Chapter Five

Family

Nieve Lockser.

They said he'd held power over the falling snow, that he could sculpt winter wonderlands, or cast avalanches, or bring about a raging blizzard that could freeze over an entire village. But falling in love with Belle Deleaux changed things for him. He'd met her by a river on his travels from the north, found her bathing in it as a means to escape the summer heat. She'd broken the surface of the water and tossed back her blue hair, throwing sparkling droplets into the air, and that had been enough to render Nieve undone. One of those moments of "love at first sight".

Those who knew her had nicknamed her Belle the Raindrop. She loved the water, to be sure, but more than that, she had the power to influence the weather, especially where summoning rain was concerned. In times of drought in her home of Amaryllis, she was their savior, bringing rain when it would not come on its own.

Her heart though was another matter. Despite Nieve's initial professions of love, Belle wasn't entirely interested. It wasn't that she didn't like Nieve as a person, but she was rather closed-up as a person. But Nieve grew on her, as he settled down in Amaryllis, and eventually, when he asked her to marry him, she'd grown quite enamored of him and said "yes" on the spot.

So it was in Amaryllis that Nieve put down roots, and it wasn't long after that that Belle became pregnant with their first child. They had a baby girl just a year after they were married on a peacefully rainy day. Glowing with pride, they named their precious daughter Juvia for the lovely rain outside, her hair as blue as her mother's.

Nobody could tell Juvia how it was exactly that her parents had died. But Juvia often wondered if their untimely deaths and her mother's power over the rain had culminated in the curse that had befallen her, the curse of rainfall wherever she went. Thinking of it this way, in the beginning it gave her the comforting sense that her mother—that both her parents—were keeping close, trying to watch over her.

However, she came to believe that less and less when all the rain seemed to do was chase away the people she tried to befriend. And with every sad drip-drop, a little more of her happiness trickled away, until she grew bitter, and eventually refused going forward to embrace and believe in things like love and friendship and family.

And with the power that she held over and gleaned from the water, from all water, she grew dangerous in equal measure, a force of nature itself to be reckoned with, as fearsome as the looming thunderheads that brought her torrent of rain, her rage as tumultuous as the thunder.

As it turned out though, when she learned how to embrace love and friendship and family once more, this power of hers did not diminish in the slightest. In fact, quite the contrary, it made her even stronger, and, when angered, far more dangerous.

And her enemies learned just how dangerous in the worst possible way.

Gray staggered back at Rambert's shift from a humanoid form to one that resembled a giant raven twice the size of a horse and with the leathery wings of a bat.

"Oh crap," he muttered, pushing back his hair as he got a hold of himself. And with a cursory glance, he was able to channel his Demon Slayer Magic again and glean an idea of this demon's powers and attributes. Then he summoned the great Ice Demon Slayer Zeroth's Long Sword again and held it aloft. "Bring it on, demon," he dared, tearing off his shirt with his free hand.

The bat-winged yet birdlike black demon gave a raucous cry that grated on the ears as it spread those wings, ready to spring at Gray. And Gray was prepared to run it right through with the sword in his hand. He had no idea if there had ever really been a human named Rambert, all he knew was that such a human was definitely not here.

This was a demon, through and through.

Though he could tell too that it was one that could've matched wits with Mard Geer Tartaros, or, barring that, one of his minions. Gray only hoped he wouldn't have to shield against something like Momento Mori this time: he couldn't exactly afford to have those black marks appear on his skin like before.

Though it hadn't happened since that day, but he constantly feared that it would. Constantly. Hence his getting that book on Demon Slayer Magic, and how disturbed he was reading that part in the book about the black marks being more prevalent on one who learned to use the magic too quickly—like himself.

More importantly, he feared that it could to harm or frighten Juvia.

On the other hand though, he was prepared to do whatever it took to take this particular opponent down. After all, Juvia was stuck up in that mansion somewhere, and to get to her, he had to get through this beast first.

Meanwhile, out of the corner of his eye, he spotted Mayor Rosamunde withdraw to the side and disappear, which increased the urgency with which he needed to take care of the demon in front of him. Before Mayor Rosamunde could do anything to harm Juvia while Rambert the Demon kept him busy.

