Chapter 7

Gajeel wiped the sweat that relentlessly dripped from his forehead. His face had become covered in soot while he picked away at the mine. It had been significantly lonelier since Juvia had left, and he had begun to wonder if she was truly safe. He had heard rumors from the other coal miners that the group Erza had taken were now soldiers, and their living conditions were much better than here at the camps. Gajeel gritted his teeth; he wasn't a notorious assassin like Juvia, but he could definitely handle his own and deal some good ass-kicking when necessary. But he shoved that thought aside- he was more concerned with either or not the rumors were true. What if Juvia had wasn't safe? What if she was already dead? Gajeel unconsciously smashed his pickaxe with unnecessary force against the caves as the idea drifted in his mind.

If he didn't hear back from Juvia, what were his next plans? They were supposed to escape together- none of them had expected that they would be apart from each other. Now, Gajeel had to consider his options. Should he stay and rot here in these mines? Not a chance. He'd either have to escape on his own or sneak around the soldier camps to grab her and escape together. That idea amused him- his chances of infiltrating a soldier camp and surviving humored him.

Before Gajeel could contemplate further, a voice interrupted his thoughts.

"You must be Gajeel?" The woman approached Gajeel with purposeful strides. She had the dragon insignia on her chest plate, similar to the guard that took Juvia away. Gajeel's throat tightened - was this some sort of death notice on Juvia's part? He prepared for the worse.

"That's me. What have you done to Juvia?" Gajeel's eyes steeled as he straightened himself to properly face the woman.

A flash of guilt flooded through the woman's eyes. But just as quickly as it came, it disappeared. She paused, debating on how to explain the situation to Gajeel. Then, she took a shallow breath and spoke. "I am Erza, the captain of the soldiers that took Juvia away a few weeks ago. We had recently just come back from our mission, but I'm sorry to inform you that-"

Gajeel grabbed Erza's collar and shoved her against the wall. Anger coursed his veins and took control of his movements. He didn't want her to finish the sentence. If she had announced her dead like this, while he was useless and deteriorating in some cave, he wouldn't forgive himself. And he sure as hell wouldn't forgive Erza.

"What have you done?" Gajeel viciously demanded again, with his jaw clenched.

"Watch yourself," Erza warned. Her eyes were sharp and void of emotion. If she had felt any pain from Gajeel's shove or any fear from his words, she didn't show a shred of it on her face. Erza figured that Gajeel wouldn't be satisfied with a simple notice of Juvia's disappearance. "She's not dead…As far as I know. Release me or you shall suffer the consequences."

Gajeel eased his grip on Erza, and eventually let her go. His face was still swelled with rage, and the soot and sweat didn't help make him look any less terrifying.

"Come with me," Erza simply stated. "I've already talked to your guards, so don't worry about leaving your post."

Gajeel just grumbled some obscenity and followed Erza to her carriage. After a ride in complete silence, they reached Erza's base, where her soldiers trained and lodged. Gajeel glanced around the room they had walked into. Of course their living quarters would be better. Erza sat down at a table and Gajeel joined her.

"So, I guess I shall begin…" Erza said with a heavy sigh. She went on to explain the ambush that happened at the Southern Border in Fiore. She explained Juvia's bravery as helped fight back against the enemy, and letting herself and the soldiers escape. She also explained that the last time she saw Juvia, she was fighting the Prince of Fiore.

"And you just let her go?!" Gajeel shouted, enraged that Erza essentially left Juvia for dead.

Erza was quiet for a moment. She knew that Gajeel would blame her for Juvia's disappearance. "It was her wish. She also had another wish- and it was to keep you safe."

Gajeel stopped at those words. "What does that mean? I'm not in some immediate danger."

Erza explained that Gajeel was bait for Juvia to not run away or go against King Jose's order, and that if she did, Gajeel would be killed. "This is why I brought you here. I don't know the status of Juvia right now, but for your safety, I must pronounce her dead. It's for the best for both of you. If the King thinks she's dead, he won't look for her. You won't be killed for her actions either."

Gajeel soaked this information in, saying nothing. Erza continued. "For some reason, the King had a particular interest in Juvia. He seems to know that she's a renowned assassin, and he wanted to utilize her for his army. It's better off this way."

