➵

"They're late," Erza stated as night fell over Magnolia. "What could possibly be holding them up? It doesn't take this long to follow a simple lead."

"He was asking someone about the dragon sighting," Lucy tried to reason. "You think he found what he was looking for?"

"Maybe Natsu's playing catch-up with Igneel right now," Macao offered his two cents.

"Or he got tired of chasing rumors, got fed up and called it a night," Wakaba added.

"No," Mira denied from behind the bar, where Elfman was sitting at. Dealana was floating on a cloud, rubbing her scarred nose in an anxious tick. "normally I'd agree, but Natsu had Wendy with him. He would have brought her back first."

"Salamander may be reckless, but he wouldn't keep a kid out this late at night," Elfman agreed. "It's just not the man he is."

"What's more is we still don't know what became of my attacker from this afternoon," Erza said, observing Dealana's growing worry, watching as it affected her surroundings with increased static electricity. Small crackles and sparks occurred from where she rubbed her scar, the motion causing slight friction, which only increased the static electricity she was naturally producing from her magic. "Could it have ambushed them too?" the redhead wondered about the possibility.

Dealana missed Juvia's remark about Gray also being missing, knowing the ice mage could handle himself, but Natsu on the other hand. While Natsu could sufficiently take care of himself, Dealana didn't trust the scarf-wearing pyro with Wendy and Carla.

"I'm going to look for them. Lucy you're with me." Erza decided. Dealana's ears perked up and before she could ask to come with, Erza was already looking at her. "Dealana, we may need your enhanced senses to track them, but you need to listen what I tell you, got it?"

Erza knew that Dealana would either offer to go with them or, if Erza said no like she would've preferred, she would have found a way to go off on her own anyways. This way, Erza would be able to keep an eye on the Storm Dragon Slayer and keep her out of any trouble while they search for Natsu, Wendy, Happy and Carla.

"I will, I just want to find them," Dealana nodded.

"Just lead the way," Lucy agreed.

"Juvia will accompany you as well," The water mage piped up.

"You're gonna need a man with you," Elfman offered his help as well.

Erza shook her head. "No, we can't divide our forces so thinly," She reasoned. "Remain on stand-by and guard the hall."

"We'll do our part," Mira assured her. "Careful out there, you three." Soon enough, the three girls were off. Erza and Lucy jogging while Dealana surfed on her cloud, something that she'd been getting used to after the Oración Seis ordeal.

The three girls made their way to the place Natsu and the others supposedly came too but they couldn't find any sign of a hotel. Dealana frowned as they took in their surroundings.

"That in should be right around here," Lucy commented. "Do you think we misheard the directions."

"Gajeel wouldn't lie about something like this," Dealana replied. "Besides, their scent trail leads here too."

"Something's not right, stay sharp." Erza told them both. Dealana suddenly sniffed the air again with a growing frown. "Dealana? What's wrong?" Erza inquired.

"I caught another scent, it's...it's like a wild animal," She realized.

"The same one as before," Erza said, now being able to smell it for herself. A green magic seal appeared on the ground in front of them and from it rose a hooded figure.

"Erza? What is that thing?" Lucy asked sounding a little freaked out.

"That's what attacked me, I had a feeling it'd show up again." Erza stated, her brown eyes narrowing.

"So what's the plan?" Dealana questioned getting into a defensive position, her fists raised and ready to conjured some storms.

"Lucy, Dealana, I want you to stay behind me," She told them as she requipped into her Heaven's Wheel Armor.

"You got it," Lucy complied. Dealana was silent for a moment before stepping back beside Lucy, allowing Erza to take this one. That didn't mean Dealana let her guard down, she retained her defensive position just in case.

The hooded figure that attacked Erza, requiped two swords of his own and the two charged, meeting in the middle with the sound of metal clashing. "Tell me what you're planning here! Were you the reason Natsu and the others haven't come home?" Erza demanded. "Answer me!" She shouted with two swipes of her blade.

The blade had indeed hit, but only succeeded in tearing away the hood. Dealana's eyes widened in surprise as she now understood why he smelled like a wild animal. Underneath the hood was a lizardman. Caught slightly off guard by this, the lizardman nearly landed a hit on Erza before they continued to trade and block a flurry of slashes.

"Erza!" Dealana and Lucy called after her.

"Alright then," Lucy decided grabbing one of her keys, "Open! Gate of the Maiden: Virgo!" The familiar sound of a doorbell ringing sounded as the pink haired celestial spirit appeared out of a glowing magic seal.

"Is there someone you'd like me to spank for you, Princess?" She inquired.

"We gotta work on your term of phrase," Lucy told her.

"I look forward to being disciplined," Virgo replied. Dealana only rolled her eyes.

"Whatever, Erza needs our help, pronto!" Lucy informed the spirit, pointing to where the lizardman and Erza were fighting.

"It would be my pleasure," Virgo said before beginning to drill into the ground. The spirit stopped halfway and Dealana seemed to pick up on something too.

"Lucy," Dealana told the blond. "We aren't alone."

"Huh?"

Two more glowing green magic seals appeared, each one dropping a lizardman each. Dealana glared at the one who appeared in front of her. "Erza!" She called in warning.

"To think there'd be more than one," Erza remarked as she blocked another hit. "You can fight, Dealana, but be careful!" Dealana's grin faltered when she noticed the familiar sight of a thunderstorm crackling on the lizardman's arm.

"No way..." She whispered to herself. "It uses the same magic?" Dealana barely had time to question it as the lizardman lunged forward, intending to strike with a fury claw attacked. The Storm Dragon Slayer ducked out of the way before casting her own spell.

