Chapter 18: Lucy's Secret
Phantom Lord branch guild
Natsu and Gray continue sending the Phantom mages flying out or trapping them in ice as another group of Phantoms jump towards Cana who has three cards in her hand.
"Card Magic! Lighting, Reverse Tower, Lovers! Jolt of Fate!" Cana yells, shocking the Phantoms as she summons the lighting.
"Ring Magic! Twister!" Loke yells as he twists one of his rings and summons a tornado at the Phantoms which entraps them along with a few furniture.
Elfman yells as he raises his arm up and a purple magic circle envelops his arm, now having a monster-like lizard arm before punching the Phantom mages.
"Man! Man! If you're a man, then you're a Man!" Elfman shouts as he swings his arms at the Phantom.
"I don't get it."
"What's with that arm?"
It's Take Over!"
His arm's Taken Over by a monster…"
"That's Elfman!"
"The one who absorbs the power of monsters he defeats into his arm… That's…"
"Beast Arm Elfman!"
A loud crash erupts into the air catching nearly everyone's attention towards it.
"That's…"
"It's him…"
A shadow figure stands up atop the damaged Phantom Lord sign that hangs over the top of the bat.
"The Iron Dragon Slayer… Black Steel Gajeel!" Erza says.
"How dare you hurt Levy!" Nab yells out in anger as he jumps up towards Gajeel to attack him. Just then Gajeel's right arm transforms into an iron club which he throws towards and extends into Nab's stomach, smashing him back into the ground and pushing him along it which also takes out a few of his fellow Phantom mages.
"Nab!" Loke yells out.
"He even took his out guildmates in that hit!" Gray says in shock and Gajeel jumps down from the sign.
"Hey there, trash." Gajeel says, transforming his arm back to normal. "The Iron Dragon Slayer, Gajeel-sama will face you now."
"Man! Maybe I'm trash but I'm a Man!" Elfman yells as he launches himself at Gajeel and throws his fist forward as a purple magic circle appears. His fist goes through it and transforms into a massive stone fist. Gajeel sees this attack coming and transforms his left fist into a club and raises it to block Elfman's fist.
"Elfman, huh?" Gajeel says. Transforming his right fist again, extending it at Elfman who dodges again and then transforming his right leg into a club and shoots it at him. Elfman manages to catch the attack through his stone fist stopping it in its tracks. "Oh, not bad."
"A man must be strong." Elfman states.
"Then, how about this?" Gajeel questions as suddenly smaller rods shoot out from his pillar foot. Elfman barely dodging them throwing his head aside as the rods impact into other Phantoms members, sending them flying.
"Damn him his own comrades?!" Elfman questions in shock seeing him nonchalantly striking down his own comrades.
"Where do you think you're lookin'?" Gajeel says throwing his left fist forward, transforming it into a club again striking him in the face sending Elfman flying.
"Gajeel!" Natsu shouts as he jumps onto Elfman and launching himself off him towards Gajeel. Gajeel doesn't reacts quickly and it punched back by a fire fist to the face sending him crashing into the bar shocking many of the Phantom mages.
"Gajeel was blown backwards!"
"I've never seen that before…"
Gajeel recovers easily, grinning as he sits back up and stares at Natsu who has both of his fists in fire.
"I'm Fairy Tail's Dragon Slayer." Natsu declares as Gajeel stands back up. "Elfman, leave this guy to me."
"Why you… Not only do you use me as a floor mat you plan on interfering in out Man-on-Man battle?" Elfman questions.
"Iron Dragon's Club!" Gajeel tells throwing his right arm club forward and extending it into Natsu, hitting him directly in the chest but Natsu slides backwards as Natsu clings into the iron club.
"Natsu!" Erza yells out.
"This guy busted up the guild and hurt Levy and the others…" Natsu starts, Gajeel perks his eyes up a little bit as Natsu lights his hands aflame. "Eat this!" He yells as Natsu pull up and sends Gajeel flying into the air. Gajeel easily recovers, planting is feet against the rafters and using it to launch himself back towards Natsu who slams his across the face with anther fire fist sending him crashing into the ground and the wall, causing the wall to crumble on top of him and bury him.
