Chaos V
A pirate's ship sailed towards the fearsome Galuna Island. The entire crew was beaten, and the captain steered shakily.
"W-why do you want to go to that c-cursed island?" The captain could barely get the words out of his mouth.
"Steer the boat." A harsh voice directed.
"Y-yes! I am! Just if you don't mind my asking..."
"Just steer."
"R-right...!"
The crew slowly began to awaken, seeing an armor-clad redhead forcing their terrified captain to steer their ship.
"C'mon lady! I mean, ma'am! I beg you! Galuna Island is cursed! They say people turn into demons there!"
"I've no interest in that. I'm simply on my way to punish some rule-breakers. That is all." The woman speaking was Erza "Titania" Scarlet. She is an S-Class mage of Fairy Tail and a good friend of Lucy's. She was also one of the unfortunate victims of Natsu Dragneels's rampage many years ago when he was forced to join the guild. She disliked Chaos and his character with a passion but had deep respect for his power.
Erza Scarlet had walked into the guild after completing a job only to find out an S-Class job had been stolen by none other than her very own teammates. She was also shocked to learn Chaos was sent after them the very same day, yet never returned. She didn't understand why Chaos hadn't brought back the troublesome, job stealing trio. It should not have taken him longer than a day to retrieve two low-ranking mages and a flying cat. So here she was, hijacking a pirate ship, heading to Galuna Island.
"Please hurry. My guild members could possibly be in great danger and I must retrieve them. Then, I must punish them. Harshly, but fair."
"So cool! We'll follow you anywhere you go!"
"You're wonderful, big sis!" The crew members immediately got to work singing steady as she goes, steady as she goes as the ship sailed to the cursed island.
Gray laid silently on the cold ground, beaten and defeated. Chaos stood over him with a smirk.
"You're pathetic."
"Chaos? Why are you here?"
"Couldn't pick up the village's scent with all the crazy moon people around. I climbed a high point and I think I saw it, but I also saw you get your ass beat. So come on, we gotta go help defend those people." Natsu grabbed Gray by the collar and started dragging him towards the village.
"Wait, I can walk. Where's Lyon?"
"I don't know, everyone's gone. Looks like that ceremony's over." Gray retched and dropped to his knees, Natsu promptly grabbed him by the collar before he fell headfirst into the dirt. Natsu threw the weakened ice mage over his back and began the trek back to the village. "If Lucy's in trouble, it's your fault."
Gray's thoughts drifted back to when he and Lucy were caught trying to get on the island. "You don't have the skill for it..." Chaos had warned him. "You can't defeat Deliora, Gray! It's impossible!" Ur. How does one defeat the impossible? I wanted to do an S-Class quest. This is on me.
"Chaos. I have no right to say anything to you. No right at all!"
"Don't tell me you're gonna sit around and mope all day because you lost. You're a Fairy Tail wizard, Fullbuster. You shouldn't know the meaning of the word 'stop'. Shut the hell up and move forward because that's how you gain strength!"
The rest of the walk was silent.
Meanwhile, Happy and Lucy had landed in the village and started explaining the situation to the villagers.
"So, the people who did this to our bodies are coming here to attack us right now?"
"Yes, but on the bright side this is your chance to capture them!" The villagers chattered amongst themselves, wondering if they could pull off capturing the islands infiltrators. "There are two wizards, Natsu already took one down, but they're strong and probably won't be captured easily. That's okay though, because we have me, and I have the perfect plan!"
"I have a bad feeling about this..." Happy mumbled.
"What is the meaning of this?" The villagers parted like the red sea to make way for Chief Moka to approach Lucy.
"Please listen! Enemies are attacking this village soon; they've been staying at the forest ruins and they're the ones who changed your bodies into demons!"
"I don't care! I told you to destroy the moon!"
"Well there's no reason for that if we just catch the people responsible..."
"The moon! Destroy the moon!" Some villagers held down the chief as he thrashed and shouted curses at the moon.
"Sorry," Another villager apologized to Lucy. "It's because of his son Bobo. He just wants everything back to the way it was before."
"That's okay. We're going to capture those people! You can count on me, Fairy Tail's number-one Celestial Wizard! Open, Gate of the Maiden, Virgo!"
"Did you call for my punishment, princess?"
Lucy explained her big plan to Virgo in secret, the villagers lingered around watching the mage and her spirit plot and scheme. All moods fell when Lucy's "big plan" was revealed to be a deep hole covered with grass.
"Um," Happy stood by the hole. "I think you might actually be an idiot, Lucy. I can't imagine they'd fall for such a childish trick."
"What are you talking about? This pitfall is perfect!"
"See, that's why you're an idiot."
"There's only one entrance to this village, right? That means the enemies are sure to come in this way and will fall straight into my perfectly planned trap." Lucy smirked.
"I don't think anyone will fall for that." Happy sighed as two villagers and Virgo both agreed with the blue cat.
"Just watch, all of you!"
The guard on top of the wall shouted that someone was coming. The gate was opened to reveal none other than Chaos jogging towards them, an unconscious Gray on his shoulders. Lucy screamed and started waving her arms hysterically to get him to stop.
