Revelations

Lucy & the gang walked around Oshibana until they reached the mayor's office. Lucy, Arana, & Gray went inside as everyone stayed outside and waited for them to return.
Juvia, a bit upset that she couldn't go in with Gray walked over to where Gajeel and the others were resting. Gajeel stood against a pillar in at the bottom of the building steps, while Levy & Wendy sat at a nearby table. Juvia walked over to Gajeel with a long look on her face.
Gajeel glanced at her when she stood next to him then returned to looking out at the street. "What's the matter with you?" He asked his old friend without looking at her.
"What do you think of that new girl that joined the guild?" Juvia asked with a slightly irritated look on her face.
"Who? The redhead?" Gajeel asked as Juvia nodded to confirm his suspicions. "Honestly, I don't care if she has a nice attitude or not; as long as she's strong. Besides if Wendy & Salamander like her, I have no reason to complain." He said bluntly.
Juvia chuckled a bit at his answer, "I shouldn't have expected a different answer out of you Gajeel."
"Then why did you ask?"
"I don't know…there is just something, off about her. She came out of nowhere and just joined the guild without a second thought, I mean she was our enemy when we fought in Lumina. You don't find that odd?"
Gajeel folded his arms in front of himself and looked down with his eyes closed as he thought about Juvia's question. He then opened his eyes and looked up into the air. "If I remember right we fought Fairy Tail when we were still with Phantom, so I don't think we have room to judge." Juvia looked down slightly disappointed in herself for asking something so hypocritical.
"You're right, I shouldn't be so quick to judge her."
"But you are right, there is something odd about that girl." Gajeel said still not looking at Juvia.
She looked up at him slightly confused at his words. "What do you mean?"
"I don't know. I can't really explain it but, something about her scent is familiar; it's like a mix of scents I've smelled before but I can't place them."
Juvia now looked a bit interested in Gajeel's observation, "What does that mean?"
"I don't know, it's probably nothing. Don't worry about it." He then closed his eyes again and Juvia knew that their brief conversation was over. Juvia stood and swam in her thoughts.
Gajeel's probably right, but I still can't feel a bit uneasy around her. Like she's hiding something. Her mind began to wander and she started to think about Arana getting closer to Gray. Juvia's blood began to boil as her imagination ran wild.
"She better not make a move on my Gray!" She exclaimed without thinking; startling Levy & Wendy who looked at her from the table.
"Is Juvia okay?" Wendy asked slightly concerned.
Levy looked at the young girl and smiled, "Don't worry she's fine, her imagination is just getting the better of her again." Levy then sighed and looked atop the steps till her eyes were upon the doors of city hall. "I wonder how much longer they'll be in there."
…
Lucy, Gray, & Arana walked through the huge building as they made their way to the mayor's office at the end of the hall. Arana's head was twisting and turning the entire time as she marveled at all of the paintings and statues around them.
"Amazing." She said with a smile as she continued to walk.
"You're easily amused aren't you?" Gray said with a smirk.
Arana quickly caught herself and laughed nervously, "Sorry I didn't get out much as a kid. I never really got to see much of things like this."
"Sheltered kid huh?"
"Yeah." Arana then heard the screams of people in the streets in her mind as she quickly flashbacked to her and her sister hiding in an alleyway. "You could say that." She said when she came back to reality.
"Here we are guys, the mayor of Oshibana's office." Lucy said with a big smile, "Let's go in."
She opened the door and the three wizards walked into the spacious office. Various charts and city maps were hanging on the walls and a globe in the right corner of the room. The three of them walked towards the sizeable brown desk at the end of the room.
"Excuse me Mr. Mayor" Lucy started to speak as a brown haired man in a black suit looked up at them, "My name is Lucy Heartfilia," she then pointed at her companions, "This is Gray Fullbuster & Arana Stratos. We're the wizards from Fairy Tail that accepted your job request."
The mayor looked at them suspiciously at first before he spoke. "Let me see your guild marks."
Without hesitation the three showed their guild marks to the mayor. Lucy held up her right hand, Gray pulled up his shirt revealing the guild mark on the right side of his chest, and Arana proceeded to turn around and lift her shirt; but she quickly caught herself and rolled up her left sleeve showing the mark on her arm.
The mayor looked at them and breathed a small sigh of relief as he stood up, he smiled and walked towards the three wizards. He took Lucy's hand and shook it.
