For a month Juvia Lockser had been dealing with the fact that Phantom disbanded and she tried to help some former employees find new jobs at some security firms and took money from the firm's accounts to pay for all types of damages. To complete her month of misery, by the end of it, she still was investigated by the Fiore Bureau of Investigation – FBI for short – as the only one who had not gone under the radar, but she pulled some strings from her Special Forces friends and was cleared.

All she had to do was to find a new job. She was good with being a lone contractor because sometimes it was better to work alone and worry about no one, but Phantom got her used to work in a team.

Her best bet, however improbable, was FT Security – they had been blooming for the past year and was currently one of the best alongside with Pegasus and Lamia.

The blunette sighed and touched the scar on her left shoulder without even thinking about it. She was used with working with the best and currently the best was FT and no matter how she didn't like to grovel for work, she would not agree to not being in the best firm there was and her gut told her FT was the right choice.

Juvia counted the people she'd met from that day a month before and only came up with two: the blonde, Lucy, who would mostly likely either scream bloody murder when saw her – after all Juvia did kidnap her – or would find some guts and slap the blunette. Frankly, Juvia did not want to face either drama and turned the idea down.

The man with dark hair – Gray Fullbuster, she searched for his name the moment she was patched up –, though.... He worried about her well-being even after she shot a couple of rounds (or maybe a lot, but who was counting?) at him and he hit her back, hence the scar on her shoulder.

He was twenty-nine years old, his parents died during a home invasion when he was seven-years-old and was adopted by a war veteran, Ur Milkovich, when he was eight. Under Milkovich's supervision, Fullbuster had gone to a military school and his career had been set from the moment he set his feet inside: his grades had been almost perfect in everything. When he became seventeen, though, he got mixed in some trouble and was almost expelled but after Milkovich died when he turned eighteen, he returned to track.

Since then, he had been in three tours out in hostile territory and became Special Forces at the age of twenty-five. It surprised Juvia how young he had been, almost as young as she was when she made it at the age of twenty-four but in different units otherwise they surely would've met – and just a year before traded the army for FT Security.

Juvia grabbed her phone, opened the file on him and looked at the picture she had of him. He was a handsome man, that was not up for argument, but in a crazy way, Juvia felt they connected during their shooting party. Plus they went to the army and got used by their country in order to maintain peace. She chuckled bitterly as she remembered some of her missions. People didn't even know what she had been through so they could enjoy freedom, so they weren't under martial law and at war.

Gray knew, though. Most of his missions had been inaccessible even with her level of clearance, meaning he too suffered while in the army.

The best chance she got of getting a job was with talking to him. She could feel it.

Making up her mind, Juvia started to form a plan to meet him in a non-violent place and she smiled to her luck when she saw he had reservations to a place called Akane Resort. Well, wasn't that lucky?

#

Juvia could not believe her eyes as she watched three former Special Forces soldiers play in the beach with not a care in the world. She had looked up who would be going with Gray to the resort and found three more names Lucy Heartfilia – she felt the hot wave of jealousy come over her once more –, Natsu Dragneel and Erza Scarlet. It should come with no surprise that Dragneel had also been in the army and so was Scarlet.

Everyone knew Erza Scarlet. If Juvia had been very good during her training, Scarlet had been phenomenal. She was a legend...

...and was currently playing volleyball, laughing, just any other young woman would have been in a trip with friends. She and Dragneel against Gray and Lucy, and they seemed to be having the time of their life.

Juvia bit her lower lip from her hiding spot by the resort's bar and a set of butterflies got loose in her stomach. Maybe her gut had been right: FT might be the right choice after all.

#

That night, Juvia produced herself the best she could and wore a low cut dress that showed a little too much of her cleavage; men seemed to forget to think straight when a beautiful woman showed more skin than she was supposed to. And she really needed Gray to stop thinking rationally and put in a good word for his Master about her.

After a final look at the mirror, Juvia left her room in search for Gray, and it was not too hard to find Natsu with all his yelling at the roulette table and she had giggled silently; surprising herself: Juvia Lockser did not giggle.

Not too far from where she stood, she noticed Gray at one of the Casino's games and he was openly laughing at his friend. "That guy's such a bumpkin!"

"Gray-sama." She said, her whole body shaking, palms sweating and heart beating faster. What the hell? Gray-sama? When he finally looked at her direction after hearing his name and muttered a 'hm?', Juvia couldn't look at him straight, her gaze went to the floor. "I tagged along."

"Whaaa?" He looked surprised to see her there to say the least and Juvia bit her lower lip while he freaked out; "Y-y-you're.... Huh?"

"Guess that last time we didn't get time for introductions. I'm Juvia Lockser." She offered a hand and Gray shook it, still looking confused and surprised.

"Gray Fullbuster." He said without thinking. "What...? Why are you...?" His dark eyes shifted from her face to the scar on her shoulder and he frowned. "Sorry about that."

"Not the first and won't be the last." Juvia shrugged, but he caught the meaning behind her words as 'we get hurt in the job' and gave her a short sure nod. "Can Juvia buy you a drink?" Gray frowned and looked at her in suspicion, making Juvia smile. "Juvia comes in peace, I swear."

Gray looked at her for a few moments as if asserting if she was a threat at the moment and if he should trust her and Juvia waited as he made the decision – if she were in his place she would've done the same.

"Fine. But I pay for my own drinks, thanks." He shrugged and Juvia had to stop herself from rolling her eyes at the macho attitude. Gray motioned his hand towards the bar and waited until Juvia walked past him before he moved. While he walked next to her, Juvia could feel his hand hovering on her lower back, but without touching her – she guessed it was instinctive of him and she felt her cheeks get warm.

He waited until she sat at one of the chairs by the bar before she sat next to her and a moment later a bartender got their orders – a beer for him and a martini for her. With promise to return soon, the bartender left and Gray turned to face her.

"How did you know I was here? I'm guessing this wasn't a coincidence." He raised his left eyebrow and Juvia noticed he had a scar just above it.

"If you don't want to be found you shouldn't use your real name." Juvia smiled sweetly and Gray snorted.

