Archive of Our Own ^beta

Chapter Text

Rogue knew his life was gonna change when he heard the announcement, but he didn’t think it would mean that his life was over. Sting ran over, waving the paper announcement in his face. 

“Did you see this? Our lives are over!” 

“You’re being dramatic. We’ll figure something out.” 

Sting shook his head. 

“You don’t understand. There's nothing to figure out. This is our lives, and they’re taking it away!” 

“Calm down. There’s no way this is gonna stick. Magic is too big, and they didn’t even give us a single valid reason for this. The guild masters are probably going to the council right now. We’re going to figure this out. For now though, we should contact some of our friends in other guilds.” 

Sting took a long breath. 

“Ok, where should we start?”

“We should start by heading to Fairy Tail to see what they’re gonna do about this.” 

Sting nodded. It didn’t take them long to reach Fairy Tail since they went as fast as reasonably possible. The inside is in shambles, and everyone was panicking by the time they got there. Gray and Mirajane were trying to calm everyone down, but no one was listening. Levy was running around, trying to get people’s attention. Gajeel was sitting at the bar counter, watching. Natsu, Lucy, and Erza were nowhere to be seen. 

“What’s happening?” Rogue asked, sounding surprised. 

“Hey, guys,” Gray said, turning towards them. 

Before either of them could respond, a chair flew through the air, and smacked Gray in the side of the head. They all watched in muted horror as he hit the ground. 

“Dang it,” he grumbled as he got back up. 

Rogue sighed in relief. 

“Are you ok?” Sting asked. 

“Yeah, I’m fine. Just leave them be. They’re freaking out about magic being outlawed. The master took Erza with him to talk to the council.” 

“Where’s Natsu?” Sting asked. 

“He went on a job with Lucy yesterday. They haven’t come back yet. That’s actually a good thing though since he would have immediately wanted to fight everyone.” 

Rogue nodded understandingly. 

“I told you they weren’t going to take this lying down.” 

“Yeah, yeah.” 

“What are you two doing here though?” 

“We also saw the notice, and came to see how you guys were handling things,” Sting explained. 

“Ok, but we should not be your standard of excellence. We tend to be a bit brash and violent,” Mirajane said sheepishly. Sting laughed. 

“Well, if you guys don’t need anything, we’ll head out now,” Sting said, sounding enheartened by Fairy Tail’s resistance. 

“We’re good. Best of luck to you two,” Gray says with a small smile. 

Rogue nodded. 

“Best of luck with your mob.” 

They walked back out, stopping at a few more guilds on their way back home. It was a few hours since they had left by the time they approached Sabertooth. 

“Well, it seems like we should write a speech for you to give to the council,” Rogue said, opening the door to the guild for Sting. 

“Yeah, do you think Lector and Frosch are done with their ‘top secret’ project that prevented them from coming with us?” Sting asked as he stepped inside. 

“We’ll have to check.” 

Yukino ran up to them. 

“Guys, we have a huge problem. Cops came by earlier saying they were gonna take all of the dragon slayers into custody. They said that people with that kind of magic can’t just be wandering around free. They said harboring you is a crime! All because of the type of magic you use. You have to get out of here. You have to hide.” 

“I’m starting to think that there’s more going on, and that this isn’t just gonna blow over,” Rogue said, turning to Sting. 

“Who cares about that?! You have to get your money, and go into hiding right now,” Yukino exclaimed. 

“We have to head back to Fairy Tail. They have three dragon slayers there,” Sting said, speaking directly to Rogue. 

“Ok, you go empty our bank accounts, then head to our meeting spot outside of town. I’ll head to Fairy Tail before meeting you there.” 

“I packed bags for both of you. I’ll get those and grab Frosch and Lector.” 

Sting and Rogue exchanged a look as she ran off. 

“I know it’s going to be dangerous, but we can’t leave them,” Sting said. 

Rogue frowned, opening his mouth to say something, but Yukino ran back up before he could. Rogue took Frosch, biting his lip. He hugged the Exceed tightly before pulling him back to arm’s length. 

“Bud, I have to go somewhere for a while, and I can’t take you. I don’t know when I’ll be back, but I promise that I’m always thinking of you. Yukino, can you take care of Frosch for me?” 

She looked surprised, but nodded. 

“Fro wants to go also.” 

Rogue sighed. 

“I know, but it’s too dangerous. I’m sorry.” 

He handed Frosch back to Yukino. 

“I’ll see you later.” 

“Bye, Rogue,” Frosch said sadly. 

Rogue turned and walked out of the guild quickly, furiously scrubbing at his eyes. Sting followed him out after a minute. 

“Are you sure that you’re making the right decision?” 

“Yes, I’m not trying to judge you, but it would be selfish for me to bring Fro. I know that I can’t protect him, or take care of him properly.” 

Sting nodded, and they split up. Rogue made his way back to Fairy Tail as quickly as possible, but the uproar he heard when he walked in was even louder than last time. Gray is grabbing his jacket. 

“They arrested Gajeel and Wendy. Gray is gonna find Natsu and Lucy. Someone already contacted the master. You should get out of here. We have everything handled,” Mirajane said immediately. 

Rogue sighed. 

“Too late, I’m sorry.” 

Mirajane gave him a sympathetic smile as he left. Sting and Lector were waiting outside of town at their secret hideout from when they were younger. Rogue slipped through the cave entrance into the secret hideout. 

“Sting filled me in. What are you guys gonna do?” Lector asked. 

“We don’t know yet. I guess we’re gonna fly under the radar until this is cleared up. We can’t do anything to clear it up, so we have to let the others fix this. We just have to stay away until they do. I was too late to save the others, but Gray is gonna try to save Natsu.” 

“Alright, what do we do now?” Sting asked, still seeming like he’s in shock a little bit. 

“Wait. It shouldn’t be too hard for us to hide out. We’ll check back every once in a while so we’ll know when we’re not going to be arrested on sight.”

Chapter Text

Rogue walks into the cabin that he’s sharing with Sting and Lector. A strange pair of shoes are sitting by the door.

A pair of sandals. Is Natsu here? he wonders. We never did hear about who got to him first. 

He creeps into the living room cautiously, stopping in the doorway. Mystogan is sitting with his legs crossed at the knee. His elbow is resting on his knee, and his head is in his hand. 

“What are you doing here?” Rogue asks, gripping the doorway tightly. 

Mystogan looks up, blinking in surprise. He seemed to be deep in thought.  

“Hey, Sting said that you weren’t gonna be back for a while. He stepped out. It’ll be at least fifteen more minutes before he comes back. Can we wait to talk until then?” 

“Sure, but who are you?” 

“I’m sorry. My name is Mystogan. I’m the Edolas version of a man you would know as Jellal. I’m-” 

“So you’re the guy from the games?” 

“What does that mean?” 

“The Grand Magic Games. Don’t you remember? You were on Fairy Tail’s team. I wouldn’t have thought you were from Edolas, though I don’t really know much about it.” 

“I didn’t participate in any games. It was probably this world’s Jellal imitating me. It’s nice to meet you though.” 

Rogue narrows his eyes, taking a step closer. 

“Your magic is different. I thought I was just going crazy.” 

He sits down in the armchair, still slightly on edge. 

“You smell different too. Though I thought people from Edolas didn’t have magic.” 

Mystogan opens his mouth to respond, but the door opening cuts him off. 

“I’m back,” Sting calls. 

“Living room,” Rogue calls back. 

Mystogan smiles politely as Lector runs in and attempts to climb his leg. Sting walks in behind him. 

“Well, I was hoping to get here first, but I’m glad that you guys have gotten acquainted. I was excited to finally talk to Mystogan, even though I wasn’t really impressed at the games.” 

“That wasn’t actually Mystogan. This is Mystogan, but he never attended the games. We think that was Jellal,” Rogue explains as Mystogan pats Lector’s head.

“He’s so much nicer than Carla.” 

Sting and Rogue both laugh. 

“Yeah, but seriously, what brings you back to this earth much less our house? How did you find us?” Rogue asks, watching Lector curl up in Mystogan’s lap. 

“I’m really good at tracking, so I decided to find the rest of the dragon slayers. I have a relationship with Wendy that I’m not sure how to explain. I helped raise her. After Sirious Island, she started coming by every other week to stay with me. The path between worlds was blocked, but I was finally able to get through. Once I heard about what happened, I figured you guys would be the most willing to help me break Wendy and Gajeel out.” 

“What about Natsu and Gray?” Sting asks. 

“I don’t know what happened to them yet. We might find them in containment in the capital, but I’m not sure. They could be anywhere, but I know that they’re not anywhere near Magnolia. I don’t have the time to find them.” 

Sting and Rogue share a look. 

“We can’t go,” Sting says. 

“We’re sorry, but this is too rushed. Even if it wasn’t, we’re not strong enough to break into the castle. Even Natsu and his group needed the games as a distraction, and they still almost failed. The three of us wouldn’t be enough. I’d suggest getting more of Fairy Tail together, and changing your game plan,” Rogue says. 

Mystogan listens carefully, lightly stroking Lector’s head. Once they’ve both finished speaking, he nods. 

“I thought you might say that. Thank you for hearing me out.” 

“Of course. Do yo uwant to stay for dinner?” Sting asks. 

“No, thank you. I have a lot to do, but I will see you guys around.”

Mystogan scoops Lector up, getting to his feet. He put Lector down on his chair before making his way to the door.

“See ya,” Sting says with a wave. 

Mystogan waves as he steps out. Sting turns to Rogue. 

“We can’t put ourselves into a situation like that,” Sting says, almost like he’s trying to reassure himself. 

One Week Later

A knock on the cabin door startles Rogue and Sting, drawing their attention away from packing. Rogue cautiously walks over and opens the door. Wendy throws her arms around Rogue’s neck excitedly. Mystogan stands behind her, a small smile on his face. 

“How?” 

Mystogan shrugs. 

“I went alone.” 

“Who are you?” Rogue asks, awestruck. 

“I only came by so someone would know what happened. I couldn’t find Gajeel. I don’t think he was ever being held at the capital. Anyway, Wendy and I are heading to Edolas until this is over. Carla is going with us. Best of luck with everything.” 

“Thanks, we’ll let Fairy Tail know the next time that we see one of them.” 

Mystogan nods as Sting comes to the door. Wendy hugs him too. “I’m sorry. I don’t want to leave, but Mystogan and Carla haven’t left me much choice. I just wanna help,” she says, tears in her eyes. 

“Calm down, sweet girl. We’re just glad that you’re safe,” Rogue says, patting her on the head. 

“If you guys need anything, you can just reach out,” she says, still a little tearful. 

“Ok, we will.” 

“We should go. Carla’s waiting, and you know how impatient she gets,” Mystogan says, placing a hand on Wendy’s shoulder. 

Wendy nods, rubbing her eyes. Rogue and Sting both wave as they disappear from view. 

Gray rubs his eyes as Natsu knocks things around in the living room. He hears Happy’s claws scratching against his door. He pulls his pillow over his head with a sigh. He only stays there for a minute before getting out of bed. He swings the door open, scooping Happy into his arms. 

“Stop that. This is a rental. Natsu! Cut that out!” he yells as he walks into the living room, still cradling Happy to his chest. 

“You got captured. You said that you could complete the mission,” Natsu exclaims. 

“I did. The goal was to get Gray out of his room.” 

Natsu pauses, thinking. 

“You’re right. Good job, Happy.” 

Gray groans. 

“Dude, seriously? I’m running off of two hours of sleep. I don’t wanna do anything right now, much less fight you. I know that’s what you’re aiming for.” 

“Stop being a party pooper, Gray,” Natsu whines. 

Gray shakes his head, a frown on his face. 

“Fine, but it’s not like you can beat me anyway.,” he replies, his frown shifting into a smirk. 

Natsu lights on fire. 

“What did you just say to me?!” 

Gray sets Happy down on the table before waltzing out of the front door. Natsu chases him, trying to tackle him as soon as he’s close enough. Gray side steps, sending Natsu to the ground. He jumps down on top of Natsu, effectively turning it into a brawl. It only takes a few minutes for both of them to end up on their backs on the ground, laughing. 

“Do you think things are going to clear up soon?” Natsu asks quietly after a minute. 

“I really don’t know. It’s been a while already.” 

“We should just fight them!” 

“We can’t win. Then our guildmates might end up under suspicion after we’re arrested. Even if we could win, what then?” 

Natsu pauses, his brow creasing. 

“I haven’t thought that far ahead, but we’d figure it out. After all, they have Gajeel and Wendy. We’re letting them suffer in prison.” 

“Yeah, cause we can’t help them. You and I wouldn’t even make it into the capital. We wouldn’t accomplish anything. We need to trust our friends who can help. They are doing everything they can, and we need to have faith that that will be enough.” 

“Fine. Can we at least check in with the others soon?” 

“Yeah, Erza is gonna call me later. We can talk to Lucy then.” 

“Yay! Happy, did you hear that?” Natsu asks excitedly.

“Aye, Lucy!” 

He flies around in circles happily. 

“Now we just wait,” Gray says, crossing an arm over his chest. 

Chapter Text

Gajeel wakes up with a pounding headache. He’s still chained to the same chair he was when he passed out. There’s no way for him to be able to tell how much time has passed since there are no windows, and no one has said anything indicating what time it is in weeks. The last time one of the guards said something about what time it was, it was at least three weeks ago, possibly longer, and he was casually talking about going to eat lunch. 

His muscles ache from being restrained in the same position for hours, putting weight on a few open wounds too. The door opens, artificial light streaming in. Madeline, the woman that’s been tormenting him for the better part of his stay here, marches in. 

“Gajeel, how’s the mood today?” 

Gajeel ignores her, choosing to close his eyes again instead. A taser is pushed into his side, causing him to grunt in pain. 

“Well, I’ll take that as you being in a bad mood. Now, we’re going to try something new starting today. So, we’ve asked you where you got your powers. You said a dragon taught you how to fight, but we already know that there haven’t been dragons in a long time. With how powerful you can get, we have to make sure that you’re not going to do the wrong thing with your powers. Do you understand what I’m saying?” 

“Are you going to circle back around to me having two options again? ‘You can either use your powers to serve your country, or be locked up.’”

“No, not today. Until now, we’ve been working on breaking you. My superiors wanted information. Now they’re taking a different approach. They’re upset about our lack of answers. It’s been decided that we’re not going to get anything from you. So, we’re putting you in a lab trial. It’s not two options anymore, Gajeel. The only option is serving your country, and this is going to take away your choice in the matter. It might also fry your brain though. It hasn’t really been tested yet. We’ll just see how it goes, huh?” 

Gajeel squints at her. 

“I guess we will.”

“What? You’re not upset?” 

“Sure I am, but I can’t stop you. I’ve been trying to get out of here for so long. It’s been way too long. I don’t know why you’re doing this. There isn’t anything else that I can do.” 

“Yes, there is. You can be cooperative. I can help you if you let me. Just answer all of our questions. Help us get to the other dragon slayers. Then you can all live in a secure area. It won’t be perfect, but it will make sure that you’re not a threat while still letting you live mostly normal lives.” 

“I already answered your questions. I wasn’t lying. Everything I said was true. I was trained by a dragon, and I never knew the other dragon slayers until I met Natsu during the raid on Fairy Tail. The issue isn’t with me. It’s with the fact that you don’t believe me. I don’t know where the others are anyway. Even if I could find them, which in this state, I certainly couldn’t, I wouldn’t. It wouldn’t be fair to make them live in a ‘secure area’. Which just means house arrest. We’d probably be stuck in a small house together and forced to get everything from the council worker that gets stuck dealing with us. They have lives. We’re people too. I would prefer to deal with whatever you do to me rather than let you ruin their lives.” 

“You don’t know what you’re talking about. That’s not at all what I meant by a secure facility. Also, you don’t understand what they’re going to do to you.” 

