"Can I just say thanks for getting me out of that?" Bozo asked Juvia, as they clattered down the stairs. "The master may be a great mage, but he doesn't really understand administration. I was worried I'd be there until tomorrow morning."
"Bozo is welcome," Juvia said shortly. She wanted to know what the master and Lucy were talking about! She and Bozo reached the hall at one end of the mezzanine where the guild's inter-branch communications lacrima was housed.
"You do it. They're not going to listen to me," Bozo said.
"Bozo is too unkind to himself," Juvia said reflexively, even though it was completely true. She stepped closer to the lacrima. "Calling Ivy Town, Subdivision Twenty-Seven!"
"Monsieur Sol!" A First Division girl unlatched the gate to Sol's garden and stepped inside. "You've had a message from Juvia of the Deep at Oak Town!" She looked around. The garden was lit by lamps on wrought iron posts. The walls were covered with such thick blankets of white clematis they looked like tethered clouds. The whole garden was a riot of flowers and colour and overwhelmingly thick intermingled scents. She took another step, gravel crunching under her boots. "Juvia says-" The earth ruptured under her feet. "Yeek!"
Sol burst out of the ground in a spray of gravel and wound tight around her. "Non, non, non, mademoiselle, I condemn your actions with three nons! Were you not warned never to enter my garden?"
"I'm sorry!" she yelped. "There's a message from-"
"Non, non, non! That is entirely incorrect!"
"Uh, crap – je suis très désolé!"
The coils tightened around her, squeezing the air out of her lungs.
"You are not un homme, are you, mademoiselle?"
The girl wheezed. "Je suis très désolée!" Her eyes rolled back in her head.
"Oui, oui, oui!" Sol let go of her. She fell forward into the gravel, gasping. "How kind of you to bring me a message! Qu'est-ce qui se passe?"
"Juvia called," she rasped. "The master wants you at Oak Town right now! Fairy Tail's pulled some stupid crap, and we're going to destroy them!"
Some way outside Amaryllis Town, Totomaru drew his katana and held it by his side, ready for a quick upwards slash. The bandits fell back.
"Are you all too craven to fight me?" Totomaru taunted them. "Against unarmed civilians, old women and small children, you'll attack without hesitation, but you're too afraid to face one of Phantom Lord's Element oh fuck it my lacrima crystal's buzzing." He sheathed his katana and rummaged through his clothes. He said more bad words. "Where's it gone?!" The crystal had rolled around the back of his jacket. He wriggled out of one sleeve and twisted to reach it. "There!"
The bandits stared. Totomaru held up one finger to them and activated the lacrima. "It's Totomaru. What do you want? … On whose authority? Juvia's? Fine. When? Now? Why? … fucking finally! I'll be there by morning!" He deactivated the lacrima crystal, dropped it back into his jacket, turned and walked away.
"Hey!" one of the bandits yelled after him. "Where do you think you're going?"
Totomaru turned, drawing his katana from its sheath. "White Fire!" He slashed the sword through the air. An arc of eyesearing white flame erupted in its wake. The blast picked the bandits up and flung them back like rag dolls, tore leaves and small branches from the trees, and ruffled up Totomaru's hair.
Totomaru fixed his hair, sheathed his sword again and headed back to Amaryllis Town.
"Man, you had to ask," another bandit groaned to the first, and passed out.
In Rue Town's famous opera hall, the soprano lay on the stage with her red silk robe pooled around her. The violinists struck up a mournful melody. Slowly, the soprano rose to her knees, clasped her hands to her chest and launched into the famous aria, Mi fa male la gamba.
For some people, the aria was drowned out by a deep voice booming "Oh, how sorrowful! Where does this grief come from? Is this the tragedy of a strong woman brought low?" Many of those people had paid five thousand jewel apiece for their seats. They were not impressed.
The door at the back of the private box opened. "Aria? Sir?" A skinny First Division mage slipped into the box. Slowly and silently, Aria turned his head to look at him. "We've received a call from Juvia Lockser." Aria stood up. "She's requested that you go to the Oak Town branch as quickly as possible. Master Jose is planning a strike against Fairy Tail." Aria crossed quickly to the back of the box and held out both hands over the mage, palms turned towards him.
