~❀.~❀.~
The sky darkened as the group stared down at the object in the center of them with a varying looks of awe. "We captured the staff." Erza breathed out. "But the question is how do we return it back to Fiore."
"They discovered all because of Natsu." Gray muttered under his breath, his eyes flickering to the fire wizard in annoyance.
"That was not my fault!" Natsu immediately protested having heard his comment. "There was a trap!"
Wendy lowered her head in shame. "I didn't notice them either." She apologized. "I'm sorry."
Her older sister gave her a small pat on the back. "That wasn't your fault. You guys didn't know." She told her softly.
The blonde picked up the staff. "In any case, this staff seems to carry an incredible amount of power."
"Show me, show me!" Happy took it from her grasp and began jabbing it into the air. "I don't feel any magic at all."
"Stop playing around with it." Carla chided him, placing her paws on her hips as she gave him a scolding look.
Wendy blinked. "But before that, Natsu..."
The group looked at the pinkette in question. "Oh, yeah." Natsu nodded, recalling his tears and began to ponder over it. He groaned, grabbing his head. "I don't understand!"
"In all cases, a staff that can destroy a kingdom is dangerous." Erza reminded them in a serious tone. "We have to handle it cautiously."
Haru sent Happy a pointed look, the blue cat jumped as he laughed sheepishly as he set the staff down as if he hadn't just been using it to draw on the dirt floor with it. "You better be glad she didn't see you." The brown exceed told him bluntly.
Asami glanced away from the exceed as she eyed her husband's sudden lack of attire and noticed the clothes littered in front of her on the floor. "Gray, your clothes." She muttered quietly.
"When did that happen?!" Gray exclaimed, seeing his clothes on the ground.
Lucy was telling them about Stella was known for it's beautiful starry sky and Natsu pointed out that there were no stars. She told him it wasn't her fault it was cloudy. The dragon slayers all stiffened when they heard rustling coming from the forest. "Quiet." Natsu shushed them.
"Get ready." Erza said just as a figure came from above them which startled her. "Above?"
"Taste my beautiful legs!" The mysterious woman said as she swiped her legs at them which sent attacks, causing them all to jump back before they could get hit. She targeted Erza who managed to block her kick.
Another person showed up, this time a male whose name was Doll, sent two of his puppets who threw powerful flame attacks. Asami managed to block it with her water magic as Gray and Wendy had jumped out of the way when they felt the intensity of heat from the fire. Soon after another man whose name was Gapri showed up and he was moving around on a Stellanium Floating device.
The fighting was all over the place and they couldn't let their guards down. Whenever Asami tried to block the fire power attacks with her water, Gapri who was on the spinning device would come at her too fast which caused her to move away or almost get hit by the fire.
In a moment of distraction as she looked over at both Haru and Happy knocked unconscious on the floor with Zash and Sonya standing over them, Gapri used this a chance to hit her hard with the device he was on and she was slammed into the rock wall behind her.
Gray yelled out her name in panic he blocked Natsu's attack and clenched his jaw tightly, his gaze turning to his wife on the floor and he was fighting every nerve in his body that demanded he go over to check on her. The only relief was that Gapri hadn't gone to attack her again.
Asami's vision blurred as she fell to the ground, only barely able to see as Gray, Lucy, Natsu and Wendy were hit by Doll's attack as she passed out.
~❀.~❀.~
Once they had escaped the Bird's Nest, they had gone on a search for Lucy who was the only person missing in their group. Luckily, Natsu managed to track Lucy's scent and saved her before Zash could use her as a blood sacrifice for his magic.
They all were startled by the other person in their group. They all began questioning who she was, all wary of her since she could be the enemy. The girl was a tall light haired brunette with blue eyes with a flower in her hair. "I-I'm..." Her voice trembled nervously as she looked at them.
"Where are you, you miserable thieves?!" Zash yelled angrily, searching for them.
They all tensed and Sonya gained a serious expression as she stood up, she wasn't going to let them get killed. "Here there is a secret passage, come with me."
"We have to recover the staff." Natsu reminded them.
"We should withdraw for now." Lucy interrupted him and glanced at him when he looked at her in surprise. "If we cannot find a weak spot in his magic, we won't be able to win!"
Natsu clicked his tongue in annoyance and reluctantly followed after the light haired brunette who began to lead them through the tunnels. The girl paused momentarily as she glanced back. "This way." They followed behind her.
