Disclaimer: I do not own Fairy Tail or any of its characters; they belong to the one and only Hiro Mashima.
I do own the idea for the fic though.
AN: Heheh~ sorry for the delay but I had many things to do in real life. Yep, it sucks, but it has to be done. That'll probably be the why of the future delays too, I mean, I'll be busier in the future, and it's all because of this obligation. So yeah, sorry about that, need to move on with my life, right?
Onto the story…
Stargazer.
Crocus...
Residential area...
It was that same night, when the group finally got together again and recovered slightly from the injuries they received, that four members of the originally conformed team of five debated on the day's events and what should be their next actions. It was clear to them now; they needed to know more and to achieve that they needed their guest to come clean about his past.
For that, though, they had to wait for him and the other injured teammate to wake up.
And that didn't seem to be anytime soon.
"Whatever kind of magic she used on them, it drained them of almost all of their magic supply." Meredy explained once she was out of the room their friends were using, a troubled expression on her face at what she had to share with the others. "They are good now and they're recovering… but it'll take them some time until they can fight again."
"Shit! I didn't expect that girl to be this strong." Gray grumbled under his breath, frowning at the door with his arms crossed. They were standing in the main lobby of the client's house. After everything was over, the Dragon Slayer remembered he smelled the same scent of the girl there and urged the group to follow him so as to get answers about this. "Who the hell was she by the way?"
"I dunno… that other guy left before we got here so we couldn't ask him about it!" Natsu answered in the same manner, clenching his teeth and fists in frustration while Happy rested over his head. Unfortunately, the man that hired them left the area before they arrived. Leaving neither trace of his whereabouts nor his presence in the building, or the scents that got them there in the first place. It was spotless and that was irritating to them. "Ah! Damn it! This is confusing as hell!"
"Calm down, we won't get any answers by yelling at the walls." Lucy pleaded to her two companions, worried as them about the whole deal. If what she heard during the confrontation was true, that little girl knew about their new friend's story and the other two involved. That made it clear she was from the same future as the blue-haired teenager. "Let's wait for Erza and Jonah to wake up…"
"Who is this Jonah you're talking about?" Jellal asked once he was done doing his own remembrance of the day, connecting some dots with what had been happening the last few days. He was rather intrigued with this new member of Fairy Tail that was almost a clone of his person.
His question made the three wizards flinch and freeze, all of them knowing well they couldn't reveal anything about it.
Their troubled expressions and doubtful gazes didn't go unnoticed by the wizards of Crime Sorciere.
"Is there something we need to know?" The pink-haired girl questioned carefully, sensing without any aid of her magic that whatever the three wizards were hiding was of a sensitive kind of knowledge.
"N-no, nothing important." The Ice wizard replied quickly, averting his gaze in the opposite direction. Their Master made it clear to keep that information to themselves until the young man revealed it on his own. How could they do to avoid this situation? "He's a new member… joined about three days ago…"
"A-aye! W-we're just worried about how his first mission went! That's all!" Natsu added quickly.
"Three days, you say?" The blue-haired asked suspiciously, his eyes narrowing slightly at the obvious attempts to keep the information from leaking. Though, the small piece of information was interesting. The young man joined three days ago, exactly the same day as when the killings started. 'Three days… coincidence?'
"Y-yeah! Jonah joined that day and since he needed to get the hand on jobs, Natsu and Happy came here with him." Lucy explained in a heartbeat, her nervous words only increasing the suspicions of their listeners.
Meredy looked at her partner with a knowing glance, seeing the man keeping his gaze locked on the wizards of Fairy Tail with an unspoken urge to press for more answers but recognizing they wouldn't get any at the moment. Both sighed and nodded in understanding, walking away to the room they found for themselves in the abandoned building after some silent good nights to the others, leaving them to talk, in hushed voices, about what they should do now.
"Man, I can't keep it from them…" Natsu voiced out first, frowning even more at the prospect of lying to people he considered friends, especially about something important.
"Same, but we cannot let them know now… not when Master told us to not say anything to the people outside the guild and those two." Gray groaned and ran his hands down his face, seriously unnerved with all of this.
