Kidnapping Erza
By CrimsonStarbird
Chapter Twenty-One: Team Effort
How long Jellal remained in that place he did not know. It might have been an hour that passed for him, or only a few minutes. He would have been content to stay there with Erza forever.
He should have hated it. He knew that. She had found him when he was at his most vulnerable; beaten and broken and about to give up – no, he had already given up. He had never wanted anyone to see him so weak.
But the thing was, it didn't matter. Pride and strength and reputation – none of that meant anything right now. What mattered was that she was alive. What mattered was that she had come back for him. What mattered was that she didn't care how helpless he was; she was just there, holding him in her arms and asking for nothing in return, bringing him slowly back from that nightmare.
No, it didn't matter at all, if it was her. If he could stay here with her, things would be alright-
BING-BONG.
Both of them started at the unexpected sound of the airship's public address system. They exchanged embarrassed glances, and Erza was in the process of helping Jellal to his feet when the subsequent announcement stopped him in his tracks.
"Good afternoon, ladies and gentlemen. This is your First Officer speaking."
Jellal blinked. "Is that… Mira?"
"Sounds like it," Erza agreed.
"But… that barmaid can't possibly fly a ship like this!"
Erza raised her eyebrows. "That barmaid," she echoed crisply, "Just landed a prototype biplane carrying six additional passengers on top of a moving airship. I don't think there's anything she can't do."
"As you've probably noticed," Mira continued, her voice ringing throughout the entire ship. "There appears to be an infestation of dark mages on board today's flight. I would like to assure all passengers that we have our best exterminators looking at the problem, and we fully expect it to be resolved shortly. In unrelated news, I anticipate that we will soon be flying through a, uh, completely normal elemental storm, so if you happen to see any water, ice, iron, Celestial Spirits, or, uh, words flying about the ship, there is no need to panic; this is, as I say, completely normal for Fiore airspace at this time of year. Once again, let me assure you that everything is completely under control, and I will keep you up to date as the situation progresses."
Silence fell as the last reverberations of the somewhat surreal announcement faded away. Jellal looked at Erza, still very much bemused. "Water, ice, iron, Spirits, words," he pondered. "Juvia, Gray, Gajeel, Lucy, Levy? Why are they here? Is this your doing, Erza?"
"It has nothing to do with me," she told him calmly. "When Natsu and I mentioned that we were heading up to the airship on a rescue mission, they volunteered to come with us of their own free will. I told them not to, but they wouldn't listen to me. They all care about you, you know."
As the familiar annoyance began creeping back into his expression, she placed her hand on his shoulder. "You can't always be strong by yourself. And, the thing is – you don't have to be. We're your team. We're here for you. Use us."
He stared at her for a long moment. Then, without saying a word in response, he strode over to the control panel beside the door and held down the intercom button for the bridge. "Bridge, this is, uh, Prisoner Bay #1. Do you read me?"
"Loud and clear, Captain," came Mira's immediate response. "Glad to hear you're alive and well."
"Are the others there with you?"
"Gajeel and Juvia are up on the top deck, re-negotiating the terms of their release with their ex-Guild Master," she chuckled. "I've got Gray, Lucy and Levy here with me. We're awaiting your instructions, Captain. This is your mission. Tell us where you want us."
Jellal glanced at Erza, who gave him a nod of encouragement. "Alright," he said. "Then listen closely. Gray, I want you to head to the dining hall on the passenger floor. That's where the hostages are being kept. Rescue Natsu and Happy, and take out the enemies threatening the passengers."
"Got it," the ice mage agreed. "I can't wait to see Natsu's face when I swoop in and save him."
"Good. Lucy?"
"Yes?" she responded, a little apprehensively.
"Somewhere on board this airship is a magic portal Jose set up. It's how they managed to smuggle so many dark mages onto the ship. If it works how I think it does, your Spirits should be able to help you find it. Secure it, and cut off their escape route. Be careful, though. It'll be well-defended."
"I'll do my best," she said.
"I'll come over to back you up once I've saved Natsu's skin yet again," Gray offered.
Levy piped up, "What about me?"
Jellal thought for a moment. "Come and meet me up on the top deck. I want to speak to you in person."
"Sure," she replied, intrigued.
"And, Mira?" Jellal finished. "Set a course for Magnolia. As soon as you're within radio range, try to get in touch with the guild, and let them know what's going on up here. We're going to need some help."
If any of them were surprised that the aloof councillor had sincerely admitted that he needed help, they took it in their stride. "Sure thing, Captain," Mira said, and the intercom cut off in a crackle of static.
Silence fell once again upon the dark little room, but it wasn't an oppressive silence, not any more. Jellal could tell that Erza was happy – and maybe even proud – that he had accepted the help of their team, but she didn't say a thing. Instead, she just asked, "What about us?"
He turned his gaze upwards, as if he could see through the ceiling to the deck far above. "Juvia and Gajeel are fighting Jose, huh?"
"Do you think they can win? They're both strong, and they'll know all the secrets of Jose's magic."
"That works both ways," Jellal pointed out, remembering his own fight with Sho, Wally and Millianna only a few days ago. "And even with both of them working together, they're not stronger than Jose."
"Are you stronger than Jose?"
His scowl gave the answer away. "You can't take the Wizard Saint rankings at face value," he grumbled. "They always make the new guy start from the bottom." Erza laughed, and he gave a rueful smile. "At full strength, on solid ground, and with no civilians in sight – then maybe you and I together would have been able to do it. But here and now? Not a hope."
"I guessed as much. When he first appeared on the top deck, you were scared, weren't you? You were thinking that this was an opponent you couldn't beat."
"You could tell, huh?" Jellal let out a sigh. Somehow, when she said it out loud like that, it sounded less like a shameful secret and more like a problem they could tackle together. "Well, I suppose there isn't any point in pretending. I don't know how I can win against him, especially not now. How did Makarov beat him?"
"Fairy Law."
"I see. That explains how he was able to do it without any casualties," he mused. "Unfortunately, that's not exactly an option for me."
"Abyss Break would do enough damage to stop him, wouldn't it?"
"Certainly, it would. There isn't a mage alive who can take a solid hit from that and keep fighting. However, quite apart from the fact that I'd never be able to hit him with it and it's useless magic that I really only learnt to show off with… there's another major problem with that plan."
"You're not strong enough to use it right now."
"That's an understatement. I feel like I'll pass out if I so much as stand up too quickly."
