Chapter 15

Motive

The chainsaw rapidly descended on the blonde girl, and as it glimmered red in the light of the setting sun, for a moment Lucy could swear that she saw her life flashing before her eyes. In that one moment, she also caught the reflection of her visage on the surface of the razor blade weapon.

That must have been what had caused her entire body to go numb, as she found herself losing all feeling in her limbs, and aside from the ripping sound of the chainsaw as it ripped through the air, the other sound she registered was that of her best friend calling out to her from somewhere behind her. Levy was well out of sight now, the blue haired girl's vision being marred by 'Layla'. Despite the fact that Lucy could hear Levy's voice, she couldn't see her, so it seemed as if she was the only one in the world at that moment. It was kind of ironic now that she reflected on it, when she had set out on her journey to join the infamous guild she had heard of in her youth, Fairy Tail, she had been all alone back then as well. And now it seemed as if she was also going to die alone.

But alas, it seemed as if fate had different plans for her, at least for that day.

Her vision was suddenly clouded, and the next sound that registered in her ears was a sharp clank, as one metal surface clashed with another, and suddenly sparks crossed before her eyes, at least from the corner of her vision that was not impeded by the shadow that had appeared before her.

That just then, plus the sudden gust of wind that she felt across her body, riled her up and sent feeling coursing through her body once more, from her head to the tips of her toes. She looked up at the looming shadow that had proved to be her savior, and a single word escaped her lips.

"Gajeel?"

There was no way she could fail to recognize that messy shade of raven hair, plus that tattered jacket that flapped so freely in the wind as a result of Gajeel's timely entrance just then. As if to clear the remaining of her doubts muddled with her disbelief at said moment, soon after her single word was uttered there was that menacing laugh that originated from the Dragon Slayer as soon as he dispatched the descending attack from the chainsaw wielding spirit that would have no doubt bifurcated Lucy. At least that was what the blonde girl picked up from her point of vision.

"Gee-hee."

As soon as he had released his laugh in a low guttural sound, he threw his arms to the side, effectively throwing the spirit back and sending it flailing into the air behind it. Clenching his fists at his side, he took in a mouthful of magic, before releasing it all in one attack.

"Iron Dragon's Roar!"

The breath attack dispersed from Gajeel's mouth, enveloping the Spirit which was trying to compose itself and stage a counterattack. There was a screeching sound as Gajeel's breath of iron blades torn asunder through the air, enveloping everything within its radius, which included the spirit as well. That was the last that Lucy saw of the Spirit, but when she squinted her eyes closer into the swirling vortex of iron blades, she saw something that looked like sparks.

As soon as the magical attack died down and there was no trace of her enemy anymore before her, Lucy released a breath which she did not know she was holding in at said moment. Well, it seemed that she was going to live…at least for now. Still, she had to admit that it was weird having the Iron Dragon Slayer save her, although thanks were well in order, so she was extremely thankful for having him appear when he did. Edging her body forward to say something to the man, as warmth spread out through her body once more to abate the chill that had enveloped her moments before, she opened her mouth, only to feel a sudden chill behind where she was. The drop in temperature behind her back sent the hairs at the nape of her neck standing, and she found herself dreading to look behind her, where she remembered that her best friend was.

She still turned her head to look behind her, and had only a moment to glance from the corner of her eye, before she felt something hold on to her waist firmly, before she was yanked back forcefully. The impromptu force caused her to inadvertently open her mouth and take a whiff of air, since at that moment it was like someone or something had squeezed out the air from her in a slow manner. As she moved back, however, she had a chance to glance on both sides of her, where she was sure that her comrades were.

On one side, she was Gajeel leaping out of the way, in the same direction that she felt herself moving in, although luckily for him he hadn't exactly been yanked by something that he had no control over. Good. That meant that whatever was happening to her at that moment was normal, or at least she wanted to hope so.

On the other side, however…..

Ice Make: Diamond Cage.

From the tone of that voice, Lucy definitely knew that was not Gray at all. A vague image appeared in her mind just then of another Ice Mage, who happened to use his techniques with the same signature chant as Gray.

Doll Magic: Rock Doll.

That line, just then, explained a lot. She had a feeling that it was also the reason she had been yanked away in the first place, plus it also confirmed to her who the Ice Mage was. As much as she was grateful to the presence of the duo that she had crossed one time in her life, one had to ask what exactly they were doing there, alongside the Iron Dragon Slayer from her guild as well.

