A change of pace was good.
Far from Magnolia, Yuri wasn't looking at, smelling, or so constantly reminded of his happy childhood with his late fiancée. Plus, even if he'd never say it quite like he felt it, the fact his father was taking time for him meant a lot. As a guildmaster and father to four other kids, Laxus didn't exactly have much free time.
Yuri was glad that now that they were getting older and needed less help, their parents got to do more stuff for themselves. Sometimes people poked a little fun at the fact he still lived at home at his age, but he was a people person, and his family was his people. Besides, he couldn't imagine going through his current challenges in a scenario where he had to go home to silence.
He had some plans to eventually become roommates with his rowdy friend, and he knew Layla already had her eye on an apartment in downtown Magnolia before Lilia died.
For the past few days, he'd been going through cycles of knowing he desperately needed his family and then understanding full well that he was a tremendous burden. To everyone, from his parents to his sisters, to his little brother, and even everyone in the guild.
Lex was sitting next to him on a log, holding a fishing rod his father and brother taught him to improvise using what was available: an old branch, a hook, and string off a tiny spool most wizards carried for torn clothes, emergency stitches, rogue buttons, and improvised traps or fishing rods.
Laxus sat on the other side of Lex, watching his sons together.
Lex mused, "It's so quiet. Girls are noisy, huh?"
"Not all girls. Just all the ones related to us. In most families, people teach their daughters to be polite, quiet, and well-mannered," Yuri said.
Lex laughed at this because he couldn't imagine a universe where his mom wasn't threatening his dad with a spatula and his sisters weren't yelling about something or getting him or themselves into trouble. "That sounds boring."
"That's why Layla came back, right? Cause she didn't want to be bored."
Laxus nodded. "Something like that."
Lex's feet swung happily off the edge. "Sam should have just put mirrors all over his house. She would never be bored. It's what the people at the pet shop do to keep parakeets happy."
"Your sister isn't a parakeet. I mean, that might have worked."
"If it did work, would that make her a parakeet?"
"No. I don't think that's how it works."
Lex's fishing line suddenly went stiff and bowed toward the water.
He heard a loud, fearful exclamation from his victim and dropped his fishing pole in shock. Laxus grabbed it and pulled the fish in for him, holding it up as it dangled from the hook.
"Ah, it's a big one. You'll go hungry if you can't hold on to your rod," his father said.
Laxus was both confused and surprised to see his youngest son cover his ears and crumple to the ground. "Don't kill it, Dad! She wants to live!"
"Eh?"
"Please! You're hurting her!"
His father was still standing there with a bewildered expression when Lex grabbed the line and carefully tried to take out the hook.
"Hey, look out, those fins are sharp!" Yuri warned exactly one-half second before one sliced Lex's finger to the bone.
Lex threw the fish back in the river and clutched at his wound in surprise. "I'm bleeding. It doesn't hurt?"
"That's actually really bad," Yuri said as he ran for his bag to get a first aid kit.
Laxus squeezed right above the injury to try and control the bleeding at least a little. "What on earth has gotten into you? Be still. This isn't your first time to fish."
"I…that was before."
"Before what?"
"Just before."
Despite being a relaxed parent and one that had full knowledge there was no chance his son's injury wasn't going to heal, any parent was frazzled at the sight of a child bleeding like Lex was. He briefly considered cauterizing it with lightning, but that would guarantee it would leave a scar and probably hurt worse than the initial cut did.
Lex was dragon-blooded, so he'd heal up far better and faster than an ordinary person. He was also a poison dragon, so he enjoyed the strange perk of his body being an unfit environment for the microscopic things that plagued everyone else. He didn't catch sicknesses of any kind, get infections, have cavities, or suffer from bad breath.
He winced as his brother applied pressure by pinching his finger and his father thoroughly cleaned the wound and started to stitch it.
Laxus looked up and said, "What's going on, son? I need to understand why you nearly just lost a finger trying to save our dinner."
Lex shook his head. "It's nothing."
Laxus said, "When I lied to my Gramps, he once told me that the gods had entrusted me to him for some reason, and that he would send me back to them if I lied to him."
Lex nervously replied, "I don't know if you'll believe me."
"Try me."
"I…I…sometimes, I can hear what animals think. Loud thoughts mostly."
"That's…actually not shocking even a little bit."
"It's not?"
"Your father could do that. He could also overhear what people were thinking. I'm hoping you don't gain that ability because it would be a little weird."
Yuri asked, "So you heard the fish?"
"She was hurting because of the hook, and she was afraid."
There were logical issues nested inside of questions about how this possibly made sense. All the kids that were dragonblooded were on the highly carnivorous side. Yuri ate reasonably healthy, but Mavis consumed only meat and sweets. Iggy and the others were the same way. Even Laxus was known to avoid vegetables when his kids weren't around.
Lex loved and preferred eating meat, but considering his fragile state, neither his father nor his older brother pointed out the fact his meals all stemmed from an animal experiencing death. Then again, being able to accept death as part of life and hearing it play out were probably drastically different experiences.
He was a tender-hearted kid, and this seemed like it was probably more of a curse than a blessing. It was a reasonably well-known fact that Cobra wasn't mentally stable at any point, probably in part due to the fact he experienced and knew things that weren't necessarily for people to hear or know.
Laxus stitched his finger closed with practiced ease and put a bandage on it. "That fish you just threw back…it's been eating and killing things so it could grow all along. Insects that come to the surface to get water, and other little fish. I know we probably won't technically die if we don't eat meat but killing to keep living is part of life. We live, and then we die. The same as the fish."
His son broke down into tears because he wasn't ready or willing to accept that it was necessary for living things to hurt each other, and his father held him and rubbed his back.
"You're all right, son. Your mom and I love you, no matter what."
He sniffled and cried, "Even though I'm weeeeird?"
"You're not that strange. I mean, you are, just not as weird as other people in this family."
While he was trying to soothe his son, Yuri waded into the water and snatched a big fish as it went by, killing it before it had a chance to think anything Lex might overhear.
Yuri felt like his father was executing a high-level parenting ability and addressing both of them when he spoke again.
"We can't change the fact we're going to die someday. And people who kill themselves are the only ones who get to determine exactly how it happens. What we have power over as living creatures is how we live. Don't disrespect your own life, the lives of your friends, or the lives of your food. Live the best you can and let that be enough."
Lex wiped his nose on his hand and nodded. "I got snot on your shirt. Sorry, Dad."
"Someday, when you are old and you've raised kids and they've peed, pooped, and puked on you, you'll understand how little I care about a little snot. Yuri peed in my mouth when he was a baby."
"You're gross, Yuri!"
Yuri shook his head. "I feel so much better now."
Laxus took the big fish from his son, and said, "Lex, watch. This is an important thing for you to understand."
He started to cut the fish, and when he sliced down the belly, the insides of the fish went into the water, where dozens of tiny little fish came to eat.
At the edge of Lex's senses, he could hear a quiet chorus of relief, happiness, and excitement for the little ones who got a chance to eat. It was faint, almost indiscernible, but it mattered. It comforted him and made him feel a lot less guilty about his growling stomach. He really did want to eat the fish.
Laxus leaned his son was actually less of a barbarian than he was; rather than roasting the whole fish, Yuri cut it into fillets, seasoned it, and cooked it in a little pan he carried with him.
"When I'm travelling, sometimes I just zap my food with lightning and eat it."
Yuri said, "That's gross, Dad. Food needs love to be edible."
"Yeah!" Lex said, peering excitedly at the fillets as they hissed in the pan. "Dad's a bad cook, Yuri. We had stuck-to-the-pancakes for breakfast."
"I grabbed breakfast at the guild."
"And left me with Dad's cooking by myself? That's mean."
"Sorry, little guy. I'll take you to a restaurant when we get back."
