Never was there a dull moment in my life anymore. Whether I was running a rescue mission in the mountains with Natsu and Happy or keeping Natsu and Gray from killing each other (Honestly, Erza does more of that than I do.) or even walking an actual mile in each other's shoes, I could never get used to it. And I don't think I could ever get tired of it. When I decided to start practicing magic, I did it in hopes of living a life of adventure and excitement, instead of the privileged life of mundane and monotony. And I've gotten exactly what I wanted since I've joined Fairy Tail.

When I joined, I had no clue what to expect. I've never been in a guild before. All I had to go on was each guild's reputation. I read about a few, but something in my gut told me that Fairy Tail would be the place for me. After hearing stories about Mom from Master Makarov about her early adventures in magic, I'd say it was a little more than gut instinct. Maybe fate had a hand in it, too.

And most of that fate was tied back to Natsu. Because of him, I had all of my new friends, my family. Living at the mansion never felt right to me. I'd never let the maids do things for me that I could do myself (and that infuriated him. They're getting paid to do this, Lucy. Let them do their job, Lucy. I'm not paying them to sit around and be your friend, Lucy. Nauseating.). My father didn't understand why I wanted to practice magic. From what I understand, Mom's experiences didn't differ much.

Something about living in the mansion just felt…wrong. Off. Even before the tower, I felt so trapped. I couldn't stand it. But every morning, when I wake up and see that big, beautiful guild hall…When I see that same sigil on the banner on the back of my hand, on Natsu's shoulder, on Gray's Chest, on Erza's arm, I knew I could stop looking. I had finally come home.

When I get there and find my home in complete ruin, that's when I start to panic. Where was everyone? When did this happen? Was anyone inside? Anyone left inside? My stomach ached and I thought I was about to throw up like Natsu the night we came here for the first time. My thoughts started to race. Right now, I need to find a boy and his cat. Natsu and Happy weren't at my house when I woke up. They never were. Natsu and Happy were always at the guild hall before me. Then again, it wouldn't surprise me if Natsu was half the reason the guild hall was in such rough shape. Erza wouldn't have allowed Natsu and Gray's petty, little skirmishes to get this out of hand.

"Lucy!" Good…One less thing to worry about. Both Natsu and Happy ran over to me.

"Hey," my stomach settled, "What happened to this place?"

"Never mind that right now," Natsu looked me over, "What about you? Are you alright?"

"I just got here," I told him, "Are you guys ok?"

"For the most part," he nodded.

"Master Makarov," I caught our guild master, "What happened? What's going on?"

"We were attacked," Master Makarov grumbled, still in just as much shock and denial as the rest of us.

"Do we have any idea who'd be responsible?" Natsu jumped down his throat. He had a fire in his eyes like none I had ever seen before.

"They were mercenaries," he shook, a bright blue vein sticking out of his forehead, "How dare they come to our house and show us such blatant disrespect? I hope they understand what kind of a war they've started. They should know better than to come and mess with Fairy Tail!"

"That's right!" Natsu clenched his fists a little tighter, ready for a fight.

"Master!" Erza ran over to us, "We found them!"

"Where were they?" Master Makarov worried, "Are they ok?"

"They're being taken to the hospital now," her voice broke, "The way they were found…It was horrible…"

"The way who was found?" I asked, getting even more nerved up.

"Levy, Jet, and Droy were left unaccounted for," Master Makarov explained, doing his best to covertly take care of Erza, "Take your time. Is there anything else you can tell me, Erza?"

"They had this symbol painted on them," Erza gave him a scrap of paper with something sketched on it, "It looks like a guild mark."

"It is a guild mark," he confirmed, clutching the drawing in his hands, "This attack wasn't just an attack. This is a warning shot. And poor little Levy and her team got caught in the crossfire."

"Which guild?" Natsu tried seeing the sigil.

"I know that seal," I caught a peek, "It's Phantom Lord, right?"

"That's right, Lucy," Master Makarov balled it up.

"What would Phantom Lord attack us for?" Gray joined in.

"I say we go to their guild hall," Natsu growled, ready to attack at any given moment, "We can ask them personally. I know I wouldn't mind introducing those jerks at Phantom Lord to my fist!"

"For once," Gray chimed in, "I couldn't agree with you more."

"Not a good idea," Master Makarov stopped them both.

"Why not?" Gray snapped, "Look what they've done! You said it yourself. They need to learn what happens when they mess with Fairy Tail!"

"In due time," he agreed, "But we don't know what we're up against. Running in without a plan would be a suicide mission."

"You've seen what they did to the guild hall!" Natsu pointed out, "They hurt Levy and Jet and Droy. We can't take that sitting down!"

"And we won't!" Master Makarov started getting angrier, "For now, we need to wait and see what their next move is. The first to attack will always be the first to fall."

"In the meantime," I tried to settle Natsu down, "What can we do?"

"All we can do is wait," he let out a heavy sigh, "Lucy, you need to take Natsu away from here before he gains any more steam."

"Yes, sir," I nodded.

