"I think that went exceptionally well!" Rustyrose chuckled, his laugh echoing throughout the halls of Tartaros Castle.
"Some of it was quite the letdown…" Diana gave a slight sigh, pulling a now semi-conscious Heather up by her hair. "But, I suppose there was some benefit…Strongest guild in Fiore my ass…"
"Trashin' those Fairies again was rather fun…" Maggie chuckled somewhat. "Their reactions to "Lucy's" betrayal were quite the sight to watch…"
"Where is she anyway?" Kain asked. "My black and white haired mistress must be rewarded for such a fine job!"
"I don't think she, or anyone would take your rewards…" Kiora replied to Kain while giving a look of disgust.
"Is everyone here?" Tobias asked as he walked in with Horoki and Bluenote with Yukino over his shoulder.
"Looks like it," Rugal nodded.
"Oh, and you got the hostages, excellent!" Tobias chuckled, but he then glanced at Heather, raising a brow towards Diana. "I don't remember telling you to capture her…"
"Oh, so I did one tiny thing different?" Diana sighed sarcastically. "What's it matter? We still got the wind mage and the astrology mage, right?"
"Well…yes…." Tobias replied. "Then again…I do suppose this could play into our hands quite nicely…"
"I don't like this…" Aira whimpered to herself, utterly afraid due to all the powerful mages around her.
"The stars say they'll rescue us…" Saeko replied to Aira. Though she was afraid of the current situation herself, she heard what the stars had to say, and she believed in what they told her until the very end. "The stars have never led me astray…"
"SO!" Zancrow suddenly shouted out, his black flames roaring from his body. "WHEN DO I GET TO KILL SOMEONE!?"
"Pipe the fuck down," Kiora commanded. "God, you're so annoying…"
"Soon, Zancrow," Tobias said with a grin as he reached in his back pocket, pulling out a lacrima that displayed the interior of the Castle. "You see, I have a little…game, in mind. Well, it wasn't just me. Dait helped with this idea, and I think it's rather brilliant."
"What is it?" Ur asked while crossing her arms.
"Instead of putting all the hostages in one place, Dait suggested we put them all in different locations. Adding this to my runes and the size of the castle…the results should be pleasing at best." Tobias explicated.
"Is that so…?" Azuma spoke up, catching Tobias' attention. "Will I get to fight strong opponents?"
"Oh, yes…/everyone/ will have an opponent…I've already set up the runes beforehand. Anyone within this alliance is free to walk around the castle as they wish. Anyone else won't have such an easy time." Tobias nodded, a sly smirk forming on his lips. "Oh! We'll need to place the hostages…here, here, here…" Tobias went on with the placement of the hostages as he pointed to specific areas of the castle. "And now, I will need anyone who doesn't have a hostage to take a post."
"There's not enough of us to cover the entire castle, dip shit…" Kiora scoffed.
"I am aware of that…and don't worry, I have that covered," Tobias nodded. "Now then, if you'll excuse me. I'm going to place this one in the cell with Lucy so Ruika can finally finish her business with these two." Tobias walked off, turning the corner until he was out of sight, and began walking to the lower levels of the castle to Lucy's cell.
Unfortunately for Tobias, he wasn't aware of one thing. Yukino was supposed to be unconscious still, but at this point, she was acting. She was moderately injured from the attack on Sabertooth, but she regained consciousness rather quickly, and was now just letting Tobias carry her. (In the same cell with Lucy…? Hang on, Lucy…!)
.
.
"Is everyone alright…?" Zalen asked as he began to regain consciousness with everyone else.
"I'm getting real sick of people coming in here…" Calium groaned. He was old, but he was studier than he looked. He used his staff as a support to help himself up.
"They took Saeko…" Kuro said with a saddened expression, mentally beating himself for being unable to save the pinkette.
"They also took Aira…" Selene groaned as she pushed herself up. She put on a serious face, but on the inside, her pride was destroyed. Her diamonds had been broken, something that rarely happened to her. Almost never, in fact.
"And Heather…" Luke managed to say, but he had the hardest time doing so.
"Luke, are you alright…you look pretty shaken up…" Waiston said as he let out a groan of pain.
"N-No…those two…those were my parents…strongest people I know…and they took Heather…" Luke replied, his face still pale, a fearful look added on.
"This isn't like you…" Kairi stated while wincing, placing her hands on her hips. "I'm pretty sure the Luke we all know is a little more confident than that…"
"We're going after them, right?" Adam spoke while helping Skye up.
"Of course we are," Reve replied, dusting himself off.