"Natsu!" Lucy and Happy shouted, the villagers all waving their arms as well. "Stop!" Natsu stopped centimeters away from Lucy's pitfall.
"Thank goodness." Lucy breathed.
"This guy is so heavy." Natsu stated, dropping Gray right on Lucy's trap. Gray's unconscious body fell right through and the villagers deadpanned.
"Did he actually fall for that?" Lucy marched over. "You saw right through that, didn't you?" Natsu didn't reply but looked at her with a smirk and a mischievous glint in his eye.
"Natsu! Where did your ice sphere go? Did you burn it away?" Happy flew over.
"Yeah."
"Princess, it seems your trap failed. Shall I reset it?" Virgo had already lifted Gray from the hole and was preparing to put the grass back over. Lucy ignored her.
"What is this?" Natsu looked at Virgo.
"I am Virgo."
"You got a new celestial spirit?" Natsu raised an eyebrow at Lucy.
"You would've known if you didn't disappear on me or even bothered to keep in touch." Lucy huffed and crossed her arms.
"Anyway, the enemy still hasn't shown up yet?" Natsu scanned the area for traces of a fight but saw nothing.
"No, they're taking their time. Even though they left for the village before you did, you got here first."
"It took me a while too."
Suddenly everyone's attention was on a large figure in the sky flying towards the village. It was some sort of animal carrying a bucket, two people stood on top of it. A large drop of the contents of the bucket fell, about to drop right on Lucy. Curious as to what the neon green substance was, she didn't move until Natsu knocked her out of the way with incredible speed. The spot she'd stood in moments earlier was nothing more but a deep hole, steam rising out of it.
"Nuke'em jelly?'
"Is the whole bucket filled with that? They're gonna pour it everywhere!"
"Everyone, get to the center of the village now! Fast!" Chaos took charge of the situation quick, and no one bothered to question his authority as they all sprinted towards the center of the village in a chaotic mess. Moka, the village chief grasped onto his son's grave for dear life, refusing to move.
The oversized flying rat emptied the contents of the bucket over the village. Natsu sprinted forward, calling out for Happy as he leaped into the sky. Happy's wings sprouted and he picked up the dragon slayer and flew him towards the nuke'em jelly falling over the village.
"Chaos Dragon's Deflection." A large elliptic cobalt magic seal formed from Natsu's open palms under the jelly. The villagers down below ducked down and braced against the force of the blast.
"This is Natsu's strength?" Lucy whispered, forgetting she'd hardly seen Natsu use magic. The nuke'em jelly ricocheted against Natsu's spell above where the villagers had gathered, but droplets still scattered around the rest of the village. One droplet specifically falling right on Bobo's grave where Moka was still latched onto.
"Chief!" The villagers shouted. Everyone anxiously waited for the smoke to clear to see the outcome of their chief, luckily, Virgo had grabbed him just in time and held him up for Lucy.
"The village chief presented for punishment."
When the jelly was all gone, the people looked at the remains of their village. It was completely demolished save the small plot of land where the villagers had gathered. Moka teared up when he saw Bobo's grave. It was unharmed. Not for long though, when the pink-haired follower of Lyon kicked it over.
"We have to eliminate all of the Cold Emperor's enemies. We tried to give them an instant death, but they resisted. Now it seems blood must be spilled." Sherry said.
"Fifty villagers. Two wizards. That should take fifteen minutes." The other enemy, Yuka, added. Chaos and Lucy got into fighting stance. Moka was in instant rage at the evil mages who destroyed Bobo's grave. The people held him back, preparing to escape before getting caught in a fight between wizards.
"I can fight too." Gray stood up slowly.
"Get out of here. You'll be in my way." Natsu growled.
"Don't underestimate me, Chaos! You said it yourself. I'm a Fairy Tail wizard, I don't know the meaning of the word 'stop'." Chaos punched Gray hard in the stomach before he could take a step closer.
"The injured should sleep it off." Gray coughed up bile and grabbed at Natsu's cloak, cursing the dragon slayer before losing consciousness once again in his arms. Natsu caught him and stood up, letting Gray lean against him.
"Why did he do that?" Lucy asked, disappointment evident in her tone.
"That's just Natsu's way of showing compassion. Gray's in no shape to fight right now." Happy shrugged.
"So that's the bond between Fairy Tail wizards, whether they're close or not..."
Natsu handed Gray off to the closest villager. He slung the ice mage over his shoulder and promised the standing mages that Gray would be safe with them.
"C'mon Lucy, Happy. Let's kick these clowns' asses."
"Aye!"
Hope you enjoyed. While you're still here, there's a few things I'd like to clarify. 1. This is not a Nalu fic.The only specified romantic pairings in this story will be the canon ones (Alzack/Bisca, one-sided Gray/Juvia, Aquarius/Scorpio, future Gajeel/Levy, etc.) You can read it as Nalu as you would in canon Fairy Tail, but it will never be an official romantic pairing. 2. English is not my mother tongue. I'm fluent, yes, but I apologise for any obvious mistakes my beta reader or grammar app didn't catch. I appreciate anyone who points out flaws in my work as it helps me improve.3. I am awful at constant updates.I try, I do, but I lose interest in things very quick. I'll try my hardest to keep this story going. Thanks for reading!
-A