Suggestions are greatly appreciated! And this is a sorta non-action-y chapter. Still relevant to the plot, though. (I guess this chapter is relevant to the plot? Moreover, I guess it's not that eventful) (...is there even a plot in yaoi?) Eh, anywho. Enjoy!
It had been nearly three days since Fairy Tail had received the text message from E.N.D. Many of the guild members were either sitting around the guild or going on jobs to try and distract themselves from the horrifying image E.N.D. had sent them. Mira stood at the bar, her face devoid of her usual cheery smile as she cleaned a glass. However, the reason some of the Fairies were not present in the room was due to a change of location.
Downstairs, many of the guild members and Makarov were either sitting down or standing in the room. A few if the people there were Erza, Lucy, Juvia, The Thunder Legion, Gajeel, and many others. Chatter and arguments were thrown around the room in a rather disorganized manner.
"If we could create some sort of distraction in the front-"
"What the hell would a distraction accomplish?! I say we just attack them with our strongest members. We could kick Tartaros's ass, get ice block and beat some sense into Natsu!"
"Gajeel, it's not that simple. Remember last time you tried to fight E.N.D.? And it took forever to beat Tartaros's members last time..."
"HEY LAST TIME HE HIT ME BY SURPRISE LEVY ITS NOT MY FAULT A ROCK GOT IN THE WAY OF MY FALL!"
"You were unconscious before you even hit the rock, though..."
Gajeel looked like he was retaliate, but a certain scarlet haired mage cut him off. "Stop bickering, we need to get back on topic." Erza said sternly, and Gajeel mumbled something that sounded generally unflattering. She glared at him in a, You better take that back before I slit your throat way. Thankfully for the dragon slayer, Lucy spoke up.
"Oh-kay, back to subject..." The celestial mage spoke, her voice slightly nervous. She cleared her throat. "Gajeel did bring up an important point on E.N.D. We're going to have to do something to get Natsu back, but I don't think any of us have any ideas on how..." The blonde mage's eyes shifted towards the floor, her expression sad. If they didn't find a way to save Natsu, would they ever get him back?
Erza looked at her friend with concern as she saw the expression she wore. Sighing, the re-equip mage leaned back against the wall she was in front of, her armor clanking as metal met wood. Natsu and Lucy had always been close. Anyone would see that. So of course, Lucy had to be missing the pink haired teen, even with his constant need for a fight and irritating manner.
"You idiots realize we don't have to get Natsu and Gray back at the same time, right?"
A cool, slightly annoyed voice entered the room, and the occupants all turned their heads to see who had spoken. Standing in the doorway, arms crossed over his chest and spiky silver hair atop his head, was Lyon.
He walked down the stairs, his left eye twitching slightly as he reached the bottom. "I see you got my message-" "Yes, and mind explaining to me wHAT THE FUCK IS GOING ON!?"
Lyon grabbed Erza by the front of her armor, the scarlet haired girl blinking in surprise at the anger in the ice mage's voice. Everyone in the room shared a similar look to the one on her face. No one had ever dared to talk to Erza like that, or ever seen Lyon so mad.
"Wait, you mean no one told you?"
Levy's soft, almost skeptical voice broke the silence. Lyon whipped his head around to face her, and nearby, Gajeel's hand twitched at the anger in his eyes that were now directed on Levy. "No! All I got was a fucked up image and a text and can someone please tell me what's going on?!"
The ice make mage was breathing deeply as he finished talking, and Makarov coughed to get the attention of the people in the room.
"Apparently, no one has told you of recent events. Before we explain, do you mind telling us what you do know?" The guild master stared at Lyon, waiting patiently for the silver haired teen to regain his breath.
"I don't know what you mean. The events of Tartaros?"
Makarov nodded in response to his question. "Well, I remember a lot of creepy face things and a lot of explosions. There were then a bunch of explosions in the distance, and I thought that they were just the other Faces being destroyed by the dragons. But those looked different, more like fighting explosions..."
"That would have been us, attempting to take down E.N.D..."
"E.N.D.?"
The Fairy Tail mage's inside the room exchanged glances, before Erza took a deep breath and began to retell what had happened.
When she was finished, with the occasional comments of others in the room, Lyon stared at her blankly. His eyes flickered around the room for a moment, as if asking them for confirmation of her words.
"So...Natsu is a demon?"
