The bar was silent for a moment and then Natsu began barking out orders, "Alright who's armed?"

About half of the men in the bar raised their hands and Natsu said, "Alright, anyone that's armed start building a barricade, use tables, chairs, whatever, just block the front door. Anyone that isn't armed, find a weapon."

He had turned around the look for Erza when the Princess grabbed his arm, "Don't you think you're over reacting? It could be anything. Besides, if I'm not in the castle, nobody will know where I am."

Natsu said shortly, "I don't take chances, and I'm planning on the worst. Now please, Your Highness, let me do my job."

Lucy took a step back at the brusqueness of his tone but he ignored it, he'd apologize later. He shouted, "Erza, Gray, get over here now."

They soon were in front of him and Natsu said, "Erza, give your armor to Gray. It should fit him well enough."

The red head growled, "What? Are you trying to keep me out of the fight? I can fight just as…"

Natsu interrupted her angrily, "You wanted to be on the guard? Follow my damned orders or I will throw you out right now!"

She looked shocked, and then began to immediately shrug out of her chainmail. When she was done Gray took it and donned it. Natsu said, "Erza. I'm not keeping you out of the fight, you have a different job. You're going out the back. You have to go up to the castle and find out what's going on."

Erza looked mildly chagrined, "Sorry. I didn't realize that's what you meant."

Natsu shrugged, "Question my orders all you want, but later. If you don't follow them immediately, people die."

She nodded and he said, "Don't stop for anything. Get to the castle, find out what's happening, and then bring two squads of guards back here."

Erza nodded again and he shouted, "Mira! Show Erza the back door, and then barricade it, Laxus go help her."

He turned around, satisfied that everyone would do what he told them too and looked critically at the hastily erected barricade. Tables and chairs had been propped against the door, many with legs torn off. Natsu was glad to see everyone taking the crisis seriously. To his mind, it was better to be prepared and look foolish later than to be unprepared and pay for it with a life. He said, "Alright. Here's how it's going to go. The Princess is behind the bar with Laxus. Anyone not on the guard is in front of the bar. That leaves Gray, Gajeel, Elfman, and me, in front of the door. We're the most heavily armed and armored. We'll deal with the first rush, the rest of you deal with any that get past us. If they get past you, well, every person in this tavern had better be dead before a single hair on the Princess' head is harmed."

The bar was silent until Romeo snorted from where he stood next to his father, "Who the hell do you think we are Natsu? If you think any one of us is cowardly enough to not protect the Princess, I might have to challenge your sorry ass to a duel."

A murmur of agreement rumbled through the bar and Natsu chuckled, walking over to clap Romeo on the shoulder, "Someone is angling for my job. Well said, Romeo. Maybe in a few years…"

He was cut off by the sounds of shouting in the distance, as well as the alarm bell closest to Fairy Tail finally beginning to toll. The clanging shook the building minutely and Natsu had to shout over the din, "Alright. Do what I said. Good luck."

He stepped forward through the mass of people and soon found himself only a few feet from the door, along with Elfman, Gray, and Gajeel. He muttered to them as the shouting began to get closer, "If this is an attempt on the royal family, they know exactly where the Princess is. They'll have two teams for her, one to assault the castle and one to assault the bar. Well, that's how I'd do it anyways."

Gajeel rumbled, "Well, hopefully they're not as good as you Salamander. This isn't an ideal space to fight though. There won't be enough room for me to swing my sword that effectively."

Natsu grimaced as he glanced at the blade nearly as tall as he was strapped to Gajeel's back. He then said, "Alright. If they do come through the door, you're first. When it opens, you're going to smash through whatever comes in and get outside where you can fight effectively. Gray, Elf, and me will stay here, standard shield wall until we get separated by the press. Try not to let anyone through. Use your armor to your advantage, I doubt whoever is coming will be wearing any, it would be too hard to sneak any in for their use."

All of them nodded and then Gray said, "That's going to be an awfully small shield wall."

Natsu shrugged, "It's really only to stop the rush. If we can stop their momentum they can't just drown us in bodies."

He was about to go on but something slammed into the front door of the tavern, making the impromptu barricade shake, and a few of the chairs clatter down from the top of the pile. Natsu said, "Alright. You know what to do. You're the best. Good luck."

