Lucy fixed Lex's hair, made sure his dress shoes were nice and shiny, put her hair in rollers, and ironed the only black dress she owned that wasn't for date night.
The most difficult moment so far for her had come on a brief trip she made with Yuri two days after Lilia died. He'd wanted to see Sting, and she stayed at his side for the trip. When he actually made it there, she saw with her own eyes what losing a child could do to a parent.
Yuri made the trip to ask Sting if he'd consider letting her be buried with their family in Magnolia, which set off an emotional, loud, and tearful argument that ended with Yuri having the worst black eye of his life. Sting demanded answers, so Yuri told him he wanted to make a grave for their baby, who he had named Bella. It was a Dreyar baby, so it didn't belong anywhere besides Magnolia, but then Yuri felt it was wrong to have graves for a mother and child in different places. Yuri was intensely bothered by the idea that when he died someday their little family wouldn't be together.
Sting gave in, because his daughter probably would have wanted him to do so. It was also morbidly practical; Lilia was dead and there was no way to change that. A grave for a baby that would never be born was purely ceremonial since it was already entombed inside of its mother for the rest of eternity. If Lilia had time to have a last wish, he was sure it would have been for him to be kind to Yuri. They were almost family, after all.
The night before the funeral, the first cold front of fall arrived, and it was cool, gray, and extremely foggy that morning.
Once Lucy was ready, she went up to her son's room and found her husband fixing his tie, his collar, making sure his hair looked a little neater than normal.
Yuri couldn't stop trembling, but he was quiet.
Laxus tried to both encourage and comfort him. Contrary to what anyone thought, grieving wasn't a passive activity at all; it took energy, effort, and was extremely draining.
"You just have to get through this. Just focus on that. One step at a time. You can do this."
Yuri nodded.
The funeral was at Kardia Cathedral, which was packed with what was essentially a 'who's who' of the wizarding world.
When Makarov had died, the funeral had been a somewhat sober celebration of his life. He'd lived a long time and accomplished great things. 'He lived a great life,' 'he left behind a wonderful legacy,' 'he got to see generations of his family,' 'he died happy…'
But Lilia? It was just a horrific tragedy.
The priest droned on about the afterlife, about the bigger picture.
A small group of family and friends moved on to the cemetery, where Yuri stood and numbly put a bouquet of Lilia's favorite flowers on the casket.
He stood there for the entire rest of the afternoon, long after everyone else left except his Dad.
Fairy Tail hosted the funeral attendees and never had the guild been both so full and so calm at the same time.
Once the sun set, Yuri went for a walk and wandered through the woods, wondering what he was supposed to do.
The guild eventually cleared out, everyone went home.
Yuri came home a little later than his family, and found they had a big meal. It consisted of all the things he loved to eat most, which he assumed was supposed to tempt him into eating. Everything tasted like ash to him and all he really wanted to do was sleep. So that's what he did.
The rest of the family did what they did any other evening, just numbly.
Mavis took a shower and walked into her room wrapped in a towel only to find she had a visitor.
Petri Nekkis as sitting on the edge of her bed, with a leather backpack at his feet on the floor.
"What do you want?"
"I want to borrow your nose."
She rolled her eyes. "I've heard you're more of a thighs and tits guy."
"I'm serious, Mavi. I've got something I need to do and you're the only person who can help me do it. More importantly, I think you're the only person who would."
"What is it?"
Petri said, "I talked to my dad. And then I looked at his files. The Magic Council already concluded their preliminary investigation. They didn't find anything. Not one clue. No trace of a killer or killers, no hint of anyone that Lilia might have been in contact with. Everyone thought when they first heard the killers were dumb, or maybe really powerful, but I think they probably just didn't think we'd ever find out who they were."
Mavis nearly snarled. "What good are investigators if they can't even find anything?"
"Natsu's already been there. He's a saint wizard, he represents this guild, and he's got a dragon's nose. But, think about it. Natsu never went in her house before, so how would he know if something was wrong? Lilia was a people person. She had book club, parent meets, spent time with her students. I'm guessing there are tons of smells that are normal. What if it's some normal guy?
"You and your sisters have crashed there coming and going from jobs, so you know the scents that should be there and the scents that shouldn't. Plus, you have a better nose than Natsu and you can kind of fly around. I bet if we go there, you will find something. Anything."
The blonde had several competing thoughts about both the idea that the Magic Council had basically come up empty and the idea that she might not. She was weird even compared to others like her; she had sharper senses, she was fast, and she'd been able to enter and exit lightning form as she desired since she was fairly small. She was not, however, durable, except in a few places where she'd inexplicably grown scales. She grew more scales every year, so she suspected she'd eventually become nearly invincible, but that would likely take decades.
At present, she had to get by with being fast, not ever getting hit, and relying on her senses. She had to rely on her senses so they were quite sharp.
They were explicitly forbidden from leaving Magnolia, and had Petri pitched the idea to their guildmaster and her father, she knew he'd say no. Laxus Dreyar was not opposed to the rule of law as he aged, especially not when it wasn't necessarily treating Fairy Tail badly. Mavis knew he wouldn't have wanted them to dabble in a Magic Council investigation.
But they were young and it was their time to be rebellious.
