~*****~

The next morning, we hear news of some of our guild mates being attack and strung up in the park. I gaze up at them in silent fury, my insides freezing just at the sight alone. Levy's in the middle, with the Phantom Lord's guild mark painted on her belly. "Levy--" Lucy stammers as I sink my claws into the tree, hoisting myself up to free them.

"Master," Erza hums. I glance down and grit my teeth before grasping onto the restraints bruising poor Levy's wrist.

"I can take our headquarters being reduced to rubble," Makarov growls. Levy's arm slips free and she slumps into my front, an exhausted sigh escaping her lips once she does. "But I will not let harm come to my children without taking revenge!" I glance back as an intense magical surge shoots through Makarov. "We have no choice but to go to war!"

Once I have those three off of the tree, I don't bother following them to the hospital. Instead, I follow the others to Phantom Lord. Natsu and I glance at one another, seething with silent fury before we slam our fists against the doors of their guild hall. "Fairy Tail has come calling!" Makarov shouts.

It's an all-out battle right off the bat. The hairs on my neck shoot up well into battle, even if there isn't even a big threat around me. My eyes shoot upwards, and I glare at the man leaping down from the rafters. He lands with a thunderous boom that shakes the guild hall.

"It's the Iron Dragon Slayer," Erza says softly. "Black Steel Gajeel."

"YOU ATTACKED LEVY!" Nab shouts, going into attack. He's no match for Gajeel. Not by a long shot.

"What the--" Gray snapped. "He just knocked out his own guild makes with that attack!" Gray shouts as Gajeel's steel arm retracts back to his body.

"Show me what you got--" Gajeel boats as he lands in the middle of the crowd. "Unless you scum are too scared to face the great Iron Dragon Slayer."

"TOO SCARED?! REAL MEN HAVE NO FEAR!" Elfman roars.

Gajeel blocks Elfman's monstrous punch and sneers up at him. "You're Elfman, right?" He chuckles. Gajeel goes on the offensive. Although, Elfman seems to be on par with strength. "Not bad, big guy," Gajeel praises.

"Well, that's because I'm a real man." Elfman snaps.

"Yeah? Then lets see how a real man handles this!" Gajeel taunts, shooting smaller beams from his legs. It takes out several of his own guild mates.

"They're Phantom!" Elfman snaps. "You attacked your own men?!"

"Cause I knew it'd distract you!" Gajeel grins before punching him straight in the face.

My internals refreeze as I launch across the floor, kicking off of Elfman's stomach. My leg connects with Gajeel's gut. "Natsu, Aria!" Elfman shouts as he struggles to get up.

"Whoa-- they sent him flying!" I hear someone murmur.

"Nobody's ever done that before!" Another stammers.

"Allow me to introduce myself," Natsu snaps as steam swirls around us. "I'm one of Fairy Tail's Dragon Slayers!" I don't bother to introduce myself. I just glare down at him. "Elfman, leave this guy to us." Natsu orders.

"Come on. First you use me as a springboard, and now you wanna steal my man-to-man fight?" Elfman complains.

"Iron Dragon Club!" Gajeel shouts, his metal beam hitting me right in the gut. I grasp onto it, my hands freezing over it as I skid to a stop.

"Aria!" Natsu shouts.

"You destroyed our guild hall," I say angrily. "And you attacked Levy and her team." I twist the beam, creaking echoing out from the intense freeze washing over it. "I'm gonna make you pay!"

I sling my leg upwards and bring it down hard on the beam, causing him to slam into the ground before I haul him upwards and into the beams above. He uses them as a springboard and launches back down towards me. I slip my hand over his extended arm, shove it down, allowing Natsu to send him flying into the wall.

"Whoo, we ain't never really seen her fight. She's pretty good." Wakaba comments.

"Yeah, I'd hate to be that other guy," Macao laughs.

"They're quite the pair of wizards." Erza praises.

"All right, fine, you're manlier than I thought." Elfman comments. "I'll let you have this one, but you gotta promise me that you're gonna--"

"You bet! We'll beat him to a pulp!" Natsu says quickly.

"Stay focused, Fire Face," I snap at him.

Gajeel stands up as if nothing happened to him. "Nice try, but I'm still standing."

"True," Natsu smirks. "You won't be for much longer, though."

"Oh, yeah?" Gajeel snorts. He runs at us, and he's fast. I barely have enough time to brace myself for the impact. Natsu goes flying, skidding against the ground and into whatever furniture is left over. "Look at you, surprising to see you can take it as much as you can dish it out," Gajeel comments as I lower my arms.

