Let's dive on in
Chp 13: (Revised) Those close can hurt you
The group now with Cana joining them escaped the army and retreated into a nearby forest sitting on logs.
"Man, what a drag I haven't had to run as much since that endurance race we did." Said Cana.
"While we're here let's figure out what our next move should be." Said Carla.
Natsu turned towards Cana. "So Cana mind telling us how you got here to Edolas in the first place?"
"Well I have Lucy to thank for that, right before I was consumed in that vacuum she summoned her spirit the clock man and he shielded me." She explained. "Then I ran into that Mystogan guy and he sent me here, I began walking around trying to find everyone till I ran into you guys."
"Mystogan was there, how'd he survive the space vacuum?" Happy asked.
"If I had to guess and it's a pretty wild guess, maybe he's from this world and he's the counterpart of that Jellal guy." Zodie said.
"That actually makes sense." Said Wendy.
"Now let me ask you guys some questions, what do you mean, how come Natsu can't use his magic, why is there a grown up Wendy here and how the hell is Lisanna alive!"
The group took the time explaining how magic is finite in Edolas and that everyone has their own doppelganger hence Lisanna and Wendy being there, this brought a sad expression to her face hoping that by some miracle she was still alive somehow. She even inquired about her own doppelganger to which they explained. "Hold on hold on, prim and proper not a single drop of alcohol!"
"Well it sounds like you could learn from her honestly," Carla said.
"We can continue this talk elsewhere. I'm gonna scout the area out for a place to stay in." Zodie then sprouted his wings and took off.
"Make sure you're invisible to avoid detection." Carla called out. The group waited for about fifteen minutes before he came back, startling them. "Good news nearby town has an inn we can stay in."
The group decided to take a break going to the bath house nearby the inn; boys on one side and girls on the other. "This has been quite the adventure eh fellas." Said Zodie.
"Yeah sometimes it makes me think I'm dreaming."
"Especially after seeing Lisanna." Zodie soon regretted what he said. "Oh Natsu man I…i didn't mean-."
The fire dragon threw his hand up. "It's fine it's fine, just every time I look at her I'm reminded of all the memories we've made." Happy put's a reassuring hand on his friend's arm. "And at the same time that there aren't any more memories to make, it's just…I don't know it's complicated."
"H…hey stop it, what do you think you're doing?" The boys overheard commotion from the girls' side. "Oh wow I knew you were nothing like our Wendy but I just had to get a feel for myself." Said Cana.
"Uh…are they doing what I think they're doing?" Asked Happy.
On the girls side Canna was indeed groping Edolas Wendy while the rest of the girls were having none of it especially with a child present. "Canna stop this right, it's shameful behavior in front of Wendy." Said Carla who along with Lucy was covering the smaller ones eyes.
"Oh come on were all girls here this is natural and I can't keep my hands off these hey kid hope you're taking notes." She said, referring to little Wendy.
"Geez you're nothing like the Cana here." Said Lisanna.
"Never met the other me, get over here girl you're next." The boys could hear Edolas Lisanna being chased around by Cana. While Earthland Wendy was consoling her adult counterpart. "Y…you ok?"
"F…fine…fine, thought it felt pretty nice, I mean I haven't been touched like that since my Zodie was taken." Little Wendy's face turned bright red with steam coming out her ears before passing out and sunk to the bottom of the bath.
"Wendy no, damnit Cana look what you've done!" Said Lissana.
Back on the boys side.
"Uh well I'm out." Said Zodie.
"Zodie, wait for us." Said Happy and Natsu running after him
Royal city
In the throne room of a castle sat a tall elderly man sitting in a throne. "Not enough…it's not enough." He grunted. "More power…must get more, need more power." He spoke through sweat and clutching his throne with his hands, this was the king of edolas Faust.
"U…um y…your highness." Spoke a soft nervous voice.
The king turned hard glaring. "What is it COCO!"
The girl known as Coco jumped back a bit out of fear. "I have received word that the magic extraction from the lacrima will begin within four days, and will have enough magic power to last us ten year-."
"NO!" Shouted the king. "What I need for the kingdom is an infinite amount Coco, not just from earth-land but from somewhere else!"
Coco began running around in circles. "B…but sir i'm not sure that's possible, our researchers have looked for ways to find other magic somewhere else and haven't found that."
