Disclaimer: I don not own Fairy Tail. All rights go to Hiro Mashima/All copyright rules apply.
Rogue's POV
"I think I know how to defeat Death Reaper" Lucy said, her eyes showing excitement as she flashed a grin our way. I stopped midway from trying to draw a map o listen to the Celestial Spirit mage.
"Well, how are we gonna do it, Blondie?" Sting questioned impatiently, totally ruining the dramatic mood that was set. Mentally slamming my head against the wall, I turned to Lucy, in which I just nodded her way in signal to go on.
"Well, I was reading into Aleci and the Death Reapers using some ancient Soul Searcher magic, which is a story for another time, but… Well it would be easier to sow you rather than tell you, and I want to see what you think of it yourselves" Lucy said, wringing her hands and looking to the side. I was confused. Soul Searching magic was a lost art, something even Rufus didn't know much about. Trying to hide the surprise on my face, I remained expressionless and turned to Sting, who also had a serious look on his face.
"Well, then, if you're ready, I'm going to project some images into your minds" Lucy said quite calmly before muttering something even my dragon senses could pick up. As a huge, green magic circle appeared over Lucy, I clutched my head.
Different memories and all sorts of information flickered through my mind. Most were gruesome, ad only a select few were bearable. My breath was taken away as I saw what was being put before me. There was a battle, and as I closed my eyes, I seemed to be standing in the battle grounds itself. There was a war, which was between two small armies, but there was so much magical energy flowing through the air. As I looked to the right, I saw a flag with the guild mark that Aleci had worn. The mages were being beaten brutally by the soldiers of Fiore, and they were snickering maniacally. There stood Aleci, using sand magic, forming and reforming into the ground beneath him, yet still suffering. The opponent only smirked, and he just stood there, not doing anything, yet he was beating Aleci mercilessly by just sticking his fist out. I looked to the other small battles, and examined all of the other mages being in the same tight spot. All of the soldiers just stuck their fists out, yet the mages were getting beaten. And badly. Taking this opportunity, I examined the different magic's. Sand, earth, storm, wind. All of them were strong, and few mages have been able to master those types of magic. I shifted my attention to the soldiers, and examined them, trying to find the source of their power. Weird… back then, I thought the soldiers of Fiore didn't have magic… I thought to myself. That's when I found something that they all had in common. On their fingers were magical rings of an opposing element. Sand to water, Sky to earth, Barrier to wind, and Peace to storm. As the image melted away, I opened my eyes, only to find myself in the cav. Sting and Lucy were there, too, and we knew that we had one ultimate goal, and that was to find these rings. The answer should've been obvious. Cancel one magic with another…
Sting's POV
I didn't question all of the forms of magic that Lucy possessed, but instead thought about how we were going to do this.
"Yo, how are we going to even find the rings in the first place?" Rogue nodded, and we looked at Lucy, who sighed.
"Hibiki taught me some archive magic, and when I looked up the rings, it said that they were apparently broken, so we'll either have to make our own, or learn and master new magic forms before Death Reaper makes their move" Lucy replied, looking down.
Well, that's just great. Guess we can kiss our butts goodbye. Perking up, I asked a question, "Why can't we just use our normal magic to defeat them?" Lucy and Rogue looked at me as if that was the stupidest thing that they've ever heard.
"Sting, did you notice what time period that that battle took place in?" Rogue askd, deadpanning. Thinking about it, it looked as if the place was Magnolia about 100 years ago. Yeah, it looked like that in the history books, too…oh. So they were immortal. Well, that was a surprise. The other two just face palmed as they saw the realization on my face.
"The battle never ended. Death Reaper ended up retreating, and they wouldn't do that if they had to. And, considering that Aleci was there, I'm positive that the other members are still here, too. In other words, I'm positive that we can win if we had the opposing elements. We just need o make so that they don't escape" Lucy said, answering all of the question that were in my head previous. I nodded numbly, and I slumped down in my seat, as did Rogue. Lucy chuckled nervously.
"Hehe, that spell must've taken its affect on you two. Well, you guys should rest for now, I'll have lunch ready by the time you wake up" And with that, the two dragon slayers of Sabertooth fell into a deep slumber.
Lucy's POV
When the boys fell to sleep, I used my other type of magic. It was true, during those 3 months that Natsu left me alone, I learned a lot of things from other mages that I met on jobs and missions.
"Ruler of the Earth, the Sea, and the Sky, I call upon you to bring forth the cards of the elements, and as they shine I beckon you to my aide. With the balance of the world and opposing life forces, may my aspect be nothingness, and I call forth this new power… Elemental Train!" I shouted out the spell, not waking up the dragon slayers, and called forth my elemental car magic. As al the cards of every element spread themselves out, I looked at each one of them, and I began focusing on how I could make those rings.
