Evading Destiny Chapter 10
Gajeel stood on the outskirts of Natsu's home, looking at the destruction wrought upon the building and his car. The building had seen better days before the bastards who had taken Lucy had come around, but now it looked even worse. There were scorch marks from where someone had blown up Natsu's vehicle and the windows were blown inward. The land around the building looked like it wouldn't see vegetation for ages and like an earthquake had broken it apart. Gajeel felt anger rising up in him on his friend's behalf.
"Who could have done this?" Levy asked in a soft voice as she took in the view. Juvia, standing beside her, looked guilty and concerned at the same time.
"Phantom Lord," Gajeel bit out furiously. He and Juvia had been members of the guild what felt like lifetimes ago, before they had found Fairy Tail. And Phantom Lord's master, a sick vampire named Jose Porla, was most likely behind this. Why, though, Gajeel had no idea.
"There is no doubt, Gajeel?" Juvia asked, her tone worried, "But what could they gain from taking Lucy?"
"Hell if I know," he grunted out as he walked around Natsu's home. He wondered what his former guild mates had drugged Natsu with, seeing as that would be the only way they ever would have gotten close to Lucy.
As Gajeel was making his way back to the front of the house, having inspected all the way around, looking for clues as to which members of Phantom Lord would have done this, he heard Levy gasp and rushed to the front. What he saw made his blood chill.
"G-Gajeel," Levy said, her voice high and frightened. It looked like she was literally being eaten by the ground. Stone crawled slowly up her body, trapping her arms at her sides. She was stretching her neck, trying to keep the stone from getting up to her face, but a man in a brown suit was just grinning at her predicament. It didn't take but a moment for Gajeel to adopt the hardened metal scales of his dragon form as he roared at the former guild member of his, Sol, and charged.
"Ah, ah, ah," Sol said in his French accent as he seemingly danced away from Gajeel's furious attack, "Zat will only get ze girl consumed faster."
Gajeel growled violently as he turned back towards Sol, "Let her go, Sol." Levy shivered in her rock prison as the stone worked its way a little bit further up her body.
"But we are having so much fun," Sol said with a crazy grin as Gajeel roared again. Briefly, Gajeel wondered where Juvia was when he saw a puddle making its way along the ground at a rapid pace. A smirk made its way onto the dragon shifter's face as he launched a more vicious attack at Sol, coating his throat with metal before roaring, causing a tornado like effect of shrapnel to erupt from his mouth and fly towards the Sidhe elf.
As Sol dodged out of the way with wide, surprised eyes, Juvia reformed herself behind the mound of earth trying to bury Levy. Levy turned in shock as she watched Juvia form large claws on the tips of her fingers with her water and start to slice at the rock holding her in place.
"Juvia," Levy breathed as she tried not to move to prevent herself from being cut.
"Do not worry, Levy," Juvia said with a smile as she continued to meticulously cut away at the earth binding the other blue-haired woman, "Gajeel will keep you safe." And so he was as Levy turned her head again to watch Gajeel launching attack after attack at the man named Sol. Levy couldn't help but be awed as she watched the man who unknowingly held her heart fight for her.
Gajeel was magnificent as he fought in his human form. He fluidly changed his body to meet his needs, switching his arms to large clubs or swords as necessary. Levy couldn't help but hold her breath as she watched Sol beginning to tire, and make mistakes. Finally, Sol made one mistake too many, and Gajeel grabbed hold of the man by the front of his suit.
"Where's Lucy?" the metal dragon shifter growled in the elf's face as Juvia finally succeeded in freeing most of Levy from her rock prison, "And why did you trap Levy?"
"It's so, so sad…" Gajeel stiffened as he heard the voice of one of the most powerful sylph he had ever met. It was not good that Aria was here…
"Juvia!" Gajeel roared as he heard Aria's voice near him. The naiad looked startled as the air started to swirl around her and Levy, and then she realized what was going on. Aria was performing his "air lock". It was very similar to her own water lock, but instead of trapping the person in a sphere of water, it sucked all of the air out of the person's vicinity within a radius of five feet. Locks were incredibly dangerous elemental spells, especially an air lock, as they had the potential to drain their victims of life, which was one of the reasons Juvia no longer used her water lock.
