Kidnapping Fury

At the hospital, Jet, Droy, and Levy are all put together into the same room. It was a brighter and more comfortable room than the one Krysti was in less than 2 weeks ago. Curtains hung between each member of Team Shadowgear as they lay in the hospital beds, recovering from their ordeal. While in the hallway outside of the room where their injured friends are, a nurse exits the room with a chart listing all of the injuries sustained.

Lucy pushes her way past the nurse before she could finish saying how the three were faring. Krysti rushes in after her, equally worried about her friends. Running into the room, Lucy almost throws herself on the bed that contained Levy, crying out her sorrow. Krysti entering a bit slower, stands silently behind her blonde teammate with tears forming in the corners of her eyes.

The anger and fury the brunette first felt washes away at the sight of her injured friends laying there almost lifeless in the hospital beds. Distress claims her and she silently cries alongside Lucy. Dropping down to her knees, she grabs Lucy for a hug and they both cling to each other as they cry out the tears of sadness that stabs their hearts.

Their tears slow down to a trickle after what feels like forever and the girls slowly, reluctantly let go of their hold onto one another. They clasp hands and refuse to let go, each the other's anchor to keep from being swept away by grief yet again. They look over their friends in the beds, with tear stained faces and red eyes.

As the shadows in the room move in sync with the sun outside, Krysti pushes herself up off the floor and pulls Lucy up with her.

The blonde is still sniffling, and doesn't complain when she is pushed into a chair beside Levy's bed. Taking a deep breath to steel her nerves and control her emotions, the brunette walks out of the room to face the others. Upon exiting, she notices that no one is in the hallway.

Further inspection shows that the lobby is empty as well. Tracking down a nurse, Krysti learns that the others have already left to go back to the guild. The brunette heads back to the room containing her friends and informs Lucy of the news.

"I want you to stay here. I'm going back to the guild to see what they are going to do." she tells the younger woman softly. Lucy nods without taking her eyes off of Levy. With a heavy heart, Krysti wretches herself from the sight and marches purposely towards the wreaked guildhall. Minutes later she arrives to find it strangely quiet. Unnerved by the stillness, she quickly enters to find Mirajane to be the only one in the whole guild.

"Where is everyone?" Krysti asks wonderingly. Mirajane gets a sad, but angry look on her face.

"They went to Phantom Lord. The Master declared war after seeing what happened to Levy, Jet, and Droy. Everyone in the guild is going over there right now." she states in frustration.

"Not everyone. Lucy is still at the hospital. I'm going to head back myself, I don't want to leave her alone for too long. I think she was the most upset out of all of us to see that." Krysti says sadly, grief threatening to take over again.

"Don't stay by yourself if you can help it." Mirajane cautions. This causes Krysti to pause and raise an eyebrow at the other woman.

"What about you? You were alone when I got here." Krysti asks as she looks around for any possible hidden guild mates.

"Someone has to stay at the guildhall. Don't worry about me, I'll be fine. If Phantom comes by, I can do this." replies Mirajane just before changing her appearance to a kindly old grandmother. Krysti jumps a bit in surprise, forgetting that Mirajane was able to perform magic as well.

"Well, I just hope then that they don't want to hurt little old ladies as well." Krysti retorts as she recovers from her shock. Old lady Mirajane chuckles and waves the brunette on as she changes back to regular Mirajane.

"Alright, alright. I'll get going. Sure you don't want to stay with us?" Krysti asks. The white-haired woman just shakes her head sadly and the brunette turns to exit out of the guild. She pauses partway through and looks sadly back at a softly smiling Mirajane.

"Just... please watch yourself, ok? I don't want you to get hurt as well. Phantom may come back to attack again while our friends are gone." she comments in a very serious tone. Mirajane's smile becomes more warm at the brunette's concern as Krysti heads back to the hospital. Arriving at the building, she notices Lucy just exiting through the doors. Jogging now, the older woman reaches the blonde mage swiftly.

"Where are the others?" Lucy asks as Krysti got within talking distance.

Panting slightly, Krysti answers, "They all left to fight Phantom Lord, only Mirajane is left besides us."

Hearing this, Lucy pouts, "I can't believe they left us behind! We want to fight and get payback for Levy's team too!" Krysti nods and takes the younger girl into her arms for a tight hug.

"I understand how you feel, I want to tear them apart for what they did. But we can't go and fight now. Personally, I don't even know where to go to even try to follow them. What's done is done." she lets Lucy go and watches the blonde wipe a tear from her eye.

"I need to pick up some food for my apartment, will you come with me? I don't feel like being alone." Lucy says softly. Krysti turns to wrap an arm around Lucy's shoulder.

"Of course I'll stay. I don't want to be alone either right now." Krysti whispers back. The two girls slightly smile at each and link arms before going down to the market place to shop. They each buy a bag of food while there and start walking towards Lucy's apartment.

Remembering about the shortcut that Auntie Vi told her about, Krysti takes Lucy down the series of side streets and alleys that run almost right to the blonde's home.

"I still can't believe that everyone left us behind. Levy-chan and her team need someone to care for them, so I guess that's us." Lucy complains. Before Krysti can respond, rain starts pouring out from a suddenly stormy sky when it was sunny just two seconds ago.

"Crap! A summer shower!" Krysti curses as she and Lucy look disbelieving at the sky. In the mist that formed just as quickly as the rain, a figure approaches. The girls both step back into defensive positions.

