This'll be a good way to see how much her powers have actually progressed."

"Sure thing." With that, the line was cut, leaving the two cousins to observe the proceedings.

"They have gotten stronger, it seems," Azura admitted as they watched a blast of fire and wind annihilate a hundred cultists at once. "Do you think that they will be ready for Acnologia?"

Gorun was about to answer when they both sensed something very wrong with the battle god that they had been scoffing at moments ago. "Is it just me, or does his power-"

"Feel like it's been tainted by a Time Breaker?" Azura finished. "Yeah, it does." She turned to her cousin and gave him a healthy shove, adding, "Go help her before she gets pulped. I'll try to detect whoever is responsible for this."

Gorun nodded his thanks before he shot down toward the battlefield, hoping that he wasn't already too late. He was nearly halfway down when he was hit from the side, sending him careening through the air, away from Malba, disoriented. The hell?! he thought angrily as he straightened himself out and looked for his attacker. Who-?! Oh, crap baskets.

Floating silently in the air from where he had kicked him was a masked saiyan- not Bardock, though. No, this figure was much shorter than the war veteran, and his armor sported a red cape that flowed in the breeze above the countryside. He could have almost been mistaken for a certain prince if not for the fact that this warrior still had his tail. The enemy's power was increasing by the second in tandem with the dark aura that his body was emitting, and it was enough to put the younger saiyan on edge.

"Greetings, your majesty," he said as he allowed his own powers to swell and match his new opponent's. "I came here expecting to battle a cult, and here I am squaring off against royalty. But then, I wonder if your title means anything to you as you are?" His heart was racing, and his mouth was dry, but that wasn't going to stop him from preventing any damage being done to his timeline, ex-Time Patroller or not.

King Vegeta said nothing as he assumed the royal saiyan battle stance, long favored by his son. Seeing it, Gorun sighed and muttered, "I'll take that as a 'maybe, then." Without any further words, he shot forward, aiming a vicious kick at his great-great-grandfather's head.

Cana, I hope you're smart enough to figure out a tactical retreat against that thing! he thought as his strike was blocked, and they began to trade blows at a dizzying pace. And hopefully I can figure out what the hell just happened!

Down below, Rachel had sensed the power of the battle god suddenly increase to dangerous levels, and so she had planned to assist Cana, in spite of her father's orders. I don't think he was expecting this, she reasoned as she backhanded a female mage through a dozen of her compatriots, leaving the area secure for the time being.

She turned to Sorano, who had just called her creatures back to her in a defensive formation. "I'm going to help Cana with that thing," she informed her teammate.

"That would be fine by me," the woman nodded. "It seems as though most of their forces have already been dealt with, but… Just one question."

"What's that?"

"When you last did recon, did Avatar have a member that looks like your father if he took muscle-enhancers and didn't cut his hair for three years?" As she spoke, the former celestial mage gave a pointed look at something behind Rachel, who immediately turned around to see a towering man with a tail that lashed back and forth as he stared down at her with red, hate-filled eyes.

"…No," Rachel answered, trying not to let her surprise show. "They did not. This guy is new. Also a saiyan."

"I figured."

The beefy man let out a furious snarl as he aimed a massive fist wreathed in dark red energy at Rachel, aiming to crush her where she stood.

Genora's eyes narrowed as she recognized two time breaker energy signatures, only to realize that they were being influenced in a manner similar to Avatar's pet deity. Where is the puppet master? she wondered as she cast her senses out in all directions, trying desperately to uncover the source of the temporal disturbance. The Time Breakers have never shown an interest in this timeline before, have they? Why start now?

Her sixth sense picked up on an attack coming from above her, so she swerved out of the way and lashed out with a kick as her attacker flew by, striking them solidly in the back. Despite the pain that they had to be in, her opponent did not make a sound. She wondered who could have such resolve to withstand a blow from a Super Saiyan goddess without expressing some level of agony when the man turned around to show her a face hidden by a mask that did nothing to obscure his spiky hair.

