Xover: Jump Force (The Rewrite) - [CONTINUED]

Gajeel Redfox

Chapter 12: Gajeel Redfox

~Line Break~

(Elsewhere on another street in Inuzuri District, Soul Society, a few minutes earlier)

'Stupid Mystigan.. And stupid me!'

Gajeel knew from the start that something was wrong with the whole thing. He knew he should have listened to his gut the second the S-Class Wizard brought that cube thing into the guildhall and told him straight up to put it back where he found it. 'And he's supposed to be one o' the smart ones?' He should have told 3rd Master he smelled something really weird around it and that it shouldn't have been brought anywhere near Magnolia. And he should never have let Pantherlilly or the shrimp get close to it.

But of course, when did Fairy Tail ever shy away from something stupid or potentially Life-threatening? And technically Mystigan was just fulfilling his S-Class Quest by rescuing [A/N: a town somewhere in Fiore, couldn't think of a name], which had been plagued by strange creatures ever since the appearance of this relic in its centre. According to the town's people there, it was also having some seriously weird effects on the people and animals, turning them into similar looking creatures shrouded in black and with crimson red eyes. All that was certain about the creatures was that they would attack anyone around them, and turning those that survived the viscous assaults into creatures themselves, a particularly nasty curse.

Nothing an S-Class couldn't handle though as Mystigan dispatched the creatures with relative ease (too bad for those already affected). But the big issue was the cube itself! From what the blue-haired mage had observed, it didn't seem to be made from any element known in Fiore's periodic table. And when he'd finally managed to magically contain it and the guild stood around it in the guildhall, the energy coming off it didn't feel (or smell) like magic. If Gajeel had to guess, it felt closer to Cursed energy (like the kind used by Zeref's Demons) but not like any he had encountered before.

All in all, it seemed altogether.. Alien! Like it shouldn't even be in this world!

And of course, there would never be any stopping Levi Mcgarden's scientific curiosity. And she would have to pour over the damn thing with every kind of test she could imagine. She was about on her 53rd when the ground started shaking. And the roof of the guildhall was pulled clean off.. and into some kind of portal in the sky surrounded by purple clouds.

In an instant, a lotta good wizards were lost. Mystigan, the 3rd Master, Mirajane, Laxus. Levi might have been too if Gajeel hadn't thrown Lily straight at her, to fly her out of its pull. At least he hoped they got clear of it, 'coz he'd damn well never forgive himself if either of them were lost too.

Damn it! Just when they'd finally beaten Zeref and his Spriggan 12 and the war against Alvarez was finally over. Just when things were finally looking up for the Fairy Tail Guild. Just when he thought he could finally let go of his past with Phantom Lord under Jose Porla, and the man he once was. Just when he'd realised what he was too dense to see before, that he already had everything he wanted. That SHE felt for him what he, deep down, had felt for her since they first met. Even when the circumstances of their first meeting left her chained up and hanging from a tree by her wrists (when they were still enemies), an act of his own hands which he would forever carry to his shame.

Just when, in spite of everything, he realised that they could finally start planning their future.. together.

Now of all times he had to end up in a place like this (which sure didn't smell like Fiore), going on some obscure advice about 'Multiverse' and 'Champions' from some creepy dame's disembodied voice, to do.. What?

Well here he was now. The guildhall's roof with it's Emblem proudly emblazoned on its front crumpled behind him (because the guildhall getting wrecked seemed to be an occupational hazard). And before him, a man whose height and musculature could have rivalled Elfman's.