Disclaimer: I still own none of the characters in this story. No proper nouns, except maybe the continents and planet's name... but most of the cities I don't own! Enjoy the chapter!
Nexus HWR 16.1 General:
Day 1
Resistance HQ
Two fifteen meter tall doors slid outwards into the hallway where a small group of people were gathered about. Riku turned his head as he leaned on the wall and then pushed off of it. Usopp and Franky were talking to each other on the other side of the hall and they both turned too, and Natsu was closest to the doors pacing back and forth in annoyance for the past hour. They all looked towards the opening doors and the man with wavy black hair stepping through them. Natsu opened his mouth to shout about how long it took, when he froze and looked at the man in front of him in confusion. Everyone looked at the one-armed man the same way, because between the time he entered the huge room to receive his orders and now he had underwent a wardrobe change.
Gray Fullbuster walked out of the room at the end of the hall, and the huge doors started to close again. Riku was not as focused on the way Gray was dressed as the others, and he looked over Gray's shoulders and into the room even taller than the massive doorway implied. He looked straight ahead from the doors to a large round table and six people gathered around it who were all watching Gray leave. He saw Hiei, the one who summoned Gray in the first place when they were all looking for Sora, standing on the right side of the table with his arms crossed and only looking out the corners of his eyes towards the doors so he was not facing them. There were two women in there and four men, though Riku could see that there were many empty spaces around that round table.
The doors clanked to a shut and Gray stopped walking in front of four of his friends who had followed him and Hiei. Luffy was with them at the time Hiei summoned him, but the pirate said he had better things to do and went back to training, even though his training partner followed his best friend. Natsu stepped up to Gray so they were a couple of feet away from each other, "What was that all about?" The Fire Dragon Slayer asked his fellow Fairy Tail mage. Natsu looked him up and down, and he added, "And what's up with the cape?"
Gray looked down at the cloak he was given while inside the war room. He lifted his right hand that was already holding something and grabbed the long cape of the cloak with two fingers, holding it out to the side and looking at the navy-blue fabric closer. The cloak did not cover all of his front, but it covered most of his left side and fell all the way down to his ankles. There was a golden circular clasp that held the cloak around him on his front up near his neck where the material covering the front left side of his body was connected to the part of the cloak that wrapped around his other side. Over the front left side of Gray's chest, there were two strange-looking pins on the cloak, and on his shoulders there were golden lines of a different material. Gray looked down and let go of his cape, while lifting up the second thing he had in his right hand, "I'm," he began, while turning the hat in his hand and looking at the stars on the front part of it right above the rim. The hat had a flat top and looked pretty official, and Gray lifted it up and put it down on top of his head. "I was, promoted," he continued softly.
"Ehh?" Natsu exclaimed. "That's what took an hour?! They were giving you a promotion?"
"What else?" Riku questioned, as he could see Gray still had something else to say. Natsu glanced back at Riku, then to Gray as Riku continued, "Hiei said you had new orders."
"They, promoted me, because of our recent victories," Gray continued. He looked around at the four who gathered right in front of him and spoke more confidently, "Doflamingo, Saix, and the Fire Lord were part of it, which I argued had little to do with me, but, the League of Assassins too, and Darth Bane specifically…" Gray faded off and he scratched his head, which made him frown as he realized it was difficult to do so with his hat on. He looked up more seriously, and kept going, "They promoted me a lot, I skipped ranks. They made me a General, and, and I'm to take down the Emperor."
The four in front of Gray opened their eyes wide as he said that. Gray lowered his arm back down to his side and continued, "That's what took most of the hour we were in there. We went over the plan for our counterattack in the west, they gave me all the information that someone at my old rank wouldn't have had. I know where their forces are, what weapons they'll use, and how I can fight back against them, but… They gave me ultimate control over the mission."
"What does that mean?" Franky questioned the younger man.