Laxus decided to ignore this conversation, where his sons plotted a way to avoid their own father's cooking.
After they finished eating, they set up their tent, and Laxus took his son to explore the area a little bit. In most cases, he spent these occasions teaching his kids what was poisonous and what wasn't to keep them from making themselves sick. For Lex, this was pointless as he instinctively knew what was poisonous and had strange biological urges to eat those things.
He had hands filled with poison ivy, wild blackshade, orange mushrooms, and deathberries by the time they got back. Lex mixed all of his ingredients excitedly and put them into his bowl.
"Make sure you wash your hands and rinse your mouth out with water before you get in the tent with us. If I'm itchy tomorrow or enter a coma from deathberry breath, we're going to have a problem," his father warned.
"I'm just making a little dinner salad, Dad."
"Lettuce and tomatoes are dinner salad. Deathberries and blackshade are murder salad."
Once Lex had brushed his teeth and washed up after his grand salad, Laxus tucked him into bed in the tent.
"Not too tight, I don't want my farts to get trapped in my sleeping bag."
Laxus tucked him in tighter. "You want them to escape into the tent with the rest of us?"
"Well…"
"I love you. Go to sleep."
Lex quickly nodded off, leaving the older men to sit by the river in silence for a while.
Laxus had a bottle of whiskey and two little metal cups in his bag, and he cracked open a bottle and poured himself and his son a little drink.
"How are you feeling?"
Yuri downed the shot and stretched out his cup for a refill. "I'm all right. Out here, I can think about other things. Family and Lex…Lex is a funny kid."
"Don't get the wrong idea. All kids are cute at his age. They ask funny questions, they're mostly sweet, they like their parents. They're curious about the world and they want to know everything. In a few years, he's going to go through puberty and become awful. Like you guys."
"Thanks."
Yuri was quiet for a while and asked, "Do you think I would have been a good parent?"
"You would have been a great father. You're patient, gentle, loyal. I hope I get to see you be one someday."
His son answered, "I'm not someone who is okay being alone. I don't like being by myself very much. I don't go on jobs alone, and I don't want to live alone. I'm used to a certain amount of life going on around me all the time."
Laxus said, "I don't mean to be excessively morbid, but all your siblings are eventually going to grow up and move on with their lives and your mom and I are going to die at some point. Probably not for a really long time, but you never know. My dad died when he was only a few years older than me, but Gams lived to be old and would probably still be alive if a few things had happened different in his life. I think being unhappy is the most physically unhealthy thing in the world, and that people who are miserable age fast, die young, and live short, wretched lives.
"But what I'm trying to say is, your family loves you, but at some point, you're going to have to figure out what's going to make you happy. You're going to have to find out what you want to do with your life and then have the courage to do it."
Yuri just shrugged. "I can't imagine any kind of future right now. Like everything is just blank."
His father said, "When your mom was sick, she told me if she didn't make it, she wanted me to be open to the idea of being with someone else. Which was nonsense to me then, and nonsense to me now. I couldn't have been with anyone else like that. If I hadn't met her, I don't think I would have ever married, or if I did, might not have stayed that way. You'd probably exist, but I don't think any of your siblings would. I don't think I would have been as happy as I am, but I don't think I would have been unhappy either. I liked being a bachelor. Being single isn't the space between relationships. It's when you figure yourself out and work out your shit so you can be good to yourself."
Yuri said, "You know what I keep thinking about? And I can't stop coming back to this one moment, no matter what. I stopped at her place on my way to my last job, and that she was sleeping next to me, so quiet and warm. I just wanted to stay there forever and not ever move, but that it was okay, because we had our whole lives to be like that. I guess my imagination ran a little wild and I was just thinking about what life with a baby might be like. Now I wake up every day and I know no matter how long I live or what I do I'll never feel her warmth again. Our baby never even got to take a single breath. How am I supposed to just go on from that?"
Laxus had nothing to say to this, because there was no talking that out. It was terrible, and he honestly didn't know what he'd ever been in the same place. How was his young son supposed to escape personal destruction when he had to walk around with that knowledge forever?
"I believe in you. I know you'll be okay, Yuri. I can't tell you how to get there. We're here for you, okay?"
"I'd feel better if I could at least find who was responsible."
Laxus asked, "I assume you'd kill them."
"Is it bad? When Bluenote Stinger was dying, I felt like there was a moment I could have stopped, but I didn't want to and I didn't feel sorry about it afterward."
"I've taken lives and not felt an ounce of regret about it. Natsu and his group won't kill if they can help it. That was kind of a new thing when he started doing it. I don't want you taking vengeance personally because I think it's a bad idea. I think you'd probably feel a lot of relief if you got to do it. I'm more concerned your head wouldn't be in the right place and you'd trade your life for that feeling.
"If I can be perfectly honest with you as an adult, no one has any intention of letting whoever was responsible keep their life. We are doing our best to find out who that is. Whatever we do has to be severe enough no one else thinks they can just do that."
Yuri said, "I read in Crocus Weekly that no one knows who did it and no one has any idea about how to find them. Not us. Not Sabretooth. Not the authorities."
Laxus grimaced, because he knew he'd have to answer this question eventually. There was no way Yuri didn't know nobody had a clue in the world, but he hadn't asked yet.
"We're trying. There's realistically probably a limited number of people that could have pulled that off. Sabretooth and Fairy Tail have a list and we divided it. We're tracking down everyone we think may have had the potential to do it. We'll eventually find them. It might take a while."
"What if they're from another country? Or someone no one knows about?"
"We'll find them. One way or another."
They moved a little further north the next day, following the lazy river.
Yuri was lost in his thoughts as they were walking, but then stopped.
"Hey, Lex."
"What?"
Yuri said, "Where did Mavis get that owl?"
"I dunno," Lex quickly answered.
Laxus stopped because he knew when his kids were lying. Very few children were naturally adept at fibbing, and Lex wasn't really one of them.
Then, he realized why Yuri was asking. Laxus first became aware of the owl the night after Mavis broke into the crime scene. It was injured, and when he thought back, she'd come home and gotten raw meat out of the refrigerator.
Laxus said, "Did Mavis steal that thing from Clover?"
Lex nodded. "Yeah."
The killers left no clues, no hints, no trail to chase. When the group had headed north, Laxus assumed they were shooting in the dark, or merely investigating. He didn't really think they'd get close, but now he knew they potentially had something no one else had: a winged eyewitness.
Yuri was visibly distressed when he asked, "Did you talk to the owl?"
Lex nodded.
"Did the owl get hurt in the fight when Lilia died?"
He nodded again.
Laxus wished he'd figured this out before his son, but this moment became inevitable when he learned Lex had some ability to communicate with animals. Trying to keep him from finding out the rest was just going to upset him and make him unstable and angry toward his family.
He leaned down and put his hands on his son's shoulders. "Son, this is important. I need to know everything that you know. Your sisters are probably in danger."
Lex said, "It was a wizard named Lord Aria, another man wizard, and a woman. The girls made up some kind of plan to go there and do what's right or whatever needed to happen so Yuri can be happy again. I promised I wouldn't tell."
"Aria," Yuri repeated.
Laxus was well-aware of his position on the most-wanted list.
So was his son, who was growing in prominence in the magic world.
Yuri said, "Dad, I know you don't want to let me anywhere near this, but I don't want anyone else to die. We're closer to Oaktown than we are to Magnolia. Those are my sisters, Dad. My best friend. I can't lose anyone else."
If Yuri had been in a blinding rage for vengeance, Laxus would have probably been unable to stop him from heading north. But his natural reaction wasn't anger or rage; he was scared to death he was going to lose someone else he cared about.
Laxus was worried, and he didn't want to overestimate himself or underestimate the situation. They were probably running against a clock and Yuri was the right kind of person to bring to a war.
