Chapter 11

Fire vs. Water

"Are you sure you're ready for this?"

"It's the only way we're going to get stronger. If we're going to protect this world, then we need to learn to coordinate our attacks. We're not going to be going up against normal wizards. We're going up against something much bigger. Not to mention, dangerous."

"I'm not going to go easy on you, you know?"

"Yeah, I know that. And I don't want you to. Our adversaries won't go easy on us. The only way for us to get better so we can face them is to go at each other with full force."

"Fine, if you say so. Then let us begin."

SPLASH!

"AUGH!"

Alu screamed in alarm as a sudden cold wave of water hit her like a sack of bricks, causing her to wake up in a panic. Her eyes snapped open and she soon found herself tumbling off a large boulder, down a small dirt slope, and into the shallows of a stream with a large "SPLASH". Less than a second later, she shot out of water, coughing and spluttering. Her nose burned horribly, like someone had just struck the inside of her nostrils with lightning. She rubbed her hands all over her face, hoping that could fight off the pain.

"Oh crap, I got water up my nose!" she moaned.

She then turned around angrily.

"Okay, where's the punk who did that?!" she shouted.

"Get up, scruff munchkin!" a harsh, moody voice barked.

Alu snapped her head around and scowled up at the one who had spoken to her so harshly. Aquarius was floating above her with an annoyed expression on her face.

"What's the big idea, Aquarius?!" Alu yelled, shaking her fist in the air. "You tryin' to drown me?!"

"Hey, that's the only way to wake a heavy sleeper." Aquarius sneered. "Although it is a pity that you didn't drown."

Alu leapt to her feet, her whole body dripping with water. She tensed with anger and irritation. She was already in a bad mood from having a rude awakening. So any little snide remark that Aquarius would make would be enough to aggravate her even more. If Aquarius thought Alu was going to take her abuse lying down, or even so much as cower at her moody disposition, then that Water Spirit had another thing coming.

Alu didn't back down from anyone, Celestial Spirit or otherwise.

"You better watch it, you Psycho Fish-Face!" she shouted.

Aquarius's eyes flashed in anger, "What did you call me?!"

"You heard me!" Alu replied boldly. "I don't care how bad your attitude is! I'm not afraid of you! Just try to knock down, I dare ya! I'll just strike back even harder!"

"I'd like to see you try!" Aquarius raged. "Water puts out fire, you know!"

"My fire's different, ya know!" Alu shot back. "And I fight Ur all the time! She's a Water Wizard! I know how to dodge and deflect all kinds of water-based attacks!"

"But you've never gone up against my power!" Aquarius pointed out. "I could easily wash you away with the tide!"

"Oh, so you're using that threat on me like you did with my mom, huh?!" Alu glared. "Well, guess what: that ain't gonna to work on me!"

At the mention of Lucy, Aquarius flinched. For a brief moment, Alu could've sworn that she saw a tiny hint of emotional pain in the Water Spirit's face. But it could've just been her imagination. For it was quickly replaced by a deep scowl that was directed at the young wizard.

"YOU BETTER WATCH THAT MOUTH OF YOURS OR I'LL TURN YOU INTO A DROWNED CORSPE!" Aquarius screeched.

That's when Alu felt the water at her ankles begin swirl around violently. She looked down for a second and saw that the stream she was standing in was about to erupt. It was a good thing for Alu that she had quick reflexes. She leapt out of the way just as a pillar of water exploded from the spot she was standing. If she hadn't done that in time, she would've been sent clear up into the sky.

Probably all the way up to heaven, too.

After dodging the attack, Alu summersaulted in the air before landing onto the large boulder she had been sleeping before. Then, with a cry of rage, she launched herself from the rock, her fist blazing with Dragon Slayer fire.

"FIRE DRAGON IRON FIST!"

Before Aquarius had the time to dodge, Alu brought her fist down and punched the Water Spirit square on the cheek. This caused the Celestial Spirit to grimace in pain and slide back a few feet. She winced and brought her hand up to nurse the bruise on her face. Alu landed gracefully back on her feet before straightening herself up and taking a fighting stance.

Aquarius fixed Alu with a near-death glare and snarled.

"Don't say I didn't warn you!" Alu challenged. "I'm the one person who's not afraid to stand up to people like you!"

"And I'm not afraid of knocking out brats like you!" Aquarius rebuked.

The Water Spirit shot a stream of water out from her silver urn. This time, it came on so hard and fast that Alu didn't have time to react. The water hit her with so much force that it felt like an ice-burg rammed her in the chest and stomach. The blast sent her flying back and she slammed right into the thick trunk of a tree. Alu gasped as pain shot through her back like a hundred needles. The impact stunned her for a moment and she grimaced in discomfort. However, it wasn't long before she was back on her feet and darting back towards Aquarius with vicious strength.

