"Come on now!" Aiden shouted his grin widening as he forced Cynthia to make the hardest decision of her life. "What's the matter!?"
"I…I…" Cynthia froze, tears welling up in her eyes as she looked back between Alex and Wendy. It was literally one or the other and she couldn't do a single thing to save both of them. "Wendy…Alex…! I…!"
"Cynthia…!" Wendy called out to her friend, trying to reassure her that everything would be okay. "It'll be fine…! I'll be fine! She'll be fine!"
"Don't worry about us!" Alex exclaimed, trying to wriggle her way out of the hand's grip, but to no avail. "Gah..! Just go and get Aiden!"
"R-Right…!" Cynthia nodded slowly, taking a step forward, but the hands holding Wendy and Alex shook slightly, causing her to back away. She didn't want to take the risk. "Ngh…"
"That's right, you wouldn't want anything to happen to them both now would you?" Aiden asked with a sadistic grin on his lips, fingers dancing over both buttons that determined the fate of the two girls. "Come now, I think you've had enough time to make a decision."
"But…But I can't!" Cynthia cried out.
"I'll ask you one more time!" Aiden shouted, clearly enjoying his position of power far too much. "Whose life do you choose!?"
"YOURS!" A voice screamed from nearby, catching everyone's attention.
"What?" Aiden raised a brow at the sudden interruption, wondering where the voice came from.
The opposing wall exploded, revealing an injured Natsu, but he was clearly livid, shown by the hateful expression he wore towards Aiden. Without a word, he leapt from his position with his fist pulled back flames blazing fiercely around it, literally leaping across the large room towards Aiden. "I CHOOSE YOURS!"
"DRAGNEEL!?" Aiden's eyes widened as Natsu leapt across the room. Natsu broke through the glass with ease and slammed his flaming fist into Aiden's jaw, sending the male flying back across the room. Finally, Natsu got to punch Aiden for everything that happened. Aiden let out a loud grunt of pain as he rolled across the floor, eventually coming to a stop on a knee. "HOW!?"
"NATSU!" Cynthia and Wendy called out in unison, both incredibly relieved that Natsu showed up when he did.
"I'M NOT FINISHED WITH YOU YET!" Natsu yelled towards the scientist, dashing forward as "trails" of fire appeared behind his arms, landing yet another hit on Aiden with his Fire Dragon's Wing Slash, causing the scientist to slide back even further.
"Guh…!" Aiden grunted, burn marks now appearing on his clothing and body. "I was sure Yeti Blizzard finished you off…how are you still alive!?"
Natsu ignored Aiden's question. As the cloud of smoke surrounded the Salamander, he lowered his head so his hair created a shade over his eyes that now began to glow red from the lighting. The flames around his body intensified as his anger reached its peak. He spoke out in the most threatening voice possible. "You…" He started, fist clenching in anger. "First, you use Cynthia as a tool…putting her and Wendy through hell in the process. You have the nerve to do the same thing again…? Putting those two through the worst pain imaginable?" He snarled now, unable to hold himself back now. "I don't know what's 100x worse than death, but I swear to you, as a Fairy Tail wizard…I'M GOING TO MAKE YOU FEEL IT!" The flames around his person exploded violently.
Aiden merely smirked at Natsu's little speech, not intimidated by it in the slightest. "My, my…Salamander…" He chuckled. "Your words would strike fear into the normal human…but I have nothing to fear. Besides, you should be focusing on the little girls right now, ne?"
"I'm not worried about that," Natsu replied while taking a step forward.
"W-What?! And why not!?" Aiden asked, obviously surprised to see Natsu shrugging off comrades in danger.
"The great Shadowlore is here to save the day!" An injured Shadowlore exclaimed while leaping from the hole in the wall Natsu created, instantly freeing Alex with a simple slash of his claw while Cynthia rescued Wendy.
"Lore!" Alex said while hugging the life out of Shadowlore.
"Wendy!" Cynthia proceeded to do the same to Wendy, letting out a sigh of relief.