The idea that she'd drop the ball on what might be the only opportunity that presented itself to learn what happened to Lilia wasn't acceptable to her. Even she knew that Yuri's life was going to take an even worse turn if his fiancée's murderers were never brought to justice.
"Fine. Let's go."
So they snuck out, and under the cover of night, made their way to Clover by train hopping to the roof of a freight train, then another. This was a terrible experience for Mavis, being a dragon, but once they got there, they found the city was quiet.
Petri was the Magic Council chairman's renegade son, and Mavis was an easily recognizable character as well, so they kept hoods up on their travelling cloaks and made their way through the city.
Several areas of the city had been blocked off by the authorities: Lilia's townhouse, a strip of sidewalk leading to a barricaded park, and a large magic barrier in the woods behind.
Getting into the apartment was easy enough; Mavis simply went through the wall as lightning and Petri came down the chimney.
The investigators had left the lights on, and as they crept through the house, nothing seemed out of the ordinary on the surface.
It was clean, and it had all the scents it normally had.
They wore gloves and they opened drawers, looked on shelves, investigated any sign of anything that might be irregular.
Mavis pulled Lilia's journal from a bookcase where it blended in with all the other books.
She didn't know if there would be any clues in it, but what she did know was that she didn't want the journal to become a piece of evidence. In it, she knew there were probably private thoughts and feelings about life, about her hopes, about her dreams, and about the life she wanted to share with Yuri.
In their more in-depth investigation that would end in her life and home being picked apart in search of whatever the person who took her away from everything she was and ever would be, they would have discovered this.
She flipped through the last pages.
There was nothing outside of the excitement ramblings of a young woman who was on the verge of starting an important chapter in her life.
After going through the entire house, they found nothing. So Mavis carried the journal with her as they stalked down a dark alley, cutting behind Sweet Street, the last place Lilia Eucliffe had been seen alive.
"What I really don't get is why she just walked off into the forest. Lilia was an inside cat. She didn't like bugs. Her idea of outdoor time involved the park. She wasn't a woodsman," Petri said.
Mavis didn't answer him, because she was still playing the words from the journal back in her mind. She couldn't escape the sting of the tears that welled up in her eyes as they made their way around the park to the section of the woods where the murder had occurred.
The magic barrier that kept it sealed was child's play to Petri, who opened a hole for then to pass through.
Out of nowhere, and surprisingly quickly, a figure emerged from the dark and grabbed Mavis before she went in.
He held her up, and she outright hissed in reply as her feet dangled above the ground.
She'd been apprehended with the knight who was responsible for making sure the scene stayed secure, Sam Redfox.
"Put me down, Sam!"
Sam dropped her and looked past her to Petri. "What are you doing here? Outside of attempting to trespass at the scene of a high crime?"
Mavis said, "We came here looking for answers. Put me down and leave us alone."
The knight shook his head. "That's not something I can do. This is my job. I was appointed to this site because the Magic Council believed I'd be able to keep Fairy Tail from corrupting the crime scene. There's no reason for it. Let investigators work. The best of the best are working on this."
Mavis wasn't ignorant to the fact there was bad blood between Petri Nekkis and Sam Redfox. As far as she knew, it was testosterone and jealousy driven, and she had no time or patience to deal with it. If they disliked each other, that had nothing to do with her. What did concern her was going inside the barrier.
"The best of the best didn't come up with anything, so why can't we go in?" Mavis asked.
Sam looked up at Petri. "Did you steal files again?"
Petri shrugged. "Nothing I do is any of your business."
"You broke the law and you are tampering with an investigation. And, you brought Mavis. Why are you involving her? You are going to get her in trouble."
Mavis growled, "I'm not some stooge. I came here because I want to help Yuri. You should want that too. We grew up with Lilia, Sam. We were all together and we grew up and it was amazing and now one of us is gone. How can you feel like it's okay to stand in the way of finding out who did it?!"
"I'm not standing in the way. This is how we will learn. You're a guild wizard. You don't know about all the things investigators do. You don't solve murders. That's not what you do. The people who do are working very hard on this, and my job is to make sure that nothing gets disturbed. What if you accidentally step on or ruin a piece of evidence?"
"I won't!"
"You don't know that!"
Sam saw her clutching the journal. "Did you…did you take that from somewhere?"
"Sam, stop doing this. You have fairy blood in your veins, don't you?"
Sam said, "That's got nothing to do with anything. You're a guild wizard. I'm a knight. And my job as a knight is to protect this space so that nothing hurts the investigation. If you want Lilia's killer to be found, be patient and let investigators work."
From Sam's point of view, what was going on made no sense, wasn't going to help anyone, and served no purpose outside of causing trouble. Mavis was stealing evidence, attempting to break into a sealed crime scene, and believed she'd be able to somehow find clues that people who had decades of experience might have missed.
"I'm not going to let this happen," he said.
"Because you think you're right or because it's your job you'd be risking?" Petri asked.
Sam pointed at him. "You get nose out my fucking business. I'm sure this is your fault. You don't have to make everything worse. You're just causing problems because you have issues with your dad and your dad runs the Magic Council. If your dad ran a lumberyard, you'd run all over Fiore setting forest fires."
