"Who was that?" Erza scowled, walking out of the doors to White Eclipse. She did recall seeing him the other day when he practically barged on their mission, but she never caught his name.
"Oh, just Reve. That's his way of saying hello," Luke replied, smirking slightly.
"He almost hit me..." Erza frowned.
"If he wanted to he would have," Luke's smirked widened slightly. "He's the one who defeated Freed, after all. As did Michio."
"You better shut up about your stupid record..." Natsu growled.
"Or what?" Luke looked over his shoulder at the pink-haired mage, practically daring him to make a move.
"I'll kick your ass again, that's what!" Natsu said with a malicious smirk of his own. He was being provoked and he would make sure Luke would regret it.
"N-Natsu...!" Lucy held onto Natsu's hand, stopping him from making any sudden movements, though it wouldn't take much for Lucy to jump on Luke either.
Luke chuckled, looking forward at the snowy landscape, "You know, Wendy picked a really bad time to get poisoned."
"There is never a good time to get poisoned, smartass," Gray replied.
"Watch your attitude with me, Gray, unless you want another ass kicking," Luke replied with a smirk.
"Gray..." Erza said in her normal, threatening tone that said "If you attack Luke I'll kill you".
"Why is it a bad time?" Cynthia asked.
"Well, those flowers I mentioned...aren't exactly in season right now..." Luke stated.
"What do you mean they aren't in season?" Lucy asked with a frustrated tone.
"I mean that this is usually the season those flowers start dying and whatnot," Luke nodded.
"WHAT!?" The group let out a shout, then glared at Luke for not saying anything earlier.
"Why are we walking then?!" Happy exclaimed.
"Because the rush of knowing these flowers are dying would cause us to run, and on a snowy mountain like this, we'd probably get lost if I was rushed," Luke explained with a calm composure.
"B-But Wendy's in danger!" Cynthia cried out, looking up at Luke.
"I am aware of this," Luke said. "Don't worry. Today is the day the flowers start dying. So we have plenty of time."
"You should REALLY start telling us these things first, you know!" Lucy huffed, crossing her arms under her large chest.
"Oh, I did a lot things first, didn't I?" Luke scoffed. Lucy and Natsu scowled slightly, knowing exactly what he was referring to. Nobody else did, but that didn't sotp the tension from being in the air.
As Luke lead the group of six down the trail, another person was following them. They were unaware of the person stalking them behind the shadow of the trees. "Juvia doesn't trust Lucy with Gray-sama...she might attempt to steal him away from Juvia! Luke might hurt Gray-sama while Juvia isn't watching too!" The love crazed water mage nodded to herself, slowly creeping behind the group as she kept her eyes focused on only Gray.
Luke lead the group to a cave entrance, motioning for them to follow him inside. "Be careful, it gets a little narrow here."
"How do you know this place...?" Cynthia asked, following behind Luke.
"I came to this area a lot here with a friend in the past," Luke replied.
"Lucy?" Cynthia asked obliviously.
Lucy's eye twitched, "If he brought me here, I wouldn't have had to ask for his help, Cynthia," Lucy said in a grumpy tone.
"Oh, don't be so grumpy," Luke smirked, though Lucy couldn't see it because she was behind him.
"You make me grumpy," Lucy scoffed.
"Then I guess I'm doing my job," Luke replied.
"Can you two not fight?" Cynthia pleaded.
"We've fought before," Luke started, "I believe our record is three zero, right, Lucy?"
"OKAY I'VE HAD IT WITH YOU!" Lucy growled, tackling Luke to the ground.
"L-LUCY!" Happy leaned back, surprised by Lucy's sudden jump.
"Lucy, calm down!" Erza shouted, but her words fell on deaf ears. Lucy was livid.
"Got your panties in a twist or something, amigo?" Luke replied, not even fazed by the fact Lucy was gripping him by the collar and growling lowly.
"I've had it up to HERE with you, Luke," Lucy glared right into Luke's eyes.
"What are you gonna do? Fight me? Because I think we all know how that'll turn out," Luke just smirked that confident smirk that easily got under Lucy's skin. Lucy actually raised a fist into the air, but before she could swing it down, Erza had grabbed it, shaking her head. Lucy looked back at Erza, then slowly got off Luke, dusting herself off. "..."
