"Loke," Ava greeted the flirt good naturedly, crossing her legs as she leaned against the counter while the ginger haired man sat down next to her.
He might have been revealed as a Celestial Spirit, but the man definitely still was Loke to her. Loke, her companion in which she'd seek knowledge from. Sure, she came to Gray for advice, but she definitely came to the Celestial Spirit if she wanted to learn anything.
She seeked power, but to have power you had to have knowledge. And that was why Ava was seated before the Celestial Spirit once again as the rest of Fairy Tail buzzed around her in a frenzy. Out of the corner of her eye, she could see Gray provoking Natsu at the front of the guild, while a very oblivious Erza happily ate her strawberry shortcake that had been given to her by Lucy. The blonde mage was sitting next to Erza and both women were happily involved in conversation.
"Ava, my beautiful-"
"Pedophile." Ava deadpanned, already used to such compliments from him for them to have an affect on her. Technically, Loke was ancient: a spirit that was almost as old as time itself. She always liked to press that point just because Loke valued his youthful appearance.
(Thinking back at it, that must have been why Ava was able to deal with the Trimens so easily, but at the time she just found Loke's flirting annoying.)
"You wound me, my beautiful flower," Loke said mournfully as he put his hand to his chest, tears springing to his eyes as an aura of sparkles and flowers surrounded them. That aura was quickly washed away by Ava's blunt response.
"I'm glad."
The man seemed to visibly deflate at her response as he sighed, putting his hands on the counter and motioning to Mira to get him a glass of water. "So, what do you want to learn about this time?"
The girl fidgeted for a moment, looking similar to Wendy, before Ava glanced down at her book while biting her lip, a small blush coming over her face.
"The Celestial World!" Ava blurted out, and she blushed and drew back as she recomposed herself. "I-I mean I want to learn about the Celestial World and its spirits. I've only met about half of Lucy's spirits, and there are probably more out there."
"Ah, I see." Loke rubbed his chin thoughtfully, and he nodded, a small smile playing at his face. It had been too long since someone had actually asked something of him unrelated to combat. "The Celestial World is ruled by one supreme leader…"
For the rest of his quiet lecture Ava was listening closely, nodding every now and then to signal her attention was still on him. They continued like that for another 20 minutes before Natsu abruptly interrupted their conversation.
"What are you doing?" Laxus's eyebrows raised as he saw three fast blurs running towards them, Cheria and Hibiki standing next to him as they tried to discern what was happening.
"Running for our lives! You should try it sometime!" Ava called sarcastically, zipping past her team and grabbing Cheria and Hibiki by the arm, Gajeel and Lyon grabbing Laxus and dragging him with much effort. Hearing a bunch of feet resounding behind them, her eyes narrowed, "Hurry up! They're catching up to us!"
'Uwaah~" Cheria did a perfect faceplant on the ground, and Ava skidded to a halt as she pushed Hibiki ahead, grabbing the pink haired girl and hoisting her on her back, running with the girl clinging onto her neck. After training in the mountains in preparation for the Grand Magic Festival Ava had gotten used to stamina training by running laps around a long track with a teammate sitting on her (they refused to use a rock and tie it to their backs while they ran because it could be dirty-the divas...).
"Will you be okay?" Lyon asked as they ran, dodging shocked pedestrians as they moved from side to side. "I can take her if you want, Cheria's my teammate."
"She's mine now too, or at least for the time being. And I'll be fine."
"What exactly did you guys do to piss off those guys?" Laxus asked, running at their pace with ease. It seemed like the Lightning Dragon Slayer hadn't even broken into a sweat.
"Well…that's a long story."
5 hours prior…
"Ah, we're finally here!" Ava stretched her weary shoulders. The train carriage was too crowded for her liking: there was literally barely any room to breathe. But here...she took a whiff of the salty sea breeze. It was free. Turning to her group, she beamed, pulling something out of her luggage and handing each of them one.
"What...is this?" Lyon held up one of the shiny glowing teal crystals, and Ava waved her hand at Hibiki as if to say you can explain.
"Basically, it's a Communication Lacrima that allows our group members to talk to each other from wherever we are. All of these are connected, so if you talk to one person, the whole team can hear it." Hibiki explained. "It's a newer Lacrima that came out recently. Blue Pegasus usually is the guild to get the first of the newest Lacrimas. We always pre-order them before they even come out."
"And now Master Bob said we can use these for the mission!" Ava grinned. "Isn't that great?"
"I suppose." Lyon rubbed his chin thoughtfully.
"Aww, spoilsport." Ava pulled out two more Lacrimas, those ones a neon purple color. "These can detect Forbidden Magic, Dark Magic, or anything really related to Zeref. They're really expensive, so I was only able to get my hands on two, so if we split up it should be in groups of three. Be careful with the-" She suddenly paused, her golden eyes flashing as her skin prickled. "-Lyon, Gajeel, come with me. You other three stay here."'
