AN: A little late, but here's the new chapter! I hope you like it!
Chapter Six – A Flower
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"You know the closer you get to something, the tougher is to see it and I'll never take you for granted, let's go."
Joe Inoue – Closer
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"Be careful." Gray was standing in front of the water mage, who had a confused expression on her face.
Juvia tilted her hand to the side, looking confused by his actions "Juvia always is."
She was so pretty, the Ice Mage thought. And she was just in front of him, close enough so he could touch her. Gray raised a hand to touch Juvia's cheek, when the girl gave two steps back. He stared at her, confused.
The Water Mage looked at Gray, then down to her stomach. "Juvia doesn't feel so good." The girl looked up towards him again, and her face was bruised and bleeding.
Gray stepped closer to the woman just in time to catch her as the blunette was falling. As softly as he could, Gray put a hand on her cheek.
"Juvia? Juvia!" She just groaned, as if in pain. The Ice Mage, then, put a hand on Juvia's stomach without really think about it and was confused when he felt her dress moist. He looked down to her deep blue dress just to find a darker spot on it; lifting his hand, he could see that the palm of his hand was covered in, what seemed, blood.
"Ho-Hold on, Juvia!"
"Juvia loves you, Gray-sama." The girl put a hand on his cheek and smiled, just before taking a deep breath, the smile disappearing as the hand fell down; her once sparkly blue eyes, lifeless, always haunting him.
Gray opened his eyes and almost fell from the chair he was previously resting. The Ice Mage quickly scanned where he was with his eyes and sighed in relief when he realized he just had a nightmare, and even though the girl from his dream wasn't there, she was still alive and they were going to find her.
The sun was coming up when he fell asleep and when he looked to the clock, Gray learned that he just slept for fifteen minutes, max.
During the whole night he had been restless, walking around the guild, waiting for Master to find an old friend who knew how to track down a lost mage or to Levy to find something in an old book, and so far, nothing.
They were running out of time! The next day was when Juvia told them the auction would take place.
Gray passed a hand over his face; how can a person be so sick to get to a point of selling people? How on earth could anyone sleep after selling a girl to some sadist from another country? Because Gray knew that a person, who buys someone, is not to make the 'someone' bake a few cookies.
And Juvia was with them. Sweet, caring and loving Juvia.
"This week sucks." Gray murmured to himself, feeling exhausted. He should've seen something was wrong the moment the bad feeling hit him; his gut knew what it was doing.
The guilty feeling was killing the Ice Mage. Juvia had asked him to go with her on the mission and he refused. If he had said yes, probably none of it would've happened. Juvia would be safe in Fairy Tail with him, with their family.
"Th-there's a spell!" Levy's voice echoed through the Guild and Gray was on his feet immediately, just like everyone else who was awake.
"What Spell?" Master Makarov asked, beside the petite blunette. Lucy and Levy had been going through books during the night, trying to find something that could help them track Juvia down, since the girl didn't give much information about her whereabouts, just that it was a city close to the sea.
"This one." The blunette showed to the older man. "It has to be performed by the Guild's Master, and it'll take a lot of power to do so, because you'll track down her guild mark. It's not an easy task."
"And how accurate is it?" Mirajane asked, standing by Makarov's side.
"It says that we can get a location from a map. Maybe we can get a town." Levy said. "I know it's not the best, but…"
"It's good enough." Makarov said. "If we know which town she's in, we can find her. We have been worse than this."
"Guys, guys wait." Erza got everyone's attention. "Juvia said that no woman could do magic. Isn't it worrisome? What if the spell can't reach her because of it?"
"We're still going to try." Gray said angrily. "We are going to try everything we can to get her back."
The other Fairy Tail member stared at each other; they never saw Gray like that, sure, when any of his friends got hurt, he got angry, but that time he was out of his mind.
"We will, Gray." Erza talked as calmly as she could; the Titania knew that he was just worried. "It's just…"
"Don't worry." Makarov grabbed the book Levy was holding, so he could read what it was needed for the spell. "Juvia said that the girls couldn't do magic. The stamp of Fairy Tail and any other guild has magic of its own and I am confident that we will succeed."
"What do you need, Master?" Lisanna asked.
"Just something of Juvia's, a map of Fiore" The tiny old man said looking up from the book. "and an empty room so I can perform it. This will make me weak, to summon the power of a stamp is hard, the book says. Although it does have magic, it's hard to locate it exactly."
"I have something of hers." Gray said, turning around and running to where he left his backpack. After a few seconds of search, the Ice Mage found what he was looking and returned, holding a small broche of a pink flower, giving it to the master. "She lost it during the fight with Lyon and Shelia. I found it later, when we won, and before I could return it, there was that whole situation with Sting," Gray blushed a little when the girls snickered. "Then the dragons… I forgot to give it back to her. Oh, shut up all of you."
