Chapter 351: Earthland
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"Catch daddy!" A little girl with blond pigtails cried out as she eagerly threw a plastic ball at her father, a man with neatly trimmed matching blond hair.
The duo were playing in the backyard of their house, in the middle of a suburban area filled with other families. The man smiled widely as he retrieved the ball, and lightly tossed it back to his daughter while saying, "Here you go Stacy-Cakes!"
Putting her arms out to act as a basket, the little girl just managed to catch the ball before shouting gleefully, "I caught it daddy!"
The man laughed lightly at his daughter's excitement, and said, "Good job sweetie, a little bit more practice and you'll be a regular baseball star!" Stacy beamed at her father's praise, before she then c.o.c.ked her arm back to throw the ball again.
"Are you two having fun?" A woman's voice suddenly asked, drawing the father-daughter duo to look over and see their wife/mother approaching with a couple glasses of lemonade in her hands.
"Mommy, I'm gonna be a baseball star!" Stacy cried out as she ran up to her mother excitedly, making her pout before saying jokingly,
"Oh? I thought you were going to be my little princess?" At that moment the man picked his daughter up before saying,
"No reason why she can't be our little princess and a baseball star, right sweetie?"
"Right daddy!" The little girl cried out as she took her cup of lemonade from her mother, but then she ran off again after taking a drink to leave her parents together.
"If she becomes both then what will 'he' get to be?" His wife asked in a quiet voice jokingly, before the man gently placed his hand against her still flat abdomen and said,
"Whatever he wants to be, if it is a he." He then pulled his wife in for a kiss, both people imagining what their life will be like once they had two little munchkins running around.
***
That night the man was fast asleep next to his wife when he awoke suddenly, the scent of smoke filling his nostrils.
"Honey wake up!" He shouted urgently while putting on his slippers.
"Where's Stacy?!" His wife shouted within seconds of opening her eyes, and realizing that their room was filled with smoke.
"I'm going to find her, you get out and call for help!" He cried before rushing out the door, his only thought being to find his daughter. What greeted him was a scene as if from hell as his home burned around them, the flames spreading quickly from place to place.
"STACY!" He called out while trying not to inhale too much of the smoke, but to no avail as he desperately tried to make his way to his daughter's room.
"STACY!" He called out again when he threw her bedroom door open to find her bed empty. Immediately he went to her closet door and threw it open as well, to find his little girl curled up within and crying.
"DADDY!" She cried out when her father appeared before he took her into his arms and said,
"It's ok baby, daddy's here!"
Without a moments delay he turned and tried to find a way out of the burning house, his eyes, nose, and throat burning from the smoke and fumes. As he tried to make for the front door however, his heart stopped when he saw his wife trying to get to him, through the flames, crying out as she reached him,
"THE FRONT DOOR IS BLOCKED!"
His heart sinking at her words, the man clung to his daughter just a little bit tighter with one hand while the other grabbed his wife's arm, and he began pulling her towards the back of the house. They only got a couple steps though, before a groaning sound made him look up, just in time to see a portion of the burning ceiling collapse onto all three of them.
***
"!"
Suddenly a man with jet black hair bolted up in his bed, breathing deeply as he tried to catch his breath after the intense dream/memory. The scent of smoke still being strong in his nose, the taste of ash in his mouth. The man recalled every detail of the night he had died alongside his wife, daughter, and unborn child, just like he had almost every night ever since he had reincarnated over twenty years ago.
Slowly he reached over and opened a drawer in his nightstand before pulling a wallet sized painting, showing the man, woman, and child in his dream almost as perfectly detailed as a modern picture. Gently, he ran a finger over the image, longing to feel the warmth of wife at his side, to hear his daughter's infectious laugh just one last time. It wasn't until the first rays of sunlight started creeping through his window, illuminating his grand bedroom, that he finally muttered,
"No matter how long, or what I have to do, I will see you again...." Eventually he put the painting away, and began preparing for the day.
Meanwhile, down in the dining room, a couple of guys were silently munching on some breakfast while they waited for their companions to show up. One was rather burly while his head was completely devoid of hair, and he had two katanas strapped to his waist even as he ate. The other was young black haired man with Japanese features, who could have been considered good looking until he opened his mouth.
Silently the duo picked at their breakfast, with the only thing happening being when the Japanese looking boy occasionally picked up a piece of bacon or sausage, and tossed it to a eerie looking black dog with glowing red eyes, that looked to be just barely out of its puppy faze. Next to it was a brilliant golden battle axe, and a divine white lance that were leaning against the wall, all waiting for when their master needed them.
"Good morning!" A woman suddenly called out as she entered the dining hall, causing both men to look at her before they both scowled at her appearance. She was amazingly beautiful to look at despite her incredibly messy long black hair and the magic circle that was carved into her eye, but she also only wore a mere t-shirt to breakfast without caring at all that she was flashing her precious place to everyone present.
Without minding that no one returned her morning greetings, the woman strolled on to her seat at the long table while a serious looking butler followed her every step, every single one of them pointedly trying not to look at her exposed ass due to her monkey tail lifting the back of her shirt. Smirking knowingly at their discomfort, the girl then made a show of bending over as if to straighten out her chair before she eventually sat down.
"You know," she began with grin spreading on her lips, "I don't mind if you look, or if you want you can even touch~" As she trailed off the woman started lifting the bottom of her shirt teasingly, just until enough of her b.r.e.a.s.t was exposed that they could barely see the pink edge of her a.r.e.o.l.a. She was just about to go the full mile and take her shirt off in order to be entirely n.a.k.e.d, when a new voice suddenly stated,
"We don't need this kind of vulgarity at the breakfast table, so knock it off." In an instant all three of the people at the table rose, and bowed respectfully to the newcomer, while also saying,
""""Greetings to the Dark Emperor Darius!""""
Silently waving them down, the man who was called the 'Dark Emperor' took his seat at the head of the table, before he began eating his own breakfast as the woman's butler, Sebastian, set his plate for him. It was only after Darius took several bites of his food that he said,
"We need to start preparing for the next reincarnators who come here." There was silence at his words, before the Japanese looking boy, Hyato, asked,
"Why bother? It's not as if we're going to stay much longer anyways." Darius just gave Hyato a deadpan look, before sighing and explaining,
"Because, every reincarnator we recruit to our ranks will increase our overall strength drastically, and it's always when a plan is about to be put into motion that 'fate' decides to intervene." The rest of those present were silent as they contemplated the truth in their Emperor's words, as in every single move, book, or any other story an 'antagonist's' plans were almost always unmolested up until the last possible moment, and none of them doubted that they were the antagonists in this world.
It was natural since they followed Darius, who ruled over every single dark and mercenary guild on Earthland, along with the Alvarez Empire, with an iron fist, while simultaneously driving all of the 'good' Mage guilds into hiding. Even though most of that had been before any of them arrived, each of the other reincarnators had done their part to help Darius wipe out any of the opposing Mage guilds they could find, along with any who resisted them.
Though usually none of them would stoop to becoming genuine 'villains', Hyato especially saw this as a chance to grind on levels as he prepared for the day he finally found and destroyed the 'fake' Red Dragon Emperor, and saved his 'waifu' from him. Now he had five Longinus sacred gears that he'd been working hard on mastering, and was working on trying to acquire Zenith Tempest as his sixth.
As for the others, all the Saiyan girl, Alice, cared about was collecting more cute boys for her reverse harem, which she was after Natsu and Gray specifically for this world; and the bald guy, Calvin, was more or less simply along for the ride, and had no problem with whatever plans they came up with. As for Darius, his only goal was to see his wife and daughter once again, and had long since decided that he would do whatever it took to do so, no matter how horrible or heinous. And so, he then continued,
"Now then, Calvin I want you coordinating with the leaders of the dark guilds to make sure they're gathered and ready to go when the time comes. Alice, I want you making arrangements here to make sure everyone can fit onto the Hanging Gardens, and that all of the offensive and defensive systems are operational. Paul, I want you-"
"Uhhhhh, he's not here yet...." Calvin suddenly interrupted, making everyone go silent until a new voice suddenly said,
"Yes I am, please continue your majesty." Everyone except Darius jumped at the sound of Paul's voice, even as he simply continued eating as if nothing had happened.
"When the f.u.c.k did you get here you creepy f.u.c.ker?!" Alice demanded harshly, making Paul look at her weirdly before sighing and saying,
"I was actually the first one here you know. It's not my fault none of you can see me before I speak up, which I did when we greeted his majesty earlier." When he said that Hyato, Alice, and Calvin all got weird looks on their faces as they tried to recall wether or not Paul did greet Darius along with them, while the man in question said to their emperor, "I apologize on their behalf your majesty, please continue."
Snorting at Paul's 'apology', Darius then continued, "Anyways, Paul I want your informants scouring the cities for any word of potential reincarnators and members of Fairy Tail. The last thing we need is any of them getting the drop on us right before we depart this world for good."
As he finished speaking Darius went back to eating a few bites of his meal, making Hyato look around awkwardly before hesitantly asking, "Um, what about me?" Darius looked up at him and stopped chewing his food, before saying,
"I was waiting until after breakfast, but we might as well go over this now. Sebastian, can you go and-" Darius's voice then dropped in volume as he gave the demonic butler his request, to which he bowed deeply and replied,
"At once your imperial majesty." He then left them alone to carry out his instructions, making Hyato awkwardly sit there as he wondered if he should ask Darius what Sebastian was doing.
Thankfully it didn't take long until the butler returned, with three other people following behind him. Stepping to the side to make way for them, he then called out,
"Presenting the guild master of the Grimoire Heart guild, Hades, as well as two of his companions, Zancrow and Rustyrose of the Seven Kin of Purgatory." At the front of the trio was a tall elderly looking man with long grey hair that matched his mustache and beard, along with an eyepatch covering his right eye, making him look more like an Odin than Hades.
Behind him and to his right was a man with long and crazy blond hair that reached down to his waist, coupled with a psychotic grin and insane red eyes. Standing opposite him though was tall and lanky man with disheveled silver hair and matching tired looking eyes.