The ice mage spoke slowly, as if making sure he was speaking correctly. "Unfortunately, yes. Etherious Natsu Dragneel."
"And he took Gray as a...trophy?"
There were a few shared nods from the Fairies. He was silent, as if processing all of this. "Why weren't we notified sooner of this?" Makarov cleared his throat before answering him.
"Ah. Well, Sting and Rogue know, since they were there, but besides them, it was never really brought up to mention it to anyone else..."
Lyon sighed, before fixing his eyes on Levy. The blue haired girl shifted awkwardly under his gaze, and Gajeel let out a low protective growl.
"You. You seem like the smart one here. What's the plan to get Gray back?"
Levy blushed at being addressed like that, and Gajeel spoke up, trying to bring Lyon's attention from the solid script mage. "And flame brain, not just Gray."
The Lamia Scale mage waved a hand absentmindedly at the iron dragon slayer's comment. "While I said so myself that we can figure something for Natsu out, my main goal is to get my brother back."
There was a choking noise from Gajeel as he stumbled forward towards the silver haired teen. "Hey, hold up! Did you just call him your brother?" He asked, checking if he heard the ice mage right. Lyon nodded in confirmation. "But isn't–I thought that–"
"Me and Gray are not related by blood, no. But we were trained under the same master, Ur. And while this is embarrassing, I remember we made a promise one night when we were kids that we would be brothers from then on..."
Lyon's pale skin was dusted a slight pink as he spoke, remembering that night so long ago. Gray was such a cute kid back then. And when they had made the agreement, the raven haired boy had argued when Lyon said he would be the older brother.
"What!? Why do you get to be the big brother?"
"Because I'm older than you, Gray."
"...oh yeah."
He smiled softly, before returning his attention to the situation at hand.
"At any rate, since you don't have a solid plan yet, than how about this; We can have two teams, one for infiltration, the other for distraction. The infiltration team will find a way inside and rescue Gray quietly."
Lyon empathized the word quietly, knowing how Fairy Tail could be, earning a roll of eyes from some and a chuckle from others. Juvia tip-toed over to where Levy was standing to whisper in her ear. "Juvia thinks that it would be a good idea to write Lyon's words down, Levy." Blinking at her words, Levy whipped her head around, searching for some pen and paper before facepalming. Using her solid script magic, the blue haired girl began to write what the ice mage was saying down.
"When inside, detection should be avoided by all means possible. The objective here is to get Gray and then leave. If something should go wrong-" Lyon broke off mid sentence, glancing around the room. "You have a telekinesis mage, right?"
"T-that'd be me!"
Warren squeezed past a few guild members before asserting Lyon. The ice make mage nodded in approval. "Good. Now, if something goes wrong or you're found out, then the team inside will alert the team outside. If this happens, then the outside team will make a distraction to throw off Tartaros's attention from the infiltration team. The team inside will then either get Gray as fast as possible - yes, that means you can be loud and destructive if you haven't already been discovered yet - and leave, with him, or get out as fast as possible."
"While I hope we won't have to resort to either, the second emergency option is one that I would hate to happen. If we have to leave without Gray, it would make any other rescue attempts much more difficult. So, hopefully nothing goes wrong. We get Gray and then we get out."
"Now, I know that many of you are going to argue that we should do something about Natsu, too. But we can do that after we've gotten Gray, I promise. He's going though hell right now, you all saw his face in that picture. If we don't do something soon then he could be permanently hurt. Once Gray's safe, I swear that you will have Lamia Scale's aid in whatever you need to save Natsu and take down Tartaros."
The room was completely silent when Lyon was finished. Gajeel wasn't entirely sure, but he was fairly sure the thought going through everyone's head was Damn.
"You come up with all that on the train?" Gajeel mumbled, and Lyon smirked in response.
"Well, I had some time in getting from Lamia Scale to your guild, and knowing Fairy Tail, you hadn't even thought of a decent plan yet."
"Eh, that's true, especially with these kids..."
A few giggles resounded through the room at the Master's comment. Lucy raised her hand halfway, before quickly bringing it down, realizing how stupid she probably looked raising her hand. In the distance, she could swear she heard Happy teasing her about it. Making a mental note to yell at the blue fur ball later, she cleared her throat.
"This is a really great plan and all, but we have no idea how to get around the place at all. If we wind up accidentally walking right into a bunch of demons, the whole plan goes to hell."
