Chapter Twenty-Five:

"...so here's where the entrance we escaped from is," Rogue said as he and the rest of the group gathered around a map on the table in the guild hall the next morning. Thankfully, those on the Christina's were not captured. After several days of Hibiki not being able to contact anyone via telepathy, he and the others returned to the guild hall, suspecting something was wrong. That bolstered their numbers a bit, but it still wasn't enough to give them much confidence.

"That means that the base is in this general area," he drew a circle surrounding the entrance.

"But it's underground," Gray said. "So we don't have a definite idea as to where it is."

"Or how many wizards they got in there," Lucy muttered.

"It's not that heavily guarded, though, so sneaking in shouldn't be hard," Laxus said.

"It wasn't when we left," Rogue corrected. "Now that they've realized we've escaped they'll be upping security."

"Hm…" Makarov stroked his beard as he pondered. "We may not be able to take Phantom Tail on as we are now."

"What do you mean Gramps!?" Natsu shouted.

"We don't have the numbers to fight them and save...who all didn't escape? Whose still caught?" Makarov asked.

"Freed, Bickslow, Sherria, Toby, Yuka, Lyon, Sherria, Orba, Erza, Jellal, and Rufus," Laxus named off.

"Ah, yes. There's no way we can take on a whole guild and rescue 11 people all at once with the numbers we have now. Therefore our main objective needs to be to rescue our comrades. With them back on our side we'll have a better chance of finishing Phantom Tail once and for all, but until we get them back we can't focus on war," Makarov explained.

"We've still gotta find them and find a way inside, though," Gray pointed out.

"This would be a lot easier if we could have Jura on our side," Elfman said. "He could use his eart magic to find them. Plus he's a real man!"

"We still haven't heard back from the council?" Laxus asked Makarov.

"No," Makarov sighed. "I suppose they haven't seen our message yet."

The doors of the guild hall swung open. Everyone turned and found an entire brigade of Rune Knights marching in, a man with neon green hair leading them.

"Yes, we have. Hezim Kurchaw, new commander of the Rune Knights. I have some questions for the ones known as Natsu and Lucy Dragneel."

Natsu jumped to his feet. "Why?"

Lucy placed one hand on her baby bump and gripped her husband's hand with the other. He entertwined his fingers with hers, comfortingly.

Hezim turned to them, a strange look in his eyes. He held a hand to tell his men to stay back as he walked to the couple, pulled up a chair infront of them, and sat down.

"Just wanting to get the full scope of what's happening…"

IIIIIIIIIIIIII

"Requip!" Erza shouted.

Nothing. She gritted her teeth and held out her hand again. "Requip!"

"Erza, stop," Jellal said as he stumbled towards his wife.

"It's been days, why have I not gotten my power back!"

"It must be something to do with these cages," Jellal said gesturing to the bars keeping them trapped.

Erza frowned. "Requ-"

"Erza, stop," Jellal put his hand on hers. "This won't get us anywhere."

"We can't just sit here!" Erza shouted.

"We don't have a choice," Jellal explained. "We simply need to have faith that our friends will come for us."

Erza slammed her fist into the bars. "We have to get out of here!"

"We will," Jellal assured her, setting his hands on her shoulder and turning her towards him. "We just have to wait-"

"That's not good enough!" Erza yelled. "They need us, so we must fight to free ourselves!"

"Erza, we can't! That's what I've been trying to tell you!"

Erza jumped at the tone in his voice.

"I'm afraid we're the ones that need saving this time," Jellal sighed.

Erza hung her head, drawing her knees to her chest. Jellal scotted closer towards her, cupping her face in his hand.

"I'm sure they're coming up with a plan as we speak," he assured her.

She didn't answer. She just stared straight ahead.

"We'll get out soon," Jellal promised her. "And when we do I am taking a long vacation and you and I are going away."

"Away?" Erza perked up. "Away to where?"

"Anywhere you and I can get some alone time," Jellal chuckled. "We'll get to have romantic dinners, with plenty of cake for desert. Take long walks in nature. Maybe go on a picnic."

"Sounds nice," Erza smiled.

"And hopefully," Jellal tilted her face towards his. "By the time we get back," he placed his hand over her stomach. "We'll have a child on the way."

Erza's eyes lit up. "Really?"

Jellal smiled and nodded. "Really. So just hand in there a little while longer. Please. For me?"

Erza threw her arms around his neck and held him close. "I will."

"Just don't go making a baby while we're all stuck in this cage with you, please?" Orba asked from where he and all the rest sat.

"Yeah...that would be a bit awkward," Sherria nodded.

"Not a sight I would like to commit to memory," Rufus agreed.

"Really? Just had to ruin their moment, didn't you?" Freed scolded.

"And just when it was getting good," Bickslow lamented.

IIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIII

"I see…" Hizem stroked his chin. "And you have no idea what these powers would look like?"

"Well," Lucy shifted uneasily. "We did get a glimpse of it when I was attacked. Maybe. I'm actually not sure."

"Do tell," Hizem's eyebrows raised.

Lucy shifted again. She didn't like this guy. Natsu didn't either, and made sure to seat himself inbetween his wife and the knight captain.

