Gajeel navigated the cracked city streets with ease, yet he kept his pace slow for Levy and her much shorter legs. She scurried, leaping over stray boulders, deking around piles of garbage and the occasional homeless person. Her cheeks were red; there was sweat on her brow and between her breasts. It was hot, and her magic council's' coat, though shredded, wasn't helping matters much. She didn't remove it, perhaps remembering the last thing it had saved her from.
"Gajeel, what about Porlyusica?"
"We'll go for her after we check this out, Levy. We only have a small window here while the extraction's taking place," Gajeel replied. He sent a silent apology Wendy's way.
"Well, what if this isn't something we can—take care of on our own?" Levy huffed.
Gajeel slowed his steps a touch more, allowing the girl to properly catch up. "We've got this."
"We don't know what it is—or who, for that matter. It could be anything. Anyone."
"If you're scared—"
Levy waited for him to tell her to back off so she could yell at him for being both incautious and stupid. He left his sentence as it was, not so new to that trap.
"Come on, we're almost there." Gajeel set off again, fingering his Magic Council ring as he went, spinning it around and around, the only outlet he'd allow for his nervous energy.
Levy took in a deep breath and lengthened her steps. The closer they got to the drain site, the pricklier the air became. It wasn't something someone would notice unless they were looking for it because it wasn't a presence of magic, but rather the complete absence of. Or in this case, a siphoning off.
The building-choked street blocked Gajeel's view, but he knew exactly where they were: where the old library used to be, before it was utterly ruined in the Tartarus attack. "This is the place." Definitely. Wanting a chance to observe their quarry in the hopes of gaining some sort of advantage, he reached for the fire escape ladder stapled to the municipal building and started to climb hand over hand. He heard Levy clambering below, doing her best to keep up.
The rooftop was gravel. So high, the wind grabbed his coat and tugged. His hair tried to whip out of its low horsetail. For all the distraction, he didn't miss the woman standing below in the epicenter of a very large crater, much like the one they found on the outskirts of Raven's Canyon. Her long hair was as bright as blood, her cloak as black as a raven's wing.
Thinking he and Levy were okay up there, out of sight, he hunkered down, watching the woman use a long staff to extract from the earth all the residual magic she could, forcing it into a small red crystal that looked very much like a lacrima.
"Who is that?" Levy whispered.
As soon as the first word left her mouth, the woman down below lifted her gaze and found them. Her lips twitched into the meanest smile Gajeel had ever seen, and he'd seen plenty. She finished her extraction, the stone glowing brightly, then lifted her staff and snapped it against the ground with authority. The building beneath Gajeel's feet crumbled like it was made of talc. He didn't even have a chance to draw breath.
Natsu gritted his teeth and poured everything he had into his attack. Zeref still remained unmoving, head tipped back, eyes closed like he was praying. 'The gods have given me a miracle.' The memory made Natsu falter. No, no, keep going.
The rubble beneath his feet caught flame. The glass amongst the debris melted as he called on the new, suffocating power he'd discovered during his year of training. It was the dregs of what Igneel left behind, but it had to be enough to kill Zeref, and every memory the dark mage had given to him. 'I tried throwing myself off cliffs, drowning, slicing myself open to bleed out. I even took one of Father's revolvers and shot myself.'
Stop thinking about it. He's a liar.
Fire was everywhere, so hungry that there wasn't a scrap of oxygen to be found. Once Natsu breathed out, that was it.
"It's not enough." The sounds of the flames were deafeningly loud, yet the noise didn't cover up Zeref's voice. "Nothing you do to kill me will be enough, Natsu; you need END for that."
"Shut up!" Natsu growled. Black spots appeared at the edges of his vision. He wished he had have held his breath for longer. Come on, come on. He reached for more power.
Calmly, Zeref said, "I won't. If you won't remember on your own... you leave me no choice but to force you." Black tendrils leaked from Zeref's hand and entwined Natsu's wrist. Natsu's palm sang; his whole arm turned cold. The ruined guild dropped away as he was thrust into a memory.
