Hey Hey!
Sweet victory! I managed to write this chapter! I had to write the beginning three times before I got it right. Grrr. But, I'm done now. And I'm pretty happy with how it came out. Thank you for all the reviews! They helped me out so much!
Enjoy reading!
-Ink
"Ohredos, open up! It's me!" I yelled while I kicked the wall several times. Some shuffling could be heard at the other side, Ohredos who unlocked the passage. We had arranged that he would wait at the other side of the wall, because I didn't know the exact location of the secret door and I didn't want to enter the house through the front door, because that would be a little suspicious, for I was carrying a sleeping water mage on your shoulders.
After making the well-known click, the wall became unsolid and I could carry Juvia through. She muttered softly in her sleep: "Gray-sama..." Ohredos took her of my shoulders and to my bedroom, where he laid her on my bed. She frowned for a moment, as if we had interrupted her dream, but then she continued sleeping peacefully. "Gray-sama..." Ohredos watched me as I put a blanket on her and then we walked out of my room.
"Where there any problems on the way here?" he asked as soon as I closed the door so we wouldn't wake up Juvia. I wanted her to sleep in the peace of not knowing.
I sighed: "Not really. I did get attacked, but with the help of the lacrima I beat them rather quickly." He looked at me disbelievingly.
"Ilse, you are two hours later than expected. If you were able to beat them that fast, then why did it take you so long to get here?" I crossed my arms.
"Hey, I'm not that strong. I had to cross whole Magnolia to get here, with a full-grown person on my shoulders. You just aren't very fast when you need to carry someone who's unconscious." It wasn't the whole truth. Juvia was really heavy for me, but that wasn't the reason it took me so long to get here. But I was not planning on telling him what the actual reason was.
I remembered the battle, and the expression on Erza's face before I had knocked her unconscious. I struggled to keep my tears form gliding down my cheeks. You have to believe me when I say that it's not fun to betray your friends, especially when it's for their own good. Ohredos raised an eyebrow.
"You didn't use up all the guild's magic energy, did you? We can't get it back now." I didn't know why I felt offended by his words, but I did.
"No, I refilled it with energy from Erza." I snarled. I had just lost all of my friends, and he started about that stupid lacrima in my body. I pushed him aside and walked towards the kitchen, sniffing angrily.
Yara was making calculations, probably about how much magic energy was needed for changing the future, while she enjoyed a cup of tea. She looked up disturbed as I rushed into the kitchen, but smiled as soon as she saw it was me.
"Oh Ilse, you've returned. How did it go?" She asked the question as if I just came back from school instead of a kidnapping. I ignored her completely and walked to te sink to get a glass of water for Juvia. While I watched how the water poured into the glass, Yara rose from her chair and joined me at the sink. "Hey, I know just how you feel right now, trust me."
Shut up.
"I understand how difficult it is for you to betray your friends, even if you know you just had to do it."
Just. Shut. Up.
"You need to know that me and dad really sympathize with you and..."
I snapped.
"Shut up! Stop acting like you are my parents, 'cause you're not! Only because of the fact that you took me in, doesn't mean that you immediately can call yourselves my parents. I have parents of my own, and as soon as this is over I'm going to look for them too. I don't need your compassion. You two are the reason I'm in this fucking mess! So just shut up!"
I pushed her away from me and ran back to my room. I wished the house was bigger, so I could get farther away from them. I really didn't want to see or hear them right now. I wanted to run outside and let my friends comfort me as they used to do. But that wasn't the case anymore. I had betrayed those friends and there was no going back now.
We had rented a small house for a few days at the edge of Magnolia, so we wouldn't be discovered right away. It had two bedrooms, a bathroom and a kitchen of course. All joined together by one hallway. We couldn't stay here for sure. In fact, we had to leave within a few hours. Natsu could find us easily with that nose of his. Yara and Ohredos had chosen a new spot to create the ink demon and Ohredos had brought the sphere there with help of his stone soldiers. Our new hideout was a ruin in the forest that was once the home of a dark guild, which was now destroyed. (You could guess who was responsible for that)
I entered my bedroom, sat down next to the bed and placed the glass on the nightstand for when Juvia would wake up. I looked at her and almost screamed, because she was looking back at me.
"Juvia..." I whispered while tears appeared in my eyes. "I can explain. Really, I can..." I wanted to continue, but started to cry hysterically. Finally, the tears came out that I was holding back for so long. I didn't want Yara and Ohredos to see them, because I didn't want hem to think that I was weak and that I needed them. I maybe had needed them when I first woke up in Magnolia, but not anymore. I cried for a few minutes, while I whispered that I was sorry from time to time. I didn't know who it was directed to.
At long last, I came to myself again, and tried to talk: "I *hiccup* really didn't *hiccup* want to betray you. *hiccup* It's just because *hiccup* I... *hiccup, hiccup*" I couldn't speak and in the end I was the one who needed the glass of water.
"Juvia understands."
The glass almost fell out of my hands. "Juvia? You *hiccup* can talk?" I sniffed while I moved closer towards the bed.
