Chapter Six - Lee & Erza Go To Galuna Island

"In short, Lucy, Natsu, Gray, and Happy are all now on this forbidden island, to perform an S-Class quest?" Erza asked Makarov.

"That's about the size of it."

"I see." Erza wasn't ambivalent. Though she hoped for their safety, far more important than that matter was the matter of their punishment for such flagrant violations of the rules of the guild. "I will retrieve them." She would teach them a lesson no matter what, but, if they were seriously injured, she would ensure they didn't die before receiving their punishment. "May I bring Lee along with me? If any of them are seriously injured, it may be necessary to heal them."

"He's not an S-Class wizard," Makarov said, which was neither an agreement nor a disagreement.

"I understand very well, Master Makarov. However, I think that, should the worst have come to pass, he is the most likely to be able to keep them alive. His time magic allows for endless endurance, the sort that allows one to exert themselves for an entire day and night without ceasing, simply by reverting the body back to its prior condition. I have also seen it restore objects to pristine condition. I believe it will be able to heal them from the no-doubt gruesome injuries they will have sustained from doing such a thing - I will ask as much before bringing him along."

"Very well. Keep him safe."

* * *

I quietly stood behind her as she harangued a ship's crew to take the two of us to Galuna Island. I considered myself fortunate to have managed to get involved in it - obscene as it may seem, given the stakes involved, it had simply slipped my mind. She began to beat and threaten them when they still refused her, and soon enough, we were on a ship headed to Galuna.

Once the voyage began, Erza went on about punishing rulebreakers throughout almost the entire journey to Galuna Island, pacing angrily at the thought of the group disrespecting the guild's rules. She only stopped when our eyes would meet - then she'd blush and avert her gaze, her hand going to her chest for a moment before she steeled herself and got back to monomaniacally focusing on what was really important: laying the smackdown on Lucy, Gray, Happy, and Natsu. Whether or not I agreed with her was irrelevant - it wasn't as if I could stop her.

We arrived at the village in short order - and exactly where we were in this story was revealed when Erza fell directly into the pit right in front of the village. It was poorly disguised, just a hole with some straw over the top. Erza quickly clambered her way out of it. "A trap. So you knew I was coming and you did this, Lucy? I can't deny that I have some respect for such tenacity, but it's time to accept your punishment." She drew her sword, pointing it directly at Lucy.

"No!" Lucy said, waving her hands desperately. "No, the trap was for the evil wizards! They're coming to destroy the village!"

Erza frowned. "Would these wizards have been attracted here because of your intervention?" Lucy had a truly terrible poker face. Erza sighed. "You and Natsu's behavior has brought disrepute to the name of the Fairy Tail guild. I cannot allow this village to be brought to ruin. Explain the situation to me."

While Lucy explained the situation to Erza - in the tone of a woman terrified of being beaten for misbehavior - Virgo began to reapply the straw over the hole. "...trying to revive the demon Deliora, and the magic they're using is responsible for the curse, and they found out that they hired us and were ordered to come kill the villagers, so I rushed down here to warn the villagers about what was going to happen. They still haven't shown up."

"I see," Erza said, nodding silently.

"Where is Deliora?" I asked. They'd handled it in canon, so I could handle my own matter - the reason it was so important I come along!

"It's... in the caverns under the temple," Lucy said, sounding less certain than she could be.

"Happy!" I said, pointing at the cat in question. "I need you to take me to Deliora at once. Using my magic, I can preserve its containment. I fear that it may already be too late otherwise." I pushed up my glasses, striking a cool pose that made both Erza and Lucy stare. Basking in their awestruck gazes was enough to make one feel like a king.

Happy ruined the moment. "You know you look ridiculous doing a pose like that, right?"

"Enough," I declared, with a whip of my hand. "Do you want Deliora to be let free?"

"We are here to return these rulebreakers to the guild," Erza said, firmly, her expression hard. I gave her a quietly pleading look, as if requesting mercy, and she instantly softened. "B-but, if you insist," she said, one hand playing with a lock of her hair, "then I should go with you, Lee," Erza said, her hand hitting her sword's pommel. "I promised Master Makarov I would protect you."

"No," I told her, with a firm shake of my head. "You have to protect these villagers. The honor of the Fairy Tail guild demands it!" I definitely sounded cool. Erza seem positively bashful at my commentary, and Lucy looked like she was entirely reappraising my character.

"You're trying way too hard," Happy said dismissively.

"Take me to Deliora!" I ordered him, angry that he had once more ruined my perfect moment. He sighed and hefted me up into the air.

* * *

I arrived in the cavernous chamber with Deliora after Happy got us turned around at least three times. The blue cat was my only guide, though, so I had to tolerate his poor navigation skills. I stared up at the thing, reached out - and rewound time. Only for the ice itself, of course. It took some effort, given just how long ago Ur had turned herself into the ice, but soon enough there they were: the older woman Ur, a dark-haired beauty of an ice wizard, and the gargantuan demon Deliora.

She looked just as she had in life: a mature, beautiful body, with a red tank-top that revealed her navel and plenty of cleavage, alongside a jacket and long black jeans that hugged her legs. Her expression and body language was entirely different, though. "Deliora..." she growled, every muscle in her body tense. It wasn't as if she was angry at it being before her - it was more like she was locked in a mental state of bizarre arousal. Of course, I wasn't worried about Deliora at all, already knowing that it was going to shatter into pieces shortly after it came back to life, all its strength having been sapped. "Deliora... Deliora..." However, it just might manage to crush Ur if she kept standing there, lost in a thought she'd been repeating for however long.