“I don’t, but I also don’t care.” 

She continues ranting, trying to convince him to be ‘honest’ with her. He tunes her out, retreating back into his own head. 

Levy, I know what I just said, but damn, I’m scared. I want to see you again. I don’t want to do this. I don’t want my brain to be turned to mush. If that’s what it takes, I’ll do it, but I want to see you again. I want to see your smile, and have you wrap your arms around my waist. I want to kiss you, and hold you so tightly that no one will ever take you away from me again. 

He comes back as she slaps him across the face. He lets his head drop onto his chest. 

“Alright. I guess I’ll set up for the transfer. You’re not going to like these new people as much as me.” 

Gajeel keeps his eyes locked onto his right arm, which is as thin as a stick now. He’s barely been eating since getting here, and more significantly, he’s barely been able to move. Now everytime he does move, it feels like his limbs are petrified. Even flexing his fingers hurts, also from the times they’ve been broken. Not properly set. Still, to distract himself, he slowly moves his fingers into as much of a fist as he can with his arms being locked down. Then he uncurls them, barely able to keep back the gasp of pain. 

“What are you doing?” Madeline demands, watching him carefully. 

“Nothing, go away.” 

“Does that hurt?” 

“Yes.” 

“Why are you-?” 

She shakes her head, marching back out. Gajeel puts his head back again, letting his eyes drift closed. Exhaustion pulls at his limbs, lack of food and water making him constantly tired. So, he lets himself drift into peaceful dreams while he waits for his transport. Surprisingly, it doesn’t take long for them to show up. He’s dragged into the back of a carriage, not even locked down. There are loose handcuffs still on his wrists, but nothing else. Either way he’s too weak to do anything. 

His vision swims in front of him as the carriage moves. It feels like forever before it finally rolls to a stop. His vision barely has time to settle before he’s being dragged out again. It feels like his muscles are on fire, and they won’t support any of his weight. Whoever is dragging him doesn’t seem to care, just continues on like he’s not complete dead weight. He lets the pain knock him out since it doesn’t seem to matter one way or the other. It’s not like he’s able to do anything anyway. 

He’s strapped to a white bed when he wakes up again. He feels marginally better now, even though he can still feel the burn in his legs from being dragged. A man in a lab coat is standing a few feet away, prepping an IV. 

“Oh, you’re awake. That’s good. I have to say, you’re not in great shape, sir.” 

“Thanks,” Gajeel rasps sarcastically. 

“We’ll get you some food later, once we’ve got you set up. For now, I’m going to give you an IV. That way you’ll be able to get everything that you need through there.” 

Gajeel doesn’t respond, dropping his head again. 

“Are you still tired?” 

Gajeel doesn’t answer. 

“It’ll be easier if you work with me. You’ll get better care too.” 

“I’m not in the mood to talk to someone like you.” 

“What does that mean? Someone like me?”

“It means that I think yer scum.” 

“Hm, alright. Let me know if you change your mind. Do you have anyone that you’d like to contact? You’re allowed to write one letter for us to send before we start. Know that it will be reviewed before it’s sent, and it won’t be sent at all if you put something that we don’t want getting out.” 

“You serious?” 

“Deadly. I wish we didn’t have to read it. I’d like it if you got to say whatever you wanted in private, but that’s not really an option. I can get you a piece of paper and a quill. I’ll free one of your hands, and leave you for a few minutes.” 

Without even giving Gajeel a chance to confirm, or deny, he walks out. Less than a minute later, he comes back in with a piece of paper, a quill, and an envelope. He puts them down in front of Gajeel before unstrapping his right hand. He leaves. Gajeel struggles to hold the quill properly, his hands shaking badly. Eventually he manages to begin writing. 

He writes in code, giving Levy a short message about what’s going to happen to him. He leaves out the part that it might not brainwash him, but just shut down his brain all together. He tells her that the next time that they see each other, they might not be on the same side, and that he’s sorry that he might have to oppose her again. That he wants nothing less than to fight her, or possibly hurt her again. Eventually the man comes back, and takes the letter. He reads it before sealing it into the envelope. 

“Who is this going to?” 

“Levy McGarden. She lives in Magnolia. She’s part of the Fairy Tail guild.” 

“Alright. I’ll make sure that she gets this.” 

Once he’s gone again, Gajeel lets the tears that are pricking at the corners of his eyes fall.

Chapter Text

Levy walks through the street, clutching a book to her chest while Lily pads along beside her. The street is quiet, so quiet compared to the normal hustle and bustle of the street as work is getting off. She keeps glancing around, trying to figure out what’s happening, or why it’s so quiet. The streets are empty, but there isn’t an obvious reason for that. She walks past her apartment building, instead heading for the building that used to house the Fairy Tail guild. It’s just as quiet on that street too, but she doesn’t linger to wonder why this time. She hurries inside, shutting the door soundly behind Lily. 

“Levy, I’m so glad that you’re here,” Lucy says, throwing her arms around Levy. 

Levy hugs her back with one arm. 

“I’m happy to see you too. Did you see how quiet it is outside?” 

“Yeah, I was really confused and a little concerned too.” 

“Me too, I wonder what’s going on, and how we’re the only ones that haven’t heard about it yet. Anyway, are you the only one here?” 

“No, Erza’s here already. She’s grabbing a few of the chairs from where we stored them in the back.” 

“Oh, ok. Are we waiting on anyone?” 

“No, we’re the only ones that could make it today. Rogue reached out recently. He said that Mystogan managed to break Wendy out of jail. He took her and Carla back to Edolas with him.” 

“Did he-?” 

“No, Gajeel wasn’t there. We don’t know where he is anymore. We don’t even know if he was ever at the capital.” 

“Oh, that’s alright. I’m sure we’ll get him back soon,” Levy says without much conviction. 

Lucy doesn’t respond, not really knowing how to. 

“How are Rogue and Sting?”

“They seem fine. They didn’t stay in contact very long. Since they don’t have a phone, Rogue actually stopped by Erza’s apartment to talk to her. He was quick to leave town. That was about a week ago, and we haven’t heard anything. So, I assume he made it back to wherever they were staying safely.” 

“Did Erza give him a phone?” 

“Yeah, she had an extra one in her apartment, so she just gave it to him before he left.” 

The door opens and Juvia steps inside. 

“Hey, I thought you couldn’t come,” Lucy says as Erza walks in holding five chairs. 

“I remembered that you were going to be calling Gray-sama today, so I made time.”

Lucy smiles. 

“Well, we’re glad you’re here.” 

Erza sets the chairs down, and begins putting them around the nearest table. 

“Everyone come have a seat.” 

They all sit down while Erza stays standing. She leans forward, her hands against the table. 

“So, I heard from Rogue that Wendy is with Mystogan. She’s alright, but we don’t know where Gajeel is being held. I gave Rogue a phone, so they’ll be in more constant contact from here on out. Rogue said that he’d text at least once a week with an update. I haven’t heard from him yet, but I texted him half an hour ago. Does anyone have any questions before we call Gray and Natsu?” 

“Where are we in the legal aspect of this?” Levy asks. 

“That’s a tough answer. The master is working on getting Gajeel out of jail and letting the rest of them come home. However, they’re still denying everything. From a legal aspect, the warrants and arrests never even happened. All of the guild masters are being shut down when they ask about the magic ban. Allegedly it’s just too dangerous to let people use magic freely. That’s why only the guard and the council workers are allowed to. They’re adamant that’s the only reason even though it makes no sense. Most of them have given up asking.” 

“I mean, it has been almost seven months. That’s a long time for anyone to fight the system without getting anywhere,” Lucy says dejectedly. 

“You’re right. I don’t blame them, but the master is still trying to get some kind of information. That’s what we have on that front. Any other questions?” 

When no one says anything, she pulls her phone out of her pocket. She calls Gray and puts the phone on speaker before placing it in the middle of the table. It takes a minute for him to answer, and his reception is obviously spotty from how grainy his voice sounds. 

“Hey, guys.” 

“Gray-sama, I’ve missed you,” Juvia says, wringing her hands. 

“I missed you too,” he says, only sounding a little exasperated. Juvia beams, obviously not noticing his tone. 

“Is Lucy there?” Natsu screeches. 

“I’m here,” Lucy says with a big, fond smile. 

Levy blinks, her eyes suddenly wet. She stands up. 

“I’ll be right back,” she says before ducking out. 

Lucy watches her leave with a sad expression, but is almost immediately distracted again by Natsu. Levy leans against the wall, trying to stifle her cries. She moves away, trying to make sure that no one inside can hear her. There’s still no one on the street, and everywhere is closed. So, she just wanders down the street, crying softly. Eventually she ends up in front of Gajeel’s apartment building. 

She walks inside, pulling her keys out of her pocket. Gajeel’s keys are on her ring too since she got them from his locker after he was arrested. She opens his apartment door. It looks just like he left it, but dustier. It was surprisingly clean. She remembers being surprised at the fact that his apartment was spotless. Now dust covers everything. She shuts the door behind her and slides to the floor. Her tears begin anew. She doesn’t know how long she stays there just crying to no one in particular, but the longer she sits, the more it feels like the world is ending. 

Erza watches Levy leave with a concerned look. Lily races after her, so Erza lets them leave. She clenches her fist where they rest on the table. 

“I’ll leave you guys to talk,” she says before also heading to the door. 

Lucy’s voice stops her, “Are you alright?” 

“Yes, but there’s something that I need to do.” 

She shuts the door firmly behind her. Levy and Lily are nowhere in sight, leaving the street just as deserted as it was when she arrived. She briskly walks down the street, whipping out her secondary phone. She sends a quick text before heading back to her apartment to wait. It’s never taken more than half an hour for him to knock on her door, and he doesn’t disappoint now. She opens the door, immediately pulling Jellal in by his collar. She kisses him briefly before leading him into the living room. 

“That was a warm welcome. Any specific reason for it?” he asks, sitting down next to her on the couch. 

“I’ve just had a hard week. I’m glad that you were still in town. I need to ask for a favor.” 

“Ok, what’s up?” 

“I need to know why the government put the magic ban in place. None of our above the board sources know anything. I thought that you might have a way to figure it out.” 

“I might know a guy. Are you sure you want me to ask him? It might implicate you guys later if he ends up saying something.” 

“Yes, I’m sure. I’m willing to do anything at this point.” 

“What happened?” he asks, immediately concerned about her broken tone. 

“Mystogan went to the capital.” 

“Did he get caught?” 

“No, but he did manage to break Wendy out of isolation. Gajeel wasn’t there. We don’t know where he is, or what’s happening to him. Levy is going out of her mind with worry, and I’m at my wits end. I can’t keep doing this. Everyone was scattered, and the rest of them were run out of their homes. I protect anyone, and if this is how we can get things moving in the right direction, I’ll do it. I’ll take any blame that ends up assigned.” 

“Ok, well, I’ll see what I can figure out. I’ll also see if I can find out where Gajeel is being held. If not that, maybe I can at least figure out if there’s anything actively being reported about the dragon slayers.” 

“Ok, thank you.” 

He gives her a smile, leaning forward to give her another short kiss. She grabs his hand as he goes to stand. 

“I love you.” 

“I love you too.” 

Once he’s gone, Erza drops her head into her hands. She takes a few deep breaths before standing. 

“Alright, it’s going to be fine. We’re going to figure out what’s going on. Gray, Natsu, Rogue, and Sting are all alright. Wendy is with Mystogan. Gajeel can hold out until we find him. This is all fixable,” she reassures herself as she walks to the door. 

It only takes Erza a few minutes to get back to the guild, but all three girls are waiting on her when she gets there. 

“Hey, where’d you go?” Levy asks, Lily bundled up in her arms. 

“I ran home for something. How were the boys?”

“Fine. I think Gray is going stir crazy, but he’s keeping Natsu and Happy entertained,” Lucy says. 

“Good, well, is there anything else you guys want to do before we part ways again?” 

“No,” Juvia says after a minute of silence. 

“Ok, well you guys head home. I’ll clean up here, then get going.” 

It isn’t more than a few minutes before she’s alone in the dark guild. She sighs, stacking the chairs back up. At this point the guild is nothing more than an empty hall, and it makes something dark inside of Erza flare up.  

I’m going to do whatever I have to to fix this.

Chapter Text

Rogue’s phone rings, startling him. He almost drops the pot that he’s holding. 

“Sting, the phone’s ringing again. Get in here so we can talk to them!” he yells, setting the pot of soup back down before walking over to grab his phone. 

Sting walks in, holding Lector. 

“Hello,” Rogue greets as he answers the phone. 

“Hey, so some stuff if going on. Lucy’s calling the other two while we’re talking. You’re on speaker with me and Juvia,” Erza starts. 

“Is everyone at home ok?” Sting asks. 

“Yeah, I got in contact with Yukino a little while ago, and she said that everything is fine with them. Frosch is doing well too.” 

“That’s good, but what’s going on?” 

“Well, there are two things. I’m not really sure how they connect, or if they do, but…” She pauses for a minute like she’s trying to gather her thoughts. “Levy got a letter from Gajeel. She’s reading it right now, and she’s going to tell us what it says once she’s done with it. Also, Magnolia was evacuated. There’s no one here anymore, it’s just us. We weren’t told about this. We only know about the evacuation order because one of the other Fairy Tail members called us to ask where we were relocated to.” 

“That’s weird. Who all is still there?” 

“Lucy, Levy, Juvia, and me. That’s it. Everyone else was forced out of town, and we’re still here. We were planning on heading to the next town over to ask around, and figure out what’s going on, but I figured we needed to update everyone first.” 

“Yeah, you should definitely try to get out of town as quickly as possible. That’s weird, and I have a really bad feeling about this.” 

“Yeah, we’re going to leave town as soon as we’re done updating the others, and reading the letter.” 

“Ok, well, we’re heading back towards Sabertooth. We were going to find somewhere that we felt safe meeting with Yukino. If you want, I can call her right now, and iron out the details. Then you guys can attend too if you want to and have the capability.” 

“Yeah, just call me back with the details. We’ll definitely try to get someone down there to talk to you guys in person. We can also talk about the politics side of this.” 

“Alright, I’ll call you back in a few minutes, and then you can tell me about the letter too,” Rogue says. 

“Alright.” 

Rogue hangs up, dialing Yukino’s number immediately. She picks up quickly, answering with a cheerful hello. 

“Hey, Yukino.” 

“Rogue, hey, how are you guys?” 

“We’re good. I wanted to talk to you about the meeting that we started planning last time we talked. I invited Fairy Tail. They’ve got things going on down on their end, so I told them that we’d get the details ironed out. That way we can discuss everything that’s happened, and figure out our plan of attack.” 

“Ok, well, I have time. I’m going to put you on speaker, Frosch is hitting my leg.” 

“Ok, awesome.” 

They spend the next few minutes deciding where they’re going to meet and when. They decide that Rogue and Sting will stay where they are for the next couple days, just to give everyone else time to sort out their own affairs. Then they would make the two day trip to a town in between where Fairy Tail and Sabertooth used to be. 

Once they’re done, Rogue dials Erza’s number, but the call rings all the way through. He tries calling again, but just gets another voicemail tone. 

“Well, I guess they’re still talking about the letter. We’ll call them back in a little while.” 

Sting nods. 

“What do you wanna do in the meantime?” 

“I guess we should start getting this place ready for us to leave.” 

Stings sighs. 

“I guess.” 

“I’m going to start in the kitchen, and we’ll come back to the living room in half an hour. If they haven’t called, we’ll try calling again.” 

Rogue walks into the kitchen, looking around. It’s not too bad. He’s done minimal cleaning, but they’ve only lived there for a week and a half. It’s a small shack in the middle of nowhere. It has a small kitchen, a bedroom that barely fits two beds, and the living room. He starts wiping everything down and cleaning dishes. He leaves the soup alone, realizing that they still need to eat lunch.

