Really, really sorry for the delay folks but I did start at uni again and its taken quite a bit to sort out everything like the house and stuff, and not to mention I've been getting to know my new course mates and getting to grips with my new timetable so I hope you can all understand. Very much hoping that I will have the next one up quicker.
Dance of the Fairies, Flight of the Phoenix
Chapter 14:- Up and Away
The sound of rending metal filled the air as the doors to the lifts buckled and were torn away from their roots. The Iron Dragon Slayer holding them hefted them to the side with seemingly no effort at all, and peered into the open space beyond.
"The hell are we supposed to go now?" he asked.
"We're on the eighth floor now," Mavis slipped past him and out into the air, looking up through the dark space and the many doors at seemingly random places above them. Some of them didn't even look like they were built into walls, but were just hanging in empty space. "We've got to get up to the fourth floor if we want to join up with the others. And I believe I can see an open door on that level from here. See," she pointed up and those that could actually look in through the broken doors could indeed see another set higher above that looked like they'd been smashed in.
"That must be where the others went," Gray agreed.
"We should move quickly," Gildarts noted, his arm outstretched into the corridor they were standing in to create a white lattice of lines from floor to ceiling, causing the spells being fired at them to splinter to pieces and dissipate before they reached them. For despite his previous warning, after the Dementors had backed away it had not taken long before more Ministry officials tracked them down. It seemed in view of the attack most of the civilians had already fled the Ministry, leaving behind only those who were bold enough to try and take Fairy Tail down. "These guys just don't seem to be willing to leave us alone."
"Why do we always seem to make enemies somehow everywhere we go," Levy murmured right before a red Stunning spell slammed into the wall inches from her shoulder. She yelped and almost fell over, whirling around to see none other than Rufus Scrimgeour himself coming hurtling towards them.
"Stand down, all you you!" the head of the Auror Office bristled as he led a couple of other high-ranking Aurors forward. "Stand down and accept arrest or you shall only make things worse for yourself!" And he lashed out with his wand again, along with the others, to fire three consecutive red light beams right towards Levy's stomach.
"Levy! Get back!" Gajeel instantly whirled around, but Levy had been ready for the attack this time and flung her hands up in the direction of the oncoming spells.
"Solid Script: Guard!" she shouted, and with a flash the word GUARD appeared in brown letters in front of her, the spells crashing into it and fizzling out of existence before Levy swung her hands down and added, "Solid Script: Hole!" This spell generated the word actually on the floor and it swept down the hallway towards the oncoming three. Scrimgeour quickly leapt into the air to avoid it, but the other two were not quick enough and when the word touched their feet they suddenly fell straight through the floor, yelling as they plummeted down to the level below.
Scrimgeour landed next to the gaping hole in the corridor behind him and growled as he looked over his shoulder at it. "What kind of unnatural magic…?" he growled before suddenly he was tossed backwards by a blast of wind generated from another of Levy's words, and with a yell he plummeted straight down into the hole himself.
Levy sighed and turned back to face the others, who all had rather blank expressions on seeing this little display. "What?" she demanded, folding her arms. "It's not like I don't have any battle skills at all even if they're not that strong, is it?"
"Geehee!" Gajeel grinned. "That magic has some potential if its used right."
But all his compliment did was make Levy flinch and turn away from him, as if the very sound of his voice terrified the life out of her. Gajeel scowled in irritation and had to resist the urge to flatten something before he changed the subject and demanded, "So, how are we getting up there? Lily, Blue Cat, looks like you're up."
"We don't have time to wait around for them to make multiple trips," Gray interrupted before either of the Exceed could make a move, slamming his hands together in readiness for his next move. "We all have to get up there now!" And he slammed his hands down into the floor by the lift doors and suddenly a jet of ice shot upwards through the air, curving its way around the lift rails until it connected the door to the open one higher up and solidified into ice stairs.
Gray altered the properties of the ice to make sure it wouldn't be slippery, before he yelled, "Come on then," and instantly charged up it, the others piling in behind him. Gildarts ushered Levy inside ahead of him and ran up behind her, but when he reached the tenth step he turned and punched down onto the ninth one, disintegrating the bottom steps into fragments to make sure they wouldn't be followed before he turned to follow the others. The staircase had no real visible means of support, but they didn't have to since they were being held in place by Gray's magic.
Lily and Happy weaved their way through the lift space under their own power while the others ran, but as they flew Happy spotted something out the corner of his eye. When he turned to look, he abruptly gasped and yelled, "LOOK OUT!" veering around in a tight circle and crashing straight into Lily, knocking him out of the way of another red flash of light that skewed past their tails and slammed into the staircase right in front of Gray, who skidded to a stop and looked up with a glare.
