"Why did I have to get stuck with you, out of all the members of our team? Does the universe hate me? Was I awful and cruel in a past life? Is this my eternal punishment for all the sins I've committed?" Gray moaned, wedding ring tugging on his hair as he ran his hand through his black locks.
Natsu glared, barely managing to keep his simmering contained. "Can you shut up and stop being such a drama queen? It's not the end of the world, asshole."
"Sure as hell feels like it," Gray muttered, absentmindedly scratching a spot on his bare ribs.
Natsu groaned again. He'd been fighting back the urge to punch Gray all day long, and he wasn't sure how much longer he could stall his hand. He desperately needed a fight. Oh god, what he would give to fight someone right now.
"Can you sense anyone?" Gray asked, attempting to be civil for once.
The Fire Dragon shrugged. "All these walls are really making it hard for me to hear or smell anything other than you." He glared halfheartedly at the Maker mage before continuing. "If we can get to an intersection, maybe that'll help. I dunno, this whole situation is weird."
Gray snorted. "Tell me about it. Squaring off with a guy that's wearing my face is not a situation I ever imagined."
"They don't even really look like us."
"Yeah, they're kinda blurry around the edges."
"It's like if Reedus drew us on people and then messed it up," Natsu agreed. "Don't know how people are getting fooled by them."
"Well, fear's a strong motivator. Not everyone is as mule-headed like you and tries to seek out the most dangerous situation possible."
Natsu grinned. "Hell yeah I do."
"That shouldn't be a compliment," Gray muttered, shaking his head at his friend. "Dude, you're so weird."
"Not as weird as you."
"Oh, that is such a lie."
"Is not!"
"Is too! I can't think of any normal person who plans to propose to their girlfriend after a job fighting a dark guild."
"Hey!" Gray could tell he struck a nerve by the way Natsu dropped his gaze and hunched his shoulders. "It's not weird, is it?"
Gray sighed, rubbing the back of his neck. "I'm just teasing you, man. Honestly, no matter how you do it, she's gonna say yes."
"Is it good enough for Erza's standards?"
"Erza's standards don't matter in your proposal to Lucy. See, this is why you don't ask Erza her opinion on things like this. She has such a narrow window of what's perfect."
"Dude, I know. She shot down literally every idea I had."
"I'm guessing you haven't told her about this plan?"
"Nah. I heard Hargeon and thought that would be a good place seeing as it's where we met." Natsu rolled his shoulders, hand subconsciously dropping to his pocket and wrapping around the small box. The pendant on his bracelet dragged against his palm, and a sharp pang of heat seared his skin. The Dragon Slayer slammed to a stop, dropping the box back into his pocket and clutching at his bracelet.
"Natsu?" Gray turned back, arching an eyebrow in confusion. "What's going on?"
"Bracelet. Lucy's in trouble." The bracelet burned hotter for a second before cooling. Natsu cursed. "Something's going on."
"She'll be fine," Gray reassured him, knowing the panic that set in when Natsu let his worry for Lucy take control. "She's tough."
"Yeah, I know." Natsu rolled his shoulders, clenching his fist around the pendant. "She's probably safer than we are."
"Yeah, cause you'll take the first sign of trouble and use it to punch me out."
"No!"
"That's literally what you did to Gajeel during the Grand Magic Games."
"So?"
Gray grinned to himself, mission of distracting Natsu completed. And that was when even he could hear the sound of approaching footsteps coming ever closer.
XXX
Happy grabbed the back of Lucy's top, flaring his wings and yanking her backward. With his help, she narrowly avoided an arrow of magic straight to the gut. She gasped out a thank-you before grabbing her keys, calling upon her diminishing supply of magic.
She changed in an instant, Aries Star Dress replaced by her Taurus Star Dress in the time it took for her to leap forward. Her whip connected with the ground, the weapon channeling Taurus's magic to split the cobbled stone.
Her opponents shrieked, two crashing to their knees as their balance was lost due to the uneven waves of shattered floor. The other three managed to retain their footing, but just barely.
"What the hell, she's just one girl!" Fake Erza glared, two swords clutched tightly in her hands. Her hair was in disarray from the frustration posed by the woman before her. The other four were just simple members of the dark guild, but their strength was on par with Other Erza's. What that said about Other Erza's power, Lucy had no idea. "You shouldn't be this much of a challenge!"
Lucy grinned, wiping sweat from her brow. "Well first off, I'm not alone. I got Happy here with me. Second, light is always stronger than dark. And third, I'm a lot stronger than I look. I can keep proving it if you want." Then her grin slipped into a smirk, and she struck once more.