"It means, I have to come up with when we attack, how we do it, and most importantly, who I take with me," he explained. "I was told to raise an army and get the job done," he finished and started walking forward. His mouth was flat, twitching up and down at the corners like he could not decide whether to smile or frown. He felt strange, because although he knew he should be feeling grim at the idea of having so much responsibility, of having other people's lives in his hands, he could not help but feel optimistic. We are doing this! I, I brought my friends here to help, but, but they did more than that. They gave everyone hope again. Not just regular soldiers, but the leaders believed that I could do this. Everyone, I won't let you down. It isn't about surviving anymore! We can finally push back against them!
"Where are you going?" Natsu snapped after his friend who was suddenly acting like he had somewhere important to be.
Gray did not look back but he started, "I was told that files for potential candidates to take on the assault would be in my room when I returned to it. I figure there are probably hundreds of files to go through, and I'm getting started right away." The dark cloak flapped behind him as Gray turned right at the corner and his friends back in the hallway stared at the spot he just disappeared from for a few seconds.
"Looks like he's right at home here," Usopp mumbled.
"Oi wait!" Natsu called out and started running down the hall. He reached the intersection and turned but Gray was gone and he groaned. "They better have put my file in Gray's room… wait, do I have a file? What did they put on my file?" His eyes widened and he hummed to himself wondering what would be on it before turning around and walking the other direction.
"H-Hey," Usopp called through the hall that he now started jogging down too. Natsu turned to him and Usopp had a look of panic on his face as he called out, "What are we going to do?" The Dragon Slayer became confused and Usopp threw his arms up while looking behind him then forward at Natsu again. When he looked back he only made eye contact with Franky and not the other teen behind him who tried to catch his gaze. Usopp continued, "Sora's still missing, and now we're heading somewhere else? We're going to join a war right now without him? And what if…"
"When the month is over, as long as we're all back together," Riku began from behind Usopp several yards to keep his distance. Usopp frowned deeply at Riku's voice but the other teen kept going, "It will be fine. Sora will return here with Kairi, and whatever happens in between, happens."
Usopp ground his teeth, then started walking forwards right past Natsu and down the next hall. Riku watched him go and both Natsu and Franky looked his way after to see his reaction. Riku sighed and he looked down at the floor. "Keep trying little bro," a voice said on his right. Riku turned and Franky gave him a hard pat on the pack that made him stumble a step forward. "Usopp will forgive you, sooner or later."
Riku clenched his teeth hard and he thought about the last few months he spent around Usopp. He shook his head and muttered, "You don't know that."
"Yeah I do," Franky countered right back. Natsu was about to walk away after Usopp, but he froze and turned while Riku looked back up at the cyborg in a little confusion. Franky laughed again, though it was a less genuine laugh this time and he scratched the back of his head after he did it. "When I met Usopp, I had my boys beat him to a bloody pulp and steal a bunch of money from him. Then I laughed in his face and kicked him around a little, taunting him about how weak he was." Riku and Natsu lowered their bottom lips at the cyborg who was frowning as he said this, but when he continued he started to grin, "He got over it though. When I joined the crew, I thought he might hold a grudge or something, but now we're the best of buddies. Haha!"
"Why'd you beat him up?" Natsu asked and Franky turned to see the pink haired mage still standing there twenty feet away, listening the whole time. He already noticed him, but Natsu was now taking part in what he was trying to say to Riku solely to cheer him up.
"Ah, it's all in the past now," Franky said and waved him off with a big red hand.
"Well, that makes our two situations different then," Riku said. Franky gained a confused look as he stared at the shorter man and Riku continued darkly, "Because what happened between you guys is in the past, but what I made Usopp do, it will never get behind him." The other two stared at Riku with widening eyes and the teen looked down at his right hand that he clenched in front of his body angrily, "I remember it sometimes, only when Usopp gives me the harshest looks. I'll remember exactly what I made him do. I was under Ansem's control, but it was these hands pulling the strings, and my own mouth giving the orders, and these two eyes that watched him execute people." Riku turned and his green eyes looked straight into Franky's shocked ones, "You think he can forgive something like that?"
