Chapter 18: The Plot Thickens
A/N: Hello there everyone! How are we today? Good? Good. Great? That's awesome!... Ok that's it! Lucy it's official you suck at writing!
Natsu: What did you say? (His fist light on fire while Lucy giggles)
Umm, nothing… (He nods and puts out his fires) So this will be the only chapter today and shout outs to AztecBrat for the follow and to Decondar, sashaXmafuyuForever, and brucie86 for their reviews! Enjoy Chapter 18!
Lucy: Hey that's not what I wrote! NATSU! (Natsu attacks as another fight ensues) So easy sometimes.
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A week and five days later (Laxus POV, a week to the wedding)
'Ugh! I hate paper!' I mentally yell as I give myself yet ANOTHER FUCKING paper cut, this making the one hundredth by my count. My hands are covered in bandages and now my wrists are starting to get cut, how I don't even know. I had taken over some of the paperwork form gramps after the Gildarts fiasco since he was extremely shaken by the fact that the one widely considered the guild ace was beaten up like a punching bag, even if he was going only sixty or so percent full strength because the other guy was in the same boat. 'Damn, his timing was awful, the wedding is so close and yet he has almost destroyed the confidence of the guild. Was that guy really that strong? Or did Gildarts dick around too much? And what kind of magic did he use that could take Gildarts' disassembly magic and make it seem weak? Who are these people and why are they attacking us? OW!' one hundred and one paper cuts now.
I hear the door open and I see Olive walk into the little room that is my temporary office for the time being. "Hey babe, what's up? Maks ok? You hungry yet? Wanna go get lunch? Maybe eat OUT? And I don't necessarily mean food." I say at her, giving her that look of lust that she was used to and would usually give into.
But today she just sighed and said, "I wish we could. But I was told to come and get you, Gildarts woke up and Warrod and Gajeel are back from their little 'hunt'. They don't look too happy." I groan as this all means more work for me to do, and I stand up looking very annoyed. She gave me a hug which I returned before she said, "I'm sorry babe. But you know we could let Maks stay with Jiji for the night, and have some alone time." She was drawing patterns on my arm, which I knew to mean only one thing and one thing only, sex! I looked down at my wife, at her beautiful brown hair and her perfect body. She was about two head lengths shorter than me and it was always easy to pick her up and give her a big hug like she were a squish toy, so when I did just that I was careful not to crush her and break the love of my life.
I gave her a chaste kiss and look at her beautiful hazel eyes, gods how did I get so lucky and marry this goddess, not that I'm ugly but my scar is kind of a turn off. But she loved me for some odd reason, odd quirks and all, and I loved her for it even more. "Yes sir! Sounds like a plan!" I say as I give her butt a squeeze and she yelps in surprise before she slaps me for making her yelp in public. I apologize saying, "sorry but putting a goddess in front of me is not helping me have any self-control."
She rolls her eyes and says, "Yeah, yeah. Come on put me down and get to work," She says and I reluctantly oblige and let her down, smiling at her and hoping to get some tonight, more like praying for it. "The faster you go the faster we can have sex."
HOLY SHIT. I was so getting laid tonight!
I kiss her on the cheek and run out of the room and ask Mira "Where are they?"
She giggles at my face, clearly understanding what Olive said, and says, "Upstairs in the infirmary. Hurry up and I'll make sure master takes Maks, ok?" I do and rush up the stairs and run to the infirmary, and burst through the door, breaking it in the process and it flies and hits Gajeel in the face. He starts to growl but I cut off his anger and say, "Sorry Gajeel. In a rush, so first Gildarts, what happened exactly and where is Jiji? He will want to hear about this." I say and as if waiting for his cue gramps walks in and I say, "Ok good now Gildarts what happened to you?"
He looks at me, eyes somber, and he says "I was soundly crushed. Didn't even stand a chance, but I also did it to myself, I was tired from the journey and dicked around way too much. He felt oddly familiar though… as if I fought either him or the guy who taught him because the way the guy fought felt very similar… Wait! I know! I remember fighting a guy way back in the day his name was… Kurayami and he was a creepy bastard. He was a freelance mage and was overall not that bad a guy but was in the way of my goal. He almost got me but I was able to beat him. But I don't think that was him, he was very tall and had a higher pitched voice, the man I fought was short and had the deepest, gruffest voice I have ever heard."
"Ok, so what type of magic did he use, and how does it work?" Warrod asked and we looked at Gildarts, waiting for his answer.
