Nexus: Heroes Will Rise

by tmb1112

Universal borders have been erased and beings from thousands of universes now live on the same world: Nexus. In the first Saga of Nexus, Awul was saved, but the mysteries of Nexus remain. Now our heroes sail across the sea to Aebrith to search for lost loved ones and save the world. MCs from DBZ, KH, Soul Eater, FT, Blue Exorcist, Bleach, 7DS, OP, Ben 10, SAO, HxH, and many more!

57. Nexus HWR 9-9 Lazarus Pit

Nexus HWR 9.9 Lazarus Pit:

"This the room?" Gray mumbled, his voice coming out slurred.

Kirito looked left at the older man by a few years. The ice mage of Fairy Tail looked wobbly on his feet and his face was pale, but the look of determination he wore had never been stronger. The teenager's gaze lingered on Gray's left side for a minute. The mage's entire side was soaked with blood, from his armpit down to his boots.

Gray did not hear a reply so he turned a little to Kirito to see why he was not responding. He followed Kirito's look to his left side and stared at his own empty arm socket. The melted skin of his shoulder kept more blood from flowing from the wound, but he could still feel the agony of the injury. He tried moving around his left hand and could actually feel false fingers where his hand should be, but as he was looking at his side he saw no hand to speak of.

"It's not that bad," the older of the two muttered. He tried to keep his voice steady to assure Kirito it was alright. He turned back to the door in front of him, a giant double doorway with intricate drawings on them. There were no handles, so it looked to be a door they needed to push open. "I know it Kirito," Gray started, his voice quiet, his eyes almost closed. "It's behind this door. The way to bring her back."

"Then," Kirito began, and he took a step towards the doors. "Let's go in." He pressed both hands up against the door on the right and pushed open hard. They were heavier than they looked, and Gray struggled hard to push the door on the left with only his right hand. Slowly, Gray's door opened up as well and the Fairy Tail mage stumbled into the room behind Kirito.

Instantly the layout of the room stood out as being totally different from what they were used to. There were no concrete floors, no flat walls, no statues or art or anything to make the place look manmade. Instead they were standing on a rocky, uneven surface, one that stretched to the dark corners of the room and then went up the bumpy walls. Water leaked in from cracks on the walls, moss grew on the rocks, and the only light seeped in from a hole on the ceiling that pointed straight up at one of the moons.

The boys left the door behind them open to keep the room semi-illuminated, allowing them to see all the way to the other side with the help of the moon as well. The rocky surface seemed to flatten out towards the back of the room, but there were small natural steps towards the back wall, leading to a flat upper section with a circular tub in the center. Steam rose off the pool in the back of the room full of bubbling water.

"The Lazarus Pit," Gray mumbled, his eyes focusing on the pool. He took a step forward, but Kirito grabbed his arm before he could get past the younger boy.

Gray looked at the teenager in confusion, wondering why Kirito was stopping him. Kirito appeared cautious though, and the teen announced, "I can sense you're here. Come out." Gray started spinning around as he had no idea who Kirito was talking to. The room looked empty to him. Then, all of a sudden his attention shifted to the back right corner of the room. It did not even look that dark, but for some reason the man standing there was invisible to him until just now.

The man was at least a foot taller than the younger men, and much more built. He was a big person: large arms, broad shoulders, and as he stepped into the moonlight they could make out more of his features. His face did not look like an old man's, but definitely someone much older than them, most likely middle-aged in his thirties or forties. Kirito was thinking of all this while he stared at the man with long silver-blond hair walking out of the shadows.

"I am impressed you were able to see me," the man stated. His voice was low, but for some reason sounded almost friendly. "I will enjoy killing you," he continued, and Kirito sweatdropped. Not friendly. Definitely not friendly. The black haired ninja was panting as he looked ahead at the monster in front of him. Low on chakra, Kirito thought, and Gray can barely stand let alone fight. If they only left one man to guard this pit, then most likely he's one of their strongest warriors. If he is even close to Ra's al Ghul's level, we won't stand a chance.

"Hey Kirito," Gray mumbled. His blurry vision got a little more focused upon hearing the man with long curly hair say he was going to kill them. Gray's eyes focused on the man's long, silver hair, and he muttered, "Does this guy look, strangely familiar?"

The muscular man before them started walking their way. He cracked his knuckles and an aura of white surrounded his body, making both men facing him lower their bottom lips and get seriously bad feelings in their guts. "I don't think I've ever met him before," Kirito replied. He wanted to take a step back, but he was sweating so much that he figured the man already had enough reason to think they were easy prey. Kirito reached down and whipped out a Kunai that he held in front of himself defensively. "And he's never met us either."

"That is true," the silver haired man responded, stopping his march forward while he was still forty feet away from them. "Telling from the earlier explosions in the rest of the fortress though, I am sure you are quite powerful. Especially if you have made it this far with only one lost limb." He looked at Gray's left side where the missing arm was obviously there not so long ago considering all the wet blood. The man looked back at Kirito who he could tell was currently the bigger threat to him, "My name is Silva Zoldyck. Now, let us begin."

"Nope, I definitely recognize him," Gray said, almost like he did not hear anything the other two just said. He tried raising up his left arm to scratch his chin thoughtfully, but when that failed and he remembered why, he rose his right hand instead. Gray tilted his head to the side while the other two looked each other up and down. "Hey Kirito," Gray began, a thought coming to his head. "What was Killua's last name again?"

The man in front of the two had just started sprinting forward. He closed the distance to ten feet in under a second, but then stumbled out of nowhere and Kirito saw his opening. He threw his Kunai forward and made a bunch of hand signs, "Kunai Shadow Clone Jutsu!" Kirito's single Kunai turned into a hundred and filled up most of the room.

The silver haired enemy stood still as the knives approached. He stared straight at Gray, and when the knives hit him and shattered he never once looked away from the Fairy Tail mage. Kirito lowered his bottom lip more as his attack did close to nothing against this enemy. Silva looked at Gray and stated calmly, "What did you just say young man?"

Gray's eyes opened wide and he repeated, "What was Killua's..." The look of recognition on the muscular man's face made both Gray and Kirito's eyes open wide.

"You know Killua?" Kirito asked. There's no way, he thought. The chances... the odds! It's impossible! The one man who could stop us, just happens-

"He is my son," Silva Zoldyck stated.

Gray and Kirito dropped their jaws. After about five seconds, Gray closed his mouth, then started laughing. Slowly at first, then full out hysterical laughing. "Haha hahahaha! He said he, was an assassin, haha, but," Gray had to wipe some tears from his pale face he was laughing so hard.

"Are you friends of Killua's?" Silva questioned, raising his eyebrows. "I am not surprised my son is on this world, but it is amazing to have run into you two here of all places."

That's what I was thinking, Kirito thought. He gulped and spoke up, "Yeah, Killua is our friend. We traveled around the world together. He's, he's doing great."

"Hmm, and is he here now?" Silva questioned. He crossed his arms in front of his chest and started staring questioningly at the boys in front of him.

Gray and Kirito looked at each other, and Gray looked back first, "No, he, he broke off to go do something else a little while back."

"Is that so?" Silva stated, not so much of a question as just him pondering this himself. "Well, the fact remains that you two are in a room I am obligated to protect. I was hired by Ra's al Ghul to-"

"Then it's fine if you don't kill us," Gray called out. He nodded his head to the right at the teenager next to him, "Kirito just killed him." Silva's eyes widened as he stared at the teenager who nodded his head and did not look to be lying.

Boom! CRASH!

The boys looked over their shoulders but the explosions that sounded close were not right outside the doors, at least, not yet. Silva looked over their shoulders as well and he nodded his head, "Ah, so then that must be the other members fighting over who becomes the next Ra's al Ghul."

"The next," Gray began slowly.

"Ra's al Ghul?" Kirito repeated, opening his eyes wide.

Silva nodded his head again. "Ra's is not a name, but a title passed from one leader of the League to the next. However, if the man who hired me is dead, then no matter who becomes the next Ra's al Ghul, I am no longer obligated to guard this room." He started walking forward towards the two younger men who were still nervous, but did not think he was going to kill them anymore.

The former guard of the Lazarus Pit looked closely at the boys as he walked closer to them. "Do you know what the Pit does?" He questioned, and the two nodded back at him. Silva hummed to himself as he saw their responses. "And the one you wish to bring back, is he also one of my son's friends?"

"She is," Gray replied, correcting the man on the pronoun for who they were bringing back. Silva looked at the young man and could immediately see Gray had a deep connection with the one he was going to bring back.

The silver haired man frowned and stopped walking when he was only a foot in front of Gray. "Lower her into the Pit, and hold her there until she awakens. Do not be worried at first, she will regain sense of herself before long." What he was saying did not make much sense to the boys, but they continued to listen anyway. Silva stared deeply into Gray's eyes and continued "And there is one other thing I must warn you."

Gray nodded at the older man, motioning for him to continue. Silva looked over his own shoulder back towards the Pit. He spoke in a low voice, "The woman you remember, will not be the same one who comes out of the Pit." He looked back into Gray's widening eyes, "She will be different. Forever changed by her time on the other side. I have seen someone be brought back by the Pit before. The change will not be noticeable at first, but in time, you will understand what I mean."

"What about her will change?" Kirito asked.

Silva looked down into Kirito's eyes, then back at Gray without responding. Gray clenched his right fist at his side and growled, "It doesn't matter. I'm bringing her back."

The older man nodded, and then walked in between Kirito and Gray back towards the doors. "If you see my son," Silva began as he reached the doorway. The younger men looked back at the man pausing there in the entrance even as explosions rang out around the rest of the mountain. The assassin continued, "Tell him, I am proud of him for making so many friends. And tell him to remember what we promised each other."

"What did you promise?" Gray asked. The pale-faced mage had no tact in the moment thanks to the blood loss. Normally he would have understood that Silva did not say it out loud on purpose, but he was a little off right now. Silva chuckled, and then he vanished out of the doorway.

"Well," Kirito mumbled after about ten seconds. More rumbling was going on throughout the mountain and he walked back to the doors, closing them so that it was only him and Gray in the room. "That was a lucky break we got," he muttered, then looked back over his shoulder at Gray who had started walking through the room. "Maybe the first one we've gotten all night," he finished darkly.

"Yeah," Gray mumbled. "I guess we deserved some good luck, right?" He continued to murmur as he walked his way across the rocky room. The natural feel of the room made it seem like the Lazarus Pit had been in this mountain from the very beginning of this world. As long as this mountain had been here, this pool had been inside it. Gray could not tear his eyes away from the steaming pool while he walked towards it. "But it's definitely more good luck than bad," he continued in a quiet mutter. "I may have lost your trust, lost my fights, and lost my arm, but I'm about to get Juvia back. How does a shitty guy like me get to be so lucky?" He chuckled under his breath and started climbing up the stone steps towards the pool in the back of the room.