"I thought it was forbidden for Celestial Spirits to take the life of their key holders!" Alu yelled angrily. "What makes you think you could get away by threatening them?!"

Aquarius shot out a whip of water from her urn and shot back, "Well, whatever happened to treating your Spirits with respect?! Didn't your parents teach you any manners?!"

"I've got manners!" Alu rebuked, ducking below the oncoming attack with ease. "And I treat my Spirits with respect! But I'll knock them down if they disrespect me or my family! Just ask Taurus!"

Once Alu was in range of Aquarius, her feet lit up with fire and she jumped.

"FIRE DRAGON TALON!"

With a spin, Alu round-housed kicked Aquarius's urn right out of her hands. The shiny container soared through the air, turning over and over as it did. It eventually landed heavily in a bed of green grass.

"You little…!" Aquarius snarled.

She was quickly cut off by Alu's other leg kicking her in the side, knocking her to the ground. Alu gracefully landed on both of her feet, giving a triumphant battle stance.

"It's great to have two legs!" Alu taunted with a wicked grin. "Makes it twice as easy to kick people's butts!"

Aquarius suddenly swung around and her tailfin knocked Alu's ankles out from under her, causing the girl to lose her balance and fall onto her side. Alu winced and groaned as she made contact with the hard ground.

"Don't get too cocky, scruff munchkin!" Aquarius warned, getting back up. "Letting your guard down will get you killed!"

"My name's not scruff munchkin!" Alu retorted, rushing up to Aquarius. "It's Alu!"

Alu then swung her fist in an attempt to punch Aquarius again, but the Water Spirit was ready for that. Aquarius caught Alu's wrist and kept her fist away from her face. Alu brought her other fist up to try and uppercut Aquarius. Once again, the Celestial Spirit grabbed her wrist with her other hand. Alu tried to force her fists in their intended directions, but Aquarius proved to be stronger than she had previously thought. She kept Alu's attacks at bay. When Alu tried to wrench herself free, Aquarius's firm grasp prevented that, too.

"What'd I tell you?!" Aquarius snarled. "Fire can't beat water! And you call yourself a Dragon Slayer! Your flames barely scratched me! They're just pathetic!"

At the statement, Alu's eyes flashed with raging fire. With a cry of anger, her whole body suddenly lit up in a blazing inferno of pale flames.

Aquarius managed to see that coming and immediately let of of the girl's wrists. She backed away as Alu's flames got even more intense. She was lucky she got away in time before her hands were burned. She gave a look of concerned confusion when she saw the young girl's face.

Alu scowled at Aquarius with contorted fury. And the fire blazing around her only added a hostile emphasis to that. It caused her hair to whip around wildly, and her cloths ruffled sharply within the flames as if they were part of them, too. The fire around her was so intense that Aquarius could feel the waves of heat radiating from it.

"NEVER INSULT MY FLAMES AGAIN!" Alu roared. "THESE AREN'T JUST MY FLAMES! THEY WERE GIVEN TO ME BY MY FATHER! I DON'T CARE IF YOU ARE A CELESTIAL SPIRIT, I WON'T LET YOU INSULT HIM, OR MY MOTHER!"

Aquarius stared at Alu for a second or two. She then narrowed her eyes a bit and prepared herself to attack again. Alu responded by shifting her position into a fighting stance. Both of them had just gotten serious about taking the other down.

However, before they could even so much as charge at each other, Aries suddenly came running out of the forest and got between the two of them, holding a wide-spread hand out to each of them like some crossing guard trying to stop two Magic mobiles from colliding.

"What are you doing, Aries?!" Aquarius demanded. "Get out of the way!"

But Aries didn't move. She was trembling from the fear of being in the line of fire, but she somehow found the courage to stand her ground.

"Alu! Aquarius! Please stop it!" she desperately pleaded. "This isn't the time to be fighting each other! We have to get to the Valley of Gates and we only have three days to do so!"

There was an unsteady pause.

Alu grimaced when she looked into Aries's frightened face and felt a nasty jab in her chest. As much as she wanted to teach that arrogant Aquarius a lesson, the last thing she wanted to do was hurt Aries in the process. At this point, there was a good chance that the Golden Ram Spirit would be caught up in the fight.

Finally, the Fairy Tail Wizard took a deep breath and relax. Her fiery aura slowly disappeared back into her body and she stood tall. She lowered her head just a bit and closed her eyes. Her expression was very serious, but it was hard to tell if it was from irritation, guilt, or both. Either way, she showed that she no longer had the will to fight at the moment.

"You're right, Aries," she said in low voice. "We're just wasting time here."

Aquarius lowered her arms to her sides and raised an eyebrow. So many things happened at once that she didn't quite know what to think of them. To start, this was one of the rare times that she had ever seen Aries stand up to anyone before. She had always seen Aries a shy, quiet person who would break down at the thought of standing up for herself, especially against her key holder. But now, the Ram Spirit stood up not just to Alu, but Aquarius, too.

