Author's Note:

Alright everyone! Here's the second installment!

But before we start, I have a few important things to say. First of all, I've made an amendment to my review rules. It's still five reviews for a sneak peek of the following chapter, but instead of ten reviews for a quicker update (Thursday or Friday instead of the weekend) I've lowered it to eight. Then if I get two chapters in a row with early updates, that will bring me to Tuesday or Wednesday, which will be an extra update and the following chapter will be published that same weekend. Make sense? I get two chapters reviewed eight times and you all get an extra chapter! I'm willing to do the extra work if people like it that much. :D

Anyways, that's the main thing. The other I wanted to add was that this story is going to be set up similar to an anime - in episodes and arcs. There will be some you recognize, and some you don't. ;)

Also, a huge round of thanks for everyone's reviews. You guys are all awesome!

Alrighty, on with the show! Keep your eyes peeled for the sneak peek at the bottom.

For several weeks things proceeded normally, and Lucy had no need to open the mythic gate that was so potentially dangerous. She still carried the key though, in a small lockbox that dangled from a necklace she wore constantly around her neck. This was so that, if she ever found an appropriate place to put it where it couldn't be found, she could do so. Or at least, that's what she told herself. Truthfully, she didn't know if she would be able to do that, because she felt strangely attached to it.

This morning was no different. Before leaving her apartment for the guildhall, she put on the necklace and then set off for her place of work.

Everything seemed perfectly fine as she walked through town, it was a beautiful morning – if ridiculously early. She was attempting to be one of the first people to get to the guildhall today since she had made a bet with Mira over when Gray would show up. They had entertained an argument the previous day debating her teammate's wake up time. Lucy had stood up for him since Mira had been teasing the ice mage over his tendency to show up later in the evening, and it had ended in a stupid bet made privately between the two female wizards.

The whole way through town, Lucy was preoccupied with being disgruntled over the time and her tendency to get into stupid situations, but was instantly distracted when she turned onto the street leading to Fairy Tail's Guildhall and ran into a mass of people. There was no reason that she could think of for the crowd to be there, and it instantly triggered warning bells. She had to push her way through the packed pedestrians to get a look at what everyone was so interested in, and when she finally did…. she wished she hadn't. With a gasp that nearly caused her to go into a coughing fit, she took an automatic step back and managed to bump right into Erza.

"Lucy…" the redheaded warrior greeted lowly, but Lucy was so flabbergasted she couldn't even respond.

It took a full two or three minutes before she managed to stutter, "Wh-what the hell happened?!"

"I was just about to go take a closer look myself when I ran into you."

Lucy got the distinct feeling that Erza was also somewhat in shock, however she got over hers faster than Lucy and led the way forwards. The blond followed, Happy clutched in her arms as he silently shivered. He hadn't uttered a word since seeing the remains of their guildhall. It was pumped full of holes, huge bars of iron turning it into a crunched-up pincushion.

A few other early rising Fairy Tail members emerged from the crowd, all of them wide-eyed and horrified. Once they started emerging though, they all picked up steam, and soon every Fairy Tail member present was rushing towards the door, where a white piece of paper glared at them. All of them were wondering the same thing, "Who did this, and why?"

Erza got to the piece of paper first, and read it aloud for them all to hear, but low enough that it wouldn't be broadcasted to the crowd still lingering around them. "Fairy Tail…hand over Lucy Heartfilia, or one by one, the members of your guild will suffer the fate of your guildhall."

All eyes turned to Lucy, who felt like her stomach had dropped out entirely from her body. "What?!"

From the cradle of her arms, Happy quietly asked, "Do you think it's related to your family?"

Lucy suddenly felt even worse, like her stomach had just reinserted itself and had picked up a bag of ice during its absence. Suddenly her whole gut felt like it was chockfull of icy goo that slid into her veins and made goosebumps erupt across her skin.

As cheery and happy-go-lucky as Lucy seemed…she had a dark past, one that haunted her. Of course, most of Fairy Tail's members had a sob story before joining the guild they all now called their family and home.

As for Lucy … really, if the story was told in a certain light, her childhood would have seemed ideal. Despite being utterly broke most days now and struggling from job to job to make rent in her nice little apartment, she grew up in the lap of luxury. Her childhood home was a mansion of epic proportions and her family name came attached to a dollar tag that would make most people pass out if they saw the numbers.

