Natsu
Not many people in Fairy Tail wanted to fight in the war directly, but most of them agreed to help. They would track down Acnologia and send his coordinates to gramps' lacrima or help the civilians stay away from the impending battle that was going to take place in Ishgar. Once the other guilds heard, however, Sabertooth's Rogue Cheney and Sting Eucliffe went to us immediately after word of slaying Acnologia hit their ears.
Unfortunately, the Magic Council also heard about this and all the guilds in favor were working harder than ever before to keep the Magic Council in dim light and oblivious to the historical battle that was going to take place. Time was of the essence now, and I lead all of our "soldiers" to where Eileen was waiting for us. There were only sixteen members so far, twenty-two if you count Zeref and August's groups. But this lead me to wonder; what happened to August? Why didn't he and my demons interfere when the Grand Magic Games were attacked yesterday? Did they regroup with Zeref and Larcade? But this also made me think: Where they attacked by Acnologia's followers? The more I thought about it the more uneasy I felt, but I had to hide my suspicions behind a smile as we approached Eileen, who was waiting for us.
"Natsu, I see you've finally arrived. It's an hour after dawn, you know, and here I was just about to go back into that city and haul your ass back here," Eileen said and I shrugged at her.
"Yeah, well, we got some more company. I'd like you to meet Rogue and Sting of Sabertooth, they're dragons slayers like us."
Sting whispered to Rogue, "She's also a dragon slayer?" Rogue nodded and said something along the lines of "use your nose, idiot". Eileen and I pretended not to hear them and I began explaining to her the attributes Rogue and Sting had and that they were raised by Skiadrum and Weisslogia. Eileen perked up when I mentioned the names of the dragons.
"They're the sons of Weisslogia and Skiadrum?" Eileen asked and I nodded. "Interesting."
"You knew Skiadrum?" Rogue asked.
"Yes, Metallicana and Weisslogia were soldiers, Igneel was a general and my advisor, Grandineey was our best paramedic, and Skiadrum was our finest chef for the troops. They were all powerful dragons and had undying loyalty to their kingdom, but that's a story for another day. For now, we have to return to Tenroujima." She stood up and began stretching herself out, but Sting only laughed obnoxiously in the background.
"Hate to break it to you, lady, but there are only four exceeds here and twelve of us. How exactly do you plan on taking us there? And don't you dare say by ship!" Sting snapped only to get punched on the back of the head by Rogue. Everyone tensed up when Eileen smiled.
"We don't need exceeds or ships," She said and the slayers raised their eyebrows in confusion.
I held onto Eileen's fur as tightly as possible as the dragon flew over the ocean with surprising speeds, making all the other people on board scream in shock and exhilaration. Us dragon slayers were the only ones who weren't screaming, we all road on our dragon's backs before so we were used to the experience whereas Lucy and the other people held on to the fur for dear life. I laughed as someone threw up over Eileen's side.
"Watch where you're puking!" Eileen roared and the person responsible cried their apologies.
"Natsu-san!" Sting shouted over the roaring wind at me and I looked his way. "You never told us that Eileen was a dragon!"
"I like seeing your reactions! Besides, it ain't exactly something I can just tell anyone!" I hollered over to him and Eileen gave a forceful nod, shooting me a threatening glare from over her shoulder. "What? I said I wouldn't!"
"Hey guys!" Wendy said, pointing to the east. "Is it just me or is that ship coming really close?"
We looked in the direction Wendy was pointing and all of our breaths got caught in our lungs as a gigantic dragon-shaped steel ship began flying our way. People were swarming over it, carrying loads of weapons while my eyes caught on to the image of Acnologia printed on each side of the ship. I felt my blood run cold as the voices in my head began cursing and pouting fearfully. It was kind of hard to focus on my own fears when the two souls within me were already acting out how I felt:
WE'RE GONNA DIE, CROCUS-NIIIIIII!!!!!! Mini-me screamed and I could almost feel the demon grab the boy's shoulders and shake him roughly.
NO WE'RE NOT, PULL YOURSELF TOGETHER, RUNT! Crocus shouted.
STOP TALKING TO ME LIKE THAT I'M OLDER THAN YOOOOUUUU~!!!! D':
THEN ACT LIKE IT!
BUT I DON WANNA DIIIEEEEEEE!!!!
NATSU! DO SOMETHING, DAMN IT!
I screamed at the two souls to shut the fuck up before standing up, which was quite the chore since the dragon beneath me was constantly moving up and down with each pound of her wings and that her fur kept on catching my feet, but I eventually managed to get up. Most of the other mages followed suit while some just clung to Eileen and screamed for her to move faster.