They all nodded and then turned towards the door. Gajeel took a few steps forward and Natsu, Gray and Elfman all drew their swords and shields, stepping closer together so that when the doors did open they would be able to immediately lock their shields together. The assailants slammed into the door again, Natsu could pick out the individual bodies hitting the door and deduced that they didn't have a battering ram, but grimaced when the barricade started to shake and come apart from the multiple impacts. Gajeel drew his own sword from his back, the black steel gleaming in the candle light. He turned and threw Natsu a feral grin just as the door burst open after one final concerted rush by the attackers. Chairs went flying and the doors nearly came off their hinges as they were violently flung open and men dressed in dark leather began to pour into the tavern. With an animalistic roar Gajeel charged forward, swinging his sword in a large horizontal arc, cleaving two of the enemies in half and throwing everyone in front of him to the side. His armored bulk plowed through the unarmored and smaller men, and he soon disappeared out the doors, although the sound of shouting and metal on metal and metal cleaving flesh could still be heard. Natsu took all this in in an instant and noticed that the attackers momentum had completely stalled from just Gajeel's rush. He decided to go on the attack and shouted, "Elf, Gray. Forward! Break off and kill these bastards!"

With cries of their own his companions rushed forward and began to hack through the throng of men. Natsu was right with them and the world seemed to slow down as adrenaline pumped through his veins. The first man he came too had dark eyes, and the hardened face of a veteran fighter, but he was distracted and Natsu took advantage of it. He smashed the edge of his shield into the man's face, caving in half of his skull and killing him instantly. He didn't have time to draw his shield back in though as a sword flickered out from the man behind Natsu's kill, aimed at his exposed neck. Natsu batted it away with his own sword and brought his shield back into place before sending a lightning fast cut at a man that was trying to push past him, opening up the side of the man's neck and causing him to fall forward with a cry, hands trying to stem the fatal spurting of blood.

Natsu was beginning to be pressed now. Three men fanned out in a semi-circle in front of him and began raining attacks down on him that he was hard pressed to avoid and block. Men began slipping past him and he could hear shouting and screams coming now from behind him, women's screams. They sent him into an animalistic rage, 'None of the people I love die today! Not while I have breath in my body!'

His sword lashed out and one of his attackers broke off with a scream, a deep cut across the front of one thigh. He used his shield to block a sword blow from his attacker on the left and brought his sword back in line just in time to defeat a thrust from the opponent directly in front of him. While that man was bringing his sword back to begin another attack Natsu rushed forward, knocking the man on his left down with a swing of his shield and punching the man in front of him with a gauntleted fist. Blood spurted from his nose and he dropped his sword howling in pain but it was cut off as Natsu drove his sword through the man's chest. He whirled, drawing his sword smoothly out of the man's body, and slashed at a man who was charging into the mass of fighting that was the middle of Fairy Tail now, and lopped off his arm, effectively taking him out of the fight. Next he turned to his last opponent and without even giving him time to scream, slashed him through the heart. He sank back down onto the floor and died silently.

Natsu spun around, ready to attack someone else, but there was nobody near him. Bodies lay on the floor around him but he could clearly see that the assailants had lost too many men to win. A few were desperately fighting, trying to reach the Princess, and a few were desperately trying to run away. Natsu moved to the doorway and shouted, "Hold! If you surrender now quarter will be given! Your lives will be spared!"

The fighting died down and only the moans of wounded men filled the tavern. Many of the attackers dropped their weapon but a few held onto them. The nearest one to the door screamed and charged at Natsu, desperate to escape. Natsu looked at the boy, probably not even seventeen, as he charged. He said softly, "Sorry kid. Wrong choice."

A moment later he effortlessly batted away a clumsy thrust and stabbed forward, driving his sword through the kid's heart, killing him. Not instantly though, the kid had enough time to look confused before his eyes rolled back into his head and he slumped to the floor. Natsu withdrew his sword from the body and said in a quiet deadly voice, "Anyone else?"

The remainder of the attackers dropped their weapons and Natsu said, "Anyone still able to move, find some rope and tie them up. Treat our wounded first, and then if their wounded aren't dead yet, treat them too. Now, who the hell is in charge of this sorry lot?"

One of the wounded men on the ground, the one Natsu had slashed across the thigh, shakily raised his hand. Natsu stalked over and grabbed the front of his tunic, jerking him upright and growling right into his face, "Who the hell are you? Why the hell are you attacking?"

The man's face was white in pain but he gasped out, "You go to hell. You're nothing but scum."

