Author's Note:
And here's the next chapter! Yay!
As always, a huge heartfelt thanks to all my fantabulous reviewers! Big hugs and kisses to my repeat reviewers: quidditchChick6, Donthedarkdragon26, WisdomDragon27, TheJSmooth, Lucinda, Alice, Ksta, valerioux, Anna5949, loopymama, thetrywriter, Leomae2.0, SunnieDayss, Firefly9917, Daisy73, ravenqueen162, TheAvatarShadow, stranger1999, Ikrani, Lady La-sara, and Wolves silver wind.
I don't have anything else to say, so on with the show! And stay tuned till the end for a sneak peek of next chapter. ;D
Once they'd returned from the celestial realm, they spent the next couple of days stuck at Lucy's apartment as Natsu continued to burn off all the pent-up feelings he had accumulated during her absence and the overflow of emotions after being mated. Of course they had to stock up on food periodically, but otherwise didn't leave the property.
After a few days of that though, Lucy needed a day of rest… so that she could walk normally when they returned to the guild. She could just picture all the terrible teasing they would endure if she went back while still limping along like a novice bull rider after nonstop training. Although, that was kind of how she felt after several solid days of Natsu and not much else.
When they finally did return to the guildhall though, thankfully the teasing was minimal. That was probably because everyone was still too busy catching up to waste time on old news like Lucy and Natsu. If anyone was teased, it was the new couple, Bisca and Alzack.
It took several weeks for everyone to get up to speed on all the news and everything that had happened in their absence.
For Lucy, that especially meant catching up with her spirits and revalidating her contracts with all of them after her yearlong hiatus. It was a long and grueling process… more-so for some that others. Aquarius took more than half a day to pacify, though in a way Lucy was touched. The mermaid's pure rage was really just her way of expressing how worried about Lucy she'd been. Still…it was exhausting. Thankfully, the rest of her spirits were much more forgiving.
As for her mythic spirits, Amy once again took to popping in quite often for random visits, and even Bartolomeo dropped by every now and then – which was a big surprise. Leo also summoned himself more often, partially to spend some time catching up with the rest of the guild, since he was a member too, and partially to pester her as usual.
Though, thankfully nobody summoned themselves when Natsu was spending the night for more than sleep. After asking him about it one time, he'd explained that he basically put up a 'do not disturb' sign on his gate whenever they got busy…which was embarrassing, but undeniably useful.
She was also grateful that he somehow managed to easily convince Happy to spend the night elsewhere every couple of nights… as if they'd had a man-to-man talk and came to some sort of understanding. She honestly didn't want to know about the details though.
Although, it probably also had something to do with the way her blue cat was getting along so much better with a certain white feline that he liked so much. He was spending a great deal of time at Wendy's lately, and apparently Carla wasn't as resisting to his advances anymore, which Lucy was very happy about – for more than one reason.
Aside from that, naturally she also spent a great deal of time at the guildhall catching up with everyone that had been left behind. The first big piece of news that caught everyone off guard was the fact that Jellal was already out of prison.
When it was mentioned in passing within their first couple of days back, Erza had immediately latched on and asked for further details with a fervor that obviously terrified her informants. Thankfully they retained enough sense to remember everything they knew about it and were able to lay it all out for Erza in a thorough manner that satisfied her urgent curiosity. Of course Lucy already knew he was out thanks to Natsu, but she was interested in hearing the details as well.
As it turned out, shortly after the news spread that they had all gone missing, Jellal managed to get himself another hearing – requesting early probation. It was unheard of really, but not necessarily surprising considering that he had actually been a council member for quite a few years before exposing his "true" colors. There were apparently plenty of favors that he could call in, and had done so… along with utilizing blackmail, coercion, and other various unsavory methods.
The general populace was unhappy that he was out, and even though he was technically a legal citizen again, people still considered him a criminal. In fact, his reputation had only gotten worse after finagling an early release, and now he was practically considered a criminal mastermind that had cheated the legal system. He was technically untouchable, but that hadn't stopped people from attacking him in back alleys. There were even a few entire guilds that had gone after him.
