255Light
Chapter One
Master Makarov sat on the bar with silent tears rolling down his cheeks at the sight of his beloved, and expensive, guild being torn to shreds by a bunch of destructive brats. He sighed as he watched Elfman get thrown in to a table, shattering it to bits and flinging food all over Levy. Her yellow and red dress, not to mention her hair, was covered in the meat and potatoes that seemed commonplace for any meal at the guild. He watched as the two young shadows she had developed rose to defend her honor. Jet was the first in to the fray, standing just a bit taller than Makarov, the young boy had short orange hair and a purple short sleeved shirt and black shorts. Makarov watched him run into the seemingly growing dust cloud with Droy, a boy a bit shorter than Jet with strange black hair and a white shirt and green shorts, hot on his heels before Jet was thrown from the cloud. He impacted with Droy and they both flew rather quickly at the wall, both hitting it with a solid thump before sliding down in to the land of unconcious bliss. Levy quickly rose and ran over to the boys while gently fussing over them. Makarov rolled his eyes before looking over to the brawl. Erza and Mira both seemed to be at a standstill, if the locked arms and foreheads grinding against one another was anything to go by.
'They would both be so lovely if they could just stop fighting...' The short balding man thought to himself sadly.
He could only look over with a growing headache at all of his other children. Cana was sitting at the other end of the bar, stealing drinks from the unattended beers left by an arguing Macao and Wakaba. Lisanna and Happy had joined Levy in fussing over Jet and Droy, while ocasionally casting a worried glance over at the young pink haired boy. Elfman had stood back up and was charging towards Natsu and Gray, who were thoroghly enjoying exchanging fists. He sighed, watching the shirtless boy strike the pink haired young man across the cheek before the boy retaliated, hitting him back. They were both forced back several steps before once again moving to re-engage. Elfman made himself known by punching Gray across the head and sending him flying in to Erza and Mira. Both girls seperated as Gray flew past, only for Mira to catch him by the ankle and proceed to swing him at the young armoured redhead, who could only widen her eyes as he flew face first in to her chestplate before they both impacted the doors to the guild. The thunderous echo of the impact silencing the guild as Gray rolled over unconcious while Erza stood up slowly, her hair shadowing over her eyes.
"What's the matter, tin-can? I thought getting close to your comrades was important. Look at it this way, your hideous armour protected him from hitting the doors." The oldest of the Strauss siblings commented haughtily before slowly walking forward, the two of them now seperated by several meters. She stood proud in her black short top and short skirt. Black thigh high boots seemed to protect the most skin on the takeover mage. "Maybe the impact isn't what knocked him out. Maybe he realised he had his face in your cake fattened gut and passed out from embarassment."
"You shouldn't use comrades as weapons, Demon Slut." Erza could only look up at her with a smirk before requipping a mace and tossing it at Mira's feet. "If you were afraid and needed a weapon, all you had to do was ask."
The gasp that rang out seemed to come from the whole guild had Mira stuttering slightly with a blush before black flames began to erupt from her hands. Everyone else seemed to take this as the cue for round two, each looking to their own opponents before the air began to thicken with the rising magic level. Just as Natsu's hand caught fire and he jumped towards a startled Elfman, a colossal hand came down the squashed him to the ground. The titan form of Master Makarov stood tall, and the wave of pressure that washed over everyone forced the ongoing battles to an end. His large eyes swept over all of his children, noting the fear in their eyes as they realized that the punishments that would be dished out were going to be severe.
"Enough is enough! All of you brats can't seem to get along, even with the threat of THAT as punishment!" He took a small bit of satisfaction in watching the color drain from the faces of several of the younger faces as well as all of the older members. 'Good. Let them remember that I can be severe. I don't think I need to go that extreme, but SOMETHING needs to force about a change... But what?' The question had been plaguing the old man's mind for some time now. His children were violent, and pairing that with the seemingly growing danger they all posed as growing mages meant that he needed to break them of this as soon as possible. What could he do though? They all seemed to dead set on not getting along. 'Maybe forcing them to cooperate will get me the results I need...' His eyebrows shot up as the answer hit him. Force them to work together, and threaten any of them with THAT as punishment. He shrank down to his normal size with a victorious grin on his face as he leapt up to the second story balcony and gathered a deep breath for the oncoming speech.
