The Rise of a Warrior: Fairy Tail

by The Legendary Dragon Reaper

Luke Drako, S-class wizard of the Fairy Tail guild, the true Lightning Dragon Slayer, student and son of the Lightning dragon Kaminari. This is his story. The story of a Dragon Slayer trying to find his place in the world, and make one hell of a strong team along the way. And with any luck, he just might win the heart of a certain brunette card mage. OC x Cana. Read and review.

30. Edolas IV

I would like to thank everyone who reviewed, favorited or followed this story since I updated it.

Guest: Thanks, I'm glad to see you liked it, and Happy Easter to you too.

Rabbihumayundip: Thanks, I intend to.

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Things weren't looking too good for our heroes, seeing how they were still trapped in the dungeon with no way out.

Natsu was still processing the revelation over Happy "I don't believe it… Happy would never turn his back on us, there's no way in hell that would happen."

"Don't assume that he's at fault here Salamander." Noah told him "For all we know, chances are he and Bolt were manipulated or something."

Wendy glanced over at Noah "So does that mean you blame Carla for all of this?"

"What do you think the answer to that is kid?"

"But if Happy and Bolt are being manipulated, then maybe Carla is as well."

"Oh yeah, let me think about that. Thinking, thinking, thinking, nope. For all we know this was probably part of her plan too."

"But that can't be… she wouldn't…"

"Hate to break it to you kid, but it makes a lot more sense than you're willing to admit. She knew about Edolas this entire time, and even after she claimed to know nothing about the layout of this world, she still knew about the underground tunnel where the Thunderer ambushed us. The fact is that she knew this was going to happen."

"But I don't believe it! I've known Carla my entire life, she would never dream of doing something like this!"

"Think about it, did she ever once mention Edolas to you? Did any of this ever come to mind with her?"

"Forget it Noah, whether she screwed us over doesn't matter now since it's not gonna get us out of here." Natsu pointed out flatly.

'Huh, that actually sounded serious and mature.'

"Breaking stuff does that job damn fine!" Natsu promptly started trying to pry open the door to their cell.

'And he's back, that figures.'

"Fire Dragon ROAR!" and yet nothing came out.

"How many times does it have to fail before it gets through your thick skull, we can't use our Dragon Slayer magic here."

"Well we can't just sit around and do nothing."

"We're not, I'll think of a way for us to get out of this if you can shut up for 20 seconds and let me think."

While that little exchange was taking place, Wendy seemed more downcast than ever "Where are you right now Carla?"

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Meanwhile, in another cell…

Lucy opened her eyes and found herself bound in stocks "Hey what the- When the hell did this happen? Is this some kind of sick joke or something?"

"Hate to break it to you blondie, but this is anything but a joke."

Lucy looked around and found that Mira and Lisanna were bound in stocks just like her "What the heck, what is this?"

"We were brought here after the Royal Army captured us." Lisanna told her.

"Oh. Oh that's right, I remember now, we were all captured in that underground tunnel. We got so close, but then it was over in a flash. They took all of us away. Let me make this clear, if you jerks lay a finger on my friends then I'm gonna rip you a new one! Do you understand me? Do you?!"

"I'm pretty sure they hear you back in Louen." Mira told her dryly.

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Meanwhile, in Exalia…

The Exceeds of Extalia were still going about their business when they noticed a comotion rushing towards their city "Hey, what the heck is going on over there? Oh god no, don't tell me it's Mr Nichiya starting another orgy."

"Get the fuck out of our way!" this was when Bolt soared through the streets with his two companions holding onto his tail.

"See, stuff like this is why we need a zombie survival plan!" Happy pointed out.

"Shut up and hang on like your life depends on it, because it does!"

"After the Fallens meow meow!" Nichiya and his guards were chasing after Bolt and the others at full speed "Don't let them escape, capture them at all costs, meow meow!"

"And what the hell do you mean zombie survival plan?"

"I mean when you're being chased by the equivalent of a bunch of mindless drones, when you think about it there isn't much of a difference there when you think about it."

"...Huh, that actually makes a lot of sense. Whatever let's argue about that later, we've gotta ditch them!" they rounded a corner and dove into a hay cart, leaving the Royal Guard to keep charging onwards blindly.

Nichiya on the other hand, he tripped over something and fell flat on his face "Not tired yet… not at all… I must apprehend the Fallens… I must live up to the expectations of the queen… It shouldn't be a problem… I'm a strong and healthy young man…"

"Strong and healthy maybe, but ugly is a topic for a whole other conversation." but then things got bad as the cart they were hiding in started rolling forward, running over Nichiya and ending up as a runaway that soared down the streets and out of the city "I imagined this going very differently!" this was followed by Carla coming close to falling out of the cart "That I had imagined somewhat."

"Hang on Carla, I'll save you!" Happy reached out and managed to grab her "You don't have to worry, there's no way I'm gonna let you go again!"

"You might wanna retract that, cause we're about to go over a cliff!" sure enough, once the cart rolled over, Bolt grabbed onto both of them and flew off… or at least he tried to, but in reality their combined weight made them slowly fall to the ground with a loud thud "Okay, well that happened I guess."

"Hey, are you guys okay…? Is the ground spinning for both of you too?"

"Well nothing is broken, and I guess someone did say that any landing you could walk away from is a good landing and- Holy sweet mother of fuck, guys take a look at that." he gestured to an absolutely massive lacrima on one of the floating islands in the distance.

"Holy crap that's a giant lacrima, it's even bigger than the one in the Royal City!"

"What do you think the odds are that that one has everyone from Magnolia in it? I thought the one in the city looked pretty small if it was meant to contain about 60,000 people."

"But if that one has Magnolia, then what about the one in the city?"

"Probably a few people with a lot of magic power, if I had to guess then I would say it's probably people like Gray or Erza. But speaking of the city…" Bolt pointed down to where the Royal City was sitting below them, a very great distance below them for that matter "Okay, did not see that one coming."

"It's so tiny!"

"I've got eyes, I know that."

"Extalia must be built on one of those floating islands." Carla pointed out "In other words, this is how everything is positioned in Edolas."

"The only question is, how do we get back down to the city? I've tried carrying you both before and we know how that turned out."

"I'm well aware of that, and until myself and the Tomcat can use our magic again, I'm afraid that the two of us may be stuck up here."

"Well that's just perfect, I can't go down there on my own or else risk being caught in a matter of seconds, and besides leaving you two would mean you'd get caught in no time. So what the hell do we do now?"

"Hey you little varmints, what in the Queen's britches are y'all doing in my field?!"

Bolt and the others looked back to see a white male Exceed in overalls scowling and pointing a spade in their direction "And now we meet a pissed off local, that's just great."

"I was expecting a couple of dead-beets but I got trouble-makers instead, you lot are them Fallens ain't ya?"

'And now we have to fight, why does this have me more bored than concerned?' this was followed by the angry local swinging his spade at them like a maniac.

"Now get on out of here, get the hell lost before I get mad!"

"What the hell do you mean before you raving lunatic?"

"Meow!" of course Nichiya and the others echoed from atop the cliff "Keep your peepers peeled for that cart, it's around here somewhere so find it at once meow!"

"Well at least they're stupid enough to just be looking for the cart."

"But they're still on our trails."

"MEOW!" the white Exceed, his name is Lucky by the way, rounded on the three of them in a comical rage "I thought I told the three of you to get lost!"

"Okay okay yes sir, we're scramming right now!"

"Good, then come over to my place!"

"...Wait what?"

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Later, at Lucky's place…

Happy and the rest of the group followed Lucky back to his home, albeit they were somewhat reluctant "But what about those soldiers? Oh wait I get it, you already reported us to them didn't you?"

"No now pipe down!" Lucky raised his spade, freaking them out to no end.

"Hey take it easy, I was just asking a question!"

"A stupid ass question!"

This was when Lucky's wife Marl showed up, a middle aged blue Exceed, carrying a basket of vegetables "Oh hello dear, did you finish working out in the fields already? Oh and I see we have some guests here as well, that doesn't happen for us very often."

"Uh, yeah." Happy bowed to her slightly "Sorry to trouble you like this."

"Oh it's no trouble, like I said we don't get guests very often."

"Oh, well thanks. I'm Happy, this is Bolt and Carla."

"My my, those are such wonderful names. My name is Marl, now why don't the three of you come inside and wash up."

