For what felt like an eternity, Natsu just stood there, dumbfounded. To add to his confusion, Wendy (or at least what appeared to be Wendy) was looking at him with an expression he had never seen on her face before: one of reproach and disappointment. She was standing in front of him, staring right into his eyes (although she was still almost a full head shorter than him) with her eyebrows furrowed, a scowl on her lips and her hands placed on her hips.
"And where have you been, mister?" she questioned in a scolding manner.
"What?" the pink-haired man repeated rather stupidly.
"You told me you should only be gone a week at the most. Where have you been the past six years?" the bluenette elaborated, the calmness of her voice doing little to conceal the deep anger within.
Natsu blinked. Once. Twice. Thrice. His brain trying to make sense of what was going on…and failing. The person standing before him was definitely his adopted little sister. She had unarguably the same appearance, the same voice, the exact same scent, the same magical signature… 'Wait a minute…' he noticed, his eyes narrowing somewhat. There was a very thin layer of magical energy surrounding the blue-haired Dragon Slayer. Oddly similar to the one he had felt around Zera all those years ago… 'God damn it…'
"Six years…? Really…? I really didn't realize this hearing took this long…" Salamander sheepishly answered, rubbing the back of his head. "So…how have you been? You have grown a lot. I suppose that means you must have gotten a lot stronger too…Tell you what, how about I make it up to you by taking you for a sparring session like we used to? Just to see what you can do."
At this proposal, there was a brief flash of surprise and uncertainty in the young girl's eyes before they returned to her previous expression. It only lasted for a couple of seconds, but it wasn't missed by her older brother.
"You think a training session is going to cut it?" she asked indignantly, poking his chest with her finger repeatedly. "How about you start by apologizing first? That didn't even cross your mind, did it? Well, too bad for you. I'm certainly not going to let you get off that easily. I demand an apology."
"Sure thing." the older Dragon Slayer accepted slowly, his look of embarrassment and guilt turning into one of amusement and mischief. "As soon as you apologize for trying to deceive me."
Wendy had been a good actor so far, but she was nowhere near skilled enough to hide the astonishment on her face at that declaration. Moreover, she was just too honest a person to keep the charade up any longer. "W-Wha-…H-How did you know?"
Her shock made a wry smirk grow on the pink-haired mage's lips. "You're about two centuries too early to fool me." he explained slyly, causing her to pout. "I must say, I am impressed though. I had no idea you could cast illusions, let alone any of this quality…but then again…I don't really know anyone who can cast illusions of this caliber…except…" His cocky expression progressively vanished as realization dawned on him. In its stead, his face was filled with a mix of shock and exasperation. "Okay, Mavis, get the hell in here right this instant." the pinkette order calmly but in an authoritative tone.
"I've been here a long time." the aforementioned blonde spirit called out in a lighthearted fashion from her position, seated on a nearby closet, making both dragon siblings turn towards her.
"For some reason, that doesn't surprise me." her host responded with narrowed eyes. There was then a short pause, during which Natsu glared halfheartedly at the ghost who was staring back at him with a cheeky, teasing smile and Wendy stood awkwardly between them. "Did you really think you would get me like that?"
Although he asked his questions in an accusatory manner, the First Master remained undisturbed and merely shrugged. "Not for very long; I just wanted to see if we could." she answered honestly before her grin grew. "But the look on your face at the beginning was more than worth it."
That comment caused the Sky Dragon Slayer to chuckle in remembrance, thus causing her foster brother to turn his glare towards her. "You know, Mavis trying to pull something like this, I would expect; but I really didn't think you could ever be persuaded to join in. How do you two know each other anyway?"
"I took the chance to introduce myself while you were on your way back." the blonde girl supplied while jumping down from her spot and landing gracefully on the floor. "And then I got an idea."
"I noticed." the pinkette acknowledged, his gaze softening somewhat as it turned back to his (considerably less) little sister. "So, is this what you will look like when you finish puberty?"
His question caused the young bluenette to blush fiercely and look away. "H-How should I know? Mavis said that was the appearance that would get the best reaction out of you." As the other two exchanged defiant glances, Wendy looked down at her fake body. "I'd like to go back to normal now, though. It's really perturbing to be suddenly so…top heavy…"
Her request shocked her adoptive sibling so much, the snap of his head would have caused a regular person to break their neck. As for Mavis, she honestly couldn't remember a time in her existence she had laughed as hard as she was right now. It lasted for over a full minute before she calmed down enough to grant Wendy's wish and snapped her fingers, returning the Sky Dragon Slayer to her real appearance in a flash of golden light.
It is at this point that Natsu decided to get some revenge on the thought projection. "You know, if you can do that with Wendy, how come you stay with the body of a thirteen-year-old?"
That question effectively killed the ghost's amusement in an instant. Her expression morphed into one of outrage and darkness. "Excuse me? That's the body I had when my life ended. It's not like I'm ever going to get anything else. Are you saying I'm not sexy enough for you?"
Natsu opened his mouth to give his sassy retort, but the other Dragon Slayer beat him to it. "I'd be quite curious to see what you'd look like as an adult too."
This remark visibly shocked the First Master who, for one of very few times in her life, found herself utterly speechless, staring at the other girl frozen into place with wide eyes and her mouth agape. It was only broken by the sound of the pink-haired man chuckling which quickly spread to the two girls and turned into full blown laughter. The trio then proceeded to spend the rest of the evening bantering and trading stories.