"..She held back." Sidney spoke as he stood up, bruises all over his body. "She could've done more damage if she wanted to. She had us off guard too, but she didn't use more power."
"She wants us chase after them…" Taya growled slightly. "Of course, the hostage idea had to be from Tobias. He's not much use for anything but planning…that's the only thing I really remember about him."
"Well, that decides it, doesn't it?" Cygnus said while gaining a smug grin. "They beat us on our turf, so we beat them in theirs!"
"Heh, I like the way you think, Cyg," Reve said in agreement, his own smirk appearing. "But we can't all go. We need some people to hold the fort down in town in case something happens. There's nothing really much of this place…"
"I'll take care of that," Jack said while holding up a flask.
"Thanks, Jack." Reve gave a nod to the drunk, then turned to the others. "Alright…here's whose coming. Selena, Cyg, Taya Sidney, Kairi, Zalen, Kuro, Takeru, Adam, Syke, and Luke."
"I can't…" Luke stammered.
Already fed up with his attitude, Kairi reared her hand back, and slapped Luke across the face, bringing him back to his senses. "Are you stupid or something?! You're just going to sit here while everyone else goes out to help Aira, Saeko, and Heather?"
"I…" Luke started, but he let out a sigh. "I'll come."
"Good, that's the first step to becoming a big boy," Reve replied to Luke's decision. "We leave now."
.
.
"Is everyone alright…" Rylo asked as he stood up slowly, shaking his head.
"I've...been better…." Taranis replied as he too stood up. "They took Sammy and Melanie…"
"Did you know about this…!?" Evanee asked Magnus, her anger blocking out the pain of her injuries.
"I was GOING to tell you…" Magnus started.
"Going doesn't cut it!" Evanee snapped. "Because of your decision to wait, two of our members have been kidnapped!"
"So that's what's going on…" Alexander spoke as he stood up.
"This is a disaster…" Rylo sighed. "First Flynn…now Melanie and Tsami…"
"Whoa…" A loud voice said through the other side of the Twilight Zone doors. "What happened here…?"
"That voice…" Rylo's ears perked up.
"That smell…" Evanee continued.
"What's going on now…?" Alexander asked.
The doors of Twilgiht Zone swung open, revealing two people. One of these people was a TALL male, like, over 6 feet tall kinda tall. This male also had ginger hair, and an eye patch over one of his eyes. "Hey, shorties!"
"Ceaser…" Rylo couldn't help but let out a large sigh of relief upon seeing one of Twilight Zone's beginning members; Ceaser Romales.
"We miss, somethin'?" The other male said. This male had red hair, two strands falling in front of his face, and brown eyes.
"Adacore…" Evanee too felt a sense of relief that these two mages were now here. Ceaser Romales and Adacore Vendetta, two of her child hood guildmates.
"Who are these guys…?" Alexander asked while raising a brow.
"Name's Ceaser!" The tall male said while patting Alexander on the head. "Nice to meet'cha, shorty!"
Alexander's expression turned into a slightly irritated one as Ceaser called him shorty, but he shrugged it off and swatted Ceaser's hand away. "Alexander…"
"What's going on?" Adacore asked while looking around. "This place doesn't look anymore lively than it did we when left…Where's Flynn, by the way?"
Evanee paused at the mention of Flynn, but she shook her head slightly and began to speak. "Flynn saved us, and for that we owe him. But, we had two other members here. Tsami and Melanie, but Grimoire Heart and some other guild kidnapped them. I wasn't able to capture the scent either, so I can't track them down…"
"Wait…so we can't find them…?" Taranis spoke with a voice of disbelief.
"If we looked now who knows how long it would take…" Rylo spoke with a hint of agitation. "I can't believe they made short work of us like that…"
"Actually…" Magnus coughed. "You're forgetting someone."
"Oh…?" Evanee turned, placing a hand on her injured hip as she glanced sarcastically at Magnus. "What, are you going to tell us something we already know?"
"Cute…" Magnus chuckled somewhat before getting serious. "Your members are at Tartaros Castle, hostages, as you would've guessed. They're waiting for Twilight Zone to come out and go after them."
"Tartaros Castle…" Taranis mumbled.
"We're actually going?" Alexander asked while looking around.
"You and Taranis are going to Magnolia," Rylo demanded. "Evanee, Ceaser, Adacore, and I will take care of this."
"You're taking us out of the fight?!" Taranis asked. "But…!"
"No buts," Evanee said in a strict tone, causing the demon to quiet down. "We'll need someone there in case something happens again. And, this isn't a fight anymore. This is war."
