So many lovely revieews!
Thank you so much for taking the time to let me know what you think; I really can't wait with updating, wanting to do so immediately after reading all of those kind and cheerful reviews (and fangirling and dreading and amuse and everything you pour in there)! But if I'd do that, we'd run out of chapters in a few days ':D
In any case, thank you first guest! I have no idea how you do it, but you're always the first even though you don't get the notification... so amazing!
Isanien, thank you so much for letting me know what you liked! I'm so glad to hear it!
Guest with the many paragraphs, thaaaank you for thooose! So much feeling - I'm happy to give writing and the story my all for such lovely comments!
Identified guest Mitzy, first of all, thank you for the typos again! And the explanation :D And also so many paragraphs, thaaank you so much! I can't wait to hear what you think of the upcoming chapters! And thanks for letting me know that you liked more intimate moments, I'll be sure to remember that ;)
Last but definitely not least, Somnolent Sushi Roll, thank you so much for pointing out certain things that you liked in particular! Also for mentioning the intimacy as something that's good to be included, I'll keep doing my best! Thank you so much for so many reviews with so many paragraphs!
Now then, without further ado, let's resume where we left off...
Jellal lifted the blanket without making a sound. He sat at the side of the bed, carefully shifting his weight to stand when there was another scraping on the door. He swiftly slipped into his trousers, taking a step towards the ajar bedroom door. Her armour clinked and he heard Erza turn the key in the lock. A cold breeze entered the house.
He winced at the sound of metal against metal. Erza gave a muffled shout. His eyes widened in panic. With a thud, she fell. Jellal's muscles tensed and he bolted to the door when the window burst. A dark figure flew in. Jellal braced himself, feet meeting his abdomen but he had already lifted his foot. The figure was sent straight into the fall, leaving a cracking imprint.
Hurrying to the door, Jellal found three more figures there. All in black, blending into the night, the only thing that glowed at him being greenly shining goggles. Like insects, they hovered over Erza, reaching for her arms and legs, ready to drag her away.
His breath caught in his throat. Panicked, Jellal shot them with Pleiades, followed by Jiu Leixing. Stepping over her motionless body, he formed a Hexagon Barrier, then drove it forward, crashing the three into the neighbour's wall.
There was a sliding sound on the roof. He threw his head back just in time to see another man leaping down. He crossed his arms above his head. Heavily spiked footwear penetrated his lower arms, forcing his knees to bend. Jellal gave a thrust, throwing the figure right after his fellows.
Garish light illuminated the street when Jellal fired with spells after them, knocking them out and further into the bricks. Panting, he perceived more swishing steps from above. From both sides. From the street. He picked up Erza, holding her in his arms when another of the sharp shoes stabbed his back, then his ribs.
Groaning, Jellal planted his feet in the ground as not to lose his balance. He spun around to kick whoever had snuck up on him but the spot was empty. Electricity suddenly zapped through his body, his spine as if on fire, blazing through his veins with white hot pain. Throwing Erza over his shoulder instead, he turned, grabbing the electrocution tool firmly in his hand. It singed his palm, shredding his skin which tattered every which way. His heart throbbed with ache.
With a growl, Jellal sent his own magic into his spasming arm. The tool cracked then splintered, sending metal and blood flying. Another kick landed in his side. This time, he wheeled around with lightning speed, throwing a gory punch and breaking whatever bones his knuckles met.
His chest heaved and the pelting rain weighed down on him, Erza's limb form dangling down his back. He felt as if alight, but his legs shook and his head buzzed. It was pitch-black but even with the rushing of blood in his ears and the blurry exhaustion that clouded his vision, Jellal saw them coming.
With his toes, he tossed Erza's fallen sword up, catching it in his free hand. Not a millisecond too late.
A blade clashed into his, grinding until the handle, greenish goggles staring into his eyes. There was another swishing. Stepping back, he dodged the next figure that jumped off the roof. He twirled around, slicing whatever he could, then lunged back at the previous assassin. Swords rammed once more, the enemy's chipping at the brutal force Jellal used. He turned his massacred wrist, spinning the blade out of his opponent's hand, then struck the figure's ribcage, sending it flying.