"Guess you are right." A moment later Gray narrowed his eyes. "So, why are you here exactly?" The bartender arrived with their orders and gave Juvia more time to answer. "I heard that Phantom disbanded or something like that." Gray spoke once the bartender left.

"Yes." Juvia sighed. "Master Jose was doing some serious illegal things behind our backs and now he is hiding somewhere or in jail." She dismissed the subject, trying not to think about Jose, and looked at him. "Juvia is once again an independent contractor and searching for a job." She said it in such a way that became quite clear to the man in front of her exactly why she had seek him out.

"And I'm guessing you have your eyes set on FT?" Gray asked and Juvia suddenly excited he understood her.

"Very much so!"

"But you know, after the stunt you guys pulled..." Gray said with a groan. "I mean, I wouldn't mind, I saw what you can do and you are pretty good, but I wonder what Master would say." Juvia's heart almost came out from her mouth when he said he didn't mind her joining and for the hundredth time she had to push the feeling down. She was there in a mission!

"Juvia will do anything!" Inside her head she winced with how needy she sounded. She did not grovel, yet there she was. What an uncharacteristic night for her.

"Even if you say that..." Gray was trying to explain it to her when a shadow appeared and both looked over their shoulders and saw that someone was casting it on them. Juvia could only see that it was a very large man before she saw his hand come right to her ear and only when it connected, she got so disoriented the man pushed her away as if she weighted nothing.

She barely heard Gray call her name before she fell, the world a crazy mess around her. That technique was used to confuse and disorient whoever was at the end of the hit and it worked like a charm with charm.

Even with the world still shaking around her, from previous experiences Juvia knew that if she stayed down during a fight, she was as good as dead, so she got up and pushed away the need to throw up. She saw that the assailant was a tall and muscular man wearing some weird metal around his jaw, his hair wrapped in a turban and wearing a weird looking dark suit with a cloth full of scriptures she didn't recognize.

"Where's Erza?" The tall man asked and meanwhile Juvia reached for the small gun attached on her ankle, she heard Gray answer.

"What?"

The tall man ignored Gray. "Where is she?"

"Who the hell are you?"

Juvia stepped in front of Gray, gun pointing at the man, her face impassive, trying her best not to show that she was still feeling a little shaken up. "Juvia won't let you lay a finger on Gray-sama. Juvia will be your opponent." She didn't miss the fact that the large man also had a gun in hand and what she had thought it was an eyepatch was not – it looked like some type of goggle, though.

"Juvia..." Gray said behind her, but Juvia didn't move.

"Go and find miss Erza. She's in danger." Juvia could handle the opponent. He was big, but he wasn't two and she had taken men larger than him, down, but him also holding a gun and the civilians running would make things messy. Her gut, though, was screaming something else was going on and that it was bad.

Her fears confirmed when the man touched his ear – Juvia did not notice he was wearing a comm – and he said, with a grave voice: "You've already found her?" A chill run over Juvia's spine. "Oh, is that so? Then... mind if I tidy things up on my end? Do it."

If she hadn't been hit, Juvia would've been faster in realizing that the lights turning off were bad news. The next thing she felt was Gray's forearm over her cleavage, pushing her behind him before he pushed her away, a second later, gunshots were fired and people screamed. Gray tripped and Juvia took over, she shot up, afraid she would hurt any civilians and hoping the big guy thought it was in his direction. She grabbed Gray's hand and pulled him towards what she thought it was the entrance to the bar and pushed him down, covering his body with hers.

"Do you have another gun?" She heard Gray ask over the screams of the bartender, gunshots and glass breaking over their heads – it appeared the assailant wanted to have a big showdown.

"Sorry." She told him and he cussed.

Just as suddenly as the light went off, it went back on again and Juvia looked down to Gray – she was still on top of him. Gray sat down and she sat as well, an weirdly close position that would've make her breath get caught in her throat but felt no shame at the moment, not when there was some crazy man shooting at them. Juvia was pointing her gun at the top of the bar, as if expecting the man to shoot at them from there.

Gray came out from under her trying not to move her so much, as she was the only one with a gun, and whispered. "Come from where we got in here and I'll go the opposite way to be bait."

"Don't..." Juvia knew better than to look away from danger, but she wanted to ask him not to leave.

"Do it." His words were harsh and Juvia knew he wouldn't change his mind, so she followed orders so she could cover him and save his very handsome ass from being slaughtered by a maniac. Once she was next to the bar entrance, she finally looked at where he was – the poor bartender was crying and curled up in a ball halfway from her – and he nodded, getting up, being followed by her a moment later just to not find the man at all.

Juvia came out from behind the counter, pointing her gun down as if expecting him to being hiding and saw by her peripheral vision Gray jumping off the counter and holding a broken glass – better that than no weapon, she guessed.

She glanced at Gray and he signed – just like they taught in the army – he would look left and she should check right and she nodded as they split up. After a few moments of looking around her designated area, she did not find the man, just a few frightened people and said out loud: "Clear."

From the other side of the room, she heard him say the word back at her and only then Juvia lowered her gun.

"What the hell was that about?" Gray asked Juvia when they met halfway. "Who the fuck...?"

"Gray!" They heard a feminine voice call and Juvia vaguely recognized but couldn't place it until she saw a woman with blonde hair running towards them and she suddenly became annoyed with the interference.

"Please, calm down." Juvia said, her face stoic and Lucy slowed down just before she stopped in front of them when she saw the small gun on the blunette's hand.

"Wh-who are...?" It seemed she remembered from where she knew Juvia from because she took a step back and her eyes widened in surprise.

Gray stepped in between the two of them and said to the blonde: "It got dark all of a sudden. Then this guy starts shooting at us..."

"Juvia protected Gray-sama!" Juvia said, proud.

Gray's eyes were icy when he looked at her. "That was a waste of time! I was trying to make him talk!" Juvia suddenly felt her cheeks get warm just like a child who had been scolded in front of the class. Wasn't she supposed to try to protect him? How would she know he wanted her to stay down? Gray returned his gaze to Lucy. "More importantly, what about Natsu and Erza?"