However, gold did not make happiness or functional loving families, which was a lesson she learned much too early in life. Her childhood was…. less than perfect to put things mildly. Her younger years had been good, thanks to her loving mother. She had been the buffer between Lucy and her dear old dad, who was a rather angry workaholic that cared more about money than family. Their marriage had been arranged, and Lucy doubted he and her mother had truly loved each other – though over time it seemed they had at least grown to respect one another.

However, when Lucy's mother had died when she was only eight, everything had changed. Not only did she grieve her mother's passing - as any young child would - but she also suddenly had to deal with her father, who she had never really spent much time with. She had always known he was cold and uncaring, but it became blatantly obvious at that point. He never really bothered to speak to her much, aside from telling her what tutors she would be having that day or what he expected her to do. More often than not he simply used her, dressing her up in pretty dresses and parading her around at social functions where she was to be seen and not heard.

Perhaps worse than feeling like an unloved doll and possession, was how he would rage if she ever failed to do something the way he wished it. Occasionally it would even turn to violence, and she lived in terror of him.

At the tender age of 13 she ran away without looking back. She was just lucky to have ended up in Fairy Tail shortly after that, by running into Erza only weeks after hitting the streets.

Still…it wasn't impossible for her father to be attempting another 'invitation to return home.' Somehow she doubted it though.

Four years ago, when she had turned eighteen, she had received a summons from him, which she naturally ignored. Shortly thereafter, a group of hired men – thugs really – had showed up at her apartment and hauled her off to her old home, much to her absolute disgust. Upon her arrival, she had been shown to her old room, shoved in a gown that fit perfectly - which meant her father had sent someone to gather those details - and then taken to her father's office. It was just as she had remembered it…the ceiling much too high, the window behind him much too large, and the enormous mahogany desk behind which he sat much too imposing.

There, they had faced off. Another young man had been present for the encounter…a man from a wealthy family that he intended to marry her off to. Instead of greetings, she had been told, "Lucy, meet your fiancé. Danny is the heir to the Bonham Estate and Silk Company. His parents and I have arranged for the two of you to marry for our mutual benefit."

The man she was supposedly going to marry had seemed thrilled, judging by the ways his eyes raked her from head to toe. While she was busy wrapping her mind around what she had just been told, he had stepped forwards, grabbed her hand, and said, "It's a pleasure to meet you Miss Heartfilia! I just know you will make a beautiful bride!" …then he had leaned in and said in a quieter tone, "And many beautiful babies!"

At that, she had snapped. She had yanked her hand from his, promptly gave him a fierce Lucy Kick that sent him across the room to land in a stunned heap. "Keep your paws off me! That's no way to talk to anyone, you perverted creep!"

"LUCY!" her father had bellowed, but unlike when she was a child, she didn't cower under the threat of his anger. Instead, she rounded on him.

Stalking right up to him, she poked her finger into his chest and snapped, "I am a grown woman now, MR. HEARTFILIA! I am legally of age to make all my decisions myself, thank you very much! There is no way in hell I am marrying THAT man, or ANY man that you choose for me. Are we clear?"

Naturally he hadn't taken her rebellion well, and he grabbed her by the wrist … hard enough to leave a bruise. "You are my daughter and you will do as I say! I was kind enough to let you run around with that little magic guild of yours for the past five years, and now you will return and do your duty to this family!"

"That 'little magic guild' IS my family! You have absolutely no control over me whatsoever! I am a Fairy Tail Mage, not Lucky Lucy Heartfilia, heir to the Heartfilia Estate! I haven't been that since I ran out of here five years ago. It's laughable that you would even say the word 'family,' when it's obvious you don't even know the meaning of it!"

"You WILL do as I say!"

"Or what? You can't make me do anything! Just how do you intend to keep me here? Force?"

"If needs be. Guards!"

She had just rolled her eyes and summoned Taurus, much to her father's shock. Once all the guards he had summoned were out cold – from basically being flicked in the forehead by one of Taurus's fingers – Lucy had turned to him and growled, "Like I said, I'm my own woman now. You can't force me to do anything anymore."

"What kind of barbarian whore have you turned into?! Summoning such vile and vulgar creatures to do your bidding."

Her hand had ripped from his grip and she had soundly cracked it across his cheek in a solid slap. "Don't you dare call my spirits ugly names! They're my friends and comrades, just as my guild is! I don't care what you call me, but you will NOT insult any of them!"

