PART I – Resolution

Chapter IX – Rainbow fishes

"People, I have discovered, are layers and layers of secrets. You believe you know them, that you understand them, but their motives are always hidden from you, buried in their own hearts. You will never know them, but sometimes you decide to trust them."
― Veronica Roth, Insurgent

Lucy giggled when she saw Michelle and the boy with whitish hair run right in front of her without seeing her. They had been looking for her for a long time, but Lucy was unbeatable at hide-and-seek.

"I think I saw her near the veranda," the boy laughed, "let's go!"

Michelle followed him, laughing. Michelle didn't laugh a lot, so Lucy was happy that he was here. He made her laugh a lot. The other boy didn't want to play with them. Her mother had told her what their names were, but she couldn't remember them. She just knew that the boy with white hair was much livelier than the other boy. The former would laugh with Michelle and her, cry at night, get angry at his brother, do what it took to get over whatever had happened to them. The other boy didn't do anything. He sat in his bedroom or somewhere else and stayed there, eyes glued to the ground.

Lucy sighed when she realized that Michelle and the boy had run too far and crawled out of her hiding spot. It was too easy to just stay in one spot, so she often changed to give them a chance to find her. It was less boring this way. She took the corridor opposite to the one they took to go to the veranda and ended up in front of the doors of the garden. Why not? She opened them and ran outside, she would hide behind some bushes. While running, she remembered her mother's new acquisitions, a few large, twisted trees that were planted near the small lake. She ran there, having decided that she would climb one up and wait there.

When she reached the lake, she was surprised to find the boy with dark hair already there. It was his first time moving this far from the house on his own. Lucy hesitated, should she ask him to play with them? Her mother said that people sometimes preferred to be alone. The boy was standing at the edge of the small, wooden, circular platform where her mother often used to take naps or read books. He took a step forward and bent down. Was there something weird in the lake? Had her mother bought new fishes? The ones with the colors of a rainbow were very beautiful! The boy stood back up and Lucy noticed that he was holding a large rock in his hand. It looked very heavy. Then, her eyes widened and her whole body froze as she saw him take another step forward and fall in the water. She stood there, her stomach suddenly weighing tons. Ten seconds passed and he didn't come back up. Another ten seconds, still nothing. Lucy felt tears run down her cheeks and she ran back toward the mansion.

"Moooooom!" she yelled with all her strength, running as fast as her small legs allowed her to. "Moooooom!"

Lucy woke up with a jolt and panic drowned her almost immediately. She couldn't see anything and had difficulty breathing. The left side of her face ached greatly and her arms were tied in her back. She tried to stand up, but the floor lurched under her feet and she fell to her knees. She was in a vehicle, probably in the back of a van. When all her senses came back to her, she realized that she was not only blindfolded, there was something over her head, something like a linen bag. Under the effect of panic and with the recent knowledge of having her head in a bag, it became even harder to breath. She tried to get up again and crashed against the wall when the vehicle turned left. She needed to stay calm. She needed to stay calm. She needed to stay calm. "Think, Lucy," she mentally ordered herself, "what happened before you woke up in here?" She winced in pain when the van took a quick turn and her head hit the wall where she was hurt. How did she get this wound? Why did they have to blindfold her, goddammit! She heard voices from the front seats, two men were arguing, no, three. Lucy couldn't understand what they were talking about, something about respecting a schedule. She should find the doors of the van. If she knew where they were, then she could bump on them until they opened so she could jump off the van and die a horrible death when the car following the van rolled over her. Damn, she was starting to rave. Suddenly, a large hand gripped her forearm and pulled on it. She screamed and tried to free herself, kicking blindly until she hit something. From the curse she heard and the groans of pain, she guessed that she had hit the mark.

"Fuck," the man growled, "I said calm down!"

The bag was taken off and the blindfold pulled down. She really was in the back of a van, lying on her back, large hands pinning her shoulders to the floor.

"Stop trying to break my ribs. It's just me."

Lucy stared at the man hovering above her and almost sighed in relief when she recognized the pink hair, the black shirt and the stern eyes. The commander was with her. He was hurt too, there was blood dripping down his face from a cut on his eyebrow. He didn't seem to be in pain at all, though.

