Disclaimer I do not own Fairy Tail. Why would I be writing fanfiction if I owned something like that?
Beta Reader: volfwildman
(Lucy's POV)
I let out a sigh as I dragged some rumble into the designated trash area. When I had said I would stay behind and help Mira I didn't think I would be doing heavy lifting like this. I had just gotten back about an hour ago from getting some groceries for Mira and started helping her clean away some of the rumble in and around the guild.
Mira herself had left about fifteen minutes to get some medical stuff for the still unconscious Bishop which left me to slowly do some annoying heavy cleaning. Apparently, the Guild Master had already sent out some orders for some carpenters and other workers to rebuild the guild anew. Unfortunately for me, the Guild Master had decided to save some money by having the guild do the cleaning up rather than hire people to do that too.
That had been before the entire guild decided to go fight against Phantom Lord.
Now though it was just me and Mira and the She-Devil had decided to go ahead and get a head start on the clean with just the two of them. It was so hard! I was almost certain Mira was just having us do this to torture me or something. It didn't help that Mira could pick up large pieces of rumble like nothing.
I was just about to get back to work when I notice the sky getting rather dark. It wasn't even a couple seconds later when it started raining.
Oh, come on! The weather lacrima had said it would be a sunny day all day today. Way was life just messing with me at this point. Maybe I should have gone to Logtown with the rest of the guild.
I quickly make my way back inside and pull out a couple of buckets from the supply closet and start setting them about the guildhall, wherever some of the rain was dripping in from all the damage. I had just used up all my buckets and was about to head to the back to look for more when I heard something from outside.
"Drip, drip, drop." Said a feminine and near-emotionless tone.
I look towards the door to the guild and found it open with a lady coming in. She was a very good looking women with blue hair that curled at the bottom and a cylinder-like hat. She also wore a blue dress with fluffy fabric wrapped around her neck along with a simple white doll that was hanged around her neck. And finally, she held up a blue umbrella against the rather heavy rain.
"Sorry mam but the guild is closed right now. The building is damaged and most of the guild is out, can you come again later?" I stated, assuming she was either here for the bar or a mage looking to join the guild.
"Are you Lucy Heartfilla?" I felt shivers run down my spine at her words. Not only did she know my full name but the emotionless tone was just creepy as hell, even Bishop's usual neutral and cold tone didn't creep her out this much.
"How did you know that!?" I asked, trying my best to keep calm.
The blue lady stared at me for a few seconds before nodding and speaking once more. "I am Juiva of the Deep, one of Phantom Lord's Elemental Four. I am here on a job to bring you back with me."
My eyes widened at her words, from both the fact she was a member of Phantom Lord and what her mission was. Instantly I reached for my keys only to find nothing, and upon looking down I found them missing. "I am sorry Mademoiselle, but I just couldn't give you a chance to fight back, you could get hurt!"
The fancy foreign-sounding voice seemed to come from everywhere but I didn't have to look long as a fancy-dress man seemed to emerge from the ground next to Juvia. He had a bit of a long face with green upwards spiky hair and spiky mustache as well. He is wearing a very nice-looking red suit that had a very spiky collar and pants along with a white undershirt and red tie. The only other feature that stood out was his monocle and was a weird cape that was attached to his elbows.
He bent his body weirdly as he looked at me with a smile while dangling my keys from one of his fingers. "Oh, I am very sorry I forgot to introduce myself. How very ungentlemanly of me, where are my manners!? I am Monsieur Sol of the Land, member of the Elemental Four and Mademoiselle Juiva partner in this little job of ours."
I took a step back from the two. Why? Why had Phantom Lord sent not just one but two S-class mages for me? And why would they even want me?
Oh, what am I saying, of course, it had something to do with my Father. There no doubt in my mind he wants his daughter to stop playing mage and come home so he put out a job request to come get me or something. I guess Phantom Lord was simply the guild to accept it. Did they attack the guild just for me!? No that didn't matter right now, I need to deal with these two somehow.
Even against two S-class mages, I refused to give up and pull out the whip that Gray and Natsu and helped me pick out as a weapon. I had some training in it, from just practicing on my own to joining in on some of the Vern Family's training sessions but I knew even with it I had no hope of defeating these two without my keys. I was really starting to regret not taking Bishop's advice and learning a bit of Whip magic.
