In Master Makarov's office the atmosphere was a muddled mixture of anger and worry, Makarov read over the warning letter Laxus and Juvia had received with a furrowed brow, when he set the paper on his desk his expression transformed to one of sorrow and he began to speak.
"Juvia, my dear, you may notice that there are no Dreyar women around, it has bee said they are cursed."
"Cursed?" she repeated fidgeting in her seat, glancing up toward Laxus she asked, "do you believe this?"
He was silent for a minute before he blew a breath and responded, "I don't know what I believe, I know that I don't want this to be true, but I also know that there are no Dreyar women around to dispute it."
"None?" she asked with sadness in her voice.
"None," he repeated.
Makarov spoke, "My mother Rita died just after I was born, My wife is no longer with us, and Laxus' mother as well." He frowned, "three generations of young women not around to raise their children does seem like a curse in a way, but let's put our faith into it being a horrible coincidence and make the best of things for now."
Juvia scooted forward on her seat and pushed against the sturdy arms of the chair to lift her heavily pregnant frame to her aching feet. Pushing down all of her fears she moved to Laxus, "I did not overcome my very real curse of constant rain to be beaten by anything else." She wore a look of determination as she spoke, "this is no cure, I promise you that I will be there to raise this baby."
The trio decided to keep this discussion and the threat quiet as not to cause the rest of the guild to worry, Juvia was working her last day before maternity leave while Laxus secretly transitioned to the guild master position under the guise of "mission research" with Makarov. When she began to feel uncomfortable and short of breath, she leaned forward standing at the bar. She tried to ignore the spasms in her back and put her head down on the bar top, Mira came out of the store room and called out as she approached, "I told you that you could head home if it's too much for you today." Juvia didn't raise her head continuing to stand against the bar in silence with her forehead on the top, Mira began to worry, "Juvia, are you all right?"
A ragged breath escaped her lips as Juvia straightened, "I think it's time, I should get Laxus," placing her hands on her belly she sharply inhaled.
Mira scooted a stool over closer to Juvia and said, "you sit, I will get him," and with that she hurried into Makarov's office without knocking talking before the door was even open, "Laxus! Juvia says it's time, get going!"
His face paled a bit as he closed the document in front of him and rushed past Mira, his jacket sleeves fluttering behind him. Before he could pull Juvia to her feet the doors to the guild hall flew open and his father stood smiling. "Just in time," he said with a menacing laugh.
"You. You're supposed to be in prison," Laxus said angrily.
"I did leave them a very convincing decoy," my illusions are quite hard to distinguish from the real thing as you know," Ivan sneered.
Four seedy looking men entered the hall behind Ivan as thick metal chains wrapped their way around the doors and windows, "My friend Vlad has a skill with bindings and chains, although my followers are still incarcerated, I was able to find a bit of new blood to help my cause."
"Your cause?" Laxus said noticing Juvia's small moan as she tensed.
"Oh I am here to take this guild for my own, as I originally wanted to in the beginning," he stated coldly, "but watching the curse claim another life with be an added bonus, specially since you're the reason your mother isn't here and now your little incubator here will share the same fate since she's served her purpose."
Juvia stared daggers into Ivan as she slid from her seat and grimaced through her discomfort, and it was quickly growing into pain.
Mira rushed forward to take on Ivan, the guild was mostly empty this day leaving very few to handle the situation. Bisca hurried forward to Juvia's side, "let me get you out of harm's way until they can get an exit cleared."
Laxus nodded, "take care of her while I deal with this," scanning the main hall he realized that he, Mira and Gramps would be up against Ivan and his four henchmen and they had to hurry for Juvia and the baby's safety.
Bisca pulled Juvia into the storage room, "this may be the best place to stay right now, there's supplies if we need them and we're out of sight." Looking down she held Juvia's hand as she asked, "are you doing alright?"
Juvia's eyes widened as a whimper slipped through her lips, "it's getting harder to breathe through the pain, I didn't talk so I could focus."
"That's a good idea, that is what I did too," she tried to reassure her, "he's gonna try to get you out of here but I want you to be ready for the possibility of delivering here, with me."
"you're going to help me?" she asked breathlessly.
"I'm the only one here who has any experience, so yes, I am going to be here with you."
"Bisca," Juvia asked nervously.
"Yes?"
Juvia had tears in her eyes as she said, "I wish I hadn't waited so long, I've been having contractions all morning and now there's a probably not much time left." She flinched and panted through her growing contractions causing Bisca to realize just how close delivery could be.
Master and Mira fought off Ivan's men as Laxus took on Ivan himself. The fights were back and forth when suddenly Juvia's screams were heard carrying down the hall; distracted, Laxus took a hard hit knocking him through a table, shaking off splinters of wood he stood once more and threw everything he had into defeating Ivan. He was worried about Juvia delivering their baby as the fight went on, and it was impossible to keep his focus anything he heard her call out. Ivan to a heavy punch to the face and angrily spat, "I don't have time for this, Desmond, NOW!" A short dark-haired wizard murmured a spell engulfing Laxus in a thick darkness, his head spun s he tried to fight though but there seemed to be a mind-altering property to this inky black substance.
