"How could you let this happen? How can you call yourself a Dragon Slayer when you can't even kill a single Dragon?"
The words reverberated in Natsu's head as he relived his vision from the start again. Lucy had melted away into nothing, and he was back staring at the monster of a dragon that stood over the remains of the guildhall. Something in the very back of his head was telling him that this wasn't real, but his body was so shot full of adrenaline he wasn't listening. Lucy's scent has gotten stronger with every repeat of the delusion but now it was so strong he thought she was right beside him. When he got back to the Cathedral Lucy's screams never stopped, and she simply sat there, staring at him with her bloody eyes and mouth locked open. He crouched down in front of her, grabbing a hold of her shoulders and shaking them, trying to pull her out of her screams.
His eyes shot open, and he saw the white hospital ceiling above him. His breathing was ragged, and he felt a fire burning up inside of his body. What the fuck was going on?
"Natsu?"
The voice was quiet, and he moved his head up to see Lucy staring up at him, fingers entwined in his. As soon as he saw her, everything came flooding back. The church they had gone to, Lucy turning to stone in front of him. Lin.
"Where the fuck is he? I'll kill him."
He struggled to stand, but Lucy shot forward and held him down. Her body spread over his as alarms started to blare around them, and he took a moment before wrapping his own arms around her back, anger dissipating. Nurses ran into the room, and Lucy sat back up as they started to busy themselves with his sensors. She looked into his eyes, resting her hands on his bed but moving out of the way of all of the nurses.
"He's been taken into custody. The Master is at his questioning at the moment."
Natsu growled in frustration, and one of the nurses jumped back, the Dragon Slayer not even noticing what he had done he was so engrossed with the Celestial mage.
"What! Who took him out?"
Tears started to well up in Lucy's eyes, but Natsu didn't notice as the nurses slipped a blood pressure cuff on his arm. Lucy's voice made it into his ears, answering his question as he reached over to grab the fire the nurses had kept burning next to him and shove it into his mouth.
"Gajeel and Bacchus took him down, but…"
"I'll kill them! That bastard was mine!"
The nurses finished writing everything down and left them to it. They had a feeling this was not going to go very well, and they had been told that the best people to calm down the Fairy Tail mages was other guild members. Natsu looked a Lucy and saw tears starting to stream down her face. He paused, anger starting to dissipate slightly.
"Natsu… Levy isn't doing too well. You might want to leave Gajeel alone for a while. And Bacchus has been helping us all out so much… I know you're angry, but it's all over. We're all safe."
Natsu slumped back down onto the bed, eyes closing as he did. Suddenly he was exhausted and he wanted nothing more than to slip back into a sleep that wasn't plagued with nightmares.
"I'll fight them when this is all over if I take them both down I'm stronger than him, right?"
Lucy contemplated for a second. She could tell him about the rune trap they had used, but for now, the idea of fighting the two other mages appeared to calm him down so she just nodded, leaning forward to push his hair out of his face. She could stay there for a little bit longer.
Gajeel smelled Pantherlily coming closer way before he entered the room and turned his head where it was laying on the bed until he could look at the door. Cana had been talking about everything and nothing since the Master left, and her voice had given him something to focus on that wasn't the beeping of Levy's machines and her steady breathing. He watched as his cat walked in, fully transformed into his battle mode with an exceed in each arm. Gajeel sighed in exasperation.
"What do you have on your arms?"
Lily looked at his arms confused for a second, trying to see if there was anything he had missed underneath the exceeds before he realised what Gajeel was getting at. He shot the Dragon Slayer a levelled look that was well practiced through living with the man. To Gajeel's credit, he didn't break his stride.
"Why have you got those two idiots?"
Lily sat down on the chair that Bacchus had vacated, making sure not to jolt the two smaller exceeds in his arms. He looked over at Cobra and Cana, raising an eyebrow in confusion before deciding not to say anything.
"They need the beds, and these two don't technically need them. None of the machines works on them anyway so I'm looking after them. How is Levy doing?"
Gajeel put his face back into the blankets of the bed, trying to block out the too-bright lights of the hospital. He had gone over it so many times, but it never got any easier.
"She's stabilised but she's using up all of her energy on healing right now. It's going to take a while for her to come back around at the current pace. Wendy is still to injured to help her, and none of the other healers are strong enough to have much effect."
Lily's jaw was set firm. He wanted to lean forward and pat his friend on the back, but he knew that wouldn't help. There was only one person who could help him out now, and she wasn't going to be waking up for a while. He was about to open his mouth again before Gajeel continued with his sentence.
"Look, I need you to go and put them with their Dragon Slayers and get over to the Magic Council for me."
Lily leant back in the chair to get a more comfortable position, crossing his legs in front of him. Staying in his larger form for the extended period time he had was starting to drain his magic, and he knew he would have to put the other two exceeds down at some point anyway.
"I thought that Master Makarov was already at the…"
Gajeel looked up from the blankets again, making Lily stop. The man obviously wasn't in the mood to be told anything against what he wanted right now.
"I know he is. But I don't trust him to tell me everything that's said, not like I trust you. Old man's too soft, he'll try to spare my feelings. You spent time in the police, you know what's happening."
Lily sighed, closing his eyes for a second. He could try to argue with Gajeel, sure, but that usually didn't go well even if he wasn't already stressed out. He stood to his feet, turning to leave the room before turning and speaking back over his shoulder.
"I'll pick up a communications lacrima and keep you updated, you'll keep me up to date on how Levy's doing?"
Gajeel nodded, and with that Lily was out of the door. The exceed knew that Gajeel probably wouldn't remember to call him if there was any news, but at least he could make sure he let the man know what was happening with the trial.
As soon as Lily left a silence fell over the room, no one really wanting to break it. It was a few minutes of listening to the beeping of the machines before Cobra spoke from the other bed.
