The Salamander's Sister

Chapter 96: The Spiral of Time

Natsume's pov

I couldn't help but worry for Mirajane, who was currently fighting off one of the Neo Oracion Seis members at the moment. At the moment, Christina was on its way to the Zentopia Church so that we could save Natsu and Lucy. I also couldn't help but feel extremely worried for both of them, they both had been taken the enemy and there was no telling what they were doing to them. All that was on my mind was saving my brother and my best friend. Gray wrapped me in a hug from behind, resting his head on top of mine. "Are you alright?" He asked, "I'm trying to be.. I'm worried about Mira. I know she can handle herself, but.. You never know.. And Natsu and Lucy.. Those people could be doing anything to them." I sighed, leaning back into him. "I know. I'm worried too. But I have faith we can get there in time." Gray turned me to face him, I gave him a small smile and wrapped my arms around him. But before I could say anything, we heard explosions coming from nearby. Gray and I pulled away from one another, looking at each other in confusion. The two of us quickly rushed outside, where everyone else was standing. "What the hell is going on?!" I asked, looking to Erza. "The Fiore Guards are firing at the Infinity clock." We watched as they continued firing at the clock, but they all were rebounded due to the effects of the Real Nightmare Spell. I stepped back, watching the fallout below and it shook me to my core. The thing that followed was strange, everyone onboard the Christina started acting strange. As I looked around I noticed that Satomi and Satoru were both laughing, giggling and just being weird. I furrowed my eyebrows, becoming a bit worried as I noticed that I was the only one not affected. Chase, who was standing a few feet away from me suddenly came marching over to me. "Youuu!!" He slurred, swaying a bit as he stepped in front of me. "What?" I quirked an eyebrow at him, "Youuu!" He waved his finger, "You are so pretty. And cute." I blushed at his comments, as he swayed a bit. "Thanks." I said, "Why don't you give me a small kiss?" He threw himself forward, poking his lips out which made me panic. Before he got too close, a fist flew in front of me and clocked him in the face. I let out gasp, stumbling back a bit as Chase hit the deck of the ship. I looked over to my left, spotting Gray who looked pissed. "Hey!!! That's my girlfriend!! What do you think you're doing trying to kiss her?!!" He snapped, as Chase stood back up to his feet. I backed away from the two who were arguing and looked around, everyone was acting so weird. "You bastard!! Don't ever try to kiss my girlfriend again!" Gray shook his fist, but Chase seemed to make him even angrier. So he punched him in the gut, making me shake my head. Satomi was now arguing with Gajeel, while Satoru was messing with someone else.

I spotted Erza who was standing a few feet away and I noticed, she looked unaffected by whatever this was. "Erza!" She looked over at me, a bit surprised but looked relieved. "Are we the only two not affected by Real Nightmare?" I asked, "Seems like it." She sighed, as we watched everyone just be weird. "I have an idea which could possibly reverse this." She spoke. "Great. What do you have in mind?" I looked over at her, sweatdropping as she suddenly summoned a large magical hammer.

"Where did you get that from?"

"It's a secret."

"Are you going to hit somebody with that?"

"I'm going to hit a lot of people with it." I backed away from Erza, as she stepped forward and started hitting everyone on the ship with that hammer. But within hitting everyone on Christina with the hammer, everyone returned back to normal.

"What the hell happened?" Satoru asked, rubbing his face.

"Those attacks on the Infinity Clock backfired. So the effects of Real Nightmare kinda took over everyone." I explained, "Did someone punch me?" Chase asked, I only blushed and looked away from him. "Sume, you know something, don't you?" Satoru quipped, quirking an eyebrow at me.

"Yeah.. What's with the blushing, Sume?" Happy asked, making me glare at the blue cat.

"Shut up, you stupid cat. I ain't blushing and I know nothing. Leave me alone." I stormed away from them, not bothering to say a word which got Chase to yell after me. I ignored him, heading back over towards Ezra. "You know, Natsume. I saw what happened when you were talking with Chase earlier." I looked over at her, my blush deepening as she smirked at me. "You saw nothing." She let out an amused laugh, smiling as she got me to react to her words. Her laughter was cut short when Christina suddenly shook heavily, causing some of us to lose our balance. "What was that?!" Satomi panicked, "We're here!!!" I moved forward, looking below the ship to see that we had arrived at the Zentopia Church. Directly below us, the churches' guards were firing heavily at us to drive us away. Since they were no match for Christina, it seemed that Byro had a better idea because he sent his giant squid, Kanaloa to attack us. I growled in frustration as Kanaloa first appeared near the ship.

"What the hell?"

"Is that a giant squid?!!" Kosuke panicked, oh, yeah.. I forgot he was here as well. "Damn that Byro!" I snapped, making him jump slightly out of surprise. Kanaloa attached itself to the ship, making everyone start attacking it but it was no use. "Fire Dragon roar!!!" None of the attacks that we were sending had any effect on getting Kanaloa off of the ship. The giant squid then starts spitting acid on various parts of the ship, which made everyone panic a bit. "That thing spits acid?!! What the hell kind of squid spits acid?!!" Chase questioned, as he attacked a tentacle. "How the hell are we going to get this thing off the damn ship?!! It won't budge!" Satomi looked to me, but I only shook my head. My eyes trailed over to Ichiya, noticing that he looked extremely worried about everyone and Christina. I watched him shot off spiral chains, essentially keeping Kanaloa restrained.

"What are you doing?!" Gajeel looked back at Ichiya. "Everyone listen up. I'll handle Kanaloa on my own. All of you get off of here." Ichiya stated.

"No way!" Satoru shook his head, as Chase agreed with him. "We can't leave you to deal with Kanaloa on your own. What if the ship goes down?" I asked, stepping forward as a frown made it way onto my face. "I know that you all are worried but I can handle this. Please, get off of the ship. Our friends in the church need you more than I do." I didn't want to leave Ichiya alone to handle this, but we had no choice. Everyone eventually agreed, jumping off of the ship. But as we all jumped off the ship onto the church's steps, Christina suddenly crashes to the ground. "Ichiya!!" Satomi cried out, looking extremely worried. "Don't worry, Ichiya always manages to survive no matter how dangerous the situation is." Erza reassured everyone, looking to us. I got a small pain in my side, which let me know that Natsu was somewhere in the church fighting with someone. I could feel it.

"Lucky!" She looked over to me, walking away from Happy. "Let's go." She nodded, knowing that I wanted to go find Natsu. Lucky picked me up, letting out her wings and started moving us away from the group which didn't go unnoticed by anyone.

"Natsume, where are you going?!" Erza called.

"Get back here!!" Gray called after me.

"No!! I'm going to find Natsu and that's final!" Lucky picked up the pace, as we flew back overhead the church and headed towards a different part. "Natsu.. Lucy.. Please.. Just hang in there. We're coming to get you guys.. Just please. Be alright."

Meanwhile....

"Your friends have arrived to come save you. That pink haired twin of Natsu's has also come to get you back." Imitatia informed Lucy, Lucy looked both relieved and worried. She knew that Natsume wasn't going to let anything stop her from getting to Natsu and her, she knew how much she and Natsu meant to Natsume. "Because of you, all of your friends will die." Imitatia added, making Lucy frown. "What do you mean? Why would they die?" Lucy asked, looking increasingly more worried. "Because you belong to me and only me. Nobody shall have you." Imitatia declared, which startled Lucy.