The next morning, most of their guild was assembled at the construction site of the guild hall. The day had started off with Natsu recounting (a part of) the events that had taken place in Era. They had all been quite relieved to learn that the Magic Council wouldn't, or rather couldn't, sanction, let alone disband the guild, and seemed to be giving up…for now at least.
A little later, much to their confusion, Lucy arrived alongside Loke. The two of them proceeded to recount their own adventure. As it turned out, Loke was in fact a Celestial Spirit named Leo the Lion who had been exiled into the human world by the ruler of the Celestial Spirit World as punishment for unwittingly causing the death of his last summoner. Unfortunately, Celestial Spirits could only spend a limited time in the human world before their magic, which also served as their life force, was completely drained and they perished. By yesterday night, Loke was getting dangerously close to that deadline. However, Lucy found and confronted him before that. After he had confessed everything to her, she managed to persuade the Celestial Spirit King to rescind his decision to banish Loke. In addition, the two of them had now formed a contract, providing Lucy with one more gold key.
In truth, Natsu had always had suspicions about Loke not being human, ever since the day they'd first met. But it wasn't any of his business, so he hadn't pried.
As a way to thank Lucy for saving him, Loke gifted them with five tickets for a famous beach resort, one for each human member of their team, as the cats didn't need one. And at Erza's insistence, they decided to leave right away, so as to get rid of all the tension they had accumulated over the recent events.
And so, a few days later, the five humanoids and two cats had arrived at the Akane resort, settled themselves in and made their way to the beach where they were at the moment. They were all in their swimsuits, although Natsu still had a long-sleeved t-shirt to hide his marks. They had decided to start off easy with sunbathing and swimming before getting to the typical mayhem that they always reverted to.
This transition had already begun with Gray, Lucy and Erza playfully splashing water at each other with their magic. Natsu and Wendy, on the other hand, weren't too keen on these kinds of games and, as a result, had distanced themselves from the rest of their team and were having fun much more quietly as Natsu used his magic to create shapes with the surrounding water such as animals and buildings, while Wendy (and Mavis) looked on with star-filled eyes.
This all came to an abrupt halt however, when an over-ambitious attack from the Ice-Make mage hit the pink-haired Dragon Slayer square in the back, effectively drenching him.
Everyone of them instantly froze, though for different reasons. Natsu's small construct collapsed as his little sister gasped and brought her hands to her mouth. Gray stood there petrified, subconsciously hoping he wouldn't get noticed if he didn't move, but also getting ready to get the hell out of here. As for the other two girls, they too were staring at their pink-haired teammate expectantly, not nearly as scared as the perpetrator, but slightly apprehensive of what would come nonetheless.
Then, the pinkette slowly turned around and looked down upon his unintentional attacker with cold, dark eyes. "So, that's how it's going to be, is it?" he asked slowly and menacingly. And before any of them could react, he swiped his hand horizontally in their direction, his palm facing towards them. Less than a second later, a wave as high as a house wall emerged seemingly out of nowhere and fell upon the trio, engulfing them completely and shoving them below the surface. Erza emerged relatively quickly, but it took quite a little longer for the other two to reach the surface. "Very well, then. If you want to rumble with us, who am I to decline? Wendy and I against all of you. Two Dragon Slayers versus three regular mages. Should be interesting at the very least." This proposal, or rather challenge, was met with instant approval from his little sister, who walked over to position herself next to him, adopting a fighting stance with a smile of eagerness on her lips. As for the enemy team, after the initial shock it provoked, Erza and Gray grew similar expressions of belligerence and got ready. Lucy, on the other hand, was much, much less enthusiastic at the prospect of facing these two, having a funny feeling the red and dark-haired mages on her side wouldn't get the outcome they so craved. But she guessed it couldn't be helped anymore, and so, joined in too.
She had been right. Actually, cross that. It had been way worse for them than anything she could have imagined. What had happened couldn't even be called a fight. It had been more of a one-way slaughter. Throughout the whole match, Natsu hadn't even moved a single step. He hadn't needed to. Since all their attacks had consisted of throwing water at him, all he had had to do was raise his hand and the water would stop dead in its tracks, no matter how fast it had been traveling towards him. It had been exactly the opposite for Wendy. Damn, that girl was fast. She'd spent more time in the air than she had had in the sea. She had been moving at such speed, that neither Lucy nor Gray could even keep track of her movements. Erza could, and in a one-on-one engagement, she would have stood a pretty good chance against the Sky Dragon Slayer. But this hadn't been one. Because, to add insult to injury, the two siblings worked seamlessly together. While Natsu was standing there, attracting (and nullifying) their attacks, Wendy was running around them constantly counter-attacking in a hit-and-run fashion. Some of her attacks would either miss or be dodged, but most of them would hit at least one of them. Lucy, having the smallest ego of the three when it comes to fighting, admitted her defeat after being forced under the waterline for the fourth time. Gray, satisfied he wouldn't be the first of their team to give up, quickly followed suit. Erza, on the other hand, showed her characteristic stubbornness and kept going on her own quite a bit longer. In fact, she only accepted to stop when Natsu started attacking her too and she was too outmatched to deny it any longer. After that, they had spent the rest of their day having fun in much tamer ways.
It was now the evening and they had all retired to their respective rooms to relax a little. Well, they were more suites than rooms, with each of them larger than Lucy's whole apartment. Their tickets allowed them to have one each. But since Wendy was so young, it had been decided that she would share a room with her brother and the two felines. That's where all four of them were now. Happy and Carla were respectively eating fish and drinking tea as they tended to. Meanwhile, the dragon siblings were practicing their draconic with Natsu helping Wendy read a book on dragon types and history. All of this was interrupted when a knock was heard at the door and the pinkette got up to answer it. Upon opening the door, he saw Gray standing there, wearing a tuxedo (for now). When he saw that the pink-haired mage's own attire hadn't changed a bit, the ice mage's brow lifted in skepticism.