Luke stood up slowly acting as though that event didn't even happen. He would've up and left right there, but he was helping Cynthia, and he wouldn't go back on his word to her. "Anyway, there should be a big clearing of purple flowers up ahead in a little bit."
"What do we do once we get the flowers?" Gray asked, "How will they help Wendy?"
"Simple," Luke started. "First, you take the petals of the flower and grind them up into some kinda liquid. Soup preferably. Then, you just give said liquid to Wendy and she should be fine within the next day."
"I wouldn't expect you of all people to know about flowers," Natsu grumbled. "Did you copy your knowledge of flowers from someone or something?"
"I only copy magic, not knowledge," Luke replied. "If I copied intelligence, I'd be as dumb as you, Salamander."
"WHAT DID YOU SAY?!" Natsu growled audibly towards the White Eclipse mage.
"Natsu, he's just trying to get under your skin," Happy said.
"Well it's working!" Natsu yelled.
"It doesn't take much to set you off, does it?" Luke sighed.
"He IS a hot head after all..." Gray chuckled slightly.
"You wanna droopy eyes?" Natsu shifted his glare from Luke to Gray.
"Pfft, you ain't ready, squinty eyes." Gray replied, now touching forehead to forehead with Natsu.
"Oh you can't be serious..." Lucy sighed.
"I'll take you on right now, Underpants!" Natsu smirked, a red light flowing from his body as a blue light flowed from Gray's.
"Natsu. Gray. Stop fighting. Right now," Erza's tone was annoyed; Natsu and Gray immediately stepped away from each other with nervous looks. "Good."
A few minutes passed for the traveling group until they entered a large open clearing. The group looked around, their eyes widening when they looked at the green patch of grass. There we no flowers. Natsu picked Luke up by the collar. "YOU LIED TO US!" He yelled, ready to throw him.
"NO I DIDN'T!" Luke's voice was honest. "I swear to every god out there that flowers SHOULD be in that green patch, right there!"
"THEN WHERE IS IT!?" Natsu's body then flared up as a vein showed; the Dragon Slayer was beyond livid at this point.
"N-Natsu, hold on!" Cynthia pleaded for him to wait as she pointed over, "There's a purple flower right there!"
"HMPH." Natsu carelessly threw Luke over to the side as he walked over to the flower. "Better not have been lying..." Natsu reached out for the flower until an arrow nearly hit his arm; luckily he had heard it coming and drew his arm back. "What the?!" He looked up, spotting several run of the mill dark mages on high ground with a large bag in their possession. The leader stepped forward; he was a middle aged male with dirty blonde hair, a five o' clock shadow, torn up brown pants, a raggy blue shirt, and torn up sneakers.
"Sorry, Fairy Tail, but that flower is ours," he said with a smirk. He then looked over his shoulder to his army of dark mages, "Get 'em!"
"Who are these guys!?" Cynthia took a step back from the only flower left in the green patch.
"I think the better question is why did they nearly impaled Natsu with an arrow for a flower..." Luke replied.
"If you haven't noticed, we kinda need this flower, so we'll be taking it!" Lucy shouted over to the band of dark mages.
"Yeah, I don't think so." the blonde leader replied, stroking his chin with a smirk.
"And why not?" Erza replied, a sword requipping into her hand.
"You see," the leader started, pointing to the bag his lackey's were holding. "Around this time, these flowers sell for quite a nice price, and I could use some money like that for various...projects..."
"We'd let you have this flower if Wendy didn't need it to live, so you're going to have to make due with what you got," Gray replied.
"Your friend needs it to live?" The male asked, looking down at the purple flower on the green patch.
"Yes, Wendy needs it!" Natsu replied.
"Oh...well...I don't care," The leader smirked, pointing his finger forward, "Get that flower, and kill them all!" The mass of dark mages suddenly shouted and jumped down.
"I got it!" Happy swooped in, plucking the flower from the ground. "Let's go!"
"We aren't leaving without getting through these guys first," Erza said, rushing forward towards the mass of dark mages.
"Let's make this quick then! Wendy needs that flower as soon as possible!" Natsu pounded his fist together as flames surrounded his body; smirking. "I've been waiting all day to punch something too..."