Her Fleuve d'étoiles wrapped around a woman's leg and dragged her to the floor. She spun through the fight with the grace she had been raised with and the power she had been strengthening for years. Dancing and twisting, whip cracking and flying, she truly was a sight to behold.
Other Erza struck out with her sword, desperate to not lose this fight. Much to her irritation, her weapons had no effect on Lucy's whip, only slicing through the waves of coursing magic. She increased the frenzy of her attacks, swinging faster and faster.
The Fleuve d'étoiles had no effect on the Other Erza either, only stunning and inconveniencing her for a second. The only time her whip actually caused a physical reaction was when it made contact with the floor. But it was driving Other Erza insane.
"Actually hit me!" She yelled, brandishing her weapon above her head. As she swung, her elbow slammed into one of her guildmates, sending her crashing to the floor. Other Erza didn't pause in her attack, not having it in her to care about the fate of her guildmates as long as she succeeded in this fight.
Lucy's eyes narrowed as she watched the dark man fall to the ground, clutching his head as his vision spun. She blocked Other Erza's attack with ease, barely moving as her glare intensified. Happy sniggered, dipping down to drag the incapacitated dark guild member to the side of the hallway. "Oh, you're in for it now."
"You're so determined to beat me that you would willingly injure your own guildmate?"
"They're simply a means to an end." Other Erza tossed her hair over her shoulder, standing tall and returning the Celestial Spirit wizard's glare. "They're replaceable. I am not."
"No one is replaceable." Lucy rolled her shoulders, making eye contact with Happy. She grinned, reaching up to tug at her necklace. She paused when a sharp heat pulsed through her skin, and she glanced up briefly at the ceiling. Be safe, Natsu. She returned her attention to fake Erza and the rage that was beginning to pool in her stomach. She raised an eyebrow as her hand slipped down to hold her keys. "But you want me to take this fight more seriously? Fine. I'll show you just how hard it's going to be to beat me."
Golden light filled the hallway. She raised a hand, calling forth a spirit even before her transformation was complete. "Open! Gate of the Twins! Gemini!" The light faded away to reveal Lucy in her Cancer Star Dress, twin katanas in her grasp and the twin Spirits at her side. Her smile had turned cold, all ease gone from her stance. This was a wizard ready for a fight. And she was not going down.
XXX
"Sky Dragon's Roar!"
The magic tore out of Wendy with a force she rarely called upon, the tight spiral of wind racing forward and knocking through several of her opponents. They went flying back against the wall, leaving the Sky Maiden in a circle of empty space.
She took a deep breath, recovering from the sheer amount of magic she had been pouring out in the last ten minutes or so. But she didn't get much of a break. Another two dark wizards came charging at her, raising weapons high.
Wendy sighed, sweeping out with her foot and sending them back once more. They just never stopped coming.
That was another reason why she preferred fighting in a team; when she needed a break, she was always able to take a step back and breathe. Yet now she was in a constant back and forth between offense and defense, never having more than a few seconds to herself as she attempted to hold back the never-ending onslaught.
To her, it seemed like she was single-handedly facing the entire dark guild sans the fake Fairy Tail wizards. Every attack struck a new face, every swipe of magic pushed back a different body.
The hallway was certainly not the best place for this type of battle, but it wasn't the worst place she'd ever fought before. She attempted to use the walls as a backboard, slamming against the stone hard enough that she knew she'd be bruised and battered tomorrow. Her knees already screamed in protest at each new point of contact, but she couldn't stop now.
She could never stop.
If she stopped, her brain might start thinking about how she was alone, about how her friends were nowhere to be found. And she didn't need that mental stress right now. She would save that for when she was at home in bed, Carla by her side and a pillow under her head.
"Sky Dragon's Crushing Fang!"
XXX
Erza threw out her hands, and a battalion of swords followed her command, flying forward to strike. Carla flipped through the air, smashing a borrowed staff into an opponent's torso. The two moved almost perfectly in sync, guarding each other's back and working off one another to attack.
Only seven dark wizards surrounded them in the hallway, and they had obviously entered the fight with much higher expectations than they received. Even with Other Lucy and Wendy fighting against them, Carla and Erza were an unstoppable team. They were actually pretty scary to watch.
They exchanged grins, and one of their enemies felt a shiver go down her spine. Good god, why had they thought this fight was going to be easy? These two women had to be the most terrifying members of the Fairy Tail guild! Dear lord, why couldn't the portal have split them up? Maybe then they would have had a chance!
XXX
Lucy and Gemini in her form leapt through the hallway, Happy drawing their attention to a side room that might actually give them the space they needed to win this fight. God knows it had already dragged on for far too long as is. All they needed was a clear shot, and they would be able to end this.
