Emotionless

Chapter 67, Hunting the Trails

Disclaimer: I do not own Fairy Tail

Normal Pov

Awkwardness wasn't Gray's strong suit, especially when he sat just a foot away from a gorgeous heiress that seemed as little to do with him and his partner as possible.

"Well, I'm Gray." He said awkwardly, offering his hand in politeness. Elizabeth nodded, but did not touch his hand.

"O-kay," Gray whispered slowly, before setting his elbow on the rest to look out the window, subconsciously keeping an eye out for danger. A light sigh caught his attention after a few minutes and he glanced up to see her eyes locked on his.

"Look, I'm sorry. I just don't know what to expect from mages that are protecting me for money," Elizabeth told him.

"It's fine- wait, what do you mean protecting?" Gray asked, realization in his tone. Elizabeth looked like a deer caught in the headlights at that moment. "Oh, I meant for the ride over to Hillberry. Nasty weather we'll be having," she said nervously, an obvious lie.

"I have a feeling I know just what storm will be coming, too." Gray muttered, looking away from her as he debated what to do. He considered bringing the carriage to a stop but if there were really something after the heiress than stopping would just look suspicious... Lucy would notice, he told himself. She did have a sharp eye, after all.

A moment of silence passed before Gray looked back over to Elizabeth who had an expression void of emotion that reminded him of his partner for a moment before he tossed the thought out of his head and said, "Clearly you won't be telling me anything else about who or what's after you. So allow me to be quick and tell you that no matter what happens, stay. in. side. Do not come out, we will protect you but only if you do what we say, alright?" At the heiress's nod he put his hand on the door nob but instead of opening it, ice slowly surrounded it and the rest of the door's opening sealing it in place.

"Your magic is beautiful," Elizabeth told him, watching as he created ice magic with awe.

Gray spared her a glance as he worked and spoke, "As long as it works."

Once the doors were sealed shut with ice Gray sat back down tense awaiting for a strike. He wanted to warn Lucy, but repeated over and over that he couldn't and that she would realize. If she didn't...

Lucy knew someone had been following them, probably even before she had taken the reins. Somehow, this always happens. Lucy told herself and wondered how powerful whatever was following them was. She assumed it were humans that wanted to take Elizabeth hostage, that sort of thing happened to her a lot when she was young.

She would've used her aura to scan the area but after that little episode with the magic council, she knew she would just have to go old-fashion without magic. Reaching into her coat, her hand grasped Jade's fang while her other hand tied the reins tightly on the seat. At the first sign she would move, she knew as she looked around and faked a yawn.

"Come out, come out wherever you are..." Lucy whispered.

It was to silent, she noted, and not a minute later she heard the sound of the wind being pierced and immediately ducked. The sound of a clunk was heard followed by battle cries and shouts from boisterous men.

"Tsk, typical," Lucy said, before she leapt unto the roof narrowly dodging out of the way of another few arrows before she leapt off the roof and tackled two men face first into the ground. Immediately after she threw a leg outward, nailing a man in the stomach who was just about to swing a battle axe down on her and his battle buddies.

Grasping jade's fang tightly she spun around and stabbed the closest person near her in the shoulder, followed by a lunar click to the head before aiming for the next unlucky guy. After four were down Lucy looked up to see another dozen in front of her, with the leader cackling at her.

"The Sharpe's higher mere mercenaries to protect miss Elizabeth? Pathetic, just because you could take down a few of us doesn't mean you can take the rest of us down!" The man cried, before he threw something towards Lucy who evaded out of the way and stared at the lit object before her eyes widened in surprise with realization that she should've done more than just evaded just as the stick of dynamite went off sending her tumbling in the other direction.

"Boys, get the girl!" The man shouted, and at his command the man charged.

"Open a door to the Shinigami, Kyoki!" Lucy yelled, holding her left shoulder to stop the bleeding. A light and then the Shinigami presented herself in front of the men. "Good thing we're bound by blood and not magic," said Lucy to herself. "Finish them, I don't care how." Meaning death or heavy torture, but Lucy really didn't care either way and jogged towards the carriage ignoring the cries of fear and pain and screams of outrage and agony filled the air.

