Chapter 14
Welcome Back
"Speech"
'Thoughts'
"Magic"
Flashback / Dreams
Location / Date / Time Skip
"This is insane!" Lucy shouted. "You're nothing like the Natsu we know."
"And other than the looks department, you're nothing like my Lucy." E. Natsu said back before leaning over his shoulder. "So pukeface back there is me? That's shameful."
"He's usually not like this." Wendy said. "He's just not good with vehicles."
"What about the dude hanging off the pipe?" E. Natsu asked, making them all turn to the window.
"Pull me in!" Nicholas shouted.
"He seems fine." Slate said. "So, how is this hunk of metal running without an SE plug?"
"A what?" Wendy asked.
"SE stands for 'Self Energy' Plug." Carla explained. "It turns magic power into fuel so without one it shouldn't run at all."
"But since people here don't have natural magic power, I guess they don't need SE plugs." Lucy surmised.
"So what's powering this, then?" Wendy asked.
"Facinating." Carla mumbled. "They may be lacking in magic, but Edolas has made great strides in vehicles."
E. Natsu slammed on the breaks and the car skidded a halt, sending Slate right into the window. "How about little a warning next time?" Lucy asked, upset.
"Ahhh!" Nicholas flew off to the side and crashed into a large rock. "I hate this place..." He groaned as he slid down.
"Wow, you people are ignorant." E. Natsu said. "Since magic power is limited, that means magic fuel is limited as well. It's nearly impossible to get. In other words, this is as far as I can take you, so get out."
"Huh!?" Lucy asked.
"If I keep burning fuel like this, I won't make it back to the guild." He explained. "Thanks to the Fairy Hunter, we had to change locations again."
Natsu jumped out of the car and started jumping in joy. "Sweet solid ground! I'm alive again!"
"At least your me knows when it's time to move." E. Natsu said before throwing the others out, literally. "Now, scram! You wanna take on the kingdom, be my guest. Just don't drag my Fairy Tail into it. I only helped you because of Lucy." He glanced over to the blonde. "No, my Lucy. I could never turn her down when she asks. Thank her and my Brianna for this rescue. I don't want anything else to do with you. All that matters is if I can drive."
"Hey!" Natsu placed his hand on the car, catching his counterparts attention before he dragged his lookalike out. "I wanna talk to you for a second."
"Get your hands off me, now!" E. Natsu shouted.
"Lighten up for a second, will ya?" Natsu asked.
"Cut it out, I can't get out of the car!" E. Natsu shouted before being placed on the ground.
Natsu quickly picked Nicholas up off the ground and sat him next to the doppelgänger. "Now... how come you two can stand vehicles?" He asked, leaning in.
"That's what you wanna know!?" Lucy asked in shock.
"I don't know, I just don't." Nicholas answered. "Maybe that means I'm tougher than-"
"I'm sorry." Nicholas was cut off by a whimpering apology from next to him. "I don't know, please don't hurt me." He joined the others as they gawked at Natsu's counter part, now a blubbering mess.
"Uh... are you the same me from a minute ago?" Natsu asked, leaning in.
"Yes, I am!" E. Natsu cried/shouted. "People just tell me I'm like a different persoon behind the wheel."
"This worlds Natsu is a scardy cat." Happy said.
"Ahhahahahaha!" Nicholas started laughing. "Oh, oh, this is too good!"
"Please don't laugh at me." E. Natsu begged as he hugged his head. "I'm scared."
Natsu stared in total disbelief of himself. "Just like looking in a mirror, right?" Lucy teased.
"I'm sorry, I'm really sorry. But this is as far as I can take you." E. Natsu said, crying the whole time.
"Why's that?" Natsu asked the driver.
"The only reason I came was because my Lucy told me I had to!" He explained, resulting in the fastest answer any of them had heard.
"So he's whipped too! Ahahahahahah!" Nicholas shouted before laughing even harder.
"It's okay, you don't have to do it if it scares you." Wendy said.
