Chapter Five – Warning Shots

Natsu gets this look on his face sometimes, when he doesn't think the rest of us are watching. It's a little hard to put into words, but if I had to describe it…

I think he's tired.

It didn't rain in Isvan. It was always snow, hail, blizzards, or a cool, clear day. There was no in-between.

He never thought he would get sick of snow, considering everything. But at the moment, when he looked up at the overcast sky that was pouring down endless buckets of soft white flakes, a scowl was the only expression he could make. Something, anything other than the cold would have been preferable, and he resisted the urge to shiver, rubbing his gloved hands together instead.

The snowy fields were seemingly deserted as he raced across them, pausing only now and then to check that the wind was wiping his tracks clean. Of course, he thought wryly, a target was practically painted on his back since he was the only one out here anyway. But it couldn't be helped; there was no other way to get there. And perhaps 'deserted' wasn't the right word—

A flash of movement on his left and he immediately dove for the ground, hands sinking into the snow as he catapulted himself into a roll back onto his feet some distance away. Out of the corner of his eye, he caught the glint of silver in the snow that told of how close the knife had come to slicing his ear off.

"Impressive," a high, cold voice drawled sweetly from nearby. A nearby tree trunk seemed to ripple and a cloaked, feminine figure stepped forward, the last wisps of some sort of camouflage magic fading into the air.

"I thought you guys needed me alive," he deadpanned, pulling off his white coat and letting it flutter morosely to the ground.

"It wouldn't have killed you. I made sure of it."

"Nice of you to be so careful." A hand moved covertly towards his belt from where a short sheath hung, while he shifted his weight from one leg to another in preparation. "What do you want?"

The woman took another nonchalant step towards him, pushing back the heavy hood that obscured her face and letting tresses of silvery blond hair fall down her back. Shockingly blue eyes met his in a challenging gaze. "An answer."

"And your way of getting one was by throwing a knife at me?" he replied with fake incredulity, allowing a small smirk to slip its way onto his face. "You shouldn't have bothered. My answer hasn't changed."

She smiled; an equally small, cruel smile in return. "So I expected."

He was ready when the woman leaped at him without warning, rows of small knives gripped between her fingers. He wrenched a thin dagger out of his sheathe and parried the oncoming blows, the loud metallic clangs ringing in his ears. She twirled with deadly elegance around to his back, ducking under his next swing and bringing her own weapons up in a vicious swipe. His free hand shot up and he managed to catch one of the woman's arms, twisting hard so that she stumbled, her knives just barely grazing his cheek, and flung her hard to the ground.

Expertly flipping back to her feet with an expression of cutting animosity, the woman snapped her fingers and promptly melted into the scenery, camouflaged perfectly against the snow. He froze in place, not even daring to reach up and wipe away the small trickle of hot blood running down his face as he strained to listen for signs of movement.

A whistling sound was his only signal and he jerked his head to the side before a knife could fly across his throat. At the same time, a stinging, blunt blow from seemingly nowhere was dealt to his wrist, forcing him to drop the dagger with a hiss. The weapon fell uselessly into the snow, but he spotted a tell-tale patch of hazy air and whirled around, driving the sharp end of his elbow into it.

There was a gasp and the woman rematerialized, a hand pressed against her torso. Nevertheless, she rushed forward with a snarl, flinging an entire handful of the knives at him. The projectiles flew towards him rapidly, fanning out in a wide arc, and he was forced to jump back in order to avoid them. He heard a distinctive snapping sound and knew at once that the woman had cast her magic again, but preoccupied with the knives, could not track her movements.

Something sharp jabbed into his back while a gleaming silver point flicked up to his neck. He stiffened as a weight draped itself over his shoulders, sliding the knifepoint ever so lightly up his throat to under his chin.

"Weigh your options carefully," the woman breathed into his ear, her voice gliding as smoothly as silk. "Why do you resist Master Neve so, when we both know that your days are numbered?"

"You know perfectly well why," he snapped in a vitriolic tone, surreptitiously tugging one glove off his hand, and then the other, dropping them both onto the ground. It did not escape the woman's attention and she drew another haughty smile.

