Chapter 12: Sakura, Latias, Lucy vs Sherry
Galuna Island; the village
Lucy, Happy, Sakura, and Latias come back to the village and explain the villagers what is going on.
"So there you have it. The people who are coming to attack are to blame for doing this to your bodies." Lucy explains.
"They're coming here?"
"Yes. But on the bright side, this is your chance to capture them!" Sakura adds.
"Can we really pull that off?"
"Will it work?"
"Seriously?"
"Those three are probably wizards, so they won't be captured so easily." Happy points out.
"True. We have the advantage when it comes to numbers, but no wizards." Lucy agrees.
"What? You're not planning on fighting, Lucy?" Happy asks and Lucy suddenly have an idea.
"I just thought of the perfect plan!" She says.
"I have a bad feeling about this."
"What's the meaning of all the ruckus?" Moka questions as he walks towards Lucy.
"Village chief!"
"Please listen! Enemies will be attacking this village soon." Lucy tells him.
"Enemies?"
"They've been staying at the ruins in the forest, and they're the ones who turned your bodies into demons!"
"Who cares?! Have you destroyed the moon yet?!"
"Well, there's no need to destroy the moon… If we just catch the ones responsible…"
"The moon! Destroy the moon!" Before Chief Moka could do anything, two villagers hold his arms.
"Chief, please calm down!"
"Come now, this way."
The two drag the chief away from the rest of the villagers and the Fairy Tail wizards.
"What's with him?" Sakura questions.
"Don't mind him. It's because of what happened to his son, Bobo…"
"Yeah. Anyway, we're going to capture them." Lucy says.
"But, how?"
"Just leave this to the great Lucy! Fairy Tail's number-one Celestial Wizard! This is going to work like a charm, just watch!"
"This is awesome!" Lucy thought.
"She's really gotten into this." Happy says.
"Gate of the Maiden, I open thee! Virgo!" Lucy yells as she summons Virgo.
"Did you call me, Princess?" Virgo asks and the villagers are swoon from Virgo's appearance.
"Cute!"
"So this is a 'maid'?"
"I can't get enough!"
"Guess they don't get many maids around here…" Lucy mutters.
"Looks like it." Sakura says.
~Later~
Princess, preparations are complete." Virgo says.
"Thanks, Virgo. You're always so fast." Lucy says.
"You wish to punish me?"
"That was a complement!"
"Um, well…" Happy says.
"What is it, Happy?"
"I really think you might actually be an idiot, Lucy."
"Whatever happened to 'if you can't say nice things'?" Lucy questions.
"I can't imagine that they'd fall for such a childish trick."
"What're you talking about? This pitfall is perfect!"
"Are you sure about that?" Sakura asks as a sweat drop appears on her head and looks at the covered pitfall trap.
"Yeah, I kind of agree with Sakura… That's exactly why you're an idiot." Happy says.
"There's only one entrance to this village, right? Which means that the enemy is sure to come in that way." Lucy explains.
"I don't think there's a single person who would fall for that." Happy says.
"M-me either."
"Actually, neither would I."
"Princess, I concur as well!" Virgo agrees.
"Even you?!" Lucy yells at Virgo. "Just watch, all of you!"
"Lucy-san, someone is coming!"
"They're here already? Open the gate!" Lucy orders and she, Happy, Sakura, Latias, and the villagers watch the gate open. "Now, come to mama."
When the gate fully opens, they see Natsu who is still in block of ice as he carries the injured and unconscious Gray over his shoulders.
"Everyone, you okay?" Natsu shouts
"E—H!" Lucy shouts.
"Natsu!" Happy and the two villagers shout.
"Looks like an idiot came back." Sakura plainly points out.
"Stop! Don't come any closer!" Lucy pleads and Natsu didn't listen. "I said stop! Stop!"
"Whoa there." Natsu says and skids to a stop and Lucy sighs in relief, but Natsu looks down to the covered pitfall trap. "What's this?"
Natsu takes a step and fall through the trap, shocking everyone in the village.
"There was someone who actually fell for it."
"Didn't expect that."
"Failure!" Lucy says.
"Hey, hey, hey! Who the hell put a hope here?" Natsu questions as the ice that entrapped him is now gone. All that is left is the cold fog that is coming from the dissipating ice as he and Gray lay on their backs in the pitfall.
"Lucy obviously." Happy says from the top with him, Lucy, Virgo, Sakura, Latias, and some of the villagers look down on Natsu.
"I knew it!" Natsu yells in anger.
"You've got it all wrong!" Lucy whines as she has her hands to her cheeks as she shakes her head.