To everyone who didn't know him, he was now the scum of the earth. However, every member of Fairy Tail knew good and well that he wouldn't have done any of that if Erza hadn't needed his help. He had gone searching for her on his own though… to keep any animosity that was directed at him away from Fairy Tail.
Apparently he had taken a different route by boat, hitting it from the opposite direction and sending them regular updates. Of course now that Tenrou Island had been found, they had sent him a message letting him know that the search was over. Aside from sending him messages though, nobody knew how to find him. They could contact him through a speech lacrima – although they generally had to leave a message and couldn't talk to him directly – but nobody knew where he was. It was even doubtful that he would come and visit the newly returned members, thanks to the distance he kept from everyone these days. It was obvious he was doing his best to keep Fairy Tail's reputation from being dragged through the dirt alongside his.
Naturally, as soon as Erza heard all of this, she wanted to head out and look for him herself, but certain situations required that she remain in Magnolia. There were a number of debts that had to be paid.
The girls who rented rooms in the Fairy Hills dormitory – Erza included – found out that they all owed huge amounts on their rent. Lucy also ended up in a similar situation, since her landlord had held her apartment for her and was now demanding the backed-up rent. Alongside that, there were other bills that hadn't been paid, so any and all overdue fees needed to be tended to… for individuals as well as the guildhall itself.
Basically, everyone abruptly found themselves deep in a monetary hole, and there was a sudden scramble for jobs.
What didn't help was the fact that the job board was rather bare. That was thanks to the fact that Fairy Tail had been short on mages for a whole year, which had resulted in less people commissioning them… especially as jobs went unattended for long periods of time. Consequentially, Fairy Tail's reputation had also taken a pretty bad nosedive. People tended to get irritable if their job wasn't responded to within a couple month of posting, and when mages arrived beyond that, they were often met with angry patrons who said they'd had to find help elsewhere.
All of this was bad and left everyone in a bit of a tizzy as they suddenly scrambled for work. Of course, Lucy had her backup plan – the adult venue that had gifted her with an outstanding invitation to come back. Thankfully it was up and running, and the same owner was in charge.
She had also told her friends about it – the closest ones only, since she didn't really want to bandy around the fact that she sometimes worked there. At first the idea was scoffed off as ridiculous, but soon several of their team had to resort to that, much to Natsu and Lucy's amusement. In particular, they thought it was only fair that Gray had to work there for a short while.
Silvester had been more than happy to extend his invitation to Lucy and Natsu's friends. In fact, he was downright delighted to have them – though they all asked not to be introduced as Fair Tail wizards, since it would probably only damage the reputation of their guild at the moment.
As for Erza, it actually didn't take her long at all to accept Lucy's suggestion. In fact, she leapt at the opportunity and had very little trouble with the job itself… aside from having to somewhat overcome her stage fright. As it turned out though, her stage fright mostly involved speaking, and soon she had discovered that dancing didn't prove much of a problem for her.
After that, she embraced the job and the hefty pay that went with it. Alongside her and Gray, Levy and Gajeel also ended up working there for a short time. And they all soon crawled out of debt before anyone else.
Erza did so in record time though, thanks to also taking on a night job, and nobody had to ask why she was double shifting.
It came as no surprise that she disappeared as soon as all her debts were paid… only telling the master that she was going to take a "vacation." After she left, they made sure to send Jellal a message, telling him that he was probably about to be hunted down by a certain redheaded warrior. That way he wouldn't come looking for her at the guild.
For the rest of them though, there was another pressing situation that needed tending to.
In their absence, the leftover members of Fairy Tail had attempted to find out as much as they could about Tartarus. They'd managed to lay a groundwork of informants across the nation, but so far it had been incredibly quiet.
Of course now that Lucy was back, Natsu could do some more in-depth investigation into the matter using his contacts in the celestial world. After all, if they were right and Tartarus was run by demons, going through human channels wouldn't turn up very much. Therefore, he assigned himself the task of hunting them down…. And he took his new job very seriously.
Tartarus had hurt his mage, and like hell were they gonna get away with it if he had anything to say about it.
Of course, Natsu wasn't exactly a spy by any means…. nor was he a sleuth. He was more of a bulldozer really than an information gatherer. But in this case he decided to make an exception. Of course, he still went about it differently than most people might have…. there was very little subtlety to his tactics and absolutely no subterfuge.
