Chapter 357: Hope
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As Lucy went on to tell her story Alex's expression gradually became darker, until she finally got to what had happened in the last year since they had woken up after being frozen in time for seven years.
At first everything was the same, Lucy joined Fairy Tail, went on various adventures with Natsu and co before the fight against their rival guild, Phantom Lord, before eventually making their way to fight Jellal at the Tower of Heaven. It was after that that the first major difference appeared, which was the disappearance of the guild master's grandson, Laxus.
Laxus was one of the guild's S-class mages that had Dragon Lacrima(crystal) inserted into his body, making him an artificial Dragon Slayer unlike Natsu, Gajeel, and Wendy. As a lightning Dragon Slayer Laxus was easily in the top five of the strongest guild members, losing out only to his grandfather Markarov, and the undisputed strongest of Fairy Tail, Gildarts.
However his strength resulted in an unrivaled arrogance within him that led to him trying to overthrow his grandfather, and take control of the guild through force with his followers, the 'Thunder Gods'. Naturally he was defeated by a Natsu and Gajeel before being excommunicated by his own grandfather, but had rejoined the guild later after a bit of an attitude adjustment.
From what Lucy told him though, Alex learned that Laxus had actually been missing since before she and the rest of the major guild members got sealed on Tenrou island. Not only was Laxus's disappearance a major loss of guild strength, but it had also ensured that he never attempted to overthrow his grandfather, which in turn prevented the reawakening of another S-class guild member.
Mirajane Strauss was a former S-class Mage that had been infamously known as the 'Demon', up until a few years before Lucy joined the guild. During a certain quest however she experienced a traumatic event when her own baby sister 'died' in her arms. Though the truth was that her sister Lisanna was still alive in another world called Edolas, the shock had been enough that the vast majority of Mirajane's powers vanished, and she was no longer an active member of Fairy Tail, instead acting as the guild's receptionist.
It had been during Laxus's attempted coup that Mirajane's powers made a sudden comeback, when one of his followers tried to kill her only remaining sibling right in front of her. Now however, despite Lisanna returning from the world of Edolas whole and healthy, Mirajane was still powerless to help her guild when they needed it, and Fairy Tail was short two of their S-class mages.
The second big difference occurred almost immediately after, when Fairy Tail didn't send Natsu and co to help fight one of the dark guilds that made up the Balam Alliance. After the destruction of of the Mages Council during the Tower of Heaven arc one of the strongest Dark Guilds, Oración Seis, began moving to search for something called Nirvana. As a result, several of the legal guilds sent representatives to form their own alliance, from Fairy Tail, Lamia Scale, Blue Pegasus, and Cait Shelter.
This time however Oración Seis never moved to find Nirvana, as their needs to discover its location were never recovered, Jellal. After his defeat at the Tower of Heaven he too had disappeared completely, meaning that Oración Seis never tried to find Nirvana, and were never defeated or imprisoned.
However, as if fate was defiantly saying it wasn't going to be ignored though, some of the things that happened during that particular arc still came to pass. For instance, even though Wendy didn't meet them there, she still ended up meeting Natsu and Lucy during a different quest that they had undertaken, that had eventually led to her joining Fairy Tail. Lucy herself as well still ended up encountering a member of Oración Seis by themselves, the other Celestial Spirit Mage, Angel.
Perhaps a result of Lucy's 'fate' interfering to help her acquire more of the golden Zodiac summoning keys, she had encountered Angel by chance and had managed to defeat her before forming a contract with the three Zodiac spirits she had on her, Aries, Scorpio, and Gemini. This had added to her collection that already consisted of Tauros, Aquarius, Cancer, Virgo, Leo, and Sagittarius. Then, with her most recent acquisition of Capricorn, she now had ten of the twelve Golden keys, along with several weaker silver key spirits.
After these two changes though everything else was more or less the same as it was supposed to happen, Natsu, Lucy, and Wendy all ended up being transferred to the world called Edolas after the people of the guilds hometown Magnolia were taken to fuel their magic power. And then they had gone to the Fairy Tail holy land, Tenrou island, for the S-class promotion exam, which was interrupted by an attack from Grimoire Heart and Acnologia.
It was from here on that the 'canon' completely went to hell, as immediately after the main members of Fairy Tail disappeared the person known as the Dark Emperor made his move. With the powers and knowledge he had stolen from Laxus, Jellal, and Zeref it had been child's play for him to completely take over the three dark guilds making up the Balum Alliance, Oración Seis, Grimoire Heart, and Tartarus, before moving to dominate the majority of the continent with their combined might and forces.
The only ones who could compete with his might and forces were the Mage guilds and the Alverez Empire, however the latter joined him when it was learned that he had absorbed even their founder and emperor, Zeref Dragneel(aka Emperor Spriggan) into himself. This left only the Mage guilds to stand in his path towards dominance, however they were systematically targeted and destroyed until only a few were left.
Any that weren't destroyed were either left alone for some reason, or elected to join up with him along with most mercenary guilds, bolstering the Dark Emperor's ranks even more until he had an army unlike any the world had ever seen before at his disposal. Aside from the specific Mage guilds he had also elected to leave the various kingdom capitols alone as well, apparently not considering them worth his time or energy to deal with.
As a result when Lucy and the others awoke the world had been transformed into something completely different from when they first traveled to Tenrou island so long ago, where even their beloved hometown of Magnolia was destroyed. Of course the first thing they did was to try and contact their comrades and the guilds that were left, mostly the ones they were friends with, and transfer them to Tenrou Island with the Blue Pegasus guild's beloved airship, Christina.
Now they were caught up to the present, where the guilds would occasionally send one of their members from Tenrou Island to do a supply run to the mainland, where Lucy was captured after one of their contacts apparently turned over to the Dark Emperor. When Lucy had finished retelling her story it had already started getting dark, and Alex had a hard look on his face as he digested everything he had heard.
Though none of the girls knew the differences from how things were supposed to be, they could tell from Alex's expression, as well as the occasional questions that he'd ask Lucy that it wasn't good. Eventually Grayfia asked him,
"So what now?" Alex sighed and took another swig from the bottle of alcohol, while also feeling a bit regrettable that he couldn't get drunk, and said,
"Now we go to Tenrou Island and make contact with Fairy Tail and the rest of the guilds there, especially before this 'Dark Emperor's' forces get there. But first, I want you to return to Asora long enough to relay what's happening here, and that it'll be a while before we can return. Also I want you to bring Zenith back with you." Grayfia nodded and was about to depart, when Anne suddenly grabbed her hand and requested,
"Please bring back the supplies we have stored at the Emergency Response building! Before we leave I want to do something for the people suffering here!" After glancing at Alex for confirmation, Grayfia said,
"Of course, how much do you want me to bring back?" With all of the various food and other supplies being stored in storage rings for efficiency, as well as preservation since time didn't pass in the storage rings, Grayfia would literally bring back decades worth of supplies with her if needed. Unsurprisingly Anne said,
"Please bring back all of it, we don't know how much we'll need before we can go home." Grayfia nodded in confirmation at Anne's request, and soon departed through the usual wall of mist, leaving Lucy mystified as she asked,
"What kind of magic is that?" Alex however just smiled wryly and was wondering where exactly to begin in explaining to Lucy who they were, when suddenly the guild's front doors were opened.
"HAHA! Did you hear that little brat squeal when I smashed his fingers? Teach him not to take things that don't belong to him!" The newcomers words were met with a round of laughter before the group stopped and looked at the mess in their guild.
"W-what happened here?" One demanded, before he noticed Alex and the girls gathered around the bar, and his gaze focused onto Lucy.
"The fairy bitch escaped!" One of them yelled as they got ready to fight, making several of the girls around Alex stepped forward threateningly.
