Woohoo! Done, just one day before my normal update day! It is actually only fair, since I was really late last time. Writing was getting tougher while writing this chapter, since I was starting to doubt my own plot. But I know how it's going to fold out now, just wait and see. Mwuhahahahaha!

Enjoy reading!

-Ink

"Wait!" I pushed Ohredos' hand away again. "Am I going to notice anything of it? And how long will it take? And you'll be careful right? And do I nee..."

"Ilse!" Yara interrupted me, looking a little annoyed as she turned a page of her manual. But she looked me straight in the eyes. "Everything's going to be fine. You're not going to notice a thing. Just go to sleep."

"Okay... Alright." I lay back down on the table and finally accepted the anesthesia Ohredos had tried to give me after I had stopped him three times. While looking the other way, I felt how the syringe sank into my arm, and felt it going numb almost immediately. I closed my eyes and let the sleepiness consume me.

My mission was very simple: go to Fairy Tail, become a member and walk around for some time to let the lacrima absorb the magic energy of the guild. And to (re-)kidnap Juvia of course. But they didn't say that an operation was involved. That was that one little detail they forgot to mention to me right? Oh well, if the only thing I had to do was to sleep, then it didn't really matter right? But the idea of an operation was just so scary.

The operation first wasn't necessary, but Ohredos discovered that the lacrima had grown a little and could become a health hazard for me, so they had to remove it. Ohredos had told me that the removal would leave a large scar across my back, which I didn't really care about, as long as my shirt covered it. I had borrowed Lucy's clothes from time to time, but now I was back to wearing my usual orange outfit that suited me best.

I didn't notice anything of the operation in my unconscious state, but I did dream... I was back in my bedroom again, with the book in my hand. While studying the outside of the book, I wondered if I would have a vision again if I opened it. But I didn't really feel like opening it this time, since I knew everything I needed to know right now. Suddenly, my body started moving by itself. Oh, it's this kind of a dream. How annoying. I watched as my body walked out of my room, downstairs and into the kitchen. It opened the fridge and took out the yogurt, took a bowl from the cupboard and filled it with the food. It was just an everyday dream, but it turned into a nightmare: While I took a spoon from one of the drawers, someone behind me took a knife from it... and stabbed me.

It's weird that, when you get stabbed, you only feel the pain if you realize you got hurt. First there is confusion, then the realization, and then the intense pain that makes you collapse. I held one hand onto the wound in my gut, and used the other to try to get up and flee from my attacker, but I was far too weak. Not that it mattered much, since the person was long gone, and I was left alone to bleed to death. While my vision blurred and I slowly started losing my consciousness, I saw someone running into the kitchen, screaming my name. I first thought that it was my attacker, but this... woman didn't attack me at all. Instead, she pulled me onto her lap and stroked my hair with her hand. Her tears fell from her cheeks on my forehead as she was whispering things I couldn't understand. Though I could hear one thing:

"Please don't leave me alone, Ilse. Please don't leave me alone. Pl..se d..'t ...ve me .lo.. ... ..."

"Gah!" I shrieked, as I jolted awake. Yara who was reading a book next to my bed, looked up and walked towards me. For a moment, we looked at each other, and then I started crying. I hugged my legs and let all my anger, fear and confusion flow as I yelled and coughed and made all those noises one makes when crying. After a few minutes, I felt Yara sitting next to me on the table and hugging me. This was the first time I let her. When she tried to hug me, I would always push her away, not wanting to look weak. But right now it felt good to have someone to comfort me. We kept sitting like this for at least ten minutes, until I only sniffed every once in a while. When I was silent, Yara broke the hug.

"Are you okay now?" Her voice was so soothing, it almost made me cry again, but I was able to contain my tears.

"Y-yes, I think I am. Thanks." I whispered. "I was having a bad dream, that's all." She smiled kindly at me, which made me want to snuggle into her shoulder more. While leaning against her shoulder, I felt how she stroke my hair, like the woman in my dream did. This was the first time I let her comfort me, let her whisper soothing words to calm me down. And I felt... protected. There was no other way to put it.

"You want to talk about it? It helps you know." I hesitated for a moment, and then nodded. I told Yara how the dream started and how I got stabbed. I told her how scared I was, and how weird it was to hear a stranger tell you not to leave her alone. When I was done talking, Yara looked thoughtful.

"What's wrong?" I asked her, while I got up from the table. She stirred when I interrupted her thoughts.

"Nothing, I was just wondering if the stabbing has something to do with the operation."

"Why?"

"Lift you shirt, Ilse."

I did as she asked, and swallowed when I saw the huge scar on my belly. "I thought I would get a scar on my back." I said, almost emotionless. Why was the scar there?

"We first wanted to remove the lacrima from your back, but somehow it didn't work, so we had to do it through your belly. Maybe that's why you dreamed you got stabbed there." She said, while patting my shoulder.

"Well, at least my shirt covers it, so no need to be sad or angry about it." I said, being a little happier for some reason. Maybe because I knew why I had dreamed so awfully. I tucked my shirt down and walked away from the operation table, to where Juvia was. By the looks on her face, she was having a serious conversation with Ohredos. When they saw I was awake again, they stopped talking. I sat down next to Juvia. "Hey Juvia, how are you feeling?"