"Oi! Stash-face! We've got a problem!" he bellowed as he threw open the massive doors that led into the Celestial King's grand hall.
A deep rumbling sigh echoed through the space, sounding like the embodiment of long-suffering exasperation. Part of that was probably Natsu's adoption of Lucy's nickname for the ruler of the celestial realm, which – for some reason – only she could use without the ginormous samurai growing irritable.
"Dragneel…" He paused, as if considering whether or not to scold him for his disrespect, but in the end he just produced another long sigh and said, "Since you have obviously returned, I assume that you located Lucy. Congratulations. Now…. what is this problem that you appear to be so concerned about?"
"We've gotta do something about Acnologia. He's getting a foothold in the human realm by using a dark guild as a moniker. He calls it Tartarus. So I'm gonna go get some info on him."
"All right. And what do you want me to do about it?"
"Oh come on, you know what I want. Open me up a gate to Asphodel so I can go take a peek."
There was a long pause as the Celestial King gave him a look. "No."
"Oh come on! Why not?!"
"You would start a war. You know this as well as I do."
All Natsu could really say to that was pout, since he was probably right. Then he perked up as a thought came to him. "How about I send Rogue then? Nobody would look twice at him. He could just say he was visiting his dad."
The dragon that Natsu had mentioned was actually half demon. His mother was a celestial dragon, while his dad – Skiadrum – was a demon king.
The giant mustache that had given Stash-face his hilarious nickname twitched in consideration. After a long moment, he finally said, "Very well. But don't even think of sneaking through with him."
He had sort of been thinking that very thing and scowled. "Fine."
Turning on his heel, he stomped out of the palace without so much as a thank you, and heard the Celestial King give yet another sigh behind him.
Hunting down the shadow demon dragon was easy, he was hanging out silently with a book in his mother's courtyard while she gardened her orchard. As a light dragon, she could provide plenty of sunshine to grow all sorts of plants super well, and her courtyard was probably the lushest of any celestial spirit by far.
"Yo! Rogue!" he called to his longtime friend, and the other dragon's ears perked as he raised his head to great Natsu with a gentle smile.
"Hello Natsu. It's good to see you back. You found your mage then?"
"Yeah! Lucy's back and better than ever."
"Good." Rogue said with a genuinely happy twinkle in his black eyes, and he closed his book with a soft click. "So what can I do for you today?"
They were suddenly interrupted by his mother as she came out of a starfruit orchard carrying a basket full of the glittering yellow fruit. "Oh hello Natsu! It's wonderful to see you!"
As always, the peaceful kind female dragon radiated warmth and light, which prompted a happy smile from Natsu. "Hey Weisslogia! It's good to see you too. I was just stopping by to ask Rogue for an important favor."
"Ah, of course. I'll let you two converse." She smiled again and turned to head towards her large airy home past the courtyard.
"So, you wanted to ask me for a favor?"
"Yep." Natsu said, and then his expression grew more solemn as he thought about what this social call was really about. "Remember the incident a year ago?"
"Of course. It's the reason you weren't seen in the celestial realm for months at a time."
"Yeah, so my guild has been looking into Tartarus. Since you joined Sabertooth with your mage, you've probably heard about them, right?"
Rogue nodded. "Yes, we've heard of Tartarus… everyone has. What about them? Do you think they have something to do with Acnologia?"
"Oh yeah, definitely. As far as I can tell, Tartarus is run by Acnologia and his top demons. They probably have some human mages in Earthland to work for them…. I mean they have to, otherwise how the hell did they make a gate?"
"A gate? So that's how they came to the human realm…I thought perhaps a powerful summoner had been responsible for the attack."
"Nope, they all came through without their keys being used – or at least not used by a summoner. They may have still used them on the gate somehow though…. But anyways, here's the kicker. They're after celestial mages and our keys. So whatever they're up to, it can't be good."