"Why aren't you tied up?" she asked him, suspicious.

He arched a cheeky eyebrow.

"I broke the handcuffs," he answered matter-of-factly.

Of course...

"What happened?"

The commander's cheeky look vanished when his eyes scanned their moving prison.

"Well, I told you to go back to your room and you disobeyed," he grumbled. "I guess you can figure the rest out by yourself."

Lucy frowned and averted her eyes. Natsu stared at her and tilted his head to the side.

"You can, can't you?"

Lucy shrugged.

"I think I hit my head a bit too hard," she admitted.

"It's true that you slept for hours..."

Natsu came to sit closer to her and lifted his hand to take her chin with his fingers. His hold was gentle and he slowly turned her jaw so he could look at the wound on her forehead. He looked worried. His eyes were much graver when they found hers again.

"You can't remember anything?"

She stared at him with a confused look that could most probably be interpreted as fear. She shook her head.

...Ten hours earlier...

The commander adjusted his stance when the other man approached. Lucy felt a bit annoyed when she understood that the commander was taking this stranger far more seriously than he had her. From up close, Lucy had to admit that he was pretty good looking even with this weird red tattoo on his face. But what struck her wasn't his appearance or his weird, conspiratorial smile. Natsu had called him... Jellal? Like Erza's Jellal? No way, right? When he was close enough to Natsu, he shrugged and lifted both hands with amusement.

"Sorry, Natsu," he smiled, "I'm not here to play."

Thereupon his hands fell to his sides and gripped the edges of his long coat to open it wide. Inside, Lucy saw a shotgun, a few handguns, a lot of daggers and throwing knives. She gulped. Jellal's lopsided smile widened and one of his hands came back up to point at his forehead.

"You should tell your recruits to go back to their rooms."

Lucy's eyes turned to Natsu and immediately spotted the red dot on his forehead, above his eyes. A sniper was working with Jellal. And he had Natsu in his line of sight. Instinctively, both Alzack and Lucy turned their heads to the opposite building, across the sports field. Lucy managed to spot a very weak red light on the roof of the medical wing. He was so far away, how could he aim this precisely with this rain?

"Go back to the main building, guys," Natsu ordered. "I'll see you there in a minute."

Lucy didn't move an inch, none of the recruits did. Jellal smirked.

"Your recruits are defying your authority, commander."

Natsu smirked back and his eyes left Jellal's to focus on each of them, one after another.

"I'll give you five seconds," he said, "the ones that stayed will be expelled from the Academy."

His smile was the reflexion of his eyes: cold, determined. The recruits took a few steps back when he started to count. Lucy knew he really would do what he said. He wasn't her friend, he wasn't even nice to her. She had to leave, she had a mission. It wouldn't do her any good to play heroes at the moment. Her father came first. Natsu didn't mean anything to her. Yet, after her third step back, her feet stopped moving. From the corner of her eye, she saw that Gajeel and Gray were having similar difficulties.

"Three," Natsu kept on counting. He glared at them when he noticed they had stopped moving. "Four."

Lucy actually took a step forward.

"Co..."

A gentle hand gripped her wrist and pulled on it. Loke was practically begging her to follow him with his pleading eyes.

"Four and a quarter," Natsu counted.

Four and a quarter... How obvious was that? She clenched her teeth. She knew where the sniper was, and there was nothing she could do about it. Fuck, there was nothing she could do about anything, she was powerless. Her father could be proud of her... Her behavior seemed to help the other boys get out of their confused trance and they followed after them when Lucy agreed to let Loke drag her out of the field. It finally stopped raining and Lucy felt heavier than ever. She had run away. She was a coward, she was trash. She was... wait, what was that?

"We have to find the general," Loke was saying, "or even Clive or Laxus. We have to tell someone! What the hell are you doing, now?"

She was far enough from the commander and that Jellal person to be certain that they weren't looking at her. So she allowed herself to stare at the black, damaged van. It was parked near the barracks, from their previous position on the field, it was impossible to see it. It wasn't there when they arrived about an hour earlier.

"Go back without me," she said.

Loke sighed and threw his hands in the air in defeat.

"He told us to leave!" he whimpered. "He told us we'd be expelled if we disobeyed!"

