Chapter 10 - Shock
The next morning, Laxus and Adryn are awoken by frantic knocking. Once they made it to the door, Freed nearly burst in.
"We just got word that there is an attack going on in the town right next to this one. We need to leave immediately." Freed spoke too quickly, causing the couple to take a moment to comprehend what he was saying.
"Alright. We'll meet you at the entrance." Laxus stated as he was already on the move to get ready. Freed nodded his head and left the room, closing the door behind him. They all got ready as fast as they could and met up at the entrance of the inn. They hurried off to the next town over which didn't take long. However, once they got into the town, they all were hit with bad feelings.
"Where are all the people?" Adryn questioned, a little horrified. There were absolutely no man or woman on the streets. No children and no animals. There wasn't even any noise.
"There is something seriously wrong here." Bickslow muttered to the group with his babies saying, "Wrong here! Wrong here!"
"You're right, there is something wrong. We need to leave." Laxus spoke up as he pulled Adryn closer to him. She looked up at him confused, but then realized what he was meaning. Both of the dragon slayers could smell that many people were surrounding them.
"We need to leave now," Adryn stated as she addressed her friends. However, just as they went to turn to leave, the people came out of their hiding places. There were about 50 of them and they all had various weapons. They all gave the appearance that they were strong, and the group could feel that the 50 people were actually strong members of Raven Tail. Their guild marks were all clearly visible on various places on their bodies. "Fuck!" Adryn snapped as they all gathered around them.
"We mean you no harm unless you try to fight us." A woman finally spoke up from behind Adryn and Laxus. They turned to see her and she was just smiling at them. "Our master just wants to talk to you. However, if you fight us, you will lose and we will be forced to take you to Master unconscious or in a few of your cases, dead." The Thunder Legion, Adryn and Laxus looked to each other for a moment before Freed spoke up.
"We won't fight. Just take us to your master." The green-haired man said in a defeated tone.
"Smart choice." The woman spoke with a chuckle. "Come this way." She then motioned with her hands for the group to follow her. They were led to a decent sized house in the middle of town. Once at the house, they entered it and were led to an empty room that had no furniture at all in it. After they were in the room, the woman turned to leave the room. "Stay here. Master will be here shortly." With that, the woman was gone and the 5 of them were alone in the room together.
"What do you think is going to happen to us?" Evergreen asked in a worried tone as she looked around the blank and empty room.
"I don't know, but I know someone is coming," Laxus replied as he turned to the door. "I can't smell them, but I hear their footsteps."
"That's weird, I can't smell them either," Adryn stated as she turned to the door as well. The door began to open and Adryn's heart began to sink. Adryn was in a position that she could clearly see the door as it opened, and the person opening the door nearly caused Adryn's legs to give out. "Oh my god," Adryn muttered to herself as the door opened fully.
"Hey, Adryn. It's been a long time." It was a woman, a few inches taller than Adryn was, but it was obvious that she was a few years younger than Adryn. She had lilac hair that was wavy and reached her shoulders. Her eyes were a beautiful crystal blue color. She was wearing a light blue tank top and dark blue pants. There was a Raven Tail guild mark on her left shoulder. She had a huge smile on her face as she fully faced Adryn, who was on the verge of having a panic attack. "You look like you've seen a ghost." The girl teased as she fully entered the room with two men standing at the doorway behind her.
"Adryn?" Laxus looked to his girlfriend who now had gone pale and was shaking.
"Nova?" Adryn questioned finally in a quiet and confused voice. Laxus and the Thunder Legion knew that name. They recognized it as the little sister of Eclipse and Adryn's first lover.
"It's alright, Adryn. I'm real. I'm actually here. You don't need to panic." Nova stated with a smile on her face still. She was speaking with such a sweet and calming voice, but there was such hate in her eyes that it confused Adryn.
"You're dead. You can't be here."