"I'm the same. I can Requip once more, maybe twice. Then I'm out."
Jellal nodded slowly. He was hurt, and it would only hamper him further against an opponent he couldn't even beat at full strength, but apart from the magical energy that had been consumed trying to fight off Jose's power, his magic burned only a little dimmer than usual when he called it to his palm. Erza, though… physically, she was fine, so her hand-to-hand combat style would work to her advantage, but she was alarmingly low on magic. Going into battle against a mage like Jose without any power to reinforce her body with was all but suicide. "Take it easy. If you get hit in that state…"
"I know," she said, quietly.
"We're in no fit state to fight, either of us."
"But we have to go."
He nodded once. Just a few minutes ago, the idea of going back into battle against an opponent who had so thoroughly humiliated him the first time round would have been unthinkable. Now, it was the idea of backing down which was preposterous. Victory wasn't any more likely, but he owed it to those who had come to save him.
She held out her hand to him. "We'll go together."
"Yes," he said, and he took her hand. "We'll go together."
Traitors, Jose had called them, and perhaps they were, but if loyalty meant taking innocent people hostage as revenge against the enemies to whom they had already lost fairly, and who had been gracious to them in defeat, then a traitor Juvia would gladly become.
When she and Gajeel had gone to face their old Master up on the top deck, she had tried to convince him to abandon this course of action. Gajeel had not bothered to say anything. He knew it was hopeless, and so, in her heart, did she. It was merely a token gesture towards the man who had taken her in when she had had nowhere else to go; a man who had been kind, once, before his rivalry with Makarov had become an obsession.
There hadn't been much of a chance for words after that – not on her part, anyway, for staying one step ahead of a wrathful ex-Wizard Saint was taking all of her concentration. Jose had no shortage of words for her, however; barbed words flung like spears between the surges of lethal energy which thundered across the deck. The benevolence that had led him to welcome in the lonely rain woman and the outcast son of a dragon, and the wisdom with which he had governed such a large guild so successfully for so long, were lost to him in his madness.
Juvia had no doubts that she was fighting for the right side. Even when they had been enemies, Gray had been kind to her, and Lucy and the others had accepted her into their guild with open arms. Fairy Tail would never condone violence against civilians. And she knew Gajeel understood this too, even though he would never say so out loud; that was why they were fighting side by side without flinching against a far stronger opponent.
They did have some advantages against Jose, and those advantages were keeping them in the running when a Fairy Tail mage might already have fallen. If Juvia hadn't already known all Jose's attacks would affect her water body the same as a flesh and blood one – the result of some extensive, though completely voluntary, testing they had done early on in her training – then she might already have taken a fatal blow. As it was, she hadn't been hit yet, employing pressurized jets of water to launch herself around the airship's top deck too quickly for even Jose's magic to touch her.
Skidding to a halt against the railing, Juvia whirled around and sent a crescent of water shooting towards her opponent. A casual flick of his hand deflected it down to strike the deck. Gajeel, his right arm transformed into a blade, tried to use the opportunity to swipe at Jose from behind, but the ex-Wizard Saint had seen the coordinated attack coming, and he turned aside with a grace belied by his outlandish military appearance. His foot smashed down on the flat of Gajeel's blade with enough power to force the Dragon Slayer to the floor.
Mustering all her strength, Juvia sent a sweeping deluge of water towards Jose, knowing only that she had to get him away from the prone Gajeel before he could deliver the coup de grâce. A tide of spectres formed a barrier between the wave and Jose, draining its power at once. Not a drop of water touched him.
It had done its job, however. Gajeel took the chance to direct his Iron Dragon's Roar sideways, striking Jose at close range while the recoil simultaneously pushed him back to safety. But even as he flipped himself the right way up and dug his heels in – carving parallel lines of destruction through the wooden decking before he finally came to a halt – the shards of iron and dust his magic had thrown up scattered to reveal that Jose was still completely unharmed.
And that summarized the battle up to this point quite nicely. Although neither side had managed to land a direct hit on the other, Juvia and Gajeel were dashing around the open deck with all guns blazing, whereas Jose was approaching the battle with the ease of a man out for a country stroll. Any hopes they may have harboured of winning this fight had been dashed almost immediately. Now, they were merely buying time for the others to rescue the prisoners and regroup.
How long would that take? Juvia felt as though the battle had been dragging on for hours. Her muscles were screaming, as much a symptom of consuming so much magic in such a short space of time as it was of her evasion-focussed battle strategy. Yet the part of her mind that was accustomed to fighting difficult battles knew it had been a couple of minutes at most since they and their former Master had opened hostilities.
As if they sensed her growing gloom, the horde of shades which had been circling the combatants suddenly closed in, forming a shrinking ring around her and Gajeel. She retaliated with an enormous tidal wave; those that weren't wiped from existence by the power of her magic were flung overboard. It was another large expenditure of energy, but she knew that being touched by a single one of Jose's spectres would be far more costly. The next thing she knew, an enormous burst of violet energy was ploughing through the remnants of her wave – from her blind spot – and heading straight for her.
To the untrained eye, she and Gajeel made an unlikely team, but they hadn't just been two of the strongest mages in the same guild – they were also friends, of a sort. They had always looked out for each other, and that was no different now; it was why Juvia had privately asked Makarov to consider inviting Gajeel to join Fairy Tail. They had trained together, and they knew how each other fought.
So, although Jose's attack was fast, Gajeel was faster. He slammed into Juvia, knocking her aside so that he could take the strike against his scale-reinforced arm.
The blow hardly fazed the Dragon Slayer. He drove that same arm into the ground, forcing it to morph into an iron pole – which became his pivot as he twisted, seized Juvia in his free hand, and used all his momentum to hurl her towards Jose. If he was deflecting all their magic, she would simply strike him with her fist.
The ex-Guild Master dodged, impossibly quickly, and caught Juvia's wrist in a hand shimmering with unhallowed energy. And that might have been the end of the fight – if not for the iron spear which burst straight through Juvia's chest to impale Jose. Not even he could dodge an attack he hadn't seen coming. As he staggered backwards, his expression apoplectic, Gajeel pulled his arm back, and Juvia's water body returned to normal, completely unharmed. They might have given each other a high-five, if not for the new fury radiating out from their opponent at the fact that they had managed to harm him.