After being introduced the trio bowed to Darius respectfully, but when they righted themselves there was undisguised hostility in Zancrow and Ristyrose's eyes at they looked upon the Dark Emperor. Hades however was the very image of composure, as he asked respectfully,
"To what do I owe this honor your majesty?" Darius took another bite of his food before saying to him,
"You and Grimoire Heart are to prepare for another trip to Tenrou Island, where you will wipe out Fairy Tail and the rest of the guilds they've provided sanctuary to for good." There was a stunned silence at his decree, before Zancrow angrily demanded,
"Hey! Why the hell would we need to go back there?!"
"Zancrow!" Hades shouted as he tried to get his unruly companion under control before he offended Darius too much, but then another voice demanded from his other side,
"We barely managed to escape there once after facing off against a portion of their guild, what makes you think this time will be any different now that they've allied with every guild they could find?!" Again Hades was about to tell off Rustyrose for his rudeness, but before he could Darius spoke up,
"Because this time the attack will be led by Hyato, he just needs Hades's Fairy Tail guild mark to find the island. And your goal from the beginning this time will be to exterminate every single person on that island, no matter the means." Once again a stunned silence descended upon the room, before Hyato shakily asked,
"Me?" Darius nodded and stated,
"Yes you, you want to acquire more experience for more of your 'Sacred Gears' do you not? This is the perfect chance to do so. Plus these buffoons would screw it all up again if we sent them by themselves." While Hyato once again was too stunned to speak, someone else was so furious that they finally blew a gasket.
"How's this for a 'buffoon'?!" Zancrow suddenly asked, before he leapt into the air towards Darius while taking in a deep breath.
What happened was almost instantaneous, as when Zancrow's left foot hit the bare stone ground a shockwave indiscernible to everyone present except one was transmitted through the floor. Then, when the heel of his right foot collided with the ground slightly ahead of his left foot to attack, Calvin suddenly flicked his wrist and Zancrow's right foot when spinning as the ground beneath him moved, spreading his legs into an involuntarily split.
"AWOOOOOOOOOOO!!!" Zancrow howled from the pain he felt in his loins, even before Calvin then tapped his foot lightly against the stone floor beneath him, and made a small pillar of stone shoot up right between his legs. The sound that came from his throat then was deafening as Alice leapt to her feet and shouted,
"You bastard Calvin! He was a really good f.u.c.k too!" Calvin snorted at her protests to what he did to Zancrow, but, before either of them could react, Rustyrose suddenly leapt forward and shouted while thrusting his arms in front of him,
"You bastards!" His hands and arms then grew and elongated into a series of large tentacles, making Alice's face light up as she exclaimed happily,
"I finally get to experience tentacle play?!" But sadly for her it never happened, as a series of golden chains suddenly appeared from the void, snaking their way around the mass of tentacles rushing towards them before wrapping around Rustyrose's body. Slowly, everyone turned to see Darius standing with his hand raised slightly, a dark expression on his face as he slowly said,
"That is enough." In an instant everyone was seated once more while Hades lowered his head to him respectfully. Darius however kept his gaze locked directly onto Rustyrose as if he was thinking of something, before finally saying,
"I understand that your guild has awaited the chance to serve Zeref, and after being the one responsible for his demise I tried to keep this into consideration. However, with our plans being so close to bearing fruit I will not overlook such blatant disregard for my position, and as such will make an example for the rest of your guild." When they heard the last part of Darius's declaration Rustyrose and Hades both paled, even as he started pulling the former towards him.
"P-please forgive me! I-I was hasty after seeing my comrade beaten, I'll never do it again!" His pleas fell on deaf ears though as Darius continued pulling him closer, until they were a mere three feet apart, and he calmly said,
"Look into my eyes Rustyrose." Despite very fiber of his being telling him not to, Rustyrose couldn't help but to crack opened one of his tightly shut eyes, only to get completely drawn into Darius's pitch black irises.
Though it was fair amount of time longer from the perspective of Darius and Rustyrose, to those watching less than a second had passed before they either blinked or their eye just barely twitched, and Rustyrose had completely vanished. Meanwhile Darius hadn't even moved an inch, before started shuddering with his eyes firmly shut.
"So that's what Arc of Embodiment is..." He muttered as his mind began processing as much of the information he had retrieved from Rustyrose as possible.
Hades sighed as he watched one of his own men disappear right before his eyes, a series of conflicting emotions surging through him. Though usually he wouldn't feel anything to see one of his comrades defeated, the manner in which Darius dealt with Rustyrose honestly terrified him.
Typically if one served a person who could be considered dangerous you would be afforded a certain level of 'protection' depending on what you were able to do, or the knowledge you possessed. With Darius there was no such protection. If you had done something to earn his ire, he would erase you and take all of your knowledge and power for himself before appointing someone else to take your place. He had done this with several of those who had stood in his way, including Markarov's grandson Laxus, the fallen follower of Zeref, Jellal, and even as far as the dark Mage who had singlehandedly plunged the world into chaos with his creations, Zeref himself.
Though he was terrified of what Darius was capable of, Hades was full of awe of it at the same time. Darius had promised him a life of being able to see magics and powers none in this world had ever seen before, along with the tools and equipment needed to be able to research them. It was for this reason that Hades cowed beneath Darius's rule, that he did everything he could to avoid earning his emperor's ire, lest he be the next to be absorbed into his existence.
As he finished processing most of the recent information he obtained from Rustyrose, Darius sat back at his seat and asked,
"Any more problems?" As could be expected Hades solemnly shook his head at his question, before Darius gestured to Hyato and continued, "Very well then, Hyato the floor is yours as the one leading the attack on Tenrou Island."
There was a stretch of silence as the Dark Emperor then continued eating his meal, as if what they were discussing no longer hand anything to do with him. Slowly Hyato stood from his own seat, before he focused his gaze on Hades and the still unconscious Zancrow. Eventually he said,
"Muster all of the guilds that operate under Grimoire Heart, and have them prepare to travel to Tenrou Island. I want the full might that you can offer to leave the smallest possible margin for error in our mission." Hades looked confused at his words, and asked,
"Is that not overkill for a simple handful of Mage guilds?" Hyato shook his head and stated firmly,
"They are people with 'fate' on their side, if we don't hit them with everything we have all at once then they'll gradually become as powerful as needed to defeat us. If we let that happen then even our emperor will end up losing to them." Hades's one eye widened in shock that Hyato would disrespect their emperor in such a way, but when he glanced towards Darius to gauge his reaction, he was even more shocked to find him nodding slightly in agreement.
Though he didn't know what Hyato meant by 'fate' being on Fairy Tail's side, Hades added it to the ever growing list of things he needed to research as he inclined his head towards Hyato and said, "Very well, it will take a few weeks to contact and mobilize every single guild under us, but it will be done as soon as possible."
Hyato nodded in affirmation as he seated himself once more, and Hades swiftly left to spread the word to his subordinates. It wasn't until he left that Hyato let out the breath he had unintentionally been holding, and Alice mockingly said,
"Wow, for a second there I almost thought I was looking at real man instead of a stupid little v.i.r.g.i.n boy~." Hyato shot a look at her before saying,
"Shut up you worthless Saiyan s.l.u.t, don't you have a bouquet of c.o.c.ks to gargle somewhere?" Though most women would be offended at being asked such a thing, Alice instead started drooling slightly as she recalled doing exactly that the night before. Her expression made all four of the men present cringe in disgust, before Darius ultimately stood up and said,
"I've lost my appetite. If anyone needs me I'll be in the throne room." He then left the four other reincarnators to their meal, and made his way to the grand throne room at the center of the Hanging Gardens.
Though the Gardens had appeared with its own original design, Darius had reworked the majority of the interior to better suit his tastes and position as the 'Dark Emperor'. As such there were black banners and tapestries hanging from the ceiling and walls, while the throne itself looked to be carved from a type of black marble that seemed to draw in all of the light around it. If one thing stood out in the throne room, it was the giant crystal that sat behind the throne itself, containing the preserved body of the founder and first guild master of Fairy Tail, Mavis Vermillion herself.
He had acquired Mavis's body shortly after the main group of Fairy Tail disappeared on Tenrou Island nearly eight years ago, and the rest of the guild was forced out of their headquarters where it was located. During his rise to power Darius had intentionally done everything he could to avoid antagonizing any members of Fairy Tail or those immediately related to them, lest he incite the wrath of the bullshit 'power of friendship' they were prone to using.
Instead, he had spent the seven years they were asleep uniting the dark guilds under the Balam alliance, which consisted of Grimoire Heart, Oraciòn Seis, and Tartarus; and trying to process all of the information, skills, and abilities he had obtained from Laxus, Jellal, Zeref, and any others he had absorbed into himself throughout the years. Recalling the most infamous Mage in history, Darius once again thanked his lucky stars that he managed to follow Fairy Tail to Tenrou Island and find him before Zeref managed to 'awaken', as when offered a chance at death the dark Mage had readily accepted it.
His expression then darkened as Darius recalled the one being in this world that could still challenge him and everything he built, the one being who's power he desperately craved to obtain to cement his position at the top of this world. With time winding down until they left the world, and he war with Fairy Tail looming, the Dark Emperor then made his decision to cast away safety and take a large risk, a decision that made his blood start thundering through his veins in excitement.
Standing from his throne, Darius began walking towards one of the side exits while silently muttering, "Sebastian." Immediately and silently the demon butler appeared at his side, bowing respectfully before asking,
"What is it you require your Imperial Majesty?" Though Darius wasn't Sebastian's contracted 'master'(Alice), he still afforded him the utmost respect due to his position as his 'masters' emperor, and would readily follow any of his orders that didn't directly conflict with anything his 'master' would ask of him.
Not caring in particular about this, Darius commanded, "I want my airship and its crew ready to depart within the hour, along with every available weapon and defensive measure primed and ready for battle." Sebastian bowed low once more before saying,
"Of course your majesty, but what should I inform the crew that they are setting out to do?" Darius was silent for a moment before he finally answered,
"Tell them that they set sail to see the end of the single greatest threat this world has ever seen, Acnologia."
***
While the group of reincarnators were preparing to wage war and leave Earthland for good, on a certain island hidden from everyone's view except those who carried the mark of their founder, the very same group they were preparing to fight were causing a ruckus, as usual.
