Author's Note- Wow, cut it a little close on our posting date this time. Our next chapter probably will not be up until the 29th of October because it's a very busy time for both of us... but guess what? Next time we post, both authors are going to be in the same geographical location! BCA meetup ayyyy~~

Also, there is art to accompany this chapter, drawn by one-half of BCA. It is viewable on AO3 or on Scarl's blog (link to be added in our profile later).

Thanks, as usual, to our beta team, Howlingmoonrise, Cthulhu With A Fez, and Professor Maka. We had them on a tight schedule this time because we're both foolish procrastinators and really only got this chapter finished today, but the three of them are badasses who pulled through on combing through this anyway. Thanks a million, guys!

Chapter 3: A Knock At The Door

One by one, the street lights of Magnolia flickered on as the sun began to set on the 15th of December. Frosted windows opened up to scenes of warmth, people coming together to ward off the encroaching cold of winter. Such an air could also be found at the hall of Fairy Tail.

Chatter had returned to the guild along with most of those who had left on jobs. A scuffle here or there popped up, but never was it anything close to the usual full scale free-for-all. The first and biggest one had started when Mickey descended on Joey the second he walked back in. Wan was pulled into the fray by virtue of proximity along with Mickey's team. Thanks to a lack of dragonslayers or ice make wizards or manly men or knights, they had managed to keep the collateral damage down to a cracked chair leg and a small dent in the wooden floor.

Some successfully tuned out the low-level brawl; when one was used to melees of greater scope, it was a simple case of desensitization. Lucy didn't bother to look up from her book. However, her lack of reaction was born solely of distraction.

No matter what Lucy did, she could not settle the burgeoning sense of disquiet that ebbed through her. Something… something was profoundly wrong. It was like there was a fundamental fact of the universe that was skewed, but for the life of her she couldn't figure out what. She shook herself. It's nothing, she chanted at the wriggling feeling in the back of her head.

After having read the same page three times, she set her book down and rubbed her eyes with a light hand. Who was she kidding? With her brain trying so hard to impose a feedback loop of worry, getting anything done was going to be a futile endeavor.

She sighed and turned her attention to the goings-on around her— what little there was, at any rate. She didn't dwell on any one person for long, finding that nothing they were doing was particularly engaging. Once her roving eye landed on Cana, however, Lucy paused and mulled over the recollection of her... well, she didn't know what to call Cana's reaction to being confronted about still being in Magnolia a few days prior...

It didn't take long for Lucy to toss her compunctions about approaching Cana aside. As the days rolled by after the S-Class candidates set out for the trials, the woman had been constantly intoxicated, even more than usual. It was well past the time that Lucy could in good conscience ignore that something was wrong. She didn't want to confront her, exactly, because on the morning everyone else had left, she hadn't responded well at all to asking her why she was still in town. Lucy had no desire to repeat Wakaba's experience with having ale dumped on his head. But her conscience wouldn't let her remain silent.

And so she chose her moment carefully, waiting until the slow side of mid-afternoon when most people were out on local jobs or napping in corners, sleeping off a hearty lunch. It had been a quiet day anyway, most people dedicating their time to party planning; after all, it wouldn't be Fairy Tail if they weren't plotting a ridiculously over-the-top blowout to celebrate the selection of a new S-Class wizard. Two parties, actually, because of course. There would be one the very next day after the trials officially ended and Makarov called ahead on the lacrima to let them know who had won, and then a second, larger party once the candidates returned.

In light of the impending festivities, most of the guild members were laying low in preparation. The only people who were still present and fully conscious were Max and Nab, who were busy making a banner that would be hung over the stage when their new S-Class wizard arrived home at the end of the week, and Kinana, who looked deeply relieved that the hall was quiet for an hour or two. It was the perfect opportunity for Lucy to spring her plan into action.

Features schooled into a soft, friendly smile, Lucy sidled up to the cards wizard and slid onto the barstool next to her.

"Hey, Cana," she said, cheerful but not too cheerful.

Cana looked up at her, eyes bleary with drink. "Oh. Lucy. Hi."

"How's it going?" Lucy asked.

She shrugged. "Same old, same old." She lifted her mug to her mouth and threw back the rest of her beer. "Hey, Kinana, can I get another?"

The apprentice barmaid scurried over to replace Cana's beer.

Lucy fought to keep from frowning as she watched Cana take several long swigs from her new mug. She'd meant to ease into the subject, but she was worried, and since nobody else seemed inclined to say it… "You've, um, been drinking a lot lately," she observed warily.

"So?"

"So… is everything okay?"

Cana gave her a wobbly thumbs-up. "Just peachy."

"Are you sure?" Lucy asked skeptically. "Because you didn't go to the S-Class trials even though you were a chosen candidate, and you've been in a bad mood all week."

"I don't want to talk about it, Lucy," Cana bit out, the tired snap of a creature resistant to action. She didn't bother to look back up from her drink.

Lucy squared her shoulders, not prepared to give up after the first defeat. "Look, Cana, I—"

"I said, I don't want to talk about it!" Cana growled.

Her tone was quiet, but absolutely vicious, and it was obvious this conversation wasn't going to go anywhere. Part of winning the war, her father had often said, was knowing how to pick your battles. This was the time for a tactical retreat if she ever saw one.