Moving like lightning, Juvia finished cutting through the rock holding Levy and shoved her out of the way of the air lock, only to find herself trapped as the oxygen in the lock began to thin. Levy fell hard to the ground with wide eyes as she looked at Juvia, who seemed to be suffocating slowly as she fell to her knees in a swirling sphere of air.
"Juvia!" Gajeel roared as he threw Sol and looked around, trying to locate Aria to free his friend.
"It's just so, so sad," Gajeel heard Aria say again, but he couldn't locate the other man. Gajeel knew that if he could just find the other man and distract him for a moment, Juvia could free herself from the airlock. But that wasn't going to happen as he watched Juvia vanish into thin air, leaving Levy screaming her name in her wake.
Totomaru couldn't help but stare at his companions, then the blue haired naiad laid out on the chaise lounge in one of the many living rooms in their guild's mansion. Had Aria and Sol seriously kidnapped Juvia? Their former comrade? He wanted to bury his head in his hands and just bemoan their stupidity. When the Master had told them to kidnap another member of Fairy Tail, Totomaru was pretty sure he hadn't meant to kidnap Juvia. Although there may be some sort of poetry in bringing their former guild member back, but Totomaru was having many second doubts about what Porla was doing, the least of which was kidnapping his former teammate.
"Master zaid to bring anozer supernatural so that iz what we did," Sol said with one of his bizarre body jiggles. Aria chimed in with a discussion of how sad it was their former comrade was now their captive and Totomaru felt intensely torn about it. Juvia had been their friend, their ally. He wasn't sure what to do about it, but he knew what their Master would want him to.
"Call one of the underlings and have them take her to the same…'room' we have our illustrious princess staying," Totomaru said, shoving his second thoughts deep down where he wouldn't have to feel them anymore.
"So, so sad," Aria murmured as Sol left the room to do as Totomaru asked.
When Juvia awoke, it was with a groan and her right ankle chained to a damp, dungeon wall. She raised her hand to her throat as she remembered exactly how she had wound up in this agonizingly familiar dungeon; Aria had suffocated her just enough to make her pass out. Her head was pounding as she sat up and looked around. Her breath caught in her throat as she saw a very, very battered looking woman chained to the wall about five feet from her.
Juvia wanted to ask how the woman was, and who she was, but she was completely unconscious and Juvia could not see her face. Her arms were drawn up on either side of her head, chaining her to the wall in a Y formation with her legs tucked under her. Blood was trickling from numerous wounds across her body and her hair was so matted with dried blood that Juvia was unsure what color the other woman's hair was.
"How awful," Juvia murmured, her heart going out to the woman as she thought about how she could possibly escape and help them both. Juvia wondered at how the woman could still be breathing, since Juvia saw her chest rising and falling, when she had obviously been beaten so severely. That was when Juvia noticed there was not much blood pooled around the woman and figured that must mean she had been moved from another location. Juvia gasped as she finally noticed the pink tattoo on the woman's right hand.
"Lucy," Juvia said, despair and anger for her new friend making her feel like she was suffocating all over again. Was this what Porla had been doing with her since he took her? Lucy had only been missing for a day, but it looked like Porla had inflicted as much pain on her as he possibly could in the time he had with her. Juvia did not envy what would befall Porla if the other members of Fairy Tail got to him, especially Natsu.
Thinking about Natsu and his overprotectiveness of the battered vampire across from her inevitably made her start thinking about Gray, the frost giant she wished was as overly protective of her as Natsu was of Lucy. But Gray was too caught up in his own past to really see her as anything more than a comrade at this point. It was funny because everyone thought Juvia was too blinded by her passion for Gray to see it, but she knew. How could she not? But her reason for still expressing her affection for him at every chance she got was so, once Gray was ready to move on with someone, he would know that she had always been there for him.
While caught up in her ruminations on Gray, the sun had set. Juvia did not have as finely tuned an internal clock as other supernaturals, but she was a naiad. And naiads could feel the pull of the moon seeing as it had power over water just as they did. She just knew the sun had set and the moon was taking over the night. It also helped that the vampire across from her was suddenly wide awake and staring unnervingly at her with wide, pitch black eyes.