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Later, inside the house…

Soon enough, they group was seated inside.

"Poor things, it seems like you've had quite the rough day." Marl made her way over to the group with a large plate of fish.

"It's so beautiful…" Happy was promptly smacked upside the head by Bolt, which caused him to stop drooling "Thank you. Mr Lucky, Ms Marl, thanks a ton for letting us hide out here for a little while."

"Shut it!" Lucky rounded on Happy in a comical rage "What in the name of hell do you think you're doing?! You should be using that mouth for chewing, not yapping!"

"Aye sir, sorry sir, please don't smite me!"

"Please excuse my husband." Marl told them "He doesn't exactly see eye to eye with the kingdom, and he's so vocal about it they kicked us out, and we've been living on this little farm ever since."

"Dammit Marl!" Lucky rounded on her "What the hell did you go and tell them something like that for?!"

"Oh no reason."

"You've gotta have a reason!"

"So that's it." Bolt muttered "That's why you helped us escape, as a giant middle finger to the kingdom."

"Believe whatever you want kid."

"I'm believing that because you're not denying it, so it's obviously true."

"Enough of your whining, if you lot are gonna stay here then you're gonna work, you get what I'm saying?!"

"As long as you quit screaming in my ear."

"Right, so you lot had better eat since you're gonna need the energy, you hear me?! Now start munching!"

"I'm pretty sure they can hear you back in Earth Land."

"I said MUNCH!"

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A few hours passed, and lunch had ended, while work for the male Exceeds had begun.

Lucky was promptly tearing into Bolt and Happy as they worked in the fields "HEY! Put your backs into it you little bastards, you wanna call yourselves men don't you?!"

Happy let out a groan "I don't get it, what does this have to do with becoming a man?"

"No back talk you little shit, now less crowing and more howing!"

"Aye sir, howing right away!"

"You heard the man, shut up and keep working." Bolt didn't even glance up from where he was howing as he said this "And for once, it's not because I'm sick of listening to your whining. I mean it's part of it, but still."

"Right right. Hey Mr Lucky, do you really work with these heavy tools every day? I feel like I'm about to break my back."

"That means you're one with the tool." Lucky told him "The weight from the tool comes from the heaviness of your heart and soul, you got it?!"

"Yeah we got it."

"We both do." Bolt glanced over at Happy "Well it's official, this guy is a fucking lunatic even when he's working."

"Take it easy, he'd blow a gasket if he heard either of us say that, so you should probably watch your fish hole."

"YOU'VE GOT THAT RIGHT YOU LITTLE BASTARDS!"

"Sorry sir, we're getting back to work now!"

"And you're doing it wrong, a real man would do it like this!" he started charging across the field and plowing as he went "Now do you see? You've gotta put your backs into it!"

"...The deja vu is strong with this one?" Bolt received an odd look from Happy "Oh come on, the Star Wars references have been going strong since the Nirvana incident."

"There, now that's how you plow a field, you see?!"

"I see what I've seen with you since we got here."

"Now quit yacking and gawking!"

"And he already forgot he told us to watch him, this dude has almost as many issues as I do, and that's saying something."

"Hey take it easy." Happy told him "You know he'll get mad if he'll hear you, I think we should both keep our traps shut."

"Yeah but here's the difference, I'm not scared of him."

"HEY!" Lucky promptly rounded on the two of them "Did the two of you already forget that I could hear both of you?!"

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Meanwhile, with the females…

Marl made her way out of the house and found Carla hard at work on some fruit "My my, it looks to me like you're quite skilled at this."

"It's actually quite simple." Carla told her "And I'm all done for that matter."

"Thank you for the help with this dear."

"HEY!" Lucky on the other hand, was still yelling at Bolt and Happy in the distance "I thought I told the two of you to pick up the pace! No I don't wanna hear any whining from you two, if you have the energy to whine then you have the energy to work!"

"Well it seems the three of them are getting along very well. Hey listen boys, why don't you strong men take a breather from it for a little while? We made some cold drinks for you."

"Hm? Alright fine, if the wife says to take a break then we might as well."

"Good enough for me." Bolt tried to make a beeline for the house, only to be grabbed by the tail by Lucky.

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Meanwhile, with the Edolas Fairy Tail…

Edo-Natsu was cruising through the rocky terrain of Edolas, only to screech to a halt when he found Edo-Noah hitchhiking a short distance ahead of him "Hey man, you need a ride or are you gonna star in Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy?"

"Hey I only made that mistake once, now drop it before I put this scythe here where the sun doesn't shine." Edo-Noah told him flatly "At least I know I can count on you, whether it be saying or doing something stupid or getting the job done. Now give me a ride, we've got a lot of work to do." he promptly hopped into the magic mobile, and they took off.

"I did what you told me, I dropped the lot of them in the backyard of the Royal City, and from what I could tell they sounded pretty serious about taking on the Royal Army."

"What about Mira?"

"She decided to stick with them, apparently she's really dead set on helping them."

"Yeah, not really surprising. It's not like we could blame her for it either."

"No shit. You think we should've already told her that the rest of us know her little secret?"

"She already knows that I know, as well as certain someone else."

"Figures."

"As for letting her know we all know, I think if anyone were going to do that, then the best people for it would be Elfman and Lisanna."

"Fair enough I guess. Our Lisanna is gonna be devastated when she finds out."

"I know, but if there's anyone that should be there for her, it would have to be you."

"Someone's gotta be, no one should have to lose their sister like that."

"Too true."

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About an hour passed, and the break had come to an end.

By this point, Happy had been stuck with cleaning the roof of the house "I'm grateful the old timer is letting us hide here, but does he have to work me like a dog the entire time?"

"You know we could take our chances with the Ichiya reject." Bolt poked his head out of the chimney and let out a smokey cough "As far as I'm concerned, I think we've had enough of them to last for a lifetime."

"No arguments here. Do you think he can hear us from up here?"

"Probably, so we'd better get to work before he starts screaming in my ear again."

"But this isn't the time for us to be doing chores like this, not when are friends are in trouble. We need to find a way to get to them." but then Happy nearly slipped off, only to be caught by the tail by Bolt.

"Mr Personality also mentioned something about having to scrub the toilet by hand. And apparently he wants us to spend an hour prepping some firewood for him."

"How is it you're so good at this stuff?"

"I travelled on the road with Luke for a year and a half when he was off training, what did you think I just spent the entire time riding around on his shoulder?"

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Meanwhile, inside…

Marl looked up from what she was doing to see Carla staring sadly out the window "You know I haven't seen you smile this whole time, I'm sure you'd be able to lighten up the entire room. Are things really so bad you can't crack a smile?"

Carla let out a sigh "I'm just not in the mood to smile, that's all."

"It sounds like something painful must have happened to you. I know things might seem bad now, but you'll smile again soon enough."

"I doubt it."

"You may say that now, but believe me when I tell you that it will happen."

'You say that, but you didn't see how the others looked at me. The hurt and the betrayal they were showing. Noah hadn't trusted me this entire time, and even now I can't blame him for that in the slightest.'

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Meanwhile, back outside…

Happy let out a sigh as he kept chopping wood "Now that's more like it."

"Sure you say that for now, but quit stopping every ten seconds or there's no way in hell you're gonna catch up." Bolt jerked a thumb over at his pile.

"What the- How did you do it so fast? You know what fine, I'll show you I can do it. You're not going to win this one!"

"Put your money where your mouth is cat!" they started competing with each other and chopping wood like a bunch of lunatics "Theres' no way in hellyou're gonna beat me you fish mongering little son of a bitch!"

"We'll see about that you stoned lunatic!"

"I haven't had one of those brownies since we got here!" they kept doing it away like a pack of lunatics.

"Hey I'm down to one more!"

"Yeah that makes two of us!" they both struck down on the stump, only to both scream in agony at the recoil.

"OW!" but then Happy suddenly burst out laughing.

"Why the hell are you laughing?"

"I don't know!"

"You two are a couple of pieces of work." Lucky noted dryly from where he was standing next to a finished pile "Well I suppose that's enough firewood for one day, you little bastards got off pretty easy."

"Good thing too, I'm exhausted and I smell like a three day old salmon."

"THEN TAKE A BATH!"

"I'm going I'm going I'm going!"

"Don't say it, DO IT!"

