Sorry again for the late update! I crashed last night and wasn't resurfacing any time soon! As always, everyone has been very supportive about this fic! We're so glad everyone seems to be liking it so far! Mslead has been doing art for the fic on her tumblr account, so check it out sometime if you're interested!
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CHAPTER 5
Fairies
Fairy, also spelled faerie or faery, a mythical being of folklore and romance usually having magic powers and dwelling on earth in close relationship with humans
Lucy looked up sharply from where she'd been coordinating the cleanup and prisoner round up with Gray as a sharp scream split the air.
"That was Levy's voice." Gray whispered, and the partners leapt into motion as they sprinted back over to where Levy had been guarding their only Fairy Tail prisoner.
Except he was no longer a prisoner.
"What the-?!" Gray exclaimed as Lucy rushed to Levy's side.
"See if you can find him!" Lucy told her partner, "He's still weak from his fight with Natsu. I'll take care of Levy."
"Right." Gray nodded and sprinted off while Lucy gently helped her friend up.
"Levy are you alright?" She asked in concern, wincing a bit at how badly her friend's back was torn up, "Damn. It looks like he got you with that weird shrapnel breath attack of his. Hold still."
She peered a little more closely at the wounds, and sighed in relief that most of them appeared to be shallow, and some weren't even bleeding, "It's not as bad as it looks." She reported, "You'll probably want one of the medics to look at you, but none of them look deep."
"That's good to know." Levy breathed as she got to her feet with a wince, "I'm sorry Lu... I wasn't expecting him to do that."
Lucy frowned, "He shouldn't have been able to." She replied, "Those were magic suppression cuffs. How did he get around them?"
Levy coughed a little, "Um... I think he ate them."
Lucy's brain ground to a halt and she stared at Levy blankly, "I'm sorry... did you just say he ate his cuffs?"
Levy nodded, "Yeah. I heard the sound of metal screeching, and started to turn around, but before I could he got me. I got a glimpse just before he ran off though, and he was chewing on the metal like Natsu does fire."
Lucy shivered at the thought, "What is he?" She whispered, "Some kind of demon?"
"What kind of demon eats elements?" Levy asked, but immediately bobbed her head with a grimace, "Except Natsu."
"None that I know of, but if Natsu can then maybe...?"
Levy shook her head, "No way. I haven't finished translating my notes on Natsu, but I can promise he was singular. Whatever magic Gajeel practices he's not a demon."
"Maybe not." Lucy's frown deepened, "But I'd like to find out what he is then."
She shook herself, "C'mon, we can worry about it later. Let's get you to the medics. With luck Gray should catch him and we can find out just what kind of magic he practices."
Though she was afraid it was already too late. Those Fairy Tail bastards were as slippery as eels and knew every corner of Magnolia. The odds were excellent that Gajeel had already slunk into one of their hidey holes, and wouldn't surface again for a good while.
-::-
Under Magnolia there was a network of tunnels known only to a few select members of the guild. Several of which lead from the surface down under the city.
It was one of these tunnels Gajeel took to a latch just outside a hole in the wall old bar. For everyone who looked, it was an unassuming shit hole for drunks to pass the time.
Lumen Historie.
Gajeel smirked at the name, unable to stop himself from feeling a few shreds of amusement every time he caught sight of it. Even with a wrist that was no doubt broken in two places, it was hard not to find the humor in it.
Lumen Historie was the most plain bar in the district, but it always seemed to gather a hearty clientele and the people around it were very loyal.
Without the support of the people, their guild would have nothing to fight for after all.
He began to walk towards the door when he spotted two kids squatting down outside, both dirty and caked with a reddish crust around their mouths. Between them was a dead rat. One they had to share.
Gajeel's stomach churned at the sight and a flicker of anger flashed through him.
He wasted no time approaching the kids, lumbering over them. Gajeel knew he must have made quite a terrifying sight covered in blood and dirt himself and wearing a perpetual scowl, but the two kids were so malnourished and tired they barely flinched.
"Want some grub ya runts?" Gajeel grunted at them, keeping his broken wrist close to his chest. He was always a little wary of pickpockets, well aware by now of how they operated, but he didn't have to trust these kids to know they wouldn't last another day on the street without help.
The cautious hope on their face at his words made him sick, but they still hesitated.
At least until he twisted his arm around to show his Fairy Tail shield, branded on his left shoulder.
At once their faces flooded with a joy and excitement that almost made Gajeel smile, and he held his good hand out to them.
The children eagerly grasped it and he led them into the bar, "Found a couple 'o runts that need feedin'." He grunted at the barkeep and bit back a smirk at the shiner the man was sporting. Someone had nailed him pretty good.
"That so?" Max replied, shooting the kids a friendly grin, "Well they're welcome to a meal as usual. And if they want more Mira's always needing more kids for the network."