"Is that wise? Master Neve will not be pleased if you—"

"Tell Neve," he interrupted quietly, purposefully, "to go fuck himself."

He felt the knife press more deeply into his skin, the rage that suddenly spiked from the woman, heard the murderous noise of indignation she made and smirked, despite himself. Grimly knowing he was going to substantially regret his next action in a few short minutes, he inhaled deeply—

And slammed his right fist onto his left palm.

"Ice Make: Lance!"

Bright blue light and frigid mist burst from his hands, coalescing into thick streams of ice that rocketed into the woman and sent her flying backwards from him. She rolled quite a distance before coming to a rest in the snow, battered and bruised and panting. He watched expressionlessly as she wobbled to her feet, shards of powdered ice falling from her shoulders.

"That was a warning to you, and to him. Don't come after me again."

A derisive sneer curled up the edges of her lips. "Reckless. Truly reckless," she spat. "Just as reckless as your foolish comrades for coming this way."

The words sent his heart dropping straight into his stomach, and his eyes widened with horror. "They're here… already?"

She regained her composure, drawing herself up imperiously. "Consider this a warning to you. Our patience is wearing thin. Should you persist in making us wait, we will be forced to create an incentive."

"Don't you dare touch them!"

"As long as they do not interfere," she replied contemptuously, and lifted an arm.

"Wait—"

The woman snapped her fingers and was gone, blended seamlessly into the scenery without a trace.

He stared at the space where she had been for only an instant before something pulsed in his head and he gritted his teeth, the discomfortingly familiar numbness and dizziness beginning to set in.

He couldn't feel his hands.

Ah, shit. Again.

The thought was barely formed when all at once, intense agony shot throughout his body and he crumpled immediately to the snowy ground, clutching his chest and gasping for breath. Every function seemed to shut down except for the awareness of pain and only scattered clarity as he wavered in and out of consciousness, time slowing to a crawl. There was no physical feeling except for a strange tingling, blue sparks of overloaded magic dancing at the edges of his blurry vision and a creeping blackness threatening to crash down like a wave and overtake everything.

Worst of all was the cold. Back then, sometimes he had joked that instead of blood, frigid ice ran through his veins as easily as it crackled at his fingertips, but the comparison had never been less funny now. It numbed him to all sensations externally even as convulsions wracked him internally, creating a strangely contradictory cycle of pure, stifling pain. Everything seemed to be slipping away, his sight narrowing more and more. Could this time possibly be it? At that notion, a single desperate thought broke into coherence.

No, not yet… Please, not yet.

It felt like days, weeks, months that the attack ravaged his system, yet logic told him that it couldn't have lasted much longer than a minute or two. Eventually, bit by bit, the darkness began to recede and he could breathe without feeling like sharp shocks were jolting him every second, though the tingling sensation was still present even if he no longer saw the blue lights of his magic running defiantly across his palms.

Feeling gradually returned to his fingers and he could curl his hands into a loose fist, dull exhaustion preventing him from doing anything more strenuous. He pushed himself up slowly, painstakingly into a sitting position, exhaled ragged, winded breaths, and pressed a palm to his heavily pounding head. Everything felt sore.

It was worse, and lasted longer each time. But he could not afford to let it get the better of him now. Especially now, with the unpleasant news he had received from the woman.

"You idiots…" he muttered to himself, unable to suppress the mingled exasperation and anger and fondness and longing. He should have expected it. He, of all people, should have known that they would never leave it alone in the first place, and a part of him wondered if somewhere, subconsciously, he had wanted them to follow.

But that didn't mean he would make it easy. Far from it. He had that much sense, at least.

Sifting briefly through the snow for the dagger and gloves he had dropped, he pulled the gloves back on and climbed unsteadily to his feet. It was no time to sit around, not with time running out as it was.

Just… a little longer.

"Haaaaaaaaaah…"

"That's a record-breaking sigh if I've ever heard one, Lucy," Happy called from where he was perched on Natsu's head.

