Chapter 14: Fairy Law!

Lucy was running, as fast as her legs could take her. She couldn't believe what this Christmas day had turned into, not only did she find out her best friend could now control his powers, and was parading around the city as a vigilante, but she had been kidnapped. Kidnapped, hit, stabbed, and other stuff that she never wanted to remember all by a weird looking crook with a vendetta against her father. Part of her brain kept thinking, praying that this was just a terrible dream, but the pain she felt as well as the rest of her brain reminded her this was real. Taking a sharp left turn down the building's hallway, her footsteps served as the only other sound besides her ragged breaths, she was well out of earshot of Natsu and Gajeel's fight. Her stomach flipped, that's right Natsu was fighting Gajeel alone, he could be hurt. Maybe she should turn around and help him, who was she kidding, what help would she be really.

"Natsu….please be okay…." She pleaded. Continuing her run down the halls she turned a corner, and stopped dead in her tracks. Fear flooded her system as she made eye contact with the two figures awaiting her at the end of the hall. She gulped as the two Phantom Lord goons began walking towards her. She spun on her heels and ran the opposite direction.

"HEY GET BACK HERE!" One of them yelled, pulling out a police batton. The other one pulled out a whip as they chased her through the halls. She had to come up with something quick, Natsu wasn't there to get her out of this situation. Rounding a corner she spotted a flower vase resting on a table. It was better than nothing, picking it up off of the table she waited with her back against the wall, she stood still trying to make as little noise as possible so she could have an element of surprise against them. Clutching the vase in her hand she could make out their footsteps growing nearer and nearer, until they turned the corner. Reacting quickly Lucy smashed the glass vase over one of their heads. The man holding on to the whip fell to the ground clinging his head. The other one was stunned which gave Lucy an opportunity. She reached down and picked up the whip. She had no idea how to use it, but it didn't matter at this moment all that mattered was getting out of this situation. The man recovered from his shock and swung his batton at her, she sloppily rolled out of the way tightening her grip on the whip. She flung her arm holding the whip at him, the tip of it grazed against her cheek as it snapped against the floor next to the Phantom Lord member. She hissed at the burning scratch on her cheek as the man attempted to hit her with the batton a few more times, Lucy narrowly avoided it, but the final attempt hit her in the side. She groaned as she fell to the ground, thankfully she had a high pain tolerance due to her and Natsu play wrestling and going on adventures in the woods as kids, but it still wasn't a pleasant feeling.

"I'm sorry about this girly, believe me it's nothing personal, I'm just following orders." He raised the batton ready to bring it onto her head. Lucy reacted quickly flicking the whip at his hand. He cursed and dropped his weapon to nurse his hand from where the end of her whip had cut him. Lucy got up and kicked him as hard as she could in between his legs. He backed up a few steps and fell to the ground blacking out as he clutched his groin area. Lucy breathed heavily as the adrenaline flooded her system. Rolling up the whip she attached it to her belt loop on her pink short skirt.

"Yeah well, it feels personal." She muttered, and walked away limping out of soreness, she used the wall to support herself from falling over.

"LUCYYYY!" She stopped in her tracks, that was Natsu's voice, he was alright. Where was he though? Looking around for the source of the voice, she decided it would be a good idea to follow the direction of it.

"NATSU?!" She yelled back hoping that he would be able to find her. She followed the hall until she reached a dead end, there was nothing but a lone window. She must have taken a wrong turn, turning around her eyes widened in fear.

"Where do you think you're going little birdie?" Jose stood in front of her blocking the path.

"Damnit…" She muttered reaching for her whip.

"You really are a handful, you know that?" He began to walk closer towards her, causing her to back up into the window. She looked down at just how high up she was.

"What do you want from me?!" She asked as he grew closer to her. A chill ran down her spine as he smiled evilly.

"I already told you, I want to make your father pay for ruining my life. He took everything from me, so I will take everything from him. The Heartfilia reign will end, the city will soon know him for the crook he is."

"You're wrong about him, he would never do the things you said he did….."

