Alright, now how long has it been since been since I last updated.

… six months. Okay, that's just too long.

Gajeel: Speak for yourself, I get a nice break from your insanity.

Hah, hah. Very funny. Now, why don't we get back to the program.

First I want to thank AnimeGamerGirl23, DeathBloodBass, Potterhead92, Renegade Storm, Pyupyu, jame33333, Gabbhey, Prince Night Tiger, Enuma Elish, and hulkchloron99 for favoriting and following Alternate Tail during the time I was gone. I also want to thank Ray Akaba 210, Professor of Gallifrey, and OneWhoCharms for their reviews. I'm glad all of you enjoyed the fights of the last chapter.

With that out of the way, I do not own Fairy Tail, I barely owe this arc's plot, and let's get started.

Interlude: Ice and Stars

Unbeknownst to the party, they were overheard by a man wearing a cloak. He picked up a red runestone and spoke into it. "Just confirmed that Gray Fullbuster and Lyon Vastia are on their way, Ser. The children of Ur will aid us in our mission."

"This certainly brings back memories," Yuka said as the five walked down the town of Dianthus.

"Your home was similar to this?" Merudy asked, smiling at two kids building a snowman.

"Mostly the case for every town," Sherry explained, waving at a married pair walking pass them.

"The tour can wait for now," Gray interrupted as they stood in front of a grey cold stone-building. "We're here."

"City hall, that's where the meeting is supposed to be," Lyon said. He turned to the others. "You three wait for us out here. We'll be back shortly."

Merudy's eyes narrowed in suspicion. "Is everything alright."

"It's fine, trust me." And with that said, he and Gray open the front door and stepped inside.

"Ah, hello there," greeting the two ice mages was a young male, between Lyon and Gray's physical age, and at a glance, Lyon estimated he was around Natsu's height. He was wearing a black business suit, and had messy sky-blue hair with a bang covering his right eye, leaving only a single hazel eye in clear view. Still, both took notice of his build under the cloth: toned muscles, especially at the legs and arms, that focus on moving fast and hard.

"You must be Lyon Vastia and Gray Fullbuster. Could you close the door, I would rather not have the place freezes over."

"...sure," Gray responded as he pulled the door closed behind him. "Is this necessary mister…"

"Alexis is fine," the man replied.

Lyon took notice of the floor and saw it had a grainy texture. "Nice design. Not something you find this far north"

"It's Sandstone. Quite a rarity around here. Now please, sit," Alexis gestured at a brown sofa sitting across a small desk.

Lyon and Gray looked at each other before getting onto the sofa, while Alexis sat behind the desk.

"So what do you wanna talk about?" Gray bluntly asked.

Alexis only smiled in response, a smile that kept both of them on edge. "I just wanted the chance to speak with the last two students of Ur. She was quite the reputational mage here."

"We're aware," Lyon interrupted with annoyance in his tone. "We trained under her."

"Well, I hope that wasn't all she gave you. After all," the man grinned. "She learned a lot from her master."

"Odd tangent there," both ice mage's slowly got out of their seat.

But unfortunately, Alexis noted their action. "I am aware," he smiled. "After all, it's her old master than makes you important." He suddenly jumped into the air.

"Ice Make-" both maker mages prepared to strike him down with their magic, but before they could, the floor beneath them suddenly dissolved and swallowed them and the sofa, leaving them up by their chest.

"What is this?!" Gray shouted, his attempt to move through the strange fluid feeling like moving through molasses.

"Quicksand!" Lyon yelled back. "Just keep calm, we can swim our way out-"

Alexis then landed on the floating desk and held a hand to the air, causing a long blue lance to appear in its grasp. "Thesaurian: Harden!" He struck the weapon into the quicksand, causing a gray-version of the word "Harden" to appear on it for a second, and the sand-water mix let out a stony crackle as it returned to its normal floor state, but several objects fused in.

"W-what's happening," Lyon gritted out as he felt the hardened sand press against his body, especially his chest. "I can't breathe…"

"Hard to push out your lungs, ain't it," Alexis taunted as he strutted forward, holding the lance's tip to Gray's throat.

"W-what do you want?" the black-haired ice mage demanded through his agony.

"One, two, three, four…" to their surprise, he out a strange chant before answering. "All I want is the artifact. Whatever gift your master Ur gave to either of you."

"W-what do you mean? And what does that have to do with Ur's master…"

"It's because he, Joseph Mcgarden, had something that belongs to my clan," a stone-cold expression coated his face. "And we need it back. The only one who could have it would be one of his students. And since Ur's dead, that leaves you two…"

"Mcgarden," Lyon muttered under his breath before shock steamrolled him. "Levy…"

"She's also a suspect," Alexis taunted. "Now, tell me where it is."

Lyon responded with a frigid expression. "The only thing Ur gave us is our lessons as Maker Mages. We don't have what we're looking for."