"We have no use for a blubbering coward anyway." Carla said bluntly.
"Be nice." Wendy said back.
"Hey, what's you're name?" E. Natsu asked. "I bet it's Wendy." He guessed correctly. "Wow, you're such a cute little girl. And your Earthland's version of me?" He asked, turning to Natsu.
"Are you just figuring that out?" Natsu asked back.
"I'm Happy. This is Slate, and this vision of beauty here is Carla." Happy said, introducing the cats.
"Okay, okay, I think I'm done." Nicholas said sitting up, wiping a tear from his eye. "Man alive, that was the funniest thing ever."
"And I'm Lucy, but I'm pretty sure you know that." Lucy said.
Her interaction scared E. Natsu again, sending him hiding behind the car. "I'm sorry. I'll do whatever I can, please don't hurt me."
"Ahahaahahahah!" Nicholas started laughing agicn. "I was wrong, I was so wrong!"
"You should treat me better." Natsu told the blonde.
"The Lucy that I know, she told me to take you this far. So, I did." He explained, causing everyone to turn around.
"Is that the place?" Lucy asked, looking at the large city.
"I think it's the royal city." Happy said.
"It's so big." Wendy added.
"Okay, time to stop laughing." Slate said to Nicholas. "We're at the place."
"Seriously!?" He asked, sitting up and turning to match the others.
"You should have told us we were here sooner." Natsu said, sling his arm around the driver.
"You're right, I'm so sorry!" He said back, annoying Natsu.
He walked over to the edge and stared out over the city. "This is awesome! We'll be saving everyone in no time."
"They're all down there, as part of a giant lacrima." Lucy mumbled.
"Let's not waste anymore time." Carla said before starting down the cliff.
"Thanks a bunch, man!" Natsu shouted back at himself.
"Say hi to the other two for me." Lucy said as she ran down after Nicholas.
"Wait!" E. Natsu called out, stopping his counterpart. "You're really going to fight against the kingdom?"
"I don't know." He answered back. "Were just going to get our friends back. If these guys don't wanna give our friends back, I guess we'll just have to fight them."
E. Natsu let out a small gasp of shock as wind blew around them. "I hate to say this... but you can't win." Natsu mere grinned back before running after the others.
The Royal City
To call this place different from the other cities would be putting it lightly. All around the wizards and cats, people were just wasting magic like it was never going to run out. "These people are happy." Lucy said, looking around.
"I thought the people here would be totally different." Wendy said.
"Not really a dictatorship, is it?" Nicholas asked before scratching his wig. "And we just walked into the city without a problem." Something caught Natsu's eye before he pulled Nicholas away.
"Compared to everywhere else we've been, this is like a fair." Lucy mumbled.
"Pretty sure it's because they steal magic so the elite can have it." Slate said. "Standard practice for a declining empire; keep the top of the world happy so they don't overthrow you for someone who will favor them." Th other two cats just stared at him. "What, I read books."
"Well, it's not working for me." Lucy said.
"Stop it." Wendy looked behind her to find Natsu pushing Nicholas on some kind of horse shaped ride. "I told you, I don't know why."
She then noticed a crowd of people gathering down the road. "Hey, guys, it looks like there's something happening over there."
"Is it a parade or something?" Lucy asked.
"Let's check it out!" Natsu shouted as he and Happy ran over.
"We're not here to play games!" Carla shouted.
Her words fell on deaf ears and others had no choice but to race after the two. "Hold on, Natsu!" Lucy shouted as people pushed her around. "Geez, these people are ruder than-" She bumped into Natsu, cutting her off. "Warn me when you're going to stop." She requested before looking over his shoulder.
In front of the crowd was a giant lacrima, larger than any she'd ever see again. Guards surrounded it as ropes kept it from rolling away. "That's a lacrima." Wendy mumbled.
"A giant one, which means..." Lucy stared.
"All of our friends are in there." Happy finished.