"We didn't say a thing." Mirajane said happily.
"It's funny that it's been a month since the games and you still forget to give it to her." Lisanna giggled, soon joined by Lucy and Levy.
"This will do, Gray." Makarov said with a smile on his face. At least for a few moments, things were right in Fairy Tail. "Erza, could you grab the map of Fiore from my room? I'll go to the infirmary." The master took the book with him while the red haired woman rushed to do what he told her to. "I will perform it as soon as Erza returns with the map. When I give you the location, I probably won't go with you, so…" He pointed to his grandson, who was not far away and very much awake. "Laxus, you lead them. I want Juvia back and the other girls released. Try to get the bastard who runs the operation. If he's not there, the underlings will tell where he is.
"Gray…" Makarov turned to look to the younger mage. "Keep your head cool." The old man's stare was fierce. "We know what this means to you, but if you lose your temper, you might regret, so… keep it together. I need all of you thinking straight. Got it?" All of the members were now awaken and they nodded in agreement as Erza walked in with a map in hands, giving it to Makarov. "Now, let me find out where Juvia is and you can go get her."
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The Water Mage woke up later back in the cell, head hurting like she had pounded over and over on a wall; which the Boss could've done as far as Juvia knew, she didn't remember much of what happened after a few minutes of drinking the potion. It was all kind of a blur; whatever that SOB gave her, it made all of her body to hurt and her mind to get fuzzy.
Juvia tried her best to feel her whole body and gather all her wounds and was relieved when learned that, even if she had been beaten, she wasn't raped. Not yet, anyways. The next day, anything could happen and truly, she was terrified of it. The Boss was clearly holding not to do it.
"Juvia?" Laura said when Juvia opened her eyes. "You were unconscious when you were brought here, and didn't stir the whole night. I thought…"
"Juvia is fine, thank you." The blunette smiled softly; "Just a headache. A very strong headache."
"What happened?"
"The boss… He gave me something." The water mage started to rub her temples, trying to ease the throbbing. "It hurt a lot, then he… his hands." The blunette closed her eyes in disgust. "Juvia wasn't raped, but… I think he has something planned for today."
Laura visibly paled. "We… get beaten up a lot, the men get a little handy, but they don't rape the girls. I think that they let the buyers… Besides Rissa, I thought we were safe of it, at least for now."
"Juvia thinks that you are. The Boss took a liking in Juvia, and just Juvia." The façade Juvia put in front of her cellmates needed to keep up, otherwise their small spark of hope could vanish and none of the girls could afford to lose hope. "But don't worry, Fairy Tail is coming."
"I hope so, Juvia." Laura sighed. "The auction is tomorrow."
"They are c…" The blunette started, but stopped as soon as a burning pain started to be felt on her left leg, right above her guild mark. She hissed in discomfort, but as soon as it started, stopped. "What on earth that crazy man gave Juvia?"
"What is it?" The blonde woman from Harpia Wing asked.
"Nothing. Just another little something to feel pain." The Water Mage expected it to hurt again, and when it didn't, she shrugged and resumed the conversation with Laura; maybe her body was starting to go insane and feeling random pain everywhere.
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Mirajane walked out from Fairy Tail's infirmary, looking down to the map as everyone gathered around her, asking all types of questions. 'Was Master alright?' 'Did the spell work?' 'What's the town's name?'
"Master is alright, he just needs to rest and to take his medicine." The white haired woman said kindly. "The spell worked and it told us the town's name. It's west from here, it'll take a few hours to get there but that's where Juvia is." She put the map down and showed. "The name of the town is Hestire."
Gray felt the anger he was trying to hold inside rise: she was just a couple of hours away from them, being held and god knows what else. Master's words, telling him to keep it together. His mission was to get Juvia back and for that, he needed to get focused.
"There's a train that go there every day and it'll be leaving in one hour." Erza was looking to a brochure, where all the trains schedule were written.
"And we'll be on it." Gray said. And when he get there and got Juvia, those bastards were going to pay.
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AN: So, here we go! This chapter was a little bit more focused on Gray, but… They are finally going and Gray is fired up! I hope this isn't going in a slow pace. :)
Thanks to: otaku03, Gray23Dragon, Medaka-chan, Chibi Waru-Chan, animegirl115, Lavi-hime 4E -3, Professor Nebilim, BrigitteoO, kimberlouxxx, kurohyacchan, Lsummors, Yukistar, meigore, Akela Rose5, Darkhope, ZoeSpx, Maki-Zushi, Seirin, Duchess K, Sarapyon, xScarletxMoonx0, YamixTeaLover, Esthellar, DoomedToBeACrazyFanGirlForever, Guest, AngelRuby235, superduperizeeand , for the awesome reviews! Come here and let me love all of you!
05/31/2013 ~ BonneyQ