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Meanwhile, inside…

Carla was about the same as before, still brooding over her drink 'How did everything go so wrong? Wendy was the one who brought me into the Cait Shelter guild. I never expected to be friends with her, and yet it still happened. I even became extremely protective of her, even serving as a sort of mother figure to her, perhaps in some sort of effort to fill a void left by her actual mother, that Sky dragon Grandeeny. All I wanted from that point on was to protect her, but now I've thrown her into the clutches of the enemy. What have I done?'

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About 2 hours went by.

Bolt made his way out onto the porch and found Happy and Carla sitting there "You know that bath would feel a lot better if you hadn't clogged up the drain with what I seriously hope was blue fur."

Carla ignored this, still concentrating on her brooding "You were right Noah, I ended up betraying her."

'And she's brooding, just great.'

This was when Marl came up to them "You boys both did some good work out there, it feels great to relax after a hard day's work and a long bath doesn't it?"

"I know that feeling all too well, travelling on the road for about a year will do that to you after awhile."

"I see. So tell me Bolt, Happy and Carla, the three of you aren't from here, so were you hatched in Earth Land by any chance, and were you given your names by someone from there?"

"Yeah that's right. I got mine from my friend Luke, Happy got his from Natsu, and Carla got hers from Wendy."

"Is that so?"

"Yeah we did." then Happy suddenly bolted to his feet "But now they're being held captive in the Royal City below "We've gotta save them, because it's our fault they're there in the first place."

"So you intend to rescue the humans then do you?"

"They're calling us Fallens for a reason, and apparently caring about humans is pretty foreign to Exceeds. Is it bad that I want to hear one of them go on about the evils of "nigen" at some point while we're here?" ah, the joys of Dragon Ball references.

"I don't think such a thing is bad at all, in fact I think it's wonderful. If you consider someone to be a friend then it shouldn't matter if they're humans or Exceeds, after all we may look different on the outside, but inside our hearts are all the same shape."

"I'm afraid I don't follow your logic." Carla told her.

"Well what I'm trying to say is that love is the same no matter who or what you are."

"I see. I only wish that would apply to me as well. Regardless of the shape of my heart or the love it may have to give, it's not under my control. Even now, I can't be sure that if the words coming out of my mouth are actually mine, or if they're part of someone else's plan."

"Don't be like that!" Happy suddenly rounded on her "I know for a fact that those are your own words Carla, I know you're too strong to let someone control you! And I know our hearts want the same thing, and that's to defeat the Royal Army and save our friends together!"

"Do you really think we can?"

"I know we can!"

"He's right you know." Marl gave a small smile "I know things may seem a little bit confusing for you right now, but you can't give up all hope. After all, you have a pair of wonderful knights that will be at your side every step of the journey."

'Wait a second, is she talking about me and Bolt?'

"I understand you may feel like you lost your heart, but personally I think you found it a long time ago. Now all you have to do is learn to embrace it, believe in it, and trust the feelings of love in your heart."

"Oh… I see…" that was enough for Carla to give off a small smile.

"There you go, a wonderful smile just waiting to come out. I'm glad that I got the chance to see it for myself."

"You know Ms Marl, you really surprise me."

"What makes you say that?"

"Because all of the other Exceeds the three of us have met so far all think of themselves to be some sort of Celestial beings, and their queen is a goddess. They even claimed that the humans are inferior to them." this caused her smile to fade.

"Ah yes, I see. To be completely honest, I used to believe in the same thing, but then one day our "beloved queen" came and took our children away from us. 100 children still in their eggs were taken from their homes, they gave us no warning, and they simply told us that we had to accept this. The queen had chosen them for the task of eliminating the Dragon Slayers, and they were sent to Earth Land against our wishes. We opposed the cruelty of this project, and as a result we were exiled. We never even got to see the faces of our children. Everything changed after that, and we realized the lie that we had been subjected to. She was far from a god, and the rest of us were certainly far from being angels. We were just parents. It was once we realized this that the lines between humans and Exceeds all but vanished for us. It didn't matter anymore. My husband may be opinionated at times, but he feels the same way."

"HEY!" that was when Lucky joined the conversation "Dammit woman, quit wasting time yapping about nonsense with these kids! How the hell long are they planning to stay here anyway?!"

"Calm down dear."

"Like hell I will! I'm sick of those looks on their faces, don't they realize they're lucky to be alive right now?!" he rounded on them "Do you?! Now grow a pair, I want you lot out of my house and I want you out NOW!"

"Oh but dear, this is much too sudden."

"Forget it, the lunatic's got a point." Bolt pulled himself to his feet "We've got a lot of work to do down there and not a lot of time, and at the top of the list is making sure that our friends don't do anything stupid and get themselves killed."

"At least one of you finally gets it." Lucky let out a scoff "Scaredy cats can't get a damn thing done, I swear the stupid kids these days need it spelled out for them."

"I might get high as an elephant's eye way more often than I should, but I've got brains to counterbalance it. Come on you guys, let's get moving." Bolt grabbed Happy and Carla by the tails, then gave a salute to the others in a comical fashion "Thanks for the hand guys, now we've got some shit to wreck."

"Make sure you don't come back you little shits!"

"I don't intend to."

"Make sure the lot of you take care of each other." Marl told them.

"Duly noted." he took off running and holding the others by their tails.

Happy looked up at the others "You know guys, somehow I feel like we were destined to meet the two of them today."

"You wanna elaborate on that?"

"I mean when we first came to Edolas, there were a lot of things that I wasn't really sure about, and I felt like I was lost."

"I'm pretty sure we all felt that way, but now the path is all too clear for us." Bolt threw them over the edge of the floating island as he sprouted his wings and took off in the lead "No more running from our past, no more standing by to watch it burn, we woke up to a life collapsed and we're carrying the weight of the world!"

"Is that a reference?"

"Quoting a kickass song I found on the internet actually. But putting that aside, we've gotta fly forward and stand by our friends to the bitter end. I bet Luke is gonna flip when he hears about all of this."

Carla was more in thought to herself 'The three of us are Exceeds, the only race in Edolas that's born with magic power coursing through our veins, yet the only reason we couldn't use our magic before was because we lost our sense of who we were.' her wings suddenly sprouted into life, with Happy's following soon after 'Now we know for a fact that being Exceeds doesn't define who or what we really are, our hearts are telling us of the path we have to follow, and our wings will take us there! Let's get moving you two, we can't keep the others waiting any longer than we have to!"

"Right!"

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Lucky and Marl on the other hand, could only watch them go, both of them crying as they recalled the day their egg was taken from them, but they seemed content knowing that their child grew up to be a kind child with compassion for others.

Let's face it, we all know that Happy is their son.

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Meanwhile, back in Earth Land…

Porlyusica stood outside her home and scowled at the empty desert that was left behind where the city of Magnolia, along with a good chunk of the East Forest, once stood "Humans and their ridiculous greed, it's unbelievable how much damage they're able to cause. At least they didn't touch my home with that wretched spell of theirs, there's no way in hell I'm letting them make me miss another Game of Thrones marathon." she made her way back inside, where she quickly noticed a somewhat heavily-bandaged Mystogan dressing himself "You're planning on going back there now aren't you?"

"I'm sure you mean that in a rhetorical sense." Mystogan promptly finished redressing himself in his usual attire, minus the mask that covered his face "Besides, I'm already feeling much better, thanks to you."

"You were lucky that you hadn't died of exhaustion right then and there, and the fact that you were wandering around like a maniac didn't help."

"I was able to get to Luke and Gajeel."

"And I was able to get to you before you died of exhaustion. How would you even get there to begin with?"

"I can already sense other Anima portals, and if I can get to them then I can get back to Edolas before it's too late. You know you could come with me." he was met with a sigh.

"I've been here far longer than I've been there. If you met that young assistant from decades ago, then maybe, but you won't get that sort of reception from this old healer. I don't need or want to return to a world where idiots fight over every last scrap of magic that still remains, until the day comes when it doesn't."

"I understand. If you're content here, then I have no right to stand in your way."

"Good, now get out. You know how I feel about humans."

"I'm well aware. Thank you for everything, and goodbye." and with that, Mystogan took his leave, his gaze set on his goal 'Please just hold on everyone, I'm on my way. I'll be there as soon as I can.'

