Chapter 15

Late the next morning, Lucy had convinced Natsu to head to the Fairy Tail gym to get a workout in and have a sparring match. She needed a way to get rid of all the nerves and pent up anger and energy she had after her experience with Jose. Lucy also knew that she hadn't seen the last of him. She needed to be at the top of her game, and sadly, her performance hadn't been top notch lately.

After a few miles on the treadmill, Lucy hopped off and grabbed her water bottle. To her left, she could see Natsu and Gray lifting together, and from their tone of voice, she bet that they were having a competition on who could lift the most. With a smile on her face, Lucy turned away and headed over to a different corner, equipped with punching bags, dummies, and various weapons. After pausing to stretch her muscles, she began to attack one of the dummies.

It felt good to go through the motions. She unleashed a right hook, followed by a roundhouse kick, and then a throat punch. With each strike, she imagined that it was Jose that she was attacking, not a dummy. She was so in the zone that she didn't notice the boom until the sirens started wailing.

CODE RED. CODE RED. CODE RED.

The sirens wailed, with a bright red light flashing along the ceiling.

"Damn it!" Lucy muttered, turning to find both Gray and Natsu already by her side, running to the windows to see what was happening.

Lucy felt her stomach drop. Jose's yacht was in the harbor, a gigantic cannon was pointed right at Fairy Tail, still smoking from the shot it had sent right into the side of the building. From the third floor, Lucy could see the Phantom Lord agents hopping from the yacht and approaching. From above, she could hear a helicopter, no doubt dropping more agents.

"We need to stop that cannon, before it fires again" Lucy said, as they turned and ran from the gym.

"Natsu and I will handle that, Lucy, find Juvia, she's in her office" Gray ordered.

"Okay. See you guys soon" Lucy said firmly, pausing in the hallway to quickly press her lips to Natsu's.

With his hand firmly locked in hers, he looked at her hard. "Lucy, stay safe" He said, and before Lucy could reply, he had let go of her hand and took off down the hallway behind Gray. With a deep breath, Lucy turned and ran the other direction, in search of Juvia.

Busting into the agent bullpen, Lucy searched the room, crowded with agents yelling and grabbing weapons, Lucy saw Juvia,

"Juvia!" Lucy yelled.

"Juvia found weapons" Replied the blue haired woman, tossing Lucy a rifle and a small black box. With a silent nod, Lucy swung the rifle onto her back and pressed a button on the box, making it extend out into a long stick.

"There are enemy agents entering from doors 26 and 92. We need to eliminate them and make sure they don't make it to the archives. Squads 1-4, take door 26, squads 5-8 take the other door. The rest of you, guard the archives."

Erza had jumped on top of the desks, issuing orders to the agents below. While the various squads ran to their assigned tasks, Juvia and Lucy met up with Erza to head to the archive room.

"I knew they were going to act again, but I never guessed this soon and I never thought they would be bold enough to attack our headquarters" Lucy said, as the three girls ran down the hallway.

"Let's make them regret ever laying a hand on our agents" Erza growled, coming to a stop in front of the archive doors.

A noise behind them cause all three girls to whirl around. At the other side of the hall, a group of Phantom Operatives appeared, clad in black gear, with large guns strapped to their backs. Without a second thought, Lucy swung the rifle around from her back and shot it into the ceiling above the group, causing an eruption of ceiling tiles, which rained down, causing the operatives to yell and cover their eyes. While the men were momentarily blinded, the girls lunged forward. Lucy used her momentum to jump off the wall and kick the first man in the face, and pushing off him to swing her staff and knock the other men close by in the faces, knocking them unconscious. Juvia had used her gun to take out a few with her paralysing bullets, while Erza jumped over the bodies on the ground to take care of the last few stragglers before they could run.

Breathing hard, Lucy looked up from their work as she heard Juvia gasp. Appearing from around the corner was a tall man, wearing a monocle. .

"How sad, I see that you are still alive, Juvia" The man drawled.

"Who is that?" Erza asked, jumping back to stand by Juvia.

"That is Sol, we worked together while I was undercover in Phantom Lord. I fear he is one of their strongest fighters under Jose himself" Juvia said softly, hands tightening of her gun as she leveled it at Aria.

From behind them, Lucy heard the shrieks and thuds of more fighting.

"Erza, they are getting closer to the archives"Lucy warned.

"Go, Juvia can handle him. Juvia has seen him fight so that gives me Juvia an upper hand" Juvia said, putting her gun into a holster on her side and reaching down to grab a staff from one of the unconscious Phantom Lord members on the ground.

"Juvia-" Erza started, but stopped as a wall exploded behind them, with more gang members piling through, one throwing an unconscious Fairy Tail member onto the ground before stepping through.

"There are the archive doors. Behind it is Lumen Histoire" The man said, after he kicked the body out of his way.

Gritting her teeth, Erza shouted "Don't you dare lose Juvia!" and turned back to face the men piling through the hole in the wall, standing shoulder to shoulder with Lucy.

"Remember our final exam junior year?" Lucy asked.

"I like the way you think" Erza says, holding her staff in front of her.

"Here's the deal kids. Sometimes you will find yourself in a situation where you are extremely outnumbered. This is where having a partner can make all the difference. So for this exam I will be pairing you up with another student and you will have to fight off a team of select students from the freshman, sophomore, and senior class. You will have to work together to pass this test" Gildarts said, looking at the group of students in front of him.

Lucy smiled at the memory. Lucy and Erza had been given 5 minutes to come up with a strategy. It had been a simple one really. Erza had launched Lucy at the group in the front, and the men, unable to dodge, were all taken out by Lucy's staff. During the distraction, Erza would take out the rest. Needless to say the inspiration came from some superhero movie they both had watched the weekend before.

With a yell, Lucy lept in the air, letting Erza launch her towards the enemies in the front. However, the large man who had been in front just slammed his arm into Lucy's body and threw her against the opposite wall.

"Lucy!" Erza yelled, knocking a man in the head with her staff while kicking one beside her at the same time. Coughing, Lucy groaned as the man grabbed her and dragged her behind him.

"You are coming with me. We need a fairy's blood to access Lumen Histoire." The man said. Lucy struggled as he dragged her into the archives.

"Why" Lucy asked, struggling against his hold. "What's so important about this Lumen Histoire?".

The man laughed, stopping in front of a bookshelf in the back of the room, and searched until he could found a book titled "The History of Fairy Tail".

"Now this was too easy" He laughed, and pulled the book out and threw it on the floor. Lucy heard a click, and the bookcase swung open with a small creak. He reached down and hauled Lucy to her feet, dragging her down by the back of her neck. Behind the bookcase was a dusty staircase, and at the bottom a stainless steel door, with a single panel on the right side. There was no door handle. The man holding her slipped a knife out of his side and sliced Lucy's hand.

"No!" Lucy yelled, kicking her feet out at the man. Her foot connected between his legs and with a shout he loosened his hold enough for Lucy to spring back. But she was too late, he had already thrust his knife under the panel, and watched as a drop of her blood dropped into the small container at the bottom. With a click, the door opened, washing the small staircase with a bright, blinding white light.

"You are too late little fairy" The man laughed, backing into the light. Lucy grit her teeth and lunged after him.