Disclaimer: Not mine, not mine and, did I say not mine?
Chapter 12 – Picking up pieces
Natsu was completely baffled. He even had to blink and rub his eyes (contributing to spread more gore over his face) to confirm that what he was seeing was true. Erza was standing in front of them looking intrigued and a bit confused.
"What are we doing here? What are you doing here, that is the question." Natsu's mind caught what he had just said and he closed it with an audible click, feeling a little stupid. Erza shifted and her stance got a little more relaxed. She looked at her friends that looked terrible. It was a complete surprise that they had met her because, if she recalled correctly, Lucy, Natsu and Happy should be in Melpomonis and then she did a double take as she saw Gray. What was he doing here? He should be in Magnolia still recovering and getting in mock-fights with the people at the Guild. Only after he won some of those fights he would be ready (and allowed) to go on a mission – if that was what had happened… In all the missions they had had she had never seen the group in such bad shape. At Natsu's suspicious stare she told her motive for being in this place, "I'm on a mission, an S-class mission in fact. I'm following a person and some leads placed her here but after that I lost her." She crossed her arms in front of her. "And you? Care to explain why you're here?" Natsu gave her a tired smile, "No idea. We were on our mission and due to a series of events we ended up in this village. Then we decided to be detectives and investigate, got abducted and ended up here where these guys" he signalled distractedly towards where Erza had come from, "were performing a ritual to bring that" he pointed to the opposite end of the almost completely destroyed temple, "to life. To do it they had Gray. No, I have no idea on how he ended up here." he said quickly when Erza opened her mouth, "In the end, we rescued Gray, killed the monster, knocked out some guys and that basically sums it up."
Erza stood stock still for a few moments trying to absorb the whole information that Natsu had said in one go. She looked around and sighed. From the bodies that littered the floor she wouldn't get much information. "Hmm, we should take them to someplace so that they can rest. But I should get some information for my mission…" she said, pensively.
"Then you may find something with that guy over there. He was the main speaker and by the looks of it he must have all the info you need. However he doesn't look like the type to spill important info easily." Natsu motioned to the body that was still slumped against the wall.
"Help them getting ready. I'll talk to the guy." Erza marched to the wall where Tamiris was twitching and giving signs of regaining consciousness. He had barely lifted his head from the ground when a hand grabbed the collar of his cloak and hoisted him up until his feet didn't touch the ground. "You are in charge of this, I assume…!" a pleasant female voice asked. Tamiris had to cough to clear his voice but he answered, "Yes. And you are…?" He let the question hang but soon it became clear that she was not going to answer, "What do you want?" he said while maintaining visual contact with the woman. "I am searching for a person, a woman to be more precise."
"There are many women, sorry, can't help you."
Erza pushed the man to the wall, now holding him by the neck, "This woman has a distinctive trait, she was seen wearing a bandana in her wrist and has a sort of dish, some call it a mirror, for weapon."
Tamiris instantly recognized the person but should he rat her out? Despite her betrayal? Suddenly the hand on his neck disappeared and he was sliding down the wall when a deafening noise and more dust surrounded him. He was no longer sliding down and what had stopped his fall were swords, dozens of swords were pining him by his clothes to the wall and if he did the most slight movement they would slice his skin. Then he felt a sword prickle his neck. He gulped and the tip of the sword broke his skin leaving a thin line of blood oozing down.
"I don't have much patience, talk." Erza said in a commanding voice.
"Alright, you're looking for Astargatis but, tough luck, I have no idea about where she may be," he stopped and remembered Harpocrates and his insubordination, "but I know someone that may have more information. He must be in one of the ante-rooms over there." He gestured to the wall. "He may know more of her whereabouts." His voice adopted a sly tone.
Erza noticed this and narrowed her eyes. She made a decision and knocked out the man and, stepping back, released the swords while seeing the man fall to the ground from where he didn't move.
She rubbed her hands on her skirt, feeling a bit grossed out with the man and she went back to her friends. Lucy's eyes were now open and alert even if she was looking dead tired but Erza didn't fail to notice that Gray was still out cold, now having his head pillowed in one of Natsu's legs.
"I'm going in, may have a lead. You better stay here. When I'm done we'll go back to the village. Natsu, if anyone tries to mess with you, you know what to do." At Natsu's nod she turned in her heels and went to the wall. Equipping a giant hammer she swung it and teared the wall apart. When it crumbled entirely a sort of maze with many entrances came to sight.
'A maze? Oh well, if I knock down all the walls I won't be lost. A straight line it is so here we go.' Wall after wall came down and under the mess Erza could notice signs of occupation of these rooms inside the maze but so far they had been all deserted. Then a rumble came from behind and she had time to see the walls coming back up. 'What the –'
She took a step back, realizing she was trapped. But how? In the dim light she couldn't see much and the room looked pretty deserted. Then a voice came from somewhere in front of her, "What do you want?"
Erza frowned, what was wrong with these people and manners? She didn't answer, deciding to walk towards the place where she thought he was instead. A rustling showed her that her interlocutor was moving. With a flash of light she equipped an armour that was both strong and light – which added some speed. Her blind charge proved correct when she connected with a body. But in the precise moment she got a hold of the other person a wall sprouted from the floor between them.
"The hell!" she gasped while jumping back. The other person was laughing.
"You may try but you won't get me." He taunted. Erza's expression became much more annoyed, a cold look in her eyes and her lips curved downwards. 'He is trying to annoy me and if I do any thoughtless movement he'll raise a wall…' she thought while equipping a large mace, 'but he won't be able to do anything if I manage to break down every single wall!' With a powerful swing she hit the wall and destroyed it, dust and pieces of clay crumbling to the floor, locking gazes with her foe. He backed up and, with a gulp, noticed that his back had hit a wall.