All three of us stood our ground as we stared each other down. I tried to keep a calm face as Juiva stared at me with an emotionless face and Sol just grin at me. I needed to do something now before they acted! Even if I went down, I was going down fighting like a true Fairy Tail mage!
With that thought, I took a step forward and prepared to attack when something happened.
"Shattering Light" A blinding light and ear-shattering noise filled the room and blinded both Juiva and Sol, causing the later to drop my keys but for some reason, it did work on me. Instantly I run over to my keys and pick them up just in time for whatever happened to the two to wear off. Juvia looked out my direction with a scowl and I prepared for her to attack only for her to start looking elsewhere like she was looking for something.
What the? But before I could do anything Sol spoke, "There! The Mademoiselle is making a run for it!"
I confusingly look to where Sol was pointing and was surprised to find another me running away out of town. "She must be too far; my monocle can't seem to get a read on her! Come Mademoiselle Juvia! We must not fail this mission from Maître Jose!"
And with that, the two Phantom Lord mages ran after the fake me. I just stood there dumbfounded as they and my clone disappeared out of sight as they left. It wasn't too long after that the rain disappeared too.
I just continued to stand there, unsure of what to do until I heard a voice come from behind me. "That makes three S-class Phantom Lord mages to be fooled by Shattering Light, Vanish and Mirror Image. People never think about if something is real or not before running off don't they?"
I swiftly turn around to see Bishop standing in the doorway that leads to the medical room. Well maybe standing was a bit generous. He had a hand on the door from that was helping him keep himself up and he was taking some deep breathes too. I also notice he seemed to have a bit of a pained expression on his face as well.
"Bishop! What are you doing up!?" I shouted as I made my way over to help him. He just waved me off but I did stay beside him just in case he needed the help.
"I'm fine...ok maybe I'm not a hundred percent but good enough for now. Besides, last time I checked I was the Gatekeeper of Fairy Tail. What kind of gatekeeper would I be if I just let some enemy mages walking in here and take one of our own." Despite phrasing it like a joke he kept his neutral tone, which just made it funnier for me as I couldn't help the small chuckle that came from my mouth.
"Fine but you should still be in bed! You're just aggravating your injuries by moving about." He let out a sigh at my words.
"Lucy I'm fine. A bit of walking could be good for me. It can-" "Bishop." He was stopped by a rather calm voice that came from the door.
There standing in the doorway was Mira with a bag of medical supplies. She was staring right out the Bishop with a rather scary calm look. "I'm only going to say this once today. Get in your fucking bed or else I'll make you get in it."
Bishop paused as he looked at Mira, he seemed to contemplate his next words while I just tried to not make myself noticed by the very scary lady. Eventually, he spoke, "Mira-" "NOW!"
And Bishop promptly turned around and made his way back to his bed, using the furniture in the room for support. I would have laugh had I not been so scared. Once he was in bed Mira made her way over to him with the supplies but stopped beside me spoke in a far too nice tone.
"Lucy be a dear and clean up those buckets, please. I have a patient to help heal." I quickly nod my head and Mira went into the room as I went to collect the now useless buckets.
But while doing so I couldn't help but remember what Juiva had said. About the job to bring me back...maybe it was time I told everyone about who I really am.
(3rd Person POV)
Makarov was destroying everything just by him walking through the halls of the Phantom Lord's guild. Slowly but surely, he made his way up the guild building, ignoring anything in his way as he single-mindedly marched forward.
In hindsight, he really should have asked one of the Phantom Lord mooks where the Guild Master office is because he spent a good ten minutes wandering around the second and third floor before finding a large spiral staircase that lead up the center tower of the guild. Later it made the mages of Phantom Lord wonder why he felt like destroying their kitchen, bathrooms and storage room.
But with his objective insight, Makarov made his way up the stairs, taking care to not destroy them so he could climb them. It wasn't long before he got to the top floor which appeared to be a waiting area that leads to another room. It didn't take much for Fairy Tail's Master to understand what the other room was for.
Makarov once more used his destructive aura as he slammed open the doors to Jose's office. Said man was sitting in a throne-like chair looking at his slowly marching fellow Wizard Saint. Jose himself kept calm as Makarov got closer, creating some serious damage to the room as he did so.
