Chapter Text
“You know, Lucy, I kind of liked your first team name.”
“Team Fairy Tale?”
“Yeah it’s a lot better than some of the others you’ve suggested. As long as I’m not the jester.”
“Guess you could also be a knight… or maybe an ice prince?”
“I’m fine with anything other than jester.”
“I guess we could make that work! What do you think, Natsu?”
.•.•.•.
“Oh, Team Fairy Tale, you’re back!” Mirajane smiles from her spot behind the bar, putting down a platter of drinks in front of them. “Master Makarov wanted to see you, once you’re relaxed a little.”
Gray lounges onto one of the bar seats, somehow shedding both shirt and pants in the process. “Huh, wonder what that’s about.”
“It had better not be property damage again,” Lucy says, handing Gray his discarded clothing. “My rent money can’t afford to take another hit…”
“If it is, we’ll just take another job,” Erza says. “There’s an S-Class one I think we can handle.”
They relax and chat for a bit, and once the drinks are finished, as requested, they enter Makarov’s office. He’s sat behind his desk, looking at some paperwork, but he shuffles it away as soon as they’re inside. “Ah, Team Fairy Tale. I hope your latest job went well.” This is less an expression of sentiment, and more a threat. “I have a special request for you.”
They sit and listen as Makarov explains the Baram Alliance, a trio of powerhouse dark guilds that have united under an unknown goal. Oracion Seis. Grimoire Heart. Tartaros.
He explains that it is, in truth, little more than rumour, but that Fairy Tail, in allegiance with several other guilds, has tracked down one of these guilds— none other than Oracion Seis— and plans have been set to destroy them.
“I’ve decided to send you,” Makarov says, “if you’re willing. I’m not certain who the other guilds will be sending, but I’m sure that they will be mages of a similar calibre.”
Erza glances at the rest of her team, and turns back to Makarov with her shoulders set. “We would be honoured to accept. We will do Fairy Tail proud.”
“Of that, I’ve never doubted.”
.•.•.•.
It’s a bit of travel to get to the agreed-upon meeting place, much to the dismay of Natsu. Erza is, as usual, swift to deliver her own brand of mercy, though it’d debatable if anyone else would view it as such.
Thankfully, he only begins to stir awake as Happy calls out that he can see the spot— one of the villas owned by Blue Pegasus’s Master Bob.
“Before we proceed,” Erza says, “I want us all to bear in mind… our first priority is the defeat of Oracion Seis, but other than that… we should try to forge strong bonds with the other participating guilds.”
“So don’t piss anyone off. Got it,” Gray smirks, hopping off the carriage. Natsu slides off after him, and has to take a moment to just breathe before he responds.
“Shouldn’t be too hard.”
“You say that now…” Lucy says, thinking of mages like Karen Lilica. Hopefully nobody like that will be on this job.
Five minutes later, Erza kicks one of the mages they’re supposed to be meeting with hard enough that he indents perfectly into a wall.
Not… the best meeting.
At least the other mages, Hibiki, Eve, and Ren don’t seem to take offence to Ichiya being attacked, and don’t seem liable to follow in his footsteps, even though they all flirt.
The next guild to arrive is Lamia Scale, and to the surprise of everyone, it’s Lyon and Sherry who step through the doors.
Neither of them spare more than a glance at the embedded Ichiya.
Sadly, Gray follows in Erza’s footsteps, making them two-for-two on guilds that they’ve picked fights with. Thankfully, Lyon and Gray’s squabble barely gets off the ground before the third and final member of Lamia Scale shows up and puts a swift end to it, the wizard saint, Jura.
“This isn’t going great so far,” Natsu comments to Lucy, who nods.
“I hope the next guild doesn’t have anyone that we’ll need to pick a fight with,” she says. “What did Master say they were called? Cait Shelter?”
“I think so. … sounds like they’re here.”
Heads turn to the door as the final mages arrive, and…
It’s a couple of kids. A girl and a boy. And two cats, like Happy.
“You’re the mages from Cait Shelter?” Jura asks, the slightest furrow in his brow.
“Yes,” the little white cat responds. “This is Wendy, I’m Charle, that’s Rogue, and that one is Frosch. Are these all the wizards were to be meeting?”
“You look like me!” is Happy’s chipper response, and his little face is positively glowing as he approaches them. “I’ve never met another one of me!”
Frosch hides behind Charle, who puts her paws on her sides and humphs. “That isn’t what I asked, boy-cat.”
“Charle…” Wendy says, too gentle to be chiding. “It’s, um, nice to meet everyone!”
“They sent a couple of kids and cats, great,” Gray says. Rogue’s head snaps in his direction, and Lucy stomps on his foot before he can make their guild squabbles three-for-three.