"Wait!" Lucy suddenly cried out as she stepped forward herself, her face serious as she glared at the newcomers. "I owe these guys some payback for how they treated me, so leave them to me!"
As she spoke Lucy grabbed the whip at her side with her right hand, while her left held up two of the golden keys at her side. With the rest of the girls backing off to see some of this world's magic firsthand, Lucy then shouted as she held the two keys out,
"Open the gates of the Golden Bull and Lion, TAURUS AND LEO!"
As she commanded there was a brilliant flash of light, which faded to reveal two figures standing there between Lucy and the newcomers. One was relatively normal looking, being a young good looking man with spiky orange hair and wearing a formal suit. The other however was towering bull-like figure complete with a pair of horns, a tail, and even with white and black fur covering his body. Both of them had angry expressions though as they glared at the newcomers, as the bull grabbed the handle of the massive dual sided battle axe on his back, and declared,
"Unforgivable! How dare you strip and ogle my beloved MOOOOCY'S body! Even I haven't seen her completely n.a.k.e.d before!" The man next to him nodded and said with a fierce look,
"Indeed, how can we tolerate your pathetic existences when you've defiled our master with your filthy eyes?" To the duo's declarations though, Lucy suddenly shouted,
"THATS WHAT YOU GUYS ARE MAD ABOUT?! THAT YOU HAVEN'T SEEN ME N.A.K.E.D AND THEY HAVE?!" Though on one hand she was glad that they wanted to beat these guys up for doing that to her, on the other she was depressed that their motivation to fight was mostly due to their own jealousy. It was at that moment that the man, known to members of Fairy Tail as Loke, looked back and was going to say something to Lucy, only to catch sight of the rest of the girls present.
In an instant his expression turned to one of awe, before he suddenly appeared in front of the nearest girl, Moka, and said as he took her hand in his own,
"Such beauty, elegance, and grace! Please my goddess, tell this lowly one your name!" Moka's eyes widened in brief surprise at his actions, before she flashed a radiant smile. Loke smiled back, thinking she had taken a liking to him, before she eventually said,
"Taken."
"Excuse me?" Loke asked, not understanding what she said, to which Moka's smile widened as she stood up front her seat, and said,
"Taken, as in I am already happily taken." She then proceeded to slowly lift her leg until her foot was right above Loke's head, before declaring,
"Know your place, fool!" She then brought down her foot with enough force that the entire surrounding region shook as if an earthquake had struck, sending almost everyone within Hargeon to the ground as they cried out in panic. Meanwhile when the dust cleared Loke was shaking where he knelt, as he touched the side of his face where Moka's foot had just barely missed. Slowly he looked up at her face once more, only to see her flash him another smile that practically sent him running back to his position at Lucy and Taurus's side, both of who were looking back at Moka with fear along with the group of newcomers.
The vampiress casually flipped her hair back, and retook her previous seat as she elegantly sipped a blood red liquid from a wine glass she had found, which was actually some of Alex's blood that she had bottled. Though they didn't know it was actual blood, the fact that it looked like it was enough to scare them even more after her previous actions.
For a moment it looked as if no one was going to fight due to what had happened between Moka and Loke, but then Alex said,
"Aren't you going to get back at them Lucy?" This snapped the summoning Mage out of her momentary stupor, as she cracked her whip and said while looking at her opponents fiercely,
"Yes! Loke, Taurus, let's go!" Her words snapped both of her summoned spirits back to attention as well, as they returned their fierce glares back onto the group before them, though they still sent the occasional nervous glance back at the girls behind them.
Meanwhile the group before them hesitated to begin fighting as, while they weren't necessarily afraid of Lucy and her spirits, they were still wary of Moka and the rest of the group of strangers with her. Even if she wasn't a Mage, the strength she had just casually displayed was nothing to scoff at, so now they wanted to get away from here and report this as soon as possible. Lucy refused to give them that chance though, as she commanded,
"Loke! Get behind them and cut off their escape!" The orange haired man nodded in affirmation while saying, "Right," before he suddenly moved behind the group of newcomers before they could react.
What followed was a skilled combo of Loke and Taurus attacking the group, which consisted of both mages and mercenaries, while Lucy used her whip to systematically seal their movements so that her spirits could finish them off. As they fought Alex watched from behind with the girls, while also occasionally flicking a marble at any of the guys who were about to get through the trio's defenses. Eventually they were down to the last guy, who immediately tried to turn tail and run.
"Going somewhere?" Loke asked as he blocked the door, making the final guy pause slightly before he suddenly hear from behind him,
"LUCY, KICK!" He turned around only to see a foot coming directly at his face, before his vision went black as he was knocked out when the attack connected. As he fell to the ground Lucy looked around, before making a V with her fingers for victory, and saying,
"Good job you two! We showed them what for!" The two spirits chuckled at Lucy's happiness from winning, before Loke suddenly asked,
"Tell me master, do we get a 'reward' for winning?" As he mentioned a 'reward' both Loke and Taurus's eyes started shining in anticipation, making Lucy's expression shift into a deadpan as she simply said,
"Close the gates of the bull and lion..." Both guys could only pout as they disappeared into specs of light and were sent back to the Spirit World, while Lucy turned to face Alex once more, to find him nodding in approval.
"Good work, but you left them alive." As he spoke Rias stood and walked over to the unconscious dark guild members, and pointed her fingers at the back of one of their head execution style as if they were a gun. She then fired a small bullet of pure Destruction into their skull, instantly killing them before moving onto the next one.
Lucy grimaced when she saw the way Rias efficiently eliminated the men she had defeated, but held her tongue after she saw how Alex dealt with Bora before, and due to the fact that there was no longer a Magic Council to turn them over to. She tried to put the gruesome executions out of her head, and walked back to Alex as he said,
"Once Grayfia returns we'll help the people here as best we can, and then we'll be on our way to Tenrou Island." Lucy nodded in affirmation, though she couldn't help but want to leave sooner due to the anxiety she was feeling. She did ask though,
"How are you going to help them? Even if our entire guild was here it would take days for us to be able to properly help the people here." To this however Alex flashed a mischievous smile, and said,
"The Fairy Tail way, as loud and flashy as possible!"
***
Throughout the city of Hargeon there was a palpable tension in the air, as the people were on edge after word of newcomers that had gone against the Black Collar guild spread, as well as the earthquake they had all felt earlier. To be honest by this point the majority of them had given up on things going back to how they used to be, and were simply existing until the day they finally ended up dying.
They weren't completely devoid of the will to live though, which was why when they heard explosions in the sky the vast majority of the citizens started to think they were under attack once again due to the newcomers, and fled to hide.
BOOM BOOM BOOM
Explosions shook and lit up the sky above them as the people desperately tried to find some cover to escape the magic attacks. It wasn't until one of them tripped and ended up looking directly at the explosions in the sky, that their panic vanished and was instead replaced by confusion.
"Look!" They cried out at those passing by them, making other people stop to look up, before they too were similarly confused. One by one the people throughout the city looked up into the night sky, and paused at what they saw.
"Oh my god...." One woman whispered as she fell to her knees, tears streaming down her face as she recognized the symbol burning brightly above them.
"HEY! COME OVER HERE!" Someone suddenly called out, drawing more and more people to their shouting, until they came across a wondrous/stupefying sight.
The building that the Black Collar guild had operated out of for years, where they had taken their families and loved ones to sell into slavery, was gone. Instead there was a giant stage-like structure in the place where the building was supposed to be, with a giant cornucopia on top with food and other necessities spilling out of it.
For a brief moment no one moved, none daring to believe what they were seeing, until one man climbed up onto the stage and took one of the fruits at the edge of the pile. He then bit into it cautiously, only for the sweet juice to run down his chin as his eyes widened in wonder.