"My sister was dead too, but she came back, right? Why can't I?" Nova then took a few steps closer to Adryn and patted her shoulder comfortingly before turning to face the others in the room who were extremely confused. "Hello, Laxus, Freed, Bickslow, and Evergreen. My name is Nova Oracle. I am Eclipse's younger sister and Adryn's very first lover. Though by now I'm sure you've figured that out."
"How... How are you here? You... Eclipse said she killed you..." Adryn was breathing heavily and quickly, which essentially meant that she was hyperventilating now. Nova turned to Adryn and frowned.
"You need to calm down. You didn't react like this when Eclipse appeared again, did you?" Nova then smiled again and faced the others. "I'm sure you all are wondering how a dead girl is alive, so I'll tell you. The memories of my sister killing me were false. Those memories were planted into her mind via my telepathic abilities so that I could go underground and hide for some years. I needed to be able to move freely and being attached to Eclipse and Adryn was holding me back."
"You must be mind-controlled like Eclipse was. You... you aren't yourself." Nova then turned back to Adryn with a deeper frown on her face.
"What would you know?" Nova snapped, causing Adryn to jolt and take a step away from the lilac-haired girl. "You never cared to know the real me. You only wanted me to be this princess to protect. You didn't care about how I felt or anything!" Nova then took a second to calm herself before a smile appeared on her face again. "I apologize that you had to see such a side of me. To answer your statement, I am not being controlled at all. If anyone was controlling me, it was you and Eclipse before my 'death'."
"So, you have turned against Adryn and Eclipse?" Freed questioned from behind Laxus.
"I have," Nova responded as she continued to stare at Adryn. The redhead was now staring at the ground. So many thoughts were flying through her mind. She couldn't comprehend anything that was going on currently, so her thoughts were a bit incoherent. "Adryn?"
"Why? Why are you like this? What happened?" Adryn finally looked up to Nova with a pained look on her face. Nova just smiled softly at the girl and approached her slowly.
"I truly loved you when we were kids, Adryn. Then everything happened with Ivan, and he began to dote on you and treated you like you were better than us. You always were his favorite, no matter how much you acted out in the beginning. It's why I had the idea to trick you into being his puppet." Those words caused shock to overwrite the pain on Adryn's face. "He always gave you more attention. It hurt. However, what hurt more was Ivan's death. I was incredibly saddened when I heard that he died."
"Why were you sad to hear that the monster that killed our families was dead?!" Adryn was finally coming out of the initial shock that she had been suffering. Anger was filling her now. Even so, Nova just continued to smile.
"I will be taking revenge for his death. Starting with you."
"Wha-" Before Adryn could fully ask her question, Nova pulled out a knife and stabbed Adryn, right in the abdomen.
"Adryn!" Laxus and the Thunder Legion cried out in shock at seeing the girl stabbed.
"I never wanted to hurt you, but you took him from me." Nova then pulled the knife out and simply walked out of the room, with the door closing and locking behind her.
"Adryn!" Laxus was at the girl's side within an instant after his shock wore off. He caught her as she lost her balance and began to fall. He watched as blood began to pour out of the wound in her abdomen.
"That looks bad, we need to get her to a doctor," Evergreen stated as she and the other men approached the two dragon slayers.
"Get the door open!" Laxus demanded as he put a hand over Adryn's wound. Freed nodded his head and went to open the door, but it was locked with runes.
"It's going to take me a few minutes to undo these runes." Freed informed the man to which Laxus just growled. Freed got working on the runes as Bickslow and Evergreen came to Laxus' side. Bickslow tore off a part of his clothing and had Laxus put it over Adryn's wound to try to stop the bleeding. However, her blood soon was flowing through the cloth.
"I... I can't believe that... that is Nova..." Adryn mumbled to herself as she laid in Laxus' arms.
"She's going into shock if she wasn't already," Evergreen spoke to Laxus as he tightened his grip on the redhead.
"I can't... I fucking can't believe she stabbed me!" Adryn snapped causing her to wince in pain.
"You need to remain calm," Bickslow told the girl. His babies didn't say anything this time causing Adryn to frown.
"You know, as annoying as your babies are, I don't like not hearing them talk. It's like something wrong... I mean something is wrong but... where was I going with this..."