"Who is it?" Lucy calls out to the figure.

A soft feminine voice floats out to them, "Drip, drip, drop. Yes. Juvia is the rain-woman. Drip, drip, drop." In the mist the figure shows itself to be a woman in all blue clothes glaring ahead. Even her hair was blue and it was in two large curls on each side of her head. The girls are at unease with this strange woman walking towards them.

Getting close to the two friends, Juvia asks, "Who are you two?" Stepping to the side to let Juvia by, Krysti and Lucy watch as she walks past them.

Lucy decides to asks, "Um, who might you be?"

Juvia only says, "Drip, drip, drop…."

"What?" asks Krysti in puzzlement.

Juvia opens a pink heart umbrella that is shaped like a jellyfish as she replies, "It was a pleasure. Fare thee well." Which causes the other two girls to look at each other in disbelief.

"Like, what the hell?" Krysti mutters out in frustration.

"Non, non, non!" a mysterious male voice calls out from behind all three women. They turn to look for the owner of the voice.

"Non, non, non, non, non, non, non!" the voice says again and they see the road rising in front of them, starting to take on some sort of shape.

"Non, non, non, non!" the voice becomes clearer and girls can tell that the voice is coming from the shape in front of them. It becomes a green-haired, brown-suit wearing man with a monocle.

He is in a dramatic pose as he says, "With non of  3,3,7,1 I say to you, bonjour!"

"A French dude, seriously?" Krysti mutters again as she looks at the newcomer slightly askance.

"Its another weirdo!" Lucy grumbles out, not believing her bad luck. The weird guy starts rocking side-to-side as he looks ahead to address the woman in blue.

"Juvia-sama, you mustn't abandon your job now." he says in an almost sing-song voice.

"Monsieur Sol." she says in the same soft tone. Monsieur Sol suddenly appears next to Juvia and holds his monocle in one hand.

"My monocle, it whispers to me, yes. It tells me this mademoiselle is our beloved cible." he says in a totally non creepy way as he points to Lucy with his other hand.

"Ah, so it was this girl." Juvia responds in her monotone voice.

"Cible? Target?" Lucy whispers out. Krysti turns to look at her in surprise.

The weird guy bends to the side in front of Juvia and says, "I do apologize for the late introduction. My name is Sol, one of the Element 4. People call me Sol of the Land… Please call me Monsieur Sol."

Lucy takes a step back before saying angrily, "The Element 4? Phantom!" Eyes widening in realization, Krysti steps protectively in front of Lucy while dropping her groceries.

Sol says, "Correct. We two have come to collect you for the great Phantom Lord!"

"Over my dead body!" snarls out Krysti, Sol just ignores her as he continues.

Extending a hand towards Juvia, he says, "And this is the rain-woman of the Element 4. People call her Juvia of the Deep." A clatter is heard as Lucy throws down her groceries as she makes a grab for her keys that are essential to her magic.

"Lucy! Run! I'll hold them off!" Krysti shouts as she makes a dash towards the Phantom mages.

"I won't run! How dare you do such a thing to Levy-chan!" Lucy cries out in anger. Krysti goes for a roundhouse punch to Sol and gets knocked backwards and down to the ground easily. She starts to get back up when she notices her arm won't move. Looking back Krysti sees her arm and Lucy is trapped in a bubble of water. With horrified eyes, Krysti struggles to get into the water to get to Lucy.

"Non, non, non! With non of 3, I correct your error! Destroying your guild and attacking Levy-sama was all the work of Gajeel-sama. Well, it is true that all of us in the guild were for the idea, however…" Sol calls out in an almost gleeful manner.

"Let her go you bastards!" Krysti roars out. A feeling of power wells up inside her as she becomes enraged about how they are drowning the girl that she thinks of as a little sister.

"Non, non, non, non! With non of 4, I simply cannot let her go! It is for the great Phantom Lord that we must take her with us." Sol says with a waggling finger. Lucy is pounding against the edge but cannot make a dent in it. Krysti keeps trying to break the bubble with everything she can, her rage at being helpless to save her friend growing.

"What is this? Let me go!" Lucy cries out from inside the water. Krysti roars again and tries to push herself inside to get to the blonde.

"Juvia's water lock cannot be broken." says the rain woman, never changing her tone. Lucy's eyes start to close and her struggles weaken as she runs out of air. Seeing this, Krysti renews her struggles with an almost animalistic frenzy.

"I SWEAR I"LL RIP YOUR HEADS OFF AND STUFF THEM DOWN YOUR NECKS IF YOU HARM HER!" the brunette screams in fury. Everything that is bubbling within her feels like it is about to burst.

"Tres bien" Sol says completely unconcerned about the raging woman caught in the water.

"Do not fear. Juvia will not kill her. Because it's Juvia's job to bring back… Lucy Heartfilia." Juvia states.

"I WONT LET YOU HAVE HER! YOU'LL HAVE TO KILL ME FIRST!" screams out Krysti at the top of her lungs.

"Victoire! That can be easily arranged." says Sol in sadistic pleasure.

"We have captured the target. Drip, drip, drop…" says Juvia.

"LUCY!" Krysti cries out, she starts to see everything in red as the rage in her heart starts to overflow. Monsieur Sol steps close to the two captured women and starts to punch Krysti repeatedly. When he goes for a hit in the face, she lets out an agonized scream. Red vision turns to black as the rain continues to fall.