Juvia still despised the rain, but pinned and injured the first patter of cold water on her cheek was the most wonderful feeling in the whole world. Just a light shower. Barely enough to darken the pavement around her, not enough to wash away the terrible stain of blood, but enough for her. Enough.
When it lunged to sink its teeth into her, instead of flesh it met nothing but wet pavement, the woman underneath him dissolving. It pulled back confused. It's one good eye blinking stupidly. Uncertain as to just what had actually happened. A pool of water where a woman had been just a moment before.
While her disappearance still had the Dragon Slayer stumped, Juvia's physical form surged back into being knee driving up and striking it hard between the legs. The Dragon Slayer pulled back, rolling to the side and off of her with a breathless, choking cough; face a mix of shock and sweet, sweet agony. She glanced up at the sky she'd inadvertently darkened, her face wet. It was her rain. Spending most of your life trying to get away from it and it turns out to be the one thing to saves it.
Juvia had forgotten that despite how much she'd grown to hate it, it was powerful. The rain made her powerful.
Juvia climbed to her knees and then to her shaky feet, moving backwards, and putting some distance between them. She glared at it, pressing her hand to her side. The blood flow had stemmed significantly since the rains had begun, lending her new strength, but she wasn't strong enough to go hand to hand with it again. She needed alternatives.
"Juvia is the rain. You can't hurt the rain," Saying it out loud steadied her. Helped her believe it. But the creature wasn't listening anymore. A single yellow eye narrowed on her. It's breathing ragged. She could still smell it, the stink on its breath, even at the current distance.
Juvia didn't have the power to keep throwing spells at it in the hopes that they'd be effective. She knew that a victory here required an angle. She noted its eye. Taken by the detective with her pistol and an idea formed. Thinking hard she focused a condensed astream of water into a fine, pressurised point, firing it at speed like a bullet. It hit with a refined force and she heard the most satisfying yelp. The sound made her smile.
Energized by success she made it back a few more feet, hitting the Dragon Slayer again and again with her pressurised streams of water, the attacks cutting through his still forming stone scales. Juvia grinned like a demon when it finally staggered back, crying out as one of her strikes hit his face, just under the wound left from his lost eye ripping open the cheek.
"Drip... Drop," She struck one more time and she must have hit the same spot twice because it passed clean through an armoured shoulder, hitting the wall behind and breaking brick.
It screamed, clutching it's arm before roaring at her, racing for her, but the distance she'd been cultivating gave her the time to think and respond, and it collided with her only to pass clean through, stumbling, sopping and soggy to the road.
Juvia laughed and the harsh barking sound seemed to resonate with what was left of the Dragon Slayers conscious mind. Juvia gathered herself, seeing something more than madness in the man's face as he turned to her. She paused in her assault; despite her history, Juvia was far from heartless.
"Do you have a name?" She asked, if there was ever a point to get an answer, it was now.
The question took it aback, her words sinking in. It finally registered the water mage, registered itself, glancing down at bloody clawed hands with a distant horror. A momentary realisation of all that he'd done. Of what he was becoming.
"God's... so much blood..." His hands shook violently, thoughts careening from one train to another. Too many emotions to fully process trying to express themselves on his stony face.
"I keep... she's gone... Do you know where she is? Have you seen my wife? " He finally said to Juvia, but she shook her head dumbly. "I see her.. but she keeps disappearing... Over and over again," The Dragon Slayer doubled with a pain that had nothing to do with it's injuries and she watched with mild horror as diseased stone scales spread just that little bit further, growing over and into the wounds her attacks had left in his body.
His ruined face was now almost completely covered; the gaping holes in his flesh immortalised in stone. He raked his cheeks with those bloody claws, practically shaking like a leaf. When he looked at her again, his face had changed once more and Juvia saw the barely restrained rage filling it now. The madness returning. He smashed his closed fists down onto the cobbles. "THEY TOOK HER FROM ME!" He roared.
