Happy, Gajeel and Gray had gotten caught up in a lot of battles. They had finally gotten past a lot of those guards. Gray wondered, "How many more of these guys do we have to fight?" Gajeel taunted, "Gihi. Are you saying you're tired? Do you need me to read ya a bed time story?" Gray scowled, "Shut up, Gajeel! We seriously need to find everyone. I feel like we haven't found a single person we know." They ran down the corridor until Gajeel stopped. Gray turned around. He asked, "What?"
Gajeel could hear the pained voices of men going through the lacrima transformation. He looked at Gray earnestly, "Come here. We have a side project to do." He led Gray and Happy into a room. They saw 7 men in misery. One man had blood all over his torn clothes. It was hard to tell if it was even his blood or someone else's. Happy saw the misery around him and asked Gajeel, "What are we doing? Are we going to find them medicine?" Gajeel looked determined and asserted, "We're goin' ta get these guys away from this cult's sick ritual."
Luckily, the cages the men were currently in had no magic deflecting barrier. All Gray had to do was freeze the locks or Gajeel would just eat the iron on the bars. Happy, Gajeel, and Gray were getting frustrated, though. The men refused to leave the cage.
Happy went to one of the men, saying, "You're free! You need to run away from here. The people here have a sick ritual where you'll die." One man got up and said, "That's the idea. We're here to prevent any more dragons from coming back. We are Draco's Sons. We will appease him by becoming dragon slayers, then drinking 2 potions. The person who comes back hasn't had his soul fly up to the heavens yet." Gajeel growled out, "Do ya know what happens after you take those potions?" The man looked offended. He stated, "Of course I do. We take the first potion to become more like a dragon. Then we take the second to prepare our souls for Draco's choosing. We may act wild, but it's only temporary. Then Draco picks which soul goes beyond comprehension. The other one comes back to wait his turn."
Gajeel was not surprised. He had gotten the impression the last batch of guys undergoing that process were just as naive as this man was. Gajeel got down on his haunches. "That's a nice story. But do ya know what they do once you act wild? What do ya hear with those new ears of yours?" The man nervously said, "When Kai and Daika left, the crowd kept chanting Alpha." Gajeel looked him square in the eye. "Do ya know what alpha means?" The man looked down, admitting, "Yes. Kind of like a wolf. The alpha male." Gajeel asked, "How does that fit into your cute lil' story?" The man looked at Gajeel with unease. He confessed, "I guess I don't understand that part." Gray stepped in, pointing to the unconscious bloody man. He demanded, "And your friend here, covered in blood?" The man became uncomfortable. The man shuffled in the cage, proclaiming, "We at first hoped it was a lot of body paint for the ceremony." Gray sternly said, "I haven't seen paint that clots." Gajeel snorted. He said, "You know what that scent is. I'm sure the scent is so strong now, you can almost taste it."
Gajeel said, "You guys have no idea what you've signed up for. I was caught a few years ago by these same people. They caged me in front of this arena. I could hear another group o' guys wailin' and moanin', as they turned in ta dragon slayers. I saw that same innocence in their eyes, as I see in yours. What they didn't know was those potions made them like feral beasts. They would separate two of them, let them fight to the death, then bring the winner back to rest. Then they would do the same to the others, until there's an alpha and two betas. They would bring out a poor virgin girl they kidnapped. She looked drugged or somethin'. Those three guys raped and killed her. They even played with her corpse afterwards. Do you want to do somethin' like that?"
The man said, "But Quincy said we were the chosen Draco's Sons. He never mentioned fighting or a virgin." The men in the cages were looking uncertain. Another man asked, "How can we believe you? How did you escape?" Gajeel looked at the second man and said, "As a dragon slayer, I promise this is true. As for how I got out..." He chomped down on the iron bars of the first man's cell. The first man looked heartbroken. He asked, "How could they lie to us?"
Gajeel, Gray, and Happy pitied these caged men. Gray answered, "I feel like nobody would easily agree to this ritual. I mean, it sounds like you're hearing it for the first time, am I right?" The men all nodded. Gajeel said, "I am pretty sure you're already in agony. You're tryin' to change to a dragonslayer too fast. Yer tyin' to transform in 3 days, right? It normally takes a month just to let the lacrima kick in. Plus, yer not gettin' any training." Gray added, "So you're trying to become second generation dragon slayers in only 3 days? Laxus had to train constantly for 3 years just to control his powers at a basic level." Gajeel lamented, "I said I escaped before. I didn't save anyone. I only managed to get out, when they were about to sacrifice me. If I don't at least educate you about what you're doin', I'll feel the worst. I want to help you guys escape. Please. Don't make me watch another group o' men beat each other to death. Those assholes want to make you monsters for their entertainment. You deserve better."
Gray interjected, "And these people have our friends. Gajeel watched that batch of lacrima dragon slayers rip each other apart. I'm worried they'll try to do the same to our friends." Happy flew over to Gray, and commented, "I still don't understand why they want Lucy." Gajeel harshly said, "Bunny Girl is a virgin. That's enough to be concerned they're trying to make her the virgin sacrifice." The men sat in their cages, unsure what to do.
Another man said, "But...we have done this for the past 10 years to prevent dragons from coming back." Gajeel snorted. "Gihi. A few years back, we had the Grand Magic Games and beat Sabretooth. That year, a special gate was opened, and dragons walked through it. They destroyed that town. All of us worked together to stop them, but it took Natsu breaking the gate to prevent them from coming through. Not one of us dragon slayers accomplished the goal of killing a single dragon, even working together." Happy said, "Our friend Mest had to work so hard to make everyone forget the dragons return." The man sputtered, "But if that was the case, then..." "Your people have been doing this sick ritual for nothing? We agree. Please, don't let these bastards use you as cannon fodder. To be honest, Gajeel seemed to think the elites in your religion use your violent fights as entertainment, rather than actual ceremony," said Gray.
Gray also said, "If your religion has to kidnap and murder people, that's not a decent religion. It's a crime. You guys may be volunteers, but Lucy, Natsu, Sting, and Rogue very much aren't. Please. Leave these cages." Gajeel pleaded, "I can't see another group of men die because a manipulative cult took advantage of your people." One man said, "Can we talk this over privately? I feel we should at least wait until Kai wakes up." Gajeel said, "We're waitin' for 5 minutes."
Kai woke up a minute later with a panic attack. He may have been wild during that battle, but he remembered each minute of it. He cried, "I killed him. Those potions make us feral and dangerous, then they put us in a caged arena. Daika and I fought each other to death. I ripped his heart out...then I tried to eat it." He wept in his cage. Gajeel walked in Kai's cage and hugged him. Gray was surprised to see such a caring and intimate act from his fellow guild mate. Gajeel turned to the others. He pleaded, "Please, don't make yourselves go through that."
The other men discussed for a full minute. The first man said, "We'll leave with you. We just don't know what will happen now that we have powers. We have no training." Happy smiled, "I think we have a few guilds that would be excited to see 7 new dragon slayers." Gray said, "Let's go save our friends and our new friends." Happy smiled, saying, "Aye, sir!"