Kirito followed after Gray the whole time. He frowned when Gray mentioned losing his trust, and he thought back to how Gray almost killed him earlier. The thought of it still disturbed him, but after what Gray did during their fight against Ra's, he could find it in him to forgive the older boy, if only a little. I can't trust you though, Kirito thought, even as he thought about forgiving him. I can't trust anyone. Not anymore.

Kirito shook his head of those types of thoughts and focused back on the task at hand. Silva's warning stuck more in his mind than in Gray's, and as Gray reached the edge of the Lazarus Pit, Kirito finally spoke up, "Gray." The ice mage did not turn from the pool he was looking down at, but Kirito continued anyway. "Are you sure you want to do this? What Silva said... What if Juvia comes out of there and, and she's no longer herself?"

"She's going to be fine," Gray muttered. His face was covered in sweat that started actually washing off the blood on it. He lowered his gaze to his pocket and he reached down with his right hand. Gray pulled out a small capsule he had and pressed down on the top of it, before dropping it at the edge of the pool next to him.

The capsule popped open and a yellow coffin-shaped tube appeared with a glass pane on the top showing an almost perfectly preserved Juvia on the inside. Her eyes were closed and her mouth was still in the same scared position it was in when she died. Her blue hair was strewn about in a mess, her skin was a little pale, but not any more so than Gray's.

Gray reached down and pressed a button on the side of the container, opening up the glass panel. The panel slid open and Gray turned his head, "Can you, help?" He questioned, hoping Kirito would say yes considering why he returned in the first place.

The younger teen hesitated for a few seconds. If Juvia returns a monster, we will have to stop her. I won't make you kill her though, Gray, I'll do it myself. Kirito nodded his head at the man who had no idea what he was thinking about. "Let's do this," Kirito said. He walked around the coffin and reached down with his arms, wrapping one around either of her legs.

Gray reached down his right and only hand and slid it under the left side of Juvia's neck, then scooped under her right armpit, giving himself a good hold on her upper body. It was off-balanced as they lifted up Gray's deceased girlfriend, but they managed to stumble their way over the ledge of the pool in the center of the flat upper section. They stepped down into the bubbling water, and both of them winced at the heat of the pool.

Their boots and the bottoms of their powerful armored pants kept them from feeling the heat too badly, but Gray's lower left leg and both of their ankles were being burned. They knew they needed to hurry up, and without further delay, they shoved Juvia down under the water. They completely put her under, to let all the liquid soak in... or something. Gray held a hand down on one of her shoulders, and Kirito held her down by the knees, his own hands burning now as he held them underwater. This was not the time to feel bad about his own pain however. If this doesn't work, we have no leads. We will have gotten our hopes up for nothing, Kirito thought.

This will work. It has to. I know it will! Gray pushed down harder on his girlfriend's shoulder. He clenched his hand down hard and closed his eyes, Please, work. Please. Come back, Juvia. "Come back Juvia," he whispered. Kirito lifted his head up while he held Juvia down and he saw Gray with his eyes closed, murmuring barely loud enough for him to hear. Gray whispered, "Please, come back to me. I, I don't know what to do without you. I'm so lost," water seeped out of Gray's closed eyelids and Kirito looked away from him, back down into the water where they were still holding an unmoving Juvia.

Seeing Gray break down while Juvia was still not moving was making Kirito feel uncomfortable, and sad. He stared at the legs he was holding down and frowned in a sad way, She's not getting- Kirito saw a twitch. His mind blanked and he looked down at her left foot. Juvia had no shoes on, she was wearing the same clothes she had on the night the League ambushed them. He stared at the motionless foot, and started to think he had imagining it, until he saw her toes wiggle again.

"...I let you die," Gray continued, tears dripping off his eyes now and down into the bubbling pool below. "I'm so sorry Juvia. Please, I need you. I, I love you-" Juvia's shoulder ripped itself from his grip and Gray stumbled back in shock, falling to his butt in the pool. He stared ahead and watched as Kirito desperately tried holding onto her legs, but she kicked him off her and he flew out of the pool and back ten feet from the edge. The water started bubbling harder and harder and Gray had to get up and flip backwards to get out before he burned alive.

The ice mage looked into the Pit but could see nothing through the veil of steam rising up. "Juvia?" He called out, looking in and trying to see her. He stepped forward, but more steam rose up and he pulled back as his face got seared with pain. When he was able to turn back, he lowered his bottom lip at the sight of a shadow inside the steam. The silhouette stood there unmoving, and then all of the water in the pit flew up in the air at once.

"Back up!" Kirito yelled across the pool towards Gray. He himself ninja-leapt backwards and still just barely avoided the wave of boiling water that flew his way. He looked over to see if Gray avoided it as well, and as he landed his bottom lip lowered upon seeing a wall of ice on the other side of the pool. The figure inside the steam turned towards the ice wall, and water rose up beneath her in a pillar.

She rose up above all the steam even as her pillar boiled and she towered over the frozen wall. Gray was panting hard after freezing that water to save himself, especially since he already had almost no magic power left. He looked up in the air as the figure towered above him, and his eyes opened wide at the sight. "J-Juvia?" He questioned, calling out her name.

The girl up above him had Juvia's body, but her face was distorted into that of an animal's. She bared her teeth down at her boyfriend and snarled down at him, "Raa, RAA!" She dove down off the pillar towards Gray who was too shocked to move this time.

"Damn it!" Kirito shouted, and he jumped across the room, intercepting Juvia as her hands were inches from Gray's throat. He tackled the blue-haired woman out of the air and pinned her to the floor. "Juvia, think about where you are!" Kirito yelled down into her face as he pushed her face into the floor.

"Ahh! Raaa!" Juvia shouted, struggling to get out of Kirito's grasp.

"You're hurting her!" Gray yelled at Kirito.

The older man stepped towards Kirito and put a hand on him, but Kirito snapped his gaze up angrily. "She's going to hurt herself if we can't get her to calm down!" Gray's hand froze tensed on Kirito's shoulder, and then the teen got thrown off the girl beneath him and tossed into the air.

Gray watched as Juvia stood up, her face darkened by her messy blue hair waving in front of her face. She looked at him with eyes not her own, and she snarled in a deep tone at her boyfriend. He clenched his eyes shut, painfully regretting what he was about to do. Juvia lunged at him, and Gray's eyes snapped open as he stepped to the side. She flew right by him and he rose up his right hand, then chopped her hard in the back of the neck as she was moving by him.

Juvia's eyes rolled up into her head and Gray pulled back his right hand, using it now to catch the delirious girl who faded into unconsciousness. He held her up with a regretful look on his face. While looking down at her he heard a voice getting closer, "You did the right thing there. She was in shock." Gray lifted his gaze and saw Kirito walking towards him. The teenager continued, "Remember what Silva said first? She will regain a sense of herself. For now she's just, I'm guessing, still confused by what's happening to her."

Gray was angry at first at the teen, but the longer Kirito spoke the more he felt better about what just happened. He started nodding his head, "Yeah, you're right. She'll be alright." He looked down at the girl in his arm and tried smiling if at least a little. "She's al-ive," he whispered, his voice cracking as he did.

"Yeah," Kirito mumbled. He was still in shock himself as he stared at the girl whose skin was less pale than a few minutes ago. He turned his head a little and sweatdropped. The boy muttered, "Looks like that was a one time thing."

Gray was confused at what he meant so he turned to look at what Kirito was already staring at. When Juvia rose up and boiled the water, she spilled it all over the place and evaporated even more. The Lazarus Pit was near empty. When they got there it was full up to the brim, and when they stepped in, the water went up to their waists. Now though, there was not even an inch left. Gray looked at some of the ice wall he had frozen and his eyes narrowed at it. "Let's take some of this to go."

The teenager standing next to him was already thinking the same thing. He reached over his back and grabbed a small pack he had on that was originally under his now-destroyed black cloak. Kirito whipped out his water bottle and dumped out what was left while Gray did the same thing. The two started chiseling chunks off of the ice wall next to Gray while it shrank down itself, melting and letting the magical water spread out over the floor uselessly.

While Gray was carving some ice into his water bottle, he glanced back at Juvia lying on the floor behind him. He then turned and stared at Kirito for a second, and he began, "Kirito, thank you." The teen looked up from the bottle he started to close, and he nodded at Gray, but Gray was not finished. "I, couldn't have done it without you," the ice wizard continued. He scratched the back of his head with his right hand, "I know, you said you came just for Juvia, but you saved my life back there too."

Kirito looked back at the bottle in his hand and he heated up his hand with his energy for a few seconds. He opened it back up and saw there was still more space after the ice he had filled it with melted. He cut off a few more pieces with a swipe of his hand covered in a small coat of chakra, while Gray spoke to him softer, "I know, what I almost did- no. What I did, even just the thought, I don't deserve-"

"Gray, stop." Kirito stated, closing his bottle again and lifting it back up, putting it into his pack. He looked over at Gray who was looking at him hopefully, but Kirito sighed and then frowned at the older man. "I told you," he said, his voice dark and cold, making Gray's hopeful look fade from his face. Kirito was glaring at him with an extremely pissed off expression though, and he continued, "You were going to kill me. Not six hours ago. You were going to kill me." Gray looked down ashamedly but it did little to appease Kirito who finished, "You are no longer my comrade."

Gray's head snapped up and he stared at Kirito in shock. The teen just continued glaring and then he started walking back down the steps away from the Lazarus Pit. "I'll stay with you on our way back to Pon-Gatso, solely to protect Juvia. Once we are there, we're done." Kirito could feel Gray looking at his back with a sad, shameful expression behind him, and he himself had to clench his eyes shut thinking about it. He risked his life for me. He lost an arm! Why? Why can't I just- forgive him? Suddenly a face appeared in Kirito's mind. Kuradeel's face. I've been apologized to before. I trusted someone who I tried to make amends with. And he put a sword in me. Gray isn't a bad guy though... but you know you can't ever trust him again.

The teenage ninja shook his head as he realized it. It's not Gray's fault he can't earn my trust back. I just, can't trust anyone anymore. He continued walking towards the door and could see out his peripheral vision Gray picking up Juvia with on arm, putting her over his shoulder, and walking after him. Kirito made it twenty feet from the double doorway when he froze in place.

Gray noticed his... companion, no longer moving and he stared at the entryway past Kirito confusedly for a few seconds. That's when he noticed it. "Where are all the explosions?" He whispered, trying to make his voice just loud enough for Kirito to hear.

"Very good!" a shrill voice exclaimed from outside the doorway. Both of the doors flew open and the boy closest to them bit down in anger.

Kirito leapt in the air and did a backflip so that he landed right in front of Gray. As he was in midair he whipped out a Kunai and he held it defensively in front of him. Gray stared at Kirito's back in surprise for a second, then lost that surprised look as half of his vision was taken up by Juvia's limp body over his shoulder and he remembered why it was Kirito was actually protecting him. He didn't think too hard on it now however, choosing instead to focus on the doors where a woman was walking around the left one and right into the middle of them.

