Dear Readers,
Sorry for the delay, but honestly, I gotta say... I'm finally excited for my plans for this whole thing. Seriously.
I hope you like the twists and turns we've got in store for you.
I love you all for sticking around to read for so long. It is so many words, after all...
Disclaimer: Hiro Mashima owns Fairy Tail, Desna owns the Pradesh characters. My beta, GoddessxNyte2 is an angel sent from above to stop these characters from falling victim to my imagination. Try as she might, she only kind of succeeds...
Enjoy!
Lucy thought it would end when she'd broken his hand. She truly hadn't meant to do that, it had just kind of… happened. She wanted payback, sure, but she usually went for funny and terrifying over actual violence. He was just so handsy…
She'd been mid-slow-motion approach (a technique of terror she'd learned from the mighty Titania herself), and he void jumped behind her again and gripped her waist. It wasn't entirely… unwelcome, Vander was hot as hell and flirty to boot, but… it had been a reaction. And he wasn't exactly the Pradesh she'd been eyeing of late, anyway. And, really, he should have known not to startle her mid-payback.
She'd felt so badly about it that she kissed it, literally kissed his hand after crushing it in her grip (she'd never been able to do that before), as if he was six and she was his mommy trying to make it feel better. She would have begged Cris to help him, but when he'd said something about a MILF, she decided he wasn't in dire need for medical attention.
Cris, protective kin that he was, was inclined to agree. Van was kin too, but even his inner dragon recognized Vanders occasional need to be put in his place. Or his frequent need… that was more accurate.
All said, she had imagined that the shadowquip had learned his lesson. And now she was realizing that she wasn't sure why she would have ever thought so. His siblings had been dealing with it for years and it was seemingly never ending. Secretly, she'd found his playfulness endearing.
It was much less so when she was covered, head to toe, in gitter.
'Virgo, Cancer, I think I need you.'
And so the first official Pradesh/Heartfilia Prank war began. Vander would find himself in over his head quickly, she would make sure of that.
After all, she - along with all her spirits - was a veteran. Years worth of inter-guild prank wars, internal guild prank wars, and Team Natsu/Crime Sorciere prank wars (those were… excessive, by anyone's standards) had prepared her for this moment, and she'd be damned if she didn't put that experience to good use.
So she'd plan. She'd bide her time, but she'd plan, and when he'd finally dropped his guard, he would understand why she'd always been declared winner. In every single conflict she'd been involved in.
Lucy found herself, a few hours later, glitter free. Virgo was a godsend, really - or spirit-king-send, as it were.
The prank war was put on hold in her mind (though the plotting never ceased) so she could focus on the matter at hand: Fallen Star.
'Fucking stupid ass name…'
'Princess… are you ever going to get over that?' Ophiuchus asked her through the bond.
She sent a vehement, 'No,' through the bond before focusing on the mages around her.
Cris, Emzadi, Erik, and Natsu stood on her either side. She felt a little bit like she had a dragon posse as she noticed this, and tried to stifle her giggles at the image. She failed miserably at withholding them when Kaleb took notice, and sent his own take on what her dragon posse should be into her already croweded mind (it was, literally, all four of them in fucking dragon costumes, with Wendy flying over them in her own… how was she supposed to hold her laughter in at that image?)
Vander, Kaleb, Bickslow, Zen, and Xally were sitting across from them at the other side of the large mahogany dining table. Arman, Freed, and Farron had squeezed themselves at the head of the large table, while Gray, Wendy, and Erza did the same thing on the other side. Evergreen and Jellal had decided the close quarters was too much for them, so they just hovered.
Most every one of them gave her a funny look while she giggled hysterically. Apart from Kaleb (the bastard, this was his fault) and Erik.
"Okay, okay, I'm good," Lucy said, calming down from her previous giggle fit. She found herself laughing more often, and more genuinely, than she had been in the past year. The celestial mage assumed it had a lot to do with the fact that she reconnected with her team, along with several members of her guild family. Not to mention Zen, who was fitting in better than anyone expected, and Kaleb, who had grown more tolerant of her teasing - their mild rivalry seemed to be graduating to a tolerated friendship.
She was, after so long, not alone. She'd had Erik, and her spirits, but… they all knew she craved people, companionship. The relative isolation of being alone or with just a few people, disconnected from the world, had started to affect her.
"Alright. So we're here to discuss the plan on catching the dark guild… Fallen…. Star…," she grumbled the name, but shook her head and continued on, "Location: Unknown. Their last known sighting was four months ago, in Seven. Loke caught sight of one of Fairy Tail's attackers on one of his many misdirection runs," she winked at Kaleb, who rolled his eyes.
Hearing his name, he summoned himself, but Loke didn't say anything. He still remembered the state she was in, in that forest being held down by a wind mage and tortured by Alec Cinder, when he'd been powerless to help her. Now that they were seriously tracking them down? He was all business. He just looked at the group, waiting for more information.
