"The cannon's about to go off!" Skye shouted while her eyes went wide from shock.
"Angel?! Why are you doing this?!" Lucy asked.
"Because, humans are nothing but trash...I hate humanity, and I want nothing to do with it..." Angel replied as she carelessly tossed Happy down to the ground, but Carla managed to catch the exceed before he fell too far. "This...this was a once in a lifetime chance. A chance to change you disgusting creatures known as humans, and a chance for a new angel, myself, to fly into the sky where she belongs...~"
"This woman's crazy..." Shadowlore grunted.
"Everyone, evacuate the city!" Lahar exclaimed. "We have to get to safety!"
"There is no escape from this cannon...but you can try..." Angel snickered as she crossed her legs, now just waiting for the inevitable.
"This ain't wild!" Bacchus said as he started to run for the city's nearest exit.
Yukino didn't move, she just stared up at Angel, her eyes wide as she tried to process multiple things in her head. "That can't be..."
Sting started to run, but he immediately stopped once he saw Yukino not moving. Sting cupped his hands around his mouth to amply his voice, hopefully to reach the celestial mage. "Yukino!"
Yukino heard Sting yelling, but she didn't hear him. She kept her gaze on Angel, who didn't seem to notice her. "That can't be...She would never...!"
"Yukino!" Sting shouted once again. Instead of waiting for the mage to respond, Sting quickly ran over and grabbed her hand, and made a break for the nearest exit.
"They won't make it..." Sirus chuckled. "They don't have enough time, the cannon is just about ready..." As Sirus spoke, the Reset Cannon let out a low, robotic humming sound. The light magic gathering within the cannon started to reach its cap, and the humming noise echoed throughout the city.
"We're not gonna make it...!" Shadowlore shouted.
"Fire..." Sirus ordered, and a large smirk appeared on his face. The cannon gathered an immense amount of magical energy in the form of light magic., and within the next second, the cannon fired.
"Dammit...!" Gajeel yelled.
Right as the Reset Cannon fired, a powerful beam of magical energy struck it from above, causing a mass malfunction. Sparks of electricity violently danced around the cannon, catching everyone's attention. "W-What is this...?!" Angel asked with widened eyes. She twisted the key to make the cannon fire once again, but the only thing she got was a small explosion that almost took away her balance.
"Something...hit it...?" Gray suggested as he looked up.
"Siegrain-Senpai!" Correll smirked. Why was the captain smirking? Because the Etherion Cannon beat the Reset Cannon to the punch, and struck first.
"I knew he wouldn't let us down..." Odin said with a nod and a slight smirk.
"Is it broken..?" Levy asked while carefully observing the machine.
"Just about..." Zalen replied. "Whatever took the full hit didn't take it very well..."
Angel continued to twist the key in the cannon, now growing desperate for it to work. She was so close to her prayer finally being fulfilled, why did this have to happen now of all times! After a few futile attempts, Angel crossed her arms and practically screamed in frustration for everyone above and below to hear. "Piece of shit!"
Natsu immediately stopped once the cannon malfunctioned to the point it wasn't working, a large smirk now drawn on his face as lightning and flames covered his body. "You haven't won yet..."
"Angel! Give that key the hardest twist you can!" Sirus commanded.
At this point, Angel was willing to try just about anything. She did as she was instructed, twisting the key in a direction as hard as she could. At first, nothing happened, a few seconds later, the sparks started to dance violently around the cannon once more, and finally, the cannon began to start up again, this time gathering raw magic. "There we go!"
"We're moving again...!" Luke shouted as he began to make a break for it.
"This isn't good..." Lisanna gulped. "W-What do we do!"
The cannon was about to fire for real this time...but instead it began to explode from the amount if energy it was about to release. Angel was the closest one to the exploding cannon, so it was no surprise that she was the one who panicked the most. "W-What's happening...?!"
"Too much energy strained the core..." Zalen said while adjusting his glasses. "With the cannon in that state, it wasn't able to fire off a shot of its caliber...and thanks to that, you've just overloaded your cannon."
"It's gonna blow!" Cynthia shouted.
