#gapri

It opens Natsu and Wendy after getting chewed out by the magic council for the shit they did in Pergrande. While that happens, Lahar asks one of his men to go on a special mission involving Fairy Tail.

Once back FT everyone is discussing up coming S-Class Trials and Natsu meets all his other teammates and says Wendy should be on team Natsu.

Gray kinda thinks Wendy could be better off with a simpler team or mage who doesn’t take very intense jobs like Reedus or Laki, but Natsu says he wants Wendy on their team after seeing what happened in Pergrande.

Erza says they should all take a mission to show Wendy the type of work they do, and Gray has a job form, Catch the dark mage Velveno. Lucy remembers the request form because Gray showed it to her before she went to Acalypha.

They also notice that the bounty went up from 2,000,000 jewels to 4,000,000 jewels. Mainly because Velveno took on a few mages since his prison escape and defeated them. Gray eyeing Jet and Droy who accepted the mission while team Natsu went to Acalypha the find Lucy, and both of them were beaten

It cuts to Velveno meeting with a guy in a cloak named Chase, in this shantytown. Velveno asks if Chase has the goods and Chase says its out back.

Then team Natsu arrive and a lot of the criminals panic then go to attack them. Velveno is freaked out, and demands to see the “goods”, which turns out to be a magic cannon.

Eventually Velveno is defeated and Gray grabs Chase after he tried to flee.

Chase begins to beg to be let go, saying that he’s only a middle man, and not a dark mage. Gray questions what he’s talking about, but Erza continues to interrogate.

He says that the weapon came from Stella from an underground ring there, and begs to be let go or get a few years off his prison sentence. Before he can say more a group of knights from the Fiore military show up led by vice captain of the Fiore military, Riana

When Riana says that the Team will be paid like normal, Erza stops Riana and shows her the begging Chase and his confession and Riana orders the Team to wait while she brings this news to the king

It then cuts to Mercurius where magic knight Kama, is approached by Kamika and Casmos who know that today is the day that Kama became the captain of the Fiore Garou knights. He merely sulks away.

He enters the throne room where Toma Fiore is on a communication lacrima with Dalton

The king says that this is quite a pickle and says that he will contact Stella’s queen right away.

It cuts to the team entering the building with Natsu saying to Erza to remember that time he broke into save her.

They approach a room with Dalton in it and behind him a massive screen made of magic, projecting the king on it.

The FT mages are curious why they are even here and Dalton reveals that he man they caught was a middle man for a high-grade magic weapons manufacturer, that is located in Stella.

Dalton then makes another projector with the minister of magic in Stella on it. The minister is named Swan and she says that she, the king of Fiore and the queen of Stella have discussed the situation, Erza asking what this has to do with them.

Their job was to catch Velveno who was nothing more than a dark mage, but in doing so they discovered a lead that is potentially life saving.

Stella recognizes that this information would never have came to light without their help and that their monetary reward does not seem appropriate for their contribution, so the queen of Stella has arranged for them to have a vacation in the capital of Stella, Altair

The team all think it sounds fun, Erza and Gray happy for a break before S-Class trial, Lucy because Stella is a country with tons of knowledge on celestial spirits (Stella means star after all), and Natsu and Wendy gets a new area to look for their dragons

They make it to Stella’s capital and on their ride they are shocked by this giant crystal growing out of the ground. Their driver explains that it is Stellanium and type of crystal similar to lacrima only instead of holding magic it holds starlight

The team is dressed up all nice to meet the queen and are led there by Stella’s chief of staff, Doll. The queen of Stella is a woman named Sonya Stella. She is very happy to meet mages from the renowed Fairy Tail. Lucy is shocked that their popularity reaches other countries though the destruction caused in their recent years also reaches everyone.