"Ooh, they're havin' fun, aren't they?" Wakaba amusingly says.
"Must be nice being young." Macao comments and Elfman grunts.
"Excellent." Erza says.
Sakura smiles as her clutched hand on her chest.
"Natsu! I'll let you have that manly battle! But in return…"
"Right! I'll knock him good!" Natsu says looking back at Elfman.
Gajeel's arm shoots out from the rubble into the air as he pulls himself out from under it.
"That didn't affect me." Gajeel calmly says causing Natsu chuckle lightly.
"Doesn't look like that to me." Natsu says.
"You sure?" Gajeel questions as he launches himself into a sprint towards Natsu who is unable to react in time as Gajeel kicks him, sending him flying with an iron club left foot. Natsu crashes into the ground and slides through a group of Phantom members sending them flying.
"Hey now…" Gray says.
"That's just nuts." Loke says.
"Come on, bring it. You're not affected either, right?" Gajeel questions as he walks towards the pile of rubble that Natsu got buried underneath from the attack. Suddenly, a massive burst of fire shoots out from it destroying the rubble as Natsu stands up from it and his eyes glows bright red through the flame as he chuckles again.
"You know me pretty good there." Natsu replies with a crazed look in his eyes.
"Gihi!" Gajeel chuckles as both of them grin widely at each other with their teeth showing. "You're one hot and uncomfortable guy, you know that?" Gajeel says as a green magic circle appears in front of his right arm.
"Shut up, your hard-ass." Natsu retorts with a red magic circle appearing in front of his right arm as his fist lights up in fire.
"I'll crush you!" Gajeel yells out throwing and extending his club towards Natsu who stops it but slides a little with his right fire fist.
"Don't get ahead of yourself, you scrap-iron bastard!" Natsu yells out in anger as his whole body light up and he slightly crushes the tip of his club.
"Oh? Just as the rumors say. That's some decent power you got there." Gajeel remarks, pulling is arm back and transforming it back to normal as steam sizzles from it due to Natsu's intense heat. "Ouchy, ouchy… So? Is that all you got, Salamander?" Gajeel questions.
"Don't worry 'bout it. That was just a greeting, before our Dragon's fight!" Natsu says causing a tense silence standoff for a few seconds between the two.
The two of them narrow their eyes at each other and launch themselves towards each other, destroying the ground around them as they do so as they both exchange blows in the air until Gajeel gets another kick on Natsu sending him flying back. Natsu lands on his feet and slides back a little, holding his stomach in pain.
"Heavy…" Natsu states and then notices Gajeel jumps up into the air, laughing maniacally as he extends an iron club at Natsu slamming it into him into the ground.
"Now, the finisher!" Gajeel yells out as he transforms his right arm into a massive sword and comes down at Natsu to finish him off.
"Natsu!" Gray and Erza yell notice this.
As Gajeel is about to stab him, a figure gets in front of Natsu and blocks the sword with her force field.
"Huh?" Gajeel grunts.
"Sakura!" Natsu calls as Sakura is in front of him using Protect. Gajeel grits his teeth in anger.
"Natsu!" Sakura calls out and Natsu responds by jumping over Sakura and punches Gajeel but Gajeel bounces back as he grows nails out underneath his boots, using them to stick himself into one of the rafters as he is hanging upside down.
Natsu then jumps up towards Gajeel and punches him with a fire fist, but Gajeel transforms his left arm into a club which sends him backwards through the rafters as Natsu lands on the rafter.
"Now I'm fired up!" Natsu says and Gajeel lands and hangs again on a rafter higher than where Natsu is.
"Got a bit of a destructive streak in you, huh?" Gajeel says.
Just then, the entire building begins to shake.
'Oh jeez…" Wakaba says as everyone stops fighting and looks up wondering what's going on, though all the Fairy Tail mages seem to know.
"It's started." Macao says.
"That ain't good." Gray says.
"What's going on?"
"That's Master Makarov's anger." Cana says.
"The Giant's Wrath…" Loke says.
"No one can stop him now." Nab says as he sitting on the ground bruised up from Gajeel's attack holding his left arm.