Yukino froze once again; this was something she needed to know. As the cannon began to spark violently, she called out to Angel, just to make sure. "Sorano…!" Angel was about to jump off when she heard someone call her by her real name. This annoyed her; as she looked down to see who had the nerve do so such a thing. Her gaze finally stopped on Yukino, and her eyes widened somewhat, but before she could say anything in return, the cannon lit up the sky in a brilliant explosion. What happened to Angel was unknown, but large chunks of the cannon fell off to the ground.
"W-What happened to Angel…?" Lucy asked as she looked around.
"She flew off into the sky…" Saeko replied. "But it wasn't in the way she expected…the stars tell me that…"
"What were you saying about winning again?" Natsu asked as he took a step forward.
"You…." Sirus growled. "How could this be happening…I won't…allow the darkness to consume this world…!"
"Give it up!" Gajeel shouted while rolling his shoulders. A green magic circle appeared under the iron dragon, prompting his iron scales to form over his body, and after that, a black magic circle formed under his body, which caused shadows to leak out from these scales.
"It's over!" Rylo continued while adjusting his top hat.
"You…wretched…humans…" Sirus' eye twitched angrily. He was so close to victory, but also so far.
"Save yourself the embarrassment," Reve said while pointing his magnum at Sirus, his finger ready to click the trigger. "You already lost."
"You've forced my hand…" Sirus sighed before flying high into the sky. A bright white light enveloped his body, nearly blinding everyone below.
"Agh…!" Erza brought up her arm to shield her eyes from the light. "What is he doing now…?"
"His magic energy is rising exponentially…" Mirajane replied as she too had to shield her eyes from the light.
"We couldn't even touch him before…" Takeru grumbled to himself, not liking the direction this situation was going.
The city began to tremble once again from the massive magical energy Sirus was gathering. Sirus' appearance also began to change; his wings were covered with gold and silver armor, his body suit turned into an angelic white armor that covered his body, and he now wore a helmet that covered his face. "This is my true power…the angelic commander known as Sirius!"
"I guess you could say he sounds…" Luke started as he used black energy to form shades over his eyes. "Serious…"
"You pick now of all times to make a pun…?" Kairi asked while staring at Luke with a quizzical expression.
"Someone has to…" Luke replied with a slight grunt.
"You think just because you got a little aesthetic change you can beat us?" Cygnus asked.
Sirius raised his holy lance, gathering a large sphere of light magic on the tip of it. "I will eradicate the darkness myself!" Sirius then pointed his lance forward, unleashing a rain of light magic down on the mages below.
"Here we go! The final battle!" Natsu grinned as he set himself down in a running position, and broke off into an immediate sprint, doing his best to avoid the incoming rain of light. He swayed from left to right, he was on a roll, but then one beam struck the ground behind him, causing an explosion that caused him to tumble forward. "Gah!"
"I got you…!" Lucy said as she grabbed Natsu's arm, preventing him from falling. Despite being in the rain of light, Lucy looked around, noticing a fountain of water nearby. "Ah!" Lucy quickly made her way towards the fountain, but a beam of light struck her directly, causing her to tumble on the ground a few feet, rolling past the fountain.
"Lucy!" Natsu ran over to Lucy, but a sudden downpour of light magic blocked his way.
"Ngh…" Lucy lifted herself up to her hands and knees, panting slightly as she felt the burns from the light magic. She looked up, only to see another beam of light headed in her direction. "Ah…!"
Luke quickly crossed his arms as he ran in front of Lucy, forming a dense black sphere around his person. "Black God's Bubble!" The light slammed into the defensive technique, instantly shattering it and sent Luke flying back.
"Luke…!?" Lucy was rather caught off guard at the copycat had come to her rescue, but she shook it off, pulling out a golden key, placing it into the water of the fountain, causing ripples to appear in the water. "Gate of the Water Bearer, I open thee! Aquarius!" Seconds later, a rather angry Aquarius appeared from the water, giving Lucy the death glare.
"A dirty fountain? I thought we talked about this and I thought we went over what would happen the next time you did such a thing…" Aquarius leaned forward, her eyes piercing into Lucy's soul. Funnily enough, Lucy was more afraid of Aquarius than Sirius at this moment.
"I-I know! I'm sorry, but we have a really big problem right now…!" Lucy pointed to Sirius, who was glaring down specifically at her, Natsu, and Aquarius.
"You just can't stay out of trouble…" Aquarius groaned before pulling out her jar of water.
