Disclaimer: I do not own Fairy Tail or Fate Stay Night, any resemblance to any other Fairy Tail or Fate Stay Night fan fiction is coincidental and plagiarism is not intended. No flames please, constructive criticism only.
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The tension was in the air was thick. Lucy glaring down at Wendy, who Erza realised was holding a pair of very familiar swords. Kanshou and Bakuya. The pair of blades wielded by only two people Erza knew of.
"Archer?" She guessed.
However before she could receive an answer, Wendy, crossed the blades as a shield, a continuous green beam came from an open portal over Lucy's shoulder. She held her ground but was slowly being pushed back, finally there was a loud metallic crack. The cracking sound continued until both swords shattered like glass forcing Wendy to dodge to the side as the green beam stopped.
A flash of blue light and Kanshou and Bakuya were in her hands again.
"No, it's Shirou." She greeted Erza with a smile. "It's good to see you again Saber."
"A-Watch out!" Erza cried jumping in front of her and using her sword to deflect a green bolt from the portal. "That's enough, we have a job to do, let your grudge go we have more important things to deal with now, we must stop Nirvana."
"Nothing is more important than the humiliation I received at the hands of this fraud!" Lucy yelled angrily, more portals opening behind her. "But it won't go like last time, I don't have the mud which made my body, clogging my mind this time. I've changed my tactics, I won't be showing you anything you can copy this time!"
More portals opened, and a rain of magical bolts fired from them. Shirou moved, quickly dodging and weaving to avoid being hit.
"I AM THE ORIGINAL, THE FIRST HERO EVER, OBSERVATION OF THIS HIGH CALIBUR FOR ME IS SIMPLE!" Lucy bellowed angrily as Shirou suddenly tossed Bakuya only for it to be destroyed by a powerful magical bolt before it could get close. "I can see that what your 'projection' is doing to that girl's body."
Shirou growled but moved to of the way of a hail of magical bolts.
"You can't trace my magical guns as long as they remain in within my treasury and fire out of it." The bolts chased Shirou as she ran, even doing flips and jumps as the rain of bolts followed her, changing directions as the portals swung to keep facing her.
"You didn't reincarnate, properly did you?" Lucy growled as her shots obliterated a tree which Shirou had darted behind. "Your soul went into that girl's body after she had already been born, that's why her body isn't like ours, why you need that transformation."
Magical bolts shredded the ground as Shirou made a charge at Lucy, only to be cut off by portals appearing in front of her.
"You didn't seriously think thousand-year-old trick that would work did you?" Lucy asked with a smirk "I invented that trick, you'll have to do a lot better than that if you want to beat me this time Faker!"
"Faker, what does she mean by that?" Gray asked walking to Erza's side and looking at the scene.
"And more importantly, what's going on here?" Natsu asked confused as he came up to her other side. "Why did Wendy transform, and why is Lucy pissed at her?"
"Wendy is like Lucy, Lahar and me, a reincarnate, named Shirou Emiya." Erza explained "The transformation may have something to do with their current situation. As to why she hates her, well that's two-fold. Firstly, Shirou defeated her in battle, in a past life, second, she did it by copying Lucy's weapons, fakes. It's her magical power, to be able to copy and reproduce any weapon at will as long she's seen it once."
"Yup, that sounds like it would piss her off." Gray let out a sigh. "But what now, you can't just let this go on, we have a job to do and The Oracion Seis have started to awaken Nirvana!"
"Yes, we do." Erza nodded before charged into the fray.
Shirou kept running but she was getting tired. She abruptly stopped as thirty portals opened in front of her. They fired. But instead of being hit by the magical bolts a blur appeared, there was a burst of magic power and they were all deflected.
"Lucy that's enough," Erza said commanding, holding her invisible sword in front of her. "We have a job to do."
"Tch!" Lucy clicked her tongue and surprisingly, conceded, and closed the Gate of Babylon. "This is pointless anyway, you aren't able to make your fakes properly, they're hollow, like glass. You're projecting them, not bringing them from your Reality Marble. Crushing you now would be pointless, revenge wouldn't be satisfying unless you are at your best and the only solution for the problem you have is for you and that annoying Archer to confront each other again."
