Author's Note:
Hello, Hello! And here's the newest chapter! And of course since it's Wednesday, you know what that means! An extra chapter this weekend! (It'll probably be out late on Sunday, because I'm actually going out of town and that's when I get back)
You guys really blew it out of the park with reviews! I can't tell you how happy I am knowing that there are so many people enjoying this story! :D At this rate we might end up posting twice a week on a regular basis!
HUGE warm and toasty thanks to all my reviewers! Big hugs and kisses to my repeat reviewers: valerioux, WisdomDragon27, TheOGFTfanatic, Wolves silver wind, Crystal Kitty842, TheJSmooth, Daisy Shields, Donthedarkdragon26, MiseryWolf97, erzagf, Elphaba818, and pixiecatost! And equally big hugs and kisses to my newest reviewers: Chai-kevlar, clicksqueak, Ksta, Leomae2.0, and Lady La-sara! You are all absolutely amazing and wonderful!
Also, I promised to tell you who I based Horologium on. The guesses were Edward from Fullmetal or Vash from Trigun, both of which are truly excellent guesses! But no, I was actually thinking of Genos from One Punch Man, lol. If you've never seen, then you can always just look up a picture of him to get an idea of what I was thinking of. :D
And of course, stay tuned till the end for a preview of next chapter!
After a while, Natsu and Lucy dragged themselves out of the mud on the riverbank. Partly that was due to the fact that an enormous rumble resonated through the ground…. which was shortly followed by a wave of magic power that sent a blast of wind rushing through the entire forest and then an earthquake.
"I think Nirvana might have just been unsealed…" Lucy groaned, and Natsu nodded in agreement as they clambered up the muddy embankment next to the river.
As they finally made it up to grass level, a new voice sounded faintly over the roar of whatever the hell had just woken up from its century's long sleep.
"Natsuuuu! Luuuuucy! Where are you two? Hey! Luuuuucyyyyy!"
"Happy?! Happy! Down here!" Lucy whipped around and scanned the skies for a blue spot, eventually seeing him in the distance.
He heard her and made a beeline for them, turning into a blurred blue comet. Slamming into her chest, he started bawling his eyes out, and she cuddled him tight to her as well. It seemed he had finally woken up, and Lucy was thankful that he hadn't been hurt too badly.
For a long moment she hugged him, and then when they had both recovered from the separation he scrambled up onto her shoulder.
"What happened? Last thing I remember, I was trying to get Natsu off a raft…" he chirped, sounding chipper and happy as usual once again.
"Well, that fake Gray shot you with some ice and you conked out for a while. Turns out he was actually Gemini, a pair of celestial spirits that can imitate anyone. I kicked their mage's butt though."
"Woah…so why are you guys all the way down here now?"
"The raft came free."
Happy's eyes went wide and he glanced back towards the huge waterfall still visible from where they were sitting. "Oooooh…Ouch."
"Yeah…" Natsu grumbled in agreement, glaring in the same direction. He was probably mad at the raft though, not the waterfall.
Before they could do anymore catching up though, they were interrupted by an even louder roar than before and the ground erupting into much stronger tremors. They all lost their balance and toppled into each other…nearly falling back down the steep shore they'd just climbed up. Lucy screamed as a tree nearly fell on top of them, and Natsu yelled a few choice curse words while they all dodged. With Natsu and Happy's wings, they were able to avoid being squashed and relocated to what appeared to be a slightly safer location – a large meadow where they couldn't be crushed by falling trees or fall into rivers.
Unfortunately…it turned out to be a bad spot nevertheless.
Almost as soon as they landed, another earthquake shook the ground and a horrific crumbling, grinding, crunching sound suggested that the earth beneath them was breaking apart. However – even as they struggled to retain their balance – their attention was firmly located somewhere else. A huge dome was starting to rise up out of the forest, and they watched in horror as it kept rising…and rising…and rising…until it completely left the ground entirely, and they suddenly realized that it wasn't a dome.
The monstrous thing emerged from the earth, looking like some sort of enormous insect as it rose up on the six legs that also peeled their way out of the ground.