All the Phantom mages hear this and begins to cower in panic and fear.
"The entire guild's shaking!"
"That's the Man, Master Makarov!" Elfman says.
"Prepare yourselves! As long as out master is here, we cannot lose!" Erza states as the shaking finally stops.
Sakura notice the silence after the shaking.
"Master…" Sakura silently calls.
Suddenly, something crashes down in the center of the hall drawing everyone's attention to it.
"What's this?" Elfman questions.
"Something fell down!"
As the smoke finally clears around, everyone finally gets a good look at it. Lying in the middle of the hall is a really green-paled Master Makarov with his jaws open.
"Gramps!" Natsu yells out.
"Gramps!" Gray yells.
"Master!" Erza yells.
Sakura covers her mouth from the shock that she is seeing.
Quickly, all the Fairy Tail wizards and Sakura gather around Makarov. Erza kneeling and picking him up into her arms.
"M-my magical power… My magical power!" Makarov weakly says.
"Master, hang in there!" Erza pleads.
"What's happened?" Cana questions.
"What in the world? I can't sense any magical power at all from him." Gray says.
"You mean he's now nothing but a little old man?" Elfman asks.
"But why?" Happy asks as tears starting to form on his eyes.
"Gramps! Get it together!" Natsu pleads.
"There's something odd about this." Sakura says.
"I can't believe it… How did they beat Gramps?" Gray questions.
"What the hell do they have up there?" Elfman wonders looking up.
"Their master's been beaten?" A Phantom mage questions as they are gather and looking at the scene of the Fairy Tail wizards around their downed master.
"Seriously?"
"Hey!"
"Did you hear that? We can do this!"
"They're at less than half strength now!"
"And we've still got Gajeel and the Element 4!"
Erza notice this and don't like what they are hearing from the Phantom wizards.
"This is bad…" Erza thought.
"Now's our chance! Crush them!" The now recuperated Phantom cry out as they charge at the Fairy Tail mages. Now fully reinvigorated Phantoms begin their counterattack taking many of the Fairy Tail wizards by surprise as they begin knocking them back.
"Don't get cocky!" Natsu yells out in anger blasting a group of them away with his fire magic.
"Damn it, they've…" Gray trails off.
"Gotten their fighting spirit back." Loke finishes.
"Take this! Triple Element Combination Magic!" Three Phantom mages yell as they combine their fire, earth, and water magics into one blast and send it towards Cana.
"No!" Cana yell out noticing the attack coming at her too late. The attack explodes causing Cana to cry out.
"Cana!" Wakaba yells out. As the smoke clears, Macao is shown having pushed her down to take the black for her as he stands in front of her.
"You gotta do better than that!" Macao says.
"Macao…" Cana calls.
From where she stands, Erza notices that they are beginning to lose ground. Now the Phantom having the advantage over them as many more of her comrades are now injured with many of them barely being able to hold back the attacking Phantoms.
"This is bad. It's not just about attacking strength. Our moral is critically low as well!" Erza thought realizing they are losing the battle and she stands up.
"Retreat! Everyone return to the guild!" Erza yells out.
"Huh?!" Natsu says in shock at what he's hearing.
"Erza!" Loke yells in shock.
"A Man does not withdraw!" Elfman yells with two beaten up Phantom in his hands.
"I can still fight…" Macao says albeit covers with bruises now due to the attack he took as he is behind carried by Cana with his arm over her shoulder and Sakura healing Macao.
"You can't!" Sakura tells him.
"I can fight as well, Erza!" Cana says.
"No! Without the master, we cannot defeat Jose! Retreat! That's an order!" Erza yells.
"Oh? Already running with your tails between your legs?" Gajeel questions still hanging upside down on the rafters as he looks down at the retreating Fairy Tail wizards. "You never had the guts, you Fairies."
"Retreats are sad. All to sad!" A new voice from above Gajeel says. One of the Element Four, Aria.
"Aria? You're always creeping me out!" Gajeel says jumping up and crouching down beside him. "But anyway, good job getting the old man."
