Laina awoke to discover she'd been set well out of sight and covered with natural brush to hide her from predators. She got up, blushing even though nobody was around to see her naked, and ran quickly for her cave.
Once there she got some spare clothing out of her pack. "This is outrageous," she fumed. "How could I get beat by a demon mage?"
Why did he leave you alive… and cover you to protect you from wild animals? She tried to ignore the question that was beginning to nag at her mind.
"Only one thing to do… I'll go back to the village and see if anyone there saw them."
She quickly headed for the village.
~A remote forest in Fiore~
"Well, we're here." Gray said, taking his pack off and sitting down with his back against a tree. "This is where the demon is. Now what?"
"Now we wait for that demoness Mira and Natsu to get here." Mira said. "But that means we have to stay close to the demon, or we might miss them."
"Oh great." Gray said. "So now we have to find the demon and keep track of it?"
"Yep," Erza said. "And I bought some magic equipment to help us do that." She pulled out a small radar device. "This is attuned to demonic magic, so we'll be able to track the demon without it ever being able to see us."
It wasn't long before the radar picked up the demon's magic signature. It was northwest of the party about a half mile or so.
"We need to get a little closer." Erza said. "We have to stay close enough at all times to get there as soon as there's a sign of Natsu and Mira."
"Fortunately," Gray said, "the only way up here is through that gorge we walked through a while back. So if we stay between that and the demon, we'll be sure to see them."
"Excellent thinking Gray!" Erza beamed. "And I can mark that location on the radar map so we can always make sure we're in the right place…"
And so they waited.
~A small village in Northern Fiore, about a two day walk from Erza~
Izuul, I need to know if you saw any demons come through."
"No," Izuul responded truthfully. "I haven't seen any demons in this town.
"They must have stopped though," Laina growled. "I injured the she-devil. The male would've been looking for help…" She stopped, looked at the old man, and thrust past him into the hut.
Mirajane lay sleeping on a mat in the back of the hut.
"What is the meaning of this?" Laina glared at the old healer.
"Laina, she's not a demon. She's a human mage." The old man said. "And her friend was also a human mage. A human mage who exhausted his body to get her to this village before the poison's effects were irreversible. And who left you alive," he added.
Laina started to move toward Mira, but the healer blocked her path.
"This is a house of healing. If you cause death here, I will report you to the council."
She turned to glare at the old man. "You wouldn't…"
Izuul returned her glare. "Yes, Laina, I would. I'm done treating you with kid gloves... For 13 years you've roamed these forests, killing demons and humans indiscriminately. You didn't care who they were. Didn't care if they had family or friends. You just killed them. Now I know what happened to you years ago, but that doesn't make it right."
"They're not humans," she growled. "They're demons."
"No." The old man said firmly. "They're humans. Just like the man that attacked your family was human. He did evil things with his magic, sure. But it's not because of the magic. There are evil mages who use all kinds of different magic."
She tried to step past him, but he blocked her again. "If you want to do anything to her you'll have to kill me first. And believe me when I say that will not go over well with the council."
"Izuul, you've been good to me since childhood, but I'm warning you now to get out of the way."
"No," the old man replied.
Laina's eyes focused on Mira, seething with hatred. "You will not stand in my way, old man. This is your last warning. Move out of my way."
Izuul refused, looking sadly into her eyes. "If you kill me and her, you're no better than the man who killed your family."
"How dare you?!" She raised her dagger and plunged it toward him. The old man closed his eyes, accepting with sadness that his life was done.
But the knife never hit him. He opened his eyes to see the fiery pink-haired dragon slayer gripping Laina in a deadlock. She flailed, but was unable to reach him with her knife as he continued to hold her throat till she passed out.
When she awoke, she was wearing new wrist ornaments. They had a lock, and prevented her from accessing her magic power.
"What is this?" she growled. "Release me at once!"
Izuul shook his head sadly. "I can't do that Laina. You tried to kill me."
"You were standing in the way of justice."
"Justice?" There was anger in the old man's voice. "How many of those mages that you've killed had families. Wives, children, parents, brothers, sisters… who never saw them again. All because of your hatred for one mage. And you call that justice?"
He shook his head sadly. "I should have turned you in long ago…" he said. "I kept hoping that you would come around… that people would just avoid this village…"
She wrenched against the handcuffs. "You can't turn me in! All I've done is rid the world of a few lousy demons. Their families should thank me! I got rid of the greatest stain on their live!"
