Fairy Tail was finally back to normal – or as normal as it could be.
Of course, it wouldn't have been Fairy Tail without another national incident under their belt in fewer weeks than it took to actually rebuild the guild hall. The Tower of Heaven had been built, (nearly) activated, and then subsequently destroyed by the combined forces of Team Natsu and an Etherion Cannon, courtesy of everyone's favorite useless governing body.
Mercury had only been filled in on the details by Master and Erza so that he could write up a report on Etherion to put in the guild's archives, but it really said something when the shockwaves from the blast had traveled all the way from offshore of Akane Beach Resort to Magnolia. It was dozens of miles away, and yet even the port town had been shaken by the pressure.
It was an insane decision by the Magic Council, even for their standards. An Etherion Cannon – a laser beam from space to destroy a single tower out in the middle of nowhere? Kind of overkill, even if said tower was going to be used to revive a dead god.
Which was why it made sense when Mercury was told that the Magic Council had been infiltrated by people looking to achieve such a goal. Master Makarov had been so angry at the Council's failure to properly vet their subordinates that he'd nearly marched over to them himself just to tell them exactly what he thought about them, and it was only the careful words of the combined force of Mercury, Mira, and Erza that had convinced him to stop.
That was more dangerous than walking on a minefield blind. One wrong word, and they'd have set the Master off even further. Those Magic Council guys better be grateful. If Makarov had his way, they'd never be able to move a muscle for the rest of their lives - if they were lucky.
On the more domestic side of things, the entire guild had been reorganized. The layout had changed with the reconstruction, courtesy of Master, who said they were "starting to grow too large for the old building" and "they'd probably destroy it soon anyway." In addition to the bar, there was now an open air cafe that linked to the exterior of the guild, which in turn hosted a gift shop selling "official" Fairy Tail merchandise.
Mercury was a bit perturbed to see a picture of himself sleeping – in his own room, no less – among the lineup, but since a portion of the profits were going to go to him (if anything sold), he supposed it was alright.
Plus, Max assured him it was going to be good for his image.
Did that mean that Max assumed Mercury had a bad public image?
(Yes, he did, but didn't take into account the fact that Mercury simply had no public image; he wasn't outside enough to be recognized on the street, not anymore.)
Surely this would not have any weird consequences down the line...
With no more paperwork left to do – finally – Mercury found himself with excess free time; getting all of the forms filled and sent had been his contribution to the Fantasia Parade, which was mostly an excuse to not be involved with the preparations. Now, however, he could say that he'd done something by giving Master Makarov precious freedom to enjoy the holiday.
And Mother knew Master needed it.
In the wake of both the Phantom Lord incident and the Tower of Heaven incident, Makarov just looked to be old. His eyes were slightly sunken, shoulders hunched a noticeable amount more than usual, and that alone spoke numbers of Makarov's condition – he'd lost almost a full inch of height when he sat in the same way Mercury did.
The stress of the chaotic guild was getting to the Master, but that wasn't the only thing weighing so heavily on the old man. For one, he'd had the faux trial from the aftermath of the Phantom Lord incident leaning over his shoulder. It wasn't entirely real, per say, and he wasn't in any tangible trouble, yet the trial itself had shown just how unfavorably the Magic Council viewed Fairy Tail nowadays. Very few were willing to speak up for the guild, even when it was clear that they hadn't initiated the fighting.
Councilman Yajima was a dear friend to both Makarov and Fairy Tail, and even he had barely been able to prevent consequences from becoming real.
The Magic Council even had the gall to suggest that Master start looking for a successor. It was clear that they just wanted someone easier to control as a Fairy Tail leader, or perhaps just an opportunity to replace his role as Wizard Saint with someone more loyal, because it was a widely known fact that Makarov's loyalty remained Fairy Tail's alone.
Which became the second issue that had been weighing heavily on Makarov – who to pick as a successor.
No one in the guild, in Mercury's unprofessional and highly biased opinion, was fit for the role. Makarov's shoes would be tough to fill, regardless of how competent a mage one was, but that alone was not itself a qualification to become guildmaster – if it was, Laxus surely would have been elected already.
The next guild leader needed to be mature, strong, compassionate, and, most of all, love with their whole heart. Prominent members of the current guild could have fit into one or two categories, maybe even three, but they were each lacking one thing or another, and Master would want his successor to be perfect for the role.
Even if Laxus already strutted around like he owned the guild already due to his blood relation, Makarov was not yet ready to give the title to him; Laxus may have been his grandson, but Fairy Tail was his child.
