Dividing And Conquering

Luke and Orin stayed at the village recovering from their injuries for a couple of days, they also helped out in fixing everything. Misa had gotten really attached to him and would follow him around as they worked, now was the day that they were leaving.

"Do you have to go?" Misa asked as she had some tears growing at the corner of her eyes with the entire village standing behind her.

"I'm afraid so, I have to get back to my guild. It was fun hanging around here and I'm glad I got to help out." Luke stated with Orin nodding in agreement.

"You will come back again right?" Misa hoped as she got closer to Luke.

"Of course I will, I'll visit you all when I can. But for now, it's farewell, stay safe." Lance said as he turned to them all. "Well, this is goodbye for now everyone, thanks for having me!"

"Of course Luke, you're always welcome here." Munto the village chief stated as he stepped up with Luke nodding.

"Thank you, sir. Well, I'll see you all some other time." Luke said as he and Orin waved goodbye to them all with the village doing the same, they continued to do so as they walked into the forest and left the village.

Luke was walking along the path back towards his guild, Orin was laying atop his head resting. Luke while walking had his hand on his chin deep in thought, there was something during the fight with Tannin that he just couldn't get out of his head.

-Flashback-

[Luke you can't use divide again right now, you're at your absolute limit] Albion stated as Luke scoffed in annoyance as his Balance Breaker timed out but his wings stayed keeping him in the air.

"Did we finish him?" Orin asked as he panted catching his breath but he got his answer as the wall that Tannin crashed into smashed to pieces and Tannin revealed to be at the centre. "How!?"

"I don't know but he's definitely a lot more powerful than the last time I met him" Luke stated as suddenly they heard a voice echo in the chamber.

'Kill them'

-Flashback End-

'What was that voice? It was like something or someone was watching us fight and gave Tannin power to kill us. This is too frustrating.' Luke thought as he gritted his teeth in annoyance with Orin noticing, his partner looked at him in concern.

"You alright Luke?" Orin asked in concern.

"Y-Yeah, it's nothing." Luke assured his partner but Orin could tell that he really was having a tough time but decided not to question any further. 'I need to get stronger, something tells me that Tannin isn't the only one I need to worry about.'

(O)-(O)-(O)

"What the hell is happening?" Luke wondered aloud as both him, Orin and Albion watched with wide eyes as they saw a tall legged structure heading straight towards their guild, what they saw was it stopping and a good amount of magical energy gathered at the front and their eyes widened more when they saw it was aimed at Cait Shelter.

"We have to stop that thing, Luke!" Orin yelled as Luke snapped out of his shocked state and nodded firmly before spreading his wings and flew at full speed towards the guild.

[Why can't we ever get a break?] Albion asked himself.

(O)-(O)-(O)

"What's going on? Why is there so much light and magical power." A woman with red long hair wondered. This was Erza Scarlet. Behind her were Wendy and Carla along with another person with blue hair, that was Jellal Fernandez. Erza was wondering as she came to a conclusion. "He's going to fire Nirvana!"

"Please no~!" Wendy yelled as her eyes were shedding tears along with Carla that was flying beside her who was looking at the scene in shock, the beam then fired and it quickly sped towards Cait Shelter and a man's sinister laughter echoed through the air.

"[Divide]" A voice echoed through the entire place catching everyones attention, they all looked towards the source and their eyes widened upon seeing Luke who was flying in front of the blast that had shrunken in half of its original size. "[Divide]"

"You aren't destroying this place with me here!" Luke roared as the beam shrunk in half again, Luke then reeled his leg back before giving a powerful kick to the beam which was sent flying into the air away from Cait Shelter with everyone watching with wide eyes.

"Luke..." Wendy muttered as her eyes began to shed tears upon seeing her friend come back, Erza heard Wendy and remembered Lucy and Natsu talking about them meeting a friend called Luke, this was him.

"Child, you're finally back." Carla said in relief as she watched Luke kick the beam sent by Nirvana into the air.

"Hey, guys!" Their attention was brought to a voice that came from behind them and saw Orin flying over to them, Wendy and Carla's eyes widened and smiles plasted their faces as they saw Orin heading towards them with Erza remembering seeing him in the Sorcerer Weekly, Jellal just watched as Orin landed in front of them. "I'm glad to see you guys are alright."

"Where were you! You were gone for who knows how long." Carla scolded the male exceed causing him to flinch back in slight fear, as Carla's cheeks turned slightly red. "We were worried about you two."

"We... had some reasons." Orin answered simply as they heard someone land and looked to see Luke landing and retracted his wings, he walked up to them. "Oh, hey Luke."

"Hey, I see you all are doing alright." Luke stated as suddenly he was tackled and someone was holding him, he looked down and saw Wendy embracing him. "Wendy? What's wrong."

"I was worried about you, why were you gone for so long?" Wendy asked as she looked up with tears on the corners of her eyes.

"It's complicated, you don't need to worry about us." Luke stated as she weakly nodded and stopped her embrace with a slight red tint on her cheeks, Erza then stepped up and Luke noticed her along with Jellal. "Oh, hey there. I'm Luke Knight."