Rogue frowned and a dark look passed over his normally peaceful face. "My father hasn't been able to visit for several years now, though we can still communicate through our keys of course. Apparently he isn't privy to any of Acnologia's plans, but he has said that they're building something that's taking a huge amount of power. He's been able to stay out of it so far thanks to his rank as a demon king, but even the kings and queens are starting to get dragged into it. He also mentioned that some of the lower-level demons have been enslaved."
"Enslaved?" Natsu repeated, mildly shocked.
Rogue nodded solemnly. "Father didn't know a lot about it, but he did tell me that Acnologia is taking their keys and forcing them to work for him. After what you just told me, I highly suspect he's making them build a gate to the human realm."
Natsu winced, cringing at the thought of what those demons were going through. Though the celestial realm and the demon realm were generally at odds with each other, they weren't necessarily enemies, and he knew there were plenty of non-malicious demons.
To be enslaved through their key was a horrible prospect for any spirit – celestial or demon. And to be enslaved by another spirit was just…. well it was beyond breaking the law for one thing, and it was taboo in about every way possible. It made horrible sense though. If he was enslaving them, Acnologia could make them do anything he wanted.
At the thought of it all, Natsu could feel rage building in his gut, just adding to the already overflowing volcano of hate directed at Acnologia.
"And that's probably what he wants to do to us as well…" Natsu growled.
Rogue nodded somberly.
"Well…maybe it'd be better if you didn't go then. It might be too dangerous." He was starting to reconsider his request. Sure, he was still willing to go, but he wasn't enthused about sending his friend into such a hellhole.
Rogue just shrugged, and then his dark eyes lit up. "Wait! I don't have to go there myself, I can just contact my father. He might not know anything specific, but I'm sure he knows some demons who do know."
Natsu instantly perked up. "That's a good idea! Let me know whenever you find out anything."
"Of course."
With a nod, Natsu headed off to tell his guild the news.
Naturally, none of them were happy about what he'd found out, and they were all even more determined to bring down Tartarus.
….
When Natsu checked in with Rogue a few days later, he had news from his father.
As they'd thought, Acnologia had constructed a gate between Earthland and Asphodel, but it hadn't been completely finished when he shoved his big butt through it on Tenrou Island. And of course he'd completely destroyed it. So, the demons had spent the last year rebuilding, but they hadn't made as much progress as the new emperor wanted, which had made him extra irritable, demanding, and stupid.
According to Rogue's father, the situation was much worse than they'd thought. Acnologia had stolen almost everyone's key. The least powerful demons were being used as little more than building materials, their gates and magic becoming the bricks and cement for the gate. He was actually melting down their keys to make the gate…. which made Natsu's stomach turn and actually had him thinking about throwing up for a second.
Something like that was…. It was unthinkable. A spirit's key was connected to their gate, which was connected to their magic and practically their soul. So first of all, having their keys melted down probably hurt like a bitch. Then, pouring those melted keys into the Frankenstein gate basically meant that all of their gates got crunched up and shoved into it. It was like smashing up a bunch of small houses and then making a bigger house out of the rubble. Even worse though, having their gates used in such a horrible way would mean that they were connected to the thing too…so it would suck out all their magic as well.
Rogue confirmed that when he said, "All of those demons have become little more than vegetables that Acnologia's piled up in cells. But, all the lords were simply enslaved. Apparently, he's draining their magic periodically to help build the gate, but their keys aren't being put into it unless they rebel in some way. He hasn't gone after the kings or queens yet, though a handful are working for him as generals and the like. But it's only a matter of time before he goes after anyone who isn't affiliating with him. Father and all the other queens and kings who don't want anything to do with it are already making escape plans."
"Shit…that fucker is crazy. He's lost his goddamn marbles." Natsu cussed, pacing in fury and horror.
"It gets worse…"
"How?! How the hell does it get worse than that?!"
"He's rushing the gate building process, and it's causing dimensional instabilities." Rogue said gravely, and Natsu stared at him with a flapping jaw.
"Tell me what you mean by 'dimensional instabilities'… cause it doesn't sound good."
"It's not. Father believes that rushing to build the gate is weakening the borders between worlds in unexpected ways. Asphodel has already experienced a few small dimensional tears…. And occasionally a demon will even get sucked into one of these tears. He asked me to warn you that the same might happen in Earthland."
