Dragon Instinct
Chapter Fifteen
"Why are we going to Blue Pegasus again?" Evergreen asked loudly.
"Because they're the closest guild around and that's where Freed wanted to go," Bickslow replied.
Laxus glanced back at them slowly before turning to look at Freed. He'd been quiet since they left the hotel that morning. Laxus could see the emotions swirling through his eyes and he could only guess at what Freed was feeling. Freed had adored his sister. They'd always been close, even when she was angry with him for being friends with someone like Laxus.
"Freed..."
"I'm fine. We're almost there."
Laxus sighed turning back to the road. He knew better than to push the point. Freed never appreciated being forced to talk about something he didn't want to talk about. He didn't want to anger Freed when he was already being emotional. He was about to ask Freed how he knew Eve Tearm of Blue Pegasus when Freed's legs gave out from under him and he fell to the ground.
"Freed!" Laxus rushed to his side quickly picking him up in his arms.
"What happened to him?" Bickslow asked, his totem dolls chanting behind him "What happened? What happened?"
"I don't know."
Laxus brushed Freed's hair from his face looking him over. Freed had seemed fine that morning. There didn't seem to be anything wrong with him when they left the hotel.
"He looks really pale Laxus," Evergreen said softly, over his shoulder.
"I know. Come on, we should be at Blue Pegasus soon. The sooner the better."
Laxus took off at a quick gait not waiting to see if the others were following him. He needed to get to Blue Pegasus, and fast.
Despite his rush, it took longer for Laxus to get to Blue Pegasus than he thought was acceptable, not when Freed was looking worse by the second. A block before he reached the guild he had begun to break out in a cold sweat and Laxus began to panic. He could sense something wrong with Freed. It was something he assumed came from their connection as mates.
Laxus groaned when he looked up to see the extremely large and pink guild hall in front of him. He had forgotten how hard it was to look at the Blue Pegasus guild.
"Well, that's disturbing."
He turned briefly to look at Bickslow and Evergreen behind him, surprised they managed to keep up with him, before hurrying up the steps and through the door of the guildhall. He paused as it looked like he entered a large entrance room. The inside of the building seemed more like a mansion than a guild hall, at least compared to Fairy Tail.
"This place is nice," Evergreen said softly.
Laxus grunted heading for a doorway he could hair voices from. He stepped into the room pausing when it seemed like he stepped into someone's sitting room. Three men looked up at him confused before immediately jumping to their feet walking towards them. Laxus readied himself for attack, ready to defend himself and Freed, but they all seemed distracted by Evergreen who just walked into the room.
"Hello lovely young lady. Welcome to Blue Pegasus!" The one in a vest and pink shirt said.
"Hold it boys," an effeminate voice said behind them.
Laxus turned slowly to see a large man with wings phasing through bar at the other end of the room. He blinked slowly. He had forgotten how much Master Bob had changed since he was a child.
"Don't crowd them, don't you see they've brought someone who needs our help. Forgive my boys here. This is Ren, Hibiki, and Eve. I'm Bob, the guild master. You're old Makie's grandson aren't you?"
"Hello Master Bob. We don't mean to..."
"Freed!" Eve exclaimed stepping around Hibiki and Ren as they turned to look at him in shock. "What happened to him?!"
"You know these men?" Ren asked slowly.
"I only know Freed."
Laxus looked at the small blonde boy slowly. He remembered him coming to the welcome back party Fairy Tail had for them when they returned for Tenrou. He also remembered Freed leaving the party with him and never coming back. He narrowed his eyes slowly, holding Freed a little tighter.
"How do you know Freed?"
"I...It's not important," Eve said, looking at his guild mates slowly. "We barely know each other. What happened to him?"
"His sister went psycho on him, that's what." Evergreen muttered.
"His what?" Eve asked sharply turning to her.
"Can we do this later?" Laxus thundered. "He needs help!"
Evergreen fell silent looking at Laxus guiltily.
"Hand him here Laxus," Bob said quietly. "I can get him up to the infirmary. You can explain what happened then."
Laxus looked at Bob with a frown, pulling Freed closer to his chest.
"Fine, follow me with him if you must, but hurry."
He frowned following Bob up the stairs of the guild. He knew it would have been easier if he'd passed Freed over, but he wasn't going to do that. Freed had fallen unconscious under his care and he wasn't going to risk anything else happening to him. He stiffened when he heard footsteps behind him and looked back at the three members of Blue Pegasus following them and frowned. It was none of their business what had happened to Freed. He just needed someone to tell him Freed was going to be okay. He didn't need to explain a damn thing to them. He stepped into the infirmary room seeing a mage standing there looking at them confused. Bob gave her a smile laying Freed on the bed.
