I would like to thank everyone who reviewed, favorited or followed this story since I updated it.
DoomMarine55: Look, this is my story and this is what I've chosen to do, so if you don't like it then don't read it.
Ragnas Bredvolts: Thank you for reviewing, I'm glad to see you enjoyed the chapter. I'm glad someone caught the reference to the dreaded love triangle between Natsu, Lucy and Lisanna, especially since you share my views on the love triangle. For the record, Lucy does get Leo in the form of Loke, but Pisces belongs to Yukino. As for Luke and his sword, I saw Natsu with his scarf as a memento of Igneel and I decided to give Luke something like that as well, but I didn't know what at first. But then I looked back at an old Naruto video game I used to play as a kid, Dragon Blade Chronicles, and then I saw Erza cut down Irene in her dragon form using the sword enchanted by Wendy to have Dragon Slayer properties, so I figured why not give Luke a sword made from the scales of a Lightning dragon, which would allow him to channel his magic into the blade and use it to attack much more effectively. In regards to Luke fighting Laxus, while it would be interesting to see the two of them battle it out in the battle of Fairy Tail, that would be far too predictable, and besides I already have something in mind for that arc. And yes, I had a blast writing out Cana's character in the last chapter. I do have a few ideas for making her stronger, at least before she acquires Fairy Glitter in the Tenrou Island arc, but I'll get to that later on. Luke was meant to be more of the main character of the subplot rather than the overall chapter, with Cana being the main character in that regard. You have a good day as well, and I hope I continue to meet your expectations.
StraxyX: Glad to see you like it so far. Also, yes I know I need someone to edit my stories before I upload them.
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"In a land far far away lies the Kingdom of Fiore, a small and peaceful nation of 17 million, and a place filled with magic. Found in every home, bought and sold in every marketplace. For most people, magic is merely a tool, a mundane part of everyday life. For some however, magic is an art, and they've devoted their lives to its practice. These are the wizards and mages, and banded together into magical guilds, they ply their skills in search of fame and fortune. Many such guilds dot the landscape of Fiore, but there is a certain guild in a certain town that stands high above the rest of them, one from which countless legends have been born, a guild that will no doubt continue to create legends well into the future. This guild is known as Fairy Tail."
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The sun was shining over the skies of Magnolia.
Luke observed from his place on the second level of the guild hall with a small smile as the daily routine played out with everyone in the guild'Yep, everyone just chilling out and screwing around without a care in the world. I wish I could be like that, but these days I know that someone has to be on the lookout for any dark magic on the rise, and that's gotta be me for the time being. I swore on the scales of my father Kaminari, that I would stand by my family and protect them for as long as I was able to.'
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Cana let out a sigh as she watched Natsu and Gray beating the crap out of each other "Honestly these guys make it so hard to just enjoy a peaceful drink for once."
"Well if you didn't drink all day then this wouldn't be a problem." Lucy pointed out dryly, only to be ignored.
"All the same I guess we should probably try to find another job, I'm running out of drinking money."
"Yeah well we'd be sitting pretty if we had taken that 2 million Jewel reward, and I can't let myself forget that my rent is gonna be due next week. I guess I'd better find a job of my own too." Lucy glanced over at the request board and glossed it over "Let's see here… Finding a magic bracelet, breaking a spell on a cursed cane, reading someone's love horoscope, hunting a volcano demon? For crying out loud, I had no idea wizard jobs could be so varied."
"Well let me know if you find one that catches your eye." Luke leapt down onto the first floor in front of her "The master is away at a conference with the other guild masters so I'm covering for him for the time being, see every once in awhile he gets together with the other guild masters to get drunk and talk about how things are going. It's kind of like the Magic Council but the difference is that these guys can back up the shit they talk. Hey Reedus can I borrow a light pen for a second?"
"Oui." Reedus, the painter guy, handed him a pen.
"Thanks man." Luke started writing in the air to demonstrate for Lucy "You see the council Era is the most powerful organization in the kingdom, it's only one step below the government. It has 10 members and it's their job to uphold all of the magic rules and regulations, and if a wizard breaks magic law then the council would try them. Then we have the different leagues of guild masters, those involve local guilds that collaborate on a regular basis. Below them we have the individual masters, they have to pass on the decrees made by the council and they also communicate with other guild masters on a regular basis. They're essentially the glue that holds all of us together, but that job gets to be pretty tough from time to time."
Lucy was left in surprise over the explanation "Wow, I never realized that all of the different magical guilds were interconnected like that."
"Yep, when we don't work towards common goals we all just fall apart at the seams. It's like being in one gigantic magic cult, step out of line and the guys in black show up." he threw the light pen at Natsu to stop him from scaring her "Just give it a rest Natsu, the last thing we need is for another member to piss themselves in public. We still haven't gotten the smell out after last time. But in all seriousness though the guys that Natsu were gonna reference when he was gonna scare the shit out of you do exist, they're known as the dark guilds. They chose not to join any of the leagues, they're mostly full of evil wizards who believe that power and revenge are everything in life and they usually cause all sorts of hell."
"Oh wow, that's complicated."
"You have no idea, so you gonna pick a job? Cana told me about how much ass you kicked last time, I'm kind of eager to see it for myself and see what happens when the entire team is together at full strength."
"Yeah thanks but no thanks, as far as I'm concerned I quit the team that booze riddled brunette psychopath is on. I mean it's not like you guys even wanted me, she just needed me the last time because I'm blonde."
"Hey I warned you that Cana can be manipulative as fuck, and besides that's not why I wanted you to be part of the team. I know potential when I see it and you've got it oozing out of your ass, it's just a matter of applying it."