But Juvia was no longer in his sights, and he'd regained enough of his senses to realise she was not who he'd been looking for, and she was certainly not easy prey. He took a step backward, and another, before turning toward the nearest surface of polished granite and vanishing, leaving Juvia where she stood. A bloodied, beaten mess.
The rains replenished some of what she'd lost and she felt her veins practically burn from the magic in them now, her heart beat speeding up, intense waves of pain washing over her, enough to make her forget about her broken hand. But the black spots in her vision had cleared, leaving only exhaustion to torment her. Hastily she ripped material from her skirt and tied it tightly around her waist. Though weak, she knew she was going to live.
As Juvia felt the panic and adrenaline fade, she slunk to her knees, her form coming apart, gravity taking her liquid self to the water drainage system, carrying her away from the area. She was in no fit state to walk and wasn't willing to risk the chance that it might come back for her. Though, hopefully she'd wounded it enough to keep it off the streets for a time.
It wasn't lost on her that she'd left a lot of blood back on that footpath but out of everyone to find themselves in the Dragon Slayer's sights, she'd faced the demon and lived. Juvia laughed to herself as she considered how long she'd rub that in Gajeel's face for.
Victory, such as it was, was the sweet, giddiness inducing thought that lulled her to the borders of consciousness. When Juvia finally came to her senses, blinding sunlight was scorching her eyes and there was water lapping at her feet. The river.
She dragged herself onto her knees with a groan, pebbles digging in, the wound in her side tender and stinging something rotten, she honestly felt like someone hit her with a train, but it wasn't the worst. Not by far.
Sbe took in her surroundings. The riverbank was unfamiliar and Magnolia no where in sight but she was alive. Juvia had survived a fight with something that by all rights should have killed her; she wasn't going to let herself die now. Juvia knew that if she wanted to get home, she only need follow the river upstream, back the way she came.
Limping, she set off toward home.
Gajeel had no answer for Gray.
Juvia was just gone and he was as out of ideas as he was anger. The Dragon Slayers rage seemed to be a fleeting thing these days and the more he saw Gray unravel the cooler his temper got.
And the ice mage was furious. Gajeel watched him run his fingers through his hair and pull in frustration. It was obvious that the man had been convinced he'd find her here. Find the creature. But there was nothing here to fight. No one here to save.
Gajeel watched as the sky darkened over them. The cave dimming as a light rain trickled in through the opening above. If there was ever a more appropriate symbol of the mood shift, he didn't know.
Under his feet, the mud was already making it difficult to move and Gajeel knew that with the deposits of granite in the chamber, if the creature did appear, they'd be at a serious disadvantage.
He would have major problems fighting like this.
Thinking clearly for the first time that day, Gajeel groaned, realising that their best bet was to retreat and come back with reinforcements. Juvia wouldn't have agreed with vengeance, not to say that that sentiment would have been enough to stop Gajeel from killing the thing responsible for her death, but it was enough to make him second guess tossing his life away in the process.
"We should get out of here and come back when there's less chance of us becomin' dog food," Gajeel whispered. Gray turned his rage filled gaze back on the Dragon Slayer.
"So what, we run away?" Gray growled out. "I'm not running!"
"Look around you, princess, fighting it here would be like fightin' Natsu in a fuckin' volcano," The creature had the advantage and Gajeel knew it.
"I don't care. So go if you want, but I'm staying!" Gray snapped.
Gajeel reached out and grabbed him by the shoulder with a grip strong enough to bruise and a glare hot enough to incinerate the ice mage.
"Juvia would have killed herself before she'd let you think about doing something so stupid," Gajeel was hit with a strange sense of paranoia, that he'd missed something vitally important in that realization. Something more relevant than the obvious. "I must have lost my fucking mind back there thinkin' this was a smart fuckin' idea," He ground out under his breath.
"Juvia..." Gray started but stumbled over his words, incapable of finishing.
