So…I really don't have much of an excuse for how late this is, but if you would like my explanation, I'll leave it AFTER the chapter.
And now, with that said, allow me to proceed to Fueling the Fire, chapter 10: Interrogations
The smallest dragonslayer blinked at the scent she detected from a distance. It was highly unusual—no, extremely unlikely—for him to be anywhere near Fairy Tail, especially since the situation at hand was one that angered the Magic Council. But his scent was unmistakable, and it was mingling with…Gajeel!
She temporarily forgot that she needed to leave with someone when she stood up, but then Charle looked up at her concernedly and asked her what was wrong. The young blue-haired dragonslayer turned, startled, to her best friend and flushed in embarrassment. She couldn't believe she'd let his scent distract her so much that she stood up! She needed to have her wits about her. It was just…if he was here, it meant that he cared about what happened to Fairy Tail, the opinions of the rest of the council be damned.
"Wendy?" Juvia's voice chipped in. "Please answer Charle. Are you alright? Is something wrong?"
"Actually, I, uh, was wondering if you'd come with me, Juvia?" Wendy thought quickly. Juvia was Gajeel's best friend—surely she'd come with her if she asked?
The older blue-haired woman's eyebrows rose. "Can Juvia ask where to?"
Wendy flinched, and leaned closer, beckoning for the water mage to do the same. When she did so, the Sky Maiden whispered, "I can smell that Mest—I mean Doranbolt—and Gajeel were just together outside, and walked off towards Gajeel's home together. I want to follow them to see why."
"Wendy, that's dangerous, don't you know what's happening—" Charle began, but Juvia's brows were furrowed and she held up a hand to silence the white Exceed.
"Mest is with Gajeel?"
Wendy nodded. Juvia bit her lip, then stood up abruptly.
"Let's go."
'Mest' wasn't too sure about the knowledge he'd learn by following Gajeel Redfox to his home, but there had been something about the look in the dragonslayer's red eyes that the councilman couldn't ignore. At a moment's notice, he'd completely abandoned the original plan of going straight to guild master Makarov to ask about the state of things and wound up in Gajeel's living room instead, ready to talk over a steaming cup of fresh coffee (who know the intimidating man with all the piercings could be so accommodating?).
"You said you had some information that might interest me…?" Mest prompted as soon as his host took a seat on the sofa across from the armchair in which he sat.
Laughing as he slouched down into a more comfortable position, the Fairy Tail mage replied, "I didn't say it as pretty as all that, but I got a lot more to say than anyone else right now."
Mest's eyes narrowed slightly with suspicion.
"Don't look at me like that," the red-eyed man waved his hand dismissively at his guest's borderline distrustful look. "It wasn't my idea, but it sure was a hell of a lot better than just sitting around here looking for stuff to make that idiot's case with."
"You're going in circles, Gajeel…or, rather than that, you just aren't making sense."
The larger man sighed as if Mest was ruining all of his fun—which, the councilman decided, he probably was.
"Fine, fine. I'll just tell ya then: I know where those Demon Card bastards are keepin' Bunny Girl and the Bookworm. And I know where their hidden back door is."
The guest blinked, let this news sink in, blinked again, and then let a rather devious smirk creep uncharacteristically across his lips.
"Oh? And how did you manage to get that information?"
Mest leaned forward, elbows on his knees and his chin in one hand, the picture of genuine interest. He'd been intrigued from the very moment Gajeel had demanded to be followed, but now…now Mest knew he had his hands on the very thing that could help him save Fairy Tail.
"Bunny Girl planned it all," Gajeel stated bluntly, for which Mest was grateful, although it took him a moment to realize that 'Bunny Girl' must be Lucy. "She told everyone to start building a defense for Natsu's trial, then pulled me out and told me her real plan—that she'd be gettin' captured and I'd tail her kidnappers to their secret entrance. I get the info for her from the outside, she gets the real evidence from the inside, and we bust 'em out of there the day after tomorrow around midnight. After that, we hop on the train to Era for the trial in the morning…with the real guy in tow."
And incredulous eyebrow shot into the councilman's shaggy fringe.
"Lucy planned to get captured so that she could find out if someone else tried to kill that Rune Knight?"
"No. She planned to get taken so she could find out which asshole tried to frame that flaming idiot. She also kissed him when they took him, so she's got her own reasons for bein' so damn reckless like that. And she's counting on me and whoever I bring with me to get the two of them out safe."
Mest stared at the dragonslayer that had just given him this information, and he knew he'd hit the jackpot.
"Y'hear that, ya little squirt?" Gajeel raised his voice to a boom without warning, and Mest nearly jumped out of his skin. He heard a distinct thump outside the door and a small, startled squeak. "You and Juvia can help us out, so come on in."
The doorknob turned to reveal three forms that made the council member stare blankly in surprise. Charle, the white feline, had a very disapproving look on her features as she observed the two—three, if he counted Pantherlily—occupants of the room. The blue-haired water mage looked sheepish, but it was the younger blue-haired girl that had the most violent reaction. She was red from her neck to her ears, and came in stuttering apologies for eavesdropping. She bowed in her apologies, and Gajeel just let out a deep, throaty laugh.