This was when Gray chose to speak up "Hey Lucy I wouldn't worry about any of that shit if I were you, you'll get plenty of offers from other teams. But that being said, Luke isn't a bad dude to partner with all things considered. Better than Natsu at least."
"Gray I don't care if you don't wear a shirt, just put on some pants."
"Shit not again!"
"Douche." Natsu muttered, prompting Gray to get right up in his face.
"Did you just call me a douche you scaly asshole?"
"And what if I did, what the hell are you gonna do about it?"
"Cocky bastard!"
"At least I'm not a puss-" Natsu glanced over at Happy and Lisanna "A coward, I was totally gonna say a coward."
"Oh for fuck's sake." Cana let out a sigh and took a sip from her mug.
Loke took the chance to try and sweep Lucy off her feet "Tell you what Lucy, why don't you join the team of love with me later tonight, just the two of us."
Lucy was taken aback by this "Wait what now?"
"You're just so stunningly gorgeous, I have to keep my shades on whenever I look in your direction or I'll be blinded by your dazzling beauty."
"...And girls really fall for this?"
"What do you-" Loke's expression turned from suave to horrified when he noticed Lucy's set of celestial keys "Oh my god, you're not a celestial wizard are you?"
"What? Yeah I've got six with me right now."
"DAMN YOU TO HELL FATE, WHY DO YOU INSIST ON TOYING WITH MY HEART SO?! I'M SO SORRY MY DEAR, BUT YOU AND I CAN NEVER BE TOGETHER!" and on that increasingly dramatic note, Loke ran out of the guild hall crying in a comical fashion.
"What the hell got into him all of a sudden?"
"Who knows." Luke let out a sigh "Apparently Loke has some bad history with Celestial wizards, the main word going around is that he shacked up with one and it ended on a bad note for him."
"Well that's not surprising."
"Nor is what's about to happen next." Luke pushed her down onto the ground right before Natsu suddenly soared overhead "You know you guys really need some less annoying hobbies, or at least better places to fight it out and strangle each other."
"Hey Natsu started it, I'm just following through." Gray pointed out.
"And you're still naked."
"God dammit!"
"And I heard it from here Gray, you fired the first shot and that set off the typical chain of events this time."
"Oh come on dude!"
"Hey I'm the nice guy right now, be glad it's me and not Erza or you guys would be in for a world of hell-"
"I'VE GOT BAD NEWS!" Loke suddenly burst back into the guild hall "Oh man it's bad you guys, it's really really bad. It's Erza, she's on her way here!" this was met with various horrified gasps and screams of terror from everyone present.
"...Oh shit."
"Wow." Lucy muttered "Just mention Erza and the whole place starts to lose it."
"That's pretty common knowledge in the guild, since she's one of the few S-class wizards we have and incredibly intimidating I'm one of the few people in the guild that she doesn't scare the shit out of." Luke glanced over towards the door at the sound of footsteps "And judging by the horrifying stomping noises I'm guessing that's her."
"Eesh, from how scared everyone is of her you'd think she was some kind of evil demon or something."
"You're not far off."
With one terrifying footstep after another echoing throughout the guild hall, into the building stepped a woman with scarlet colored hair, clad in armor and carrying what looked like a massive horn, and even she spoke it was with an air of professionalism "I have returned. Where is Master Makarov?"
"And thus proves my point, anyway Erza the master is at a conference right now so I'm filling in for him."
"I see."
"So what's up with the comically oversized horn you've got hoisted above your head?"
"It's the horn of a monster that I defeated as part of my job request, the locals were so thankful that they decorated it and gave it to me as a souvenir. Do you have a problem with it?"
"I never said that I did. And now she's gonna berate me for leaving the way that I did, any second now…'
"So I see that you've returned from your travels. Were they beneficial?"
"You'll figure that out soon enough."
"Fair enough I suppose." Erza turned her intense gaze on everyone else "Now listen up all of you, while I was on the road I heard a few things. The word is that Fairy Tail is causing nothing but trouble as of late, Master Makarov may not care but I most certainly do. Cana, I see that you're cutting back on drinking so that's good. Vijeeter if you're going to dance then please take it outside, Wakaba you need to get rid of that filthy habit. Nab I suspected I would find you dawdling in front of the request board, just pick a job and be done with it!"
"Well it's about damn time someone said it."
"And as for you Luke…"
"Oh fuck." he was met with only a sigh of what sounded like a disappointment "Really, you're not even gonna try with me?"
"Honestly I don't even know where to begin with you, it's like nothing I say would even get through to you."
"Because unlike the others I'm not scared of you."
"Because I believed that you had more sense than that."
"You say that like you're the most sensible one in the entire guild, which means that you understand why I did what I did."
"I never stated that I didn't." she pinched the bridge of her nose and quickly steered the conversation to another topic "Are Natsu and Gray here as well?"
"Take a look over at the two idiots sweating in fear of you." Luke jabbed a thumber over towards where Natsu and Gray were fake hugging in order to ease her wrath "Yeah you tend to have an effect on everyone here except me."
"Well that would be a good thing. I'm quite pleased to see the two of them getting along after everything that's happened, of course it's only natural to see even the best of friends to lock horns every now and again."
"They're literally only doing this for the sake of you not hitting them and/ or maiming them in any way."
"What's gotten into them?" Lucy muttered.
"It might be the fact that they've spent years getting their asses handed to them by Erza over and over again on almost a daily basis for their constant fighting, what with Natsu trying to beat up everyone in sight and Gray's constant stripping, and even a little bit of Loke hitting on her to mix things up. But then again Loke almost always has that coming."
"Oh yeah I can totally see that happening."
"As you should."
