Chapter 19: The Three Dragons

Shortly after leaving the building Erza and Mira had split up to track down the remaining two members of the Thunder Legion whilst Gray fought Bickslow. The snow crunched under Mira's feet as she sped through the city looking for any sign of Evergreen, or Freed. Her breath grew more unsteady the longer she continued to run. Her heart was beating at a million miles a second. Erza was on the opposite side of the city, clad in a cheetah printed armor she was racing from rooftop to rooftop at an incredible speed. Her sharp eyes were looking in every direction for where Evergreen, or Freed were planting bombs. The cold night air, and wind nipped at her exposed skin, but she didn't mind it in the slightest there were bigger things that she needed to focus on. She had been a trained fighter for as long as she could remember, and right now she was thankful for the thick skin she had built up through the years, she needed to stay strong to save the city. As she passed a certain building her heart fell into her gut, and her mind was filled with sad memories. She stopped in her tracks to look at the old worn down building that was now scheduled for demolition. The Tower of Heaven Orphanage, where the first nine years of her life had been spent, although on the outside it seemed like a normal cut of the mill orphanage Erza knew the truth, the darkness that hid behind those walls.

"I was a mere child, and I still remember the horrors of that place….The abuse, the labor….All of it….." Erza muttered to herself. She reached up to her right eye that was hidden by her bangs. The reminder that no matter how much she grew, or how old she got the memories will stay with her forever. She was dropped off at the orphanage by her runaway mother Irene, that's all she knew about her mother. Her first name, she had put her down at the doorstep of the building when she was a newborn child. Unfortunately for Erza, the orphanage posed as a front for the Balam Alliance, a front that specialized in child trafficking. As such Erza found it hard to have friends in that Hellhole. She only had a few close friends. Wally, Simon, Millianna, Shô, and even Jellal. Closing her eyes she remembered the instance that scarred her for life.

"ALRIGHT SHRIMPS! WE HAVE A VERY IMPORTANT CUSTOMER ON THEIR WAY! I WANT EVERYTHING SPOTLESS!" The caretaker shouted out, his voice echoing throughout the small building. At once a swarm of kids ranging from super young to late teens all in tattered rags as clothes rushed to the main room where the man stood. They grabbed, mops, dusters, brooms, and other cleaning supplies, The man watched as the horde of kids cleaned until the building was cleaner than a hospital, a wicked grin on his face as he watched one particular group of kids. He licked his lips looking at the young redheaded girl who was helping a blue haired boy wax the floors. A knock on the front door took his attention from her.

"LINE UP! THEY'RE HERE!" At once the children did as they were told, afraid of what would happen if they acted out. Putting the cleaning supplies away they lined up a single file facing the door. The man's grimace turned into a sickeningly fake smile as he walked over to the door, and swung it open.

"Ah, Miss Kyôka, a pleasure as always!" The man's voice oozed with fake sincerity.

"Out of my way." The cold female voice of Kyôka replied, as she was speaking she shoved her way inside. The kids all stared at the tall figure, clad in a pale pink pant suit, her green hair tied up in a neat bun. She had perfect posture and stood with her hands behind her back, her eyes lingering on every kid in the line.

"Which ones are they?" She asked the man who had walked up besides her. He pointed out a group of five kids in the middle of the line up.

"Those are the freaks there." The five kids look mortified as he was pointing in their direction. Kyôka walked over to the group of kids consisting of a small girl with short silver hair, and four boys, one with pitch black hair, another with purplish red hair, and two others.

"Yes. I see, you lot are strong aren't you. You will be much help to the alliance. Very well...I will take them off your hands. I will let Brain do whatever he wishes with them. Come with me children." Kyôka began to walk away, but the five kids stayed stationary.

"YOU HEARD THE LADY MOVE BRATS!" The man shouted and they rushed forward out of fear.

"Nooo, Erik! Please don't go!" A young girl with short purple hair grabbed the red haired boy's arm.

"I'm sorry Kinana, I promise we'll see each other again!" Erik replied, tears in his eyes, Kinana sadly let go of him allowing him to walk away she sniffed and was on the verge of crying. As they got close to the door a boy ran forward holding a broom.

"THAT'S MY BROTHER YOU CAN'T TAKE HIM!" He shouted, pointing the broom at Kyôka.