"Juvia is feeling fine, maybe a bit drowsy. Mister Ohredos has told Juvia that she will be entirely numbed within two hours, when the spell fully works, so she and mister Ohredos were going through the plans one last time." She replied, smiling bravely. But it was clear that she was feeling very tired already. Not wanting to make her use up all of her energy, I pushed her down into lying position. She yawned, and looked at me with those big blue eyes of hers, who always reminded me of a lake. "Juvia thinks that it wont take two hours before she is sleeping, she's simply too tired." I giggled.

"It's okay Juvia, go to sleep. By the time you wake up, everything will be fine again." She was immediately gone. I readjusted her blanket and leaned against the wall of the building, my legs crossed, to keep watch over her. It was horrible to even think that she had to go through so much for the saving of Magnolia. Ohredos rose to his feet and walked off to Yara, probably to discuss the project. While listening to his footsteps, I ran my finger through Juvia's blue hair, still wondering how she got this extraordinary hair color. Well, when you wonder about her hair color, you can also wonder about Natsu's, Wendy's, and Levy's of course...

Some time later, Ohredos came walking back and gestured me to get up and come with him. I followed him to the sphere, where Yara was already standing, preparing it for Juvia. The ball was blue, with dark ink clouds floating around in it. Yara was standing behind it, reading a book and mumbling to herself. She was probably practicing the spell she had to recite for preparing Juvia's body. When she saw me, she walked around the sphere and gave me a quick hug, which I happily answered. Ohredos rose an eyebrow at the sudden change of chemistry between us, but said nothing. "So, what's next? I asked, almost happily. Which made me really ashamed. How could I be happy when Juvia had to go into this... thing again.

"Well, I thought it would be nice to have dinner before we begin with the preparations." Yara replied, putting her book away. "Juvia can still be woken, and it will be good if she eats something before... errr..." She scratched the back of her neck. "Before we begin."

I looked around. "I know we have food, but wouldn't it be nice if we made a real dish by cooking the food?" Pausing for a moment, I then added. "I think we owe Juvia at least a good meal." Ohredos grunted.

"Okay, but you will be the cook." He started dividing the tasks. "Yara, why don't you get the firewood? I'll collect some water and herbs." Wait, since when does he know stuff about edible plants? Well, he has a lot of dirt on his cape and trousers. Maybe he likes gardening after all. "Ilse, while we're gone, why don't you try to wake up the water mage?"

"Sure." We split up, each with our own things to do. While walking back to my blue haired friend, I thought about the way Ohredos reacted on my and Yara's hug. Wasn't he my foster parent? Shouldn't he find it only normal that me and my 'mother' were hugging? Shouldn't he be happy that I finally had accepted her? There was something fishy about that... Juvia!

She was heaving a nightmare, it was clearly visible on her face. Frowning, sweating and clutching her blanket, she looked like she was going though hell. "Juvia? Hey... wake up." I tried, shaking her shoulder lightly. It didn't help: instead, tears started to run down her cheeks. "Juvia, come on! Wake up!." I now loudly said. She started biting her lip. "Juvia!"

"Aaaaaaaah!" She screamed, instantly stretching her arms and giving me a punch in the face. Her fear quickly turned into confusion, and then back to fear, which meant she started hyperventilating.

"Shhh, shhh, shhh ,shhh Juvia. It's not real. It was just a dream." I whispered, trying to calm her down. It took a few deep breaths before she was a little calmer, whereupon she started crying again, letting out loud sobs. I hesitated for a second, but then pulled her into a tight hug, letting her cry onto my shoulder and patting her on the back. Eventually, she calmed down to the point where she could speak.

"Juv... Juvia is sorry for being such a crybaby... she just dreamed so..." She almost burst out in tears again when she tried to describe her dream.

"Hey, Juvia? Just take a deep breath okay? I know it's hard to talk about a bad dream, but it really helps when you talk about it." She nodded and took my advice to breathe, but when she tried to speak again, her voice faltered.

"Juvia just can't say what she saw. Maybe she'll tell you later." she sniffed.

"Okay, but don't wait too long, otherwise the bad feelings will bottle up inside of you." I told her, stroking her hair like Yara did when I woke up. Yara... Bad dream... Maybe it's time for me to take my own advice. "Hey Juvia? How about I start with telling you my bad dream during the operation?" While wiping her nose, she nodded.

"Okay, so I was in this house, and I went down to eat yogurt when I..." I stopped and looked at her. "Hey, what's so funny? It was a real nightmare!" I pouted while she was chuckling at how boring the first part of dream sounded. But her expression soon changed when I told her how I got stabbed and how the strange woman had tried to comfort me while I was loosing consciousness. When I was done, she took my hands and gave them an encouraging squeeze.

"That must've been horrible for you, Ilse. Juvia feels really sorry for you." I shrugged.

"It actually feels much better now that I've told someone about it." I whispered. Juvia withdrew her hands and made them into fists.