"I wouldn't be to sure about that." Slate said. "Look, it's clearly been cut from a bigger piece."
"Wait, there's more of that thing somewhere?!" Lucy asked.
The people cheered louder as an old man with a long beard in robes stepped out of a balcony. He spread his arms wide and the cheers intensified as shouts of 'Your Majesty' started. Far off behind them, Gajeel watched the scene as well.
"Children of Edolas." The man spoke. "It is with great joy that I announce that the Anima program has finally succeeded! There's enough magic power inside this lacrima to last another decade."
"Produced? You stole that from our world!" Happy shouted, but was muffled but the crowd.
"Let us celebrate with song, dance, and laughter!" The king worked the crowd like a puppet master and they danced right along. "The power of this lacrima belongs to all those loyal to our homeland. Today, we hold the future in our hands and ensure our prosperity into tomorrow and beyond. So we must swear to protect this gift from heaven with our lives!"
The crowd cheered again. "I make a promise here and now, my children." He stabbed the lacrima with his staff, causing it to crack. "I will bring you even more power than this!" The crack grew before small chunks started falling off. Natsu stared at the chunks in burning anger as Gajeel walked away.
"What a joke." He mumbled. "Everyone here is a giant sucker. They fell for his snake oil talk."
Natsu growled before marching forward, only for Nicholas to stop him. "Don't."
"They're our friends! We can't just leave them!" Natsu shouted back.
"Don't you think this is hard on me!" The brunette shouted back. "Brianna could be in that thing, but we're no good to anyone if we end up in jail!" Both Slayers glared at the king as he laughed like a mad man.
Sunset
Inn Room
The room the group was staying in was tense to say the least. Natsu sat on the window ledge, glaring at the castle while Lucy and Wendy sat on the couch. Happy was slumped against the wall while Nicholas was doing push-ups with Slate on his back. It was the only thing he could do to keep his mind off the whole situation. Carla was on the table, drawing something on a piece of paper.
"I'm done sitting around like this." Natsu said, standing up. "I'm storming the castle!"
"That won't accomplish anything." Carla said.
"Why not?" He asked, marching over to the door.
"For starters, how do you plan on getting out?" Nicholas asked.
"Are you seriously not gonna help me?" Natsu asked back. "I thought you of all people would be raring to go save everyone! Especially-"
"Don't. Say. Her. Name." He growled, standing up. "Like I said, were no good to anyone if we get captured."
"All of our friends were turned into that giant lacrima..." Wendy mumbled. "We don't even know how to change them back."
"The king will just have to tell us that himself." Carla said, going back to her map.
"You wanna ask the king?" Slate asked from the top of Nicholas' head. "That psycho is not going to tell us anything."
"He will if we kick his ass!" Natsu shouted.
"Wait..." Lucy mumbled, standing up. "Do you really think the king knows how to reverse the spell?"
"Probably." Wendy said.
"Then we have a chance." Lucy said, brimming with hope. "If we can get close to the king, we can pull this off!"
"Pull what off?" Slate asked.
"But how do we save everyone?" Wendy asked.
"With Gemini!" Lucy shouted.
"What the hell's a Gemini?" Nicholas asked.
"Its one of my spirits." Lucy explained. "They can turn into other people just by touching them. Not only that, they can also read the minds of whoever they touch. Which means, if they can turn into the king, thus can tell us everything he knows!"
"Seriously!?" Slate asked.
"Timing is going to be an issue, because they can only hold the transformation for about five minutes. And they can only remember two people at a time." Lucy explained. "But the real question is how are we gonna get close enough for this to work."
"No joke. He has a ton of guards surrounding him." Wendy added.
"I've come up with a plan." Carla said, holding up her crudely drawn map. "As with any paranoid ruler, when the castle was constructed, there was a tunnel built as an escape route which connects to the mine shaft just outside the city."
"Wait, how do you know that?" Nicholas asked.