Whispers that the lightning dragon slayer would be the next leader had been floating through the guild hall over the last couple of days. It irritated Mercury; he didn't like hearing about that frustrating, juvenile man, and especially didn't like how he'd clearly been through the guild in the last couple of days, if the static in Mercury's hair was any indication.
The dragon slayer was just in time for the Fantasia Festival.
And that worried Mercury. Laxus hadn't been around for the entertainment in at least two years, and he was obviously choosing now to stick around for some unknown reason – clearly, he was plotting something, though the water mage was desperately hoping it was a mere coincidence.
It was fortunate for both Mercury and Master that the Miss Fairy Tail Contest was starting soon. Fortunate for Master, because the old lecher loved looking at young, voluptuous women, and fortunate for Mercury because it gave him more opportunities to scuttle around the guild hall in search of whatever trick he feared Laxus was planning.
(Fantasia was like a holy event for Fairy Tail – surely he couldn't be so stupid as to plot something now.)
When the lights dimmed, Mercury knew that it was time for the contest to start, and forced himself to attempt to relax. It wouldn't do him any good to stress about something that may or may not happen; if he gave into the anxiety, he was sure he'd look no better than Master did, and he'd be more worn out if something did happen.
He took the spot behind the bar that had been relinquished by Mira when she went up to participate in the pageant, though he had no idea how to actually make any of the drinks he so often watched people consume. Taking up the position was more so to give himself a better view of the stage. If he'd attempted to watch from the crowd, in all likelihood, he'd have been crushed, or worse – be pressed close enough to have his skin pressed against someone else's.
The thought made him shiver. Mercury didn't like being touched.
He only gave half of his attention to the girls on stage. They were all very beautiful, but he didn't care much; there was only one woman he'd ever admired, and that was his wife. If you asked him, she had been the prettiest woman to ever grace Earthland.
First up was Cana, using her card magic to take the attention of the crowd right away by changing right into a swimsuit. Obviously, the older men were quite taken by this act, and Mercury rolled his eyes as Macao and Wakaba roared with glee.
Wasn't Wakaba married? Actually, Macao had a kid – this was no way for him to be acting.
Then again, Mercury had no reference for this kind of thing; his home life hadn't exactly been normal by human standards, either.
To the water mage's surprise, the second contestant was Juvia. She'd dedicated her performance to her darling Gray – who looked as though he wanted to melt away from the glares that immediately honed in on him after her statement – and filled the room with torrents of water, which Mercury would have appreciated more if it didn't splash over the crowd.
Mira came after. She wasn't taking it seriously, which was honestly very fair of her; if she'd actually tried to act in a way that appealed to the crowd, the Sorcerer Weekly model would have captivated the whole room, and no one would have bat an eye at the other contestants. Her fans roared in a way that both had the room shaking and Mercury's head pounding from the sheer loudness of it, until the transformation mage used basic level transformation magic to turn her head into Gajeel's.
Then, they all let out a groan, because the voice that came out of the transformed head also belonged to the iron dragon slayer. Mira smiled as she transformed once more, this time into Happy.
And Happy turned out to be the only one happy with that turn of events.
Erza was the fourth contestant to take the stage. She was easily the closest to Mira in terms of fans – though most fans were likely shared between the two – as they surged upwards when the knight stepped forward.
Mercury was honestly surprised when someone at the bar whispered, "Hey, who's she? She's kinda hot."
He was smacked by his friend, of course, before anyone could reply, and given a hushed explanation of just who Erza Scarlet was, though Mercury could make none of it out over the loudness that followed her transformation.
The Requip mage used her magic to change her outfit from her normal Heart Kruz armor to a gothic lolita looking outfit, with a frilly skirt and thigh high socks, topped with a large bow in her signature color – bright scarlet red. Mercury absentmindedly wondered if her hair is included in the target of her magic; it had gone from long and straight to curled up in a braid that even the water mage could admit looked very cute.
Could he learn requip magic to do such a thing? He knew Erza's specialty magic was quite unique in her own repertoire – normal requip magic could only switch weapons or items – but it would be incredibly helpful to be able to change his hair with a small flick of magic.
Levy's performance, on the contrary to the last two, was cute and innocent. It was like Mercury was watching someone's daughter; she didn't change her outfit, but her mannerisms were dainty and almost hesitant until she whipped out the Solid Script magic that she was known for. With it churning out words and magic around her, Levy's countenance changed to a mage who simply loves to be doing magic.
And her fans were surprisingly numerous.
Last, but not least, came Lucy, shakily stalking out from the wings with those shining keys in her hands. She seemed to have more than he'd previously seen just mere weeks ago just when the Phantom Lord Incident was starting, now totalling at least four of the gold ones and several more of the silver ones.