"So, now you're going to answer to all my questions…" said Erza in a deadly serious voice. When he motioned, still insisting, to escape she finally closed in and buried the sword in the wall, millimetres from his nose. Harpocrates gave up and fell to his knees.
"Now, as I was saying…"
When she returned to the main room of the temple, dragging Harpocrates by the cloak, her friends were still basically the same way as before, Lucy now much more awake. Erza raised an eyebrow at the small pile of bodies that weren't there before.
"Okay guys, I think we got everything we could from here. We should get out of here and into a more comfortable place. Do you have a room here?" A soft cough signalled that Lucy was about to speak, "Yes, we have in the village."
Erza nodded in confirmation. "Let's go then." She extended her hand and helped Lucy to stand up and saw her legs wobble slightly then she approached Natsu, Gray and Happy. With a sigh she hoisted Gray up (taking care to maintain him covered with the cloak) and holding him bridal-style she started walking towards the former entrance.
"Come on guys, before it gets too warm outside." Behind Natsu was helping Lucy and Happy was hovering tiredly over their heads.
The group left the temple unmindful of the people scattered in the surroundings. Erza walked straight to the village while thinking about the new information she had collected and thinking about what might have happened so that her friends had been involved into this mess.
She had set a steady rhythm that the others shouldn't have trouble following. They had crossed a large expanse of desertic landscape with occasional temples, statues or obelisks sighted far away and at odd times. After what looked like hours and felt even worse due to the temperature spiking, they entered the village by a different side but Natu and Lucy's previous explorations served them well and in no time they were heading to the Inn. With a slight wave towards the reception desk, they quickly went to Natsu's room. After carefully laying Gray on the bed, Erza was about to peel off the cloak and look at Gray's injuries. Natsu stopped her by sinking into the bed and stilling her hand. "I'll take care of him. It won't be the first time, anyways…" he said in a tired voice.
Erza straightened, blinked and seemed to want to say something then closed her mouth and nodded. She went to Lucy, who was slumped in the chair by the table, and helped her up, pulling one arm over her shoulders and circling the other's waist. She was almost dragging Lucy out the room while saying "Very well. Patch him up, take care of him and try to rest a bit, you're not looking so good." Then the door closed with a soft click.
Natsu sighed and wearily passed his hand through his hair. "Do you need help Natsu?" Happy's voice pierced the silence of the room.
Natsu gave a crooked smile at the wall and got up from the bed. "No, thanks Happy. You can go to sleep that I've got it covered." He said while circling the bed and lightly petting the cat's head. The he went to the conjoined bathroom and returned with a bowl of water and a cloth. It would be better if Gray took a bath but for now a superficial clean-up would have to suffice. He neared the bed and cursed at having to be, once again, on this position. After all, it hadn't been that long since they had had that Spyroglals incident… and other things. With a frown he berated himself for letting his mind stray in this moment in which he had to focus. He placed the bowl in the bedside table and opened the cloak, leaving Gray's form bare. He dipped the cloth on the bowl and gently started cleaning the majority of the dust, grime and – he grimaced – dried blood. Soon the water turned murky and he had to go to the bathroom to refill the bowl with clean water. He took the time to get also the medical kit. When he returned to Gray's side, as he was handling him cautiously, he had to stop several times due to the shaking of his hands. He stopped at each time to breathe deeply and, with clenched teeth continued working. Oh, the rage that each and every one of the bruises that marred Gray's body – and the semi-healed wounds from before – were making him boil with anger once again. One part of him wanted to go back to the temple and destroy it (even further) and beat each and every person that had been there and allowed this atrocity while other part wanted to shake Gray awake, yell at him for his stupidity and shackle him to a bed so that he had no option but to rest as he was supposed to. What ridiculous idea had crossed that mind of his to leave Magnolia? He was so going to have an earful. And Natsu was perfectly conscious of how he could get once out of his mind. Gray was going to wish never wanting to accomplish whatever he had wanted to prove, Natsu was going to make sure of that.
But all that was for later. Now he had to dress the wounds and put him under the bed sheets. Muttering under his breath that he was getting too good at taking care of an injured Gray, Natsu finished bandaging his friend and lay him under the bed sheet – having a brief discussion with himself if he should dress him some undergarments, idea which he, with a roll of his eyes, discarded – and he threw the covers and cloak to the floor. Then Natsu stopped. Gray was settled and Happy was laying in the table. Natsu figured that he could give him a bit more of comfort so he balled the covers and put them on the table. Then he laid Happy over the makeshift bed.
Now tiredness was creeping in and the bed's calls were getting louder. Natsu went to the bathroom where he got ready for bed, cleaning most of the gore from himself. Returning to the bedroom, he sat on the bed in the same place he had sat before and was going to turn off the room's light source when his eyes focused on Gray's collarbone, more precisely at the place where Natsu had bitten him before. The mark was bright red – which was a stark contrast with the other's usual white skin. Natsu stilled for moments then decided that he should better worry with it later and turned off the light.
He let himself fall to the bed and throwing an arm over his eyes, his last thought was, 'So, we're back at this again, huh?' before Gray's peaceful breathing lulled him to oblivion.
A/N: Here goes, another chapter done! Yay! It's small but there's a little bit of development. It's cool how the OST can get one motivated to write (^^) And I expect that the dialogues weren't too painful to read…
Anyway, hope you like the chapter, there's still more to come. A huge thanks to those who took the time to hit the review button. That said, please review.