"I'm glad you and Gray are safe though!" Happy yells down.
"There's nothing to be glad about! Gray's outta commission!" Natsu yells back up.
"He got beat by the masked guy?" Lucy asks and just then, Natsu notices that the ice that trapped his body is now gone.
"The ice can off! Even though fire didn't work?" Natsu says.
"R-right, just like I planned!" Lucy says trying to pay her mistake off.
"Perhaps the magic had weakened due to the distance between the caster and the victim." Virgo says.
"All right!" Natsu yells in joy.
Natsu manages to get both him and the still unconscious Gray out of the hole as two villager help lay Gray on the ground.
"Gray…" Lucy says worriedly.
"Don't worry, Lucy. I'll heal him up soon." Sakura says as she gets the Mind Plate onto her glove before going to Gray's side. "Heal Pulse." A pink aura comes out from her glove.
"Great, but… They still haven't showed up yet?" Natsu asks, confused on why those three people who were with Lyon haven't showed up yet since they left a bit earlier that Lucy, Happy, Sakura, and Latias.
"True, they're talking their time. Even though they left for the village before you did, and yet you got here first, Natsu." Lucy says as she begins wondering the same thing.
"Yeah, and it really took me a while too." Natsu says.
"Now's our chance! Cover the hole back up, hurry!" Lucy says triumphantly.
"You're still going for the pitfall plan?" Natsu questions with an unimpressed look on his face.
"What's that?" A villager points to the sky and the others looks up. They see a giant flying rat coming closer to the village while carrying a bucket. "There's a flying rat!"
"What's that bucket?"
"From the sky?! My pitfall's pointless!" Lucy shouts and a green liquid fall towards Lucy. "Jelly?"
"Lucy!" Natsu calls out as he quickly drags Lucy away from the green jelly as it touches the ground, dissolving the ground where it landed. "What the heck is that dangerous smell?"
"That bucket is filled with that?!"
"They're gonna pour it everywhere!"
Natsu looks up as he glares at the rat and the rat pours all the jelly to the village from the sky.
"How are we supposed to defend against this?" Lucy cries out.
"Everyone gather into the village center!" Natsu yells as he runs forward.
"Natus!" Lucy says wonder what he is doing.
"Happy, let's fly!" Natus says to his partner who summons his wings and flies towards Natsu.
"Aye sir!" Happy replies as Natsu leaps high into the air and Happy catches him before carrying him even higher.
"Someone carry Gray!" Sakura orders as she jumps on Latias' back and three villagers carry Gray to the center with the other villagers.
"I… I'm not moving from Bobo's grave!" The village chief says as he is on his knees in front of his son's grave.
"Chief! I understand how you feel, but…"
Meanwhile, Natsu and Happy fly closer to the jelly which is still in the air.
"With a flaming right hand and a flaming left hand… When you combine the flames together…" Natsu yells as he holds his hands above his head as a fireball forms and begins to grow in size. "I'll blow it away! Fire Dragon's Brilliant Flame!" He yells as Natsu throws the fireball. The attack impacts the jelly as it causes a massive explosion, blowing the jelly in the center of the mass outward.
Many of the villagers including Lucy cover their ears from the massive explosion while a few look up in awe the power of the explosion.
"Latias!" Sakura calls and Latias flies to the middle where the villagers and Lucy are gathered as Sakura takes the Mind Plate off from her glove.
"Sakura?!" Lucy calls as Sakura puts her hand up.
"Protect!" Sakura shouts as a turquoise force field appears above her for everyone in case any jelly doesn't fly outwards which as for a mass it showers outwards all around the village hitting everywhere else but the center. Then a massive blob of jelly finds itself traveling down towards the chief who is still at his son's grave as it then hits where he was.
"Chief!" One of the villagers yell as they all look over in shock, unable to see where the chief is due to the smoke from the acid jelly. Through the smoke, they see Virgo carrying the chief.
"The village chief presented for punishment." Virgo says.
"Virgo!" Lucy calls out in happiness.
The villagers see that all around their surroundings, the rest of the village is now gone, replacing by a deep crater all around as the small island the wizards and the villagers are on.
"The village is totally dissolved."
"How awful…"
"Is anybody hurt?"
Not far away in the crater, the grave marker of the chief's son manages to survive the ordeal.
"Bobo's grave…" The chief says.
Then the grave is kicked over by Yuka, causing the chief to widen his eyes in shock.
"We must eliminate all of Reitei-sama's enemies. Even after we tried to mercifully give them an instant death. It seems a lot of blood must be spilled." Sherry says with no remorse in her voice.
"Huh?" Natsu says with an angered look on his face.
