Treachery

"Hah, those two fools fell for it, just like the other guards." Emma said with a smirk on her face. She and Ali walked past the bodies of Meliodas and Gray and approached the vault door. From her pocket, Emma pulled a remote out and pressed the button, deactivating the magical seal on the door. The door began to open slowly, revealing the bright golden treasures inside. Before the girls had a chance to step in the vault, a wall of ice erupted from the ground, blocking their way. The two of them turned around to see both Gray and Meliodas standing up.

"How the hell are you two still alive?! We put enough poison in those drinks to kill a large whale!" Emma exclaimed in shock.

"We only pretended to drink the tea." Gray smirked and picked up his cup of tea from the ground and showed it to the women, revealing it was completely frozen. Meliodas also picked up his cup and showed it as well, with his having the words "Play Dead" carved into the iced over tea.

"But how did you know it was us?!" Ali questioned nervously.

"When we first came here, at first I didn't. But when I saw you two walking down the stairs, I remembered that Joe had told us only he was allowed down here. I became more suspicious when you two said that Joe had sent you down here to give us drinks but Joe left this room with a buzzer for a task like that." Gray replied as he walked over to the buzzer and hit the button. "And now when Joe comes down here, he'll see that you two were behind all of it."

"Sorry but Joe's not coming down here. When we served him his afternoon wine, we put enough narcotics in there to keep him sleeping for the next few hours. It's just the four of us down here." Emma replied with a grin on her face.

"And when Joe wakes up and checks on you guys, he'll find the bodies of two dead Fairy Tail members. Of course we will have a hard time trying to make your deaths look natural, but we'll find a way to make it look like we weren��t here like we always have" Ali added.

"Then you leave us no choice then." Gray said as he put his hands out in front of him.

An evil grin formed on Emma's face as fire erupted from beneath her feet. Using the flames of her magic as propulsion, she launched herself at Gray at full speed. As she approached within striking distance of Gray, Meliodas suddenly appeared in front of her. Emma's eyes widened as she saw Meliodas. He was previously just standing at the other side of the room, but now he was already in front of her.

Meliodas let out a cheeky smile as Emma was about to collide with him. He wound his head back and then leaned forward in a brutal headbutt. Meliodas's head collided with Emma's, causing Meliodas to skid back towards Gray slightly as Emma was launched across the room right next to Ali.

"Emma!" Ali yelled in distress. Sparks began to form around her as she infused her magic.

"I'll make you pay for that!" Emma declared as blood dripped down her head. Emma prepared to jump back towards Meliodas but stopped momentarily as she winced in pain, clutching her side. Emma shook it off and lunged towards Meliodas.

Meliodas held his ground but was confused at what he just witnessed. 'I didn't hit her there. Was she already hurt before the fight started?'

Just before Emma reached Meliodas, Meliodas jumped backwards, revealing Gray right behind him charging his attack.

"Ice Make: Ice Geyser!"

From the ground in front of Gray, a large tower of ice spikes emerged underneath Emma.

Emma looked down at the ice forming underneath her as she found herself encased within a large tower of ice that stretched up to the ceiling.

"You're wide open you naked punk!" A voice yelled from behind Gray. Gray turned around and saw Ali, above him in the air with lightning generating from her fingertips.

"Thunderbolt!"

She threw the lightning in her hand downward, straight towards Gray. Gray braced himself for the attack as he was unable to dodge from his position when Meliodas appeared in front of him.

"Full Counter!"

Meliodas swung his sword at the lightning bolt, causing it to rebound back again towards Ali. Ali put her arms up in front of her as the lightning bolt struck her. She fell to the ground, standing up halfway but paralyzed.

"You reflected my attack?" Ali questioned as she tried to hold herself up and blood began to soak various spots of her clothing.

'Well well well, blood again?' Meliodas thought to himself. 'Hmm...but I didn't cut her.'

As Gray and Meliodas had their backs faced to the ice pillar behind them, they felt a burst of heat. Both of them turned around as Emma launched herself at Meliodas.

"Die you little runt!" Emma screamed as she launched forward, clad in fire at full speed towards Meliodas.

Before Emma could strike Meliodas, Meliodas grabbed her by the face, spinning one hundred eighty degrees and turning around to face Ali as he threw her towards Ali's direction. Emma crashed into the ground right in front of Ali, creating a hole in the ground and a small explosion of flames.

"Ice Make: Ice-wall!"

Gray jumped in front of Meliodas then knelt on the ground with his fingertips touching the floor. As his hands touched the ground, ice began to crawl across the floor towards the two maids and completely encase them in ice.

Meliodas saw his chance and ran towards the ice. He jumped into the air, spinning forward and launched himself through the ice as he drew his blade.

Meliodas shattered through the ice as he cut both of the maids up, purposely missing their vital spots so as to not kill them. As Meliodas finished cutting through, he heard a cracking sound coming from his dagger as it split apart. 'I guess this junk lasted longer than I thought.' Meliodas thought as he resheathed the handle and a small portion of the blade, much akin to the appearance of his dragon handle in the past.

"Good work." Gray nodded at Meliodas. Meliodas smiled back as the two of them walked towards the incapacitated maids.

"Ice Make: Prison!"

The floor under the maids began to freeze over as pillars of ice acting like bars formed around them, all the way up to the ceiling. The two maids sat silently in the middle of the prison, unconscious.

"Guess we'll keep them here for now then. Let's go upstairs and try to wake up Joe." Gray suggested. Meliodas nodded and he and Gray began walking towards the stairs. Just as Meliodas approached the foot of the stairs, he turned around and looked at the two maids.

"What's up?" Gray asked.

"Something's been off this whole fight." Meliodas replied. He walked over to the ice prison just in front of the bars.

"Can you open this?" Meliodas asked.

"Sure?" Gray replied, confused as to what Meliodas was planning. He clasped his hands together, causing a magic circle to form in front of his hands. The next moment, the bars at the front of the ice prison vanished.

Meliodas approached Ali and looked at her closely. At that moment, Ali opened her eyes, and saw Meliodas right up to her face. Meliodas pulled out what was left of his dagger and tapped her lightly on the side of her body with the handle. Ali winced in pain as she was struck.

"The hell are you doing?" Gray asked, confused at Meliodas's actions.

"Well, well, well." Meliodas said turning to Gray. Gray returned a confused glance at Meliodas.

"Well what?!"