An: Sorry it's late, I struggled at the end of the chapter. I'm not too happy with this one but oh well.
Gajeel POV
Feeling nothing as I reached into my bag of irons scraps we had collected over the past two weeks I groaned. This bag had been full a couple of days ago,that was when we left the last factory we had purged. The only good thing to come form the past two searches had been my snacks; the Abastors we had captured had been useless. Each member we encountered were the lowest of the low, and took a simple attack to knock out. They had been out searching for parts or slacking off at one of the other factories.
Angrily crumpling the now empty bag I tossed it into a bush as we passed by . "Are we close to the next factory Shrimp?" I growled. I was pissed about a number of things; the time it took to find each factory, the fact that I had run out of snacks and most importantly that I haven't had a decent fight since we left Fairy Tail.
"Be patient Gajeel, we've only been searching for a couple of days, that's nowhere near as long as the previous factory, that one took us a week of trekking though swamp land." She shuddered, remembering every squishy step we had taken.
"Don't remind me." I joined her in shuddering, recalling just how bad it had smelled. My nose was still recovering from the disgusting smell.
"Anyways don't growl at me, it's not my fault Mira and Rea didn't specify which factory and its exact location. They only gave us a vague clue of the 'the old foundry district'. How was I supposed to know there were so many abandoned factories here?" I was about to speak when she took a breath but was too slow. "If anything I should be the one growling at you! All you've done since we left Fairy Tail is complain, I haven't seen you help our search in anyway. Aren't you supposed to be the tracker of our group? Why don't you use your dragon senses and find the place yourself if you're so impatient?" She ended in a yell as she continued to walk with her head in one of her many maps.
Placing a hand on her head I ruffled her hair as I chuckled. "Whoa, calm down Shrimp. I didn't mean to release your inner bitch." I said, feeling her tense beneath my hand.
"In-inner bitch?" She whispered, lowering the map and lifting her head up, she glared at me and poked me in the chest with her finger. "How can you say such a ting? We're out here searching for something we don't even know exists while Lu-chan is back at the guild slowly dying. Hell our lacrima hasn't worked since we entered these woods, so for all we know she could have gotten worse, and I'm not there with her! Instead I'm here, un-showered, tired and surrounded by three boys! I just want to go home, shower and spend time with Lu-chan!" She wailed, dropping the map on the ground before she buried her face in her hands and started sobbing.
She changed from pissed off to tearful so fast that I froze in place as I watched her shoulders shake with the force of her sobs. I had been wondering when she was going to snap She had been too calm this entire trip, she hadn't even mentioned Bunny Girl once we left the guild three weeks earlier. She had lived in those maps of hers. The only interaction we have had with her since we left is when Jet failed at flirting - when she just nodded and continued walking without looking at him he would fall back and stare at her with puppy eyes - and when Lily and I spoke to her directly, but we knew she wasn't focused on what we had to say if it didn't involve the search.
Gaining control over my body I walked the two steps to her and put my hand on her head once again, except in a comforting manner instead of a teasing one. "I'm sorry Levy. I bet Bunny Girl is fine, she's a survivor you know. Plus she wouldn't leave without saying goodbye to her best friend right?"
Sniffing she gained control of her sobs and began to calm down after several painfully awkward minutes. "Thanks Gajeel, but even Lu-chan can't take on everything. I just hope this poison isn't one of those things she can't overcome." Wiping away her tears she bent down to collect her map and then grabbed my hand off of her head and held onto it as she propelled us forward so we could continue our search.
A half a mile later of letting her lead the way as she tried to control the map with one hand I pulled her to a sudden stop. Tilting my head I sniffed the metal laced air that was out of place; even when we were at the factories the smell of metal wasn't this strong. Pushing her to the side I kicked at the leaves on the ground and revealed a hint of metal. Bending down i carefully cleared the rest of the leaves and found a freshly made steel leg-hold trap with a dozen razor sharp teeth.
"Hey why'd you push me Ga-" Shrimp said moving to stand in front of me, directly on the trap. Tackling her to the ground the second before her foot landed I heard a loud clang of metal as the teeth closed.