"Come on, guys! Acnologia followers coming from the east! Let's break some bitches!" I shouted and those who agreed followed as I jumped off the side of the dragon and summoned up my flames from my feet. Yes, I was fully aware that I could just shift into my etherious form, but it took too much energy to do so and it wasn't as comfortable as my dragon flames. I rocketed over to the ship with Sting, Rogue, Erza, Gray, Malala, and Pantherlily following suit. Sting, Gray, and Rogue were moving with their magic like I did, Erza was being carried by Pantherlily (who was now in his combat form) as Malala was flying from the back. It shocked me just how similar her paper wings were to Tumashu's, and by the time I looked forward again I was too late to move and I plowed straight through the ship's windows and straight into the pilot room. There were eight people in there, each one wearing a black cloak. Six of them turned on me instantly while the other two attempted to shake off the mages that boarded their ship. I smiled as the six cult followers lunged at me with their magic staffs in hand.
I lit my body on fire and punched the first mage in the face and threw him into two more men, they flew out of the other window and down, down, down into the pacific waters below. The fourth guy ran at me with his staff and I caught it just as it turned into a spear, we began tugging on it for a while until I finally threw the guy off the staff and lit the timber wood on fire. As the staff crumbled into ashes I had to use my fists against the three remaining mages, which proved to be a bit more troublesome than I thought since they attacked in a group.
Didn't matter, though, I loved a good fight.
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Levy
As the ship flew closer to Eileen, the dragon began performing various aerial flips and twists, avoiding the ship as it either tried ramming into her or firing Jupiter-type cannons at her. Happy and Lector ran to me and Lucy and they picked us up without hesitation and flew us over to the ship while Frosch had to hold on with the remaining Fairy Tail forces on the back of Eileen.
As we neared the ship, I realized that I was going to have to fight.
Lucy and I hit the deck with a loud thud and we drew out our spells quickly, Lucy summoning her keys while I wrote out two duel swords. There were over fifty hands on this ship and what remained of the thirty fighting Erza and co. ran to us with their own weapons brandished. I raised my swords up just as a mage brought down a club on me and I was so very thankful that Erza sparred swords with me before. I tried reusing the techniques I was taught and kicked out at my opponent's sternum, it worked and he staggered back a bit before I slashed into his shoulder with my swords. As I did that I noticed that Lucy was in Aquarius star dress and had two other spirits to fight at her stead; Leo and Aires.
Occasionally I would enhance my swords with the words fire or poison and it worked wonders, I had already cut down my third opponent. Wow, imagine if Gajeel saw me doing this! I found myself thinking and I fought back a laugh. He would be so surprised! He would even try to fight me, too! That idiot! My joy rush fall dim as I realized that my husband was a prisoner of Acnologia, which lead me to a thought: Could he be on this ship?
I didn't see a reason why he wouldn't so I changed objective and began fighting or slipping my way through the soldiers on board and descended down the flight of stairs and into the basement of the ship, I traveled down various more stairs and had to fight my way through guards as I approached a door labeled "Prisoners". I reached for the key hanging on the wall besides the door and unlocked it, I shoved my way through and saw eight cells waiting inside. Each one was equipped with four pairs of magic hand cuffs and chains, as I walked through, I spotted that there were only two cells full already, each with two people. There were three I recognized as Jackal, Sayla, and Torafuzar from Tartarus and an unfamiliar old man. They were all beaten and sick looking, so I unlocked their cells and unchained them.
"Are you okay?" I asked the old man, who slumped over and began vomiting. He gasped and looked at me with startled eyes.
"I- I'm fine. Thank you, but... UGHLF!" He held a hand to his mouth as his cheeks puffed out, he was already turning green and he reached over to a pail full of puke and proceeded to add to the contents.
"He has motion sickness," Torafuzar explained and he massaged his raw wrists. "Thank you, Levy."
"How do you know my name?" I asked and the water demon smiled.
"END-sama had a lot of positive things to say about his friends. We were initially here to stop you and the other Fairy Tail mages from interfering with Zeref's plans, but since I could already sense END-sama and Eileen-sama's magic pressure that the plan went down the drain."
"And I didn't get to blow anything up because of that stupid metal face!" Jackal cried from the cell over and I felt an involuntary shiver run through my body.
"Do you mean... Gajeel?"
"Tall guy, spikey black hair, red eyes, and piercings? Yep. He was with some soldiers of Acnologia and they cornered us, proceeded to beat us into a pulp, and brought us here for interrogation. But we're loyal to our master so we shut our mouths despite everything."
I didn't stick around, I ran to the other cells and checked every last one. They were all occupied except for the last, and I instantly recognized the slumped over form of Gajeel Redfox. I thrust the key into the lock and practically kicked the door down as I ran to him. Startled, he looked up at me and I saw bags under his eyes, his usually silky black hair was filled with grime and he had plenty of untreated cuts and bruises. And to make matters worse, Gajeel looked like he had been crying.