Asami furrowed her brows, noticing the girl looking back every once in a while. "Can you see them?"
"It is my magic." The brunette told her.
"So that's why our whereabouts are unknown." Erza commented.
Once they reached outside, Sonya turned to them with a relieved look. "From here you should be safe."
"Thank you!" Happy said gratefully.
"Who are you?" Carla asked bluntly, a question they all wanted the answer to.
"I'm Sonya, a confident of King Animus."
Gray stared at her in disbelief and wariness. "So then why did you let us escape?"
"There must be a reason." Erza said softly, seeing how tense the girl was.
Sonya's eyes saddened as she looked down. "I do not want people to run into misery any longer." She said. She begins to explain the reason why they stole the staff in the first place. They wanted to prevent the mass amount of Stellanium that has absorbed starlight from exploding which would lead to the eradication of Kingdom.
They could understand her distress but their job was to return the staff back to their own kingdom. "The staff won't work for that!" Natsu suddenly snapped, clenching his fists tightly as he recalled what happened with Dragon Cry when he held it. "When I held it in my hands, I felt the anger, the pain and suffering of the dragon's. The magical power of this wand must not be unleashed."
Asami and Wendy stared at Natsu in shock. Neither of them recalled getting those feelings when they held the staff when they had taken it back.
"Are you saying that this empire with perish?!" Sonya sniffled, not wanting to believe the words coming out of his mouth.
"I will take it if I have to!" He said. "I will tell the whole kingdom! Give us back the staff!"
Sonya stepped back, intimidated by his resolve to take the staff back. "That's impossible..." She ran away from them.
~❀.~❀.~
It was night time already, Team Natsu decided to rest before they would take back the staff before the ritual took place tomorrow. The trees were littered with red fruits that seemed to light up.
They all took turns taking watch and the married couple had snuck off but keeping a close distance to the group. "Where are we going?" Asami asked her husband with a curious look on her face as he pulled her along with him.
"I want to show you something." He kept pulling her until they reached a tall hill. He heard her soft gasp as she took in her surroundings. The night sky was filled with thousands of stars but what really caught her attention was the stellanium crystals that reflected the stars on it's surface.
"It's so beautiful." She breathed out feeling awestruck.
He wrapped his around her as he stood behind her, placing his head on her shoulder. "With everything going on, I thought we could use this time to be alone." He muttered softly as he kissed her cheek. There was still a lingering guilt in his chest he felt for having left for so many months.
Her cheeks flushed, leaning back into his chest as she smiled shyly up at him. "Thank you." She murmured, kissing his jaw before turning around and kissing him fully on the lips.
He pulled her closer, deepening the kiss and the stars above them glowed.
~❀.~❀.~
It was the following day and Team Natsu was ready to retrieve the staff. They could hear the commotion going on in the town. "It seems something has happened." Erza commented as they all headed towards the Kingdom.
"We'll go check it out." Asami said, sharing a glance with Gray and Haru who both nodded. The three took of towards the noise, trusting their friends to retrieve the staff.
The three ended up in the deeper parts of town, they stopped walking when they saw nobody around. "Where is everybody?" Haru muttered.
Gray looked at him but his eyes fell on his wife who seemed to tense. "Asami?"
She said nothing as she turned around, Haru and Gray doing the same. There stood Doll, the tall, burly, dark skinned man with green hair in dreadlocks that have stones attached to the ends.He was posing while flexing his muscles. He raised his hands up. "Francis, Catherine, there is work that needs to be done!" Two little dolls popped up in between his hands.
"Ready?" Gray asked his wife, he got into his ice make stance.
She nodded, getting into her own stance, looking at their opponent. "Ready?"
"I'm ready too!" Haru said, shifting into his human form.
"Francis, Catherine." Doll commanded, his two little puppets immediately throwing the same fire attack as before.
Gray dodged each attack while trying to hit the guy with his ice magic and Haru did his best to hit the dolls with his lacrima grenades. Asami tried to block any attack with her water in order to protect her family.
Doll didn't seem to care that he was destroying his own city in the process of trying to hit them. "Water Dragon: Roar!"
"Francis!" He commanded, the doll blocking the attack with his fire. "Catherine."
The other doll went behind her to hit her but blocked by Gray. Asami sent her husband a small smile. "Thanks."