"It was all Master Jose's plan." Aria says and all of the sudden he begins crying like crazy with a stream of tears coming out from his blindfolds. "H-how wonderful!"
"Don't cry at every little thing!" You're annoying… So, did they catch Lucy?" Gajeel asks.
Down below, Natsu wasn't among the others retreating to hold some of the Phantom wizards back when his dragon hearing caught wind of what Gajeel said as he looks up at him.
"It is a sad story. The girl named Lucy is being held in out headquarters." Aria says.
"So we gave her a 'warm welcome' then?" Gajeel asks.
"What?" Natsu questions in shock at what he just heard.
"What's the matter, Natsu?" Happy asks.
"G-Gajeel!" Natsu yells up.
"We'll finish this one day, Salamander!" Gajeel says with his arms crossed as Aria extends his right hand out and the two disappear.
"They caught Lucy…" Natsu says in complete shock and Happy cries out in shock.
"Retreat! Move it!" Erza yells.
"Are you a fool? You think I'd retreat now? I'm here to get revenge for Levy's team!" Gray says as he prepares to continue the fight with his Ice-Make gesture ready to go. Just then, Erza place her hand on his fist and lowers it, making Gray to stop his magic as he looks at her with shock.
"Please…" Erza trails off with sadness in her voice.
"Erza…" Gray calls when she lowers her head into his chest.
"All we can do now… is pull back… The hole the master left is too great!" Erza says.
Gray is speechless, but finally decides to relent. The entire guild of Fairy Tail is now retreat. Elfman carries the sick Makarov while Erza, Gray, and Sakura run alongside the rest of their friends and comrades back to the guild, Many of them injured from fighting while they remain virtually untouched luckily. With the Fairies full retreat, the Phantom's begin to give chase after them. Just then one Phantom finds himself grabs aside by Someone. Landing on his butt he turns his head around and is shock to see.
"It's Salamander… and a cat!"
Holding him by the shirt is Natsu as his eyes glow red as shadow cover their face with Happy floating beside him.
"Hey, you… You and me are gonna talk!" Natsu says as he lights himself on fire, terrifying the Phantom mage.
A few miles away from the Phantom Lord guild
With the rest of the Phantom Lord mages distract chasing after the rest of Fairy Tail, they fail to notice Natsu and Happy dragging away one of their own as the three find themselves walking up the path of a nearby rocky mountain.
"Natsu, what are you going to do?" Happy asks.
"I'm going to save Lucy obviously." Natsu says as the Phantom continues to struggle in Natsu's grasp. "Tell me. Where is Lucy?" He questions with anger on his face as he continues walking forward, dragging him behind him.
"H-h-how would I know? Who is that?" The Phantom asks. All of a sudden he finds himself lite up by Natsu's fire. "it's hot! It's hot! I'm burning!"
"Say it." Natsu demands.
"I don't know nothin', seriously! It's hot!"
"If any more of our friends are hurt… You'll be nothing but a pile of ashes…" Natsu says as the man continues to cry out in pain.
"I never heard of the wrench! I mean, I don't know about the young lady!"
"Oh, that so? Too bad. Time to make charcoal, I guess." Natsu says.
Aye!" Happy says.
"But our headquarters is up ahead. She may be there."
"Say that in the first place, sheesh." Natsu says.
"Aye." Happy agrees.
Phantom Lord Headquarters
Standing alone at the top of the mountain is a massive stone building with two towers on either side of it. Inside one of the towers, is an unconscious Lucy with her hands bound behind her back. Lucy opens her eyes finally regaining consciousness, shooting up as she looks around wide eyed.
"What is… Where am I?" Lucy questions.
"Awake, are we? Lucy Heartfillia-sama…" A voice from behind the metal prison door says.
"Who are you?" Lucy says looking behind her.
The door opens up and steps in the Master of Phantom Lord, Jose.
"I am the guild master of Phantom Lord, Jose." He greets.
Lucy gasps in shock hearing this.
"Phantom?" Lucy says and remembers what had happened.
Lucy decided to leave the hospital and go back to the guild with Aiko to check up on Mirajane. On her way, she and Aiko ran into two members of Phantom's Element 4. A water-mage teenage girl, Juvia, and a slim man, Sol.