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Meanwhile, back in Edolas…

A meeting was well underway between the king of Edolas and the members of his court, as well as the various captains and his chief of staff, the only one absent being a certain Thunderer of the 2nd Magic Warfare Unit.

Byro was quick to inform the group that the wizards from Earth Land had magic power stored within their very bodies, similar to the Exceeds but greater. Upon hearing this, Faust contradicted him and informed the group that Shagotte, the queen of the Exceeds had ordered that both Lucy and Lisanna were to be executed.

Hughes voiced his opinion of it being a waste of time, but Byro informed him that with their current abilities, they were still unable to extract magic power from humans, but they were able to extract the magic power from the Dragon Slayers, due to them being more of a human amalgam. He went on to say that if they extracted the magic power from within the Dragon Slayers, they would gain an infinite amount of magic power, and hearing this earned him cheers from Hughes and Coco.

As for Faust, he ordered Byro to start the extraction process with the Dragon Slayers and the giant lacrima immediately, and on that note, the captains all left, with the exception of one.

That exception was Panther Lily, who tried to speak with Faust in regards to the recent bolstering of military armaments, but stopped and took his leave after seeing Faust's glare growing more unsettling than usual.

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Meanwhile, with the non-Dragon Slayer prisoners…

Lisanna and the others were still bound by their silk bondings, and now they were brooding over a certain revelation that was made to them "It's still hard to believe it, the fact that Happy and the others are really Exceeds."

"Tell me about it." Mira let out a scoff "Exceeds here are basically the equivalent of angels, and their queen is supposed to be some kind of goddess that dictates over all this world and all of the people in it."

"But that's crazy!" Lucy protested "How the hell could anyone choose to live like this?!"

"The hell if I know. People at the guild don't really think about the Exceeds too much, having to survive the Royal Army is exhausting enough for us as it is."

"Oh trust me, I know the feeling." this was when a new voice got their attention "I've hated having to hunt the Fairies down since I started this gig."

Mira looked up and her gaze hardened in a mix of fear and anger "The Thunderer."

Sure enough, Luke Tempesta stood before the three of them and opened the door to their cell as he stared down at Lucy and Lisanna, his expression unreadable "You seem quite well informed of this world, I can see you've done your research. Impressive."

"What about the others, are they okay?" asked Lucy.

"The Dragon Slayers are fine, at least for the time being."

"I see. That's kind of a relief."

"You do realize that I'm not your version of Luke right? The situation you're in right now isn't exactly worth envying."

"Yeah, I've gotta admit you do have a point in that regard. It's just that you and sound look so much like the version of Luke that I know, so I guess I end up automatically letting my guard down whenever I see that face."

"Is that right? Curiosity getting the better of me, what's that version of me like?"

"Well he's been a member of Fairy Tail for years, and frankly he's the one who brought me into the guild in the first place. He's kind, strong and gentle and cares about protecting Fairy Tail and all of the people in it above all else."

"Is that a fact?"

"He's powerful, cool and collected too, and frankly his taste in fashion is a little bit questionable, frankly because of those red cowboy boots."

"You mean like the ones I'm wearing right now?" he pointed down to show that he was in fact wearing a set of red cowboy boots.

"And it's a universal trait with you. Anyway, everyone in the guild trusts you with their lives without a second thought, especially Cana."

"...I see." Thunderer lowered his head slightly, his bangs covering his eyes "Sounds like he's living quite the ideal life isn't he?"

"Don't bother trying to appeal to him." Mira called Lucy off, her tone flat "This guy isn't a damn thing like the version of Luke you're familiar with. He's evil to the core."

"So one dimensional in your beliefs, you haven't changed a bit have you Mira? For the record, saying I'm evil is pretty relative, but I think it's safe to say that whether or not the Fairy Tail of our world lives or dies depends on the actions I take. Anyway come on, let's just get this over with." he shoved the three of them aside and used his axe to carve a massive hole in the back wall of the cell "I've heard enough from you three, obviously I'm not the version of Luke you're familiar with."

"Please just listen!" Lucy pleaded "The three of us aren't your enemies, all I'm trying to do here is save the lives of my friends! Luke I get that you're not the same person, but I also know that you have a heart! Someone like you could never be the kind of person who laughs at the sight of someone else suffering-" she was cut off by the sight of Tempesta holding the blade of his axe towards her throat.

"Like I said, I've heard enough already."

"How could you go out of your way to kill people and laugh about it? The Luke that I know is kind and gentle and strong of heart, he would never dream of hurting someone so defenseless right before his eyes."

"And you think I enjoy this? That shows how little you truly understand. I don't enjoy watching others write in agony, I don't enjoy spilling blood, I hate everything about the life I've been living for the past two years. But I don't have a choice, and if either of you knew the slightest thing about me or my life, then you would know why. But you don't. I've said it once already and I'll say it again, I'm now more powerful than even the king of Edolas himself."

Mira's head snapped up at what he said 'He said it again, more powerful than even the king himself? Either he's out of his mind, or…'

"Now you know, what you choose to do with that information is up to you. At least you can understand and appreciate having a choice in what you do, at least once your little rescue party shows up." he promptly took a big step backwards, and with a quick surge of electricity from his weapon, he destroyed the cell they were standing in, sending the three of them falling towards their supposed death 'As I said, what they do with that is up to them…' he looked down at the locket around his neck and opened it 'Knowing that everything I do is to keep you safe is the only thing that keeps me going anymore… If only you knew how much I still love you, and how that love has never faded, even after all this time.'

"Hey whassaa, did someone call for a rescue team?!" that was when Bolt and the others soared down past Thunderer in order to grab Lucy and the others "Hang tight ladies, the cavalry is here to make one hell of an entrance!"

'The Exceeds that were with them in the cavern, I guess they decided to become Fallens. Huh, I guess you do learn something new every day. And one of them just slammed into the side of the building.'

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"Hang tight, the cavalry is here!" Bolt grabbed onto Lucy, with Carla grabbing Mira and Happy recovering in time "Not too shabby of a rescue huh?"

"No arguments here, thanks for that." Lucy breathed a sigh "But wait a second, how come your wings are working again?"

"I'm pretty sure it was a mix of conviction and plot convenience, though one of us took some time to get the hang of flying again." the group flew back up towards what used to be their prison cell.

Tempesta calmly met Carla's firm gaze as he set his weapon down on the ground "I was under the impression the queen gave the order for these three to be executed."

"That was initially the case, but the order has been rescinded." Carla told him firmly.

"As much as I feel I should believe that considering you're an Exceed, not even you have the proper authority to terminate an order given by the queen herself."

"Then it's clear to me you don't know your place, bow down and you may be forgiven for your foolishness. It just so happens that you're in the presense of greatness, of an Exceed of the royal bloodline. I happen to be the eldest daughter of Queen Shagotte, but you may refer to me as the divine princess Carla of Extalia."

"...I see." Tempesta promptly got down on one knee "I offer my most humble apologies your grace, and I hope you will accept them."

"It is accepted, this time. Tell me, where are the three Dragon Slayers being held at this very moment?"

"They're being held in the basement of the West tower."

"I command you to release them at once."

"As much as I would like to I can't, the fact is that I don't have the authority to do so."

"I don't intend to accept any excuses."

"I expected as much, but-"

"Luke stop, the three of them are Fallen Exceeds!" this was when Panther Lily came charging onto the scene with a number of soldiers following him "They've been officially banished from the kingdom of Extalia!"

"Well that went to hell pretty fast." Bolt noted dryly "I don't know who Tigger's evil uncle is over there, but holy fuck he is Android 16 levels of huge!"

"Spare me your various anime references, we need to get out of here now." Carla told the group flatly.

"What the hell, I thought you were some kind of princess!" and yet the group took the opportunity to retreat regardless.

Tempesta pulled himself back to his feet and watched them go, his gaze hardening 'Looks like they haven't even come close to losing all of the fight they had in them.'

"Attention all soldiers, there are three Fallen Exceeds that are currently escaping with three prisoners of the court! The Fallen are blue, white and gold and they must be terminated with extreme prejudice!"

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Needless to say, now the group was on the run.

Lucy looked up at Carla and gave a small smile "We really owe you one, you really saved us back there."

"I believed you would be more angry." Carla noted.

"Why's that?"

"Because we were the ones that resulted in you getting captured in the first place."