"WALLY WHAT ARE YOU DOING!" The redheaded girl yelled at him. The blue haired boy next to her walked forward towards Wally.

"Boy...I'm warning you!" The man said in a quiet rage, but Wally didn't back down. Kyôka smirked and turned to face him, his brother closed his eyes afraid of what would happen to Wally.

"You need to learn your manners boy. And I am more than happy to teach you some…." She uncrossed her arms from behind her back revealing her hands which looked like metal claws, Wally seemed to hesitate upon seeing her large sharp hands. She extended her index finger in his direction, a split second a green tendril shot from it heading right at Wally. The redhead girl rushed forward and pushed him out of the way. A loud pain filled scream filled the room as she fell to the ground holding her face.

"ERZA!" The blue haired boy yelled and rushed to kneel by her side. She could barely make out the sight of Kyôka walking out pulling the five kids behind her through teary vision.

Erza flinched at the recollection of the searing pain she felt that day, it wasn't long after that day that the kids made a full blown escape, the caretaker had been arrested and admitted to all the crimes that had occured. Wally, and the others went out to look for his brother, while Jellal and her stayed close, maybe a little more than just close. She shook her head, clearing her thoughts she had to focus on the mission at hand. She turned around just in time for several mini explosions to send her backwards. She changed into her crimson hakama armor, clutching her twin katanas she looked around for her assailant. Glancing around the rooftops Erza was able to locate her quickly, standing there in a green dress with wings on the back of it, her caramel colored hair tied up in a ponytail, her face hidden behind glasses.

"Evergreen." Erza glared at the female who was standing across from her on the rooftop. She clung on to her katanas tightly as she stared at the woman who was smirking at her from the opposing end of the snowy rooftop.

"Awww shucks, looks like I missed a couple of you pests. Allow me to fix that…" Evergreen started removing her glasses, but at once Erza charged forward and took Evergreen out with a few slashes.

"Well that sure was anticlimactic…." She started reverting to her normal clothes. Looking down at the unconscious Evergreen.

"Hopefully this means everyone will go back to normal…" Her thoughts were quickly shaken by a huge explosion nearby.

"What the?...That came from the Cathedral!"

The halls of the television station building were filled by a wicked cackle on behalf of Bickslow, who was laughing hysterically while he stood over Gray's battered body, his clothes had were in tatters, blood was dripping from his arms, the blast from Bickslow's dolls had messed him up pretty bad. He struggled to get back up to his feet, but his entire body was sore, he could barely move. The laughter coming from above him filled him with anger, his blood boiled. He placed his hands on the ground, Bickslow's laughter suddenly stopped as an ice shot up from the ground and hit him under the chin.

"HEY! THAT WAS A CHEAP SHOT!" He yelled at Gray who was attempting to get up to his feet.

"I don't care, this has gone on for long enough." Gray finally stood back up, he reached to the remains of his jacket, and tore it off revealing his toned torso. His fist tightened, and a black substance covered half of his body, and a little bit of his face. Bickslow backed up a little recognizing Gray's half demon form. Gray glared at him as the room became ice cold. Gray held out his arm and a pink ice boy formed in his hand along with a large ice arrow.

"X FORMATION!" Bickslow commanded his dolls to block the attack, Gray shot the arrow at them, and all five of them froze on contact and fell to the ground. Bickslow backed up in fear and soon the entire room was filled with pink ice the temperature dropped to below freezing. Gray aimed another arrow at Bickslow, who had nowhere to go. Pulling back he released the arrow, Bickslow crossed his arms in front of his face to protect himself, the arrow connected with him, but instead of impaling him it instead exploded, sending him backward unconscious, Gray formed an ice prison cell around him, and returned to his normal state. That was at least one of them taken care of. There were still two more left, and not to mention Laxus. He limped out of the building making sure to hide from the security guards, and workers who had been broken free of Bickslow's possession. Once he was outside he began limping off in the direction of Fairy Tail's building. At the very least maybe he would find a bomb or something on the way. Unfortunately he didn't see anything or run into anyone else, he limped into the Fairy Tail guild hall still incredibly sore, and beaten up from his fight. He took a seat at the bar, and poured himself some juice, he took a sip and thought about how his friends were doing at the moment, but by the time he had finished his drink his head was shaken from those thoughts by a loud, and earth shaking explosion or something coming from the town.