.
.
Back at Fairy Tail, Carla kept an intense watch over Wendy, gasping every so often as the poison every so slowly crept its way across her upper body, now starting to go down her other arm. "Wendy..."
"Don't worry...they'll be back soon," Mirajane nodded and gave the Exceed a reassuring smile. "Natsu and Gray are out there, and Erza's there to keep them in check."
Carla nodded slowly, "I suppose you're right. I just hope this poison doesn't spread any faster..."
"I'm sorry to interrupt..." Romeo said almost quietly, "But has anyone seen Juvia...?"
.
.
"This is a pain...!" Luke groaned, holding a ball of fire in one hand, and a ball of thick shadows in his other hand; he merged them together, creating a sphere of fire and shadows. "Dazzling blaze of the Shadow Fire Dragon!" He threw the sphere forward, the explosion knocking away a good chunk of the dark mages.
"Open, the gate of the cow! Taurus!" Lucy held one of her keys our, a large cow with a battle-axe rising from the ground with a loud MOOOO!
"I will do my best to protect Lucy-sama's nice body!" Taurus held his axe out, using both of his hands to swing it horizontally, the impact taking out a large amount of the weak mages.
"These guys are really weak..." Natsu sighed, easily hopping from one mage to the other after one hit KO'ing the former.
"We have numbers though!" The leader grinned, as even more dark mages appeared from all around. The leader then set his sights on Happy. "Get that cat!"
"That cat...OH THAT'S ME!" Happy panicked, turned around, and attempted to fly off, but a dark mage gripped him by the tail, smirking. "WAAHHH!"
"Leave Happy alone!" Cynthia threw a flaming fist at the dark mage, knocking them away from the Exceed.
"T-Thank you Cynthia!" Happy grinned.
Taurus eyed Lucy with hearts in his eyes, his body swaying from left to right, "About that reward..." Taurus started.
"...Nice job, Taurus!" Lucy forced a gate closure on the perverted cow, letting out a sigh of relief.
"Your spirits are something else..." Luke shook his head, turning his attention back to the surrounding dark mages. "It's just a flower! GEEZ!"
"Flowers that cure almost anything! Those sell for big a price, even higher when out of season!" The leader replied, crossing his arms as he stood behind his army, who were readying arrows.
Gray placed his fist into his palm, a chilling wind appearing around his feet. "Ice Make: Lance!" He threw his arms forward just as the mages unleashed their arrows; several crystallized ice lances flew forward, easily shattering some of the incoming arrows and took out several mages; however, more arrows simply rushed towards the group.
Erza looked back; her eyes wide as the arrows were nearly at her friends, "Watch out...!"
"Water Slicer!" Sharp beams of water shot out from behind the group, easily cutting through all the arrows that were coming.
"What the...?!" Gray, and the rest of the group turned around, spotting Juvia. "Juvia!?"
"Juvia will not allow any harm to come to Gray-sama!" Juvia exclaimed, glaring deeply at the dark mages who even set their eyes on him.
"S-She was following us!?" Cynthia asked, shocked that Juvia would come out so far.
"She was following Gray, I bet..." Lucy said.
"Juvia doesn't trust Lucy alone with Gray-sama," Juvia said, now shifting her glare over to Lucy.
"I'M NOT GONNA DO ANYTHING WITH GRAY!" Lucy flailed.
"That's right," Juvia replied. The leader had used this time to sneak over to Happy, swiping the flower from the little Exceed's paws.
"H-HEY!" Happy flailed. "He took the flower!"
"LIKE HELL!" Natsu charged forward with a flaming fist cocked back, but several weaker mages stood in his way; "Outta my way!" He managed to shove them all away from him, but he was tackled by even more dark mages, who were wearing fire resistant armor, so Natsu's flames were ineffective quickly.
"Natsu!" Erza changed into her Flight Armor, rushing at the group of mages who had Natsu pinned and slashed them away with little effort.
"We have to get that flower back!" Cynthia started. "Roar of the-"
"Wait!" Luke shook his head frantically. "You burn him, you burn the flower!"
"How unfortunate," the leader smirked, pulling out his own bow and arrow, pulling the arrow back as far as he could. "I guess 'll just have to end things now. It's a shame, I was having fun." He released the arrow, aiming right for Lucy, grinning as the arrow cut through the air and towards her.