Mavis punched him in the stomach. "Sam, I don't care about you or your career. I am doing this and you are not going to stop me. If you think you are, let me remind you that if you can defeat one of us, you can't defeat us both. And if you hurt me and I go home, it'll just be one more time someone in my family got hurt because you're selfish."
Sam was something beyond furious about what was going on, because he knew whose fault it was. Petri was—without a doubt—an extremely charismatic person. He could talk anyone into anything. With apparently little effort, he'd enticed Mavis into this mission and somehow convinced her that what they were doing was wise and a great idea.
Sam was given a few equally terrible choices: let them in and hope he didn't get caught, fight them and probably lose because there were two of them, or call for reinforcements and have a violent showdown that might destroy all the evidence that might exist in the area. Two of those options ended with him once again being on the opposite side of Fairy Tail members.
If anyone found out what he'd done, or they got caught by someone else, it would be ruinous for his career because he'd been posted up there a high-ranking knight. If he couldn't do his job effectively, it would be taken from him. He didn't believe Mavis was actually going to be successful, so he might lose his position for no reason at all except the fact he didn't want to be in bad sorts with Fairy Tail.
And screw that—everything that was going on was stupid.
Sam knew Mavis was smart enough to know she was being completely irrational, and Petri certainly knew he was fucking over everyone involved including himself. He didn't care about who is he was putting at risk, or who he was hurting, or what the consequences were going to be.
An iron fist went flying and made hard contact.
Petri Nekkis stumbled backward, blood oozing from his mouth. "Is that what we're doing?"
Sam said, "Mavis, if you don't want to go home hurt, don't get involved."
The only reply he got to that was Mavis bashing him in the base of his skull with a big rock when he was trying to fight Petri. She hit him so hard there was a crack, and blood oozed from the wound as he crumbled to the ground.
Mavis said, "Oops. He'll be okay."
They entered the barrier and started looking around.
There was a huge section that had been destroyed in a battle, with blood-tinged branches and brush spread out all over the place. Her nose told her Lilia had been the only one who bled there, which meant it was less of a fight and more of a beating.
Mavis quickly realized Sam was right: there wasn't anything for them to find.
She came to a spot where the ground was literally soaked in blood.
"This is where she died?"
Petri nodded. "Yeah."
They probably didn't have long before Sam woke up and either started a fight with them, or called for reinforcements to arrest them, so they searched frantically and found nothing.
Outside of the knowledge it wasn't possible Lilia had killed herself, there was no proof anyone else had even been there.
Mavis felt devastated when she realized she'd made the trip and ruffled Sam's feathers for absolutely nothing. She felt stupid for coming, for thinking she might be smarter than people who investigated professionally and was getting ready to make a quick exit from the area when she heard leaves rustle.
It startled her, and when she jumped, she found an owl sitting on the ground, one wing stretched out from injury.
Small animals got caught up and injured in big fights all the time.
But she had an idea, and she didn't know if it was going to work. It was the only thing she could try at this point.
She snatched the owl up off the ground and held it close to her. "Let's go."
"Nothing?"
"There's nothing here, Petri."
"Why are you taking the bird?"
"I'll tell you if it works."
Mavis knew Petri was definitely motivated more by the desire to save Yuri, his best friend, from the fate of knowing his fiancée's killers weren't brought to justice, but she was not fond of what had happened. She felt like Petri probably knew all along that they were probably going to run into Sam. Sam despised Petri, and even if Petri pretended he didn't care at all about anything involving Sam, the feeling was definitely mutual.
They returned to Magnolia the way they'd come, and Mavis climbed right back through her window with the owl and after closing the window, put it down on the floor on a pillow and slipped downstairs to get it some raw meat to eat and some water.
When she made it to the bottom of the stairs, she found her father sitting in the living room as the first light of dawn was starting to shine through the window.
"Dad?"
Laxus, who had been waiting for her since he'd figured out she was gone, said, "I feel like you understood perfectly when I said you weren't to leave Magnolia."
Mavis said, "I had something I needed to do."
"Where did you go?"
"Clover."
Laxus was surprised to hear she'd come from where Lilia was murdered. "Why?"
"It doesn't matter."
"Did you cause trouble?"
"Maybe. Do you know the Magic Council hasn't found anything?"
Laxus nodded. "Jura already told me earlier."
Mavis said, "Maybe I'm not an investigator and I'm not a thousand years old or forty or whatever, and I don't really care about most people outside of our guild and that probably makes me a bad person. But I don't believe in this, and I don't care if I get in trouble, or if I end up being wrong. Doing something is better than doing nothing, right?"
"When we were young, we were all rebels. We didn't play by the rules that were given to us. We made our own and if nobody liked it, we didn't care. Your great grandfather was always frustrated by us—but with few exceptions, he didn't stop us. He believed as young people we needed to make our own choices and our own mistakes. I understand more than you think."
"So you're not mad?"
"I'm more pissed off at your right now than I have been ever in your life. Really, how dare you? But I guess you dare to defy me because you're my kid."
Mavis went on to the refrigerator and cut some meat up that was supposed to be cooked the next day. "If I get arrested, will you help me get out of jail?"
Laxus sighed. "Probably. Jura knows my kids are idiot, like his."
"Who do you think gave me the idea?"
"Are you going to be arrested."