"It's real..." He muttered to himself, before saying to the crowds, "IT'S ALL REAL!" There was a brief pause at his words, before an uproar went up through the crowd.
The man then called several people up onto the stage with him to help hand out the food and other supplies, such as water, blankets, clothing, and other things they needed.
''CHILDREN FIRST!" He called out, to ensure that those who needed the food most got some before the a.d.u.l.ts were able to get any. Naturally any parents amongst the crowds started bringing their children forward to get what food they could before it ran out.
Among them was a woman who was dragging her barely five year old son through the thick throngs of people, the upper half of his face heavily bandaged. He had been used for entertainment by some of the Black Collar guild members a couple years back, as they fired various forms of magic at him to watch him run away crying. As a result, he had been hit directly in the face and blinded by a fire spell, that had also covered the area around his eyes with a large scar.
Though he was unable to see the same things everyone else around him could, he could hear the excitement in their voices as he asked, "Mommy, what's going on?" His mother looked back at him with tears threatening to fall from her eyes as she explained,
"Someone brought us food baby, tonight you'll be able to eat as much as you want for once!" Though the little boy was excited to be able to eat so much, he was quickly distracted as he noticed a orange glow through his bandages.
"Mommy, what's that bright thing?" He asked innocently, making his mother look up at the fire in the sky and say,
"That's.......that.........." She then trailed off while stopping her fight to get to the front of the crowd completely, as an impossible thought entered her head. Slowly the woman turned towards her son, not daring to believe what she had just heard from him as she fell to her knees.
"Mommy?" The boy asked as she started to fumble with the bandages around his eyes with shaky fingers. Despite her unstable movements though, the woman managed to remove the bandages, and, when the final strip of cloth fell away she did start breaking down at what she saw.
Instead of the horrible scarring and milky white eyes that had looked back at her every time she had removed her son's bandages for the last couple years, she was greeted with pure unblemished skin and big beautiful brown eyes that blinked in the sudden light before focusing onto her.
"MOMMY!" The boy cried out when he realized he could see her again, as he jumped into her embrace and wrapped his arms around her happily, as the woman cried over and over,
"My baby... My baby....!" Eventually she suddenly cried out into the crowd,
"MY BABY CAN SEE AGAIN!"
Though for the most part the people didn't know what she was going on about, those that did know the mother-son duo rushed towards them to verify their claims for themselves, while also explaining their circ.u.mstances to those around them. Quickly the boy's story was known to everyone in the crowd, and the miracle that had restored his sight, before,
"Argh!" On man cried out as he clutched at the stump that had once been his right arm, before he righted himself a moment later with his arm restored. One by one within the crowd people discovered longtime debilitating injuries, or after effects from various illnesses, disappearing as they became healthier than they had been in years. Most amazingly though was several of the elderly suddenly felt even decades younger, and were able to perform feats that they hadn't in years.
Meanwhile the mother, who was still trying to get her tears under control, took her son into her arms once more before pointing upwards and saying,
"You see that up there, all that fire?"
"Yes mommy." The boy said as he looked up at sky, which had two words burning brightly with a symbol underneath as fireworks went off around them. Due to how he hadn't been able to learn how to read before being blinded, and that he had never seen that symbol before, he didn't now what they stood for until his mother said,
"Those words say 'FAIRY TAIL', and that's their symbol below it. They're a mages guild that was famous a while back."
"Mages?" The boy asked curiously, to which his mother eagerly nodded and explained,
"Yes, before you were born there were people all over the world that used magic, not just the dark guilds. They formed guilds and used their magic to help anyone that needed it, just like now!" The little boy's newly repaired eyes were wide as he once again looked up at the fiery words in the sky, before he finally declared,
"When I grow up, I want to be a Mage and join Fairy Tail too!" The mother smiled widely and squeezed her son a little bit tighter, but 'Fairy Tail' wasn't done helping them yet. At that moment a particularly large firework went off, blinding everyone within the city of Hargeon for over an entire minute, but when they opened their eyes the entire city around them had been restored to how it looked before the dark guilds attacked.
For a moment everyone could only look around in awe after the consecutive miracles, before a deafening roar shook the entire city as everyone cheered its revival. It was so loud, that a certain large ship that was slipping away under the cover of the night sky could hear them, making it's passengers smile at their reaction.
"They certainly seem happy." Shia said as she leaned over the railing to look down.
"Well wouldn't you be too if you were in their shoes?" Shizuku asked with a wry smile, while Anne hummed happily next her from how happy the people below were. Then Kuroka spoke up,
"What happens when any of those dark guilds come back~Nya? I don't imagine they'll just leave this place alone after we wiped out one of their guilds and gave the people all of this stuff~Nya." Alex nodded from where he sat at the edge of the railing, and replied,
"I left a few magic circles that'll alert me if someone tries attacking the city. If they do, then I'll teleport straight here and rain hell onto them." As he said that a powerful aura started radiating from Alex's body, making his women smile widely at how domineering he was behaving.
Meanwhile Lucy could only look down at the city in awe, not yet sure if she was dreaming or truly seeing what was happening around her. She then slowly looked back towards Alex all of her unasked questions once more flooding her mind.
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As Lucy went on to tell her story Alex's expression gradually became darker, until she finally got to what had happened in the last year since they had woken up after being frozen in time for seven years.
At first everything was the same, Lucy joined Fairy Tail, went on various adventures with Natsu and co before the fight against their rival guild, Phantom Lord, before eventually making their way to fight Jellal at the Tower of Heaven. It was after that that the first major difference appeared, which was the disappearance of the guild master's grandson, Laxus.
Laxus was one of the guild's S-class mages that had Dragon Lacrima(crystal) inserted into his body, making him an artificial Dragon Slayer unlike Natsu, Gajeel, and Wendy. As a lightning Dragon Slayer Laxus was easily in the top five of the strongest guild members, losing out only to his grandfather Markarov, and the undisputed strongest of Fairy Tail, Gildarts.
However his strength resulted in an unrivaled arrogance within him that led to him trying to overthrow his grandfather, and take control of the guild through force with his followers, the 'Thunder Gods'. Naturally he was defeated by a Natsu and Gajeel before being excommunicated by his own grandfather, but had rejoined the guild later after a bit of an attitude adjustment.
From what Lucy told him though, Alex learned that Laxus had actually been missing since before she and the rest of the major guild members got sealed on Tenrou island. Not only was Laxus's disappearance a major loss of guild strength, but it had also ensured that he never attempted to overthrow his grandfather, which in turn prevented the reawakening of another S-class guild member.
Mirajane Strauss was a former S-class Mage that had been infamously known as the 'Demon', up until a few years before Lucy joined the guild. During a certain quest however she experienced a traumatic event when her own baby sister 'died' in her arms. Though the truth was that her sister Lisanna was still alive in another world called Edolas, the shock had been enough that the vast majority of Mirajane's powers vanished, and she was no longer an active member of Fairy Tail, instead acting as the guild's receptionist.
It had been during Laxus's attempted coup that Mirajane's powers made a sudden comeback, when one of his followers tried to kill her only remaining sibling right in front of her. Now however, despite Lisanna returning from the world of Edolas whole and healthy, Mirajane was still powerless to help her guild when they needed it, and Fairy Tail was short two of their S-class mages.
The second big difference occurred almost immediately after, when Fairy Tail didn't send Natsu and co to help fight one of the dark guilds that made up the Balam Alliance. After the destruction of of the Mages Council during the Tower of Heaven arc one of the strongest Dark Guilds, Oración Seis, began moving to search for something called Nirvana. As a result, several of the legal guilds sent representatives to form their own alliance, from Fairy Tail, Lamia Scale, Blue Pegasus, and Cait Shelter.