She had long black curly hair, and she had something in her left hand that made both of the men looking at her flinch. The woman had another woman's decapitated head clenched in her hand by its messy black hair. The bottom of the head was dripping blood on the floor and some chunks of gook fell out as the woman with messed-up teeth and a crazy look in her eyes shook it around.

"Talia," Gray muttered, recognizing the head in the other woman's hand. He lifted his gaze and looked at the other, "So, who are you supposed to be?"

As he finished speaking, ten figures emerged behind her out of nowhere. Some of them dropped from above the doorway on the other side, others flew in in clouds of black smoke. They all appeared wearing black cloaks and holding up swords or wands. The curly haired woman held up her right hand and on her index finger was a pointed golden ring.

"I'm the new Ra's al Ghul," Bellatrix Lestrange replied. She lifted up her right hand and flashed her ring in their direction. "You should have plucked this off the body of poor old Ra's," she said in a smug tone. Her hand whipped down to her side and she pulled out a wand that she then pointed forward in a threatening way. Kirito and Gray tensed up, but the woman started cackling instead of casting a spell. She lifted the wand and put the far end of it in her mouth, sucking on the tip while laughing. "You two have done me a favor." None of the other assassins behind this woman said a word against what she was saying. Their loyalties were to the woman in front of them now, not to the old leader. He was no longer Ra's al Ghul.

"If you're really grateful, you'll let us leave here in peace," Kirito began, though his eyes widened even as he spoke. "Actually," he muttered, and he lowered his Kunai down to his weapon's pouch. The woman stared at him in confusion as she had a witty retort for his request, but he no longer seemed to want to know her answer. Kirito reached up to his back and drew one sword at a time from his sheaths. "I remember your face," Kirito started.

"Hahaha. Heeehehehee!" Bellatrix was confused for a second, but once she realized it she started cackling like mad. She tilted her head to the side and drew her wand back out from it, pointing it across the room at Kirito, only a little over his right shoulder. "That's right kid. I was there-"

"I know," Kirito interrupted her, making the woman's crazed face take a very dark turn. Kirito slashed his swords in front of him then put the black one down to his side, and the other, thinner one, up at his shoulder, both pointed out towards her while he widened his stance. "And because you helped kill my friend, I am going to end you."

Gray dropped his bottom lip as suddenly it clicked who this woman was. It was dark, and he was looking away from her almost the entire time since she was always behind him, but he recognized her face. She was the one who put the knife to his neck after all. She was the one who stopped him from saving his girlfriend. Gray snarled and he took a step forward, then his eyes rolled backwards, and he lost his footing, falling straight forward onto his face.

Kirito heard the thud behind him and the grunt from Gray. He would not look away from the woman pointing a wand at him, but by the way she started cracking up and a few of her assassins started smirking, he got the gist of what happened. "It doesn't matter," he growled, glaring harder at the new Ra's to make her stop laughing. "I can take you all on by myself."

"Hmmm," Bellatrix hummed loudly, while strutting into the room confidently. "I wonder about that. If you're so sure of yourself, why aren't you attacking?" Kirito did not respond and she smirked a crazed smile full of crooked teeth. "I know why. Old Ra's tired you out." She pointed her wand forward at Kirito who wanted to call her bluff, but could not hide how his heavy blades were shaking from being too heavy for his tired arms to hold.

Gray lifted up his head the slightest bit and he had blood dripping down from both corners of his mouth. "I've, got your, back, Kirito..." his voice faded out even as he spoke and Kirito could only grimace more as he realized how much blood Gray must have lost. A quick dart of his eyes back told him that the cauterizing was not going to be enough.

Bellatrix stopped her incessant laughter and she got a more deadly look on her face that told Kirito he no longer had time to ponder his options. A small nod of her head made every single one of her soldiers behind her start walking forward. My chakra's almost depleted! I couldn't make a Shadow Clone if I tried! Or maybe I could... but, if it takes all I have, I'll die before we can stop them... if we can even stop someone who rose up to the position of Ra's al Ghul in such a short amount of time. DAMN! Goku! Where are you-

BOOOM

Bellatrix was midway through pulling her wand back, half of her troops were sprinting forward, and the teenager facing them was leaning back with an afraid, panicked look on his face. Kirito's jaw dropped as the entire mountain shook. The people charging at him froze, a few of the ones moving full speed fell from the shakes and skid across the floor before flipping themselves to their feet.

"What was that?" Bellatrix snapped. She looked back and forth at her closest two men, then nodded her head back at the doorway ten feet behind her. The two were about to reach the door, when a woman's scream rang out through the mountain, echoing around in an impossible way. Her voice bounced off the walls and sounded like it was coming from every direction.

BrrrrRRRR A bright red light emerged in the hallway and grew brighter and brighter every second. CRASH! A fireball as wide as the hallway itself flew in from the right side and kept moving across the doorway and down the hall more to the left. The two men who were about to poke their heads out the door got burned by the attack and thrown backwards.

Bellatrix ground her teeth while looking out at the flaming hallway. She looked back at Kirito, and she swung her wand, "Avada Kedavra!" A burst of green light flew from her wand at Kirito, but he saw it coming and covered his blade in a small amount of Haki. He slashed forward faster than her attack was moving and cut the death magic in half.

The female leader of the League snarled furiously that her attack did not kill him. She did not have the time to worry about him though, and just did not want to leave any unfinished business here while she went to deal with the real problem. "Shit!" She snapped. Bellatrix looked around at her men and yelled, "Outside! Find who's doing this and murder them!"

All her soldiers nodded and spun away from Kirito and his injured companions. They ran off, while Bellatrix herself glared into Kirito's eyes and bared her teeth at him. He did not falter though, and after a second she snapped her gaze up to the roof of the room. "Yaa!" She yelled, and her body erupted in a mass of black smoke. The former Death Eater, turned assassin, turned Ra's al Ghul, flew up through the hole in the roof and vanished into the night.

Where does she think she's going? Kirito thought half-heartedly, though while lowering his swords down. Who am I kidding? I can't take her right now. Where's Sora when you need him? Thinking about some of that Cure magic made Kirito sigh and he collapsed down to his butt, finding it hard to pick up his feet. He fell only a foot away from the two collapsed companions he had with him, and he looked over his shoulder at them, "What am I going to do with you?" he questioned to no one in particular.

Another explosion went off in a nearby hallway, and Kirito looked back towards the doors. In the hall just outside, all of the flames suddenly went out, along with the lights that had been lighting up the room a little bit since they walked in. It was truly the darkest it had been since they entered the mountain. Even the moons seemed to stop shining as much to drop them into total darkness.

As this happened, Kirito felt his stomach lurch at the presences he felt with his Observational Haki coming his way. A few of them were from the assassins just in the room, yet as some grew closer, those powers were vanishing. What the Hell is that? He thought upon feeling a monster inside the mountain. There were a lot of people encroaching as well, but he stopped trying to feel them out with his Haki, and tried sensing with ki like Goku tried teaching him so he could judge the monster's power. When he switched though, he felt nothing at all. Even the monster must be wearing a Power Blocker… wait, that doesn't make any sense. Unless, I just think it's a monster. What person feels like this?!

The intense fear he felt only grew as some of those human presences showed up right in the open doorway twenty feet away from him. He knew they were there, but he could not make a sound. Kirito partially hoped they would look into a dark room, see nothing, and leave, but his pessimism was easily crushing that small bit of hope. The hope was so small in fact that he got rid of it completely and just mumbled, "Who are you?"

"Who am I?" the voice in the doorway replied. The voice was higher pitched than he expected, but hostile, and though high in tone, he sensed it was a male speaking. Footsteps sounded out from the door, but as Kirito began hearing them, he heard them echo around the walls and on the floor all around him. His Observational Haki was going off the charts and all he could feel anymore was the man in front of him. He's overloading all of my senses! "Who," the voice continued, and Kirito tensed up feeling it on his left side now, only a few yards away by his estimation. "Are you?" the man finished.

Kirito did not know what to say. For several seconds he sat there trying to think up an answer. Finally, he went with his gut and replied, "I killed Ra's al Ghul?" It sounded like a question, like Kirito wondered whether saying this was going to get him killed or saved. Whoever this is was attacking League members, so maybe-

"Well thanks a lot," the person who was in front of him again retorted in an annoyed, sarcastic voice. The figure was only a few feet away, but Kirito noticed the hostile tone in their voice was gone and it no longer bounced around like an echo. "We've been planning this out all week, and you just decided to charge in a day early and ruin our mission."

"What mission?" Kirito mumbled in annoyance, not in the mood for any games right now.

The person before him chuckled and then responded, "Our mission to kill Ra's al Ghul. Guess I should call everyone back. You really killed him, right?"

"What?" Kirito muttered, so confused by what was going on right now. "Who are you? What are- what are you talking about?" He shook his head and rubbed the side of it with one hand.

"Guys come in," the person in front of him spoke, supposedly into some sort of communications device. "Head up to the Lazarus Pit. These guys already took down Ra's. We'll regroup and move out."

Kirito waited to hear a response, but none came from whoever the person in front of him just talked to, making him think that maybe the person was just messing with him for the fun of it. He frowned and he tried lifting up his swords a little, but his arms felt like mush and he had no real motivation. "You're not going to kill us, are you?" Kiritio asked, his voice dull and really just tired.

"Depends," the man before him said, his voice unreadable for a second. Then, Kirito's entire body covered in sweat as he heard a voice in his left ear and could feel the breath on his skin. "Are you sure you aren't League members? You are wearing black."

"We're not part of the League," the teenager in black replied calmly, attempting to trick his interrogator who was doing a great job at intimidating him into thinking that he wasn't. "We came here to bring back a friend-"

"Ah, you heard about the Pit and thought you could just barge in and the League would let you leave?" The person questioned amusedly.

"No," Kirito replied in a cold voice. "I set out to kill Ra's al Ghul. I only heard about the Pit after I interrogated one of their members."

"How'd you know about this place?" the person asked, and Kirito did not know how to respond for a second. The main reason he paused was because Kirito could feel some movement going on around him again. His Observational Haki was not working for some reason, even for the person he was speaking to. Is it Zetsu? Killua could hide from me great. There may be people surrounding me. The man in front of Kirito saw him getting nervous and he grinned, an action that Kirito somehow noticed and lifted his head angrily. The silhouette of the person in front of him was more visible now that his eyes were adjusting to the darkness. "I said," the man with a high-pitched voice started again, and Kirito could see his mouth moving. "How did you learn of this place?"

"I told you, I interrogated a member of the League," he repeated, though his eyes were darting back and forth as he did. He saw other figures around him and had no idea how many of them were in here. Gray and Juvia were not moving, and he was cornered. "We attacked a different League base and-"

"Where?" the man interrupted.