Gajeel and Juvia hurled themselves to the side in the nick of time. Something shadowy and enormous caught the water mage a glancing blow; she was sent sprawling to the deck. Jose's second strike hit Gajeel head-on: an enormous blast of pure energy flung the Dragon Slayer straight overboard. Before Juvia could so much as shout his name, Jose was right above her, about to put an end to his former ally once and for all.
Juvia blinked and there was suddenly a figure stood between her and Jose: Erza. The warrior-mage cut upwards with the blade in her hands; if Jose hadn't jerked backwards, sending his lethal attack wide, he'd have lost his left arm. Two more rapid slashes forced Jose away from Juvia before he had even identified his new opponent.
Juvia scrambled to her feet at the first available opportunity, not wanting to be any more of a liability to her adoptive guild. Erza took the chance to back away from Jose, coming to stand at Juvia's side with her sword raised defensively. Out of the corner of her eye, Juvia caught sight of a blaze of golden light: Jellal and Gajeel landed back on the deck, the former having gone to rescue the latter before he had fallen too far.
"We'll take it from here," Jellal said.
The ex-Phantom mages would likely both have voiced objections to that if Jose hadn't got there first. His displeasure at the reappearance of his former prisoner took form as a bolt of deep violet energy, throbbing with compressed power.
Unperturbed, Jellal raised his hand and swatted the bolt aside, just as casually as Jose had deflected Juvia's attacks earlier. Only those who knew what to look for could have sensed the incredibly strong magic that had appeared, for the briefest of moments, intertwined with his fingers. The diverted blast punched a hole in the railing and sent several deckchairs overboard. Neither the current nor the former Wizard Saint turned to look at the damage. All their attention was fixed upon each other, as Jose tried to assess how much of that display of power from his beaten enemy was mere bravado, and Jellal did his best to look like the answer wasn't 'almost all'.
The door leading back into the ship burst open and four mages sprinted onto the deck – only to freeze just as suddenly as they appeared. "Master Jose!" one of them exclaimed.
"Stay out of this," their leader snapped. After one look at their opponents, his followers were eager to obey. Jose was stood with his back to the airship's main body; the Fairy Tail mages had nothing behind them but the ship's triumphant prow and the open sky. The newcomers fanned out behind their leader, forming a semicircle between the combatants and the way back inside the ship.
Erza took a step closer to Jellal, and he could sense Juvia and Gajeel closing in from behind, improvising a battle formation. "I hope you're not considering telling us the same thing," Erza whispered to him.
"I wouldn't dream of it. Just, be careful. One hit while you're in that state will finish you, and Jose knows that."
"I could say the same to you," she retorted.
His eyes narrowed slightly, but he said nothing; he knew it was only a slight exaggeration. The time he had spent imprisoned with Jose had drained him of more vitality than a prolonged fight. He was vulnerable, and his opponent was as strong and confident as ever.
He was still debating how best to attack without pushing his injured body too hard when Jose made the first move. Black shades swarmed through the sky – the ex-Wizard Saint was showing off his limitless magic – and they flickered and flashed at the edges of their vision; teasing them without ever swooping low enough to strike. They would become dangerous the moment the Fairy Tail allies took their eyes off them.
"Ignore them," Juvia said immediately.
"Yeah, we'll handle them," Gajeel backed her up. "They won't touch you."
The sharp rebuttal died on Jellal's lips, and he nodded once. He could appreciate the sentiment – even though he had a sneaking suspicion that Juvia and Gajeel would fare better against Jose than he would right now.
Then he was gone, shooting across the deck in a blaze of celestial light. With his eyes screwed shut against the surge of dizziness, he missed the startled expression on Jose's face, but he knew he had managed to catch him by surprise; he sensed it in the overhasty blast of energy that skated harmlessly around the golden aura shielding him.
The ex-Wizard Saint dodged – straight into Erza's path. Jellal's charge was merely a feint. While Jose had been focussed on him, Erza had followed behind unseen. She couldn't risk a full armour Requip, but a single weapon was much easier, and why choose an ordinary sword when she could summon the enormous spiked mace of her Purgatory Armour for the same cost? Jose's eyes widened in horrified surprise, but that was all he had time for before the huge mace smashed into him, doubling the damage Gajeel had already done. He was catapulted back through the doors leading into the ship.
Jellal was free to gently arc back round and land by Erza's side. "Nice," he offered. She smiled at him as her mace vanished, but it was a worried smile.
The mages surrounding them had been shocked into silence by the blow struck against their leader, but over the rush of the wind they could all hear slow, angry footsteps as Jose returned to the battlefield. His azure coat was ripped and speckled with blood; dust and splinters nestled in his hair. The wound was nothing to him, but the same could not be said for the damage to his pride. They had touched him, but he had not touched them. For the first time since they had met on board the airship, Jellal felt a fragment of his confidence return. Perhaps victory here wasn't impossible.
But as Jose stepped out of the shadows, he was smiling, shark-like, with magic swirling in the air around him. "I almost can't believe it," he purred to Jellal. "Not only do you return to me rather than fleeing, putting my goal once again within my reach, but you also bring me your greatest weakness on a silver platter."
"My greatest – what?"
Perhaps the only person who hadn't immediately understood what Jose was getting at was Jellal himself. Juvia and Gajeel were already moving, dashing across in a desperate yet unhesitating attempt to protect their former enemy, but they were too late. Jose's shades condensed to form bonds of living darkness, which wrapped around Erza, dragging her up into the air. Four stray shades twisted together to create another spear, poised above her heart.
"Move, and she dies," Jose said lazily. "That goes for you two as well," he added, raising his eyebrows towards his former guild mages, who had both resumed moving towards the bound Erza. And then, mockingly, to Jellal: "Go on. Try it. You're fast, but not that fast. She'll be dead before you've moved an inch."
Gritting his teeth, Jellal allowed the magic around him to die away.
"Good boy," crowed the ex-Wizard Saint. "I was going to beat you into submission again, I can't imagine it would take long, but I think it'll be faster if I just threaten your dear Titania instead, don't you? If you want me to let her go unharmed, you're going to tell me the code to open the safe."
"Don't you dare tell him!" Erza shouted. Capture had not shaken her resolve in the slightest.
Juvia and Gajeel glanced uncertainly at Jellal. He did not seem to notice them. His gaze was fixed on Jose – no, on a point slightly over Jose's shoulder, through the wreckage of the door and into the darkness beyond, before it flicked back to his opponent.
