hello! have finally updated after what seems like forever. my apologies. i've been too busy. plus, i was stuck on how to finish up this chap. there's a new character here. hope you enjoy it! :)

Chapter 14: The Intercept

Gray and Cana were in the middle of purchasing their train tickets at the train station, hell-bound on chasing Lucy and bringing her back before she did anything stupid (like going to find Sting, even though they were probably a little late for that). The mid-noon heat was sweltering hot and blazing down on their necks, and Gray was just about to open his mouth and complain about it when he noticed a panting Levy chasing after them, trying to get their attention.

"Gray! Cana!" panted Levy as she skidded to a halt in front of them, beads of sweat glistening on her tired face, making it obvious that she had run a marathon the whole way to find them.

The duo looked at each other in surprise. Why had Levy chased after them?

"Where… have you been? I've been… trying to find you two… all morning…" panted and puffed Levy, whose face was starting to resemble a cherry tomato in terms of shade and colour. Her blue hair was messy and tangled. An annoyed look showed on her face.

Gray spoke first. "Why have you been looking for us? We were going to… err, find Lucy." he shifted uncomfortably, a pang of sadness hitting him when he said Lucy's name, trying to hide the blush creeping onto his cheeks as he revealed that he had been searching for her, evidently forgetting that Cana was there as well.

Trying not to roll her eyes at Gray's blushing, Cana asked Levy why she had come all the way here chasing them.

"Master sent me. The council… they've sent us a code red emergency summons. All the magic guilds in Fiore have been sent one. They need our help." explained Levy. She had finally caught her breath.

Gray's mouth fell open. The council never sent emergency summons. Summons, occasionally, when they needed a little help. They usually had it covered. It was the council, for god's sake! Their sole purpose of existence was to keep all things magical under control… if it was an emergency…

What was going on?

"Why? What happened?" asked Cana shrilly, a note of alarm evident. Several people in the surroundings turned to stare at Cana. She ignored them.

Levy bit her lip. "I don't know, but master said to gather everyone as quickly as possible, the council is sending a representative in an hour to explain. Where's Lu-chan? She can't be gone at such a time like this."

"You'd be surprised." muttered Gray.

"Lucy's… gone." mumbled Cana, unsure of how to explain this untimely development.

"What do you mean, gone?" yelped Levy in a panic.

"She, uh… she ran amok. She went to… find Sting." mumbled Cana again.

"Sting… Sting Eucliffe from Sabertooth? Whatever for?" clearly the utterly confused Levy needed an explanation, but now was not the time for that.

A summons from the council wasn't something you could ignore. Lucy's absence was something they would have to bear with for now. Master needed as many guild members as he could muster for the emergency summons meeting, and losing one was better than losing three. Finding Lucy would just have to wait.

Gray gritted his teeth in frustration. He just really wanted to find Lucy and bring her home, where he could be sure no Sting was going to be there and mess with her feelings… he couldn't even take care of his nakama. Not that she was just nakama to him, but still. He felt so useless. He couldn't care for her as a friend, or a team mate, or as anything, for that matter. What kind of person was he, then?

"We'll look for her afterwards. Master needs us now, and our duty to the guild comes first. She'll be fine, she's got Loke and the other spirits… come on Gray. Let's go back to the guild first." Cana instinctively knew what was going through his head, and she knew that she had to remind him of his responsibilities as a Fairy Tail mage before his feelings for Lucy clouded his usually sensible judgement.

Levy reminded them that they had to hurry.

"But, Lucy…"

"Come on. She can take care of herself."

Looking like he had been forced to swallow something bitter, Gray nodded and started walking back. Cana and Levy followed suit.

"Is he okay? He looks worried about Lu-chan…" whispered Levy to Cana.

"Isn't he always?" muttered Cana, smiling grimly at how far she was stretching the actual truth.

Lucy felt awkward. Yes, that was the absolute perfect word to describe the situation right now.

She walked through the Sabertooth guild hall, her footsteps making a soft pattering sound against the cold stone floor. Beside her, Sting was silently striding with her, his hand gripping her's tightly. It was the only small comfort she could find. Rogue was walking beside Sting, as solemn as ever.

She felt all the eyes on her and Sting's intertwined fingers.

Everyone was staring; some gazes were laced with disdain, some were more questionable. The same question was ringing in the atmosphere: what was Sting doing with Lucy?

"Sting," Minerva cooed from the upstairs floor. Her cold features, attractive nonetheless, displayed nothing but disdain for Lucy. "You're late. The representative from the council is already here."

"We've been waiting." Rufus added quietly. "A good two minutes, to be exact."

"Why is she here?" boomed Orga questioningly. His eyes were sneering at the timid looking blonde girl, which made Sting tighten his hold on her hand protectively, ready to pounce on whoever tried to take her away. He wouldn't lose her again.

"I believe Sting owes us all an explanation, but that will have to wait." The giant-sized master of Sabertooth came into sight, his features appearing to be deep in thought of some sort, and Lucy felt his powerful gaze sweep onto her. She felt honestly terrified, like she was a mouse and the master was a cat. The power was entirely in his hands whether he wanted to keep her alive or zap her dead.

"Master-" Sting tried to say something, but the master's irritated expression silenced him.