"Sorry for the suspicion, we've had some problems with dark wizards claiming to be from other guilds just to make easy money. That's why I asked to see your guild marks."
"Oh, that's okay." Lucy said with a smile, "We're here to take care of the monster seen outside of town."
"Are you three the only ones that answered the request?" The mayor asked with a hint of worry in his voice.
"Oh, no there are 7 of us. The rest are outside the building."
"Oh good, sorry to sound negative but you may need more than that." The mayor moved back behind his desk and sat down at his chair.
"What do you mean?" Gray asked.
The mayor began to rummage through his desk, pulling out a long piece of paper all rolled up. He then stood up and unrolled it on his desk signaling the three wizards to look at it.
The three obliged and moved closer to him. They looked at the paper and their eyes widened, Arana's squinting with anger. On the paper was a beast of frightening appearance, fur as black as the night sky, eyes as red as blood, it bared it's fangs and they looked as sharp as swords, with long fingernails that it obviously used to tear into its prey.
"What is this?" Lucy asked astonished.
"We don't know." The mayor replied, his body tense "It hasn't entered the town, but everyone who has left into the woods has never returned."
"Do you know where it came from?" Gray asked.
"No we don't, it randomly appeared in the forest one day. However there is something interesting about it."
The mayor once again looked in his desk and pulled out another piece of paper, he put it on the table and unrolled it. This time a symbol was drawn on it, obviously of magical origin, it showed what looked like an open hand with a circle made of small blades drawn on the palm, in the circle was a D that looked like a sword had sliced through the middle of it.
Arana tightened her fist in anger.
"What does it mean?" Lucy asked confused.
"We don't know yet, but…a close friend of mine found this symbol on the back of the monsters neck, before he died."
Arana continued to stare at the paper angrily, a rage building inside of her. 
"Draven." She said under her breath.
"What?" Gray asked her, faintly catching her words.
Arana suddenly looked up at Gray, "Oh, it's…it's nothing." She said slightly panicked, but Gray still looked at her suspiciously before turning his attention back towards the mayor.
Lucy continued to talk to the mayor, "Don't worry we'll take down this monster for you. We're not the strongest guild in Fiore for nothing." She smiled big and gave him a thumbs up, trying to reassure him.
The mayor simply smirked, "Thank you, I knew we could count on you."
With that the three wizards bid farewell to the mayor and returned to their friends taking the two pieces of paper with them.
"So what did the mayor say?" Levy asked walking up to Lucy and the others when they returned.
Lucy unrolled the pieces of paper and explained the situation to her friends. Wendy began listening to Lucy's explanation but became distracted when she noticed Arana standing off by herself, obviously something was on her mind.
She walked over to the grimacing redhead, "Are you alright Arana?" Wendy asked politely surprising Arana as her train of thought derailed.
She gave a warm but false smile to the young girl, "Yeah, don't worry I'm fine."
Wendy knew she was lying, but decided to leave it for the time being. "Okay, then if you say so."
"Come on you two, we're going to find the beast!" Lucy called. Arana and Wendy ran and caught up with their friends as they began to make their out of town.
20 minutes later, the group was out of town and in the woods. Each of them looking around for the behemoth.
"We should split up, and look for it." Lucy suggested when they reached the woods. "We can cover more ground if we all go in separate directions."
"You're right." Gray added, "I suggest we go in groups of 2, one of us will have to go alone though since there are 7 of us."
Gajeel raised his hand, "I'll go."
Levy looked uneasy, "But, Gajeel-" she began to protest.
"Don't worry about me." He said cutting her off. "I can cover more ground on my own, and my dragon senses can locate the thing faster."
"Okay." Levy relented but she was still uneasy.
The group was soon split in to groupings of two. Wendy & Levy, Lucy & Juvia, and much to Juvia's dismay, Gray & Arana. Juvia glared at the two, obviously angry that Arana once again was near Gray.
"Are we all ready?" Lucy asked looking at her friends. They all nodded in unison and began to split up but not before Levy stopped them.
"Hold on guys." She began rummaging through her bag, pulling out 7 glowing orbs giving each of her friends one.
"What are these?" Wendy asked in amazement as she held it up to the sun.
"I got them from Warren, they're infused with mental magic. Crush one and it sends a mental feedback to whoever has the others, giving the location of where it was crushed."
"Oh, I see." Juvia remarked staring at hers. "They are like homing beacons."
"Right." Levy commented smiling, "If you find the monster, don't try to take it on alone. Destroy your orb and the rest of us will come running."
