kpop1392as: Hehe, well I'm glad you liked the changes I came up with so far. I really planned to shake things up a little after all.

''You idiots are going to regret this.'' Gray ground out.

Lucy looked away awkwardly. In contrast, Happy couldn't care less, merely waving a paw ''Relax, it'll be fine!''

The three of them, along with Natsu were on a boat heading to Galuna Island. Only one sailor was willing to take them because of the rumored curse, if anything he was the one to ask them to help do something about it. He was apparently a former resident of the island but he left because he couldn't take anymore.

Gray had never been on board with any of this, though. In fact, he was sent by Makarov to bring Natsu, Happy and Lucy back to Magnolia. Natsu, who was of course too stubborn to simply quit, got the drop on him and knocked him out. The next thing the creation wizard knew, they were well on their way to Galuna, thus his anger.

''How the hell did those morons talk you into this anyway?'' He demanded of Lucy, ignoring Happy's protest at the insult. Natsu would naturally have done the same if it weren't for the fact that he was practically incapacitated. ''I thought you were more sensible than that.''

A weak laugh ''Well...ah...''

''Lucy's just greedy.'' Happy supplied.

''Hey!''

''Well, it's true.'' He wheedled slyly. ''After all, you only agreed when you saw the reward!''

Lucy growled ''You little...''

Both were distracted though, when the sailor spoke up ''There it is...''

The three looked over, seeing that they were indeed approaching an island. Happy squinted ''So that's Galuna...it looks peaceful for an island that's been cursed for three years.''

''The curse is dangerous because it's so insidious.'' The sailor glanced at his cursed arm. ''You have to keep your guard up no matter what.''

Gray was about to ask for more information but then they all saw a massive tsunami surging towards the boat. ''Oi, we gotta do something!''

''But what?!'' Lucy cried.

They had no time to figure anything out, for in moments, they were overcome by the wave...

When they woke up shortly afterwards, it was to find that they landed on Galuna Island's shore. Strangely enough, there was no sign of the sailor anywhere.

The group of four decided to look around the area, agreeing that it was best to find a settlement here for now.

''So you're gonna help after all? I knew you couldn't miss up on the chance, ice princess.'' Natsu smirked.

Gray's eye twitched ''I'm only here because I had no choice. But yeah, I won't let you make S-class before me, you idiotic pyro.''

''What was that?!''

Lucy gave the ice mage a look, completely unimpressed. Wasn't he just griping about their schemes a little while ago? Besides, how were they so sure this would guarantee them the S-class ranking? The only reason she was even here was that she couldn't miss the opportunity for a zodiac key.

''Let it go, Natsu. I bet Gray will be thanking us when we pull this off.'' Happy chirped.

That worked well as a distraction, getting Natsu to pause ''Oh yeah...can't wait to see their faces when we get back.''

''I can...'' Lucy muttered, frankly, she was far more worried about what their guildmates would do after they pulled this stunt.

As she would later find out, her concerns were indeed valid.

As it so happened, the atmosphere in Fairy Tail was as tense as it could be after they discovered what happened. It turned out that a few townspeople had seen Happy flying away with the request. However, since the sight was hardly unusual, they hadn't given it much thought.

The atmosphere got worse as Gray had yet to come back or even send word back to the guild, leaving many to believe that he agreed to take part in the quest.

''What do we do?'' Mira asked Makarov

''Those reckless brats...''

''Oi, what's going on?''

Both started at the voice, turning around to see Laxus looking on curiously, seemingly having just arrived. ''What're you all so worked up about?''

''Natsu, Happy and Lucy stole one of the S-class request!'' Mira informed.

He arched an eye ''Huh, who knew...well, I can see those idiots pulling this stunt off but Lucy seemed more sensible than that.''

''Why are you so calm?!'' Macao demanded.

''Well, panicking isn't going to solve this, is it?'' He returned. ''Anyway Gramps, can't you just send someone to handle this?''

''I tried-Gray was supposed to but he never came back. It's been hours. Laxus, you have to get them back!''

The blond sighed ''I figured you'd say that. Well...''

''There's no need.'' Erza walked over, there was a dark look in her eyes as her tone turned almost steel firm with determination. ''I'll take care of this.''

Seeing her now, many of those present would admit that they feared for their missing comrades...

By nightfall, the group of four had arrived at the village and once the guards checked for their guildmarks, they were allowed entry.