"Its just in my head, coming to me in little bits and pieces." Carla explained as Slate and Happy looked at her. "From the second we set foot in Edolas, a mental map has slowly been filled in."
"Not happening to me or Happy." Slate said.
"If we can find that tunnel, we may have a real shot at getting to the king." Lucy said.
"Alright!" Natsu cheered. "Let's get inside that geezers head!" Wendy and Happy joined his excitement.
"Not yet." Carla said.
"Why are you always stopping me!?" Natsu asked annoyed.
"We move under the cover of night." She explained. "Until then, we should try to get some rest."
Night
Mine Shaft Entrance
The seven waited until night before making their way to the entrance of the mine. "We're here." Carla said as they came to a stop in front of the old mine shaft.
"In we go." Natsu said before walking forward.
"Wait!" Carla shouted.
"What now!?" He asked, getting annoyed.
"I understand that time is of the essence, but we need someway to see in the tunnel." She explained.
"Not a problem." Natsu tried lighting his fist on fire and failed.
"Once again, you cannot use magic in this world." She reminded him.
"I can't say that Lucy being the only source of magic is very comforting." Happy mumbled.
"Give it a rest, Happy." Lucy said, walking up from behind.
"Oh, did I say that outloud?" He asked, sweating like a pig.
Wendy turned and noticed something in the blondes hands. "What you holding?"
"I got us torches." Lucy bragged.
"No, I got us torches!" Slate said, holding a third one. "All you did was stand there and grab the two I finished!"
"Whatever, all we need to do now is light these things and we're golden." Lucy said.
"And how do you propose we do that?" Carla asked, crushing Lucy.
"Good point..." She mumbled before she and Natsu tried rubbing sticks together.
"This has got to be the most humiliating thing I've ever done in my life." He mumbled.
"We don't have a choice." Lucy said. "Though it really does show how convenient magic is, even for the little things."
"People really use to make fire like this?" Happy asked, earning a nod from Slate, Carla and Wendy.
Natsu rubbed his stick a little faster and it broke, and the same thing happened to Lucy. "Man, this sucks!" Natsu complained.
"Out of my way." Nicholas said as he walked over, some rocks in one arm and some leaves and branches in the other. He placed the down before grabbing two rocks and started banging them against each other. A few strikes later, sparks flew off and the pile caught fire. "There."
"How did you-" Lucy started to ask.
"You pick up a few things when you're on the run." He explained before grabbing a torch and holding it over the fire.
"That's awesome." Natsu cheered.
"I find it ironic that the fire wizard couldn't even make a spark." Carla said.
"We got fire now, so drop it." He said back.
The others lit the two torches as Natsu stared at torch in his hand. "Is something wrong?" Happy asked before Natsu ate the fire. "Hey, maybe eating fire will bring your magic back."
"No, it won't." Nicholas said. "If that's all it took, I would have mine back by now."
"Aw..." Natsu dropped his head in shame before he relight his torch. The others walked ahead and he ran after them.
Carla led the way as she held the map in her face. "Looks like this place was abandoned." Lucy said, looking around.
Carla came to a stop and they others copied her. "Shine the light ahead of us." She requested and Wendy did just that. In front of them was a blocked off wall. "That's our way in."
Lucy walked forward and tapped the wall. "It's pretty thick, and I think it's been reinforced by some kind of magic."
"So this is a dead end?" Natsu asked.
"We need to get through." Carla said. "That's the only way we can get in."
"I am not eating that disgusting stone." Nicholas said.
"Not a problem." Lucy said, pulling out a key. "I know someone who can help us out. Open, Gate of the Golden Bull - Taurus!" The key shined and the spirit appeared. "If you want brute strength, than this is your guy. Smash that wall!"
"You got it, miss Luucy." Taurus said before punching the wall down.
"There's a passage." Wendy said as the dust cleared.
"Way to go, Taurus!" Lucy cheered.
"Now hooow about setting me up with that sexy cooow lady?" He asked.
"Uh, well..." Lucy mumbled before closing his gate in a panic.