"I'm not going back there," she assured. "I have an idea."

A real plan was actually taking form inside her head, this could work. The boys didn't seem to be convinced, though, they were looking at her as if she had gone crazy. And maybe she had, but the more she thought about her plan, the more she thought it could work.

"We can't let you go back on your own," Gray protested, "that's far too dangerous."

Lucy shrugged.

"You can't come with me," she retorted, "it will be easier to move around without getting caught if I'm alone."

"Well," Loke countered, "that's too bad, 'cause you're not going anywhere without me."

Lucy stared at her usually carefree friend. He had changed so much since the day she met him. He looked much more mature, more fierce. She smiled at him fondly and patted his head.

"I'll need you to be with these useless morons if things don't go the way I want them to go," she explained.

"Is that supposed to reassure me?"

She shrugged and laughed.

"I will do it anyway," she declared. "If I succeed, I'll come back with the commander. If I don't, please, find us."

She turned around, but Loke grabbed her by the arm and squeezed it.

"I can't let you go," he declared. "Tell me what your plan is, I'll do it. You can't go, it's too dangerous for you."

Lucy frowned.

"Why do you think it will be more dangerous for me than for you?"

Loke sighed and growled in frustration, he looked like he could implode at any moment.

"You know why," he growled, "if you want me to say it, I will, and if you don't, at least don't pretend that you don't understand what I'm saying."

Lucy froze, her attention now fully focused on her friend. His words were very clear, he knew. He had known for quite some time already. And he had kept silent. He had never pressured her into telling him anything about her reasons for hiding her true gender, never even hinted that he knew about it.

"Um..." Gray hesitated, "did we miss something?"

Loke's eyes stayed on Lucy's, never faltering. She cleared her throat and lifted her chin.

"No," she said, "it's nothing. We'll talk later, Loke. I promise I'll be careful."

Loke kept silent for a few seconds and nodded.

"Fine," he said. "But if you don't come back, I'll burn the whole country down to ashes until I find you."

Gray understood that something very important had happened between his two friends and tried very hard to understand what it was, but Gajeel looked bored as hell.

"Are you done?" he grumbled. "People are gathering near the dorms, if you want to make a move, do it now."

Lucy nodded.

"Yeah, thanks. I'll see you soon."

As she turned around and started to run toward the stupid van, Lucy heard her inner voice get really angry at her.

"How much of a suicidal dumbass are you?" she roared. "Do you want to get expelled? Or better yet, do you want your identity to be discovered? Oh yeah, I forget, it was discovered already! Do you want to die now that your plan to save your father failed? I don't want to die, you bastard! Let's run away, no one will bother coming after us thanks to that guy who's attacking the Academy!"

God, Lucy had no idea her own mind could be this annoying. She reached the van in less than ten seconds and hid between the vehicle and the barracks to make sure neither Jellal nor the sniper could see her. She checked her surroundings and saw that she was alone. She grabbed the handle of the front door and opened it. Where was this stupid board? It looked much easier in the movies... She finally understood that she had to unscrew the whole board by the steering wheel and it took her long minutes to do it with her pocket knife. When she finally did, she realized that she had no idea which cables she was supposed to cut. Well, it was not like it really mattered, if she could cut enough cables, the car would never start. She grabbed a few of them and was about to cut them with her knife when she was pulled backward. Someone dragged her out of the car and she could only make out a tall silhouette before the butt of a rifle violently hit her head and made her lose consciousness. She woke up a few hours later, tied up in the back of the van.

...Present time...

"They found you when you were trying to kill their car," Natsu explained. "You really don't remember?"

Lucy slowly shook her head, careful of the wound on her forehead. The butt of the rifle had opened a superficial cut and it wouldn't stop bleeding even if it wasn't a deep one.

"I... yeah," she hesitated, "I think I'm starting to remember, but it's still... hazy."

Natsu nodded and let go of her chin. He didn't lower his arm, though, and instead, reached up so his thumb could brush gently against a spot on the left side of her skull, above her ear. His eyes softened considerably and Lucy didn't move at all, she didn't even think about pulling away from his touch.