"I have noticed in the last few months that all of your have become seemingly more aggressive towards eachother. Mira, you used a comrade to as a weapon against another comrade without any remorse or regret. Erza you seemingly always find a way to egg her on with your sense of justice. Natsu, don't even try to defend yourself boy!" Makarov looked to the pink haired child who looked ready to yell in his own defense. "I know you have been searching for your father more and more. I see it as very noble to want to do so, but I will NOT allow you to take the family you have here for granted. Just like with your father, you may wake one day to find one of us is no longer here, and by that I mean no longer among the living. Death is sudden and unforgiving. I know this better than most. You should all be using this time to strengthen your bonds with eachother, instead I watch as all of you fight and seem to do everything to destroy any semblance of friendship you have. It. Stops. Here." He looked around to the the children, a slight tug of guilt at seeing all of their downtrodden faces. He needed to say it though. They needed guidence and he couldn't call them his children if he wasn't willing to provide it. He inhaled before resuming his speech. "If you all refuse to work together willingly, than I am just going to have to make you brats get used eachother and hope that some friendships come from it." He closed his eyes and let the wave of protests wash over him before holding up his hand, signalling silence. The guild members smartly followed his silent call.
"Erza and Mira, you have both been unable to get along since seemingly the first day. You two will be teamed up. Natsu, I would pair you with Gray," He glanced at the boy as he bristled before the short man gave him a pointed glare and silenced him, "but seeing as Gray looks to need medical attention, I will instead be pairing you with Erza and Mira. Maybe the three of you together will make one tactical mind. So help me if you don't get along, or I find the damage you caused to be too excessive, you will all three be punished with THAT for the next two years!" He smirked at seeing the fight instantly leave them. "Elfman, you will pair up with Gray and Levy when Gray has recovered. Maybe her sharp mind will hone both of yours as well. Jet and Droy will partner with Lisanna, and Cana I will squash you if you touch my beer!" Said girl quickly let out an eep of suprise before retreating her hand from his drink and fleeing from the room. Makarov look to the young Happy and offered a small grin. "Happy, I am going to ask you to team up with Cana. She has been going solo more often and your personality may help bring her out of her shell a bit." Happy gave a quick 'Aye' before flying out after the retreating Cana. He could only grin slightly before adopting his stern gaze upon his three biggest trouble makers. "Erza, you are smart and strong. Your sense of justice and seeming need to be in charge has forced you to take on a skewed view of everyone. You see yourself as stronger to protect everyone, yet you use that same strength to isolate yourself and keep everyone away from you. Your family is what makes you strong, do not forget that." Erza cast her head down, eyes brimming with tears as she gave a slow nod. Makarov turned his gaze to Mira next. "Mira, you have developed into a strong young woman. A far cry from the timid girl that first came through those doors. You, however, seem to have overdone your confidence and become rather sinister. I can see you have a kind heart, but you hide it away from others. If only you would allow others in, you may find yourself growing so much stronger than you are. As you are now though, you will only become weaker." Mira could only look off to the side, a scowl on her face as tears slowly trailed down her cheeks.
Natsu looked up, making eye contact with the master before looking down at the ground. He didn't need to tell Natsu more than he already had. Natsu knew he had done wrong and disappointed the old man who he considered a grandfather. All he could do now was accept his punishment and move towards making himself better from it. With a resolved mind and a determined expression on his face, he looked back up to make eye contact with the master before nodding his head. The master looked down at him before reaching in to his pocket and pulling out a piece of paper before crumbling it up and tossing it to the pink haired boy. Natsu caught it and unfurled the papaer before seeing that it was a job request. 'Mages need to eliminate unknown mosters in the forests outside of Hargeon.' Natsu looked at the information before folding it up and placing it in his pocket before turning and grabbiing Erza and Mira's hands and dragging them out of the guild.