In an instant, her 'mother' was encased in a diamond sized sphere, which covered her from the base of her neck till her legs, rendering her completely immobile, if only that moment. That alone, would have been enough to seal the fight for good, but of course, Lucy had to remind herself that Sherry Blendy did not particularly like being left out of anything that her beloved Lyon Vastia was involved in. Even if it involved taking down a powerful opponent that each of the two would be able to handle one on one, in the enemy's current state.

Lyon's initial attack was soon quickly followed by an attack from the cherry haired woman, which consisted of a gigantic rock doll that emerged from the ground, and as soon as it had completely manifested itself in its entire glory, it landed a bone crushing blow to the trapped opponent. The Myria was blown away instantly, the ice around it shattering into countless shards as it soared into the space that was created by Gajeel and Lucy's momentary retreat, and coming to a halt on the ground just before the two Fairy Tail mages. As it lay on the ground, all devoid of all consciousness, a small flash of light enveloped it, causing Lucy and the rest to fret a little as they prepared for the worst. Soon enough however, the light ebbed away, and what remained was the enemy, but this time reduced to their original form. And it moved no more.

The Celestial Mage watched the beast for a while longer, unsure of what to make of it and the entire situation that had unfolded before her. She was glad that the enemies that had been plaguing them were defeated, of course, but on the other hand, she had to admit it left a really weird feeling in you seeing your mom getting beaten to a pulp by your friends. She brushed off the weird feeling and pushed it to the recesses of her mind, before finally deciding that the tide had died and nothing more would come from the body. Once she was sure of this, she heaved a sigh of relief, for the second time in a matter of minutes, before turning to look in the direction of her best friend, to check if the petite girl was fine.

"Gajeel! Why are you here?"

Well, that did clear up the first of her worries, so it was definitely a good start. As the blue haired girl got to her feet from where she had lost balance before due to the sudden appearance of her enemy before, Lucy also took heart in the fact that her best friend had no injuries. Still, that did not mean that Levy was not short of breath as she dusted herself once she had managed to stand up, and her eyes seemed as if they were about to pop out of their sockets as she was looking at Gajeel. Her hand was pressed to her chest as she tried to calm her now quickened breathing, although a small part of Lucy had a feeling that underneath all that fatigue was a glimmer of excitement in the girl from seeing Gajeel. It was kind of heartwarming when Lucy thought of it that way.

The dark haired man, who was now standing beside Lucy with both his hands in his pocket, had soon fallen back into his aloof demeanor, owing to the look on his face when he turned to look at Levy. "You have the cue ball to thank for that."

Lucy was confused at first as to whom this cue ball was that Gajeel was referring to, but soon enough Sherry Blendy cleared it up for her. One of the red haired woman's hands, which were resting on her waist before, moved up and she brushed a hand through her wavy hair before she replied to Gajeel with a defiant expression on her face. "Hey, hey, that's Jura-san to you. Address him with the proper honorifics." Her gaze then turned to Lucy who was on the ground next to Gajeel, before a small chuckle escaped her lips and she brought a hand to her mouth to stifle the laugh that threatened to break out in a few minutes.

A vein popped on Lucy's forehead, as she knew what was going to come next from the red haired girl. That was to be expected however, since the two had already established a healthy dislike for each other from the first time they met each other, something which did not seem as if it was it was going to change anytime soon owing to the way they acted around each other.

"Ara, I didn't think after all this time you would still be the same helpless girl who needed to get saved all the time. I guess some things never really change, huh?"

She made sure to add just the right amount of scorn in that final part of the sentence so that it would rile up Lucy enough. Unfortunately for the Lamia Scale girl, her little taunt just then did not go unnoticed by Lucy, but she was not planning to let herself get drawn in by it. Dusting herself as she got off the ground properly for the first time in a while, Lucy looked at Sherry with a glazed look in her eyes, accompanied by slight irritation. There were a lot of things that popped up in her mind that she could have used to retort, but since she was a little out of it and the moment and not really feeling up to bickering with Sherry, she chose to keep things simple.

"It's lovely to see you again, Sherry."

Lucy made to sure to dapple her voice with just enough sarcasm for the red haired girl to take note of. The scowl that appeared on the red haired girl's face showed that Lucy had succeeded in riling her up. She took great pride in that and smiled under her breath a little, making sure not to let Sherry take note of that.

Gajeel, not particularly interested in whatever Lucy or Levy had to say at the moment, turned to look at Lyon and Sherry with a grin on his face. "Heh, not bad for a couple of tag alongs. You took down that impostor pretty easily."