"Listen to you," Izuul replied. "All these years hating that man, and look what's happened. You've become the man that you hated."
He then left her in the cell, ignoring her threats and angry retorts, and returned to his medicine hut.
Mirajane's eyes were open, though her body was still weak from the after-effects of the poison. "I'm sorry about Laina," she said, sincerely.
The old man looked out his window. "This is something I should've done years ago…" he said. "I knew in my heart that she wasn't recovering – that she was just moving further and further down the path of evil. But I kept hoping… wishing that she would come around…" There were tears in his eyes.
"After Laina's parents died, I took her into my house. Taught her about medicine. She was like a daughter to me…"
He choked back tears, "but she could never let go of the hatred… And that hatred grew to encompass all mages who could use take over on demon souls. When she came back with her devil slayer magic, she was little more than a demon herself."
"There's always hope," Mirajane said quietly. "Even when the hour seems darkest, there's always hope for the future. I know several mages who turned from following a dark path. Perhaps with the right supervision and counsel, she will eventually do the same."
"I hope so…" said the old man, tears in his eyes.
And Mirajane's eyes closed again as she fell asleep again.
~5 days later~
Erza glared at nobody in particular. "We've been here for almost a week, and there's no sign of them yet… Could first master have miscalculated?"
"Well, there was an 12.1% margin of error…" Lucy muttered.
"I know that!" Erza said. "But first master is never wrong… At least, almost never." She remembered the 3 way battle with Minerva and Kagura in the grand magic games that Mavis failed to predict.
"Maybe they came here earlier?" Gray suggested.
"No way!" Erza rounded on him. "The demon's still here, which means they haven't been."
"Oh yeah, I guess that's right…" Gray muttered.
"I'm tired of eating berries and fish… I want real food," Lucy said.
"Stop complaining," Erza said. "I think it's quite good, personally."
"Of course you do. You cook it." Gray muttered.
"Are you saying you want a turn cooking?" Erza glared.
"No," Gray sweat-dropped.
"Then don't complain about it."
Still," Erza wondered aloud. "If first master's calculations were right, they should've arrived at this location only a day or two after us…"
~About a 2 day walk away, in a small village~
"See you later!" Natsu called back to the village residents, as they waved him and Mira off with a smile. Happy walked alongside them, waving and smiling as well.
"I wonder what'll happen to Laina," Mirajane mused.
"The council will probably put her in a rehab for society program…" Natsu said with a shrug. "She'll get counseling, guidance, all that kind of stuff… And hopefully she'll stop killing people just because they can use take over."
"Yeah…" Mira said. "I could tell Izuul was really torn up about that though…"
"No surprise there," Natsu replied. "The old man did say she was like a daughter to him."
"So how far do we have to travel now, Mira?" Happy asked.
"It's about 2 days walk to our next destination," Mira replied. "We'll have to travel through a small town on the way, but it's really remote. It's unlikely we'll run into any guild members there…"
"So we can stay for a couple nights then?" Happy said. "I want a nice fish restaurant."
"We'll see." Mira said. "Maybe if this goes well, we can stay in town after we're done…"
"Great!" Natsu said. "I'm all fired up!"
~2 days later, back in town~
"Yes sir," Izuul said to the council representative, leading the way to the town jail. "She's in here…"
They got to the cell and he gasped. Instead of the fiery devil slayer, the jailer sat in the cell, his pants around his ankles, his hands cuffed behind him, and a pair of panties stuffed in his mouth.
"Well she was in here…" He sighed.
~In the forest, north of town~
"Are we almost there?" Happy complained. "We barely stopped long enough for lunch…"
"I just have a bad feeling about this location…" Mira said. "I feel like we need to get in and out as quick as possible."
Suddenly Natsu stopped, sniffing the air.
"What is it Natsu?"
"I smell Erza…" Natsu said. "And Gray, and Lucy… They're right between us and the demon."
"I knew there was something bad about this location…" Mira said with a growl. "How do we get out of this mess?"
"We could always just explain things to them," Natsu said.
Mira thought for several moments. Finally she said. "I have an idea."
~A little ways north~
They're not coming…" Lucy whispered to Gray. "They should've been here days ago if they were coming."
"Keep it down," Gray whispered really quietly. "She has great hearing when she's obsessive…"
"Are you two talking about me again?!" Erza glared, looking up from her cooking.
"No ma'am!"
Suddenly a demon flew over their heads from their south.