Makarov could only stare with pride as Natsu dragged the silent Mirajane and Erza out of the doors of the guild and down the road. 'That boy has the ability to bring the best out of anyone. He is the light of this guild and will grow up to be something truly great.' He could only think with pride. He stared down at the rest of his children before issuing his orders for the newly formed teams and handing out jobs.
Mirajane was the first to snap out of her stupor and quickly pulled her hand from Natsu's grip and grabbed him by his scarf. "You should watch what you grab with your grubby little hands, Natsu. It's not polite to grab a lady without her permission." She gave a smirk when he blushed and looked down, before noticing that he was still holding hands with Erza. She gave out a huff before reaching over and flicking the redhead on the forehead. She recoiled slightly as Erza fixed her with a glare before realising that she was holding hands with the young boy still. She quickly let go while a large blush spread across her cheeks. Natsu looked at them both in slight confusion before shruggin and pulling the request out of his pocket and unfolding it. "Gramps gave us this job to do. Some sort of monsters are inhabiting the forests and attacking villages around the town of Hargeon." He said while handing it over to Mira. She took it from him and read the description herself.
"Says here that there are never any bodies, just that the whole village's population seems to vanish overnight..." She couldn't help the small shiver that ran up her spine. Erza looked at the client information before grabbing the attention of the other two.
"We should start with getting ahold of the client and seeing what we can information we can bring up before going after these monsters." She said before handing the flier back to Natsu, who proceeded to fold it back up and place it back in his pocket. He nodded before looking at Mira, who seemed to be debating with herself as to joining the two of them. Natsu she could handle. Sure he was energetic and kind of annoying, but he was adorable when he cried and could always find a way to make her smile. He wasn't the issue, the red haired tin-bitch was the issue. So self righteous with a permanent 'holier than thou' outlook. She couldn't stand her. She straightened her posture before looking Erza in the eye. The redhead seemed to see the challenge in her eyes and met her gaze with growing anger. "Something on your mind?" Erza asked with no small amount of venom in her voice. Mira glared right back. "Yea," she replied in a cold tone. "I don't want to work with you. You'll just get in my way and keep me from doing my job." She left the challenge in the open and smirked internally when Erza seemed to bristle before moving to stand just a few feet, both of them now standing off against eachother with just a few feet seperating them. The air seemed to chill as they both began to raise their magic power. Before they could clash, Natsu jumped between the two of them, hands raised.
"Stop!" he yelled desperately. 'I need them to work together or Gramps will have my head' he thought to himself, remembering the two year threat of THAT if they couldn't work together. He quickly pointed that out to both of them, causing them both to visibly blanch before standing down though the glares continued. He sighed in relief before looking between the two of them and speaking calmly. "I don't like this more than either of you do, but Gramps will have all of our asses if we don't at least try. I don't know about you, but I have much better things to do with my time than stare angrily and await my punishment becuase I don't like my role in this all. Let's just try to do this. who knows, we may even learn to get along a bit better..." He left the end as a sort of question, hoping they could start to read in to it enough and agree. He wasn't happy about it either, but he was at least willing to try. The two girls could only stare in shock. Not only had Natsu managed to say something not idiotic, but it was also something they could kind of agree on. They made eye contact one more time, each noting the displeasure in the others eye before slowly nodding to eachother. They both looked down at the hopeful, and slightly fearful face of Natsu before each sighing.
"I guess we can at least try." Erza said with a nuetral expression on her face.
"Yeah. I guess I can go along with this. At least I'm not paired with completely weak people." Mira gave off a slight smirk as Erza frowned at her words. They made eye contact before looking away with a huff. Natsu could only sigh as they began walking towards the train station. As much as he hated trains, he wanted to get this job done as quickly as he could. After all, maybe the old man would realize his mistake in all of this and let everyone go back to being the way that they were before. With a hopeful hop in his step, he bounced towards the train station followed by two unhappy women.
"I'm all fired up!" He could only exclaim while the two women just sighed at the young boy's eager idiocy.
