"So… Tomorrow's the day." Freed said to his nearby friends from the rock he was sitting upon.
The three members of the Thunder God Tribe stood alone in a large clearing within East Forest just outside of town. It was early morning, and the three were sitting on various pieces of the surroundings in various states of discomfort.
"Yup. Once the festival starts, Laxus will commence his little show for the rest of the guild." Bickslow stated from his stump, his dolls remaining oddly quiet.
"And if all goes well, Laxus will finally be put in charge of Fairy Tail." Evergreen finished, glancing up from the log she was sitting upon in annoyance. "He's been over the plan a dozen times with us now. Surely you didn't call use out here to satisfy your paranoia."
"Paranoia?" Freed turned to Evergreen in confusion.
"You have been pretty jumpy lately." Bickslow said with a shrug, as his dolls echoed after him. "Jumpy! Jumpy! Jumpy!"
"I have not been jumpy!" Freed shot back defensively, before quickly recollecting himself. "I just wanted to ask you two privately about the… feasibility of the plan."
"Huh? Aren't you the one always spouting off about how we could beat anybody for Laxus, and how airtight the game will be?" Evergreen raised an eyebrow in confusion, tilting her head back. "Don't tell me you're suddenly doubting our abilities?"
"Of course not!" Freed shook his head. In all honesty though, he was rather concerned about the success of their operation. They were going to have to rely on the barrier to keep the Master and Ur from completely destroying their work, and even then, he would still be worried if not for Mira's sudden incapacitation. "I mean, if we end up going through with this, will it really produce the outcome that Laxus is looking for?"
The other two members of the Legion looked at him as if he had grown a second head just for asking the question. He did not blame them though. He was always the first to sing Laxus's praises, and always went along with his plans. To suggest that what he planned was wrong is tantamount to blasphemy. But he could stay silent no longer.
"Freed? What are you saying?" Bickslow finally asked.
"We both know that Laxus wants to become Guild Master, but he also wants to prove a point. That point being that following Jellal has made them weak. The game was designed so that each mage would have to rely on themselves to be strong, instead of their fellow guild members." Freed let out a sigh. "It sounded like such a fine idea. Even if it meant going against the rest of the Fairy Tail, I believed it would be for their own good. After so much loss and destruction, I thought Laxus was what they needed to grow enough to prevent such devastation again. But… this past week as told me a different story."
"… I know what you mean." Evergreen finally said, and the two men both turned to her in surprise. "I didn't mention it, but on the first day here I ran into Lisanna. She said that she had only stopped pushing others away and hiding how she looked because of everyone in the guild supporting her. It reminded me of before Laxus found me, and how I'd still be alone if he didn't reach out to me. I overheard how he spoke about Lisanna when he visited earlier. I think…" She looked down at the ground, brow furrowing. "I think that if Laxus was like he is now back then, I'd have been alone forever."
"Yeah, Laxus has really changed over the years. We've spent so long with just him that we've completely missed how different everything is." Bickslow looked up at the sky, eyes hidden by his helmet. "He didn't judge us for how we looked, but by our actions. Juvia was cursed with her magic just like me, and Fairy Tail is what gave her a second chance. Laxus gave me that chance back then, but I don't want to know what would happen if the two were to meet now."
"I think we've been away from Fairy Tail for too long. We were so drawn in by Laxus's talk of making a better guild, but our isolation has made us forgot what drew us to it in the first place." Freed finally admitted. "I tried to stand alone like Laxus wants back when I first joined, and it was Laxus himself who told me how stupid I was being. The reason I'm so strong is because he led me there. I wasn't the only one who looked up to him. All the younger people did, even Jellal, but now…" Freed balled his fists in anger. "I don't see why anyone would want to follow Laxus as he is now."
Now the others were openly gaping at his words. Evergreen stood up in shock. "What are you talking about? I thought you wanted him to be Guild Master?"