After saying that she had turned to stalk out of the room, fully intending to leave and never look back, but her father had yelled, "If you leave I'll just have you dragged back with more hired men!"

She scoffed and spun back around. "I could have easily taken out those men, just for your information. And if this turns into some kind of habit, my guild will have a bone to pick with you. Do NOT underestimate Fairy Tail!"

Right on cue, Erza and Gray had shown up, led by Happy who had flown off to get them as soon as Lucy arrived. After the crash of their entry, Erza had shouted, "Lucy! Where are you?!"

"Here, Erza!" she had called back, and both her team mates immediately made their way to her.

"Who is this?! Is this the man who kidnapped you?!" Erza snarled as she stepped into the room – stepping over the unconscious guards without even looking at them.

Sighing, Lucy introduced them. "Gray, Erza, meet my father, Jude Heartfilia. He sent those men to 'collect' me so that he could tell me that I now have a fiancé."

"Fiancé!? What the hell are ya talkin' about?!" Gray asked, looking thoroughly confused, but pissed nonetheless. Both Erza and Gray were aware of what she had run away from, or at least some of it.

"Ex-Fiancé," Lucy corrected, smirking and pointing to the man who was only just now coming to and had started to whimper about his beautiful nose – which was now very bloody.

Gray laughed and Erza covered a smile with one armored hand. "I see. Well then, is your business here concluded?"

"Yes, let's go home." Lucy nodded, and they turned to leave.

However, her father just didn't know what was good for him, because instead of letting them go, he started throwing threats around again. "How dare you come barging into my house! I don't know who you people think you are, but you will not be leaving with Lucy! She is staying here and will marry who I choose. Do you plebeians even understand how much money is riding on this transaction? Of course not!"

Suddenly a new voice piped up … Danny's. "No way! I'm not marrying that madwoman!"

Jude rounded on him. "Oh yes you are…your father has already signed a contract with me. Don't worry, she might be a little wild right now, but she will be easily tamed." Then he'd turned back to the three in the doorway. "And as for you two…you can just take a little message back to your guild. It is in your best interest to forget Lucy. As I'm sure you are aware, money and influence can buy many things…including the ruination of an entire guild."

Erza hadn't taken kindly to that, and in short order she had reequipped into one of her most terrifying armors, crossed the room, and had cowed Jude Heartfilia back into his desk just by looming over him. An evil aura emitted from her, making it feel like the whole room had darkened and she was glowing red with fury as she leaned close to the man. Lucy didn't even hear what she said to him, but it must have been terrifying, based off how pale her father's face had gone. After that, Erza had reequipped back into her normal armor, spun around, and walked out as if nothing had happened.

"Come on. We're leaving."

Jude had called out one last thing as she left. "If you leave now, I will disinherit you! You will be penniless!"

To him of course, that was the greatest threat, since he cared for money more than his very life it seemed. But to Lucy, it was like being set free. "Fine! Do it! I don't want your money," she had called back to him, and caught the look of utter disbelief on his face as they left.

Since that debacle, she hadn't heard from her father. She had also hidden her identity to a certain extent … or at least simply never brought it up. Partly that was simply due to the fact that she was ashamed of her father and hated to even be related to the guy. But also, she didn't want to risk the word getting out and someone thinking that they could kidnap her for ransom. Of course, her father wouldn't pay, but that was besides the point.

Whether these people knew about her family, she didn't know for sure, but it seemed likely. Why else would they go to such extremes against a famously strong guild like Fairy Tail? They had to think there was a huge payoff.

She turned her eyes to Master Makarov and asked silently what she should do. He met her stare firmly for a moment, and then called everyone together and announced to the crowd. "Nothing to see here folks. Off with you."

As the surrounding pedestrians thinned, Lucy and her guildmates slowly made their way into the guildhall basement, which was the only untouched piece of what had been a second home to them all.

Once everyone was assembled, Makarov cleared his throat and drew all attention to him. "We have ourselves a situation, as you heard plainly from Erza. That note was not only a threat against one of our members, but against all of us as a whole. There's no way we'll give one of our own to such barbarians!" He cleared his throat after that statement, since his voice croaked a little with fury. After calming himself back down, he continued. "As of yet, there's no way to know who did this, so watch your backs."