'Cut the thread of dreaming.' He saw the fake Lucy in his mind again, standing on the edge of the pier, the wind grabbing her hair and whipping it around her neck like the most delicate golden fingers. 'Cut the thread.' She was falling. Falling. Down, down, down, into the ocean to drown, to get taken away and lost.
"Or..." Zeref whispered. "Of that won't work..."
Natsu saw the girl on the docks, eyes wide, clothes torn open, breasts out, chest wet with blood, panties torn to shreds.
No. No.
The memory took up a life of its own, showing him things he didn't see before, from a perspective that was unfamiliar: above looking down. Sound filled Natsu's ears. Crickets, waves. Smells filled his nose. Briny water, waste. A woman with pink hair and a sharp smile stepped out from the shadow of a crate and grabbed the blonde. There was a struggle, but really, to call it that would be a disservice. The blonde didn't have much of a chance. Her shirt ripped to shreds with little effort. Next was her skirt. And her legs, by hands that very quickly turned into sharp knives. When she screamed, Natsu screamed with her, unable to look, unable to look away. She was Lucy in every way, right down to her smell. Rationality fell away; it didn't matter that he knew Lucy was back at the motel. It didn't matter that he knew this memory, or vision, or whatever the hell it was, was Zeref's doing. He watched and screamed, seeing things he never, ever wanted to see, until he very acutely felt the crack of something fragile in his chest, something drawn tautly and pushed that extra little bit. The pain that came next was startling, the cold that rocketed through his body, expanding from his hand and up his arm, blinding. Paralyzing. Freezing.
The fire surrounding Natsu's body roared as if doused with oil. All nearby grass shriveled and died, the leaves on the trees turned to ash, the muddy puddles filling dingy potholes evaporated, leaving behind only charred stone.
As quickly as the fire flared, it sizzled out, stolen from Natsu's body by something he didn't understand. His knees buckled; the ground rushed up to meet him. Gravity tried to take him further. Natsu struggled to stay on his knees, hiccupping breath after breath, lungs resisting every inch of the way. Gods. Gods. He couldn't breathe.
The air cleared, smoke and ash taken by the wind. In the space where the fire had been, Zeref stood, looking singed but really no worse for wear. The only true sign that he'd been on the receiving end of an attack was the blooming bruise on his cheek and the soot smear on his forehead. His mouth curled up. "There he is." His look turned reverent. "It was just a glimpse, but I have a feeling that you're very, very close to breaking." He crouched so he was looking levelly in Natsu's eyes. "END will be with us soon, brother, and it'll all be over. Thank you. Thank you for your sacrifice."
Natsu didn't get to ask what Zeref meant by that, for blackness grabbed him firmly and dragged him under.
Lucy crossed her legs up on the bed and chewed on a lock of hair. It felt wrong to sit there while Natsu was out doing whatever it was that he was doing (I just need to clear my head) but here she was, waiting for the floating southern cross, Crux, to finally get to the point.
"As I said," he drawled, "There are many different kinds of magic that use teeth. I tried to sort them into relevant categories to narrow it down some."
Loke came away from his perch against the wall. "I found those teeth at sites where girls were brutally murdered." There were deep bruises beneath his eyes and his hair was messier than usual. He had the sleeves of his sweater rolled up and kept fussing with the hem, an agitated tick if Lucy had ever seen one. When he'd appeared an hour ago, she asked how long it had been since he'd returned to the celestial realm. He shrugged her off and avoided answering. She told him to go home. He flat out refused.
Crux said, "Some teeth are used to summon the beasts they came from, bringing them to life. Good mages can control them and command their loyalty. Usually this spell is used in combat."
Loke shook his head. "Not so relevant."
The cross wasn't deterred. "They can also be used to raise the dead in much the same way. A false necromancy, if you will. The spell doesn't last as long, but it is effective."
Loke picked at his sleeve more, the only show that he was uncomfortable with this conversation. He glanced at Lucy. "Those girls were dead beforehand. But... Can they be used to control people? Like, living?"