XXX
In Oaktown, the team had settled in at a local inn. Since they suspected their trip might take some time and they thought it was best to stick close together, they concluded that they should room together. Petri and Layla were the only S-Class wizards on their team, but Layla had limited resources due to not working for months and being in the middle of a divorce, so Petri bankrolled their two-bedroom suite.
Then, logistically, with two beds, it made sense to put Mavis and Baby Orga together, and Anna and Layla together. This left him on the sofa, and he didn't mind.
Anna made an entire wall of pillows down the middle of the bed to keep Layla on her side when they were settling into their room.
"Please don't kickbox me to death while we're asleep tonight," Anna warned.
Layla said, "I don't think Sam ever complained about me kicking in bed."
"The fact someone with iron scales is the only person who can sleep with you doesn't prove you're fun to sleep with. I love you, but I have babies. I need sleep."
"They're not anywhere near here."
"You don't understand. Mommy Tired is chronic condition."
Layla shrugged. "You're always doing everything before me. You got a boyfriend before me. You got married before me. You became a mom before me. I'm supposed to be the big sister. What do I get to do first? If you say 'get divorced' we're gonna fight."
"That would be mean. No matter what, I'll always look up to you. You'll have your happily ever after. Everyone. Yuri too."
Her older sister's lip curled in anger. "He'll be one step closer once we find this bastard."
"I think your plan is stupid. If you trap someone with lies, if they're innocent, they'll get hurt for no reason. And if they're not, they'll play you."
Layla said, "I don't care if I get hurt. I'm not scared."
"These people kill, Layla."
"We won't get killed."
Anna replied, "And they're smart. They're so smart they've killed at least two times without leaving any trace whatsoever. I think we should at least set up a way to know whether or not they're playing us."
"How?"
"Mom and I are into books about real crime. We exchange books about serial killers and all kinds of diabolical criminals. People who kill people and don't get caught are smart, they plan things weeks if not months in advance, and they carefully calculate every single move they make. When they screw up, it's usually because they stumbled on an 'opportunity' that wasn't so carefully planned and they can't help themselves. They get sloppy, they make mistakes, and they get caught."
Layla said, "How do we use that?"
"We could say we're here to help Mavis because she's hurt. Maybe there's some wizard we make up who takes care of dragon people, and if they try to go get Mavis, she won't be there and maybe we can catch somebody. It's something we can do alongside your…'plan.' Really, we just need one person. Someone who can tell us who, what, where, the details."
Layla liked this idea, and they all got together to improvise their plans. Mavis didn't mind being bait, because there was never any plan to let Mavis be anywhere near the trap. Also, she wasn't injured, so she felt safe.
Oaktown had suffered an enormous hit when Phantom Lord was dismantled, and although they now had a small legal guild there, there was no replacing the influence, income, or power of Phantom Lord. At its peak immediately before disbandment, it had dozens of branches in other cities, all of which helped Oaktown enjoy being home to its flagship.
There were parts of the city that were abandoned, empty, even falling apart after almost three decades of neglect.
Since Fairy Tail had been the catalyst for this change in the city, it was the first place any of them had ever gone where Fairy Tail members weren't exactly welcome. The innkeeper needed their money, but the townspeople recognized Layla and Petri as they were more publicly-known and made their disdain clear.
Were they not there for largely nefarious reasons, it might have been an appropriate time to make friends with the local guild and try to smooth things over.
Jose Porla had done far worse things after his guild was disbanded, it wasn't like Fairy Tail could be blamed entirely for his downfall or what had happened to Oaktown unless a person was desperately searching for excuses.
The local guild was called Phantasm, a strange homage to what once existed. When Layla showed up, she showed up alone, looking to buy dinner and a drink.
The new guild was built where the old one once stood, and even had a sculpture of the old guild hall out front.
Layla felt like Phantom Lord was the root of something terribly evil, and if they traced the histories of each guild back, Fairy Tail came into existence because the Blue Skull guild—headquartered in Magnolia—raided Tenrou Island and massacred everyone except the slave Mavis Vermillion. Mavis, defying all odds, brought about the end of Blue Skull.
It's leader, Geoffrey, headed north and founded Phantom Lord. Jose Porla was the third master, as Makarov was the third master of Fairy Tail, and the two guilds duked it out after an unprovoked attack from Phantom Lord. If one didn't know the deep and long history, that event didn't make sense at all.
Jose Porla lost Phantom Lord and went on to eventually die at Sam Redfox's hands after he entangled Sam in all his evil schemes.
Maybe Phantom Lord had only changed shapes again. Blue Skull, Phantom Lord…Phantasm?
The guild's master was Sol, an earth magic user, one of the former Element Four. Layla recognized him from their research.
He was older than her father, and actually very nice to her to the point she felt like maybe she was paranoid. It was a young guild, and outside of the master, nearly no one she saw was even old enough to have been around when Phantom Lord still existed.
The guild seemed warm and kind, and while she was talking to Master Sol, their only young S-Class wizard came in from a job. It was the person they'd come all the way to Oaktown to find, Aeris.
Aeris was handsome, and he had kind eyes. The first time she saw him, no part of her believed he was up to anything evil. He had thick, jaw-length brown hair and hazel eyes, a chiseled jaw, and probably most surprising, he was around thirty which put him a few years ahead of her.
Layla had never really explored dating older men before, so she felt a lot less like she was going to outsmart him. Older men were experienced. He'd probably had a lot of different women by his age, or at least that's what she assumed.
"Aeris, come meet our visitor. She's here all the way from Magnolia."
Aeris sat down at the bar next to her. "Nice to meet you, Mrs. Redfox. Aeris. I saw your pictures in Sorcerer's Weekly. Quite beautiful, if you don't mind me saying."
"Th-thanks. And it's Ms. Dreyar. I uhhh, things didn't work out."
"It happens. I've been divorced myself. Being a wizard is hard on a marriage. They want you to be still, you want to run. It's not for me, I realized. Don't feel bad about it. People forget about it after a while," he said, "I have a kid, so it was a little more complicated."
"You're a dad?"
He whipped out his pictures so fast she almost fell out of her chair.
"This is my baby, Gracie. She's four. Here she is on her fourth birthday, and after she cut her own hair, and right before her first day of preschool."
Layla was convinced by this point he was no villain.
He put the pictures away and asked, "What brings a girl like you to Oaktown?"
"My sister, Mavis. She was injured recently. We came here looking for some old hermit in then wilderness. Out by that tall cliff that's kind of shaped like a cookie someone took a bite out of."
"I've been around that area. Lots of people living pretty secluded. Seems peaceful. This area used to be a wellspring for healing magics, but most of that left with Phantom Lord. I hope your sister is well. Our guild doesn't mind assisting. We're a little isolated from the interior guilds, but we hear all the time about how well everyone cooperates."
Layla said, "It's quite lovely. There's a certain charm in friendship between guilds."
"Maybe we could set an example and show everyone Oaktown and Magnolia can be allies, huh?"
The more they talked, the more she found herself at ease. Of course, that only caused her to shift and become extremely suspicious. She still played along, careful not to show her any of her cards as he seemed to be eager to show all of his.
She felt like maybe he was trying to play her to get her into bed while she was trying to play him and get him to bite on the bait. He flirted, feeling he was both qualified and welcome to do so, and she entertained him.
When he walked her back to the inn, he stole a kiss in what he felt was a very charming way and once she was inside and had closed the door, practically recoiled. She'd kissed a lot of frogs, but that was her first kiss since from someone besides Sam since Anna's wedding. It felt gross, and weird, and she hadn't really considered that at some point she was going to have to let other people touch her again.
Doing it as part of a scheme made her feel a little cheap, but as soon as she remembered why they were all there, it didn't matter.
