Chapter 27
"For the most part we've cured mostly all of the guild. All's that's left are those after us and their Gray." Laxus said once they finally touched down onto the island, dumping Gray unceremoniously to the ground.
"That's true, but it seems that I must make preparations immediately. I'll be heading towards the Moon Temple's underground cave, hopefully Juvia and her group are finished for the ritual." Freed said as he gave a slight bow to Laxus before he went off into the jungle like forest.
"Laxus can you please tell me why we're here and why you brought Gray along with us?" Evergreen asked as she was completely out of the loop since she was confronted back at the guild before rushing her way towards the muscular blonde.
"I'll let someone else explain the situation, for now take the ice pants towards the only village on this island and spend the day there." Laxus said as he helped Evergreen in supporting Gray from up off the ground. "I told the others they had two days, but I'm sure they'll probably arrive here by nightfall tomorrow."
"What will you be doing then?" The bispeceled woman asked as the lightning mage merely turned his head towards the peak of a mountain.
"I'm going to have a chat with a few of our guildmates that are already here." He replied as he heard the groggy noises of Gray waking up and directed her towards the village before he too disappeared into the forest.
"Where's Bickslow when you him to do the heavy lifting?" Ever murmured to herself as the now half-conscious ice mage was able to move his feet, so she didn't have to drag him although the green haired woman wouldn't complain so much since he wasn't a towering lump of muscle like Elfman.
The self proclaimed Fairy Queen made her way through the forest with as much ease as walking through a sand pit that was shin high. It was the only thing she could complain about since the trees provided enough shade and the heat wasn't affecting her since the guildmate she was supporting was as cold as a freezer. Not to mention that he did smell rather nice given the continuous walking around in the guild he was doing earlier, but soon came the odd feeling and realization that she wasn't reacting to him at all. Ever had remembered how giddy she became just getting near him or just getting the fewest words they spoke to each other out, but now there was no increase towards her heartbeat and no overreaction to how close they were.
His arm was draped over her shoulder as her's was spread around his back in a side hug, but she just didn't feel so embarassed yet it felt more like helping a friend. It bothered her how easily she was willing to steal a kiss from his sleeping form and yet now that his face was mere inches away from hers, she just didn't want him to knock her head with his. It was odd for she was actually love struck a week ago with the ice mage and then at this moment she couldn't feel any romantic feelings towards the dark haired young man. Evergreen was soon brought out of her musings when the aforementioned mage began to stir awake and completely open his eyes back into the conscious state of the world.
"Evergreen? Where's everyone else? Where are we?" Gray asked slowly as his body still felt heavy and he could still feel the occasional tingle from the jolts of electricity that ran through his body.
"Easy there Gray, Laxus knocked you out for a bit and brought us here to Galuna Island." She replied, suddenly surprised when the other mage's face morphed into one of complete surprise.
"Galuna Island?!" The ice mage never expected to hear that name of all places that Laxus could've taken them, but when he remembered the last few words the mage spoke he came to the conclusion that this was Plan B. "I should've known."
"Should've known what Gray?" Ever was simply confused as to why this island had any significance to Laxus or even him, but she assumed that the ice mage could even tell her what was going on.
"Ever, the entire guild was exposed by a potion that had constructed feelings for me within those who had taken it. It took a while for us to discover this, but when we did we set out to right this wrong however the original plan to give them the antidote didn't go so well since there was still a few people who hadn't taken it." Gray paused to see if the green haired woman was following what he was saying and was directed to continue by the way she swayed her hand forward.
"I was never told what Plan B was until you told me where we were and I could fully assume that they are planning to use Moon Drip." Gray concluded, but he could tell that Ever had never heard of it before and decided to explain. "It's a powerful spell that harnesses the energy of the moon to break any spell created. I'm unsure what it'll do to a mage, but if the others are careful than enough exposure will break the spell their under without causing them harm."
"That's a lot to take in, but how do you know so much about this spell?" It was actually a wonder that Gray knew such a powerful spell, since the only people she knew who can produce them are the dragon slayers, the Master, the S-class mages and even Cana.
