"And just who are we talking about?" came Erza's commanding voice. Sting grimaced as he turned to face the new arrivals.
"What is Sabertooth doing here?" Gray asked. He looked like he was debating whether a defensive posture was necessary. Juvia stood slightly behind the ice mage and curiously peered around him.
"Master Sting-san? Is Rogue-san here as well?" Juvia pondered when she spotted the mage who had Gray and Erza's feathers in a twist.
"Good day, Juvia," Rogue said, startling Erza who hadn't noticed the shadow mage standing just inside the doors. Jellal put a placating hand on Erza's shoulder before she had a chance to requip her sword. Erza turned quickly to face Rogue and saw Yukino standing quietly at his side.
"Hi Fairy-san," Frosch waved cheerfully, clearly unaware of the mood in the guild hall. The little cat in her pink frog suit was situated in Rogue's arms, but was now wiggling to get free. "Fro and Rogue-chan are here to find Lu-chan," the cat smiled happily up at the new arrivals.
"Lu-chan?" Erza repeated unsure of who the cat meant.
"Lucy. Who else would we bother coming here looking for," Sting replied annoyed. He didn't have time for this. They needed to be getting on the train and heading off to Clover for their job. "Rogue, Yukino, we should look around town. We've got to get going soon to get to the client's location on time. I'll leave a message with Ogra in case she shows at the guild. Let's go."
Sting was on his way to the door before he was stopped by Gray. "What do you want with Lucy?"
Sting was confused, didn't he know that it was Lucy's weeks at Sabertooth? "She was scheduled to leave on a job with us, but she didn't show."
It was Erza's turn to intervene, "I don't believe you. Lucy is a Fairy Tail mage, she has no reason to go on a job with the likes of you."
Fairy Tail feels so hostile today, Sting thought. This was his first time needing to pick Blondie up from her guild. Usually, if they were meeting in Magnolia before a job, they met at the train station like they were supposed to today. This was the first time Blondie hadn't shown. He had to follow a stale scent trail back to her apartment only to find that she hadn't been there for at least 24 hours (the girl really needed to lock her doors). While there was no fresh trail of Lucy's to follow, he stopped at the the Fairy Tail guild hall just in case. Now here he was finding the place a mess where Lucy was concerned. It seemed like no one had a good handle on the blonde mage, which was weird. He had personally seen times in the past where the entire guild would be riled up in defense of their celestial mage, but now it seemed like even those who were supposedly close to her were clueless as to what was going on in Blondie's life.
While Sting was lost in his thoughts, Lector answered Erza, "Lucy is a Saber! We go on jobs all the time. Don't you fairies know anything?"
Erza, who looked like she was about to attack the group of Sabertooth mages, took a step back. Again she was surprised. "Lucy would never leave Fairy Tail."
Sting turned back to the Master of the guild and glared, "This is ridiculous, Gramps. Get these idiots out of my way so we can look for our guildmate."
"How dare you!" It was Gray now. "Lucy would never leave Fairy Tail, this is her home. You need to leave! Without Lucy!" Gray was placing his fist in the palm of his opposite hand, a blue aura of frost forming where his hand connected.
"You can't have Lucy!" Erza growled.
Even with Jellal's reassuring presence, Erza could not be stopped from requiping into her Heaven's Wheel armor with ten swords circling around her. Jellal gave up being a reassuring presence and dodged out of the way. Juvia, too, decided that she would rather not get in the middle of the dispute, but wanted to stay by her Gray-sama's side. At war with herself she finally decided to just speak her mind.
"Juvia is wondering why Gray-sama and Erza-san are so angry?"
"What? Juvia, how can you not be angry. These bastards are here trying to take Lucy away."
Understanding dawned on Juvia's face, "Juvia thought Gray-sama knew!"
Gray refused to look away from Sabertooth's guild master. The aura of frost crusting slightly over his fingertips in his anger, "Knew what, Juvia?"
"Love rival is a duel-guild member with Fairy Tail and Sabertooth," Juvia stated blankly. She was curious how Gray and Erza could have missed this fact. After all, her love rival spent half of every month at her second guild. Juvia had been so happy when she discovered the blonde mage would be that much more out of the picture that perhaps she had overlooked telling her beloved the news. But that didn't explain Erza not knowing.
Gray's anger turned on Juvia, "You knew? You never said anything to me? When?"
Juvia shrunk back. She hated seeing her Gray-sama angry, especially when that anger was directed at her. Juvia poked her pointer fingers together sheepishly in front of her as she answered, "Since she tried to run away from the guild."
The words hung in the air between the Fairy Tail mages. There was a loud clang as Erza's swords fell to the ground around her and she gasped softly. It was a sound of pain. Her requip faded away, as did her swords. Gray's hands fell to his sides and he looked down at his feet as his brain tried to comprehend what Juvia was saying. The words spoken by Juvia seemed to echo off the walls of the guild as the groups of mages sitting around at their tables slowly fell silent.
"Now that's settled," Sting's voice rang out clearly in the quiet. "While we'd loved to stay and chat, we have a job to get to." He signaled to Rogue and Yukino to follow him out. The three mages and two exceeds were not met with any resistance as they exited the guild.
Once outside, Sting took a deep breath, "Well that was weird."
"I know what you mean," Yukino agreed. "It was like no one there has any idea what is going on anymore."
"I found it strange that Master Makarov did not attempt to intervene. He stayed quiet."