"Now what?" he muttered, but his eyes widened slightly when he saw a phalanx of Ministry officials zipping their way in from above, about ten in total riding on broomsticks. It seemed the Ministry had got word that grounding the lifts was not stopping the intruders from moving about their headquarters as they pleased and were now attempting alternative methods to stop their progress.
"Get down!" Gajeel yelled as a couple of brooms whizzed in towards them. The Iron Dragon Slayer dodged backwards to avoid being clipped by one and spun around as another came swooping in to fire a Reductor Curse right at him. He leapt backwards as the curse impacted the stairs and splintered the ice, sending it cascading down into the lift, but even in mid-air Gajeel spun around and seized the man even as he tried to run past, scooping him off the broom and slamming him down into the stairs with a yell of pain.
"Why you little…!" Gajeel's fist was already in the air, ready to pound down into the man's face, but a sharp scream from behind him halted him in his tracks, and he glanced back to where Levy was staring at him with wide-eyes from across the gap in the bridge, hand covering her mouth. Gajeel hesitated, and that was just long enough for the man to suddenly lash up with his wand and hit Gajeel right in the chest with a Stunning Spell.
"Nnngh!" Gajeel gasped, his hand going slack as he let go of the man's robes. He'd suddenly gotten rather woozy, and he teetered on his feet, struggling to clear his head. The man looked rather shocked that the spell had not been as instantly effective as he'd expected but he quickly lashed up with two more that impacted with Gajeel's stomach. He promptly blacked out and tipped backwards, plummeting through the gap in the stairs and dropping like a stone.
"NO!" Levy yelled in horror, dashing to the edge and watching him fall.
"Bastard!" Gray seized the man by the back of his robes and slammed a fist into his gut to knock him out.
"Gajeel!" Lily shouted.
"I've got him!" Happy cried and whooshed down in pursuit of the falling man, dodging a few more lift rails and scooping him up by the back of his shirt, hoisting him up and into the air again moments before he crashed into the bottom.
Levy sighed in relief as the blue cat transported him back up to them and Gray fixed the gap in the stairs, but there were more brooms swarming around them, swerving in from every angle and raining spells on them. Gildarts hurried created a Crash Dome around them that blocked every spell - and there were a wide variety - but he grunted and cursed under his breath.
"I can't strike back," he yelled as Happy transported Gajeel back up and laid him on the ice stairs. "If I do I could knock them off those brooms and send them to their deaths!"
"Happy!" Lily yelled. "Come on! It's up to us."
"Aye sir!" Happy called. "You guys go on! We'll handle these guys!"
"But… are you sure…?" Levy started.
"No time for that," Gray cut her off. "Let's move. Levy, help me with Gajeel!"
Levy stiffened as Gray threw one of Gajeel's arms around his shoulder and hoisted him up. Dear gosh, what was going on with her!? She'd just been horrified when she'd seen him fall but now she was suddenly back to being scared of him, even though he was unconscious. Images abruptly flowed through her head of him suddenly waking up and snapping her neck like a twig or something and she drew back, bile rising in her throat both at the thought and at the sheer fact she was having it!
What the heck? She knew he wasn't like that now! She knew he wouldn't do it! She'd had his arm around her shoulders before now. Why couldn't she get these images out of her head!? Even now when he needed her help.
Fortunately Gildarts saved her the trouble by squeezing past her and hoisting him up by the other arm, holding it under his own like a bedroll and helping Gray move the unconscious Dragon Slayer up the stairs. Levy stood there for a moment, trembling with anger and shame at herself for hesitating like that, before she hurried after them as well.
Pantherlily and Happy were now zipping through the air in their smaller forms, dodging brooms wildly as the owners of those brooms either tried to chase them or continued to focus their efforts on the humans below instead. But either way, it was absolute chaos, with the brooms having to constantly veer to avoid hitting each other or one of the lift rails.
Lily shot up towards one of those rails and whooshed tightly around it in a swift U-turn, diving back down towards two of the others who were veering up at him. Red Stunners filled the air, but Lily skimmed underneath three and dodged another, shooting straight down the middle and between the two, and in that moment he suddenly grew to his battle size and threw his hands out.
His heavily muscled arms crashed into the pair and knocked them off their brooms, but before they could fall Lily seized them by their fronts and hoisted them up, depositing them onto one of the rails and leaving them clinging there for dear life as he drew his sword from his back and swept it through the air to sweep a couple spells aside, bellowing as he charged in towards the others and forced them to swerve aside to avoid his mighty swing.
Happy zig-zagged rapidly around, spells breezing past him as another of the broom riders followed in close behind him aiming for his flicking tail. But then Happy turned up sharply and did a tight loop-da-loop over the broom riders head until suddenly he'd landed on the twigs of the broom itself.