"Come on," Jose urged him, tightening the bonds around Erza with an easy gesture. "I told you, my fight isn't with you. Give me the code, and you and your precious Titania can both walk away unharmed."
"And I told you," Jellal retorted, quiet and cold. "You are my enemy; you have been ever since you decided to involve me in your little plot." And then, suddenly, unexpectedly, he laughed. "No, it started before then, didn't it? It was you. You and your obsession with revenge against Fairy Tail. You're the one who sent that cursed amulet to my guildhall all those weeks ago."
At the accusation, Jose's eyes seemed to light up; his glee was all the confirmation that the Fairy Tail mages needed. Jellal continued, "That was why there was nothing anomalous in the Archives' access records – because the amulet was taken by a Wizard Saint who had every right to be there. What did you do, steal it right before the guild war started, in case everything went wrong and you wanted one final shot at taking Makarov down?"
"It wasn't my first choice of approach, I'll admit. Not quite personal enough. But once I had worked out how to activate it, it should have been a foolproof way of capturing the entire guild and putting all of Makarov's precious friends in the palm of my hand. So imagine my surprise when I dropped by later that morning to pick it up, only to find that they were all safe and well – thanks to you, of all people. You turning up in Fairy Tail was the last thing I expected. But although you may have ruined my first plan… your presence there also provided me with an unprecedented opportunity."
"Let me guess. After you discovered that I was no longer watching over the Council Archives, you went straight there and put in a transfer request for whatever it is that's hidden on this ship right now. The request that Ultear was telling me about."
"Bingo. It really was a stroke of luck, you no longer being at the Council. It was a simple matter to construct an application from a fictitious bedridden professor, who desperately wanted to study this particular artefact before he died. You'd have seen through it straight away, but the poor Chairman was so desperate to prove he could take care of everything without you that he went ahead and authorized it. Of course, they'd have discovered the ruse before anyone opened the seal for me at the other end, which simply meant I had to work out how and when it was being transported, and devise a plan to obtain it before the ship touched down. It was simple. I've worked with the mule ship system for years as a Wizard Saint; the Council's schedule was easy enough to predict. Now, all you need to do is unlock the seal for me, and I will finally have the tool I need to complete my revenge."
"He's never going to unlock it!" Erza spat. "We won't give in to you!"
Jose merely smiled.
Quietly, Jellal asked, "What is there on board this ship that you are so desperate to get your hands on?"
"Did the Chairman not tell you?" Jose gloated. "Perhaps he was hoping you would not look inside the safe, and no one would ever have to know how foolish he was to let it out of the Archives. Of course, it is already far too late for that. I thought long and hard about the perfect way to enact revenge upon Makarov – and what better than by using the very weapon he and his guild went to such great lengths to seal away?"
"No…" Erza breathed.
"That's right. It's something you know very well, Miss Erza. Hidden within this ship is the Demon Flute Lullaby, which brings death to all who hear it, no matter how powerful they fancy themselves."
"But we defeated Lullaby! It should no longer work!"
"You defeated its living demon consciousness, that much is true. But the flute itself still works, just as it was designed to by the Black Mage himself. A trivial toy for him, I'm sure, but in our world, it is a weapon of mass destruction which will very soon be singing for your guild."
"You can't give it to him!" Erza shouted down to Jellal. "You can't, no matter what!"
Jellal said nothing. The most observant amongst those on the top deck might have noticed his gaze slide beyond Jose to the damaged door again – might even have seen a flicker of motion in the darkness that was probably just the wreckage resettling. He swallowed, knowing there was no point trying to hide his fear.
"As fun as it is to watch you squirm," Jose added, "I tire of your playing for time when we both know that no one is coming to save you. Now, Mister Councillor. I shall give you five seconds. Tell me the code to open the door, or Titania dies."
"Don't you dare!" Erza practically screamed. "If you tell him, I will never forgive you! Never!"
At last, Jellal spoke. "It isn't worth your life, Erza."
"I would rather die than endanger the rest of my guild!"
"I know you would. So, it's a good job you're not the one calling the shots here. I, you see, couldn't care less about those fools in your guild."
She screamed something else, but he wasn't listening. Focussing intently on Jose, he said, "I'll tell you the code. Let her go."
Jose moved the roiling black spear an inch closer to Erza's heart. "Oh, I don't think so. The code first, if you would be so kind."
Jellal took a deep breath. "Fine. The seal will open with the numbers three-one-eight-two-zero-four. Though, you'd do well to remember the advice given in chapter twenty of Radick's Introduction to Armantian Runes before you unleash it."
"What's that?" Jose sneered. "Some proverb? Are you giving me moral advice, now?"
"I would hurry, if I were you. It would be a terrible shame if someone were to beat you to the engine room."
Jose opened his mouth to retort, but seemed to decide this was advice worth taking. He turned to one of the mages behind him and ordered, "Go down to the engine room and use his code to open the seal. Bring the flute back to me. Immediately."
As the ex-Phantom mage set off at a run, Jose turned triumphantly back to Jellal. "What?" he asked, all false innocence and boundless glee. "Was that you hoping I would immediately release your Titania and dash off to recover the weapon myself? I don't think so."
"You said you'd let her go!" Jellal snarled.
"You and your dear friend Titania can stay right here until I'm holding Lullaby in my hand. Then I'll consider letting her go."
A chorus of laughter rose up from Jose's mages. Erza was refusing to look at Jellal. She was shaking – perhaps she was crying, or perhaps it was with rage. Gajeel and Juvia exchanged glances, not knowing what to do. They had no options left.
Jellal stared down at the ground, pretending not to notice the new animosity he had acquired from his Fairy Tail companions; from Erza. What other people thought of him didn't matter. He had never cared about that, and it was less important now than ever before.
It was out of his hands. All he could do now was wait.
Elsewhere on the ship, things were going a little better for the Fairy Tail team.
The airship's crew and the passengers were being held hostage in the dining hall. It had once been an extravagant venue, all velvet drapes and glorious chandeliers to match the manor house feel of the rest of the ship's interior, but the tables had since been shoved crudely to the side, making space for the hundred or so prisoners who were sat on the floor. The curtains had been pulled aside so that daylight flooded in through the floor-to-ceiling windows, banishing the opulent atmosphere along with the gloom.