Then enters two members from the number one guild in Stella, Master Zash Caine and Guild Ace Gapri

Gapri says hi to Doll, but addresses him as “Master Marcel”, but Doll glares saying that he doesn’t go by that name anymore and Gapri says “Captain Doll”

Gapri is gloating a bit saying that as the best guild in Stella they can ensure this will get done quick. Sonya says that she did want the FT team to meet the Zash and Gapri because they were the first to accept the job to find the weapon manufacturer

Natsu gets a little aggressive towards Gapri with Gapri saying that they’ll handle this easily and Zash’s eyebrow raising his eyebrow a bit. But Zash stops Gapri

Sonya says for the FT team to go at and enjoy Altair.

The group splits off with Erza, Wendy, and Carla going out to eat, with Wendy bonding with Erza and Erza telling her that regardless of her magic, Wendy could become a great mage and Wendy blushes.

Gray and Happy checking into their hotel, Happy loving how big the room is and Gray likes the fact that they get a great view of the castle

Lucy visits a key shop and is shocked by all the silver keys. The shop keeper is wowed by Lucy having gold keys and Lucy is bummed that they don’t have any gold keys. But the shop owner shows Lucy that keys aren’t the only thing they have and shows that they have weapons for Celestial mages and shows her a whip called the Fleuve d'étoiles

Natsu goes up to the Stella castle’s balcony and see they beautiful starry sky.

Zash meets Natsu up there and begins to talk. Zash asks if Natsu has any goals. Natsu tells Zash about his dream to find his father and that he’s a dragon. Zash then says that from what hes heard is that Natsu has magic related to dragons and Natsu explains that it’s Dragon SLayer Magic

Zash begins to look at Natsu and starts calling him a wild, untamed beast, who will just destroy this country like he’s known for

Natsu’s eyes glow and attack Zash and starts destroying the castle. Everyone tries to reel in Natsu when he moves the fight outside, but he seems to ignore their attempts

People are a little surprised to see that Zash’s normal strength is actually keeping up with Natsu

Gapri joins the fight explaining its Zash’s blood magic. He can circulate his blood in his body and charge it to increase his muscle activity

Doll tries to attack Natsu with his fire magic, but is shocked by Natsu being able to eat the flames and Doll has a small flash back to a shadowy figure and says that Natsu eating his flames and it reminds him of “that day”

Doll reveals his weapons under his clothing, two dolls named François and Catherine. Lucy realizing it’s similar to Bickslow’s magic. (Though the beams fired are red and not green)

Natsu actually uses brilliant flare and there is intense flames surging. Zash says he’ll get rid of the flames

He uses a blue jar-looking thing that absorbs all the flames. Zash says this container is special as it absorbs a magic and negates anything affected by the magic

Eventually Natsu suddenly calms down and curious what the hell happen, but he’s knocked out by Doll

The queen is disgusted, but Erza states Natsu would only do this if someone was acting antagonistic towards him or FT. Wendy remembering Pergrande saying that he would only do something like that if there was someone being miss treated.

Zash steps up to Doll and saying he did insult Natsu, but he didn’t say he wanted to fight he said he was surprised that he had such a destructive magic and it fits him. Natsu then threw the first blow.

Doll says regardless if Zash did goad Natsu, Natsu still caused all this damage. The queen agrees to have Natsu put on trial, but for now he will be detained and the rest of the team placed under close watch

While people adjust, Zash says he must make a stop, but Gapri wants to follow Zash. Zash then looks Gapri in the eye and mind controls him to leave.

Cut to Zash entering a mine shaft where many people are constructing weapons, and a massive dragon skeleton. Zash then asks how is the Quartum project coming and someone complain that picking off the remains of the dragon is taking forever.

Zash asks one of his minions, Coordinator, how their progress actually is and she says that they still have to deal with powering of these things. 

We find out that the Quartum are the “ultimate magic weapon” made of an alloy combining steel and Stellanium. The issue is that the energy source they wanted it to work on comes from Dragon slayer magic as it can power many things. Problem is no dragon slayer’s are in Stella so they’ve been picking off fossilized remains of a former dragon and siphoning off what magic they have left

Zash shows off all the magic he stole from Natsu and says that they can now make their army ahead of schedule and they already have a buyer set up

Cut to Natsu in prison who is still pretty baffled by what’s going on. While there he meets another inmate by the name of Mash, who originally had one of the biggest stellanium distribution stations until a few months ago. but he then found that after blanking out for a little bit he was under arrest as he had currently made several deals in transitions to noted dark guilds inside Stella. 