Suddenly Faust began to get a telepathic call. "Faust…Faust can you hear me?" Asked the voice.
"Your highness, yes I can hear you, how can I help you today."
"What I have to say is in regards to the visitors we got from earth-land, well one of the visitors, listen well."
In one room we see the Slayer inside their quarters sharpening a weapon before being approached by a short sickly elderly looking man. "My my those fairy tail mages are still out there and all you can do is sit here." This was Byro chief of staff to the king, a short dressed in a decorated purple robe with white horn shaped eyebrows. "You know his majesty is growing impatient for their destruction, remember that if you fail then the king…" The old man was cut off by the fairy hunter pointing their weapon at him.
"Oh touch a nerve did I." Byro snarked.
The fairy hunter looked behind them to see a boy about eight, he had long dark hair and eyes wearing a pale tan gown with bandages. He ran over to hug them which they returned. "Oh you, shouldn't be in bed, you really need to get your rest."
"Can you tell me a story like you promised?" The boy begged.
"Oh okay." He ran in the opposite direction towards his room.
"If you wish to save him then do your duty."
The next morning Zodies group awoke and were making their way through the town Cana of course had a bottle of booze to get her through the day. Zodie had bought himself a book on the history of Edolas.
"Wow a bit of Levy has really rubbed off on yah kid." Said Cana in between sips.
"Yeah, I figured it'd be helpful if we're gonna be here for a while. It's best to know all about it." He had already started reading it. "This section here tells about a species called the exceeds."
"Exceeds oh yeah that word it really freaked out everyone here." Earth-land Wendy looked up towards Lisanna. "Lisanna, do you know why?"
"To be honest I'm not really sure, never seen one for myself all I hear is that they're powerful and dangerous."
"Eh, I can take em." Natsu dismissed.
"They could make good drinking buddies." Canna added.
Suddenly a large shadow passed by them from above.
"The hell?" Said Cana.
The group could see a massive airship hovering above town. Edo Wendy and Lisanna both recognized it. "That's an airship from the royal army." Said Lissana. Many nearby soldiers were surrounding it as it began to descend.
"Quickly everyone hide." Carla ordered as she and the group took cover.
The airship finally made its descent as a high ranking official stepped out. "All troops are ordered to return to the royal city. "They're extracting that large lacrima in two days and they want all hands on deck to keep it safe."
"You guys heard that right." Asked Happy.
"That's got to be all of our guildmates and all of magnolia they're talking about." Said Wendy.
"They're gonna begin the extraction in two days, we won't make it on foot." Said Canna.
"I think it's obvious what we need to do, we need to hijack that ship." Said Edo Wendy.
"Are you gonna be able to pilot that thing?" Natsu asked.
Edo Wendy turned and smirked, " yep my Zodie used to fly these things and he even taught me how to do it, I was a fast learner." Earth-land Wendy squealed in delight. "Oh man grown up me is so cool."
"But we're going to need a plan to get those guards away from the ship." Said Lisanna.
"I have an idea." Said Zodie.
…
The guards were about to board the airship till a rock came flying towards them hitting one of them in the head. "What the hell."
Natsu stood there tossing even more rocks. "Yeah stay mad you cavalcade of pathetic putzes." He then flipped them off with his middle finger before running away.
"After him." The superior soldier ordered. They gave chase to Natsu all the way at the end of an alley unbeknownst to him Zodie holding both Happy and Carla snuck aboard the ship while invisible. After a couple of minutes the soldiers returned with Natsu and Wendy restrained.
"Oh so you must be the wizards from earth-land I've heard so much about, though it looks as though you're missing a few, no matter we'll get that information out of you eventually, take them." Once they boarded the ship and took off, one of the guards elbowed the superior soldier's head against the wall till he passed out. Natsu let out a smirk, "And were in."
Zodie along with Happy and Carla reappeared and the soldiers who were Edo Wendy, Lisanna and Cana in disguise removing their disguises with Edo Wendy piloting their ship. "Z way to go man." Natsu and Zodie fist bumped.
"Not only can you fight but you're smart and cute, you're definitely like my Zodie." Said Edo Wendy winking at him, making the phoenix slayer blush.
"A…anyway we'd better tie this guy up Natsu come help me out." Said Zodie.
"Hey what's our eta?" Lisanna asked.