For all of the eager attitude that he had hours prior, Natsu was currently on his back staring up at the afternoon sky as his stomach settled. The train ride had been hell. As soon as it had started chugging along, his motion sickness kicked in and he slumped down in his bench before falling against the disgusted Mirajane. The oldest Strauss continued to prove herself nothing like her younger sister, as she violently shoved Natsu across the car and in to the dozing Erza. Said girl could only squawk in indignation at her personal space being suddenly invaded before slapping Natsu back across the booth, before Mirajane pushed him back. This continued for several minutes before Erza finally smacked the ill boy down to the floor of the car and left him there as he curled in to a ball around her legs. He lie in agony, curled into a ball around the redheads feet for the rest of the train ride.
As he gained back his sense of self, he saw two silhouettes appear above him like two angels to bring him to heaven. "So pretty.." he commented before a foot came down on his cheek and forced his gaze to the side. Mira and Erza both looked at eachother, large blushes on their faces before glaring back down at the boy who had presumably been trying to peek up their skirts. He struggled for several moments under Mirajane's heeled boot, but his strength had yet to return and he flailed uselessly for several moments before giving up with a weak groan. She pulled her boot off of his face before Erza grabbed him by the scarf and pulled him up and slinging an arm over her shoulder. She looked at Mira before nodding ahead as they both began to walk towards the client's home on the outskirts of Hargeon. By the time they had arrived, Natsu had regained his composure and was walking on his own, though he made sure to give a thanks to Erza who nodded her head at him as the continued. Once they neared the home of the client, they walked up the small path leading to the cottage. It stood, made of logs as a small trail of smoke came from the chimney and the smell of cooking meat and baked bread filled their nostrils. The young dragon slayer's stomach growled loudly as they both walked up to the door and knocked. It took several moments before an elderly man opened the door. He wore a brown short sleeved shirt and had on black pants. His face had several wrinkles and a large scar just under the left corner of his lip down to his chin and partially down his neck. He looked at the three of them with questions in his eyes before he caught sight of the job request flyer. His eyes lightened before he silently waved them in.
"We're from Fairy Tail, sir. We were assigned this job and have come to see if you can give us any more information on these monsters." Erza spoke after a moment of silence. The man seemed to regard the three young ones for a moment before nodding his head. "My name is Edward, and those monsters... They're very large," he began. "They are big monsters. Made of something metal and harder than steel. They seems to screech and chirp as they move. They look to fire a magic I've never seen before, they carry these strange looking guns. Not like I've seen many before, but they all have a style y'know?" He seemed to be getting more animated as he moved his hands around wildly. "They just shrugged off all the spells from the wizards that lived in the village. They weren't no pushovers, y'know. They had to be strong to take care of bandits, but these metal monsters just took the hits like nothing and kept moving in. Slowly. With purpose. They took people and just vanished in a beam of light. Just like they appear. There's just these sparks of lightning and then a flash of light and suddenly there's 20 of the monsters. I traded with these villagers for well over 20 years. Thought I'd seen most types of magic, but these monsters have something I can't even describe. It's like one minute they're there, then they grab someone and vanish in a boom of light. no direction or trail. Just... gone..." the old man finished weekly as he looked at the three young teens before him. He let out a bit of a sigh of relief that at least these mages hadn't lauged in his face like the previous guilds and Rune Knights had. They had merely claimed it to be the work of bandits or slavers. He relayed this information to them. They nodded before Mira spoke up.
"So how exactly do you know what these things look like?" Mira stated with a curious gaze. "I mean you say these things just take people and disappear. That means they can tell where people are, so why didn't they take you?" The man looked nervous before slumping to his knees and sobbing.
"They didn't get me becuase there was only one left... And it took my son... They didn't take me because there was nothing left to take me... They got what they wanted, and didn't seem to care about anything more than that. It's almost like you treat animals to slaughter. You only need so many, no need to take more in case you need to come back. They were methodical and didn't take me because they didn't need me. I'm sure they'll be back for me if they ever need more people though..." He looked up to them with an almost manic expression. "Please find them. The people and my son. His name is Don. He just turned 20! Please find my boy!" He yelled at them before slumping over and falling unconcious. It seemed his exhaustion had caught up with him. Natsu looked to Erza and Mira, who quickly exhcanged glances. Despite the warmth of the room, they all felt a chill pass through them. What kind of monster was this? What kind of monster can teleport and acts this methodical? They quickly decided to head to one of the abducted villages to find some answers.