"This is a young member of Fairy Tail, and he needs our help."
"What happened to him?" she asked.
"We don't know," Laxus said leaning against the wall crossing his arms. "We faced off against a dark guild last night, but he was fine this morning."
"I see," the mage said frowning. "Was he injured during the battle?"
"Not physically."
"Oh?"
"He had a few runes cast on him. A few very powerful ones."
"And what were they?"
"The Dark Ecritures Pain and Suffering."
Laxus heard a gasp behind him and turned to see the younger member of Blue Pegasus staring at him speechless. He shrugged of the boy's interest turning back to Freed as the mage began to cast diagnostic spells on him. Bob stepped away from the bed walking towards the group.
"We should let the medical mage do her job. Perhaps we should go sit downstairs and you can explain what happened?"
"You're an idiot if you think I'm leaving Freed's side after what just happened." Laxus told him. "'Sides, you said I could stay with him."
"Well, can you tell us anything that could be helpful?"
"I already told you everythin' I knew! He's my mate, don't you think if I knew anythin' else I'd tell you!?"
"Laxus..." Evergreen started slowly, reaching out to touch his arm.
Laxus jerked away trying to ignore the shocked looks on faces of the people in the room. He hadn't meant to blow up like that, but they were interrogating him instead of helping Freed and he was sick of it.
"Master Bob, I might be able to help."
Laxus turned quickly to the small blond that had recognized Freed when they first walked into the guild.
"What do you mean Eve?"
"I don't think there's anything physically wrong with him."
"Are you blind?! Look at him!"
"I said physically," Eve said turning to Laxus slowly. "You said he has two extremely powerful Ecriture's cast on him. Were they cast at the same time? Or was one canceled out before the other was cast?"
Laxus paused looking at him confused thinking back to the battle. He didn't remember Freya canceling the first enchantment before she cast the second.
"I think he was still under the influence of Suffering when she cast Pain," he finally replied.
"I thought so. It could be that because of how powerful both are, that when he got weak from traveling his mind fell under the influence of the enchantments again," Eve said quietly walking towards the bed. "I think I can pull him out of it."
"What do you know about Rune Magic?" Laxus asked, trying not to let his disbelief slip into his voice. He could hardly believe a playboy like one of the Trimens could do rune magic as complicated as Freed's.
"I trained with the Rune Knights before I joined Blue Pegasus," he said looking back at Laxus.
Laxus hoped he hid his surprise well.
"What are you going to do?" He asked glancing back at Freed's bed.
"I'm going to try and search out the runes that were cast on him in the first place and end their effect. It could take a few minutes, it could take a few hours, depending on how strong they were."
Laxus swallowed walking up to the bed slowly, reaching out before stopping himself. He didn't want to do anything that could negatively affect Eve's help. If the boy could really help Freed he was will to do anything he said.
"It's okay," Eve told him softly. "Sit with him. I'm sure he can still sense you there. It might help him return to consciousness faster knowing you're beside him."
Laxus looked over at him slowly before sitting on the bed beside Freed, putting his hand in his. He didn't know how much he believed in Freed being able to sense him there, but he certainly wanted to be the first one Freed saw when he finally woke up.
It took Eve a total of four hours to remove the influence of Freya's enchantments from Freed's minds. Four hours in which Laxus thought he was going to lose his mind. He sat watching Eve work tirelessly, the boys hands writing Rune's faster than he's ever seen Freed do, struggling to break the pattern of the runes that were initially cast. Despite how uncomfortable the position, he wasn't leaving Freed's side. When Freed's eyes slowly began to twitch, he felt as though his heart started beating again. Eve sighed dropping into the chair beside the bed slowly, closing his eyes. Laxus felt a twinge of regret as he looked at how exhausted the boy seemed. He hadn't even considered asking the boy if he could rest between runes. He must have exhausted all of his magical power trying to help Freed.
"You okay?"
"Yeah, fine. I just don't use runes much anymore," Eve said opening his eyes slowly. "I focus mostly on my snow magic."
"L...Laxus?"
Laxus turned quickly towards Freed giving his hand a squeeze.
"I'm here."
"Where...where are we?"
"Blue Pegasus."
"We made it then," Freed said softly with a small smile. Laxus didn't like the haunted look that remained in Freed's eyes. He could only imagine what kind of horror had been cycling Freed's mind while he was unconscious. "Good."
"You should rest Freed."