Jellal's breath rasped, burning in his lungs and throat but his eyes were wildly brimming with fury. He heard the previous assaulter take to his heels, flinging the sword after him. With a choking groan, the figure fell onto the wet street.
Wheezing, Jellal's body coursed with adrenaline. He strode over to his other victim, grabbed the fallen man at his feet by the collar and yanked him up into the air. He was the closest to consciousness so he shook him.
"Who sent you?" He snarled, his voice ragged and rough. The figure struggled and Jellal shifted his clutch to squeeze the raw flesh of his torn-up hand around the man's throat. The latter choked, coughing up blood that seeped into the fabric covering his face, running down Jellal's hand and wrist. "What do you want from her?" He hollered, tightening his grip, enticing another suffocated cough by nearly strangling the man.
"Jellal!" He faintly heard a female voice, joined by another, then a male, all shouting his name in a clutter that mixed with the splashing of steps on the street. Hands pulled on his arm, and it quivered, the only slowly subsiding adrenaline being replaced with torrid pain. He dropped the now unconscious person to the floor.
Panting, Jellal felt his haze thin, his senses returning alongside the numbing sting of his entire body. Erza's weight on his shoulder rushed back to him and he blinked his vision clear, the swaying images of Wendy holding on to his arm combining together into one.
"What happened?" Lucy's voice came from the side.
"Are you okay?" Wendy asked, inspecting what little she could see of his hand in the dark with alarm.
"Someone broke in," Gray was saying. He came back from the inside of the house, dragging a limp black figure behind him. The man from the bedroom window. Not that Jellal could add that up just yet. It was hard enough to associate the voices all around him, to recognise the faces through eyes clouded with hate and pain. He focused on finding an answer to Lucy's question. He searched his memory, the flashing images coming back.
"This is all of them," Natsu exited the house as well, his nose working and dripping with rain.
"It looks like an organised attack," Lucy muttered. She carefully tapped one of the hunched persons that had been dented into the neighbour's wall. Neither moved, slacking onto the cold street with a splash. She turned to her guildmates. "Do you think-"
"Hey, what the hell is this?!" Gray came back stomping up the street, fists balled and practically fuming with rage. Juvia had her hands over her mouth in shock, waving Wendy over who rushed to where the Water Mage still stood. "You can't just kill someone, Jellal!" Gray exclaimed, receiving gasps from all sides.
Jellal blinked at him, trying to remember. And find the flaw.
"Dude, you bloody perforated that guy!" Gray kept on yelling while Wendy's hands glowed with emergency healing magic. "He could well be dead; what do you think you're doing?! You can't just go around murdering people! Get a grip!" He bellowed.
"Gray, keep it down, man," Natsu held his guildmate back by his tensed shoulder.
"How can you say that!" Gray retorted, probably alarming anyone in the area who had not yet been awoken by all the commotion.
"He was only just pardoned; at least save it for later," Natsu murmured but Jellal heard. It did not sink in until hours later though. Right about now, his legs threatened to give in. The only thing his mind could focus on was not to drop Erza, praying that she was unharmed.
"I heard them come, we both did…" Jellal said with a voice as dragging as his feet. His hair and trousers were drenched but he had taken a towel from the bathroom to wrap it around Erza. She was still unconscious, resting in his arms like a sack of potatoes. He slummed down at the end of the bed.
"They must have been with that guy," Lucy hissed, shooting the tied-up ring of men in black an uneasy look.
"They were – they had the same electric device." Jellal retold. "They used no magic." He sighed, feeling the burns and stings from his hand, his back and everywhere they had bruised his body. Most of all, he felt the ache of his heart, eyes stuck on nothing but his beloved's face with relentless concern. They had found a soaked cloth near the entrance, its smell almost knocking both Dragon Slayers out without having to be too near it.
"Then he sent them for Erza," Lucy went on. She paced the room, always with a precautious glance at the people in question. With their masks removed, they looked nothing like creepily skilled head hunters. "We'll take them to the guild and interrogate them when they come to," she announced earning nods from Natsu, Wendy and Gray.
"Juvia wonders," Juvia said, standing at the still broken window, "why there are shards outside," she noted. Gray walked over, and she pointed at the street, shining glass splinters within the furrows of the wet cobblestone. "If they only broke in," she said, raising suspicions.