"Archer?" Shirou repeated with surprise. "He's here?"
"Do what you wish, but know this, if you don't confront our counterpart then you will kill that little girl you are inhabiting," Lucy told him before her shoes chanted to a pair of boots. "I'm going on ahead, you fools will just slow me down."
With that, Lucy jumped leaping high into the air and jumping off into the ocean of trees in the direction of the pillar of light, eventually leaving sight.
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"So Sa-Erza, whats up with her?" Shirou asked after a few seconds of silence "Has she decided to just get along be friends or something?"
"Friend is a strong word," Erza replied reluctantly.
"Yeah, too strong," Gray mumbled.
"I'd say her relationship with most people in this world, is the same between a spoiled child and a new puppy dog. She'll be kind as long it keeps her amused." Erza stated.
"So she can be trusted?"
"I'll set her straight if I have too," Erza said reassuringly.
"Enough!" A Carla shrieked flying over to Shirou and smacking her on the head. "You've done quite enough, get rid of those swords this instant!"
"Sorry." Shirou apologised dismissing Kanshou and Bakuya.
"She mentioned a problem, something to do with your Reality Marble, what did she mean?" Erza asked.
"What Gilgamesh…Lucy said was true. Eerily so." Shirou said with a sigh. "When I reincarnated, Wendy's soul was already in her body, she was only five years old when I came along. When Grandeeney the Sky Dragon and Wendy's mother realised what happened, she placed a seal on me. One which Carla currently holds the key too. I wasn't released until after Wendy hatched Carla and she got the key to seal. But when I was free there was a problem. A big one."
"What is the problem?" Jura inquired.
"Imagine there are two paths when it comes to projection, the left path is the manual way of doing it all myself. The right path is drawing the weapons from the Blade Works where they're ready and waiting, the problem I have is that instinctively I take one step down the Right path whenever I try to project before correcting myself and going down the left path, and all of those 'one steps' start to add up. So unless I solve the problem, the Blade Works will infest Wendy's body and kill her." Shirou told them sadly.
"Oh man," Natsu said looking at the ground.
"And there's no way to fix this?" Gray asked.
"Well, I didn't think there was one, so if Gil….Lucy is telling the truth, then there's no way to stop this other than to fight that cynical asshole-OW!" Shirou rubbed her head as Carla gave her a smack.
"I don't need Wendy picking up your coarse language." Carla admonished her with a glare.
"If Archer is here, then he's keeping a low profile," Erza told them. "I haven't heard anything about a red reincarnate using a bow and swords."
"The Council keeps track of reincarnates, or tries too anyway," Lahar spoke up. "The last bow using reincarnate according to Council records, before me, was a woman named Atalanta, she died about a hundred years ago."
Suddenly a massive tremor shook the entire forest sending nearly all of them to their knees. The pillar of light had grown and now the smaller dark pillars were gone leaving the remaining larger pillar a pure white colour.
"We need to hurry this up." Gray yelled urgently "Our time is running out."
"You're not going anywhere flies!" A familiar voice yelled down at the group.
Floating in the air was Erigor, who'd avoided being arrested along with the rest of his guild. In the trees below him, standing on the branches were numerous dark wizards with different guild marks. There were over a dozen that they could see, along with more than fifty shadows waiting in the forest behind them.
"Erigor of Eisenwald." Lahar glared at him. "You ran away like a coward leaving your guildmates to be arrested after you were beaten black and blue by Natsu Dragneel."
"It was a tactical retreat! I live to fight another day while those other morons are rotting cells." Erigor growled.
"These must be the subordinate guild to the Oracion Seis," Hibiki commented looking around and at the wizards who had surrounded them.
"They don't look so tough." Lyon commented, "This should be quick."
"Hey, boss!" A bald monkey looking wizard yelled pointing at Shirou. "She's the one, she ruined the robbery at the merchant guild!"
"That little girl is the reason we had to waste all that cash to bust you morons out of jail!" Another monkey looking wizard with an afro asked incredulously. "You're even more pathetic than I thought."
"We'll smash her and beat him more later." Another one with long, fluffy, albeit, spiky hair and no eyebrows said. "We'll smash her and beat him-."
