"Gildarts!" the Fairy Tail wizards shouted, happy to see that he was doing okay.
"Thanks for coming, guys," he said back but didn't move his attention from Phantom Lord.
The Fairies followed his cue and prepared to fight Phantom, but Element 4 and Gajeel remained calm and collected. While both parties gathered, keeping one eye over their shoulders, to discuss what to do, Gajeel pulled Juvia aside.
"I know how you feel about that ice guy," he told her. "I think, if you really want to get back at him, just do it. Kick his ass, no matter what Aria's got up his big green sleeve."
"Thanks, Gajeel," Juvia smiled. The rain began to pour harder down on them as Juvia got pumped up for a rematch with Gray Fullbuster.
"I'm thinking an airspace attack is best," Aria told them. "It's so sorrowful, but to just wipe them all out with one blow would be most convenient."
"But can't Gildarts crush things like airspace?" Totomaru wondered. "Titania could cut through it, so I'm sure he can crush it. Use it to wipe out the others, but we have to get him separated from them first."
"Why don't we just charge in and do whatever the heck we want?" Gajeel asked. "Let's really give them a socking! Gildarts is the only strong one."
"Yes, and Juvia knows Gildarts won't crush any member of Phantom Lord, because Fairy Tail never kills their opponents."
Aria glanced at Sol, but ultimately agreed to the plan to disregard any plan. The five Phantom Lord mages turned to Fairy Tail, intending to fight, but the Fairies were standing in a line, facing them.
"We've decided," Cana announced, "that it may be in our best interest to split up this group up so that we can fight in smaller groups. Unless you have any objections, we've already set up pairs: Jet and Droy vs. Totomaru, Gray vs. Gajeel, Levy vs. Juvia, Gildarts vs. Aria, and myself vs. Sol. We see these as fair fights, but if you have any objections, please share."
Juvia didn't know why Fairy Tail was giving them the option to alter the fights, but she decided not to question it. "Yes, Juvia would like to fight Gray Fullbuster!"
Gray was startled. He remembered how Juvia had let him win before. She had an odd light in her eyes then, but now her eyes shone with vengeance and bloodlust. "But now that leaves Levy with Gajeel," he pointed out.
"I can do it," Levy said, facing Gajeel with the full intention of winning against the iron dragon.
"Levy! You're so brave and confident and strong!" Jet and Droy cheered.
With no other objections, the groups split up, dispersing into the forest to fight without interference of the others. The mages of Phantom Lord thought the Fairies were being oddly friendly about it all, but went along with it. If Gray wants to die far from his friends, Juvia won't stop him.
When Juvia and Gray arrived at their destination, she wasted no time and immediately trapped him in a Water Lock.
Gray quickly froze the water and freed himself as he had when they fought before, but this time, it didn't capture Juvia's heart. Instead, it filled her with even more rage. How dare he manipulate her heart, manipulate her water.
"Ice Hammer!" Gray shouted, slamming a block of ice down on Juvia, but her water body quickly reformed, and she sent Water Slicers after him. Dodging them, he said to her, "This fight will play out just like it did last time! I can just freeze or dodge your attacks, and there's no way I can harm you."
"No," Juvia said coolly, "last time, Gray manipulated Juvia's heart and caused her to let him win. This time, Juvia's water is focused on her target. Juvia's rage won't be bent by Gray's charm as it was before." She bombarded him with searing hot water, which he tried to freeze but wasn't able to.
Ugh, he groaned to himself, this stuff is mostly steam already. How am I supposed to freeze it?
"How dare Gray cause Juvia to let him win! How dare he think he beat her! How dare Gray stop Juvia's rain!" she screeched, continuing the flow of boiling water from her palms.
Gray could barely make out what she was shouting at him through the pounding rush of the water around him. He tried to run, but the water followed him, and soon, with his skin in such searing pain, it hurt to move.
Juvia saw his pain, and taunted him, "Maybe if Gray put on a shirt now and then, Juvia's water wouldn't hurt so much!"
When she made a crack at his stripping, some part of Gray woke up form under the pain of the boiling water that enveloped him, and the found the energy to leap out of its path and find shelter behind a thick tree. In the few seconds it took Juvia to run around to him, he'd coated himself in ice, offering temporary protection from the burning water.
Juvia wouldn't let herself admire his cleverness. Not again. This mage had twisted her emotions, caused her to let him win a fight, and called her rain gloomy. He's just like the others. No, he's so much worse.
"Water Nebula!" Two streams of Juvia's water whipped around Gray and sent him flying up into the trees. He hit several branches, which cracked the ice coating just a bit.
Gray landed back down on the soft earth, letting his ice armor shatter off of him. He didn't need it anymore. "Juvia, wait!"
"No, Juvia doesn't wait!" she yelled, sending more Water Slicers after him. "Juvia is ruthless!"
"Please, I just want to know why you're acting so different now from last time!"
"Because Juvia is stronger now! Juvia's heart will not be manipulated. Water Jigsaw!" Juvia swirled around, becoming a tornado of water blades, and came down on Gray faster than he could defend himself. She spun and spun, hitting him with as many blades as she could, cutting his exposed skin before he could coat himself in ice.
Gray managed to get himself out of her path for just a second, and she reverted to her original form, her eyes narrowed down on him. "Gray humiliated Juvia, and Juvia does not forgive."
After having beaten Jet and Droy, Totomaru ran through the trees to find Juvia and help her. No one ever said they couldn't help their allies out after defeating their enemies.
