A few hours later, everyone was back at the guild hall, drinking, celebrating, and goofing around as usual.

All of them had been injured by the backlash, but that didn´t stop them at all.

The most injured were obviously Gajeel and Natsu, the two were covered in bandages, especially Natsu.

Natsu´s whole face had been bandaged, even his mouth had been covered, which made the guild hall much more peaceful and quieter.

Makarov had recovered well, thanks to Porlyuscia who appeared in the guild all not long after Zeldaris and Aversia left.

Thanks to her, Makarov would recover without any problems, but she told him to stay in bed for the next few days.

Which, of course he didn´t listen to and was already back drinking beer while sitting on the stage.

Zeldaris and Aversia were sitting on a table with Erza and Mirajane.

All of them were enjoying a nice cup of tea that one of the staff members had made for them.

Erza was eating, as usual, a piece of cake.

Mirajane some cookies, Zeldaris and Aversia were eating a large plate full of meat and vegetables.

The two half dragons would occasionally glance at another table, were a depressed Ophiuchus was sitting.

Gray, Juvia, Cana, and a few other members were trying to cheer her up, Zeldaris and Aversia had already tried to cheer her up, but to no avail.

The reason for Ophiuchus´s mood was because she felt like she hadn´t contributed anything to the whole situation; Gray, Juvia and Cana disagreed with that.

Ophiuchus had originally accompanied Gray, and the two had met with two members of Raven Tail, but they were defeated easily by Ophiuchus.

And shortly after that, they crossed paths with Freed.

Freed had not a good opinion of Ophiuchus, because he thought that a spirit should not be a member of the guild, which is why he had focused his attacks on Ophiuchus.

But this quickly exposed itself as a mistake because as Ophiuchus took everything that Freed used like it was nothing.

Ophiuchus would have been more than enough to defeat Freed with one blow if she had enough space to transform into her true form.

But that didn´t mean that Ophiuchus was no threat to Freed, the simple fact that Aversia was her summoner meant that her physical strength was enough to keep Freed away, otherwise it wouldn´t end up with just a few broken bones.

Luckily for Freed, Ophiuchus had not much fighting experience in general and especially with her human form.

But Gray would cover that front and bombard Freed with long rang spells, while the two were also trying to navigate Freed outside the city.

Freed was aware of their strategy, but wasn´t able to do anything about it, then halfway Cana and Juvia joined the fight.

If fighting against two people had already been hard for Freed, then fighting against four people was absolutely impossible for him and he tried to run away.

However, that was easier said than done   

It took him more than ten minutes to finally escape from them, all while being bombarded by spells from Gray, Cana, and Juvia, who in turn didn´t even receive a single scratch thanks to Ophiuchus.

And after Freed had escaped, the whole thing with the floating lacrimas happened.

Ophiuchus had destroyed more than ten of them.

Overall, Ophiuchus had done much but in her eyes it simply wasn´t so and became depressed.

Aversia rubbed her temples while trying to think of a way to cheer her up.

But she had to postpone that because she could feel a certain someone coming.

“It is time.” Aversia said and stood up.

Erza, Mirajane and Zeldaris nodded and also stood up.

The four walked toward the entrance and waited there, the eyes of everyone else on them.

Not long after and the doors opened and revealed Laxus.

He was shirtless and his chest and head were bandaged.

All that covered his upper body was his dark, large coat with fur trimming around the neck and the sleeve´s edges, draped over his shoulders like a cape.

“LAXUS!” yelled some of the members of the guild.

“How dare you show your face here!” yelled another member, the others were not happy to see him as well.

“He is waiting for you. Follow us.” Erza said, turned around and headed toward the stage.

Mirajane did the same and walked beside her.

Zeldaris and Aversia stationed themselves behind Laxus, all four of them were ready to act at any moment, be it against Laxus or the other members.

Halfway to the stage, Natsu jumped before Erza, Mirajane and Laxus, pointed at Laxus and started to mumble something that no one was able to understand.

“Gajeel, could you please translate.” Lucy asked Gajeel, convinced that Gajeel knew what Natsu was trying to say.

“I am not settling on this two-on-one crap! Next time, I will defeat you alone, for sure! You better fight me next time, with everything that you got! Is what he is saying.” Gajeel said while standing up and walking toward Lucy and the others.

“Huh? But it thought you guys won?” Lucy asked in confusion.

“I wouldn´t call that a victory. That guy is a monster. If he had participated in the conflict with Phantom Lord… I don´t even want to think about it, it scares me.” Gajeel said while shivering a bit.

Zeldaris and Aversia smiled as they heard it, they were of the same opinion as Gajeel, this wasn´t a victory.

If Laxus had been sane, then there was no way that Gajeel and Natsu would be able to defeat him.

In the future maybe, but not right now.

