It was early light, and the sky was his namesake, and the forest was unnavigable. He didn't mind the cold, but the fog was impeding his progress—no, more like it was preventing any progress entirely. All this, and Gray knew there was also the time factor, mostly because he wanted to have his hands washed of this mission before Juvia even woke up again.

He'd thought about it, but it wasn't like it was a snap decision—Juvia really would be better off safe and sound, away from someone who could do her real harm when she was already wounded. She would be sad, but honestly, he doubted her ability to be angry with him, and felt a little seedy for taking advantage of that inability, even if it was for her own good. Before heading out, he'd taken one cautious look at her, tranquil in her sleep, and decided that giving her the time to sleep off her injuries while he completed the quest was not only smart, it was considerate. Gray trusted his own judgment.

But the fog was gonna make him lose it.

His sense of direction was already piss poor, added onto mildly groggy morning hours and the fact that he couldn't see anything beyond a few yards? Gray's one saving grace was the thought of successfully locating the thief base of operations, pummeling their sorry asses, and dragging both Juvia and their immensely satisfying bags of money back home.

He marched with purpose in the general direction of their last showdown, that towering rock wall—he stepped over the underbrush, and sagely observed the ground for any errant hands. He was almost sure that their hideout had to be somewhere in the caves around the area, and he only had to smoke them out. As for the lightning-woman, he would freeze her to the ground, bind her troubling arms with coarse ice 'til she couldn't sling thunder any longer. These sorts of problems were easy to solve. Juvia would see, and she would understand, and she would worry less.

In the clearing, he stopped. At least, he thought it was the right clearing, but it might have been another spot near the rock ridges—he took a moment to orient himself, growing agitated as he shoved his hands into his pockets and searched the area for something familiar. He squinted into the fog. Birds scattered from the tree tops. He felt another presence, and thought he heard a sound. Awareness pulsed through his body, and at once, Gray stood sturdy, fist-to-palm. Just in case.

The wind was outrageous, then. It felt like it was cutting through him—it blew all of the fog away within moments, and as he shielded his eyes, Gray felt his clothes whip around his body, felt his front take the brunt of the gusts. It was definitely magic. "Again?" he grunted, getting tired of not knowing what to expect.

Before he could even open his eyes, he heard feet pounding in his direction, unmistakable over the whistle of the wind. He wasted no time in slamming his hand against the ground, creating an ice floor that curved around the trees and, by the sounds of surprised shouts in his ears, left no man standing. Both the wind and the ice floor were too much for the thieves—but even Gray was struggling to hold his position, and moving forward didn't seem to be an option either. He opened his eyes, trying to spot the source of the wind magic, and caught a bleary glimpse of the white-haired woman from yesterday. It was her—it was definitely her. So not just lightning, but also…

Wind, and fog?

Having been spotted, the woman turned her arm towards him, and he crashed on his side when he just barely dodged a small tornado. Yeah, she was definitely the reason why the job was paying so much: he had a full-fledged weather witch to deal with.

"Where's your friend?" she asked over the uproarious sound of the wind. He ignored her, not planning on thinking about Juvia at all, especially with the mage responsible for her injuries right in front of him.

"You could have come let me find you!" he shouted back instead, but the gales had suddenly subsided. Savagely, he brushed his hair aside and righted himself, trying to take in everything about the enemy that he could. She was graceful on his ice, though firmly planted in one place, and younger than he'd thought, despite the white hair. That didn't even warrant consideration; he was still going to wipe the floor with her.

"A master strategist like me sets traps! I wouldn't let you come traipsing anywhere near me so easy, Ice Boy!" She shouted back, voice alight—he wondered if she was gathering energy for another strike, and bent to raise ice from under her. She moved back swiftly, out of the target area, and sent another gust of wind at him instead—he wobbled, but maintained balance, inhaling deeply now.

"Master strategist my ass," he growled. "You're just usin' cheap tricks—surprise attacks, ambushes—"

She moved to attack again, but halted when he continued. "You want Natsu the Dragon Slayer, don't you?"

And before she could respond either way, he pressed on with a scoff on the end of his words. "Something like fog covers—Natsu would sniff you guys out like a dog within seconds, you know." It felt a little better to not know his enemy when the enemy was pretty ignorant herself. She clicked her tongue at him, and he pounded his fist flat against his open hand, but she called out to him, her voice hard.

"Will he come if we hold a friend hostage?"

He didn't like the implications of that question.

"Don't think you could!" he called back, bursting with bravado between heavy breaths. "A Fairy Tail wizard never loses to the same person twice. Ice Lance!"

Gray was holding his own, trying to get close enough to sure-freeze her feet still. As a moving target, the woman posed a problem. Her strategy became clear to him quite quickly, but it didn't make it any more simple to avoid, only a lot more pressing not to make any mistakes. She'd try to get him off his toes with some wide-sweeping wind blasts, then try to strike him down with lightning when he couldn't move out of the way. She moved like she had everything to lose, too.

They were at an impasse, just trying to outlast each other's capability to fight. The second thing Gray noticed was her mounting desperation; at first, her strikes were precise and controlled, but as time passed, she lashed out with more and more wildness, all loose motion and large, dangerous attacks. At one point, Gray had to rush double-time to move one of the fallen thieves out of the way of a lightning strike—she'd taken some time to catch her breath then, and made a point of only aiming for Gray specifically from then on.