Mavis said, "Sam caught us. There was a little scuffle. I might have smashed him in the head a little with a rock."
Her father frowned at her.
"Was he trying to stop you from doing something stupid?"
"Maybe. I'm keeping a pretty huge secret from you at the request of another person. I think you'll find out pretty soon. It might help us."
Laxus asked, "Is it something bad?"
"Not really. One of your kids is a lot weirder than you think."
"I don't think that's possible. You don't know how weird I think you all are….are you going to eat that raw?"
"I'm not a freak. Geeze."
She put the chicken down, washed her hands, and made her way back to her dad to give him a big hug.
He held her in his arms and said, "We're all going to be okay. I think it's a really good thing that you're trying to look after your brother, but he's has to make his own way forward. Yuri is strong, and he's going to be okay, no matter what happens. We're all working to do what we can to help, but this isn't something we can fix for him."
"He's my brother. The one person who has always been on my side no matter what."
"He's strong. He doesn't need you to save him."
When Mavis made it up to her room, she fed her new, wild, roommate, who didn't mind being fed and away from predators, but wasn't at all fond of her personally.
The next morning after breakfast, Mavis invited Lex to meet the owl, who was then perched at the end of her bed.
When he tried to pet it, it didn't resist him as much.
He leaned in, and he whispered softly.
"Hello, friend. Will you let me hear your voice?"
XXX
A week passed, and then, a week after that.
Fear about the safety of the dragon-blooded wizards and children ran rampant across all the guilds that had dragons in them. For everyone else, life simply went back to normal. People went on jobs, lived their lives, and life resumed its normal crazy pace.
For everyone except Yuri, whose mood started to shift from intense grief to intense anger with every day that went by without answers.
If Sam reported what happened, they didn't hear anything about it and nobody got in trouble. Laxus assumed this was out of consideration for Mavis, who was now keeping an extremely vicious, winged carnivore in her room for unknown reasons.
Yuri seemed to be everywhere, and nowhere at the same time.
Laxus and Lucy agreed as the leaders of the guild that it wasn't a good idea for him to work until his state of mind improved, but that left him wandering around Magnolia for hours by himself. He started spending a lot of time with his little nephews, although Lucy felt like that actually just hurt him more.
Anna didn't mind Yuri hanging around their house. There were fewer adults there and the only chaos was baby-induced. Other than that, she and Iggy had a busy but peaceful life. Their marriage was working out splendidly, and even though they definitely had challenges, she felt like they'd been fortunate.
One night, they came home from a job to find Yuri had both their boys at home. He'd cleaned up a bit, and made dinner.
It was strange to Anna, but Yuri was always a caregiver, even when he was little. He was the oldest, so he'd always looked after them; it was part of the reason they were all adamant about doing all they could to help him.
He seemed lost, like he didn't really know what to do, but it was his nature to care for others, and that's what he did.
Once they'd settled in and eaten, Iggy went on to get cleaned up and Anna sat down at the table with her brother. Oddly, she felt like she was somehow becoming the oldest sibling, since she'd had to take on the responsibilities of being married and being a mother.
"Are you doing okay?"
Yuri shrugged. "I don't know. How am I supposed to be doing? What's normal? Everything feels different. I used to have this huge plan for my future. Now I don't have anything. I don't know what to think about. Or hope for. You know in a few years, you've got the twins growing up and you're going to be with your husband. I don't know what's going to happen to me. I don't know what I want to happen to me. To suddenly not have dreams about the future is scary."
Anna put her hand over his. "In five years, you'll still be the best uncle in the world, the most loyal brother, you'll have a family who loves you. That counts for something, right?"
"I guess it does. I thought I'd be doing this. Being married and raising a kid."
"I think this probably isn't the time to say this yet and I'm not the right person to say it, but just because those things aren't going to happen the way you thought doesn't mean they're not going to happen at all ever. You're still alive. Someday, maybe you'll love someone else, or become a dad."
Yuri shook his head. "It's not for me. There was only one person I ever felt like doing that with. It feels evil and wrong to think about. Like even thinking about it is betraying Lilia and Bella. I feel guilty whenever I think about what I should do now. Then it seems like I shouldn't do anything, but I know that's not right thinking.
"How can I allow myself to enjoy anything when their killers haven't even been punished? They're out there, alive, doing whatever they want. Maybe they're deciding who they'll kill next. And what am I doing? Fucking nothing, because I don't know what I can do. What I should do."
Anna asked, "What do you think Lilia would want you to do?"
"She'd tell me to make a plan and follow it. She'd sit down with me and help me, and encourage me to stick with it. I depended on her. Now she's gone and I don't even know what the purpose of being successful is anymore. To make money? For what? I don't have anyone to provide for. I don't have anything I want to do or anywhere I want to go. I don't care about being famous. I don't care about being powerful. I don't think I care about anything."
His sister said, "That's not true. You care about your family. There's more to life than getting married and having babies."
He let out a little laugh. "Says who, you?"
"I'm serious. I know I was doing something else before all this happened. I just can't remember what it was or why. Mom brain."
Yuri said, "But you're really the lucky one. Everyone thought it was such a tragedy. You got pregnant when you were eighteen, boo fucking hoo. You're the happiest person in our family. You're the only one who gets to be true to yourself and live out your dreams."