It happened so fast that before they realized what was going on, Natsu, Lucy, and Happy all became airborne as one of the legs emerged right underneath them. It was easily wide enough for all three of them to stand abreast, but it was rising slanted and curved, and so they all took to the skies instead. Once again, Happy's wings snapped out and saved Lucy, while Natsu used his own appendages to stay airborne, and they quickly flew upwards as the thing continued to rise. Eventually it ground to a halt, and they hovered in place above it, just staring down at it in shock.
"What the hell is that?!" Natsu said, sounding shocked, but almost eager in a weird way. Then again, he was always eager in the face of a potential adventure or challenge.
"That…is probably Nirvana. Jellal must have failed to destroy it before it was activated."
"Well what are we waiting for?! Let's go kick its big butt!"
"Aye Sir!" Happy said in agreement, though he sounded a little more concerned than Natsu.
Their dragon partner took off, and they had to hurry to catch up. The whole way, Lucy muttered, "How can he be so excited about something like this? I swear…what the hell's wrong with him?"
As they flew in closer to the center, they saw that a huge city sat on top of this monstrosity, and thankfully they could see several of their other companions already making their way there – mostly by running up the legs of the thing. They spied Erza and Jellal on one, Wendy flying through the sky with Carla, Jura on another leg, and Gray on yet another. Ichiya and Hibiki had made it too … but Ren, Eve, Leon, and Sherry were nowhere to be seen. Lucy hoped they were okay.
They met Wendy in the air, probably largely due to the fact that Happy immediately made a beeline for Carla when she was in visual range.
"Hey Wendy. You okay?" Lucy called as they got close enough.
Wendy sent them a very relieved smile as soon as she saw them. "Lucy! Natsu! Happy! I'm so glad you're here…I was just…I…what do we do now?!"
"Well for starters, it looks like some of our other comrades are making their way to the city…so let's go there as well."
"Really?!" the younger girl glanced around, and then followed Lucy's pointing finger to see the others running up the legs of the thing. Abruptly she flushed, apparently embarrassed that she'd missed that little fact. She must have thought she was alone…
"Come on! Let's go!" Natsu exclaimed, already biting at the bit to get going again.
Lucy rolled her eyes and turned a kind smile on the bluenette to hopefully comfort her. "Yeah. Let's go meet up with the others. With all of us, I'm sure we'll be able to figure out what to do."
"Aye!" Happy said, still cutting eyes at Carla and probably not paying much attention to the conversation.
"O-okay…"
They didn't make it very far before they met resistance though.
Suddenly a ball of goop came whizzing at them, and thankfully – with a squeal from Wendy, a yelp from Lucy, and a few curses from Natsu – they all managed to dodge it. Of course as soon as they had finished their evasive maneuvers, they all whipped around to see where the weird projectile had come from and saw Cobra – one of the Oracion Seis – standing on an exceptionally large flying snake.
"What the…is that a dragon?"
Natsu snorted. "That's a wurm, not a dragon."
"A worm?"
"No, a wurm. A kind of flying snake thing. Might as well be a worm though." Natsu laughed, coughing out a little lick of fire in his amusement – and also probably as an intimidation tactic.
"Hey…I heard that." Cobra growled and spat another ball of something at them.
It sizzled as it passed by Lucy's ear, and she smelled the scent of burning hair. "That's stuff's acid or poisonous, you guys! Watch out!"
"Yeah…that's cause I'm a poison dragon slayer…pleased to meet you." Cobra confirmed with an arrogant sneer.
"I got this one. You two go on ahead. I'll be along real quick." Natsu said with a feral grin. It was obvious he was just itching for a fight – probably because he'd been sitting back and watching everyone else fight.
So, Lucy and Wendy flew off down to the big spider machine. They landed moments before an enormous explosion sounded from the direction of the very center of the large city, where a large building sat on a tall dais. That was likely the control tower/building, but apparently Brain – or someone else – had boobytrapped it, and one or more of their comrades had just set it off.
That had been a very big explosion, and after sharing a concerned glance, Lucy and Wendy both ran to investigate.
