Chapter Nineteen
Ambush
"Akane Resort! Sun, sea, relaxation… and crippling depression because instead of those things, we're here for a security detail." Gray moaned, trailing behind Erza and Lucy, carrying what felt like a literal tonne of luggage. He couldn't stop or slow down because if the burn in his muscles caught up to him then his arms might well just fall off in protest.
"That sounds like something Natsu would come up with." Erza quipped, not bothering to look at the now almost nude mage.
"Feeling love-struck, ice boy?" Lucy smirked.
"I'm not the one bringing him up. It's been days since he left and you've both several times brought him back into conversation. If anyone is 'love struck', it isn't me." Gray argued, knowing that there was a fifty-fifty chance that he was going to receive a physical berating.
"We're here," Erza announced before an argument began. They ended up at a small hut that served as a beachside office of sorts.
A small older man with greying hair and a rather noticeably sized forehead appeared at the door.
"Hello there, welcome to Akane Resort!" He smiled joyously, spouting the company line with gusto, "You must be the Fairy Tail mages that were called for. Eh, now, unfortunately, the client has withdrawn the contract but expressed their most sincere apologies that you've come all this way, so, in lieu of your travels and expenses, the client in question has paid for the attending mages to be given all-inclusive access to the resort for a couple of days." He explained hurriedly.
"Well Gray, how about that sun, sea, and relaxation without the depression?" Erza asked.
By the time she'd looked over at him, he was already beach-ready with the shorts and sunglasses donned, looking off into the sunset in what he probably thought was stoicism.
"This job is the best," Lucy beamed, giving Erza the thumbs up.
The rest of the day went by in a flash with plenty of relaxation to be had by all. It was a highly appreciated time after the past few weeks of carnage they'd experienced. It wasn't long before they'd wound up at the casino, dressed to impress, each wandering in different directions.
Gray thought for a moment that he'd been going mad when he noticed a swirl of blue hair on the woman sitting at the bar.
"You know," he heard Lucy creep up behind him, "I don't think she's crazy. I think you were given an unfair perception of her. You can probably thank Natsu for that but you definitely made quite the impression on her during that battle with Phantom Lord." The Celestial Mage reasoned.
"Maybe you should give her a chance, talk to her like a normal person, face to face." Lucy nudged him forward, seeing the once icy resolute defiance in him melt away.
"Yeah, I guess I should." He sighed before going over to her.
He said down at the bar, giving a small wave to the bartender there. "So, you knew we were here, didn't you?" Gray asked, looking Juvia over properly for the first time. He couldn't deny it, she was beautiful, astoundingly so, and perhaps Lucy was right, maybe they got off to a bad start and he thought the situation was worse than it was because of Natsu's deranged sense of humour.
"I did," she nodded slowly, starting at her drink, "but I didn't follow you here, I swear!" She pleaded in a hushed voice, not wanting to attract too much attention.
"I saw you earlier today but kept my distance. I came here to try and cheer myself up after my guild was disbanded." She admitted with a solemn shrug.
"I'm not a bad person, Gray, I'm not. Phantom Lord wasn't the kind of place I wanted to be, but I couldn't leave Gajeel alone, he's always needed someone to stop him from going down a worse path." She explained slowly, swirling the liquid around in her glass.
"I don't think you're a bad person. Natsu, he's a jerk, and the reason I thought you were crazy, but I don't think you're a bad person." Gray reassured her, feeling comfortable in her presence.
"This is going… well, huh?" She asked, hopeful that he would reciprocate the attempt to start over.
He gave her a soft smile, about to respond when the lights went out, and the trap had been sprung. None of them stood a chance.
Sometime later, Lucy woke up in a dark room, bound up on a cold stone floor. Where was she, and what happened at the casino? One moment she was trying to talk to a waiter who was hoofing it away from her, the next she was here.
How long had she even been down there?
She tried to fumble around, to undo the bindings and get free but it was no use, she was stuck. Stuck in that dank dingy room, with no rescue in sight.
"Erza, Gray, Happy?" She shouted, hearing her voice echo for a moment before dying out.
Stuck, and alone.
Where was everyone else?
Not willing to give up she began to roll around, hoping that she'd end up facing some kind of light. Instead, she ended up crushing an arm underneath herself. Pain shot through her shoulder, and she could feel a magic spell beginning to work.
It was Plue, but she hadn't tried to summon him, he'd come through on his own.
A small light shone around the little creature as it looked at her, "Plue?" It asked, tilting a gormless gaze.
"Yes! Plue, oh thank you, thank you, thank you!" She beamed ecstatically.
