Team Natsu finally reunites near the edge of the town. Erza decides to take them out from behind while the others take them out before they can even reach the city gates. Of course Natsu has to blow them away with his stronger power.
"So did you get stronger this past year too or what?" Natsu wonders gleefully.
"Just watch me old buddy, it'll be pretty obvious." Gray replies as Lucy opens the gate for Taurus and transforms into a matching outfit with the Celestial Spirit.
"Fullbuster!" He hears Jerome call.
"Don't worry, these heathens will not hinder our plan for purification." Briar reassures. "Let us dispose of them!"
Erza then comes in and takes them out. Natsu claiming that it's been a while since they've had a party like this, Gray agreeing that they will have to do it up right. Both he and Natsu send attacks at the members coming towards them. He sees some members coming for Lucy, calling her out because Natsu is to focused on the battle right now. She takes some of the incoming members out but he freezes a guy that is above her otherwise she'd be a Lucy kebab.
Snapping his fingers the guy that is frozen becomes the top and freezes more of his brethren. Natsu takes the opportunity to run up it as he blows them all away with his fire. From the corner of his eye he sees Jerome go after Erza. He hears someone call his name and he sees familiar white hair, dark skin, and red eyes.
"Briar." He grunts out.
"How dare you betray us like this! You played us for fools! All this time you spent with us was a lie, wasn't it?" She jumps in the air before landing in front of him and using her magic to break the ground.
"Yeah, of course it was you idiot. I'm not the kind of guy who would associate with a bunch of murders like you!" He informs her calmly.
She rebuffs this by telling her it's not murder but purification. Whatever you need to tell yourself to make yourself feel better, I guess. Gray thinks.
"And once it's done Lord Zeref will be among us again!" He dodges her attack again. "Tell me: your brave words about the Book of E.N.D. were they just lies as well?" Another attack, another dodge.
"I hate to disappoint you, but that stuff was mostly true. Someday I am going to destroy E.N.D. and when I do it's going to be on my terms; in a way that'll make my old man proud."
"If there's one thing I can't stand it's a rat, hear me!" She keeps attacking and he keeps dodging, does she not get that she can't get him? He sends a blast towards her and she splits. Good that's what he wanted. Her split image magic. He tells her as much as she splits into four.
"I am Angry Briar!" says the one on the upper left.
"I am Smiling Briar!" The one on the upper right claims.
"I am Sorrowful Briar." The lower left.
"And I am simply Loving Briar." Lower right.
Gosh, the only person he wants looking at him lovingly is Juvia.
Juvia, where are you? I could really use your help. Even if it means you yelling at me later.
The four Briar's go on about how they feel facing him, and he feels an unpleasant feeling wash over him when Loving Briar confesses that she fell a little bit in love with him. He waits for Juvia to show up, normally if she feels another woman is competition for him she'll come in and try to fight or sabotage them. He doesn't see her or feel her magic.
She must be back home still recovering. He figures as Natsu told him on their way that Wendy and Carla are taking care of Juvia and helping her recover from the rain. He'll just have to fight with twice the strength if she was their with him. Everything becomes a blur but he knows that he defeats Briar before everything goes dark. A metallic monster appears. Gray and everyone tries to save everyone while Natsu took care of the monster. It all happens too fast and too slow in Gray's opinion. Once the battle is over they all gather around, Gajeel, Lily, and Levy coming towards their group. Gajeel jokingly telling them that he's going to arrest them all.
"And Juvia you're under arrest for. . . . Where's Juvia?" The Iron Dragon Slayer questions as he doesn't see his friend among the group.
"That's right," Gray speaks up. "Wendy, Natsu and Lucy said that you and Carla were taking care of her. Is she still sick?"
Wendy and Carla-who is now back in her cat form-look down. "It's not that she's still sick. . . . You see we were on our way here. . . ."
Wendy, Carla, and Juvia are on their way to battle. They're using Wendy's strong nose to try and find them. They knew that Natsu and Lucy went to Saber Tooth and after that they were going to find Gray. They're in a forest where all four scents of Natsu, Lucy, Happy, and Gray all go into two different directions.
One path gave Wendy the creeps from the darkness coming from it while the other not so much. But which path had they gone down? Which path should they be taking?
"We should split-up." Juvia finally states as she sees the concerned, conflicting look on Wendy's face.
The young indigo-haired child looks up at the Water Mage. Both Wendy and Carla voice their thoughts on Juvia's decision. Telling her that it's crazy and that if they split-up and run into trouble then it will end one against who-knows-how-may or two against how-many.
Juvia lifts her hand to silence the healer and the Exceed. "It'll be all right. Juvia can handle herself. Oh, and if you happen to see Gray, tell him that we are going to have to have a serious talk." Juvia starts walking down the path that is giving off an dark aurora.
"Come with us down the other way and if we find him, you can tell him yourself!" Wendy pleads.
Juvia looks at Wendy over her shoulder, a small gentle smile on her lips. "Don't worry, we both have a fifty-fifty shot of meeting with them or running into people that could cause them more trouble. . . ."
"We're going with you, whether you like it or not Juvia!" Juvia's smile grows a little at Wendy's declaration but does not argue with her. (Though, can someone even really argue with a Dragon Slayer once they set their mind on something?) They make their way down the path and come across a big pile of dark bricks. "What happened here?" Wendy wonders.