"Now it's just you and me…" Natsu said while his cheeks began to puff out to inhumane lengths. "Fire Dragon's Roar!" He then threw his head forward, unleashing a massive funnel of flames that tore through the entire room. He was aiming to literally burn Aiden to a crisp.
"As much as I would like to toy around with you some…" Aiden began before leaping high into the air, a floating platform appearing under his feet. The roar traveled just under the platform and destroyed the wall on the opposite side. "I have some other business I must attend to. But I can assure you that we will be having some fun later on."
"OI! I'm not done with you yet!" Natsu growled, leaping up to catch Aiden before he could escape, but failed as the platform ascended to a higher floor, the way sealing off quickly. "Dammit!" He'd get Aiden another time. For now he turned around and looked down to see how the others were doing. "Oi, you guys alright?"
"We're fine…" Alex replied while letting out a heavy sigh. "That was close…" She then looked towards Cynthia who was looking down at the ground. "Hey, what's up, sis?"
"I didn't think I'd ever have to make a choice like that…" Cynthia replied. "You both mean so much to me, and I can't just choose one…I'm lucky you two showed up when you did."
"Don't start getting all mushy on us now…" Shadowlore said with a groan.
"I heard Yeti Blizzard gave you two a hard time?" Wendy said, trying to change the subject.
"Yeah…" Natsu said while rubbing the back of his head. "He was gonna bury us with the snow, but it turns out the floor was weaker than he thought it was, so we all fell to the lower area. I don't know where he went, though. That snow brushed off his scent."
"Can't reach Magnus either, we're too far down, or something," Lore replied.
"I guess we should start looking for the others, then…I hope they're okay…" Cynthia sighed.
.
.
"Tch…" Aiden grunted in annoyance. He obviously wasn't expecting Natsu and Shadowlore to make an appearance. He pulled out a communications lacrima and contacted Hyde. "Hyde, it appears we have an issue."
"An issue with the script?" Hyde asked.
"Yes, something of the sort…" Aiden replied. "It appears that two actors, Natsu and Shadowlore, have made their way back onto the stage."
"Is that so…?" Hyde merely chuckled. "That's quite fine, I can make a small adjustment to the script to make sure things go as needed, this just means that I'll need to collect the rest of the actors sooner. Perhaps I'll leave that to Augria and Kid."
"We also have some uninvited guests." Aiden added.
"Hm…We'll see how they interpret the script before acting," Hyde nodded.
"I expected no less from you. I need to finalize some things, so I leave everything in your hands." And with that, Aiden cut the transmission off.
.
.
"Natsu!?" Lucy asked with a bright smile on her face.
"Don't get your hopes up; it's just a minor inconvenience to the script that can easily be rectified." Hyde replied. It was then that he felt something poking his foot. "What?" He looked down, brow raising as he spotted Plue poking its nose into his foot, trying to give an angry expression but couldn't. "What on Earthland is this marshmallow looking thing?"
"Plue?!" Lucy's eyes widened at the sight of Plue, obviously wondering how he summoned himself. "How!?"
"Oh, this is yours?" Hyde grinned, raising his foot up. "Then I'll squash it along with the rest of you and your friends!" He then brought his foot down, but stopped as Plue's nose went through his shoot, hitting his foot as a result. "Ow…!" He began to comically hop around on one foot while Plue just looked at the male clueless.
"Pun…?"
"Don't mock me!" Hyde shouted in a comical manner, now swinging his leg at the small spirit, only to miss at Plue fell to the ground on its own, causing Hyde to spin out and land on his back with a thud. "oof!"
"Hehehe…" Even in her situation, Lucy couldn't help but laugh. "The mighty Hyde 2.0 being defeated by little Plue of all things? My, my, how the mighty have fallen."
"Tch!" Hyde wasn't going to take that kind of attitude, especially from his captive. He placed his cane on Lucy's stomach, sending a powerful voltage of black electricity through her system, causing her to cry out in pain. This lasted for only a second before he pulled away. "Roll back that attitude, will you? That's not in the character I've give you at all." Hyde glanced around, noticing that Plue was gone. "Little shit got away…oh well. It won't cause any problems. It's too minor a character to even do such a thing."