A smile split Genora's face as she said, "I always wanted to square off against Kakarot's old man. Thank you, Time Breakers."

Cana floated in front of the battle god, having gotten his attention with an explosive tarot card, and now she held three more in between her fingers, all of them ready to fly at her command. "I dunno what you think you're doing here, ugly, but I'd get ready for a Fairy Tail-style smack down," she warned him, even as her hair drifted upwards and her eyes turned green. "Get outta here before I make your face look even worse than it already is."

Ikusa-Tsunagi regarded her with a cold gaze for a moment, even as she completed her transformation into a Super Saiyan. The second that she was done, and her power had stabilized, he swung a massive fist faster than even her eye could follow, and sent her smashing into the nearby forest, followed by a swing of his sword that slashed all of the tress into splinters, leaving no trace that anything was alive in the vicinity.

Mataras: So you know how when the Dragon Ball writers hit the problem of Goku and Vegeta getting too strong? You know what their solution seems to be?

Gorun: Is it to write up enemy saiyans to match them?

Mataras: It's writing up enemy saiyans to match them!

Azura: Are you admitting to a copout?

Mataras: Wha-? No! Look, if something ain't broke, don't fix it. We're coming into the final stretch of the story, so we need to up the ante for you guys, and evil saiyans- or at least the ones being controlled by masks- seemed like a good way for you guys to finally cut completely loose and show what you're made of.

Gorun: I thought you were gonna throw that 'Vajra' person at us alongside Fu or something. Who the hell even is that?

Mataras: Bad guy. Very, very bad guy.

Azura: And water is wet. Tell us something that isn't painfully obvious, will you?!

Mataras: That would defeat the point of dramatic reveals! Besides, there's no guarantee that Vajra or Fu will even make an appearance in person.

Azura: Then why would you even introduce them?!

Mataras: Building suspense! Admit it, it's working.

Gorun: No.

Azura: Not really.

Mataras: Not even a little?

Gorun: ...Maybe a li-

Azura: Don't you dare give him the satisfaction.

Mataras: Fine, spoilsport. Let's move on to announcements.

Azura: Finally. Let's see, the next chapter will be up in time for Thanksgiving, 2020.

Gorun: Wait, aren't you going to be busy around that time? You know, moving and all that?

Azura: Again with that?!

Mataras: Hey! This time, it's gonna be different!

Azura: How?!

Mataras: I'm buying a house, that's how.

Gorun: Nice!

Azura: ...Yeah, okay, good for you. Can we get on to the chapter title and go home?

Mataras: I'll take it. Next time on Saiyan Tail- Reunited

Gorun: Don't miss the showdown between six time travellers!

Next time on Saiyan Tail...

As she zoomed past her quarry to place herself between the battle god and the innocent people, Cana was unsurprised to see Kinana already in the air, a grim look on her delicate features. "Sorry I took so long," she apologized. "He got really strong all of a sudden."

"I saw," Gorun's wife nodded as the armored figure began to raise his sword above his head, as if intending to cleave the city with a single strike. "What do we do?"

"Can you pull off a times ten?"

"Not for long."

"Combine that with your strongest attack, we only get one shot," Cana warned her as she hurled her magic cards at Ikusa-Tsunagi, each one flying to strike him in the armpits, where ice crystals exploded into existence and crusted on his armor, slowing his downward swing a bit.

This gave the girls both just enough time to power up to maximum and unleash two of their most potent techniques at the menace.

Kinana's aura flared scarlet before she spawned a black-purple magic circle in front of her outstretched hands and then cried out, "Revenge Flash!" Dark energy shot out of the circle, like a smaller, deep violet version of Gorun's Final Flash. It struck the deity in the face, even as Cana's power quickly followed.

"Three-layer magic circle! Sweeping Wind! Explosive Flame!" A funnel of wind and fire spewed forth at her command as the corresponding cards orbited her body, even as she thrust her hands forth with a blue light shining between them. "Kamehameha!"