"It wasn't that long," Lucy replied testily, shooting the cat an unamused look. "I don't know why Erza told us to stay in the hotel. I mean, wouldn't it go faster if all of us were out there questioning people?"

"Dunno, but I'm totally fine with staying inside. It's cold out there."

"How can you be cold if you're always hanging around Natsu? It's like you have your own personal heater."

Natsu finally looked up from Gray's notebook, looking affronted. "I'm right here, you know."

Running her gaze over the Dragon Slayer, Lucy couldn't help but comment, "You have no idea how weird it is to see you with your nose stuck in a book. You've been reading through that thing for hours—I seriously don't think Gray left a secret message for us or anything."

"Well he should have! All that's in here are his stupid scribbles and weird lists… Why couldn't the stripper've written something useful?! How's he expect us to find him with this crappy info?"

"I don't think we were supposed to read it in the first place…"

There was the irritating rustle of paper as Natsu continued to flip through the notebook restlessly. Growing increasingly frustrated, he turned the notebook upside down and shook it.

Lucy shook her own head in exasperation. "Natsu, it's not going to start talking to you. Give it a rest before you rip it and we have to fix another one of Gray's things."

"I should burn the whole damn thing and see if he comes running back to fight me. Yeah, that sounds more like it! I'll give him a couple punches for being gone, a couple punches for not tellin' us where he went, another punch because I feel like it, a kick in the teeth so that he'll spit out what he's doing with dragons, and—"

"Alright, alright, we get it!" Lucy interrupted, a drop of sweat rolling down her forehead. "Gray would've started trying to beat you into the ground from your first sentence if he were here."

"And he's not, when he should be!" Natsu snapped.

Silence.

"You're right." Snapping shut the thick book she had been skimming aimlessly through, the book on ice magic that had been found back in the house, Lucy tossed it to the side, staring with discontent out the window. "He should be here. But he's not." Her gaze flicked back to Natsu. "You can say it, you know."

Natsu scoffed. "I dunno what you're talking about."

She rolled her eyes. "No, of course not. Why are boys so stubborn?"

"Hmph."

The sound of loud knocking on their hotel door suddenly rang throughout the room. "Delivery," a deep, muffled voice called from the other side. Lucy exchanged puzzled glances with Natsu and Happy.

"Did we order something?"

"They don't have room service. I checked when I tried to get some fish."

"Might as well see what the guy wants."

Natsu crossed the room in several strides, opening the door to reveal a tall man in a thick jacket and a large hat, pulled down low to obscure his eyes. "Is this the room of the Fairy Tail guild members?" the man rumbled, holding out a small box with their guild insignia stamped on it. "I have a package from your guild."

"What? Why did they send us something?" Lucy came to stand behind Natsu, peering over his shoulder as he took the box and sniffed it inquisitively.

"A return service was requested as well," the man continued, backing out from the doorway. "The form is inside the box. Please open the delivery now."

"That's… strange," Lucy said slowly. "Why should we have to open it now? And… Natsu? Did we tell the guild which hotel we were staying at?"

Abruptly, Natsu thrust the box back into the surprised man's arms with a snarl. "First, you can tell me why the hell the box smells like ashes and smoke."

"What?!"

"Tch!" Just as abruptly, the man tossed the box over their heads, into their room, and took off running down the hotel stairs. Natsu's eyes widened as his ears caught a fizzling sound from within the box and the scent of smoke more strongly than ever. Grabbing Lucy's arm and scooping Happy up, he shoved them into the hallway.

"GET DOWN!"

The room exploded.

Bars were far from her favorite place for a meeting, but if he had deemed it safe enough, she wasn't about to complain. The bar was bustling at this time of the day, and a secluded corner table was easy enough to find.

The grey pigeon perched on her shoulder cooed softly as Erza offered it a piece of bread. "He certainly works you hard, doesn't he?" she murmured, stroking its head. "Sending you to a cold place like this. You've done well."

A smooth, achingly familiar voice broke Erza from her thoughts. "Between you and Meredy, you'll have spoiled him for a lifetime."

