This is as long as I can get in a chapter. Please enjoy! :D
"Hey, look at this," Gray said, thrusting the Magnolia daily newspaper at Erza. "There's a new dark guild that's been revealed. Turns out it was undercover until it was strong enough to do its dirty work."
Erza sipped her tea and took the paper. The headlines screamed, DARK GUILD REVEALED! FIRST VICTIM: HOME OF WESTON GRANT.
"That sounds familiar," Erza said out loud. "Gray, go check to see what kind of mission Natsu, his cat and Lucy went on."
"Okay." he left without objection.
Let's see, she thought, scanning the article. A week ago, the house of Weston Grant, a bookshop owner, was searched through, and a number of priceless items were missing. This continued until yesterday, where Grant found the thieves waiting for him, after arriving home early at noon. Grant was discovered dead by his neighbor, Melanie Tayner yesterday afternoon. It appears that he was struck with dark magic, known only as "Curse of Hell". "Curse of Hell" seemed to have the ability to torture and kill one using only the mind. "It was a bitter loss," Tayner says. "He was a very kind man." Numerous guilds have begun to search for this group...
"Erza," Gray said. "They answered a request by this guy. His name was W. Grant."
"When did this request appear?" Erza demanded.
"Uh, last night, I think. Around eight or so."
"Pack your bags. We're going to find Team Natsu."
"Who-who are you?" Lucy stuttered. "What did you do with Natsu?"
The door opened, and Happy walked in, rubbing his eyes. "Lucy? What-"
Suddenly the Happy sucked in his breath and collapsed. "Don't worry," the girl said. "The Exceed won't interrupt us."
"Stop it!" Lucy cried. "Why are you hurting my friends?"
There was a silence. Then the girl smiled sadly. "Because, Lucy..." Suddenly her face warped and morphed into another face that Lucy had not seen in years...
"Because I am your mother."
Gajeel was having a bad day. First of all, there was no metal left in his fridge, so he had to attack all the silverware, which he barely used. Then, when he arrived at the guild at exactly nine am, Natsu wasn't there, so there was no one to pick a fight with. The bookworm was on a shopping spree for...well, books. So there was nothing to do except sit and have a couple of beers.
He was getting so fed up with the quietness of the guild that he almost picked a fight with Mirajane. Maybe she could use Satan Soul- now that would be interesting.
"Hey," Gajeel said to Makarov, who was in a wheelchair. "You know any place to kill time?"
The master gulped down his wine and his cheeks became even redder. "Ha, ha. I hhhhave plentyee. A ssswordd? Orr a maccchhine gu-" The master nodded off, completely drunk.
"Master!" Mirajane said worriedly, propping a pillow behind his head, sighing. "You shouldn't drunk so much alcohol. It's bad for your health."
Gajeel gave up and headed back to his seat. Then he noticed Wendy sitting there. "Move it, squirt."
"Wendy got here first," Charle said in a voice he had always thought was really snotty.
"It's okay," Wendy said in a small voice. "I'll move."
Immediately Gajeel felt guilty. Why'd he have to pick on someone younger than him. Maybe it was because of his bad mood. But he was also in no mood to apologize, either.
"Say..." Wendy said, stopping and turning to Gajeel. "Were you asking for a place to go?"
"Huh? Oh, yeah." What did she know about it?
"I know a town where they have a lot of metal factories. It's somewhere near the Red City, I think-"
"Thanks, Wendy." Gajeel was out of his seat already. Metal factories, huh? It was definitely his lucky day.
"Where are we now?" Erza asked Gray, her mountain of belongings casting a shadow over their magic four-wheeler.
"Um, somewhere near that town. It starts with a D, I think." It was cruciating being alone with Erza. You never knew when she was going to throw a punch.
"Good. We're getting there."
"How'd you know where Natsu and the others are?"
"Intuition."
The trip was in silence. It was strange without Natsu and Lucy here. The atmosphere was so quiet Gray lost his habit of stripping. Instead, he let his thoughts wander. He thought about (dammit!)Juvia. It got on his nerves whenever she stalked him, but sometimes...sometimes, he thought it was cute. Yeah. Having a lovestruck stalker who talked in the third person was cute. He must be out of his mind.
The four-wheeler stopped suddenly. "I think something's wrong," Erza said. She kicked the door open and checked their surroundings.
"Gray!" she called.
"What is it?" He jumped out of the car.
"Someone's been following us," Erza said, pointing to another set of tracks that stopped short just a few meters behind theirs. "They just disappeared a minute ago."
She looked ahead at the approaching cloud. "A sandstorm's coming this way as well. We're walking, so prepare yourself."
"M-Mom?" Lucy couldn't believe it. Her mother, lost for so many years, was standing right in front of her eyes.
Layla Heartfilia had tears in her eyes as she opened her arms, letting Natsu fall to the ground. Lucy approached her in a trance. Her mother, so close...
Suddenly Natsu groaned. "Lu...cy...don't...trust her..."
Layla's smile was stiff now. "Lucy, I've missed you. Come to me, my dear girl. Come to me."
Lucy wavered between Natsu and her mother. It was a hard choice to make: Her best friend or her mother. A long silence passed. Then Lucy said in a cold voice, "You should be dead."
Layla's smile disappeared. "Well, I'm not dead. I'm right here. Let me give you a hug."
"My mother is dead!" Lucy was sobbing now. "Stop it! Stop trying to imitate her!" She picked up the nearest thing she could find-a heavy box of baking suppiles and threw it at Layla. A look of surprise passed over Layla's face as the box made impact. When her eyes rolled up into her head Layla's face morphed again, this time to a girl maybe twelve or so.
Lucy stumbled to her knees, her tears flowing nonstop. Her mother's death felt like it had just happened yesterday; a death so fresh she couldn't ignore it anymore. She wished Erza and Gray were here. They could take charge of the situation. She was too weak to do anything.
Then she felt Natsu's hand on her arm. A jolt of electricity went through where he touched her. "You're not alone. I'm here."
Lucy smiled weakly and wiped her tears away. He staggered to his feet and rubbed his head. "Ow..."
"Natsu, you need to rest," she said. "What were you hit with?"
"When I came here, this girl standing here with a magic circle similar to the one we saw in the store," Natsu explained, leaning against the wall. "She looked kinda surprised, but she muttered something and this black cloud engulfed me."
"Were there any side effects?" Lucy studied him closely. He shifted uncomfortably. "Not really..."
"Natsu! Tell me the truth."
"No, seriously, I'm fine." We need to go." So they dragged the unconscious girl with them, and Natsu carried Happy. Natsu looked a little pained to see his unconscious friend. "So he suffered the same fate as me, huh."
The bakery owner and her daughter looked on in awe as they passed. Natsu waved. "See ya!"
"We need to put her somewhere, though," Lucy said. "Maybe we can lock her up somewhere?"
"Let's put her in an alley trashcan," Natsu suggested eagerly. "I want my revenge. Man, when she wakes up in junk I wonder what she would feel like-"
"That's too obvious," Lucy said. "Let's find another place."
Outside, the sandstorm had passed. They realized they couldn't be seen carrying the girl without being thought as robbers. So Lucy and Natsu stopped in a small alley right next to the bakery to think.
"We're stuck," Lucy said dully.
"Just stick her in a trashcan and let's go," Natsu said impatiently.
"Forget the trash, okay? What if she wakes up and comes at us? Or someone else? If only we had a container of some sort."
"How about a magic four-wheeler?" someone said. "Would that work?"
They turned and saw two shadows. It was...
Yes, I know you know who it was. But I'm ending here. Anyway, please review! _