"That's right! I was captured by the Element 4!" Lucy says remembering Juvia trapped Lucy in a massive bubble as she loses consciousness from the lack of air. "Aiko! Where is she?"
"You mean that creature? It's behind you." Jose says and Lucy turns around as she widens her eyes at the sight Aiko is. Aiko is bruised up and lying on the floor unconscious. "I know that this filthy cell and shackles are quite rude of me, but you are currently a prisoner, so I hope you understand the circumstances."
"Remove these at once! Prisoner? How dare you do that to Levy-chan's team!?" Lucy yells.
"For someone of your status, I have prepared accommodations for a welcomed guest instead of a prisoner." Jose says looking away from her as she scratches his chin.
"What's that supposed to mean?" Lucy says and notices a purple centipede beginning to crawl up her leg as she cries out in panic with tears shooting out from her widen-eyes as her face pales blue. "Ew, ew, ew!"
"See? You don't want to stay in this cell, yes? If you cooperate. I'll transfer you to the suite." Jose says looking back down at her with his arms crossed.
"Why did you attacked us?" Lucy questions.
"Us? Oh, are you referring to Fairy Tail? Just in passing… a side effect." Jose says with a smug look on his face.
"Hah?"
"Our true objective was to obtain a certain someone. And that someone just happened to be in Fairy Tail, so we crush it on our way… that's all."
"Someone?" Lucy repeats.
"Oh my… You're much denser than I figured the daughter of Heartfilia family would be. I mean you, of course. The daughter of the Heartfillia Konzern, Lucy-sama." Jose says.
Lucy suddenly remembers of her previous life that she doesn't want anything to do with.
"H-how did you know?" Lucy questions.
"It seems you hid this fact from the people of the guild. Why would the daughter of one of the wealthiest families in the country take such cheap, dangerous jobs?" Jose questions.
"Is this a kidnapping?"
"Oh no… Nothing of the sort. We were requested to bring you back with us. By none other than your father himself." Jose informs causing Lucy to gasp in shock remembering that man.
"No… No way! Why would he?" Lucy questions as she lowers her head.
"I'm sure it's because he wanted to search for his beloved daughter who ran away from home. Quite normal." Jose assumes.
Lucy closes her eyes and shakes as she grits her teeth. "No way… He's not the kind of person that'd care about that! I'm never going back, you hear me? I'm not going back to that house!" Lucy angrily yells.
"Oh my… What a troublesome little lady we have ourselves." Jose says.
"Release me this instant!" Lucy yells.
"I cannot do that."
"Because…" Lucy trails off before blushing and narrowing her eyes in embarrassment. "I kinda need to go to the bathroom."
"Oh, what's this? That's the oldest trick in the book."
"No… Seriously…" Lucy says as she begins sweating and fidgeting in place. "Please help…"
"Fine then." Jose says pulling a metal bucket and placing it down in front of her.
"Huh?" Lucy says.
"Go ahead." Jose says standing back up and crossing his arms again.
"No way!" Lucy yells out causing Jose to chuckle as she goes pale and looks at the bucket.
"There are plenty of ways to deal with that old trick."
Lucy sighs in defeat as she stands up over the bucket and begins to try to pull her skirt down. "A bucket, huh?"
"Wait seriously!?" Jose yells out with widen eyes in shock as his eyes bulge out. His right eye twitches before he narrows both of them and sweat begins running down on his face in shock. "I never seen such an improper lady! And I am a gentleman!" Jose says as he turns away and closes his eyes.
Unknown to him, Lucy is trying to find something in her back pocket as her arms moves around.
"Where is it? I know I put it here somewhere…" Lucy thought and finds the item that she is looking for and that item is Aiko's poke ball.
~Flashback~
Sakura passes Aiko's poke ball to Lucy as Aiko stands next to Lucy.
"If anything happens to Aiko, put her in there." Sakura instructs her.
"But, are you okay with Aiko being with me?" Lucy asks.
