I'm baaa~aaack! The Five Dragons has always been a passion project for me, and recently something just… reignited that passion for me. (haha, to put it in Natsu terms: I'm all fired up!) So consider this the official 'I'm working on this again!' chapter! it'll probably be the last one i publish before i catch up with the rewrite, which I'm pleased to report I'm making steady progress on. man, it feels good to work on this again. I might edit this chapter a little bit once i do catch up, depending on what does and does not change, but there wont be any major differences. love yall
Gajeel pushed open the doors to Jude's study with a crash, ignoring the glare the man shot him. "Alright, old man, time to pay up!"
Jude set his pen down, folding his hands in front of him. "Finally decided he wasn't going to 'make a break for it' again, hmm?" A scowl writes itself across his features as the iron dragon slayer shrugs. "Very well. But if he escapes again... the magic council might finally take notice of Phantom Lord."
"Hah! You threatenin' me, old man? Won't look good for you, hirin' a dark guild."
"A dark guild? Whatever do you mean? I hired a legal guild to get my son back, and I only noticed that they were behaving unscrupulously once my son was safe back home. I didn't dare act before then."
Gajeel cackled at the faux show of emotion. "You're full of shit, old man."
"Watch your tongue." Jude picked up his pen again, turning his attention back to his paperwork. "The money will be waiting by the door. Get out of my sight."
With one last grin— more a baring of teeth than a smile— Gajeel turned on his heel, striding out of the office. Damn rich people. Damn circumstances, too. He hadn't been certain at first, but... something about that Natsu kid felt familiar, and it sat like rust in his stomach to leave him there. Or maybe Gajeel just hated Jude (pretentious asshole) that much.
In any case, he had his own plans. Unlike Jude, he knew that Phantom Lord had been disbanded and arrested shortly after the attack on Fairy Tail, and even as he took the money from the butler or whatever by the door, he didn't plan to break them out. Good riddance, as far as he cared.
(Well, he would consider breaking Juvia out, maybe, if he thought she would go and get herself arrested in the first place. And besides, she wasn't even a member anymore.)
Nah. First order of business, making the trek back to Magnolia. His Phantom Lord guild mark was long gone, but if any of the Fairies did recognize him he had a sizeable bribe of cash to make up for it. They were probably going to need it, after what happened to their guild hall. If any of his impressions of the guild were correct, though, he likely wouldn't even need it— information on where one of their members had gone off to would likely be more than enough. If you ignored the convenient fact that Gajeel was the one that put them there.
Phantom Lord may have been a dark guild in all but name, but Jude was darker. Gajeel knew that much, at least; he had his suspicions, at first, and he had taken advantage of the time afforded him by 'looking after' Natsu to do some digging through the mans files. Granted, he wasn't the best reader, or the quickest, but he knew which words to look for— names of dark guilds and dark Mages, bribes paid to various members of the Magic Council, various donations to organizations looking into 'curing magic', it was all there and more. More than enough to justify setting Fairy Tail loose on his property.
Not enough to justify taking the train to Magnolia, though.
It was a day later that he finally reached the outskirts of Magnolia, making it a week since he had deposited Natsu directly into Jude's hands. The town itself seemed fairly settled— more calm than he would expect, after one of the most prominent guilds in Fiore got smashed into powder, but maybe they were used to it at that point.
From the edge of town, he followed the sound of construction and smell of booze— not that he really needed the guide, when he already knew where the guild hall was. Clearly they had some experience in renovation— the skeleton frame of the guild was already complete, which only left about everything else to do. For a group of unhinged drunks, it was impressive.
Speaking of unhinged drunks, though, one of the women near the entrance took note of his approach and swaggered over, clutching an entire bottle of alcohol with both arms. "Hey~ *hic*, come to ogle our guild hall, huh?" She giggled, leaning forwards like she was about to share a secret although she continued at full volume. "It's practically NAKED right now, heh... *hic*."
Gajeel began to have second thoughts.
"Cana, why don't you go make sure no ones working themselves too hard, hmm?" Said someone from about knee level, who was clearly disregarding the fact that Cana looked like the one who needed looking after.