Natsu asks why that’s weird and Mash explains that it was not something he had done in his entire life only that he had suddenly made tons of distribution orders in only a few minutes

He then states that Zash then investigated and concluded that these were in fact dirty deals. Natsu hears about Zash and realizes that something happened when he met Zash and because he remembers fighting him but doesn’t really remember why. And thinking about it a lot of the fight was hazy.

Mash asks if maybe they’re is something in common, but Natsu just hopes his friends are okay

It cuts to the FT members in their hotel room with a few guards around it

Gray and Erza both agree that this is bullshit, Lucy saying Natsu may be destructive, but he always did it with good intention. Happy says that Natsu still has some issues being insulted, but even so, this deliberate destruction seems way too odd

Then a guard comes in with a communication lacrima with the King on the line.

The king, surrounded by Arcadios and Kama, is outraged at what happened, but Erza begins explain that Natsu was fighting against a man named Zash who apparently talked to him.

Kama goes wide-eyed and asks if his name is Zash Caine. And when they confirm it all of the men in the throne room sweat.

Kama states that Zash is a traitor against Fiore. Suddenly we get a flashback showing Zash as the magic knight head and how Kama was his vice captain. The flashback explaining that Zash has the power of mind control by making direct eye contact, but the issue with this is the mind control will only last for about five minutes, then the person who was mind controlled will forget most of his actions during those five minutes and completely forget a minute before getting controlled, essentially erasing Zash’s moment of eye contact

Toma says he’ll call Sonya. With the team thinking this is bad, but given they’re still being watched they gotta be careful on how they act.

Lucy says they could sneak into the prison where Natsu is being held, but Happy notes that might be hard while under lock and key.

By saying that, Lucy whispers in Happy’s ear that she has a plan and explains it. We see that her plan is to distract the guards with her gold key. As Stella is known for all of its silver key shops she’ll blow the guards away with actual zodiac

While the guards are completely awestruck, Happy then sneaks out in ninja mode

Cutting to Doll who’s brushing his dolls hair remembering some of the fire that Natsu made. Sonya then is called by Toma and she feels like this is a personal attack because in the last 10 years, Zash has been a hero.

Doll even vouching for him as the master of his former guild, and that it’s the best guild in the country.

The king however points out that no stories of Zash ever reached this country or any others. Doll takes that as an insult saying that just because Fiore’s mages are known internationally for their exploit doesn’t mean that Stella is any lesser than them.

But Arcadios interjects saying that he literally has never been published in either the news or weekly sorcerer. She might deliberately be hiding his whereabouts. Doll and Sonya are a little shook especially when they’ve had interviewers come down and did see Zash in action. Kama says Zash has mind control, probably used it to help cover his tracks.. Doll say they’ll bring in Zash for questioning.

Cutting to Zash who’s talking to the buyer, Bluenote, and he asks why that artificial army that they ordered hasn’t shown up, especially after all the money they’ve poured in. Zash says that the Quartum army will be finished ahead of schedule, thanks to recently aquiring a sum of dragon slayer magic.

Bluenote says that’s good because his Master has a fondness for lost magic. Zash doesn’t care about their interest just that it keeps up revenue

Coordinator, the developer of armor, and Cannon, developer of firearms, are shocked how well Natsu’s magic is working. Zash ends the call, saying that he has his inside a man looking over Natsu

It cuts to a man in the Stella prison who is smiling making sure to edit the reports of Natsu’s detainment so that they all avoid mentioning Zash. We learn the guard is named Cream and he goes to check on the screaming Natsu who claims this is wrong.

Cream checks on them but while doing so, Happy sneaks into the prison

Natsu and Mash are yelling, about this. Cream walks up to their cell and tells them to shut up. Natsu says that whatever is going on they want to talk to that Zash guy. Cream laughs saying that Zash is the most trusted man in all of Stella next to Doll and Sonya.

