So before I really get into the chapter, I'd like to remind you that telling me to update soon is not a happy time. I have been absolutely swamped with schoolwork, and the only reason I was able to get around to this is because of Winter Break, which, after recuperating from a semester from hell, ended more than a week ago.
And with that said, here's chapter 10 of Blood and Iron!
Lucy was pretty certain she'd stopped breathing completely. Wendy stood rigidly, head cocked to the side as she listened closely for any sound from the enemy. Erza quickly stepped up beside the window, carefully, and stood with her back to the wall so she wouldn't be seen. Lucy quietly stepped over to the still sleeping Lisanna and nudged her awake while also covering her mouth. She woke quickly and panicked, but when she saw Lucy's serious expression, she nodded in understanding. While the youngest white-haired sibling was taking stock of the situation, noting the youngest mage's rigidity, Erza was tensed and ready for battle, back firmly against the wall beside the window.
Rika mumbled as she woke up, but instantly quieted at the look on the exhausted celestial spirit mage's face.
"They've surrounded the apartment," Wendy's voice trembled, and her lips scarcely moved. "I can't tell how many of them there are, but there are a lot of them."
Rika's clothes rustled as she sat up warily, slowly. "They're here, then…?"
Erza gave one curt nod, and the detective frowned, a wrinkle forming in her brow momentarily. Lucy could imagine the gears turning in the woman's head. Rika's gaze turned to the lingering blonde, who just nodded gravely and finally stepped away. An idea was slowly forming in Lucy's head, and she only hoped that it worked in reverse.
"Warren," Lucy pleaded softly, willing herself to be heard by the telepathic mage, "Warren, please tell me you can hear me…"
"Lucy? What is it? Is there something wrong?" he sounded tired, but he was there, and that's all she needed to know.
Lucy let out a huge sigh of relief, even though she knew it was too early to consider them saved, and quickly reported, "Wendy says the apartment's surrounded. She's not sure how many there are, but she says there are several of them out there."
She heard a few choice swearwords, and then a quick apology for their telepathic communication, before he said, "I'll get as many people to help you as I can. Hang in there."
"Thanks," Lucy responded softly, "just be quick."
"What do we do while we wait for the cavalry to get here?" Rika asked as she pushed herself slowly to her feet, rolling her shoulders.
"We wait," Lucy said, reaching down to pat the keys at her belt and ensure they were there if she needed them. At Rika's incredulous look, the celestial spirit mage continued, "We wait for help to get here, and if they break in before help arrives, we try to fight them off. We're all big girls. We can handle ourselves."
As she said it, Lucy found herself eyeing Rika's long, carefully manicured nails, and she suspected, not for the first time, that they could be an asset in a grapple with the enemy. If worst came to worst, she could gouge out and eye or two and teach them to mess with a woman that took care of her fingernails. The blonde knew she didn't want anything to do with those nails, though, so she didn't want to ever be on the woman's bad side.
"And what do we do when they get here?" Rika prompted after a few long moments of eerie silence. "Do we go join them, or stay locked up in this room pretending we aren't here? Sooner or later, their boss will figure out that he had the right place when all his guys get taken care of, you know."
"We'll make an escape to Fairy Tail," Lisanna stated it as if it was obvious. "Even a guild ballsy enough to attack one of our mages wouldn't have the courage to take on the entire guild…and even if they are, they should have known better than to hurt a member of our extensive family in the first place."
Lucy and Erza made nearly instant sounds of approval, and Rika inched as close to the door as she could get. The expressions those three women wore were completely terrifying, and if that's what she'd have to face for opposing Fairy Tail, the woman decided she would never do something so foolish.
Anyone who opposed these women must have a death wish.
"Natsu? Gray? Can you guys hear me?"
Natsu perked up at the sound of Warren's voice, but it was Gray who answered casually, "Yeah, man, what's up?" as he dusted off his hands on the shirt of an unconscious mage.