Erza glanced back over at Luke "So you say that you're training was beneficial?"
"As I said literally less than 5 minutes ago, you'll find out soon enough."
"Well that will have to be sooner than you would've liked, I need you and those two over there to do me a favor." she pointed at Natsu and Gray.
"I'm listening."
"While I was travelling I overheard something that left me worried, normally I would consult the master before I take any course of action but he's not here at the moment and I believe this to be a matter of utmost urgency. You and those two are the strongest wizards here, if this is as serious as I believe it to be then I could really use your help."
Luke paused, then let out a small chuckle "The mighty Queen of the Fairies actually admits that she needs help, shit is about to hit the fan big time isn't it?"
"If not handled properly then innocent people will die."
"...Alright I'm in, but I wanna bring two people with me on this."
"One of them being Cana?"
"You know me well."
"So I do. Meet me at the train station first thing tomorrow morning, I'll explain the details then and there." and with that, Erza took her leave of the guild hall.
Luke glanced over at Natsu and Gray "The three of us and that psychopath on the same team huh, not gonna lie I didn't see that one coming. Play our cards right and this could be the most powerful team in the history of Fairy Tail. Anyway like you psychopaths heard I'm going with these three nutcases, Lisanna you're in charge until I get back."
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The next day came, and the sun was shining bright over the skies of Magnolia.
"GOD DAMMIT!" Natsu pretty much exploded "I hate this, teaming up with you is the worst idea in the history of ideas!"
"You think I don't know that." Gray let out a scoff "I don't know what the hell Erza was thinking by asking a loser like you to come along."
"Fine then why the hell don't you just take care of this shit yourself, I don't even wanna go anyway!"
"Sounds like a plan to me, then I'll get to watch her beat you senseless." and thus the argument went on.
Lucy just sat on a nearby bench with Plue in her lap and let out a sigh "You know what I'm just gonna and pretend we don't know them."
"That's usually what I do, at least Luke isn't a nutcase like them." Cana told her from where she was sitting next to her "All things considered Luke is more of a black sheep compared to the rest of the members of the guild."
"Because he's sane?"
"You said it not me, so what made you decide to come with all of us anyway?"
"Luke asked me to come with him to keep Natsu and Gray from trying to strangle each other when Erza isn't looking."
"You're not doing a good job."
"They're hopeless, why bother trying if you're not gonna get anywhere."
"Looks like we're the last ones to get here, did you guys wait too long?" this was when a new voice got their attention, scaring Natsu and Gray to the point where they were petrified with pure fear.
"No not really-" Lucy glanced over and her jaw dropped "What in the-?!"
Luke let out a sigh as he stood in front of them carrying a simple duffle bag over his shoulder, and he jerked a thumb towards where Erza was carrying a massive cart load of luggage "I don't think I need to say anything, but yes they all belong to her."
"Alright good buddy it's time for us to get moving!" Gray and Natsu were both fake hugging and pretending to be all buddy buddy out of fear of Erza.
"Add that to the list of weird shit you'll see when you're part of Fairy Tail."
"You may call it strange, but I personally prefer seeing the two of them get along as good friends should." Erza noted.
"And yet you have to scare them into doing it."
"It gets the job done and keeps everyone in order." Erza glanced over at Lucy "So what was your name again, I believe I saw you in the guild hall yesterday but I never had the chance to speak with you."
"Oh that's Lucy, she's the newest member of the guild. I actually brought her in myself around the time I came back to the guild. I brought her with me so that she could keep idiots 1 & 2 back there in check, that work for you?"
"The more the merrier in my opinion. Wait is that the girl that I heard about? I was told that she defeated a mercenary gorilla with her pinky finger, it will be great to have someone with her capabilities on board."
"Who the hell told you that?" he was met with a thumb jerked towards Cana "And she was drunk when she told you right?" he was met with silence "That's what I thought. Anyway Erza I agreed to this but I do have another request."
"And what would that be?"
"When all of this gets settled and we get back to the guild I want you to fight me, I need to be able to gauge how much progress I've made since that day. Back then I only fought you to a standstill, I'm hoping for an outcome more in my favor this time around."
"...You really think you can defeat me?"
"I think there's only one way to find out, and if I can't then that means that the year and a half I spent training was pretty much worthless."
"I wouldn't go that far, but in regards to your request I accept."
"Glad to hear it."
"Looks like the train is about to start boarding."
"Well in that case…" Luke walked over to a nearby plant and proceeded to hurl his guts out into it, earning disturbed looks from nearly everyone present "What? You can't hurl from motion sickness if you don't have anything in you to hurl." he glanced over "And yes Natsu one of us will fight you after that."
"Oh hell yeah!" Natsu pretty much exploded "I'M FIRED UP NOW!"
"Of course you are. Hey where's Happy?"
"Oh I had him stay back with Lisanna, with those two around I can't cut loose like how I normally would."
"Makes sense, I had Bolt hang back for the same reason."
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Soon enough, the 7 of them were riding on the train towards their destination.
Cana glanced over at where Natsu was lying on his own seat, pretty much useless from the motion sickness he was suffering "For crying out loud how pathetic can you get, one minute you're picking fights with pretty much everyone in sight and the next you're about as useless as I am when I'm drunk."
"It's gotta be tough on him getting from one place to the next." Lucy commented.
"Don't worry, he'll be fine." Erza assured her "Natsu come over here and sit with me."
'I… I guess she wants me to move?' Lucy promptly switched seats out of fear, which also allowed Erza to move Natsu over to her seat.
"Alright now just relax Natsu, this should make things easier for you." she promptly slugged him in the gut, causing him to pass out in her lap "There we are, that should make things a little bit easier for him."
