Of Fire and Ice

C.69

GREY'S P.O.V.

The next morning, Henley nor Ariadne were anywhere to be seen.

"Have you seen Henley?" I asked our team. They all shook their heads. "Master said she went on that job that no one's touched for a month." Mira said and got us drinks. "Really? She didn't even say goodbye or anything. And she usually takes one of us with her." Natsu said.

"And she left around the same time Mystogan came." Lucy said. "It's weird." We all agreed.

.....................................
HENLEY'S P.O.V.

I woke up to see Mystogan... Jellal... walking around the place. I sat up and tried to rub the sleep and tears out of my eyes.

"Okay, should we take a look around and see what we can find?" I offered and he looked over at me. "You're awake." He said and I nodded and yawned. "I am."

Jellal walked over and pulled the hem of my shirt down with a small smile. "Don't tell me that you have the same stripping habit as Grey." He said and I shook my head. "No. It's just hot here. We're on an island." I said and he laughed and nodded, getting up and walking away.

"Coming?" He asked. I jumped up and Ari was already outside. We walked around a bit before we happened upon a cave or something that seemed to lead underground. And there were two brute guys standing outside.

"Okay, we could strategise and come up with a decent plan to get in, see if the women are in there, or we could storm in, guns blazing, and take it by storm." I said and saw him give a small smile.

"I like the way you think. I think we should go with the second option." He said and I nodded with a large smile.

I stepped out and the two dudes noticed me and were about to speak up, then I held my hands up and burned them to a crisp.

Jellal and I walked in with Ari trailing behind us. Soon it was really dark, so I conjured flames in my hand and held it in front of us for light.

We came onto a main room that was really bright, so I extinguished the flames and we peeked inside. There was an older woman and two teenage girls in a large cage. The room was filled with powerful looking men.

"Ready?" Jellal looked at me. I closed my eyes and took a breath, sprouting wings, a devil's tail, horns, and claws. "Sure." I said and we charged in.

A fight immediately broke out and I was taking on three at once, swinging my flames around as they all fell down because of burns.

I felt a slice on my arm and looked down to see one of them had cut my arm with a curved sword or a scythe. I growled and glared and pressed him up to the wall, burning the flesh off of his face.

We continued the fight until everyone was down. I took a seat as Jellal freed the ladies and then he came over to me and took some bandages out of his pocket and started to dress my wound. "We might want to get that checked out. It looks really deep, and who knows where hat sword has been." He said and I smiled weakly.

We then evacuated the island. Jellal was doing his Mist thing, I was using my wings, and the girls were riding on Ari. We dropped the girls off at their house and the dad was practically in tears. He gave us two suitcases and I took a peek to see a shit load of money.

"Oh my... are you okay?" He asked, staring at my arm. "Oh yeah, I'm fine. Just a nick. I was careless." I shrugged, but that hurt a lot. "If you'll excuse us, I'm going to get her to a hospital." Jellal said, putting his hand on my back and the man nodded. "I'll be happy to pay for any hospital bills." He said and the wife nodded enthusiastically.

"That won't be necessary." I said. "It's the least we can do." The wife said and I bit my lip. "Well, who am I to refuse?" I said and Jellal pulled me away.

Ari nudged me and I looked back at her. "What?" "Get on me." She said with sad eyes. "Ari. I'm fine. And besides, it's my arm, not my leg. I can walk." I said. "Yeah, but you've lost a lot of blood. You can pass out." Jellal said and lifted me and set me down on Ari.

"That's not..." I said, but got really dizzy. "Told you." Jellal said and I closed my eyes and passed out.