Haha, I bet that chapter title has some of you guys excited!
Guest, Twinkle twinkle little star, Guess I've really set the bar, Up above the world so bright, I must admit I adore this site, Twinkle twinkle little star, Jellal will have to go quite far. Chapter 21! Here it is! Whoo!
Phoenix(1), well my readers were counting on me what else could I do? Aw, I hope your family is alright. It sucks when a family member is hurt and you don't know if they're gone be ok. Hey, anything for a friend. (Even if that friend is now a tomato.)
Phoenix(2), whoo! So you were! Look out people we gotta number 100 on our hands here! Congrats!
Otaku789, welcome to this… chaotic thing. Eh. It took me a second to realize you didn't mean a Natsu dating Lucy twist… (I haven't been reading too much slash what are you on about) We're sorry, Jellal is out of his mind right now. Try again right after the little blue haired girl. Ooh, I haven't thought of that actually. If I did it'd probably be on a separate story, and I've have to make it so people could read it without getting spoiled for this but I could give it a go(except I'm really bad at writing down what makes a character a character I usually default to 'nice'). Hm. I could set up a poll- you know what imma set up a poll for that. Thanks!
Phoenix(3), **turns to camera** **dramatic whisper** she knows
How did you access my notes they're not even on the Internet they're in a small black book at the back of my cupboard. If I got the tomato magic you got some sorta freaky foresight thing going on there. Whoa. As it stands, it's not set in stone that that'll be what happens, mainly because I'm tryna figure out what the conflict would be, or if there would be a conflict at all. (Though I gotta admit Natsu, Wendy, and Gajeel vs the king of Edolas in his dragon suit thing is one of my favourite fights.) ((WAIT I GOT IT I GOT IT OOH THIS IS GUNNA BE GOOD)) but man I'd love to see my Natsu interact with canon Natsu. But seriously though that there was pretty much my thought process like how did you even. How- what. Uh, anyway, Phantom Lord is clo~ose~ so very close. Oh yeah, Grand Magic Games is my favourite too. (Might have said that before earlier I don't exactly remember. Eh) well I mean I dunno if the council is after Natsu then I mean maybe having him compete in a tournament meant to be watched by the entirety of Fiore would be kind of a bad idea but then again it's Fairy Tail so… yeah I actually mentioned Hetalia to one of my friends and she was like 'oh I watched 113 episodes yesterday' and I was like 'excuse me what' so she's got me started off (y'know I never had troubles with keeping up with subtitles before but that was chaos). Unfortunately I've been struggling to write anything lately but I'll overcome this writers block even if it, well, not kills me but y'know.
Erza pressed a bare palm to the cool surface of the tower, reaching into the flow of the magic. The Lacrima under her hand shuddered for a moment, before giving out and drawing her hand in. The magic burned and stung, biting into her skin, and Erza quickly withdrew. "Don't let your bare skin come in contact with the Lacrima for too long, it'll draw you in."
Lucy shuddered, tucking her arms in close to her body. The crystal jutting out seemed far more dangerous now. A cold wind swept the top of the Tower, and Lucy ducked to the side, hiding from the chill behind one of the few remaining walls. On the way, one of her boots splashed into a small puddle.
Milliana and Wally, at Erza's request, had branched off from their group to search the Tower, and make sure everyone had evacuated. Whatever the earlier roar came from, it couldn't be something good.
Which left Lucy, Erza, and Simon alone at the top of the tower.
It was about then that Shu joined them. The blond staggered unsteadily, titling forward before steady hands caught his shoulders. Erza lowered her head a little, searching Shu's gaze for a moment, and gave a gentle smile.
His eyes held no hostility towards her.
However, even as nice as it was to be re-accepted by (almost) all her old friends, there were more prevalent things at hand.
"Shu, do you have any injuries? Can you stand?" In response, the card mage slumped against her further. Unwilling to let him touch the tower more than necessary, she leaned him back against her while she knelt.
"Your friend attacked me out of nowhere… I managed to catch Jellal in a card so they didn't have to fight… But as soon as I did, he attacked me." Shu shifted slightly, before revealing a couple of bloody gouges on his left arm.
