Knowing it from the beginning.
(A I.-.-.I Kuroyagi I.-.-.I original fan-fiction story.)
Chapter 2: Blend the future Part 2 – The Congregation, the Innocents and the Noble Knight.
South-east of Fiore; inside the dark guild Death Trigger.
Even if the assumptions of the reformed Magic Council led them to the original source of the whole trouble that their organization was having since 3 months prior to the start of the story, they were wrong in something. Every and each of the attacks that the dragon-slayers and their fellows did in Fiore against legal and illegal guilds were planned, none of them were just mindless destruction to just divert the attention of the army of the council, the Rune Knights; but to weaken the guilds that were sure to take up arms if Era was attacked and destroy those dark guilds that would surely use the chaos to take control of the nation.
So far, most of the dark guilds in Fiore were disbanded or separated into smaller raiding parties, causing troubles in small towns or cities that didn't have many mages to defend themselves until the closer guild could come to help. Then half of the legal guilds gave news of severe damage to their bases and members, even to their masters; crippling them to accept missions or answer to the councils requests if they came up. Leaving the other rapidly diminishing half to take on themselves the growing piles of requests and thus, leaving them defenseless to an attack from the foreigners.
Right now, the list of wiped out dark guilds was about to increase by one more, if the sounds of fighting dying down inside the Death Trigger guild were anything to go by. There, in the middle of the guild's main hall; surrounded by the defeated members that were barely staying alive, were two hooded figures. Finishing off who was supposedly the guild's master with a single punch to the stomach that sent him flying against one of the walls. The one that did the finishing blow sighed annoyed, turning around to face his partner with crossed arms.
"This is boring, I thought that the people from this place were stronger than in our country," Said the hooded figure in an adult feminine voice. "But up until now there has been no challenge and you still haven't used your magic, Literio!"
The hooded guy only shrugged and started to walk to the exit, letting the woman to irritate with his lack of an answer. Kicking one of the fallen members to release some steam, she followed her partner outside, facing the bright sun and almost perfect weather that was doing that day.
"I don't get it; you're a dragon-slayer like Natsu-chan, why don't you have an appetite for fighting and your magic element?" To this, the only answer was another shrug and total silence, which further annoyed the woman to the point of using her magic to attack him. Putting her hands together she made appear her turquoise magic seal. "Air magic, Cyclone's B…!"
Before she could even finish her spell, her target disappeared from her sight and she felt two things. First, a flash of light going at her almost without her noticing it and second, how her partner was behind her before she even noticed it. He was holding her arms down in a tight hug with just his right arm and covering her mouth with his left. He drew his head closer to hers and whisper in her ear, unaware of the blush that was expanding on her face from the closeness. "I don't use it on weaklings, Asis, and because I know how to restrain myself. If your questions have been answered, let's continue to where Natsu-san is."
Releasing her from his arms, he restarted his walk down the road to the next town, Asis following close behind with her head low and arms crossed, mumbling quietly how much she hated it when he did that. Unbeknown to them, someone was watching from afar the whole scene, even the fight against the Death Trigger members and it was now meditating what to do after seeing the capabilities of both magicians while standing on top of a branch in a tree a few meters from the road hiding in between the leafs.
'Should I call the guild and ask for help or do it alone?' She wondered, at the same time she estimated how much it would take for the two foreigners to get to the next town. 'I'll call Mira and ask her for Gray and Lucy to intercept them in the next town; I'll keep track of them for the time being.'
Raising her right arm, she summoned a crystal orb which, after adding some magic in it; started to glow and showed a woman with long white hair and blue eyes. The woman smiled at her and asked her what she needed with a patient face. "Hello Mira, can you tell Gray and Lucy to meet me in Brammingmont in less than two days? It's urgent."
"Sure Erza, I'll let Natsu know too if you don't mind." The woman's eyes widened in surprise at the mention of the boy's name, letting a soft smile appear after a few seconds.
"So Natsu is back, how is he?" Mira chuckled with an amused smile at the question.
"He's taller, handsome and more powerful than when he left," Erza raised an eyebrow at the answer she received. "Also, he's hiding something, so if you see anything out of place when you meet him, let us and Master know."
"Hiding something? How did you come to that conclusion?" Mira looked at her sides, surely checking that no one was near her when she delivered that info or the other members find out about their suspicions.
"While he was sleeping, Master, Gray and I noticed that he was communicating with someone through Sleep Control Magic, when we woke him up with the cancellation spell, he denied being talking with someone or even knowing the spell."