Mira was having no luck with her scavenger hunt for either the hidden bombs, nor one of the remaining Thunder Legion members. She was starting to get annoyed by it, it felt like she had looked everywhere in the city, and she still couldn't find anything. She stopped running, and leaned against a nearby building attempting to catch her breath. She had been at this for what felt like hours, and still had nothing to show for it. She unzipped her large pink winter coat and tied it around her waist, all it was doing was making her burn up, she welcomed the cold wind as it helped cool her down. She was exhausted, but had to keep going after all the fate of all her friends, and her brother was on the line. She straightened herself back up, and prepared to continue her search but something in the reflection of a nearby window caught her eye. Staring at it a little closer she saw a faint purple glow shimmering from above. She turned her head upwards, her eyes growing wide, up above her was a glowing purple circle of letters that wrapped around a silver sphere with a flashing red light on the side. She had managed to stumble on a bomb, but it appeared to be active. She ran to get a better look at it, and found that there was another line of purple letters connected to the bomb, she looked to see where it led and found it connected to another bomb, and that one connected to a third, and then a forth, and so on. She ran under them using the purple letters floating in the sky as a guide of where to go. Eventually she got to a point where a second purple line branched off from the chain of floating bombs. She began running under that line which took her out of the city boundaries, she was heading in the direction of a nearby forest. She kept running, but suddenly she couldn't move. She stood stiff as purple letters swarmed her body again.

"Freed…" She stated the obvious struggling to move her body with no success.

"Ah Mirajane. I see you were unfortunate enough to activate my trap. Truth be told I was hoping that Evergreen had successfully turned everyone to stone so that there would be no interference, but alas that is why we had contingencies." An elegant voice came from behind her, and soon the green haired male had walked in front of her, one of his was black and purple, this was allowing him to write his runes in the air, if Mira recalled correctly.

"Why are you doing this Freed? It's not too late to stop and do the right thing!" Mira pleaded with him, he stopped walking so that he could look her in the face.

"I believe what I am doing is the right thing." He stated bluntly. Mira rolled her eyes at him.

"No you don't Freed, I know you better than that. You know this is wrong, but Laxus thinks it's the right thing to do, and you are fiercely loyal to him, but you have to know that this is wrong. Think of all the lives you can save by deactivating the bombs!"

"They are irrelevant. I am indeed loyal to Laxus which is why I must see his plan through, I refuse to let him down. He's right, we will never be welcomed in with society. Humans fear things that they cannot comprehend, as a result of that they fear us because we are vastly superior." Mira's face contorted into a scowl.

"There is no way you actually believe that nonsense!" She exclaimed. Freed just huffed.

"Of course I do." Was all he said before turning his back to her, he unsheathed his rapier, and began writing something in the air.

"What are you writing?" Mira asked him, he didn't bother turning away from his writing to respond to her,

"I am writing a command to the explosives to detonate in approximately one hour, enough time for Laxus and the others to meet up at the rendezvous point."

"I'm begging you, please don't do this! Think about all the innocent people, their kids, their siblings! What about the other members of Fairy Tail!"

"Laxus is using this as an opportunity to weed out the weaklings, which includes Fairy Tail as it is now. Including yourself."

"How could you do that? We are a family! Friends! You can't just throw that away!"

"Silence, you know not of what you speak. We are not friends, and are most certainly not a family. The only friends I have are in the Thunder Legion, and Laxus himself!"

"That's not true! You are my friend!" Freed finally turned from his writing.

"We are not friends! I would not be friends with a weakling like you!" Mira was a little taken aback by the normally calm nobleman's demeanor becoming cold and ruthless. She felt her eyes water.

"I'm not weak…."

"Yes. You are, just like all the others in Fairy Tail. Just like your brother is, and just like your sister was." This struck a nerve. She glared at the man, her blood boiling.

"How dare you. Lisanna was not weak! She was stronger than you ever will be….As is Elfman…." A dark aura swarmed around her, something that took Freed off guard.

"What is this?"