They were greeted by the village chief Moka and a few villagers. The man proceeded to explain how for some reason, they'd all gained some horrific deformed limbs, like those of a monster.

''This is horrible...'' Lucy trailed off.

''It get worse, Miss.'' Moka informed morosely. ''For centuries, our home has absorbed moon light, leaving it beautiful. But three years ago,the moon fell under evil magic and its light turned us into...into monsters.''

Gray blinked ''Wait, what do you...?''

The moon, which had been obscured by clouds earlier, became visible again. In a second, its light turned purple and Moka gasped ''Oh, no here it comes!''

He and the villagers began convulsing and groaning in terrible pain. Their bodies started to change, scales, spikes and fur coming to cover them, soon they looked like complete monsters.

''I apologize if this frightens you.'' Moka put in.

''Nah, it's cool. We've seen worse stuff out there.'' Gray returned, curious as Natsu's face lit up.

;'You guys look awesome!''

Everyone stared at him, stunned, but it was clear that the dragon was absolutely honest. He really liked these forms.

''Natsu, that's a horrible thing to say-this is the result of the curse. They don't want it!'' Lucy scolded.

''Oh, right...sorry.''

Moka cleared his throat and tried to get thing back on track, explaining that not only were they turned to demons, they could lose their minds and never change back. It was so bad that they could only killed those afflicted with the condition, to their shock. But it was clear that the villagers hated it too, they simply had no choice.

And the real surprise was that Moka had a picture of the sailor who brought them here, he was one of the people who died because of this madness. It was his own son, Bobo. They could really see why he had been so anguished earlier, he couldn't rest until his home was safe...

''At this rate, everyone will fall. Please, lift the curse!'' Moka pleaded.

''Sure, we've got it!'' Natsu promised.

''Aye Sir!'' Happy added while their friends nodded back. No one else would die to all this madness.

A problem arose right away when Moka stated that the only way to get rid of the curse was to destroy the moon. They were taken to a small hut to allow them some rest and shelter from the cursed light, lest they turn into demons too.

''Do we really have to do this?'' Happy wondered.

Gray closed the window ''There has to be more to this, right...? I mean, even if we ignore the consequences caused by destroying the moon for a minute, I don't see how anyone can do it...''

''What do you mean? It's easy.''

He spared Natsu a skeptical look ''How's that?''

''It'll probably take a whole lot of attacks but I figured I can just fly with Happy.'' He stated simply.

The blue cat gave him a disbelieving look. ''There's no way it's that easy, Natsu.''

''Why are you even considering that in the first place?'' Lucy deadpanned.

''Besides, even if we could, do you have any idea what kind of chaos that would cause?'' Gray added.

''What're you guys talking about? We have to do this, it'll make Fairy Tail look bad otherwise!'' Natsu exclaimed.

His rival shot him a glare ''You don't get to use that excuse. You already put the guild's rep at stake when you stole the request, genius.''

Lucy sighed ''Look, I don't see how we can destroy the moon. Let's assume for a moment that there's someone out there with a power to do it-there's no telling what could come of it. Let's start investigating tomorrow, I bet we can find the real reason behind the curse.''

The other three came to agree and so they prepared to turn in for the night...

Lucy made sure to have her teammates get up early, despite their groaning. But she didn't care, she could hardly sleep thanks to all their snoring so there!

The girl summoned her clock spirit Holorogium to carry her across, to her friends' chagrin. She had no intention of taking any chances with this strange curse though so she believed this was for the best.

Everything had seemed all right at first but then they were attacked by a giant rodent, which was oddly enough, dressed up in a maid costume. Natsu and Gray were able to defeat it with ease but then they saw that the rodent had come from a temple deep within the forest.

Natsu looked around the temple as they entered, excitement clear in his tone ''Man, I don't know why you keep freaking out so much, Lucy. S-class quests are the best!''

''It's a little something called common sense-not that you seem to know what having it is like!''

''Ain't that the truth.'' Gray agreed dryly.

Lucy huffed ''Anyway, take this seriously! It's not like we're any closer to figuring things out, you know.''

''It's fine, it's fine. This'll be a breeze!'' Natsu declared.

The blonde sighed ''Why do I even bother...?''

''There were a bunch of moon symbols back at the village and now look at this...'' Happy trailed off, gesturing at the walls nearby.

