A Saiyan Among Wizards

Chapter 22

A Saiyan's Wrath

A/N: This might be a rather long chapter, just a warning. It also may not be as dark as I had originally planned, but...yeah, nevermind, discard that last comment. Or not, gods I don't know, just read and find out.

*Insert TFS disclaimer. Fairy Tail is owned by Hiro Mashima and Funimation. I do not own any other mentioned properties.

"As I was saying before I was interrupted," Marcus said, a bit out of breath as he sat on top of Gajeel, who was flat on his stomach, "I wanted to wait until the morning before I told you my findings. But, as I said before, Gajeel's inpatient and I guess I'll tell you now and give you the plan that I have in mind."

"Now," standing and walking over to a table, brushing the last of the dirt from his coat, "I stole this from one of the higher ups, I think, it shows the entire layout of the temple and were they have senturies hidden behind trick walls and such." Unfolding a huge paper and produced a golden orb of energy so everyone could see it clearly. "It's not as good as the map in my head but if I just add a few things...," grabbing a quill and some ink, he added some extensive notes to the many hallways quick as a flash, "There!' He exclaimed, finished.

Many places on the map were marked with the same symbol, which, according to the key, ment that these hallways had structual weaknesses. Eight places were ticked with the sentury glyph around the outside. Sleeping, eating, and weapon quarters were also marked with the maximum of people that could be in them at any time. Off to the side, Marcus had divided the total number of bandits by magic users. In total, there were a hundred and seventy-five wizards out of the original three hundred. But the rest of the team's attention was drawn to a big question mark in the bottom most chamber, marked with the words 'strange energy.'

"I couldn't get into that room, at least, not without drawing attention to myself. Plus, the door had some sort of fire enchantment that burnt my hand without damaging the glove." Marcus added, pulling off his glove to show the severely toasted flesh on his left hand. Letting Gajeel inspect his hand with care and treat it, knowing he would throw a fit otherwise, Marcus went on, "That almost got me caught, there were probably three strong wizards nearby that would have proved a problem if they heard me. OWWW!" He yelped as the dragonslayer applied aloe and disinfectant to his wound. Biting back the urge to curse, "Anyways, my gut tells me that's where they're keeping the ring. Snooping around some more, I gathered that the leader has the lacrima key that shuts it off. But I didn't find that out until I was leaving to come back here. So," turning to Levy, "what did you find?"

"Sadly, nothing." Slightly ashamed of herself, "All the books I thought would tell us more about the ring just kept saying the same thing."

"And that was?" watching Gajeel finish the bandaging on his hand.

"Either stay away from it or destroy it. They never said why."

"I heard that it may contain the god himself, at least that was the rumor floating around the temple." Marcus added.

"Then why would some rich idiot want it if it's that dangerous?" Gajeel asked, voicing the group's confusion.

"They've may have had it for generations, I remember that there were a lot of things like that in the Royal Palace back in Edolas." Lily said, paw on his chin as he gave the matter some thought.

Everyone followed Lily's lead and began to ponder the question that hung over them. During the silence, Marcus was inspecting and flexing his newly bandaged hand. Since they had started training with sharpened swords four months ago, the two had become masters in first aid due to the saiyan finding a way to put them on an equal playing field. But now it was uncommon for them to enter the guild with a scrape or two nowadays, having become familiar with each others attack patterns. Gajeel had done two layers of gauze throughout his hand and did it in a way that allowed full range of motion. Marcus appreciated the second layer, being ambidextrous, he needed that hand for swordplay,duel-weilding if necessary, and good old hand-to-hand.

"Well, all I know is," Marcus said, finally breaking the silence, "that we were sent here on a job and collecting that ring is part of it. It wouldn't be good for the guild if we went against our clients. However, there will be a lot of fighting and magic going around so it won't be our fault if it's destroyed. So I propose that we let whatever happens happen, we're still getting decent pay even without the bonus. Although," recieving a couple of weird glances, "I would very much like to know what the Ring of Anubis is and the owner seems like the best source."

"And you want the reward." snickered Gajeel.

