Disclaimer: I do not own Fairy Tail. Hiro Mashima does. This story was made for fun, and not for cash. (How unfortunate.)
Chapter 32: Thorn's Malice, Gray's Message
The next morning, Lucy had been standing in front of the golden request board at the Sabertooth guild while she was trying to pick a great job for her and Sting to do today. She had really enjoyed the romantic date that he had planned for her yesterday, and their battle on the beach was certainly a fun fight that they would both never forget. Lucy and Sting had even gotten to relax under the summer sun together, taking in the glorious sunlight, and the warm heat from it was feeling really wonderful to them.
The blonde mage smiled happily while she still could not forget the delicious taste of all the food that Sting had brought in the wooden picnic basket for their date, and Lucy hadn't even cared if she had gotten at least a little bit chubby after eating so much of that food. It all had tasted so heavenly, matching the quality of gourmet food that could be found in high-class restaurants, and Lucy had even blushed a light shade of pink after letting out a pretty loud belch to let Sting know that she really appreciated all of his hard work.
The loving flames of their relationship had definitely been rekindled after yesterday, making Lucy remember that love was the real key to her becoming stronger, and her chemistry with Sting had grown. She even kissed his lips softly while they were relaxing on the beach, and it felt so wonderful to hold his hands while giggling at the fact that he had gotten some chocolate from the cookies on his face. Lucy had licked it off of his left cheek, tasting the sweetness of the cookie, and Sting had kissed her left cheek as a response for doing something so kind.
Since Sting had done something so great for her yesterday, including the fact that he helped her unlock the four fusion spells of Lightning Magic, Lucy's happy smile turned into a softer one while she blushed a bit and knew that she really needed to repay her awesome boyfriend for going out of his way to give her that relaxing day of romance on the beach. After all, if she just kept on taking all of his gifts and treats that he gave to her without doing anything romantic in return, it wouldn't really put that feeling of caring into their lovely relationship.
As Lucy was thinking about what she had to do for Sting, the blonde girl's cocoa brown eyes widened in shock from remembering that she had to pick a job for them to go on today. Sting really would not care about what the job would be or where it would be, since he just wanted Lucy to help him give his wallet a pretty nice refill after he had spent so much cash on all of that food for their romantic day at the beach. This job was going to be a great way for Lucy to show Sting how much she cared for him, and she simply unpinned a forest green flyer from the request board because of its unusual color.
Before Lucy could even begin reading about the task that was written on the flyer, Sting had been peeking over her shoulder the entire time with confidence in his blue eyes before telling her in a kind tone to alert her to his presence, "Good morning, Lucy. I hope that you enjoyed our nice day at the beach yesterday, and something just tells me that you've picked out a pretty sweet job for us to do today. Knowing you, it's probably going to be totally awesome with a whole bunch of criminals to fight or treasures that need to be found."
She replied nicely while giggling a bit, before turning around to give Sting a warm hug for everything that he had done yesterday, "Hi, Sting. I haven't even read this flyer yet, so I don't know what the quest will want us to do. I guess that I forgot to sit with you and the others while I had my waffles for breakfast, so I did not see you. Anyway, let's just hope that this job will give us tons of money. It might be a little bit difficult for me, but I know that I'll feel so much better when you're by my side."
While Lucy began to read the info on the forest green flyer, Sting was smiling nicely at how his girlfriend always picked out a good selection of clothes to look great every day. She wore a light green T-shirt while matching it with a beautiful dark green miniskirt, and Lucy wore some emerald green flat shoes as well. She was certainly dressed in the color of green, but there were no signs that she had any feelings of envy. Lucy felt very energetic today, confident and ready to win like she always was, making Sting look pretty glad to have chosen her as his girlfriend.
He was definitely happy to have picked a great girl who was so nice and smart, but Sting narrowed his blue eyes for a few moments while taking notice of the yellow spell book that Lucy had held in her right hand. He had not wanted to ask her about it yesterday, since she was having so much fun at the beach and wanted to improve their relationship just as much as he did, and Sting did not want to make her feel uncomfortable by asking about Karen. However, he was definitely going to get some answers today.
After all, the white dragon slayer found it very strange that Karen would give a spell book to someone who could only open it if they had a heart that was warm and bright like the light from valuable gold. They also needed to have a soul that was pure like silver as well, which definitely made Sting start thinking. If a book like that was supposedly needed to be wielded by someone who was so pure and good, then why in the world did it have that eighth dark power inside of it? Why had that shadowy perfume been necessary to call forth that vicious energy that nearly killed Natsu and Erza on the fourth day of the Grand Magic Games?