"Mind if I steer?" he asked as he gripped the broom and shoved it sideways, powering his Aera to turn the broom's direction sharply right. The rider yelled and clung on for dear life as Happy veered him around so he was shooting straight towards another broom rider. Happy leapt off as the two crashed into each other and fell, crashing onto the ice stairs below with their splintered brooms falling all around them.
Happy grinned to himself right as a couple of jets of light whisked by his wings. "WAAH!" he shouted, dodging to the side and wheeling around the stairs, only to discover that he wasn't the target. The remaining wizards were concentrating their fire on Lily, who was much bigger and therefore seemed to be the bigger threat. As Lily shot upwards with several wizards in hot pursuit, Happy flared his wings and shot up to meet them, attaching himself to the back of the head of one of them and placing his paws over the woman's eyes. The woman yelled and suddenly careened sideways, crashing into another woman before twisting the other way and knocking into a man, sending them both spinning as tried to pull Happy off with one hand while desperately holding the broom with the other.
"Nice, Happy!" Lily chuckled as he shrank back into normal form and dropped straight downwards, shooting by another couple of riders and then growing big again, swinging his sword around to slam another set of elevator doors out into the hall beyond. He then spun around to face the two riders that Happy's had hit. As they struggled to regain control he lengthened his sword to maximum, holding it horizontally with the flat side facing up. The two riders actually landed on the sword blade with a thud, standing on it as if it was a platform. But before they could recover their wits Lily twisted them around and stuck the tip of his sword through the open doors and raised the handle up, causing them to slide down the blade and out into the hallway beyond.
One of the last few remaining on their brooms, seeing most of his companions were now grounded, raised his wand and searched his memory for the biggest spell he could muster, determined to take at least the big cat down. But before he could find a spell a girl with long blond hair suddenly popped into existence in front of him, actually standing upright on his broom, and said, "Hi!"
"AAHH!" he bellowed and lost his grip on his broom, falling sideways and plummeting down. He landed with a thud on the broom behind the woman that Happy was still clinging to, and the blue Exceed steered them both around so they were shooting straight towards the open doors and let go, sweeping up and away. The two riders yelled as they landed with a crash into the hallway beyond.
That left only one rider, another woman, left. But as she readied her wand and pointed it at Lily, Happy suddenly grabbed her from behind and hoisted her off the broom. The broom itself was then grabbed by Lily, who snapped it like a dry twig in one hand and flew up towards her.
"Who… who are you lot? And what are you?" the woman croaked, ceasing her struggles when she realised that if Happy let go she'd go plummeting.
"If you don't already know then its a long explanation," Lily replied as he stowed his sword away. "But I'll tell you what we're not. We're not people who want to be your enemies. This is all one big mess, really, but you can tell your superiors this. We can be friends when they decide to be. And if they leave us alone, we'll leave you alone. But if we're attacked, we will defend ourselves. Simple as that."
"Nothing personal," agreed Happy as he set the woman down on another rail. Then he, Lily and Mavis all took off towards the door that the others had reached a while ago, leaving the woman staring after them, nonplussed.
"I think we did rather well there," Lily said as he shrank back to regular size. "We took all of them out but none of them fell to their deaths."
"It's so much better when we can just hit things with everything we've got," Gray muttered. "Instead of just holding back."
"How's Gajeel?"
"Damned out of it, that's for sure," Gildarts muttered as he shook Gajeel none too gently and smacked him across the face slightly. This last act served to knock some sense into the unconscious man and he gasped and heaved for breath.
"What… the hell happened?" he coughed.
"Damned if I know. They hit you with something but I don't know what," Gildarts hefted Gajeel back upright. "Doesn't seem to have done much lasting damage though. You alright?"
"Yeah… yeah… I'm fine…" Gajeel rubbed his eyes slightly. "Feel a bit dizzy but I'm fine."
Levy let out a sigh of relief, but when Gajeel's gaze turned towards her she winced and took a step back again, re-igniting her frustration with herself. But before Gajeel could comment, Mavis quickly said, "Gajeel, which way now?"
Gajeel grunted and took a deep sniff in through his nose. "This way," and he barrelled off down the corridor in the lead once more.
Several minutes prior to the events of the stairwell saw Wendy, Charla, Lisanna and Juvia dodging around the various officials that flattened themselves against the walls of the corridors to get out of their way, Wendy still taking the lead as her nose homed in on the scent of the Clippers. Right up until the point where Wendy pointed to a door up ahead and said, "Through there. They're definitely in there!"
"Coming through then!" Juvia shot past her and expanded her body out into a blast of water that impacted with the door and slammed it off its hinges, her body solidifying again as the four girls spilled through into the room beyond… and almost crashed straight into Charlie Weasley.
"Whoa! What the…!" Charlie stumbled backwards as Juvia's water stopped inches from washing over him, the water woman pulling back and solidifying at the last second.