"Cannot we tell Meredy at least?" Lucy asked in wonder; she knew they couldn't reveal Jellal or Erza about the youngster's story, but they could at least tell the other member of Crime Sorciere, right? So as to have someone else with whom they could work this out. "If what we saw about Jonah is right, he probably knew Meredy at some point…"
"Who knows? He didn't seem to recognize us or have too much of an impact at seeing us. Who knows if the same will happen with Meredy?" The Ice wizard shrugged and got into thinking, picturing the photograph they found when looking through the youngster's belongings, something about it now making him really curious to know more himself. "Plus… the building behind them… it was the guild alright but it was…"
"Yeah, it was a messy… more than usual." The Dragon Slayer remembered that too. That photo in the guy's bag showed him and his family but the guild behind them, the one they left earlier that day, was in shambles. Not like that time when they fought against Phantom Lord, but it seriously was close to that. "I wonder what happened."
"We should wait for him to wake up and ask him." The blonde concluded tiredly, curious as her friends about this matter but fully knowing they didn't have much more of a choice in this. "Once he wakes up, we should ask him more about it and see if he's willing to tell them about himself."
"I bet he'll try to play dumb or say no right from the start." Gray shook his head and sighed, leading the way to their own room a few meters away, preferring to forget about the issue for tonight and instead get some rest. That fight earlier was hellishly difficult, despite how short it was. The attacks were relentless and their power beyond something they could've experienced before, sans, of course, their fight against Grimoire Heart's Master Hades. "I say we beat the crap out of him and get the answers we want."
"I… I don't know…" Lucy whispered a bit uncertain. Sure, she was looking for answers, but she wasn't about to beat people up just to get them.
"Ah, Lucy's right. Jonah's hiding something and we really need some clues now, but…" Natsu interjected in between, throwing his own thoughts into the matter. "Jonah doesn't seem like a bad guy… I'm sure he'll tell us if we give him time."
Gray looked at the two indecisive mages with him and scowled; if it were up to him, he wouldn't give a damn about the guy and just get the answers without a second's hesitation, but he needed to consider his friends' feelings in the matter.
It was really troublesome, so he had to sigh at it. "You two… are you sure?"
Lucy, Natsu and Happy looked down at the question.
"But if Jonah is here to do something good, shouldn't we trust him?" Happy voiced out a little worried, not liking the gloomy atmosphere settling over them. "I don't think Jonah's here to harm someone…"
"Aye… he doesn't seem like the kind to do that…" Gray muttered under his breath, taking the fact into consideration.
"And he said he was here to protect someone…" Lucy added.
"And we know it is Erza that he's protecting, so that means he's a good guy, right?" Natsu finished quickly, not wanting to discuss the matter any longer. He knew there were some loose ends in this whole situation, but if it was all turning to the point of distrusting their friends, those fighting alongside them, he didn't like it. He saw the blue-haired youngster suffering just as much as them, so he didn't want to even think about the guy being a trickster. "Let's go to bed and think more tomorrow! I'm dying to sleep a little!"
"Aye, sir!" Happy followed without a second thought, feeling the same as his foster father.
Still, Lucy and Gray took a minute to think of the matter some more, understanding their friend's point but also harboring some doubts of their own. Yet, they trailed behind the pink-haired boy and his blue cat, agreeing in that, maybe, tiredness was making the talk for them.
And so, they left the hall alone for two Crime Sorciere wizards to speak freely.
"Here to protect Erza?" Jellal questioned lowly once the wizards from Fairy Tail were gone, showing themselves to be hidden under a tight and really complicated illusion that hid their presence and allowed them to hear the others' conversation.
"They said that, aye." Meredy answered thoughtfully.
"And they also mentioned you…" The blue-haired man reminded without a second thought, calling the attention of his only guild member. He narrowed his eyes and looked straight towards the room in which his beloved and the mysterious man were sleeping, thinking of a plan of sorts. "If what I heard is right… you should go and have a talk with that Jonah, Meredy."
"B-but… but wouldn't that be…" She tried to give a reason to not do such thing, after hearing the others' thoughts, feeling how all of them were against the idea of her meeting the young man.
"I said you should, Meredy, I'm not forcing you." Jellal wanted to see what it could happen, having heard the same things and felt the same. But he was curious. Unlike the Fairy Tail wizards, he wanted to protect the world in which they in from any harm that may appear, not just the harm that appears at one's doorstep. "Sleep a little and try to be the first person this Jonah sees when waking up… we need answers to these mindless killings and know more of our new enemy's plan."
Meredy looked ready to object at the order but a reminder of their purpose made her nod in approval to her Guild Master's plan.
"Aye, I'll do my best."
To be continued~
A/N: After having a talk with a fellow writer that is conflicted as me... I figured... I'd rather continue all of my fics until I give up... instead of letting them rot waiting for their turn... so here you have your continuation. That means updates, yes, but also means updates when I can and in the length I am able to give. Sorry about the latter.
Cheers.