"It's not all that great sometimes. I've had to make a lot of sacrifices. I'd love to go on some big, long adventure for a while. I have baby twins and I won't be able to do that for a really long time. I know everyone helps so Iggy and I can still work together, but it's going to be years before we can really go on a long job together. It's not like a mom and dad can leave even toddlers alone for a long time. I love my family, but don't get it mixed up: there are a lot of downsides to having a family when you're young."
"Not nearly as many downsides as when your family dies, right?"
She quickly tried to walk back what she'd said, because she hadn't meant it like Yuri had taken it. "No. I meant…I'm sorry. I know what you're going through I really hard. I mean, I don't. I don't think anyone really understands, not even mom and dad. I know you're suffering. I just don't want you to feel like everything is perfect and good. Everyone has things about their lives that are difficult. Everyone suffers, even if it's not to the extent that you are. People make mistakes. Sometimes bad things happen.
"Your life isn't over, Yuri. You still have endless potential and limitless possibilities. You can go on adventures, make friends, plot out a new future. Not everyone in the world is going to be happy raising a family, and I don't think it's for everyone. Who knows what the future is going to bring, or what's going to make you happy in five years or ten years or whatever. I thought my life was over when I got pregnant, but I'm happy now. I'm not saying it's the same, but I know life finds a way if you let it."
Her brother gave her a half-hearted attempt at a smile. "You're a good sister."
"Your favorite?"
"Layla feeds me all the time, Mavis tries to cheer me up by hitting me, but you just talk to me like a normal person. I don't really want to get fat or have anymore bruises, so I guess you're my favorite."
Anna said, "You made that feel kind of cheap."
He answered, "It is what it is."
"Maybe you should take a trip. Like a vacation. You and Petri used to go on jobs and drink and party and get into all kinds of trouble. Right?"
"Are you suggesting I go get shitfaced and start sleeping around again? That's just not happening."
Anna said, "I didn't say anything about sleeping around. I just think it's weird you drink with Mom. That's not a normal thing people in families do. Parents are supposed to tell their kids not to get drunk, and kids are supposed to be too embarrassed to do it in front of them."
"Why are you judging me?"
"Because I worry about when I have to explain drunk Grams and drunk Uncle Yuri to my sons."
Yuri shrugged. "Not to channel our little sister too strongly but whose fault is it that she's a grandma?"
Anna narrowed her eyes. "Not to channel our little sister too strongly but…" she said before punching him on the arm.
He laughed, and she felt like it was maybe the first time he'd really done that in a while.
Across the street at the Dreyar house, Lex was sitting on his bed, head inclined toward the owl.
"Won't you let me hear your voice? I want to hear what you have to say. I want to be your friend," he said, for what felt like the hundredth time.
They'd been feeding him, nursing him back to health, and he'd gradually learned to trust them a little.
Being able to overhear what animals were thinking about was a strange skill he'd started to develop after the ability randomly appeared. Only Mavis knew about it, and he preferred to keep it like that, because it was strange and it didn't really work that well. He'd mostly overhear random 'loud' thoughts from animals that were distressed immediately around him.
Mavis presented the idea that maybe if he could hone his abilities he could outright talk to animals whenever he wanted to. This was easier said than done, as most animals had no reason to want to converse with humans.
Lex offered the owl some meat and scratched his feathers. "Please let me hear your voice."
It leaned into his affections and for the first time, Lex heard what he had to say.
The owl told him about his life in the forest, about how he was almost well enough to go back to the wilds, about how he'd been scared when he was kidnapped from his home, and how much he wanted to go back.
"We'll take you home when you're ready, I promise. You needed us to be your friends. Everyone needs friends, don't they?"
As wild birds didn't befriend humans, the owl saw no such need, but he was not unappreciative for the safety as he recovered from his injured wing, or all the food they'd given him freely. The more important question was why a little human wanted the friendship of an owl.
"Well, we needed to ask you a question. There's something we need to ask you and you might be the only one who can answer. It's something important. Something that matters to us. Did you see someone hurt a girl in the forest? Did you get hurt when she did?"
The owl whispered, and quietly told him the story of the scariest night in the forest.
Owls were naturally actually extremely violent, so the idea of a creature dying or being killed mattered little to him. Humans killing other humans was no different to a wild predator as any other form of hunting. What had scared him was the magic, as he'd been sucked into a magic spell and fell.
Lex listened to the owl's story and when it finished speaking, he went to Mavis' room and closed the door.
"He told me, Mavi. There were three of them. Two of them were men, and fat. One was white. One was tanned. The other was a woman who had red hair. One of the fat men used magic that sucked air in, and when he used it on Lilia, she couldn't move anymore. The owl heard the other two call him 'Lord Aria.'"
Mavis was stunned that Lex actually could really communicate with animals, but she'd suspected it was probably possible. She was also sure she'd heard the word 'Aria' somewhere before, but she couldn't remember where, and at that point it didn't matter. They'd put a name to the murder, and that put them a lot closer to justice than everyone else together seemed to be. As far as the Magic Council was concerned, this was an unsolvable mystery.