.
.
Finally, it was time to keep track on the two Aces who seemingly vanished once they were all separated. Gildarts and Sidney were stuck within the lower levels of the building. Though, Gildarts didn't really seem to mind too much as he just walked through the walls, but of course he was doing this on purpose now. "You know…" Gildarts said while rubbing the back of his head, looking over at Sidney. "You're not really much of a talker. I forget you're even around half the time."
"I don't waste my words with lesser mages." Sidney replied, obviously making one statement clear.
"Haha!" Gildarts let out a chuckle, his slightly angered mood removed by what he thought Sidney told was a joke. "That's a good one! You must be quite the comedian!"
Even during Gildarts' boisterous laughing, Sidney's expression remained stern. "I don't tell jokes."
"You sure? Because for a second there it almost seemed like you said you were stronger than me!" Gildarts replied with a coy grin, though Sidney didn't show any emotion.
"We can settle this another time, if you'd like," Sidney replied. "But for now…"
"Yeah, I know," Gildarts' serious expression returned once again. "We have to stop Aiden. Last time he managed to stop us from doing anything, but that's not going to happen a second time."
"I'm ready to kill her if things get out of hand again," Sidney stated bluntly, causing Gildarts to stop in his tracks. "We both know she's a threat to everyone, and yet you insist on keeping her around."
"Heh…" Gildarts merely chuckled. He looked over his shoulder and gave Sidney a classic Gildarts grin. "You won't have to worry yourself about little Cynthia. Because any problem she faces we'll face along with her. That's what a family does, after all."
"And if that problem is too great?" Sidney inquired, arms crossed. "What will you do then?"
"We've already gotten through the worst once," Gildarts responded with absolute confidence. "We won't let the same thing happen twice."
"We'll see about that, Clive," Sidney replied short.
"You need to lighten up," Gildarts chuckled once again, aiming to pat Sidney on the back, but his hand just phased through the ghost mage. "…I didn't mean thin air light."
"Targets acquired." Gareth said as he walked in front of the two aces.
"What's this now?" Gildarts raised a curious brow as the machine walked towards them. "Another one of Aiden's toys?"
"Gildarts Clive, SS Class mage of Fairy Tail. Sidney Castle, SS class mage of White Eclipse. Level of difficulty: 2." Gareth finished what he believed to be an in depth analysis of the two aces.
"2?" Sidney almost let out the faintest of chuckles at Gareth's miscalculation. "I think the quality of his work went down once Fiore's End failed. No matter…let's make quick work of this machine and get back into things. I've said enough already."
.
.
"I dislike large groups…" Takeru scowled as he had to deal with Laxus, Elfman, Gray, Jack, Taya, Magnus, and Warren. They all met together not too long ago, and despite the fact some of them wanted to move separately, they all ended up going together.
"Agreed…" Taya nodded her head, scoffing as she decided to keep her distance from the Fairies and Cosmic member.
"Ah, you two need to lighten up a bit, and have a drink!" Jack said while taking a small swig from his special flask.
"That disgusting smelling drink? I don't think so." Takeru replied. "I've seen what that stuff does to you people! You're not getting me with that!"
"Onto more important things…" Laxus interrupted, looking over at Warren and Magnus. "Any progress on contacting anyone we lost?"
"No dice…" Warren said with a sigh. "I can't seem to connect to anyone, it's like there's some sort of interference."
"Same here…" Magnus replied. "It's rather distasteful; I'm not a fan of my telepathy being cut off."
"I'm sure they're alright," Gray sounded confident in this statement. "We just have to make sure we watch out for ourselves right now, who knows what could happen."
"As a MAN, I'll make sure to…" Elfman started, but Taya wasn't having it, and thwacked the back of his head. "Ow!?"
"Cut that out," Taya demanded in a stern tone, actually hushing Elfman.
"HA!" Takeru laughed at Elfman's dismay.
"Now, now…" Magnus said while trying to calm the rising tension. "Let's keep our heads on straight. Won't be able to do much otherwise unless you're calm."