"I thought you said the demon was still northeast of us, Gray." Erza said. Gray was in charge of watching the radar while she cooked.
"It was!" Gray said. "It didn't move."
"Wait… Now it's showing two demons. What the hell's going on?"
They looked at the radar. There were indeed two blips on the radar screen.
Suddenly one of the blips disappeared, leaving only one again.
"That's really weird…" Lucy said.
"Maybe it's on the fritz," Gray said.
Suddenly the demon flew over their heads, headed south and slightly west.
"Where is it going now?" Erza demanded.
"I don't know," Gray said, watching it on the radar. "It stopped about a mile south of us… Wait – it just disappeared."
"IT DISAPPEARED?!" Erza yelled.
Gray cringed. "Look for yourself!" He said. "One minute it was there, now it's not."
Erza took the radar, staring at it. "Something's very wrong here…" she growled. "We'll go to its last known location and scout from there."
The team did indeed scout the forest till nightfall, but didn't find a sign of the vanished demon.
"Alright…" Erza glared. "We'll camp here for the night and go back to town. Maybe they know something there."
~The next morning~
Man, why did we have to get up so early?" Lucy groaned as they trudged into town.
"Because something's totally not right with this, and we're gonna' find out what." Erza growled. "That bitch has something to do with this. I just know it."
They sighed. She was an obsessive one.
"The first place to stop should probably be the inn," she said. Then trailed off. A silver-haired beauty was coming out of the inn, rubbing the sleep from her eyes.
"MIRAAA!" Erza roared, sprinting toward the inn. "WHAT HAVE YOU DONE WITH MY NATSU?!"
"Did you say your Natsu?" Mirajane's eyes flashed angrily.
Erza requipped to her purgatory armor. "You heard me, bitch."
Mira transformed used take over with her Sitri soul. "Bring it on…"
Erza rushed forward to attack, but Mira suddenly changed back to her human form, cowering by the door. "Natsu! Help!" She cried, suddenly weeping and sounding terrified. "Erza's trying to kill me!"
The dragon slayer emerged from the inn and stepped in front of the silver-haired mage, who clung to his neck. "Oy, Erza! What's this about?"
Erza stopped just in time to avoid impaling the dragon slayer. "Get out of my way, Natsu," she said firmly.
"Not until you tell me what's happening."
"What's happening is that this bitch turned the whole guild against you – all so she could spend some time alone with you in the wilderness." Erza's eyes promised murder to the silver-haired mage.
"I already know that," Natsu said. "Though it wasn't actually her… It was Seilah taking control of her. She reversed the macro as soon as she knew."
"Natsu, this demoness has you under her spell. You need to move out of the way, now." Erza growled.
"I'm sorry Erza, but I can't let you hurt Mira," Natsu said, putting himself between her and the silver-haired mage clinging to him.
Gray and Lucy sweat-dropped as they watched the exchange.
Just then Happy came out of the hotel. "Are you guys ready to leave yet?" He blinked looking around. "Hi Gray and Lucy. Erza, why do you look so mad?"
Erza just stared at the cat.
"You know Natsu," Happy said, forgetting his question and turning back to the dragon slayer. "Next time we sleep in an inn you're paying for a separate room for me. I'm exhausted… Mira was moaning so loud I couldn't sleep!"
Erza's eyes popped out of her head, and she plunged forward, trying to stab around Natsu with her sword.
You conniving bitch!" she screamed. "How dare you?"
Gray and Lucy tried to hold the furious mage back, but she broke their grip easily, trying furiously to get around Natsu.
"Natsu!" Mira cowered behind him, whimpering.
"What's wrong with you Erza?" Natsu said, still using his body to shield the silver-haired mage from her rage. "I've never seen you so upset before."
Erza kept going, not even hearing the question. Her eyes were red with rage as she kept going faster, faster, trying to find a route around the dragon slayer to her target. "Fuck you bitch!" She yelled. People were beginning to stare.
"Agh!" Natsu grunted, gripping a bleeding slash that appeared in his side.
That seemed to bring the red-haired mage back to her senses. "Natsu!" She cried, suddenly in her nurse outfit. "I'm sorry! Please let me tend that for you!"
"I think it's best if we leave…" Natsu said. As they headed off, Mira stuck her tongue out at Erza.
"This isn't over bitch," Erza muttered as the dragon slayer and his lover departed, Happy close on their heels. "I'll figure something out somehow."