"You're not gonna change?" he asked.
"Change for what?" the S-class wizard retorted, just as perplexed.
"The casino, of course. Erza, Lucy and I said we would go, remember?" the dark-haired mage reminded with haste laced in his tone, bothered by the idea that his interlocutor had forgotten about their plans.
This all vanished though, when he was met with a look completely void of impressiveness and amusement. It lasted for several oppressive seconds before Natsu stepped aside and pointed at his little sister who, despite sitting on the other side of the large room, had heard everything thanks to her enhanced hearing and was giving the ice mage the exact same look as her older brother. "Does Wendy seem old enough to gamble to you?" the pinkette questioned sardonically, and then promptly closed the door before waiting for an answer.
As he walked back to his previous spot, he saw the bluenette looking at him with sympathetic and somewhat guilty eyes. "You know, you left me home alone for several days when you went to meet the Magic Council. I can spend one evening here on my own. You don't have to deprive yourself for my sake."
Her suggestion made Natsu smile in a mix of amusement and fondness. "I'm not. I used that pretext because I'm getting a little sick and tired of seeing the look on people's faces when I tell them I just don't enjoy the things most of them like, such as casinos for instance. As a matter of fact, I have a lot more fun talking with you than I do in places like these."
'Aww. That's so cute and nice of you, Natsu.' Mavis cooed and praised in his head. 'I sure wish you'd be this thoughtful with me every now and then.'
'Well, if you didn't go out of your way to annoy me all the time, then maybe I would.' her host fired back, and even though she had a rebuttal ready, she decided to refrain, for Wendy's sake.
And with that, the two of them picked up where they had left off, the mood more jovial than it had previously been.
About an hour later, the duo had gone bored of reading and rereading the same sentences over and over again. As a result, they had instead opted to take a stroll on the beach. And while Carla had decided to stay in the suite and get some sleep, Happy had stayed in another (more likely than not futile) attempt to woo her. They could hear the sound of firework behind them, but they were more interested in looking at the starry night sky or the reflection of the moon on the water.
"So, if I were to pick up another magic, which one do you think it should be?" the blue-haired girl asked.
"Oh? Thinking of diversifying yourself, are you?" her older brother replied teasingly.
She gave a quick side glare of annoyance before answering him. "Well, I just think this is getting a little ridiculous. How can I keep calling myself your sister if I don't at least make some effort to catch up to you power-wise?"
"So what you're saying is that I'm your role model?" Natsu provoked her again with a wry smirk, but decided to end it here upon receiving another, more intense glare. "To answer you question, I suppose the easiest solution for you would be to learn another, more combat-oriented type of Air Magic. That being said, I personally have often found it quite useful to be able to use a wider range of Magic Types-"
Before he could finish his sentence, both of their instincts kicked in and they leapt off their spot and jumped several paces away. Which was fortunate, for not even two seconds later, a dark green acidic substance landed where they had just been standing, forming and sizable puddle and starting to emit a hissing sound as it melted the sand.
As they assumed their trademark fighting stance, they came face to face with their assailant. It was a humanoid male creature of above average height but that was where the similarities ended. Because, in place of regular human skin, this individual featured dark green scales like those of a crocodile. As for his head, it was extremely elongated, on the account of his maw being about half an arm long and it sported numerous long, sharp pearly white teeth, and just above it were two slit, sunken yellow eyes. At the end of his back was a thick tail about as long as his legs. And from the tip of said tail to the top of his head were a series of thin, black spikes. For clothing, he only wore a pair of baggy brown pants held up by a thin rope acting as a belt, and even that article was ripped and torn in places. However, this made it very apparent just how muscular he was. He was currently glaring and snarling at them, with the same acidic substance trickling down the side of his face.
"Did you just spit at us?!" Natsu asked indignantly.
"Please excuse him." a feminine voice called out, coming from the sea. "Eidezard isn't a very well-mannered person…or a civilized one, for that matter." With these words, a figure emerged from the sea and came to stand beside the lizard-man. This one, a female, donned a glistening, very smooth-looking, light orange skin. She had shoulder-length cyan hair and pink eyes deprived of sclera. Moreover, she possessed a line of suction cups starting from the palms of her hands, running along her inner arms, all the way to her armpits. The same feature could be observed on her lower limbs, from the soles of her bare feet to her inner thighs. She was a little better dressed than her acolyte with sport shorts and a sleeveless t-shirt. And unlike him, her expression was not one of animal rage and bloodlust, but rather one of confidence and smugness. "But given what we've been told about you, I suppose it's understandable."
"And exactly what is it that you've been told about me? And by whom?" the pinkette interrogated with narrowed eyes while trying to sense his surroundings to see if anybody else was going to join the party.
However, much to his dismay, his interlocutor merely shrugged at the questions, her smirk growing wider. "It doesn't matter; it's just a job. What does matter is that we need you to come with us. Now, we can do this the easy way where you come with us without making a fuss…or we can do it the hard way where you try to resist and maybe you escape us. But then, the pretty little flower might get hurt."
As she uttered the last sentence, she nodded towards Wendy, who seemed offended, judging by the look of anger in her eyes. "Flower? Well, you'd better be careful. This flower might just hurt you." the Sky Dragon Slayer all but threatened.