Gray nodded a little, glancing at a wall that held a diagram of the phases of the moon ''It kinda looks like there's a theme here...wonder if it could have anything to do with the curse. That's how this whole thing started, right?''

''Aye...there has to be more to it though.'' The blue cat added.

Erza had gotten to force some pirates to take her there. They were frightened of the curse but that much more frightened of her, knowing they couldn't get out of this. Frankly, she was too angry with her friends to really care at the moment.

How dare they do such a thing? Rules were placed for a reason. S-class jobs were handled especially carefully because they were that dangerous. Admittedly, Lucy making this choice had surprised her but she could really see Natsu, Happy and even Gray going along with this.

What fools, one can't take any shortcuts to improve. If they wanted to take such jobs they have to prove themselves ready. They were even risking harming Fairy Tail and that was unforgivable.

She didn't care what excuse they could offer, they would answer for this.

A short while later, they fell down to a lower level when an impatient Natsu wound up destroying the floor. The temperature suddenly changed, becoming much colder for some reason. This prompted them to explore the area further and they soon discovered the reason.

It was a huge piece of ice, it almost seemed to glow in the dark. But that was hardly noticeable compared to what lay within it.

A monster that had fangs and claws, even trapped within the ice it exuded a powerful and dangerous presence.

''Whoa, what the heck...?'' Natsu stared.

''Deliora...''

He blinked and looked at Gray, whose eyes were locked on the ice structure, horror clear in his tone. ''...how is this possible?! Why is it here?''

Natsu, Happy and Lucy were understandably thrown for a loop, the sight of Gray shaken up like this was rather odd. Especially for Natsu and Happy, who'd known him for so long. They had never seen him look so scared...

Happy decided to ask the question he thought they all wanted an answer to ''How do you know about that thing, Gray?''

But he didn't seem to be listening, his thoughts running a million miles per hour. Lucy stepped in front of him ''Hey, try to calm down. It doesn't look like it can do anything under all that ice.'' Gray took a fortifying breath. ''Good, now can you tell us about this monster?''

''...It's Deliora, the Demon of Destruction. Deliora destroyed my hometown ten years ago. I was the only survivor...my master Ur gave up her life to seal it away.''

''Your teacher must have been great.'' Happy stated.

Natsu was about to voice his agreement but then he heard the sound of footsteps ''Hey, someone's coming!''

Lucy looked alarmed, she quickly grabbed his hand and pulled him behind a big rock with her and the others.

''Why are we hiding?'' He asked only for her to shush him.

A girl with magenta hair and wore a black dress and matching shoes, a man with dark hair and big eyebrows along with a man that had some canine features along with dog ears on top of his hair made their way through the tunnel.

The three were Sherry, Yuka and Toby. The giant rat the group had encountered earlier was the girl's pet rat, Angelica. They were working under someone who called himself the Cold Emperor, his aim being to free Deliora from the ice. This angered Gray a lot but the others could only wonder how they would do such a thing in the first place.

''Okay...'' Happy spoke up once the three had left. ''...those guys are big weirdos.''

''I'll say. Especially the one with the pet rat.'' Lucy began to think ''Natsu, let's say you wanted to melt the ice, how much power would it take?''

''A lot.'' He answered at once. ''That's not normal ice, I can feel plenty of power coming from it. I don't think they can use any plain old magic to free that monster.''

''That's just it.'' Gray's eyes narrowed. ''Ur used a forbidden spell called Iced Shell to stop Deliora, that ice is impossible to melt. How do they think that would work?''

''We can stay and find out.'' Lucy's suggestion earned groans from Natsu and Happy. ''Can you think of a better idea? We need to find out what's going on. Maybe those guys know something about the curse, we can't just rush into things.''

''Yeah...I want to get to the bottom of this.'' Gray declared.

Riku and Belle arrived at the island, not too far from the temple. The latter was looking around ''...You know, after all the horror stories we got this place looks normal.''

'Yeah, it really does make one wonder...' Riku trailed off.

The two had finished their investigation and gotten back to the client. The man wanted to run a trade business but one of the main routes for his ship involved this island and since there was all the talk of a curse, the sailors he hired wouldn't come near it. Once they explained the situation, the client managed to get a sailor to bring them close to the island. Belle waited for them to almost reach the island before lifting Riku off the boat, allowing him to recover some what from motion sickness so he could open up a gate to teleport them to their destination.