A stark contrast to when they first saw the island nearly eight years ago, when there were no buildings and no one lived there, now there was a semi-circle of buildings bearing the guild crests of Lamia Scale, Blue Pegasus, Mermaid Heel, and even Sabertooth, with the largest building at the head with the Fairy Tail crest on it. Though around the buildings several of their members were out sparring with each other to get stronger, within Fairy Tail's building a party was going on as a brown haired woman wearing nothing but a bikini top on the upper half of her body raised an entire barrel up, and shouted,
"LETS DRINK!" The majority of those within the guild's dining area and bar, mostly comprised of Fairy Tail members and their families along with a few members of their neighboring guilds, raised up their tankards at her words and cheered before downing their own drinks, even as the girl began downing her entire barrel. A blonde haired girl sitting at the bar smiled wryly as she said,
"Jeez, even when we're the most wanted people on two continents they still only have partying on their minds..." Even as she said this though, the girl, Lucy Heartfilia, raised her own glass slightly and downed its contents while the other girls around her giggled, before she continued, "But that's one of the best things about this guild!"
As one the other girls around her nodded their heads in agreement, their group consisting of the scarlet haired knight, 'Titania' Erza Scarlet, the white haired motherly figure of the guild as well as their poster girl, 'The Demon' Mirajane Strauss, the petite figure with long blue twin tails, 'Sky Sorceress' Wendy Marvell, and finally her ever present feline companion, the white furred Charla. As the group watched everyone else party Charla shook her head in annoyance at the noise, and said while reaching up to flatten her cat ears,
"Seriously, I'll never understand how these people can act the way they do, no matter the circ.u.mstances..." Mirajane smiled wryly at Charla's complaint, and asked as she picked up another person's tankard to clean it,
"Would you rather we all act sad and depressed? With how hard everyone's working to get stronger the least we can let them do is unwind when they come in." Charla sighed in recognition at Mirajane's words, since it would indeed be counterproductive to try and fight back against the oppression they woke up to if everyone was always depressed. Then Lucy suddenly offered,
"If you want some quiet time for a while you can come with me Charla! I'm heading to the mainland in a few days for supplies by myself, so it'll be just the two of us." Charla smiled at Lucy and said,
"Thanks for the offer, but Wendy can't go and I'd rather stay by her side." Wendy looked away awkwardly at Charla's words, since she now felt as if she was getting in the way of her closest friend getting some peace and quiet. Trying to find something else to discuss, she then asked Lucy,
"By the way Lucy, how are you going to carry all of the supplies back?" Lucy looked smug at Wendy's question, and said while she rummaged in her pocket for something,
"The guild masters already thought of that when they asked me to make the run, TADA!" She then showed them a plain looking leather bag, making Mirajane, Wendy, and Charla look at it curiously until Erza explained through her bites of strawberry cake,
"It's a spatial storage bag. They're very rare and were closely regulated by the Magic Council before they were destroyed, due to criminal organizations using them to transport large amounts of contraband." It was only then that the trio made expressions of aw while Lucy felt as if some of the wind had been taken from her sails, prompting her to return the bag to her pocket.
She then glanced around the guild hall to look for something else to focus on, noticing a she did so another small group not actively partying, her friend Levy who was sitting in Gajeel's lap as she read a book, her back resting comfortably against his chest while Gajeel tried to act uninterested in what she was reading. Glancing over at what Lucy was looking at, Mirajane smirked and asked,
"What's wrong Lucy, love troubles?" Jumping at Mirajane's question, Lucy awkwardly stuttered as a certain pink haired dragon slayer entered her mind,
"N-not a-at all! I-I was just thinking about how happy I am for Levy! Her and Gajeel look cute together." Mirajane smiled at her, before saying with a wink,
"Natsu is a bit dense, but just give it some time." Lucy's face turned almost as red as Erza's hair when she heard that, and she looked down as she began mumbling something in response to the white haired girl's teasing. Before she could properly respond though, the dragon slayer in question suddenly appeared as if he had been summoned as he eagerly ran up to Lucy and took her left hand into both of his excitedly.
"Lucy, is it true you're going to the mainland soon?!" Her heart pounding in her chest from how close Natsu was getting, along with Mirajane's earlier words bouncing around in her head, Lucy looked as if steam was coming out of her head as she stammered,
"Y-yeah I am, b-but you can't come..." Natsu was the exact opposite of the word subtle, which she needed to be. And as such it had been unanimously decided that he and his partner Happy would stay behind while Lucy went to the mainland all on her own, however he apparently had something he really needed to say to her before she left. Nodding his head in understanding at her words, Natsu said,
"Yeah I know, but I had something I really needed to say before you leave!" Once again he moved his face closer to hers, making Lucy's breathing become ragged as various ideas of what Natsu wanted to say swarm her mind. Her heart pounding in her chest, her face completely covered in a deep blush, and her breathing increasing rapidly, Lucy felt as if she might collapse as she looked away when Natsu finally opened his mouth and started saying,
"Lucy. Can. You. Please bring me back a bunch of beetles from the mainland?!"
In an instant Lucy felt as if the noise within the guild had vanished altogether at Natsu's request, while she wasn't even sure if her own heart was still beating in her chest. Slowly she turned to look back at him, before a single syllable escaped her lips,
"Eh?"
Natsu nodded energetically as he began explaining, "Yeah, can you bring back a bunch of beetles with you? Happy and I found some that seem-" Natsu then went on to explain what exactly he wanted the beetles for, but Lucy didn't hear any of it as she relived the emotional roller ouster she just went through, her free right hand beginning to clench tightly as her blood began to thunder through her body.
"-and then we want to make them battle to the death so see if the beetles from the mainland or the island are stronger, so can you Lucy?" Natsu asked once more, stars sparkling in his eyes in his obliviousness to Lucy's current state, until Happy the blue cat appeared next to him with his white feathered wings spread to fly. His paws were covering his mouth as if to keep him from laughing as he asked teasingly,
"What did you think Natsu wanted to ask you Lucy?" Lucy however didn't appear to hear this as her fist started to shake slightly, until she finally said,
"Natsu. You. Complete. DUMMYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYY!"
As she shouted Lucy then hurled her fist directly at Natsu's face, sending him flying clear across the guild and into a table at the other side. She then immediately made to leave while shouting,
"I'M NOT TALKING TO YOU ANYMORE NATSU!"
Every head moved as one as they turned to focus on the very confused Natsu, who had no idea what he had done wrong.
"What did you do this time Slamander?" Gajeel asked with an incredulous expression, before one of the older members of the guild, Macao, laughed and said,
"That's no good Natsu!" Piggybacking on his words, his long time friend Wakaba added,
"That's right, you need to treat poor Lucy better before another guy steals her." Natsu however laughed lightheartedly at their advice, and said,
"Nah, Lucy and I will always be a team!" He then stood up and quickly left the guild to apologize to Lucy, but true to her word she either avoided him or refused to speak to him even up until the day she left to go to the mainland.
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"Catch daddy!" A little girl with blond pigtails cried out as she eagerly threw a plastic ball at her father, a man with neatly trimmed matching blond hair.
The duo were playing in the backyard of their house, in the middle of a suburban area filled with other families. The man smiled widely as he retrieved the ball, and lightly tossed it back to his daughter while saying, "Here you go Stacy-Cakes!"
Putting her arms out to act as a basket, the little girl just managed to catch the ball before shouting gleefully, "I caught it daddy!"
The man laughed lightly at his daughter's excitement, and said, "Good job sweetie, a little bit more practice and you'll be a regular baseball star!" Stacy beamed at her father's praise, before she then c.o.c.ked her arm back to throw the ball again.
"Are you two having fun?" A woman's voice suddenly asked, drawing the father-daughter duo to look over and see their wife/mother approaching with a couple glasses of lemonade in her hands.
"Mommy, I'm gonna be a baseball star!" Stacy cried out as she ran up to her mother excitedly, making her pout before saying jokingly,
"Oh? I thought you were going to be my little princess?" At that moment the man picked his daughter up before saying,
"No reason why she can't be our little princess and a baseball star, right sweetie?"
"Right daddy!" The little girl cried out as she took her cup of lemonade from her mother, but then she ran off again after taking a drink to leave her parents together.
"If she becomes both then what will 'he' get to be?" His wife asked in a quiet voice jokingly, before the man gently placed his hand against her still flat abdomen and said,
"Whatever he wants to be, if it is a he." He then pulled his wife in for a kiss, both people imagining what their life will be like once they had two little munchkins running around.
***
That night the man was fast asleep next to his wife when he awoke suddenly, the scent of smoke filling his nostrils.
"Honey wake up!" He shouted urgently while putting on his slippers.
"Where's Stacy?!" His wife shouted within seconds of opening her eyes, and realizing that their room was filled with smoke.
"I'm going to find her, you get out and call for help!" He cried before rushing out the door, his only thought being to find his daughter. What greeted him was a scene as if from hell as his home burned around them, the flames spreading quickly from place to place.
"STACY!" He called out while trying not to inhale too much of the smoke, but to no avail as he desperately tried to make his way to his daughter's room.
"STACY!" He called out again when he threw her bedroom door open to find her bed empty. Immediately he went to her closet door and threw it open as well, to find his little girl curled up within and crying.
"DADDY!" She cried out when her father appeared before he took her into his arms and said,
"It's ok baby, daddy's here!"
Without a moments delay he turned and tried to find a way out of the burning house, his eyes, nose, and throat burning from the smoke and fumes. As he tried to make for the front door however, his heart stopped when he saw his wife trying to get to him, through the flames, crying out as she reached him,
"THE FRONT DOOR IS BLOCKED!"
His heart sinking at her words, the man clung to his daughter just a little bit tighter with one hand while the other grabbed his wife's arm, and he began pulling her towards the back of the house. They only got a couple steps though, before a groaning sound made him look up, just in time to see a portion of the burning ceiling collapse onto all three of them.
***
"!"
Suddenly a man with jet black hair bolted up in his bed, breathing deeply as he tried to catch his breath after the intense dream/memory. The scent of smoke still being strong in his nose, the taste of ash in his mouth. The man recalled every detail of the night he had died alongside his wife, daughter, and unborn child, just like he had almost every night ever since he had reincarnated over twenty years ago.