At first, the prisoners had been terrified; forced to kneel in that room with their hands on their heads as menacing dark mages prowled around them. But ever since Mira's announcement over the PA system… well, truth be told, it hadn't exactly filled them with confidence. But it had unnerved their captors, and that fact hadn't been lost on their prisoners. Plus, most of the dark mages had disappeared off to find the intruders, and the two left behind didn't seem all that enthusiastic about enforcing discipline through fear.
In fact, the buffet had been opened on their orders. There was no point in raiding a luxury airship if they weren't going to make the most of its facilities. The dark mages had been hungry, and many of the prisoners had taken the chance to help themselves to the range of finger food still lukewarm beneath the bar heaters. So the hostages were currently sat around eating and chatting – and trying to pretend that they hadn't noticed the ladder of ice that had appeared on the outside of the window, behind their oblivious captors.
As long as the prisoners weren't too loud and didn't make any sudden movements, the dark mages seemed cool with the situation. Besides, they had long since concluded that none of their prisoners were a threat to them. In that, they were correct. The only mage present who was capable of taking them both on in battle was also the only one who was completely helpless. Natsu's motion sickness was constraining him more effectively than any magic.
The two dark mages in question made an odd pair. One was a young woman with bright purple hair, ripped jeans, and a casual t-shirt; the only person who looked more out of place than her within the extravagant dining hall was the man climbing down the window wearing nothing but his underwear. In her hand, she was swinging a blue winged cat back and forth by his tail.
"Whaddya think it is?" she asked, as an extra vigorous swing sent Happy round a full three-sixty degrees. "Think we can eat it?"
"Non, non, non!" protested the other. "You must not eat the prisoners!"
Natsu was not the only one who recognized their second guard. If the green hair and disgusting orange suit were any indication, he was a man known for his elemental mastery, not his fashion sense. Sol was formerly of Phantom Lord's famous Element 4, and Totomaru's absence from the hijacking (he had refused Jose's invitation in favour of the place he had just been offered on a teacher training course), along with Juvia's defection, made him technically the third most powerful dark mage on board, after Jose and Aria. Of course, being a master of earth magic was not much use when you were several thousand feet above the ground, which was why Sol had been relegated to guard duty.
"You sure?" persisted his fellow guard. "I heard flying cats are a delicacy in some parts of the kingdom."
"That's flying fish you're thinking of…"
"Still, maybe if I roasted him… Wonder if the ovens are still working…" She gave the kitchen doors an optimistic glance.
"Please don't eat me…" Happy mumbled, almost as dizzy as Natsu felt.
While this surreal debate was going on, Gray had managed to climb down from the bridge to the dining hall on an external ladder of his own creation, take in the situation, hoist himself along to the kitchens, and smash his way in through the window. The great swinging doors which led from the kitchens to the dining area were designed to contain the noise of a bustling gourmet kitchen; the two dark mages didn't hear a thing. Gray opened the doors a crack, glanced through, and frowned.
He was certain he could take both his enemies in a straight fight, even Sol. He had comfortably beaten the last Element 4 mage he had fought, if one glossed over the fact that Juvia hadn't really put her heart into defeating him. On the other hand, he knew what Sol had done to Elfman during their encounter, and the last thing he wanted right now was to start having visions of Ur and Deliora – especially not when he was fighting in front of Natsu.
So, a strategic victory it would have to be. Quick, clean, and totally unfair.
Gray pushed one of the doors open fully and sealed it in place with an ice doorstop, before ducking back into the kitchen, completely hidden from view. His enemies were paying such little attention that it took a full minute before they spotted the change.
"That wasn't open before," the woman pointed out. "Think there's a rat hiding in the kitchen?"
"Oui," Sol agreed, trying to peer into the darkness beyond the door – a task that would probably have been easier if he stopped swaying from side to side. "Go and investigate."
Still swinging the dazed Happy in her hand, she sauntered towards Gray's hiding place. The moment she was through the doors, he let the ice doorstop disappear into shards of magic. The door swung shut at once. Before the ex-Phantom mage could so much as scream, Gray hit her over the head with an enormous ice hammer. She slumped straight to the floor.
"One down," he said happily. Reaching down, he pulled Happy out of his captor's grasp and sat the little cat on his palm. "Hey, are you alright, Happy?"
"Gray!" Happy exclaimed, practically crying tears of joy. "I'm so dizzy… Now I know exactly how Natsu feels…"
"I don't think anyone can understand what drives that moron. Anyway, can you fly? I need you to cause a distraction so that I can sneak into the dining hall." He turned to the wall beside him and wrenched off a metal grate. "Go through the ventilation shafts and unscrew one of the chandeliers."
Happy was a true Fairy Tail mage at heart; the thought of getting to destroy something so large and expensive on purpose perked him right up. "Aye sir!" he chirruped, and he disappeared into the shaft.
Moments later, the sound of a muffled crash reached Gray's ears, and he burst through the doors. The room he entered was one ablaze with rainbows. The impact hurled shattered glass upwards like a fountain of diamonds, their prismatic beauty ignited by the sun. Hurtling through this world in slow motion, Gray felt like the coolest secret agent on the planet. Then he dived behind the buffet bar, and only when the commotion had died down a little did he dare to poke his head round the side to take stock of the situation.
"Sacré bleu!" Sol exclaimed, valiantly continuing his lifelong attempt to be as over-the-top as possible as he brushed glittering shards from his suit. "Who did that?"
"It was a ghost," one of his prisoners called out helpfully. All of them had pretended not to notice as the little blue cat had soared along the ceiling and unscrewed the chandelier right on top of Sol.
"Yeah, there it goes," another one shouted, pointing in the exact opposite direction to which Happy was currently flying. Sol scoured the ceiling for this mischievous poltergeist, allowing the real perpetrator to glide down unseen to Gray's hiding place.
"What now?" Happy whispered.
"I didn't get as close to him as I wanted," the ice mage frowned. "So, let's turn the heat up a bit."
Literally. Happy watched, mystified, as Gray twisted all the dials on the back of the buffet bar up to maximum. The red glow intensified. Beads of sweat appeared on the ice mage's forehead, but he still he didn't explain himself.
"You're going to burn the shrimp," Happy pointed out offhandedly.
"A necessary sacrifice."
Happy didn't seem to think there were any circumstances under which it was appropriate to sacrifice shrimp, if the way he hastily shovelled the entire contents of the buffet into his mouth was any indication.