Lyon smiled, turning to the blonde mage. "Well, you said that the two Twin Dragonslayer's already know about E.N.D. and everything, right? You could ask Rogue to help. If I understand correctly, he has the ability to travel through shadows, which he could use to look ahead."
There were a few noises of agreement as the information was processed. Erza walked forward, a hush falling over the room as the mighty Titania moved. "Than its settled. We can contact Sabertooth, asking for assistance, and in the meantime, we decide who will be going on the mission. And on which team."
"In my personal opinion, the teams should be five people each."
Immediately, the occupants of the room seemed to straighten up. The mention of teams seemed to perk their interest. Before anyone could speak could say a word, Lyon's voice spoke up in a rather firm tone.
"I'm going on the infiltration team."
A few confused looks were cast his way, but Makarov only nodded in response to the ice mage's words, knowing how Lyon and Gray had history together. "Well, Warren is obviously on the distraction team, and Rogue will be on the infiltration team. But that leaves 7 people..."
"I volunteer to be on the distraction team."
Everyone turned their heads to look at Erza. She had spoken so confidently and sure of herself, that it almost made Gajeel feel hopeful.
Almost.
"Well, I guess I'll be on the infiltration team..." The iron mage let out a bored sigh, before grinning. "Gi-he, I hope we get to bash some heads..."
Under her breath, Levy muttered something about that being the thing they wanted to avoid. "That's 5 left..." Lucy said, counting. A small cough interrupted her, and the celestial mage looked around to see Juvia standing right behind her.
"ASDFGHJKL–DON'T DO THAT!" She shrieked, falling backwards. Gajeel snickered at her reaction, earning a death glare from Lucy. This only made him laugh harder.
"Juvia wishes to be on the infiltration team."
Lucy looked up at the water mage in surprise, before mentally scolding herself. Well, of course Juvia would want to be on that team! It's the one rescuing Gray, after all. The blue haired girl glared at Lucy, a creepy smile tugging at her lips.
"And you better not even think about going on the same team, love rival."
"DAMMNIT JUVIA I THOUGHT YOU CUT THAT SHIT OUT WHEN NATSU STARTED DATING GRAY!"
The rest of the roles were filled in, and the atmosphere of the room seemed to lighten a bit. Before, a dark cloud had seemed to hang over them, but now things seemed to be getting better. It was decided that the distraction team would consist of Warren, Erza, Elfman, Laxus, and Mira. The infiltration team would be Lyon, Gajeel, Rogue, Juvia and Freed. There was a lot of talking as they started to filter upstairs, much more happy than they had been when they went down there.
As Lyon was planning to leave and perhaps talk to Juvia, he felt a hand grasp his shoulder. Turning, he was more than surprised to see Gajeel there. He let the iron dragon slayer pull him aside out of earshot of everyone else. "Er, so...you gonna be staying here or you going back?"
Lyon frowned slightly at his question. "I'm going to be staying at a nearby inn for a bit, and I'll contact my guild in the morning. Why?" Gajeel sighed, his back pressing against a wall as his arms folded over his chest. "Okay, apparently you and Gray are close, as you've previously mentioned...so I feel better if I tell you about this."
The silver haired mage raised an eyebrow. This seemed interestingly important. "Tell me what?"
"Well, I mean, it's a dragon slayer thing and all but..." He took in a deep breath before speaking again. "When I saw the image, I was obviously disgusted, but after looking at it closer I saw something else on Gray's neck besides that collar. And it looked like a bite mark."
Seeing Lyon's confused expression, Gajeel rolled his eyes. Geez, why couldn't everyone be educated in dragon slayer culture so they didn't always have to explain it to people!
"For a dragon slayer, biting someone means you claim them as your mate. Once claimed you will never lose the connection with that person, and bond is created. You can only have one mate, and that bond can never be broken. So in biting Gray, E.N.D. was basically claiming him..."
Lyon choked on his own spit, taking a few seconds before recomposing himself. "Gajeel, I honestly couldn't give a damn about that dragon slayer mating thing or whatever. Unless it's somehow going to be a problem for me in rescuing Gray, then it'll be fine."
With that, the ice make mage spun around on his heel swiftly, walking away to seek a certain water mage. Unheard by him, Gajeel muttered, "Well, it might..."