Dragon Instinct

Chapter Fourteen

Freed knelt down at the edge of the trees writing in the last of his runes. It had taken all night but he and Laxus had finally come up with a battle plan for their attack on Serpent's Tongue. According to the intel they had managed to gather, the guild only had fifteen members. Freed was certain they had at least five more than that, but there were only fifteen official members. None of them were very strong. There were quite a few fire mages, which Freed though was interesting. If Ivan had been spying on Fairy Tail, surely he knew Natsu was still a member and could eat any fire thrown at him. What had surprised Freed is according to anything he could find, the guild didn't have any mages that specialized in either Solid Script or Rune Magic. Magic of words was the best kind of defensive magic there was. The only thing that would explain that lack of defense in Freed's mind was that they were a dark guild who didn't think they needed a defense plan.

Based on that small info they had come up with the best battle plan they could in the limited amount of time they had. They would attack during the dark. Daylight was entirely too dangerous. They could get arrested by the magic council for starting a war with another guild. Freed would set up the defensive runes before they could enter the building. Freed hated having to use runes before a battle as it lessened his magic power, but he knew it was needed this time. They needed to make sure they made it home to Eliana. After the runes were laid, they would attack the guild, each member of the Raijinshuu attacking from a different side of the guild hall.

He smirked as he finally finished the last rune.

"There, that should do it."

"What'd you do?"

Freed turned to Bickslow slowly.

"These runes will keep any member of the guild who is not in the guild hall at the moment from entering the guild hall until we leave."

"That's fantastic Freed," Evergreen said with a grin. "So, ready to go."

"Let's go teach these people a lesson," Laxus said with a small smirk.

Freed couldn't help but feel a spike of adrenaline rush through him at those words. He had missed fighting alongside Laxus. He forced himself to concentrate running for the building quickly, slipping in as quietly as possible. As soon as Freed stepped inside he knew things weren't going to go the way he had planned. For one, the guild was entirely too big to only hold fifteen members. For another, the main room of the guildhall was filled to the brim with people watching every entrance. They were caught. Somehow they had been figured out and they had walked right into a trap. Freed cursed his ignorance. Any other time he would have realized it was a trap before even entering the building but he had let himself become distracted.

"Attack!" A voice cried out, and all the sudden pandemonium broke out around the room, and curses were flying everywhere. Freed tried to keep up with the wizards who were throwing curses at him, but it was hard. They had at least triple the amount of people waiting for them than they had thought were in the guild. It seemed as if the battle stretched on forever. As many mages as Freed took out with his runes, it seemed another one popped up in their place. If this kept up he was going to run out of magic energy fast.

Freed spun away from a mage sending a fireball at him and drew runes quickly in the air.

"Dark Ecriture: Fear!"

Freed jumped back quickly spinning to the mages across the room as the man in front of him crumbled in on himself. He normally wouldn't use Fear so quickly, but this battle had gone on a lot longer than he had expected. If they wanted to get out before the runes he drew outside the building disappeared, they would need to pick up the pace. He sighed, scanning the room as he dodged a shard of ice. He couldn't see how Bickslow and Evergreen were doing, but it seemed as if Laxus was faring well. He wasn't surprised. From the research they'd done, Serpent's Tongue didn't have many mages on Laxus' level.

He stepped out from behind the crate he was hiding behind, about to cast an ecriture on the ice mage aiming for him when he realized his feet weren't moving. He looked down quickly seeing purple runes surrounding his feet.

"What the hell?"

He knelt down trying to break the runes, when he heard a voice from behind him.

"You shouldn't have let your guard down. You know better than that."

Freed froze, his spine stiffening. He knew that voice. He'd heard it his entire life. He could pick out that voice from a crowd in his sleep. He tried to turn slowly, but his body seemed to have slowly fallen under the paralysis of the runes.

"You've really become pathetic Freed. There was a time you wouldn't hesitate to have cast Pain and Suffering on all of the people in this guild hall. That was your mistake and now you're going to have to pay for it."

Freed tried to take a deep breath, concentrating on the puzzle of the runes in front of him. If he could just break one rune he would be free, and he could take out the imposter behind him.

"Dark Ecriture: Suffering!"

Laxus stepped away from the fallen form of the mage in front of him panting. He was using entirely too much magical energy for the amount of people left in the guild, and they still hadn't seen his father once. He was about to round on another wizard when a scream tore across the room. Laxus didn't have to stop to think to recognize that voice. He spun quickly turning towards the direction of the voice. Bickslow and Evergreen paused in the middle of their own battles turning to him. He could feel the color drain out of his face. The scream sounded like pure pain. He'd never heard Freed sound like that before.

He turned back to the Serpent's Tongue guild members who were beginning to rise to take advantage of his distraction. He could feel his heart beginning to race, his body urging him to run to Freed's side to protect him. He couldn't lose his mate, no matter what. But if he abandoned this fight then surely they would lose and Ivan would see another take where he could take Eliana from him. He was beginning to call lightning into his palm when another scream echoed through the room. This one louder and rawer than the last.