"Okay," she said, trying to make her tone as soothing as possible. "I'll leave it alone. But… if you need someone to talk to..." Lucy caught Cana's eyes and stressed oh-so-carefully her next words: "You know where you can find me."

Cana actually looked up at that, not quite dumbstruck but obviously not expecting that. "You—"

Whatever she was going to say was lost as Max's voice barged between them. "Hey! Cana, Lucy, one of you got a sec? We need a second opinion!"

Lucy glanced over to where Max was standing and saw that he and Nab were glaring daggers at each other, locked in what initially appeared to be an arm-wrestling match but which, upon closer inspection, turned out to be a power struggle over a light pen.

"Looks like the banner-making has gone south," Lucy observed.

Cana snorted. "Did you really expect anything else in this guild?"

She shrugged. That was a good point. "You coming?" she asked.

Cana waved her off. "Nah. I'm too drunk to deal with Nab right now, you go. You do that whole creative writer thing anyway, right? You'll actually be able to help."

And so, reluctantly, Lucy allowed herself to be diverted from her goal and swept away into Nab and Max's heated debate about whether the banner should say "congratulations" or "good work" and whether the ink should be red or color-changing...

The couple of days since that incident had passed in much the same manner. The guild was active, but not half so lively with most of their top-tier members gone. Kinana poured. Cana drank. Everyone pretended not to notice.

Lucy snapped her book shut with a quiet groan.

"Everything okay, Lucy?" Max asked from the next table over.

She nodded. "Yeah, just can't seem to focus," she said. "I think I'll head home for the night."

"Smart," Max observed. "They're gonna be starting the last-minute party prep any second now and if you don't wanna be stuck here until after midnight, you're gonna want to get out before Nab drags you into something."

Lucy giggled at the sour look on Max's face. He'd been "caught" by the party-planning commission several nights in a row, and the lack of sleep was starting to show. Personally, Lucy couldn't see how all this planning was even necessary; a society soiree was one thing, but Fairy Tail didn't seem to need anything fancier than a song from Mirajane and a tapped keg to have a riotous good time.

Then again, she suspected that an elaborate celebration after the S-Class exam was one of those fond Fairy Tail traditions that she would get used to over the years.

"Thanks for the tip," she said.

"Actually, I'm gonna bail, too," he said. "I'll walk you out, yeah?"

Her apartment was a little chilly when she arrived home that night, as she'd turned down the output of the heat lacrima before she had left that morning. Sure, she was able to recharge it herself, but without the proper tools it usually took more time than she had to do so. Ha, I can rip holes in space-time to summon beings from another dimension, but heaven forbid I try to use my magic for more domestic applications, she thought dryly.

Of course, she was more than aware that magical item manufacturers designed them that way on purpose so as not to cut into their recharging profits, so she rolled her eyes as she cranked it back to where she wanted it.

She set down her things on the table and ambled toward her bathroom, snatching up her warm flannel pajamas on the way. If the temperature was going to keep dropping, she might as well be cozy. The prospect of a quick bath to get warm again, maybe some tea, and a good book drew her into her evening routine with nary an ounce of reluctance from her.

Half an hour later she was clean, warm, and settled in with a book on spatial magic theory. With her mind distracted by her nightly routine, it was easy to get back into the subject matter.

Or so she'd thought. Three pages into a chapter titled "Interdimensional Divides, Time Distortions, And Parallel Worlds," she realized she hadn't absorbed a single word of what she'd read and her gaze had wandered to the window without her being aware of it. With a frustrated pout twisting her lips, she directed her attention back to the book.

Four minutes later, she was back to gazing out the window before she realized it had happened.

"Urgh!" She snapped the book shut and tossed it irritably on the table, getting to her feet and heading back to the bathroom to brush her teeth. If she couldn't focus, at the very least she could get some sleep, and maybe tomorrow she would be in a better mood to do some studying.

Lucy felt listless as she moved aimlessly around her apartment, toothbrush dangling from her lips. She was moving in circles and she knew it, too tired to focus on anything, but too restless to settle down. Deciding to give up on oral hygiene for the night, she ambled back over to the bathroom. She rinsed her mouth, dropped her toothbrush back in the holder, straightened up… and caught sight of Horologium's reflection in the mirror and shrieked.

She whirled around, a hand over her pounding heart, and heaved a deep sigh to settle herself. "I should really be used to people showing up unannounced in my house by now," she said crossly. None of her friends had ever been taught how to knock, it seemed, and that was bad enough. But now that her magic power had increased enough for her spirits to access her reserves without her consciously calling them, it seemed that spirits other than Loke were picking up the habit of just popping in whenever they pleased. While she didn't mind the company, a little forewarning would be nice…

Then, as her pulse settled, she looked more closely at her spirit and realized that Horologium's face— stiff and gleaming though it was— bore a distinctly perturbed expression.

"Horologium?" she asked probingly. "What's wrong?"

The clock's pendulum seemed to swing a little faster, though maybe she was imagining it. "Lord Leo has tasked me with requesting that you open his gate," he announced.

Open his…?

"He's asking?" Lucy echoed. "Why not just come through on his own? Is the exam already over? What—?"

Horologium held out one spindly arm to silence her. "I do not know. I only know that Lord Leo has taken too much damage to his essence to open his own gate."

Lucy frowned. That anxious feeling she'd been catching all day… What on earth had happened during the trials that he'd been so badly hurt?!

"Thanks, Horologium. You can go back now— I'll call Loke in a moment."