The house had already been checked for people, but Natsu started sniffing once more. Gray had found the intruder in the cracked wall, so they knew it could not have been him fleeing. Who else had vanished back out into the night, unseen, after having snuck through the unguarded house?
Natsu's nostrils flared and he sniffed around the window, then the spot where they had found the first assassin. He shook his head. Going on, he crawled over the bed, wrinkling up his nose and giving Jellal a look the others could luckily not decipher. Next, he inspected the nightstand of Erza's side of the bed, pulling out the drawer and finding her portable communication lacrima at the very front.
"It reeks," he said, hinting at the attackers.
"But… why not steal it then?" Juvia asked, drawing the curtains to keep at least the strongest gusts of icy wind outside.
"Let's bring it to the guild," Lucy proposed, "we can have Warren take a look at it," she said, being met with mutual agreement. "You should stay at the guild, too," she leaned down a little to catch Jellal's attention. He was tired to the bones but looked up nonetheless. "We have plenty of space in the infirmary and there's always someone there," she said in a soothing voice.
"Let me heal you first," Wendy offered. All of them stared with disgusted shock when he revealed his rent hand from beneath the towel. The young Dragon Slayer gave it her all but after having saved a man from the threshold of death and with the gravity of Jellal's numerous wounds, they resorted to wrapping his hand and arm up in bandages.
"Juvia thinks we should not leave any valuable things behind with the broken window," Juvia suggested. Jellal thought for a moment, his mind's gears turning only slowly but he glanced down his beloved's hip to find the compass. He realised that there was nothing else worth protecting from theft.
He sluggishly packed a change of clothes, both of their toiletries and wrapped everything up in her favourite blanket. Juvia enclosed the captured men in a sphere of water while at the same time creating a roof above their heads to shield from the rain. Gray shielded her with an umbrella made of ice. Natsu had shoved the commode in front of the window but it was too low to reach further than the lower third. Still, it kept the curtains closed and at least a fraction of rain out.
"We actually came because Levy is done analysing," Lucy explained and Jellal had to pull himself together to listen. "The very last sample! Such a strange coincidence, but at least we found something. We'll start investigating tomorrow, though… perhaps it would be smarter to start on these guys," she put a thoughtful finger to her chin, glancing up at the floating orb of water, heads sticking out for oxygen.
"That sounds appalling, indeed," Makarov said in a grave voice. With his eyes closed and arms crossed, he gave a low hum. "But there's no doubt that those delinquents must be tightly connected to that monster if they even used those… revolting weapons." He concluded. He exhaled sharply through his nose, raising his glance to watch a quietly stirring Erza. Everyone's attention shifted to her.
Jellal leaned over slightly where he sat on her bed, seeing her brow twitch, then her hand. A sword appeared. She shot up, swinging the blade in a reflex of self-defence. Jellal's arm sprang up, and she stopped too late. With huge eyes, Erza stared into his widened ones. They remained frozen for another heartbeat. Blood seeped through the bandage of his arm and she sent the sword away immediately.
Then she fell forward.
"Jellal…" Erza managed, head against his chest. She lifted it, blinking a panicked tear from her eye, hands on his arms which held her. "What happened? There were…"
"You got attacked by the head hunters," Gray's stern voice interrupted. She glanced past Jellal to look at him, finding her entire team to be watching her with concern.
"They broke into your house but Jellal fended them off," Lucy went on. Erza's hands travelled along his, fishing for the one she had just injured further.
"We threw them into the dungeons," Natsu supplied while Erza absently traced the bandage of her beloved's arm. "And tomorrow we'll beat their boss' location out of them!" He punched a balled fist into his palm.
"And finally track down that Gravy-Bastard," Gray growled under his breath, allowing the calming hand of Juvia on his shoulder.
"Let me come with you," Jellal asked, meeting the surprised eyes of Team Natsu. Erza opened her mouth to protest but they agreed in her stead. There was no way he would have been able to leave her alone now. His heart was still racing with fear. She gazed into his eyes, reading it, leaning forward to touch her forehead with his in a reassuring manner.
The coming day was only a few hours away now and he dreaded its arrival.