"Alright, good job Levy." Lucy said smiling. "You guys ready? Let's go!" Lucy yelled as the group held their index fingers in the air before the split up.
…
Gray and Arana searched the northern area of the forest. Gray had chosen to partner with Arana for a reason, and he thought now was better than never to get down to a mystery in his mind. They were searching different areas back to back as Gray opened his mouth:
"Arana?"
"Yeah?"
"What's Draven?"
Arana froze, she couldn't believe Gray had heard her clearly in the mayor's office. She answered nervously, "Wha…What do mean? How should I know?"
"Don't play dumb." Gray answered sternly as he turned around to look at her. "In the mayor's office, when he showed us the mark you looked like you had seen it somewhere before."
His line of questioning hurt, but Arana continued to play dumb, "I don't know-"
"You know what this monster is don't you?!" He asked more forcefully. "What is it Arana? And for that matter who are you?"
Her eyes opened in fear.
"You randomly show up after we defeat your guild in Lumina and ask to join Fairy Tail. We know barely anything about you, and now you obviously know something about this monster we're hunting."
She tried to protest, "Gray I…" She then looked up, her eyes widening as Gray continued to speak.
"If there is something you're not telling us and one of my friends gets hurt or worse…I'll-"
"LOOK OUT!" Arana teleported to Gray pushing him out of the way as a huge creature landed where he was standing.
BOOM!
"Dammit." Arana said angrily as she looked at Gray on the ground. He was a bit out of sorts but he was okay, he rubbed his head as he stood up next to Arana. He looked at the monster that fell and his eyes widened, it was the beast they were hunting.
"Are you alright?" She asked, not taking her eyes off of the monster.
Gray continued to rub his head then he took his shirt off. "Yeah I'm fine, thanks for the save." He looked at the monster as it let out a mighty yell. "Guess the thing found us 1st."
"It's called the Gracio." Arana said staring down the beast.
"So that's what the thing is called?" Gray grabbed the beacon orb in his pocket and looked at it, he then looked at Arana. "We're going to talk about who you are when we beat this thing."
The monster looked at them and let out a blood curdling roar. ROOAGGGGGHHH!
Arana smirked at him as she scanned his shirtless body, "Sure handsome I'll tell you everything, if we live."
Gray crushed the beacon as he and Arana raced off to meet the beast before them.
…
Gajeel was the first to arrive at his friend's location, the others soon catching up. When they reached Gray & Arana, their eyes widened in terror. Arana was struggling to stand while the monster loomed over Gray who was planted against a broken tree, his left arm bleeding profusely.
Juvia was the first to react. "Gray!" she turned herself into water and raced towards the man she loved.
"Juvia, wait!" Gajeel called to his friend but she didn't hear him.
"SIERRA!" her body turned hot as she struck the monsters back, hurting it.
RAAGGGHHH! It roared in pain as Juvia grabbed Gray, but she was too slow as the monster refocused on them, swing down its mighty arm to finish them off.
BWOOM! The trees themselves quaked at the force of the impact.
Juvia clung desperately to Gray as she opened her eyes. Surprised she was still alive, she looked up to see Gajeel holding off the monsters hand.
"Gajeel!"
"What are you waiting for idiot?" He asked struggling as he dropped to one knee, "Get him out of here, I'll hold this guy off."
Juvia nodded and took Gray away from the area. With them safely clear, Gajeel parry the monsters attack and stepped back.
"Wendy now!" He yelled.
"O..ok." The young girl said meekly as she focused her energy, she summoned a small whirlwind that tripped the monster causing it to fall in its back.
The monster looked up to see Gajeel floating over it, it roared angrily once again.
Gajeel smirked and pulled his arm back, "Yeah, yeah maybe this will shut you up. Iron Dragon Club!"
His hand turned into and Iron rod and extended towards his fallen foe.
BAM! The attack hit its mark, striking the monster's chest hard, but it had little to no effect on the creature.
Gajeel landed on his feet and could watch in amazement as it stood up virtually unscathed.
Surprisingly, it could speak. "Draaagonn." It said frighteningly
"What the hell is this thing?" Gajeel asked to no one as it roared again.
Lucy pulled out one of her Celestial Keys as she watched Juvia tend to Gray.
"Open Gate of the Lion, Leo!" She yelled as she held her key in front of her. In a flash of bright light, Loke had appeared.