"Freed!" Shouted turning towards the sound once again. He couldn't block out the sound of Freed's pain any longer.

"Go Laxus, go to him, I'll cover you." Evergreen shouting at him before pulling off her glasses.

He didn't need to be told twice. He tore across the room, leaping over down mages on the floor and broken furniture. He barrelled through whatever he couldn't jump over. His body barely noticed the pain. He just knew he had to get to Freed's side, immediately. He rounded the corner quickly, pausing when he saw the female mage standing over Freed. She had aged and she looked different, but he still recognized her. She was standing over Freed, her hand in his hair pulling his head back. Laxus couldn't see Freed's face, but he could hear his pained whimpers.

"What the hell did you do to him?" He growled stepping forward, feeling static start to pop out over his body.

The mage turned to him slowly smirking. It wasn't a look he was used to seeing on her face, despite their differences she had never looked at him like that. She tossed her hair over her shoulder walking towards him.

"How nice of you to join us Laxus. Should have known Freed would have been following you, like always."

"What. Did. You. Do?"

There it was again, the smirk that was so out of place on a face he knew so well. The green hair, the blue eyes, the only thing she was missing was the birth mark and she'd look just like Freed. He didn't know how it happened, but standing in front of him in a leather get up that would put some of Erza's requips to shame was Freya Justine, back from the dead.

"Oh, he's just enjoying a bit of Suffering. Knowing Freed, he's probably watching you die, over and over again. His little obsession does get a little boring, doesn't it?" She asked grinning slowly before turning back to Freed. "Dark Ecriture, Pain!"

Laxus spun quickly, growl escaping his lips as another scream of pain came from Freed. The green hair rune mage collapsing on the floor as Freya let go of his hair.

"Oh? That doesn't upset you, does it?" She asked sweetly. "Perhaps I've been wrong all along. Perhaps you did care about Freed. Did you finally take pity on him and let him into your bed?"

Laxus grit his teeth gathering lightning into his hand. He didn't care who she was. She was going to pay for hurting Freed like this.

"I wouldn't do that if I were you Laxus. One wrong move and I move from Suffering to Death."

"He's your brother! How could you do this to him!?"

"He stopped being my brother the minute he became your puppet!"

"Let him go. Fight me one on one."

"Oh no. Not when I've got collateral right here. I get the feeling you'll do anything I say as long as I have Freed until my control."

Laxus could feel the lightning spiking up without him calling on it. He knew what he needed to do, and he needed to do it fast without her having time to cast her runes. He doubted she would kill Freed if she was planning to use him as collateral. But he wasn't going to take the risk. He pulled in as much strength he could before launching himself forward throwing her off balance.

"Dragon Slayer Secret Art: Roaring Thunder!" He collided with Freya before she had a chance to catch her breath and sent her flying across the room. Freed fell to the ground in a heap unconscious with her runes disappearing from his body due to her lack of concentration.

Laxus didn't give himself time to think. He aimed for Freya again, throwing her into the wall calling on more lighting when he noticed it. Her eyes looked different. Freya had sea green eyes, the same color as Freeds. He had noticed that the first time he met her. Never before had he seen her eyes rimmed in red. He pinned her to the wall by her shoulder letting some of the lightning die down.

"Who's controlling you?!" He growled slowly.

Freyar smirked at him slowly.

"You should pay more attention to your surroundings Laxus. It's foolish to let yourself get distracted."

Laxus jumped back as explosions surrounded him. He turned quickly running to Freed's side and picking him up. He would let her get away this time. At the moment Freed needed him more than he needed to catch Freya.

"Is he going to be okay?" Bickslow asked softly.

"I don't know. Freya really did a number on him."

They were back at their hotel trying to recuperate. Laxus had laid Freed on the bed when they got there, and Freed hadn't moved since. Laxus sat on the bed beside him brushing his hair from his face.

"What are we going to do?" Evergreen asked softly. "Was it really Freya?"

"'Fraid so."

"Blue Pegasus," Freed's voice croaked softly causing Laxus to jump and turn to him.

"What? What would we want with those pretty boys?!" Bickslow asked stunned.

"Blue Pegasus is only about a day's travel away, we need to get there."

"What? Why?" Laxus asked stopping Freed as he tried to sit up. Freed shook off his arm pulling himself into a sitting position.

"We can use their guild hall to regroup, plan, and stock up on supplies." Freed said quietly. "And I need to speak with Eve Tearm."

"Freed, you just woke up, we shouldn't be travelin'."

"We go now, or I go on my own," Freed said turning to Laxus.

Laxus swallowed back his protest at the look in his eyes. He'd never seen Freed look like that before. He stood up from the bed looking at the others.

"You heard the man, let's get packin'."

Freed smiled at him thankfully before sliding out of bed beginning to pack his own things to go.