"I'd say we're pretty damn close." I said pushing onto my hand so I could look down at Shrimp's stunned face. She was looking around my arm at where she had been about to step, gaping at the now harmless, glistening steel trap. The amount of fear pouring off of her was concerning, along with her shallow, rapid breathing and the salty scent in the air. "Calm down Shrimp... Levy calm down!" I barked at her when my first attempt didn't work to get her attention. Turning towards me I could tell that she was still thinking about what could have happened if I hadn't moved her in time. "You alright?" I asked getting off of her and holding out a hand to her.
Several times she opened her mouth to speak but wasn't able to and just wound up nodding slowly as she grabbed a hold of my hand.
"Stop thinking about it, it'll just freak you out even more. I'll steer us away from them from now on. Now that I know what they smell like we can easily avoid them."
"Ar-are you sure?'
"I found this one didn't I?"
"Yeah..." she said still sounding worried.
Insulted by her lack of confidence I went back to the trap and picked up her wrinkled map. "Tch let's go." Kicking aside the trap as I passed it I handed her the map and continued on our path. Walking slower than before I paid attention to the hints of metal in the air. Either I had missed the earlier traps because I had mistaken the strong metallic scent as that of my treats or we were getting closer to the factory we had been searching for, for the past couple of weeks.
The metallic scent only got stronger the longer we walked. Over the course of the next hour I found eight more traps; three of them were the same as the first, and the other five were spiked nets that pierced and hung anything stupid enough to step on them in the air. Not all of them were empty though. Some of them were caked in dried blood and had the beginning of a decaying body trapped in them, meaning that these traps weren't checked on, otherwise they'd have cleared the traps and set them up again. The first body we found Shrimp had freaked out and screamed in horror, ever since then I simply told her to close her eyes and she did it without question as I cleared the trap and hid the body from the path. These people mean business. I thought as I released the fifth carcass from one of the traps.
Hearing the crunching of dried leaves and snapping of branches in the distance I said Jet to warn Shrimp of the approaching mage. Despite my warning she still freaked out when he appeared at her side after intentionally brushing up against her. Shaking my head at him I tossed the carcass into the bushes and brushed off my hands on my pants. "All clear." I said to Shrimp from in front of her.
Hesitantly peaking out from between her fingers she looked to where the trap had been before taking her hands from her face. Once she had composed her self she turned to her confused teammate. "What did you find Jet?" Unfolding her map she placed it flat on the ground so they could look at it comfortably. Leaving a space open for me I remained standing and watched as Jet circled an unmarked area a few miles ahead of us.
"There is a factory up ahead that wasn't marked on any of our maps. I did a sweep of the area and I believe it is the one we're looking for-"
"'Bout damn time." I interrupted excited at the prospect of an actual fight. Giggling at my excitement Shrimp shushed me and told Jet to continue. Beaming at her attention Jet gladly continued.
"It's bigger than the four factories we searched earlier, at least twice the size of the largest of the four.
"There are ten entrances and exits, three fire ladders to the roof, no magical vehicles nor any visible transportation. At least six guys on the roof and eight patrolling the ground below with a spattering of guards in the factory itself." Jet rattled off the information he had learned was important after providing the wrong information at the first factory.
I hadn't been happy when a few uncounted for guards had taken us by surprise and cornered us...well Shrimp, when we had searched the grounds. Unknown to us they had been hidden in the trees a half a mile out down wind, and had seen us easily subdue their partners. Once we had split up to search different areas they came down and snuck up on Shrimp. Luckily she had heard noises while she was examining several books and got paranoid, and set up a barrier around her - something she had learned from deciphering Freed's runes at Fantasia, and the S-Class trials.
The dark mages had attacked with darts coated in poison, not the same as Lucy's though. If those darts had pierced Shrimp she would have died instantly. Having heard her cries of surprise and their laughter at catching 'a pretty little thang' I made short work of the five mages and sent them flying out of the roof with my roar. Jet, a few minutes later, appeared and immediately began apologizing to her. His apologies fell on deaf ears though as I berated him for putting her in danger and giving us inaccurate information. Since then Jet always made sure he double checked the new area before relaying his findings.