"Yo! Let us help!" Blues shouted as he and Kuro rushed into the area. "That dirty fountain water isn't going to help out very much…"
"Yeah…" Kuro nodded, standing a little behind Blues.
"Oh, I like these two already…they already know what good water is and what isn't…" Aquarius gave a small smirk to the Dragon God duo before pointing her jaw to the two of them.
"Sitting ducks…" Sirius smirked as he pointed his lance to the group, but he felt another surge of magic energy from behind him. Sirius turned around, only to see Selene at his left, Gajeel to his right, and Cynthia in front of him.
"Iron Shadow Dragon's Lance: Demon Logs!"
"Omega Fire Dragon's Wing Slash!"
"Diamond Dragon's Roar!"
The three mages sent there attacks towards Sirius, but the angel merely sighed. He tucked his wings in over his body, and then expelled them, unleashing vicious gust of wind strong enough to blow the attack and the mages back to the ground. "It's worthless…"
"Now!" Lucy shouted as she pointed to Sirius once again. "He's open!"
"RAH!" Aquarius exclaimed as she swung her jar filled with Water Dragon, God slayer magic, and her own magic in the shape of a swirling cyclone that hurtled towards Sirius.
"We got him!" Blues grinned, watching as the attack sailed towards the seemingly unprepared angel. But to their surprise, the cyclone of water dispersed just inches before it even hit him. "What!?"
"It didn't even reach him…!?" Aquarius was more than surprised to see this, as noted with her wide eyes.
"Oh, was there a problem…?" Sirius turned around, snapping his fingers, causing a large white magic circle to appear in the area where Natsu, Lucy, Blues, Kuro, and Aquarius were. "Heavenly Boom." The magic circle shined brightly for a few seconds before a burst of light covered that area. "Heh…" Sirius then turned to his right, noticing an incoming Jellal and Erza (who was in her Heaven's Wheel Armor).
"Heaven's Wheel!" Erza yelled as a circle of magical swords appeared around her. About 200 swords, she was going all out right now, though it did cost her quite a bit of magic energy to conjure up so many swords. She then threw her arms forward, sending all 200 swords hurtling towards Sirius.
"What a pain..." Sirius sighed before bringing his left wing to cover his face, and used his right wing to expel a powerful magical burst that shattered all 200 swords before they even reached him.
"What!?" Erza's eyes widened at the sight of her swords literally reduced to nothing. In the next second, Sirius appeared in front of Titania, slamming a downward kick onto her shoulder. There was a loud cracking sound after Sirius' kick made contact, but Erza didn't have time to react to her now broken arm as she slammed into the ground below.
"Erza!" Shouted Heather, Kagura, Millianna, and Jellal in unison upon seeing Erza slam into the ground. Heather and Millianna immediately ran over to the scarlet haired mage.
"She's not looking so well..." Heather said as she shifted her gaze to Sirius.
With the speed of Meteor, Jellal attempted to enter close combat with Sirius. This wasn't a successful attempt, as Sirius merely batted the heavenly mage away with his wing effortlessly. "Gah!" Yelled Jellal as he slammed into a fallen building.
"I'm starting to get annoyed with you humans..." Sirius grunted as he crossed his arms. "It's almost time for me to end this...I'm just buying time..." Just then, Kagura jumped into the air her blade unsheathed. "Hm?!" Kagura then swung her sword towards Sirius, but the angel brought up an armored wing that blocked the hit. "That's a fine blade..." Sirius admitted as he formed a sphere of light, quickly placing against Kagura's stomach. "But it's nothing compared to an angel..." The sphere of light then exploded, tearing through most of Kagura's clothing and sent her hurtling towards the ground, but just before she hit the ground, Melody caught her.
"Gah...that was too close..." Melody said while sighing.
"This isn't going well at all..." Aira stated.
"We aren't giving up just yet!" Sting shouted as he puffed his cheeks out. "White Dragon's Holy Breath!" Sting opened his mouth, unleashing a potent blast of holy white energy towards Sirius.
"Shadow Dragon's Roar!" Rogue called out as he unleashed a power vortex of shadows with Sting's Roar.
"Gravity God's Poisoned Bellow!" Cygnus exclaimed as he sent a bellow of gravity and poison with the Twin Dragon's attacks.
