The battle against the Alvarez Empire
The defeat of the Spriggan Twelve
The sacrifice of First Master Mavis and the end of the Black Magic Zeref
The triumph over Acnologia
These times has been filled with chaos and anguish. People will be remembered but never forgotten. But the future looks calmer thanks to their sacrifices.
Fiore was now filled with a lot of scars, but every guild is helping with the recovery. Obviously, their greatest guild wasn't the exception. Fairy Tail were lending their hand however they could. Lifting debris, attending people, even cooking for the workers of the kingdom.
Now, we follow a group of three people along with their respective partners to help a group of researchers in an excavation damaged by the war.
This is where our travel begins.
Leading the group was a young man with long, spiky black hair. Round studs cover some parts of his body, on his face, with three of them above each of his eyes, two on each side of his nose, and two on his chin, just below his mouth. He wears a shabby, black, sleeveless tunic with studded edges, a studded belt around his waist, loose, beige pants tucked inside studded black boots, and a pair of studded brown gloves paired with similarly studded wristbands. He also sports a distinctive wing-like ornament, made of feathers, jutting upwards, over his right shoulder, attached to his tunic by a large stud. His black Fairy Tail mark is located on his left arm, just below his shoulder. This man was Gajeel Redfox, the Iron Dragon Slayer.
Along him was a small, bipedal black cat-like creature known as an Exceed with round ears, a white muzzle, small red eyes, and a scar running down across his left eye. He wears a pair of green pants, black shoes and held a sword with a long, curved blade that has a large, light symbol carved near its hilt, representing a musical note. Panther Lily (or Lily if you prefer)
"Remind me Happy, why is he taking the lead?"
"Because you don't know how to read maps"
The one who ask this was a young man with spiky, pink hair. He wore a blackish vest with a gold trim, which was both open and sleeveless, white knee-length trousers, a thick black band wrist on his left wrist, black open-toed sandals and a white scaled-patterned scarf. He has a red mark located just below his right shoulder indicating his affiliation with the Fairy Tail guild. He was Natsu Dragneel, the Fire Dragon Slayer. At his right was Happy, a small blue Exceed with a white stomach and best friend of Natsu. His green Guild Mark is on his back, covered by a green knapsack.
"Yeah, so shut up and continue walking" ordered Gajeel while looking smug at his companion
"Do you want to fight, punk?" asked Natsu
"Sorry, I have more important things to do like leading this group. Unless you want to read the map. Oh right, you can't"
"That does it" and then, they start fighting over the map
"Natsu-san, Gajeel-san, please, don't fight. We need to get to the excavation quickly and help them" said Wendy Marvell, a young girl with dark blue long hair that reaches her waist. She's wearing a long sleeved dark blue dress with a flower pattern adorning the sleeves. She has a small tie with ribbons holding her hair in pigtails and stockings. Her light blue guild mark is in her right shoulder.
"Remind me again why does those two are here? Or better yet why are we here along with them?" asked Carla, a small, white Exceed with brown eyes. She wears a mustard yellow and pink top with a pink bow tie and a pink skirt. Her pink Guild Mark is located on her back beneath her clothes.
"Because the research is about Dragon Slayers and some catacombs. There was a guild entirely of Dragon Slayers and a university is researching them to learn the secrets of Dragon Lacrimas. However, while we were battling Acnologia the caves collapsed, and they need Dragon Slayers to avoid compromising the structure with foreign magic. Or that was we were told" answered Lily
"It sounds pretty weird to be honest, but we need to help everyone" said Wendy
"Aye"
"Well, we won't be getting far if those too doesn't stop fighting" reported Carla annoyed. Things like this were common in Fairy Tail.
Didn't mean she like it
"Don't worry, I have the perfect idea" responded Happy, knowing the best way to control his lifelong friend. Sacred words that help him whenever this happens
"NATSU, ERZA IS COMING TO CHECK IF YOU ARE FINISHING THE JOB! RUN!"
"OH NO. RUN HAPPY"
Fortunately, they managed to arrive to the catacombs despite everything that transcurred.
"Man, this place sure is wrecked" said Natsu while looking across the destroyed "guild"
"So, where is Professor Goethe? In the request it said that he would be here all day" said Gajeel impatiently.