"It's a long story, anyways where are we going now that I think about it?" The ice mage had been too busy thinking about the current events that he had no idea where Evergreen was taking him.
"Laxus said there's a village in this direction and sent both you and me there for the day." At that, Gray knew what she was talking about and decided to lead the way although he was going to a have a nice long chat with Loke about all this later.
Laxus would be lying if he said that he had little faith in the original plan since he was hoping that it would work no problem. This little fiasco could have ended right at the guild and now he was stuck on some random island to fix the loose ends that slipped through their hands, but at least it couldn't get any worse.
He was dead wrong.
Upon making it to the peak of the mountain that housed the Moon Temple, an argument was breaking out between Gajeel and that other ice mage from Lamia Scale, Leon or Lyon was his name (Laxus couldn't really be bothered with it). Apparently the ritual required for the Moon Drip needed to done in a certain way, which of course the dog looking man demonstrated but the long haired man found it completely ridiculous. It was only until Laxus had made his presence known that they stopped arguing and gave him the whole story, to which it resulted in his current position of thinking things over to resolve the problem.
"Just do the damn ritual, you're acting like a whiny bitch." The lightning mage reprimanded the other dragon slayer which earned him a look of disdain and the blonde man really didn't care for it, he's gotten looks like that plenty of times over to have any effect on him.
"I'd like to see you try this stupid bowing! No way in hell will I look like some groveling peasant!" Gajeel retorted while Juvia, who was sitting at the sidelines, had decided to intervene and calm down her best friend.
"Loke didn't tell you?" Lyon spoke up this time as the other three people looked his way. "In order for the ritual's energy gathering to exceed a nominal rate for the spell to be broken faster, there needs to be a number of people to hasten the gathering. He mentioned that alongside my dear Juvia and her close brute friend, that you and your Thunder Tribe would assist in this endeavor."
"I wonder how much lightning that little shit can take before I worry his blonde master?" Laxus said in a menacing tone as this was the second time he was forced into doing something without proper knowledge beforehand.
"Hey Laxus I guess we moved onto Plan B if you're here." Came the joking tone of Bickslow as he made his way over towards the group. "What's up?"
"Where the hell have you been because the last time I saw you was when you were telling Mira about the punch." Laxus asked the armored man since his help serving the antidote would've been useful.
"After I told Mira I made my way to Galuna, Loke gave me the option of helping with the serving or coming here to learn the ritual for Plan B. I'm sure you can guess which one I picked." Bickslow replied in a prideful way for some od reason and all the muscular blonde could do was face palm at him.
"I'm surrounded by idiots." He thought bothered, turning to face Lyon once again as the silver haired man merely looked at him disinterestedly. "Screw this to hell, but it looks like we don't have a choice. I'll do the stupid ritual, so the rest of you better do a great job because I won't be doing this a second time."
"Very well then, follow me and Toby will help teach you the necessary steps for it to work. I'm sure you can help out the last member of your Thunder Tribe when the time arrives, correct?" Lyon asked although he was fully aware that Laxus would agree in any regard so when he was answered with a grunt the ice mage took it as a 'yes'.
For the next few hours or so, Laxus was learning to correctly focus his magical power around him to fully control the flow of the moon's light energy. Of course the moon wasn't out to actually practice this with, but he was getting the gist of it on his own, but he had to...persuade Gajeel to continue with his lesson so there wouldn't be any mistakes when the time came. After a few bandages and healing salve, Gajeel was also on his knees learning to control both his magic and the ethernano around him in the similar way Laxus was trying to do although he couldn't understand why the Rain Woman was capable of achieving this so easily.
Toby had taught them the best way he could with Lyon supervising and had managed to do so without screaming at anybody since he received pretty harsh death glares from both slayers when he raised his voice at them. As for Lyon, he took time to recollect on his past and lost himself to his own thoughts remembering the deeds he had done on the island all for the sake of accomplishing a fool-hearted dream. It had been seven years since he stepped foot on the island as he never wanted to give it a second thought, but he knew there was one who frequented coming here every year. His junior never changed from the trouble seeking ways he had when they were students and like those times before, he had to bail him out of it.
