Italics indicate thinking
Bold is for attacks
Michelle's POV
"If we keep this place we should be there soon." I said.
Riding on the back of an animal was annoying, they bounced you up and down and the seats were super uncomfortable, long story short they make your butt hurt.
"There it is." Lucy said looking down at the town "Sabertooth."
"I didn't realize their guildhall was so big." Laki said as her and Kage rode along side us.
"Way bigger than anything we ever head." He responded "It's like a mini castle."
"Are you sure they can help us find Gray?" I asked.
"I don't know for sure." Natsu said.
"What the heck was the point of all this then?!" Lucy yelled.
"Listen." Natsu said turning around.
"Hey look where you're going!" I snapped taking the reins.
"I have to believe in Gray." Natsu explained "but for now I can't get information unless I stop trusting him for a while."
"Stop trusting?" Lucy mumbled "I don't-."
"I won't trust him until I find him." Natsu said "That's just how it has to be, I promised to get Gray back and I'm going to do it, so until we find him, don't ask."
We pulled up to the hall and I pulled back, causing our mount to rear back and stop running.
"Good boy." I smiled.
We all walked up to the large front door and pushed it open.
"Everyone!" a voice said "It's so great to see you!"
Yukino ran up to us and quickly hugged Lucy.
"It's been so long." Lucy smiled "How have you been?"
"I'm wonderful thank you for asking." Yukino said.
"Everything is going swell here." Diana added walking up.
She looked about the same, in addition to the brown and green streaks her hair now had a few pink streaks in it too, her outfit was about the same, only a cargo vest had been added to is.
"Off with you." She said throwing a bird out the window and turning her attention back to us "We've been busy since you guys dropped off the map."
"Our business has been booming as you'd say." Rufus chimed in "I can't remember a time when Sabertooth was this lucrative."
"We don't mean it like that." Yukino stuttered.
"I understand." Lucy giggled "I know what you mean, besides Fairy Tail is coming back anyway!"
"Really!" Yukino cheered "I look forward to it!"
"Lucy you made her cry." I sighed.
"Poor girl." Laki added.
"This isn't my fault!"
"I thought I heard a few familiar voices." Someone said.
"Oh hey Sting." Natsu waved.
"HEY!" Lucy yelled "Just hey?!"
"Are we supposed to ignore the fact that he's super fat?" Kage asked.
"I don't know." I shrugged seeing how round the man was.
"He's certainly putting more pressure on the earth." Laki sighed.
"Happy's here too." Lector said walking up "Oh, where's Carla?"
"Busy, where's Frosch?" Happy asked.
"He's on a mission with Rogue and the Miss-" Lector explained.
"Where'd they go?!" Natsu yelled grabbing the cat.
"WAHHH!" Lector yelled "I don't know! They only left like five minutes ago, they probably aren't even out of town yet."
"Thanks for the tip!" Natsu yelled running off.
"Natsu wait!" Lucy yelled.
"Why do I have a feeling he's gonna stop them." Kage said meandering after Natsu.
"No please don't!" Diana yelled "I need Minerva to make that money so she can move out of my apartment!"
"I wonder what freaked him out." Sting hummed.
"Whoa he shrank to normal!" Lucy yelled.
"Well it was getting annoying so I had Libra shrink him." Yukino mumbled.
"We should probably go get Natsu." I said walking out the door.
"Coming!" Lucy said trotting after me.
We managed to catch up with Natsu as he was dragging Rogue away.
"Well that wasn't very nice." I said.
"What is that moron doing?" Lucy growled.
"Oh…hello." Minerva said looking at us "Umm…it's been a while."
"I heard you went back to your guild." Lucy smiled "Good for you."
"We already stopped by your guild, it was nice to see everyone." I added.
"So uhh what's with Sting?" Lucy asked.
"We had our annual eating competition." She explained "And thus he ended up round."
"Oh, so was that why you didn't compete in the games?" Lucy asked.
"No, our master said it wasn't worth it if Fairy Tail wasn't in it." Minerva answered.
"Fro thinks so too!" the cat smiled.
"About the games." Minerva frowned "My apologies for the last time."
"Oh don't worry about that." Lucy laughed "It was just a fight between guilds anyway."
"But still…"
"I said not to worry about it." Lucy pouted.
"Very well…I was quite sad to hear Fairy Tail was no more…" Minerva sighed "It was a very nice guild."
"It's not done yet." Lucy smiled "The guilds still right here, in our hearts."