"Juvia knows everything about the plan to stop Zeref's demon, they told her." she said. I was dumbfounded.
"How... How... But why didn't you tell the rest of the guild?" I asked, not having hiccups anymore. And why didn't Yara tell me that Juvia knew this? Juvia started telling what had happened to her:
"Juvia got kidnapped while she was still asleep, 'cause when she woke up she was in this weird room with miss Yara and mister Ohredos. She was scared, but miss Yara was really nice to Juvia and told her all about the ink demon." Juvia's fingers played with the blanket I had put on her. "First, Juvia didn't want to co-operate, but eventually she understood that it was necessary. And miss Yara is right about Fairy Tail. Juvia is certain that the other guild members will look for another way to beat the demon when they hear about it. Juvia thinks that she can trust miss Yara and mister Ohredos, since they had saved you. And even if it was a lie, Juvia doesn't know a single villain who would first offer to anesthetize you before they begin forming your body into the one of an ink demon. And if Juvia can help Gray-sama with this, she is happy.
A relieved smile formed on my face. So Juvia was okay with this. It felt like a huge burden was lifted from my shoulders. Even though a lot remained. "Did they also tell you that we can maybe bring you back after Zeref's demon is destroyed?' Juvia frowned.
"No they didn't tell Juvia that." Why the hell not? That would only convince her to help more right? Why let that important detail out? Then her eyes started to sparkle.
"But that's wonderful! Now Juvia can save Gray-sama and return to see how proud he is of her!" I snickered and rose to my feet to get another glass of water, so Juvia could have some too. She looked kind of thirsty. No wonder when you've been in a bath for weeks and suddenly got out. I felt a little guilty.
The door of the kitchen was closed, and I could hear Ohredos and Yara talk inside. I couldn't help myself from eavesdropping. Yara was talking:
"Ohredos, I studied the book that describes anima's again, and I noticed something interesting. It appears that a large number of small anima's went astray and sucked up all kinds of unwanted objects and sometimes persons from Earthland to Edolas, but also the other way around. Could it be that Ilse is from Edolas?" Ohredos replied:
"No, that's not possible. She has magic in her body, even without the lacrima, so she has to be from Earthland."
"But she didn't know anything about magic, and although she suffers from memory loss. When she was raised in Earthland, she would have known about magic. It's our nature. Every toddler in Earthland knows what magic is and..." There was a loud thump, Ohredos who slammed his fist onto the table? I noticed he did that a lot these past weeks. He spoke again:
"We're wasting our time thinking about her past or where she comes from. Soon, it won't be necessary anymore."
"Actually, where is she?" Yara's voice sounded.
"No idea, I'll go take a look."
Shit! On my toes, I ran back to the door of my bedroom, so that it looked like I just came out of it when Ohredos excited the kitchen. I smiled at him while I signed him to be quiet, as if Juvia was still asleep. He followed me back into the kitchen, so I could fill the glass again and we could talk out loud.
"Is everything alright Ilse?" Yara asked, looking worried. I tried to hide how dubious I was after eavesdropping their conversation, and acted like everything was just fine.
"Yeah, I'm sorry that I yelled at you guys, I think I couldn't control myself then. But I'm fine now." I showed them the glass. "I got a glass of water for Juvia, but I drank it myself, so I needed to refill it for her." Yara looked relieved, Ohredos was already occupied with something else: I fly trying to exit the kitchen through the glass in the window. I put my hand in my pocket to look nonchalant, but froze when I felt what was inside of it."I'm going to take the water back to Juvia. How long until we leave?" Ohredos looked at the clock above the cupboards.
"We'll leave within half an hour. Make sure you've packed all your stuff, I'm not in the mood to wait." He gave a piercing gaze at Yara. "Especially you, Yara. You always need to do countless of things in the last minute." Yara giggled. I had the urge to puke at this look-at-our-cute-cliche-family act, which they obviously only performed for me. If Yara would have done everything at the last moment, I would still be in Fairy Tail and Juvia would still be Juvia, without ink in her body.
Juvia! I made a fist around the object in my pocket and exited the kitchen.
"Hey Juvia, I'm back." I said while entering the room, and gave the water to her, which she drank greedy. Like Droy did with his food. I sat down at the end of the bed and waited til she was done. Juvia's eyes became really wide as I gave her what was inside my pocket all this time.
It was the miniature picture of Gray.
While she overloaded me with thank you's and pressed the picture against her heart I remembered what effort it had taken to get that thing for her.
Just before I had to kidnap Juvia, I went to Fairy hills to get that picture, which I really wanted to surprise her with. Everything went pretty smooth. I sneaked in without being seen, took the picture and just exited Juvia's apartment when I bumped into Erza.
"Ilse? What are you doing here?" she asked while she looked a little distrustful. I faked a smile.