"Terra Base!" Kirito exclaimed. He leaned back as the man in front of him leaned forward. He continued in a nervous tone, "That old Resistance base." The person in front of him did not respond, but instead took a step back and walked slowly away from Kirito. "What is it?" Kirito asked. He hoped this person was not going to do anything to him, but he was faced with uncertain odds, in a small room, with two people he could not just leave behind to save himself. He heard loud clanks of the room's doors slamming shut. Everyone was still around him though and he spun his head around looking at all the shadows. "Who are you?!"

"Answer me this one last question," the person before Kirito began. He looked ahead and the man said in his most serious tone, "Where does your allegiance lie?"

Kirito froze up in fear. Depending on who these people are, my next answer could mean death. If they're members of the King's Cooperative, Gray said that they have the right to enslave any Resistance members they don't kill. If they're just bandits who want the League's treasures, they might be hesitant to attack us if I tell them we're soldiers of a certain High Lord. Which High Lords do I know? The Fire Lord? Should I say we're his men? Kirito thought all of this in the span of only a few seconds, his mind racing with possibilities and options and methods for him to survive this. He opened his mouth, and then one final thought went through his mind, But... what if, they... His face covered in sweat and he gulped. Then, the teen tilted his head back and proclaimed, "We fight for the Resistance!"

He clenched his eyes closed. His eyes clenched so hard they hurt, the same with his teeth. At first, nothing happened. No one said a word. He did not feel a stabbing pain in his chest or throat, so after a few seconds he opened up his eyes. Right as he opened them though, the room filled with light.

High beams illuminated on all sides of him, and after finally adjusting to the dark, the light was blinding. He rose up his right arm to cover his eyes as even with his eyelids closed he could still see the bright light.

"Haha," the man in front of him laughed, before he was even able to see. "Only an idiot would come out and say they were members of the Resistance. You do know we're pretty far in Co-op territory, right?"

Kirito lowered down his arm and he squinted his eyes open. The person speaking to him was right in front of him now, and though everything else was white, this person stood in the center of his vision and leaned down, extending a hand. That high-pitched voice was not the only feminine thing about the guy though, as it turned out he had very feminine facial features, and blue hair down to the bottom of his neck. He was definitely a guy though, as accentuated by his flat chest and boyish body. Kirito's blurry vision slowly got better and he saw the man had on soft-looking body armor that was thicker than his own, with more pouches and belts on it for the various weapons and tools the person had with him.

He's, younger than me, Kirito realized in shock as he stared at the young man's face. Seventeen? No, younger. Despite this realization, Kirito still felt very nervous about taking the kid's extended hand. The boy knew this though and smiled at Kirito in a warm way, and said, "Hi there. My name's Nagisa Shiota. We're also Resistance members." Kirito looked at the boy cautiously, but he reached forward the hand he had covered his eyes with and grabbed the boy's hand. Nagisa smiled and he hoisted the other teen to his feet, even grabbing Kirito by the forearm with his other hand to help steady him.

"Sure we can trust him Nagisa?" a girl asked to the left. Kirito turned and saw a short young woman probably the same age as this Nagisa guy standing not ten feet away, holding up a small device that exuded light in every direction.

"Sure of it Okano-san," Nagisa replied confidently. While he replied, Kirito was looking around the room and he noticed something. There were ten people in there with him, and all of them looked like they were the same age.

Did I just get saved by a school? "So, who are you guys?" Kirito questioned now that he was back up on his feet. "Are you the ones Sokka originally sent for?"

Nagisa smiled a little more and smirked over to the short-haired girl named Okano who nodded realizing that if the teen knew that, then he was almost definitely one of their members considering how small that loop of information was supposed to be. "We're Class 3-E," Nagisa replied to the older teenager who just sweatdropped at the sound of that.

"Oh," he muttered.

"'Oh?'" a voice snapped from behind him. He looked over his shoulder and saw a sixteen year old who was over six feet tall, had a bulky body, and short brown hair that was dyed blond on the sides of his head. He took a step forward and pointed a finger at Kirito, "'Oh?!' Do you not know who we are?!"

The angry kid only received a blank look from Kirito. Kirito did not even reply to the question. He was too tired at this point. Terasaka himself sweatdropped as all Kirito did was stare at him and after a few seconds he pointed harder, "Answer me!"

"Oi Terasaka, hold on a second," a skinny boy a few yards to Terasaka's left began. They were all wearing the same body armor, but this kid did not have any weapons or lights in his hands like the others. He walked forward towards Kirito, then right as Kirito thought the boy was going to say something, he bent down and stared at the unconscious girl lying on the floor, "He's got a really hot girl with him!"

"Dammit Okajima," Terasaka growled. "I thought you were being serious there for a second."

Rmmm Brmmm The mountain violently shook and everyone steadied themselves. The ceiling cracked in a few places, and a rock even fell off and smashed down into the floor. "Whoa," Okano exclaimed. The short girl had brown hair shorter than their male leader's, and she put a hand up through her hair whilst holding her bright light. "Karma's really going all out back there," she said with a nervous laugh.

"That guy never knows when to hold back," a wavy-blond-haired teenage boy not far from Okano laughed. Maehara smirked over at the girl close to him, "Though after watching you do that Ko-filled split-kick for two grunts-"

"I thought they would be stronger!" Okana snapped over at the tall, but built, blond teen near her.

Kirito kept looking around the room at all these kids who should be in school in some different universe. They were treating all this like it was normal, and looked to be enjoying themselves. It was a strange sight to say the least.

"Alright," a voice called out and everyone looked back towards Nagisa who was close to the double doors. "Karma just confirmed that Ra's al Ghul is dead. He has the body and is returning here. Once he's back, we return to the transport and head straight for Pon-Gatso to report to General Sokka."

"Anyone else think it's unfair that Sokka got to be General?" Okajima asked, the skinny boy closest to Kirito groaning in aggravation. "Last time we saw him I made fun of his boomerang, and now he's our boss-"

"Deal with it Taiga," Maehara called over. He laughed and added, "Maybe he'll put you on garbage duty, or dish duty, or maybe he'll make you wash all the toilets in Pon-Gatso!"

"Ugghhh," the boy in the middle of the room moaned, and everyone else laughed at him. Even Kirito could not help but crack a small smile seeing how carefree everyone here was. The younger teen sighed and looked at the floor, then Okajima lost his disappointed frown and started drooling as he looked at Juvia. "Whoaaa," his eyes traveled up from her bare feet up her wet body towards her chest where his eyes started to linger.

The pervy teen leaned down and reached a hand forward. Kirito was looking somewhere else but he noticed the boy's movement out the corner of his eyes. He started to turn, and then just smirked as Taiga Okajima jumped in fright. A hand had reached up and clenched so hard on his wrist however that even after jumping he was pulled right back down.

"What were you, just about to do?" Gray growled, his face still pointing down at the floor while his right arm had a vice grip around Okajima's wrist. Gray lifted up his head slowly and he glared up into Okajima's eyes. The enraged look of a man who looked like he was on death's door made the younger teenager freak out and yank his arm from Gray's grip.

"Sorry," a boy with medium-length black hair falling evenly around his head began as he walked up to Okajima's back. "He's kind of an idiot, you can ignore-" Isogai stopped talking as he walked by Okajima and looked down at the man on the floor. His eyes turned huge and most people stopped talking and looked over at Isogai who took a full two steps backwards after looking down at the Fairy Tail mage's face. Finally, he opened his mouth and whispered, "Gray?"

"You know him?" Maehara called out to his best friend.

Gray stared blankly at the boy in front of him for a second. His eyes lit up and he opened his mouth, but then his eyes rolled up into his head and he face-planted right back down on the ground again. His head hit hard enough to make a thud sound and Isogai ran forward, "What's wrong with-" he stopped mid-sentence and looked on the opposite side that he was standing on. "His arm!"

"Ra's cut it off," Kirito muttered.

Isogai snapped his gaze up at Kirito, then looked back down at the man on the floor. "How are you here?" Isogai whispered, his voice sounding so distant. "You're supposed to be dead. Everyone thinks..."

CRASH! Everyone spun towards the double doors and those holding up lights moved them closer in that direction to light up whatever it was that just smashed straight through them. The one flying through the doorway made most of the group lower their bottom lips and step back nervously.

"Karma!" Nagisa shouted, running forward and catching his red-haired friend who was falling with blood coming out of his mouth. He barely caught the other teen and had to drop down to a knee from the catch. Nagisa stood back up fast though and tried steadying him. "What happened?" The blue haired teen questioned his friend who had his eyes clenched shut in pain but was slowly opening them.

Akabane Karma looked panicked as he lifted up the two knives still clenched in his hands. They were dripping blood, but he had some blood dripping off his arms and down his face too. "We have to get out of here now!" Karma shouted, his voice commanding, and very, very scared.

Every single person in the room who knew Karma dropped their jaws and felt immense fear. Even the cool-headed Nagisa who Kirito could tell was in control of the situation from the second he started talking, looked scared out of his wits. "What is it?" Nagisa asked, backing up from the doorway and shaking while he pulled out a knife and a pistol.

"The new Ra's, Bellatrix Lestrange," Karma shouted. Kirito thought the boy was just being overdramatic for freaking out this much over that woman who he did not think was so powerful, but Karma was not finished yet. The redhead shouted, "I was about to finish her when she released a monster!"

Kirito's Observational Haki kicked in and suddenly he was a lot more afraid than anyone else in the room. "Let's go!" He shouted, looking behind him and reaching down, grabbing Gray with one arm and Juvia with the other. In his sudden panic he filled up with enough adrenaline to give him the strength to pick the two up.

"What type of monster?!" Isogai called over to Karma.

Karma looked over and his fearful eyes made Isogai tremble in his boots. "A Diclonius!" Karma shouted.

Okajima tilted his head sideways while staring at Karma. A wave of relief rushed over him and he started laughing, "Ha, haha, ha ha, I've never heard of a Diclonius. Maybe, you're just overreacting."

"It killed Bellatrix in a second," Karma stated trying to put a sense of urgency in his voice. Okajima shook his head though, not wanting to believe it while they were trapped in such a small room.

"No way," he whispered. He was backing up while he spoke though, and he looked behind him towards the door. Okajima spun and stared at the entryway behind him as he felt a weird sensation on his body, "It's probably your imagination!" he shouted in panic, while reaching up and grabbing the butt of a rifle on his back.

"Okajima! Stay back," Nagisa shouted at the other teen.

"Evacuate through the roof!" a girl with long blonde hair on Kirito's right side shouted. She leapt up to the side wall, kicked off it, and bounced up to the hole in the ceiling. Rio Nakamura got on her knees on the edge of the hole and reached her hand down, offering help up to anyone who needed it.

"If the old Ra's is dead, and the new one too," Okajima called out, and he pointed his rifle at the door. "Then all we need to do is kill this monster and the entire League is destroyed!"

