Wendy had perked up, telling the others that she had caught a handful of familiar scents: the three that had left as well as Gray and Erza. At the mention of her beloved, Juvia's fever all but vanished to no one's surprise.
The four didn't even have to speak a word about their plan. They all raced out the door, following the little Dragon Slayer's nose. Their scents led the girls to a town called Malba where they quickly found the rest of Team Natsu up to their old tricks, causing mayhem. Immediately jumping into action, they paired off, Wendy and Carla heading in the direction of a frozen Lucy while the older two charged for the other big fight happening on that end of the battlefield.
Four identical women were glaring down Gray as he prepared for whatever they were about to throw at him. Though he wasn't entirely prepared for what the different versions of Briar had to say.
"I've never been so furious in my life!"
"I find it so funny. If you think you can beat us with such weak power, you must be joking."
"It makes me sad. You're so cold. You've left me with no other choice but to kill you."
"Too bad. You know, Gray, I actually let myself fall a teensy little bit in love with you."
The Ice-Make mage stared in shock, "Say wha..."
A familiar sensation ran up his spine as someone stepped up behind him, "I knew I sensed the familiar threat of another woman trying to steal my man."
Gray turned, blinking in confusion, "What the heck are you doing all the way out here?"
Juvia wasted no time in darting forward to attack the Briar who had dared flirt with her Gray. "I'm giving this floozy the Water Claw that she deserves!"
Amber sighed, 'That's Juvia for you.'
The other three copies all yelled and cried over their fallen version before Gray could growl, "You're all pissing me off!" Pressing his hands together, he sent his magic forward, "I think you need to chill out!"
Briar hadn't stood a chance.
'At least the idiot got stronger this past year...'
"I've been dreaming of you, Gray!" Juvia ran, diving into his chest as she hugged him. "It's been so lonely! My intuition told me you were in some serious trouble, so I rushed here as quickly as I could!"
A shiver ran up his spine and it wasn't from the sudden contact as Juvia hugged him. Peeking passed her blue hair, he found a certain Blood made who had anger in her eyes. He could read that expression clearly: he may not be in trouble with Juvia but Amber was a different story.
He sweatdropped at the thought, "I wouldn't consider this trouble, exactly." But then he turned his attention to a different question, "How did you know where I was?"
"Because of Wendy and her strong sense of smell."
Gray stared down at the happy bluenette who still had her arms around him, the nerves very visible in his body language. "Look, I'm sorry. I promise I'll explain everything later, but now..."
"I know."
The two stripped off their coats, going back-to-back in preparation for their enemies.
Gray finished his thought, "...we gotta deal with these losers."
"Of course. Anything for you!"
Amber couldn't contain the eyeroll. Juvia was too forgiving, but she knew that's how things were going to go when the two were reunited. Some things never changed. And it appeared that Lucy and the others felt the same way as well.
"Well, sure seems like Juvia's back to her old self again."
"All thanks to Wendy, that is."
"Oh, stop." Carla's words making Wendy a little self-conscious.
Their little celebration was quickly cut short as Taurus spoke, "Sorry, ladies, but there's a stampede of bad guys coming our way! So we all gotta moo-ve!"
"Let's go!" Wendy called as her hair went fluorescent pink, the wind whipping around her wildly. "Sky Dragon Wave Wind!"
A proud smile crossed Amber's lips as she squared her own shoulders against the crowd of cultists that were swarming towards her. Gray became aware of this, slightly panicking when he didn't see the dark-haired mage reaching for her daggers.
Carla kicked a cultist in the head, "We did a little training of our own!"
"You bet we did!" Amber bit down on her thumb, drawing blood as she continued to stare down her enemy.
"Amber!" Gray yelled as he tried to get her to move so that he wouldn't hit her, but she didn't budge. Instead, he stared as she brought her hands together in a form that he was very familiar with.
"Blood-Make: Katana."
From the small knick on her thumb, a long slim blade formed from her blood. Not wasting the time to revel in everyone else's shock, Amber charged forward.
||~x~||
Amber stood with the others as they watched the giant flaming fist crack the God that loomed before them. Her chocolate brown eyes began to sting as she thought about the person who would be the proudest to see this.
'He's grown so much, Kia. He'll be just fine.'
The skies overhead faded back to their soft blue color as those from Avatar tried to wrap their heads around what they had just seen. But they didn't have much time for that or their retreat before the council's forces descended upon them. Even the higher ranking members of the cult didn't stand a chance, which easily gave the three ex-Fairy Tail members amongst them the opportunity to break away to the others.
Natsu blinked after the three had acknowledged them, "Whoa! You look just like Gajeel!"
Gajeel growled, "Are you trying to get under my skin already?"
"Nah, man, I just thought you were too much of a rebel to work for the council."
The Iron Dragon Slayer grunted, "Money doesn't grow on trees, ya know." He grinned, "But that old tree did offer me a job."
"You mean old Warrod hooked you up?" Happy looked up at Gajeel in wonder, remembering his own encounter with the Fairy Tail founder the year before.
The dark-haired Dragon Slayer continued to grin, "That means any guild wizard has to do what I tell 'em. So I'm going to be putting you under arrest, Salamander, for making that stupid, ugly face!" He turned to the blonde behind Natsu, "And you're going down for indecency!"
Lucy scoffed as Gajeel continued to go around the group, "Juvia. Uh. You're too clammy!"
"I am?"
"Yep! Happy! You're eating way too much fish!"
"Yumminess isn't a crime, okay?"
"And Wendy Marvell. You're under arrest because, um, because reasons!