Everyone was waiting there, for a report, so she said, "Everyone actually seems very nice. I don't know if we're going to find a connection to a bunch of murderers."
Mavis said, "Why don't we just attack again?"
"Because it might not get us anywhere and it would make them suspicious of us. Also, we'll get arrested if we just attack another guild," Baby Orga answered.
They went to sleep, and the next morning, Layla went about continuing her fake little romance. She had lunch with Aeris, dropping hints here and there about exactly where her supposedly injured dragon sister was, believing he either wasn't going to take the bait or he was totally uninvolved and didn't know there was any bait.
She was halfway through her lunch when she realized her lips felt numb.
When she looked up, the world was spinning, she had double vision, and he was just sitting there with that handsome grin.
"Goodnight, Princess. We'll talk when you wake up."
The entire guild seemed fine with Layla passing out, like they were all in on a joke and it wasn't funny.
Layla smiled. "You're such an idiot."
She stood up, threw the table over, and yelled, "You're going to need a stronger spell than that if you want to knock me out! I'm not going to pass out, but I do feel drunk, which is bad for you because I can't control my powers at all."
Despite being a cute and charming girl up to then, she started blowing through the guild in a fashion that reminded them she was a daughter of someone widely known to be a destructive asshole. Everyone in the world had heard Layla Dreyar was supposedly some sort of monster, but she didn't generally act up in public, or at all.
It was easy to excuse the rumor as pure hype.
But as the entire contents of the inside of the guild went flying, disintegrating, shattering on walls, and people were thrown through them and blinded by the brightness of the light magic, she had exactly no care for the fact almost the entire guild was there, including their master.
Aeris and Sol were the strongest wizards there, and it was clear the weaker wizards weren't even worth her notice.
Sol attempted to put earthen walls around her, and she broke through them easily and jumped on the bar and looked down at their guild like an intoxicated lizard demon looking down at an unruined metropolis.
She had been a nice girl but had become a vision of utter terror. Her magic eye was glowing as her eyes searched for the next thing she'd break or the next person she'd throw through a huge hole she'd made in the wall.
The level of destruction she was causing immediately informed everyone else on their team that Plan A had failed and they'd entered chaos officially.
Petri, Anna, and Baby Orga were in the woods at the place they intended to set up their trap, and just as the attack started, they were assailed by two wizards.
This left Mavis and Layla in the city, and as Mavis made a mad break for the guild to join their sister in a guild war that was questionably started by Fairy Tail, she was assaulted by various members of the Phantasm guild who only knew they'd been attacked, as well as dark wizards who weren't associated directly with Phantasm but were part of the real dark guild it served as a front for.
Aria himself showed up in the woods, along with an accomplice they didn't recognize from any of the research on Phantom Lord. He was huge, and disgusting looking in a strange way, and was likely the second man Mavis said had been present when Lilia was killed. The fact they showed up looking for Mavis indicated they'd probably intended to kill her, and the violence at the guild was to keep Layla from stopping them from doing so.
"We're a little bit fucked, but watch your back and stay on your feet. If Aria saps any of us of our magic, we probably won't have a way to win this fight," Petri warned.
"Where's the girl?" the other man asked.
"What girl? The one you came here to kill? About a thousand miles ahead of you," Baby Orga answered as he punched the ground and sent black lightning up so far into the sky it could be seen for miles.
Loke came out on his own. "The other wizard is Kain Hikaru. He was Seven Kin of Purgatory who assaulted Fairy Tail on Tenrou Island. He uses puppet magic. Back then at least, he needed a hair to use his magic. He's powerful. And deadly."
Kain Hikaru held out his doll, which still had a long, lilac-colored hair sticking out of it.
They didn't know him by face, but they'd certainly all heard about what happened on Tenrou Island. Lucy had told her kids about her terrifying battle with this wizard on more than one occasion, and one thing that stuck with her was the crippling fear of being unable to control her body.
Anna said, "That's…that's Lilia's hair."
"She had her Ox Hour."
Baby Orga said, "Is that how you lured her away to kill her?!"
Their enemies didn't say even one more word to them. They were quiet, decided, and angry.
Mavis said in the woods, it looked like someone had a big fight, but only Lilia's blood had been left behind. Now that made sense; she hadn't been fighting. Kain Hikaru had been throwing her around like a doll and breaking her body. If he had her hair, he could have just forced her to be still during the ritual. It only proved the level of violence had been unnecessary.
The townspeople didn't hear or see anything when Lilia was killed even though she was relatively close, and an 'x' taped over the doll's mouth explain why well enough. She hadn't been able to move her own body, or scream.
These wizards were on another level of evil; even Jose Porla and Bluenote Stinger had primarily goal-minded tactics. Torturing a victim before death for no reason at all was nearly incomprehensible to them.
Anna had long hair that was held up in a ponytail, and usually when she was fighting, it whipped around her.
When the fight started, it moved at a furious pace. Kain Hikaru barreled into them, but they scrambled, only to get caught in an attack from Aria's airspace magic which sent them flying.
Baby Orga hit his head on a tree and was unconscious for a few seconds, and as Aria planned another attack on him, Anna scrambled for her keys, which were over twenty feet from her. Stumbling, desperate, she had to duck to avoid an attack from Aria that hit Baby Orga.
Suddenly, she was ripped off the ground by her ponytail by Kain Hikaru, who had her keys in his other hand.
Petri attacked Aria and sent him stumbling back, and then kicked Kain in the side of his head.
Baby Orga jumped up and—bleeding from his nose and ears—jumped on Kain Hikaru with his utility knife and cut Anna's ponytail completely off before turning it to ash with his lightning.
Petri was the strongest of the three of them, so he said, "I'll keep Aria busy if you two can handle that guy. Once that's done, I need you to get to Layla."
Their enemies did the exact opposite, and Aria focused his attention on Layla and Baby Orga while Kain charged, pummeled, and attempted to crush Petri.
And then, they switched spots for an instant and Petri's magic power was sucked out of him in an attack that left him crumbling to the ground nearly lifelessly.
In Oaktown, the Phantasm guild was in utter ruins when Layla and Mavis walked away from it. The air reeked of ash and the weird smells that came with lightning striking assorted objects. It was a different smell than fire magic left behind, a little sulfuric and sharp.
Aeris had disappeared in the fight between Layla and Sol which had ultimately gone swiftly and terribly in Layla's favor. Mavis felt like she'd missed most of the excitement, but as soon as they were out, she saw her sister start to swagger, looking a bit listless.
She wasn't fully immune to the sleep potion; she'd only resisted it for a few minutes.
Mavis dragged her to a dark alley where she promptly passed out. "Fuck fuck fuck…"
And then, Aeris stepped into her field of vision.
"My, my, my…Mavis Dreyar, in the flesh. We've wanted to add lightning dragon magic to our collection for quite some time. Obviously, we can't get it from your father. Yuri would be a lot of trouble. We decided a long time ago that someday, we would kill you. We've watched you, waited for an opportunity. But your lightning form really is a pain. We know you're weaker than the other dragons are. Small. Yet to kill you, we'd have to get you into a position where you could not or would not use lightning form to evade us."
Mavis had rarely been afraid in her life, but she was terrified to be in this position.
"As it turns out, we don't need you. We got an unexpected bonus in Clover. A little, tiny dragon with all the magical building blocks to one day be like you. But if we kill you and your sisters, that's three more roadblocks we don't have to worry about."
"Shut your mouth," Mavis dryly said.
Aeris took a step closer and lightning struck.
When it took the form of Laxus Dreyar, he nearly shuddered.
"Dad?" Mavis nearly whimpered.
Laxus looked over his shoulder and then back at Aeris.
"Take your sister somewhere safe."
"But—"
"Don't argue with me. I'm pissed off right now."
