A man climbed over the top of a hill and looked over a city that was located next to the ocean. The man was wearing a long black coat with a hood that covered his face in an eerie shadow. All you could see was a sly smile creep across his face. "Finally made it," he said.
Meanwhile, in the Fairy Tail guild hall, wizards crowded the basement, preparing an attack on phantom lord. Mirajane was begging Laxus to help while Erza took a shower, cursing herself for letting master get hurt and then retreating like a coward. Natsu walked into the basement carrying Lucy on his back and Happy flew in after him. They were swarmed by their fellow members, asking if Lucy was ok or if phantom lord had hurt her. She started to cry seeing so many people who cared about her and were willing to fight on her behalf. She felt as if this was all her fault, and that the guild would be better off without her.
"None of this is your fault," said Natsu, as if reading her mind. He looked at her with kind and caring eyes. All of her fear and guilt washed away, she always felt safe when she was with him.
"Natsu," she said softly. All of a sudden a loud bang shook the ground and the basement fell silent.
"Outside, quickly!" shouted Alzack with fear in his eyes.
Everyone rushed outside, including Erza who did not finish her shower and was only wearing a towel. What they say made everyone gasp. A castle was approaching them from the ocean on mechanical legs. Every step it took made the ground shake, and caused large waves to crash into the shore. Once it was close enough it stopped moving and sat down. The front wall lowered and a massive cannon head extended outward toward the already crippled guild. A loud hum was heard throughout the town as the Jupiter cannon charged up, preparing to fire.
"Everyone behind me, NOW!" screamed Erza. "Requip!"
"That's her adamantium armor," said Happy, "is she planning on blocking it?"
Right after Erza requiped, the cannon fired. Erza raised her shield and a large, teal, magic circle appeared in front of her. The cannon blast slammed into the magic circle, the force of the impact pushing Erza back a few feet. Her armor began to crack under the pressure of the blast. She could not hold out much longer. She gritted her teeth, refusing to let any one of her guild mates get hurt. Her armor was slowly breaking until it completely cracked. Erza let out a scream of pain while she flew backwards, pieces of her shredded armor still attached to her limbs. She managed to block the cannon blast but she was out cold, no longer able to fight.
The guild looked in horror as its strongest member was defeated in a matter of seconds. Lucy couldn't take it anymore; one of her teammates and best friend had fallen right before her eyes trying to protect her. She stood there crying.
A voice from the castle said through a loud speaker, "Give us Lucy Heartfilia. You have 15 minutes before we fire the Jupiter cannon again." An eerie silence came over the scene. Lucy was about to walk up to the castle and surrender herself when a hand was placed on her shoulder. She turned around to see Natsu.
"We aren't going to turn you over to these creeps. YOU HEAR THAT? LUCY IS ONE OF US AND WE WILL NEVER ABANDON HER!" he yelled at the castle. This was followed by a loud roar of approval by the rest of the guild.
"Insolence! You will pay for this!" shouted the voice on the loudspeaker. Soon after ghosts started to pour out of the castle. There were hundreds of the cloaked skeletons flying around. The guild members started attacking the ghosts and a battle soon enraged.
"Come on, I'm taking you somewhere safe," Natsu said as he grabbed Lucy's hand and ran away from the guild. They ran to the nearest safe house where Natsu looked after her.
"Natsu," Lucy said, tears forming in her eyes.
"Yea, you need something?" Natsu said.
"Thank you, for everything. You are always there to save me, and I can never do anything to repay you. I am always just a burden, and you have to carry me." She said, tears now running down her cheeks.
"Don't cry. It will make Erza's sacrifice mean nothing if we are weak. And know that no one in the guild thinks that. You are essential to our team; we would not be nearly as strong without you." He said, comforting her.
She laid her head on his shoulder and fought off tears. "Thank you, Natsu." The warmth of his body comforted her until she fell asleep.
Back at the guild, the battle ensued, both sides at a stalemate. The ghosts were not strong enough to defeat them, but there were so many ghosts, that the guild could not launch a counter attack, and the clock was ticking. If this kept up, not only would the guild be destroyed, but so would all of the members. Everyone was giving it their all, doing everything they could to fight off the ghosts. Many members were injured and the ones that were left were running out of magic. The ghosts started to retreat, flying back into the castle. Everyone let out a cheer thinking they won until the saw the cannon charging up again. Jupiter was about to fire.