Belle tilted her head ''Riku, do you feel anything off about the island?'' She wasn't too surprised at his negative reply ''Well, it was worth a shot.''

Riku's dragon slayer magic made him a good sensor, at first they assumed he had the ability to sense darkness but experience proved that it was more along the lines of sensing malice. It only worked in specific situations and in a handful of times but there was no denying that it helped before. In Belle's opinion, if the curse was as dangerous as they heard, Riku might have been able to sense it.

'We're definitely missing something here. How about we keep continue looking for information now?' Riku suggested.

''Okay! We can split up and search then-we'll cover up a bigger area.'' Belle suggested. ''I'll meet you back here in say...two hours?''

The brunet nodded and in a moment, the duo went off own their way.

Later, when Riku had been heading back to meet up with his partner, he heard a lot of noise that made him stop in his tracks. The sight of what he could've sworn was magic being cast nearby made him head over to the area.

There were two girls on their knees at the area, one had pink hair and a giant rat next to her. The other was...

Riku blinked. Lucy? What was she doing here?

''Angelica, avenge me!''

The pink haired girl's cry made the rat jump into action. Riku's eyes narrowed as he gathered his power...

Lucy cringed as Angelica charged at her, she was too tired to get away from that thing.

She couldn't believe it. The four of them had taken action at once upon learning that the Cold Emperor decided to destroy the village. Gray faced the man himself while Natsu dealt with Toby and Yuka. Things were already bad enough when she got carried away with Sherry and her pet as they intervened in their plans earlier. She knew trying to stop the two had been reckless but she had been desperate.

The blonde really thought things were looking up after she won her battle against Sherry but the result left her drained. And now...was she going to die like this?

If she had looked up then, she would have seen the three dark rays that appeared above her, blasting Angelica and Sherry.

Lucy's eyes widened when she heard the pink haired girl cry out, making her open her eyes then to see that both she and her pet were out cold. ''What...?''

She turned slightly at the sound of footsteps as a new arrival made his way through, her dark brown eyes meeting a pair of familiar vivid blue orbs.

''Riku?!''

So he was the one who intervened...thank goodness. Before the girl quite knew it, she was hugging the dragon slayer in happiness. ''Thanks. I really thought I was done for-great timing!''

Riku gave a small smile 'Well, it looked like you really worked hard.'

''Ehehe, you think so? Well, I tried...'' She beamed. ''...wait, what're you doing here?''

'That's what I want to ask you. Our job was supposed to be an investigation and it wound up leading us here. I didn't know there were jobs to this island with all this stuff about a curse going on.'

Lucy stiffened ''Erm, about that...''

He had been away when this whole mess started and unlike Natsu and Happy, he wouldn't steal a job he had no right to. She doubted her paid much attention to the S-class requests if he had no reason to. Of course he had no idea. How on Earthland could she explain this?

Erza had just been debating where to go looking for her wayward team next when she spotted a familiar purple form flying nearby. One who shouldn't have been here either.

''Belle!'' She called.

The cat blinked and turned back ''Erza! You've got a job here too?''

''Not quite-so that strange investigation you mentioned involves coming here?'' Erza recalled seeing the job request with her before they left.

''Yup! Our client's trying to run some trade business but the routes he needs to use go through this area and everyone's too freaked out by this curse stuff to go at it. We've had to check a few routes before we made fully sure. He doesn't believe in it so he wants us to do something about this.''

''I see. That's understandable.'' Erza had a hard time believing in this curse too, it just seemed like plain hearsay. ''Then where's Riku?''

''Oh, by the other side on the beach. We split up to cover bigger area. So what's going on? If you aren't here on a job...''

''It's a bit of a long story. I'd rather not repeat myself so I'll explain when we find Riku.'' Erza stated.

Belle gave her a curious look ''Well, I'm supposed to meet him by the spot we agreed on before. If that helps...?''

''It does. Lead the way, please.''

Well, let's stop here.

I hope it was good. I wasn't sure what to do about this chapter for a while but this was what I came up with in the end. I plan for Erza, Riku and Belle to be brought up to speed next chapter so I'll be covering the stuff I left out then. Though Erza finding Lucy and the others is about to go down as you'd expect, it'll get better from there.

Anywho, thanks for reading and I hope you keep it up. Till next time!