"That's not our mission baka!" Okano shouted over at him.

"I'll get the idiot," Maehara told the short girl next to him. "Go up with Nakamura," he said. Hinata Okano frowned at him for giving her orders, but he was already jogging over towards Okajima so she resisted making any remark.

Maehara jogged up behind his friend Okajima and started, "Come on dude, we need to-"

"It's right there," a voice said behind them. Kirito started walking backwards after he spoke, and he looked up at the ceiling high above him, wondering if he could make the leap while holding two people over his shoulders. Neither of the teens in front of him turned around, but neither of them said a word either. Kirito looked back down from the ceiling, and he gulped seeing the thing he felt walk around the corner behind the doors.

His fearful expression wiped from his face at the sight of the figure standing there. She had straight pink hair down to her shoulder-blades, just a little lower actually, she wore a white gown that made her look like a patient in a hospital, and she looked like she was only about thirteen years old. "Who are you?" Maehara called over at the girl who turned her head and looked into the room. The blond haired boy was taking steps back, but Okajima was frozen in place.

Okajima's shocked look vanished in a second and his eyes lit up excitedly. He dropped his gun and brought his hands up in front of his chest with a huge smile on his face. "WOW! What a cutie!" He started running forward. "Hey do you need help?!"

Kirito opened his mouth to shout, as did Karma, and Nagisa who could tell from Karma's expression that Okajima should not be doing this. Before any of them could make a sound though, Okajima stopped running. He stopped running and his eyes grew as wide as saucers, full of confusion as his vision suddenly lifted up a few meters. Every other person in the room dropped their jaws.

"Wh-What just-" Okajima began, while he continued to rise up higher. His body was turning in the air and leaned forward a little, giving him a view of the floor down below him. He could see his legs far below, and his waist, his waist spurting blood up in the air, and he watched as the bottom of his rising top half splashed blood down on his separated lower body. The shock of seeing his own body ripped in half knocked him out as much as the pain or blood loss.

"OKAJIMA!" Maehara screamed, and he took a step forward. He drew his assault rifle and began firing beams of light at the enemy at rapid speeds. Dozens of yellow beams flew out towards the pink haired girl, and they all slammed into an invisible wall in front of her and scattered out in different directions. The girl started walking forward, and Maehara kept firing while shouting at the top of his lungs.

"Idiot! Don't let her get close!" Karma screamed, and he sprinted forward, grabbed Maehara by the back, and yanked him back as hard as he could. Maehara's hands were on his gun and the farthest thing in front of him, and as he was being pulled back he could swear he felt two invisible hands grip him by the forearms. Then, both of his arms were ripped cleanly from his body at the elbows.

"Ahhh!" Maehara yelled and fell backwards, blood spurting out of him.

"Retreat!" Nagisa screamed. Anyone who was not already jumping for the roof did so. Karma looked behind him where he tossed Maehara and saw the boy writhing around on the ground in pain. He heard Okano shout Maehara's name from up above, and the boy's best friend Isogai ran towards him and picked him up.

Karma looked back in front of him and saw that creature disguised as a little girl walking farther into the room. She reached the spot where Okajima's top half just hit the ground, and the boy's body floated up in the air. He was split at about the waist, and Karma had no idea if he was still alive, though if he was he expected it would not be for long. The teen who got lifted off the floor hovered directly in front of the girl behind him. He floated there, and his head twisted off of his neck, then a hole ripped in the center of his chest and his heart flew out and slammed into Karma's chest, knocking him back a few feet.

Kirito had had enough. RUN! Every inch of his body told him to move and he bent down his knees. He got ready to jump, but in front of him he saw Karma not moving. The young man was so angry he held up his dual knives in front of him and snarled at the approaching girl. What do I- he looked up, then down, then up again, then cursed under his breath.

He took a step forward and took a huge breath in. "Damn it! RUUUN!" Kirito roared, and in front of his mouth the air rippled in a circular shockwave. A single crack shot through the air right past a shocked Karma's left shoulder, and it slammed into something invisible in front of the pink haired girl. The force of Kirito's Devil Fruit power's attack still made her lift off the ground and when she landed she skid several feet backwards right out the door, though the look in her red eyes did not change at all.

Nagisa and Karma both looked in at the older teen who just sent their enemy flying with his voice alone. He glared at them both and screamed, "NOW!" They looked back out the doorway and saw the girl walking towards them again, and they needed no other incentive to run.

"Come on!" Nakamura shouted down.

"Maehara!" Okano shouted as Isogai leapt through the hole in the roof with a badly bleeding Maehara in his arms. She spun and looked over at Terasaka, "Please! Ryouma, don't let him die!"

"Me?!" Terasaka shouted.

"Cauterize his wounds idiot!" Kirara Hazama snapped at the muscular boy in front of her. She was still trembling after watching Okajima's head come off a second ago, but she did not want to see another classmate die tonight. The girl with long curly black hair spun around seeing something behind her and took deep breaths to calm down seeing it was only Karma. Then her eyes opened wide as Nagisa came flying out of the hole as well, holding a one-armed man on her back.

Kirito flew up last holding only Juvia as that blue haired boy with long hair took Gray from him to help out. Once he was out of the hole, he immediately started running along the side of the mountain. He looked back and saw one of the guys was doing what he did to Gray's arm earlier to both of Maehara's, but he screamed, "There's no time! Get away from there!"

The roof around those teens started cracking, and huge chunks flew up in the air. Everyone started screaming, and running away, and they carried anyone they had to. Nagisa ran in the middle of all his friends and he looked behind him at the collapsing mountainside. His eyes darkened with sadness as did those around him, and a single tear dripped out of his right eye. Okajima.

---

One Hour Later

Sitting inside a vehicle on its way northeast, Kirito was cautiously examining his surroundings. He was riding a truck with at least twenty rows of wheels from what he counted before he got inside. He was in the very back of the vehicle and he could not see the front as there was a curtain blocking the section farther ahead of him. He was glad the curtain was there though so he did not have to watch the surgery the blond boy Maehara underwent.

The creature that attacked them was still on his mind, but the redhead, Karma, told them he had seen one before. It had pink hair just like this one, but he said the one he ran into before was older, and her range was longer. When they asked what he meant by range, he explained that a Diclonius had powerful vectors, or invisible arms, that could easily rip a person apart just like it did to Okajima.

Although the young girl dressed like a hospital patient was still on Kirito's mind, he was more focused on the people around him. They did save him, but they were pretty intimidating in how they did it. The teen with blue hair who questioned him, and who seemed to be in charge of the group, called their group 'Class 3-E' which left Kirito in the dark considering he had no idea what that meant. He would ask someone about it, but everyone was either trying to sleep or crying, or both. Whispers of 'Okajima' could be heard between sobs and the girl with short hair, he heard her be called Okano by her friends, would not leave Maehara's side in the section up front, though the curtain did little to drown out her cries.

Juvia was lying across the seats to his left, and he was dreading the moment she would wake up. He looked to his other side at the bag he had resting on the open seat next to him. The water from the Lazarus Pit, I need to keep it safe, he thought about the ice he scooped into his water bottle earlier after they defeated Juvia in her crazed state.

"She still hasn't woken up?"

Kirito lifted his gaze and looked across the middle of the truck to the other side. There were two rows of seats lined up on the walls facing each other, so this was the person in the chair directly across from him. Sitting there was a boy who looked around his age, with black hair falling down to his shoulders and bangs down over his eyebrows. Kirito shook his head at the boy and then glanced back down at Juvia.

"She will be alright," the boy in front of Kirito spoke again. Kirito looked up and stared at the other teen, wondering how he would know that. The longer-haired teen continued, "Her spirit is calming down. You can be at ease."

"Sure," Kirito mumbled.

"You can believe Haku," a girl on Kirito's left said softly. He looked over Juvia's body at the blonde girl he remembered from the mountain. Rio Nakamura nodded her head across the truck at the boy who just spoke, "He might not look like much, but Haku there's a God."

"A God?" Kirito repeated with a blank, unbelieving expression.

"I'm not a God," Haku stated with just as blank an expression.

"Oh my bad Mister River Spirit," Rio chided. She chuckled at Haku's annoyed expression then looked back at Kirito and said, "If he thinks she's fine, she'll be fine."

"Aaagghh," Maehara groaned louder than he had been for the last ten minutes and Rio's snarky expression flinched. She turned away from Kirito, hiding her face from him and Haku.

Kirito turned towards the curtain and listened to the boy's moans for a little while. Wonder how Gray is doing? They said they would tell me if anything big happened, so I guess he's fine. After those few seconds of thought, he tried to shift his thought to something else, someone else. He didn't want to think about Gray.

"MmnnnN," a quiet hum turned into a groan on his left side. He spun and the Nakamura girl turned in as well. They looked at the blue haired woman a few years older than both of them. Juvia squirmed around for a few seconds, then her eyes opened up and she sat up in one of the seats she was lying across. She stayed silent for ten seconds, and no one else said a word to her.

Juvia rose up her right hand and brushed it across her neck. She felt her pale, cold skin, and she shivered from the feeling of her fingers on her throat, her pulsing jugular.

"Juvia?" a voice whispered on her right and she spun her head that way fast. She took rapid, heavy breaths, she was sweating, and she looked like the fear of the devil was in her. Kirito looked into the girl's eyes and he continued in a soft voice, "Are you okay?"

"Am I... Am I okay?" Juvia repeated. She looked down and put her hands over her own lap. The girl nodded once yet looked so confused, and she started, "But, what happened? We were, looking for Gray-sama's friends," Juvia shook her head and rubbed the side of it confusedly. "I- can't- remember," she was coming short on breath and her eyes suddenly snapped open, "Gray-sama!"

"He's here," Kirito assured her. She made to stand up but Kirito put a hand on her right shoulder, making her jump a little but stay seated. She turned to him and he looked in her eyes, "He got hurt, there's a doctor here working on him. But Juvia," Kirito paused and he looked into the girl's eyes, "are you sure, you're alright?"

She started nodding at him, but stopped herself after only one nod. "Kirito," Juvia said, looking down again at her hands. She whispered in a very soft voice, "What, happened to me? I, Juvia feels strange." As she corrected herself Kirito felt a little better that she was at least talking like her normal self again, but what she was saying was unnerving him at the same time. She continued, "And, I don't know where we are or who these people around us are." Just like that she went back to the first-person and Kirito felt strange again.

What did Killua's dad say? The person would be different right? Well, this isn't so bad... if only that was all he meant by it. Kirito could not fool himself though, he knew something else was off. He looked at Juvia's bowed head and he did not know what to tell her, so instead he just gave her a little tighter a squeeze on the shoulder. "How about you get some rest?" he suggested, and Juvia looked back up in his eyes. "When you wake up, I'll make sure Gray is here to greet you, and then we'll explain everything okay?"

