Chapter 1: The Mission

The Fairy Tail Guild was as it always was when Lucy stepped through the doors, yawning with her arms high above her head. Mira was walking around with a tray balanced on her fingertips, handing out mugs of some sort of frothy liquid, Cana was sitting in the corner of the room with her own oversize mug of something, and Levy and her team were chatting at one of the round tables in the center of the room. Though as casual as it seemed, Lucy couldn't help but sense something was missing.

That's when she was bowled over from behind by a howling figure. She hadn't even hit the floor when a foot slammed into her backby a second, insane individual. As her insides were driven through her stomach and ground to the floor, the stomping of feet passed only inches from her head and she cringed.

"Running away to the Guild Hall, you charcoal coward?" Came Gray's muffled voice through her ringing ears.

"I'm not running! I just want a bigger audience for when I kick your butt!" And surprise, surprise, there was Natsu.

With a kink in her spine, a murderous glint in her eyes, and a precise scheme on how to slaughter both guys and dispose of their bodies, Lucy stood. As she suspected, both Gray and Natsu were jumping over tables and people, hoisting chairs over their heads and firing magic left and right. Spinning frantically over their heads was a distressed Happy, trying to talk some sense into the two while avoiding debris.

Inhaling deeply, the celestial wizard cupped her hands around her mouth and screamed, "Hey, you two morons! I'm right here, you know! What's your problem?"

"See!" The blue cat fluttering over their heads squeaked. "Now Lucy's angry with you!"

Both wizards faltered for a second, turning to their friend with wide eyes until Natsu snapped, "What's wrong with you, Gray? You trampled Lucy just so you could attempt to beat me in our fight? That's cold, even for an Ice Make Mage!"

"I didn't trample her, you blockhead! You ran in here before me!" Gray retorted angrily, gesturing impatiently in Lucy's direction. "Why weren't you watching where you were going?"

"Fine, I may have nudged her a little," Natsu sighed, crossing his arms and ignoring an indignant squawk from Lucy, "but you're the reason she became part of the floor."

"That's it! You're going down, lizard!" The ice mage cried, pulling his arms back as he activated a spell to throw at the pink-haired teen.

"It's Salamander!" Natsu corrected impatiently, preparing to send his own attacks when a dark voice yelled over the chaos, "Natsu! Gray! I have a mission for you!"

Lucy shook her head in exasperation as both ice and fire mages linked arms and began calling happily to the owner of the voice, "R-Right, Erza! We're both ready whenever you are! We're good friends, so why wouldn't we be in synch? Right, Natsu?"

"Aye!" the fire user cheered.

"That's good," A satisfied voice murmured behind Lucy. The blond haired girl turned, exhaling slowly as the older mage entered the Guild Hall, stopping next to her. "There's been a mission on the board for awhile now, and I've decided we're all going to check it out."

"What mission have you got?" Natsu inquired, punching Gray away from him as soon as Erza turned her attention to Lucy to inform the celestial wizard she would also be tagging along. "Is it the one about that poisonous plant that eats everything around it?"

"That one was just put on the board yesterday," Gray muttered, rubbing his ribs where Natsu had hit him. "She said the mission has been on the board for awhile, idiot."

"That's right. I don't know why anyone hasn't taken this mission, it seems simple enough," Erza continued, pulling a sheet of paper from under a plate of armor and shaking an impressive cloud of dust from it. Walking over to one of the wooden tables, she set down the ancient mission and everyone gathered around it.

"Get rid of the Holy Sword Excalibur?" Lucy read out loud, raising an eyebrow. "Like an actual sword? Is it cursed or something?"

"This request was sent to us by a clan of fairies," Erza explained. "The only information they gave to the Guild was they didn't want the sword around anymore and have asked many wizards to take care of it. I've heard rumors that a few other Magic Guilds couldn't complete the mission."

"Are you serious?" Natsu cried in shock. "No one else has been able to defeat this thing? It's not even an S-Class quest!"

"Which is exactly why it's been on the board so long," Erza murmured. "Everyone has heard the rumors about this sword being unstoppable, so no one's accepted the mission. So, I was thinking you guys would be up for the challen—"

"Oh, yeah! Count us in!" Natsu interrupted, leaping into the air while pumping his fists above his head. "Take down this Holy Sword? Piece of cake!"

"Aye!" Happy cheered.

-/-\-|-/-\-

Priten Island – Northern Part

Cave of Eternity

"'So, why do a bunch of faires want to get rid of a Holy Sword?' she inquires skeptically."

"Hey, do you really have to summon that clock? You're making it do all the work," Natsu muttered, turning to Lucy from where she was crouched inside Horologium's glass case.

"'Did you want to carry me?' she huffs indignantly," The grandfather clock quoted, shuffling after Natsu, Gray, Erza, and Happy.