Judging by how that liquid had presumably been made from shadows themselves, Sting could only guess that it was no ordinary substance that Lucy had pulled out when she had just wanted to take a slight break from fighting. However, Natsu had to be a real jerk and knock the book out of her hands. The perfume was knocked out of her hands as well, and the liquid had only poured into the eighth section of the spell book. By normal logic, the black liquid should have spread to the other pages as well. However, why did the shadowy substance get a section of its own and cause Lucy to be under Thorn's control when the black spells were used?
Sting knew all about Lucy being Thorn's descendant, and the white dragon slayer found it a little too strange that Karen had given the spell book to his blonde girlfriend like she knew that Lucy could probably break the seal. Also, the fact that Karen had showed up at the Grand Magic Games was also very odd. She and her crew had been playing dirty against Fairy Tail and the other teams, but they always left Team Sabertooth alone. It was almost like they were observing them instead of opposing them, or Karen had solely been keeping her eyes on Lucy to see her progress with the book.
As Sting was still in his thoughts, he was suddenly taken out of them when Lucy had grabbed his hand to run out of Sabertooth's entrance doors with him to do the job that would be her way of thanking him for that romantic date yesterday. He could tell that she was definitely looking forward to doing this great job, and she was planning to do her best today. Sting could tell that she was oblivious of how odd the book really was, however, and Sting was going to shed some bright light on these shadowy mysteries. As he was running towards the northern route with Lucy, Sting took notice of how her spell book changed from being yellow to green now.
In Hakutai Town...
Gray had been passing through Hakutai Town, a town that had been created by wielders of Plant Magic who moved to Fiore from the town of Tokiwa that was in the faraway land of Kanto, and there were many trees with beautiful green leaves on them. There were bushes with different kinds of berries on them, and there was even a grassy park with beautiful flowers planted in it. Butterflies fluttered through the air, gently landing on some flowers, and Gray also took notice of the fact that this place also had shops that made sweet-smelling perfumes out of leaves, berries, fruits, and flowers.
He had taken this long route to reach Castelia Town from Magnolia Town by train, and going by boat would just be a pretty obvious mode of transportation. Gray had left earlier this morning, as soon as Thorn had left with Natsu to go on a job somewhere, and he had waited until that moment to not arouse any form of suspicion from Thorn. Not only had Gray been stalking her all the way to the back streets of Magnolia with a trail of ice shards yesterday, but he had been eavesdropping on her conversation with Karen.
The black-haired male was utterly shocked to learn that Lucy was a descendant of Thorn, and the blonde mage was currently in possession of her ancestor's book. He had also heard about the plot to take down Fairy Tail, and Gray was really more concerned with the fact that Thorn was going to take over the body of Lucy when the spell book was completed. Based on the strange powers and high-level energies within the spell book, if Thorn did manage to take control of Lucy in some way, then the demonic woman would probably be nearly unstoppable.
With determination in his dark blue eyes, Gray ran through the town while he knew full well that he had to find Lucy and tell her this critical information. She probably had no idea that Thorn had now been existing behind a disguise as a teenage girl, and Lucy also would obviously not be informed that completing the spell book would be what Thorn wanted her to do. She was going to take over the body of the blonde mage, possibly turning Lucy evil in the process, but Gray was not going to let an evil woman control one of his closest friends in her plot to take over the world and start an era of darkness.
He knew that Hakutai was not that far from Castelia, only having to go through the Yaguruma Forest to reach a lookout station that led into that town, and Gray was also going to let Lucy know what Cana and Lisanna had told the Fairy Tail guild about Karen. She was not a mage from Team Sweet Melancholy at all, and those girls on her team were shadowy doppelgangers of the originals. Karen was also Thorn's ally, so Lucy and the guild of Sabertooth needed to know that. Since Erza was now the lone member of the original Team Natsu, Gray had left her a letter that would explain everything that he had seen and heard.
As the ice mage was running on a straight path, now heading towards the fashion stores in the town of Hakutai, he was suddenly brought to a screeching halt by an ominous shadowy black puddle that began to form in front of him. A second puddle began to form beside that one, making Gray gasp in complete shock at what was happening, and he took a few steps back while getting his Ice-Make Magic ready. The fact that these shadows were now appearing in front of him, thanks to the sunlight, only made Gray scowl in frustration from what he was assuming right now.