Slowly he reached over and opened a drawer in his nightstand before pulling a wallet sized painting, showing the man, woman, and child in his dream almost as perfectly detailed as a modern picture. Gently, he ran a finger over the image, longing to feel the warmth of wife at his side, to hear his daughter's infectious laugh just one last time. It wasn't until the first rays of sunlight started creeping through his window, illuminating his grand bedroom, that he finally muttered,
"No matter how long, or what I have to do, I will see you again...." Eventually he put the painting away, and began preparing for the day.
Meanwhile, down in the dining room, a couple of guys were silently munching on some breakfast while they waited for their companions to show up. One was rather burly while his head was completely devoid of hair, and he had two katanas strapped to his waist even as he ate. The other was young black haired man with Japanese features, who could have been considered good looking until he opened his mouth.
Silently the duo picked at their breakfast, with the only thing happening being when the Japanese looking boy occasionally picked up a piece of bacon or sausage, and tossed it to a eerie looking black dog with glowing red eyes, that looked to be just barely out of its puppy faze. Next to it was a brilliant golden battle axe, and a divine white lance that were leaning against the wall, all waiting for when their master needed them.
"Good morning!" A woman suddenly called out as she entered the dining hall, causing both men to look at her before they both scowled at her appearance. She was amazingly beautiful to look at despite her incredibly messy long black hair and the magic circle that was carved into her eye, but she also only wore a mere t-shirt to breakfast without caring at all that she was flashing her precious place to everyone present.
Without minding that no one returned her morning greetings, the woman strolled on to her seat at the long table while a serious looking butler followed her every step, every single one of them pointedly trying not to look at her exposed ass due to her monkey tail lifting the back of her shirt. Smirking knowingly at their discomfort, the girl then made a show of bending over as if to straighten out her chair before she eventually sat down.
"You know," she began with grin spreading on her lips, "I don't mind if you look, or if you want you can even touch~" As she trailed off the woman started lifting the bottom of her shirt teasingly, just until enough of her b.r.e.a.s.t was exposed that they could barely see the pink edge of her a.r.e.o.l.a. She was just about to go the full mile and take her shirt off in order to be entirely n.a.k.e.d, when a new voice suddenly stated,
"We don't need this kind of vulgarity at the breakfast table, so knock it off." In an instant all three of the people at the table rose, and bowed respectfully to the newcomer, while also saying,
""""Greetings to the Dark Emperor Darius!""""
Silently waving them down, the man who was called the 'Dark Emperor' took his seat at the head of the table, before he began eating his own breakfast as the woman's butler, Sebastian, set his plate for him. It was only after Darius took several bites of his food that he said,
"We need to start preparing for the next reincarnators who come here." There was silence at his words, before the Japanese looking boy, Hyato, asked,
"Why bother? It's not as if we're going to stay much longer anyways." Darius just gave Hyato a deadpan look, before sighing and explaining,
"Because, every reincarnator we recruit to our ranks will increase our overall strength drastically, and it's always when a plan is about to be put into motion that 'fate' decides to intervene." The rest of those present were silent as they contemplated the truth in their Emperor's words, as in every single move, book, or any other story an 'antagonist's' plans were almost always unmolested up until the last possible moment, and none of them doubted that they were the antagonists in this world.
It was natural since they followed Darius, who ruled over every single dark and mercenary guild on Earthland, along with the Alvarez Empire, with an iron fist, while simultaneously driving all of the 'good' Mage guilds into hiding. Even though most of that had been before any of them arrived, each of the other reincarnators had done their part to help Darius wipe out any of the opposing Mage guilds they could find, along with any who resisted them.
Though usually none of them would stoop to becoming genuine 'villains', Hyato especially saw this as a chance to grind on levels as he prepared for the day he finally found and destroyed the 'fake' Red Dragon Emperor, and saved his 'waifu' from him. Now he had five Longinus sacred gears that he'd been working hard on mastering, and was working on trying to acquire Zenith Tempest as his sixth.
As for the others, all the Saiyan girl, Alice, cared about was collecting more cute boys for her reverse harem, which she was after Natsu and Gray specifically for this world; and the bald guy, Calvin, was more or less simply along for the ride, and had no problem with whatever plans they came up with. As for Darius, his only goal was to see his wife and daughter once again, and had long since decided that he would do whatever it took to do so, no matter how horrible or heinous. And so, he then continued,
"Now then, Calvin I want you coordinating with the leaders of the dark guilds to make sure they're gathered and ready to go when the time comes. Alice, I want you making arrangements here to make sure everyone can fit onto the Hanging Gardens, and that all of the offensive and defensive systems are operational. Paul, I want you-"
"Uhhhhh, he's not here yet...." Calvin suddenly interrupted, making everyone go silent until a new voice suddenly said,
"Yes I am, please continue your majesty." Everyone except Darius jumped at the sound of Paul's voice, even as he simply continued eating as if nothing had happened.
"When the f.u.c.k did you get here you creepy f.u.c.ker?!" Alice demanded harshly, making Paul look at her weirdly before sighing and saying,
"I was actually the first one here you know. It's not my fault none of you can see me before I speak up, which I did when we greeted his majesty earlier." When he said that Hyato, Alice, and Calvin all got weird looks on their faces as they tried to recall wether or not Paul did greet Darius along with them, while the man in question said to their emperor, "I apologize on their behalf your majesty, please continue."
Snorting at Paul's 'apology', Darius then continued, "Anyways, Paul I want your informants scouring the cities for any word of potential reincarnators and members of Fairy Tail. The last thing we need is any of them getting the drop on us right before we depart this world for good."
As he finished speaking Darius went back to eating a few bites of his meal, making Hyato look around awkwardly before hesitantly asking, "Um, what about me?" Darius looked up at him and stopped chewing his food, before saying,
"I was waiting until after breakfast, but we might as well go over this now. Sebastian, can you go and-" Darius's voice then dropped in volume as he gave the demonic butler his request, to which he bowed deeply and replied,
"At once your imperial majesty." He then left them alone to carry out his instructions, making Hyato awkwardly sit there as he wondered if he should ask Darius what Sebastian was doing.
Thankfully it didn't take long until the butler returned, with three other people following behind him. Stepping to the side to make way for them, he then called out,
"Presenting the guild master of the Grimoire Heart guild, Hades, as well as two of his companions, Zancrow and Rustyrose of the Seven Kin of Purgatory." At the front of the trio was a tall elderly looking man with long grey hair that matched his mustache and beard, along with an eyepatch covering his right eye, making him look more like an Odin than Hades.
Behind him and to his right was a man with long and crazy blond hair that reached down to his waist, coupled with a psychotic grin and insane red eyes. Standing opposite him though was tall and lanky man with disheveled silver hair and matching tired looking eyes.
After being introduced the trio bowed to Darius respectfully, but when they righted themselves there was undisguised hostility in Zancrow and Ristyrose's eyes at they looked upon the Dark Emperor. Hades however was the very image of composure, as he asked respectfully,
"To what do I owe this honor your majesty?" Darius took another bite of his food before saying to him,
"You and Grimoire Heart are to prepare for another trip to Tenrou Island, where you will wipe out Fairy Tail and the rest of the guilds they've provided sanctuary to for good." There was a stunned silence at his decree, before Zancrow angrily demanded,
"Hey! Why the hell would we need to go back there?!"
"Zancrow!" Hades shouted as he tried to get his unruly companion under control before he offended Darius too much, but then another voice demanded from his other side,
"We barely managed to escape there once after facing off against a portion of their guild, what makes you think this time will be any different now that they've allied with every guild they could find?!" Again Hades was about to tell off Rustyrose for his rudeness, but before he could Darius spoke up,
"Because this time the attack will be led by Hyato, he just needs Hades's Fairy Tail guild mark to find the island. And your goal from the beginning this time will be to exterminate every single person on that island, no matter the means." Once again a stunned silence descended upon the room, before Hyato shakily asked,
"Me?" Darius nodded and stated,
"Yes you, you want to acquire more experience for more of your 'Sacred Gears' do you not? This is the perfect chance to do so. Plus these buffoons would screw it all up again if we sent them by themselves." While Hyato once again was too stunned to speak, someone else was so furious that they finally blew a gasket.
"How's this for a 'buffoon'?!" Zancrow suddenly asked, before he leapt into the air towards Darius while taking in a deep breath.
What happened was almost instantaneous, as when Zancrow's left foot hit the bare stone ground a shockwave indiscernible to everyone present except one was transmitted through the floor. Then, when the heel of his right foot collided with the ground slightly ahead of his left foot to attack, Calvin suddenly flicked his wrist and Zancrow's right foot when spinning as the ground beneath him moved, spreading his legs into an involuntarily split.
"AWOOOOOOOOOOO!!!" Zancrow howled from the pain he felt in his loins, even before Calvin then tapped his foot lightly against the stone floor beneath him, and made a small pillar of stone shoot up right between his legs. The sound that came from his throat then was deafening as Alice leapt to her feet and shouted,
"You bastard Calvin! He was a really good f.u.c.k too!" Calvin snorted at her protests to what he did to Zancrow, but, before either of them could react, Rustyrose suddenly leapt forward and shouted while thrusting his arms in front of him,
"You bastards!" His hands and arms then grew and elongated into a series of large tentacles, making Alice's face light up as she exclaimed happily,
"I finally get to experience tentacle play?!" But sadly for her it never happened, as a series of golden chains suddenly appeared from the void, snaking their way around the mass of tentacles rushing towards them before wrapping around Rustyrose's body. Slowly, everyone turned to see Darius standing with his hand raised slightly, a dark expression on his face as he slowly said,
"That is enough." In an instant everyone was seated once more while Hades lowered his head to him respectfully. Darius however kept his gaze locked directly onto Rustyrose as if he was thinking of something, before finally saying,
"I understand that your guild has awaited the chance to serve Zeref, and after being the one responsible for his demise I tried to keep this into consideration. However, with our plans being so close to bearing fruit I will not overlook such blatant disregard for my position, and as such will make an example for the rest of your guild." When they heard the last part of Darius's declaration Rustyrose and Hades both paled, even as he started pulling the former towards him.