The phone is silent the entire half hour that Rogue’s cleaning. He finds himself glancing back at it anxiously every few minutes. Sting looks worried too when they reconvene. Rogue tries calling, once, twice, and then a third time. It goes to voicemail every time. So, he tries to call Levy, then Lucy, then he tries calling Erza again. Those are all the numbers that he has, and they all go to voicemail. 

“Shit, what is going on?” Sting asks. 

He bites his lower lip, his emotions flashing across his face. 

“We cannot go to Magnolia.” 

“I know that.” 

“It doesn’t look like you know that.” 

“I know, this is just really out of character for them.” 

“Yes, but they said that the city was evacuated. If we tried to go there, we’d be arrested immediately. There would be no way for us to sneak in there.” 

“I know, and that’s part of why I’m worried. Why was the whole town evacuated except for them? How did they manage to get everyone out of town without those four noticing that something was going on? Something really weird is happening, and we have to do something.” 

“You’re right. We’re going to call Yukino. She can set up for someone to go check on them, and we can move the meeting up. Hopefully we’ll have some details by then.” 

He texts Yukino, explaining the situation, and telling her what they needed her to do. Then he walks towards their room. 

“Pack up, we’re leaving tomorrow morning.” 

It doesn’t take them long to pack everything up, and they spend the rest of the night cleaning. They have an early morning the next morning. It’s only seven by the time Rogue’s phone rings, and they’ve already been on the road for a few hours by then. He answers it, putting it on speaker immediately. 

“Hey, have you guys talked to the others recently?” Gray asks as soon as the call connects. 

“Yeah, we talked to them yesterday. We got off the phone, but they didn’t answer when we tried calling back a few minutes later.” 

“Yeah, we were on the phone with Lucy, and she said that something was wrong. She said that Levy was crying, and got hysterical. She said that she would call us back once she got that sorted out, but she never did. We got really worried, but with the evacuation, we didn’t think it would be safe to check on them.” 

“It’s not. We thought the same thing. However, we did get Yukino to send someone to check on them. We should hear back sometime today. We’re heading to meet with Yukino right now. If you guys are close enough, you can come too.” He tells him when and where they’re planning on meeting. 

Gray sighs. 

“Yeah, we’re not close enough. We’re actually on the outskirts of Fiore right now. We can’t get there in any reasonable amount of time.” 

“Ok, that’s fine. We can also call you in.” 

“That works. Call us as soon as you hear about the others.” 

“I will, is there anything else?” 

“No, thanks, Rogue.” 

“Yeah, no problem.” 

He hangs up, knocking the phone against his head lightly. 

“We should keep moving,” Sting says. 

“Yeah, we’ll have answers soon enough.”   

Chapter Text

Erza hangs up her phone, setting it down on the table. Juvia looks up, her face grim. She opens her mouth to say something, but before she can, they all hear Levy start sobbing. Lucy looks up from where she was focused on her phone. Erza rushes over to Levy, who is just holding the letter and crying. Lucy runs over too as there’s a heavy knock on the door. 

“You go get that. I’ll talk to Levy,” Lucy whispers as she places a hand on Levy’s shoulder. 

Erza nods hesitantly as the banging continues. She walks over and opens the door. Gajeel is standing outside. She jumps slightly, her eyes narrowing. He looks terrible. His eyes are sunken and bloodshot, he looks about ready to tip to the side, and he’s thin enough that she can count his ribs. 

“Are you alright?” Erza asks, stepping outside. 

Gajeel locks eyes with her, but it looks more like he’s looking through her. She doesn’t even have time to defend, or try to block him before a needle enters her arm. She jerks back, but it’s too late. The corners of her vision turn dark and her knees buckle. Gajeel catches her over one arm, but her brain is disconnecting from her body. She can’t even protest. Then everything fades completely. 

Rogue sits down, putting his head in his hands. They’re been traveling for almost twelve hours straight, but he still feels terrible about stopping. Sting is laying a few feet away, an arm slung over his eyes. Lector is curled up near Sting’s feet. Rogue turns on his side away from them, forcing his eyes closed. 

He lays there, listening to everything around him. Sleep is hard, as always nowadays. Eventually the sounds begin to fade out, followed by blissful silence. When he opens his eyes again, it’s still oddly quiet. He sits up, looking around. Sting is still asleep a few feet away with Lector curled on his chest. Rogue stands up, squinting into the darkness. 

“Where are the animals?” he asks since they’re literally camping outside in the middle of nowhere. 

There were birds, squirrels, and insects. Now it’s completely quiet. He stands up, something rustling off to the right. 

What was that? Was that one of the wildlife? 

He kicks Sting, but Sting just groans. Rogue rolls his eyes as something comes through a bush. It’s too dark to see what it is, but Rogue doesn’t have to. He cocks his head. 

“Gajeel?” he whispers, not really sure why he smells off. Not enough to not be recognizable, but enough that he’s confused. “What’s going on? How are you here?” 

Rogue’s phone starts ringing, startling both of them. Rogue grabs his phone as Sting sits up. 

“What’s going on?” he asks, stroking Lector’s head. 

Rogue brings his phone up to his ear, not taking his eyes off of Gajeel. 

“See if you can figure out how he’s here, or why he’s not talking,” Rogue says, narrowing his eyes.

Sting blinks hard, seemingly confused. Then he notices Gajeel, who is still just standing there.

“Hello.” 

“Rogue, the guild was destroyed. There was no sign of any of the Fairy Tail girls, and everything was broken. Apparently they rescinded the evacuation order, and we were able to get in. The outside is fine, but the inside was wrecked.” 

Rogue’s eyes travel back to Gajeel, who is still completely motionless. Sting is asking him if he’s ok, but he doesn’t respond. 

“I gotta go. I think I might know what happened to them.” 

“Ok, just let me know once you have more time.” 

“I will, bye.” 

He hangs up, taking a step forward. 

“I don’t think that’s Gajeel,” he whispers in Sting’s ear. 

Sting scrunches up his nose. 

“I was starting to wonder the same thing. I thought maybe I was wrong.” 

“I’m not sure.” 

Gajeel takes a few steps towards them. It’s only a second later when metal slams into Rogue. He grunts, falling backwards with the impact. Sting is moving before Rogue can even recover. He kicks Gajeel in the face, but Gajeel barely even reacts. He just lifts Sting by his arm and flings him a few yards away. 

Gajeel stalks towards Rogue, who is getting back to his feet. Rogue dodges the boot flying towards his face, ducking under Gajeel’s leg. Up close Rogue can see him better, noting how bad he looks. However, he’s still moving like nothing’s wrong. His muscles look weak enough that they shouldn’t even be able to support him, but he moves with only slightly less grace than before. 

Rogue grabs his shoulder, almost shuddering at how defined the bone is. He realizes how easy it would be to break it right now. It’s in that moment of hesitation that Gajeel slams his fist into Rogue’s midsection. He turns his fist to iron at the last moment, knocking the wind out of Rogue. Rogue grunts, his shoulder digging into the ground where he lands. 

He’s on his feet in a second, taking a second to glance back at Sting. He still hasn’t gotten up, causing worry to grow in Rogue’s stomach. He’s seen Sting take much harder hits and get up immediately. 

He might have hit his head, or there was something that I didn’t see. Where’s Lector? 

He barely brings his arms up fast enough to block the punch Gajeel tries to bury in his face. He sweeps his leg out, knocking Gajeel off balance. He tips over, a crack echoing through the air when he lands. Rogue flinches, but takes that opportunity to pin Gajeel to the ground. 

He grabs his hands, pinning them behind his back before he has a chance to recuperate. Rogue smashes his fist into the back of Gajeel’s head, and he goes limp immediately. Rogue sits back, his eyes wide and slightly unfocused. Rogue races over to Sting, dropping down next to him. He was right, and Sting’s head is bleeding. It’s not a lot, and Rogue lets out a sigh of relief. 

“Gosh, you can’t do that!” 

He stands up, his eyes scanning the area for Lector. He’s hiding in a bush, which is only noticeable since the sun is starting to come out. 

“What am I going to do with these two?” Rogue wonders out loud as he looks between Sting and Gajeel.

Chapter Text

Rogue shakes Sting gently so as not to aggravate his head injury. 

“Come on, you big oaf. Get up!” 

However, it’s not Sting that starts to stir. It’s Gajeel, though Rogue doesn’t notice immediately. Gajeel doesn’t attack, instead he quietly gets to his feet. Then he takes off running in the same direction that he came from. It only takes Rogue a minute to realize that he’s gone, but by then, he’s too far away to chase. 

“Damn it! How did he get up so fast? I was sure that I knocked him out properly. Ugh, we’ve got to get a move on before he comes back with reinforcements.” 

Rogue grabs Sting, hoisting him onto his back, before turning to Lector. 

“Come on, bud. You gotta walk with me.” 

Lector nods, running over to him. 

“I hope the others are ok. Remind me to call them once we’re far enough away to stop,” Rogue says to Lector. 

“I can do that. Is Sting ok?” 

“Yeah, he’s going to be fine, I promise.” 

They trudge for hours with Sting slung over Rogue’s back, and Lector toddling along beside him. They finally make it back to civilization in the form of a small town on the outskirts of the woodlands that Rogue and Sting were camping out in. It takes a bit of work to get a hotel room, and get Sting into it without freaking someone out. Luckily, he’s partially awake by then, and coherent. So, they manage to get to their room without someone asking what’s wrong with Sting. 

Rogue cleans the cut on Sting’s forehead, checks him for any sign that the concussion is more serious than he originally thought. Once he’s done, he lets Sting lay down with Lector. He drops onto the other bed, his whole body aching and heavy. 

“I’m going to get some sleep, then we can call the others, and tell them what happened. I don’t think any of them are in danger, so a small nap shouldn’t be an issue,” he says, turning onto his side. 

“Yeah, Gray and Natsu are the only ones we would have to worry about, and they’re too far out for him to get to them before we can call. Especially with how badly he does on moving vehicles,” Sting replies, stroking Lector’s head. 

Rogue nods, already starting to fall asleep. 

I’ll call them in just an hour or two. It’ll be fine. 

Levy wakes up to a bright light shining in her face. The woman behind it comes into view a minute later. 

“Who are you?” Levy whispers, blinking lethargically. 

“Oh, you’re awake. That’s good. You’re free to go.” 

“What?” 

She looks around, trying to figure out where she is. The only thing she remembers is hearing Lucy scream, and then getting hit in the back of the head. Something important tugs at the back of her mind, but she can’t seem to remember what it is. After another glance around the room, she notes that there isn’t anything defining in the room. Just white walls, beds, and fluorescent lights. 

Then the woman speaks again, “You were caught in a terrorist attack against Magnolia. You didn’t follow the evacuation order, so you got caught in the crossfire. This is a royal medical facility.” 

“Where are the others?” Levy asks. 

“One of them is already waiting outside for you. Come with me.” 

One? 

With very little more information than she started with, Levy follows the woman out of the room. Lucy is standing outside with another woman. Lucy runs over, throwing her arms around Levy. 

“Do you know what’s going on?” she asks, pulling back slightly so they can see each other’s faces. 

“They said that there was a terrorist attack, but I don’t remember what happened. I can’t even seem to recall what happened leading up to it. I only vaguely remember getting hit in the back of the head. Also, they haven’t told us where Erza, or Juvia is yet.” 

“Me neither. I mean, I kind of remember talking to you know who, but everything is really fuzzy.” 

“I think I was reading something. What was it?” 

Before Levy can ponder on it any further, a third woman walks out with Juvia. Juvia runs over, stopping right in front of them. 

“Juvia is so glad that you two are alright. Do you know where Erza is?” 

“No, that’s actually what we were just talking about.” 

The woman that was with Levy clears her throat. 

“I’m sorry to interrupt, but I can answer that question. Your friend didn’t make it. She died during the terrorist attack. I’m very sorry.” 

They all stare at her in stunned silence.

“There’s no way. She’s Erza,” Lucy whispers, wrapping her arms around herself tightly. 

Juvia clenches her fists, but doesn’t say anything. Levy just holds her hand over her mouth, completely speechless. 

“Are we free to go?” Juvia asks through gritted teeth. 

“Yes, the exit is that way. There’s a carriage that can take you anywhere you want to go.” 

The carriage ride is completely silent, and the tension is palpable. 

Once they’re back in Magnolia, Juvia finally speaks. It’s only once the carriage is out of sight though, and she sounds furious, “So I’m assuming that you guys don’t remember what happened?” 

“No, we don’t. What happened?” Levy asks. 

“You were reading that letter. The one that we didn’t know who it was from. You started crying, then someone knocked.” 

Levy blinks, the letter rushing back to her. Her eyes widen as Juvia keeps talking. 

“Erza went outside when she answered it. She wasn’t the one that came back in though.” 

“Gajeel was, wasn’t he?” Levy asks, tears filling her eyes. 

“Yes, and there was less than a minute between the first and second thing happening.” 

“What are you guys talking about? How would Gajeel be there?” Lucy asks. 

“Juvia doesn’t know. He was in bad shape though. He looked like the walking dead. It scared Juvia, he’s never been in that bad of a state before. He attacked us, and his eyes were so blank. It was like he was an empty doll.” 

“They hurt him. He sent me the letter. It was encoded, but it wasn’t hard for me to figure out. He said that they were going to mind control him, or at least try. He said that if it didn’t work, it was going to kill him,” she whispers, grabbing the wall of a nearby building for support. 

Her legs feel like jelly, and she finds herself barely able to support her own weight. Both girls are staring at her, clearly distressed. 

“You don’t think they’re going to try to do that to Erza too, do you?” Lucy asks after a minute of intense silence. 

They all exchange glances, Juvia and Levy not having even thought of that until now. 

“Shit,” Lucy mutters, tipping her head back. 

“What do we do?” Levy eventually asks. 

“My phone should still be at the guild. We should contact Yukino, and figure out where they’re meeting. We need to figure out what’s happening right now,” Lucy answers, rubbing her eyes. 

“Ok, let’s get going then.” 

It’s a quick walk to the guild, and a mostly quiet one. The town is still empty, even though they said that the evacuation order was rescinded. The inside of the guild is wrecked. Chairs were thrown into the wall, and the bar was smashed almost to pieces. Though everything else looks like it was completely untouched. It was almost like someone started throwing a tantrum, then just stopped and left. 

Lucy walks over to her bag, which is only a few feet away from where she left it. Luckily everything inside looks to be intact, and her phone turns on immediately. She calls Yukino. Levy doesn’t really listen to their conversation. Instead she turns to run a hand down the wall. She takes in the carnage around her. There’s a fist sized hole in the wall, but it doesn’t look anywhere near big enough to be Gajeel’s. Her fingers graze the wall as she stares at it intently. Then Juvia puts a hand on her arm, and she jumps. 

“Levy, pay attention. Lucy was just going to tell Juvia where we’re meeting.” 

Levy nods, and Lucy tells them that they’re going to meet Rogue, Sting, and Yukino in a town between Magnolia and Sabertooth. 

“Natsu and Gray are making their way back towards us, but they’re really far out. Yukino said that something happened with Rogue and Sting. She doesn’t know what it was, but she said that Rogue promised to call her back, but that was hours ago. So, we’re not sure what the situation there is, but we’ll know more once we all meet up.” 

“Ok, let's go then. Are we just going to wait until the guys get there, or is there a specific date that they were going to meet?” 

“Apparently there was, but at this point, we’re just going to wait for Rogue and Sting there. They’re going as fast as they can, so we’ll just have to wait on them.” 

“Ok, but we should pack a bag then. We don’t know how long we’re going to be there,” Levy suggests. 

“Also, another point that Juvia just thought about, where’s Lily?” 

Levy turns to look at her, her face draining of all color. 

“I didn’t even think about that. He was with me!” 