With a creaky nod, he vanished in a shimmer, and the small drain him opening his gate had created on her magic eased.

Lucy exited the bathroom, mouth settling into a stern scowl. She walked over to her bedside table, where she habitually placed her keys after changing into her pyjamas each night. Picking up the key that embodied the Gate of the Lion, she studied the way her lacrima lamp was glinting on the gleaming metal.

Celestial spirits were not beings of matter like other living things— they were creatures of pure energy, born of the power of the stars themselves, and they didn't really have a true physical form. They could manifest an appearance, and even a physical body capable of interacting with the human world if either they or their summoner had enough magical power. As a result, they had a relatively high damage threshold, high enough that deadly force (well, deadly to humans, anyway) was usually needed to disrupt their forms and disperse them back to the spirit world.

Her blood simmered in her veins with that last thought. What happened to the trials being a test? Either someone didn't know how to dial it back to a nonlethal caliber (a serious shortcoming for someone looking to be S-Class as far as she was concerned), or whoever damaged him wasn't holding back because of his status as a spirit… in which case Lucy was going to have to flay the person responsible alive.

Well… whatever the case, she needed to summon her lion and get some answers.

Her magic power rose to her will, weaving her connection to Loke into something more substantial. As it solidified, she was nearly bowled over by the force of Loke's distress; her own anxiety returned and almost swamped her reason. Heart galloping, she opened his gate without ceremony.

Loke gasped when he came through, immediately doubling over at the waist and clutching his torso. His teeth were bared against the pain as he attempted to straighten up and speak. He had heavy dark circles under his eyes and he looked pale and sweaty. The nature of this world was doing its best to reject him in his wounded state. Although she had never actually seen it herself, she could recognize the symptoms of a spirit whose energies had been depleted too much for them to manifest in the human world.

"Loke!" Lucy rushed forward to help support him. The hand that found purchase on her shoulder was shaking. She could feel the strain of maintaining his presence in this world exacerbating his condition. Appalled, she poured more magic through to him to take the edge off as best she could. "Why would you ask me to summon you in this condition? You need to go back to the Spirit World, you're hurting yourself!"

She was about to close his gate, but he shook his head adamantly and she could feel him resisting the press of her magic's impending dismissal. He huffed, "No! I'll… in a moment. But Lucy, everyone on Tenrou Island is in danger!"

"What?" Every niggling feeling of foreboding, every single moment of unease she'd been experiencing these past several days came flooding back. "What are you talking about?"

"Let me… let me sit for a bit," he said, and she could feel his shaking intensify as his body lost some of its solidity.

Nodding, she ushered him over to her couch, easing him down on the worn cushions. "Loke, what happened? Who did this to you?"

"Grimoire Heart attacked the island," he said grimly, slipping his glasses off and staring at the metal frames in his trembling hand.

Lucy blinked, recognizing the name, but not entirely sure where she recognized it from. "Grimoi— 'Demon's Heart?'" she asked. "Is that a guild?"

Loke nodded in affirmation. "Another of the Baram Alliance along with Oracion Seis and Tartaros."

"A dark guild…"

"Yes. Everything was going just fine. We'd gotten through the first round of the trials all right— we beat Juvia and Lisanna in a duel, though I don't think Juvia was actually trying— and we'd all dispersed to start the second portion of the exam, and then next thing Gray and I knew, a warning flare had gone up, and suddenly there were foot soldiers everywhere…" His body wavered, and Lucy's hand, still resting on his shoulder out of concern, very nearly slipped right through him. She forced another wave of magic power into him, and his form stabilized, though his color didn't improve.

"When did this happen?" she asked.

Loke gave a cursory glance at the clock on her wall. "I would estimate it started about… six hours ago, human time? Just long enough for me to catch my breath."

"Is everybody alright? Do you know if anyone's been injured? What—?"

"I don't know," Loke said, and the helpless expression on his face made her go cold, "We were all separated, spread out all over the island. I don't… there's no time to tell you everything, but last I knew, Gray was fine. I got into a tussle with… well, we can talk about it later. But last I knew, Gray at least was in good shape. As for the rest, I really don't know."

She tilted her head, trying to think. "If those guys are part of the Baram Alliance, do you suppose they've attacked Fairy Tail as revenge for what we did to Oracion Seis?"

Loke shrugged. "I don't know. I don't think the two events were related, but I didn't have time to ask too many questions. I was in too much of a hurry to get to you the instant my energies recovered enough to survive in the human world." He flashed her the exhausted ghost of a flirtatious smile, but it was flat.

Lucy felt frozen down to her toes, and she was sure she was shaking almost as much as Loke. She should have known. She should have done— done what, exactly? Tell everyone not to go? That wouldn't have worked… but she should have done something!

She needed to do something now.

Lifting her hand from Loke's shoulder, she said, "Thank you for warning me, Loke. I'll take it from here." This time, when she pressed her power into his gate, he vanished in a golden haze.

Lucy sat back, Loke's key resting loosely in her palm, warmer than before from the amount of power she'd had to pour through it to keep Loke's essence stable in a physical form. She tried to push worry for Loke out of her mind, because it wasn't productive. Although he could certainly feel pain, and was clearly in a lot of it right now, Loke was immortal. With enough rest and time immersed in the spirit world's energy, he would recover. Her other, very human friends on Tenrou, on the other hand...

Fairy Tail under attack… Grimoire Heart… what the hell was going on?