"If this is war, then let us help. War is my specialty, after all," Alexander said with a smug grin. "Besides, I'm not just going to let those bastards go with the satisfaction they got to beat me."
"What he said," Taranis nodded.
"Fine…" Evanee replied, knowing she wasn't going to get very far with trying to convince them otherwise.
.
.
"U-Ugh…" Erza groaned slightly as she regained consciousness. She looked around, only to see that she was in Magnolia, along with the rest of Fairy Tail. "W-What happened?"
"We were saved…" Mirajane replied as she stood up, leaning against a nearby wall.
"By who…" Cynthia asked as she sat up.
"By none other than Fiore's former strongest guild!" A cocky voice stated.
"I know that annoying voice anywhere…" Gajeel groaned as he straightened up. Everyone looked to see where the voice came from, and to many's surprises, it was what was left of Cosmic Star; Daryan, and Shadowlore.
"You two…" Laxus grunted as he spoke.
"Magnus told us what was happenin' so we hurried as fast as we could to save your asses from Hell, heh…" Shadowlore chuckled slightly.
"You guys…!" Alex's eyes sparkled at the sight of her former guildmates. "Has there been any word on Gaia? Or Yakuza?!"
"No word on them yet…" Daryan replied, but he then turned in the direction of Tartaros Castle. "If you guys are going to save Lucy, and fight Tartaros, they went that way." Daryan said as he spoke, pointing in the direction of the castle. "That's where the Hell Fire Demon went, anyway."
"So, Lucy's there…" Wendy said as she placed her hands over Elfman's broken wrist, beginning to heal the Man.
"They're really done it this time…" Makarov growled as he looked around. "As the Master of Fairy Tail, I won't stand for these actions any longer!"
"Master, what are you gonna do?" Wendy asked as she looked to Makarov with a worried look.
"It's better if you let us do the work, old man," Laxus stated, looking Makarov directly in the eyes. "Things are about to get dangerous, and we're gonna need ya to stay back, understand?"
"Laxus…" Makarov was surprised by Laxus' words. It wasn't Laxus to really show concern about him or anyone in the guild too often.
"Those bastards need to pay!" Gray shouted.
"Juvia agrees with Gray-sama…" Juvia said with a serious tone. "Tartaros also has Lucy…we need to go rescue her…"
"I still can't believe that Lucy was a fake…" Cynthia sighed heavily. "A spy, right under our nose, and we fell for it…"
"And Natsu…" Happy choked. "He had Natsu's scarf…"
"Salamander's not dead," Gajeel replied while looking to the side. "He's too fucking stubborn to even stay down in a fight for more than 10 seconds, so there's no way he's dead.
"You really believe in him, huh, Gajeel…?" Levy said with a slight smile.
"Tch, it's not that at all…" Gajeel replied. "I just know how he is."
"Either way…" Carla began. "We can't all go to Tartaros Castle…there's too many people here to worry about."
"Erza, I'll leave the decision with you." Makarov nodded.
"Our mission is simple," Erza began, a serious expression crossing her face. It was perhaps the most serious one she ever had. "We rescue Lucy."
"Is that all we're doing!?" Cynthia blared out. "They just ATTACKED US!"
"So you might as well beat them on their own turf," Jack said while approaching the group, along with his own group of White Eclipse wizards.
"White Eclipse…you're missing quite a few people…" Mirajane stated.
"They went off ahead to fight Tartaros," Jaxon replied.
"They're actually going to fight…?" Lisanna asked with a slightly surprised tone.
"And we're not!?" Cynthia gave Erza the "really?!" look.
"You never let me finish…" Erza replied, giving Cynthia a sharp glance that caused the omega fire dragon to cower behind Wendy. "We're going to rescue Lucy. We are going against Tartaros, so avoiding conflict isn't possible. They've already started the war, and now we're going to fight. Mirajane, Laxus, Gray, Juvia, Cynthia, Wendy, and Gajeel, you're all coming."
"Gihehe, finally…" Gajeel grinned as his iron scales covered his body, getting prepared for the battle early on.
"We can do it…We're gonna rescue Lucy!" Cynthia threw her hand up in the air, extending her index finger and thumb. "We're coming Lucy, just hold on…!"
.
.
Rugal watched from the roof, noticing the incoming swarms of mages. They were all approaching from different areas, but Rugal's view from the roof allowed him to see everyone. "Looks like they've all arrived…Maggie, I do believe it's you first, yes?"
"Indeed," Maggie replied as she walked next to Rugal. "Let's see these wankers get past this…" With a smirk, Maggie snapped her fingers, causing a lava wall to shoot up in front of the castle, halting the tracks of the Fairy Tail and White Eclipse mages; the mages weren't coming in together, but the entrances they chose happened to be in the front, which was now blocked off by the lava wall.