"50 people in the village, three wizards with a strange creature. That should take at the most 15 minutes." Yuka says.
"Let's go!" Natsu says with determination.
"Yeah." Lucy agrees.
"Okay." Sakura also agrees.
"I'm going too! 4 wizards!" Happy says and Gray begins to regain consciousness.
"How dare they… How dare they destroy Bobo's grave! Unforgivable!" The chief yells as he attempts to attack the three but is stop by three of his villagers.
"You can't Chief!"
"We should all escape from here!"
"We'll get caught up in a fight between wizards!"
"No!" The chief yells in denial as he attempts to break free.
"Someone take the Chief!" One of the villagers orders as the other two take the chief away and run towards the opposite direction.
"I can fight too." Gray says weakly as he stands up.
"Gray, you regained consciousness?" Lucy asks.
"Get outta here. You'll be in my way." Natsu says.
"Natsu, don't underestimate me!" Gray retorts.
"Natsu is right, Gray! Your injuries haven't healed yet!" Sakura says when Natsu quickly rushes past him and give a punch into Gray's stomach.
"The injured should sleep it off." Natsu says as Sakura is shocked from his action.
"You bastard… Once day I'll… kill…" Gray attempts to say but falls into Natsu's arms and loses consciousness again.
"Isn't that a bit harsh, Natsu?" Sakura asks.
"Why'd he do that?" Lucy asks.
"That's just Natsu's compassion. Like Sakura said, Gray's not in any shape to fight now." Happy says.
"So that's the bond between Fairy Tail wizards…" Lucy says.
Natsu passes Gray to one of the villagers before looking at the three people in front of him.
"Take care of Gray, okay?" Lucy asks as one of the villagers carries Gray over his shoulders.
"Leave him to us. Okay, let's go!" The villager says to the others and they all head off somewhere safe.
"We won't let you escape. Reitei-sama has orders to wipe you all out." Sherry says. "Angelica!" She calls as the giant rat squeaks in agreement before doing a jump flip backwards as its tail turns to a rotor which holds it up to fly in the air. Sherry then jumps up into the rat's hands as it flies over Natsu, Sakura, and Latias.
"I'm a member of Fairy Tail too!" Lucy yells as she does something with the rat low enough as it flies over their heads. Lucy grabs onto one of its toes causing her to scream out in shock realizing what she just did. "I got all gung-ho and grabbed on!"
"Yup, she's an idiot." Happy says.
"She's nuts!" Natus says as he too is shocked.
"Stop this instant! Don't lay a claw on the villagers!" Lucy sys as she punching the massive toe of the giant rat to stop it.
"Who does she think she is?" Sherry questions.
"How about this?" Lucy says as she begins to tickle the rat's foot.
"That's not going to work, you know." Sherry says and the rat begins to laugh from Lucy's tickling. "Angelica?" The rat's tail stop spinning as it clutches its stomach to laugh. "What are you doing? If you stop your tail…" Then the rat begins to fall as Sherry cry out.
"It worked!" Lucy exclaims and notices she still on the rat's tow. "I'm falling too!"
Natsu, Sakura, and Latias watch the rat crashes into the forest with Lucy and Sherry causing them to sweatdrop at what just happened.
"Someone's gonna be ticked…" Yuka says.
"I'm not ticked!" Toby yells.
"Not you, idiot." Yuka replies.
"She okay, you think? Hope she's not crushed." Natsu says.
"She'd be dead if she was crushed. I'll go take a look." Happy says as summons his wings and takes off in the same direction.
"Right. Countin' on ya." Natsu says to his partner.
"Wait. I'll go too! Latias." Sakura calls and Latias' begins to follow Happy with Sakura on her back.
As Latias is flying towards where the rat had landed, Sakura looks around to search for Lucy.
"Lucy. Where are you?" Sakura mutters and sees Taurus has Lucy pinned to the ground. "Latias. Over there!" She points to where Lucy is as Latias looks at the location.
"Let's play Russian Roulette Punch, shall we? Close your eyes and punch!" Sherry orders as she enjoys this.
Taurus raises his right hand and prepares to throw another punch down on Lucy before throwing it. However, Lucy moves her head to dodge the punch.
"I wonder how low you'll be able to dodge?" Sherry says.
Taurus raises his fist and punches Lucy again, but Lucy dodges.
"Taurus, stop it!" Lucy cries out.
"I want to stop, but…" Taurus says and throws down another punch towards Lucy, only then to be rammed into a multicolored dragon-shaped beam.
"Lucy, are you all right?" Sakura asks and Lucy looks up as she sees Sakura and Latias.