What they came across was Jura totally wiped out after protecting Ichiya, Hibiki, and Gray from the explosion. Wendy immediately got to work tending to the Wizard Saint's extensive injuries while Lucy checked on the other three. Thankfully they seemed mostly okay.
The control room – or whatever it had been – was completely destroyed. Thankfully, Hibiki said that he'd been able to memorize the information that had previously been portrayed on the walls, and he was already having his archive magic analyze it.
"I think I've got something we can use to destroy this thing you guys…. we just need to-" he was cut off by the sound of an enormous roar – one that hurt their ears even though it was from a distance.
"What the hell was that?!" Gray sputtered when it was done.
"Don't you recognize your sparring buddy?" Lucy snorted, rubbing her sore ears with a slightly sardonic grin.
"That was Natsu?!"
"Yep, no doubt about it. Though that was the loudest I've ever heard him roar like that."
Hibiki just shook his head in amazement and then continued with his previous statement. "Well anyways, as I was saying, I think I've found a way to destroy this thing. My archive magic just finished translating those diagrams that were on the walls, and – lucky us – they described how Nirvana works. The legs are hollow, like straws, and through them it pulls magic power from the earth itself to run. At the end of each leg – where it connects to the body – is a lacrima that absorbs the magic. If we can destroy all six lacrima simultaneously, it will go kaput."
"Why simultaneously?"
"Because if it's not at the same time, the remaining lacrima will just fix the broken one."
"Ah, makes sense."
As soon as he had explained it to them, he used his magic to telepathically relay the information to everyone else. Natsu, Erza, and Jellal all responded from their positions, and Hibiki quickly rehashed everything he had just told Ichiya, Gray, Wendy, and Lucy.
"So all we need to do is destroy the six lacrima simultaneously -" he finished, but was almost cut off when a new voice sounded through all their minds.
"Clever, very clever. I see you figured out Nirvana's one weakness…. However, it won't be easy. Because I'm already in front of one of the lacrima, and you'll have to get through me to destroy it."
That was undoubtedly Brain, and there was a bit of static as everyone started talking and thinking all at once in shock that he had managed to hack into their telepathic line.
"Everyone shut up! This is still our best chance to destroy Nirvana." Hibiki announced.
"Yeah. I'm fired up now!" was Natsu's input of course.
"Perhaps, but some of our team would find it difficult to defeat Brain." Erza pointed out, probably meaning Wendy, Ichiya, Hibiki, and possibly even Lucy.
"Do you always talk before you think Ash Breath?" Gray asked.
"What'd you say, ya damn stripper?"
"I said-"
Thankfully Hibiki interrupted them. "Okay, I'm going to upload a map to everyone's mind. Please pick a leg so we don't all go to the same one."
Suddenly a map uploaded to Lucy's mind, and she quickly realized what Hibiki meant by 'pick one.' Each of the legs had been numbered, which was quite frankly a really clever idea. Hibiki and Ichiya chose number 1, Erza chose number 2 and said Jellal would come with her since he was too badly injured to have one to himself, Gray took 3, Natsu took 4, Lucy and Happy took 5, and Wendy and Carla took 6.
After everyone was set and the plan was settled on, they split up to go take care of business.
Lucy and Happy hustled down the path on the map that had been downloaded into their minds – or rather they limped down it, since Lucy was still quite injured after her fight with Angel and even more banged up after falling over the waterfall with Natsu. She could only hope that she wasn't the one to end up facing Brain, because she wasn't sure she could take him in her current condition. Actually, even at full power she was pretty sure she would lose to him without Natsu at her side.
She kept up a steady pace limping through the city and finally reached a long hallway that led to her lacrima. It was dark and creepy, which did nothing to settle her nerves as she walked potentially to an incredibly deadly fight. After using Urano Metria, her magic reserves were running on empty, and she wasn't even entirely sure that she would be able to summon a spirit to break the lacrima – much less fight an opponent that was equal in power to an S-class wizard or maybe even one of the Wizard Saints.
