Earth Land, Ishgar, Kingdom of Fiore, Worth Woodsea.
November, x784.
As soon as the battle between the Allied Forces and the Oración Seis started, Carla grabbed Wendy and dragged her behind a bolder with Happy following them shortly afterward.
"Carla, what are you doing?" Wendy asked, both frustration and fear mixing into her tone.
"I'm keeping you safe." Carla replied sternly. Then, she turned her attention towards Happy. "And why are you here?"
"I'm keeping both of you safe." Happy replied with a valiant expression.
"Hmph!" Carla snorted in reply while turning her nose up at Happy's declaration.
"But I need to go help them." Wendy said, glaring at Carla slightly. "They are our allies."
"I don't care about anyone's safety other than yours, Wendy." Carla said, placing her paws on her hips as she stood in front of Wendy. "You're my only priority."
With that, Wendy and Carla continued to argue about Wendy's participation in the battle. Meanwhile, Happy's gaze switched from Wendy to Carla and finally to the ongoing battle repeatedly.
Eventually, Wendy, after realizing she would not get Carla's approval to participate in the battle stopped arguing and joined Happy in watching the battle. And when Wendy stopped, Carla also began observing the battle as well.
Seeing how strong everyone was, Wendy found herself growing even more frightened. But at the same time, she had the desire to get stronger, too. That way, she would be able to help her allies and keep her best friend, Carla, safe while out on quests.
Eventually, the three saw most of the battlefield come to a stop as Ur and Ultear were overwhelming Brain so one-sidedly. Though, Happy made a comment that Ur could do that by herself.
Naturally, that left Wendy and Carla in awe at the prowess Ur showed.
"In fact, if it were just Ur and that Brain guy, she would probably just freeze over the entire area." Happy said. "but she doesn't want to hurt the people around her."
That statement caused Wendy and Carla to both stare at Happy. While Wendy stared at him in amazement, Carla did so with skepticism.
"Would you fools stop standing around and gawking!" Brain shouted, bringing Wendy and Carla's attention back to the battlefield. "Complete the objective so we can move on to the next step of our plan."
With that, the battle continued. A few moments later, however, the man called Racer appeared among the three.
"There you are." Racer said as he reached out towards Wendy. "You're coming with me."
"No, she' not!" Carla shouted as she used her [Aera Magic] to sprout her wings and fly towards Racer.
*Smack!*
Casually, Racer, without even glancing at Carla, slapped her out of the air with his free hand. Then, he continued reaching for Wendy.
"Carla!" Wendy shouted in panic after seeing Carla knocked away. Then, with anger in her eyes, she took a deep breath. "[Sky Dragon's---]."
Before she could cast her spell, however, Wendy's eyes opened wide when Racer vanished from in front of her. Then, before she could start searching for his new position, he reappeared behind her and chopped her on the back of the neck.
Immediately, Wendy lost consciousness. Then Racer grabbed her and disappeared from behind the bolder. Meanwhile, Carla, who was weakly trying to push herself off the ground, reached out a paw towards the spot where Wendy and Racer disappeared from. Then, she lost consciousness, left alone behind the bolder.
'I hope that cat… Happy… can keep her safe.' Carla thought as her world faded into darkness.
A while later, Carla opened her eyes again. However, she was no longer behind the bolder where she, Wendy, and Happy had been watching the battle before they were attacked by Racer. Instead, she found herself lying next to a white-haired young woman, Sorano, whose name she did not know.
A moment later, after Carla regained her wits, she sat up quickly.
"We have to save Wendy!" Carla shouted as she sat up.
"Oh, you're awake, little cat. I believe your name was Carla." Jura said in a peaceful tone.
"That's not important, we have to save Wendy!" Carla shouted, growing more frantic as time went by. "She and the cat were kidnapped!"
"They took Happy, too?" Natsu shouted angrily. "Where are they? I'll make them pay for taking my little buddy!"
With that, Natsu immediately ran away from the group while everyone else was dumbfounded at how quickly he ran away. A moment later, Carla looked at the rest of the group angrily.
"Why aren't any of the rest of you going to save them?" Carla asked angrily.
"I think you should watch your mouth." Ur said in an irritated tone. "Why don't you look next to you."
Though she was angry that no one was going to find Wendy, Carla followed Ur's instructions. When she looked next to her, she saw Sorano laying there with bandages wrapped around her abdomen. And from what she could tell, she was not in good shape.
After seeing the state Sorano was in, Carla could finally understand why no one was willing to just rush off. They could not afford to leave the injured woman alone. However, Carla thought that was an even better reason for them to go find Wendy.
"Then, you really should hurry and find Wendy." Carla said, sounding a bit calmer now. "Wendy's [Dragon Slayer Magic] can be used to heal."
Immediately after Carla's words fell, Karen walked off in the same direction Nasu went without a word. Shortly afterward, Ur and Ultear also left to find the members of the Oración Seis. Though, it seemed more like they were just looking for an excuse to find Brain.
Meanwhile, Gray, Lyon, and Sherry also left in a group to search for the Oración Seis with Ichiya sprinting off shortly afterward while shouting "men" and declaring that he would save Sorano. In the end, only Hibiki and Jura were left to look over the unconscious and heavily injured Sorano.
"You can keep in touch with everyone using your [Telepathy Magic], correct." Jura asked.
"That won't be a problem." Hibiki replied with his [Archive Magic] screen floating around him. "I'm tracking all their movements as we speak."
"Very good." Jura said with a nod. "Then, I'll create some shelter for us."
A moment later, Jura clapped his hands together strongly. Then, rocks rose from the ground and created a domed shelter around him, Hibiki, and Sorano.