Juvia and Gray were still in a heated battle, and just as Totomaru found them and showed up on Juvia's side of the tussle, Gray sent a shot from his Ice Canon towards her. The ice bullet passed easily through Juvia, and ended up hitting Totomaru in the chest. "Juvia!" he coughed.
"Totomaru?" Juvia gasped, spinning around to see her wounded boyfriend and longtime teammate.
Juvia kneeled next to Toto to try to help him, but it was useless. He was dying. Gray couldn't believe what he'd done. He hadn't noticed the fire mage come up through the trees behind Juvia and wasn't thinking enough to remember that the shot would only go through her. He'd killed someone. It may have been an accident, but he was now a murderer.
Totomaru squeezed Juvia's hand and whispered, "I'm glad I got to be your boyfriend for at least a couple days," before closing his eyes for the last time.
"Toto! Totomaru! Toto!" Juvia wailed, but he was dead. The Rain Woman slowly turned to face Totmaru's killer, the black-haired boy with eyes filled with pure fear.
"Solid Script: Fog!"
A massive block of fog shaped like the word "fog" appeared around Gajeel and the small, blue-haired Fairy Tail mage, who'd cast the spell. The fog soon fell from its form and filled the night air. It was so thick, Gajeel couldn't see his hand, much less the end of his iron pillar of an arm.
"You must think you're really smart, don't you?" he called into the stillness.
"I've been told that." The fragile voice came from a completely different direction than he would've guessed her to be.
"Well, you underestimate people. Iron Dragon's Roar!" Gajeel growled, sending a rushing spiral of metal shards in the direction her voice had come from and then all around them.
"Impressive."
Gajeel looked up to see Levy, the fog having been mostly cleared by his roar, sitting on the low branch of the tree directly next to him. Her face was literally six inches from his. How did she get there without me noticing? he gawked. "Iron Dragon Sword!" his arm quickly transformed into a chainsaw, which he slashed at the branch, but she was already on the other side of their area, moving light as a feather.
"Solid Script: Electricity!" Several glowing lines appeared in the air, spelling the word, but when they deformed into a more natural shape of lighting bolts, they quickly descended onto Gajeel, electrocuting him.
Levy walked over to stand above Gajeel. Wounded, he looked up at her and felt how he thought Juvia felt for Gray. How dare she beat him. She, this little girl in an orange dress with two red stripes, black leggings, and orange armbands. He'd beaten her before. He'd nearly killed her and her team less than two weeks ago! What had happened to him? Had he turned soft?
"You're the one who attacked my team," she said, anger lacing her voice. "You destroyed our guild building and hurt Lu-chan. Why?"
"What do you mean, 'why?'" Gajeel spat.
"I mean, you actually seem like a good person, deep down," she smiled. It was one of those kinds of smiles that really pissed Gajeel off, one of those I'm-so-nice-and-optimistic-and-cute-and-smart-and-powerful-and-cute-and-adorable-with-my-little-headband-and-my-cute-blue-hair-flopping-around-like-a-little-bird-and-my-hazel-eyes-that-are-just-so-damn-cute…..
Before he knew it, Gajeel was getting less and less pissed off by that magical smile. In fact, he began to crack a small smile himself—
No, this is what happened to Juvia. If I let myself lose now, I'll just hate myself later. Gajeel recomposed his frown and answered, "Same reason you're fighting me now: for my guild!" As she was leaning over him, he took the opportunity to punch an iron pillar into her little gut.
Cana saw it all: her mother telling her that wizards were a lazy, drunk group of people, driven by alcohol; her mother dying and leaving her to search for her father, who she'd only heard bad things about; her father never paying her any mind and only seeming to care about the other, more powerful kids in the guild; the lonely years he'd spend away on jobs, which she'd spend with friends or with a drink, hoping that when he next returned, she'd be good enough to call herself his daughter; and the S-class exams, all four tests, all four failures… She saw her mother shaking her head in disappointment, How could my daughter become a drunken wizard? The most drunken of them all! How could any daughter of mine fail four exams in a row and still show her face in that guild?
Cana tried to tell herself that her mother never said these things, that they were only lies spun from assumptions. She pushed herself to be stronger, but she couldn't. In this vast expanse of mist and pain, she just felt so weak. No, I'm Gildarts's daughter! I am stronger than this! she told herself and broke out of the stone that was encasing her body.
She turned toward Sol, her opponent, only to find a stone statue of her mother, looking forlorn. But Cana would not be fooled by any of Sol's tricks. She whipped out her cards and destroyed the statue.
"Non, non, non," Sol chanted, rising up from the earth. "One mustn't hurt one's own mother!"
"You aren't my mother," Cana muttered and threw spell after spell at Sol, who fought back fiercely but lost in the end.
Leaving the area with several significant wounds, Cana walked through the forest to find the fight between Aria and Gildarts.
In the distance, she heard the sound of strong winds and breaking earth, so she knew she was going in the right direction. When she finally found them, she was bleeding heavily and just barely walking with the help of the trees, but if there was any help she could offer him, she'd persevere.
She came up to the fight on Aria's side just in time to see him remove his blindfold in order to cast the airspace of death.
It all happened simultaneously: Gildarts began to crush the airspace, Cana called out, "Father!" to him, he noticed her and lost control of the crush magic.
Yes, you will notice that I love cliffhanger endings. Is it because most Fairy Tail chapters and episodes end in cliffhangers? Maybe. At this point, the story is branching out into some of the other characters, but the main focus will still be Juvia and her issue with Gray. Poor Toto :'(
Reviews, please.