"Are you sure about this? I mean, having people from different guilds is bound to have some cohesion in teamwork…" Cheria asked, looking a little hesitant on the idea.
"It'll be fine. Hurry, you two. I felt something this way." She tossed the other purple Lacrima to Hibiki, who she knew she could trust to use it properly and take care of it.
As Lyon and Gajeel hurried after Ava, who was taking rapid footsteps to the edge of the sea village, a figure on a rooftop smiled, the action looking more like a sinister smirk on her face, her amber eyes glinting.
"So they're finally here."
...
They were in front of a cave near the seashore. The location was so close to the ocean that the atmosphere was slightly salty, and three figures could be seen standing in front of the cave, hesitating and debating on whether or not they should enter it.
The air was moist and damp, and it made Ava's clothes stick to her skin which did not help placate her rising frustration as she glared at her Tracking Lacrima accusingly.
"I swear I felt something this way!" Ava kicked her foot frustratedly as she glanced inside the sea cave again, but she couldn't really discern anything in the darkness. "And that cave looks a little too suspicious. I should have brought Laxus along to light the cave so we could have explored it."
"You know if he heard that, Princess, he'd probably grumble about being used as a candle?" Gajeel asked, his eyebrows raised as he gave her a smirk. Ava twitched but said nothing to that as she stared up at the ceiling. She swore she would be the mature one this time, and thus took a deep breath before releasing it and turning back to the Iron Dragon Slayer fully calm.
"Ah, I've been meaning to ask this for a while but I never got an opportunity. Why did you two agree to come on this mission?" Ava's copper-gold eyes peered up at him. "I mean, we weren't that close and all, and you can be using this time to train."
"That shitty woman kept threatening us to go, and when we refused she started crying."
"Ah." Ava nodded in understanding. Mirajane often did use her feminine tricks to make the boys do something (Fairy Tail men-or maybe men in general-never really were immune to a woman's tears). She leered at her former guildmate. "So in reality you're just a big softie, aren't you?"
"Don't push it, woman."
"Heh." She laughed, the noise echoing in the cave as she turned to Lyon. "Should we try heading in there?"
"I don't see why not." Lyon looked at the cave warily, the Ice Mage taking a step forward and holding out his hand to her suavely. "Well, shall we go?"
"You flatter me." She walked past him, a reminder that she was an independent woman and didn't need his help for everything. Behind her Gajeel sighed and wondered why he was stuck with these two flirting teammates.
They walked into the cave as silent as possible, keeping the sounds of their footprints to a bare minimum mainly because any sound would echo across the walls and the cave. They didn't want to alert any enemies that might be waiting for them of their presence.
The air was musky and damp, with the tiniest whiff of salt considering the town's proximity to the ocean. The moisture in the air seemed to absorb in Ava's clothes, making her movements almost sluggish as she continued to take light footsteps into the darkness.
Gajeel's ears perked up, meaning that there was some kind of sound ahead that Ava and Lyon couldn't discern yet. A Dragon Slayer's senses were always the most trustworthy, so when he motioned for them to slow down Ava did so (albeit reluctantly at being ordered around).
As they came even closer Ava squinted, spotting some sort of light source up ahead, and her eyes moved questioningly to Lyon. The Ice Mage shrugged, and both teammates looked at Gajeel who motioned for them to edge to the side of the cave.
"...with this, Zeref-sama will finally awaken once more." A man's voice echoed through the cave as they drew closer to the light at the end of the cave. "We give you our thanks, daughter of Zeref."
There was silence for a moment and the sound of robes moving echoed through the cavern before someone else spoke up.
"Heh, I suppose I am quite amazing. But don't call me 'daughter of Zeref', that sounds disgusting." A feminine voice chuckled sinisterly, and Ava's golden eyes widened as she suddenly stopped walking, Lyon and Gajeel nearly bumping into her as they gave her questioning looks that she promptly ignored.
"Mia?" She spoke, her eyes wide and mouth agape as she stared at the figures in front of her. There were about 10 men, all equipped with weapons of various assort, with one of the men standing next to a familiar feminine figure.
Ava wanted to mentally smack herself on the head for drawing everyone's attention, but she felt like she was completely frozen and could only stare at the slim figure in front of her.
The woman turned and looked at her with mild interest. "Ah, it seems we were interrupted. Hello, Ava dearest." Smirking, she directed the men. "Boys, according to my info this woman was sent here by the Rune Knights to try to stop you all from awakening Zeref-sama. You should attack her."
And all at once, there was movement in the cave as Lyon and Gajeel shared a silent understanding look as they simultaneously grabbed one of Ava's arms and dragged her unceremoniously out of the cave, the men following them as they bared their weapons.
"We need to get out of here!" Gajeel hissed into Ava's ear as she regained her senses and began to run with them. "And how the fuck do you know that shady woman?"
"I-I…" Ava seemed almost frantic as she tried to regain her bearings as she ran.