"You've been hurt here before," he said, "there's a thin scar here. I guess this is why that earlier hit caused so much damage."

His hand lingered there for a long moment and Lucy realized that this scene probably looked very ridiculous considering that they were locked in the back of a van taking them God knew where to do God knew what and she had her wrists tied up behind her back, but she couldn't bring herself to care. It was her first time seeing such softness in the commander's eyes. Even when they danced, he didn't look at her like that. She only escaped the hypnotizing hold of his eyes when she felt his hand slide down her cheek.

"I'm sorry," he breathed, "you were hurt trying to save my ass. What a responsible officer I make."

This was not normal. Lucy knew no officer would behave like that with a mere recruit. No one would behave like that with someone they met a few weeks ago. They weren't even really close, they spent most of their time together fighting and/or arguing. And yet, her body undoubtedly and undeniably relaxed under his comforting touch, her forehead didn't hurt as much anymore and she was startled by how familiar this felt. For less than a second, an image appeared in her mind. An image of herself when she was around five years old. She was half asleep, her arms tightly wrapped around a boy's neck. The smell of grass and wood after it rained surrounding them. The van's driver abruptly braked and they both fell to the side, Natsu managing to stay in balance on his knees, Lucy failing to do so. They heard the doors open and Natsu practically jumped to catch Lucy before turning her around.

"Don't move," he ordered.

She felt the coldness of a knife's blade against her wrists and she was freed from the rope in less than three seconds. She massaged her dull joints and watched as the commander switched back to combat mode. He grabbed her elbow and pulled her to the side, right behind the left door.

"Can you fight?" he whispered.

She nodded without a second of hesitation and he smirked. They heard voices outside, their kidnappers were still arguing. Natsu waved at Lucy to get her attention back on him and pointed to his feet, then to the doors and to himself. She got the message: at my signal, kick the doors so hard the impact will break their noses.

"We're an hour late, dude!" a voice accused outside the van.

"How is that my fault?" someone countered. "The bean sprout did a good job being a pain in the ass."

Lucy smirked, not minding the ''bean sprout'' comment in the slightest. The commander smiled when he noticed she was proud to have been a pain in the ass for those guys. The voices finally gathered right behind the doors and they sat down, legs at the ready. Natsu lifted one finger. They heard a key being inserted into the keyhole. A second finger was lifted.

"Don't worry," one of the voices said, "they're tied up. We just leave them to the others and go back home."

The handle was pulled and the commander lifted his third finger as a thin ray of light appeared on the floor. They kicked the doors without enough strength to send both men flying backward, knocked out. Natsu jumped out of the van and Lucy followed right after him. They were in a back alley, the sky was dark and they couldn't hear any of the sounds you can hear in a city, like cars, or dogs, or people walking back home or fighting. Lucy looked around to try and recognize the place despite the lack of light. They had broken their abductors flashlight when kicking the doors of the van open and had to rely on the moonlight.

"We're in the Northern Suburbs," the commander finally declared. "In the abandoned Industrial Zone."

Lucy didn't know, she'd never taken the time to look around, only focused on the Academy. She was starting to regret it. Looking back at their unconscious abductors, she remembered that they were waiting for accomplices.

"We should take the car and leave," she said. "We can bring them back with us to the Academy and hand them over to the general."

Natsu kicked the closest man's calf to make sure he was unconscious and looked around. Lucy started to worry when she saw his mischievous smirk appear.

"We could," he agreed. "But those guys weren't waiting for their accomplices, they were taking us to them."

Lucy frowned, failing to see what was amusing. Natsu sighed and shook his head.

"You see that small door there?"

He pointed to a small, barred, worn out door roughly incrusted in the stone wall. If they looked closely enough, they could spot a faint, almost unnoticeable light through a crack in the wood.

"They were taking us there," Lucy deduced.

Natsu's smirk widened.

"What do you say we go say hello?"

….LOKE...

They were so fucking useless. All of them. They had been sitting there for nearly two fucking hours and still had no idea what they were supposed to do. Was Natsu the only capable officer of the Academy?

"We don't know where they are," Clive explained, "we can't just go out and run around like morons until one of us get lucky and find something. We need a plan."

