Nirvana

Jellal continued lurking through the trees, having acquired a new set of clothes from a dark mage who was stupid enough to not recognize him. There was nothing in his mind, nothing save for two things: a location, and a name.

Erza.

(with Jura)

Jura's eyes darted to the right as he heard the bushes rustle.

"Show yourself!" Jura ordered, as he took a fighting stance, "Are you too afraid to actually face against me?"

"When one has money, one need not fear anything! Oh yeah! But I guess it was naive to think that I could hide from one of the Ten Wizard Saints," a familiar voice said. Jura whirled around, and saw Hoteye emerge out of the trees, his typical smug face present.

"Heavenly Eyes Hoteye," Jura said.

"Iron Rock Jura, oh yeah!" Hoteye said, "I was hoping I could be the one to fight you." His eyes then glowed, as the ground swirled up like water around Jura, only for the Wizard Saint's body to swell with magic, as the liquidized rock turned into stone pillars, which launched at Hoteye. However, as they advanced on the dark mage, he held up his hands, which melted the rocks back down.

"Ironic isn't it?" Hoteye stated, "You're power hardens the ground, mine softens it. I wonder whose is the stronger magic, oh yeah!"

"Magic power is completely irrelevant," Jura answered, "Those with the greater conviction will triumph!" Hoteye snickered darkly.

"Much to the contrary, regardless of the conviction, regardless of the era, the rich will always triumph! Oh yeah!"

(at the base camp)

"I'm almost done," Wendy said, as she wiped her brow slightly. And she was right, and it could be seen. The venom was now just around the bite marks, and Erza seemed to be breathing much more normally.

"You're really good at this," Lucy said, as she knelt next to Wendy, "I hate to think what would have happened if Cait Shelter hadn't sent you."

"That would've been scary!" Happy said, raising a paw, "You're awesome, Wendy!"

"Thank you," Wendy answered, with a more than slight blush. Hibiki smiled at Wendy, and was about to offer his own praise, but then his attention was taken back to his screen.

"One of the Oracion Seis has been defeated!" he announced. The girls and the cats looked up at him.

"Really?" Lucy asked.

"Really," Hibiki confirmed, "I can't tell who it is, but from what I can assemble, one has been defeated."

"That's great!" Lucy said, "We're already down to five!"

"Don't get overconfident, there is still five remaining," Carla reminded, "We have to keep our heads in this, but for now…" She was interrupted when the bushes suddenly exploded.

"Lucy!" Natsu said as he sprung out.

"Natsu!" Lucy cried out. She wasn't the only one surprised by Natsu's sudden appearance. The Fire Dragon Slayer scurried over Lucy, and started looking over every inch of his girlfriend. After finding nothing out of the ordinary, he went over, and did the same to Wendy.

"What are you doing here?" Hibiki said, "You were supposed to be looking for the Oracion Seis!"

"I had to make sure my girlfriend and sister were okay!" Natsu said, "I heard they were in danger!"

"First of all, Wendy is not your sister!" Carla protested, "Secondly, you have to keep your priorities straight! She and the blonde are fine!"

"The blonde has a name," Lucy said with a sweat drop.

"I'm done!" Wendy announced. Everyone looked down, and saw Erza completely healthy and stable. It looked more like she was just asleep slightly.

"You did it!" Natsu said as he suddenly ran up and hugged Wendy. The Sky Dragon Slayer flushed red, but was still smiling.

"You're awesome!" Lucy said, hugging Wendy as well.

"Give me paw!" Happy said, holding up to Carla. The female cat glanced at it briefly, before sighing.

"Fine, but just this once!" Carla answered with a frown, as she slapped her paw against Happy's.

(somewhere deep in the Woodsea)

Jellal eventually entered into a strange gully, filled with strange plants that seemed to glow maliciously. He approached a single massive tree in the center, which had chains attached to it, as someone had tried to imprison something within it. All this time, Cobra and Cubelios followed him closely.

I know the Woodsea down to the last leaf, but this place is a first he thought Maybe Brain was on to something after all. Is this where Nirvana is?

