A/N: So first of all I wanna say that I'm so, SO happy with the response this story got. Nearly 70 followers, in a month and a half, for just ONE CHAPTER? I mean, have you any idea how amazing that is? I love you all for it! It's a new personal record tbh : D
Another thing: Please review? I mean, 70 followers (or close) is great, but only 6 reviews...? Not so great. :( Please please please review!
More notes at the end of the chapter. :P Hope you enjoy the second chapter as much as you did the first one!
And again, fanart is welcome. :33
Update of the 2/12/14: This chapter was Betaed by DarkVampireFae on the 2nd of December 2014.
~Tenshi
CHAPTER 2: Lantern on the River
"But I don't want you to knock me out!"
"Natsu, be reasonable and think a minute. You're gonna be sick again as soon as we get on, and I'd rather not have to deal with you and Gajeel for the entire that the train journey will last."
"Hey, don't talk 'bout me. I ain't gonna get sick."
Erza threw him a withering look from where she was leaning against the wall. Gajeel shrank back into the bench he was slouched back on, but didn't take back his words.
"What about Laxus, then?" Natsu asked, pouting, and Gajeel was pretty sure by now that everyone but the Fire Dragon Slayer himself knew that he was only buying time before the Titania ended up knocking him out anyway.
At the other end of the bench, Laxus rolled his eyes and pulled one of his blaring earphones away from his ear. "I'm not gonna get sick, flame brain." The blonde man jabbed a finger towards his earphones for emphasis. "Music distracts me from motion sickness."
Ironically enough, Natsu suddenly turned very green at the simple mention of motion sickness. Taking advantage of the new shade of his face and of the fact that he was momentarily distracted, Erza lunged, a flurry of red and silver as she landed a punch at the back of his head. The Dragon Slayer dropped like a stone, and right on cue, the train that would take them back home from their weeklong mission pulled in.
Grunting, Gajeel and Laxus both pulled themselves up from the bench. Gajeel grabbed half of their suitcases, Laxus the other, the for-once-silent Gray hauled an unconscious Natsu onto his shoulder, and Erza slipped an arm under Lucy's armpits as the blonde struggled to push herself up from the ground. The six of them shuffled onto the train, finding an empty compartment nearly immediately and filing into it. Luckily, this train was a long distance one, and the compartments were twice as large as the usual trains, able to accommodate about eight people each instead of four or six. They fit easily into the one, luggage stored safely above them. A passed-out Natsu sleeping against Gray, Gajeel in the middle, and Laxus against the window all sat on one side, and Erza on the other with Lucy's blonde head on her lap and the rest of her spread over the seats, asleep by the looks of it. It had been only yesterday that they'd completed their mission and collected their reward, and all of them, particularly the Celestial Mage, were still largely exhausted by their exploits. She'd spent the last twenty-four hours sleeping, and the rest of them, save the Requip mage, hadn't been too far behind in that regards.
Leaning back in his seat, Gajeel suddenly wished he'd taken the window seat before the Lightning Dragon Slayer had. Though he was never as bad as the flame-brain, who always ended up being sick before they'd even started moving, he still knew he'd be having a thoroughly unpleasant time for the next twenty-four hours on this train. He was honestly glad that this was a one-time mission; he didn't think he'd survive another return-trip to Sylva Island any time soon. Curse the old man for sending three Dragon Slayers out on a mission that mandated a twenty-four hour train trip down and back.
Gajeel closed his eyes and drifted off to sleep.
X
After all six of them had dropped their luggage at their respective homes, they walked back to the guild, Lucy still leaning on Erza while Gray and Natsu walked ahead and Laxus and Gajeel lingered back, both of them yawning heavily. Contrary to the Fire Dragon Slayer, who had, thanks to the red-haired mage, slept for the entire train ride, the other two Dragon Slayers had spent the last day alternatively half-asleep and awake getting sick. They'd narrowly avoided Erza knocking them out too – and even then only out of pride. Any other day, Laxus would have been stalking ahead, if not already at the guild, but having had very little sleep since the start of their mission, for once he hung at the back of their little group. The two men didn't say anything, content to just walk in silence and put aside all of their past grudges for the briefest of minutes.