Aquarius gave an ambiguous expression, almost like she was mildly pleased. However, neither Alu nor Aries noticed.

"By the way," Alu said to Aries, "where were you?"

"I just went to see where we were." Aries explained. "I'm sorry for going off on my own without telling anyone. I just didn't want to wake you up since I knew how tired you were."

"Ah, don't worry about it." Alu shrugged. "So, did you find out where we are?"

"Well," Aries replied, "from what I found, we are about one mile away from the city of Onibus. Do you want to stop there to get some more provisions before we head out again? I noticed that you didn't have much when we left, and it would be bad if there was an emergency that we weren't prepared for it."

"Hmm." Alu said thoughtfully. "That's probably a good idea. Might as well since we're close by. However, you and Aquarius should probably wait in the woods. I don't think people will react too well when two Celestial Spirits just casually stroll into town."

Aries nodded in agreement while Aquarius folded her arms and looked away with distain, giving an irritated scoff.

"I'll be in and out of Onibus as quickly as I can, and I won't be there for more than an hour." Alu promised. "It shouldn't take me that long to find what I'll need anyway."

"Just don't take your sweet time like you did last night, okay." Aquarius said contemptuously. "In case you've forgotten, Aries and I are on a time limit and we still have three-days worth of travel time to cover. We've already lost precious time thanks to you."

Alu scowled, showing her teeth.

"You're the one who started the fight!" she snapped. "I was just finishing it! Now let's get moving!"

With that, Alu gathered up her backpack and the group set out towards the edge of the forest, towards the city of Onibus. Alu walked a few yards in the front, clenching her fists and gritting her teeth with boiling impatience. Right now, she was having deep loathing for the snobby Water Spirit. All she did was use her attitude to push people around and make them fearful of her. How Alu's mother could ever consider her a friend was beyond the girl entirely.

Well, one thing was for sure, that wasn't going to work on Alu. Aquarius could threaten her all she wanted and the young wizard would still be unfazed. And if that arrogant Celestial Spirit ever did try to wash her away with the tide, then she would get another thing coming. Alu would just swim up from the depths and give that fish-lady a fist full of her Dragon Slayer Magic.

When she was far enough of ahead of the two Celestial Spirits so that they couldn't hear her, she mumbled grudgingly to herself, "When this is all over I'm gonna to kick that mermaid's butt all over Magnolia!"

An hour later, Onibus Station…

The train the Fairy Tail wizards were riding on slowed down and gradually came to a stop in the terminal. Natsu, Lucy, and the others all got off and regrouped at the entrance. Once they were all together, Erza took charge of the situation.

"Okay, here's the plan," she said commandingly. "We're going to spread out and see if we can find any clues as to whether Alu was here or not. Keep your eyes and ears open for any information that might pinpoint us to her location. And for you Dragon Slayers, use your noses to try and pick up her scent. If anyone finds anything, they are to inform the others immediately."

"Got it!" everyone replied, nodding in unison

"Then let's get searching."

With that, the search-party split up into five groups to look for the little runaway wizard girl. Lucy and Happy went with Erza to search near the theater; Gray and Ash went to check the outer district; Wendy, Romeo, and Carla went to park; and Gajeel took his daughter Carol to the main marketplace.

Natsu was the only one who decided to go solo for a while. At the moment, he had a lot on his mind and he just needed some space to help sort it all out. As much as he tried to concentrate on the task at hand, his thoughts kept getting in the way of his goal.

The thing that had been haunting him the whole time was what would happen when they found Alu. Would she go back with them? Or would they have to drag her back to Magnolia kicking and screaming? And would they be able to keep her from running away again?

Natsu narrowed his eyes when he realized that he couldn't be sure until Alu was found. He would have to put those worries away for now. He would confront them later, if any of them should occur.

"Okay, Natsu," he said to himself, closing his eyes and thinking hard, "time to focus. If I was Alu, where would I be?"

Considering that Alu knew that Natsu was a Dragon Slayer and had keen senses, Natsu deduced that she would most likely want to be somewhere where she could drown out her scent and voice. She would also want to be someplace where she could blend in with a large crowd as much as possible. So, his best chances of finding her would have to be in places where there was lots of people.

Even then, he would have to be careful and be on high alert. He would have to focus on singling out Alu, but he would also have make sure Alu didn't sense him first. Alu's Dragon senses were just as strong as his were. If she really was avoiding him, she would most likely escape if she discovered him before he discovered her. Natsu knew from first-hand experience that Alu was a fast little girl. He had to make sure he found her before she could have the chance to run.

"I guess I should check in the most crowded areas first." Natsu said out loud. "Hopefully she's somewhere in this town. That would certainly make things a lot easier."

With that, Natsu set out on his mission.