"Get up, get up, and come sit down. We ain't gonna bite or nothin', you know."
"I'm so sorry!" Wendy wailed as she straightened, "I know I shouldn't have followed, and I even asked Juvia to come with me, but I smelled that you were with Mest—Doranbolt—and I just couldn't help it!"
"At a time like this, Juvia thinks it's understandable to be curious," the water mage placed a calming hand on the younger girl's shoulder. "Wendy, just relax and we'll get to the bottom of all of this before you know it. Gajeel's got a lot of information that Fairy Tail can use to help Lucy, Levy, and Natsu, so sit down and listen to it with Juvia."
"That's right," Gajeel's gruff voice was a tad softer because of Wendy's unrest.
Juvia guided Wendy to the couch, and they sat on either side of Gajeel while Charle took a seat in Wendy's lap. Lily was sitting on the arm of the couch closest to Juvia, and she quietly inquired if it was okay for her to sit beside him before actually doing so.
"I'm sorry," Wendy mumbled one last time.
"It's already fine, Wendy," Mest said, smiling gently at the distraught dragonslayer. She lifted her head to look at him, and smiled a slightly tearful smile. "It's good to see you again, though in light of the circumstances it's a little…"
He didn't know what he was going to say, but she smiled a little bigger and interrupted with, "It's nice to see you again, too, Doranbolt…"
"He's no councilman right now, squirt," Gajeel interjected. "He's Mest."
"Isn't that the name he used when…" Juvia began slowly, then stopped and changed her question, "His name is Doranbolt, though…"
"Not when he's worried more about Fairy Tail than what that damn council thinks of him," came Gajeel's stubborn retort. "When he's more worried about us, I'm pretty sure he's more like Mest than Doran-whatever anyway. He's too much like Fairy Tail for his own good, if ya ask me."
The councilmember blinked, registered what had been said, and started laughing. It was the first time he'd truly laughed since all of this had begun, because he'd been too preoccupied with how they were handling things. But now, when two of the dragonslayers had said the same thing within hours of each other…he couldn't help it.
Gajeel was eyeing him with a strange mixture of confusion, amusement, almost concern, and something that was almost repulsion but not quite, but Mest wasn't offended in the least. Juvia was confused, Charle actually did look disgusted, Lily was mildly amused, and Wendy looked concerned—almost as if they were the embodiment of all of Gajeel's emotions.
"Is everything alright, Dor—Mest?" Wendy asked softly, and he struggled to gain control of himself.
"Everything…everything's fine, Wendy, sorry for worrying you," he sucked in a few deep breaths. "It's just that Natsu pretty much told me the same thing just a few hours ago, when I dropped by and told him I'd be coming here to help out with my days off."
Gajeel lounged back between the two blue-haired females, ruffling the little dragonslayer's hair in a sibling-like gesture. His laugh accompanied the almost smug smirk on his features.
"Looks like it's kind of obvious, eh? Gihihi…"
The final traces of Doranbolt left the dark-haired man to sigh and shake his head, but he then Mest's devious grin crept across his features. Of course his Fairy Tail loyalties would shine through, especially around some of their most notable fairies.
But it didn't matter, just as long as he could help them somehow.
Lucy was caught by surprise when the man who had helped capture her came down and leaned against the bars of their cell with a dark grin. Levy glanced at Lucy, and their eyes met briefly to share their concern and confusion before their attention was drawn back to the man. He acted as if he didn't have a care in the world, casually leaning a shoulder against the bars.
"What do you want?" the blonde asked with a lot more courage than she felt. Being in a cell for so long was a little more taxing than she had remembered, though she didn't really have room to complain because she'd brought herself here, more or less.
"Got a few more people meeting me," he said lazily, "but then we'll get straight to the point. So don't you worry your pretty little head about what I want yet."
She could see the blue-haired mage bristle at the way he was talking. It was far too smug for Lucy's liking, to be sure, and it was becoming apparent that Levy felt the same way on the subject. And the celestial spirit mage had a feeling that whatever they had to talk about would be something she didn't like. The biggest question…was what? What did they want to talk about, and why did they want to talk about it now of all times? Lucy had been steeling herself to demand to see the leader of their guild, so she could set the second phase of her plan in motion. It was almost eleven thirty, after all, and she didn't have much time left.
Whatever it was, she hoped this conversation would pass soon.
But the wait…the waiting was agonizing. A second person that Lucy didn't recognize appeared, but from the way that Levy stiffened, the blonde could only assume it was one of her captors—or even the one that had injured her. And suddenly, he was at the top of her list of those who needed to pay for what they had done, second only to the guild master himself, whoever he may be.
"Everyone's already waiting?" a familiar voice asked, and the woman who condescendingly referred to Lucy as doll sauntered into view. She was the last of four to show up…and she was third on the blonde Fairy Tail mage's would-be hit list.