"Of course I do!" Freed shouted back, voice beginning to quiver. "Laxus is a great man. He's strong, and caring, and wise. But lately he's just been so filled with hate and rage. Do you really think that anyone would want to stand with him after tomorrow, as he is now? He may be able to force Makarov to make him Master of Fairy Tail, but that won't matter if us three will be the only members left!"
"Then what the hell are we supposed to do?" Bickslow looked at him expectedly, his dolls dancing wildly around him. "I know you've already tried to talk him out of this multiple times. Damn it, we all have! But he won't budge on this. He just doesn't listen to us like that anymore."
"T-Then," Freed took a moment to collect himself, before standing and steeling his face. "We'll have to have to make him talk to the one person who will make him listen."
"You can't mean-? Freed, are you insane!" Evergreen's panic has plain on her face. "When he finds out our plan, what do you think he will do to Laxus? To us?!"
"I know, but I promised to prevent his grandson from doing anything foolish, and if this doesn't qualify, then nothing will. I know Laxus will hate me for it, but I'm willing to accept that hate if it means ultimately protecting him!" Freed declared to his fellow friends.
There was another silence for a moment, until Bickslow stood from his seat and shrugged half-heartedly. "Well, I can't argue with your logic. You were always the brains of the operation. If you think this course is what's best for Laxus, then I'll follow you."
Evergreen nodded in agreement. "That's right. I've dragged my feet enough on doing what I think is best. The three of us will go as one. Then Laxus will have to see how serious we are."
"You guys…" Freed stared at his friends in amazement. When he had called them out here, he expected to leave alone, but seeing the rest of the Thunder God Legion standing with him brought a tear to his eyes. "Thank you, the both of you. Alright then, let's go tell the Master-"
"Tell the Master what, exactly?"
Freed froze at the familiar voice, as the hairs on the back of his neck shot up. He could see the others looking behind him in surprise, and he slowly turned to follow their gaze to see their leader leaning against a tree, glaring daggers at them. "L-Laxus?!"
"I said," He straightened up and took a step towards them, lightning crackling dangerously around him. "What are you planning on telling Gramps?"
In another corner of East Forest, three mages continued training unaware of the nearby confrontation.
"Alright, let's go again!" Lucy declared, golden light surrounding her.
"Got it!" Lisanna shouted in agreement, ablaze with dragon fire.
The two shot towards each other at incredible speeds and began to spar. Both of them were clearly rusty when it came to hand-to-hand combat, but the training over the past week, combined with their new spells improving their bodies, meant they had improved much in a short time.
"You guys are really betting the hang of this!" Natsu said from his seat on the ground. He was acting as the unofficial referee for their spar, as the one in the guild most experienced in brawling. "Pretty soon you'll both be good enough that fighting you two will actually make me sweat!"
"Is that so?" Lisanna glanced at him as her and Lucy jumped back from their engagement. "You think we can't handle you?"
"Nah, I'm just saying it wouldn't be much training for me!" Natsu said with a smirk, putting both arms behind his head casually. He saw the two women share a glance, and after a moment of calm, they both shot towards him. He quickly shot up with a burst of flames from his feet, watching them crash into where he had just been sitting. With another launch from his fists, he flew down on top of them. Only Lucy was fast enough to dodge away, and Lisanna was planted into the ground by a flame covered foot.
"Lisanna!" Lucy weaved between the trees trying to confuse Natsu, but his senses were better than the average person. She would likely dizzy herself before him. She kicked off a nearby tree to launch towards Natsu, but found him already staring at her. He simply held out his arm, and Lucy ran into it, losing control and tumbling through the grass until she ended up lying next to Lisanna.
Both of their magic's dispelled in a flash, and they slowly sat up from their defeated positions. Natsu walked over to them, squatting down with a cocky smirk on his face. "Like I said, not quite there yet."
"Hmph!" Lisanna pouted, sticking her nose up at him.
"Ah, c'mon, don't be like that!" Natsu said, putting her on the head as she swatted him off. "I know how much you always wanted to be as tough as me, but you're almost there! Just focus on training and you'll be even stronger than even your sister, I bet!"