"And it makes it easier to see that you're also giving into the insanity that seems to plague every single member of Fairy Tail." Luke pointed out dryly "But all joking aside Erza I think it's about time for you to fill us in on what the hell we're doing out here, what kind of crisis are we dealing with here?"
"Of course you're right, I have reason to believe that the Dark Guild known as Eisenwald is planning something big. I'm not sure what exactly but it has to do with a magic item they refer to as Lullaby."
"Lullaby huh?" Cana shared a glance with Lucy "That's the thing those assholes mentioned before."
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At the same time, some members of Eisenwald discussed how they had finally claimed Lullaby as their own, and the moment of truth, the moment in which they would finally achieve their goal, was at last at hand.
The guild masters wouldn't even know what hit them.
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Erza frowned in thought and eyed Cana for a moment "I see, so you mean you've faced members of Eisenwald before have you?"
"I'm not 100% sure that they were part of Eisenwald but I did hear them mention something about Lullaby before they got away." Cana told her.
"It sounds to me like they were members who dropped out of the guild and ended up going into hiding."
"Doesn't sound like they did too good of a job." Luke noted dryly "Sounds to me like they didn't want any part of what was coming and tried to bail, which means that whatever this thing is it's bad enough to scare even dark wizards."
"It's only a hypothesis, but whoever Cana and Lucy saw dragging off the wizards that were responsible for kidnapping Happy that day must have been Eisenwald, so it's obvious that they didn't want their plans to get out."
"So what do you think they're gonna try?"
"Perhaps I should start from the beginning, just the other day I was heading home after completing a job."
"With the comically oversized horn in hand."
"Yes. Anyway I stopped by a pub in Onibus that I knew was a gathering spot for local wizards, I overheard some men talking about how they had discovered the location of Lullaby but they were unable to use it because of a seal of some sort."
"Lullaby somehow sounds unnerving in this case, and the fact that someone had to seal away its power means that the kind of magic power it's packing has to be insane. But are you sure that the guys you saw at the pub were from Eisenwald?"
"I'm almost positive. I can't believe I was such a fool that day, I didn't recognize his name. They referred to him as Erigor the ace of the Eisenwald guild, he only accepts assasination requests and that's how he earned his title as Erigor the Reaper."
"The kind of guy that kills for money, sounds about right."
"When the council decided to outlaw assassination requests the members of Eisenwald decided that making money was more important than following the rules of the council, and as a result they were kicked out of their wizard league 6 years ago, but that didn't stop them. They've disobeyed the orders given to them and remained active to this day."
"And now Lucy's starting to sweat like a pig and her snowman pet is melting."
Erza slammed her fist down on Natsu's head "How could I have been so careless, if only I had recognized his name that day then I could've pulverized them and I could've forced them to reveal their scheme to me."
"Don't beat yourself up over that too much Erza, just think of how this could benefit us. This could be the chance we need to find the guys from Eisenwald and bring down their guild once and for all."
"Perhaps, but regardless I'm not so foolish or arrogant as to believe that I can take on an entire dark guild all by myself."
"I'm pretty sure you could, not unscated but still."
"Well either way, that's why I asked you and the others for help."
"So we're gonna storm the Eisenwald guild hall, sounds like a regular Tuesday for us."
And now Lucy was sweating even more out of pure fear "I shouldn't have come along."
"You said it not me, and would you mind sweating on Gray instead of me? At least he would be able to freeze it."
"...Good to know. Hey Erza if you don't mind me asking, what kind of magic do you usually practice?"
"She stains the battlefield with the blood, sweat, tears and occasional tears in a very badass fashion."
"What's so badass about making people bleed?"
"The way that she does it."
"Well personally I think Gray's magic is much more beautiful than mine." Erza took a bite of some strawberry cake.
"What you mean like this?" Gray promptly used his Ice Make magic to form the Fairy Tail guild emblem "I use a kind of magic called Ice Male."
Lucy blinked "Oh so now I understand why you and Natsu are always trying to strangle each other, he's fire and you're ice so you guys don't mix well."
"Huh, I never thought about that. Truth be told I just hate his guts because he's a cocky smartass who doesn't know when to shut up."
"Wait a second." Luke shot him a look "You never even thought about that? I figured that out in my first month at Fairy Tail, I just thought it was some unspoken thing that nobody talks about for some reason."
"Nope, just hate the jackass."
"...I quit with these people, I just do."
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Soon enough, the train ride came to an end and the group arrived at Onibus Station.
Luke glanced over at Erza as they made their way off the train "So you think the guys you saw from Eisenwald are still gonna be in this town?"
Erza let out a sigh "I have no idea, that's actually what we're here to find out."
"Couldn't hurt to check I guess, and if we do find them then we can just kick their asses like we do- Oh shit."
"What's the matter?"
"I think we left Natsu back on the train." Luke glanced back to see the train now far away in the distance "And there he goes."
"Dammit, I was so busy conversing with you that I forgot about him! I'm such a fool, it's simply common knowledge that Natsu hates all forms of transportation. This is all my fault, I need one of you to come and hit me for my penance!"
"Overkill as always, I missed you while I was gone Erza."
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Natsu had been left on the train, writing in agony over his motion sickness 'Somebody please just kill me now…'
And that was when he revealed himself, that being a wizard by the name of Kageyama "Well lookie here, looks like we have ourselves a member of Fairy Tail. How's the guild treating you these days, is it actually worth sticking around?"
"What…?" Natsu promptly ended up with a foot implanted in his face.
"Don't think you can act all high and mighty just because you're in a legal guild Mr Fairy, you guys who just blindly follow the rules of the Magic Council, but you know what you look like to the rest of us? A bunch of worthless harmless little flies."