Natsu sighed and dropped the man, moving on to the next one. This one was uninjured so Natsu pushed him up against one of the pillars in Fairy Tail and said, "Who are you? Why the hell are you attacking us?"

Something in Natsu's eyes must have scared the man because he began babbling, "We're the rebels out of the Endwynn Forest. We came to kill the Princess. We've been watching her for weeks so we knew where she would be!"

Natsu continued questioning the man, "When did the rebels there get big enough for this kind of action?"

"We've been planning it for months. I don't understand why it didn't work. We were supposed to have another group come in the back. They were smaller but the group out front was just supposed to be the distraction…"

Natsu was about to ask more questions but the implications of the man's last answer suddenly struck him. He dropped the man and sprinted for the back door, cursing with every step he took. He flew past everyone, ignoring the confusion on their faces, and entered the storeroom of Fairy Tail. He quickly knocked over the impromptu barricade in front of the back door, not caring for the expensive liquors he was destroying, and yanked it open, running through as fast as he could. He ran through the small garden behind Fairy Tail and vaulted the wooden fence around it, finding himself in a side street, 'What's the most direct way to the castle?'

It took his mind a moment to process the layout of the city, 'Left.'

Natsu sprinted down the alleyway, ignoring the frightened looks of people peering out their windows at a blood-spattered man in armor, and took a right. This was a main road but Natsu wasn't used to seeing it so deserted. The ringing of the alarm bells had petered out and only one was still ringing, somewhere off in the distance. He was sprinting down the road and saw an alley up ahead before panting, "There's a short cut. Erza probably would have taken that."

He turned into the alley and stopped dead in his tracks. In front of his eyes was a massacre. At least twenty bodies were lying on the ground up and down the alleyway. Natsu saw that all of them were wearing the same clothes as the attackers at Fairy Tail, 'This must have been the other team that guy was talking about.'

He moved past a small trash heap and was bending down to check one of the bodies when he heard a raspy voice behind him, "Natsu…"

Natsu whipped his head around, one hand moving to his sword, but a moment later it came off and he rushed over to Erza, who was propped up against the trash heap. He knelt down by her and quickly inspected the multiple injuries that adorned her body. There were numerous scrapes and bruises and a shallow cut across her belly had torn her white shirt and blood had soaked what was left but it seemed to have stopped bleeding. More serious was the deep stab wound in her thigh, it was still leaking blood but it didn't have the arterial spurt that indicated a fatal cut, 'Of course, I could have missed that and what I'm seeing now is the last of her blood.'

He didn't see any huge pool of blood or spatters on the walls of the building so he assumed that wasn't the case. The most life threatening injury though was an arrow that was still stuck in her shoulder. He slid a hand behind her and checked the back and found that the arrow hadn't gone all the way through. Erza moaned in pain from the slight jostling of her body and Natsu said, "Sorry Erza, what happens next is going to hurt a lot worse."

He went over to the closest dead body and ripped the man's shirt into long strips, also yanking the leather belt from his pants. He went to Erza and knelt down again, leaning her forward slightly. He folded the belt over and put it up to her mouth, "Bite down on this if you don't want to lose your tongue."

The blood-spattered red head stared blankly at it for a moment before opening her mouth and biting down on the belt. Natsu then said, "Grab onto something, this is going to hurt."

He placed one hand at the top of her arm to hold her steady and put the other on the end of the arrow sticking out of her. When he touched it she screamed through the leather of his belt and one hand clamped down on his leg. Natsu said, "I'm going to push it all the way through, then break it. If I just pull it out it's going to do a lot more damage, got it?"

She nodded and he continued, "On the count of three. One. Two. Three."

In one quick brutal movement, Natsu shoved the arrow the rest of the way through her shoulder. Even through the leather of the belt Erza's pained screams were still very audible, and Natsu felt like he was losing circulation in his lower leg because of how hard her hand had clamped down on it. A moment later though it was done and Erza dropped the belt out of her mouth and gasped, "I'm going to kill you."

Natsu chuckled as he went about breaking the arrow at the tip, and then slowly drawing it back out the front of her shoulder, now that the chance of a barbed arrow ripping up the muscle there was gone, "You can kill me all you want later, just make sure there is a later."