Gray hefted the Ice Demon Slayer Zerroth's Long Sword in both hands and assumed a fighter's stance. "Come on, you demon bastard! Fight me!"

Rambert the demon gave another menacing squawk, and then flew forward at the same time that Gray swung down the sword.

Juvia's skin had turned completely silver, even as she now sat slumped in a pool of silver on the floor that she'd just vomited up. She was shaking, hyperventilating, and hugging the sheets she had wrapped around her otherwise naked body.

Her heart hammered in her chest.

But at the very least, she was still breathing.

And she was no longer in pain.

Whatever had been done to her, the goal had been some kind of transformation. Maybe now it was complete. She really hoped it was, though she had a bad feeling deep down that it wasn't.

Slowly, on trembling, unsteady legs, she grabbed the edge of the bed and used this to push herself up to her feet. Her knees knocked, but she managed to stay upright, even as she staggered away from the bed. She took it slow as she tried to find her footing with the ripples of shock and adrenaline still flooding her body, and managed to get to the doorknob and grasp a hold of it.

After she yanked the door open, she stepped out of the room. Feeling lonely and admittedly scared in the large house, she slowly crept down the hall, the sheets trailing behind her like a train.

She didn't get far before she turned a corner and found Rosamunde at the other end, as if she'd been waiting for her. On instinct, Juvia drew back at the look in the girl's eyes, afraid that her suspicions that something was up with her had indeed been founded.

"Miss Lockser," said Rosamunde, with a smirk that looked evil on a child. "It's good to see that you're up and about. I do hope you weren't thinking of leaving. You should be entering the Second Stage just about now."

Fear leapt up in Juvia's stomach. "S-Second…s-stage…?"

What in Earthland could possibly come next?

She shuddered inwardly to think of it.

"I mean that soon you should be able to join my kin in the Labyrinth."

"Your kin? Wait a minute, if I'm…about to 'join your kin', as you say, why isn't your skin silver?"

"Oh, but it is."

And Rosamunde waved a hand, and seemed to tear away a glamor of sorts that had been concealing the true color of her skin. It really was silver.

Juvia gaped. "What the hell?!" she exclaimed, reacting much in the way Gray probably would have. And she suspected that he was already aware by now that Rosamunde was not exactly on the up and up.

"Those of the silver skin are gifted the power of metamorphosis." Rosamunde spread her arms out wide in a dramatic gesture. "The blood of a human becomes one with that of a demon—the wolf demon—and is free to drag their prey into the depths of the labyrinth and devour their fill."

This was ten levels of creepy. It was too much like Tartaros, and the way they'd tried to turn people like Mirajane, as well as Minerva of Sabertooth, into demonesses.

"Who are you?" Juvia croaked. "You're not Rosamunde…are you?"

Rosamunde grinned, all teeth, and sharp-looking teeth at that. "I assure you, I am. But I was freed from the shadow of my father."

Juvia put a hand to her mouth, and then her eyes slid to the window behind her, and she actually caught a glimpse of Gray, far across the lawns, fighting with a raven-like demon with the wings of a bat just outside of the labyrinth. "Gray!" She put one hand to the window pane, her other hand still clutching the sheet around her.

The bat-winged raven demon flapped its enormous wings, producing a gust of wind that knocked Gray off his feet. Then, when he was down, the demon planted one clawed foot on Gray's chest, pressing him into the ground, crushing him—

"STOP!" Juvia whipped around and pleaded with Rosamunde. "Make that demon stop! It's going to kill him!"

Rosamunde pretended to be interested in her fingernails, unconcerned. "You could easily thwart that beast…if you embrace…your new power."

Juvia stared. And then she glared darkly, anger coming off her in waves, like hot steam off of boiling water. "You'd have me…turn into one of your kind…?" Her voice shook with barely contained ire.

"What?" Rosamunde quirked a confused eyebrow. "Oh, I see. So, you'd let him die just because you don't want to turn into a wolf demon? I thought you seemed the sort of person who would do anything to save the one they love." Then she smirked. "Are you embarrassed to let him see you like that?"