"This is bad. Freed, do you have the runes undone yet?!" Laxus turned slightly to look at Freed who was deep in the runes and was rewriting them quickly.
"Just a moment," Freed muttered as he finished writing something with a flick of his wrist. The runes then came down and Freed was able to open the door. Laxus already had Adryn picked up and held safely in his arms bridal style. "This way." Freed began to walk quickly through the hallways that he remembered being taken through. It was a short, but tense walk to the door leading outside the house. Every corner they turned, they expected someone to be there to stop them. However, no one was there to stop them. Everyone was gone from the building.
"You all are panicking. I won't die from this." Adryn muttered as they all hurried out of the house.
"Hush. We're getting you to a doctor. They will decide if you will die from this or not, though we all hope you won't." Laxus was surprisingly gentle with his tone towards Adryn. It caused the girl to smile at him.
"Yeah, a doctor sounds good. I don't... I don't feel too good..."
"You were stabbed, of course, you aren't going to feel too good!" Evergreen snapped at the girl who just smiled in return. She was slowly slipping away but she was holding onto her consciousness. Adryn knew that things would get really bad if she succumbed to the darkness. "Laxus, keep her talking, don't let her fall asleep!"
"It's alright, I know I shouldn't sleep now," Adryn muttered as she kept forcing her eyes to open. She picked her head up to look at her wound and she nearly passed out then. She wasn't good with blood, so she had no idea why she decided to look at it. "Okay, I'm not that smart..."
"What are you talking about? You're the second smartest of us." Laxus stated causing Adryn to frown.
"I guess it's Freed who is smarter than me?"
"You don't sound too happy about that."
"I wanted to be the smartest..." Adryn whispered though she knew she didn't really mean that. She then shook her head and sighed. "Wow...I'm fading a lot faster than I thought I would."
"You're losing blood at a rapid rate. The knife might have hit something important." Freed explained simply but worriedly. "Bickslow and I will go ahead and find a doctor, you two keep Adryn awake and alert." Freed addressed Laxus and Evergreen who instantly agreed. The two men then took off in different directions trying to search for anybody to direct them to a doctor.
"Adryn, keep talking. You need to stay awake." Evergreen spoke up to the girl. Adryn just frowned and looked to Evergreen.
"I know that... What the fuck am I supposed to talk about?" Adryn was a little irritated at her friend.
"Anything. Everything that comes to mind." Laxus demanded causing Adryn to smile up at him.
"You're really attractive, but I know you know that," Adryn spoke up before shaking her head again. "I just said that out loud, didn't I?"
"You did," Evergreen stated, smiling at her friend. However, Adryn ignored Evergreen and continued staring at Laxus.
"I want a cat. Mostly all the other dragon slayers have cats, don't they? I want one too."
"I'll get you as many cats as you want, as long as you don't die," Laxus said forcing a smile at Adryn. She frowned at his fake smile and lifted her hand to touch his cheek.
"You shouldn't fake a smile, a real one looks better on you. Then again, you are attractive no matter what your expression is. I bet you're even cute when you're mad."
"You're being ridiculous because of the blood loss." Evergreen butted in before Laxus could respond to Adryn's embarrassing comment.
"Maybe so," Adryn spoke with a smile on her face as she kept her eyes on Laxus' face. "I can't help it. The blood loss has made me all messed up. Though, I'm telling the truth that I know I wouldn't normally say."
"If you're aware, maybe you should stop."
"No. I like seeing this look on Laxus' face." Evergreen then looked to Laxus to see his cheeks slightly red. He was trying to fight the embarrassment that was caused by Adryn's words. "He's adorable, isn't he... Then again, you probably only think that... someone else is adorable, don't you? Though you won't admit it."
"You're a brat, you know that?" Evergreen's words weren't harsh at all, and they actually caused Adryn to chuckle, when then caused her to hiss in pain.
"That hurt. Don't make me laugh." Adryn then frowned again. "You haven't said anything in a while, Laxus. What's on your mind?" Laxus opened his mouth to respond, but Freed's voice cut in and stopped Laxus.