"Maybe he's in that ten- Look, over there!" said Wendy while pointing to the stairs that lead to a lower floor, to the catacombs. There was a Caucasian man in his 40's with black and white hair. He was wearing a lab coat that looks like burned and cut in some parts, googles and a belt with a lot of equipment
"Hello boys. You must be the mages of Fairy Tail. My name is Johann Goethe" said while greeting his visitors, including the Exceeds. "You must be asking why the reason I specifically asked for Dragon Slayers. Please, come to my tent and I will explain you everything"
In the tent was a lot of machinery, blueprints, magic staves, a big table, a kitchen and a bed. "Sorry for the mess but since my partners left me here alone and because I'm usually down there I don't worry much about cleaning" said while chuckling nervously. "Please, take a sit"
When all of them were sit, the professor began talking: "Since I was a kid, I was interested in Dragon Slayer Magic because of my admiration for God Serena. However, I couldn't achieve it for obvious reasons"
"But that didn't stop me. If I couldn't meet a dragon to teach me, I could try to recreate the Lacrimas. After all, that's the basis of Second-Generation Dragon Slayers. That's when I heard the legends about an entire guild consisted of Dragon Slayers. So, with some friends of the university, we began studying this place. But, because of the problem with the Alvarez Empire they went away. I stay here because I'm certain I'm close in my research. And my instinct was correct because a week ago I found a special chamber with lots of locks and patterns that describes a passage only Dragon Slayers could open. That chamber, however, was nearly destroyed after the last war and I didn't want to contaminate it with measly Earth-molding magic, so, I called you and the other ones from Sabertooth"
"So that explains everything, but how are you so sure that this chamber can hold answers of the whereabouts of the dragons" said Carla skeptically.
"Why a chamber would be so heavily guarded? There's no other explanation" answer the professor.
"Maybe they don't know about the lacrimas, but to have that kind of protection means that the info that resides there is invaluable" said Lily. He still didn't trust at all the professor and for some reason he looked familiar but, apart from that, he didn't have anything against him.
Natsu said "Alright, let's do this" and start carrying rocks to clean the entrance
"Hmm" Wendy and Gajeel nodded
"Aye sir" said Happy while jumping
"Well then, as you say, let's do this" said the professor while smirking. 'Everything is going according to the plan' thought maliciously.
Unbeknown to the mages, he raised a magic staff and suddenly everything went black...
"Wh... wha.. h..ppened" said Natsu still sleepy. He started looking to his surroundings and notice his friends and him tied in the walls with magic cuffs. "HEY! WHAT THE HECK?!"
"Well, well. It seems you're finally awake" said a mysterious shadow
"WHO THE HELL ARE YOU?! WHAT DID YOU DO TO US?! WHERE IS THE PROFESSOR?! Asked angrily the Fire Dragon Slayer.
"Well, I think question 1 and 3 can answer themselves" said the professor revealing himself holding his staves.
"What are you doing? Why did you trap us?" asked impatiently.
"Well, to avoid explaining this two times..." said and with a 'swish' of a staff the others began to wake up.
"WHAT THE HELL IS THIS?!" asked angrily the former Phantom mage
"Wendy, are you ok?" asked Carla worried
"Natsu, Carla, are you ok?" asked Happy, while trying to escape
"What happened?" asked the young mage
"So, this was a trap all along, isn't it? I knew your face was familiar, but why and how are you here?" asked Lily
"It seems the so 'perceptive Royal Army Captain of the 1st Magic War Division' has lost his touch" said while smirking. "For a moment I thought my plan will fail but it looks like the King has blessed me"
"King? I highly doubt the king will be involved in this" said Natsu
"Do you think I was talking about that idiot Toma E. Fiore? My only King is King Faust. Governor of all magic!" said while raising his hands
"Wait a minute. Are you from Edolas?!" said Gajeel surprised
"It seems that you aren't as stupid as I thought" said while laughing maliciously.
"How did you come here? Anima is closed and Faust is not the king anymore" said Carla
"It appears it's time for some explanation. Do you recognized these staves?" he asked while pointing to a set of magical staves that were connected to a machine
"Those are Mystogan staves! How do you acquire them?" asked Natsu
"Those are mines. That traitor prince took my designs and copy them to build a new set. You see, I was the one who created Anima"
"WHAT?" said the Fairy Tail members, stunned to find the creator of the Dimensional-transporting magic: Anima
"That's impossible. As far as I know, Byro created it" said the black Exceed
"Him? Please. He was only my assistant. That's why he knew how to operate all of my inventions."
"You still haven't explained how you get here" said Carla
"Don't interrupt me, you filthy Exceed!" answered angrily
"As I was saying, when the Project Anima was recently built, the King make me teach Prince Jellal about his functioning. However, what we didn't suspected was that he would escape to Earthland with my blueprints of the staves and start closing the various Anima we created. So, as a plan B, and after making some improvements to the original Anima, I came here weeks before your guild was sucked and transported to Edolas"
Then he began stating madly "It was supposed to be the end of our lack-of-magic problems but then I discovered that the Exceed Mission was a total fraud, and they didn't eliminate the Dragon Slayers as their queen had told us. The anima wasn't prepared to transport back both Dragon Slayer and Exceed magic automatically, so you weren't sucked instantly like your whole city"
"Well, that's too bad. We still defeated that giant fake dragon of yours and save all of them" stated Natsu
"Aye, and now we will kick your butt!" said Happy
"How? You are cuffed. You can't use magic even if you want to" pointed the Edolas infiltrate
"Still, our guild will notice if we take too much time to deliver this simple job and they'll send someone who freed us. Even then, Both Sting and Rogue will be here at any moment" said Wendy
At that moment, the professor starts laughing maniacally; something that make the Fairy Tail mages shiver. "Do you think I'm stupid? Do you think I wouldn't figure that eventually your pathetic guild will come and search for you? Or that those idiots are on their way? When my plan works, anyone on Earthland won't stop my King's desire: Eternal Magic for all Edolas"
"Do you plan to send us there again? Remember what you said, Anima won't work on us or the Exceed" stated Gajeel
"Oh right, that little part. Oh no, my plan is ruined" said sarcastically
"Aye, you are defeated" mentioned Happy without noticing the sarcasm in his words
"It was sarcasm you idiot. You see, the reason I couldn't make Anima work on you was because I didn't have samples of your magic that could be put in the Anima Lacrima Absorption that was in the Palace. But, across the years I manage to gather Dragon Slayer Magic due to all your combats. Sadly, I couldn't gather a lot and I saw for a moment my plan failing. But something interesting happened. Your battle in the Grand Magic Games and the battle against Acnologia allowed me to get enough samples of your magics" he said while pointing five lacrimas (red, green, sky blue, white and black).