The walk didn't take that long. The closest village that they could determine from a map was a little over an hours walk to the north. They made the journey and came to a sight that chilled them. The village was empty and silent. Not even animals were in the area, as if they sensed some kind of danger still in the area. They investigated the small thatch huts before moving towards the center. There were burns in the wall, yet no flames had come from them. It was as if they had burned insanely hot before cooling instantly. There were scorched patches of earth surounded by snad that had been superheated to glass in small chunks. It seemed that the lightning energy the man was talking about had caused this, and the blaster caused the burns on the walls. They all came to another startling realization. There was no blood to be found. There was evidence of a struggle, basket were overturned and many weapons and farm tools lie broken on the ground. Erza and Mira felt a shiver run up their spines as Natsu was felt something in his blood chill.
"We need to find some kind of clue. Natsu, can you smell anything? Any sign of a fleeing villager or an enemy trail?" Erza asked in a steady voice, hand resting on her sword. Natsu raised his head before grunting out and shaking his head. "It's like the old man said," He started with a small amount of anxiety in his voice. "They're just gone. Everyone."
"Well I'm going to call it here!" Mira spoke suddenly. "This job is well deserving of an S-Rank and we should not be here. I say we head back to town and get ahold of Master. Maybe he'll send in Gildarts to handle this or something, but I feel like this is way above us."
Erza looked to Natsu and they both nodded to eachother. While Erza and Mira were both S-class wizards, they were both fresh S-Class mages and needed more experience before handling something like this. This almost seemed more like a job for a wizard saint than a private guild. They both looked to Mira and nodded at her before the three of them began to head out of the village. As they neared the entrance, they heard a slight crackling as the air around them seemed to become laced with wisps of black energy. They turned in time to see a flash of light before five of the monsters appeared before them. They seemed mechanical in nature, with each of them having a single red eye in the center of what was their faces that glowed in the evening light. The first three in front stood tall with large plates seeming to adorn thier heads, while one of the others stood like them but had two large metal horns coming out the side of it's head. The last one stood taller than the rest of them, with a beady red eye shining under a dome of metal covering it's head. All but the largest one had a large core of light in their center. It burned bright and white in a seemingly tainted light. They all seemed to raise and adjust in to a combat stance as they focused on the three mages.
Erza was quick to draw her sword and hop away from the group, with two of the plate headed machines following. Mira transformed in to her satan soul and flew over the group, with the largest of the groups following her. That left Natsu facing the horned one and the last of the plate headed machines. They were quick to begin their methodical march towards him, with the horned one facing him but moving away. Natsu heard a whirring sound before a beam of red energy barely missed his head, slamming in to a tree behind him and punching a perfectly circular hole through it. He gulped before having to focus back on the plate headed one as it started to fire from it's own weapon. It fired several shots, seemingly high in damage but slow enough to dodge and not accurate enough at the distance he was at. He quickly lit his fists on fire before charcing at the plate headed machine, adopting his well taught stance and blowing a fire dragon's roar at the object. It seemed to analyze the oncoming attack before hunkering down to protect it's core as the attack hit. When the flames cleared away, it revealed the machine to be slightly scorched and steaming, but relatively unharmed. It stood back up as it continued to march towards him, slowly and without hurry. 'This is bad.' Natsu thought to himself as he looked over at Mira. It seemed whatever attacks she was launching at the largest of the machines was bouncing hamlessly off of a purple aura that surrounded it. Erza wasn't fairing much better, only succeeding at keeping the machines at bay with her Heaven's Wheel armour, but not dealing any damage herself. He watched her sword slide harmlessly along the steel of one of the machines faces with so much as a scratch. They both looked to be running out of energy as the fighting continued, while Natsu couldn't seem to have a moment to think for himself between dodging the horned machine's beam attacks and trying to figure out how to harm the plate headed machine that had begun to crowd his space. He kept watching as every attack he launched bounced off without any damage before he noticed something. It kept covering it's core before each attack! 'That's it!' he thought to himself as he charged a flame in his fist and ran towards the plate headed machine. As it reared back to strike him, he lunged forward and slammed his hand in to the core of the machine as hard as he could. The core burst a bright white liquid all over his arm before the machine fell over, the red light in it's eye fading as it died. He grinned before running to the horned machine and pulling back to do the same thing, only to be blasted backwards from a wave of purple energy from its hand. He felt himself fly backwards as his scarf came unfurled from around his neck and fell to the ground. 'I'll get it when I'm done here.' he thought to himself. He needed to distract it before he could attack. That purple energy stung, and it felt like it penetrated clean through him and left him slightly chilled. He reared his head back and launched another roar, only for the machine to crouch in to a defensive position and seemingly catch fire suddenly. His attack nullified, he charged up his fire. He focused as much magical energy as he could to his fist before charging towards the machine as the flames on it extinguished and it moved to stand. His fist punched clean through it's core, and he turned to run towards Erza as the machine fell over dead.