Despite his calm demeanor, Jose wasn't as calm as he let on. Originally, he wanted to have a hologram to confront Makarov with but after Sol and Juiva report back their unfortunate failure he had to decide it was best to be here in person to talk with his fellow Guild Master.
"Jose! Why have you attacked Fairy Tail! Not just our building but one of my own children as well! WHY!" At Makarov's powerful and angry tone Jose found himself once more annoyed with Gajeel.
The Phantom Lord Guild Master had wanted Fairy Tail to attack yes. But he also knew that Makarov wasn't a mage to take lightly, and that wasn't when he was mad and ready to bash someone's face in. All of this would have been much better had Gajeel just roughed up the Gatekeeper a little and not branded him, at least then Jose wouldn't be faced with a Makrov ready to punch him.
Jose knew he need to be delicate here, he needed to buy time for his plan to work. So, with that thought in mind, Jose gave his fellow Wizard Saint a serious look as he spoke in a professional tone. "I do apologize for what Gajeel did to your guild member. I told him to destroy the guild and do a little bit more just to tip the scales but branding another living being with the Phantom Lord' symbol was too far."
Upon hearing Jose's words Makarov let his aura die down but kept his suspicions which he showed with his narrowed eyes. "But you admit to ordering a member of your guild to attack us. Why!? You know the council will not have this. Does the spot have Foire's number one guild truly matter that much to you!?"
Jose took his time to answer Makrov's question, even going so far as to physically do stuff such as sigh and investigate the distance for a few seconds. Eventually, he answered in a resigned but strong tone, "There are just some things you don't know Makarov. What I do is simply for the good of the Phantom Lord Guild. Unfortunately for you, that involves removing Fairy Tail. And has for the council...if things go the way I hope they do then the council will happily let Phantom Lord go on with its existence."
Makarov found himself confused by Jose's words. Even if Fairy Tail would be whipped out the council wouldn't let Phantom Lord go free. There would be some serious punishment. The little Wizard Saint found himself wondering just what his fellow Saint had planned.
But in the end, it didn't matter, Jose had ordered the attack on the guild so Makarov would reply in kind. With that thought, the Fairy Tail Guild Master steel his expression and spoke once more. "I don't know what your planning Jose but if you intend to get rid of Fairy Tail then I will stop you here and now!"
Jose responded by standing up from his chair and looking at Makarov. He did spend a few seconds looking behind the man before returning his gaze to his fellow Guild Master and speaking once more. "I see...well then Makarov let me tell you this. I do rather dislike you, that meeting those few years ago is still rather fresh in mind but...I respect you as a fellow Wizard Saint, goodbye."
With that said Jose moved his right arm forward and point his hand to Makarov, a dark purple magic circle appearing on it as he does so. Makarov, who had been once more confused by what Jose had said for a few seconds, prepared for whatever the Phantom Lord Guild Master would throw at him.
Unfortunately for Makarov, Jose wasn't the one he should have prepared for.
"So sad….so much sorrow. For on this day a great man shall fall." Makarov's eyes widened as he heard a voice from behind him.
With a swift turn, Makarov was greeted with a rather tall and large man with a large green coat, a loss pale red shirt with a collar that covers the neck and large baggy shorts. He had no visible hair with a big green top hat covering the top of his head and a white blindfold covering his eyes that had streams of tears running down them. Other than that, he had a blue with white strips priest-like stole hanging off his next and a weird red skull necklace.
This was Aria of the Heavens. Phantom Lord's greatest S-class mage and he had Makarov right where he wanted him.
"Metsu"
Before Makarov could react, the air around him glowed and attacked him. He let out a pained yell as the air seemed to reach into him and drag away his magic, scattering it to the winds. Before long Makarov was completely drained of magic, something that had proven very painful due to the old man's large amount of magic. With his body now slightly green from his magic exhaustion, he fell to the ground which gave way and allowed the once-powerful Wizard Saint to fall right back to the first floor.
Aria gave out a sob of sadness at the sight while Jose just gave a stoic look at the hole where Makarov had been.
This was necessary for him to save Phantom Lord.
(3rd Person Battle POV)
"Iron Dragon's Club" Gajeel shouted as he swung his extending iron pillar forearm at Natsu. The Fire Dragon Slayer simply held out his right arm and caught the pillar, using all his strength to stop it and hold on to it.