Mavis said, "Aria is with Petri and the others. They might need more help."
"Yuri went to the other fight."
Mavis carried Layla's limp body toward the inn as the local magic knights spilled into the streets, headed for the wrecked guild.
On approach, Laxus had overheard Aeris talking to Mavis, and he was simply perplexed.
Laxus said, "I'm getting to be an old man, and I have never in my entire life heard another human being take delight in killing an unborn child. You spilled innocent blood. That girl was a good person. Kind, gentle. She deserved to live her life in peace with my son and their child."
"I wasn't there. I didn't do it."
"Who was this 'we' you were talking about? You were happy to be a part of the club when you were about to kill again."
Aeris said, "Look, I have a kid."
"So did Lilia. I'll show you the same measure of mercy."
He took a step back. "…shit."
Laxus asked, "How many dragon powers have your group collected?"
"I'll never tell."
The next thing he knew, he was on the ground, staring at the lightning dragonslayer's boots while his body convulsed in pain. Even after the lightning finished passing through him, his fingers kept twitching.
"How many dragon powers have your group collected?"
When he got no answer again, he attacked again.
Aeris reached out and touched his shoe and Laxus felt all the magic empty from his body in an instant.
Since he hadn't been in on the plans, he didn't know the girls had come to Oaktown simply to get in touch with this wizard because he seemed to have similar powers as Aria, who had done something similar to his grandfather.
He crashed to the ground, unable to move outside of being able to barely breathe.
Aeris stood up and said, "Seven. This wasn't our plan, but we're going to have to deal with this…distraction."
He put his boot on Laxus' throat. "Oh? Not so tough are you? This is the reason the world has to change. We've had enough of the fairies."
He leaned in, and Laxus was struck by a bolt of lightning.
Mavis hadn't really gone very far, and the gloating time he'd spent was just enough time for her to drop Layla and lightning form back to her father when she sensed his magic disappear. Giving him enough magic to get up and get out of the way also meant nearly all of her magic was depleted.
Laxus knew enough about void magics to know the spell that was cast on him was going to keep him from recovering magic for days. That meant if he attacked, and sapped what he'd just gained from Mavis, he'd be incapacitated because his body required enormous amounts of magic as a dragonslayer.
At the moment, he was most concerned about getting all the so-called 'kids' out of danger. He cared less about winning, but the warning that there were several enemy dragonslayer powers in the area was nothing short of pure terror.
They were on the defensive as the battle spilled out into the street.
Mavis zipped around so fast in lightning form he was able to regain his bearings, but he felt so incredibly weak and he knew she was going to deplete what was left of her magic very fast.
Aeris seemed out of breath, spinning to defend against her lightning form, and the instant he turned to try and attack Laxus again, she practically fell out of the sky and dropped from high above to crack her heel into his skull with enough lightning he just fell over.
Laxus asked, "Where is Layla?"
"I threw her in a dumpster. If there are sniffers looking for her, the smell of the trash will overpower hers. Hear me out: she's probably safest there. We can't take her back to the inn—something was over there. I could feel it when I got close."
They needed to regroup and get everyone together in one place, but Layla was unconscious, he couldn't really fight, and Mavis was already low on magic power. The whole city was in disarray and the stray wizards that might have fled from the guild were likely to be hunting for them now.
This was a situation where he would have used Fairy Law, but he no longer had the magic power to activate it.
Up on the cliff, Yuri arrived to find Petri face-down and barely alive, Baby Orga was beaten bloody, and despite the best attempts, Kain Hikaru had Anna's hair in his doll and was smashing her against trees and rocks for the mere sake of it.
Aria was mostly watching Kain Hikaru work, Anna's keys jingling on his belt as he hurt her.
Yuri caught Anna as she went flying and held her still as he delivered a lightning kick that the doll into the air, where it was caught by Baby Orga.
Yuri said, "Orga, do you remember that thing we discussed? It's time to test it out. You're ready to tap out. Let me take it from here."
Baby Orga knew what he was talking about, but he wasn't sure if it was a good idea. Yuri was correct that he didn't have much endurance left in his body, and what he did have needed to be spent looking after Anna and Petri. Anna was beaten up but probably okay, but Petri had shown absolutely no signs of life outside of barely breathing every few seconds.
He gave Yuri a high-five and passed the rest of his godslayer lightning magic into Yuri.
Mavis was a little sensitive to eating Baby Orga's lightning and she couldn't eat Layla's light despite the fact the elements were related. Yuri had used Layla's magic before, and although he'd been sick as hell afterward, it served its purpose.
Baby Orga heard once from Layla that Yuri turned into a terrifying monster the only other time he'd attempted a maneuver like this so he watched with his own eyes.
Yuri looked up at Aria. "Are you the one?"
His fangs elongated, the irises of his eyes crackled with lightning, scales formed on his cheeks, and his hands became disfigured, transforming into dragon-like talons.
"Are you the one that killed Lilia?"
"Yes."
He reached up to take off his blindfold, which even Kain Hikaru seemed to be afraid of.
Baby Orga watched his body continue to change, until he was slightly hunched over like what he would describe later as an honest-to-God monster. There was an immense power around him, black and bright lightning fizzling in the air.
Yuri had craved experiencing Dragonforce again, but his father warned him when he was young it was dangerous and scary. Once people knew he could do it, it potentially put him in more danger. And, no one really knew if one could freely move in and out of this state.
Baby Orga said, "Be careful. That's Kain Hikaru, from Grimoire Heart. This puppet…it's…they used it on Lilia. To hurt her and keep her from fighting back or yelling for help."
In his current elevated state, Yuri could barely process the complicated, dense reaction to coming face to face with two of the three people who were responsible for Lilia's death. They were monsters: old, powerful dark wizards who preyed on a young woman who was excited for her own future. So, rather than thinking it out, he just decided to let the rage reign inside of him.
They'd killed Lilia, they'd almost killed Petri, he'd caught them beating Anna and Baby Orga.
There was just no reason in the whole world he couldn't give himself up to his higher nature.
Yuri grabbed Kain Hikaru by the face, sinking his razorsharp talons into the fat of his cheeks, and hurled him at Aria as if he weighed nothing without letting go. When he groaned in pain, he found the giant dragon claw covering his mouth prevented any sound from escaping.
"You don't get to scream," Yuri growled as he sent a bold of lightning into his mouth and down his throat.
Aria attacked and was fast, but nowhere near as fast as he needed to be to avoid Yuri wielding Kain Hikaru like a bludgeoning instrument.
Baby Orga could not believe the ruthless, violent, bloodthirsty monster was somehow the same person as the Yuri Dreyar who spent his days trying to make everyone happy and be a mostly good person. Mostly, he couldn't fathom how he could have so much fury inside of him that the air was trembling. He was glad Anna was out of it, because she would have been horrified.
Once the shock at the enemy they were facing wore off, the two dark wizards started to work together and at full power to try and stop Yuri.
This only caused Yuri to hurl Aria off the cliff so he could finish his work on the first enemy. Kain Hikaru was a more agile and physically adept enemy, so throwing him off the cliff probably didn't buy much time, but Aria was one of those wizards who was mostly magically powerful—not so much in the body.
This left Yuri to finish trouncing Kain, whom he hit with heavy lightning kicks, punches, and headbutts until he fell down, which only allowed Yuri to get on top of him and just start beating him in the face and skull with lightning punches. This put his magic physically near the brain, where it would inevitably kill. Dying from lightning magic involved dying from brain or heart damage.
Yuri didn't even say anything to him, he just kept hitting him, until he wasn't moving, his breathing was ragged, and he was bleeding from everywhere.
"Did she say anything? Before you took her life?"
Kain whispered something and Yuri leaned down to listen to it, and then responded by roaring and frying what was left so he could get up and chase after Aria.