The two-person battle was stretching on and on, and Gray's endurance, formidable as it was, was wearing thin. It was time for the decisive strike—he felt he'd worn down the enemy enough, and felt as though his legs were about to give way. He lifted an ice shield to his front and bustled to form a bow and arrow as the woman hurled her hand back and threw another terrifying lightning strike at him. His shield burst, and Gray gripped his weapon 'til his knuckles went white, wheeling around to aim.

In his blind spot, a flash.

Fuck.

Except that the burn never came; the light scalded his eyes and the heat charged his air space, but there was no impact even though his legs hadn't reacted. It wasn't him.

"Gray-sama!" Borderline tearful. Oh, he'd know that voice anywhere. Her arms were still tight around his waist—he was actually a little surprised she'd been able to heave him backwards with just her dainty bitty arms. But more urgently—

"Juvia, I told you—!"

Unsteady as they were, the wind knocked them on their backs. He scrambled to shield her, sure that he could take a shock even if she couldn't, but she slipped underneath him, flowing like river currents, and reformed herself in front of him, arms out protectively. He whipped around, unable to pull himself up in the instant it took for Juvia to take his place as the storm woman's opponent.

The woman didn't even remark on the place trade. She sent a gust of wind barreling at Juvia, who very calmly sent a channel of concentrated water barreling right back. The blast actually managed to break through the wind and knock their quarry over. Juvia surged forward grimly just as Gray worked himself to his feet, taking a single harrowed step after her. But she was fast, and closing the distance enough now to whip streaks of water across the thief's body. Juvia's attacks were rapidfire.

She wanted to end this before a second lightning strike. It lit up every nerve ending in his legs, but Gray hastened after her and tried to provide cover. As the newcomer to a lengthy fight, Juvia had the advantage, and she was taking full advantage of it. Gray wondered if she was upset, and somewhat rankled by the prospect of her being upset with him for leaving. She had helped him out, and they were fighting better as a team.

That was it: An ice-water unison raid.

He sprinted to her side. Her hair bounced when she turned to look at him, and they shared a wordless look two-seconds long before the lightning struck. They fell. Most of the clearing had been fried—the attack had been unrestrained, so the power was less concentrated and less harming, was Gray's first coherent thought. His second coherent thought was not so coherent.

Juvia. (Juvia Juvia Juvia)

"Fuck." He wasn't even moving his legs and he was still wobbling, and pain was still tearing up his core, and when he blinked his eyes open, the sight scared him more. "Juvia, get up." He bit out, shaky. Usually, that worked wonders, got her rolling and rearing. She remained limp and still, though. A moment passed before he thought to check for her breathing, and it was shallow.

Outside his notice, the bandit woman had hobbled off to their side, her arm raised again, and Gray positioned himself over and in front of his friend straight off the instinct. The woman tilted her head. She was breathing heavy, too.

"I'll make you a deal," she said.

"Go to hell," he said.

"I could kill her," she said, not sounding too pleased about it. Electricity struck the ground a foot away from Gray's side, and trickled over the dirt. "I'll kill her within a second if you don't come quietly."

That wasn't a bluff.

"Won't you kill her anyway if I do?" he asked, clutching Juvia tighter. He racked his head. He couldn't run with Juvia. He couldn't Ice Make too well in his state, and his creations were too easily crushed. He swallowed the lump in his throat.

"I won't kill her. No—it's your choice, Ice Boy. She dies and I take you anyway, or you come now. Choose." She sounded tired.

He looked at Juvia, setting her down flat. She was still breathing, just knocked out for the time being. He elevated her head and placed her arms at her side, checked for any signs of immediate danger, then looked at the storm woman and nodded. She whistled, and from the other side of the rocks came the other bandits who'd played spectators, a whole lot of them.

"Best behavior, now." The woman said as she led him away from Juvia's unconscious form. He was decidedly silent as they bound up his hands and shoved him forward, leading him towards the rocks. He glanced back at Juvia, hoping she might wake up and prove herself lively and destroy them all at the sight of him in chains, but her body was still, and worse, they were tying her up tight too. He twisted, eyes wide, hating the sight himself. She could slip through chains with ease, he knew, but it made him irrationally angry—the whole abject situation was a mark of shame and worse.

"Just in case she wakes up," the storm woman explained shortly, and Gray begrudgingly accepted, turning forward so as not to deal with the sight. The thief leader fell into step behind him, and the runt came rushing to her side to hold her up—she really was tired, but she brushed him off and limped forward on her own.

Minutes passed like that, Gray thinking so hard that his head hurt as he was led captive through the rocks. At some point, he zeroed in on the woman talking to the boy, and her voice cut through his muddled thoughts.

"That blue-haired woman you saw," she was saying, just above a whisper. "Send the wolves back for her."

"What? No," the boy was saying, "No—" But their words were lost, Gray's head swam with thoughts.

"Ross." The woman said. "Harsh measures. Desperate measures. She could come back. We have to neutralize the threat. We have no time. So, please..."

Gray felt his mouth dry. Juvia could take on wolves no problem, but he wasn't sure how long she'd be out, or what her condition was. She was entirely immobile, and she couldn't slip away as water, could she? He reached his boiling point, the chains jangling noisily as he ripped away from the men at his sides and stepped towards the storm woman. Make magic was hard with his hands tied, but-

"You said you wouldn't kill her—" he was shouting, raving. Juvia was strong, but the image of her being eaten alive was also strong, and hard on Gray's tired mind. The boy took one look at Gray, then ran off in Juvia's direction. Gray struggled harder.

"I said I wouldn't," the woman replied with a grimace, and that was when a thick hand dealt a blow to the back of Gray's head. His knees finally gave way.

Everything was black.