"I heard you the first time!" The one with the afro interrupted.
"Is this really all of them?" Sherry wondered.
"There was one more but they tried to kidnap the ladies of the Heartfilia Manor several years ago," Lahar told them "Three guesses what happened to them."
"Yeesh, I almost feel sorry for them," Sherry said shaking her head.
"Apparently it took months to get all the blood stains off the carpet and walls." Lahar commented.
"Gah times wastin, we need to beat up those Seis cowards…..SO GET OUT OF OUR WAY!" Natsu bellowed igniting a flaming fist and jumping at Erigor
"FIND ANOTHER WAY, FLY!" Erigor roared furiously, as he charged at Natsu his wind magic and scythe both ready.
"LET'S KILL THESE PUNKS!" one of the other wizards yelled.
"YEAH!" The crowd of dark wizards cheered.
Different types of magic ignited, both in the hands of the wizards in view and the ones who were concealed by the trees.
"What will we do about Racer?" Lyon asked remembered the unconscious defeated
"They might try to free him," Ren said. "To try and curry favour with the Seis."
"Worry not," Jura put his hands together and a dome of earth encompassed the paralysed wizard.
"That should hold him until my reinforcements from the Rune Knights come and detain him," Lahar told them.
"Good, then that means we can focus on these fools!" Erza cried preparing her invisible sword.
"They're underestimating us!" One wizard said.
"You'll pay for that you light guild trash!" Another yelled indignantly.
"LET'S GET EM!" With that, the Dark Wizards charged, and the battle began.
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Meanwhile, in the Cavern which contained the hiding place where Nirvana was sealed, things were tense.
"OW YOU BITCH!" Cobra cried out.
Mostly anyway.
"Shut up already, you're pretty lucky," Angel told him.
She was in the process of attaching a magical prosthetic arm to replace Cobra's lost one.
"I lost my arm, how is that lucky!" Cobra demanded furiously the pain shooting into him from where Angel was 'operating'.
"Well first one it was the same arm that I lost and it was about the same amount of arm too, Second..." She jabbed one of the sharp instruments into the socket which would attach the limb to the stump causing him to wince again. "…I have spares and Third your arm was Cauterized!"
She jabbed the instrument in again with a grin on her face causing Cobra cry out once more.
"YOU SADISTIC BITCH YOU THINK I CAN'T TELL THAT YOU'RE DOING THIS ON PURPOSE!" Cobra yelled at her with a glare.
"Well, you heard that, so you can also hear that I can make this much worse for you." Angel chuckled. "So either sit still and stop being a baby or I make it worse, what's it to be?"
Cobra gulped and ultimately chose to back down. He knew she wasn't lying, she would make it worse than it needed to be, plus she was the only one outside of kidnapping an expert, who could do this quickly and efficiently. She'd had her own prosthetic for years now.
"I hate you." He grumbled looking away from her.
"Aw, I love you too." She mocked, jabbing the tool one more time before putting it down and grabbing the spare arm. "There done, now we just need to attach this and you'll be good to go."
"Hey, why's it so bland, yours has cool features?" Cobra complained as he saw how bland looking it was.
"This one is still top of the line, why do you think I bought it and the spares?" Angel replied as she began attaching the arm. "It's light, durable and can change itself to match your skin colour and muscle size so it doesn't look out of place, but it's not indestructible so don't get too rough with it."
"Wait, you just said it was durable, how durable!" Cobra demanded to know.
He was frustrated, Angel had long learnt how to keep information from him. So he could only hear her when she wanted to be heard. So now he was left hanging, wondering how much this arm could take. His combat style required far from hand to hand than hers usually did, so how much before the thing broke on its own.
"As for my arm, I learnt how to make those special modifications myself and did them myself." Angel told him "Why would I waste such cool stuff on you?"
"Your arm, you lost it along with those losers you took along years ago when you tried to steal the Golden Gate keys from the Heartfilia manor right?" Cobra said trying to goad her. "That one woman beat you without even laying finger on you, you ran and then lost your arm to that girl."
"Shut up!" Angel yelled angrily before shivering as the memory of that time surfaced. "You wouldn't understand, how could you? You never were in her presence, Layla Heartfilia was a monster, not a human being. The world is better off now that monster is dead trust me."