This time however Oración Seis never moved to find Nirvana, as their needs to discover its location were never recovered, Jellal. After his defeat at the Tower of Heaven he too had disappeared completely, meaning that Oración Seis never tried to find Nirvana, and were never defeated or imprisoned.
However, as if fate was defiantly saying it wasn't going to be ignored though, some of the things that happened during that particular arc still came to pass. For instance, even though Wendy didn't meet them there, she still ended up meeting Natsu and Lucy during a different quest that they had undertaken, that had eventually led to her joining Fairy Tail. Lucy herself as well still ended up encountering a member of Oración Seis by themselves, the other Celestial Spirit Mage, Angel.
Perhaps a result of Lucy's 'fate' interfering to help her acquire more of the golden Zodiac summoning keys, she had encountered Angel by chance and had managed to defeat her before forming a contract with the three Zodiac spirits she had on her, Aries, Scorpio, and Gemini. This had added to her collection that already consisted of Tauros, Aquarius, Cancer, Virgo, Leo, and Sagittarius. Then, with her most recent acquisition of Capricorn, she now had ten of the twelve Golden keys, along with several weaker silver key spirits.
After these two changes though everything else was more or less the same as it was supposed to happen, Natsu, Lucy, and Wendy all ended up being transferred to the world called Edolas after the people of the guilds hometown Magnolia were taken to fuel their magic power. And then they had gone to the Fairy Tail holy land, Tenrou island, for the S-class promotion exam, which was interrupted by an attack from Grimoire Heart and Acnologia.
It was from here on that the 'canon' completely went to hell, as immediately after the main members of Fairy Tail disappeared the person known as the Dark Emperor made his move. With the powers and knowledge he had stolen from Laxus, Jellal, and Zeref it had been child's play for him to completely take over the three dark guilds making up the Balum Alliance, Oración Seis, Grimoire Heart, and Tartarus, before moving to dominate the majority of the continent with their combined might and forces.
The only ones who could compete with his might and forces were the Mage guilds and the Alverez Empire, however the latter joined him when it was learned that he had absorbed even their founder and emperor, Zeref Dragneel(aka Emperor Spriggan) into himself. This left only the Mage guilds to stand in his path towards dominance, however they were systematically targeted and destroyed until only a few were left.
Any that weren't destroyed were either left alone for some reason, or elected to join up with him along with most mercenary guilds, bolstering the Dark Emperor's ranks even more until he had an army unlike any the world had ever seen before at his disposal. Aside from the specific Mage guilds he had also elected to leave the various kingdom capitols alone as well, apparently not considering them worth his time or energy to deal with.
As a result when Lucy and the others awoke the world had been transformed into something completely different from when they first traveled to Tenrou island so long ago, where even their beloved hometown of Magnolia was destroyed. Of course the first thing they did was to try and contact their comrades and the guilds that were left, mostly the ones they were friends with, and transfer them to Tenrou Island with the Blue Pegasus guild's beloved airship, Christina.
Now they were caught up to the present, where the guilds would occasionally send one of their members from Tenrou Island to do a supply run to the mainland, where Lucy was captured after one of their contacts apparently turned over to the Dark Emperor. When Lucy had finished retelling her story it had already started getting dark, and Alex had a hard look on his face as he digested everything he had heard.
Though none of the girls knew the differences from how things were supposed to be, they could tell from Alex's expression, as well as the occasional questions that he'd ask Lucy that it wasn't good. Eventually Grayfia asked him,
"So what now?" Alex sighed and took another swig from the bottle of alcohol, while also feeling a bit regrettable that he couldn't get drunk, and said,
"Now we go to Tenrou Island and make contact with Fairy Tail and the rest of the guilds there, especially before this 'Dark Emperor's' forces get there. But first, I want you to return to Asora long enough to relay what's happening here, and that it'll be a while before we can return. Also I want you to bring Zenith back with you." Grayfia nodded and was about to depart, when Anne suddenly grabbed her hand and requested,
"Please bring back the supplies we have stored at the Emergency Response building! Before we leave I want to do something for the people suffering here!" After glancing at Alex for confirmation, Grayfia said,
"Of course, how much do you want me to bring back?" With all of the various food and other supplies being stored in storage rings for efficiency, as well as preservation since time didn't pass in the storage rings, Grayfia would literally bring back decades worth of supplies with her if needed. Unsurprisingly Anne said,
"Please bring back all of it, we don't know how much we'll need before we can go home." Grayfia nodded in confirmation at Anne's request, and soon departed through the usual wall of mist, leaving Lucy mystified as she asked,
"What kind of magic is that?" Alex however just smiled wryly and was wondering where exactly to begin in explaining to Lucy who they were, when suddenly the guild's front doors were opened.
"HAHA! Did you hear that little brat squeal when I smashed his fingers? Teach him not to take things that don't belong to him!" The newcomers words were met with a round of laughter before the group stopped and looked at the mess in their guild.
"W-what happened here?" One demanded, before he noticed Alex and the girls gathered around the bar, and his gaze focused onto Lucy.
"The fairy bitch escaped!" One of them yelled as they got ready to fight, making several of the girls around Alex stepped forward threateningly.
"Wait!" Lucy suddenly cried out as she stepped forward herself, her face serious as she glared at the newcomers. "I owe these guys some payback for how they treated me, so leave them to me!"
As she spoke Lucy grabbed the whip at her side with her right hand, while her left held up two of the golden keys at her side. With the rest of the girls backing off to see some of this world's magic firsthand, Lucy then shouted as she held the two keys out,
"Open the gates of the Golden Bull and Lion, TAURUS AND LEO!"
As she commanded there was a brilliant flash of light, which faded to reveal two figures standing there between Lucy and the newcomers. One was relatively normal looking, being a young good looking man with spiky orange hair and wearing a formal suit. The other however was towering bull-like figure complete with a pair of horns, a tail, and even with white and black fur covering his body. Both of them had angry expressions though as they glared at the newcomers, as the bull grabbed the handle of the massive dual sided battle axe on his back, and declared,
"Unforgivable! How dare you strip and ogle my beloved MOOOOCY'S body! Even I haven't seen her completely n.a.k.e.d before!" The man next to him nodded and said with a fierce look,
"Indeed, how can we tolerate your pathetic existences when you've defiled our master with your filthy eyes?" To the duo's declarations though, Lucy suddenly shouted,
"THATS WHAT YOU GUYS ARE MAD ABOUT?! THAT YOU HAVEN'T SEEN ME N.A.K.E.D AND THEY HAVE?!" Though on one hand she was glad that they wanted to beat these guys up for doing that to her, on the other she was depressed that their motivation to fight was mostly due to their own jealousy. It was at that moment that the man, known to members of Fairy Tail as Loke, looked back and was going to say something to Lucy, only to catch sight of the rest of the girls present.
In an instant his expression turned to one of awe, before he suddenly appeared in front of the nearest girl, Moka, and said as he took her hand in his own,
"Such beauty, elegance, and grace! Please my goddess, tell this lowly one your name!" Moka's eyes widened in brief surprise at his actions, before she flashed a radiant smile. Loke smiled back, thinking she had taken a liking to him, before she eventually said,
"Taken."
"Excuse me?" Loke asked, not understanding what she said, to which Moka's smile widened as she stood up front her seat, and said,
"Taken, as in I am already happily taken." She then proceeded to slowly lift her leg until her foot was right above Loke's head, before declaring,
"Know your place, fool!" She then brought down her foot with enough force that the entire surrounding region shook as if an earthquake had struck, sending almost everyone within Hargeon to the ground as they cried out in panic. Meanwhile when the dust cleared Loke was shaking where he knelt, as he touched the side of his face where Moka's foot had just barely missed. Slowly he looked up at her face once more, only to see her flash him another smile that practically sent him running back to his position at Lucy and Taurus's side, both of who were looking back at Moka with fear along with the group of newcomers.
