Fairy Tail: Falling Towards the Chaos

Chapter 8

And so, the beginning of Team Natsu had began. The group had taken on a few jobs together — even a few S-Class requests much to Lucy's surprise!

"Let's hurry back to the guild, I'm dying for a strawberry milkshake right now," Lucy groaned, walking alongside her team. The last job they'd taken was a bit of a doozy. Lifting the curse on Galuna Island. It was a weird request but it had paid well and with what went down with Gray and his connection to the island, it was worth it. In her opinion at least.

"All that work for some measly key," Happy complained, flying by her head. She swatted at him with a scoff.

"Its not some measly key! Its one of the rare twelve golden zodiac keys in the world, we've been over this!" Lucy chided, tugging on Happy's tail childishly who yelped in pain and surprise.

"Well, someone got something out of it," Gray signed, defeated, with a weak smile as he strolled along, "which key did you even get anyways?" He asked, shoving his hands in his pockets.

"I believe its Sagittarius, the Archer! I'm super stoked, I have four gold keys right now!" Lucy cheered, skipping on the cobblestone. The atmosphere felt heavy all of a sudden and Lucy noticed the weird glances and looks the citizens were giving them as they headed toward the guild. The whispers and sly conversations became harder to ignore. Lucy paused, waiting for everyone to catch up to her, opting to hide behind Natsu instead.

"W-what's going on?" She whispered to them, eyeing the people around her wearily.

"Hm? W-what... something's wrong with the guild," Erza murmured, eyes carefully trained on the building that came into view.

The hall had been absolutely ransacked, impaled with metal clubs that stuck out on every side in every direction. It looked nearly on the brink of collapse. Lucy covered her gasp with her hand, letting her suitcase drop to the floor as Erza and Gray began to shake with anger. Natsu stared at the building and the only clue to how he was feeling was his clenched fists.

"W-who did this to us?" Gray said behind a clenched jaw.

"It was Phantom,"

Behind them was Mirajane who looked as forlorn and sorrowful as they felt. She clasped her hands together, barely meeting their gaze.

"They got us good this time."

After a few moments, she ushered them to the back where the staircase to the guild's basement resided. Lucy held onto Happy who, in turn, buried his face in her chest. She stroked his back, following behind Erza and Gray who took the lead with Natsu trailing closely behind her.

The guild scattered around the basement, comforting themselves with friends or booze, either which could nurse their broken spirits.

"Team Natsu is back!"

"Did you guys see what happened to the guild?!"

"I say that we go and get some revenge! Let's see how they'll feel if we smash their guild to smithereens!"

"Chill out! This is Phantom we're talking about!"

The hand Natsu had placed on her back had caused her to flinch at first but she relaxed once he appeared at her side, drawing her attention away from the members arguing around them.

"Yo! Welcome back kids!" Master greeted them, drunk, swinging his legs back and forth from his seat on the makeshift counter.

"This isn't the time for drinking right now," Natsu said lowly.

"Do you understand our current situation?" Erza asked with a fierce glare.

"They wrecked our guild!" Gray said, exasperated, throwing his hands in the air.