At this point, they had options:
She could tell the authorities, tell her father and guildmaster, tell her brother, or she could circumvent all of those means. Nobody wanted Yuri to go on some crazy bloodthirsty rampage, as much as he was entitled to it. The Magic Council would probably lose Aria as Mavis had little faith in them. And as the violent and grimmest of the Dreyars—possibly above even their father—she didn't think there was a remedy to this situation except to kill every single person who had been involved.
If it was murder, or illegal killing, or whatever, she really didn't care. At all.
'You might get caught and sent to jail you might break out of' sent a totally different message than 'we will hunt you down and kill you right back.'
Besides, the more final their action was, the better. A long trial or prison sentence would still be hard for Yuri.
She assumed her parents would generally be against them just going out and killing other people for the same reason she didn't want Yuri doing it, so she decided against telling them. This was going to end in disappointment and probably anger when they did find out, but it was what she decided to do and she was the one who held the important information.
Mavis told Petri Nekkis first, because he could gain access to Magic Council records whether they wanted him to have them or not. He was also a good researcher and an investigator on his own and she really wasn't.
Aria was already on the Magic Council's most-wanted list and authorities had been trying to catch him for years, so the mere knowledge that he was involved didn't necessarily put them that much closer.
Within the Fairy Tail archives, there was a documented incident where this same wizard had hit Makarov Dreyar with a surprise attack that drained all his magic and nearly killed him.
The Magic Council believed he was running a dark guild, but they didn't have any other information.
Layla and Baby Orga were the next ones inducted to their team.
Layla was the smartest one in their group, Petri was a renegade, Mavis was a rebel, and Baby Orga had certain charismatic charms. All of them were smart in some way or another and they could all fight well. They were careful about who could be part of their effort, because some people were definitely going to squawk about what they were doing.
Yuri could not be involved. Anna and Iggy had kids, and this was the business of sneaking around in the dark to find a powerful group of enemies before anyone else tried. If they got wind of the fact someone was closing in on them, they might disappear even deeper in the dark.
When they were meeting in the woods, Layla sat on a rock with her legs crossed next to Mavis. "If you think about it, it makes sense. The world of dark magic knows if they step out of line it's not really the Magic Council that's going to deal with them. Way back when our parents were young, there were three dark guilds that controlled nearly every other illegal guild. It was called the Balam Alliance, and it included Oracion Seis, Grimoire Heart, and Tartaros. It was Fairy Tail that crushed each of them, not the Magic Council or even any other guild.
"If you wanted to come out of the dark and operate as freely as any of those guilds did, you'd have to be able to stand toe-to-toe with us. A bulk of the magic in our guild is dragon magic. Since you lot are hybrids, it also makes sense the magic can be separated from you. Even if you were born like that, you're two things in one. If they collect enough dragon magic, they could make a serious attempt to tip the scales."
Baby Orga said, "You really think so? All our parents are still alive."
Layla answered, "Of the Ten Wizard saints that were active then, a lot of them have died over the past two decades. The Four Gods of Ishgar are all dead, and so is Gams. People are getting old, retiring, moving on. If they're stealing dragon powers, think about what it would be like if Natsu's powers were on the other side. Or Dad's. Lilia basically had the same magic as Sting, and even she hadn't fully developed it, it's a real problem that someone out there has it. Same thing with Cobra. If they gave those abilities to two separate wizards who were already powerful, that's serious."
Petri said, "And we need to remember, Fiore isn't the only place that has dragonslayers. There's been a string of gruesome killings of dragonslayers and their offspring in other countries, including Alvarez. They might have quite a collection we don't know about."
Mavis said, "If the Magic Council can't find this guild or Aria, how are we going to do it? We don't know where they might be, we don't know anyone's scent, we don't know how they came and went from Clover."
Layla thought for a moment. "Aria was a member of Phantom Lord. He used the void element. He was on Gams' shit list for almost killing him. Gams followed his activity somehow or another and wrote in his journals not long before he died that he was still active somewhere north of Oaktown. Gams was concerned he needed to be stopped, but by then, he was old. His body was failing."
"Do you think the Magic Council has that information?" Mavis asked.
"Our great grandfather didn't appreciate the role or influence of the Magic Council. He circumvented them constantly when he was guildmaster, but to be fair, it was different back then. If Gams was the only person who knew that, the Magic Council doesn't know," she answered.
Petri said, "The mountains north of Oaktown are snowy, isolated, and there are almost no people living there. There are huge areas that aren't accessible by train that don't even have roads. I'd be willing to bet it would be a good place to hide something like base. But…"
"But what?"
"When Hailey Lates dumped me, she started dating a void user from a legal guild in the north. His name was Aeris or something like that."
Mavis said, "Why does everyone dump you?"
Layla answered, "It makes perfect sense to anyone who has ever dated him. Anyway, that might be a good break for us. Old people love passing on their genes, their magic, whatever. If he uses similar magic and is from the same area, maybe there's a connection. Passing along magic is like the ultimate form of narcissism."
"…says she who loves mirrors," Petri answered.
"This is why you are going to die alone," she said.
Baby Orga groaned. "Stop being terrible human beings and focus please. I think it's a good idea for us to investigate in secret, but a bad idea for us to try and fight a whole dark guild. If all our assumptions are right and we find a dark guild, we should circle back and tell Master. The whole guild should fight. Maybe not just our guild either. I was raised in Sabretooth, so I feel like they have a right to fight too. It would be a much louder message if they're obliterated by both guilds. To show them they can't hide from us, can't beat us, and shouldn't ever try to hurt our friends or family."