He had no idea how Celestial Spirit magic actually worked, but surely it was the golden ones that were important, right?
While Mercury didn't actually care about the Celestial Spirit mage's performance – it looked like she was just going to summon a spirit; he hoped it wasn't the water one she'd summoned back in the alleyway. That one was scary – he did want to get a gauge on how strong Lucy was, though for an entirely selfish reason.
Team Natsu was always causing issues for the guild and for Mercury – specifically in the form of the damage reports he had to fill out. So, the question was – is Lucy a part of the problem? Is she contributing to the literal books worth of paper that he sometimes found himself having to dig through?
More importantly, could he fix her?
(specifically, to be less destructive; Erza, Natsu, and Gray were all lost causes, but maybe Lucy was self aware enough to limit chaos when it was possible.)
As though the universe sensed his curiosity, however, Mercury could feel the surge of magic from backstage. He was rarely able to sense magic this intensely – it manifested in the buzzing behind his eyes, the sound of some sort of stringed instrument – and the only reason he could was because he was so familiar with it, had spent so much time around the user that the sensation was like second nature to him.
Damn it, he was right to be worried. It had been a long time since he wished his intuition wasn't as good as it was.
In the same movement that he straightened up, the mysterious backstage newcomer gave a small cough from the wings of the stage.
"This competition is now over – with me as the winner!"
And it was Evergreen that stepped forward.
Mercury knew what was going to happen; he'd seen it happen so many times before that it shouldn't have come as a surprise that Lucy, mid protest, was turned to stone, but the sheer audacity of the Fairy woman had startled him.
Evergreen only ever used magic in a way that benefitted her, that benefitted Laxus.
The water mage bit off a curse on his tongue. Where Evergreen was, the lightning dragon slayer and the Thunder God Tribe would be close behind, and the anxiety that had been building in Mercury's stomach came back in full force.
"Everyone, run!" Max shouted through the speakers. Mercury had never before been so glad for the sand mage's ability to slyly read the environment and react quickly, civilians rushing out in an effort to escape. They held little regard for the people who were staying – Mercury found himself jumping over the side of the bar to swoop up a nearly-trampled Romeo and lifting him as high over his head as he could manage. The water mage was much taller than the boy, totalling over six feet tall, and even he was nearly pushed over by the surge of bodies.
When the dust had cleared, only Fairy Tail members remained with identical looks of horror on their faces.
"Sorry," murmured Mercury as he carefully set Romeo back down behind the bar. No point in leaving the kid within Laxus's view if he could help it, even though the boy protested immediately. Whether it was about Mercury lifting him or about being indirectly told to hide, the water mage never found out; something in his face must have been grim enough to quiet the boy immediately.
The curtains behind the stage fell gracefully, revealing six other identical stone statues. A flash lit up the whole room as soon as the statues – the hostages – were revealed to the stricken crowd watching up, lightning scorching through the stage as Laxus used that lightning magic he was so proud of to make his entrance as dramatic as possible.
Something welled up in Mercury's stomach as he faced the one he used to be such great friends with – whether it was horror, disgust, or rage, he didn't know, only aware of the fact that it made his chest clench painfully.
Maybe it was that same feeling that had Mercury attacking the lightning dragon slayer on sight. Well, technically, he'd aimed for Evergreen, but Laxus easily got in the way despite the fact that the water blast was initially deflected by a shimmering barrier.
Obviously, Freed was there, too.
Mysterious words – runes – appeared in the air, reading, "None inside this barrier shall attack someone before the Battle of Fairy Tail officially begins."
He read it again. 'The Battle of Fairy Tail.'
None of those words sounded like they should be placed next to each other, and yet there they were, a sentence of finality.
Apparently, however, those words hovering just above Evergreen's head meant nothing to those outside of the barrier. A jolt of electricity crashed into Mercury, not quite painful but definitely not gentle, courtesy of Laxus, who was looking down at the water mage with an all-too-fitting sneer plastered on his face.
Mercury bit back a curse as he briefly lost control of his limbs, pressing a hand down to the bar counter for the stability lost when his muscles turned to painful gelly. The blue hair that he so carefully groomed each morning exploded as the static ran its way through his limbs. It stuck out every which way, briefly blocking the water mage's vision until he managed to get enough control back to fish the strands out of his eyes.
It was clearly a warning: "Don't start anything until the main event begins."
Natsu wasn't as great at reading the room as Mercury was, or maybe he was and didn't let it deter him. The dragon slayer wasn't a coward like Mercury was, after all. For a brief moment after the water mage's attempted attack, the guild was quiet, observing and trying to predict what was going to happen until the fire dragon slayer made note of the panicked look on Lucy's face and Laxus's casual arm draped around her frozen visage.
