Chapter Three: the Magic of Mystery
There was fire, oh boy. Fire clouded the area of which the three Dragonslayers of team Flying Dragon awoke. "Ugh… Salamander-" coughed the Iron Dragonslayer, Gajeel Redfox. The raven-haired mage's eyes were immensely watering due to the smoke in the air. Gajeel could only imagine how Wendy, the Sky Dragonslayer, who relied solely on the air, was handling such a situation.
Yet, before the Dragonslayers had to worry about such, the embers which surrounded them began flowing circularly toward the middle of a large magic circle that belonged to, none other than, Natsu Dragneel. Or, as Gajeel referred to him as, the Salamander. Natsu, as always, was one step ahead of the rest when it came to the fire Element – as it was the one he specialised in – and was already inhaling all the embers. As soon as they had disappeared, Natsu looked as though he was as full as a beast. "I was already on it," he declared as he threw the iron Dragonslayer an ice-cold glare.
Immediately, all Dragonslayers caught the scent of their Exceeds and found them, caressing their soft fur. Wendy and Carla exchanged tears, Pantherlily and Gajeel exchanged arguments as always, but then there was Natsu. Natsu was not focused on Happy now that he had found him. But, Natsu had remembered that Lucy came running after him as the airship fell out of the sky, he had seen it. It was almost made obvious that Natsu was trying to find Lucy.
Natsu had caught a familiar scent. One that he had gotten skills to identify IMMEDIATELY. It was Lucy's scent. Natsu, being the man that he was, was already running in the direction that he could smell her scent. Panic shot through his veins as he was looking around. "LUCY!" he bellowed as he ran. Thoughts ran wild in his head whilst he tried to find the location of Lucy. He had to follow her scent, it didn't matter the cost of life or limb what would happen. He needed to find her. His sixth (yes, he did have a sixth sense) justified that she was in danger. How? That much the sixth sense couldn't state.
The temptation and worrying was building up in him. Why wasn't she there? Why wasn't she by his side? Why was he unable to protect her? He felt horrid due to that fact. He wanted to protect her. He wanted to keep her from breaking. Could he just do that much? Apparently, he couldn't.
Where was she?
Where was she?
Who did it?
WHO did it?
Whoever or whatever it was, Natsu was going to find out and he was going to get rid of them. He couldn't tolerate the fact that she was taken away from his side by a bunch of cunts. He just couldn't deal with it.
Never again would he let any of his family be taken away from him like that. Not again. He just couldn't allow it EVER AGAIN. He had made it his mission to do so. It was why he left for that year – to make himself stronger for every single one of his friends. Just to have them taken away from him again? He wouldn't allow it.
~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~MEANWHILE: WHERE LUCY WAS~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~
The lights were bright. They shun bright in the young face, and eyes, of the Celestial Spirit Wizard. It was so bright that it had caused her to cringe heavily. "Ugh…" Lucy panted as she became aware of what had been in her surroundings. The twinkles of lights that would usually cloud one's vision after quite an extenuating amount of time in the dark certainly clouded the vision of Lucy Heartfilia, and in that moment, it wouldn't be of much help to her.
"Looks like she's waking up…" stated a voice nearby. It was low, and sounded not at all familiar. Could it have been a thief?
"Yeah… Busty blonde is finally up, now we can get back to business," stated another, more feminine voice. Again, she hadn't recognized the voice. Voice to name – no.
What business are they talking about? Lucy had pondered to herself in fear. Yet, she didn't have much time to ponder or fear, as her chin was immediately jerked. The doe-brown eyes of hers immediately shot open. She couldn't recognize the voice. Or the face.
"W-who are you…?" Lucy asked sheepishly, glaring into the face of the female standing right in front of her. Lucy was completely bewildered as to what they were planning to do with her. Why did they need they were planning to do with her. Why did they need her? Out of ALL people? Was it Celestial Spirit magic that was required?
The female that stood, blank-faced, before her, didn't reply to her, only watched her. The female that stood before her had long, brown hair that was about down to the small of her back. Her nose was petite and had a little, what Lucy presumed to be a birth mark, under the left nostril. Her brown locks were immensely curled. Curled to the point that they had little ringlets at the ends of each strand. Her eyes were a glorious grey, much like that of Erza. Her breasts weren't that big, more like that of Wendy. She was about the same height as Lucy herself, or that was what Lucy presumed. They also had little sparkles glistening within them. It had actually made Lucy wonder what type of magical powers this one female possessed.