"And take Gray with you," Master Makarov insisted, "They both need to cool off. Why not do it together?"

"I will," I grabbed Natsu with my left hand and Gray with my right and dragged them back to my house. In hindsight, I'm not so sure if that was such a good idea. If these two break into their usual patterns, I'd never see my security deposit again. The four of us sat in my living room and waited to hear anything from anyone.

"I can't do this!" Natsu pounded his fists into my coffee table, "We can't just sit idly by while Phantom Lord gets away with this!"

"But there's nothing we can do right now," Gray reminded him, "Master said we need to wait this out."

"No!" his tirade continued. I had visions of some of my furniture being broken. Seeing Natsu so angry put the worst pit in my stomach. I didn't think he even had such a side to him. I mean, I've seen him during one of his fights with Gray, but never this upset, "I can't watch any more people I care about get hurt!"

"That's why we're waiting," Gray was ready to throw him out the window. And despite the current circumstances, I was ready to knock their heads together.

"Some of us can't." There was no reasoning with him at this point. Natsu was doing whatever he thought was right. I couldn't blame him, though. I wish I had the courage (or the stupidity) to do whatever he had planned, but I still couldn't get over my initial shock from the guild hall. Natsu got his butt off my couch, "Come on."

"Where are we going?" I followed suit.

"Where else?" Natsu stood his ground, "We're going to go have a word with those cowards at Phantom Lord."

"Did you not hear what Master Makarov said?" Gray tried stopping him, but there was no point.

"Natsu," my front door swung open. If anyone could stop Natsu from doing something stupid better than me, it was her. Erza stood in the entrance, casting a slight chill in the air, "Did I hear you right? Are you about to storm Phantom Lord? On your own? Like an idiot?"

"Say whatever you want," Natsu's eyes burned even brighter than they did before, "Within those walls, we protect each other. Outside them, the fact remains. I'm not sitting around Lucy's house, waiting for Gramps to say we can go kick the snot out of them. And no one's going to stop me."

"Whoever said I was stopping you?" Erza had a little smirk on her face, "All I said was that it was stupid of you to go alone."

"I got Happy and Lucy."

"To take on Phantom Lord?" she pointed out, "Look, Natsu, you've done some very dumb things in the past, but this might be taking the cake. Phantom Lord isn't exactly full of weak wizards. We'll need to come up with a little bit of a plan."

"We?" Natsu perked up, "Does that mean you're in?"

"Like you said," Erza agreed, "They hurt people we care about."

"Were you hiding in my ducts?" I wondered.

"So, a little bit of justice is well deserved," she didn't even pay me any attention. Rude, "They didn't just hit close to home. They destroyed our home. They tarnished our pride and our reputation. It's time for us to go protect it."

"Absolutely!" Natsu beamed, coming out of his anger and going into serious determination.

"Gray?" Erza offered, requipping into some better armor, "Care to join us?"

"You both realize this is a suicide mission, right?" Gray grabbed his jacket.

"Yep," Natsu nodded.

"Lucy?" Erza extended the same invitation and warning, "You coming?"

I had to. Even if Natsu didn't already sign me up for it. His angry ranting had me fired up, too. That guild was all I had anymore. That was home to me. And someone had the audacity to come in and try to take it away from me? From all of us? Because I'm sure I'm not the only one who thinks that. Not happening. I joined Fairy Tail for the excitement, but if it means protecting my new family…

"Not even a question," I caught Natsu's determination, "Let's pay Phantom Lord a visit."

And so, the five of us began our journey to Oak Town's countryside armed with nothing but our wits and our magic. Unfortunately, Oak Town was quite a distance on foot, so we had to take the train. Poor little Natsu had his face buried in a paper bag for a while. That is, until Erza was kind enough to clock him on the head and knock him out. It made for a quite ride to Oak Town, though. That's for sure. Natsu slept in Erza's lap while Happy slept in mine. And Gray stared out the window, letting his dark, brooding eyes glaze over.

This was it. Phantom Lord. We were really about to storm the same guild that tried to break us, that hurt Levy, Jet, and Droy, that tried to break our spirit by breaking our guild hall. Clearly, they've never met us. I'm sure the guild hall has been fixed so much because of various little sparring matches, there isn't much left to the original building anyway.

"Lucy?" Erza gave me a little nudge, "Are you alright? You don't have a motion sickness problem, too, do you?"

"No," I shook my head, "It's just…"

"What's wrong?" she asked, "You seemed so prepared for this back at your house."

"When I joined the guild," I sighed out, "I never thought it would come to this. Another guild waging war against Fairy Tail? What have we done to upset Phantom Lord?"

"We'll find out soon," Gray attempted to offer some comfort, "And when we do, we'll take back what's ours."

"To think," I chuckled under my breath, petting Happy's head, "If I never would've met Natsu and Happy, I probably would've joined Phantom Lord. My father was doing some business in Oak Town once and brought me along. I saw the guild hall and thought it looked so pretty. He told me that there were nothing but no good wizards in there. I never thought he'd be right."