"Secret Art!" Chelia and Wendy shouted as they both performed their secret arts, but in a unison raid-like fashion. "Heavenly Gathering of the Dragon God! Light Shattering Sky Drill!" A large black and blue magic circle appeared before the two sky slayers; from Chelia, an elongated mass of feathery black wind shot out towards Sirius, while a sky blue drill of wind merged with Chelia's attack, now making it twice as deadly.
Sirius could feel the immense magical energy coming from the attacks below, but he wasn't fazed in the slightest. The incoming magical attacks slammed into his magical barrier, leaving him unharmed after. "Your magic will not ever harm me."
"What is this guy?!" Cana shouted in bewilderment.
"That's...not...possible...!" Sting's irises shrunk as he stared at the unharmed angel. "We out everything into those attacks!"
"Then we just have to give it more effort..." Heather shouted as she placed an arm in front of her, conjuring up a magenta colored magic seal. "Poison Dragon's Scales!" From the magic seal, thousands of small poisonous scales flew towards Sirius. Laxus popped his jaw open, unleashing a Lightning Dragon's Roar in conjunction with Heather's scales.
"Ice Dragon's Roar!" Waiston yelled a she unleashed a vortex of ice towards Sirius.
"Ice Make: Unlimited!" Gray called out as he sent a plethora of ice weapons towards Sirius.
"I wonder..." Evanee puffed her cheeks out, similarly to her dragon slayer roar, but instead of stones, it was a torrent of Hell Magic.
"Roar of the White Shadow Darkness Dragon!" Takeru roared as he self a self unison raid towards Sirius. The three attacks just slammed into the magical barrier once again, but failed to even leave a mark on it.
"Impossible..." Makarov's jaw dropped. "Nothing has worked on him..."
"I am invincible!" Sirius shouted. "And now it's time to end this!" Sirius flew to the top of the palace, holding his spear up.
"What's he doing now..." Gaia asked while holding one of her arms.
"Whatever it is..." Luke started as he put up black shades again. "I guess you could say he means SIRIUS business! OH!" THWACK. Heather slammed her fist into Luke's head, causing him to fall face first into the ground.
"You are not allowed to speak for the rest of the evening." Heather said in a dominating tone.
"Y-Yes...dear..." Luke said in a dazed tone.
"Heaven, hear my call and unleash your rage down in these bringers of darkness!" Sirius shouted, which caused the dark clouds in the sky to light up, but not in a friendly way. Destruction literally rained down from the heavens; destructive beams poured down on the city, lighting it up in a massive explosion that consumed every single mage in the city.
...
Natsu pulled himself up slowly, blood trickling down his body from almost everywhere. His vision was blurry, but he could see that the city was in ruins, the only thing standing was the palace. Natsu limped around, looking for any sign of his guild members. "Hello...?! Can anyone hear me...?!"
"You're still alive...?" Sirius growled before shrugging it off.
"Anyone...?!" Natsu called out, but he didn't get a response.
"They've all been eradicated." Sirius replied.
"Shut up...!" Natsu replied to Sirius as he continued to call out to anyone who could hear him. "Guys!"
"I hear you, Natsu..." Lucy said as she slowly brought herself up from a pile of rubble.
"What...?" Sirius' eyes widened somewhat.
"You're so loud...it's hard not to hear you..." Takeru replied as he brought himself up, but he was in his regular form.
"Impossible...!" Sirius shouted, now in complete disbelief as every magic began to pick themselves up. "Why won't you stay down! That should've destroyed everything that was dark!"
"That's your problem..." Aira said as she closed an eye, panting heavily, but she did her best to stand up straight. "You've been trying to destroy all the darkness you see...but the problem with that is...everyone has darkness inside them..."
"So you admit-" Sirius began.
"But..." Aira continued, cutting off Sirius before he could cut her off. "What matters is how you use it..."
"We embrace the darkness in our hearts..." Cynthia said as she limped forwards. "And we cover it with light!"
"That's why we're strong..." Natsu said as his classic smirk appeared on his face. "If anything is the darkness here...it's you!"
"Did you just compare me to-!" Sirius was shocked. "How DARE you?!"
"We'll show you...everyone, focus your light together!" Cynthia exclaimed. "We'll fight off the real darkness together!"
