The area around Yajima's restaurant is completely cordoned off from streets away by the time Laxus and the others reach it, every entryway guarded to make sure no one can sleep through, while the air is dark with the swirling mist beyond the guards.
"What happened?" Laxus demands, marching straight up to two of the Rune Knights and towering over them, eyes locked on the mist that is gathering like dark clouds further down the street. It sends a shiver down his back to see it so close, and Evergreen presses close while Bickslow is tense and watchful. There's a moment when it seems as though they're not going to answer him and order him away, one making an aborted shooing motion, before the second spies their guild marks and hastily nudges the other, indicating it with a hissed 'it's them'. Laxus doesn't know if he means 'them' as in those caught in the destruction or Fairy Tail in general, and he doesn't care because the first one straightens.
"It broke through the barricades, and it's been spreading ever since," he reports. "We've evacuated everyone that we can, but…" He falters glancing off to the side, and Laxus can't help but follow his gaze, swallowing thickly as he spies the black-covered bodies lined up to one side. Freed…
"There was a man, he was about this high," Evergreen pushes forward, indicating Freed's height with trembling hands. "Has green hair, and was wearing an orange 8-ball restaurant uniform, have you…" Laxus isn't the only one to hold his breath, as the two men confer and then the first is shaking his head.
"We've not seen anyone like that, but this isn't the only station." Apologetic, but with a note of warning, as though they don't want to get their hopes up, and then the two Rune Knights share another look before the second leans forward, looking torn between hope and shame. "They said that you had a mage that managed to hold this back, are they…?"
"That's who we're looking for," Laxus tells him, and feels a brief surge of satisfaction amongst the dismay at his own words as their expressions fall. Pleased by the recognition of Freed's skill, that's so rarely acknowledged beyond their own group, and wishing that they weren't only seeing it now when they had no idea where Freed was, or what he had sacrificed. "Can you tell us where the other station is?" He asks, and with directions in hand, they leave just as orders come through to extend the cordon.
"We can't tell Freed about this," Bickslow murmurs, as they pass more people carrying a stretcher between them, and Laxus nods. He's not sure that Freed was thinking beyond them at the time, he knows that he hadn't been in that moment when he had decided to suck up as much as the mist as he could, and it was more than anyone, even Freed could have been asked to do, but he also knew his partner. Knew that Freed would blame himself for each and every life lost of affected by the spreading calamity and that it would eat away at him in the quiet moments and late at night, just as the Battle of Fairy Tail did.
"He'll ask about it." It's Evergreen who bursts that thought, voice soft but sure and Laxus almost wants to hate her for it at that moment, but he can't, because in her own way she's just as right as Bickslow is. Because that is who Freed is, even if he hadn't thought about it at the moment, he would think about it in the future, and he will ask, and Laxus wants to believe that he will lie. That he will spare him the details, but he knows even as he thinks that he won't, because for all the ups and downs in their relationship, the strain his past behaviour had put on them, he had never lied to Freed and vice versa and he can't stop now.
"We'll deal with that when we have to," he hears himself say, the words feeling far away because somehow that feels like an admission that they might not get a chance and he can't afford to think like that. Not now, when Freed is out there, waiting for them to find him and call him back to them. "Let's find him first, and then we can worry about…everything else."
He hates how much it sounds like if we find him…
Freed isn't flying anymore, and he frowns wondering why he had thought he was flying, because he's drifting, something cold and unpleasant pressed against his body. It's liquid, but it feels wrong, feels too much like the darkness filling the hollow in his chest, and he trashes, trying to pull free. The Demon is still there, he can feel it, can feel the barriers keeping him in, but it's quiet for now, holding its peace. Almost hibernating, and it's Freed who opens his eyes, vision filled with greyish-green liquid that distorts the world around him, or maybe it's the pain that hits him the moment he tries to breathe and chokes on the fluid. What is this? Panic claws at him, and he can't breathe as it sits low and heavy on his chest, and he's flailing, his hands colliding with something invisible and solid.
A wall? No glass?
It's glass, he realises a moment before there's a movement beyond, a dark shape moving closer, and an unfamiliar face peering in at him and grinning. He stares at the bunny ears for a moment, before blinking at her, a plea on his lips, but the words won't come, his voice failing him, and it seems to him that her grin is growing as she studies him for a long moment. "That won't do…" She mutters, voice distorted, and he has to strain to hear the rest of her words. "…human…demon gate…" He doesn't understand, but there's something about her expression, about the hunger in the dark eyes locked on him that makes him uneasy, and when she presses a hand to the glass he flinches back, trying to escape. As he does so, he catches a glimpse of a row of tanks, similar to what he realises he must be imprisoned in, a jolt of fear locking him in place when he spies the Demon that had attacked them.