"So now what? I don't even know if my friend is dead or not! Do you expect me to just sit here and nod along?" Gajeel spat. His head ached from the news. Or perhaps it was the exhaustion from work. Most likely, it was a mixture of both.

"You don't have a choice. I am personally looking out for any signs of Juvia. You will be the first to know if she is still alive. In the meantime, I'll be moving you to a different sector."

"What? I'm moving out of the mines?" Gajeel asked.

"I went over your files. You were a blacksmith before, correct?" Erza asked.

"Ya, what gives?" Gajeel didn't know where she was going with this.

"You'll be working as a blacksmith refining weapons with the rest of the sector. It's not a drastic improvement, but it's the best I could do. You'll have more breaks, better living conditions, and you'll even earn a small wage." Erza declared.

Gajeel was rendered speechless. This was the closest thing to freedom that he had in a while. Erza continued to drabble on about the details of the transfer, but all Gajeel could think of was the fact that he never had to mine for coal again.

"Come on! I hardly call this training," Juvia smugly complained. She leaned against the wall in the training room, smiling wickedly while examining her dull sword. The other soldiers were cowering on the other side of the room, not wanting to duel against Juvia again.

"Let us take a break, Juvia." Droy complained. Jet moaned in agreement as they breathed heavily from practice. Both were soldiers that were in Gray's Guard.

"Don't be so pretentious. You still have a lot to work on," Gray retorted. He had been examining her fighting style as she fought with the four other soldiers in Gray's Royal Guard. "Just because you were deemed a world class assassin doesn't mean you are immune to everything."

"Oh yeah, pretty boy? Why don't you say that after you beat me?" Juvia challenged, feeling excited to take down another person. "Fair and square this time." No one else in the room understood what Juvia had implied, but Gray could tell by the undertones of her voice that she meant without the use of magic.

Gray walked up to the equipment stand and examined the training swords. After looking at a few and weighing his options, he picked up a long sword. "Even then, I could still beat you," Gray responded nonchalantly. He proceeded to the mat where Juvia stood, ready to fight.

Juvia just smiled as she pounced at Gray with her sword. Gray easily blocked her move, and their swords danced back and forth. As graceful as it looked, one could hear the power being emitted as the swords clanged noisily.

"For one," Gray grunted, as he blocked another one of Juvia's fierce swings. "Your left leg is out of balance when you swing." As he said this, Juvia swung her sword and Gray tripped her left heel with his foot. She stumbled a bit and a shocked look spread across her face.

"Broke it when I dived into a river," Juvia snarled, as she made another attempt to clobber Gray. She managed to push him to the ground as he stifled a moan when his body hit the floor.

"Another thing," Gray said calmly, as she was about to stab him with her dull sword. "You aren't as sharp on reacting to your right side as your left." He rolled over and dodged Juvia's sword, then knocked the hilt of his sword to the right side of her head.

Juvia cried out in pain as she raised her head from the floor. Oh, Gray was going to get it this time. She leaped to her feet and let out a fury of attacks on Gray.

"That's more like it," Gray teased. He had to admit, she was good. He could only block her attacks, and barely found any room for himself to unleash his offensive moves. But he noticed his chance to make his move- and if he didn't take it now, he wasn't sure if he could get another chance. He wasn't about to look like a fool in front of his men.

"And lastly," Gray said, ignoring Juvia's savage gurgles as she thrusted her sword at him. "You hold the sword like a dagger or a throwing knife- too loose." Gray whacked her hand with his sword and made her sword go flying through the air.

Juvia looked stunned as she watched her sword go flying and hitting the mat with a mocking thud. Before she knew it, she felt the dull tip of Gray's sword pointed at her heart.

"Tch. I am better suited for daggers, anyway," Juvia replied, trying to hide her embarrassment. She shook of her hand as the pain stung through her wrist. Good thing these practice swords couldn't cut through anything.

Gray said nothing, because he knew she was right. Had they dueled with daggers or throwing knives, he would have lost in an instant. Besides, swords weren't an assassin's primary choice of weapons.

"Training adjourned," Gray announced. The soldiers sighed in relief, patting and cheering for Gray as they left. In a matter of moments, only Gray and Juvia were left in the room.

Juvia stood there with an annoyed expression on her face. "Was that really necessary?"

Gray assumed she was talking about how he pointed out her weak points to the crowd.