When Mavis and Laxus caught up to them, they found Yuri first, sitting under a tree next to Aria's body.
He'd returned to normal, but he was numb, and sick from eating the black lightning. There were tears streaming down his face as he sat there, and a pile of black-and blood swirled vomit puddle next to him.
Mavis found this gory end to be the fruit of the plan they'd come up with while feeling arrogant and naïve about how evil people really worked.
Laxus didn't comment on the corpse; it was what it was. No matter who had found Aria, this was how it had to end in his mind. "Can you stand?"
"No. I can't move at all. My muscles aren't working. Anna, Baby Orga, and Petri are up top. Everyone is in bad shape. Where's Layla?"
"She wasn't conscious, so we left her in the safest place we could find. If obviously doesn't make sense to drag an unconscious person into another fight," Mavis said.
Laxus pulled his son up, and then slung him over his shoulder. "Let's head up. Mavis, go back and get Layla and bring her to the cliff. We need to regroup and come up with an exit plan."
Yuri realized his father was extremely weak and struggled to support his own weight, but his muscles were suffering from magic toxicity and couldn't do much of anything.
By the time they got up to the cliff, what energy Laxus had was practically gone. His children and guildmembers were all beaten up and barely able to move except for Mavis, who had little magic and was physically tired as she headed back to find Layla.
Anna had a concussion and broken fingers, Baby Orga was black and blue all over and exhausted, Petri still hadn't moved and was barely taking each breath.
Laxus was terrified by how close they'd come to utter destruction.
Mavis was walking down the path when she felt a presence behind her. It was the same one that stopped her from going back to the inn.
"Hello there. You've made quite a lot of trouble for us, Miss Mavis Dreyar."
When she turned, she saw an older woman standing on the path behind her with a sword. She had short pinkish hair, and a strange, evil smile.
Mavis asked, "Are you the woman who was there when Lilia died?"
"What I really want to know is how did you find us?"
The young wizard assumed this was an affirmation. "Look at you, all strong and important. You're so powerful, so great, so incredible. I should be afraid of you, right? After all, it takes a lot of power and skill to ambush a pregnant kindergarten teacher and kill her."
"You really are nasty," she slowly answered, "Insulting me without a proper introduction!"
Mavis rolled her eyes. "I give exactly zero fucks about who you are or what your name is. As far as I'm concerned, you're the saggy whore queen of Oaktown."
"My name is Ikaruga."
"Don't care. Are we going to fight are you going to stand there holding that sword like you don't know what to do with it?"
Mavis didn't have the power or the ability to wage a huge fight, so she wasn't sure what her next move really was. Above all else, she knew she couldn't let on that she didn't have enough magic for a bad fight, and she felt like this enemy was probably the strongest.
"I am also the Blade Dragon."
Mavis watched her skin coat over with razorsharp scales. It reminded her of what Sam and Gajeel could do, only considerably more grotesque-looking. It looked like even touching Ikaruga's body would slice her to pieces.
This was fine, because she was now coated in metal and Mavis had lightning.
"I will sing you the song of my heart, with my true voice: my blade!"
"…huh?"
She was so fast even Mavis was caught off guard and narrowly avoided having an arm sliced off by changing to lightning form and zipping behind her. She got the impression maybe her speed was coming from stolen dragon powers, which was bad. There were no weak dragonslayers.
The second time, Mavis didn't move fast enough and felt the blade slide into her shoulder, pinning her to a tree, her feet dangling above the ground.
She'd never been hurt—not like that at least.
When she tried to turn back into lightning, she didn't have enough magic to do it and was simply hanging there.
She heard Layla's voice then. "Mavis, the power is in the sword, take it and run!"
Mavis wasn't really sure how she was supposed to run when Ikaruga was faster than she was, but at the end of that thought a blinding flash of light came along with Ikaruga flying through the trees like a little doll being thrown by a child.
And then, Layla grew to over thirty feet tall using Titan magic and began to stomp through the forest after Ikaruga, a vulgar and clear way to indicate she was furious someone dared to hurt her sister.
Layla didn't have a full understanding of everything that had taken place since she'd passed out, but she knew she'd seen this wizard seriously injure her sister, the aura of death was hanging on the air, and she could sense her father's magic was in the area, but somehow damaged.
Mavis tried to get off the sword but struggled. She could feel another powerful wizard closing in on her position, and when she was just desperate enough, her distracted senses picked up on who it was.
Sam Redfox pulled the blade out and caught her, cradling her carefully. "You idiot…"
Then, he put her down immediately because blood was gushing from the wound.
"I'm fine!"
"The sword hit a major blood vessel. Be still!"
Mavis said, "What are you even doing here?"
"Anna sent a message to the Magic Council while you were travelling here. She told us who killed Lilia and she said there was probably about to be big trouble in Oaktown. Jura is here too. Lots of reinforcements. If anyone else was going to join this fight, they're not going to do it now."
"Don't act like my ally now!"
He leaned in on the wound. "I wasn't trying to be your enemy, you dumb dragon. I just didn't want something like this to happen."
Mavis was disgusted by both the idea that her own twin had told the Magic Council what they were doing to try and avert a disaster and the fact that from a certain perspective, maybe Sam was right. This came with betrayal and humiliation, which she preferred to focus on because the blood squirting out of her shoulder was honestly a little disconcerting.
Her father slid down the path after her as he'd just seen Layla pass by in a rather terrifying state.
"What happened?"
Sam said, "Stabbed in the arm."
Sam knew immediately something was wrong with his former master, but he didn't say anything.
Laxus didn't have much magic left and if he caused scarring, it might cause permanent damage. Yet Mavis was losing blood fast so he knelt next to her. "Be still. This is going to hurt."
Mavis nodded.
He burned the wound closed with lightning and Mavis passed out as he did.
The knight said, "Let me take her down. We have medics. Healers."
"Thank you. Petri Nekkis is in bad shape. We need to get him help immediately. Anna. Yuri too. Petri is the worst off."
"You should come down too, Master. If you can't fight, you should be anywhere near this mess."
Laxus shook his head. "That's not going to happen."
Sam only nodded, because he knew there was no way he was going to leave if Layla was still fighting, even if he had nothing to contribute.
"Take her and go."
He did as he was told, assuring himself that Layla was going to be fine.
Sam picked up the sword on his way down to the city, which was now a mess, crawling with Magic Council, knights, Phantasm members who were confused and attacking anything and everything, and terrified citizens.
Separating Ikaruga from her blade deprived her of speed, and her sharp scales, and Layla eventually shrank down to her normal size to chase her.
When she finally stopped, Layla caught up to her.
The woman said, "How unpoetic…how classless…how deserving of irony…"
She turned around and threw lightning at Layla, who faltered.
"Where did you get that power?"
She laughed. "I found it. An extra little bonus they let me keep during our last extraction. That's not the only other dragon magic I have at my disposal. The idea that foolish children would try to flex their muscles and show us their anger, their brilliance, their ill-conceived idea of justice…I have pity for your broken hearts."
Layla was largely unwilling to try and duke it out start-to-finish the way she might normally. She could hear and sense things were about to reach fever pitch and she was worried about everyone else. Given the gap in their ages and experience and the unknown nature of Ikaruga's normal and assimilated powers, she couldn't predict how any of it might play out. They'd been arrogant, and they'd made a series of grievous mistakes that led to this long, bloody showdown. At the very least, Layla had no intention of letting it end in a miscalculation.
Besides, lightning magic was debilitating because it had a penetrative nature. Fire and other elements bothered mostly the outside of the body, but one bolt of lightning would go straight through a person. It had the ability to quickly diminish a person's senses and physical strength very quickly.
There were a few tools at Layla's disposal she'd been told to keep tucked in her sleeve for the appropriate occasion, and she deemed this to be the right time.