"What?" The little bluenette paled, "But I didn't do anything!"
Amber rested a hand on Wendy's head, trying to reassure the girl. She was fairly certain that Gajeel was just poking fun for the sake of it and for the fact that he had missed the others even if he wouldn't ever admit it out loud.
"That leaves you." Gajeel's playful tone fell as his eyes went to the Ice-Make mage standing off to the side, "I shouldn't have to explain to you what you did, Gray. Don't expect me to go easy on you."
The conversation abruptly stopped as Erza stepped up behind Gajeel, cracking him over the head with her gauntleted fist. There was a chorus of greetings as well as the expected worry from a certain Fire Dragon Slayer.
"Listen up," the redhead put her hands on her hips as she addressed the Enforcement officer, "just because you look like Gajeel, that doesn't give you the right to behave like him."
"The hell are you saying?! I am Gajeel!"
Titania's expression faded, "No way. The Gajeel I know would never work for the council."
"Is that so?"
Pantherlily sweatdropped over the ridiculous conversation, "This man is in fact the real Gajeel."
Amber couldn't help the sigh that escaped from her as the others realized that Erza and Natsu weren't kidding, but that shock didn't last long. The discussion veered back towards the reason that they all found themselves outside the town that they had all just saved from being annihilated by a crazed Zeref cult.
Lily stepped up behind the Ice-Make wizard, "We never would've been able to find this place without your help, Gray. Thank you."
"No problem, but I'm sorry for the trouble I caused. I know it was a pain."
Juvia was immediately at his side, "Don't worry, dear. The only thing that really matters is you're okay!"
"Not going to lie," Levy smiled, "you had me fooled."
Gray turned to the petite bluenette, "Wish I could say the same for you, but you gotta do some work on your disguises."
"Oh." She looked a little surprised, "You knew that was me?"
More questions arose as those who arrived later to the fight had to be filled in on why they had actually been fighting all the weirdos in cloaks. Those who knew didn't go into the full details, but it didn't take long for the others to figure out that they had saved the city behind them.
They all cheered for their success and getting to work together as a team again. The excitement only grew as the three from the council were updated that the others were in the process of reviving their old guild. It was during this time that Amber made her way around the group toward her target as he talked to the Sky Dragon Slayer about whether she had grown any or not.
"Sorry." Wendy smiled, "I'm exactly the same as before."
Amber took the opportunity to smack her open palm upside the back of Gray's head.
He turned to find the culprit, holding the back of his head, "What the hell was that for?"
"That was from me for just ditching Juvia like you did." She crossed her arms over her chest, "Just because I understand what you did, doesn't mean I will just let you off easily."
He huffed, "I can handle that."
Amber sighed as she let her tone drop, "And Lyon sends his regards."
Gray's brow quirked up, "Why would Lyon tell you that?"
"He told us before Wendy and I left Lamia Scale."
This just piqued his interest more, "What do you mean he told you when you left Lamia Scale?"
"We had to find work somehow after the guild disbanded. I just decided to stick with Wendy, who was talking with Shelia at the time."
"And you talked to him?"
Amber rolled her eyes as she grumbled, "Talked to? I had to work with him."
He playful smirked at her as he prepared to finally be able to tease the Blood mage about something, but she just crossed her arms.
"Do you really want to go there, Gray?"
The challenging look in her eyes quickly told him that he should think this through before opening his mouth again. Amber wouldn't let up if they started, and she had a lot more dirt on him than she ever had on her.
"Nevermind."
Before Amber could retort back at his comment, something pink and green caught his eye. Turning to look down toward the small creature, he asked, "Hold on. I think that's Frosch from Sabertooth."
The little Exceed smiled, "Yep. I think so, too!"
"What are you doing so far away from home?"
"Good question." Frosch tilted his head a little as he continued to smile up at Gray and Amber.
She knelt down, "Is Rogue closeby?"
"I think so."
But before Amber could try to get more information from the adorable Exceed, Gray had picked him up and started cuddling him. The Blood mage took a small step back as she stared. In the decade that she had known him, she had never seen him act that way, even when they were kids.
Ezra came over, "Yes, Frosch is adorable, but you still need to try to get control of yourself."
"I know, but I can't help it."
Amber nodded slowly, "Please try."
"Hey! Natsu!"
The group looked up to see none other than Rogue, Sting, and Lector running toward them.
"We just wanted to come and congratulate you on a job well done!"
"I'm gonna be right there, Frosch!"
The commotion started up again as the rest of the group from Sabertooth joined them. The Exceeds created their own small circle as the others all did the same. Sting took the chance to poke at Gajeel for his job with the council, though Amber couldn't quite tell if he was really joking or if Lector was just covering for his friend.
"Gray, my love! How come you've never once treated me with the same affection you're giving Frosch?"
"Jeez. Give me a break and stop being so freaking clingy!"
It was so refreshing to see the normality around the group. Amber agreed with what Happy had said earlier about it feeling like they were all at the old guild hall. There was that sense of home that she was feeling, but there was also that space that was empty because of the two people that she was missing.
"Oi, Salamander," Gajeel turned, "where's your sister anyway? I had some questions for her."
"Oh yeah," Sting chimed in, "you ran off before I could ask back at the guild."
The mood around Team Natsu shifted between hurt, guilt, and anger. Amber was ready to step in, but Natsu answered before she had to.
"I'm not sure where she is.
||~x~||
And that brings arc five to a close. I may take next week off from updating to make sure I have things ready to dive into the final arc of Firefall. Can't wait to share all the drama with you guys soon.
See you then,
Kiki