Lucy looked down, her brown eyes watering. "I don't know about Natsu, but Erza..."

She was interrupted by a loud yell that could also be mistaken by a roar and the three of them looked at the direction of the sound and saw a man with pink hair grabbing his neck. "Who shoots someone in the neck? It hurts like a bitch!"

Lucy jogged to where he was and looked at the wound and saw that even though it was bleeding quite a bit, it hadn't hit an artery, just grazed it and he was lucky. "That's kind of the point! If you were a normal human you'd be six feet under." She said and Juvia noticed how she seemed relieved Natsu was alive and almost in one piece.

"That asshole is not getting away!" He said, but Lucy grabbed his arm.

"You need to bandage that, stupid!" Lucy didn't let go when he pulled his arm away. "Natsu Dragneel, you will not be of any use to Erza if you get an infection in that wound. We will go after her, but after I patch you up, otherwise I'll tell Erza when we find her." Her words made Natsu stop and turn around to look at them before his dark green eyes met Lucy's brown ones.

"Fifteen minutes." He said between gritted teeth. "We leave in fifteen minutes, no matter what."

"Fine." Lucy didn't sound too happy either and Juvia guessed they had arguments all the time.

"Did you bring any weapons?" Juvia suddenly said, their attention at her. "Any weapon?"

"I brought one gun." Gray passed a hand over his face.

"Me too."

"I have my taser." Lucy was checking Natsu's wound.

"You are not coming." He told her. "It's going to be dangerous."

Lucy gasped in indignation. "When I was kidnapped, she fought to bring me back. I will not stay here waiting! I will help."

Juvia looked fascinated at the interaction until Gray touched her elbow and led her away. "They are going to be arguing for a few minutes, let them be. Lucy will have her way by the end of it." Gray informed her. "I didn't ask, but are you alright?" He asked her and Juvia looked confused. "I was at the end of one of those smacks on the ear and it's awful. You got up pretty fast."

She almost smiled with his concern, but she was trying to make a good impression. "Juvia was a bit dizzy, but if we go down and stay down, we are put down, right?" Gray understood her and nodded.

"What weapons did you bring?"

"Three SIGs, six clips. And this little one." Juvia showed him the gun.

"Yeah, speaking of which, where the hell did you hide...?" He looked down at her well fitted dress. "You know what? I don't want to know." Feeling the pressure off for a second, Juvia raised her long dress to show him a strap on her ankle. "Oh. Makes sense." Gray trailed off and looked past her just to walk to where the big man had been when they first saw him and Juvia followed and watched while Gray got something from the floor and showed it to her. It was a small device and Juvia recognized as an earpiece just like her team at Phantom used it. "Can we get a location out of this?"

"No." Juvia took it away from him and looked at it. "But we can listen." Gray took it back and put it on.

"They are not saying anything." He informed her.

"Keep listening, they will." Juvia guaranteed before she looked over her shoulder. "Lucy-san, Juvia has a first aid kit in her room."

The blonde nodded and grabbed Natsu's hand, offering no way out. "Let's go."

#

While Gray went to his room to change into something that wasn't covered in shattered glass and booze, Juvia led Lucy and Natsu to her room and gave the blonde the small first aid kid. While Lucy dealt with Natsu's whines about how they were losing time, Juvia grabbed a change of clothes and put them on, knowing her dress was less than ideal for a rescue mission.

She put black pants, black tank top, her dark blue coat over it and her dark brown boots. It would not be what she would choose to wear for that type of a mission, but it would have to do for the night.

When she came out of the bathroom, Natsu had a bandage on his neck and looked pissed off while Lucy nodded her approval. Juvia opened her suitcase and gave Natsu a gun and ammo. "Do not lose my gun." She warned him.

Before the pink haired man could say anything, there was a bang on the door and instinctively Natsu raised the gun on his hands and Juvia reached for one off her suitcase. "It's Gray!" He said from outside and the people inside sighed in relief and Juvia opened the door.

"They said something about an island!" Gray informed once he was inside. "Something about a tower too!"

"We can work with that." Juvia pulled her laptop from inside her suitcase (Lucy said something like 'What don't you have in there?', but the blunette ignored it) and turned it on and soon enough they were looking at a satellite map of the region they were in.

"This one." Natsu pointed to a small island not too far from shore. Juvia looked at the man and he shrugged. "Called in instinct; just find the images of this island." Juvia tried to, but for the life of her she wasn't able to; she was no tech genius but the task was quite simple and when she informed the other three of the fact, they looked at each other.

"If that doesn't scream shady, I don't know what else does." Lucy shrugged.

"I say we go for it." Natsu said, putting the gun he got from Juvia on the waistline of his pants.

"We will get the coordinates and rent a boat." Gray nodded and took his own gun from his pants, checked it and put it back.

"The fifteen minutes are up." Natsu said. "Let's go."

Gray took a taser from his pocked and gave it to Lucy. "I went to you room and got you this. Try to stay away from trouble, please. But if you want a gun..."

"No guns, please and thank you." Lucy shook her head and took the taser. "Let's go."

Juvia watched it all, trying to understand what was going on, but failed. "Wait, wait." All eyes were on her. "We have only three trained people here, Lucy-san is a secretary who refuses to use a gun and this is it? We are most likely outgunned, outmanned, we have nowhere to go other than an island that might be the one and no plan whatsoever and that's it? Don't you call reinforcements? Don't you do surveillance first? Try to figure out who took her?"

Gray and Natsu looked at each other before Natsu stepped towards her. "We would if this were a job. But it's not, it's Erza and Erza is family. We will deal with things as they come in our way, and we will make our way in. We don't wait for reinforcements when it comes to family, we do whatever we can do right then and we waited too long as it is. Let's go." Natsu turned around and Lucy followed right behind him. "Who the hell is that, anyway?" He asked the blonde.

The blunette blinked two times before Gray's voice snapped her out of it. "You wanted in, right? Well, this is what we do in FT." Juvia looked up to him and he shrugged one shoulder. "You can stay if you want. But we push forward no matter what." Gray said and left.

She must've be insane, because she grabbed two of her guns and all her ammo and followed them. Maybe she had a death wish.