Ahead of them, the pink-haired Dragon Slayer pushed the doors to the Guild Hall open, and was immediately greeted by the resounding voices of the present guild members enquiring after their mission. Following after him and the popsicle, Erza roughly grabbed the giddy boy by the back of the collar, dragging him away from the gossipers and his cat and towards the Guild Master's office, ignoring his loud protests. Gray followed the Requip mage grudgingly, his mood a little more toned-down than Natsu's due to having not yet completely recovered from getting his magic sucked out of him by the dark mage the previous day. Laxus and Gajeel weren't far behind, the first hailed by Bickslow, Elfman and Freed, while the latter gruffly reassured a short blue-haired woman as to his well being.
Laxus snickered as the other man grumpily shooed Levy away, and Gajeel shot him a glare. "Got somethin' to say, Sparky?"
"Nah," the blonde smirked, ignoring the glare being shot his way. "So, have you turned her upside down yet?"
"Shut your trap," Gajeel growled, because even though it was obvious that Laxus was only having a bit of playful banter, Levy was his friend, and he wasn't about to let the other man speak like that about her.
"Mavis, will you calm down, Nail-Head," Laxus drawled, rolling his eyes. "I was only asking – you know, from man to man."
Gajeel just growled something unintelligible in answer, and the two left it at that.
Up in Makarov's office, all six of them stood in front of the old man sitting atop his desk instead of on the chair behind it, not minutes after having come into the Guild Hall. "So?" the Master enquired, eyebrows raised expectantly.
"Master," Erza began, stepping forward with a respectful nod of her head, gently leaning Lucy for Gray to support instead of herself. "The mage on Sylva Island was a Water and Leech based mage. As reported, we can confirm that he had been creating and controlling the creatures of the island, which is what its villagers were forced out by. Gajeel took him out after the rest of us were incapacitated. Unfortunately, it turned out impossible to capture him alive. At that point, it was either him or us."
The old man nodded thoughtfully, appraising their battered and tired appearance one by one, lingering a little more on Lucy than on the rest of them. Silently, he raised his eyebrows at Erza, obviously confused at the Celestial Mage's state of exhaustion. Seeing his concern, the red-haired woman nodded back at him to indicate that she'd explain everything to him once they were alone. Satisfied with this, Makarov congratulated everyone else, and they were told to go home and rest.
"Gajeel," the old man called just as the Iron Dragon Slayer was about to walk out. The black-haired man turned with a scowl, and was met with the unflinching gaze of the Master of his Guild. "Stay back with Erza, please." Gajeel relented, crossing his arms over his chest resolutely and stepping out of the way to let everybody else walk out.
Once everyone but Makarov, the red-haired Requip mage and Gajeel were gone, the old man turned to Erza. "Now, Erza. Why was Lucy in such a state?"
Gajeel growled a little at being ignored, seething beside the door, but said nothing.
"As I said earlier, the mage was also Leech-based. Not only did he have the ability to use Gray's ice-magic against him, but he had also installed small purple statuettes outside the cave where he was holed up – statuettes which, after closer inspection, appeared to be what was making us weaker, by sucking out our magic and making us use more of it than would normally have been necessary. And although Natsu, with his fire magic, didn't last long against water, and Laxus was held out of range of the statuettes fighting some of the mage's creatures, I suspect that Dragon Slayers are unaffected by this type of magic. Gajeel's abilities were never hindered by the mage's Leeches in the way that mine, Lucy's and Gray's were.