"There are no records of that," Crux said. "But many things are possible."
Lucy fleshed out Loke's line of thought. "I—I didn't see if Lance had any teeth missing." Not that she spent much time looking into his mouth. "Maybe I can ask Riley..."
Loke nodded. "What else?"
"They can be used in earth magic, creating golems, transformation magic... duplication."
"Transformation?" Loke prodded.
Crux replied, "It's all very dark stuff, and not exactly related. I only mentioned it because teeth have been used before in such ways, but it's not restricted…"
"Even if it's only a little bit related, it could be pertinent." Lucy made and effort to be more gentle than Loke.
The cross puffed out his cheeks. "Body parts—any, not just teeth—can be taken from one person, spelled and gifted to another. When the person accepts the gift, they take on the attributes of the one the... part came from."
Natsu haunted her. Every time I look at them, I see you. It was ridiculous, but Lucy ran her tongue over her teeth, making sure they were all still in place.
The cross looked especially uncomfortable. "There are easier and more civilized ways to complete a transformation, but none that would last as long. Or be as true. These can last days, and even into death."
Loke was eyeing Lucy, the cogs in his head turning. "Those girls all has a very similar look, didn't they, Happy?"
Happy sat up straighter on the couch. "I guess... they were all blonde with freckles. Busty, long hair..."
Loke was still studying his master. "Kinda like Lucy."
"Yeah," Happy said slowly. "Maybe."
Lucy crossed her arms over her chest, not liking where Loke was heading.
"And this all started when she got into town."
"So what?" Lucy asked. "It could be a coincidence."
"It could be," Loke said. "But I've never really believed in coincidences."
"I don't really either," Lucy conceded after a moment. "I just don't know why... I don't understand. What's the point? Why kill all those girls?"
Loke went back to his original assessment. "Maybe someone is trying to scare you off."
"From what, though?"
"Magnolia. Maybe they don't want Fairy Tail reunited." He was reaching, everyone recognized it.
A loud, hair-raising rumble rocked the foundation of Briar's Lock so badly that the brush in the bathroom fell to the floor in a clatter, as did the daisy painting over the bed. The glass cracked. Thoroughly distracted, Lucy froze, hair clamped between her teeth, and stared at the violent ball of fire that filled the sky. Even though it was the late afternoon, the sun still shining bright, the orange glow of flame dominated the landscape, casting everything in a golden light.
"What the hell was that?" Loke asked.
Happy stood, stretching to look out of the window. He came to the same conclusion Lucy did. "Natsu." It had to be.
He's in trouble. What if he wasn't? What if he was just mad? Maybe stay here and give him more space. Yet, Lucy was on her feet and clambering out of the door despite the uncertainty she felt, unable to give into that cowardice just because she wasn't sure if Natsu wanted to see her.
"Lucy!" Loke quickly fell behind. He hurried, Happy over his shoulder.
There was chatter to the streets, people talking—speculating. Lucy ignored most of what they said, except for the bits where they talked about fear of a monster. Magnolia had had enough of monsters. Everyone had.
Lucy was able to keep her eyes on the roaring fire for a kilometer, then it extinguished. That was fine, the dull smoke that drifted into the air wouldn't be smothered so easily, its black plume like a beacon for anyone looking.
"Lucy,' Loke panted behind her. "Just hang on a second. Wait for us.""
He really needed to return to the celestial realm if he was having trouble keeping up. Lucy shortened her steps just as she became aware of a suffocating presence. Her heart lodged in her throat, dancing in an uneven rhythm. What is it?
Who? She could see no one. The unease she felt was difficult to dismiss. "Hurry up, Loke."
He'd barely made it to her side when she took off again, knowing exactly where she was going as soon as her feet touched the bridge over the canal. Fairy Tail. Of course Natsu would go to Fairy Tail. It was the one place he'd find solace. Her steps became surer. Until there was no ground for them to be sure upon, the next step she took into thin air. Screaming helped nothing, yet she did it anyway. Her mouth was still open when she crashed into the water below, amongst all of the bridge debris. The macrophyte-filled liquid rushed up her nose and into her mouth, choking her. The breath burst from her lungs in a rough cough. With no more air to suck in, Lucy felt the first threads of panic.