"Who are you!?" cried one of about a dozen other people in the room, all of them in green robes and reaching for their wands. Juvia acted instantly and threw her hands out, encasing all of them at once into their own, individual Water Locks. Including Charlie.
Charlie gasped and floundered madly in the water for a couple of seconds before he realised… somehow… he could breathe. It was only then he felt the small air pocket that Juvia had created around his nose and mouth that was giving him the oxygen he needed. But the rest of the people in the room were quite clearly not able to breathe, kicking and struggling as they fought to reach the edge of the liquid spheres and break out, only for water to keep them very firmly in the middle no matter how much they flailed.
But the sounds of their kicking and clawing from breath were very much drowned out by the racket that was being kicked up by the Clippers.
Lisanna stepped forwards slowly, staring up at the huge cage the dominated the middle of the room in revulsion. It was at least twenty-five feet tall and twice as wide, and all thirty of the birds were crammed into it at once. Every time they flapped their wings they were beating them against the other birds and many of them were pecking and clawing at the bars, trying to get out to the open air where they belonged.
"Well, at least we've found them," Lisanna murmured. "And we're sure as heck not keeping them all cooped up like that. We need to get them home."
"I really hate to be Miss Negative," Charla landed on the ground behind Wendy after setting the Sky Dragon Slayer on the ground. "But how exactly are we planning to do that? The island is hundreds of miles away and its not like we can transport them all there without setting them loose. And once we set them loose how are we planning to get them to go where we want them to go?"
"I don't know," Lisanna shook her head. "I haven't had the chance to work on my Take-Over nearly enough to control all of them at once. But we have to think of something… anything. We can't let anything get in our way. I'm sure if we put our minds to it, we can come up with something."
"I hope so," Wendy murmured.
Juvia was carefully watching all the people in her Water Locks and each time one of them drifted into unconsciousness she released them from her attack, allowing them to fall to the floor in a sodden heap. Eventually Charlie was the only one still conscious, so she released him too and he gasped as he fell onto his backside, lifting his arms up and watching the water droplets cascade off them.
"You know… I might have preferred a little warning," he muttered as he clambered to his feet and ran a hand through his drenched hair, flicking his hand and to send a small splash of water to the floor.
"Sorry about that, Charlie-san," Juvia replied a little sheepishly. "Juvia thought that she should probably make it look like she was attacking you too or the others might notice and wander why she left you alone."
"No, it's fine, I get it. But what are you guys doing here!? I came up to scope out the birds that you want to rescue and try and come up with a plan only to have you come charging in yourselves shortly afterwards anyway. You've blown the secret of your existence to the entire Ministry not a day after the Order decided to help keep you concealed."
"Well, I believe we did mention that we're very, very bad at doing anything incognito," Lisanna pointed out.
"So bad you go barging straight into the headquarters of the ones we were trying to get you on the good side of?"
"Yes, that bad. Evidently."
"I was rather hoping that with Natsu not here, this kind of thing would happen less often," Charla folded her arms. "Guess that was a rather stupid thing to hope in hindsight."
"Well, we're here now, so we need to figure out what to do next," said Wendy. "Charlie-san, do you think you could help us… Apparate them out or something? Maybe if Lisanna-san used Take-Over on them a couple at a time we could transport them through a series of trips."
"That would take a while, but that might be an option," Lisanna tapped her lip.
"Actually I'm afraid its not," Charlie shook his head. "Anti-apparition wards throughout the Ministry prevent people from leaving that way in any room except the Atrium."
"Oh… well… that's my plan gone," Wendy sagged a little.
"It was a good plan, Wendy," Lisanna placed a hand on her shoulder comfortingly. "But if we can't get them out via Apparition how are we going to…"
"Actually I have just the answer," Charlie replied. "You'll take them out the same way that they were brought in. By Portkey."
"By what?" Juvia blinked. "Juvia has not heard of that one."
"It's not surprising," Charlie shook his head. "But that cage they've got the Clippers in now is designed to contain something much larger, like a dragon if ever they need to get one in here. And there's certainly no door big enough to bring a dragon through into this room is there?"
"…No… there's not. The only door is… was… a human sized one," Wendy agreed.
"Exactly. And even if they could get a dragon in through the door there's no way they'd transport one through the Ministry to load it into the cage. That would be a horrendous hazard to all the people that work here. Instead, they bring the cage to the animal and then transport it back. Portkeys, you see, are objects that can transport people to a specific place and back. Normally they're small and can be made from anything, like an old boot. But in this case that entire cage is one big Portkey, which gets sent to the place where the animal is, and then when the animal is loaded inside they can send it straight back here."
"Brilliant! That's perfect!" Lisanna clapped her hands together. "So that means we can transport all these birds at once to anywhere we like, right?"