"Say what?!" Natsu bolted out of his seat and coated his fists with his own flames.
"Looks like I struck a nerve."
"Listen you son of a-" and then the motion sickness took over again and his flames were pretty much snuffed out.
"What kind of magic is that? How about I show you how it's done." Kageyama proceeded to use his Shadow magic to punch Natsu out "It's all about the follow through."
"That magic… That means you're the one who attacked those guys from before."
"It's just Shadow based magic, not that big of a thing but it's all about whether or not it's used properly." but then the train screeched to a halt, causing Kageyama to stumble and for a flute with a skull on it to fall out of his jacket.
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One of the train officers wasn't keen on finding out that Erza had stopped the train by pulling on the emergency break "What the hell do you think you're doing lady, you can't pull on the emergency break without permission."
Erza let out a sigh "It's for one of our comrades, I have to ask you to please understand the circumstances."
"What are you kidding me?"
"Now if you would be so kind I would like for you to take our luggage to the hotel while we retrieve said comrade."
"Do I look like a bellhop to you?!"
"You're wearing the uniform of one are you not?"
Luke let out a sigh as he looked on at the scene with a small fond smile "Say whatever you want about how insane everyone in Fairy Tail is, they grow on you pretty damn fast, and frankly I missed it."
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"Oh thank god, the train finally stopped." Natsu glanced down and noticed the skull flute lying in front of him "What the hell is that thing."
"Dammit, you weren't supposed to see that." Kageyama muttered.
"I've heard enough shit out of you, it's payback time! You say the people of Fairy Tail are just flies, well you're just a damn bug and nobody insults my guild on my watch! Fire Dragon IRON FIST!" he launched a fire enhanced fist forward.
"Guard Shadow!" Kageyama used his shadow magic to protect himself, though he was still blown back across the train car in the process "Lucky shot."
"Not bad for a little fly huh?"
"Attention all passengers, our emergency stop was a false alarm and we will be departing again shortly."
"...Oh shit, I've gotta get off this death trap!"
"Hold it right there!" Kageyama barked "There's no way in hell I'm letting you get away as easily as that, you're messing with the Eisenwald guild now."
"Oh so you're with Eisenwald are you? I'll show you what happens when people decide to insult Fairy Tail, how about we take this outside?" but then the train started moving, which sent his motion sickness back into effect.
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Luke bolted along the pathway following the train tracks 'Cana and the others are following using that Magic Mobile, but I know that even that won't be fast enough to catch Natsu before he does anything stupid.'
"COMING OUT HOT IN STYLE!" Natsu suddenly got hurled out of the train window at full speed, slamming into Luke at full speed, ramming into him with a loud thud before he comically dropped to the ground.
"Okay that's gonna give me a migraine in the morning."
"Natsu, Luke!" Erza and the others showed up on the scene not long after that "Are you two alright?"
"Aside from sporting the potential migraine from this idiot slamming into me."
"Hey shut the hell up!" Natsu barked "Why the hell did you guys leave me on the train to begin with?!"
"I'm just thankful you weren't badly injured." Erza let out a sigh and promptly pulled him into an embrace, slamming his head against her armor "I apologize for me carelessness Natsu, please forgive me."
"Uh… it's okay. Well anyway I'm just kind of shaken up, I got attacked by some freak on the train."
"What did he look like?" asked Luke.
"I think it was that dude who dragged off the guys that tried to eat Happy, he said something about being with Eisenwald."
"YOU FOOL!" Erza smacked him straight across the face "That's exactly the person we're chasing after on this mission, why did you let him get away!"
"What the hell are you talking about, this is the first I'm hearing about it."
"I explained everything on the train ride over here, you should listen when people are talking to you!"
"Erza you realize that he didn't hear anything you said because you basically punched him out to keep him from spewing his guts." Luke pointed out dryly.
"...Oh yes right. Well never mind that, if he was one the same train that we were on then we should still be able to track him down."
"So what did this guy look like?" asked Cana.
"Well he didn't look like anybody that would come from a dark guild, but he did have this weird flute thing." Natsu told them "It looked like it had a skull on the end, except it had three eyes on it."
"A three eyed skull huh, well that's creepy."
"It gets worse." Lucy muttered "I'm pretty sure I've heard about that flute before "It's known as Lullaby the cursed song, it's a type of Death magic."
"A curse song like some kind of incantation?"
"I've only ever read about them in books before, but there are some deadly spells out there that are forbidden to be used by any wizards."
Luke nodded "I did some research on them myself, they're cursed Black Magic based spells that will kill the victims they're used on."
"Well if I'm right then Lullaby is one of the worst of them all. Originally it was a tool meant for casting simple death curses, it was dangerous but its power was limited until the evil black wizard known as Zeref transformed it into a demon flute, and now its song will kill hundreds if not thousands at once lulling it into an endless sleep."
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At the same time, Erigor and the men of Eisenwald hijacked the train, claiming it to be their property before Kageyama showed up on the train and presented the Lullaby to them, which prompted Erigor to order them to commence the operation.
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Erza bolted across the terrain using the Magic Mobile, using as much of her own magic as she could to drive at full speed "Come on come on, we have to hurry!"
Luke bolted alongside her on foot "Hey Erza you have to take it easy, if you use so much of your own power just getting there then you'll be useless when it's time to actually fight against these guys."
"I don't have any other choice but to press forward! We're running out of time, if Erigor were to get his hands on this Death magic then believe me when I tell you that far too many people will die."
"But I don't get it though, just what are they planning to do? It's not like they'd just go around killing for no reason, they would have to have some kind of plan."
"I know, but I just can't fathom what they intend just yet."