"Just as necessary as hardly calling this training," Gray responded, with a smirk on his face.

Juvia rolled her eyes. "Fine, I'll be nicer to your men next time."

"You don't need to hold back, but no complaints. I am also paying you, you know." Gray approached her as he said this.

"I know, I know. Got it. No more complaints or making fun of anyone," Juvia said in a somewhat apologetic tone. She was absorbed in flexing out her wrist.

Gray grabbed her hand. "I'm sorry, I didn't mean to hit you that hard with my sword. Is your wrist all right?"

Gray's hands swallowed Juvia's pale, petite hand. Despite being an assassin, Juvia's skin was soft and smooth in comparison to Gray's rough, callous hands. Juvia squirmed, as her heart rate fastened at the innocent gesture. Gray didn't seem to notice, with his eyes inspecting every arch and contour of Juvia's hand.

"Um… er, it's okay!" Juvia responded quickly. Despite her words, she didn't remove her hand from his.

"Well, it doesn't seem like anything serious. It'll probably just feel a bit sore," Gray diagnosed, dropping her hand. Juvia internally cried out, almost wishing that she had broken her wrist. But she pushed off the feeling as Gray started to walk out of the room.

"Are you coming?" Gray asked, while Juvia stood there slightly dumbfounded. "Everyone else is going to eat all the lunch if we arrive late. Especially Droy- he looks skinny but he's really been eating a lot recently."

Juvia snapped out of her daze, and hopped over to Gray. Had she really just wished her wrist had been broken, so that he could give her more attention? Juvia mentally slapped herself across the face and reminded herself of more important things. Like lunch. She was starving and she wouldn't let Droy eat all the food, especially because she had kicked his ass so hard at training today.

"Race you there," Juvia said, as she took off and left Gray to scramble after her.

Warm golden orange rays peaked through the windows as Juvia walked through the hallway. By the tone of the light, Juvia knew that the sun was setting soon, and wanted to visit the library located in Gray's (and technically, now Juvia's) living quarters to pick out a few more books to pass time. She never read much while she was in the Assassin's Guild, and if she did read, it was about techniques to silence her opponent. But who knew that books were filled with such imaginative stories, as well as books filled with history and culture? But before she could even turn the corner she bumped into the person she least wanted to see.

"Ah, Prince Lyon," Juvia said with forceful enthusiasm. She straightened her posture and dipped into a sloppy curtsey. Her eyes met his with an embarrassing glance- the last time she saw him, she pretty much ambushed him out and left him passed out in her room. "It's so great to see you, and my apologies for last time we met."

Lyon flashed a charming smile and waved off their first encounter. "Please, Juvia-chan, no need to apologize. It must have been a surprise to you then, since you were still assimilating to life in the royal court." Lyon inched closer to Juvia, until he was right up at her face.

Juvia tried to back up, but her body was already against the wall. Mavis, she wish she were somewhere else right now. "Erm…" Juvia mumbled, trying to think of countless ways to remove herself from this situation without hurting the Prince's ego.

"Listen, from the moment I saw you…I knew you were different. I mean, I knew you were different because you were an assassin, but you were also different in a different way…" Lyon rambled on like a shy schoolboy, not making coherent sense.

Juvia just stared at him, trying to break down what he said to her.

"What I am trying to say is," Lyon said proudly, with his hand against his chest. "Is that you are very beautiful." Lyon brushed his hands against Juvia's cheek.

With that, Juvia flushed red. "No! I mean, I don't think so." Juvia dealt with a lot of things in her life. She had killed more people than she could remember. She snuck into heavily guarded areas. She even broke plenty of bones, all at the same time before. But she didn't know how to deal with a handsome prince complimenting her. She had never been called "beautiful" before, or even anything close to feminine. She didn't know how to respond. All she knew was that she wanted to get out of here. Now.

Lyon just laughed as Juvia fidgeted and cast her eyes down on the floor. "Please, dine with me tonight," Lyon pleaded with soft eyes. "I want to get to know you more." He looked at her intently, as if she were about to accept.

"Er, I can't tonight. I've got to do assassin stuff. You know, same old same old," Juvia giggled, all too eccentric and fake. She squirmed her way out of Lyon's path as she walked away from the situation. "But it was really nice chatting with you, Prince Lyon! I hope to see you again!" Juvia pasted a smile on her face as she waved at Lyon and walked away hastily.