"We found a doctor!" Freed nearly yelled as he and Bickslow, plus his babies hurriedly approached the three of them. There was a man behind them not moving as fast, as he was a little on the old side.
"Set her down, let me see her wound." The doctor demanded as soon as he got close to them. Laxus did as the man said and set Adryn carefully on the ground. By now, Laxus was covered in Adryn's blood. The front of his shirt was bloody and his hand that was holding the cloth to her wound was also covered in blood. "The wound isn't that deep, but it hit something which is causing all this blood. If I don't stop all this bleeding soon, she will die."
"Well do something then!" Laxus snapped at the man, who just ignored Laxus and continued his assessment of Adryn.
"Calm down, Laxus. She's in good hands now." Freed was trying to help, but Laxus only glared at him in return, making Freed frown.
"I have the strongest healing magic in this town. I believe it's luck that you came across me. Only I would be able to heal such a wound of this caliber." The doctor stated as he placed his hands over Adryn's wound. "I won't be able to heal it completely, meaning there will be a scar left behind."
"I don't care, just heal me..." Adryn muttered as she tried to peek at what the doctor was doing. He seemed to be caught off guard a bit.
"How are you still conscious?"
"My will is strong, I guess." Adryn caught a glimpse of all the blood and laid her hand back down feeling sick. "How much blood have I lost?"
"Enough that you should be dying. Though, you are a dragon slayer, so I'm sure your sturdier than most people are." That caused Adryn to smile, but it quickly faded as the pain began in her abdomen.
"You're hurting her," Laxus stated angrily.
"I have to heal her. It will cause some pain as the internal parts begin to reconnect and as the tissue begins to stretch and close back up."
"That's gross. I don't need to know how this works." Adryn mumbled through the grimace on her face. The doctor chuckled at Adryn's words and continued to heal her. After a couple of minutes, the doctor took his hands away from her wound to show a scar there, but otherwise, everything looked normal, just covered in blood.
"She needs rest tonight. Tomorrow, after a meal or two, she should be fine." As the doctor spoke, he stood up. He then brushed the dirt off himself as he'd been kneeling on the ground.
"Speaking of food, I don't remember the last time we actually ate," Evergreen muttered mostly to herself. The doctor frowned though and turned to Freed and Laxus. He clearly saw those two as their leaders.
"You all need to take better care of yourselves. I don't want to have to heal anyone else today. This drained me completely."
"How could we repay you? How much-" Freed was cut off by the doctor raising a hand.
"Just get this girl to some good food and have a good night's rest. That's how you can repay me. I don't want to have to see you all again while you stay in our town."
"Thank you," Adryn spoke as she slowly sat up. Evergreen and Bickslow were at her side in a moment and helped her sit up all the way. "I really appreciate your help."
"Of course. It's my job to save people's lives." The doctor then waved to the others and headed down the road back to wherever Freed and Bickslow found him.
"How did you come across him anyway?" Evergreen questioned to Freed and Bickslow.
"Well, really he found us." Freed began causing Evergreen to look at him confused. "Bickslow and I met back up, only for the doctor to come out of a house and ask if we needed help."
"That's... suspicious..." Adryn mumbled as Laxus picked her back up. "You know I can walk, right?"
"You were just close to death, let me carry you," Laxus spoke with a tone that told Adryn that there was no negotiation at all allowed. The girl just sighed and snuggled into his arms comfortably.
"Adryn is right though. Now that I think about it, that was suspicious." Bickslow stated with his babies repeating his last word twice.
"Who cares? Adryn is healed and we need to get going now. It looks like it's about to rain." Laxus began to walk away from them but they all soon followed behind him. Laxus didn't initially know where he was going, but eventually, they found a tavern attached to an inn. It was almost too convenient for them, but they went into it anyway due to the rain that'd begun to fall.
"We'll get some food. You two go sit down." Freed instructed as he and the others of the Thunder Legion headed for the bar to order the food. Laxus walked over to a decent-sized table away from the other random people in the bar and set Adryn down in a chair.