It was dark down there at the bottom of the canal, closed off from the water's surface. Lucy had several unsavory thoughts soar through her mind as she sank, everything from are there monsters in the water? to I'm going to drown.
Damnit. Swim. Get out of the water.
She found the bottom in record time and kicked off, rising to the surface despite the cement-like mud filling her boots.
Breaking free, she sucked in a ragged breath and coughed hard. Her recovery was cut short, a hand fisting in her shirt, tearing her from the water and throwing her like she weighed nothing at all. The crash into the fractured bridge abutment rocked through every one of her bones, pushing them to the very brink of breaking. She didn't scream now, unable to. Blinking brought a woman into focus, one with long coral hair. Her eyes were dark pits, bottomless and merciless. Her hand transformed before Lucy's eyes, hardening and lengthening to resemble a sharp blade.
She came at Lucy faster than Lucy could follow. There was only time to throw herself wildly to the right. The woman's makeshift sword bit right through the concrete where Lucy's throat used to be. There was no time to celebrate her clumsy success, because the sword was coming for her again.
Bright light filled the air. Loke's magic, Lucy thought. The woman was knocked off balance, splatted to the wall like an overlarge spider, giving Lucy just enough time to get to her feet and call a star dress. A bow mimicking Sagittarius' appeared in her hand. She knocked several arrows and thrust into them enough magic to destroy a city street. She loosed just as fast, barely aiming, entrusting the spell to guide her arrows true. It happened just as it should, until the pointed tips bit into the woman's chest, the arrows sinking in halfway up the shaft. She stumbled back against the wall again, a startled look coming to her face, and then the arrows exploded. The result was immediate and shocking and messy, and not at all what Lucy had intended. Blood hit the abutment, and dotted Lucy's front. She finally found breath to scream, yet she held it in, trapping it way down in her chest, telling herself to be stronger than that, more stubborn than that.
The woman fell to the ground, limp. Then, before Lucy's very eyes, she turned to dust and was taken away by the wind.
"Lucy!" Happy scrambled before her. There was a lot of white showing in his eyes. "Are you okay?"
Okay? She was shaking, rattled right to her core. She kept looking at the place the woman had been. There was nothing there now, except for the red splatter on the wall. A figure blocked out her view. Loke grabbed her arms, anchoring her.
"Look at me."
Lucy lifted her eyes.
"Are you okay?"
"I—I killed her—"
"She was going to do the same, Lucy. You did what you had to. Are you okay?"
The breath she took felt hot filling her body. "Yes, but that woman—"
"Demon," Loke corrected.
Lucy swallowed. "I didn't want it to happen. The arrows shouldn't have made contact. They should have exploded before. But I—I panicked, Loke. I didn't mean—"
"You did what you had to. Remember, she was a demon trying to kill you." As if demons were less. Maybe they are, they're the ones that took Aquarius, Lucy thought.
But… "Loke, she was still alive—"
"Don't fall apart, Lucy." Loke said in a very no-nonsense tone. It was the same tone he used when he was through coddling her. That tone meant buck up. Get your act together. There is no time for uncertainty.
Lucy took in a jagged breath and squared her shoulders. "We have to find Natsu." There would be time to think about this later, when she wasn't worried that he was being attacked, too.
Loke nodded his approval, businesslike and certain. Lucy was envious of his composure. She could fall to the ground and cry until she couldn't anymore.
Happy's downy wings appeared. He gathered air beneath them and took to the sky, leading the way. Loke waited for Lucy to go next. Walking hurt, her bones protesting the abuse. It was easy to dismiss it, though, more determined than before to find Natsu.