Juvia watched from her place as Lyon looked to be deep in thought and wondered what he was thinking about. She had been on the island for a day already, yesterday being her first as Loke had informed her that she and Gajeel were to make their way there as a safety precaution in case his plan didn't work. The water mage had hoped that his plan would work for it seemed fitting that the mess she had created was about to be corrected the same way it had occurred, but when Laxus had arrived at the top of the temple she knew that her hopes were lost.
FLASHBACK
Juvia had been trying her hardest with learning to manipulate the ethernano around her to a single directed point in order for it to work like a pipe leading downwards into the temple's lower levels. She had already managed to get a tighter grip on her own magic beforehand. It was a bit tedious if she was being honest, but if it was for the sake of her Gray-sama then she would do her best to make sure nothing went wrong on her end. Her ever rough looking best friend was more than a little pissed off at the requirements to actually do the ritual in the correct way, but she wasn't about to let him or his arguing disturb her now.
Loke had made it clear that with the usage of potions to gain Gray's favor was pushing too many boundaries, especially with her recent slip up and explained that she needed to make amends for it. Juvia was simply glad that Gajeel had agreed to take part of the fall with her instead of leaving her to her fate, plus he assumed that he should do this as a favor for freeing him from the spell's influence first. As those memories played out, it helped boost her focus for her true goal and was simply hoping that her long haired friend would give in already and do his part. Then again, he saw it as a waste of time since the original plan was going to work flawlessly so there was no real point for him to learn such a thing.
"Gajeel-kun, Juvia asks that you listen to what Toby-san is doing. It is required so that we can free everyone from Juvia's blunder." Juvia had asked in a kind tone, one of which she was positive would work on the dragon slayer, but he merely clicked his tongue in response.
"I believed that what we needed to do would be really simple matter, but I didn't sign up to act like a pansy just to shine a light fifteen stories beneath us into a cave!" He retorted although he was facing the calm face of Lyon as he responded while Toby nervously shyed away.
"Just follow Toby's instruction and everything will go smoothly, plus you had promised my lovely Juvia that you'd support her as her close friend did you not?" Lyon countered and Gajeel tried his hardest to suppress the blush forming on his cheeks after his remark. He wasn't one to announce how close his friendships were to other people.
While those two kept going back and forth, Juvia had successfully managed to control the ethernano around her but she still needed to practice as it was still unknown how she'd fare against the moon's energy. As she took a small break, Juvia couldn't understand why Gajeel was being embarrassed about doing this; it wasn't as if someone aside from the Thunder Tribe will see and even Laxus was going to do it as well. At that moment the water mage could feel the expulsion of strong magical energy nearby and turned her head to see the blonde haired mage she was recently thinking about making his way over.
She knew it was for the greater good that she learn Moon Drip, but she never expected to have to actually go through with it. Just with the large man's presence alone, she understood that Loke's plan had failed and now they had to go along with the Moon Drip. From the corner of her eye, the blue haired woman noticed the slightest flinch from Lyon as he looked to be unhappy with using the spell as she was. The only thing that Juvia knew about Galuna Island, Moon Drip and the area they were on in general was that they all were connected with Lyon and her Gray-sama, but she could only assume that there were a few bad memories here.
From that point on to when Laxus had arrived and the other two explaining the situation to him, Juvia had decided to get back at practicing and over heard how angry the blonde dragon slayer was now that he learned he was a part of this little operation. Juvia could only sigh as a one sided fight broke out and had to heal a wounded Gajeel, to which he had finally decided to follow Toby's instructions albeit in an angry mood.
FLASHBACK END
Once again Juvia sighed, wishing that she would get to see her Gray-sama soon since Plan B had meant that Gray was to be taken to the island as well. For now she worked with her group well into the night, the lunar light soon illuminating the surrounding area and this served as a perfect chance to find out how well they could do with Moon Drip. It wasn't hard to tell that Gajeel wasn't wishing to cooperate, but he he still took his place in the circle and began his control of the ethernano in front of him.