"No my dear. You're the one who is mistaken." He closed in on her. Now she had virtually no room to escape. Grasping her whip, she had one way out, and she wasn't sure if it was her best idea, but it was better than staying to face whatever Jose was going to do to her.

"LUCYYYY!" Again she heard him. He was below her, she could hear him, now she just had to pray he would hear her. She snapped her whip at Jose as quickly as she could so he had no time to react, slapping him in the cheek. He winced, but that was the distraction she needed. Turning around to the window she quickly opened it. Jose grabbed her by the collar as she began to climb out, she bit his hand as hard as she could, he yelped. Lucy slipped out of his grip and without even a second thought jumped through the open window. Jose tried to catch her, but she was already plummeting. The cold wind screamed in her ears and her hair flipped around her. She closed her eyes as she fell to the ground not wanting to see how close she was to instant death. The cool air nipping her skin, she opened her mouth, she heard him. Now it was his turn to hear her.

"NATSUUUUUUUUUUU!" She screamed as she continued her perilous fall. Shutting her eyes even tighter, she heard the sound of glass shattering, and suddenly a new weight caused her to veer in a different direction in midair. Strong arms wrapped around her midsection, she had no time to find out who had caught her though, because soon they had landed in the snowy ground below, she was on top of whomever, but she was thankful they had stopped her fall. Feeling the familiar warmth though told her exactly who had caught her.

"Thank you Natsu. You're amazing…" She hugged the pink haired man underneath her. He groaned, and winced but mumbled something incoherent due to something muffling him. She looked down and her face immediately turned a dark red at the position they had landed in. His head directly under her chest. His face was equally red, Lucy quickly shifted so that they were nose to nose and had direct eye contact, the two of them lost in the other's eyes so many words exchanged from just their eyes, it was a sweet moment she thought, at least it would it would have been if Natsu didn't have to open his big fat mouth.

"You're an idiot." He deadpanned. Lucy blinked once, then twice to process what he said to her. Then it clicked and she snapped.

"EXCUSE ME?!"

"You're excused." Natsu joked, but Lucy scowled.

"HOW AM I THE IDIOT?!"

"You just jumped out of the highest floor of City Hall, that's not smart."

"Oh that's rich coming from you! Let us not forget you shot yourself out of a window as well."

"Yeah to catch you." Natsu smirked triumphantly, as Lucy scoffed trying to think of a good comeback, but she puffed out her cheek, he was right. Letting her face soften she smiled down at him.

"Thank you Natsu for saving me, you're the best." He smiled warmly at her.

"Anytime Lu…" Natsu's sentence faltered as his eyes grew heavy, and he succumbed to his exhaustion, and pain, but a smile was on his face because after all he had gotten Lucy back to safety.

"Natsu?" Lucy shook him, but it was no use, he was out of it. Her heart began to race, she sat up and looked around.

"SOMEONE I NEED HELP!" She yelled out, praying that someone could hear her, thankfully her guardian angel soon found them. A tall beautiful girl with white hair, along with a large burly man who also had white hair. The tall man's clothing was torn leaving him bare chested, which helped reveal a tattoo on his neck, one that matched Natsu's. She shot up to her feet.

"Oh thank God you need to help me, my friend needs a doctor!" She pleaded as the two ran over to her.

"Oh my…." Mira stated as she looked down at Natsu, who was very much not in the best of conditions.

"What happened to him?" Elfman asked crouching down to pick him up, Lucy watched as Elfman scooped him up with ease.

"H-He came to help me, but he got into a fight with that Gajeel guy…." She began to tell them what she could remember right down to the fall the two just had from the building.

"He is such a real man!" Elfman chirped smirking down at the boy he held up in his arms.

"Poor Natsu, we need to get him to Porlyusica and Wendy fast!" Mira stated, she looked Lucy up and down.

"Come to think of it you look like you need help too, you're Lucy right? Lucy nodded, she figured if they were in the same clan or whatever as Natsu they must be trustworthy, plus she didn't have any other options at the moment.