Heat washes up my back. "It's gonna take more than that to keep me down!" Natsu chortles as he stands back up.

"You seriously think you two freaks can beat me?" Gajeel taunts.

My brows quirk again, a chill filling the room as my fists become layered in thick, freezing ice. "You're not a challenge, you no eyebrowed punk--" I snap back.

"We'll see about that." Gajeel grins.

Gajeel uses both arms to attack. One stops short as my feet freeze to the ground before the ice shatters around my feet. I adjust my grip on his beam, squeezing until it starts to crack. "Your steel beams can't even touch me--" Natsu growls, cracking the steel beam in his grasp. "You better start stepping up your game!"

Gajeel glances between the two of us, smirking wildly. "The rumors are true. You're way more powerful than you look. That actually stings a little." He slings his arms back towards him, shaking off the frost and steam from his hands. "So, is that all you got... Fairy Freaks?"

"That was my warm-up," Natsu growls. "You ain't seen nothin' yet, you metal freak!"

Gajeel lets out a surprised grunt as I slam my fist into his face. "This is a fight! Keep your guard up, idiot!" I shout at him.

It becomes a series of blows between the three of us, destroying the rafters up top as we continue to crack against Gajeel.

I land against one of the rafters and freeze my feet, so I don't fall when the entire building begins to shake. I glance upwards and squint. "Makarov's magic is going wild," I mention to Natsu. "We need to finish this and get out of here before the whole place crumbles."

The hairs on my neck stand on end, and I make the decision to leap from my spot on the rafters, catching the small man that's been blasted through the ceiling above. I hit the ground-- hard. My legs tremble a I try to stop the pain ricocheting around my body. Whoever hit Makarov, they hit him hard. So hard the shockwave would've killed him if he'd been hit any harder.

I vaguely hear someone sobbing up above, but I'm too focused on Makarov's appearance. "Master--" I hiss loudly, "Master, what's wrong?!"

"My power is-- my power--" Makarov murmurs as I collapse to one knee.

"Master, calm down," Erza pleads as she kneels down besides us.

"What happened to him?" Cana asks worriedly.

"I don't know," I stammer. "I can't sense his magic anymore--" I say.

"Are you saying he's just an ordinary old man, now?" Elfman asks.

"No, that can't be!" Happy whimpers.

"C'mon, Gramps! You can pull through this!" Natsu pleads.

"I don't understand! Gramps is so powerful how'd they beat him?" Gray asks.

"Only way to find out is to go up there," Elfman comments.

"The master's been defeated!" I hear someone comment from the Phantom group.

"For real?"

"What? He's out?"

"That's right!"

"You guys, we can beat 'em!"

"They're not half as strong without their master!"

"And we've got Gajeel and the Element Four on our side!"

It's an all out battle again, the cowards attacking us while we're focused on the Master. "Erza--" I say quickly. "We cannot fight right now--"

She shakes her head wildly before nodding. She stands and booms out authoritively. "We must retreat! Everyone, back to the guild hall at once!"

"No way!" I hear Gray shout back. "We can't just give up!"

"Real men never retreat!" Elfman shouts.

"I still got fight in me--" Macao grunts.

"Yeah, me too! Let's stay!" Cana pleads.

"No one here stands a chance against Jose," I say loudly. "Now retreat! Before I come after you myself!" I bellow.

Something catches my ear as I hand off Makarov to the others as they run. "So, what happened with that Lucy girl?" Gajeel's voice rings out, causing me to stop in my tracks and swing my gaze up to the rafters.

"She's been captured." The sobbing man hums. "The poor wretch is being held in a gloomy cell at headquarters."

"So much for giving her a warm welcome, huh?" Gajeel snorts.

"You bastards--" I hiss, my skin freezing over. "Hey! Metal Forehead!" I shout up at him.

"We'll meet again, Ice Queen," Gajeel taunts before he disappears with the sobbing man.

"Aria--" Natsu barks as he leaps down besides me. "What happened--"

"Those bastards-- they kidnapped Lucy!" I hiss angrily.

"Everybody out! Let's go!" Erza commands loudly.

"I'm not going back yet!" Gray shouts. "I won't leave till I get revenge! They got to pay for what they did to us!"

Natsu and I growl under our breaths before we grasp onto one of the guild members running after Fairy Tail. "No, Salamander, Ice Queen, and that cat!" He whimpers.