"Well yeah, but you did make up for it by rescuing me. Maybe it would be a different story if you hadn't come back to get me, but we've got bigger things to worry about so let's forget about that for now. I'm still shocked to hear about the fact that you're a princess of all things in this world."

"I believed it was rather obvious that was just a bluff."

"...Oh my shit." Bolt shot her a look.

"Care to explain the look you're giving in my direction Bolt?"

"Because that's totally something I would do, well either that or rip their faces off. I guess that means I'm rubbing off on you. Not to mention you called me by name, so that's a first."

"...I suppose it is. Regardless of that, Lucy's right when she says that we need to focus on the task at hand."

"Yeah that's true, we've gotta rescue the others before Natsu says or does something that gets them killed."

"True enough, you heard Tempesta say that they're being held in the West Tower."

"Right. Just a heads up though, I doubt Noah will be as forgiving."

"I'll be sure to keep that in mind. We're coming up on the West Tower now."

"...Okay what the hell is that noise?" they looked back to see what the noise was.

As it turns out, it was Nichiya leading a huge army of Exceeds after them "You would be wise to surrender now Fallens, escaping is futile, meow!"

"And it's a metric fuckton of flying cats led by my worst nightmare. Any ideas?"

"We're too exposed staying in the air like this, we should get to the ground." Carla looked down to see a number of soldiers from the Royal Army "Actually nevermind, the ground might actually be worse at the moment."

"New plan, Lucy, Lisanna, can either of you use your magic power right now?"

"Unfortunately no, I think this sticky stuff is blocking my power." Lucy told him.

"Of course it is, this just keeps getting better."

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Faust observed the Exceed army entering the Royal City and was informed by Coco about their pursuit of the Fallens, and as such he decided to take drastic action: the activation of what was referred to as Code ETD.

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Tempesta's head snapped up at the sound of hunting horns echoing throughout the city, as well as the sight of several devices being assembled across the city rooftops, and a cold sweat dripped down the side of his head 'That old lunatic is actually going through with using Code ETD, is he out of his mind? This is the last line of defense in our homeland security arsenal, and he went to it without a second thought.'

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Bolt glanced over at Carla "Okay now you're sweating like a donkey in the middle of August, you wanna elaborate on what the hell Code ETD is?"

"I'll explain it later, for now we have to get inside immediately." Carla promptly made a dive into a large window, with the others following her lead.

"CODE ETD INITIATE!" on this command, the cannon devices were fired, unleashing a series of simultaenous blue flashes of light… right towards Nichiya and his men.

'What are they doing, are they out of their minds?!'

Nichiya and the rest of his Exceed guards could only cry out in agony as they were caught in the light in question, leaving them unable to escape "How dare you take up arms against the great Exceeds you lowly humans!"

"Why would they fire on them like that?"

Lucy was quick to voice what they were all thinking "Okay, does someone wanna elaborate on what the hell is going on here? I thought the people in Edolas practically worshipped the Exceeds like gods, so does that make this some kind of rebellion?"

"I'm not entirely sure about that, but I do believe it would be wise of us to use the confusion to our advantage. This may be our only chance to rescue Wendy and the others."

"No arguments here, let's get moving!" and so they quickly took off towards their destination, the West tower.

Unfortunately, Thunderer, or Tempesta as he will now be called, saw them leave "So the Fallens are escaping with the prisoners. Call for more defences and send them to the West tower, I'm heading over there myself!" and so he promptly bolted.

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"You will pay dearly for this you human wretches, your daring to defy the Queen is going to cost you your lives! MEOW!" that was all Nichiya could say before he and the rest of his men were all transformed into one gigantic cat-shaped lacrima, leaving it to fall to the ground with a massive thud, which was met with mixed results and lots of muttering.

"Holy crap, they turned the Exceeds into a lacrima!"

"This is bad, this is seriously bad!"

"What the hell was the king thinking, is he trying to get all of us killed?!"

"Hear me my soldiers when I say, there are no gods in this world!" this was when Faust got their attention from his place on his balcony "We humans have suffered with scarcity while the wretched Exceeds flaunted their limitless abundance, they horded their wealth of magic power while we were forced to beg for scraps! The time has come for us to grab what has been kept at arms length for all these years, for us to claim our rightful prize which we have been denied for so long! As of this moment, the era of begging and subservience of humans has at last come to an end! We must fight for the future of humanity, we must rebuild our kingdom on the foundation of limitless magic power for all humankind, we must rise up and take what belongs to us! That is why I am initiating Code ETD: Exceed Total Destruction! These so called angels shall met their extinction by our hand!" he was met with various cheers from almost all of the nameless soldiers.

Even Hughes and Sugarboy seemed rather pleased by this turn of events "I've gotta admit, things just took one hell of an interesting turn for us. Then again, I guess it was bound to happen sooner or later."

Panther Lily on the other hand, he let out a low growl at what he heard 'Now it makes sense, so this is the reason why we had been building up our military.'

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Faust seemed to be quite confident with his intentions, even though Coco was panicking over what they had done, thinking that the queen will attack and that the forces of the Exceeds would be exceedingly greater than theirs. However, Faust was quick to reassure her, claiming that it was the reason why they had the Dragon Slayers.

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Meanwhile, with the Dragon Slayers…

By this point, Byro was ready to begin extracting the magic power from Noah and the others, having bound them with chains "Now I should warn you, this may tickle a little bit. But you shouldn't fret, your sacrifices will be of great service to our kingdom."

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Meanwhile, with the rescue party…

Mira and the others, having made it to the West tower, descended down a deep spiralling staircase as fast as they could "Things are getting worse by the minute, I never would've guessed that the people of this world were so close to starting a war with the Exceeds."

"What they choose to do is none of our concern." Carla told her flatly "The fact is that we have no stake in the matter, they can wipe each other out of they like."

"Sounds pretty hardcore."

"Fitting for the circumstances." they continued onwards, only to be stopped in their tracks by a sudden surge of electricity.

As it turns out, not really surprising, that surge came from Tempesta standing before them with a number of Royal soldiers "I'm afraid I can't let you go any further."

"Oh come on!" Lucy let out a groan "You're serious, I thought you had more important things to do than bother with us!"

"In my line of work, I honestly can't afford to not do what's in the best interest of the king and his agenda. I don't expect you to understand." Tempesta unleashed another surge of electricity from his axe that sent them flying back, though it didn't do much to hurt them "You took a direct hit from my lightning magic and you're still conscious, you Earth Land wizards are more resilient than I had anticipated. You see, my orders were given explicitely by the chief of staff of the Royal Army, Byro. You know, the short bald one that sounds like he's got something stuck in his throat. I'm bound to him, as much as I hate to admit it, and he ordered that I drag your corpses to him. I wish you could understand, I really do, especially you Mira, but I don't have a choice." he raised his axe and prepared another blast, when…

"Back the hell up asshole!" Bolt suddenly charged at Tempesta and slammed him into a wall, causing the axe to blow a hole in the floor.

Happy was sent falling with the others, his mind drifting as he barely managed to cling to consciousness 'I'm sorry Natsu, I really tried… I really thought for sure that this time, I would be able to save you… but I'm too weak, and now it's all over for me… All the time we spent together, the two of us fighting against the odds… Natsu never gave up no matter what he was faced against, and he wouldn't this time either…'

"Happy hold on!" Lisanna took him into her arms as they were caught by Carla, stopping them from falling to their inevitable deaths.

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The magic extraction process was well underway, and the screams echoed throughout the halls of the dungeon.

Byro was sucking the magic power out of Noah and the others, causing two of them to scream in agony as the process continued "What impressive specimens the three of you are proving yourselves to be, the magic power you all possess is truly something special."

"Yeah…?" Noah slowly raised his head and shot a malicious smirk at Byro "Is that all you can dish out you hideous little troll?"

"I can see you're the strongest of the three of you, and yet you're also quite the glutton for punishment aren't you?"

"I faced people and monsters in my world that scare me more than you on almost a daily basis, and no I'm not exaggerating."

"Dude this is fucking crazy…" Natsu spat out some blood "You're gonna get yourself killed at this rate!"

"Spare me your pity Salamander, this is nothing." Noah turned to face Natsu and Wendy, his expression deadly serious "Think about it, there's no way in hell Thunderclap would give up in a situation like this, so why the hell should we? We're all going to make it out of this, so don't you dare give up on me now, you got it?"