Even worse, she could feel herself beginning to tire. Her injuries started to throb worse and worse – partially probably from dread, and also just because she was having to move around and use muscles that had been beaten to a bloody pulp with a huge heavy sword, rocks, and tons of pounding water. About five minutes into the hall, her pace started to significantly slow and her breathing came heavier – which didn't go unnoticed by her blue companion.
Worried eyes cast up at her, and he whispered, "You okay Lucy? You look pretty beat up…"
"Yeah…I'll be alright." she groaned back, though by now she was tempted to start leaning on the wall for support.
"We could stop and rest."
The thought crossed her mind, but at the instant wave of longing, she knew that if she stopped to rest she probably wouldn't be able to get back up. "No. I don't think that's a good idea. Once I sit down, I don't think I'd be able to get going again."
"…oh…" he murmured, only sounding more concerned now.
A few moments of poignant silence later, he voiced the question she was currently trying very hard not to think about. "What happens if Brain is there when we get to the lacrima?"
"Honestly? I don't know." she admitted with a wince.
Finally, a light at the end of the tunnel started to shine, and Lucy couldn't help but feel it was amazingly ironic, considering she could be walking into a much 'darker' situation. As soon as the exit showed up, she slowed and inched the last few feet forwards before peering out into a large round room, at the center of which was a pillar and a huge lacrima. After a few seconds of looking and not seeing Brain – or having anything shot at her – she felt her entire body relax as relief flooded her.
"Thank god…we don't have to fight Brain." Lucy groaned as she slid down the wall in relief. Finally, she let herself rest, even if it was a risk.
All there was to do now was wait here until Hibiki came back online – which he would do once he got to his lacrima. At that point, they would all give an update as to their progress, and everyone would know who was facing Brain. Hopefully it wasn't Hibiki, since he was so crucial to the plan. Without his telepathy, they wouldn't be able to coordinate their attacks and destroy the lacrima simultaneously.
A few seconds after she had sat down to rest, a thunderous crash shook the entire structure, and she jerked with a yelp of surprise and fear.
"Sounds like someone found Brain." Happy said with a warble to his tone.
"Yeah…and it sounds like they're giving him a good fight." Another boom resounded, underscoring her statement.
Dust fell from the ceiling as Nirvana shook repeatedly from what sounded like explosions of an immense magnitude, and Lucy was about ninety percent sure that Natsu was responsible. It was also possible that Erza or Gray were fighting Brain, considering their vast powers … or possibly even Wendy, though she had said she wasn't really proficient yet at combat. However, she had heard those particular sounds many times when her partner was in the process of forcibly deconstructing a building accidentally, and when an echoing roar sounded from somewhere in the distance her hypothesis was confirmed. Only one person she knew could make a sound like that and could be heard from across a town.
Another sigh of relief escaped her. With Natsu in charge of Brain, they had a really good chance of pulling this off.
…
Meanwhile, Natsu was indeed fighting Brain, and had arrived at his location before anyone else since he had set off at a dead run. Naturally, with his nose, he'd been able to pick up where Brain's scent was coming from and – using the map Hibiki had downloaded into his head – he'd picked the lacrima that was in Brain's direction. By this point, he was spoiling for a fight. Cobra hadn't been much of a challenge in the end, though his poison and the fact that he could read minds had been sorta interesting.
Still, it hadn't lasted long enough for his tastes, so he was looking forward to facing Brain. And the guy didn't disappoint. He was tough, one of the toughest Natsu had come across since being summoned by Lucy, and it wasn't long before Natsu had to shift into his half-way form.
Brain – or 'Zero' as he was now calling himself for some reason…. Natsu had decided the guy must have multiple personalities – was not only really good at hand-to-hand combat and dodging his fiery attacks, but he also had a weird-ass magic called 'dark capriccio' that was like a green glowing laser laced with what looked like fire. It wasn't fire though, because Natsu couldn't eat it. And unlike a laser, he could control the damn thing to follow Natsu around at insane speeds, even having it shoot up from the ground to attack him from underneath. Having to dodge all the time made it extremely tough to get close to Brain/Zero/whoever the hell he was.
