Blanket disclaimer: I don't own Fairy Tail, the characters, manga, or anime. I just wanna play with the characters in this storyline, which is mine, and I'll put them back, I promise.
The Glacier - In a fight against a Dark Guild, Juvia is captured for a nefarious purpose. Can Gray rescue her before her powers are used against him and Fairy Tail?
There was a hell on earth, and Juvia Lockser was in its heart right now.
She was sealed inside an unbreakable lacrima sphere on the rooftop of the Dark Guild Horned Demon, completely cut off from her nakama as they fought the Demons below. The Dark Guild had moved to hold a city hostage, and Fairy Tail had been dispatched to take them out. Unfortunately, as they had moved in to start fighting, Juvia had been seperated from the main group of Natsu, Lucy, Erza, Gray, and Wendy. Sometime between then and now, she'd been knocked unconscious and put in this spherical lacrima.
Juvia frantically beat against the smooth surface of her prison, but it just absorbed her blows without giving an inch. Beneath her, Fairies and Demons clashed everywhere, circles of magic bursting along the far-away ground in blips of color. Juvia has to get out of here, she thought. Juvia must help Fairy Tail and Gray-sama!
"Water Cane!" she shouted. Canes of water formed at her fingertips and slammed into the lacrima. But there wasn't even a dent or crack. Gritting her teeth, Juvia swept her arms wide. "Water Slicer!" Blades of water struck the same place, but not a scratch was made. "Water Jigsaw!" she screamed, using both arms. Still no effect. She sank to her knees, panting heavily. "What is this? Why can't Juvia break it?"
A dark chuckle drew her attention to the man standing in the shadows of the room. "Because that lacrima was made to contain you, my lovely." He stepped forward and smiled fondly at her. "As I live and breathe. Juvia Lockser, Juvia of the Deep, the Ame-Onna of Phantom Lord."
Juvia flinched at the last title. Ame-Onna...rain woman... "What do you want with Juvia?"
He bowed to her. "I am merely a collector of rare and powerful talents, Miss Juvia. And you are one of those I have been searching for." A creepy grin touched his mouth. "The Ame-Onna of Phantom Lord, one of the Element 4, Juvia of the Deep...if you were to join my legion of Demons, we could crush these insignificant Fairies and all those other pansy Guilds!"
The blue-haired water mage glared daggers at him as her rage rose. "You want Juvia to betray Fairy Tail...to betray her nakama...to betray her beloved Gray-sama?" Her body began to morph into boiling water as she grew even angrier. "Juvia would rather die!" she screamed.
Her captor spoke carelessly. "If I can get what I want."
Above them, the sky began to darken and lightning crashed.
"Oh look, it's starting to rain," remarked Gajeel with a cocky grin as he puched a couple Demons aside with his Iron Dragon's Club. "We all know what that means."
Gray looked up at the angry-looking sky. "Yeah, Juvia's pissed." Searching the clouds, he spotted the darkest patch and the heaviest downpour on the roof of Horned Demon's guild. "She's up there." Using Ice Make, he blew away the group of Demons that had surrounded him. "We better go get her before she drowns us along with the enemy."
Natsu cackled as he kicked a slew of enemies aside. "Somebody must've bad-mouthed you pretty harsh, snowflake!"
Or she overreacted, Gray thought, glancing up again. But why hasn't she joined the fight? Sighing, he yanked on his shirt and started walking towards the guild building.
Twenty minutes and not a few fights later, Gray was freezing the doors to the roof and kicking them to bits. "Oy," he said to Holden, the leader of Horned Demon. "I'm here for Juvia. Give her back."
"Gray-sama!"
He turned at the sound of her voice. Juvia was trapped inside a sphere of lacrima, her body halfway into its Sierra form of boiling water. But she wasn't angry. On the contrary, Gray was shocked to see a look of pure terror on the normally calm woman's face.
"You see, Gray-sama," said Holden, a mocking tone as he repeated the -sama, "I've kept my eye open for a chance to claim the Ame-Onna of Phantom Lord. When I heard she had joined Fairy Tail, I was shocked. How could she waste such talent working for a spineless guild?"
"What are you doing to her?" Gray demanded.
Holden smirked. "I'm forcing her to choose. That lacrima was designed for two purposes. The first is to control her power over the rain."
Gray narrowed his eyes at Holden. "You're making it rain, not her."
"Exactly." He seeemed perversely pleased by it. "It will drown you pathetic Fairies in no time."
"Not if I break her out first!" Gray slammed a fist into his palm. "Ice Make: Lance!"
Holden quickly retalitated with some sort of explosion magic. The ice mage ducked and dodged, using his lances and swords and stars in an effort to knock this fool down and save Juvia. He knew firsthand how strongly Juvia's power over the weather was; if it continued to rain like this, it would become dangerous for the others to continue fighting.
Finally Gray managed to get a clear shot at Juvia's prison. Another Ice Make Lance cast, and a pillar of sharpened ice shot across the way towards the lacrima -
"Gray-sama, no!"
Her panicked scream made Gray come up short; the lance froze, inches from hitting the shell.
Holden made a 'whoops' gesture with his hand. "Did I forget to mention? The other property of the lacrima is to keep the water inside at the same state. As soon as she began to boil, she was on the clock."
The Ice Make mage's eyes widened. Boiling water...oh no! Looking back at Juvia, he saw that there was less water in there than before. "She's evaporating!"
"Exactly!" Holden clapped his hands lazily. "That she is. I control what state her watery self will be when the lacrima breaks...provided she chooses the right answer."
"Juvia said it before, and Juvia means it!" shouted the water mage. "Juvia would rather die than betray Gray-sama or Fairy Tail or Juvia's nakama!"