"No, it's not that."

Her anger overcoming her fear, Juvia adjusted the sheet around her until she managed to find a way to tie it so it wouldn't slide off of her body, wearing it as a kind of makeshift short-skirted, sleeveless dress with a pair of long tie tails trailing behind her. And the moment she made the final tie-off, thunder clapped outside, and daylight from the window behind her darkened as heavy rainclouds gathered as if out of nowhere.

Rosamunde actually seemed genuinely taken aback at this development.

Or perhaps it was because of the dangerous expression that had settled on Juvia's face as her mouth spread into a feral grin of her own. Manic, and dark with the threat of retribution.

"Oh, I would, Mayor. And testing that theory…was your first…and biggest mistake."

And just as lightning struck, Juvia did the same.

Shit.

This was beyond lame.

He was a Demon Slayer, wasn't he? A new one, but he'd taken Mard Geer Tartaros, hadn't he? (Sure, with Natsu's help, but that was beside the point.)

Yet here he was, squirming under the claw of a bat-winged raven demon, trying to get a hold of his sword that had been flung a few feet away from…just out of his reach.

The raven demon bent its beak toward his ear, and squawked, raucous and loud, tearing through Gray's brain. And then the beast pressed down more on his chest, crushing him.

"Not…killing me…that easy…demon," he growled.

It was getting harder to breathe though, and any second his ribs and spine were going to snap like twigs—

But then a klaxon of thunder rolled over them, so loud and powerful that it made Gray's pressed bones shake. Dark clouds swirled overhead, lightning flashed, and a deluge of rain fell from the sky, drenching both Gray and the raven demon in seconds.

Juvia.

Wherever she was, trapped in that mansion, she was fighting back. He could feel it, because only she could cause a tempest like this out of nowhere.

Thinking of her fighting back, an increase in strength surged in Gray's blood. He gave another savage yell and unleashed an explosion of his power, flash-freezing everything around him within a thirty-foot radius in the violet-tinted ice of the Ice Demon Slayer—including the raven demon pinning him down. The fact that it was raining made this flash freeze all the easier.

The raven demon gave another harsh cry that was cut off by the ice that enveloped it. And with it being demon slayer ice, it started sapping him of his strength the moment it closed over him, and at last, Gray was able to wriggle free from underneath his claw with some minimal effort.

Soaked in rainwater, he crawled over to his sword, grasped the hilt, and clambered to his feet. Then he turned on the frozen demon, pointing his sword at it.

"Okay…" he panted, "now I've got you, you sonofabitch…."

Then he smacked the hilt of the ice demon slayer sword against the head of the raven demon, knocking off just the ice down to its neck.

The raven demon squawked and waved its head back and forth as it struggled to break free of the rest of the ice—until Gray slid the blade of his sword underneath the raven's throat. The moment he did that, the demon went completely still.

Now it was his turn to lean toward the demon's ear, but instead of yelling into it, he whispered lividly: "Now…you're gonna help me…or I swear…I will slice your head clean off your neck…. You get that?"

In this state, Rambert the Raven Demon might not have been able to communicate with words, but his demon eyes said enough as they quivered in palpable fear.

At which Gray gave a beastly grin beneath another crash of thunder and flicker of lightning. "All right then," he said, before he smacked the hilt of his sword against the rest of the ice imprisoning Rambert.

The raven demon was so weakened by the demon slayer ice that it simply collapsed as the ice that had cocooned it shattered. It couldn't even flap its bat-like wings as it twitched feebly on the ground for a second before it was forced to escape into its human form as its demon powers continued draining away from Gray's ice.

Once returned to his human form, Rambert lifted his head, glaring at the point of Gray's sword, but just the same, he made no attempt to fight back. "You are indeed an inexperienced Demon Slayer," he growled, "but still…a powerful one. Pray that you don't let that burden eat you alive from within," he added with a dark smile.