He paused again, this time to glance at Lucy, and she nodded in answer to the question she could see in his eyes. It was probably wise to tell everyone about her situation, so they could be prepared.

With a deep sigh he continued. "Up till now I chose to keep Lucy's identity a secret, so that something like this wouldn't happen. However - now that it has - there's no reason to not tell you. She is the daughter of a very wealthy merchant, and this is very likely an attempt to kidnap her for a ransom. But! We will keep her safe! No matter what!"

There was a deafening round of cheers, agreements, and various war cries … the enormity of which triggered tears to streak down Lucy's cheeks. She couldn't believe the extent of everyone's feelings – of how they were willing to pick up arms just to protect her – and her heart felt like it would pop out of her chest and float away with how big it swelled up. She loved everyone in Fairy Tail so much, and it meant the world to know that they felt the same for her.

On the other hand, she was also simultaneously crushed under the knowledge that she had put her beloved guild and family into such a terrible situation in the first place.

She was distracted from her down trailing thoughts as someone yelled, "So what's the plan? How are we gonna find these assholes so we can kick their butts?"

Makarov sighed. "There's no way to know really, but I'm sure they will show themselves soon, and when they do, they will pay." There was a round of hoots and hollers, which quieted down as he raised his hands. "BUT! IF they are a fellow guild…our hands are somewhat tied until they commit a direct act of violence towards us and we can claim self-defense. Otherwise, it's possible that Fairy Tail could be disbanded by the Magic Council for breaking the law against inter-guild fighting. So the ball is in their court for now. As such, I recommend everyone stick together. Do not go out by yourself. Stay in groups of at least three, but preferably five or more. We aren't going to make this easy for them."

There was a mix of disgruntled sounds from having been told they had to wait and loud promises to stay together.

After that, the crowd somewhat broke up and settled into groups to talk and drink. This was the basement after all… there were plenty of barrels of alcohol around for everyone, and the whole guild seemed like in a drinking mood. Cana of course hogged a whole barrel to herself, but that was normal for her.

As for Lucy, she just wanted to go back home and curl up into a ball under her covers. She felt so miserable. Yes, the care that everyone had shown for her made her practically ache with happiness, but that made the heartbreak only sharper in comparison. The guilt and sadness at causing everyone so much pain was eating her alive.

Even so, she didn't want to bring anyone down with her, so she tried her best to keep the misery off her face and present a façade of optimism and comradery. That was hard, since everyone had a frown going – or at least everyone who was still sober enough to do so. Drunkenness was already spreading pretty quickly. Thankfully someone was smart enough to put a spell on the door that wouldn't let drunk people leave the basement without two sober persons accompanying them.

For a while Lucy stuck around and mingled some, trying to express how sorry she was for everything, but everyone told her it wasn't her fault.

After a little time, she approached the master. An idea had occurred to her, which she was sure that he would say no to, but she couldn't help but feel like it might be the right thing to do.

"Um, Master Makarov?"

"Yesh Lushy?!" he asked as he spun around to face her. The rosy tint to his cheeks and his lisp told her he was already pretty drunk, but she still plowed forth with her question.

"I…I think it might be best if I just turn myself over to whoever these people are." Instantly the master's eyes sobered up and he fixed her with a hard expression, so she hurried to explain. "I mean, this is really my problem. They probably want to ransom me or something, and if I just hand myself over no one else has to get hurt. The guild shouldn't have been dragged into something like this just because…"

It was at this point that Makarov interrupted. "No Lucy. This was a direct assault on Fairy Tail. They may be using you as an excuse, and maybe they really are planning to ransom you for money, but it's obvious that they intended to attack Fairy Tail too. It's probably someone that we've somehow angered and now has a grudge. Turning yourself over likely wouldn't do anything anyways… they'd still probably continue to attack us." Then his eyes softened. "Even if it would protect the rest of the guild, there's no way we'd let you do something like that. I would disband Fairy Tail before willingly hand over one of our family to an enemy…. It goes against everything Fairy Tail stands for."

Those were pretty strong arguments that the master presented, and Lucy was left at a loss for how to combat them. In fact, she got the feeling that turning herself in against the master's wishes would be an exceptionally bad idea…so really the only thing she had left was to just accept the situation and try fixing it by fighting alongside everyone else.