"You call me?" He asked sincerely.
"Yeah, we could really use your help here Loke." Lucy answered pointing at the monster. Loke turned around and his eyes widened in terror.
"What…what the hell is the Gracio doing here?" Loke asked astonished.
"Gracio? Wait Loke do you know what this thing is?" Lucy asked confused.
He glared at the beast angrily, "Yeah, it's an ancient and very powerful beast."
But it should be sealed. Has HE been released after all these years? Loke thought to himself.
He shook his head, Doesn't matter right now, I have to protect Lucy and the others.
"We can worry about what this thing is later." Gajeel yelled, "Right now we have to take it out."
"You're right." Lucy added. "Levy, go get Arana, we'll cover you." Lucy commanded not looking at her.
Levy nodded her head determined, "Right." She began to run towards Arana.
The Gracio noticed the girl's movement and ran towards her, Levy's eyes widened in terror, but she was saved by Loke who struck the beast hard in the face.
"Thanks Loke."
"Don't mention it, now go!"
"Right."
She soon reached Arana, and picked her up, draping the girls left arm over her shoulders as she helped her up. "Come on, let's get you somewhere safe." Levy said as they walked back towards the others.
Arana looked around and saw her guild mates taking on the monster, she began to have flashbacks to a similar event.
BOOM! POW! FLASH! DODGE! ROAR!
The battle was furious as Loke, Lucy, Wendy, & Gajeel fought the Gracio. Though their efforts were valiant, they were barely making a dent in the beast.
"No…stop, have to get…away." Arana said weakly as her and Levy continued to walk. Things soon began to take a turn for the worst.
RAAGHHHH! The Gracio bellowed, swinging it's right arm and striking Lucy.
"Ah!" She screamed as she was sent flying.
"Lucy!" Loke yelled.
"Dammit!" Gajeel yelled looking and the immense beast.
"Look out!" Arana called as her and Levy continued to walk, Levy looked to her right but it was too late to move.
"Lucy!" Levy tried to brace herself and Arana but Lucy was moving too fast.
Lucy flung into the two girls, knocking them over. Arana opened her eyes on the ground to see both Levy & Lucy knocked out next to her. As she observed the surroundings to check on everyone else, Gajeel was thrown into a tree and could barely stand, Loke was unconscious, and Juvia & Gray were both down as well.
Arana stood up weakly, holding her right arm as she looked at the devastation around her. She began to see her hometown burning around her again, the smell of death in the air, how the scene of her parents death had played out. She grabbed her head in despair.
"No, not again, it's happening again!" She fell to her knees as the memories came crashing down, only being drowned out by the monsters loud roar. Should I use THAT? She thought to herself. I can't, what if I mess it up? I'm not ready. But I have to do something! She continued to ponder in despair until she heard a scream.
"AAAHHHH!", she stopped fretting to look for the origin of the scream, it was Wendy! The Gracio had her in its grip, and began to squeeze the life out of her.
"WENDY!' Arana yelled. As she watched the monster drain Wendy's life, she once again had a flashback. This time to her sister's death. The helplessness she felt when she cradled her lifeless form in her arms, the light as it faded from her eyes. She had a chance to save her then, but she didn't take it, she was too scared. No, not again. She thought as she stood up slowly. I'm not running away anymore. She looked determined now, she would swore that day that she would never let another person die due to her indecision, especially not the woman who taught her how to use her power.
She teleported in front of the monster, looking dead into its eyes. The Gracio roared unintimidated as it stared at Arana. Wendy, still in the monster's grip, looked at her friend as the blood began to drip from her cheek.
"Arana…get out of here." She said weakly reaching out her right arm.
Arana still stood defiant, clenching her fist as her magic energy began to rise around her. Everyone began to stir still hurt, but watching in amazement and horror as Arana faced down the monster.
"Arana run!" Lucy yelled
"You're no match for it, you have to go back to guild and get help!" Levy yelled after, but Arana couldn't hear them.
"This magic…" Juvia commented her eyes widening.
"I've felt this before." Gajeel said as he raised to his feet.
"It feels just like…" Wendy began astonished.
Arana clasped her hands in front of her mouth as if she were about to engage in prayer closing her eyes; the Gracio roared once more, moving it's fist to attack her.
Father, lend me your strength.
She then cried out as loud as she could, her newfound friend's eyes widening at the sight they were witnessing.
"FIRE DRAGON…ROAR!"
FWOOM!