"Airspace: Metsu!" Golden light flared up around the mage. He shrieked in agony and fell to the floor as his magic was torn out of him. Aria went back to the front of the box.
The soprano had stopped singing. The violinists had frozen. Every face was turned towards Aria's box.
"From the beginning, please," Aria called down, and settled back into his seat.
Juvia stepped away from the lacrima and exhaled.
"Aria's at the opera? Guess we should expect him in about a week, then," Bozo said. Juvia pursed her lips, because it would be unprofessional of her to comment on a fellow mage of the Element Four.
"Juvia will find Lucy. Please notify Gajeel of the situation, if you see him."
"Will do," Bozo said. Juvia went back upstairs. When she got to Master Jose's audience chamber, he was just coming out. He shut the door firmly behind him.
"Is there a problem, Juvia?"
"Where is Lucy?"
"I dismissed her twenty minutes ago," Master Jose said. "Have you not seen her? Oh, dear. She wouldn't have tried to go home, would she? She seemed terribly overwrought..."
Lucy wouldn't have left the guild. Lucy wasn't stupid, Juvia thought. Lucy also wasn't anywhere upstairs, or in the beer hall, or in the library, or the kitchen, or the bathrooms, or the small dormitory where two subdivisioners were currently unconscious in a haze of alcohol fumes.
Rain began to patter on the roof of the beer hall. Juvia walked quietly from the bottom of the steps to the table where Sue and Bozo were sitting.
"Juvia cannot find Lucy," Juvia said. "Have you seen Lucy?"
"Not since you both came in like an hour ago," Sue said, and looked up. She blanched. "H-hey... what's with that face?"
Juvia didn't answer. She turned and raced out of the hall into the street. Lucy could not have tried to go home! Why would Lucy have left Juvia? But Lucy was not in the guild hall, and there was nowhere else she could have gone, and if she had gone out then Fairy Tail could have-
Juvia ran straight into Gajeel with a splash.
"Hey! Lockser! Look where you're going!" He swiped water off his face with a disgusted noise.
"Juvia cannot find Lucy!" Juvia cried.
"So?" Gajeel said. "You're not keeping her on a leash, are you? I know you're clingy, but that's going too far."
"Fairy Tail has kidnapped her!"
"What?" Gajeel screwed his face up. "Is that something that happened, or something you imagined?"
"Fairy Tail's Dragon Slayer tried to kidnap her! We defeated him, but now I don't know where Lucy is!"
"What? That trash!" Gajeel clenched his fists. "You think another one's grabbed her? Are you sure?"
Juvia wavered. "Juvia is not certain. But Lucy is not in the guild, and if she tried to get home-"
"-then she might have got there, right? Don't freak out when you don't even know she's in trouble! Where's she live, anyway?"
Lucy's flat was two doors away from Juvia's house. Juvia pushed one finger into the lock, reshaped her water until it matched Lucy's door key, and twisted. The door opened.
"Handy," Gajeel said.
"Lucy? Lucy!" Juvia shouted, hurrying up the stairs. Lucy didn't answer.
"Oi, princess!" Gajeel yelled.
"She wouldn't answer you if she didn't answer me," Juvia said.
"Maybe she didn't hear you," Gajeel said, and imitated Juvia's high nervous voice. "Lucy, Lucy!"
Juvia ignored that. "Lucy cannot have been here since we were attacked. Look!" Lucy's whip and ice knuckleduster had been tossed casually onto the kitchen table. "If she had come here, she would have retrieved any weapons she had!"
Gajeel sniffed the air. "She ain't been here in a while. The place stinks of her, but nothing recent."
"Why does Gajeel keep repeating what Juvia tells him?" Juvia said.
"Why are you the only one who gets to investigate? I can detect shit too!"
Juvia's house was empty as well. The conclusion was obvious: Lucy had tried to go home to her flat, or to Juvia's house, and been ambushed by Fairy Tail on the way. Juvia wailed. The rain hammered on the roof.
"Calm down!" Gajeel barked. "We're going to kick the shit out of them for this anyway. You can rescue Lucy at the same time – not that it's worth the effort if she managed to get her ass handed to her by the Fairy Butts, but if that's what you want I can't be bothered to stop you," he added quickly. "Let's head back to the guild!"
