After dropping off Crystal, and bringing the victims to a hospital, the search teams plus Laxus returned to the guild, meeting Gajeel's team half way there.

The iron dragon slayer made his annoyance about missing the fight verbal, but quickly calmed down with a word from Levy. He laughed almost immediately after punching Laxus roughly in the chest.

"Seems I missed quite the show!" He grinned, his aggravation still evident, but held in check by his curiosity. "So what happened? You saved the day or what, Sparky?"

"Would you be surprised if I said I did?" Laxus grinned wryly at him, swatting Gajeel's hand away as the dragon slayer tried to take another swing.

"No." He laughed loudly.

"So what did happen?" Levy asked, her interest piqued.

"We'll explain everything when we get to the guild." Erza answered, "I'd like to inform the Master about what had happened while he was gone anyway."

"I can't believe the guild hall pretty much blew up while he was gone." Lucy said.

"Yeah, he's going to be pissed." Laxus sighed, already prepared for his grandfather's shouting.

"Everything turned out alright in the end," Natsu grinned, running ahead, and slamming open the doors to the guild hall. "We're back!" He shouted.

As soon as he said that the guild was on their feet, pestering them for details on the battle. After a shout from Makarov, who had just returned and been briefed on what caused the disaster in his office, the guild seated themselves and waited with bated breath to hear what exactly had happened.

As they explained what had occurred in the following hours as the guild pestered them with questions. What did the liquid do? What was her reasoning? Did they tell you what guild they were from? What did it smell like exactly?

It had been some time since someone had attacked any of them for revenge, so pretty much everyone present had a question that had to do with 'why'. Why us, why Lucy, why steal her magic. To Laxus it felt like he was explaining something to a toddler. But one question threw him.

"What was it like, Laxus? Were you aware you were in the jar?" Romeo had asked him this. And for a moment he didn't have an answer for the teen. He had had an idea of what was happening to him, but it wasn't immediate at the time.

"Yeah." He paused, "But no at the same time. I was in like a trance. She made me see things, probably to keep me in line. But I broke out of it somehow, and was stuck in nothing for a while." He huffed in annoyance recalling what he went through, "And then I woke up, naked and cold."

"Sounds like the morning after drinking with Cana." Wakaba teased.

"That was only one time!" shouted Cana, her face already flushed as she gripped a mug like it was a lifeline.

The guild erupted in laughter, but quickly quieted themselves to hear the rest of what Laxus had to say. He knew they wanted more details, but he wasn't about telling them everything he saw in the dream-state he had. Even as Lucy stared at him, her curiosity evident, he shook his head, claiming he couldn't recall more.

The smaller blonde could tell he was lying and pouted slightly as the guild realized they'd get no more details, and began heading off to their previous activities. Sighing, Lucy walked away from the table their group was seated at.

No sooner did she leave the safety of the wooden table, Cana had rushed to her side, pulling her into a hug and lead her to the bar. Seating the frazzled blonde, both the drunk and Mirajane began pestering her with their own questions.

"So?" Cana slurred, "You played the knight in shining armor this time around. Did you confess to your …princess?"

"What!" Lucy squeaked. A few people glanced their way, so Lucy quieted herself, "No. I didn't."

"Why not?" Mira asked, cleaning a glass that had been sitting on the bar. "You told me you figured out who you'd choose didn't you?"

"Really~" Cana hooked an arm around the blonde, "If you know how you feel, why don't you go tell them. We can wait for the juicy details." She turned the stool Lucy sat on, spinning her quickly before pulling her out of the seat suddenly. "Come on I'll bring you over to them!"

"Cana, no." She pulled her arms away, giving the brunette a hard glare before glancing down and sighing, "I can do this without any help." She gave her a nervous smile before she headed over to the table where all four dragon slayers sat, Natsu and Gajeel arguing over something.

They stopped their scuffling as she approached, looking up to watch her, a knowing grin spreading on the sky dragon slayer's face.

"I'll leave you guys alone, C'mon Wendy." He picked up the smaller dragon slayer, bringing her over to another table where Levy and Romeo sat, likely discussing the book the girl had in her hands.

Lucy smiled gratefully at the retreating slayer before turning her attention to the two remaining ones. "I need to talk to you two."

Laxus leaned back, his expression calm, but concern flitted across his visage briefly as she spoke. "Alright." He said, "What would you like to talk about."

"What's up Luce?" Natsu asked, smiling happily, masking his same concern. They both knew what she was there to tell them, and while they both wanted her to choose one of them, neither wanted to be the one who was rejected.

"Can we go outside?" She asked, glancing back at the bar, "I'd prefer to keep this conversation private at the moment."

The pair nodded, both standing up to follow the blonde outside.

(To be continued...)

Only Crystal is my character, All other named characters are property of Hiro Mashima from his series, Fairy Tail.

This is meant to be a fan fiction, written by a fan (Shey), for entertainment purposes only.