Gray frowned but left the insinuated jibe alone. He didn't have time to rise to this filth's bait. "Get up," he ordered. "You're gonna help me save Juvia."

"Your companion?" Rambert struggled somewhat to his feet, his butler's uniform in rags. "You certainly care for her deeply, don't you?"

"She's my friend, what do you think?" Gray told him at once, keeping ahold of the Zerroth's Long Sword as a precaution.

"Oh, I meant something more."

"Shut up."

Yet he sensed something soften in the demon as the two of them splashed through the muddy sodden grass towards the mansion—Gray with purpose and the threat of unleashing his power again, the demon with defeat.

"That was the reason I made Lady Rosamunde what she is," Rambert confessed when they reached the rose garden. "It's what Lady Rosamunde had me give to your friend, what I gave Lady Rosamunde…to save her. The power of a demon. Wolf demon, that is. Obviously."

This gave Gray pause, and he gaped at the butler. "The power of a demon…to save her?" he choked out. His Demon Slayer ears couldn't believe what he was hearing. After all, from what he'd understood, during the battle against Tartaros they'd tried doing something torturously similar to Mirajane in their lab (not realizing of course that she had a demon soul already, not to mention a little brother ready to tear apart the enemy limb-from-limb for harming his sister).

But Rambert gave Gray a rueful, humorless sigh and then looked away. "Her father…he…." He narrowed his eyes. "He…hurt her…several times he nearly killed her, his own daughter…and…as a demon myself…seeing that…well…I am a demon, so I do act very much on impulse." He raised his eyebrows then, almost sly. "I gave her the power to tear him apart and give him what he deserved.

"Of course, now that she had been transfigured into a demon, I couldn't have her running loose whenever the need to transform overtook her. Unfortunately, I lacked the foresight to take into consideration the possibility that giving that kind of power to a girl that young meant that that power would undoubtedly become used irresponsibly. So, there was the labyrinth, which has been a part of Rose Manor's grounds for generations. Now it became a haven for her when she couldn't contain her new wolf demon nature. I even convinced a small pack of wolf demons to join her there, and they became a sort of surrogate family to her. I was proud of that. Moreover, I had…grown rather fond of her. I know I act as her butler, and caretaker in the guise of a professional role but…I've seen the kindness she's still managed to retain in her brief moments of lucidity….

"That said, I was also aware that these demons were not nearly as rational as myself, and thus the barrier. But with the hole that managed to form in the barrier, of course Rosamunde and her fellow wolf demons started to get in and out, and would slake their bloodlust on the townspeople. And as I've already explained, the barrier was magic, so, I had no power to do anything about its flaws. I'd only had the power to put it up as the source of the magic was a device, so it required no magical ability personally on my part. Still, things were getting out of hand with all of the deaths, and Rosamunde's personality shifting, twisting into something malevolent and inhuman.

"I see."

In spite of the growing anger expanding within his chest, Gray managed to maintain his composure. He was man enough to know that at the very least, now wasn't the time to pound people senseless—much as he wanted to do just that to this demon in front of him.

That and…there was something to be said that he had acted out of concern to a small girl who, from the sound of it, had been under the thumb of an abusive father, the mother nowhere to be found, either dead or simply gone.

If nothing else, Gray couldn't fault him for that, demon or no.

Then there came a savage yell from within the mansion, and Gray and Rambert both looked up, and then at each other.

"That doesn't sound good," Rambert observed.

"No, it doesn't," Gray agreed, which was a first where the two of them were concerned.

But then, as he unconsciously mussed his hair back to the way it normally looked, one of the high windows of the mansion shattered, and a cascade of water from it followed, and Gray suddenly realized that Juvia was in fact bringing the fight to them.

Though he wasn't all that surprised, given the weather.

Giving a ferocious cry of vengeance, Juvia unleashed her Water Whip on Rosamunde without mercy or holding back, launching her attacks as though tearing at the very air with claws, her eyes white-hot with rage. It was so tempestuous that it actually threw Rosamunde off.

"HOW DARE YOU TRY TO HAVE ANYONE HURT MY GRAY?!"

