A/N: Guys, I'm really sorry for not updating over these last few weeks. Life's been pretty busy, with exams and finals and all that jazz. Thanks for being patient with me, though! :)

6: Brick Wall

Two figures creep through a jagged canyon, making their way over thorny shrubs, pressing closer and closer to the edge of the Dimension. It's just before dawn, but the sky is still cold and black, even more so since the moon has already set. The female figure in front moves with speed and grace, and the other lumbers behind her, his deep breaths audible from a distance. The girl stops when she steps into a clearing, almost frozen in place by something she sees ahead. She points and looks back to her companion, who's just made his way out of the trees. As soon as he takes his first step into the clearing, he lets his huge body fall into the grass, landing face-first.

The girl shakes her head, sending locks of long white hair flicking in different directions. She looks back to the scene ahead of her.

"Droy, do you see what that is?"

"See what?" The pudgy face looks up, covered in dirt and bits of grass. "Oh…"

Ahead of them, the scenery beyond looked distorted somehow, like the air on a hot summer day. The air pulsates with some strange aura, forming a vertical wall.

The girl steps forward.

"Mira, maybe you shouldn't…It looks dangerous…"

"I just want to see what magic's been used on it," Mirajane says. She approaches the wall and stares at it for a while, standing only a few feet from it. "Maybe there's some way to break it. It might be a barrier separating us from the real world." Her serious tone of voice lifts when he glances back at Droy, a wide smile on her face. "If that's the case, we'll be out of here in no time!"

Her left hand extends, and for just an instant, her fingertips brush against the surface of the wall. And in that tiny moment, all hell breaks loose. Fire and light erupt from the wall, and a loud shriek echoes into the canyon. Droy is blinded for an instant, but as soon as he's able to refocus, he forces himself up and scrambles over to where Mirajane had been standing.

There's no one there. Only bits of charred grass and leaves remain where his partner had just been. He stares at the ground in disbelief, not sure what to say. The wall isn't even dented by whatever explosion just happened.

"Mira? Mira, where are you!?" Droy begins to panic. He feels useless, as if he could have somehow prevented this. He looks all around, trying to find any sign of her. Then again, if she had blown up in the explosion, wouldn't he be gone, too?

"Over here," says a deep, growling voice. A tall, winged shape makes its way out of the trees, which were blasted apart in a direct line where she had landed. "I managed to transform just in time…"

Droy looks at Mira's demon form, which is scratched and bruised from the impact. "Are you all right?"

"I'll be fine," she says. "Let's get out of here. Something else might have heard that noise, and you don't look ready to fight anything yet."

"Hey, I'm not the one who almost got b—" Droy is cut off when Mirajane grabs his hair with a clawed hand, spreads her wings, and takes off somewhere to the north, toward the mountains.

"Let's save the talking for later," she says. "We have to do something about this before things get bad."

Lisanna Strauss sneaks closer to the scene of the explosion. The sky is beginning to lighten to a deep shade of blue, but she still can't see anything clearly in the brush. She treads with caution, knowing that she only has a little magic to use before she's in trouble. She figures that her little, slender figure can blend in easily enough without any Take-Over disguises. Wherever Gray was hiding, he must have been far.

Before she enters the clearing just ahead, she hears the sound of grass and leaves rustling, and twigs on the ground snapping. Lisanna ducks down and glances around for any trouble, but sees nothing. When she looks through the trees into the clearing, she spots the source of the noise. A group of creatures, black and hairy like huge wolves, are gathered at the site of the fiery explosion, sniffing around for any mages nearby. Lisanna doesn't know what to do, but she doesn't see anyone here. She had figured that following the sound of magic might get her some comrades to keep her safe until she finds Gray. She wasn't expecting this at all.

One of the creatures looks up at her, its nostrils flaring. Lisanna backs up, trying to hide herself silently in the bushes. It's too late. One of them begins to bark and howl as loudly as possible, and all the others do the same. The sound of their running feet is approaching her hiding place.

Lisanna knows that if she doesn't act now, she's done for. With the last bit of magic she has, she comes up with a solution.

The wolf-like creature tears away the bushes, exposing what looks like a black puppy curled up on the ground. The little creature wakes up from its apparent nap and begins to bark and wag its tail at the wolves curiously. The monsters seem confused, forming a circle around the puppy, sniffing and staring at it. The leader of the pack, a wolf larger than even a bear, decides what to do. It grabs the puppy by the scruff of its neck and leads the rest of the wolves back to their den. The puppy shrieks and cries out.

Lisanna is panicking now. This wasn't part of her plan at all. They were supposed to leave her alone, not carry her away!

She could only hope that Gray would get her out of this mess before her disguise wore off.

Lucy is jolted awake by a sharp kick to her side. Startled, she scrambles to her feet and nearly throws herself off the thin ledge of the cliff where she was sleeping. She completely loses her footing and almost falls when someone grabs her by a pigtail and yanks her back on solid ground.

"Ouch! Hey, what'd you do that for!?" she says, grabbing her hair and turning around to see who'd forced her awake. By the time she'd spotted Laxus, he was already making his way down the cliffside, completely ignoring her. "And where do you think you're going!? The sun hasn't even come up yet!"

"I hate sleeping in," he says. "Almost as much as I hate camping. We're going to that castle in the woods over there. I'm not about to go sleeping outside like a bum."

"Hey, I thought everyone went over this! That place is sketchy, so I'm not going."

"You're going whether you like it or not, Blondie."

"How about no?"

Laxus, who's standing at the bottom of the cliff below her, looks up at her with an annoyed expression. "Listen, I don't have the time to argue about this. We're going because I think that's our best chance of getting the hell out of here. If you're too scared to go, then I'll just have to drag you there myself."

Lucy sighs and brushes some loose hair out of her face. "All right, fine. But don't blame me if something bad happens."

Laxus looks away from her and into the expanse of trees beyond. Underneath the thick blanket of leaves, it's still almost pitch black. "I think I can handle myself just fine."

"Right…" Lucy raises an eyebrow.

"You said the same thing yourself, Blondie. I suppose you've forgotten already, though."

"Hey, just because I'm blonde doesn't make me an idiot! And look who's talking, anyway!"

Laxus walks into the trees and out of sight. "Wait!" Lucy calls out. "Don't just leave without me, you jerk!" She scrambles her way down the cliff, nearly tripping and falling several times. It's a wonder she doesn't break anything after having to chase after that idiot.

When she finally catches up to him, the first thing he does is bust out laughing. It's a deep, rich laughter, almost having a musical quality. Lucy wishes it wasn't so pleasing on her ears.

"'I can take care of myself,' eh? You're priceless! I walk ten feet and you freak out like you're about to die!"

Lucy would continue to argue, but at this point it seems like a waste of time. After all, there's no sense in trying to bicker with a brick wall.