...and then clear again.
Except what they could see this time were the rocky peaks, sandy beaches and the incredibly tall, domineering tree that made up Tenroujima.
They'd done it. They'd arrived.
"Quick! Everyone out!" Mavis cried. Happy and Charla pushed open the door again and they all hurried to obey, sweeping aside as the Clippers stormed out behind them, fighting their way through the door and kicking off into the air in a flurry of feathers and a cacophony of caws. And this time they didn't try picking a fight with the mages. They simply arced their way up into the sky and swept on their way, glad to be back in the open air and heading back to find their roosts once again.
Lisanna collapsed back against the sand of the beach they'd landed on, smiling as she watched the birds wing their way home above. "Well, that was intense," she smiled. "But we did it. We got everyone out of there, people and animal alike."
"I felt it was touch and go there a few times," Charla murmured. "But it looks like we pulled it off after all."
"Sorry everyone," Juvia bowed her head as she finished solidifying back into her regular form, leaving everyone that had been inside her sopping to the skin. "Juvia hopes you weren't too startled by her actions but the First said it was the best way."
"Think nothing of it," Gildarts chuckled, whipping off his cloak and beginning to wring it out. "Maybe a little warning next time would be nice but it worked well."
"You can say that again," Gray chuckled. "You did good, Juvia… hey, your hair's come undone."
Juvia was quite abruptly knocked off the cloud that Gray's compliment had immediately put her on by that statement and she looked down, realising Gray was right. At some point during the commotion her hair had come loose from the tight curls at the base she normally wore it in and now fell down past her shoulders.
"Oh…" Juvia grimaced, knowing it would probably take her a while before she could get it back to the way it was.
"It looks good," Gray noted.
Juvia looked up sharply with a bright red face. "It… it does…?"
"Yeah," Gray shrugged. "I guess…"
"Then if Gray-sama likes it this is how Juvia will have her hair all the time!" Juvia cried, placing her hands on her cheeks and squirming on the spot. You could practically see the hearts coming off her.
"Er… right…" Gray coughed. "You do that."
"Juvia will!"
Levy, meanwhile, felt utterly drained. It had been one hell of a day for her and all she could do was lie back with her eyes closed, breathing heavily.
That is until she heard a voice in her ear go, "Oi, you alright?" A voice which made her stiffen and open her eyes… and find herself staring up into Gajeel's face. Incredibly she'd somehow failed to notice in all the confusion that she'd been swept right into Gajeel's arms by Juvia's water and it hadn't even registered with her that he was still holding her now.
Two things happened at once. Levy suddenly screamed and her hand came up to smack the Iron Dragon Slayer in the nose. Gajeel cried out in shock and let go of her, causing Levy to fall to the sand and scramble away from him.
"The hell was that for?!" Gajeel rubbed his nose angrily, but that tone of voice did nothing but make Levy cringe even more.
"I'm… I'm sorry…" she murmured. "I really am. I just… I… I can't…"
"Can't what?"
"I just… can't…" Levy shook her head. "Sorry… really…" And without another word, she turned around and hurried off to speak to Lisanna and Wendy, leaving Gajeel staring after her with a slight scowl.
"What was that about?" Lisanna asked.
"Oh… nothing important…" Levy bit her lip slightly.
"You sure you're okay?" Wendy asked. "Did I not use enough Healing Magic? You still look rather pale…"
"No, Wendy, it's fine," Levy offered her a vage smile. "It's nothing to worry about. I'll be fine…" but she added so quietly under her breath that nobody heard her:- "I hope."
Gajeel felt his fingers tightened into a fist so hard that if he'd been holding anything in it then it would likely have fractured into pieces. But his gaze turned down to his partner when Lily stepped up beside him and said, "Don't worry. I'm sure she'll come round. She's had a bit of traumatic experience today, that's all."
"Like I care what she thinks," Gajeel grunted and looked away. Lily rolled his eyes and refrained from commenting on how stupidly obvious it was that he was lying.
Mavis stepped over to the edge of the sea, the wind catching her hair and sweeping it out to one side like a large, blond flag. She inhaled, taking in the familiar scents of her beloved home and the unfamiliar ones that came with this new world it was now in, and slowly breathed it out in a long, slow sigh.