When they returned, Master Jose had left for the headquarters. Juvia and Gajeel marched straight up to the communications lacrima to shout over each other at him.
"We need to rescue Lucy!" Juvia said.
"We need to punish the bastards!" Gajeel barked. "And I guess save the blonde princess. If there's time."
"They could have already sent Lucy back to her father!" Juvia cried. "He could have locked her in his attic! He could lock her in his attic and feed her rats until she goes mad!" She buried her face in her hands. Out of sight, Master Jose rolled his eyes.
"Wait, is that why they want her?" Gajeel asked. "Her dad's paid them off?"
"...Why did Gajeel think they wanted her?" Juvia asked.
"Well-" Gajeel cupped his hands about a foot in front of his chest.
"No," Juvia said.
"Gajeel. Juvia," Master Jose said. "Obviously, it was foolish of Lucy to allow herself to be captured, but there's no reason to believe she's in any danger. Don't do anything rash. In fact, don't do anything unless I tell you to."
"Master!" Gajeel and Juvia said simultaneously.
"This is an order," Master Jose said. His eyelids drooped down, giving his face a sinister cast. "Makarov will be punished for daring to insult me this way, and his pathetic excuse for a guild will be crushed beneath our superior strength. The preparations to mobilise the Headquarters are already underway. Which is why I don't want either of you charging into their guild hall now demanding Miss Heartfilia back! Is that clear?"
"Yes, Master," Gajeel said.
Master Jose turned his attention to Juvia. "Is that clear, Juvia?"
"Yes, Master," Juvia said grudgingly.
"Good. Please call the rest of the First Division and order them to Magnolia," Master Jose said, and deactivated his communications lacrima. Why had Master Jose not told Juvia to do that when he sent her to call the rest of the Element Four? Juvia supposed it could have been simply an excuse to send her away, if Master Jose had wanted to speak to Lucy in private. She stalked out onto the mezzanine and banged her hands down on the railing. "Juvia wants to act now!"
"Calm down! Master's planning, isn't he? She'll be back before the shops close," Gajeel growled. Juvia leant against the railing of the mezzanine, her lower lip sticking out. "Juvia is worried! Juvia doesn't know where Lucy is or if she is hurt or-"
"Ugh, I'm not going to deal with all this feelings crap," Gajeel grumbled, and stomped past her down the stairs.
The front doors swung open wide. "Excuse me!" a woman called. "We have a message for Master Jose from Master Makarov!"
Gajeel stopped. Juvia lifted her head. Three Fairy Tail mages were standing in the doorway. Titania Erza, instantly recognisable, red hair soaking wet and plastered flat to her skull from Juvia's rain; Mirajane, the pinup girl, less recognisable when fully dressed; and her younger brother, 'Beast Arm' Elfman. Gajeel grinned and started down the steps, clenching his fists so that the leather of his gloves creaked. This ought to be fun -
Then Juvia stormed straight past him. "Where is Lucy Heartfilia?"
Mirajane took a step back. "What do you mean?"
"We have no interest in where Lucy Heartfilia is," Erza said, stepping forward past Mirajane. "You're Juvia of the Deep, yes? We received a request to retrieve her, but-"
"We know that," Gajeel sneered. "Considering your weakass Dragon Slayer already tried to jump her and got his ass kicked for it."
Mirajane went white. "...Natsu," Erza snarled, with murder in her eyes.
"What did you do with him?!" Mirajane demanded.
"Said he got his ass kicked, didn't I?"
"This is enough talking!" Juvia screamed. "Water Slicer!"
"Mira, run!" Erza shouted and leapt forward, requipping into a skimpy green armour that resembled seaweed as she did. She slashed away two of the water arcs. The others hit square across her torso. One of the shoulder plates fractured. "She's overloading the armour?" Erza gasped. "Mira! Run!"
Mirajane whirled and fled out of the door. "Bozo, Sue! Don't let her get away!" Gajeel barked. He raced down the steps and swung an iron-fisted punch at Elfman, who caught it in both hands, one human and one with scales like a lizard's.
"Not bad, for scum," Gajeel sneered.
"A man is still a man even if he's scum!" Elfman retorted.