"And for the Exceeds, at that time, we weren't sure if their queen's supposed power was real or if she was bluffing. That and we didn't expect that the Exceeds that they sent will return with you. But now that I know that they are harmless, I manage to get their magic" and then point another set of eight cat-lacrimas.
"That's not possible. You turned Exceeds into those lacrimas?" said furiously Happy
"Bastard! Who do you think you are to toy with lives for a dead dream?" stated Natsu angrily
"Dead? My dream is not dead. I went to Edolas last year and could see the discontent of the people for the lack of magic. They want their magic back. They crave it. And I will give them what they desire" he said. "Don't worry, you won't remember anything. When your bodies convert into lacrimas, you won't feel a thing. Your deaths will be painless. I'll give you all at least that"
"You won't get away with this" said Carla
"The funny part is I already did" mentioned Johann. Then he started chanting something and the 10 staves form a circle and start glowing. Then, 8 magic circles began forming. The power inside the lacrimas (excluding the white and black ones) started travelling each with their respective colored magic circle. And then...
BOOOOOMMMM
A blinding light formed from the circles and a black sphere with grey smoke formed in the center of the catacombs
"It's finally done. Anima has been opened. Beware Earthland. Your magic is now OURS" exclaimed the mad creator of dimension travel.
But then
"WHITE DRAGON'S ROAR"
"SHADOW DRAGON'S ROAR"
Two beams of magic crash against the shield that protects the staves breaking them. Sting and Rogue entered the battle.
"Wait, how are you here now? You are supposed to arrive in two days" asked angrily the professor
"Sorry dude, we took a shortcut" said Sting Eucliffe, a slim, yet muscular, toned young man with spiky blond hair. He has slit pupiled dark blue eyes; above the right one is a thin, diagonal scar. His white Sabertooth mark is located on his left shoulder. He wears a light-colored jacket with dark-colored clothing protruding from the inside, a striped belt and dark pants.
"Guys are you alright?" asked Rogue Cheney, a slim young man with messy black hair that covers up his right red eye and a thin scar across the bridge of his nose. He wears a light-colored leopard-patterned kimono that only covers the right half of his torso, beneath which he wears armor that is light in the chest but dark everywhere else and his left arm is left uncovered at the shoulder, exposing his Sabertooth mark. Around his waist is a very long sash that ties on the right side of his body and loops around the left and holds a design-adorned piece of white fabric in place over the top of his loose, black pants.
"You won't stop me. I just need to wait for Anima to absorb the dragon lacrimas and they will suck you to Edolas". At that moment, he uses another staff and summons rock soldiers. "Now, my minions, attack them!"
Rogue and Sting start attacking them, beating them easily. However, they rebuild as easy as they are destroyed.
While they're fighting, they don't notice that the previous double Dragon Roar damaged the Anima Core. It started absorbing the red, sky blue and green lacrimas and the Exceed lacrimas.
"Yes, YES. It's working. It's, it's..."
At that moment, lightning start emanating from the sphere and destroying parts of the wall
"What happened? This shouldn't be happening. What did you make?" stated angrily towards his prisoners
"We didn't do anything" said Happy
"Of course you didn't anything, filthy Exceed. The attack of those idiots from Sabertooth change something. I need to-"
"White Dragon Claw!" Sting managed to punch the professor in the chest, immobilizing him with the Stigma. "Stay there" and continued to fight the rock soldiers. "Dammit, Rogue. We need to beat them faster"
"No... NO. You idiots. I'm the only one capable of stopping that machine. We're all going to die!" said the Professor, trying to move but unable to.
Then
BOOM
The Anima Core exploded, pushing everyone except the Fairy Tail mages, away. Then a black hole start sucking everything near them.
Mainly, the three Dragon Slayers and their Exceed partners.
Sting and Rogue couldn't do anything about it. They tried to reach them, but it was too late.
At that moment, Natsu Dragneel, Gajeel Redfox, Wendy Marvell and their partners Happy, Carla and Lily were no longer in Earthland