"Laxus!" He shouted, and made to attack the man in front of him. The dragon slayer's fist was ablaze, a wave of heat radiating from the boy himself – but that wasn't enough to stop Laxus. Not even close to enough. Natsu didn't make it more than four steps forward until he was blasted off his feet by a chain of lightning, sending him clattering backwards and convulsing slightly.
Mercury had to bite back a snarl at the sight.
Laxus was cruel, and now he was explicitly attacking other Fairy Tail guild members. Even if Evergreen's actions could be construed as a joke, as some sort of little prank to show dominance, the feeling of ozone in the air was anything but playful.
This would not end well. Everyone in the room could sense it.
"You fool! Turn them back to normal!"
Oh, Master. Oh, sweet, kind, trusting Master.
Mercury knew Laxus. He knew that the lightning dragon slayer wouldn't make such a forward, direct action against the guild unless he was sure that everything would go according to the plans he and Fried came up with.
A pit of anger formed in the water mage's stomach, squishing down the anxiety that had solidified like a rock.
Laxus stared his grandfather down; "The real festival starts now," he said, then let his vision sweep over the guild, eying each and every terrified mage that glared back at him. Everyone knew they had some stake in this – it was their guildmates that had been frozen, and even if they weren't connected by a bond as strong as the guild's, they were all friends.
Even Natsu, when he could finally sit up with the help of Happy, couldn't do anything but watch. Not when it was Lucy's frozen statue that Laxus had his arm slung around.
"If you don't follow the 'rules,' I'll destroy these hostages one by one," Laxus continued in a slow drawl. He looked pointedly at Natsu, as though challenging him. Mercury wondered if the lightning dragon slayer was aware of just how much the boy cared for the one he had his arms wrapped around and was goading him intentionally – it would be in character, especially knowing that the lightning dragon slayer often thought of Natsu as a nuisance.
Laxus had 'rules.' That meant that he wanted to turn the whole thing into a competition of some sort – and what better competition for a man as obsessed with strength as him than an all out brawl?
The women were not just hostages, Mercury realized. They were also the prize.
"There are some things that can't be taken as a joke, Laxus," Makarov growled. If Laxus's jubilant laugh was any indication, the lightning dragon slayer held no intent for it to be taken as such.
This was going to be such a headache.
"Of course I'm serious," he explained. "It's just a little game. Don't you all like games?"
They like games when they're not played with people's lives on the line.
Mercury wanted to snarl at Laxus, staring down at all of them like he was the king and all of them worse than peasants. He knew that Laxus hanging around town was a bad sign. There was no way that someone who essentially wanted Fairy Tail under his thumb would stick around for an event he considered asinine and unnecessary if he didn't have something planned.
Mercury should have said something. Should have voiced his concerns back when he'd first felt that anxiety worm its way into his stomach.
Instead, all he could do was watch and wait. If he made a move, Laxus would surely shatter Lucy's statue; the lightning dragon slayer had killed before – all of the Thunder God Tribe had done so before, and even Mercury, as a former member, had taken people's lives with his own hands. Such was the lifestyle of a group that took pleasure in hunting down and eradicating dark guilds.
The difference between Mercury and them, however, was that Mercury felt empathy and regret when he took lives, and Laxus did not.
Apparently.
Still, would the lightning dragon slayer really be able to take the lives of someone in front of him that couldn't even fight back? Would he be able to take the lives of someone who'd done no wrong?
Mercury hoped he couldn't – both for the sake of the frozen 'hostage' guildmates and Laxus himself.
"We're going to find out who in Fairy Tail is the strongest. The rules are simple – the last survivor wins! The Battle of Fairy Tail starts now!"
Mercury watched as realization swept over the crowd. It was a tournament, and they'd all have to fight each other if they wanted to return the guild's women from their petrified state.
Natsu stood forcefully and brought himself to his feet to stare back at the lightning dragon slayer, the air within the guild becoming so charged with magic that even Mercury felt the beginnings of a migraine coming on at the sensation. He hadn't realized just how much magic power both had, or how intense the combination of two dragon slayer's magic could be.
"I'm going to kick your ass," Natsu said, clear as day.
Mercury was too stressed about the hostages to be impressed.
Especially with how, at Natsu's statement, Laxus's hand tightened around Lucy's frozen shoulder, gripping so hard that the veins in his hands started to pop.
"Natsu, your arrogant way of speaking pisses me off," Laxus replied, as though his way of speaking was any better.