Lyon scoffed, before turning his head to the side with his eyes closed in a cool fashion. "What, it was nothing hard. From the creature that was attacking Lucy it was easy to tell that she was a summoner of sorts, which made a Holder Type wizard. Most Holder type wizards tend to be physically weak." As he talked, Lucy took the time to analyze the snow haired man, and she wasn't particularly comfortable with what she saw. His face plus sections of his hands were covered with bandages, an indication that there was a chance that he had just come from a battle.

That prompted the Celestial Wizard to direct a question at the Ice Wizard. In hindsight, it was something that she should have asked earlier, but initial conversation had to be gotten out of the way. "What are you guys doing here?"

While Lucy was indeed surprised by Gajeel showing up out of the blue like that, what had the lion's share of her attention at that moment was the impromptu appearance of the Lamia Scale members that had accompanied Gajeel. Is this a matter that they had to get involved in as well?

"Sherry pointed towards Lyon with her thumb from where she stood beside him, closing one eye as she responded to Lucy's query just then. "It's because this idiot couldn't sit still knowing that his rival was out there in action." The events from the moment that the trio of Jura, Sherry and Lyon had showed up at Fairy Tail with news on what had happened in Galuna Island were still fresh in Sherry's mind. By that time Gray had recovered enough to move on his own, so when Makarov had asked for volunteers to go and check up on the duos of Natsu & Erza plus Lucy & Levy, the dark haired man had immediately chipped in that he would go, before anyone else in the guild could seize that opportunity. That had ultimately led to Lyon deciding to go as well, but owing to Makarov's request, Gajeel was sent to go with them as well.

Sherry's statement just then sent Lyon into a state of fluster as he immediately forgot his initial cool demeanor, turning to look at the girl beside him with an uneasy look on his face and his arms flailing around in the air towards Sherry. "Hey Sherry, you didn't need to…."

Gajeel muttered, "Lame."

Lyon pretended not to notice that low key jab at him from the dark haired man, and refocused his attention to Lucy, aiming to set things straight. He cleared his throat. "Long story short, your Master sent to us to check up on you guys and see if you were okay, plus have you returned to Magnolia as soon as possible."

"Return to Magnolia? Why?" Levy asked, a tad confused as to the development of things. Besides, she was still on a trip with her best friend so going back to the guild did not seem too appealing at the moment.

"There's a chance that the city might soon under siege by these strange creatures," Gajeel explained, as he walked past where Lucy was standing, and also passed the other four people who were with him in the opposite direction to Apocrypha. As he passed by Levy however, he placed a hand on her head, surprising her little and causing her cheeks to get flushed. "Come on. Let's go."

His hand left the top of her head, to her slight dismay, and with that he took his place at the forefront of the group. The man was not intending to waste any more time dilly dallying here more than he already had, and he was giving the group behind him little to no chance of not following after him soon. Lyon and Sherry looked at each other for a while, the silver haired man obviously disgruntled with the turn of events. Sherry subtly picked up on the dismay that showed up on Lyon's face, as much as he tried to hide it. She had a feeling that it had something to do with being summoned back to Magnolia so quick after just being dispatched less than a couple of hours back, but even then, she found herself slightly amused by Lyon's behavior. It was part of the reason she had fallen in love with him in the beginning.

She would be having none of that though, as she forcefully took Lyon's hand and led him in Gajeel's direction, effectively having the two Lamia Scale mages vacate the premises.

Lucy and Levy followed soon after the two, all original intentions Lucy had of seeing her dad that day well under the rug by now. But oh well, she figured that as soon as the tide waned, she would get another chance later on, and this time she wouldn't just be attacked out of the blue like what had impeded her the first time. As she was walking however, something, something that she could not exactly place her finger on at said moment caused her to turn back and look behind her, where her fallen opponent was on the ground, still unmoving and its arms and legs sprawled beside it. She studied the fallen creature for a moment, not exactly sure what she was supposed to look for at that moment, but perhaps it had something to do with her mom.

"Lu-chan? Are you okay?" Levy said beside her, bringing her back to reality. Lucy got out of her little daze with a startle, and then when she turned to look beside her she found Levy's gaze focused on her with a worried look. The blue haired Solid Script seemed to read what was going on in the blonde girl's head just then, so she could not help but worry for her. It was a given, after all. Lucy had just been forced to battle her mother, so if more than anything; she was okay after that, which would actually be weirder, in Levy's book.

She nodded. "Yeah, I'm okay. It's nothing."

"Does it feel weird?"

