I'd Freeze the Heavens for You

Labyrinth

"Gray, Natsu, come look!" Lucy enthusiastically waved a mission flier as she came over to where Gray, Happy, and Natsu were sitting by the bar. "It looks like a really good mission, and the reward will cover my rent." She read off the mission. "Apprehend the wanted criminal Willie Whitehall, notorious terrorizer of carnivals and summer festivals. Capture him alive and bring him in for interrogation on how to undo his nefarious magic. Approach with caution. Wanted for causing fifty-two deaths and over two hundred disappearances."

"Wait a minute," Gray said, shaking his head to slow down her eagerness. "Did you say Whitehall, as in the Willie Whitehall?"

Gray looked over Lucy's shoulder, way too close for the blonde's comfort, and read the job description once again. Lucy blushed a little at feeling his icy breath on her neck from how close he was.

"Have you heard of him?" asked Natsu.

Gray frowned. "Yeah. Runes wizard. He lived near my home village. Even back then, Whitehall was known for being a psychotic dark wizard with a sick fascination for fatal games. He'd show up at carnivals and such, have so-called fun houses, but people never came out. He once turned an entire mansion into a haunted house and set a rule that the weak-hearted heiress of the family had to make it through the haunted house without screaming or all the family and servants would become ghosts, and she would be trapped inside with them forever. That haunted house was still there when me, Lyon, and Ur went by it one day. You could still hear the girl screaming inside, trapped in there for eternity."

Lucy shivered a little and looked back down at the flier, thinking twice about it.

"How cool!" Natsu shouted. He grabbed the flier away and looked over it for himself. "The reward is good, too. Leave it to Lucy to find the missions with the best rewards."

"Aye!" Happy agreed. "Lucy is good at finding men with money to burn."

"A runes wizard," she muttered with a worried frowned. "I dunno. I mean, it sounded easy at first, it's just one man, and a carny at that! Still ... are you sure we're a good team for something like this? If you get caught in their runes, there's not much you can do. The Thunder God Tribe might be better since they have Freed."

Mira, who had been waiting patiently to see whether or not she should confirm their team's choice in mission, informed them, "They're still not back from their mission with Laxus."

Gray looked thoughtful. "Taking Whitehall down would cancel all the runes he's set up so far. It could free that girl in the mansion, and who knows how many other people he's terrorized over the years."

The Dragon Slayer thrust the flier at Mira. "We're taking it!"

"Natsu," Lucy warned, but she held back from protesting. It was she who picked the mission, after all. "I dunno, I suddenly have a bad feeling about this one."

Erza stomped forward just then. "A mission? Where?"

"Far north, Tigardus Mountains," replied Gray. "I know the area. There will be a lot of snow this time of year."

"Then pack warmly. We leave tomorrow morning," the Titania said, and Lucy knew there was no point in arguing now that Erza was set on going.

It was a long train ride, with Natsu vomiting the whole way, then a carriage ride to a place the northern locals called simply "The Maze." According to rumors, Willie Whitehall had built the hedge maze five years ago, and already it took the lives of two dozen people, plus over fifty people simply disappeared in the maze. From the outside, it looked like just a towering wall of thick bushes with a gate to enter, but there was an invisible barrier humming with magic.