But the other woman didn't seem intimidated in the slightest. "Fine, have it your own way." And with that, she extended her hand in the bluenette's direction, the suction cup in the center of her palm ejecting a mass of black goo at high speed.
But Wendy was even quicker and jumped out of the way and into the sky, avoiding the attack and preparing her own. "Sky Dragon's Roar!"
But as the squid-woman evaded this spell in turn, Natsu felt the ground beneath his feet start to shake. And as he looked around, he saw why that was. Because their other, less subtle opponent was currently in the process of charging him head-on like a bull. This course of action made the pink-haired mage raise a brow in skepticism. On the one hand, he felt compelled to commend the lizard-man on his bravery. On the other, if they had been warned about him, how could he possibly hope for this to work?
Nevertheless, he still swept his hand from bottom to top in direction of his would-be wrestler, which sent him flying backwards with a strong gust of wind. For his size and build, Eidezard managed to land quite gracefully, lying on his hands and feet. As soon as he was stable, he opened his mouth wide and spat another acidic projectile at his target.
This time, Natsu decided to dodge and jumped to the side, avoiding the attack and letting it hit a palm tree behind him instead. In a matter of seconds, the trunk was eaten by the substance and it fell down.
As he turned his gaze back around, the Dragon Slayer saw dozens of pointy black needles heading his way, and reacted quickly by transforming his arm into an iron sword and using it as a shield. It effectively blocked almost all of the spikes, but a few of them still hit or grazed him. His skin was far too tough for them to actually damage it, let alone penetrate it, but he still could tell what was special about them: they were venomous. Specifically, they were embedded with some kind of powerful anesthetic. He guessed a few good hits from those would knock someone out in a matter of seconds.
When he looked back towards the reptilian humanoid, the pinkette saw him, once again, running towards him at full speed. 'He sure is stubborn.'
'Perhaps, you should indulge him.' Mavis suggested.
'I suppose so.' her host concurred as he allowed his adversary to reach him unhindered.
And when he did, he contented himself to simply punch Natsu in the face. While it didn't hurt him, it did forcefully tilt his head to the side. If he had been a normal human being, he would have undoubtedly suffered a concussion from such a blow.
Before he could dwell on these thoughts however, he received a second attack to his midsection; this one came from Eidezard's tail. Deciding he'd had enough, Natsu seized the appendage and used it to fling the lizard-man away, in his sister's direction.
Seeing this, the Sky Dragon Slayer, who had been fighting her opponent while floating in the air this whole time, decided to use this development to end her own engagement. "Sky Dragon's Twirling Fist!" she called out and struck the scaly creature in the chest, propelling him towards his partner. But as she did so, she felt sharp pain shoot through her hand. Upon examining it, she saw a few abrasions along the back of it and on her knuckles. And although her bones were intact, she was sure it would develop a large bruise soon enough.
As for the results of her attack on her enemies, Eidezard was now half-buried in the sand but did not look otherwise wounded; and although she had aimed for her, the woman who, in all likelihood, was his leader had evaded him completely with the same speed and grace she had demonstrated repeatedly throughout their previous fight.
These were the same traits that had enabled her to dodge every single spell Wendy had thrown at her until now. What's more, apart from that first move she had made at the beginning, she had kept herself to a strictly defensive role so far. And even though they weren't exactly winning, she had lost nothing of her apparent confidence and amusement, if the smirk plastered on her lips was anything to go by.
But they soon got an indication of why when, in that moment of calm, the dragon siblings finally heard and saw explosions going off back at their hotel. Between the fight they had been engaged in and the incessant firework, they hadn't noticed any of it until now.
"Amateurs." the squid-woman muttered with a mixture of amusement and disdain as her teammate extricated himself from the hole his impact had created.
"So this was all a lie, wasn't it?" Natsu rhetorically asked, his eyes narrowing. "Your plan was never to abduct me, but to distract us."
"Well, it was both actually." she brushed off absentmindedly. "Our exact objective was to "acquire you if we were able but to prevent you from interfering otherwise". That doesn't mean we've given up on our main objective just yet though. As a matter of fact, we're only going to really try…now!"
And with that statement, her right arm was transformed into a tentacle which extended in the blink of an eye and wrapped itself tightly around Natsu's own right arm, immobilizing it. At the same time, her other hand pointed at Wendy and it fired another jet of black goo, only this one was much more intense and continuous and forced her to create a barrier of wind to block it, thus pinning her down into place too.
By the time the pink-haired mage registered what had happened, his other enemy was once again upon him, his large jaws wide open and intending to bite his left arm.
Reacting quickly, Salamander turned it into an iron club. As a result, when the lizard-man bit it as hard as he could, a smashing sound resonated through the beach as many of his teeth either cracked or shattered. Nonetheless, he remained undeterred and kept his mouth closed around the limb as tightly as he could.
"Flederis!" the squid-woman yelled out and, a second later, Natsu felt something round and about as big as his head hit him in the back. He understood it was a lacrima when he felt it try to suck his magic power out of him. He could have resisted it easily, but instead he chose to do the opposite and fed it a great amount of energy in an instant. The result of this was that the glass sphere got overloaded and exploded, producing a large cloud of white smoke all around the pinkette.
There was then a lull as all of them, even Wendy, were too caught off guard by this development to do anything. "Did we get him?" the enemy leader tentatively asked.