Or maybe she just wanted to see it through.

#

Renting a boat had been easy, piloting the boat also presented no problem for them – aside Natsu, who had the worst case of seasickness Juvia ever saw – but when they were a few miles in the GPS started to fail and made them even more suspicious.

"Where the hell are we? Where's the island?" Gray yelled in frustration and it echoed through the dark. Thankfully the night was clear, because if there were clouds, they would be even more lost.

"It appears as though we have been drifting aimlessly for some time." Juvia said, while looking at the failing GPS.

"Damn it! I can't believe they took Erza!" Gray was utterly frustrated by then and it was turning into anger pretty fast. "How fucked up is that?"

"An accurate assessment. To think someone as able as Erza-san would be defeated..." Juvia agreed, thinking about all the storied she heard about the woman with red hair, but Gray's next words cut right her.

"Ain't no way she was beaten." He looked at her with such hatred, Juvia took a step back. Not even when he was shooting at her the month before he looked at her that way. "You don't know the first thing about Erza."

"For-forgive me." Juvia muttered.

"Gray! Calm down!" Lucy scolded him and Gray's only reaction was to sit next to Natsu, who threw up outside the boat. "Erza mentioned something about those guys being her former unit. Face it, when it comes to Erza, no one here knows much about her at all." Lucy sounded sad and the silence that followed only made the words truer.

A few minutes later, Lucy gasped and pointed to the horizon. "I see something!" She squinted her eyes and then gasped. "Is that... That must be the Tower of Paradise?"

Juvia tried to see what Lucy found and once she did, she was surprised with the size of the tower and wondered if they would ever find their way in, or even Erza in there. Maybe it was a suicide mission after all.

#

Docking had been easier than expected and only the weight of her guns inside her coat made Juvia feel slightly better. While they hid behind a huge rock and watched the guards, Juvia suggested she'd look around for another way in and the other three agreed after she told them she could take care of herself.

"That's a lot of guards." Juvia heard Gray when she was returning to where she had left them.

"Who cares? Let's plough through 'em!" Natsu almost yelled, but Lucy shut him up.

"No way! They've got Erza. If we do something we'll put her in danger!" She said.

"Still, that tower thing is just ahead. If they find us here, we won't stand a chance." Natsu said and was about to just try to knock on their front door when Juvia arrived and was met by two guns pointing at her.

"Juvia has found another way into the tower's basement." She seemed unfazed by the guns, but the men put them down either way.

"Seriously? Great job!" Gray said, happily, which made Juvia look at Lucy, smugly.

"The one who was praised was not you. It was Juvia." It was absolutely childish but Juvia just couldn't stop herself. Lucy was so much closer than Gray than Juvia that the blunette just wanted to show that she had some sort of connection with him as well.

"Uh hu." It was Lucy's only answer before they started to walk behind Juvia as she led them through the darkness. The way was full of rocks and they had to be careful, but just like the blunette had promised, there was a cave that seemed to lead towards inside the tower. They had to get in the water and it reached their knees, but ten minutes later they arrived to what seemed to be an old dock.

"This is the basement of the tower?" Gray asked, reaching for some light sticks he was lucky to have brought.

"Erza is here somewhere." Lucy whispered.

The next thing they knew, some guards were yelling "Who the hell are you guys?", startling the three of them.

"Oh, crap!" Lucy gasped.

"We've come this far... We'll just have to fight them." Gray said, grabbing his gun. Juvia and Natsu did the same. Lucy stayed behind, but was in fighting instance as well in case it was needed.

"Who the hell are we?" Natsu yelled and shot at them, hitting only some in his rage. "Don't you know good fighters when you see them? We are from FT!"

The ones who came towards them had no guns and seemed to be weak, so Juvia made the decision of saving her bullets. Three were coming her way and Juvia punched the first on the throat, the second on the balls and the third, she broke the nose easily before turning him around and hold him in a strong chokehold.

"Wh-what is she?" Some of the men surrounding her asked and she almost smirked when she ran towards them, kicking and punching them without even sweating. By the corner of her eye she saw Gray do the same, Lucy had found a piece of wood and was also hitting a guy and even Natsu forfeit his gun so he could punch them.

In no time, all the guards were down and did not dare to get up. "Remind me not to piss off your girlfriend." Natsu whispered to Gray, but it echoed and she could feel her cheeks get warmer. Did Natsu-san really consider...? "Ouch! Jeez, I can't even kid anymore."

"Shut up." Gray hissed.

"Hey, some sort of door just opened up there!" Natsu pointed up and true enough, there was a hatch at the top of some stairs that were attached to the cave's wall.

"They're telling us to come up?" Gray growled when he saw Natsu start to climb it up and followed him, muttering something about his friend being an idiot. Juvia let Lucy go after Gray and was the last one to come up just in case one of the guards decide to follow.

"Where's that bastard?" Natsu yelled when all four were at the next level and Lucy put a hand on his mouth.

"Stop! We're in the enemy's headquarters! Don't yell!"

Gray agreed. "We could only go crazy before because it was underground. Now we'll just have to sneak about."

"There's more: this hatch was not opened by someone on this side." Juvia said and suddenly all the attention was on her as she looked down to where they had come from. "It's being controlled remotely." She raised her head to stare at her three companions. "They're completely aware of our movements."

"If that's true, then what's the point in opening the door for us?" Lucy asked, confused.

"Are they trying to provoke us?" Gray muttered.

"Provoke..." The blonde seemed to think.

"There they are! It's the intruders!" Loud voices came from behind them and Juvia reached for one of her guns.

"These guys just don't know when to quit." Natsu said, but before any of them could fire their weapons, they saw the guards gasping in pain before falling on the floor.

Between the falling men, stood Erza Scarlet holding what it seemed to be two swords (Where she even got swords? Juvia thought) and looking absolutely badass.

"Erza!" Gray sounded surprised.

"Thank goodness! You are safe!" Lucy cried I happiness.

"She... She's so cool." Juvia whispered, her heart beating faster as she looked at the legendary Erza Scarlet in action. It was so rare for people to live to their reputations that Juvia was truly surprised.