Erza was not having an easy fight. All of her strongest armours weren't even putting a dent in these machines. 'That old man wasn't kidding.' she thought grimly. 'I've spent my money on the best steel that can be found in all of Fiore, yet it's doing nothing to these things.' She raised her sword to charge once more before Natsu flew in and smashed his hand through the core of the machine that was sneaking behind her. She turned her head as she watched him pull his bloodied fist from it's core, before setting it aflame and cauterizing the wounds. She widened her eyes as she finally registered that he had killed one of the machines. She went to speak before she was enveloped in a purple light and flying forward as she felt her bones chill and creak. She hit the ground and rolled to a stop just in front of Natsu, loooking at his shocked expression blearily before shutting her eyes and falling unconcious.
Natsu was quick to try and get to her aid, but the last of the plate headed machines appeared before him and knocked him back with another wave of purple energy from it's mechanical hand. He felt his bones creak in protest before hunching over and coughing up blood. He saw spots begin to form in his vision as the machine began to march towards him. 'No!' He thought with despair. 'It can't end like this... I still have to find Igneel...' That thought seemed to scream his body back to life as his vision sharpened. He felt his limbs tighten and the skin around his eyes seemed to tighten as well. His senses became sharp as he felt his power grow in him. 'It burns' he thought in mild fascination. He had lived his entire life and never felt the heat of being burnt, being a dragon slayer of the fire element made him somewhat immune to it. He looked down to his arms to see his skin darkening slightly with scales crawling up his arms from his fingers. The machine halted it's progression and seemed to still as it analyzed the teenager. It chirped several times before a loud screech was emitted by it. It reared itself back in to a combat stance, but was not fast enough as Natsu tore his fist through the machine, cutting it completely in half. It's eyes dimmed before flickering out completely as Natsu sprinted towards Mirajane and the last of the machines. He idly wondered how many there were, as the old man claimed to have seen over 20 when he witnessed the attack. He shuddered at the thought. They were having issues with just five of them, he couldn't imagine the state of this nation if an entire army of these machines invaded. With that in mind, he doubled his pace towards the eldest Strauss.
Mira was panting in exhaustion. She could barely stand, and breathing alone hurt her immensly. She kept pressure on her ribs, feeling that at least a few of them were broken. It didn't matter how hard she had hit this machine, it didn't flinch. It didn't even seem to register her attacks, which infuriated her to no end. It didn't even move to fight her until she was well within it's range, and all it would do is rear back and smack her away. Mira learned her lesson after her thrid attempt and decided to stand back and watch for any sign of weakness. She looked over and watched Natsu's sudden growth in power, which seemed to easily dwarf hers, as he tore the last of the machines in half by the downed redhead before rushing over to her. The machine had devoted it's entire focus on Natsu after he had destroyed his first opponents. 'How dare this thing ignore me!' She thought in anger. 'I'm an S-class mage and I am not to be taken lightly!' She growled lightly as she moved to stand just as Natsu landed next to her. He looked at her out of the corner of his eye, but kept a majority of his focus on the large machine in front of him. He seemed to be thinking of something with how intently he was staring between her and the machine. He seemed to come to some sort of a conclusion as he let out a long sigh before focusing his gaze ahead.