She wasn't sure what could be done, but she knew she had to act, and act fast. It had already been hours since Loke had been cast back into the spirit world, so who knew what on earth could have happened in the meanwhile? She needed to let the rest of the guild know what was going on.

Decision made, Lucy jumped to her feet. Not wasting time with changing out of her pajamas, she grabbed her keys and slipped her boots on, then grabbed the first garment she spotted on her coatrack and sped out the door, barely remembering to power down her light lacrimas behind her.

Lucy ran. Past the dark storefronts and houses, over the canal, she ran. Her loosely-laced boots did little to help her gain purchase as she rounded corners, forcing her to use her hands to remain upright and moving. The long coat she had grabbed billowed out behind her, and slush soaked through her sweatpants and down into her socks. Her hands were numb and the cold night air scoured her throat and lungs, but she didn't care. She had to tell the others, alert the guild. There were wolves at the door and their comrades were in grave trouble.

She wasn't sure what they'd be able to do for them, so far from home and help. It didn't matter, though, because they had to try something. She had to have faith that the Tenrou teams could hold out, stand against the tide. She had to believe that they could manage to get to them in time.

"Why does stuff like this always happen to us?" Lucy huffed as she skidded around the corner and onto the last stretch to the guild. It was kind of ridiculous, actually, now that she thought about it. It seemed like every time she turned around, the guild— or her close friends, at least— were all plunging into the midst of some new crisis, usually a potentially-fatal one.

Upon catching sight of that oh-so-familiar symbol emblazoned on the banner hanging on the front of the hall, a small sense of hope stretched a smile across her face.

They wouldn't be Fairy Tail if they let their friends face this threat alone.

She threw open the doors with all her strength, eyes searching out those who remained at this late hour. There were still a few people left, apparently still working on decorations for the planned celebration.

Kinana was perched on the edge of the stage, and at Lucy's loud entrance, she fumbled the clipboard she was holding, startled. Nab jumped so hard he almost knocked over the ladder he was holding steady for Laki; the lilac-haired wood mage very nearly took a nosedive off the top, where she had been twining decorations around the rafters. As it was, a set of streamers tore to pieces when they came up against Laki's frantic flailing.

"Nab! What's the big idea?" Laki yelped. One of her outflung hands twisted at the wrist, and then she was grasping onto a newly-grown post that had burst from one of the rafters near her head. White-knuckled, she clutched onto that as Nab stabilized the swaying ladder, apologizing profusely as he did so.

"Sorry for startling you," Lucy said breathlessly, rushing across the hall to where the three of them were situated.

Rather than trusting her weight to the ladder any longer, Laki elongated the slender post she was clinging to, allowing it to grow and lower her gently to the floor. Settling feather-light on her feet, she turned just as Lucy reached the group.

"I thought you'd gone home for the night, Lucy," Nab remarked.

Lucy grimaced. "I just heard from Loke," she said.

"Oh, did he say who won the trials?" Kinana asked, brightening up.

She shook her head. "No, I think the trial must've been suspended. The island is under attack by a dark guild!"

Kinana's already pale face went whiter, and Nab and Laki both gasped.

"Which guild?" Nab asked. "What's going on?"

"Loke didn't have time to tell me very much. He was pretty badly injured from his fight with one of the members, so he couldn't stay long, but he said the guild was Grimoire Heart."

Nab made an involuntary noise of distress, his lips drawing back in a grimace. "What the bloody beeswax does Grimoire Heart want with Fairy Tail?" he demanded.

Lucy shook her head helplessly. "I don't know. I don't know. But we have to do something."

"What can we do?" Laki asked. "It's more than a hop, skip, and a jump to the island."

"I'm sure if we all put our heads together, we can think of something," Lucy said firmly, though she was largely saying it for her own reassurance.

It was Kinana who, to Lucy's surprise, responded, "Lucy is right! I know I haven't been here long, but I already can see that Fairy Tail can do anything we put our minds to!" She looked so small, standing there at barely five feet tall and clutching her clipboard protectively over her chest, but her mouth was set firmly as she raised her chin in determination.

"Well said!" Nab agreed, patting the petite woman on the shoulder.

"So what do we do?" Laki asked.

"Master Makarov left Macao in charge while he's away," Lucy mused. "Has he gone home for the evening? First thing we need to do is get him back here."

Nab nodded. "I can go get him. Macao took me on my very first job when I joined, so he probably won't mind me knocking so late."

Lucy somehow doubted that, but since she had no idea where Macao's house was, it seemed as good a plan as any. "We should get everybody else here, too, right? People will want to know what's going on, and the more people we have working together, the better our chances of figuring out a way to help!"

Laki spoke up next: "I'll go to Fairy Hills and rouse the fair maids from their slumber!"

"And one of us will have to go to the men's dorm and wake the guys," Lucy said.

"Um, I don't really feel comfortable going to the men's dormitory alone," Kinana said timidly.

"What about the people like you and Joey who live in their own houses or apartments? And the people who are out on jobs?" Nab asked.

Lucy tapped a finger to her lips, thinking hard. "I don't think there's any point in recalling people from jobs unless we think we might need their specific magic," she said. "As for the people who live in town… does anybody know where everyone lives?" She directed the question to Laki, who she knew was insatiably curious and had a tendency to memorize very inane bits of information, more than the other two, but the older girl shook her head.