The vampiress casually flipped her hair back, and retook her previous seat as she elegantly sipped a blood red liquid from a wine glass she had found, which was actually some of Alex's blood that she had bottled. Though they didn't know it was actual blood, the fact that it looked like it was enough to scare them even more after her previous actions.
For a moment it looked as if no one was going to fight due to what had happened between Moka and Loke, but then Alex said,
"Aren't you going to get back at them Lucy?" This snapped the summoning Mage out of her momentary stupor, as she cracked her whip and said while looking at her opponents fiercely,
"Yes! Loke, Taurus, let's go!" Her words snapped both of her summoned spirits back to attention as well, as they returned their fierce glares back onto the group before them, though they still sent the occasional nervous glance back at the girls behind them.
Meanwhile the group before them hesitated to begin fighting as, while they weren't necessarily afraid of Lucy and her spirits, they were still wary of Moka and the rest of the group of strangers with her. Even if she wasn't a Mage, the strength she had just casually displayed was nothing to scoff at, so now they wanted to get away from here and report this as soon as possible. Lucy refused to give them that chance though, as she commanded,
"Loke! Get behind them and cut off their escape!" The orange haired man nodded in affirmation while saying, "Right," before he suddenly moved behind the group of newcomers before they could react.
What followed was a skilled combo of Loke and Taurus attacking the group, which consisted of both mages and mercenaries, while Lucy used her whip to systematically seal their movements so that her spirits could finish them off. As they fought Alex watched from behind with the girls, while also occasionally flicking a marble at any of the guys who were about to get through the trio's defenses. Eventually they were down to the last guy, who immediately tried to turn tail and run.
"Going somewhere?" Loke asked as he blocked the door, making the final guy pause slightly before he suddenly hear from behind him,
"LUCY, KICK!" He turned around only to see a foot coming directly at his face, before his vision went black as he was knocked out when the attack connected. As he fell to the ground Lucy looked around, before making a V with her fingers for victory, and saying,
"Good job you two! We showed them what for!" The two spirits chuckled at Lucy's happiness from winning, before Loke suddenly asked,
"Tell me master, do we get a 'reward' for winning?" As he mentioned a 'reward' both Loke and Taurus's eyes started shining in anticipation, making Lucy's expression shift into a deadpan as she simply said,
"Close the gates of the bull and lion..." Both guys could only pout as they disappeared into specs of light and were sent back to the Spirit World, while Lucy turned to face Alex once more, to find him nodding in approval.
"Good work, but you left them alive." As he spoke Rias stood and walked over to the unconscious dark guild members, and pointed her fingers at the back of one of their head execution style as if they were a gun. She then fired a small bullet of pure Destruction into their skull, instantly killing them before moving onto the next one.
Lucy grimaced when she saw the way Rias efficiently eliminated the men she had defeated, but held her tongue after she saw how Alex dealt with Bora before, and due to the fact that there was no longer a Magic Council to turn them over to. She tried to put the gruesome executions out of her head, and walked back to Alex as he said,
"Once Grayfia returns we'll help the people here as best we can, and then we'll be on our way to Tenrou Island." Lucy nodded in affirmation, though she couldn't help but want to leave sooner due to the anxiety she was feeling. She did ask though,
"How are you going to help them? Even if our entire guild was here it would take days for us to be able to properly help the people here." To this however Alex flashed a mischievous smile, and said,
"The Fairy Tail way, as loud and flashy as possible!"
***
Throughout the city of Hargeon there was a palpable tension in the air, as the people were on edge after word of newcomers that had gone against the Black Collar guild spread, as well as the earthquake they had all felt earlier. To be honest by this point the majority of them had given up on things going back to how they used to be, and were simply existing until the day they finally ended up dying.
They weren't completely devoid of the will to live though, which was why when they heard explosions in the sky the vast majority of the citizens started to think they were under attack once again due to the newcomers, and fled to hide.
BOOM BOOM BOOM
Explosions shook and lit up the sky above them as the people desperately tried to find some cover to escape the magic attacks. It wasn't until one of them tripped and ended up looking directly at the explosions in the sky, that their panic vanished and was instead replaced by confusion.
"Look!" They cried out at those passing by them, making other people stop to look up, before they too were similarly confused. One by one the people throughout the city looked up into the night sky, and paused at what they saw.
"Oh my god...." One woman whispered as she fell to her knees, tears streaming down her face as she recognized the symbol burning brightly above them.
"HEY! COME OVER HERE!" Someone suddenly called out, drawing more and more people to their shouting, until they came across a wondrous/stupefying sight.
The building that the Black Collar guild had operated out of for years, where they had taken their families and loved ones to sell into slavery, was gone. Instead there was a giant stage-like structure in the place where the building was supposed to be, with a giant cornucopia on top with food and other necessities spilling out of it.
For a brief moment no one moved, none daring to believe what they were seeing, until one man climbed up onto the stage and took one of the fruits at the edge of the pile. He then bit into it cautiously, only for the sweet juice to run down his chin as his eyes widened in wonder.
"It's real..." He muttered to himself, before saying to the crowds, "IT'S ALL REAL!" There was a brief pause at his words, before an uproar went up through the crowd.
The man then called several people up onto the stage with him to help hand out the food and other supplies, such as water, blankets, clothing, and other things they needed.
''CHILDREN FIRST!" He called out, to ensure that those who needed the food most got some before the a.d.u.l.ts were able to get any. Naturally any parents amongst the crowds started bringing their children forward to get what food they could before it ran out.
Among them was a woman who was dragging her barely five year old son through the thick throngs of people, the upper half of his face heavily bandaged. He had been used for entertainment by some of the Black Collar guild members a couple years back, as they fired various forms of magic at him to watch him run away crying. As a result, he had been hit directly in the face and blinded by a fire spell, that had also covered the area around his eyes with a large scar.
Though he was unable to see the same things everyone else around him could, he could hear the excitement in their voices as he asked, "Mommy, what's going on?" His mother looked back at him with tears threatening to fall from her eyes as she explained,
"Someone brought us food baby, tonight you'll be able to eat as much as you want for once!" Though the little boy was excited to be able to eat so much, he was quickly distracted as he noticed a orange glow through his bandages.
"Mommy, what's that bright thing?" He asked innocently, making his mother look up at the fire in the sky and say,
"That's.......that.........." She then trailed off while stopping her fight to get to the front of the crowd completely, as an impossible thought entered her head. Slowly the woman turned towards her son, not daring to believe what she had just heard from him as she fell to her knees.
"Mommy?" The boy asked as she started to fumble with the bandages around his eyes with shaky fingers. Despite her unstable movements though, the woman managed to remove the bandages, and, when the final strip of cloth fell away she did start breaking down at what she saw.
Instead of the horrible scarring and milky white eyes that had looked back at her every time she had removed her son's bandages for the last couple years, she was greeted with pure unblemished skin and big beautiful brown eyes that blinked in the sudden light before focusing onto her.
"MOMMY!" The boy cried out when he realized he could see her again, as he jumped into her embrace and wrapped his arms around her happily, as the woman cried over and over,
"My baby... My baby....!" Eventually she suddenly cried out into the crowd,
"MY BABY CAN SEE AGAIN!"