Lyon stood there with his mouth ajar. Usually girls would be screaming at the opportunity to dine with him. But Juvia was an assassin. And assassins do have assassin-y things to do, right? So he perked his ears and smiled at the beautiful blunette that waved down the hall.

"No worries! Tomorrow for breakfast then! I'll pick you up at your room!" Lyon called out, still euphoric from Juvia's presence.

Juvia's dash to the library skidded to a stop. Breakfast? No, that's not what she wanted. Every morning until noon was preoccupied due to training with Gray. She turned back to tell him her schedule was really busy, but he had already disappeared. Juvia sighed, feeling a slight headache would approach her any minute now. Without hesitation, she decided to give up on going to the library and walked out to the garden for some fresh air. Dusk had already approached, and little light was left so that Juvia couldn't quite fully make out the flora around her.

Juvia took a deep breath in, and as she exhaled she let the tension in her muscles relax. She walked further into the garden, glad to get away from the trivial drama of the palace life. It was comforting knowing that no one could hear her, because she began to mutter all sorts of obscenities that had come across her path the day she set foot in the palace.

Then, a sudden rustle.

An average person would have shrugged it off as the wind blowing against a bush, or a small hare running through the foliage. But Juvia froze in place. Something didn't feel…right. And she wasn't the only thing that sensed something awry. Her necklace - the one Cana had given her- seemed to be bursting with immense heat. A heavy atmosphere surrounded her, something that Juvia could not explain. Juvia immediately tensed and stood her ground. As of now, she was defenseless. How could she have gotten so careless as to not have weapons at her on all times? Well, when she makes it out of here, she would never make that same mistake again.

If she gets out of here.

"Who are you? Come and show yourself," Juvia commanded, without fear or hesitance in her voice. Despite this, she felt uneasy. She could do well with hand-to-hand combat, but she wasn't sure what she was dealing with. She wished that she hadn't walked so deep into the garden- no one would hear her from where she stood.

A snarl that didn't sound quite human nor animal echoed into air. Juvia froze, trying to ease her breath and urging her heart to stop pounding like a madman.

More rustling among the bushes.

Then, faster than lightening, a beast no larger than a wolf came pouncing at Juvia. Except this wasn't quite a wolf- it certainly had the shape of one, but it was sleek black, with it's face twisted like scarred human. It emitted the stench of rotting flesh, and claws sharper and longer than anything she had seen before. With one more bellow from the beast, which pierced through Juvia's ears and sounded like death itself, it sank its sharp teeth into Juvia's shoulder.

Juvia shrieked in agony as blood gushed from the wound. The pain felt worse than daggers thrown and twisted at her as the teeth punctured her skin. It took a moment for Juvia to regain focus of the magnitude of the situation. Using one hand, she grasped the wolf-like demon by the neck, and the other hand punched the snout of as hard as possible.

Surprisingly, the beast yelped as a dog would, and released his bite from her arm. The monster attempted to attack Juvia again, pinning her down to the ground as it tried to bite her neck. The two struggled for a bit, with Juvia shoving and punching and the wolf pushing and clawing.

Juvia heaved as she kicked the creature's stomach as hard as she could as it fell against the pavement. The opportunity was ripe as the creature struggled to get back on its feet. She grabbed a loose brick by the pavement before the monster could rise and smashed the brick repetitively against the monster's head, until the slow twitching had come to a complete stop. Her arms were soaked with the monster's blood, except it wasn't a crimson red, but rather an inky black. It definitely wasn't her most graceful and poetic kill, but it had done the job. Her necklace stopped heating up.

A thousand thoughts rushed through Juvia's mind as she dragged one arm over the wound on her shoulder. What the stars was that? It definitely wasn't human, nor animal. It was nothing that she had ever seen before. What was it doing in the palace? Who sent it here? Was there more from where that came from? She slumped to the ground, frustrated because she couldn't answer any of these questions logically. The only conclusion she could come up with was…magic. She bit her lip so hard that she tasted blood. Or perhaps she was already bleeding. She was sick of recently getting undermined by magic all the time. She was afraid that she would have to become accustomed to these situations. She was afraid she couldn't protect herself.

Her breathing was so unsteady and loud, that she didn't even hear the footsteps approaching her.