"You had nightmares for years after that," Cobra pointed out receiving a glare.
"I still have them now and then." Angel shivered as the memories came back to her
"Hey, I've come for your Gate Keys, hand them over or else." Her younger self-had demanded a dagger in hand as soon as she passed through the doors and found the woman she was looking for.
Having gotten deeper into the manor she had found Layla. The men she had brought were looking for the girl, the deal was they would get the ransom money and Angel would get the Gate Keys.
The Tall blond woman, wearing a greenish robe of some sort, simply turned to face her. The moonlight shrouded her face, but a gentle smile could still be seen on her lips.
"Hey didn't you hear me?" Angel yelled holding up the dagger threateningly "I said-huh?" She felt something strange and saw that the dagger in her hand had crumbled to dust, not shattered into small shards, but turned to dust outright. "W-wha- agh!"
Angel fell onto her backside as something pressed down on her. The air felt like it had turned to jelly, she could breathe, she was drowning, she was choking...It was an overbearing weight like the whole world was pressing down on her.
Looking up Angel knew the woman was the cause of this. It was frightening, this wasn't a woman. This was a demon, a monster. She began losing control, her bladder emptied itself but she didn't care.
Somehow, she gathered the air her lungs to get a word out.
"M-MONSTER!" She blubbered, her eyes filled with tears born out of pure terror.
Then, it stopped. The presence was gone. Angel thought she heard a gasp. But she didn't care. She took the opportunity and scrambled to her feet and bolt out of the door as fast as she could.
As ran down the long hallway, letting out fearful sobs as she did so. She heard a clacking of heels against the marble floor echoing from behind her, slow and calm like there was no hurry.
For Angel, this made the whole ordeal even more terrifying. It was like she was in a horror movie and the slow-moving monster was coming for her. A monster tgar would find her no matter where she went. This motivated her to run faster, and consequently sob harder.
Eventually, she burst through a pair doors that were at the end of the hallway. Inside the room was a scene of carnage that would frighten most grown men. The dark wizards she'd brought were all dead, shredded to meat, or impaled by various weapons. But Angel didn't care, she was far more terrified of the monster chasing her. She spotted a window and ran for it, going past the untouched girl near her age, standing in the centre of the carnage.
She quickly opened the window and began climbing out of it. The ground wasn't that far. She could make it and sprint away without any serious injuries. There was a boom, like a cannon being fired. Angel looked up as she heard something swishing through the air. As she did, an axe sliced the single arm holding her to the window ledge. She fell onto the grass below and screamed out as blood gushed from the open wound, colouring the grass a shade of crimson.
Thinking fast, Angel pressed her remaining hand to the wound, in order to try and stem the bleeding. She then quickly ran as fast as she could away from there. Never once looking back.
Angel shook her head, shivering as she tried to get the horrible memory out of her mind and think of something else, anything else. Thankfully a distraction came in the form of a metallic sigh.
She and Cobra watched Jellal kneeling in front of Cosmos who was sitting against a wall. She wasn't tied up, there was no need to with the poison running through her. Jellal tried to talk to her but she was remaining silent and refused to speak. Her pink bangs covered her eyes, shadowing them.
Jellal stood up and walked away disappointed. But as he made his way back to the entrance he stopped and shot Cobra a glare.
"Hey take it easy, my poison doesn't stop her from talking." Cobra told him, putting his hands up as a calming gesture "She's probably giving you the silent treatment cause she's pissed that you're working with the bad guys again. She's a knight or something right?"
He received an angry growl in return.
'More likely she's being affected by Nirvana.' Cobra thought to himself 'When we first had her, she was such a cry-baby I could hear it even when she wasn't crying openly, but now she's dead silent I can't even hear her what she's thinking. It's gotta Nirvana's power affecting her. The magic that flips darkness and light, alignment flips happens more now that Nirvana is in stage two. It won't be long.'
There was a loud bang and puff of air as Jellal tried to punch a wall but instead of dust, a cloud of spores covered him and Cobra. Both men coughed as the spores dissipated settling upon them.