Natsu grabbed the make-shift bandages he'd made earlier and wrapped them around her shoulder, staunching the blood that had begun leaking out, and also wrapping some around the wound in her thigh. He looked at his handiwork critically, "This will work for now but we need to get you to a doctor."

Without any further words he slipped one arm under her knees and another around her shoulders and picked her up, grunting at the weight in his arms. He muttered, "Jeez, why did you have to be so heavy?"

He started walking towards the castle and glanced down to see why she hadn't made a snarky comment, but her eyes were closed and her breathing was labored, "Oh, she passed out. Probably better this way."

Natsu made his way as quickly as he could to the castle through the deserted streets of Magnolia. It took him ten minutes, and by then he was exhausted. The adrenaline from the fight had worn off and carrying Erza was putting a strain on his arms and shoulders. He determinedly pushed on and finally made it to the closed gates, shouting, "Hey, it's Natsu. Open the damn gates!"

It took a moment but he saw a head pop over the wall and shout, "Orders from the king, I can't open the gates for anyone but the Princess."

Natsu groaned and then shouted, "If you don't want me to come up there and rip your tongue out, you will open the gates, and I will deal with the king."

The head disappeared and a few moments later the gates began to open. Natsu stepped through the gates the moment he was able and surveyed the carnage that was hidden behind them. At least fifty of the rebels were lying down on the ground, and scattered among them were guardsmen. One came to meet Natsu at the gate, "Sir, they hit us about 20 minutes ago. We lost 24 men and had another 18 wounded. We captured four of the enemy alive."

Natsu nodded, "Where are the doctors set up?"

The guard pointed towards the stables that were about 50 yards away from the gates, "There's doctors behind the stables, that's where our wounded are. Who's that?"

The guard had motioned towards Erza and Natsu said, "It's Sir Scarlet. She was wounded trying to make her way to the castle."

The guard cursed, "Shit. Well get her to the doctors, hopefully they can keep her from dying."

Natsu nodded and moved towards the stables before stopping and saying to the guard as he passed, "Get two squads together, take them down to Fairy Tail tavern. Assist the wounded there and bring back the most serious. The Princess is there along with the rest of her guard. Bring them back here, tell them those are my orders."

The guard nodded and dashed off to carry out Natsu's orders as Natsu hurried over to the impromptu field hospital that had been set up. He rounded the stables and nearly ran into a doctor who was coming his way. The doctor saw the wounded woman in his arms and cursed, "Damnit! Alright bring her this way. I just lost one so there's an open mat."

Natsu followed the doctor over to an empty bloodstained mat and quickly set Erza down on it. He watched the doctor give her a once over and then look up at him, "What happened?"

Natsu gave him a succinct report, "I found her in an alley. There was an arrow in her shoulder and a deep stab wound in her leg that I considered the most serious. I had to push the arrow the rest of the way through before I could break it off and remove it. I then bandaged the stab and arrow wound and brought her here."

The doctor nodded and went over to a table that had been set up and had various pieces of medical equipment scattered about on it. The man grabbed a few things and came back over, kneeling down next to Erza and peeling off the bandages Natsu had put on her. He critically inspected the wounds before saying, "I don't think she's in any danger of dying. I'm going to sew these up and then you can move her. Any of that blood yours?"

Natsu was caught off guard by the doctor's question and it took a second for his mind to switch gears, "Umm. No, I'm fine. The blood is a couple of other peoples."

The doctor nodded and began silently working on Erza, and Natsu sat down heavily, stretching his legs out and putting both arms back to steady himself as he leaned back to look up at the sky. The last of the twilight sun had disappeared, but the full moon as well as the multitude of lanterns around the castle was more than enough light to see by. After a few minutes of just staring his eyes adjusted and he could make the stars that dotted the night sky, 'How does Lucy ever spend hours looking up at those?'

His musings were interrupted by the king himself, followed by his personal guard. Natsu hadn't noticed his approach and nearly fell over when the king said scathingly, "I see your new knight got herself nearly killed."

Natsu quickly stood up and gave a short bow to the King, "She did it defending the Princess. She did her job."

The King glanced at him imperiously, "I assume no one else on the guard is injured? It just goes to show how worthless she is."

Natsu growled, in a polite tone, "I don't think you know the whole stor…"

He was interrupted as the king held out a hand, "There is a place for women, and it is not on the battlefield. Nor is it protecting my daughter. I want her removed, immediately."