"Storm Dragon: Blizzard Talon!" Dealana aimed a ice-storm powered kick to the lizardman's stomach. The lizardman was sent flying back through the air. Dealana's eyes widened when she witnessed the lizardman rebound off of a freshly formed cloud and fly straight for her with another thunderstorm fury claw.

The Dragon Slayer went crashing to the ground and rolled a few feet before she hopped back up. "That was way strong, what the heck are things things?" She questioned, leaping back to avoid another swing, this time a wing attack. As Dealana's feet hit the ground once more, she rolled her head around to crack her neck. "Alright, you want to dance? Let's dance."

Dealana conjured a series of clouds and scattered them around the area she and the lizardman were fighting in. She crouched low to the ground, placing both palms on the ground. The dirt, sand and dust began to swirl around and spiral up her arms. The sky-blunette stood and faced the lizardman with an excited grin.

"To be honest, I was saving this for when I saw my big brother again so I could negate his lightning, but seeing you use my magic gets the storm inside me brewing." Dealana launched off the ground and used the clouds like springboards to deliver blow after blow against the lizardman, who she noticed primarily used her lightning based attacks seeing as they generally did the most damage. Every time, her feet only touched the clouds long enough to rebound and land another hit.

The earth element aspect of Storm Dragon Slayer Magic was made up of basic attack spells and more complex defensive ones, though against lightning and electrical attacks, the basic earth became the advantage.

Dealana had spent a lot of her free time in the past week in her cave, creating this technique that utilized the dust storm spells she tended to neglect and her clouds to form the special new storm spell.

"Storm Dragon Tempest Technique: Dust Devil Grave!"

Dealana watched with a triumphant smile as the lizardman was slowly pounded into the ground leaving only half his body visible, the clouds from her spell dissipating. "Imitation will only get you so far, lizard creep. There's something about my magic that no one can copy, the true source of its power."

The Storm Dragon Slayer strode forward, dust and sand snaking up her legs with each step, magically avoiding her anklets. "Emotion, and oh boy do I have a lot of that," Dealana smirked.

"Storm Dragon Dust Talon!"

She smirked as her anger-empowered kick knocked the lizardman out from the ground and into several of the rocky towers that dotted the area, where he remained still and defeated before poofing away into a gray dust.

Before Dealana could relish in her victory, she felt her arms grabbed from behind. "What the––?" Two more lizardmen had managed to sneak up on her, one of which had a sandstorm engulfed fist ready. Dealana struggled in their grip before finally calling out. "Erza!!" But her cry for help was lost amongst the rising sand and revelation of Daphne's Dragonoid. The lizardman struck her head and Dealana fell into darkness.

➵

Erza and Lucy were quite literally almost blown away by the power of the roar coming from Daphne's dragonoid powered by Natsu's magic energy.

"So loud!" Lucy exclaimed covering her ears.

Erza looked around in worry. "Where's Dealana? She should've finished by now."

"Yes, yes, yes! Like a newborn, it cries!" the sound of Daphne's voice was projected from her position at the control head. "Such majesty! The world's first artificially constructed dragon, the unstoppable dragonoid! And now Salamander's magic power is its life blood." Daphne declared.

"It's using his magic power?" Erza questioned, extremely worried for Natsu after hearing him in pain. Nearby, Wendy, Happy and Carla were hurrying over.

" Lucy and Erza! You're okay! We have to find Dealana!" Wendy exclaimed with an expression mixed between relief and distraught.

"I'm glad you're safe," Erza told her.

"We're worried about you!" Lucy smiled.

"We need to do something fast!" Happy told them worriedly.

"First you need to tell us what's going on," Erza instructed.

"Where's Natsu and what's this about finding Dealana?" Lucy questioned.

"He's inside that big dragon," Happy revealed. "This crazy lady named Daphne set up a trap for him and Gray lured him into it!"

Both Erza and Lucy's eyes went wide at the revelation. "What did you say?" Erza asked, wondering if she heard Happy wrong.

"What's worse is he's not being manipulated," Wendy continued. "It's all on purpose. Gray's doing this all of his own free will."

Lucy turned to see something. "Look, up there!" Erza and the others turned to see Gray perched on the dragonoid's snout, a slight smirk on his face as he looked down at them.

"This doesn't explain Dealana, she's around here somewhere," Erza said not taking her eyes off Gray. The fact that he was in on Natsu's current predicament was still being processed in her mind.

"Daphne mentioned a second experiment involving 'the Tempest'," Carla explained quietly. "Seeing as it's Dealana's title, we suspect it has to do with her and now she's missing."

Meanwhile, somewhere amongst the dragonoid was an unconscious Dealana bound with magic resistant cuffs, ready to be rigged with Daphne's second experiment, the one her new 'partner' had yet to be aware of.

➵

Someone better come take me down before I completely ruin Dealana's life. I was ready to skip over this arc and give Dealana and Laxus a different reconciliation moment, but the opportunity to cause conflict between Dealana and Gray was too tempting.

Writing this chapter, I've realized that aside from her short skirmish with Aria, her half-tag team battle against Jose with Erza, and her fight with Laxus, Dealana hasn't had that many instances where she's used her magic offensively. Maybe it's because I'm still not confident in my abilities to write fight scenes...I do hope you like the one in this chapter though, between Dealana and the lizardman.

Questions? Comments? Theories? I'm ready to hear what you think of this chapter and excited for what comes next!

My older sister from college is visiting with her new boyfriend (ooh~) and went out with my dad and step-mom on a double date leaving me behind, co-in charge of my younger siblings and seven dogs that are currently staying at our house with my slightly older step-brother. What am I doing? Writing, that's what!

Also, while this author's note is already long, let's make it longer. If Dealana were to...I don't know, be transported to another anime world as an AU story in the far, far future, what would you think? What other anime could she collide with?