"Why do we need to go so far north?" Freed questioned in that quietly logical way that he had about him, his green eyes focused on the small guildmaster. "Seven has never asked for help before."
The old man sighed heavily, playing with his moustache as he sat cross-legged upon his large oaken desk, his eyes clouded with sorrow and worry. He'd kept quiet about the meeting he was holding right at this moment with both Team Natsu and the Raijinshuu in attendance.
What was he hiding? Laxus wondered as he looked over at his grandfather with his brows drawn together.
"They had a small village completely massacred nearly a month ago," Makarov explained, watching his beloved children's reactions to the news. "Not a man, woman, or child was left still breathing," He continued, holding out a file to his blond grandson who took the manila folder, flipping it open casually before his stormy eyes went wide at the smattering of photos that greeted him.
A town appeared to be razed completely to the ground, no building left standing in the area that sat nestled within a snow-covered forest. The photos, upon closer inspection, showed that the people had clearly been killed by some form of blunt weapon, and without mercy.
When Laxus saw a photo of the lifeless body of a young girl cradled in the arms of a woman who had been burnt to a crisp, he snapped the folder closed and rolled it up in his hand, keeping it from the gaze of the others around him. He wouldn't let any of them have to see the carnage that they would have to see once they got to their destination, he would try to prevent them from that heartache for as long as possible. Especially Lucy.
"Any details we should know?" He asked Makarov gruffly. Gray eyes narrowed when the old man seemed to hesitate to tell him something, the old man was withholding information that could potentially cost his precious children their lives. What was it about this job? "Spit it out, old man."
"The woman who did this is not at fault."
"First," Makarov greeted, quickly standing up from his seated position and giving a small frown to the ghostly woman. "I cannot ask this of them."
"I can," She responded simply, leveling the man with a glare in a rare show of irritation. Mavis sighed slightly before clasping her hands before her and looking at each of the gathered mages. "This woman has no control over her magic," She explained, using her magic to create an image of the woman that supposedly had massacred an entire village.
She looked so… Ordinary. With waist length, jet black hair, pale orange eyes that spoke of a haunting sadness, and curves that nearly matched that of Lucy's, the woman was truly beautiful- even Laxus had to admit that fact. He ignored the low whistle from Bickslow at the sight of the woman clad in only a ragged bra and panties in a muted gray.
Laxus watched the woman as she sobbed to herself, using a stream to wash crusted blood from her skin as what appeared to be a cold wind buffeted her body. Her hands roughly scraped at her lightly tanned skin until it was red and raw, tears streaming down her face the entire time as she repeated that she was sorry, so sorry, over and over again.
"How can we be sure that isn't simply her regretting what she'd done of her own free-will?" Gray asked, his arms crossed over his chest as he glared at the projection shown to them.
"Tell me," Makarov began, placing a hand on the blonde spirit's shoulder so she would allow him to speak to the young man. "If you had a magic you had absolutely no control over forced onto you, one that was dangerous and one that there were few books in existence even mentioning it in passing, how would you feel?"
"Alone."
Attention turned to the serious gaze of their resident Seith Mage with his brows drawn together as he stared down at the metal visor in his hands. His knuckles were white with the death grip he had on the object, his breathing had quickened a bit as he frowned.
Red eyes blinked up at the Master when he hummed. "I didn't ask for my magic," He admitted, his tone clouded with near self-disgust. Laxus had never seen the man react this way towards… anything. It was completely out of character and he didn't know how to react to the way his oldest friend was acting.
"Tell us what it was like," Mavis encouraged, placing a small hand on the man's face to soothe him a bit. "They need to hear what you went through to understand."
Laxus nearly scoffed at the woman. There was no way that Bickslow was about to tell them about his past, the man had never even spoken to him about it, and they were supposed to be best friends who told each other everything. It would be a cold day in hell before he-
"I killed my entire family," The Seith Mage admitted to the shocked gasps of those around him as he smiled sadly at the wooden totems that floated lazily above his head. "I thought I wouldn't have magic until one day, I was being picked on by my older brothers. The four of them used to bully me like no fucking other." He chuckled dryly when he held out a hand and one of the totems landed in it, his thumb stroking the wood. "My mom would yell at them, but it never stopped them. That particular day, they beat the fuck out of me until my magic erupted. I could hear the screams of my brothers and parents as my magic pulled their souls from their bodies, though I didn't know what it was at the time."
Gray eyes were wide with shock as Laxus gaped at his oldest friend. He never would have imagined something like this had happened to him, he had no fucking idea what the man had gone through in the past before showing up at Fairy Tail. What kind of friend was he if he couldn't even notice how badly the man's past was haunting him?
"I was exiled from my village," Bickslow continued on a near sigh. "They didn't arrest me because they knew it wasn't really my fault, but this," He gestured towards his totems and then to the tattoo that adorned his face. "This was proof enough that I was a monster to them and they feared for the other kids."