Lisanna stared at him in surprise, before blushing slightly. "Y-You're just saying that…"
"No way!" Natsu insisted, grabbing both her hands with his. "If you're able to reach even one percent of a fire dragon's power, you'll be able to wipe the floor with anyone! Remember, you're the one who beat Gajeel, not me."
Lucy was surprised by his statement, but thinking back, she really shouldn't be. Natsu loved to taunt the Iron Dragon Slayer about how he lost, but he usually didn't brag about himself winning. He even corrected others when they claimed that he wiped the floor with the Phantom Lord mage. "And Lucy! You're going to be scary strong soon as well if you keep up those lessons!"
"What?" Lucy was caught off guard by the sudden turn in attention, but Natsu continued his praise unabated.
"You haven't seen half the stuff that Jellal can do when he's serious! I wouldn't be surprised if you're raining down asteroids upon your enemies by the end of the year!"
"Huh?! You're kidding, right?" Lucy turned to Lisanna, but found herself nodding along with Natsu's words. "Seriously? He can do that?"
"Yes, he can. Not that he uses a move like that very often. Not after the incident." Lisanna said ominously.
"W-What incident?" Lucy looked between the two fearfully, but Natsu just shot her a sinister grin.
"Let's just say Jellal is the current record holder for the most amount of property damage done in a single mission."
Lucy absorbed that fact, and the image of a giant meteor crashing into a town came into mind. She knew it was unlikely that Jellal did anything so dangerous to normal people, but the very idea of such a destructive magic being used by herself made her lightheaded. "Yeah, I can't imagine being able to do something like that."
"Give it time! You'll be the strongest in the guild in no time-" Natsu suddenly cut himself off, straightening up from his squat and looking off into the distance. His nose twitched once, and he tilted his head, as if trying to hear something. "What was that?"
"Is something wrong Natsu?" Lisanna asked as Natsu walked towards the tallest tree around them.
"Just thought I sensed something familiar. Give me a second, I'm going to see if I can detect it from higher up." With that explanation, Natsu hopped onto the side of the tree and began climbing at a pace that would make lemurs jealous. In only a few moments he disappeared past the leaves, continuing up to the top wordlessly.
Lucy stared at where the Dragon Slayer had disappeared, not sure how to proceed from there. "Huh…"
Lisanna just chuckled at the man's antics. "Don't worry, he'll be back down in a minute. Natsu just gets hyper-fixated on certain sensations."
"Did he really mean all of that just now? About us becoming the strongest in the guild?" Lucy just couldn't believe it. She didn't feel like she'd grown that much since joining. Sure, everyone back home talked about how great a mage her mother was, or how she had plenty of potential. But the strongest in Fairy Tail? That seemed unobtainable!
"Natsu meant it." Lisanna reassured her. "Trust me, I find it hard to believe too, but Natsu wouldn't joke about something like this to us, no matter how unbelievable it might be." She clasped her hands together, staring up at where Natsu had vanished. "He always tried to help me get as strong as Mira and Elfman, but I could never do it. But he never stopped helping me train, even after I got injured and everyone stopped taking me on more dangerous missions."
Lucy smiled warmly at hearing her talk about Natsu. He may act a bit silly at times, but there's no one in the guild who understood their friends hearts more than him. She noticed Lisanna seemed lost in thought, still staring up at where the topic of their discussion had disappeared to. She was absentmindedly fiddling with something in her clasped hands, and when Lucy noticed what it was her eyes widened.
"Lisanna? When did you get that?" Lucy pointed to her friend's left ring finger, which had a silver ring with some sort of marking along it.
"Hm? Oh, right! I guess you haven't seen it before." Lisanna took off the ring and handed it to Lucy. A quick observation revealed what appeared to be sets of bumps engraved on the outside of the ring, but without any coloration difference it was hard to tell what its purpose was. "I usually don't wear it since my Take-Over Magic would get in the way. But since we've just been training with my new form, I've decided to start wearing it again."
"It's really nice looking, but I can't quite see what the indents are for though?" Lucy admitted, trying to get the light to reflect off it in a way that would make the markings sensible.