As soon as Makarov got a nod in reply to his previous words, he went right back to being a happy drunk and waved her off with a burp and chuckle.

Lucy wandered away and eventually started heading towards the door, feeling distraught and deflated. Soon she was flanked by Erza and Gray. It went without saying that they would be the ones to stay with her, since they were a team. Before they left of course, Lucy went and collected Happy, since he had run off to raid the fish freezer that Mira kept down here just for him. Naturally he was never allowed in the cellar because he would demolish her whole supply in one day, and it was meant as a treat after they came back from a job well done.

"Come on Happy, we're going home."

"Aweady?" the blue cat asked, his word somewhat lost since it had to come out around two fish stuffed in his face. It seemed that he had sought comfort in over-imbibing food.

Lucy couldn't help but smile at him. He was so ridiculous. "Yeah, already. Let's head out before Mira catches you and stuffs you in that freezer instead of the fish."

His eyes widened, and he nodded quickly before grabbing and stuffing as many fish as he could into his backpack, then hurried over to her.

They set back off to her place, which was already kind of the hang out spot for their team. Gray and Erza tended to just show up at her place without her consent, but in this case it was fine. She really just wanted to go home anyways, so it worked.

…

It was a day or two before the enemy made their next move.

Since everyone was staying in groups, it prevented their mystery opponent from going with the threat of picking them off one by one. So instead…they went after a whole team.

It was only a few days after the first incident when another crowd amassed in Magnolia. Lucy, Gray, and Erza all approached slowly and laden with dread when they first saw the mass of people surrounding a famously large tree situated in the center of the park near their guildhall.

Lucy's gut was sinking from the get-go, and the feeling only got worse as the crowd parted to let them through. Every face she could see had some sort of pitying expression on it, and it didn't give her warm fuzzy feelings about what they were going to find.

Sure enough, the sight that greeted them was enough to knock the wind right out of their lungs.

It was probably dumb luck, but it just had to be one of Lucy's closest friends who was tacked up to the trunk of the huge tree that everyone was staring at. Levy was flanked by Jet and Droy, her team mates, who had apparently been taken out along with her. All three of them were beaten badly and had been stripped, leaving them naked, bloody, and bruised. Even worse, they had been tacked up to the tree with iron shackles around their wrists and an iron band around their throats.

Lucy was already yelling before she had made the decision to. "Stop just staring at them, for god's sake! Someone hurry and get them down!"

Erza leapt at the task and quickly carved the shackles out of the tree with one of her swords. It seemed like they were the first to arrive from Fairy Tail, because it took a few more minutes before others appeared out of the crowd – all of them wearing that same apprehensive look on their faces. By that point Lucy, Gray, and Erza had covered Levi, Jet, and Droy to the best of their ability with offered coats and had already called for an emergency vehicle. Their lives weren't in danger thankfully, but they were badly hurt and needed medical attention ASAP.

It wasn't long before Master Makarov was shoving his way through the crowd to get to them.

"What happened here?!"

There was a long pause as they all let him get a good look at the three injured Fairy Tail members. Then Gray spoke up.

"They were strung up on that tree with these…" He held up the shackles that Erza had cut from the tree.

Makarov's eyes were absolutely murderous. Golden light seemed to radiate from him in waves, and everyone who wasn't a member of Fairy Tail took more than a few steps back. Most left entirely as the waves of anger rolled off the short man in a way that made sweat pop out onto your skin. Even the guild all flinched back just a little. Nobody had ever seen him quite this mad before. His aura was positively …. deadly.

"Whoever did this…will pay." he growled and punctuated the promise by crushing his staff in his fist.

Unfortunately, they didn't know who had done it yet … although another note had been left, saying much the same as the first. It did give a location as to where Lucy could be handed over, which was naturally the first place everyone ran to investigate. But it just turned out to be an empty warehouse with another note that simply said to leave Lucy tied up there. Nobody believed that would end it though. These attacks were much too violent.

So, they were basically left waiting. It was the only thing they could do. However, the groups of Fairy Tail members grew bigger, and it would be much harder to take one out. In fact, mostly they all just stayed in the basement of the guildhall for the time being. They weren't hiding though, they were just waiting until they could attack.

They didn't have to wait long.