"And I want the reward," he repeated, irate, "but the point is, let's just do our best not to demolish the place. Can we agree on that?" Getting two nods and a "no promises" from Gajeel. "Since it's getting late, I'll keep the plan brief. Levy and Lily will take out the senturies and begin their assult from the top, Gajeel and I will take the front door were the defenses are the heaviest and meet you guys here." Pointing at the top of the bottom chamber's staircase. "I'll be keeping an eye on all of you, so if you get into trouble raise your power quickly and I'll be there as quick as I can." He added.

Marcus then stared askenly at Gajeel, who asked, "What?"

"Am I allowed to sleep now?" he answered, both joking and serious.

Gajeel just stood there for a moment before he realised what the saiyan was getting at before nodding. Everyone just watched as Marcus gave Gajeel a kiss and slouched over to the tent, yawning before he dissappeared inside it. The dragonslayer just shrugged and the rest followed him soon after as the golden orb faded from existance.

~~~~The Next Morning~~~~

Marcus woke them before noon after changing into his usual gi and made a quick breakfast for everyone to eat before going about the camp to put everything away. They all agreed that they would finish the job today and there was no need to come back. As he finished, he picked up the Buster Sword and asked, "Hey Lily, do you think you're going to use this?" Marcus knew full well that the blade was a bit too heavy for the exceed.

"I think I'll be fine with the dagger you gave me." He replied.

With a small 'shunk,' the saiyan inpailed the ground and unbuckled his own sword and tossed it to Gajeel, who caught it without looking and slung it over his back. There was a flash and in the next second Marcus was adjusting the straps of his new pauldron and blade harness, said pauldron sat on his left shoulder. Pulling the sword from the ground, he gave it a few twirls and sheathed it. He then did a few acrobatic and martial arts moves to ensure he could still move around freely. Marcus frowned a bit, he felt a touch slower with the blade, but it did weigh well over a ton.

With their bags stowed away in a toat capsule in Lily's pocket, the group set off for the temple on foot or wing, in the exceed's case. After a half hour of trecking through the woods, they came upon it's edge and began the assult.

Lily transformed and took flight with the script mage on his shoulder, who was shooting various flavors of magic from her perch. Simutainiously, Gajeel and Marcus attacked the front gate with swords drawn. It didn't take long before the bandits realised that they were under siege and the biggest threat was at the front door, drawing their forces away from the others' entry point. At the first turnpike, Gajeel took the right hallway that lead to the basement door to defend it while Marcus was to take the left and meet up with Lily and Levy before returning to his partner's side.

None who crossed the saiyan's path was still standing when he was done with them. Every now and agian, he would meet another swordsman who gave a decent enough fight, but would still fall. Eventually, he came across the bossman himself, wielding a pair of wicked looking katanas.

"I guess you're not here to hand me the key to the cellar." Marcus jested as his latest opponent felt the crushing blow his sword.

"No, I'm not," he chuckled, "your friends are doing a bang up job of wrecking my operations." There was a hint of a biting edge in his smooth voice.

"Yeah, they're pretty good at that. This isn't even our best demolition crew, that would Natsu's group."

"I'm guessing you lot are from Fairy Tail then?"

"Righto!" Swinging the sword onto his shoulder and displaying his guildmark.

"Well shit, they finally put out a bounty on us. How much are we worth to ya?"

"600K, plus eight mil for that ring that you're keeping downstairs."

Letting out a low whistle, "I knew we were raisin' hell for a lot of folks But 600K, well fuck me sideways."

"Is that an invitation?" Marcus asking jokingly, wearing a shiteating grin as he evaluated the man's phsyique. He did quite like what he saw, the man was built a bit bigger than Gajeel with tosseled scarlet hair and a scraggly gotee.

The bandit leader seemed to be giving him the once over as well, "As much as I want to see what else that pretty mouth of your's can do, I've got an infestation to deal with."

"Booo, I was gonna let ya off that but if you insist," hefting the blade into a fencing stance, "en garde!"

They charged each other and clashed with a whirlwind of movement before landing a few feet from each other. Marcus was sporting a cut across his cheek with the lacrima key clenched between his teeth. The other man was experiancing something rather different, his clothes were slowly falling from his shoulders down to his belt in various sized strips before passing out as Marcus's attacks caught up with him.

