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#2
Chapter 2: Inner Demon
Grey was greeted by the din of people talking and shouting as he entered the guild the next morning. There was a commotion of some sort, people gathered around the bar where the master sat arguing and elfman and Kana stationed eitherside of the door to the hospital wing. There was a giant crack in the centre of the door, and through it stuck a huge ice shard.
'oh no....' thought Grey. He shoved though the crowd of arguing people to the front near the master. Makarov spotted him immediately.
"what's going on?!" Grey shouted, and the others fell quiet.
"Grey! Finally, maybe you can talk to her, since you're the only who she has spoke to and she refuses to let anyone else go near her..." Makarov replied with a defeated sigh.
"I wouldn't if I were you. She'll just try impale you like she tried to do to us..." Lucy muttered scornfully.
"I don't understand...?" Grey asked, confused.
"mira-Jane tried to get her to come out this morning. The girl responded with firing a dozen huge ice shards at her. She won't listen to anyone. That shard in the door is just one of them, and she gave the same response to everyone else who has tried. We can't even open the door now" Levi explained "show him Kana"
Kana was sat on her barrel on the side of the door nearest to the handle. She reached out and turned the handle gently. Before she had a chance to open it, the door shuddered and another smaller ice shard pierced the battered wood. Kana calmly withdrew her and and shrugged.
"and you want me to go i'n there?" Grey asked incredulously "are you trying to kill me?"
"Lucy tried to speak to her this morning, just asking how she was feeling-" Makarov started.
"and she completely blanked me" Lucy interrupted, pouting.
"you think just because we spoke yesterday she's going to let me in?" Grey sighed, he knew he didn't have an option.
"partly. And you are both ice mages, you have something in common, maybe she identifies with you somehow?" Makarov concluded.
"Fine... It's on your head if I die, old man" Grey walked over to the door.
"good luck." came the whispers of the mages.
"kana, on the count of three, can you open it quickly?" he asked quietly.
Kana nodded and gently lay her hand on the door knob. Grey put his hands out in front of him. He mouthed, 1, 2....
"Ice make Shield!" shouted grey as kana flung open the door. The ice made a thick, clear wall just inside the room. The giant ice shield easily took the hit of the ice shards attacking it from the other side. Grey exhaled loudly and stepped inside, closing the door swiftly behind him, still under the protection of the shield. He waited for the shield to be bombarded again, but there was no further attack.
"Haylee?" he called cautiously, "It's Grey" He peeked around the edge of the shield.
Haylee was sat on the bed, her knees drawn up to her chin and her side fringe completely covered one side of her face. She had a scared, wild look to her.
As Grey crept carefully closer, avoiding the multiple razor shards slicking out of the floor like javelins, he began to notice tiny ice blue scales partially covered her visible cheek. As he got closer he could see then extended down the side of her neck and over her shoulder. He eyes widened as he saw her arm. It wasn't an arm, it was a claw, rather like Gazils when he was fighting with dragon claw. Out of her knuckles stuck three huge, blade-like ice claws, sparkling like glass. She didn't look human, she looked like a demon.
Her chest moved up and down rapidly, and her eyes followed Greys every move.
He eventually reached the side of the bed.
"Haylee..?" he called cautiously.
She looked up at him and took a deep breath, she closed her eyes for a moment and as she did so, the ice blade claws retreated into her knuckles, along with the tiny ice scales, giving her a human appearance again.
"sorry" she whispered in a tiny voice as he sat on the remains of the chair.
"Grey?! You still alive?!" called Natsu from the other side of the door, making Haylee jump and growl quietly.
"Shut up you idiot!!" Grey shouted back. He turned back to Haylee and lay a hand on her shoulder. "they won't hurt you." he tried reassured her, something he found difficult.
She stared at his hand, then at him, the feral look vanishing from her eyes.
"thank you..." she whispered quietly.
"now, it's not doing you any good staying in here," he started, checking her reaction. "why don't you come out to the main hall for a bit, you can stay with me, the idiots won't trouble you then" he winked with a grin.
Haylee shook her head violently, shrugging off his hand and shuffling further away from him.
He sat back in the chair. She was like a child. She looked mature, but with the way she was acting she could have been just five years old.
"oh well. S'pose you'll have to stay here then. I tried." he stood up and started slowly towards the door. Almost instantly he felt a hand on his arm, it alarmed him slightly to how quietly she moved. He turned, she was standing just behind him, a lost expression on her face. She was a lot taller than she has looked, only a inch or two shorter than him, and she was very thin. The light dress hung to her figure, and Greys eyes caught at her chest, which was a size to rival Lucy's. He looked away quickly, mad at himself.
"you coming or what?" he asked briskly. There was a puff of smoke from behind him and he looked back again to see she had ex-quipted into armour, one very similar to Erza's usual attire. "take that as a yes?" he quizzed.
"okay." she replied weakly, stepping beside him.
She followed as he walked to the door, and as he opened it she grabbed his arm and clung to him.
"everybody stay back and keep quiet." grey instructed the members quietly.
They all did as the were told, sticking closely to the bar. Haylees keen senses could smell light fear from some of them, anger and worry from others.
Grey walked to one of the tables and she followed, still clinging to his arm like a lost child. "sit down." she said quietly to her, and she obeyed, her eyes flickering from him to the other members.
"Everyone, this is Haylee. She's traveled far and has never had much contact with other people, so she's not good with crowds or socialising and stuff like that. Try not to scare her please." Grey droned, bored of the situation.
Haylee scanned to crowd, her eyes stopped on a strange looking woman, who wore a funny hat and had dark blue hair that was parted down the centre, the ends of which here curled into two perfect rolls on either side of her face. The woman glared back, pure hatred in her eyes.
Haylee frowned slightly and stared back, she had done nothing to this woman, she wasn't one of those who tried to enter. A slight nudge from grey made her realise the who room had noticed the pairs little stare-off, and where watching them with confused looks on their faces. The girl named Lucy smirked a little, adding to Haylees confusion, before whispering something to the woman, who then flished bright red on stomped off. She looked up at Grey briefly, he looked as confused as she did. Suddenly Master Makarov cleared his throat loudly, jumped down from the bar and started shuffling towards them, distracting her.
"Hello, I'm Master Makarov, the guild master of FairyTail." he started, his wrinkled old face smiling. "I understand you were given false information regarding our member, Natsu Dragneel, is that right?" he winked.
Haylee understood and nodded.
There was no fooling the master, he knew what she was, he was helping her.
"Good. Know that that's cleared up, we can forget that little bit of chaos earlier, and I hope you make yourself comfortable here at FairyTail as long as you need to." he turned to the members "and I trust you lot will behave yourselves and be nice to our guest, am I right?" he asked, a tone of authority in his voice.
The members all nodded, still looking slightly confused, but some smiled.
"Okay. Shows over, back to work you lazy lot" Makarov laughed, jumping easily back up onto the bar.
Grey looked down at her and smiled "okay?" he asked.
Haylee nodded and smiled back "thank you all, I know I've been..." she struggled to find the words. "A nuisance. Sorry." she finished, bowing her head slightly. This seemed to relax the members a bit as some of them came over to introduce themselves. Haylee tried her best to be as social as possible, hiding her desire to run off to an empty room and lock herself in, away from the noisy rabble