Though, at that moment, that wasn't the time to wonder such. It was the time to fight. She hadn't moved whatsoever since she had awoken, unless it was forced. So, in order to find out whether she had been tied down or not, Lucy moved her wrist to her key pouch. Unfortunately, she couldn't. As the female, who was actually quite smart, regarding the fact that she was a blonde, predicted, she was stuck. Hopeless, maybe even so. Knowing what people are like, Lucy didn't even need to attempt to move her legs to know that they had been stuck, too.
Oh, how she longed for someone to help her. Natsu, Erza, Gray, Wendy? Heck, even Ichiya or Happy! Where was everyone? Probably in combat. But then again, where was she? She didn't even recognize her surroundings, nor did she try to recognize them, as there was most likely no use in doing so. Again, she asked, surprisingly, what the name of the brown-haired one who had held her by the throat's name was. "What's your name?" Lucy had asked her voice a bit louder now.
Lucy had been losing her patience, but this time, surprisingly, the one with brown hair answered. Her voice was like caramel whilst giving the answer, "My name is Aura. I am one of the Spriggan Twelve. I am the Dragonblood of Spriggan Twelve: Aura Radi (ワーキング・オーラ). The Dragon of Space and Time is my father. But, it's not like you are going to live long enough to know that. We have business with you. Of which you may be debating, no?" Aura started to walk around the strapped female. The female had a claw-like type of hand.
Dragonblood? What is that? Is it like a Dragonslayer…? The Dragonslayer of Space and Time? The Dragonblood of Space and Time? The female had that thoroughly ringing through her head as her eyes furrowed horrifically. She had many ideas as to what a Dragonblood was. But why would the Dragonblood, whatever it was, be one of the Spriggan Twelve. "Dragonblood…?" Lucy whispered quietly as her eyes wandered off to the side.
Aura, the so-called Dragonblood, grinned a toothy one, exposing the fangs that only a Dragonslayer could bare. "Indeed. I am the offspring of Space, Time, and humans, themselves. Meaning, I have a human and a Dragon as my birth parents. Though, they both left whilst I was young. I don't remember them, only by name." The female did not look at all hurt by those facts. Rather, she seemed quite proud of her heritage. Maybe, if she had been raised by her actual parents, she wouldn't've been there at that one moment. Perhaps, she would be a part of Fairy Tail.
Maybe everything would be different than it was for her. But, then, maybe her parents died and it was unavoidable. Like Natsu's parents…
But… Blood of a Dragon and blood of a human? That wasn't quite like Dragonslaying magic, where they were foster parents. No, it was unique to the type of person she was. But, Lucy hadn't known that type of magic, or heard of it. The only two people she could think of that knew of that type of magic or being was Makarov or Mavis. Heh, both M's and masters of Fairy Tail. They had easily been the most intelligent people when it came to magic that Lucy, herself, knew.
"What happened to them so that they weren't with you during your childhood?" Lucy asked, curious as she always was. She wanted to know more about what happened – the blonde was severely intrigued by the brunette and her past. Even though she knew that Aura was the enemy, that didn't negate the fact that she was inquisitive as heck when it came to new types of magic.
The Space and Time Dragonblood sighed harshly, shaking her head dismissively. "My mother died whilst she was giving birth to me, and my father was killed by the Water Dragonslayer when I was young," the reply was short, but explained a heck of a lot. No wonder she'd be against the world. The world, logic, and everything killed her parents. And God knows what type of environment she grew up in. She had an excuse to be where she was, didn't she?
Yet, at the mention of a killed parent, Lucy couldn't help but relate, and also feel bad. At least she knew her parents – Lucy did. Whilst Aura; she never got to know them. Was that why she had a harsh voice? Aura, surprisingly, didn't look older than about nineteen or twenty. That meant that the Dragons would've 'disappeared' when she was about the age of five. That would've added up since the Dragons did disappear about fifteen years ago.
Lucy sighed, knowing she'd regret her next words, especially since she was taking pity on her enemy. "I'm sorry…" it had come out as a small whisper, indeed, but she knew it was heard. She'd be pissed if it actually hadn't. Aura seemed to have great hearing, either way, so it wasn't a huge concern. The real concern would be Aura's response to what Lucy had to say.