Leaping to the front Lucy untied the reins before slashing them downwards causing the Pegasi to gallop into a jog. "Might as well make this travel go by as quickly as possible anyways," murmured Lucy.

"What in the world happened out there?" Elizabeth asked in worry.

"You probably don't want to find out when it comes to Lucy..." Gray replied, a little unease after the first explosion.

"Lucy eh? She's not what I expected of a Fairy Tail mage," she told the ice mage.

"Mmm, Lucy's different but that's Fairy Tail for you anyways."

"So, you're an ice mage?"

"Yeah, both my parents were and they trained me up until they died," Gray told her, shrugging at the mention of his parents.

"Oh, I'm sorry. I didn't mean-"

"It's okay, it happened a long time ago," Gray told her.

"What about your partner?"

"Lucy? She you'll have to ask yourself. Not much is known about her, and I think she prefers it to be that way."

"How come?" Elizabeth asked in curious confusion.

"Fairy Tail... Fairy Tail is a new start for everyone. Not all of us have had such a nice time, and by joining Fairy Tail we're given a new start in life. The past stays into the past while a new one is created," Gray explained.

Elizabeth nodded, "That sounds nice, ever since my parents were killed in an assassination attempt all I've ever wanted was a new start. I thought my uncle could provide that for me but instead I'm guarded all the time same as usual."

"Assassination? Is that why these people are after you?'

"I believe so yes, my parents you see never really wanted to be rich. They were archeologists at first, and after they discovered something with a group of men they decided this thing needed to be hidden and did so. The group they were with however, didn't agree with the decision and tried to use force to get to the object. They were arrested and my parents became famous for something they wanted to keep hidden, and now the capitol of Fiore has whatever it was they found," Elizabeth told him.

"Do you have any idea what it was they found?"

"Unfortunately no. Although my parents had once described it to me as "the threshold to the world's ultimate annihilation and salvation" I don't know what they meant by it, but whatever it was... it was big," She told him.

"Something that could both destroy and save the world?" Gray questioned, not understanding how such a thing could exist.

"It's what they said, but I can't imagine what it could be," Elizabeth finished.

"Neither can I..."

Lucy studied the trails that led in multiple directions. According to Pyxis Hillberry was south east from where they were currently, but with the knowledge of the attack that had been planned since before they had even got on, she knew they were tracking the carriage's wheel and Pegasi prints on the ground. Biting her lip she studied the area before glancing up at the trees.

"Its too crowded for the steeds to take off here... but maybe we could try this," Lucy said before she extending her magic creating gigantic arms. Setting them on the ground to hold herself up without her feet actually being on the ground she slowly began to climb one of the trees to the top and grabbed another tree with the aura hands and tied the trees into a knot before she leaped to the other side and did the same. Soon enough, there was a clearing where the carriage could go through, they just needed the speed to do so first.

Releasing the aura hands to preserve her magic she climbed down the trees before walking up to the pegasi. "I was wondering if you guys minded taking an early flight into the air? Just through this clearing I made okay? We'll turn around and head back to pick up speed to do so, sound alright to you?" She wasn't expecting a response really, but Happy showed her that not everything is what it seems at first.

The pegasi closest to her on her right seemed to nod, and Lucy brushed his mane before going around to get back to the reins. The sound of footsteps approached as Lucy turned the carriage around and at the sound of shouting Lucy whipped the reins downwards causing the horses to gallop into a sprint down the trail, plowing straight into the raid of men easily knocking them away like bowling pins. A turn, and the steeds are reversing in direction once again. Pressure, she is thrown off the side landing in the dust.

"Get her!"

She dodges, rolls out of the way. Her fist meets an unsuspecting man, and takes a blow to the chest from a mace but retaliates by kicking him in the groin. She throws three to the side, disarms another and steals their weapon before flinging it back to its master, maiming him. She glances backwards, seeing the pegasi running off in a sprint nearing the clearing where the opening of the skies lay.