"Aww now you've made her all sentimental." I laughed.
"Still plenty of work to do though." Kage added.
"We've got tons more folks to find." Laki added "We're just getting started."
"Come one we're leaving!" Natsu yelled running passed and grabbing Lucy.
"HEY!"
"I guess we've got to go." I sighed following after.
"Minerva!" Natsu yelled "You make sure he doesn't leave!"
Natsu dragged us all the way out to the deep forest, apparently, we were going to be doing the job for Rogue. We had to destroy some dark guild called Avatar.
"So what is this Avatar thing?" Happy asked.
"A dark guild." I told him "They supposedly worship Zeref, it's been growing in popularity the last few months, the princess was growing concerned about it but we never really had the time or resources to devote fully to it."
"Zeref?" Natsu hummed.
"Hmm." Kage said "they sound suspicious."
"Spooky~" Laki cooed before giggling.
"I'm not sure if Zeref has any direct contact with them himself." I said "but they do worship him as some sort of deity."
"So they're Zeref's underlings huh?" Natsu said "Well now I'm all fired up!"
"Go back to the reason we're here." Kage said leaning back "What the heck does this have to do with Gray?"
"Hmmm…" Natsu hummed "I guess I should tell you anyway, what Future Rogue told me."
"Future Rogue?" I chewed on my lip "That guy."
"He said that one year after the Grand Magic Game, so around now, that Gray would be our enemy. So that got me thinking that maybe we can meet him here." Natsu explained.
"But that future is gone, it changed when you destroyed the gate." Laki explained "But then maybe…time travel hurts my head."
"I'm not sure?" Lucy said looking down "An enemy? Gray?"
"Remember what Juvia said, about those markings appearing on his body?" Natsu said "Those showed up when we fought Mard Geer. Maybe it has something to do with that Demon-Slayer magic of his."
"No…" Lucy said starting to look more worried.
"Big sister." I frowned.
I'm worried too, a year is a long time, people change…but would Gray really turn his back on everything he believes in, can magic really do that, magic made me human so, can it make a human evil too?
"Don't worry." Natsu said putting a hand on Lucy's head "Gray's still our friend, I'm sure of it."
The closer we drew to the Avatar base, the more the forest started to die, the leaves disappeared and soon only the roots and hollowed out trunks of long dead wood remained.
"I think that's it." Natsu said pointing at a stone church like building.
"Great, church." I sighed "My favorite place."
"It looks old and abandoned." Lucy observed.
"So what's the plan?" Kage asked squatting down.
"Attack them of course." Natsu smirked.
"So the usual Fairy Tail way." Laki said brushing her hair behind her ear "Just bust in and show no mercy."
"CHARGE!" Natsu yelled.
"Hold it!" Lucy said grabbing him.
"YOW!"
"We don't even know what we're getting into." Lucy scolded "We can't just barge in there."
"But Gray might be in there." Natsu said.
"And that is why we need a plan." Lucy told him.
"Fine."
"Good, we can get in with Virgo's help." Lucy smiled taking out a key "Virgo!"
A puff of smoke appeared and then Virgo was there, tied up on the ground.
"What the heck?!" Lucy yelled.
"Looks fun." Laki snickered.
"Who did this to you?" Lucy asked "Are you okay?"
"Don't mind me." Virgo sighed "I was punishing myself during my free time."
"What is wrong with you." Lucy grumbled untying the girl.
"It's nice to see all of you again." Virgo bowed.
"Alright, let's get in." Lucy smiled "Star Dress: Virgo!"
Lucy's clothes changed into a maid like outfit.
"Big sis is so cool." I giggled.
"She transformed." Kage hummed.
"Let's go Virgo!" Lucy cheered.
"Yes Princess!"
Lucy and Virgo kicked the ground and a tunnel started to form, the two of them took the lead and burrowed a way into the enemy base.
"We're here." Lucy said.
"Move your butt!" Natsu snapped.
"Hey you can see Lucy's undies from down here." Happy commented.
"Don't you dare look!" Lucy cried "Just get up here so we can find Gray."
"Let's keep out of sight." Kage said pulling Laki out of the hole.
"I KNOW YOU'RE IN HERE GRAY!"
"GAH!" we all planted in shock.
"You idiot!" I yelled "Sneaky remember?!"
"He's here." Natsu said "I can smell him."
"Gray is here?" we all hushed up.