"Well, you need to set the location properly," Charlie explained. "If you activated the Portkey now it would just take the cage back to where they were captured in the first place. But you want to take it straight to Tenroujima right?"
"If we can, yes," Wendy nodded. "How do we change the place it gets sent?"
"Leave that to me," Charlie raised his wand and grinned. "I must say, if you had to come on this avian rescue mission so early after arriving, its a bloody good thing that you chose to do it at least after I went and visited the island, or I wouldn't have a clue where to send it."
"Thank you. Thank you so much," Lisanna beamed as Charlie got to work, waving his wand at the cage and murmuring under his breath. "I'm sure I'll owe you one for this."
"No problem. But this is a big Portkey so it'll take me a few minutes."
"Guard the door. We can't let anyone get in," Charla cried.
"Right," Wendy hurried back to the smashed door, Lisanna on her heels. Juvia kept an eye on all the unconscious workers to make sure that none of them started stirring, and they all listened with bated breath to Charlie's murmuring, his eyes focused with the intensity of lasers on the cage as he looped his wand up and down quickly and efficiently.
"You look like you've done this before," Juvia noted.
"Well I do work at a dragon sanctuary that contains multiple species of dragon from many different countries," Charlie pointed out. "We use this kind of Portkey to transport them all the time. There aren't many feasible ways to transport a live adult dragon overseas in a way that's safe for both the dragon and the people doing the transporting."
"Your Dragon reserve does sound amazing," Wendy smiled. "I hope it wouldn't be too much trouble for me to ask if I could maybe visit it one day. The idea of dragons not being intelligent is still weird to me, but if there's lots of different kinds I'd quite like to see them."
"I'd be only too glad to have you come," Charlie grinned. "Though like I said once before, there are legends that speak of a time when dragons actually could talk, way back when the most powerful known wizard of our world - Merlin - still lived. And those that know those stories don't really believe them anymore. But after meeting you guys and learning what I've learned about your whole other world… who knows what else might be possible. Maybe our dragons just lost the ability to talk over time. Maybe the speaking dragons were their own separate species that died out. Maybe Merlin actually knew a couple of dragons from your own universe that ended up here by mistake just like you did. Or maybe it really is all nonsense after all… wow, you guys have really expanded my view on life…"
"Is that a good thing or a bad thing?" Juvia asked.
"As far as I'm concerned, a very good thing," Charlie grinned.
"Someone's coming!" Charla abruptly interrupted. Lisanna instantly morphed into her cat form and readied her claws while Wendy sucked air into her cheeks.
But it was Gajeel that came crashing around the corner up ahead, and the rest of his group right behind him. The two of them instantly relaxed and Lisanna in particular beamed when she caught sight of Gildarts bringing up the rear.
"Gildarts! Oh, it's so good to see you!" she called.
"Yo, Lisanna," Gildarts gave her his usual disarming smirk and ruffled her hair once they'd all spilled into the room. "Glad to see you don't look any worse for wear after everything that's happened. How're you holding up?"
"Alright," Lisanna bit her lip slightly. "It's… it's a bit hard not to worry a lot when I don't know where Mira-nee and Elf-niichan are. And Natsu and all the others. But… but seeing you here now gives me much more hope that we'll find them all again eventually."
Gildarts smirked knowingly at her and placed a hand on her shoulder. "Don't you fret, little lady. I'll see you reunited with everyone in no time. You have my word on that."
"Gray-sama, are you okay?" Juvia asked immediately.
"I'm fine," Gray shrugged her concern off quickly. "But you lot sure picked one hell of a time to split up the rescue mission."
"Mind you, it was probably the right call," Pantherlily noted. "It was already cramped enough fighting in the hallways with the numbers we had."
"How about you, Levy-san?" Wendy asked. "Are you okay? You look a bit pale."
"I… I'm fine," Levy replied quickly.
"Are you sure? You don't look fine, you look a bit sick. Should I use some of my Healing Magic on you?"
"Well… maybe a little," Levy smiled faintly. "Thanks Wendy." But even as Wendy lifted up her glowing hands to Levy's arm, all she could think was that she was definitely not alright at the moment, but she very much doubted that even Wendy would be able to do anything to fix this problem.
"So what the heck are we supposed to do now?" Gajeel looked up at the cage.
"We seem to have lost the authorities for now," noted Happy. "Looks like stopping those lift things has proved to be more helpful to us than it was to them."
"But they'll probably be working on starting them again so it may not be long before we have more company," Lily added.
"We have a plan," Lisanna said, and quickly outlined the basics of the cage to them. "So all we need to is hitch a ride with the cage to Tenroujima and we'll be out of here. Hopefully before more of the authorities show up."
"Ah…" Charlie looked up. "You were hoping to escape with the cage? Well… that might be more of a problem - this cage only transports things that are inside it. If you wanted to go with it, you'd have to get in there with the birds."