"That's understandable. You aren't supposed to read them with your eyes." Lisanna said, taking Lucy's free hand and running a finger over it, who quickly understood what she was feeling.
"This is… Braille?" Lucy looked up in surprise.
Lisanna nodded, taking the ring back and slipping it back in place. "You know by now that I lost my eyes in the same incident where I got these scars. But what you don't know is that no one was sure if I would be able to ever see again."
"But the magical prosthetics-"
"I don't know the specifics, but apparently the damage was so bad they weren't sure if I had enough undamaged nerves for the prosthetics to use. Porlyusica eventually found a way that would slowly repair enough of the damage to allow the procedure, but even then, she said the chances of her plan succeeding were slim. I… I was expecting to live the rest of my life blind."
"No way!" Lucy covered her mouth, staring at Lisanna in shock. She had thought the scars around her eyes were especially bad when she first saw them, but to hear how close it had been…
"Yeah, it was… bad. I was so defeated back then that I barely stepped out of bed, even after the rest of the damage had healed. I just didn't see the point in doing, well, anything." Lisanna looked ashamed to admit so, but Lucy quickly wrapped an arm around her in a shoulder hug, and she eventually continued. "Then one day Natsu comes running into my room yelling at the top of his lungs about how he was going to teach me braille."
"Seriously?"
"That's what I thought too! Apparently Levy mentioned to Natsu that it was a thing, which prompted Master Makarov to mention that there was material for teaching it in the guild library somewhere, which eventually resulted in Natsu tearing the whole place apart to find them." Lisanna was struggling to keep a straight face as she explained the sequence of events. "The Master nearly killed Natsu when he saw the mess he made, but after explaining what he was looking for everyone eventually helped look. A couple hours later and I was being taught the alphabet from scratch again."
Lucy raised an eyebrow in growing wonder. "Just to clarify, you were being taught by Natsu, yes?"
"Yeah, I was. I know it sound's unbelievable, but I think he was the perfect person to do so. I was pushing everyone away at the time, even my siblings. Kept telling them that I was a lost cause, to not waste their time on me. Natsu was the only one stubborn enough to try and help me whether I wanted to or not." Lisanna shook her head. "I put up with it for a while, but I just didn't see the point, so nothing was sticking. Eventually I snapped and told him why he was bothering with someone as useless as me anymore. He disappeared for a while after that, until he popped in one day and gave me this ring."
"What was the purpose of that? Was he trying to trick you into learning to read it? Maybe he was a good teacher." Lucy admitted.
"It was more than that. He said that I had posed an offer once when we were younger. That I might have said it as a joke at the time, but that he could tell I was honest about my feelings towards it. And he told me that if the offer was still open, that the answer was written on that ring." Lisanna ran a finger along said ring again, looking at it longingly.
"Did you not know what he was talking about? Is that what motivated you to figure out what it said?" Lucy asked.
Lisanna shook her head, letting out a sad laugh. "No, I knew exactly what he was talking about. I was just so broken at the time I couldn't believe that he was telling the truth. I spent that entire week memorizing braille, just so I could read out whatever it said and throw it back in his face."
"And? What does it say? The suspense is killing me here!" Lucy cried out, much to her friend's amusement.
"Light in the darkness."
"Huh?" Lucy was surprised by the phrase. "What does that mean?"
"Natsu said that it was a promise. To always be there for me like I had for him. Someone he could always come to if he was having a problem, to always rely on if he needed it. He told me that there's nothing wrong with asking him for help, since he was always causing so much trouble for me. He said… that he'd never stop being someone I could rely on."
"Wow, that's…" Lucy honestly wasn't sure how to react to what Lisanna had told her. She knew that Natsu always had a big heart, but to say something like that? As long as she's known Natsu, he'd rarely said anything so… Romantic, she supposed? The only time she could think of was… with Lisanna again, back when fighting Gajeel. It didn't take a genius to tell there was something more going on here, and Lucy couldn't help but ask. "What offer had you made to him, exactly?"