"Sure, sure, I'll go make sure no ones..." she waved a hand in the air, taking another swig out of the bottle and stumbling back the way she came. Gajeel looked down and— well, didn't come eye to eye with him, exactly, but came face to face with the guild master of Fairy Tail for the first time.
He didn't strike the most imposing figure, tiny and bandaged and smiling, but if he was anything like Phantom Lords master then Gajeel knew not to look down on him. (Metaphorically. Physically, there wasn't much he could do.)
"You're Gajeel of Phantom Lord, correct?" Makarov asked, smile unfaltering. "I hope you don't plan to attack my children again."
Gajeel grimaces, setting the bag of cash down and flexing his fingers. "Nah, that's not what I'm here for. This time."
"In that case, why don't you join our guild?"
"Listen, I said that's not what I'm— what?" Gajeel snapped his mouth shut, staring at the guild master in utter befuddlement. What? He couldn't have heard that wrong, but— what? Of all the things he had expected entering Magnolia again, that was absolutely not on the list.
"I know our guild hall isn't the most impressive looking right now, but I assure you, we have plenty of space for new members." The smile dropped from his face, "And if word were to get out that you were a part of Phantom Lord, the magic council would want to have you locked up. Joining a legal guild would give you protections against that. Of course, Fairy Tail isn't your only option, but we would be glad to have you, regardless."
Well damn, the old man had a point. Not that shackles or cell bars would do much to keep him contained, but it would be nice to avoid the hassle of escaping and then trying to find a guild that would take him. 'Sides, there were plenty of strong people in Fairy Tail. Mind already made up, he grinned. "I'll think about it, old man. First, though, don't you have a member missing?"
Natsu had about resigned himself to his fate. His taste of freedom had been nice— more than he ever could have asked for, really, even if Jude was one step behind him all the way, but it had come at too high a cost. So many people had gotten hurt because of him. He shouldn't have joined a guild, shouldn't have gotten attached, but he had and he regretted it. Not meeting Lucy and Happy and Erza and Gray— he didn't regret that, couldn't regret that, but he regretted what came of it.
Having Gajeel around had been weird, but it meant that Jude kept his distance. Now, though, with the other dragon slayer gone (and what Natsu would have given for a chance to properly talk to the guy), it was only a matter of time before Jude called him into his study. Sure enough, it was only a day after Gajeel left that he was called back into Jude's study.
The atmosphere in the darkened room was tense, as Jude refused to do much as look up at him for a full ten minutes, despite being the one to summon him. Eventually, he set his pen down, folding his hands in front of him much like he had for Gajeel. Then he unfolded them again to pinch the bridge of his nose, sigh.
"You know, I don't want to be fighting you every step of the way, Dragneel. If you had just cooperated from the start, this all would have been so much easier. Thanks to your reckless, immature actions, I have had to fund millions of jewel into covering for you and having you brought back home. I don't understand why you insist on fighting me on this."
He played the part of concerned parent well; well enough that most would buy into it without doubt. Natsu, though. Natsu had the senses of a dragon slayer. Natsu saw right through him.
"Cooperated? Cooperated with what! You took everything from me— you have taken everything from me! I am not your son, Jude, and I am not your heir. You tried, oh, you tried to make me your perfect little puppet but I am not and will not ever be that! Fairy Tail," and here he paused, just for a moment, "Fairy Tail taught me—"
"Fairy Tail is gone because of you!" Jude had stood at some point during Natsu's rebuttal, now towering over the dragon slayer. "Fairy Tail stood for nothing in the end, Natsu. Fairy Tail crumbled. Any lessons you learned there…" he shook his head, almost looking sympathetic, "any lessons you learned there were truly worthless. Or else, why would their guild hall fall so easily?" A malicious spark caught in his eye, "You are no longer a member of Fairy Tail, Dragneel. You might think they still care about you, but you're wrong."
"That's— you're wrong. They care more than you ever did."