"I see," Erza put her hand on her chin while thinking on the info she received, nodding seriously when she made up her mind. "Tell him to meet me with the others then, I'll keep him in check."
Mira answered with a smile and small thank you, cutting the transmission with her past rival and going to tell the former members of Team Natsu about the meet up. Erza jump down from the branch and started to follow in a slow pace the two foreigners that were a little more ahead from her. 'Sleep control Magic, that's use to communicate with people through dreams. Why's Natsu using that magic? Is he keeping in touch with someone from out Fiore?'
Phantom Lord ex-main base; main hall.
'So, Gajeel Redfox? Do you want to help us?' Asked the strange man while standing in front of the dragon-slayer and extending a hand down to him. Gajeel look up after some more thinking ad took the hand in a firm handshake, showing all his teeth in an almost completely berserk smile.
'Count with me, I have long wished for an excuse to kick some council members, kekekeke!' The strange man released himself from the handshake and walk back to Natsu, nodding to him before merging with the darkness and disappearing from the place. Natsu got up from his chair, which disappear when he did that; and walk closer to his fellow, crossing his arms and looking at him quizzically, almost frowning when he saw his face.
'You need to train Gajeel; otherwise the only one kick in our assault is going to be you.' Putting a hand in front of the man's face to stop him from saying anything Natsu raised his head with a shock expression. 'Someone is close to us! We better wake up before they discover us! Punch me with your iron club!'
'You don't need to ask for that!' He answered with an excited face, as he concentrated in waking up from the dream and going back to consciousness. Feeling his eyes open, the first thing he saw was Natsu charging at him with a flamed fist which he rapidly avoided and taking advantage of the low guard, that he supposed the other left on purpose; he hit him square in the stomach with his iron club, extending it until he saw that the pink-haired crashed with the roof. Not long after all the movement, Gray and Lucy arrived at the place, finding them in a heated fight against one another to what the both of them sighed.
"You know, I kind of expect it to happen, but not so fast…" Gray mumbled quietly as he walked close to the iron dragon-slayer that eyed him questioningly, until Gray sighed again, looked into his pockets and handed the mage 5,000 jewels, all the time a smirking Gajeel was thankful that Natsu was the one to start the fight or at least asked him to punch him. "That reminds me, that I have to pay Macao and Wakaba too…"
"Yeah, you do that, I'm going back to the guild before the idiot comes back…" He said this and leaved the hall just when Natsu returned from the roof. He was about to continue his fight but Gray stopped him with a hand on his shoulder.
"We have a mission," This caught Natsu's attention and made him forget about the fight. "We need to meet with Erza in the Brammingmont in less than two days, she said it was important."
"Sure, It'll be nice to see Erza again and check how much stronger she got!" After this reply, Natsu looked behind Gray and noticed that Lucy was there too. He immediately run to her and trapped her in tight hug, much to her complains of him not doing that; his biggest smile never leaving his face. "Luce! How are you? It's been a while!"
"Hi Natsu, I'm fine but I'll be better when you release me!" She screamed with what was left of air in her lungs, Natsu let her go and started to walk past her. Turning around when he felt weird looks on his back and saw that his friends weren't following him. He smiled once again, feeling a little guilty in the inside for lying to them about his change persona; and pointed outside. "We can talk while we go to the train station, Erza will kill us if we're not in Brightmont in time!"
"It's Brammingmont, you... ah... I don't know why do I bother..." Lucy said before realizing something that Gray was too, late to figure.
'Train station? Since when is Natsu willingly wanting to go to the train station instead of walking all the way to the place?' Thought his two partners suspiciously, staying quiet for a moment and making Natsu realize that he made a mistake. That until Gray cleared his throat and started to walk outside, turning back to encourage his friends with a fake smile. "He's right we can talk all we want in the way there, let's hurry!"
"Yeah!" Natsu screamed to the top of his lungs, pretending to race Gray to the station while thinking. 'He's suspecting, I have to be more careful or they'll notice my act. Surely Erza is informed about my incident this morning, better not to low my guard around her or else, I'll have to…'
They ran all the way to the train station, like they used to in the old days, eyed attentively by a pair of red eyes. 'I better go wait for that Garreth guy, since that moron isn't going to be here for him…'
After that, he jump down from the destroyed tower of the building in which he was and started to head back to the guild, all the way thinking about what was at stake in the great battle that was about to come and where his loyalties really were.
To be Continued.
The second chapter and I feel thankful for the reviews that I got. Thanks to Age-Persona and NxE-Forever for your reviews. You and the visitors that read this story are my reason for continuing with this story.
Until the next chapter, hope to see what you think of this new chapter.
Saludos.