At one point, he had thought the rain to be sad. So very, very sad. As if the sky itself were crying. He hadn't understood what could make something as beautiful and powerful as the sky so sad then. He hadn't even understood ten minutes ago. But now...?

Now he knew. Now he understood. He had thought the rain sad, once. Now, he knew that there was nothing sad about the rain itself.

What saddened him was this vision of beauty standing stood before him. A lovely, elegant face framed by azure tresses that were curled like the clouds that brought this downpour upon them, topped with a fur cap to go with her rather expensive-looking raincoat. She carried an umbrella, which seemed to suggest she spent a lot of the time in the rain, unlike him. But none of this explained his melancholy. No, it was her eyes. Her eyes, two navy pools unfathomably deep, were lidded in a kind of sadness he himself could only guess at, yet still could feel. Her sadness flowed into him, a river, a torrent that he could barely understand.

She opened her mouth, and spoke.

"...Pitter Patter..."

Her voice was just as enthralling as the rest of her, low and melodic, almost musical. Almost. It was the sorrow and weariness in that voice that kept it from being true music. He struggled to speak, to form words.

"...You...who are you?" It was all he could manage, but nothing else seemed to take shape within his throat, caught upon an invisible hook before it could leave his lips.

"Juvia. Juvia of the Rain."

His mouth went dry. 'Of the Rain'? Did this mean...?

"Then...you're one of the Element Four...?" Her surprise at being identified was slight, but evident.

"Yes. Juvia is one of the Element Four."

There it was, then. She was his enemy. This girl was his foe. She blushed, suddenly, inexplicably, but seemed to gain control of herself a moment later. But rather than offer any sort of explanation, she instead launched a large orb of water at him, the ball seeming to open up as it neared. In an instant, he was engulfed in the suspended liquid, as the Phantom Lord member's words reached him through the watery prison.

"W-water Lock!"

He struggled to breath, as there was no air in this spell, but found that he couldn't even force his head out. With a resigned sigh -how could he sigh in a bubble of water?- he bowed his head, muttering as he lifted his hands, pressing them against the sides of the orb.

"...I'm...sorry..."

Juvia blinked. Sorry? What could he be sorry about? This strange man in the baggy pants and long coat was trapped in her prison, he couldn't use his magic from in there, whatever it was! Briefly, she thought about letting him go out of a strange combination of pity and guilt, before she shook herself, knowing such thoughts couldn't exist on the battlefield.

Then she saw his eyes. They weren't the eyes of someone resigned to fate, but of someone resigned to something far different. Within the sphere, his arms began to shake, trembling as he grit his teeth and winced in what seemed like pain. A pair of jagged designs appeared on his arms, glowing a bright yellow, even through the water around him. All of a sudden, she felt the air around them begin to tingle, snapping seemingly at random, as she realized what he was doing.

"N-no...! You couldn't be...!"

He was. He was a lightning mage. And he was using his magic inside her prison.

Her water prison.

"De Caelo Tactum."

The spell shattered. Not just broke, not dissipated, shattered. It was explosive. It was violent. And she took the brunt of it in magical backlash. Thankfully, it wasn't very painful, but it drove the point home: This man was her natural enemy. And this made her sad. She didn't want him to be an enemy. She liked this man. She bit her lip as she gathered more magic for another spell, ignoring the pangs in her heart as she whipped blades of water at him, the deadly arcs of liquid glittering in the dreary light.

"...That won't work." He tensed for a moment, and his arm began to shake again. Again, the air was filled with the electric sensation his magic caused. The mark began to glow even brighter, and soon that glow traveled up the length of his arm, encasing it fully in bright arcs of electricity. His face twitched, ever so slightly, and his teeth grit, but his expression soon returned to its previous state of neutrality.

"Arma Scintillae...Unam Columnam" he intoned, his voice somber and low, before swinging his arm to meet the incoming water attack. In an instant, the lightning overpowered and dissipated the blade, leaving them back where they had begun.

Well, not quite where they had begun. Now, he had the advantage of his element, and she, the knowledge that most, if not all, of her attacks would be nigh useless.

Yet still, she did not give in. He was the enemy, and her guild, the only people who had ever accepted- needed, not wanted, never wanted- her were depending on her to win. They were not the kindest people, but they had never betrayed her or done her ill, and so she would not betray their own trust in her.