Instead of letting it continue – instead of letting Laxus continue to dig his fingers into Lucy's statue – Mercury broke into the conversation, trying to diffuse any of the tension. Though Natsu had him sufficiently distracted, the fire dragon slayer wasn't smart enough to get Laxus to back off for the moment; he wasn't as experienced with Laxus as Mercury was, didn't know how to manipulate him to step away from things.
With false bravado – not because he was scared of Laxus, but because he was scared of what Laxus had the opportunity to do – Mercury cleared his throat, calling all of the attention in the room to himself.
"You're seriously going to stand there behind a stupid barrier and taunt a kid? Really, Laxus?"
Laxus's head swiveled to find him. Then, that famous sneer, the one that Mercury could hardly not imagine on Laxus's face, twisted onto his features as he took in the sight of the water mage in front of him: hair frazzled, sticking out in every direction from the earlier shock, leaning lightly against the bar, and staring himself down.
Could Laxus see the anxiety in his eyes? Or was he just used to staring at Mercury with such a prideful look of superiority?
"A miserable weakling like you should just stay quiet, Mercury."
Mercury's face turned sour. His own magic rose in his gut, replacing any of the worry or anger that had been hiding there with a feeling of disgust; how dare this man – no, this boy – call him a weakling after all they had been through together. How dare Laxus turn his guild into his own enemy? How dare he.
"I'm not the one using his grandfather's reputation to protect him from his own actions," Mercury sniped back.
Honestly, he was kind of worried Laxus was going to strike him down right there, in the middle of everyone. The dragon slayer's face turned from confident to angry, from smug to absolutely incensed.
It was the correct "button" to press, but Mercury barely got a moment to revel in it. Fried didn't let Laxus lose it entirely at the provocation. He reached out and gently prodded the man's elbow, signaling that they were ready to go and should go before things got too hectic.
With another flash of magic, the Thunder God Tribe disappeared from the building, the words, "You have three hours before the statues crumble," echoing in the silence left by their wake.
For a moment, all was quiet. No one dared speak, still stuck looking at each other in shock at the development that had happened in the last twenty minutes. A small sliver of what Mercury assumed to be sweat felt like it was dripping down his neck, even though he never even thought he could sweat. The feeling was overshadowed by the relief that, for the moment, Laxus was gone, and there was no pressing threat of the hostages being destroyed should they say the wrong words.
A hasty breath of relief filled Mercury's lungs, though it didn't last for long. The guild immediately began to clamor to save their frozen women and tear the life out of Laxus, who could have gone anywhere in Magnolia by the time they got their bearings.
Mercury, with a sense of foreboding, knew it was a lost cause.
Laxus was much too strong for any of them to take on and win. He knew this firsthand. The last time they had fought, the battle had been a favorable one for the water mage – just enough to prevent him from being entirely demolished by Laxus – but now? Now it was Laxus that had control over the situation. Fairy Tail was just puppets on his string, yanked around by his threat of hostages.
It was just like the Phantom Lord incident, where Erza was out of commission, the rest of their S-Class mages Mother knew where, and they were down to the younger generation to solve the issue for them.
"Romeo," Mercury turned to where the boy was huddling underneath the bar counter still. He looked rather calm for the situation, though his body gave him away: the boy's hands were clenched into fists and arms so tightly pressed to his body that it left imprints on his legs.
Romeo turned to him when called.
"You understand the situation, right? It's best if you stay here," Mercury explained gently. He couldn't treat Romeo like a small, uninvolved child – the water mage had never been great at speaking to children – yet he also absolutely could not have the boy running around in Magnolia right now.
Romeo might not have been a member of Fairy Tail yet, but he absolutely held the spirit to be one of them.
"Will – Will my dad be alright?"
"Yep, don't worry about that." Mercury gave the boy a little pat on the head, attempting to stifle his own rage for just long enough to assure the boy. He couldn't believe that Macao had already stormed out of the guild without a second thought for his child; the adult mage didn't even have anyone he was directly related to within the group of hostages, yet had charged out immediately all the same.
Macao was a true Fairy Tail mage, too. Unlike Mercury, who knew he was just hesitating to get out into the city and find the Thunder God Tribe.
It was a weird sensation that coursed through his body. There was anger and fury at Laxus's actions, as well as an unhindered terror at what might happen to both the frozen and unfrozen members at the end of this, but also a swirling feeling that had him feeling dizzy.
Still, his body moved, jogged towards the entryway as soon as he was assured that Romeo wouldn't chase after him. Master Makarov was just ahead of him, staring towards the doorway without attempting to leave.
Mercury's stomach dropped.
There was no reason for Makarov to remain within the guild. The water mage had seen it in his eyes; he, more than anyone else, wanted to throttle his grandson and get him to stop doing whatever the hell he was planning on doing, so why was he staring so sadly out the doorway?