"Was it you, Gajeel? Was it you that took him down?"
Cana looked between the two Dragon Slayers, both sat next to their respective women and refusing to look at each other. Gajeel grunted, before speaking into the blankets, knowing Cobra could hear.
"Yeah, it was me and Bacchus."
Cobra scoffed, and Cana could see his snarl.
"You should have fucking killed him."
A silence fell over the room again. Gajeel couldn't deny that he had thought about it, probably wouldn't have hesitated if the two other men hadn't pulled him off the bastard. Cana couldn't speak, not really knowing what to say to dissolve the tension in the room. She stared down at her hands, twisting them over each other when she heard a cry of anguish from out in the corridor. She went to chase after it before turning around and looking at Cobra. The Dragon Slayer looked up, the tiniest of smiles spreading across his face.
"Go. Thank you, for keeping me company, but your guild needs you. Go to them."
Cana nodded slightly, silently thanking Cobra for his understanding and knowing he could hear her thoughts before turning and running out of the room.
Cana ran into the corridor to see a nurse scream and jump out of the room that the Raijinshuu were being held in. Adding that to the fact that the entire corridor was crackling with electricity and causing the lights to flicker, Cana figured out who had woken up pretty quickly. She ran down past the nurse to see Laxus on his knees. He hadn't made it more than a few inches into the door before he had collapsed, tears rolling down his face. He was gripping onto his left-hand side, and Cana could see blood starting to seep through the bandages wrapped around his chest. Laxus never was one to look after his injuries well. The nurse looked at her and Cana indicated she could handle it, hoping that she was actually telling the truth. She grabbed two pairs of glasses from the wall, slipping one pair over her eyes before trying to hand the others to Laxus. There was no point in trying to get him out before he calmed down.
"Laxus? Do you want to put these on so they can't hurt you?"
"How the fuck can they hurt me? Look what he did to them!"
His voice echoed around the room, and the nurse took another step back. Laxus' hand flailed towards his followers as he spoke before he fell to the side and slammed heavily onto the floor. His voice dropped to a whisper, choking out between tears.
"And I was useless. I did nothing."
Cana squatted down next to him, placing a hand on his shoulder before jerking it away when she was shocked. She sat herself down on the floor, hoping her proximity to him would help him calm down even if it was only slightly. She was about to speak when he whispered again.
"Maybe I deserve for them to hurt me."
Another nurse entered the room, and Cana shooed her away. An unstable Laxus was a dangerous thing, and she couldn't risk people getting hurt. She scooted over so he could see her, lying down to stare into his eyes.
"You know you were the only one who could fight after being teleported? Not even…"
"BUT IT WASN'T ENOUGH!" His eyes had shot open, and there was an explosion behind her when one of the machines blew out from the amount of electricity coursing through it. Laxus did have a tendency to mess with anything electrical, and Cana knew she had to calm him down before he caused any serious damage to the occupants of the room.
"Hey, Sparky. You're messing with the equipment, you need to calm down."
Laxus groaned, tears continuing to make tracks down his cheeks. Cana moved forward, enduring occasional shocks as she pulled his head into her chest and allowed him to cry. She looked up at the nurses who were cowering outside of the door.
"Is it possible to get his bed moved in here? And as many blankets and pillows as possible?"
The nurses looked between each other, not sure whether they should obey the orders this woman was giving them. In the end, they decided it was probably best for everyone if they did, and disappeared off to move the Dragon Slayer's equipment into this room.
Cana kept a hold of Laxus as the nurses moved his bed in around them, piled high into a nest with the bedding. She waited until they were in position before she spoke to the man in her arms.
"You ready to get up into bed, honey?"
Laxus nodded, leaning heavily on the card mage as they both got up and she led him over to the bed. It had been crammed into the corner in the only available space not taken up by the other patients in the room. She laid him down on top of the blankets, sitting on one side of the bed while the nurses reattached all of the wires and started to inspect the damage he had done to his chest. One of his broken ribs had jarred through the skin when he had fallen to the floor, and Cana held his hand as it was put back into place and re-bandaged. His crying had subsided, but Cana kept rubbing circles on the back of his hand all the same. He was staring at the Raijinshuu in a line, still refusing to wear any glasses although Cana supposed it would be ok until it was time to change their bandages.
"I couldn't help them, Cana."
His voice was choked and she had to strain her ears to hear him properly.
"Those guys would follow me to the gates of hell and beyond, and I couldn't save them. They're all hurting, because of me."
Cana didn't know what to say. She brought her hand up to run through his hair slowly, and he subconsciously moved his head back into her fingers.
"I… I don't know why. Before… before I was banished I knew. I thought I was God's gift to Earthland, of course, they would worship me! I was the Thunder God! But now… now I am nothing. Why do they follow someone so fucking worthless?"
He descended into tears again, and Cana sighed. No one knew why the Raijinshuu followed Laxus apart from them. She couldn't answer that, but at least she could try.
"They must have their reasons. I don't know exactly why those three are almost immune to the guild's gossip mill so you probably know more about their past than anyone. But they're all incredibly strong mages. Freed's a leader in his own right, Evergreen is the type of woman who bows to no one and Bickslow is… well, Bickslow. But they remain loyal to you, and they remained loyal to you throughout your banishment. They're not going to blame you for this. No one is."
Laxus sobbed but didn't speak again. It was a few minutes later that his breathing regulated, and Cana knew he had gone to sleep. She watched him for a second before realising just how tired she was, and standing up off the bed she started to head back to Bacchus. She could think of nothing better than sitting on his lap and drifting off into sleep.
A/N - Sorry this is so short, but it's a day early right?
Thanks to everyone for their support, it makes me a happy bunny :)