"Wh-What are you guys doing here?" Erza looked baffled.

Natsu got angry. "What do you mean? We'd be disgracing FT if we just backed off and let them walk all over us! And there's no way I'm letting that bastard who shot me off easy!"

Erza finally noticed Juvia and looked surprised, while Juvia felt absolutely terrified – only a few people managed to make her feel that way. "Um... Juvia is here because... well..."

"Go back." The red haired woman cut her off and everyone seemed surprised. "You guys shouldn't be here."

"But Erza..." Lucy tried.

"I don't care about this crap." Natsu said, running before anyone could catch him.

"Natsu!" Juvia called him.

"Hey! Natsu!" Even Erza tried, but he didn't stop.

"That moron! Running off on his own!" Gray complained.

Lucy suggested: "Let's follow him!"

Erza steps in front of them. "You can't. Go back."

"Erza!" Gray protests, but apparently the red haired woman would have none of it.

"I'll take care of Natsu and bring him back. You guys, get away from here right now."

"We can't do that!" Lucy yelled and Juvia admired the woman's guts for yelling at Erza Scarlet. "We're not leaving without you!"

"This is my problem. I don't want you guys getting involved." Erza turned her back at them and her voice wasn't much louder than a whisper.

"We're already involved. You saw how Natsu was." Gray tried to sound nonchalant, but Erza said nothing.

"Erza... What is this tower? Who's this Jellal guy?" Lucy asked and Juvia just watched the interactions between them. "Though is fine if you don't want to tell us..." Lucy's eyes focused on the ground. "I know you said those guys were your friends before, but we are your friends now. We'll always be here for you, Erza." Lucy smiled and Juvia had to fight the urge to just pull Erza towards her friends and run away from that place – whatever that tower was, it was bad news.

"G-go." Erza said, and Juvia saw she was shaking and dared not say a word.

"this isn't like you, Erza. Why can't you just stop saying all this useless stuff and tell 'follow me' like you always do?" Gray asked. "We'll help you out. Even you are allowed to be sacred sometimes, you know?"

Juvia felt as if Gray's words were also being spoken to her. When she was a child, her uncle told her never to be afraid, then when she got in the army she was told that fear would kill her. Everyone always told her to be brave, but they never let her know that being brave allowed her to also be scared.

It came as no surprise when Erza turned around and she was crying. "In this fight, whether I win or lose, I'll disappear from this world no matter what."

"What?" Lucy asked, shocked.

"Wh-What do you mean?" Even Gray looked taken aback.

"This is an unavoidable future, so...." Erza gasped. "So, while I'm still here, I'll tell you everything I know." She took a breath. "The name of this tower is 'The Tower of Paradise' otherwise known as 'R System'. Twenty years ago, a cult believing in the purity of human race tried to build a tower that would bring fear into the infidels' hearts. This project wasn't sanctioned by any government or church, so they bought people from all countries and forced them to work as slaves on the construction." Erza looked down. "When I was young, I was one of those forced to work here." To say that the other three in the room were surprised was an understatement. "That's when I first met Jellal. He was my friend, he gave me – gave us – courage to fight. For the sake of freedom and to rescue Jellal when he was taken by that cult, we rose against them.

"Back then, Jellal was our leader, and he had a strong sense of justice. I looked up to him more than anyone else. However, after that time... Jellal became a completely different person. If you could ever call someone evil, that's probably what I'd call Jellal." Erza tried to hide another tear that fell, but couldn't. The way she looked right then, Juvia knew she was remembering being a slave and had to put a hand over her mouth otherwise she would sob. Of course Erza had been the best when she entered the army: she wanted to become the strongest she could so nothing like whatever happened to her at the tower ever repeated. "People I loved died in here. So I fought and I lead whoever I could, out. But when I found Jellal, he wasn't the boy I knew.

"He told me we should not run. He stayed with those 'priests' for three days and somehow they brainwashed him. He was talking nonsense about serving Zeref's wishes. He told me he would kill our friends, he killed a man in front of me just because and he almost killed me. Somehow I survived and ended up at the continent." Erza was crying, then. "I am... going to kill Jellal."

"Wait a minute, Erza... That Zeref you mentioned in the story..." Gray said.

"Zeref is the head of the cult, his followers think of him as a god walking on earth and they had turned Jellal to believe it as well." Erza looked at Gray. "That's not all, I daresay Deliora was one of Zeref's followers as well." Juvia didn't understand what was happening, but she saw Gray's body stiffen when he heard the words. "With the way Zeref could turn anyone, he could've turned terrifying people with ease."

"And that's the man Jellal is trying to impress?" Juvia asked, eyes wide. How could anyone be that stupid? Zeref sounded like a demon, not a god!

"I don't know why he would do such a thing." Erza looked pensive. "Sho, one of my former friends, told me that they plan to rule over a 'paradise' world of their own once they've impressed Zeref."

"Speaking of which, I just can't understand what's going on with those old friends of yours." Lucy said what they were all thinking. "They all called you a traitor, but wasn't Jellal who betrayed you all?"

"I think Jellal has been planting strange ideas in their heads since I was chased out of this tower. But... I left them in his hands for twenty years. Either way, I certainly betrayed them."

Lucy got angry. "But that was only because there was nothing you could do! Jellal threatened you with their lives! And after all that, they-"

"Stop that now, Lucy." Erza said, serious. "If I kill Jellal, this will all be over."

"Nee-san..." They turned around and saw a man with a tan and light hair. He was shaking and his gaze was on Erza. "What do you think you are saying?"

"Sho..." She whispered.

"Trying to win over your friends' heart with some stupid made-up sob story?" The man named Sho yelled, clearly angry. "Stop screwing around! That's not what happened at all! Twenty years ago, nee-san, you planted a bomb in our escape ship and ran away all by yourself! If it hadn't been for Jellal noticing your treachery just in time, we would all have been killed in the blast!"

Gray looked unimpressed. "And Jellal told you that?"

"Was the Erza you knew the sort of person who would do a thing like that?" Lucy asked and Juvia saw the younger man get pale.