"About an hour, better get comfy, it'll be a long ride, there should be some supplies gear up incase we get into a fight." Said Edo Wendy.
"Hey you know I just thought of something if Wendy and Natsu being dragonslayers are here and wonder where the ole metal mouth is." Said Cana.
"Oh you mean Gajeel, I'm sure chrome dome's doing just fine."
Meanwhile in a separate town
Two individuals sat in a bar in front of them was a man dressed in a suit and fedora with glasses. "Let me make sure I have this right, not only is this guy the earthland of me but you two were able to escape this spell called anima, and right now that lacrima they're draining has your whole guild inside."
The individuals he was speaking to were ex phantom lord members Gajeel and Juvia. "Indeed we need to find that thing so that I can save my beloved Gray." The water mage said in despair. The man in the fedora happened to be Edolas Gajeel.
"I must say you're far different from this Juvia here, she can't stand Edolas Gray."
"It's nice to be acquainted with myself but we need to find that lacrima and bust everyone out. The only problem is us against a whole army. Normally I'm all for cracking skulls when outnumbered but we're on the clock here."
Edo Gajeel smirked. "Well luckily you won't have to go this alone. I have friends in high places that'd be more than willing in fact hatching a plan for the destruction of the king if you're interested."
"Lead the way." Gajeel said.
Back with Zodies group Natsu's stomach was still killing him he cursed from the pain wishing that the loss of his magic would mean the loss of his motion sickness. He was so out of it he attempted to jump from the ship making Zodie constantly have to restrain him.
"Look alive people, we'll be arriving in the kingdom soon." Edo Wendy said.
"Once we get there I can cover us with my invisibility so we can ease on in." Said Zodie.
"And there's a ton of kick ass weapons back here we can use." Said Cana strapping a magic gun to her back.
Suddenly the ship was then bumped by a legion knocking the group off course. "Oh no we must be in legion territory." Said Lissana.
"Hang on people!" Edo Wendy said. She brought the airship down with the flying behemoth following them. She tried all types of maneuvers to shake the beast but it was no use, suddenly the legion grabbed the airship.
Cana raided her magic gun. "Alright enough of this, hey big Wendy open the door, Zodie give me a ride."
"Hey whadda you mean big."
The hatch of the ship opened up and Zodie flew out holding the card mage shooting the legion with her gun but the shots just were;nt piercing the beast hide. "Crap it's no good!" Said Cana. Happy began panicking as he ran around the airship looking for any good weapon that could help before he came across a round spherical object with a button on it.
"Hey what is this?"
"That's a royal army standard grenade." Answered Lisanna she then took the grenade form the blue feline. "Hey Canna I have a plan when I toss this near the legions face you shoot it."
The card mage nods. Lisanna tosses it hard as she can and Canna aims and blasts the grenade causing a huge explosion forcing the legion to let go of the ship but resulting in it damaging the airship. "Crap we're going down everyone brace yourselves!" Shouted Edo Wendy as she steered the ship best she could towards a tree line. As the ship was going down Natsu began to slip out of the ship a bit before Lissana grabbed his arm and held on to him.
The airship crashed through some trees and slowed down as it dug into the earth, Zodie and Cana met up with the group as they descended to the ground. Natsu then recovered from his motion sickness but soon his eyes met with Lisanas as she laid on top of them, they were lost in each other's gaze.
"Uh thanks f…for holding onto me back there."
"Sure no problem."
Zodie and Wendy both touched down on the ground. "Guy's you ok?" Zodie asked.
"Yeah boy I miss earthland real bad." Said Happy.
Edo Wendy then ran over. "We'd better get out of here that ruckus will have sure alerted the royal army.
The group managed to enter the city peacefully despite their rough entrances,the city wasn't at all what they were expecting. It looked suitably lively like it was a festival. Walking along a busy street Wendy noticed a huge crowd gathered in the plaza. "Hey guys let's check over there." She pointed out.
They began to blend in with the crowd. All around folks looked astonished, wondering what the hype was about. They soon got their answer once they saw a giant blue lacrima. Guarded by royal soldiers with the king himself walking out. He raised his hands, making the crowd quite down.
Zodie inched closer to Edo Wendy. "I take it that this guy is the king?"
"Correct king Faust, ruler of the royal army and the main reason that my Zodie is locked up." She first began tightening, making Zodie grasp them to calm her down.
