Chapter 14
At the guild
"Master, who goes next?" the fairy tail members ask, in a big ramble.
"Shhhh!" Master Makarov shouts and pounds his very large fist onto the floor to the side of him. "Whose still to be seen, that's missing?"
"Bookworm" Gajeel grunts with his arms crossed.
"Ever" Elfman says. "And L-"
"Lisanna" Bixlow finishes and Elfman nods.
"And Bisca" sighs Alzack.
"Daddy?" Asuka looks up to Alzack.
"Yes, sweetie?" he asks concerned seeing her sad expression.
"I miss Mummy." She cries into his arms.
"There's no need to worry, we'll get her back." He smiles down to her.
"Maybe, we should leave you know who till later." Master Makarov whispers to the guild, aiming it at Alzack. "Maybe when she's fell asleep or something."
"Okay" he weakly smiles.
"Well Gaj-" Makarov starts before Natsu, Laxus and Gajeel hush him.
"Someone's coming!" Gajeel and Laxus say.
"Relax" Natsu sighs in relief.
Suddenly Gajeel perked up. "I'd recognize that stink anywhere, hehe."
The guild doors burst open and two figures could just be made out.
"Rogue" smirks Gajeel.
"Sting" Natsu smirks.
"You didn't need to say that I stink!" Rogue shouts as, he began to charge towards Gajeel.
Sting however put his arm up in front of Rogue, holding him back and Rogue immediately stopped. Both their faces grew serious. "We need to speak with Makarov." Sting says.
"I'm right here." Makarov says as he hops off his seat and stands in front of them. "What brings you here?"
"We're hoping you can help." Rogue says as Sting takes a deep breath in.
"Yukino and Minerva disappeared!" Sting shouts.
"Not them too!" the guild shouts.
"Wha?" the Twin Dragon Slayers gasp.
The boys all took their turns at telling the pair what had happened on their jobs and how when they returned to the guild, they found out that some of the other girls had disappeared too. They told them about Lucy's letter and Juvia read it to them. They also told them about the lacrima and that they had seen some of the girls fight and what not and the kidnapper. To say that they were shocked was the understatement of the year.
"Now Sting, Rogue, tell us what happened." Master Makarov says and they nod in agreement.
The pair exchange glazes and then turn to tell the story. "Well, it all started when we were coming back from a job we had just finished."
Flashback
"Man, that was great. I've not been on a job in ages!" Sting says as he stretches.
"Idiot!" Rogue and Minerva spring in unison, when they realised that they had thought the same thing they fist pumped.
"What?" Sting asks clearly confused as he tilts his head at them.
This of course earned him a giggle from Yukino. "Sting, it's only been 2 weeks since you're last job, silly."
"Oh, well I guess time slows when you're left filling out paperwork and doing boring things." He laughs with his arms stretched behind his head.
They were currently walking home from a job that Sting had seen, since he was workfree he jumped at the chance to take it. He had snatched it off the board as soon as he seen it and ran over to his friends to ask them if they would want to go on it. Yukino and Rogue were sitting at a table in the guild doing some paperwork to help him out and Minerva was just walking over to join them. And so that's how they ended up walking home back towards Sabertooth absolutely knackered.
"Minerva, how about you come to mine tomorrow and we can have a sleepover. Oh, and we can bake, watch movies or anything you want!" Yukino exclaims joyfully as the two walked in front of the boys together.
"W-wait, y-you want m-me to s-stay at y-your house even a-after everthing I-I d-did?" Minerva stutters astonished.
Yukino put her hand on Minerva's shoulder and smiled brightly. "That's all forgotten M, we need a girly day."
Minerva still looked uneasy at her with a sad expression. Meanwhile the boys were watching and listening to the whole thing pan out, it was nice what Yukino was doing and it would do so good for Minerva to forgive herself.
"Plus, we're friends and friends are there for each other no matter what." Yukino's smile beams even brighter.
"We're f-friends?" Minerva smiles shocked.
"Best" Yukino replies.
Minerva felt moisture on her face, it was tears. She hadn't cried in so long, so long that she couldn't remember the last time she had cried. She smiled and grabbed Yukino into a strong hug.
"Thank you Yukino!" Minerva sobs.
"There's no need to thank me." Yukino giggles as she wraps her arms around Minerva.
When Minerva finally let go, the girls were suddenly aware that the boys had stopped behind them. "Sorry guys." Minerva says wiping her tears away.
"Don't apologise" Sting says smiling at the scene.
"We're glad that you feel happy and at home again." Rogue says with the same bright smile Sting wears.
Yukino turned back to face Minerva. "So, are we on for tomorrow?" she asks.
"Of course, I wouldn't pass that offer from you in a lifetime." She smiles.
"Great!" Yukino shouts as she jumps up and down clapping while they start walking again.
Sting, Rogue and Minerva couldn't help but laugh at how childish she was acting but it made them happy. They continued walking again with the girls at the front and the boys behind. The girls continued talking about what they could do and were arranging times and stuff like that, they hadn't noticed that the boys had stopped to look in the window of some shop at something. The girls were quite ahead now but were still easy to see.