"And… ready." Gray clapped his hands together and the entire counter was immediately coated in ice – ice which vaporized under the heat just as rapidly as it had appeared. Clouds of steam billowed out from the buffet bar; a perfect white smokescreen. Happy could only watch in astonishment, his cheeks still bulging with food, as Gray vaulted the bar and disappeared into the steam.
Gray's ice blade smashed against his opponent's chest before Sol had even realized he was under attack. A smaller blade, clutched in the ice mage's other hand, swept towards his neck, and he sprung backwards just in time to avoid decapitation. Desperate, Sol threw up a wall of stone between them, but Gray raised his hands above his head as he leapt forwards, fusing his two blades into a single giant one. One blow from it reduced the barricade to dust.
With the momentum behind him, Gray couldn't lose. His bare foot crunched a couple of Sol's ribs, disrupting the last defensive spell he was trying to invoke, and then the enormous blade was balanced and raised once again. It struck Sol in an explosion of ice, rivalling even that of the chandelier's death throes; the earth mage was hurled backwards. Fortunately for him, rather than hitting the window and falling through to his death, he collided with one of the steel girders and slumped unconscious at its foot.
"Piece of cake," Gray breezed. Now that was what he called a satisfying victory. Even the prisoners were applauding. If only Natsu had been watching that display of sheer skill, it would have been perfect – but Natsu was otherwise preoccupied with lying face-first on the ground and trying not to die, and he looked so pathetic that even Gray was willing to let him off this time.
He strode over to Natsu and dragged him upright. "Oi, flame breath."
"Gray…" Natsu groaned.
"You're so useless. Why did we even let you come on this rescue mission? You're a liability."
Natsu didn't even have the heart to argue with this. "Why is it always transportation…?"
"Oh, get it together," Gray snapped. Happy fluttered over to pick Natsu up again and began to fly him around the room in gentle circles, helping him to regain his bearings. "The battle's far from over. This ship is crawling with the remnants of the Phantom Lord guild, including their Master."
"I know, I saw him." Anger sparked to life in Natsu's eyes at the memory. "We have to stop him here, on board this ship, before he reaches our guild."
"Agreed. And as for you lot…" Gray turned his attention to the prisoners. "It's probably safer if you stay in here until the fighting is over."
A round of relieved nodding followed his words. Happy, however, just pointed his tail in the direction of the unconscious dark mage. "We can't just leave him with them, though. What if he regains consciousness?"
"Well, I'm not carrying him around with me," Natsu said crossly.
"I have an idea." A slow smile crept across Gray's face, and he directed his next question towards the three people wearing chef's hats at the back of the group of prisoners. "Do you have a freezer on board?"
Lucy skidded to a halt in the empty corridor, staring at the door Loke was pointing to in horror. "I can't go in there!"
"You have to!" the Lion Spirit protested. "That's where the planar ripples I can sense are coming from!"
"But it's the gents!"
Loke just sighed. He indicated the sheet of paper taped to the restroom door. "Look. It's out of order. There won't be any men in there. It's pretty ingenious of the dark mages, really – stick a sign like that on the door and they're guaranteed privacy while they set up their magic portal. It's the last place the guild mages would think of looking, too. Good job you have me here."
"Yes, it is a good job," said Lucy, folding her arms. "You're a man. You can go in, and I'll wait out here."
"There are times when it's perfectly acceptable for a woman to enter a male bathroom. When it's the only way to stop a psychopathic ex-Wizard Saint from murdering your entire guild, for example."
"I suppose…"
"That being said, I would advise against summoning Aquarius from a urinal," Loke added, laughing.
Lucy swallowed. It was fine for Loke to joke about that, but Aquarius still hadn't forgiven her for the jet ski incident – not that that had been in any way Lucy's fault, but trying to convince the Water Spirit of that was just inviting disaster. Grimacing, she pushed the door to the out-of-order restroom open a crack, and when no gender-sensitive sirens went off, she opened it a little further.
At first glance, the toilets seemed deserted. The tiled walls were an uninteresting beige. Six urinals lined one wall; three cubicles stood opposite them. All the cubicle doors were closed. There was nothing that looked remotely like a magical portal.
Loke tapped her on the shoulder. "There," he whispered, pointing to the far cubicle.
"Umm…"
"It's camouflaged, obviously. Trust me on this one. If you push open that cubicle door, it's not a toilet you'll see – it'll be Phantom Lord's current hideout."
Lucy gave a brave nod. If Loke said the toilet was a portal, then the toilet was a portal. It was her job to stop the toilet from being a portal.
She had barely taken more than a step when the door of the middle cubicle swung open.
Contrary to Loke's assurances, that stall was, in fact, occupied. Occupied by a large man wearing great green robes. Who happened to be perusing an old edition of the Weekly Sorcerer.
Aria saw Lucy at the same time as she saw him. Yet his first reaction wasn't to start screaming that there was a woman in the men's toilets. Nor was it to start screaming that there was a Fairy Tail mage on board the hijacked airship. Instead, his eyes flicked down to the magazine he was reading, then back up to Lucy.
"Is this you?" he asked.
It was then that Lucy realized he was reading the magazine edition for which she and several other members of her guild had supplied a certain cross-dressing photospread.
If she'd aimed her flying kick at Aria's head rather than the magazine, she might have won the fight then and there. As it was, she sent the magazine flying over the side of the stall and into the neighbouring toilet, and probably sprained Aria's wrist in the process. She would have crashed straight into the man himself, but his reactions were as sharp as ever; his unharmed palm went against her chest and a blast of wind launched her backwards.
Unsurprisingly, Lucy had never actually been in a male bathroom before. As such, her largest exposure to them had been through the films she had watched growing up, in the cinema room of her father's mansion. In spy films, assassinations or attempted kidnappings frequently took place in public toilets, and thus, as her impact with the wall shattered a urinal and sent a jet of what she sincerely hoped was clean water up into the air, she felt even more like a secret agent than Gray had done as he had run in slow-motion through an exploding chandelier. She staggered back to her feet, surrounded by white ceramic chunks, watching Aria cautiously as he emerged from the cubicle.
"How sad," the large mage lamented. "I was only going to ask you to autograph the photo. Now it seems we shall have to fight instead."
"Ah," Lucy squeaked.
Staring up at the former Element 4 mage, she distinctly remembered someone saying that Aria usually covered his eyes with cloth in order to keep his devastating true power sealed – and that if anyone wanted a chance of beating him, they had to do it before he opened his eyes. He only removed the bindings when faced with a truly strong opponent, like Erza. Or when he was reading magazines.