"Ice-Make: Lance" With the Iron Slayer's focus on his brother Gray used his magic and created several arcing lances that extended through the air towards said Iron Slayer.
Gajeel attempted to dodge but found that he was held in place by Natsu who still hadn't let go of the pillar, using it to force Gajeel into not moving out of the way of the attack. The Iron Slayer gritted his teeth as he last second reinforced his iron scale body with some magic before the Ice-Make attack hit.
Even with the improved defense, he held back a yelp of pain once the lances smashed into his body and even dented it in a few places. During this Gajeel felt the grip on his forearm turned iron pillar release and he looked ahead in time to see Natsu running at him with a first ready to release a devastating punch.
"Fire Dragon's Iron Fist" Gajeel quickly recalled a pillar arm and turned it back into a regular arm, I be it a regular arm made of iron scales has he brought both to guard his face and chest. Unfortunately for the Iron Slayer, in his haste, he misjudged the target for the attack and yell in pain when Natsu's attack hit him in the bare stomach and sent him to one of the building's walls.
Gajeel wasn't the only one struggling with the Fairy Tail invaders, many of Phantom Lord's mages were trying their best to defend against their opponents. That said the battle had reached a bit of a standstill, Fairy Tail's momentum had mostly died at this point and many of their mages were tired from the rather strong but energy-consuming first strike on their rivals.
It didn't help that the Phantom Lord mages were a rather resilient bunch as most of them refused to stay down and continued to fight the invaders. But the more high-class Fairy Tail members were keeping them from truly gaining any real advantage. The scales of battle had evened out and at this point, all that was needed was one major blow for either side to win.
Luckily for Phantom Lord, that blow was in their favor.
*CRASH*
The Battle of Phantoms and Fairies paused as a loud crash was heard and everyone turned to look at the source of the sound. Laying in a small crater in the floor of the building was a lightly green Makarov who was only barely conscious. Pain flared throughout his body, both from having his magic forcibly taken out of him and from the long fall.
Several of the mages of Fairy Tail let out gasps as a few of them bailed from their battles and rushed towards their fallen master. While this happened the morale of Phantom Lord soared as they once more started fighting but now with a fire fueled motivation.
"Iron Dragon's Sword" Shout Gajeel as he had noted that his two opponents were completely focused on their fallen Guild Master. The giant sword that the Iron Slayer had created smashed into both Natsu and Gray in one well-aimed strike and sent the two flying.
Other members of Fairy Tail were also feeling the pain as several of them were attacked while they were distracted or when they weren't ready. The scales of battle had tipped heavily in Phantom Lord's favor.
Erza saw this rather quickly as she took note of her surroundings after she had rushed to Makarov's side. This was very bad; the plan had been to strike hard and fast to put Phantom Lord on the defense while Makarov defeated Jose. With Phantom Lord's Guild Master defeated it would have been rather easy to beat down the remain and head home, their heads held high knowing they had won.
But obviously that hadn't happened and Erza found herself panicking slightly as she tried to figure out what to do. This panic was displaced when she felt a hand on her shoulder and saw her adopted sister Cana beside her with an angry but resigned face.
"We need to retreat! I hate to say it but we can't win this battle. We need to head back and treat our wounded, especially the Guild Master." Cana's tone was that of frustration, a feeling that Erza very much shared but understood that her older sister was right. The battle had been lost the second that Makarov had been somehow defeated and right now they needed to focus on treating the injured.
"Everyone," Erza shouted, "Retreat! Grab the wounded and head back to the train! NOW!" There was once more a pause in battle as everyone processed the Fairy Queen's words. Soon Fairy Tail mages were abandoning their battles and grabbing any of their injuries as they swiftly made their way to the destroyed entrance of the Phantom Lord Guild.
Many of the Fairy Tail mages wanted to argue, the most prominent were Natsu and Gray who were getting ready to voice their opinion. But when those two saw Erza afraid but stern face the word instantly died in their throats as they started retreating, knowing that this wasn't the time nor place to argue with their sister.
The entire Guild of Fairy Tail was in full-on retreat as they rushed out of the building and towards the Log Town train station, some Phantom Lord mage running after them throwing insults, jeers and even a few attacks.