"P-please forgive me! I-I was hasty after seeing my comrade beaten, I'll never do it again!" His pleas fell on deaf ears though as Darius continued pulling him closer, until they were a mere three feet apart, and he calmly said,
"Look into my eyes Rustyrose." Despite very fiber of his being telling him not to, Rustyrose couldn't help but to crack opened one of his tightly shut eyes, only to get completely drawn into Darius's pitch black irises.
Though it was fair amount of time longer from the perspective of Darius and Rustyrose, to those watching less than a second had passed before they either blinked or their eye just barely twitched, and Rustyrose had completely vanished. Meanwhile Darius hadn't even moved an inch, before started shuddering with his eyes firmly shut.
"So that's what Arc of Embodiment is..." He muttered as his mind began processing as much of the information he had retrieved from Rustyrose as possible.
Hades sighed as he watched one of his own men disappear right before his eyes, a series of conflicting emotions surging through him. Though usually he wouldn't feel anything to see one of his comrades defeated, the manner in which Darius dealt with Rustyrose honestly terrified him.
Typically if one served a person who could be considered dangerous you would be afforded a certain level of 'protection' depending on what you were able to do, or the knowledge you possessed. With Darius there was no such protection. If you had done something to earn his ire, he would erase you and take all of your knowledge and power for himself before appointing someone else to take your place. He had done this with several of those who had stood in his way, including Markarov's grandson Laxus, the fallen follower of Zeref, Jellal, and even as far as the dark Mage who had singlehandedly plunged the world into chaos with his creations, Zeref himself.
Though he was terrified of what Darius was capable of, Hades was full of awe of it at the same time. Darius had promised him a life of being able to see magics and powers none in this world had ever seen before, along with the tools and equipment needed to be able to research them. It was for this reason that Hades cowed beneath Darius's rule, that he did everything he could to avoid earning his emperor's ire, lest he be the next to be absorbed into his existence.
As he finished processing most of the recent information he obtained from Rustyrose, Darius sat back at his seat and asked,
"Any more problems?" As could be expected Hades solemnly shook his head at his question, before Darius gestured to Hyato and continued, "Very well then, Hyato the floor is yours as the one leading the attack on Tenrou Island."
There was a stretch of silence as the Dark Emperor then continued eating his meal, as if what they were discussing no longer hand anything to do with him. Slowly Hyato stood from his own seat, before he focused his gaze on Hades and the still unconscious Zancrow. Eventually he said,
"Muster all of the guilds that operate under Grimoire Heart, and have them prepare to travel to Tenrou Island. I want the full might that you can offer to leave the smallest possible margin for error in our mission." Hades looked confused at his words, and asked,
"Is that not overkill for a simple handful of Mage guilds?" Hyato shook his head and stated firmly,
"They are people with 'fate' on their side, if we don't hit them with everything we have all at once then they'll gradually become as powerful as needed to defeat us. If we let that happen then even our emperor will end up losing to them." Hades's one eye widened in shock that Hyato would disrespect their emperor in such a way, but when he glanced towards Darius to gauge his reaction, he was even more shocked to find him nodding slightly in agreement.
Though he didn't know what Hyato meant by 'fate' being on Fairy Tail's side, Hades added it to the ever growing list of things he needed to research as he inclined his head towards Hyato and said, "Very well, it will take a few weeks to contact and mobilize every single guild under us, but it will be done as soon as possible."
Hyato nodded in affirmation as he seated himself once more, and Hades swiftly left to spread the word to his subordinates. It wasn't until he left that Hyato let out the breath he had unintentionally been holding, and Alice mockingly said,
"Wow, for a second there I almost thought I was looking at real man instead of a stupid little v.i.r.g.i.n boy~." Hyato shot a look at her before saying,
"Shut up you worthless Saiyan s.l.u.t, don't you have a bouquet of c.o.c.ks to gargle somewhere?" Though most women would be offended at being asked such a thing, Alice instead started drooling slightly as she recalled doing exactly that the night before. Her expression made all four of the men present cringe in disgust, before Darius ultimately stood up and said,
"I've lost my appetite. If anyone needs me I'll be in the throne room." He then left the four other reincarnators to their meal, and made his way to the grand throne room at the center of the Hanging Gardens.
Though the Gardens had appeared with its own original design, Darius had reworked the majority of the interior to better suit his tastes and position as the 'Dark Emperor'. As such there were black banners and tapestries hanging from the ceiling and walls, while the throne itself looked to be carved from a type of black marble that seemed to draw in all of the light around it. If one thing stood out in the throne room, it was the giant crystal that sat behind the throne itself, containing the preserved body of the founder and first guild master of Fairy Tail, Mavis Vermillion herself.
He had acquired Mavis's body shortly after the main group of Fairy Tail disappeared on Tenrou Island nearly eight years ago, and the rest of the guild was forced out of their headquarters where it was located. During his rise to power Darius had intentionally done everything he could to avoid antagonizing any members of Fairy Tail or those immediately related to them, lest he incite the wrath of the bullshit 'power of friendship' they were prone to using.
Instead, he had spent the seven years they were asleep uniting the dark guilds under the Balam alliance, which consisted of Grimoire Heart, Oraciòn Seis, and Tartarus; and trying to process all of the information, skills, and abilities he had obtained from Laxus, Jellal, Zeref, and any others he had absorbed into himself throughout the years. Recalling the most infamous Mage in history, Darius once again thanked his lucky stars that he managed to follow Fairy Tail to Tenrou Island and find him before Zeref managed to 'awaken', as when offered a chance at death the dark Mage had readily accepted it.
His expression then darkened as Darius recalled the one being in this world that could still challenge him and everything he built, the one being who's power he desperately craved to obtain to cement his position at the top of this world. With time winding down until they left the world, and he war with Fairy Tail looming, the Dark Emperor then made his decision to cast away safety and take a large risk, a decision that made his blood start thundering through his veins in excitement.
Standing from his throne, Darius began walking towards one of the side exits while silently muttering, "Sebastian." Immediately and silently the demon butler appeared at his side, bowing respectfully before asking,
"What is it you require your Imperial Majesty?" Though Darius wasn't Sebastian's contracted 'master'(Alice), he still afforded him the utmost respect due to his position as his 'masters' emperor, and would readily follow any of his orders that didn't directly conflict with anything his 'master' would ask of him.
Not caring in particular about this, Darius commanded, "I want my airship and its crew ready to depart within the hour, along with every available weapon and defensive measure primed and ready for battle." Sebastian bowed low once more before saying,
"Of course your majesty, but what should I inform the crew that they are setting out to do?" Darius was silent for a moment before he finally answered,
"Tell them that they set sail to see the end of the single greatest threat this world has ever seen, Acnologia."
***
While the group of reincarnators were preparing to wage war and leave Earthland for good, on a certain island hidden from everyone's view except those who carried the mark of their founder, the very same group they were preparing to fight were causing a ruckus, as usual.
A stark contrast to when they first saw the island nearly eight years ago, when there were no buildings and no one lived there, now there was a semi-circle of buildings bearing the guild crests of Lamia Scale, Blue Pegasus, Mermaid Heel, and even Sabertooth, with the largest building at the head with the Fairy Tail crest on it. Though around the buildings several of their members were out sparring with each other to get stronger, within Fairy Tail's building a party was going on as a brown haired woman wearing nothing but a bikini top on the upper half of her body raised an entire barrel up, and shouted,
"LETS DRINK!" The majority of those within the guild's dining area and bar, mostly comprised of Fairy Tail members and their families along with a few members of their neighboring guilds, raised up their tankards at her words and cheered before downing their own drinks, even as the girl began downing her entire barrel. A blonde haired girl sitting at the bar smiled wryly as she said,
"Jeez, even when we're the most wanted people on two continents they still only have partying on their minds..." Even as she said this though, the girl, Lucy Heartfilia, raised her own glass slightly and downed its contents while the other girls around her giggled, before she continued, "But that's one of the best things about this guild!"
As one the other girls around her nodded their heads in agreement, their group consisting of the scarlet haired knight, 'Titania' Erza Scarlet, the white haired motherly figure of the guild as well as their poster girl, 'The Demon' Mirajane Strauss, the petite figure with long blue twin tails, 'Sky Sorceress' Wendy Marvell, and finally her ever present feline companion, the white furred Charla. As the group watched everyone else party Charla shook her head in annoyance at the noise, and said while reaching up to flatten her cat ears,
"Seriously, I'll never understand how these people can act the way they do, no matter the circ.u.mstances..." Mirajane smiled wryly at Charla's complaint, and asked as she picked up another person's tankard to clean it,
"Would you rather we all act sad and depressed? With how hard everyone's working to get stronger the least we can let them do is unwind when they come in." Charla sighed in recognition at Mirajane's words, since it would indeed be counterproductive to try and fight back against the oppression they woke up to if everyone was always depressed. Then Lucy suddenly offered,
"If you want some quiet time for a while you can come with me Charla! I'm heading to the mainland in a few days for supplies by myself, so it'll be just the two of us." Charla smiled at Lucy and said,
"Thanks for the offer, but Wendy can't go and I'd rather stay by her side." Wendy looked away awkwardly at Charla's words, since she now felt as if she was getting in the way of her closest friend getting some peace and quiet. Trying to find something else to discuss, she then asked Lucy,
"By the way Lucy, how are you going to carry all of the supplies back?" Lucy looked smug at Wendy's question, and said while she rummaged in her pocket for something,
"The guild masters already thought of that when they asked me to make the run, TADA!" She then showed them a plain looking leather bag, making Mirajane, Wendy, and Charla look at it curiously until Erza explained through her bites of strawberry cake,
"It's a spatial storage bag. They're very rare and were closely regulated by the Magic Council before they were destroyed, due to criminal organizations using them to transport large amounts of contraband." It was only then that the trio made expressions of aw while Lucy felt as if some of the wind had been taken from her sails, prompting her to return the bag to her pocket.