Erza stepped forward and wrapped the man in her arms, holding him close to her chest as he began to silently cry. Her usual sternness was gone as she held the man that everyone knew she loved dearly. Sure, the pairing was somewhat strange in the beginning, but whatever worked for them was perfectly acceptable within the guild.
Laxus himself was in shock, he seriously had no idea that all of this had happened to his friend, had never even thought to ask about his past. They never discussed those kinds of things, not even on the numerous occasions they'd gotten shit-face drunk. It was almost inconceivable to the large Lightning Mage who barely noticed when slender arms wrapped around his waist.
He looked down to see the sunny hair of his mate, the woman's face pressed into his chest as tears seeped through his shirt. Numbly, his own arms wrapped around the Stellar Mage, holding her close as he sought the comfort her strawberries and cream scent gave him.
"What do you want us to do?" He asked over the shorter blonde's head, his gaze level with his grandfather's own softening gaze.
"Convince this woman that we can help her and bring her here," Makarov stated when all eyes turned back to him. "Do so with discretion because she is a wanted woman, after all."
Juliette sighed heavily as she finished the last of the rations she'd stolen from a group of bandits that had passed by her small campsite about a week before. She needed to consider going into a town and finding a job she could do to make some money so she wouldn't have to steal anything else. She abhorred thievery, it made her feel nearly as tainted as losing control of her magic did- even if the people she stole from were thieves themselves.
Deciding she needed to give her offering to the Gods for the month, Juliette set about lighting her small campfire a bit higher, coaxing the flames into a true campfire as she'd done monthly just as her tribe had done in the past. It was the one small thing that connected her to her past and it felt like something she always needed to do, especially right now as her magic seemed to tug her along to complete the small preparations for setting up the ritual.
When she'd finished placing the sage bundle into the flames, Juliette pulled a fox from the wooden cage she'd fashioned for it out of branches and cradled it to her chest. She hated this part, but, as the fox had been granted to her as her soul-binder, it was something she had to do.
Her orange eyes softened as she looked at the creature who watched her curiously and gave a twitch of it's nose. "I'm so sorry for this," She whispered softly, stroking the animal's ears before pressing it down onto a flat rock that she had placed before her for this very purpose.
She was so grateful that this sacrifice only had to be done once a year this way as she pulled a long hunting knife from her pack and pressed it to the fox's throat. Any more than this one innocent creature a year and Juliette was certain she wouldn't be able to do this, no matter the cost to herself for disobeying the Gods.
"Ares," Juliette spoke in a loud voice as she used the blade to slice the now-struggling animal's jugular. "Accept this offering as a part of my soul." She kept her gaze focused on the fire as she used her strength to keep the creature from thrashing too much, not wanting to see what she had done, it would break her heart to see that much.
She tossed the body into the fire and watched as the flames burst into a brilliant green, showing her that the God had heard her call. Her orange eyes focused on the puddle of blood on the flat stone, moving to pour it into a wooden bowl that she'd previously prepared with several herbs and spices.
Juliette lifted the knife to the sky, "Grant me the sight this night." She kept her hands high as she drew the sharp blade across her skin, not even wincing at the pain. Blood slowly snaked down her arm before she held it over the bowl and allowed her own life-essence to mix with that of the fox's, the herbs floating in the thick mixture.
"Allow me to see what Fate has in store for me this year and I will be forever your servant," She whispered once more, setting the knife aside and lifting the bowl in her hands. Juliette took a deep breath before drinking down the mixed bloods, wincing at the taste that made her stomach turn.
Immediately her vision became clouded and Juliette gasped as she faced a blackness unlike any other she'd seen before. It seemed to caress her, coaxing her into it's embrace before a flash of navy hair filled her line of sight and she was thrust back into reality, awakening on the ground near the fire that had long-since burned down to cooling embers.
Juliette shook the cloudiness of her vision away, her mind racing a mile a minute. What had this meant? Darkness that felt so welcoming, so warm, while almost cold at the same time. The dark hair that she'd only seen for an instant. That was all she got? What was she supposed to do with such minuscule information?
Groaning in uncharactistic frustrations, Juliette replaced the bowl and blade into her pack before rising to her feet. She kicked some dirt and snow onto the fire, putting out the last few embers before turning and beginning to walk in the direction she'd been in before.
If she was going to escape the Emerald Knights that were likely searching for someone connected with the massacre of that village a month before, she needed to flee the country, and quickly. She'd been wandering further and further south, keeping to moving at night to prevent being seen by anyone as she knew her bloodstained clothing would be a giveaway that she had been up to something, whether it was her fault or not.
For now, she was hoping to make it across the border and into Fiore before the Emerald Knights found her. That was her only hope of remaining a free woman.