"Gihihi!" Gajeel said. He transformed one leg into an iron bar and slammed a vicious kick into Elfman's solar plexus that sent him flying backwards, air wheezing from his lungs. "Don't flatter yourself. Trash's just trash!"
Juvia brought both her hands together. "Water Blast!" Even through the armour's nullifying field, the jet of high-pressure water swept Erza off her feet, spun her over and around and slammed her into the wall. The plaster cracked and the bricks cratered under the impact. Her sword was torn from her hand. One of the greaves cracked.
Erza staggered to her feet, dizzy and dripping wet. The armour couldn't take another hit like that. Juvia stretched out both hands and screamed "Water Cyclone!" A magical seal formed in front of her and blasted out a torrent of raging water. Erza requipped a pair of cutlasses, and as the maelstrom hit she sliced through it in a blur of gleaming metal. The cyclone collapsed. Erza leapt through the falling water and slashed both cutlasses downwards straight through Juvia's chest. Juvia didn't bother to dodge. All the attack achieved with bringing Erza into close range.
"Water Jigsaw!" Juvia's body transformed into a whirling mass of blades. Erza was flung aside into a table, which broke under the impact. The subdivisioners who had been sitting there scrambled up and ran. The sea-green armour shattered.
Erza had requipped into a new set of armour before the pieces could even hit the ground. This one was white and pale blue, with gold trim and a skirt made from four leaves of fabric. A spear with two points solidified in her hands. She spun the spear over her head, electricity crackling as it built up between its twin points, and brought it down hard. "Lightning Strike!"
The electric bolt tore through Juvia and threw her down, but her agonised cry rose higher and became a scream of fury. "Juvia doesn't care what you do! Juvia doesn't care about pain! Juvia will not forgive anyone who tries to take Lucy away from her!"
"Is she a berserker?" Erza rasped.
Juvia slammed both palms against the floor. "Sierra!" The water that made up her body boiled. Erza switched armour again, to a white leather leotard with orange pauldrons and a pair of one-handed swords, and gripped the hilts tight. Juvia lunged at Erza.
Erza brought her swords up, aimed squarely at Juvia's chest, and Juvia hurled herself onto them. There was a sick wet squelching sound as she forced her body further onto the blades, until the hilts were buried in her chest. Erza stumbled back. Juvia brought her fist up, surrounded with pressurised water, and nailed Erza with a solid left hook. It was like being blasted with a fire-hose at point-blank range. Erza went flying, skidded along the floor, and crashed into the wall.
"Erza!" Elfman yelled.
"Pay attention!" Gajeel shouted, and landed a solid punch to Elfman's gut that doubled him over. Gajeel brought both iron-scaled fists down on the back of the other mage's neck, and he crumpled to the floor. Gajeel planted a boot square on Elfman's head.
"Should I finish this trash off?" he asked the guild as a whole.
"Finish him off!" they roared. Gajeel swung one arm up and transformed it into an iron bar. Erza staggered to her feet, and as Gajeel brought his arm down for a killing blow she threw herself between him and Elfman. The impact of the iron bar across her back knocked her down and left her sprawling over Elfman. Her armour disintegrated, leaving her in a plain white blouse and blue skirt.
Gajeel put the boot in a couple of times, in an experimental way, but neither of the Fairy Tail mages moved. They weren't getting up again in a hurry.
"Trash," he said. "Master Jose'll want them taken to the headquarters."
Mira raced through the streets, breath sawing in her throat. Nothing was familiar. She didn't recognise anything she saw. She'd badly lost her way. She needed to get out of Oak Town and back to Magnolia, tell Master what had happened-
Mira's feet stopped moving. The rest of her tumbled forward onto the ground. "Ow!" Mira tried to scramble back to her feet and couldn't. Her legs were paralysed. "Let me go!" Mira shouted, staring around wildly for her attacker. "Where are you?"
"Over here! Hello!" A green-haired boy with headphones around his neck ambled into her line of sight. "So, what's a pretty girl like you doing in a place like-"
Mira flicked her fingers at his face. "Sleep!" The Phantom mage's eyes rolled up in his head and he fell backwards.
