Chapter 15
"Are you okay dad?" "I'm fine Layla" he said with a smirk. His phone went off at that moment as he picked it up and saw it was Gray calling. "What's up Gray?" he said putting it on speaker. "Ariel is home safe, I checked, nobody followed us and there's nobody tailing around her house" The girls all breathed a sigh of relief. "That's great. Okay, call Erza and Jellal they can head home with the others. I'll be in touch with you guys. Call me immediately if anything happens." " You got it sir" replied Gray as he hung up. "Natsu, what do you want us to do?" Lucy asked once he put his phone up. " I want you three to keep your heads down. Until we have a better grasp on what his movements are. That means Lily, you stay home for now. Layla, your schooling will be stopped for now as well." "What about Tristan dad?, he's at risk too!" Layla said afraid. "He's not in much danger but I know your scared for him." "So, what are we going to do?!" "Layla, calm down" Lucy said reasonably going over to her and put her hands on her shoulder.
Layla turned to her with tears stinging her eyes. " Mom, I don't want anything to happen to him" she cried as Lucy hugged Layla to her. "Don't worry baby girl, we wont let anything happen to Tristan." She lifted her head to Natsu and gave him a hard look giving him a message that he received loud and clear. "Layla…I'll talk to his parents about letting him stay for a bit" he said as she turned from Lucy to look at him with tears down her face. "Thank you, thank you so much" "Your welcome Layla" he said as she went over and hugged him. "Now, once we eat dinner, you two need to head up to bed alright?" he looked at both Layla and Lily who nodded obediently. Once the girls were in bed. Natsu laid there in bed with Lucy who laid against him. "You alright?" "I'm fine baby.., just trying to figure out a plan." "Well I'm right here when you think of one" she said kindly as her eyes closed and he rested his hand on her head. " I know Luce, thanks"
In the days that followed, things went from bad to worse with the Fallen Halo's involvement. Members were stalked from their houses to the mafia base, more muggings. "What the hell is his goal!" yelled Natsu angrily. "He's trying to get under your skin Natsu" Jellal said calmly. "Notice he hasn't made any direct moves against you, Lucy or the girls or Tristan." "Yeah because he WOULDN'T FUCKING DARE!" "Natsu, you know as well as I do, that wouldn't stop him with how much he's done so far" "Hello?" replied Erza who quickly had picked up her cell as it went off. Her eyes grew big as she hung up and looked grimly at the others.
"Erza, what happened?" Natsu asked before anyone else could get a word in. "One of our members…they came home and saw a knife planted in their door with a note on it. Apparently it was a threat telling them to leave or they would obliterate their family" "Aunt Erza..are you?" "Yes Layla, I am being completely truthful.. This is what enemy mafia's do to get their way…unfortunately in some mafia's it works" she said straightforward. "That's horrible" said Layla. "It's okay, I'm sure everyone can find a way to survive." said Tristan putting a comforting hand around her. "No, Tristan it's not" she replied. As the threats increased, more mafia members were afraid giving from the notes, he was not afraid to come after them. They had temporarily left Magnolia. "That's it!" Natsu yelled angry.
They had all gathered at Natsu's house after the tenth person called to say they were leaving only a select few and their team left. "I'm going to storm that asshole's house right now. I've had enough of him picking off my members" he stormed off towards the front door as Erza, Gray ran to it as Jellal grabbed him from behind. "No Natsu, are you stupid!" "Jellal, are you putting your hands on your leader?" he said threating.
"It's not out of disrespect, you know that. It's too keep you from doing something stupid as hell" Erza and Gray stood firmly at the door. "He's attacking our members!" "We know that Natsu, but do you really think charging into enemy territory is the best strategy?" Erza told him wisely. "Come on man, use your head. Your our leader, . The last thing we need is for you to go in there halfcocked and get yourself injured and out of commission. Then what dumbass" sniped Gray. "Fine, Jellal let me go..now" Jellal let go as Natsu straightened himself staring at Erza and Gray. "Natsu, give me some time to find out some information on them then we can go from there. You know I can dig up shit better than anyone else in this room"
They all looked at each other dumbfounded and knew she was right. Sighing Natsu begrudgingly said "okay Erza but anything you find out; I want to know immediately got it?" "Yes sir" she replied motioning to Jellal as Gray moved letting her open the door as Jellal came over and they started to head out when Jellal turned his head back towards the kids. He gave then a soft, optimistic expression as he said "don't worry guys and Lily, your father wont know what hit him" Lily grinned slightly at Jellal. "Okay Natsu, now what? Do we just sit on our hands?" asked Gray. "Hmph, of course not, we had back to the mafia, this time you guys are coming with us" "Wait Natsu, I don't know if the mafia is the best place to go" Lucy said nervously. "What do you mean Luce? that's our base. That's the next safest place" "No Natsu, I think the safest place is right here, our home, where you are at your strongest." "She's right Natsu, aside from the base, your home alone is the safest place to be." "Hmph, I hate sitting on my hands" he sniped grumpily as he sat on the couch with his arms crossed. "I know Natsu, but please just let Erza try to find something" she pleaded pulling his arm. " Okay Luce" he wrapped an arm around her as she laid her head on his chest while the girls sat near Tristan.