"What...?!" Sirius watched as a small golden sphere appeared on the ground in front of Natsu and Cynthia. The mages were transferring the "light" inside them itothos sphere.
"They're a persistent bunch..." Diana said while dusting her shoulder off.
"I suppose they receive credit where it is due..." Blake replied.
The golden sphere slowly grew larger and larger every passing second before it became as nearly as large as Sirius himself. "This is light within our darkness!" Natsu shouted as lightning and flames covered his body once again.
"The light that will always extinguish our darkness!" Cynthia continued as her dark red flames covered her body. The two dragon slayers roared as they slammed their fist into the golden sphere, turning it into a beam that raced towards Sirius.
"It won't...work!" Sirius shouted as he brought up his magic barrier once again. The barrier held firm against the light of Fiore, but this time...is began to crack. The small crack slowly spread across the barrier, and for the first time in his life, he was nervous, afraid. Not even just a little bit, it all struck at once. With a battle cry, Natsu and Cynthia pushed the beam forward, shattering the barrier, and struck Sirius. The angel gave an agonizing yell as the beam of golden light engulfed him completely; as this happened, the dark clouds spread apart, revealing the beautiful blue sky.
*Huff* *huff* "Cynthia fell to her knees, heaving as she tried to catch her breath.
"Wild..." Bacchus started.
"FOUR!" Everyone (minus the more serious mages such as Taya, Sidney, and Calium) shouted.
"N-Ngh..." Sirius was still in the sky, but he was a bloody mess, and he had to support himself with one wing. "D-dammit...how..."
"Give up now..." Natsu asked while stumbling around, struggling to keep his balance.
"I-...I just...fine..." Sirius began to fly back to the heavens along with Zihark, and Cumore. "You humans...have made a very grave mistake...I was trying to save Earthland...but I'll let you humans deal with the darkness that is rising..." With that, the angels flew into the sky.
"...We won." Reve stated in a tone that sounded as though he had no doubt.
"The city's in ruins though..." Alex said while looking around.
"Allow me..." Ultear said as she took a deep breath; the time arc mage then placed her hands on the ground, causing a large magic circle to appear on the ground.
"Let me help!" Tsami said as she stood next to Ultear, nodding to the fellow time arc mage.
"Reverse...!" The two mages shouted, and the magic circle began to spin in a counter clockwise motion, and the city repaired itself, now looking as though nothing happened. The two time mages passed out after, but before they hit the ground, Taranis and Meredy caught their respective mages.
"Amazing..." Sherry stared in amazement.
.
.
.
A few days after the incident, the guilds who fought bravely to protect the city, country, and world from the angels gathered for celebration in the palace of Crocus, everyone invited by the king, Toma E. Fiore himself. Everyone was dressed fancily for the occasion, and the sight of the castle amazed some. "UWAH!" Cynthia clapped her hands on her cheeks, her eyes sparkling as she looked around the castle. "This place…it's incredible…!"
"Thank you all for your hard work!" Hisui spoke to everyone. After such a hard fought battle, the least the Princess of Fiore could do was thank everyone for their efforts.
"Don't break anything now…" Laxus said while walking past the girl.
"Not bad…not bad at all…" Heather said as she sat down at counter where beers were at, downing them like nobody's business. It wasn't a surprise that Bacchus, Jack, and Cana were there as well, downing the alcoholic beverages.
Cynthia leaned down, dusting off a part of her dress before taking a seat, looking around at everyone having fun. "Heh…I like seeing everyone happy…"
"It's great, isn't it?" Chelia asked as she took a seat next to Cynthia.
"Chelia…" Cynthia turned to face Chelia, a smile on her face. "How are you?"
"I'm doing great!" Chelia replied, lifting up a part her dress to show her ankle, revealing her Lamia Scale guild mark. "Lamia Scale's Sky God Slayer has return!"
"That's great!" Cynthia's smile turned into a large grin. The young girl clapped her hands together once, before hugging Chelia.
Chelia turned the hug, but it was a little tighter than the grip Cynthia had. "I wanted to thank you..."
"Thank me for what…?" Cynthia asked as she felt Chelia's grip.
"You and Wendy helped save me…" Chelia replied.
"Wendy was the one who really saved you..." Cynthia replied.
"But it was your words that helped bring me back..." Chelia replied, pulling away from the hug to smile at Cynthia. "Without you, I wouldn't have come back..."