Juvia stared numbly at the dingy, dust filled mirror, lost in sensation. Akio's fingers slid through her hair methodically. Sometimes they were sharp, sometimes they were soft, but the stroking was even. Thusly, it was obvious that something was wrong when Akio stopped, fingers tightening in Juvia's hair. Something popped, the sound wet. Immediately following, something dropped over Juvia's shoulder and landed in her lap. She followed its descent to where it came to rest between her thighs. It took some time for her to make sense of what she was seeing. A fingernail, gone purple and black, rotten. Her throat closed tight with revulsion.
"Damnit," Akio muttered.
Juvia attempted to wriggle away from her place between the woman's legs. Akio reaffirmed her hold on Juvia's hair.
"Stay where you are, slayer's slut." It was said gently, but Juvia didn't miss the warning in her voice. Her heart beat faster. Fear. Anger. The two emotions helped to pull some of the cobwebs from her mind. She writhed more even though the woman pulled her hair harder, until her butt was on the floor and not on the couch. The ground was cold and hard and dirty, sand and other things clinging to her palms and her thighs and even her rump because her robe pulled up and mostly open. The woman hissed and reached for her just as Juvia got to her knees and twisted around to see her. The face she vaguely remembered was mostly gone, the skin roughed by scales, her smile punctured by needle-like teeth. True fear punched through the water mage.
"Who—what—"
The apartment door opened, derailing Juvia before she could really get up any steam, and Eileen entered as if she belonged there. "I thought I'd find you here, Akio."
Akio looked away from Juvia, some of the harshness of her features softening. "Miss Eileen. What are you doing back?"
Juvia made to rise on shaking legs.
"Don't bother, Juvia. Relax." Eileen pointed at her. Juvia felt like she was paralyzed. Her legs gave out, spilling her to the ground again. Satisfied, Eileen returned her attention to the other woman. "Akio, it's rude to play with people, and even ruder to play with your food. I'm putting an end to this now."
"Miss Eileen—she's mine. You said I could have her—"
"I didn't, actually," Eileen said. "I believe I said nothing at all."
Akio looked on stubbornly. "You can't kill her, we were having fun—"
Kill? Juvia's heart felt like it was going to explode.
Eileen laughed. "I don't plan on killing sweet Juvia when there are things she can do for us still."
"You said that I could have her. How am I supposed to make Gray Fullbuster suffer if I can't ruin—"
"Shut up, Akio," Eileen said sharply. "If you go against Gray Fullbuster as he is now, he'll kill you, just like he'll kill END and ruin things for his Majesty. Unacceptable. Think above your own selfish wants for a moment and see the big picture."
Juvia struggled to make her mind follow. Everything felt so segmented, like someone was reaching right into her head and scrambling things around. She caught onto one thing, though. These people were interested in Gray. Gray, who she was angry with for his lies and his assumptions and his inability to trust her. Gray, who despite all of that, she loved furiously. "I would never hurt Gray-sama."
Eileen raised her brow. "Hurt?"
Calmness befell Juvia.
"I don't want you to hurt him, Juvia. I would never ask that. I just want you to give him something for me, okay?"
Juvia looked at her warily, calmed but not completely pacified. "What is it?"
"Just a talisman. Something to suppress his power."
Juvia shook her head. "Why—I wouldn't—"
"You will because you've come to realize the same thing I've known for a long, long time. That devil slayer's mark will destroy anyone that bears it; it will rot them from the inside out, starting first with their mind. It will use him until there is nothing left except rage, and then it will take even that, and Gray Fullbuster will be no more. I want to help you help him. Give him this talisman." She held out a small round stone, redder than the reddest apple.
"You lie." Juvia meant to make the proclamation with conviction, yet it only came out a weak whisper.
"Do I?" Eileen asked. "Is that a risk you're willing to take when someone offers to help you out of the goodness of their heart?"
"Why…?"
"Maybe I just like you, Juvia," Eileen said.
"I saw him today." Akio was suddenly feeling amicable. "His skin was stained with his father's magic. It's already begun to use him up. I know it."
Juvia wished she could deny it, but she knew what she saw. Her mouth moved, asking the question her mind told her to ignore. "It will really help?"