A few hours later, Erza came back. "So did you find anything?" "I found a town that could at least hold some answers." "And, where is it!?" Natsu demanded. "That's for me to know. I'm going to check it out" "No way, out of the question!, tell me right now" "Natsu, don't be a fool, you going could be exactly what they want and then we are all screwed. I'm your second so let me be your second and do some recon, explore the area. If I'm not back in 7 hours, you can ask Jellal where I am and come out where I am." Natsu gritted his teeth for a moment then said " You text me every hour. Got it?" "Yes Natsu, I will take my leave now" "Wait Erza, least tell me how far you're going?" "It's a couple hours from here" she replied. "Hours?! Erza, are you crazy!. If something happens then we can't get to you right away" exclaimed Gray.
"Gray, please, you know I'm not easily taken down" "Just please Erza…be careful" he pleaded. She gave a him a nice , confident smile and said " you can count on it. I better go. I'll check in with you guys when I get there" She closed the door leaving them all sitting there. "I don't like this; I don't think she should have gone in alone." Said Lily. "My father, he's..he's very cunning" "Ha-ha, he clearly doesn't know Erza. Remember Lily, she's the second in the mafia but she's been in the mafia since she was a child and she also owns a mafia gym. Erza won't be taken down so easily"" Gray said lightly with some amusement.
A couple hours went by when on the dot of each one, Erza had messaged Natsu. "She's there and going to take a look around. She said it looks like just a regular town just not that busy" "Well we need to give her time to look around Natsu, so let it be for now." Said Lucy. " And you know where she is Jellal?" asked Gray. "Yes, but she made me swear not to tell you unless she was compromised, and I don't need to tell any of you how forceful she can be" Everyone grunted in response as Lily and Tristan looked at everyone ignorant. " She's really that scary huh?" Layla looked at her like she had just swallowed a bug. "Lily, I know you're not too familiar with how other mafia's work but surely now you can tell my aunt is not a pushover"
"Oh, believe me, I've learned that. Your guy's mafia is very different from my father's. His mafia had one goal and one goal only and that was to take over the territories of the other mafia's that he felt were powerful and Magnolia mafia is the most powerful one on this side of Fiore from you being the master Natsu to your members themselves."
"Hmph which is exactly why he isn't getting it." Erza had texted Natsu informing him of what was going on until the third hour where she said she had found coordinates to a warehouse and she was going to scout it out. "What do you want me to do Gray?. I told her I'd give her time and it's not like I can really freaking stop her so wipe that look off your face. You notice Jellal isn't overreacting. We all have faith in her, so we just need to trust her" "Wow since when did Mr. Flame head get a calmness to him" Gray joked. "oh, shut the hell up stripper. I trust my team. Is that so horrible?" Lucy smiled muffling her giggle. Jellal just grinned and lightly shook his head.
"Natsu, have you gotten anything from her?. We haven't gotten anything back from her and its been two hours. We should've gotten something back from her by now." Informed Gray. Getting anxious, Natsu dialed Erza and put it on speaker but it only rang once before it went to voicemail. "Voice mail?" "Jellal, was her phone" "No, it was charged when we came over this morning and when she left, there's no way it should be off and Erza wouldn't turn off her phone." "Natsu, what do you want us to do?" Lucy asked him as they all got to their feet.
"I need to get some air" Layla muttered as she got up with Tristan and Lilyanna behind her. "You okay?" asked Tristan. Her hand clenched into a fist. "My aunt is strong, the strongest woman I know but this isn't like her" Tristan gave her an optimistic smile and said "I'm sure she's fine. She may have just hit a black out zone. Your aunt is way too strong to let anyone take her out and I know I don't need to tell you that" Lilyanna gave her a reassuring glance and squeezed her hand. "Thanks, you guys" "Your welcome" said Tristan and Lily who went for the door opening it for them when she let out an ear-piercing scream putting her hands over her mouth shaking. Layla felt herself getting dizzy as Tristan caught her and kept her from falling back. Natsu rushed over. "What's wrong, why did you scr" His words dropped when he saw what made her scream. There in front of them was Erza was lying on the doorstep battered with marks all over her face and body with a gunshot wound to her chest and she wasn't moving.
The end for now. Stay tuned, the next one is coming soon. I'm working on it as we speak and I'm sorry its taken me so long to update. Please leave reviews and comments. Thank you to my readers that have stuck around. Means a lot to me.