The two children glanced at each other in disbelief, and Gajeel could sympathize. The Fairy Tail network was famous in the slums. Decent food, clothes, and a place to sleep in exchange for helping the guild with information, or courier jobs. Often the kids would join the guild itself when they were older if they proved magical, and those that didn't tended to become their very loyal network of adult suppliers.
For a pair of brats like these, landing a place on the network was like him getting a house on Strawberry Street.
"Thank you sir." One of the children, a girl Gajeel guessed, murmured, "We'll work hard. I promise."
He snorted, "You ain't workin' 'til you see Porlyusica, an' she clears you." He retorted, "An' don't forget it."
"And seeing Porlyusica is something you should be doing about now." Max snorted, "You look like a torn up side of beef."
Gajeel shot him a scowl, but didn't reply as he stomped off to the back rooms. Seeing Porlyusica was already on his agenda, but he had more important things to do first.
Confident the kids would be in good hands, he kicked open the back door to the wine cellar. Heavy footfalls announced his presence as he took the stairs two at a time.
The door automatically closed behind him and Gajeel's eyes naturally adjusted to the dim lighting. Nose twitching, he could pick up the heavy scent of booze covering every inch of the cellar. Which was expected, but even so he was fairly certain even some of their more hardy drunks would get tipsy off the stuff in the air alone.
When he got to the landing, a little further into the room he saw a table with a large map spread out in front of them. Wine bottles were rolled over every corner to keep the map flat, and several people were already crowded over it.
All of them looked up at his approach and Gajeel scowled at them all. Especially the red head who was giving him such a disapproving glare. It felt like his soul was already shriveling up in retreat.
"You're injured Gajeel, you should be in the infirmary with Porlyusica." the woman said with not a small amount of harshness, "Don't tell me you got captured?"
Gajeel's scowl deepened, "Ain't my fault blondie's pet demon went berserk." He grumbled as he stomped over to a chair, "Pinky looks like no one's home, but he's good enough at fightin'."
The redhead's eyebrow twitched, "Gajeel..." She said in a strained voice, "Don't tell me you actually got into a fight with END?"
"I'm afraid he did more than that." Another voice sighed as a blue haired man stepped out of a side room, "I just spoke with one of our agents and found out that Gajeel threatened Lucy Heartfilia and END, sorry, Natsu as he's called now, attacked in defense of his mistress. It was she who captured him."
"Gajeel! How could you be so reckless? You know that Lucy Heartfilia is a no touch target! However warped her perceptions of guilds might be, she is one of the few Knights that takes her role seriously and strives to protect this city!"
"Hey, I didn't threaten to do anything to her!" Gajeel protested hotly, "I just told her to get out of the way before she got hurt!"
He jutted out his lower jaw in a clear show of childish unrepentance, "'Sides, that demon wasn't so tough. He was hardly scarier than you Erza."
The last part was muttered under his breath, but the red head heard it all the same. The woman stepped out into the light, the yellow bulb casting an orange hue over her glittering armor. She was a Knight unlike any kind that would be found in the council's pocket.
"Jellal, hold him. I believe his arms are looking a little uneven. I want to remedy that problem," Erza's eyes fell to Gajeel's good arm. The metal mage instinctively flinched it up to his chest as If to protect it and pouted out a muttered apology under his breath.
"What else did you learn from your trip out Gajeel, besides how to take a punch?" Another voice spoke out from the table, a woman with brown curly hair falling in long locks around her face. She had a wine bottle tipped between her lips and the drunken smile she flashed him was nothing short of amused.
"Cana, I thought I smelled a winery down here, hard to tell with all the booze already around, but yours is a unique scent," Gajeel's eyes narrowed at the woman, but he smirked right back at her.
"I did get some information out of my skirmish with the council's demon. END is... not what they think he is," Gajeel walked over to the table and kicked out a chair.
He sank down on it with a tired groan, his weary body gladly melting into the wood. The seat could have been made out of nails and broken glass for all he cared, it felt like absolute heaven on his back.
Erza exchanged a questioning look with Jellal and the latter slid towards the table with a frightening grace.
"What is it you found out Gajeel?" He asked, voice hesitant on what other information he could have possibly gleaned about END - Natsu in less time than they had been able to scour.
The red eyed mage looked down at his hands, and again back at the swelling wrist that looked like it was starting to turn an ugly shade of purple. Gajeel propped it up on the table and gave it a firm look, as if it were a misbehaving pet and it being broken was just a minor inconvenience.
Although sometimes Jellal never knew with him. The man could take an obscene amount of punishment.
He supposed the fact that he walked away alive from a fight with END was proof enough of that.
Gajeel took that moment to look up, his eyes fixating on both him and Erza.