She got an answer when two piercing crimson eyes emanated light through the smoke. "Enough of this." a dark, inhuman voice declared. And with that, Eidezard was, once again, hurled in the air, only this time, it was with even more force as he ended up all the way into the sea. Simultaneously, his other arm was lit on fire, the sudden and intense pain in her tentacle sufficient to persuade the squid-woman to release him. But as she was retracting it, the roles were reversed and it was Natsu who grasped it firmly with lightning-fast reflexes and used it to yank her to him. When she reached him, he grabbed her by the throat and squeezed, the wind this action created dissipating the cloud. "Who hired you?"
For the first time since she'd shown up, the woman no longer displayed an expression of cockiness, but one of sheer panic as she squirmed and struggled, trying in vain to pry his hand away from her neck. Fortunately for her, a pulse in her head told her that it was now okay for her team to retreat. "Until...we meet…again." she said through batted breath and slipped out of his grip as if her bones no longer existed, and she quickly slithered her way into the water, disappearing from sight.
At the same time, a large figure with wide wings, probably the one who had thrown the lacrima, flew out of the trees and scooped up Eidezard before flying off into the distance. Wendy did try to attack them, but their speed enabled them to dodge her attack easily enough and they were quickly too far away to try again.
'That was strange.' Mavis noted aloud, her mind kicking into gear now that the fight was over. 'Let's see. Ideally, they would have liked to kidnap you, but it wasn't indispensable. Which means they did not want you specifically, but rather someone with characteristics that you must possess. It can't be that you're a Dragon Slayer, otherwise Wendy would have fit the bill too. And obviously, they got what they wanted which is why they pulled out. So the question is, what do you have in common with anyone present at the resort at this moment? It would have to be something fairly well-known. And then, who has the financial means to hire two teams of dark mages at the same time?'
As she was summarizing information and formulating theories, her host had walked to his little sister. "Are you alright?" he asked.
"Fine. Just a few scratches. You?" the blue-haired girl responded.
"Nothing." Salamander simply answered, using his magic to heal her hand in just a couple of seconds.
'Natsu. I need you to help me out here. What is special about you that would make you worth abducting, but not rare enough that you would be the only alternative?' the First Master requested.
'…Power?' he suggested.
'Power…Yes. That's a possibility, yes. But who in the Akane resort-' the blonde girl tried to resume her reflection, but was interrupted by the sound of distant shouting.
"NATSU! WENDY!" they heard and saw Gray, Lucy and a third person neither of them knew running or flying towards them.
"They took Erza!" the ice mage exclaimed as soon as they reached their teammates.
'Oh…Yes. I guess that would work.' Mavis acknowledged.
A few minutes later, both parties had recounted their respective story, including the part where their former enemy had apparently joined them (and appeared to be quite enamored with the Ice-Make mage).
"Okay, wait. These guys seemed to know Erza so I understand why they could be interested in her…but what in the world did they want with Happy or Carla?" Natsu wondered.
"I don't think it's related." Lucy corrected. "That cat-lady, Millianna I think, looked a bit…obsessed with them. She just took him because she felt like it."
After that, there was a short pause, everyone being extremely perplexed by all of this.
"Still, that doesn't make any sense." the pinkette broke the silence. "The ones who attacked you were clearly after Erza because they know her. But those who attacked us wanted me because of something I have, independently of who I am. So I'm guessing whoever sent your attackers after Erza did so because they needed her for something and they also hired the dark mages to ensure their success somehow."
"Or maybe they just hired the mercenaries themselves?" the Celestial mage suggested.
"But then why ask they to kidnap me, not simply keep me busy to make their job easier?" Natsu countered.
"It doesn't matter." Gray interrupted with urgency. "We need to track these guys down and rescue Erza and the cats."
"You don't need to worry yourself. Knowing them, Happy and Carla will annoy them so much, they'll end up releasing them eventually. As for Erza, she'll soon see to it that they are the ones who need saving." Natsu jested, making his sister smile in amusement, but no one else.
"You weren't there, Natsu. You didn't see her." the blonde woman corrected, her voice holding both shock and a degree of fear. "I've never seen Erza like that. It was like she's seen ghosts and she was terrified. I didn't even think Erza could be scared."
"Well then, I guess you forgot she's human. In any case, they have a considerable head start. If we want to catch up to them in time, we have to go now." the S-class mage declared and started walking towards the dock to get a boat, with Wendy following him, but the other three looking at him like he had grown a second head.
"And how do you know where to find them?" the ice mage asked.
"I've got my nose." he simply responded.
The next morning, the six of them found themselves on a small rowboat, on their way to wherever Natsu's sense of smell was leading them. Wendy's might have been able to do the same thing, if she wasn't feeling so unwell at the moment. Natsu had preemptively cast the spell against motion sickness on her before they left, but it had been only having limited effect. Apparently, being a Sky Dragon Slayer herself had made her rapidly grow a resistance to these enchantments, which left her capable of paying attention to her surroundings, but too dizzy participate in any conversation, apart from the occasional grunt of pain. Not that it really mattered, because they had all been very quiet since the start of their journey. All the same, Natsu took to occasionally rubbing her back in an attempt to relieve her discomfort.
All the while, the Fairy Tactician had been trying to come up with an explanation for the situation that had developed. 'It has to be someone they know. If they're not dark mages, they wouldn't kidnap someone they know on behalf of someone else if they didn't trust them. But that person also sent a team of dark mages at the same time. So whoever that is, they don't so much want Erza Scarlet as they need a powerful mage for something. But what?'
'Nothing good, I suspect. If they do know Erza, they must know she'll never go along with anything they want, unless maybe they threatened someone she cares about. But then, they would have taken the chance to abduct another one of us to pressure her with. So I'm guessing, she's not expected to survive whatever they have planned for her.' Natsu precised solemnly. He then a familiar, ominous feeling wash through him, making him abruptly turn his head. "Whoa."