Though for the most part the people didn't know what she was going on about, those that did know the mother-son duo rushed towards them to verify their claims for themselves, while also explaining their circ.u.mstances to those around them. Quickly the boy's story was known to everyone in the crowd, and the miracle that had restored his sight, before,
"Argh!" On man cried out as he clutched at the stump that had once been his right arm, before he righted himself a moment later with his arm restored. One by one within the crowd people discovered longtime debilitating injuries, or after effects from various illnesses, disappearing as they became healthier than they had been in years. Most amazingly though was several of the elderly suddenly felt even decades younger, and were able to perform feats that they hadn't in years.
Meanwhile the mother, who was still trying to get her tears under control, took her son into her arms once more before pointing upwards and saying,
"You see that up there, all that fire?"
"Yes mommy." The boy said as he looked up at sky, which had two words burning brightly with a symbol underneath as fireworks went off around them. Due to how he hadn't been able to learn how to read before being blinded, and that he had never seen that symbol before, he didn't now what they stood for until his mother said,
"Those words say 'FAIRY TAIL', and that's their symbol below it. They're a mages guild that was famous a while back."
"Mages?" The boy asked curiously, to which his mother eagerly nodded and explained,
"Yes, before you were born there were people all over the world that used magic, not just the dark guilds. They formed guilds and used their magic to help anyone that needed it, just like now!" The little boy's newly repaired eyes were wide as he once again looked up at the fiery words in the sky, before he finally declared,
"When I grow up, I want to be a Mage and join Fairy Tail too!" The mother smiled widely and squeezed her son a little bit tighter, but 'Fairy Tail' wasn't done helping them yet. At that moment a particularly large firework went off, blinding everyone within the city of Hargeon for over an entire minute, but when they opened their eyes the entire city around them had been restored to how it looked before the dark guilds attacked.
For a moment everyone could only look around in awe after the consecutive miracles, before a deafening roar shook the entire city as everyone cheered its revival. It was so loud, that a certain large ship that was slipping away under the cover of the night sky could hear them, making it's passengers smile at their reaction.
"They certainly seem happy." Shia said as she leaned over the railing to look down.
"Well wouldn't you be too if you were in their shoes?" Shizuku asked with a wry smile, while Anne hummed happily next her from how happy the people below were. Then Kuroka spoke up,
"What happens when any of those dark guilds come back~Nya? I don't imagine they'll just leave this place alone after we wiped out one of their guilds and gave the people all of this stuff~Nya." Alex nodded from where he sat at the edge of the railing, and replied,
"I left a few magic circles that'll alert me if someone tries attacking the city. If they do, then I'll teleport straight here and rain hell onto them." As he said that a powerful aura started radiating from Alex's body, making his women smile widely at how domineering he was behaving.
Meanwhile Lucy could only look down at the city in awe, not yet sure if she was dreaming or truly seeing what was happening around her. She then slowly looked back towards Alex all of her unasked questions once more flooding her mind.
As Lucy went on to tell her story Alex's expression gradually became darker, until she finally got to what had happened in the last year since they had woken up after being frozen in time for seven years. At first everything was the same, Lucy joined Fairy Tail, went on various adventures with Natsu and co before the fight against their rival guild, Phantom Lord, before eventually making their way to fight Jellal at the Tower of Heaven. It was after that that the first major difference appeared, which was the disappearance of the guild master's grandson, Laxus. Laxus was one of the guild's S-class mages that had Dragon Lacrimacrystal inserted into his body, making him an artificial Dragon Slayer unlike Natsu, Gajeel, and Wendy. As a lightning Dragon Slayer Laxus was easily in the top five of the strongest guild members, losing out only to his grandfather Markarov, and the undisputed strongest of Fairy Tail, Gildarts. However his strength resulted in an unrivaled arrogance within him that led to him trying to overthrow his grandfather, and take control of the guild through force with his followers, the 'Thunder Gods'. Naturally he was defeated by a Natsu and Gajeel before being excommunicated by his own grandfather, but had rejoined the guild later after a bit of an attitude adjustment. From what Lucy told him though, Alex learned that Laxus had actually been missing since before she and the rest of the major guild members got sealed on Tenrou island. Not only was Laxus's disappearance a major loss of guild strength, but it had also ensured that he never attempted to overthrow his grandfather, which in turn prevented the reawakening of another S-class guild member. Mirajane Strauss was a former S-class Mage that had been infamously known as the 'Demon', up until a few years before Lucy joined the guild. During a certain quest however she experienced a traumatic event when her own baby sister 'died' in her arms. Though the truth was that her sister Lisanna was still alive in another world called Edolas, the shock had been enough that the vast majority of Mirajane's powers vanished, and she was no longer an active member of Fairy Tail, instead acting as the guild's receptionist. It had been during Laxus's attempted coup that Mirajane's powers made a sudden comeback, when one of his followers tried to kill her only remaining sibling right in front of her. Now however, despite Lisanna returning from the world of Edolas whole and healthy, Mirajane was still powerless to help her guild when they needed it, and Fairy Tail was short two of their S-class mages. The second big difference occurred almost immediately after, when Fairy Tail didn't send Natsu and co to help fight one of the dark guilds that made up the Balam Alliance. After the destruction of of the Mages Council during the Tower of Heaven arc one of the strongest Dark Guilds, Oracin Seis, began moving to search for something called Nirvana. As a result, several of the legal guilds sent representatives to form their own alliance, from Fairy Tail, Lamia Scale, Blue Pegasus, and Cait Shelter. This time however Oracin Seis never moved to find Nirvana, as their needs to discover its location were never recovered, Jellal. After his defeat at the Tower of Heaven he too had disappeared completely, meaning that Oracin Seis never tried to find Nirvana, and were never defeated or imprisoned. However, as if fate was defiantly saying it wasn't going to be ignored though, some of the things that happened during that particular arc still came to pass. For instance, even though Wendy didn't meet them there, she still ended up meeting Natsu and Lucy during a different quest that they had undertaken, that had eventually led to her joining Fairy Tail. Lucy herself as well still ended up encountering a member of Oracin Seis by themselves, the other Celestial Spirit Mage, Angel. Perhaps a result of Lucy's 'fate' interfering to help her acquire more of the golden Zodiac summoning keys, she had encountered Angel by chance and had managed to defeat her before forming a contract with the three Zodiac spirits she had on her, Aries, Scorpio, and Gemini. This had added to her collection that already consisted of Tauros, Aquarius, Cancer, Virgo, Leo, and Sagittarius. Then, with her most recent acquisition of Capricorn, she now had ten of the twelve Golden keys, along with several weaker silver key spirits. After these two changes though everything else was more or less the same as it was supposed to happen, Natsu, Lucy, and Wendy all ended up being transferred to the world called Edolas after the people of the guilds hometown Magnolia were taken to fuel their magic power. And then they had gone to the Fairy Tail holy land, Tenrou island, for the S-class promotion exam, which was interrupted by an attack from Grimoire Heart and Acnologia. It was from here on that the 'canon' completely went to hell, as immediately after the main members of Fairy Tail disappeared the person known as the Dark Emperor made his move. With the powers and knowledge he had stolen from Laxus, Jellal, and Zeref it had been child's play for him to completely take over the three dark guilds making up the Balum Alliance, Oracin Seis, Grimoire Heart, and Tartarus, before moving to dominate the majority of the continent with their combined might and forces. The only ones who could compete with his might and forces were the Mage guilds and the Alverez Empire, however the latter joined him when it was learned that he had absorbed even their founder and emperor, Zeref Dragneelaka Emperor Spriggan into himself. This left only the Mage guilds to stand in his path towards dominance, however they were systematically targeted and destroyed until only a few were left. Any that weren't destroyed were either left alone for some reason, or elected to join up with him along with most mercenary guilds, bolstering the Dark Emperor's ranks even more until he had an army unlike any