"What are you doing in our base?" a voice said.
I looked up and saw a small man, he had face make up on and some sort of turban.
"Is this fun for you?" he asked holding a little doll.
"That doll…" Lucy squinted to focus.
"Mr. Cursy!" Happy cried.
What are they talking about?
"Oh you know this?" the man asked "This doll was a gift from someone in Grimoire Heart. This world really has a lot of fascinating Black Magic."
"Use caution." Virgo said "he's not to be trifled with."
"Gimme that."
The man's shadow rippled and pulled itself off the floor.
"Huh?"
"Shadow Clone." Kage smiled.
The black specter slammed its hand down and punched the tiny man into the dirt.
"This is a waste we need Gray not this chump." Kage said returning the man's shadow.
"Abel!"
A bald man with a unibrow ran in.
"More are coming." Laki said "We need to do something now."
The man waved his arm and started shooting torture devices at us.
"Wood-Make: Banish the Heretic!"
Laki lifted her hands and parted the devices like a sea, only the metal ones kept moving.
"Wood-Make: Edge of the Forest!"
Three large wooden beams grew from the floor and blocked the attack. The man snapped his fingers and a trap appeared around her.
"Hmm?" Laki looked at the crude metal casket.
"Laki Look out!"
"An Iron Maiden." She sighed.
The trap slammed shut on the girl.
"LAKI!"
"Good try." She said walking out from behind the device "but you snagged the wrong person."
"huh?"
The maiden turned red and started to melt.
"Haha."
"She switched places with Natsu?!" I observed.
"Doppelganger." She smiled "I had a dummy, Natsu was just helping me out by standing behind it."
"RAHH!" Natsu charged forward and drilled the man with a powerful punch.
"HA!" I looked up, a man in a heavy suit of armor jumped towards us.
"The Number Two."
I waved my hand and made a plant appear "Rebound Stalk!"
I brought up a long twig that sprouted a disc that bounced the man away.
They don't seem as tough as I thought they'd be.
"Impossible, all our strong wizards." The man with the unibrow said.
"Shut up." A familiar voice said from the top of the stairs "I'll deal with this myself."
"Yo." Natsu said looking at Gray at the top of the stairs "How's it going?"
Natsu ran up the stairs and he and Gray started fighting without missing a beat.
"Figures." I half laughed half sighed "Those two picked up right where they left off."
"If it ain't broke don't fix it." Kage shrugged.
"It's kinda nostalgic." Laki giggled.
"No, they should both knock it off!" Lucy yelled.
"What are you doing here?!" Gray yelled.
"I could ask you the same!" Natsu said.
"I'm just doing what I want!"
"Well Juvia's still waiting!" Natsu yelled "And I'm waiting, we need you, to bring back Fairy Tail!"
Gray blasted Natsu back with ice.
"This is stupid." He grumbled.
Gray let off a huge blast of ice "Fairy Tail is gone!"
"That's what everyone says!" Natsu said charging forward "But the memories are still there, and so are all the other things we shared."
"Fairy Tail is right here." Natsu said pounding his chest "Where it always was."
Damn he really does care…now I feel like I was being a little hard on him.
"If it's that easy then you don't need me." Gray glared "You go your way, and I'll go mine."
"Gray…"
"Fairy Tail is my past, drop the friendship act."
"Hmph." Lucy just walked up to him.
*SMACK*
And slapped him in the face.
"Act." she hissed "It wasn't some act! We are friends! Don't say things like that, I don't want to hear it! I…ugh…"
"Lucy?" I asked.
"AHH!" Lucy grabbed her stomach and fell to the floor.
"LUCY?!" I yelled running over.
"My…stomach…" she cried.
"Mary…" Gray grumbled looking over his shoulder.
"Who are you people, are you Gray's friends from before?" a girl with dark pink hair asked "The ones from that dumb guild that doesn't exist anymore?"
"What did you do?" I growled transforming into my armor.
"Binding Chains!"
Suddenly all of us where getting shackled with magic inhibiting chains.
"What the-!"
"Does this hurt?" the girl asked getting close to Lucy "My magic is painful isn't it."
"Gray!" Natsu tried to get up and charge him but stopped when another man came in and threatened Lucy.
"That's enough." The man with curly blonde hair said pointing an extremely long sword at her.
"This is what you get for getting involved in someone else's business." Gray explained.
"Dammit we can't do anything." I mumbled "Big sis is in danger and I'm stuck here."