"You think I'm weak….I will show you how wrong you are!" Her sweet bubbly voice became lower, and carried more weight to it. The aura around her became more intense, her pupils dilated, and she let out a blood curdling scream. Freed backed away as black smoke covered her completely. A few seconds later she stood in front of him completely different looking, and more importantly free of his trap. Here white hair was spiked upwards, and her top knot had become a long bang that hung in front of her pale face. Her ears had become spikey like an elf, and a large crack in her skin was present above her right eye going all the way down to her jaw. Her black dress had vanished and had been replaced by a reddish-pink skin tight bodysuit that had a large opening from beneath her belly button all the way up to her neck leaving little to the imagination. A pink bow was tied around her neck, along with two large bat-like wings on her back, her hands had also formed large scaly claws. Completing her appearance was the pair of thigh high boots that matched her body suit. Her eyes snapped open glaring at Freed.

"You shall pay dearly." Was all she said, Freed not knowing how to react held his sword up at her, she moved faster than he could ever predict suddenly appearing in front of him, she delivered a hefty knee to his gut, that made him topple over, and cough violently. He rolled out of the way as she brought her large boot down. He waved his sword in the air, and purple text flew around him, soon he had purple wings on his back allowing him to evade more of her onslaught, but she still managed to get in a few good hits. He fell to the ground with a thud, Mira landing above him. She grabbed him by the collar.

"I am giving you this one chance to deactivate the bombs!" Freed slashed at her with his sword instead of compiling.

"Never, I will not betray Laxus!"

"Then you will fall along with him…." Mira stated darkly. She closed her eyes, and took a deep breath holding her hands together a dark purple orb formed, she then shot her eyes open and shot the large blast at Freed. He reacted quickly creating an enchantment to protect himself from the attack, a large wall of purple words formed causing Mira's attack to fail at hitting him and disperse. Mira growled, and once again charged up another blast, this time though instead of firing it directly at him she shot it straight up into the air, Freed watched as the large beam exploded into a bunch of mini blasts that were all heading at him from different directions. There was no way he would be able to block all of them. He attempted to block, but was still hit by several of them. This caused him to drop his guard enough for Mira to fly at him and hold her hand in front of him, blasting him at point blank. He got sent flying backwards, his red coat completely tore off, his sword went flying into the forest, and he laid spread out on his back beaten. Mira stood above him.

"I told you that you would fall, you failed, and that means Laxus' plan will also fail. Let this be a lesson to you to never doubt the strength of Fairy Tail!" She reverted back into her normal self, and looked down at the man with sympathy as he looked saddened by his failure.

"I'm sorry...please forgive me…." Was all he said before blacking out. Erza watched as the purple text in the air vanished, as did the activation of the bombs. She sighed looking down at the man.

"It's not you I'm upset with, you were just being loyal to your friend, now Laxus. I don't know if I'll ever be able to forgive what he has done tonight." She looked back to the direction of Magnolia where her friends were still fighting, more specifically where Natsu and Laxus were fighting.

"Hang on Natsu, I'm coming." She began running into the town, but she let out a gasp of horror the second she had stepped foot in town. She couldn't quite believe what she was seeing.

"Oh no…." Was all she could say.

Natsu, and Gajeel had finished up their discussion, and once again were staring down at the much stronger enemy they had in front of them, he took notice of them getting ready to attack again, but didn't make an effort to do anything about it.

"Ready Salamander?"

"Of course I am. The question is are you Black Steel?" Natsu quipped back.

"Then let's do this thing!"

"RIGHT!" At the same time Natsu, and Gajeel inhaled a large breath charging up their attacks, and at the same time they unleashed their blasts from their mouths. Natsu's flame connected with Gajeel's steel twister, and the two formed a larger blast that was heading for Laxus, he noticed this and for the first time in this fight actually prepared for this attack to do some damage. Throwing his arm in front of him he was soon hit with their combined attack which exploded on contact with him, he slid backwards and fell to a knee. Seeing this Natsu and Gajeel smirked in pride, feeling accomplished that they had the upper hand for once. The two of them in perfect syn rushed at him Natsu gave Gajeel a quick look at immediately Gajeel nodded in agreement without either of them saying anything Natsu again leapt in the air, Gajeel doing exactly what he did the last time, and gave Natsu a boost shooting him off in the air. Natsu covered himself in flames, and flew at Laxus like a rocket, this time was more successful than the first as Natsu actually connected with his attack, flying head first into Laxus's chest just as he was standing back up. This made him slide back again, making him unprepared for Gajeel's attack. Slapping his hands together they formed into a large hammer, he jumped into the air, and brought it down onto Laxus. Natsu flipped in the air, and at the same time they both charged up again, and released two more devastating attacks from their mouths. Another explosion came, and when the smoke cleared Laxus was laying face down. The two landed on the ground at the same time, both struggling to catch their breath after that chain. Surely nobody would be able to stand after that assault, the two had given it their all. Laxus remained motionless on the ground.