"I know you're supposed to be helping Gajeel, but the girls are gonna need a hand. Wendy says the place is surrounded…"
The fire dragonslayer tensed, and this time it was he who responded, "Gajeel's fine, he's got Juvia and Lily with him. He found the way to where the bastards have Levy. We'll go help Lucy and Erza out, and then we can go see if Gajeel left any of them for us to play with."
Gray, expression dark, grunted in agreement. Happy looked back and forth and just gravely agreed with a typical, "Aye, sir!"
"They don't know how many there are, but like I said, Wendy says they're completely surrounded. Cana, Elfman, Evergreen, and Romeo are all on the way, and I'm trying to get a few other people to wake up and go help…"
"Don't sweat it too much," Gray's voice was calm, but his expression remained just as dark as it had been moments before, "We'll be there soon."
None of their party paid much attention to the rushed thank you and the bid farewell in their heads. Natsu and Gray glanced at each other and just nodded before turning in unison and sprinting towards Lucy's apartment. Happy, caught off guard by their unspoken agreement, wailed at being left behind and rushed to follow after them.
"Bastards!" Natsu growled as they ran, hurdling a few boxes sitting at the edge of the street. "Attacking Lucy's place like that, even though Levy told them Gajeel was her best friend!"
"They must have done their research," Gray responded, dodging a woman who seemed to be rushing home with a hurried, "'Scuse me!" What the ice mage didn't say was how much digging they would have had to do in order to get the information they needed. If they had that kind of information on Fairy Tail when they were supposed to be after the little girl instead, neither mage wanted to think about how deep their roots ran. They could acknowledge that they'd done their jobs remarkably well, but Gray didn't want to give them any more than that, and Natsu was loathe to give them that much credit in the first place.
He just wanted to blow their plans to smithereens, in true Dragneel style.
Every single woman stiffened when a knock came at the apartment door. Lizzie stirred in her sleep and Lisanna, crouched by the bed, started to wake the girl up gently. She shushed the little blunette as she came to, whispering in a voice barely audible, "We have to be really quiet, Lizzie," as she coaxed the child out of the bed and into her arms.
The knock came again. Rika took a deep breath, her back to the wall beside the door. Lucy had no idea what the woman was planning to do when mages burst through the door, but she hoped it wasn't anything too foolish. Rika was just a detective, after all, and it wouldn't be good if the police force's member got hurt while Fairy Tail's Mirajane was kept cozy and safe at the Police Station. But as long as they knocked instead of bursting into the room, they wouldn't have to worry about it.
Three sharp, impatient raps at the door followed after a few more seconds.
The women remained silent as Lisanna convince Lizzie to hide under the bed for a little while, shoving a pillow from the couch under it with her so that she could be a little more comfortable. Wendy slid her upper half under the bed to help Lizzie get settled, and then pulled herself back. Her eyes were wary as she tried to pinpoint the scent of the enemy.
A nod from the young dragonslayer was proof that the person on the other side of the door was not one of their comrades, so Lucy remained still in her crouched position by the armchair Lisanna had slept in earlier. Erza remained by the window, as she had been since Wendy first warned them of the enemy's presence, and they waited for the next move. Either their reinforcements would show up and distract the enemy, or the mages hired by Equivalence—as Lucy assumed—would bust into her 70,000 jewel apartment, wreck the place in the ensuing fight, and leave her to pay for all the damages!
It wasn't the time to fret about the cost of her apartment and repairs, though, the blonde scolded herself mentally.
Bang! Bang! Bang!
Rika jumped at the extremely unnecessary noise. Someone was banging on the door now, and stopped only after five or six obnoxious poundings. Lucy groaned inwardly and knew her neighbors were going to hate her for this. It was a wonder they hadn't come out to complain yet, but she had to stay silent and pray that they wouldn't. She didn't want anyone to get hurt.
"Lucy!" the voice in her head made her start, but luckily she didn't make a sound. "Natsu and Gray are on their way! Cana said she's just a few streets away with Romeo, and Elfman and Evergreen should be there soon! How are you guys holding up?"