In a few seconds, Thorn and Karen respectively rose out of the first and second shadowy puddles to greet Gray. He looked very surprised to see them here, now standing in his way, and the ice mage definitely had to wonder about what was going on. Thorn had been in her teenage form when she had taken Natsu out on a job with her, and now she was in her adult form to handle this more personal matter. The fact that she evilly glared at Gray meant that this was serious, and Karen's calm smile with her malicious giggle certainly did not make this situation seem any better.
Thorn asked Gray in a dark tone of voice, maintaining her evil and angry glare with malice in her blood red eyes, "Hello there, Gray Fullbuster from the guild of fairy trash. Did you make it back safely to your guild of gullible idiots, after you were done spying on us in the back alley yesterday? Are you really that dimwitted to think that Karen would not notice the trail of ice shards you made in your quest to stalk me and find out if your suspicions of me were true? Did you not see her shadowy abilities in the tournament? You certainly don't drop your guard around supposedly new members, do you?"
The ice mage responded calmly with a stern look on his face, certainly not in the mood to explain himself or have any chitchat with Thorn, "Shut your mouth, and don't even try to pull any acts of innocence with what I'm about to say. You're pretty rotten to the core, Thorn, especially since you plan to use Lucy as your way of taking down the Fairy Tail guild for revenge. I see why Mavis would have to kill someone like you, since you and your friend do things in such shady ways, and I'll make history somewhat repeat itself for you if that's what it takes to keep a malicious leech like you away from Lucy."
Even though Gray's words were full of seriousness, the ice mage meaning every word that came out of his mouth in those three sentences, Thorn simply made her glare change into an amused smirk. She really could not believe that this boy was actually thinking of taking her down, and Thorn really saw Gray as nothing more than an idiot who would regret his words. However, he had listened in on a private conversation about the plans that she had for Fairy Tail and Lucy. Thorn did not want her plan to fall apart because of this mouthy and icy little pest, so he had to be kept quiet for good.
Thorn gave Gray a confident look, letting know that she would accept his little challenge, and the ice mage started things off with a spell known as Ice-Make: Shotgun. Gray utilized some nearby water in the grassy park's fountain of water that was beautifully flowing, and he shot it all at Thorn in the form of large and thick spears of ice. Many shards of ice were now coming straight at Thorn, making it pretty hard to presumably dodge Gray's attack, but the ice mage looked amazed to see Thorn simply look below his shards of ice and make their own shadows pull them down into the darkness forever.
He was stunned by her ability to manipulate many shadows so easily, but Gray would soon feel Thorn's wrath. She used the Wind Magic from the spell book to make seven leaves blow from the trees towards her, floating in a circle above her head, and the black-haired woman sent all of the leaves towards Gray with a real cutting edge boost of air to give him a little surprise. The leaves were spinning rapidly while they flew towards Gray at high speeds, and the ice mage screamed in pain while the paths of leaves made sharp cuts on his arms. When they hit the ground, the leaves exploded in forest green blasts of energy that also turned emerald green.
That spell was known as Plant Demon's Leaf Cutter, and this meant that Thorn could now use Plant Magic after infusing her Wind Magic into the power of the leaves. This was only her weakest spell of Plant Magic, but it could have been the first fusion spell of Wind Magic as well. When two elements in the book share similar shades of the same color, the weakest spell of the second element can either become the first element's fusion spell or be an added attack to the first element's weakest attack spell. Either way, this was not good news for Gray.
Deciding that the long-range approach would probably get him nowhere, Gray used another spell known as Ice-Make: Hammer. This spell made him create a hammer out of ice, and it floated high in midair above Thorn's head. Gray slammed his right fist down on his left palm, hoping that this would crush the malicious demon and freeze her solid, but Thorn quickly used Gray's mistake to her advantage. She quickly sunk down into the hammer's shadow, safe from any damage, and she reappeared in the same spot where she had been standing to see large shards of ice all over the ground.
Now that she had a chance to attack once again, Thorn used a new spell of Plant Magic that known as Root Remover. This spell made several brown spiky plant roots emerge from underground, grabbing up all of Gray's ice shards, and the roots constricted them with enough force to break them before self-destructing in forest green blasts that turned emerald green from the infusion of air. Thorn breathed in all of the green smoke, since it was actually a side effect in the form of botanical healing gas, and a forest green aura surrounded her body while she had more stamina than before.
