Chapter 7: Rebirth of Grimoire Heart

Laxus stood outside by the gates of the McGarden household wearing the deepest scowl on his face. The side of his right cheek bone was swelling and bruising from being thrown on the ground. His father walked up to him with the same expression as his son.

"What the hell happened to you?!" he growled.

"The party was a bust" he scoffed. "He's hiding her now and that damn butler of his is an ex-member of Grimoire. He was on to us."

"Impossible! Didn't the Council send troops to execute of all Grimoire Heart members 27 years ago?"

Laxus shrugged, "Dunno, I wasn't born yet. All I know is that it's a dead clan. He said there only 3 survivors left including him."

"Anyone else that knows about us?"

"It's safe to say the entire household is on to us."

"God dammit!" Ivan paced back and forth furiously thinking of a plan to keep themselves anonymous.

"Give me names, son, any one that knows about us is now a target."

"Tch" he huffed, "wouldn't do you any good old man, all the servants are using an alias, specifically zodiac signs. But if you want names the closest to a real name is Lucy. Otherwise you'll just have to make the other old geezer talk then."

"Fine! We'll search the house!" he snapped, "search for anything- papers, pictures, personal belongings anything that gives them their identity. We need to know these people and hunt them down!"

"You were in over your head old man. You slipped up, I'm not about to clean up your mess!"

"Shut up and do what I say!"

Ivan led six more men in the yard and marched their way into the mansion.

Capricorn fixed his master's tie one last time and dusting off any debris that stuck to his suit. He still sat on his chair in the same spot of the room. On his lap laid a handgun and a picture of his wife and daughter holding it to his side.

"27 years ago Capricorn, you tried to kill me but you couldn't because of that pink haired maid. You love her don't you?"

He didn't answer. He stood up and grabbed the gun from his lap.

"If I had killed you" he sighed, "I wouldn't have met the mistress as well."

"It's Levy. You no longer have to be so formal around her, she considers you all as her friend."

Capricorn lifted the pin and cocked the gun, "I know. I will find her and protect her. Till the end." He pointed the gun to his head.

"Keep the will safe, burn the house, leave nothing for them to find! I'm sure you know already why I am asking you to do all this."

"mm" he grunted and took a deep breath, "I guess I'm finishing what I started after all."

There was a long pause. Capricorn finally pulled the trigger. The body sat limp, the chair bleed. He wasted no time and set the house on fire, turning on every gas that can be leaked, and burning whatever was flammable. There was a slam against the door and another slam against the windows. He hurried to burn on the second floor, burning Levy's room and her father's office, he left the room open to let the gas in and smashing any alcohol in sight against the walls to feed the flame. Ivan and his men finally broke in.

"What the fuck!" he yelled, "Men stop the flames!"

He looked at the body that sat in the middle of the room, "Fucking coward."

Capricorn didn't stop and heard footstep coming to his way. He had 4 bullets left. He shot the first man that turned to him and second that came afterwards. He made his way to the library and locked the doors and started setting the books on fire.

"You have to be extremely desperate to try and stop this fire."

He made his way into the balcony and saw the hook lines still attached.

"Rookie mistake Gajeel, but this is fortunate for me so I'll let it slide."

The door burst open, "Stop it right th-." The man took a bullet to the head and the gas leaked inside the library spreading the flames.

He took of his tail coat and wringed it to make it thicker and used it to zip down the line. He landed safely outside, his coat ruined, and used his last bullet to break the line and throwing it from a different direction and disappeared into the woods.

"The fire is spreading too fast! Damn you McGarden!" Ivan yelled. He punched the lifeless body to ground over and over, releasing his anger on the corpse. Laxus grabbed his arm and pulled him up breaking him free from his rage.

"What the fuck are you doing?! We can't stay here!" he yelled.

Ivan and his men gave up taking their cars and road off away from the burning mansion.

Lucy and the other eleven stood in front a rusted broken down warehouse. They were in the outskirts of Magnolia, the air was moist and it was foggy mixed with pollution. She gave a slight cough knowing that it's been a while that she has been to the outside.

"This is Capricorn's house? Did he write the address wrong?"

"Well why don't we check inside" Virgo said.

Lucy held the key in her hand and pushed it in the lock, but it creaked open.

"Huh? The door is already unlocked?"