She then glanced around the guild hall to look for something else to focus on, noticing a she did so another small group not actively partying, her friend Levy who was sitting in Gajeel's lap as she read a book, her back resting comfortably against his chest while Gajeel tried to act uninterested in what she was reading. Glancing over at what Lucy was looking at, Mirajane smirked and asked,
"What's wrong Lucy, love troubles?" Jumping at Mirajane's question, Lucy awkwardly stuttered as a certain pink haired dragon slayer entered her mind,
"N-not a-at all! I-I was just thinking about how happy I am for Levy! Her and Gajeel look cute together." Mirajane smiled at her, before saying with a wink,
"Natsu is a bit dense, but just give it some time." Lucy's face turned almost as red as Erza's hair when she heard that, and she looked down as she began mumbling something in response to the white haired girl's teasing. Before she could properly respond though, the dragon slayer in question suddenly appeared as if he had been summoned as he eagerly ran up to Lucy and took her left hand into both of his excitedly.
"Lucy, is it true you're going to the mainland soon?!" Her heart pounding in her chest from how close Natsu was getting, along with Mirajane's earlier words bouncing around in her head, Lucy looked as if steam was coming out of her head as she stammered,
"Y-yeah I am, b-but you can't come..." Natsu was the exact opposite of the word subtle, which she needed to be. And as such it had been unanimously decided that he and his partner Happy would stay behind while Lucy went to the mainland all on her own, however he apparently had something he really needed to say to her before she left. Nodding his head in understanding at her words, Natsu said,
"Yeah I know, but I had something I really needed to say before you leave!" Once again he moved his face closer to hers, making Lucy's breathing become ragged as various ideas of what Natsu wanted to say swarm her mind. Her heart pounding in her chest, her face completely covered in a deep blush, and her breathing increasing rapidly, Lucy felt as if she might collapse as she looked away when Natsu finally opened his mouth and started saying,
"Lucy. Can. You. Please bring me back a bunch of beetles from the mainland?!"
In an instant Lucy felt as if the noise within the guild had vanished altogether at Natsu's request, while she wasn't even sure if her own heart was still beating in her chest. Slowly she turned to look back at him, before a single syllable escaped her lips,
"Eh?"
Natsu nodded energetically as he began explaining, "Yeah, can you bring back a bunch of beetles with you? Happy and I found some that seem-" Natsu then went on to explain what exactly he wanted the beetles for, but Lucy didn't hear any of it as she relived the emotional roller ouster she just went through, her free right hand beginning to clench tightly as her blood began to thunder through her body.
"-and then we want to make them battle to the death so see if the beetles from the mainland or the island are stronger, so can you Lucy?" Natsu asked once more, stars sparkling in his eyes in his obliviousness to Lucy's current state, until Happy the blue cat appeared next to him with his white feathered wings spread to fly. His paws were covering his mouth as if to keep him from laughing as he asked teasingly,
"What did you think Natsu wanted to ask you Lucy?" Lucy however didn't appear to hear this as her fist started to shake slightly, until she finally said,
"Natsu. You. Complete. DUMMYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYY!"
As she shouted Lucy then hurled her fist directly at Natsu's face, sending him flying clear across the guild and into a table at the other side. She then immediately made to leave while shouting,
"I'M NOT TALKING TO YOU ANYMORE NATSU!"
Every head moved as one as they turned to focus on the very confused Natsu, who had no idea what he had done wrong.
"What did you do this time Slamander?" Gajeel asked with an incredulous expression, before one of the older members of the guild, Macao, laughed and said,
"That's no good Natsu!" Piggybacking on his words, his long time friend Wakaba added,
"That's right, you need to treat poor Lucy better before another guy steals her." Natsu however laughed lightheartedly at their advice, and said,
"Nah, Lucy and I will always be a team!" He then stood up and quickly left the guild to apologize to Lucy, but true to her word she either avoided him or refused to speak to him even up until the day she left to go to the mainland.
"Catch daddy!" A little girl with blond pigtails cried out as she eagerly threw a plastic ball at her father, a man with neatly trimmed matching blond hair. The duo were playing in the backyard of their house, in the middle of a suburban area filled with other families. The man smiled widely as he retrieved the ball, and lightly tossed it back to his daughter while saying, "Here you go Stacy-Cakes!" Putting her arms out to act as a basket, the little girl just managed to catch the ball before shouting gleefully, "I caught it daddy!" The man laughed lightly at his daughter's excitement, and said, "Good job sweetie, a little bit more practice and you'll be a regular baseball star!" Stacy beamed at her father's praise, before she then c.o.c.ked her arm back to throw the ball again. "Are you two having fun?" A woman's voice suddenly asked, drawing the father-daughter duo to look over and see their wife/mother approaching with a couple glasses of lemonade in her hands. "Mommy, I'm gonna be a baseball star!" Stacy cried out as she ran up to her mother excitedly, making her pout before saying jokingly, "Oh? I thought you were going to be my little princess?" At that moment the man picked his daughter up before saying, "No reason why she can't be our little princess and a baseball star, right sweetie?" "Right daddy!" The little girl cried out as she took her cup of lemonade from her mother, but then she ran off again after taking a drink to leave her parents together. "If she becomes both then what will 'he' get to be?" His wife asked in a quiet voice jokingly, before the man gently placed his hand against her still flat abdomen and said, "Whatever he wants to be, if it is a he." He then pulled his wife in for a kiss, both people imagining what their life will be like once they had two little munchkins running around. *** That night the man was fast asleep next to his wife when he awoke suddenly, the scent of smoke filling his nostrils. "Honey wake up!" He shouted urgently while putting on his slippers. "Where's Stacy?!" His wife shouted within seconds of opening her eyes, and realizing that their room was filled with smoke. "I'm going to find her, you get out and call for help!" He cried before rushing out the door, his only thought being to find his daughter. What greeted him was a scene as if from hell as his home burned around them, the flames spreading quickly from place to place. "STACY!" He called out while trying not to inhale too much of the smoke, but to no avail as he desperately tried to make his way to his daughter's room. "STACY!" He called out again when he threw her bedroom door open to find her bed empty. Immediately he went to her closet door and threw it open as well, to find his little girl curled up within and crying. "DADDY!" She cried out when her father appeared before he took her into his arms and said, "It's ok baby, daddy's here!" Without a moments delay he turned and tried to find a way out of the burning house, his eyes, nose, and throat burning from the smoke and fumes. As he tried to make for the front door however, his heart stopped when he saw his wife trying to get to him, through the flames, crying out as she reached him, "THE FRONT DOOR IS BLOCKED!" His heart sinking at her words, the man clung to his daughter just a little bit tighter with one hand while the other grabbed his wife's arm, and he began pulling her towards the back of the house. They only got a couple steps though, before a groaning sound made him look up, just in time to see a portion of the burning ceiling collapse onto all three of them. *** "!" Suddenly a man with jet black hair bolted up in his bed, breathing deeply as he tried to catch his breath after the intense dream/memory. The scent of smoke still being strong in his nose, the taste of ash in his mouth. The man recalled every detail of the night he had died alongside his wife, daughter, and unborn child, just like he had almost every night ever since he had reincarnated over twenty years ago. Slowly he reached over and opened a drawer in his nightstand before pulling a wallet sized painting, showing the man, woman, and child in his dream almost as perfectly detailed as a modern picture. Gently, he ran a finger over the image, longing to feel the warmth of wife at his side, to hear his daughter's infectious laugh just one last time. It wasn't until the first rays of sunlight started creeping through his window, illuminating his grand bedroom, that he finally muttered, "No matter how long, or what I have to do, I will see you again...." Eventually he put the painting away, and began preparing for the day. Meanwhile, down in the dining room, a couple of guys were silently munching on some breakfast while they waited for their companions to show up. One was rather burly while his head was completely devoid of hair, and he had two katanas strapped to his waist even as he ate. The other was young black haired man with Japanese features, who could have been considered good looking until he opened his mouth. Silently the duo picked at their breakfast, with the only thing happening being when the Japanese looking boy occasionally picked up a piece of bacon or sausage, and tossed it to a eerie looking black dog with glowing red eyes, that looked to be just barely out of its puppy faze. Next to it was a brilliant golden battle axe, and a divine white lance that were leaning against the wall, all waiting for when their master needed them. "Good morning!" A woman suddenly called out as she entered the dining hall, causing both men to look at her before they both scowled at her appearance. She was amazingly beautiful to look at despite her incredibly messy long black hair and the magic circle that was carved into her eye, but she also only wore a mere t-shirt to breakfast without caring at all that she was flashing her precious place to everyone present. Without minding that no one returned her morning greetings, the woman strolled on to her seat at the long table while a serious looking butler followed her every step, every single one of them pointedly trying not to look at her exposed ass due to her monkey tail lifting the back of her shirt. Smirking knowingly at their discomfort, the girl then made a show of bending over as if to straighten out her chair before she eventually sat down. "You know," she began with grin spreading on her lips, "I don't mind if you look, or if you want you can even touch~" As she trailed off the woman started lifting the bottom of her shirt teasingly, just until enough of her b.r.e.a.s.t was exposed that they could barely see the pink edge of her a.r.e.o.l.a. She was just about to go the full mile and take her shirt off in order to be entirely n.a.k.e.d, when a new voice suddenly stated, "We don't need this kind of vulgarity at the breakfast table, so knock it off." In an instant all three of the people at the table rose, and bowed respectfully to the newcomer, while also saying, """"Greetings to the Dark Emperor Darius!"""" Silently waving them down, the man who was called the 'Dark Emperor' took his seat at the head of the table, before he began eating his own breakfast as the woman's butler, Sebastian, set his plate for him. It was only after Darius took several bites of his food that he said, "We need to start preparing for the next reincarnators who come here." There was silence at his words, before the Japanese looking boy, Hyato, asked, "Why bother? It's not as if we're going to stay much longer anyways." Darius just gave Hyato a deadpan look, before sighing and explaining, "Because, every reincarnator we recruit to our ranks will increase our overall strength drastically, and it's always when a plan is about to be put into motion that 'fate' decides to intervene." The rest of those present were silent as they contemplated the truth in their Emperor's words, as in every single move, book, or any other story an 'antagonist's' plans were almost always unmolested up until the last possible moment, and none of them doubted that they were the antagonists in this