"Maybe that old geezer has finally lost his mind," Sting commented. He wanted to sneer and yell at the members of Fairy Tail. No wonder Lucy had sought him out. Everyone there was clueless. Nakama his ass. "Rogue, let's see if we can pick up any of Blondies trail before the next train leaves for Clover. I'll call Ogra."
The twin slayers canvas the town taking different directions. Yukino walked to the train station with the exceeds to purchase tickets for the next train to clover. The boys would have about an hour and a half to sniff out Lucy if she was in Magnolia. Yukino couldn't help but be worried. She knew from experience that Lucy could take care of herself. Not only had the celestial mage mastered Star Dress, but she had significantly improved her combat skills while training with various members of Sabertooth and her spirits. Unless Lucy found herself up against some great evil, Yukino had no doubts that her friend would be fine.
Yukino sat on one of the benches near the platform where the train was scheduled to arrive. Lector sat next her her with his arms crossed and a grumpy look on his face. He was probably annoyed that he hadn't gone with Sting. Frosch say on Yukino's lap, staring happily at her surroundings without a care in the world. It was then that her communications lacrima started chiming, indicating an incoming call. Maybe it was Ogra with news of Lucy.
Yukino dug her lacrima out of her bag, pushed a bit of magic into the object to answer the call, and then nearly dropped it as Lucy's face appeared in front of her.
"Hi Yukino!"
"Lucy! Where are you? Sting and Rogue are canvassing all of magnolia looking for you!"
Lucy's face showed surprise, "I'm sorry Yukino! I honestly didn't think you guys would wait this long for me!"
Yukino rolled her eyes. Lucy had been like this a lot. It was hard on the members of Sabertooth who wanted nothing more than to get close to their new celestial mage, but Lucy was set on this twisted logic. Yukino was one of the few Lucy had accepted as a semi-friend, it seemed. The rest of the guild was kept at arm's length. They had all tried and discussed the behavior and after what happened at the Fairy Tail guild hall today, Yukino was sure something big and really bad had happened between Lucy and her team.
"Of course we would wait for you, we were going as a team, Lucy. You didn't answer my question, where are you?"
Lucy's face disappeared for a second, the screen of the lacrima showing a bedroom Yukino did not recognize. For a split second Yukino wondered if Lucy had gotten a boyfriend, but the thought was dismissed as soon as Lucy's face came back in view. "I can't tell where I am."
"What do you mean? Are you in trouble?" Yukino worried her bottom lip with her teeth.
"I mean to say I am not sure where I am and looking outside the window didn't help pinpoint a location. I can't talk long. I just wanted to tell you that I was sorry for missing the train."
"Are you okay? Do you need us to come find you?"
Lucy seemed to think about her answer before she finally sighed and said, "I'm fine Yukino. I am not in any danger. I will meet you guys at Sabertooth as soon as I can, okay?"
In the background of the lacrima screen, Yukino could see a door start to open. A voice that Yukino couldn't place said, "Who are you talking to Lucy? I came to tell you Lunch is ready."
The silhouette of a smaller person with long flowing hair could be seen, but no other details as the light from behind the door was too bright, making it seem like the voice was coming from a mere shadow. Lucy turned to look behind her and Yukino could barely hear her friend curse before she answered, "I'll be right down."
"Did you find my communications lacrima," the voiced asked. The silhouette moved into the room Lucy was in. Before Yukino could see anything else, Lucy ended the call. Yukino stood rather abruptly from the bench. "Lucy!" she called trying to push her magic back into the device to call her friend. Nothing happened. Poor Frosch had been dropped to the ground in Yukino's distress. Lector was comforting the small frog-cat as she cried from the fall.
"Way to go Yukino! Now Rogue is going to be mad because you made Fro cry."
"But that was Lucy!"
"I know, I heard," Lector answered. "She said she was fine didn't she. You didn't need to eject Fro from your lap like that."
Yukino huffed in annoyance at the arrogant cat. He was so much like his best friend that it was almost creepy. Resigned, Yukino pushed her magic into her lacrima, this time concentrating on Rogue. He picked up on the other end rather quickly, "Yukino."
"Lucy just called on my communications lacrima. She isn't in Magnolia that she knows of, but she's okay." Yukino paused shortly before adding, "I think she is being held somewhere? But she claimed she wasn't in any trouble."
"Held somewhere? I'll find Sting and we'll talk when we're all together." Rogue was so no nonsense, it was refreshing some times. He ended the call before Yukino could respond. She was used to this, however, and didn't find it insulting.
The only thing to do now was to sit and wait for the rest of her team. Yukino swept the sniffling Frosch up into her arms, snuggling up to the little cat and whispering apologies before reclaiming her seat on the bench. Lector hopped up and joined her.
"It doesn't matter if Lu-chan is being held somewhere," Lector stated. "I don't even know why you brought it up. She said she was fine."
"Uurrgh, Lector!" Yukino couldn't help but be frustrated at the orange cat. "She was just saying that!"
"What do you mean?"
Yukino was exasperated, but remembered that Lector was too self absorbed (much like Sting) to probably have noticed. "Lucy doesn't believe we like her. She would rather push us away and tell us lies than believe for even a minute that we care enough to help her."
"Lu-chan isn't like that at all!" Lector replied. "She tells Fro and I everything."
Yukino eyed the orange cat. What exactly had Lucy told him and Frosch that she hadn't told the rest of them? She didn't get a chance to follow that line of thought because Rogue and Sting suddenly stood panting in front of her.
"Blondie's been taken? Explain!" Sting demanded.