"Noah… yeah, you're right…" Wendy gave him a weak smile "I'm sure our friends will come to help us any minute now. I won't give up, I promise."

"That's what I'm talking about kid."

"Is that so?" Byro let out a disgusting chuckle "So none of the three of you are willing to face reality and admit when you are defeated? Is this stubborn bull-headedness a trait that is shared among Dragon Slayers?"

"How about you do both of our worlds a favor and shut the fuck up?" Noah was met with a pissed off glare "Seriously dude, with a voice like that how has someone not murdered you in your sleep by now? How about this, if you have to talk then what do you say you just kill us first then?"

"You little- I'll take great joy in wiping that smirk from your face."

"You can try, but you won't have any luck." Noah then started gritting his teeth and growling from the pain as the extraction process continued, but he refused to scream.

"Noah no!" Wendy and Natsu looked on in horror.

"Don't give me any pity you too, and don't let him break your spirit or this old piece of shit ends up winning!"

"I… Alright, I promise I won't…"

"Good!"

"Sounds like a challenge to me." Byro gave a sinister smirk.

"Don't you fucking dare, if you don't drain every last drop of power from me I'll break free of these chains and rip you apart like something out of the Walking Dead!"

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By now, the group was forced to hide in an old storage room.

"Well this could've gone a hell of a lot better." Mira grumbled "Now we're stuck in here like a bunch of rats, and wherever they have the Dragon Slayers they probably have a fuckton of soldiers guarding them too."

"Which means we wouldn't be able to get anywhere near it…" Lucy hung her head "We were coming so close, and yet…"

"Don't go quitting on me yet." Bolt pulled himself to his feet and spat out some white substance that looked like blood "We owe it to the others to keep on fighting until we don't have anything left in us. Luke and Natsu, they sure as hell wouldn't give up, and there's no way in hell I will either. Even if it seems impossible to win now, we'll find a way sooner or later. We don't even deserve to survive if we don't honor his ideals and his spirit."

"But do you have any idea what we should do?"

"Let's see here…" Bolt looked up at a number of sacks in the corner of the room, and he gave a smirk "I think I have an idea."

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About 5 minutes later…

"Hey what the hell is that?" a few Royal Soldiers glanced over to see something coming at them from the distance.

"How do you like me now mother fuckers?!" Bolt came charging towards them at full speed with a sack in hand.

"It's one of the Fallen Exceeds, get ready men!"

"It's you guys who need to get ready for this, Poison Mist Attack!" he hurled the bag forward and it spilled white stuff all throughout the tunnel.

"Poison mist, try not to breath it in!" but then logic proceeded to kick in "Wait a second this isn't poison, it's only flour! Dammit he's making a break for it, don't let him get away!" and so the men chased after him.

"Looks like his plan worked." Lucy and the others promptly tried to make a beeline, only to be sent tumbling backwards by a blast of lightning.

Not at all surprising anymore, that came from Tempesta standing before them "Creating a diversion to draw away our forces by using your surroundings to your advantage. On one hand it's a predictable strategy, but at the same time it's somewhat commendable."

"No…" but then Lisanna and the others heard screaming coming from another room "That sounds like Natsu and the others, what are you doing to them?"

"In order for us to execute Code ETD properly, the proper amount of magic power is considered crucial, so to this end the king ordered his chief of staff Byro to extract the magic power from within the Dragon Slayers."

"Please stop this I'm begging you, you're going to kill them!"

"I don't cherish the idea of blood on my hands, but the fact is that it's out of my hands in those of the troll doll."

"We've captured the fallen sir." the other soldiers came back with an unconscious Bolt and threw him on the ground.

"Good work. And just like that, I'm afraid that whatever luck you've had has officially reached the end of its usefulness."

"You just keep thinking that…" Bolt spat out some blood and pulled himself to his feet, then dragged himself in front of the others, with Happy doing the same "Forget it… There's no way I'm letting you hurt them… Not while I'm still breathing… You'd have to kill me before I let anything happen to them!"

"Is that so?"

"And that goes for me too!" Happy wiped away his tears and stood firm.

"...I see." with a deep breath, Tempesta slowly raised his axe "Then all I can do is let you both die with honor." he prepared to bring down the blade of his axe, when…

"Lightning Dragon ROAR!" a suddenly powerful blast of electricity ripped through the walls of the tunnel, leaving several soldiers severely scorched.

"What's going on?"

"You know I never thought the day would come that I would be telling myself off, but I thought that you of all people would know better than to hurt members of Fairy Tail while there's still life in me." a voice spoke "But since I have to, I'll give you the spiel. You've made a big mistake by hurting my friends. Anyone who dares to hurt the people that I've sworn to protect won't be getting any mercy from me."

Bolt slowly looked up and his eyes widened at the sound of the voice "Luke?"

Sure enough, the smoke cleared to reveal Luke Drako in all of his glory, as well as some unexpected reinforcements in the form of Elfman Strauss and Cana Alberona "Hey guys, sorry I took so long getting here but I had to pick up some reinforcements." of course his appearance, along with those of his reinforcements, was met with lots of muttering from the soldiers.

"No way, it can't be!"

"I don't believe it, he looks just like him!"

"Captain Tempesta?"

"Wait a second, isn't that Elfman and Cana from Fairy Tail? Wow, I don't think she's ever showed that much skin before."

"No you idiots those aren't them, they're wizards from Earth Land!"

"And you so called men have a lot of explaining to do." Elfman stepped forward, both of his arms glowing with magic energy "Where the hell are our friends that your king turned into a giant lacrima? Start talking before I show you the fury of a real man! Beast Arm: Dual Iron Bull!" he coated both of his arms in iron and smashed them to the ground Hulk style, sending a good number of the soldiers flying.

"Magic Card: Summoned Lightning!" Cana went next and bombarded the soldiers with a blast of lightning that left several of them incapacitated, only to see Tempesta blitzing across the walls towards them out of the corner of her eye 'Dammit, he's fast!'

"Get down!" Luke suddenly pushed both Cana and Elfman to the ground and quickly took action as he blocked Tempesta's axe using his sword, their clash unleashing a powerful surge of lightning magic "I guess this takes the phrase "You're your own worst enemy" to a whole other level."

"That's it, you asked for it!" a voice echoed throughout the dungeon "You guys are in big trouble now, when I get my hands on you I'll tear you to shreds, I'll beat the crap out of every last one of you!"

"Sound familiar to you guys?"

"Looks like we know where Natsu ended up." Cana noted dryly "We can't be too far from here, and if I had to guess then I'd say that Wendy was with him."

"And expect a certain someone else with them too. You guys go on ahead and rescue them, I can handle this myself. I'll join up with you as soon as I can."

"Right, do it like a real man and then catch up with this." Elfman promptly helped Lisanna to her feet "You okay Lisanna, can you stand on your own?"

"Yeah big brother, I'm fine." Lisanna assured him, followed by him using his Beast Arms to free her of her bindings "But I don't get it, where did you guys come from?"

"I'll give you all the details on that later, for now we've gotta get moving." and so the two of them left, with Cana, Lucy and the three Exceeds following them in hot pursuit, their departure leaving Luke to deal with his counterpart alone.

Tempesta's gaze hardened as he broke off from their clash "Of all the ways I saw this going, having to face off against myself was not something I expected."

"I've gotta admit, the feeling is all kinds of screwed up." Luke noted flatly "Does that mean we're supposed to introduce ourselves?"

"I guess. My name is Luke Tempesta, former wizard of Fairy Tail and currently the captain of the second Magic Warfare Unit of the Royal Army of Edolas."

"My name is Luke Drako, son of the lightning dragon Kaminari and current S-class wizard of the Fairy Tail guild from Earth Land."

"I've heard a lot of good things about your personality, but now I want to see how you can handle yourself in a fight." Tempesta's axe suddenly morphed into a small dagger "Now then, let's see if you can handle this. Thunder Blitz!" he blitzed forward at high speeds.

Luke quickly found himself forced on the defensive as he struggled to block the attacks that were being hurled at him "So that's it, you can morph your weapon at will to match the style of combat you're using, and in this case you're compressing the size of your weapon so it doesn't limit your movement speed. Two can play at that game. Thunder Drive!" he activated his Thunder Drive and blitzed across the tunnel with Tempesta, the two of them clashing their blades together faster than the eye could see.