Mavis said, "I think we should find this guy Aeris. If he dated Hailey Lates, he obviously likes blondes with big butts and breasts. We could throw Layla at him. She could do whatever is that she does to make every single person she's ever gone on a date with mentally insane, and then he'll tell her all his secrets."
Layla and Mavis were sitting on a rock next to each other, and at this comment, Layla shoved her to the ground. "Get off the ground. It's dirty. So unladylike." And then she said, "Anyway, I'm fine with that. I'm a feminist and you're insulting me as a woman, but whatever. Men are basically idiots trapped in idiot bodies with idiot tempers and idiot hormones. What's one more imbecile for my frog collection?"
Baby Orga and Petri were nonchalant about this statement as they'd were used to it. Baby Orga's family came from a tribal island people where female warriors ruled over men, so he felt like he was only being true to his roots.
All of them were involved for the sake of their guild and for Yuri, so they could brave some of the personality conflicts.
When they went back home, they started making preparations and packing.
Lex didn't dare tell his parents he knew who killed Lilia, because he knew his older siblings were doing whatever they felt like they needed to do. He wondered if that was really right or wrong, but it was easier to go along with it. The faith he had in his sisters was enormous enough he just knew they'd fix everything somehow. He hoped he was helping so his big brother could be happy again.
Of course, Lucy and her husband knew something huge was up between their kids.
They'd watched them grow up and knew who was spending time was who was hugely indicative of what they were doing. For all the ones who might sneak around or hide stuff to be congregating and plotting meant they probably about to get themselves into trouble.
They were reasonably sure whatever it was had something to do with Lilia's death because it was critical to solve that mystery in order to help Yuri. So far, no one had any answers. If they somehow did, it was a mystery as to how they'd found those answers or what they were.
Laxus and Lucy both strongly believed they'd somehow figured out something.
The idea a group of rambunctious young wizards might have accomplished what the older generation and the authorities failed to do was proof there was a changing of the guard getting ready to take place.
On the news that Mavis and Layla were going on a 'holiday' with Baby Orga and Petri Nekkis, they thought at first maybe they really were just heading up to have a little fun and take a break from how heavy everything had been.
But…
Lucy pulled the covers up to her nose, "We both know they're up to no good. Are we really just going to stand back and do nothing?"
"You're usually the one telling me to relax, because our kids are growing up and it's okay. They're all adults, they're all capable of defending themselves, and they're all smart. Well, some of them are smart in their own ways. As a unit, I think they have enough common sense not to do anything stupid," he answered.
"What if someone attacks them?"
Laxus answered, "Lilia died two hundred yards from her house. Whoever did that also killed Cobra, so people think it might have been because she couldn't defend herself, but I think it probably didn't matter. There's something dangerous out there. Someone who is killing. That's something that's a little different from when we were young. We were used to these big battles between guilds. This is cowardly."
Lucy asked, "Why don't they just tell us what they're doing?"
"Because they know we'll either tell them not to do it or tell them how to do it. I think I've said this before: sometimes our kids don't give a shit about what we think. It's their right as young adults to be dumb as hell. I don't think they're in danger."
"How can you be sure of that?"
"I'm their guildmaster. I have faith in them. We have to not think of them as our kids and think of them as being like we were. Mavis is the same age you and I were when we married. By the time you were Layla's age, you had thirteen kids already."
"One. We had one kid."
"Whatever."
Lucy said, "It's weird. When I was that age, I felt like I was an adult, and old enough to do whatever I wanted. But now that I have kids that age, I feel like they'd be starting young if they were in the same place. I can't imagine Layla with two kids."
"No one wants to think about that. I'm sorry she got divorced, but it's probably a good thing that she's realized she needs some time to her own life for a while. I'm not fond of her hanging out as part of a foursome with Petri. I remember when they were young."
"It's never going to happen," his wife said.
"How do you know that?"
Lucy rolled over to face him. "Layla told me once that kissing him was like having a hot, slimy eel give her a tonsil massage."
"Our children are still disgusting."
"I don't think they outgrow that."
Her cupped her face and leaned in to kiss her. "No eel tonsil massage please."
She felt his tongue slide down impossibly far and pushed him off. "Ewww, you're the one who is disgusting. Don't touch me. Gross."
He was satisfied with himself for the moment, but came back down to earth nearly immediately. "I'm worried about Yuri."
"Me too. I don't know how to help him. Or if there is a way."
Her husband said, "You know what he reminds me of? When Mirajane thought Lisanna had died and she basically lost the ability to even be herself. He seems…lost. I'm thinking I'm going to assign him to teaching lessons to the younger wizards for a while. He seems to like being helpful, like it makes him feel less helpless. He can teach basic magic and survival skills like fishing, camping, getting around in the wilderness."
His wife nodded. "That's a good idea. I think it might be good for him to have a change of scenery for a little while. Maybe you could take him on a trip somewhere. With Lex. Have a man's adventure with your sons and give them a break from us. They'd probably appreciate the quality time together with you. The girls take a lot of your attention because they're girls, but your boys need some daddy time too, even the grown one."