"Mira..." His tone seemed strong, if not slightly resigned. She focused her full attention on him, her pain forgotten in her shock at the tone she had never heard from him before. His gaze continued to stare at the machine that analyzed him, the only sound it made were several ground out and deep screeches and chirps but it did not otherwise move. "Mira, focus!" He snapped at her again. She shook her head before replying "Yes?" she managed to grind out. she didn't realize that speaking would hurt this bad. "Mira I need you to grab Erza and get back to the city and call up Master and try the Council as well." He spoke in a low and even tone.
She couldn't believe her ears. This was the isiot that hated the council and refused help in any fight, and here he stood telling her to retreat for help. If she hadn't been with him the whole time, she would have assumed him to be someone else. She had never seen this side of him before, it left her confused on just who Natsu Dragneel was. She went to shake her head before he spared a moment to look at her. She gasped as she stared in to yellow eyes with reptillian slits in them. They betrayed no warmth or emotion of any kind. They were they eyes of a predator and seemed to instantly drain the fight out of her.
"Oh and grab my scarf. I'll be right behind you guys after I finish with this pile of scrap, but the guild and council need to know about these things. You're in no condition to fight and Erza is down for the next few hours. This is just the smartest move. Just head on ahead and i'll catch up in a bit" He grinned weakly at her.
"You promise?" She cursed herself for how weak she sounded in that moment. How she sounded like a helpless little girl. She cursed even more that she could do nothing to help him.
"Promise." He returned his attention to the hulking machine and it continued to just stand there and observe him. Mira nodded before flying over and grabbing Erza and flew out of the village, flicking her tail to grab Natsu's scarf as she went. She flew as fast as she could with her current load. As she traveled further away, she heard the sounds of a violent clash before the ground shook and a large flash of light enveloped everything around her. She felt the tears roll down her cheeks as she continued down the road towards the city. She had one thing that she was told to do, and she was going to complete it.
Mira made it back to the city of Hargeon and called Makarov as soon as she could. The council was then promptly notified and Rune Knights were dispatched to the area. The bodies of the machines were bagged up and taken away, likely to be studied, and extensive searches happened through the surrounding forests for any sign of Natsu. After two weeks of searching no sign of Natsu Dragneel was found. Mira and Erza seemed to take it the hardest in the following weeks, neither left their respective homes and said more than a few words to anyone who checked in on them. Happy had opted to stay with a grieving Lisanna and spend time with the silent Mirajane in their home. Erza had taken Natsu's scarf after awakening with intent to give it to him, along with her thanks. The fact that she may never get to thank him ate away at her. She felt weak. 'Just like the the Tower all over again...' she thought with dull eyes.
It was another two weeks of searching before the search was called off. With heavy hearts, the Council had informed Fairy Tail of their decision. With all of the evidence presented, the council decided to rule that Natsu Dragneel had sacrificed his life. With heavy hearts, Fairy Tail held a funeral for the young dragon slayer. Many cursed nature itself for being such a beatiful day. The sun was out and there was a cooling breeze. It was perfect weather for relaxing or fishing, yet this was a day of mourning. The funeral was large, as even Gildarts had been recalled by Makarov. He stood with tears streaming down his face as Lisanna held on to his cloak and quietly sobbed in to it. Most of the guild was present for this sad yet beautiful day. The only ones to not show were the still isolated Mirajane Strauss and Erza Scarlet. The Council had arrived and honored him by announcing how he would be considered a hero for not only his sacrifice, but the invaluable knowledge on a never before seen enemy.
It did nothing to quell the pain in the hearts of Fairy Tail.
Decided that I would try this out. Leave me a review if you liked it and any questions you may have and I'll see about updating it from there. Don't be afraid to PM me, I'll try to respond as much as I can to the VALID question or comments.
Till next time,
Temperclast