Fairy Tail: Falling Towards the Chaos

Chapter 37

"Hello? Master? Is this thing connected?" Lucy muttered worryingly, fiddling with her lacrima.

"Lucy! What's the situation over there?" Master's voice crackled from the unsteady connection.

"The council member is alright, Natsu is a little worse for wear, but it seems like he beat one of the members of Tartaros," Lucy supplied.

"The city is in shambles, however," Carla informed.

"Still, how you managed to get any information from him?" Master inquired, pushing his face closer into the lacrima.

"Face, it's one of the council's weapons," the cat man spoke quietly, slightly shakily from the battle, "the council organizes its weapons according to lethality and priority. To put it simply, Face is a magic pulse bomb that nullifies all magic across the continent."

The channel turned static as everyone started to speak at once.

"No magic?!"

"Are you serious right now?"

"How'd they even make something like that?"

"To add onto that, the members of Tartaros, I-I don't e-even think they're human! They use curses not magic which means if Face is used, all wizards would be powerless against Tartaros," Lucy interjected, calling the attention of Master.

They wouldn't stand a chance.

-----

They had journeyed home as quickly as possible. Lucy ached to have a long hot shower and change out of her grimy clothes. Clad in simple trousers, sandals and a large long-sleeve; Lucy joined the "intelligence" unit which the members dubbed the singular table in the center of the hall overflowing with all the intel, information, and knowledge they had on Tartaros, council members, and Face.

They'd located the last member of the council tied to Face and, to Lucy's understanding, they'd sent Erza and Mirajane to guard him as well. Warren, Macao, and Levy gathered around; sifting through piles of papers, files, and books looking for anything that could be useful to them.

The guild was ominously quiet despite the amount of people lingering, Lucy wasn't surprised to find many sleeping, exhausted from the constant stress, or brainstorming ideas in small groups.

Levy nursed a cup of coffee, sighing as she flipped another page. Lucy tried to read and think critically, but she found she couldn't even focus on the words in front of her.

"I don't mean to bother you guys or anything," Max snuck up on them, rubbing the back of his neck nervously, "but aren't we missing a few people?"

At the same time, the doors to the guild were pushed open to reveal Wendy and Carla, who looked discouraged and concerned.

"We went to the ex-chairman's house but Erza, Mira, Natsu, and Happy were nowhere to be found," Carla spoke up, flying over to the table. Lucy felt her heart skip a beat because when Carla's eyes met hers, she feared the worst.

"My nose isn't good enough to track them either," Wendy whispered.

Lucy gripped the edge of the table hard. Levy placed her hand over her own, comfortingly. More people crowded as Carla and Wendy began to explain the scene they saw more vividly.

"Gajeel, would you be able to track their scent?" Lily asked, jumping onto the table.

"If this little brat couldn't do it, I doubt I can," Gajeel sighed, placing a hand on Wendy's head.

"I'm sorry," Wendy whimpered.

"It's fine, it probably faded by the time you got there or someone covered the scent, either way, tracking with our noses won't work," Gajeel explained to her.

"Lucy, are you alright?" Levy nudged the blonde.

"Y-yeah, I-I'm fine," Lucy managed a small smile.

Natsu... Happy...

"I'm worried, there's so many people unaccounted for," Cana said, exasperated.

Something struck the window, shattering it at Cana's words. Immediately, everyone ducked, but as a familiar voice groaned, Lucy perked up.

"Happy!" She cried out, dashing forward to scoop the blue exceed off the ground.

"I-I found their headquarters..." the blue cat mumbled.

"Y-you, what?!" She shrieked.

Suddenly, he sprang out of her arms, shooting up into the air.

"Erza and Mira got captured, Natsu and I found them, but then Natsu and I got into a fight with — " he scrambled for air, little chest heaving.

"Happy, breathe!" Carla instructed, flying up to the cat, and squishing his cheeks. The blue exceed wilted, descending slowly before allowing himself to land back safely in Lucy's arms. Lucy held him close, relieved to have the cat in her arms, safe and sound, but she was still incredibly worried about Natsu.

"H-Happy, where's Natsu?" Lucy asked, voice trembling.

"H-he's on their base," Happy's ears drooped sadly, "I think he got captured like everyone else, but it's weird! Their base moves around, it's like this weird square island thing."

"Happy! Are you able to tell me exactly which direction you came from? Any landmarks? I need all the notable things you saw, I can try and predict their path or where they are based on the geography," Levy concluded, beckoning Lucy to walk over to the table. Happy jumped out of Lucy's arms, explaining to Levy all types of things he saw on his flight back to the guild with crazy body gestures.

"I-I left Natsu b-behind... " Happy murmured, tearing up slightly, plopping himself down on the table. Levy got to work with Happy's information, that Lucy felt that it was okay to remove Happy from the situation.

"You did your best to protect everyone and that's all that matters," Lucy stated firmly, wiping the exceed's tears. Happy buried his face in her chest, his body shaking as little sobs escaped him. "If we didn't have other more pressing matters, I think I'd be ready to fall over right now. Natsu is someone special to me, he's like my closest friend, but I know that he's alright, he's strong, so we have to be strong too. Right?" Lucy murmured into Happy's blue fur, stroking his head.

As she let her own tears slip out, all she could think about was Natsu fading further and further away from her.

She felt like a hypocrite.

Regardless, Elfman's ghostly appearance caught their attention and as the only male Strauss sibling was ruthlessly questioned, Lucy couldn't help but notice something off about his aura. His energy just felt... off.

"So, you came crawling back here without even tracking down those bastards who kidnapped Lisanna?! Is this a joke?" Cana scoffed, taking a swig from her pint. Gray tried to placate the irritated brunette as Elfman slunk off to rest, tired from the day's events. Lucy redirected her attention to Happy, setting the exceed next to Carla, who began to speak to him quietly.

Natsu, please be safe.

To be continued...