Chapter 27

Paradise Ruined

Gray

The casino was as busy as we expected. Erza and Lucy had once again gone off on their own, leaving me alone. I took a seat at a Poker Table and joined the game. I was doing pretty well for myself when the blue haired Phantom Lord girl showed up.

"May Juvia join?"

I gave her a glance and turned back to the game. The dealer told her to take a seat, and she took the seat closest to me. The dealer proceeded to deal the cards.

"What are you doing here?" I asked the girl, "I thought the invite was for the mages who took on Galuna Island?"

"It was, but Totomaru gave Juvia his ticket. He didn't want to spend time with Fairy Tail." Juvia replied as she folded.

"And you do?"

"Juvia doesn't think you're as bad as Master says." Juvia replied with a blush, looking away from me.

I looked at Juvia in surprise. I had heard that Natsu got along with Phantom Lord's Gajeel Redfox, but I thought that was just an anomaly.

"Uh, hey buddy." The dealer called to me.

I looked over to the dealer who wore a concerned expression.

"Oh, I need to bet?" I asked as I picked up some chips.

"Um…no, well, yes…" the man seemed really flustered.

"Dude, this isn't strip poker." Another guy at the table told me.

"Ah, come on!" I yelled as I looked down and saw my shirt was on the floor. I looked to Juvia and said, "Why didn't you tell me."

"So handsome…" was all Juvia was muttering.

I cursed at myself as I hurriedly put my clothes back on. As I did so, a new dealer showed up to relieve ours. The new dealer looked about my age. He had tanned skin and blonde hair. The most striking feature about him however was the tattoo of a stylized "5" below his lips. Once all the bets were placed, the new dealer dealt the cards. The moment I picked up a card I felt magic begin to draw me into it. I instantly dropped it, with Juvia having the same reaction. Everyone else at the table wasn't as lucky and were sucked into their card.

The dealer gave a sigh, "I guess this isn't going to be that easy, is it?"

Before I could reply, the entire casino around us turned pitch black and an explosion rang out from another part of the casino. I grabbed for Juvia, but to my surprise, it only felt like there was water there. The water proceeded to knock me away and onto the ground as a faint light began to illuminate in the darkness. I looked in the direction of the light, but it was too dim to really make out what was making it.

As I picked my self off the floor, someone's fist crashed into my face knocking me back down. I took my ice make stance and summoned spikes of ice around me outward, in order to deter whoever was attacking me. I was then able to get back up. It was still pitch black in the area as I heard footsteps running towards me. A few feet away from me, I heard the person leap forward. I cancelled out my spell, causing it to break instantly, and jumped to the side.

"Gah!" I heard a male voice cry out as the person hit the floor uncomfortably.

"Ice Make: Lance!"

I launched a barrage of ice lances in the direction of my assailant. However, the lack of response from the person seemed to indicate I had missed my mark.

It was then that a bright flame began to light up the area. The light emitted from the flame drove off the darkness somewhat. Unlike the light from before, I could easily make out the source of the flame.

"Erza, Lucy, Gray!" A certain fire dragon slayer shouted out, "Are you guys okay?"

"I've got Lucy!" a second familiar voice shouted back.

"Natsu, what are you doing here?" Erza yelled through the darkness.

"Saving you guys!" Natsu yelled back, "Gray! Someone's coming at you from in front!"

"Ice Make: Shield!"

A shield of ice erupted in front of me, and true to Natsu's word, someone made impact with it. I heard the man grunt as he made contact with the shield.

"Simon, drop the spell!" Erza yelled.

I was confused at Erza's statement. Why was she throwing orders to someone who wasn't Fairy Tail, or Phantom Lord for that matter?

"Are you sure, Erza?" the man right in front of me replied.

Now I was getting concerned. Who was this guy and how did he know Erza?

"Do it!"

Following Erza's orders, the man released whatever spell he was casting. The darkness around us receded and finally I was able to see. There were only eight people in the room as far as I could tell. Myself, Lucy, Erza, Loke, Natsu, Simon, a cat looking girl, and the card dealer. Loke was fighting the cat girl while Lucy laid on the ground wrapped up in orange tubes, Erza was standing around with the card dealer, Natsu had just entered from another section of the casino, and I was fighting who I assumed to be Simon.

"What happened to Juvia?"

The card dealer pointed at the table we were playing at. There were a bunch of cards on it, some of which I could see people in.

"She's okay. Just trapped in a card."

Natsu slammed his fist into his palm and made fire erupt from the impact, "Get away from my sister!"

The card dealer gave Natsu a devious smile, "Your sister? She's more my sis than yours."

Natsu paused for a moment and then growled back at the card dealer, "What the hell are you talking about?"

"Shô…" Erza started.

"All I'm saying is that she isn't your sister." Shô replied, "I know all about you."

"Shô." Erza repeated more forcefully.

"I'll make you eat those words!"

Natsu charged forward with his fists ignited in flame. I glanced at Simon in front of me, and found he too was watching this whole thing unfold, though like me it was obvious he was keeping an eye on his opponent.

Erza stepped forward and requipped into her Heart Kreuz armor and punched Natsu in the stomach. My eyes widened in shock as Natsu lurched over and fell to the ground at Erza's feet. Erza then turned her sights to me.

"You aren't going to interfere, are you?"