Cream uses a little bit of fire magic to shoot Mash in the nose. Natsu tries smashing against Tthe cage yelling at Cream.

Happy arrives, finding the floor that Natsu is on and sees Cream threatening Natsu. Saying that with Zash on their side and the stuff that Natsu did, he’ll most likely get sent to Black Vox mage prison if this is considered an international crime but as a national crime here in Stella he might get executed.

Happy yells out that this is wrong and Cream shoots at Happy. Happy throws a key at Natsu’s cage which Mash grabs and passes it to Natsu to get his bindings off. Cream shoots Mash through the shoulder, and Natsu busts out of prison yelling that he’ll make Cream pay for abusing the people around him

Then it cuts between team FT feeling down and hoping Happy is okay, then cutting to Doll arriving at the guild of Gapri and Zash, demanding to see Zash. Gapri questions why is he even bothering Zash is a hero.

Doll says he wants to talk to Zash because of information coming from Fiore. Gapri is angered by this saying that Fiore’s words are just slandering Zash’s name because they are jealous that Zash is as strong as he is.

Gapri and Doll see that Zash is on the top floor. Zash says he knows why Doll is here, and he’s already taken action. Gapri is shook by this yelling for Zash to explain this, but Zash shows he’s just a thought projection.

Gapri begins to tear up as he gets flashes of Zash becoming the new guild master and filling him with the idea that Gapri needs to care about himself if he wants to be a great me and needs to understand that everybody else is also out for themselves and that you need to know how to survive in a world like that if you wanna ab strong

Gapri cries, gets on his board and super speed’s to the prison saying all this bad stuff happen the second that Natsu showed up.

Natsu beats up Cream, but then sees that Gapri has entered the area. Mash tries to tell Gapri that Natsu isn’t A bad guy but Gapri thanks it’s only natural that to criminals brought in by Zash have bonded.

Natsu and Gapri fight until they are interrupted by Doll. Doll hugs Gapri telling him its over and that the evidence is overwhelming and Zash must be found. All of the FT mages are released, Doll saying that they should stay here, but Erza says they’ll come too.

Doll says it’s a violation, but Erza says that if Zash is a former Fiore mage, then he is their responsibility and regardless of what country they’re all part of the same system so they should work together to clean up this mess.

It cuts to Fiore where the King has Kama go out to Stella with some troops because they used to work with Zash in the magic knight division

The group is using Natsu and Wendy’s noses to locate the mineshaft that the manufacturers are using. Zash is alerted to this and tells Coordinator to shut off the elevator and handle it while he finishes up the Quartum Army

The group of mages are surprised when they enter the first floor of the minds and see that there’s tons of holes in the walls, Coordinator getting on a loud speaker, saying that if they want to make it to the next level will have to get past one of their new items on their manufacturing list.

Out of The holes comes tons of people on boards similar to Gapri’s and everyone tries to push back. Gray notices that there are Lacrima on the bottom of the boards and that they should aim for them.

Lucy uses Sagittarius, Erza flight armor, and Wendy even gives them the vernier to increase speed

They make it to the next floor where they need to deal with a rabid dog that is being controlled. And Lucy test out her new whip on it.

Eventually getting past that Gapri gets anxious and bolts ahead of everybody else. It then shows a smoking Zash who begins to think about how he’ll have to start up all over again after this. Cutting to Kama heading for Stella.

A flashback shows that Zash found The Eclipse Gate inside the Royal Palace. Kama confronted him and Zash revealed his believe in the world that everybody is focused on themselves and he’s just doing the same.

Kama questions how he’ll do that, Zash explaining that in history three things shape everything: intelligence, money, and weaponry. With his knowledge he’ll obtain all that and he’ll be able to survive in this world

Kama and Zash fight, Kama yelling that surviving by condemning everyone else is bull crap, but when it looks like Zash will win, Kama cut Zash underneath his eye blinding his mind control ability. After the fight Kama awoke and learned Zash escaped and Kama was prompted to The captain of the magic knights the flashback ends as Kama sayys he’ll finish everything with Zash.