"Ur!" I called out, and she jerked in surprise, one hand going to her ear as if surprised that she could hear. "You must get out of the way! Deliora's near dea-" it then started to crack and fall apart, precisely as expected.

She looked at it. There was a still-present confusion, born of her previous circumstances. Her mouth opened and closed several times, her body gradulaly losing its tension. "I... don't understand," she said, blinking as she looked around her. "What's going on?"

"For the past ten years, you've been leeching the life from Deliora, bit by bit," I explained. "But your task is finally finished, as you can see." I gestured at the scattered remnants of the once-great demon. I was truly thankful that my time reversion had not somehow healed him too. That would have been a true tragedy. "I, the great wizard Lee, have saved you! Your two disciples, Lyon and Gray, are on this very island as we speak! Would you like to see them again?"

She smiled, then pressed her palm to her forehead for a moment, as if she had a mild headache. I could actually see the tears in her eyes. "You even fixed my leg too," she said. I glanced at her leg. It appeared to be normal. Had she lost it somehow, canonically? I couldn't remember that. I was quite certain she'd had both legs when she was making the kids do laps while they were all in their underwear. I leave the reason why as an exercise to the reader. "Thank you, Lee. You're truly amazing wizard to have done... this. I... thought that I would never be able to look at Gray and Lyon again."

"It is no problem to do something like this for such a beautiful woman." Unfortunately, my newfound nature as the king of sexual harassment came into play, and as she drew close enough, I slipped her panties right off of her, inspecting and playing with them. They were rather dull, elastic green ones, and she glanced at my stolen panties with a look of... mild disbelief.

"I'm a bit old for you to be getting this sort of worked up, aren't I?" She asked. "Doing all that, just to get my panties?"

"I did not do it purely to get your panties," I said, absently tucking her panties into my back pocket. She watched my hand go, but didn't try to stop me, which was the same as consent in my book.

"You can keep them." She stretched, which showed off a beautiful, flexible body. "Where are Lyon and Gray, anyway?"

"Oh, yes. That reminds me - your former disciple Lyon is behaving terribly at the moment."

* * *

Lyon's whole body was now encased in ice from the neck down. Ur looked down at him with a frown on her lips as he wriggled against his confinement. She had wanted to spare him from an endless attempt to surpass her, but it seemed he hadn't been able to move beyond it. He looked so different now than he once had. "Deliora's been defeated, Lyon. For the past ten years, I've been sapping its strength, bit by bit."

"How can you be alive again?! You were dead!" She could tell his emotions were a whirlwind, all that old pride still there, seemingly only calloused and ensconced ever deeper inside him for the time they'd spent apart.

"I was just ice," she said. "The great wizard Lee here," she put a playful note to the words, giving the handsome young man a quick wink, "saved me. Now, is it true that you told your people to go destroy the village?"

"They tried to interrupt my work!"

"Your work of trying to reawaken the demon that I gave up the past decade of my life to stop?" He looked to one side. At least he had the sense to be embarrassed about this. It was hard to be truly angry at him, since in her heart he was still that proud, stubborn eight year old, even if ten years had passed and he'd grown into a proud, stubborn young man. For just a moment, she let her maternal instincts overpower her instincts to discipline her beloved disciple, and wrapped him in a deep, firm hug. "I love you, Lyon." She could feel the tears forming in her own eyes - even in his, too. "Now." She pulled back from him. "Who do we need to tell to stop in order to save this village?" She cracked her knuckles in a way that he was all too familiar with, that same old lopsided smile appearing on her face. To her, it felt like barely a week since she'd last worn it. To him, it had been years. Either way, he understood what it meant: do what I say or get punished, and old instincts die hard.

* * *

"I'm... so glad to see you again, Master," Gray said, falling to his knees in front of her, his head bowed low. Where Lyon still seemed like the prideful little crap he'd been a decade prior, Gray had clearly done a lot of growing up in the time since she'd last seen him. "I apologize profusely for causing you to lose your life those ten years ago! Not a day has gone by I don't regret what I did!"

"It's fine," she said. "I made my choice willingly. You were just a kid. I hope you're not making that kind of decision anymore." He grimaced at that, and she couldn't help but laugh. Maybe he wasn't that different from what he'd been so long ago. She patted Lee on the shoulder - then slid her arm around him, dangling her fingers over his bare chest, teasing his sternum with her fingertips. Now it was time to get her revenge on him. "It's all thanks to this handsome young man," she said. "He saved me from that icy prison. I'd never have gotten out, otherwise."

"It was no problem whatsoever," he said, proud and boisterous as ever. He didn't even know what was coming.

"There's just one thing I'd like to ask, Lee. One tiny, itsy bitsy thing..." She teased her lips close to his ears. Everybody's eyes were on the two of them. She pulled back, smirking. "Can I have my panties back, please?"

"What the hell did you do to Master?" "Oh my, he's already done something like that with her, too..." "You can't bring somebody back from the dead and start stealing their panties, you incorrigible pervert! Wait, too?!" Everybody shouted over one another, and she quickly disentangled herself from him as he did his best to defend himself against all the accusations leveled against him, giving him a little shove on the butt to push him into the teeming mass of his friends and comrades. She also took advantage of the movement to get her panties back. They seemed totally intact. How the hell did he take them off without removing her pants? She hadn't even felt it at the time, either.