Warren's message came as a relief—but again, the blonde knew they weren't out of the woods yet.
"They've been banging on my door for several minutes," Lucy breathed. "They're getting impatient."
And that's when the door exploded inward, causing Rika to exclaim in terror, forgetting whatever plan she'd concocted as she tripped backwards. Lucy shouted a quick, "They're in!", directed at Warren, before whipping a key out at random. She eyed the symbol and, with relief, proceeded through the steps to call out Capricorn just as the first of three mages slipped into the room.
A vine managed to wrap itself around Lucy's leg, courtesy of a leering mage that remained in the hall, while Capricorn was busy with the others. Erza started forward, engaging a requip mage that had been distracted by Capricorn, and before Lucy could do anything to get the vine off, Rika had thrown herself at the mage controlling it, tackling him to floor and digging her manicured claws into his neck as she held him down. The vine loosened momentarily, and the blonde yanked her leg free as the sound of shattering glass from behind reached her.
Lisanna had instantly done a partial panther takeover when the door had burst, and she let out a shout as she took a swipe at one of the two figures that burst in through the window.
Luckily, he dodged it…sort of. Gray let out a frustrated exclamation as Happy dropped him to avoid Lisanna's claws. The ice mage hit the ground rolling and, taking stock of the situation, took the opportunity to freeze the floor. Lucy's furniture, including the couch she had leapt on to avoid the still grasping vine, started to slide, and she jumped onto the back of Erza's opponent, leaning backward to make him slip. As soon as she felt him lose his balance, she let herself drop heavily to her freezing floor and rolled to her feet before he could fall on top of her.
"Get the kid to Fairy Tail," Gray directed at Lucy—he knew better than to bark an order at Erza, for Mavis's sake—and then turned back the way he'd come, leaping from the window almost as quickly as he'd shattered it, shouting, "Ice Make Hammer!" as he fell into the fray outside.
Erza looked very much like she wanted to join, but knowing that she was needed here, chose instead to pick up her opponent and Capricorn's opponent by their shirts and toss them bodily from the broken window. Lucy heard the splash of the canal, and was once again completely flabbergasted by her friend's insane strength.
But she couldn't dwell on the fact because they needed to get Lizzie away from here, and fast.
"Capricorn, stay here and help outside," Lucy demanded quickly, trying to regulate her balance on the ice-covered floor of her apartment. "Happy, are you going to stay here with Natsu or come with us? We might be able to use your help if some of them follow us, but I know that Natsu and the others can handle themselves here."
"I'll come," Happy declared grandly, dropping on Lizzie's head as Lisanna stood from the side of the bed with the child riding piggyback. Her feet were almost like walrus flippers or something, most likely so she didn't fall on the ice while carrying Lizzie.
"Let's get moving," Erza demanded brusquely, already at the door. Rika scrambled up from the mage she'd managed to knock unconscious all on her own—Lucy was insanely jealous that she had managed to take out someone alone, where Lucy had relied upon Capricorn and Erza—and followed the redhead. Lucy motioned Lisanna to go next, and Wendy after. The celestial spirit mage herself took up the rear as their entourage sprinted down the stairs, where Cana had just triumphed over another mage, and out into the dusk.
As she darted toward Natsu, following closely behind Wendy, Lucy managed to breathe a, "Thanks!"
She barely caught the childish grin he flashed her as she drew even with and passed him. He yelled, "No problem, Lucy!" at her retreating back, and she raised a hand as she hurdled the unconscious mage that Elfman threw into her path with bellowed, manly apology.
Immediately after that, she had to force herself to an abrupt halt as an enemy sped towards her—speed magic like Jet's—and her quick action sent him toppling into the canal. She took off running again, desperate to catch up to the others as Wendy roared to dissuade two more attackers.
"Lucy, what's going on?!"