"What is it?" Lucy asked, unease evident in her voice.
Before he, or anyone else, could answer, they were interrupted by the sound of something heavy crashing into the water right next to their embarkation. And then, there was another. And over and over again. Which finally persuaded them to look up, only to see this phenomenon originated from the birds flying above them that were all dying one after the other with a single low growl and then fell into the sea.
"What the-" Gray started, but he was cut off by the appearance of a humongous structure in the distance.
"The Tower of Heaven…" Lucy muttered.
But none of them knew what it really was, except Natsu. 'No. No, no, no. They can't have…'
Although she didn't have the information her companion had, Mavis could feel and recognize the magic flowing through and emanating from the structure. And suffice it to say, she wasn't happy. 'You have to be kidding me…'
Both of them just kept staring at the tall building until there view was obstructed by water rising all around them and encasing their boat in a sphere. "I'll will hide our presence with my Water Dome." Juvia announced.
A few minutes later, they had landed on the shore unopposed and were now surveying the tower while remaining out of sight, crouched behind a pile of rocks.
"There are a lot of guards." Gray noted. "I don't see how we're gonna be able to get in without being noticed."
"I have found a way." a voice responded behind them. Upon turning around, they saw it belonged to their newest ally, whose head was pocking out from the surface. "There is an underwater passage that can take us into the tower. The entrance is only ten minutes away for a regular swimmer."
"Well done, Juvia. Let's go." the apparent love of her life praised her and started walking into the water.
"You can't hold your breath for ten minutes, you dimwit." the blonde girl scolded him, sounding exasperated.
"No, no. Let him try." Natsu insisted, making some of them smile, and some of them glare.
"In any case." the former member of the Element 4 butted in, not comfortable enough yet to engage into any banter. "You will not have to hold your breath at all. I am able to create air bubbles underwater that you will wear like a helmet, and will provide you with air."
"Wonderful. You guys go." the S-class mage instructed.
"You're not coming?" his sister asked, honestly not all that surprised, having grown quite used to his shenanigans at this point.
"Well, there's a door right there. It'd be quite rude of not at least one of us to use it." he explained.
"Wha-?! Are you insane?!" Lucy questioned with shock and outrage. "They have Erza, Happy and Carla! If you attack them, what's to keep them from hurting them to make you stop?"
"The fact that they need them for something? Well, they need Erza for something. The cats, they took them because they wanted to adopt them…or something. Either way, they either can't afford, or are unwilling to harm them. Besides, me blasting my way in will distract them for you, making your job of finding them much easier and faster." the pink-haired mage reasoned, secretly recounting the Fairy Tactician's strategy. And, as a testament to her superior intellect, none of them found anything to rebut. "I'll give you two or three minutes head start before I go."
The moment they disappeared beneath the waves, Mavis spoke her mind, the usual cheerfulness completely absent from her voice. 'So, you're going to tell me what that thing is?'
'It's called the R-System. It's designed to harness the power of Dark Magic to bring someone back to life. But as far as I know, it's never been truly tested before. So I have no idea if it can even work.' her host informed her.
'Is this one operational?' the blonde spirit further asked.
'Almost. Its construction is complete, but it still requires two major components before it is ready for use. First, it needs to be charged with a tremendous amount of magic power. After that, the system requires one or multiple people to be fused into the structure for a person of comparable power to be revived.'
When he finished his last sentence, Natsu heard something he'd never thought he would: Mavis Vermillion snorting. 'Well, that does sound just like Zeref, doesn't it? Decreeing that some people's lives are worth more than others'. I bet he advised to sacrifice multiple people in the instructions-'
'Mavis…' he warned gently but firmly.
'…I'm sorry.' the First Master apologized sincerely, a modicum of regret in her tone. 'At least now, we know what they want Erza for. Who do you think they could bring back with someone of her strength?'
'Quite a few people, I'm afraid. She's powerful enough to revive most wizards who have ever lived. That being said though, they probably intend to resurrect someone very powerful themselves. Why else go to the trouble of kidnapping her? Unless they want to kill two birds with one stone.' the pinkette estimated.
'I doubt it.' she refuted. 'Given what we know, I'd say the person in charge of this operation is more pragmatic than emotional. Even though I have no doubt that they chose Erza out of some twisted sense of poetry, they plan to use every last ounce of her power in the ritual. I guess all that's left now is to figure out how they plan to supply the tower with the energy it needs to be activated. All right, that must be three minutes by now. You know the drill.'
And with that, Natsu rose to his full height and came out of his hiding spot. As he started walking to the front door, several guards finally noticed him and rushed to stop him. But he neither slowed down, nor even turned his gaze to acknowledge their existence. By the time he reached the entrance, less than a minute after he'd started to saunter to it, he'd defeated dozens of them with a couple of wordless, lazily-cast spells. "No doorbell, eh? Well, let me announce my presence in another way then." And with that, delivered a single fire-infused punch to the double doors twice as tall as him, and blew them off their hinges.
At the same time, his teammates had arrived at their destination and were now in the foundations beneath the tower. True to his prediction, the commotion he'd been creating had drawn almost all the guards to him, and they had faced very little to no opposition, thus allowing them to progress through the floors at a good pace. But they were very confused and disturbed when the first door they encountered…simply opened before them to let them through. And after verification, they confirmed that it was not automated, but remotely controlled. Which meant that someone, probably the person in charge, was aware of their presence and yet chose to let them proceed into the tower unhindered. Well, unhindered until now.