"Nice to meet you at last, I'm Mira, and this is my little brother Elfman. We are both members of Fairy Tail with Natsu!" She smiled sweetly, Lucy looked up to the younger Strauss sibling, little probably wasn't the right word to describe him.

"It's an honor to meet ya, and thank you for this, he is in bad shape." Lucy bit her tongue, he was in that condition, because of her. Mira smiled sweetly again.

"It really is no problem, Porlyusica is the best, she'll have him fixed up in no time." The three walked off in a rush to try and get Natsu to this Porlyusica as fast as possible. Jose studied the scene from high above them.

"How could this happen...My plan was flawless…..No it is flawless, I can still make this work….This is just a minor setback." He turned around and saw someone standing across from him.

"Ah, Gajeel you are just in time…." Jose was cut off by a searing pain in his chest. Looking down he saw a metal sword impaling him, coughing out some blood he glared at his right hand man.

"What, is the meaning…" He coughed out more blood as Gajeel scowled.

"Of this…" Jose finished after his coughing attack subsided. Gajeel growled, he clenched his fist. Natsu's words rang out in his head.

"Metalicana. The iron dragon huh? Looks like I'm not the only one. It's a shame you were such a jerk, maybe we could've been friends like our fathers…I'll see ya around sometime Black Steel…."

Natsu was just like him, a descendant of one of the legendary dragon warriors, so it wasn't fair. They were so alike, and yet he had beaten him, how? Gajeel knew how, he had something worth fighting for. Gajeel had no friends in this guild, he had only ever been close to one person and she left him here, now he knew why. Maybe if he hadn't been such a selfish jerk so wrapped up in how strong he thought he was. He would've seen before how weak he really is. He needed to have a clean slate, learn how he can be better, and stronger. Phantom Lord wasn't going to help him grow.

"Ever since you became my master you have promised me that I would be stronger than my deadbeat father, but I'm not. I'm nowhere close, and it's because of you. You used me as some muscle, and placed me on a pedestal for the others to look up to. I reveled in it, I never saw why Juvia left, or maybe I didn't care because you were boosting my ego. Now I do, you don't have the interest of the guild in your heart, we are only puppets to you, you pull our strings to serve your own twisted ambitions. This whole thing…..I thought it was to show how strong we were against the Fairies, that's what you told me….But no it was only an elaborate revenge plot. Well now I saw screw it, screw this guild, and screw you. I am done following your orders." Gajeel retracted his sword, and walked away from Jose who collapsed onto the ground gripping his chest.

"Gajeel...please don't go...I need you!" Jose begged. Gajeel stopped in his tracks, without even looking at his old master, he replied.

"Too bad I don't need you." And walked away once more, Jose watched him as he descended into the shadows soon out of sight.

"Salamander….I'll get stronger than you just you wait….One day I'll beat you."

"Damnit…" Jose muttered as he slowly rose back up to his feet. It was quite amazing how spectacularly his plan had failed.

"I've come too far…" He moaned covering the new hole in his chest from Gajeel with his hand. He limped down the halls all the way into the entrance hall. There he found the destruction from Gray and Juvia's fight with Aria and Totomaru, but nobody found. He was alone, once more.

"This ends now Jose." Turning around to come face to face with the leader of Fairy Tail, Jose sighed.

"Old friend…" He gave a soft smile to Makarov who just glared him down.

"It's time you pay for the blood that has been shed tonight, my children are all hurting, because of you." Jose rolled his eyes, typical Makarov.

"Save the speech Makarov, we both know what you are here to do." Holding out his arms he surrendered allowing himself to be arrested, but Makarov didn't budge.

"I won't be taking you in, for your crimes against Fairy Tail, as well as hurting my children, I shall enact Fairy Law…" Jose's eyes widened his arms slumped to his sides.

"Ah I see."