"I only know where a few people live," she said.

"Um, I might… be able to help?" Kinana offered hesitantly. "Since I'm handling the kitchen while Miss Mirajane is away, I've got the building's master key. Maybe… maybe we could see if there's a list of addresses in the guild's records?"

Lucy snapped her fingers. "Kinana, that's brilliant! Okay then, here's what we do: Nab, you go get Macao. If you see anyone on the way, or pass anyone else's home, wake them up, okay? Laki, you go to Fairy Hills and start knocking on doors. Kinana and I will start searching the record room for a contact list and make some lacrima calls."

"Then who will go to Fairy Court to get the boys?" Laki asked.

Lucy had next to no desire to go within a hundred yards of the male dormitory; by all reports it was a disaster zone on every level except architecturally (and who knew how long that would last, considering the hot-tempered propensities of some of the people who inhabited it). Fortunately, she had a ready answer to Laki's question.

"I think I know just the guy," she said with a sly grin, reaching for her key ring.

Max did not expect to be woken up at half past midnight by a super buff cow in hotpants yelling at him to get his ass to the guild, but to his alarm, that was exactly what happened. It wasn't the strangest wakeup call he'd ever had, but seriously… The hell?

It looked far too pleased with its handiwork when it saw he was awake, but when it noticed that Warren was still asleep on the other side of the room its smile faltered. He watched through blurry eyes while the large creature walked over to Warren's bed and plucked the earplugs out of his roommate's ears with surprising deftness for the size of its hands. It took a deep breath before bellowing again (Max barely had the time to cover his ears), "Up and at 'em! You've gotta mooooove it to the guild."

Warren screamed and fell off his bed with a thump at the cow-man's feet. He growled, though the menacing effect was mitigated by the sleep in his voice, "God dammit Max, that wasn't funny." He turned to snap at him again when he didn't respond and froze when he caught sight of the cow's legs.

"Uh Max? Who's this?" Warren visibly gulped.

"Haven't got a clue, dude." He'd never seen this— Person? Cow? Magic experiment gone horribly wrong?— in his life. Given its enormous stature and absurd appearance, Max was pretty sure he would have remembered someone like that.

It spoke again, sounding annoyed with their sluggish responses, "I'm Taurus, Miss Luuuucy's spirit. She wants everyone at the guildhall on the double."

"Everyone? Why?" Max shoved himself upright to squint at Taurus. Why would Lucy be calling a meeting at this hour? Why was she the one calling a meeting in the first place? If it was about the party, it could wait til tomorrow, damn it!

"Leo came back. He said there's a nasty battle going down out on Tenrou Island." Taurus rolled his shoulders and regarded them with an uneasy look. "He was in pretty poooor shape when I saw 'im."

"Shiiit." Warren whistled from where still sat on the floor. "What's happened?"

Taurus shrugged. "Don't got all the details." He poked at his own stomach and said, "All I know is some enemy guild is attacking and he got blasted pretty goooood right about here. Probably woulda killed a human. Whatever's going on must be udderly disastrous."

"Crap… Alright we'll get going. Or do you want us to help get the others up?" Any remaining grogginess left in his system was draining quickly with this revelation. Max knew Loke, even went on a few jobs with the guy; he had been no slouch in battle before he rejoined the celestial spirit world. Even less so now that he had Lucy as his wizard, and could apparently operate in a fuller approximation of his true strength, if their fight with Bickslow was anything to go by. For him to get badly banged up, it really must be something rough going down. With that thought, Max needed no further prompting to get up and get some pants on. This would be a long night.

The spirit nodded, "Miss Luuucy said to get everyone as fast as I can. Help would be nice."

"Probably less jarring for people too," Warren muttered under his breath so Max was the only one to hear, but he needn't have bothered. Taurus was already heading out the door onto the next room, shaking the walls with his thundering voice. Warren frowned after him and added, "Hey, I'm gonna get to the guild. They're going to need my help getting ahold of the folks who don't have communication lacrima."

"Alright man, see you there." Max nodded as he made to follow Taurus' path of chaos.

"I'll keep you posted with anything new."

Thankfully, most of their neighbors heard the commotion and were coming out of their own accord. The sight of Taurus marching down the halls with Max trailing behind him gave a number of them pause. When he saw that they were awake, Taurus didn't bother to stop and explain what was going on, and left Max to get the others caught up as to what was happening.

And so over and over he got the others caught up as to what was happening (so far as he knew, anyway) and sent them on their way. Few resisted, but those who argued or thought this was an overreaction found themselves nose to navel with an angry celestial spirit in short order.

Max had to give credit where credit was due; the bull had a gift for motivation, if only by way of intimidation. Between the two of them, it didn't take long to get the entire men's dorm mobile. Those who hadn't left yet were grabbing gear and items they might need for whatever came next. It was pretty obvious that there was going to be some sort of effort to send reinforcements or something so it was best to be prepared.

Half an hour later and his mission bag ready, Max was the last to leave the building. There was no sign of Taurus anywhere, so Max took off through the empty streets.

The records room was on the second floor, directly next to Master Makarov's office with an adjoining door. Kinana's master key didn't open either the hall door or the adjoining door to the office, but the records room was unlocked with no trouble. The two young women immediately set about searching for some kind of address book, or at least the right filing cabinet. They hadn't been in the room more than sixty seconds, though, before they realized that this was going to be much easier said than done.