'That glow surrounded his body, and all of a sudden he's able to keep up with me like it's second nature to him. One thing is for sure, this guy is a pro. You've been able to keep up with me and my trusty Shatterstorm so far, but let's see you keep up with my Storm Force!" Tempesta then proceeded to morph his dagger into a large trident that unleashed a massive blast of wind and promptly sent Luke crashing through a series of walls behind him.

'Is this some kind of Requip? No, somehow he's able to alter the form of that weapon whenever he wants.'

"And now, Thunder Burst!" Tempesta morphed Shatterstorm back into an axe and unleashed a blast of lightning upon Luke, engulfing him in the explosion that followed.

When the smoke cleared, it was revealed that Luke was consuming the lightning from the attack, his magic power surging even more potently as a result "I'm guessing you're wondering how I saved myself from that."

"A little bit of context never hurt anybody."

"I don't expect anyone from Edolas to know this, but a critical piece of information in regards to Dragon Slayers is that they can consume their respective elements in order to rejuvinate themselves and increase their power."

"Sounds broken as hell if you ask me."

"You ever heard of something called a Zenkai?"

"A what?"

"Figures, then you don't know the meaning of the word broken, though I have to admit it does seem unfair if all you can do is alter your weapon."

"It may seem that way to the untrained eye, but my battle prowess is altered by form that I have my trusty Shatterstorm take."

"The principle may be different, but the effect isn't that different from the Requip one of my friends from my Fairy Tail uses all the time in battle."

"Sounds like they know what they're doing in a fight then, it's a shame that I won't get to see it in action for myself. But let's focus on the here and now, and I'll get things back on track by giving you a taste of the power of my trusty Shatterstorm."

"Then I guess I'll just have to show you what happens when you combine Dragon Slayer magic with swordsmanship."

"Works for me."

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Meanwhile, with the rescue party…

Lucy's eyes widened as she glanced over at Cana, taking in what she had been told "Wait hold on a second, you mean that gigantic lacrima in the plaza."

Cana nodded "Yeah that's the one, it just so happens that me and Elfman ended up being trapped inside the thing."

"That's insane, if you guys were inside the lacrima then how the heck did you manage to turn back to normal?"

"How do you think? Luke came up and turned us back, well him and Gajeel anyway. You see, it was like this…"

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(Flashback- How Luke and Gajeel freed Cana and Elfman from the lacrima)

"You got it, there's no stopping me now! Iron Dragon Sword!" Gajeel summoned an iron sword on his arm and promptly cut down the lacrima, causing it to unleash a massive white light that blinded nearly everyone present.

Luke looked at the lacrima and his eyes nearly bulged out of his head at what he saw "What the hell… You've gotta be kidding me."

The light subsided, and when it was gone, so was the lacrima, and where it once stood lay the unconscious forms of Cana and Elfman.

"So that means the giant lacrima was only the two of them."

"You've gotta be shitting me." Gajeel muttered "That was just the two of them inside that thing all this time?"

"You know what, I thought that thing looked a little bit small if it was supposed to have everyone from Fairy Tail and Magnolia inside it. Hey guys can you hear me, are you alright?"

Cana was the first one to regain consciousness and slowly shook off the disorientation "Oh god, what gives? Why the hell do I feel so hungover, I didn't even drink that much yet."

"The key word there being yet."

"Luke? Gajeel? Okay do either of you want to explain what the hell is going on?"

"We'll give you the details later, but for now we have to get out of here."

"Stay where you are, don't even think about moving!" the soldiers promptly started charging at the lot of them "You're not getting away with this, you're all under arrest!"

"And you see, this is why."

"Just stand back, I'll show them why you don't mess with a real man!" Elfman promptly activated his Beast Arm, or at least tried to "Hey what gives, why the hell isn't my magic power working?"

"I told you we'd explaing everything later. Gajeel I had my fun with them earlier, you go ahead and make an exit for us."

"Way ahead of you. Iron Dragon ROAR!" Gajeel let out a powerful roar that blew clean through several of the soldiers, as well as blowing a gigantic hole through the wall of the plaze in the process "There's your exit."

"Nice work Black Steel, now let's get out of here and find somewhere to regroup." and so the four of them took off running.

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About 20 minutes later…

Cana and Elfman listened carefully as they were filled in by Luke and Gajeel about the events taking place in Edolas "Wait a second, how is it you guys can use magic here? What is it some kind of Dragon Slayer thing?"

"How about this." Gajeel held up a small jar full of red pills "I'll tell you guys about it as soon as you take one of these."

"What are they? No you know what, that can wait. Just tell us what happened."

"It's actually rather simple miss." this was when Edo-Gajeel showed up on the scene "You and your rather buff companion over there had been turned into a giant lacrima."

"I told you it'd be easy." Gajeel shot him a smirk.

"Yes indeed, but then again I suppose I should've expected no less from Earth Land me, or you either Mr Drako. I knew the two of you were the right people for the job."

"...Okay what the hell?" Cana shared a look with Elfman "So now there's two of him now? Okay someone better start explaining."

"Although the two of us may look alike, we're actually quite different."

"Not that different." Luke pointed out dryly "The two of them might as well share a brain because of how similar they are, and to make matters that much worse, I've been stuck as the third wheel between them since we got here."

"Get as bitter as you want, but this guy's been a big help." Gajeel pointed out "It's fucking insane how much he looks like me though, we might as well be twins."

"And again, guess who ended up as the third wheel."

"Nice to know you've got priorities in order." Cana noted dryly "But putting aside that for the time being, what in the name of fuck do you mean we got turned into a giant lacrima?!"

"Oh yeah, I guess having two of Gajeel is more distracting than one. Oh my lord, now he's rubbing off on me." anyway, Luke promptly launched into an explanation of what was going on in Edolas "I know it sounds insane, even by our standards, but everyone from our Fairy Tail, along with the rest of Magnolia, were turned into a giant lacrima. The king of this world wants to get his hands on our magic power, but the one in the plaza was so big we thought that it had everyone from Fairy Tail inside of it, but imagine our surprise when it turned out to be just the two of you. I guess that means the two of you have a lot more magic power going for you than I expected, so that's a plus. One has to wonder though, how big could the actual lacrima be in comparison to the other one?"

This was when Edo-Gajeel spoke up "You know something, now that you mention it I actually did notice that the lacrima in the plaza had a rather jagged surface to it, as though it had somehow been cut off from a much larger one."

"Which means that wherever the bigger one is, that's where we'll find our friends."

"Okay, a lot of questions for a man to take in." Elfman pointed out "But before you guys go any further, what the hell is that stuff you're forcing on us?"

"You mean these?" Luke held out the jar to them "These things are called X-balls, you guys won't be able to use your magic power here in Edolas unless you take one. At least that's what me and Gajeel were told."

"You were told by who exactly?" asked Cana.

"By Mystogan, he's the one who gave them to us and sent us to Edolas in the first place." he was met with a few jaw dropped looks "Yeah, that's about how I expected you to react."

(Flashback end)

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Bolt let out a low whistle "Well how about that, looks like Noah was right on the money. He did say that Luke and Gajeel would be immune to the Anima because they're Dragon Slayers, and he even guessed that they would be together."

"According to Luke, it was Mystogan that sent him and Gajeel here to begin with, so I guess it's part of some kind of grand plan." Cana told them.

"But I don't get it, why didn't Mystogan just bother to come here himself?"

"Because apparently Dragon Slayer magic is capable of all sorts of things that no other magic can do in this world, they even have the power to change everyone stuck in that lacrima back to how they were in the first place."

"Sounds like a heaping dose of plot convenience, along with the fact that me and the other cats saw that lacrima awhile back and we know exactly where it is."

"You think you can get close to it?"

"Probably."

"That means we can call off Gajeel, he's out there rampaging through the city looking for the thing as we speak. But are you guys sure that you'll be able to lead him straight to that giant lacrima?"

"I can do it." Happy offered "I can take him there as long as you guys are sure that he can change everybody back."

"Well he's our only hope, I mean Luke and the others have the power to do it too, but Luke is a little bit preoccupied and I doubt Natsu or Wendy know how to do it."

"You don't have to worry, Gajeel and I are gonna go get back our friends right now!" and on that note, Happy promptly flew off at top speed.

"I'm not so sure about this, you guys think he's gonna be okay by himself?"

"He's going to be fine." Carla stated firmly.