Gajeel wasn't sure what he'd meant to say, maybe he'd planned to reaffirm to Gajeel that it didn't matter what she thought, cause she was dead. But the Dragon Slayer reckoned that was too cold, even for an ice mage. Gajeel wasn't willing to entertain it.
"Juvia... was a fucking moron for trailin' after you like she did. Woman took down guilds, fuck, she drowned one of Jose's best spies in his sleep on a job and he never found out ... Not a soul was stupid enough to tell him," Gajeel bared just the briefest fang. "And here she is, following you round like a lapdog..." He pointed at Gray accusingly. "You didn't even respect her enough to tell her you weren't interested...and now that she's gone, you wanna play the brooding, vengeful hero? Get a fucking grip. If you felt a damn thing for her, you wouldn't be so willin' to throw away one of the only things that crazy bitch actually cared about," Gajeel growled out.
Gray looked at him in shock. The words sinking in. Gajeel of course meaning him.
"If this is such a bad idea, why're you even here?"
"Cause I'm fuckin' stupid!" Gajeel said resentfully. Almost choking on the admittance.
He noted Gray's eyes had turned glassy and it crossed his mind that the man was on the verge of completely breaking down. Gajeel suddenly knew that if he really wanted to do anything for Juvia, it wouldn't be killing the monster, it would be getting Gray the hell out of there before he did something terribly final.
Before another word could be spoken they heard it. The low, rumbling growl from the darkness. The air got just that little thicker. The foul stench just that little bit worse.
As enthusiastic as both Gray and Gajeel had been about squaring off against it, actually facing it brought with it a new desire. Everything about it inspired a fear on the most primal levels. One look from it and they found themselves at war with the urge to run.
"Where's Juvia?" Gray snarled. Clenching his fist to steady its sudden tremble.
The Dragon Slayer cocked it's head in thought and put a hand against what they now noticed was a gaping wound in its shoulder. A yellow eye looked at Gray and it spoke.
"Drip... drop..." It repeated quietly.
Blades of ice immediately ripped across the cave toward it, Gray's face twisted in renewed fury as he launched the attack without any warning, almost clipping Gajeel in his haste. The Iron Dragon Slayer yelling as he threw himself to the side.
Gray's scaled opponent moved quickly however, too quick for anything as slow as the icy projectiles to actually hit; the ice colliding harmlessly with the stone behind where it had been standing.
"We need to go!" Gajeel scrambled to his feet and grabbed him forcefully again but Gray pulled loose.
"No, it knows where she is!"
"Princess, I don't think it knows who it even is!" Gajeel reached for him again but found himself rooted to the floor. Boots encased as ice appeared around him, growing quickly up as far as his chest. Painful, numbing and cold. It only took moments before Gajeel lost the majority of the feeling below his shoulders. He roared at Gray. Because of all the stupid, reckless things the guy had ever done, and in spite of his apparent composure he'd done his share, this, this, was without a doubt the stupidest.
"YOU FUCKING IDIOT!" Gajeel roared at him, struggling frantically. Already seeing how this was going to end.
But Gray wasn't interested in listening to Gajeel anymore. The man wanted his pound of flesh and he was already moving toward the creature, fists raised, ice gauntlets forming, intending to collect. The Stone Dragon Slayer looked back at him with distain. Alert and wary, but unconcerned with its safety.
Gray swung quickly, the ice gauntlet on his right hand changing, elongating into a long blade while in motion, but it wasn't fast enough and the stone slayer angled his head away from the strike. Gray missed him by inches but it may as well have been miles.
In the seconds that followed, Gray realised his error as he was sent on the defensive, fast claws targeting his stomach as he was forced to backpeddle. As skilled as the ice mage was, the strikes he managed to land didn't do much damage beyond aggravation and those claws demolished any ice armour he generated to protect himself. He could make anything from ice, but it was still just ice.
Injured, the Dragon Slayer did however make mistakes. One of which allowed Gray a grip on its wrist and using his ice to immobilise it, encasing it in ice, much like Gajeel. But unlike Gajeel, he didn't seem even remotely bothered by the cold and his imprisonment lasted brief seconds. Expanding wings breaking his cage into a thousand pieces, a chunk of which sailed Gray's way, striking him on the head and opening him at the temple. Red rivulets now running down his shirt.