"I call forth the elements of Water, Earth, and the Sky, and I beckon forth the aspect of protection" I called out, and the said cards drifted towards me. Going to the regular pile of cards, I picked out the elements, and then I wandered to the Cards of Aspects, where I picked protection. Barriers weren't considered an element, but more like an aspect, because it is an aspect of life and survival. Then I brought forth the elements of fire and iron, and then ended the spell, sending the rest of the cards away. I sighed, and looked at the sun, which was now fully risen up to the air. Summoning Virgo with brush of my hands, she brought me ingredients as I lit a fire and began to cook.
Time Skip to After Lunch
I told the boys as they were eating to leave the rings to me, and hey just nodded, confused. We finished our meal, and then we all headed out to the lake to wash up, having created a wall of sorts out of stones. Well…at least Virgo did, exclaiming that my innocence was something to be treasured while Loke, or Leo as I should say, flirted with m and sent occasional glares to the other two. I sighed as I slipped into the warm waters, which I have been doing a lot recently, and began to rinse myself, still thinking o the problem at hand.
There are three of us, but there are four different elements…it just doesn't match up. Maybe I should include all four elements in 3 separate rings, so that we can fight any opponent and so that we get a boost in power? How am I even going to make the rings? The spirits can't help since they would have to handle other types of magic, so have to do his myself, right? No way am I leaving this up to Sting, and Rogue seems like he doesn't want to be bothered…
My thoughts trailed off as I finished drying myself, and I quickly changed into my sleeping outfit to skip back to the cave. When I got back, I laid out some leftovers from lunch, and then pulled out some donuts and coffee from a little bag that I brought to have for after dinner; I had been saving this for dessert, and it wouldn't hurt to share.
When everyone had gotten back, we all ate in a comfortable silence, and we were content at what we had accomplished that day. WE all settled down after making some idle chat, and then we all went to bed as the moon started to rise.
The Next Morning
I quietly woke up at 5 and summoned the elemental cards that I had picked out yesterday. Using fire and iron, I made a workbench to craft the rings. I decided that if I was going to do this, I would at least make the rings fashionable. So, using my knowledge from what I learned from watching a blacksmith when I grew I up, I forged normal rings, void of magic. For Sting, there was an intricate, white dragon that faced the right, and Rogue had the same dragon in black, facing the left. For me, there were two dragons, circling each other, one black, and one white. I stretched out as I finished the details of the rings, which took me 2 hours to complete, with having Capricorn as my guide, who occasionally sprung up to tell me that I did something wrong. I knew that Sabers were late sleepers, so I figured that I had at least another hour before Sting and Rogue woke up. Dismissing fire and iron, I pulled out the four other elements, and quickly casted a spell so that I could absotb the powers. As I transferred the energy into the rings, the crests started to glow, Sting's blue, Rogue's red, and mine gold. The rings started to reshape themselves, and the dragons all turned even more intricate, with jeweled linings of sapphire, ruby, and pure crystal.
Are you telling me that I didn't have to bother with the details?! I could've made a regular ring and it would've had the same result?!
Slightly annoyed, puffed out a breath of air as I made breakfast, and the smell of meat stirred the boys. I looked over as they immediately jumped up, and giggled quietly at their silly ways. I couldn't stop the smiling spreading on my face.
Rogue's POV
Food. I smelled food. Food was a good sign. That was what went through my mind as I stumbled towards Lucy with Sting, both of us sighing in unison as we took bites of the heavenly meal. I will admit, Lucy was a pretty damn good cook. I noticed her smiling at us, and I blushed a bit before looking away. As we all ate together, obviously hungry, Lucy broke the silence, her voice as cheerful as always.
"I made the rings. They have the needed elements in them, and to summon which particular element you want to use, just envision that element, or if you want to use all of them at once, just recite the spell, I call forth all of the elements, Eltaria!" Lucy said calmly before resuming to bite on her sausage.
Sting spit out his food and exclaimed, "You made the rings?! How, when, and where?!" Sting asked, clearly flabbergasted. I was wondering the same thing, and couldn't keep the curiosity out of my eyes.
"I woke up early, and used my elemental card magic, and-"
"YOUR WHAT?!"
"My elemental card magic, as I was saying, and I forged the rings, then-"
"WHAT?! HOW?! WHAT THE HELL IS THIS ELLA BUSSINESS? LUCY, ARE YOU-"
I smacked Sting on the head and sat him down next to me, where I covered my hand over his overly energetic and annoying mouth.
"Go on" I said, also curious.
She looked surprised at my sudden words, but then nodded.