"I guess there's only one way to find out."
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At the same time, Makarov was attending the Guild Master conference in Clover Town when he received a message from Lisanna informing him of Luke, Erza and the others forming their new team, much to his horror mainly due to the destruction they would be able to cause.
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Kunugi Station was in chaos over the hijacking.
"Some guy with a scythe and a bunch of his lackeys took over the train!"
"I think I know who they are, they're the punks from that dark guild who have been hanging around town over the past few weeks."
Cana and the others listened to the conversation from atop a nearby cliffside "Hijacking a car or a boat would be one thing, why the hell would they go for a train? It can only follow the tracks it's on so it doesn't seem like a really good getaway method."
"True as that might be they do have speed going for them." Luke pointed out "Plus it's not like many people would expect them to use a train."
Gray nodded "So then I guess it's up to us to figure out where these Eisenwald guys are heading in such a big hurry and what they're planning to do."
"Gray put on some pants."
"God dammit!"
"Hey don't get mad at me, you're the stripper."
"Look the military has already been called into action so it should be a matter of time before someone catches them." Lucy pointed out.
"I hope you're right about that Lucy, I really do."
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Erigor wasted no time in doling out punishment on Kageyama "So let me see if I understand this correctly, you allowed one of the flies from Fairy Tail to see the Lullaby flute and then you let him get away? Is that true?!"
"But- But it's not that bad!" Kageyama protested in a very feeble manner "It's not like he knows anything about our plans sir, and even if he did there's no way he and his stupid guild would be able to stop us right?" he was answered by a scythe in between his legs.
"We can't afford to take any chances, but fortunately for us and for you we have a strategy in place."
"Right, you mean the thing at Oshibana Station."
"Right, but we can't have a bunch of flies buzzing around wherever they please, especially where they're not wanted, so I'm leaving it up to you to swat all of them away."
"I understand sir, you can count on me."
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Erza bolted through the city with the others stuffed into the back of the magic mobile "Come on, come on, come on!"
Luke bolted right by her side going on foot "Erza dial it back a few notches, you're going way too fast and at this rate you're gonna overload the SE plug!"
"There's no telling how many innocent people could die if Erigor manages to play Lullaby's song, if we're going to stop Eisenwald before it's too late then I can't afford to slow down no matter what the reason may be!"
"But at this point you're gonna drain yourself dry before the fight even starts!"
"If that's the case then I'll just have to rely on hand to hand combat, besides I have you and the others as backup."
"You say that like you thought this all the way through."
"I have. More or less."
"You haven't changed a bit Erza."
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Cana glanced over at Lucy "You know it's weird, I feel like there was something important I was supposed to tell you."
"Oh really, what was it?" asked Lucy.
"I dunno, I just know I wanted to tell it to you but if I forgot it then I guess it couldn't have been that important."
"Then why did you have to tell me about it to begin with?"
"How the hell should I know, I was kind of drunk at the time."
"I'm gonna be sick…" Natsu mumbled from his place on the floor.
"No that wasn't it."
"Must escape…" he hung himself out of the window.
"Hey take it easy, are you trying to fall out?"
"What do you think I'm aiming for?"
"Okay so it's not anything about her being sick? No. Hungry? For attention maybe, but that doesn't sound right."
"Hey guys take a look up ahead." Luke pointed to a large commotion in the distance "I think we just found our targets."
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A short distance away, in Oshibana Station…
"Ladies and gentlemen please stand back, the station is currently closed due to a train suffering a derailment."
"A derailment, what are you kidding me? I heard the station was taken over by a crap load of thugs!"
"We ask that you please stand back for your own safety!"
"Excuse me." a hand grabbed the station employee by the shoulder, this hand belonging to none other than Erza herself "What's going on inside?"
"Why the hell would I tell you lady?" he received a knee to the gut and promptly passed out as a result.
"What's going on inside?" she did the same to the next guy that didn't answer her, and the guy after that "What's going on inside? What's going on inside?!"
Luke just watched with what looked like an expression of disappointment "Yeah that about sums up what Erza's like when things don't go her way, she's got her own way of getting things done as counterproductive as they may be. Also, Gray put on some pants."
"The Eisenwald guild is inside, let's get moving."
"Way ahead of you, Lucy drag the pink lump until he can move on his own again. Lucky for us it shouldn't be too long, I hope. That doesn't sound as optimistic as I would've liked."
"I noticed." Lucy told him dryly.
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Soon enough, Erza was leading the others inside the train station "A small army unit stormed into the building earlier but they haven't come back out yet, I can only assume that they've been caught in a battle with the forces of Eisenwald."
"If by battle you mean slaughter then probably." Luke gestured to the group of bodies sprawled out across the hallway in front of them, and he quickly knelt down to confirm what they all feared "Yep, they're all dead."
"They were up against an entire guild of dark wizards."
"Who also don't give a shit about killing for fun by the looks of it."
A sinister chuckle ringing through the air halted them in their tracks, belonging to Erighor and the rest of Eisenwald standing in front of them "Welcome, step right into our parlor Fairy Tail flies."
Luke gave a quick glance upwards "Judging by the douce-like look on your face and the oversized toothpick you call an axe I'm guessing you're Erigor."
"Natsu's still out of commission between the train and magic mobile." Erza noted.
"And adding those with the effects of the super noogies you've been giving him we'll have to count him out for the time being."
Kageyama shot a dirty look at the immobile form of Natsu "You little son of a bitch, it's your fault I got in trouble with Erigor, now get up so I can kick your ass already."
"None of you scare us, now just tell us what you're planning to do with Lullaby and we can make this easy for you."