"Plue, listen close, I need you to find Erza or Gray, or anyone else that is going to be strong enough to come here and save me, or us if the others have been captured too. Can you do that for me?" She asked, desperately hoping that he understood what she wanted.
"Plue!" He nodded, fists raised in what felt like a preemptive triumph, and then he was gone, plunging Lucy back into darkness.
Hundreds of miles away, as the night drew closer, a certain would-be dark mage was sat by a fire, gazing in as he pondered the events of the last few weeks when all of a sudden, a Celestial Spirit bounced into existence by his feet.
"Gah, fuck! Where the shit did you come from?" He asked, immediately on high alert. Nobody should have been able to sneak up on him.
"Puu-puun!" He waved erratically.
"What's that, little Timmy is stuck down the well and needs a rescue?" Natsu asked sarcastically, throwing another log into the fire, sparks rising up and falling down as they danced against the canvas of the night sky.
"Plue!" The Celestial Spirit admonished.
"Yeah, I know," Natsu waved, only navigating the finer details of the conversation through Plue's body language, "Listen, if Luna's-"
"Plue!" The Spirit glared.
"Wow, you too? Killjoy. Fine, if Lucy is in trouble, someone else from the guild will have to rescue her, I'm trying to track down an unbelievably conspicuous tower that was meant to revive an asshole, so unless the two are related…" Natsu waved, mild irritation setting in knowing that Lucy was in trouble and there wasn't anything he could do.
"Plue!"
"What?" He asked, shrugging, "Wait, wait, are the two related? Little snowball, is Lucy at the R-System control tower?" He asked through a tilted gaze.
"Plue!"
"Seeing as I haven't figured out where that is, I think you're going to have to go back to your mistress," Natsu told him. Plue hummed sadly, sinking his head.
"When you get back, you need to convince Lucy to activate the crest that I put on her shoulder, if she does that, I can come there straight away," Natsu assured him.
Plue didn't waste any time, he'd gone in an instant, returning to where Lucy was trying to crawl toward what she hoped was a door.
"Worst. Job. Ever." she cursed through gritted teeth.
"Plue!" the Celestial Spirit announced his return happily.
"Plue, who did you bring?" Lucy craned her neck, seeing the luminous glow approach as the Spirit came closer.
"Plue!" he pointed at Lucy's shoulder with a huge grin spread out.
"I can't do anything, I'm the one who's tied up!" she argued, looking around hopelessly.
The slim line of light that she'd seen under the door had gone, replaced now by… Water?
"She's in there?" she heard Gray's voice ask only seconds before the door was violently ripped off its hinges.
"Gray! What's going on, why am I the only one tied up, and where's-" Lucy was cut off by the corporeal form of Juvia moulding herself from the water, growing to her full height to look down at the bound mage.
"We don't know yet, we're in some kind of tower. They had us tied up together in the basement but they obviously don't know anything about our magic, Juvia just slipped right through it once we were awake." Gray explained, pulling Lucy free from the binds and helping her to her feet.
"Plue!" the Celestial Spirit said, pointing back at her shoulder. Her attention was drawn to the faint crest that looked like a Dragon's skull.
"Natsu!" Lucy exclaimed, "You found Natsu!?" she said in disbelief. Plue simply nodded, urging her to press the sigil.
"It doesn't matter who you find, your journey ends here!" they heard a high-pitched voice that weirdly sounded rather manly at the same time.
They all looked up to see an enormous, incredibly well-built man, with the head of an owl, coming at them from the open central reservation of the tower, aided by two almost comically sized rockets mounted to his back.
"Um, Lucy?" Gray began, pulling ice into his hands, Juvia mirroring his action with moisture from the air.
"Yep, calling the Dragon." Lucy nodded before Gray even had time to ask. She quickly tapped the sigil on her shoulder but nothing happened.
"Luce now would be a great time," Gray said, urgency unmistakable as the enemy approached at an alarming speed. He would be too fast for Gray to take down, and he didn't know anything about Juvia's fighting style, so he couldn't rely on that.
"It's not working!" she exasperated, "It's not like he gave me instructions!" she continued tapping, pleading with the small symbol to bring him in.
"Prepare yourselves for death, for you face off against Fukuro, one of the Trinity Raven of the Death's Head guild!" Fukuro hooted.
"Come on Natsu, I need you!" she yelled, unaware that she'd accidentally let some of her magic seep into her words.
Fukuro had wound a fist back, aiming squarely for Gray's head. The ice mage barely had a second to throw his arms into a guard, "Lucy!" Gray yelled, covering everything in front of him in ice.
A bright light flashed across their eyes, illuminating everything for a second before they looked to see a long brown coat, billowing from the pressure that resulted in the abrupt stop that Fukuro had been forced into.