"This is a mess!" Lucy exclaimed in disgust.

"It is a little disordered," Kinana agreed mildly.

It was only the grim circumstances that kept Lucy from laughing out loud at Kinana's understatement. The room was windowless, lined along one wall with shelves full of boxes and what appeared to be various curios, and on the other three with massive metal filing cabinets, with only room left for the door to swing open. A large, scrubbed pine worktable sat in the middle of the room, but it was stacked up with folders and loose papers and a plate containing what appeared to be very, very old bagel crumbs. Or something crumbs, at least. Lucy grimaced in disgust.

"Um… where should we start?" Kinana asked.

"Well, there's gotta be some kind of organizational system for all of this," she replied, walking to the nearest cabinet and pulling it open with a flourish. "We just need to figure out what it is and we'll be able to find what we need easily!"

There was not, it transpired, anything even remotely resembling an organizational system. Folders were mislabeled or not labeled at all, or contained some of what they said they did but were mostly full of blank paper or misfiled mission reports. As far as Lucy could tell, half the drawers in the filing cabinets weren't even alphabetized; ten minutes in Fairy Tail's record room was enough to have her on her hands and knees, on the verge of sobbing in frustration.

"We don't have time for this!" she moaned. "Doesn't Master Makarov ever put anything away where it actually belongs?"

It sounded absolutely ludicrous to her. Having been raised by Jude Heartfilia, whose immaculate record-keeping was legendary among his employees, Lucy found that the idea of keeping a business's paperwork in this kind of disorder verged on repulsive. But then she thought of her first encounter with Master Makarov on her very first day at the guild. She recalled how he had cheerfully lit the written notices of complaint from the Council on fire and tossed them to Natsu for a snack.

That… might actually explain a great deal about how this guild runs, Lucy thought, pulling a face at the thought.

Kinana, for her part, didn't seem too bothered and just kept flicking through the files in the cabinet she'd chosen to investigate. She was like that, Lucy had realized. She didn't know the violet-haired woman well, as Master Makarov had only brought her to the guild perhaps three weeks earlier, but she had established herself pretty quickly as the kind of person who didn't put up any sort of fuss and just did what needed to be done.

"You're taking all this pretty well," Lucy observed, setting aside her organizational angst in order to get back down to flipping through a batch of accordion files. "It took me months after I joined the guild to stop completely freaking out over stuff like this."

Kinana lifted her head in a curious little shrugging sort of gesture that looked like it belonged on someone with a longer spine. "There doesn't seem to be much point in panicking," she said. Then, after a moment, she asked, "Do things like this happen often?"

Giving the accordion files up as a lost cause, Lucy opened a new drawer. "More often than I would have suspected," she said with a wry chuckle. "I always knew being a wizard would be an exciting life, but I never would've guessed it was this dangerous!"

"Do you regret joining, then?" Kinana asked.

Lucy's lips tipped upwards in a smile. "Not for a second."

Kinana's back was to her, but Lucy could hear in her voice that she was smiling, too. "I'm glad I'm not the only one who feels that way."

After another minute of sympathetic silence punctuated only by the sound of rustling papers and the metallic sound of sliding cabinets opening and closing, Kinana spoke up again. "Lucy, can I ask you a personal question?"

"Ah… sure?" Lucy agreed warily.

"Why are you wearing Gray's clothes?"

Lucy's brow furrowed in confusion. That was not even remotely the question she had expected. "What? I'm not wearing Gray's clothes, I'm wearing my pajam—"

She glanced down at herself for confirmation and realized that while she was wearing her own winter pajamas, the coat she had grabbed before running out the door did, in fact, belong to one Gray Fullbuster. "Oh," she said, baffled. "I guess he must have left this behind last time he was naked at my house."

Kinana's fern green eyes widened. "Oh my," she said. "I did not realize you two were that close!"

Lucy had to restrain a groan as she realized how what she'd said must have sounded. Granted, to anyone who knew Gray well, it was a perfectly banal statement, but for a newcomer like Kinana, who had only minimal exposure to Gray's more unusual habits… "It's not like that!" she protested, but from the look on Kinana's face, she doubted the other girl believed her.

Well, that's bound to be all over the guild by morning, she thought with a shake of her head, turning back to the cabinet she was rifling through. She was aware that rumors abounded regarding the nature of her relationships with both of her male teammates. She'd done her best to quash the gossip, especially after Gemini revealed that Gray did actually have a bit of a thing for her; she didn't want to hurt him (or give Juvia any more ammunition than she already had), but she supposed at this point it couldn't be helped.

There was no sense fretting about it, she realized. She had to get her focus where it actually needed to be right now. Squaring her shoulders, she pulled the next row of folders in the cabinet forward so she could examine their labels...

They did eventually find a woefully incomplete list of addresses and other contact information. It appeared that sometime around X774, Master Makarov had started filing new employees' paperwork in some other location or using some other system, because they couldn't find anyone's records from after that date. This turned out to be fine, since the people who had joined in the last decade were mostly young and single and still lived in the dorms.

Lucy and Kinana divided the contact info between themselves, with Kinana calling anyone who had a personal lacrima-comm frequency, and Lucy taking the addresses of those who didn't. A hand brushed across Taurus's key and a brief telepathic conversation let her know that the Golden Bull had successfully roused the residents of Fairy Court; she dismissed Taurus remotely and summoned Virgo in his place. The Maiden was much swifter than he was, and speed was what she needed now that they were going to have to run all over Magnolia and the surrounding countryside.