"Lucy?" Juvia asked, unsure of herself as she fought the urge to inch away from the blonde. But it was difficult because she looked absolutely terrifying. Blood was caked all over her and still ran from various cuts, she had mottled patches of black and purple on the skin that was exposed and not blood covered, and the almost completely feral black eyes really threw Juvia for a loop. Who knew the petite woman could project such a fearsome aura?
Lucy just stared at her in response, unnerving Juvia further. What had Porla done to the girl to put her in this state? Still feeling hesitant, Juvia tried to scoot closer to Lucy and was fairly successful as she was within arm's reach of the blonde. That movement seemed to awaken some part of Lucy as she strained against her chains in what looked like an attempt to sink into the wall behind her.
"Lucy, what can Juvia do to help?" Juvia asked, wishing she could get closer to the vampire.
"Stay away from me," Lucy growled in a guttural tone that did not sound at all like her regular voice. Juvia jerked back, shocked by the vehemence in the other woman's voice. Slowly, Juvia backed away from her fellow guild member until she was back in the position she had started in when she awoke. It appeared that helped Lucy immensely because her eyes lost a little bit of their blackness and she breathed out in relief.
"What has he done to you?" Juvia whispered despairingly. She had not seen brutality like this since her days in Phantom Lord, and it had been one of the reasons she and Gajeel had left in the first place.
Lucy laughed bitterly as she laid her head back against the dungeon wall.
"What hasn't he done to me?" Lucy asked rhetorically, then her eyes widened as she realized exactly who was with her, "Juvia? How did you get here?"
"Juvia was kidnapped," Juvia stated with a shrug, "My former guild mates, Aria and Sol, took me from Natsu's house when Gajeel, Levy, and Juvia went to investigate."
"Natsu's house? You were investigating at Natsu's house?" Lucy asked, suddenly feeling very apprehensive, "Is Natsu okay? Porla told me he had drugged Natsu but I don't know with what. Is he okay?"
"Natsu is fine, Lucy. He is just very worried about you. We all were," Juvia told her gently. She could see the worry in Lucy's eyes and wished there were some way she could get the two of them out of this dungeon…
"Lucy!" Juvia suddenly cried as she realized she could still feel her magic, "Juvia can use her magic! Juvia can control water and she can use it to cut us free!"
Lucy's eyes widened and sparkled with hope for a moment before her expression turned to horror.
"No, Juvia!" Lucy shouted fearfully, "You can't release me!"
"But why not?" Juvia asked, completely baffled. Why would Lucy not want to be freed?
"I…I don't want to hurt you," Lucy admitted miserably as she looked down at the ground.
"Juvia doesn't think you would hurt her," Juvia said confidently as she smiled at the vampire. "Juvia trusts you."
"I don't trust me," Lucy stated quietly, "Porla did…so many things to me. He has practically bled me dry. I don't know how much longer I will be rational unless I feed and…I don't want to feed from you."
Juvia was incredibly surprised by Lucy's admission. Porla had not let her feed? He was such an abominable bastard! Juvia felt a lot of anger at her former guild master for what he had done. First he kidnapped Lucy, then he tortured her, and now he had brought Juvia to the dungeon. As Juvia thought it over, she realized Porla had brought her in for one purpose, to have Lucy feed from her.
"Why don't you want to feed from Juvia?" Juvia asked. She would not mind letting Lucy feed from her if it would help Lucy heal. If she healed enough to move, then she and Juvia could escape.
"Feeding from other supernaturals is bad for vampires," Lucy said with a sigh, "It's like how humans are with illicit drugs. Feeding from other supernaturals is highly addictive to vampires, especially pure-blood vampires like myself. It grants us a similar form of whatever that supernatural's magic is, but eventually we become so addicted to their blood that we start killing indiscriminately and it warps our minds. We start developing sadistic aspects to our personalities and reveling in the killing. I don't want that to happen to me. I don't want to drain you dry or become an addict."
Juvia sat in stunned silence after Lucy's confession. The naiad had never heard that vampires could become addicted to blood. It made sense to her, though. If drinking blood from another supernatural gave vampires their abilities, Juvia could see how vampires could become addicted to it.
"Juvia understands," Juvia said when she was finally able to speak. "How can Juvia help you then?" Lucy just smiled softly at Juvia.
"Stay away is all I ask," Lucy told Juvia. The blue-haired woman nodded seriously at the blonde before they both turned their heads as they heard a door open at the top of the stairs.