"Oh, Dragneel." Jude shook his head, reached across the desk. Natsu flinched back but all the older man did was catch his jaw in his hand, forcing eye contact. "Then why haven't they come to get you yet?"
He let go, wiped his palm off as if he had touched something dirty, sat back down at his desk. "If you're going to continue this charade of rebellion, then our conversation for today is done. Your lessons continue tomorrow, do try to be on time for them. There's a lot for you to unlearn."
Natsu turned, stiffly, walking out of the study. He didn't want to say Jude was right, but. It had been a week. That attack… he was likely responsible for the death of a couple members (he hoped, hoped, hoped, that it was not all of them, that the guild hall was not full), and he himself wasn't a member any longer, Aria had taken care of that. What place did he have, assuming that they would want to take him back, after all the trouble and hurt he had caused?
"Oh, and Natsu?" Jude added, just as he reached the door. "Remember, you aren't worthy of the Heartfilia name yet. Keep working, Dragneel."
The door shuts with a clunk behind him, and Natsu takes a moment to rest his head against the thick wood. He could turn around, rip the door off of its hinges, attack Jude— but then where would he be? Fairy Tail— not with Fairy Tail, unless he killed Jude the Heartfilia Estate would forever be hostile, and he didn't want to… he didn't want to kill the man, despite everything.
He corrects his posture, setting off down the hallway. Might as well see if they're willing to let him out of his cast yet; while the cuff blocked off most of his magic it left his senses and rate of healing intact, and his arm and ribs barely even ached anymore.
(His shoulder though; he had definitely fucked that up. If it hadn't healed by now, it probably never would.)
Thunk.
Well. Not that it mattered. Jude was keeping such a close eye on him now he doubted he would ever find another chance to escape.
Thunk.
Even now, aside from the security lacrima, Jude had servants tailing him. Whatever smidgen of privacy he might have been able to keep before was well and thoroughly gone now.
Thunk.
He stepped into the main room, intending to pass by the stairs that led to the second level in favour of heading to his room, instead. Not much point asking about his cast when they'd probably want him to keep it on another week anyways— what was that thunking noise?
The front doors blew open with a plume of magical power, revealing Guild Master Makarov, hand still raised from where he had used it to knock the doors off of their hinges, a wide grin on his face. "Oops," he said, not sounding sorry in the least, "Looks like I knocked a little too hard."
"Natsu!" Pushing past him was Erza, Lucy, Gray.
"Uh, you aren't supposed to be here," someone called, but they were blatantly ignored by the Fairy Tail Mages.
"Natsu! You're okay!"
"He's okay? Look, his arms totally broken!"
"If he broke your arm I'm gonna—"
"Death threats later! We found Natsu again!"
"Guys?" Natsu blinked, befuddled. Had he finally lost it? "What are you all doing here?"
Lucy got close enough to pull him into a hug, mindful of his arm. "We came for you, silly."
Natsu took a step back, pulling out of her embrace. "Wh— but I'm not even a member of Fairy Tail anymore! My guild mark is gone, the guild hall is—"
Then Erza was there, pulling him into a significantly less gentle and much more crushing embrace. "Being a member of Fairy Tail is much more than having a guild mark, Natsu. You're with us for as long as you want to be."
"Yeah, what she said. Once a member of Fairy Tail, always a member of Fairy Tail." Gray smirked, and then shot Natsu a wary look. "But you aren't getting a hug from me, flame-brain."
Erza stopped compressing his lungs for long enough to spin him around to face her, both hands on his shoulders. "You should have told us! We would have made sure this man never would have bothered you again." She looked him over, displeasure visible in the slant of her mouth. "He hasn't done anything to you, has he?"
Natsu would have answered, really, he would have, but it was at that exact moment that Jude strode into the room, anxiously being trailed by one of the staff. "Natsu!" He bellowed, face flushed red, "What is the meaning of this!?"
aaand scene. nothing much to add this time, just thought i would let you all know; I'm reposting the rewritten chapters over to ao3 under the same title and username. mostly because i dont exactly… trust ffn dot net to keep it together for much longer haha. of course i'll still be posting here for as long as i can :) ~ShadeShadow