For one Phantom Lord mage, Black Steel Gajeel, he simply sat down on one of the undestroyed chairs and let out a sigh as his body reverted from iron scale to regular skin. The dents that had been in his body turned to brushes that cover his body. He was more than glad that his Guild Master's plan had worked out, fighting a pissed of Fire Dragon Slayer was one thing but doing so while he coordinated his attack with an Ice-Make Mage was not fun.
Gajeel hated to admit it but he most likely would have lost had that battle continued. He was decently confident that he could take on the Fire Dragon Slayer but not another rather skilled mage at the same time. He leaned back in his seat but nearly jumped out of it when he heard a familiar voice from right next to him.
"Gajeel my close friend! Are you alright!? Your body has the sorrowful signs of battle upon it!" Said a concerned Aria as he looked down on his fellow S-class mage, having silently made his way to him...
Gajeel's surprise dispersed as he laid back once more in the seat and waved off Aria's concern. "God damn Aria how many times have I told you to not sneak up on me!? And I'm fine, just took more damage than I thought I would from that little battle. Nothing a little bit iron won't fix. I just fucking wish I knew why both the Summer and Winter Fairies were so mad at me. They look like they were ready to kill me."
Aria contemplated his iron friend's words before remembering an interesting detail about their enemy. "If I remember correctly the Summer and Winter Fairy along with the ones known as The Fairy Queen and The Gambler were all adopted by a woman named Alice Vern. Said women also had a biologic son named Bishop Vern, otherwise known as the Gatekeeper of Fairy Tail. I'd imagine that they felt rather great sorrow and anger at what you did to their big brother."
Gajeel's eye widened at the new info as he remembered the looks he had been getting from Cana and Erza. He suddenly found himself rather grateful to all the mooks that kept those two busy. Before he could say anything back to his dramatic friend a voice spoke to the two of them.
"Oh good, you two are here. I need to speak with you." Aria and Gajeel looked over to see Jose approaching them.
"What is it oh Great Master?" Spoke Aria a dramatic tone, one that both Jose and Gajeel were far to used too by this point.
The Phantom Lord paused before answering the question as he looked at the distant form of the retreating Fairy Tail mages. "I need both of you ready for another fight. Rather unfortunately, Juvia and Sol have failed their mission."
Both S-class mage's eyes widened at what they heard but before either of them could ask Jose spoke. "It appears that the Gatekeeper of Fairy Tail wasn't as out of the picture as we thought. While trying to Get Lucy Heartfilla there were distracted and lead away by an illusion. It's too late now so I told them to head back to the old Phantom Lord headquarters. You two also get ready and head there as well. I just informed Totmaru to make his way over there when he finally gets here. I'll also be rounding up some of the more capable Phantom Lords mage to come head there too."
Once more Jose paused as he watched the distant figures of the Fairy Tail mage disappear. He turned to face his two greatest mages with a stoic but determined look on his face.
"It's time we end this little war."
NOTICE: SO after some thought, I decided to make P a treon(This site does not like that word). Let me make something clear here. 1. I will never hide any work of fanfiction I do behind a paywall, no matter what happens all my works will be posting to this site for public viewing. 2. I'm not poor or anything like that, I work three different jobs and from that, I make plenty of money. That said between the three jobs, college and my other commitments I at times find myself rather short on time for writing, especially for updating weekly. So if this does well then I hope to take off time and maybe even quite a job to spend more time writing. So if you want to support me then give a dollar. That said if you just want to read my stuff and not spend anything then your more then welcome to do so, I'm just happy with people reading my stuff. A link to my P a treon is on my bio and will be at the end of each chapter.
I will be taking this Notice down when I post chapter 40. Thank you for reading it.
AN: And so we begin the next part of this arc. Little changes here and there, mainly of course Lucy not getting kidnapped and save. Along with some changes to some characters like Jose, Sol, and Aria. The latter two you'll really start to see the changes later. Looking forward to writing more for this arc. Hope the changes are well received.
Thanks once again to volfwildman for being a Beta. And this week's oh so great shoutout will go tooooo MINI-Toepunt for his rather nice review. Thanks for that man, it's good to see people apricating the stuff I've done.
In a world, where things are shitty. One group is trying to bring color back to this horrid gray-scale shit we call the world of entertainment. They are...Fanficatics. Will they bring creativity and imagination back into an industrialized world or will that be shallowed up in a wave of forced tropes and formulaic stories? Find out now!? Fanficatic coming to a fictional theater near you.
Have a great day.
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