Once he had shifted into his other form though, he was able to block the laser with his scale covered arms and send it shattering off into another direction with a little blast of fire. His wings also worked as great shields, and he was able to use his tail kind of like a bat to send the laser back at Zero. Finally, he was able to get up close to his opponent and engage him in direct combat, though he also proved to have a sparky green shield that was able to rebuff a lot of Natsu's attacks.
That annoying green magic also coated Zero's fists and made his attacks more powerful, which gave even Natsu a run for his money. But the fire dragon was having the time of his life fighting this guy, even if he was also all fired up to the point of getting spit-fire mad. He couldn't wait to kick Zero's ass into oblivion.
…
Meanwhile, Lucy had almost passed out from exhaustion, when she was abruptly jarred back to the land of the living by Hibiki's voice sounding through her mind.
"Alright, I'm at my lacrima. Has everyone else reached theirs?"
Lucy joined in with Wendy and Gray in saying, yes, that they had reached their respective lacrimas.
"I'm almost there." Erza intoned, and her mental voice sounded a little strained. Either her wounds or Jellal's wounds had made getting there difficult – much the same as it had done for Lucy – or else they had encountered trouble on the way.
Natsu was the last to respond, and when he did he sounded incredibly distracted.
"Yep…here…woah! What the…he's shooting green balls now? What the hell?!"
"I take it you're fighting Brain?" Hibiki inquired.
There was a pause, through which they all heard static and Natsu's mumbles to himself, which consisted of – "Damn it, he's strong!" – "Alright! I'm all fired up…this is a workout!" – "What the hell is with that stupid green magic?!" – "Oh shit! Nearly took out the floor…again…whoops."
"Um…Natsu?" Lucy eventually prompted.
"Oh, right…yeah, I'm fighting Brain. He's calling himself Zero now though, and he's a lot freakin' stronger. Pretty sure he's got – Shit! – multiple personalities or somethin'."
"Interesting. Well, let us know when you're ready to destroy your lacrima, and we'll all match our attacks with yours."
"Sure."
With this plan, they all stayed connected, and Lucy stood up and wobbled in front of the lacrima, eyeballing it and wondering how she was going to break it exactly. As she flexed her magic and tested its weight inside her to see if she had enough to summon anyone, she concluded that no – she absolutely did not. Which only left her whip, and she was pretty sure that wasn't going to be enough to get the job done.
Right as she started to panic, a brilliant flash of aqua blue twin lights sparked, and suddenly Gemini appeared in front of her.
"Piiri piiri."
"What the…Gemini? What are you doing here?"
"We came to help you!"
Once again, Lucy was shocked by this particular spirit. She'd never even heard of a spirit going and helping a mage other than their own, but she certainly wasn't going to turn down the offer.
"…Thank you so much!" she cried, touched beyond belief.
With a twin grin, they turned into her. "Can we use Taurus when the time comes?"
"Of course!"
And so they waited for Natsu to give the signal.
Thanks to their telepathic communication – plus the rumbles that continued to echo throughout the structure – Lucy was able to sort of keep abreast of his fight and how it was going. Based off how much the floor, walls, and ceiling were shaking, Natsu's fight had gotten heated. Through the telepathic connection, she could hear him mumbling to himself in the same way he had done before.
When she heard, "Holy shit! What the hell is this?!" and then suddenly his mental voice cut off, terror went through her hard and fast.
"Natsu?! Natsu!"
There was a long, echoing, aching silence as she waited for a response and received none. She had to remind herself that he was a celestial spirit, and if he was hurt badly enough he could simply return to the celestial realm. However, knowing him…he would probably stubbornly stick around and actually get himself killed. Especially in a fight with such high stakes.
The fear only continued to mount, until – with a roar and bang that made the entire structure shift slightly in the direction of his lacrima – he returned from wherever he had gone.
"Alright! I'm done messing around with this jackass! Everyone! I'm gonna break him and that lacrima at the same time! Get ready!"
Immediately Lucy turned to Gemini, and with a nod the helpful spirit summoned Taurus.
"Twooooo Lucys? It must be my lucky day!" he mooed with stars in his eyes.