"Yukino, did you hear something or is it just me?" Minerva asks uneasy.
"Nope, it's not just you, I heard a weird noise too." She replies as her head whips around looking everywhere.
"Yukino!" Minerva shouts scared as she hears another noise, only louder. (bet you're wondering why she's all jumpy and not acting all hard, well she has just had an emotional event and she is happy and overwhelmed with emotions that she hasn't had since she was little.)
"What's happening up there?" Sting asks Rogue as they turn their attention back to the girls.
"No idea, Minerva's probably still reeling from all this." Rogue laughs as the two begin to walk back to the girls. (By the way, they see/watch all the events to come.)
Yukino's head snapped to her left as it caught sight of something, Minerva was at her right side just turning her head to see what Yukino was eyeing up and to get a better view she walked in front of Yukino to get a better view. Then it came into vision, a magic arrow coming straight for them, but Yukino seen it first and knew she had to react or it would hit Minerva. "MOVE!" she shouts, pushing Minerva back/ to the side, out of the way.
Minerva and the boys' eyes widened as they watched the arrow pierce Yukino in the ribs and with its strength, pulls her back and she slams into a wall.
"YUKINO!" The trio shout. Minerva pulled Yukino off the wall and onto her lap, as Yukino coughed up blood. The boys run the fasted they've ever ran before to reach the pair and fall to their knees.
"Yukino?" they look down to her with worried eyes.
"Why did you save me Yukino?!" Minerva exclaims.
"That's… a really… stupid question." Yukino coughs.
Sting put his hand on her shoulder. "We'll get you back to the guild, you're gonna be okay."
She playfully punched him on the shoulder weakly. "Man up princess, of course I'm gonna be okay," she smirks. "but I would take this any day over it being any of you." She says looking at Minerva as if to answer her question.
"God, so stubborn." Rogue says, shaking his head.
"As always." Sting and Minerva grin.
"Hey, at least I've mastered the art of being stubborn." She pouts and causes them to burst out in laughter.
"How can you be so…jolly? You've been impaled by an arrow for Mavis' sake!" Minerva shouts.
"Calm down, I'm fine." She says so calmly that it's scary.
"No, you're not!" the trio shout at her.
Suddenly other arrows come straight towards them but before the boys can react, Minerva seems to grab a hold of herself again. "Territory!" she shouts and the arrows all disappear.
Yukino tried to get up from Minerva's lap while they were distracted. But she failed because she looked up to find Sting pushing her back down. "Don't think so."
"Fine," she sighs. "I'll do it from here then."
Rogue signalled to Minerva that the coast was clear, the attackers must have retreated, so now they were fixed on Yukino, who was lifting her hand with a new silver key in it. "Open, Gate of the Mystic Deer: Spirigan!" she yells weakly.
Right before their eyes, a beautiful majestic white dear appeared. It had gold antlers and its snow-white coat looked so fluffy and warm. They all just about jumped out of their skin except Yukino of course when it talked. "Yukino, my dear, how can I help yo-" his voice was filled with authority but was so gentle and kind at the same time, he cut himself off when he seen her injury.
"Could you heal this please?" she asks smiling.
"Of course, child." He trots towards her and stops centimetres away. He lowers his head but then stops. "Yukino"
"Oh right, sorry." She laughs slightly. Out of nowhere, she pulls the arrow out of her, causing a little scream in pain. Sting held her free hand as she squeezed it tightly.
"Why did you do that?!" they exclaim.
"He can't heal me if I didn't." she says.
Spirigan lowers his head again and stops when one of his gold antlers rests on her wound. A bright light shines and it looks as if gold dust sprinkles from his antlers onto her. "Done" he says, rising.
"Thank you, Spirigan." She smiles and begins to stand up with the help of Minerva and Rogue. And in that moment, Spirigan was gone as quick as he appeared.
"We should figure out what all that was." Sting says.
"I can use the arrow and follow their scent." Rogue nods.
"I'll go with you." Minerva says.
Yukino tried to stand up but failed when Rogue and Minerva let her go, she stumbled back and nearly fell but Sting caught her.
"Sting, stay with Yukino." Rogue says.
"And god help you if she gets hurt." Minerva scowls and sends a shiver down Stings back.
"O-okay! I won't let anything happen to her." He says and the two nod at him and set off.
"Sting we ne-" Yukino started, still in his hold.
"Not a chance." He interrupts. He takes her over to the wall behind them and sits her down against it.
"But-" she starts again.
"No buts Yukino." He says.
"Okay" she replies, giving in and he grins when he realises he won. "Ugghh, stop rubbing it in!" she says as she pushes his face away with her hand, making them both burst out in laughter.
"I hope they've found something." He sighs and stands up facing away from her. "I'll keep watch."
"Me too, I want to go home." She sighs back.
…
"Rogue, what direction now?" Minerva asks as she notices his abrupt stop.
"It's gone, let's go back and we can investigate tomorrow." he says, turning to face her.
"What" she asks noticing his face, he stood looking at her wide eyed.