"If you say so, but for now we'd better get moving. We've gotta find Natsu and the others and fast, right Elfman?" she received no reply "Elfman?"

As it turns out, Elfman had been left stunned and almost completely speechless at the sight of a certain member of their party "No way… Mira… but I thought…"

"You thought I was dead?" Mira looked away, her bangs covering her eyes "Sorry about this, but you've got the wrong one. I'm the version from Edolas, so I'm just a counterpart of the one you're talking about."

"Oh… I see."

"...Come on, we'd better get moving and track down the others."

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A few minuts passed.

Bolt led the group onwards until they came across a door at the end of the hallway "Hey guys check it out, if I had to guess then I'd say behind the suspicious looking door at the end of the hall is where we're going to find them."

"Just leave it to me! Beast Arm: Stone Bull!" Elfman coated his arm in stone and smashed the door down with one swift punch, where the found Noah, Natsu and Wendy lying on the ground, the latter two unconscious "Oh crap!"

"And the cavalry is here…" Noah glanced up and spat out some blood "And it only took about 6 hours."

"Yeah hang tight Mr Personality, since you're conscious that means you're better off than the other two." Cana knelt down in front of Wendy and tried to wake her up "Hey are you alright, can you hear me?"

"I already tried that, they're out cold. That creepy little troll doll extracted all the magic power they had going for them."

Lisanna was trying the same thing with Natsu, to no avail "Natsu can you hear me? Come on, please wake up!"

"For the record Animal Girl, that applies to both of them."

This was when Carla promptly started sobbing over Wendy's body "I'm sorry Wendy, I'm so sorry, please forgive me!"

"You'd better pray that she does." Noah tried to pull himself to his feet, and he did but his legs were shaking considerably from how weak he was at the moment "Because if it were up to me, I'd be standing over your body right now." he was met with various shocked looks.

"Hey Noah take it easy, she's on our side now I swear!" Lucy protested.

"Do you actually expect me to believe that? I don't think I need to remind either you or the Animal Girl here of the fact that she led us into that trap."

"Yeah well it's been brought to light that the Exceeds are gigantic assholes." Bolt pointed out dryly.

"It's a lot more than just that, there's also the fact she's been lying to us all along."

"What are you talking about?" asked Lisanna.

"I'm guessing the rest of you didn't know why she was sent to Earth Land in the first place. The truth is it's because her mission was to kill the Dragon Slayers, Wendy in this case." this was met with a few gasps.

"You mean…?"

"Yeah I do."

"Yes, that's the truth." Carla wiped away her tears and turned to face Noah "Our original mission was to eliminate the Dragon Slayers, but recently the mission was altered so we were to deliver them to te king of Edolas so they could extract the magic power for their own uses. That was the mission we were given."

"That's exactly what the rest of us were told."

"Hold that thought big guy." Bolt floated up to meet him at eye level "We're on your side right now, Fairy Tail wizards all the way through."

"I believe that in the case of you and the blue one, you two didn't know about any of this." he shot a glare down at Carla "You're the one I've got the problem with. You've been lying to us all this time, and you're the reason why all of us almost got killed. We wouldn't be in this situation right now if you had just bothered to give us some goddam details."

"Dude that's-"

"Don't even try to calm me down."

"Indeed, because his anger and distrust are justified." Carla floated up towards him "You're right about what you said Noah, and for that I'm sorry. I was aware of my mission this entire time, and I should've been honest and straightforward from the beginning, which is something I understand now. I promise you that I will answer for what I have done once all of this has been dealt with, but right now you, Natsu and Wendy need help. That should be our primary concern at the moment."

"And give me a good reason why I should believe this isn't a trap."

"You said you trusted me right?" Bolt got his attention "Well I… tolerate her, she's on our side and she's trying to make up for what she did. Just give her the benefit of the doubt for now, if it turns out she's wrong then you can shoot me."

"...Fine, I'll give her the benefit of the doubt. For now." Noah shot a glare down at Carla "But let me warn you cat, if it turns out you're leading us into another trap, you're gonna be a smere on the ground."

"I'll keep that in mind." Carla told him flatly.

"Now then, let's deal with these two."

"Way ahead of you, time to do this like a real man." Elfman promptly picked up Natsu and started shaking him around like a ragdoll "Hey, a real man never sleeps on the job when they have work to do! Be a real man and get the hell up already!"

"Take it easy big brother, he's in really bad shape." Lisanna told him.

"Yeah I can tell, it's not working. So much for him being a real man. Maybe if we try and feed him some X-balls while they're out, can one of you open his mouth? The last time I tried that he bit me."

"What are X-balls?"

"A bunch of magic pills that Luke and Gajeel gave to us after they freed us from that gigantic lacrima." Cana told her "I figured Mystogan gave a few to you and Lucy when he found you guys back home."

"That's what it was? He just gave me and Lucy one without any sort of explanation."

"It's a good thing you took one though, you wouldn't be able to use your magic here without them." Cana promptly dropped an X-ball into Natsu's mouth, which woke him up but sent him into a coughing fit.

"Natsu!"

"Give him a minute, he'll be alright." Cana handed one to Noah "For the record, Luke told us about how you've been helping the others, so that's why he's so chill with you being around, even after what happened on Galuna Island and in the Tower of Heaven."

"Good enough for me, I was getting annoyed with not being able to use my own Dragon Slayer magic." Noah promptly downed the X-ball and started coughing violently.

Lisanna looked down at Natsu as his coughing subsided "Hey Natsu, are you feeling any better yet?"

"Kind of a relative term, but yeah…" Natsu coughed a little bit more, then slammed his fist into the ground as his body started radiating flames "We don't have a lot of time, we've gotta hurry and stop them."

"Stop who?"

"The bastards that are about to pull an Age of Ultron on our entire fucking guild!" and on that reference, Natsu let out a fiery roar and bolted out of the room at full speed.

"Natsu wait!"

"You know for once, I don't blame the idiot for taking off like that." Noah finished his coughing fit and let out a sigh, followed by the sound of a coughing fit from Wendy "Looks like she's starting to come too. Hey kid, you alright?"

Wendy slowly opened her eyes and looked up at them "Oh hey… Carla…"

"You're not hurt are you?" asked Carla.

"No, I'm fine, but…"

"But the others are in deep shit." Noah finished for her "And when I say that, I mean Salamander was right on the money when he said they were going to pull an Age of Ultron."

"What exactly do you mean by that?" asked Cana.

"What I mean is that the Royal Army is going to destroy Extalia and all of the Exceed life on it, and they're gonna do that by using the giant lacrima that has Fairy Tail inside of it, as a makeshift magic bomb, killing all of them in the process." Noah and Wendy were met with various looks of horror "Yeah, like I said, deep shit all around."

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At the same time, Faust and Byro were finally preparing to put their plan into action: a plan in which they would fuse the magic power of the giant lacrima with the magic power of all of the Exceeds, and then rain that combined magic power down upon the Royal City, granting them everlasting magic power.

A/N:

And with this chapter, we move into the fourth act of the Edolas arc, where we see a few considerably twists in the plot, and more than a few surprises, with plenty more in store for our heroes. Now that the Fallen Exceed trio has reunited with our heroes, as well as with two more wizards from the Earth Land version of Fairy Tail in the form of Elfman and Cana, not to mention Noah, Natsu and Wendy can all use their Dragon Slayer magic again, they're working double time to return the people of Fairy Tail and Magnolia to their normal forms, especially now that they know what the king plans to do with the giant lacrima.

I knew going into this arc that I was going to try and include both Elfman and Lisanna in this arc somehow. I actually got the idea from Logannus Prime on YouTube, feel free to check him out if you like, and while I don't agree with his opinion on Fairy Tail at the moment, I have to admit that incorporating all three of the Strauss siblings into the arc was not a bad idea at all, and so I decided to go for it, but at the same time, in order to avoid overcrowding things, I also decided to cut out Gray and Erza from this arc, so they won't be involved in the adventures in Edolas. I know, it's a substantial sacrifice, but it has to be made. Besides, just because they're main characters doesn't mean they have to get all of the spotlight every single time. There's nothing wrong with letting the others have a chance to shine every now and then.

Oh and by the way, here's that song that Bolt was referencing. It's awesome, and I totally recommend you check it out, along with some of the other songs these guys make. watch?v=q8F-60tufng