Pulling the key from his teeth and putting it into his pocket, he brought out two lacrimi that he also stole from the bandit. Slotting the crystals into the materia holds. The first felt hot and was scarlet so it was most likely a fire lacrima and the felt like electricity, so yay for Marcus having some defense against lightning magic.

The next hour or so went by rather uneventfully, Marcus had met up with the other two and began to make his way back to Gajeel. As they walked, Lily was praising Levy's magical abilities as he described how she had saved his skin from two bandits he didn't see. All the while, Levy was valiantly trying to preserve any modesty she could by saying that the exceed would have been fine even if she hadn't had acted.

"What took ya so long?" called Gajeel from his place on the floor against the wall, cradling Air Cleaver, what he called Marcus's sword, in the crook of his arm. So far, the saiyan was the only one careless enough to get a scratch on him.

"I had to make it fun now didn't I?" wiping his thumb across the cut, smearing the blood further.

"Fair enough, let's just finish this and collect the reward."

Producing the key, Marcus walked over to the door and placed it into the lock. There was a click and he felt the larcrima's energy cancel out so he reached out for the latch and gave it a turn. With a creak, the door opened to a long, dark staircase. The saiyan produced another orb like the one last night, but this one moved with them as they descended. About halfway down, Gajeel heard the saiyan's breath catch, speed up for a moment as though he were fighting, and slow back down to take a completely different pattern than the one he knew. The dragonslayer watched him closely as he made a straight line for a metal lockbox in the center of the chamber and broke it open to reveal a simple ring set with an eye shaped, turquoise stone. Everyone but Gajeel walked torwards Marcus to get a better look at it, his eyes widened as he realised something that seem to hit him hard. The man had been possessed.

"GET AWAY FROM MARCUS, NOW!" He ordered, making Lily and Levy jump and look at him like he were crazy. But he did have time to answer their questions as the saiyan began to place the ring onto his finger with a wicked grin.

Blasting a hole to the surface, Gajeel grabbed the others and hightailed it out of there. Just as they left the makeshift tunnel, a blast wave rocked the temple and caused it to crumble and them to crash a few feet into the forest. When the dust began to settle, the three mages began looking for the saiyan anywhere they could.

"Looking for this?" said a sinister voice from above.

They all looked up to see what looked like Marcus in Egyptian clothing holding the actual saiyan by the collar. The copy wasn't exact, he didn't have any of Marcus's scars, his eyes were gold, his hair white, and his features were almost feline in nature. But the real Marcus wasn't looking to good, pale and was about to fall unconscious at any moment. The saiyan was soon tossed towards the group below, landing on the ground back first, and was almost knocked out.

"Thanks to him," wiping his hand off on his pants, "I, the God Anubis, have been given coporeal substance once more. Now, if you'll excuse me," said the self-proclaimed diety, "I have religion to revive."

"The hell you do, get back here and fix Marcus!" Gajeel ordered, grabbing him by the wrist.

"Gajeel...don't..." Marcus gasped, weakly reaching out for him.

"You dare believe you can command a god?" In the next second, a hand had shot through the dragonslayer's chest, obliterating his heart and snapping Air Cleaver in half. "Filthy mortal, you do not have the right to even approach me." Wiping the blood on Gajeel's coat, throwing the man next to Marcus

"No!" whimpered Levy as Lily had been rendered speechless.

Marcus could only watch as the light slowly faded from those ruby eyes, the same red that had it's own fleck in the saiyan's artificial ones. Gajeel was able to grasp the saiyan's hand one last time before he took his final breath. Overtaken by loss and rage, Marcus found the strength to stand. Tears streaming from his eyes, he let out an earsplitting yell as a golden light enveloped him, more brilliant than a super saiyan.

~~~~Meanwhile, in Magnolia~~~~

The temperture of the guild hall had dropped several degrees as a haunting scream made it way through the town. "Did anyone else just hear that?" asked Lucy shakely.

"We felt that." Said most of the guild in unison, causing her to yelp.

"It sounded like Marcus, but he's in Oshibana. What would make him wail with so much pain?" said Erza, just as shaken as the rest of the guild.