"Are you sure 'bout that?" I snarled giving Jet a look.
"I triple checked. There aren't anymore guards wandering the woods like that one time." Jet said confidently, and a bit defiantly. I knew he was tired of me always questioning him, but until he proved himself otherwise I wouldn't trust his reports which is why I sent Lily -
"Wait, where's Lily?" I asked looking in the air for my cat.
"I-I was getting to that. When we got to the factory he offered to check the roof, and got caught. While he was fighting them off he yelled how many they were and to get you..."
Glaring at him I snarled and barked out orders. "You know the drill I'll get the fuckers on the roof - once they're taken care of and Lily is free I'll give you the signal for you and Levy start working on the guards below. Since this place is bigger I'll head in first to pick off the guys at the windows, and any who might be alerted by your movements. Jet start on the west side of the building, Levy the east. Any questions? Good." I said, taking off in the direction of the factory without waiting to make sure they were behind me.
Damn it Lily, how could you let yourself get caught.
Lily POV
Pacing the cell I had been thrown in while I had been unconscious I cursed the bracelet on my right wrist. Ever since they had put it on it had started glowing red, at first I didn't know what that meant but when I had been forced into my smaller from I knew what they were doing. They were sucking out my magic. Every attempt to take it off failed as it physically shocked me and knocked me out. By the third attempt I decided it was best to wait, for Gajeel to save me. Mavis help me, he would never let this go. I thought as I watched half of the roof guards lean against the south wall to eat.
Feeling my ears twitch, I took in the faint scraping noise coming from behind the slacking, and oblivious mages. Mid pace I heard a familiar "Gi hi hi" and stopped. Watching the south wall intently I wasn't surprised to see two iron clubs appear suddenly from beneath the three mages and pull them down through the roof. All three of their yells were muffled by the food in their mouth as they disappeared. The remaining mages had glanced over at them when the iron clubs had punched through the roof and ran over to help their partners but were pulled down themselves when they got too close to the hole. Shaking my head at their stupidity I waited for Gajeel to take care of them. A minute later after some grunting and screams he appeared with a cocky grin on his face.
"Gi hi hi, got yourself in a bind." He laughed, sauntering up to my cage and picking it up.
"Get me out of here." I said impatiently, glaring at him through the bars.
Laughing again, Gajeel tilted his head and tore several of the bars off with his teeth and then ate them. "'Appy 'ow?" He asked with his mouth full. Ignoring his question I hopped out and began looking around the roof for the key to the bracelet.
"Where is it?" I muttered to myself when I found nothing that resembled a key.
"What are you looking for?" Gajeel asked coming up behind me, having finished eating the entire cage.
"They put this thing on my wrist and its sapping my magic. I need a key to unlock it but I can't find it..." Turning to my slayer I eyed him suspiciously. "You didn't find one and eat it when you were fighting those mages did you?"
"Tch. I didn't eat anything from them... yet." Digging into his pockets with both hands he pulled out two hand fulls of various metal scraps and dumped them on to the ground before reaching for his back pockets. Sweat dropping I watched in astonishment as the mound of scraps grew to half my height. Getting over my surprise I started riffling through the pile for the key. Where is it? When I saw the bracelet at first it was attached to a silver chain along with something else, the guard wasn't wearing it, and had pulled it out of his pocket. Discarding anything that wasn't on a chain I was left with four possible keys.
Startled out of my pursual by the first line of Gajeel's song I turned to silence him. "What about the guards inside?"
"Tch. I already took care of them. There were only three of them. I'm disappointed really, Jet was sure this was the main factory, and hopefully the last."
"Three...? There were twenty of them when I did my sweep through before I got caught." I said suddenly concerned for the remaining two of our group. Cursing Gajeel jumped off of the roof and bent one of the landings of the ladders as he landed. Taking off to the east I knew he went to check on Levy.