"Juvia thinks she's able to tell you what she saw in her dream." A small tear appeared in her right eye, but she bravely wiped it away. "J-Juvia was in the cave under the church, but instead of in the sphere, she stood next to it and in the sphere was Gray-sama and Juvia had to watch him being hurt and she couldn't do anything and she could only scream his name and he couldn't even hear her and..." She was speaking faster and faster, and in the end she started hyperventilating again.

"Juvia, calm down, okay? It's over now. Everything is fine. Gray is fine, and you're going to be fine too. Just, take it slow." I hold her shoulder and shook her lightly to get her back to reality, out of her imaginations of her beloved being hurt.

"Aaah-fuuuuuu Aaaah-fuuuu" She wheezed.

"Juvia! Come on! Calm down!" I started to panic a little. I couldn't get her to breathe normally. Suddenly, a thought popped up in my head. A plastic bag, I need a plastic bag. "Ohredos! A plastic bag! I need a plastic bag!" He was just coming back from getting his herbs.

"What the hell is plastic!?" he shouted back as he came running towards us.

"Or a paper bag, whatever! Anything where she can breathe into." I ran towards where Yara had stored our food. Luckily, Yara had bought some apples on the market, which were stored inside a perfect paper bag. I shook out the apples and ran back to Juvia, putting it over her nose and mouth.

"Aaaah-fuuuu Aaaaah-fuuuu" The bag expanded and deflated. "Aaah-fuuuu Aaah-fuuuu.. Aaaaaah-fuuuuuu..." Finally, her breathing was going slower, and I could remove my new best friend: mister The Paper Apple Bag. Thank god Yara had been a genius to buy apples.

"Juvia, are you all right?" I softly asked, patting her back.

"Yes, thank you." she whispered. Ohredos looked at me with wide eyes.

"How did you know what to do?" he asked, dumbfounded. I giggled out of nervousness.

"No idea... I just did." I hold up the bag. "Would you be so kind to put the apples back?" He nodded and walked away with the bag in his hands. When he was gone, I turned my attention back to the water mage, who was softly sobbing.

"Juvia, I'm so sorry for making you talk about it. Please forgive me." I took one of her fists and started to massage it until she relaxed a little.

"Juvia forgives you. You couldn't know that this would happen, even Juvia didn't know herself." She whispered. I gave her a small hug, and just kept sitting next to her and massaging her hands, waiting for Yara to return with the firewood, so I could make supper to cheer everyone up again.

.

.

.

Yara didn't return. It was already dark, and Ohredos had gone out himself to get firewood, so we could at least make a little fire to keep warm. I had given Juvia some apples, since she had to eat something before the anesthesia had numbed her completely. Now she was fast asleep, hopefully without having bad dreams. While sitting next to fire and poking in it with a stick, me and Ohredos discussed what to do. We had to search for Yara, but we couldn't leave Juvia. And Ohredos didn't wan't me to guard her alone, since there was always a slight chance of being discovered. Hours went by, where I was having a déjà vu of the time in the guild, when all the search parties took so long to look for Juvia. Only this time, I didn't wan't to sleep to kill time. This time, there were no search parties to wait for to report, but we had to wait for the person herself, not being able to do anything.

What could've happened that she isn't here yet? It could be that she got discovered by Fairy Tail somehow, and that she's now back in Magnolia, being questioned. It could also be that she's lost and that she...

Loud groaning could be heard from the bushes. Ohredos jumped up and summoned a stone soldier. With the puppet beside him, he walked towards the bushes to find out what was making that horrible sound. Only to find... Yara.

"Yara, what the hell happened!" he shouted as he dragged a very badly wounded woman to the fire. I gasped: She had a huge wound in her side, probably made by the claw of some animal. Ohredos immediately started bandaging her side, while I hold her hand.

"G-got attacked by wolves. Was surprised. Reacted *Urgh!* too slow." She groaned while Ohredos lifted her for a moment so he could look at the damage done to her back. When she was patched up, he made a bed for her next to the fire and sat down beside her.

"Yara, what now? You can't merge with the water mage like this. Heck, you can't even recite the spell!" he said while holding his head.

"No, I can't. Oh, why now of all times!" She whispered while she started chewing on the inside of her mouth, which she always did when she was nervous or stressed.

We were all quiet for a while. All lost in our own thoughts. When the silence was broken, it was me who said:

"Errr, maybe I can take over your task?"

Okay, a few notes on future update delays:

I'm going to have a few issues with internet connection from coming Sunday till somewhere around Wednesday, so writing will go very slow then. I kind of get all my inspiration from the marvelous internet. XD

I'll try and get as much as possible done coming days, but the writing goes best at the end of the deadline (Friday) so sorry if the next chapter will be later then usual. No worries though! Now I know how I'm going to continue the story, I believe that the writing will go smoother again.

Thanks Child At Heart Forever for helping me out with the plot!

Question (Just because I'm interested): What kind of magic would you guys like to have?
Again, I would totally love to have Ilse's magic. XD

See ya!

-Ink