Crystal, Ice and Fire ✔

CHAPTER 19

At night, Dragneel and I headed for the guild to wait for the others. Five minutes later, Gray and the Raijin Shu (excluding Laxus) burst in.

'Blue Pegasus is on the way,' Gray confirmed, hugging me. 'Are you alright?' he asked. 'Yeah,' I said, 'fine.'

Seconds later, Shadow Gear walked in, Levy in the lead. 'Lamia Scale is coming,' she said, 'with Sabretooth.'

We nodded. We had three guilds coming to war with us. And I didn't feel embarrassed about the fact that they were coming to help us, this was war. Against all of us. We were in this together.

Just then, the team that went to the magic council stormed in, looking furious.

'I don't want to know,' I whispered to Gray and Dragneel. They both nodded. Levy decided to ask the big question, but she wasn't stupid enough to shout it for everyone to hear. Their expressions were... I don't have a word for it. And the fact that they were still angry after the long journey back from the Magic Council HQ was unnerving.

Finally, Levy decided to face the big question in the room. So, keeping her voice very low, she asked Mira, 'Is the Imperial Army on the way?'

'NO!' Mira snarled, flickering to her demon form. I flinched at the venom in her voice, I had never heard Mira so angry. 'Please tell me you did not destroy the Magic Council,' Levy pleaded.

'They deserved it,' Gildarts growled. I face-palmed, but I knew they wouldn't have done it unless they had a good reason.

But I also knew the whole Magic Council and the army was most probably going to wage war on us instead of the enemy.

I just hoped they weren't angry enough to fire Aetherion.

'Okay,' I said, 'when will the other guilds arrive?'

'In an hour,' someone said from behind me. I turned to see Laxus walking in.

'Laxus!' Mira said. 'Who else is coming?'

'No one,' he growled, 'everyone's too much of a chicken.'

'You probably just scared them away,' I muttered under my breath. 'What girlie?' Laxus snapped. Oops.

I raised my eyebrows, not showing that I was afraid.

'I said, you probably scared them away,' I repeated. 'That attitude of yours doesn't really make a very good first impression.'

'WHAT?' He roared.

'Is your hearing depleting? Would you like me to repeat that?'

He started crackling with lighting. I just gave an easy smile. I needed to get my emotions out, and I was doing it the wrong way.

'ENOUGH!' Erza yelled. I frowned and turned.

Alzack and Bisca had just stumbled into the guild, badly beaten up. Cana Mira and I rushed to help them. Mira took Bisca while Cana and I took Alzack.

'Hey,' I said gently, checking for serious injuries, 'what happened?'

'They ambushed us!' Bisca cried. 'And they beat us up. They told us to give you a message.'

My eyes widened. Was it the magic Council, or the dark guilds?

'They said told us,' Alzack wheezed, 'to say we had more than one enemy.'

My eyes widened. 'More than one?' I asked. 'So, the Magic Council?'

Everyone nodded grimly.

'That's not all,' Bisca said bitterly, 'we were attacked again.'

'AGAIN?' all of us shouted.

Alzack nodded. 'This time, beat us up and said they wanted to meet under a flag of truce. In the deserted town, Yamada.'

I stomped my foot. The Magic Council and the Dark guilds were going to get their asses kicked for treating my family this way.

And as if I didn't have enough motived to kill them already.

'Star,' Master said, 'you have the most experience with dark guilds. Tell us about them.'

I sighed, remembering the day Phil ad explained everything to me.

***FLASHBACK***

**Two weeks after Star met Phil and James**

'Before you start your training,' Phil said, 'you need to know everything about dark guilds. Who they are, what they are, and what they're capable of.'

She laid out a chart in front of me, with some names crossed out. There were three big circles in the middle, to which everything was connected.

'These are all the dark guilds in existence,' she explained. 'These,' she said, pointing to each of the big circles in turn, 'are the Barram Alliance. The strongest of them all. The Reaper Guild, the Fluminata guild and the Broomstick guild.'

I giggled, re-reading the names.

'What kind of person names their guild Broomsticks?' I laughed. But for the first time since I saw her, Phil's face was absolutely serious.

'This is no joking matter,' she said, 'however ridiculous the name. They are extremely dangerous. Once James and I stumbled across them and barely made it out with our lives.'

She rolled up her sleeve, revealing a long, ugly scar on her forearm.

I gasped.

'They did that?' I gushed. She nodded grimly. 'How?' I asked.

'It's a long story,' James interrupted, shooting a look at Phil which I didn't really understand. 'We'll tell you tomorrow. You need to rest, for now.'

I grudgingly let him lead me to my room, promising myself that I would get the story out of Phil the next day. 

^^^^

Hey guys!

Sorry, this chapter was kind of short. I'll continue the Flashback in the next chapter!

Thanks for reading, 

Please vote and comment,

Enjoy life,

Mareska.