If there was ever an occasion where a massive, gross display of her total capabilities was appropriate, it was now.
She doubled back to avoid another lightning strike, and carefully collected her thoughts.
Ikaruga possibly became aware that something extremely terrible was going to happen when a strange symbol started to glow on Layla's arm. That suspicion grew to near certainty when the spell started and sucked in light in such magnitude everything around them became pitch black except a blinding ring of light.
When she cast Fairy Glitter, she invested exactly all of her magic, skill, heart, and determination into it. It was her first time to cast the spell, but it resonated, complete and correctly cast.
Laxus had only seen Cana cast the spell, and Layla was a far more powerful wizard than Cana was and she used light magic, which amplified the Fairy magic significantly.
A pillar of light smashed into huge hill where they'd finally started their fight, and it exploded into magic power, leaving an enormous crater behind. The hill was gone, and the matter that had been obliterated lilted to the ground, charged by light magic, which literally made it look like it was snowing glitter.
At the bottom of the enormous pit Layla had created, spheres of light and rocks floated about, a sign she'd utilized the spell on a level that even the lingering effects were powerful.
Ikaruga wasn't dead, but she wasn't moving.
The fact she hadn't been killed was substantive proof to Layla that she wouldn't have beat her without using Fairy Glitter.
Layla stood there for a while, staring down at her enemy, and thinking.
A voice called from behind her, "Are you going to finish her?"
"Of course not. I thought I could kill to keep Yuri from doing it, but I realize now that doesn't really make sense. Maybe there are times when we have no choice, but I have a choice. Deciding to take a life isn't my place…I'm not God, after all," she said to Jura. "I thought you'd get here sooner."
"You knew we were coming?"
Layla said, "Anna is a terrible liar and she despises scheming, circumventing the law, and lying to our parents, the Magic Council, or other people. She didn't want anyone in our family spilling blood for vengeance. Who else was she going to tell?"
Jura asked, "Who started the fighting?"
"They did."
He reached out to touch a little ball of light that was simply floating as it faded. "I had no idea you were capable of this level of destruction. It's both incredible and terrifying. That was one of the Great Fairy magics, was it not?"
"Fairy Glitter."
"Magnificent."
Layla said, "Does it matter? I have all this magic. I can get angry and carve my rage into the earth so it's there forever…this is going to be a lake soon, and it's going to be one until the end of the earth. But I can't change anything that happened in Clover. This was supposed to make it easier, wasn't it?"
"Justice is for the dead. It's all we can give them, because their time has been taken from them. We who are still alive wait for time to heal our wounds. It will. For you. Even for your brother, who has spilled blood again."
"Is he wrong?"
"If someone killed my son, I would kill them. Every person understands that sentiment. He shouldn't have done it, but these adversaries created this situation and it destroyed them. We are all here because of decisions these dark wizards made. If they didn't want Yuri Dreyar to kill them, they shouldn't have risked making him angry enough to do so.
"Yuri is acting on his character; he's a protector. Loyal. Mavis is acting on hers—intelligent, sly, capable of getting things done and making things work for her. Anna believes in the power of good and honesty, law and order, mercy and grace."
"And me?"
"Ferocious, passionate, utterly incorruptible, obstinate, and unwilling to give up, even at times when you probably should."
Layla said, "That just makes me sound like a glorious idiot."
"The world needs glorious idiots. It needs those who give the Sam's of the world enough chances to get it right, those who aren't afraid of enemies, those who can stand up for themselves and their allies without becoming an empty vigilante."
"Whatever. I'm going to head back. You can handle her?"
"Yes."
When Layla made it to the inn, the citizens of Oaktown were confused, the guild was a smoldering mess, Magic Council soldiers were literally everywhere, and she discovered literally everyone else had been seriously injured, including her father.
Even Mavis, who was always able to escape major injury with lightning form, had been seriously hurt. Layla was concussed and had broken fingers and bruises literally everywhere from Kain Hikaru beating her on trees. Petri still hadn't showed any signs of being even a little okay, Yuri was sick as hell from eating Baby Orga's lightning, and Baby Orga had bruises and broken ribs.
Her father had been hit by a magic deprivation airspace void spell, because he'd rushed in to save them without having a full understanding of who their target was. Never in her life had she imagined that as a result of their plan that their father was going to be exposed to injury.
Jura didn't find out his son was in a coma until he brought Ikaruga to the city, but as soon as he did, he sat down at Petri's side and didn't say anything.
Laxus went to sleep as soon as all his guildmembers and kids were accounted for and in one place again.
The next morning, he was still asleep.
When he finally woke up later that afternoon, he found everyone was staying close together, resting and licking their assorted wounds. Everyone was alive, but Jura was still sitting at his son's side.
"No signs of improvement?"
Jura said, "If the spell didn't immediately kill him, it probably won't. It might take weeks for his magic—or yours—to fully recover. I think he's getting close to waking up."
He nudged his son a few times, and Petri's face scrunched up a bit in his sleep. "Son…Petri…"
Layla called from across the room, "Idiot, you want to go on a date?"
Petri's eyes snapped open. "Yes?"
"Yes what? I didn't say anything," Layla answered.
"Huh. I must have been dreaming."
"Obviously."
Petri's first question was, "What happened to those guys?"
Yuri said, "I killed them."
The entire purpose of the exercise had been to find answers peacefully and somehow keep Yuri from committing rage killings. They'd failed terribly on both accounts, but Yuri didn't seem particularly agitated. He'd killed Bluenote Stinger, so he was well aware of what it would feel like afterward. He had no apologies, offered no regrets, and had no comments about what had taken place.
Petri sighed. "So are we going to jail?"
"Phantasm initiated the violence. Fairy Tail isn't necessarily at fault for how it played out. What happened here was incredibly stupid, but it wasn't a criminal offense," Jura said.
"Are we going to get kicked out of the guild?"
Laxus was still absolutely seething. "I probably should, but I'm going to give you some consideration because I think this has been an emotional ordeal for everyone. Also, I think you've all learned your lesson. For idiot children who don't listen to lectures, comas, stab wounds, poisonings, killing rampages, and broken bones are effective and useful."
Once Petri seemed alert, Jura went back to the massive work that awaited him outside. He had an enormous mess to clean up, from guild interrogations to trying to piece together how Phantasm and the dark wizards fit together. They had Ikaruga and Aeris in custody, but and Kain Hikaru and Aria had been killed, meaning in two hour period, Fairy Tail wizards had knocked three of the twenty most wanted dark wizards off the most wanted list.
Outside of the clumsy misfortune and terrible planning, it was actually a very significant and important event in the magic world.
Once Jura was gone, Laxus pointed at Mavis, who was sitting on the edge of one of the beds with her arm in a sling. "As for you, I never want to hear you claim you don't cause me trouble. If you want to stress me out and make my life difficult, just get pregnant next time. At least that's only physically painful for you. Take some nude pictures. Elope. Divorce. Do all of those things at the same time. You started a guild war because an owl told you to and almost got several other people killed."
His fury made him restless, because he understood why they'd done everything they'd done. They hadn't come to Oaktown to start a war but walked straight into the jaws of catastrophe anyway. The entire purpose of this trip was to help Yuri, who was haunted by the fact that Lilia's killers hadn't been brought to justice.
Their real sin had been that they hadn't told him. Of course he would have stopped them, and they didn't want to be stopped because they were young and determined.
Laxus pointed at Layla and then Petri. "I would except Baby Orga to go along with Mavis. I know Anna got dragged in. You two should have stopped this. As S-Class wizards, I expect more from both of you. S-Class wizards are supposed to be leaders. You're supposed to protect the other wizards."
Petri said, "It's not Mavis' fault. I started all this."