Juvia opened her mouth to object, as she wanted to know what was happening now. As she did however, a yawn escaped her lips and her eyelids felt heavy. "Juvia, is okay with that," she whispered. She lay back the way she found herself in a minute ago, her eyes closed, and Kirito smiled again.

"You should take your own advice," Rio Nakamura suggested after a few minutes to the black haired teen who was watching Juvia in silence. She continued, "We've got guards taking shifts through the night, you'll be safe-"

"The last time I heard that from the Resistance," Kirito began, interrupting Rio. He leaned back in his own seat and sat there with his eyes pointed straight ahead, not planning on closing them for good the whole night. "Juvia got killed."

As Rio turned away, the blue-haired girl in between her and Kirito opened up her eyes. She lay there with eyes as big as saucers, what Kirito just said echoing in her mind. Juvia... died?

---

Pon-Gatso Canopy

"Hey Natsu!" The Fire Dragon Slayer turned to the open door across the grand hall of the black-steel castle atop the tree. He recognized the voice of the person who called out his name and saw Ben standing there with an excited expression. "They're back."

"Ehh?" While Natsu's face lit up, the others around the table at the back of the room looked a lot more surprised. The one who made the 'ehh' was Lightning Max, and Sokka held out an open palm in front of Max with a grin on his face. Max frowned at the awaiting hand and said, "I want to check for myself."

"Sure, but you're still gonna owe me ten bucks," Sokka laughed. Natsu was already running across the room but now the others all started following him.

"Do you think they both made it?" Darkshine asked Black Canary as they jogged together towards the doorway.

"Ben did say they," she commented. "I'd assume that means they are both still alive at least."

"Truthfully," Stinger began from in front of the other two. He glanced over his shoulder and continued, "I never thought we'd see them again."

"That makes two of us," Jericho agreed from his right side. Guila stayed quiet but she was thinking the same thing.

General Sokka, his bodyguards, Black Canary, Darkshine, and Natsu all chased Ben back to the tree trunk where the elevator door was already opening up for them. Ben was excitedly shifting from one foot to the other. "Quickly!" Ben urged, and once everyone was inside he pressed his palm on the scanner and made it so they were heading for the first floor.

"In a rush?" Sokka asked the kid and laughed.

"I'm racing Dash," Ben said quickly as if it would make the elevator go faster.

"Can he fly?" Sokka questioned in confusion.

"No, he's running down the tree," Ben replied, making most people in the tree lower their bottom lips.

"We're five miles up," Max muttered.

"And this elevator's moving over three hundred miles per hour," Stinger added. "It only takes a minute to get down, so if he's there, how fast can that kid move?"

"Come on come on, move faster," Ben paced from one foot to the other and practically pried the doors open when they reached the first floor. The kid ran out the elevator into the garage. Across the giant hangar with roots as ceilings and walls he could see the doors closing, and there was a large truck driving their way still closer to the door than the trunk. Ben looked around but he didn't see Dash anywhere.

The thirteen year old grinned and pumped his fist. "What are you so happy about?" A high pitched voice questioned on his left. He turned and saw Kairi walking towards him with her blonde friend next to her.

"Oh hey Kairi," Ben said. "I was racing Dash, and he's not here yet."

Kairi opened her eyes wide in surprise and then had to cover her mouth as she giggled. Winry saw what her friend was giggling at and she could not help but laugh along. Ben felt a sense of dread and he spun around fast, catching a glance of someone running the opposite direction he spun. Dash seemed to realize Ben saw him that time though, and he stopped running in circles to keep himself directly behind Ben. "Hahahaha," Dash grabbed his stomach and started laughing as Ben glared at him with a red face.

"How long were you here?" Ben asked.

Dash shrugged his shoulders with a cocky smirk on his face. "About ten seconds before the elevator showed up."

"And you didn't start until after the minute head start so I could tell Natsu?" Ben interrogated, lifting up his eyebrows.

"I waited until I saw the elevator door close behind you guys," Dash replied and crossed his arms, getting annoyed Ben was not just taking his word for it.

Ben finally sighed in defeat, but he turned and tried to get his mind off his defeat by looking over at the rapidly approaching truck. "Did Kirito and Gray steal a truck?" He questioned.

"Where did you hear it was them anyway?" Natsu asked his younger friends who he walked up next to.

"We were walking around the canopy's branches when Jin came running out of this building with a tall radio tower sticking out of its roof," Dash explained. "Apparently he was going to run to tell Sokka, but he knows how fast we are, and he knew we would want to know as well so he sent us."

"And how did he know they're on the truck?" Lightning Max brought up from behind them, not really wanting to pay Sokka that ten bucks.

"Jin just told us that the driver told them they were," Ben replied, though he was not smiling as much as before. The guard's skepticism was making him anxious. "Do you not think they're on it?" He whispered.

"Of course they are," Sokka assured the kid. Ben turned to him and after a few seconds he smiled and nodded at him. For some reason he found himself staring at Sokka for a few more seconds, as when he was smiling in reassurance, Sokka reminded him of someone else he knew. Who does, he look like? Ben couldn't place his finger on it, but out the corner of his eyes he saw the truck was almost at them so he left that question for later and turned back around.

The truck drove towards them and right as it reached, it turned to the side, driving some meters to the left and then backing up and curving more so the back of the truck was pointing at Pon-Gatso's trunk. "By the way Kairi," Dash began while Ben was staring straight ahead at the truck. The blond kid continued, "How did you hear about Gray and Kirito being back?"

"I didn't," Kairi admitted. The others glanced her way for a second but looked back when the back-door of the truck opened out towards them from the bottom and folded down into an exit ramp. The auburn haired girl continued while they all looked at the truck, "Winry and I heard there were some injured coming in so we offered to bring them down to the infirmary."

"More like Kairi volunteered us," Winry corrected with a sigh.

"Hehe," Kairi giggled. "I only heard it was them when you brought them up, Ben," Kairi finished.

Ben was going to say something else, but he stopped himself as the ramp clicked to a stop and two people came running down the ramp holding a stretcher. On the stretcher was a young teenager who had bloody bandages around his upper arms, and was missing both his arms from his elbows down.

Isogai and Okano ran Maehara down the ramp and Winry started running by their side and asking what the situation was. Kairi watched her friend run off and Winry called back for her to stay and help with anyone else who needed it. Kairi looked back into the truck and watched as more people started unloading. A few of them had cuts, bruises, or minor injuries of the sort.

One girl was helping another walk as the second had a limp, but as Kairi was going to ask if they wanted some help, something else caught her eye and she looked up with a smile into the truck as she spotted Kirito walking towards them out the darkness. Kirito spotted Natsu, Ben, Dash, and Kairi all looking up at him and smiling as he exited the truck. He did not smile back though. Any one of them could have done it. I trusted Gray as much as I did any of them, his eyes lingered on Ben, and then Kairi for a few extra seconds. He looked down at his feet though and just kept walking.

"What's up with him?" Natsu questioned, whispering it mainly to Ben who was standing on his right.

Ben shrugged and they all watched Kirito keep walking down the ramp for a few more seconds, before they heard Kairi gasp and looked back to the top of the ramp. A few others walked out between Kirito and this man, but now they could see him and his appearance shocked them. Gray Fullbuster stood there, blood-soaked bandages on parts of his face, his super-strong black armor suit cut through on more than one spot and left pant leg in tatters. Oh yeah, and he was missing his left arm.

"Gr-Gray?!" Natsu shouted. He started running forward, but Gray looked back over his right shoulder into the darkness of the truck and motioned with his head towards the open door. Natsu slowed down right at the bottom of the ramp, confused at why Gray was smiling so much when the ice mage turned back towards him.

Having a better angle of the inside of the truck, Dash, Ben, and Kairi all saw her first. Natsu was straight down from the back part so he was looking more up and the bottom of the truck blocked her from his sight while his friends gasped behind him. After seeing Gray missing an arm, he wondered what could possibly, shock them, so... Natsu's jaw dropped.

None of them could form words at the sight of her. Black Canary and Superalloy Darkshine stared at the girl in astonishment as well and they each stepped backwards.

"No way man," a soldier who just walked up towards the growing group muttered. Around the hangar there were people working on evacuation vehicles and even a few combat ones. Among those people were some who recognized the people awaiting the truck, and they decided to check it out. Superboy, Grif, and Blue Beetle had looked up from the Scarab they were working on together and once they saw Black Canary with the group, Grif convinced them to go check it out. The soldier in orange armor was also the one who muttered those words of shock upon seeing the girl at the top of the ramp.

Superboy's eyes were huge and he whispered, "That's impossible."

"Isn't that-" Blue Beatle began, but telling from the looks on her friends' faces, he knew he was right already. "But... how?"

Sokka was looking around and seeing a lot of shocked faces, so he turned to his old friend Dinah Drake. "Yo Canary, who is that?"

"She," Black Canary began, but fell silent before finishing. She waited a few more seconds and everyone who knew her just kept staring. "She's the one the League killed."

Sokka's eyes widened as did his guards, and then all four of Sokka's guards narrowed their eyes at the girl at the top of the ramp. Sokka saw them all and he lifted up his right hand in a 'stop' position, making each one of them look at him questioningly.

"Sokka, protocol-" Jericho started.

"I don't care," Sokka interrupted in a harsh whisper. "And that's General Sokka," he snapped, making sure she understood he was telling her this as her commander. The silver haired woman kept her hand down near the sheath at her side, but she eased up a little, as did her comrades.

Ben finally took a step forward without tearing his eyes off of the young woman. "J-Juvia?" He whispered in a raspy voice. He almost choked on his own words as he couldn't believe it to be true. She turned her head a little and focused on the boy who said her name, making Ben's heart skip a beat. "It's really-"

"JUVIA!" Natsu yelled.

Juvia's eyes turned huge and she took a step back, but it was not enough to stop Natsu from throwing his arms around her as he had charged up the ramp in the span of an instant. He pulled her tight to him and moved his hands around her back as he did, "You're real!" Natsu exclaimed.

Gray turned to the pink haired guy hugging his girlfriend with an annoyed look, but the look of annoyance wiped from his face when he saw Natsu's, covered in tears. Natsu stopped rubbing her back and just held his arms there for a few more seconds before he finally pulled back a few inches so his head wasn't right next to hers anymore and instead in front of it so he could look at her face. He lifted up his hands and patted her red cheeks a few times before pulling at the insides of the corners of her mouth. "You are real, right?" He questioned, letting go and lowering his arms while looking at her cautiously as if he could not even believe it after touching her himself.

She couldn't respond while seeing Natsu's face so covered in tears. He wasn't the only one though, as Dash had water in his eyes too, and Kairi had to wipe her cheeks to get off the tears on them. Ben did no such thing though, and just like Natsu he let the tears stream down.