And for the first time since the door of her apartment had imploded, the celestial spirit mage realized that Warren hand been shouting at her for information the entire time. She'd been so caught in the moment, she'd missed it, but now she laughed. "Natsu and the others are handling things at the apartment. We're bringing Lizzie to the guild!" was the sentence she managed between breaths.
She despised how hard it was to run and talk all at the same time, because she was dying to ask how Gajeel and Juvia were getting along.
Those assholes that had blocked Gajeel's way lay unconscious all over the front walk to the unwelcoming stone house. Juvia hadn't even lifted a finger, and she hadn't even made an attempt. The way he was now, and the level that those men were at? She wasn't needed, at least not then. So she simply followed her best friend as he stopped at the foot of the stairs, cocking his ears for any sound from the Bookworm. When he didn't hear anything, he let himself pay attention to the scent.
And it was everywhere. They'd brought her this way, then. She was still here.
"Gihihi…" Gajeel's dark laugh sent a shiver up the water mage's spine, and she took a few steps back as shadows once more swirled to life around his feet. She didn't want to get caught in any backlash from the iron shadow dragonslayer, that was for sure. "I wonder how many of them are left in there?"
He cracked his knuckles before turning his arms to iron once more. The studs along his arms jutted out as spikes, and then he held his arms out in front of him. With a dark grin, he shot both iron limbs and shadows straight at the doors, where they splintered into thousands of slivers of wood. With a flick of his wrists, his arms were back to normal and Gajeel was leaping into the hole he'd created, pummeling a confused looking mage in the face.
With a sigh, Juvia stepped up and sent a boiling jet of water at the man trying to sneak up on the dragonslayer.
"Gajeel, leave them to Juvia," she told him sternly, whipping a trail of water at his next opponent and knocking the man aside. "Juvia will handle them while you go and find Levy."
The big man just grunted his acknowledgement, slamming an approaching man into a nearby wall with no trouble at all as he started toward a staircase at the end of the hall. Juvia followed that direction at a slower pace, making sure any who came at either of them ended up seeing stars. As she watched him disappear down the stairs, her eyes narrowed and she focused on keeping all the new enemies occupied while defending the top of the stairs.
The water mage made surprisingly quick work of the few men attacking her, few of whom turned out to be mages themselves. She dusted her hands off unnecessarily and turned to follow the sounds of Gajeel forcing his way through whatever enemies remained downstairs.
Gajeel could tell that Levy was down here. Her scent was stronger than before, and so was the scent of her blood. She was here, though, and with every step he took she was getting closer. Those damn bastards that kept getting in his way wouldn't be able to stop him now that she was practically within his reach for the first time in far too long. They would never get away with taking her away, with hurting her…not as long as he was alive.
"That's a rather scary expression, my friend," a man stood in front of Gajeel, smirking, and the dragonslayer glared at him. He did slow to a halt, however, because there was something different about this man. And as the two stared at each other, Gajeel realized exactly what it was.
This man smelled more strongly of Levy's blood than anyone else.
"You ain't no friend o' mine," Gajeel managed to growl past his gritted teeth, "so get outta my way."
The man feigned surprise, raising his eyebrows. The cold expression of his eyes didn't change, and when he shifted, Gajeel saw him wipe a distinctly red hand against his black pants. The brunette sighed and said, "That hurts. You must be here for my guest, then? I'm afraid our mutual friend isn't quite up to having company right now…" his eyes narrowed, and he grinned maliciously at the dragonslayer that was decidedly larger than he himself. "I'm afraid I'll have to send you off."
Bastard, Gajeel spat mentally, but said aloud, "You can try."
Nothing I typed for this chapter sounded right when I got down to the last part with Gajeel and Juvia. It feels a little rushed and maybe slightly confusing to me, but I've read it and re-read it and can't figure out a better way to write it so I hope you guys like it as-is!
I apologize for the late updates on my stories! School takes a heavy toll on me, and I don't always have all the time I'd like to write. I'm going to try to do a little better this semester, so bear with me!
Thanks for reading.