“Calm down, I’m sure we’re going to find him. Just-” 

Levy doesn’t wait for Lucy to finish. She takes off out of the door. She runs to her apartment, knowing that Lily keeps a key to her place with him at all times. She bangs on the door since she doesn’t have her keys. There’s just complete silence. She keeps banging on the door for a minute before grabbing a hairpin out of her hair. She picks the lock, and steps inside. 

The apartment is quiet, and just as put together as when she left it before she went to the guild that last time. Levy looks around one more time, tears in her eyes before she starts tearing the room apart. She throws things in a bag while she’s at it, even though she isn’t even paying any attention to what she’s putting in there. After she’s done, she walks out without even caring to shut the door. 

She runs to Gajeel’s apartment, finding that door unlocked. As soon as she opens it, Lily jumps onto her. She wraps her arms around him, crying. 

“Levy, I didn’t know where you had gone. I was in the back, and there were loud noises, but no one was there when I walked out. There was a little bit of blood on the floor, but I couldn’t find you.” 

“It’s ok. I’m fine. I’ll fill you in on what happened while we’re on our way back to the guild.” 

Levy lets Lily go, gently setting him on the floor. She grabs a few of Gajeel’s shirts out of his closet since she still has no idea what she put in her bag, and then they start on their walk back to the guild. Once she’s explained everything that happened since they last saw each other, Lily looks understandably upset. 

“What does that mean for Gajeel? Also, what can we do for Erza?” 

“I don’t know. I don’t think there is anything that we can do for Erza right now, especially not with the forces that we have. We’re gonna try to put together a rescue mission as soon as possible, but we’re screwed if they do manage to do something to her. Especially since this seems to be a royal endorsed mission, they have the whole royal guard on their side.” 

They’re the first ones to get back to the guild, so Levy just drops onto the floor with a sigh. 

“This is starting to feel more hopeless, isn’t it?” she asks, tucking her head into her arms. 

“Yes, but we can’t let that get us down,” Lily says, putting his tiny paw against her leg. 

Before she can answer, the doors to the guild fly open. Instead of one of the girls that she expected to come in, instead she sees Jellal, and he looks like he ran a long way to get there. 

“Where’s Erza? I figured out what’s going on.”   

Chapter Text

Rogue and Sting don’t make it to the meeting spot for another two days, and by then they had already called Yukino to let her know what was going on. She told them that the girls from Fairy Tail would be joining them. Yukino is waiting for them when they arrive at the hotel. 

“Hey, guys, are you alright?” she asks, taking in their ruffled clothes and dark under eyes. 

Sting still has a cut on his head, which is bandaged. 

“Yeah, we’re fine. Did you already get checked into the hotel?” 

“Yeah, we’re on the second floor.” 

“Ok, we’ll have to be discreet about coming up. Are the Fairy Tail girls already here?” 

“Yeah, and they don’t have good news.” 

“I figured as much, neither do we. We can compare notes.” 

They head up to their room on the second floor. It has two beds, and Levy, Lucy, and Juvia are already sprawled either on the beds, or on the floor leaning against a bed. 

“Hey, guys,” Lucy says, perking up as soon as they walk in.

Before either of them can say anything, Frosche launches himself at Rogue from underneath the bed. 

“Hey, buddy,” Rogue says, wrapping his arms around Frosche. 

Lily watches as Lector walks over to him. 

“I’m sorry to hear about your person.” 

Lily doesn’t respond, just tucks himself behind Levy. Levy smiles gently at Lector. 

“Thank you.” 

“We’re just waiting on one more. I called Natsu and Gray, but they can’t be here for another few days.” 

“So who are we waiting on then?” Rogue asks, frowning. 

He sits down on the floor, placing Frosche into his lap. He immediately begins absentmindedly petting Frosche’s head as Sting sits on one of the beds next to Juvia. Juvia doesn’t respond, or look up from where she’s dejectedly staring at her legs. There’s a knock on the door that has everyone snapping to attention. 

“That should be him,” Lucy says, standing up. 

She walks to the door, cracking it open before pulling it open the rest of the way. Mystogan walks in with a small nod in Lucy’s direction. 

“You asked Mystogan to come?” Rogue asks. 

“Yeah, I figured we really need his help right now. How about we go first in explaining what happened at Fairy Tail, then you guys explain what happened to you? Then we’ll get into why I called Mystogan to come here too,” Lucy suggests, and Rogue nods. 

Mystogan settles down, and Lector immediately runs over to sit down in his lap. Mystogan gives him a smile as Lucy starts explaining what happened. Once they’ve both explained their experiences, everyone turns back to Lucy. 

“Levy is going to be explaining this next part.” 

“So, I talked with Jellal. Apparently Erza reached out to him to ask if he could find out what’s going on. He looked into it, and he doesn’t think the King is the real King. He thinks that the person who’s been giving orders is a fake. They’re trying to use their mind control stuff to snag the most powerful wizards, starting with the Dragon Slayers. That’s why the magic ban was put in place, to make it easier for them to achieve this. That’s also why the warrant was put out for your arrest.” 

“Why would they want the Dragon Slayers, or the other powerful wizards?” Mystogan asks, frowning deeply. 

“We think that they’re trying to plan a hostile takeover. They have this country under their finger already, so they want to branch out. I don’t know how far, but we can’t let them do to Erza what they did to Gajeel.” 

“Yeah, I mean, we saw what state he was in, and he still almost kicked our asses. I can’t imagine what’s going to happen if the same thing happens to Erza,” Rogue says, putting his head back against the wall. 

“We won’t. What do you need from me?” Mystogan asks. 

“I need you to make a plan to get her back. I don’t know how you got Wendy out of the capital, but whatever kind of planning that was, we need that again.” 

“Ok, do you know where she’s being held? Do you have any idea where this process takes place?” 

“No, but we’re going to get that information by breaking into the facility that we were taken to after Gajeel attacked the guild.” 

“What can we do?” Rogue asks, glancing nervously at the door. 

“Stay out of sight, and don’t get caught by anyone. For right now, we just need you guys not to be seen. Mystogan, you’re free to include whomever you want to your plan. Levy and Yukino are going to stay here with Lily, Lector, and Frosche. You guys are welcome to stay here too, or find separate accommodations. Juvia and I are going to break into the facility later today.” 

Rogue nods. 

“We’re going to find somewhere else to stay, just in case. If we’re caught with you guys, you’ll get arrested too. So, we’re going to head somewhere else, and you guys can call us when you’re ready.” 

Mystogan stands up, scooping Lector up as he does. He puts Lector down on the bed before heading to the door. 

“I’ll be back in a few hours, and we’ll talk some more.” 

“Wait, where’s Wendy?” Lucy asks as if she just realized that she’s not there. 

“I left her at home. She’s with my advisor.” 

Lucy nods. Mystogan walks out, leaving the rest of them to their respective jobs. Lucy turns to Juvia. 

“Are you ready to go?” 

Juvia nods timidly. She still seems upset, but gets up to follow Lucy out. Rogue stands up. 

“Come on, Sting. We have to get moving.” 

“Where are we going?” 

“We have to find other lodging. I’m sure there’s another hotel in the area. If not, we can figure something else out.” 

Sting groans, but stands. 

“Lector, you stay here with Frosche and Yukino, ok?” 

Lector nods, toddling over to Frosche, who’s pouting in the corner. 

“I’m coming back. It’s just for a few hours, buddy,” Rogue says, patting Frosche’s head. 

They leave to find other sleeping arrangements. Once they’re settled in another hotel, Sting turns to Rogue. 

“What are we going to do? Terrorists are running the country, and have been for months. What do we even do about that?” 

“We find a way to expose them, then get the backing to throw them out of power. It might not publicly be us, but this is good. This means that it wasn’t the actual Kingdom that wanted us arrested. That means that when we do get the proof to go public with this, then we can go home. We can get back to our lives.” 

Sting looks out the window. 

“That’ll be nice, but that’s assuming that we can expose them. You’re taking a lot of maybes and turning them into false hope.” 

“No I’m not. I know that we’re used to fighting for ourselves, but we have friends on our side. We have Fairy Tail on our side. A lot of powerful people are not only backing us up, but are fully involved in this theirselves.” 

“I guess you’re right.” 

“I know I am.” 

Lucy sneaks along the side of the outer wall of the government facility, even though there are no guards that can be seen. She stays out of the more exposed areas, Juvia following reluctantly behind her. She’s still pouting, especially knowing that they have no idea when Gray and Natsu will get there, or that she could miss them while they’re out on this excursion. Which doesn’t even make sense since they were so far out the last time they talked. However, logic normally doesn’t work on Juvia, and that’s not going to change anytime soon. 

“We’ll get back in time to see the boys,” Lucy promises. 

“I know, but this whole ordeal has made it hard for Juvia to be positive,” Juvia replies. 

“We just need to stay positive and have faith in us and our friends. They’ve got our backs.” 

Juvia nods, even though she doesn’t look any more cheery than before. Lucy and Juvia come to the edge of the wall and Lucy points out the door guarded by a singular guard. 

“That’s our way in,” Lucy says. “We just have to quietly take him out so we can get in. I think maybe I’ll use one of my keys.” 

“No need. Juvia is already handling it,” Juvia says. 

The guy’s head is covered in a small bubble of water and he clearly can’t breathe. 

“Juvia!” Lucy quietly exclaims. 

The man falls over and the bubble pops. 

“He’s not dead. Juvia wouldn’t do that anymore. Gray-sama would never approve.” 

The two head into the facility and start looking around. They wander through the facility, searching for answers on where Erza could be. 

“There’s gotta be a file room,” Lucy says. “Just finding it is turning out to be a bigger hassle than I expected.” 

After almost ten minutes of searching in every room they come across that isn’t locked and doesn’t have anybody in them, Lucy hunches over a bit. 

“This is hopeless.” 

“Juvia has found the file room,” Juvia says, pointing into the door she opened. 

“That’s awesome, Juvia!” Lucy exclaims, then covers her mouth. 

After Juvia takes out a guard who came to check out the area after hearing Lucy, the duo walk into the room. They start on opposite sides of the room, looking through each cabinet for Erza’s file. The room is huge, so the search goes at a slow pace. Both are careful not to accidentally skip over Erza’s file. After thirty minutes with no luck, Lucy sighs. 

“I can’t find Erza’s file,” she says, frustration coloring her tone. 

“Juvia hasn’t found it either,” Juvia replies. 

Footsteps can be heard, so Juvia walks to the right of the door and waits to see if anybody comes in. Lucy keeps quietly searching for Erza’s file. Nobody comes in, but Juvia stays at the door. 

“Is something going on?” Lucy whispers. 

“There are a lot of guards passing the door,” Juvia answers. “Juvia doesn’t know where they’re going, but they aren’t stopping here. Don’t know why though.” 

“I don’t know, but we should hurry. In case something big is going on, or they found the guard that we knocked out.” 

Juvia nods. Lucy opens another drawer and there it is: Erza’s file. Lucy grabs the file excitedly. 

“Come on, Juvia. I’ve got the file.” 

Juvia nods. They wait to make sure that no more guards are coming in their direction and then the two sneak back out, taking out another guard who almost caught them. The two jog back towards the hotel, making sure that they stay out of sight in case someone comes looking. 

“Do you think that everyone’s going to be okay?” Juvia asks. “Juvia is worried about them. Especially Gajeel.” 

“Everyone’s gonna be alright,” Lucy says. “We’re Fairy Tail wizards. We always get through things with the help of our friends. We’ll expose everything and then get them back. Especially Gajeel.” 

Juvia nods. 

“Thank you, Lucy. You are a good friend to Juvia.” 

“Aww, thanks, Juvia. We all need a little pick-me-up from time to time. On the other hand, I can’t wait to see Natsu and Happy again.” 

“Juvia cannot wait to see Gray-sama again. Juvia can barely contain her excitement, even though it is still dulled by Gajeel’s situation.” 

Lucy nods. 

“It’s ok to still be excited to see Gray.” 

Once they get to the hotel, they head straight to their room.

Once Rogue, Sting, and Mystogan come back, which is less than an hour after Lucy and Juvia get back, they all sit down to discuss strategy. 

“So, this says that Erza is being held in a facility a few hours away from here, though that does mean that we’ll have to take a carriage there. Sorry, guys,” Lucy says, glancing at Rogue and Sting. 

Rogue nods, though he does look a little uncomfortable. Mystogan clears his throat, looking down at the two Exceeds playing with his boots. Sting looks over. 

“Lector, Frosche, stop that. You’re bothering him.” 

Lector sticks his tongue out, continuing to bat at Mystogan’s laces. 

“It’s alright,” Mystogan says, patting Frosche’s head. 

“Anyway, they don’t have her scheduled for anything other than a few tests to make sure that what they want is even possible for the rest of today and tomorrow. That gives us a little bit of time to figure out a plan, though we should try to get there as soon as possible, just to be safe. Mystogan, what’ve you got?” 

“Well, I have the schematics of all of the government buildings in a fifty mile radius. So, look through these for me, and tell me which one it is. I’ll look over them, and figure out what each person should be doing.” 

He hands a stack of papers to Lucy, who looks at him incredulously. 

“All of them? Where did you even get that?” 

“Doesn’t matter.” 

“Alright, if you say so,” she mutters, flipping through them, looking at the name printed into the top right hand corner of each schematic. 

She gets about halfway through the stack before she pulls two of them out. 

“It’s these two.” 

Mystogan takes them, his eyes scanning over the pages again. 

“Ok, we can work with that. She’s probably being held in the lab part of this one. It’s on the second floor, and it has a completely different ventilation system compared to the rest of the building. That’s probably to prevent escapes, but it won’t be an issue. It’s a pretty big base, so we can expect some resistance. We should also plan on Gajeel possibly being there.” 

Everyone looks away, but Mystogan either doesn’t notice cause he’s still looking at the papers, or he just doesn’t mention it out of courtesy. 

“Alright, I think I know what we’re going to do. We should try to go tonight, use the cover of the dark. Rogue and Sting can stay here since they don’t travel well. Also, we need someone to stay here to make sure that there’s someone to bring Gray and Natsu here when they get into town. Juvia, you can stay too. That’ll leave me, Lucy, Yukino, and Levy going, yeah?” 

Lucy nods, and he hums. 

“Well, I know most of your skills pretty well, though I did leave Fairy Tail before you gathered all of your keys, Lucy. That’s ok, I know enough. Between you and Yukino, you have all of them, right?”

Lucy nods again, putting her hand on top of Yukino’s, who gives her a small smile. 

“Ok, listen closely. I want Lucy and Levy to make a distraction outside of the base, specifically the back exit. Make it seem like it was an accident though, and that you were trying to break in. Don’t stay any longer than you can manage. You still have to be able to get away once you’ve got their attention. It doesn’t even have to be you, you can use one of your spirits. 

Yukino, you’re going to head inside with me. We’re going to discreetly take out any guards that are still there once we get inside, making sure that we’re not caught. Once we get to the second floor, I’m going to deal with any of the guards or nurses up there. The security is bound to be tight up there, and we can’t hold our breath that we’ll be able to do that part discreetly. However, Lucy should be gone by then, waiting with our get away vehicle. While I’m doing that, you’re going to locate Erza, and release her. We’ll plan to have Jellal meet us here once we’re done, cause I’m sure he’s worried about her.” 

Frosche climbs up Mystogan’s leg, flipping over his leg into his lap. 

“Hey, buddy, do you like my plan?” Mystogan asks, smiling softly at Frosche. 

Frosche nods, just happy to have attention. 

“It makes sense to me. Less people is better for a stealth mission anyway, even if that’s just how it’s starting. You’re very smart,” Yukino says. 

Mystogan smiles shyly. 

“Thank you, ma’am.” 

“Yeah, not everyone can say that they were a S class mage in Fairy Tail,” Lucy says, and Mystogan blushes. “You should have seen him fight Laxus, it was pretty cool.” 