The feeling of temperatures rising could be felt in the multitudes as they watched Natsu step into existence, already raising a hand and catching Fukuro's attack.
"Don't you worry," Natsu's voice filled the air around them all the while the temperature rose further, "Daddy's home," he said, winking at Gray.
A blast of fire shot out from the hand that was firmly clasped around Fukuro's fist, sending the would-be assassin flying back, breaking through a wall, and leaving a trail of smoke slowly rising from the new hole in the wall.
"Natsu," Lucy almost had tears in her eyes.
"Dude," Natsu said, looking confused at the sight before him, "that chicken is ripped." he nodded in a strange sense of respect.
"Natsu, this isn't the time, whoever these guys are, they've got Erza!" Gray interjected.
"Finally, the last contender has arrived!" a voice called out, materializing around them with no clear origin.
"I'd like to take this moment to formally welcome you all to the newly built Tower of Heaven!"
"Now that the Salamander is here, I'm going to tell you what's going to happen in this little game called 'Heaven'." The voice continued.
One by one, dozens upon dozens of mouths morphed from the brickwork of the walls, all forming deranged smiles.
"Ah, but where are my manners? My name is Jellal, I am the keeper of this tower, and today it will finally be complete!" he laughed.
"Did he not just say that it was already finished?" Gray pointed out, satire dripping
"I intend to sacrifice Erza Scarlett to activate the tower, a fitting sacrifice if I do say so myself." Jellal mused.
"If I succeed and the tower is activated, then I win, if any of you can stop me, then you win. It's as simple as that, except that to get to me you will have to get through my knights, the Trinity Raven of Death's Head, plus a special guest who wanted to watch the Salamander's downfall in person, how delightful!" Natsu groaned, already knowing exactly how painful this day was going to be.
"Fucking Ajax." Natsu cursed.
"Ajax?" Lucy prompted.
"It's a synonym, for asshole, or at least it might as well be. He's another shitstick from Death's Head." The Dragon sighed.
"My my, I didn't expect the Salamander of all people to disregard the value of time!" Jellal cut in, "As we speak one of Erza's old friends is bringing her to me. Poor boy thinks he can save the damsel all by his lonesome. As for Erza's other friends, well, it would appear that she still had some allies after all. Oh Simon, you soft-hearted fool."
"I have a question!" Natsu shouted, knowing that Jellal could hear him after his previous comments.
There was a tense moment of silence before Jellal spoke, "And what might that be?"
"Are your real lips as plump as these?" he asked. Lucy could see that devilish grin begin to form. That devilish grin that she'd started to become fond of, in a way that she would never have imagined possible.
"Are you serious?" Gray asked, eyes wide in almost subject horror.
"I'm just saying… why they kinda…" Natsu shrugged, letting the insinuation sit for all to see.
Jellal offered no response, instead, the mouths disappeared, his monologue cut short.
"Alright, let me get this straight, see if I've missed anything. You were captured," he pointed at Lucy.
"You were captured," he pointed at Gray.
"You were…" he stopped short, having only just noticed Juvia. "Who are you?" He asked, as though he hadn't fought against her any more than a week ago.
"You… You don't know who I am?" She asked, unsure if that conversation was actually happening.
"I must say!" Fukuro had finally recovered enough to pull himself free from the owl-man-sized hole in the wall that Natsu had made. "You pack quite the punch! This job will be far more of a challenge than any before, but I welcome it!" He added.
"That's Juvia!" Gray told him.
"Lover?" Natsu asked, glancing between them.
"No!"
"Yes!"
"How dare you ignore me! I am a knight of justice, and justice decrees that your life must end, Salamander!" Fukuro blared, shooting forward with the power of his rockets.
"So, hang on, if you were captured why weren't you all in the same place, and how did you get free?" Natsu asked, catching another strike from Fukuro but paying him absolutely no attention.
Lucy couldn't help but watch in morbid fascination as realization began to dawn on the Death's Head assassin at how unbelievably outmatched he was against Natsu, who wasn't even paying him the slightest respect of focus or attention.
"We were ambushed in the casino, but-" Gray began to explain but was interrupted.
"There's a casino here? No wonder it took so long to build, why would you need a casino in an R-System tower, that's just… pointless." Natsu blurted. His minimal attention to Fukuro had meant that the assassin managed to skip out of Natsu's grasp, albeit with several broken fingers.
"Dear lord, you're as monstrous as they say you are!" Fukuro hooted, clutching the damaged hand as he backed up a few steps.