"Hey Taurus, can you break that lacrima?"
"Of course Miss Luuuucy!"
As he geared up to go for it, Lucy heard, "NOW!" resound through her head, and with a crash, bang, boom, smash, and slam – Nirvana came to a shuddering, grinding demise and collapsed.
Taurus broke their lacrima cleanly with his ax. According to their telepathic connections, Wendy sky roared at hers, Ichiya used his strength parfum, Erza smashed hers to bits with her dark wing armor, and Gray shot his with ice make arrows. Of course, Natsu outperformed them all by firing himself at Brain and smashing his flaming fist right into his face, propelling them both directly into the lacrima and taking two birds out with one stone.
Naturally, now that the thing was thoroughly broken, it started to come apart – maybe because the big ancient monstrosity had only been held together by magic. The mental link between them broke as everyone scattered to try and escape the collapsing structure, and everyone grew entirely focused on saving their own hides.
Gemini poofed after a very hurried thanks from Lucy. Happy scooped her up and they zipped out of there at top speed. The flight down the hall was harrowing at best, and they had to dodge falling and crumbling debris the entire way out, very nearly getting beaned more than once. Thanks to Happy's quick wings and maneuverability, they somehow escaped mostly intact, and zoomed out over the crumbling city.
Erza and Jellal were speedily wobbling through the air using Erza's dark wing armor – but as Happy and Lucy watched, the two of them barely made it out of the deconstructing artifact before plummeting into the jungle as the redhead's strength gave out. Gray was escaping by using an ice slide of course, and he appeared to have snagged Jura on his way out as well. Wendy popped out into the air with Carla, and they very nearly ran into Lucy and Happy due to their extra velocity.
"Wendy! It's good to see you're okay! Have you seen Ichiya or Hibiki?!" Lucy hurriedly asked, still having not seen any of the Trimens escape.
"No…how about the others?"
"They're all out, except for Natsu, but…"
Lucy was cut off when a massive fiery explosion took out one entire leg, and out flew Natsu as the giant spider machine tilted dangerously. Naturally, he'd just hastened the destruction of the thing just by exiting.
"There he is." Happy chirped, sounding like he was trying not to laugh. His voice was also laced with exhaustion though, and Lucy knew they had to put down on some solid land soon or he'd run out of magic.
"Natsu! Can you find Hibiki and Ichiya?! Happy's almost out of magic, and we've still gotta get to safety!" she called, knowing he would hear her even from this distance.
He gave her a thumbs up – which she could only see because he shot a large flame out of said thumb – and then dashed off.
Wendy and Lucy headed in the direction Erza had gone, but soon both cats seemed to simultaneously run out of magic, and they were all sent plummeting into the jungle. Thankfully, they had made it far enough away from Nirvana that they weren't in danger of being crushed … and that was the important thing. Still, they got pretty scratched and banged up on the way down as they bounced off trees.
For a long moment, they stayed put, just catching their breath and recovering from the entire situation … and nursing their fresh bruises. Eventually though, all four of them clambered back to their feet and staggered towards where Lucy had seen the others land. Thankfully, they found Erza and Jellal quickly enough, and Natsu tracked them down shortly after. After dropping off Hibiki and Ichiya, he ran off to collect Gray and Jura by scent. Hibiki also left to go find Eve and Ren, and returned with them in tow right about the same time Natsu, Gray, and Jura joined them – with Leon and Sherry also added to their group. Natsu must have flown off to collect the two Lamia Scale members that had been left behind.
Once they were all back together, they all staggered away from the giant dark artifact – which was now thoroughly broken and would probably be taken and sealed by the council. In fact, right as they emerged from the forest line, they encountered a whole squad of Rune Knights who were there to collect the Oracion Seis members. The leader, a guy with long black hair tied up in a little ponytail thing, stepped forwards to address the bedraggled and beaten-up team of mages.
"I am Lahar, Head Captain of the Custody Enforcement Unit. We are here to thank you for successfully nullifying Nirvana and apprehending the Oracion Seis. The Magic Council will take it from here."
