Five Little Sacrifices

Chapter 62

Once Bickslow finally woke up, Freed told him that Erza wanted to see them. It had been a couple of hours since the current master of Fairy Tail had talked with Freed and that whole time the rune mage had been more and more worried about what was happening at Ginkgo.

He was sure that something was wrong. The mark on his neck felt itchy and burning and even though he obviously was experiencing morning sickness, he wasn't sure if that could explain all of his uneasy feelings. He had no idea if Laxus was in danger, but definitely something was terribly wrong.

"You don't look too good, baby", Bickslow noticed as they were walking through the hallway, towards the office.

"I'm worried about Laxus and Evergreen", Freed frowned.

"That bond thing?" the seith mage guessed and Freed nodded. Even Bickslow could understand that couldn't mean anything good. "Hey, they're strong", he tried to assure anyway. "Don't think too much of it, okay?"

"I'll do my best", Freed promised, mostly just so he wouldn't worry others too much.

They stopped in front of the right door and Bickslow knocked it.

"Come in", Erza said and they opened the door.

She was sitting behind the desk and Makarov was sitting on a couch when they stepped in the room and closed the door behind them.

"Morning, Bickslow", Erza said giving them her full attention.

"Morning, baby", Bickslow grinned with a salute and his 'babies' giggled.

"So now that you're both here, I think we can go straight to the point", Erza decided.

"She looks mad", Bickslow whispered a little bit too loudly to Freed who huffed. "I don't think I like this..."

"Sit", Erza commanded pointing towards two chairs that were waiting in front of the table and they sat down. The tiki dolls hovered over the table and settled down in front of Erza. "We need to discuss about what happened at the forest. I know it was Ichabod who attacked, but what did he do?"

"That bastard snatched Chester while we were walking home from Freed's place", Bickslow said.

"Sneaky bastard!" 'babies' said.

"Yes, that is what I heard earlier", Erza nodded. "Cana went to warn Freed who then left after you", she said looking at Freed who nodded.

"Yes, after telling Cana to go wake up Makarov and take Felix and Theophilius with her", he agreed.

"That was really reckless, to go after the foe alone", Makarov said now. "From someone like you, I would have thought you would know what would be the right decision."

"I'll stand behind my actions, that was the right decision to do", Freed said. "I knew I had to act quickly."

"If Freed hadn't been there, something terrible might have happened", Bickslow defended his old friend. "Ichabod was blackmailing me, saying he would kill Chester if I didn't do what he told", he said and took out the collar, tossing it on the table for Erza and Makarov to see. "Once he thought he had me, he was going to kill Chester anyway and I just lost it", he grunted.

Erza looked at the collar and then at Bickslow.

"Were you going to kill him?" she asked calmly, but she wanted to know the truth and nothing but the truth.

"Yeah", Bickslow said without even blinking. "At that point, I was mad enough to go that far. I wasn't even thinking anymore. I know killing someone isn't right thing to do, even if they are our enemies. But at that moment I didn't care. That was when Freed came out and stopped me."