"Sakura. Latias." Lucy calls.
When Latias floats down to the ground, Sakura jumps off and looks at Sherry.
"You… the wizard with the creature back at the ruins." Sherry says and takes out a crystal ball. "We were given this in case if we encounter creatures like the one beside you."
"A crystal ball?" Lucy says.
"I don't think that's just it." Sakura says.
Just then, the crystal ball shines, blinding Sakura and Lucy before the light dies down. Sakura and Lucy open their eyes and notice that nothing has happened to them.
"Nothing happened to us." Lucy points out.
"I wonder about that." Sherry says and Sakura sees Latias turns around, facing her.
"Latias?" Sakura calls and sees Latias' eyes are glowing red. "What's wrong, Latias?"
Latias' eyes then turn light blue as blue outlines appear around Sakura's body before Sakura flies backwards towards the trees behind her and falls down.
"Sakura!" Lucy calls out and Sakura stands up.
"Latias… what's wrong with you?" Sakura asks.
"I simply made it my servant with this." Sherry says showing the crystal ball. "This crystal ball can control only creatures like your companion."
"No way…" Lucy trails off.
"Don't be so confident if I were you." Sakura tells Sherry.
"What?" Sherry says.
"Our bond won't be broken like this!" Sakura exclaims and turns to Latias before coming towards her. "Latias! Listen to my voice!" Latias again uses Psychic on Sakura towards the tree again. However, Sakura continues to approach her. "Please Latias, don't listen to her! Don't you remember all the fun times together! Before I became a trainer, you were the only pokemon who played with me in the forest and we made a promise that when I became a trainer, I would pick you up at that place." Latias eyes slowly becomes normal as the crystal ball in Sherry's hand begins to have cracks. "I fulfilled that promise and we went on an adventure with Vent and Tsubasa in Kalos. All the battles we have together, the encounters, everything we did together." More cracks appear on the crystal ball as Sakura is in front of Latias before Sakura hugs Latias. "Latias, you're my partner. No one can change that."
Sherry hears something and looks down sees that the crystal ball is breaking apart. "What?!"
Latias' eyes stop glowing red and Sakura hears Latias' voice before she breaks the hug to look at her.
"Latias?" She calls and Latias nods her head. Immediately, Sakura smiles broadly and hugs Latias again. "Latias!"
"Impossible… how did you break my control?" Sherry asks.
"You thought that I tamed Latias this whole time, but that's not it. Latias is my partner. Our bond brought back her senses." Sakura replies.
"But I still have Taurus in my control." Sherry says and Taurus charges towards Sakura and Latias.
"Sakura! Latias!" Lucy cries out as Sakura and Latias move away from each other from Taurus attack.
"Let's go, Latias!" Sakura says and Latias nods. "Dragon Breath!"
Latias fires a light blue beam of energy from her mouth at Taurus but Taurus uses his axe to block the move before he swings it at Sakura.
"Taurus, stop it!" Lucy pleads out trying to break through him.
"Psychic!" Sakura orders and light blue outlines appear around Taurus body, making him to stop moving. However, Taurus resists the hold as he tries to move his arms. "Taurus, you have to stop this!"
"I wish I could…" Taurus says and manages to move his arms downward, about to slash Sakura and Latias. At that moment, Lucy gets in front of them.
"Taurus! Please stop!" She yells as she extends her arms out to protect the two.
"Lucy!" Sakura calls
"Please! Remember your contract with me, Taurus! You told me that'd you'd always protect me, remember?!"
"Hey, what are you hesitating for?! Do what I say and destroy them!" Sherry yells in anger.
Taurus stops his axe, struggling to regain control of his body.
"Celestial Gates should be opened and closed by mutual agreement! Come to your senses, Taurus!" Lucy yells and Taurus continues to swing his axe at Lucy.
"Lucy!" Sakura cries out in horror and at the last second, the axe stop an inch away from her face. Lucy, who had her eyes closed, opens them, and looks up to see Taurus' eyes are back to normal and he begins to glow as the she forces the gate closed with a smile on Taurus' face before he disappears.
Sherry then gasps in shock at what she has just seen.
"I… I did it…" Lucy trails off.
"I can't believe there was a Celestial Wizard who could do that. I miscalculated." Sherry says.
"I've reached a new level!" Lucy says.
"You did it, Lucy." Sakura says and Lucy turns around sees Sakura and Latias.
"Yeah. Thanks for not hurting Taurus."
"No problem. Now then…" Sakura trails off and the three looks at Sherry as Lucy pulls out her whip. "We just need to deal with her."
"Okay!" Lucy agrees and Latias nods.