But once she got her bearings, Rosamunde leapt backward, adopting an animalistic way of moving and grinning the way a stray dog would. And then she grew in size quite suddenly, her clothes bursting at the seams and falling away, her body growing in size, and then golden fur sprang up thick all over her body, as she bore the teeth of a wolf demon.

Which only served to spur Juvia on as she came at the wolf demon with a barrage of her Water Slicer. But though it nicked her opponent's snout, legs, and chest, the golden canine still came at her, opening wide her jaws. Quick on her feet nonetheless, Juvia dropped and slid forward, right underneath the leaping wolf. By the time the wolf landed, Juvia was already at the opposite end of the hallway, and, with the torrent of rain outside giving her strength, she launched another jet of water—boiling at the highest possible temperature without it turning to steam this time—that was powerful enough to crash through the window when the wolf demon ducked to avoid the scalding blow.

Then the wolf demon gave Juvia an almost mocking smile, as if to say, "Ha! You missed!"

Something which Juvia returned with a mocking smile of her own that said, "Did I?"

Before Rosamunde could react, Juvia, possessed of her fury and her desire to protect Gray, leapt forward rather ferally and actually managed to land on the wolf demon's back, grasping her by her golden fur and sitting astride her. Not keen on having someone ride on her back, the wolf demon planted her paws and tried to buck Juvia off, but Juvia hung on, yanking at Rosamunde's fur like reins on a horse. Even though this did nothing to bring the wolf demon under her control, it did force her to make a jump for the window in an attempt to throw Juvia from her back.

Just so, Juvia still managed to hang on, even as the wolf demon crashed to the ground below and hopped about wildly as she tried to fling her off. It was by the skin of her teeth that she hung on, now having to wrap her arms around the wolf demon's neck in order to do so, all while Rosamunde not only bucked, but snapped her massive jaws savagely, both of them getting drenched in the rain.

On the next clap of thunder and flash of lightning, Juvia risked loosening her grip and letting the wolf demon succeed now in throwing her off. And while in midair, she summoned another Water Lock and from above she imprisoned Rosamunde inside it the same way she did with that other wolf demon that Gray slew earlier. This worked to subdue Rosamunde, as she quickly succumbed to her deprivation of oxygen and passed out, at which point Juvia did the merciful thing and released her.

Thus Rosamunde the wolf demon finally collapsed to the muddy ground, limp and unconscious.

And though she managed this all while remaining up in the air, Juvia still had to contend with the fact that now she was about to crash back to the ground from a much greater height.

She really hadn't thought this entirely through at all.

Juvia gave a wild scream as she began to fall, the tails of the bedsheet wrapped around her trailing after her and whipping in the wind and the rain—

Only to be caught in someone's strong and capable arms.

Blinking open her eyes, Juvia saw that that someone was Gray, regarding her with an intense expression of concern, panting to catch his breath as though he'd had to run to get to her in time. Thankfully though, he actually appeared unharmed, despite the dire circumstances he'd appeared to be earlier.

Juvia smiled and gave a sigh of relief.

"You're okay," she gasped, in spite of herself, her heart fluttering in her chest.

At which Gray actually managed to relax and let out a laugh. "I'm okay? Who's the one who nearly fell and broke their neck?"

Juvia blinked, and then they both acknowledged the fact that the sheet wrapped around her was doing little at the moment to cover her, particular where her breasts were concerned. Giving a squeal and blushing furiously, Juvia crossed her arms over her breasts in an attempt to make up for this, while Gray averted his eyes and set her back on her feet out of consideration for her modesty, as he too blushed furiously.

As Juvia straightened and adjusted the sheets around her to better cover herself again, she saw him regard the supine Rosamunde still in wolf demon form on the ground, his face shifting very quickly to a dark one that promised violence. Then he turned back to Juvia, looking ferociously serious.

"Your skin…what happened to it?" he rasped, reaching out and touching her still very silver arm.

Juvia shivered at the sight of him, how dangerous he was starting to look if she were being honest. Tentatively she opened her mouth, but it was someone else who answered.