"Waiting on you," one of the other men grumbled. Not the one Levy was wary of, but the third man that had arrived. "Can we get this over with now?"
"Let's begin," the first man, whose lazy attitude but smug tones hadn't abated at all, stood away from the bars of the cell for the first time since arriving.
And then the questions started coming.
At first Lucy and Levy were caught completely off guard by the barrage of questions—how many mages are in Fairy Tail? Who are the strongest? What kind of retaliation would they lash out with? Where were their hiding places?
The various questions poured from the four people, and they acted as though they expected answers to them. Lucy regained control of her faculties fairly quickly and then began reevaluating her plan. She only needed to put up enough resistance to make her new ruse believable…and then she could try to get to their leader.
"Answer," the man that Levy seemed almost afraid of demanded gruffly, in a no-nonsense kind of way.
"Why would we do that?!" Levy spat back venomously. So maybe she wasn't as afraid of him as she seemed—she just hated him. And to be hated by Levy was a feat in itself, since Gajeel had beaten her to within an inch of her life on their first meeting and now she was practically head over heels for him. "Are you stupid?"
"You will answer," this time, the woman spoke up, "or something…unpleasant might happen."
Unpleasant…?
Lucy didn't like the sound of that at all, but she definitely couldn't let Levy take the brunt of their anger. The blue-haired girl was her best female friend, and the only one she could talk to about her story's plot discrepancies and other books that both of them had read…so it was absolutely unforgivable of her to let them focus their attentions on the petite mage.
"Fairy Tail is our family," she cut in sharply. "A family doesn't sell each other out. Not to the likes of you."
And though she didn't think it would help her case at all, she had spat on the ground in front of him before she could check her actions. Levy grabbed her arm and shook her head quickly, both as part of their little act and also partly serious.
"Don't worry, doll," the woman gestured to the one that Levy was afraid of, and he stepped forward as the smug, first man slid the door open. Lucy's mind was awhirl with the possibilities of what they would do, now that they had the door open. The blonde had been the worse one, as far as her actions went…did they want to torture her now for information? Would they just beat her into silence and use her as an example for if her solid-script mage friend didn't answer their questions?
But she hadn't thought they would grab the blue-haired girl roughly by the arm and pull her up. Levy yelped in pain as one—or several—of her numerous small injuries gave her pain.
"Wait, what are you—"
A knife danced across the knuckles of the one who'd opened the door. He showed the same lazy expression he'd been wearing the entire time. Only now there was a slightly malicious edge to his grin, and he kept playing with the knife in warning. Lucy could scarcely breathe as her eyes followed the flashing blade.
"Now, tell me…who are your strongest members?" Mr. Knife asked darkly, still with that damned grin spread across his lips. "We know some of them, of course, but it's all hearsay, and we'd rather have the truth."
"Don't tell them anything!" Levy shouted, stomping her captor's foot. He gripped her more tightly and her furious expression changed into one of discomfort. A small squeak still escaped when she tried to suppress her cry of pain.
A shiny blade almost appeared beside Levy's neck, and Lucy followed it to find, to her surprise, the third man, and one that had hardly said a string of more than six words together since his arrival. And the blonde watched, suddenly terrified, as the metal touched Levy's soft skin, and then a thin line of red blossomed from the point of contact and her heart squeezed. She had to do something about it, and it had to be now.
As he started to put more pressure on the blade, deepening the solid-script mage's wound, Lucy cried, "I'll talk! I will! But let me talk to your leader, alone!"
Her voice was a much higher pitch than she had expected, but her fright, her terror of what they would do to her friend and comrade, completely showed in her tremulous tone. The woman beamed in a victorious manner, and the one with the knife to Levy's neck dragged it slowly away, widening the wound on purpose before he had gone. The man holding the blue-haired girl shoved her back to the floor, and before Lucy could reach her she felt him grab her own arm.
And then, in a blur, she was being pulled away from Levy, the cell door closing behind her. She couldn't think of anything to say as she craned her neck around to see the blue-haired girl. She had wanted to have Levy with her, but…no.
Gajeel will get her out, she had to keep telling herself. He would kill them all before he let her get hurt any worse than this.
She had to take comfort in that, but she felt her plan crumbling slowly. It would still work—she would make damn sure it did—but that didn't mean she liked being separated any better.
Man, did you guys miss me? My last few weeks of this semester at college/university were awful and my GPA has successfully been dropped by like .05 because of it (granted, I still successfully managed 3 Bs and 3 As, but it's still awful for me. I'm a bit of a perfectionist…).
And…since I was SO BUSY for the last like, three weeks of the semester, I didn't have ANY TIME for fanfiction. Seriously. And when I got done with finals, I decided to do nothing but spend a week watching anime, and J-Drama, and K-Drama, and Taiwanese dramas, and when that week got over, my parents decided to say something to the higher-ups at the damn factory they work at so I have the worst job I could possibly get near my house and I hate it.
ANYWAY. I sincerely apologize for the late update, and I hope it's at least satisfactory! If there are any mistakes, let me know! Thanks for reading!