It wasn't supposed to be a difficult mission, at least it always starts that way. The mission called for a group of mages to help clear out an infestation of dark guild members in a small quaint town just south of Old Fort.
The jewel was worth the week-long journey, it would have been enough to cover rent for a month plus general expenses. Lucy may have even been able to afford the fancy new pen she had been eyeing up.
In hindsight they should have left the damn mission on the board, now Lucy found herself defending herself in the middle of the mountains against her own teammates.
Everything was going along well, they made contact with the town officials that put in the request and headed into the area that the dark guild members seem to be coming from.
They knew it was a two-day hike into the forest and decided to set up camp near a river. Erza had set up a watch schedule so that someone was always alert in the event of an ambush.
Once they found a clear area that was ideal to set up camp, Erza decided to scout the area. Natsu and Happy, always thinking with their stomachs, went hunting for something delicious to cook over the open fire. Gray was in charge of gathering wood for the fire and Lucy set up camp.
Lucy had been contentedly setting up her tent area when Gray came back first. Lucy had noticed he didn't have any wood with him so while she had her back turned to him, half inside her tent to layout her bedroll, she asked him why he didn't have any wood.
No sooner did the words leave her mouth then she felt his ice-cold hand grab her leg tightly, dragging her roughly out of the tent.
"What the hell Gray!" Lucy yelled at her friend and teammate. When she looked up at him he had a cold hard stare in his eyes, as if no one was home behind them.
Gray said nothing and proceeded to kick her in the side as she tried to get up, forcing her to the ground once again. While on the ground, she noticed a small patch of skin on Gray's bare leg that was almost black and rotted.
Lucy immediately thought of a bite mark that had been infected but there was no way something could act that fast. Just as she was about to get up she noticed Erza break free of the tree line behind Gray.
Lucy felt relief flooding her system as Erza approached Gray, surely the scarlet haired beauty had heard the scuffle and was coming to her aid.
As Lucy rose to her feet while backing away, she saw the same grotesque patch of skin on Erza's neck. "Fuck! I need help!" Lucy muttered to herself as she pulled Leo's gate key, calling on her fierce lion, she watched in horror as Erza transformed into her Heaven's Wheel armor.
Leo appeared, the gold shimmering aura fading away. He was about to utter one of his ridiculous professions of love when he immediately saw the bizarre situation laid out in front of him.
"What the hell is going on Lucy?" his voice laced with an unusual tensity at the situation.
"I have no idea, but it may have something to do with those bite marks on them." she pointed to Erza's which was the most visible. She continued, "We need to incapacitate them without severely injuring them."
"Anything for you princess, I'll take care of Erza. You focus on Gray." Loke commanded as he pushed his glasses up and got into his battle stance.
"You got it!" Lucy unfurled her whip and prepared herself to go up against Gray. Gray readied himself in response.
"Gray, I don't want to do this, SNAP OUT OF IT!" Lucy yelled, her heart being torn over having to legitimately fight her friend.
Gray simply responded by cupping his fist in his hand, and in a monotone voice he uttered, "Ice make sword." Once the sword was formed he rushed his blonde teammate.
Lucy cracked the whip and flung it out toward the sword, flicking her wrist at just the right moment to latch onto it. Yanking hard she pulled the weapon out of his hands but almost simultaneously he summoned his arrows and they fired at her rapidly.
She managed to dodge most of them by ducking and rolling to the left on the ground but a few grazed her in the arm and leg. Blood was trickling rapidly from the wounds but it was nothing that would need stitches.
Lucy rose and barely dusted herself off when she saw Gray charging at her. She quickly called out Virgo and instructed her to drill up under him so that he fell into a deep hole. She watched as the Ice Mage suddenly ducked out of sight.
Just as she was dismissing Virgo and checking on Gray in the pit, she felt a cold hard stare in her direction.
Emerging from the tree line was Natsu, his fists engulfed in flames and ready for a fight. His right shoulder sporting the same infectious bite. She glanced over toward Loke, who was in a losing battle with Erza.
Just as she turned her attention back to Natsu, she heard Loke cry out and felt the pull of Loke's gate closing.
"Shit, shit, shit" Lucy rattled in her head trying to come up with a plan. She never thought she would have to defend herself from her team. If she could just get to water she could use the water magic that was bestowed upon her when she broke Aquarius's key.
Turning to run toward the river, she heard the growl of the fire dragonslayer along with Erza's battle cry. A bolt of fear traveled her spine as doubt clouded her thinking process.
Just as she was about to lose her footing and fall she was picked up but a blue and white bolt of color. She breathed a sigh of relief as she heard Happy ask, "Lucy, what's going on, Natsu hit me and it really hurt, now they are chasing us!"
Lucy's heart broke a little more as she felt the small blue feline's tears fall on her head. "I don't know, I think they were bitten by something." Just as she was feeling more confident at having a better plan for escape with Happy, her stomach dropped as she experienced a sudden descent.
Happy cried out in pain as one of Erza's sword struck him in the head, blunt end first, knocking the poor exceed out.
Lucy hit the ground hard on her back, having the wind knocked out of her as she cradled the small unconscious blue fluff ball. The fast approach of her teammates spiked her fear as she tried to regain her breath.
Before she could turn over to scramble away she felt a piercing pain through her hand. She looked up into the blank stare of her friend and teammate Erza Scarlet as she impaled her sword into her hand.
Lucy screamed in pain just as she felt a brutal kick to the ribs before passing out from the shock of pain. The last thing she saw was Virgo open out of her gate before losing consciousness.
Cobra entered the Fairy Tail guild hall with his fellow Crime Sorciere teammates. He didn't have to use any of his magical abilities to know that Team Natsu was out on the road. The peaceful calm surrounding the guild was all they needed to know.
Half of Crime Sorciere was disappointed in finding out that they missed Team Natsu by a few weeks. Jellal wanted to see his beloved Erza and Meredy was excited to see Natsu and Lucy.
While Jellal went to go speak to Master Makarov regarding changes to Crime Sorciere, Cobra found himself trailing Midnight as they headed to the bar.
Cobra watched Mira behind the bar carefully, something was bothering her and being the nosey fucker that he was, he used his soul listening magic.
Team Natsu hadn't checked in, even though they were supposed to two weeks ago. Cobra thought nothing of it frankly, they were most likely off destroying some poor village. Figuring their mobile communication lacrima got destroyed in some tragic mishap involving cake or ice or fire.
Cobra's attention shifted as he heard the familiar and comforting soul of Kinana, he turned just in time to be nearly tackled off the chair and a hug that could rival her former snake form.
Kinana giggled as she heard a purr come from the big bad slayer and she kissed his cheek.
"God Damnit Kina" Cobra said in what was to be a vicious and intimidating tone but she knew there was no malice in his words only love and affection.
She smiled brightly, "What prompted this surprise visit?" Kinana could barely contain her excitement at seeing her best friend.
Just as Cobra was about to tell her the news of why Crime Sorciere was at Fairy Tail the doors burst open and the site of several Rune Knights came storming through the doors with Members of Team Natsu being helped into the guildhall.
Cobra just watched the flurry of action staying in his seat. He was never one for getting involved but he was certain that he was the first to note who was missing. Cobra could never ignore the melodic tune of Lucy Heartfilia's soul and it was clearly not among the chaotic sound of souls, shouting, and furniture scraping along the floor as people jumped to their feet in alarm.
He wasn't surprised to see the smallest slayer, Wendy rush toward the knights and direct them to the infirmary.