"It's from the medicine I gave her," grunted Rambert, who seemed to have appeared out of nowhere, regarding Rosamunde himself, except in his case it was with a heartbreaking measure of pity.

"What medicine?" Gray demanded, turning on Rambert.

"The same medicine I gave to her to make her what she is." Rambert nodded to Rosamunde.

"You tried to give Juvia that?!" Gray whipped back around and stared at Juvia again, this time like he were scared. Though of her or for her, Juvia couldn't tell at first.

Still, she tried to smile. "It's all right, Gray. I'll be fine."

"She will," Rambert added, and it was then Juvia saw how beleaguered Rosamunde's butler was in the eyes, and she felt a twinge of sympathy for him. "I started to give her the antidote without Miss Rosamunde's knowledge. She won't turn. But she'll need another injection in order to completely cure her." He glanced between the both of them. "I shall go fetch that, if you will stay with her." He nodded to Rosamunde again.

"All right," Gray agreed, though he still had the shadow in his eyes. It actually scared Juvia a little.

She had a better idea of what was going on with Rambert though when he suddenly transformed into the bat-winged raven demon that she had seen Gray fighting earlier.

And with that, the raven demon flapped his enormous wings and launched himself into the air, taking advantage of the broken-open window to fly into the mansion on his way to retrieve the rest of the antidote for Juvia.

"Maybe he'll bring back my clothes too," she mused aloud, though mostly to try and lighten the dark mood that had befallen them.

Gray didn't seem to hear though as he knelt beside the still unconscious Rosamunde. "I saw her kin," he said without looking up.

"Kin?"

"The other wolf demons kept penned in the labyrinth. When I went in there, I saw one of them tearing into what looked like one of Rosamunde's dresses."

Juvia considered this. "How could that be?"

"Well, maybe it wasn't hers. Maybe it was some other girl," Gray supposed.

"It was a mistake."

Juvia and Gray turned and there stood Rambert, back already in his human guise, carrying a small case with him.

"A little girl from the village had wandered in there," Rambert went on, snapping open the case and handing over one of the syringes inside filled with a golden liquid, the same with which Juvia had been injected earlier. "That hole in the barrier not only lets wolf demons get out, but lets people get in, unawares. The wolf demon that attacked the little girl perhaps thought that it was finding Rosamunde another friend to play with. It's hard to tell with demons sometimes." Though he smiled, it was mirthless.

Juvia and Gray looked at each other, then watched Rambert used the antidote on Rosamunde. "She'll need more of this to turn her back entirely," he explained, "but I do think it's time that I…let her go."

"Where can she go from here though?" Juvia asked as Rambert also handed her clothes to her, having recovered them for her at last. "After she's killed people?"

Then Rosamunde's wolf demon eyes flew open, and she let out a small cry as her small body shook, the fur receding into her skin, shrinking as she slowly transformed back into Rosamunde the little girl. The moment she did though, she collapsed back, unconscious once more, and Rambert threw a sheet he was carrying over her to cover her up.

"She's still a child," Rambert insisted. "Please…please don't kill her. Whatever she's done…it's my fault."

"Then allow me to slay the wolf demons prowling in the labyrinth," Gray offered as an alternative. "We'll spare her if you let me do that."

Rambert was hesitant at first, but relented at the glare Gray gave him.

And Juvia hid her soft look of appreciation for Gray's sense of mercy. It did something to ease the tension that at coiled in her stomach at that shadow flitting in his eyes a few moments earlier.

Gray's hands were steady as he injected the gold-colored antidote into the vein in Juvia's righthand inner arm, exposing it by having her pull her sleeve back. They'd gone into the mansion's parlor when they went back inside to get out of the rain, Rambert having carried little Rosamunde upstairs to look after her. Whatever he was, Gray actually found himself hesitant to cut him down as well. At least, he wanted to see what he planned to do next once he finished with the wolf demons before he made a final decision on that.

"Ouch," Juvia muttered on a reflex when the needle pierced her skin.

"Sorry," Gray whispered.

"It's fine," she said, trying to smile.

A gesture which tugged at a corner of Gray's mouth. That was so like her.