Natsu walked through the halls of the Resistance headquarters all on his own. He was tired from earlier training, annoyed at Gray who told him to go back to training when he went to check what Gray was doing with his battle plans, and he was groaning because not only could he not find his way back to the cafeteria in this massive fortress, he only just realized he was completely lost. "RAA! Damn it!"
"Hey there, need some help?" a young girl's voice asked behind him. He turned and was going to shout what his problem was, before freezing and staring at the girl's face that was at eye-level with him. She had orange hair tied back into a ponytail, wore a pink and white striped shirt and white pants, and had a cute pink bow in her hair that matched her big pink eyes. She looked only seven or eight years old and Natsu blinked a few times more in case he really was just seeing things as this tiny girl was just floating in the air behind him.
"I'm lost," Natsu muttered.
The girl who asked if he needed help was looking at his back when he shouted angrily up at the ceiling, but now that she was looking at his face her big eyes grew even larger. "What?" Natsu questioned her.
"You're him," she whispered. The girl had backed up a few feet, then stopped herself and flew back forward fast which almost made Natsu fall off his feet in surprise. "My name's Blossom," she greeted and stuck out a hand. "Leader of Gamma Squad," she continued, "it is nice to properly make your acquaintance, Natsu." Blossom recalled seeing the man before when she was farther south close to the Great Wall, but she did not know what he had done at that time.
"You know my name?" Natsu questioned as he shook her hand back hesitantly.
She nodded and a bright smile came to the little girl's face. "Of course I do. Everyone here knows your name. You are the man who took down the Fire Lord, after all."
Natsu nodded and a big smirk spread across his face, "I am aren't I?" He puffed his chest out and the look of smugness was not missed by the small girl in front of him.
Blossom giggled and then flew by his side while giving him a wave. "Well thanks for coming. We're all really excited to have you here."
Natsu watched the child fly off then he turned back forward with a confident grin on his face. The things he was worried about only a minute ago were far from his mind now. Everyone knows who I am. Ha! I gotta go tell the rubber idiot to rub it in his face. Natsu took another step then froze and his eyes opened wide, "Wait!" He spun around but Blossom was no longer in the hallway with him. "I still don't know where I am!"
The fire mage sighed and started walking aimlessly down the hall again. He put his hands behind his head and looked up at the ceiling, "At least I'll get to kick some Sith butt when Gray puts me on that awesome team he's making."
Late into the night of the first full day since the group reached the Resistance Headquarters, Gray was still sitting at the desk in his room looking down at papers in between folders stacked high on either side of him. He had a desk lamp curved over the wooden table and three pieces of paper out in front of him in the moment. The people on each of the pages had their pictures in the top left corner, names, ages, and sizes on the right of those pictures, and then the entire page below that were character evaluations, physical abilities, skill sets, magic, weapons, etc. The pile of folders on his left were ones he had already gone through, and the one on his right the ones he still needed to go over, both stacks were around the same height ten feet above his head.
In front of him past the three pages he had out at the moment, was a much smaller pile of folders that he eyed and wondered if he should go through them and double-check the contents again to make sure they were suitable. He shook his head as that would take too much time considering all he had left to do, but when he looked at the three men in front of him again, he groaned and closed the folders right over their profiles. "No, no, no," he closed one at a time then stood up and stacked them on top of the tall pile of profiles that he had already gone through and rejected. Gray dropped down to his seat and leaned back on it with his eyes closed for a few seconds. Don't fall asleep, he thought to himself and opened back up his eyes to make sure he wouldn't.