"You better not be lying, after all," the strange mage frowned. "Your precious friends' lives might depend on it."

"What do you mean? What are you saying?!"

Alexis turned his lance from Gray to Lyon. ""All I want is your cooperation."

"If you even hurt Merudy-"

"No harm will come to her if you play along. You can even help us bring Levy Mcgarden to us," Alexis then heard a smug chuckle, causing him to turn to Gray. "What is it?"

"Oh nothing," Gray replied. "I'm just enjoying the fact that you just made three mistakes."

The lancer's eyes twitched. "One… two… explain to me."

"First, you threatened Merudy, one of my important people," Lyon spoke up. "Second, you tried to get me to betray Levy, my teammate."

"And third," a smirk crossed his face as the temperature fell several degrees. "You decided to trap two ice mages in a mix of sand and water."

Alexis's eyes widened in horror. "Oh shite-" he leapt back as a bright blue light emanated from the two. He could hear the floor shaking as it shattered like glass from the expanding ice within the sand mixture.

"Thesaurian: Arid!" the red-blazing "Arid" appeared on his lance as he spun in front of him, melting the ice shards and deflecting hardened sand fragments coming towards him. Once the impact stopped, he saw Lyon and Gray were both free and shirtless in a large crater.

"So, do you now understand the mistakes you made?" Lyon asked, a smirk on his face as he brought his two hands forward.

Suddenly the front door sprung open and roared as two Garten grunts with fading Maguilty Blades fell threw, followed by Merudy, Yuka, and Sherry rushing in.

"Thank goodness!" Lyon yelled in delight.

Alexis's eyes twitched as his breathing heaved. "Five… six… dammit…" he pulled out a white runestone from his cloak. "Change of plans, we're leaving." The runestone glowed as he started to break apart into white runes

"Yuka!" Gray yelled.

"On it! Wave!" the Anti-Mage thrust his palm and sent his Wave at the lancer, but the runes simply moved out of the way, letting the attack crack the wall behind them while they vanished.

"I thought you were an Anti-Mage," Lyon questioned.

"Unfortunately, my attack does not matter if it misses," Yuka muttered eyeing at the spot where the two unconscious grunts were.

"We can play the blame game later," Gray interrupted. "You two got bigger problems."

"What are you talking about?" Merudy asked.

"If they were after two indirect legacies of this 'Joseph Mcgarden' guy, then they're going after all of them."

Both Fairies' eyes widened in horrid understanding. "Including Levy."

The three were unaware that a small party of four was watching them behind a newspaper stand. "There's our target, Layla Heartfilia's daughter but she's not alone."

"I read the files on that guy," another said. "He's the Salamander Natsu, former S-Class of Phantom Lord and a heavy hitter at Fairy Tail. Can our shielding even protect us from his senses?"

"What's our plan, mum?"

Their leader, a young woman in her twenties, only made a series of gestures with her hand.

"Wait for the right moment to isolate," her subordinate said. "Understood."

2 hours later

"The train should be arriving soon," Lucy said as she, Natsu, and Happy stepped into the station, having returned from exploring the town.

"About Time," Natsu said as he stuffed spiced meat into his mouth. "Hope there are some good jobs when they get back." He suddenly frowned. "There's not many people."

"That's an understatement," she replied. The entire station was completely empty, neither passenger nor staff were present.

"Maybe they went to town just like we did," Happy suggested

"At the same time, I don't think so."

Suddenly Natsu's nose twitched before he turned around to the sound of footsteps. "I'm guessing they have the answer," Natsu said, glaring at an approaching party of three lead by a chestnut-haired woman

The woman was surprisingly short, just a bit above Levy's height if Lucy was to guess. She wore a short white dress with a dragon marking on the back. Leather combat boots and wrist guards acted as protection. In her hand was a small fiddle and the other was its bow. Her long brown hair was tied into a many-layered knot behind her.

"Who are these guys?" Natsu asked in suspicion

"Can we help you?" Lucy asked, grabbing at her keys.

The woman then started to make a series of signs with her hands, which read "we came for you, Lucy Heartfilia"

"M-me?" Lucy gapped. "Why me?"

"You can understand that?" Natsu asked in disbelief, his eyes squinted in confusion.

"Sign language. I learned the basics years ago," the Celestial Mage explained, before turning to the other woman. "Who are you?"

"My name is Mairi. I want to know what your mother gave you…"

"My mom?" the Celestial Mage became more uneasy. "Just my keys…"

Mairi frowned and made a set of furious signs. "What else did she give you?"

"Nothing, that's it," Lucy argued, moving her hand closer to her whip.

"Why don't you back off already?" Natsu said.

Mairi smiled as she brought her fiddle to her neck. "Then you had made an enemy of Clan Garten."

"Clan what?"

Mairi started to furiously play her fiddle and four glowing musical notes appeared in front of her.

"Is that-" Lucy started to ask, but she, Natsu, and Happy were blasted to the ground by a sonic blast.

