"-Now if Juvia is correct, this rock should lead us into the bunker." Juvia began to push at the boulder, turning red in determination. "Just give Juvia a second." She continued to push the onto the huge rock as Gray joined her. With the work of the two wizards it moved in no time, revealing a long staircase.

    "Before we go in, Juvia thinks we should devise a plan." Juvia explained to the group.

    "I've been thinking of a plan while we walked here. Since we have six wizards, two should wait out here in case the brothers are out and come back. Four should go in, remaining in groups of two at all times, and split up to investigate." Freed explained his strategy, "Now, Gray and Juvia will be group one, Natsu and Lucy are to be group two, and Cana and I will stay out here on watch. If someone starts coming, I'll send an enchantment message as we fight." 

    Barely a second passed when Natsu ran off down the staircase, his ignited fists flying behind him.

    The five remaining wizards approved the plan and went off on their ways. Lucy was silently scolding the fire dragon slayer as she walked along the old abandoned bunker's corridors in search of any evidence that would prove that someone was recently there. She kicked at the ground as she thought of Natsu, 'What if this is where Scar, Skull, and Death are based? What if they hurt Natsu as soon as he runs into them? If they beat Erza and Jellal so badly, imagine what they could do to him.' She shook her head. 'No, I have to believe in him.'

    Meanwhile in Gajeel's group, they had just reached the edge of the forest. Gajeel was tapping his boot on random spots of the ground. Laxus was the first to speak up, questioning his actions, "Gajeel, what are you doing?"

    "To trigger the opening of the entrance, you have to stomp on a certain part of the ground."

    "Well, why are you stomping all around then?"

    "It's been awhile since I was in Phantom. My memory is a little rusted." Gajeel responded as his stomping got more and more impatient. All of a sudden, he just stopped in silence. "I think I understand why it's not working, the bunker must be on the other side of the forest."

The six groaned; the trip across the forest would take another half a day. As they began to turn around, Elfman stepped on something that opened up a tunnel in front of them.

    "Yes, because this is the other side of the forest." Evergreen rolled her eyes. "Mira, you and Laxus can go in, and Levy and Gajeel can go in. I'll stay out here with Elfman."

    "Why do we have to wait out here! A real man never stays watch! We should-ow." Evergreen hit Elfman across the head before he could finish his sentence.

    "Levy, I want you to stick very close by me when we get inside. Phantom Lord always boobytrapped their hangouts"  Gajeel warned, grabbing her arm. Laxus, Mira, Gajeel, and Levy went down into the bunker and split up in the groups. As Gajeel took a left, he stuck his arm out, catching an arrow that was shooting for Levy's head. He patted Levy's head, and then ate the arrow. "Maybe closer than that."  Gajeel winked towards the shorter female.
   
    "Gajeel! Now is not the time,"  Levy whispered back, gently hit his arm.

    "Yeah, yeah." 

    Some cackling was heard from behind the two, "Well, well, well. What do we have here? Two lovebird Fairies." They turned around to see a large man with violet eyes and a scar running down his face,"You don't know who I am, do you?" He chuckled viciously.

Gajeel's hands turned into fists, "Nah, but I have a pretty good idea." He put his hand on Levy's shoulder and leaned down. "Levy, go get Laxus and Mira, I can handle this. Get out of here as soon as possible!"

"Gajeel, I can't leave yo-" He cut her off.

"-Go!"  Levy knew there was no arguing with him. The best way to keep Gajeel safe was to do as he said. She ran off to get the others.

Scar looked at Gajeel, tauntingly, "What? Afraid I'm going to pound you to the ground just as I did to Titania?"

Gajeel laughed at the remark. "Right. You pounded Titania, our Erza to the ground. That's exactly why she's perfectly fine, back searching for Jellal, isn't it?"

Scar rolled his eyes, "There's no way a weak Fairy, like you, could beat me! I'm one of the most powerful mages in existence," he proceeded to try and attack Gajeel, "First Titiana, now Black Steel Gajeel. Who's next?"
   
    Gajeel was too late to catch the punch. He felt his cheek get hit by Scar's claw. "Oh, you're gonna regret that, punk."

    "Like I'll regret anything!"  Scar continued to attack;  lightning hit the back of his head.  Mira had transformed into Satan Soul and Laxus were standing behind him, threateningly.

    "You didn't think we'd let one of our own get messed with without a fight, did you?" Laxus asked Scar with his eyebrow raised, "If you did, you were dead wrong."

    "Lucky me! I get to take down Black Steel Gajeel, the Laxus, and the She-Devil all in one day!" Scar cackled menacingly. Mira flew near him and punched his stomach with full force. "Oof!" Scar regained his posture, "You're going to have to do better than that."
   
    Gajeel smirked, "You wanna dance? Let's dance. We're only just getting started."

Scar laughed as he dodged Gajeel's punches. "You know, you could just join us." He grabbed Gajeel's hand and twisted it. "You'd make a great edition to our team."

    "Now why would I do that? Fairy Tail is my home; they welcomed me with open arms, even after all the stuff I'd done to them."  Gajeel responded. "Laxus, Mira, let's give this guy a beating he'll never forget."

Laxus grunted in response, nodding as lightning radiated off his arms.

Mira chimed in demonically, "Let's rip him to shreds."

---

Back at the river bunker, things weren't going any smoother. Lucy was trying to stop Natsu, who had triggered yet another boobytrap. This was nearly the third one in the past thirty minutes.

"Lucy! Get me down, would ya?" Natsu asked the poor girl again.

"I'm trying, but these spider webs are sticky," she sighed exasperatedly," Oh I know! Open gate of Cancer!" Lucy summoned the spirit and asked him to cut the webs. Once Cancer cut the last strand of web, Natsu fell to the ground.