Oh dear. There was nothing worse than facing down a villain who was going at full power from the start. Lucy gulped.
Aria raised his left palm and the air around her seemed to explode. Invisible fists pummelled her from every direction at once. She fought to reach her keys, but her opponent gave a casual sweep of his hand and she was flung into the air again. This time, it was a mirror mounted on the far wall that stopped her headlong flight, and she dropped onto the counter below. She managed to avoid a head-first collision with the marble, but at the cost of landing bottom-first into an unpleasantly damp sink. It seemed that the seven years of bad luck for cracking the mirror had already begun.
And things were only going to get worse, because it was about then that Lucy noticed her one ally in this fight had mysteriously disappeared. "Loke!" she howled, struggling to clamber out of the sink. "Where are you?"
The response she received wasn't quite the one she had been hoping for. A loud chortling rose up from the third stall, from which Loke shortly emerged, holding a sopping magazine that he had salvaged from the toilet bowl. "This is brilliant!" he exclaimed, showing Lucy the open page that she had never wanted to see again for as long as she lived. "I can't believe I missed this!"
"Oh please no…"
"It's things like this that make me really regret I'm no longer a full-time member of Fairy Tail," Loke continued, oblivious to Lucy's dismay, as he studied the photograph appreciatively. "Wow, Siegrain makes one hell of a terrifying maid. The pink ribbons in his hair are a nice touch. Though, I can't help wondering how you managed to stop him from trying to murder you all for long enough to take these photos."
Lucy heaved a sigh. "He is actually unconscious in a couple of the ones where he's sat down, if you look closely. For the rest of them, we had to take the photos quickly while Erza was distracting him. She's the only person I know who can make a butler's suit look so princely and authoritative. Still it was quite a challenge."
"Worth it though." The Lion Spirit gave a sage nod. "You look really cute in that tailcoat, Lucy. I can't believe you didn't tell me you had done a photoshoot."
"I was trying so hard to forget about it…"
"How tragic," commented Aria, causing Lucy to jump – she had forgotten her opponent was still there – and fall back into the sink with a splash. "That such a promising modelling career had to come to such an abrupt end."
Lucy's glumness evaporated instantly. "Wait, you thought I might have had a future as a model?"
"…I was referring to the fact that Master Jose threw the fair Titania off the airship to her death."
That blew the last of the fuses in Lucy's head. She jumped to her feet on the marble counter, glaring down at Aria with as much fury as she could muster. "Alright, that does it. Loke! Hurry up and crush him!"
"Sure thing," grinned the Lion Spirit. With only a moment's hesitation over sacrificing his newfound treasure, he hurled the Weekly Sorcerer at Aria, which slapped across his face like a wet fish. He followed it up by sprinting across the room to deliver a powerful punch – which passed straight through empty air. Aria had gone.
And there was only one place he would have been teleporting to. The air around Lucy shimmered and morphed into the green-robed mage, his enormous palms hemming her in. Loke's form flickered and vanished in her vision, and she knew she would feel the magic drain hitting her any second now-
But it didn't come. She blinked and her vision was filled with the polished wood and golden fittings of the inside of a grandfather clock – Horologium had appeared around her just in time. And he disappeared just as quickly, dissolving into particles of light as Aria's attack drained his power instead of hers, and he was forced back to the Celestial Spirit Realm before Lucy could thank him.
Aria was so close behind her that she couldn't resist slamming her elbow into his stomach as she scrambled to safety. Heart hammering, she reached for the keys at her belt. Her enemy could manipulate air, so using projectiles was out – Sagittarius wouldn't be able to help here. But Erza had been able to cut through Aria's airspace, so maybe…
"Taurus!" she commanded, raising his key towards the ceiling. The bull-man seemed rather bemused to find himself materializing in a half-destroyed men's restroom, but before he could say anything, Lucy cut across him. "Don't ask. Seriously."
"It's no use." Aria thrust his palm out towards them again, setting off a chain reaction in the air; an intense shockwave threw Lucy against the wall and sent Taurus into the side of the third stall. Striding over, Aria reached for Lucy – but he had underestimated Taurus's endurance.
With a furious bellow, the Bull Spirit came charging out of the wreckage. Aria raised a thick air wall to repel the assault, but Taurus cut it to shreds with a single sweep of his axe. Next thing anyone knew, he had lowered his head and rammed into the air mage horns-first. Another two urinals shattered under their combined impact; the severed pipes asserted their indignation by spraying the whole room with water. Lucy had long since given up any hope of surviving this battle dry.
For a brief moment, Taurus and Aria grappled on the floor, but the moment the Phantom Lord warrior grasped hold of the Spirit's shoulders, it was over. Taurus's power was drained in an instant. His body wavered, emitting sparks, but he could no longer maintain his physical form, and he too was forced back to his own world.
Lucy gritted her teeth. She reached for her keys again – and her hand grasped empty air. They must have come loose when she had been knocked back. Where are they? Lucy thought frantically. Aquarius will never forgive me if they've gone down a toilet… there!
But the surge of hope that had appeared when she spotted them lying safely near Aria's feet was immediately quenched. Her enemy had seen them too. She dived, even knowing that she wasn't going to make it; he snatched them up, and not for the first time that day, she hit the soaking wet tiles face-first.
"A Celestial Spirit mage," Aria remarked. "Completely powerless without these-" Here he jangled the keys tauntingly, before turning around and depositing them into the sink behind him "-but I'm not the kind of man who would let you go just because I've taken away your magic. I'm going to eliminate everyone foolish enough to side with Fairy Tail, starting with you. I will send you to the Zero Airspace, where no life can exist."
Lucy, who had made it back onto her feet, glanced around for a weapon. To have any chance of winning this, she needed to summon Aquarius – and there was more than enough water around here to do it, but her keys were behind Aria. The only tools she had at her disposal were the remnants of several broken urinals and some ruined plumbing. Two broken lengths of pipe, both with hooked ends, poked out temptingly from under a heap of tiles.
"Oh, what the heck," she muttered, taking one pipe in each hand. "I'm soaked through. I'm bruised. I'm alone. I've lost my celestial keys. I'm in the men's restrooms, fighting an opponent that even Natsu struggled against, and I'm dual-wielding broken bits of toilet. Just another day at the office…"
And with that, she launched herself at Aria.