The answer to the question was one neither of them liked.
In front of the door hovered faint, near spectral words. Clearly, they were the work of magic – Fried's rune magic, to be specific, the same magic that had appeared when Mercury had attempted to blast away Evergreen.
Rune magic wasn't usually very offensive magic; it took much too long to set up, and was liable to have workarounds if you weren't careful enough with the language used to build them. Really, it was a simple magic, used mostly for restraint.
Unless your name was Fried Justine, that was.
Mercury had seen the green haired boy grow up, just as he'd watched Laxus go from a late teenager to the early-twenties man (manchild) that he was now. He knew Fried in a way he hadn't known someone for a long time; the boy had, at one point, held both Mercury and Laxus in such high regard that he was willing to sacrifice his life for whatever insane plans the two had thought up, and that clearly hadn't changed.
Now, however, it was Fried that was the planner. He didn't need to listen to anyone's plans because he was the one coming up with them. And he was a master at using rune magic to boot.
"No stone statues, nor person over eighty years old, may pass through this barrier."
Fuck. Fuck, shit, fuck.
It made some modicum of sense that the stone statues wouldn't be able to pass through the barrier. Fried wasn't stupid enough to let them sneak the women out of Magnolia, out of the range of Evergreen's magic, or even to Porlyusica or some other doctor familiar with magic conditions. They could have sent Jet out with a hostage tied to his back one at a time until they were all back to normal – if Jet had even listened before exiting, that was.
What didn't make sense was the second stipulation: "No person over eighty years old may pass through this barrier."
That explicitly ruled out the two people in the guild who were older than eighty.
Why the hell would the Thunder God Tribe want to prevent Mercury from exiting the building? He could understand leaving Makarov out of the fighting; they'd get their asses kicked from here to Hargeon in less than fifteen minutes with the power of a Wizard Saint hounding them down, and clearly, Laxus wasn't confident enough to try to fight his grandfather off – despite so often claiming that Makarov was weak.
But Mercury? He wasn't a real threat. The water mage knew it in his bones; the last time he and the lightning dragon slayer had fought, it had been brought to a standstill because Makarov had intervened, but Mercury knew that if it had gone on longer, he'd have lost.
(And the Mercury of now is a lot weaker than the Mercury of then.)
With all his heart, Mercury wished he could go back in time and knock some sense into all four of them. The Thunder God Tribe needed to stop idolizing Laxus – because couldn't they see that he was just using them – and Laxus, well… He needed to do a lot of things.
"Fuck," Mercury finally cursed out loud, the only word he could really bring himself to say. He was completely at a loss. He'd been under no impression that he could have turned the tides, but now that he was out of the fight entirely, his hands felt more tied than they'd ever felt before.
He was useless.
Always useless.
It wasn't a rational move to punch Fried's barrier. Rune magic was known for being almost unbreakable through brute force, an absolute that so rarely existed in the world of magic. Only logic could outsmart a barrier, and that required a level of thinking that Mercury wasn't sure he had, not when anger was flowing through his veins, hot and thick, like poison.
Maybe it would have been possible when Fried was younger, when he was just starting out with magic. Now, the barrier was sturdy enough that it seemed immovable.
But Mercury did it anyway.
The water mage slapped as much enchantment magic as he could in the second before his body reacted to his mind – which wasn't that much, really, mind hyper focused on any possibility to free himself – and slammed his closed fist into the doorway.
Of course, the fist didn't go through. Even though part of him had hoped that it would, he wasn't surprised at the feeling of contact, at the feeling of the bones in his fingers shattering as they slammed into the equivalent of an unbreakable brick wall.
But the barrier did falter slightly upon contact.
And, funnily enough, thick globs of blood from his immediately broken hand did pass through, landing in an ugly pile just outside of the doorframe. It took Mercury several seconds to realize that the blood was, in fact, his, stemming from the pointed edge of a finger bone that poked through his knuckle.
"Fucking hell," Mercury murmured again at the sight.
He did it again anyway.
And again. And again, and again, until more of that hot red liquid dripped down his arm as freely as water. Pain seared the muscles and ligaments. It wasn't until the arm refused to form a fist any longer and his bicep burned despite not being hit that he realized no part of himself was going to get through.
Mercury stared at the doorway, leaned against it, defeated.
It was always a situation like this where he was useless; lives were on the line, both from the frozen women and the Thunder God Tribe who chose to follow such a pigheaded leader like Laxus. He was sure to lead them to ruin, if only because the dragon slayer didn't care about them, not in the way they cared for him. At the moment, they were little more than pawns on a chess board.