"Yeah. Someone should watch over you, Mira-san, and Levy and the others. And Aiko, protect Lucy as much as you can until we come back." Sakura tells her pokemon and Aiko salutes using her feeler as a hand.
"Phia!" Aiko exclaims.
~Present~
Lucy points the poke ball at Aiko as a red light envelops Aiko before returning to the poke ball and Lucy puts back the poke ball into her pocket.
"Now then…" Lucy thought before smirking as she suddely kicks him into the man's pride causing him to go completely pale white as he cries out in pain with his jaw dropping and eyes bulging out. Jose topples forward holding his burning in pain which is flashing red.
"It's best not to underestimate the old trick!" Lucy proudly says and begins walking away before looking back at him, winking. "Then, take care." She says before running towards the door. Stopping her track when she finds herself looking over the edge of a tall tower she is in as the wind could be heard blowing.
"Too bad for you. This is a sky cell!" Jose says in a hoarse voice as he manages to stand up and begins walking towards her. Lucy looks straight down, finding herself at the very top of the tower with no way of it. "You did me a good one there…" He says as Jose still holding his privates as she turns and looks at him. Lucy then turns her head back to the ground below and turns back as she closes her eyes and thinks of her father. "Now, come to me! I'm going to punish you I must show you how scary Phantom can be!" Jose says with a dark and serious look on his face.
Suddenly, Lucy closes her eyes and launches herself off the tower. Jose's eyes widen and he gasps in shock as the pain from his privates comes back and topples forwards again.
"I heard his voice! He's here, I know it!" Lucy thought as she continues falling down.
"NATSU!" Lucy cries out and suddenly, Natsu comes running in out of nowhere.
"LUCY!" Natsu cries out with determination in his eyes as he launches himself upward catching her in his arms as they crash into a destroyed wall.
"Lucys are falling from the sky!" Happy yells out.
As smoke clears, Natsu is under Lucy in an awkward position as his face is directly in between her breasts.
"You're nuts, you know that?" Natsu says.
"Natsu… I knew you were here…" Lucy says.
After Lucy gets off Natsu, Natsu unties Lucy from her bounds.
"You okay?" Natsu asks.
"Yeah… Somehow…" Lucy trails off as she rubs her wrist.
"Thank goodness. Let's go back to the guild." Happy says.
"What?! This is their headquarters! We should–"
"But Erza said to retreat!" Happy argues.
"She's scared! I ain't afraid of them at all!" Natsu argues back, leaning down towards him.
"The master's been severely wounded!" Happy continues to argue.
"I'll pay 'em back for that too!"
"You can't handle it by yourself, Natsu." Happy states.
"What did you say?"
"You can't handle it!"
"Don't say it twice!"
"Everyone's injured!" Happy yells.
"Not me!" Natsu retorts.
"Nab broke his arm…"
"Because he's weak…"
"Even Macao!"
"'Cause he's an old geezer!"
"I'm sorry… I'm sorry."
The two hear Lucy says this and looks down at her. Her hands are on her skirt as she looks down at the ground. Just then, tears begin to fall onto her hands as she began to cry.
"This is all… This is all my fault!" Lucy says.
"Huh?" Natsu grunts out in confusion.
"But, I still want to be in the guild… I love Fairy Tail!" Lucy says as she looks back at them and tears streaming down her face.
"H-hey, what's the matter? What is it?" Natsu asks.
"Lucy…" Happy calls as Lucy continues to cry.
"Sure you can be in the guild. What's the problem?" Natsu asks.
"Natsu, let's go back." Happy says and Natsu rubs his head.
"Uh, okay… I guess so…" Natsu says and walks over to her. "Lucy, come one, stand up."
"Don't pull her so much." Happy tells him.
"Then I'll carry you on my back, 'kay?" Natsu asks and Lucy begins to cry loudly.
"Now you're making Natsu cry!" Happy says.
"No, I'm not!"
At the top of the tower
Jose is still on his knees groaning and crackling in pain. Just then a dark aura begins to surround him as it then explodes, shooting his hat off as he looks up with a very angered look on his face.
"Now you've gone and done it, girly!"
Off in the distance
Natsu carries Lucy on his back as Happy flies ahead of them.