Gray was certainly dealing with a tricky foe, and the ice mage knew that he had to be really careful in this fight. He remembered how the spells in Lucy's book were far from predictable or normal, so he did not know what Thorn would do next. Gray just knew that he had to be the one to stop her from taking over Lucy's body, or else his friend would definitely be doomed. If close combat couldn't cut it, what about speed? Narrowing his dark blue eyes, Gray now chose to use Ice-Make: Ice Impact to see if Thorn could disappear faster than he could freeze her.
He brought his right fist down on his left palm again, making an intricately-designed hammer of ice be brought down on Thorn from the sky. The hammer came down on Thorn at high speeds, faster than she could dodge it, and the powerful impact made a huge crater appear in the ground that was now broken up. Gray had to wonder why Karen smiled at the sight of her best friend having been crushed by that quick and large hammer, but he knew that this round was now over. However, had he truly been the winner of it?
The ice mage noticed that Thorn was bleeding out green goop instead of the usual red blood, and the goop was surprisingly moving upward towards the large hammer of ice. This green goop was also bubbling with burning hot steam coming out of it, and Gray could only look horrified to see it all eating away at his hammer of ice with its corrosive properties. When it was all melted away, the real Thorn Heartfilia was revealed to have used a spell known as Plant Acid to fool Gray while she slowly emerged headfirst from the bark of a nearby tree.
She explained in a calm manner while giggling at Gray's futile attempts to defeat her, the sadistic pleasure of killing him beginning to show in her blood red eyes, "I do not just move through shadows, you foolish child. I have killed many demons, absorbing their abilities along with their different types of magic, and their powers are now made malleable into many spells by me. The pawn that is the prey should not get so comfortable, especially when it stands before the presence of a much larger piece that serves as its predator."
Gray responded sternly, not looking there was really anything to laugh about in this situation, "Don't screw around with me, you demonic bitch! You think that this is all some big joke?! You're not going to end up taking away people's lives because of a grudge that you hold against Fairy Tail, and I don't care about how much power you need to become a mage that's stronger than Zeref! You may be the ancestor of Lucy, but she'll be nothing like you and your darkness! Her heart and soul are not things for you to use for your own personal gain, and I will protect my friend!"
Upon hearing those words come out of his mouth, Thorn's evil giggle turned into a very serious glare. Gray was not planning on giving up anytime soon, and the fact that he thought she could be stopped by him was making Thorn think that Gray assumed they were evenly matched because neither side had managed to land any major hits on the other. If he was going to underestimate her like this, thinking that she was no real killer of demons back in the past, then Thorn would simply have to show him what the punishment would be for trying to screw up her plans.
She used her fourth spell of Plant Magic, and it was a bit unorthodox. This spell made many of the fruits on the trees become surrounded by a green aura, and eight oranges floated from eight different directions into Thorn's hands. She simply threw them all at Gray, hoping that he would think that she was starting to get desperate, and her technique to trick him had worked. Gray quickly made a sword out of ice appear in his left hand, and he sliced up all of the oranges into perfect slices. There were now forty-eight slices around the ice mage, but something was odd. Why did Thorn use fruit?
Gray really questioned her level of intelligence, until the black-haired woman snapped her fingers to make all of those fruit slices explode in forest green blasts of energy that had enough power to destroy the nearby buildings! Gray screamed in intense pain from taking so much damage from all of those blasts transpiring around him with so much magical power in them, and they had even torn his purple shirt into shreds. He could feel the explosions burning him all over, ironic for a spell of Plant Magic, and Gray fell to his knees while being heavily bruised. That spell was known as Fruity Bombs, and it certainly wasn't meant to be eaten.
Even though Gray was badly wounded now, this was only the beginning of Thorn's torture. She proceeded to use her fifth spell of Plant Magic, and it was known as Vine Rapier. This spell made Thorn have two green vines growing from her palms, and the vines were in the form of rapiers. The bright sunlight allowed Thorn's speed to increase while a green aura surrounded her body, and she quickly slashed at Gray's arms and legs while her vines were sharp enough to make deep cuts on his body. She could use close combat moves as well, you know.