The two of them were sat together on the sofa by the large windows looking out over the rose garden. The sun was setting now behind the haze of gray clouds, the more softly falling rain catching the light creating a rosy mist. To Gray, it was a rather peaceful thing, and it made him look less forward to the grim and bloody task he still had ahead of him, which kind of surprised him actually.

"They say you can't choose your family," he commented, "and even though you and I know that to not be quite true, it didn't do Rosamunde good that someone tried to choose for her as a means to save her."

"Well, Rambert was a demon," Juvia pointed out.

She flinched again when Gray finished injecting her with the antidote and slid the needle back out of her skin. But it seemed to offer her some relief when Gray then ran the pad of his thumb over the still-silver skin and the bead of blood where he'd stuck her, covering the puncture with a very thin layer of cool ice.

"Thanks," she said quietly as she withdrew her hand from his.

"Sure." Gray flicked the empty syringe into lilac-patterned wastebasket and then stood. "Now, to take care of that labyrinth."

"Okay, just give me a minute."

"Actually, you should probably stay here."

This gave Juvia pause and she looked up at him, surprised. "What? Why?"

"This is a job for a Demon Slayer," Gray told her, avoiding her eyes. "And that's what I am. Not you."

"Gray," Juvia protested, sounding both angry and hurt.

Gray hated hearing her sound like that, so he dropped his hand on top of her head, giving her a pat as well as a kinder smile—or what he hoped was one, anyway. "It's fine. I won't be long."

Juvia sighed. "I guess I wouldn't be all that much help."

"It's not like that," Gray tried to tell her, but when she didn't answer, he sighed, wistful but uncertain of what else to say or do, so he withdrew his hand. "Like I said, won't be long," he promised her, and then went to step back outside into the glistering drizzle.

Juvia bit her lip as she watched Gray from the parlor window, still shirtless and tramping across the muddy lawns towards the labyrinth the purple of twilight pressed down upon the world, slowly devouring it like dark flames. Then she sighed and tried to think what to do next, only to feel a shivering itch all over her body. She looked down and to her intense relief, the silver color of her skin faded and was replaced once more by the pale flesh color that was her own.

She dropped back onto the sofa she was so relieved in fact. And then she heard a small sad sound that gave her pause, and she looked round to the doorway into the parlor and saw little Rosamunde, dressed in a little girl's robe and slippers, like an invalid child.

She regarded Juvia with brave yet sad eyes, and for a moment, Juvia felt she was seeing herself as a child, the way she would poke her head hopefully around corners and ask if she could join in whatever the other kids at the orphanage were doing, even if every time she was turned away for her gloomy, gloomy rain.

Then the impression was gone and Rosamunde cleared her throat and straightened up, acting more like the adult she'd been forced to act like since the death of her father.

"I…would like to apologize, for the awful things I've done, and the way I've acted," she began. "And…to thank you, and Mr. Fullbuster, for all of your help in this matter."

"Oh." Juvia smoothed her blue skirt and then folded her hands in her lap. "Not at all. I…I'm glad to see you seem to be…doing better."

"Yes, thank you." Rosamunde fidgeted a bit, once more acting more like a child. "I am." Then she put a small hand to her temple. "It's been so long since I've…really felt like me, you know?"

She shivered, and Juvia didn't wonder at it, considering the way Rosamunde had behaved when they had faced off earlier: like some evil mastermind—which she most certainly was not, not really.

"But…I'm grateful to Mr. Rambert," she went on. "He was there for me when I had no one else." Then she looked back up at Juvia and her eyes filled quite suddenly, and then she was crying openly, like the little girl who got caught doing something really bad and sincerely feels sorry about it. "Do you know…what that's like?"

Juvia frowned, remembering the way Phantom Lord had reached out to her when she'd had no one else in the world. "I do," she told her, unwavering in her sincerity.

"Okay." Anything else Rosamunde wanted to say was lost as she broke out into more quiet little sobs, overcome with the weight of everything she had done at such a tender age, wiping at her tearful eyes with the back of her small hands, and once again, Juvia saw herself as a child, crying alone because no one would play with her.