As if on cue, one of the Clippers lashed its head through the bars and snapped at Gildarts, who was just out of reach but who didn't flinch either at the beak clacking shut right before his eyes.
"Well… that might be problematic," he muttered.
"Doesn't any one of us have some kind of Sleep Magic?" Wendy asked.
"Only Sleep Magic I have is putting people to sleep with a fist to the head," Gajeel muttered.
"We can't do that! We have to find another way," Lisanna protested.
"Well whatever you're going to do, you have to do it soon," Charlie was holding his wand steadily at the Portkey now. "Because I've set the location. All I have to do now is set the timer and once I do it will disappear to Tenroujima whether you're in it or not. And…"
Suddenly there was a large screaming noise that radiated through the room, causing several of them to clap their hands over their ears, and Gray to yell, "WHAT THE HELL IS THAT!"
"Uh-oh… that's not good," Charlie whispered as the noise died down.
"What's not?" Gajeel demanded.
"That's the alarm that signifies the Anti-Apparition Wards have been disabled," Charlie murmured. "I've never heard it go off before but if you hear it you're supposed to leave immediately because its assumed an enemy is the one that disabled it. But I don't think it is this time…"
"The Ministry will be here any moment," Mavis agreed, rising into the air so everyone could see her. "Quickly now! We must move. Charlie, set the timer so it will leave one minute from now."
"Are you sure? I mean…"
"Just do it!" Mavis glanced at him sharply, and the whole room was left momentarily stunned at how such a cheerful girl could switch into an authoritative commander in an instant flat."
"Alright," Charlie nodded and flicked his wand. "Sixty seconds and counting!?"
"How do we get into the cage?"
"There's the key to the only door," Charlie pointed to a large key hanging off the wall. "But you can't seriously be planning on…"
"Gajeel, knock him out," Mavis interrupted.
"Huh?" Charlie blinked, before he was suddenly poleaxed by Gajeel slamming him in the gut in just the right place. Charlie gasped and slumped to the floor, blacking out in a heap.
"Sorry bro," Gajeel cracked his shoulder. "First's Order."
"Everyone spread out - be ready to attack from all angles," Mavis instructed. "Happy, Charla, you get the key and unlock the door. Lisanna and Juvia with me."
Levy found herself smiling to herself as Mavis gave her instructions. "Looks like the Fairy Tactician… is back in action."
Despite their lack of knowledge of the first Master, every Fairy Tail member in the room found themselves leaping to obey. Gildarts, Gray, Gajeel, Wendy, Levy and Pantherlily rushed to stand around the cage and face outwards, readying themselves for attack while Mavis took Juvia and Lisanna to the door of the cage. And not a moment too soon, for a couple of seconds later, with a flurry of loud cracks several Aurors emerged into the room, wands at the ready.
But before any of them could rattle off a single spell each of the Fairy Tail members lashed out with their own. Gildarts sent a huge blast of white lines out from his hand that enclosed around five of the Aurors and caused them each to explode into hundreds of miniature versions of themselves, which all fell to the floor in shocked, yelling clumps.
Gray formed a layer of ice across the floor that rose up around another four to trap them inside small boxes like coffins made out of ice. Gajeel ducked down and morphed one arm into a club that he swept out in a wide arc to bowl another three over to the side, an action that was mimicked by Pantherlily swinging the flat of his sword. Wendy fired a swirling tornado from out her mouth that blasted yet another trio back against the wall and Levy formed the word MUD in the air above a few others, which caused viscous liquid to cascade down and plaster another two against the ground.
Another couple of Aurors appeared next to where Charla was taking the key off the wall, and one of those Aurors spun around to fire a Stunning spell at the white cat, which she only managed to dodge by kicking sharply away from the wall. Happy flew in and aimed himself at the Auror's gut in an attempt to headbutt him, but the other cried, "Protego!" and Happy crashed straight into the shield charm and was knocked back to the floor.
"Happy!" Charla cried, but before she could make a move a couple of red flashes of light slammed right into the backs of the two Aurors and they crumpled into unconsciousness. The two Exceed blinked and looked up to see Tonks standing not far away. The Metamorphmagus raised a finger to her lips and winked, before she turned and fired a Stunner in Levy's direction, only for it to hit the bars of the cage instead and rebound to hit another Auror in the side.
"Come on, quick!" Happy yelled as more Aurors were still Apparating into the room, and the two cats quickly weaved in and out of the conflict to the door of the cage where Mavis was waiting for them.
"Have you got that?" Mavis said as they arrived.
"Yes," Lisanna nodded.
"Juvia gets it!"
"Then quick, unlock the door," Mavis instructed the Exceed.
"But won't the birds…?" Charla asked.