The armored mage looked up, her gaze following the pigeon as it fluttered up to rest on its owner's shoulder, and she smiled gently. "Hello, Jellal."

"Erza. It's good to see you." Jellal returned a warm smile in kind, pulling out the opposite chair on the other side of the table and sitting down. "I'm sorry to put you at risk, asking for a meeting here."

She waved a hand. "I trust your judgment. Besides, your transformation magic has worked wonders."

Jellal reached up to tug at temporarily black locks of hair, brushing the strands out of the way before rubbing the blank space below his eye, devoid of his distinctive crimson tattoo. "You didn't seem very surprised though, as expected."

"Well, it was rather obvious."

"…I-Isn't that a little contradictory to what you said just now?"

"Hm? What do you mean?"

"Er, never mind."

"Although, just for a moment…" Erza leaned forward to rest her chin on top of interlaced hands, securitizing Jellal intensely. "Your appearance could have been the spitting image of one of my friends."

"Gray Fullbuster, you mean?"

"That's right." A small, bitter laugh escaped her lips, and Erza pressed a palm to her forehead. "I don't want to believe it, but… I must be forgetting his face if I could mix you up with him."

Jellal grimaced. "I'm sorry, I didn't mean to trouble you."

"No, it's fine. I'm getting needlessly sentimental. Still, when I get my hands on him—"

"Actually, Gray Fullbuster is the reason I asked to meet you today."

Erza's eyes widened in shock. She lowered her hands, pressing them against the tabletop. "Did you find something?"

"Nothing concrete," Jellal was quick to point out, but his own gaze was deadly serious. "But Ultear was concerned… And I think she'd know better than anyone, in this case. I'm simply passing along what Ultear's learned, and since then she's been going off on her own for days at a time. I promised you when you first started your search that I would keep you informed of anything, after a—"

"I want to know everything," Erza interrupted. "It's been a year… We can't keep this up." She looked positively torn about the admission, gritting her teeth. "Everyone at the guild, Juvia and Happy and Lucy and… Natsu most of all, it's running them into the ground with exhaustion, and not just the physical kind."

Jellal looked at her with quiet concern. "And you, Erza?"

"Never mind me," she said dismissively. "My apologies, I didn't mean to get worked up. So? What is it that Ultear's found out?"

"It's a lucky coincidence we found out at all, actually. Have you heard rumors of a cultist group scheming to find dragons recently?"

An expression of contempt washed over Erza's face. "Yes, we heard as much from Gajeel back at Fairy Tail. It's part of the reason we've traveled here to Isvan in the first place. Natsu broke a table at the idea."

"Their obsession goes beyond just finding a dragon," Jellal said sternly. "Apparently they've found a means to revive one that's supposedly long dead."

Erza scoffed immediately, "That's ridiculous."

A nod of agreement. "That was my thought as well. Regardless, they're attempting to do so. I'm unsure of their motives and means, but some sort of ritual is involved." He paused, and swallowed. "A ritual involving an ice mage, to be exact."

Inhaling sharply, Erza's eyes narrowed. "The ones who've gone missing recently."

"Precisely."

"You're not saying that one of them was—"

Jellal held up a hand to stop her. "I can neither confirm nor deny it, Erza. But something's not right with your story either. This mass disappearance is fairly recent, and your friend—Gray—"

"His disappearance was a little over a year ago." Erza nodded in understanding. "It's the same point I brought up back at the guild… So there's no hard evidence of a connection, is there?"

"Perhaps," Jellal mused. "But Ultear's strangely intent on this cultist group. I've never seen her like this, and I can think of no reason other than that your friend is involved."

"Tell me more about the cultists then. Do you know what they're like?"

"They're an elusive bunch, that's for sure." Drawing a pen out from under his cloak and reaching for one of the paper napkins folded neatly in a container on the table, Jellal ran the pen tip over the napkin in a quick, rough sketch. "Followers supposedly wear dark blue cloaks that conceal their individual identities, but the backs all have this symbol printed on them. I'm sorry, my artistic ability isn't quite up to par—it's supposed to be a cracked iceberg surrounded by waves. I think."