"He used some sort of shadow magic, it was odd, it was if he were the shadows but he couldn't eat them like a dragon slayer can. It was as if he was merely using them to transfer himself between two points instantaneously. Almost as if he passes through a separate dimension when he does so, it was truly strange. But don't let his size fool you, he is very strong with his punches and has long arms, he was able to move extremely fast too, and even though I destroyed the shadows, er rather the things that would create shadows, he was still able to move and was on me before I could even move. It was crazy, and he could jump really high and was able to send me flying and jump above me and hit me, he's very dexterous and nimble, not to mention flexible as he used that fact to dodge some of the punches I threw. The only thing that has me really worried was that I used my main attack, where I hit someone and cause him or her to disassemble into miniature versions of themselves, but he just caught my fist and nothing happened. My plan worked perfectly and yet it failed in terms of results. The only thing that surprised him was when I head butted him to get away from him and he let go in shock as if he wasn't expecting it at all."
"Maybe he doesn't like to fight dirty like that, some people only want to use fists and head butts to them seem barbaric and unprofessional." Gajeel stated and we nod our agreement with his assumption.
"Maybe. That would make sense as Kurayami was the same way now that I think about it, he got very upset whenever I did something 'dirty' during our fight, but other than that, I don't have any useful information."
"It's alright Gildarts, your information was very useful, now Gajeel and Warrod. What about you two? What information did you find out?" Gramps asked as the three of us turned to look at them, wondering how the 'hunt' really went. We sent the two of them into the outskirts of Magnolia to find the enemy but it seemed they came back empty handed. Not that I was surprised, if they wanted to be found they would be because if they didn't we sure as well weren't gonna find them, they were good at hiding.
"We didn't find the group themselves, but we did find something else." Warrod said and immediately I was surprised, what had they found that makes them seem so down right now? "We found what seemed to be a base camp of sorts, but there were no signs of anyone being there anymore. They left behind a lot of papers, and that is what has us worried." Uh-oh, his tone was not a positive one and I prepared myself for what the prognosis would be.
"They had plans for everything, plans for the building, plans for the church, plans for Magnolia as a whole, hell they even had the sewer plans. But that wasn't the worst part…" Gajeel said and immediately my heart sank into the floor and all the way down to where that thing in the basement was. This was not gonna be good, and what he said next had me floored, "They had all the guild members daily routines and other stuff, like the usual route they would take home, where they like to eat, where they shop, what time they do things like wash their teeth, take a bath, or come and go from here. It was creepy and is consistent with what actually is the case for the guild members. And worse yet they had the entire wedding rehearsal schedule, from times and the thing we were going to rehearse, it was all there. Hell they even had info on the non-mage family members of the guild like Joi, Mavis, even… umm even on Olive."
At the mention of Olive's name I tensed and began subconsciously holding my breath in fear. 'Could she have been a target? Where was she? Did they stalk her or something?' I ask tensely, "Any clues on how they got this information?" I had an idea but it would be very hard to believe and would really make me sick to my stomach.
"There was a letter, it was from one called number Two, and in it were instructions saying to continue gathering information on the guild." I look and feel slightly less tense, knowing it was probably just a stalker, not what I thought. "There was another letter that said that this number Two was needed and was being ordered to not blow their cover, so I think we all know what that means, right?" Fuck. I did and it is what I feared, there was a spy among us here in the guild and he or she was the one who helped put so many of us in the infirmary. Wendy was still here in fact and did not look like she was going to be feeling better, at least not mentally, anytime soon.
I groan and say "Are you sure? This is a very serious accusation, you know."
"Yes I'm sure, we have the letters here with us along with everything we found, would you like to see them future master?" Warrod asks and I nod as Gajeel hand me the file that is as thick as my bicep. I begin to sort through it with gramps and Gildarts and we gasp at the accuracy of the person dossier, they really had everything down to the T. Even our bedtimes were on point, I look through it and eventually find the letters and a note, the note saying how the recipient should deal with a person, Wendy I guess as the last line catches my: Remind them of the Phantom Lord Incident.
I visibly cringe at the last line and pass the note to gramps and as I read it I poke my head out the opening that was the door and call, "Mira, could you come up here?"
I hear her ask Kinana and Olive to cover for her and she comes to where we are and asks, "what's wrong?"
"Is there anyone who is not here today?" I ask very tensely.
"I haven't seen Lucy, Juvia, Gray, or Lisanna. Why what's wrong?" She asks tense herself from seeing me be so tense.
"Go and find them, we need to ask them some things… It would seem there is a traitor in our mix." She looks at me in horror before rushing downstairs and going to see if they had come in as, surprisingly they all did. "Well it would seem we are gonna be here awhile asking everyone, us included, a whole lot of questions." I say and we all groan; fuck me. I was so not getting laid tonight.