"...Did we….do it?" Natsu asked in between breaths. Gajeel who was also panting looked at the downed Laxus.

"...I think so….That attack would've put…..just bout anyone out of commision…"

"...Good….That means I can….go back….to hating your guts…." Natsu semi joked.

"...I never stopped...hating yours…." Gajeel deadpanned. The two made eye contact, despite their words there was definitely newfound respect within the two of them. They smirked at each other and at the same time fell down, Gajeel was in a kneeling position while Natsu opted to lay flat on his back to catch his breath.

"...Soooo what's next…..for ya?" Natsu asked, attempting to make conversation still breathing heavily. Gajeel just shrugged.

"Dunno…..Haven't put much thought into it…."

"Ya know….there is always room at Fairy Tail…" Natsu stated, Gajeel shot him and looked like he was insane.

"There is no way I'd be a fairy! Besides…. I doubt I'd be welcome after what I did…."

"Nonsense….after all Laxus is a member and look how horrible he is!" Natsu joked, Gajeel had to admit he had a point. Gajeel's role in the Phantom Lord incident was nothing compared to turning an entire city to stone out of a temper tantrum.

"I guess…." Suddenly they heard Laxus chuckling. They whipped their head at him in time to see him stand back up.

"Oh please, don't make me sick. Weaklings like you have no business in Fairy Tail!" They stared in disbelief as he just cracked his neck as if nothing had happened.

"How…..How are you able to stand?! We put everything we had into that attack!" Natsu questioned in pure disbelief.

"Oh please, it'll take much more than that to put me down. All you managed to do was ruin my favorite jacket, and shirt. So you succeeded in pissing me off!"

"What is this guy made of?" Gajeel asked nobody in particular.

"You see I inherited my Great Grandfather Yuri's powers…...You may know him as the Lightning Dragon! In other words, you punks never stood a chance. Prepare yourself for my full power!" He shrugged his coat off, and unbuttoned his shirt revealing his jacked figure, and black tattoos. Lightning began flickering all around him, an immense power filled the room. Natsu, and Gajeel slowly rose to their feet preparing for round three. One thing was for sure, they were in for the uphill battle of a lifetime.

Not long after Erza had defeated Evergreen the residents of Magnolia had reverted back to normal. Lucy sat in her and Natsu's shared apartment on a cardboard box. She looked around, and then down to her arms. She felt different, looking over to the kitchen the clock on the microwave showed it was currently 3:30 AM.

"What the heck, how did that happen? What's going on?" She noticed the TV was currently just static. She stood up from her sitting position, and found her body in pain.

"Ow, why am I so stiff?" She slowly walked over to the TV, and clicked the power button to turn it off. A yawn escaped her mouth, she just realized she was exhausted. Hearing a meow at her feet she saw Happy sitting down looking up at her he tilted his head at her.

"Hey Happy, c'mon it's time for bed. Is Natsu back yet, he better be it's a school night." She walked over to his bedroom and opened up the door.

"Natsu?" She asked peeking inside, but found it was still currency vacant.

"Oh that boy….Happy reminds me when I see him in the morning to give him a stern talking to. I get that he is doing good things, but he still has to worry about being a good student!" As she was going on her rant she noticed something out her window. Actually she didn't notice something which was a bad thing. Her eyes went wide, running over to the window she opened it and stared out into the night air. It smelled like a campfire outside, but that wasn't what she was focused on, no she was staring at a specific place.

"I don't believe it….The cathedral….it's missing!" She shouted in surprise, and horror. Sure enough in the large opening where the cathedral took up, there was nothing. It was completely gone. Her heart fell as she noticed the smoke in the air, and the campfire smell.

"Natsu…."

Chapter 20: Igneel's Power.

A/N: I'm just going to clear up some confusion that you might have. So in this chapter, Lucy, Gray, Erza, and Mira's stories are happening relatively at the same time, however the fight between Laxus, Gajeel and Natsu is lagging behind them by a few hours. Hope that helps, comment what you think happens to the cathedral, or just leave a review if you enjoyed it! Next chapter will be up soon XD Love Y'all!