"Levy?" He whispered and cringed at how hoarse his voice was.
"I'm here, Gajeel, I'm here!" I said and held my hand against his cheek, he looked relieved but panicked at the same time. I reached for his chains and jumped when he pressed himself against the wall, keeping the shackles on his arms and legs out of reach.
"Levy, don't do it!" He shouted.
"Why the hell not?"
"Were you not listening to that demon, Shrimp? Acnologia did something to me when he gave me back my soul and magic, my mind goes blank whenever he snaps and the only thing on my mind is doing whatever Acnologia wants me to do. Listen, you need to get the hell out of here while you still can!"
"No way! I was powerless to help you before and I won't miss this chance again!" I sobbed and reached over to his shackles and unlocked them before he could open his stupid mouth again. He looked at his wrists then to me with surprise, his bottom lip trembling. "You're coming back with me, Gajeel, no matter what!" I shouted and we glared into each other's eyes for the longest time; Gajeel was the first one to look away.
"Thank you, Levy, I-" He froze and clutched his head with a panicked cry. He then slumped over and his hands fell limp. Next thing I knew I was being pressed against the wall with a metallic prosthetic hand wrapped around my neck, I was at eye level with him now, and I saw that his usual garnet irises were a sickening green.
"Gajeel! Snap out of it! It's me, Levy! Your wife!" I tried shouting but with every word I said his hand tightened around my throat until I was barely able to breathe. He lifted his organic arm and it shifted into a sword that was perfectly shaped for lobbing one's head off. I felt tears sting in the corner of my eyes as he brought the weapon down on me, I closed my eyes and braced myself for the worst but it never came.
After a long moment I carefully opened my eyes and saw that Gajeel's weapon was frozen by my neck, one eye was still green while the other was a beautiful, familiar garnet. He threw me to the side and I knew I had to run, I sprinted out of that cell and saw that all the prisoners except for Sayla were gone. She grabbed my arm and ran out of the bunker with me. As we exited the room, she turned and slammed the door shut just as a giant iron sword was about to stab her through the gut. She placed some kind of rune on the door and proceeded to run with me up the stairs and away from Gajeel.
We ran out of the lower reigons and saw that most of our allies were being carried back on Eileen's back (including the old man and the demons), the dragoness still on the course for Tenroujima. The ship was rocking and I had to steady myself on Sayla, who didn't seem bothered by the fact that some idiot was likely trying to pilot the ship. The demoness ran to the side of the ship, just over the captain's quarters, and shouted, "WHAT THE HELL, NATSU?!"
"SORRY!" Natsu cried back. "THIS THING IS HELLA HARD TO CONTROL!"
"THE ENGINES ARE BUSTED, YOU IDIOT, WE'RE GOING DOWN!" Sayla screamed and Natsu roared in frustration. I saw him peek out of the window plane at us and wave with a stupid smile on his face. I heard what could have been a large door being broken down and loud footsteps run up the stairs. A cold sweat broke along my back.
Gajeel is coming.
"Okay, guys, we're all gonna jump on the count of three! Ready?" He called and I saw his irises turn scarlet and the whites turn black. I knew what he was going to do and nodded. As we prepared to jump, we listened to Natsu counting, his voice becoming more demonic and scratchy with each word.
"One!
"Two!
"THREE!"
Sayla and I jumped off the plane just as Gajeel broke down the door behind us. There was a rush of cold winter air and I found myself screaming the whole way down. At around half-way, a clawed hand grabbed me and Sayla by the backs of our shirts and giant wings began pounding against the air. I breathed in relief and looked up at Natsu to see a more toothy version of his signature grin gazing back at me.
It took Natsu a while to catch up to Eileen, but he eventually latched onto the fur on her tail and allowed us to drag ourselves back to our group. It took longer than I thought, but we finally made it and were welcomed by cheers and hugs from our friends. I laughed in relief and hugged everyone there (well, obviously not Jackal). As the happy feel of the reunion turned sober, I looked back at the ship and saw Gajeel still standing on the deck, watching us with his possessed green eyes as the ship fell from the sky.
"Levy-chan, is that-" Lucy started and I nodded before slumping into Eileen's soft fur, I curled up into a ball as most of the people began crowding around me. "Levy-chan!"
"Acnologia did something to him, guys!" I sobbed. "His eyes were green and- and- he almost beheaded me! We have to save him! We have to-" Erza gathered me in a hug and I cried into her armor.
"Don't worry," Erza said. "We'll save him." I sniffled and looked back at the ship only to find it was already underwater and that some sorts of giant black animal was flying away with what could be Gajeel in it's hands. "Soon."