"He's back," Lucy said softly, her eyes being eaten up by black again as her face took on a fierce, angry expression. Juvia was amazed to see there was no fear on her face despite the torment she had endured, just resolve and anger.
"Oh my dear princess…I had hoped you would already be feeding by the time I got to you."
It had only taken Gajeel an instant to transform into his dragon form before indicating to Levy she should climb aboard. Like a gunshot as soon as Levy was situated, Gajeel took off for Fairy Tail. His best friend had just been kidnapped, and while he didn't really understand why Lucy had been taken in the first place, he understood fully why Porla would take Juvia, too. And he wasn't about to let anything happen to the blue-haired naiad.
"Gajeel what's going on?" Levy cried as she clung to one of the many craggy spikes along his back. She had just seen their friend and fellow guild member get kidnapped, in place of her she might add, and now he was racing towards what she had to assume was their guild. She didn't know what was going on, though, and it was really pissing her off. Juvia and Gajeel obviously knew who had taken Lucy, and now Juvia, but Gajeel wasn't talking. She wanted to know, dammit!
Gajeel just growled in response as Levy realized she could already see Fairy Tail. Levy understood his growl to mean he wouldn't tell her now, and while she logically understood that he probably wanted to tell everyone at once, it still irritated her. Before she knew it, though, they were landing in Fairy Tail's parking lot, buffeting cars with blasts of air from Gajeel's wings. Before she could even think to slide off his back, Gajeel was transforming back to his original form and she found herself free falling through the air, only to land in his muscular arms against his very naked chest.
"Come on, Shrimp," he said in his low voice, "We have to tell everyone what happened. And then we have to go save Juvia and that Bunny Girl." Levy just nodded, too stunned by the sudden transformation and winding up in his arms to articulate anything intelligent.
They burst through the doors of their guild and suddenly they were on the receiving end of many, many stares. Levy felt her cheeks redden as she realized she was still in Gajeel's arms for no apparent reason and started to wriggle her way out of his arms, only for him to growl lowly at her for trying to escape. She glared right back before she realized everyone was still staring at them and it was making her feel awkward.
"You need pants," Laxus said with a roll of his eyes as he motioned to Kinana, the bartender, to go fetch a pair. Gajeel shrugged as his grip on Levy tightened, which caused her to grumble irritably and cross her arms as she, very obviously, refused to look at Gajeel's chest, despite being pressed against it.
"Ooo did you finally make a move, Gajeel?" Mira asked with a giggle as she came to stand beside her husband and mate. Gajeel didn't answer, but he did turn his head as his cheeks reddened slightly.
"Here are some pants, Gajeel," Kinana said as she returned and handed them to him, studiously keeping her eyes above his waist, which actually wasn't that hard since Levy's body in his arms kind of blocked the view of most of his body. Seemingly very begrudgingly, Gajeel set Levy down and then pulled on the pair of pants. Levy, looking incredibly flustered and still sporting some red on her cheeks, turned as soon as he was done and smacked his face.
"What the hell was that!" Levy shouted as literally everyone in the guild hall watched on in stunned silence. Levy rarely cursed, in fact they were pretty sure she had never cursed. Guess Gajeel really brought out the best in her…
"Want to know who took Bunny Girl and Juvia or not?" Gajeel asked with a grunt. Levy's eye twitched in irritation, but she folded her arms across her chest and waited. Everyone else, on the other hand, surrounded Gajeel as they waited to hear whose asses they were about to go kick.
"Where are we going, Gajeel?" Erza asked imperiously as she stood at the head of the table that held a waking Natsu.
"Someone took Juvia?" Gray interjected before Gajeel could speak. His voice was furious and his face was full of rage. Mira shook her head slightly as she wondered when the man would realize his feelings for their resident naiad.
"Phantom Lord," Gajeel practically spat as Laxus, Mira, Erza, and Jellal's eyes all widened in surprise. They all knew the guild he and Juvia had come from, and they all knew its reputation, but everyone else just looked confused.
"Where is Phantom Lord?" Natsu growled as he woke fully, his onyx eyes fading into a brilliant golden red color as his dragon fought to rise to the surface. Gray nodded in agreement, his hands starting to glow a soft white-blue color and the temperature around him dropping several degrees.