"There they are!" they heard someone yell from the hallway in front of them. Out of it emerged a dozen or so soldiers. "Get them!"
They all got ready to fight, but before either side could launch a single spell, all the henchmen were swept away by a single swing of the sword of the very person they were expecting to rescue.
"Erza!" Gray exclaimed, a relieved smile forming on his and the others' lips.
This brought her attention to them, and seeing them here shocked and panicked her to the core. "What are all of you doing in this place?!"
"Trying to save you." the blonde Celestial mage supplied, matter-of-factly. "Natsu's sense of smell led us to you and-"
"Natsu is here too?! Where has he gone exactly?!" the redhead demanded to know, the alarm in her growing even more. Before anyone could answer her, Wendy's nose started twitching as it picked up a familiar scent.
The next second, a portion of the ceiling above them collapsed, and two figures fell to their floor, the first holding the second by the throat and pinning them to what once was the floor of the upper level. When the dust cleared, they all saw the aforementioned Dragon Slayer holding a frozen enemy soldier to the ground. "Oh, hey guys." he greeted when he caught sight of them.
His sudden and noisy entrance, combined with the casualness he displayed stunned his guildmates into stillness. Unsurprisingly, the first of them to recover was the young Sky Dragon Slayer. "I guess that means your plan worked?" she concluded more than she asked as she pointed at the human Popsicle in his hand.
"Yep. Although, I don't think it mattered much in the end, seeing as they're all such horrendous fighters." Salamander elaborated, carelessly tossing aside his beaten foe. "I've been trying to determine which one of them was the most pathetic, they're all winners."
"And how many people did you test exactly?" the blue-haired girl inquired, who had learned to appreciate the same kind of humor as he did.
"I've lost count." her pink-haired sibling confessed.
'148.' his blonde-haired friend helped him.
"148…It's just come back to me."
"Good. Now that you're all here, you can leave." the knight ordered firmly.
"Actually, we can't." Natsu corrected, not showing any sign of being surprised by Erza's presence among them. "We still need to get Happy and Carla."
"They've taken them as well? Yes, of course. It must have been, Millianna. You mustn't worry. I'll free them. But you can't stay here. This place is far too dangerous." Titania insisted with urgency.
"Okay, what's really going on here, Erza?" the pinkette asked, all mirth gone from his voice as he advanced towards her with his arms crossed over his chest. "Because I have a really hard time believing this is any more dangerous than when we fought against Eisenwald or Phantom Lord. But you? You're acting unlike anything I've ever seen. First, you get defeated and kidnapped without a fight. And for the record, I find it hard to believe those clowns could take you down that easily. And then, when you find out we've come for you, you insist that we leave without you. Isn't the whole "no one left behind" one of your main rules? And that's all besides the look in your eyes. What is that? I'm trying to think of a better word than "dread"."
"Y-You don't understand." the red-haired woman stuttered while avoiding his gaze, exhibiting a vulnerability no one in Fairy Tail had ever suspected, let alone witnessed from her. Which is why everyone, apart from Natsu, was so freaked out at seeing it right now.
"No, I don't. That's my point. Look, evidently there are some things about yourself you've never been confident enough to share with any of us. And just so you know, that's absolutely fine. Hell, I may be the most secretive person in the guild by far. So I'm not going to be a hypocrite and give you shit by demanding that you tell us everything this instant. But it is your past that's come back to haunt all of us today. And by the way, if you think you're going to fool me by hiding your intentions with anger, think again. This place would be too dangerous for us, but not for you? Even though you're the only one here who got kidnapped? Please. You just don't intend to survive this." That last statement caused the people behind him to gasp in shock and the person in front of him to flinch and try even harder to avoid looking him in the eye, to conceal the truth but also the tears that began to run down her left cheek.
"I-It's not like I want to die here…But I know I'm going to." Erza admitted solemnly. "I doesn't matter what any of you do. Even if we prevail, I won't be able to leave this place alive. But you are my friends, so you have the right to know why. Especially since this may be my last chance to do so." She then took a shaky breath, preparing herself to tell a story she'd been trying to forget for years. "About ten years ago, a dark cult decided to construct a building designed to use dark magic to bring people back to life. This building, the one we're standing under right now, is called the R-System, though this one in particular was designated as the Tower of Heaven. Naturally, due to its very nature, this practice had been banned by the Magic Council long ago. As a result, the sect abducted and enslaved many citizens of all ages and forced them to build the tower for them. I know this, because I was one of them. And another one of them was a boy my age called Jellal Fernandes. Needless to say, we were treated horribly. It wasn't rare for those who dared to rebel or even speak out of line to just disappear and never return. Nevertheless, my friends and I once took the risk of attempting to escape. We failed. The cultist would have killed us all, but they needed the workforce. So they settled for torturing the ringleader. They thought that was me. It wasn't, but the truth didn't really matter to them. Jellal tried to rescue me. But all that did was persuade the dark mages to swap me for him. That was their last mistake however. For immediately afterwards, all the slaves rose up to overthrow them and save Jellal. We succeeded in both this time…sort of. But the boy we saved that day wasn't the one we knew. He was no boy at all, he was…pure evil. He'd become as obsessed as our captors with resurrecting the very being in whose name we had had to suffer: Zeref. And then use him to dominate the world and make everyone he hates suffer. When I refused to join him, he chased me out of the tower and threatened to kill all my friends if I told anyone….Which is why, I have to face him now…I've been running away for a decade and in all of that time people have suffered because of my cowardice…It has to end, one way or another."