Realization hit her, she wouldn't be able to catch up with the steeds... not without the magic she did not possess. It was all left to the pegasi now, she would have to find her own way across.

"Gray!" She roared over the battle zone. A mop of black hair peeked out the window. "Steer ahead! I'll hold them back!" She announced as she broke a man's nose. Her partner turned towards her voice with realization she was being left behind. He couldn't do anything however, he needed to stay by Elizabeth's side.

"Go!"

Lucy slid knocking the legs out of many before she flipped herself back up and slammed two men colliding into each other. A screech of wind met her ears, but she was in the middle of evading a collision with a claymore that she just had to take it. Wood protruded from her shoulder, which she immediately yanked out ignoring the sight of the wound and stabbed it into an eye. Ignoring the scream of agony she pushed the arrow through his brain, killing him.

A cry of outrage and fear seeing this man, a friend, a comrade killed she was tackled from behind and fell to the ground. Something pierced her skin but she ignored it with a head-butt to her attackers head. Hands wrapped around his throat and she forced the lungs from air till the man laid die.

She stopped then, noticing there was no opponent left to stand.

"Fairy Tail mages don't kill, they say." One man coughed out from the ground, looking up at her with defeat in his eyes. Hatred too.

"Yeah, but this mage refuses to make the mistake of letting the unforgivable live," Lucy replied, before slamming her heel against his head.

She looked back at the trail, the pegasi carriage gone from view. She picked up her pace and jogged along the trail, eyes watching the hoof prints and wheel markings that trailed for a while until they suddenly came to an end in the middle of a road. Lucy looked up and saw the clearing of the trees she made before nodding knowing they were now in the safety of the air.

Sighing to herself knowing she had to catch up somehow on foot she continued to jog down the trail, wondering what surprises were next.

And hoping she didn't wreck a coincidence.

The forest was dark but one area stood out inside the forest. Torches lit the area of men standing in a circle before a throne. A man with sharp features, black eyes, and spikey blonde hair sat on the throne, sipping liquid green from a glass as he stared down at the men before him.

"Today we have lost the jackals of our force," he said boringly as he set his glass down.

"They failed in containing miss Sharpe, and it will not happen again." The man stood, drawing a hush amongst the men.

"Tonight we have a surprise for her in the sky, where our scouts have caught her. She and her body guards believe she is safe in the sky, but we know better!" A laugh echoed with the crowd.

The man walked down from the stone stairs that led to his throne before he walked around the circle of men, meeting their eyes as he crossed their paths.

"We have tamed beasts to follow our command, and now they finally come to use. Hitson! Reveal them!" He commanded, and suddenly all the torches went out in their flames leaving he crowd breathless to what awaited them.

Suddenly a flame rocketed into the sky and light blared up once again but this time they revealed many rows of cages were beasts resided inside. The man, clearly the leader stood in the middle of the cages which contained these winged beast let out a roar at the beasts whom roared back and banged against their cages.

The leader withdrew a hanky from his shirt, revealing a red stained on it. A name was engraved on the hanky which spelled out Elizabeth Sharpe.

He turned around and suddenly the crowd was drawn to the single cage that covered an acre of land. "Behemoth, hear me and exterminate this pest!" He shouted, tossing the bloody handkerchief inside the cage.

A monstrous roar erupted from the cage inside and claws suddenly banged against the cage. Wings stretched outside the cage awaiting its flight and the leader smiled.

"May you fly free," the man said and then the top of the cage opened up followed by all the cages behind. Roars erupted into the night as the smaller predators launched into the sky, but the creature in the gigantic cage was the one to leave last. Red eyes met black eyes before the beast took off into the sky with a predatorily scream to the others.

"And so, it begins!"

I almost made it longer but decided to post this now since I doubt I will be able to update any further this week or even next week. Thanks to everyone that has read this story up to here, I know it was a struggle through many of the battles but you've stuck through and through! Its very much appreciated and I am quite grateful.

Review, follow, favorite, and of course read ;)

-GR