"It's Erza Scarlet." The red haired woman introduced as did the man behind her, their attention was then brought to an explosion and saw Nirvana getting rained on by attacks, they looked up to see a giant flying ship that looked like a pegasus. "It's the Magic Bomber: Chistina."

"Woah, cool airship." Luke stated as he and Orin looked up at the ship, they then heard a voice in their heads.

"Hello, can anyone read me? Please respond, tell me that you're okay." A voice sounded in their heads, this caused both Orin and Luke to raise eyebrows.

"I know that voice, it's Hibiki." Erza stated as Wendy agreed with her, Luke just looked at them in confusion.

'Who's Hibiki?' Luke wondered as well as Orin.

"Erza and Wendy, it's good to hear that you're alive and well." The voice of Hibiki sounded in relief as another new voice was heard.

"In case you were wondering, I am alive but not too well."

"Master Ichiya? Glad to hear you are alright."

"I didn't ever expect to see the magic bomber fly once again." Erza added as Carla and Wendy agreed and wondered how, Hibiki then explained to them that it was thanks to all of the different mages that teamed together to help it fly again. "We owe you one."

"As you can tell, we're running low on magical energy and I'm afraid we can't attack from the ship anymore. Don't worry about us though, we'll be just fine. But listen up, I know how to stop Nirvana." Hibiki stated as they were surprised by the news they had received with the exception of Luke and Orin. "Let me explain, you see the six appendages that I thought were legs. They're actually pipes that suck magic from the earth and at the base of each leg is a lacrima that controls the energy. By destroying then simultaneously it'll force Nirvana to shut down. If not, then the other five will repair the one that was destroyed."

"Simultaneously! How do we do that." Erza exclaimed

"If I could, I would use my telepathy to time the strike but I can't so I'll give you all a synced timer." Hibiki said as a blue bar appeared above all their heads, the download completed as it reached one hundred.

"Twenty minutes?" Wendy said as she blinked.

"We have to destroy..." Erza started as Jellal continued.

"... all six of them at once."

"Man." Ichiya from his side said coldly. As a voice came into the conversation and it turned out to be the man that was laughing, it was Zero.

"Care to tell me?"

"Who are you!" Erza pretty much demanded.

"It's the creepy Brain guy!" Wendy shouted

"I am Zero, Master of the Oracion Seis! First of all, allow me to commend you, you fooled me. I'd never thought other Mages would have Archive Magic like Brain. Now heed my words! All of you! I am going to obliterate all that you hold dear! I have already begun by destroying three of your friends! A Dragon Slayer. An Ice Wizard. A Celestial Wizard. And a cat!" Zero laughed maniacally

"He got the others?" Hibiki exclaimed in disbelief.

"And did I hear something about destroying Nirvana's lacrimas simultaneously? You can try, but I'm standing in front of one of them. And I am not intending to leave, with me here it will be impossible for you to destroy all six at once!" Zero stated with a laugh before cutting the telepathy off.

"My telepathy has been cut off." Hibiki stated as he grunted in pain, Erza ended up punching her palm in anger and frustration.

"Even though it may seem impossible, we can still destroy all six simultaneously. We have to split up and attack individually, and hope we destroy all six. Each of us have a one in six chance of coming across Zero, unfortunately for us Erza is the only one that has a chance of defeating him." Jellal stated as a tick mark appeared on Luke's head at the claim along with Orin and Albion.

"I think we're missing an important factor here! We don't have enough magic wizards to go through with the plan." Carla stated

"B-But that means." Wendy muttered as she turned towards the group and shouted. "I'm sorry, but I can't help you! The only other is Luke."

"We can't do this on our own, even with Luke." Erza stated as she then spoke through the telepathy. "Is there anyone that can help us?"

"Yes, my honey. I am able bodied and at your service but I am tied up right now." Ichiya stated as he was tied to a branch or stick.

"Ichiya, that's four. We have to hurry you guys." Hibiki managed to say barely as he fell to his bottom.

"We still need more people, is there anyone else that can help!" Erza asked through telepathy and much to their relief and surprise.

"Yeah, we're still here." The voice that Luke recognised, it belonged to Natsu.

"You shouldn't count us out yet." Another voice was heard which belonged to a shirtless black haired individual called Gray Fullbuster.

"We still want some payback." A female voice was heard which Luke heard and recognised as Lucy.

"Yeah, we're still in this." A voice that Luke could easily recognise as Happy.

"Good, that means we have enough people to go through with the plan. Those remaining should assist those that are going to destroy the lacrima's." Hibiki said as he was temporarily cut off of his telepathy due to exhaustion. The wing on the airship created by Lyon shattered, and Sherry gave out due to her exhaustion. This caused Christina to begin falling.

"Guys... my telepathy is running out. Awhile ago, I uploaded a map into your minds and I also numbered them so that you could find them." Hibiki said with exhaustion clearly in his voice.

'Hey Albion, can you sense which Lacrima Zero is at?' Luke asked

[Yes I can, he's standing at Lacrima number one] Albion replied

'Then that's where we are going.' Orin stated as they nodded to eachother.

"I'm taking number one!" Natsu called out.