Natsu stiffened and then said formally, "Your Majesty. If you wish to remove her from her post then I shall also resign. I shall also induce the rest of the guard to resign. Furthermore, if I resign, the entirety of your senior army commanders will also resign. If you wish for that, then by all means remove Erza."

The King stared at him for a moment, his eyes bulging with rage, his mouth working but no sounds coming out. Natsu continued, "Or, you can let me do my job. Leave the fighting and the decisions about fighting to the professionals. You're still on the throne because you have competent advisors, and we're all just waiting for Lucy to take the throne anyway."

Without another word the King stalked away, followed by his guardsmen. Lyon Vastia gave Natsu a sympathetic glance and whispered on the way past, "We'll support you if the King wants to move against you. Don't worry."

Natsu nodded to him and soon was left alone with an unconscious Erza. The doctor had finished while Natsu hadn't been paying attention and Natsu thought, 'He did a good job with those stitches, although Erza is going to have some crazy scars. Hopefully she'll still be able to walk after some rest.'

He also noticed that her shirt was pretty much shredded, from her fight and from where the doctor had had to cut it away to do his work. He glanced around and then sighed, there wasn't really anyone to help him carry her. Natsu bent down next to her and gently picked her up again, although it was much more difficult this time, 'I'm going to sleep for a week. It's been too long since I saw any real action. One little skirmish and I'm ready to drop.'

Natsu quickly went into the castle, taking the back ways up to the hallway where the guard's quarters were. He nudged the door open with a foot, carrying Erza into the dark and empty common room. He didn't bother closing the door, walking over to their bedroom, opening that door, and then entering to lay Erza gently down on her bed. He found some matches and lit a lamp that they had hanging on the wall. Natsu stared down at Erza's body, motionless except for the light rise and fall of her chest. The pink haired man sighed and threw the covers on her before leaving the room, 'She'll be out for at least a day. I need to go get things organized.'

Natsu made his way back down to the gates and by that time the squads of guards he'd sent to Fairy Tail were just returning. With them were the Princess, the rest of her guard, and a few wounded. Natsu motioned Laxus over to him, he was the only one not helping the injured, "Report."

Laxus thought for a moment before saying, "No one died, luckily, but we have some wounded. We left a squad of the guards there to deal with the prisoners. There are twenty one dead, four wounded, and eleven prisoners. Everybody on the guard is fully functional an uninjured."

Natsu nodded and then said softly, "Who's wounded?"

The blonde grimaced and sighed before saying, "Macao got stabbed in the arm but he'll be fine, he's had worse. Gildarts is going to have a few new scars but it's nothing to worry about. Both Jet and Droy got knocked out, they'll have killer headaches tomorrow but they'll be fine too. The worst is Romeo. He tried to take on two at once and got stabbed right in the gut. We brought him back for the doctors to work on but I don't know if he's gonna make it."

Natsu nodded, stone-faced, before saying, "Good work. It could have been a lot worse. You take the Princess to her room and then get your armor on. You're on guard until I can get you relieved tomorrow. I'm exhausted and I bet the others are too."

Laxus nodded, "Yeah, don't worry about it. I'll hook some of the regular guardsmen in and beef up security in that wing of the castle."

The pink haired knight nodded, "Good idea. Do it."

The blonde went off and Natsu glanced around. The rest of the guard was still in protective positions around the Princess but when Laxus went over and spoke quietly to them, they relaxed and began to tramp over to Natsu. When they reached the pink haired man he said, "Good work everyone. You're all relieved until tomorrow. Get that armor off, clean up, then get some sleep."

They all gave him smiles and began walking towards the castle. As Gray passed Natsu he asked, "Whatever happened to Red? Took her long enough with those damn guards."

Natsu shook his head, "If it hadn't been for her we'd have had it a lot worse."

At his quizzical look Natsu waved his hand dismissively, "I'll tell you and show you tomorrow."

That was good enough for the raven haired man and he left. Natsu glanced around, making sure that there was nothing left for him to do, and then followed his men into the castle. They all went to the armory first to take off their armor and weapons; they'd have to clean them tomorrow due to the incredible amount of blood that soaked all of it. The other four men went to find baths but Natsu didn't follow, instead going back to his room to check on Erza. When he got to his room though, he was shocked. A dark figure was standing over Erza, holding a pillow over her face, suffocating her. With a roar Natsu threw himself forward, desperate to save Erza, and to kill whoever was endangering her.