"Later, Sting. I will deal with you later." Sting grimaced at the words deal with you, but the master didn't seem to take notice. "The representative has a purpose here."

Zia Canton sneezed, hard.

"Atish-oo!"

Could this day possibly get any worse? She groaned. First, came the rain when she was walking to work, then she lost her office ID, which meant she couldn't get into the council building without calling security first… And now, while she was doing what she did best (sending her messages, she was a messenger after all) here came the ultra cold weather while she was flying in the sky.

On the up side, flying was the fastest way of transport after all, at least to her anyway.

Zia was a metamorphosis mage. She could change and alter certain parts of her body to fit into her fighting advantage. Because of that, she never found transport a problem because she usually just grew a pair of wings and flew wherever she wanted. The only down side was that this drained her magic after long-term usage, so she was never really a good fighter.

She never really liked fighting anyway, she preferred watching.

After finishing her magic school, Zia decided to take a job with the council as a messenger. After becoming the fastest messenger in the offices, she was promoted to head messenger, which meant a pay raise and a stable job.

Zia sighed and shook the steamy cloud mist out of her wings, which were getting dampened from the cold damp weather.

She just felt so… hollow.

Yesterday, it had been a colleague's birthday. Everyone had planned the celebration, and yet… she felt like she hadn't been included. Like she was never included. There was nobody she really knew, really had a heart to heart connection with.

Would it always be this way? She wondered. Did she always have to be alone?

And there was also the fact that all her friends somehow had a boyfriend or someone they could go home to.

Her home might have been nicer in terms of construction, but she knew the inside was empty and in need of a little love, the little love which she could not give because she did not know how to.

She never felt so alone in her life.

Shaking herself out of her thoughts, Zia blinked and realised she had overshot her destination.

Zooming back and landing softly on the ground (and at the same time attracting everyone's attention), she smoothed her shirt and quickly detected the building she was supposed to enter.

Its giant round green doors beckoned to her.

She pushed the doors open and entered, flying straight to the top floor where the master's office was located, just like she always did.

A sword clashed with her path of flight and she swerved suddenly, very annoyed.

"Going somewhere?" a demented yet beautiful looking dark-haired young woman smirked darkly at her.

"I am here to see your master." Zia said coolly.

"Well, I'm the master's daughter, that's good enough I think? Why are you here?" demanded the dark-haired woman amusedly, like Zia was a little bug to her.

Zia's annoyance and dislike for the woman was growing rather rapidly. She didn't like these kinds of people, people who clearly thought they were better than everyone else and simply had to show it off to everyone they knew.

"Move. I came to see the master." said Zia quietly.

The dark-haired woman's smile narrowed.

"I could vaporize you, right on the spot. Would you like that you little tramp?" she whispered harshly into Zia's ear.

Zia flinched, but before she could do anything, the master's door opened, and out came the gargantuan form of the guild's master.

"Ah, Minerva, but I wouldn't like that very much. This messenger bears a rather important message from the council and I don't think they would appreciate if their head messenger got vaporized by us. Think of the budget cuts they would force on us, my dear daughter."

Zia felt a smirk creep onto her lips despite the situation. So, the lady's name was Minerva…

"Fine." Minerva pouted and started to climb back down the stairs to the first floor of the guild, which was where she had come from.

"There's more to where that came from," she whispered to Zia when the master was out of earshot. "Don't think I'm forgetting about this."

Zia tried to look brave as she entered the master's office.

Shortly after passing her message on, she watched the master's reaction. The master just sighed and said, "In my time, things were never this bad. People, people were good. Magic was meant to be a good thing… now look what its doing to the world. To think that there are things like this happening, I truly am sorry. For the world, I mean. I will gather my guild immediately. However, there are a few members whom I cannot reach immediately… you may have to wait awhile, Miss Canton."

And so she waited. And waited. And waited…

She started to get frustrated. Where was the last guild member? She wanted to fly home and get a good day's rest.

Finally, the master came back into the office and said, "You may go out now. The guild is gathered, and they are ready to hear your announcement."

Zia's only thought as she walked out of the office was that she really wanted to go home.

Lucy's mouth gaped in a small 'o' as she spotted the messenger.

She didn't know whether it was just her or the entire room stopped talking when the messenger walked in.

She had the most attractive pair of wings Lucy had ever seen. Okay, probably the only pair of wings Lucy had ever seen, not counting Mira's demon ones, but these were like… real wings. With feathers and all. They were big and feather-covered and a pretty ivory colour. And not to mention the equally stunning dark haired girl.

The girl looked about nineteen, her big brown eyes sharp and scrutinizing everyone in the room and her long black hair cascading down her back resembling a waterfall. Her body was long and lithe like a runner's, and Lucy suspected she was a former athlete, maybe during her high school days.

The girl introduced herself as Zia Canton.

Unrolling a rather long scroll, she began to read her announcement in a sharp voice, the kind that maybe your favourite teacher had.

"I come bearing a code red emergency message from the Magic Council. Your attention is highly prioritised as we urgently require your help. The situation for us is grave, and possibly dire. There has been a mass prison breakout, and ten high security cells have been broken into. The one suspected of breaking them out is Ivan Dreyar, the Fairy Tail guild master's disowned son."