"You ready?" Lucy called, ignoring the pulsating heat from her necklace. She received a grin back from her own face, the twin Spirits happy to be of use.
"Yes!" Gemini spun, kicking out at the Other Erza. The fake wizard spluttered, confusion still running rampant across her face.
"I don't get it! How did you clone yourself?!"
"Aw, now, I'm not a clone." Gemini pouted. She crossed her arms and tossed her hair, looking for all the world that she didn't care she was in the middle of a battle. "I'll have you know, I am a Zodiac Spirit!"
"Time to be offended later, Gemini." Lucy huffed, calling upon the magic at her command while in Loki's Star Dress. She had definitely drawn the attention of the men in the room when she had switched to this dress, but she quickly distracted them with new thoughts about how much pain her latest Lucy kick caused.
Lucy reached out her hands to Gemini, and their palms met with a soft golden glow. They faced their opponents, the pair standing in the open doorway and locking their gaze on the five dark wizards before them. Happy swept around behind them, keeping anyone from running away.
Lucy and Gemini began to chant, filling the hallway and empty room behind them with a brilliant heavenly light. Happy grinned, knowing exactly what was about to happen.
Except it never did.
Right when the pair reached the height of the spell, the two wizards on either side of the Other Erza darted forward and pushed the two blondes through the open doorway and back into the room. Lucy cried out in surprise, and Happy shot forward, not knowing what he hoped to do but knowing that he had to be in the room with Lucy and her spirit.
It was a good thing he did. As he crossed the threshold, Other Erza threw a dagger, triggering a mechanism. And the door slammed to a close, locking Lucy, Happy, and Gemini in.
XXX
"This is the weirdest thing I've ever done!" Gray ducked under a blast of light, wondering in the back of his head how people had ever been fooled by these fake Fairy Tail wizards.
"Tell me about it!" Natsu grinned, fire bursting from his elbow as he slammed the joint into the fake Gray's back, sending the man to his knees with a grunt.
Gray and Natsu had spent the past twenty minutes dancing circles around their fake selves. Gray's mind was about to explode from how much concentration he had to dedicate to this fight. Every time he attacked the Other Natsu, he had to double check to make sure he wasn't about to deck his friend. He sincerely doubted that Natsu extended that same courtesy to him.
Then again, Natsu was able to distinguish Other Gray from the real one by smell alone. That and the fact that Gray was in nothing but his underwear at this point, and Other Gray still wore his entire outfit. Like, he still had his jacket on. This impostor really wasn't fooling anyone.
"Fire Dragon's Sword Horn!"
"Ice Blade: Seven Slice Dance!"
Their attacks landed at the same time, which was impressive.
What wasn't as impressive was the fact that they nailed each other instead of the dark wizards.
"What the hell?!" Gray glowered, shaking his fist out and rubbing his shoulder.
Natsu glared back, adjusting his scarf. "Dude, what the fuck?"
"You have super senses and you couldn't tell you were hitting me and not that idiot?"
"Yeah, well, you hit me too!"
"Because you got in my way!"
"Did not!"
"If we weren't literally in the middle of a fight right now, I would think you did it on purpose just to get me to beat you up."
"Oh, you could never."
"Wanna try me, flame head?"
"Let's go, stripper."
"What is going on?" Other Natsu looked at Other Gray whose only response was to shrug.
"I dunno. Maybe they'll take each other out instead of using us as punching bags."
"Hey now, the fight isn't going that badly."
"Yeah, it is." Natsu and Gray returned to the world, no longer at each other's throats. Gray cracked his knuckles as Natsu rolled his neck. "Literally, your magic is pretty useless against ours. Like, you don't even have fire? Just light?"
"I'm a Fire Dragon Slayer!" The fake Natsu attempted to defend himself. Again, not fooling anyone.
"Come on, man, that little light show is nowhere near hot enough to be called fire. You're just using colored lights to trick people into thinking you have fire. So, that combined with no scarf makes you a really bad imitation of me." Natsu raised his eyebrow before glancing over at Gray. "And what's his deal? He's got his clothes on."
"Ha ha." Gray sighed and crossed his arms. "He's using Maker Magic. It's not crazy rare like Dragon Slaying magic, so that's not surprising. Although, you know what's weird? Ice-Make magic is a lot more common than Dragon Slaying, but I only know like three other Ice-Make wizards and we know like a million Dragon Slayers."
"Huh. That is weird."
"Right? Anyway, he's got the ice down, but you can't quite copy the Demon Slaying magic given to me by the ghost of my father right before he passed on into the void after my wife killed the dark wizard keeping him alive for fifteen years."
"Damn. I never realized how messed up that entire situation was until you phrased it like that."