One day, Lucy was in the guildhall basement, doing the same thing everyone had been doing for the past few days – making battle plans. They had gone so far as to send out some small groups, which were secretly protected by larger groups, in the hopes that they might lure in the attackers. It hadn't worked though – since the one time that the enemy had actually taken the bait, they managed to escape. The only thing it had gotten them was information. At least now they knew who they were fighting, because they had definitely been able to identify one of the people attacking. It had been Gajeel Redfox, a known mage in Phantom Lord, which was a dark guild that Fairy Tail had some history with.

It made Lucy feel somewhat better to know that at least she wasn't the sole reason why Fairy Tail was being attacked, though it still sucked to be the excuse.

So now they knew who they were up against, but that didn't help too much since they didn't know how to go about finding Phantom Lord. As a dark guild, they didn't exactly advertise their hangouts, and it was rumored that their entire guildhall was actually able to move locations somehow. Nobody had seen this magical moving building though, as far as they could find out, because apparently it also had some sort of invisibility spell on it…or something to that effect. There were so many rumors, it was hard to really decide what to believe on the matter.

What they did know, was that Phantom Lord had a notoriously short fuse. Its guild master, Jose Porla, was patient up to a point, but apparently he had a history of eventually coming in guns blazing … so it was already obvious that a huge all-out war between the two guilds was eminent. In fact, it was so obvious, that the whole town had taken precautions. A lot of people had taken vacations to get out of dodge – which was probably the smart idea. Both Fairy Tail and Phantom Lord had super powerful mages that could probably destroy the whole town if they put their minds to it.

Fairy Tail of course had their S-Class wizards: Erza, Mira, Laxus, Mystogan, and Gildarts. Not to mention Master Makarov, who was one of the Ten Wizard Saints.

The only problem really, was that three out of those five top wizards were generally hard to find. Mira had tried to call Laxus, but as usual he was being a pissy brat and refused to make an appearance. He was going through this whole rebellious phase that reminded Lucy a little of when she had run away from home. It was obvious that he was dealing with some rough shit though …... After all, his grandfather was Master Makarov, so he lived under a pretty deep shadow. Making things even worse, his father had been kicked out of the guild years ago, and they'd all heard the rumor that he was now the master of a dark guild. In a way, she didn't blame Laxus for being such an ass…it just sucked for the rest of them when he refused to come help out when they needed it.

As for the other four…Gildarts was always away on a mission and only checked in every now and then, so she barely even knew the guy. Mystogan on the other hand … well he was also always out on jobs, but Lucy had never even seen him, since he always made everyone go to sleep when he popped in for a new job. There was no way they could even contact him. So that left them with just Erza and Mira. Of those two, Mira had lost touch with her powers when her sister died seven years ago. Since then, she had tried to regain that magic, but hadn't quite managed it yet.

Outside of their S-Class mages, they still had a powerhouse full of mages though, so Lucy wasn't too worried for Fairy Tail.

Still, it was a little concerning, because apparently Phantom Lord also had four elite mages – similar in power to their S-Class mages – known as the Element Four. Aside from that, they had a dragon slayer, Gajeel, and he was supposed to be as tough as nails – tougher than actually, since he was rumored to eat them for breakfast. So they might be in for a really difficult fight.

Thus, all the battle planning and strategy meetings … one of which they were currently engaged in.

"So…if they attack us all at once, what do we do?"

"Well, they have the Element Four, and it will probably take several mages to defeat each one." Erza pointed out.

They had already compiled all the information gathered from scouting around and getting as many rumors as they could. Grandpa Crux had helped immensely when it came to assembling that information and doing research into finding out even more information on Phantom Lord's members using Archive. Through all that, they had found that - just as their names suggested - each member of the element four controlled one of the four elements.

"…fire, earth, water, and air. So if possible, it would be good to pair up our most likely wizards to defeat them based on their elements and known abilities." Cana slurred, sitting on her barrel of wine. "Since I can use element magic through my cards, I can be in one of the groups up against them."

Macao spoke up. "I call the fire mage."

That made sense, he was the resident Fairy Tail fire mage after all and everyone nodded in agreement.

"You may do okay against wind or earth too, but we should be sure to keep you away from their water mage. Since she's so strong I doubt you'd be able to boil her water away." Gray suggested. "I'll take her on. When I'm done with her, I'll take on the earth user second."

As usual, Gray was being a little over cocky. It wasn't like he was arrogant, he just liked to fight and win.