"By Maivs…" said the deep voice, in shock.

Juvia spun around and rose immediately, with her balance faltering. Was it another one of those creatures? She wasn't sure if she could go another round unarmed.

Instead stood before her a man cloaked in a dark blue. His face was covered by his hood, and Juvia could only make out his angular face beneath the hood. He stood tall, with his shoulders square. He held out a lantern to reveal Juvia's face- cuts and scrapes appeared on her face and her tangled blue hair was a mess.

"What have you…are you all right?" He gestured at her arm, which was evidently still bleeding. The man approached her with concern. He was wary, and she could tell. His steps were calculated and precise, slow and steady.

Juvia back away from him, unsure of what other surprises might come. "I'm fine, who are you?" Juvia asked bluntly.

I am…just a gardener, wandering around the garden," He kept approaching her at the same pace he held earlier on.

Lies. At least make it sound convincing. This time, she didn't back away from him. Instead, she lurched forward, pulling away his hood and revealing his face through the light of his lantern.

At first, his identity didn't hit her. She first registered that he was human, which she was all too grateful to accept. Then her eyes roamed around to take in the details of his face- he had blue hair similar to hers, a square jaw, and brown eyes. Then she gasped, as she saw a red tattoo trace around his eyes. She had heard of this man in the Guild of Assassins. From Erza.

"You're…Jellal," Juvia whispered, her throat coarse.

Jellal hesitated, and debated whether or not he should deny it. But the girl had already seen too much, so he didn't bother with a ruse.

"How did you… why are you… How are you alive?" Juvia vexed. As if she needed more questions right now.

Jellal only looked at her with a deep sadness in his eyes.

"Perhaps there will be a better time to explain this. But I have to take this corpse back to the lab," Jellal explained, as he pulled a large bag from his pocket and approached the monster.

"But…you in the palace…and what the hell is that thing?!" Juvia shouted. She wanted answers. Now.

"Now isn't the right time to explain. I need to examine this cadaver before its blood grows cold." Jellal seemed unfazed as he placed the wolf-thing into his bag. His gloves were soaked in black juices from the beast, but he didn't as so much batter his eyes. "Perhaps we can meet tomorrow night, as I would like to disclose what exactly happened here tonight. In the meantime, you should get that checked out." His eyes wandered over to her arm.

"I'll survive," Juvia responded harshly, with anger rising in her tone. "But you can't expect me to just be perfectly dandy and not have any questions about what just happened!"

"I don't. But you'll see that this cadaver requires immediate attention- and focus. So we will continue where we left off tomorrow. What is your name so I may find you?" He said this all too nonchalantly as he tossed the bag over his shoulder and began walking away.

Juvia ignored his request, and instead, threatened Jellal. "I'll tell Prince Gray that you, a fugitive of Bosco, is roaming around in the palace."

Jellal momentarily stopped his treading on the garden path. "Gray knows." And he continued to walk off.

She couldn't take any more of this. Who else was connected with this? Juvia was about to pinch herself to see if she was dreaming, but the warm blood that oozed out of her arm already told her that this was all too real. She had to find out what happened, if not tonight, then tomorrow.

"It's Juvia!" she cried out to Jellal, who was already walking off in the distance. "My name is Juvia, and you better meet me here again at dusk or I will find you."

Jellal, acknowledging that he had heard her, simply turned his head and shouted, "Take care of that arm, Juvia."

Oh, but that was the last thing Juvia was going to do.

She proceeded to storm to Gray's bedroom.

Hi all! Thanks again for all your amazing reviews!
I hoped you liked this chapter as much as I did- it was about time that some action finally happened!
And thanks for all your suggestions that you put forth. I definitely take them into consideration, but a side note that I am usually am several chapters ahead beyond what I upload to FF. I'm sorry that I can't accommodate all your requests, as that would work against the current plot.
Other notes:
-Yes! The necklace that Juvia wears is indeed Gray's necklace in the manga, although it isn't his in the story. But I envision it to be a bit slimmer, so she can hide the jewelry if necessary.
-Who is that blonde girl that gave Juvia that necklace, anyway? Who knows ;)
And lastly- if you like my story, please review! It really helps motivate me to continue writing as well as put the word out there for others to read this story.

Until next time!

~GreenTeaCake