“I didn’t know you were an S class wizard,” Yukino says, turning back to Mystogan. 

“I was. Being in Fairy Tail was a good time. Much better than running a country.” 

He stands up, setting Frosche down on the bed. Yukino turns to Lucy with a bewildered look like: who is this man? 

“I’ll explain later. We can go for a walk. For now though, we should get some food before it gets too dark.” 

“Can I come with you, and you can tell me now?” Yukino asks. 

Lucy nods with a small laugh. 

“Just wait here guys. We’ll be back soon.” 

She stands up, and they both leave. Rogue turns to Mystogan. 

“Thank you for helping us. I know that you have a lot of your own problems to deal with, and we appreciate you helping us with ours. I’m hoping that we can get this whole thing cleared up soon.” 

“Me too, and this isn’t just your problem. She’s not wrong, I was a Fairy Tail wizard for a long time. I care deeply for all of them, and I want Wendy to be able to come home as soon as possible. She means the world to me, and this means a lot to her. So, I’m just glad that I’m able to help her get home.” 

Rogue smiles. 

“She’s lucky to have you.” 

“Yeah, I won’t disagree with that. I’m lucky to have her too.” 

“Well, now all we can do is hope that all of this goes well,” Sting says, standing up. 

He stretches before settling on the floor to play with the Exceeds. Rogue looks down, deciding to trust the others with this next mission since he and Sting are not much use in moving vehicles anyway.  

Chapter Text

Mystogan sighs, rubbing his eyes. The light is fading from the sky when Yukino and Lucy come back with dinner. 

“We should eat quickly, and get moving,” he says, standing up. 

They pass out food quickly, then eat their own portions. Once they’re done, Mystogan looks around. 

“Ok, are you ready to go?” 

“Can we just say bye?” Lucy asks. 

“Yeah, absolutely. I’m going to step out. I’ll find a carriage for us to rent.” 

He rushes out, shutting the door firmly behind him. 

Ok, I have to get a carriage, then come back here. 

He walks until he gets to the carriage rental shop downtown. He makes sure that his hair and tattoo are fully covered before walking in. It’s a quick process to rent a carriage, though he does get a few weird looks from the other people in the shop. He ignores them, choosing to focus on his task. It’s been a while since he’s had to deal with this, but that doesn’t mean he doesn’t remember it vividly. He’s quick to hook the carriage up to a magical device, steering it back to the hotel. 

Lucy, Levy, and Yukino are waiting outside for him. He hands over the reins, climbing into the back. It’s not long before the carriage is rumbling along, powered by Levy’s magic since she’s not planning on using it for the mission. She has the most passive part of this plan. So, she holds the reins while the other two sit on the opposite side from Mystogan. Yukino is staring at him, but he just looks away, out of the window. He pulls the cloth tighter around his face. 

“You know you don’t need that around us, right?” Yukino asks, reaching out to him. Her fingertips barely brush his leg, but he still jumps slightly. 

“I feel more comfortable leaving it on if you don’t mind,” he replies hastily, wincing at his own brashness. 

Yukino doesn’t push it, choosing to just nod instead. 

“Whatever makes you feel the most comfortable.” 

Mystogan keeps his eyes stubbornly trained on the valleys passing by as they ride. 

“So, what is this place?” 

“It’s labeled as a research lab, but I have no idea what they were working on before the terrorists took over.” 

“I wonder why they were all so willing to do something so inhumane.” 

“If we’re being completely realistic, it’s probably not the same employees. It’s probably a whole new team that either worked with the terrorists before, or that they handpicked. Most likely from the black market,” Mystogan says, his fingers twisting together. “It’s not likely that you’ll find a whole military base that would be ok with that, even if the King did command that they do it. They’d also wonder why they couldn’t leave, and would start asking too many questions. It would just be easier to replace them with an in-house team.” 

Yukino looks sad, staring down at her hands, which are placed gently in her lap. 

“It’s still terrible that they’d be willing to do something like that to another person. I mean, I didn’t see him, but it sounded really bad.”

Lucy sniffles. 

“Let’s talk about something else,” Mystogan suggests. 

Yukino nods, but doesn’t say anything else. They end up just descending into silence for the rest of the ride. They stop a mile out from the building, parking the carriage right off of the road. They walk the rest of the way, splitting up once they get to the building. It’s a two story brick building with old architectural designs. 

Levy and Lucy split off towards the back while Yukino and Mystogan stay in the front, waiting for the distraction. It’s only a few minutes before there’s a small amount of noise, and the three of the four guards out front head towards the back. Mystogan sneaks forward, grabbing the man before he notices them. He cuts off his air, holding him in a practiced choker hold till he passes out. He peeks through the window before opening the door. 

No one is in the lobby, making it look like a completely normal building. Mystogan heads past the doors to the front and left, beelining for the door on the right. A staircase is nestled behind the door, which says Employees Only. He motions Yukino forward, who follows him, though she seems more hesitant than she was when they first started. 

Mystogan knocks out the man guarding the landing with a singular punch. He catches him, setting him in the corner carefully so he doesn’t make any noise when he falls. Yukino continues to watch, though she seems to be getting more and more agitated as time goes on. 

“What’s wrong?” Mystogan whispers, realizing that it isn’t just mission jitters.

“Something’s wrong. My magic is starting to feel really funny.” 

“What does that mean?” Mystogan asks. 

“How do you not feel it?” 

“I don’t have magic. You know what? It’s fine. You don’t even have to use your magic. Is it going to affect anything if you don’t use it?” 

“I don’t think so. I just don’t like this feeling.” 

“You’ll be ok. You don’t even have to use it. All you have to do is find Erza, and get her out of here. Can you still do that?” 

She nods timidly, though she’s still shaking slightly. 

“Alright, get ready to go as soon as a path is clear.” 

He swings the door open, rushing inside. Four guards immediately greet him, one immediately throwing a ball of ice at him. He swings his staff, knocking it back at the man. He barely has time to duck before the ball smashes into the wall. 

“Shit!”

Mystogan takes one of their feet out from underneath him while the other two throw various spells his way. They seem more powerful than normal mages, and something feels off about the way they’re acting. However, Mystogan ignores the weird feeling, and keeps either dodging, or blocking the magic that’s thrown his way. 

He knocks one out with another ball of ice while one shoots vines at him. They snag his staff, almost yanking it out of his hands, but he manages to keep a hold of it. It takes a few precious seconds to pull his staff free, and a shard of ice hits him as soon as he does. He goes down, but only for another few seconds. He’s back up almost immediately, swinging his staff at the man that’s approaching him. 

Mystogan hits him hard enough to knock him out, breathing heavily. His side aches where the ice pierced his skin. He looks to the two guards that are still standing, then to the three nurses standing in the doorway behind him. 

I have to knock those three out before Yukino can go. I was really hoping that they wouldn’t be in the way so I could focus on these guys first. Oh, well, since when does anything go well? 

He feints a swing with his staff, throwing the guards off. Then he really swings a nearby vase towards the nurses. They all scream, scattering. He sees Yukino dart for the doorway while the guards and nurses are all focused on him. He blocks a few more vines before knocking the last two out in one swoop. He knocks the nurses out too, just in case, though they don’t resist. Mystogan puts his hands on his knees, breathing heavily. 

Then he hears it, heavy footsteps coming up the stairs. He races to the door, then throws it shut. He shoves a chair underneath the door handle, trying to put off the person coming up the stairs. His chest constricts, thinking about who he already knows is going to come through that door any minute. His head swims, and his hand drifts down. His abdomen is bleeding more now, cluing him in to how large the piece of ice really was. 

“Well, that is not good,” he mutters, closing his eyes for a second. 

Then someone begins banging on the door. They don’t say anything, though they don’t have to. Mystogan rips part of his cape, hastily tying it around his bleeding midsection, knowing that it’s going to get worse as the ice continues to melt. It’s already starting to burn from where the cold is messing with his nerves. The door shudders as the assault on it continues. Mystogan strains his ears, but can’t hear anything from down the corridor. Taking that as a good thing, and that it means Yukino is far enough away that he can’t hear her, he turns back to the door. 

It finally gives way a minute later, Gajeel appearing in the doorway. His face is more sunken than the last time they saw him, though Mystogan has no way of knowing that. He’s still taken aback by how sick Gajeel looks, a sharp inhale forcing its way out of his throat. 

“Gajeel,” he whispers, chest restricting even more. 

Gajeel runs at him full force, turning his entire body to steel. Mystogan throws himself out of the way like he’s a matador. He has to bite back a pained scream as his injuries are jostled relentlessly. Mystogan throws a chair into Gajeel’s path as he runs at him again, tripping him. Gajeel flips completely over the chair, almost thrown into the air with the force. He lands on the floor with an almighty smack. 

Mystogan winces, watching Gajeel’s jaw slam into the floor. His mouth is bleeding as he stands, but he doesn’t seem to notice or care. 

“Shit, I’m going to hurt him if I keep this up.” 

Mystogan throws open the door, racing down the stairs. Luckily Gajeel decides to follow him instead of securing the floor. They race down the stairs, though Gajeel isn’t as fast as he normally is. So Mystogan has an easier time beating him down the stairs and out of the door. 

With the way he’s fighting, there isn’t a thought in his brain. I should be able to distract him without him realizing what’s happening. 

He runs past a shocked guard, who was actively talking to Loki. Lucy and Levy are nowhere in sight, so they’ve probably headed back to the carriage. Loki looks a little surprised too, peeking over the top of his glasses as Gajeel runs past. Mystogan puts a hand on one of the guard’s shoulders, throwing himself over the man. Gajeel does exactly what Mystogan was hoping he would do, slamming straight into the guard. 

They continue like this for a while until Gajeel has managed to knock out, or seriously injure all of the guards. By then, Mystogan can barely breathe, and he’s struggling to keep moving. Loki gets involved at that point, though it seemed like he only waited this long so as not to interrupt Mystogan’s plan. He knocks Gajeel out while he’s distracted as Mystogan drops to the ground. 

“Are you alright?” he asks, unable to see that Mystogan is bleeding. 

“Yeah, yeah, I’m fine. I didn’t think we would be able to get all of them. At least Yukino won’t have to sneak out of the building. Erza is not light, so I did not envy trying to sneak around with her just in case she wasn’t able to walk by herself.” 

Loki nods, looking up as Yukino walks out of the building. She has a half conscious Erza leaning against her, one arm over her shoulders. Loki offers Mystogan a hand, which he takes. 

“I think there’s a magic booster somewhere in the building. Yukino mentioned feeling something, and they were all either really good, or getting help,” he says, limping slightly as they walk to Yukino. 

“I’ll take her. You just walk near Mystogan in case he needs some kind of support,” Loki says, grabbing Erza. 

“Thank you.” 

“Do you want to go back and get the item, or were you just mentioning it?” Loki asks, glancing back at Mystogan. 

“Just mentioning it. Thought it was pertinent information that they have that kind of tech.” 

Mystogan patches himself up as they ride back to the others. It’s getting light, and he’s struggling to keep his eyes open by the time they get there. 

“I’ll help you up the stairs. Then you can sleep,” Lucy says sympathetically. 

Mystogan nods, his head more bobbing than nodding. He doesn’t hear what they’re talking about on the way up. As soon as they get to the room, Lucy leads him to the bed closest to the door. He drops down with a sigh. 

“Remind me to actually stitch that wound later,” he says, falling asleep before hearing her reply.             

Chapter Text

Gray walks through town, Natsu at his side. He’s wrapped in a cloak, his face completely covered to stop him from being recognized. At this point, all of the Dragon Slayer’s faces are everywhere, and it’s hard to get anywhere in the country. Coming here was risky, but with what Lucy had told them over the phone, it was necessary. It’s not long after that when the hotel that they’re meeting the girls at comes into view. The receptionist glances up at them, but doesn’t question it when they walk to the stairs. Not that Gray would have expected him to question them if Natsu wasn’t wearing a full cloak, but people can get away with a lot of things nowadays. 

He knocks on the girl’s door, tucking his hands in his pockets. Lucy opens the door, and then throws her arms around Natsu. Gray pushes them both into the room before she can knock his cloak off in the middle of the hallway. Gray takes in all of the people sprawled across the room. He barely has time to notice that Levy, Yukino, and Erza are all settled on the beds while Mystogan is in an armchair before Juvia slams into him full force. He staggers back against the wall, wrapping an arm around her to keep her steady, and using the other arm to steady himself against the wall. 

“Juvia missed you, Gray-sama!” Juvia cries into Gray’s shoulder. 

Gray sighs, pulling himself fully back upright. “I missed you too. It’s been a while.” 

Mystogan looks up, his hands stilling. That’s when Gray realizes that he’s stitching himself up right now, though Gray can’t see the injury from this angle. 

“It’s good that you got Erza back, but are you alright?” Gray asks, glancing at Erza’s sleeping form before turning back to Mystogan. 

“Yeah, I’m fine. I just need to finish stitching this up, and then drink something with a little sugar.” 

“Ok, well, it’s good to see all of you guys,” Gray says, keeping one arm wrapped around Juvia’s waist as she pulls back. 

She’s grinning like a madman. Lucy is also still clinging onto Natsu, and they’re both smiling. 

“Is Erza alright?” Natsu asks, sounding concerned. 

Gray is a little concerned too with the amount of noise she’s slept through. 

“Yeah, she woke up earlier, and we quizzed her. She seemed alright, just worn out,” Lucy says, relief evident in her tone. 

“Where are Sting and Rogue?” Natsu asks, his eyes trained on all three Exceeds that are asleep in a pile in the corner. 

“They’re at a different hotel since they didn’t want to risk being seen with us. They came by for another meeting after we retrieved Erza, but they said to call them when you guys got here, and they’d come back so we could talk strategy.” 

Mystogan explains what Jellal said to the girls while Yukino is on the phone with Sting and Rogue. 

“Ok, wow. What do we even do now?” Gray asks, his brow furrowed.

“Obviously we raid the capital, beat Gajeel’s ass, and punch the fake king,” Natsu interrupts. 

“Have you lost your mind?” Lucy demands, smacking Natsu in the back of the head. 

“No! I just want to fight the fake king.”

“That’s not wise. Their military is even stronger now, because of the mages that managed to get a job with them after the ban. A lot of people flocked there. Not a lot got jobs, because they either had to be fine once they figured out what was going on, or they had to be ok with not asking any questions. Either way, while that cut out a lot, there were still a lot more,” Yukino says, leaning forward with her elbows on her knees.

“Are the boys coming over?” Lucy asks. 

“Yeah, they’ll be here in tenish minutes.” 

“Ok, well, we’ll wait to talk until they get there. For now, I’m going to take a walk,” Mystogan says, standing up.

He walks out, and Gray turns to Lucy. “How did you get Mystogan to come?” 

“I think Wendy did that for me, though she was not happy that she couldn’t come too.” 

They chat about what each of them has been up to until Mystogan comes back up with Rogue and Sting. After pleasantries, they all find somewhere to sit in the increasingly stuffed hotel room. 

“Where do we start?” Lucy asks, sounding uncertain. 

“Well, getting Gajeel back should be our first order of business. Just because we can’t risk him stopping any stealth missions we try with his heightened senses. I’m still not sure how we’re going to fix him, so we have to find somewhere to lock him up until we do. We also have to assign someone to watch him. Then we need to sneak into the castle, and find evidence of the conspiracy. After that, we expose them to the world, and get as many people in on our cause as possible. Once we have backing and power, we should be able to overthrow the guard. After that, it’s a matter of tracking down each one of the military’s bases, and shutting them down. 

That’s going to be the longest part, but it’ll also be work for the rightful king. If the last one is still alive, then it’ll be a job for him, his guard, and the restored guilds. If not, then you assign someone else the job, and let them decide how to work that. The first issue is finding Gajeel, and then finding the evidence. I don’t know where Gajeel is working now that we hit that lab, and I’m not sure where the evidence would be stored in the capital,” Mystogan explains, his tone tense, and his arms crossed. 

