Iron in the Stars
AN: Story is my idea, but I do not own anything Fairy Tail.
Chapter 24: Power of the Lacrima
"There is no way you are taking us in the right direction!" We were walking for two days and finally hit somewhere with civilization, but not the civilization I was expecting. When I say we were in the nice part of town I wasn't exaggerating. The houses were acres apart, because the lands themselves were acres. Neatly trimmed grass, fountains, expensive statues, even hedges that were weirdly shaped into animal shapes. I sniffed the air to see if I could get a whiff of anything familiar and just like every other time, I couldn't.
"No, I'm positive, we are were we need to be. I'm just trying to remember which place it was in." I was shocked by his words. He was in one of these places? We were stopped on top of a hill overlooking the area and could see about eight places in total. They were spread out so they weren't close together.
"We'll, we can always split up and go into each one?" Laxus said this cautiously and I knew he didn't like that plan, but it was efficient. We had thirteen of us in total, eight of us and then the five Exceeds.
"Instead, how about we take to the sky and try to find anything from above? We can scout the houses out for a bit and if, or when, we find something we can come back to you." Pantherlily's idea was the best so far. The only thing that concerned me was that I couldn't feel any magical presence in the area except for us. Either this mages hideout wasn't here or they had spells that hid it completely. If they did that I didn't want the Exceeds anywhere near it. We had no way of knowing if there were any traps set up.
"We have to proceed with extreme caution, we have no idea what we are actually dealing with." The Exceeds nodded at me.
"Fro thinks so too!"
"We should go in pairs, Carla you can come with me." Happy grabbed a hold of Carla's paw and I watched as she blushed. Silly Exceeds.
"That's probably a good idea. Happy and Carla go together, Lector and Frosch go together, and I will go by myself seeing as I have more battle experience." After we agreed to the plan the Exceeds took off in the direction of different properties.
"We need a plan of attack when we do find what we want. We have no idea how many people our enemy has." Of course Erza was right, but honestly, I didn't give a shit. I just wanted my Bunny back.
"I think we need to just need to go in and take them all out! I'm all fired up! Hey, ow!" Laxus zapped Natsu in annoyance and walked closer to the top of the hill looking over the lands.
"I actually agree with both of you. We don't know what to expect, but we need to take them down. We know he has at least one other slayer in there. Sting, I really wish you were able to see more of the place." Laxus crouched on the ground taking a minute to relax knowing full well that they had a fight in their near future. Everyone else followed suit waiting for some sort of sign from the Exceeds.
"I'm sorry guys, really, I wish I could be more helpful. Whatever that crystal did to me it made me just do what I was commanded to do. In the back of my head I knew that I was doing things I didn't want to be doing, but I couldn't will myself to just stop. My main task was to just go out a scout for potential members to his group. I personally didn't find anyone and don't know if they had to over go any type of testing if anyone else had. He kept spouting about finding Dragon Slayers." Rogue dropped his hand on Sting's shoulder to show some comfort.
"No one is blaming you. It just royally sucks that we are going in blind." After that we all sat there quietly. I thought about everything that's happened recently and knew that no matter what, Lucy, was coming home with me today. I would talk to her and make her my mate as soon as possible. I couldn't fathom spending another day without her. It wasn't long before the Exceeds starting making their way back.
"Did you guys find anything?" Laxus was the first one up as the Exceeds came back.
"No, I didn't see anything out of the ordinary. What about you guys?" Pantherlily seemed disappointed and I understood. I felt the same way with his response.
Lector went to speak next but Happy interrupted him. "I think I found something strange you guys." Natsu's fists started on fire, as he excitedly got ready for a fight. Dumbass had no control. We waited for him to continue. "It's not much, but it seemed like there was a few men walking the perimeter at the house at the far end near the forest's edge. I mean, they could have just been going on a walk and having a conversation, but I just got a gut feeling." I looked over at Laxus.
"What do you think?" Laxus exhaled slowly and nodded.
"I'm sure it means something. I mean, Sting brought us over here and I trust his judgment. I'm also ready to bring my sister home. How do you guys want to do this? Personally, I think we should split into two teams and one can take the front as the other take the back. It's the only way that covers the grounds the best. I don't want to split up too much and leave us open to an attack with those crystals." Everyone nodded their heads and voiced their agreement.
"In that case lets split up. I will go with Laxus, Erza, Rogue, Pantherlily and Frosch. Natsu you will go with Gray, Sting, Wendy, Happy, Lector, and Carla. Please, and I beg you, please, get out of sight of those lacrimas and that guy with the crystal. If you do end up going against him be careful and don't let it pull you in." I growled out the last bit. Personally I was hoping that I got that guy. With Laxus, Erza, and me we would easily be a powerhouse and hard to take down.