"I'd hate to leave the guild alone at a time like this."
"We'll be fine. Our son needs you to help him right now. I think this place is almost haunted for Yuri, so being somewhere else might be helpful. Maybe the beach or the mountains or some other beautiful place. Let him remember life is still wonderful."
That did sound like a good idea to Laxus, who asked, "Yuri and Lex will be with me. Mavis and Layla are going to be doing whatever crazy thing they're doing. You'll be alone."
"It'll be absolutely terrible to have a few nights of peace and quiet all to myself. I won't know what to do, except weep for all of you and your noise and demands for food and attention," she sarcastically answered. "It's going to be terrible to eat junk food, do what I want, and sleep in. Anyway, I'm taking Yuri out tomorrow, to lunch and then shopping."
"Shopping?"
"Please remember our son is still colorblind and he still needs assistance to buy clothing. It's about to get colder, maybe get him some sweaters. Pants. Boots."
Laxus found this to be a very mom-ish idea, but he knew once fall closed in that Lucy was going to take her kids out shopping like they needed school clothes. When he reminded her four out of the five didn't go to school and made their own money and were adults, she didn't relent. It was just something she was going to do.
On one occasion, he'd seen her press on the end of Yuri's shoes to see if he'd outgrown them, like a man in his mid-twenties was really at risk of outgrowing his sneakers.
Lucy said, "I can feel you judging me, you know. I'm doing my best to take care of Yuri. I know he's an adult, but I feel like he's not really taking good care of himself. He's not eating right. He's barely shaving. He looks like someone who has given up on himself, and I'm his mom."
"He's not 'barely shaving.' He's trying to grow a beard."
"Huh. Yuri can grow a beard?"
Laxus rubbed his chin. "Who is judging who?"
Lucy stared at the ceiling. "Are you bothered he has a furrier face than you do?"
"Of course not."
"My bearded son…"
"Just 'your son.' You don't have to say 'bearded' like that."
Lucy sighed. "I guess he's like Layla. Trying to reinvent himself. Maybe it's a good sign, like he sees something for him after this. A future. Where he has a beard. It's something."
She tried to get to sleep, but their sleeping patterns had been hugely disturbed in the wake of Lilia's death. They'd been spending hours every night, talking, worrying, and thinking out loud about what was going on. They were worried their kids might be in danger, especially Mavis and Lex, worried about their grandkids since they were the most defenseless dragons anywhere, and then unsure of how to help Yuri navigate the waters of grief.
In most circumstances, they typically had an understanding at least on some level of what their kids were going through, but they really had no idea what it was like to lose someone with a close romantic connection. Laxus only knew the fear of losing his wife, and Lucy hadn't even been that far. Whatever Yuri was going through, they didn't even pretend to understand.
They just did whatever they thought they could to help. In most cases, that simply meant confronting him with the reality that life was still going on. The sun rose every day, and there were certain things he had to continue to do.
The next morning, Mavis and Layla finished packing for their great adventure and had just stepped out the door when they were confronted by their sister Anna, who was standing there with her backpack.
"You can't just leave me behind because I have kids. Whatever you're doing, I want to come."
Mavis said, "We didn't leave you out because you have kids. We left you our because you would freak out if you knew what we were doing."
"I would not!"
Layla answered, "You can come if you want. But you can't tell anyone."
"All right. Where are we going?"
"Oaktown."
"Why?"
Layla said, "We're looking for the wizard who killed Lilia and his dark guild. We have a plan to seduce someone and trick him into leading us to them."
Anna grimaced. "What…in the…Mom!"
Mavis put her hand over her mouth. "Nope. You're in it now. Let's go."
"Whose plan is this? Is this really a plan that supposedly smart people came up with?" Anna asked.
Lucy, who had heard someone yell 'Mom' came out onto the front steps to find Mavis holding her hand over her twin's mouth and Layla dragging her down the street. "Did someone call me?"
"No, we're fine! See you later, Mom!" Mavis said.
"Okay, you guys have fun! Be careful and don't get into any trouble," she cheerfully answered, deciding not to get involved in whatever they were doing. They were definitely off to cause trouble and they weren't going to be careful, but as a mother, she knew she had to say certain things anyway.
She headed upstairs to get her son out of bed, and found him face down on the pillow.
"You ready to get up?"
"I think I just want to stay here a while."
Lucy pulled the covers back. "Too bad. You have to get out of bed and you have to live your life. We're going to have a good day today, I promise."
Yuri slowly and hesitantly managed to get up.
His mother said, "You can do this. I know it's not easy, but you have to face every day head on and you have to keep going. You're brave, and you're strong, and I know you are going to be okay."
He nodded. "Can we stop by the cemetery this morning? I should put some fresh flowers out."
"Of course."
"I should have given Lilia flowers more when she was alive," he mumbled.
Lucy grabbed him and squeezed him tightly. "What I do know is that she was really happy to be with you. She didn't need a lot of flowers. She just needed you. And she had you, didn't she? You made her happy. Don't regret what you can't change. Now c'mon. I'll get you a new coat. Your dad's taking you on a trip tomorrow and I want to make sure you have the right stuff you need to be warm."
"Mom?"
"What is it?"
"Thank you. For everything. I'm trying. I really am."
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