The air mage had not been expecting a non-magical attack from her, and she burst straight through his half-formed airspace. The u-bend of her first pipe hooked around Aria's rosary. With a swift pull, she jerked his head downwards, and followed it up with that time-honoured favourite: a knee to the groin.
Even blinded by pain, Aria's power didn't fail him. One of his flailing hands caught Lucy on the shoulder, a blow with the force of a tempest behind it, and she was sent sprawling across the floor. The pain didn't bother her in the slightest. She had achieved her aim: hooked around the bend of her second pipe was her glittering ring of keys. Triumphantly – or as triumphant as one can be while kneeling on a flooded bathroom floor – she thrust her keys into the bowl of a smashed toilet, crossed her fingers behind her back, and summoned Aquarius.
Aquarius appeared. To say that she did so resentfully would have been to submit a strong contender for the Understatement of the Year Competition. There were no words to describe her fury; Jellal's attitude during his first few days in the guild didn't even come close. If looks could kill, Lucy would be nothing more than a scorch mark on the floor.
Lucy raised a hand to forestall Aquarius's explosion. She was amazed by how confident her own voice sounded. "Look, I know, and you can yell at me all you want for it later. But, the thing is, if you don't help me now, there won't be a later – not for me, or for anyone else in my guild. If you help me beat this man and protect my guild, I'll do anything you want. I'll even renegotiate our contract."
Lucy could have sworn that the subsequent pause lasted a full hour. She felt like pointing out that if Aquarius didn't hurry up and murder her soon, Aria was going to beat her to it.
Then Aquarius said, amazingly, "I'm listening."
"Umm… if you let me know whenever you have a date scheduled, I'll swear not to summon you until you're back. And I'll start carrying around a bottle of filtered spring water so that I can always summon you from somewhere… clean."
"Go on."
"And two weeks' holiday. Starting from tomorrow."
"Four weeks," Aquarius growled. "And I want a copy of that Weekly Sorcerer edition Leo was just telling me about."
"No!" Lucy protested, before she could stop herself. "If you get hold of that… I'll never live it down! You'll bring it up every single time I summon you!"
An evil smirk crossed Aquarius's face. "That's the idea, yes. A fitting recompense for everything you've put me through over the past few weeks."
"Damn it, Loke," Lucy muttered. "You knew this would happen…"
She threw Aria a sideways glance, as if genuinely considering taking her chances with the former Element 4 leader. Unfortunately, he had not been waiting patiently for them to have their conversation. His ultimate airspace, which brought death to anything trapped inside it, was almost complete. Only Erza had been able to survive it – and even that had been by defeating Aria before he had finished it. She swallowed. "Alright, fine. Deal."
"Heh. In that case…"
Aria's deadly airspace was no longer full of air. It was now full of water, and he had no power over a waterspace.
Water spilled out from between his outstretched palms, running down the invisible pressure walls he had created – and then his magic could no longer restrain it. It burst outwards, sweeping across the floor like a miniature tidal wave and ensuring Aria's bulky robes were as thoroughly soaked as Lucy's clothes. Aquarius emptied her urn over his head for good measure.
A grin stole across Lucy's face. Oh, she was certain she was going to regret this later, but for perhaps the first time in her life, she felt completely safe behind Aquarius.
Nor was the Water Spirit anywhere near done. One manicured hand stretched towards the heavens; streams of water flowed upwards from the cisterns and the broken pipes, congealing into a great orb hovering at her fingertips. She sent it flying towards Aria with a flick of her wrist. He was trapped inside – completely cut off from the air he was so good at manipulating; utterly powerless.
A small smile crossed Lucy's face as she noticed the similarity to Juvia's Water Lock technique. She remembered the respect Aquarius had had for Juvia's water mastery when their magic had fused during the jet ski fight, and wondered if, unbeknownst to her, Juvia might have made another friend in Fairy Tail.
You're not so bad, are you? Lucy thought to herself, as she watched Aquarius with a fondness she had all but forgotten from her childhood. Near-death experiences could do that to a person.
Only when Aria lost consciousness did Aquarius let the water splash back down onto the floor, where the water level was currently sitting at a little above Lucy's ankles. "I can't believe you were having trouble with that guy," the Spirit commented, casually lifting her urn back onto her shoulder. "Don't forget, Lucy. I want that magazine by the end of the day. Or else."
But even Aquarius's ominous parting words couldn't bring down Lucy's buoyant mood. She had actually won! Sure, it was a shame no one had been around to see her victory – though, thinking about it, that was probably a good thing – but as she stood there, brushing her drenched hair out of her eyes with one hand and holding a broken pipe as though it were Excalibur in the other, she truly felt as though the rest of her guild would have been proud.
"Nice one," came a voice from behind her.
Lucy jumped a mile. She spun to face the newcomer, pipe raised to strike – but it was just Loke, leaning up against the far wall. "What are you doing back here?" she asked.
"I came through the gate on my own. Sorry I wasn't much help against Aria. Seriously – you did a great job there."
"Thanks- hang on! You're just saying that to divert attention away from the fact that you told Aquarius about-"
"Anyway," Loke hastily overrode her, turning purposefully to the door of the far cubicle, which had survived the chaos intact. He pushed it open a crack. Sure enough, it wasn't a toilet on the other side, but a great dark hall far larger than the bathroom supposedly housing it. Shadowy figures moved within the gloom. Loke quietly pushed the door shut again before anyone noticed them, and gave her a meaningful look.
Lucy decided she could be cross with him later. "What should we do?"
"Destroy it, I suppose. Cut off their escape route; prevent reinforcements."
"Or maybe we can go one better. How difficult do you think it would be to reconfigure the portal's destination?"
Loke drummed his fingers on his arm thoughtfully. "Depends. Long-range portals aren't usually that flexible, but if we changed it into a short-range portal – you know, by targeting somewhere on board the ship rather than trying to reach the ground – we might be able to get it to work."
"Alright," Lucy said, with a determined nod. "I have an idea."
A/N: Even I don't understand this story at times. Sometimes it's Jellal's slow and serious progression towards redemption and romance... and sometimes it's Lucy fighting Aria in a bathroom. It's been so long since I've actually been able to write little fights for characters who aren't Jellal that I might have got a bit carried away there, hehe.
Anyway, I wanted to say an enormous thank you to all the wonderful people who reviewed last week. Also thanks to you for reading, and I hope you enjoyed today's chapter! ~CS