"Oh…great."
"He's hoping that after a certain point in the building process, the worlds will re-stabilize… but until then the tears might get worse, particularly between worlds that are already physically connected. Oddly, it doesn't seem like any of the rifts are happening between Earthland and Asphodel. Rather, it seems like the dimensional tears in the demon realm are with the world that is physically closest to them.
Of course, Natsu had hurriedly thanked Rogue for the information and took it straight back to the guild to tell everyone.
…
After Natsu relayed the message, naturally Fairy Tail looked into it.
With some hunting, they found quite a few clues that pointed towards some strange incidents going on throughout Fiore. Here and there people and places had gone missing. When it was just people, nobody really thought too much about it – just believing that there was a rash of kidnappings. But when buildings started to randomly disappear, it stirred up some interest.
The most disturbing thing about it was that the incidents seemed to be growing in scale…. the last occurrence had caused an entire small village to go poof. Of course naturally the Magic Council was keeping the whole thing under wraps, which was why they hadn't already known about it.
The final proof came from a very unexpected source and during a conference they were holding about the disappearances.
Lucy was just in the middle of leaning forwards to point at a spot on the map, saying, "This is the first place that was hit … then it was here, here, here, here, and here. There doesn't seem to be any pattern to it at all."
"There is actually." Everyone jumped at the new – extremely quiet – voice, which most of them had never even heard before.
When they turned, there stood Mystogen … in his robes, hood, and masked face that covered everything but a slit showing blue eyes. Most only knew what he looked like thanks to Makarov's description of his appearance.
"Mystogen?" Makarov almost sputtered, seeming as shocked as the rest of them, but covered it up much better.
The very quiet man nodded and stepped up to join them at the table, hunching and trying to keep as much distance between them as possible though. "I heard that you were looking into Anima…"
"The what now?"
"Anima. It's what my…people call the disruptions between worlds that you have been seeing." He tapped on the map where all the disappearances had been marked with little red pins. "What you see here is an abnormal amount of supernaturally large Anima. Normally Anima are imperceptible, just trickles of magic from one world to another that don't carry an entire form with them. To have so many strangely large ones means that the worlds have somehow gone out of balance."
Everyone just stared at him, mouths gaping and minds somewhat blank with surprise.
He cleared his throat and looked around the table, before almost whispering, "By any chance, do you know what's causing these disturbances? I assume that you must have an idea, to be looking into them."
Natsu, as usual, was the first to recover. "Look, you…whoever you are, I don't know if I can trust you, so…"
"He can be trusted." Makarov interrupted.
Natsu eyed him with a raised eyebrow. Then he shrugged. "Okay. Then, yeah, we know what's causing them. A year ago Acnologia came through a gate that he made between Earthland and the demon realm, but it wasn't ready for his big butt, and he basically busted it. So now they're building a new one. He's an impatient bastard – which is why he busted the gate to begin with – and they're doing it double-time…which is throwing the demon realm out of whack. They've been getting some dimensional problems there too."
Mystogan didn't say anything, but a slight movement in his head cloth suggested that he might have raised an eyebrow. "Strange. Dimensional shifts in the demon realm should not affect Edolas…"
"Edo-who?" Natsu grunted, scowling and crossing his arms.
Gray punched him in the shoulder. "Let him finish Pyrobutt."
"You want me to finish you?!"
Lucy and Juvia quickly split them up.
"Please continue, sorry about that." Juvia said sweetly while petting Gray's hair… which was now attached to a flushing face that was being held to her chest.
There was a slight pause, a nearly inaudible chuckle, and then Mystogan continued. "In answer to your question, Edolas is the other world that we have been losing people and places to."
"How do you even know this Edolas place is involved?"
"I've gone to some of the sites shortly after, and there's a certain Anima signature that tells where the other end is located."
"Alright…so what does Edolas have to do with the demon realm? Are they connected somehow?" Mira wondered, pinching her chin thoughtfully between fingers.
"That's what I find so strange. A disruption in the demon realm would likely affect their dimensional wall…not ours. Although, they are constructing a gate from there to here, so perhaps they have reached a stage in construction that has started to affect our world now as well."