"Get down, dammit!" Luke rushed forward, pushing Lucy away as the arrow hit his arm, causing him to fall to the ground.
"L-Luke...!?" Lucy rested on the rocky wall, surprised at what Luke just did.
"Lucy, are you okay!?" Natsu rushed over to Lucy.
"I-I'm fine..." Lucy panted, but she was alright.
Luke pulled the arrow out of his arm, rolling his shoulder slightly, "Ouch..."
"Luke...why did you...?" Lucy started.
"Don't even ask," Luke replied, "I already told you before; you ain't dyin' before we finish things, remember?" Lucy just stared at the mage, surprised how far he would go to keep his own words true.
"That's cute, a rivalry to almost die for," The leader pulled another arrow back, aiming at Luke this time, "I'll just end this quickly." He released the arrow, the arrow cutting through the air at a high-speed; before the arrow reached Luke, another arrow easily cut through that one and nearly hit the leader. "W-what the!?"
"Ice Dragon's Roar!"
"Fire Make: Tornado!" A unison raid of fire and ice spiraled down at the dark mages, the impact and explosion blowing more than three-fourths of them away.
"What's going on!?" The leader asked. A large root suddenly slapped the leader in the back, causing the flower to fly out of his hands. "NO!"
"I got it!" Cynthia rolled forward, catching the flower in her hands.
"Those moves..." Erza started, looking around the area until she saw a group of people standing on a ledge nearby.
On some high ground, four people stood. One was a teenage girl with light brown hair, a blue jeans and red shoes; she was also holding a bag of seeds in her hands. The next person was a male with blue hair tied back, a black and yellow jacket with a grey shirt underneath, light blue pants, and blue sneakers. The other was a male with red hair, tinted orange at the ends. He was shirtless, wearing a white long jacket. His pants were brown, along with his gloves and boots. The mage next to him was wearing hunting gear, their face hidden as they pointed our their bow.
Luke smirked at the sight of these mages, he knew exactly who they were. "Hanako, Waiston, Kuro, and Azeleon! Took you guys long enough!"
"HI LUKE!" The red haired mage named Kuro waved happily to his fellow guild member.
"I thought what you did was kinda cute, Luke," The light brown haired plant mage, Hanako, giggled.
"NOT CUTE," Luke groaned.
"Pretty careless if you ask me," Azeleon mumbled.
"I can hear you...and yeah. I shouldn't have, but we all know she can't take a hit for crap so someone had to do something..." Luke sighed.
"RIGHT HERE!" Lucy yelled.
Juvia eyed Waiston, the eyeing eventually turning into a glare. "You..."
"Huh?" Waiston looked over at Juvia with a puzzled expression, "Me?"
"You hurt Gray-sama, didn't you!?" Juvia shouted.
"Juvia, now isn't the time for that!" Gray sighed, "I beat him anyway, so it's okay!"
"We're here to help!" Kuro said joyously.
"We'll hold these guys off," Hanako said with a smirk, "You guys hurry up and get that flower to your friend!"
Luke coated his injury with ice, rolling his shoulder, "Oi, you ain't fightin' without me!"
"Heh, I was hoping that little flesh wound wouldn't keep you down!" Waiston smirked.
"Go, go!" Hanako waved her hands as the Fairy Tail mages and Cynthia exited the clearing, using large tree roots to cover the entrance.
The group quickly backtracked their way through the caves while the members of White Eclipse held off the mass of dark mages. Cynthia held the flower protectively to her chest so nothing would happen to it. Back at Fairy Tail, the poison in Wendy's body slowly made its way down her chest. It was spreading at an alarming rate now, signaling that she didn't have much time left. "Happy!" Natsu shouted, "Once we get out of this cave, Max Speed Cynthia over to Fairy Tail!
"Aye, Sir!" Happy nodded, flying at a steady pace. They neared the cave exit with no trouble, but before they could actually exit the cave, a mass of even more dark mages appeared from the shadows, lunging themselves towards Cynthia.