Loke's fists were clenched so hard that the joints of his fingers had turned white. Idiots. Useless idiots. Just give him a rifle and let him out, he will find them in no time.

"How do you want us to form a plan?" Sting protested. "We know nothing about the situation! Who were those guys? How many of them were here? Where did they go? What do they want? How the flying fuck did they get in?"

Loke's eyes widened. He had spent the last two hours mentally insulting his instructors for being useless cowards and idiots, but he was the stupidest of all. Out of all the important questions, one of them was so painfully of the utmost importance, how come he didn't think of it earlier? How did those bastards enter the Academy? A heavy silence fell upon the room as the most probable answer silently ran from each recruit to the others. Someone let them in. His eyes, much like everyone else's, scanned the room to observe everyone's faces. After a few seconds of observing his fellow recruits, he noticed that most of them were sending wary glances at Gajeel and Rogue. The doors of the refectory opened once more and Loke watched as the colonel Strauss and the doctor Scarlet entered. They went to sit with the other officers, both of them looking very grim. Loke frowned, something was amiss. He looked at the officers, they all looked worried or annoyed.

"Let's not jump to conclusions, children," Makarov said to temperate them. "There are several ways to enter the Academy, we're currently investigating this matter. Let's focus on what we do know."

What they knew, Loke thought. At least three persons entered the Academy, of one them, the sniper, threatened to shoot the commander to make the recruits leave them alone. There was not much they knew after that, only that the commander and a recruit had been kidnapped. Luc's plan had failed. Well, Luc or whatever was her real name. Loke had felt much lighter after telling her that he knew about her gender, well, he only insinuated it since the two idiots were with them at the time. But now that the worst had happened, he felt guilty, stupid and angry. He should have kept her from going back. He didn't have much time left to live, how would he find the strength to do it if she were to die because his brain stopped working at the time he needed it the most? What if those bastards figured her out? Loke gritted his teeth and stood up abruptly.

"Where are you going, recruit?" Clive asked.

"I'm tired," the young man groaned, "I'm going back to my room."

Most recruits and officers frowned at him, whispering between them.

"… Are you serious?" Gray asked, obviously feeling very confused.

Loke stared at him, then at Gajeel. Both them stood up as well.

"Actually," Gray went on, "we're tired too. We're going to bed as well."

They left the room before anyone could stop or interrogate them, under the piercing eyes of the general Makarov.

"Where are we going?" Gray asked when they were out of the main building and walking along the alley leading to the sports field.

Loke was walking fast, not bothering looking at his friend to answer him.

"The van was parked near the barracks," he explained, "if you pay attention, you can see a part of the medical wing a few feet away from them, on their left side."

They reached the field and practically ran across it toward the barracks, both his friends following him without difficulties.

"There's a little barred window at the bottom of the building," he went on, "if you look through it, you'll see a small, empty cellar. At that time of the day, though, it's never really empty."

They passed by the barracks without stopping and walked toward the doors of the medical wing.

"We're not allowed in there," Gray reminded him.

"See if I give a fuck," Loke retorted.

They entered the medical wing and followed Loke toward a set of stairs, an angry old lady running after them.

"I'll tell the lieutenant Dreyar about this," she threatened.

Loke froze and turned his head to stare at the angry old hag. The lieutenant... He wasn't in the refectory. The tiny old woman arched an eyebrow, visibly confused by Loke's weird behavior.

"What's wrong?" Gajeel grumbled.

Loke hesitated, he was probably investigating the causes of the enemy infiltration. He shook his head and went back to climbing up the stairs.

"Nothing," he said.

They came to a stop in front of a light blue door with cracks in the wood, it had been kicked open in the past. Several times... Loke knocked. They heard curses from inside and a lot of things crashing to the floor. Loke checked his watch, it wasn't that late, they probably weren't waking her up. The door opened to reveal a very displeased look on Cana's face.

"This better be important," she growled.

"It is," he assured and pushed the door open, inviting himself in.

Gray and Gajeel hesitantly followed him and closed the door behind them. The young woman sighed.

"I already told I don't do that kind of things," she grumbled, "and this one is taken. I'm not interested in taken guys."

"We're not here for that," he assured.

"Then..."

"Cana," he interrupted her, "tell me you were ''down there'' about two hours ago."