She's alive, Ben thought. Then, it's not my fault. I, I didn't have to use the Eliacube after all. Somehow, somehow she came back anyway. Ben felt like he was lying on his back and hundred pound weights were getting removed from his chest one at a time. Every second he looked at her was another weight gone, as if the longer she stood there the more alive she was to him.

Juvia started walking down the ramp and Natsu stared at the girl's back for a few seconds. Gray watched her walk down to and get intercepted by two of their other friends who charged at her and jumped up into a hug. Kairi and Dash started shouting how happy they were that she was okay while Ben cried down near the rest of the Resistance fighters. Natsu finally wiped his eyes and he walked over to Gray, "What- How?"

Gray turned to his friend and had a huge smile on his face. The question lingered there for a minute while Gray just kept smiling, and finally he looked down the ramp and at Kirito who was facing away from the happy reunion. The teenager was standing near the back of the group of Resistance members, almost like he was trying to keep distance between him and Gray. "Kirito found a way," Gray whispered, while Natsu followed Gray's gaze over to the teenager's back. "He discovered a method to bring Juvia back, and he killed Ra's al Ghul."

As Gray said it, one of the members of class 3-E just reported the same thing to the General below. Sokka's face lit up and the guards around him went wide-eyed. "You have to be kidding me," Lightning Max muttered in shock.

"The League, destroyed?" Jericho mumbled, wondering if she just heard the report right.

Nagisa nodded his head. The blue haired teen glanced past the group in front of him at the older teenager's back who was not looking to be in as good a mood as everyone else. "On top of that, Kirito there told me they stopped at Terra Base before attacking the League. He claims to have destroyed most of the fort, and killed many Sith along the way. And inside the League's HQ, his friend took out number three on our Sith hit list: Darth Bane."

"Damn," Stinger said. He put his hand up through his hair and said, "Looks like those guys weren't really going all out against us the other day."

"This is amazing," Sokka finally exclaimed. He held his fists in front of him and started shaking with glee. "These guys are unstoppable!"

Everyone was getting excited all at once. The Resistance members were receiving great news about their enemies' defeats. The fighters from Awul were thrilled seeing their friend alive and well in front of them, acting like her old self, just a little more nervous which was understandable. The people who disembarked from the truck were the only ones not so thrilled considering the loss of one of their friends recently, one who did not come back to life. Still, it was an overwhelmingly good mood.

"Why is it that this woman has not been detained?"

Every person there heard the voice and spun towards the bottom of the truck's exit ramp. Juvia was in the middle of talking to Dash and Kairi, while Natsu and Gray watched with smiles from right behind her. All five of them started turning their heads to Juvia's right, and Ben just lifted his head up with a face covered in sweat as there was suddenly a man standing right next to him. He let out a small noise and scrambled back as the man was literally a foot away from him, and he moved towards his friends who were all looking at the short man nervously.

He appeared so suddenly, right in the middle of a crowd of people, that at first sight most people were put on guard. The light-skinned man had a big spike of black hair over the top of his head, and had small black pupils inside of tiny dark red irises centered near the top of his eyes. Some of his black hair was not spiked up but fell in front of his forehead as bangs, but were sparse enough that underneath them those looking his way could see a white bandanna around his forehead. His neck was covered by the white collar of his mostly black cloak that went down over his entire body down to his feet. At his right side was a black scabbard and his right hand was resting on the hilt of the sword there.

"Sir!" someone shouted after seeing the man for a second and getting over their initial shock. "You're back!"

"C-Commander!" Sokka ran forward and saluted fast to the person in front of him who was almost a foot shorter than he was.

"Interim-General Sokka," the person before Sokka greeted, "your defense of Pon-Gatso was adequate. However upon arriving I just heard that that woman there was recently brought back from the dead. Why have you yet to detain her?"

Juvia's eyes turned huge, and then even wider as four people stepped in front of her and looked ready to fight. Kairi, Natsu, Ben, and Dash were all standing in between her and this man who was saying threatening things they did not like. "You're not detaining anyone," Ben growled over at the guy, who looked at him and made the boy feel shivers down his spine.

"Commander, these people just took down-"

"Hiei?"

The short man who was turning to Sokka to listen to his excuse, heard someone say his name and turned. He turned and watched as a man walked out from behind Juvia and the others, a man with only one arm who stared at the short figure and went wide-eyed. "It is you," Gray said, letting out a deep breath as if he just reached the finish line of a race.

"You," Hiei muttered. "You were with that idiot Kuwabara-"

"That's what I wanted to ask you!" Gray exclaimed. He tried running forward but stumbled and almost fell to the floor. His face was still pale and his friends looked at him worriedly from behind. Kirito was watching with a hand up on one of his hilts from behind Hiei, though he was hoping he would not have to run in and fight again anytime soon. "Listen, Hiei," Gray's face looked desperate and he held his hands out in front of him. "I have to know. What happened to my team? What happened to Kuwabara and the others?"

Hiei stared at Gray oddly for a few seconds. "Why is it that you do not know?" He questioned. Gray muttered his reason really fast and most people there stared at him like he was an idiot, or crazy. Hiei just considered it for another few seconds before starting, "Not that I cared, but I did hear about it from Urameshi." Gray's face filled with hope as he was finally about to get some answers. The short man in front of him continued, "One of your squad, his name Cloud Strife, escaped and reported the mission's failure to your base before it fell. The rest were either killed, or brought to the Capital to be slaves."

There was no 'I'm sorry for your loss,' no 'my condolences,' Hiei just stated it and then turned his gaze from a shocked Gray back to Sokka. "Now, give me your reason for not detaining that woman."

Gray stood there staring forward with eyes as wide as saucers. It went from one of the best days of his life to one of the worst in a matter of seconds. Kirito was looking his way and the teen could not even find it in himself to be mad at Gray at the moment. The man looked so broken. "Gray…sama," Juvia whispered, taking a step towards her boyfriend. She reached out a hand and touched his shoulder, and he tensed up at the touch. "I'm, sorry," she whispered to him.

Gray was frozen in place. "I'm sorry?" What the, why did Juvia just use the first person? Something's weird with her. He turned his head slowly and looked at the girl behind him who was staring up at his face. His face was full of worry and the amount of things he was worried about were beyond her. Everyone's been taken, they've been slaves for months. I wasted so much time! I should have come back right away. What if they're all dead already? What if Juvia's not really back? Juvia always says her own name, a fake wouldn't know that. Or would it? It's not a fake, just look at her! She's real! So are your friends, your slave friends.

"Hey," Natsu snapped. Gray lifted his gaze slowly from Juvia's face up to the wizard behind her. "What's with that pathetic look?" Natsu asked his comrade. Natsu's friends looked at him in surprise and anger, but Natsu continued, "There's no reason to look like that. We just figured out where your friends are. We did it." Natsu stepped towards the other two Fairy Tail mages who both looked at him now. "Let's go save your comrades."

"You can't," Superboy began in a condescending tone.

"We've been kicking ass all over the place," Natsu snapped at the muscular teen on his left. "And I'm all fired up!"

Gray's worried look started to change. Natsu's right. We, we can do this. It has to be a stealth mission, but even so, we could successfully save all of them.

"We're with you Gray," Ben told the man next to him. The older man looked down at the boy who held up his left wrist with the Omnitrix on it. "No matter what."

"No matter what," Kairi and Dash agreed.

Gray looked at them and then back to Natsu who nodded at him with the same toothy grin on his face. He looked back down at Juvia who looked into his eyes and smiled, "No matter what, Gray-sama. Juvia will be by your side."

The corners of Gray's lips curled up and each of his friends did the same upon seeing him do so. "Alright, let's head to the Capital," Gray said.

"Hold on," their group spun and looked back at Hiei who just finished getting briefed by Sokka. He heard what Gray said and figured it had to do with how he said Gray's old team got transported there. "I can't let you do that."

"Who's asking your permission?" Natsu growled over at the shorter man.

Hiei glared at Natsu for a second, before looking back at Gray. "As you are not dead, that means you are still a member of this Resistance. You will follow my orders, or that woman behind you will have to be put in restraints."

Most of the Resistance fighters looked at Hiei in shock. This seemed a lot like a threat, and a pretty cruel one too, and most of them prided themselves on being the good guys. "Sir, they are-"

"That's not going to be necessary," Gray said, making everyone look back at the ice mage. "What are your orders, Commander?" Gray asked.

All of Gray's friends looked at him confusedly, but Hiei nodded at the man in his army. "Going to the Capital is a suicide mission. You know that, and I know that, and to send such powerful assets to certain death would be a waste." The group in front of Hiei opened up their mouths to protest so he continued quickly, "However, as the Interim-General just told me-" Sokka grimaced at the mention of "interim" again, suggesting his promotion was not permanent. Hiei continued, "You are impervious to attacks of fire," he looked at Natsu while speaking and the Dragon Slayer nodded his head 'yes.' "In that case, I will permit you to go, though you will need to fulfill your duty to the Resistance first."

Hiei stepped towards the group and looked straight into Gray's eyes, "Go to Pyraxas. The capital of the Fire Nation. If you are truly as strong as you make yourselves out to be, then take down High Lord Sozin."

"Commander!" Black Canary exclaimed. The woman in black leather could not hold her tongue any longer. She stepped forward and said, "These seven have saved countless lives in the last two weeks. They rescued a convoy and prevented an attack on Pon-Gatso. This is unfair to them."

"Dinah, don't worry," Gray said over to the woman on his left.

Most of the people with Gray were still smiling and others around them were starting to get confused.

"No, she's right," Grif spoke up. He jumped nervously as Hiei looked his way, but the soldier in orange armor continued, "You guys have done nothing but kick bad guy ass and save our butts this whole time. Why should you-"

"Oi," Natsu began, looking straight at Hiei who turned his gaze back to the Dragon Slayer. "This Pyraxas place, is it on the way to the Capital?" Natsu asked.

Nobody spoke for a second, and then Hiei responded, "Yes, it is."

"Well, then there was no point in you telling us in the first place," Natsu stated. Everyone there gawked at him, but Natsu's friends did not look surprised at all. In fact they were all smiling and thinking the same thing already. Natsu punched his right fist into his left open hand and yelled out, "We would have kicked his ass even if you didn't tell us to!"

"Yeah!" Ben exclaimed.

"That's right!" Dash agreed and pumped a fist up in the air.

Kairi giggled and nodded her head as well, feeling the same way. Gray just kept grinning at Hiei who looked surprised by their reactions. The rest of the Resistance members around them who felt bad that Hiei was asking for so much, demanding it really, stopped pitying their new friends and just became more in awe of them than ever. The demon in the black cloak finally lost his surprised look and chuckled darkly under his breath. "Okay then, it looks like I underestimated you," he lifted up his head and continued, "if you are successful in your mission however, you should reconsider going to the Capital."

Hiei looked straight at Gray who lost his confident smile at the look. "You know the King's strength. If he discovers you before you make your escape, you will all become slaves, or die."