"Don't worry, Charla, there's a plan. Hurry!" Lisanna cut across her. Charla moved automatically after that and inserted the key into the slot and twisted it. Lisanna seized the door of the cage and wrenched it open, but before any of the cawing Clippers could charge out she bounded straight in, her body glowing as she took on the form of a Clipper herself and spread her wings, cawing right back. She then began to use her Take-Over magic to implant suggestions in the heads of the nearest Clippers one by one to try and head to the other side of the cage. Which immediately caused a frenzy of activity as the Clippers obeyed the sudden compulsion and ended up squabbling and pushing against the other Clippers that were trying to go the other way and get out.
"Now, Juvia!" Mavis called. "Only ten seconds!"
"Right!" Juvia yelled and turned to water, splitting her liquid body into two and sweeping around the room. One by one she engulfed the other Fairy Tail members inside her, whisking them off their feet in the current she produced and then swirling back around, carrying them all as they tumbled over and over, crashing into each other and bubbles streaming from their mouths. But Juvia swept them all right through the door of the cage, which Happy and Charla closed behind them with a snap after they ducked in too.
"Three… two… one…" Mavis cried.
"Stop them, quick!" Scrimgeour's voice echoed through the room, but too late. Even though most of them were still floating inside Juvia's water, they all felt a sudden jerking sensation as if they'd been snagged by a hook and launched into the air and the world around them went blurry, then black…
...and then clear again.
Except what they could see this time were the rocky peaks, sandy beaches and the incredibly tall, domineering tree that made up Tenroujima.
They'd done it. They'd arrived.
"Quick! Everyone out!" Mavis cried. Happy and Charla pushed open the door again and they all hurried to obey, sweeping aside as the Clippers stormed out behind them, fighting their way through the door and kicking off into the air in a flurry of feathers and a cacophony of caws. And this time they didn't try picking a fight with the mages. They simply arced their way up into the sky and swept on their way, glad to be back in the open air and heading back to find their roosts once again.
Lisanna collapsed back against the sand of the beach they'd landed on, smiling as she watched the birds wing their way home above. "Well, that was intense," she smiled. "But we did it. We got everyone out of there, people and animal alike."
"I felt it was touch and go there a few times," Charla murmured. "But it looks like we pulled it off after all."
"Sorry everyone," Juvia bowed her head as she finished solidifying back into her regular form, leaving everyone that had been inside her sopping to the skin. "Juvia hopes you weren't too startled by her actions but the First said it was the best way."
"Think nothing of it," Gildarts chuckled, whipping off his cloak and beginning to wring it out. "Maybe a little warning next time would be nice but it worked well."
"You can say that again," Gray chuckled. "You did good, Juvia… hey, your hair's come undone."
Juvia was quite abruptly knocked off the cloud that Gray's compliment had immediately put her on by that statement and she looked down, realising Gray was right. At some point during the commotion her hair had come loose from the tight curls at the base she normally wore it in and now fell down past her shoulders.
"Oh…" Juvia grimaced, knowing it would probably take her a while before she could get it back to the way it was.
"It looks good," Gray noted.
Juvia looked up sharply with a bright red face. "It… it does…?"
"Yeah," Gray shrugged. "I guess…"
"Then if Gray-sama likes it this is how Juvia will have her hair all the time!" Juvia cried, placing her hands on her cheeks and squirming on the spot. You could practically see the hearts coming off her.
"Er… right…" Gray coughed. "You do that."
"Juvia will!"
Levy, meanwhile, felt utterly drained. It had been one hell of a day for her and all she could do was lie back with her eyes closed, breathing heavily.
That is until she heard a voice in her ear go, "Oi, you alright?" A voice which made her stiffen and open her eyes… and find herself staring up into Gajeel's face. Incredibly she'd somehow failed to notice in all the confusion that she'd been swept right into Gajeel's arms by Juvia's water and it hadn't even registered with her that he was still holding her now.
Two things happened at once. Levy suddenly screamed and her hand came up to smack the Iron Dragon Slayer in the nose. Gajeel cried out in shock and let go of her, causing Levy to fall to the sand and scramble away from him.
"The hell was that for?!" Gajeel rubbed his nose angrily, but that tone of voice did nothing but make Levy cringe even more.
"I'm… I'm sorry…" she murmured. "I really am. I just… I… I can't…"
"Can't what?"
"I just… can't…" Levy shook her head. "Sorry… really…" And without another word, she turned around and hurried off to speak to Lisanna and Wendy, leaving Gajeel staring after her with a slight scowl.
"What was that about?" Lisanna asked.
"Oh… nothing important…" Levy bit her lip slightly.
"You sure you're okay?" Wendy asked. "Did I not use enough Healing Magic? You still look rather pale…"
"No, Wendy, it's fine," Levy offered her a vage smile. "It's nothing to worry about. I'll be fine…" but she added so quietly under her breath that nobody heard her:- "I hope."