Behind Mira, a girl gasped "Rossa!" There was another one?! Mira twisted to look around. A heavy staff slammed into the back of her head. Lights burst behind her eyes. She slumped forward. Lee Annur hurried to Rossa's side.
"Hey! Lee! You got her!" Sue called, as she and Bozo hurried up. "What's wrong with Rossa?"
"That bitch knocked him out," Lee Annur said. She pulled Rossa's arm over her shoulder and stood up, pulling him with her. His head lolled against her shoulder. "Do you think he'll be okay?"
"Well, he's survived moped crashes, burning buildings and being eaten by a kraken, but yeah, falling over in the street, that's lethal," Bozo said.
"Maybe in the future you should wrap him up entirely in cotton wool and keep him in a box," Sue suggested.
Lee Annur made a rude gesture at both of them and added "Agares, begone," to the crocodile-demon, which vanished in a puff of brimstone.
"Thanks for that," Sue said, looking down at Mirajane. "No, seriously, thanks, zero sarcasm. Guess what Gajeel did? Told us to chase after her and then started brawling in the doorway."
Lee Annur rolled her eyes. "Typical – what's she done, anyway?"
Bozo and Sue both looked at her oddly. "You haven't heard?"
"Heard what?" Lee Annur said. "We saw Fairy Tail's chief slut running for it and Rossa figured we should stop her."
"...typical," Sue said.
Lucy woke up face-down on the floor with her wrists tied behind her back. For a moment, she lay still, puzzled by the cold stone under her cheek. She lifted her head up, mumbled a dozy "Huh... hey, is anyone-" and then reality caught up with her.
She'd been captured by Fairy Tail!
Lucy sat up and stared around. Her heart was pounding. She was in a tiny stone cell. Her keys weren't on her belt. She kicked out against the floor and couldn't feel Serpens' key in her boot.
The room was completely bare and empty, nothing she could use as a weapon. She couldn't see any sign of where she was or how long she'd been lying there unconscious. There was a tiny barred window in the steel door, though. Lucy got to her feet with difficulty and went to peer through the window. Master Jose looked back at her.
Lucy gasped and threw herself backwards. She landed on her bound wrists with a cry of pain. Master Jose pushed the door open.
"Master?! What's going on?" Lucy scrambled to her feet. Was he here to help her?
He was smiling like he wasn't here to help her.
"Objecting to the conditions, are we?" Jose smirked down at her. "True, this filthy cell is hardly fitting accomodation for a young lady of your status, but you are currently a prisoner so I hope you'll be understanding."
It took Lucy a second to understand that. "You – you're - you can't imprison me! I'm in your guild!"
Master Jose chuckled. Lucy backed away from him. "I'm afraid that's exactly why I can imprison you. We have accommodation prepared for an honoured guest, rather than for a prisoner-"
"What's that supposed to mean?" A millipede ran over her foot. Lucy kicked it off and stamped on it.
"If you show a little more cooperation than you have, I'll transfer you to the luxury suite," Jose promised. Lucy could guess that the luxury suite would still have locks on the doors and bars on the windows. A prison in a palace with mile after mile of gardens and a regiment of fawning maids was still a prison. She exploded.
"I'm not going back! I'm not going back to that house!"
"Oh, my," Jose said. "What a troublesome young lady." He was smirking.
"Let me go, right now!" Lucy barked. "I'm a mage of your guild! Doesn't that mean anything to you?" Hot tears stung her eyes. "I would have been better off if Fairy Tail caught me!"
"Now, now," Jose chided her. "Throwing a tantrum won't achieve anything."
Lucy swallowed back an angry retort, because he was right. She lifted her head and looked around the cell. No way out except the door Jose was standing in. Behind him, she could see sky and distant mountains. It sparked off a faint memory. Something Sue had said, about the prisons at the headquarters...
"I can get out of here," she said, though there was a tremor in her voice.
Jose laughed. "You have heard of our Sky Cells, yes?" Lucy nodded. That was what Sue had called them. Jose turned and gestured out to the vast expanse of sky. The wind ruffled his cloak. Lucy took a step forward. "You are a hundred feet above the ground." Lucy took another step forward. "Even if you were able to get through the door, you would still have to-" Lucy tackled him through the door and off the ledge. They fell, screaming.