"No...I need to talk to Eve," he said softly going to sit up.
"I'm right here Freed. Lay back down," Eve said quickly sitting up in his seat. "What do you need to talk to me about?"
Freed turned his head slowly looking at Eve as he laid back down.
"It's...Freya. She's..."
"Alive. I know," Eve said quietly. "I know her magical signature."
"You know Freya?" Bickslow asked quickly. "How?"
Laxus jumped. He forgot Evergreen and Bickslow were even in the room.
"We...we were engaged." Eve told them. "I taught her everything she knew...knows... about Rune Magic. I...if she's alive, why didn't she come back? Why would she join a dark guild? What happened Freed? Why would she try to hurt you? After you guys disappeared she spent every day learning magic so she could find you. It doesn't make any sense."
"I don't think it was really her." Laxus told him.
"What do you mean?" Freed asked quietly. "I know my sister, it was definitely her."
"Yes, but...I don't think she was in control. There was a look in her eyes, like someone else was callin' the shots."
"Like soul magic," Bickslow said quietly.
"I was so sure she was dead," Eve said softly covering his face with his hands. "The building she was in blew up. I spent days searching the rubble. No one survived the explosion."
Laxus glanced at Eve again hearing the anguish in his voice. He could only imagine how the boy was feeling. He'd nearly lost his mind just knowing Freed was in danger. He knew Eve was probably going through hell, having thought Freya was dead for a year.
"Unless she put up a Jutsu Shiki," Freed whispered. "A shield like that would have drained her magic, and left her vulnerable to enemies."
"I...I would have looked for her, I wouldn't have stopped if I'd known she was out there."
"It's not your fault Eve. If Laxus is right, and she's being manipulated, we'll get her back. No matter what, I will bring my sister home."
"You won't be alone," a voice spoke up from the other side of the room.
Laxus glanced over his shoulder seeing the other two members of the Trimmens looking at Eve frowning.
"Ren, Hibiki..."
"Freya was a member of Blue Pegasus, even if she did hide her connection to Fairy Tail from us," Hibiki said ruefully. "And besides, she's your fiance. She's family, and she needs our help. I can use archive to search out this guild they were facing. You guys can take time to plan while Freed recovers, and then we can go in with a coordinated attack."
"I'm going to use the communication lacrima to contact Master Makarov," Evergreen said standing. "We're going to need more help when we go. The guild is a lot larger than we expected."
"I'll show you the way," Hibiki told her leading her out of the room.
"We should get outta your hair," Bickslow said looking at Freed with a grin. "Let you get some rest, if this big lug will let ya."
"Thanks Bicks," Freed said with a small smile.
"Sleep well Freed," Eve told him standing up slowly walking towards the door behind Ren and Bickslow.
"Thanks Eve, and stop blaming yourself. You couldn't have known what happened to Freya."
"I should have. She was everything to me," he said softly. "I should have sensed she was still out there."
Freed sighed watching as Eve walked out the room.
"You didn't tell me Freya had a fiance," Laxus said softly.
Laxus layed down beside him once they were alone, pulling him close to his chest.
"Well at the time she was dead and I didn't think it mattered."
"Are you..."
"If you finish that sentence I swear you will regret it." Freed said turning to him. "I'm not a child. Yes, what Freya did was horrible, but we have faced worse."
"Freed..."
"What?"
"It's okay to be upset," Laxus began but stopped when Freed groaned loudly.
"I'm not upset. I'm angry. Someone took my sister, and turned her into a monster and I was too weak to stop it. I'm her brother, I should have been able to break through whatever magic was cast on her."
"That's not your fault."
"Yes, it is. I'm supposed to protect her, and I wasn't here. She is suffering because I couldn't do my job as her older brother."
"Freed, you just told Eve it's not his fault because he didn't know she was alive, well it's not yours either. Freya made the decision to go out there and fight against this guild. She knew her risk and she took it. The only people to blame are the same people who killed Eliana's mother. We will get your sister back and we will settle this."
Freed sighed quietly and Laxus reached down to caress his cheek slowly.
"Come on Freed, I know you better than to think you're gonna to give up. You're a fighter and we need you in order to make this work."
"Just promise me she's not going to get hurt Laxus."
"You know we'll make sure of it. Freya is a part of our team, whether she wants to be or not. We just have to remind her of that."
"Thank you."
"No problem." Laxus said with a smirk. "Now, rest like you were told. Eve said you've been to a mental hell. You need your rest."
"God, sometimes I swear, you're like an overprotective mom."
"Shut up."
"Much better," Freed said with a smirk curling into him.