"This place isn't half bad..." Luke said while looking around, munching on a bag of chips.
"This is the second time I've been here," Lucy said while taking a seat next to Luke. "Last time Natsu pretended to be the king..." A comical stale expression appeared on Lucy's face at the memory.
"That doesn't really surprise me..." Luke replied with a shrug. "Hell, I'm just glad everything's over now. That was probably the most intense day I've ever had..."
"Not in a good way either..." Lucy nodded in agreement before flashing Luke a small smile. "But, we made it through, right?"
"Heh, no kidding..." Luke smirked slightly.
Yukino sat down at a chair, the only thing on her mind was the memory of Angel, or Sorano. It was hard not to believe that it was who she thought it was, but she just had a hard time coming to terms with it. Sting noticed this, so he walked over to Yukino with a grin. "Hey, come on! This is a celebration, there's no need to look so down!"
"Huh...?" Yukino looked up, just barely hearing the tail end of Sting's speech. "Sting..."
"Being sad won't help anything, will it?" Sting asked while tilting his head.
"I suppose not..." Yukino replied as she stood up, putting on a small smile.
"Good, so let's party!"
"Who would've thought this would've all happened..." Rylo said as he toyed with his glass of wine. As he did this, a small drop fell from his glass, but before it hit the floor, Zalen literally flew in from out of nowhere with a towel and caught the drop.
"Carry on," Zalen said as though nothing happened before walking off.
"...Right..." Evanee said as she continued the conversation, just making a mental note to keep away from Zalen for pretty much ever.
"Too bad Flynn can't see this..." Melanie pouted while sipping on her glass of water.
"Yeah, I bet he'd enjoy this..." Flynn said as he nonchalantly appeared next to Twilight Zone.
"You're right, Flynn," Alexander said with a nod before turning to face Flynn. "Flynn?!"
"Hi," Flynn said with a slight wave.
"Wait...but you...how...?" Tsami tried to wrap her head around this.
"Wow and you guys weren't even going to check in on me...hurtful..." Flynn sighed, but he gave a playful grin. His heart did go through a lot of pain when he defeated Racer...but he managed to recover in the nick of time.
"I don't think I want to know..." Evanee replied before turning around, noticing that Cosmic Star grouped up near the exit. "And where are you all going?"
"It's about time for us to leave," Gaia said while rubbing the back of her neck.
"You guys are leaving?" Wendy asked as she and the other members of the guilds started to group.
"That's right..." Daryan said with a nod. "We kinda screwed up the Grand Magic Games, so we don't really deserve to be in Fiore right now…"
"Kinda?" Laxus asked while quirking a brow. "I don't think that's the correct word to describe it…"
"You're not helping…" Shadowlore said while giving a slight glare at Laxus.
"You guys will be coming back, right?" Cynthia asked.
"Perhaps…and next time, we'll win the Grand Magic Games fair and square," Magnus nodded, a slight smirk on his face.
"Sorry, but we'll be keeping that number one spot," Reve said while stepping forward, smirking.
"You got lucky this time!" Natsu shouted. "Next time, Fairy Tail will become number one again!"
"Heh, if that's what you want to believe…" Reve's smirk widened as he stared down Natsu. "You see, we're in the number one area, and once I step into an area, I own it. So, White Eclipse owns the number one spot. There are no take backs."
"You wanna go right now?! I'll wipe that smug look of your face!" Natsu shouted as flames covered his right hand.
"Natsu, we're supposed to be relaxing…" Lucy whined as she quickly grabbed Natsu's arm to pull him away.
"It wouldn't have been much of a fight anyway…" Reve chuckled before turning around.
"Anyway…it was fun, Fiore…and next time, we'll be back, even stronger!" Alex waved as she and Cosmic Star left the palace.
"Later, kitty kat," Said Shadowlore as he winked at Milliana, who shuddered in response.
"See you later, Kagura-chan!" Daryan waved to Kagura. Kagura barely even acknowledged him. She was probably happy that he'd be out of her sights.
"We're going to do things right from this point onward." Gaia said while standing with Alex, Daryan, Yakuza, Hiruka, and Magnus. "We want to be a guild that we can be proud of. We were stuck under the thumb of someone who didn't deserve our powers or loyalty. But starting now, we're going to walk a path similar to all of you. The next time you see us, we'll be much, much stronger."