"Thank you, I didn't want to find out if you could kill a spirit." Nicholas said as he lead them through the hole.
Natsu looked over and found Happy looking disappointed. "What's wrong?"
"How come me and Slate aren't gettting any maps in our heads?" He asked. "We're from Edolas just like Carla and we're supposed to be on the same mission, but why aren't we getting anything?"
"We agreed not to talk about that, remember?" Carla reminded him.
"I didn't agree to anything." Slate said, walking ahead.
"Look, I can't explain it myself, but that's just how it seems to be." She told Happy.
"For now, all we can do is move forward." Lucy said, making the others follow her, Nicholas and Slate.
"I hope this thing doesn't cave in on us." Natsu said aloud.
"Don't jinx us." Lucy said back.
"Still, this place is pretty old." Slate mumbled. "I wouldn't be surprised if we ran into a ghost or two."
Natsu stopped in his tracks, scaring Lucy. "Just hold this for a second." He handed her the torch... and started doing shadow puppetry.
"Take this seriously!" Lucy shouted, spinning the torch in his mouth.
They walked a bit more and came to a fork in the road. "We need to take a left." Carla said. They followed her command and they found themselves in a large cavern filled with luminescent mushrooms. "Right now, we are directly under the castle."
"I don't get all this psychic stuff, but I'm just glad you're on our side." Lucy said.
"I'm confused as well, but like I said, the map just comes to me." Carla explained. "But this is not cause for celebration. We still need to get to the king and back out undetected. If any guards find us, we won't stand a chance."
"Don't forget, we can always use my magic if we get in a jam." Lucy bragged.
"I don't think you're gonna save us." Natsu said.
"Hello! Taurus got us this far, and the whole plan hinges on Gemini!" Lucy shouted back.
"Let's just go." He huffed. They walked forward a bit before a stream of white goo shot forward and wrapped around the blonde. "Lucy!"
"What is that!?" Wendy asked.
More goo shot out and wrapped around the slayers as Lucy reached for her keys. "I can't... get my keys..."
Footsteps marched towards them before they were surrounded by royal soldiers. "Royal troops?" Happy asked in shock.
"Why are they down here?" Nicholas asked.
"How did they find us?" Happy asked as Carla stared in shock.
"I'd told you they come through here." The humans looked over as Knightwalker and Fale walked forward. "Rats always come through the smallest hole."
"Erza! Nicholas!?" Lucy shouted in shock at the second Edolas native.
"You bastard!" Nicholas shouted as he tried charging himself, only for the guards to hold him back.
E. Nicholas walked forward and studied his face. "The resemblance is uncanny, with one minor exception." He glared at the scar across the lips before throwing a punch.
"Leave him alone!" Lucy shouted.
"It really is amazing how much you resemble the outlaws, Ashley and Dragion." E. Erza said. "Take them away."
The guards obeyed and started dragging the four away. "Erza! Please, listen to us." Lucy begged, but they went unanswered.
"Wendy!" Carla shouted before running after them. Slate and Happy followed her, before getting stopped by the Edolas counterparts.
The two glared at them for an uncomfortably long time. "Great Exceeds." E. Erza said before she, Fale, and the guards dropped their knees. "We are honored to welcome you home."
"I don't understand..." Lucy mumbled in shock.
"No way..." Nicholas mumbled.
"Who are you guys? I thought we were friends." Wendy said.
"We're most grateful that you helped us capture these criminals." Fale said. Slate and Happy turned to Carla, who was just staring in shock.
Another chapter, and the doppelgängers meet. Well, Nicholas and Fale meet, and Nicholas seems disgusted by his counterpart. But then again, you would be too if your clone killed your best friends parents in another world.
Last chapter had absolutely no reviews. I'm kinda disappointed in that, and a little surprised that no one asked about the motion sickness thing. Next chapter is Slate's moment of glory, and you'll like it... I hope.
Beta read by JamesFreki.