However, her torture was not going to end there. Thorn activated her sixth spell of Plant Magic, and it was known as Bullet Seed. She spat out twenty seeds, making them travel along an air current in a curved trajectory, and they came down upon Gray from above! He attempted to quickly make a dome out of ice to shield himself from the attack, but Thorn's seeds were way too fast! As Gray fell over on his stomach, the seeds struck him in the back while making miniature forest green explosions transpire on his back when the seeds landed on him.
The seeds had enough power to rip through his skin, making the ice mage begin to bleed, and he looked frustrated while wondering if he would die at the hands of blood loss or at the hands of Thorn's Plant Demon Magic. She now decided to use her seventh spell, and it was known as Rose's Sweet Cease. This spell made some nearby red roses send out a very sweet smell that traveled on the wind towards Gray, and the ice mage began to feel his magical power become fully restored while suddenly feel his body become paralyzed by the scent of those roses as well. He also felt himself becoming dizzy, too, and this spell caused paralysis with confusion as an added effect. Even though it could heal someone's strength, it also immobilized them as a way of torturing them.
Gray told Thorn in an irritated tone, looking annoyed at the fact that she was just torturing him for her own enjoyment, "You're not very strong at all, Thorn. Your spells may be pretty powerful, but you're just a user who plays of chess very slowly. You drag out this game longer than necessary, and you're really making me want to make an ice spear be thrown up in the air for you to move through the shadows to get your distant butt over here. If you're so tough, get it over with. Stop wasting my time."
As she heard the rude request from her irritated and immobilized opponent, Thorn could not agree more. It certainly was time for her to put an end to this, and that mouthy ice mage was going to be silenced permanently. She activated her eighth and final spell of Plant Magic, and it was simply known as Plant Demon's Sunlight Punishment. It caused some clouds to move away from the sun, letting it shine down on the town, and a large beam of solar energy came down from the sun to strike Gray directly!
A massive blast of emerald green energy had transpired, its air waves being strong enough to obliterate buildings while also making more emerald green blasts occur, and Karen covered her eyes while she heard Gray's final scream of pain. The other citizens in Hakutai Town thought that there was an earthquake going on, since it shook the town for a few minutes, and some trees had even been sliced in half by the explosive blades of air. The town was now heavily damaged, possibly needing magic from Crocus to repair everything, but what was the result of Thorn's battle with Gray?
The green smoke was all quickly inhaled by Thorn, since she needed to replenish her magical power after using up so much of it, and she walked towards Gray with Karen at her side while glaring at him in pure anger with malice in her eyes. She did not care if he was still breathing or if he was already dead, but Thorn knew one thing for sure. She was going to have possession of Lucy's body, and she was also going to get rid of Gray's. Thorn made a shadowy black puddle appear near him, and it began to expand while Karen picked up Gray in her arms before throwing him into the dark puddle where he would never be seen again.
When she suddenly sensed the familiar magical power of the spell book approaching, Thorn simply smirked evilly while sinking down into the darkness. With another pawn now being taken care of, her plan would now go much more smoothly. However, Gray proved himself to be more of a white knight who wanted to stop Thorn's little scheme. However, all fairies were still pawns to Thorn. She was going to get them all eliminated from this deadly game of chess, and the black-haired woman was determined to make her plan succeed.
15 minutes later...
After Thorn had fled the scene with Gray's body now in the shadows, Lucy had arrived in Hakutai Town with Sting. She had a bit of trouble navigating through the dense Yaguruma Forest, since it had many mossy trees and fallen tree stumps that had gotten in the way, but Sting had managed to guide her out of the forest without having any major problems. The copious amount of bugs in the forest had certainly made Lucy become a bit scared, shuddering in disgust when she accidentally stepped in a large centipede's slime, but what she would see afterwards was sure to be more scarier than any bug in Fiore.
When Lucy and Sting entered the town of Hakutai, they were both utterly shocked to see that most of the buildings in the town were completely destroyed like Natsu had been reckless enough to try and stop a criminal by destroying the town. However, there was no fire to really show any evidence of him possibly being here. Lucy's brown eyes widened in amazement to see craters on the ground, fallen trees breaking apart, and the strong smell of roses had blown through the air to reach her nostrils.
She had wanted to come here on a romantic date with Sting, eager to frolic in the meadow and pick flowers with him, but it seemed like that plan would definitely be going to waste because of the town being so badly damaged. There were even a few ice shards on the ground, but there was no indication that anyone was trying to freeze this town. The sliced up trees also looked like they had been cut by some kind of air attack, since Sting could tell the difference between a slice from a sword and the slice from air.