"Oh, I just wanted to clean Juvia's apartment, because Poluchka wants that she recovers here. Probably because the guild is always really noisy." The lie slid off my tongue. Why didn't I just tell her that I came to get the picture? No, maybe she would want to come with me to deliver it to her, since she didn't trust me for 100%. And then my chance of kidnapping Juvia was gone. Erza looked over my shoulder, at the room behind me, which was a mess of course.
"You wanted to clean her apartment? Well, it didn't really help, did it?" she stated. I giggled nervously and responded:
"No, you're right. I was looking for cleaning tools like a vacuum cleaning lacrima to clean her house really thoroughly." Erza clapped her hands.
"Perfect! I'll help you, than we can clean it the best. We shall be the best cleaners in the world!" She requipped into a maids outfit. I recoiled a bit.
"Erza, no need to become so competitive. But let's get to work!" I had no choice anymore now. Me again, I lie for one time and I get this!
For the next two hours, Erza and I were working really hard to clean Juvia's apartment, which was really dusty. And to think that all this was just for that stupid photo. No, not stupid. Juvia was happy and that was worth it.
"Ilse-san, how come you know mister Ohredos and miss Yara?" Juvia asked, while she tried to sit up straight. I quickly took a pillow to support her back. She continued talking: "Juvia knows that they dropped you in that alley without any memory of them, so you could join Fairy Tail and collect magic energy. But you knew them before that too." She played with Gray's picture, but looked me in the eyes. I pulled up my legs and crossed them.
"Yes, that's right." I told her the whole story about how Yara and Ohredos had found me and how I had learned ink magic. Juvia looked thoughtful.
"It had to be difficult for you to have amnesia, and it must be nice when there are people who take care of you, Juvia understands that. But there's something about the way they act when you're close. Juvia can hear it in the way Yara and Ohredos talk to you. As if they are actors."
I shrugged. Auch, it still hurt a little. All movements with my pierced shoulder were fine, but shrugging? Grrr. "Maybe it's only because they want me to feel at ease when I'm with them, they are my foster parents after all."
What the hell? Was I defending them? They did act weird, look at the conversation I eavesdropped in the kitchen! "Maybe you're right Juvia, but they are right about Zeref's demon too. So I think we can trust them." I didn't want to quit the plan and let the demon destroy the city, only because Yara and Ohredos were acting a little strange.
Someone knocked on the door. "Ilse? We have to leave. Can you carry my book-suitcase? Ohredos can carry Juvia." Yara's voice sounded through the door. One way or another, I just didn't like the idea of Ohredos carrying Juvia, and judging by her expression, Juvia felt that way too.
"No, I'll carry Juvia myself, Ohredos is perfect for your books!" I yelled back while I sank down on my knees next to the bed, so Juvia could climb on my back. She felt a little better, because she could sit up straight without any problems now. It was a shame it wouldn't last long.
I rose from the ground and sighed in relief. Carrying someone on your back is way lighter than on your shoulders. I entered the hallway. Yara and Ohredos were already waiting for me. Yara had a bag that probably contained clothes, blankets and food, and Ohredos had this huge suitcase which contained all of the books Yara would need to research demons and time editing.
Ohredos said nothing and just walked outside, but Yara wanted to stroke my hair with her hand. Before she could do that, I leaned backwards, so she missed. She frowned for a moment, but remained silent and walked outside too. I joined her
It was a two hour walk to the hideout, and we were all silent during the journey. While walking I wondered how my (ex) friends from Fairy Tail were doing. Natsu and the others should have been found by now, so it probably wouldn't take long before they started searching for us. Yara had used an odor-eating lacrima so we couldn't be tracked by one of the dragon slayers in the guild, but I was still a little worried. Natsu nose is very skilled, and our new place wasn't that far from the city.
After a two and a half hour long walk we arrived at our hideout. It was a simple little building covered in moss and other creations of mother nature. Inside there were still some broken chairs and tables, and the sphere of course, which stood in the middle. Ohredos walked towards a bookcase he had created with his stone molding magic. I put Juvia in the one chair that wasn't broken and opened the bag Yara had brought with her to get a blanket. After I made a bed for her, she fell asleep again. She really trusted us. I walked towards Yara.
"So... What's the plan?" I asked while I helped her sort out her books.
"We have to make a few preparations. First we need to anesthetize Juvia, which will take 12 hours. The spell I'm using takes a lot of time to apply itself to the entire body. Then we have to place her gently inside the sphere, and prepare her body for the fusion with my soul." She stopped re-arranging her books and looked me in they eyes. "And then there is the worst part."
"What? What do we have to do?" I asked, on guard.
"We have to get the lacrima out of your body."
Well, crap.
Oof! That was a lot of information. Again. I'm sorry for the lack of action. Maybe there will be some in the next chapter, I'm not sure yet.
I have a question for you guys: should I start playing with Pov's? I would love to write a chapter on how the guild feels and thinks right now.
I think the next chapter would be great for a different pov. But I'd love to hear what you guys think!
Thanks for reading my fic! If you have anything on your mind, write a review. I don't mind bad critics at all (I don't mind good critics too XD)They help me out with my English. I really have the feeling I'm improving.
See ya!
-Ink