Jellal huddled at the back of their group with his hood up, and Erza was being very careful to stay in front of him – while also not appearing suspicious. Unfortunately, the leader of this particular squad of Rune Knights was apparently quite observant and very well informed as to how many mages had been sent on this mission. As they walked past, he reached out to stop them – which of course put Jellal at the front of the group as they all turned back around to face him.
"Oh, and before you go, could you all identify yourselves and which guilds you are from? There seems to be an extra wizard amongst you, and we must verify that none of the Oracion Seis escape."
"Of course." Jura stated calmly.
Meanwhile Lucy could feel Erza tense up. Thinking fast, the celestial mage figured out something that might work, and eased herself and Natsu to the front of the Fairy Tail group, whispering subtly into Erza's ear, "I got an idea. Just get behind me, and keep propping up Jellal."
Meanwhile, she started to lean on Natsu and asked him to cover up his guild mark. He glanced curiously at her but shrugged and did as she asked with a casual flick of his ever-present scarf.
After Jura had introduced Lamia scale, Wendy had identified herself as coming from the nearby Cait Shelter, and Ichiya had pointed out his Trimens group, Lucy stepped forwards to introduce Fairy Tail.
"I'm Fairy Tail's celestial mage. This is my dragon spirit, and these three behind me are my team."
From what she could tell, Lahar just had the number of members that each guild had sent, so they might be able to get away with lumping Jellal in with them by pretending Natsu was simply her spirit. Also, Lahar was probably only looking for a member of the Oracion Seis, not a convicted criminal that was supposed to be dead.
"Alright…" his dark eyes drifted over them and settled on Jellal. "Would you please take off your hood sir?"
"I prefer not to show my face, but if I must." Jellal replied calmly, and everyone turned and watched with bated breath as he lifted his hood off his face. There was a subtle flash, barely perceptible, but when Lucy saw his face she knew he had cast a transformation spell on himself. His hair was still the same, as was his face really, but his tattoo was gone and the other side was marred with deep scars as if he'd been clawed by a beast of some sort. He easily looked different enough to pass for someone else.
The officer glanced him over and nodded his head. "You may lift your hood." Then he turned back to Lucy. "And you are a celestial mage?"
"Yes."
"And that young man beside you is your celestial spirit?"
"Yes."
"And can you prove he is a celestial spirit?"
"I can." She nodded and took out his key. "This is his key."
After he took a close look at it, he nodded for her to continue.
"Close! Gate of the Fire Dragon! Dragneel!"
With a bright spark and whiff of smoke, Natsu vanished, and Lucy made a show of staggering a few steps – as if she had been keeping him out for physical support. Lahar immediately looked concerned and reached out to help steady her.
"I see. Thank you for your cooperation, and I'm sorry to have caused you inconvenience. You may proceed."
She nodded and made a show of summoning Natsu back. He popped pack into being with the same spark and smoke, and this time cleverly used her to hide his guildmark.
Once they had finally all limped away, they could breathe easily.
At that point, Wendy piped up. "My guild is really close by. How about you all come and stay there for a while to recover?"
"Sounds good to me…" Erza sighed, and they started heading in that direction.
Sneak Peek
Summer was coming upon the Fairy Tail guild, and that meant that everyone started getting ready for the big Summertime Games Fair. If there was one thing to be said about Fairy Tail, it was that they loved their celebrations. Every season had one huge dedicated celebration: spring had the Cherry Blossom Festival, Autumn had a two-part Halloween/Harvest themed festival, winter had the big Fairy Tail Parade and the Christmas Party, and of course summer was no different with its Summertime Games Fair.
During this time of the year, everyone prepared for a fair that would last several days and be full of drinking, games, challenges, food, fun, and of course a little mayhem. There would be a Miss Fairy Tail pageant with a cash prize that Lucy thoroughly planned to win, various physical challenges that Natsu was fired up about, and a fishing booth that Happy would probably spend most of his time at. This year though, there was also the lure of Carla, and Lucy recommended he try to win her over with some prizes, food, or other things that could be either purchased or won at the various events and booths.