Yuri hadn't really said much because he was sick and he also just didn't have anything to talk about, but he said, "Dad, please don't be mad at everyone for trying to help me. I've apparently been a real downer if everyone is literally willing to face death to not have me be like that."
Laxus realized after speaking to them for a few minutes longer that everyone felt completely responsible for what had happened. Yuri thought he'd pushed them into it by being depressing, Petri felt he was responsible for starting it, Layla felt responsible for bungling the plan, Anna felt responsible for not doing more to stop it, Baby Orga felt responsible because he hadn't been able to win his fight, and Mavis felt responsible because she'd hatched the entire plan.
They'd all acted as they tried to come to grips with the fact someone close to them had been murdered by monsters. He'd forgotten what it was like to be young and to feel powerless when terrible things happened, and the kind of impetus that produced.
The next thing they had to face was the idea that bringing Lilia's killers to justice wasn't going to make grieving any easier, despite what they may have believed. This was especially true for Yuri.
Laxus said, "Do you all feel like shit?"
Mavis nodded. "Inside and out."
"Good."
She sniffed, and then started crying, so her father sat next to her and held her.
"You'll be all right. Some lessons hurt. But just wait until your Mom hears about this," he said.
Once he'd said what he needed to say, he transitioned into comfort and care mode. He felt like Anna was the only one who had exercised even a slight amount of good judgement throughout the entire episode, but it was done so they could all just get over it and get back home. It was their right as young people to be young and stupid; Makarov had allowed their generation their mishaps too.
Layla was the only one that didn't have debilitating injuries despite having done a majority of the wreckage, so once she'd been lectured thoroughly, she was elected to submit to Magic Council interrogations.
She ran into Sam in the hallway of the inn they were using as a makeshift base of operations, and they stopped for a minute for a little chat.
"Hi."
Sam smiled. "Hey. You went on quite a rampage."
"Thanks for coming."
"Have you been well?"
She nodded. "Things are all right. It's weird getting used to being on my own again."
"Same. The cat is getting big."
Layla said, "I'm moving out. I was going to be gone already, but then, you know…I just decided to stick around with my family."
Sam asked, "I filed my papers last week."
"Me too. So we're like thirty days from being unmarried?"
"I guess. It's depressing."
"I feel that way too even though I know it's the right thing. And, thanks for not reporting Mavis for cracking you over the head. She's a bit much."
Her soon-to-be ex-husband waved off her gratitude. "I'm not even sure if I did the right thing. I hated telling her no but I felt like she was going to get in trouble if I let her in. So she bashed me over the head and did it anyway."
"You should have heard my dad. He was so pissed," she giggled, "I mean, I shouldn't laugh, but it was funny. Kind of. If you ignore the fact we almost all died."
"Little details."
They stood there in awkward silence, and then Layla eased closer slowly, and melted into his arms.
Sam held her. "I'm glad you're all right."
"You too. You actually look good."
"I've been sleeping really well. No one kicks me in the stomach or nuts while I'm asleep."
Layla stuck her tongue out. "Boo on you."
They walked together, and she cautiously asked, "Are you seeing anybody? It's been a little time now."
Sam sighed. "I was thinking I wouldn't. Or that I didn't have a reason to. Or that I had all the time in the world. Lilia died, Layla. And it just made me think we have to make the most of what time we have."
"Longest 'yes' ever."
"You?"
Layla said, "I'm free like the wind. For now. I just feel like I'm going through stuff and I haven't figured out a lot about me. You…you already grew up. You know who you are and what you're doing and I got married and realized I wasn't ready. But really, is she prettier than me?"
"Don't be like that. She's different. All women are beautiful, right?"
"Right."
Sam added, "I don't want you to feel like you can't do what you want. I mean, I know why we broke up. If you meet somebody, then do what you have to do. I'm going to do what I need to do too. I just really wanted to say that, and also, I'm okay with you being with whoever you care about. We should live our lives and be happy."
Layla nodded. "I'm glad I got to see you."
"Me too. You look good."
"Sorry I was only fat when we were together. It was all that nighttime eating. I sleep all night now. It's restful."
They were interrupted by Chairman Jura, who said, "May I have a word with Miss Layla?"
Sam nodded and went on.
Jura said, "Obviously, some things went wrong here that were outside of your plan. The major oversight you committed was not comprehending the scope of your enemy's operation. It's an easy mistake to make. In the grand scheme, three very dangerous criminal black wizards were stopped, we have two suspects in custody who are giving us information, a guild dabbling in illegal activities has been disbanded, and murders have been brought to justice. This is a massive victory for us—we had no idea who was responsible or how to catch them."
"Glad we could help."
"I have decided to put your name forth to take the seat among the Ten Saints that has been vacated with Warrod's death."
Layla stopped, stared up at him, and tilted her head. "I'm so confused. That's been a lifelong goal of mine, but I kind of assumed I'd be old. There are other wizards that are stronger than me. Erza. My dad."
"Attempting to blow up a city and having an affair with a convicted murderer are permanently disqualifying. Selection for the Ten involves a number of factors: character, ability, history, and even the type of magic you bring to the group.
"We have an explicit interest in light magic, and an even greater interest in having Great Fairy spells at our disposal in the event of an emergency. We decided we would put a younger wizard into Warrod's seat as a means of training up leaders in your generation. You're a natural choice."
Layla didn't know what to do except accept the offer. "All right."
Jura said, "Come to Crocus in a month. There are a lot of tests and trials, and you'll have to earn the votes of at least five members. Some of them are going to be hesitant to add another Fairy Tail member. The hardest vote to get is Natsu's, but I'll leave you to handle that one."
Upstairs in the room, Laxus rested again, woke up cursing at the fact he'd been hit with the spell, and found Mavis was sitting on the bed with Baby Orga, marveling at a very big and terrifying looking sword.
He remembered the wound she had in her shoulder and vaguely, he could also remember seeing the sword on the ground.
"Mavis, what is that?"
Baby Orga said, "As far as we can tell, it's dragon magic trapped in a sword."
"Where did we get that?"
"From the saggy whore queen of Oaktown," she answered.
Laxus said, "The saggy whore queen of Oaktown…"
"Yeah."
Since he knew Ikaruga had stabbed her, he assumed this was a reference to her and asked, "But why do you have it?"
Mavis had a certain glint in her eye. "Because I need it."
Laxus stared her down for a moment. "I think I speak for the whole world when I say you definitely do not need a sword."
"I do. It can be a source of defense or offense. It's metal, I can conduct lightning through it."
"It's you…but with a sword. Do you see the problem?"
Mavis shrugged. "Not really."
He put his hands out and attempted to explain. "Monster dragon child…sword. It has a sword. Why does it have a sword?"
"Because it needs a sword."
He decided to give up, because as extreme as the idea was, he assumed it might be a big help to her.
Anna was sitting on the couch trying to ice her fingers when her father said, "Anna, don't let anyone tell you that you're not may favorite. From now until the end of forever."
Laxus was most worried about Yuri, but he was mostly in and out from his illness. He had a brain filled with other concerns as well, from hoping Layla and Sam didn't have any stressful encounters, to nursing wounded children, to complaining about how much they stressed him out, to Lucy, who was going to be incredibly unamused by the turn of events. Visions of her chewing out their terrible children offered him comfort and joy, and a reason to remain optimistic about life even thought they really had infuriated him with this mess.
The fact everyone was alive and no one was going to jail actually seemed like a huge accomplishment, so he decided that—at least for now—it would be enough.
Special thanks to AdonisX, Mili, dlshieldss, lucyheartfilialover360, arouraleona, 17, tierknank, hitsugi's lover, screeney, b2utifulshawol, bukakkegirl, stavroula99, thornado, kai-kagamine-miraimine, and mwolfe13 for reviewing!