I ignored Lucy entirely as she talked, I was too busy upchucking over the side of the boat. Why did those kidnappers have to take a boat? At this rate, I wasn't going to be able to fight I would be so motion sick.
"Are you guys sure we're going the right direction?" Lucy asked and I managed to give her a nod, as Natsu was too sick to answer, albeit the motion made me hurl over the side of the rowboat.
As we floated along, Natsu and I stood up. "I just got a weird feeling." Natsu said.
"I sense it too." I agreed, and then we watched in horror as birds began to drop out of the sky, dead, and the fish bubbled up from the ocean, belly up.
"I've never seen anything like it." Juvia murmured.
"What's that?" Natsu asked as he pointed to a structure in the distance.
"It must be the Tower of Heaven." Lucy murmured.
"Doesn't look like any kind of heaven I've seen." I snarled at it.
"I'll protect us," Juvia said as she raised her arm and created an opaque dome of water around us. "My water dome will prevent us from being seen."
"Nice work Juvia." Lucy said quietly and I nodded. As we approached Natsu began to complain once more and bicker with the others.
"Silence!" I hissed. "My cat is missing, Erza is a captive, and we're attempting to rescue them from enemy territory. Stop bickering and keep your wits about you!" Everyone shut up after that as I took to watching the Tower. What was it?
As we disembarked close to the cliffside, we took stock of our surroundings. "They've got a ton of lookouts." Gray muttered as we watched the guards circulate.
"Let's charge them!" Natsu whispered furiously.
"Don't even think about it!" Lucy hissed back. "Remember they have Erza, Happy, and Stella. If we screw this up we could be putting them in danger."
"Damn, this way just isn't a logical way in." I cursed. How the hell were we supposed to save our friends if we couldn't even make it inside?
"I found an underwater passage." Juvia said as she bubbled to the water's surface.
"Seriously? Way to go." Gray said with approval. I ignored her attempted intimidation of Lucy, heavens know why she bothered, and stripped down. Juvia outfitted each of us, with water shells containing oxygen and we began to swim down the passageway.
We surfaced and were almost immediately discovered. "Intruders!" a guard called out and other guards began pouring in. "Identify yourselves!" one screamed.
"Guess, we have no choice, we're going to have to fight them!" Gray declared.
"Just the way I like it!" I smirked as ice began to cover my body.
"You losers want to know who we are? We're the wizards who are going to pound your faces in!" Natsu roared as he slammed his flame-covered fist into the rock, creating a dust cloud to shield our movements. "We're from FAIRY TAIL!" Natsu let out his roar, while I did the same on the other side, coating them respectively in ice and fire. I leapt onto a walkway and started pounding them the old-fashioned way, with my fists. As another battalion emerged from the walkway I unleashed my ice blades upon them, sending them into the water.
With that I leapt down to reunite with the rest of the team. "Let's get going, we still have to find Erza." I declared, interrupting the congratulations. Suddenly, a door opened and a walkway slid out of us, a silent invitation to enter.
"A trap?" Gray asked as we stared at the walkway.
"Do we care?" I asked, tugging on my slightly damp outfit. "I certainly don't." I replied to my own question as we marched into the tower.
As we explored further in, we came to a dining room filled with food. Gray and Natsu began to chow down while Lucy began to panic about being heard.
"There's no point in being quiet. They invited us in, they know we're here." I added as Gray told her to relax.
"But why would they let us in?" Lucy asked.
"You think maybe they're trying to provoke us?" Gray asked as he stuffed another bite of mashed potatoes into his mouth.
"I don't think so. This seems to be for some reason that we can't comprehend. There's something else going on here, we're merely missing the pieces." I spoke, half to the group, and half to myself.
Virgo was still present form when Lucy had summoned her to fight, and she commented on Lucy's state of dress. Changing into a garment from the celestial world, Lucy asked how she looked.
"You look great." Gray asked as he peered closer at her costume. Juvia was freaking out, begging him not to compliment her, and I couldn't stand his perviness so I slammed him on the head once again. "Ouch!" he complained, rubbing his head.
"Don't be a perv." I scolded him, when I paused and sniffed the air. "Guards!" I cried out and turned to face them, when Erza sliced through them.
"Erza!" We all cried out, rushing over to her.
Her eyes widened and she looked terrified to see us here. "What are you all doing here?!" She exclaimed seemingly horrified by our presence.
"We came to rescue you." Lucy said, her voice wilting over Erza's actions. Juvia started to introduce herself, when Erza cut her off.
"Go home. This place is dangerous." Erza demanded, her voice edged with anxiety.
"What the hell Erza?! We're not leaving you!" I raised my voice, matching her forcefulness
"You nuts if you think you can intimidate me into leaving. I'm not leaving until I can give that blockhead a piece of my fists." Natsu argued.
"You have to go!" Erza responded.
"Your friends kidnapped Happy and Stella! I'm not leaving her behind!" I yelled back.
"They got them too? It must have been Millianna." Erza murmured.
"It doesn't matter, I'm declaring war on the jerks who took my little buddy!" Natsu roared as he powered out of the room.
"Natsu!" Erza called as he vanished through the door she had come from.
"Let's go and help him!" Lucy declared, before Erza cut her off.
"NO! You don't have to worry about Happy or Stella. Millianna is a cat lover, she'd never do anything to hurt them. I promise I'll bring them back to the guild with me, but you four need to leave immediately." Erza said, her back to us.
"A snowflake's chance in hell I will! I've never asked about your past Erza, because neither of us wanted to share, but that time is over. We need to know what the hell is going on! I'm not leaving without you or without answers!" I demanded of my partner.
"We understand if you don't want to talk about. The creeps who kidnapped you were once your friends right? Well, we're your friends now, and we're here to help you!" Lucy declared passionately and we all nodded our agreement.
"Leave!" Erza demanded once again.
"No." I refused.
"You're freaking me out, this is completely unlike you. What happened to the woman who would tell us to shut up and come along whether we wanted to or not? We're here now, and we want to help." Gray added. "Master taught us that even the strongest warriors need a little back up once in a while."
Erza finally turned to face us and tears were flowing from her eye. "I'm sorry but you can't help me now. The odds are stacked against me. Win or lose this battle, I'm staring death in the face."
"What do you mean by that?" Gray asked as I frowned. What the hell were we missing? What had happened to her?
"There's no point in fighting what's inevitable, but what I can do is share my story with you while I'm still here." Erza said with a faked, watery smile. And so she began her story, explaining the slavery that went on here and how Jellal had saved her, only to turn on her later. How Rob, a member of Fairy Tail that had been captured, had sacrificed himself to save her. How she led a rebellion to free them all, and was the only one who escaped.
We listened in mute horror, to the tale of Erza Scarlet and her bravery, and of her weakness.