"No problem." He muttered, breathing heavily, feeling blood trickle down his head from getting hit by the flying rubble earlier. "This guy really doesn't care what he destroys."
Asami stiffened, following the dolls line sight of attack and saw that Haru had been knocked to the ground. He wouldn't have a chance to dodge the many missiles of fire being sent.. "No! Look out!" She quickly rushed over, jumping over the exceed boy on instinct to protect him from getting hurt.
Haru's eyes widened when he saw her in front of him with a grimace on her lips, he realized she hadn't protected herself. She had been to worried about him that she didn't use magic. "Asami." He choked.
She gave him a tired smile. "Are you okay?" She asked softly, wounds evident on her body. He gave her a faint nod as he felt tears in his eyes at the fact that she got hurt saving him. "I'm glad." She coughed up blood. He immediately shifted back into his exceed form and began to snuggle into her stomach, feeling horrible that she got hurt.
Gray watched the entire thing, feeling his blood boiling with rage and turned back to the green haired man behind him who was praising his dolls for hurting Asami.
He immediately called on his Demon Slayer magic which startled Doll especially when he could melt the ice. "This is the ice of an exorcist. Which is perfect. Your dolls also seem to be cursed."
"You make fun of my children!?" Doll snapped angrily. "Francis, Catherine!"
Gray was being attacked repeatedly by the flying dolls and didn't see the fire attack behind him that caught him off guard. He jumped back only to be hit harshly in the gut by Catherine that knocked him flying into a building.
"I'm fine, Haru." She assured the exceed softly. She turned around to see her husband slammed up against the bar they had first come to and clenched her jaw, seeing him hurt.
Using that anger, she stood up as her body glowed and her features sharpening. "Dragon Force?" Haru muttered, surprised she was using that here.
"Sky Water Dragon: Fang Bullet!" She raised her palm, firing shots out of her palm hitting Doll knocking back into ground before focusing on the dolls, her eyes narrowed. "Water Dragon: Roar!" The dolls were knocked onto the other side of the building unable to overpower her. She made sure not to hit Gray who dropped to the floor on his feet before looking up at his wife who dropped her dragon force mode.
"Nice." Gray praised her, his soon fell on Doll who was struggling to get up and smirked. He hit Doll who fell back unconscious before his body was encased in ice. Dropping his demon slayer mode, he walked over to his wife had dropped to her knees obviously tired and relieved that they beat their opponent. "Asami, are you feeling okay?" He knew that getting hit head on by that attack earlier must of hurt her.
She grinned, her blue eyes shining. "Yeah, I'm gre--" Her eyes trailed down, her entire face felt hot when she saw that he was standing stark naked in front of her.
Haru's brow twitched, staring at his father figure in exasperation. "Put some damn clothes on!" He snapped, seeing how red his mother figure was.
"Eh?" Gray looked down and looked back his wife who was staring him with reddened cheeks and he felt his own face get hot. "What the hell!?" He cried out, covering his private area and felt himself even more embarrassed when a few people were looking out their windows to see if the fighting was over. He quickly slipped on his clothes back. "Sorry about that..." His voice quieted down when soldiers began pouring out onto the streets and there was red magic circles in the night sky.
Asami and Haru tensed, standing up as the three prepared to fight. "It's not over yet." Asami said, using crushing fang to fight while Gray used his maker magic to fight and Haru threw his lacrima grenades.
This went on for a while before the soldiers suddenly stopped and the magic circles disappeared. The three shared grins, knowing that their friends beat the person doing all this.
~❀.~❀.~
The team stood in front of the King, all sporting different apologetic looks. Dragon Cry had been destroyed and went back to its original form which was a ribbon which was blown away by the breeze. They had basically failed their mission to retrieve Dragon Cry.
Which was Happy felt it was right to apologize to the King and give him a gift. "It's special fruit from Stella!" He said eagerly, holding a box with red colored fruit inside. "And it gives you fire powers look!" He ate one and his body turned red, blowing out fire.
The rest of the team was dumbfounded and a bit afraid of what the blue exceed had done. He had just hit the King of Fiore with fire. "That idiot." Haru muttered, stared dreadfully at the king.
"Oh no." Asami sweat dropped.
The King seemed too stunned for words and Happy stared back wide eyed as he realized his own mistake. Natsu choked out the only word that could possibly save them.
"RUN!"