"Stay strong you guys." Laxus wished everyone good luck as we went our separate way. We decided to go through the back. We silently made our way towards the tree line surrounding the back of the land. As soon as we came in contact with the lands I looked over at the others.
"You feel the magical barrier as well, correct?" They nodded towards me and I sighed before attempting to put my hand through the barrier. I was terrified to see what would happen. For all I knew the barrier could take my hand clean off. I slowly crept my hand closer and closer until I felt the vibrations just barely off of my fingertips. It was no or never. I pushed my hand into it and waited for the pain to pierce through me. It never came though. I pushed further and still nothing. Huh. Well, that was anticlimactic. I gave the others an encouraging nod and we walked forward. We were in the clear to move on.
"I can't imagine this guy has too many people in his, whatever you want to call it, if he had the others scouting for more people. Hell, they may even be out scouting and he might have the bare minimum here." There was something sitting in the back of my head that hoped Erza was right, but I knew she wasn't. I mean taking Bunny had consequences and we were already sure that crystal dude knew we would eventual come for her. Sure, he seemed cocky, but from what I understood, he had a right to be.
"I smell someone coming." Rogue paused and got into a fighting stance. It must have been the two men that were walking the perimeter. As soon as they saw us they got defensive. I watched as Pantherlily became larger and stand next to the rest of us. Fro stood next to the tree to try and watch the fight without getting hurt. It was five against two I wasn't too concerned in this fight.
"Surrender and you wont be hurt." Erza stepped forward. Their eyes glowed purple and I knew that meant that they wouldn't surrender. They weren't built to surrender. They were built to follow command and direction. They must have thought so too because the next thing I knew one of them called out two very sharp looking swords and the other made the ground tremble below us. I watched as Erza called her swords forth and charged for the other yielder. I was about to go attack the other man, but I felt the ground below me automatically come up and push me back.
Rogue and Pantherlily were the only one that didn't get swept away with the earth mage's attack. I watched as Rogue's shadows enveloped the man and take away his breath and Pantherlily swung his sword down on the guy. A boulder got between Pantherlily's sword and the mage. I heard him curse as the boulder also cornered Rogue. I tried to get up and help him, but felt as though I was trapped into the ground. I made my arm into metal and started to crack the ground that I was stuck in. I could see Laxus doing the same with his lighting magic.
I could see Erza being toe to toe with her opponent as well. I thought back to when I had the lacrima inside of me and how much more powerful I was. These weren't dragon slayers, but they were clearly stronger than most plus they were ruthless with their attacks because their own lives were being overridden by orders. I felt the ground crack below me and I was finally able to move again. I ran over being more cautious this time and started to scream out attacks.
"Iron Dragon Lance!" As soon as my lance went out I heard Laxus send a roar as well. We were trying to double attack him. I watched Rogue's shadows move out of the way quickly to not get attacked as well and I made a mental note to apologize for almost hitting him as well. Our attacks hit him square in the chest and he fell to the ground about fifteen feet away.
Rogue was already helping Erza with her battle as Laxus and I walked closer to the earth mage. We watched him grab at the dirt and felt it start to tremble again. "Iron Dragon's Foot blade!" I locked myself into the ground so I would go flying again. I watched as Pantherlily grabbed on to Erza so she wouldn't fly as well. The only one who wasn't so lucky was Laxus, but he easily expected the attack this time and jumped up into a tree to avoid the hit. The guy did us a favor though because his own guy got trapped into the ground. I barked out a laugh as Erza fell to the ground and easily knocked him out with the end of her sword. Well, one down and one to go.
The only trouble with this earth mage was that we couldn't get to him. "This is so fucking annoying! Every time we would start to get close to him he would block us with some sort of boulder, mud wall, or push us back. Pantherlily and Rogue tried getting close by flight, but that didn't even work because he would just turn to mud and disappear which was the current problem. The mage was missing. He disappeared and no one knew where he was. We kept our senses going, but his scent was everywhere. It was as if he was the ground. "What the fuck!" I heard Laxus growl. Rogue kept flying around with his shadow magic and it wasn't until I heard a pained scream that I turned. My face went white when I did though.
"Titania!" The earth mage finally made his appearance and when he did he shut up from the ground behind Erza and stabbed her. I could see the point of the knife sticking out of her and watched her fall as soon as the knife was pulled out and he was gone again.
"Panterlily, get her out of here!" This was good. I closed my eyes and felt the ground. I was happy that I did because I felt a very small change behind me and jumped up before the same thing could happen to me. "Dragon Slayers Roar!" My roar hit him hard and he slammed into the tree getting knocked out instantly. "Laxus, get those lacrimas out of them and tie them up with some of that magic cancelling rope that we brought, will you?"
I jogged over to Erza. Shit, she didn't look good at all. Rogue was putting pressure on her wound, but we wouldn't be able to do anything until Wendy was back with us. "I can try and stop the bleeding with my shadow acting as a bandage, but I would have to stay with here."