And there was nothing Mercury could do to stop any of it.
He cursed himself now for not reaching out once more to Laxus; their last fight had been explosive, both parties nearly involving the innocent bystanders of the guild despite it being a private argument between the two that caused it. The disagreement had turned to name calling, name calling to harsh insults, and finally, harsh insults into thrown fists.
To Mercury, it had been a betrayal of trust. He'd been betrayed before, physically, but when their disagreement had turned to petty words, he found that Laxus had taken extreme pride in pointing out insecurities that not even Mercury had been aware of. That had been the end of it – and now, Mercury was regretting not attempting to bridge the gap once more. Even if Laxus was immature, surely the water mage could have prevented all this, and if not, he'd at least have been in on the plan enough to mitigate the damage, or warn someone. Anything was better than this.
He found himself wishing, not for the first time, that the wounds on his hands would simply stop healing. They should hurt more, for longer. The bones should stay broken, the skin, marred, because somewhere deep in his chest he felt – yes, guilty, that was the word. He was guilty, because he felt this was his fault. His head told him that the situation was not his fault, but his heart told him otherwise; any blood that bloomed here would be on his hands.
"Mercury." The calm voice of Master Makarov was the only thing that blotted through the sea of rage in his head. A beacon in a maelstrom of emotion.
And the barrier in front of him remained standing.
Fuck.
"Mercury," the Master tried once more, and this time the water mage listened, but he didn't turn to face the man. He knew that if he turned to look at the sadness in Makarov's eyes at the sight of one of his beloved children hurting themselves so brazenly, he'd break, the rage would be undammed and he'd be forced to let go of the warmth in his chest.
So Mercury stared at the exit, the warm sensation of blood dripping down broken fingers the only thing he could feel.
They were at a loss for what to do. Both of them. But where Mercury turned to rage and then despair, the Master was simply waiting to see what would happen.
It was all he could do.
"It cannot be broken through force," Makarov said quietly, eyes flashing between the water mage in front of him and the barrier.
Mercury knew.
He knew.
"I can still try." His voice came out much too quiet.
For a moment, the master said nothing, simply shaking his head. Then, with clouded eyes, he told Mercury, "Go take care of that wound. We have to have hope that Fairy Tail will prevail."
(But wasn't Laxus also part of Fairy Tail?)
The command in Makarov's voice had been obvious. Mercury would have been dumb, or as brazenly thickheaded as Natsu to not hear it, so he paused for only a moment before trudging slowly to one of the numerous back rooms to fetch the first aid kit.
While it would have been preferable to not waste bandages on a wound that was going to heal quickly enough, Mercury dared not tempt the Master's ire, not when there was already so much weighing on his mind. They'd surely need medical equipment and supplies for the aftermath of this "Battle"; while his guildmates were rowdy, crazy, and, most aptly, chaotic, the majority of them were not fighters.
He gave his arm a quick rinse under the faucet before painfully scrubbing it dry of the water and any remaining blood speckles – and by Mother, the cracked bones in his fingers hurt the longer he left it, but it was still better than having to deal with all of this on top of cringing at the sensation of wetness.
Besides, in a way, the pain caused by his own fingers had been… somewhat satisfying. A relief.
In the meantime, as though it couldn't get any worse, words started to float on the surface of the door barrier to describe the battles that were taking place in the city. The Thunder God Tribe had forced an entire guild's worth of people to fight each other en masse, pitting anyone unlucky enough to find themselves in a close space with other guild members liable to need to soon fight. All it did was shrink the guild's numbers down, doing the Tribe's dirty work for them, though it wasn't like the average Fairy Tail member could do anything about the runes.
Mercury's hand seared in pain once more – and not for the last time – as he haphazardly attempted to shove the bones poking through his fingers back into their normal place to allow for a quicker healing process, yet he ignored it and became frustrated when his all his hands did was shake in return. The fingers on his left hand were slick with blood by the time he managed to get them in almost the right direction.
Already, the muscles in his fingers were fighting to pull the bones into their correct places, the tissue slowly creeping up the bones to tug them back down into alignment with the others; in the past, the process may have fascinated Mercury, but now he just wished for it to be over so that he could feel less useless.
It probably wasn't a good thing that he was used to having to put bones back into place.
He rinsed and dried his left hand before fighting with the roll of gauze to wrap them tightly, keeping any tightly bound close to where they should be. That should appease Makarov, even if it only served to make Mercury feel worse.