"Wait," a voice called out. Everyone's faces turned to the doors of their guild, where their master, Makarov, had just walked in. He looked them all over coolly before he spoke again, "Why was Lucy taken in the first place?" Both Natsu and Gray looked like they could care less, and Gajeel and Jellal looked incredibly uncomfortable, before Cana spoke out.
"She's a princess, Gramps," she said, wavering on the stool she sat at, "Her craptastic dad basically put out a free for all call to get her back. Apparently she was 'kidnapped' from her wedding." At that, all of Fairy Tail was in an uproar.
"She's the princess?!" Levy cried out in surprise while Gajeel just huffed and crossed his arms. Laxus and Mira exchanged a look full of meaning while Gray gasped. But one person's voice was, by far, louder than the rest.
"Her wedding?" Natsu asked, both furious and incredulous. What did Cana mean, her wedding? Lucy wasn't married…and then how he had found her hit him. That fancy dress, her hair, all of it now made sense. She had run away from her own wedding. A sense of vicious satisfaction overcame him when he realized she hadn't wanted to marry the guy.
"Yeah," Cana said nonchalantly, "She was supposed to marry some minor vampire lord, Boring something or other. Obviously she didn't go through with it, but that's why Phantom Lord kidnapped her. They probably want the status and her daddy's money."
"What about Juvia?" Gray asked, cracking his knuckles dangerously, "Why would they take her? She's not a princess."
"To feed from," Gajeel said grimly. Everyone gasped at that except Natsu, who just burst into flame and roared in anger. Before Natsu could fully transform and fully destroy their guild hall, Makarov's fist grew and he slammed Natsu into the wall, knocking some sense back into him and preventing a dragon from trampling everyone in the hall.
"Why would Phantom Lord's master want Lucy to feed from Juvia?" Mira asked worriedly, wrapping her arms around one of Laxus's. The blonde man looked down at his wife and carefully tucked her into his side before pressing a kiss to the top of her head.
"Vampires have unique systems," Jellal spoke up. "If they feed from other supernaturals, they gain some form of that supernatural's powers." The guild hall went silent as everyone digested this new information. So if Lucy had fed from any one of them, she would have adopted some of their powers?
"Please continue, Jellal," the Master said and Jellal nodded as he realized everyone was hanging on his every word.
"If Lucy were to feed from me, for instance, she would most likely gain some power over light, seeing as I have an affinity with it. If she were to feed from someone like Erza, though, even though she is a Valkyrie, she would stay the same since Erza's powers aren't like most of ours," Jellal explained patiently.
"So if she were to feed from Juvia," Gray began slowly, "she would gain some power over water?"
"That's correct," Jellal replied. "But there is a price for a vampire feeding from another supernatural who does not have a strong connection to their humanity, like Valkyries or witches."
"What is that?" Levy asked, afraid to know but more afraid not to.
"Addiction," Jellal said simply. "If Lucy were to feed from another supernatural, she would be like a drug addict, needing more and more to feel the buzz she would get from having another's powers coursing through her. Eventually, the need to feel that buzz would overwhelm her and she would become a creature that is despised and hated for its cruelty and sadism."
The guild hall fell silent once more at Jellal's admission. All of them had met Lucy at some point before she was kidnapped, and none of them could imagine her as a diabolical creature who only lived to feed from others. Natsu was seething quietly as Makarov spoke up once more.
"Then we need to go get her before she is put in such a position to need to feed," he stated quite seriously. "Fairy Tail never leaves a member alone, especially not in the hands of a mad man like Jose Porla. Everyone, we are leaving. Gajeel, please lead the way to Phantom Lord. We won't let them have our girls for another day."
At the Master's proclamation, an enthusiastic shout rose up from those gathered in the hall. They were going to rescue their girls, and pay Phantom Lord back a thousand times for the wrongs they had made. No one hurt Fairy Tail and got away with it.
AUTHOR'S NOTE: Yay I'm not dead! So I am incredibly sorry for this ridiculously late chapter. I have been dealing with some things the past few months that not only prevented me from writing, but completely drained me of my will to write. But I'm back now and I am going to finish this story. As usual, I hope everyone enjoyed this newest chapter and I own nothing. :)