"He's taken the chief of police?" Erza gasped when Natsu and Gray told her what happened at the party.

"Yes and he said that he's going to kill him if we don't bring you to him." Natsu said. "He wouldn't actually do it would he?"

"The Jellal I knew before all this madness happened would never harm anyone but now lord only knows what he's capable of." Erza said.

"Well what should we do? We can't just give you to him." Gray said.

"I'm almost done with the antidote ." She said. "You two go on ahead and try to save the captain, I'll meet you there later."

"But where is he?" Natsu said. "Where would he go?"

"In the state of mind he's in, Jellal considers himself an animal so he'll go to where the animals are. In other words he's at the nearest zoo." Erza said.

"Well that's not very inconspicuous." Gray said.

"But be careful when you get there. He'll probably have the whole place rigged with booby traps. He maybe insane but he's insanely clever."

With that said Natsu and Gray went to the local zoo, checking every exhibit there. At last they found his tracks leading straight to the Galuna Jungle exhibit. It was quiet in there, too quiet and they knew that this was the right place.

"Careful where you step Natsu." Gray warned. "Remember what Erza said."

They looked around for any sign of Jellal or Jude. At last they found the chief of police tied up and hanging over the crocodile exhibit.

"Hold on Captain Heartfilia!" Natsu called. "We're coming."

He moved toward him but he stepped on a trigger that catapluted him into the bear exhibit.

"Natsu!" Gray gasped.

"Where is Erza?" He heard Jellal's voice demand from the trees.

"She's coming but she had to finish something first." Gray said trying to look for him. "Look can't we just talk about this like civilized people?"

He sensed Jellal charging toward him and immedately jumped out of the way.

"Your senses are impressive." He complimented. "But let's see if you have strength to match."

He tackled him with strength that made Gray feel like his bones were about to snap like a couple sticks. In the bear exhibit, Natsu found himself face to face with a very large, vicious, and hungry grizzly bear.

"Uh hi there." Natsu said nervously. "Listen you don't want to eat me, I'm too tough and my bones brittle."

But the bear just moved to tear him limb from limb so it could eat him alive. Next thing he knew he was wrestling a 1200 pound bear for survival. Thanks to his super human strength, he was able to be a match for the bear but he couldn't fight forever. As soon as he had a free moment he climbed out of the exhibit and ran to get Jude. The rope holding him up snapped and he fell right into the crocodile infested waters. Natsu immediately jumped into the exhibit.

"Don't worry sir, I'll get you out of this." He said swimming toward him.

"You're going to save me?" Jude said trying to get away from the on coming crocodiles. "That's a laugh! Especially considering it's your fault I'm in this mess."

"You're not one for gratitude are you?"

As for Gray, Jellal had him in choke hold. His face turned red as he struggled to breathe. His strength was unlike anything he had ever encountered and he was becoming dangerously close to passing out or worse, suffocating.

"Jellal stop!" Out of nowhere Erza came running into the exhibit as fast as she could. "I'm here! Let him go!"

"Erza don't!" Jellal called.

But his warning came too late and she tripped a wire that set off another booby trap. A water pipe burst, releasing a huge amount of water that pushed her into an open cage of lions. They had her cornered and prepared to pounce.

"Erza!"

Jellal dropped Gray and ran into the cage, fighting off the lions who threatened to harm his love. Gray helped him and so did Natsu once he was able to save Jude. They managed to save Erza and get them locked back into their cage but Jellal had been injured in the fight. Thankfully it wasn't as bad as last time however it was enough to cause him to lose consciousness. Erza took the opportunity to distribute the antidote. She pulled the glass bottle of liquid from her lab coat and poured it into Jellal's mouth.

"We'll he be sane now?" Natsu asked.

"He should be." Erza said.

"Good then he can stand trial when I charge him." Jude said pointing a gun at them.

"You can't arrest him!" Erza said.

"He kidnapped me and tried to kill me!"

"This man is not a criminal, he was made mentally ill but an unstable drug which I have now cured him of. He's no longer a threat."

"That's for a jury to decide."

Thinking fast, Natsu grabbed one of Jellal's smoke bombs from his belt and threw it on to the groud filling the area with smoke. With Jude unable to see anything, the boys were able to get out of there taking Erza and Jellal with them. They went back to her friend's apartment where Erza anxiously waited for her lover to awaken. At long last he came to and the madness in his eyes was no longer there, he seemed disoriented and confused but normal.

"Oh my head." He groaned.

"Oh Jellal thank goodness." She smiled and embraced him with relief.

"Erza? What's going on? How did I get here?" He looked over at Natsu and Gray, finding their masked costume attire quite unsettling. "And who are these guys?"

"You don't remember?" She asked.

"The last thing I remember was getting ready to leave for another expedition. Hey this isn't Galuna. Where am I?"

"You're in Magnolia."

"Magnolia? How on earth did I end up here? And again who are the guys in the weird costumes? Are they circus performers?"

"Circus performers? Ha!" Natsu said. "Try the two guys you tried to kill."

"Excuse me?"

"I'll explain everything to you later." Erza told him. "Right now I'm just so happy you're back."

She threw her arms around his neck and kissed him patiently. Though confused by what had happened, he held her and returned the kiss with the same amount of passion.

"Since everything's back to normal, can we go?" Natsu asked.

"Yes. I can take it from here." Erza assured them.

"Okay but before we go I have one more thing to ask you. About Professor Clive, is he-"

"He's fine."

"That's a relief. Thanks Erza."

"No. Thank you, both of you."

The boys left the apartment and went to do their own separate personal agendas. Gray went home, changed out of his costume, and went to see Juvia.

"I'm sorry about ditching you last night Juvia." He said.

"It's okay." She said with an understanding smile. "I know how much Natsu means to you, Ur told me all about you two and besides you were there when I needed you the most."

"Wow you sure do forgive easily."

"Well it's hard to stay mad at someone who was only trying to help someone they care about. Speaking of which, how is Natsu? He wasn't hurt last night was he?"

"No. He was fine and right now he's visiting with a friend."

And by Natsu visiting a friend, he meant Red Dragon checking in on Lucy to make sure that her father was alright. She was quite excited to see him on her balcony that afternoon.

"Thanks again for saving my father." Lucy told him. "Also I'd like to apologise for his ingratitude, you know he thinks that you're in lead with that mad man and that you set up this whole abduction to get on his good side. Unbelieveable."

"Well not a lot of people trust someone who wears a mask."

"I trust you. You've saved my life and my father's so I have no reason to doubt that you're a hero." She said.

"Thank you Miss Heartfilia-"

"Lucy please."

"Thank you Lucy."

That made him very happy. The whole world could despise him and see him as a monster for all he cared but as long as Lucy cared about him and saw him as a hero then he would be statisfied with just that.