By the time all was said and done, the guild hall was nearly empty, save for the seven stone statues on the stage. Romeo had been shuffled off to one of the back rooms, though the boy was likely scared out of his wits, not only for his father's sake but also for the entirety of the guild; he'd likely also seen Mercury's, er, breakdown, so there was that conversation they'd have to have later about healthy ways of expressing anger (of which, Mercury knew none – it was probably a conversation to be had by someone with more emotional intelligence than the emotionally stunted water mage).
No, scratch that – for some reason, Natsu remained, sticking his fingers into Lucy's ears and then flicking Erza in the forehead. Mercury would have told him off if he wasn't at a complete loss for words at the sight.
Reedus was also there, cowering in the corner and trembling so hard that the sound of his body hitting the pole he was "hidden" behind was audible. Gajeel might have been there too, if the gnashing of metal was anything to go by, though Merc had no idea where it was coming from. The rafters, maybe?
Every observation Mercury had was loud in his head as he awkwardly described the situation to himself. Whether to get a better grasp of the situation or just to keep himself rational without the bubbling anger in his veins, he wasn't sure, but it was working somewhat.
He knew that everything was a trap. The Thunder God Tribe wanted to funnel people into fighting them, and even a slightly-more-rational Mercury couldn't tell exactly what their endgame was – did they want to harass the weaker members into leaving? Make them afraid for their lives in Fairy Tail until they simply left of their own accord?
Did the Thunder God Tribe and Laxus want to kill them?
The thought made Mercury's blood run could, though he wasn't sure it could get much colder at this point. He knew he had to find a way to stop this, not only for the guild members and Master, but also so that the Thunder God Tribe wouldn't do something they couldn't take back. And if Mercury couldn't leave, he knew he'd have to make use of those who could.
(He had to do something; if Mercury sat back and watched like Master now, he was sure he'd go insane by the end of all of this.)
"Natsu, listen," Mercury said, approaching the fire dragon slayer, whose nose wrinkled as he got close. Right, Natsu had a great sense of smell, and Mercury's arm had been covered in blood just minutes ago.
"I'm listenin','' was Natsu's easy reply. Mercury paused, genuinely surprised that the boy would ever utter the words 'I'm listening,' especially when the other option was running into a fight, guns blazing and no plan. In fact, Mercury was astonished that the boy had stayed in the hall at all.
If there was ever a time in his life that he was glad Natsu listened to him, it was right then.
"Can you do something for me?"
"If 'ya know how to get Lucy and Erza unfrozen, then sure," Natsu said easily.
Mercury didn't comment on how there were five other girls frozen – that wasn't the point. It was already a miracle that Natsu was actually agreeing to listen to a plan, and he shouldn't waste that opportunity.
"Fried is the one making everyone fight each other, but Evergreen is the one keeping the girls petrified, so you need to go target one of them first – Bix and Laxus need to wait." Mercury cringed at how familiarly Bixlow's name slipped off of his tongue.
"Aren't you just saving Laxus all to yourself?" Natsu asked with a tilt to his head.
No, Mercury was not saving Laxus to himself; there was no way he'd get a chance to take down the lightning dragon slayer, and even if he did, it wouldn't mean anything. Fried, Evergreen, and Bixlow had definitely been instructed to continue fighting regardless of Laxus's status.
The water mage shook his head. "Even if I wanted to take down that bastard, I can't leave because of the barrier."
"But if you could, would you fight Laxus?"
He wasn't quite sure of the answer. Mercury had things to say to the dragon slayer – words he didn't quite want the rest of the guild hearing – and a fight would be his best shot to do that, but it wasn't as though he could just go out and fight him. Saving the hostages was much more important than any grudge was, or whatever that gross feeling that had been building up in his chest was.
Hesitantly, though, Mercury nodded.
"Fried's going down then," Natsu said, crossing his arms. "But I'll be coming after you next. I'm not going to just let you win."
It took a moment for Mercury to register that the boy was talking about how Laxus had called this a "fighting festival."
"Natsu, this isn't a game. People could die if we don't stop all of this," Mercury snapped in response. There was no bite to it – he was already too worn out from the anger that had coursed through his body minutes ago – and Natsu didn't take the hint anyway.
"Laxus isn't that type of guy. He's a bit of an ass, but so are you, and you're not someone who would put the guild in danger."
The words filled Mercury with equal measures irritation and something softer. Happiness, maybe, at the fact that Natsu believed that he wouldn't put the guild in danger, and irritation at the fact that the dragon slayer didn't think Laxus would put anyone in harm's way.
(And yet some part of him wished he could agree.)
There was no point in arguing with Natsu; when he had an opinion on something, he stuck to it, and there was no way to change it, so Mercury gave a small nod instead.
"Alright then, see you after I dust Fried!"
Natsu dashed towards the door.
And then collided with it.
Mercury swore again.