Lucy was taken aback by the sudden query, not expecting Levy to come out and ask her something like that so directly, but even then, she was her best friend for times like this.

"Kind of, I have a feeling this thing might know something about my mom that I didn't know, but well waking it up and causing it to raise havoc once more is certainly not worth the trouble. Let's go, Levy-chan."

And with that, the two girls deserted the area, a new destination in mind.

Somewhere outside Magnolia

"Damn, after all that this is what we got in the end?" Gray said, being the first one to break the ice after the group had successfully completed the initial initiative. The four had walked in silence for a while, and since Gray found the mood surprisingly stale, he decided to say something in order to break the monotone of the atmosphere.

All that had followed ever since he and Juvia had joined Natsu and Erza had been surprisingly anticlimactic, well, according to Gray anyway. They were soon able to find a cave near where the area that Natsu & Erza had just come from fighting in; where they found the kid that the Dragon Slayer and the Knight had been assigned to finding in the first place. The kid seemed to be dead at first owing to the cold nature of his body at touch and how he was unmoving plus he had his eyes closed, causing Erza to worry for a while, something that caused her to shake Gray and Juvia violently for a few minutes as she tried to calm herself down. Luckily enough, and much to Gray's relief, soon enough Natsu was able to cakm Erza down by checking on the kid's physical state by placing his head to his heart, and once he had confirmed that the kid's heart was still beating, the rest of the group were able to rest easy.

"Don't complain. After all we had to get through to get here; I'd say this was a trip well worth it," Erza said. She was currently walking with both her hands folded underneath her chest, and a mellow look on her face as they had finally managed to accomplish their job. The pain that had racked her body earlier from the gruesome fight she had just come from was now receding, and even if she wasn't at 100% yet, she had managed to recover enough of her energy to move about and enough magic for a few more exquips. She had her fingers crossed, however, that it wouldn't come to that, since she had come to the assumption that the two Myria she and Natsu had come across were probably the body guards to this area.

Juvia, who was carrying the child on her back and was, making sure to watch her every step so as not to wake the child, arched her head slightly forward to address Gray. "Gray-sama, quiet, you'll wake our baby up."

"That's not our child!"

The red haired girl had to chuckle at that retort by Gray. That sentence, however, made something click at the back of Natsu's mind. He was at one of the far ends of the group, walking besides Erza, and occasionally as he walked he made sure that his finger tips brushed up against hers when she let her arms fall to her sides occasionally. The feel of her touch made him elated from inside each time, but he knew that if he showed how happy he was at the moment Gray would never let him have the end of it. So for now, he would be content with what he was getting.

"Speaking of which," the pink haired man said, as he arched his body forward," you two were going on a mission to rescue a kidnapped child as well, right? How did that go?"

There was a short prelude of silence after that question, in which Gray scratched the back of his head. There was a small blush that appeared on his cheeks as well as he averted his gaze away from Natsu and Erza who were on one side of him, something that Erza took subtle note of, but chose not to say anything in regards to it, at least for that moment. Juvia, on the other hand, was not as careful as that.

She chirped in from the other side, oblivious to Gray's predicament at the moment. "Jura-san was able to retrieve the girl from the island as soon as it was released from the barrier that was surrounding it. She was returned back to her parents and is safe and sound at the moment."

Alas, Juvia had just dropped a bombshell, but she didn't know it as of yet.

"So Gray can't speak about it freely because he feels embarrassed about having someone completing his job for him, is that it?" Erza said, hitting the nail on the head in regards to everything that Gray was feeling, and adding onto a new wave of embarrassment for the dark haired man. He brought his hand to the nape of his neck, shielding his face from Natsu and Erza since he didn't want to make them privy to his embarrassment.

Natsu laughed again at Gray's embarrassment.

"I'm sorry, Gray-sama!"

A moment of silence passed, before the Ice Mage's embarrassment died down and he was able to speak freely once more.

"Thanks a lot guys for not making me feel awkward. Let's just get home and get this entire thing under the rug. I'm feeling kind of stumped today."

However, they were not going to go home just yet.

The voice was silky smooth when it first spoke up, but even then, it still sent shivers up the spine of the group of four.

"Yare, yare, to think that you people could get this far."

A/N: Okay first before anything, allow me to apologize for the lengthy break before this story was updated. I was planning to update it last month, but it seems my time run out (plus writer's block is always a pain in the arse) so well I had to push this update to the first week of this month. I am truly sorry and hopefully the next chapter update will be not too late.

On another note, HYPE FOR AQUARIUS COMING BACK OH YEAH!