They went inside, the ware house was littered with thrash and scrap metal, parts of the ceiling broke apart. It smelled of rust and mold. They explored around the warehouse to see what they can find. There was another door on the second floor that led to a larger office compartment. The door was locked. Lucy used the key and gave the door a strong push. It was a dark office she barely make the outline of the room from the dim light.

"Hey guys! I found something!" Taurus yelled, "It's a power a generator. I smell gas on it!"

"Check to see if it still works"

To their surprise the generator roared and powered up the warehouse. The lights turned on except for a couple of light bulbs and the office lights lit up.

"So this is his room? It's dusty" Lucy sighed, "let's see what's in his closet"

She opened the close and dust flew on her face. She waved them off and found blankets and mattresses.

"It's not much but it will do, just going to have to shake of the dusts in these blankets."

She spotted a picture on the closet with a younger Capricorn on it. She went downstairs to tell everyone.

"Hey guys look, it's Capricorn when he was really young!"

They all looked at the picture amazed to see the younger version of him.

"Wow, I thought his white hair was from aging, but in the picture he also has white hair. I didn't know that was natural hair color! He's built and handsome too" Libra said

Virgo smiled, "He still is, he really likes suits. What's that on his back?"

"Grimoire Heart?" Lucy looked confused, "isn't that a mercenary clan from way back then?"

Virgo sighed, "well, if he was, he sure used those skills to become a good butler. Plus, that would explain his behavior a lot too."

"Did you find anything else?" Leo asked.

"Yes, I found blankets and mattresses for us to sleep on, their a bit dusty but we can shake them off and it's better than nothing."

"This whole place is dirty!" Aquarius complained.

"Well let's clean this place up a bit!"

"Can I be the one to clean Capricorn's room?" Virgo asked

"Of course you can! We will stay down here and fix this place up when he comes back!"

They all nodded in agreement and started to clean and picking up debris throwing them in a pile outside. They sweeped and they lifted the place as clean as they to make it more like home. It was almost dawn. They took a break, sitting on the mattress they dusted off. Capricorn came in ragged and worn. He stood still in surprise to see his warehouse cleaned.

"Welcome home!" they greeted.

"So what happened?" Lucy asked

Capricorn's expression became depressed and sat closer to them as he told them about the tragedy that happened and the order he was given to do. Everyone grieved at his sad news some faces had tears and others had anger. There was a long silent. Lucy decided the subject.

"So how come you didn't tell us you were a once member of a mercenary clan."

"It wouldn't have a made difference if I did. But now that you all know about my past, I guess that saves a lot of explaining for whatever I have in mind."

"What do you mean?" she asked.

"Well we are on our own now." He sighed, "we can no longer rely on the safety of a mansion. So I thought about it as I was making my way here and I thought that I'd take the responsibility of teaching you all what I learned in Grimoire Heart."

"I'm sorry," Aries interrupted, "you want us to become mercenaries?"

"We're not going to be murdering people unless it's for defense, if that's what you are worried about. But in this world, it is now the survival of fittest. A lot has changed since some of us moved in to the mansion, some longer than the others. But this is the safest way I can think of to keep us going."

Everyone stared at each other for while talking to each other as Capricorn waited for what they wanted to say next. One by one they slowly agreed to his plan to be trained as mercenaries and they made him their new leader. On this night Grimoire Heart had been reborn.

"Let's get some rest." He stated and made his way to his room.

When he entered the room, it was clean and free of dust. He looked around the room looking like as if he never left. He spotted Virgo hiding behind his door.

"Welcome home!" she smiled.

"Thank you Virgo. You always look out for me."

"Mm" she hummed. "I heard everything from up here and I wanted let you know that what you did was very brave of you. As much as it saddens me, you're right about us having to move forward, so I too will also join as part of Grimoire Heart!"

"I am glad to hear that" he smiled.

"Well I should leave you to rest. Good nigh-."

Capricorn stopped her from leaving and closed his door. He stood closely to her and pulled her in a deep kiss. He wrapped his arms around his waist tightly as she wrapped her arms around his neck deepening the kiss. Capricorn pulled away and gently stroke her face.

"27 years. And I just wanted to say I love you. I thought you should know."

She smirked, "You had me waiting a long time, that can't go unpunished."

She pulled him in to another kiss and fell back against the bed. Enjoying 27 years' worth of tension; making love to each other on his bed until they drifted into a deep sleep in each other's arms.

*I won't be focusing too much fluff and smut details on the other characters relationship with each other, they will be mostly reserved for our two main characters. Hope you all enjoyed the small romance between Capricorn and Virgo!*