They had all arrived on Priten Island with little trouble, the only small problem being Natsu's forever hindering motion sickness. After their friend's stomach had settled, all four had made their way up the rocky cliff leading to the Cave of Eternity. Happy flew up before them and sat in the mouth of the cave cheering them on.

As expected from the looks of the waterfall running from the mouth of the cave, a shallow river lay before them and each mage had waded in, safe for Lucy who summoned Horologium from the spirit world to trek through the cold water for her.

"Back to your original question, Lucy," Erza spoke up from the front of the group. "No one is sure. Any wizard who's returned from this mission doesn't say anything about what went on or what they dealt with. They just give us this weird look."

"'What kind of look?' she asks in a dreading tone," Horologium hummed as Lucy grew pale inside the clock.

"Well," Erza began but was cut off when a light shape zipped around her head, stopping inches from the red-haired woman's narrowed eyes.

"Hey, look, it's a fairy!" Natsu exclaimed excitedly. "Don't worry, fairy! We're here to get rid of that sword for you!"

The small face lit up, eyes shining brightly and the winged figure spun circles in the air.

"Indeed," Erza said, inclining her head. "The Holy Sword Excalibur, is it up ahead?"

The fairy's celebrating stopped almost immediately and her face twisted in disgust, eyes narrowing and mouth drooping with a disturbing grimace. With that last act, she fluttered away without so much as a good-bye or 'Yes, you're going in the right direction.'.

"Was that the look?" Gray asked, raising an eyebrow at the fairy's retreating form.

"Yes," Erza replied, releasing along sigh. "That was the look."

-/-\-|-/-\-

"Lucy, you can come out of the clock, now," Natsu called back to the trudging grandfather clock. "The floor's all rock from here on."

"Oh, great!" Lucy cried as Horologium burst into an array of light before disappearing back to the Spirit World. "It gets real cramped in there."

"Is this the spot?" Gray inquired, coming to stand beside Erza who had halted before a small plateau of light aqua stone. "The air feels funny."

"Yes," Erza agreed, narrowing her eyes as she spotted their target a few yards away, embedded deep in the solid ground. "That's it over there."

The team approached the blade cautiously, looking it over suspiciously. The legendary weapon was still, but they could all feel a strange presence in the air.

"Now what do we do with it?" Natsu demanded, crossing his arms and nudging the flat of the blade with his foot. "Can I melt it down and eat it?"

"Don't you know the legend of Excalibur?" Erza inquired, raising an arm to block Natsu as he began to drool at the thought of his Holy lunch. "It is said whoever pulls the sword from the stone will be granted wings of light and ultimate power and strength."

"Sounds good to me!" Natsu cheered, grabbing the handle of the blade excitedly.

"Don't be reckless, Natsu!" Lucy scolded, and the fire user scowled at her, but he didn't release his grip. "It could be a trap."

"Aye!" Happy agreed, looking apprehensively at the shining weapon.

"She's right," Erza agreed. "The fairies wanted us to get rid of it—"

"So let's bust this baby out of the ground!" Natsu yelled and with a victorious cry, he yanked Excalibur from its resting spot and raised it high above his head with a demented laugh.

"You idiot!" Gray shouted as Lucy instinctively covered her face as she waited for a bomb to go off and obliterate them all. Erza stiffened, staring at Natsu with the blade above his head and she too expected the usual disaster the pink-haired mage always incited.

Their grinning friend didn't seem to notice their unease and turned to them with a smug look. "See? Nothing bad happened. Now let's get out of h—"

"Welcome, young ones!" A booming voice called, filling the cave and echoing off the walls.

Lucy shrieked and plucked Happy from the air, squeezing the blue cat close until his eyes almost popped out. Gray and Erza positioned themselves in a fighting stance, watching the Holy Sword closely. As Natsu stared at the blade wide eyed, it began to light up with golden light, floating slowly out of his hand.

"I'm so glad you have found your way into my home!" The bellowing voice continued. "I am the Holy Sword Excalibur!"

The glow around the sword intensified and lit up the entire cave, blinding the team with a brilliant shine and causing them to give cries of alarm.

"Be prepared for anything!" Erza commanded. "This is the reason we're here and why no other Guild has been able to defeat this thing! We will face anything thrown at us!"

Everyone nodded, preparing fire, ice, keys, and, in Happy's case, fish and other assorted sea food. The light began to fade, fixating in the spot where the Holy Sword used to be, before disappearing entirely.

Lucy and Happy looked bewildered and Gray and Natsu were staring wide eyed with flames and frost on their fingertips. Even Erza appeared perplexed, staring at the creature that now stood in Excalibur's place.

"That's kind of…" Gray began, trailing off at a loss for words.

"Lame," Natsu finished, followed by Happy's unenthusiastic, "Aye."