"This is taking hours," he muttered in annoyance. I wish I could at least bring Natsu along, but the Resistance commanders were right. The Emperor's forces don't use fire weapons, and keeping Natsu as a trump card for situations we need him makes sense. Then there's the huge amount of landscape we have to cross to reach the Order of the Sith, which will be done on ships, ships we'll have to be constantly defending or working on. Natsu's motion sickness acting up would make him useless in a long-distance assault where we'll constantly be moving. Gray rubbed the side of his head and he took off the General's hat and dropped it down on his desk.
Gray spun his chair around and looked back at the queen-sized bed behind him. He stared at how nicely-made it was, remembering how Juvia made it as soon as they woke up, but he frowned thinking about the night before. Something's been up with her for a while. Last night, she wouldn't, kiss me. He frowned deeper and leaned back in his seat again, Now that I think about it, I haven't seen her all day too. I should go look for her… He turned sideways and caught a glimpse of the huge piles on his desk. Gray sighed out a long breath before turning back to his desk, No, no she's probably with the other girls. I'll look for her tomorrow. I'm going to be doing this all night, she'll probably be here before morning anyway.
Day 2, 1:00 AM
"You hear something?"
"Probably just the wind."
"That's a good mindset to have, probably going to get us all killed."
"Dude, don't worry so much. There's no one out here."
A teenager with black hair stopped crawling across the ground and he tried keeping his breathing as quiet as possible. The dirt road on the side of the tall grass he was crawling through had a small two-man patrol walking down it, but they were so close to the giant castle of Resistance HQ now that they were not too worried about anyone jumping out at them. The teenager lying on the ground in a black hoodie and black sweatpants and boots could not help but shiver as another gust of wind hit him. Even in some heavy clothes, winter was here, and it felt like it was coming hard this year.
He waited long enough that he could no longer hear the guards, then turned his head and looked around to see if anyone was around. "Alright," he said in a quiet voice. He turned right and the creature pressed down on its stomach at his side nodded at him, though he could barely see it move since it blended in so well with the night. "Come on Kuro," he said and nodded his head away from the fort. "Let's do this fast so we can start moving normally."
Kuro nodded back at Okumura Rin and the two got out of their flat positions. The two crawled through the grass around the Resistance Headquarters as fast as they could while still being stealthy. The fort had great sensors to pick up people coming towards them, but two people moving away from the base Rin hoped would not alert too many people, especially at the speeds they were going. I should have had a better plan for this, he thought as he ducked down and a spotlight flashed right over his head.
The escape took over thirty minutes, but finally Rin reached a place far enough away and with enough natural obstacles in the way between him and the fort that he thought he could stand. He glanced behind him, then sighed as he could not even see the fortress behind the dirt mound he had crawled behind. He looked back forward and stared at the huge mountains that came out of the ground not ten miles ahead of him. He was shivering and he rubbed his hands together again while Kuro rubbed against his right leg for warmth. "Thanks Gray," Rin whispered as he stared out into the northern distance, "for telling me how I can get to Hell."
Kuro glanced up at Rin and the cat nodded slowly as it knew what they were getting into and was feeling pretty nervous itself. The familiar purred softly and then asked in its high-pitched voice, "Rin, are we going to be okay?"
Rin did not respond for several seconds. Then, he whispered, "I don't know. But this is what I came here to do." His eyes narrowed and he reached up and grabbed the hilt of his sword sticking out from below his sweatshirt that he put on over it. "Yukio, I'm coming."
Rin and Kuro both took a step forward, then both of them froze as their ears twitched, and they slowly turned around together. Standing right behind them was a man wearing a lot less-warm clothing than they had on, a red tank top with middle of it open revealing his bare chest that had a large x-shaped scar on it. The pirate wore a pair of blue jeans with the pant legs rolled up to his knees, and he had a straw hat on his head as he smiled at the two in front of him. "You're going to Hell?" Luffy asked the two shocked figures before him. "Sounds cool! I'm coming too."
"Wh-What?" Rin asked with huge eyes. "You can't. It's too dangerous. I don't want to drag any of you-"
"I'm coming," Luffy repeated, ignoring whatever Rin had to say. "I already decided to leave."