world. It was natural since they followed Darius, who ruled over every single dark and mercenary guild on Earthland, along with the Alvarez Empire, with an iron fist, while simultaneously driving all of the 'good' Mage guilds into hiding. Even though most of that had been before any of them arrived, each of the other reincarnators had done their part to help Darius wipe out any of the opposing Mage guilds they could find, along with any who resisted them. Though usually none of them would stoop to becoming genuine 'villains', Hyato especially saw this as a chance to grind on levels as he prepared for the day he finally found and destroyed the 'fake' Red Dragon Emperor, and saved his 'waifu' from him. Now he had five Longinus sacred gears that he'd been working hard on mastering, and was working on trying to acquire Zenith Tempest as his sixth. As for the others, all the Saiyan girl, Alice, cared about was collecting more cute boys for her reverse harem, which she was after Natsu and Gray specifically for this world; and the bald guy, Calvin, was more or less simply along for the ride, and had no problem with whatever plans they came up with. As for Darius, his only goal was to see his wife and daughter once again, and had long since decided that he would do whatever it took to do so, no matter how horrible or heinous. And so, he then continued, "Now then, Calvin I want you coordinating with the leaders of the dark guilds to make sure they're gathered and ready to go when the time comes. Alice, I want you making arrangements here to make sure everyone can fit onto the Hanging Gardens, and that all of the offensive and defensive systems are operational. Paul, I want you-" "Uhhhhh, he's not here yet...." Calvin suddenly interrupted, making everyone go silent until a new voice suddenly said, "Yes I am, please continue your majesty." Everyone except Darius jumped at the sound of Paul's voice, even as he simply continued eating as if nothing had happened. "When the f.u.c.k did you get here you creepy f.u.c.ker?!" Alice demanded harshly, making Paul look at her weirdly before sighing and saying, "I was actually the first one here you know. It's not my fault none of you can see me before I speak up, which I did when we greeted his majesty earlier." When he said that Hyato, Alice, and Calvin all got weird looks on their faces as they tried to recall wether or not Paul did greet Darius along with them, while the man in question said to their emperor, "I apologize on their behalf your majesty, please continue." Snorting at Paul's 'apology', Darius then continued, "Anyways, Paul I want your informants scouring the cities for any word of potential reincarnators and members of Fairy Tail. The last thing we need is any of them getting the drop on us right before we depart this world for good." As he finished speaking Darius went back to eating a few bites of his meal, making Hyato look around awkwardly before hesitantly asking, "Um, what about me?" Darius looked up at him and stopped chewing his food, before saying, "I was waiting until after breakfast, but we might as well go over this now. Sebastian, can you go and-" Darius's voice then dropped in volume as he gave the demonic butler his request, to which he bowed deeply and replied, "At once your imperial majesty." He then left them alone to carry out his instructions, making Hyato awkwardly sit there as he wondered if he should ask Darius what Sebastian was doing. Thankfully it didn't take long until the butler returned, with three other people following behind him. Stepping to the side to make way for them, he then called out, "Presenting the guild master of the Grimoire Heart guild, Hades, as well as two of his companions, Zancrow and Rustyrose of the Seven Kin of Purgatory." At the front of the trio was a tall elderly looking man with long grey hair that matched his mustache and beard, along with an eyepatch covering his right eye, making him look more like an Odin than Hades. Behind him and to his right was a man with long and crazy blond hair that reached down to his waist, coupled with a psychotic grin and insane red eyes. Standing opposite him though was tall and lanky man with disheveled silver hair and matching tired looking eyes. After being introduced the trio bowed to Darius respectfully, but when they righted themselves there was undisguised hostility in Zancrow and Ristyrose's eyes at they looked upon the Dark Emperor. Hades however was the very image of composure, as he asked respectfully, "To what do I owe this honor your majesty?" Darius took another bite of his food before saying to him, "You and Grimoire Heart are to prepare for another trip to Tenrou Island, where you will wipe out Fairy Tail and the rest of the guilds they've provided sanctuary to for good." There was a stunned silence at his decree, before Zancrow angrily demanded, "Hey! Why the hell would we need to go back there?!" "Zancrow!" Hades shouted as he tried to get his unruly companion under control before he offended Darius too much, but then another voice demanded from his other side, "We barely managed to escape there once after facing off against a portion of their guild, what makes you think this time will be any different now that they've allied with every guild they could find?!" Again Hades was about to tell off Rustyrose for his rudeness, but before he could Darius spoke up, "Because this time the attack will be led by Hyato, he just needs Hades's Fairy Tail guild mark to find the island. And your goal from the beginning this time will be to exterminate every single person on that island, no matter the means." Once again a stunned silence descended upon the room, before Hyato shakily asked, "Me?" Darius nodded and stated, "Yes you, you want to acquire more experience for more of your 'Sacred Gears' do you not? This is the perfect chance to do so. Plus these buffoons would screw it all up again if we sent them by themselves." While Hyato once again was too stunned to speak, someone else was so furious that they finally blew a gasket. "How's this for a 'buffoon'?!" Zancrow suddenly asked, before he leapt into the air towards Darius while taking in a deep breath. What happened was almost instantaneous, as when Zancrow's left foot hit the bare stone ground a shockwave indiscernible to everyone present except one was transmitted through the floor. Then, when the heel of his right foot collided with the ground slightly ahead of his left foot to attack, Calvin suddenly flicked his wrist and Zancrow's right foot when spinning as the ground beneath him moved, spreading his legs into an involuntarily split. "AWOOOOOOOOOOO!!!" Zancrow howled from the pain he felt in his loins, even before Calvin then tapped his foot lightly against the stone floor beneath him, and made a small pillar of stone shoot up right between his legs. The sound that came from his throat then was deafening as Alice leapt to her feet and shouted, "You bastard Calvin! He was a really good f.u.c.k too!" Calvin snorted at her protests to what he did to Zancrow, but, before either of them could react, Rustyrose suddenly leapt forward and shouted while thrusting his arms in front of him, "You bastards!" His hands and arms then grew and elongated into a series of large tentacles, making Alice's face light up as she exclaimed happily, "I finally get to experience tentacle play?!" But sadly for her it never happened, as a series of golden chains suddenly appeared from the void, snaking their way around the mass of tentacles rushing towards them before wrapping around Rustyrose's body. Slowly, everyone turned to see Darius standing with his hand raised slightly, a dark expression on his face as he slowly said, "That is enough." In an instant everyone was seated once more while Hades lowered his head to him respectfully. Darius however kept his gaze locked directly onto Rustyrose as if he was thinking of something, before finally saying, "I understand that your guild has awaited the chance to serve Zeref, and after being the one responsible for his demise I tried to keep this into consideration. However, with our plans being so close to bearing fruit I will not overlook such blatant disregard for my position, and as such will make an example for the rest of your guild." When they heard the last part of Darius's declaration Rustyrose and Hades both paled, even as he started pulling the former towards him. "P-please forgive me! I-I was hasty after seeing my comrade beaten, I'll never do it again!" His pleas fell on deaf ears though as Darius continued pulling him closer, until they were a mere three feet apart, and he calmly said, "Look into my eyes Rustyrose." Despite very fiber of his being telling him not to, Rustyrose couldn't help but to crack opened one of his tightly shut eyes, only to get completely drawn into Darius's pitch black irises. Though it was fair amount of time longer from the perspective of Darius and Rustyrose, to those watching less than a second had passed before they either blinked or their eye just barely twitched, and Rustyrose had completely vanished. Meanwhile Darius hadn't even moved an inch, before started shuddering with his eyes firmly shut. "So that's what Arc of Embodiment is..." He muttered as his mind began processing as much of the information he had retrieved from Rustyrose as possible. Hades sighed as he watched one of his own men disappear right before his eyes, a series of conflicting emotions surging through him. Though usually he wouldn't feel anything to see one of his comrades defeated, the manner in which Darius dealt with Rustyrose honestly terrified him. Typically if one served a person who could be considered dangerous you would be afforded a certain level of 'protection' depending on what you were able to do, or the knowledge you possessed. With Darius there was no such protection. If you had done something to earn his ire, he would erase you and take all of your knowledge and power for himself before appointing someone else to take your place. He had done this with several of those who had stood in his way, including Markarov's grandson Laxus, the fallen follower of Zeref, Jellal, and even as far as the dark Mage who had singlehandedly plunged the world into chaos with his creations, Zeref himself. Though he was terrified of what Darius was capable of, Hades was full of awe of it at the same time. Darius had promised him a life of being able to see magics and powers none in this world had ever seen before, along with the tools and equipment needed to be able to research them. It was for this reason that Hades cowed beneath Darius's rule, that he did everything he could to avoid earning his emperor's ire, lest he be the next to be absorbed into his existence. As he finished processing most of the recent information he obtained from Rustyrose, Darius sat back at his seat and asked, "Any more problems?" As could be expected Hades solemnly shook his head at his question, before Darius gestured to Hyato and continued, "Very well then, Hyato the floor is yours as the one leading the attack on Tenrou Island." There was a stretch of silence as the Dark Emperor then continued eating his meal, as if what they were discussing no longer hand anything to do with him. Slowly Hyato stood from his own seat, before he focused his gaze on Hades and the still unconscious Zancrow. Eventually he said, "Muster all of the guilds that operate under Grimoire Heart, and have them prepare to travel to Tenrou Island. I want the full might that you can offer to leave the smallest possible margin for error in our mission." Hades looked confused at his words, and asked, "Is that not overkill for a simple handful of Mage guilds?" Hyato shook his head and stated firmly, "They are people with 'fate' on their side, if we don't hit them with everything we have all at once then they'll gradually become as powerful as needed to defeat us. If we let that happen then even our emperor will end up losing to them." Hades's one eye widened in shock that Hyato would disrespect their emperor in such a way, but when he glanced towards Darius to gauge his reaction, he was even more shocked to find him nodding slightly in agreement. Though he didn't know what Hyato meant by 'fate' being on Fairy Tail's side, Hades added it to the ever growing list of things he needed to research as he inclined his head towards Hyato and said, "Very well, it will take a few weeks to contact and mobilize every single guild under us, but it will be done as soon as possible." Hyato nodded in affirmation as he seated himself once more, and Hades swiftly left to spread the word