"You know they're not all terrible, Lucy," Erza reassured me.

"Besides," Gray gave me a half-hearted smile, "Fairy Tail is a much better fit for you."

With my spirits lifted, our train pulled into the Oak Town station and Natsu woke up from his mini coma. I guess now was the time. Phantom Lord. The building I once admired left a sour taste in my mouth. Then again, the company I had at the time put a sour taste in my mouth, too. Now, we needed to have a little chat with the guild master that put out the hit on my family.

"Hey!" Natsu threw the doors open and led our charge, "Which one of you is the guild master?"

"Look at what we got here," a bigger guy with rivets in his face jumped down from the rafters, "The infamous Salamander in the flesh. I'm honored. Why do you want the guild master?"

"I want to know whose face I'm punching first!" Natsu growled, baring his teeth, ready to rip this guy's throat out.

"Master Jose is out for now," he kept teasing him, "He left me in charge. Boy, is he missing out…I got Fairy Tail's Salamander and Erza Scarlett in my guild hall. Even completed a mission without leaving. It's a good day."

"Be careful, Natsu," Erza settled him, "He's the leader of the Element Four…Gajeel. They're the strongest team Phantom Lord's got."

"Why'd you attack our guild?" Natsu brushed her off.

"Really?" Gajeel scoffed, "You hand delivered the reason. We want the girl."

"Erza?"

"Wow…" he stared blankly, running his hand back through his long, dark hair, "This is the legendary Salamander? I've never been so underwhelmed in my life. No. We don't want Erza. We want the little blonde chick."

"Not a chance." If Natsu didn't have his guard up before, it's definitely up now. Wait a second…

"Me?" I wondered, "What would you want with me?"

"The guy that hired us lost all his trust in the Fairy Tail guild," Gajeel went on, "He said they stole his treasure from him. We were told to get it back for him by any means necessary."

In that moment, I felt a knot in my stomach. It's not bad enough they attacked my friends and my new home, but it's all because of me? No. I knew exactly who they were working for. And Fairy Tail didn't betray him. Fairy Tail rescued me. And that just burns him inside. I never thought he'd ever go this far, though.

I've never wanted anything more than to be around the people that understood me. And my guild…my friends…my family…understood me better in the past three weeks than he ever did in my seventeen years of living. I couldn't even have that much. The taste of freedom was nice while it lasted. Because I wasn't going to let anyone else get hurt because of me.

"Alright," I submitted, "I'll go with you if you leave Fairy Tail alone."

"What?" Erza jumped, "Lucy, what was he talking about? What treasure?"

"It's me," I explained, "I'm the treasure. I know the man that hired them and I can't believe he did. Yet, somehow, I can completely. Do we have a deal?"

"You're not the one to be making deals here, princess," Gajeel chuckled to himself, "But I guess if we have you, we don't have much reason to be hanging around Magnolia, though. There was the one girl I had on the tree…She was kind of cute. I'll have to look her up once I bring you back."

"Lucy, no!" Natsu stopped me, "I can't let you do this."

"Please," I felt the lump swelling in my throat, "I have to."

"I broke you out once," he reminded me, "Am I going to have to do that again?"

"No," I shook my head, "Don't make this any harder than it has to be."

"Gajeel, right?" Natsu held me behind him, "If I fight you and win, will you forget you ever saw us today and leave our guild alone?"

"What's this?" Gajeel awed, "You're going to put your entire guild on the line for one girl?"

"No, he's not," I managed to wiggle out of his grasp, "Natsu, no. No one else gets hurt because of me. You and Happy and Gray and Erza are going to go back to the guild hall and I'm going to go back where I belong."

"You belong at the guild with us!" Natsu begged, "And you know it!"

"Lucy," Erza tried talking me out of it, "You don't have to do this."

"And you guys don't have to suffer anymore," I let out a little sob, "I shouldn't have left in the first place."

"While we're young, sweetheart," Gajeel grew more impatient, "Let's go."

"Ok…"

"Lucy, no!"

A/N: I know. This is up late. I know. I said I might not update this week. Well…Here we are. I'm a terrible workaholic, in case you didn't know. On the plus side, my depression wasn't nearly as bad today as what it was last week (even though my anxiety replaced it). I'm still a little out of it, but that's to be expected. To all of you that were so sweet and so loving last week, you get a gold star and a hug. Also a quick my boi, my dude, and all of you, really. My Snapchat name has been up on my profile since day one for anyone that's wanted it. My Snapstories are always so delightful. Mostly my dog, occasionally my face. Good times. Now, a little book clubbing? We've introduced Gajeel this week! Even when he was still a raging douche canoe, I loved Gajeel. He's my husband and yes, I'm willing to fight Levy for him. He's my two favorite Dramatical Murder characters, for those who know what I'm talking about, in one body. I can't say no to that. Also, Gajeel cuddles have gotten me down from many a panic attack, so…yeah…special place in my heart. Now, I have an outline to do for tomorrow and then, I'm going to bed, so I'll see you next chapter! xx