"We will be careful," Gray told the Resistance leader in front of him.

The short, spiky-haired man did not respond, but just nodded his head back at the ice mage. Hiei turned and looked at the other Resistance members behind him, "Gather up the best supplies you have and give them to Gray." It was the first time Hiei mentioned Gray's name so Gray thought Hiei may have actually remembered him, despite the act from before. Then again, Juvia did call me 'Gray-sama,' he reasoned with himself. Hiei continued, "I am designating this a priority one mission. All resources that can be spared should go towards making this mission a success. The fall of the Fire Nation would result in an important power gap inside Co-op territory." He turned to the soldiers on his left: Grif, Blue Beetle, and Superboy, "Get transportation ready for them."

The three soldiers nodded and ran off to find something suitable for seven. Hiei glanced back at the people from Awul one more time as they started talking amongst themselves. He turned and started walking away after Sokka and the rest of the leaders who were dispersing and sending different people to go get food and weapons for the fighters going on the mission. "Black Canary," he started in a low voice.

The blonde woman walking ahead of him spun around and waited for him to reach her before continuing to walk. "Yes Commander?" she questioned. She wondered if he was going to scold her for questioning his orders a minute ago, but he had something else to tell her. Hiei started speaking and Dinah Drake's eyes grew in size as her heart rate sped up.

"This is why you will be going on the mission with them," Hiei told her to finish their conversation. He kept walking while the Black Canary stopped in place with shock in her eyes. "Good luck," he said, and then vanished from right in front of her.

Black Canary stared at the tree trunk in front of her for a few seconds, then turned her head around and looked back at the group of seven behind her. They were all close to each other now, even the teen in black who was keeping his distance from Gray. She saw them laughing and looking all excited for the mission. Dinah looked between two of the boys and stared at a girl just past them, chuckling nervously and looking the same as she did when Dinah first met her. "Listen to me Canary, I heard that she was brought back with the Lazarus Pit. In that case, she will now have an insatiable hunger that she will need to satisfy every so often. That is the hunger for killing. Her bloodlust will only grow for now on, which is why I do not detain her and instead send her deep into enemy territory. Still, should she show signs of her bloodlust around the innocent, do not expect her friends to do what is necessary…" Dinah looked closer at the blue haired girl's smiling face and into Juvia's eyes. Please, prove Hiei wrong. I do not wish to hurt you, but if you turn out like he says, you will have forced my hand.

Black Canary started walking towards the group in front of her and smiled wide. "Hey, room for one more?"

"Make that two," another voice started before the group could even respond to Canary. Dinah turned around while the group from Awul looked at her and behind at the blue haired boy walking forward. Nagisa had a calm expression on his face and he said, "Two of our comrades from Class 3-E were captured and brought to the Colosseum months ago. We do not know their status, but I want to go and try to save them."

"Nagisa," Karma spoked up from behind his friend. Nagisa looked back at him and he nodded while giving Karma a serious look. The red haired teen frowned but after a few seconds he nodded too and then called orders out to the others in their class who would be staying behind with him.

"I don't see why not," Natsu said and put his hands behind his head as he looked at the girlish-looking boy. "Are you strong though? Don't want anyone holding us back."

Nagisa smirked and took a step forward, but Kirito turned to Natsu first and said, "You don't need to worry about that." The black haired teen glanced at Nagisa as he walked towards them, and the younger teen looked at Kirito in surprise that he stopped him from showing Natsu an assassination move that he thought would make the pink haired mage piss himself. Kirito nodded at the assassin and then looked back at his comrades, "Nagisa is strong." He turned to the boy, "Thanks for your assistance."

Nagisa nodded back at Kirito and smiled more genuinely. "You're welcome."

"So the nine of you then?" Sokka questioned, walking back over and looking around at the group in front of him. He stepped up and crossed his arms, "The leader of Class 3-E, Black Canary, and you monsters," Sokka said and made a few of them laugh. Natsu grinned while Ben and Dash smirked at each other and bumped elbows. "If anyone has a chance at beating the Fire Lord. It's you." He looked to Canary and continued, "We can provide support only so far. After you reach Sin City it will need to be a stealth mission from then on."

"I understand," Canary replied.

"And once you do beat Sozin," Sokka said, grinning confidently. "Feel free to come back here. The Capital will still be there, and you can rest-"

"I will be returning right away," Dinah assured. She glanced at the group next to her, Hiei said my orders only last until Pyraxas. Any farther than that and he thinks I'm just wasting my life… and I'd have to agree with him. She turned and smiled at the young people with her, "But not until we take down the Fire Nation."

"Yeah!" Natsu shouted and pumped a fist.

"You too Nagisa," Sokka continued to the teen. "If you want to-"

"I will be going all the way to the Capital," Nagisa interrupted. Sokka grimaced as he was hoping the teen would be a little more persuadable. Nagisa continued in a dark voice, "And if the King is to capture me, I will fight him with everything I have." The others looked at Nagisa in astonishment as it sounded like he knew what the King was capable of but was saying this anyway.

"You can't be serious," Gray told the teen with blue hair.

"You did not see Isogai for months before you vanished from this continent Gray," Nagisa said. "So you do not know, that during the Third War, our teacher was killed. Class 3-E's assassination teacher, Korosensei, was killed, right before our eyes." Nagisa clenched his fists at his sides, "And the King was the one who did it. He devoured our sensei's brains in front of us. If I don't save my classmates, I will at least take my revenge."

Gray shook his head at the teen. "I never knew your teacher, and I'm sorry, but you don't really think you can take on the King do you?"

Nagisa did not reply for a few seconds, and then he said in a dark tone, "The King has those he cares about." He looked up into Gray's eyes and the ice mage could see this boy was not joking in the slightest. A few of the others behind Gray gulped but the ice mage himself slowly nodded his head.

"Alright," Sokka said, keeping his voice positive as to boost the mood. "We're having a flying bison equipped for travel north. You'll have to head to Sin City, then catch a train north from there. The Fire Nation guards would never let you fly over the Cataclysm. It's a good thing you've cleared the path to Sin City though," he added and looked at Natsu who held up a fist.

Ben lifted his fist too and said, "Don't forget us."

"Yeah we helped too," Dash added.

"Same!" Grif called over. Natsu, Dash, and Ben all looked over at the man skeptically and he dropped his jaw at their unappreciative looks. Last time I volunteer to go on a mission with you brats. The soldier turned and walked away with Superboy, complaining to the Kryptonian that he totally did help during that battle. Conner still had burns on his body though from that battle so he mainly ignored the whining older man.

Black Canary turned to Gray, "When do we leave?" she asked him.

The man opened his mouth to respond, but fell down to his left knee before he could. Juvia ran to his side and started yelling in panic about how pale his face was and how hurt he looked, telling him to get some rest. On the other hand, Natsu laughed from behind him and shouted that Gray would be fine. The one-armed man shot a glare back at Natsu, but he agreed with him more than Juvia. I can't let my injury get in the way of our mission. He ground his teeth and pushed down with his only hand to get back up on his feet. "I'll rest on the bison," he assured Juvia. He looked back at Dinah, "Let's leave right away."

"Sounds good to me," Natsu agreed.

"Cura!" Kairi said. Gray turned and got splashed with a wave of green light when he looked at Kairi. The light faded and he frowned at her but she started giggling and said, "Okay, now we can go."

Juvia glared at Kairi, "Romantic Rival," she growled in a scary voice. Gray tried holding her back while Natsu laughed, and Black Canary froze with her hand near the sidearm at her waist. By the way the others were acting, Juvia getting violent over other girls getting Gray's attention was not new. The blonde woman stared at the young girl nervously though and found her hand hovering next to that pistol. Juvia, I am sorry for what happened to you, but things will only get worse for now on.

The group started heading to Pon-Gatso's trunk and the elevator to the top of the tree where they would be departing from. A short man with spiky black hair watched them walk away while others reported to him about the status of the base. He listened to what they said while also focusing on the individuals walking towards the tree. Most of you will die on this mission, the demon thought. Those who make it back will understand what this war really is… Futile.

---

A/N Hope you all enjoyed the final part of chapter 9! Almost hitting 20k, it's another doozy, but hey I figure fifty thousand words published in a couple of days ain't bad! Juvia's alive again! Black Canary and Nagisa Shiota join up with the team before their trip north to Pyraxas, a destination our other heroes are already heading towards. Nagisa, Karma, and the others in Class 3-E are all from Assassination Classroom, a show I finished a long time ago, then proceeded to write this chapter after I did as I really wanted to get their characters right while I still remembered them all. Also added in a Diclonius from Elfen Lied if anyone's ever seen that show, (very gruesome). I'll put a list below since it is the final part of the chapter and there were many new characters introduced here. Thanks for reading!

Elfen Lied: Diclonius

Harry Potter: Bellatrix Lestrange

DC Comics: Ra's al Ghul, Talia al Ghul, Ubu, Lazarus Pit

Star Wars: Darth Bane, Sith

Fairy Tail: Juvia, Gray, Natsu

Spirited Away: Haku

Assassination Classroom: Nagisa, Karma, Rio Nakamura, Terasaka, Kirara, Maehara, Isogai, Okano, Korosensei

Final Fantasy: Cloud Strife

Yu Yu Hakusho: Kuwabara, Hiei, Urameshi Yusuke

Young Justice: Superboy, Blue Beetle, Black Canary (Dinah Drake)

Hunter x Hunter: Silva Zoldyck, Killua, Meruem

Lost: Jin

One Punch Man: Darkshine, Lightning Max, Stinger

7 Deadly Sins: Guila, Jericho

Avatar the Last Airbender: Sokka, Fire Nation, Sozin, Azula

The Incredibles: Dash

Ben 10: Ben

Sword Art Online: Kirito

Fullmetal Alchemist (Brotherhood): Winry

Red vs Blue: Grif

Kingdom Hearts: Kairi

-Hope I got 'em all! Lastly, review response:

Darugus chapter 56 . 9h ago

Nice chapter
But Im really wondering how ras got so many powers in only two years
Also wow the fight with ras was amazing
Also there goes my ranking for the second group
But you know the second group that's going south has had it harder than the first one going north
Also looking forward to next chapter hope they find the pit at least

Thanks! Really glad you liked the fight! Group that went north def seemed to get it better than the one that went south, but then again they did have more people, and the 7 Deadly Sins to help them, and Mephisto, Axel, Roxas, Theseus, a lot of helpful people in the Dread Fort. They did find the pit, and they managed to save Juvia! Now both of the groups head to Pyraxas, looking for the Lord of Sin City and High Lord of the Fire Nation: Astaroth and Fire Lord Sozin. How will they fare against these new enemies? Find out in Chapter 10: Pyraxas (all 10 parts of it XD). Thanks for another review! And thanks again everyone for reading this story! Hope I don't take too long to write the next part ;). Until then... 'till next time!