"Thanks, Luce! Thanks, Cancer!" Natsu said as he hopped off to the floor, getting ready to speed forwards again, but Lucy put an arm in front of him.

"No. You will not speed off and get trapped again." The celestial mage lectured Natsu. "It's getting irritating."

"Speaking of irritating," Natsu motioned to Gray and Juvia as they turned the corner with a Crime Sorciere cloak in their hands.

Gray and Juvia's eye lit up as they saw the pair, Gray spoke first, "Something has happened above the ground just as Juvia and I had found a room that had blood, and Meredy's Crime Sorciere cloak in it. Freed and Cana messaged that someone was coming."

Juvia nodded, "They're holding them off for now, but we need to hide." Juvia moved a torch on the wall, "When we were wizards for Phantom, Sol hollowed the walls with his earth magic so we could have a place to hide in an emergency. Only wizards of the guild knew of this." Juvia motion for them all them to see. "We'll be able to continue our search for Jellal and now Meredy as a group of four. If we hear one of the brothers coming, we'll hide in the walls, and follow them to wherever they're going."

"Are you sure we shouldn't go help them?" Lucy questioned worriedly.

"No," Gray shook his head, "they said to keep looking. Since we found Meredy's cloak, it means this is the base. We have a good chance of finding Jellal." Now with the protection of numbers, the group went on to look for the missing wizards.

Gray crouched down holding the torch in front of him. The corridors were narrow, only allowing one person at a time. Juvia had to walk behind Gray, while Lucy and Natsu had to do the same.

Sounds of the flame flickering filled the walls, along with the loud footsteps. Gray stopped abruptly, causing Juvia to knock into him and drop the flame. "Shhh!" Gray put his finger up to his lips even though no one could see it.

"What's happening?" Lucy whispered, confused at the stop of movement.

"Shh! Someone's outside the walls!" The dark haired boy tapped the wall, opening the door, slightly. He peeked out to see a tall, thin man wearing Jellal's jacket. He closed the door and whispered back to the group. "He's wearing Jellal's jacket." He paused and put his ear to the wall. "He's talking."

The tall man was none other than Death. He walked down the empty halls, looking for the Fairy Tail wizards. "Where are those stupid Fairies?" The brown haired man sounded annoyed. "Wait... Jellal!" He exclaimed as his footsteps sped up.

Gray opened the door to see where the man was heading to. "Left." He whispered as everyone started blindly walking through the dark corridor.

"Hey, why do we have to follow the Ice Breath?" Natsu broke the silence to ask a question that had been on his mind ever since everyone was reunited. Everyone unanimously shushed the salmon haired boy as they followed the pattern of Death's boots.

Death took another left turn, revealing the once common area of the base. There, Jellal and Meredy lay injured, Jellal's wounds worse than the younger mage's. The two were now closer next to each other, wondering the whereabouts of the rest of Crime Sorciere, hoping they were in a safer place than this.

Death went over and kicked Jellal's side, "Where are they? Hmm?"

"I haven't the slightest idea what you're talking about." Jellal responded through pain-clenched teeth. 

"Sure you do. Where are the Fairies, I just clobbered the two of them who were at the entrance of our hideout."

"Jellal isn't lying. We've been locked up in here, how would we know!" Meredy exclaimed in utter annoyance.

"One with brown hair, the other with bright green. What would you do if I said your answer could save the life of that little girlfriend of yours, Erza?"

"You don't have her." Jellal answered firmly. He knew that Death was trying to toy with his emotions. If the brothers did have Erza, he would be able to feel it. Despite knowing that it was a lie, Jellal didn't doubt for a second the the Fairies had managed to find him. He knew help would soon arrive.

Death waved his index finger, "Ah but we do."

From the hiding spot, Natsu grew fed up with Death's lies, "Grrr! Enough with the lies!"  He bursted a hole in the hiding spot and attempted to throw a flaming fist at Death, which was, of course, blocked out.

"So there you losers are! You should know, your little stakeout friends are critical condition. " Natsu's breakout hole had uncovered the rest of the Fairy Tail members.

    Skull appeared from a different angle, "And Scar is beating up your buddies at the other old abandoned bunker: The She-Devil, Laxus, Black Steel Gajeel, oh, and Beast-arm Elfman and his girliefriend." He began to list them with a smirk.

'Erza.' Jellal thought, 'I need to think of a way to tell Erza the others need help.'  Perhaps he could get into Erik's mind somehow. If only he could get Skull out of his head so he could use Telepathy. Jellal turned to Meredy and mouthed, "Erik," as a hint for her to connect sensory links between them. Erik having sound magic could help in this situation. He would be able to hear every thought flies through Jellal's head.

Meredy nodded applying the link, but her eyes showed that Erik would also be able to hear Erza's thoughts also, Jellal dismissed this side effect.

Jellal began to send a message to his guildmate, "Erik, this is Jellal. Meredy and I have been captured and beaten mercilessly. We need you and the others to get to Fairy Tail with a message. Natsu and the others have arrived, and are fighting two of the brothers. They say the other one is attacking Gajeel's group. Please tell the Fairy Tail wizards this."

"We can do that, Jellal. Try and hold up until we can send more help."  The poison dragon slayer responded.

As Erik and the rest of Crime Sorciere headed towards the Fairy Tail guildhall, he could hear all the worried thoughts going through Erza's head as well as Jellal's. More and more wizards were joining in on this battle, and they could only hope for the happy outcome they all longed.

The remaining members of Crime Sorciere ran into a sweaty, frantic, and exhausted Levy. Stopping her to ask what happened, and she explained the whole situation in great detail to them on their way back to the guild. Gajeel's warning words of, "Get out of here!" and "Go!" still echoed in her ears.