"Cynthia, watch out!" Gray stuck his hands forward, a blue magic circle appearing, "Ice Make: Hammer!" An ice hammer shot out from the magic circle. Cynthia ducked as the hammer flew over her head and struck the dark mages, forcing them out of the cave. However, more dark mages came from seemingly nowhere, their eyes fixed on the flower Cynthia was holding.
"It's just a flower!" Lucy groaned, pulling out another key.
"I'll stay here and hold these guys off, you guys go!" Gray demanded.
"Juvia will stay with Gray-sama and make sure no harm comes to him," Juvia nodded, a serious expression on her face.
"This has to be the last area where they are," Erza thought aloud, "I'll stay and help out."
Juvia scowled to herself as she entered a state of inner monologue, "Juvia also wanted some along time with Gray-sama…."
"We'll go on ahead then!" Natsu nodded as he, Lucy, and Cynthia ran out the cave into the snowy mountain trail. It was nighttime, making the trail slightly harder to see.
"Which way do we go…?" Cynthia asked, unable to see anything in the darkness.
"Happy!" Natsu shouted.
"Aye!" Happy went swoop in to grab Cynthia, but a bolt of lightning fried him, causing him to land in the snow. "Aye…."
"Who?!" Natsu turned, spotting ANOTHER horde of dark mages behind them.
"How many of these guys are there?!" Lucy groaned. "Gate of the Scorpion, I open thee! Scorpio!" Lucy held her key forward as the Celestial Spirit Scorpio appeared.
"We are!" Scorpio exclaimed, leaning forward as he pointed his stinger out, "Sand Buster!" A hurricane of sand flew out from Scorpio's stinger, blowing some of the group away.
"Cynthia, get away from here!" Lucy exclaimed.
"But what about you guys?!" Cynthia asked.
"We'll be fine! RUN! Get to Wendy!" Natsu yelled, flames surrounding his body, causing the snow around him to melt.
"H-Hai…" Cynthia left the last group of dark mages to deal with Natsu, Lucy, and Happy. She remembered how to get to Magnolia, so she sprinted as fast as her legs would allow her down the mountain. When she finally got down the mountain, three more dark mages surrounded her. "W-WHAT!? "
"You honestly didn't think you would be getting away so easily, did you?" A mage said, grinning.
"Why are you doing this?! I just want to heal Wendy!" Cynthia cried, realizing she had nowhere to go, and to defend herself meant burning the flour.
"As you can tell, we don't care about your Wendy. We just want the flower for profit. If you get hurt, it's all on you because we warned you. Now, we'll give you one last chance to hand it over before we hurt you. "
"N-NO!" Cynthia clutched the flower closely to her, glaring at the mages towering over her. The next second, diamond structures shot up from the ground and trapped the mages. "Huh…?" Cynthia looked around, spotting none other than Selene a few feet away.
"Are you okay?" Selene asked, dusting her hands off.
"You…you're White Eclipse…right…?" Cynthia asked, slowly removing herself from the circle of trapped mages.
"Yes," She nodded, answering shortly.
"I thought you guys didn't like Fairy Tail…" Cynthia mumbled.
"I don't really care much about them…yeah," Selene nodded once again. "But Luke was helping you, so I was helping him, help you."
"A-Arigato…" Cynthia nodded slowly., giving Selene a smile as thanks.
"Don't mention it…seriously, don't," Selene turned away, crossing her arms. It was a little embarrassing and she didn't want to deal with it. "Shouldn't you be going somewhere…?
"WENDY!" Cynthia quickly sprinted off. It was a long trip, but Cynthia quickly made her way back to Fairy Tail, plowing through the doors. "I-I got it!"
"She's back!" Bisca gasped.
"Where are the others?" Levy asked, surprised that Cynthia was the only one to return.
"They're on the way, but c'mon!" Cynthia held the flower out. "Someone make some soup or something!"
"On it!" Levy wrote the word "Soup" in the air with her Solid Script Magic, causing a bowl of soup to appear from thin air. Cynthia then crushed up the purple flower petals and placed them in the soup. She then took the soup, and rushed over to Wendy's side, gasping at how far the poison spread.
"W-Wendy…!" Cynthia was taken aback slightly.
"Is that it…?!" Carla asked hopefully.
"Hai!" Cynthia then took a spoonful of soup and slid it into Wendy's mouth. A few minutes later, the poison slowly started to fade away.