"Wh-What do you people think you know about us? You don't know the first thing about us, okay?" Sho yelled. "Jellal's words were our sole salvation back then! That's why.... Why we spent twenty years bringing this tower to completion! All for Jellal! You're trying to tell me it was all a lie? That nee-san was in the right and Jellal was the evil one here all along?" Sho was out of breath and Erza closed her eyes without giving him an answer, that came back from behind them.

"That's right." The man who answered was no one else other than the big guy who attacked Gray and Juvia back at the Resort.

"Simon?" Sho asked.

"Why, you...."Gray took a step forward and almost reaching for his gun, but Juvia caught him by the shoulders.

"Wait a moment, Gray-sama!" She yelled and she knew that if he truly wanted to, Gray could release himself from her grasp and was happy that he trusted her enough to stop. "Back then, that man attacked us knowing very well we were hiding behind the counter."

"What?" Gray asked, baffled.

"He darkened the room, he wouldn't do that unless he could see everything in the darkness. That eyepatch, Juvia suspects it's not an eyepatch at all, instead it is some type of night vision goggle. He saw us hide and kept shooting at the bottles just for the noise." Juvia kept her hands on Gray a little longer than needed. "He also dropped his comm on purpose so we could find it, isn't it right? That was one of the reasons I came along: to find out his true intentions."

The man called Simon offered Juvia a pleased look. "As I would expect of one of Phantom's famous Four. You are correct. I had no intention of killing anybody. I had originally intended to simply knock you out to deceive Sho, but since you guys fought back, I decided to make it more convincing and just shoot."

"You were... deceiving us?" Sho asked, surprised and angry.

"You, Wally and Miliana. All of you were deceived by Jellal. I pretended to have been deceived as well, waiting for you to come to your senses." The larger man said.

"Simon, you..." Erza was surprised as well.

"I never stopped believing in you, Erza. All these years." Even with the weird metal around his jaw, Simon managed to smile and Juvia saw that he was still in love with Erza and it warmed her heart how sweet he was. The red haired woman stepped closer to him and they hugged. "I'm so glad to see you again, Erza. From the bottom of my heart."

The sweet scene was interrupted by Sho's screams about how he didn't trust Erza and how he didn't know what was true anymore and everyone just let the man let it out and scream it all away, after all, his life had been a lie. Erza comforted him, telling she never forgot them and asking forgiveness for being weak then.

"But we can do something now, isn't that right?" Simon asked and everyone looked at him in surprise. "This is the day I have been waiting for, the day many skilled people would gather at his place."

"Skilled people?" Lucy whispered. "What? Even me?"

"We must rise against Jellal, combining all our skills." Simon said, his voice decisive. "But first, we must intercept The Salamander before he hurts Wally." All of them agreed to search for Natsu and ran to where he had gone a few minutes before.

After a couple of minutes, Gray ran next to Juvia and asked, quietly. "Hey, are you sure we should actually be trusting that guy? I mean, I'll accept he didn't actually try to kill us, and that's all very well, but in that situation, Natsu and Lucy could easily have died. That Wally guy did shoot Natsu's neck."

Juvia was incredibly happy Gray went to her for a second opinion, instead of Erza or even Lucy, but before she could answer, Simon stepped in. "I do not plan on making excuses. If you were the sort of people who could be killed that easily, then you could never have fought Jellal anyway."

Gray looked annoyed. "So, you were listening, huh?"

"Besides, I had faith that Natsu would not die." Simon finished and Lucy whined.

"And... what about me?"

#

They had been running for almost five minutes when there was a loud noise followed by someone saying: "Welcome, everyone. Welcome to the Tower of Paradise."

They looked up and saw that in every few meters there were stereos and Simon cleared up: "Jellal set this up so that he can be heard in every corner of the tower."

"I am Jellal, the one who controls this tower. All the pieces on both sides have been placed, it is time to begin. The Paradise Game." Jellal's voice echoed through the halls. "The rules are simple. I will use Erza as my sacrifice in a ceremony that will please Zeref very much. That is to say, if I do that, I win. If you are able to prevent this, then you are the winners. But, to make the game more interesting, I have three players here. You must past them to reach me, thus, this is a 7-on-3 battle. Lastly, there is a special rule in play: the council might attack this place using a drone with something called 'etherion' capable of annihilating everything." They gasped. "It is unknown how much time remains, but when this etherion hits, everyone here will die. There will be no winner. Hence, game over. That's it. Enjoy the game." Those were his final words. "

"Wha-What's Jellal's thinking? He might be killed too and he calls this a game?" Lucy said, shaking and Juvia couldn't hide that she was also very scared and thinking she should have stayed at the hotel when she had the chance, but she wouldn't mop around. She would fight to survive.

The next thing she knew, there was a commotion and she couldn't see past Simon, his body was blocking her view, but she heard them yelling Erza's name and then Sho was dragging the red haired woman away from them while Simon told he was going after them.

"Damn it!" Gray was fuming with anger. "Why is every one of them so reckless!?" Juvia wanted to point out how they had been reckless going to the Tower without back up and now they were in an awful situation, but she didn't think it would help, so she kept her mouth shut.

Instead, Juvia turned to Lucy. "Juvia and Gray-sama will go this way. Lucy, you go that way."

"What?" The blonde almost yelled. "You want the weakest one to go by herself?"

"Look!" Gray said over Lucy's shrieking. "I'm really pretty worried about Erza. I'm gonna go on after Sho and the big guy. You two go and find Natsu, okay?"

"Yes, Gray-sama!" Juvia said with a smile, eager to please Gray and took Lucy's hand, going to the opposite side Gray headed out. "Come on, Lucy-san."

"Why are you so eager about following his orders?" The blonde panted while they ran.

"Juvia has been at the army. Follow orders is what we do." She clarified and it seemed to be enough for Lucy, who just nodded.

#

"Natsu!" Lucy yelled, followed by Juvia. "He should be able to hear us, these halls carry the sounds pretty well!"

"Now that I stop to think about it: why on earth is Juvia searching for Natsu-san together with Lucy-san?" Juvia asked herself aloud.