"Lava!?" Cynthia flailed comically before coming to a stop in front of the wall.
"Good luck with that, loves!" Maggie shouted from above.
"Kanso!" Erza shouted, immediately changing into her Black Wing Armor. She immediately took off, her sword pulled back as she aimed for Maggie.
"Oh, no, no no!" Rustyrose wagged a finger disapprovingly as he brought his index finger to his temple, creating a cube around the castle and its perimeter. Erza's Black Wing armor sudden vanished, leaving her in the bare minimum until she caught herself, landing on her feet, quickly changing into her Hearts Cruz armor.
"What was that…?" Erza asked.
"No cheating!" Rustyrose replied to Erza from the roof. "You're playing a game, see? This wonderful game requires all the players to enter through the front doors! After that, the rules, which have been set in stone, will explain everything else!"
"How are we going to get past a LAVA wall…?" Cynthia placed her hands on her head, trying to think of a way.
"Plans are for idiots," Cygnus said as he placed a hand out. "Rise." After he spoke these words, the lava wall began to flow upward, leaving the front doors open.
"Nice work, Cyg." Reve said while nodding. "White Eclipse, let's roll."
"Fairy Tail, we're going in too!" Erza commanded as she led the way in through the front.
"Ice Make: Cannon…" After Ur spoke this, a large frozen blast broke through the front doors, and struck Erza, catching her off guard for a few seconds, but she caught herself, flipping as she landed. "Welcome to our humble abode." Ur chuckled as she casually walked out the front door, now standing a few feet away from Fairy Tail.
"Ur…" Gray's eyes narrowed; after a few seconds of dead silence, Gray stepped forward, immediately throwing off his shirt.
"Gray?" Erza looked over at Gray, obviously concerned.
"You guys go on, I have some unfinished business with her," Gray replied, his eyes still on Ur. Erza nodded, and the rest of Fairy Tail (aside from Juvia) left to go inside the castle.
"Juvia won't leave Gray-sama…" Juvia stated as she slid into an offensive stance.
"Juvia…" Gray was slightly annoyed, but he'd do the same. "If it gets really bad, make a run for it. I'll make sure you escape."
"Oh, isn't that sweet…" Ur let out a mocking giggle. "Well, I suppose I should get serious this time, huh?"
"I don't understand why they took the front door…" Evanee just shook her head as she, Rylo, Adacore, Alexander, Taranis, and Ceaser took a side entrance.
"Think you're clever, eh?" Kiora noticed Twilight Zone "sneak" in with her Heaven's Eye, snickering slightly.
.
.
"WE'RE COMING LUCY HOLD ON!" Cynthia blared, but stopped upon coming across a pathway with multiple forks in the road, though most of them seemed like dead ends. "Oh…" Cynthia then began to sniff the air, but she was unable to find anything. "Darn it…" She then looked around, noticing no one behind her. "What happened…?"
"You went too far ahead…" Cygnus stated as he walked in behind her.
"Too far?" Cynthia blinked a few times.
"You went so far you passed right through the runes…" Cygnus replied. "Unfortunately, only one from each guild is allowed to pass through a particular set of runes…"
"So it's you and me?" Cynthia asked.
"And me…" Bluenote said as he walked in through one of the corridors.
"Bluenote? Back for round 2, eh!?" Cygnus was already fired up from the sight of Bluenote. "This time, Ultear isn't here to save you!"
"You can't even fly…" Bluenote shook his head. "But, you can give me a nice warm up…"
.
.
"An angel and a demon working together…" Mirajane spoke quietly, though it was loud enough so that Kairi could hear. Mirajane was in her Satan Soul, while Kairi was in her base Angel Soul.
"Both fighting near the depths of Hell…" Kairi finished Mirajane's statement, though she wasn't exactly proud of herself for it. The two takeover makes slid to a halt in a large, open room, passing through another set of runes.
"More of them…" Mirajane turned around, reading the runes. "These runes will fall when the Great Tree Ark does…"
"Tree ark…" Kairi blinked a few times. "Why does that sound familiar…"
From the other side of the room, Azuma watched the two takeover females with their guards down. Azuma held his hand out, whispering, "Bleve."
"…Watch out!" Mirajane shouted, immediately splitting off with Kairi as an explosion engulfed the area the two were just in.
"I remember that…" Kairi turned around at Azuma, who had a slight smirk.