Lucy continued, "Membership is unknown as well. We know Alec Cinder, a powerful Scorch Mage. On par with a weakened Laxus, and a weakened Master Makarov, he's not to be underestimated. In addition to his apparently high power level, he… sacrificed a member of his own guild, his own team, to further his goals - using a type of scorch magic that turned her remaining magic power and life force into a weapon. I think it would be naive to assume he won't do so again, so when we encounter them, we need to have that in mind."
The room nodded, and surprisingly, Natsu spoke up next, "Greasy, that stinky guy that attacked, he was a wind mage. He used mostly physical attacks against me, but if I dodged, most of the time the wind still reached me. Nothing major but if the fight lasted more than a few minutes it could be rough," he admitted with a scowl.
Lucy gave him a smile, "Thanks, Natsu. On that note, his name was Bruno. Not sure of a last name, it wasn't ever mentioned. He also had a decent grasp on transferring magic power with his magic, so if we get into a conflict with him, he should go down first. Even if he's not a huge threat, he could be a problem if he starts feeding stronger mages magic."
"Good point," Kaleb added, "Do you have information on the other two mages? Four was mentioned in the report, but Fairy Tail's record keeping isn't… exactly stellar…"
Lucy's demeanor darkened even as the other Fairies chuckled at the, predictably, poor maintenance of the guild's paperwork, "Yeah," Lucy stated, "Like I said, Alec's a fucking monster. The animal summons mage - she specialized in snakes - is no longer anything we need to deal with. Alec murdered her, turning her body into a magic bomb of sorts."
The celestial mage looked at the table, clenching her fists on her thighs, "Piece of fucking trash, that guy is. On that note, Alec Cinder is mine," she looked pointedly to the large team she'd assembled around her, "No way is that guy going down by any hand but my own."
Zen spoke up, "Lucy… are you sure, we can-"
"No." she stated it firmly, no room for argument, but when she turned her gaze to him her eyes softened, "I appreciate it, I do, and if he's too much for me to handle, I'm not going to stop any of you from coming to help me. But," she unconsciously rubbed at her scar, "I need to at least try."
They all reluctantly agreed, Zen holding out longer even than Lucy's dragon kin, but eventually he accepted the terms as well. He didn't have to like it, but she was capable. And if he just so happened to be near her from the time they found the guild until the time they took them down… well, keeping an eye out isn't the same as interfering.
"The last mage, what do you know of her abilities?"
It was Arman who asked this time, and Lucy's dark move lifted, 'You mean shoeless? She's an earth-make mage. Strong, but no stronger than S-Class, I'd guess, based on the last fight I witnessed."
"Shoeless…?" Gray prompted, earning a chuckle from Kaleb, Cobra, Lucy, and Natsu. Happy would have likely teased in some way, but he was too busy napping in the cushions in the corner of the room.
"Funny you should ask, Stripper. Because she lost her shoes like you do your clothes!"
"What did you just call me?"
"You heard me, Icicle dick."
Gray stood, the dark mark on his side pulsing and growing slightly, "You want to repeat that, you flaming asshole?"
The magic in the air was soon overwhelmed by a much brighter, more suffocating magic. All eyes redirected to Lucy, but she didn't even say anything. She glared at the two quarreling mages, eyes flashing gold.
Natsu, not wanting to spend the next hour as miniature versions of himself, backed down quickly. Though, that may also have been because he was closer to his best friend's evil glare. Gray lasted only a moment longer before he assumed his normal brooding position and sat back down on the chair, shirtless.
Erza looked on proudly.
"Anyway, she's nothing too concerning. I don't have any doubt that anyone of the mages here would be sufficient in taking her down," Lucy continued lightly.
"We can't discount the possibility that each of these mages has grown stronger," Freed added. Next to him, Farron assumed a thoughtful expression before agreeing.
"He's right. You all have grown considerably stronger since Lucy left the guild, or so I've heard. It stands to reason they may have been training as well. It has been over a year, after all. And they'd not made any move to attack in that time, they may have been preparing."
"I don't think so," Vander added, expression serious, "From the memory we all watched, thanks for that, by the way, Bixy-boo, Alec was looking for a way to get around Lucy's involvement in whatever they were looking to accomplish. He may have decided to go ahead and do that, since Stella here managed to hide from everyone. If the zodiac keys are the last piece of the puzzle, they may have just been waiting to get everything else settled before making a real attempt at finding them. The less time they hold the most powerful keys on earthland, the less likely they are to be caught."
"You may have a point, there," Bickslow agreed.
"What memory are you talking about?" Erza asked with a raised eyebrow, "Would it be possible for you to share it with the rest of us, Kaleb?"
Simultaneously, all nine members of the Pradesh Family shouted a firm, "No."
Erza looked confusedly at the rest of the group, but otherwise didn't press the subject. Obviously it wasn't an argument she was likely to win anyway.
Emzadi spoke up, "That's really all we know about their wizards, right?"