"What a wonderful day." The crowd cheers. "What a wonderful day!" "We've acquired enough lacrima for the next ten years." The crowd cheered again.
"Acquired my ass, you stole it and you know it, quiet sounding like you're a hero!" Said Natsu gritting his teeth, tightening his fist.
"And if you think this is amazing the next one will make this look like crap." Faust then took his staff and jammed it into the lacrima
The group watched as little chunks of the lacrima fell to the ground, purely disgusted by the king's obvious lack of regard to human lives. Natsu was so livid that Lisanna had to hold him back, she had tears in her eyes. "Please calm down, I… I know how you feel." She said,
Natsu wasn't the only one angry. Zodie couldn't stop keeping it together as he took a few steps forward forcing Wendy to get in front of him, trapping him in a hug in hopes to calm him down. "I could turn invisible and take him down right now!" He said.
"I understand but we won't even know how to turn them back. You could end up hurting them, you saw what happened when he stabbed it and chunks fell out." Wendy said as slight tears came out.
Right around at sunset the group was resting in a hotel room Carla was bust scribbling something down.
"So what do we do, I mean how the hell are we gonna save everyone?" Asked Cana.
Zodie came up. "Only other option I can think of is forcing the king to tell us himself, I mean that's easier said than done."
Natsu then shot up from his position and raced over to Zodie. "Wait a minute Z I have an idea why don't you use that one spell you used on me forcing me to see all that scary stuff.
"Bro I don't think that'll work. I can't do it on command and I've been trying to stay away from that move."
"Just leave that to me boys, because the cards are in our favor." Said Canna holding up one of her cards. "Some real cutie who happened to be a friend of Erzas taught me this neat trick. I'm able to perform a card conversion to trap him inside the card and we force him to talk, plus with Zodie's invisibility it'll be cake ."
"Good thinking Canna." Wendy complimented.
"Like Zodie said before, it's easier said than done, but how do we get close to the king?" Asked Lisanna.
"Fortunately for you I know the way, I have a schematic of a tunnel on the city's edge with a path between them."
"That's great Carla but how do you know all this?"
"The information just popped into my head, since coming here I've been receiving little fragments, piece by piece."
"This is great, we should wait till night to strike. Nobody will suspect a thing." Carla said.
Night had arrived and the group arrived at their rendezvous area. The mines were dark and decided to use torches they found and make fire. Natsu attempted to get his magic back by eating fire but that was no good.
"Gotta say this was a great idea, these mines look like they haven't been used in years." Cana observed.
As they kept walking until they were stopped by a blocked off passage, seemingly let people know it was a dead end. Edo Wendy walked up to it and placed her hand on it. "This is covered in magic and rock." She observed.
"I got this." She pulled two cards crossing them glowing. "Summoned lightning." Green lighting bolts shot out striking the wall down.
Lisanna was impressed. "Wow I never said this before but you really did make something out learning magic with your cards."
This made Cana raise an eyebrow. "What do you mean by that?"
"Save the questions for later, let's move!" Carla interrupted. "If we keep going this way it'll connect us straight to the basement of the castle."
Suddenly the torches went out making it pitch black impossible other than Zodie to see. The phoenix slayer could see clear as day royal army soldiers were approaching. "Guy's look out." One by everyone was trapped in a white substance constricting their movements only leaving Happy and Carla. The royal guards lit up their own source of light.
"So these are the wizards who were sent here from earth-land." A voice spoke walking up to the front.
"Who the hell are you?" Cana asked.
"It's the fairy slayer very deadly." Answered Happy.
The fairy slayer then spotted Zodie. "You look like a younger version of that traitor that we have locked up."
Edo Wendy's face broadened with surprise. "What, he's alive, my Zodie's alive?"
Fairy hunter turned toward the grown bluenette. "Oh and here's his lovely girlfriend this'll make things the whole more easier, take her away and put her with the traitor, as for the rest they take them away." The hunter ordered.
"No Wendy!" Cried Carla.
"Guy's" Both felines ran after their friends till they were halted by the fairy hunter.
"As for them bring her to extalia but the blue one dispose of him along with these two other women." She said, gesturing to Canna and Lisanna.
Both Carla and Happy align with Canna and Lisana were taken away by separate guards. While Natsu did his best to fight through his restraints. "No happy dammit let him go!"
I just wanna say thanks for the new follower till next time along with other chapters