"Not quite the way you wanted to introduce ourselves to the people of this world, was it?" Gildarts asked as he stepped up beside her.
"No, it wasn't. I think we were all hoping that it could be done a little more… peacefully."
"Sorry about that. Maybe I acted a little rashly but when I heard Levy's screams… well… I couldn't let that stand."
"Don't apologise. That's the way I always wanted my guild to be. Doing whatever it took to keep one another safe. Defending one another from anything and everything that seeks to bring them harm, no matter what their reason for doing so… if nothing else I think we at least gave them an accurate representation of that. Though in this case it might have been nice to do it with a little less explosions and damage… but that's another thing that Fairy Tail is renowned for so again, at least we were honest."
"That's one way of putting it, I suppose," Gildarts chuckled, the surf lapping at the toes of his boots. "And we're always at odds with the Council back home so it makes sense that we be at odds with its alternative in this world too."
Mavis giggled, before her face grew a little more sombre. "Still… good relations with other people are important. That was shown today too - we would not have been able to rescue those birds without the help of Charlie."
"The guy with the red hair?"
"Yes, him. And a couple of others that helped us out when we needed them to. I agree with the principal that we look out for ourselves and put the needs of our friends first… but now the Order of the Phoenix are also our friends. Today we acted against their Ministry and they still helped us out. Which means from now on… I think we should work more closely with them. Co-ordinate with them instead of acting on our own and leaving them to pick up our mess when we can. To all intents and purposes, they're like the Fairy Tail of this world. And we definitely should treat them as such."
"You clearly have a high opinion of them," Gildarts smirked. "I look forward to meeting them properly. But I agree. We probably should lay low for a bit if we can after this anyway. And from what you said, they have enough problems without us making more for them. Like we probably did today."
"We owe them that much," Mavis nodded.
...
"How could this have happened?" Fudge asked as he made his way through the room where the Clippers had been housed, which was full of Healers providing medical assistance for battered Aurors and workers. "How could a bunch of strangers we know next to nothing about just storm into our headquarters like that, make some of our best witches and wizards look totally incompetent, and escape to parts unknown through the use of a Ministry-authorised Portkey?"
"They were like nothing else we've ever encountered before, Minister," Scrimgeour murmured, nursing a bruised side as he stepped past a recovering Charlie Weasley, who was being looked over by a Healer. "Quite clearly if what they said about being from another world is true. And after the things I saw them do today, if I had any doubts from the verdict of the Veritaserum they're gone now."
"And these people… they've been appearing all over the country?" Fudge asked.
"Yes sir. One of them matched a description of the man who was responsible for the attack in the Muggle Bank in Portree and three of the others matched the description of the incident in Brockenhurst."
"That's nearly the entire distance of the country apart from one another and yet they were here today at the same time to break into the place right at the time we're interrogating two of their own? That cannot just be coincidence, Scrimgeour."
"No, it cannot. I agree, Minister. If we assume everyone from their world arrived during that meteor shower a few days ago then they definitely had to have had help from someone from our own world. Though I really have no idea who it might be."
"Well then we must find out," Fudge cried, marching out of the broken door and into the corridor. "We must find out who it is that would allow foreigners to our very air to come barging right into the heart of our Ministry and cause unparalleled damage to everything in their path. But even more importantly, these Fairy Tail members themselves must be found. What happened here today is going to cause nothing short of widespread panic. When people learn there's a man out there who can disintegrate an entire wall just by touching it they won't want to come out of their homes."
"By all accounts though, sir, this bunch from Fairy Tail want to be left alone."
"We cannot let them run free, Scrimgeour. They've already caused two massive problems with keeping up the Statute of Secrecy, and who knows what else they might be capable of? We cannot take the chance they they won't strike again somewhere. We have to find some way of bringing them in and making sure that they stay in."
"…Of course, Minister," Scrimgeour nodded through pursed lips.
"As for who it is that's been helping them… I don't know who it is, but I know where I want you to start looking," Fudge turned to fix Scrimgeour with a serious eye:-
"Dumbledore."