Natsu, for his part, has his eyes narrowed at the newcomers, turning over names and faces and voices— scents, too— in his head. There’s no familiarity at all with Charle and Frosch, maybe a distant bit of recognition with Rogue, but Wendy…
Where has he met her before?
“Now that all wizards are present and accounted for,” Jura pushes, “we should discuss our strategy. Oracion Seis is formed out of powerful wizards, and we shouldn’t underestimate them, even with their low numbers.”
“Yes, I agree,” Ichiya says, finally peeling himself out of the wall. “It may be a good idea to get familiar with the scents of everyone in here… men.”
“What our boss means is,” one of the tri-men interjects, “is that it might be a good idea to share what kinds of magic we use?”
“No,” Jura says. “I have great respect to Master Bob for allowing us to meet here, but there’s no guarantee that we cannot be overheard. We simply will have to trust each other on the field.”
“In that case, allow me to continue…” Ichiya says, before launching into a spiel about what it’s believed the Seis’s goal is— Nirvana— and the known members, up to and including the enigmatic Brain.
“Um,” Wendy says, as the explanation trails off. “I’m not a very strong fighter. I have very strong support magic, though! I just… don’t think I can actually fight any of them…”
“You must speak higher of yourself!” Charle says, reprimanding. “It is because you don’t believe you can handle things that you don’t!”
“But it’s true…”
“I can fight,” Rogue says. “I can fight any of them!”
“Ideally, we’ll gather them all in their base, and destroy it from above,” Hibiki says, arms folded in front of him. “After all, we brought our pride and joy— the Sky Steed, Christina.”
“A magic heavy bomber…” Sherry mutters, mostly to herself.
“They’re that kind of enemy,” Jura says. “We must maintain our numerical advantage, and fight with odds of two against one. There is simply no other way to win.”
The little green cat in a frog onesie shudders, and clings to Rogue’s leg.
Plans set, there’s not much else for the group to do but head out.
Jura and Ichiya lag behind, however briefly, and what happens between them is as quick as it is violent.
The Oracion Seis have made the first move.
.•.•.•.
Three steps into the woods, the sky itself rumbles as the Christina passes overhead, every wizard pausing to look at it. It’s a raw beast of magic power, a feat of engineering, a masterwork in every sense of the word.
It is, also, exploding.
Torn apart in starbursts of magic and metal, the Christina goes from a pristine thing to tatters, coming down hard. It hits the earth in one final, shattering explosion, and six shapes resolve themselves against the flickering smoke and flame.
What follows is nothing short of a crush . It doesn’t matter that they have the advantage in numbers. It doesn’t matter that two of the Seis don’t attack. It’s a crush.
Natsu throws a wall of fire forwards— it’s his most practiced element, his most familiar— and it doesn’t do shit.
Erza, out of all of them, is the one to last the longest, and that still doesn’t matter because the snake curled around Cobra lunges out and catches her wrist with its teeth.
“Her poison won’t kill you straight away,” Cobra says, “but you’ll feel it every minute you’re dying.”
No, no no no, Natsu tries to launch himself at them, fuelled by desperation and fury, but Hoteye does something and the ground lurches under him, around him, around everyone. They’re powerless as Brain smirks down at them.
“Here I was, thinking you’d be more of a fight. Oh well. Dark—“ magic power swells and dies in his hands, attention snapping from the felled wizards to— “Wendy?”
It’s as if Brain completely forgets the rest of them exist. A grin splits his face, breaking the sour expression he’s worn this whole time. “You’re the Sky Sorceress!”
“I don’t know what that means,” Wendy half-sobs, ducking further behind her rock.
The rest of the Seis seem disgruntled, even a little annoyed, by this development, but they make no move to stop Brain as he gathers a lash of magic, which springs out and tries to grab Wendy like a lasso.
Tries, because very suddenly Wendy isn’t there anymore— she’s sucked into a pool of darkness on the ground. Happy plunges in after her, and the darkness shoots off, rapidly becoming nothing more than a darker spot in the shadows of the forest.
“Damn it! After them!” Brain cries, directing the Oracion Seis out.
“But what about—“ Angel starts, only to slam her mouth shut as Brain turns a wild-eyed look onto her.
“GO.”
She goes. They all go. Brain turns back to the beaten group, disgust painting his features, and he flings a spell at them that’s as dark as it is powerful. The earth itself surges in defence, powerful spells colliding in a shower of dust and rubble, and when that clears, Brain is gone too. Jura and Ichiya stand in the space that he occupied, bloodied and bruised, but alive.
The coalition picks itself up, tenderized rom the experience. Natsu, as soon as his feet are under him, stumbles to Erza, who’s trembling from the pain. Tears are welling in one of her eyes, but she fixes him with a determined look.