"Ignoring me, huh?" Lucy got annoyed. "Well, you are the one who pulled me when Gray told us to look for Natsu!"

"Well, Juvia could not disrespect Gray-sama's wishes; but putting me together with my rival in love" to which Lucy repeated it in a high pitched voice "is he trying to cause a fight?"

"I'm really trying not to get involved in this whole thing, you know." Juvia eyed her with suspicion, she saw how Gray treated her. "C-can't we just get along?" Lucy seemed to be frightened by Juvia, which was good.

Out of nowhere, though, from the speakers a loud guitar started to play in the wrong way, making it a terrible noise – at least to Lucy, Juvia seemed to like it. "Wh-What's that noise? A guitar?" Lucy yelled. "Argh, it's so loud!"

"Juvia thinks it's rather good, actually." The blunette shrugged.

"There's really something wrong with you!" Lucy said loud over the music and when she looked with wide eyes to a point behind Juvia. The blunette immediately turned around just to see a man who seemed to have come out from one of the covers from the CDs Gajeel-kun liked: black long hair, tight leather pants and a guitar.

"Hey Yeah!" He yelled, looking like the crazy shit he probably was. "Fuckin' girls!"

"Now what?" Juvia muttered under her breath. She was getting annoyed with people trying to kill her.

"This is my concert of hell." He showed his ridiculous long tongue all the while he played his guitar. "Destroy, wow!"

"Is this one of Jellal's three warriors?" Juvia asked and he must've heard her, because he answered the blunette.

"I'm from Skull Order. Hey! We're the skulls! Cool name, ain't it?" Juvia thought it was, but she was not going to let him know that. "Member of Trinity Raven, they call me Vithaldas Taka!" He sang his introduction and suddenly she pulled a gun at them. Juvia shoved Lucy down to the floor and was out of the way when Vithaldas shot in her direction. She immediately grabbed her own gun and shot at him, but he had ran to stand behind a wall. "That's a sweet aim you got there, girlie! If I hadn't move, I'd be dead!"

"Good luck, Juvia! I can't handle him!" Lucy yelled from her place, also hiding behind a wall, like both the blunette and the rocker.

Once Juvia had better aim, she tried to shoot him once again, but he seemed to be fast to predict her movements and Juvia cussed under her breath.

"My, my... we do have a couple of fine ladies here." Juvia could hear him chuckle.

"Ahh, not this again!" Lucy whined from the opposite side of the hall, where she was hiding.

"Wh-What do you mean?" Juvia asked.

The blonde looked at her. "Being cute only ever attracts trouble."

"Now-which-one-should-choose?" He sand and Juvia frowned when she imagine what he was doing. "Let's-leave-it-up-to-the-de-vil-in-hell!" Vithaldas laughed. "Well, that's that!! You're gonna be my Succubus for today!" Juvia wondered who got picked and what he meant by Succubus. In her distraction, she failed to notice Vithaldas creeping in by the wall.

The next thing she knew was that she grabbed her right hand, took the gun from her and dodged the punch she threw in his face with her left hand. Suddenly she felt a cloth over her mouth and nose with a weird smell on it. "Rock of Succubus, darling!"

Juvia tried to fight it off, but her body didn't seem to obey her. A few seconds after he put the cloth over her face, he removed it. "Wh-What is this?" She asked, weakly and she could faintly hear Lucy's voice calling her name.

"You are going to do what I tell you to, aren't you? I'm your new Master." Vithaldas had his hand on Juvia's neck and other on her stomach, holding her in place. The only thing between their bodied was his guitar. "Listen to my voice. I'm your Master now." He repeated and his voice echoed inside Juvia's mind and somehow he was making sense." You are to fight the little blonde bitch. "Kill her." Juvia tried to fight him off because she didn't want to. He covered her mouth and nose once again and the blunette inhaled whatever was on the cloth and when he told her once more that she should kill Lucy, Juvia nodded.

"Yes." She whispered, but her voice didn't sound her own.

"Good." He hid his face on her hair and inhaled the scent before he kissed her neck and in the back of her mind, she was disgusted by it. "Take off your coat, Succubus. I want you to see what I got." He released Juvia and she struggled to stay up for a moment, but reached for her coat and slowly undid the buttons and let it fall. "Nice tits. It seems like I scored high. Go, kill the bitch and later I'll take you as a prize."

"Yes." It felt as if her body didn't belong to her, when her gaze fell on Lucy, who was eyeing her with worry. Juvia wanted to tell her to run, but nothing came out of her mouth.

"Juvia! Get a hold of yourself." Lucy's voice was damped by Valthidas echoing 'fight her, kill her'.

"She's my succubus now. She'll only take orders from me!" He said and Juvia wanted to turn around and claw his eyes out, but she advanced towards Lucy – much slower than if she were in her normal state.

"Juvia! Are you serious?" Lucy was visibly scared when Juvia got too close and with the tiny bit control she had, which was almost nothing, instead of hitting Lucy on the face, Juvia decided that her new Master would be pleased if first she teared the woman's shirt and did just that.

"Ohhhh Yeah! This is what I like to see!" Master's voice said and inside Juvia wanted to cry. She didn't want to do any of that. Lucy grabbed some of her shirt and covered herself.

Juvia pulled her up and gave her a headbutt, maybe trying to put herself unconscious so she couldn't fight anymore, but neither she nor Lucy lost consciousness.

"Didn't you say you wanted to join Fairy Tail? Then stop attacking your own friends!" Lucy's words were ignored and Juvia slapped her on the face and then held her by the hair, pulling some of it before letting her go. Why wasn't she running? Juvia wondered. Her Master wanted Juvia to play with her, she was certain, but he also ordered her to kill.

"Hey yeah! Hair! Oh, I love it, Succubus. Keep it up!" Master said and Juvia reached for Lucy once again, grabbing her by the hair before spinning the blonde around and slapping Lucy's ass, while she cried out.

"This is sadism!" Lucy said when Juvia once again had released her, just like a cat playing with its food.