"Well...while I was being attacked these pink flames appeared out of nowhere," Lucy began explaining. "They coated my whole body, but I couldn't feel anything. Whenever anyone tried to grab me, though, it burned them. Badly. No one could touch me."

"I could," Natsu objected. "In fact the minute I touched you they disappeared."

"Hm…" Hezim snapped hsi fingers and a guard brought forth a book. He flipped to a page and opened it. "Did this appear anywhere."

"Yeah," Lucy nodded at the picture shown to her. "Those symbol showed up on my stomach."

"They're not symbols," Hezim explained. "It's the name of the titaness Rhea written in an ancient language. It seems that your child cast one of Rhea's spells from inside the womb."

"Is that even possible?" Natsu asked.

"It shouldn't be," Hezim replied. "But, look at what's happened."

"So what's that mean?" Lucy asked.

"It means your child is-"

"Going to be extremely powerful. Yeah, yeah, we've heard it before," Natsu cut him off.

"And potentially dangerous," Hezim said as he stood. "It brings me no joy to do this, but I'm afraid you'll have to come with me Mrs. Dragneel."

"What!?" Lucy shouted.

"No way, not happening!" Natsu jumped to his feet.

"As a sworn protector of Fiore I cannot allow this to go unchecked. We'll have to supervize this child until we know where it's intentions-"

"It's intentions?" Cana shouted. "She's a baby! She doesn't have intentions! Seriously, we call you for help, get no answer for almost a month, and now you do this!?"

"I wish you no harm. But the danger presented is too great to ignore. I can promise we'll take good care of you, Mrs. Dragneel, and the baby once its born."

"No way!" Natsu shouted. "You're not taking them anywhere!"

"I understand your hesitance, Mr. Dragneel, but please understand. This is quite an extraordinary event that must be looked into with full detail."

"I don't care! You ain't taking my girls from me," Natsu stood toe to toe with the commander.

"Those are far from my intentions, Mr. Dragneel, I am simply trying to keep everything and everyone safe."

"From a baby!?"

"From a potential threat."

Natsu suddenly gasped and put a hand to his chest. His eyes narrowed as he looked up at the commander. "You're about to really piss me off, bub. You got about 30 seconds to back away before I have to do something crazy."

"Are you threatening me?" Hezim's voice was strangely calm as his men began to march forward, weapons drawn.

"I'm trying to warn you," Natsu said. "Now get lost. She ain't going anywhere with you."

"He's not trying to be tough," Lisanna spoke up. "You really need to back off."

"I'm afraid I can't do that. Now please, let's stop being ridiculous and-"

Natsu let out a gargled cry and clutched his chest. "Too late!"

A black magic circle appeared above him and a black smoke engulfed him. Everyone, including Hezim and Lucy jumped back as E.N.D. appeared in his place.

"Natsu?" Lucy asked in a scared voice.

"Still here," a deep, growly voice answered. "Beat him to it by a second."

"What on-men!" Hezim shouted.

The guards all sent out stunning magic blasts to the creature, who caught each of them effortlessly in his palm as if her were swatting flies.

"What do you think you are-"

"I told you to back off!" E.N.D. hissed, cutting Hezim off.

"This has gone far enough! I'm not your enemy!" Hezim insisted.

"That so?" E.N.D. asked. "Then turn around, walk out of my guild hall, and don't come back!"

"I can't do that," Hezim said.

E.N.D. raised his hand.

"If you attack me I'll have no choice but to declare you and your guild fugitives," Hezim warned. E.N.D. lowered his hand, eyes full of fear. Then humor. Then fear. Then humor. Then the creature clutched his head and began arguing with itself.

"No, don't! You can't-"

"Shut up!"

"We can't do that!"

"We have to!"

"No we don't!"

"You want to lose your family!"

"No!"

"Then let me take ov-"

"NO!"

"Stop being stupid!"

"I'm not! Get back!"

E.N.D. shook his head violently, turned, snatched Lucy towards him, and scooped her up bridal style.

"Fine, then I won't attack," it sneered as it spread its wings and shot into the air.

"Follow him!" Hezim ordered.

"Good luck with that," Gray scoffed as the Rune Knights took off out of the Guild Hall.

"I told you contacting them was a bad idea, gramps!" Laxus shouted. "Now we're in worse shape than we were before!"

Makarov frowned deeply at the floor. "This doesn't make sense. Why would they spring this on us like that without so much as a warning. Surely Jura or Warrod would have at least given us a heads up."

"Doesn't matter now," Laxus said as he stared off to where Lucy and E.N.D. had disappeared into the clouds. "Question is, how are we gonna find them?"

"Way ahead of you!" Happy shouted as he took off into the air.

"Guess I better follow," Carla sighed. "Keep an eye on Wendy while I'm gone, won't you?"

"Of course," Mirajane promised. "I won't be going on any missions for a while anyways now that I've got a bun in the oven."
"While they're gone we should get back to making a plan," Rogue said. "This little incident doesn't change the fact that our friends are still being held captive."

"Right," Laxus nodded. "Now how-Gramps, where are you going?"

"To pay some old friends a visit," a very angry Makarov answered as he stormed out of the guild hall.

Don't be afraid to leave reviews! Even negative feedback is feedback (Just don't be a troll, 'kay?)

God Bless!