Angel snickered at their misfortune as she remained out of range of the spores. She couldn't help but idly wonder if there had always been mushrooms hidden in this cave but dismissed it.
Jellal stormed out, as he did so none of them noticed, the small smile creeping upon Cosmos face.
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As he got out of the cave and into the daylight Jellal let his armour fade away so he could feel the fresh air. Blighting the site was the large white pillar which represented Nirvana's second stage.
"Nirvana's second stage is almost complete." Jellal looked at Hoteye who had spoken, he had a strangely gentle tone to his voice "I can't help but wonder about Nirvana's exact mechanics, we're told it turned light into darkness and vice versa but what does that mean? Does it simply flip people's personalities? If so then did the Nirvits who created it truly care about what was left in their wake?"
"From what I understand, it changes their alignment rather than reversing their personality." Jellal replied, "It does this by tampering with emotions, possibly by affecting the heart."
"Hmmm….if that's the case, and they used it to change all the darkness into light, then where is the balance?" Hoteye asked "magic like this requires balance, for every action, there has to be an equal and opposite reaction. The Nirvits would have used Nirvana to end wars, to do that they would have to change people to light. But if that's the case just who were they turning to darkness to balance it out?"
"I think if we knew that, then we'd know how and why the Nirvits are gone," Jellal replied.
Suddenly, the pillar changed shooting upwards with more intensity and the ground beneath began shaking fiercely.
"Shit!" Jellal ran back into the cave.
"What's happening?" Hoteye wondered before looking down at the ground with eyes. When he used his magic, he saw something massive coming up from under the ground. It hadn't been there before. "Is this….Nirvana?"
It was then that Cobra, Angel, Midnight and Brain came out of the cave. The latter had an eyepatch covering his now missing eye.
"I can hear it."
"At last our hour of glory is now at hand." Brain yelled throwing his hands up into the air "NOW NIRVANA REVEAL YOUR TRUE FACE!"
"Yeah, I hear it!" Cobra yelled as the beam of light became even bigger. "The sound of the future. OF LIGHT CRASHING TO THE GROUND!"
The shaking intensified and the ground split open beneath them all. Jellal just barely made it out of the cave with Cosmos on his back, as it collapsed. Then dust and debris kicked up as they all rose into the sky.
When their vision finally cleared they atop a ruined palace looking out at an ancient city below them which stood upon six massive stone tendrils as legs, which were covered in moss and plant life.
"At long last, I have obtained it!" Brain shouted at the top of his lungs, the Seis behind him "The ultimate weapon which extinguishes light! The legendary reversal magic, Nirvana! Those pathetic light guilds will cling to their piety, but now such things will lose all meaning!"
"Erik!" Jellal grabbed the wizard by his collar and held him up. "Where is the antidote, tell me now or I'll start breaking bones!"
"Relax," Erik told him, as Cubellios appeared behind him. "I had Cubellios hide it, it's in a little house near the edge right over there." Cobra pointed to a small building on the very edge of the ancient city. "Better hurry and get it, this place is a crumbling ruin, when Nirvana starts moving never know what debris might fal and crush it, or maybe the house 'll just fall off Nirvana completely."
Jellal growled and dropped Cobra roughly before setting Cosmos down gently.
"I promise I'll be back with that antidote" Jellal vowed before materialising his armour. Cosmos did not answer him, remaining silent. "If anything happens to her, you'll regret it." With that threat Jellal stomped over some moss, towards the edge, crushing another mushroom and becoming covered in more spores as he did so.
Then with all of his superhuman agility, he jumped off running and jumping in the direction that Cobra had indicated.
Unseen, Cosmos smile grew just a little bit more.
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AN: It took two months, I'm not satisfied with this chapter, I spent those two months both distracted by video games and trying to find a way for Lucy not to kill Shirou. The way I reason it, Lucy is Gilgamesh from the Fate Route and not the UBW route where Shirou defeated her one on one. She merely observed that route thanks to Sha Nagba Imuru. So this my reasoning, Lucy wants her pride back for being beaten, but can only do that by beating Shirou at her best. Which means waiting for her to be able to use the Blade Works again. Plus this is secondary to winning Saber/Erza's heart.