"I keep hearing that," Natsu responded, finally turning to face their adversary, "Monster this, monster that, but the truth is that I haven't had to be a monster for a very long time, and if I ever needed to be again, you humans wouldn't have a word to describe what I am." He said, taking slow but deliberate steps to the owl-man who was beginning to shirk, his towering stature failing in the face of the rising tension. The metaphysical manifestation of Natsu's power was growing so strong that they could almost see it shimmering and distorting the air around him.
"Fighting another Dragon Slayer and the rest of Phantom Lord awoke a strength that has long since been asleep, and now, more than ever, I'm beginning to lose my restraint on that monstrous side of me, so, just for you, you little knight of justice, I will show you how truly unjust this world really is." His eyes narrowed into those vertical draconic skits, irises changing into endless pools of molten gold.
"I am no monster," he shook his head, "no, little chicken, I am a Dragon, and do you know what Dragons do?" He asked.
Fukuro, who now might as well have been the size of an actual chicken, slowly shook his head, robbed of his ability to speak.
"Roar."
The side of the tower exploded, a Dragon's roar filling the night sky with a funnel of fire and death, flying way off towards the mainland, the unfortunate Fukuro caught in the focus of it, his life no more.
"I see that poor Fukuro could not stand the heat. One down, two to go, and of course our mystery guest. Time is ticking Fairy Tail. Erza is almost here, what will you do next?" Jellal's voice came to them, the smugness unchanged.
"Huh? Whoops." Natsu shrugged.
"You just killed that guy… by accident?" Juvia asked, horror deeply ingrained in her eyes. This power, that level of strength was entirely different to anything she'd ever seen before. Was he just playing around with them when she fought him?
"I literally set one foot in this tower and he threw a punch, it was quite honestly not my fault, this time at least. That's like Gray trying to stab a god in the face. It's entertaining, at least to begin with, but then just really sad, but, he could have survived. Won't be coming back here anytime soon though. Anyway, casino?" Natsu prompted, getting them back on track before he's been so rudely interrupted.
"Casino," Gray said, stumbling for words because of Natsu's disinterest in their enemy.
"Right, we were all at the casino at Akane Resort, not here, but then the lights went out and I was nearly stabbed through the heart, I would have died if I hadn't been inside Juvia." The ice mage explained, only realizing what he'd done as the words left his mouth.
"My fucking guy!" Natsu beamed proudly.
"No, not like that!" Gray tried to correct it but the words were already said.
"What?" Lucy deadpanned.
"A group of assumed terrorists storm a casino to catch Fairies and you decided to go balls deep. Absolute power move, I will probably never respect you more than I do right now." Natsu grinned with such a bright smile that right there he could probably have lit up the night sky.
"No, she's a water mage, she protected me by covering me with her water magic, it wasn't anything… anything at all like that! That was the first time that we even had a proper conversation, no thanks to you convincing me that she was crazy!" Gray yelled, feeling anger well up inside.
"Wow, respect gone." Natsu retorted, walking through the hole in the side of the tower and looking up.
"Where are you going? Didn't you hear that guy, there's more people here to get through, we'll be stronger if we do it as a team!" Gray told him.
"Yeah, sure, you go do that thing you just said." Natsu waved.
"Fine, be an asshole, I'll go rescue Erza myself, at least stay here and protect them," Gray said, darting off through an adjacent door that led to a large spiralling staircase that presumably ran the entire length of the tower.
"Hmm?" Natsu asked, looking back towards them, "Where did the stripper go?" He raised a brow looking around.
"To find Erza, we should stick together to rescue her." the Celestial mage poured, unhappy that their team had already lost Gray.
"I don't know who this Jellal guy is, but I'm fairly confident that if her strength was enough to excite me in our fight then she's going to be perfectly fine taking care of herself here," Natsu answered her, still gauging the scale of the tower.
"What are you even doing over there, aside from admiring your destructive handiwork?" She asked.
"Allow me to answer your question with a question; where's Happy?" He asked.
There was a moment of silence so strong you could hear a single drop of water and it would have sounded louder than a drum.
"Exactly. See you soon sugar tits." The Dragon laughed, winking and clicking a finger in her direction before crouching low and bounding high into the sky, rocketing up the side of the structure, landing and jumping higher and higher whenever his feet touched down on a new ledge surrounding the fascia of the tower.
"Natsu," Lucy groaned. He'd only just arrived and now he was gone.
The sound of strings thrummed, echoing in the air menacingly. It wasn't long before the female mages saw the man approach them, guitar in hand, white and black face paint adorning his features.
"It's time to put on a show!" He screamed in a surprisingly high pitch, the guitar wailing rhythmically alongside him.
"Welcome to your new Hell!"
A/N: Enjoying it so far?