In a far, distant corner of Erza's mind, something clicked at the phrase. "An iceberg… surrounded by waves," she repeated slowly, lines creasing her forehead. "I've heard that somewhere."

"Have you?" Jellal seemed surprised, but he continued. "It's modified from the symbol of a small city near the border of Isvan called Glacies—"

Erza slammed a fist violently onto the tabletop, ignoring the curious heads that turned towards her at the sudden noise. Her brown eyes had gone wide with horror. "No, no, it can't be—"

"Erza!" Jellal said sharply, though not unkindly, looking startled. "Calm down. Are you alright?"

"I didn't realize… All this time— How could I not have realized?!"

"Erza, please." He reached across the table to grasp her hand, squeezing her fingers; she hadn't noticed she was trembling. "What is it?"

She took several deep breaths, enough to regain composure, but her heart relentlessly felt as if it was thrumming at several times its normal rate. "Glacies. That city is where we took our last mission as a team together before Gray left. I remember now."

"A mission?"

"I can't quite remember… it was over a year ago, after all." Erza closed her eyes briefly. "The mission… We were concerned about the city for… for some reason. But our job was completed. Gray announced that he was going to take some time off to go to Isvan when we returned to the guild. Now that I recall… Yes, that's right, he seemed unusually distracted until he left."

"Did something happen to him in Glacies?"

"If something did, he never mentioned it." A scowl emerged onto Erza's expression. "He'll pay dearly for that."

"Well, um," Jellal stammered apprehensively at the dark look. "I'm sure… he didn't mean to keep it a secret or anything. I can't believe that any loyal member of Fairy Tail would just up and disappear without contact."

"Of course not. But all the same, I'm prepared to deal out punishme—"

The entire bar suddenly rocked with some unseen force as a loud, booming sound echoed throughout the building. Erza and Jellal bolted to their feet despite the rumbling, hearing crashes and shrill screams.

"Outside, now!"

They pushed impatiently through the throng of people already gathering at the door, bursting out onto the snow covered streets. Erza spotted the plume of smoke rising into the air on their left first, pulling Jellal along by his sleeve as she ran in its direction.

"Natsu and the others are there!"

Weaving around lines of stunned passerby, they reached the smoking hotel shortly. Erza gasped upon seeing the large portion of the building's upper level that had been decimated, reduced to charred wood and glowing embers and exposing the inner structure to the elements. Hotel staff and residents alike were running out in a panic, but Erza saw no sign of familiar hair colors. "Natsu! Lucy! Happy!"

Jellal grabbed her arm as she made to rush forward. "Erza, it's too dangerous to go in! At least take some sort of precaution—"

"My friends are in there—"

"Erza!" Two high, synchronized voices called the armored mage's name somewhere above her head. Looking up, Erza spotted the disheveled looking pair of Lucy and Happy, the latter with his wings out and flapping frantically to keep both himself and the celestial spirit mage in the air. Lucy landed with a stumble upon her feet touching the ground, Happy landing on her shoulder as his wings disappeared. She scrambled over, throwing her arms around Erza's neck. "Thank goodness you're here! And… who's that?" Lucy asked, catching sight of Jellal in his disguise.

"It's Jellal," Erza said hurriedly, disengaging herself from the embrace and ignoring the double shrieks of surprise. "Lucy, Happy, are you hurt? What happened? And where's Natsu?"

"No, we're fine, but Natsu—"

"He's still in there!" Happy yelped, round eyes quivering in worry. "There was someone weird at the door who said he had a delivery but we didn't order anything and then Natsu said the box smelled funny, so the guy threw it and everything exploded! Natsu managed to eat most of the explosion before it got to us, but he told me and Lucy to get out of there while he looked around!"

"That idiot!" Erza hissed, drawing out a long sword from midair. She whirled on Jellal, pointing the weapon at him, and he did an admirable job suppressing a flinch. "Look after Lucy and Happy, will you? I'm going to drag Natsu out of there."

"Yes, of course. Be careful."