"I can't wait!" Natsu said with a challenging grin.
"It's sad to see them go…" Cynthia sighed. "But I'm sure they'll come back!"
"I'd rather they didn't..." Jaxon said while shrugging.
"I wonder what that darkness thing Sirius was talking about earlier is..." Lucy said, unable to push that thought aside.
"Doesn't matter!" Natsu said as he pounded his fists together. "Whatever it is, I'll burn it to ash!"
.
.
In an undisclosed location; a lab spanning about 30 miles. Inside this lab was Aiden and Hyde; Aiden was looking over some files while Hyde just sat in a chair. "You're quite the clever one, Aiden…" Hyde said with a chuckle. "I would've never thought you'd use this area for a secret lab…"
"Many people figured this area was destroyed once the Omega Fire Cannon struck here…that was just a façade…" Aiden replied while pulling up a file on Cynthia. "I used this area as an example and for my own personal gain. 30 miles is a bit much for a lab, but I'll need all the space I can get for what's to come…"
"Since our scripts do not overlap, I would be more than happy to assist you with this," Hyde said as he nodded.
"Good…" Aiden gave a nod before tilting his head. "Well…this is odd…It appears Cynthia has gained control of a good 50 or so percent of her power…and it's steadily growing…"
"What's so odd about that?" Aiden asked.
"She doesn't have the strength to control it all…but this provides me with a decent experiment…How much can she control before she loses her mind…?" Aiden grinned at his own question, now wanting to test it out. "I know for a fact she can't control it all…she won't get the chance. You see, Hyde, she's also a bomb that I can choose to set off any time I want…well, it used to be that way…after that incident over half a year ago, that method is broken…so she's really her own bomb…"
"Her own bomb…?" Hyde raised a brow, somewhat confused.
"Should she go too far, the lacrima in her body will explode, and there's more than one reason why she's called Fiore's End…"
.
.
He sat alone underneath tree, staring out into the sky. The black wizard, Zeref sighed before shaking his head. "Their actions will bring about the destruction of this world...the dragon will return at this rate, and there won't be anything they can do to stop it..."
.
.
"What a conflict." Heartless said as she held up multiple vials containing magic. Between the Tartarus incident, and the fight with the angels, there was plenty of it to go around. "But it served us quite well." She was in an undisclosed building, standing before King along with Little Queen.
"Ho ho ho ho! Fiore is truly a goldmine for magic!" King laughed while shuffling his deck of cards. "I knew it was a wonderful idea to keep an eye on them after the Grand Magic Games!"
"They are none the wiser." Heartless said with a curt bow. "They've been aiding us with our plans for well over a year now as well."
"The time to fight them will be soon, won't it?" Little Queen said while tilting her head up at Heartless and King. "They are very strong. The way they fight for their friends...it's inspiring. Between the Fiore's End incident, The Grand Magic Games, and just now. They've been fighting so hard and overcoming everything that's come their way. Will we be alright?"
King stopped shuffling his deck, looking towards Little Queen. "Inspiring, is it?" He placed his deck down and walked towards Little Queen, placing his hand atop her head. "Little Queen, I understand you are new to the world. But there is one thing you must understand. Strength is the only thing that matters. Compassion, friendship, none of that concerns me. Do you earnestly believe that they will pose a problem to us?"
"Well, I just..." Little Queen wasn't sure how to answer. She looked to Heartless for help on a proper answer. But...it was already too late.
"If your answer isn't a no, then I already know what you think. And you do not belong with us, if you think they stand even a remote chance again us!" King flexed his hand, Little Queen's eyes widening as sparks flew from her body. Little Queen then collapsed into a heap on the ground, unmoving as her eyes closed.
Heartless didn't say anything. She just closed her eyes. "..."
King dusted his hands off and turned around, arms folding behind his back. "There is no need for anyone who questions or doubts what we are about to do." There were six people standing behind King, all falling in line with Heartless. They all saw what happened, but none of them were going to speak up about it. Out of fear, or something else? Only they knew the answers. "Now then! It is about time we finally make our move. We will not achieve our goal by being passive! Now is the time to strike! We will use Fiore for all its worth, and then, my ultimate goal will be achieved! Dealer...it is time to act!"