Returning my attention to the four chains I picked them up one by one and brought them to the bracelet. The first one, small chain about the length of my tail, held an actual key but it was old and rusted over. Still giving it a shot I brought it to the glowing red light and dropped it as a mild shock was released. Okay, definitely not that one. Not willing to risk passing out again I thought over my remaining three choices and tried to remember which chain it had been on. Ruling out the other key I picked up the two gem pendants, one was blue and the other red.
Logically I should go for the red one, seeing as my bracelet matched it but my guts were saying that, that would be too easy so I went for the blue one. Awaiting the shock I was relieved when I didn't feel one. Even thought I wasn't shocked I was still trapped in the bracelet, but the gem had turned blue. Checking my magic I was surprised when I felt it slowly returning to me. Hearing fighting in the opposite direction of where Gajeel had gone, I gathered the four chains and put them around my neck before releasing my wings and heading towards Jet.
Flying unsteadily to Jet's aid may not have been the best idea, considering I wasn't sure how much help I was going to be when I could barely use my magic. Finding him was easy since he was surrounded by four loud mages who kept cursing as Jet tripped them or hit them as he ran by. Seeing a glint of metal on the ground behind the circle of mages I hovered over it and saw the razor sharp teeth of a trap. Covering up the exposed part I yelled at the four mages and got their attention. Blinded by rage and humiliation at not being able to defeat one mage, they foolishly saw me as an easy target and ran at me, completely forgetting about one of their own traps. Since they were clustered in a group as they attacked all of them were snatched up by the net and dangled from a thirty foot high branch as they screamed in pain. Giving the area below them a wide berth, to avoid the dripping blood I grabbed a hold of Jet and flew back to the factory.
"Glad to see that you're alright Lily!" Jet exclaimed as I set him down.
"You too Jet." Turning around at the sound of footsteps I saw Gajeel and Levy safely standing at the entrance.
"None of them were the key?" he asked, nodding to my still shackled wrist.
"No but I was able to reverse its affects. Do you think you can take a look at it Levy? Just make sure you don't actually touch it." I warned, walking up to her with my arm out.
"Hmmm, I sense a great deal of magic coming from it, but don't see a way to get it off. It's possible the opening is the gem itself, but if none of the ones around your neck work then it would be safe to assume that there is another one that opens and closes it. Do you mind if I borrow the two around your neck while you guys search? I'll do some research and see what I can find." Levy said removing the two necklaces and walking to an intact corner of the room. Tossing her bag, and Gajeel's bag on the ground she turned around and wrote up a rune barrier around herself before sliding down the wall and digging through her bags for one of her books.
Leaving her to her research I joined Gajeel and Jet in their search for a clue as to where the other seventeen mages had gone. Feeling stronger now that some of my magic had returned to me I flew up to take in the entire factory and saw an out of place pile of boxes in the corner of the room. They were neatly stacked where as the rest of the boxes were haphazardly lying around the building. Landing on top of the cardboard boxes I opened it up to reveal nothing. Each box I searched was oddly empty. Kicking away the last of the boxes I was disappointed when it didn't reveal a door as I expected, but upon closer look I found a key hole in the corner of the floor. Grabbing the two keys off of my neck I put the rusted key in the key hole and turned it, only to have nothing happen. Pulling the key out of the hole I moved to try the other one when I heard Jet gasp.
"Hey do that again!" Jet called from the other side of the building. Turning the key as he requested I looked over to see a panel of the wall open, revealing a door. Watching him try and fail to open the door I thought about bout the other key around my neck and tossed it to him.
"Jet catch."
Once he got the key he ran back to the hidden door and unlocked it, revealing a stair case that led down into a basement. Running down the stairs without waiting for us, he came back up as we began our decent. "There are way more mages down there and they're performing some sort of ceremony with the prisoners."
"How many mages and is this the only way to get in and out?" Gajeel demanded
"Uh, I don't know, maybe twenty? This is the only exit as long as they don't have another hidden door."