"I could help with her, since I have Aquarius." Lucy added, and just secretly hoped that her spirit didn't also kill her and Gray with their enemy. Aquarius was undoubtedly one of her most powerful spirits, but she was also incredibly temperamental.

And on it went.

Suddenly though, their meeting was rudely interrupted by an enormous crashing sound, followed by an iron bar plowing a hole through the ceiling. Thankfully everyone got out of the way and weren't crushed, but it was a near thing.

Everyone rushed outside to see what the hell was going on. It was obvious that Phantom Lord was finally making their move, and they were eager to get in on the action.

After pouring out of the basement doors, everyone came to a standstill and stared in shock at the monstrosity glaring at them from the lake behind their guildhall. Sure enough, apparently Phantom Lord's guildhall could move, because they were confronted by a shockingly large castle … which just so happened to stand on four tall legs.

It was ridiculous.

Everyone gaped at the thing, but quickly snapped to attention as the sound of a loud voice came from the castle, obviously originating from some sort of lacrima speakers.

"Fairy Tail! You're all so stubborn that I knew it would come to this! However, I'll be gentlemanly and give you one last chance. Hand over Lucy Heartfilia, and we will leave peacefully."

Nobody believed that for a hot second. There was no way in hell and they all knew it. As soon as Phantom Lord got ahold of her, they'd turn on the rest of the guild.

Still … it didn't make it any easier for Lucy to hear.

The Master answered for them all. With a blast of light and magic power that had everyone stepping back a little to give him room, he started growing. Light blazed from his eyes and his mouth as his magic spilled out from his body, and his muscles bulged with power as he took on the massive form and stature of a giant.

In a deep voice he bellowed, "You won't touch any of my children, Jose! Prepare to be crushed!"

He stepped off the cliff like it was just a stairstep and waded through the water – obviously gearing up to simply punch out the lights of this weird walking castle. As he reached it, his fist cocked and he reared back his arm in a punch that would have knocked the thing completely over … if it had landed. Much to everyone's shock and horror though, the master's blow never did make it to its intended target, because at that same moment a horde of black wispy things flooded out of the castle, and every single one of them ran the master through.

He teetered, and then fell backwards, thankfully landing on the ground instead of the lake, as he immediately shrunk back to his normal size. Everyone ran over to him and exclaimed in distress as they saw him ghostly pale and out cold.

"Wh-what could have done this to the master?!" Mira gasped, her hands clamped over her mouth as tears pooled on her cheeks.

"I don't know. I've never seen anything take down the master…" Erza muttered, crouching near him and gingerly lifting him into her arms. "Hurry, get him into the basement." she ordered, handing him to Elfman.

With a solemn nod, the tall muscular man gathered their guild master into his thick arms and hustled him inside to safety.

"Well that's such a shame…I can't imagine him surviving that. My phantoms suck out the magic of anyone they touch, and with that many at once…my, my, they should have sucked out his very soul. What an anticlimactic finish. I was hoping for a bit more entertainment, but oh well, I suppose the rest of you will have to do."

"So that was phantom magic…" Gray muttered, grimacing.

They had uncovered some rumors of a dark magic that Jose wielded, but it was worse than they had feared. How do you fight a phantom? It was like fighting ghosts, immaterial and without a body to attack. And they were fast too, as everyone quickly found out when the horde zipped from the castle to their guildhall and immediately started an assault that none of them were quite sure how to handle.

They soon figured out that the only way to fight them was by hitting them with magic. Physical attacks did not work one little bit against these phantom beasts, but magic attacks seemed to shred them at least temporarily and drive them back. They were impossible to kill though. So, all the Fairy Tail mages could do was to drive the creepy things back.

There was only one way to fight them, and that was to get some mages in that castle and attack Phantom Lord from the inside.

As soon as this was realized, they all held a kind of impromptu strategy meeting – mostly shouted over attacking and defending and aided by Warren's telepathy magic. The only thing they could think of was to send whoever could make it over there to deal with the enemy, while the rest of them played decoy and continued to protect the guildhall and their master.

As soon as the decision was made, Erza flew over there with her black wing armor, and Gray managed to make an ice bridge. Macao flew on a plume of purple fire and Wakaba follow on a plume of smoke. Lucy couldn't make it though, as she was a bit preoccupied with the ghastly beings swarming her. They were mostly making a beeline for her now, and it was obvious to see that they knew who she was already.