"Oh?!" Lisanna suddenly straightened up, glancing away nervously. "I-It was, well… I mean we were kids, and you know Natsu. I doubt he realized what that actually meant…"
Lucy let out a sigh as Lisanna continued to stutter awkwardly. She clearly wasn't going to get a straight answer out of her in this state. She supposed she'll just wait for Natsu to finish whatever he was distracted by and ask him.
Sting sat at one of the many tables within Fairy Tail's guild hall, looking around at the mages going about their day dejectedly. He let out another sigh. Frosch and Lector flew off to hang out with the rest of their kind that were a part of the guild, leaving him alone with Rogue.
"Are you okay Sting? Did you not like that job we went on?"
He glanced over at Rogue, who was sitting next to him with a worried look. Sting shook his head. "Nah, that was great! It's just… I wanted to see Natsu. The whole reason I joined was because this weird blonde lady told me that he was in this guild, but it's been almost a week and I've only seen a glimpse of him from that big meeting!"
"Oh!" Rogue seemed to understand immediately. "Yeah, he's been training with Lucy and Lisanna a lot, hasn't he?"
"I'd try and track him down, but I don't want to interrupt whatever their doing. Wouldn't be that good of a first impression." Sting let out another insufferable sigh and planted his face on the table. He had been worried as hell about even being in the same guild as Natsu at first, but now he was doing his best not to track him down like some crazy stalker.
"Well, what do you think about the other Dragon Slayers then?" Rogue asked, obviously trying to cheer him up.
Sting put a hand on his chin, thinking back to the guild members he had talked to over the week. "Wendy seems nice, and her magic's really cool! Though her big sister is kinda scary…"
"Yeah, Erza can be a bit intimidating if you hurt Fairy Tail." Rogue thought back to the guild war that ended up with him joining the guild. Anyone who could defeat two of the Elemental Four, then jump at Jose without even flinching was certainly terrifying. "But she's actually really nice, and teaches everyone in the guild like family. She's like everyone's big sister!" As Sting nodded in agreement, Rogue fiddled with his cloak nervously. "And… what do you think about Gajeel?"
Ah, so that's what this is about. Sting contained a chuckle as he glanced at his new friend again. If Sting was interested in Natsu, then Rogue was obsessed with Gajeel. He let out a smirk, giving his friend a coy look. "What about him? He doesn't seem all that impressive, at least compared to Natsu-AHH! What the hell?!" He felt a hand forcefully ruffle his hair, and he turned back to see the Iron Dragon Slaver grinning dangerously at him.
"Hey there, brat. What was that you were just saying about me?" Gajeel gave Sting a glare, and the boy immediately paled, unable to respond in a panic.
"Gajeel, please stop scaring him!" Rogue cried, pouting at his idol's intimidation act. Gajeel eventually scoffed, shrugging as he loosened his stare. "Oh, now's a good time to introduce the two of you! Gajeel, this is Sting. He's a Dragon Slayer like us!"
"Wait, seriously?!" Gajeel looked down at the blond kid in complete surprise. "Man, we just keep popping up nowadays, huh? That's five of us in this guild now if you don't count Juvia."
"Who?" Sting didn't remember Rogue mentioning her along with the other Dragon Slayers.
Gajeel nodded his head towards a lady in blue across the hall, who appeared to be standing nervously next to Ultear. "She's from Phantom Lord like us, but she's just got a Lacrima that gives her the power of a Dragon Slayer. It's nothing compared to being trained by the real deal." He laughed before ruffling Rogue's head this time. "Though I suppose you have both. A real one-of-a kind, aren't you!"
"Um, actually…" Gajeel turned his attention to Sting again, who let out a sigh. He needed to tell them. Get it out of the way as soon as possible. "I have a Dragon Slayer Lacrima too."
Gajeel stared at him for a few moments silently, while glancing between the two of them. He eventually began to speak in a mush softer tone. "Shit… This is certainly weird. I assume his story is identical to yours, Rogue?"
"I-It is." Rogue nodded. "He wanted to meet Natsu, but he's been so busy with training that I haven't got a chance to introduce him yet."