to his subordinates. It wasn't until he left that Hyato let out the breath he had unintentionally been holding, and Alice mockingly said, "Wow, for a second there I almost thought I was looking at real man instead of a stupid little v.i.r.g.i.n boy~." Hyato shot a look at her before saying, "Shut up you worthless Saiyan s.l.u.t, don't you have a bouquet of c.o.c.ks to gargle somewhere?" Though most women would be offended at being asked such a thing, Alice instead started drooling slightly as she recalled doing exactly that the night before. Her expression made all four of the men present cringe in disgust, before Darius ultimately stood up and said, "I've lost my appetite. If anyone needs me I'll be in the throne room." He then left the four other reincarnators to their meal, and made his way to the grand throne room at the center of the Hanging Gardens. Though the Gardens had appeared with its own original design, Darius had reworked the majority of the interior to better suit his tastes and position as the 'Dark Emperor'. As such there were black banners and tapestries hanging from the ceiling and walls, while the throne itself looked to be carved from a type of black marble that seemed to draw in all of the light around it. If one thing stood out in the throne room, it was the giant crystal that sat behind the throne itself, containing the preserved body of the founder and first guild master of Fairy Tail, Mavis Vermillion herself. He had acquired Mavis's body shortly after the main group of Fairy Tail disappeared on Tenrou Island nearly eight years ago, and the rest of the guild was forced out of their headquarters where it was located. During his rise to power Darius had intentionally done everything he could to avoid antagonizing any members of Fairy Tail or those immediately related to them, lest he incite the wrath of the bullshit 'power of friendship' they were prone to using. Instead, he had spent the seven years they were asleep uniting the dark guilds under the Balam alliance, which consisted of Grimoire Heart, Oracin Seis, and Tartarus; and trying to process all of the information, skills, and abilities he had obtained from Laxus, Jellal, Zeref, and any others he had absorbed into himself throughout the years. Recalling the most infamous Mage in history, Darius once again thanked his lucky stars that he managed to follow Fairy Tail to Tenrou Island and find him before Zeref managed to 'awaken', as when offered a chance at death the dark Mage had readily accepted it. His expression then darkened as Darius recalled the one being in this world that could still challenge him and everything he built, the one being who's power he desperately craved to obtain to cement his position at the top of this world. With time winding down until they left the world, and he war with Fairy Tail looming, the Dark Emperor then made his decision to cast away safety and take a large risk, a decision that made his blood start thundering through his veins in excitement. Standing from his throne, Darius began walking towards one of the side exits while silently muttering, "Sebastian." Immediately and silently the demon butler appeared at his side, bowing respectfully before asking, "What is it you require your Imperial Majesty?" Though Darius wasn't Sebastian's contracted 'master'Alice, he still afforded him the utmost respect due to his position as his 'masters' emperor, and would readily follow any of his orders that didn't directly conflict with anything his 'master' would ask of him. Not caring in particular about this, Darius commanded, "I want my airship and its crew ready to depart within the hour, along with every available weapon and defensive measure primed and ready for battle." Sebastian bowed low once more before saying, "Of course your majesty, but what should I inform the crew that they are setting out to do?" Darius was silent for a moment before he finally answered, "Tell them that they set sail to see the end of the single greatest threat this world has ever seen, Acnologia." *** While the group of reincarnators were preparing to wage war and leave Earthland for good, on a certain island hidden from everyone's view except those who carried the mark of their founder, the very same group they were preparing to fight were causing a ruckus, as usual. A stark contrast to when they first saw the island nearly eight years ago, when there were no buildings and no one lived there, now there was a semi-circle of buildings bearing the guild crests of Lamia Scale, Blue Pegasus, Mermaid Heel, and even Sabertooth, with the largest building at the head with the Fairy Tail crest on it. Though around the buildings several of their members were out sparring with each other to get stronger, within Fairy Tail's building a party was going on as a brown haired woman wearing nothing but a bikini top on the upper half of her body raised an entire barrel up, and shouted, "LETS DRINK!" The majority of those within the guild's dining area and bar, mostly comprised of Fairy Tail members and their families along with a few members of their neighboring guilds, raised up their tankards at her words and cheered before downing their own drinks, even as the girl began downing her entire barrel. A blonde haired girl sitting at the bar smiled wryly as she said, "Jeez, even when we're the most wanted people on two continents they still only have partying on their minds..." Even as she said this though, the girl, Lucy Heartfilia, raised her own glass slightly and downed its contents while the other girls around her giggled, before she continued, "But that's one of the best things about this guild!" As one the other girls around her nodded their heads in agreement, their group consisting of the scarlet haired knight, 'Titania' Erza Scarlet, the white haired motherly figure of the guild as well as their poster girl, 'The Demon' Mirajane Strauss, the petite figure with long blue twin tails, 'Sky Sorceress' Wendy Marvell, and finally her ever present feline companion, the white furred Charla. As the group watched everyone else party Charla shook her head in annoyance at the noise, and said while reaching up to flatten her cat ears, "Seriously, I'll never understand how these people can act the way they do, no matter the circ.u.mstances..." Mirajane smiled wryly at Charla's complaint, and asked as she picked up another person's tankard to clean it, "Would you rather we all act sad and depressed? With how hard everyone's working to get stronger the least we can let them do is unwind when they come in." Charla sighed in recognition at Mirajane's words, since it would indeed be counterproductive to try and fight back against the oppression they woke up to if everyone was always depressed. Then Lucy suddenly offered, "If you want some quiet time for a while you can come with me Charla! I'm heading to the mainland in a few days for supplies by myself, so it'll be just the two of us." Charla smiled at Lucy and said, "Thanks for the offer, but Wendy can't go and I'd rather stay by her side." Wendy looked away awkwardly at Charla's words, since she now felt as if she was getting in the way of her closest friend getting some peace and quiet. Trying to find something else to discuss, she then asked Lucy, "By the way Lucy, how are you going to carry all of the supplies back?" Lucy looked smug at Wendy's question, and said while she rummaged in her pocket for something, "The guild masters already thought of that when they asked me to make the run, TADA!" She then showed them a plain looking leather bag, making Mirajane, Wendy, and Charla look at it curiously until Erza explained through her bites of strawberry cake, "It's a spatial storage bag. They're very rare and were closely regulated by the Magic Council before they were destroyed, due to criminal organizations using them to transport large amounts of contraband." It was only then that the trio made expressions of aw while Lucy felt as if some of the wind had been taken from her sails, prompting her to return the bag to her pocket. She then glanced around the guild hall to look for something else to focus on, noticing a she did so another small group not actively partying, her friend Levy who was sitting in Gajeel's lap as she read a book, her back resting comfortably against his chest while Gajeel tried to act uninterested in what she was reading. Glancing over at what Lucy was looking at, Mirajane smirked and asked, "What's wrong Lucy, love troubles?" Jumping at Mirajane's question, Lucy awkwardly stuttered as a certain pink haired dragon slayer entered her mind, "N-not a-at all! I-I was just thinking about how happy I am for Levy! Her and Gajeel look cute together." Mirajane smiled at her, before saying with a wink, "Natsu is a bit dense, but just give it some time." Lucy's face turned almost as red as Erza's hair when she heard that, and she looked down as she began mumbling something in response to the white haired girl's teasing. Before she could properly respond though, the dragon slayer in question suddenly appeared as if he had been summoned as he eagerly ran up to Lucy and took her left hand into both of his excitedly. "Lucy, is it true you're going to the mainland soon?!" Her heart pounding in her chest from how close Natsu was getting, along with Mirajane's earlier words bouncing around in her head, Lucy looked as if steam was coming out of her head as she stammered, "Y-yeah I am, b-but you can't come..." Natsu was the exact opposite of the word subtle, which she needed to be. And as such it had been unanimously decided that he and his partner Happy would stay behind while Lucy went to the mainland all on her own, however he apparently had something he really needed to say to her before she left. Nodding his head in understanding at her words, Natsu said, "Yeah I know, but I had something I really needed to say before you leave!" Once again he moved his face closer to hers, making Lucy's breathing become ragged as various ideas of what Natsu wanted to say swarm her mind. Her heart pounding in her chest, her face completely covered in a deep blush, and her breathing increasing rapidly, Lucy felt as if she might collapse as she looked away when Natsu finally opened his mouth and started saying, "Lucy. Can. You. Please bring me back a bunch of beetles from the mainland?!" In an instant Lucy felt as if the noise within the guild had vanished altogether at Natsu's request, while she wasn't even sure if her own heart was still beating in her chest. Slowly she turned to look back at him, before a single syllable escaped her lips, "Eh?" Natsu nodded energetically as he began explaining, "Yeah, can you bring back a bunch of beetles with you? Happy and I found some that seem-" Natsu then went on to explain what exactly he wanted the beetles for, but Lucy didn't hear any of it as she relived the emotional roller ouster she just went through, her free right hand beginning to clench tightly as her blood began to thunder through her body. "-and then we want to make them battle to the death so see if the beetles from the mainland or the island are stronger, so can you Lucy?" Natsu asked once more, stars sparkling in his eyes in his obliviousness to Lucy's current state, until Happy the blue cat appeared next to him with his white feathered wings spread to fly. His paws were covering his mouth as if to keep him from laughing as he asked teasingly, "What did you think Natsu wanted to ask you Lucy?" Lucy however didn't appear to hear this as her fist started to shake slightly, until she finally said, "Natsu. You. Complete. DUMMYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYY!" As she shouted Lucy then hurled her fist directly at Natsu's face, sending him flying clear across the guild and into a table at the other side. She then immediately made to leave while shouting, "I'M NOT TALKING TO YOU ANYMORE NATSU!" Every head moved as one as they turned to focus on the very confused Natsu, who had no idea what he had done wrong. "What did you do this time Slamander?" Gajeel asked with an incredulous expression, before one of the older members of the guild, Macao, laughed and said, "That's no good Natsu!" Piggybacking on his words, his long time friend Wakaba added, "That's right, you need to treat poor Lucy better before another guy steals her." Natsu however laughed lightheartedly at their advice, and said, "Nah, Lucy and I will always be a team!" He then stood up and quickly left the guild to apologize to Lucy, but true to her word she either avoided him or refused to speak to him even up until the day she left to go to the mainland.