“Well, then we divide and conquer. We split up into groups, and each hit a potential hiding spot. It’ll have to be a coordinated attack, or they’ll figure out what we’re up to, but we should have enough people for that, yeah?” Rogue asks.

“We should. As long as we have someone that’s familiar with the capital, and where we should be hitting.” 

“I lived there with Gajeel for a while. I should be able to navigate well enough. We worked with the guard, so I know the good spots,” Levy offers. 

“Good, now for Gajeel. I think I’ll put some feelers out, and see what I get. More likely than not, they’ll be preparing another attack. They want super soldiers, and you guys are the best options. We may not even have to find him. He may come to us if we make ourselves an easy enough target. We don’t want them to know for sure where we are since they’ll send way too many people for us to deal with if we do that. However, if we leave a slight paper trail, then we let them follow it back to a spot of our choosing, and watch them send in a squad to confirm that we’re there, it should work. Though I don’t want to do that unless we have to. I’d prefer to go to him, and take them by surprise. Though if I can’t find him, that’s a solid option,” Mystogan says, chewing on his lip as he finishes his thought process. 

“Ok, well, what do you want us to do in the meantime?” Yukino asks. 

“Get ready for the attack on the capital. Get together whatever gear or stuff you need. Also, discuss who should stay back with Gajeel. It needs to be someone that is fully capable of restraining him if need be. It can be two people if you guys think that’s necessary. Let me do my thing, and you guys figure out what our teams are going to look like to maximize efficiency. Just remember that we’re trying to do this as quietly as possible. I’ll go talk to some of my contacts, and see what I can find. No time to waste.” 

Yukino nods. “Ok, well, we’ll talk while you’re gone.” 

Mystogan nods too, and stands up. He walks back out after grabbing his staff from by the door. 

“Levy, why don’t you tell us where all the capital locations are, then we can discuss the best way to divide up jobs?” Lucy suggests, and Levy nods. 

“There’s a secret basement under the capital’s main library where the guard does all of their research. It’s also been used to hide contraband before when it was convenient. There are two spots in the castle grounds, but they’re on opposite ends. There’s the vault, which is in the actual castle, and the guard post, which is on the other end of the grounds. There’s one other spot in town, which is the ministries’ old building. I don’t know what they’re using it for now that magic is banned, but there were a lot of good hiding spots, and hidden areas. It was an old building, so it was pretty easy to stash stuff there,” Levy explains, not looking up from her lap the entire time. 

“Ok, well Natsu shouldn’t go to the castle grounds, so he and I could go to the library,” Lucy says. “Yeah, and Levy should be the one to go to the council’s old building since she knows her way around, and Erza can go with her if she feels up to it. Gray and Juvia can go to the guards station on the castle grounds. Mystogan and Yukino can go to the vault, leaving Sting and Rogue to deal with Gajeel. Does that sound ok?” Lucy asks. 

No one offers any objections, so Lucy nods. 

“Alright, now that’s settled, I guess we just have to wait.”

Chapter Text

Rogue watches Mystogan as he lays maps out along the wall. He pins each one up, and then draws lines with a red marker. He’s mapping out where Gajeel has been since he first got mind controlled, leading up to their latest encounter. Everyone else is talking amongst their own teams, discussing what they’re going to do once they split up in the capital. Sting is settled on the floor next to Rogue’s feet, entertaining the Exceeds. Mystogan mumbles under his breath as he works, low enough that Rogue can’t hear what he’s saying.

“I think I know where he might be stationed,” Mystogan announces a few minutes of staring at the maps later. 

“Where?” Sting asks, pausing with Lector still held upside down by his paw. 

“There’s a base a couple of hours from the lab where we picked Erza up. It has the medical capabilities to patch him up, and there’s a pretty big military involvement. He was last seen in between where we left him, and that base. I think they’ll patch him up, then send him back out to look for us. We can stay nearby, and wait to ambush them while they’re on the move. At least, we can if he’s still there. He might not have really been hurt, and could have left already,” Mystogan replies, motioning with the marker as he explains. 

“Ok, what are we waiting for? We should head there,” Sting says, dropping Lector on his head. 

Lector hisses, crawling to Rogue’s other side. Sting doesn’t even seem to notice, jumping to his feet. 

“We have to figure out the rest of the plan first. Where are we taking him? How are we going to restrain him?” 

“I have somewhere that we can take him. Sting and I recently bought a place less than an hour from there. That’s where we were going to lay low after the meeting since we didn’t think it would turn into all of this,” Rogue says, pointing to an estimated location on the map. 

“Ok, well, there’s one problem.” 

“We could get really thick rope. Make sure there’s no iron nearby,” Erza suggests. She’s leaning against Gray’s side, still looking a little worse for wear, but much better than earlier. 

“Ok, and would that work?” 

“It should.” 

“Even if not, Sting and I can handle it if he gets out,” Rogue cuts in, folding his arms across his chest with a frown. 

“Without hurting him?” Levy asks, her voice shaking. 

“Hurting him minimally. He’ll be alright.” 

Sting nods enthusiastically. Rogue contemplates elbowing him. He understands how long Sting has been itching to do something, to make things better somehow, but now is not the time for enthusiasm. Especially not with how emotionally fragile everyone is right now. 

“Ok, we should go then,” Mystogan replies, leaning against his staff. He looks tired, but from what Rogue has gathered, he hasn’t rested much despite his injuries. 

“You should stay here,” Yukino says, gently putting a hand on Mystogan’s arm. 

Mystogan nods thoughtfully. “I would slow the operation down.”

“That wasn’t what I meant. I was just saying that you need rest,” Yukino backtracks, her eyes wide. 

“It’s fine. I know what you meant. What I said was still accurate though.” 

She just stares at Mystogan, who gives her a small, strained smile. 

“Sting, Lucy, and Levy, you’re with me. The rest of you stay here,” Rogue says, scooping Lector up. 

“Are you up for that Levy?” Lucy asks, her voice gentle and kind. 

Levy nods. “I have to save him.” 

Rogue gently checks Lector’s head before stroking his ears. “You seem ok. Stay here, and watch Frosche, ok?” 

Lector nods, leaning into Rogue’s touch. He sticks his tongue out at Sting, who looks incredibly confused. Rogue sets Lector back down, and then heads for the door. “Do we still have the carriage from earlier?” 

Mystogan nods, dropping into a chair. “It’s right outside.” 

Rogue strides out, heading to get the carriage ready for travel again. He also tracks out their route to their safe house in his head as he works. It’s only a few minutes before the others come join him, right as he’s climbing up onto the carriage. The ride is quiet, at least it is for Rogue, who’s alone up front. If the others are talking, it’s not loud enough for him to hear. They have to stop a few miles away since the building and lab is heavily guarded, and their carriage would get flagged. So, they split up, and begin staking out each road leading away from the building. Rogue is with Levy while Lucy and Sting take the second road. 

Rogue keeps his eyes on the road, not planning on talking unless Levy wants to. For now he’s just going to focus on getting Gajeel somewhere that they can help him. They’re there for hours before a carriage finally comes rolling down the road. Rogue glances at Levy, who nods with a determined look in her eyes. They converge at the same time with Rogue taking out the wheels of the carriage with shadows. It slides a couple more feet, almost tipping to the side before stopping. Though it’s enough that the man powering the carriage goes flying. Gajeel bursts out of the cabin, looking a little disoriented, but steady on his feet. 

Levy freezes, her eyes locked with Gajeel’s. Then he runs straight towards her, moving far too fast for her to realize what’s happening. Rogue barely gets there in enough time to put himself between them. Gajeel slams into Rogue’s arms, which are held up defensively in front of him. They both slide backwards, knocking Levy to the ground. Gajeel pulls back his fist, aiming for Rogue’s midsection. Rogue knocks Gajeel’s arm away, then ramming his shoulder into Gajeel’s chest. He’s knocked off of his feet, the shadows grabbing him as soon as he hits the ground. 

Levy throws herself over him, injecting a sedative into his arm. His eyes flutter shut, and everything goes quiet. Rogue and Levy stare at each other for a few seconds. 

“Where did you get that?” 

“I picked it up before we went to the first lab,” she whispers back. 

Rogue laughs, sitting back on his heels. “Ok, we have to get him back to our carriage. I’ll carry him, you call the others.” 

Levy nods, her hand reaching out to rest on Gajeel’s thin arm. Her eyes betray her sadness, but to her credit, she doesn’t cry, or break down. Rogue pulls Gajeel up, lifting him in a fireman’s carry. Levy talks to Lucy on the phone as they walk back towards the carriage. 

“Do you think we’ll be able to help him?” Levy asks quietly, lowering her phone back into her pocket. 

Rogue blinks harshly, trying to keep his misty eyes in check. “I hope so. It’ll be a long process regardless of what happens. I mean, we’ve all seen his physical condition, but we’re not going anywhere. We’re gonna be here to help him through this. The trickiest part is the mind control, but someone has to know how to reverse that.” 

“But what if it kills him? He said that the original process could have made him brain-dead. I can’t imagine what doing it, then reversing it is going to do. It already doesn’t seem like he has a whole lot going on in his head by now.” 

Rogue bites his lip, contemplating his answer. “I can understand your concern, we’re all concerned, but we have to try. That’s all we can do. No one can give you the answers you want right now. We’re going to do everything in our power to help him, but there are no guarantees.” 

Levy nods, sniffling. Rogue looks back at his feet, his own emotions conflicting him. He can’t even begin to describe how he felt seeing the person he looks up to the most like this, especially the first time. The fear, horror, anger, and sadness all mixing together into an incomprehensible mess. He pushes those thoughts away, keeping his focus on his footing so he doesn't trip. Sting and Lucy are waiting when they get back to the carriage. 

“Is he ok?” Lucy asks. 

Levy nods. “But we should hurry so we can get to the safehouse before he wakes up.” 

Rogue gets them all settled into the back before climbing back up front. 

We have to get to the safe house, then Sting and I will settle in for a long couple of days.

Chapter Text

Lucy adjusts Natsu’s cloak so it fully covers his face. There are all kinds of odd looking people in the capital, so no one gives them a second glance as they make their way towards the big library in the center of downtown. Lucy grabs Natsu’s hand, gripping it tightly. He smiles at her, barely visible. She smiles back at him, trying to convey that everything’s going to be ok. The library is a big building, easy to spot from anywhere nearby, so they have no issue getting to it. Lucy leads Natsu towards the back where the secret entrance is. There aren’t many people wandering around, which is odd, from what Levy told them. 

Though it does make it easier to sneak into the basement without being spotted. There are three guards working at pristine white desks. Bookcases line the walls, and filing cabinets sit between the desks, including the four other unused ones. There’s also a few unlabeled, but open boxes of bottles. It’s not as busy as Levy said it was normally, so Lucy just steps back and lets Natsu take them out. A few well aimed fiery punches later, the guards are all sprawled out on the floor without even a chance to fight back. 

“Those guys were weak. Can’t we find someone better to fight?” Natsu asks, bouncing up and down. The cloak falls to the floor in his excitement, and Lucy snatches it up. 

“No, we can’t. We have to look through these records, and try to figure out who took over the kingdom. In other words, we’re looking for proof to convince the rest of the kingdom,” Lucy says, turning to the notebooks the guards were writing in. “You start with the bookcases. See if any of them are records, or anything else that might look useful.” 

Natsu pouts, but walks over to start searching the bookcases. Lucy flips through the notebooks, but it’s all in a language that she doesn’t understand. So, she tucks them away in her backpack for safekeeping, and turns to the filing cabinets. They’re all guard documents, showing guard routes, training schedules, and personnel portfolios. They detail all of the current guards, and the mages in the area that haven’t agreed to sign up yet. That includes breakdowns of their magical abilities, strengths, weaknesses, and temperaments. There are even ones on each of the Fairy Tail mages. 

The Dragon Slayers have their own category, sectioned away from everything else. The only one missing is Gajeel’s. Even though his name isn’t there, Lucy feels her heart clench in his absence. 

“Are you finding anything, Luce? All of these are just boring research books.” 

“I found a lot of information, but nothing incriminating yet. They have files on mages in the area, including us.” 

“Us?” Natsu asks, popping up beside Lucy. 

Lucy jerks back, almost smacking Natsu in the face with the files she’s holding. “Don’t do that!” she demands, smacking his arm. 

“Ow, why? I just wanted to see our files.” 

“No, go away. Don’t come back until you’re done searching the bookcase.” 

“Fine,” Natsu mutters. He sulks away, pouting harder. 

Lucy finishes up with the filing cabinets, dissatisfied by the time she’s done. “There’s nothing here that we can use.” 

“Nothing in the bookcases either. They’re all research books, or journals dated before all of this started. They’re research journals from the look of it,” Natsu says, frowning intensely. 

“Well, we should knock those guards in the head one more time, and then get out of here. We want them unconscious as long as possible to make sure they don’t alert the other places to our friends breaking in.” 

Levy walks through the back entrance of the counsel’s old headquarters. Before coming, she had figured out that it had been abandoned after the council was disbanded. So it’s not as though they’re going to run into anyone inside unless the fake king is using it to hide the records, but it’s better that they not be seen going in either way. Erza sticks close to Levy, still a little unsteady on her feet. Her braided hair falls over her shoulder as she walks, trying to stay in as straight of a line as possible. The building itself is dusty, but hasn’t fallen too far into disarray. There are still crates lining the walls where the workers would put shipments of magical books, and all of the mail that the council would get. 

Levy remembers walking through this room with Gajeel dozens and dozens of times. He would make jokes, and ask her if they should look through the mail. Then he would laugh at her when she would say that it was a crime to look through other people’s mail. She never thought she would miss his hearty laugh so much, never thought she’d have to. It was never gone for too long, though there were times where he would get quiet and contemplative. He would get sad thinking about God only knows what, because he wouldn’t share. Levy blinks, surprised by the tear rolling down her face. 

“Anyway, we should start checking the crates,” Levy suggests, launching herself towards the nearest crate. 

Erza looks surprised, but makes her way to the other side of the room to look through the stacks of papers still left to collect dust. Levy creates a crowbar, and pries the box open. It’s quiet in not only the room, but the whole building, meaning there’s probably nothing to find here. Levy doesn’t let that stop her. She has to find something to help Gajeel. She has to do something to make this all better, even though there’s no way for her to make this better for him. More tears fill her eyes at that thought, but she pushes it all away. 

The box is full of leather bound books, just like it was every single time Gajeel would open one for them to unpack. Levy never had to open them, not like she couldn’t, but she just never had to. She liked watching Gajeel doing it anyway, and there was never a reason to help. She pulls one of the books out, dusting off the spine before flipping it open. It’s a book of laws, which were constantly being brought in as new laws were passed, or the king made amendments. The council had the biggest and oldest private library in the country. Levy was surprised by how much money went into it when she first started working there. 

Levy drops the book, and then moves from crate to crate, opening each one. They’re all just full of the same stuff, books, or legal documents from the castle dated before the ban was put in place. 

“I guess we should move on to another room,” Erza suggests, walking over to Levy. She puts a gentle hand on Levy’s shoulder, grounding her. 

“Ok, yeah. We should do that. Let’s split up. We’ll cover more ground that way. I’ll send you to the more obvious rooms, and then I’ll check the hidden areas.” 

Erza nods, and they split up after a brief discussion of where to go. Levy searches each room vigorously, frustration building with each failure. Finally, her and Erza meet back at the front door, both empty handed. 

“I guess we should head back to the rendezvous spot, and wait for the others to get back,” Levy says, her voice coming out more broken than she hoped. 

Erza doesn’t say anything, but she does hold Levy’s hand the entire way back.

Chapter Text

Gray puts a hand out, pressing Juvia against the wall beside him. A guard walks past, completely missing them in their little alcove. 