"Wait, he doesn't know yet?" Gajeel scoffed, turning towards the exit of the guild and stomping towards it. "That hot-headed oaf! Too busy with his girlfriends to notice something truly important! I'm going to show Salamander what happens when he ignores us…"
Sting immediately stumbled off his seat after Gajeel, Rogue not far behind him. "Wait! I don't want to interrupt them-"
Gajeel just let out a bark of laughter. "Don't worry your little head kid, I'm the one interrupting them. You two are just tagging along!"
"But-"
Rogue grabbed Sting's hand, dragging him along after the older Dragon Slayer. "Don't worry, Gajeel's just trying to help you feel welcome. In is own way, I guess."
"Yeah, I guess so." Sting let Rogue drag him along out of the guild and towards the forest at the edge of town. He silently prepared himself for meeting his idol, hoping it was as easy as it was talking to Gajeel.
Wendy wandered down the streets of Magnolia aimlessly. She wasn't quite sure how to spend her time today. With the Fantasia happening tomorrow, there wasn't any time to go out on a mission. She wanted to hang out with her sister, but Erza was preoccupied with practicing her new technique and training Kagura. She knew that they hadn't gotten to do so lately, so she decided to leave them alone.
She could have gone to Porlyusica's, but the older woman was in a bad mood. And not the usual grouchiness that was standard to her, but actual annoyance. When Wendy had asked what was wrong, she got chased out with a broom, and didn't dare push her luck again.
There was always the option of training, but she didn't feel like doing it by herself. However, Erza, as mentioned before, was busy. Natsu was training with Lisanna and Lucy, and she didn't want to get in the way of… whatever was going on with them right now. She could try Gajeel, but she wasn't sure if she was ready to approach him herself yet. There was always Rogue and his new friend Sting. That might be a fun idea for training, the three young Dragon Slayers together.
While they never mentioned that Sting was a Dragon Slayer, she could just tell, but she wasn't sure why. Maybe it was the familiar smell, or the way the magic in the air moved around them like other Dragon Slayers…
Or maybe it was how the two of them knew their names already. It seemed like every Dragon Slayer raised by a Dragon knew each other from somewhere. She knew that it was weird, but her head hurt whenever she tried thinking about it to hard. Like right now.
"Guh…" She put a hand to her head, waiting for the migraine to pass. In her pain, she tripped forward over a bump in the road and began to fall back. "Oof!" Instead of landing face first on the stone path, she found herself bumping into someone. As her head finally calmed down, she looked up to see a familiar man with blue hair and a red tattoo.
"Are you okay, Wendy?"
"Jellal!" Wendy recognized him instantly, throwing her arms around him. "I'm perfectly fine, but what are you doing here? Aren't you busy preparing for Fantasia?"
"Don't worry, I've got everything under control." Jellal said with a grin, patting her head as she embraced him. "Just thought I'd enjoy my last free day before I become Guild Master."
"Don't worry, I promise to not cause to much paperwork for you!" Wendy promised as she let go of Jellal, who gave her an unimpressed look.
"Don't make promises you know you can't keep. I'm going to go grey in my thirties if my observations have taught me anything." He shrugged, glancing back towards the guild hall with a nostalgic look. "But like I said, I'll be really busy after tomorrow. This might be the last chance we get to hang out together for a while, so I figured we should make the most of it, okay?"
"Okay!" She quickly agreed, grabbing Jellal's hand and leading him into town. She would miss this, so she needed to make the most of today!
Her relationship with Jellal was kinda weird, mostly because she's met more than one Jellal in her lifetime. First there was the Jellal she met when she lost Grandeeney. He was really kind, and took care of her when she was completely alone, like the big brother she never had. But after a couple weeks of travelling, they ran into her new mother, Irene, and he mysteriously vanished. She was heartbroken, but her sadness quickly grew into confusion when she joined Fairy Tail and ran into Jellal again.