"Juvia, you're so close, you can do this," Bisca said trying to comfort her through the last pushes, giving birth under these conditions was incredibly hard for her and it showed every time Laxus could be heard over the commotion outside the storage room. Juvia focused as best she could and moments later the cries of her child sounded, Juvia peered down at the face of her child and decided in that moment that she'd had enough.
"It's a.." Bisca began.
"NO, wait, Laxus needs to be here for this," she said pulling herself to her feet, her legs quivered before the determination to end things cemented giving her the energy to move out the door leaving Bisca holding her newborn.
Mira noticed movement out of the corner of her eye and turned to see the blue haired mage emerge, " Juvia what are you doing?"
There was a raging magic power that radiated from her in visible waves, blasting magic at the enemies they were all trapped in boiling water locks, once the mages were trapped the blackness around Laxus dissipated leaving him on the floor trying to shake the confusion the substance left him in. Noticing Juvia he moved swiftly to her side as all of their enemies crumpled to the floor.
"You're using magic?!" he said exasperated as she released all of her attacks and fell against him, "but I had to protect you and the baby."
"the baby," he began.
"is with Bisca." She answered.
Mira approached as Juvia shook from exhaustion, "Let's get you all to the hospital."
The doctor carefully examined the sleeping newborn before turning and handing the child to Laxus, "congratulations, your daughter is perfectly healthy."
"daughter?" he repeated in shock looking down at the baby girl with her pale skin and tuft of soft blonde hair.
"What are we going to call her?" Juvia asked quietly from her bed, she'd released an immense amount of magic power that had pent up though the duration of her pregnancy, she now felt as if she'd run a marathon and would never be energized again.
'How about Amaya?" he asked, "it means night rains, I saw it a while back and it stuck with me."
"that's beautiful," Juvia agreed, "I like it."
Mira stepped in from the hallway holding the locked box containing their wager, "so who wins?"
"Juvia was right all along, we have a daughter," Laxus smiled.
Setting the box on a table Mira carefully unlocked it and opened the lid, pulling out the two slips of paper she read them both and smiled, "I wish both of these were happening."
"So, what did you write?" Laxus asked Juvia, she nodded to Mira who read from the slip of paper.
"Laxus will take less dangerous work to be safe for our daughter."
"It seems silly now," Juvia sighed looking at their baby, "mages just have dangerous jobs, I know that isn't actually possible so you're off the hook, can I know what you wrote?"
Laxus gently placed Amaya in her arms before saying, "I am stubborn, and I still want mine even thought I didn't win." Taking the lip of paper from Mira he handed it to Juvia.
She made a soft gasp as she read his paper, "I want to marry the mother of my child." Tears welled in her eyes and she nodded, "I can do that."
"Good, because I already made yours happen," he smirked.
"What, when? How?" she stammered.
"I didn't realize you wrote it but I started the transition to take over for Gramps a while back, I won't be going out on missions anymore."
Silent tears turned into sobs as Juvia asked, "are you serious?"
"Completely serious."
In the waiting room the noisy group of guild members grew restless, "they've been in there a long time, I hope everything is okay," Lucy said sounding concerned.
"Juvia had a baby and unleashed fury on Ivan and his men, she's probably going to need some time," Bisca replied.
"So did you see if the baby was a boy or a girl?" Lucy prodded.
Bisca grinned, "I am sworn to secrecy, but the baby was perfect."
Just then, Mira exited the room "the new parents are ready to announce their child's name."
Laxus pushed Juvia out of the room in a wheelchair with the baby sleeping in her arms, Juvia cleared her throat before saying, "This is Amaya Rai Dreyar." A cheer broke out from the guild members and Laxus held up a hand to silence them.
He smiled at the crowd, "Juvia won our wager but we've decided to do both our rewards. Juvia asked that I do less dangerous work so starting next month I will be acting guild master of Fairy Tail."
Louder cheers broke out causing Amaya to stir, once again holding up his hand Laxus quieted the group, "and for my end of the deal, I am pleased to announce that Juvia has agreed to marry me." The cheers were deafening this time, Amaya cried softly and Juvia laughed as she comforted the startled baby.
"So what about the curse Ivan spoke of?" Mira asked.
Juvia thought for a moment as she rocked her baby before answering, "I guess we can't be sure if the curse is real, but I think there's enough different about our situation that I am not going to worry. First, we weren't married when she was born, therefore I wasn't a Dreyar by name. Second, she was the first female born into their family in generations and well lastly, I am the Rain Woman, curses are nothing for me."