Erza and Mirajane passed Natsu, both of them had a small smile on their face.

As Laxus passed by Natsu, Natsu turned around and his mumbles became louder.

But Natsu became quiet as he saw that Laxus was waving with his hand, signaling ‘until later’.

Erza, Mirajane, Zeldaris and Aversia begun to smile warmly, and Zeldaris patted Natsu on the head as he passed him.

Erza and Mirajane stopped before the stage and stepped aside, Laxus walked toward the stage, where Makarov was already waiting for hm.

Zeldaris and Aversia stopped beside Erza and Mirajane.

Laxus stopped a few steps away from the stage, Makarov had just finished his mug and stared at Laxus.

“Do you understand what you have done, Laxus? Look me in the eyes, boy.” Makarov said in a stern voice.

Laxus looked him right in the eyes.

“Do you know what this guild is? It is a gathering for comrades in-arms. It is an agency for missions. To some kids who don´t have any family, it is even their home. It does not belong to you. This guild was built upon the trust and honor of each individual member… And that is how we have formed stronger and firmer bonds than you will find anywhere elsewhere.”

(AN: The orphan part is particular common among the members of Fairy Tail.)

 As Makarov continued to talk, all of the members of the guild carefully listened to it and were gradually filled with pride.

“Laxus, you have violated that trust and honor, and put the lives of your comrades at risk. That is not a crime that I can forgive, do you understand that?”

“I understand.” Laxus said.

Regret filled Laxus face as he looked down.

“I… I just wanted to… make this guild stronger…”

Makarov sighed as he heard this.

“Honestly… You are quite a clumsy sort of man… Laxus, let some of that tension out of your shoulders, would you? Life is to be enjoyed; you know.” Makarov said with a warm smile.

Laxus looked to the side for a moment, to bring his emotions back under control, before looking back at his grandfather.

“You know… Watching you grow up was my reason for living. I didn´t need you to be strong, or smart…. All I wanted was for you to be happy. That was enough for me.”

A pained expression came over Laxus.

Makarov looked to the ground and clenched his fists, to the point that they turned white and started to shake.

Laxus knew what was coming, but still, he was nervous.

“Laxus… You are hereby excommunicated from this guild!!!” Makarov said with determined eyes.

Laxus was shocked, even though he knew that it was coming, it was still shocking for him.

Everyone in the guild was shocked, they had expected something but never that Laxus would be excommunicated.

Natsu wanted to jump forward and ask Makarov what he was thinking, but both Zeldaris and Aversia stopped him.

Both of them shock their heads, signaling Natsu to stop.

Erza and Mirajane were also ready top stop anyone that would interfere, even though they were not happy with this either.

Both Laxus and Makarov turned around, they no longer had anything to say to each other.

“Right… Thanks for everything… Gramps.”

Makarov begun to shake, he desperately tried to hold back his tears.

“Take care of yourself.” Laxus said with a small smile.

Tears begun to run down Makarov´s face and fell onto the ground.

“Just go…” was all that he managed to say.

Laxus walked out of the guild, no one said a word, no one could say a word, they stood where they were as Makarov cried out his heart.

 

Later that day at the park.

Laxus was saying his goodbyes to Freed, Bickslow and Evergreen.

The three of them were shocked that only Laxus would be excommunicated.

“You have to be joking?! Why do you have to be the only one that is going to be punished, and even excommunicated?!” Evergreen asked in confusion.

“She is right. Didn´t the three of us commit the same crime as you?” Bickslow asked.

“Didn´t we…”

“Didn´t we…”

Bickslows dolls repeated.

“Well, it is what gramps decided.” Laxus said while shrugging with his shoulders, although he knew why his grandfather had done this.

“Then I will quit too.” Evergreen said.

“What will I do if you aren´t there.”

“What an annoying bunch, I can´t even say a single word about leaving?” Laxus said with a smirk.

“Then it is good that we found you in time, otherwise or plans would have been for nothing.”

Laxus and the others turned toward where the voice came from, only to see Zeldaris and Aversia approaching them.

Freed, Bickslow and Evergreen immediately jumped in front of Laxus, ready to fight the two half dragons at any moment.

“Calm down, calm down. We are not here to fight, we only want to discuss some things with Laxus and then we are gone, all right?” Zeldaris said, trying to calm the three down.

“Don´t worry guys, they mean what they say.” Laxus said toward Freed and the other two.

The three relaxed their posture and stepped aside.

“So, how can I help you? Because I don´t think that you are here for revenge or something like that.” Laxus asked with a raised eyebrow.

“Yeah, you are right. As for what we want, a simple question. How did you become a dragon slayer? Because both of us are fairly sure that you didn´t get this magic bestowed by a dragon, seeing as they are either dead, hiding, don´t want anything to do with humans or simply kill them on sight.”