Natsu wasn't sure where he was, but he was laying in a very comfortable bed, and was extremely sore. His eyes fluttered open, he was in a small wooden room, there wasn't much in the way of decoration except for a carving of the Fairy tail insignia on the door to the room. Slowly he sat up, but his chest stung, hissing he threw a hand over it. He realized that he was bare chested, and his entire midsection had been wrapped in bandages. Looking next to him medical equipment was scattered on a table, it was obvious to him that he needed to be stitched up. Slowly swinging his legs over the side of the bed he stood up causing pain to shoot up every bit of his body. He could hear chattering coming from the other side of the door so that's where he walked to at a snail's pace. Opening the door he found out the source of the noise, all the members of Fairy Tail were gathered inside a living room area. Gray and Juvia were on a couch curled up in each other's arms. Wendy sat next to Erza on the floor with Carla in her lap. Alzack, Bisca, Mira, and Elfman were at the kitchen table. Jet and Droy seemed to have gotten better because they were standing behind Levy who sat in a chair next to the couch. She was conversing with them probably trying to figure out where she was and what was happening. Then his eyes found her, she was sitting in a chair across from Levy laughing at something that was just said, a sewing needle in one of her hands, and Natsu's jacket in the other. The blonde girl looked up her eyes shimmering as they landed on him.

"You're awake!" She exclaimed happily causing everyone else to look in his direction. He smiled at her.

"Yeah I'm all good, how long was I out though?" He asked, stumbling his way towards everyone else. Everyone was left to stare in horror as he tripped over his own feet and crashed into the ground.

"NATSU!" Lucy shot up and ran over to him, he groaned holding his chest in pain.

"Damn brat, you shouldn't be moving around, I just put those stitches in, and I don't feel like doing it again!" A new voice scolded him, looking up he came face to face with a very stern looking elderly lady with pink hair tied up in a bun.

"Sorry ma'am." He spoke unsure of what else to say, the lady pulled him up, somewhat forcefully.

"Whatever, just know that I won't be here to patch you kids up everytime you do something stupid. Now get back to that bed and stay there this time!" With that the lady stormed away leaving everyone speechless, Wendy's face was bright red.

"Porlyusica is really a nice person when you get to know her, she is just a little….stern." She tried explaining, Natsu chuckled.

"It's no biggie, but for real guys how long have I been out?"

"Only about half an hour, we all regrouped at this safe house about twenty minutes ago." Erza explained. Natsu nodded taking in the information, he noticed her arm was in a sling as well.

"Is everyone okay?" He asked looking around the room at everyone's bumps and bruises, Lucy smiled at him and rested her hand on his shoulder.

"Yeah everyone is all good, you were in the worst state though, so Porlyusica is right, you should be resting.

"Naw, I'm all good. Besides I need to stretch it off." He argued.

"Seriously man, you took a beating, there's nothing wrong with just relaxing." Gray spoke up, at that exact moment Natsu's midsection began to hurt again. Losing his balance Lucy had to reach out and stabilize him.

"You really should at least sit Natsu, you have three broken ribs, and thirty-seven stitches." Wendy explained also standing up to come to his aid, allowing Carla to leap from her arms. Gray and Juvia moved to the floor allowing Natsu to lay down on the couch. Lucy took the chair next to the couch once more, picking up her sewing stuff, along with Natsu's jacket.

"That bad huh? Guess Gajeel did more of a number on me than I thought…"

"That's not surprising, Juvia knows how brutal Gajeel fights...It's a miracle who escaped with only that much...That being said there is good in him...Deep down." Juvia explained solemnly. Gray wrapped his arm around her shoulders.

"Soooo Natsu….you're the Salamander? That's cool…" Levy awkwardly piped up. Natsu smirked at her.

"Yup that's me. How are you three feeling by the way?" He asked glancing at Jet and Droy as well as Levy.

"Could be better, but still in better shape than you." Jet smirked at him.

"Oh haha! You're funny." Natsu shot back sarcastically. He glanced around the room, it seemed like everyone was here, except someone was missing. Then it clicked.

"Hey where's Gramps?" Hey asked, the others looked around as if they too were all noticing his absence. Cana was the only one to speak up.

"He is confronting Jose, he plans on using the Fairy Law." She spoke. The air in the room got tense, Lucy and Levy looked over to Natsu who shrugged.