Earlier that day (POV Change to unknown character)
I sip my hot coco as it's cold out, nearing the snowy season, and I love hot coco when it's like this. I'm waiting for someone and they really are making me wait, which made me extremely unhappy and annoyed. 'Why is he always late? If he says he lost track of time I'm sending him into next week, cause I know that's code for I stopped to eat, he eats way too much. Costs me an arm and a leg every time we go out and eat. Ah, there he is.' I see him walk up to the café, with someone else behind him, my brow furrowing in question before I see who it is. 'Oh he brought her too huh? Wonder why?' "Hey Boss, what's with number Two being here?" I ask as I give him a hug and give Two one too.
He sits down and gets right to the point, "We're pulling you out. It's close to go time and we need you back with us. It's time for to plan for the end game, and plus they found the old base camp so we relocated."
"What? They actually found it? Wow I'm shocked, they must have gotten lucky then, did they get anything useful or had you already moved like we discussed?" I ask and look him in the eye.
"They got what I wanted them to get, the stuff we coerced Kurogane into giving us(check chapter four for the scene), so nothing too useful, but they did find the schedule dossiers we left there, so they know there is someone that is a traitor, hence why we are pulling you out. Two will take your place as a proxy and make sure no one notices you're gone." He says and I sigh in agreement.
"You're lucky it's psychic projection of me and that we look identical, or else we would be in a jam. Hey Two, you'll need my house keys and all my stuff that will convince them that you really are me. Glad I learned this trick and that there is no way to tell people and psychic projections apart. Now here ya go." I say and pass her my personal belongings as she begins to put the stuff away and hands me her cloak as she is wearing the same exact thing I'm wearing. I put on the cloak and quickly pull up the hood. "Jeez wait until we reach a bathroom next time, ok go and head back to the guild, I'll head back with the Boss here."
She nods and says, "Ok should I go home first or straight to the guild? What do you usually do."
"Yell at people for no reason and beat the snot out of them, what do you think? You're me remember? Just do what you wanna do." I say very sarcastically as I wonder if this really is me and watch as she scowls at me and stalks off before sending a perv who tried and touch her butt flying all the way to Hargeon. "Yeah she's definitely a copy of me, so ready to take me back to base camp boss? And hey why were you late?"
"Had to avoid Kurogane and the old plant, they were coming back and passed through where I was passing through. It was almost a close call but they seemed very into getting back before something happened. It was cute actually, thinking that they could actually use that information against us. Must have really destroyed their confidence."
"Probably and I heard Five beat Gildarts? Now that's surprising. Didn't see that coming." I say and look at the Boss as he chuckles lightly.
"Yeah but it sucks, his head has gotten huge now and is really annoying. 'I beat their ace, I'm the best!' Ugh I would crush Clive with one hand tied behind my back an no magic, he's way too old."
"Oh please he's not that weak we both know that. But I will say this, Laxus is way stronger than before, he's probably the strongest now. I would bet on it. Still won't be enough to beat you but it should be fun at least. As long as I get Gildarts or Gray or even Jellal, now that would be fun. And make it two versus one with Erza now that would really be fun!" I say and we both break into laughter and walk away from the café. "So, how's everyone? I haven't seen them in two months."
"They're ok, they still argue like kids though which is really cute, reminds me of that couple we ran with a few years back, remember out in Boa? Yeah it was like watching there kids argue, but I always end up getting violent so I knock them out."
I sigh at the memory and day, "I miss them, I hope they are alright, I wouldn't want to hear that their government found them or anything because of our quick escape from there. Oh and where is your ring?! I still wear mine when I go to sleep Baka! If you lost it I swear…"
He pulls a necklace out and on it is our wedding ring, and he says, "I would never leave it behind. It was my only reminder of you the past few months and I would never take it off." I sigh contentedly at his reply and grab his arm.
We walk the rest of the way in a comfortable silence before we arrive and I ask, "Are we gonna do anything to the guild before the wedding or just plan? Either way I'm good."
"Just plan and rest up, we will need all of our energy for the big day." I nod and walk into the camp and look around seeing everyone there, waiting for us. The Boss says, "OK, we have a wedding to crash, so let's get planning!"
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A/N: Dun-dun-dun! So now we know the Boss is married and that Laxus is a horndog. Surprised? I hope so! Well don't forget to answer the question in fifteen via review or PM and see you guys tomorrow! READ AND REVIEW! ADIOS! (Steps over an unconscious Natsu and a thoroughly incensed and bound Lucy)