Coming back to the floors, Gapri is on the third floor, and he doesn’t see anybody but then starts getting hit by something screaming about how his ear hurt.

The rest of the mages find Gapri’s body, and then find out what this floor is there is a super powered sound system releases high blasts of sound magic on this floor. The game is to shut it off before they all die.

Gray makes a set of headphones out of the ice to fight against the sound waves and cuts off the system, giving them to the final floor. Coordinator saying she’ll have to stall them. While Zash boots up the Quatron army

Erza fights Coordinator, while Gapri zooms past them all, with Natsu and the others following behind, but on the way through the tunnel to where the dragon skeleton is being keeped, several guards led by Cannon burst out of the wall and ambush all of the mages.

Doll says he’ll deal with him and Gray takes the smaller guards

Doll’s fight is brutal with Cannon trying destroy his François and Catherine, but Doll always steps in front of each shot at the dolls. He refuses to let his daughters die as he gets shot showing in a flashback a dark mage did battle with him and his guild when he was the master of it and called Marcel, then watched his daughter die from burns. Trying to save them with human possession magic

He admits that he will always protect them as that is the job of the father. Cannon calls him an idiot, but notices the ground cracking above him, Cannon realizes every time Doll shielded his daughters, the dolls fired a beam of magic at the top of the cave that already had holes in it and weakened it to the point it collapsed

Erza eventually defeats Coordinator by revealing the flaw in her “ultimate armor” and that’s the scythe it’s throwing leaves her completely open. Natsu, Wendy, and Lucy run after Gapri.

Gapri sees Zash and demand answers. Gapri feels betrayed after what Zash had done, but Zash mind controls Gapri to kill Natsu and the others.

Lucy and Wendy with the help of Happy and Carla shatter Gapri’s board

Zash also tries to get Erza, but that is stopped by Erza’s artificial eye. When he sees that there are mages of her caliber here and that Gapri’s mind control is wearing off, he activates the Quartums.

Zash escapes while everyone else deals with the Quartums and Natsu goes to take out Zash, who is escaping with a few Quartum samples so that he can sell them to Bluenote and for compensation he’ll use their clout in the underworld to help him jump start his next buisness. He also is seen planting something inside the roof of the shaft.

Natsu confronts Zash and Natsu wants to fight. They fight eventually bring them to the face of the rotted dragon. Natsu is curious about this and Zash says that the Quartrums were made form this. That this land was once covered by invading dragons who sought to the flower humans and now that wrath will be turned into weapons.

Natsu and Zash fight, with Zash’s full blood doped up form activating. Natsu tries to avoid the mind controlled by wrapping and scarf around his eyes. With Zash’s power and Natsu’s handicap it’s going to be tough and eventually the scarf is knocked off.

Before he can mind control Natsu, Gray jumps up behind him and freezes over his eyes. Thus, changing the fight.

Finally, Zash is on the ground but declares his drive to save himself and activates the bomb he was planting to the roof intending to cave in everybody but himself.

Cutting to the Fiore magic knights and Stella knights, they get a report. The mission has gone south with Zash escaping, but Kama says that he may know where Zash is going, remembering the only sample of Zash’s DNA they found was from the cut Kama gave him near a private dockyard.

In the mineshaft everyone escapes with the help of Gray and Lucy

Zash is limping away, as result of using all of his blood doped up form his body is somewhat burnt out. He remembers his first start into becoming an arms dealer after defecting.

Kama finds Zash with The army and before Zash can take control of anybody. He is defeated by Kama.

The arc wraps up with all of the FT mages being thanked and the fact that in this world and they need to stand united. With Natsu saying he was glad this vacation helped him train for the S-Class trials

It cuts to Bluenote who tlls Ultear that a lot of money they just wasted on the Quartum progect, but Ultear says that for their upcoming plan they’ll just have to bring in ll their sub guilds. Bluenote gets a call from Zancrow who says that he finally got his hands on the last “Key”

When the FT mages return home, they are surprised by a new face, Mest Gryder, but people seem to act like they’ve meet him before. Except for Mystogan and Makarov