"Don't tell me what to do," Taya scowled now. As the group walked, they entered a room with spiked walls. "Oh, spikes…lovely…" Taya rolled her eyes, hand resting on her hip.
"This looks vaguely familiar…" Gray narrowed his eyes as he looked around. "I've seen this somewhere before…"
"Welcome, welcome!" General Augria exclaimed while rolling forward, standing tall before the group of mages. "You're within my domain now! My name is General Augria 2.0!"
"Ah, I remember you now…" Gray smirked slightly. "You were the one who lost to Gajeel, which means that you're nothing special, even with a little upgrade."
"Is that how you're going to be?" The general was unfazed by Gray's remark, but smirked instead, large arms folded over his chest as the wheels on his lower body began to rev. "Do you really think you all are capable of stopping the Unstoppable Charge?!"
"You're nothing but a human on wheels…" Laxus said with an uninterested expression.
"If Ice can stop time, then it should have no problem stopping a giant tin can on wheels!" Gray said as his smirk grew.
"Don't get in my way…" Takeru scoffed as he got into a stance. "This is a big group, so try not to hit the spikes when you dodge…"
.
.
Jellal, Meredy, and Ultear carefully made way through their side of the lab. It was a large building and they were all certain they were lost. "I think we're actually lost now…" Meredy said with a small frown.
"I don't think lost is the correct word…" Jellal said, trying to save face. "If we keep going this way, we may find something interesting."
"At this rate, I highly doubt it…" Ultear sighed while gently gliding her hand across the wall, accidently pressing a hidden switch within the wall. The switch caused the wall to open up, and Ultear fell right on through with a yelp of surprise.
"UI!" Meredy whispered, rushing over to Ultear's side. "Are you okay!?"
"I'm fine…" Ultear replied while sitting on her side, rubbing her head. "Apparently I stumbled upon something it seems the scientist wouldn't want anyone to…"
"What's inside?" Jellal asked, walking into the hidden room along with the two females. All sorts of machine's, all of them very high tech. "Whoa…"
"This man takes technology to a new level…" Ultear admitted. She was impressed with the level of technology Aiden had in his possession. "It's dangerous to leave him with this amount of technology."
"I agree…" Meredy nodded. "How do you think we should go about des-" And before she could finish, a fast hoof palmed her right in the face. She let out a yelp of surprise and flew out of the hidden room and into the outside wall, stunned from the sudden attack.
"What the?!" Ultear turned, only catching a quick glimpse of Kung Fu Kid before he vanished within a second, now appearing behind her and landed a quick roundhouse to the back of her head, sending her right next to Meredy in a stunned state.
"I can't let you touch that machinery…it's much too valuable for Master Hyde…" Kid said while turning to Jellal, now aiming a flying jump kick to finish off the heavenly mage.
"Meteor!" Jellal exclaimed hastily, a golden aura appearing around his person as he sped out of the way, allowing Kid to strike the wall with his foot. "Master Hyde, you say? I should've known that he wasn't down and out just yet…" Slowly, a smirk appeared on Jellal's face. "Well…I'm not too sure what this machinery can do, but if you're defending it, it's obviously important."
"I've heard about you, Jellal Fernandes," Kid said while entering a particular stance. "The master of the Tower of Heaven…oh, how the mighty have fallen. You aim to stop Master Hyde? I'm afraid that you can't stop him now. The Ultimate Show is already progressing perfectly. It's too far to stop."
"So you say…" Jellal replied in a calm tone. "I may not be able to stop him…but you've forgotten the fact that Fairy Tail is here. If they could stop me, I'm certain they can stop Aiden and Hyde. And even if I can't do anything to stop him, I can assist them by taking you and this machinery out."
"Very well…" Kid said in a calm tone himself. "Then let's see what you can do…"
.
.
Gray: "Time to take down Hyde's underlings once and for all! These guys are annoying me!"
Hyde: "It doesn't matter if you win or lose, the show will continue, but please, humor me!
Jellal: "It's time to wipe that little grin off your face once and for all, Hyde! We're coming for you!"
Next time: Commander Takedown!