"This is the only thing that will help. I promise." Eileen held out the stone for Juvia. The water mage sat up on her knees and reached without much meaning to do that either. The stone fit into her palm. "Good girl," Eileen praised. "You can tell him that it's a cure you stumbled upon. With the help of a very skilled mage, of course. He'll thank you." She smiled, obviously pleased with herself. "Make sure he keeps it on him at all times, alright, Juvia?"
Juvia licked her lips, her stomach doing weird things. Flopping with nervousness at the prospect of seeing Gray again. Flopping because the magic she held in her hand was overbearingly pungent. As soon as she thought that, the feeling slipped away and she could breathe.
"Good. Good girl, Juvia." Eileen petted her head much like she was a dog. Looking to the ground, her eyes fell on Akio's discarded nail. "What happened?"
Akio rubbed the place where her nail used to be. "Another one of my doppelgangers were killed it would seem."
"I told you to handle the celestial mage personally," Eileen hissed. "Don't send one of your clones to do the work."
Akio whispered lowly, "Master END will kill me."
"END?" Juvia asked.
"Never mind, Juvia." Eileen said to Akio, "If he catches you he will definitely, but that doesn't mean you don't have to do the work, Akio. We're all taking risks."
The woman nodded, resigned. "Yes, Miss Eileen."
Eileen started to turn away. "Wait," Akio called her back.
She turned, thin brow raised. "Yes?"
Akio looked to Juvia. "M—may I still keep her, if I promise not to hurt her badly?"
"You're all parasites," Eileen said. "Each one of you his Majesty created more twisted than the last."
Akio just stared, not defending herself.
Eileen sighed and said, "I don't want anything to do with your happenings, as long as that stone comes to be in the devil slayer's possession."
As soon as the door closed behind her, Akio turned to Juvia. "Shall we dress you then, Juvia, so that we may deliver our prize and get back to the fun things at hand?"
Crammed into a dress that was tighter and whiter and smaller than anything she'd worn out in public before, Juvia came out of the Thorn and Thistle's small residence area and down the stairs. She hesitated on the final step, looking at the man standing beside the bar where he'd been for the majority of last night, when he wasn't at her table.
Riley Ackles lifted his gaze from a tall stack of reports and fixed his gaze on her. His eyes lingered everywhere, but mostly on her spilling breasts. "Hello, Juvia."
Looking at him, Juvia's lips burned, as did her body. It was easy to remember the moment he'd leaned in and kissed her, the moment she'd led him upstairs, gotten undressed, frantic and dumb.
"I guess you decided not to leave today after all."
Juvia remembered Akio coming into her room earlier that afternoon and methodically unpacking everything she'd packed. "I… no." Apparently.
"That's good to hear. I was thinking that I'd have to be sorry that I didn't get to see you afterward."
Juvia hadn't decided if she was or not. Sitting there last night, looking across the bar at Gray as he realized that she was at someone else's table, gave her a very mean sense of gratification. And a whole lot of shame as soon as she placed it. It was nice to be wanted, though, wasn't it? Even if it's a cheap thrill? Meaningless? It hurt her heart. If Gray can do it…
It was worse when he did it, though. He knew the person he was doing it with. Or at least, that's what she told herself. Whether or not she believed the lie was a different story.
Riley searched her eyes. "Are you uncomfortable with last night?"
So very much. Juvia tightened her hold on the gemstone she clutched. "It's fine."
"Are you sure? It was kind of forward, especially after you told me about…"
Juvia expected him to be a little shamefaced. He didn't blush at all. She did enough for the both of them. "It was… welcomed at the time."
"That's good to know." Riley rubbed his face tiredly.
The jewel Juvia held in her hand burned, telling her to get moving before she couldn't. It was rude to just duck out, but she was very, very close.
"I'm off tonight, too," Riley said. "Are you going to be around here again?"
Juvia hesitated, unsure of what to say. "I… don't know. Maybe."
Riley grinned toothily. "I'll get us a table."
Juvia smiled in a way that was dismissive. "I'll keep my eye out, if I decide to go." She made a break for it, needing to get to Gray before the stone burned a hole right through her palm.