"I don't know, but I've got a bad feeling about this." added Gray.

~~~~Back in the ruins outside Oshibana~~~~

The dust cleared quickly to show a now second teir super saiyan Marcus, his features sharp as the lightning that streaked through his aura. To say he was pissed would be an understatement. This was pure, unadulterated wrath that fed his murderous intent and bloodlust. His eyes had faded behind a haze of white as veins bulged in his forehead, neck, and arms. It was a terrifying sight, so it was understandable for Lily and Levy to look on in fear and keep quiet, afraid of what the saiyan might do. The god quaked under his gaze and turned tail as Marcus drew his sword with deliberate slowness.

"Get back here bitch so I can skull fuck you." Marcus almost whispered before taking off after Anubis, his voice rasping with something rather demonic.

The god barely produced his staff in time to block the saiyan's first double-handed, downward blow. The resounding shockwave leveled the forest behind him for miles as his arms shook from the strain. It was all the diety could do to parry the flurry of attacks that soon followed, barely able to predict were the next one would strike from. When they had stopped, Anubis looked to find a bandaged hand layed flat with the thumb folded inwards. Marcus had his opposite arm and sword under the other and blasted the god into the many fallen trees of the ground. The earth shook for miles around from the impact, splintered wood falling all around the resulting, enormous crater.

Anubis's back arched in pain as blood splurted from his mouth and was unable to move for to long in a fight like this. Marcus was quick to follow, decending like a one winged angel of death and cleaved the arm holding the staff at the shoulder that desintegrated into black dust. The god howled and clutched what was left of the apendage in vain attempt to stop the spilling life essence only have that hand cut off as well by a wicked dagger that had seemingly come out of thin air. The raging saiyan seared the diety's wounds shut only to cut more of his limbs in a torturing nature and repeat the process as they began to regenerate. Anubis was weeping, begging for it to stop as all that was left of him at the moment was a head and a torso. Marcus was about to continue before a voice called out, making him freeze midway and turn his head to the source.

His eyes reappeared as he saw Gajeel sliding down the edge of the creater, the hole in his chest healed. Marcus just stared, dumbfounded as he spoke, "God damn Hero, I'm flattered that you would go this far for me but this is more than a little nuts."

Marcus just stood up and picked up the now powerless ring, leaving Anubis to regrow his missing limbs. Giving it a twirl, he sheathed the buster sword and dropped the form simutainiously before asking, "How?" his voice low.

"I lodged a Senzu behind one of my teeth before Anubis appeared, I heard everything that happened after you transformed. Remind me to never piss you off." He jested slightly.

"Too late for that."

"Wha..." he began before feeling himself flying into the crater's wall and the gigantic sword impail less than a foot to the right of his head, freezing as Marcus's face, still covered in the god's blood, appeared a few inches from his own. His eyes were alight with anger, causing the dragonslayer to gulp as he looked into them.

There was an uncomfortable silence, making it all the more simpler for an effective jump scare to affect everyone when a metalic clang rang through the air as Gajeel's head connected with the enormous blade. He was pushed futher up the wall and off his feet by fistfulls of his coat as Marcus's gaze became even more menacing before he spoke.

"Don't." he growled, "Ever. Scare me like that agian. Do you have any idea how terrifying it was to see you that close to death again or how far I would go to bring you back?! Two words! Human transmutation! And you know how well that ends. I wouldn't even stop there if I had to." He shoated, both his voice and rage faltering at the end as tears began to form. "That's how much your life means to me, so think before you do something that stupid cause I will do something equally as stupid just to save your dumb ass. I don't want to lose one of the greatest things in my life and I don't want to go back to those awful days. Not ever." They were now on their knees, Marcus no longer had the strength to stand as he sobbed into the dragonslayers chest. "Just let me know you're alright before I can go all kill crazy like that, okay?"

"Promise." Gajeel said, holding the saiyan close and rubbing his back to help calm him down.

"Not to ruin the moment, but," Lily said, after a moment, "Anubis is gone."

"What?!" they said in unison, Marcus attempting and failing to turn around to look for the god as Gajeel let go from surprise. As the saiyan groaned from his place on the ground, Gajeel noticed a folded peice of paper tucked under his shoulder plate. It was addressed to Marcus in a rather flamboiant, almost illegeable font.