"Will you be able to sit up by yourself?"
"I should be alright. If not, I'll lean against you." Adryn replied as she looked at him and frowned. She then looked to herself and her frown deepened. "You are still covered in blood, and so am I."
"I don't care. It's not anyone's business, except our own."
"Alright, if you say so." Adryn then leaned against the now seated Laxus, which instantly worried him.
"Are you alright?"
"I just want to be near you." That caused Laxus to smile softly at her, even though she couldn't see it. The two sat in silence until the Thunder Legion came to the table with their food.
"Do you have an appetite? Can you eat?" Evergreen asked as she sat down next to the injured girl.
"I need to eat regardless. I have to get my strength back."
"You already look and sound better. I'm sure you'll be back to normal after some food and rest." Freed stated as he sat next to Laxus. Bickslow ended up sitting between Evergreen and Freed. The Thunder Legion gave Laxus and Adryn their food and everyone began eating. Adryn ate slowly, as to not get sick since she still didn't
feel 100%. Laxus ate while watching Adryn just in case, which made the girl nervous.
"Can you not, Laxus? I can't eat while people are watching me." Instead of replying, Laxus looked to his food and continued to eat, as if he hadn't been caught staring. Soon enough, the 5 of them were done eating and Freed was off to get a room for them. Specifically, he was figuring out if they had any large rooms for them all to sleep in. they all felt that they needed to be together just in case anything else happened to any of them.
"They, indeed, do have a large room with three beds, so we all can stay together tonight." Freed informed them as he approached them after speaking with someone. Once they got up from the table, they headed to their big room, with Laxus carrying Adryn again.
"Wow, this really is a big room!" Bickslow pointed out the obvious as they entered the room, with his babies echoing his words. After everyone was in the room, they chose what beds they would sleep on. Laxus and Adryn got the bed closest to the window while Freed and Bickslow got the bed in the middle, meaning Evergreen got a bed to herself, which was the one closest to the door.
After everyone got ready for bed, they all ended up sitting on their beds and began to chat. They talked about all the events that happened that day, except for Adryn. The redhead remained silent through the whole conversation, which drew the worry of her friends and boyfriend.
"Adryn? Are you alright?" Laxus questioned from Adryn's side. His voice caused her to jolt and look up at him with confusion.
"Yeah?"
"Was that an answer to my question, or were you not paying attention?"
"Yes," Adryn responded, confusing the man further. "I wasn't paying attention, but I was answering your question." Adryn had a frown on her face as she spoke, which wasn't quite normal.
"Are you feeling alright?" Freed asked from his bed next to Bickslow.
"I... am not sure. I was feeling fine earlier, but now I think everything is setting in and hitting me hard."
"Do you want to talk about it?" Laxus asked causing Adryn to turn to face him.
"Well... I just am conflicted. I am unsure if I can fight against Nova, even though I know that I need to. I feel like... like I might even defend her if I needed to... I don't know..." Adryn looked to the floor as she spoke and couldn't look up at Laxus or her friends.
"Adryn, do you still love Nova?" Evergreen's question caused Adryn to look up instantly with a conflicted look on her face. Adryn's mouth opened and closed a few times before her eyes returned to the ground.
"I can't answer that currently. Can I have the night to sleep on it and think it over?" Before anyone could say anything, Adryn turned to face her pillow and began to climb into bed. "Actually, I think I should get to sleep. I'm not... I don't feel the greatest."
"Sleeping is a good idea. Let's all sleep now." Freed stated as he moved to climb into bed with Bickslow getting in a good distance away from Freed. The two didn't want to be too close to each other. Evergreen wasn't happy about Adryn's non-response but got into her bed as well. That left Laxus to climb into his and Adryn's bed, only to see that Adryn had her back turned to him. They slept like that a few times but this time it felt different. Laxus did not attempt to move close to Adryn as he laid down and she did not move to come closer to him. So, the two lovers fell asleep listening to the rain, feeling upset for different reasons.