"I was taught elemental card magic from a friend of mine, and I was able to use them to forge some rings as well as plug in the elements. The same thing with the soul searching magic. A friend taught me" Lucy replied simply while tossing Sting and I something. Catching it in my hand, I looked down to see an intricate ring, with a beautiful black dragon with ruby lining.
"They glow when the magic is used. But for today, we're going to practice using the rings. I don't want to have an embarrassing fail while fighting because we don't remember how the thing works" Lucy explained while giving Sting a small glance, obviously referring to Mr. Einstein over there, who apparently forgot that we left the exceeds at the guild and was crying for Lector. I face palmed, which Sting has been making me do a lot recently. I just face palmed again at that fact. Slipping on the ring, I dragged Sting by his hair as I followed Lucy, who was already way ahead of us.
We arrived to a clearing in the forest, which was a pretty nice spot, must I say so myself. Lucy slipped on her ring and turned around to face us.
"Okay, boys. The first thing you need to do is to envision the element that you're using, and then to envision that it's just an attachment to your body, and then you can use and manipulate that element to your free will. We'll focus on doing combination later" She pointed to me. "Fire" She pointed to Sting. "Water" We both nodded, and began to focus on the element given to us. I stared in surprise as a small flame shot out of my hand, and then died down. Sting got the same effect, except that he hot himself with a spurt of water and was now trying to wipe his face, embarrassed. Sting then yelled at Lucy, who was laughing her butt off.
"Well, if you're so god, the you try it!"Sting challenged. When Lucy smirked, I just backed away and hid behind a tree, knowing that this was not going to end up well. Shouting out to Lucy, I suggested," Can you please aim over there and not at my face? That would be great, thanks" I said as I held onto the tree.
Lucy closed her eyes, and a strong, brilliant flame erupted from one hand, while a huge swirl of water erupted from the other. I saw Sting pale, and he vigorously shook his head no when Lucy offered some further demonstration.
"Okay, now no more disruptions… Get to work!" Lucy barked, and we both nodded, knowing that we shouldn't get onto her bad side.
For the rest of the day, we worked on summoning elements, elemental combinations, and then finally summoning all of the elements at once. It was tough, but I put on a strong front, and so did Sting, since we didn't want to lose to Lucy, who barely broke a sweat. When we finally mastered it, Lucy was smiling from ear to ear, and Sting just kept on announcing to the bored trees that he was the beast mage in Fiore.
Lucy walked over to me, and then she did something unexpected. She handed me some water, and she patted my head. Leaning in, she whispered in my ear, "Good job. You look tired, so why don't we all head back to the cave to rest?" I was blushing madly, and I just nodded my head, still not leaving Lucy's side even though I didn't want her to see me blush. We got to the cave and ate dinner, then went o bed early since we would probably have our first encounter tomorrow. With that in mind, I fell asleep the second my head hit my pillow.
In the Morning
I turned in my sleep, and found something warm and comfy. Holding it against my chest, I snuggled closer to it, inhaling the oddly familiar scent of strawberries. When I felt it squirm and try to escape, I just held onto it tighter, refusing to open my eyes and wake up. That's when it hit me. Why was it squirming? My eyes shot open, only to see that I was snuggling with a very flustered and embarrassed Lucy Heartfilia. Scrambling away from her, I apologized and backed up against a wall.
She muttered under her breath, but I could clearly hear what she was saying.
"It's okay…it was really warm, and comfy, and you're really mus-" Lucy cut herself off, to see that I was listening, in which I pretended to look out the cave and whistle innocently. However, that failed, because, oh, I don't know, I never whistle?! Why did I even whistle in the first place? Whistling is a waste of time in this crucial situation. What should I do? We just stared at each other awkwardly for a few minutes, then Sting woke up, put his arm around Lucy, and blew into her ear, which made her jump, made Sting laugh, and made me feel some sort of constricting sensation in the place where my heart is supposed to be. This was going to be some weird day.
Lucy's POV
Loke popped up, and I ran to him , wrapping my arms around his neck, not wanting anything else unexpected to happen with the two slayers. Loke just continued to flirt with me, fantasizing our wedding, when I turned around and saw two very angry dragon slayers. They were glaring at our position, in which I was holding onto Loke for dear life, but I shook it off, thinking that it was just some friendly rivalry. I didn't know if I was stupid or something, but anybody could clearly see that this wasn't friendly at all. I just shrugged it off as I summoned Virgo to get us breakfast, and sent the two spirits back to their world, reminding them to save their energy for when the battle began. I smiled to myself and looked down at my ring, and I saw the boys do it as well.
Are you ready, Death Reaper? Cause we're gonna kick some bad guy butt!