"Two strong opponents…" Azuma's smirk turned into a wide grin. "If you cannot defeat me, you have no hope of rescuing your blonde friend down there…"
"He wants us to come at him with everything we have…as usual…" Kairi said.
"This won't be like the island…" Mirajane said with a slight glare at Azuma.
"Then, come!" Azuma shouted, welcoming the Angel and Demon duo to charge at him.
.
.
"This wasn't exactly the fight I was planning on having!" Luke shouted as he jumped to the side, narrowly avoiding a palm strike from Kain.
"Don't let him touch your hair!" Gajeel shouted to Luke. "He'll make ya do some weird shit if you do…"
"Right…" Luke nodded, standing side by side with Gajeel. "That is pretty weird…"
"Mr. Cursey doesn't just work on you, it also works on me!" Kain grinned, placing his rough hair on the doll's head. "Material change: light!" Kain's body surrounded itself in a holy light, and using his surprising speed, he rushed towards Gajeel and Luke, his palm ready to strike. "Shining Sumo Palm!"
"Like hell!" Gajeel shouted as a green magic seal appeared before him. "Iron Dragon's Lance; Demon Logs!" From the magic circle, multiple steal projectiles shot out, aiming to strike Kain. Since he was so limber, he managed to avoid the incoming attack with ease, and threw his arm forward, unleashing a piercing beam of light in the process.
"GAH!" Luke shouted as he and Gajeel tumbled away. Gajeel took less damage due to his iron scales, but Luke was durable enough to where he wasn't too damaged; he couldn't afford to be, anyway. "This guy is annoying…"
.
.
"It appears the flies have gathered…" Tobias chucked slightly to himself as he reached the cells, surprised to see Lucy awake. "Oh, Lucy, you're awake. I brought you a friend."
"Y-Yukino…!" Lucy cried out weakly, but she couldn't find herself able to do much more than that.
"I'm just gonna throw her in here with you and have Ruika deal with you later!" Tobias grinned, swinging the cage doors open. As soon as that sound ran through Yukino's ears, she brought her knee up, slamming it into Tobias' face, causing Tobias to drop Yukino and stagger back. "G-Gah!?"
"Lucy-sama…What did they do to you…" Yukino asked as she glance at Lucy, horrified at her current state.
"What the hell!? You're not supposed to be awake!?" Tobias yelled, rubbing his nose, the spot where Yukino hit."
"You'll pay for what you've done to Sabertooth…" Yukino replied, immediately pulling out a silver key after. "I'll have to make short work of you…"
.
.
Because of the runes, Twilight Zone had to separate in their search. Evanee walked down a long corridor, a little annoyed her sense of smell wasn't working. She suddenly stopped when she felt a strong presence not too far ahead of her. "Come out," Evanee demanded.
"Don't order me around…" Karma said as he walked from the shadows.
"You…?" Evanee groaned slightly. "What is it with you people and always showing up out of nowhere…it's highly annoying…"
"I told you you'd pay for what you did to Cosmic Star…" Karma replied with a dark glare.
"You did it to yourselves," Evanee replied. "At least your former ace had the decency to apologize. The rest of them don't seem so bad. You, though? I can see how the rot seeped into them. Luckily they were able to pry themsevles away from that."
"Psh, Gaia…" Karma rolled his eyes. "You're not getting any farther unless you defeat this old man," With a grin, Karma stood up straight, allowing his magic energy to release, shaking the room.
"You think I'll let a twig stop me?" Evanee replied. "I have members I need to rescue…" With that, Evanee allowed stones to cover her fist, and she dashed forward, immediately swinging a hook at Karma…but Karma's body merely turned into a mist, allowing Evanee's fist to phase right through him. "What was…?"
"Oh…did I surprise you?" Karma gave a dark chuckle, his gaze now turning into a sadistic one. "Excellent…"
.
.
Nearby Tartaros Castle, Aiden and Hyde were watching the events unfold. "Hm…interesting turn of events…" Aiden said while glancing at the exterior of the castle. This…Twilight Zone…and Cosmic Star…they seem to be interesting additions to the script, don't you think?"
"Too many characters…" Hyde replied, a slight grin forming on his face. "My scripts have no need for so many characters, but I cannot simply just omit then right off the bad. A good play has tragic parts…and what's more tragic than the deaths of certain characters…?"
.
.
In the depth of Tatarus Castle, Marde Geer sat at the throne. There was a book in his hands, and he let out a heavy sigh. "Daityas...why do you insist on playing these games with these insects? Whatever mess comes about from this is yours and yours alone. The Nine Demon Gates will not take part in this game. It is not the vision we have for our true Master..."