"It's gonna sound weird," Gajeel said hesitantly, "And the bastard sure as hell doesn't have anything but a rats nest of cotton balls between his ears - but when I looked at him, I thought I saw-"
Cana thumped her bottle against the table, leaning in close to the man who rolled his eyes and scooted back, "Out with it Redfox! Don't keep us in suspense!"
"He smelled like a dragon alright!" Gajeel snapped irritably.
All motion in the room stopped at that proclamation as everyone stared at him in shock.
"He... what?" Erza asked in a stunned whisper.
Gajeel shrugged, "I dunno, it was strange. The scent was faint. An' mixed with demon. But it was there. And his eyes were all dragon. Slit pupils and gold."
"But how is that possible?" Cana asked, "The dragons withdrew from the war and refused to fight either for or against the humans."
Gajeel shrugged again, "End's been missin' since the early part of the war." He pointed out, "Maybe he got a little dragon in him when he was made. Or maybe I'm wrong. Who knows what that freak Zeref modeled his weapon on."
He ignored the second part of Cana's statement. He'd heard the stories about what had caused the dragons to withdraw growing up, and had promised Metallicana he wouldn't say anything. It was a promise he fully intended to keep.
Especially since it would do no real good to tell it.
"Anything's possible." Jellal mused, "But it's telling that he has dragon traits strong enough to alert a dragonslayer. We'll have to see what can be found out about this."
"Agreed." Erza replied, "But we should keep this quiet. We don't want to accidentally tip off our enemies."
She turned her stern expression onto Gajeel, "In the meantime, you should get to the infirmary so those wounds can be healed Gajeel."
Gajeel snorted and levered himself out of his chair, "Yeah, yeah, I'm goin'. But you really oughta think about doing something about that Heartfilia chick. She might be a good Knight, but she's got a real hate for guilds. Don't matter if they're good or bad."
"That would be nearly impossible at this point." Jellal sighed, "Our agent is working on it, but hasn't told us what's triggered her hatred for guilds. Without that information any approach we might make would be unlikely to go over well."
Gajeel grunted, wincing as his movements jostled his injuries, "Be as that may. We can't let her or the demon, END, Natsu, or whatever the hell the little shit goes by, stay in the council's care."
"We know they don't got anything nice planned for him," Gajeel flashed a glance over his shoulder as he headed back to the stairs, "And if the council gets their hands on him and something jars loose in his head where he remembers he's the scourge of humanity - we don't stand a chance."
With those parting words, he trudged back up the stairs as Erza and Jellal shot one another looks.
Erza glanced over at Cana, her hand automatically reaching out for Jellal's. Their fingers found one another without looking as Jellal closed the space between them, their shoulders a foot apart.
"Cana will you-?"
"Get the plans ready for a recovery of Heartfilia and her pet?" Cana seemed to have sobered up quite a bit by the direction the conversation took. She too got up and headed towards the exit.
"I've got it handled," She waved her bottle and followed up after Gajeel, leaving Jellal and Erza alone in the dim room.
Erza tugged on his hand, feeling comforted when his gaze automatically found hers.
They said nothing for a great while, their words communicating on another level. One borne of exhaustion and a constant fight for survival.
Slowly, Erza's hand slipped from Jellal's and he looked away, unspoken novels laying out between the two leaders. Erza gave Jellal a sad smile, her armored hand lifting to squeeze his shoulder.
"Whatever comes next Jellal," she breathed, "Please be careful."
He met her gaze and nodded, reaching between them to catch a lock of scarlet hair between his fingertips. Refusing to break her gaze, he brought the lock up to his lips, a gentle grazing across the silky hair.
Erza suppressed a shiver as he let it slip free and her heart raced at the smile tugging at his lips.
"Am I not always?" He asked, already backing up to the door.
Huffing at a bit of his sly humor, Erza's cheeks burned a color of rose and she crossed her arms. Shooting Jellal a sour look, she bit her lip.
"That remains to be seen," she said, voice sharp.
With one last chuckle, Jellal disappeared, leaving Erza with an uneasy feeling in the pit of her stomach.
After all, Jellal had made no such promises to be careful. Not that he could.
For what was about to happen - they were going to need every hand in Fairy Tail's entire network pulling together.
No one was really safe anymore.
Not from the demons, not from the council, and especially not from END.
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His eyes were dimming rapidly, and she suspected whatever they were using must work faster on demons than humans.
There were some ranchers that used old beekeeping techniques on demons. And it seemed like those were being employed here.
His eyes drowsily met hers from where he was slumping down against the wall, blood trickling down his arm. Lucy grasped her keys tightly with one hand, and squeezed his bleeding wrist with the other.
He blinked at her rapidly, brows furrowing together as she squeezed his wrist again, this time to stem the bleeding.
"It's okay Natsu," she soothed as she saw him struggling to get up, "I'll get us out of this."