"But," Rin continued and he glanced around. "What about the Resistance? They're going to look for us you know? And your crew! Are you going to leave everyone-"
"They'll all be fine," Luffy said confidently. "I don't wanna sit around for a month anyway. And it'll be fine since Sora, Nami, Robin, Timmy, and Juvia already left."
Rin hummed to himself and nodded, then his eyes snapped open wide and he exclaimed, "WHAT?!"
Day 2, 2:00 AM
Nami stood at the front of a speeder shooting a hundred miles per hour over the flat black landscape of Resistance lands in southern Aebrith. They were heading east, which she could only tell thanks to the compass in her hand. She looked up at the sky where normally there would be stars that she had mapped out over the years to help her navigate in the dark, however the sky was pitch black tonight. The only things illuminated in her sight were the top of the speeder as there were a few lights on the vehicle, and directly in front of their speeder for a half mile as that was as far as their headlights reached.
The orange-haired pirate woman crossed her arms in front of her chest and rubbed her hands up and down her own arms a couple times as it was chilly even inside the puffy orange coat she was wearing. Nami shivered and she glanced up at the cloud covered sky one more time, before saying out loud, "It's going to start snowing soon."
"First snowfall of the year," Robin said from where she sat behind a steering wheel in the center console of the speeder. She let out a deep breath and watched it float in the air in front of her, getting slightly pushed back by the wind that made it over the glass wind-shields at the front of the speeder.
"What's our heading?" Nami questioned softly and she leaned down near Robin and looked at a bunch of dials on the dashboard. "Good, keep us going east at seventy degrees." She smiled and stood back up fully before looking ahead off the speeder where they could see the ground start looking less black and more gray, a good change of pace she supposed.
On the right side of the navigator sat a girl leaning on the edge and looking back the way they came from. The girl with long blue hair had a sad expression on her face and she whispered, "Juvia thinks maybe Juvia should have told Gray-sama after all."
"Too late to turn back now," Nami announced loudly. Juvia turned to her friend and Nami smiled back at her, "So there's no point in worrying about it." Juvia nodded and to get her mind off it, Nami continued, "The info I got form Resistance HQ said that the best magician in all the Resistance is in their far east sector: 552. The guy is in some 'Library of Magic,' and he supposedly had so many thousands of spells memorized before arriving on Nexus that everyone wants to learn from him, and he was able to pass on a lot of those spells to weaker Resistance members to give them some power."
"How is this going to help Juvia's bloodlust?" Juvia whispered.
"Think about it," Nami told her and went to sit next to her best friend. "With all the spells the guy has memorized there must be some that cure people in your situation."
"I don't know," Juvia said in a deep voice. "It doesn't sound like much to go on."
Nami ignored Juvia using the first-person to refer to herself and she put a hand on Juvia's back. "I promise, this is going to work out. And if it doesn't we'll find something else." Nami squeezed her hand on Juvia's back and the younger woman looked up into Nami's eyes and nodded with a small smile growing on her face.
Robin smiled from behind the center console just behind her two friends, then she looked right and watched the fourth figure on the speeder with them walk past her from the stern. The little boy yawned with his hand over his mouth as he reached the two girls up front who looked down at him. Timmy looked up at Juvia for a second and then to Nami, "I'm going to head to bed. Wake me up if you need me."
"Alright, we'll try to keep it down," Nami told the kid. Timmy smiled at her before turning and walking back on the speeder towards the comfy seat he was just sitting in when he realized he was so relaxed he was about to pass out. Nami watched him walk away, and she whispered under her breath, "I'm glad you came with us."
Timmy was already far back on the speeder and the wind around them was pretty loud, but his hearing was better than most and he stopped for a second right at the edge of his seat. He looked over his shoulder after a few seconds and whispered straight to the woman looking in his eyes, "Me too." She could not hear him but she read his lips well enough and Nami's expression showed it.