So, she ended up in the center of her guild, who were all fighting to keep them off her. However, plenty of the ghastly vermin made it through her comrades and posed a problem for her. She absolutely hated the arrangement – the last thing she would ever want was to hide behind her friends who were all getting hurt because of her – but they insisted on protecting her in their midst. Happy was on her shoulders with his wings spread, helping to dodge the spirits, but at her guildmate's insistence, they stayed low to the ground so that everyone else could help as well.

It was harder for her to fight the ghosts with her magic, since all she had really was a whip and her spirits. Taurus wasn't going to help against these guys, neither was Grandpa Crox. Aquarius would, but she couldn't reach the water to summon her without leaving the rest of her guild behind. She could probably make it with Happy, since he was super-fast and great at evasive maneuvers, but it was risky to leave the safety of her friends. There was a mild chance that Cancer could help, but somehow she doubted his pincers could cut ghosts. Still, she gave it a shot.

"Open! Gate of the Crab! Cancer!"

With a flash of brilliant red light, her crab spirit popped into being. He was an attractive, dark skinned man with neat cornrows laced with red beads. The only thing that seemed even remotely unusual about him were the three crab legs that sprouted from his ribs. As usual, he showed up in his casual form - dressed in black pants, a red silk shirt, and a golden chain around his neck - and he greeted her with, "Hey there, Baby. What can I do for you today?"

"I need some help with these guys, I don't know if you can do anything about them though." Lucy yelped, dodging one sweeping phantom by throwing herself to the ground.

Instantly Cancer disappeared and reappeared in his battle gear, which consisted of – appropriately – armor that looked very much like it was made from shiny red crab shell. He also now sported enormous red pinchers on each hand, unlike the normal long red shears that he wielded with quite human hands in his other form. One pincher was huge while the other was super long and sharp, and she knew he tended to use the large one more as a shield or a bludgeon, while the long skinny one he used more like a sword. They could cut through literally anything…but maybe ghosts were pushing the envelope a little.

Lucy managed to spring back to her feet and dust herself off … in time to dodge the next attack. So far she hadn't mastered any celestial magic aside from summoning her spirits, and though she knew spells were out there that would let her harness the power of the stars themselves, she had nothing to fight these phantoms with as of yet.

Cancer quickly took a protective stance and went to his business mode, which only consisted of a few less "baby"s and a more serious expression. He seemed as skeptical as she was about these phantoms, but he still gave it a go on the next one that went for Lucy. As she had expected and dreaded, his claws merely passed right through them, and instead of hurting them, it hurt him instead as they sucked out his energy. With a grunt, he went to one knee.

"It's okay Cancer, you can go back! Thank you for trying." Lucy was quick to say and closed his gate before he could protest. She didn't want him to be hurt, especially if he couldn't fight back.

It was soon decided – through another impromptu strategy meeting – that the best course of action would be to smuggle Lucy out of here. Lucy found out about the plan when Mira joined her in the center and everyone pressed close to help mask the two girls. Quickly Mira whispered that she would be changing into Lucy, since her powers that still remained were those of a shapeshifter, and Lucy would be disguised with a temporary paint job on her hair and face by Reedus. Lucy reluctantly agreed, hating the thought of leaving the fight while her friends continued it without her, but it was obvious she was just causing more problems for them by staying. So, they quickly switched, and Lucy was smuggled out under someone's long coat with a different hair color and makeup, while Mira made a big scene to get everyone's attention.

The only trouble with this plan was that Happy stayed with Mira and helped fly her around to get attention … which meant that Lucy had to leave Happy behind. That didn't sit well with either of them, but it seemed like the best course of action. It was common knowledge that Lucy and Happy were attached at the hip, and if the other guild knew that then it would be hard for Mira to pretend to be her without him. So, with one last sad look shared between the pair, Lucy left.

* Sneak Peek of Chapter 3 *

For a long moment she lay there, feeling a sinking sensation in her gut that just got worse and worse as she came up with one plan after another that were doomed to fail. Then, suddenly a shot of heat hit her breast when something warm shifted ever so slightly on her chest as she breathed. With a bolt of adrenaline, she realized that she wasn't entirely up a creek, because she did in fact have one key left…the one she had decided to never use.

It was her only option now…but to get to it she would have to get herself untied.