They're not alone, and it takes his frenzied mind a moment to recognise Minerva, in the tank two spaces along, her eyes closed, but her expression anything but peaceful. Why is she here? Why is he here? He remembers the flying now, and the falling into darkness and the looming shape of what had appeared to be an island, but nothing afterwards. Had the Demon got them captured? Surrendered them? What was being done to him, to them…? He's not sure if he wants the answer to that question, eyes flickering back to the girl in front of him, who has an almost maniacal glint to her eyes now as she follows his gaze, offering him a toothy grin before leaning in close now. "They're no fun to work on," he hears her clearly this time, and he has a feeling that's deliberate because there's menace in her voice that is somehow worse for how light-heartedly it's delivered, as though they were discussing the weather and not whatever the hell this is. "I have so many new toys," her gaze wanders to Minerva, and then to his left and despite himself Freed follows her gaze, and his eyes widen as he spies Mira in the next tank, unmoving and oblivious.
"Mira!" He tries to call and instead bubbles rise around him, and all he can taste and feel is the liquid as it seeps into his open mouth. There's something familiar about the taste, and he gags on it, flailing again, as though it will make a difference this time. As though if he can just reach Mira, someone familiar, who knows who and what he is, then this nightmare will be over. There's a peal of laughter, drawing his attention back to his captor, not liking the malicious look that she levels at Mira before focusing on him once more, as she leans down to fiddle with something at the bottom of the tank.
"I'm going to destroy her, turn her into something ugly and broken." Freed tries to glare at her, but it has no effect, and his skin crawls. Mira. What happened? What is happening? He had sent the others back to the guild, if his runes had worked properly, but had he been wrong to do so? What had happened to the guild? His mind was racing, terror and uncertainty threatening to drown him, and he's clearly missed something, because the girl is rapping on the glass, sharp and demanding, and the humour has drained from her expression, and at that moment she looks dangerous. "You…You, I'm going to turn into something else…something that they've never seen before." She twists something, and the fluid around him shifts, turns ice cold for a moment, chilling him to the bone and freezing the breath in his lungs, and then it's shifting.
Bubbles are rising up, and the greyish-green turns dark until he can't see anything but darkness once more, and somehow this one is more terrifying than the previous one, and he can feel himself beyond pulled under just as something stirs under his skin. It's similar to his Demon, and yet different, and it feels like someone has poured molten fire through his veins, and he's twisting and turning, a scream building in his throat with nowhere to go, as he feels something creeping across his skin. Something tangible and flowing, it spreads like a web, locking him place, preventing his flailing, and then he feels it burrow into his body. A burst of sharp blades piercing his body in a dozen places or more, and now he does scream, and the fluid reaches in, and the sensation follows, tearing him apart from inside, and he screams, reaching for the Demon, ready to make a deal with the devil if it spares him from this.
Now it stirs, and he feels it grinning back at him in the hollow space in his chest, and defeat washes over him as he realises too late that the deal has already been made, he'd just missed the negotiations. What have you done? He asks, despairing and sinking because there's nothing to hold onto now. Mira doesn't seem to know he's there, and she's as trapped as he is, and Minerva is an unknown even if she was conscious, and Freed doesn't think he's ever felt as along as he does in that moment, as the Demon laughs.
Found a way to remain free, forever…
Freed isn't at the other station, and Laxus almost crumples with relief, realising that some part of him had half expected to see his partner stretched out with the poor souls caught in the crossfire of their failure. Evergreen and Bickslow are relieved but unsettled, looking to him for answers that he doesn't have, and he keenly misses Freed at that moment, because he's their bridge, their voice. The glue that binds them together, and he's not there, and no one's seen him. Worse there's no way for them to get close to the restaurant now because they can't risk losing their magic now.
"What do we do now?" Bickslow asks, finally. "Freed could be anywhere, could be doing anything…" There's a sharp intake of breath as Evergreen looks to see his reaction. It's an unspoken rule between them that they don't talk about the occasions where Freed has lost control. Or at least not after the immediate aftermath because they know it bothers the Rune Mage, even though they've all made it plain that it doesn't change how they see him. Laxus bristles, automatically opening his mouth to defend Freed, but he falters because this is the Raijinshuu, and there's no judgement in those words, just worry. For Freed, for them, because losing Freed would… Laxus shook his head, refusing to let his thoughts go down that road just yet, and instead, he straightens.
"We think like a Demon," he says, and it's not Freed he sees in his mind's eye, but their attacker. Because Freed is and has always been more than the Demon, and no matter what happens – and his mind his far too eager to conjure up the worse case scenarios - Laxus won't allow that to change. "And we find our way into Hell."