"Virgo, can you go to each of these addresses and wake up the Fairy Tail members who live there?" she asked, handing Virgo half the list and praying that they weren't out of date— a very real possibility given the state of the record-keeping— and she wasn't sixty seconds from springing her strangest spirit on unsuspecting townsfolk in the middle of the night. "Please ask them to come to the guild, tell them it's urgent."

"Is this relating to Brother's injuries, Princess?" Virgo asked.

Lucy nodded. "I don't know if he's had time to tell you, with the time difference between our worlds, but something bad is happening, and we need to rally the guild."

"Very well, Princess. I will deliver your message swiftly!"

Virgo dropped through the ground and out of sight, and Lucy groaned. She really needed to talk to Virgo about leaving what basically amounted to massively oversized molehills under Magnolia's infrastructure— it was probably all kinds of hazardous. But now really wasn't the time for it, and if underground was faster than over land…

She shook her head, dismissing worries about her spirits for the time being, and looked down at the addresses she was left with, mostly those closer to the guild since she couldn't move as quickly as Virgo. It looked like the closest address was a little condo owned by Reedus about four blocks from the guild hall.

"Kinana, I'm heading out!" she called back into the record room, where Kinana had set up the communications lacrima and was running her fingers over the foggy crystal to call out to a new frequency.

She raised a hand to acknowledge Lucy, and turned back just as the haze in the lacrima cleared to reveal a very surly-looking Wakaba and a woman Lucy assumed must be his wife.

Tucking Gray's jacket more snugly around her body, she stepped out into the snowy night and started jogging south down the avenue in the direction of Reedus's home…

By the time the guild members still in Magnolia were all roused and had made their way to the guild hall, it was almost two in the morning. Thankfully, Lucy hadn't had to be out in the cold streets for long. By the time she had hit the first few houses, Warren had arrived at the guild and started contacting others telepathically, saving her a lot of time spent running around in the dark. But she still couldn't help but think that it had taken too long, all of it. Too much time to call people to the guild, too much time for people to dress themselves and get to the guild, time that should've been spent planning. But what else could they have done?

A few people were still out on jobs— notably Wan, as well as Alzack and Bisca— but for the most part they had managed to muster everyone who could be found, about one hundred and fifty strong altogether. The whole crowd was milling around in varying states of dress and undress, some in pajamas, some wearing little but their coats. There was a general sentiment of not wanting to be awake at this hour if there wasn't booze involved buzzing around the crowded guild hall, with some members a great deal more vocal about their desire for caffeine than others.

Macao had arrived with Nab while Lucy was out fetching Reedus, Mike, and Estelle, and it seemed Kinana had filled him in on what was happening before they got back. As the volume of the grumbling scaled up, he clambered up on a chair and, cupping his hands over his mouth, shouted over the din: "Everybody zip it!"

Silence fell (gradually) as all eyes turned to their de facto leader.

"I'm sure you're all wondering why we were called here so late," Macao began once something approximating quiet had overtaken the guild.

"Laki said we needed to 'provide succor and aid to our friends across the balmy sea,'" Chico piped up, looking disgruntled.

"Really?" Tono asked, looking puzzled. "That Taurus guy said we had to help the people who went to Tenrou Island."

"How is that different from what I said?" Laki demanded crossly.

"Everybody!" Macao shouted as the chatter started to rise again. "Yes, it's true, we've received word that there's currently a problem on Tenrou Island. It seems that the dark guild Grimoire Heart has attacked the island and interrupted the S-Class trials."

The noise level immediately erupted again, with various conversations breaking out amongst the wizards gathered in the hall. A voice Lucy couldn't immediately place rose over the noise to ask, "Did Gramps call on the lacrima?"

"No," Macao called back, once again overruling the crowd on volume alone. "Our friend Loke returned to warn Lucy of the danger. As of now, we haven't heard from Master Makarov."

It seemed as though every eye in the place turned to Lucy, who fell back instinctively on seventeen years of comportment training and managed not to fidget under so many focused stares.

"What's going on on the island, Lucy?" Max asked. "Why is Grimoire Heart attacking?"

"I don't know," Lucy replied. "He didn't have time to say much."

"Is Levy okay?" Droy yelled.

"I'm not sure," she said, feeling flustered by the sudden questions. "Loke hadn't seen her."

"Are Grimoire Heart retaliating because of what Erza and them did to the Oracion Seis?" Tono asked.

"I really don't—"

"Well, what do you know?" Mickey snapped, leaning around Nab to glare at her. "Seems like you've gotten us all out of bed for nothing at all."

"Don't be a bitch, Mickey," her teammate Abigail retorted before Lucy could say a word. "Moire's gone for coffee, chill out."

"Whatever," Mickey muttered. "Wouldn't have to send stupid Loke crying for help if I was out there fighting Grimoire Heart." She turned away to look back at Macao, who was shouting for silence again.

Having regained something approximating quiet attention, Macao said, "I'm sure our friends on Tenrou are going to be just fine. Even discounting Gildarts and Master Makarov, they're strong. Actually, they're some of the strongest mages this guild has ever seen. Kind of ridiculous, actually… Anyway, they're definitely capable of handling an opponent from a dark guild. Except, uh, thing is, they're not just up against some punks from Eisenwald or something this time. They're facing one of the top guilds of the Baram Alliance. And… uh… well, like I said, I'm sure they're fine. And we should have faith in them, right? But we wouldn't be Fairy Tail if we left our comrades to face an enemy like that alone, so… yeah, we should do something to help them."