"Minerva!" he shouts. "You-you're glowing!"
Minerva looked down and jumped in fright. "Oh my mavis!"
"Quick, let's go back and see if they know what's going on, maybe Yukino knows something, she's smart, right?" he says very quckly.
"I don't know who's more afraid here." She says half laughing, half scared.
…
"They've been gone a while." Sting says. "Geez, can't they hurry up a bit more."
"Oh, give them a break." She sighs. "They're probably-"
"Probably what?" he asks, keeping look out.
"Never mind." She grins.
"No, come on tell me! Yukino, what do I not know!" he whines.
"Well, Rogue likes Minerva, right?" she asks.
"Yeah, but you can't say anything!" he says.
"Well, Minerva likes Rogue." She says.
"So?" he asks.
"Mavis," she sighs. "Put two and two together."
She sighed again seeing the fact that Sting looked utterly lost, he was completely oblivious. "They're probably smooching." She grins.
"What!" he turns to her.
"Wow, you're slow." She says. She feels uncomfortable with the look she was getting though. "I was only kidding!"
"It's not that! You're glowing!" he shouts as he runs to her.
"Don't be stupi-" she looks at her body and sure enough it was. "I'm glowing!"
Sting crouched down next to her and grabbed her hand, only to find that he couldn't. "You're hand!"
Yukino opened her mouth to reply but snapped it shut when she saw and heard Rogue and Minerva. "Sting, Yukino!"
"Minerva's glowing too?!" Sting shouts confused, too much was happening.
"What?!" they all shout.
"Yukino!" Minerva shouts as she runs to the petite girl.
"Minerva, it's happening to you too!" she shouts.
"We were hoping you knew what was happening to Minerva but it seems that you don't." Rogue says.
"What do we do?" Sting asks, they were all very worried now.
"I have no clue" Rogue says.
"When I tried to grab Yukino's hand, I felt nothing, my hand fell right through!" Sting says.
The boys walked up to the girls and lay a hand of them and just like Sting described happened, they felt nothing. Seeing their faces and what had happened, Yukino lifted her arm and tried to swipe it through the other, but nothing happened.
"How can I, but you can't?" Yukino gasps and Minerva copied her actions.
"Same for me" Minerva says.
The two boys stood talking to each other, coming up with strategies while the two girls were speechless and Yukino got to her feet now that the healing was fully taking affect.
"Minerva!" Yukino shouts.
"EEE!" She squeals.
The boys snap out of their conversation and turned to the girls just in time to hear Yukino shout. "We're disappearing!"
"Great, things couldn't get any worse!" Minerva reacts.
"I don't want to be jinxed, thank you very much!" she shouts.
"You're disappearing!" the boys shout, their jaws practically reaching the ground.
"Jeez, a bit slow much." Minerva says.
"Keep up." Yukino sighs. "I would slap all three of you, but like, I don't have any hands."
Sting ran up to Yukino and started shaking her (the whole not being able to touch them had stopped when they started to disappear) and Rogue did the same to Minerva.
"How can you be so calm?!" Sting shouts, shaking her.
"You're disappearing for Mavis' sake!" Rogue adds, shaking her.
Right then the Dragon Slayers' words became to truly settle into both girls minds as their eyes widened in fear and panic.
"Wait! Where are we going?!" Yukino squeals, shrinking in Stings arms.
"Are we dying?!" Minerva asks, a shoot of fear in it.
"No!" Rogue shouts.
"We'll find yous, I'll find you." Sting says as he hugs Yukino and kisses her lightly on the forehead and she squeezes him. "I promise."
"Minerva, listen to me." Rogue says and she looks up to him (their in a hug too). "You don't need to worry. We'll find the reason to this and beat the crap out it or them."
"I trust you" she smiles and then buries her head back into his chest.
Within seconds the two boys fell into thin air, the girls were gone and the only thing on their minds. Finding them.
End of Flashback
"And so, we came here, because we thought you might know Makarov." Sting says sadly.
"But now we see that you are in the same situation." Rogue finishes.
"Well now that we know everything." Makarov starts.
"We can go barge in!" Natsu shouts excitedly and was that a look of impatience and worry.
"Natsu, we don't know anything, you eejit!" Bixlow says.
"If our suspicions are correct then the same man has taken them." Juvia says.
"Well done" they hear a voice say and clapping hands. The communication lacrima had opened to show the masked man yet again. The sight of him made everyone sick to their stomach.
"Did you take Yukino and Minerva?!" Sting and Rogue shout.
"Why don't you see for yourselves." He chuckles, gesturing to the other lacrima. "Yukino and Minerva."
"Wha" they gasp.
The lacrima jolted into life again and the robot voice spoke. "Yukino- Celestial Spirit Mage, owner of 3 Zodiacs including the 13th , among others keys. Minerva- Uses Territory magic, Space Mage. Showing room YuMi."
"Like it, I combined their names since their sharing a room." The masked man cackles. "Have fun"
And without another word he was gone. The guild members and the Twin Dragon Slayers turned to face the screen as it materialised.
Sorry, this one took a while do write. Hope you like it ?