“Juvia will distract them.” 

“Ok, I’ll look around, but how are you going to do that?” 

“Juvia can’t reveal all her secrets,” Juvia replies with a wink. 

Gray forces himself not to roll his eyes, nodding. Juvia slips off down the corridor, and Gray continues towards his destination, the main offices. It’s not hard to make it through the halls unnoticed with how many small nooks and crannies there are for him to hide in if he hears someone coming, and he always hears them coming with how loud their clanking armor is. He’s almost there when an alarm begins going off, and people start flooding out of the office. Gray lunges into the shadows before anyone can spot him, holding his breath. It sounds like thunder as they run down the hall, but Gray stays quiet for a minute even after the sounds die down. He sneaks into the office to find it completely empty. 

Wow, I thought they would leave at least one person behind to keep watch. This makes me glad I never decided to work for the guard, not that I could have with my personality. 

He goes to the opposite side of the room where the cabinets are. There’s a door on that wall too, which from what Levy said, leads to a storage room. So that’s where Gray will be checking next. He rifles through the papers in the cabinets, but most of them just look like normal guard stuff: mission details, reports, requests for supplies, and employee records. Though one cabinet is full of warrants, and with each warrant, there’s a piece of paper detailing where they were last seen, and how the search has gone. Gray shoves all of that back, and jogs to the storage room door. 

He picks the lock easily, and steps inside. There’s a single light bulb casting a dim yellow light over the room. It’s chocked full of stuff with boxes lining the walls, and cleaning supplies on shelves near the back. 

This is going to take me forever. 

He begins busting open boxes, not worrying about how loud he is since he’ll definitely hear anyone coming back in. The stone floors echo loudly enough for him to hear even one person walking in. He focuses on going as fast as possible, making quick work of opening every single box in the room. They’re all full of random crap, making the place look more like a hoarder’s room than the guards’ storage room. Gray is getting increasingly frustrated with how little progress he’s making, even if the reasonable part of his brain tells him that one of the others is going to find something.  

This isn’t the end of the world. This doesn’t mean we can’t go home. We haven’t lost yet. 

Gray takes a steadying breath, his fists clenched. 

“I have to get out of here before they come back. No time to slow down.” 

He leaves completely empty handed, trying to hold onto hope that this isn’t the end. Despite that, he can barely stand to see the look of defeat in Juvia’s eyes when he tells her that he didn’t find anything. 

Mystogan puts the last of the guards near the back entrance to sleep before clipping his staff back to his belt. He pulls a lock pick set out of his pocket, and begins picking the lock while Yukino keeps an eye out for anyone else coming up. 

“What do we do when we get the door open?” 

“There’s going to be a few more guards, and some magic defenses. I’ll need you to take care of the guards while I deactivate the magic defenses so we don’t get fried instantly. Then we go down the hall, and to the vault. It’ll have its own locks, but there are no security systems attached to the door. There are ones inside, but I can deal with those easily by using my staff to redirect them,” Mystogan explains before standing up. “I got the door. Are you ready?” 

Yukino nods, squaring her shoulders. She steps forward, moving in front of Mystogan. Mystogan smirks, raising an eyebrow. Yukino opens the door, stepping through. Mystogan walks in behind her, his eyes trained on her dueling with the guards for only a second before racing over to the wall on the opposite side. He pulls a brick out, exposing the secret control panel in the wall. There’s a battery, and power surging through the wires around it. There are three dark wires, unconnected from the rest. 

Mystogan unplugs one of the unconnected wires, then taps a button hidden on the side of the cavity. The power redirects only to hit the unplugged wire, and Mystogan is able to unplug more of the wires that disconnected when he changed the energy flow. Now with most of the wires unplugged, he puts the brick back. He turns only to see Yukino walking over to him. 

“They should be out long enough for us to look around, and get out.” 

Mystogan smiles behind the wrap covering his face, though from Yukino’s face she can tell that he’s proud of her. They continue down the hall, only to come face to face with the large, round vault door. 

“This is such an outdated design. It’s like they haven’t updated it since the castle was first built,” Mystogan says, tracing a hand along the cool metal. 

He makes quick work of the locks, and Yukino steps forward to help him pull the heavy door open. It squeaks, showing signs of disuse. Mystogan sees Yukino wince at the noise, and he can’t disagree with the sentiment. There’s gold covering at least a quarter of the floor, gems and other valuables scattered around in between. There are a few wooden boxes in the corner, but red lights cross the floor. Mystogan sighs. 

“Oh, this is even simpler than I thought it would be. It’s just a laser system, I don’t need my staff for that. Here, hold it for me?” he asks, holding his staff out to Yukino. 

Yukino takes it, holding the aging wood carefully. Mystogan slips between and over all of the lasers until he reaches the boxes. They’re old, but still sturdy. Opening them is quick work for his knife, and he’s prying the tops open in less than a minute. The first few are immigration documents, though Mystogan does pause to look them over. He doesn’t recognize any of the names, though assumes they’re important since they’re in the castle’s vault. Everything they’re looking for is in the box underneath the immigration documents, plans, letters, and other documentation. All of the makings of a revolution, though a silent one. 

Mystogan doesn’t stop to look at the names on each one since they have to be out of here before anyone realizes what happened. If they get caught here, they’re never going to have another chance. The box is small, so he turns to Yukino. 

“If I toss this to you, can you catch it? I want to check the other two boxes as well, though everything we need is in here.” 

Yukino nods, holding her arms out. Mystogan tosses the box, wincing as the wood scrapes Yukino’s arm. Although she manages to catch it without falling. Mystogan looks through the other two boxes as quickly as possible, but they’re all old kingdom records, nothing dated after the ban was put in place. Mostly just important letters between the king and the council. Mystogan makes his way back out of the vault, and they head back down the hall. Before they can get to the door, a loud buzzing resonates through the halls, shaking the ground. Mystogan grabs Yukino’s arm, steadying her before she can fall. 

What the hell was that?

Chapter Text

Yukino is being pulled forward by Mystogan, his hand on her arm, keeping her from falling as well. The shaking gets more intense as they get outside. 

“Get to the rendezvous spot,” Mystogan says, grabbing his staff from where Yukino hooked it to her belt so she could catch the box. 

Yukino turns to him, about to protest when she sees hordes of guards moving towards them. 

“That sound must have been an alarm of some sort. Go, and make sure you don’t get caught.” 

Yukino nods, and takes off running again. She doesn’t look back, no matter how much her heart hurts. She makes her way through back alleys, and through the dark part of downtown so she can ensure that no one is following her. Eventually the noises fade, and she feels safe enough to go to the rendezvous spot. Tears fill her eyes as she approaches the abandoned building. She can hear speaking, getting louder as she gets closer. 

Why are they talking this loud? They could attract someone. 

Paranoia gnaws at her, panic clawing at her chest. Natsu’s voice is the only one she can hear clearly, though it’s obvious that they’re arguing. Yukino walks in to see Gray and Natsu arguing, not that she’s comprehending enough to understand what they’re saying. Erza and Levy are in the corner, trying to block the others out, and Juvia is watching Gray intently. She looks a little ruffled, but otherwise, they all look ok. All of their eyes drift to Yukino, and she’s suddenly aware of the way her arms are burning, and how much of a mess she is. Little wooden splinters are stuck in her arms from running with the box the entire way. 

“Where’s Mystogan?” Erza questions, instantly on her feet. 

She wobbles, slightly unsteady. However, her eyes are still fixed on Yukino, who immediately begins to cry. She drops the box onto the floor, settling on her knees. Her arms wrap around her waist, only digging the splinters in further. A hand lands on her shoulder, and Yukino pulls back with a gasp. Levy is staring back at her with wide eyes, her hand still hovering. 

“Sorry, sorry,” Yukino gasps, desperately trying to stem the flow of tears. 

“Yukino, where is Mystogan?” Erza asks, her hand drumming anxiously against her thigh. 

“He never got out of the castle grounds. They ambushed us. Some kind of alarm picked us up as we were leaving, and he covered my escape so I could bring this here. It’s the documents. It outlines everything, and has documents for the people involved. I assume they kept it so they could travel freely between here and their home country. I looked in it as I was walking through the deserted part of town to get here.” 

Levy gently reaches forward again. Yukino doesn’t move, though her eyes are following Levy’s hand very intently. She slowly pulls Yukino’s arm towards her while Gray comes over with the med kit. Levy pulls each and every splinter out of Yukino’s skin while Erza takes out the contents of the boxes. 

“This is everything we need,” she says, disbelief coloring her tone. “It really is.”

“What do we do now?” Lucy asks, and the room descends into silence. 

“We have to save Mystogan,” Yukino whispers. 

“We can’t risk anything right away. We have to spread this, and tell people what happened. I’m going to get in contact with Jellal, and figure out how we’re going to do that. For now, you guys get ready to leave, and we should get back to Rogue and Sting in the morning. We’ll have to get out of the capital in the next hour, but I should have all the details ironed out by then, and we can take our next steps,” Erza says, her eyes still wide. “Gray, can you see about finding a magic shop in town? Someone has to be supplying them with weaponry if they’re using magic boosters like Mystogan thought they were. We’ll want to take that away from them if we can. If not, it’s fine, but it doesn’t hurt to look.” 

“You think they’d have that kind of stuff in a normal magic shop?” 

“No, but they would have to get it from someone with real skill, so I assume they’d keep it in the back, or somewhere near the shop. Obviously it wouldn’t be sitting on the shelves, but that doesn’t mean it won’t be nearby.” 

Gray nods, and Erza walks out, phone in hand. Gray quickly pulls his shirt back on, and heads out. Yukino reaches for her own phone, wincing as Levy finishes bandaging up her other arm. She dials Rogue’s number, shaking almost too hard to keep a hold of the phone. 

“Yukino, did you guys make it to the capital yet?” Rogue asks, sounding absolutely exhausted. 

“Yeah, we got here a while ago. We got the information that we were looking for, but Mystogan got captured. I couldn’t do anything,” she replies, tears filling her eyes. She’s tucked herself in the corner now, her knees brought up to her chest in some attempt to keep everything else away. 

“Damn,” Rogue says, and she can hear him drop onto the ground with a small grunt. “It’ll be ok. We’ll be able to save him. Everyone will be on our side once we get the word out.” 

“But what if we’re too late? What if we can’t save him? We have no idea what they’re going to do. What are we going to tell Wendy? He has a whole kingdom he’s responsible for. I don’t even understand why he came to help us. Just because Wendy asked? Because he felt like he had some kind of responsibility to Fairy Tail?” 

Rogue sighs. “I don’t know. He’s a good guy. He probably couldn’t turn away from people in need. He most likely figured that the kingdom would be alright without him for a little while. And we will be able to save him. I know I’m not the optimistic type, and I definitely don’t feel like one now, but we have to hold on to that. That there’s a chance we can fix everything. Gajeel isn’t doing well, and I can’t handle failing anyone else.” 

“Are you ok? I can’t imagine having to be there. I know how much you care about him.” 

“Yeah, I’ll be alright. It’s hard, he’s in pain, but I’m holding it together. Sting had to go for a walk. I was about to check on him when you called. He took Lily and Happy with him.” 

Yukino winces. “I’m sorry, we’ll be back as soon as we can.” 

“Hey, don’t worry about it. Seriously, I’ll be ok. And you’re my friend, talking to you always makes me feel better.” 

Yukino smiles. It’s small and unsure, but she definitely feels better than when she called Rogue. “You should go find Sting.” 

“I will, but call me back if you need anything. I’m serious, I’m here for you.” 

“I will, bye, Rogue.” 

“Bye.” 

Yukino drops the phone onto the ground next to her, taking a deep breath. 

It’ll be fine. We’ll figure this out, and then we’re going to save everyone. We’re not going to fail again. 

Gray slips into an alley behind the second magic shop downtown. The first one was a bust, and he left empty handed, but this one is a lot smaller. There don’t appear to be a lot of customers, but the goods looked high quality. Meaning this is a smaller niche, and it’s less likely to be investigated, making it easier for criminals to use it. The back door isn’t hard to get into, merely a simple lock for Gray to pick. He creeps inside, seeing a dark storage room with shelves full of random items. He’s gotten better with magic and defense items, meaning he can identify most of the items around him. Most things aren’t too heavyweight, more like small charms, and books for healing spells and such. 

Though one shelf catches Gray’s attention immediately. It has metal shutters covering the contents, and is labeled for shipping. He quickly pries one of the shutters up, being as quiet as possible. Ornate wooden boxes sit on each shelf, around ten in total. 

I think I’ve seen these types of boxes before. They close off magic items so they can be moved and contained. This must be it. 

He carefully opens the first one. There’s a glowing red orb placed inside, nestled in fabric to keep it in place. Gray shuts the box, and goes through them systematically until he knows what’s in each one. Then he places them into the bag he brought exactly for this purpose. He’s careful, knowing how much power he’s putting on his back. There are magic reducers, boosters, and an orb that can boost magic defense when touched. They barely fit, but he’s able to get all of the boxes in place before heading back the way he came. 

He takes a few back alleys before finally reaching his destination. Now sure that no one is following him, he walks straight in. Everyone is sitting around aside from Erza, who he assumes is still on the phone. 

“I got the goods. They were being stored in town. Labelled for shipping, I have to assume to the bases, or to the castle.” 

Natsu jumps up. “I wanna see. What’d you find?” 

Gray slaps Natsu’s hand away. “They’re fragile, and way too powerful to play with.” 

Erza walks back in. 

“I found it.” 

“Good, I have a carriage ready. We’re heading out of the capital in ten minutes. We’ll wait to discuss the plan until we get back to Rogue and Sting.” 

Gray nods, and begins packing their gear back up. Yukino stays in the corner, but everyone else works together, and everything is packed up within ten minutes. The ride itself is quiet, and the atmosphere is tense. Gray spends the whole time looking out of the window that Natsu isn’t throwing up out of. Even as his eyes get heavy with exhaustion and the sky gets dark. He can’t sleep, his mind racing far too fast. The idea of being able to go home makes him feel something he can’t explain, though it’s dampened by the dark thought of what happened to Gajeel and Mystogan. Natsu finally passes out in Lucy’s lap, and it’s quiet for the rest of the ride. 

By the time the safehouse comes into view, the sun is starting to rise, light leaking across the skyline. Erza doesn’t say anything as she pulls the carriage to a soft stop. She hops down, and peeks into the cabin. She locks eyes with Gray, who turns to look at her. 

“I’m going to check on Rogue and Sting. Can you get everyone up?”

Gray nods, and Erza walks away. Gray leans over Lucy to open the door, and then pushes Natsu off her lap and out of the carriage. The screeching that ensues is enough to wake everyone else up. It takes a few very startled, chaotic moments for them to realize what’s going on, but Gray is grinning. 

“Come on, we have to get inside.” 

He climbs out without waiting for a response, grabbing his bag. Erza is talking to Rogue while Sting is asleep off to the side with a pile of Exceeds on top of him. Lily is the only one sitting away from the others, and he’s in the corner, sharpening his sword. 

“Let someone else handle Gajeel for now. We’re going to discuss the plan, and then I can take over. Gray, can you watch Gajeel until I’m done?” Erza asks, having noticed Gray as soon as he walked in. 

“Sure. Is there anything I should know ahead of time?” 

“He’s been hurting himself trying to get out of the restraints. I don’t think he’s meaning to, but you’ll have to keep an eye on his arms, and make sure the chains don’t loosen at all, or they’ll come up to his ribs. He almost broke one earlier,” Rogue says, his eyes empty and sad. He doesn’t look at Gray, choosing to look at the ground instead. 

Gray pats his shoulder as he motions towards the door behind them. Erza nods, and he walks in that direction. It’s quiet until he walks in. The door creaking seems to wake Gajeel up if his sudden jerk forward is any indication. Gray flinches back, even though there’s still a couple of feet between them. He takes a breath, leaning back against the closed door. Gajeel continues pulling, and Gray can see his already red and raw wrists. They’re chained to the chair he’s bound to. Gray’s stomach twists, bile rising in his throat. 