"Two!" Gray stated

"Three! I hope Zero isn't there." Lucy added while shedding tears on the last part.

"Then I shall take number four, I can tell it's close due to the parfum." Ichiya stated as Erza stated.

"You mean because you can see it on the map."

"My honey, why must you insist on making a fool out me!" Ichiya shouted

"I'll take number five." Erza said ignoring Ichiya.

"Then I'll take..." Jellal was going to say as Erza quickly covered his mouth.

"Whose voice was that! Is someone with you?" Natsu exclaimed in the telepathy.

"Natsu and the others aren't aware of you having amnesia yet, Natsu still thinks of you as an enemy. So keep quiet." Erza said to Jellal who nodded silently. They all then turned to see Christina fall into the woods with a crash and the telepathy broke off.

(O)-(O)-(O)

"What happened?" Natsu shouted. "The connection stopped."

"That means..." Lucy said before looking at the ground and muttered. "...Hibiki."

(O)-(O)-(O)

Ichiya was still tied on the ground as he struggled to break free and to try and muster the strength to stand. He could so as an alternative, he turned on his stomach and began to hop in the direction of lacrima four like a bunny.

"Men! Men! Men Men!" Ichiya repeated as he tried his best to hop but could only do a couple before falling on his side with a loud thud. He was exhausted and extremely sweaty and clear signs of snot dripping of from his flat nose.

"Come on Ichiya, you've got to stay strong." He encouraged himself as he was huffing and breathing extremely heavily as he twitched on the ground slightly. "I have to make it to Lacrima number four, they're all counting on me. The last thing I want is to let down my new comrades."

Ichiya with his strength forced himself to his abdomen and he began to hop forward once again. "I'm not out of breath! I totally got this, I may not look it but I am still a young man! Men!"

(O)-(O)-(O)

"Oh no!" Wendy squealed as she covered her eyes, they all watched with wide eyes as Christina crashed into the forest. They could only play that they were all alright.

"We have enough mages now, let's move!" Carla shouted turning towards them, clearly saying that there wasn't time for them to mourn.

"I'm guessing Zero is at lacrima number one." Erza stated after nodding in agreement to Carla's statement.

"But that's where Natsu is going!" Wendy gasped as Jellal's eyes widened slightly after hearing the name.

"Natsu must have chosen knowing that Zero would be there. He has a nose like no other." Erza stated believing that Natsu could beat Zero.

"We have to go help him! Natsu can't beat..." Wendy was then cut off by Erza who gave a smile in her direction.

"I wouldn't underestimate him. He can do it, let's just get to our posts." Erza stated as Wendy nodded, they began walking as Erza heard Jellal wince and turned. "Is something wrong?"

"No, I'm fine." He said with his hand to his head, he slowly turned and limped away from them. Erza was looking in suspicion and also in concern, she could tell as well as the others that he was surely not okay. They then turned again to see Luke walking with Orin beside him following. "Luke? Which lacrima are you going to?"

"Number one." Luke stated simply as he continued walking not turning his back, their eyes widened upon hearing his answer.

"Luke! You can't, Zero is too powerful." Wendy warned wanting to stop her friend from getting seriously injured, Luke wasn't worried due to him sensing that Zero was probably only 25% as powerful as he was in Balance Breaker.

"She's right, you should take another one." Erza added as Luke stopped and gave a reassuring smile, he didn't say anything and looked at Orin who smiled and nodded.

"Balance Breaker!" Luke announced as their eyes widened upon seeing his entire body covered in a dragon-like attire.

"Lets go!"

(O)-(O)-(O)

Natsu was walking through the hallway towards lacrima number one, he then heard metal footsteps and turned around quickly putting up his guard. "Who's there!"

"It's me Natsu." Natsu looked and his eyes widened upon seeing the fully armoured person standing in front of him and Orin sitting on his shoulder.

"Who are you?" Natsu asked clearly still suspicious.

"Can't you recognised my voice? It's me." Luke stated as he opened up his helmet and Natsu's eyes widened upon seeing Luke.

"Whoah, Luke?" Natsu said in surprise. "Why are you here? And what's up with the armour?"

"This is just one of my abilities and also that I'm coming to aid you in this fight." Luke responded as Natsu was a little surprised, he wanted to take Zero on alone. But he could sense that Luke was really powerful so he knew fully well that by teaming up they would have a better chance at victory.

"Who's this?" Natsu asked turning towards Orin who gave a wave as Luke put his helmet back on as the eyes glowed once.

"This is my partner, Orin."

"Nice to meet you." Orin said as Natsu did the same, they continued walking through the hallway and then saw a light ahead of them.

"We should get going, Orin." Luke said as he turned his attention to his partner who nodded as he jumped off and Natsu watched and his eyes widened when Orin transformed into his dragon form.

"Whoa! He's a dragon." Natsu shouted in surprise and wondered why Happy couldn't do it, Luke saw his friends face and answered.

"Orin can use transformation magic, and he's really powerful so he can really help us in the fight." Luke explained as Natsu nodded

"Alright! let's go." Natsu said as they sped their walking up with Luke doing the same as they slowly approached the light ahead of them.

"Let's see what this Zero can do."