"Where are you, asshole?!" Natsu bellowed, kicking over a smoldering beam. "If you think you can use our guild mark like that and pull this sort of shit, you've got another thing coming!" Slurping up the small group of flames nearby, he stomped through the mercifully empty, but smoky lobby. The majority of the damage had been confined to the upper level when Natsu had swallowed the explosion, though it didn't mean the lower level was unscathed.

The infuriating thought that the culprit had already made his escape crossed Natsu's mind. He growled in frustration, swiveling his head from side to side, and a flash of movement caught in the corner of his eye. Natsu launched himself in its direction, a fist grasping onto something soft before it pulled, tearing away, and he was left holding a dark blue piece of fabric.

He threw the cloth aside and looked up, meeting the haughty gaze of the man who had delivered the package. The man's hat was gone, revealing tousled brown hair, and a dark blue cloak was now slung over the man's broad shoulders, but the jacket below left no doubts as to his identity.

"Fairy Tail," the bomber stated flatly.

Natsu snarled his reply, "That's us. I can beat an answer out of you, or I can beat an answer out of you. Which one you want?"

"You are to cease and desist in any and all investigations, and to leave Isvan immediately."

Taking a heavy step forward, Natsu felt the familiar heat and sparks gathering around his fist, ready to ignite at any given moment. "Who's gonna make us?"

A small smirk curled the man's lips ominously. "Then this has been the first warning. A shame, after all of Gray Fullbuster's efforts."

His eyes widened. "Gr—"

"Natsu!" The familiar voice made the Dragon Slayer turn in surprise, briefly seeing Erza in her Flame Empress armor before the dangerous scent of ashes and powder drifted into his nose as before. Natsu barely had time to shout a warning before there was an explosion under his feet, the force of the blast knocking him off balance.

He recovered quickly enough and gulped down the new flames that had sprung up on the charred floorboards, but another ring of explosions obscured his vision and hindered his movements. "Erza!" Natsu shouted, relief flooding through him upon seeing his friend swipe the explosions away effortlessly with her enhanced sword.

"What are you still doing in here?!" Erza yelled, looking furious.

"That bastard! He knows something about Gray!"

Not waiting for Erza's inevitably shocked response, Natsu burst impatiently through the wall of flames that now surrounded the door, scanning frantically around the street filled with panicking onlookers. In the distance, he heard Lucy and Happy's voices shouting, but there was no sign of the man now. Natsu inhaled deeply, as much air as his lungs would take in, only to double over and gag from the unusually heavy, scented smoke emanating from flames that were now licking the remains of the hotel walls, clearly intent on finishing the job.

Natsu barely noticed the armored hand gently touching his shoulder, rubbing his heaving back as he sank to his knees, still gasping for breath and coughing violently. Despite himself, his hands curled into fists, trembling with unbridled rage.

Where is he?

A/N: Exactly one year and I've only uploaded six chapters… How embarrassing. The part with Jellal and Erza reminded me of my Jellal/Erza story that hasn't been updated in over a year, aha… ha… ha. Thanks a bunch to Tinteii, whose review inspired Ultear's inclusion and the majority of this chapter. To be honest, I'd actually forgotten that she could play a role here, so I remedied that a little. She won't appear in the main chapters unfortunately, but I'm writing up a little interlude that will be included at some point in the future. (Don't ask about when though!)

The ending was probably a little contrived with what we've seen that Natsu can do in the manga lately, so excuse the abruptness! Plot and action will start to pick up (hopefully?) in the next chapters. Thank you all for reading, and Happy New Year!

On a completely unrelated note, I've recently been really into a new anime I found called Senyuu, so there are all sorts of new story ideas bouncing around. I won't go into too much detail, but watched it for Gray's voice actor being one of the main characters, stayed for the tears of laughter at the hilarious gags and actual tears at the ending. I highly recommend it, but that aside, this is just a heads up that I won't be writing just for Fairy Tail in the near future. I'll do my best to make sure it doesn't affect updates.

Next: Chapter Six – Pursuit

Upcoming: Interlude – The Witch and the Emperor