The apologetic manner in which Lucy had said what she had was enough to not cause Aura to hit her with as much anger as she could have. Yet, Aura still swung at Lucy with a fair amount of force, enough to make her nose bleed. "BITCH, NO! DO NOT APOLOGIZE! I DON'T NEED YOUR FUCKIN' PITY!" The brunette had anger welling up in her eyes, making them blood-red. As a result of such anger, she started to pace away from Lucy, toward the only door to the room.
Lucy had only been reminded of the other men in the room when they had spoken up and called, "Spriggan Aura!" They sprung up out of their chairs and rushed toward her, wondering what was going on with her anger and everything. What had Lucy really done to set her off? What was it? Lucy was pretty sure it was her apology.
Lucy was aware, oh, was she aware, that at that moment she had time to escape as the men were focused on Spriggan Aura Radi. Lucy was actually able to kick her shoes off, which was what she had done first. It was a great thing that Lucy knew how to do stuff like force the rope that was belted to her feet to slide off. She was that talented with her feet, which was something she was proud of was.
Within moments, the Celestial Spirit Wizard of the Fairy Tail guild was able to undo the knot around her ankles and she then bent herself in a way that she'd be able to undo the knot on her wrists. Even though it exposed a large amount of her body that she'd never want to expose to anyone, she still did it. Lucy didn't give two shits whether or not it exposed her. She just wanted out.
At that moment, a large fire barged through the walls of the unknown place, burning a lot of the clothes in the room. But not just the clothes were burnt, but the ropes that enveloped the wrists of Lucy Heartfilia. Following the flames was an explosion of bricks, among other things that accompanied the north wall of the room her, Aura and the males were in.
Accompanying the flames and explosion was a snicker. One that only Lucy would recognize. One that belonged to HER Fire Dragonslayer, Natsu Dragneel. Subsequent to the snickering, a figure was being formed through the flames as coughs bellowed through the room. "You really shouldn't've chosen a room that relies solely on oil. That's pathetic…"
At that moment, even though she was coughing, Lucy was excited as all heck to see Natsu again. It wasn't a first for him to show up and save the day like he did. That had happened quite frequently. Mainly since the time with Future Rogue… But… The year during Fairy Tail's absence was the hardest, also something Lucy hadn't wanted to think about. The only thing running through her veins, along with her head, was the adrenaline of Natsu's presence.
As the smoke cleared, it had exposed Natsu in his flame-proof attire with a wicked grin. He had been cracking those muscular knuckles of his, most likely itching for a battle. "Natsu…" whimpered Lucy, happiness shooting through her veins as another added ingredient to her blood. Through her melted clothes, she didn't care – she just dashed to his side.
Even though the two were in combat, Natsu still enveloped her in the deepest of hugs. He cared not. "Lucy…" he murmured, placing a kiss upon her forehead, his muscles relaxing slightly around her body. He only had a moment to hold her before Aura sent an attack flying toward the Dragonslayer and Celestial Spirit Wizard.
"Uchūryū no Hōkō!" Aura yelled as twinkles of starlight shot out of her petite palms. She obviously was strong. It was shown. Evident. Everything about the attack screamed strength.
Natsu shoved Lucy out of the way and called in response, "Nice try!" Then, as a counter attack, he sent a familiar attack, but only it was that of fire. "Karyū no Hōkō!" The room between the two exploded, shooting the both of them back. Or, rather, only Aura was sent flying back. Natsu just stood there, just waiting to say, as he did, "You don't kidnap MY Lucy without paying for it, fuckin' cunts."
(Author's note:
I am SO sorry it took so long to upload this chapter. In all honesty, I was stumped as to what to write next. And, also, I have school. With midterms and everything, oh, God, it was a horror. It was all thanks to Luce that I was able to get going on chapter three. So, again, I apologize that I hadn't made this a priority.
Anyway, Natsu kissed Lucy! I admit, I fangirled, myself, even though it had been brief. Either way, the development of Aura will grow within the next chapter, I assure thou.
I tried to make this chapter longer than usual to make up for my absence. Thank you or your understandings!
Also, there were a few terms that you may not be aware of within this chapter:
"Uchūryū no Hōkō!" - Aura Radi
"Roar of the Cosmic Dragon." Cosmic Dragon magic is the short form of the Space and Time Magic that was mentioned briefly within this chapter.
"Karyū no Hōkō!" -Natsu Dragneel
"Roar of the Flame Dragon." We all know this one, no?
Thank you for reading this chapter, despite the amount of time I had delayed. Please leave a review as to what you'd like to happen in the next chapter. Also, tell your friends! The more the better, right?
-TenryuNo Wendy )