Jellal stood before the massive tree, before holding up his hand, and pressing his palm against the trunk. It then flared up with magic, before bursting out. The magic took the form of a strange black light, as it shot into the sky. Cobra's eyes grew wide, as did his smile.

"Finally!" he said out loud, "Our future is here!"

(back at the camp)

"She should regain consciousness soon enough," Carla said, as she folded her paws, and looked at Erza.

"What do we do in the meantime?" Natsu asked.

"Shouldn't you be out looking for the Oracion Seis?" Hibiki said. Natsu, however, glared at him.

"I beat up an enemy, and he said that my girls were in danger!" he said, "I'm not ever going to let them out of my sight!" However, he was suddenly yanked down by the ear by Lucy, who was glaring at him.

"If I told you once, I've told you more times than possible," she scolded, "You can't cling to me constantly. I'm a grown woman here. And the same goes to Wendy; even if she were your sister, you can't smother her."

"But…"

"Natsu," Lucy hissed as she tugged him a little harder.

"Yes, Lucy," Natsu weakly answered.

"That's a good boy," Lucy said sweetly, as she let her boyfriend go.

"Is Natsu okay?" Wendy asked, as she bent over the Fire Dragon Slayer.

"Natsu's withstood much worse from Erza," Happy answered. That was when they began to feel the ground rumbling.

"What's that shaking?" Lucy asked, as she looked around.

"Doesn't sound good!" Happy said, as he hugged Lucy's leg. At that moment, there was a huge burst of magic energy, that everyone could feel.

"What…," Wendy began. At that moment, a huge column of black light erupted out of the ground, into the sky.

"What is that?!" Lucy cried. A look of complete and total dread, filled Hibki's face.

"Nirvana," he murmured.

(with Gray, Lyon, and Sherry)

"What's that?" Sherry asked, looking up at the light.

"Could that possibly be Nirvana?" Gray asked.

"If it is than we have to head there!" Lyon said, as he tried to give up, only to double back over.

"Lyon!" Sherry said, "You can't go with your injury!"

"Sherry's right," Gray said, "You're not fit to go anywhere in that condition!"

"So you think I should just sit out this whole mission?" Lyon asked, "You're not serious are you?"

"You clearly didn't sit this one out," Sherry said, "If not for you we probably wouldn't have beaten that Oracion Seis guy!"

"I hate to agree with that sentiment, but she's right," Gray said, "You've done your part, now you need to head back to base!" Lyon looked at Gray for a time, before sighing.

"Fine," he relented, "But let it be known I'm doing this under protest."

"Whatever," Gray said, waving it off. Sherry then supported Lyon as the group started shuffling off, as Gray ran off in the direction of the light.

(with Ren and Eve)

"Shouldn't we be looking for the boss?" Eve said.

"He can take care of himself," Ren answered, "Right now we've got to keep our priorities straight!"

"But what about that Light?" Eve asked, "We can't let that go!"

"I know," Ren replied, "You go look for Wendy. You can cover more ground than me."

"I'm on it!" Eve said, as he ran off, as Ren ran in the direction of the light.

(with Jura)

Jura held up both of his clenched fists, which summoned two large fists of earth, before slamming his fists together. The earth fists slammed down at Hoteye, who held up his hand that wasn't still holding his book, causing the ground to melt down. He then flipped up his finger, sending the earth around Jura to swirl around, sending a spiral of earth up from beneath Jura. The Wizard Saint leapt into the air, as he clasped his hands together. Several stone javelins emerged beneath Hoteye, who managed to jump out of the way.

"Its pointless, my eyes let me see everything! Oh yeah!" Hoteye said proudly. Jura frowned as he landed. This battle wasn't getting either combatant anywhere. It was just the one earth mages giving a blow that the other one neutralized. Both of them had noticed the light, but were to focused on their battle to do anything about it.

"A man of such skill could be a great asset to the magical world," Jura commented, "I will never fathom why people would join the ranks of such a horrid organization."

"I go where the money is!" Hoteye answered, "Doing good never gets one any money!"

"There is far more to the world than riches," Jura said, as he took a battle stance.