"I managed to get away… but only just. I thought he was gonna kill me, sis."
Erza furrowed her brows. Had she truly made the wrong choice letting him have his magic back? Some part of her told her no, but…
"Can you tell me exactly what happened, start to finish?"
Shu nodded. "I saw them go past where I was hiding, so I followed them. When I got to the room they were fighting in, Natsu looked like he was losing. Jellal had him at his mercy, he was no match for Jellal spells. I just wanted to help, I'm honestly surprised I managed to catch him with my card. But as soon as I did, Natsu looked really mad, and he started attacking me instead. I didn't want to hurt your friend so I tried to run away. I almost didn't make it!"
"And how did you escape, exactly?"
Shu shifted his position again, supporting himself more and leaning less on Erza, cradling his right arm. "A lucky fluke, I guess. There was this one hallway with some unconscious people and they distracted him long enough for me to get here." He turned to face Erza, taking a kneeling position much like hers, any previous sign of exhaustion gone. "I was scared sis."
Simon crossed his arms, looming over Shu rather ominously. "Is that so?"
Shu nodded vigorously. "Well, I just got a call from Milliana and Wally. They found a group of people passed out in the hallway, all of them trapped in cards."
A dark expression covered Shu's features for a moment, and then he turned to Erza. "He's lying, sis. I wouldn't do that you your friends!"
Erza stood. "There's another problem with your story. It is in my belief that Natsu would not attack someone unprovoked."
Shu made to stand, propping himself up with his left arm. "But he did! Look, see, my rig- er, left arm is hurt really badly."
Lucy chose then to join in on the conversation. "You were going to say right arm, weren't you? Plus, you've been using your left arm and there's no blood staining the fabric around the cuts."
Much the same dark expression covered Shu's features, and he bit out a swear before spinning his cards out onto his fingers, sending them careening away from him and towards Simon, Lucy, and Erza.
The three mages vanished, and Shu picked up the cards with a small frown on his face.
Two of them were empty.
Ulterior smirked from a spot unseen. Even if her pawn had failed her initially, reacting too much like her when that look-alike hunk of ice had shown up, he didn't fail her here. His act served its purpose, managing to keep the mages distracted while she set her trap.
Zeref would be in her reach soon enough. But first, she had pawns to manipulate.
Jellal watched the world from his skewed perspective, the ice he was embedded in distorting the world in front of him. Even so, he could clearly see a shock of pink.
Oh, how he longed to destroy that pink. To smash it into the ground and set it aflame, all in honour of his lord Zeref.
But he restrained himself, because oh his lord was clever indeed. He had whispered into Jellals ear his brilliant plan, oh his lord was so clever!
So we waited, and surely enough, the pink left, as if lead away by something. Almost as soon as the pink was gone from his view, the ice around the car melted, and Jellal pulled himself free.
Oh his lord was so brilliant. Jellal could hardly contain himself, he hardly deserved the honour of being spoken to by his lord.
Stretching, Jellal began on his way to the top of the tower.
Shu looked darkly down at the card in his hand. "Well, I doubt anyone would come back for you. How useless." He crumpled the card, heedless of the small cry of pain that his actions elicited.
Chucking the crumpled card to a dark corner of the room, he whirled to the entrance of the room, mood darkening further as Jellal stepped in. The blue haired mage regarded him coolly.
"For lord Zeref." Jellal extended a hand. Shu gripped it firmly. "For lord Zeref."
And then the closest wall exploded. Natsu stepped through, a chunk of Lacrima in his hand, one shoulder coated in ice.
Slowly, he raised the chunk to his lips, and took a bite.
The pure force of the anger and darkness the magic possessed almost sent Natsu to his knees, but he managed to stay on his feet- if only just.
The incompatible magic rushed through him wildly, and for a moment he felt death, or perhaps something far worse loom up inside of him, even as the foriegn magic rushed through his veins and pushed blood from his lips-
But then he straightened again, scales forming around his eyes.
Dragon Force.
Writers block sucks. ~ShadeShadow