Shaking my head at Gajeel who was rubbing his hands in anticipation I came up with a plan. "Gajeel, you distract the mages while Jet gets the prisoners and brings them out here. Once they're out of harms way he'll help you fight the remaining mages. I'll stay up here and make sure that none of the dark mages escape if they get past you some how." The moment I was finished Gajeel bolted down the stairs laughing loudly, definitely gaining the attention of the twenty odd Abastor members.
Gajeel POV
Oh how I missed this. I chuckled to myself as half of the mages attacked me. Not wanting the fight to end too quickly I avoided using my roar and let them come at me. Producing several kunai from my mouth I lazily threw them at the incoming mages, pinning a few to a nearby post. Leaving them to struggle with getting unpinned I shot my iron club to the remaining four mages and swept their feet out from under them, sending them tumbling back into their advancing brethren.
The smell of the traps wafted towards me as I jumped off of the last step and into the room, looking around the bleak basement I took the steel spikes that littered the walls and random patches of floor, making a kind of maze around the room. In the center of the room the other four mages still surrounded the prisoners, not the least bit worried about my sudden appearance, and continued with their ceremony.
"...By all that is holy take these sacrifices in the name of Polaris, so that she may be born into this time of great need. Allow her to purge the unfaithful and roam the two worlds freely so she may teach others of her magnificence..."
Tch. Zealots always forcin' people into their way of thinkin'. I hated zealots. Growling I returned my hand to normal and called forth my clubbed iron feet, running across the traps towards them. Now I have you're fuckin' attention don't I? "Gi hi hi"
Squishing the bastards that I had knock out previously, I kicked them in the direction of the spikes, laughing louder as they screamed in pain, and the scent of blood filled the air.
Yeah, you ain't so calm now are you? I thought as fear filled the room, and the hairs on my neck stood up in anticipation of the hunt.
"Ha-halt! Yo-yo-your in the hou-house of Polaris. She won't take kindly to-to this act of de-defiance." One brave soul dared to stand up to me from the middle of the room. Crinkling my nose at him I had to give him credit for steppin' up and actin' like a man, but he was sweating profusely and had a suspicious spot on the front of his robe. Yep, he just pissed himself.
"Gi hi hi." Towering over the cowering bunch of mages that stood beneath me I jumped in the air, returning my feet back to normal. Yelling "Iron Dragon Sword" I aimed to hit the annoying chanters, only to be kicked aside into a support beam by a gush of air.
"Let them continue Gajeel. We are after all we need to catch up." Kato snarled glaring over at me.
"It was just too much to ask that you'd land on those spikes wasn't it?" I growled at him getting to my feet. Getting a good look at him I saw that his precious face had scarred where I had cut him and where I'm assuming he had landed on the spikes. Smirking at his now scarred face, I jumped backwards, dodging the slash of his dagger. There is no way in hell I'm going through extracting that black shit from my arm again. I thought as I continued to jump backwards, to avoid his attacks, while keeping an eye out for the spikes.
"Oh I landed on them, they went straight through my leg and arm, and cut my face as you've seen. Thanks to you I can barely see out of my right eye. I should have died there like so many others but my goddess healed me so I could exact my revenge, leaving these scars as a reminder to never fail her again." Tossing away his dagger he pulled out two swords from the sheaths on his back and easily manipulated his way around the spikes.
The chanting had continued during his attack and I had yet another thing to focus on. Seeing the dark mages produce daggers of their own from the sleeves of their black robes I jumped over Kato. Damn I forgot how fast he was. I cursed when he predicted my move and intercepted my landing. Summoning my scales I twisted mid air and landed else where, cringing when I felt the tip of his blades scratch the surface. Feeling my scales bend and protest as I landed on the spikes I quickly sprung up again, "Iron Dragon's Roar" I yelled towards the robe wearing mages, preventing them from plunging their daggers into the three prisoners.
Turning towards Kato I parried his thrust and kicked him into the already fallen mages. "Jet, Lily get your asses down here and get the prisoners." I shouted not giving Kato the time to regain his feet. The less time I had to spend tracking him the better. Although I had been practicing with Jet, having him run around at his top speed in the area around me so I wouldn't be taken off guard again, on the off chance that he had survived.