"That's where you're wrong, there is nothing but…," Hoteye trailed off, as he began twitching slightly, "Money… money… money…" Jura narrowed his eyes. The dark mage was beginning to act strangely.

(at the base camp)

"That's Nirvana?" Lucy asked. She then paused briefly.

"Honestly I was expecting something much more… ugly," she said.

"Don't mistake its appearance, that magic is absolutely vile," Hibiki said. Natsu, who was just getting up, failed to hear that, while rubbing his tender ear.

"That has to be Jellal!" he said firmly. Nobody notice Erza's eyes crack open at the mention of that name.

"Jellal?" Lucy said, "But I thought he was dead?"

"Jellal?" Wendy whispered, as she began to shake a little, "He's… he's here?" Everyone looked at Wendy slightly.

"Somehow the Oracion Seis found a way to bring him back," Natsu explained, before pouting, "I would've kicked his ass if Dragon's Eye hadn't bailed on me!"

"Don't kick yourself," Lucy said, putting a hand on Natsu's shoulder, "I don't think we could've prepared ourselves for something like this."

"Jellal," Wendy said, as she grabbed her head, shaking slightly, attracting the group's attention, save for Hibki, who was still looking at the light.

"Now, we need to think about…," But he didn't finish as he looked over and noticed no one was really paying any attention to him.

"Do you know Jellal?" Lucy asked. Wendy sniffed slightly, tears pooling slightly in her eyes.

"After Grandeeney, the dragon that raised me, disappeared, I was left all alone," she explained, "But Jellal found me, and for a time he took care of me. I owe him so much." A sudden emotion of terror fell upon Hibiki. She's not… he thought in despair. As Wendy began to cry softly, her forehead was suddenly pushed against Natsu's.

"Wendy," he said, "What happened in the past is exactly that, in the past. It doesn't matter to us, you're here now, and that does matter to us. For now, we've got bad guys to stop, and we can't do it without you. You're with friends, and whether or not we're from different guilds doesn't matter to me, as far as I'm concerned, you're my sister." Wendy looked up at Natsu's expression, before a smile worked its way onto her face, as she nodded.

"Right!" she said. Lucy giggled slightly.

"What's so funny?" Natsu said, looking at his girlfriend.

"Don't tell me the great fire dragon is really just just a soft, cute little lizard?" Lucy said, as she tussled Natsu's hair.

"Lucy!" Natsu whined. The blonde giggled again.

"Will you two please focus!" Carla said, raising her paw, "We need to think about the current situation, now with Erza…. where's Erza?" Everyone looked down to where Erza was lying, to see that she was gone.

"Where'd she go?" Wendy asked.

"She must've slipped away while our attention was on Nirvana," Hibiki said, "I wonder where she went?"

"Knowing her, probably to find Jellal," Lucy said.

"What do we do?" Wendy said.

"Natsu, you should go in that direction," Hibiki said. Natsu shot a glare at Hibki.

"And leave my girls here with that?" he asked, "I'd sooner call…" Suddenly Natsu stopped abruptly, as he froze.

"Natsu?" Lucy asked, "Are you…" That was when Natsu fell to his knees in a cry of pain, grabbing his head.

"Natsu!" Happy cried.

"Natsu!" Lucy said, as she grabbed at her boyfriend's shoulders, "What's going on!" However, she found his body scorching hot, and had to pull away. But Natsu couldn't hear in anyone. All he could hear was the roar of a dragon. Somehow, he knew that roar. It was the roar of the dragon that dwelt within him.

The roar of Smaug.

Note: 'Ho boy.

I wanted to do more in this chapter, but I thought this was a better place to leave off. Next chapter will have more, don't worry. Since Sherry never falls to darkness in this, that sub-plot is out the window, and she and Lyon are now heading back to base. But I think we all know what's going to happen to them.

An idea for another story just popped into my head. I may or may not work on it. That said, don't anyone say that I've got to focus on my things that already in progress. That's not in my nature. It helps me think of ideas when I'm working on multiple things. Again, I don't know if I'll work on it, since I'm still working out the details, and this would probably be on a large scale, with MAJOR deviations from canon, more-so than any other one of my stories so far.

Be sure to review.