Her words strengthened Gray's resolve. "You really don't know the power of Fairy Tail, Holden," he said. "Let me educate you!" He held out his arms and shouted, "Freeze!"
Ice instantly covered the entire rooftop. The rain instantly froze into tiny, delicate snowflakes that floated to the ground. Holden's smirk was frozen beneath two inches of solid ice, as was the rest of his body. Gray waited a bare second to make sure he was frozen before sliding over to Juvia's lacrima prison. "Juvia! Juvia, you all right?"
Through the ice-frosted lacrima he could see her blue hair bobble in a nod. "Juvia is fine, Gray-sama," she replied. "Juvia is no longer boiling!"
"Good. I'll get you out in a second, Juvia." He cast Ice Make: Sword and drew back like a baseball player at bat. "Get back."
But before he could break the lacrima, his ice sword was blasted out of his hands. Gray whirled around to see Holden standing in a steadily growing circle of melted ice. "Impressive. You turned rain to snow. But you didn't do much more than that." He brushed off the broken remains of his ice shell from his sleeves. "I expected more from the student of Ur."
Gray felt the familiar rage at someone bad-mouthing his former teacher. "I'll show you just what she taught me!" he roared. "Ice Make: Lance!"
Juvia could see the battle from inside her frozen prison. Holden continued to taunt Gray, who was slowly expending his magical energies while only superficially wounding his enemy. Juvia has to help! she thought desperately. Juvia must help Gray-sama!
She looked around. The lacrima was frozen solid, and if hanging around Gray had taught her anything, aside that he was an incredible man who she believed was perfect and wonderful and loving and - focus Juvia, focus! she scolded herself - anyway, she had learned that things had a tendency to break easier when they were frozen. Especially things that were previously very difficult to break. Drawing herself up, she cried out, "Water Slicer!" and let loose a barrage of water.
Cracks appeared in the icy shell, and her water returned to her body. Delighted, Juvia kept it up until she had nearly sliced her way through the whole thing. With a last Water Cane, she blasted the hated lacrima away. Juvia hates that thing! she thought before looking around for Gray and Holden.
She saw them near the opposite edge of the rooftop, down to blasts of light and ice. Gray was hunched behind his Ice Make Shield as Holden continued to pound at his defenses. Juvia quickly made use of the ice still remaining to slide across the roof as fast as she could. "Water Cane!" she shouted, aiming her attack at Holden.
He managed to jump back, swearing as the water mage skidded to a halt beside Gray. "I see you've managed to join this fight, Ame-Onna," he said with a sneer. "Very well."
"She's not called Ame-Onna!" replied Gray hotly. "Her name is Juvia!"
Juvia stared at him with hearts in her eyes. Gray-sama has stood up for Juvia! Juvia knew this day would come! Now he will clasp Juvia's hands and declare his undying love for Juvia -
"Juvia, move!" She pulled herself back to reality as a blast of magic headed right for them. Together Gray and Juvia jumped backwards to evade it, but in their haste, they made a grave mistake. They stepped almost to the corner edge of the rooftop. The ocean crashed over the rocks hundreds of feet below them, making both mages gulp in panic at their close brush with death.
"Two little fairies, trapped by a demon," Holden crooned, conjuring another ball of light in his hand. "Oh, whatever shall the fairies do? Foolish fairies of ice and water, they can't fly away."
Gray put his arm protectively in front of Juvia, but the blue-haired mage didn't react. Her eyes were watching Holden, waiting for his move. She already knew what she had to do.
Holden fired. Juvia put her hand on the small of Gray's bare back and shoved hard, morphing her body into water and catching the bolt of magic in a cocoon of water in her abdomen. She threw a triumphant smile at Holden. "Your magic doesn't hurt Juvia! Juvia is stronger than any demon!"
The enemy smirked, then raised a hand. "Explodia," he said, snapping his fingers.
Gray recognized the spell. Flipping over, he gaped in horror as her smile became confused. "Juvia!" he shouted, getting to his feet.
She looked at him, then down at her abdomen. Or, now, the roiling mass of magic that was threading its way through her watery body. She looked up, and Gray saw a familiar expression on her face. For a brief moment, he was a child again, watching Ur become the fodder for Iced Shell to contain Deliora. It made him hesitate.
"Good bye, Gray-sama," she whispered. "Juvia is happy...that Juvia met Gray-sama. Now Juvia can...go..."
"Juvia, no!" he screamed as Juvia, her smile serene, burst into thousands of water droplets and disappeared. "Juvia! JUVIA!"
Holden chuckled as the ice alchemist sank to his knees. "Poor girl. Explodia is always fatal to water mages; it's broken her into such bits that she'll never return to herself. A pity - I was so looking forward to welcoming the Ame-Onna to my guild...and now she's gone."
She's gone. Those two words echoed in Gray's head over and over, a taunt of his weakness, of his failure, of his inability to keep one promise. She's gone. She's gone. She's gone.
Just like Ur. She died to save you, another voice, tiny and vicious, spoke in a dead tone. And it's all your fault.
Suddenly, an incredible amount of magical energy filled the air. It pressed against Holden, almost making the mage choke on the air as he saw a light blue aura surround Gray's body. The ice mage's magic seal appeared beneath him on the ground, glowing brighter than it had before. Holden's eyes widened as he felt the overwhelming magical power start to tremble. "Wait, what are you - "
Ice instantly covered the rooftop, and this time, Holden was dead before he realized what had happened. Ice continued to form, blanketing the stone and the banners and every other flat surface.
"JUVIA!" Gray screamed, throwing his head back in anguish. Ice geysers shot up towards the heavens, as if the crystal fingers were begging the clearing rainclouds to give her back to him.
Ahh! No, Juvia!
But wait, could it be...yes, this story is not complete yet! Keep a weather eye open for the next chapter, and while you wait, review!