“I need a tourniquet,” she says, gasping around the pain. “Something to bite down on too.”
“We’re not cutting your arm off,” Natsu says, even as his own shoulder throbs in sympathy. He tears a strip from his clothes and ties it around her arm, because even if they aren’t removing it, restricting the poison is probably a good idea, even if it restricts the blood flow to her arm.
Fuck, she might lose it anyway. Would it be better to cut it off? Erza has probably already thought this through. It may be a case of lose her arm, or lose her.
“Cut it off,” Erza says, cramming a thickly folded bit of cloth from Lucy between her teeth. She can’t speak around it, but her eyes convey what they need to. Absolute determination.
Natsu tries to match that, finds he can’t. He owes so much to her, to Fairy Tail, imagining lifting a hand to hurt her— or any of them, really— is anathema.
“I’ll do it,” Lyon volunteers, but that just sparks a heated argument with Gray. The group fractures between those that want to follow Erza’s wishes and those that refuse to. The only thing that stops their squabble is Erza losing her hold on consciousness, collapsing into a boneless heap.
He’s being totally useless right now. Think, Natsu, think!
“Wendy could heal her,” Charle says, piercing through the sudden quiet like an arrow through a shroud. “That is, after all, her best magic.”
“A healer..? But I thought that magic was lost…”
Charle turns her little pink nose up. “Hardly. This would be nothing to Wendy, since she’s a Sky Dragon Slayer.”
“A dragon slayer?” Jura says, rubbing his chin with a hand. “I’ve heard of the magic before, but I didn’t think I’d ever meet one. If that’s true, we must find her at once!”
Natsu doesn’t miss how the conscious and present members of team Fairy Tale look at him, but he has to postpone any feelings he might have about finding another dragon slayer until after Erza is healed.
“I’m a dragon slayer too,” he says, switching to ice in order to press a cold hand to Erza’s forehead— Gray is already layering careful cold over her arm, just in case it helps. “I don’t have any healing magic, though...”
“Ummm,” Frosch says, from where they’re clinging on to Charle. “Fro thinks Rogue can come out now.”
A pool of shadow creeps out from under the rock, and the upper half of Rogue’s head pokes out. He squints at them, suspicious, but a second later Happy is launching out and he brings Wendy with him.
Happy sets Wendy down and she doesn’t miss a step, running to Erza’s side. She hesitates, looking at the injury, bites her lip, and then starts healing.
The sick purple veins that had been creeping up Erza’s arm start to shrink back, and the tense agony on her face eases. Gray has the presence of mind to undo the tourniquet, and Wendy’s healing washes away the bruises caused by it.
“That was quick thinking,” Natsu says, practically drowning in relief. “Thank you, Rogue.”
“They’ll figure out that was just a decoy soon,” Rogue says. “As soon as Wendy’s finished healing her, we should move.”
“I concur,” Jura says. “I believe it may be for the best if we split up, after this point. Us being in one place allowed them to team up in order to take us on. Hopefully, by splitting up ourselves, we’ll also be splitting them.”
“That makes sense,” Ren says, “I guess we just have to hope that they don’t stick together. That… would be bad for us.”
“I can keep track with my magic,” Hibiki offers. “I’ll need to hold pretty still to do it, though… if only a pretty lady would keep me company…”
“I’ll do it,” Lucy volunteers, at the exact same moment as Sherry. They both pause, and then glance at each other.
“Two pretty ladies it is!” Hibiki says.
“I’m staying with Wendy,” Rogue says. “You guys already failed to protect her once.”
“I’ll stick with you too,” Natsu says. “I owe Wendy big for this one.”
Rogue eyes him suspiciously, but doesn’t object.
“I’ll stick with Erza,” Gray says.
Jura takes over assigning groups from there— he assigns himself to Gray and Erza’s group, Ren and Eve are teamed with Lyon, and Ichiya is sent off on his own. Just as the final arrangements are made, Wendy sways, catches herself on her hands. Starts taking deep breaths, in through her mouth, out through her nose.
“She’s okay now,” she says. “Sorry. I’m not very used to using a lot of magic. Sorry.”
“Don’t apologize!” half the group chastises at once. It’s Hibiki who kneels next to her, puts a reassuring hand on her shoulder.
“It’s thanks to you that we didn’t have to amputate. We’d give you more time to recover, but… I think we had best move now.”
“Right,” Wendy bobs her head, draws in another deep breath, and then stumbles to her feet. “I’m okay.”
Gray pulls Erza into a loose hold, slinging her arm around his shoulders and wrapping his around her hips. She’s already stirring, but the less time wasted, the better.
With one final look around, the coalition fractures into groups.
Hopefully, this plan works as intended.
If it doesn’t, they’re all already dead.