"Yeah, I got issues."
"Oh, man, me too."
Natsu and Gray high-fived, much to the confusion of the two dark wizards still opposing them. Fake Natsu and Gray exchanged a long glance, debating the pros and cons of continuing this fight. Luckily, it wasn't up to them.
Before the Fairy Tail wizards could end the battle against their impostors, the floor opened up beneath them. They fell with a garbled shout, not quite understanding what was happening until it already had.
Other Gray and Natsu breathed a sigh of relief. Their fight was over. That was great. Now they didn't have to explain to the others why they lost a fight against two Fairies. Although, they probably would have understood. Gray and Natsu together was a terrifying combination.
XXX
Where is everyone?
Wendy kicked, slamming her opponent backward.
Are they okay?
The Sky Maiden drew gallons of air into her lungs, preparing for her next attack.
How many are there?
She let her next spell ricochet against the wall, hoping to find a weak spot that might allow her to break through the hallway surrounding her.
Is this ever going to end?
Wendy dove, tucking herself into a neat ball as she rolled across the floor. Her motley of bruises and cuts ached every time she moved, the torn and damaged skin stretching in new and uncomfortable ways.
Am I fighting the entire guild by myself? No, don't think about that. I'm not alone. I'm surrounded by like twenty dark wizards. That has to count for something right?
She roared, pushing back the crowd around her. The space she gained wasn't much, but it was enough to draw a proper breath.
Come on, Marvell. You can do this. You got this. What would Natsu do?
She rolled her shoulders, letting wind swirl around her fists. "Now I got a fire in my belly." And she continued forward, continued fighting, continued ignoring the pounding of her aching thoughts.
XXX
The dark wizards had never been as terrified as they were when faced with the combined might of Erza Scarlet and Carla. The Exceed held another of the warrior's weapons in her hands now, and she was a sight to behold. Erza spun and whirled, pain following every swipe of her swords.
"We have to get rid of them!"
"Obviously!" The fake Lucy hissed in return, desperately trying to avoid the weapons flying through the air around her head. She shrieked as Carla's blade swung close to her head. A few stray blonde hairs sunk slowly to the floor.
Other Wendy clapped her hands together again, a shockwave of sound bursting from between her palms. The walls shook and dust rained down. Erza simply slowed her movements, turning to face the two dark wizards.
"You know, sound does mimic wind pretty well. But not well enough."
"Well said," Carla agreed, wiping her forearm across her brow. "Now, can we hurry this up? I don't know how much longer I can hold this form."
"Yes, I suppose we have let this drag on a bit longer than necessary. It just feels so nice to battle for good and take down the bad guys."
"Yes, yes, I know. For all that you harp on Natsu for loving to fight at all times of the day, you really are quite the same in that aspect."
"Let's just finish this, shall we?"
"Not so fast." The fake Lucy rose to her full height, which honestly wasn't much. She held out a key, hoping to cause terror in her opponents. They only looked at her in barely concealed confusion and disappointment.
"Is that supposed to be one of Lucy's Zodiac keys?" Erza asked, absolutely no emotion in her voice.
"Uh, it is one of my Zodiac keys!" Other Lucy brandished the key, trying to bluff her way out of this one. "Don't you recognize it?"
"All I see is a house key painted gold. And whoever painted it did a truly shitty job about it."
"You, you mock me now, but you'll see!" Other Wendy watched on, wondering if her guildmate would actually be able to pull this off. "Open the gate of Leo!"
"Close, but not quite," Carla said, handing Erza her sword back. The scarlet warrior took it with a snort, letting it fade away as she crossed her arms.
"I'm curious as to how she is going to pull this off. It's going to be exceedingly difficult to fake a Celestial Spirit."
As it turns out, it wasn't that difficult at all. As the false Lucy spoke the summoning words, a man jumped out from a secret door, throwing down a smoke bomb to create the illusion of a gate opening. His orange hair was arrayed around his head like a mane, clothes the color of sand and dirt. He was probably supposed to look like a lion. He certainly didn't look like Loki.
"Tremble before me, mortals!" The pretend Spirit lifted his arms in a show of grandeur and power. Erza rolled her eyes, tapping her foot against the floor.
"Not even close."
"Are you even trying?" Carla asked. Then her power gave out, and she transformed back into her Exceed form with a soft exhale. She cursed, the drain of magic pulling at her every muscle and bone. "Damn, I won't be able to change for a while."
"That's alright. This fight is practically over anyway."
"Yes, it is," Other Wendy agreed. Then she clapped her hands together once more, and the walls shifted, flowing like liquid until the hallway was changed, completely blocking Erza and Carla out.
Or, perhaps, locking them in.