The kid got in his seat to get ready for a nap, and Nami turned back to Juvia to keep talking. The other girl had a small frown on her face though, a small frown getting deeper by the second. "Juvia?" Nami whispered.
Juvia's eyes darted to Nami's, and then she looked down and unclenched her fists at her sides. "Sorry," she whispered. "I just, seeing Nami-san and Timmy, made me think of a mother and child. You're so good with him, but I, I won't be able to…"
"I promised you Juvia, didn't I?" Nami asked. Juvia suddenly realized her fists had clenched again and she was getting even madder describing why she was mad to Nami. She looked nervously into her best friend's eyes and Nami gently pulled her friend's head down to her shoulder and held her there. "This month break Sora wants us to take, to train and prepare for the next battles, by the time it's over, we're going to fix you."
Juvia would argue, but allowing herself to believe Nami was so much easier, and it made her feel so much better. "Mm," she hummed affirmatively and nodded into Nami's shoulder. "Thank you Nami-san. Thank you Robin-san. Thank you Timmy," Juvia whispered as her eyes closed and she nuzzled into Nami's shoulder more comfortably. "I'll believe in you, since everyone believes in me."
A/N And the quests begin! Hope you enjoyed the chapter! Gray gets a new mission to take on the Emperor? That's a big goal for the new General to have, and we'll see how he deals with this responsibility and the pressures of being a big shot in the Resistance. Rin and Kuro leave for Hell with an exact plan in mind of how they're going to get there, but Luffy follows them and decides to tag along. And the girls and Timmy head off the this 'Library' which we've heard about once before (Merlin said she was going to go ahead there last time we saw the Seven Deadly Sins). Still in the first days of the month of what should have been training, but already over a third of the group has separated. What are the others going to do at HQ while they're gone? Will anyone else decide to head off on their own missions? Find out next time on Nexus: Heroes Will Rise!
asdf chapter 109 . 12h ago
Alright Hiei!
Will Natsu be able to eat his Darkness Flames?
Perhaps. He has eaten similar flames before (Amaterasu or Zancrow's God Flames). He'd have to either be in a fight with Hiei or fighting alongside him though before he gets the chance for something like that though, so we'll see... Thanks for the review!
Limit-Breaking chapter 109 . 14h ago
Hmm you still teased us with hiei saying you have new orders gray and just leaving it off like that so really you still kinda left us off on cliffhanger in a way.
Also i would have sora burping like rick does when sora was talking to castiel, as well as sora saying stuff like.
Sora: You don't know me you can't just decide, you can't just decide im sora burps loudly, the king bearer the one who is going to save you angel butt from the darkness.
Then sora vomits onto th floor and looks at castiel and say's who are you again and what's a kairi then he lose counciousness. Then the events would take place like they should.
Though i am curious exactly how you are going to be doing each chapter as in two chapters for sora and certain amount of days pass by.
But you may go back a day ago to see what nami was doing for example, So my question is how do you plan on doing these chapters, a better way to ask this is basically how long do you plan to write this entire month for all the charcters, will it be over 20 something chapters or not that much to begin with.
Either way funny chapter and i look forward to the next one.
Guess I can count that as a cliffhanger when it was the very first thing answered this chapter. Gray's victory over Darth Bane, the third in command of the Sith, has given him mad props with the Resistance command. That along with his bringing Goku to them, and the whole Pyraxas thing, it looks like the Resistance has a lot of faith in his ability. Sora going full on Rick Sanchez woulda been pretty funny too, and I'm glad you liked the chapter! As for how these next chapters are going to run, it'll start being more spread out. As in, I'm not going to go Day 4: one group, Day 4: the other group... etc. Ultimately you'll have to wait and see, but there will be arcs that follow certain people for a few chapters in a row. Won't say how long this month will take though... no spoilers after all XD Thanks for the review! And thanks again everyone for reading. 'Till next time!