But, as easy as it was for her to say this to herself, actually winning was something of a dismal prospect. This man, this lightning mage opposing her, had every advantage possible. His magic was, it seemed, almost the perfect counter to her own, and beyond that, his use of it, shrouding his body in the arcs of bright electricity, made hand-to-hand combat utterly hopeless. As it was, she couldn't see any way to come out of this fight as a winner. She knew it, and worse yet, he most likely did, too. But still, though her confidence in her abilities wavered, her desire to be of use to the guild would not. So she did the only thing she could do at this point.

"Juvia does not know what you hope to accomplish here...but she cannot allow it. We are at a stalemate, and with the abundance of water, Juvia can keep this up all day."

She bluffed. It was a weak and hollow claim, and she could tell from the way he stared at her that he knew just how outmatched she was against him. His sea-green eyes drooped in what she recognized bemusedly as sadness, before he let out a sigh, shaking his sopping mop of blue-gray hair.

"All we want is our guildmate back," He replied, his voice tired and beseeching. "That's it."

Juvia blinked, and considered this.

"You are waging war on our guild...because of her?" At his nod, she seemed even more incredulous. "But...why?" If they had just left her,, they could have avoided many of the casualties they suffered on this day alone...

It was his answer that truly floored her.

"Because she's our friend. Because she'd do the same for any one of Fairy Tail. Because if we aren't prepared to go this far for just one of us..." The intensity in his gaze bored into her, seeming to rip right through flesh and bone and into her heart, briefly setting it quaking with a kind of warmth she could not begin to describe.

"How can we call ourselves her family?"

Her mouth was open, but words did not come. Her body was tensed, but she did not strike. Juvia Lockser looked upon this man, this rival mage of Fairy Tail, and knew then that those rogues she worked alongside were not a guild. They were not loving, or supportive. They were not kind to any, and their greed destroyed the towns they inhabited. She had overlooked this, hoping that if she did, she would find something more.

But if what she stood opposite of was a true example of a guild, then what she had thought of as a place of belonging was the greatest sham she had ever laid eyes on.

Her decision made, she grasped her umbrella tightly, noticing his tensing as a result...and closed it, before turning on her heel and walking away. When he did not move, she turned back to face him.

"Follow Me." Not trusting herself to look back at those eyes that had sent such a jolt through her, Juvia continued walking, making her way to the next part of the gigantic golem they had been fighting on. "I will take you to Lucy Heartfilia."

Hesitantly, he stepped after her into the bowels of the machine, once more braving its corridors for the sake of his friend.

Meanwhile, far behind them, a certain exhibitionist Ice-maker clambered onto the roof, just as the rain began to slow and come to a halt, cursing his luck and the speed of a "damned overeager lightbulb of a mage."

Whew, two in one day.
Crazy, huh?
Well, I had these both started for a while, now, but only recently did I regain the inspiration to finish. So, just one more-and this one is NOT coming as quickly, so don't hold your breath- and that will be the original three routes. After that, I'm open to suggestions, all of which I will consider seriously.

As for this chapter, I had quite a bit of fun writing it. Gray's not there until the end, as you can see; why? Because Ciel is simply faster, as befitting his magical alignment. I suppose you could say this fight takes place at an earlier point in the battle than Gray's does in canon.

As for the differences between the two routes, aside from the shipping, well...that's a secret, isn't it?

Now for some translations: Cataegis is Latin for "storm," representing the dynamic between Juvia, the rain, and Ciel, the lightning.

De Caelo Tactum means the "Touch of Heaven," Implying a simple burst of lightning from the hands.

Arma Scintillae: Unam Columnam is "Armor of sparks: a Single Pillar," referring to how Ciel only gathered his magic in a single limb.

I hope you all enjoyed this as much as I did writing it, and I'll see you all next time.

"I...can't hurt you." She answered, her cheeks flushing.

"Oh," he drawled, not even noticing her distress. "I'm sure you could find a way. You could have easily drowned me, or intensified the pressure in that orb, or-"

"You misunderstand." She cut in, looking rather upset about something, though what he couldn't say. "I can't hurt you. I...I won't hurt you."

What?