After her confession, the group took a contemplative break, which, of course, was interrupted by Natsu. "So, guilt?" he stated more than he asked, confusing all of them. "You want to die fighting that "Jellal" guy to make up for not being able to help your friends all this time."
"I told you I don't want to die! I want to defeat him!" Titania responded defensively.
"But you know for sure that you can't. Which amounts to the same thing. And if you think that's brave, if you think giving up your life like that is noble, then you're a moron. Because it's not. If you consider that what you did before was cowardice, then this is just more cowardice. And selfishness. Because what do you figure is going to happen after you fall? Do you really believe your friends will be safe? And what's to stop Jellal from resuming his plan and threatening not just them, but the entire continent with his wicked project? If you think a meaningless sacrifice is going to miraculously protect all the innocent people from all the dangers that loom over them in this world, then go ahead, die happy. I have no problem with useless gestures. But don't pretend it makes you a hero." he all but bit her head off, shocking everyone in the room. But none more than Erza herself, flabbergasted by both what he had said to her, and how deeply those words resonated within her. After she got over her initial surprise, she was once more submerged by guilt and looked away from her interlocutor to hide her shame. "But maybe I'm just biased. Maybe I'm not the one you need to hear this from. What about you? What do you think?" he continued, looking behind Erza at the last part.
As they all turned to look in this direction, they saw a young man with blond hair and tanned skin walk in. He has somewhat dark beady eyes and a small 5-shaped tattoo can be located below his lower lip. His posture exuded a mixture of anger and doubt, with his fists clenched, his brows furrowed and his teeth gritted.
Lucy, who recognized him, adopted a defensive stance, prompting Gray, Juvia and Wendy to follow suit. Meanwhile, Erza looked startled and disturbed at his appearance and Natsu was completely passive. "Shô…" the former said hesitantly.
"You…You liar." he murmured in a low voice. "Are you so desperate to get people to like you that you lie about your past?! You want them to think you're a good person?! You're not, traitor!" As he was throwing insults at her, the red-haired knight progressively dropped her head while her pink-haired teammate positioned himself to stand between them. "But you can't fool me. Jellal told us the truth. He told us how your magic had driven you mad and you had decided that only you had the right to be free, so you destroyed our boats and left us-"
"Did it ever occur to you that he might have been lying?" Gray cut him off, his mind blown with how absurd that story was.
"If you could believe such a thing, then you clearly didn't know Erza." Lucy added.
"And what do you know?!" Erza's childhood friend yelled out, his temper rising along with his uncertainty. "Just because she joined your guild and made herself out to be some sort of righteous heroine doesn't mean you know her! Or us-!"
"Clearly." Natsu concurred, shocking everyone silent again. "I don't know jack about any of you and I don't know her very well." he elaborated as he slowly made his way to his interlocutor. "But I'll tell you what I do know. Even if we go off on the assumption that Jellal guy told you the truth – which I don't, by the way – what he definitely did do was to immediately ask you to complete the very tower that had caused you so much pain and grief for the sole purpose of conquering the world. Does that sound like a trustworthy guy to you? So I don't really care right now whether Jellal lied or not. I'm going to stop him and anyone who supports him." he declared confidently, now standing right in the blonde's face.
"You should listen to him, Shô." a deep voice advised. At the same time, a very tall man with an eye patch and metal jaw materialized out of black smoke.
"Simon…What are you talking about?" his friend hesitantly asked, his beliefs almost shattered by now.
"I've always known that Jellal had been lying to us. But I also knew I'd never be able to defeat him and I couldn't abandon you guys, so I stayed and played along until I found an opportunity to free you from his hold."
"Y-You knew…?" Erza repeated, not daring to believe it.
"I could never believe you were what he said you were. How could I?" Simon announced with a kind smile.
There then followed a very moving interaction between the three childhood friends, under the touched watch of the Fairy Tail wizards, though one of them had too much on his mind to truly pay any attention to it.
"Now we have everything we need to take Jellal down." the tall man confidently stated. "But we need to hurry, time is on his side. And I have it on good authority he has hired outside help to deal with some of you."
"Right." Erza retook her leadership role, straightening up after having hugged Shô. "We'll advance through the levels together. You guys will stop and handle whatever mercenaries and soldiers we encounter and retrieve Happy, Carla, Millianna and Wally. I'll go deal with Jellal directly."
"Well, if this guy is what the three of you make him out to be, you'll probably need this more than I will." Natsu reasoned while requipping his sword and presented it to the redhead. She was so flabbergasted at this action that she just stared at the weapon with wide eyes before doing anything. "It won't do for you what it does for me, but it will serve you better than any metal weapon would ever be able to."
After a few more seconds of contemplating at the offering, Erza carefully took it and tried it out by skillfully spinning it a few times. She was instantly amazed by how light and well-balanced it was. As she requipped it away in her pocket dimension, she gave Natsu a grateful nod. "Thank you."
"Good. Now, let's go." Simon insisted.
As they all started walking to the door, the pinkette spoke up again. "Actually, you guys go on ahead, I'll meet up with you later." he told them, and although some of them looked dubious, they all complied. "And by the way, Erza. That sword is really valuable to me, so I'd very much like it back. Which means, you now have a moral responsibility to survive this ordeal."
And with that, he jumped out through the hole he had created upon arrival without bothering to look at her. Thus, he wasn't able to see the stunned expression she wore, nor when it morphed into a fond smile and she ran off to rejoin her friends with newfound determination.