Gajeel felt his fingers tightened into a fist so hard that if he'd been holding anything in it then it would likely have fractured into pieces. But his gaze turned down to his partner when Lily stepped up beside him and said, "Don't worry. I'm sure she'll come round. She's had a bit of traumatic experience today, that's all."
"Like I care what she thinks," Gajeel grunted and looked away. Lily rolled his eyes and refrained from commenting on how stupidly obvious it was that he was lying.
Mavis stepped over to the edge of the sea, the wind catching her hair and sweeping it out to one side like a large, blond flag. She inhaled, taking in the familiar scents of her beloved home and the unfamiliar ones that came with this new world it was now in, and slowly breathed it out in a long, slow sigh.
"Not quite the way you wanted to introduce ourselves to the people of this world, was it?" Gildarts asked as he stepped up beside her.
"No, it wasn't. I think we were all hoping that it could be done a little more… peacefully."
"Sorry about that. Maybe I acted a little rashly but when I heard Levy's screams… well… I couldn't let that stand."
"Don't apologise. That's the way I always wanted my guild to be. Doing whatever it took to keep one another safe. Defending one another from anything and everything that seeks to bring them harm, no matter what their reason for doing so… if nothing else I think we at least gave them an accurate representation of that. Though in this case it might have been nice to do it with a little less explosions and damage… but that's another thing that Fairy Tail is renowned for so again, at least we were honest."
"That's one way of putting it, I suppose," Gildarts chuckled, the surf lapping at the toes of his boots. "And we're always at odds with the Council back home so it makes sense that we be at odds with its alternative in this world too."
Mavis giggled, before her face grew a little more sombre. "Still… good relations with other people are important. That was shown today too - we would not have been able to rescue those birds without the help of Charlie."
"The guy with the red hair?"
"Yes, him. And a couple of others that helped us out when we needed them to. I agree with the principal that we look out for ourselves and put the needs of our friends first… but now the Order of the Phoenix are also our friends. Today we acted against their Ministry and they still helped us out. Which means from now on… I think we should work more closely with them. Co-ordinate with them instead of acting on our own and leaving them to pick up our mess when we can. To all intents and purposes, they're like the Fairy Tail of this world. And we definitely should treat them as such."
"You clearly have a high opinion of them," Gildarts smirked. "I look forward to meeting them properly. But I agree. We probably should lay low for a bit if we can after this anyway. And from what you said, they have enough problems without us making more for them. Like we probably did today."
"We owe them that much," Mavis nodded.
"How could this have happened?" Fudge asked as he made his way through the room where the Clippers had been housed, which was full of Healers providing medical assistance for battered Aurors and workers. "How could a bunch of strangers we know next to nothing about just storm into our headquarters like that, make some of our best witches and wizards look totally incompetent, and escape to parts unknown through the use of a Ministry-authorised Portkey?"
"They were like nothing else we've ever encountered before, Minister," Scrimgeour murmured, nursing a bruised side as he stepped past a recovering Charlie Weasley, who was being looked over by a Healer. "Quite clearly if what they said about being from another world is true. And after the things I saw them do today, if I had any doubts from the verdict of the Veritaserum they're gone now."
"And these people… they've been appearing all over the country?" Fudge asked.
"Yes sir. One of them matched a description of the man who was responsible for the attack in the Muggle Bank in Portree and three of the others matched the description of the incident in Brockenhurst."
"That's nearly the entire distance of the country apart from one another and yet they were here today at the same time to break into the place right at the time we're interrogating two of their own? That cannot just be coincidence, Scrimgeour."
"No, it cannot. I agree, Minister. If we assume everyone from their world arrived during that meteor shower a few days ago then they definitely had to have had help from someone from our own world. Though I really have no idea who it might be."
"Well then we must find out," Fudge cried, marching out of the broken door and into the corridor. "We must find out who it is that would allow foreigners to our very air to come barging right into the heart of our Ministry and cause unparalleled damage to everything in their path. But even more importantly, these Fairy Tail members themselves must be found. What happened here today is going to cause nothing short of widespread panic. When people learn there's a man out there who can disintegrate an entire wall just by touching it they won't want to come out of their homes."
"By all accounts though, sir, this bunch from Fairy Tail want to be left alone."
"We cannot let them run free, Scrimgeour. They've already caused two massive problems with keeping up the Statute of Secrecy, and who knows what else they might be capable of? We cannot take the chance they they won't strike again somewhere. We have to find some way of bringing them in and making sure that they stay in."
"…Of course, Minister," Scrimgeour nodded through pursed lips.
"As for who it is that's been helping them… I don't know who it is, but I know where I want you to start looking," Fudge turned to fix Scrimgeour with a serious eye:-
"Dumbledore."