"If you don't mind me asking, what is that exactly? Levy asked. Erza's eyes met hers.

"Years ago when Fairy Tail was first created the leader at the time created a technique that would be passed down from leader to leader. It's name was Fairy Law. One of the three great fairy techniques." She started, before Mira spoke up next.

"The catch is it would only work if you are certain in your heart that the person you are attempting to use it against is your enemy, and that you truly want them dead…" Natsu's face paled.

"Wait I'm confused, I thought this was some kind of fighting technique?"

"No it's far from that. You see, our first master was like us, she too was an inhuman. Only her power was magic." Mira continued.

"Wait magic?" Lucy asked, looking for confirmation.

"Yeah magic as in abra kadabra? Pulling a rabbit out of a hat?" Natsu also asked. Erza rolled her eyes at him.

"Is it so hard to believe? I can summon weapons, and armor at will, you can breath fire. To some that could be considered magic."

"I guess…"

"So Fairy Law, it's a spell then right? A spell that she invented and passed down to the next master, who passed it down to the next?" Levy connected the dots. Cana nodded.

"That's correct. I've never seen it up close, but the rumors are that it can destroy your foe without leaving a trace that they were ever there."

"...Shit…" Was all Natsu spoke as that set in.

Makarov held his hands in front of him slightly separated, a warm yellow glow shone in between his hands. Jose stared at him not bothering to fight back, he knew it was hopeless.

"It's time for you to pay for your crimes Jose Porla!" The light grew brighter soon filling the entire room. Jose closed his eyes allowing himself to relive memories.

"Hey papa...what happens to people after they die?" A small boy with dark red hair that matched his father's looked up at Jose as they sat on a fishing pier overseeing a small pond next to a wooden house.

"Huh? Where did that come from Zachary?" He looked down at the small boy who shrugged his shoulders.

"I dunno, I was just thinking about it, because of Grandma." Tears threatened to fall from Zachary's eyes. Jose frowned, it had only been a month since his mother had passed away from cancer, Zachary had taken the loss of his grandmother really hard.

"I wish I had an answer for you, but to tell you the truth, nobody really knows for certain. Some people believe in an afterlife where you get to be reunited with those close to you that you have lost, others believe you are reborn, as a different person, maybe an animal even...It's an impossible question to answer." Zachary looked up at his father.

"What do you believe?"

"Well, I've never thought of it I guess, let me think about it….I think that it is like falling asleep after a long day, just laying down in a comfortable dreamless sleep, no nightmares to disturb you, just peace."

"Wouldn't that get boring though?"

"Maybe it would, but who knows, it might be nice." Jose chuckled.

"There you boys are, lunch is ready." A short woman with brown hair greeted the father and son.

"YAY! THANKS MAMA!" Zachary stood up and bolted towards the house. Jose stood and smiled down at the woman.

"What were you two talking about?" She asked.

"Just guy stuff." Jose joked, leaning down to steal a quick peck on the lips.

"In that case I don't even want to know." She laughed and kissed him back.

"I love you Elizabeth."

"I love you more Jose."

"MAMA, PAPA, HURRY I'M HUNGRY!" Zachary interrupted their moment, they smiled at each other.

"Be right there sweetie!" Elizabeth turned and walked away from Jose.

"I'll catch up, I just need to pick up my stuff…"

The memory went away as he opened his watery eyes.

"I've never believed in an afterlife, but now I hope there is one. I hope I can see you two again…" He whispered.

"I deem you as an enemy of Fairy Tail! For your crimes against us, I bring upon you...FAIRY LAW!" Makarov yelled out the blinding light that filled the room disappeared, and an instant later a large blast struck Jose. He cried out in pain as he watched his body dissolve. This was it. This was how it ended, life was cruel, but he had hopes that Jude would face his own demons soon, for now all he could think of were the faces of his family and how he would see them again. He closed his eyes embracing his fate, and soon the light faded away, leaving no trace of him. Makarov panted it was over, the fight against Phantom Lord had been won. He frowned as three words escaped his mouth.

"Goodbye...Old friend"

Chapter 15: Rebuilding