I looked around me and saw that Natsu was curled up on the floor in pain, and both Lucy and Loke were now bound. Plus, with Juvia being sealed in a card, there was no way I could fight back against the likes of Erza.

"What's going on?" I questioned her.

"I'm going with them." Erza replied, "It was nice knowing you all. Come on Simon, Millianna."

Erza proceeded to walk past Natsu without so much as acknowledging him. Natsu grabbed her ankle and seemed to say something to her. The only response she gave was to kick Natsu's hand off of her. Simon and Millianna joined Erza and Shô as they left to the other part of the casino.

Once they were out of the way, I ran over to Lucy and Loke and cut them free from their bindings. Once they were free, Lucy and Loke went over to tend for Natsu while I retrieved Juvia's card and released the spell.

"What are you two doing here?" Lucy asked.

"We were going to surprise you." Loke explained, "We bought tickets and everything. Didn't expect this though."

"What was that guy talking about?" I called to Natsu, "Why was he saying you weren't Erza's brother?"

Natsu was just getting up, supported by Loke and Lucy. He looked like he was really bothered by that.

"I…have no idea." He replied, "But Erza…"

I couldn't help but feel sorry for the flamebrain. We may not always get along, but whatever just happened really hurt him. I found Juvia's card and released the spell. She did not look happy.

"What was that?" She asked.

"We have no idea." I told her.

"But we might be able to find out." Loke told us.

"How?" Juvia, Lucy and I asked.

Loke and Natsu led us to the other part of the casino. It was barren, but there were no cards laying around anywhere. This part of the casino was much more banged up then the other part. It looked like a fight took place here, so the patrons probably evacuated the premises.

"Are they here?" Loke asked.

"I don't smell them." Natsu replied.

Loke proceeded to do a bird whistle. A moment later, Lisanna flew down with Happy, with another man following close behind. Slung over this man's shoulder was a man with a blocky figure in a suit.

"Gajeel-sama!" Juvia cried, "You're okay!"

"Of course, I am!" Gajeel replied, "He didn't know what hit him!"

Gajeel proceeded to throw the man to the ground. We all circled around him, half-expecting him to just wake up from that.

"You might have knocked him out a bit harder than we though." Lisanna said.

Juvia's hand turned to water as she splashed it at the block-man's face. The man screamed as the water hit him, waking him up.

"Hot! Hot! Hot!" He cried as steam rose from his now red face.

"Who are you, and what are you doing here?" Juvia asked in a very serious voice.

The block man took a few breaths before taking in his surroundings, "Wh-where's everyone else?"

"No clue, that's what we want to know." I replied, "Now who are you, and what are you doing here?"

The block man gave me a smirk, "Now wouldn't it just be dandy for you to know that?"

Behind the man, Gajeel cracked his knuckles, "Yeah, it would be."

"Gah!" the man cried as he jumped up to his feet and faced Gajeel, "Uh! My name's Wally Buchanan, and we were sent to pick up Erza!"

"What do you want with Erza?" Came Natsu, anger evident in his voice.

I mentally prepared myself to get between the dragon slayer and the hostage if need be.

"Hey, you must be that Natsu fellow. The one calling himself Erza's brother."

"I am her brother." Natsu took a step towards Wally, igniting his fists on fire.

Lisanna grabbed Natsu while I stepped forward to get between the two.

While we kept Natsu from harming Wally, Loke took control and asked, "Where did they take her?"

"Probably back home."

"Back home?" Lucy wondered aloud.

"The Tower of Heaven." Wally replied.

Lisanna and I fought with Natsu to keep him for interfering with the interrogation, but the moment the Tower of Heaven was mentioned, he stopped moving entirely. His eyes widened in horror at hear that name.

"No, Erza said all of those were destroyed!"

"All but one." Wally replied, "The guy who hired you, he finished it."

We all looked at Natsu in confusion, but it was Lucy who asked him, "The guy who hired you?"

"I have no idea what you're talking about. Nobody hired me for anything." Natsu was seething and Lisanna had to let go of him as his body temperature rose.

"Jellal, he hired you to be Erza's brother? Right?"

"Who's Jellal?" Loke asked.

Natsu seemed confused as well and made it evident that even he had no idea what Wally was talking about. It didn't matter anyways. The only people here who might believe him are the Phantom Lord crew, and even then, that was a long shot.

"Wait, Jellal, as in Jellal Fernandes?" Lucy piped up.

We were all surprised to hear that name. Fernandes was the surname of Siegrain. Were these two men related?

"Yeah, how'd you know?" Wally replied.

"Yeah, good question. How did you know?" Gajeel questioned the blonde-haired girl suspiciously.

Lucy suddenly began to shuffle around a bit, "Siegrain told me he had a brother named Jellal. He said he disappeared when his town was attacked."

"Yeah, that sounds like Jellal."

"Grah!" Natsu growled as he grabbed Wally by the suit, "None of this matters! Take us to the tower!"

"And why would I do that?" Wally replied smugly.

"Because the alternative is to have some playtime with me." Gajeel replied with a devilish grin.

Gajeel stepped in front of Wally and morphed his hand into a large iron sword. He began chuckling to himself and I could only imagine the kind of wild look in his eyes. Next to me, Juvia was shuffling nervously behind me. In front of me, I watched as Wally paled in horror. Something told me he'd be cooperating with us.

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