'This isn't Juvia. Not any of it.' Juvia thought, grabbing Lucy by the hair again and dragging her towards her Master and stopped halfway through, letting her go before kicking Lucy on her thighs. 'Juvia doesn't want to hurt her friend. It is presumptuous to call her that. She is Juvia's rival in love. Juvia has come to love FT. It seems so friendly, fun and warm. As though even if it's raining outside, in there the sun is always shining. Just when Juvia thought she was finally starting to get along with everyone... It seems Juvia can only bring sadness.'

Lucy was staring up to her, eyes wide and Juvia was having trouble seeing all of a sudden because her eyes were burning. Juvia threw Lucy away just as her master yelled: "Juvia-chan! It's time to finish her!"

Somehow, Lucy got up and looked right into Juvia's eyes. "Someone who shed tears for the sake of her friends could never be rejected by FT!" And only then Juvia understood she wasn't seeing well because she was crying. She doesn't cry. It was the only explanation, though.

"Juvia! Finish her off already!" Vithaldas yelled and Juvia launched herself towards Lucy, wishing the blonde could watch out.

"I would've been scared if the real Juvia were fighting me!" Lucy yelled, grabbing Juvia's wrist and using strength Juvia didn't know the blonde had, pushed her towards Vithaldas. "I'm not scared of you!" Juvia felt her back connect with Vithaldas' body, who probably looked surprised Lucy had any claws at all, since she had acted like a scaredy-cat during the whole ordeal. Juvia watched as Lucy picked her taser and the blunette assumed she tasered Vithaldas right on his face.

Juvia felt some electricity on her, but it helped her feeling more aware of herself. Lucy released her without her to hold her down, Juvia's knees gave in and she fell on her ass; she noticed that Vithaldas was also on the floor, unconscious.

Lucy walked to where he was lying down and kicked him in the nuts just because. "Don't you ever do that again, you freak!" She kicked him on the stomach as well a few times – apparently she was not against kicking a man when he was down.

Still not feeling herself but with no one else to tell her what to do, Juvia just sat on the floor and a moment later, Lucy sat by her, but turned to the other site so they were face to face. The blunette looked up to her. "Well, it is proven you can be a crazy bitch. Do you think I will want Gray after this? No way in hell I want to go through this again." Lucy winked. "Have him all for yourself."

The next thing Juvia was aware of was of Lucy's arms around her as she sobbed. The first thing she said when she was able to mutter a word was: "Sorry."

Lucy's answer was just to pull her to another hug.

#

Juvia didn't know when she lost conscious, but when she woke up, she was at the boat they rented and people were screaming around her and suddenly there water all around her and suddenly she was searching for the surface.

Once she resurfaced, she looked around and she saw someone with blonde hair go under and she went under, knowing it was Lucy and pulled her up. She was still weak and was glad when Lucy gasped and asked: "Wha-What? What's going on?"

Letting the blunette go, Juvia swam to a large piece of wood and hang on to it, noting that Lucy did the same. "Juvia? What happened?"

"Don't know." It was the blunette's weak answer. "I woke up falling into the water."

"Fuck!" They heard Gray's voice.

"Gray-sama!" Juvia searched for him, but the waves were still wild. "What is happening?"

"Someone shot the Tower with a fucking drone!" He yelled and seemed closer that time. "It's gone!"

"Gone?" Lucy whispered.

"Erza and Natsu are still there!" He informed them and was suddenly by Juvia's side, he was evidently worried. "Dammit, are you two alright? You were unconscious when we found you."

"Fine." Juvia mumbled, eyes still heavy.

Lucy sent Juvia a dirty look for lying. "No, she's not. Juvia was drugged, we have to look after her. I am fine, though."

"Drugged with what?" Gray touched Juvia's face and she opened her eyes – when did she close them? – and he seemed to be looking for something, probably the size of her pupils.

"Doesn't matter." She whispered, feeling tired. "We need to go back."

"We need to look for them!" Lucy agreed and Juvia closed her eyes again, but opened again when she heard Sho's voice, another male's and a female's and they gathered around the piece of wood and started to swim towards the shore of the Island.

"Who are they?" She asked Gray in a whisper.

"Friends." He told her, looking intently to the crumbles of the tower. "If you think you are falling asleep, let me know."

"I won't." Juvia complained, fighting it off, but her answer must've came out in a slur because he looked at her with his eyes narrowed. "Won't."

"Okay."

A few moments later, she mumbled: "They will be fine."

He set his jaw, but answered: "I know."

It took them about twenty minutes to reach the shore and once they did, everyone just wanted to run and search for their friends – even though she felt better, Juvia was still tired and fell a bit behind.

When Lucy yelled Erza's name, though, it seemed as if a rush of adrenalin went through the blunette and she was able to jog to where Natsu was holding Erza. A moment later Sho and Lucy launched themselves on top of the red haired woman, who looked puzzled.

"Don't make us worry like that, dammit!" Gray said a few feet away from the mess of limbs on the sand and Juvia smiled with the scene.

Juvia sighed in relief that they were fine and put a hand on the back of her neck. They, somehow, survived the night – the first rays of sunshine were appearing at the horizon and – without having a plan or backup.

That was FT. They were reckless, didn't think things through and it was a miracle any of them was still alive. She would be crazy to join them after that mission. She would be insane.

"Thanks for your help." Gray said and Juvia noticed he was in front of her. "You could've walk away, but you didn't. I saw you going for Lucy when she went underwater. Which is weird, because I thought you two didn't like each other."

Juvia chuckled. "Don't try to understand women's friendship."

"I won't. Trust me." He smirked. "Man, I'm tired."

"Juvia thinks she will go back to the resort and sleep for two weeks."

Gray snorted. "That sounds about the right amount to recover today." He sighed. "I will put in a good word for you with Master Makarov." Gray told her and Juvia looked surprised he still remembered it. "I think all of us will. Just pop by when you are ready to join." He offered his hand and she shook it. He turned around and went to speak to the others.

The blunette looked at them and sighed. She would be insane to want to work with them she knew that. She should get used to being called insane, then, because if there was one thing she was certain was that she wouldn't work anywhere else than with those razy people with no plans.

It sounded like the best decision of her life.

#