The young woman frowned and sat on her bed. She motioned for him to do the same, but he declined.

"I don't understand why this is so important," she started, "but yes, I was there. Why?"

"Have you seen a black van parked near the barracks?"

Cana's frown deepened and she visibly tried very hard to remember.

"I didn't see anything," she admitted, "but I did hear some loud bastards at some point. Levy was with me, she watched through the window. You should go see her."

Loke sighed and grabbed her hands before kissing them.

"Thanks, Cana, I'll treat you to dinner some day."

She snickered when he said that and stood back up.

"Tell me, would your little investigation have something to do with the fact that all the nurses are forbidden to get out of the medical wing until the general says otherwise?"

Loke smirked and reached out for the door handle.

"Don't make me laugh," he said, "you could go out if you really wanted to."

Cana laughed wholeheartedly at this.

"That's very true," she confessed.

Loke's smile softened when he glanced at her over her shoulder.

"Be careful," he said.

He closed the door behind him and bumped into Gajeel when he turned around. The tall young man looked even more pissed off than usual.

"Yes?" Loke asked with his usual – though fake – carefree smile.

"I don't want Levy to get involved in this," he stated.

Loke sent a quick glance to Gray before his eyes went back to Gajeel's.

"You know I wouldn't do anything that could put her in danger," he said.

Gajeel nodded, his arms still crossed over his chest.

"I know," he answered, "that's why I'm sure you'll agree with me that we don't need to go see her."

Loke kept silent for a moment. He had forgotten about Gajeel's relationship with Levy. He put his hands in his pockets to hide his anxiety.

"I just want to ask her a question," he assured, "we don't even need to tell her what's really going on. There's no risk for her."

"What question?" Gajeel pushed.

Loke shrugged, as if it was no big deal.

"I only wanna know if she saw the van's number plate."

A dry laugh escaped the punk's lips and he shook his head.

"So, you basically want her to identify the culprits when we know there's a traitor among us?"

Loke sighed and his shoulder fell in defeat.

"Gajeel, they're going to kill them," he pleaded.

"They're men!" the other man retorted. "They're tough, you saw them fight! They can hold their own!"

Loke froze and stared at him with cold eyes.

"Are you serious?"

"Yeah, man," Gray added, "think before you talk."

Gajeel growled and contracted his jaw.

"You want me to choose between my girlfriend and my friend?" he asked. "You think I can do that?"

Loke's eyes visibly softened at this. Of course, they couldn't ask him to choose. Even Gray, who had the romantic inclination of a mollusc, seemed to understand that.

"Well, you're lucky that I can choose, then."

All heads turned to the other end of the corridor. Levy was there, quietly listening to everything they were saying.

"What did you hear?" Gajeel asked.

"Everything," she assured. "Including you calling me your girlfriend."

The sly smirk that stretched her lips amused Loke. Gajeel groaned and averted his eyes.

"Don't get cocky," he protested, "I was just doing my job here."

She laughed and nodded.

"Yes, yes, don't worry." She turned serious eyes toward Loke. "Luc disappeared, right?"

He nodded.

"The drivers of the black van took him?"

"We think so," Gray agreed.

Levy didn't even hesitate a second.

"I saw the number plate," she declared, "and I can hack the police's computer, use their localization software and find the van."

… LUCY...

They obviously couldn't just kick the door open and wave at the enemies while walking in, so they chose another way. Natsu found a ladder leading to the roof of the opposite building and they climbed it up after the commander made sure it wouldn't break off under their weight. This was so stupid, Lucy thought. They were playing with fire here. It was thrilling sensation. The commander crouched when he climbed on the roof and glanced at her over his shoulder. His eyes reflected the moonlight, his whole body was tense with excitement. He waited for her to come closer to him before pointing to the opposite roof.

"We'll have to jump," he whispered, "and land on that stone part over there. Can you see it?"

Lucy nodded. It would one hell of a jump, but the noise of their landing would be very faint if they could land on that part of the wall.

"I'll go first," the commander said.