"You got it, buddy--" Natsu hisses.

I kneel down and grasp his face, turning his gaze onto me with a tight grip. "We need to have a chat." I say lowly. Frost creeps over his cheeks, causing tears to begin ebbing from his eyes.

~*****~

"So what are we gonna do now?" Happy asks as we trail up the mountains with our new friend in tow.

"Isn't it obvious?" I snap angrily. "We're gonna save Lucy."

Natsu huffs and readjusts his grip on the man's shirt. "All right, Pal, where is she?" Natsu asks angrily. "Tell me."

"How should I know?" The man grunts. "I don't know a Lucy!"

"I will freeze every single one of your organs one by one until you give it up," I hiss as I grip onto his exposed arm. "Starting with your skin! So I'd start talking!" The man is thrashing on our grips, trying to free his arm that's freezing over.

"I already told you, guys, I don't know nothing!" He complains. "I'm serious, please stop freezing my arm!"

"If you Phantom guys hurt another one of our friends..." Natsu growls. "I swear I'll burn every one of you into a pile of ashes!"

The man just screams louder. "I told you man I've never heard of this Lucy chick! If I knew who she was I would have told you by now!"

"Now you see, I'm not gonna stop freezing your body until I get the answers I need!" I exclaim.

"Aye!" Happy agrees with a chirp.

"Our headquarters is up ahead!" The man whimpers. "If I had to guess, I'd say they probably got her locked up there, okay?!"

"You should've said that in the first place!" Natsu snaps.

"Aye!" Happy shouts.

~*****~

When I see her falling from the tower, I grasp onto Natsu's shoulder and propel myself upwards, catching her effortlessly. My feet skid on the wall several moments, leaving a harsh trail of ice as I slide downwards before I hit the ground, my arms wrapped tightly around Lucy and the small cat with her.

"Whoa, it's raining Lucy's!" Happy chants as Natsu and he run towards us.

"Didn't think we'd let you slum it up with those freaks, did you?" I ask Lucy as I beam down at her. Her eyes well with tears before she shakes her head wildly and leans against my chest. "You okay, Ballad?"

The small cat is clutching to Lucy's shirt, shivering and sniffling. "I tried to fly, but I couldn't do it! I suck at magic!" She wails. Natsu and I begin to laugh before we untie Lucy.

"Are you okay?" I ask Lucy while Ballad burrows in my overcoat.

"I think so..." She murmurs.

"That's good news!" Happy says. "Okay, we'd better head back to the guild."

"What?!" Natsu exclaimed. "That's their headquarters! Let's get 'em!"

"We can't! Erza told us to retreat!" Happy exclaims.

"Cause she's a wimp!" Natsu exclaims as I hold my hand out for Lucy to grasp. "I'll face those guys by myself if I have to!"

"But you saw what they did to the master," Happy comments.

"Exactly!" Natsu hisses. "That's why I wanna get revenge!"

"You're not strong enough to fight them on your own!" Happy cries.

"What did you say?!"

"I said you can't!" Happy shouts.

"I heard you the first time!"

"Natsu," I warn loudly. "Everybody's hurt." I lower my tone a bit.

"But I'm not--"

"That's not the point!" I shout at him. "The fact of the matter is, we need to get--"

"I'm sorry," Lucy whimpers as she burrows into my back. "I'm so sorry..." She sobs silently against me. I turn slightly, peering down at her shaking form. "All of this, everything... it's my fault. But I don't wanna leave! I wanna stay with you guys!" She pulls her face away from my coat and stares up at us. "'Cause I love being in Fairy Tail!"

"What's wrong? You're crying." Natsu asks. "Why are you upset?"

"You can tell us." Happy hums.

"Yeah, Lucy, you don't have to leave." I comment as I grasp her shoulder. "No one is going to make you, understand?"

Lucy continues to sob into her hands. "Come on, let's go back to the guild." Happy says softly.

Natsu sighs loudly. "Yeah, okay. I guess we oughta."

"Yeah, we can always come back, now that we know where it's at." I say to Natsu as I rub Lucy's back in a comforting manner.

"Yeah, you can kick their butts later!" Ballad said in a muffled tone from my overcoat. That forces a giggle sob from Lucy's mouth.

"Aw, look what you did, you made her cry again!" Happy complains.

I just snort and offer to carry Lucy on my back before we make our way down the mountain, away from the Phantom Lord's hideout.