"Oh so you haven't heard?" Erigor let out a chuckle as he levitated into the air "Here's a little hint for you, what do all train stations have?"
'So he uses wind based magic. You're saying you're gonna use the station's speaker system in order to broadcast the song played by Lullaby?"
"Looks like we have a smart one with us. Thousands of nosy onlookers have flocked to the station to get a glimpse of the action. Who knows, if I raise the volume enough then I may be able to slaughter everyone in this entire city with my melody of death."
"These people have done nothing to deserve your wrath, if you have issues then take them out on me and I'll bare your hatred."
"How disgustingly noble of you. No this is meant to be a cleansing of all the fools out there who fail to appreciate the rights they hold so dear, who remain willfully ignorant to the plight of those who've had their rights stripped away. They've committed the sin of turning a blind eye to the injustice of the world, and therefore the reaper has come to punish them for their sins."
"You gave up your rights by choosing to become a dark guild, killing more innocent people is only gonna drive you further into a corner. You completely deserved to be kicked out of your wizard league, you just want to shift the blame."
"At this point trying to get back our rights means nothing to us, what we want is power and then we will be able to wash away the sins of the past and take control of what events take place in the future."
"You're nothing but power hungry fools."
"Believe whatever you want." Kageyama let out a chuckle "We're rolling in a brand new age of darkness, of course by the time we actually usher it in you flies won't have lived long enough to see it. Knuckle Shadow!" he prepared to attack them using his shadow magic.
Luke cut clean through the shadows using his dragon scale sword "Your first mistake was thinking we'd go down without a fight."
That was when Natsu finally got up "Alright now I'm all fired up back 100% and I'm ready to kick some ass, whose do I kick first?"
"Pretty much all of the assholes in front of us."
Erigor let out a chuckle 'The flies from Fairy Tail flew right into my trap, everything is going exactly according to plan. But I will not rest until they have heard the melody of death played by the Lullaby, and then we'll at last have revenge against those who wronged us.'
"What you're looking at is the strongest team Fairy Tail has to offer, I hope you know what you're getting yourselves into."
"I leave them to you men, show them the terror of the dark guild Eisenwald!" and then Erigor disappeared from the scene.
"Natsu, Gray, Cana you guys go and track this guy down. The three of you together should be able to pound that guy into the ground no problem."
"Right, now come on you two idiots." Cana promptly grabbed Natsu and Gray by their separate collars (both of them still glaring at each other) and dragged them both away.
"Natsu and Gray are already a formidable combo, add Cana into the mix and they're pretty much unbeatable."
"I think we'll see about that!" one of the Eisenwald wizards named Rayule prepared to go after them "Just leave it to the great Rayule to take them out.
"Don't think I'm letting you get all of the fun, I owe that pink haired dumbass for our last encounter." Kageyama promptly disappeared into his shadow.
Luke glanced over at Lucy and Erza "Let's just finish off these guys and then we'll go after the others, they can handle themselves until then."
"Are you sure about that?" asked Lucy "I mean just the three of us against an entire army of wizards from a dark guild?"
"Lucy this is basically a Tuesday for us, trust me we can handle low level thugs like these no problem."
"Enough talk, now let's do this." Erza promptly used her Requip magic in order to summon one of her swords "Let me make this clear to all of you, if you insult the Fairy Tail guild in my presence again then I swear none of you will live to see tomorrow."
"And when Erza speaks she speaks for all of us." Luke promptly drew his dragon scale sword as well "You wanna go then let's go."
"We're not scared of you chumps!" a bunch of them drew their swords and charged at them at full speed "We've got tons of magic swordsmen in Eisenwald.
"Yeah well you don't have me and Erza now do you?" Luke wasted no time in cutting down a large number of swordsmen, with Erza doing the same to another group.
"We'll show you you arrogant little bastard!" a bunch of them started firing off blasts of pure magic energy.
"Luke stand back, I can handle them!" Erza used her Requip to summon a spear, as well as a set of dual swords, and quickly tore through the wizards attacking her.
"Looks like you've gotten a lot stronger yourself, you're able to Requip a lot faster than you were before."
"Wait so what exactly is Requip?"
"Magic weapons aren't that much different from the Celestial magic that you use, they use it to summon different weapons they keep stored in a separate pocket dimension and switching between those weapons is what people refer to as Requipping."
"Oh man, that's incredible!"
"That's nothing, you haven't seen anything yet. Erza's just getting warmed up, it's not a good idea to try and steal the spotlight from her."
"Yeah well I came with you guys for a reason, and now the time has come for me to kick some ass too! Open gate of the Giant Crab, Cancer!" Lucy pulled out one of her Celestial keys and summoned one of her spirits.
Within a matter of seconds Cancer appeared before them in all of his glory "You need me to fight these dudes for you baby?"
"Yeah, and take them down with style."
"I've never seen such a stupid haircut, you look like an idiot!" a bunch of guys all charged at him.
"Woah baby." Cancer wasted no time in cutting all of the dark wizards down, cutting apart their weapons as well as their hair "I hope you like your new style baby."
Lucy blinked "Kind of unnecessary but okay."
Luke nodded in approval "I knew I made the right call bringing you Lucy, pretty impressive work there."
"Oh thanks but it was no big deal."
"I must admit that it was quite impressive." Erza noted "However that crab spirit of yours, the way that he refers to you as baby rather insulting."
"Uh… duly noted I guess."
"There are still so many, and here I thought we took care of most of these fools. It may be annoying, but I'll wipe all of them out myself. Requip!" and so in what looked like a truly spectacular fashion, Erza used her Requip to swap out her suit of armor.
"Okay, her armor is disappearing and all of the evil guys are all going gaga over it. What am I looking at?"