the world had ever seen before at his disposal. Aside from the specific Mage guilds he had also elected to leave the various kingdom capitols alone as well, apparently not considering them worth his time or energy to deal with. As a result when Lucy and the others awoke the world had been transformed into something completely different from when they first traveled to Tenrou island so long ago, where even their beloved hometown of Magnolia was destroyed. Of course the first thing they did was to try and contact their comrades and the guilds that were left, mostly the ones they were friends with, and transfer them to Tenrou Island with the Blue Pegasus guild's beloved airship, Christina. Now they were caught up to the present, where the guilds would occasionally send one of their members from Tenrou Island to do a supply run to the mainland, where Lucy was captured after one of their contacts apparently turned over to the Dark Emperor. When Lucy had finished retelling her story it had already started getting dark, and Alex had a hard look on his face as he digested everything he had heard. Though none of the girls knew the differences from how things were supposed to be, they could tell from Alex's expression, as well as the occasional questions that he'd ask Lucy that it wasn't good. Eventually Grayfia asked him, "So what now?" Alex sighed and took another swig from the bottle of alcohol, while also feeling a bit regrettable that he couldn't get drunk, and said, "Now we go to Tenrou Island and make contact with Fairy Tail and the rest of the guilds there, especially before this 'Dark Emperor's' forces get there. But first, I want you to return to Asora long enough to relay what's happening here, and that it'll be a while before we can return. Also I want you to bring Zenith back with you." Grayfia nodded and was about to depart, when Anne suddenly grabbed her hand and requested, "Please bring back the supplies we have stored at the Emergency Response building! Before we leave I want to do something for the people suffering here!" After glancing at Alex for confirmation, Grayfia said, "Of course, how much do you want me to bring back?" With all of the various food and other supplies being stored in storage rings for efficiency, as well as preservation since time didn't pass in the storage rings, Grayfia would literally bring back decades worth of supplies with her if needed. Unsurprisingly Anne said, "Please bring back all of it, we don't know how much we'll need before we can go home." Grayfia nodded in confirmation at Anne's request, and soon departed through the usual wall of mist, leaving Lucy mystified as she asked, "What kind of magic is that?" Alex however just smiled wryly and was wondering where exactly to begin in explaining to Lucy who they were, when suddenly the guild's front doors were opened. "HAHA! Did you hear that little brat squeal when I smashed his fingers? Teach him not to take things that don't belong to him!" The newcomers words were met with a round of laughter before the group stopped and looked at the mess in their guild. "W-what happened here?" One demanded, before he noticed Alex and the girls gathered around the bar, and his gaze focused onto Lucy. "The fairy bitch escaped!" One of them yelled as they got ready to fight, making several of the girls around Alex stepped forward threateningly. "Wait!" Lucy suddenly cried out as she stepped forward herself, her face serious as she glared at the newcomers. "I owe these guys some payback for how they treated me, so leave them to me!" As she spoke Lucy grabbed the whip at her side with her right hand, while her left held up two of the golden keys at her side. With the rest of the girls backing off to see some of this world's magic firsthand, Lucy then shouted as she held the two keys out, "Open the gates of the Golden Bull and Lion, TAURUS AND LEO!" As she commanded there was a brilliant flash of light, which faded to reveal two figures standing there between Lucy and the newcomers. One was relatively normal looking, being a young good looking man with spiky orange hair and wearing a formal suit. The other however was towering bull-like figure complete with a pair of horns, a tail, and even with white and black fur covering his body. Both of them had angry expressions though as they glared at the newcomers, as the bull grabbed the handle of the massive dual sided battle axe on his back, and declared, "Unforgivable! How dare you strip and ogle my beloved MOOOOCY'S body! Even I haven't seen her completely n.a.k.e.d before!" The man next to him nodded and said with a fierce look, "Indeed, how can we tolerate your pathetic existences when you've defiled our master with your filthy eyes?" To the duo's declarations though, Lucy suddenly shouted, "THATS WHAT YOU GUYS ARE MAD ABOUT?! THAT YOU HAVEN'T SEEN ME N.A.K.E.D AND THEY HAVE?!" Though on one hand she was glad that they wanted to beat these guys up for doing that to her, on the other she was depressed that their motivation to fight was mostly due to their own jealousy. It was at that moment that the man, known to members of Fairy Tail as Loke, looked back and was going to say something to Lucy, only to catch sight of the rest of the girls present. In an instant his expression turned to one of awe, before he suddenly appeared in front of the nearest girl, Moka, and said as he took her hand in his own, "Such beauty, elegance, and grace! Please my goddess, tell this lowly one your name!" Moka's eyes widened in brief surprise at his actions, before she flashed a radiant smile. Loke smiled back, thinking she had taken a liking to him, before she eventually said, "Taken." "Excuse me?" Loke asked, not understanding what she said, to which Moka's smile widened as she stood up front her seat, and said, "Taken, as in I am already happily taken." She then proceeded to slowly lift her leg until her foot was right above Loke's head, before declaring, "Know your place, fool!" She then brought down her foot with enough force that the entire surrounding region shook as if an earthquake had struck, sending almost everyone within Hargeon to the ground as they cried out in panic. Meanwhile when the dust cleared Loke was shaking where he knelt, as he touched the side of his face where Moka's foot had just barely missed. Slowly he looked up at her face once more, only to see her flash him another smile that practically sent him running back to his position at Lucy and Taurus's side, both of who were looking back at Moka with fear along with the group of newcomers. The vampiress casually flipped her hair back, and retook her previous seat as she elegantly sipped a blood red liquid from a wine glass she had found, which was actually some of Alex's blood that she had bottled. Though they didn't know it was actual blood, the fact that it looked like it was enough to scare them even more after her previous actions. For a moment it looked as if no one was going to fight due to what had happened between Moka and Loke, but then Alex said, "Aren't you going to get back at them Lucy?" This snapped the summoning Mage out of her momentary stupor, as she cracked her whip and said while looking at her opponents fiercely, "Yes! Loke, Taurus, let's go!" Her words snapped both of her summoned spirits back to attention as well, as they returned their fierce glares back onto the group before them, though they still sent the occasional nervous glance back at the girls behind them. Meanwhile the group before them hesitated to begin fighting as, while they weren't necessarily afraid of Lucy and her spirits, they were still wary of Moka and the rest of the group of strangers with her. Even if she wasn't a Mage, the strength she had just casually displayed was nothing to scoff at, so now they wanted to get away from here and report this as soon as possible. Lucy refused to give them that chance though, as she commanded, "Loke! Get behind them and cut off their escape!" The orange haired man nodded in affirmation while saying, "Right," before he suddenly moved behind the group of newcomers before they could react. What followed was a skilled combo of Loke and Taurus attacking the group, which consisted of both mages and mercenaries, while Lucy used her whip to systematically seal their movements so that her spirits could finish them off. As they fought Alex watched from behind with the girls, while also occasionally flicking a marble at any of the guys who were about to get through the trio's defenses. Eventually they were down to the last guy, who immediately tried to turn tail and run. "Going somewhere?" Loke asked as he blocked the door, making the final guy pause slightly before he suddenly hear from behind him, "LUCY, KICK!" He turned around only to see a foot coming directly at his face, before his vision went black as he was knocked out when the attack connected. As he fell to the ground Lucy looked around, before making a V with her fingers for victory, and saying, "Good job you two! We showed them what for!" The two spirits chuckled at Lucy's happiness from winning, before Loke suddenly asked, "Tell me master, do we get a 'reward' for winning?" As he mentioned a 'reward' both Loke and Taurus's eyes started shining in anticipation, making Lucy's expression shift into a deadpan as she simply said, "Close the gates of the bull and lion..." Both guys could only pout as they disappeared into specs of light and were sent back to the Spirit World, while Lucy turned to face Alex once more, to find him nodding in approval. "Good work, but you left them alive." As he spoke Rias stood and walked over