"My theory is that Lucy felt it more than we did because her Celestial Magic, requires her to reach outside of herself to call on her spirits. She doesn't create her magic the way Gray creates ice or the way I change equipment. Her spirits – Loki, Plue – come from outside of herself, and I think that's why the statuettes drained her more than they drained us. In addition, she stayed in that cave, conscious and fighting, for much longer than either myself or Gray. She and Gajeel were the last two fighting."
Erza didn't move once she was done talking, waiting patiently as the old man pondered on what she had just said. Eventually, Makarov seemed to reach a conclusion, and his gaze went up to meet Gajeel's, staring squarely at him from across the room. With a wave of his hand, Erza was dismissed, and she threw the Iron Dragon Slayer standing beside the door one last withering glance – which he royally returned – as she passed him to rejoin her friends in the Guild's main Hall. There was a moment of silence as Master and Dragon Slayer appraised each other, and then Makarov sighed and turned away from the other man, rubbing a tired hand across his face. Gajeel was momentarily taken aback by this unusual show of weakness, and his eyes widened fractionally before he schooled his features back into an irritated scowl.
"Watcha want, old man," he growled, not so much a question as an order.
"Gajeel, as much as I appreciate nurturing the idea that you may have tried your best to protect my children, I know what the truth is. Lucy killed that mage, didn't she?"
He started. What the…? How did the old fart know that?
"I told ya," he drawled, feigning irritation. "I killed him. What makes ya think Bunny Girl did?"
"Gajeel," Makarov repeated, a hint of warning in his voice this time. Gajeel scowled, but didn't say anything. Makarov sighed and faced him again as he said, "Ever since the Games, Lucy has been having difficulties controlling her magic. Two months ago, she came very near to blasting off half of the training area's grounds – would have if Mira had not been there to calm her down. Only the Celestial spell Urano Metria matched up to the potential destruction Lucy could have wrecked upon us that day.
"It appears that the gap between the Celestial World and this one has been widened considerably, and while this has made it easier for her and other Celestial Mages to summon their spirits, powerful mages like Lucy have also experienced a recrudescence of their Spirits' magic. It seems that it is no longer Spirits who have sole control of Celestial Magic, but also their owners. And with the number of Major Zodiac keys in Lucy's possession… Their energy is proving too much. She can't control all of it, and it is showing more and more with every passing day."
Makarov gave a heavy sigh, shaking his head before looking back up at Gajeel, who hadn't moved from his spot beside the door and was still staring at him fixedly. "I expect that it is Lucy who killed that mage – accidently, I'll agree. And I expect that she was surrounded by a blinding white light, which reminded you of her Spirits' magic, and that that magic caused a circular explosion which killed the mage and left her exhausted – possibly unconscious. Am I right?" Makarov looked at him, and Gajeel bared his teeth. "Gajeel, if that's what you're worried about, I'm not going to punish her for killing him. If anything, that man deserved to die. No, what I'm more worried about is the reason why you've decided to take credit for what she did. If you're planning on hurting her with the knowledge, then I-"
"Oh for fuck's sake!" Gajeel exploded, uncrossing his arms and letting one of his fists bang loudly against the wall he'd been leaning against. "I'm not gonna blackmail her, Gramps! Whoever the fuck you think I am, well that ain't me! I'm taking credit 'cause she asked me not to tell the others what she did – that's all there is to it! Are ya done now?!" And without waiting for an answer, Gajeel stormed out of the old man's office, ignoring the way his head throbbed, because he'd just broken the promise that the girl had unknowingly made him take. He'd just told someone the truth – he'd just revealed the fact that she had killed someone, perhaps for the first time. Because he'd figured out, deep in his heart, that that was the real reason that she hadn't wanted anyone to know that she had been the one to beat the dark mage. She hadn't wanted her friends to see her as a killer, and in himself, Gajeel was sure that it had taken something out of her to kill another human being like that – even accidentally, even though if she hadn't done what she had, they'd probably all be dead by now.
He knew well enough what it was like to take another life for the first time.
He knew how much it could change a person.