"She can tell us later. For now we need to focus on getting out of this place." Lyon was strangely calm considering the situation they were in, but Ava supposed he was always the coolest (no pun intended) of the team. He was always the one who stayed calm in the team and Ava knew she could trust him to make the right decisions.
"Y-yeah. Okay." Ava nodded hurriedly, regaining her own feet as she took off running with them.
They were running as fast as they could back to where they knew the remainder of their team was waiting. "Hurry!"
...
"And...yeah, that's what basically happened." Ava finished, pulling her team so they ducked behind a corner. At these times she wished she could have something like Doranbolt's powers of teleportation. Or really, any kind of magic that could help them out.
"I see…" Hibiki's eyes were still solely focused on the streets, where the men had scared off any pedestrians that were hanging around on the streets and were spread out, searching for them.
Lyon said, his eyes focused on the road still, "Ava, we'll need to talk later."
"I know." Her copper eyes narrowed as they darkened a fraction. "I can't promise I can answer all of your questions, but I'll do my best."
"Can't? Or won't?" Laxus muttered, and Hibiki shot him a look.
"You two were former guildmates. You of all people should be able to trust Ava."
"Heh, last time I saw her she was some weak pipsqueak who hid herself behind false bravado. Seems like things haven't changed much."
Hibiki looked like he was about to jump to his teammate's defense, and Lyon wasn't looking much better, so Ava stopped both of them. "Don't. It's true, anyways."
"Well at least you got that right…" Laxus muttered, turning away as Ava ruffled through her bag before pulling out a bunch of wigs, glasses, and jewelry and handing them to her team, ignoring the tension in the air as she couldn't help but take her revenge on Laxus out in a different way.
In a matter of moments, each was decked out with a completely different look. Ava had worn her brown contacts again, along with a nice red wig that reached her waist. Laxus was...comically dressed in a quite eye-catching sparkly outfit that included a fancy purple boa and several gold necklaces and bracelets, the man wrinkling his nose at the outfit.
Lyon was wearing a plain, ordinary brown wig and leather coat over his usual blue outfit. Hibiki just slicked his hair back with gel and wore glasses. Cheria was wearing a light lavender wig and a slightly oversized coat. Gajeel was wearing a red scarf and a blonde wig.
"Disguises." Ava beamed at her team, who didn't look as happy as their leader did at the sudden change of clothing. "Don't take them off, don't complain, I don't want to hear it. Understood?"
"Hai…"
Faintly she heard the henchmen's steps walking away from them, the group murmuring about heading back to the cave for now and regrouping.
"We'll stay at a seaside cottage a little way away from town tonight. I know where it is, so if you brave and strong men just carry all the luggage while I guide you, it would be highly appreciated." Ava gave them a wicked smile, tugging on Cheria and dropping her luggage unceremoniously next to Laxus. "Let's go, Cheria."
"Um...okay." The girl trailed after her senior, watching the simmering men warily as they left, brushing off the dust on her pale blue skirt gathered from falling to the ground, the sleeves of her slightly oversized coat nearly covering her hands as she bowed. "Thank you."
Hibiki sniffed, grabbing Ava's luggage and handing Cheria's to Laxus, refusing to look him in the eye as he began to follow his teammate, adjusting his fake glasses with ease. "Learn to be a gentlemen. At least Blue Pegasus is civilized and can work with women."
"Excuse me?" Laxus growled, discarding an unnecessary golden necklace before he felt a chill down his spine and quickly put it back on as Ava looked back at him, her eyes narrowing into a glare as she looked at the necklace. "I can work perfectly fine with anybody."
Lyon just shook his head and sighed, his shoulders slumping as he wondered why his team was as it was as he and Gajeel followed Hibiki's trail. "Let it go, Laxus-san. We should follow them before we are left behind."
"Tch." Laxus stomped after them, muttering curses under his breath about beating that petty woman at the Grand Magic Games.
A/N: First of all, I'M SO SORRY FOR NOT UPDATING! (cries in corner)
I thought Summer wouldn't be as busy as school, but on the contrary it's much busier...and to top it this chapter was sort of disconnected and short. (cries again). I apologize for that. Plus I was irresponsible enough to start a SYOC FT story so now I have more workload on my hands...
...anyways, so yeah. Mini-arc. Big stuff, at least regarding how this story's going to go. I bet none of you really expected Mia to be all...evil and stuff. Mwahaha! On another note, I'm just throwing those Lyon hints left and right now, eh? I probably should lay it back a little, but I have so much Hibiki-induced torture for our favorite Ice Mage that I couldn't resist. Hibiki's surprisingly my favorite character to write...and I couldn't resist throwing in a Hibiki-Laxus thing.
I feel like I made Laxus slightly strange. Grr...I could never really do the cool guys right.
Oh well. Thank you for reading/reviewing/favoriting/following! I'm very happy whenever any of those things happen, and your support helps motivate me a lot.