"I recognize that handwriting," Marcus said quietly as Gajeel handed it to him, unable to read it himself. Clearing his throat, he read the letter aloud in an uncanny impression of Whis. "'Dearest Marcus, I have taken it upon myself to take young Anubis into my care, seeing as it would be a great boon to have a second set of hands here while Lord Beerus is still asleep. You have done quite the number on him, for now he clings to me like frightened child. Why, I remember when he acted like an 'angsty teen,' by your standards, but that's a story for another time. I believe that by the time we next visit Goku and the others he will be a bit more mature. But I must say, I do think that his new appearance suits him better than the last time he had a body. And there I go blathering again. Best of wishes, Whis.'" Folding the paper and stuffing into his pocket with a relieved sigh, he said, "Well thank the gods that's taken care of. What?" he asked incredulously as all of them gave him goofy looks.

"What the heck was with that voice," asked Levy, barely containing her giggles as the others barked in laughter.

"That's what Whis sounds like." he deadpanned, a slight pink tint in his face.

"And...and who's this Whis?" Gajeel asked, struggling to breath.

"A God of Destruction." He answered, completely serious. This made them all stop as they each realized he wasn't joking. "Him and Beerus both and they kicked Goku's ass the first time they met. Well, Beerus did, Whis is pretty laid back."

"But what do they do exactly?"

"Beerus destroys a planet every nine years of sleeping and Whis...huh, I really don't know what Whis does. He probably got bored of the 'destroyer of worlds' schtick."

"You're kidding..." Lily asked, exhasperated.

"Nope, dead serious." Standing, he went over to yank the Buster Sword from the crater wall and sheath it. But when he did, his knees buckled and he fell backwards. "Owww," he groaned.

"You okay," asked Gajeel, smirking.

"Well apparently, reaching a new power level takes a lot out of ya. So yeah, I'm just peachy," sassed Marcus.

"If you wanted me to carry that badly, you could've just asked." Floating above him so he could latch on from behind.

"Just shut up so we can finish this job and go home," he whined, "I'm really tired." His voice slight muffled as his face sunk into Gajeel's long hair.

They did just that, Gajeel leading the way back to town so they can collect their reward and catch the next train home. Collecting the main prize was easy, but the secondary proved to be a bit of a problem.

"Oh and the stone has been scratched, plus its been shaken loose. And look at this, the gold has begun to crack. If my great-grandfather's grandfather saw this he'd be in a right fit. And blah blah blah blah..." the owner blathered on and on until Marcus's shortened patiance came to an end.

"Can somebody slap him," asked the saiyan from his place on Gajeel's back, eyes half closed as his head rested on his partner's shoulder. His face having been cleaned a little while before they reached the mansion.

"Hold this for me, would you Levy?" Said Lily, handing the bag of jewel to the script mage.

"Thank you," as a slap rang through the air along with a yelp, "Now sir, it has been a extremely long day, we just took out an entire horde of bandits, I was possesed by a god,..."

"Who almost killed me," cut in Gajeel.

"...And I've just finished fighting said god. So would you kindly pull your head out of your ass and tell us if we're getting paid or not," he finished tiredly as everyone snickered at that last bit.

"I suppose you did bring it back in one peice, so here." Shoving the jewel into the exceed's paws. "Now get out of my home."

"Well fuck you too," deadpanned Marcus as they did just that.

The saiyan slept the entire way to Magnolia and into the guild as the other went to let everyone know that they were back and to divy up the jewel between them. A few people gathered around their table to see why the looked so ragged as Marcus snoozed on, face first into the wood. They were shocked by their tale, but still relieved that they made it back safe and sound. Levy had been the first to leave while Gajeel and Lily went to grab a couple pints before going home, leaving Marcus alone. Natsu, of course, saw this as a chance to sucker punch him while he was ungaurded but ended up being knocked out cold by a reflexive back fist. Apparently, asleep Marcus didn't play as nice as awake Marcus.

And that's almost the end of the Anubis arc, I have a few things left that I'm going to leave for the next chapter. I'm planning for Anubis to be making another appearance sometime in the future, but I don't know what for just yet. You know the drill, leave a review if you want and I'll see you in the next chapter. See ya!