There was some lukewarm clapping and one half-hearted cheer in response.

Wakaba leaned over to whisper in Macao's ear, "Nice speech."

"Shut up," Macao huffed, pinking up. "I'm no good at talking off the cuff like that."

It wasn't the most inspiring speech, but it actually made Lucy feel much better about the whole situation. For the last hour and a half she'd been doing her best to suppress a burgeoning feeling of panic in her gut. She'd been fretting and out of sorts all week, and the news Loke brought had been the proverbial last straw for her confidence. But Macao was right— their friends were strong. If Natsu couldn't handle some goons from Grimoire Heart, to say nothing of Erza or the legendary Gildarts, or even Gajeel, with whose brutal strength Lucy was intimately familiar, no one could.

But as she'd resolved earlier, they also couldn't abandon their friends on the assumption that they'd be okay.

"So what are we gonna do?" Max asked.

Wakaba, whose pompadour was in a sad state of disarray beneath a hairnet that he appeared to have forgotten to take off, tapped the stem of his pipe thoughtfully on his palm. "Well, it seems to me like before we come up with a plan, we need more information," he observed.

Max nodded. "Agreed. Lucy?"

Lucy shrugged. "I pretty much only know what Macao's already said. Loke was too injured to say much more than that."

"Damn," Macao said, climbing down from the chair. "Can you summon him now to get more info?"

She shook her head. "Sorry. Summoning him now would hurt him badly and I can't do that to him. I could maybe have one of my other spirits ask him, but with the time distortion between worlds I'm not sure exactly how long that would take."

"Do it," Macao said. He cupped his chin in his palm, forefinger tapping lightly against his cheek as he pondered for a moment. "Hmm… what else…"

"Has anybody seen Cana?" Wakaba prompted. "We should get her to do a reading for us, she might be able to get an idea of whether everyone is safe."

"She's drunk, actually," Abigail announced. "Again."

Lucy glanced over her shoulder to where Abigail was pointing and saw that Cana was, indeed, slumped over a table behind the rest of the crowd, cross-eyed as she stared very hard at a knot in the wood. She frowned— this had to be the fifth or sixth time this week alone that Cana had drunk herself into a stupor. Cana was a pretty heavy drinker on any given day, sure, but this was a lot even for her. Even after their conversation— or at least an attempt at one— earlier in the week, she hadn't slowed up. Mirajane had said it was normal for Cana to be out of sorts this time of year, but Lucy sort of thought there was a difference between a bad mood and alcohol poisoning.

It seemed that she was the only one who was concerned, because Macao just sighed and Wakaba muttered, "Oh, right, it's December."

"Okay, we'll need another way to get current information on what's happening on the island," Macao said. "Anyone have any ideas?"

"I'm guessing calling Master Makarov's lacrima was a no-go?" Max asked.

Kinana shook her head. "I tried. No response."

"Warren?"

Warren shrugged. "I've only got a range of about five kilometers. Ten if I really push myself."

"Dammit!" Macao slammed a fist down on the table. "Do you mean to tell me that in this entire guild, one of the leading guilds in this country if not the continent, not one single mage in this room has any ideas or any useful magic we can use in this situation?"

"Um…" Droy raised a hand. "I think Jet might be able to help."

Jet hissed at him to shut up and stepped on his foot.

"What do you mean?" Macao asked. "What can Jet do?"

"Ignore him," Jet said loudly. "He doesn't know what he's talking about!"

"I do too!" Droy protested. "It's really cool, why don't you want them to know?"

"What are you talking about?" Macao demanded.

"Jet can run on water," Droy announced.

Jaws around the guild dropped.

"Seriously?" Max asked incredulous. "That's sick as hell, dude."

Jet rubbed his neck with an abashed blush rising in his cheeks at the attention. "I've only done it once,' he deflected.

"That's pretty cool," Nab remarked.

"Well, that settles it," Macao said, slamming his clenched fist down on his open palm. "Jet, you're going to Tenrou Island!"

"W-What?"

"Think about it, it's perfect!" Macao exclaimed, clearly warming to the idea. "It's a three-day journey at least by ship to Tenrou, but you're much faster than any land or sea transportation. You can go in and scout, survey the situation, and report back while we're making our own travel arrangements."

"Now just one minute," Jet protested. "It's one thing for me to go zipping around on Basilwood Lake, but crossing the ocean is a whole 'nother story!"

"And on top of that," Mickey interjected, "does anyone actually know how to get to Tenrou Island? Like, isn't it supposed to be impossible to find or something?"

Macao's eyes went wide, and Lucy could feel her stomach drop. Nobody had mentioned that particular detail until now, but once Mickey pointed it out, she realized it was a very serious hindrance to their plans.

"I'll… see if we have any maps that show the island," Macao said weakly, indicating the door to the guild's library with a shaky jerk of his thumb.

Lucy sat down heavily on the nearest bench. She did not have a good feeling about this...

Author's Note part 2- Thank you to kurahieiritr JIO for your lovely reviews, and thank you to everyone who has followed and favorited this story! We'd love to hear what you think, and we appreciate your readership enormously!

Standby for angst... ;)