As Sting looked around to inspect the damage, he knew that going back to the Sabertooth guild to get Rufus would be a very good idea in this situation. He had a few Memory-Make Magic abilities that could be used on what he did not need for any attacks, and using him to figure out what happened here would be a very good strategy. Before Sting could even get the chance to comfort his shocked and disappointed girlfriend, the emerald green spell book turned forest green like pale green moss, and it began to glow in that new color.
Lucy opened up the spell book to not only see that there were four new fusion spells of Wind Magic, but there had been eight spells of Plant Magic that did not tie to Wind Magic. The book had informed Lucy that these spells could be classified as more spells of Wind Magic, since air was required for the plants to really be useful, or they could become forgotten to not give Lucy too many types of magic while having their spells as added effects of her spells of Wind Magic to give it a dual-type power boost. (I know that seems unfair right now, but all the types will get their own power boost in the end without some of them having to be dual-types.)
The blonde mage chose the second option, not wanting to show any favoritism or preference for either of the two types of magic in the green section of spells, and the book understood her wishes. Lucy wanted to form a good bond with every type of magic in her book, and the spell book itself simply made the rule of Lucy getting to put plant-based abilities in her wind attacks. She chose this as the best option, since there would probably be enemies like Chelia who could eat the demonic wind if she emptied out all her magical power, and Plant Magic as an aftereffect would become pretty shocking to anybody.
The four fusion spells of Wind Magic were now infused with Plant Magic, thus creating an actual fusion of different abilities unlike with fire and bombs or rocks with sand. The section for Wind Magic still remained at having twelve spells instead of twenty, like with the other three types of magic that had gotten their power-ups, and the magic followed the book's rule of doubling the strength of the dominant types of magic in that event. They also used double the amount of power than normal spells, so Lucy would have to train hard if she did not want to rely on healing spells to be able to dish out more attacks.
While Lucy was thinking about what she could do to make up for this stormy disappointment happening on the day after Sting took her on a romantic date, the white dragon slayer walked to the scene where it looked like the fight had mainly occurred. The fashion stores were nearly destroyed, having broken glass lodged in some of the hats and shoes, but Sting was more curious about the fact that a piece of paper had been intact inside the pocket of a badly torn purple shirt that had been on the ground. What in the world was this doing here?
Sting took the folded piece of paper out from the shirt pocket, feeling it to be intact with an invincibility spell presumably placed on it, and he narrowed his blue eyes while looking calm before reading it aloud for Lucy to overhear, "Hello, Lucy. If you are reading this, I have written it with Thought Ink because I could not find any pencils or pens to write with in the guild. You need to listen to me very carefully, since anything else about this might not be so believable to you. Karen Melancholia knows everything about the book, and she's not telling you everything you need to know. She has been using you like a puppet, stringing you along for her own gain."
Upon hearing those words, Lucy looked utterly shocked at what Sting had read off of that letter. Karen had been manipulating her the entire time, just using her like she was nothing more than a tool that would eventually be dropped like a piece of trash? Lucy narrowed her cocoa brown eyes, angered by the fact that she had to deal with yet another fake friendship in her life, and she ran over to Sting's side to see that the writing from the ink that wrote down thoughts to reveal them had written it all in the handwriting of her friend who was known as Gray Fullbuster.
As Lucy looked down to see that Sting had clearly gotten the note from the purple shirt that Gray must've been wearing, the blonde mage began to put some of her assumptions together. Gray had found out some important information that Karen was hiding from Lucy, so Karen got rid of the ice mage to keep things quiet. She did not want any of her plot to get out, not wanting Lucy to be on to her scheme, but the blonde mage narrowed her brown eyes while knowing that messing with her friends was where things would get serious. Lucy was now determined to get even with Karen, and she would also get some much-needed answers.
How was Chapter 32? Did you like it? I sincerely apologize to any fans of Gray in this story for not making him be a match for Thorn, but he will be revived at the end of the story. I also plan to improve the StiCy, since the next chapter will be where Sting and Lucy use their first Unison Raid out of chemistry. Will Lucy get back at the double-crosser who she first crossed a new path with? Will Gray's note to Erza lead to a concurrent battle for retribution? Who ends up saving her? Standby for the update!