So she did for her what no one seemed able to do for her at that time.

She got up and knelt down to wrap her arms around the small trembling girl, holding her close, hugging her close. She felt Rosamunde's tears soak into her shoulder, into the fabric of her jacket as she continued to cry in her arms, her own eyes prickling hotly as she murmured into her ear that everything would be okay.

Because at the end of the day, Rosamunde had been a scared little girl who hadn't known quite what she'd been getting herself into—just like Juvia had once been.

As Gray cut through wolf demon after wolf demon beneath the soft light between sunset and moonrise—the twilight hour—tearing through one after the other with the Ice Demon Slayer Zerroth's Long Sword in bursts of bright red blood and clouds of ice, he yelled more and more wildly with every blow he struck. At the same time though, inside, he thought sadly about the possibility that his new power for demon slaying might actually start to pull him and Juvia apart, just when he'd been starting to feel closer to her than he'd ever felt to anyone in his life.

This was a concern that had been building for a while, and he still wasn't entirely sure about it, but after what he'd read in that book, the dark marks that had appeared on his skin when he'd fought Mard Geer Tartaros…if Juvia started to see that side of him, he couldn't let her worry about it, about him. He hated to think of her twisted up in painful knots inside because of something going with him.

Just the same, Gray lost himself in the slaughter. The rush of fur in shades of tawny, gray, black, and white, and then teeth, claws, the showers of scarlet around every corner as he wended and tore his way through the turning and twisting pathways of the labyrinth. Of course, the pack of wolf demons would not go quietly. They snarled at him, and in those snarls he could hear them demanding to know where Rosamunde was. It was a shame, because they sounded sincerely worried about their little lost pup.

But there were no words. Only the swing of the Zerroth's Long Sword, and then the final shot from the Zerroth's Destruction Bow at his final target: the russet alpha charging him the other end of the final passageway of hedge before reaching the center of the labyrinth.

His heart felt stone cold and heavy in his chest. It was different from the usual aloofness he'd always adopted in an attempt to come off as cool and unruffled and in complete control of himself. No, this was more like what he'd felt when his father held him in his arms before disappearing from his life again forever, only in this case it was also locked in a prison of winter. He simply struck, over and over, never flinching even when red demon blood flecked his chest and arms and face.

And when he finished, the tightness in his chest only intensified, and he had to take a moment to gasp for air and catch his breath. After which he looked up, having found himself in the center of the labyrinth after eliminating the alpha.

His heart caught in his throat.

Something of a nest of pilfered pillows and sheets had been put together underneath a nicely built lean-to made of wood, offering a roof of basic protection against the elements. In that nest of linens too, there were what looked like stuffed toys made to look like animals—like a rabbit, a raccoon, a cat even. Gray had no doubt that this was where Rosamunde came as a wolf demon when she needed to feel that comfort of a family, and here the wolf demons had indeed given her that, just like Rambert had hoped. No doubt they had played together here, taken naps, shared scraps of meat together, like a den of normal wolves would.

Rosamunde might've been overtaken by wicked impulses in being turned into a demon, but she must've been happy here too, happier than she'd been in so long. And even though it was his responsibility to take it away, he couldn't help but mourn for the loss regardless.

Yet…he managed not to get stuck in this morose mindset.

Because when he stepped back out of the labyrinth, his Ice Demon Slayer weaponry dissipated, his hair ruffled back to the way it normally looked, and still covered in demon blood, the rain had lifted, and there was Juvia, coming out to meet him underneath the silver moonlight, her skin already back to a healthy flesh color.

The two of them stopped short of each other, and then, without saying a word, she smiled softly for him and opened her arms. Overcome, even as he did his best to hold himself back, he walked gratefully into the embrace she offered and returned it.

Maybe this new power of his wouldn't pull them apart after all. He certainly didn't want it to. He hoped it wouldn't. He had to hope it.

Because in moments like these, he was finding out more and more that at the end of the day—of every day, from every fight—Juvia would be the one to whom he most wanted to return.