Natsu interjected. "Well, Rogue did say that his dad thought the world they were being affected by was the one they were closest to physically…whatever the hell that means. So maybe it's the same for us?"
After a moment, Levy gingerly spoke up. "I've been doing some research into dimensions. One theory that I've come across multiple times is that the walls between certain worlds are much thinner than others. Perhaps that's what he meant by 'physically close?'"
"There are probably more worlds than just Edolas that has a thin wall between us and them, but perhaps they have the thinnest. I do know that they are relatively close to Earthland and have always received small amounts of magic through natural Anima from here to there." Mystogan seemed to agree and pondered it for a second. "It could also be pure coincidence that Edolas was involved. Dimensional walls are strange things, and trying to create a gate improperly could have any number of unknown and random consequences depending on millions of factors."
"How do you know so much about this anyways?" Laxus asked, looking relatively grumpy as usual. He had been leaning against a nearby wall, and almost seemed asleep for the majority of the meeting.
Mystogen stared at him for a long moment, and then glanced at the master, who silently nodded.
Makarov spoke up, and shocked them all by saying, "Mystogen is from another world. I never knew the name of it, but I suspect it's Edolas, correct?"
Mystogen nodded.
That left everyone reeling for a long moment.
"Okay…so now what? Just cause we know where people are getting sent to doesn't really help us fix whatever Acnologia broke. We've gotta stop these animal-whoosits from popping up." Natsu grumbled.
"Unfortunately, we don't know what's prompting the continued disruptions. It could be Acnologia, or it could be a natural imbalance between the magic of Edolas and Earthland that's been aggravated. It could even be that someone in Edolas is capitalizing on Acnologia's disruptions and making them worse…" The way his voice tightened just a hair suggested that he knew more than he was letting on, but his eyes were so flat that nobody felt the need to prompt him on it.
"Riiiight….so how do we fix it?" Natsu asked again, looking at Mystogen like he was an idiot… which was hilarious.
Mystogen fixed a similar almost-glare on Natsu. His quiet voice took on a decidedly irritated tone. "I don't know if we can fix it. And even if we can, we don't have enough information to formulate a plan."
"Wait…what did you mean earlier, when you said there was a pattern?" Erza questioned, entering the conversation.
"It's magic that's being taken. All the people who disappeared were mages, and the village that vanished had a small magic guild in it. It started with lower classed mages, and then each subsequent disappearance took more magic than the last. Likely it will continue to increase, and quite rapidly. I've been able to stop the last few, thanks to the pattern that's been established, but each Anima is larger than the last. Eventually I won't be able to prevent it from attacking."
"Wait, you've been able to prevent the last few? Where were they?"
Wordlessly Mystogen took a handful of the pins, used magic to change their color, and then placed them on the locations where he had been able to stop the Anima. It was a significant amount, which surprised and worried them all, but even more disturbing was the fact that Anima had been attempting to hit towns with good-sized mage guilds in them.
"Is there any way to travel to Edolas and see if they're doing something to aggravate the problem?" Erza eventually asked.
"…perhaps. If we caught an Anima before it disappeared, we could use it as a gate. But it would be dangerous, and we couldn't use it until after it was diffused."
"Diffused?"
"If you go through when it's actively transporting things from this world to the next, you could be killed or turned into magic energy. To use it as a gate, we would have to go through when it was inactive."
"So, we wait for the next Anima." Laxus summarized with a grunt.
"Seems like." His grandfather agreed.
And that was the end of the discussion.
Sneak Peek
A couple of weeks after having Mystogen randomly drop in, the unthinkable happened.
It was a solemn rainy day, positively pouring cats and dogs, and the guild was relatively quiet. There were plenty of people there, but all of them were made quiet and sleepy by the weather. The peaceful moment was interrupted though by Natsu snorting awake and going on a rampage. Apparently someone had decided to draw on his slumbering face, which Lucy had to admit was pretty funny.
Of course the person that had drawn on Natsu's face was Gray, and soon the guildhall was no longer quiet in the least as a battle broke out between the two hotheads. The racket those two made as they tore into each other was probably why they didn't hear the shrill screams of warning from just outside the guildhall doors.