Lucy nodded, deep in thought, "Yeah. The only other thing we know at all, is their goal. Or part of it anyway. They want the Zodiacs, plain and simple. Maybe they need me, maybe they don't, but apparently no matter which ritual they try to accomplish, they need the keys."
"Which they can't actually get, they are attached to you now," Zen pointed out, gesturing toward the tattoos on her arms.
Loke scoffed, "They'll just go after her. The gates hold all the magical properties they always have, just anchored to Lucy herself."
"Right," she confirmed, "So now we know this, here's the plan…"
The conversation went much the same for the next few hours, everyone chiming in with information they had, or asking questions they didn't know the answers to.
Lucy slowly noticed that Natsu had become… more mature. If only slightly. In small ways, all of her teammates hat.
Erza's love for Jellal hadn't diminished in the slightest, but her comfort level with him seemed much better. She didn't blush when she caught his gaze, nor did she constantly check to see if he was there like she'd done in the past. He wasn't leaving, and Erza finally realized that.
Gray was… less broody. Still serious, yes, but he no longer seemed held back by his past. His suggestions were confident, and well thought out, and he'd actually spoken aloud with the group far more than Lucy had expected. His clothes still came off, frequently, though, so she was sure it was the same man.
Freed seemed more reserved than she'd remembered, but somehow also less so. A contradiction, for sure, but it made sense to her. He didn't go for the overdramatics quite the way she was used to, but he was more engaged, and his basic emotions were written on his face instead of hidden behind that awful, stoic mask that his former high society life had taught him.
Evergreen was Evergreen, still haughty as ever and confident, but Lucy could see that where the confidence had been a show, a way to make her feel stronger, now it was real. Lucy made a mental note to see if Elfman had been of any influence on her when they got the chance to speak alone again.
When all was said and done and Arman halted the separate side conversations to come to a consensus, they had finally come up with a solid plan of attack. Or well, a plan of "seek" - the "destroy" part would come later, when they actually found them.
Lucy would focus her remote summonings in a few choice locations, instead of all over the map (when Kaleb pulled up the application he'd made on his tablet to track her movements, she'd laughed in his face) to hopefully draw one or both of them out. If they were successful, Emzadi, Cris, or Van would teleport with Lucy, Zen, Natsu, Bickslow, and Freed. Was that team probably overkill? Maybe. But they were taking no chances. Besides, Zen refused to be anywhere other than next to Lucy. Team Natsu had claimed someone from the team had to be involved, and since Natsu would annoying if he was left behind, he took that role. The Thunder Legion also wanted someone there, and Bickslow had claimed that spot rather quickly. When it was brought up that Freed would be helpful in detaining the enemy, Bickslow refused to give up his spot, so they were both going.
If that didn't work, they were putting all of White Sea's resources into finding Fallen Star's location, working with Crime Sorciere and whatever miniscule leads they had to try and track them down. Lucy held back whatever comment she wanted to make about their track record for finding mages recently, only grateful for the help. Unfortunately for Kaleb, he was a bit too in tune with her mind, but when he came across the thought, he only sighed.
If that didn't work, Lucy was going to come out of hiding entirely, Sting, Rogue, and Yukino were going to come clean, and she'd have her name cleared. She very much didn't like this option - not because she wanted to be a criminal - but because it put her family at risk once more. In the end, though, everyone else's opinions outweighed her own, and she'd been forced to agree. It as a little easier to swallow knowing that White Sea pledged their assistance (or Kaleb did) to Fairy Tail should the need arise.
As they didn't have a set timeline for any of this, everyone decided it was time to return to their lives and wait for word. In other words, the Fairies were going home.
Erza, Jellal, Gray, and Evergreen were returning to Fairy Tail, to report to master and Laxus and have the guild on standby. They weren't revealing anything about Lucy to the general members of the guild, there was still a spy somewhere, after all, but they'd make sure everyone stayed alert. Natsu was staying to train with the retrieval/interception team, as were Bickslow and Freed, and Wendy chose to stay to study under Cristoff for a while, as his magic was far more advanced than her own.
As Zen was back and was doing better than they'd expected, many of the siblings were leaving the estate as well. Xally was to return to school, Kaleb had to return to White Sea proper to manage the search efforts, and Vander had to return to missions for the Steel Council as they'd 'requested his presence' just that morning. Farron had duties to attend to, and while Arman had managed to take a sabbatical from his position while he got to know his son once more, Farron had more duties than ever. He did decide to split his time between his own apartment and the estate, though, so he and Zen could spend time together still. Cris and Em were reluctant to leave either of their new kin, and so decided to stay. One of them needed to be around at all times anyway, in case Lucy's spirits encountered the enemy.
All of them, however, insisted on being involved when they stormed the opposing guild if Plans A or B worked, and so all promised to stay relatively close to home so they could be gathered quickly to make a move.
"Well, if that is settled, I believe we must be going now," Erza said sadly, looking at Lucy.
Lucy nodded to her, "It won't be long now, Erza," standing up, she stretched, "I'll make sure of it."
The promise in her eyes made Erza smile, "Indeed."