"I don't know, but whatev-Wendy watch out!" Juvia pushes Wendy and Carla out of the way as she sees some men in white and green-grey cloaks coming down from the trees. Juvia screams as something comes into contact with her and electrocutes her.
"Juvia!"
The man holding Juvia laughs. "It looks as if we got what we came for."
"Hey, give her back!" Wendy is about to use some of her Sky Magic on them when a sudden blizzard covers them. A man with blue-white-hair in a side ponytail, wearing glasses and blue-white robes comes forward.
"I don't think that will be necessary. Tell Mr. Fullbuster if he wishes to Ms. Lockser again, to meet me, Invel, near the Alvarez Empire." With that, the man raises his hand and all of the ice and snow disappear as does all of the men in robes and Juvia.
Everyone freezes at this revelation. Tears start forming in Wendy's eyes, the Sky Dragon Slayer falls to the ground on her hands and knees, her tears dampening the earth. "I'm so sorry, everyone. I should have been quicker, I should have tried to stop them from taking her." The youngest slayer sobs.
Erza goes over and kneels in front of her. "It's all right, Wendy, no one blames you."
"That's right!" Natsu agrees as he clenches his fist, flames engulfing it. "We'll get her back, don't you worry!"
Erza then reminds them that they need to go back to the guild, or where it used to be. On the back to Magnolia, Gray has been silent the entire, mind racing with various thoughts a hundred miles a minute. He hears his companions taking, their gazes on him every few minutes or so before they go back to looking at the road ahead with their own conversations.
When they reach the guild, everyone of their guild family is their. Gray is happy to see them, of course he is, but something is missing and he is very well aware of what it is. To keep his mind preoccupied he throws himself into rebuilding Fairy Tail. It doesn't help that he catches himself almost calling her name. He always stops before even a sound of Juvia's name escapes his lips, but that doesn't mean he doesn't notice the looks and whispers of his guildmates. Macao and Wakaba whispering to themselves that Juvia must be on a mission, or she has yet to receive word about Fairy Tail coming back together (are they really that dumb?), or she must have come to her senses and realized that she is too good for Gray and finally left him.
That stings. But Gray agrees that Juvia is too good for him. She has put her life on the line for him plenty of times, has defended him, and has been by his side countless times. And what has he done for her in return? Brush her feelings and declarations off, but just offered her friendship. He even left her for months without telling her about going undercover or seeing Porlyusica about his Demon Slayer mark. He could have at least been honest about that. Okay, that's a lie. Not only should he have been honest about Porlyusica, but also about the moment he and Erza first made contact; even taking her to meet Erza in the early days just before he learned of Avatar.
Once night falls the guild is mostly back to normal, so everyone is inside celebrating but Gray is at the bridge overlooking the city. It's empty at this time of night, but Gray swears he hears footsteps coming towards him every so often and looks over his shoulder to see if Juvia has somehow escaped from that Invel freak. He grits his teeth as he can only imagine what he is doing to her/ Has he frozen her? Tormented her with ice so much that she now hates it and doesn't want to see it again? Is he keeping her in cell and beating her with every chance he gets?
"Gray." Erza's voice brings him out of his dreadful reverie. "Is everything all right?" The requip mage wonders.
"No." Gray answers, voice as cold as his ice magic. "I'm not."
"What's wrong?"
"Everything! Juvia's gone because you told me I couldn't tell her about us meeting or about Avatar!"
"You knew the stakes, the more-"
"Don't give me that bullshit! If you were the one that went undercover there's no doubt you would have told Jellal and kept in contact with him as much as you could! If Natsu hadn't left you wouldn't've asked him or Lucy to keep it a secret from the other! You also knew what happened when she gets too upset," he can't bring himself to say sad or depressed about Juvia. Her mood has hardly ever been down since she joined Fairy Tail, mostly pure and utter joy and he can't seem to think about her any other way. "Yes, I could have denied your request, but you said that you couldn't find anyone else. We could have at least included her in the planning. She used to be apart of Phantom's Elemental Four, she's probably been on missions like that before. She would have understood. Worried? Yes. But she would have understood."
Erza stands their for a moment. She understands how he feels. And she understands that what she asked of him, of both of them, was wrong. She knows that she herself could have at least reached out to Juvia when they realized the mission was going to take longer than expected. They're both at fault for this, she realizes as she walks to stand next to her friend.
"I understand that you're reasonably upset, but we will get her back. By all means we will make this Invel feel the wrath of Fairy Tail for taking one of our friends."
For a moment, Gray feels better. Only for a moment. He takes a breath. Nothing is going to make him feel better until he knows that Juvia is safe. Once they reach her, get her free, and IF she doesn't need any healing then he is going to let take on Invel, she deserves to take him our for kidnapping her. He won't step in (no matter how much he wants to) unless she asks him to. Then when Invel is taken care of, Gray will take her aside and they can have that serious talk she wants so bad. Even if she does tell Gray that she is tired of her heart wanting him and following and she wants someone else, he'll let her go. Despite the fact of coming to terms with his feelings for her, he won't argue with her. She deserves to be happy, and if she's decided that's not with him than so be it.