It wasn't long before they felt a powerful surge of energy pass through them, which even caused Laxus to slightly stumble as the effects felt somewhat draining while holding the spell. Soon enough a purplish beam of light came raining down in the circle they created with magic seals guiding the light straight into the temple and they watched with wrapped attention as a powerful pulse of magical energy would rhythmically come down the beam of light. It was astounding to the Fairy Tailers of how much power the moon possessed and had to admit it that it felt slightly overwhelming at first, but it actually surprised them to know that Toby was the one to single handedly produce the spell. Even if it was at a lower dosage of power that was being gathered.
As the Fairy Tailers were busy holding the spell, Lyon watched not too far away and timed them on how they were doing. He was impressed that they could hold the spell for about ten minutes before the signs of stress began to show and found it acceptable for their first time in handling such a powerful spell. Once they reached the fifteen minute mark, the ice mage had instructed them to release the spell and that they had done a fine job at accomplishing a feat that took his acolytes, several years ago, nearly half a month to hold for the time they did. The silver haired man went on to explain that the most they were going to need to make sure the potion was nullified would be about seven minutes, give or take two minutes, but if need be then they had to continue it to about fifteen. It wouldn't be much of a problem although they would be rather exhausted if they passed eighteen minutes.
In the end the group had agreed that it was enough for tonight and that they should all head out to get some rest, much to the iron dragon slayer's happiness as he had become exhausted with how much concentration he had done previously. Juvia was about to head out as well, but was stopped by Laxus as he informed the others to head on ahead without them. The water mage was prepared for harsh words and to become reprimanded for her actions, but all she heard was the blonde giving out a grunt as he sat down on a nearby rock wall.
"I ain't about to say that what you did was harmful to the guild because I've already done some worse shit in the past. All I'm gonna ask is why you did it?" Laxus voiced out as he rubbed his shoulder, slightly stiff from all the bowing he had been doing.
"Juvia could not take anymore unanswered questions, so Juvia decided to take action. Juvia is aware that this was not the first time Laxus-san has caught her doing such a thing." The water mage had become aware that the dragon slayer's gaze fell upon her when she was about to enact one of her plans.
"True, I have kept my eye on you, but it's mostly to see that bumbling idiot Natsu mess you up. Still it doesn't permit you to go as far as use such a potion." Although Laxus felt like he was acting like his gramps with her, he couldn't deny the part of him that believed he was being hypocritical.
"Love does crazy things to a person, Juvia understands it and she believes that Laxus-san does as well." Juvia continued as the blonde raised in interested eyebrow her way. "She simply wishes that Gray-sama loves her they way she does to him."
"Hate to break it to ya, but I think the ice pants ain't exactly wishing to return your feelings." Laxus replied bluntly and he watched as she momentarily recoiled at his claim. "The moron doesn't do well with feelings and I think that you're wasting your time with him." In all honesty he didn't wish to break the blue haired woman's heart, but he couldn't take the fact that no one was being upfront about it with her anymore.
"Juvia believes that Gray-sama is still embarrassed to express himself to Juvia and will wait for him when he's ready." Juvia reaffirmed and Laxus was hating himself for what he was about to do next.
"Juvia, I'm telling you this as not only your guildmate, but as your comrade as well; Gray doesn't hold the same feelings towards you." He knew that the woman was stunned silent, but it was for the best so situations like these don't pop right back up in the future. "I've known him for years and there was only one girl he had ever truly cared about deeply, but she broke his fragile heart and he sealed himself off ever since." He watched as she leaned against a pillar for support before he continued.
"Not to be a giant asshole or anything, but I think it was time for you to know that he's way too different compared to you and you two don't really mix well with each other." He stood up and walked over to her, placing an awkward friendly hand onto her shoulder. "Go look for him and apologize for what's happened, from there you should learn where he really stands and see for yourself whether or not you're willing to keep up the chase." With that he removed his hand and made his way down from the roof, leaving behind a tear stricken Juvia once he could no longer see her face.
The water mage wandered aimlessly throughout the temple without proper cause of what she wanted to do at that point. She couldn't lie that there was this small feeling that she was about to be told about this by someone, most likely from a love rival, spewing nonsense to break her conviction, but is wasn't like that. It came directly from Laxus, someone who was just as serious as Gajeel was and it made the point of how her fears were truly coming to be and that's why she let her tears fall down towards the temple floor.