to the unconscious dark guild members, and pointed her fingers at the back of one of their head execution style as if they were a gun. She then fired a small bullet of pure Destruction into their skull, instantly killing them before moving onto the next one. Lucy grimaced when she saw the way Rias efficiently eliminated the men she had defeated, but held her tongue after she saw how Alex dealt with Bora before, and due to the fact that there was no longer a Magic Council to turn them over to. She tried to put the gruesome executions out of her head, and walked back to Alex as he said, "Once Grayfia returns we'll help the people here as best we can, and then we'll be on our way to Tenrou Island." Lucy nodded in affirmation, though she couldn't help but want to leave sooner due to the anxiety she was feeling. She did ask though, "How are you going to help them? Even if our entire guild was here it would take days for us to be able to properly help the people here." To this however Alex flashed a mischievous smile, and said, "The Fairy Tail way, as loud and flashy as possible!" *** Throughout the city of Hargeon there was a palpable tension in the air, as the people were on edge after word of newcomers that had gone against the Black Collar guild spread, as well as the earthquake they had all felt earlier. To be honest by this point the majority of them had given up on things going back to how they used to be, and were simply existing until the day they finally ended up dying. They weren't completely devoid of the will to live though, which was why when they heard explosions in the sky the vast majority of the citizens started to think they were under attack once again due to the newcomers, and fled to hide. BOOM BOOM BOOM Explosions shook and lit up the sky above them as the people desperately tried to find some cover to escape the magic attacks. It wasn't until one of them tripped and ended up looking directly at the explosions in the sky, that their panic vanished and was instead replaced by confusion. "Look!" They cried out at those passing by them, making other people stop to look up, before they too were similarly confused. One by one the people throughout the city looked up into the night sky, and paused at what they saw. "Oh my god...." One woman whispered as she fell to her knees, tears streaming down her face as she recognized the symbol burning brightly above them. "HEY! COME OVER HERE!" Someone suddenly called out, drawing more and more people to their shouting, until they came across a wondrous/stupefying sight. The building that the Black Collar guild had operated out of for years, where they had taken their families and loved ones to sell into slavery, was gone. Instead there was a giant stage-like structure in the place where the building was supposed to be, with a giant cornucopia on top with food and other necessities spilling out of it. For a brief moment no one moved, none daring to believe what they were seeing, until one man climbed up onto the stage and took one of the fruits at the edge of the pile. He then bit into it cautiously, only for the sweet juice to run down his chin as his eyes widened in wonder. "It's real..." He muttered to himself, before saying to the crowds, "IT'S ALL REAL!" There was a brief pause at his words, before an uproar went up through the crowd. The man then called several people up onto the stage with him to help hand out the food and other supplies, such as water, blankets, clothing, and other things they needed. ''CHILDREN FIRST!" He called out, to ensure that those who needed the food most got some before the a.d.u.l.ts were able to get any. Naturally any parents amongst the crowds started bringing their children forward to get what food they could before it ran out. Among them was a woman who was dragging her barely five year old son through the thick throngs of people, the upper half of his face heavily bandaged. He had been used for entertainment by some of the Black Collar guild members a couple years back, as they fired various forms of magic at him to watch him run away crying. As a result, he had been hit directly in the face and blinded by a fire spell, that had also covered the area around his eyes with a large scar. Though he was unable to see the same things everyone else around him could, he could hear the excitement in their voices as he asked, "Mommy, what's going on?" His mother looked back at him with tears threatening to fall from her eyes as she explained, "Someone brought us food baby, tonight you'll be able to eat as much as you want for once!" Though the little boy was excited to be able to eat so much, he was quickly distracted as he noticed a orange glow through his bandages. "Mommy, what's that bright thing?" He asked innocently, making his mother look up at the fire in the sky and say, "That's.......that.........." She then trailed off while stopping her fight to get to the front of the crowd completely, as an impossible thought entered her head. Slowly the woman turned towards her son, not daring to believe what she had just heard from him as she fell to her knees. "Mommy?" The boy asked as she started to fumble with the bandages around his eyes with shaky fingers. Despite her unstable movements though, the woman managed to remove the bandages, and, when the final strip of cloth fell away she did start breaking down at what she saw. Instead of the horrible scarring and milky white eyes that had looked back at her every time she had removed her son's bandages for the last couple years, she was greeted with pure unblemished skin and big beautiful brown eyes that blinked in the sudden light before focusing onto her. "MOMMY!" The boy cried out when he realized he could see her again, as he jumped into her embrace and wrapped his arms around her happily, as the woman cried over and over, "My baby... My baby....!" Eventually she suddenly cried out into the crowd, "MY BABY CAN SEE AGAIN!" Though for the most part the people didn't know what she was going on about, those that did know the mother-son duo rushed towards them to verify their claims for themselves, while also explaining their circ.u.mstances to those around them. Quickly the boy's story was known to everyone in the crowd, and the miracle that had restored his sight, before, "Argh!" On man cried out as he clutched at the stump that had once been his right arm, before he righted himself a moment later with his arm restored. One by one within the crowd people discovered longtime debilitating injuries, or after effects from various illnesses, disappearing as they became healthier than they had been in years. Most amazingly though was several of the elderly suddenly felt even decades younger, and were able to perform feats that they hadn't in years. Meanwhile the mother, who was still trying to get her tears under control, took her son into her arms once more before pointing upwards and saying, "You see that up there, all that fire?" "Yes mommy." The boy said as he looked up at sky, which had two words burning brightly with a symbol underneath as fireworks went off around them. Due to how he hadn't been able to learn how to read before being blinded, and that he had never seen that symbol before, he didn't now what they stood for until his mother said, "Those words say 'FAIRY TAIL', and that's their symbol below it. They're a mages guild that was famous a while back." "Mages?" The boy asked curiously, to which his mother eagerly nodded and explained, "Yes, before you were born there were people all over the world that used magic, not just the dark guilds. They formed guilds and used their magic to help anyone that needed it, just like now!" The little boy's newly repaired eyes were wide as he once again looked up at the fiery words in the sky, before he finally declared, "When I grow up, I want to be a Mage and join Fairy Tail too!" The mother smiled widely and squeezed her son a little bit tighter, but 'Fairy Tail' wasn't done helping them yet. At that moment a particularly large firework went off, blinding everyone within the city of Hargeon for over an entire minute, but when they opened their eyes the entire city around them had been restored to how it looked before the dark guilds attacked. For a moment everyone could only look around in awe after the consecutive miracles, before a deafening roar shook the entire city as everyone cheered its revival. It was so loud, that a certain large ship that was slipping away under the cover of the night sky could hear them, making it's passengers smile at their reaction. "They certainly seem happy." Shia said as she leaned over the railing to look down. "Well wouldn't you be too if you were in their shoes?" Shizuku asked with a wry smile, while Anne hummed happily next her from how happy the people below were. Then Kuroka spoke up, "What happens when any of those dark guilds come back~Nya? I don't imagine they'll just leave this place alone after we wiped out one of their guilds and gave the people all of this stuff~Nya." Alex nodded from where he sat at the edge of the railing, and replied, "I left a few magic circles that'll alert me if someone tries attacking the city. If they do, then I'll teleport straight here and rain hell onto them." As he said that a powerful aura started radiating from Alex's body, making his women smile widely at how domineering he was behaving. Meanwhile Lucy could only look down at the city in awe, not yet sure if she was dreaming or truly seeing what was happening around her. She then slowly looked back towards Alex all of her unasked questions once more flooding her mind.