"Pantherlily will stay and watch your back then. If there is any trouble you two can handle it together. Frosch are you going to stay behind too?"
"Frosch think so, yes." I nodded.
"Please keep my nakama alive and be safe here. Back off into the trees so you're not visible in the open." He nodded towards me and I walked back over to Laxus. He was just breaking the lacrima balls that he forced out of the two mages. "It's just us moving on."
"Well that sucks, but I understand. Do you think she will be okay?" I looked back as we walked closer to the mansion.
"I hope so." It was silent again as we made our way into the back door. We looked around the back entry and there was no one around. We walked on high alert not know what to expect. I heard an explosion towards the west side of the mansion and sighed loudly face palming. "Fucking Natsu. I mean you tell him to be silent and not draw attention and he comes in like a bomb. How is that silent?" Laxus chuckled softly, but I could tell he was just as annoyed.
"He's not very sneaky at all, you're right about that." I looked upstairs to the voice and noticed a man with a cloak on. "We have not met. This is my home and it is very nice to have you hear. My name is Marcone." I automatically went on high alert and was about to attack when Laxus grabbed my arm and kept me back.
"Be smart Metal head! Where is Lucy?" Laxus demanded the information, but didn't move near the guy. He smiled down at us.
"You will see her soon enough, no worries I did not harm here, she is very important to me. I mean she greatly exceeded my expectations. I knew that she meant a lot to you slayers, but I didn't imagine that she would bring me almost all of them. Because of her my army will soon be at full power." What the fuck was this guy talking about?
"What the hell army are you talking about? I want to see my Lucy, where the fuck is she?" His eyes looked amused at me almost like he was taunting me.
"Your Lucy, then you must be the one who wishes to mate with her. I will not stand in your way. I will encourage that union in fact. The passion you two will share will be beneficial on the battlefield together. The army however will have to be discussed at a later time though. Don't be so impatient, I really dislike repeating myself, I have already said that she will be here shortly. She is preparing to see you guys." He looked over to a closed door that started to make its way open.
"Actually, I am here." My heart instantly dropped. Her eyes glowed a vibrant purple color and I could see a scar covering the right side of her head near her temple.
"Fuck, Gaj, she's different." Laxus whispered to me.
"I can see he took control of her already." I was beyond annoyed.
"No, I mean, that scar. I think he forced a legit lacrima in her. Not one of the power-up lacrimas that Sting was talking about." I stopped breathing for a moment. Did that mean we couldn't take it out of her?
"You are very clever Laxus. You are absolutely correct. My lacrimas work better when I have dragon lacrimas in their hosts. Not everyone can handle them though. That is why I have lacrima balls for the hosts that aren't strong enough for them. I do believe Lady Lucy here underestimated me." I watched as Lucy sat on the stairs waiting for her command and just watched us. "You see if it wasn't for her ancestry the slayers would not exist. It was her ancestor who created the art of these lacrimas. I had one specifically for a stellar mage and I knew I needed her along with the other slayers. So I gave her the magic to be a slayer if she so chose. After that it was easy to force her will."
"There is no way, she is the strongest person I know when it comes to will!" I screamed at him in anger.
"Well, she was very strong will and I was almost scared that it wouldn't work, but pain has its way of making the will sing to me. If it weren't for the lacrima it would not have worked. However, I was persistent and now her will belongs to me. If you would like to surrender you wont have to fight her. I guarantee you she will when. She was already strong before the lacrima, but I know she can much more now. If not I will have her take you both out and you will be mine anyway. So it is up to you how you would like to do this." He smiled down at us with an evil look on his face knowing that he had us stuck. I couldn't hurt her, I just couldn't but if I wanted her back, I would have to.
"Laxus, I don't know if I can." He growled at me
"We have to. She is our Kin. She is your mate! Are you going to let this man control her? You know as well as I that we have to break his control. This isn't like Sting. He is right here. We just need to kill him." I growled at him in pure rage for what he did to my bunny.
"I'm sorry, but I can't let you do that." Lucy stood up and slowly started to walk down the stairs. I watched as orbs started to appear around her and her keys started to glow. I automatically felt an intense amount of magic and knew this would be a fight I didn't want to have.
"Bunny." I whispered before I got into a fighting stance.
AN: Thanks for all the awesome reviews you guys! I know I've been leaving a lot of cliffs in this story and I really want to thank you for sticking it out. There is only two MAYBE three more chapters to this story. I love every time I get a new follower or favorite. It honestly pushes me to write. I'm pretty sure I've previously stated it, but I have another story that I have been outlining that is a NALU AU. I honestly can't wait to write it. I don't want it halting this story though so I won't even start it until this is down.
I wish you all the best and I will see you next weekend or sooner. I am off of work tomorrow and have some house chores to do so I might be able to get some more of the story done.