Cana led her friends deeper into the ocean and into her thoughts. Until today she herself hadn't been back in the ocean since her and Lucy had made their escape and she hadn't realised how much she missed it. Sure, she loved her new friends of the land and their booze was much better than the bottles that randomly washed up on beaches she'd have before, but the sea was a part of her and swimming was something she really loved.

She was glad Lucy had managed to get away, it may have only been six months but Lucy had really flourished on the surface. They'd signed up for a school at Lucy's request, her want for learning and making friends really wasn't in the goal of self-preservation and keeping out of trouble but Cana wasn't about to say no, if she restricted what Lucy could do she'd be no better than her father. Turns out that Lucy was actually pretty smart, absolutely awful at ball games but the girl could write amazingly and had taken to her astrology club – she was a celestial guardian but had been kept from that world ever since her mother had passed, another thing the King decided to keep from Lucy.

Cana loved the surface, but she knew her heart belonged to the sea. Lucy on the other hand, the verdict seemed out to Cana – especially surrounded by their new found friends who were risking their lives to help Lucy, one fiery character in particular Cana believed had the power to sway Lucy's decision. They'd made fast friends, Natsu seemed to sweep Lucy into his pace as fast as he'd knocked into her their first day and she'd given him a piece of her mind to watch his step, from there he'd pulled them both into his friend group and stuck to Lucy like glue claiming if he was next to her he couldn't accidentally run into her.

"Yo Cana, we getting close?", speak of the dragon she looked to her left to see Natsu had joined her at the front of their group, a quick glance behind confirmed everyone was still there.

"Yeah, just a little further and we'll be in the castle boundaries. Actually" she paused in swimming, ushering her friends behind a large collection of coral to shield them all, continuing as they all surrounded her, "it's a little odd we've made it this far without any trouble. Like I said the King can control the waters so he'll know we're here – maybe not you all but he'll have noticed me. It's strange the guards haven't come out"

"I say we're just wasting time talking about people who aren't here, we should just storm in!"

"No Natsu, Cana makes a good point. They either don't warrant Cana as a threat or there is something waiting for us but they've planned it closer to the castle"

"Or…they've been following you a while and didn't want to have to swim you all too far to the dungeons"

Looking up to the sound of the new voice they found 10 mermen all with shiny torso armour and swords.

"What?! I didn't hear anybody or smell them – did you Gajeel?"

"Not even a whiff, how could they sneak up on us?"

Levy clapped her hands together, realisation dawning on her as she mentally kicked herself for not thinking of it earlier and the hindrance it would cause their group, "water – it changes sounds and your noses won't be much use underwater either. Your heightened senses must be duller underwater just like the rest of ours, plus the ocean has sounds of the water and everything moving within it so it's a lot harder to hear things down here"

"Geez, Macao is that you up there? If you let us through I'll finally give in and gift you my seashells"

"Cana, the King's orders are his orders"

"They took him eh?" his grimace told her everything, for his overly pervy and persistent nature in asking for her seashells that covered her goods he was a good friend – he'd helped her and Lucy in their escape, he knew the risks as did Romeo his son who'd acted as a lookout for them but it seemed the King had chosen his punishment for the Conbolt family – Macao who was a scholar had been demoted to the guard and Romeo too young to be put into work yet likely was down in the dungeons.

"I assume you are here to capture us, but I'm afraid we must continue on to save our friend" Erza summoned a double ended speared staff swimming towards the mermen and quickly engaging them in a fight, Jellal was quick behind her – he created flashed of lights from his palms blinding them temporarily swimming up to aid Erza, Gajeel was already in the fray.

During the pandemonium Cana turned to the rest of the group.

"Natsu, take Juvia, Gray and Levy. If you all keep swimming in this direction you'll see the shell palace. You should all be able to get through mostly unnoticed so long as I'm not with you, I'll stay with these guys and we'll follow behind once we're done here. Lucy should be in her room – it's the tallest tower there, she was put as far from anybody as she could be. Now go!"

They turned to leave and Cana went to swim up to join her friends but Natsu stopped her gripping her arm, "the merman you talked to, you know him?"

"Yeah, he helped me and Lucy escape, his son too"

"Damn. Punishment?" he gestured above to the guard, she nodded solemnly. "His son up there too?"

"No, he's too young, I reckon he'll be in the dungeon"

"Got it. Catch you guys in a bit, we'll have Luce and whatshisnames son" he flashed his grin, let go of her arm and swam off to join the others heading for the palace.

Her eyes nearly bugged out of her head, he wasn't seriously suggesting he break Romeo out too? Then she remembered this was Natsu, hot headed golden compass for a conscience Natsu, of course he would. She shook her head and swam up her hand reaching for the pouch hanging from her hip pulling out a clam shell she enchanted it and threw it at a merman swimming for her, "clam magic – freeze!". Her clam hit him in the middle of his chest breaking on impact spilling the spell into the merman who froze and sunk slowly to the ocean floor, he should be out an hour at least. All merfolk had some water control powers but there were a few born with rare magic too – Cana had been one of them and it was this power that had gotten her appointed as Lucy's tail-maid the King had deemed her power could protect Lucy if needed, he hadn't been wrong but it sure was backfiring on him now. She could conjure mostly anything with clam shells but she couldn't repeat the same spell within 24 hours, it was a limitation she wasn't pleased with but it did make her more inventive with her conjuring.

Natsu caught up to the other group on their way to the castle, "we got another one for the rescue list, that merman's son – Cana said they helped Luce escape but he's now in the dungeon"

"Because one rescue wasn't enough?! You're such a hot head"

"Hey! He helped Luce escape and got locked up for it, so yeah we're gonna get him out"

Gray raised his eyebrow looking at Natsu who just nodded sharply, "we'll save him. What's his name?"

"No idea. Didn't ask"

"What! How are we meant to know who to rescue if you don't even know his name you idiot?"

"We'll get Luce first and she can tell us – duh. Or we just break em all out, doubt any of them deserve it from what Cana said"

"You sure do know how to find trouble don't you", Gray shook his head but wore a smile – sure he thought Natsu was an idiot who acted too much like a bull but he agreed with him, he didn't like the sound of this King and doubted the prisoners offences.

"If you boys are quite done I think we're here" Levy and Juvia had stopped just ahead peering over the edge of the seabed they'd been swimming over. They all got close to the floor and peered over the edge, below them was another floor of the ocean down another several hundreds of meters – and on it was an overly opulent castle made of bright white shells, towers spiralled up from the structure and had an open space in the centre that they couldn't quite see into.

"Oh no"

"What is it no frost flake?"

"I know your hearing isn't like it is on the surface but if I can hear all that music then you must be able to too"

"Yeah, what of it"

"Oh!" Levy and Juvia gasped in understanding looking at each other in panic then back to the castle to try to spot clues.

"Geez, you're so clueless sometimes. That –" he gestured towards the music and castle, "is wedding music"

"…and?" rather than a response Gray just hit him around the head, which oddly worked a treat to knock sense into him his annoyance shifting quickly to rage and determination. "They started the wedding already! What we waiting for, let's go! Gray take Juvia – check the top tower to see if she's still there. Levy – come with me, we've got a wedding to ruin"


And the rescue is underway!

Just wanted to say thank you to all my readers tuning back in from when I originally wrote this and to anyone new picking this fic up - welcome! :)

FireShifter I'm glad you like the mermaid element to Lucy!

LayLaylives thank you for tuning back in, hope you enjoy this start to the rescue!

Thank you to anyone who has liked/followed - really appreciate it.