A while later, Wendy, who had been kidnapped, finally woke up. When she did, the first thing she did was sit up and scan he surroundings. The first thing she noticed was that she was in a cave lit by magical torches. After that, she saw two of the members of the Oración Seis standing around a man who was lying on a stone bed. And finally, she noticed the tied up blue cat lying next to her.
"Happy!" Wendy exclaimed.
"Wendy, thank goodness you're okay." Happy said in a relieved tone.
"Oh, it seems the Maiden of the Sky has awakened." One of the two wizards from the Oración Seis, Brain, said after hearing Wendy's exclamation. "Good. I'm glad no harm fell upon you."
Hearing that voice, Wendy's head snapped in Brain's direction as she went on full alert.
"Why did you kidnap me?" Wendy asked in as brave a tone as she could muster. "What do you want from me."
"Oh, nothing too difficult." Brain replied calmly. "I simply want you to heal someone."
With that said, Brain and the other wizard, Cobra, who had just been listening to the conversation, stepped aside. When they did, the man lying on the stone bed became visible.
Wendy, as soon as she saw the blue hair and the red tattoo under the man's right eye, sucked in a breath of air in surprise. On top of that, a bit of happiness could be seen in her expression. Happy, on the other hand, was terrified.
"It's you." Wendy said quietly after seeing the man's, Jellal Fernandes', face. "I've been hoping to see you for so long. I've always wanted to thank you for saving me."
As she spoke, Wendy stood up and slowly started approaching the unconscious form of Jellal. A moment later, Happy came back to his senses.
"Wendy, you can't heal him!" Happy shouted. "He's the traitor from the Magic Council. And the one who tricked them into firing the Etherion! He's the one who---"
"Silence, Cat." Cobra said, appearing next to Happy in a burst of speed before picking him up by his neck and choking him to stop him from speaking.
"Stop it!" Wendy shouted, having turned around when Happy started shouting. So, she naturally saw the moment Cobra picked him up. ""Don't hurt him."
"Well, then, this makes things simple." Cobra said with a grin. "If you want that cat to live, then you will heal him."
In response, Wendy hesitated. Although she truly wanted to heal the man on the stone bed, because she recognized him as the one who saved her when she found herself all alone in the middle of a forest and brought her to her current home, the Cait Shelter guild, she had also heard of all the bad things he had done.
"I guess you're not so important to her, Cat." Cobra said, putting more force on Happy's neck.
"Now, there's no need for that, Cobra." Brain said, stopping Cobra from inflicting any more harm on Happy before turning his attention back to Wendy. "But if you don't intend to help him, there's no need for him to continue suffering."
With that, Brain raised his skull staff and pointed it at Jellal. Then, he started gathering his magic power to release a spell that would undoubtedly kill Jellal in his current, comatose state.
"Are you sure about that, Brain?" Cobra asked with an eyebrow raised.
The reason for Cobra's raised eyebrow was not for the reason one would expect. Instead of being confused at the fact that Brain would kill the person that he wanted Wendy to heal, it was because Cobra had a special kind of enhanced hearing that allowed him to hear the surface thoughts of those in his vicinity.
And what he heard from Brain made him realize just how cruel and crafty the old man was.
In fact, Brain actually had no intention of killing Jellal. But since Wendy did not know that, it would work to his advantage. However, if Wendy truly refused to heal him, Brain would kill him without hesitation, just to make Wendy suffer for disobeying. But Brain doubted it would come to that.
'What I really wanna know is how did Brain even get his hands on this guy.' Cobra thought to himself as he watched the mind games Brain was playing with the scared, little girl. 'The authorities from every nation on Ishgar has been searching for him for over two months. Yet, Brain seemed to find him with no issue.'
Meanwhile, Brain, with his staff raised, was holding eye contact with Wendy. And as he did, he could see that her hesitation to heal Jellal was waning as time went by.
'Good, it shouldn't be too much longer.' Brain said to himself while observing Wendy. 'And when she's finally healed him, he can lead us to Nirvana. Still, I wonder how that crazy woman managed to sneak him away from those Fairy Tail wizards after his defeat. More importantly, how does he know where Nirvana can be found?'
As Brain began contemplated all the unanswered questions he has had since the crazy woman he was referring to, Junko Enoshima, brought him Jellal's comatose body, he was pulled from his thoughts when Wendy finally spoke up.
"Why do you need me to heal him?" Wendy asked unsurely. "What are you going to do with him."
"We'll use him to find Nirvana." Brain said with an enlightened smile. "A place where light and darkness can be changed at will."
Though she was unsure of what Brain men by changing light and darkness at will, to Wendy, it did not sound as dangerous as she was expecting. And because she was looking for a reason to heal Jellal and repay the kindness she was shown seven years ago, anyway, she agreed to heal him.
Meanwhile, Happy's eyes opened wide in panic. Although he did not go on the Tower of Heaven expedition like his canon counterpart, he, along with most of the wizards in Fairy Tail, had heard the story that Alfonzo, Elicia, Cana, Ultear, and Erza told about their adventure. So, he knew, or at least thought he knew, what kind of person Jellal was. Still, there was nothing he could do to stop Wendy from healing him. The only good thing that came from Wendy healing Jellal was the fact that Cobra released him and left the cave to perform another task.
About half an hour later, Wendy, exhausted from using so much of her magic power, stepped away from the stone bed Jellal was lying on, having completed her healing. Then, a few moments later, Jellal sat up and began scanning his surroundings.
At that moment, one of the caves walls exploded inward, dust and debris filling that portion of the room.
"Happy! Where are you!?" Natsu shouted through the dust cloud.
"Brain is here, I can feel it." Ultear's voice, laced with killing intent, sounded out a moment later. "I need to repay you for how well you took care of me after my mother left me in your care at the Bureau of Magical Development all those years ago."