"Something unique to Erza, at least as far as I know." Luke told her "See most requip users only have the ability to swap out or summon weapons but Erza is different, she's mastered the ability to swap out her various suits of armor that enhances her abilities and lets her use various different types of magic, whether it be sword magic or any type of elemental magic. It's a type of Requip known as the Knight, in this case her Heaven's Wheel Armor."
Sure enough, Erza finished her Requipping to reveal herself in her suit of armor known as Heaven's Wheel "Now dance for me my swords! Circle Sword!" she summoned a number of swords circled around her and used them to cut down the Eisenwald wizards with a single stroke of her blade.
"And that's what makes Erza one of the strongest Fairy Tail has to offer, I think it's safe to say that she's got this."
"Guess what you little bitch, you're dealing with me now!" one of them was stupid enough to charge at Erza at full speed, only to be cut down in an instant.
"She's called the Queen of the Fairies for a reason."
With almost all of the Eisenwald wizards down for the count defeated, Erza returned to her usual armored outfit "That should take care of them for the time being."
"You almost never fail to impress."
"Forget this, I'm out of here!" the last remaining Eisienwald wizard, some fat little troll by the name of Karacka, quickly bolted out of the room.
"You think he's gonna go track Erigor down?"
Erza nodded "That is what I would suspect, you should follow him."
"Way ahead of you, Lucy let's get moving." Luke quickly slung Lucy over his shoulder and took off running before she had time to protest about it "Just be sure you don't overexert yourself too much."
Once they were out of sight, Erza finally allowed herself to fall to one knee "It would seem you were right after all Luke, I overdid it on the magic mobile. Please all of you, just don't fail me now."
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Cana bolted through the train station with Natsu and Gray tagging along behind her "Look we don't have time for you two to start bitching about each other, the fact is that we have a job to do or people are gonna die."
"Yeah well it's still a stupid idea, anyone with half a brain cell knows that fire and ice just don't mix." Gray pointed out.
"You just thought of that like an hour ago, and besides it's why Luke had me tag along with you two idiots!"
"I don't need your help, I can handle Erigor all by myself!" Natsu and Gray started copying each other and then got up in each others' faces "Are you copying me?!"
"And I'm being ignored, will you two shut up for a second?!" she blasted them with one of her lightning cards and pointed ahead "There are two hallways ahead, the only way to figure out which one is the right one is that we'll have to split up."
"...Fine." Natsu and Gray looked at each other, nodded and each decided on which hallway they were gonna take, Natsu going down the right and Gray going down the left.
Cana on the other hand stuck with Natsu going on the right "Listen up you two, we're going up against an evil freak who's gonna unleash a spell that's gonna kill a lot of people. I guess what I'm trying to say is, don't screw this up."
"If by that you mean kick his ass then that was the idea." Natsu gave a cocky smirk "I have a bone to pick with that son of a bitch for screwing with Fairy Tail, I plan to burn him to a crisp and not stop until he says mercy."
"And I'm coming with you to make sure you don't punch out the wrong guy."
"One time, I did that one fucking time!"
"7 times."
"Whatever!" and so they took off down the right hallway.
"...You two better not die on me." Gray watched them go for a brief second before bolting down the left hallway, but it didn't take him long to notice one of the speakers on the wall and for the dots to connect "So that's his game, Erigor is gonna play the song from Lullaby through the speaker system, which means I know where he needs to be to make that happen."
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A few minutes later…
Suspecting where Erigor might be located, Gray made his way to the broadcast studio, only to find that Erigor wasn't there and he was instead confronted by Rayule.
During their confrontation, Rayule explained to Gray that it was a trap for him and the rest of the Fairy Tail wizards, and their real objective was the annual meeting of the Masters. With the Fairies out of the way, and the Masters not knowing what is happening, their plan would surely succeed.
Gray was understandably outraged by this and proceeded to defeat Rayule by using his ice magic to freeze him where he stood.
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At the same time, Erza made her way outside of the train station and informed the bystanders and station employees that they needed to evacuate for their own safety, only for her to end up meeting Erigor herself, learning that he created a wind barrier meant to trap everyone inside the train station so they couldn't interfere.
Erza attempted to escape, but she found herself unable to, and Erigor took the chance to escape soon afterwards.
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Kageyama followed Natsu and Cana down their hallway in secret, waiting for an opportunity to strike 'Looks like it's about time for me to make my move, no way they can stop us now.'
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Luke made his way through the train station at full speed, with Lucy tagging a short distance behind, his mind racing 'I don't care who they are, if anyone messes with my friends or innocent people on my watch is gonna have to answer to me! I hope you guys are ready Eisenwald, I'm coming for you.'
A/N:
So yes, along with the original Team Natsu, Cana and Luke are now part of the team in this fic as of the Lullaby Arc, which will make the strongest team that much stronger. I did intend to add Lisanna into the team as well in this chapter, but I did need someone to run the guild in Luke and Makarov's absence, so I'll have her join in a later chapter. I mean yeah I could've had Macao be in charge, but we all know how that turned out.
I did consider making this entire arc just one chapter, but I didn't want to make it so long that the readers lose interest, so I'm splitting it into two chapters.
Now then, just for fun and inspired by Earth Dragon Arnighte, here's what I think of Fairy Tail power couples:
Natsu x Lucy (Not against it but I'm sick of people trying to shove it down my throat)
Natsu x Lisanna (Cute and I ship it, come at me bro)
Gray x Juvia (Well duh)
Gajeel x Levy (Hysterical but I still ship it)
Erza x Jellal (Awesome)
Lucy x Loke (Interesting and kind of funny, don't really think much of it though)