They were near identical, in name, look, even smell. She didn't believe that they were really two different people at first, but it quickly became apparent that this second Jellal knew nothing of her. Despite that, Jellal still treated her well. Plenty of others in the guild looked up to him like a big brother already, so he accepted her friendship quickly. She didn't see him as close as a sibling though, but they were still close. After a couple years though, he would act differently sometimes. He started putting time aside just for her, and would simply hang out around town with her.
She wasn't sure what the deal was with Jellal's 'Big Brother' mode. It seemed to happen randomly, and he acted like an entirely different person during these days. He seemed more reserved than usual, and whenever she tried to talk about them after the fact he only seemed to recall vague details.
"I want to go walk in the woods today!" Wendy said, finally deciding on a destination. Walking the trails made her think back to the time with the first Jellal, and she wanted to feel nostalgic for some reason.
"That sounds like a good choice." Jellal nodded in agreement as he was led to the edge of town. "How are you doing lately? I know I haven't got a chance to ask, but a lot has happened lately."
"It's real great actually! All those new Dragon Slayers joining make me feel like I'm meeting a family I never knew I had." Wendy explained as she looked back at Jellal. "Not to say that Fairy Tail or Erza isn't a family to me. It's just that something about them feels familiar to me."
"I get it." Jellal chuckled. "Hopefully Erza won't get too jealous about all your new siblings then."
Wendy laughed along with him, paying attention to the way Jellal reacts, or more expectantly, doesn't react at her sister's name. That was another thing she liked about these days. He wasn't so obviously infatuated with her sister when they hung out. It was pretty much an open secret to everyone that knew Jellal that he had a crush on Erza, but unfortunately her sister was near oblivious to the differences between familial and romantic love.
Most of the time, Jellal only hung out with her when Erza was with her. And he was always to busy staring at her sister to notice her. It wasn't fair. Jellal was cool and collected, super good at magic, handsome like a prince. Why does he have to spend his time chasing after her older sister instead of someone who notices these things like… like…
"Is something wrong, Wendy?" Jellal asked her, noticing the way her grip on his hand had tightened.
"Nope! Everything's fine!" Wendy squeaked out, quickly removing her hand. She felt her face heat up, and she looked away from Jellal nervously. "Oh, look, we're already at the start of the forest! I feel like running ahead, so I'll meet you at the big clearing up ahead."
"Wait, Wendy!" Jellal shouted out after her, but she immediately ran off into the forest ahead, head ducked down.
She didn't want to think about such things right now, but she just couldn't help it. Lately whenever Jellal was around she just couldn't keep her head straight. She kept getting angry about the idea of him hanging out with her sister, but she didn't know why! What did it matter to a kid like her what Jellal did?
When she asked Charla why she felt so angry at her own sister, she had just shrugged and said something about her being 'that age' now. She had gone to Porlyusica's for help and while she had left with more understanding on the… biological side of what Charla had meant, she still didn't understand what she felt.
'Argh, why can't he just hang out with me like this every day instead of drooling over my sister all the time?!'
Before Wendy could fully come to terms with the thoughts jumping around in her head, she picked up the familiar scent of blood coming from ahead of her. She snapped to attention as she ran into the clearing, fully expecting to find an injured animal. Instead, she discovered the Thunder God Tribe, all lying defeated across the thunder-scarred ground.
"What?" Wendy stared in horror at the sight of her guildmates injured, and ran over to help Freed, who was nearest to her. As she knelt and began to use her magic, she began to speak to the barely conscious mage. "Freed, what happened to you?! Who did this?!"
"Y-You have to run! Before he-" Freed began to cough violently, and Wendy continued to heal him.
"Don't worry, Jellal is right behind me! He'll deal with whoever did this! But what happened to you?"
The answer became obvious a moment later, as a shadow loomed over the two of them. She slowly glanced behind herself, and felt her body freeze up in terror as her eyes met with Laxus's. His eyes were wild, and his face contorted in rage, lightning crackling along every inch of his towering body.
"So," Laxus let out a shaky breath. "He'll be here soon, eh? Guess I'll just have to skip to the big finale ahead of schedule."
Next Chapter: Encroaching Thunder
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