"Argh!" Natsu yelled as he gripped his ear. "What was that?!"

"Hang on, Natsu- wow!" Lucy stepped away before Mairi could slice her with her bow.

"Happy!" Natsu shouted.

"Aye Sir!" Happy grabbed him from behind and flew him above the floor.

"Not so easy now, huh? Fire Dragon's Wing Attack!" With two arms coated in flame, he unleashed his fire onto the fiddler.

"Protect her!" The two men that came with Mairi stood in front of her. "Solid Script: Water!" quick writing with their staves let them create two "water" that extinguished the fire.

"Wow!"

"It's just like Levy's magic!' Happy exclaimed.

"Solid Script: Lightning!/Solid Script: Thunder!"

"Pull me, back, Happy!" Natsu yelled as he used his fire to block off the attacks while Happy flew him back.

Mairi watched the fight with dull interest, moving her bow to her fiddle-

SNAP!

To her surprise, the instrument was whipped out of her hand, and the object responsible was pulled back to Lucy's hand.

"Alright, now are you going to explain clearly," Lucy began, pulling tightly on her whip. "Or are we going to do this the hard way?"

The chestnut-haired woman scowled, before raising her bow up like a rapier to her opponent.

"Hard way it is," Lucy grinned, before flicking her whip at her.

But to her surprise, Mairi easily avoided every snap of the leather cord, sneaking past each attack as a fearsome weasel, before slashing down her bow on the whip and cutting off the handle.

"No way!" Lucy exclaimed, quickly pulling her eye from the handle to see Mairi reading to cut her down. In a burst of panic, she raised up her leg and-

"Lucy Kick!"

Mairi's eyeballs almost popped out of their sockets as the kick to her stomach sent her flying back.

Lucy gripped her knees as she caught her breath. "That was too close," she muttered.

"Wow," she stiffened at the high-pitched voice and turned to see Natsu and Happy behind her, the Salamander holding his two unconscious opponents in his hands. "Remind me to never make you mad, Lucy," Happy quipped.

Lucy couldn't fight the flush on her face. "S-shut up."

"Hey, come on," Natsu teased as he tossed the two grunts away. "That was a damn good kick. Still needs some work."

"Really?"

"Hitting their guts is good, but to really knock them out, you gotta aim for the head or the groin."

"Hmm, I'll take note on that."

Mairi glared at the three Fairies who casually talking like she wasn't there , before pulling out a runestone from a requip space and gripping it, causing her and her men to transform into runes. Even her discarded violin broke apart and vanished.

"Alright!" Happy cheered, "we got them on the run!"

"Somethings not right," Lucy muttered. "Why would they leave so sudden-"

BOOM!

She was shaken to their feet by the explosions at the various pillars holding up the station. Looking up she witnessed the ceiling break apart and sending hundreds of pounds of steel and tile crashing down onto them.

'There's not enough time to get out,' she thought as she saw rubble blocking the exit

"Get down!" Natsu yelled as he tackled Lucy and Happy to the ground.d

"Natsu what are you-" she stopped when she realized he was keeping her down while above her.

"Close your eyes, you'll be safe," he grunted as the first batch of debris fell on him.

"Move, Natsu!" Happy yelled.

"Natsu!" that was the last thing she shouted before they were completely buried.

Mairi looked on as the train station collapsed into itself, becoming nothing more than a pile of broken stone and steel.

"It's completely gone," one of the grunts muttered, treating the burns on the arms of another one.

"You think they're dead, Sean?" the other asked.

Sean raised an eyebrow. "Strainseir's like those two, Magguy? They're like cockroaches, impossible to wipe out." He turned his attention to their leader. "What now, mum?"

Mairi returned his gaze and started gesturing. "Return back and report to the Chieftain. She'll direct us to our next target"

"Yes, mum!"

A welcoming warmth hit Lucy in the face as she slowly opened her eyes to see Natsu crouched right above her. "You okay?" He asked, his face looking haunting by the light from the flames on his back.

"Y-yeah, I'm good." Looking around, she saw that they were inside a small catacomb, with the bubble-marked walls reminding her of

"Did you melt all the rubble falling down on us?" she asked

"Mmmm," a bit of movement on her chest revealed Happy was headfirst in his chest.

"It was the only thing I could have done," Natsu stated.

"Well, I'm glad you did," despite the cramped space, she was able to move her hand to reach for her key-pouch. "Still, we won't have enough air at this rate, especially with that fire," she looked through it before finding the one key she was looking for. "I'll have Virgo dig us out, then we can head back to Fairy Tail." 'And hopefully, find out what she's even after.'

Well, that's that.

Lyon: It's a lot shorter than your usual stuff.

Well, that's why it's an interlude. The next one will have a lot more, I promise!

Stay toon for next chapter, where we'll continue from Chapter 5. DigiXBot is out, peace!