Charging at him with both of my swords I watched from the corner of my eye as Jet picked up the smallest of the three captives while Lily got the remaining two. While he was passing the knocked out mages he bent down and yanked something off of them before safely leaving.
"There's no where you can go and be safe, we'll get them, and you eventually." Kato said, not bothering to look at Lily and Jet, he just continued to stare at me with a smug smile.
"What the hell did I tell you about messin' with Fairy Tail? Stay the fuck away form them." I growled
"You have what I want and what I need to make my goddess happy Gajeel. I will do anything it takes to make that happen.
"I must thank you however for rounding up the last of the Celestial Mages Gajeel, you just made it that much easier to kill them and destroy their keys. My men are on their way as we speak to dispose of them. No slayers to warn them, all of your strongest are out searching for an antidote aren't they? You thought you were being sneaky about he searches but my spies are everywhere." He laughed, bringing his wrist up to his face so he could check his watch. "I'm gonna have to cut our reunion short. Got places to be, people to kill; you know, the usual."
Moving to block his exit, I was too slow as he rushed up the stairs, knocking me on my feet as he went. Running up after him I heard a ticking coming from the wall. Seeing a flashing light where the high pitched noise was coming from I sped up. "Everyone out! There're exploding Lacrima in the walls." I shouted, running towards Levy and picking her up in one arm, and the bags of books in the other.
"Mira... hello Mira can you hear me?" Levy said, trying for the hundredth time to call the Guild. "It's not getting through Gajeel, we need to get further away from the trees."
"Keep trying Shrimp."
"What if something happened? What if what that man said was true and his people already attacked them. They had no warning, and we don't even know how many people they sent... Th-they could be hurt or worse!"
"Shrimp I'm not going to tell you again. I don't want to hear that shit, they aren't a match for us. We took out at least thirty of their people, and sent them to the council prisons. How many more could they possibly have?
"So stop your belly aching and keep tryin'."
"Mira someone please answer!"
"Le-levy is that you? We've been trying to contact you since you left! You're the only team that hasn't checked in. Did you find anything at the factory?"
"Not the antidote... but we found something that can help Lu-chan I think. I think it should be able to counter act the poison, if only a little bit. How is she? Can I talk to her?"
"That's great! Lu-chan is sleeping, you can talk to her when you get back... but getting here sooner rather than later would be best." Mira said before we lost the connection and were cut off.
"...sooner rather than later? Wait Mira, what does that mean? Mira!?" She shouted.
Not liking the sound of that I signaled Jet up to go to Levy. "Jet take the bracelet and necklaces back to the guild. Double time!" I said when he hesitated.
An: So there it is... let me know what you think. I know it wasn't that good, but I accepted it, and posted it anyways.
PremierGoldPineapple: Not planning on making her a Celestial Spirit, but who knows? ;)
taboadayvonne: Hopefully they will! Haven't decided how that is going to go quite yet.
BronzeDove: Haha, it's not all Droy's fault... well at least it wasn't meant to be in my mind. Lol
SnowLilyAngel: Sorry for the wait! We won't find out about Lucy until the next chapter that I've already started writing. ;)
artificalartofficial: My goal may be unrealistic but I'm going mid August, meaning I have to start writing several chapters a week. But the next few chapters should be out soon...hopefully.
I'm not sure where the whole Asuka scene came from, but I'm glad it happened! I wasn't sure how I was going to progress Lucy's illness, this turned out to be the perfect way though!
Rogue's group will be the last of the group chapters since they went the farthest. But I've started brainstorming, so hopefully it will turn out alright!
GemNika: Yay you're all caught up!
TimeOfTheAngels: Haha, when are thoughts ever not jumbled? As for you reviewing I don't believe you have before but thank you for doing so now!
Thanks I'm glad you like it! I love hearing from everyone, it's a nice dose of encouragement. ;) I'll try to continue to surprise you with the upcoming chapters!