He took a few steps back and ran, his feet using the metal covered ledge to push himself further. Lucy held her breath until he landed on the stone part he was aiming for and smiled when he waved at her. He looked like a little boy trying to impress his best friend. She took a deep breath in when she stood up. Her turn. She took a few steps back and looked ahead, focusing her attention on her commander. She ran as fast as she could and tried to use the metal covered ledge to jump further, just like Natsu had done. But her foot slipped on a wet spot on the metal and she missed her jump. She saw the opposite roof approach quickly until she started to fall toward the wall and, inevitably, the ground. She braced herself for the impact, but it never came. Instead, she felt the commander's large hand wrap itself around her wrist and hold it tight. Lucy lifted her eyes to see that Natsu was dangerously leaning over the ledge of the roof. He would fall too if he kept holding onto her. He grimaced and breathed out.

"Hold on tight," he ordered.

She did. He nodded at her and breathed in. He propped a booted foot against the ledge to support himself and breathed out as he started to stand up, lifting Lucy up with him. He was pulling her up with one arm... She gripped the ledge when she was high enough to do so and Natsu helped her get on the roof. Her knees gave way when they reached the stone part and she collapsed in the commander's arms. She mentally clicked her tongue, how cliché...

"You're a walking disaster, you know," Natsu sighed.

She nodded, her hands still gripping his arms tight. It took her a few minutes of rest while listening to Natsu's laughter and reassuring words to be able to stand up again.

"What do we do now?" she asked.

Natsu smirked and pointed to a door across the roof.

"We go down," he started, "we find the guys with the guns, we take the guns and we kick their asses."

Lucy sighed. They were so going to die. She should have taken the van when she had the chance. She'd be a few minutes away from the Academy at the moment.

"Don't be like that," Natsu laughed, "it's gonna be fun!"

Fun, yeah right, fun.

Natsu pulled the door handle and Lucy was amazed to see it actually opened without making too much noise. There was only a set of stairs leading down, so they had no choice but to go down. They reached a small corridor and Lucy gulped when she saw Natsu enter it. She had a bad feeling about this after all. The building was overall pretty silent, but they could hear some voices from time to time that seemed to come from the ground floor.

"You should have left when you had the opportunity to do so."

Lucy froze. In front of her, she saw that Natsu reacted the same way as her. This voice... No way... please, God, don't let it be him... She turned around and her eyes immediately focused on the gun barrel. After that, they found the face of the man who was holding it. And whimpered. Natsu took a few steps back to go stand in front of her, but their assailant pulled the hammer of the gun back and he stopped dead in his tracks.

"Hey," the commander growled menacingly, "what the hell do you think you're doing, Laxus?"

End of chapter 9

And this isn't even the horrible cliffhanger I warned you about yet, haha! This chapter was pretty intense and different, the next one will be just as exciting, I promise!

Last chapter got really enthusiastic reactions and I received very funny and very encouraging reviews and messages. Thank you so much for being amazing, guys, I'm really lucky! I'll try to answer each of you when I have enough time, but until then:

Questions/Answers

Q: Ok I'm pretty sure that Natsu is the boy who helped Lucy and Michelle ( unless it's one big plot twist and I'm totally off) but if so, why can't Lucy remember?

A: Because she was in an accident and forgot some parts of her past. I'll develop this in later chapters.

Q: Is Michelle dead, detained with her father, or someone Lucy created to help deal with the trauma?

A: I can't tell you because it will be a whole part of the plot, but Lucy didn't imagine her.

Q: I have a funny feeling that Natsu was the boy with the gun... Is that how he got in so much trouble? Or did he do something else on top of that?

A: Who knows?

Q: I'm just waiting for the moment when Loke is gonna meet his wall of drama. It won't be a pretty crash, will it?

A: No, it won't be a pretty crash. You guys should prepare yourselves...

Preview

Laxus was sitting in front of her on a wooden box, elbows on his knees, chin on his fists, staring at her.

"How in the world did you get here?" he asked.

Lucy shrugged. Shouldn't she be the one to ask questions here?

"I already told you. One of your accomplices knocked me out and took me here," she answered.

The lieutenant sighed and glared at the commander when he heard him snicker.

"Man, you're the worst villain I've ever seen," Natsu mocked him. "The thought never occurred to you that organized crime was supposed to be organized?"

See you soon!