A blow to add insult to injury. Ice mage killed by flying chunk of his own ice were not what he wanted on his tombstone.
Gajeel thrashed and screamed, unable to move or feel a thing below the neck now, all while Gray found himself suspended off his feet, a fist wrapped round his throat; the man struggling while a single clawed digit was pressed slowly, lightly at first against his abdomen. Pressure applying slowly and gradually as skin parted and Gray realised thus would not be quick.
But it paused, eyes locked to the mouth of the cave, at something neither Gray or Gajeel could see from their positions.
"Drip..." It repeated with a growl, dropping Gray abruptly only to turn and break into a run, fleeing the scene through the nearest slab of granite.
Gajeel knew the flicker in its eyes and it had looked like fear.
Something struck Gajeel's prison and he fell on his face with series of muttered curses, broken ice all round, and mud up to his elbows as he glared all manner of unholy daggers at Gray who he was viciously visualising in a full body cast. Feeling returning to his cold limbs as he noticed the ice mage was staring open mouthed passed him, and turning, Gajeel saw why.
Words almost failed him.
"Thought you were dead!" Gajeel breathed. Oh, he owed so many apologies to Levy at this point he was debating even the attempt to mend things between them.
"Juvia heard you from the river," She said casually enough to make Gajeel finally question her sanity. She was clutching her hand to her chest, her dress ripped and stained bloody but she appeared fine for the most part.
The thing had run when it seen her. Actually run away. Gajeel was finding it hard to wrap his head around that.
His friend had gone toe to toe with it and beat it badly enough that it chose to retreat rather than go a second round. Something warm spread outward from his chest and he found himself stifling the desire to laugh. Relief. Pride. Gajeel hadn't thought the woman had it in her these days.
Gray seemed lost as to what to do or say. A thousand things on his face he didn't seem like he had the first idea how to express.
Thinking he lost her had legitimately sent him careening off the precipice of sane, rational thought.
A blue blur sped by Gajeel, knocking him clean off his feet and sending him back to the mud, face first. The sensation of very liquid mud trickling in his ears made him squirm, shooting upwards, batting at his head to get it out.
"Juvia didn't think she would see her Gray ever again!"
She threw herself at him, wrapping her arms tightly around his neck and burying her face in his shoulder. He kept his demeanour impassive, nonchalant about it the whole thing and playing up his usual routine around her. But looking up, Gajeel saw the brief smile. The way his eyes closed as he drank her in, sagging just a little in her arms. Deflating. One hand coming up and around her shoulders.
Gajeel had thought she was a fool, chasing after some loser who clearly had no interest in romance.
As it turned out, Gray was the fool. Cause the man was actually, clearly, stupidly in love with her.
Gajeel stood and tried wringing the mud from his hair, wiping it from his face but it was pointless. There was too much of it everywhere and he ended up rubbing just as much on as he did off. He glared at the pair of them.
"You two fuckin' deserve each other!" He said though his words lacked any real bite to them.
Something was worrying him. Something tickling the back of his conscious mind. Affection, love in all its forms made people stupid. They did insane and reckless things. Acted out of character. It had the ability to twist them up. He saw it in Phantom. You could have the most stalwart individual, unbendable, but if you got your hands on something they loved, something they cared about, they turned to putty. Incredibly stupid putty.
Maybe it was why he was so unnerved by just how much Levy seemed to care about him, because he got the feeling she was planning on doing something uncharacteristically dumb.
And it was probably his entire fault...
Notes
I'm not a fan of killing characters for no good reason. I also don't like torturing them for the development of others. This is still a Gajevy story but I'm not going to put poor Juvia through for nothing ;)
Next chapter is Gajeel's attempted apology date. Cause you know he owes her more than coffee and he also knows she's up to something... he's gonna find out what.