“Hey, Gajeel,” he says, speaking softly. It’s not how he’s ever spoken with Gajeel before, but it’s the only thing that will come out. It’s a testament to how wrong this whole situation is. 

Gajeel doesn’t pause or stop. He does lock eyes with Gray though as he continues pulling on his restraints. Gray walks over slowly, and Gajeel stops when he gets a few inches away. Gray takes another step forward, reaching forward to tighten Gajeel’s restraints enough that he can’t hurt his ribs. Gajeel lunges forward suddenly as Gray’s hand grips the restraints, and suddenly Gajeel is sinking his teeth into Gray’s forearm. Gray rips his arm away, wincing as blood runs down his arm. 

“Damn.” 

He pins Gajeel by his neck with his good arm, and adjusts the chains with his other hand. After that, he quickly patches up his arm, and tries to block out the pained noises Gajeel involuntarily makes as he continues pushing himself to get out of the chains. He’s only there half an hour, but by then, the look on Rogue’s face makes a lot more sense. Erza looks tired when she walks in, and she makes a beeline for Gray. 

“So, the simple recap is Jellal found someone who can project what they’re seeing to other people. We think that with the magic booster, we can get most of the guilds brought back together using that. She already agreed, and they’re going to meet us half-way. We’ll find a meeting place for all the leaders of the guilds, and then we’re heading back to the capital before they can plan a counterattack.” 

Gray nods. “And Gajeel?” 

“Someone will have to stay, but we haven’t talked about who it’ll be. I don’t want Rogue or Sting to, but we haven’t discussed details. You should get some rest though. We’re leaving to meet Jellal in two hours, and I figured you would want to come.” 

Gray nods. “I’ll get some rest. Thanks, Erza.” 

Gray walks out as quickly as he can, trying to get away from Gajeel as quickly as possible. It feels selfish, but he can’t handle any more of this. It’s so much more than he was prepared for. He ends up sitting outside, not sleeping, but trying to get his head in order before they have to leave. One thought keeps coming back to him over and over again. 

How did it get this bad? 

Rogue is glad to finally be out of there, even though he hasn’t actually said anything or helped with any of the planning since leaving. Not that they needed him, and that fact is enough to have him completely glued to the carriage. He doesn’t go with them to speak with Jellal. Now it’s quiet, and they’re on their way back to the capital. The guards will probably have gathered by then, but with the amount of people converging on the capital, they don’t stand a chance. It shouldn’t be too hard, but Rogue can’t help but feel anxious. Natsu’s hand lands on Rogue’s shoulder, making him jump. 

“Hey, we’re going to take care of Gajeel. Everything is going to be fine, he’s a tough guy.” 

Rogue blinks the tears away, and nods. 

“We’re almost there. Are you ready?” 

He nods again, trying to stop shaking. The shadows cling to him, as they’ve always tended to when he’s upset. But once they stop, he follows Natsu out nonetheless, trying to push his anxiety to the side. There are lots of people around with Erza quickly sorting people into different groups to hit different parts of the capital. Rogue ends up in a group with Natsu, Juvia, and Lyon. They’re sent closer so they can walk instead of having to drive, though Natsu protested vehemently about not being able to go to the castle, and kick the guard’s butts for hurting Mystogan. Rogue is only half listening through all of this, unable to keep his focus on their squabbling. Erza ends up silencing Natsu somehow, and they’re able to leave. 

To be honest, Rogue doesn’t care where they go as long as this all works out the way they want it to. So, they’re the ones on the front line, pushing their way into the city past the blockade that’s been set up. The fight is quick. The invaders went for numbers over skill, leaving little left once the best guilds in the country were back together. None of it registered for Rogue, his thoughts moving back to Gajeel. All he can think about is Mystogan and Gajeel, and all the other people who might have been broken by this. He continues to wonder if this went too far for them to fix, and for now, there’s no way to know.

Chapter Text

Erza walks into the medical center, her fingers twisting together. Her eyes dart around, taking everything in. It’s not her first time coming, but it’s been two months since she’s been here, and that’s when they were admitting Gajeel after his surgeries. He’d been nonverbal, unable to move, or even breathe on his own. She’s been heading up the relief efforts, and tactical teams hunting down the last of the invaders, leaving her with almost no time to herself. She doesn’t stop at the front desk, skipping past it all together to go straight to Gajeel’s room. Levy’s called a few times, but never for long. 

She’s always sounded tired, but hopeful with little updates on how he’s doing. She called when Gajeel was able to be taken off the ventilator, when he made eye contact with her, and when he spoke again for the first time. It was just her name, but it was more than they’d heard from him in months. Erza knocks, trying to push her growing anxiety down. 

“You can come in,” Levy calls, her voice clear and cheerful. 

Erza pushes the door open, stepping inside and looking around immediately. Gajeel is sitting up in bed, his eyes distant. His body is still far too small, deteriorated from all of the disuse and abuse. Levy’s sitting on the edge of Gajeel’s bed, leaning towards him, and Lily is asleep on Gajeel’s other side. Levy stands up, and hugs Erza. 

“Hey, you didn’t tell me you were coming!” 

“Yeah, sorry. I was able to get the day off, so I drove here. Jellal wanted to come with me, but he ended up getting called out to work on a strike team. I can’t stay long, because someone is finally going to get Wendy, so I’ll need to see her tonight. I just wanted to check on you guys.” 

“He’s been talking a lot more,” Levy says, turning back to Gajeel. She gently takes his hand. “Honey, Erza’s here.” 

Gajeel blinks, a little bit of life flickering into his eyes. They flick between Levy and Erza, then he smiles softly. “Hey, how’re you?” he asks, his voice raspy and quiet. He licks his dry lips, attempting to sit up properly. 

Tears spring to Erza’s eyes at the effort, remembering all of the fights he would get into. All of the things he was not only capable of doing, but loved to do regardless of how stupid. She blinks rapidly, tucking her hands into her skirt pockets. 

“I’m alright, working a lot. It’ll be that way for a while though. How are you?” 

“Ok, Lily’s being a bit clingy though. I’m a little worried about him.” He’s speaking slowly, some of the syllables still not coming out correctly. It’s almost as though there’s a disconnect between his brain and his mouth, or like his mouth isn’t moving quite coherently enough to keep up. 

“He’ll be alright, this was just hard for all of us. Have you had many visitors?” 

“Yeah… Rogue and Sting have been here a lot. I’ve seen a few other people too, but none as often as those two.” 

“Rogue took this all really hard too. He’s upset that we still haven’t found Mystogan, so he’s also been working twice as hard to figure out where they’re holding him.” 

Gajeel nods slowly, his face scrunched in concentration. 

“Yukino is also getting more upset the longer we don’t find him. None of us wanted to tell Wendy that we didn’t know where he was. We were hoping that we could find him before we went to get her, but Lucy decided that it was cruel to keep her out of the loop any longer.” 

Levy nods, her face going solemn. “She’s right. Though I wasn’t sure if we would be able to get there without him.” 

“That didn’t turn out to be an issue since he talked to Rogue and Sting about travel between worlds at some point.” Erza’s phone rings before any of them can continue. “It’s Yukino, I need to take this. I’ll be back though.” 

“Of course, we’re not going anywhere,” Levy replies, sitting back down on Gajeel’s bed. 

He leans back onto the headboard, his eyelids drooping. 

Erza steps out, and answers her phone, “Hello.” 

“Hey, we think we might have figured out where Mystogan is being held. We need your help with the raid.” 

“Ok, send me the coordinates, and I’ll get there as fast as I can.” 

Once Yukino confirms, Erza hangs up, and walks back into the room. Levy is helping Gajeel lay down, settling Lily against his chest. 

“Hey, I have to go. They have a lead on Mystogan.” 

“Ok, that’s probably for the best anyway, he’s tired. He had physical therapy earlier, so I’m honestly not too surprised.” 

“I’ll come back soon, and you can tell me how that’s going. Maybe I’ll bring Natsu to entertain him, and we can get coffee.” 

Levy nods, still smiling, but a bit brighter now. “I’d like that.” 

Erza nods, and hugs her before saying goodbye and walking out. 

Yukino wrings her hands together, her breath tight and anxious. She’s regrouped with the main strike team, having come up completely empty on her search. 

Then Erza’s voice comes through the phone tucked into her pocket, “I think I found something. Head to the east side of the building, and go through the door, and down the set of stairs at the end of the hall. I’m down there now, and you need to see this.” 

Yukino runs, all of her anxiety having been pushed to the side in a moment’s notice. She doesn’t bother with any of the other doors in the hall, and pushes the heavy one at the end of the hall open. Behind it is a dark set of stairs, leading down farther than she can see. Though she still doesn’t hesitate, jogging down the stairs as fast as she safely can. Erza is standing at the bottom of them in front of glass doors. This area is illuminated by white light, and Yukino can see Mystogan through the glass. He’s hooked up to a bunch of wires and machines, though she can’t tell what they’re doing. He doesn’t seem injured too badly, mostly just a few visible bruises. 

“Is he ok?” Yukino whispers, reaching out to grip Erza’s wrist as if to make sure this is real. 

“I don’t know. The doors won’t open, and he’s close enough that I don’t want to risk breaking the glass.” 

“I think we might have to.” 

Erza nods as though she just wanted someone to confirm before summoning her blade. She breaks the glass as gently as she can, then steps through. A few pieces lay on the blanket covering Mystogan’s legs, but he’s thankfully unharmed. Yukino grabs his face as she looks around. It’s a long room with lots of different equipment around, and those fluorescent white lights. Erza is standing in front of the monitor beside Mystogan’s bed on the other side than Yukino. She’s looking over the data displayed on the screen with an intense expression on her face. 

Yukino turns back to Mystogan. His skin is cold beneath her fingers, but his face is smooth. Yukino lightly shakes him, wondering if it will help. Then his nose scrunches up, and his eyebrows pull together. Tired eyes blink at her, Mystogan letting out a soft sigh. 

“Hey, are you ok?” 

“You’re here,” he whispers, his voice mostly gone. 

“Yeah, Erza and I are going to get you out of here. Just hang tight for me.” 

Mystogan nods slightly, and Yukino turns to Erza. “Whatcha got?” 

“A lot of information, but it seems to mostly just be monitoring and a constant mild sedative. I don’t understand what they were doing, but there’s nothing here implying that it would be bad if we unhooked him.” 

Yukino nods, and pulls the blanket down to start pulling off wires as gently as she can. He’s in nothing but shorts, leaving his wire covered torso bare. There are bruises, some small cuts and abrasions along his torso, but nothing immediately concerning. 

“They were trying to figure out how I was able to harness magic the way I do. They were using me as some kind of experiment. Lots of tests, but nothing too bad,” Mystogan says, yawning. His eyes are distant as he watches them. 

“That’s good. I’m so glad you’re ok,” Yukino replies, her hands shaking as she pulls the patches off of Mystogan’s chest. 

He hums, letting his eyes fall closed again. Yukino brushes his hair back as Erza gets the last of them off. 

“I’ll get him, just make sure you’re behind us.” 

Yukino nods, and Erza scoops Mystogan into her arms. They make their way out of the basement, and Yukino keeps her eyes glued to the floor in front of her, watching her step far more carefully than she needs to. Erza takes him to the carriage immediately, getting him set up in the back.

“I’ll drive, you should stay in the back with him, and the others can take the second carriage back. I’ll send out the calls letting everyone know we found him once we get back to the capital.” 

Yukino nods again, then climbs into the back with Mystogan. She grabs his hand, keeping the contact the whole ride even though Mystogan sleeps through all of it. He’s taken to the infirmary by the guards as soon as they arrive. Yukino clasps her hands, unsure of what to do now that everyone she knows is alive and safe. It’s like a weight has been lifted off of her shoulders, letting her breathe freely for the first time in months. She giggles, which turns to full, shoulder shaking laughter. 

Mystogan fiddles with the bandages around his arms below the sleeve of the soft, black cotton t-shirt he was given upon waking up. Erza walks in, her arms folded, but a smile on her face. 

“Hey, how are you feeling?” she asks, sitting down in the chair beside his bed. Her voice is soft, though reserved, almost timid. 

“I’m alright, just a little sore and tired. Nothing too serious.” 

“How are you doing mentally?” 

“Fine, really. I’m fine. It wasn’t that bad.” 

Erza is quiet for a few seconds before saying, “Thank you for everything. You didn’t have to do all of that.” 

“You’re all still important to me. You were my coworkers for a long time, even if we didn’t work together very many times. It was the best experience I’ve had.” 

She smiles, shaking her head. “I should have known you would say that.” 

“Now, how did things go? I haven’t been told anything.” 

“Well, we managed to get the invaders out of the capital with the troops that proof brought in. After that, we got Gajeel into a facility, and he’s doing well. We reversed the mind control, and he’s working on getting his strength back up. All of the warrants are gone, and the guilds are regrouping. We’re all working together to take out the rest of the invaders, and we’ve almost done it. There are still going to be things to work through, but it won’t be us. It’s political stuff, so I’m not involved in most of those briefings.” 

“That’s great…. Really great. Better than I could have imagined.” 

Erza grins, straightening up. “Yeah, everything’s looking up… You ready to get out of here?” 

Mystogan nods. 

“Well, someone else is going to want to see you, so we should get moving.” 

Mystogan feels his heart lift, Wendy’s small, worried face coming into his mind. He stands, a little unsteady, but able to balance easily enough. Erza walks beside him, the silence comfortable as they walk through the castle halls. They pass a few guards, but it’s mostly quiet. They enter a large, circular room with decor and furniture that implies it’s a sitting room. Before he has a chance to think about anything else, or look around further, a small body slams into his chest. It knocks the wind out of him, but he wraps his arm around Wendy, tears filling his eyes. 

“Wendy, baby,” he whispers, pulling her into his arms. 

“Mystogan, I was so worried. Why didn’t you come back?” Wendy asks, crying, her fingers gripping his shirt. 

“I’m so sorry, darling. I didn’t mean to. I promise I didn’t mean to. I love you so much,” Mystogan says, his own voice choked up. 

He holds her tightly, letting her cry into his chest until she slumps into his arms. He picks her up, carrying her to the couch. It’s just him and Wendy, Erza having slipped out while they were hugging. He sits down, putting her in his lap. She leans against him, her hand reaching out to touch his bandaged arm. 

“Are you alright?” she asks quietly. 

“Yeah, it’s compression for a few fractures, or to cover some small cuts. It was easier than individually bandaging each one. It’s all small and inconsequential. I’m alright. How are you?” 

“I’m ok, I was just worried.” 

“I know, and it’ll be ok. The country is safe now. Everything’s going to be alright.” 

Wendy nods, leaning into him again. They stay like that for a while until each of their ragtag group aside from Levy begin to file into the room. Mystogan holds Wendy a little tighter, smiling at each one of them. 

“So, I guess this is it. We did it,” Gray says, leaning against the doorframe. His shirt is gone, nowhere in sight despite him having it on when he walked in. 

Mystogan nods. “Everyone’s safe now, and we did our jobs. I’ll go home in a few days, and we can all return to normal life.” 

“I can’t even imagine that right now,” Natsu says, scuffing his sandal against the floor. 

“Me neither, it’s been a while, but it’s finally possible,” Erza says, smiling softly. “Jellal said he would come to Fairy Tail to check in, and celebrate with us since his record was wiped.” 

Natsu grins. “You think he would fight me?” 

Everyone laughs. “Well I guess there are some things that never change,” Lucy says. 

“None of us would have it any other way, and we’ll settle again soon enough. We all just need some time,” Erza replies.

“Which we have plenty of now,” Mystogan agrees, resting his chin on the top of Wendy’s head.