She wiped away her tears, reclining against a broken pillar and wondered what was she supposed to think now that her feelings were in turmoil. She wanted to lose herself in thought and drift to sleep without a second thought to cry about her wounded love, until she heard footsteps walking down the hall nearby. Something was calling out to her to follow and that was what she did, passing corridors, halls and chamber rooms with each step and down towards the next floor. It was only when she was making her way towards the last turn that she realized that she was entering the underground cave beneath the temple and right in front of her was Gray.
Juvia stiffened slightly at the sight of his back, questioning whether or not she make herself known although she didn't get much of a choice as he continued walking deeper into the cave. She followed him as far as he went until he stopped inside a large chamber, small pools of water in front of them with areas that seemed to be connected to the ocean outside. The water mage watched as Gray took a few more tentative steps before she decided to make herself known and watched as her ice mage turned to look at her with mild surprise. He regarded her in a friendly manner and Juvia decided to take this time to walk up next to him, her thoughts semi-occupied with what Laxus had told her some time ago.
"I would've thought you'd gone to sleep by now." Gray said aloud as he broke the silence between them, taking a seat on a nearby rock while Juvia simply stood beside him.
"Juvia wished to talk a small stroll before she turned in for the night." She answered him evenly, although a part of her knew that her voice may break if she wasn't careful. "Juvia believed that Gray-sama would want to get some rest after all that has happened."
"Yeah well I got a little preoccupied with my thoughts to get any real sleep," He answered her, taking a glance up at her before turning his gaze back towards the pools. "You alright? Your eyes are red, like you've been crying recently."
"It's nothing really, just dust from the temple walls is all." She lied and Gray merely gave a small noise of confirmation while she stood there with the feelings of anxiety building up.
"This place is pretty old, you better go get some sleep since it'll be a big day tomorrow. I don't want to keep up more than you have to." Gray spoke in a distant manner as his eyes gazed over each separate pool towards those that lead out into the ocean.
Juvia bowed her head as she turned to leave, but stopped mid step and found the courage to finally confront everything with the ice mage. "Pardon me Gray-sama, but Juvia wishes...no, I wish to apologize for what I've done to you." At this Gray turned to face her with a questioning gaze and awaited for her to continue.
"It was my fault all this has happened, I only wished for you to finally acknowledge my feelings for you." Juvia spoke up without referring to herself in the third person and Gray knew that she was being serious if she was doing so. "I never meant for any of this to happen, I only wanted for you to be with me."
"Sometimes things don't work out like you plan them to, huh?" Gray answered her as he turned away and a flicker of worriment passed over the water mage believing that he may have been alluding to the girl who had broken his heart.
"Please Gray, it was a major mistake on my behalf and I didn't think it through. Please just look my way." It was one thing that he barely answered her, but it was nearly painful when he wouldn't even look at her.
"Because of your mistake, I've come to realize the things I was blind to." He began, standing up from his seat on the rock. "Because of you, the things I started to believe in were all lies fabricated by someone else." He looked up to the ceiling of the cave while his voice continued to grow louder. "Because of you I dared to embrace feelings lost to me!" Gray turned to face her this time and Juvia was met with his stern face, but she could see how broken he was on the inside through his eyes.
"Because of you...!" He raised his voice one more time, but let it die in his throat before he whispered out: "I thought I could find love again."
Juvia never really heard that last part, but she couldn't let it bother her anyway as this was the moment of truth. Things needed to be settled once and for all, so there was no turning back now since this will decide her course of action according to what Laxus said.
"Do you...Do you like me Gray-sama? The same way I do to you?" Juvia slowly asked as her heart began to beat faster and Gray diverted his gaze so that even though he was facing her, his hair shadowed his eyes.
Several long moments of silence passed between them and it was driving Juvia insane on what his answer would be. She hoped with all her heart that Laxus was wrong, that maybe her Gray-sama was being shy and what has happened had put their relationship on the rocks and it was up to her to fix it. That no matter what, their love would prevail and it was nothing they couldn't handle together and manage with time.
Her heart shattered when he finally answered her.
"No..."