"Wake up!" Natsu snapped "You're possessed by some demon!"
"I'm perfectly fine." Gray responded.
Gray took his shirt off, the right side of his chest was covered with those black marks, and his guild mark was covered up by the one of this Dark Guild.
"He erased his guild mark." Happy said.
Unable to do anything we were all dragged off to a jailcell and locked away.
"Well this sucks." Kage sighed.
"I prefer my handcuffs stick to the bedroom." Laki laughed trying to brighten the mood a bit.
"Are you feeling better Sister?" I asked.
"I'm alright." She smiled "Thanks for asking."
"Stupid Gray." Natsu grumbled.
"Something must be wrong with Gray." Lucy said "He would never act this way."
"Well he sure seemed convincing." Kage sighed.
"Shush, someone's coming." Laki warned.
It was that bald guy with the unibrow, he walked by the cell and bowed to no one.
"Where is Gray!" Natsu roared throwing himself against the bars of the cell.
"Everyone else left." The man explained "They left to prepare for the purification ritual, I am here to get information from you, with force."
"Oh~" Kage stood up "Big guy's gonna threaten us."
"Purification?" I said confused.
"Purification of the soul, only obtainable through death." The man said "death that will draw Zeref closer to us."
"Don't involve Gray in such things." Lucy glared.
"…" the man just stared at her "So you noticed."
"Huh?"
"I'm cosplaying as Lord Zeref." He said "I even got his name tattooed on my forehead."
"That doesn't say Zeref." We all sighed.
"Silence girl!"
The man lifted a finger and Lucy's chains swung up and connected to the ceiling.
"Sister!" I yelled "let her go!"
Suddenly all of us where thrown back and chained against the wall.
"Lucy!"
The man wheeled in a cart with a flurry of torture instruments.
"I have chains, whips, watering, roping, even licking…what should a start with." The man said bowing.
"Touch her and die creep!" I yelled "And stop bowing at no one!"
The man decided he was going to start by having a goat lick Lucy's foot, he was already pulling her stockings off.
"Let me go!" she cried before the man put a cloth in her mouth "HMPH!"
"Now tell me who sent you here, before this girl enters a hellish pain."
"We told you." Kage growled "We came here to get Gray."
"Gray is our comrade now." The man responded.
"That's a lie." Natsu hissed "He's our friend. Even if he doesn't believe in himself, we still believe in him!"
"Silence!"
"AHH!" Lucy yelled.
The ropes holding her all started to get pulled in a different direction.
"She's gonna get ripped in half!" I cried.
"I'll just cut her in two!" the man yelled picking up an axe "Let's see if you still believe in Gray after this.
"LUCY!"
The man stopped mid motion as his whole body was covered with ice.
"What…"
"Gray!"
The chains holding all of us to the wall fizzled away and we were released.
"Sis." I ran over to Lucy's side and pulled the cloth out of her mouth "Are you alright?"
"Dammit." Gray sighed running his hand through his hair "All that work and you mess it up in like five minutes."
Somewhere else.
"Kanji could you get the phone!" Erza yelled.
"Huh?" I mumbled rolling around on the couch "Where is it?"
"Never mind." She said walking passed and picking up the receiver "Yes hello?"
"Uh huh…I see…did you."
"Who is it?" I asked.
"Be quiet." She whispered "Yes…put him on."
Erza paused for a moment "Hello…is that you? You've certainly gone and caused some problems, one moment."
Erza placed the phone down and ran upstairs.
"Gray is having a problem I need to run out." She said hurrying back down the stairs "Watch Ellie while I'm gone."
"Oh sure." I said as she placed our daughter on my chest.
"Hey~" I smiled at the little girl; I ruffled her wispy red hair.
"I'll be back soon." Erza said.
"Stay safe." I called out.
Erza left and I was alone in the house with my daughter and Scruff.
"Look at your Mama, leaving the two of us alone, she never lets me go out." I pouted at the sleepy child "She's worried I might get hurt…not that I blame her, I'm so tired."
I rubbed the girl's back "I'm just…so tired…I can't just sit here though…"
I picked the sleeping child up and placed her in her crib.
"Daddy's going out, don't wake up while I'm gone got it."
She just mumbled in her sleep.
I wish I could do that…just sleep…
"Maybe an old-fashioned fight will tire me out."
AN
Thank you for reading. Feedback is appreciated. Feel free to message me any questions or concerns.
Till Next Time!